It apparently escapes the notice of some here that there actually are some Democrats of courage in the Senate.  Rather than going on about how the Democratic Party has let us down and how we should supposedly stop donating to the Democrats (are these Republican plants posting this absurdity?), what we SHOULD be doing is giving more money to Howard Dean at the DNC, more money to Barbara Boxer's PAC For A Change, etc. etc.

Perhaps as overcompensation for a presumed liberal bias, the L.A. Times seems to reserve a column specifically for right wing crackpots to spread their nutty propaganda.  Today, there is an attack/smear article about George Soros.

I was disturbed by this lazy and sloppy review of "Fahrenheit 9/11", so I responded by email to the author, Andrew Ferguson.  

Is Andrew Ferguson a neoconservative?  At the moment, I can't answer that question, but my instinct from reading some of his columns is that he is more neoconservative than paleoconservative.  Certainly, the breadth of Mr. Ferguson's work is supportive of Republicans and hostile to Democrats.  And he is a Senior Editor at America's foremost neoconservative publication, The Weekly Standard.  I think a person like that should not attempt to deceive his readers by pretending to be impartial and objective.

Bloomberg.com has chosen Andrew Ferguson as it's correspondent on National Affairs.  I hadn't realized until now how conservative Bloomberg (the organization) is.  Silly me.

more...(external link to my website)

Very good article in today's L.A. Times, 'I Did My Duty,' President Says of His Military Service Record.

I wonder how this will affect the election:

CIA officers in Iraq are warning that the country may be on a path to civil war, current and former U.S. officials said Wednesday, starkly contradicting the upbeat assessment that President Bush gave in his State of the Union address.

The CIA officers' bleak assessment was delivered verbally to Washington this week, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified information involved.

Dean consistently predicted problems with the postwar occupation of Iraq.  Will this news bolster his case, that we should not have gone to war with Iraq?  Will it harm the ones who signed the war resolution?

Dean's new demeanor won him a 45 second standing ovation.

"I promise you that if you make me the president of the United States, I will restore the honor and the dignity and the respect this country deserves," Dean said. The audience responded with a 45-second standing ovation that broke up the otherwise seated, polite response to Dean's new style.

These are the same arguments that Dean has been making for months. But he made his case in the measured tones of a debate champion instead of his customary fist-pumping shout.

This guy is not the weak-kneed simpleton some here have made him out to be.  He is a determined, gritty fighter.  In only a day, he has changed the tone of his campaign 180 degrees, in response to criticisms on his blog.

In football terms, the winner of this game will be the one who makes the necessary adjustments at halftime.  We aren't even to halftime yet, and Dean is adjusting marvelously.  This adversity is just what he needs in order to get him into fighting shape for the battle of the century, against Bush and the Republican Machine.

Fubar at Needlenose has been writing a compelling series, which is a first-hand account of the Dean campaign's gathering "Perfect Storm", the convergence of Dean volunteers from across the nation in Iowa on the final weekend before the caucuses.

The Journey is the Reward

Dance like a butterfly, Sting like a bee

On the train...

Truckee and beyond

Helper

Marching Song

Brief Stop

Final Push  - Don't miss this one!

The "Troll Goal" on the Dean blog is a fund which supporters drop money into, whenever a troll comes around.  It's meant to punish trolling by turning the negative energy of the attack into positive energy for the campaign.

George Soros must have been reading the Dean Blog:

Billionaire George Soros, probably the single biggest giver to Democratic causes, said Monday that Republican criticism of him could be very costly.

"It has got a rise out of me," he said, adding that his anger "will probably find expression" in additional donations to efforts to defeat President Bush.

How much, Soros wouldn't say. He already has given $10 million to Americans Coming Together and $2.5 million to www.moveon.org, groups that are running anti-Bush campaigns.

Nearly 500 American soldiers have died since the Iraq war began, yet another milestone on the road to perdition.  14,000 U.S. servicemembers have been evacuated for medical reasons.  Here are "the major categories of the non-battle evacuations", courtesy of Col. Hackworth:

Orthopedic surgery: 3,907

General surgery: 1,995

Internal medicine: 1,291

Psychiatric: 1,167

Neurology: 1,002

Gynecological: 491 (Sources say that most of the gynecological evacuations are pregnancy-related, although the exact figure can't be confirmed.)

How many of these so-called "non-battle related" casualties have been mis-categorized?

In an LWN.net article, (subscribers-only; should be released for public viewing on Jan. 19th ), the Dean campaign said the following:

Issues of intellectual property are very important to a knowledge-based society. Ultimately we are going to need to find a solution that both encourages innovation and protects consumers from out-of-control corporate tactics.

According to an analysis by the L.A. Times, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 2004-2005 budget will "close" next year's projected budget gap of $14 billion by:

Cutting spending by $6.8 billion

Borrowing $4 billion

Shifting $1.3 billion of local property taxes to the state

Increasing fees by $238 million