Too bad this won't be out in time for Christmas.  It would make a great present for your favorite Republican neocon.  "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative," by Allen Raymond, is due to come out in January.

WASHINGTON — A former GOP political operative who ran an illegal election-day scheme to jam the phone lines of New Hampshire Democrats during the state's tight 2002 U.S. Senate election said in a new book and an interview that he believes the scandal reaches higher into the Republican Party.

Allen Raymond of Bethesda, Md., whose book Simon & Schuster will publish next month, also accused the Republican Party of trying to hang all the blame for a scandal on him as part of an "old-school cover-up."

Raymond's book, "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative," offers a raw, inside glimpse of the phone scandal as it unraveled and of a ruthless world in which political operatives seek to win at all costs.

What better way to portray our nation's president?  This is a spectacular portrait done by collaging pieces of photos from porn magazines.

Pornographic Bush

from the British publication Metro:

When a British artist was denied US backing to paint a portrait of President George Bush he decided to make an ‘alternative’ version - from images of porn.

Now Jonathan Yeo, 36, has caused a stir in the US, where Republicans have attacked the work for being in poor taste.

A Republican spokesman said: “This picture is very distasteful. Why would anyone want to make a picture of our President from pornographic material?”

… Jonathan, son of former Tory backbencher Tim Yeo, told Metro: “To get the right skin tones for a man in his 50s the healthy, tanned and airbrushed bodies of the majority of top-shelf magazines were no good. …

… And for the hair I eventually tracked down some German magazines that don’t necessarily follow the Hollywood wax route.”

Just saw this on the McClatchy news site - sorry if it's been posted before.

The long and short of it is that the Bush administration is responsible for the poor product quality coming out of China.

The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts, consumer advocates say. It stalled efforts to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.

Linky here.  Read it - it's fascinating.  And strangely familiar.

Remember the bit in Peter Pan when Tinker Bell is dying, and she tells Peter if all the little kids clap their hands, it'll save her?  I feel like that about Bill.  Every time we talk about him, he gains a little more immortality.

I don't want to hear any more about Bill, about his loofah, about his sexual preferences and especially not about his ejaculate.  Please!

For those of you who use a wheelchair, or know somebody who needs one, Medicare is planning to allow the lowest bidder to provide complex power wheelchairs and seating systems.

We all know what sort of work is produced by the lowest bidder - just look at the embassy in Iraq and the military complex in Germany!

For more information and to express your concerns, follow this link: Complex Rehab

You scoff.  No, seriously.  I know, I've said this before.  But I'm not kidding.  We've made the institution of marriage a legal entity in this country, and then put strictures upon who gets to be married.  We won't let people marry goldfish, dogs, turtles, or horses.  We especially won't let them marry people of their own sex.  Why?  Because marriage is ostensibly a union under Christian church law.

Which brings me to my point - separation of church and state.  Whatever happened to that?  Oh, yeah, the Republican Party.  Now gay marriage, once something to giggle about, is now a threat to the strength of the nation.

More below...

His latest idiocy?  Claiming that Clinton was responsible for North Korea's nuclear proliferation.

Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration, has released a new set of restrictions for air travel passengers.  "We've re-evaluated air safety standards and found that the major cause of terrorist attacks in the air are from people.  So from now on, people will no longer be allowed to board planes."  

The 400 acres is a beautiful stretch of land north of Ft. Worth, at Eagle Mountain Lake.  It was purchased in 1980 and has remained undeveloped because of lack of funding.  In late December after the land office declared it an unused state resource, Perry's office authorized its sale.  However, always looking out for Texans' addiction to petroleum, Perry made sure that the state retained the drilling rights.  At least one oil well already exists on the property.

Officials have said that the sale of the land can help purchase of other land for park development, but critics say the reasoning is specious.  We've had funding for years to develop the land, but lawmakers have diverted funds for other purposes.

The Pentagon has relaxed enlistment standards including age, physical fitness, education and criminal records.  The Corps has been unable to meet their recruitment levels and has a current shortfall of 1,200 people.  Yet the number of people leaving the military because they've admitted to being homosexual has risen since 2001.  

In fact, if you don't wanna go to war no more, looks like the only way to get out (in one piece) is to tell them you're gay.  How long will we allow our government to discriminate against sexual orientation in the military?

Gosh darn it,  you've just got to think positive.  Even if the radiation from all the dirty bombs has mutated your children into hideous monsters.  Hey, two heads mean twice the kisses, right?

Here's a more positive look at some issues of the day:

Global Warming

Worried about global warming?  Well, cheer up!  Here's some positive aspects to the earth becoming 20° warmer.

* Your swimming pool becomes a hot tub.
* Who needs a griddle?  Just use the sidewalk in front of your house.
* North Pole is now a tropical vacation destination...  and the penguins are already dressed for the occasion.
*  Compared to global warming, nuclear winter will be great!

More cheerfulness below the fold.

At 14.839¢ per kwH, I can't afford to be socially conscious!  This is ridiculous.  We're in the middle of a drought and a heat wave.  It's been 90° or above since February.  Hot air flows from the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains are making the Midwest one dry, hot belt of exhaustion.  The last thing Texas needs is more carbon dioxide, soot, nitrogen oxide, and sulfer dioxide in the air.  Everything's looking very brown right now - the air, the earth, the water.

But the state is being run by conservative Republicans with oil money, so what do they do?  They provide favorable conditions for the oil and gas companies, which allows them to charge 10% below the Price To Beat. On average, 1,000 kwH would be $148 per month from Green Mountain, compared to the $135 from Direct Energy.

Their response was disappointing.  Not only are they disconnected from reality, they evidently aren't familiar with the Constitution and the statutes, codes, and laws that make up our system of government.  You'd think that our duly elected Congress Critters would know that stuff backwards and forwards.  It makes me wonder what they're smoking up there in Washington, DC.

But Cheney saying that the American people support Bush gets my back hairs up.  I know at least one that doesn't!

Kay & John, I'm writing to you today to express my hope that you will support Senator Feingold in his proposed censure of President Bush.

While you might feel that it's your duty as a Republican to support your president in a time of war, there's nothing in the Constitution that says that you must support your President if he breaks the law.  

Bill Frist may talk as loudly as he wants about the wiretaps being "good, lawful, and constitutional," but he can't change the truth.  Our president has flip-flopped from saying he wouldn't be able to talk about the domestic spying issue, to suggesting there was no other way to wiretap terrorists, and then finally saying that the FISA law was out of date.  Now he says that the powers of the presidency and the Patriot act give him the authority.  

More below the fold...

Insight Magazine has reliable sources which say that Cheney is expected to retire within a year.  

Senior GOP sources envision the retirement of Mr. Cheney in 2007, months after the congressional elections. The sources said Mr. Cheney would be persuaded to step down as he becomes an increasing political liability to President Bush. The sources reported a growing rift between the president and vice president as well as their staffs.

The men and women overseas are fighting for our freedoms.  They shoot people every day because they think it's the right thing to do.  Every day, for them, must be pretty bad.  The worst days are when they see their companions and fighting buddies die from an improvised explosive device, or from a bullet fired by an insurgent.  They can tell you what it feels like to shoot somebody.  It feels awful.  And it feels even worse when you realize there's no point to it.

And Cheney's worst day is accidently wounding his friend while on a quail shoot.  Will this change your perspective on death, Dick?  Somehow I don't think so.

how do you like your blue-eyed boy now, mr. death?

http://www.thefrown.com/...

Something fun for a Thursday afternoon.  Enjoy!

From the animation:

The Eight Kinds of Republican

• Redneck: Got a problem?  Talk to the gun.
  
• Rich: Class warfare is treason.
  
• Wanna-be Rich: It's not illegal if you shred the evidence.
  
• Religious: Jesus loves you and he's going to kill you.
  
• Tough Guy: I'm going to kick every Liberal's big faggoty ass!
  
• Old: Damn you Roosevelt!  No turnip tax!
  
• Sheep: Terrorists just hate freedom.
  
• Evil: The meek shall inherit my wrath.

Or is that too Pollyanna-ish?

More below the fold.