In his latest screeed for Newsweek, Crackup? Not So Fast, Karl Rove uses his ass as a thinking cap and not only goes about the usual business of rewriting history, but adds the present as well.

Seems Mr. Rove is upset that the press is saying the Reagan Era is over and the Republican Party is up some creek without a paddle. He claims the Democrats are having just as much of a problem retooling their message as the Republicans. Karl claims that the his party is about change but that is a tough sell after listening to the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress screaming "Stay The Course" at the top of their lungs for the last four years. And there is also the problem of the very definition of Conservative. It's not about change unless it’s about rolling back the clock. No, it's about maintaining the status quo. That just won't do.

Happy 4th of July all the Kogs out in Blogistan. Are you having fun? I am doing swimmingly myself. Thanks for asking.

I was going to do a little barbequing and work in the garden but it was raining. And I couldn't find the garden.


I swear there are raised beds out there. Somewhere.

I don't mean boots and olive drab. I'm talking about basic training in successful planning. I suspect that waiting around the Whitehouse for Teh Call about the miraculous turnaround in Iraq is getting on Dudya's nerves. I know as I have been waiting for a call from Ed McMahon for years.

Anyway, last weekend I went out to a local Vietnamese restaurant. After my wife and I had finished our meal, the waitress brought the check and fortune cookies. I don't care much for the cookie but I like the fortunes. The one I got that night was something that reminded me of what is so wrong about the administration's stance on timelines.

U.S. House TX-14 (287 precincts):

TX-14 93.38% Reporting
Ron Paul (R)	78,034	60.95%
Shane Sklar (D)	49,994	39.05%

Texas State House Dist. 32 (77 precincts):

TH-32 98.70% Reporting
Gene Seaman (R)	16,696	47.19%
Juan M. Garcia (D)	16,672	47.12%
Lenard L. Nelson (L)	2,016	5.70%

All results as of 11/08/06 at 6:12 am CST.

Thanks for dropping by. Now back to the Mothership!

Update: 1:22 am 11/08/06 - I'm not sleepy but I am tired. The contests I'm watching seem to have stopped updating. Since I must go to work and act like a living & coherent human bean later today, I'm callin it a day.

Update: 6:05 am 11/08/06 - I'm back in the ring for another swing.

I had an awesome day today. In spite of having to go to work this morning, I got to leave early but as good as that was it wasn't the awesome part.

I got off in time to go to early voting and took my wife. For the first time in a decade she voted Democrat. Great deal, huh? She's a wonderful person and has finally seen through the Republican bull . Before I get to the next point, I would like to say she is the sweetest person on the face of the planet and the day I met her was the greatest day of my life. But we still haven't got to the most awesome part of today even though we're close.

Cross-posted: Guess where!

Important Update: Just stay away! Do not go below the fold. There are monkeys down there flinging feces all over the place. AND I'M ONE OF THEM! I see that Hunter has a diary up now called Because You Suck And I Hate You. I haven't been there yet but it sounds inspirational compared to how everybody (again, including moi) blows their cool below the fold. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Per the Associated Press:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on today to meet newly named Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and discuss the next steps in the troubled, three-year-old war.

It was a dramatic move by Bush, traveling to violence-rattled Baghdad less than a week after the death of terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a bombing attack. The president was expected to be in Baghdad a little more than five hours.

The Center for Public Integrity has just begun a series of reports on congressional travel titled Power Trips that takes a looks at the issue of privately funded travel for congressmen and their staff. The series started last week and the latest section, Flouting the Rule on Lobbyist-Paid Travel, was posted today.

In the summer of 2005, the Center for Public Integrity, Northwestern University's Medill News Service and American Public Media began examining disclosure documents for about 23,000 privately funded trips taken by members of Congress and staffers over a 5½-year period. While some of these trips no doubt were educational, others appeared to be thinly veiled attempts by special interests to influence lawmakers and their advisers.

You'll see the top tens and more if you make the jump.

In Melody Townsel's excellent diary ([http://www.dailykos.com/...]) on her Democratic Party activities, I posted a comment praising her and the Kossaks for what they have done to encourage others to get involved in the party. Thanks to this encouragement, I noted that I too was now involved but didn't want to give too many details in Melody's post since it was not my goal to talk about myself.

Thomas Kalinowski posted a reply to my comment requesting a diary with details. So for those of you that are curious as well, you can thank Thomas. But those of you who find my story pointless, you can't blame me. Below the fold is my story.

I know many people believe that Bush lives in a bubble. So many that that he has been forced to comment on it himself. It seems to me that this life in a bubble is untrue but not because he denies it. A bubble protects you from the outside world but you can see out. This is not our President's situation. He doesn't see what goes on outside his world.

I give my opinion of Bush's habitat below the fold. Take a peek if you care (or dare). In any case, thanks for dropping by my diary.

Many people fail to grasp the significance of the actions of FEMA in response to the Katrina disaster. Textbooks will be able to refer to the planning and policies used in this instance as an example of how not to respond to such disasters.