There’s this couple in the neighborhood.  They’re very nice and everyone likes them.  Their house is well-maintained and their yard is very neat.  They are both professionals and are reserved and quiet.  Their children are respectful and well-behaved.

According to CNN, Tim Griffin, Karl Rove’s former aide and personal pick to be U.S. Attorney in Arkansas, has resigned.  It was Griffin’s appointment to the position, replacing Bud Cummins, that created the firestorm over the White House’s replacement of 9 U.S. Attorneys, allegedly for political reasons.

This critically important threat to privacy has been previously diaried here and here.

The Department of Homeland Security and the California Department of Motor Vehicles are having a Town Hall Meeting to seek public feedback at UC Davis tomorrow, May 1 (10 a.m. - 2 p.m. PDT) -- and it's being webcast!  The site says you can submit email questions starting 90 minutes before the webcast; this is a great chance to ask the hard questions -- and hear what they have to say.

More states are joining the Real ID revolt.  This past week, Montana and North Dakota joined Washington, Arkansas, Idaho and Maine in rejecting Bush’s federal government in pursuing and requiring a national ID card masquerading as a standardized driver’s license. Twenty other states are also considering a similar response.

The war is heating up in the Real ID controversy.  Four states (Maine, Idaho, Arkansas and Washington) have already voted to reject the implementation in their states.  But others are going ahead with it.

This is something I’ve been anticipating.

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle features an article on the sure-to-come post-mortem of the War in Iraq.  

This is a list of the newspapers (thus far) who have banished Ann Coulter from their pages.  I know we're hoping for a clean sweep but I felt it a good idea to acknowledge those who have taken this first, brave step.  

I thought Bush got my e-mail: There is no partial occupation.  There is "stay the course" and there is "cut and run."  Take your pick.  One is finite.  Escalate your ass off but, eventually, you will cut and run or leave the decision, cowardly, to your successor, you putz.  I think it’s time to walk away.

I've received no answer.  Maybe it was the putz comment.

The New York Times reports today that the Minutemen’s poster boy, Roger Barnett, an Arizona rancher and retired sheriff’s deputy, has lost a lawsuit to two Mexican hunters who were accosted with one’s three young children.  They sued Mr. Barnett for unlawful detention, emotional distress and other claims.  

In a new poll taken by British, Israeli, Canadian and Mexican newspapers, George W. Bush is only outranked by Osama bin Laden for dangerousness in all four countries.  

UK voters think bin Laden is more dangerous (87%) than Bush (75%).  Jong-il was rated as dangerous by 69%, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran scored 65%.

With the election coming, I'm kinda undecided about the upcoming election.  Please explain your views regarding national issues so I may better choose before I vote.  I feel I'm missing the true Republican/Conservative perspective.  You seem to represent it.  Thanks.

Oops!  One additional point:

Bob Ney pleaded guilty today, not any big whoop in the news, but the seriously-compromised House leadership made a surprising move by announcing that he would be expelled if he didn't resign quickly enough.  That announcement came from Dennis Hastert, House Speaker and Senior Predator Protector.  

MoveOn, True Majority and Working Assets seek your help for their campaigns to stop PT911.  

Our friends at MoveOn and Working Assets have been leading the charge on an important campaign to stop ABC from airing a movie about 9/11 which is out-and-out propaganda written to defend Republicans and implicate Democrats. It was even written by a Republican operative. This sort of distortion of our history for partisan politics is shameless and offensive.

True Majority: Click here to Tell ABC Not to Distort 9/11

Working Assets has an action page as well.

MoveOn's petition is here.

More!

Just how bad has Bush been?  I've really lost track and it's been bugging me.  

For the last 5+ years, Bush and his cabal have accomplished nothing good, have screwed up everything they've touched and have raised denial and excuses to new levels of perfection.  Together with their enabling brother-Republicans, they have defended the indefensible, denied the undeniable, rejected the necessary, promoted the hysterical, embraced the profoundly petty and lied, lied, lied, lied.

So I set out to create a comprehensive list of the specific failures, lies, frauds, moronic decisions, unbelievable coincidences (Halliburton no-bid contracts?) and monumental clusterfucks that can be placed at the feet of these people and their party.  I have struggled to remember, let alone list, all the salient points.  Frankly, I don't think there's that much toner in my printer.  

No, I haven't worked in the White House with the President or spent time at Yale with MBA candidate George Bush or been in the National Guard in Alabama...well, neither has he.

But after 5 years of tidbit after tidbit, you form opinions that fit a certain pattern and, without deviation, you have to believe in them.  We've heard these stories and rumors all along, e.g., the cocaine use, the drunken driving conviction, his obsession with his workout routine, his avoidance of all things regarding international diplomacy and domestic governance, his childish games at inappropriate times including immediately preceding his announcement of the invasion of Iraq, his inability to deliver personal thoughts and only a marginal ability at reading a teleprompter.   "Frat boy" says it best.

In our continuing coverage of the corruption of absolute power, it now seems that the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, who found their casino closed due to the duplicitous work of Jack Abramoff and his God-for-profit partner, Ralph Reed, are suing over their millions of dollars lost in the scam.  Also accused are admitted crooks who worked in the offices of Tom DeLay and Bob Ney, former and current Republican congressmen, respectively. Oh, I hate when that happens!

In today's Baltimore Sun, one of my favorite True Blue humorists goes after Ralph Reed, disciple of wacky Pat Robertson, admitted-college plagiarist, accused college-election rigger, former leader of and refugee from the failing, pseudo-Christian Coalition, skirter of multiple federal investigations and now, candidate for Attorney General of Georgia.

Garrison Keillor, best known for his NPR radio program, A Prairie Home Companion, rarely goes mano a mano with political figures, although we can be sure of his beliefs.  But in this article, Keillor shows the extreme of the American Hypocrisy Movement, a spinoff of bigoted Evangelical Conservatism.

A recent e-mail from Air America mentions, ney, features Yearly Kos and the guest list!

"DNC Chair Howard Dean, General Wesley Clark, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Harry Reid, Governor Mark Warner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Ambassador Joe Wilson, Markos Moulitsas, and Air America Host Sam Seder."

They even feature the sign-up site: