Tuesday’s Mini-Report

December 12, 2006

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* As Republicans finally give up their majority, they leave the public with a stunningly bad impression of politicians. According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, only 15% of Americans give senators or very high marks for honesty and ethical standards, while 14% do so for House members. The only professions to do worse were insurance salesmen (13%), HMO managers (12%), advertising practitioners (11%), and car salesmen (7%).

* A prominent religious right activist explained in a WorldNetDaily column that “today’s rise in homosexuality” is linked to the “rise in soy formula and other soy products.” He did not appear to be kidding.

* Bush’s half-hearted outreach to congressional Dems is running into a few snags.

* For much of the past year, supporters of the president’s legally dubious surveillance techniques through the NSA have argued that data mining can be a valuable tool in catching terrorists. Now, there’s evidence to the contrary.

* Kudos to the Dems in the Idaho State House, who staged a courageous walk-out during legislative business today.

* You know the new Bush plan for Iraq that the White House said would be released before Christmas? Forget it; we won’t see it until January.

* Nancy Pelosi did the right thing keeping William Jefferson off the House Ways and Means Committee.

* I don’t agree with Donald Rumsfeld often, but yesterday on Fox News, the outgoing Defense Secretary was asked what he might have done differently in Iraq. Rumsfeld said, “I don’t think I would have called it the ‘war on terror.’ … [I]t is not a ‘war on terror.’ Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and, [through] a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So ‘war on terror’ is a problem for me.”

* The WaPo’s White House reporter Peter Baker defended the paper’s decision to hire the AP’s resident Dem-hunter, John Solomon, to lead the paper’s investigative team. Sorry, Peter, but the explanation doesn’t work.

* I hereby nominate Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) as the next great GOP corruption story of 2007. Most of this year’s winners won’t be returning to Capitol Hill next year, so we have high hopes that Miller will make a real name for himself in the 110th.

* The Dems’ response to the Republicans’ unfinished appropriations bills is great — it’s too late to deal with these, so let’s focus attention on the next fiscal year instead. As Kevin Drum noted, it’s “good policy and good politics.”

* Jon Stewart says farewell to his favorite GOP members from the 109th Congress.

* Edward Bruce Tinsley, creator of the conservative comic strip Mallard Fillmore, was arrested last week on charges of driving under the influence.

* Why Time continues to give Dobson a forum remains a total mystery to me.

* And my beloved Miami will welcome Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) to town this week, for a speech on “The Need for Assimilation.” The appearance will come just a few weeks after Tancredo drew the ire of locals for calling Miami a third-world country. Tancredo added a key condition to coming to the city — he’d only appear if his trip included “a stay at a five-star beachfront resort.” Apparently, Tancredo’s demands were met; he’ll speak at the Rotary Club of Miami on Dec. 14.

If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Unbelievable… Rummy made sense one time. I guess the old saying about broken clocks was right.

But I doubt if they would have come up with a good name for the war in Iraq, because they wanted to be in Iraq for no good reason.

How about “Bush’s Stupid War”?

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And I always thought soy probably caused bad things like making evangelical ministers to become gay. Makes perfect sense.

  • “* A prominent religious right activist explained in a WorldNetDaily column that “today’s rise in homosexuality” is linked to the “rise in soy formula and other soy products.” He did not appear to be kidding.”

    I guess my hetroness is super strong as I eat various soy products in my diet and I still like dating women. :-> Perhaps the dear Fundie could explain how there could be some Two Billion Tofu eating humans on the planet if soy = gay?

    Jack D. Ripper would have been proud! Purity of Hetrosexuality!

    Just last week, I visited a friend of mine (right wing right down to his toes, but for some reason I’m his friend) told me that the movie Borat (which I enjoyed thru tears of laughter) wasn’t fair to right-wingers by showing them as cretins. With articles like this one, how can one not think they are?

  • “He’s going to do what presidents do in a time like this, which is try to build support and build consensus for important initiatives,” Snow said.

    Except no president has ever had “a time like this” Snowblind. No president has ever fucked up this badly and no one is deceived by your lord and master’s attempt to play suck up so he can stab them in the back AGAIN.

    Sorry to parse, but Snowflake’s sorry attempts to make things seem normal piss me off more than his out right lies.

  • Soy causes man-boobs. Red meat toughens up the arteries with an extra layer of protective plaque.

    We should keep a running count of soldiers who die in Iraq while Bush doing his heavy holiday thinking about A New Way in Iraq. Who wants to the be next to die for Bush’s laziness? I’m assuming we won’t be seeing Bush lighting xmas trees or clearing brush while these soldiers are dying.

  • Soy is used to treat symptoms of menopause in women because it contains an estrogen-like compound. Perhaps a steady diet of soy every day in place of red meat may affect the masculinity of some men. I have my suspicions about a nephew of mine whose wife feeds him soy every day; he is so compliant.

  • I’m still wondering why James Rutz (so many puns, so little time) is so concerned about penis size. I could speculate that his concern isn’t soy = gay, but rather soy = gay with small penis, but that would be wrong.

    It would also be wrong to wonder if Rutz is trying to blame a small package on his mommy: “Don’t laugh, my mom fed me soy!” Yawn. How Fraudian.

    As for what research he may have done to support his thesis…Yech. I’m not even going to go there.

    tAiO

    p.s. Putz, Ruts, Nutz!! Sorry, couldn’t help it.

  • I think it’s a hoot that the Mallard Fillmore creator is busted for the second time for DUI in four months. More proof that Bush is driving even wingnut right wingers to drink.

  • A prominent religious right activist explained in a WorldNetDaily column that “today’s rise in homosexuality” is linked to the “rise in soy formula and other soy products.” He did not appear to be kidding.

    cuz anything natural = teh gay.

  • Rumsfeld said, “I don’t think I would have called it the ‘war on terror.’ … [I]t is not a ‘war on terror.’ Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes

    What is it with our “leaders”? As soon as the leave positions of power, many of them (Delay is the exception that proves the rule), start actually making sense. The Generals…Rumsfeld…Gore…the list goes on and on.

    There must be a cloak of stupidity that covers the greater DC area…

  • * A prominent religious right activist explained in a WorldNetDaily column that “today’s rise in homosexuality” is linked to the “rise in soy formula and other soy products.” He did not appear to be kidding.

    He wasn’t kidding, he was right. Just look at all of them Chinese and Japanese — all those teeny weenies which make them too ashamed to even try them on women, so they turn to men… That’s why those countries are so severely underpopulated.

    Prufrock, @11. Better steer clear of spices, too (esp cumin)

    * Bush’s half-hearted outreach to congressional Dems is running into a few snags.

    He’s not reaching out; he’s probing for cracks and cavities into which he’d like to plant some IEDs. Glad it’s not working.

    * For much of the past year, supporters of the president’s legally dubious surveillance techniques through the NSA have argued that data mining can be a valuable tool in catching terrorists. Now, there’s evidence to the contrary.

    It’s not evidence; it’s an opinion. A truly expert opinion, but opinion all the same.

    * Kudos to the Dems in the Idaho State House, who staged a courageous walk-out during legislative business today.

    Yeah, but let’s hope they don’t make a practice of it. The R’s reaction was to conduct the session anyway, just without them. So it ends up being like cutting your nose off to spite your face. Nice stunt. Once.

    * The Dems’ response to the Republicans’ unfinished appropriations bills is great — it’s too late to deal with these, so let’s focus attention on the next fiscal year instead.

    I laughed so hard, I almost cried, when I first saw this little tid-bit (on ThinkProgress). A perfect example of the “biter bit”, “hoist on your own petard”, etc. They thought they were tearing up the tracks? They thought they were gonna derail our train?
    “Ain’t nobody gonna break my stride/Nobody’s gonna slow me down/Oh no, I’ve got to keep on moving”…

  • CB notes that we wont’t see Bush’s plan for Iraq until January. Think Progress has a possible explanation…

    CNN’s John King reported this afternoon that President Bush is planning a “substantial policy shift” on Iraq and is “very seriously considering…agreeing with Sen. John McCain and increasing U.S. troop levels in the short-term.”

    King said the White House has postponed the announcement of the policy shift to January because Bush “has asked for more advice about” how he could send 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, and administration officials “need more time to put all that on the table.”

    King said the White House sees a political benefit to delaying the announcement. “If you are going to disagree with the Iraq Study Group and not accept its major recommendations, then let some time go by, let the American people forget about that a little bit” and “buy some time for critics” to attack the ISG.

  • “today’s rise in homosexuality” is linked to the “rise in soy formula”

    The flaw in this argument is easy to see. Sure, soybeans have estrogenic compounds. OK, if you take some, it will cool your hotflashes. As far as its effects on sexuality, guaranteed that pesticide residues have a FAR greater impact.

    But has anyone ever MET a gay person? Many gay people are far MORE sexualized than many straight people, not less sexualized. I’m not trying a reverse stereotype, but hypersexuality is as much of a problem in gay relationships as it is in straight relationships, and it isn’t likely that dominant gays eat more soybeans than more submissive gays, in that kind of polarized sexual relationship.

    Well, now that I’ve written that, I can see that I should have laughed instead. What a bunch of self-hating man-boobs these wingers are.

  • Oregon State Senator Ben Westlund, of whom I’ve written a few times (most recently in the discussion of US Sen Gordon Smith (R)), has made his break with the Republican party complete. Earlier this year, he left the Rs to become an Independent… now he’s joined the Democratic party. He agrees with the Dems more than the R’s, which is why he made the switch. (He was a RINO to most of the Rs anyway.) With the switch, Ben is the only Democrat from the central and eastern part of Oregon in the state legislature, so this is huge.

    Ben made a run for the govenorship this year as an Indy, but packed it in when he realized he didn’t have much of a chance. His dropping out helped in re-electing Dem Gov. Kulongoski as he would have drawn some support away from Kulongoski. There is speculation that Ben will run against Sen. Smith in 2008. Running as a Dem will make him a stronger candidate than as an Indy. Ben is mid-term as a state senator and would have to run for re-election in 08.

    I don’t know what other Dems will want to go up against Smith, but if the Oregon westsiders will open their minds to one from the middle of the state, Ben has a strong chance. If he runs.

    This switch reminds me of many articles I’ve read this year – Rs switching to D’s all across the country. It’s enough to warm my heart! 🙂

  • Wow, even Rummy finally discovered that you don’t fight wars against techniques.

    About time and probably rather too late.

  • I found it entertaining to create a free blog over at Democrats.org. Good atmosphere. http://www.democrats.org/page/community/blog/socal

    I’ll stick with my other blogs, but I thought I’d mention it in case anyone is thinking of making a modest start into blogging.

    I don’t know if it was a joke, but Gore is quoted as saying that since Bush won’t watch An Inconvenient Truth, Gore has written a book since he knows Bush is a reader.

  • * A prominent religious right activist explained in a WorldNetDaily column that “today’s rise in homosexuality” is linked to the “rise in soy formula and other soy products.” He did not appear to be kidding

    A natural substance made from soy appears to have amazing restorative powers when given to animals with a multiple sclerosis (MS)-like disease.

    Using an animal model of MS, neurologists at Jefferson Medical College found that giving doses of a substance called Bowmann-Birk Inhibitor Concentrate (BBIC) dramatically improved the animals’ ability to move and walk. The scientists, led by A. M. Rostami, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and the Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience in Philadelphia, say the treatment’s effects may be useful in conjunction with more mainstream therapies such as beta-interferon in helping patients with MS. They report their findings December 12, 2006 in the journal Multiple Sclerosis.

    Boy this is going to present a dilemma for religious zealots with MS.

  • I’m not too crazy about Pelosi these days but she was right to do that to Jefferson. We have to practice what we preach and not tolerate corruption.

    Mo Do asks, “So the question of the moment is: Which would be a greater handicap in a presidential bid, gender or race?” Not long on content but then again, Maureen hasn’t had much since Clinton left office.

  • What’s really clear, and even Jon Stewart seems to have gotten the gist, is that the most persuasive argument that Nine-eleven was a conspiracy is the fact that, without that singular prop for Bush’s propaganda, the man is SUCH a lackluster turd that, as with pre-Nine-eleven ‘vacationing’ doldrums of his Preznitry, the current half-assed runaround about his actual policies in Iraq, his hokey vacuum-seller’s Social Security pitch, his campaigning folksy crapola– all of his efforts other than wearing Pinochet’s uniform and (mis)using our military,are uniformly awful, boring, and crude.

    The media people who gushed over his uniforms ought to be put to work on a chain-gang.

    The bastard’s lesser son is no one— without unearned class privilege, without a bottle, and without wrapping himself in our bloody flag.

  • I applaud the logic used to point out soy products as a feminising agent, but I think it’s going in all of the wrong directions.

    The Gospel of The Flying Spaghetti Monster shows unequivical proof that most of societies hotly contentious issues such as global warming, gay/lesbian civil rights, and other issues that have been on the rise can be directly attributed to the drastic fall in the number of Pirates in the world. The easy way to bring the balance back into society would be to become a Pirate.

    ARRRRRGH!

  • “I don’t think I would have called it the war on terror.”

    Ya, of course, it’s the sloganeering. Different slogan = different outcome, only in Rummy’s mind.

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