Fold
So Dennis Hastert relented and allowed the 9-11 commission two more months to complete their report. I'd love to know the inside scoop on this one. My guess is the Administration plans to stonewall so hard that it doesn't matter if they have two more years to put a report together. Josh Marshall has an insightful piece on this topic at www.talkingpointsmemo.com.

Party of Responsibility
I love how Republicans never, ever take responsibility for anything. What's funny is that they paint themselves as the party of responsibility, while shucking the blame for everything. The recession is Clinton's fault; 9/11 is Clinton's fault; Janet Jackson's boob is Clinton's fault.

The first World Trade Center bombing took place in February 1993, less than two months after Clinton took office. When the bombs went off, he didn't rush to the microphones blaming the first President Bush.

The right loved to vilify for the Black Hawk Down incident that took place 10 months into his term. You know who sent those troops to Somalia? The first George Bush. So Clinton may have been to blame for Black Hawk Down, but following that logic, GW Bush is responsible for 9-11. And again, Clinton didn't blame the first Bush for something that happened partway through the first year of his first term.

But to right wing crazies, GW's not responsible for anything. Listen up folks: he's been in for over three years, he has both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court in his pocket. The deck is stacked in his favor. And still, we've had a record loss of jobs and a record deficit that is only getting worse.

So who's fault is it? And has GW ever done anything that was his fault?

Shameful
It's too bad the general population is in such a coma because what is happening with the 9/11 commission is one of the most shameful episodes in modern history. Here's how it breaks down: the Administration has been stonewalling the commission, giving them tons of useless interviews while resisting any efforts to turn over relevant material or allowing officials like Condi Rice to testify under oath.

The President himself is going to "visit" (his word) with the Chair and Vice Chair of the commission, but here's the catch -- it's only for one hour. So basically, Bush will do the same thing he did on Tim Russert, which is talk ad nauseum, glance at his watch, and then bolt from the room when the hand hits the magic hour.

Here's the most dishonest part: the President says he'd grant the commission a two month extension to finish their work, which has in essence been stifled by the administration's refusal to cooperate. And now Rep. Dennis Hastert says Congress will not allow the extension. The story is Bush asked him personally, but Hastert said no. What a load of horseshit. Just imagine Hastert telling Bush no under these sircumstances. So what it basically boils down to is the fact that Bush agreed to the extension, knowing Hastert would deny the extension.

Their behavior is so shameful, it's hard to fathom.

Thou shalt not...
I know some religious types are very upset about gay marriage because the number of "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" signs I see on TV are going through the roof. (By the way, can't you folks come up with a new slogan? That one is so Anita Bryant.)

OK, let's make the Bible the basis for this constitutional amendment. Here are a few guidelines from the Good Book:

I. Marriage shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen. 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5)

II. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take
concubines, in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam
5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)

III. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the
wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she
shall be executed. (Deut 22:13-21)

IV. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh
10:30)

V. Since marriage is for life, no law shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)

VI. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen. 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)

There's also some great stuff in there about adultery but I'm guessing the politicians won't be rushing to include that in this amendment.

A constitutional amendment banning "Survivor"?
From ABC News:

"President Bush backed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage Tuesday, saying he wants to stop activist judges from changing the definition of the "most enduring human institution." Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural and moral roots, Bush said, urging Congress to approve such an amendment."

Enough with the Constitutional amendments, already. First, Orrin Hatch wants an amendment allowing foreign-born citizens to run for President and now this. Like Bill Maher said last night on television, "Why no constitutional amendments about birthdays?"

Remember when Republicans used to be for state's rights? Now, it's "No Child Left Behind" and constitutional amendments against gay marriage.

And someone please tell GW to stop railing about the Democrats lack of fiscal discipline. Like I said before, give a former cokehead the country's credit card and you get what you deserve.

Thanks for making me look good
Of course, we are all less than perfect and most of us, if we go back to examine our relationships, did things we are ashamed of. This guy, however, makes everyone else combined look like a sweetheart.

"Betsy Valentin says her husband committed the ultimate betrayal when he told their children and the world that she was killed in Iraq.

"I was in shock and disbelief. I couldn't believe it was going on," U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. Betsy Valentin said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

Meanwhile, her husband, Eddie Valentin, says he fabricated his wife's death because he desperately wanted her to come home from the Iraq war zone, and he hoped that it would prompt military officials to release her early.

"It's something I did wrong but I can't help it," the 43-year-old Waterbury, Conn., man told reporters. "I love my wife. I went crazy."

But Army Reserve Sgt. Betsy Valentin says that her husband is lying, and she believes the police, who say he allegedly made up the cruel lie in order to woo another woman.

"He [Eddie Valentin] said he had received a phone call. He just screamed and said he couldn't believe someone would do this," she said. "They [police] said he did this to lure another woman."

There's really nothing else to add to that. "Uuuh, it's OK for us to go out now and stuff, because my wife is, like, dead from being in Iraq and stuff. Mmmm, want to get a pizza?"

Here's a good one from today's www.talkingpointsmemo.com. Goddammed if these people don't like to lie upa blue streak!

"This morning Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot was interviewed by Juan Williams on NPR. When asked about the president's Air National Guard service he said, the president's and John Kerry's service "compare very favorably... He (i.e. the president) signed up for dangerous duty. He volunteered to go to Vietnam. He wasn't selected to go, but nonetheless served his country very well ..."

He volunteered to go to Vietnam?

Marc, no he didn't.

Does he think no one is listening?

(For some reason Williams, made no effort to call him on it.)

Let's set aside the fact that pulling strings to get into the Air National Guard in 1968 is, on its face, quite the opposite of volunteering to go to Vietnam. When the president signed up for the National Guard there was a check box asking whether he wanted to volunteer for overseas service. And he checked off "do not volunteer."

Uhhh, I suppose it's kind of the same. The only difference is the word "not."

Roundup
A few random thoughts from the weekend:

* Arnold was on "Meet The Press" on Sunday. You can never undersell the importance of likeability with a politician. Even though Arnold is a Republican, his views are rather moderate and of course, as an actor, he can stay on message like no other. And he could be President someday!

Tim Russert asked him about an amendment proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch that would allow anyone who has been an American citizen for 20 years to run for President. I can't quite place my finger on it, but there's something that scares me about that. I get this whole Manchurian Candidate thing going through my head. Someone convince me otherwise that this is a good idea.

People think that Republicans are principled but nothing could be further from the truth. It seems that Hatch is proposing that amendment for Arnold and Arnold alone. Imagine if Clinton had proposed something like that for say, Madeline Albright. All the wowsers in the world would have gone nuts. while you're at it, Orrin, I've got a good one for you: how about an amendment allowing a President to run for a third term? Don't like that one, huh?

Then, there's the Bush proposal to allow illegals into America to take jobs, as long as it's proven that no Americans want them. How the hell do they prove that? This is another proposal that Republicans would have freaked out about in the past (and some are now), but since it's coming from the deep thinker in the White House, it's OK.

And how about the spending that's taking place right now? I love how former deficit hawks are twisting themselves in pretzels to say deficit spending is just grand. Wait until the bill comes due.

* I love the Republicans making a big deal of the picture of Kerry sitting like 10 rows behind Jane Fonda at a peace rally. Then, there was the fake picture of them speaking together at a rally. Here's an awesome photo and it's real: Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam in the early 80's. Boy, that's a good one! Maybe we can also get a picture of Dick Cheney signing some of those Halliburton contracts with Iraq back in the late 1990's. Those would be good for a hoot.

* My plan is to ignore Ralph Nader. I think I would rather sign a petition to get Tom Delay on the presidential ballot that Nader. At least Delay doesn't hide the fact that he's an ego-driven weasel.

* My Celtics couln't suck much worse. Seriously.

Wish You Were Here
I've been trying to reach my friend Mike to find out where his birthday party is tonight. He called me back from Miami, where he's at a celebrity volleyball tournament where the celebrities are all models. I'm not even sure he's sure how he ended up there.

Turns out his birthday party is next Saturday. No word on whether he'll be bringing any of the models back for the party.

Manufacturing crisis... solved!
This is from today's New York Times. It's the Bush Administration's answer to solving the manufacturing crisis... and your kid brother is part of the solution! Here it is:

"Is cooking a hamburger patty and inserting the meat, lettuce and ketchup inside a bun a manufacturing job, like assembling automobiles?

That question is posed in the new Economic Report of the President, a thick annual compendium of observations and statistics on the health of the United States economy.

The latest edition, sent to Congress last week, questions whether fast-food restaurants should continue to be counted as part of the service sector or should be reclassified as manufacturers. No answers were offered."

The rest of the article questions whether the Administration will try to move these fast food jobs into the manufacturing sector, thus (on paper) stemming the loss of manufacturing jobs.

This is up there with the Ronald Reagan "Ketchup is a vegetable..." argument. I've never heard of anyone in manufacturing asking, "Wanna supersize that?" but this is the new world order, I suppose. Hey, beats the hell out of having an actual plan to create manufacturing jobs, right?