Republicans meddle...

From Saturday's Washington Post:

The German pharmaceutical giant Bayer suffered a serious setback last year when a federal administrative law judge backed a proposed ban on a drug used to fight poultry infections at factory farms. The judge cited growing scientific evidence suggesting that the practice was reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics vital to human health.

Facing defeat in a three-year legal battle, Bayer sought help in a new arena -- Congress. In a letter written in the office of Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.), and with the assistance of a Bayer lobbyist who was a longtime Pickering friend, 26 House members argued that the poultry medicine was "absolutely necessary to protecting the health of birds." It called on Lester M. Crawford, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to set aside the judge's decision regarding the class of drugs. The Bayer product is known as Baytril.

The Baytril case provides an unusual look at an attempt by lawmakers to influence the executive branch's handling of an important public health issue involving parochial economic interests and complex science. In stepping in, the congressmen entered a murky area and overstepped legal limits on their involvement, FDA officials said. While members of Congress frequently write to agencies as part of regular oversight, they are not supposed to intervene in formal, trial-type proceedings.

Less than a month after the July 22, 2004, letter, the FDA informed the legislators in writing that their attempt to sway Crawford violated federal rules intended to shield him and other decision makers in similar quasi-judicial proceedings from outside pressure. They admonished the lawmakers that they were "not allowed" to communicate with Crawford because the lengthy public record of testimony and documentary evidence was closed.

The rest can be found here.

It's not that they didn't know. It's that the Republicans have simply stopped caring about such distinctions in the House of Representatives.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Republicans meddle...

From Saturday's Washington Post:

The German pharmaceutical giant Bayer suffered a serious setback last year when a federal administrative law judge backed a proposed ban on a drug used to fight poultry infections at factory farms. The judge cited growing scientific evidence suggesting that the practice was reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics vital to human health.

Facing defeat in a three-year legal battle, Bayer sought help in a new arena -- Congress. In a letter written in the office of Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.), and with the assistance of a Bayer lobbyist who was a longtime Pickering friend, 26 House members argued that the poultry medicine was "absolutely necessary to protecting the health of birds." It called on Lester M. Crawford, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to set aside the judge's decision regarding the class of drugs. The Bayer product is known as Baytril.

The Baytril case provides an unusual look at an attempt by lawmakers to influence the executive branch's handling of an important public health issue involving parochial economic interests and complex science. In stepping in, the congressmen entered a murky area and overstepped legal limits on their involvement, FDA officials said. While members of Congress frequently write to agencies as part of regular oversight, they are not supposed to intervene in formal, trial-type proceedings.

Less than a month after the July 22, 2004, letter, the FDA informed the legislators in writing that their attempt to sway Crawford violated federal rules intended to shield him and other decision makers in similar quasi-judicial proceedings from outside pressure. They admonished the lawmakers that they were "not allowed" to communicate with Crawford because the lengthy public record of testimony and documentary evidence was closed.

The rest can be found here.

It's not that they didn't know. It's that the Republicans have simply stopped caring about such distinctions in the House of Representatives.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Fox News shows it's stupidity...

Can anyone explain this?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Fox News shows it's stupidity...

Can anyone explain this?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

WTF!?!?!?!

Secret Service seeks race of media party guests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Secret Service has asked for the race of guests attending a media reception with President Bush before the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday.

Some senior correspondents who cover Bush regularly and have attended the reception in past years said Friday they had not been asked for race information previously and were shocked at the request.

"[White House] reporters already have hard [permanent] passes, have gone through all the checks, and are often in reach of the president," said Ed Chen of the Los Angeles Times, who is secretary of the association. "I think it's unnecessary and offensive."

There rest of the story can be found here. Go read it.

Can anyone offer a good explination as to why the Secret Service would ask for such information?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

WTF!?!?!?!

Secret Service seeks race of media party guests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Secret Service has asked for the race of guests attending a media reception with President Bush before the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday.

Some senior correspondents who cover Bush regularly and have attended the reception in past years said Friday they had not been asked for race information previously and were shocked at the request.

"[White House] reporters already have hard [permanent] passes, have gone through all the checks, and are often in reach of the president," said Ed Chen of the Los Angeles Times, who is secretary of the association. "I think it's unnecessary and offensive."

There rest of the story can be found here. Go read it.

Can anyone offer a good explination as to why the Secret Service would ask for such information?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

The Press Conference

I'm sure we'll spend several days posting on all of the things said at the press conference tonight. For now, I think one theme really applies here:

"Mr. President, I'm sure that was an answer to A question, just not MY question."

- The Hippy's Wife

The Press Conference

I'm sure we'll spend several days posting on all of the things said at the press conference tonight. For now, I think one theme really applies here:

"Mr. President, I'm sure that was an answer to A question, just not MY question."

- The Hippy's Wife

I think we need to start referring to Sen. Frist as "White Power Bill"

Bill Frist, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and the KKK:

Justice Sunday Preachers
by MAX BLUMENTHAL

[posted online on April 26, 2005]

Senate majority leader Bill Frist appeared through a telecast as a speaker at "Justice Sunday," at the invitation of the event's main sponsor, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. "Justice Sunday" was promoted as a rally to portray Democrats as being "against people of faith." Many of the speakers compared the plight of conservative Christians to the civil rights movement. But in sharing the stage with Perkins, who introduced him to the rally, Frist was associating himself with someone who has longstanding ties to racist organizations.

Four years ago, Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), America's premier white supremacist organization, the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South. In 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list. At the time, Perkins was the campaign manager for a right-wing Republican candidate for the US Senate in Louisiana. The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke.

As the emcee of Justice Sunday, Tony Perkins positioned himself beside a black preacher and a Catholic "civil rights" activist as he rattled off the phone numbers of senators wavering on President Bush's judicial nominees. The evening's speakers studiously couched their appeals on behalf of Bush's stalled judges in the vocabulary of victimhood, accusing Democratic senators of "filibustering people of faith."

James Dobson, who founded the Family Research Council as the Washington lobbying arm of his Focus on the Family, invoked the Christian right's persecution complex. On an evening when Jews were celebrating the second night of Passover, Dobson claimed, "The biggest Holocaust in world history came out of the Supreme Court" with the Roe v. Wade decision. On his syndicated radio show nearly two weeks earlier, on April 11, Dobson compared the "black robed men" on the Supreme Court to "the men in white robes, the Ku Klux Klan." By his logic, the burden of oppression had passed from religious and racial minorities to unborn children and pure-hearted heterosexuals engaged in "traditional marriage."

The rest can be found here. Go now, and read it all.

These people live on the fringe of our society. It's that simple.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

For those of you who haven't seen the first season of Arrested Development, please understand that the title of this post was a reference to a character on the show.

I think we need to start referring to Sen. Frist as "White Power Bill"

Bill Frist, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and the KKK:

Justice Sunday Preachers
by MAX BLUMENTHAL

[posted online on April 26, 2005]

Senate majority leader Bill Frist appeared through a telecast as a speaker at "Justice Sunday," at the invitation of the event's main sponsor, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. "Justice Sunday" was promoted as a rally to portray Democrats as being "against people of faith." Many of the speakers compared the plight of conservative Christians to the civil rights movement. But in sharing the stage with Perkins, who introduced him to the rally, Frist was associating himself with someone who has longstanding ties to racist organizations.

Four years ago, Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), America's premier white supremacist organization, the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South. In 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list. At the time, Perkins was the campaign manager for a right-wing Republican candidate for the US Senate in Louisiana. The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke.

As the emcee of Justice Sunday, Tony Perkins positioned himself beside a black preacher and a Catholic "civil rights" activist as he rattled off the phone numbers of senators wavering on President Bush's judicial nominees. The evening's speakers studiously couched their appeals on behalf of Bush's stalled judges in the vocabulary of victimhood, accusing Democratic senators of "filibustering people of faith."

James Dobson, who founded the Family Research Council as the Washington lobbying arm of his Focus on the Family, invoked the Christian right's persecution complex. On an evening when Jews were celebrating the second night of Passover, Dobson claimed, "The biggest Holocaust in world history came out of the Supreme Court" with the Roe v. Wade decision. On his syndicated radio show nearly two weeks earlier, on April 11, Dobson compared the "black robed men" on the Supreme Court to "the men in white robes, the Ku Klux Klan." By his logic, the burden of oppression had passed from religious and racial minorities to unborn children and pure-hearted heterosexuals engaged in "traditional marriage."

The rest can be found here. Go now, and read it all.

These people live on the fringe of our society. It's that simple.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

For those of you who haven't seen the first season of Arrested Development, please understand that the title of this post was a reference to a character on the show.

It really warms the heart...

I hope everyone saw the following press release from Sen. Reid's office:

Democrats Moving Forward With Promise Of America Agenda
Monday, April 25, 2005


WASHINGTON, DC – As Senate Republicans move closer to a partisan power grab that deals less with substance and more with right wing politics, Democrats are ready to move forward with an agenda that addresses the concerns of regular Americans throughout the nation.

Invoking a little-known Senate procedure called Rule XIV, the Democrats put nine bills on the Senate calendar that seek to help America fulfill its promise.

“Across the country, people are worried about things that matter to their families – the health of their loved ones, their child’s performance in schools, and those sky high gas prices,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. “But what is the number one priority for Senate Republicans? Doing away with the last check on one-party rule in Washington to allow President Bush, Senator Frist and Tom Delay to stack the courts with radical judges. If Republicans proceed to pull the trigger on the nuclear option, Democrats will respond by employing existing Senate rules to push forward our agenda for America.”

Democrats have introduced bills that address America’s real challenges.

Women’s Health Care. “The Prevention First Act of 2005” will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions by increasing funding for family planning and ending health insurance discrimination against women.

Veterans’ Benefits. “The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2005” will assist disabled veterans who, under current law, must choose to either receive their retirement pay or disability compensation.

Fiscal Responsibility. Democrats will move to restore fiscal discipline to government spending and extend the pay-as-you-go requirement.

Relief at the Pump. Democrats plan to halt the diversion of oil from the markets to the strategic petroleum reserve. By releasing oil from the reserve through a swap program, the plan will bring down prices at the pump.

Education. Democrats have a bill that will: strengthen head start and child care programs, improve elementary and secondary education, provide a roadmap for first generation and low-income college students, provide college tuition relief for students and their families, address the need for math, science and special education teachers, and make college affordable for all students .

Jobs. Democrats will work in support of legislation that guarantees overtime pay for workers and sets a fair minimum wage.

Energy Markets. Democrats work to prevent Enron-style market manipulation of electricity.

Corporate Taxation. Democrats make sure companies pay their fair share of taxes to the U.S. government instead of keeping profits overseas.
Standing with our troops. Democrats believe that putting America’s security first means standing up for our troops and their families.

“Abusing power is not what the American people sent us to Washington to do. We need to address real priorities instead -- fight for relief at the gas pump, stronger schools and lower health care costs for America’s families,” said Senator Reid.

###

Amen.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

It really warms the heart...

I hope everyone saw the following press release from Sen. Reid's office:

Democrats Moving Forward With Promise Of America Agenda
Monday, April 25, 2005


WASHINGTON, DC – As Senate Republicans move closer to a partisan power grab that deals less with substance and more with right wing politics, Democrats are ready to move forward with an agenda that addresses the concerns of regular Americans throughout the nation.

Invoking a little-known Senate procedure called Rule XIV, the Democrats put nine bills on the Senate calendar that seek to help America fulfill its promise.

“Across the country, people are worried about things that matter to their families – the health of their loved ones, their child’s performance in schools, and those sky high gas prices,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. “But what is the number one priority for Senate Republicans? Doing away with the last check on one-party rule in Washington to allow President Bush, Senator Frist and Tom Delay to stack the courts with radical judges. If Republicans proceed to pull the trigger on the nuclear option, Democrats will respond by employing existing Senate rules to push forward our agenda for America.”

Democrats have introduced bills that address America’s real challenges.

Women’s Health Care. “The Prevention First Act of 2005” will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions by increasing funding for family planning and ending health insurance discrimination against women.

Veterans’ Benefits. “The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2005” will assist disabled veterans who, under current law, must choose to either receive their retirement pay or disability compensation.

Fiscal Responsibility. Democrats will move to restore fiscal discipline to government spending and extend the pay-as-you-go requirement.

Relief at the Pump. Democrats plan to halt the diversion of oil from the markets to the strategic petroleum reserve. By releasing oil from the reserve through a swap program, the plan will bring down prices at the pump.

Education. Democrats have a bill that will: strengthen head start and child care programs, improve elementary and secondary education, provide a roadmap for first generation and low-income college students, provide college tuition relief for students and their families, address the need for math, science and special education teachers, and make college affordable for all students .

Jobs. Democrats will work in support of legislation that guarantees overtime pay for workers and sets a fair minimum wage.

Energy Markets. Democrats work to prevent Enron-style market manipulation of electricity.

Corporate Taxation. Democrats make sure companies pay their fair share of taxes to the U.S. government instead of keeping profits overseas.
Standing with our troops. Democrats believe that putting America’s security first means standing up for our troops and their families.

“Abusing power is not what the American people sent us to Washington to do. We need to address real priorities instead -- fight for relief at the gas pump, stronger schools and lower health care costs for America’s families,” said Senator Reid.

###

Amen.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Frank Rich exposes Justice Sunday for the sham that it is...

Today's New York Times has an Op-Ed by Frank Rich that is so important that I am posting the piece wholesale right here.

A High-Tech Lynching in Prime Time
By FRANK RICH

Whatever your religious denomination, or lack of same, it was hard not to be swept up in last week's televised pageantry from Rome: the grandeur of St. Peter's Square, the panoply of the cardinals, the continuity of history embodied by the joyous emergence of the 265th pope. As a show of faith, it's a tough act to follow. But that has not stopped some ingenious American hucksters from trying.

Tonight is the much-awaited "Justice Sunday," the judge-bashing rally being disseminated nationwide by cable, satellite and Internet from a megachurch in Louisville. It may not boast a plume of smoke emerging from above the Sistine Chapel, but it will feature its share of smoke and mirrors as well as traditions that, while not dating back a couple of millenniums, do at least recall the 1920's immortalized in "Elmer Gantry." These traditions have less to do with the earnest practice of religion by an actual church, as we witnessed from Rome, than with the exploitation of religion by political operatives and other cynics with worldly ends. While Sinclair Lewis wrote that Gantry, his hypocritical evangelical preacher, "was born to be a senator," we now have senators who are born to be Gantrys. One of them, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, hatched plans to be beamed into tonight's festivities by videotape, a stunt that in itself imbues "Justice Sunday" with a touch of all-American spectacle worthy of "The Wizard of Oz."

Like the wizard himself, "Justice Sunday" is a humbug, albeit one with real potential consequences. It brings mass-media firepower to a campaign against so-called activist judges whose virulence increasingly echoes the rhetoric of George Wallace and other segregationists in the 1960's. Back then, Wallace called for the impeachment of Frank M. Johnson Jr., the federal judge in Alabama whose activism extended to upholding the Montgomery bus boycott and voting rights march. Despite stepped-up security, a cross was burned on Johnson's lawn and his mother's house was bombed.

The fraudulence of "Justice Sunday" begins but does not end with its sham claims to solidarity with the civil rights movement of that era. "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias," says the flier for tonight's show, "and now it is being used against people of faith." In truth, Bush judicial nominees have been approved in exactly the same numbers as were Clinton second-term nominees. Of the 13 federal appeals courts, 10 already have a majority of Republican appointees. So does the Supreme Court. It's a lie to argue, as Tom DeLay did last week, that such a judiciary is the "left's last legislative body," and that Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, is the poster child for "outrageous" judicial overreach. Our courts are as highly populated by Republicans as the other two branches of government.

The "Justice Sunday" mob is also lying when it claims to despise activist judges as a matter of principle. Only weeks ago it was desperately seeking activist judges who might intervene in the Terri Schiavo case as boldly as Scalia & Co. had in Bush v. Gore. The real "Justice Sunday" agenda lies elsewhere. As Bill Maher summed it up for Jay Leno on the "Tonight" show last week: " 'Activist judges' is a code word for gay." The judges being verbally tarred and feathered are those who have decriminalized gay sex (in a Supreme Court decision written by Justice Kennedy) as they once did abortion and who countenance marriage rights for same-sex couples. This is the animus that dares not speak its name tonight. To paraphrase the "Justice Sunday" flier, now it's the anti-filibuster campaign that is being abused to protect bias, this time against gay people.

Anyone who doesn't get with this program, starting with all Democrats, is damned as a bigoted enemy of "people of faith." But "people of faith," as used by the event's organizers, is another duplicitous locution; it's a code word for only one specific and exclusionary brand of Christianity. The trade organization representing tonight's presenters, National Religious Broadcasters, requires its members to "sign a distinctly evangelical statement of faith that would probably exclude most Catholics and certainly all Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist programmers," according to the magazine Broadcasting & Cable. The only major religious leader involved with "Justice Sunday," R. Albert Mohler Jr. of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has not only called the papacy a "false and unbiblical office" but also told Terry Gross on NPR two years ago that "any belief system" leading "away from the cross of Christ and toward another way of ultimate meaning, is, indeed, wicked and evil."

Tonight's megachurch setting and pseudoreligious accouterments notwithstanding, the actual organizer of "Justice Sunday" isn't a clergyman at all but a former state legislator and candidate for insurance commissioner in Louisiana, Tony Perkins. He now runs the Family Research Council, a Washington propaganda machine devoted to debunking "myths" like "People are born gay" and "Homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals are." It will give you an idea of the level of Mr. Perkins's hysteria that, as reported by The American Prospect, he told a gathering in Washington this month that the judiciary poses "a greater threat to representative government" than "terrorist groups." And we all know the punishment for terrorists. Accordingly, Newsweek reports that both Justices Kennedy and Clarence Thomas have "asked Congress for money to add 11 police officers" to the Supreme Court, "including one new officer just to assess threats against the justices." The Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body for the federal judiciary, has requested $12 million for home-security systems for another 800 judges.

Mr. Perkins's fellow producer tonight is James Dobson, the child psychologist who created Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs media behemoth most famous of late for condemning SpongeBob SquarePants for joining other cartoon characters in a gay-friendly public-service "We Are Family" video for children. Dr. Dobson sees same-sex marriage as the path to "marriage between a man and his donkey" and, in yet another perversion of civil rights history, has likened the robed justices of the Supreme Court to the robed thugs of the Ku Klux Klan. He has promised "a battle of enormous proportions from sea to shining sea" if he doesn't get the judges he wants.

Once upon a time you might have wondered what Senator Frist is doing lighting matches in this tinderbox. As he never ceases to remind us, he is a doctor - an M.D., not some mere Ph.D. like Dr. Dobson - with an admirable history of combating AIDS in Africa. But this guy signed his pact with the devil even before he decided to grandstand in the Schiavo case by besmirching the diagnoses of neurologists who, unlike him, had actually examined the patient.

It was three months earlier, on the Dec. 5, 2004, edition of ABC News's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," that Dr. Frist enlisted in the Perkins-Dobson cavalry. That week Bush administration abstinence-only sex education programs had been caught spreading bogus information, including the canard that tears and sweat can transmit H.I.V. and AIDS - a fiction that does nothing to further public health but is very effective at provoking the demonization of gay men and any other high-risk group for the disease. Asked if he believed this junk science was true, the Princeton-and-Harvard-educated Dr. Frist said, "I don't know." After Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed him three more times, this fine doctor theorized that it "would be very hard" for tears and sweat to spread AIDS (still a sleazy answer, since there have been no such cases).

Senator Frist had hoped to deflect criticism of his cameo on "Justice Sunday" by confining his appearance to video. Though he belittled the disease-prevention value of condoms in that same "This Week" interview, he apparently now believes that videotape is just the prophylactic to shield him from the charge that he is breaching the wall separating church and state. His other defense: John Kerry spoke at churches during the presidential campaign. Well, every politician speaks at churches. Not every political leader speaks at nationally televised political rallies that invoke God to declare war on courts of law.

Perhaps the closest historical antecedent of tonight's crusade was that staged in the 1950's and 60's by a George Wallace ally, the televangelist Billy James Hargis. At its peak, his so-called Christian Crusade was carried by 500 radio stations and more than 200 television stations. In the "Impeach Earl Warren" era, Hargis would preach of the "collapse of moral values" engineered by a "powerfully entrenched, anti-God Liberal Establishment." He also decried any sex education that talked about homosexuality or even sexual intercourse. Or so he did until his career was ended by accusations that he had had sex with female students at the Christian college he founded as well as with boys in the school's All-American Kids choir.

Hargis died in obscurity the week before Dr. Frist's "This Week" appearance. But no less effectively than the cardinals in Rome, he has passed the torch.

This is taking us into dangerous area. Unless we find a way to de-escalate this nonsense rhetoric about "liberals" being at war with people of faith, some misguided "people of faith" are going to turn to violence. This is not a blanket statement about the religious right, but rather directed at the Eric Rudolphs of the world.

Sen. Frist and his Religious Co-Conspirators in this stunt will have blood on their hands if anything violent comes to pass from this.

For those who disagree with me, be sure and write Ayatollah Frist a thank you letter.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Oh, the link to the Op-Ed can be found here.

Frank Rich exposes Justice Sunday for the sham that it is...

Today's New York Times has an Op-Ed by Frank Rich that is so important that I am posting the piece wholesale right here.

A High-Tech Lynching in Prime Time
By FRANK RICH

Whatever your religious denomination, or lack of same, it was hard not to be swept up in last week's televised pageantry from Rome: the grandeur of St. Peter's Square, the panoply of the cardinals, the continuity of history embodied by the joyous emergence of the 265th pope. As a show of faith, it's a tough act to follow. But that has not stopped some ingenious American hucksters from trying.

Tonight is the much-awaited "Justice Sunday," the judge-bashing rally being disseminated nationwide by cable, satellite and Internet from a megachurch in Louisville. It may not boast a plume of smoke emerging from above the Sistine Chapel, but it will feature its share of smoke and mirrors as well as traditions that, while not dating back a couple of millenniums, do at least recall the 1920's immortalized in "Elmer Gantry." These traditions have less to do with the earnest practice of religion by an actual church, as we witnessed from Rome, than with the exploitation of religion by political operatives and other cynics with worldly ends. While Sinclair Lewis wrote that Gantry, his hypocritical evangelical preacher, "was born to be a senator," we now have senators who are born to be Gantrys. One of them, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, hatched plans to be beamed into tonight's festivities by videotape, a stunt that in itself imbues "Justice Sunday" with a touch of all-American spectacle worthy of "The Wizard of Oz."

Like the wizard himself, "Justice Sunday" is a humbug, albeit one with real potential consequences. It brings mass-media firepower to a campaign against so-called activist judges whose virulence increasingly echoes the rhetoric of George Wallace and other segregationists in the 1960's. Back then, Wallace called for the impeachment of Frank M. Johnson Jr., the federal judge in Alabama whose activism extended to upholding the Montgomery bus boycott and voting rights march. Despite stepped-up security, a cross was burned on Johnson's lawn and his mother's house was bombed.

The fraudulence of "Justice Sunday" begins but does not end with its sham claims to solidarity with the civil rights movement of that era. "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias," says the flier for tonight's show, "and now it is being used against people of faith." In truth, Bush judicial nominees have been approved in exactly the same numbers as were Clinton second-term nominees. Of the 13 federal appeals courts, 10 already have a majority of Republican appointees. So does the Supreme Court. It's a lie to argue, as Tom DeLay did last week, that such a judiciary is the "left's last legislative body," and that Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, is the poster child for "outrageous" judicial overreach. Our courts are as highly populated by Republicans as the other two branches of government.

The "Justice Sunday" mob is also lying when it claims to despise activist judges as a matter of principle. Only weeks ago it was desperately seeking activist judges who might intervene in the Terri Schiavo case as boldly as Scalia & Co. had in Bush v. Gore. The real "Justice Sunday" agenda lies elsewhere. As Bill Maher summed it up for Jay Leno on the "Tonight" show last week: " 'Activist judges' is a code word for gay." The judges being verbally tarred and feathered are those who have decriminalized gay sex (in a Supreme Court decision written by Justice Kennedy) as they once did abortion and who countenance marriage rights for same-sex couples. This is the animus that dares not speak its name tonight. To paraphrase the "Justice Sunday" flier, now it's the anti-filibuster campaign that is being abused to protect bias, this time against gay people.

Anyone who doesn't get with this program, starting with all Democrats, is damned as a bigoted enemy of "people of faith." But "people of faith," as used by the event's organizers, is another duplicitous locution; it's a code word for only one specific and exclusionary brand of Christianity. The trade organization representing tonight's presenters, National Religious Broadcasters, requires its members to "sign a distinctly evangelical statement of faith that would probably exclude most Catholics and certainly all Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist programmers," according to the magazine Broadcasting & Cable. The only major religious leader involved with "Justice Sunday," R. Albert Mohler Jr. of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has not only called the papacy a "false and unbiblical office" but also told Terry Gross on NPR two years ago that "any belief system" leading "away from the cross of Christ and toward another way of ultimate meaning, is, indeed, wicked and evil."

Tonight's megachurch setting and pseudoreligious accouterments notwithstanding, the actual organizer of "Justice Sunday" isn't a clergyman at all but a former state legislator and candidate for insurance commissioner in Louisiana, Tony Perkins. He now runs the Family Research Council, a Washington propaganda machine devoted to debunking "myths" like "People are born gay" and "Homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals are." It will give you an idea of the level of Mr. Perkins's hysteria that, as reported by The American Prospect, he told a gathering in Washington this month that the judiciary poses "a greater threat to representative government" than "terrorist groups." And we all know the punishment for terrorists. Accordingly, Newsweek reports that both Justices Kennedy and Clarence Thomas have "asked Congress for money to add 11 police officers" to the Supreme Court, "including one new officer just to assess threats against the justices." The Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body for the federal judiciary, has requested $12 million for home-security systems for another 800 judges.

Mr. Perkins's fellow producer tonight is James Dobson, the child psychologist who created Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs media behemoth most famous of late for condemning SpongeBob SquarePants for joining other cartoon characters in a gay-friendly public-service "We Are Family" video for children. Dr. Dobson sees same-sex marriage as the path to "marriage between a man and his donkey" and, in yet another perversion of civil rights history, has likened the robed justices of the Supreme Court to the robed thugs of the Ku Klux Klan. He has promised "a battle of enormous proportions from sea to shining sea" if he doesn't get the judges he wants.

Once upon a time you might have wondered what Senator Frist is doing lighting matches in this tinderbox. As he never ceases to remind us, he is a doctor - an M.D., not some mere Ph.D. like Dr. Dobson - with an admirable history of combating AIDS in Africa. But this guy signed his pact with the devil even before he decided to grandstand in the Schiavo case by besmirching the diagnoses of neurologists who, unlike him, had actually examined the patient.

It was three months earlier, on the Dec. 5, 2004, edition of ABC News's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," that Dr. Frist enlisted in the Perkins-Dobson cavalry. That week Bush administration abstinence-only sex education programs had been caught spreading bogus information, including the canard that tears and sweat can transmit H.I.V. and AIDS - a fiction that does nothing to further public health but is very effective at provoking the demonization of gay men and any other high-risk group for the disease. Asked if he believed this junk science was true, the Princeton-and-Harvard-educated Dr. Frist said, "I don't know." After Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed him three more times, this fine doctor theorized that it "would be very hard" for tears and sweat to spread AIDS (still a sleazy answer, since there have been no such cases).

Senator Frist had hoped to deflect criticism of his cameo on "Justice Sunday" by confining his appearance to video. Though he belittled the disease-prevention value of condoms in that same "This Week" interview, he apparently now believes that videotape is just the prophylactic to shield him from the charge that he is breaching the wall separating church and state. His other defense: John Kerry spoke at churches during the presidential campaign. Well, every politician speaks at churches. Not every political leader speaks at nationally televised political rallies that invoke God to declare war on courts of law.

Perhaps the closest historical antecedent of tonight's crusade was that staged in the 1950's and 60's by a George Wallace ally, the televangelist Billy James Hargis. At its peak, his so-called Christian Crusade was carried by 500 radio stations and more than 200 television stations. In the "Impeach Earl Warren" era, Hargis would preach of the "collapse of moral values" engineered by a "powerfully entrenched, anti-God Liberal Establishment." He also decried any sex education that talked about homosexuality or even sexual intercourse. Or so he did until his career was ended by accusations that he had had sex with female students at the Christian college he founded as well as with boys in the school's All-American Kids choir.

Hargis died in obscurity the week before Dr. Frist's "This Week" appearance. But no less effectively than the cardinals in Rome, he has passed the torch.

This is taking us into dangerous area. Unless we find a way to de-escalate this nonsense rhetoric about "liberals" being at war with people of faith, some misguided "people of faith" are going to turn to violence. This is not a blanket statement about the religious right, but rather directed at the Eric Rudolphs of the world.

Sen. Frist and his Religious Co-Conspirators in this stunt will have blood on their hands if anything violent comes to pass from this.

For those who disagree with me, be sure and write Ayatollah Frist a thank you letter.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Oh, the link to the Op-Ed can be found here.

DeLay's Airfare paid for by Jack Abramoff's AMEX Card...

From Sunday's Washington Post:

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.

DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. DeLay, who is now House majority leader, has said that his expenses on this trip were paid by a nonprofit organization and that the financial arrangements for it were proper. He has also said he had no way of knowing that any lobbyist might have financially supported the trip, either directly or through reimbursements to the nonprofit organization.

The documents obtained by The Washington Post, including receipts for his hotel stays in Scotland and London and billings for his golfing during the trip at the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland, substantiate for the first time that some of DeLay's expenses on the trip were billed to charge cards used by the two lobbyists. The invoice for DeLay's plane fare lists the name of what was then Abramoff's lobbying firm, Preston Gates & Ellis.

Remember, during President Clinton's impeachment, the Republican refrain was, "it's the lying, not the sex."

Members of Congress aren't really subject to impeachment, but what will his fellow Republican Mmembers of Congress say about the naughty lies Tom DeLay has been telling?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

DeLay's Airfare paid for by Jack Abramoff's AMEX Card...

From Sunday's Washington Post:

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.

DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. DeLay, who is now House majority leader, has said that his expenses on this trip were paid by a nonprofit organization and that the financial arrangements for it were proper. He has also said he had no way of knowing that any lobbyist might have financially supported the trip, either directly or through reimbursements to the nonprofit organization.

The documents obtained by The Washington Post, including receipts for his hotel stays in Scotland and London and billings for his golfing during the trip at the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland, substantiate for the first time that some of DeLay's expenses on the trip were billed to charge cards used by the two lobbyists. The invoice for DeLay's plane fare lists the name of what was then Abramoff's lobbying firm, Preston Gates & Ellis.

Remember, during President Clinton's impeachment, the Republican refrain was, "it's the lying, not the sex."

Members of Congress aren't really subject to impeachment, but what will his fellow Republican Mmembers of Congress say about the naughty lies Tom DeLay has been telling?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Sorry we shipped you around to our various concentration/prison camps. Can we offer you a White House Keychain?

From Saturday's NY Times:

WASHINGTON, April 22 - A German citizen detained for five months in an Afghan prison was released in May 2004 on direct orders from Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, after she learned the man had been mistakenly identified as a terror suspect, government officials said Friday.

The officials, who confirmed an account of Ms. Rice's decision that was first reported by NBC News, said that when Khaled el-Masri was taken from a bus on the Serbian-Macedonian border on Dec. 31, 2003, the Macedonian and the American authorities believed he was a member of Al Qaeda who had trained at one of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.

But within several months they concluded he was the victim of mistaken identity, the officials said. His name was similar to a Qaeda suspect on an international watch list of possible terrorist operatives, they said.

By then, Mr. Masri, 41, a car salesman who lives in Ulm, Germany, had been flown on a C.I.A.-chartered plane to the prison under a secret American program of transferring terror suspects from country to country for interrogation, officials said. At the prison in Kabul, Mr. Masri said, he was shackled, beaten, photographed nude and injected with drugs by interrogators who pressed him to reveal ties to Al Qaeda.

This madness has to stop.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Sorry we shipped you around to our various concentration/prison camps. Can we offer you a White House Keychain?

From Saturday's NY Times:

WASHINGTON, April 22 - A German citizen detained for five months in an Afghan prison was released in May 2004 on direct orders from Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, after she learned the man had been mistakenly identified as a terror suspect, government officials said Friday.

The officials, who confirmed an account of Ms. Rice's decision that was first reported by NBC News, said that when Khaled el-Masri was taken from a bus on the Serbian-Macedonian border on Dec. 31, 2003, the Macedonian and the American authorities believed he was a member of Al Qaeda who had trained at one of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.

But within several months they concluded he was the victim of mistaken identity, the officials said. His name was similar to a Qaeda suspect on an international watch list of possible terrorist operatives, they said.

By then, Mr. Masri, 41, a car salesman who lives in Ulm, Germany, had been flown on a C.I.A.-chartered plane to the prison under a secret American program of transferring terror suspects from country to country for interrogation, officials said. At the prison in Kabul, Mr. Masri said, he was shackled, beaten, photographed nude and injected with drugs by interrogators who pressed him to reveal ties to Al Qaeda.

This madness has to stop.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Professor Bainbridge on Tom DeLay

Tom DeLay

Is the enemy of my enemy necessarily my friend? I don't have much in common with or much use for most of Tom DeLay's critics, but I have to admit that the dude has always creeped me out a little. Now, however, he seems to have gone beyond the bend:

"Absolutely. We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous," DeLay told Fox News Radio on Tuesday. "And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous." (Link)

There are legitimate questions about the extent to which judges ought to resort to foreign law when interpreting US law, especially the Constitution, but is Delay trying to say that one foreign law is always irrelevant even if invoked solely by way of analogy? If so, that strikes me as just silly. Consider Justice Bradley's dissent in the Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36, all the way back in 1872:

The people of this country brought with them to its shores the rights of Englishmen; the rights which had been wrested from English sovereigns at various periods of the nation's history. One of these fundamental rights was expressed in these words, found in Magna Charta: 'No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him or condemn him but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.' English constitutional writers expound this article as rendering life, liberty, and property inviolable, except by due process of law. This is the very right which the plaintiffs in error claim in this case. Another of these rights was that of habeas corpus, or the right of having any invasion of personal liberty judicially examined into, at once, by a competent judicial magistrate. Blackstone classifies these fundamental rights under three heads, as the absolute rights of individuals, to wit: the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property. And of the last he says: 'The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of property, which consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution save only by the laws of the land.'

Would DeLay really dare claim that it is "outrageous" for a Supreme Court Justice to thus consider Magna Charta in trying understanding the rights of Americans?

(I'll grant you that one might interestingly speculate on the extent to which a culture warrior like Delay really is fighting an older anti-English battle, but that's the sort of speculation about which I tend to blog only after a nice bottle of claret and a bit of port.)

In any event, where Delay really goes off the rails is in criticizing Kennedy for doing research on the Internet. Why not criticize him for using Lexis and Westlaw while he was at it? To be sure, appellate judges generally should not do an independent investigation of the facts of the case. But judges properly take judicial notice of relevant facts they discover through independent inquiry, cases and other legal authorities they find on their own, and so on. Unless DeLay can show that Kennedy is using the Internet to do an improper investigation of the facts of specific cases before him, this comment transcends mere asininity and achieves true imbecility.

DeLay has become an embarrassment to the Conservative movement. (Far more so than Newt ever was, in my book.) It's time to throw him to the wolves.

The Link can be found here.

Professor Bainbridge on Tom DeLay

Tom DeLay

Is the enemy of my enemy necessarily my friend? I don't have much in common with or much use for most of Tom DeLay's critics, but I have to admit that the dude has always creeped me out a little. Now, however, he seems to have gone beyond the bend:

"Absolutely. We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous," DeLay told Fox News Radio on Tuesday. "And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous." (Link)

There are legitimate questions about the extent to which judges ought to resort to foreign law when interpreting US law, especially the Constitution, but is Delay trying to say that one foreign law is always irrelevant even if invoked solely by way of analogy? If so, that strikes me as just silly. Consider Justice Bradley's dissent in the Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36, all the way back in 1872:

The people of this country brought with them to its shores the rights of Englishmen; the rights which had been wrested from English sovereigns at various periods of the nation's history. One of these fundamental rights was expressed in these words, found in Magna Charta: 'No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him or condemn him but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.' English constitutional writers expound this article as rendering life, liberty, and property inviolable, except by due process of law. This is the very right which the plaintiffs in error claim in this case. Another of these rights was that of habeas corpus, or the right of having any invasion of personal liberty judicially examined into, at once, by a competent judicial magistrate. Blackstone classifies these fundamental rights under three heads, as the absolute rights of individuals, to wit: the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property. And of the last he says: 'The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of property, which consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution save only by the laws of the land.'

Would DeLay really dare claim that it is "outrageous" for a Supreme Court Justice to thus consider Magna Charta in trying understanding the rights of Americans?

(I'll grant you that one might interestingly speculate on the extent to which a culture warrior like Delay really is fighting an older anti-English battle, but that's the sort of speculation about which I tend to blog only after a nice bottle of claret and a bit of port.)

In any event, where Delay really goes off the rails is in criticizing Kennedy for doing research on the Internet. Why not criticize him for using Lexis and Westlaw while he was at it? To be sure, appellate judges generally should not do an independent investigation of the facts of the case. But judges properly take judicial notice of relevant facts they discover through independent inquiry, cases and other legal authorities they find on their own, and so on. Unless DeLay can show that Kennedy is using the Internet to do an improper investigation of the facts of specific cases before him, this comment transcends mere asininity and achieves true imbecility.

DeLay has become an embarrassment to the Conservative movement. (Far more so than Newt ever was, in my book.) It's time to throw him to the wolves.

The Link can be found here.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page on The Bolton Nomination Fight...

"Pardon us for breaking up the mock horror, but someone has to point out that what's going on here isn't 'advise and consent' but character assassination.

. . .

"This late political hit was dropped on the committee and leaked to the media only after Mr. Bolton had testified and before he could offer any response. But even if it were true, if raising your voice and pounding on doors is disqualifying for public service half of the Senate will have to resign. If Mr. Voinovich's 'conscience' is outraged by anything, it should be that a nominee of his President is being treated in such a shameful fashion."

Drama Much?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page on The Bolton Nomination Fight...

"Pardon us for breaking up the mock horror, but someone has to point out that what's going on here isn't 'advise and consent' but character assassination.

. . .

"This late political hit was dropped on the committee and leaked to the media only after Mr. Bolton had testified and before he could offer any response. But even if it were true, if raising your voice and pounding on doors is disqualifying for public service half of the Senate will have to resign. If Mr. Voinovich's 'conscience' is outraged by anything, it should be that a nominee of his President is being treated in such a shameful fashion."

Drama Much?

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Dick Cheney, King of the Senate...

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney warned Democrats Friday that he will cast the tie-breaking vote to ban filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees if the Senate deadlocks on the question.

Republicans are moving the Senate toward a final confrontation with Democrats over judicial nominations. Internal GOP polling shows that most Americans don't support Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's plan to ban judicial filibusters - a tactic in which opponents can prevent a vote on a nomination with just 41 votes in the 100-member Senate.

"There is no justification for allowing the blocking of nominees who are well qualified and broadly supported," Cheney told the Republican National Lawyers Association. "The tactics of the last few years, I believe, are inexcusable."

"Let me emphasize, the decision about how to proceed will be made by the Republican leadership in the Senate," Cheney said. "But if the Senate majority decides to move forward and if the issue is presented to me in my elected office as president of the Senate and presiding officer, I will support bringing those nominations to the floor for an up or down vote."

I say go for it. This plan to eliminate the filibuster is wildly unpopular, and it will only hurt the Republicans. A large marjority of the country simply thinks it's dangerous for this radical faction that has taken control of the Republican Party to have unchecked power in the Senate. So, let Dick Cheney cozy right up to this publicly.

There are only to endings to this. The Republicans will either lose this fight, which would be bad for them, or they will win. Trust me. The wrath of the elctorate will be unleashed on them at the ballot box in 06. I don't think they realize how rapidly the sky is falling.

It's really simple. Normal people are afraid of what this group will do with unchecked power in the Senate. That's right, people are AFRAID.

They are right to be afraid.

James Dobson and the Family Research Council gp so far on their website as to claim that the world is not facing an overpopulation problem, but rather a depopulation problem. Let's look at their proposed solution.

What does this mean for the twenty-first century? For reasons of social and cultural health, national security, and economic growth, it is time to recraft American population policy for a new century and a new reality.

The most important steps are philosophical, in the realm of ideas. The current administration would do the nation a great service by repudiating NSSM #200 as well as the report of the old Commission on Population Growth and the American Future. They should both be labeled as out of date, misleading, irrelevant. In their place, the current administration could articulate new principles on which a twenty-first century American population policy might be built in both the domestic and foreign spheres.

These principles might include:

· The United States of America holds the family to be the fundamental social unit, inscribed in human nature, and centered on the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a covenant of marriage for the purposes of propagating and rearing children, sharing intimacy and resources, and conserving lineage and tradition.

· The United States of America recognizes that strong families commonly rest on religiously grounded morality systems, which deserve autonomy and respect as vital aspects of civil society.

· The United States of America views large families, created responsibly through marriage, as special gifts to their societies deserving affirmation and encouragement.

· The United States of America recognizes that human progress --social, cultural, and economic--depends on the renewal of human population. Moderate population growth is in the nation's best interest.

· And the United States of America underscores that the demographic problem facing the twenty-first century is depopulation, not overpopulation.

The Republican Party has been hijacked by the radical right, who have agreed to allow them to run their scorched earth foreign policy and their corporate cronyism, as long as Dobson and his ilk are allowed to control the social agenda.

Remeber what they tell you: Liberals are waging a war on people of faith, and 2+2=5.

I leave you with a single thought.

If you accept his assumptions, even a madman sounds reasonable."
---Proverb of uncertain origin, possibly Russian

Don't listen to Big Brother. Decide for yourself who the enemy is and revolt by visiting your nearest polling place.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

By the way, if Scott McClelan is supposed to be the voice of Big Brother? If he is, they sure as hell picked a big ole pansy.

Dick Cheney, King of the Senate...

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney warned Democrats Friday that he will cast the tie-breaking vote to ban filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees if the Senate deadlocks on the question.

Republicans are moving the Senate toward a final confrontation with Democrats over judicial nominations. Internal GOP polling shows that most Americans don't support Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's plan to ban judicial filibusters - a tactic in which opponents can prevent a vote on a nomination with just 41 votes in the 100-member Senate.

"There is no justification for allowing the blocking of nominees who are well qualified and broadly supported," Cheney told the Republican National Lawyers Association. "The tactics of the last few years, I believe, are inexcusable."

"Let me emphasize, the decision about how to proceed will be made by the Republican leadership in the Senate," Cheney said. "But if the Senate majority decides to move forward and if the issue is presented to me in my elected office as president of the Senate and presiding officer, I will support bringing those nominations to the floor for an up or down vote."

I say go for it. This plan to eliminate the filibuster is wildly unpopular, and it will only hurt the Republicans. A large marjority of the country simply thinks it's dangerous for this radical faction that has taken control of the Republican Party to have unchecked power in the Senate. So, let Dick Cheney cozy right up to this publicly.

There are only to endings to this. The Republicans will either lose this fight, which would be bad for them, or they will win. Trust me. The wrath of the elctorate will be unleashed on them at the ballot box in 06. I don't think they realize how rapidly the sky is falling.

It's really simple. Normal people are afraid of what this group will do with unchecked power in the Senate. That's right, people are AFRAID.

They are right to be afraid.

James Dobson and the Family Research Council gp so far on their website as to claim that the world is not facing an overpopulation problem, but rather a depopulation problem. Let's look at their proposed solution.

What does this mean for the twenty-first century? For reasons of social and cultural health, national security, and economic growth, it is time to recraft American population policy for a new century and a new reality.

The most important steps are philosophical, in the realm of ideas. The current administration would do the nation a great service by repudiating NSSM #200 as well as the report of the old Commission on Population Growth and the American Future. They should both be labeled as out of date, misleading, irrelevant. In their place, the current administration could articulate new principles on which a twenty-first century American population policy might be built in both the domestic and foreign spheres.

These principles might include:

· The United States of America holds the family to be the fundamental social unit, inscribed in human nature, and centered on the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a covenant of marriage for the purposes of propagating and rearing children, sharing intimacy and resources, and conserving lineage and tradition.

· The United States of America recognizes that strong families commonly rest on religiously grounded morality systems, which deserve autonomy and respect as vital aspects of civil society.

· The United States of America views large families, created responsibly through marriage, as special gifts to their societies deserving affirmation and encouragement.

· The United States of America recognizes that human progress --social, cultural, and economic--depends on the renewal of human population. Moderate population growth is in the nation's best interest.

· And the United States of America underscores that the demographic problem facing the twenty-first century is depopulation, not overpopulation.

The Republican Party has been hijacked by the radical right, who have agreed to allow them to run their scorched earth foreign policy and their corporate cronyism, as long as Dobson and his ilk are allowed to control the social agenda.

Remeber what they tell you: Liberals are waging a war on people of faith, and 2+2=5.

I leave you with a single thought.

If you accept his assumptions, even a madman sounds reasonable."
---Proverb of uncertain origin, possibly Russian

Don't listen to Big Brother. Decide for yourself who the enemy is and revolt by visiting your nearest polling place.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

By the way, if Scott McClelan is supposed to be the voice of Big Brother? If he is, they sure as hell picked a big ole pansy.

So that's why he gets to be UN Ambassador even though he's abusive and crazy...

Who's that recounter in the moustache? Oh, it's that violent crazy dude who doesn't believe in the United Nations, but thinks it would be pretty cool to work there anyway. You know, lots of lamps to throw at people.

Speaking of lamps, David Dreier was on Hardball tonight, and he says he knows people who throw things all the time, and the whole incident with Bolton throwing things at a subordinate who didn't want to change her reports to what he wanted to say is being blown WAY out of proportion.

Only in the Foothills of California could a gay Republican who has taken more overseas trips than Tom DeLay make such an absurd argument and still have no fear about getting re-elected. Well played, Congressman.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Thanks to Hunter over at Kos.

So that's why he gets to be UN Ambassador even though he's abusive and crazy...

Who's that recounter in the moustache? Oh, it's that violent crazy dude who doesn't believe in the United Nations, but thinks it would be pretty cool to work there anyway. You know, lots of lamps to throw at people.

Speaking of lamps, David Dreier was on Hardball tonight, and he says he knows people who throw things all the time, and the whole incident with Bolton throwing things at a subordinate who didn't want to change her reports to what he wanted to say is being blown WAY out of proportion.

Only in the Foothills of California could a gay Republican who has taken more overseas trips than Tom DeLay make such an absurd argument and still have no fear about getting re-elected. Well played, Congressman.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Thanks to Hunter over at Kos.

From the Diaries over at DailyKos...

I am reposting Pyewacket's Diary Entry wholesale here... He has succintly laid out exactly the problem with Dobson's Family Reasearch Council.

On March 17th and 18th, "The Family Research Council" headed by Tony Perkins hosted a conference in Washington attended by James Dobson founder of "Focus on the Family."  (How does the Religious Right keep all these "family" groups straight and is it a coincidence that la Cosa Nostra is alternately known as "La Famiglia"?)  This event was addressed by both Bill Frist and Tom DeLay.

Described as a "closed door" meeting, security was apparently limited to closing the doors because someone was wired...
The resultant tape found it's way to the advocacy group "Americans United for Separation of Church and State" who in turn handed it to the LA Times.

Evangelical Christian leaders, who have been working closely with senior Republican lawmakers to place conservative judges in the federal courts, have also been exploring ways to punish sitting jurists and even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause.

An audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times features two of the nation's most influential evangelical leaders, at a private conference with supporters, laying out strategies to rein in judges, such as stripping funding from their courts in an effort to hinder their work. [emphasis added]

Hold the phone!  I thought the courts were in crisis!  Benches vacant as demonic liberals held up appointments.  Justice not only blind but running wayyyyyy late.  Now the American Taliban wants to wipe out whole Circuits.

"Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise a court," Dobson said. "They don't have to fire anybody or impeach them or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit doesn't exist anymore, and it's gone. [emphasis added]"

Look, these guys want what's coming to them.

The remarks by Perkins and Dobson reflect the passion felt by Christians who helped fuel Bush's reelection last year with massive turnout in battleground states, and who also spurred Republican gains in the Senate and House.

Claiming a role by the movement in the GOP gains, Dobson concluded: "We've got a right to hold them accountable for what happens here."

Both leaders chastised what Perkins termed "squishy" and "weak" Republican senators who have not wholeheartedly endorsed ending Democrats' power to filibuster judicial nominees. They said these included moderates such as Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. They also grumbled that Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and George Allen of Virginia needed prodding.

"We need to shake these guys up," Perkins said.

Said Dobson: "Sometimes it's just amazing to me that they seem to forget how they got here." [emphasis added]

Dobson goes on to claim victim status (as these guys always do when held accountable) behind the Sponge Bob Homopants controversy he brought upon himself.  It's the liberal press trying to tear him down, you see.  And they're not done yet.  In a stunning example of self-fulfilling prophecy, he laments:  

"This will not be the last thing that you read about that makes me look ridiculous."

The Times article tends to focus on Dobson and Perkins.  The Americans United website, though, has Frist and DeLay's addresses on streaming audio.  They introduce them this way:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) addressed attendees and pledged that Republican leaders in Congress would work to implement the Religious Right's controversial political agenda.

Give a listen.

These people want a Theocracy, and after 25 years of electing Republicans to office and watching them cater to corporate interestes above those of the Radical Christian Right they are calling the bill due.

It's time to fight them, because the current leadership of the Republican Party will allow themselves to be morhphed into the "American Taliban" just to hang on to power. It's time to act.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

From the Diaries over at DailyKos...

I am reposting Pyewacket's Diary Entry wholesale here... He has succintly laid out exactly the problem with Dobson's Family Reasearch Council.

On March 17th and 18th, "The Family Research Council" headed by Tony Perkins hosted a conference in Washington attended by James Dobson founder of "Focus on the Family."  (How does the Religious Right keep all these "family" groups straight and is it a coincidence that la Cosa Nostra is alternately known as "La Famiglia"?)  This event was addressed by both Bill Frist and Tom DeLay.

Described as a "closed door" meeting, security was apparently limited to closing the doors because someone was wired...
The resultant tape found it's way to the advocacy group "Americans United for Separation of Church and State" who in turn handed it to the LA Times.

Evangelical Christian leaders, who have been working closely with senior Republican lawmakers to place conservative judges in the federal courts, have also been exploring ways to punish sitting jurists and even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause.

An audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times features two of the nation's most influential evangelical leaders, at a private conference with supporters, laying out strategies to rein in judges, such as stripping funding from their courts in an effort to hinder their work. [emphasis added]

Hold the phone!  I thought the courts were in crisis!  Benches vacant as demonic liberals held up appointments.  Justice not only blind but running wayyyyyy late.  Now the American Taliban wants to wipe out whole Circuits.

"Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise a court," Dobson said. "They don't have to fire anybody or impeach them or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit doesn't exist anymore, and it's gone. [emphasis added]"

Look, these guys want what's coming to them.

The remarks by Perkins and Dobson reflect the passion felt by Christians who helped fuel Bush's reelection last year with massive turnout in battleground states, and who also spurred Republican gains in the Senate and House.

Claiming a role by the movement in the GOP gains, Dobson concluded: "We've got a right to hold them accountable for what happens here."

Both leaders chastised what Perkins termed "squishy" and "weak" Republican senators who have not wholeheartedly endorsed ending Democrats' power to filibuster judicial nominees. They said these included moderates such as Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. They also grumbled that Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and George Allen of Virginia needed prodding.

"We need to shake these guys up," Perkins said.

Said Dobson: "Sometimes it's just amazing to me that they seem to forget how they got here." [emphasis added]

Dobson goes on to claim victim status (as these guys always do when held accountable) behind the Sponge Bob Homopants controversy he brought upon himself.  It's the liberal press trying to tear him down, you see.  And they're not done yet.  In a stunning example of self-fulfilling prophecy, he laments:  

"This will not be the last thing that you read about that makes me look ridiculous."

The Times article tends to focus on Dobson and Perkins.  The Americans United website, though, has Frist and DeLay's addresses on streaming audio.  They introduce them this way:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) addressed attendees and pledged that Republican leaders in Congress would work to implement the Religious Right's controversial political agenda.

Give a listen.

These people want a Theocracy, and after 25 years of electing Republicans to office and watching them cater to corporate interestes above those of the Radical Christian Right they are calling the bill due.

It's time to fight them, because the current leadership of the Republican Party will allow themselves to be morhphed into the "American Taliban" just to hang on to power. It's time to act.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

The Liberal Media...

That bastion of left wing liberalism, Comrade Charles Krauthammer* goes after the bad guys.

From Friday's Washington Post:

Provocation is no excuse for derangement. And there has been plenty of provocation: decades of an imperial judiciary unilaterally legislating radical social change on the flimsiest of constitutional pretexts. But while that may explain, it does not justify the flailing, sometimes delirious attacks on the judiciary mounted by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others in the wake of the Terri Schiavo case.

DeLay is threatening judges involved in that case with unspecified retribution. He said that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy should be held "accountable" for using international law in deciding a recent (death penalty) case. He wants congressional hearings to reinterpret the "good behavior" clause of lifetime judicial tenure to make good behavior mean not what it has meant for two centuries -- honesty and propriety -- but good constitutional behavior. Do we really want Congress deciding that?

DeLay is wrong about the Schiavo case. I think the law was a bad law, but the trial judge applied it properly. I think the judge assessed the medical evidence incorrectly, but that is a matter of interpretation, not of judicial impropriety or denial of due process. There is nothing here with which to threaten this judge or the judicial system.

But at least DeLay was coherent. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) wandered somewhere off the Pacific Coast Highway when, on the Senate floor, he suggested a connection between "some recent episodes of courthouse violence" and judicial activism -- as if courtroom gunmen are disappointed scholars who kill in the name of Borkian originalism. Even worse was a Washington meeting of over-the-top activists led by Phyllis Schlafly that issued a manifesto for the restoration of God to our constitutional system.

Go right now. Read the rest.

The S.S. Delay is starting to sink, and I don't think there are enough lifeboats to allow the house to maintain it's majority in 2006. And so it begins...

-The Oklahoma Hippy

*In case you weren't aware, Charles Krauthammer is one of the most conservative columnists writing for any major newspaper.

The Liberal Media...

That bastion of left wing liberalism, Comrade Charles Krauthammer* goes after the bad guys.

From Friday's Washington Post:

Provocation is no excuse for derangement. And there has been plenty of provocation: decades of an imperial judiciary unilaterally legislating radical social change on the flimsiest of constitutional pretexts. But while that may explain, it does not justify the flailing, sometimes delirious attacks on the judiciary mounted by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others in the wake of the Terri Schiavo case.

DeLay is threatening judges involved in that case with unspecified retribution. He said that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy should be held "accountable" for using international law in deciding a recent (death penalty) case. He wants congressional hearings to reinterpret the "good behavior" clause of lifetime judicial tenure to make good behavior mean not what it has meant for two centuries -- honesty and propriety -- but good constitutional behavior. Do we really want Congress deciding that?

DeLay is wrong about the Schiavo case. I think the law was a bad law, but the trial judge applied it properly. I think the judge assessed the medical evidence incorrectly, but that is a matter of interpretation, not of judicial impropriety or denial of due process. There is nothing here with which to threaten this judge or the judicial system.

But at least DeLay was coherent. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) wandered somewhere off the Pacific Coast Highway when, on the Senate floor, he suggested a connection between "some recent episodes of courthouse violence" and judicial activism -- as if courtroom gunmen are disappointed scholars who kill in the name of Borkian originalism. Even worse was a Washington meeting of over-the-top activists led by Phyllis Schlafly that issued a manifesto for the restoration of God to our constitutional system.

Go right now. Read the rest.

The S.S. Delay is starting to sink, and I don't think there are enough lifeboats to allow the house to maintain it's majority in 2006. And so it begins...

-The Oklahoma Hippy

*In case you weren't aware, Charles Krauthammer is one of the most conservative columnists writing for any major newspaper.

Best Daily Show Segment Ever...

Go watch it now.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Best Daily Show Segment Ever...

Go watch it now.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Capitulation to special interests knows no bounds…

From the Palm Beach Post:

Feds' weather information could go dark
By Robert P. King
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Do you want a seven-day weather forecast for your ZIP code? Or hour-by-hour predictions of the temperature, wind speed, humidity and chance of rain? Or weather data beamed to your cellphone?

That information is available for free from the National Weather Service.

But under a bill pending in the U.S. Senate, it might all disappear.

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.

Supporters say the bill wouldn't hamper the weather service or the National Hurricane Center from alerting the public to hazards — in fact, it exempts forecasts meant to protect "life and property."

But critics say the bill's wording is so vague they can't tell exactly what it would ban.

"I believe I've paid for that data once. ... I don't want to have to pay for it again," said Scott Bradner, a technical consultant at Harvard University.

He says that as he reads the bill, a vast amount of federal weather data would be forced offline.

"The National Weather Service Web site would have to go away," Bradner said. "What would be permitted under this bill is not clear — it doesn't say. Even including hurricanes."

Really? This is really what we're talking about? We want to remove public access to information on the weather, information which was gathered using our tax money, so The Weather Channel can sell more ads on their website?

What the hell is going on in Congress?


-The Oklahoma Hippy

Click the link above to read the rest of the story.

Capitulation to special interests knows no bounds…

From the Palm Beach Post:

Feds' weather information could go dark
By Robert P. King
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Do you want a seven-day weather forecast for your ZIP code? Or hour-by-hour predictions of the temperature, wind speed, humidity and chance of rain? Or weather data beamed to your cellphone?

That information is available for free from the National Weather Service.

But under a bill pending in the U.S. Senate, it might all disappear.

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.

Supporters say the bill wouldn't hamper the weather service or the National Hurricane Center from alerting the public to hazards — in fact, it exempts forecasts meant to protect "life and property."

But critics say the bill's wording is so vague they can't tell exactly what it would ban.

"I believe I've paid for that data once. ... I don't want to have to pay for it again," said Scott Bradner, a technical consultant at Harvard University.

He says that as he reads the bill, a vast amount of federal weather data would be forced offline.

"The National Weather Service Web site would have to go away," Bradner said. "What would be permitted under this bill is not clear — it doesn't say. Even including hurricanes."

Really? This is really what we're talking about? We want to remove public access to information on the weather, information which was gathered using our tax money, so The Weather Channel can sell more ads on their website?

What the hell is going on in Congress?


-The Oklahoma Hippy

Click the link above to read the rest of the story.

Say it isn't so, Hammer...

I regret to inform everyone that Rep. Tom DeLay, despite all assurances to the contrary, is a Galactic Scale Hypocrite. I know this comes as a great shock to everyone, but we will get through it together.

From Joe Conason's Column at Salon:

"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know...I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure, not isolation."

That populist polemic was delivered on the House floor in November 1995 by well-known reformer Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Now nationally notorious for his own lobbyist-paid luxury trips to Scotland, Russia and South Korea, among other places, where he has been wined and dined by a bewildering variety of special-interest groups, the House majority leader is no longer quite so strict about full disclosure, either. Even the trait often described as his most admirable -- his concern for abused children -- has been tainted by his penchant for backroom influence peddling.

Go read the rest of the column. It's great stuff.

You can search for the quote yourself if you would like. Go to thomas.loc.gov and search for it there in the Congressional Record of the 104th Congress.

Thanks to Salon.com, DavidSirota.com, and Atrios.

Remember though, all of DeLay's problems are caused by the liberal media.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Say it isn't so, Hammer...

I regret to inform everyone that Rep. Tom DeLay, despite all assurances to the contrary, is a Galactic Scale Hypocrite. I know this comes as a great shock to everyone, but we will get through it together.

From Joe Conason's Column at Salon:

"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know...I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure, not isolation."

That populist polemic was delivered on the House floor in November 1995 by well-known reformer Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Now nationally notorious for his own lobbyist-paid luxury trips to Scotland, Russia and South Korea, among other places, where he has been wined and dined by a bewildering variety of special-interest groups, the House majority leader is no longer quite so strict about full disclosure, either. Even the trait often described as his most admirable -- his concern for abused children -- has been tainted by his penchant for backroom influence peddling.

Go read the rest of the column. It's great stuff.

You can search for the quote yourself if you would like. Go to thomas.loc.gov and search for it there in the Congressional Record of the 104th Congress.

Thanks to Salon.com, DavidSirota.com, and Atrios.

Remember though, all of DeLay's problems are caused by the liberal media.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Look what I found...

If you know me, then you know what this is. If you don't, then this wasn't meant for you.

This link contains something very interesting.

Tell me if that isn't who I think it is.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Look what I found...

If you know me, then you know what this is. If you don't, then this wasn't meant for you.

This link contains something very interesting.

Tell me if that isn't who I think it is.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Habemus papam...

Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus papam!

Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Joseph, Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem Ratzinger, qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedict XVI.

Habemus papam...

Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus papam!

Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Joseph, Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem Ratzinger, qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedict XVI.

Are the Federal Courts Liberal?

The Blog, A Liberal Stance on Politics gives us something rather interesting...

94 of the 162 active judges now on the U.S. Court of Appeals were chosen by Republican presidents.

Nixon: 1
Ford: 1
Reagan: 29
G.H.W. Bush: 29
G.W. Bush: 34

= 94 GOP appointed judges. 10 of the 13 circuit courts have Republican majorities.

The way the right is acting on this issue, you would think that all of these Judges were went to Berkley Law School and attended the same class on "How to Hate Christ from the Federal Bench" that would have been taught from a text written by Satan.

Give me a break.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

Are the Federal Courts Liberal?

The Blog, A Liberal Stance on Politics gives us something rather interesting...

94 of the 162 active judges now on the U.S. Court of Appeals were chosen by Republican presidents.

Nixon: 1
Ford: 1
Reagan: 29
G.H.W. Bush: 29
G.W. Bush: 34

= 94 GOP appointed judges. 10 of the 13 circuit courts have Republican majorities.

The way the right is acting on this issue, you would think that all of these Judges were went to Berkley Law School and attended the same class on "How to Hate Christ from the Federal Bench" that would have been taught from a text written by Satan.

Give me a break.

-The Oklahoma Hippy

TIME's profile of the relationship between DeLay and Abramoff...

From TIME Magazine:

It was congress's holiday for memorial Day 2000, and majority whip Tom DeLay's staff thought the boss and two top aides deserved a respite from the arduous hours they had been putting in doing the people's business. They wanted to make sure DeLay's little delegation had the finest of everything on its weeklong trip to Britain—from lodgings at the Four Seasons Hotel in London to dinners at the poshest restaurants with the most interesting people, right down to the best tickets for The Lion King—at the time, one of the hottest shows playing on the West End and one for which good seats usually meant a six-month wait. So DeLay's congressional office turned to someone they trusted far more than any travel agent or concierge: lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "He ran all the trips," recalls a former top DeLay aide. "You ask where the itineraries came from, who made all the travel arrangements—it all came out of Jack's shop."

Previous trips had taken DeLay and members of his staff all over the world, but none had been planned quite as meticulously as this one.

Three sources who worked with Abramoff at the time say the majority whip's office ran one of Abramoff's assistants ragged with its constantly changing requests. Indeed, say two of those sources, the whole idea for the expensive London jaunt originated with DeLay aides as an additional stop on a golf outing that Abramoff had proposed to Scotland's famous St. Andrews course.

Abramoff delivered on virtually everything DeLay's staff requested.

"Jack didn't need this to go awry," recalls a lobbyist who then worked with Abramoff at the Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds law firm and who notes that the trip came at a critical moment. Congress was considering legislation (which died a month after the trip) that might have shut down Internet gambling—and jeopardized the livelihoods of some of Abramoff's biggest clients. Two of them—a Choctaw Indian tribe and the Internet gambling company eLottery Inc.—each wrote a check for $25,000 on May 25, 2000, the day DeLay departed, to the sponsor of the trip, the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative nonprofit foundation on whose board Abramoff sat. Those checks would cover most of the cost of the $70,000 junket. Sponsorship by the center made the trip allowable under House ethics rules, which prohibit lobbyists from paying for congressional travel.

Yet the flurry of demands by DeLay's staff to Abramoff's lobbying operation call into question whether DeLay's office really believed the trip was, in fact, "sponsored, organized and paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research," as DeLay spokesman Dan Allen maintained when the Washington Post first reported the indirect financing arrangement last month. What's more, if the idea for and details of the London leg originated with DeLay's office, that raises questions about possible violations of a House rule governing gifts and travel. The rule allows members to accept gifts, under limited circumstances, but not to solicit them. Allen told TIME he would not comment on any dealings between DeLay's staff and Abramoff unless TIME revealed its sources or provided documentary evidence.

DeLay insists all of his problems are caused by "The Liberal Media."

This of course is just nonsense. Tom DeLay is the cause of Tom DeLay's problems. He has called reports about the nature of his relationship of with Jack Abramoff an attempt by a "Left Wing Conspiracy" to topple the conservative movement.

I'm not sure that argument will fly, especially since the Republicans have been pimping the notion that Democrats are worse than the keystone cops at organization or having a message. "Kerry is a Flip-Flopper" and all of that. When did we Democrats suddenly become so media savy and skillful that a "Left Wing Conspiracy" could come anywhere close to toppling the Prince of Darkness?

DeLay needs to look in to that Bible he uses as a political prop and find the following.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7 KJV)

Nifty little passage isn't it?


What I still cannot fathom are the conservatives who rushed to stand by him:

The meeting was organized by Perkins; Edwin J. Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation; and David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. Keene said he told the attendees: "If we are a serious movement, we cannot allow one of our own to be attacked."

"Keene said the leaders will show their solidarity by announcing this week that they are holding a tribute dinner for DeLay on May 12 at the Capital Hilton, complete with a film "summation of what Tom has done for conservatives." Keene said 1,000 people are expected, and tickets will be about $200."

Wow, $200,000 for DeLay.

What did Jack Abramoff have to say about the whole thing?

This, according to Newsweek:

Everybody is lying," Abramoff told a former colleague. There are e-mails and records that will implicate others, he said. He was noticeably caustic about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. For years, nobody on Washington's K Street corridor was closer to DeLay than Abramoff. They were an unlikely duo. DeLay, a conservative Christian, and Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, traveled the world together and golfed the finest courses. Abramoff raised hundreds of thousands for DeLay's political causes and hired DeLay's aides, or kicked them business, when they left his employ. But now DeLay, too, has problems -in part because of overseas trips allegedly paid for by Abramoff's clients. In response, DeLay and his aides have said repeatedly they were unaware of Abramoff's behind-the-scenes financing role. "Those S.O.B.s," Abramoff said last week about DeLay and his staffers, according to his luncheon companion. "DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details."

The refusal of most of his fellow house members to speak out against him is pathetic.

DeLay is everything the Republicans campaigned against leading up to the Republican Revolution of Congress in 1994.

The poll numbers continue to show that this "revolution" may finally have outstayed it's welcome.

Never one to underestimate the Republican's discipline in the areas of Message and Spin, I am not yet counting them out, but I do wait in fascination as they regroup and figure out a way to make once again blame Democrats for all that is happening around them.

-The Oklahoma Hippy