Let me introduce you to the Congressman Earnest J. Istook. As you may or may not have heard on the news, he’s the one responsible for the 9/11 Intelligence Reform bill getting stalled in Congress, because he inserted a last-minute amendment that would allow legislators the power to look at your tax returns. Sure, there’s more to this story than meets the eye, but the most relevant fact here right now is that this man wants to take advantage 9/11 in order to sneak big brother into your lives :

This man is a hypocrite.

Since phone calls to our representatives generally fall on deaf ears, let me try another approach. Ernie represents Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional district :



As you can see by the map, the three largest cities in Istook’s district are Oklahoma City, Shawnee, and Edmond. Are the people in these cities fully aware of what their Congressional surrogate is up to? Just in case they don’t, feel free to contact his constituents directly through letters or phone calls to the editors of the Daily Oklahoman, the Shawnee News-Star, and the Edmund Sun or through the local NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX affiliates. If you’d like to hit all these media outlets at the same time, try using the Democratic party’s “Alert the Media” page.

Istook is yet another example of the “What I say at home, stays at home” mentality that controls Congress. He pats himself on the back for being “the taxpayer’s friend” by supporting a balanced budget amendment, but he pats himself on the back for all the government pork he’s brought to his district and supports the president’s tax cuts that are mostly responsible for our record deficit and massive spending cuts. He ran as a “common sense conservative” while promising “integrity”, yet he’s sneaking provisions into a bill that’s a crucial part of our country’s efforts to protect ourselves. The people of Oklahoma deserve to know what kind of back-room sleaziness is being done on their behalf.

UPDATE : Okay, I screwed this one up. The provision was stuck into the $388 billion appropriations bill, not the intelligence overhaul bill. In my defense, I’ve been so hopped up on NyQuil for the past week, it’s hard to keep up with the latest twists in the GOP’s brazen abuse of the public’s trust.

I can’t think of a more appropriate word to describe this sort of thing than “fascist” :

It’s easy to forget how radical a document the U.S. Constitution really is. It demands no oath of fealty to the president or even to God. Officeholders swear instead to uphold the strange, ambiguous, open-to-interpretation document that is the Constitution itself. This is a radical notion because it allows for individual judgments about what that Constitution means?and recognizes that sorting that meaning out can sometimes be a messy business.

It’s worth recalling all this, as we are reminded yet again that neither individual judgment nor messiness seems to be tolerated by the current administration. Sen. Arlen Specter saved his seat as the next chairman of the senate Judiciary Committee by signing a pledge?a pledge that had to be drafted, then redrafted to the specifications of the GOP leadership. Specter had the temerity to offer a descriptive statement after the election?not on its face a warning or a normative declaration of his own intentions, but the obvious observation that “When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, who’d overturn Roe v. Wade, I think [their confirmation] is unlikely,” he said. “The president is well aware of what happened, when a number of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster.” He has said that whether or not he’d vote to confirm judicial nominees “obviously depends on the president’s judicial nominees. … I hope that I can support them.”

Following the firestorm, the pray-in, the retractions, and the bloodletting, Specter’s endorsement could come only after he’d agreed, in writing, to “not use a litmus test to deny confirmation to pro-life nominees” and that he had “no reason to believe that I’ll be unable to support any individual President Bush finds worthy of nomination.” Over his initial objections, he further pledged to support the so-called “nuclear option” to put an end to filibusters: “If a rule change is necessary to avoid filibusters, there are relevant recent precedents to secure rules changes with 51 votes,” he said.

Just to clarify: In order to claim the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter was forced to abandon future personal or independent judgment?the very judgment the people of Pennsylvania elected him to exercise. He has pledged?in advance of knowing who they are?to endorse the president’s judicial nominees and to vote for a highly controversial GOP rule change to end filibusters and effectively terminate dissent of any sort in the senate.

I wonder how many people realized that they were voting in a one-party state on Nov. 2nd?

John Kerry has released the video and online petition for this “Protect Every Child” bill. Go check it out and sign on today. Here’s an extended description from the site :

A Health Care Plan for Every Child:

Every parent knows the fear of waking up to the cries of a sick baby or a child with an ear infection that will not go away. As parents, we both remember the countless times we called that first pediatrician to get answers to every last question.

But far too many parents have another fear, on top of their child?s health. They worry that a sick child means financial ruin. There are more than eight million uninsured children in our nation. These children are less likely to get a routine checkup, or to get treatment for common ailments like asthma. They miss more days of school. It is a disgrace that eight million children lack health insurance in the richest nation on earth.

Our plan starts by providing health insurance for every child in America. Under the Kerry plan, the federal government will pay the full costs for the 20 million children in the Medicaid program. In return, we will ask states to expand coverage to children in families with higher incomes than are currently eligible, as well as low-income adults. This plan will expand coverage to millions of people and provide much needed relief for states that are struggling under persistent growing budgetary pressures.

The plan will also simplify the health care system so we can prevent children from falling through the cracks. Right now, there are millions of kids who are eligible for federal/state health insurance programs but are not signed up.

There are lots of reasons?sometimes the enrollment forms require the skills of an accountant to figure out. Some states make parents sign up every six months in person, making it virtually impossible for a parent who cannot get time of for afford to lose a whole day of work. Some parents do not even know these programs are available.

Under our plan, kids will be signed up automatically at hospitals, community health centers, and schools. And $5 billion in enrollment bonuses will be available to states as an incentive to find uninsured children and keep them covered. Children do not choose their parents. They do not choose whether to have health insurance. Children deserve a good start?with both high quality education and health care. Under our plan, every child in America will have health insurance, and every parent will have a little more peace of mind.

Let’s hope this is the start of something big and not just a last hurrah for the campaign.

Since it doesn’t seem to be online, you can read the full transcript of Kerry’s statement in the extended entry…
(more…)

So here’s a question for you : Is this an article about a popular television show or the death penalty?

Ray Krone, wrongly convicted twice of killing a woman, is getting rid of a key piece of evidence used against him: his crooked smile.

The exonerated man, once dubbed the “Snaggletooth Killer” and sentenced to death, is getting a winning grin courtesy of the ABC reality show “Extreme Makeover.”

Krone will undergo extensive dental work, a hair transplant, an eye lift, nose job and liposuction on his cheeks. He will spend nearly two months recovering from surgery and meeting with a fitness trainer and nutritionist.

“It’s the embarrassment of being called the Snaggletooth Killer, living with that,” Krone, now lives in Dover Township, Pa., said in a telephone interview before leaving for California, where his cosmetic adventure began Thursday. “My teeth are what they really used to convict me.”
. . .
In 2002, new DNA testing proved Krone was innocent and he was freed. DNA from the crime scene was linked to a man already in prison for another crime.

Unfortunately, I think the best the “Snaggletooth Killer” can expect is to be a guest star on a very special episode of “Fixing Ugly People”. We can’t let people know that there’s any problems with the way capital punishment is administered in this country. He’s an exception that proves the rule, right?

John Kerry will be issuing the following statement today (via Atrios) :

And we must fight not only against George Bush’s extreme policies — we must also uphold our own values. This is why on the first day Congress is in session next year, I will introduce a bill to provide every child in America with health insurance. And, with your help, that legislation will be accompanied by the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

There are more than eight million uninsured children in our nation.

That’s eight million reasons for us to stay together and fight for a new direction. It is a disgrace that in the wealthiest nation on earth, eight million children go without health insurance.

Normally, a member of the senate will first approach other senators and ask them to co-sponsor a bill before it is introduced — instead, I am turning to you. Imagine the power of a bill co-sponsored by hundreds of thousands of Americans being presented on the floor of the United States senate. You can make it happen. Sign our “Every Child Protected” pledge today and forward it to your family, friends, and neighbors…

It’s about goddamn time the Democrats started coming up with some wedge issues. I can’t wait to see the President try to explain why poor children don’t deserve healthcare.

Oh yeah, that’s why I’m a Democrat. Amid all this losing, I’d almost forgotten. Thanks for the excellent reminder, Oliver.

In the interest of equal time, here’s my suggestion for the Republicans :



Now that’s what I call a big tent.

For all of you out there who embrace “traditional values”, here’s some good news for you. It’s been exactly one year since the Massachusetts Supreme Court struck down the ban on gay marriage. Why is that good news?

The rates of divorce, incest, rape, and abortion haven’t gone up as a result of the ruling.

It’s still illegal to have sex with a dog.

You won the goddamn election.

The rivers aren’t flowing with the blood of sinners. (or is that bad news?)

It’s still legal to read the Bible, go to church, and love Jesus with all your heart.

And you guys thought gay marriage would harm society…

So let’s put all this gay marriage amendment malarkey behind us so we can concentrate on some real issues, okay? Besides, if Jesus comes back tomorrow, do you really want want to leave him with the impression you’ve got nothing better to do than try to keep people from loving each other??

Question of the day : Do you trust any politician that says they want to simplify our tax code? It wouldn’t be so complicated in the first place if it weren’t for….you guessed it, politicians. This isn’t a liberal/conservative issue, it’s about the way our political process is designed to keep our representatives obliged to give their campaign contributors “a seat at the table”.

Let’s say for a moment that Bush and his allies were actually able to junk the tax code completely and replace it with a flat tax and a national sales tax. How long do you think that would last before the first tax deductions start showing up? Within months, you’d see favored industries get around the sales tax as a way to “create jobs” or a tax credit for those with higher-incomes to “invest” in some sort of shady education or medical account. With the floodgates open, we’d be on the slipperly slope the the same complicated system that they’re decrying now.

Then again, that’s probably the reason they’d give for backing off their plans for a complete overhaul of the tax code to something more gradual (via Kevin Drum) :

The Bush administration is eyeing an overhaul of the tax code that would drastically cut, if not eliminate, taxes on savings and investment, but it is unlikely to try to replace the existing tax code with a single flat income tax rate or a national sales tax, according to several sources familiar with ongoing tax deliberations.

During his reelection campaign, President Bush piqued interest among conservatives and liberals alike when he said replacing the income tax with a national sales tax was “an interesting idea.” Just after the election he signaled that tax policy would be a centerpiece of his domestic agenda, reiterating his pledge to name a bipartisan panel to draft a fundamental tax reform proposal. That sent conservatives scurrying into either the flat tax or sales tax camp to muster political momentum.

But before the tax panel is even named, administration officials have begun dialing back expectations that they will move to scrap the current graduated income tax for another system.

Instead the administration plans to push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capitals gains from taxation, expand tax breaks for business investment and take other steps intended to simplify the system and encourage economic growth, according to several people who are advising the White House or are familiar with the deliberations.

The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said.

“Revenue-neutral”…well, that’s one way to put it. I think a more accure description would be “Robin Hood-in-reverse”, since that’s what we’re really looking at here. I doubt you’d find many in the middle class who would see this as a revenue-neutral proposal after the tax hikes and potential loss of heathcare make it much harder for them to make ends meet.

How long will it take for us to find a leader who will embrace fiscal policies that respect work over wealth?

Self-appointed spokesperson for God, Franklin Graham, is in Los Angeles with his father for a four day revival meeting. In a radio interview with local station KPCC, he had this to say about Islam (it’s about 20 min into the clip) :

“Muslims can not practice true Islam in the United States. Our Constitution won’t allow them to practice true Islam here. You can’t have multiple wives, you can’t beat your wife…”

Perhaps someone should ask Mr. Graham if he agrees with the Bible that the adequate punishment for rape is 50 shekels or silver and forced marriage to the victim?

So here’s the rundown :

The Republicans in the House are changing the rules so their leaders can stay in power after being indicted for a crime.

The Russians are following Bush’s lead by announcing their plans to build new nuclear weapons.

John Kerry’s campaign has ended with an extra $15 million in the bank.

The Bush Administration is floating a proposal to end the tax deduction for companies that provide health insurance.

And on top of all that, I’ve got the fucking flu. I’m gonna take some NyQuil now….wake me up if they develop a political corruption vaccine.