Watership Down

Every once in a while I'm reminded

why I love the internet:

I used to worry that, if the Republicans were driven out of Washington, utterly defeated, that the crazy would all dry up and I would have to find a new hobby.  I now believe my fears were unfounded.  The meltdown shall be glorious.

… A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS!!

Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about this bunny’s family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Well, time to get reading:

But I don't think so. Rather, I think Gates cares about personal accountability, especially where such things like nuclear weapons are concerned. And he wanted to send a strong message to the Air Force (and the other services as well) that leaders will be held accountable for their performance and that of their troops.

Update: Noah Shachtman adds a bunch of context to the story over at Danger Room. And Moira Whelan notes some of the institutional details at Democracy Arsenal of how Gates carried out today's terminations.

File under, duh:

For more than a century -- from the founding of the Republican Party through the war in Vietnam -- Republican leaders consistently supported high wartime taxes. Indeed, support for higher wartime taxes was a defining feature of being a military hawk among the GOP faithful.

Stop the stupid

Hopefully Stephen Elliot just got the quote wrong in this post, but seriously this guy has a JD?

A local lawyer who volunteers for Florida Democrats said, "The reason the Republicans are against early voting is because they know no one would wait three hours to vote for John McCain."

Doesn't early voting make it less likely someone would have to wait in line 3 hours to vote for McCain?  The reason Republicans are against it, is orchestrated (sometimes justifiably, based upon past turnout) machine and staff shortages in precincts that tend to vote Democratic, meaning they have to take possibly several hours out of their busy day in order to vote.  Duh!

Update:  So I thought about this more, and I'm teh stup1d.  It was early voting lines that one would have to wait hours in, and few would do that for McCain.  Counties likely to go for McCain would have plenty of polling places, machines, and staff on Nov. 4th.

Why McCain won't go there (but hopes his surrogates do)

Because John McCain's ties to Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi are far tighter than Barack Obama's to Tony Rezko.

Republicans' no-bid Contract with America

When greed rules congress:

The Army announced yesterday plans to distribute 230,000 side-protecting armor inserts to troops in Iraq over the next year amid growing criticism that the Pentagon has delayed life-saving upgrades to body armor.

Last year, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office found that 80 percent of the Marines who died of torso wounds from March 2003 to June 2005 in Iraq may have lived if their vests contained additional protection for the sides, arms and neck.

It took Republicans 3 years to fix this problem  Did it take them 3 years to rip the government off?

Wash, rinse, repeat

Secret bids to spend more than $680 million dollars in tax-payer money, sounds familiar:

Yet some key Iraq contracts already were bid secretly, or on a sole-source basis, to companies with strong ties to the Bush administration. These included a $1.39 billion contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton, an energy giant formerly chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Another $680 million contract for Iraq's power grid, water system, and airport facilities went to Bechtel Group Inc., after a secret bidding process. Together, the six companies invited to bid on the Bechtel contract contributed $3.6 million to federal election campaigns, two-thirds to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Democrats call it favoritism, collusion, and even war profiteering.

So do I.

Facts about healthcare

Being one of those 47 million is not fun:

Although nearly 47 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.

National surveys show that the primary reason people are uninsured is the high cost of health insurance coverage.

Ditto

Big Tent Democrat:

But those of you voicing the idea that Kos would fiddle with polls are being just plain stupid. I would stake my own reputation on Markos' integrity. I disagree with him a lot. But he would never ever fudge the numbers.

You know what annoys me?

is how often people don't remove their lint from dryers or check the lint trap before drying.  Not only is it a fire hazard, but wastes electricity, quarters, and time.  I've been using community dryers for the last couple years and believe me there are people who just run the dryers without checking the lint trap, making the rest of us wait while their clothes dry slower and slower.

I like to reuse my lint for plant-potting material.

Dryer balls definitely save  time and energy, while softening your clothes --well worth the 10 bucks (you can find them at Walgreens too).