Beyond Unacceptable

• It's the lead diary at Kos right now, and no wonder: Camp Pendleton families accepting donations of food. It's true, and it's not an isolated case. Follow the link. This should be a national story.


• To everyone's relief, Riverbend posted again, and she makes the most important point about the Lancet study of Iraqi deaths: what does it matter if 600,000 is twice the actual number -- how is 300,000 deaths acceptable?


• David Kuo, interviewed on Fresh Air yesterday, said that Chuck Colson -- back in the Nixon days -- observed that Evangelican Christians were the easiest group for the White House to influence/manipulate, and that he had decided that this was because they were the most succeptible to the lure of power.
  It's not true of everyone, but it is true some of the time. Once again, evidence that some folks are not reading their *New* Testament.

Interesting Timing

It's interesting that yesterday, John Edwards suddenly popped up on Kos with a "let's talk" diary, and today, Mark Warner has announced he's not going to run for President.

Is Wanting to Strangle The Christian Right a Sin?

AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!

I'm not screaming about whether or not Christian Right-ers want to blame the House leadership in addition to Mark Foley. I'm fine with anyone who wants to see "where the investigation" leads, though I think they're going to be disappointed.

What makes me stark. raving. nuts. about this article is the fact that -- failures, disappointments, and the blatant cynicism of this administration aside -- these people are *still* going to vote for the Republicans. The people in this article are going to get out of their chairs, go to the polls, and vote for "The Values Party." Gah!

Aside from the fact that Congress and the White House have played politics with the values issues, but done little else, there's the whole thing where our President and Vice President and their minions have started an unnecessary war, failed to follow-through on the "justified" one, killed many of our soldiers, killed thousands of innocent civilians, have authorized torture, and generally spat on the Constitution - which, if I've heard the Christian Right correctly (this being a "Christian nation"), should be considered sacrosanct.

I have a dear friend visiting me next week and I am going to have to completely avoid about 20 subjects because I have lost all ability to talk rationally with anyone who calls him- or herself a Christian and yet supports the actions of the current Republican Party.

:::goes outside for a primal scream session:::

Yikes.

Well, this makes it some kind of weird coincidence that I watched The Day After on SciFi this afternoon.

I saw the film when it first aired and haven't since. It suffers a bit from being dated, but what's striking is how it first appears to be a typical movie-of-the-week, and then crushes every movie-of-the-week cliche. The ending is as bleak as they come. All these years after the end of the Cold War, I still found it chilling.

How Do You Define Terrorist?

If you're an innocent person -- in fact, a respected person who has done enormous good for your country -- and one day, people come barreling into your home, handcuff your wife, and take you in for questioning...and after that you are barred from continuing to help your country and are treated like a suspect with no end in sight...who would you say is acting like terrorists?

Uh oh.

I hate articles like this; they're like the play-by-play guy announcing, "Not much chance of Jones missing this free throw!" Gah.

On the bright side, I loved Pelosi's "First 100 Hours" list. More like that, please.

Time to Go Dumpster Diving

Lookee what the White House threw out in the Friday news dump. Something smelly is getting smellier. Surely some news organization is picking through the trash and might have something for us before Nov. 7?

What's the Code Word for *This* Situation?

A week or so ago, GeorgeW started using this "comma" metaphor in his responses about Iraq, and a couple of saavy folks figured out that it was code to his right-wing religious supporters.

So what code does he use for the Foley/Hastert situation?

Bushco Vs. Science: Part 134

NPR had a story on this afternoon's ATC that is yet another example of a Bush administration official ignoring the scientists he asked for advice, and setting lower standards for soot emissions (while, I'm sure, making large corporations happy).

There's nothing to do, apparently, but wait for these despicable people to be booted out (and to work hard so that happens).

Random and Scheduled are Two Different Things, Right?

The horror of the Amish school shootings is too much to process, so I'm nitpicking the AP story. (I've already heard from people who had TVs on today that the coverage was predictably awful, with helicopters and newsvans invading the Amish community. If only they could give the same attention to, say, bills that gut our Constitution. But I digress.)

Anyway, I was reading the AP story and came across this section:

Miller said that Roberts had been scheduled to take a random drug test on Monday. But the officer said it was not clear what role that may have played in the attack.

Scheduled to take a random drug test? How does that work?

Atrios Walking Out on A Limb

Atrios is doing nuance re: the Foley incidents. Hasn't anyone told him that nuance doesn't belong in politics? Heaven forbid we all analyze the situation. If he wasn't, you know, Atrios, he might have to worry about getting slammed for that kind of talk.

Do I Care What Brings Them Down?

Well, it's a whole 3 or so days since our Congress voted to gut our Constitution, and as far as I can tell, everyone's moved on. Now, it's All About Foley. Kevin Drum has a good point: this is an easy-to-understand issue on which Republicans may very well be defeated, so why worry? Do I care what brings them down?

Well, yes. Because a populace that doesn't throw these bastards out for what they've already done, including the "complicated" stuff like Abramoff and habeas corpus, will let the next group of bastards get away with whatever they dream up.

I'm not going to complain if Foley turns out to be the border collie that herds the American voting sheep into the Democratic party column, but I'll pessimistic about any lasting improvements.

He's Like, 0 and 125,000, Right?

Aw...how nice. Rumsfeld Says He Has Bush's Confidence.

I don't suppose this could turn out to be like the owner's vote of confidence in the coach, huh? If only.

I think I was waiting for the country to hit bottom

I only blog for myself, and even so, I got so discouraged this summer that I had to stop. I was also in the midst of three huge projects and a cross-country move to a new job...but the lack of desire to blog was due to feeling beaten down. Beaten down by the relentless lies of this administration and their continuing to escape responsibility. Beaten down by DC Democrats who showed no spine and no imagination.

I think I was waiting for us all to hit bottom. And wow, did we ever. I crawled into bed for a day lest I meet anyone who did not find this as horrifying as I did -- and start screaming at them.

But this week, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe, that really was the nadir. Maybe, just maybe, we're on the way out of this morass. Even if leadership changes completely in Congress next month, we're still in a multitude of messes created by Bushco, but maybe someone in DC can start making some right, righteous, good decisions. It's been a very long time.