Off!

Tomorrow GT12 heads to Toledo in the newly Democratized state of Ohio.

Visit us on Monday when we should have something new to announce.

Damn!

The Finale was Classic Sorkin, Whitford and Perry and peak Hughley, Webber and Peet.

I laughed, I cried, I went 'aawww'

What Were They Waiting For?

Uh Oh

I only lasted an hour (Studio 60 Finale started at 9:00 PM) but was able to see that only Bill Richardson was less inspiring than Barack Obama and that Mike Gravel embraced one of my fave third-rail topics, Ending The Drug War.

BO's only notable contribution was the adamant assertion that he only got tested for HIV because he and his wife went to Kenya (where I guess you can pick it up from toilet seats), subtly reassuring the Howard crowd that he's no gay-boy.

Hilary was by far the most Presidential.

GT12 is contemplating going to an all Goth Rock Format as we slowly slip into a suicidal depression.

Sorry! Sorry!

`Spirit. are they yours?' Scrooge could say no more.

`They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. `And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom'

- Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

Without a doubt most of the evil done in the name of religion is evil born of ignorance. And good intentions only sweeten the brew. this is why Sam Harris rails against 'moderate believers'. He has a good point.

These guys owe alot of penance ...

3 former leaders of ex-gay ministry apologize
They cite psychological harm they caused gays as the ministry, Exodus International, meets in Irvine.

Three former leaders of Exodus International, often described as the nation's largest ex-gay ministry, publicly apologized Wednesday for the harm they said their efforts had caused many gays and lesbians who believed the group's message that sexual orientation could be changed through prayer.

...

Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families," the three, including former Exodus co-founder Michael Bussee, said in a joint written statement presented at the news conference. "Although we acted in good faith, we have since witnessed the isolation, shame, fear and loss of faith that this message creates."

Now a licensed family therapist in Riverside, Bussee left Exodus in 1979 after he fell in love with a man who was a fellow ex-gay counselor with the group. He speaks out frequently against ex-gay therapies.

"God's love and forgiveness does indeed change people," said Bussee, who remains an evangelical Christian. "It changed me. It just didn't make me straight."

Others speaking at Wednesday's news conference included Jeremy Marks, former president of Exodus International Europe, and Darlene Bogle, the founder and former director of Paraklete Ministries, an Exodus referral agency based in Hayward, Calif.

All three said they had known people who had tried to change their sexual orientation with the help of the group but had failed, often becoming depressed or even suicidal as a result.

What Does Your Moral Vision Cost?

Find Out here with this test. I'm not sure that John Edwards would be happy with me.

The Slowskys Are the New America (unless you live in my neighborhood), (or my home town)

As Mr Dan knows all too well, Bill and Karolyn Slowsky are my absolute fave characters on all of TV. What I didn't know until today is that they may be an apt symbol for our country's struggle to 'get along' with each other.

From City Journal, this report on the short and mid-term downsides to diversity. I shuddered as much as the author:

Bowling With Our Own - Robert Putnam’s sobering new diversity research scares its author.

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities....

... The problem isn’t ethnic conflict or troubled racial relations, but withdrawal and isolation. Putnam writes: “In colloquial language, people living in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’—that is, to pull in like a turtle.”

In the 41 sites Putnam studied in the U.S., he found that the more diverse the neighborhood, the less residents trust neighbors. This proved true in communities large and small, from big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Boston to tiny Yakima, Washington, rural South Dakota, and the mountains of West Virginia. In diverse San Francisco and Los Angeles, about 30 percent of people say that they trust neighbors a lot. In ethnically homogeneous communities in the Dakotas, the figure is 70 percent to 80 percent.

Diversity does not produce “bad race relations,” Putnam says. Rather, people in diverse communities tend “to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more, but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television.” Putnam adds a crushing footnote: his findings “may underestimate the real effect of diversity on social withdrawal.”

Neither age nor disparities of wealth explain this result. “Americans raised in the 1970s,” he writes, “seem fully as unnerved by diversity as those raised in the 1920s.” And the “hunkering down” occurred no matter whether the communities were relatively egalitarian or showed great differences in personal income. Even when communities are equally poor or rich, equally safe or crime-ridden, diversity correlates with less trust of neighbors, lower confidence in local politicians and news media, less charitable giving and volunteering, fewer close friends, and less happiness.

You Must Continue reading, slowly, here.

James Gandolfini Shot By Closure-Seeking Fan

NEW YORK—Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his portrayal of mob kingpin Tony Soprano on the hit HBO show The Sopranos, was shot to death Tuesday in a Greenwich Village restaurant by a fan unable to accept the open-ended...

We Could Really Regret This ....

A rave review from the religious right:

Besides Obama, how many times have you seen a presidential candidate get up in front of a large crowd and talk in depth about his salvation? I’ll give you the answer: Zero. For Obama to stand up and talk about how Jesus changed his life, my friends that takes guts. You may disagree with everything he’s about, you may disagree with his policy goals but as Christians, shouldn’t we like it when someone talks about Christ being the missing ingredient in his life? ...

Barack Obama seems to want to bring the country together as best he can on this issue of faith and politics. His heart appears as though it's in the right place. To “call out” leaders of the Christian Right like that seemed a little too broad for my taste. (watch those comments here )He blanketed a lot of people with one broad brush. If you really look closely at those leaders of the Christian Right, it doesn’t seem fair to pigeonhole all of them in the same category and to say all they care about are abortion, gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design. These leaders have spoken out and taken action on issues like the genocide in Darfur, poverty in America, torture techniques, helping people after devastating natural disasters, etc. Do they focus on abortion and gay marriage more than progressives? Yes but is that such a crime to believe that God would be against it?

To me though, the criticism of the religious right was a small part of the speech. I saw it more as an uplifting speech that can bring people of faith together. For example, Obama talked about how God SHOULD NOT be removed from the public square.

More History

An Historical Overview

Courtesy Jesus' General

The United States has always been at war with Al Qaeda

Glenn Greenwald, Josh Marshall, and others are complaining about the New York Times and other media referring to nearly the entire population of Iraq as being member of Al Qaeda. Greenwald et. al. cite this as an example of the media promoting White House propaganda. What they fail to realize is that The United States is at war with Al Qaeda. The United States has always been at war with Al Qaeda.

A quick look at past Times issues bears this out as we see above.

What She Said

From WaPo:

Edwards's Wife Says She Backs Gay Marriage

SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 -- Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by splitting with her husband over support for legalized same-sex marriage.

"I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," Edwards said at a news conference before the parade. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."

Edwards made the remark almost offhandedly in answering a question from reporters. The topic arose after she delivered a standard campaign stump speech during a breakfast hosted by the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, an influential San Francisco political organization.

The Edwardses' daughter Cate, a 25-year-old law student, also supports same-sex marriage.

Elizabeth Edwards conceded that her support puts her at odds with her husband, a former senator from North Carolina. She said he supports civil unions for same-sex couples, but not marriages.

"John has been pretty clear . . . that he is very conflicted," she said. "He has a deeply held belief against any form of discrimination, but that's up against his being raised in the 1950s in a rural Southern town."

None of the leading presidential candidates has publicly supported same-sex marriage.

Gotta Love Her

Elizabeth Edwards scheduled to speak at Gay Pride event
Presidential race hopeful's wife seen as breaking barrier

Elizabeth Edwards' scheduled appearance Sunday at a major San Francisco Gay Pride event represents a first for a major presidential candidate or spouse -- one that activists said reflects the growing clout of gay and lesbians as voters and their continued move into the political mainstream.

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, is scheduled to speak Sunday morning at the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club breakfast at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Organizers say it marks the highest level of presidential campaigning at the annual Gay Pride Parade.

Continue Reading

Yes, But He's Probably Rudy's Pro-Life Counselor

From the man who recommended the Mobbed Up Bernard Kerik, a fine representative via Andrew Sullivan

Why would Giuliani still employ a priest credibly accused by a Grand Jury of abusing boys, described as "cautious but relentless" in pursuing child victims in 2003, a man who was also integral to the conspiracy to protect child abusers from justice or accountability in the upper echeleons of the Catholic church? Because he was Giuliani's childhood friend, best man at his first wedding, baptized his son, smoothed the way for his divorce annulment, and buried his mother. In Giuliani's world, family is family. Loyalty is loyalty. And the children can go to hell. The full story is at Salon. Marc Ambinder provides all the crucial background you need to know. I don't think a defender of a credibly accused child-abuser should be the Republican nominee. That he would keep such a guy on his payroll is an extremely notable insight into Giuliani's character. Or what passes for it.

The President Of 9/11 AWOL for Iraq

Sorry, he's just not that into you ...

WASHINGTON -- Rudolph Giuliani's membership on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt end last spring after he failed to show up for a single official meeting of the group, causing the panel's top Republican to give him a stark choice: either attend the meetings or quit, several sources said.

Giuliani left the Iraq Study Group last May after just two months, walking away from a chance to make up for his lack of foreign policy credentials on the top issue in the 2008 race, the Iraq war.

He cited "previous time commitments" in a letter explaining his decision to quit, and a look at his schedule suggests why -- the sessions at times conflicted with Giuliani's lucrative speaking tour that garnered him $11.4 million in 14 months

Fox TV: Our New Source For Constitutional Law

Scalia Explains His Empirical approach to civil rights (sorta explains Gore v. Bush too).

RIP Rule Of law

"Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives," Judge Scalia said. Then, recalling Season 2, where the agent's rough interrogation tactics saved California from a terrorist nuke, the Supreme Court judge etched a line in the sand."Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" Judge Scalia challenged his fellow judges. "Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so.

"So the question is really whether we believe in these absolutes. And ought we believe in these absolutes."

...

"I don't care about holding people. I really don't," Judge Scalia said.

Even if a real terrorist who suffered mistreatment is released because of complaints of abuse, Judge Scalia said, the interruption to the terrorist's plot would have ensured "in Los Angeles everyone is safe." During a break from the panel, Judge Scalia specifically mentioned the segment in Season 2 when Jack Bauer finally figures out how to break the die-hard terrorist intent on nuking L.A. The real genius, the judge said, is that this is primarily done with mental leverage. "There's a great scene where he told a guy that he was going to have his family killed," Judge Scalia said. "They had it on closed circuit television - and it was all staged. ... They really didn't kill the family."

The Law Is For The People, Not The Rulers

Libby Convicted of the same crime that clinton wasn't? Set Him Free?

The People's representatives pass laws? Fuddgedabout it.

From Salon:

The president of the United States doesn't have a line-item veto, but George W. Bush and some of the agencies under his control are acting as if he did.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that the president used signing statements to object to 160 specific provisions in appropriations acts alone last year. And in a sampling of 16 provisions where a federal agency had a choice to make -- obey the law or obey Bush's signing statement interpretation of it -- agencies chose to obey Bush rather than the law on six separate occasions.

Among the laws federal agencies disobeyed was a provision in the Homeland Security appropriations bill that said that the "Border Patrol shall relocate its checkpoints in the Tucson sector at least once every seven days in a manner designed to prevent persons subject to inspection from predicting the location of any such checkpoint." Bush signed the appropriations bill but included a signing statement declaring the Border Patrol provision "advisory" because, he said, it would otherwise infringe on his executive power to control law enforcement. Taking Bush's cue, the Border Patrol did whatever it wanted to do on the theory that the congressional directive was "advisory" and that it knew better than Congress how to deploy its officers.

In another case, the Department of Defense failed to comply with a requirement -- set forth clearly in an emergency supplemental funding bill -- that its 2007 budget separate out certain budget numbers for Iraq and other military operations. The president signed the bill containing that requirement but said in a signing statement that the executive branch would "construe" the section in question "in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to ... recommend for congressional consideration such measures as the president shall judge necessary and expedient." When it came time to submit the 2007 budget, the Department of Defense did not separate out the Iraq spending as Congress had required, arguing that to do so would have been too difficult "because of the continuing insurgent activity."

Sen. Robert Byrd, who asked the GAO to examine the effect of Bush's signing statements, said in a statement that the study "underscores the fact that the Bush White House is constantly grabbing for more power, seeking to drive the people's branch of government to the sidelines." Byrd said the White House can't simply "pick and choose" which parts of a law it wants to obey. "When a president signs a bill into law," he said, "the president signs the entire bill."

The Republicans Wouldn't Have Caved After One Veto

"The sad truth is that if the FBI really is following anyone on the American left, it is engaging in a huge waste of time and personnel. No matter what it claims for a self-image, in reality it's the saddest collection of cowering, ineffectual ninnies ever assembled under one banner on God's green earth. And its ugly little secret is that it really doesn't mind being in the position it’'s in – politically irrelevant and permanently relegated to the sidelines, tucked into its cozy little cottage industry of polysyllabic, ivory tower criticism. When you get right down to it, the American left is basically just a noisy Upper West side cocktail party for the college-graduate class.

And we all know it. The question is, when will we finally admit it?"

- Matt Taibbi, contributing editor to Rolling Stone.

At Least I Don't Have Kids

From NYTimes 2Day

The Boys in the Band Are in AARP

DARREN REIS isn’t opposed to the band practice that takes place in his house every Tuesday night. But there’s only so much loud rock music he is willing to tolerate. So when the umpteenth rendition of the Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville” starts rattling the windows, he goes downstairs, knocks on the door and makes his entreaty: “Dad, do you think you guys could keep it down? I’m trying to study.”

The classic American midlife crisis has found a new outlet: garage-band rock ’n’ roll. Baby boomers across the country — mostly middle-aged dads who never quite outgrew an obsession with the music of their youth — are cranking up their amps and living their rock ’n’ roll fantasies.

The Tennyson Seven in Palo Alto, Calif., is typical. The two-year-old band includes Darren’s dad, Rob Reis, 53, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who gets together once a week with five other amateur rock ’n’ rollers — some more-experienced musicians than others — to play the musical comfort food of their generation: the Beatles, Van Morrison, the Monkees and the Romantics.

The band won’t be signing with Virgin Records any time soon. But that’s beside the point. With one son at college and Darren, 17, finishing high school next year, Mr. Reis said he can think of no better way to spend middle age. “What do other people do?” he asked, as if only vaguely aware of his other options, none of which appeal to him in the least. “A fancy car? An affair?”

Mr. Reis has plenty of company. In his town alone, there is a profusion of such bands. The Tennyson Seven recently sent out e-mail messages to several Palo Alto schools offering to play free of charge at some fund-raising events. The reply, Mr. Reis said, was, “No thanks, we have our own dad band that plays for us.”

Mike Lynd, 55, who lives just north of Palo Alto in Redwood City, plays bass, drums and guitar in a six-person band called Space Available. Mr. Lynd, who has a day job as a marketing writer at Deloitte & Touche, said nothing quite compares to the therapeutic aspects of practicing riffs with a group of like-minded rock aficionados.
“I don’t know what has done me more good — Lexapro or Thursday nights jamming with the band,” Mr. Lynd said. “You’re working out a whole lot more than chord patterns when you’re playing music together.”

NAMM, a trade group that represents music retailers and equipment manufacturers, has noticed the increasing numbers of middle-aged rockers, and now oversees what it calls the Weekend Warriors program, a six-weekend series designed specifically for baby boomers to get back into playing in a band — or start playing in one. The program brings would-be rockers into music stores around the country and provides gear, rehearsal space, coaches and, for those in need, additional band members.

Joe Lamond, the chief executive of NAMM, started the program when he was working in a music store in Sacramento and began noticing a change in the store’s clientele. “I started seeing customers coming in who you’d think would have been shopping for their kids,” he said. “But they were shopping for themselves.”
Mr. Lamond said the program has burgeoned in recent years, as the rock ’n’ rollers of the ’60s and ’70s become empty nesters with time and disposable income on their hands.

Nostalgia provides the backbeat for this movement. “The music we carry through our lifetimes is music we listen to in our late teens and early 20s, because it was such an emotional time,” Mr. Lamond said. “That music is literally locked into your system — your brain, your body, your emotions.”

For those now in their 50s wanting to turn back the clock, that means playing “Brown Eyed Girl” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” And “Mustang Sally,” in the key of C.

“We recommend ‘Mustang Sally’ as a good starter song,” Mr. Lamond said. “A bad starter song is anything by Steely Dan, or Frank Zappa. Or Yes.”

Part of recapturing lost innocence means laboring under an illusion or two. Mr. Lamond recommends that the practice rooms be free of mirrors. “You don’t want to be playing your guitar, feeling like you’re 20 all over again, then look in a mirror and see some paunchy balding guy,” Mr. Lamond said.

Not only do many spouses approve of the bands, some even participate. Rob Reis’s wife, Julie, 54, is a singer in the Tennyson Seven.

And when such bands get the occasional gig, the faces in the audience tend to skew to the band’s own demographic, a fact that helps determine song choice. Mike Brown, who was trained as a classical pianist and came to rock ’n’ roll a bit late in life as the keyboardist for the Palo Alto band the Wildcats, said his band’s repertory is easily recognizable, with a staple of Beatles and Doobie Brothers. “We want everyone to know the song in the first couple of notes,” he said.

Playing together can also bring about some corporate bonding. Bryan Stapp, 44, the chief marketing officer for Quicken Loans, an online mortgage company in Detroit, has been playing guitar since he was 15. A father of four, Mr. Stapp is in a band called the Loaners with three of his colleagues.

When the Loaners are playing at company events and they start in on a Led Zeppelin song, or even Bruce Springsteen or AC/DC, sometimes the company’s chief executive, Bill Emerson, jumps in for the vocals. “It’s a great thing when your chief executive is singing an AC/DC song,” Mr. Stapp said. The Loaners were recently chosen to play at the Detroit International River Days festival later this month, opening for Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band.

There are a few advantages to being an aging rocker. For all its attendant angst, midlife can be a surprisingly stable platform from which to play out. Instead of smashing a guitar onstage, you’re more likely to forget your reading glasses.
“There’s no drama,” said Carol Cheney, 43, a nurse who moonlights as a singer in Alter Ego, a seven-piece band in the Boston area composed of middle-aged parents. “We’re all at the crest of our life. Everyone is settled. We’re just very comfortable with each other.”

And it’s easier to afford decent equipment. Alter Ego, for instance, practices at the large suburban home of one of the members, a successful insurance executive whose spacious basement is outfitted with copious amounts of professional-quality amps, mixing boards and mics.

“Credit cards and old stock options help make up for all the cool toys we did without when we were young,” Mr. Lynd said. “Tuners, effects pedals, multiple axes, stands that cost more than my first car.”

Then there is the general improvement in the realm of logistical skills. “When I was a teenager in a band, nobody had his act together,” Mr. Lynd said. “Bookings were always botched. You only realized the band stuff didn’t fit in the station wagon when you were already late.”

Now, he said, some of his fellow band members get as much therapeutic value out of organizing their playing experience as they do from the actual playing.

To skirt the problem of scrounging for paid gigs, some bands play only for charity: the eight members in the Wildcats, perhaps the most popular Palo Alto dad band, play only for fund-raising events. The group has raised close to $100,000 over the past several years, to supplement the budget for Palo Alto public schools.

Connections help, too. For one recent paid performance at a country club for the Tennyson Seven, it didn’t hurt that the resident golf pro plays bass in the band. And the band isn’t above paying to play. It recently rented a pool and tennis club in Palo Alto for one night and invited a couple hundred friends to come listen.

But sometimes being a low-demand band means putting up with performance conditions that are not exactly the rock ’n’ roll ideal.

Mr. Lynd said that Space Available has become something of a fixture at weekend schoolyard concerts around town. “We’ll be playing at the Oktoberfest, alternately playing Jimi Hendrix and announcing that the bake sale is going to be over in five minutes,” he said.

When Wall Street — a New York-area band that often practices in Metuchen, N.J., and gravitates to the Allman Brothers Band, Queen and Tom Petty — played at a bar mitzvah recently, acoustics were a challenge: The musicians stood underneath a tent, while the guests wandered across three acres of land. Still, said Bob O’Connell, 42, the art director at Ladies’ Home Journal who is a guitarist in Wall Street, “we got an incredible response,” and several requests for cards.

By and large, the children of the band members, some in bands of their own, approach their parents’ newfound passion with surprising equanimity. “Every single one of our kids thinks it’s very cool,” said Ms. Cheney, whose band plays many of its own compositions. “They actually like the music we do.”

When Mr. O’Connell’s 13-year-old son, Robby, has friends over, they often bring their guitars. “It’s great when your kid’s friends know you as the dad who can play all the licks to ‘Black Dog,’ ” Mr. O’Connell said.

In spite of the occasional irritation that comes when the throb of a bass interrupts his studying, Darren Reis is also open-minded about his parents’ hobby. “They’re pretty good,” he said. “It’s not like they’re in a bad band or anything. The music they play isn’t my music, but there’s some cool stuff.”

And Mr. Reis considers himself one of the luckiest aging boomers around. “Every Tuesday I get live rock ’n’ roll in my house,” he said. “Nothing can beat that.”

New Neighbors

A cicada sits on a twig in a forest preserve June 11, 2007 in Willow Springs, Illinois. The cicada is one of millions in the area that have emerged from the ground and taken to the trees during the past couple of weeks, part of a 17-year hatch cycle. By Scott Olson/Getty Images.

Get a bunch of these together and you'll long for the quiet of a Led Zep Concert

A Time Honored Tradition

Any thinking person who went to Catholic Parochial School should recognize the astonishing opposition of Religion to Reality. Did I say 'opposition'? I meant 'Global War On Facts'.

Anyway, PZ Myers / Pharyngyla on a new Gallup Poll:

Yeah, being a Republican may not be causal, but going to church every week since childhood probably induces brain damage. This is just a correlation, of course, so how about asking those people who reject evolution why?

I believe in Jesus Christ
19%

I believe in the almighty God, creator of Heaven and Earth
16%

Due to my religion and faith
16%

Not enough scientific evidence to prove otherwise
14%

I believe in what I read in the Bible
12%

I'm a Christian
9%

I don't believe humans come from beasts/monkeys
3%

Other
5%

No reason in particular
2%

No opinion
3%

The overwhelming majority credit their religion; the two secular excuses ("not enough scientific evidence" and "we didn't come from no monkeys") are common enough phrases among the creationists that I expect a majority of those are ultimately due to religion, too. So tell me, everyone: why are scientists supposed to respect religion, this corrupter of minds, this promulgator of lies, this damnable institution dedicated to delusion, in our culture?

Maybe we need to start picketing fundamentalist churches. Maybe it's about time that we recognize religious miseducation as child abuse.

Free Scooter!! Or Else!!

then He Should Be O.K. With The Vote Of No Confidence

Shaking Off Amnesia, Gonzales Remembers He's Actually Pool Salesman From Tulsa

WASHINGTON, DC—Hotshot Tulsa pool salesman "Cabana Al" has no idea why he was placed in command of a $40 billion budget and more than 110,000 employees.

Gee, I Wonder When This Trend Will Hit Chicago

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended

MORRISTOWN, NJ—"When most people hear The Merchant of Venice, they think 1960s Las Vegas, but it's time to shake things up," said maverick director Kevin Hiles.

How Does This Compare To Paris Hilton's Rate?

And For Five Thousand Bucks More, You Can Get Your Picture Taken Without Me In It

Gas prices may be up, but there's something that's apparently a little cheaper these days: A photo with President Bush. Yesterday, Bush headlined a fundraiser for the New Jersey state GOP, where donors could pay $5,000 to pose for a photo with the Commander in Chief. Expensive photo op, right? Well, that's actually cheaper that what donors paid just a year ago for a grip and grin with Bush.

Last summer, GOP officials around the country charged at least $10,000 a pop for presidential photo op, a bargain compared to the $25,000-a-flash Bush commanded during some Republican National Committee fund-raisers back in 2000 and 2004.

About that Poll ...

Andrew Sullivan Observes:

It's obviously an aberration as a primary indicator. But surely a lot of its aberration has to do with the following fact:

The survey of 310 Democrats and 160 independents who "lean" Democratic, taken Friday through Sunday, has a margin of error of +/-5 percentage points... Among Democrats alone, Clinton leads Obama by 5 points, 34%-29%. That's a significant narrowing from the USA TODAY Poll taken in mid-May, when she led by 17 points. Among independents, Obama leads by 9 points, 31%-22%.

Clinton has the base support that her name, her husband and her long record among the Democrats have earned her. But as a general election candidate, as someone who can appeal to independents and Republicans, as someone who can actually enlarge the Democrats - Obama is quite obviously the superior candidate. Do the Dems want to go forward and outward? Or backward and inward? That's the choice they face between the Senator from Illinois and the Senator from New York.

... Or until January 21, 2009

Libby sentenced to 30 months in prison

Mammon Tops God Every Time

"I had this conversation with Focus on the Family, and I said I agree with you that family breakdown is a huge crisis, a serious crisis. And I don't think the Left talks about that enough. My neighborhood is eighty percent single parent families. You can't overcome poverty with that, with eighty percent single parent families. But how do we reweave the bonds of marriage, family, extended family, and community, to put our arms around the kids? And it's not just in poor neighborhoods. Kids are falling through the cracks of fractured family in all classes and neighborhoods. So I said to them, I want to rebuild family life and relationships, but explain to me how gay and lesbian people are the ones responsible for all that? which is what their fund-raising strategy suggests. And after about an hour and a half they conceded the point. They said, Okay Jim, we concede that family breakdown is caused much more by heterosexual dysfunction than by homosexuals. But then they said, We can't vouch for our fundraising department, which says a lot, I think" - Jim Wallis, Powells.com.

All He Needs To Do

Re: The most recent Dem Debate.

Barry O only needs to communicate 'informed and mature', not most seasoned. He'll win with speeches (and Axelrod's organization). Because he is the candidate of 'a new day'. HRC is smart and informed but I do believe that very few people want to extend the Bush/Clinton years. Edwards has aged well and wisely since '04 but poverty doesn't sell and he was the butt of the best zinger. And poor Bill Richardson, who I really like, just exudes 'flop-sweat' and desperation.

CNN viewers poll gave the nod to BO, 35% to HRC's 30% (Daily Kos readers picked Edwards)

That having been said, let's post this from Political Wire:

Clinton and Obama Neck-and-Neck

Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) are essentially tied in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll.

Obama beats Clinton "by a single percentage point, 30% to 29%, if the contest includes former vice president Al Gore." Without Gore, Clinton bests Obama by a single point, 37% to 36%. Gore comes in third with 17%, while John Edwards pulls 11% with the former vice president included and 13% otherwise.

However, a new Rasmussen Reports poll gives Clinton an eight-point edge over Obama, 34% to 26%, with Edwards drawing 15%.

On the Republican side, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) leads with 32%, followed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) with 19%, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R) with 12%, and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) with 11%.

GT12 Financial Corner

Improtant views must be aired:

There's No More Reassuring Voice In Retirement Planning Than Dennis Hopper

There's no denying it anymore: I'm getting to that point in my life where I should start thinking seriously about my retirement. I'll be living on...

FYI

From Political Insider

All Democratic Candidates Back Gay Rights

"All of the leading Democrats running for president support extending federal rights to same-sex couples in states that recognize such unions," reports the Des Moines Register.

This would mark the first time that all the leading Democratic candidates support such a position, according to the Human Rights Campaign, "which plans to launch in Iowa this month a nationwide protest of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy concerning gays in the U.S. military."

What Sahel This Is

From The NY Tmes:

The word is 'sahel,' and it helps explain much of what I have seen in three and a half years of covering the war.

It is a word unique to Iraq, my friend Razzaq explained over tea one afternoon on my final tour. Throughout Iraq’s history, he said, power has changed hands only through extreme violence, when a leader was vanquished absolutely, and his destruction was put on display for all to see.

Most famously it happened to a former prime minister, Nuri al-Said, who tried to flee after a military coup in 1958 by scurrying through eastern Baghdad dressed as a woman. He was shot dead. His body was disinterred and hacked apart, the bits dragged through the streets. In later years, Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party crushed their enemies with the same brand of brutality.

"Other Arabs say, 'You are the country of sahel,'" Razzaq said. "It has always been that way in Iraq."

But in this war, the moment of sahel has been elusive. No faction — not the Shiite Arabs or Sunni Arabs or Kurds — has been able to secure absolute power, and that has only sharpened the hunger for it. Listen to Iraqis engaged in the fight, and you realize they are far from exhausted by the war. Many say this is only the beginning.

Snap Out Of It!

Sullivan addresses the New Gore Book and Al Gore v.2007.

OK, I haven't read the book, but I've seen the interviews and I know that Sully's right. Only a television talk by Gore can make you think of John Kerry as 'a man of the people'

I'm not unsympathetic to many of Gore's points in his new book. But have you read it? It's a multiple-page-sigh at the idiocy of his fellow humans. He comes off as a total jerk, when he's not being a monumental bore. And if you're a grown-up politician trying to get better press, it might not be the best idea to blame the media for everything that's wrong in American democracy. It's also a stupid argument. The notion that Americans became collectively unhinged after the O.J. Simpson trial, that it's only been in the last decade or so that news has been chased out of American consciousness by celebrity, Hollywod and scandal, is so loopy and ahistorical it reads like a college thesis - which, of course, it once was. Really, I try and give the guy a chance. He's not wrong about everything. He's right about the Bush administration's constitutional excesses, torture, war-bungling and the dreck that passes for news on a lot of cable channels. He deserves mad props on climate change. But there really is something about Al Gore. It took real talent to throw the 2000 election away. He's still got it.