Gerbil Growing Distant

TEMPE, AZ­—"Lately it's almost as if he cares more about burrowing in his wood chips than he does about me," owner Doug Kerlin said.

The True Secret Of Dogs

Click to enlarge and find out the furry future

Also Not Gay

From Wonkette:

Meet David Phillips, a local IT geek and bear-about-town.

Phillips was recently in a bar minding his own business when he heard Craig’s voice on the television.

“I went pale and nearly vomited,” Phillips says. It was the man he remembered from one of his creepiest sexual encounters twenty years earlier.

“After a truncated meal I went back to my hotel room and began unwinding and jotting down the memories that the voice had opened. I recalled The Follies, the furtive groping and pawing there, the odd following of this man in my car….. Crap!”

...Phillips explains, referring to the notorious and now-closed go-go boy bar La Cage aux Follies on Capitol Hill. “There were so many closeted neocons who trolled for cock and ass there, particularly cock and ass on younger men: Terry Dolan, Jon Hinson, and a bunch of other men who seemed to run in a close and secretive group. I had sex with some of them at The Follies, and I even went home with a couple of them — at different times, at least — based on smooth talk and their attraction to a 20-something geek. One of them I would later recognize as Larry Craig.”

One night, Phillips continues, “I followed [Craig] from The Follies to a Capitol Hill neighborhood, parking on the street no telling how far from his house. We walked up the alley and through the back door of a house, with him repeating several times, ‘You were never here. You don’t know me. Right?’ and me responding, ‘Right!’ in boyish submission. As we tiptoed from the back door to the stairs to the upper floor, as if somebody else was home, he turned to grope my crotch and brush my face with his hand.” The house’s decor led Phillips to believe that this was a married man: “The bric-a-brac with family pictures didn’t scream ‘old queen’ to me; it announced a woman’s influence. Still, we made our way upstairs.

“When we got to what reminded me of a rarely used guest room, he stripped me down, and the man’s hands and mouth were all over me. He kept his pants on, though, while laying me back on the bed to suck my cock. Then, he stripped naked and asked me to suck him. I complied for a while, then he disappeared and returned with lube and a condom to fuck me me with. It was a clumsy and unremarkable fuck, .... Still, he blew his load, ripped the dirty condom off and ordered me to get dressed without wiping myself. He hurried me to the back door, again ranting, ‘You were never here. You don’t know me. Right?’”

Mr. Phillips’ next claim is startling, indeed: “On the way back through ... and feeling totally humiliated I let my eyes wander and saw on a table a small envelope, like one from a gift or a floral arrangement, with ‘Suzanne Craig’ neatly written on it. This memory,” Phillips insists, “I noted about three hours after hearing Craig’s voice again, the night before I saw a current picture of him and a good day before I heard of his wife in the news. ‘That’s who’s going to fuck me up if she finds out,’ I thought. As he reached for the door, he took a $20 bill from his wallet, shoved in my front pocket, adding ‘Remember, I can buy and sell your ass ten thousand times over. You were never here. Don’t try to come back here. You don’t know me.

“When I next heard that voice two months ago,” David concludes, “my mind went right back to that encounter, leaving me feeling cold and used all over again. I wish I hadn’t been a screwed-up kid at the time and had had the presence of mind to tell him to keep the money he shoved at me like I was part of the trade common to The Follies.”

And why has Mr. Phillips decided to share this story with us? Mostly because I badgered him to after he related the story to me two weeks ago at the DC Eagle (I’ve known David for several years). “I’m just glad to purge some mental baggage over it. I wouldn’t ratchet my current feelings about it to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder levels,” he explains, “but it’s close. Changing jobs, celebrating two years off meds, and dealing with carpal tunnel release surgery have actually helped me keep sane during the last few weeks. I keep thinking, ‘What next?’ There were a bunch of Houston oil execs and financiers I tricked with during college, almost all of whom were married… so I’ve been on-edge during both Bush presidencies, waiting for one of them to rise to Cabinet level.”

Well Of Course ....

From Wonkette:

Obama's Ex-Gay Gospel Singer: Maybe Not So Ex-Gay?

Blogger Clay Cane has an interview with Donnie McClurkin’s ex, a man who claims that the Jesus-lovin’ gospel singer was bashing the gays during the day, and making love to him at night. Awkward!

Pam’s House Blend picks out the good parts so we don’t have to:
Every time I’d read an article in Ebony or Jet, or whatever, I’d just hear it—I’d get upset and we’d always have an argument about it. He said, “I told you.” I said, “It’s crazy. What you’re doing is crazy. You’re writing this stuff, but yet you’re still doing it.” I said, “I have a problem with that. What’s wrong with you?” He said, “I have a problem.”

Yeah, I’d have a problem with that, too! And now it’s Obama’s problem!
‘Ex-gay’ McClurkin’s alleged lover: I was with him after he prayed away the gay [Pam’s House Blend]EXCLUSIVE: An Interview with Donnie McClurkin’s Ex-Lover [claycane.net]

A Stewart Classic

Just Cuz ...

Jon Stewart Killed Crossfire (and half of CNN's programming) with this visit to Tucker Carlson and James Carville:

French Fried

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's jaunt to France was interrupted today by an unscheduled itinerary item -- he was slapped with a criminal complaint charging him torture.

Rumsfeld, in Paris for a discussion sponsored by the magazine Foreign Policy, was by tracked down by representatives of a coalition of international human rights groups, who informed the architect of the US invasion of Iraq that they had submitted an official torture complaint against him in French court.

The filed documents allege that during his tenure, the former defense secretary "ordered and authorized" torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The head of one of the groups responsible for bringing the charges, the US-based Center for the Constitutional Rights, told RAW STORY today by phone that suit was a long time coming.

Oh, You Think I'm Paranoid?

The Administration so wants the California Fires to, uh, burn away any of the Katrina Evidence pointing to the Bush General Level of Callous Incompetance (or well crafted Political Genocide)...

Think Progress Reports

FEMA Stages Press Conference: Staff Pose As Journalists And Ask ‘Softball’ Questions

On Tuesday, while “wildfires raged” in California, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), held a press conference at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices that was “carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.” In the presser, Johnson said he was “very happy with FEMA’s response” while praising “the good messaging” of federal and local government responders.

But if the questions lobbed at Johnson seemed a bit like softballs, that’s because they were asked by FEMA employees posing as journalists.

The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports:
We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

Watch a segment of Fox News’ coverage of the presser, which never mentions the FEMA stage handling: HERE

Was Any Of It Actually Bush Mistakes?

Or was it just Political Genocide committed against opponents of The Administration's Party?

Louisiana Turns Solidly Republican After Katrina

After the sweeping Louisiana gubernatorial victory of Rep. Bobby Jindal (R), The Economist predicts a grim future for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and other state Democrats' electoral prospects due to population erosion after Hurricane Katrina.

"When [Landrieu] was last elected, in 2002, she won in large part thanks to a landslide in her home city, heavily Democratic New Orleans. Whereas the city's predilections haven't changed dramatically, its size has, and its electoral significance along with it. In 2002 almost 133,000 New Orleanians voted in the Senate race. On October 20th less than 60% of that number turned up at the polls, a sign of the city's post-Katrina shrinkage. Ms Landrieu won New Orleans by almost 80,000 votes in 2002, twice her overall margin of victory. This time, that was more votes than all the candidates got combined in the city that was once the alpha and the omega of Louisiana politics."

Spend A Friday With The Gay Movement's Greatest Hero

No one in the last ten years has done more for the Gay Cause than Jon Stewart.

Logo's AfterElton dips into the newly available Daily Show Archive to give us Jon's Greatest Gay Hits.

What sets Stewart apart, aside from his tremendous mainstream popularity, is that his humor conveys a deeply-rooted sense of personal outrage at anti-gay policies, laws, and attitudes. He doesn’t, like Maher, support gay civil rights as part of an overall libertarian or progressive political ideology, but because, as he told conservative pundit Bill Bennett in what may be the greatest interview of Stewart’s career, gay equality is part of “the natural progression of the human condition” because “every gay person [is] someone’s son or daughter.” And in Stewart’s mind, apparently, you just don’t treat your kids like that.

There's a lot to entertain you. And, Fuck the Human Rights Campaign while you're at it. Watch!

Paranoia Alert

I have to admit that every day, I find that my belief in this sentiment (from one of Jack Cafferty's viewers) is growing:

"George Bush is the next president. He and Darth Cheney will be surrendering none of their bounty.

Forty years of planning to hand it all to Hillary Clinton?

Not a chance.

If you think there'll be a November 8 election, give my regards to the Easter Bunny."

Attend The Tale

Mr. G Baker contacted us today about the upcoming Christmas release of Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johhnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

Sweeney is our reason for defending Broadway. It is all that musical theater can be. It is Dark and Funny and horrifying and really bloody.

It is also vocally demanding. We've never really thought of Jack Sparrow as a Bass-Baritone, but we liked Madonna OK as Evita (and Banderas as Che even more so ... though neither really challenged the Patti Lupone Mandy Patinkin Broadway originals) and Broadway's most recent Sweeney was a singer in a Rock Band (as well as Broadway's original 'Tommy'.

We have watched the trailer and like the visuals but were distressed that we heard people speaking some great songs. We remember how disappointed we were that Rent, a show with no talking became a movie with lots of talking ...

We will be there opening Day for sure for sure.

Pictures Of Lily - Winter Fashions

I swore I would never do this, but apparently short-haired dogs need a little more, uh, support to keep warm duiring the winter months. GT12's pets have traditionally been thickly coated. This has not been easy to explain to Lily.

With Friends Like That

Obama '08 is trying to reassure gay supporters ... but not very well.

From Politco:

One sort-of-defender is Chris Crain, who says this speaks to Obama's ability to build a big tent, but also points out that others on the gospel tour also have "anti-gay histories."

And Furthermore

"You know, torture is the method of choice of the lazy, the stupid and the pseudo-tough," -

Adm. Hutson, former JAG Officer and current Dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center,
at the Mukasey hearings.

He Won Ben Stein's Money

WASHINGTON - Liberal Al Franken is good enough and smart enough to win some of conservative Ben Stein's money — and doggone it, Stein likes him.

Stein, an actor, writer and economist, has contributed $2,000 to Franken's Minnesota Senate campaign. The two men have known each other for about 30 years.

"I'm struck by what an incredibly capable, hard-working guy he is," Stein told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. "He's a very smart liberal, he's a thoroughgoing patriot, and I would feel better with him in the Senate."

Franken is one of several Democratic candidates vying to take on Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. As a former "Saturday Night Live" star, Franken has received scores of contributions from people in the entertainment industry, but the donation from Stein doesn't fit into the GOP's talking points about liberal Hollywood elites bankrolling Franken's campaign.

"Friendship trumps ideology — by the way, as it should," Coleman said. "Friendship, family, there are some things more important than ideology. Was he in 'Ferris Bueller'? I think it was a good movie. I don't get a lot of Ben Stein."

When Good Arguments Meets Insomnia

Stephanie Miller, a GT12 fave, visited Chris Matthews on Friday. She was great until she insulted Chris ....

Steph's been having some health problems recently and doesn't get a lot of sleep ...

Maybe It Will Help With The French

If Elected, I Will Have The Hottest First Lady In U.S. History

My fellow Americans, in the coming presidential election, the voters of this nation will plot a course for the future. There are many candidates,...

Something For The Choir

I know that GT12 readers are with me on this. but it never hurts to have sources to quote ...

Two problems with torture
It's wrong and it doesn't work, according to interrogation expert STUART HERRINGTON

I served 30 years in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer, which included extensive experience as an interrogator in Vietnam, in Panama and during the 1991 Gulf War.

...

Coming from this background, it has been disappointing to observe the ongoing debate about torture in interrogation, usually carried out be people who have never interrogated a soul. Nor is it easy to accept that the current debate is framed pragmatically by the question, "Does torture work or not?"

In a recent interview with NPR's Terry Gross, I told her that 10 years ago the notion we would even be having such a dialogue was unthinkable. Somehow, perhaps blinded by the horrors of 9-11 and its aftermath, or by that barrage of chilling video footage of hooded executioners snuffing out the lives of journalists, civilians and soldiers, we have lost sight of other equally relevant questions: Is torture right or wrong? Is the brutalizing of helpless prisoners a practice that will advance or harm our nation's position as it wages a just war against Islamist extremists?

One can almost hear the late Dr. Schrynemakers expound on this question. Wagging his finger, he would note that government sanctioning of mistreatment of prisoners by its intelligence officers is an essentially evil act committed in the name of self-defense, which has propelled our great country down a slippery moral slope and imperiled us further.

...

I and other authentic practitioners of the interrogation art respect our adversaries, however wrong we may deem their cause. We know that obtaining information from a captive who is motivated by his beliefs, his country, his honor or perhaps by the very human desire to live a full life with his family, is an elusive task that requires a patient, systematic approach.

One has to "go to school" on each captive. Who is he? Can I communicate with him in his language? What are his core beliefs? His loves? Hates? Fears? Where do his loyalties lie? Does he have a family, an inflated ego, perhaps some other core vulnerability? Does he have a hobby or some passion that might get him talking? What do we know about his activities before he fell into our hands? What about his religion? Sect? Tribe? Culture? Or the history of his movement? What have other captives in our hands said about him? Did he have documents or a computer that were seized with him? What drives this unique individual?

Professional interrogation is thus a developmental process, requiring extensive preparation. It requires in-depth assessment of the prisoner, all complemented by a healthy measure of guile, wits and patience.

...

When a professional interrogator sits across from a captured Iraqi general who possesses information about the Iraqi nuclear program, or who knows why Saddam did not toss nerve gas at our massed forces, the interrogator knows he is facing a formidable adversary, an educated, trained professional strongly inclined by his Iraqi patriotism and survival instincts to deny his interrogator such information. The interrogator's challenge in such situations is to assess and manipulate the situation, somehow persuading his captive to make disclosures in spite of the prisoner's visceral fear of the consequences if he helps the enemy. The role of the interrogator is, in essence, that of a recruiter. The prisoner must be convinced that if he reveals state secrets, his captor will handle his trust with discretion and take care of him.

A New Record

Among all Americans, 25% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 67% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 23% approve and 67% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 26% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 67% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 25% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 67% disapprove.

Approval among Republicans has dropped back to 67%. In September, 80% of Republicans approved of the way Bush was handling his job. In August, 66% of Republicans approved of the way Bush was handling his job.

Trust Me! I'm Strong And Constant

More of the 'Everything' that 9/11 changed, I guess ...

From the New York Times, 8/4/01:

The mayor's progressive record on gay civil rights notwithstanding, he has not endorsed same-sex marriage. But, says Mr. Koeppel, ''He did tell us that if they ever legalized gay marriages, we would be the first one he would do.'' Mr. Koeppel and Mr. Hsiao are in favor of the right to marry -- which, among other things, would give gay couples the same protections as heterosexual couples in legal and fiscal matters ranging from immigration and adoption rights to veterans' and Social Security benefits.

From The Hill 10/20/07:

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, told The Hill Saturday that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) would support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Perkins said Giuliani told him in a private meeting that if the Defense of Marriage Act appeared to be failing or if multiple states began to legalize same-sex marriages, then he would support the constitutional amendment.

Giuliani did not mention the amendment or the issue of gay marriage during his address to the Values Voters Summit, but that position could win him favor with some social conservatives who view the former mayor warily.

Perkins said that was not enough to assuage his concerns about Giuliani, but “it was nice to hear.”

And Then I Found This

I don't Like Mondays ....

Obama wrote in his recent memoir that he thinks the death penalty "does little to deter crime." But he supports capital punishment in cases "so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment."

A Problem

Another point for Christopher Hitchens' Religion ruining everything' stance

Obama’s Gospel Tour
By Sarah Wheaton

As religious conservatives gather in Washington this weekend for the “Values Voters Summit,” Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced its latest effort to attract people of faith to the campaign: a gospel concert tour.

All three of the dates of the “Embrace the Change” tour are in South Carolina, where Mr. Obama is locked in battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for black voters.
Gospel acts including Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker, Byron Cage and the Mighty Clouds of Joy are scheduled to appear.

“This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom about how politics is done and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level,” Joshua DuBois, the campaign’s religious affairs director, said in a release. “This concert tour is going to bring new people into the political process and engage people of faith in an unprecedented way.”

We checked in with Nate Chinen, a music critic for The Times, for his take on the lineup.

“I think this tour falls in line with what we know about Obama’s religious history as well as his need to energize a base/community rooted in faith,” he said. “In someone like Hezekiah Walker you have a spiritual leader as well as an artist, and in Donnie McClurkin you have someone who overcame great adversity to become a role model. And of course with the Mighty Clouds of Joy, you have music royalty.”

Why be concerned?

But what makes McClurkin a controversial figure is his preaching. It began with McClurkin's 2001 book, Eternal Victim/Eternal Victor, where he explained his 20-year experience with homosexuality, which he said started after he was raped by an uncle.

"Love is pulling you one way and lust is pulling you another and your relationship with Jesus is tearing you," McClurkin told the media. He says that God delivered him from homosexuality, and since that time, he has been counseling adolescent boys that homosexuality is merely a lifestyle choice that can be overcome.

...

"There was a big 20-year gap of sexual ambiguity where after the rape my desires were toward men, and I had to fight those things because I knew that it wasn't what we were taught in church was right. And the older I got, the more that became a problem, because those were the first two sexual relationships that I had. Eight years old and 13 years old. So that's what I was molded into. And I fought that. When I tell you from eight to 28, that was my fight -- in the church. And you were in an environment where there were hidden, you know, vultures I call them, that are hidden behind frocks and behind collars and behind -- you know, reverends and the deacons, and it becomes a preying ground, a place where the prey is hunted, and that was what it was like."

McClurkin basically describes a world in which homosexuality is common in the church community. Something we have been trying to point out from day one in our campaign. The black church is the most homophobic and the most homotolerant institution in the black community.

And McClurkin was a part of the community. Then he says he changed. "God started making it plain to me the things to hate. You don't hate the people, but there are certain things that are against God that may be in you that you have got to learn how to hate, even though it's in you." That leads us to wonder, how did these "things" get into you in the first place?

Comparing gays and lesbians to liars, McClurkin explains, "There are certain things like, you know, anybody who has a lying problem; they get to the point where they hate being so, having such a lack of character that they make a change."

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, blogging at the Huffington Post comments:

Desperate to snatch back some of the political ground with black voters that are slipping away from him and to Hillary; Bush's black evangelical card seems like the perfect play. Obama wouldn't dare go down the knock gay path, and risk drawing the inevitable heat for it, if he didn't think as Bush that anti-gay sentiment is still wide and deep among many blacks.

And this:

Washington Post:
Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who has detailed his struggle with gay tendencies and vowed to battle "the curse of homosexuality," said yesterday he'll perform as scheduled at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, despite controversy over his view that sexuality can be changed by religious intervention."

I can't let off. I didn't call myself -- God called me to do what I do," McClurkin told The Post's Hamil R. Harris. The Grammy winner declared, "If this is a war, we are willing to fight. Not a war of violence, but a war of purpose."

We'll be watching this ...

Oh Girlfriend

Nope, never saw this coming .... Though he was quite a flashy dresser.

Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.

After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."
"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

Semantic Change?

"I will not vote for a pro-abortion rights candidate," Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council said.

I heard this interview and noticed that Perkins never said 'pro-Abortion' but rather said 'pro-Abortion Rights' several times.

What gives with the new honesty?

Weekend Web Must-Read

Unconscously, after years of effortless 'staying ahead of the curve' musically, I gave up in the mid '90's. I just stopped caring. Nothing current was half as exciting as delving into the Atlantic and Stax catalogues from the 50's. Nothing Swung. "Indie' Rock was music that made Pat Boone seem like James Brown's long-lost bastard white sheep son.

Then, as the century turned I realzed that what passes today for cutting edge Rock/Pop is divorced from, ahem, 'Black Music' . Perhaps. i thought, the Blues has finally stopped giving birth to great music (like, oh, Jazz, Soul, Rock) and great musicians (cf.. entire rock catalogue 1956 - 1971).

Remember, folks, Hank Williams learned to play guitar from a Black man and all those songs?...oh so so many with the blues I-IV-V chord structure. Bing Crosby? He was once the coolest man in the world (80 years ago) because he brought the blues and swing to Mass American (white folks) Popular Singing.

The New Yorker has a magnificent article this week on just this issue.

Since you seem to find yourself here, reading this, you must have some (strange) interest in my take on things A Paler Shade of White - How indie rock lost its soul.by Sasha Frere-Jones sums up pretty well what I think happened.

He Starts by comparing two Arcade Fire Shows, separated by three months:

In January ...their execution was ragged but full of brio—and I had spent the evening happily pressed against the stage. At the United Palace, even though the music was surging in all the right places, I was weary after six songs. My friend asked me, “Do they play everything in the same end-of-the-world style?”

And Ends with maybe the most precise observation that I have read about Rock since, well, since Lester Bangs downed his final bottle of Robitussin:

The uneasy, and sometimes inappropriate, borrowings and imitations that set rock and roll in motion gave popular music a heat and an intensity that can’t be duplicated today, and the loss isn’t just musical; it’s also about risk. Rock and roll was never a synonym for a polite handshake. If you’ve forgotten where the term came from, look it up. There’s a reason the lights were off. ♦

You can read the exquisite middle on-line here

(Oh, the pic above? That's Lester with Alice C and the boys)

More Elbows To Throw

From Mark Ambinder:

"Much needed" and "long-awaited," Barack Obama's presidential campaign has hired veteran Democratic strategist John Del Cecato to handle a newly created rapid response portfolio.

A memo sent to campaign staff this morning by senior aide Dan Pfeiffer says that Del Cecato will work with press secretary Bill Burton and research director Devorah Adler to "help push back on attacks from the media and our friends in rival campaigns."

The memo calls Del Cecato's addition "much needed" and "long awaited," which will undermine any attempt by the Obama campaign to portray his hire as routine.

When Obama began his campaign last winter, aides engaged in rapid response selectively, deliberately trying to draw a constrast between their big picture approach and the trench warfare that's become a trademark of Clinton campaigns.

But the volume of "attacks" and the degree to which they often bumped parts of the campaign off-message convinced the campaign to hire a single senior staffer devoted solely to rapid response.

"It is much needed is because the pace of the campaign has picked up dramatically in recent weeks," an Obama aide said. Still, Obama's Chicago headquarters lacks a 24/7 warroom, a staple of modern campaigns. Researchers and press aides sit together around large desks in an open area.

The campaign's quest to find a rapid response guru began in August; ultimately, they found him in house. Del Cecato is a named partner at the consulting firm founded by Obama's senior strategist David Axelrod.

Del Cecato is a 15-year veteran of Democratic politics. He's worked on campaigns in New York, Iowa and Pennsylvania is a former DCCC spokesman.
A copy of the e-mail was provided to this column by a Democrat who does not work for Obama

Trying To Hit A Girl

Barry O (finally) embraces his inner street fighter:

"Hillary is not the first politician in Washington to declare 'mission accomplished' a little too soon,"

Today Is The First Day Of The Last Phase Of The Baby Boom

If you think about the cost and expectations tied to social Security and Medicare, today may be the most important day of the 21st century fro our country.

Md. Woman Becomes First Boomer to File for Social Security

October 15, 2007 - 4:28pm

WASHINGTON - The nation's first baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits Monday, signaling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post World War II war generation.

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for benefits over the Internet at an event attended by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue.

Casey-Kirschling, who now lives in Maryland, was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first baby boomer - a generation of nearly 80 million born from 1946 to 1964, Astrue said.

Casey-Kirschling will be eligible for benefits after she turns 62 next year.
An estimated 10,000 people a day will become eligible for Social Security benefits over the next two decades, Astrue said.

The Social Security trust fund, if left alone, is projected to go broke in 2041, though Astrue said he hopes Congress will address the issue, perhaps after the 2008 presidential election.

Meanwhile in Fairfax County, there will be more than 350,000 people older than age 50 by 2020, and the number of people over the age of 70 will jump by almost 60 percent.
With those numbers in mind, county leaders drafted a plan to meet their needs. The plan includes everything from better training for adult caretakers to developing more communities where transit, retail and housing are all nearby.
County Supervisor Dana Kaufman says the plan involves a change in attitude on everything, including the budget.
The plan also includes additional tax incentives that may help older residents stay in their homes and efforts to attract more assisted living facilities to the county.
(Copyright 2007 by WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) WASHINGTON - The nation's first baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits Monday, signaling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post World War II war generation.
Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for benefits over the Internet at an event attended by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue.
Casey-Kirschling, who now lives in Maryland, was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first baby boomer - a generation of nearly 80 million born from 1946 to 1964, Astrue said.
Casey-Kirschling will be eligible for benefits after she turns 62 next year.
An estimated 10,000 people a day will become eligible for Social Security benefits over the next two decades, Astrue said.
The Social Security trust fund, if left alone, is projected to go broke in 2041, though Astrue said he hopes Congress will address the issue, perhaps after the 2008 presidential election.

Whte Collar Means Clean Collar

From Think Progress:

14 percent:

The drop in federal corruption prosecutions since President Bush took office, according to a new Syracuse University study. Prosecutions have fallen every year since 2003.

The study also found that “prosecution of all kinds of white-collar criminals” has dropped 27 percent since Bush took office, despite the President’s 2001 promise following the Enron scandal to “do everything in our power to end the days of cooking the books, shading the truth, and breaking our laws.”

Well Then, Let's Go Get High!

A reader of Andrew Sullivan writes:

If worst comes to worst, we might get a president like Hillary, who is that girl nobody really likes but everyone wants in their project group anyways because they know she is smart and will do all the work.

An Historical Perspective

Chicago, Oct. 19—For the Rev. Martin L. King to win the Nobel peace prize for 1964 is, in my opinion, a major fraud foisted on real peace-loving people throughout the world. —Thomas Biety.

When did conservatives first begin questioning the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize? Steve Benen and James Fallows point out that would be 1964, when the Prize was won by Dr. Martin Luther King.

Fallows reaches back to his youthful recollection of how his hometown, which went for Goldwater over Johnson, considered the notion of Dr. King as Nobel-worthy as something merely to sneer at. Looking in on my favorite research tool, Proquest Historical Newspapers, I found documentation for Fallows' recollection—like this letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune (whose flagship right-wing editorial page's reaction to the honor of an American winning the Peace Prize that year was to simply ignore it).

...

William F. Buckley columnized on King's prize with a nastily condescending open letter to the winner (from, apparently, white America itself), headlined, "Dr. King's Position Is Now So High It Includes Responsibility":

We don't expect that,in return for the Establishment's favor, you will become an Uncle Tom. But we do expect that for so long as we agree that you will be the reliquary for the world's inter-racial conscience, you will say something relevant tnow and then about the persecution of people even if they aren't Negroes. Is it a deal, Reverend?

If so, maybe we can go a long way together to make a better world. If not, kindly remember that the Nobel Committee is not a court of canonization, that it is merely one of those riches of the world which in your sermons you have so rightly disdained as of ephemeral importance.

No One Likes A Smart Guy

Krugman Discusses Gore Derangement Syndrome

What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?

Partly it’s a reaction to what happened in 2000, when the American people chose Mr. Gore but his opponent somehow ended up in the White House. Both the personality cult the right tried to build around President Bush and the often hysterical denigration of Mr. Gore were, I believe, largely motivated by the desire to expunge the stain of illegitimacy from the Bush administration.

And now that Mr. Bush has proved himself utterly the wrong man for the job — to be, in fact, the best president Al Qaeda’s recruiters could have hoped for — the symptoms of Gore derangement syndrome have grown even more extreme.
The worst thing about Mr. Gore, from the conservative point of view, is that he keeps being right. In 1992, George H. W. Bush mocked him as the “ozone man,” but three years later the scientists who discovered the threat to the ozone layer won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2002 he warned that if we invaded Iraq, “the resulting chaos could easily pose a far greater danger to the United States than we presently face from Saddam.” And so it has proved.

But Gore hatred is more than personal. When National Review decided to name its anti-environmental blog Planet Gore, it was trying to discredit the message as well as the messenger. For the truth Mr. Gore has been telling about how human activities are changing the climate isn’t just inconvenient. For conservatives, it’s deeply threatening.

The rest is here

There's Always Room

Conceptual Terrorists Encase Sears Tower In Jell-O

CHICAGO—The attackers made it clear America's outdated notion of terrorism has been challenged, and that true terror lies in the futility of human existence.

A Big Red Factor

The man who was referring to Dear Leader as 'The Worst President ever' a more than a year before Rolling Stone committed to the phrrase is showing the strength of 'Progressive Radio".

Showing once again that Progressive Talk is not just Air America and that to be a success in radio, you have to be a radio personality, not just a wonky left-wing celebrity. GT12 is just now able to NOT remember Al Franken's awful radio presence.

Being the victim of 'Chronic Rage Overload' we are leaning more to Stephanie Miller's brand of AM Political Zoo (w/ requisite fart and Brittany jokes) these days but we championed Ed long ago as the Great left Hope.

Progress is being made.

From Raw Story:

Progressive talker Ed Schultz ties Bill O'Reilly in audience size

And they said liberal talk radio would never survive.

According to Talker's Magazine, a trade industry publication, the nation's largest progressive talk show radio host Ed Schultz is now tied in the number of radio listeners to conservative radio personality Bill O'Reilly.

Last November, Schultz leapt from 3pm to 6pm ET to the choice noon to 3pm ET slot, the same time slot as conservative talker Rush Limbaugh and, at the time, Air America's Al Franken.

A new survey by Talkers Magazine listed Schultz's weekly audience at 3.25 million weekly listeners, the same number of listeners enjoyed by O'Reilly, host of the Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor.

Schultz and O'Reilly, along with radio hosts Jim Bohannon, Clark Howard and Doug Stephan, share the number seven slot. The same survey in 2006 pegged the Fargo talker's unique weekly listeners at 2.25 million, sharing the number 10 slot among radio hosts nationwide.

The Ed Schultz Show was the first to "out" Idaho senator Larry Craig (R-ID), ten months before he was caught in an airport bathroom soliciting an undercover cop.
Limbaugh, who had 14.5 million weekly listeners in 2005, has not recovered from his loss of audience reported in the 2006 survey. His audience has been holding steady at 13.5 million listeners since that report.

"To hear some Democrats tell it, the GOP should be afraid," Newsweek's Jonathan Darman penned in a 2005 profile on the Fargo, North Dakota-based Schultz. "Schultz is coming after them and doing it on their own turf, smack dead in the middle of Red State America."

A copy of the Talkers Magazine survey may be seen here.

Schultz's show runs on affiliates and both satellite networks nationwide. He's available online live here.

In Defense Of Ann Coulter

The unpleasant truth is that, Ann is stating the basic tenet of Christianity. It wasn't even until Paul of Tarsus that the salvation (or perfection) of non-jews was even taken seriously by the followers of the Nazarene.

Every faith feels this way about other faiths. Hitchens is right, Religion does make everything worse. You either believe the divissiveness of the message (like Coultergeist) or you hold on to an identity which is as intellectually shallow and dishonest as needs be.

Just be a good person ferchrissakes.

Here's Media Matters:

During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."

After a commercial break, Deutsch said that "Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment," and asked her, "So you don't think that was offensive?" Coulter responded: "No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be. I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe -- this is just a statement of what the New Testament is -- is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament." Coulter later said: "We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all."

GT12 has gained a new appreciation for Coulter's place in the world. We would like to think that she makes people think about what it is to be a person of faith.

And To Think That He 'Lost" Once To A War Criminal

OSLO, Oct. 12 — The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Al Gore, the former American vice president, and to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their work to alert the world to the threat of climate change.

Mr. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, "is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,” the Nobel citation said.

The United Nations committee, a network of 2,000 scientists, has produced two decades of scientific reports that have "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming," it said.
Mr. Gore, who was traveling in San Francisco, said in a statement that he was deeply honored to receive the prize. "I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize," he said in the statement, Reuters reported.

"This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the world’s pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis — a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years," he said, according to Reuters.
"My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis."

As Long As I Can Have My 'E'

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Retires 'D' Chord

CLEVELAND—The D chord, famed for its part in innumerable classic rock songs, including "Back in Black," "Bad Moon Rising," and "Don't Be...

Attoney General's Attorney

Frankly, we'sve just about abandoned all hope that anything related to the Bush Crime Family will actually lead to, well, justice, but Salon reports this and we try to hope ...

Gonzales' lawyer, Gonzales' worry

George Terwilliger just missed becoming George W. Bush's nominee as the next attorney general. The consolation prize: He gets to continue representing former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

As Newsweek reports, Gonzales hired Terwilliger -- a leader of the Bush-Cheney legal team in the 2000 Florida recount fight -- as soon as he left office last month.
The former A.G.'s biggest worry? A former administration official "close to Gonzales' team" tells Newsweek that Gonzales fears that Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine will make a criminal referral -- or call for a special prosecutor -- if he decides that Gonzales lied to Congress when he said there had "not been any serious disagreement" about the president's warrantless surveillance program.

In an e-mail message to Newsweek, Terwilliger confirmed that he's representing Gonzales but tried to put a cheery -- no, heroic -- spin on things. "We have been engaged to assist Judge Gonzales in his continued effort to provide assistance to the Department of Justice as it examines the Department's role in various programs and operations to combat the terrorist threat," Terwilliger said. "An unbiased assessment of the facts will show that Judge Gonzales, while holding high public office during a time of great peril, worked to help maintain the safety and security of the American people and acted always with the intent and commitment to honor the rule of law."

Took the words right out of our mouth.

Soooo Gay!

Wonkette Reports:

The RNC is trying to capitalize on that whole “pink sports apparel for ladies who pretend to like sports” thing by selling their own brand of offensively “feminized” Republican merchandise. They call it “Pink Elephants,” which manages to suggest both homosexuality and DTs-induced hallucination. Great job guys!

Not Gay!

Next Money For Adam Eve?

From ThinkProgress:

Bush Administration Launches National Ad Campaign Promoting Abstinence

4parents.gov is a government website run by the Department of Health and Human Services that is meant to provide parents with “information” to help “teens make healthy choices.”

But this “information” is not grounded in science. A recent federal report concluded that abstinence-only programs have had “no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence.” Yet the latest public service announcement by 4parents.gov “encourages parents to talk with their kids about waiting to have sex.”

In the ad, various children say that they want their parents to talk to them about sex and tell them to “wait.” Near the end, the narrator says, “Tell your kids you want them to wait ’til they’re married to have sex.” Watch it:

In July, ThinkProgress noted that 4parents.gov revised its website to include ideological, unscientific claims about abortion, stating that “some women” feel “sad and some use more alcohol or drugs” after having an abortion.

Additionally, when the site launched in 2005, it told parents “to convince their teens to stop having sex by telling their children that they are ‘worth it.’” But no resources were provided for “parents whose teen remains sexually active, implying that these youth are not ‘worth it.’”

Well, That Settles It

From a CNN Comments section

Obabma was raised a mooslim.I am sure I want to follow after the teaching of the mooslims.Who is obama anyway?A leftist more left then hillary.Yes morons of America vote for obama and see the re;ligion of peace expand into your neighborhood with local beheadings of Chritians.

AAARRRGGGHHH!

Spineless Bastards.

You would think that the 'inevitability' of HRC would at least give The Republicans pause....

From The NY Times

A Democratic bill to be proposed Tuesday in the House would maintain for several years the type of broad, blanket authority for N.S.A. wiretapping that the administration secured in August for just six months. But in an acknowledgment of civil liberties concerns, the measure would also require a more active role by the special foreign intelligence court that oversees the N.S.A.’s interception of foreign-based communications.

A competing proposal in the Senate, still being drafted, may be even closer in line with the administration’s demands, with the possibility of including retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that took part in the N.S.A.’s once-secret program to wiretap without court warrants.

Oh, Then It's OK

Fox News: A Glass-Half Full kind of Place:

From ThinkProgress

Fox News: Global Warming’s ‘Indisputable’ Effects Mean Oil Is ‘More Accessible’

This past July, Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films released “Fox Attacks: The Environment.” The short film documented Fox News’ assault on global warming science. Watch it here.

In a new series billed by Fox News as the “Race for the Arctic,” the network has responded by sending a reporter to Greenland to document first-hand observations of glaciers receding, icebergs breaking off, and other drastic climate-changing effects.
But if you think that Fox’s “race for the arctic” is a race to educate and inform the public about global warming, you are mistaken. In fact, from Fox’s perspective, the “race” is actually a race for oil. Fox News reporter Jonathan Hunt explained:

The melting ice cap is making the Arctic’s resources much more accessible. Now that is vital. Because beneath the Arctic Ocean, scientists estimate there may be a full 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves. There is now a race on to get to those reserves.

The Dean Of Landscape Architecture

Mr. G Baker directs GT12 to this great trailer for "Harmonious World" an upcoming documentary on legendary landscape architect Jens Jensen. Chicago is home to many of Jensen's most stunning and significant work.

The film is being Produced, Written and Directed by Mark Frazel and Carey Lundin, close friends of Mr G. Baker. We believe that Mr Baker himself, too humble to mention it, helped with the, uh, rhythm of the film.

From the producers' website:

At his death the NY Times called him the "dean of landscape architecture." Yet Jensen is barely known outside architectural landscape circles. This film will bring his name to prominence where it belongs alongside Frederick Law Olmsted. He left a powerful legacy: pioneering the conservation movement to save the Indiana Dunes and Starved Rock; setting aside the Cook County Forest Preserves; popularizing the Prarie Style of design; designing the first American Garden and making parks and playgrounds for everyday people.

Jensens's message of environmentalism and design are as fresh today as they were over a century ago: the movement to plant and save the prarie, to idealize it and use it as a design motif to set aside land for recreation. Today, the fight to save our planet is one of our most important issues, we will spotlight the current battles for the Dunes, parks and forest preserve that continue even now.

The film will be released in 2008. Look for it on PBS too!

Nothin' Gay Here

Just a wide-stance, a phallic date and what one can assume are a pair of blue balls.

War Criminal

I'm Taking this in it's entirety from Sullivan because I am speechless (probably the hoped for reaction):

"After reading the full investigative piece in the NYT today on how this administration decided on breaking America's historic ban on torture and then pursued a long, corrupting policy of ensuring that the interpretation of the law was politicized to keep torture alive, it is hard to disagree with Marty Lederman:

Between this and Jane Mayer's explosive article in August about the CIA blacksites, I am increasingly confident that when the history of the Bush Administration is written, this systematic violation of statutory and treaty-based law concerning fundamental war crimes and other horrific offenses will be seen as the blackest mark in our nation's recent history -- not only because of what was done, but because the programs were routinely sanctioned, on an ongoing basis, by numerous esteemed professionals -- lawyers, doctors, psychologists and government officers -- without whose approval such a systematized torture regime could not be sustained.

"The way in which conservative lawyers, and conservative intellectuals, and conservative journalists aided and abetted these war crimes; the way in which the president of the United States revealed so much contempt for the law that he put a candidate to run the Office of Legal Counsel on probation before he appointed him in order to keep the torture regime in place, the way in which Republicans and Democrats in the Congress pathetically refused to stand up to these violations of American honor and decency in any serious way (and, I'm sorry, Senator McCain, but in the end, you caved, as you always do lately): these will go down in history as some of the most shameful decisions these people ever made. Perhaps a sudden, panicked decision by the president to use torture after 9/11 is understandable if unforgivable. But the relentless, sustained attempt to make torture permanent part of the war-powers of the president, even to the point of abusing the law beyond recognition, removes any benefit of the doubt from these people. And they did it all in secret - and lied about it when Abu Ghraib emerged. They upended two centuries of American humane detention and interrogation practices without even letting us know. And the decision to allow one man - the decider - to pre-empt and knowingly distort the rule of law in order to detain and torture anyone he wants - is a function not of conservatism, but of fascism.

"James Comey - one of the principled conservatives, like Jack Goldsmith, who actually supported the rule of law and American decency - put it succinctly enough:said. But he argued that government lawyers must uphold the principles of their

"We are likely to hear the words: 'If we don’t do this, people will die,'" Mr. Comey said. But he argued that government lawyers must uphold the principles of great institutions.

"It takes far more than a sharp legal mind to say ‘no’ when it matters most," he said. "It takes moral character. It takes an understanding that in the long run, intelligence under law is the only sustainable intelligence in this country."

"A couple of things need to be stressed, because I've learned the hard way that intelligent people simply refuse to absorb what is staring them in the face, when what is staring them in the face is so staggering:

Never in history had the United States authorized such tactics.

"There is no doubt - no doubt at all - that these tactics are torture and subject to prosecution as war crimes.

'We know this because the law is very clear when you don't have war criminals like AEI's John Yoo rewriting it to give one man unchecked power.

"We know this because the very same techniques - hypothermia, long-time standing, beating - and even the very same term "enhanced interrogation techniques" - "verschaerfte Vernehmung" in the original German - were once prosecuted by American forces as war crimes.

"The perpetrators were the Gestapo. The penalty was death. You can verify the history here.

"We have war criminals in the White House. What are we going to do about it?"

OK, All Of You Without Adam's Apples Out Of The Tent

ANN COULTER [to The New York Observer]: If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.

It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it’s the party of women and 'We’ll pay for health care and tuition and day care -- and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?'

Fabulous!

Wonkette informs:

John Manlove, Dick Day and Jay Footlik are real people, running for Congress

Borrow And Spend Conservatives

Remember when "Tax And Spend Democrats" was a slur?

Really Hardball

Jon Stewart gives Chris Mattews the grilling of his 'Life"

A MUST WATCH.

Heart Throb

New Heart Device Allows Cheney To Experience Love

WASHINGTON, DC —"He broke free from the straps that secured him to the bed as he normally does after heart surgery. But then he hugged me," Cheney's cardiologist said.

The Rare Veto

Forget about signing statements, when Dear leader wants to let us know his values he vetoes.

From Salon:

What would Jesus veto?

George W. Bush this morning quietly vetoed legislation that would have expanded health coverage for children by increasing the federal tax on cigarettes. The bill passed with large bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate. The president vetoed it today behind closed doors, with no ceremony and no press present.

It was only the fourth time the man who ran as a "compassionate conservative" has exercised his veto power.

The other three:

July 19, 2006: Bush vetoes a bill that would have lifted restriction on the use of federal funds for research on stem-cell lines derived from embryos that would otherwise be destroyed by fertility clinics.

May 1, 2007: Bush vetoes a bill that would have tied continuing funding for the war in Iraq to a timetable for ending it.

June 20, 2007: Bush once again vetoes a bill that would have allowed federally funded research on stem-cell lines derived from embryos that would otherwise be destroyed by fertility clinics.

Supporters of the child healthcare bill Bush vetoed this morning seem to have enough votes to overcome his veto in the Senate but not in the House.

Something For Rudy To Shoot For

Via Political Wire:

Top Five Dirtiest Presidential Campaigns

From Anything for a Vote by Joseph Cummins, the top five "dirtiest" presidential campaigns of all time:

5. 1972: Richard Nixon vs. George McGovern -- The Republican incumbent Nixon brought out all the heavy guns here -- dirty tricks to sow divisiveness among Democratic incumbents in the primaries, race-baiting, IRS intimidation of Democratic big wigs, the Enemies List, press manipulation, and, of course, the Watergate burglary by the Special Investigations Unit, aka "the Plumbers."

4. 1800: Thomas Jefferson vs. John Adams -- Wayback in only the third election ever held in this country, Thomas Jefferson of the Republicans and John Adams of the Federalists went at it tooth and nail, with Republicans hiring hack writers to attack the incumbent Adams as a "hideous hermaphroditical character." whatever that means, and Federalsts claiming that Jefferson slept with slaves. The close election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where Jefferson almost certainly made a secret deal to win it all.

3. 2000: George W. Bush vs. Al Gore -- Surprisingly, not the low-down dirtiest election on record, but pretty bad, with Republicans acting in a truly narrow, partisan fashion at every stage to subvert the democratic process and hand victory to George W. Bush.

2. 1964: Lyndon Johnson vs. Barry Goldwater -- Not as well know as Nixon's 1972 dirty tricks election, Johnson's 1964 win over Goldwater featured the cynical manufacturing of anti-Goldwater stories planted with gullible reporters; children's coloring books portraying Goldwater as a Klansman; CIA invasion of Goldwater's campaign; and FBI bugging of Goldwater's campaign plane.

1. 1876: Rutherford Hayes vs. Samuel Tilden -- This is the granddaddy of them all: a truly stolen election in which Republicans turned defeat into victory for Rutherford Hayes by counting Democratic votes as their own in three Southern states. Both parties used violence to intimidate former black slaves for their votes. And not to mention that Republicans extorted 2% of the salaries of Federal employees to aid in their campaign efforts, or that Democrats accused Hayes of shooting his mother and robbing the dead, or that Republicans claimed that Samuel Tilden suffered from venereal disease