He must reject hate and the agents of hate. Unconditionally. He must do more than reject Donnie McClurkin's message, he must reject Donnie McClurkin. He must do more than reject Kirbyjon Caldwell's message, he must reject Kirbyjon Caldwell. When he sincerely apologizes for pandering to bigots and unambiguously rejects their contributions to his campaign, I will, without hesitation, jump on the Obama bandwagon. But if he continues on the tack he's been taking; if he continues to reject hate,...

Unless all the neighborhoods in Seattle are served, and large portions of the eastern suburbs, I think light rail will not do a lot toward reducing traffic. I freely admit that I am not as familiar with the northern and southern parts of the area covered as I am with Seattle and the east side. Comments, of course, are welcome. (Image) At the center of the system I'd like a large loop, denoted in black and white. All of the major lines in the system would originate from this loop. To the no...

What would you do about light rail? I recently moved back to Seattle and after 6 years away I'm surprised and encouraged that some progress actually appears to be happening. I'm fairly disappointed in the extremely limited route for the first leg: downtown (or maybe the UW) to the airport. Seriously? That's it? Even the roads and transit measure is fairly disappointing in how limited it is. So, what would you do to improve the system? I've got plenty of ideas I'll post shortly, but here's...

From the BBC's daily photos for (Image) US Vice-President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne accompanied the Queen and Prince Philip on their trip to Jamestown.

Step one: Stuffing of Garlic, leeks, mushrooms, nuts, apples, pears, and butter. (Image) Step two: Add the stale bread, some red wine, and chopped liver. (Image) Step three: Wash the turkey, then stuff fresh herbs under the skin (which I might add is a pain in the ass while holding a camera). (Image) Step four: Stuff the turkey. (Image) Step five: Oil up the skin, sprinkle with salt pepper and herbs, and then in you go: (Image) Step six: Baste like your life depended on it! (Image) Step se...

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It's like the Philippines. After the US ousted the Spanish from the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, US troops occupied the country, imposed democracy on our terms, and fought a bloody guerrilla war for fourteen years that resulted in over 9,000 American casualties and at least a quarter of a million Filipino deaths. A spooky parallel can be drawn by the United States declaring the Philippines War over 11 years before it actually ended. I'll leave you with a quote about the War from...

Judge: Make Bills Recognizable to Blind By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer Wednesday, November 29, 2006 05 22 AM The government discriminates against blind people by printing money that all looks and feels the same, a federal judge said Tuesday in a ruling that could change the face of American currency. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart. He said he wouldn't tell officials how to fix the problem, bu...

WTF! After three days of euphoric celebration across a grateful nation the corporate news hacks are giddy that James Carville and "party insiders" want to dump Howard Dean as party chair. Why you ask? Because he didn't play nice with Rahm Emmanuel. WTF! First: I have been on this website for more than five years. I, like most of you, follow politics more than probably 99% of the general populace. You wanna know how many times I heard about this Dean-Emmanuel infighting? Exactly ONCE in a...

This is a list of closing times for polls in all fifty states as well as races to watch. If a state is in two time zones, the time listed is the closing time in the trailing time zone. The races listed include credible Dem Gubernatorial and Senatorial candidates as well as competitive House races. Data compiled from and . 7:00 PM EST Georgia GA-12 Indiana IN-02 IN-03 IN-07 IN-08 IN-09 Kentucky KY-03 KY-04 South Carolina SC-05 Vermont Senate VT-AL Virginia Senate VA-02 VA...

We all know that Rush Limbaugh channeled Bill Frist for a , and we all know how well that worked for Frist. What isn't widely known is that this mirrors a huge blunder by the Progressive Conservative Party in Canada in the 1993 election. Liberal leader Jean Chretien has Bell's Palsy and suffers from a facial paralysis, but the PCs went ahead and decided to put up an ad . The ad backfired horribly and with many other issues caused the PCs to go from a majority government to two seats in the en...

SENATE (Image) Blue states are Democratic wins, red states are Republican wins, yellow states are independent wins, and purple states are too close to call. States marked with an asterisk are pickups. 1) I think that , , , and are pretty much done deals as all reputable pollsters have been showing the Democratic challengers in big leads for a long time. 2) and are much less certain, but recently the Democratic challengers have an edge in polling so I'm willing to say that they'll go our w...

(Image) (Image) calls it a Mw 4.2. This curiously showed up about three hours after the test supposedly happened (9:36 PM eastern). VERY SKETCHY ESTIMATE OF YIELD According to 's page on the Moment magnitude scale, the relative yield of a nuclear weapon can be determined based on the moment magnitude using the following equation (be sure to read the caveats on the page, this arithmatic is FAR from set in stone): (Image) 4.2 = (2/3)(log10(mTNT/kg)) 6.3 = (log10(mTNT/kg)) 1,995,262kg = mTNT...

Supposedly this is on in heavy "rotation," but I first saw it last night during SNL. Probably the best ad I've seen this year: (Link)

I know we've had a bad couple of days, but here's the thing: if we give up on the party, it'll only get worse. We need a Democratic Congress next year, and I intend to do anything I can to make that happen. Including donating as much money as I can. So who needs money? I've made a list of people that are in competitive races and need some money. I'm not donating to shoe-ins (like Spitzer) or lost causes (like Groutage), but to people who can actually use my money. Am I missing anyone? Is ...

After the Montana Broadcasters Association warned its stations not to play it because of "vulgar" language, it's finally on the air with "offensive language" beeped out and ---- instead of offensive text. The unedited version of the ad can be seen here: (Link)

Election day 2006 is six weeks from today. Here are some thoughts on how it's looking to me right now. THE SENATE (Image) Blue states are states I predict a Democratic victory, red states are states I predict a Republican victory, purple states are states I think are too close to call at the moment, and yellow states are states I predict will be won by an Independent. Arizona Kyl's leading in polls, but depending on who you ask, it's not by much. I think Kyl will probably end up winning at...

Please allow me to take a trip down my own memory lane. Eight years ago, when I was much younger, I briefly dated a guy named Mike. Mike was a sweet guy, very smart, good looking, and generally fun to be around. Our relationship ended when he went back with his ex, a very pretty, but horrifyingly immature drug addict named Scott. They had "history." Amid all the anger I have felt concerning Mike and Scott, above all I have a fond memory. In fact, it's the fondest memory of the most perfe...

This woman has a doctorate? Yet she can't see she's creating a and (at the very least), two major major ? And RW nutters will fall for this bullshit like it's straight from Jesus' own lips.... :eyes: Rice: Being Anti-War Is Being Pro-Slavery By BET.com News Staff & Wire Services Posted Sept. 6, 2006 – If you’re against the war in Iraq, you might as well consider yourself pro-slavery, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In a recent interview with Essence magazine, Rice said ...

I went into the local campaign office this afternoon to pick up a bumper sticker, but also to ask a question that has been nagging me for a few weeks. Not long after the primary the Burns campaign put out an add saying that Tester was for gay marriage. Within days the Montana Democratic Party put out an ad saying that Tester was for traditional marriage and opposed gay marriage. All I wanted to know was if Tester would vote for or against the FMA, and if Tester is for Civil Unions. I went in...

I think it's how you act on your moderate views that makes all the difference. I'm from Washington, but I've been living in Montana for the last five years. In both states fairly moderate Democrats voted for the war (Cantwell and Baucus respectively). The reason that Cantwell and Baucus (and Nelson and Clinton and Biden etc) aren't vilified by the anti-war left is because they don't do things like equate opposition to Bush with treason: Lieberman: "It is time for Democrats who distrust Pre...

Montana's junior senator has certainly said some doozies in the past ( , ). But these are almost child's play compared to his latest tirade accusing wilderness firefighters of being "lazy": Report: Burns called firefighters lazy Original account revealed; senator issues apology for altercation at airport By CHARLES S. JOHNSON Gazette State Bureau HELENA - U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns pointed across the Billings airport Sunday and accused a member of an elite firefighting team of not doing "a God da...

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Or: "A red banner, crossed by six white stripes, with a blue canton defaced by fifty white five-pointed stars." I'm sorry, but I have to go with the first. The recent ...

I just got back from your wonderful state. It's amazing on the coast, and it makes me wonder why I'm still living in Montana. One thing though, one thing I find highly annoying. Perhaps the entire state was sick on this day of driver's ed, but you use one particular road sign incorrectly. It's this one: (Image) That sign means "divided highway." All of your roadway engineers seem to think it means "no passing zone." I'm sorry Oregon, but this means no passing zone: (Image) Ya see how it sa...

There's a great hiking trail just north of Bozeman Montana. It's not very long, but can be quite strenuous. There's actually three routes. A "popular" way, a "shortcut" and a "rigorous" way. These routes are about 1.5 miles, 1 mile, and 0.5 miles respectively: (Image) It's a short hike, but seeing as we're about a mile high, and the elevation gain is over 800 feet it can kick your ass. O, but the view's worth it: (Image) What you're hiking to is a giant letter "M" at the top of a grassy...

During last night's episode of LOST, there was another fake commercial for the Hanso Foundation. This ad ended with the address of a new Hanso website called (Link) which comes up with a screen that looks like this: (Image) The compass pointer spins around pointing at your cursor, but not much else. Until you put your cursor about one centimeter under the E. The this overlay screen pops up: (Image) What are those numbers? Well, it's the values of tan(x). Except for 90 and 270 degrees, t...

I was walking into Barnes and Noble today and literally stopped dead in my tracks: was looking back up at me. I had to buy it. It's hilarious. From short shorts to batwing sleeves to moonboots to mustaches to cravats to culottes to snoods. SNOODS! (Image)

They didn't like my Tahoe ad. :-( --- The Results Are In On behalf of Chevy and the all new 2007 Tahoe, we’d like to thank you for your outstanding effort in the Chevy Online Apprentice contest. Thousands entered, millions checked out the Tahoe site and your response was overwhelming. The commercial you submitted was strong but, after careful deliberation, we’ve decided to go in another direction. If you joined us in the online boardroom on April 27, you already know the quality of the competi...

There is a popular hiking trail near my home, called the M trail. Which should be explained I guess.... Schools and universities in Montana will put their school's initials up on a hill or mountain. anyway, there are a couple of trails that go to the M in Bozeman. The normal route (green) is about 1.2 miles, and gains 800 feet in elevation. There is an extreme route (pink) that's just 3/4 mile, but it very steep, poorly maintained, and covered in loose gravel. Only insane people go the shor...

This was the headline of our local paper today: EIGHTH!? What the flying fuck!? I can understand one DUI, people shouldn't drink and drive, but everyone makes mistakes and hopefully getting pulled over will be a huge wakeup call. I can even understand a second DUI.... But when do you cross the line from "poor decision maker" to "menace?" I'd say three DUIs. Surely it would be crossed with four or five. Definitely six, right? But eight DUIs!? I have got to out of this state, and fast!