This is just so upsetting... (Link) Washington -- A group of Wisconsinites with disabilities vowed Wednesday to keep protesting the Ryan budget after many of them were arrested this week demonstrating in congressional office buildings. “Rep. Ryan is going to be seeing us again sooner or later … We aren’t going away,” said Jerome Holzbauer, a retired Milwaukee schoolteacher who has cerebral palsy. Holzbauer was arrested Monday with 90 others from Wisconsin and other states while protesting Ry...

Exxon, BP, TEPCO... Now, the difference here obviously is that TEPCO is the result of a natural disaster. The other two were man-made. However, one could argue this too has man-made elements. But seriously, what is it about energy corporations that make them so insidious? Just curious if there's a diagnosis, or if that's just how it goes.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin's website crashed under the load tonight. Help us recall all the bastards. Please. (Link)/ Spread the link. Send your $$$.

The only truth-tellers I've ever known in politics. (Image) (Image) (Image)

Time again for a debate about incendiary political speech. (Link) What We Learned in Oklahoma City By BILL CLINTON Published: April 18, 2010 FIFTEEN years ago today, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City claimed the lives of 168 men, women and children. It was, until 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in United States history. But what emerged in its aftermath — the compassion, caring and love that countless Americans from all walks of life extended to the victims a...

I’ve been having the strangest feelings lately about politics. I worked for John Kerry’s campaign in 2004. I worked for a prominent Democrat for three years who struggled in a Republican-controlled Senate. I left that great job to get a little bit more education under the hood. But, ever since Obama trounced the previously derailed McCain-Palin train wreck and did his oath and “The Fox News-Mandated Oath Sequel” with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States John Roberts (full ...

For the second debate in smilies, see here: (Link) Bob Schieffer: Evening everyone, welcome to the 49th!!! and final debate of this election. Let's bring out the Senators. :applause: BS: Welcome, fellas. That's lovely lipstick you're wearing, Senator. JMc: Yeah, and he thought Sarah was the pig. Heh. :shrug: BS: Wall Street tanked again. Your thoughts? JMc: Well, Bob, we should have had more town halls. We could have had ten by now! Americans are angry about this situation. An...

I know it's not a winning issue to discuss, because human nature is to like food more than doctors and exercise, but this country is literally eating itself to extinction (Slight exaggeration. Slight.): (Image) Roughly 33% of our country has a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher. That is sad and pathetic. Obesity costs the average tax payer $800/year in costs to Medicare and Medicaid. It costs airlines more money to get off the ground. The average obese American misses twice as much work...

I have noticed that there's a little too much certainty about victory on DU lately. It is NOT November 5th. Barack Obama is NOT our next president. So quit acting like he is. Quit saying "This or that state is no longer a swing state." and "This or that site says there's a 119% chance he'll win!" No state is set. No poll is perfect. No probability, no matter how high, is certain. NO LEAD IS SAFE. This is politics, people. 25 days is an eternity. Get up and knock on some doors, make so...

TB: Good evening everybody. I'm Tom Brokaw and I love John McCain. :pals: TB: Tonight, we're joined by Barack Obama. :headbang: TB: And my hero, a damn fine man who you should vote for, John McCain. :patriot: TB: So, everybody STFU other than right now, and let's bring 'em out. :applause: TB: Oliver "He's Black" Clark over there, you have a question?! :-( Oli: What are you going to do about this shitty economy? :shrug: Mac: ...but you wouldn't know anything about Fannie and Fred...

Man that was offensive. The true McCain shown through at that moment, more than most of the other notable moments. But that really stuck out to me. Senator, would he not know because he's black? Because he's young? Why? How do you know he's not in a public policy MA program studying America's housing crisis? Whatever it was that caused him to infer that Oliver, a politically involved young man, is a moron, is not a presidential quality. The fact that he asked the question should have g...

4 fucking trillion?!!!??? We just can't sustain that kind of irresponsibility... (Link) With no fanfare and little notice, the national debt has grown by more than $4 trillion during George W. Bush’s presidency. It’s the biggest increase under any president in U.S history. On the day President Bush took office, the national debt stood at $5.727 trillion. The latest number from the Treasury Department shows the national debt now stands at more than $9.849 trillion. That’s a 71.9 percent inc...

Looks like the economic downturn is catching up to Mitch McConnell. He was up only one point in a poll released on Sunday: (Image) (Link) He's not the only one... Check out Georgia: (Image) and Oregon: (Image) and North Carolina: (Image) We'll be seeing more of this by the weekend.

Someone asked that I update my thread from last week on this issue. (Link) Things haven't changed much at the presidential level, so I decided to include a Senate and House section. Any input is certainly welcome! Enjoy and I hope this will help some breathe a sigh of relief. Which election to start with? There's so many to choose from... SENATE I project the Dems will get to 57 Senators. (For now, I will assume that we keep Lieberman in the caucus. Meh.) That's not quite enough for a clo...

Regardless of the fact that we shouldn't even have to be trying to win this race (Do your damn job, MSM!), the Constitution requires we focus on the Electoral Map to secure the win. I took off my partisan hat, and put on my political scientist hat for this analysis. Going back too far in time is not useful for this type of analysis, so I went only as far as 2000. I hope everyone finds it useful and has something to add. The map, when blank, looks like this: (Image) Basic principal: It tak...

We need the media to ask the important questions of our time, not talk about lipstick: "What do you think should be the long-term commitments and level of potential support for a stable Afghanistan? Could you also elaborate on your campaign's plan to mitigate the effects of our tumultuous relationship with the leadership in Islamabad on our reported covert military operations and intelligence sources in the border region?"

Holy Joe and his Holy Shit don't deserve the time and pondering I'm offering him. But I can't help myself because I just can't get over this guy. We once put him on OUR ticket. We allow him in OUR caucus. We keep him as OUR chairman. For what? Fine. OK. We don't really have a choice because we have to keep a majority. Fine. OK. We reluctantly accept that. But we do it at the risk of our dignity as Democrats. After all, our party is premised on, among other things, tolerance and acce...

They never liked him there anyway, and he did as well as expected. Elizabeth seems to be in good spirits, and gave a great introduction. She truly will be an inspirational first lady. He is just as viable as the other two Democratic candidates. He held his speech, a brilliant speech, in an abandoned mill, further underscoring his dedication and sincerity. Corporate greed stands in the way of change, and we all know it - if you don't, watch out for the jackhammer, followed by the steamroller...

It's as though Cicero rode in on an independent pony, somehow wooed a plurality of their votes, and then bored them to sleep with his victory speech. Is it just me or was his speech the worst possible thing he could have said? He READ it with his head down the entire time. Not only that, the language and message was completely inaccessible to the average voter, especially the average bonehead Freeper ("McCAIN won, THIS IS. HUUUUGH!!!1! But, uh, scratch head, I don't know what the word 'plura...

He was vastly outspent, He was completely ignored by the corporate media all year, He fights for the common man, His wife would be the most magnificent first lady in history, He carries the mantle of the true progressives within the Democratic Party, and he FUCKING CAME IN SECOND! NONE OF THESE THINGS SPELLS THE END OF HIS CAMPAIGN OR HIS POPULISM! Shout it loud and clear to everyone you know tomorrow.

(Image) OR (Image)

After reading the Pat Tillman threads, this question came to me: "Isn't every death in the "War On Terror" questionable?" Hell, even the deaths on 9/11/01, the inspiration for the U.S. "War On Terror," deserve to be questioned. How could it happen? How did it happen? Will we ever know what really happened? This is not to say Iraq is even a PART of the "War On Terror." It was not a country where Al-Qa eda or any other significant terrorist organization (Hezbollah and all the rest) was ope...

Sorry, I'm a slow reader, and if there's any of you out there yet who have picked up this book, prepare to drool over words. I don't necessarily like to read books, and when I do, it's almost always non-fiction and in the political realm. Finding the time to read is difficult, it's almost always on trains or planes. I much prefer my list of favorite blogs, forums, and magazines over a good book. It's sad for me, I know. In anticipation of this book, I had planned my trip to a friendly and ne...

He has the experience, charisma, and confidence to clean up the big mess the Neo-Cons have made of our country, and set us on a path to economic viability, environmental sustainability, and he can convince a good many people of a national progressive agenda. He's fiscally conservative. He's been against the war from the beginning, though he did support Operation Desert Fox in 1998 which cleaned up a great deal of the remainder of Iraq's weapon-producing abilities. He is one of the nation's fo...

(Image) :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: Fear.

We need a few protests pre-Election Day, to REAAALLLYYY make those Republican fuckers address the war issue. DU should sponsor it! In fact, DU should have our own political action committee for this sort of thing...

This is criminal, and I am fucking incensed. 435 members of the WI army national guard were sent to Iraq with poor training. The Army knew about their training, and let them be. As a direct result, 27 year old Steve Castner, of Cedarburg, WI, died a week after going to Iraq. He's gone. He's not coming back. He died honorably in a war that he did actually believe in, but the cause of his death could very easily have been prevented. This is criminal negligence on the part of the Bush admini...

Who will be our new poster boy of Republican corruption in Congress? - Frist? - Allen? - Boehner? Who will wield the hammer?! - McConnell? - Sensenbrenner? - Butch Otter? Who will get the OFFICIAL "scum of the Earth" title? - Tancredo? - Santorum? - Jean Schmidt? Oh the things I must ponder... but first, I must shed a tear for Mr. Delay, and write my adieu: Dear Tom, You won't be missed. When you die many people will piss on your grave. Don't fret - what goes around comes around. You sir...

In advance, sorry to all Bay-area DUers. (Link) Barry Bonds has tarnished his own image much too much by breaking the rules of baseball. I don't know how any serious baseball fan can take this man seriously. He's not a role model for kids. He consistently shows scorn in public for his team/fans/the game/commissioner... He's a proven cheater. He lends no credibility to atheletes in his game. He deserves an asterisk next to all of his records. It does the game of baseball no good to have this m...