Being Liberal and a Progressive in a RED STATE is not an easy thing these days. I started this blog to vent my frustrations on our lives being taken over by right wing conservatives with their propaganda machines. I have also learned an important lesson in the last year, it is that reading is the only way to get real information, you cannot depend on the news you see on TV.

"I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE"....Howard Beale (NETWORK)

Friday, March 31, 2006

Great Question!!!!!!

Thursday, March 30, 2006

New Campbell's Soup

From All Hat and No Cattle

Mr. Fish

I love the polical cartoons of Mr. Fish:



Global Warming

No More Free Speech in America

Denise Grier is a nurse at Emory University hospital in Georgia.

On March 10, she was driving home from dinner when a Dekalb County police officer pulled her over.

“At least initially, I was just surprised because I hadn’t done anything wrong,” she says.

“When he approached the car, he had his hand on his weapon, and I was in my nurse’s uniform with a stethoscope around my neck. He asked for my license, and then said, ‘Any idea why I stopped you.’

“I said no.

“ ‘You have a lewd decal on your car.’ ”

Woman Gets $100 Ticket for BUSHIT Bumpersticker

Shifting to the Left

This is good news:

Gallup: In Shift, More Americans Now Call Themselves Democrats

NEW YORK In a (perhaps) historic shift, more Americans now consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, the Gallup organization revealed today.

Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point behind. But Gallup says this widens a bit more "once the leanings of Independents are taken into account."

Independents now make up 34% of the population. When asked if they lean in a certain direction, their answers pushed the Democrat numbers to 49% with Republicans at 42%. One year ago, the parties were dead even at 46% each.

This shift indicates, Gallup says, why its polls show Democrats leading in this year's congressional races.

The latest poll was taken from January to March 2006, with a national sample of about 1,000 adults.

Vaffanculo


Our Supreme Court at its BEST:

Amid a growing national controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with the picture.

“It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment,” said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who made the shot.
Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.”
Smith said the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ”

.......“The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.
The Italian phrase means “(f---) you......”

Photographer: Herald got it right

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Quote of the Day


"We're now down to the final four. Not college basketball. The number of people who still think President Bush is doing a good job."
---Jay Leno

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Draft the Twins

Cool A Missouri Dem asks why the Bush Twins aren't enlisting in King George's War:

from Explore for Truth:

Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. of Missouri called for the removal of our troops from Iraq. That is not all he said

"President Bush took this country to war by choice, not because we had to fight but because he wanted a fight," Clay said, according to a text of the speech he gave Monday at St. Louis Community College at Meramec in Kirkwood.

"I have a question for President Bush," said Clay, who voted against the resolution authorizing Bush to go to war in Iraq. "If you really believe that the war that you started in Iraq is a fight to defeat terrorism and to defend our freedoms, why haven't your girls enlisted?"

It's A Miracle -- Bush Leans Left

I got this for my Birthday yesterday, notice he leans left -- after I saw that I couldn't bring myself to punch him too hard!

Monday, March 20, 2006

Picture of the Day

Friday, March 17, 2006

Happy Days Are Here Again!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Missouri Bans Contraceptives for Poor

My state has lost its mind.

House OKs birth control funding ban

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House voted Wednesday to ban state funding of contraceptives for low-income women and to prohibit state-funded programs from referring those women to other programs.

So the right to life groups don't want abortion but still don't want you to have contraceptives. The thing is here people the real true meaning of this is: THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO HAVE SEX -- Period, and if you are married and you do they want you pregnant at all times.

If these crazy people start getting their way, right after they kill Roe the next thing they go after is Griswold v. Connecticut. What they really want is to ban all women from birth control. That's the deep dark secret here and most of America doesn't realize it. Maybe now some will wake up and see where we are headed. Right back to the dark ages.

The real agenda of these folks is to keep women at home and pregnant. They have been wanting this since women got the vote. Once women could have some control over their bodies, they could work and have careers and these people just can't stand that.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Claire McCaskill Better Known Than Talent


I'd say that is a good sign, it appears Jim Talent's name is less known than Claire McCasskill here in Missouri.


From KC.com:

“It’s hard to believe someone who’s been elected statewide twice and on the statewide ballot three times also remains a bit unidentified.” –– Jennifer Duffy, Senate campaign analyst at the nonpartisan C ook Political Report

Building Sen. Jim Talent’s positive name ID is a fairly routine task, Duffy said. “But it’s an expensive fix.”

Talent would seem to be able to afford it. His $4.7 million was more than three times Claire McCaskill’s pile at year’s end.

So he may end up spending a chunk of cash in western Missouri, where he’s still a bit of a blank slate.

“For someone who’s a Republican and had no contact with the party, I cannot imagine that they would know very much about him,” said Sandy Kauffman, a former Republican state lawmaker.

“He does give the impression in isolated bits that he is not interested in doing much for the metropolitan Kansas City area,” Kauffman said.

If you live in MO give a little to the McCaskill campaign fund

Claire McCaskill for Senate Fund




Quote of the Day

From Spike Lee on Condi Rice running for Prez:

“African-Americans will have to really, really, really, really, really, REALLY analyze the Secretary of State’s record, and get past the pigmentation of her skin.” If we do that, I don’t think we can vote for her. I’m not the spokesperson for 45 million African Americans … but that’s my right as an American citizen.
Hopefully, that right hasn’t been rescinded yet. I’m not going to vote for that woman. No. Way.”

Spike’s Pique

Obama for President


Maureen Dowd, columinist for NYT says dems should groom Barack Obama for President in 2008. She opines:

"The weak and pathetic Democrats seem to move inexorably toward candidates who turn a lot of people off," she advises. "They should find someone captivating with an intensely American success story... and shape the campaign around that leader....


"The Democrats should not dismiss a politically less experienced but personally more charismatic prospect as 'an empty vessel.' Maybe an empty vessel can fill the room."

Barack to the Future? Maureen Dowd Kisses Off Hillary, Yearns for Obama

I think it is a great idea. Hillary ain't gonna win folks. The Clintons are hated by too many people, and do we really want 4 to 8 more years of this crap like we have now, the bashing, the hatred, the polarization of the country.

I think someone fresh with no baggage might just be able to pull us all together. Well maybe not everyone (we'll never be embraced by the far right) but they are just a small percentage of the Republican party.

OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Me Thinks He's Trying to Tell You Something Condi!

When I saw this on the news last night I almost fell on the floor laughing:

Morales' present for Rice seems laced with message:

Strumming a traditional Bolivian guitar, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice smiled over any tensions Saturday as she emerged from her first meeting with Latin America's latest leftist firebrand, Bolivian President Evo Morales, a former coca grower who has called himself Washington's worst nightmare.

Although the officials beamed for reporters, Morales had handed Rice a gift symbolic of the tensions between his South American nation and the United States.

Apparently unknown to her, the back of her new charango, a ukulele-size instrument with five pairs of strings and a sound recognized worldwide as distinctly Andean, was lacquered with Bolivian coca leaves.

The leaves are used to produce cocaine.

Huge Story -- Where's the Reporters?

It should be a huge story when a Justice of the Supreme Court makes a speech that says America could be heading toward a dictatorship. Where's the coverage? Unless you read blogs or online newpapers, or newspapers in Europe, it is something you will never see.

From the Guardian UK:

Dictatorship is the danger

A Reagan-appointed supreme court justice voices her fears over attacks on US democracy

Linking the words "America" and "dictatorship" is a daily staple of leftwing blogs, which thrive on the idea that Bush administration policies since 9/11 are taking the country ever closer to totalitarian rule. Liberal fears that democracy is endangered by Republicans in Congress are so widespread, so endemic to the jittery political climate in the US, that they hardly bear repeating. It'll surprise no one to learn that another voice was added to the chorus last Thursday, warning that recent attacks on the American judiciary were putting the democratic fabric in jeopardy and were the first steps down the treacherous path to dictatorship

What is surprising - more than that, electrifying - is that the voice belonged to Sandra Day O'Connor, who retired a few weeks ago from the supreme court. O'Connor is a Republican and a Reagan nominee. Regarded as the "swing vote" on the court, she swung the presidential election to George Bush in 2000.

Honey Chile Just Play In Your Own Backyard

This reminded me so much of that song my Mom used to sing:

Honey chile just play in your own backyard, don't mind what those white chiles say
Just go out and play, as much as you may, but stay in your own backyard.

In 1954, Mamie Eisenhower allowed African-American parents and their children on the White House lawn for the first time at the annual Easter Egg Roll. She did not consider the decision political, but for many white citizens, the only blacks they wanted to see on the White House lawn were gardeners.

From Got Detroit:

The Annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House back lawn will include children of gay or same sex relationships. Surprisingly, some rather friendly, open-minded, yet raucous groups are upset by this.


“For crying out loud, at the Easter egg roll? This is a family event,” said exasperated executive director Andrea Lafferty (Traditional Values Coalition), who called it “very distasteful” and inappropriate to politicize the occasion and to use children to do so.

We agree. It is very distasteful to have these children at a “family event”. Because, as we all know, children from same-sex relationships aren’t really children at all. Sure, they look like children, act like children, but if left alone, will hump your leg like the untrained dog-like creatures they are. Like their mutated evil parents, only smaller. [News]

Mary Carey To Attend another Bush Event

I wonder if she'll be told to stay away from Bush like the last time:

from The Note:

After getting her $2500 contribution all sorted out and in her own name, Mary Carey — the porn star politician of California recall fame — is all set to attend Thursday evening's NRCC fundraising dinner at which President Bush is expected as well.

Carey was disappointed to learn on Monday that the NRCC would not accept the original contribution sent from her producer's bank account in her legal name, Mary Cook.

She got in touch with the NRCC and sent $2500 from her account in her professional name, but she plans revenge. "I won't dress as conservatively as I did last year. I'm going to wear something more revealing this year because the NRCC is being mean to me," Carey told The Note.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

YAY!! KU Wins Big 12



I really didn't think they could beat Texas, but they did --- YAAY!!!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Former Repub turned Dem Runs for Senate


James Webb former Sec. of Navy under Reagan:

I really like this guy ever since I read his op-ed piece in the NYT on the swiftboating of democratic veterans called Purple heartbreakers

he was originally a republican that served as the Secretary of the Navy under Reagan and was a Marine Vet. He is now a democrat convert who is running against crazy fundie George Allen in Virgina.

If you are a Virgina resident, please look into his campaign, he has alot of good things to say about what is going on today.

Someone Wanted to Get His Ratings Back Up

I knew that this was going to happen, Bush just couldn't stand it when he saw those ratings he's had lately:

A new warning tonight that terrorists may be taking aim at one of the sports world's biggest tournaments, the NCAA Championship. One extremist web site is reported pointing would-be suicide bombers in that direction, specifically urging attacks against crowded sports arenas.

There have been no specific threats against any one school or event, but the FBI has told local law enforcement agencies to be on alert. That web site offers what amounts to a roadmap on how to attack a college basketball arena or sports stadium.

March Madness Terror Threats

Friday, March 10, 2006

U.S. agrees with Iran on One Thing -- Gays are BAD ~ Homophobia is GOOD

From Human Rights Watch:

(Washington, D.C., January 25, 2006) - In a reversal of policy, the United States on Monday backed an Iranian initiative to deny United Nations consultative status to organizations working to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

United Nations: U.S. Aligned With Iran in Anti-Gay Vote

Sandra Day O'Connor - Our Freedoms Threatened

From NPR:

O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts

Listen to this story

Morning Edition, March 10, 2006 · Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor showed Thursday that she's not absent from judicial issues. During a speech in Washington, she said Republican leaders' attacks on the courts threaten the constitutional freedoms of Americans.

Subliminal Messages??

From Reuters:

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney speaks during his keynote address to the U.S. Labor Department's 2006 National Summit on Retirement Savings at the Willard Hotel in Washington March 2, 2006. REUTERS/Larry Downing

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Popular is as Popular does

What does it say when you are less popular than Joseph Stalin:

The latest CBS News poll found that only 18 percent of the public has a favorable view of Cheney. How bad is a rating of 18 percent?

Less popular than singer Michael Jackson

Less popular than former football star O.J. Simpson

Less popular with Americans than Joseph Stalin is with Russians

Just how low is 18 percent?

My Pet Lobster

Weird stuff:

A team of biologist have discovered a strange new beast in the murky depths of the South Pacific.

Measuring about 6 inches long, Kiwa hirsuta has a white shell and pincers covered in silky white hair.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

The Bush America

The Coat Hanger State

South Dakota's New Motto

from
Feministing:

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Don't cha Just Love Old Men who Like to Make Laws about a Woman's Uterus

I just love it when old men want to control a woman's uterus. In South Dakota they have placed a new law on the governors desk that bans all abortions with the only exception being the life of the woman.

In a recent PBS Newhour interview State Senator Bill Napoli stated the grounds he believes would be the exceptions for an allowable abortion when the law takes effect:

“A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.”

Quite the sad day in America when only brutalized, religious virgins are allowed abortions.

Friday, March 03, 2006

What's a Preznut Do?

David Gergen's Take on the Bush, Katrina conference video:

"It's devastating that the president would ask no questions, If he sat there mum in a full briefing ... that will only confirm the suspicions of a lot of opponents."

Yes people it's even worse than we thought, he's either stupid or he doesn't care and that is really really worrying.





It's Embarrassing

Remember when Bill Clinton went somewhere in the world and he was greeted like a rockstar:

SLAMABAD (Reuters) - A nationwide strike called by Islamist parties paralyzed Pakistan on Friday ahead of the arrival of U.S. President George W. Bush a day after a suicide car bomber killed an American diplomat and two other people.

Strike, protests paralyze Pakistan before Bush visit

Missouri Becomes Kansas

When we start passing bills like this, I think its time to move:

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.


........The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs......


..... The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition......"



State bill proposes Christianity be Missouri’s official religion

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Wow I Got Nominated for an Award

from Striving for Average my blog is nominated for:

Angriest feminist blogger in need of good man lovin’

Blue Gal in a Red State (Someone’s trying to cause trouble here)

Is Big Brother Watching You?


People for the American Way has a new sight where you can fill out a Freedom of Information form to see if the government is spying on you:

Make a FOIA Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), anyone has the right to request information from the government. Last strengthened by Congress in response to the Watergate scandal, FOIA gives citizens a way to demand transparency from the Administration -- and take the government to court if necessary.

Good Old Missouri Family Values

It appears that a family in Black Jack MO. has to get rid of some of its kids to live in their town, because the couple is not married. I call that fantastic family values:

Shelltrack and Fondray Loving, her boyfriend of 13 years, were denied an occupancy permit because of an ordinance forbidding three or more individuals from living together if they are not related by "blood, marriage or adoption." The couple have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, although Loving is not the biological father of the oldest child.

"I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than that, you can't," she said.

Unwed couple, kids face boot by Black Jack

How Propaganda Works

No wonder our troops thinks this war is worth dying for:

On a new Zogby poll of our troops in Iraq from
Stars and Stripes:

The poll also shows that 42 percent of the troops surveyed are unsure of their mission in Iraq, and that -- 85 percent believe a major reason they were sent into war was to retaliate for Saddam's role in the Sept. 11 attacks

There are BOOBS and Then There are BOOBS!

From Bartcop


Wednesday, March 01, 2006

WHOOPS!

WASHINGTON - In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned

President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage. Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

When They Stand Up we'll Stand Down


The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday
.

The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military.

Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded

It is So Nice to be LIKED

Tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting “Death to Bush!” rallied on Wednesday in New Delhi to protest a visit by US President George W. Bush.

Crowd estimates varied, but one police officer said as many as
100,000 people, most of them Muslim, had gathered in a fairground in central New Delhi ordinarily used for political rallies, ahead of Bush’s arrival late Wednesday.

Tens of thousands rally in New Delhi to protests Bush visit to India