"Computer glitch" allows GOP committee to spy on and exploit Democrats--Robert Novak is once again at the center of impropriety
Glitch facilitated GOP access to restricted Democratic communications without a password

"The office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle has already launched an investigation into how excerpts from 15 Democratic memos showed up in the pages of the conservative-leaning newspapers and were posted to a website last November.
With the help of forensic computer experts from General Dynamics and the US Secret Service, his office has interviewed about 120 people to date and seized more than half a dozen computers -- including four Judiciary servers, one server from the office of Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and several desktop hard drives.
But the scope of both the intrusions and the likely disclosures is now known to have been far more extensive than the November incident, staffers and others familiar with the investigation say.
...Democrats now claim their private memos formed the basis for a February 2003 column by conservative pundit Robert Novak that revealed plans pushed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to filibuster certain judicial nominees. Novak is also at the center of an investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA agent whose husband contradicted a Bush administration claim about Iraqi nuclear programs.
....."There appears to have been no hacking, no stealing, and no violation of any Senate rule," Miranda said. "Stealing assumes a property right and there is no property right to a government document. . . . These documents are not covered under the Senate disclosure rule because they are not official business and, to the extent they were disclosed, they were disclosed inadvertently by negligent [Democratic] staff."

God is like GOP butter to grease the Christian right:
Bush talks to Right-to-life Group Over Phone from New Mexico

This is not to mock the good intentions of Christians..it is to point out the pandering hypocrisy of WHITE Republican male Representatives of America.

The March for Life Education & Defense Fund, which took place today in Washington, D.C. received a special phonecall from the President.

Let's start at the beginning.
The group's representative Nellie Gray began the rally by claiming that "homegrown terrorism" started with Roe vs. Wade.
(My! What a sweet, unifying, and loving message).

President Bush called and spoke about abstinence education, adoption, faith-based programs, he talked about the Unborn Victims of Violence bill just approved by the Judiary Committee yesterday. He demanded that the Congress approve and sign it into law. He spoke of banning human cloning, he invoked the Declaration of Independence, he said that he hoped for a compassionate society where every child would be born into loving family (uh-how can government handle THAT one?). He spread the word "God" around like butter.
After he spread the word of "God" like butter,the rest of the guest speakers (mostly male Republican representatives) followed suit.

Rep Steve Chabot(R)- spoke to the crowd and talked about pro-choice Americans as perpetrators of slaughter. He ragged on the Clintons and the crowd went wild. He called Bush a friend and the crowd went wild.
He touted the "Born Alive act"..he invoked Tom Daschle's name..the crowd booed loudly, but cheered upon hearing about the day Tom became "minority leader". Chabot invoked Ronald Reagan's name..and got wild cheers.

Chris Smith-(R)-NJ: Within three minutes, he used words such as "terror", "dismember", "mutilate" "decapitate" "holocaust", "destruction", "violence","slaughter", "killed", "expoliting women", "breast cancer", "hurting", "deleterious", "devastation","tragedies", "regret", "big lie,"wounded", "heart-wrenching", "predators","anguish", "dramatic", "agony"..all in less than three minutes.

Rep Todd Tiahrt(R)Kansas-spoke briefly...only to push a Republican candidate named Toomey from his state.

Rep Roscoe Bartlett(R)MD--a very old man who said he's the only MD. representative who's a pro-lifer. He downed the issue of RU 486.

Scott Garrett(R)-NJ--prayed and harped on scripture. Downed cloning. Downed the chosen "lifestyle" of a woman who chooses abortion. Prayed again. He said might and right is on the Republican's side, (really-this is what he said).

Rick Renzi (R )-AZ- he yelled a lot..whew. He said that true sons of America march for life. He ragged on American men..calling them cowards if they don't fight against abortion. He called young men of America "cowardly", "spineless", "soft", "pushers", "pressurers of death", "non-patriotic" (I'm not lying)..he yelled again...and again. Why yell? Sheesh.

Mike Ferguson(R)- NJ- He said that every Democratic Presidential candidate supports a woman's right to choose, so it's important to re-elect Bush.He said that baby turtles are protected..why not humans? He mentioned "Lacy + Conner's Law"(Unborn Violence Act)...crowd cheered. He credited prayer..spreading the God-butter again. The crowd licked the butter enthusiastically.

A woman..whoa!!! I'm shocked..she is Melissa Hart(R)-PA- She talked about being on the bus with her religious parish. More God-butter.

Mike Pence(R)-IN-invoked the name of Martin Luther King whose niece was in the crowd. He said Roe v. Wade is a "lie"..suggested an amendment to the Constitution to end Roe v. Wade. He said 2004 will be a divided election..so be sure to re-elect Bush!
He criticized Clinton... praised Bush. Clinton bad/Bush good. He pointed out the Jefferson memorial...invoked the statement "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever." (He failed to say the next line, which is: "Commerce between master and slave is despotism." Is a woman chained to unwanted pregnancy not a slave? Is slavery not a sin?)

Todd Aiken(R)-MO-He claimed Right-to-life is a "calling" and a "cross to bear". He asked" Tell me.. in one sentence..the basic principle of what America's about?" He answered with the Declaration of Independence statement: "We hold these truths to be self evident...etc. Life' liberty, pursuit of happiness...( ...). He compared terrorists to women who have a right to choose.( He is a miserable and hypocritical louse, in my humble opinion. A poster child for what is wrong with keeping a woman a slave on behalf of the God-butter.)

Jim Ryan (R)KS- He brought his teenage sons (I said sons..not daughters) to talk. One said the GOP I guess a woman made miserable and ruined by being forced to bear a pregnancy to completion will make her very free..very happyis the party of "life"..Democrats are the party of "death". He said America was at cultural war. (How unifying). Another son came up to get younger folks in the audience to register Republican.

Steve King(R)IA--He was determined to overthrow Roe v. Wade. He talked about a homily at church..the crowd went wild. (More spreading of the word "God"... just like butter.) He called Roe v. Wade the "Dred Scott of our time."He said we must not infringe on another's liberty. (HELLO?) He invoked the word SIN. (Geez-where's that in the Constitution?)

Sam Brownback(R)KS-He stated all human life at any stage is "sacred" (which has what to do with law, again?) He asked: "If any of you were researched on as an embryo, how many of you would be alive today?(DUH!!) He said: "PRAY PRAY PRAY!!" (God-butter). He invoked a Jesus-prayer. Invoked the word of SIN again. Last words were: "God Bless America".(Whose America?)

Norm Coleman(r)MN- He said there was "a lot of love there" in the crowd (love for whom?)..the phrase "better angels" was invoked. (Where?) Congress needs the crowd, so he said. He used the quote of Jewish Rambam (He changed the words so Rightwing American Christians might understand)..the original went like this: "A person must constantly view the entire world as if it is half meritorious and half guilty. If the individual performs one sin, he tips the balance for the entire world toward the side of guilt and brings destruction to the world. If he performs one mitzvah, he tips the balance to the side of merit and brings salvation."
He strongly encouraged marches on clinics. Last words: God Bless America. God-butter.

They wrapped up the rally with a resounding rendition of the Lee Greenwood song: "God Bless The USA".
Just like buttah.........God buttah.

I got bored with all these Republican WHITE MALE representatives. As a woman, I was appalled and shocked to understand that even Sam Brownback is a panderer. I was not surprised that so few women would attest. Only ONE woman spoke. They obviously couldn't get any others, or they surely would have. This is very "telling".

You know, it's mostly White Republican men I see speaking at this rally. Where are all the women? Their absence speaks louder than any man using negative words while invoking God like butter and sin like stop-signs at every turn could ever say.

Grover Norquist Melts Down--Invokes Holocaust Images of the AMERICAN LEFT

A top anti-tax activist and White House ally is standing by his comparison of proponents of the estate tax to the perpetrators of the Holocaust, while taking the analogy further and dismissing his critics as "socialists."

Look at the utter hypocrisy from these a*swipes:
*Wah! Unfair! Wah! Wah! Leave my Republican friend alone! So sayeth the lobbyist.*

Jack Abramoff, a close friend of Norquist's and a prominent Republican lobbyist, said that Norquist is being unfairly lampooned and argued that it's unreasonable to completely limit discussion of the Holocaust. Asked where he would draw the line between "reasonable" and "unreasonable" Holocaust analogies, Abramoff said it was very much subjective and imprecise."If it's mentioned every time your opponent disagrees with you, that's inappropriate," Abramoff said. "On the other hand, is it reasonable to say no one can ever discuss the evil of Nazis and learn lessons from it in the current political climate? It takes a reasonable balance and that's always going to be subjective."

Lampoon Grover Norquist? Bah...hang him out for all to see. He's an anti-community
wretch...a greedy slob..not at all American.
If Thomas Jefferson was alive today, he'd either be:
1.scratching madly at the lid of his coffin
or
2.kicking Grover Norquist's a*s.

Concord Monitor: In New Hampshire, no one Democrat is guaranteed the lead

This is hilarious.
Under the Washington Times headline reading "Republicans train sights on Clark", it says:

"....Sen. Joe Lieberman maintains a list of Mr. Clark's various statements and positions on the war. After sending out a press release chronicling six different stances, the Lieberman camp issued a correction, saying: "We screwed up. Clark has taken seven war positions, not six."

Who said Senator Lieberman is Republican?! Did I miss something?
*I think the Lieberman attack on General Clark is a cheap political move. I am disappointed that the Senator, who I believe is a good man, has run such a dismal campaign.*

I've been watching CSPAN and I have observed Wesley Clark getting a tremendous response from New Hampshire crowds. It may be the fact that he is laying out a clear state-of-the-union-style agenda (including raising the minimum wage to $7/hr) and at the same time, strongly appealing to the crowds emotionally with personal stories. He stresses a higher standard of leadership in America. I'm trying to get a "feel" for the New Hampshire Democrats...I happen to think Clark will do better than Kerry in the upcoming NH primary. The debates tonight will be very important. I think that any candidate who tries to attack Wes Clark on his stance on the Iraq war will fall flat on their faces when he has a chance to respond. He's ready for them...it's apparent. With all this concentration on candidates remaining positive, Clark is at a distinct advantage. One begins to wonder if Iowa was relevant or not. Obviously, it was relevant to Dick Gephardt...yet I have to say that I'm awfully sorry he had to drop out of the race, for this particular year it seems the race has not yet begun! I hope Dennis Kucinich will have a chance to speak..and speak often in tonight's debate. However, I hope he does not go off frothing-at-the-mouth at Howard Dean...especially after throwing his supporters to Edwards (in who-knows-what deal was made in Iowa last week). Remember, today's revelation that the John Edwards campaign was not an angelic bounty of optimistic positivity will be in the minds of anyone who's been keeping track.
Clark is coming in with a lot of advantages. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.


Republicans have lost a lot of ground in New Hampshire
There was a very "telling" article in the Providence Journal Wednesday about the GOP being a "house divided against itself". Link is here (reg. required)

There's no love of taxes in New Hampshire, but even Republicans here regard Washington-style tax cutting with contempt. Last spring, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist pestered New Hampshire state legislators as they debated plans to raise revenue. Dick Green, the Republican chairman of the state Senate Finance Committee, got into a shouting match with Norquist and told him to go back to Washington.New Hampshire has been called a Northern outpost of Sunbelt conservatism. In truth, it is no longer reliably Republican, and not particularly conservative.

This fact will bode well for candidates like Howard Dean and Wesley Clark in November.

Now they're looking for WMDs in cubbyholes!

The jury is still out,'' Vice President Dick Cheney said on the failure so far to find any weapons of mass destruction since Saddam was toppled last April.
It's going to take some additional considerable period of time to look at all of the cubby holes and...dumps and all the places in Iraq where you might expect to find something like that,'' Cheney told U.S. National Public Radio.

Blame Syria
Senator Pat Roberts raises (shady) public fear about Syria (neocons and other assorted insane sorts need to turn up the heat in the Syrian region..it's a re-election campaign season).

Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts said there was some concern Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had gone to Syria, and Washington vowed to carry on searching for such arms in Iraq.
Roberts, a leading member of President Bush's Republican Party, said in Washington on Wednesday: ``I think that there is some concern that shipments of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) went to Syria.'' He did not elaborate.

*Oh Please! When is the last time you heard Pat Roberts elaborate? OK--maybe once when he melodramatically played the whining victim of the Democrats in the pathetic Intelligence Committee-politics spat last fall designed to halt WMD investigation altogether.)

And we shall continue to pay through the nose
for Bush's War
*but we won't technically "know about it" until after the November elections.*

U.S. Congress sources and budget analysts said Bush may seek an additional $40 billion or more for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year -- on top of the $400 billion military budget he will send to Congress next month.
But Bush was unlikely to send the request to Congress until after the November presidential election to minimize any political damage, the sources said.

HAPPY 1st BLOGIVERSARY, IDDYBUD!!

Gee--thanks! One year ago today I started her up.....
It's been quite a year. I'll highlight some entries from the past year all through this Blogiversary week!