Maybe this is how Jeb Bush intends to get even with Michael Schiavo for "winning" the autopsy?

Another huge waste of funds....the camera system covering the Mexico and Canadian borders:

Members of Congress yesterday denounced a $239 million camera system installed on the Mexican and Canadian borders as a scandal and an embarrassment, citing defective equipment, rampant overcharging by contractors and a failure by the U.S. Border Patrol and other government officials to properly oversee it.

"What we have here, plain and simple, is a case of gross mismanagement of a multimillion-dollar contract," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on management, said at a hearing yesterday. "Worst of all, it's seriously weakened our border security."

The ISIS cameras (Border Patrol's Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System )took seven years to install. The contract went to International Microwave Corp.

Pretty soon he'll be in the tank....Crooks and Liars has the latest Bush poll numbers from the CBS - New York Times Poll released today:

President George W. Bush's job approval rating is now just 42 percent, and most Americans think he does not share their priorities. Iraq and the economy -- not the President's signature issue of Social Security -- are most important to Americans, and Americans' assessments of both remain mixed, with support for the decision to send troops to Iraq matching its lowest percent ever.

51% of those polled disapprove of the job he is doing. Analysis: Bush has problems. More here

Sen. Bill Frist comments on the Terri Schiavo autopsy results. He says the case is over and denies making a diagnosis.

Frist said he accepted the results of Schiavo's autopsy released Wednesday, showing severe, irreversible brain damage. But he stood by his statements on the Senate floor last March, when he argued that on videotape Schiavo appeared to respond to her family and doctors.

"Would I do it over again? Yes, I would do it over again," the senator told reporters. Frist, R-Tenn., said he had only sought to make sure the most up-to-date testing was performed to determine whether Schiavo was truly in a persistent vegetative state, the diagnosis accepted by state courts. "I never made the diagnosis, I wouldn't even attempt to make a diagnosis from a videotape," said Frist, a heart surgeon.

What Frist said then:

Lots of alerts flying around the e-mail inbox for Thursday's hearing on the Downing Street Memo, which has been moved back to the Capitol and set for 2:30 pm. For the latest, go to After Downing Street.org. A one pager of talking points is here (pdf.)

Other Downing St. Reads: Big Media Matt over at American Prospect:

The Downing Street Memos don't just prove that the Bush administration lied the war into existence. They prove that nobody planned for the aftermath.

After a long, hard day at work, the last thing I needed to see when I got home was that Senate Republicans are proposing raising the retirement age for social security eligibility to 69 from the current 65 1/2. Do we have to work ourselves into the grave to collect our money? Maybe if we didn't have a President who lied to us and led us into an unnecessary war at a cost of untold billions, the U.S. would be able to honor its obligation to its own citizens.

Via Crooks and Liars....Hannity and Colmes will air an interview with Dick Cheney Monday night....The AP reports:

"I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does. He's never won anything, as best I can tell," Cheney said in an interview to be aired Monday on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."

At least his mother loved him. Who could love this face? Go ahead, name your caption.

Texas Governor Perry may not be as adept as Bush and Rove at playing the evangelical card, but this is still pretty scary.

Even for Texas, the scene was remarkable: The governor, flanked by an out-of-state televangelist and religious right leaders, signing legislation in a church school gymnasium amid shouts of "amen" from backers who just as well could have been attending a revival.

The protesters were out, but there needs to be a bigger public outcry against this sort of thing.

It wasn't just the blatant blend of church and state that made the gathering in Fort Worth unusual. Advance publicity also attracted about 300 angry protesters - unheard of for the routine business of ceremonial bill signings.

Check Out the "Howard Dean Speaks for Me" petiton - already 4,700 signatures (I was number 4699.) Via Skippy [hat tip to Tennessee Guerilla Women}

Update: Dean calls on Dems to adopt values language.

Update: Sensenbrenner storms out of hearing, gavel in hand. Crooks and Liars has the video.

[Rep. Jerome] Nadler said Sensenbrenner, one of the authors of the Patriot Act, was "rather rude, cutting everybody off in mid-sentence with an attitude of total hostility."

*******
Original Post:

Raw Story has the details:

A furor erupted after Republican House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner shut off the microphones during a hearing on the Patriot Act Friday, accusing Democrats of raising issues unrelated to the Act such as treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, RAW STORY has learned.

Think Progress reports that the person that Bush wants to put in charge of human resources at the State Department has had offensive, bigoted things to say about every major ethnic group.

On May 10, 2005, the current director of the U.S. Mint, Henrietta Holsman Fore, was nominated by President Bush to be the next Under Secretary of State for Management.

....The position of Under Secretary of Management is a vital one, as described by the State Department’s website. It is responsible for leading the offices of administration and human resources, which deal with the hiring and firing of personnel. Fore’s nomination to this post has raised many concerns due to her record of making racially-insensitive remarks.

More over at Peek, Alternet's blog.

TalkLeft has never been a "Deaniac." He was not my choice for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2004. But I agree with Kos and Atrios, we need to support him, and the Democratic party, now. Give generously.

Update: Jann Wenner weighs in on the Dean flap at the Huffington Post - and he's right.

Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, and Tom DeLay don't even have to bother attacking Howard Dean anymore; their work is being done for them by the stalwarts of what's left of the Democratic Party establishment.

....the bottom line effect of all this sniping is to marginalize and shame Dean for speaking a truth that the Republicans do not wish spoken or given credence. Our guys are doing the work of the so-called GOP Echo Machine.