New From Uggabugga: Bush Regime Playing Cards

Categories include:

Looting Social Security trust funds Taking the country to war under false pretenses
Ripping up the safety net
Eviscerating democracy
Strangling civil rights
Assaulting the New Deal
Being a partisan hack
Peddling economic snake oil
Perverting the Fourth Estate

As Kos says, "simply brilliant."

The White House came out today with support for Sen. Rick Santorum .

Media Horse is back from vacation and jumps right into the Senator Santorum debacle, with a link to the full transcript of the interview and some choice excerpts. We like this one.

SANTORUM: In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality...

...?

AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.

SANTORUM: And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately.

Several bloggers, of diverse political persuasions, have some excellent criticism of Santorum--among them, Atrios, Daily Kos, Jim Capozzola, Glenn Reynolds on his MSNBC blog, Arthur Silber of Light of Reason, even Andrew Sullivan.

Among the politicos, Howard Dean blasts Santorum on his blog calling him "unfit for a leadership position" in the U.S. Senate.

Have you heard of Free the State Project? It's a group that wants to create a Libertarian utopia in one state.

A movement called the Free State Project has registered some 3,100 people who would help choose a "candidate" state and move there in hopes of canceling laws against drugs, prostitution, guns and other individual liberties, while privatizing current state functions such as schools. "Rather than change the whole nation it makes sense for all of us to gather in one place," said Elizabeth McKinstry, 33, of Hillsdale, Mich., the project's vice president.

Ten states are under consideration, all with under 1.5 million residents. Their goal is to get 20,000 people to sign up and move to that state. That's the number they say is needed to be in a politically influential position.

States under consideration are: Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware and Vermont. The project is the brainchild of Jason Sorens, 26, a doctoral candidate in political science at Yale University. 3,100 people have signed up so far. When they get 5,000 members, which they expect to happen by the end of the year, the group will vote on the state and members will have five years to move there.

Is this a new take on Woodstock Nation? We can remember an idea circulating shortly after that event that if 500,000 of the nation's hippies moved to Wyoming, they could take over the state. (Back then, word was that Wyoming only had 500,000 residents.) Idealistic and improbable? Sure. But it was also fun to contemplate.

Then there was the movie "Wild in the Streets," about a movement to stop anyone over 30 from holding office. We suspect these ideas come and go, but in these days of the internet, word spreads so fast and among so many that Free the State likely will entice enough people to sign up. Check out their website, it's quite well done and they obviously mean business. We wish them good luck.

From Kelly Kramer at Democratic Power:

George W. Bush Resume Past work experience:

Ran for congress and lost.

Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.

Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company - went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago Cubs.

With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas. Accomplishments-

Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America.

A University of Illinois professor and his students have studied the identity of Deep Throat of Watergate fame for eight semesters and say they have positively identified him-- they say he is Fred Fielding, chief counsel to President Nixon during Watergate.

Everything that we have, we show there's a document," Gaines said. Unlike many previous speculations on the source's identity, "it's not interpretation, it's not guesswork," he said.

Fielding fits all the personal characteristics of "Deep Throat," as described by Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, through their newspaper stories, their book "All the President's Men" and the movie of the same title.

Fielding did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment by United Press International.

....Fielding was the chief counsel to President Ronald Reagan for five years, served as a member of the Bush-Cheney transition team, and currently is a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks.

We'll be interested to hear Woodward and Bernstein's response.

The Senate Democrats' political organization has called for Republican Sen. Rick Santorum to resign his leadership position due to his comments yesterday comparing homosexuality to "bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery."

The DSCC called Santorum's remarks "divisive, hurtful and reckless" and said they "are completely out of bounds for someone who is supposed to be a leader in the United States Senate."

Apple Computer has announced that Al Gore has joined its Board of Directors.

Criticism is being leveled today at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for a "lewd" skit that was performed at a black-tie graduation celebration last April, to the applause of cadets and higher ranking officials. First, the setting:

Everyone from the U.S. Air Force Academy was dressed to the nines for last April's black-tie "dining in."

The pre-graduation celebration was truly an elegant affair, sponsored by the academy's Department of English and Fine Arts, and attended by as many as 80 cadets, civilians and high-ranking officers.

During the entertainment portion of the evening, two cadets performed a skit, liberally lifted from Monty Python's Meaning of Life, that had been sanctioned by the English department.

Here are the published portions of the skit in which"the actors talked about a mythical - and X-rated - sex education class":

ACTOR ONE: "Now, sex, sex, sex, sex. Where were we? The purpose of foreplay is to . . . (The cadet, in graphic detail, goes on to describe the purpose of foreplay as the preparation of a woman so a man can "penetrate" her. Then he asks the other cadet for two ways to stimulate a woman.)

ACTOR TWO: (This cadet responds with a graphic suggestion.)

ACTOR ONE: "What's wrong with a kiss, boy? Why not start her off with a nice kiss? You don't have to go leaping straight for the

Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark has drawn up Articles of Impeachment against Bush and Ashcroft and others in the present Administration. You can go to the site and sign the petition. Not to be a damper on the project, but we wonder how it could ever be successful with a Republican dominated Senate. That said, we think it may be valuable in garnering opposition to the Bush team for 2004, so we're linking to it.

Here's what you'll be signing:

I want my representative in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote to impeach President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft for high crimes and misdemeanors, and to have the case prosecuted and tried in the U.S. Senate.

This just in from Yellow World.Org:

On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, Congressman Howard Coble (R-North Carolina) expressly justified on public radio our country's exclusion, removal, and detention of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II in light of concerns for national security.

Congressman Coble has recently been named Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, and his refusal to recognize the racist basis of the Japanese internment encourages and perpetuates backwards thought to direct current policy towards Arab-Americans and other minority groups.

Don't let the Congressman get away with perpetuating hate! Go to http://removecoble.yellowworld.org/ and demand that he step down from his Subcommittee Chair position!

The Quotable Bush

"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein and his willingness to terrorize himself." -- Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29."

The article also has a lot about Republican concerns with John Edwards --they're striking out at him first, which is interesting because Edwards is running fourth in the polls, behind Lieberman, Kerry and Gephardt.