Vive la France!

U. S. National Team captain Carlos Bocanegra, released by Fulham after their season ended, has been signed by French Ligue 1 club Rennes. Good luck in France, Boca!

SportingLife: BOCANEGRA JOINS RENNES

Reading List

Crooks & Liars: Blue America’s Steny Hoyer FISA ad

Whatever happened to Jimmy Carter's solar panels?

Retired 24-year military veteran has to beg for cancer treatments. Sicko.

Read about the media's slobbering affair with John McBush: Loving John McCain

Newsweek sez Obama has a 15 point lead over McCain. Don't get excited; it's still June.

Profiles of Michelle Obama, from high-brow to low: New York Times, Guardian (uk), Telegraph (uk), US Weekly, Wall Street Journal (I put this next to US Weekly for a reason).

And now for something completely different: A 5-minute interview with English striker Kelly Smith.

Rain Delay

Check out this 'Milli Vanilli' video played during the rain delay at the Red Sox game last night;

Scandal!

This headline just makes me laugh:

Daily Mail (uk): Great tackle, Becks - but have the Armani airbrushers pumped up your lunchbox?

Click it and check out Beckham's lunchbox (now that's new word for that part of the anatomy). I say it was airbrushed. Either that, or a sock.

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: June 20, 2008

National Geographic: Kiribati Beach House
Photograph by George Steinmetz/CORBIS

A tiny group of Pacific coral islands, the Republic of Kirabati, with a population of less than a hundred thousand, will be submerged under the ocean in 50 to 100 years as a result of rising ocean waters. Bangladesh, the most crowded nation on earth, population 150,000,000 -- One Hundred and Fifty Million Human Beings -- will be completely underwater by the end of this century, according to NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen.

And those estimates may be accelerated, as data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) shows that Arctic sea ice is melting even faster than it did last year. An example of the chaos that this will bring is in Iceland, where two polar bears were shot in the past two weeks when they showed up hundreds of miles from their habitat.

And what are the Bush Administration and their rubber stamps in Congress doing to address global warming? Nothing. No, take that back, less than nothing. Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill to cut greenhouse emissions last week. The United States taxpayers are being forced to pay to build permanent bases in Iraq, which are surely to provide security for the oil companies (Exxon, Total, BP and Shell) which have just been awarded no-bid contracts to exploit the Iraqi oil fields. The Oilman-In-Chief sent thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths for the bottom line of Exxon.

Which of his crimes will Bush pay for? The torture he personally authorized? (though he is now trying to blame it on the soldiers, we know that it was the Bush Administration's official policy, memorialized in legal memos and West Wing meetings.) Maj. General Antonio Taguba writes this week that the Bush Administration committed war crimes, and recommends prosection. The Democratic Sheeple Party is unlikely to do so; we let everyone involved in Iran-Contra go, too.

By failing to prosecute the war criminals who perpetrated Iran-Contra, we populated the Project for a New American Century and all the other right wing "think tanks" with all those unindicted co-conspirators, who spent years conspiring on their next nefarious plan: to get us to attack Iraq. As Digby says: When you let Republicans get away with murder, they will do it again.

Some days reading the news is nihilistic. I'm going to take the weekend off from political blogging & regain my equilibrium.

Farewell to Mr. Bloody Sock

Boston Globe: Schilling to have season-ending surgery

Curt Schilling revealed this morning that he will have season-ending surgery on his right shoulder on Monday, saying there was a "pretty decent chance that I've thrown my last pitch forever."

The 41-year-old Red Sox righthander made the disclosure during his weekly interview on sports radio WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show, sounding very much like a player whose career could be over.

"I don't want it to end this way, but if this is the way it has to end, I'm OK with that," Schilling said. "If it's over and my last pitch was in the 2007 World Series, I'm OK with that. I just can't stress enough where I am mentally with this. I have not a regret in the world. ... None of this makes me bitter or angry or pissed. It is what it is. In that sense, honestly, it's very, very easy for me because of what I've been able to experience compared to what I wanted when I first started my career, but if I have some say in how this is gonna end, I want it to be different than what it is right now."

Thanks for the memories, Curt. We'll always have 2004.

Enjoy yourself out there stumping for John McBush this summer.

Why'd I Waste All That Time in Law School?

Why did I bother studying the Fourth Amendment anyway? It's just about gone. The House just voted 293-129 for a new FISA bill eliminating my Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure from the Constitution. I mean, you can hem and haw around it, but when the President has unlimited power to let major telecoms spy on you & shovel the info to the government, and then Congress ratifies the spying, lets everyone involved off the hook, and gives the President even more power to spy, what else can you call it? Farewell, Fourth Amendment, I knew you well.

Hello, Verizon, enjoy listening in on all my telephone calls and reading my emails, and transmitting them to the government. Who needs the Stasi? We've got the telecoms, who will help Big Brother invade every aspect of our lives.

Maybe I need to buy a printing press, because the Interwebs ain't free any more.

Why did the Democrats cave yet again? (I am so goddamn sick of seeing Democrat and cave in the same sentence. I expect to see it next week when the Senate caves to Preznit Chimpy McSmirk on this very bill.) I saw an interesting theory somewhere on the blogs last night, that this is to protect the Democrats who got clued in to the illegal wiretapping program by the President (Pelosi, Reid, Steny Hoyer), who would have been liable if the telecoms were allowed to stand trial for their crimes. So they're really just protecting their multimillionaire asses. God forbid a member of Congress actually has to follow the law.

I mean, it's just the fucking Constitution, right, "It's just a goddamned piece of paper" as President Fuckwit once said.

So they all took an oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution. So what? They don't want to have to pay for violating their oaths. It's all about their precious Benjamins.

At least my Congressman, the estimable James P. McGovern, voted no.

One would hope that the law school professor who taught Constitutional law who happens to be running for President would stand up and oppose this in the Senate; I'm not holding my breath. One would think that my junior Senator would pull his head out of his ass long enough to do what Senator Kennedy would do if he wasn't in the middle of major cancer treatments, filibuster this abomination. But again, I'm not holding my breath waiting for Kerry to fight. Remember how he was going to fight for every vote in 2004? Right.

I will end with a comment from the firedoglake post announcing the vote:

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Hoyer and Pelosi will get their just desserts in due time. They spit on the graves of those who fought and died for the Constitution including the 4th Amendment. They would sell their country out and the honor and memory of those lying in hallowed and unhallowed ground around the world for a bag of silver.

That's about right. Selling the Constitution for 30 pieces of silver. Shame.

Thank god for sports so I can escape the fury I feel. Euro 2008, here I come.

A Few More Celtics Videos

LA: You just got Rondo'd


Kevin Garnett & Ray Allen on Letterman:


Big Baby is GOING TO DISNEYLAND:


hat tip to my favorite Celtics blog, I*Heart*Celtics

Celtics Get Their Own Rolling Rally

The "rolling rally", now a Boston fixture, took place this morning. The entire team was aboard duck boats and a huge crowd lined the parade route. A TV announcer said the most common sign was "Marry Me Rondo"! The players smoked cigars in a tribute to Red Auerbach's famous victory cigar.

I guess I'm getting old. I never even seriously considered going. I hate the crowds, and I had to be in front of the TV for Portugal-Germany, the best semifinal of Euro 2008.


Boston Herald Photo Gallery

Boston Globe: Crowds cheer as Celtics roll through Boston

Boston Globe Photo Gallery

Boston Globe: Sox to honor Celtics on Friday

Paul Ince To Become Premier League's First British Black Manager

Hurray! The English papers are reporting that Paul Ince is to be named Blackburn manager to succeed Mark Hughes.

Any white player with Ince's credentials (as a player: 2 Premier Leagues titles, 2 FA Cups, 1 Cup-Winners' Cup, 1 League Cup, 53 caps for his country) would have been offered a position when he hung up his boots, like Alan Shearer who is mentioned as a serious candidate for just about every Premier League opening. And check out the comparison at the end of this article between Roy Keane and Gareth Southgate's experience before being named directly as Premier League managers, to Ince who had to work his way up to the job.

Paul Ince started at the bottom , managing Swindon Town, Macclesfield Town, and MK Dons in Leagues One and Two, successfully keeping Macclesfield from being relegated, and taking MK Dons to promotion to League One. So it's about time he got the big job. Good luck Paul Ince!

BBC Sport: Ince set to become Blackburn boss

Telegraph (uk): Paul Ince set to become new Blackburn Rovers manager as replacement for Mark Hughes

Times (uk): Paul Ince expected to be named Blackburn Rovers manager

Daily Mail (uk): Blackburn to make Ince their Guv'nor as Dons prepare to name their price

Veepstakes: Jack Reed

Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Senator Jack Reed helped broker a plan to widen access to federally insured mortgages without tapping into taxpayer money.

NYTimes: A Quiet Dealmaker Works for Pained Homeowners

I like Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) a lot. He's a lawyer, a West Point graduate, and was an Army Ranger for 12 years. He's one of the few members of Congress who can ask a question (most of them just give long rambling speeches and annoy me no end!). He opposed the war from the start (like I said, he's smart.) He's a pretty standard New England liberal; here are his positions & votes on some key issues.

Drawbacks as a candidate: Rhode Island would probably vote Democratic anyway, as will the rest of New England. And he's not the most charismatic guy in the world. For evidence of this, watch him deliver a Democratic response to a Bush speech last September:

September 13, 2007 (Less info)
Senator Jack Reed delivered the Democratic response to President Bush's address to the nation on Iraq.

Most Valuable Press Conference

Brian Scalabrine, who didn't play a minute in the playoffs, calls out the media for predicting a Lakers win:

Thanks, Red

Arnold, the man who made the Celtics the Celtics:



hat tip to Suldog, who found it on Red Sox Chick

In The News

Kookaburras
Flickr: Powerhouse Museum Collection

Just as the DFHs said, the Bush Administration is building permanent military bases in Iraq. Bush wants to stay in Iraq 4-eva, no matter what platitudes he mouths.

Not only did Bush and Cheney authorize torture, McClatchy reports that the United States hid tortured prisoners from the International Red Cross. Prosecutors will call that "consciousness of guilt" when these murdering psychopaths are finally put on trial for war crimes at the Hague.

You won't hear this on gasbag TV, but polls show Obama leading in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Haven't they been telling us all year that Obama was doomed in Florida because the Dem primary there didn't count? Not. Even pundits who acknowledge Obama's lead see danger up ahead for Obama. Or maybe that song was playing in the background while Jake Tapper was reporting typing.

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson (another groundbreaking white male addition to the white-male-dominated WaPo opinion pages) calls Al Franken "vulgar" in his column today. You heard that right, the man who dressed up the Psychopath-in-Chief in pretty words, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents around the world, that man calls Al Franken vulgar. Atrios knocks Gerson's phony argument out with two photos.

Speaking of the Psychopath-In-Chief, that MF who hasn't ever gone to the funeral of one of the men and women he sent to their deaths by lying us into Iraq, he went to the funeral of Saint Timmeh of Punditry. Some deaths count, and some are shoved under the rug.

How old is John McCain? He's older than carbon dating.

The will.i.am video putting Obama's New Hampshire primary speech to music, "Yes We Can", won an Emmy. (Watch it here)

How Sweet It Is

Boston Herald Photo Gallery

Boston Globe Photo Gallery

Celtics Crush Fakers, Win 17th NBA Championship

Paul Pierce is the Motherfucking Truth.

(apologies to Shaq who originated the phrase)

Don't talk to me about that rapist from LaLaLand. Paul Pierce is the MVP of the series, and Kevin Garnett was the MVP of the league. And if you had one guy to pick to take the shot with the game on the line, that man is Ray Allen.

Red Auerbach is smiling down on the Celtics tonight.

Totally Not Safe For Work

You will remember that John McCain called his wife Cindy a cunt in front of a group of reporters while running for Arizona Senate in 1992. This video discusses how this incident would be treated if McCain were, oh, I don't know, maybe a ... Democrat? Don't watch with kids in the room!

Viral Video

This video, of a baby laughing in slow motion, is hilarious. The slo-mo makes the laugh very low-pitched and vaguely creepy.

Slow Motion Baby Laugh



hat tip to Boing Boing

Republican Racists

This pin is for sale at the Texas Republican State Convention

Disgraceful.

DallasNews: Stick a Pin in It

Veepstakes: Wes Clark

Here's Clark on Morning McCain yesterday, doing a creditable job of attacking McCain's supposed national security credentials:



Wes Clark was the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Kosovo. He's smart (finished first in his class at West Point, a decided contrast to McCain, 5th from the bottom at the Naval Academy), articulate, and was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton. What's not to like?

Today's News

Flickr: Brooklyn Museum
Greek Religion--sculptor, Daniel Chester French

McCain's national security adviser, John Lehman, told the New York Times that he offered to make John McCain a one-star admiral in 1980, but McCain declined. The New York Times put the claim on the front page. Problem? It's probably not true, as McCain never mentioned it before, and the story of his leaving the Navy has been told many times. Hard to check up on McCain's military service, tho, as he has never released his full military records. Read this extensive article by Jeffrey Klein for the details.

The torture regime came from the top of the Bush Administration. We already knew that, but there is proof now.

The senior civilian managing the contract of Halliburton subsidiary KBR in 2004 was fired when he refused to pay bogus billing records for Dick Cheney's favorite special interest. The amount in question that taxpayers ponied up for despite shoddy record-keeping and questionable bills? $1,000,000,000. That's one billion dollars to CheneyFraud. Heckuva job, Dickhead.

Gay marriage is now legal in California as of yesterday. The march of progress continues. It hasn't changed life here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts one iota, except for allowing some of our fellow citizens legal rights, joy and peace of mind. All good things.

Gas prices have sent Prius sales soaring. Even in Billings, Montana, home of the pickup truck. Honda is now making a hydrogen-fuel-cell car. I want one:

The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the noxious fumes believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.

Honda expects to lease a few dozen cars this year and 200 within three years. In California, a three-year lease will run $600 a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage.

The Mets fire Willie Randolph in the middle of the night. Disgraceful end to a class act. The Mets are finding that stocking a team with mid-30s free agents may have worked in the steroid era, but now they're just injury prone. Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast sez, hire Ron Darling.

More Stolen Recipes

Independent (uk)

Cindy McCain caught cribbing recipes from the internet a second time. Well, John McCain says she is the one in the family who uses the computer. Too bad she hasn't mastered "The Google" yet.

Now, as a feminist I think it is beyond absurd for us to pretend that the wife (or in Bill Clinton's case, the husband) of a presidential candidate has favorite cookie recipes. Like most of us, when they want cookies they go to the grocery store, or the bakery. At most when they make cookies they take down the cookbook, or call Mom, or call the maid or the cook (in Cindy McCain's case, this is the most likely). But since Cindy McCain is participating in this little charade with nary a protest, trying to win the hearts of the Family Circle readers who pay $1.99 at the checkout counter for the magazine with her Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookie recipe (which they could have taken for free from the Hersheys.com site, just as Mrs. McCain did) she is perpetrating a fraud on more than one level.

Some funny posts on the subject:


TBogg: Nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ that’s been stolen

attaturk, firedoglake: And furthermore, her husband copied “the Wheel”

Rep Gillibrand in the News

Albany Times-Union: Gillibrand priority: 'Constituent service'
Congresswoman finds best way to prepare for tough election contest is being attentive to voters

She's running for re-election against Sandy Treadwell, a millionaire who's trying the buy the seat so will need every edge she can get.

Why would a millionaire be trying to buy a seat in Congress? To get on the gravy train of lobbyist cash, of course. Gillibrand's last opponent, former Congressman John Sweeney, got plenty of money into his family's coffers by getting earmarks for clients who had hired his wife's firm. Public money to clients, paid back to wife's lobby shop. That little gambit was the subject of an FBI raid earlier this month as it involved uber-lobbyist/thief Jack Abramoff. Boy, I'd love to see John Sweeney hauled off to jail.

Baby Heads Are Staying

Boston Globe: Permanent Baby Head Situation

Good news for fans of giant baby heads. Gail and Ernst von Metzsch have donated the money to allow the Museum of Fine Arts to acquire the bronze sculptures created by Antonio Lopez Garcia. The heads, which are 8 feet tall and weigh 1.6 tons each, have been moved to the Fenway side of the museum in anticipation of this week's opening of the State Street Corporation doors.

McTemperment

A funny parody with a serious subject: McSame's very hot head.

Name the Missing Phrase

Welcome to Corporate Media Jeopardy!

Here's an article from today's Wichita Eagle. For $200, can you name the missing phrase?

'08 Kansas tornadoes triple average

Preliminary statistics from the National Weather Service show that 172 tornadoes have been reported in Kansas this year -- the most in the nation.

Iowa is next at 134, and Missouri is third at 127.

As of Friday, 1,577 tornadoes had been reported in the U.S. this year. Last year saw 1,093.

While final statistics are typically lower because some preliminary reports are multiple views of the same tornadoes, officials say the numbers are still eye-opening.

Kansas' total is triple the state's annual average, for example.

Go read the whole article to make sure you make an educated guess.

If you guessed "global warming", you are correct. (We'd also accept climate change.)

Do we have to have 10 times the usual number of tornadoes before the media start mentioning global warming and climate change? Won't it be too late at that point?

McCain's Blooper Reel

He really is running for Bush's third term, complete with verbal diarrhea:

Happy Father's Day, David Ortiz, Citizen

Or as Jonathan Papelbon calls him, "The Large Father". As of last week, he is "Citizen Papi".

Boston Globe Photo Gallery: David Ortiz becomes a US citizen

ProJo: David Ortiz a new U.S. citizen

It's Not Your Fault

WaPo: Weight Gain May Not Be Based Just on What You Eat

THURSDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- "You are what you eat" is a frustrating truism familiar to the diet-conscious choosing between carrots and carrot cake. But new research suggests that weight control isn't just a matter of what you put in your mouth, but also how the nervous system is genetically predisposed to process fat.

The theory is based on research with worms that suggests that the brain chemical serotonin -- long known for its appetite control properties -- relies on independent but coordinated nerve pathways to drive not only hunger, but also fat metabolism.

"I want to be clear that there is absolutely nothing in our study that says that good nutrition and activity is not important or not good for you," said study lead author Kaveh Ashrafi, an assistant professor in the department of physiology and the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco. "But that said, I think that it is important to realize that there is a major contributing factor to body weight that is genetic."

Torture Widespread

wikipedia: A sketch by Thomas V. Curtis, a former Reserve M.P. sergeant, showing how Dilawar was allegedly chained to the ceiling of his cell.

We have been ruled by a monster for 7 1/2 years, and he has encouraged our soldiers to become monsters:

McClatchy: U.S. abuse of detainees was routine at Afghanistan bases

KABUL, Afghanistan — American soldiers herded the detainees into holding pens of razor-sharp concertina wire, the kind that's used to corral livestock.

The guards kicked, kneed and punched many of the men until they collapsed in pain. U.S. troops shackled and dragged other detainees to small isolation rooms, then hung them by their wrists from chains dangling from the wire mesh ceiling.

Former guards and detainees whom McClatchy interviewed said Bagram was a center of systematic brutality for at least 20 months, starting in late 2001. Yet the soldiers responsible have escaped serious punishment.

[]

The brutality at Bagram peaked in December 2002, when U.S. soldiers beat two Afghan detainees, Habibullah and Dilawar, to death as they hung by their wrists.

Dilawar died on Dec. 10, seven days after Habibullah died. He'd been hit in his leg so many times that the tissue was "falling apart" and had "basically been pulpified," said then-Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse, the Air Force medical examiner who performed the autopsy on him.

Had Dilawar lived, Rouse said in sworn testimony, "I believe the injury to the legs are so extensive that it would have required amputation."

Media Farewell to Saint Timmeh of Punditry

It's sad that Tim Russert died at the young age of 58. The hagiographical coverage, though, has gone a bit too far:

Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel: Lessons of the Tim Russert coverage

Here's one thing you can say about journalists: Surely no one loves us as much as we love ourselves.

Eschaton: Worst Russert Related Commentary

I've been trying to hold back, but this is absurd:

It's surely no consolation to his family if we note that Russert dedicated himself to the pursuit of a noble cause: journalism, the free flow of information, the First Amendment, the need (more than ever) to hold politicians accountable for their words and actions. That, in fact, is more than a noble cause. It is patriotism. And his passing is sad proof that a patriot can sacrifice himself for the country he loves without dying in battle.

Even leaving aside the sharp contradiction between "free flow of information" and the Russert standard of "everything is presumed to be off the record," what sacrifice has Russert made? It's estimated that his annual salary was $5 million plus.

Comparing the "sacrifice" of celebrity journalists, even one who happens to die young, to people who get sent off to die in war isn't just absurd, it's obscene.

Roger (The Good) Ailes: And When They Rolled Away The Stone, Tim Was Gone

[SALLY] QUINN: I don't know any single person who ever thought that Tim was unfair.

...

QUINN: Yes, but, you know, the thing that is so interesting about it was that everybody believed Tim. There was never -- I never heard anybody say, "Do you think Tim is telling the truth?"

John Cole: Let's Get Something Straight

Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan’s death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work.

Save Beer

Bruce Mcintyre Photo

Vote no on McCain, because he has vowed to veto every beer. Watch:

In The News

Library of Congress/Flickr: Palmer, Alfred T.,, photographer.
Electric phosphate smelting furnace used to make elemental phosphorus in a TVA chemical plant in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals, Alabama
1942 June

This was done in your name: The United States illegally used white phosphorus and chemical weapons in Fallujah in 2004; now babies are being born with birth defects.

Many of the supposed "terrorists" tortured by the Bush Administration at Guantanamo were actually innocent. Again, this was done in your name. Chilling.

The Taliban -- remember them? -- attacked a prison in Kandahar, Afgahanistan from within and without, and 1100 prisoners escaped. The resurgence of the Taliban is another complete failure for the Bush Administration.

John McCain has a former Texas gubernatorial candidate organizing a $300,000 fundraiser -- a guy who joked rape is like the weather, when it is inevitable you should just lie back and enjoy it, in 1990. At first, McCain announced the fundraiser was cancelled. But there was money for the taking, so they're rescheduling it, with all the same donors -- except now the rape joker is not invited. Just his money and his moneyed friends. Any Hillary Clinton supporter who votes for McCain is a fool.

John McCain doesn't use a computer. Who doesn't use a computer anymore? My 80-year-old friend is on her third. McCain: Too old, too out of touch with modern life.

The odious Rudy Giuliani is back. He's trying to retire his campaign debt -- by selling his appearances at fundraisers to other Republicans. Hey Rudy -- there's no "I" in "Team". But it was always about Rudy.

Read this article on the Bush/Rove response to Katrina. You want to cry, but you have to laugh -- bitterly -- at this:

[Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco] gave Bush a two-page letter detailing everything the state needed to cope with the disaster -- troops, buses, supplies, money, and more. It would not be until several days later, when Blanco's aides released the letter to the press and got frantic phone calls from Rove's aide Maggie Grant, that it became clear that Bush had taken the letter Blanco had personally handed to him -- and lost it.

President Dumber-Than-A-Box-of-Hammers Lost. The. Letter. Heckuva job, Bushie.

Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Show

People Are Really Hurting

And the millionaire media pundits keep talking about themselves.

Bob Hebert, NYTimes: Letters From Vermont

Despite the focus on the housing crisis, gasoline prices and the economy in general, the press has not done a good job capturing the intense economic anxiety — and even dread, in some cases — that has gripped tens of millions of working Americans, including many who consider themselves solidly middle class.

Working families are not just changing their travel plans and tightening up on purchases at the mall. There is real fear and a great deal of suffering out there.

A man who described himself as a conscientious worker who has always pinched his pennies wrote the following to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont:

“This winter, after keeping the heat just high enough to keep my pipes from bursting (the bedrooms are not heated and never got above 30 degrees) I began selling off my woodworking tools, snowblower, (pennies on the dollar) and furniture that had been handed down in my family from the early 1800s, just to keep the heat on.

“Today I am sad, broken, and very discouraged. I am thankful that the winter cold is behind us for a while, but now gas prices are rising yet again. I just can’t keep up.”

[]

A 55-year-old man who said his economic condition was “very scary,” wrote: “I don’t live from paycheck to paycheck. I live day to day.” He has no savings, he said. His gas tank is never more than a quarter full, and he can’t afford to buy the “food items” he would like.

His sense of his own mortality was evident in every sentence, and he wondered how long he could continue. “I am concerned as gas prices climb daily,” he said. “I am just tired. The harder that I work, the harder it gets. I work 12 to 14 hours daily, and it just doesn’t help.”

A working mother with two young children wrote: “Some nights we eat cereal and toast for dinner because that’s all I have.”

Another woman said she and her husband, both 65, “only eat two meals a day to conserve.”

Disgraceful Treatment of Veterans By Bush Administration

Bush's Veterans Administration is banning voter registration at federally run nursing homes, Veterans Administration hospitals, shelters, and rehab hospitals. This is the ultimate insult, to those who served their country to ensure democracy and are now disabled as a result, to be deprived of the franchise. A complete disgrace, but what can you expect from a bunch of constitution-hating chickenhawks?

NYTimes: V.A. Ban on Voter Drives Is Criticized

Two Can Play This Game

CBSNews: Michelle Obama Becomes GOP Target
Politico: Both Parties Are Trying To Define Democratic Candidate's Wife For The General Election

It’s less than a week into the general election campaign, but already Michelle Obama is a Republican target.

Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger leveled the first blow, introducing Republican John McCain’s wife at a fundraiser this week as someone who is “proud of her country, not just once but always.” Obama wasn’t mentioned by name, but the audience got it.

So, does that mean Cindy McCain was proud of her country while she was getting high taking the drugs she stole from a medical charity? I bet she was proud of her country when she got special treatment from the justice system, which didn't throw her in jail. I can just imagine her thinking, I'm proud to be a rich American, from a country where only the poor go to jail for fraud, forgery and theft!

McCain Debates Himself

McCain's head must be spinning to keep all his positions straight.