Fox blocks killer jock. Must mock.

Der Fox Fuhrer Rupert Murdoch wants us to know that he is with us 100 percent! He also thinks giving OJ Simpson a pile of cash to tell us how he nearly decapitated his ex-wife 12 years ago, then stabbed Ronald Goldman to death, was "ill considered".

As a public service to our readers, and a personal favor to Murdoch, Heraldblog would like to flag other "ill-considered projects". Do not, repeat, do not green light the following projects:

Schindler's List bloopers and bleepers

Blind, Retarded Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Bowel Movements With the Stars

Hollywood Gynecologists Tell All

Anything with Paris Hilton

Unearthing Mother Theresa

The Bangkok Club Med AIDS Challenge

Queer Factor

Closed Casket or No Closed Casket

America's Most Wanted - All Muslim Edition

LBW

This guy is a national treasure.

Stigmata sold separately

There was a time when Christmas toys were meant to be fun.

Toys for Tots has decided to accept a toymaker's gift of 4,000 bible-quoting Jesus dolls after all.

The program run by the Marine Corps Reserves had initially decided not to take the 12-inch tall religious figures from a California company because they didn't want to take a chance that the dolls would end up going to someone who might be offended by them.

Bill Grein, vice president of Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, in Quantico, Va., said Toys for Tots doesn't know anything about the religious affiliations of the children who receive its gifts.

"We can't take a chance on sending a talking Jesus doll to a Jewish family or a Muslim family," Grein said Tuesday. "Kids want a gift for the holiday season that is fun."

But a spokesman told CBS4 Wednesday they changed their minds and decided to accept the dolls from the Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Co.. Toys for Tots refused further comment.

According to the company's Web site, the button-activated, bearded Jesus doll recites scripture such as "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."

I wonder how he would get along with Muslim Barbie?

Happy Hiroshima Day!

It took three years and 245 days for Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman to win World War Two for the US. That's how much time transpired between Pearl Harbor and nuking Nagasaki.

It's been three years and 242 days since President Bush kicked off his little war in Iraq. So comparably, this is the day we drop the bomb on Hiroshima.

It took less time for a mobilized, well-led America to defeat the heavily-industrialized, highly motivated, united fascist Germany and Japan, than for President Bush to defeat a nation of third-world religious zealots armed with artillery shells and timers.

ht: The American Street

Bush's family planning directoropposes family planning

Oy vey!

Keroack, in case you haven't heard, is credited with the Scotch Tape® theory of human sexuality:

New scientific studies also suggest that if a woman has multiple sexual partners, this will lower her levels of oxytocin which in turn will damage her ability to bond. Oxytocin is a neuro-peptide most commonly associated with pregnancy and breast-feeding. It seems to act as a human "superglue," helping a mother bond with her infant. It is also released during sexual arousal and there, too, seems to work as a "superglue." Since estrogen enhances the oxytocin response, females are capable of more intense bonding than males, and are more susceptible to the suffering that accompanies broken bonds.vi According to an article by Drs. John Diggs and Eric Keroack, "People who have misused their sexual faculty and become bonded to multiple persons will diminish the power of oxytocin to maintain a permanent bond with an individual."

In more basic terms, sharing the gift of sex is like putting a piece of tape on another person's arm. The first bond is strong, and it hurts to remove it. Shift the tape to another person's arm and the bond will still work, but it will be easier to remove. Each time this is done, part of each person remains with the tape. Soon it is easy to remove because the residue from the various arms interferes with the tape's ability to stick. The same is true in relationships, where previous sexual experiences interfere with the ability to bond.

Hysterical revisionism

Expect much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth when the Democratic controlled congress blocks President Bush's nomination of extremist judges. "That's not fair!" cries Mitch McConnell:

"We expect from them the same level of cooperation we extended to President Clinton. We decided he'd been elected president, and we were not entitled to deny him all of his judges." Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Hypocrisy), on the Hugh Hewitt show.

Fact checkin' time:

Rather than openly challenge President Clinton's nominees on the floor, Republicans decided to deny them Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Between 1996 and 2000, 20 of Bill Clinton's appeals-court nominees were denied hearings, including Elena Kagan, now dean of the Harvard Law School, and many other women and minorities. In 1999, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch refused to hold hearings for almost six months on any of 16 circuit-court and 31 district-court nominations Clinton had sent up. Three appeals-court nominees who did manage to obtain a hearing in Clinton's second term were denied a committee vote, including Allen R. Snyder, a distinguished Washington lawyer, Clinton White House aide, and former Rehnquist law clerk, who drew lavish praise at his hearing -- but never got a committee vote. Some 45 district-court nominees were also denied hearings, and two more were afforded hearings but not a committee vote.

Even votes that did occur were often delayed for months and even years. In late 1999, New Hampshire Republican Bob Smith blocked a vote on 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Richard Paez for months by putting an anonymous hold on the nomination. When Majority Leader Trent Lott could no longer preserve the hold, Smith and 13 other Republicans tried to mount a filibuster against the vote, but cloture was voted and Paez easily confirmed. It had been over four years since his nomination.

Don't these people ever give up?

Memo from Omar

"And let's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospects of a Dem-controlled Congress." - Fox News memo obtained by Huffington Post.


Wednesday Update

To: All martyrs of Islam in the occupied territories of the land between the rivers

From: Omar

Re: Democratic victory in US elections

Before I lay out our plans for the upcoming year, I just want to give a high five to the freedom fighters who kidnapped 50 Sunni apostates at the Ministry of Higher Education. Let's keep up the momentum! And focus. And don't forget to enter the Sword of Allah raffle for the steak knives and electric hummus grinder. But you have to kidnap to enter!

You've probably all heard the news that Allah has blessed the Democratic Party with a sweep of both houses of the US congress, forcing the infidel George Boosh to his filthy knees. While it is premature to expect any immediate gains from the blessed Day of the Donkey, we can be assured of several successes, including a hike in the minimum wage for our sleeper cell brothers toiling in the infidels' wretched fast food palaces. Hassan al Libbi el Abu Tikrit Luweluweye, aka "Mike", a soldier of Islam currently undercover as a sous chef at the Route 22 Denny's in Peoria, assures us the additional 22,000 dinars he will receive every hour will not dissuade him from his purpose - to kidnap the Marketing Communications Department staff at Bradley University.

And how about that Nancy Pelosi? I'd like to see her on a prayer rug, if you get my drift!

Have to go now. This memo will arrive by courrier in about six to ten weeks.

In Allah the Merciful's name,

Omar

Business as usual?

Is anybody else getting a sinking feeling about Nancy Pelosi?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

It remains unclear who will become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take control of the U.S. Congress next year.

Media reports last week said that the senior-most Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., will not get the top spot owing to personal differences with fellow California Democrat, the Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi.

But the next most senior Democrat on the committee, Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings, was impeached and stripped of a federal judgeship in 1989 for soliciting a bribe -- despite his earlier acquittal of the same charges in a criminal case.

According to The Washington Post, in 1981 when Hastings discovered the FBI wanted to interview him, he left his hotel without checking out; headed not to the closest airport with the earliest flight, but to a nearby alternative; and engaged in a complex series of calls to his girlfriend, getting her to leave her home to call him from a payphone, then calling her back there from a third number.

"This is not the behavior of an innocent man," wrote Post columnist Ruth Marcus, who covered the impeachment.

If the Democrats blow this, I'm voting Green from now on.

Depends on the definition of "decrease"

More evidence that President Bush's anti-terror strategery isn't working out the way he planned. The number of terrorist groups that want to kill Americans is going up.

[F]our Palestinian armed factions issued a statement calling on mujahideen everywhere to attack American interests, in retaliation for what the Americans have done in Iraq and Palestine. The four groups are the Salahadeen group affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees; the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade; a group named after Ahmad Abu al-Reesh the Sword of Islam; and the Fatah Fighters, Unitary Brigades, or some such name. Al-Quds said the statement comes in response to the US veto of the UN resolution criticising Israel for the Beit Hanoun killings. The statement called on all free people of the world, and all the mujahideen of the Islamic ummah to "satiate the Americans with attacks..." adding that what the Americans have sown with their guns and their airplanes, this is what they should reap. Traditionally, there has been a very strong inclination on the part of the Palestinian resistance to keep their struggle strictly domestic. It is possible that as a result of Beit Hanoun and the US veto, something has snapped.

I'm sure Dear Leader has an excuse.

Happy Birthday Schwesterherz!

Actually, her birthday is tomorrow, but I'm a little light on the posting today.

Freedom marching news

Gunmen disguised as Iraqi security forces kidnap 100 or more scientists in Baghdad.

Shiite and Sunni militias have been targeting academics and scientists, and as a result thousands of highly educated Iraqis have fled the country. Soon Iraq will be a nation of Islamic dittoheads, if it isn't already.

This is your brain. This is your brain in denial.

"Our party does not suffer the affliction of being a boiling mad collection of fringe interests with notions so cockeyed that they ultimately rub each other raw and make average Americans cringe," Barton said. "Republicans will never be that." Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), flaming the Democrats, and by extension, the majority of US voters.

"All we're doing in Congress is giving Terri Schiavo an opportunity to come to the federal courts and review what this judge in Florida has been doing, and he's been trying to kill Terri for 4 1/2 years." Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Hoosegow) in full cringe mode.

Keep talking, Rush

It's been great fun watching Rush Limbaugh dig himself in deeper and deeper, trying to explain why he's been lying to his faithful dittoheads all these years.

A couple days ago, he said "I feel liberated" in regards to Tuesday's thumping, because now he can stop "carrying water" for the Republican Party. Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall, and numerous others piled on the comment, asking why Rush had been only pretending to support the President, and mislead his idiotic listeners. So the next day Limbaugh explained what he means by "I feel liberated". Apparently, flowers and chocolates have nothing to do with it:

I said, "I'm tired of carrying the water for people who don't deserve having their water carried," and from that, hell has broken loose. I was lying! I'm abandoning the GOP! I somehow admitted that I'm no longer going to read the White House talking points when I never, ever get the White House talking points. Some twerp on television last night said, "A-ha! See? The White House had this big meeting with conservative talk show hosts. They got in there and they got their marching orders and they went..." I wasn't invited to that! I wasn't invited because they knew I wouldn't go. I don't do group things, number one.

Ignoring the serious image burn of Rush in a "group thing", I'll say that Limbaugh is, has been, and always will be a liar. His entire schtick is a lie. He's a comedian, or more specifically a clown, dressed up as informed comment. That's the worst type of lie, especially so on radio. Steve Colbert comes close to Limbaugh territory, but he works on television so there are enough visual clues to let everyone in on the joke. Plus Colbert is lampooning O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and every other blowhard, left or right, and the cult of persoality that political commentary creates. Limbaugh only skewers himself. It's shared comedy conceipt, where we get to laugh at both the clown and his audience.

God bless you, Rush. Keep talking.

Real journalist dies

Ed Bradley, the long-time 60 Minutes reporter, died today in a New York City hospital from complications of leukemia. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; and other real American journalists including Walter Cronkite, and, uh, that's about it.

Bradley was 65, and the oldest man to have ever worn an ear ring and look damned good at the time.

Dubya's "Plan B"

President Bush must have taken a royal bitch slapping to fire his secretary of defense, one day after the Democrats seized the House and Senate. It was a stunning turnaround from the man who promised only last week that Rummy would be around for another two years.

But as Lance at Americablog says, nothing happens at the White House with Karl Rove's approval. Firing Rumsfeld was Rove's way of knocking the Democrats off the front page. The mainstream media, Rove's other bitch, will now switch from "Americans trust Democrats more" to "Bush charts new course for Iraq".

First off, nothing is done in the Rove-controlled White House except for the most brazen and obvious of political reasons. Rumsfeld resigned today so that his resignation would drive some of the election news off the front pages of the newspapers and so it would be the lead story on the TV news all day.

Second, I doubt that if the Republicans were sure they would be holding onto the Senate come January, Rumsfeld would have resigned now. But with the real possibility that the Democrats will be running the show come 2008, Rumsfeld had to get out of the way fast so that this Senate, this still Republican-controlled Senate, can gear up to quickly confirm his successor with a minimum of actual advise and consent.

And third, no matter how bad the guy leaving the job was, with the Bush Administration one thing’s certain—his successor will be worse.

By this point, the pool of competent, honest, decent people who are willing to go to work for George Bush must have evaporated to the point where if it’s even a puddle, it’s the kind of puddle you find on the hood of your car in the morning after a heavy dew, the thinnest of watery sheens.

And if there are a handful of competent, decent, honest men and women out there who are foolhardy enough to think that they can go into the White House and save George Bush from himself and Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, you can be sure Dick Cheney and Karl Rove know who they are and have them on a list labeled DO NOT APPOINT!

I'm not quite that cynical. Robert Gates is a foreign policy realist who knew from 2002 onward that using military force to bring democracy to an Arab country was a foolish use of American blood and treasure. It's no coincidence that Gates sits on the Baker commission, which is charged with finding an honorable way out of Bush's War. It's Dubya's best fall back position: relying on his dad's pals to get him out of trouble.

Texans think "inside the box"

Houston voters re-elect a dead woman to congress.

Among the House races, Republican Rep. Glenda Dawson, who died in September, appeared on her way to a final win Tuesday, capturing 64 percent of the early vote.

Her name remained on the ballot in suburban Houston despite her death. If Dawson wins—a likely outcome in the conservative Pearland district—Perry will call for a special election to replace her.

Dawson’s campaign was criticized for sending out campaign mailers just before the election touting her record but not mentioning that she had died.

Hey, either that or vote for a Democrat.

Casey licks Santorum

Couldn't resist.

Pennsylvania voters handed the U.S. Senate's No. 3 Republican his first political defeat Tuesday, rejecting conservative stalwart Rick Santorum in favor of Democrat Bob Casey, the mild-mannered son of a former two-term governor.

Santorum, a strong voice for conservatives in Washington, had long been a polarizing figure in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania. Although admired for his blunt talk, he alienated voters with his harsh partisanship and his positions on an array of issues, from support of the Iraq war to his complaint that in too many households both parents work outside the home.

Casey's victory was based on a statistical analysis of the vote from voter interviews conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

A disciplined Casey stuck to his I'm-not-Santorum message throughout his campaign, accusing the Republican senator of pursuing a rigid ideology that put him out of step with Pennsylvanians. A former two-term state auditor and now the state treasurer, Casey was seeking to become the first Democrat from Pennsylvania elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate since 1962.

Unable to gain ground on the front-runner, Santorum mounted ever harsher attacks against his Democratic opponent, in the end accusing him of "aiding and abetting terrorism and genocide" through state pension investments.

Santorum raised $25 million and Casey $15 million, making it the most expensive Senate race in Pennsylvania history.

How sweet it is!

Apocalypse watch

Britney Spears files for divorce from what's-his-name.

Dobson blames gay marriage.



Daniel Drezner sees a Republican plot.

Statute of Frauds applies to gays, says Crist

Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist is for civil unions, such as buying a house on a land contract, or a small business partnerships. Hey, wait, you didn't really think he meant that kind of civil union!

After months of saying he supports civil unions between same-sex couples, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist has significantly narrowed the definition of what he means.

Asked Thursday whether his support for civil unions is consistent with his backing for a proposed anti-gay marriage amendment to the Florida Constitution, a campaign spokeswoman said Crist opposes state-approved civil unions.

“Charlie Crist … believes that private individuals may enter contractual relationships with each other; however, he does not support the state extending marital benefits to nontraditional couples,” Crist spokeswoman Erin Isaac said in an e-mail to the Daily Business Review.

So what changed? Crist has been outed! And so, like any good Repubican, he resorts to bigotry. Too bad about Charlie. He's one of the more moderate voices in Florida GOP politics.

Alternative realities

Which of the following statements was not made during yesterday's yesterday's Rush Limbaugh - Tony Snow circle jerk:

Iraqis are more supportive of the war than Americans.

The Democratic party has lost the support of all white voters.

The Saddam Hussein trial was orderly.

Oxy-contin beats crystal meth any day.

I give them three weeks, tops

"What I want you ladies to know is I love my husband Ted Haggard with all my heart. I am committed to him with all my heart." - Gayle Haggard, future Hannidate poster, speaking to 14,000 Republicans last Sunday.

Saddam as symbol

Of course the Bush administration released the Saddam Hussein war crimes verdict two days before the mid-term elections. No surprise there. The Bushies have been bending the Iraq to their own needs since day one. From Mission Accomplished to Last Throes to Bring it On, the Great Decider in Chief has viewed Iraq first as a political cudgel, and then as a place where real people die. And therein lies the reason the US is about to lose its second war in 40 years.

Iraq is really three countries: Shiite, Kurd and Sunni. Shiites are the majority, and a group with good reason to hate Saddam. They are thrilled that the Butcher of Baghdad will one day face the noose. The Kurds are strong, confident, pro-American, and safely tucked away in the north of Iraq. They hate Saddam, and would gladly spring the trap door. The Sunnis are a harder sell, though most will not be grieving when Saddam is sent to that special corner of Muslim hell where the couscous is rancid all the virgins look like Lynn Cheney.

But the timing of the announcement is not going down well in Iraq. Once again, Iraqis are made to dance to Bush's tune. Iraqi blogger Riverbend, who grows more and more dispirited, says

It’s not about the man- presidents come and go, governments come and go. It’s the frustration of feeling like the whole country and every single Iraqi inside and outside of Iraq is at the mercy of American politics. It is the rage of feeling like a mere chess piece to be moved back and forth at will. It is the aggravation of having a government so blind and uncaring about their peoples needs that they don’t even feel like it’s necessary to go through the motions or put up an act. And it's the deaths. The thousands of dead and dying, with Bush sitting there smirking and lying about progress and winning in a country where every single Iraqi outside of the Green Zone is losing.

Once again… The timing of all of this is impeccable- two days before congressional elections. And if you don’t see it, then I’m sorry, you’re stupid. Let’s see how many times Bush milks this as a ‘success’ in his coming speeches.

Winning hearts and minds, let alone the war, is so far from Bush's mind that it is, quite literally, criminal. This was never a war against terror - it was a war for Republican dominance. Look at Riverbend's quote one more time. Replace "Iraqi" with "American". Americans and Iraqis have shared the same fate for the last four years. It's just the Iraqis that have paid the price.

Don't forget to vote.

Pastor Ted and the wild side

Found this posted as a comment on Thought Theatre:

Evangelical/charismatic Christianity lives within the tensions of a gender paradox that can rend people's inner selves assunder. On the social/physical level, homosexuality is condemned. But, taking the cue from old Catholic bridal mysticism, evangelicals are taught to erotically love the "passionate bridegroom-Jesus" who has "fire in his eyes."

To picture oneself as a bride, to enter the "King's chamber" and be "ravished by his love" is the highest spiritual goal in this religion. This all might be good and well for a heterosexual female, but what about males? How does a man imagine himself (herself?) as a bride of Christ? What does it mean when for a male to swoon for Jesus and cry out with anxious desire the words from Song of Solomon: "Oh, that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth!"?

It means that although in his social and physical realm the Christian man denounces/renounces homosexuality, in the spiritual realm he has taken on the passive homosexual role in a gay marriage. "He" has become "she," a bride in the bridal chamber. Take the lines from that old Lou Reed song: "...shaved her legs and then he was a she; she says, Hey babe take a walk on the wild side..." Conservative evangelical males would be horrified at such a thought, yet this is EXACTLY what they do spiritually, when they image themselves as brides of Christ.

While human males are off limits in the church, divine males are deliciously enticing; God and angels are imaged as buffed, macho men. They are the rightful objects of spiritual desire and passion. See, for example, the huge scupture titled "Exalter" in the lobby of Ted Haggard's New Life Church. Physically, this angel looks like a weight lifter pumped up on steroids. His arms are raised in exaltation of the the ultimate Super Alpha Male; the exalted (post-resurrection) Christ. Ted Haggard's accuser, Mike Jones, is of similar appearance. He obviously works out quite regularly.

So, that which is forbidden physically is the same thing that entices one spiritually. The same "six-pack" abs and iron pecks that are off limits in the human realm, are the legitmate objects of spiritual desire when one imagines Jesus this way, as the heavenly bridegroom.

Today's evangelical/charismatic male may look fully masculine. He might even have a wife and kids. But when he goes into the "prayer closet," he becomes a she--transgendered into a fawning, cooing bride, seeking bliss in the arms of 'her' "bridegroom-Jesus." When 'she' emerges from the prayer closet, the man becomes a "he" again.

When one goes in and out of this closet so often, for so many years, and eventually the closet door revolves so quickly and efforlessly, is it any wonder that people can become badly disoriented as to their gender? If these allegations prove true, perhaps pastor Ted eventually became confused at times as to which side of the closet door he was on.

There are, of course, different types of love. The love you feel for a child is not the same that you feel for a spouse, for instance. The emotion of love can be considered separately from the physical act. And when the two go together, the act is only incidental to the emotion. Perhaps this is what evangelicals need to discuss, because their fixation on the physical act is really, really creepy,

Brutal

If you can read David Rose's interviews with prominent neo-cons without imagining rats jumping off a sinking ship, it's only because you're from some corner of the world where ships are plagued by hamsters or meerkats. At some point I'll get over my schadenfreude, and start trembling at the realization that the US is facing its worst foreign policy crisis since the Bay of Pigs, or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Until then, I'm in as much denial as the buffoons who brought us to this sorry state. Behold the words of Bush's former speech writer, David Frum:

"I always believed as a speechwriter that if you could persuade the president to commit himself to certain words, he would feel himself committed to the ideas that underlay those words. And the big shock to me has been that although the president said the words, he just did not absorb the ideas. And that is the root of, maybe, everything."

This is one of the kinder comments. Read the whole piece.

Oh no! We've lost Ahnold!

The Terminator says the US needs to set a timetable for leaving Iraq:

In an interview yesterday with a CBS affiliate in San Francisco, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) said, “I think that we should get out of [Iraq] as quickly as we can.” The governor also called for “a deadline of when we pull the troops out.”

When asked what he thought of Bush’s opposition to a deadline, Schwarzenegger said, “I think that eventually he will have to put a deadline on there. I think the American people will demand it.”

Hasta la vista, GOP!

Rove answers Batergate 2.0

OK, Karl has been silent on the good Reverend Ted so far, but you can bet he's mulling over the Republican response. How to shift the attention away from the lying hypocrite who speaks for "the base", and point the finger back at the Democrats? Solution: call Democrats "gay bashers". Bush himself can't utter the phrase, because it includes the word "gay", the word that dare not speak its name. But the great Republican noise machine will sound like an ACT UP drum circle for the next four days, calling Democrats hypocrites for destroying Haggard's reputation over a legal act. I mean c'mon, it's not like Ted Haggard married the guy!

Batergate 2.0

Hey that's not fair! The Republicans aren't through expressing mock indignation over John Kerry's botched joke, and now a prominent evangelical has been exposed for a three-year long affair with a gay hooker? Oh man, what a buzzkill.

And it's not your run-of-the-mill, snake-handling, bad haircut in a cheap suit we're talking about. This is Pastor Ted Haggard (that's star-5 on Bush's cell phone), arguably the most powerful holy roller in Colorado Springs, and the President of the National Association of Evangelicals. A Colorado TV station has known about Pastor Ted for two months, since the male hooker contacted them with the story. So presumably, the station has more to go on than the word of a himbo.

Please God, let there be DNA evidence.

Pastor Ted was the subject of a lengthy piece (ow, bad choice of words) in Harper's Magazine last spring. Haggard is the founder and senior leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, 14,000 Republican voters strong. Will Pastor Ted's indiscretions keep some of them at home?

I can't wait for Tuesday.

In all honesty, I think we all know how this one will play out. The Republicans will first claim this is a Democratic smear job, with exhibit number one being the timing of the news. Then we'll learn that there's evidence of the affair. Other's may step forward to say they've also kneeled with Pastor Ted. Then Ted will go into seclusion, followed by a tearful confession on the 700 Club. There will be Pastor Ted jokes (got to get to work on those right away), and the Evangelical community will show its indignation with more barking about the great homosexual agenda for America.

Hope I didn't ruin the ending.

Thought Theatre has some fresh thoughts on Haggard, and the issue of faith and politics.

That was, like, so six years ago

The Decider in Chief dropped by the Oxy Moron show today, and said this:

RUSH: Well, you have maintained optimism throughout. Many people, I guess -- in the opposition press, the opposition party -- are incredulous that you are optimistic about the outcome next Tuesday. Why is that? Why are you optimistic? What do you know that they don't?

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I fully understand that here in Washington people are trying to proclaim the election over with, but I've had that experience before. That's what happened in 2004, and it's what happened in 2002.

He probably doesn't want to talk about 2000.

He also said this:

RUSH: When you go out on the campaign trail or when you're in your private moments, do you think of the consequences of governing with a Democrat majority in either the House or the Senate when it comes to things like tax cuts and the war on terror?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I really don't think about the idea of having a Democrat-led House and Senate because I don't think it's going to happen.

Bush also didn't think the Iraqi insurgency would happen, so he didn't spend much time thinking about that either. That's the cool thing about hearing God's voice - there's no point in planning for the unexpected when the outcome is preordained.

Last throes

Did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki just hand George Bush a reason to "cut and run"?

American soldiers rolled up their barbed-wire barricades and lifted a near siege of the largest Shiite Muslim enclave in Baghdad on Tuesday, heeding the orders of a Shiite-led Iraqi government whose assertion of sovereignty had Shiites celebrating in the streets.

The order by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to lift the week-old blockade of Sadr City was one of the most overt expressions of self-determination by Iraqi leaders in the 3 1/2 -year-old U.S. occupation. It followed two weeks of increasingly pointed exchanges between Iraqi and U.S. officials, as well as a video conference between Maliki and President Bush on Saturday.

The prime minister of Iraq is playing a dangerous game. On one hand, he admits that his country will slide into anarchy 2.0 if US troops leave. On the other hand, he objects to an imposed sense of urgency in quelling the violence that is keeping US troops in his country. Now Maliki is telling US troops they can't set up checkpoints to find a kidnapped US soldier, and US generals acquiesce.

The US military has ceded control to the prime minister of Iraq. Where is the right's outrage? Why is it easier to get worked up over Kerry's botched joke than foreign command of US troops? Malaki is obviously in bed with the same Shiite militias that are killing troops, and all Limbaugh can talk about is Michael J. Fox?