Digby nails it.....

The wheels have come off at the White House and when the wheels come off disasters can happen. Read this, keeping in mind that Bob Gates is the acting Secretary of Defense....

The Akron Beacon Journal, Thursday edition, reprinted a David Ignatius' Washington Post article, I suppose, because Ignatius is regarded as a serious writer for the MSM, or should I say KPM (Knee Pad Media).

Yesterday's Washington Post states the GOP's response to Senator Craig's bathroom escapade was "stunning" in it's swiftness and severity.....

First read this....

The Reverend gives to you, without comment or commercial interruption, today's landslide winner of the "It's hard to make sh*t like this up" award....

Speaking in front of the annual convention of the American Legion in Reno, Nevada, Commander Guy spoke like a president who had just dropped a tab of acid. Bizarre, it was. Full transcript here

Anniversaries are times for reflection, remembrance. And so it is with the second year anniversary of Katrina, the hurricane, and how it became Katrina, the Republican Party opportunity.

I was away from my computer all day yesterday and wouldn't you know it? Lots of, what appear on the surface, important news. Of course, Alberto Gonzales stepping down seems the most significant.

It has come to The Reverend's attention that we are at war. It's a war that is different than any other. This war changes everything. All fixtures of American governance, law and society must be adjusted to deal with this war.

Following up on my post about The Commander Guy's profound grasp of Vietnam history, read these comments by "White House aides"....

When billions and billions of military-industrial complex dollars are on the line, could there be anything more important than getting Congress to keep up the status quo by voting to keep that tax money flowing? Heavens no. Profits ARE America's top priority. When military industrial capitalists get a $10 billion a month gravy train going.....well....do you think they're going to volunteer giving that up? And so this is no surprise....

The Republican candidates for president, to the man, reject all universal, single payer health care plans proposed by progressives. Some of the Democratic candidates reject these plans as well.

Hey, I didn't say it....this guy did....not the guy in the picture...this guy...

The main criticism I've heard against Barak Obama, thus far, is his alleged inexperience. Critics of Obama just couldn't wag their heads enough when Barak spoke of going after Bin Laden without Pakistan's approval. You know, sovereignty and all. Here are Obama's actual words....

Glenn Greenwald has become a very influential blogger and author all within the last year and a half or so. Some have been using the name Glennzilla, of late, to describe him because of his take no prisoners style.

As the miscreant neo-conservatives got high toking on the bong packed with the Constitution last week, they started to hyper-chat (while munching on Fritos) about their victory over American freedom.

From Yahoo News....

I wanted to say something about president Bush's Vietnam/Iraq comparisons from his speech in front of the VFW National Convention in Kansas City.(Transcript found here)

Today's edition....

If you haven't been watching CNN's series "God's Warriors"...you should be. Tonight at 9PM Eastern, Christiane Amanpour considers Muslim radicals, last night it was Jewish radicals, Thursday night it's Christian radicals.

The old "wise" Democratic statesman senator Carl Levin is calling for Maliki and the whole Iraqi government to be disbanded.

Still waiting......for that economic boom promised by the supply siders. You know the guys. They slash taxes for the top one percent and then tell us to wait for those trickle down coins.

So here's the bad news about mortgage foreclosures......

I did not watch the Sunday Democratic "debate".....don't you think there are waaaay too many of these primary debates? What's up with that?

The attorneys for "dirty bomber", Jose Padilla, rested their case on Tuesday, August 7th. Link

A while back on another forum I wrote about the rape and murder of a 14 year old Iraqi girl by American soldiers. At the time I was criticized for jumping to conclusions and declaring soldiers guilty before proven to be. Maybe the criticism was justified.

Today's Beacon Journal has one of the most inane opinion pieces I've seen in quite some time. Entitled "The liberal's science card" and written by an obvious wingnut from the Dallas Morning News, Rod Dreher. If you haven't read it, go here.

Great article here out of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel comparing economies under GOP presidents versus economies under Democratic presidents. Here's a few snippets....

Glenn Beck explains why "they" hate us and want to scare us.....

HUNTINGTON, Utah - The search for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them. Link

Rudy Giuliani remains the frontrunner for the Republican Party's presidential candidacy in the 2008 election. He is running primarily, if not exclusively, on his 9-11 credentials, whatever that actually is supposed to mean.

From CNN....

As I type this the Dow is down another 175 points. Since July 19th when the Dow Index hit 14,121, it has fallen over 1300 points or approximately 9%.

Newt Gingrich, July 16th, 2006, on Meet the Press, speaking about the "war on terror".....

It's the middle of August and so I understand why when the Turd That Sprouts Blossoms, aka Karl Rove, resigns, we all have to listen to so much gushing by Knee Padders about Rove's "legacy". He won all those elections, blah, blah....his loyalty to Bush was blah....he'll write a book about blah, blah....

Ever since it became common knowledge that George W. Bush ordered the NSA to spy on Americans illegally, the excuse was always something like, "Well, we're ONLY spying on al-Qaeda terrroists", or something to that effect. The Commander Guy himself said,...

The L.A. Times online has a comedy piece up here about General Petraeus' upcoming September

The authentic Axis of Evil, Bush-Cheney-Rove, will never have their evil desires satiated until they have the entire middle east raging with the fires of war and misery. Here's this mornings extremely unhelpful, some would call it insane, news about the Evil Ones ongoing effort to start a war with Iran....I guess because Iraq has proved to be such a successful venture.

You may remember the name Jose Padilla. He was the alleged "dirty bomber". He was so dangerous, according to White House officials, he had to wear the goggles depicted above in the photo because he might give other "terrorists" activate-the-plot signals with his eyes.

After 9-11, the Bush White House began a fear campaign to get what it wanted. I'm simply stating the obvious. This fear campaign continues to this day and I expect it will go on for a very long time to come, promoted specifically, but not exclusively, by the authoritarian Republican Party.

Apparently Stephen Baldwin, the actor, had a conversation with Jesus, (not an actor), and Jesus told Baldwin to do something for him. The Reverend is always keenly interested when celebrity folks, like politicians or actors(some think these are the same), report that Jesus has told them to do something for him. And of course this makes The Reverend envious because even though I know the Nazarene from his "recorded" words in the most popular book of all,

Karl Rove, also known as TurdBlossom, also known as Bush's Brain, and always known by The Reverend as the most despicable deception artist ever to slime up the White House will resign at the end of August in order to

In Sunday's Washington Post Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus report on the Democratic collapse on the FISA re-write bill.

It surely is not news that the neo-conservatives in and around the White House are looking diligently for an excuse to attack Iran. Whether these extremists, including Cheney AND Bush, will actually attack another sovereign country is still unclear.

You won't find it in any of the mainstream media outlets but the Village Voice has an excellent expose in "Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9-11".

Here's one for the "freedom is on the march" crowd.

Representative Bill Sali(R-Idaho) is today's example of "winger-mindedness".

The reason the United States military invaded and now occupy the nation of Iraq, complete with the construction of multiple military bases and the largest embassy we have in the world, was for the sole purpose of STAYING. George W. Bush didn't send our military to invade and occupy a sovereign nation because that nation was a threat to America. He sent our military, with Congressional consent, so that the U.S. would have a permanent military presence in the region. That was the goal outlined in the Project for the New American Century signed by most of the usual suspect neo-conservatives in 1998.

Fresh off the "scare-the-hell-out-of-'em-again-so-they'll-let-us-burn-the-Constitution" FISA update bill passed by Congress this past weekend comes a renewed effort to cash in on a bit of resurrected

This is what a group of "God's people" will be doing in response to the tragic Minnesota bridge collapse.....

If you would like to see a pretty cool national map depicting America's slow 20+ year capitulation to that dreaded terror group called "obesity".....go here.

Let's say for sake of discussion that The Reverend was first suspected, then accused, of robbing ATM machines with the assistance of local cellphone companies.

I watched the Democratic "debate" last night on MSNBC. Of all the events thus far on either side, last night's was the best. Keith Olberman even got the best of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama with one of his questions. It was a twofer moment.

Wasn't it Art Linkletter who had the "Kids Say the Darnest Things" shows and books? Well, there are those here at Reverendland who think the time has come for a similar serial program. You know, a "Wingers Say the Darnest Things" kind of program.

Regarding the Beacon's reprint today of a column from Kevin Ferris, Philadelphia Inquirer commentary editor, entitled " The power of positive thinking in Iraq":

Newsweek reports....

First came the Orwellian named Patriot Act in 2001 with it's FBI National Security Letters and library reading list surveillance, fully equipped with a librarian gag order.

It was passed in 45 days after 9-11 without being read by most, perhaps all, Congressional members. Complaints of governmental abuse of privacy, as was expected, multiplied.

The Munchkin imitating a very serious big person, Newt Gingrich, has decided to embolden the enemy by saying....

How can it be? How in the hell can a president with a roughly 28% approval rating and a disapproval rating just one shy of Nixon's lowest rating ever PRESSURE a Democratic Congressional majority in both houses to drop to their knees and grant this brush clearer from Texas EVEN MORE COMMANDER GUY POWERS??

Recently it has come to The Reverend's attention that Ohio.com, apparently, is under seige by something being called a 'blogstorm'.

Mitch McConnell (R-KY...Senate Minority Leader) is not one of The Reverend's favorite Senators. That good ol' down home twang of his is just.....I don't know.....so cheesy sounding. And of course there's all those filibusters he's directed. So when good ol' Mitch said this about yesterday's passing of a Senate ethics bill, I had a good laugh on the Kentucky Kornpone....

The Ohio Talibangelical movement is at it again. Mike Hixenbaugh of the Record Courier tells us all about a new bill being submitted in Columbus by the forced pregnancy caucus led by Republican John Adams.....

It all started with ABC News on July 1st...

The very serious cable "news" network MSNBC wants to keep it's viewers abreast of the monumental controversy over Hillary Clinton's plunging neckline of mass exposure.

From the Democratic Policy Committee website....

Mrs. Reverend and I watched some of the House debate Monday evening on what is called the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The bill was passed almost strictly upon party lines. The president has, in an act of pre-emptive war against equal pay for women, said he would veto the measure. The Decider loves those stem cells and wants to protect them from what he considers abuse of life....but women?.....not so much.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon. That is his personal