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I was watching CNN's coverage of the SOTU speech tonight and after listening to Gov. Tom Kaine's (note: corrected name) rebuttal, was thinking how well suited the Dems are to retake the Senate in the fall. Then Nancy Pelosi was interviewed and she proceeded to find a way NOT to answer a single question with anything but totally idiodic answers. Someone please please put a gag on that woman!

I felt like she nearly single-handedly undid the good of Gov. Kaine's message.

AM Update: What really happened.

6:48PM: Cindy Sheehan, earlier reported to have gotten a pass to the SOTU address, "may have been arrested."

Wonder what T-shirt she was wearing under her T-shirt?

Answer 6:56: Maybe some kind of banner. Whatever it is, the Capitol Police expect to need her for "about an hour."

Update 9:00: Or maybe it was a T-shirt. My goodness.

8:36: Okay, mine's unprintable. Here's someone else's SOTU deconstruction.

Expected topics for Jay Marvin's show on AM 760.
Wednesday, February 1

Wednesday, February 1 from 6--10AM on AM 760

6:30AM: Congressman Mark Udall.

7:00AM: Chair of the State Democratic Party Pat Waak.

7:30AM: Ed Schultz.

9:00AM: The Nation's D.C. correspondent John Nichols.

Coming Up:
Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream! Give me a pint of Cherry Garcia please!

AM 760 Website

'No Spy List' up and running

Don't want to have your phones tapped, your e-mails monitored, or your Google searches tracked by the National Security Agency?

Sign up for the "no spy list" - a creation of ProgressNow Action, a liberal internet group based in Colorado...

Here's a fun drinking game that's sure to make Tuesday night's State of the Union Address go down easily.

Chug a beer whenever the Prez "embellishes" on the truth.

Expect a tsunami of suds if President Bush takes on civil justice evildoers. Civil justice attorneys, jackpot jury awards and frivolous lawsuits are The CEO in Chief's favorite whipping boys.

Whether speaking before a joint session of Congress, or a gaggle of friendly physicians in the American Heartland, President Bush rarely misses the chance to go "James Frey" on those seeking fairness in civil courts.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, one should never let the facts get in the way of a good story. That's just what Bush and his Tort Reform corporate pals have done for decades.

As Ronald Reagan once said, facts are funny things. The facts don't support Bush's distorted dissertation on a system of justice created to hold wrongdoers -- be they individuals or corporations -- accountable for harming regular folks.

Here's some more truth the Prez won't touch: More than 100,000 people are killed each year through medical negligence. Yet only about 500 medical malpractice cases get filed each year.

These cases are tragedies for surviving family members, yet Bush calls them "frivolous." He says civil justice lawsuits hurt the economy and force doctors to quit their professions.

But why quibble over people left brain damaged, mangled or dead though medical mistakes? The President knows people prefer fantasies to facts, especially when a civil justice attorney is the fall guy.

So enjoy the show tonight. And if you play that beer-chugging party game, drink responsibly and please don't drive.

Click here to learn more facts about the fragile state of civil justice in America.

Here's one politician putting his money where his...um, mouth is.

Berlusconi gives up sex until election

[Italian President] Silvio Berlusconi, 69, a multi-billionaire, made the pledge at a party rally in Sardinia to a television preacher, Massimiliano Pusceddu, who thanked him for his commitment to family values and opposition to gay marriages.

The chastity pledge may be news to his wife Veronica Lario, a former actress, who is rarely seen in public...

Rep. Lane Evans, ranking Dem, House Veterans' Affairs Committee:

The Bush Administration's Record of Shortchanging Veterans: The Real State of the Union

Last year, the President did not once mention the word "veteran" during the course of his State of the Union address. I wonder if he will discuss veterans this year; they and their families represent more than a quarter of the U.S. population. No one, after all, has sacrificed more in the course of serving our nation. Surely he can find space in his message to acknowledge and thank them.

But more important than merely mentioning veterans is what his Administration should do for veterans and their families. Has this President heard the voices of veterans across our land, voices demanding adequate health care funding? Has he heard from veterans who deserve accurate and timely decisions on claims for earned benefits? Has he heard veterans pleading for more resources and creative initiatives in order to address post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the plague of homelessness? Sadly, the evidence shows he has not.

Since fiscal year 2002, which marks the first budget submitted by his Administration, the President has requested an average annual increase of only 3.4 percent in appropriated dollars for VA health care. In fact, for this current fiscal year, the President initially requested an increase in appropriated dollars of only 0.4 percent. Congress has provided an average annual increase of 7.9 percent. Although this average increase of 7.9 percent is over twice as much as the President has requested, it has not been sufficient to meet the needs of the Nation's veterans. The VA itself testified that it requires a 13 to 14 percent annual increase just to keep up. The President wishes to take full credit for a funding job less than half-done, while his Administration stands by and watches the care gap widen.

Moreover, the President is quick to point out that he has signed into law bills that benefit veterans, again masking the complete truth - his Administration waged unsuccessful battles against the very legislation to which the President affixed his signature...

If Abramoff and DeLay were Democrats, CORRUPTION would have been the disciplined political message on the tips of all Americans' tongues for last three months.

In light of the present Republican scandals, imagine if Democrats had the same political infrastructure as Republicans:

• For months, think tanks would have beat down the doors of every political talk show on TV and radio to load the shows with pundits. They wouldn't drone, they'd repeat the same simple message: REPUBLICAN = CORRUPTION.

• The front pages of every newspaper in America would carry the same message, too: REPUBLICAN = CORRUPTION.

• This simple, consistent message would end with the result of a Democratic majority in the House.

If we only had more of our own think tanks.

Watch the funny No-Spy Video, sign the No-Spy List.

If you have found little to laugh about over President Bush's domestic spying program, well, it's your lucky day.
We here at ProgressTV decided to have some fun. So, we produced a little video for your enjoyment.

However, illegal spying on U.S. citizens is not funny.
That is why we are asking everyone across the nation to sign the "No-Spy" list.

If you don't want the government eavesdropping on your phone calls, emails, and internet searches, Sign the No-Spy List

Watch the No-Spy Video
Please select a format:
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iPod Video, 9.4MB Time: 1:52

Low-bandwidth: Recommended for those with dial-up
Windows Media, 4.7MB Time: 1:52
Quicktime 7.0 only, 1.2MB Time: 1:52

Instructions for Download:
For Windows Media:
Best for those using Windows PCs.
Right click on the link and click Save Target As.
Save the file to your desktop. Double-click on the file and view.

For Quicktime:
Best for those using Macs.
Note, this file will only play in the lastest version of Quicktime, Quicktime 7.
Go to www.apple.com/quicktime to download this latest version.
Once you have installed Quicktime 7, just click on the link and give it a second to load.

Credits:
Matt Sheahan, Actor Extraordinaire
Todd Wilson, Intern & Actor Extraordinaire
Catherine and Davis and Annie across the hall, for all their help.
The best action movie ever--Enemy of the State.
The genius of Rockwell.

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It's a sad day for America. Coretta Scott King died last night after a year of complications from cardiovascular disease.

Mrs. King was a tireless supporter of equal rights for everybody, including gay and lesbian people.

Godspeed, Mrs. King.

... is doing this:

Wikipedia Bans Congressional Access

1/30/2006 6:25:52 PM [noemail@noemail.org (Steve Rubel)]

Wikipedia has blocked certain US Congressional IP addresses over allegations that certain staffers repeatedly ignored community policy and edited out certain passages of articles they object to. The IP addresses are blocked for a week until the community can weigh both sides.

From comments on Digby;

...Congress is taking the Patriot Act up again next week, and with the bounce that Bush is sure to get from the SOTU tomorrow and the high that Bush and the Repubs will be on from getting Alito through, new laws will be in place criminalizing all kinds of protest actions. Even what we're all doing here, "slandering" while not using our real names.

Once Alito is sworn in and the SC declares that a Pres can do anything at all in a time of war (self-declared, unending), we won't even be able march on the White House with torches. They'll be able to (they can do it now) pick American citizens up off the street, not inform anybody, not even our families, and ship us off to a black prison, no lawyer, no habeas corpus, no trial, just all torture, all the time. They've already done it; Padilla is an American.

Well, I guess it is going to start again. Are we going to eat our young just when we have a chance to change Congress? Looks like it.

"Liberals Have a Food Fight"

I am one of the first to complain about the "wimps" in Congress with a "D" behind their name. But, it is time for the left to come up with a platform which can win an election. We need to debate and decide. Then we need to exercise some discipline on both fringes of our party. If Salazar wants our money, he needs to tow the line. The left wing of the party - of which I am a part - needs to tone down the rhetoric and deal with the possible. As much as I hate to say it, a little pragmatism wouldn't hurt.

This morning's Washington Post contains an article about Senator Feingold (D-Wis.). Apparently, his staff reviewed Atty. Gen. Gonzales' confirmation testimony:

In a letter to the attorney general yesterday, Feingold demanded to know why Gonzales dismissed the senator's question about warrantless eavesdropping as a "hypothetical situation" during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2005. At the hearing, Feingold asked Gonzales where the president's authority ends and whether Gonzales believed the president could, for example, act in contravention of existing criminal laws and spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant.

   Read More »

We really didn't lose the battle, the grassroots launched a campaign like one never seen in DC, the phone system was jammed for several days, including Sunday, voice mail boxes filled, email servers crashed, extra staff were hired to answer phones, long idled fax machines ran out of ink and paper, their chips overworked and rebellious, creating codes rather than admit failure and fatigue. Washington is not used to hearing from the "sheeple" -the passion and outrage expressed by the rank and file was a deafening roar, the sound and fury of democracy demanding a fight rather than retreat and timid resignation against a ruthless opponent. It may have been a turning point in a sad chapter of the American democratic experiment. If the grassroots rank and file can maintain the fight for democracy, 2006 may be the beginning of the end of the Bush cabal and the start of true representative democracy, the fulfillment of an interactive dream hatched by what might appear to be a Kurt Vonnegut styled dreamer, anonymous, yet omnipotent, in plan and execution.

Now to Salazar.

Just last week Ken Salazar called Alito an abomination, so I ask you, do you want a senator to vote for cloture when it means the difference between confirming an abomination and filibustering one? For those that worked so hard to influence senators all over the country, you deserve a huge pat on the back, they started on Friday with only two senators talking filibuster, Kerry and Kennedy, today there were 25. If you missed Kennedy's floor speech today it was huge, I'll try to find a transcript. 25 courageous senators is something to build on, I was hoping that Ken Salazar would have been number 26. We lost a battle but we have not lost the war. A passage from a speech that I keep close by to inspire me when I feel down about the direction of my state and country.

"Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the thirty-two-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal."

"These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

"Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe."

Robert F. Kennedy S. Africa 1966

I'm sorry but this is too important to not post.

THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION 2006
THE NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION
Monday, January 30, 2006

General Wesley K. Clark Addresses New America Foundation Audience (1/30/06) on Capitol Hill: "The Real State of the Union 2006"

It is a privilege to be with you this afternoon to address the state of our Union, to offer an assessment, and to tell you how the our Union can be great again - For today we are into our fifth year of war abroad and threats at home, and the state of the union is not what it should be, and not what it could be…

I want to express my admiration and appreciation for the men and women in our Armed Forces, and their families. They have served with courage and honor and with incredible skill. They have volunteered, and served selflessly. Over 2200 have died in Iraq, another two hundred plus in Afghanistan, and tens of thousands have come home with the injuries and scars - physical and mental - that will mark them forever. Won't you stand and join me in recognizing them, and all our veterans, with a round of applause?

A few weeks ago, as I rode across the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, the Pakistani-born cab driver interrupted my thoughts with his own story and reminded me why we all should feel this sense of privilege to be here in America...."We came as three brothers," he said..."we came nine years ago...only I am still driving a cab.... we own a store now, and a restaurant, and soon I will join the others full time in the restaurant...when we came we had nothing, but today.... Only in America," he said, "could we do this, ONLY IN AMERICA!".

His story is the story of hundreds of millions of us and our forefathers who came here from somewhere else, who dreamed, dared, planned and struggled to forge new lives, raise strong families, and together, generation after generation we have built a great nation...exceptional…unique.

We are a nation where liberty is protected by the Constitution, a nation where people choose their own leaders, and a nation where government's power is limited. Generation after generation, America has throttled the self-serving impulses of the powerful and restrained the powerful passions of the multitudes, thus guaranteeing that the freedoms and opportunities of every citizen enumerated in law are provided in practice. And in the process America has become a Beacon of Hope for people everywhere.

I learned to love this nation as a youngster growing up without a father, at a time when all our institutions and values were under attack by Communism.... I loved this nation enough to serve as a soldier, to come home from war on a stretcher, enough to stay in uniform for another thirty years....

My family and I lived in Germany, Belgium, and Panama, in Kansas and Kentucky, in Virginia and California, in Texas and New York. Over time, we were given increasing responsibilities for others, commanding units, teaching courses, providing staff advice and assistance. We were at various times responsible for the work they did, the lessons they learned, the health care they received, the homes they lived in, the schools their children attended, the lives they led...and I learned about our country, our people, and how we are perceived in the world.

I was so proud to represent America in uniform....And this is why today, I come before you with concern....   Read More »

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Denver Post conservative (well, OK, maybe libertarian) columnist David Harsanyi irks me, most of the time. But he still surprises me enough of the time that I read his column. Sometimes I don't make it past the first couple of paragraphs before the Fox News syndrome kicks in (you know what I mean--the Fox News syndrome is that ever present urge to click on Fox News just to see what crazy things they are saying, and then to see how long you last before you blow up and change the channel.)

Anyway, Mr. Harsanyi makes some good points in today's column, so he gets a shout out from me (which, I know, is exactly what he was hoping for ;).

Please, read of his column. Then let me know what you think, I'm curious.

Here's a snippet to get you started.

A smaller set of rights in the service.
By David Harsanyi

Here's a humble policy suggestion for the Pentagon.

I call my initiative: "Don't ask, don't care."

Once enacted, folks like Mara Boyd will be serving my country, instead of being ostracized for her dedication.

Boyd came to the University of Colorado in 1999 on an Air Force ROTC scholarship from Michigan.

Over the course of the next few years, she "incorporated the ideals of the military family, not just into my life on campus or with the ROTC, but my life in general, as a way of living."

Then in 2003, something awful happened: The Air Force threw her out.

Her sin? Boyd came to the realization that she was a lesbian.

"All of a sudden, 'don't ask, don't tell' really mattered," she tells me.

According to a new study by the University of California at Santa Barbara research center, 10,000 Americans have been discharged from the armed services in the decade since the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was enacted.

Remarkably, 350 of them were officers, health care professionals, or both.

Boyd, who was on the way to becoming an officer herself, decided to reveal her sexual orientation in a memo to superiors. She says she had no choice.

"I couldn't lie to my fellow cadets or pretend I was something I wasn't," she explains. "It really had no bearing on the type of cadet I was. I was still excelling. I was leading. I was training people. I had attained high leadership positions. Still, before I came out, I knew that none of that would matter."

I've read her memo. No demands for a pink triangle on her uniform.

No special treatment, whatsoever.

Colorado received a near-failing grade from the Center for Public Integrity on our lobbying laws and oversight. This is a non-partisan good government organization geared toward accountability and better government for the public. Colorado received 60 / 100 on our report card (59 is failing).

I am running HB 1149 which will be heard in House State Affairs committee on Tuesday Jan 31, 2006. This bill fixes the conflict of interest and disclosure laws in Colorado so we are much closer to best practices (rather than failing practices). While Colorado has functioned better than some other states, these reforms are needed to PREVENT corruption and scandal from arising in the first place.

The fate of this bill will depend on public input. The folks under the dome may not see the same need for these reform measures as the public. This should be a non-partisan issue because ethics in government should be a high priority for everyone.

Specifically the bill requires:

-1 year cooling off period for elected officials and department heads before becoming lobbyists
-disclosure of any direct financial relationships between lobbyists and lawmakers
-clarification for greater disclosure of lobbyist "clients" / "employers" / "principles"
-disclosure of bill numbers lobbyists are working and the positions taken (support, oppose, monitor) which would be available to the public on every piece of legislation
-disclosure of campaign contributions to candidates or elected offiicials