Der Führer ist nackt!

Take a look at the sections that I italicized in this White House transcript of the July 28 press conference:

President Bush and Prime Minister Blair of the United Kingdom Participate in Press Availability

PRESIDENT BUSH: David Gregory.

Q Thank you. Mr. President, both of you, I'd like to ask you about the big picture that you're discussing. Mr. President, three years ago, you argued that an invasion of Iraq would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace. And yet today, there is an Iraqi Prime Minister who has been sharply critical of Israel. Arab governments, despite your arguments, who have criticized Hezbollah, have now changed their tune. Now they're sharply critical of Israel. And despite from both of you, warnings to Syria and Iran to back off support from Hezbollah, effectively, Mr. President, your words are being ignored. So what has happened to America's clout in this region that you've committed yourself to transform?

PRESIDENT BUSH: David, it's an interesting period because instead of having foreign policies based upon trying to create a sense of stability, we have a foreign policy that addresses the root causes of violence and instability.

For a while, American foreign policy was just, let's hope everything is calm, kind of managed calm. But beneath the surface brewed a lot of resentment and anger that was manifested in its -- on September the 11th. And so we've taken a foreign policy that says, on the one hand, we will protect ourselves from further attack in the short-run by being aggressive and chasing down the killers and bringing them to justice -- and make no mistake, they're still out there, and they would like to harm our respective peoples because of what we stand for -- in the long-term, to defeat this ideology, and they're bound by an ideology. You defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom. [Onymous Guy: What happened to the other hand?]

And, look, I fully understand some people don't believe it's possible for freedom and democracy to overcome this ideology of hatred. I understand that. I just happen to believe it is possible, and I believe it will happen. And so what you're seeing is a clash of governing styles, for example. The notion of democracy beginning to emerge scares the ideologues, the totalitarians, those who want to impose their vision. It just frightens them, and so they respond. They've always been violent.

I hear this amazing kind of editorial thought that says, all of a sudden Hezbollah has become violent because we're promoting democracy. They have been violent for a long period of time. Or Hamas. One reason why the Palestinians still suffer is because there are militants who refuse to accept a Palestinian state based upon democratic principles.

And so what the world is seeing is a desire by this country and our allies to defeat the ideology of hate with an ideology that has worked and that brings hope. And one of the challenges, of course, is to convince people that Muslims would like to be free, that there's other people other than people in Britain and America that would like to be free in the world. There's this kind of almost -- kind of weird kind of elitism, that says, well, maybe certain people in certain parts of the world shouldn't be free; maybe it's best just to let them sit in these tyrannical societies. And our foreign policy rejects that concept. We don't accept it.

And so we're working. And this is -- as I said the other day, when these attacks took place, I said this should be a moment of clarity for people to see the stakes in the 21st century. [Onymous Guy: Is it possible to have a moment of clarity in such jibberish?]I mean, there's an unprovoked attack on a democracy. Why? I happen to believe, because progress is being made toward democracies. And I believe that -- I also believe that Iran would like to exert additional influence in the region. A theocracy would like to spread its influence using surrogates.

And so I'm as determined as ever to continue fostering a foreign policy based upon liberty. And I think it's going to work, unless we lose our nerve and quit. And this government isn't going to quit.

Q I asked you about the loss of American influence in the region.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, David, we went to the G8 and worked with our allies and got a remarkable statement on what took place. We're working to get a United Nations resolution on Iran. We're working to have a Palestinian state. But the reason why -- you asked the question -- is because terrorists are trying to stop that progress. And we'll ultimately prevail, because they have -- their ideology is so dark and so dismal that when people really think about it, it will be rejected. They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people, don't come and bother us because we will kill you.
[Onymous Guy: Isn't El Busho accusing David Gregory of being in cahoots with "terrorists"?

And my attitude is, is that now is the time to be firm. And we've got a great weapon on our side, and that is freedom, and liberty. And it's got -- those two concepts have got the capacity to defeat ideologies of hate.

Caught with pants down

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel printed this report

Report details DUI fiasco

Officer found guilty about to return to work

By Lisa J. Huriash
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted July 26 2006

Plantation · A veteran officer and police academy DUI instructor was driving drunk, naked from the waist down, and speeding on Florida's Turnpike at 90 mph when she was pulled over by an Orange County Sheriff's deputy on the night of Dec. 9, according to a Plantation Police Internal Affairs report released this week.

She had a large open bottle of Southern Comfort in her car, which her attorney later argued was used to train police recruits.

Officer Laurie Primeau, 47, has been suspended without pay until Aug. 8. The 1994 Plantation Officer of the Year has been with the department for almost 27 years.

The report states she drew the attention of a police officer when she swerved into his lane and "almost collided" with him.

"I asked her, `Where are your pants?' and I think she answered, `I don't know,'" Deputy David Alvarado told Plantation investigators.

Alvarado said he asked for backup because "I didn't want to be alone too long with a naked female on the side of the road."

He asked her again about her pants and she reached for her sweatpants and she put them on, he said.

Alvarado told investigators that Primeau "was sweating real bad. Her face was real red. Her eyes were bloodshot." He told investigators she failed a few sobriety exercises.

Primeau refused a Breathalyzer test, according to the report, and Orange County Animal Control was called to take custody of two dogs she had in the car while she was taken to jail. She remained there for five days until she called a bail bondsman.

The Internal Affairs report shows she told investigators that "she does not know how to perform the finger to nose test" and she "extols her expertise as a DUI instructor ... ." Primeau was found guilty of drunken driving in a Jan. 26 criminal jury trial in Orange County. Her attorney argued the whiskey bottle was used for police academy training, which she had performed earlier in the day, according to records. The location of the training was not disclosed.

Primeau was given a speeding ticket, fined $647 and sentenced to 50 hours of community service. Her driver's license was suspended for 180 days, and she was put on a period of probation that ended Tuesday.

According to police, when Primeau returned to work with a suspended license, she worked in the dispatch unit and in "odd jobs" in the communications department.

Her suspension from the department began June 27. When she returns to work again in August, she will be placed back on road patrol, city officials said.

Police Chief Larry Massey, who was on vacation Tuesday and unavailable for comment, wrote a June 22 memo to Primeau, citing her years of "exemplary service and a virtually spotless record" that included multiple letters of commendation. He also tells her in the memo "there will be no second chances." If she violates department policy or engages in drunken driving again, the chief told Primeau, "I am placing you on notice that you will be terminated."

Although Massey said she gave a statement under oath to Internal Affairs that differs from the Orange County Sheriff's Office reports -- Primeau told investigators she was driving only 55 mph, was wearing a bathing suit bottom and the bottle found in her car did not have alcohol, but had been washed out with dish soap -- Massey writes: "You simply may have been too drunk to remember exactly what happened."

Newspeak and Disappearification

AP reports that Iran has banned the use of "foreign words".

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.

The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported.

The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used in Iran, mostly from Western languages. The government is less sensitive about Arabic words, because the Quran is written in Arabic.

Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to official Web site of the academy.

And AP is also reporting that Führer Bush has proposed new legislation what would permit the government to incarcerate US citizens indefinitely.

Bush submits new terror detainee bill

By ANNE PLUMMER FLAHERTY, Associated Press WriterFri Jul 28, 6:53 PM ET

U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.

A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court.

Administration officials, who declined to comment on the draft, said the proposal was still under discussion and no final decisions had been made.

Senior officials are expected to discuss a final proposal before the Senate Armed Services Committee next Wednesday.

According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all "enemy combatants" until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute."

Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda.

"That's the big question ... the definition of who can be detained," said Martin Lederman, a law professor at Georgetown University who posted a copy of the bill to a Web blog.

Scott L. Silliman, a retired Air Force Judge Advocate, said the broad definition of enemy combatants is alarming because a U.S. citizen loosely suspected of terror ties would lose access to a civilian court — and all the rights that come with it. Administration officials have said they want to establish a secret court to try enemy combatants that factor in realities of the battlefield and would protect classified information.

The administration's proposal, as considered at one point during discussions, would toss out several legal rights common in civilian and military courts, including barring hearsay evidence, guaranteeing "speedy trials" and granting a defendant access to evidence. The proposal also would allow defendants to be barred from their own trial and likely allow the submission of coerced testimony...

I imagine that the FBI will continue its practice of classifying all political opponents as "terrorists". Soon we will have our own "disappeared persons".

Total Fucking Morons

This nugget comes from Max Udargo's blog.

Bush Losing Core Supporters

WASHINGTON, May 11 – President Bush appears to be losing support among a key group of voters who had hitherto stood firmly with the president even as his poll numbers among other groups fell dramatically.

A new Gallup poll shows that, for the first time, Bush’s approval rating has fallen below 50% among total fucking morons, and now stands at 44%. This represents a dramatic drop compared to a poll taken just last December, when 62% of total fucking morons expressed support for the president and his policies.

The current poll, conducted by phone with 1,409 total fucking morons between May 4 and May 8, reveals that only 44% of those polled believe the president is doing a good job, while 27% believe he is doing a poor job and 29% don’t understand the question.

The December poll, conducted by phone with 1,530 total fucking morons, showed 62% approved of the president, 7% disapproved and 31% didn’t understand the question.

Faltering approval ratings for the president among a group once thought to be a reliable source of loyal support gives Republicans one more reason to be nervous about the upcoming mid-term elections. “If we can’t depend on the support of total fucking morons,” says Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), “then we’ve got a big problem. They’re a key factor in our electoral strategy, and an important part of today’s Republican coalition.”

“We’ve taken the total fucking moron vote for granted,” says Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), “and now we’re paying for it. We’ve let the Democrats control the debate lately, and they’ve dragged discourse back into the realm of complex, nuanced issues. So your average total fucking moron turns on his TV and sees his Republican Congressman arguing about Constitutional law or the complexities of state formation in the Middle East, and he tunes out. He wants to hear comforting, pandering, flattering bromides and he doesn’t want to hear a logical argument more complex than what you’d find on a bumper sticker.”

For Feeney, the poll is a dire warning that Republicans can ignore only at their peril. “This should send a signal that we have to regain control of the debate if we want the support of our key constituencies in the coming election and beyond. We need to bring public discourse back into the realm of stupidity and vacuity. We should be talking about homosexual illegal immigrants burning flags. We should be talking about the power of pride. We should be talking about freedom fries. These are the issues that resonate with total fucking morons.”

But some total fucking morons say it’s too late. Bill Snarpel of Enid, Oklahoma is a total fucking moron who voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004. But he says he won’t be voting for Bush in 2008. “I don’t like it that he was going to sell our ports to the Arabs. If the Arabs own the ports then that means they’ll let all the Arabs in and then we’ll all be riding camels and wearing towels on our heads. I don’t want my children singing the Star Spangled Banner in Muslim.”

Total fucking moron Kurt Meyer of Turlock, California also says his once solid support for Bush has collapsed. “He invaded Iraq and all those soldiers died, and for what? We destroyed all their WMDs, but now their new president is making fun of us and saying he’s going to build nuclear bombs and that we can’t stop him. Well, nuclear bombs are even worse than WMDs, so what did we accomplish?”

Laura McDonald, a total fucking moron from Chandler, Arizona, says she is disappointed that the president hasn’t been a more forceful advocate of Christian values. “This country was founded on Christian values,” she says, “but you’d never know it looking around and seeing all the Mexicans running around. I thought Bush was going to bring Jesus back into the government. Instead, Christians are being persecuted worse than ever before in history, because all these Mexicans come here and tell Christians that we have to respect their religious beliefs. So now it’s illegal for children to pray in school. Soon it will be illegal for them to speak English.”

Not all total fucking morons have turned their backs on the president. Jeb Larkin of Topeka, Kansas says he still fully supports Bush. "He is doing a great job. He is a great president. He is a great decider. I have a puppy. His tail sticks straight up and you can see his butthole."

And not all Republican lawmakers are concerned about the poll. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), for one, does not find it a cause for anxiety. While he agrees that his party should not take total fucking morons for granted, they “really don’t have anywhere else to go. They’re never going to be able to understand someone like Al Gore or John Kerry or anybody intelligent and articulate who wants to talk about substantive issues. Just try having a conversation with one of them about global warming. They’ll say, ‘Oh, but Rush says volcanoes consume more ozone than humans do.’ I mean, they’re morons! Total fucking morons!”

“They’ve got nowhere else to go,” Alexander reaffirms with a smile, “and they always vote.”

Sob - The Inventor of the Philly Cheese Steak is gone

One of the gods has left the earth.

Da Inkwire reports

Harry Olivieri, 90, cheesesteak whiz

By Gayle Ronan Sims
Inquirer Staff Writer

Harry M. Olivieri, 90, younger brother of Pat, as in world-famous Pat's King of Steaks, and co-creator of the original cheesesteak, died of heart failure yesterday at Atlantic City Medical Center in Pomona, N.J.

He lived in South Philadelphia until three years ago, when failing health forced him to move to Atlantic City to live with his daughter, Maria.

As the story goes, the two brothers operated a hot dog grill at Ninth Street and Passyunk Avenue in 1930, when Pat said to Mr. Olivieri, "Here's a quarter. Go to the Italian Market and buy a hunk of steak."

The brothers cut up the steak, grilled it with sliced onions, and slapped it on a roll.

A cabbie drove by and asked what they called that sandwich. "I guess you call it a steak sandwich," they said and sold it for a dime. That was the birth of the Philadelphia steak. Cheese was introduced 22 years later. First Cheez Whiz was slapped on the cooked steak. A few years later, they began serving it with provolone and American cheese and pizza sauce..

What is a Philly cheese steak?


You have to try one here. Here is the original recipe:

Serves 4

24oz thin sliced rib eye or eye roll steak
6 table spoons of Soya bean oil
Cheese {we recommend Cheez Whiz®} American or Provolone works fine
4 crusty Italian Rolls
1 large Spanish onion

Optional
sweet green and red peppers sautéed in oil
Mushrooms sautéed in oil

Assembly
Heat an iron skillet or a non stick pan over medium heat
add3 table spoons of oil to the pan and sauté the onions to desired doneness
remove the onions
add the remaining oil and sauté the slices of meat quickly on both sides
melt the cheez Whiz® in a double boiler or in the microwave
place 6oz. of the meat into the rolls
add onions, and pour the Cheez Whiz® over top
garnish with hot or fried sweet peppers, mushrooms, ketchup

You should get some cheese fries with that cheesesteak.

RSTDT Leavitt's Charity Gives Crumbs

Another entry in the series Republicans say the darndest things.

The Post reports

HHS Secretary's Fund Gave Little to Charity

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 21, 2006; A01

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his relatives have claimed millions of dollars in tax deductions through a type of charitable foundation they created that until recently paid out very little in actual charity, tax records show.

Instead, much of the foundation's money has been invested or lent to the family's business interests and real estate holdings, or contributed to the Leavitt family genealogical society.

The Leavitts used nearly $9 million of their assets to set up the foundation in 2000 under an obscure provision of the federal tax code. But unlike standard private foundations, which are required to give away at least 5 percent of their assets to charitable causes, the Leavitt organization donated less than 1 percent of its assets in 2002, 2003 and 2004. The donations jumped to 6.3 percent of total assets last year, after the sale of family water interests that also allowed the foundation to increase its lending to Leavitt business interests...

Previous entry in the series Republicans say the darndest things:
RSTDT Graham - Kyl fabrication flops in front of the the Supremes

Also Sprach FalafelKopf

I love Steve Gilliard's blog

This sounds like a recommendation to me

Equals ?





According to Salon,

Mustachioed film critic Joel Siegel, storming out of a preview of Kevin Smith's "Clerks II": "Time to go! ... This is the first movie I've walked out of in 30 fucking years!" (Page Six)

Kevin Smith responded on his blog.

A Dick in a Mustache is Still Just a Dick

So last night, at a press screening of "Clerks II" in New York City, "Good Morning America" movie critic Joel Siegel decided he'd had enough of my shenanigans, and walked out of the flick at the forty minute mark. You'd imagine this would bother me, and yet, I'm as delighted by this news as I was with the eight minute standing ovation "Clerks II" received in Cannes.

I mean, it's Joel Siegel, for Christ's sake. As Paul Thomas Anderson once said of the man, getting a bad review from Siegel is like a badge of honor. This is the guy who stole his mustachioed critic shtick from Gene Shalit years ago, and still refuses to give it back. This is a guy who seemingly prides himself on being "punny" - that is, he likes to add his own nyuk-nyuk wordplay into the reviews he writes/gives.

For "Pirates 2", he made us all titter with "Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Fun".

For Pixar's lastest, he made us squeal with delight when he wrote "Wheelie Good Time for 'Cars'".

Can you believe he somehow not only made us laugh, but also think, when he challenged our perception with "X-Men' Fails to X-cite"?...

Kevin Smith adds this:

However, I CAN fault him for the manner in which he left the screening.

Apparently, rather than quietly exit, both Joel and his Cum-Catcher (my slang for the fancy kind of mustache he sports) made a big stink about walking out, calling as much attention to himself as possible, and being generally pretty disruptive.

Check this shit out: roughly forty minutes into the flick, when Randal orders up the third act donkey show, Siegel bellowed to his fellow critics "Time to go!'' and "This is the first movie I've walked out of in 30 fucking years!''...

There's more:

You never... NEVER disrupt a movie, simply because you don't like it.

Cardinal rule of movie-going: shut your fucking mouth while the movie's playing. They even ask you to do so in the pre-show run-up to every flick ("Cell phones and pagers off, no talking during the show"). This guy went beyond talking, even; he was making a spectacle of himself as he left. I've now spoken to three folks in attendance last night, and all have said that Siegel WANTED everyone to know how disgusted he was, and that he was leaving. If you want to share your displeasure with everyone, that's fine, dude; just do it AFTER the movie, not during. Some folks were enjoying themselves. I don't come down to your job and slap the taste out of your mouth for coming up with a line like "'Shark Tale' Is a Halibut Good Time"; so don't fuck with my stuff WHILE IT'S STILL SCREENING.

I can't wait to see it!

Breaking News: One in nine women prefer chores to sex

The Telegraph nails this story

...a survey which found half of women are dissatisfied with their sex lives.

Eleven per cent said they regularly have sex when they do not really want to and one in 12 admitted frequently faking orgasms.

One in nine women view sex as “like any other household chore”, “an irritating annoyance” or “only enjoyable for men”.

Scottish men appear to be performing particularly badly. [Onymous guy says "lay off the haggis."]

While across the UK six per cent of women see bedroom activities as having more in common with doing the hoovering or washing up, this rises to 10 per cent in Scotland. Marcelle d’Argy Smith, writer, broadcaster and former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, said: “Unless you’ve just fallen wildly in love, you tend to think that other people are having better sex lives. “I think there is real sadness in couples that are living together, and really like each other, and yet they’re having lousy sex lives.”

A representative sample of 1941 adults took part in a survey commissioned by Zestra, the makers of a massage oil the company claims enhances female sexual pleasure.

Across the UK 6.3 per cent of women said they considered sex to be “like any other household chore”.

A further three per cent said it was “an irritating annoyance” and two per cent said it was only enjoyable for men.

While younger women were having more regular sex, their satisfaction levels were much lower than those of older generations.

The Welsh, both men and women, said they were having sex more frequently than adults in other regions.

Well, of course, our scientific curiosity was now piqued and we HAD to see what this was all about. According to the manufacturer of Zestra,

Patented Zestra™ is the topical product clinically proven to increase female sexual arousal, desire, sensation and overall sexual pleasure. Zestra™ for Women is a unique topically applied feminine massage oil for the genital area that was scientifically formulated to enhance female sexual pleasure, increase genital warmth, sensitivity, sensation and facilitate arousal. Blended from all natural botanical ingredients without any irritants, the oils application can be incorporated into foreplay and will sustain heightened sensation for 30 to 45 minutes with a single application.

Hmmmm. This manufacturer wouldn't have a vested interest in the outcome of the survey cited in the Telegraph, would it?

He said poop!

Contrast the two leaders. The paper of record reports:

[Bush] went on to say the U.N. should directly enlist the Syrians to intervene. “I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen,” he said to Mr. Blair, referring to Syria’s president, Bashir Assad.

“See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over,” Mr. Bush said.

Mr. Blair reiterated his argument, made earlier in the day with Mr. Annan, for an international force to be dispatched to the area.

“I think the thing that is really difficult is you can’t stop this unless you get this international presence agreed,” Mr. Blair said. “You need to get this done quickly otherwise this thing will spiral out of cont...’’

Mr. Bush interrupted to say, “Yeah, she’s going. I think Condi’s going to go pretty soon.”...

Get the full poop from Think Progress.

A science haiku

I spotted this at Cocktail Party Physics

E.COLI IN MY BUTT (scroll down from top of link)

I learnt this today
there’s e.coli in my butt
also in my gutt

RSTDT Graham - Kyl fabrication flops in front of the the Supremes

Another entry in our series, Republicans say the darndest things, or RSTDT, as we will refer to it from now on.

The Charleston Post and Courier has this report.

Graham's faux debate
Supreme Court dismissed senator's fabricated exchange
BY SCHUYLER KROPF
The Post and Courier

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham may have a future as a fiction writer.

He's being accused of fabricating a Senate debate and sending it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which didn't think much of the work. The high court dismissed it.

At issue is an account of an exchange that Sens. Graham, R-S.C., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wrote last year to be inserted into the Congressional Record...
---
Critics, meanwhile, called the Graham-Kyl account unethical.

John Dean, former counsel to President Richard Nixon, writing in the online legal journal FindLaw last week, said he had not seen "so blatant a ploy, or abuse of power, since Nixon's reign"...
---
Graham and Kyl submitted their Senate account in a "friend of the court" brief, in which the two lawmakers wanted to back the White House on keeping the military trial option.

The two attempted to make the dialogue - added to the Dec. 21, 2005, record - appear real.

Kyl, is quoted at one point as saying, "Mr. President, I see that we are nearing the end of our allotted time."

In another instance, Graham and Kyl inserted Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas in the fabricated Senate floor discussion, saying "If I might interrupt," according to published accounts of the comments.

"If I might interrupt..." GMAFB!

Previous stories in Republicans say the darndest things:

* 13,000 equals 4.5 million

* how about $1000 for a 3 way?

* who is that bigamist?

* Ken Starr's Successor Is Busted for Stalking.

* what's new on the Grand Old Police Blotter?

* Did Porter Get his Pecker caught In Pokergate?

* An honest Republican

Republicans say the darndest things, or 13,000 equals 4.5 million

The Palm Beach Post reports that The Wicked Witch of The East has been caught "grossly exaggerating". Hell, she's just off by a factor of 350, give or take.

Harris pads role, impact on housing, reports say

By
Larry Lipman
Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau

Thursday, July 13, 2006

WASHINGTON — On the campaign trail and in her literature, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris boasts that, as a freshman member of Congress, she passed the American Dream Downpayment Act, "enabling 4.5 million low-income workers to own their first home while growing the U.S. economy by $256 billion."

Federal reports indicate Harris' claims are grossly exaggerated.

A Government Accountability Office report issued June 30 found that, through 2005, only $98.5 million of the $211 million Congress appropriated had been used by local governments to help more than 13,000 low-income families buy new homes — far below her claim of 4.5 million.

Previous stories in Republicans say the darndest things:

* how about $1000 for a 3 way?

* who is that bigamist?

* Ken Starr's Successor Is Busted for Stalking.

* what's new on the Grand Old Police Blotter?

* Did Porter Get his Pecker caught In Pokergate?

* An honest Republican

What is a Dead Cat Bounce?

(image from Earl the Dead Cat)

From World Wide Words:

Paul McFedries found an early example of its use in one of his WordSpy columns, from an Associated Press newswire piece dated February 1986:

One of the most vivid, if a bit indelicate, word pictures painted by the bears on oil comes from Raymond F. DeVoe Jr. at the investment firm of Legg Mason Wood Walker. DeVoe suggests the printing of a bumper sticker reading: “Beware the Dead Cat Bounce.” “This applies to stocks or commodities that have gone into free-fall descent and then rallied briefly,” he says. “If you threw a dead cat off a 50-story building, it might bounce when it hit the sidewalk. But don’t confuse that bounce with renewed life. It is still a dead cat.”

This may well be the first example extant: neither I nor the researchers at the Oxford English Dictionary have found an earlier one. The phrase gradually caught on during the 1990s but has become especially common—for obvious reasons—in the past couple of years.

Dead Cat Bounce

From Fox News (I feel soiled just visiting their site)

The president’s approval rating dropped to 36 percent, down from 41 percent approval two weeks ago and 40 percent in mid-June. Bush lost ground this week among some key constituent groups, such as Republicans, whites and men. Overall, 53 percent of Americans say they disapprove.

"It is important to remember that the president got his bounce after the killing of al-Zarqawi in Iraq," comments Opinion Dynamics Chairman John Gorman. "While administration officials were careful not to overplay the significance of this, it naturally created hope that things would get better. Several weeks of bloody footage from Iraq have pretty much dashed those hopes."

Is that Jesus Christ holding a Bud?

This story comes from Texas.

Jesus beer billboard causing quite a stir

(7/11/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - Sophisticated graffiti artists have left their mark near downtown Houston.



Someone covered up a billboard on La Branch at Winbern with a poster featuring a picture of Jesus Christ holding a Budweiser can. The company that leases the billboard believes vandals made the poster at home and then pasted it on top of the ad that's supposed to be there. It shows Jesus holding a Budweiser in between the phrases "Jesus, King of Jews" and "Jesus, King of Beers."

"I thought that was just crazy," said commuter Jose Cazares. "It looks professional too."

Neighbors say the billboard has been up there for a week or more.