This falls under the category of, "I can't F*** believe we have to even push this", but... apparently Fox News is lobbying hard to get Helen Thomas's old seat in the front of the White House pressroom.

We think that seat -- and the status and legitimacy it confers -- should to NPR.

And 10,000 of our closest friends agree.  

Spread the word!  We don't want to give Fox an honor. Unless their reporter wore a clown nose, in which case we'd consider it.  But that aside, is their any doubt that NPR is WAAAAAAAAY more deserving of this?  

Wow! Looks like the Democrats have a pair after all!!
What do you all think??

(OK, folks! Voting will end Wednesday night at Midnight EST.
Get your vote in now, if you haven't already. The winner will be anounced Friday night at 6,before the start of FREEday! - promoted by lamb12)

With our Fearless Leader's answer of "Go For It!", I am hijacking an old favorite contest among many of us,"Assclown of the Week", giving it a new name and a slightly different concept.

Introducing "Mental Midget of the Week"! MMW for short. Each Saturday, I'll post a few names for your consideration. Pick one you like, or hate, the most and cast your vote. Write in candidates are welcomed and encouraged.

So pay attention to all the small minded, bat shit crazy, fabricatin', mainstream media bashing, question dodging, vocabulary challenged, fear mongering, tea bagging, WTF punditry of the Republican Party, in all its current factions.

Hey, there may even be a Democrat thrown in for good measure. How's that for "Fair and Balanced"?

Votes and write-ins will be accepted until Midnight Wednesday EST. The winner will be posted on Fridays at 6pm EST, before the start of FREEday.

Anytime there is a tie, they both win!

Winners are Inducted into The Mental Midget Brigade . By the time the mid-terms are here we will have quite a special army assembled.

Link Me!

This is a great article and I felt that I had to share it.  Not to toot my own horn, but it backs up a lot of what I've been saying this for well over a year.  Especially this little nugget...

Many companies are focusing on cost-cutting to keep profits growing, but the benefits are mostly going to shareholders instead of the broader economy, as management conserves cash rather than bolstering hiring and production. Harley, for example, has announced plans to cut 1,400 to 1,600 more jobs by the end of next year. That is on top of 2,000 job cuts last year - more than a fifth of its work force.

WikiLeaks has done it again. First was the leaked video showing a gruesome attack on unarmed civilians in Iraq. (They were carrying CAMERAS, because they were Reuters journalists). And now it is their Afghan War Diary. http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/

(Excellent! Great post Spiral - promoted by lamb12)

As tropical storm Bonnie kisses the southern tip of Florida and begins it's two day journey to Louisiana, I can't help but see the similarities between the disasters that have ravaged New Orleans and how Republican policy has wrecked the working poor and the middle class in this country. Like the BP crime, a lot of this could have been avoided by a little foresight. If BP had invested money in blowout preventers and clean up strategies, damage to the fragile wetlands in Louisiana could have been avoided or in the least lessened substantially. Had businesses in our nation not undergone a huge series of deregulations maybe we wouldn't be in the biggest recession in decades.

After a week off, I'm proud to proclaim FREEday is back!  This was a long, grueling week at work for me.  Next week isn't looking much better.  But it's always nice to be able to sit back and relax at the end of the week knowing that the next 2 days are mine.  Hence, the spirit of FREEday.  This is your day.  No one this side of your "significant other" can tell you what to do with your time.  So enjoy it to the fullest!

(btw, sorry about the crappy video quality.  Embedding was disabled on youtube.)

Please pull up a chair and sit. Theres something we really need to talk about.We should have done this years ago.

The honest truth is,until we do, this country will continue to be a nation divided.

It's time for an honest discussion about race.
It's time to talk about why we continue to perpetuate the hatreds of our forebearers.

It's time to talk about ingrained prejudices, misleading stereotypes, and why we can't seem to move past them and accept each other for what's inside, not the package we are wrapped in.  

That is the winner! Congrats and $20.10 to Left Taker, "MDB!"

Here they are!  The 12 finalists for the best new title for Bush's new book.  Vote below, and we'll pick a winner this Friday.

And might I say, there were some GREAT ones.  This was the toughest finalist selection process I've had so far.  I relied mostly on votes, with preference for earlier ones (and number of votes), but... threw in a couple on the basis of whim, creativity, etc.).  Oh, and where things were close, I flipped a coin. Otherwise, we would've had 25 finalists!

Without further ado, here they are:

 

1. "Delusion Points"
2. "The Mind Of A Child... The Power Of A God"
3. "See Dick. See Dick run the Country."
4. "Bad Decision Points: Misunderestimation of a War Criminal"
5. "Presidenting for Dummies"
6. "Curious George Goes to War"
7. "Crime and Punishment: How I Enjoyed One and Avoided the Other"
8. "A Convenient Lie"
9. "Weapons of Mass Deception"
10. "Gorge's buk: A Fagt Frei Akount of a Preziduncy"
11. "WTC, WALL STREET MELTDOWN AND WAR: The most catastrophic 8 years in US History."
12. "How to screw several hundred million people with a sore Dick" 

 

Click below to vote!

(Tabulating finalists now... stay tuned...    (update - crap this is hard!  Lots of great ones this time) - promoted by leftake)

It's contest time! George Bush is about to come out with a new book, with the title, "Decision Points." But surely we can do better than that, right? And so...

$20.10 for the most creative BETTER title for his book! Go ahead, get creative, have fun, and post your favorite better title in the comments below. Give your best captions right now, and... on Tuesday Wednesday the 20th, we'll choose the top 8. These will be deterimined on the basis of who has the most "4" ratings, but... your humble editor reserves the right to choose a few extra, on the basis of merit and your humble editor's whim (and consultation with his co-editors, of course).

The top ones will then be put up to a vote. Just the top ones, using that dandy polling feature we've got. Top vote getter by Wednesday Friday at 5pm is the winner!

Go ahead, have fun!

We all know there are so many elected positions up for grabs this November, and I'm sure we've all seen some pretty crazy ads. (Can you say "Demon Sheep"?) Who are you pulling for, and who are you hoping goes down in flames? Are these folks Democrats, Independents or Republicans? Do you like anyone in the Tea Party? Which are your favorite ads so far, and which do you find offensive? Who is not running, but you really wish would run for political office? Discuss.

(This is awful what she's been put through. We're trying to work up an action on this front.  Stay tuned.   - promoted by leftake)

I'm kind of surprised that no one has yet posted a diary on the Shirley Sherrod story, so I've decided to take the initiative, mostly because I'm pissed off about the treatment this good woman has received.

It should come as no suprise that the Republicans have no answers. They claim to be fiscally responsible. They claim to be small government.They claim that when they are back in power,they are going to cut spending. Continue the tax cuts to the wealthiest folks,repeal everything that has been and possibly could be passed. Oh, and my favorite claim of all balance the budget!!

Link Me!

After months of lies and distortions, it appears that we are finally at the end of the road for the broken well that has been bleeding an unknown [yeah right] amount of oil into the Gulf of Mexico daily.  BP has effectively capped the broken well after numerous well-known failures to slow and stop the leak.  Whether capping the well is a good idea is a different debate.  I feel they should not over-pressurize the system by capping it.  Afterall, that might cause tears in the earth through which other leaks might form.  Instead, if you have a solid seal, which it appears that they do, then pump the crap to a surface ship.

It also appears that the 2 relief wells are nearing completion.  Through these secondary wells, the main, broken one will be permanently sealed with concrete.  Then they will take on the role of pumping the oil reservoir.  Incase anyone wasn't paying attention, these relief wells were supposed to be completed in August.  So they are well ahead of schedule, which might be the only glimmer of good news in an otherwise multi-month-long nightmare.  But at least it shows we are nearing the end of it.

Now comes the clean up portion of the show.  Oh, and BP being fined the living hell out of for every gallon of oil that was spilled.  We will see if they own up to their failures and pay the bill.  Or will they take the cowards way out and declare bankruptcy?  We shall see.  Until then, yippie?!