You know what? I'm a good Democrat, but shit like this just makes my blood boil. We did not work for change last month to have this shit go on.

In the wee hours of the morning Dec. 7, Senate negotiators rejected a Medicare measure pushed by outgoing House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) that would have meant big revenues for an insurance company in Hastert's home state. But a day later, the $100 million proposal was alive and well, paired with a plan for a major Nevada land swap backed by Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), the incoming Senate majority leader.

The leaders' dealmaking went on behind the scenes during the final, frenetic hours of the 109th Congress. Hastert's provision, which would give certain Medicare beneficiaries additional time to change their health-care coverage, and Reid's plan, which involves more than 900 square miles of federal land, were included in a massive tax and trade measure approved by Congress shortly before its final adjournment early last Saturday morning.

Both provisions have been criticized as potentially harmful to public interests. Land-use activists complained this week that Reid's provision would sell too much of the federal land to private developers and that it circumvents land-disposal procedures. Several senior senators objected to Hastert's provision on the floor of the Senate, saying it favored one type of Medicare plan over others. Representatives of Aon Corp., an insurance company based in Hastert's home state, lobbied for the provision.

Knock that shit off, Harry. You're on notice.

Yeah, it was that shining-city-on-the-hill thing, right? Proclaimed immediately after Preznit Idiot-on-a-Stick made his famous "They're not under here" video for the amusement of the Beltway Punditry.

Browsing the shelves of a cosmetics store in the Karrada shopping district, Zahra Khalid felt giddy at the sight of Alberto shampoo and Miss Rose eye shadow, blusher and powder.

Before leaving her house, she had covered her body in a billowing black abaya and wrapped a black head scarf around her thick brown hair. She had asked her brother to drive. She had done all the things that a woman living in Baghdad is supposed to do these days to avoid drawing attention to herself.

It was the first time she had left home in two months.

The failures of the 1600 Crew will be seen for generations in stories like this. Everything they touch, turns to shit. Everything they say is a lie.

Yeah, sorry Ev. We needed another DLC candidate in the primaries like the GOP needs another Ted Haggard (well, actually they do).

Less than two weeks after filing papers to set up an exploratory committee for a possible bid for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. Evan Bayh has dropped out of the running.
...
Bayh was elected to the Senate in 1998 after serving as Indiana's governor. He is also a former leader of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.

Don't let the door make a mark on your ass there, Ev. See ya.

Yes, it's been a few days since I last posted. Sorry for the interruption in service (if you missed me at all) ...

It's been quite the smorgasbord of repubican malfeasance out there, hasn't it? I worried about Bill "Video Doctor" Frist heading over to see Senator Tim Johnson after his surgery, what with the Democratic majority literally hanging by a blood vessel.

"The Lege" in the Great State of Tex-ass has proposed a law to allow blind hunters to use firearms to hunt.

This week, Seguin’s state legislator is getting some uncommon attention from around the world with a bill he hopes would improve access to the sport of hunting — and to the woods — for blind Texans.

District 44 State Rep. Edmund Kuempel has introduced proposed legislation in House Bill 308 that would allow the legally blind to use a laser or “red dot” hunting scope with a spotter to hunt deer and other game.

The visually impaired can — and do — legally hunt in Texas as elsewhere in season and with the aid of spotters. Kuempel said he wants to make the sport more accessible to the blind and safer for them.

Preznit BunnyPants is not a good man, by the definition of Lynne "I teabagged the son-of-a-bitch and all I got was this really expensive scarf" Cheney. Apparently Beloved Preznit has congratulated Mary Cheney on her impending republican (is it genetic?), bets are being taken as to whether like it's mother it will come out filled with self-loathing and go to work for the destruction of it's own self-identity after departing the womb. The Talibangelical Heads are exploding across the known universe.

Responding to a question about his 2005 comment that "a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman", the President said that the Vice President's openly gay daughter is going to be "a loving soul to her child".

"The Vice President took me aside and gave me the good news. He and his wife, Lynne, are very happy for Mary," Bush said. "I think Mary is going to be a loving soul to her child. And I'm happy for her."

You gotta wonder if the Talibangelicals are finally starting to wonder if they got sold the proverbial "pig in a poke". At least with John Kerry, they knew where he stood, and they might have disagreed with most of what he said, but he wasn't lying about his positions to garner their votes, if he thought much about them at all.

Back with more mirth and merriment later...thanks for hanging in...

Just wanted to let you know, there are no more comments here for a while. Apparently, the site got hit pretty hard, and caused problems at my ISP, so I had to shut down the comments until further notice.

I hate that, because I like to hear from you all, but that' the way it is. I guess I need to look at something other than MT.

Back to our regularly scheduled rants tomorrow...it's too late to make fun of Bunnypants tonight.

1. Fuck Harry Reid, hard
   
2. WMDsDemocracyFreedom and Equality
   
3. Door...Ass...Exit...you know the drill
   
4. Ahhh...the rapture
   
5. No more comments