This is Huckabee? You're sure? It's not a translation from the Arabic of a pronouncement from one of the Big Mullahs?

Since when is judicial activism automatically a bad thing. The Supreme Court under Earl Warren actively sought out cases like Gideon, Escobedo and Miranda, actively seeking to perfect the rights of the accused and limit the way confessions could be used in obtaining convictions in the U.S. Cops and prosecutors howled in outrage, civil libertarians cheered and celebrated. Both sides used the term "activist" to describe the Warren court, but not in the same tone of voice.

If you haven't already seen "No End in Sight" and have a Netflix account, you can stream it on your PC right now. I could only watch it in pieces, it is so beyond infuriating and sad. If you already believe that Iraq was a horrible, horrible mistake compounded by incompetence and brutality, you're not going to learn much that's new, but at least watching it honors the bravery of the filmmaker, Charles Ferguson.

I'm gonna throw up anyway. What a disgusting excuse for a journalist.

Today, the Bush administration has been cagey about whether it's going to push for making its cherished tax cuts a part of a new fiscal stimulus package. To do so would likely kill any chance of a deal being cut with the Democratic majority in Congress.

What is it about the track record of the current Democratic majority that makes anyone feel the Bush administration would have a hard time getting what it wants out of them?

Huck-a-hyuck isn't running for president. He's running for Head Demagogue of the Born-Again Right. And he may just get the job.

I remember the last time "America is for sale" signs went up. The Japanese were going to buy everything and pay us back for Hiroshima by subjugating us all. Didn't happen, did it. I'm not saying we're not in trouble, and that BushCo is trying, as usual to do something Big and Decisive that will only Make Things Worse (what they've done when faced with every crisis so far in this administration). But at the same time, panic is going to cost us a lot more than the underlying fundamentals warrant. Newspapers trumpet "losses" by big banks and brokerages when all that's really happened is "write-downs of assets" (harder to understand, more ink to print). What we need most is to calm the fuck down.

We need to get rid of Republicans and their silly-ass trickle-down self-serving theories of economics.

Of course you're right, Patrick, that the inevitable next crash will be given appalling media coverage. The poor press hasn't had a real blue-veiner since 9/11 and they're desperate. The American public, a remarkably terrifiable population -- one that almost seems to get a thrill out of existing in a state of Terror -- will eat it up, too, you damn betcha.

That Nulla Sallus is a girl?

"...he is co-opting these re-created horrors for his own purposes.

"Blood Diamond" did the same thing and it worked. Why?

If the Prez gets his wish, all the folks who supported extending spy powers are going to believe we've created an operation out of one of Ludlum's "Bourne" movies, where a combination of satellites, data-mining computers and incredibly savvy technicians surrounded by arrays of flashing flatscreens and pounding on keyboards can track anything and anyone with pinpoint accuracy, simultaneously pulling up layer after layer of background information and delving into the very mind of their quarry. What a load of crap it all is. Whatever spying authority they're given, whatever skills individuals within the operation may possess, the government's snooping operations will always result in a chaos of unintended consequences, missed opportunities, cat-box coverups of incompetence and mad interdepartmental finger-pointing when things go wrong. Innocent people will be harmed and bad guys will go undetected. If anything, we'll be more at risk because of a false sense of security. Bottom line: there are toys the government should not be given to play with, and extended warrantless spy powers is most certainly one of them.

Drop in once in a while to say hi, okay?

Thanks, Tim

Is that FISA does not need to be reauthorized, rather the PAA needs to be reauthorized. It will be amazing to see if Bush has the stones to stand up there and state what Perino says he's going to state...and of course I'm holding my breath, if he does, to see if the MSM calls him on it.

Turning blue here...

Bush trying to sound like the Compassionate Conservative he has never been, pandering for applause by referencing our brave troops. Sebelius running for Obama's Vice President. Hillary (on NBC) responding by campaigning. Obama looking good, talking away from himself and toward others.

Reading the whole of Ashcroft's exercise in outsized hypocrisy really is enough to make one want to dig a hole, crawl in, and pull the hole in after.

Thank you, John Edwards, for keeping the campaigns as focused away from horse-race Nation Enquirer bullshit as possible. John Edwards for Attorney General in the next administration!

Does anyone in the Bush administration ever ask...is it working? Okay, so Bush has arrogated powers to himself that constitutionally belong to the People by way of their representatives. That's bad. But what's really bad is though he has those powers, he's unable to do anything useful or good or productive or competent with them. You'd think at some point the neocons as a group would be considering some kind of course correction. Sure, power for power's sake and all that, but at the end of the day, didn't they hope to accomplish something besides the puerile thrill of thumbing their noses at the Founding Fathers?