I think Jon Stewart will have a nice segment on this one.

Cost of an illegal Iraq War - $280,000,000,000 (or is it $2 trill? ed...)

Projected national debt - $9,000,000,000,000

Having the Vice-President being booed by 45,000+ Americans during America's Pastime - priceless

Comment by dlet -- April 11, 2006 @ 2:35 pm

Sen. Ken Salazar said today that "poisonous" and sometimes racist messages have poured into his office in recent days, blasting him for supporting a proposed guest-worker plan.

As conservatives fight against granting citizenship to illegal immigrants because they're "taking [U.S.] jobs," a new report shows that "Hispanic-owned businesses now comprise one of the fastest-growing segments the U.S. economy." "Hispanic immigrants are not just job takers. They're job creators," said Michael Barrera, of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We -- when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I'm never going to forget it. And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.

Part of that meant to make sure that we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that's why I went into Iraq...

While it is a Republican refrain that Democrats criticize Bush but have no positive vision, for now the governing party also has no national platform around which lawmakers are prepared to rally.

Every effort so far to produce such a platform has stumbled.

...Because of these realities, Republicans have adopted a midterm strategy designed to avoid making the election a national referendum on their performance or one that focuses on their policy divisions. Their goal is to concentrate less on the kind of positive message they have challenged the Democrats to produce and more on framing a choice that says, however unhappy voters may be right now with the Republicans' leadership, things would be worse if Democrats were in charge.

In the absence of a positive national message, Republicans also hope to use long-standing "wedge issues" to galvanize their own base and try to put Democrats on record with unpopular votes. Congressional leaders, for instance, plan to push a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

"...Republican governance is going nowhere."

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that the state of Tennessee can issue "Choose Life" license plates, the Associated Press reported.

The antiabortion license plates had been thrown out by a lower court, after abortion-rights groups complained that the state refused to issue "Choose Choice" plates.

Sandra Day O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts...

Since cultural conservatives cover themselves in the blanket of Chrisitianity which acts as a Shield From All Criticism by our mainstream media let's consider what kind of freak George Bush appoints to important positions:

And when all else fails, the Administration has simply preached: In February, a hundred CDC researchers on sexually transmitted diseases were summoned to Washington by HHS deputy secretary Claude Allen for a daylong affair consisting entirely of speakers extolling abstinence until marriage. There were no panels or workshops, just endless testimonials, including one by a young woman calling herself "a born-again virgin."

The mobile phones of Greek prime minister Costas Caramanlis and top government and security officials were tapped by unknown individuals during the Athens 2004 Olympics and for nearly a year after, the government said yesterday.

"The people [under surveillance] included the prime minister himself and other members of the government," government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos told a news conference.

The list of about 100 people whose telephones were tapped included the ministers of foreign affairs, defence, public order and justice. Most of Greece's top military and police officers were also targeted, as were foreign ministry officials, a US embassy number and the prime minister's wife, Natasha.

...The government revealed that the phone tappers used interceptors traced to the vicinity of the US embassy.

Part of the government's investigation will re-examine the supposed suicide of Kostas Tsalikidis, 39, Vodafone Greece's head of network design. Tsalikidis was found hanged in his Athens flat on March 9, only two days after Vodafone Greece had identified and removed the eavesdropping software from its systems...

The president said the Army Corps of Engineer would repair the city's flood-protection system before the new hurricane season begins in June. With those repairs, he said, the levees will be "equal to or better than what they were before Katrina."

Bennish's father told the Detroit News that his family in Michigan also has been receiving numerous calls - some of them death threats - since his son's comments became public.

John Bennish of Beverly Hills, Mich., said at least 12 people have called his home and threatened his life and the lives of his family since the story exploded onto the Internet and network television.

"I just think it's a shame that the conservative right-wingers can try to dictate curriculum," Raines said. "I think it's a shame that he could be suspended for trying to do what he does well, up there.

Patti Allen and her husband, Jeff Allen, 50, said they never wanted Bennish placed on leave and they do not want him fired.

Patti Allen, a national account manager for an armored car company, is so stressed, she said, she spent Sunday morning getting her nails done after biting them off.

She said she didn't know until after the fact that her son and husband had given the recording - made on her son's MP3 player - to Rosen and others.

...Jeff Allen (rat-dad), a sales manager in the video game industry, described Bennish as being "intimidating," even though he has never met him.

Some Bush/Hitler Youth in Colorado took it upon himself to be the "thought police" and recorded his teacher who was suggesting that the class consider some of the parallels between Hitler and Bush in terms of Iraq.

Then the youth and his father got the recording played on the local radio. Since then it was played on National TV. "Liberal" is truly a dirty word in the US and liberal ideas are not to be uttered or discussed in public.

The teacher lost his job for even suggesting the Bush/Hitler youth should think outside of his ingrown box.

The problem is the Radical Right are raising little Bush Youth who are ready to turn in anyone that has an anti Bush thought, "in love and fidelity to our Little Texan, George Bush, and the Flag Bush stands for", just like the Hitler Youth.

Those children would turn in THEIR OWN PARENTS if they said something against their beloved Fuhrer.

"Hitlerjugend" (HJ)/"Hitler Youth":This was the Nazi youth organization with its various sub-organizations. The "Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend"/"Hitler Youth Act" of 1.12.1936 resolved that the entire German youth had to join the "Hitlerjugend".

10 year old boys and girls, on entering the "Hitlerjugend", had to swear an oath of allegiance in which they promised always to do their duty "in love and fidelity to our Führer and our Flag".

10 to 14 year old boys had to do service in the "Deutschen Jungvolk" (DJ); 14 to 18 year olds in the "Hitlerjugend".

10 to 14 year old girls entered the "Jungmädelbund" (JM); 14 to 18 year olds in the "Bund Deutscher Mädel" (BDM); for 17 to 21 year olds the "BDM-Werk", "Glaube und Schönheit" was available.

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The footage _ along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press _ show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

The she-pundit with long blond hair gave another inflammatory speech last night, this time at Indiana University. As usual, it was filled with insults, such as calling one student "gay boy" and referring to Iraqis as "brown boys."

One comment that drew strong audience reactions came from a young man who asked her if she didn't like Democrats, wouldn't it just be better to have a dictatorship? Coulter responded with a jab at the way the student talked.

"You don't want the Republicans in power, does that mean you want a dictatorship, gay boy?" she said.

Some more Coulterisms:

She claimed liberals "hate God and hate America,"
....She said that Democrats don't want democracy to succeed in Iraq. She said, "They don't think the little brown boys could handle democracy," to which students responded, "We don't tolerate racism here. Go back to Germany."

...congressional investigations of government responses to Hurricane Katrina have revealed that two of the nation's key crisis managers, the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, do not use e-mail.

...Dr. Irwin Redlener, a disaster-preparedness expert at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, expressed surprise that two officials in such critical positions would not be adept at routine methods of modern communication. "This can't be true," he said, only half-jokingly. "It's almost inconceivable in 2006 for officials at that level of government not to be directly connected to systems of communications."

When asked to describe the most difficult moral decision she'd made during her career, Coutler responded "There was one time when I had a shot at Clinton."

Representative Thomas M. Davis, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the special House committee investigating the hurricane response, said the only level of government that performed well was the National Weather Service, which correctly predicted the force of the storm. But no one heeded the message, he said.

"The president is still at his ranch, the vice president is still fly-fishing in Wyoming, the president's chief of staff is in Maine," Mr. Davis said. "In retrospect, don't you think it would have been better to pull together? They should have had better leadership. It is disengagement."