More Republican Family Values

Well, it looks like yet another Republican is poised to go down in a blaze of scandal (I remember the good old days, back when there were some honest Republicans running the country... but apparently one very bad apple really can do a number on the rest of the bushel).

This time, it's Rick Renzi and he's mixed up in shenanigans that include a shady land deal, legislation favoring a contributor, and special favors from the Justice Department. He's already had to give up committee work and he may well lose his seat in the House. If you're trying to place him, he's the guy who has 13 kids, but still managed to find the time to canoodle on the floor of the US House with Katherine Harris before her infamous run for the US Senate and subsequent descent into insanity.

What a guy.

It's no wonder the Republicans are having trouble raising money.

GOP-scandal-a-palooza

The latest scandal to come from the Party of Family Values (can you say that with a straight face?) is Rick Renzi -- who, if you'll recall, is the married Arizona Congressman who was caught canoodling with Katherine "Meltdown" Harris some time ago!

A few good reads...

They're on major national blogs, so maybe you did catch them, but just in case...

The Coming GOP Civil War

This story is a very sad indictment of all sorts of people who claim to value life but then demonstrate that really they're just ideological and mean.

We now have an answer to this question.

Tom Reynolds, who fills the (apparently too big) shoes of my former Congresman must be feeling a bit of sympathy for George "Macaca" Allen as they both struggle with serial snafus (fortunately, they can both still feel superior to the kids working over on the Katherine Harris campaign).

And then there's the news from Korea and the most recent polling numbers that show the democrats surging while the republicans flounder, but the coverage of those two stories is too widespread for me to be able to reduce my linkage to just one href each. If you've missed out, just do a little bit of surfing -- it shouldn't take long for you to get caught up...

Katherine Harris Wins

This campaign is quite the story. For the press (and comedians), it's the gift that keeps on giving (who is Katherine Harris?).

• Salon.com: No recount necessary

• Time.com: Katherine Harris' Comedy of Errors

• Leonard Pitts: Katherine Harris sure is a unifier

• Mother Jones: Katherine Harris's Campaign Makes FEMA Look Well Organized

• Associated Press: Disaster may not be too strong a word for Rep. Katherine Harris' Senate campaign...

• and so on... the discussion continues...

Jeff Parker

BACK in BLACK

OK, I admit it -- I think I'm ready for this moving thing to be over. Yet still I pack...
Fortunately, there's Lewis Black. Ahhh...

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SCOTUS, Harris, Rush's Drugs, & the Gore Movie

I'm sorry -- I'm in the process of moving (we've maybe found a place to live but if you own property in Chattanooga area and would like some roomies, let me know!), and don't have my usual time to surf the blogs when the big news bits hit the fan. This SCOTUS smackdown of Georgie is a juicy story, but I haven't been able to enjoy it like I should. AmericaBlog, Tennessee Guerilla Women and Kos (ha!) are on the case, though.

p.s. In case you're wondering about the increasingly deranged behavior of Katherine Harris, I don't think it has anything to do with Rush Limbaugh's drug/impotence problems. I suspect he's not the type to share his drugs, and it's not like Viagra could be responsible for the mental problems she's stuggling with anyway...

pp.s. If you're in Chattavegas and plan to be at Friday evening's 7:10 Bijou showing of An Inconvenient Truth, you'd better prepay because it's expected to sell out. And if you do manage to get tix, I'll see you there! Peaceout!

Daylight Savings Headache

Is there anyone out there who thinks this is a good thing?

Arrrgh. I feel like half my day was stolen away... anyway, here's something I didn't know about Daylight Saving Time (note the spelling of the middle word!): next year we'll be going to it almost a month earlier than usual (via beep). I don't see that any advantage is worth the accidents, loss of productivity and other headaches that come with the change in time, so put me down as one vote to stop the madness!

In other disaster news, Aretha Frankensteins burned down this morning, which means that Chattanooga no longer has a hip hangout where they serve a killer breakfast all day long.

And the Katherine Harris campaign continues to circle the drain.

But, it won't be dark out at dinner time any more... or something... ugh.

Katherine Harris Roundup!

Campaign says Harris won't turn to inheritance!

And with that contradiction of everything she's been shrieking for a week, the Katherine Harris campaign became ... well... an even bigger joke than it was before... she's got Jomentum now!!!!

She's melting, she's melting!

Harris Shoots Her Senate Campaign in the Foot Again, But This Time It Could Be Fatal.

What a difference a day makes (with video)!

Tales from the meltdown.

Jesus is her campaign consultant!

You Owe $30,000!!!

As do we all. You're doing a heck of a job, Bushie! You too, Wampie -- we all know you've never met a spending bill or a millionaire tax cut you didn't like!

But back to Bush and the job he's doing. It didn't take long before the comments started piling in on this thread (the count quickly reached, then surpassed, a thousand!).

In other news, I'm starting to wonder if Katherine Harris is going to be the best thing that ever happened to Bill Nelson. And here's another scary tidbit from the supposedly Christian American Family Association.

$43,000,000,000,000

A few notes from Kos...

Word on the street is that Katherine Harris will be making a big campaign announcement on Hannity tonight (or maybe she'll just be hoisting her boobs around again).

Update: She's staying in and using an inheritance to finance her campaign.

Another state has fallen in the face of the fits thrown by fundies. This time it's Washington giving pharmacists permission to discriminate against customers based on their religious beliefs. I really like this suggestion:

I recommend a guerilla campaign of vegans infiltrating supermarkets nationwide and refusing to ring up slabs of Midwestern beef because it offends their tender sensibilities.

And here's a shocking figure from David Walker, the head of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office:

The federal government's obligations, current liabilities, and unfunded fiscal commitments are over $43 trillion and rising. . . . Yes, that's trillions with 12 zeros rather than billions with nine zeros.

That's $43,000,000,000,000.

Want to know what your portion amounts to? Well, how much you got?!?

No, I'm serious:

The estimated net worth of American families is slightly over $47 trillion, and nearly all of it---90 percent---would be needed to cover government's current obligations.

So, figure out 90% of your net worth, and that's how much you, personally, owe the Chinese (and whoever else has been buying all our debt) because of Bankrupt Bush.

This admistration must be stopped. We maybe can't get rid of Dubya at the moment, but we can take away his rubber-stamp Congress in this year's elections. We can't afford three more years of irresponsible republican spending and tax cuts for millionaires.

Hart, O'Reilly and Harris

Oh, what a busy week! It's really been nuts -- a series of days when before I finish one thing, the phone starts ringing, demanding I move on to the next thing. I've been working on an extended post, but can't seem to finish it, so while I listen to the umpteenth talking head on the 24-hour news call Bush a lame duck because of the spectacular implosion of the Dubai ports deal, here're a few entertaining tidbits:

Having the crazies over in Rhea County making national headlines for stupid attempts to legislate ignorance and hate hasn't been enough, so now we've got this guy helping to reinforce the negative intolerant redneck stereotype in Tennessee. Appropriately, James Hart (don't miss the audio link on that page!) belongs to the party of Trent Lott, and if the Republicans in this state send him to Congress this time (he's run before) he will, presumably, save America for all the white people.

In the meantime, O'Reilly has gone off his meds... and not in a good way. Somebody slip some tranquilizers into the falafel!

And finally, What the hell is going on with the Harris campaign now? On? Off? Who the hell knows?

10Mar update: Katherine's got Joementum! lol!

More ports, Fox, Santorum, Harris, Forests and Tunes!

Oh, boy. Turns out this ports scandal is scalable.

A United Arab Emirates government-owned company is poised to take over port terminal operations in 21 American ports, far more than the six widely reported.

In other news...

When you read the phrase or hear someone say "fair and balanced" in reference to Fox"News," do you laugh or cry? Surely there is no one left on the planet with a cable tv subscription who doesn't believe that Fox is little more than a propoganda arm of the RNC. Well, they've moved the goalposts yet again, folks. Now instead of just reading White House press releases, the Fox "News" team is actively out there campaigning for republican candidates.

And speaking of Santorum, the republican party's paragon of ethical conduct has gotten himself into the kind of trouble that only Tom DeLay (and the uber-sleazy and shameless US Chamber of Commerce) would be proud of. It turns out that besides accepting special treatment at banks, our little Ricky has been lining the pockets of his aides with money that was supposed to go to charities.

But in today's republican party, the sleazoid olympics are only just getting started! The American people are having a hard time deciding if Katherine Harris is really evil or unbelievably stupid, but one thing's for sure: Jeb, Karl, et al are through dealing with this particular campaign bus whore. So much for family values.

Closer to home, Bush wants to sell off some of Tennessee's forests to reduce the deficit. Hey -- here's an idea, George: how about you cut back on the millionaire tax cuts and corporate welfare instead of selling out what little wilderness we have left for a few bucks? What's next? Selling our ports to the highest bidder?

Ooops.

Sigh. Well, just for fun, go see what was Billboard's #1 song on the day you were born, or graduated from high school, or whatever...

UPDATE (Feb. 28th): Well, it looks like the answer in the Katherine Harris conundrum is a) really evil. For b) unbelievably stupid to still be an option, we'd have to upgrade it to stratospheric levels of stupid, since it would seem that ooops, I did it again might be appropriate background music for this revelation:

But long before any of us had heard of "butterfly ballots" or "hanging chads," Harris was known for something else: accepting illegal campaign contributions. As a candidate for the state Senate in 1994, Harris received more than $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions from an insurance company she subsequently helped by introducing legislation that would have hurt one of its competitors. Harris said back then that she had no idea that the contributions she was getting were illegal, and her office seems to be making a similar suggestion this time around.

Stick a fork in her inflatable boobs. I think she's done.