The Bush Years Posters

Have you seen Arianna Huffington's set of posters entitled "The Bush Years"? In big bold letters they capture the last seven years' people, slogans, and events in all their infamy. If you go to the link and click on the posters to enlarge them, it will help fire you up for 2008. Check especially the people poster...our feckless leader John Boehner is about a third of the way down.

A Case for Hillary

At the request of Kate Rousmaniere, here's a Keene, NH Sentinel editorial which advocates voting for Hillary Clinton.

Krugman becomes optimistic!

For a dose of holiday cheer, check out Paul Krugman's lastest column. He believes the liberal/progressive trend (and he defines the difference between the two terms) is the wave of the future. Now all we need to do is work like crazy to make sure he's right.

And the envelope, please....

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo (where have you heard of him before?) has just announced the nominees for the first annual Golden Duke awards. Named for Duke Cunningham, now-jailed Republican walking crime spree, the awards are separated into humorous categories covering varieties of graft and bamboozlement from local to national. Click here for a video of Josh announcing the nominees, which have been chosen from ones submitted by readers. Get a load of the high powered judges (remember John Dean?). And don't miss the announcement of winners on December 31!

Let's hear it for New Jersey!

I'd be the last person to push religion in a group blog, but I just have to provide this link to today's edition of something called an "almost daily eMo" from an Episcopal priest in New Jersey. She's celebrating New Jersey's decision to end capital punishment, being signed into law today. I think you'll find it interesting and compelling.

The Ultimate Campaign Commercial

Via TPM, here's a delightful tongue-in-cheek "commercial" for Mike Huckabee, including just about every required Republican theme. DO NOT view while swallowing a mouthful of anything!

DHS follies

The people at CREW (citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington) have posted an informative short video covering the Bush administration's record of graft and corruption in the Department of Homeland Security. It isn't just Heckofajob Brownie...there's plenty that I didn't know about Tom Ridge's cronies and others. You may learn something too.

The Amazing Story of TalkingPointsMemo

In a long article, GQ chronicles the history of the TPM phenomenon. You've seen repeated references to Josh Marshall's brilliant work here; now here's a chance to see how he and his readers and reporters have blended journalism and blogging into a seamless and effective national resource. If/when we get to the point of having open, honest, competent government at a national level, I trust that Josh will get plenty of credit. Don't miss this chance to learn about TPM!

Comparison chart of campaign diversity

Thanks to Atrios, here's a handy chart, for what it's worth.

More on Giuliani

At last, the Times has published a comprehensive article on Rudy's achilles heel, Bernard Kerik. If you want to be ready to tell people why Rudy is not qualified to be president, you need to know about his terrible lack of judgment when it comes to appointments, and Bernie has to be exhibit A. (More exhibits to come; think "neocons.")

The Case Against Rudy

TalkingPointsMemo has consolidated many of the arguments against Giuliani into a handy summary. Given the lack of interest in political issues on the part of the public right now, I would suggest that every progressive get up to speed on how much trouble we're in on the world scene and how much worse it could get if we let the neocons take over completely. Lots of people have a gauzy view of Rudy as a purposeful leader and don't know about his authoritarian bent. Read up and get the word out, please!

Don't torture..play chess

Frank Rich puts the whole case against our misadventure in Iraq together in a column well worth the read. If you're short on time, you can get some interesting historical anti-torture information in the last three columns. Yes, that's where the chess game turns up.

DOJ: "Nothing to see here" on Ohio voting problems

From the always informative TPM Muckraker, some comments by a former Justice Dept. official on the voting rights section's whitewash of the investigation of Ohio voting irregularities. An unusually detailed report on the end of the investigation seems custom designed to prevent future lawsuits.

Ohio election law

Via Talking Points Memo, here's a McClatchy article about continuing attempts by Republican legislatures to suppress voting by low income citizens. Ohio and Florida are singled out, and there are several quotations from Secretary of State Brunner expressing exasperation at laws requiring "caging" (sending mail to all voters, then using the mail that's returned to compile lists of voters for challenges). The laws were apparently passed before Gov. Strickland was in office to veto them. Sigh. How many Democrats do we have to elect to return government to the people in this country?!

A New Senate Caucus

From Firedoglake, a post on the "Sit Down and Shut Up" caucus in the Senate and why returning our government to the people is going to take more than winning in '08.

Boehner "stars" in an ad

I don't know who is running this ad, but it's a good one. H/t Atrios.

People 1, Times 0 or, Return of the Columnists

In a wonderful reversal, the New York Times has rescinded its pay-to-read Times Select policy, so now those of us who have missed Krugman, Rich, et. al. can get the weekly doses of wisdom we've missed for the past couple years. Plus, they've opened the archives to l987 so if you've got loads of time you can even catch up on past columns. Here's a recent Krugman piece that's a real eye-opening update on the Iraq misadventure.

The latest thing in letters to the editor

Check this out! It's a video letter to the New York Times answering Amb. Bremmer's claim that disbanding the army in Iraq was a necessary move. Very well produced and informative, it's yet another jab at the chicken hawks in the defense dept. and their airheaded ideological blunders that have cost so many lives.

Boehner strikes again

John Boehner famously called Donald Rumsfeld the greatest Defense Secretary ever shortly before Bush fired the lout. Now our embarrassment of a representative has come up with a much more revolting quote. Check it out at The Horse's Mouth (h/t talkingpointsmemo).

Katrina anniversary musings

In honor of the victims of Katrina, I suggest reading this entry from DarkSyde, a Daily Kos regular, especially the last paragraph which is brilliant.

Buh-bye Karl

Via Kevin Drum at Political Animal, here's a recounting of a couple Rove anecdotes from a recent Atlantic article. The guy may be plump, but he never lost the ability to slide right under a snake's belly!

Disclaimers

Has the heat gotten to you? Could you use a good laugh? Check out the all-purpose disclaimer I found at a hot deals website!

Welcome to the new blog of the Greater West Chester Democratic Women's Club. You can learn more about our organization at our website, geocities.com/womendems. Our blog will feature observations by our members and a liberal dose of links to the best progressive commentary on the web.

We had to close out our old blog when Google acquired Blogspot. For a look at some old posts and links to Molly Ivins and other luminaries, check out westchesterdemocratic.blogspot.com.