Am I tin foil hat wearing nutcase? Or is the Siegelman story being hushed up in Alabama?

I set the TIVO 3 days ago. I did not want to take a chance on missing 60 Minutes story on Karl Rove's abuse of the Justice Department to put former Alabama governor Don Siegelman in the Federal Pen. CBS has been hesitent to air the story for months now.

So at 7pm eastern the show began. And what happened.....?

There have been many, many diaries here on dkos decrying that  John Edwards has no chance to win the nomination and that if continues his campaign, he will dilute Obama's support enough to cause Hillary to be our nominee.

I am a liberal. My candidate is John Edwards. I had hoped that Al Gore would enter the fray. He did not. I had hoped that Gen. Wes Clark would toss his hat in the ring. He declined.

I looked at our candidates, read thier policy statements and youtubed their speeches. I chose John Edwards early and enthusiastically.

Then the primary season began.........

The US Mint's release of Quarters with unique designs for each of our 50 States has been a huge success. Every time an American takes one of these coins from circulation, the govenment has made a profit. And since Bush cannot hope for anything more than a gimmick to nudge the Treasury forward, the program has earned nothing but applause. And I must admit, I do enjoy the gimmick myself.

But what is the Mint to do now that we've used up our finite number of states to appreciate? Find something else to honor:

Among the many provisions in the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress this week is one requiring the United States Mint to produce six new designs for the quarter — one each honoring the District of Columbia and five American territories and commonwealths, including Puerto Rico — after the popular 50 State Quarters program ends next year.

And so, new coins will now be struck with special designs for Puerto Rico, D.C., Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and..... the Northern Marianas Islands.

The religious right, and Pat Robertson in particular, has done much to destroy our country's ability to behave like a modern Western nation. The things that come to mind are their distain for government anti-poverty programs (at least the ones that don't use the "faith-based" community as a cash conduit), the anti-science battles against stem cell research and teaching evolution, the intentionally divisive anti-abortion nonsense and their blatent gay hatred.

But Wednesday, Pat Robertson, he who said we were attacked on 9-11 because his God hates gay people, abortionists and feminists, took intolerance to a whole new level. Robertson declared YOGA to be "scary" and unchristian because it causes one to unknowingly pray to Vishnu and Krishna. Seriously.

This stand raised several theological questions in my mind. Including the question of whether "logic" and "theology" should really be combined in the same word.

Waterboarding is torture. Period. Does any sentient person doubt it? Well, our soon-to-be Attorney General has doubts. So does another general. It seems that Army General Russell Honore can't decide whether waterboarding is torture. And he really doesn't care, because he thinks our soldiers need to use it whether or not it is torture. As Honore told 900 Georgia middle schoolers, "the general public shouldn't be so quick to condemn the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique".

More indocrination and GOP talking points from our active duty military leaders below the fold----

As a native Georgian, I have long been accustomed to seeing ridiculously myopic efforts to appear hyper-virtuous or tough-on-crime or pro-gun result in very bad legislation being passed into law by our state legislature. Georgia's notorious Voter ID law, once ruled unconstitutional, will be back on the books for the 2008 elections. The prior ruling was tossed out on a technicality, rather than a substantive basis. The ignomineous plight of Genarlow Wilson, sentenced to 10 years in prison for (gasp) getting a hummer from a 15-year old when he was 17 is equally unjustified.

Yes, Georgia, like our nation generally, is prison-crazed. The answer to every ill. But now, I stand stunned at what the simpletons under The Golden Dome have wrought. That story, below the fold-

To repeat:
The Senate will be debating H.R. 1585 - The Defense Authorization Bill.

Open thread commentator said cots had been brought it.

Harry Reid vows to go 30 hours for this session.

This is on the fly so we'll be looking for volunteers.  Sorry for the brevity but this was very short notice. - donnamarie

UPDATE: Please Recommend this Diary to get it up on the Rec list. Then Unrec when oreo puts #3 up. And please let us know if you want to join the list of folks sacrificing a diary for today.

I'm trying to finish off my day at the office while listening to the proceedings in the House of Representatives on C-Span. They are debating a bill on timelines for withdrawl from Iraq.

The invective and general Republic Party bs is flying. Just listened to one Repug who used the word Democrat in the pejorative no less than 10 times in 2 minutes. Ticked me off.

Then John Boehner stepped to the mike............

For quite a while now we here on Dkos have been debating whom Congress ought to launch impeachment proceedings against first. The typical candidates are Bush, Cheney and Abu Gonzalez. Various strategies have emerged. Cut off the head of the beast, start at the bottom and work up to gather facts along the way to the top. And so forth. Many also make their choice based on the basic views about who is causing, and has caused, the most harm.

But now, there may be a new candidate for the legal process. And he doesn't work at the White House. Senator David Vitter.

The Bushies and their base love to proclaim their holy mission to "protect the sanctity of life." But what does that mean? For the Republic Party, it means opposing all abortion, regardless of circumstances, to include even allowing young people to get sex-ed at school or information about contraseptives. For those past birth, how much of a priority is it for the Bushies to give children access to healthcare? Well, if the kids can afford it, then great. If not...

All to "protect life?" No. To protect something much more important to today's Republic Party. Profit.

It appears that Republic Party Presidential Candidate Sen. Sam Brownback is a bit more thin-skinned than we'd though. After weeks of being laughed at by the rational world (ie- not the GOP base) for raising his hand is response to a debate question asking who does not "believe" in evolution. Now he seeks to stifle the laughing and appear reasonable in his op-ed piece in today's New York Times: What I Think About Evolution

What he provides is insight into an arrogant primate species.

Because I e-mail Saxby regularly to point out that he is an incompetent facist, he put me on his weekly updates list. He's a huge cheerleader for W's fiasco in Iraq. And, really, anything else W ever does.

The big news from this week's newsletter below-

Waiter, there seems to be a neocon in my paper. Take this away.

The AJC today has an op-ed piece by the grossly untalented Jonah Goldberg. Jonah tries to make the bizarre argument that lefty bloggers, and Markos specifically, want to be just like the Republic Party. Why? Because the New Republic admits this. Then, in classic concern troll mode, he tells us it would be bad for us.

The crack he tries to share with us below the fold:

The guest op-ed in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution is from a mother who's son is graduation from West Point this year. After reading her column, I ferverently hope that he is better informed on the issues than his mother, who obviously chooses the "We Distort. You Decide" option for her news. I will write a letter to the editors today. I invite as many of you as possible to do the same. When the AJC gets a flood of letters, they tend to discuss it on the editorial pages the day after publishing the letters, thus getting our points across twice.

I'll discuss her recitation of right-wing talking points below the fold. But to give you a taste, here's 2 quotes:

The Democrats in Congress want us to lose the war against terror.

The Democrats' defeatism is a grave threat to the security and prosperity of the United States of America.

This morning, like every morning, I read the NYTimes to get a feel for what the MSM views as the important issues of the day. I especially enjoy seeing what topic discussed yesterday on the blogs has now arrived as a new story in the print media.

Within the DC/political news portion of the National section is a column called "Caucus", which is a series of short takes regarding the various Presidential campaigns. Its the Times "blog" section in print. They apparently keep it very, very light. Because. you know, those bloggers are not adult enough to discuss serious issues. One piece leapt out at me as pointless, stupid and utterly baffling as to why it appears at all in print, which is a limited medium unlike our beloved internet tubes.

It was great to see that polling done in Kentucky recently, posted on the front page yesterday by mcjoan, shows that folks in the Bluegrass support our troops and not the President's escallation gambit. The same post also reminded us that Texas gives Bush a disapproval rating of over 50%. Montana has shown the enviable wisdom of electing Jon Tester and Brian Schweitzer. So it leaves one to wonder- Which state is the poster-boy for knee-jerk Republican stoogeland? What is that reddest state that needs to be brought into the light?

I'll submit that my native state of Georgia is now the most aggressively backwards state in the union. I'll explain why below the fold.

Today's NYTimes' National Briefing column has a small piece from the AP about another conduit betweeen Jack Abramoff and the Republican Congress pleading guilty to corruption charges today. Its interesting stuff, but some very important information seems to be missing.

See if you can solve the puzzle below the fold------

Adam Nagourney didn't have time to do any writing or research for a column in today's NY Times. So rather than not see his name in print, he grabbed whatever came over on the fax and made it his own. Bad timing, it appears. The only communication Adam received appears to be GOP talking points sent out for lazy reporters and right-wing talk radio hosts.

Thus, this headline:In the Beverly Hills Style: Candidate’s $400 Coiffure