Too Progressive

Nothing to see here. Just one asshat endorsing another. Money man, and dog hater Mitt Romney picks up the endorsement of someone most in the nation don’t really give a flying fuck about, fat man Bill Bolling.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling will endorse Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today.

Bolling also will be chairman of the former Massachusetts governor’s Virginia campaign.

The endorsement was to take place at a news conference at the Omni Hotel here. Romney is visiting Richmond and Hampton Roads to raise money for his presidential campaign.

In a news release prepared in advance of the endorsement, Bolling said, “We can trust him [Romney] to keep America safe at home by defeating the Jihadists abroad; and keep America strong by reining in government spending, keeping taxes low, protecting the values we believe in and confronting head-on the new generation of challenges facing our nation.”

Don’t Republicans ever get tired of the same old talking points that no one believes anymore? Apparently not.

UPDATE: Lowell has the press release from the DPVA.

Checkout my comment on Jim Gilmore’s new blog before it gets moderated (aka before it gets deleted for expressing a dissenting point of view). (click image to enlarge)

What the hell is our government planning to do with this information? Or more importantly, how are the European government’s obtaining information on someone’s sexual orientation? Via WaPo:

The United States and the European Union have agreed to expand a security program that shares personal data about millions of U.S.-bound airline passengers a year, potentially including information about a person’s race, ethnicity, religion and health.

Under the agreement, airlines flying from Europe to the United States are required to provide data related to these matters to U.S. authorities if it exists in their reservation systems. The deal allows Washington to retain and use it only “where the life of a data subject or of others could be imperiled or seriously impaired,” such as in a counterterrorism investigation.

According to the deal, the information that can be used in such exceptional circumstances includes “racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership” and data about an individual’s health, traveling partners and sexual orientation.

What do my sexuality and political beliefs have anything to do with counterterrorism? You may want to go see Bill O’Reilly’s website if you’re looking for terrorists.

Alberto Gonzales is a bit, fat, liar. We all know it, but Tony Snow and the rest of the Bush White House cronies simply blame Congressional pill popping leading to mass confusion in the minds of Senators and Representatives everywhere!!

The White House and Justice Department say what looks like a contradiction between testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller is nothing more than a confusion of terms.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday that Gonzales “has testified truthfully and tried to be very accurate” when discussing a controversial surveillance program.

But when publicly discussing “matters of classification,” Snow said, “Sometimes it’s going to lead people to talk very carefully and there’s going to be plenty room for interpretation or conclusion.”

In a statement Thursday night, Brian Roehrkasse, acting Justice Department public affairs director, wrote, “Confusion is inevitable when complicated classified activities are discussed in a public forum.”

What the fuck? These guys really need to hire some PR firms or something. So confusion only occurs in a public forum? Or maybe the White House is just trying to make the case that no one in this administration should be subjected to scrutiny and oversight when there are so many “cameras and reporters” around, huh?

Rich man and dog hater Mitt Romney is far too popular and busy to participate in the Republican YouTube debates scheduled for September.

Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney, both with dozens of videos on their YouTube channels, have not signed up. Neither have the rest of the Republican candidates, including Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.), whose “Tancredo Takes” on his YouTube channel draw hundreds of views. Sources familiar with the Guiliani campaign said he’s unlikely to participate. Kevin Madden, Romney’s spokesman, said the former Massachusetts governor has seven debate invitations covering a span of 11 days in September.

What the fuck? Is Mitt Romney just getting random invitations from random people to come to their house and debate them? Or their kids? Or their kitchen table? Or maybe even their dog? Otherwise, why the hell would he have seven pretend debate invitations. I call bullshit.

Here’s a list of many Virginia blogs, and how they stack up on Google. A ranking of 0 meaning the blog is irrelevant, and ten being most important. No blogs in Virginia that I could find fell on either of those two categories. The highest scoring blog was Craig’s Musings with a six, and the lowest score was a three, which was held by a couple of blogs. Here is the complete list, in no particular order:

Raising Kaine - 5
Not Larry Sabato - 4
Too Conservative - 5
BVBL - 5
Waldo Jaquith - 5
7 West - 5
Anonymous Is A Woman - 4
Bacon’s Rebellion - 5
Bearing Drift - 4
Policy Soup - 4
The Shad Plank - 4
VB Dems - 3
Democratic Central - 4
Virginia Lawyer Weekly - 4
750 Volts - 5
Vivian J. Paige - 4
Bored Young Professionals - 4
Brian Patton - 5
Daily Whackjob - 4
Ditzocrats - 4
Donkey With A Trunk - 4
Elephant Ears - 4
GOTV - 5
Mason Conservative - 4
Renaissance Ruminations - 5
Republitarian - 4
Spank That Donkey - 4
The Ward View - 4
West Of Shockoe - 4
Albo Must Go - 4
Assembly Access - 5
Bryan J Scrafford - 4
Craig’s Musings - 6
Equality Loudon - 5
From On High - 4
I’m Not Emeril - 4
Mosquito Blog - 5
Skeptical Observor - 4
Slant Blog - 4
Spark It Up!!! - 4
Swac Girl - 4
Two Conservatives - 4
VA Cost Cutting
VA Young Democrats - 5
VA Federalist - 3
Howling Latina - 5
J’s Notes - 5
Rick Howell Speaks - 4
Rick Sincere Thoughts - 4
Richmond Democrat - 5
Blacknell.net - 4
Sisyphus - 5
Tokatakiya - 4
Democracy UpsideDown - 4
Blue Weeds - 4

Blogs which had no rank (meaning Google had not yet indexed them) were not included in the list, nor were newspaper blogs.

Oh noes! We don’t want to face questions from cancer patients removing wigs, homos, and anyone else who isn’t Fox News! Via Ana Marie Cox at Swampland:

I talked to people from a few of the campaigns today and they say that the movement to abandon the format is real. Romney’s mocked the event outright, Giuliani’s people told Ambinder that “scheduling” was an issue (insert Iraq Study Group joke here) but I’ve heard from others that many in the GOP feel that the deck in a YouTube debate would be somehow stacked against the candidates. Are they dodging “real” Americans in favor for a more tightly scripted event? Payback for the Dems skipping Fox in some weird televisual karmic sense? (OR is Fox pressuring them to do so? Hmmm.) I’d be wary about the event if I were a candidate myself, but if they do manage to kill the thing, I’ll be disappointed.

Howling Latina tagged me, so here’s eight facts about me:

I’ve been blogging since October 31, 2006 — some months posting far more than others depending on how busy I am at the time.

I consider myself to be both Liberal and Progressive, but I think affirmative action is one of the most ridiculous domestic policies of our time.

I’m terrified of snakes.

I listen to electronic music almost exclusively.

I’m a 22 year old, full time college student majoring in Marketing, and plan to go to grad school next year when I’m finished with undergrad.

I ride public transportation (Metro rail) almost every day and have driven my car only ONCE since moving to Arlington almost a month ago, and that was to drive home to Richmond for the day.

Barbara Boxer of California is my favorite U.S. senator.

The three blogs I read on an almost daily basis include AmericaBlog, Wonkette, and Raising Kaine.

I tag Jaime at West of Shockoe, the entire crew at VB Dems, anyone who’s willing at BYP, the Ditzocrats, Alex Pareene, Donkey With A Trunk, Mosquito, and uhhh… Michelle Malkin, ha ha.

As we all know, Bill O’Reilly is not only a hypocrite, but he’s also constantly on the attack against anything he deems left of George Bush, including all “Liberal” bloggers. Not only has he gone after JetBlue for their (former) ad sponsorship of YearlyKos, but he’s also going after Daily Kos and other Liberal blogs for inane comments which inevitably appear on occasion on blogs that encourage ALL readers to comment, which pretty much every single major Liberal blog does. I guess he wants the Liberal blogs to go the way of almost ALL Conservative blogs these days and restrict who can and cannot comment.

Oh! But guess what!? O’Reilly has some crazies reading his blog too!! Go figure, right? In fact, the comments on his site have gotten so out of control, the secret service has actually taken an interest in them.

Best question:

Best impersonation (I think) of Fox News viewers:

Most ignorant question (and Edwards gave an AWESOME response):

Oh hey there, we want some of whatever your bff on the right is on (cocaine? meth?):

By the way, didn’t Obama already agree to give up the entirety of his salary were he to become President? I’m not sure why he didn’t bring that up…

Biggest victim of the Republican spin machine (and also in desperate need of speech therapy):

Biggest thorn in the side of pro-gun advocates (loved Biden’s response!):

I’m still haven’t decided who I’m going to support in the primaries, but I will say that Hillary really impressed me last night, and completely blew the rest of the field right out of the water. I will say that it will probably come down to Obama, Hillary, or Kucinich for me.

CNN hates Mike Gravel, Mike Gravel hates Barack Obama, Hillary hates Liberals, and Joe Biden is bff with Chuck Hagel. Chris Dodd and John Edwards hate gays.

In response to JetBlue caving to right wing hacks Bill O’Reilly and Michelle Malkin (more on that here, and here):

[h/t Ablog]

That’s right America! While you were sleeping, and nursing those pesky hangovers, Dick Cheney became your 44th President, and then died got cold feet and bailed on us!

President Bush transferred the powers of his office to Vice President Dick Cheney for more than two hours Saturday while under sedation for a colon cancer screening.

Hot!!

No, he wasn’t kidding:

Matt Groenig, on The Daily Show, just said that he has been forbidden from running snarky faux news-tickers on The Simpsons in the future, “because FOX viewers might confuse it with real news.”

The examples he used included “Brad Pitt + Albert Einstein = Dick Cheney” and “Rupert Murdoch is a good dancer.”

UPDATE: Okay, so in trying to find a video, I found some more funny quotes from the fake Fox ticker:

“Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at Foxnews.com. … Rupert Murdoch: Terrific Dancer. … Dow down 5000 points. … Study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay. … JFK posthumously joins Republican Party. … Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple. … Dan Quayle: Awesome.”

And here’s the video:

After an all night Senate slumber party that saw Republicans continue to put party in front of country, along with Diane Feinstein giving sexy light shows to Harry Reid, Olympia Snowe doing topless poll dances, and finally Claire McCaskill passing out 5HTP and orange juice this morning — Harry Reid delivered a big slap in the face to the Republican party. After the Republicans voted to continue a filibuster on the Reed-Levin amendment, Harry Reid told Arlen Specter to “stfu” on the Senate floor before pulling the Defense Authorization bill completely! The complete roll call vote is posted below:

Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Alexander (R-TN), Nay
Allard (R-CO), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Nay
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Nay
Boxer (D-CA), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Nay
Burr (R-NC), Nay
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Chambliss (R-GA), Nay
Clinton (D-NY), Yea
Coburn (R-OK), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Nay
Coleman (R-MN), Nay
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Craig (R-ID), Nay
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Dodd (D-CT), Yea
Dole (R-NC), Nay
Domenici (R-NM), Nay
Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Ensign (R-NV), Nay
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Nay
Grassley (R-IA), Nay
Gregg (R-NH), Nay
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Hatch (R-UT), Nay
Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Johnson (D-SD), Not Voting

Kennedy (D-MA), Yea
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Nay
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (ID-CT), Nay
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Nay
Lugar (R-IN), Nay
Martinez (R-FL), Nay
McCain (R-AZ), Nay
McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Nay
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Obama (D-IL), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Nay
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Sanders (I-VT), Yea
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Nay
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Stevens (R-AK), Nay
Sununu (R-NH), Nay
Tester (D-MT), Yea
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Voinovich (R-OH), Nay
Warner (R-VA), Nay
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
Wyden (D-OR), Yea

BURN!

Patrick Leahy: And then you said, I took an oath to the President, and I take that oath very seriously. Did you mean, perhaps, you took an oath to the Constitution?

Sara Taylor: Uh, I, uh, yes, you’re correct, I took an oath to the Constitution. Uh, but, what–

Leahy: Did you take a second oath to the President?

Taylor: I did not. I–

Leahy: So the answer was incorrect.

Taylor: The answer was incorrect. What I should have said is that, I took an oath, I took that oath seriously. And I believe that taking that oath means that I need to respect, and do respect, my service to the President.

Leahy: No, the oath says that you take an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States. That is your paramount duty. I know that the President refers to the government being his government — it’s not. It’s the government of the people of America. Your oath is not to uphold the President, nor is mine to uphold the Senate. My oath, like your oath, is to uphold the Constitution.

This is why homosexuals in this country aren’t allowed to get married. Because it would take all the thrill out of breaking the code of “family values” for the Republicans!

U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) acknowledged Monday night that his number appears on telephone records of the alleged DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and issued a statement of apology.

“This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible,” Vitter said.

Not only that, but he also speaks to Jesus (and apparently gets replies) just like Dubya!!!

“Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.”

So, why do some people still vote for someone who talks to something (and gets answers in reply) from something that isn’t there?