HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

You probably wouldn't have lived this long (89) on your own; and no, the thought of you playing golf with Gerald Ford in Rancho Mirage, well . . . not electrifying. Someday we'll know who it really was who took you away from the country, at a time when you were greatly needed. Until then, Happy Birthday, President Jack. Lloyd Bentsen can help you with the candles this year.

THE FECAL FIRE HOSE BLASTING CONTINUES

So, you think that the approval ratings are spiraling downward, that Bush finally (though much too tardily) was forced to make an almost mea-culpa the other day about the war, that Katrina blowback and his complete and total inactivity on gasoline prices , a failure to draw down troops, the failure to diplomatically engage Iran, the ever widening scandals in the GOP Congress are all combining in a perfect storm of outrage and disgust which will sweep the garbage out of D.C. and neuter this President and his vile, malevolent puppet master VP? Think again.

While all these uglier stories about Cronyball are getting some long overdue traction in the minds and psyches of the general public, thanks in part to small fissures in the corporate groupie-ness that is the Main Stream Media, this kind of crap is still going on in the background: lifetime appointments to Federal appeals courts, where the most significant experiences held by the appointees read like this : " Kavanaugh, the White House staff secretary, was an assistant to independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the impeachment probe of President Clinton and he worked on behalf of the Bush campaign during the election recount in 2000. "
Federal judges are appointed for life, or as someone much wiser than LOST put it years ago, they are subject only to the "Dead girl/live boy" rule. That is, they stay in office forever, or until they're caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy. This Brett Kavanagh, recently cemented in place in the D.C. Court of Appeals - the intermediate step between persons taking legal issue with official acts of the Executive Branch and the Supreme Court (with its 4 confirmed Bushills already in place) held the cloaks for the Clinton haters in the latter half of the 90's and was among the scream-shouters trying to prevent recounts in vote-scandal ravaged Florida. In other words, exactly the kind of non-partisan individual one would want to fairly,dispassionately examine claims of Presidential impropriety from a legal standpoint . . . NOT!

Yeah, LOST could rail on about a moon-faced neo-nazi creep like General Hayden being confirmed as CIA director - notwithstanding his recent (within the past 4 months) televised attempt to rewrite the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution in congressional hearings, but at least Hayden can be fired removed or pressured into stepping down by the next President. Unless someone's got a truckload of the aforementioned bed mates (and a comprehensive address book), we're stuck with whatever ideological wingnuts and whackjobs this Administration chooses to install - and the spineless Congress fails to resist - in the Federal courts for decades. Much like the fire hose in the title, you may be able to block some of the crap, but more than its share is gonna blast on through and muck up the joint.

OH, SO NOW HE'S SORRY?

The big story tomorrow will be that Preznit Flightsuit is now admitting mistakes, like regretting his "cowboy rhetoric" after 9/11 that "was misinterpreted in other parts of the world." HOW ABOUT THE FACT THAT SUCH COMMENTS GOT SOME OF OUR PEOPLE KILLED (anybody remember "bring it on?") Oh, and just in case anyone is predisposed to give the Decider some brownie points for contrition, take a look at this photo from the Joint press conference with Tony-the-lame-duck-Blair where all of these supposedly frank admissions and expressions of misgiving were made, and ask yourself this question: is that an expression of contrition on his face? Or is that the smug smirk of the only guy in the room who's thinking, "heh heh heh, I think they're buyin' it. Great Idea, Turd Blossom?"

JESSE JACKSON EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR US - 2006 GOP ELECTION SLOGAN EDITION
Yep, in today's Chicago Sun Times, the Reverend hits a nerve, twice, and then splits it open for all to see, and he sets out exactly what the GOP has in mind for its 2006 election theme. The gay marriage thing isn't going over so well again, the war progress is in the wrong direction, the economy is roaring - but only if your wealthy, and every week there's another crooked congressman being caught with cash stuffed in his pockets, commodes, refrigerators - wherever. So, here's how Jesse lays out the Rovian strategery - that is of course, once we get past the part about keeping himself out of prison:

I'd say let the RNC run the fall election on the issue of saving Bush's neck. 'This election isn't about you,' Republican candidates would say, 'or your jobs, your skyrocketing health care and gas costs or your stagnant incomes. And it's not about the country being mired in a costly occupation of Iraq, saddled with record foreign debt, accelerating outsourcing and a $1 trillion trade deficit this year alone. No, this election is about George Bush. Vote to protect him and Dick Cheney from accountability. Vote Republican. We may not do much for you, but we'll keep George Bush and Dick Cheney above the law' . . .
. . . White House political guru Karl Rove suggests that Republicans run this fall by creating a choice: Democrats will raise your taxes, cut and run from Iraq and impeach the president. Republicans will defend the president's tax cuts and economy, keep troops in Iraq till at least 2009, and keep the president above accountability. Let's have Rove's election. It surely would help Democrats take back the House. You tell 'em Rev!

THERE'S A BIG DICK IN TOWN TODAY!

PSSST, Hey Brian Bilbray! Stop sipping that Tijuana Estuary water. You're higher than a kite if you think havin' this guy pimp your candidacy is gonna win the District for you. Does the phrase 19% approval rating hold any significance? How about the public servant with a 1.9 million tax refund last year alone? A guy who had, before 1992, never had a real job outside of politics in his adult life, and only worked for Halliburton for a little longer than 7 years? A guy who himself grabbed for 5 military deferments when he was Vietnam draft age, but now favors speaking in Blue States like this one only to military audiences, whose compelled applause is a fourgone conclusion, lest they face some form of military discipline or other hazing ritual. The shooter, with such disdain for the law that he waited 18 hours before reporting the "accidental shooting" of his hunting companion. The guy who thinks hunting is shooting birds raised in a cage, then strategically stuffed under brush like some kind of whacked out Easter egg hunt. Yeah, invite this guy to Your next party!!!

This Fish stinks from the head down, li'l Brian of the li'l brain. But let 'em keep pimpin' for you. Next comes Gymnastic Johnny McCain, fresh from a gang ass-kiss at Falwells institution of deeper ignorance, Liberty University. One more guy sacrificing priniciple for popularity. Oh, and Brian, how about some stories about your Abramoff-paid trip to the Marianas, home of the biggest "Made in the USA" scandal of the last quarter century, a scandal which your vote against imposition of Federal Labor Standards on the Islands helped facilitate. Yes Virginia (as in State of), there is a GOP candidate for the California 50th, and you can come take him back anytime you like!

"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY"

Richard Viguerie, writing in Sunday's Washington Post, penned a piece entitled "Bush Base Betrayal." The gist of this attempted no mea culpa reads as follows:

"As a candidate in 2000, George W. Bush was a Rorschach test. Country Club Republicans saw him as another George H.W. Bush; some conservatives, thinking wishfully, saw him as another Ronald Reagan. He called himself a 'compassionate conservative,' which meant whatever one wanted it to mean. Experts from across the party's spectrum were flown to Austin to brief Bush and reported back: 'He's one of us.'

Republicans were desperate to retake the White House(HAH! ABOUT THE ONLY GERM OF TRUTH IN THIS WHOLE ARTICLE!), conservatives were desperate to get the Clinton liberals out and there was no direct heir to Reagan running for president. So most conservatives supported Bush as the strongest candidate -- some enthusiastically and some, like me, reluctantly. After the disastrous presidency of his father, our support for the son was a triumph of hope over experience.

Once he took office, conservatives were willing to grant this Bush a honeymoon. (Anyone you know have a 5 1/2 year long honeymoon? Living here in the land which discovered no-fault Divorce, LOST is well acquainted with many whose marriages did not last that long) We were happy when he proposed tax cuts (small, but tax cuts nonetheless) and when he pushed for a missile defense system. Then came the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and conservatives came to see support for the president as an act of patriotism."

Spin all you want, Mr. Viguerie. You and your entire party married this guy, in an act of pure political polygamy, you brought him, his cronies, his oil buddies, and his uncontrollable entourage of unsavory characters from the seediest patch of people who worked in the Reagan White House. They've abused you, us, the entire country. It will take years to undo the damage they have wrought on our finances, our military readiness and morale, our infrastructure, our environment and our standing in the world. No, you cannot claim this was a short interlude and a grudging realization, you all embraced this and you're all to blame for it, for sacrificing objectively rational policy and financial analysis on the altar of political partisanship. Shame on you for the first screw up, and to hell with you for trying to shift the blame and resposibility elsewhere.

But, this is only one guy's opinion, right? Is that what you're saying? Well, not exactly. Here in the land of Moonbeam, granola and Mickey Mouse, it is primary season. ALL of the Repub candidates are slathering open fences and fields with their patriotic red white and blue signage, and the vast majority of 'em are adding tag lines like "Conservative Republican" as if the ones already in Washington, Sacramento or the Council Chambers were dimestore forgeries, or worse, Democrats in Republican cloth coat clothing. Whether any of these wannabe leaders are or aren't conservative Republicans is really not the issue. The burning question is really after all of the lies of Bush-Cheney on everything from the Rx drug bill, to Katrina, the No Child Left Behind Act and to the D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R in Iraq why the hell should anyone trust you with their votes?

HOW 68 % OF THE COUNTRY NOW SEES THE PREZNIT



Yep, just the way LOST and the Misses saw him back in 2000. Wal-mart has officially run out of Kool-Aid. And, Karl, don't drop the soap in the big house

SUNDAY STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Child Protective Services should establish permanent presences at all Little League fields. What passes for "constructive criticism" in the subjective view of some parents is remarkably venomous and mean-spirited . . . The most bizarre thing that people affix to their cars is not those oddball trailer hitch covers, "W-04" oval stickers or even the "our-family-is-this-big-AND-Christian" fish family emblems. By far the strangest are the decal memorials to deceased loved ones affixed to car windows. What connection did the car have to the death? Then again, LOST feels the same way about those impromptu roadside memorials, some of which are in such treacherous places on local roads here that one imagines the shrine builder has a copycat impulse or suicidal streak someplace . . . now the special Prosecutor has a date specific handwritten Cheney note about Valerie Plame which was written about a week before her name was leaked? Dick's gonna need the XXL Orange jumpsuit . . . memo to the Catholic hierarchy STOP talking about a boycott of "The DaVinci Code." If your intent is to dissuade people from seeing it, stop giving it "banned in Boston" temptation aura by publicly calling for a boycott . . . Mothers' Day was originally conceived of (oops now, THERE'S a bad pun) not by Hallmark or American Greetings, but during the Civil War? Probably by some Mom who was tired of all the killing and hatred, at least that would make sense . . . anyone who really enjoyed Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House correspondents dinner should find a video of Al Gore's opening skit on last night's SNL - - a quasi-humorous look at what a Gore administration might have confronted . . . most of the world hates or is afraid of us, we've gone from significant surplus to massive deficits, we sort of fought one war with minimal force, then pulled out of that one prematurely to fight against a country that had done nothing to us, and we've killed or maimed over 20,000 of our young people, and countless persons from Iraq, New Orleans is still a mess and hurricane season is upon us, and a good chunk of Congress is more focused on its next poker game and/or illicit lay. Yep, 9/11 changed everything.

"KARL, GET THE DOOR. IT'S FOR YOU!"



Truthout's Jason Leopold reports that jolly not-so-Old Saint Fitzolis (pictured) left turd blossom a little personalized present last Friday. Yes yes, LOST hasn't been this excited since hearing the early exit poll data on 11/2/04, but if Jason's story is accurate (and no, LOST puts ZERO stock in the fact that the captive Main stream is mum about this), it may just be time for a little Holiday cheer . . . in May. First Libby, then Rove. They'll be coming for you Unka Dick, soon enough. Time for you to pull an Agnew, dontcha think?

MORE RAPTURE IS CRAPTURE!

Tony Hendra has augmented his original work, by pointing out that progressives everywhere need to stop lumping in all cross wearin' prayer mumblin' do-gooders into the same cesspool with Falwell, Falafel Boy, Dobson and (no God Doesn't even hate) Fred Phelps, and instead, we all need to lock arms and pursue our common desire for our country - that it would provide and care for its poor, powerless, and the planet. You can read the whole article here, but for now, enjoy this little snack:

But here’s the point. These encounters (and others like them) brought home to me a fascinating political reality: the black-white (or red-blue) polarization between Christians and non-believers, a divide we tend to take as gospel, is inaccurate in one very important way. Yes, the general polity has been polarized by the pseudo-Christian fundo right and its Republican enablers. But so has the Christian community itself. Moderate people of faith are just as appalled by the fundo right and the cretin from Crawford’s pandering to them, as Democrats are. More in fact, because they KNOW their Gospels, they KNOW the precious principles that are being twisted, polluted and exploited.

Ever since Karl Rove - and other rightwing strategists like Lee Atwater and Ralph Reed - hijacked the Christian bus for the GOP, there’s been a reactive assumption among Democrats that their party is therefore the party of the secular. We’re never going to make headway with people of faith goes the assumption, so let’s just focus on the great secular center. This is the usual Dem mistake of accepting the right’s definition of terms, choice of battlefield and political analyses.

I’m not sure that the secular center the Democrats now talk so eagerly about galvanizing, is so big anymore. Far more potent and substantial are Christians of various denominations who are deeply alienated by naked war-mongering, murderous neglect of the poor, looting public funds for the super-rich, wanton destruction of the environment and above all by the hypocrisy of doing these things while insisting you’re a Christian.

But instead of respecting and including their natural allies in radical change - what Michael Tomasky brilliantly suggests as a new Democratic ideal of “the common good” - Democrats routinely ignore them or demean them. Moderate Christians may be offended by the fundo right but they’re just as offended by the offhand anti-religious assumptions and utterances of the liberal-left chatterati. Even Tomasky – not one of them - when calling for “Faith in America and its power to do good” hastens to add that it’s ‘not religious faith’

Yet the great thing about Tomasky’s ‘common good’ is that not only is it a classic republican (small ‘r’) principle, it’s a Christian principle, one moderate Christians can embrace whole-heartedly. Consider a central element in his notion of the ‘common good’: universal healthcare. To see ill-health as a profit center is one of the least Christian things imaginable. Yet pseudo-Christians like Frist do. (Perhaps he’s a Fristian?) In a civilized nation, health – meaning freedom from as much sickness as possible through equal access to best available care - is not an option, it’s a human right. Christ killed no-one during his brief spell on earth – but he cured one helluva lot of people. The first thing he did was to practice health-care. Far as I recall, he didn’t charge for miracles.

The ‘morality’ and ‘family values’ which comprise most of the fundo agenda (and which boil down to sexual fears and obsessions) were way down Christ’s list if they were ever even on it. In fact - to be an inerrant Bible literalist for a moment - the only sexual activity Christ specifically proscribed in the Gospels was adultery.

And never forget, o ye homophobic fundo Pharisees, that his 12 best friends were...men.

The bedrock Christian principle according to my understanding of Christ’s teaching, is that no-one’s existence is less precious than mine. That is NOT a Republican or a fundamentalist principle. Quite the contrary. But it is a Democratic one.

The Democratic Party if it’s to survive, has got to become a place where moderate people of faith (of whom Christians are by far the largest bloc) are not just comfortable but welcomed into the leadership. No basic change in the nation’s direction ever took place without a strong religious underpinning. The War against slavery and the civil rights movement will do as examples; or - on the other side of the coin - the Reagan-Atwater-Gingrich-Rove military-corporate counter-revolution.

And LOST has to go get a copy of "The Messiah of Morris Avenue," too!

"STIFLE YOURSELF, MEATHEAD!"



This hateful old bile-spewing bastard does not speak for LOST, or any good Catholic person LOST knows. One thing's for sure, when the camera is rolling he rarely shuts up. In fact, should you find yourself misfortunate enough to be within earshot of one of his fabled diatribes, close your eyes, and hear the shrill, bigoted tones of a real life Archie Bunker. Apologies to the late Carroll O'Connor, who created what he thought was a fictional character. Donahue took Archie to heart and seemingly decided to to emulate him. Pitiful.

SMART ENOUGH TO REALIZE TOTAL FAILURE IN OFFICE?
The President told a German newspaper his best moment in more than five years in office was catching a big perch in his own lake.

"You know, I've experienced many great moments and it's hard to name the best," Bush told weekly Bild am Sonntag when asked about his high point since becoming president in January 2001.

"I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound (3.402 kilos) perch in my lake," he told the newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

If he is sharp enough to recognize that he has no best moments while acting officially, perhaps he's not quite as dumb as . . . nahhhh, he only said something this dumb because he was convinced it would NEVER make it back to the U.S. Still an idiot, without a doubt.

MORE OF THE SAME BLATHERHETORIC

From Reuters: BERLIN (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Sunday he gained a glimpse into German Chancellor Angela Merkel's soul when they met in Washington last week.

Bush told ARD television that Merkel had described her youth in communist East Germany at a White House dinner on Wednesday.

"She spoke of her childhood, of her father who was a pastor, of the (communist youth group) young pioneers, of her school life. And I have to say I got a glimpse into her soul, into how she feels," he said.

Come on, now, Junior, these "soul glimpses" you're getting, they're starting to sound like flashbacks. The one you claim to have gotten from Putin turned out to be not so accurate, why the Hell are you going to this well again?

IT WAS FIFTEEN YEARS AGO TODAY

LOST and the Misses set out for the managed care Mecca known as Kaiser "Zion" Hospital - named for the street it is on, and not for any particular sectarian reason - for purposes of officially starting the LOST family. Mrs. LOST was almost literally bursting at the, ahem, navel, carrying something akin to the size of a one year old baby. While the announced intent of the appointment was to "induce labor" one week early, the staff of the Labor and Delivery unit certainly must have known otherwise. When the administration of the Pitocin actually stopped the contractions rather than facilitating them, it became brutally apparent what was going to be necessary. Convincing Mrs. LOST that a C-Section was the best thing to do would take the next 12 hours or so, and an abundance of other scheduled C-Sections (they were lined up on the schedule board like planes leaving the airport on Thanksgiving Wednesday) would mean a debut for this giant sometime the following day.

The giant showed up at 7pm the following day, all 12 and a half pounds and 23 1/4 inches of him. Kaiser staffers buzzed about hurriedly, to find the precise dimensions and to excitedly spread the word. Although it was never expressly communicated, it was clear that a pool had been established on this one, and that it had drawn Derby-style "action" from the local fans. LOST and the Mrs. were told that the Giant hit the board, but missed the all time by about a pound. Such is life.

In fifteen years, the Giant has continued to grow exponentially. He towers over his parents ( like that was hard to do) he's excelled in the classroom, loves and aspires to the stage, holds a black belt, and is pursuing his latest greatest interest, pole vaulting. Even though the Giant's high school has a spotty athletic program (reportedly a shake up caused by a former principal's abrupt dismissal of a popular coach) with no vault coach at all for the track team, the Giant has learned by watching his peers, gobbling up pointers from teammates and the helpful hints from opposing coaches and has achieved new heights in this new pursuit. Indeed, the Giant's pole vaulting is metaphorical for what he did to our lives - - turned them upside down while sending them soaring to new heights. Happy birthday, Giant, from your biggest fan.

ADIOS AMERICABLOG

This site will no more link to Americablog. Despite the commonality of views of this Presidency as well as other issues in our country, LOST has frequently felt out of place in visting and posting there as a progressive straight person. Earlier this week, Americablog's founder, John Aravosis, posted an accusation that the DNC had fired the Committee's gay outreach liasion in retaliation for comments made by that person's significant other. In the postings that followed, Mr. Aravosis displayed a complete lack of objectivity in reaction to this alleged injustice, railing and deleting posters who expressed even benign opposing views or suggestions that the DNC's actions may have been justified for other reasons. At the same time, Mr. Aravosis left up a number of posts which concurred with his view that were revolting and distasteful, at least in LOST's opinion.

So, my 4 loyal readers, if you want to visit Americablog, feel free. I'm just not providing an automatic link to them anymore. Please check out Media Matters for America, a great source for keeping tabs on what the Right Wing echominators are raving about presently.

AND NOW FOR A QUICK REMINDER


. . . Of what LOST believes in.

LOST believes that a great nation cares for its poor and powerless
LOST believes that war is a terrible way to resolve conflict, but that in our history it has been occasionally necessary
LOST believes that Afghanistan in 2003 was necessary, but not finished.
LOST believes that going into Iraq was the biggest military blunder of the 20th and 21st century.
LOST believes that the preceeding will not prevent Bush from making the same mistake in Iran.
LOST believes that media is dumbing us all down and that if you want to know which celeb is sleeping with whom, you should have to reach across the checkout counter (to the tabloids) in order to find out;
LOST believes that the truth about the JFK assasination hasn't been told - but that it will be, someday.
LOST believes that the Global War on Terror makes even less sense than the plan to "Save" Social Security
LOST believes the US should bring the troops home from Iraq now.
LOST believes in impeachment. Cheney goes first.
LOST believes that gay people are born, not made or "turned."
LOST believes that most "transgenders" belong in therapy, not in surgery.
LOST believes in Faith, but not in Hierarchy
LOST believes that Affholter juggled the ball out of bounds, and that Dickerson was out of bounds, too.
LOST believes that bin Laden is deliberately free and alive.
LOST believes the US is a great country, in a world which has several great countries.