Getting Kinky in San Antonio
NBC News anchor Brian Williams and Gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman will be in San Antonio on Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Coronado Room of the El Tropicano Hotel, 310 Lexington Avenue.
Everyone in the vicinity is invited to come and meet Kinky and appear in the crowd for Williams' national newscast that evening.
Afterwards, volunteers will canvas various neighborhoods seeking signatures on the petition to get Kinky on the ballot for the November election.
Even non-Texans can get involved...
Blog about Kinky's unique and all-American campaign!
To learn more about this outstanding candidate, go to KinkyFriedman.com.
We need a change in America, and that change should start in Texas.
As Kinky Friedman says of his campaign for Governor, "Why the Hell Not?"
Indeed.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Very Sad News
My friend Mileah Jordan from Austin passed away yesterday.
The owner of the blog Literally Liberal, Mileah was a kind soul with great passion for the underdog, great political insight and a lovely way with words.
She touched many lives with her writing, and she will be missed.
Godspeed, my friend.
My friend Mileah Jordan from Austin passed away yesterday.
The owner of the blog Literally Liberal, Mileah was a kind soul with great passion for the underdog, great political insight and a lovely way with words.
She touched many lives with her writing, and she will be missed.
Godspeed, my friend.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Happy St. Patrick's Day
I'm exactly zero percent Irish, but I do plan to have corned beef and cabbage with some friends tonight. I just hope the party breaks up before the cabbage breaks down.
Alas, no Irish whisky or Bailey's Irish cream for me tonight. With diabetes, I dare not risk the side effects of a belly full of either.
Speaking of saints and guys named Patrick, I just read a news article that soon-to-be Rove prosecutor, St. Patrick Fitzgerald, was instrumental in handing down indictments for more than 25 online pedophiles.
In the photo that accompanied the story, Fitzgerald announced the indictments as Bush's dumpy attorney general, Tio Tomas Gonzales, stood behind him and stared a hole through his back.
Methinks the Justice Department handed St. Patrick the kiddie porn cases as a means to deter him from concentrating on his ongoing quest to bring down the Plame leakers.
I hate pedophiles, and would personally be glad to Cheney them all in the face with shotguns, but prosecuting those who would out a CIA agent and compromise all who worked with her is a treasonous crime that risks national security during wartime.
Pedophiles are like sacks of flour. They'll keep.
St. Patrick's more urgent task at hand should be prosecuting the scoundrels in the White House who knowingly and intentionally outed Valerie Plame in a personal vendetta against her husband.
Kiddy-diddling is horrendous, but treason is a national outrage that should be prosecuted with sure and swift diligence.
I'm exactly zero percent Irish, but I do plan to have corned beef and cabbage with some friends tonight. I just hope the party breaks up before the cabbage breaks down.
Alas, no Irish whisky or Bailey's Irish cream for me tonight. With diabetes, I dare not risk the side effects of a belly full of either.
Speaking of saints and guys named Patrick, I just read a news article that soon-to-be Rove prosecutor, St. Patrick Fitzgerald, was instrumental in handing down indictments for more than 25 online pedophiles.
In the photo that accompanied the story, Fitzgerald announced the indictments as Bush's dumpy attorney general, Tio Tomas Gonzales, stood behind him and stared a hole through his back.
Methinks the Justice Department handed St. Patrick the kiddie porn cases as a means to deter him from concentrating on his ongoing quest to bring down the Plame leakers.
I hate pedophiles, and would personally be glad to Cheney them all in the face with shotguns, but prosecuting those who would out a CIA agent and compromise all who worked with her is a treasonous crime that risks national security during wartime.
Pedophiles are like sacks of flour. They'll keep.
St. Patrick's more urgent task at hand should be prosecuting the scoundrels in the White House who knowingly and intentionally outed Valerie Plame in a personal vendetta against her husband.
Kiddy-diddling is horrendous, but treason is a national outrage that should be prosecuted with sure and swift diligence.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
These Boots Were Made for Dissin'
Kindly add 50 points to Jessica Simpson's approval ratings.
Seems she's in Washington, DC to lobby Congress on behalf of Operation Smile, a charity that gives facially disfigured children overseas free plastic surgery.
The 50 points come from her refusal to meet with Bush and the other GOP criminals for a swanky fund-raiser tonight.
Simpson's flacks said she declined a request to appear at the fund-raiser of the National Republican Congressional Committee – even after she was offered some private face time with Bush – because Operation Smile is a non-partisan group, they said.
NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said he was surprised by her behavior.
"It's never been a problem for Bono," he said, referring to the U2 star who has met regularly with leaders of all political leanings to promote such causes as Third World debt relief. "I find it hard to believe she would pass up an opportunity to lobby the president on behalf of Operation Smile."
Jessica may think Chicken of the Sea is actually chicken, but she seems to know chickenshits when she sees them.
Kindly add 50 points to Jessica Simpson's approval ratings.
Seems she's in Washington, DC to lobby Congress on behalf of Operation Smile, a charity that gives facially disfigured children overseas free plastic surgery.
The 50 points come from her refusal to meet with Bush and the other GOP criminals for a swanky fund-raiser tonight.
Simpson's flacks said she declined a request to appear at the fund-raiser of the National Republican Congressional Committee – even after she was offered some private face time with Bush – because Operation Smile is a non-partisan group, they said.
NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said he was surprised by her behavior.
"It's never been a problem for Bono," he said, referring to the U2 star who has met regularly with leaders of all political leanings to promote such causes as Third World debt relief. "I find it hard to believe she would pass up an opportunity to lobby the president on behalf of Operation Smile."
Jessica may think Chicken of the Sea is actually chicken, but she seems to know chickenshits when she sees them.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Arghhhhh!
TGI Friday's has an ad out where this guy drinks his buddy's Kung Pao sauce because it's in a shot glass and he thinks it's a drink.
Then the other guy says, "That was my kung pao sauce for my SRIMP."
Why do people say 'srimp' instead of shrimp?
Are they intentionally trying to drive me crazy? Are they really that stupid?
If you say srimp instead of sHrimp, we may have trouble continuing to be friends. Please don't admit it if you do.
Thank you.
TGI Friday's has an ad out where this guy drinks his buddy's Kung Pao sauce because it's in a shot glass and he thinks it's a drink.
Then the other guy says, "That was my kung pao sauce for my SRIMP."
Why do people say 'srimp' instead of shrimp?
Are they intentionally trying to drive me crazy? Are they really that stupid?
If you say srimp instead of sHrimp, we may have trouble continuing to be friends. Please don't admit it if you do.
Thank you.
Monday, March 13, 2006
W.'s Mixed Messagesby Maureen Dowd
The New York Times
March 11, 2006
WASHINGTON
The good news is the Arabs aren't going to run our ports.
The bad news is the Americans are going to run our ports.
Homeland Security's protection of the ports is a joke. The goof-off Michael Chertoff is remarkably still in charge. The swaggering of the president and vice president on national security has been exposed as a sham, with millions spent shoring up our defenses wasted, with the Iraq war aggravating our danger, and with anti-Muslim feeling swelling among Americans and anti-American feeling swelling among Muslims.
A Washington Post-ABC News Poll this week found that a growing percentage of Americans have unfavorable opinions of Islam. A majority now think Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence.
The creepy John Grisham-style Washington firm called the Carlyle Group, suffused with Arab connections and money, and seeded with Saudi money (including bin Laden family money until after 9/11), even gave some thought to investing in the ports, before backing off.
The nakedness of the ports is so obvious it was a "Sopranos" plot point. A source called Deep Water, who helped check out new hires for the New Jersey port before and after 9/11, told the F.B.I. a couple of years ago about what he saw as gaps in security practices on the waterfront and a "suspicious" flow of recent Arab immigrants, some speaking little English, being hired as port watchmen. Deep Water said he'd recently been interviewed by New York detectives.
President Bush does not seem to understand that it was his bumbling -- rather than our bigotry -- that led Americans to gulp and yelp at the idea of an Arab government running our ports. When the president said yesterday that "my administration was satisfied that port security would not have been undermined by the agreement," he seemed oblivious to the fact that -- after W.M.D., Katrina and Iraq -- many Americans no longer trust this administration to protect them.
Still shaken by his first rebellion by Republicans fed up with White House hubris and hamhandedness, W. chastised lawmakers about xenophobia. "I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," he said. He said that we had to cultivate moderate Arabs, but that moderate Muslims were shrinking back as violent Islamists pushed ahead.
American skepticism about the Dubai government running our ports is not prejudice. As Denny Hastert put it, "It's counterintuitive." There is nothing wrong with wanting Americans to be responsible for American security. That's not nativism or jingoism or bigotry. It's self-reliance and prudence. Of course, such an attitude can be exploited by bigots. And some bigotry is being fed by scenes on the news every day of Arab fighters blowing things up, leading to the same stereotype of Arabs that existed in the 70's, a caricature limned from terrorism, oil and the petrodollar.
The president also does not seem to understand that he spurred the dissonance that led to this vote of no-confidence. Since Sept. 11, he has been anti-terror but pro-Mideast, a position that has left Americans confused. His enemy is a tactic that's too vague to pinpoint, too vast to ever defeat. In some ways, the country seems more alive to the true origins of the fiends who attacked us than the president.
His nuclear deals have so jumbled up the carrots and sticks that American threats on nuclear proliferation have lost all meaning.
W. and General Rove present the war on terror as Armageddon and World War VIII, yet in every other aspect of foreign policy, it's business as usual. One minute they're scaring Americans into supporting their power grabs by essentially yelling, "They're coming to kill us!" The next minute, the Persian Gulf is still the great nexus for capitalist deals by the likes of Treasury Secretary John Snow, Dick Cheney, Halliburton and the Carlyle Group.
The president preaches that we are seriously threatened by autocratic Arab societies that won't modernize and become free markets, but then his cozy relationship with autocratic Arab regimes, including the Saudis, continues basically unchanged.
As Michael Hirsh of Newsweek summed up in a recent column: "How then did we arrive at this day, with anti-American Islamist governments rising in the Mideast, bin Laden sneering at us, Qaeda lieutenants escaping from prison, Iran brazenly enriching uranium, and America as hated and mistrusted as it ever has been? The answer, in a word, is incompetence."
The New York Times
March 11, 2006
WASHINGTON
The good news is the Arabs aren't going to run our ports.
The bad news is the Americans are going to run our ports.
Homeland Security's protection of the ports is a joke. The goof-off Michael Chertoff is remarkably still in charge. The swaggering of the president and vice president on national security has been exposed as a sham, with millions spent shoring up our defenses wasted, with the Iraq war aggravating our danger, and with anti-Muslim feeling swelling among Americans and anti-American feeling swelling among Muslims.
A Washington Post-ABC News Poll this week found that a growing percentage of Americans have unfavorable opinions of Islam. A majority now think Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence.
The creepy John Grisham-style Washington firm called the Carlyle Group, suffused with Arab connections and money, and seeded with Saudi money (including bin Laden family money until after 9/11), even gave some thought to investing in the ports, before backing off.
The nakedness of the ports is so obvious it was a "Sopranos" plot point. A source called Deep Water, who helped check out new hires for the New Jersey port before and after 9/11, told the F.B.I. a couple of years ago about what he saw as gaps in security practices on the waterfront and a "suspicious" flow of recent Arab immigrants, some speaking little English, being hired as port watchmen. Deep Water said he'd recently been interviewed by New York detectives.
President Bush does not seem to understand that it was his bumbling -- rather than our bigotry -- that led Americans to gulp and yelp at the idea of an Arab government running our ports. When the president said yesterday that "my administration was satisfied that port security would not have been undermined by the agreement," he seemed oblivious to the fact that -- after W.M.D., Katrina and Iraq -- many Americans no longer trust this administration to protect them.
Still shaken by his first rebellion by Republicans fed up with White House hubris and hamhandedness, W. chastised lawmakers about xenophobia. "I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," he said. He said that we had to cultivate moderate Arabs, but that moderate Muslims were shrinking back as violent Islamists pushed ahead.
American skepticism about the Dubai government running our ports is not prejudice. As Denny Hastert put it, "It's counterintuitive." There is nothing wrong with wanting Americans to be responsible for American security. That's not nativism or jingoism or bigotry. It's self-reliance and prudence. Of course, such an attitude can be exploited by bigots. And some bigotry is being fed by scenes on the news every day of Arab fighters blowing things up, leading to the same stereotype of Arabs that existed in the 70's, a caricature limned from terrorism, oil and the petrodollar.
The president also does not seem to understand that he spurred the dissonance that led to this vote of no-confidence. Since Sept. 11, he has been anti-terror but pro-Mideast, a position that has left Americans confused. His enemy is a tactic that's too vague to pinpoint, too vast to ever defeat. In some ways, the country seems more alive to the true origins of the fiends who attacked us than the president.
His nuclear deals have so jumbled up the carrots and sticks that American threats on nuclear proliferation have lost all meaning.
W. and General Rove present the war on terror as Armageddon and World War VIII, yet in every other aspect of foreign policy, it's business as usual. One minute they're scaring Americans into supporting their power grabs by essentially yelling, "They're coming to kill us!" The next minute, the Persian Gulf is still the great nexus for capitalist deals by the likes of Treasury Secretary John Snow, Dick Cheney, Halliburton and the Carlyle Group.
The president preaches that we are seriously threatened by autocratic Arab societies that won't modernize and become free markets, but then his cozy relationship with autocratic Arab regimes, including the Saudis, continues basically unchanged.
As Michael Hirsh of Newsweek summed up in a recent column: "How then did we arrive at this day, with anti-American Islamist governments rising in the Mideast, bin Laden sneering at us, Qaeda lieutenants escaping from prison, Iran brazenly enriching uranium, and America as hated and mistrusted as it ever has been? The answer, in a word, is incompetence."
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Another Crook in the Bush Woodpile
Former Top Bush Aide Accused of Md. Thefts
Refund Scam Netted $5,000, Police Say
By Ernesto Londoño and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Claude A. Allen, who resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was arrested this week in Montgomery County for allegedly swindling Target and Hecht's stores out of more than $5,000 in a refund scheme, police said.
Allen, 45, of Gaithersburg, has been released on his own recognizance and is awaiting trial on two charges, felony theft scheme and theft over $500, said Lt. Eric Burnett, a police spokesman. Each charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Allen could not be reached for comment last night.
His attorney, Mallon Snyder, said last night that his client denies wrongdoing. The lawyer disputed the police account of Allen's actions. "It's his reputation. Obviously, he's very concerned about it," Snyder said.
Snyder said he feels confident that Allen will be able to prove that the incidents were "a series of misunderstandings."
Allen, a former deputy secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services, was nominated in 2003 to a federal appeals court seat. He was appointed the president's top domestic policy adviser last year at the start of Bush's second term. That made him the highest-ranking African American on the White House staff.
Working out of a small office on the second floor of the West Wing, Allen shaped administration policy on such issues as health care, space exploration, housing and education.
He came to the attention of Montgomery police after a manager at a Gaithersburg Target store called the department about an incident Jan. 2. Montgomery detectives were able to document other alleged crimes from Oct. 29 to Jan. 2, some of which were captured on camera, Burnett said.
Allen resigned from the White House on Feb. 9, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family
In a statement that day, Bush said: "Claude is a good and compassionate man, and he has my deep respect and gratitude. I thank him for his many years of principled and dedicated service to our country."
Burnett said Montgomery police contacted the White House to verify Allen's identity after the Jan. 2 incident. He said that was the extent of their communication with the administration. He said he could not immediately determine the date of that contact, or whether police informed the White House that Allen had been charged Jan. 2 and was still under investigation.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last night that if the allegation is true, "no one would be more disappointed, shocked and outraged" than the president. McClellan said Allen had told White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and White House counsel Harriet Miers that the matter was a misunderstanding.
This is what police said happened Jan. 2:
Employees at the Target store at 25 Grand Corner Ave. in Gaithersburg spotted Allen putting merchandise in a shopping bag. He then walked over to the guest services desk, produced a receipt and received a refund for the items.
After getting the refund, Allen left the store without paying for additional merchandise in his shopping cart.
A store employee stopped him, and police were called to the store. Officers issued a citation charging him with theft under $500 but did not arrest him. Court records show prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charge, which is not unusual in cases in which detectives are considering filing more serious charges.
Detectives from the county's retail crime unit soon learned that the incident was not an isolated event, Burnett said.
He said investigators were able to document 25 fraudulent refunds for items including a Bose home theater system, stereo equipment, clothes, a photo printer and items worth as little as $2.50.
Allen would purchase an item, take it to his car, return to the store, select the same item, take it to the counter and get a refund based on the receipt for the merchandise in his car, Burnett said. "He would get the money back or the credit" on his credit cards.
Allen's arrest was first reported yesterday afternoon by the online magazine Slate.
At the time of his resignation, Allen denied reports that he was leaving to protest military guidelines that required chaplains to perform only nondenominational services.
As Bush's top domestic policy aide, he frequently briefed the president and traveled with him on Air Force One, and he sat in first lady Laura Bush's box during the president's State of the Union address Jan. 31. Two days, later he traveled with the president to Minnesota, briefing reporters about Bush's education and alternative energy proposals.
At the Department of Health and Human Services, where he became a strong advocate for abstinence-only AIDS prevention programs, Allen focused on homeless issues and racial health disparities.
Democrats in Congress blocked his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in 2003, citing his relative lack of legal experience. The court, based in Richmond, covers Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Allen, a native of Philadelphia, spent much of his childhood in a working-class section of Northwest Washington, attending Archbishop Carroll High School. He later attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke Law School.
Allen is a self-described born-again Christian who got his start in politics working for Jesse Helms (R), the conservative former North Carolina senator.
Allen stirred controversy as Helms's campaign spokesman in 1984 by telling a reporter that then-Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. -- Helms's opponent -- was politically vulnerable because of his links to the "queers." He later explained that he used the word not to denigrate anyone but as a synonym for "odd and unusual."
Before that, Allen worked for the Virginia state attorney general's office and as state health and human resources secretary. In that job, he earned a reputation as a staunch conservative; once he kept Medicaid funds from an impoverished rape victim who wanted an abortion.
Staff writer Martin Weil contributed to this report.
Former Top Bush Aide Accused of Md. Thefts
Refund Scam Netted $5,000, Police Say
By Ernesto Londoño and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Claude A. Allen, who resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was arrested this week in Montgomery County for allegedly swindling Target and Hecht's stores out of more than $5,000 in a refund scheme, police said.
Allen, 45, of Gaithersburg, has been released on his own recognizance and is awaiting trial on two charges, felony theft scheme and theft over $500, said Lt. Eric Burnett, a police spokesman. Each charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Allen could not be reached for comment last night.
His attorney, Mallon Snyder, said last night that his client denies wrongdoing. The lawyer disputed the police account of Allen's actions. "It's his reputation. Obviously, he's very concerned about it," Snyder said.
Snyder said he feels confident that Allen will be able to prove that the incidents were "a series of misunderstandings."
Allen, a former deputy secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services, was nominated in 2003 to a federal appeals court seat. He was appointed the president's top domestic policy adviser last year at the start of Bush's second term. That made him the highest-ranking African American on the White House staff.
Working out of a small office on the second floor of the West Wing, Allen shaped administration policy on such issues as health care, space exploration, housing and education.
He came to the attention of Montgomery police after a manager at a Gaithersburg Target store called the department about an incident Jan. 2. Montgomery detectives were able to document other alleged crimes from Oct. 29 to Jan. 2, some of which were captured on camera, Burnett said.
Allen resigned from the White House on Feb. 9, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family
In a statement that day, Bush said: "Claude is a good and compassionate man, and he has my deep respect and gratitude. I thank him for his many years of principled and dedicated service to our country."
Burnett said Montgomery police contacted the White House to verify Allen's identity after the Jan. 2 incident. He said that was the extent of their communication with the administration. He said he could not immediately determine the date of that contact, or whether police informed the White House that Allen had been charged Jan. 2 and was still under investigation.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last night that if the allegation is true, "no one would be more disappointed, shocked and outraged" than the president. McClellan said Allen had told White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and White House counsel Harriet Miers that the matter was a misunderstanding.
This is what police said happened Jan. 2:
Employees at the Target store at 25 Grand Corner Ave. in Gaithersburg spotted Allen putting merchandise in a shopping bag. He then walked over to the guest services desk, produced a receipt and received a refund for the items.
After getting the refund, Allen left the store without paying for additional merchandise in his shopping cart.
A store employee stopped him, and police were called to the store. Officers issued a citation charging him with theft under $500 but did not arrest him. Court records show prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charge, which is not unusual in cases in which detectives are considering filing more serious charges.
Detectives from the county's retail crime unit soon learned that the incident was not an isolated event, Burnett said.
He said investigators were able to document 25 fraudulent refunds for items including a Bose home theater system, stereo equipment, clothes, a photo printer and items worth as little as $2.50.
Allen would purchase an item, take it to his car, return to the store, select the same item, take it to the counter and get a refund based on the receipt for the merchandise in his car, Burnett said. "He would get the money back or the credit" on his credit cards.
Allen's arrest was first reported yesterday afternoon by the online magazine Slate.
At the time of his resignation, Allen denied reports that he was leaving to protest military guidelines that required chaplains to perform only nondenominational services.
As Bush's top domestic policy aide, he frequently briefed the president and traveled with him on Air Force One, and he sat in first lady Laura Bush's box during the president's State of the Union address Jan. 31. Two days, later he traveled with the president to Minnesota, briefing reporters about Bush's education and alternative energy proposals.
At the Department of Health and Human Services, where he became a strong advocate for abstinence-only AIDS prevention programs, Allen focused on homeless issues and racial health disparities.
Democrats in Congress blocked his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in 2003, citing his relative lack of legal experience. The court, based in Richmond, covers Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Allen, a native of Philadelphia, spent much of his childhood in a working-class section of Northwest Washington, attending Archbishop Carroll High School. He later attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke Law School.
Allen is a self-described born-again Christian who got his start in politics working for Jesse Helms (R), the conservative former North Carolina senator.
Allen stirred controversy as Helms's campaign spokesman in 1984 by telling a reporter that then-Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. -- Helms's opponent -- was politically vulnerable because of his links to the "queers." He later explained that he used the word not to denigrate anyone but as a synonym for "odd and unusual."
Before that, Allen worked for the Virginia state attorney general's office and as state health and human resources secretary. In that job, he earned a reputation as a staunch conservative; once he kept Medicaid funds from an impoverished rape victim who wanted an abortion.
Staff writer Martin Weil contributed to this report.
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