Stephen Colbert rips Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner

From Editor and Publisher:

A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

E&P's Joe Strupp, in the crowd, observed that quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting--or too much speaking "truthiness" to power.

As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and handshakes, and left immediately.

E&P's Joe Strupp, in the crowd, observed that quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting--or too much speaking "truthiness" to power.

I love the fact that Colbert not only ravaged the President but got in some really good shots at the press who have been enablers of Bush ever since he took office. Here's a sample:

Also lampooning the press, Colbert complained that he was “surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides of the story — the president’s side and the vice president’s side." He also reflected on the alleged good old days, when the media was still swallowing the WMD story.

Addressing the reporters, he said, "Let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know--fiction."

You can watch the video over at crooks and liars.

Washington Post now reporting on 'Hookergate'

From the WashingtonPost:

Federal authorities are investigating allegations that a California defense contractor arranged for a Washington area limousine company to provide prostitutes to convicted former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and possibly other lawmakers, sources familiar with the probe said yesterday.

In recent weeks, investigators have focused on possible dealings between Christopher D. Baker, president of Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc., and Brent R. Wilkes, a San Diego businessman who is under investigation for bribing Cunningham in return for millions of dollars in federal contracts, said one source, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday cited a letter from Baker's lawyer, Bobby Stafford, saying that Baker "provided limousine services for Mr. Wilkes for whatever entertainment he had in the Watergate" from the company's founding in 1990 through the early 2000s. The letter also stated that Baker was "never in attendance in any party where any women were being used for prostitution purposes." Reached by telephone yesterday, Stafford would not comment on the letter.

Since this was going on since the early 90s it will be interesting to see whether other lawmakers were involved and to also note if they voted to impeach President Clinton during the whole Monica Lewinski scandal. Since the media loved constantly reporting on the Lewinski scandal they should love this one. It even involves the infamous Watergate Hotel. Let's see if this sex scandal is treated differently by the media since it involves Republicans.

15-yr-old girl gets death threats for anti-war video

Yet again the right wingers show disdain for the right to free speech by threatening a 15 year old Alabama teen for producing a pro peace animation on her website. What the hell is wrong with these people? They're terrorizing a 15 year old girl because she throws some uncomfortable facts in their faces. What a bunch of lowlife cowards they are. They are the absolute opposite of what America is supposed to stand for.

10 Reasons Republicans Are To Blame For High Gas Prices

DSCC has the list. I really wish working class americans, especially those in the red states, would realize that the Republican party does not have their best interest in mind. I think they should realize by now that gay marriage doesn't matter so much when you're barely able to survive.

This sums it up nicely

Ed Tracey over at DailyKos has a post which really sums up how i feel about President Bush and his rabid supporters. Here's a short except:

The election of 2000 was the first indication of how bad things were to come: the brazenness with which all of us were tagged with horrible epithets, the absolute bootlicking quality that came over Republicans that I know (mercifully, my middle sister hasn't gone that far) and the rise to power of the Savages, Malkins, Coulters and others that - in a more decent, normal time - would have been laughed at as clowns. In fact, the measuring stick that I use for how low the party of my parents has sunk is not the radio talk-show hosts, letter-to-the-editor writers, nor the 101st Fightin' You-Know-Whos...it is those incendiary pundits that are welcomed at official GOP events, and even numerous elected officials who come across as crass, arrogant parrots (with only the parrot's crackers missing) that are what makes our opponents so dyspeptic.

Read the rest of his post at Dailykos. I think you'll agree that it puts into words how many of us feel about politics in general and the effect Bush's presidency has had on all of us. He concludes by saying that he'd like to see the Democrats take back both Houses and for politics to return to normalcy. I think we'd all like to see that except for the Bush cultists.

Best anti-Bush song I've heard so far

Here's a video of Pink singing "Dear Mr. President". It's a must see.

Michelle Malkin controversy

i'm sure most blog readers are aware of the recent Michelle Malkin controversy in which she posted the home phone numbers of three UC-Santa Cruz students who led anti-military protests. Orcinus had a very good post about this. Here's a short excerpt:

There is a good reason that using the power of mass media to expose individual citizens' private lives to abuse and threats is considered unethical: It represents unchecked and abusive power. No one interested in holding the public trust should either want or seek it.

Yet this, of course, is exactly what Malkin did this week in publishing, on her blog, the home phone numbers of three students who led anti-military protests on the campus of UC-Santa Cruz.

Predictably, the students were deluged with hate mail and phone calls, including a number of death threats.

Malkin not only refused to take the numbers down -- in response, she reverted to her timeworn victimization schtick, posting some of the nasty e-mails she received in return and pretending there was nothing wrong or unethical in her behavior.

We're all too familiar with this routine. After all, it's what the entirety of her book Unhinged was predicated upon. Malkin, as I said then, is like the lunatic who walks around the public square and pokes people in the eye with a sharp stick, and then is shocked, shocked, that anyone would respond with anger and outrage.

Predictably it was only a matter of time before bloggers retalliated against Malkin by publishing her home address on the internet. Here is Malkin's reply:

You know who you all are.

And if you think I'm going to stop blogging/writing/making a living because you've plastered my family's private home address, phone numbers, and photos and maps of my neighborhood all over the Internet to further your manufactured outrage and pathetic coddling of a bunch of lying, anti-troops punks at UC Santa Cruz...

...you better think again.

This is a case where two wrongs don't make a right. It's just plain wrong to post people's personal information on the internet. Malkin was wrong to post those numbers and should have appologized and taken those numbers down, not dig in her heels. Malkins reply shows the hypocrisy of the right and a disdain for people's Constitutional right to protest in this country. They may in fact be lying, anti-troop punks but as long as they're not breaking any laws they have the right to be. People's lives should not be put in danger simply because they hold unpopular views. Punishing people who hold unpopular or different views by posting their personal information which may lead to physical harm coming to them ain't what america is about. What the bloggers did by posting Malkins address was just as wrong but Malkin gave up all rights to be outraged when she refused to admit any wrong doing by posting the UC Santa Cruz students home phone numbers.

How low can he go?

From Fox News:

NEW YORK — More Americans disapprove than approve of how George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Congress are doing their jobs, while a majority approves of Condoleezza Rice. President Bush’s approval hits a record low of 33 percent this week, clearly damaged by sinking support among Republicans.

I'm shocked that Fox News is actually reporting that. It makes you wonder who the hell those 33 percent are that actually think Bush is doing an ok job.

Worst President in History

From RollingStone.com:

Even worse for the president, the general public, having once given Bush the highest approval ratings ever recorded, now appears to be coming around to the dismal view held by most historians. A majority of voters in forty-three states now disapprove of Bush's handling of his job. Since the commencement of reliable polling in the 1940s, only one twice-elected president has seen his ratings fall as low as Bush's in his second term: Richard Nixon, during the months preceding his resignation in 1974. No two-term president since polling began has fallen from such a height of popularity as Bush's (in the neighborhood of ninety percent, during the patriotic upswell following the 2001 attacks) to such a low (now in the midthirties). No president, including Harry Truman (whose ratings sometimes dipped below Nixonian levels), has experienced such a virtually unrelieved decline as Bush has since his high point. Apart from sharp but temporary upticks that followed the commencement of the Iraq war and the capture of Saddam Hussein, and a recovery during the weeks just before and after his re-election, the Bush trend has been a profile in fairly steady disillusionment.

The scary thing is that Bush still has two years left in his term to screw up the country even more.

Hypocrisy of the right wingers exposed

I'm a big fan of Glenn Greenwald's blog. He has a real gift for exposing the hypocrisy of the right. His latest post regarding Bill Bennett's double standard when it comes to freedom of the press is no exception.

America must stand up against voter fraud

I came across this in the comments section at ThinkProgress.org:

the more you back the repubs in the corner (or any politician) the more they will fight, bush is way too vulnerable to do nothing short of rigging elections to keep the legislative branch, even if they lose the majority, they still need to keep enough seats to keep the dems stalled until 08 when they can rig another election (probably another terror attack - IMO the only reason there hasn’t been one since 9-11 in the US is b/c it shows how strong bush is) - maybe something in canada to show how close it still is but not on our soil…or they can just steal another presidential election - I think that we are witnessing the begining of a dictatorship and we will only have “republican” “presidents” in the future…they have safely split the country so there is no unity.

That last sentence is so true. The Republicans have divided this country starting in 2000 when Bush stole the presidency. It's much easier to steal elections when there is a divided electorate. Bush and the Republican party have used guns, god, and gays to scare red state voters into voting against their own best interest. The question remains, with the disaster of a presidency Bush has had and with gas prices continuing to rise, will the Republicans still be able to scare the red staters? Let's hope not. With the majority of this country united, elections will be much harder to steal. There needs to be a major overhaul of voting machines and americans need to demand that there be a paper trail to determine if any vote tampering has occurred. We now know that Republicans have shown a willingness to engage in voter suppression to win. Is it much of a leap to conclude that they would engage in rigging the voting machines?

Neil Young urges Bush impeachment on protest album

From Yahoo News:

Veteran rocker Neil Young has recorded a protest album featuring an anti-Iraq war track with "a holy vow to never kill again" and a song titled "Let's Impeach the President," the singer said on Monday.

The 10-track set, called "Living with War," was recorded this month by a "power trio" -- electric guitar, bass and drums -- plus trumpet and a 100 voices, the 60-year-old Canadian-born musician announced on his Web site.

Young's longtime manager, Elliot Roberts, told Reuters the album, which has been the subject of Internet buzz for several days, will be played for executives at his label, Warner Music Group's Reprise Records, on Tuesday.

"It's devoted to the state of America, or the direction that America is moving in," Roberts said of the album.

I can hear the attacks on Neil Young by the right wingers already. They'll probably bring up the fact that he's from Canada a million times and call him a washed up hippie has been because all they've got is their hatred for anyone who speaks out against the moron in chief. It's nice to see someone of Neil Young's stature speaking out against the Bush administration. Hopefully the songs are really good so they get a lot of airplay and attention. I know Green Day's American Idiot was a slam against the President but from what i read about Neil's latest cd, it's very direct. Of course with Bush's continually sinking approval ratings, Young isn't taking much of a risk.

McCain sucking up to the religious right in Iowa

From Forbes.com:

Republican Sen. John McCain is courting conservative activists, crucial to any White House hopes, in an early test of his political strength.

He has his work cut out for him in Iowa.

"I don't want to say it's an insurmountable hurdle, but it's a big, big hill to climb," said Steve Scheffler, who heads the Iowa Christian Alliance, formerly the Christian Coalition. "There's no support for McCain in this constituency, and I don't see how you can make a scenario where you can bypass us.

McCain has no integrity. Even the Kool Aid drinkers know he's a phoney. The religious fanatics want another GW Bush who's a true believer like they are. Why should they vote for John McCain when there are others who they know will push their agenda of intollerance? Shame on John McCain for pandering to the likes of Jerry Falwell and his followers.

Bush using scare tactics on Iran nuclear issue

I've come across a really clear explanation of Iran's true nuclear capability via Firedoglake. Juan Cole explains that Iran is no where near as close to obtaining nuclear weapons capability as the Bush administration maintains. This so much reminds me of the leadup to the Iraq war with Cheney and the rest of the Bush gang making claims about mushroom clouds.

Christians sue for right to be intollerent

From the LA Times:

ATLANTA — Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant.

Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she's a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.

Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she's demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy.

With her lawsuit, the 22-year-old student joins a growing campaign to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all.

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical, frames the movement as the civil rights struggle of the 21st century. "Christians," he said, "are going to have to take a stand for the right to be Christian."

In that spirit, the Christian Legal Society, an association of judges and lawyers, has formed a national group to challenge tolerance policies in federal court. Several nonprofit law firms — backed by major ministries such as Focus on the Family and Campus Crusade for Christ — already take on such cases for free.

Make no mistake, if these types of lawsuits are successful, they won't stop with the gays. You'll see lawsuits over allowing women in the workplace as well as blacks and Jews. The fanatics on the religious right are never happy. They'll start with the gays because they're the easiest target. They won't be happy til we're back in the Dark Ages. Their ideal america is modeled after the Old South where women and blacks were looked upon as property. It's quite transparent what the wingnuts are doing. They're setting themselves up as the victims. I got news for them. There is no war on Christianity, just like there was no war on Christmas. The only war is the war on secularism. The religious right wants everyone to live under their religious beliefs but that is not what america is about. These people are called the American Taliban for good reason.

The true cost of the Iraq war

Final Salute.

The night before the burial of her husband, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to him for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that would have been played at a formal wedding they never held. She asked the Marines to continue standing watch. "I think that's what he would have wanted," she said.

Star Wars kid suit settled

From Sci-Fi Wire:

"Star Wars kid" Ghyslain Raza, the Canadian teen whose lightsaber fighting was caught on video and posted on the Internet, and his parents reached an out-of-court settlement with the families of three former schoolmates who were sued for making Raza an object of ridicule, the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

The settlement came on the eve of a civil trial set that had been set to begin April 10, which would have scrutinized one of the world's first and most-publicized cases of cyber-bullying, the newspaper reported.

Raza and his parents had sued for $351,000 in Canadian currency (about $305,000 U.S.), saying that the experience left him unable to attend school. "It was simply unbearable, totally. It was impossible to attend class," Raza said. Specifics of the settlement remain confidential.

The three students accused of circulating the video were Michaël Caron, Jérôme Laflamme and Jean-Michel Rheault. Proceedings against a fourth, François Labarre, were dropped after Raza acknowledged that the allegations against that student were based on hearsay.

Under questioning, Laflamme and Rheault conceded their role in spreading a video that Raza, then 15, had made of himself and left on a shelf in the school TV studio. Laflamme said he discovered the tape in April 2003, when he took school equipment to film a varsity football game. He showed the tape to Rheault, who made a copy of it.

Caron, who said that he didn't even know the two other pranksters, said in examination that as the tape was being e-mailed among students, he created a Web site and posted the video on it.

According to court filings, the video first appeared on the Internet on the evening of April 14, 2003. About a month later, one U.S. Web blog that had posted the video said it had been downloaded 1.1 million times. Raza's lawyer said in a court filing that the video was so widely circulated that one Internet site solely dedicated to the two-minute clip recorded 76 million visits by October 2004.

I meant to post about this last week but i didn't have the time. I'm glad Ghyslain was finally able to get some justice. I know some would argue that he shouldn't have left the tape where it could easily be found but even so, what his classmates did went way too far. Hopefully someday he'll look back on things a little more positively. While the original video made him look really goofy, what many computer geeks did by adding special effects to the original video turned it into something pretty cool. You can find the original video as well as videos with special effects added here. My favorite is the Drunken Jedi Master. There was even a blog that accepted donations for ghyslain when the video first appeared on the net.

Washington Post editorial page in full spin mode

From Editor & Publisher:

It’s no secret that the Washington Post’s editorial position and its news reporting often are not on the same page--in more ways than one. But rarely has that gulf seemed wider than in the Post’s Sunday edition this week.

The editorial page, a co-producer and then staunch defender of the war in Iraq, declared in a headline on Sunday that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) info “Scooter” Libby gave to reporters in 2003 was in reality “A Good Leak.” The White House was not out to punish Ambassador Joe Wilson for raising doubts about pre-war intelligence; in fact, Wilson is the bad guy in this story for making false claims. Bush, in a sense, is the hero, for instantly declassifying the key NIE document--he was only out to inform the public. Now the poor guy, the Post complains, is the target of “hyperbolic charges of misconduct and hypocrisy” from the Democrats.

As often the case in Post editorials related to Iraq, reporting in the newspaper proves that much of the above is pure hogwash. This reality checking usually doesn’t happen the very same day, however.

With that kind of spinning it's no wonder why many americans believed that Saddam was responsible for 911. It's almost comical how they have to bend themselves like a pretzel to make the facts conform to their beliefs. Then again whoever wrote that editorial probably doesn't even believe what they're writing. Hell all they did was repeat the White House talking points so it required no thought. It's hard to believe that whoever writes these kinds of editorials for the Washington Post are getting huge salaries. It seems the only talent necessary is knowing how to cut and paste the latest talking points from the Bush administration.

Worse than Watergate

With the recent revelations that Bush was leaking classified information to attack his political enemies i immediately thought of this book written by John Dean two years ago. If he'd written that book today he could add a lot more chapters. If only we had the kind of press that was around when Nixon was President instead of the press we now have that won't ask the tough questions and just repeats the White House talking points.

Republican Values

There's a list over at Daily Kos of all of the investigations, arrests, indictments, and guilty pleas of Republicans. I don't see how Republicans can run on the family values platform with a straight face. Now it is also being reported that Scooter Libby told prosecutors that President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq. It's a new scandal a day with this administration.

Wingnut Fantasies

This is just too damn funny.

Guiliani is the McCain of 2008

After reading about John McCains flip flop regarding his previous comments about the reverend Jerry Falwell it is obvious that McCain is going to use the GW Bush playbook of politics. During the 2000 Presidential campaign i was hoping that McCain would win the Republican nomination as i felt that compared to GW Bush, John McCain was someone i could live with as President and there wouldn't be much cause for concern. I just had a terrible feeling about then Governor Bush. Maybe it had something to do with the way he took glee in the execution of Carla Faye Tucker. At that time the media was really playing up McCain as a maverick Republican and straight shooter. He was polling fairly high among Democrats and independents as well as with those in his own party. Then came Karl Roves dirty tricks and his candidacy was derailed and unfortunately we ended up with Bush as president.

Now that Senator McCain has morphed himself into President Bush i'm now comtemplating who will be the 2008 version of John McCain. Who will be the Republican i want to get the 2008 nomination? The Republican i would be able to live with and not lose sleep over should they win the Presidency. The one name that comes to my mind is Rudy Guliani. The problem is that Guiliani despite how well he polls and his name recognition would have a hell of a time winning the Republican nomination. One of the main reasons being that Guiliani is pro choice and that's big no no among religious conservatives who are the base of the Republican party. Sadly it's looking like a repeat of the 2000 campaign with most Republicans sucking up to the religious right because they have all the power in the Republican party. My biggest fear is that another GW Bush gets elected who thinks God talks directly to him. We've seen how that worked out.

Jill Carroll releases statement

From Yahoo News:

Protected by the U.S. military and far from the country where she had been held hostage, Jill Carroll strongly disavowed statements she had made during captivity in
Iraq and shortly after her release, saying Saturday she had been repeatedly threatened.

In a video, recorded before she was freed and posted by her captors on an Islamist Web site, Carroll spoke out against the U.S. military presence. But in a statement Saturday, she said the recording was made under threat. Her editor has said three men were pointing guns at her at the time.

"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me I would be released if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. So I agreed," she said in a statement read by her editor in Boston.

"Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not."

In the statement, Carroll also disavowed an interview she gave to the party shortly after her release. She said the party had promised her the interview would not be aired "and broke their word."

"At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely. Out of fear, I said I wasn't threatened. In fact, I was threatened many times," she said. "Also, at least two false statements about me have been widely aired: One — that I refused to travel and cooperate with the U.S. military, and two — that I refused to discuss my captivity with U.S. officials. Again, neither statement is true."

I'm glad Jill Carroll made that statement because judging from some of the comments from the right wing blogs it looked like they were going to turn her into the next American Taliban. Common sense would tell anyone that whatever Jill Carroll said while being held hostage with guns pointed at her head should not be attributed as being what she actually believed. Common sense however, has never been the wingnuts strongpoint. Let's hope this press release by Jill Carroll puts an end to statements like these.

Dirty Jobs

I was checking out the Gun Toting Liberals blog again today when i came across another great post on the whole immigration issue. The Gun Toting Liberal really has a good grasp on this issue. Anyway, he posted this quote by President Bush:

[President] Bush, at a U.S.-Mexican-Canadian summit in Mexico today, said that U.S. laws should “recognize there are people in our country doing work that Americans will not do, and those people ought to be given a chance to have a tamper-proof card that enables them to work in our country legally for a period of time.'’

The Gun Toting Liberal pointed out that there are plenty of americans doing undesirable jobs but the difference being that they are paid a fair wage for their work and often belong to a union. He's exactly right. Reading his post made me think of the Discovery Channel's newest show called "Dirty Jobs". If you haven't seen it, the premise of the show is that they find the hardest, dirtiest jobs in america and Mike Rowe, the show's star, gets to perform those jobs. He's done jobs such as cleaning out septic tanks and sewers to chimney sweeping and everything in betweeen. Many of those jobs would be considered jobs that americans don't want to do by President Bush but the fact is, it's americans who are doing those jobs. The difference being that they are being well paid. All of the people doing those jobs mentioned on "Dirty Jobs" show a lot of pride in their work. It's goes to show that if you pay someone a fair wage for the type of work that is to be done, then they will gladly perform that job. That is something to keep in mind when President Bush or supporters of his amnesty plan repeat the falsehood that illegal immigrants are doing the jobs americans don't want to do.

Randi Rhodes kicking butt on Larry King

I just love it when Air America's Randi Rhodes goes on talk shows and kicks some wingnut ass. Last night Larry King had on Ed Shultz, Martha Zoller, and right wing fanatic and Bush appologist Hugh Hewitt along with Randi. Here's some of what Randi had to say taken from the transcript:

KING: Let's start this go around with Randi Rhodes. How weak is Bush, what does it look like for you in 2006 in the congressional elections?

RHODES: I think we're going to take the House. I didn't know if we could take the Senate, but I really do think we can now. I think that the mood in this country is, you know, just something's wrong, something's so wrong. All the problems that we had, you know, we had. And we were moving into the 21st century, and we thought, OK, this is the century to cure disease, this is the century to cure poverty.

And everywhere this guy goes, he leaves a mess. I mean, you look at Katrina survivors, the trailers sit there. Look at Iraq, it's a mess. You look at the border security, it's a mess. Port security, it's a mess. Everywhere this guy goes, it's almost like he's so used to his daddy or somebody bailing him out, he leaves the mess for the next -- and last week what did he say? He said he's going to leave it to 2009, the war. He just leaves a mess wherever he goes.

KING: All right, hold it, Martha, don't interrupt.

RHODES: I'm hearing so many Republican callers. And it takes a real man to do, to do it in public, too, it's especially difficult, I think. Especially for guys in a backyard barbecue, they've been fighting girls like me, they've been fighting their neighbors.

This guy's great, Republicans. They're all calling me now and they're saying, "I will never vote Republican again. You're right. They have it all. It's getting worse. A man can't find a job."

I have calls from people who say, "What is this deal about jobs Americans won't do? I'm a mud driller plumber. I do some of the most disgusting dirty work. I pick up road kill from the highway. I'll do anything as long as I'm paid a fair wage." They're so tired of the rhetoric, just tired of it.

Ed Schultz was also pretty good though not as good as Randi. He had a memorable line last night when asked his thoughts on President Bush:

KING: Ed Schultz, what do you think?

SCHULTZ: Well, first of all, Hugh, let's be a little easy about how we throw the word hate around. I don't hate anybody and I don't hate George Bush. I just don't think he's a very good president.

I just came off a seven-city road trip and I could tell you what's on the minds of people, and that's health care. And what's going to happen at the end of eight years of this Bush administration is we will have made no progress for helping people who don't have any health care, or planning for the future.

Now, Hugh, how can you think that's a good thing? The fact is that this administration has done two things, basically, cut taxes and go on vacation. The top 2 percent of this economy, sure they're doing well. Wall Street's doing fine for some people. Main Street is not doing very well.

We're shipping jobs overseas. Was that part of the Bush plan? You've got to be fair to the American worker. You've got to be fair that the $600 tax cut was nothing but a fraud, and the top 2 percent are rolling under the Bush administration. But average Americans are not moving forward.

Randi and Ed were the clear winners in that debate last night, it wasn't even close. I just wish our side had more people like Randi Rhodes and Ed Schultz speaking out because they can easily articulate the Democratic message and they're really good at cutting the Republicans off at the knees when they try to spin.