Poster auction ends this afternoon. Link at the top of the page.

Update: all done.

Via Digby:

Lifted from Tbogg, who lifted it from Aravosis.

Update: even I, sometimes, am astonished the imbecility of the media.

Digby points out a good contradiction in the GOP’s stance on stem cell research :

The Republicans are taking a new tack on stem cells. In response to the Michael J. Fox “backlash” Ken Mehlman just said on CNN that Jim Talent supports stem cell research but he just doesn’t think the government should pay for it. He pointed out that nobody says that the private sector shouldn’t pursue stem cell research. What’s the problem?
. . .
This argument worked back in the day with the Hyde Amendment banning public money for abortion because some people object to the expenditure on moral grounds. Maybe it will work again. But I don’t think stem cell research has ever had the kind of visceral punch that abortion has and the benefits to everyone are far more obvious.
. . .
Mostly, though, it undercuts the moral argument the Republicans have been making about their (phony) “culture of life.” Back in the 70’s, when the Hyde Amendment was passed, Republicans could get away with making practical arguments like “people shouldn’t have to pay for things that morally offend them.” But this isn’t the “me decade” anymore. The Republicans are no longer supposed to be just the defenders of traditional values — they are supposed to be true believers. I don’t see how the religious right could support such a “split-the-difference” strategy.

The “culture of life” warriors have been making similar arguments recently in regards to the (imminent) overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Rather than look like the religious extremists that they are, they do their best to assure the mushy middle that repealing Roe won’t outlaw abortion, it’ll just make abortion laws “revert to the states”. Y’know, so Alabama rape victims will be forced to have their babies, but women in California and New York will still have control of their bodies.

Of course these are the same people who insist abortion and embryonic stem cell research are “murder“. Here’s what Tony Snow said in regards to the President’s feelings about stem cells :

Q Can you remind us why the President believes that it is not appropriate to use — that it is more appropriate for stem cells to be thrown away than to be used, in this case, for medical research?

MR. SNOW: The President — I don’t think that’s the choice that the President has presented. What the President has said is that he doesn’t want human life destroyed. Now, you may consider that insignificant, but the President has said — and you have had in a number of cases the Snowflake babies, where some of those fetuses have, in fact, been brought to term and have become human beings. The President believes strongly that for the purpose of research it’s inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder; he’s one of them.

Personally, I think the insistence among conservatives that stem cell research and abortion are murder is completely absurd, but that’s not half as troubling as the thought that there are conservatives who think an act of “murder” is perfectly acceptable as long as it’s decided by the states and isn’t funded with tax dollars. Which reminds me of this great quote that sums up conservatism in a nutshell :

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

-John Kenneth Galbraith

And with the abortion and stem cell debates, we’ve seen this hypocrisy reach to it’s limit. The GOP stance on “murder” is that it’s fine with them as long as it doesn’t happen in their back yard and they don’t have to pay for it. That’s not a defensible position, it’s insanity.

Regarding the imminent legalization of gay marriage in New Jersey, it’s probably worth pointing out that gay people have been getting hitched in Massachusetts for two and a half years now and the gates of Hell haven’t opened up and swallowed the entire country. The right wing’s Chicken Little crap was proven wrong a few years ago and it’s still wrong. The only thing that gay marriages have really changed is that gay people are getting married now. Big deal.

(via Crooks & Liars)

In a sane world, Rush Limbaugh would spend every morning telling fart jokes as part of the “Morning Zoo” crew at a tiny Top40 station in the middle of nowhere, but for some absurd reason, the gatekeepers of the pundit world take this asshole seriously. So here we go with yet another reason to dismiss everything that comes out of the mouth of this overrated shock jock :

Possibly worse than making fun of someone’s disability is saying that it’s imaginary. That is not to mock someone’s body, but to challenge a person’s guts, integrity, sanity.

To Rush Limbaugh on Monday, Michael J. Fox looked like a faker. The actor, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, has done a series of political ads supporting candidates who favor stem cell research, including Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, who is running against Republican Michael Steele for the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes.

“He is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Limbaugh told listeners. “He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act. . . . This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.”

Classy guy, that Limbaugh. I’d be willing to bet Rush wouldn’t be so nasty if stem cell research showed promise in curing pill addiction and impotence. Like the rest of his selfish ilk, the only problems Rush ever cares about are his own.

I haven’t even seen it, but I have a feeling the Iraqi hit comedy “Hurry Up, He’s Dead” might be the best TV show ever (via BoingBoing) :

Nearly every night here for the past month, Iraqis weary of the tumult around them have been turning on the television to watch a wacky-looking man with a giant Afro wig and star-shaped glasses deliver the grim news of the day.

In a recent episode, the host, Saad Khalifa, reported that Iraq’s Ministry of Water and Sewage had decided to change its name to simply the Ministry of Sewage — because it had given up on the water part.

In another episode, he jubilantly declared that “Rums bin Feld” had announced American troops were leaving the country on 1/1, in other words, on Jan. 1. His face crumpled when he realized he had made a mistake. The troops were not actually departing on any specific date, he clarified, but instead leaving one by one. At that rate, it would take more than 600 years for them to be gone.
. . .
The newscast opens with an explanation of the show’s underlying premise: it is the year 2017 and the main character, Saaed, is the last Iraqi alive. He is lying face down on a beach with a red suitcase next to him. When he comes to, he is quickly encircled by beautiful women.

Cut to a scene of Saaed clad in a black T-shirt imprinted with “2PAC,” showboating in front of a white stretch Humvee limousine with dancers cavorting all around.

The show’s raucous theme song, which has become a popular cellphone ring tone here and is sung by children in schoolyards, laments that it would be better to be a lowly cat on the street than an Iraqi: “No one asks the cat where you are from, which party you’re from, whether you are an Arab, a Kurd, a Sunni or a Shiite.”

He sings on, “I am the last Iraqi alive, but I still do not own a house,” a reference to the country’s acute housing shortage.

I think somebody forgot to tell Saad Khalifa that things are getting better in Iraq.

Officials in Ned Lamont’s U.S. Senate campaign said today they expect to file complaints with both federal and state authorities concerning $387,000 in “petty cash” U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman spent before the Democratic primary election.

George C. Jepsen, a former state Senate majority leader and Democratic state chairman who chairs Lamont’s campaign, said the complaints would allege violations of the federal campaign finance law and state labor laws.

$387,000 “is just unprecedented in its scope,” he said, referring to the money the Lamont campaign has characterized as a Lieberman “slush fund.”

“We’re not alleging that any Lieberman staffer knowingly broke the law, but who is naïve enough to think you can put north of $387,000 on the street in a very compacted period of time and not have some level of abuse?” Jepsen asked.

“Petty cash is supposed to be used for pizza for volunteers and paper clips,” he continued. “It’s not intended to fund a massive field operation. “This is a throwback to a generation ago when ’street money’ was completely unregulated and widely abused, so at a minimum by law they’re supposed to keep detailed records of who was paid and how much, and make those records public.

“If you’re doing it right and by the book, so that it’s 100 percent legal, you would be cutting roughly 6,000 individual checks and keeping track of the money,” Jepsen added.

More here.

I was at the Lieberman rally when Lindsay took the picture she’s got posted here. I asked the kid on the left why he liked Joe Lieberman so much. He shrugged and looked away and said, without much conviction, “I just like him.” I didn’t push him any further, it felt too mean.

(Speaking of Lieberman, don’t miss this week’s cartoon.)

I’ve read so many “Republicans are in trouble” articles that they’re starting to take on an almost jazz-like quality. Journalists, bloggers, and pundits are riffing on poll numbers and conventional wisdom the way musicians improvise on a melody. There’s so many familiar themes being weaved together like Foley, Abramoff, Iraq, and Katrina that you’d think it would get repetitive after a while, but I gotta admit that it’s a pretty damn catchy tune.

But, it’s sad when a major media outlet like Newsweek is consumed with playing the same song that they end up burying a lede like this (via Digg):

Other parts of a potential Democratic agenda receive less support, especially calls to impeach Bush: 47 percent of Democrats say that should be a “top priority,” but only 28 percent of all Americans say it should be, 23 percent say it should be a lower priority and nearly half, 44 percent, say it should not be done. (Five percent of Republicans say it should be a top priority and 15 percent of Republicans say it should be a lower priority; 78 percent oppose impeachment.) Rolling back some of the Bush tax cuts would be contentious too: 38 percent of Americans say the Dems should make that a top priority; 28 percent say it should be a lower priority; and 28 percent say it shouldn’t be done at all.

Now wait a second…doesn’t 28% plus 23% equal 51%? I’d think that a poll showing the majority of Americans favor impeaching the President would be pretty newsworthy, especially considering that this far exceeds the numbers of a President that actually was impeached. If the majorities favoring impeachment and repealing Bush’s tax cuts is how Newsweek defines “less support”, then the GOP is in a lot more trouble that I thought. I still can’t bring myself to start celebrating before the polls even open, but it’s nice to hear.