First Door on the Left

Keith Olbermann discusses Newt Gingrich’s desire to abolish free speech in the United States…

Transcript here.

Five points if you can name this man:

Hint: He announced today that he is running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Answer here.

(Click on either cartoon to view it full size.)

It seems to me that the least you folks up north could do would be to keep your weather to yourselves. Really — we are not equipped for this stuff down here in the Southland.

Yesterday at this time it was 80 degrees outside. Right now, it is 30 and falling. We’ve even had a bit of some kind of white stuff falling out of the skies. Here, I have proof:

I know you Yanks are all laughing right now, but remember what I said — we are not equipped for this crap! Schools and businesses are closed, over 200 flights have been canceled out at the airport, folks are sliding into one another on every street and highway in town.

So, please, the next time you catch yourselves thinking about sending some of your weather down our way… just don’t!

Thank you.

In a desperate attempt to hang on to what little relevance they have left, several right wing bloggers have challenged the credibility of the Associated Press (mainly the stories they have filed from the civil war in Iraq).

The Associated Press stands by their reports.

It’s kind of fun to visit the rightie blogs these days. You can almost hear each one scream “I’m melting… melting!”

Frist Abandons 2008 Presidential Bid

WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist renounced a bid for the White House in 2008 on Wednesday, an early dropout from the most wide-open presidential race in decades.

“In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close,” said the Tennessee Republican, a surgeon before he entered politics in 1994.

The truth is that he decided to spare himself the humiliation. He may be smarter than I thought. Let’s face it… whoever the Republicans nominate in 2008 is due for a huge dose of humiliation. There is absolutely no way that Americans are going to send a Republican to the White House. Not after eight long years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Here’s is today’s CNN.com QuickVote:

Depends. How many different denominations do dollar bills come in?

I thought there was only one.

As of this writing, 65,488 people have voted. ‘Yes’ is leading – 70% to 30%.

A quick glance at today’s headlines:

1) U.S.-Iraq Summit Put Off Until Thursday

2) Iraq, Iran Reach Agreement on Security

I hope Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will at least have the courtesy to send George W. Bush a “thank you” card.

At this point we do not who Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi will name as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, but according the the Washington Post, we do know that it will not be Alcee Hastings or Jane Harman…

Pelosi Passes on Hastings, Harman for House Intel Chair

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Reps. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), the panel’s No. 2 Democrat, to chair the pivotal committee next year, Democratic aides and lawmakers said today.

The decision came despite lobbying by conservative Democrats and interest groups on Harman’s behalf and a full-throttled campaign by Hastings to overcome the stigma of the 1988 impeachment that drove him from his federal judgeship.

Instead, Pelosi will look to a compromise candidate, probably Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), but possibly Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), a hawkish member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, or Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), a conservative African American with Intelligence Committee experience.

Rep. Hastings’ comment was interesting, to say the least…

Hastings confirmed the decision with a shot at conservatives and media voices who have come out strongly against his appointment. “Sorry, haters,” he wrote, “God is not finished with me yet.”

No, Congressman, I don’t reckon He is.

DENVER, Colorado (AP) — A homeowners’ association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Things have gotten really, really weird in this country since the Bushies took over.

Update: Homeowners board apologizes, withdraws threat of $25 fines.