You now, I heard Our Leader say this the other night, but due to an unfortunate overenthusiasm for Adam Felber’s SOTU Drinking Game, it just skidded on by: “Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator — and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale.” Guess there’s no tax credit for hybrid humans, only hybrid cars. Damn.…

Naturally, I am drinking Sam Adams for the speech. Fanatical Apathy – The 2006 State of the Union Drinking Game Strong and stronger! [drink] 9/11! [drink] Weapons of mass (murder) [drink] terrorists hate our freedom! [drink] EVIL! He said evil! [drink] Clear plan for victory in Iraq! YAY! [drink] War is difficult. Sounds like “hard work” to me. [drink] We are winning! Woohoo! [drink] Support our troops! Ovation of teh evul minions! [drink] Military making sacrifices. Sounds like “hard work” to me. [drink] (Justifiable ovation for the family of the soldier killed in Fallujah. Support our troops, damn you, by…

ABC News: Majorities Disapprove of Bush on Ethics Jan. 27, 2006 — A clear majority of Americans now disapprove of President Bush’s handling of ethics in government, and three-quarters say the administration should disclose all contacts between White House officials and disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The administration has declined to release records of Abramoff meetings, saying it will not “engage in a fishing expedition.” But in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 76 percent said the White House should produce such a list. Even 65 percent of Republicans said so… That’s a good sign. I know most Republicans won’t…

The Chicago Tribune | The Swamp blog reports that Sen. Barack Obama‘s new task is to be the “face” guy for the Democratic Party’s ethics and reform initiative. I’m pretty happy about this (actually I’m very happy about this) because I think Obama is the best choice for this job, and also because of his standing in the minority party (he jokes that in spite of his high profile, he’s ranked about 99th or so in seniority) he can’t get much legislation passed unless it’s a total bi-partisan no-brainer. UPDATE: His remarks today on “Honest Leadership and Open Government” from…

IS GEORGE BUSH THE WORST PRESIDENT — EVER? – Yahoo! News Columnist Richard Reeves reports on a recent poll of historians published by The History News Network at George Mason University: This is what those historians said — and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives — about the Bush record: He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process; He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the…

House Rejects Iraq Pullout After GOP Forces a Vote Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) drafted a simpler resolution calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops, saying it was a fair interpretation of Murtha’s intent. Members were heatedly debating a procedural rule concerning the Hunter resolution when Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) was recognized at 5:20 p.m. Schmidt won a special election in August, defeating Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, and is so new to Congress that some colleagues do not know her name (and she is the most junior member of Congress – Blogula Rasa). She told colleagues that…

CNN.com – White House: Murtha’s call is ‘surrender’ – Nov 18, 2005 “I like guys who’ve never been there who criticize us who’ve been there,” Murtha said. “I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and sent people to war and then don’t like to hear suggestions that what may need to be done.” There’s a lot of fur flying in Washington DC over Rep John Murtha’s (D-PA) about-face; this hawkish, decorated Marine vet now says “It’s time to bring the troops home.” For making this statement, he’s been targeted for special treatment by…

It’s the day after an off-year election, and all the news outlets have filed their stories about how it’s a victory for Democrats and it’s a referendum against Bush (especially in the case of the Virginia governor’s race, where Bush had done a campaign stop hours before). Governator Ahnuld got shut out on his pet ballot initiatives, too. However, I actually think it’s more of a victory for politicians who aren’t Religious Right pod people, because a few Republican moderates were elected, too. If a heavily Democratic city like New York can re-elect a Republican mayor, that says that they…

The Price of Loyalty – Newsweek National News – MSNBC.com This has been the Bush pattern. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill presciently says a second tax cut is unaffordable if we want to fight in Iraq—he’s fired. Bush’s economic adviser Larry Lindsey presciently says the war will cost between $100 billion and $200 billion (an underestimate)—he’s fired. Army Gen. Eric Shinseki presciently says that winning in Iraq will require several hundred thousand troops—he’s sent into early retirement. By contrast, CIA Director George Tenet, who presided over two of the greatest intelligence lapses in American history (9/11 and WMD in Iraq) and…

Carter: White House manipulated Iraq intel And with that look for a raft of criticism from the rabid Right. They’ll bring up embarassing items from the past and attempt to paint Carter as an irrelevant, confused old guy. Yeah, the rabbit thing was weird, but I bet Jimmy could still fix a nuclear sub in a pinch. AND he’s still doing a hell of a lot of good work for the poor and the homeless.