THE WAR AT HOME

Boone's own 1451st Transportation Company, currently deployed in Iraq (about 175 men and women), will have its tour of duty extended for 125 days, part of El Presidente's "augmentation."

JIM WEBB ... YOU DA MAN!

We've been searching this a.m. for a transcript of Jim Webb's Democratic response last night to El Presidente's SOTU address. Found both a transcript and the video on Think Progress. If you missed it, it's worth a viewing. Webb had everything Bush (or "Dim Son," as he's now been nicknamed) lacked ... clarity, brevity, and good writing (Webb, we're told, wrote the short speech himself).

Webb also has a grasp of American history, in a section of the speech that has been overlooked because of his strong words about Iraq:

Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt.

Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves "as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other." And he did something about it.

I flashed on Congresswoman Virginia Foxx & her fellow rubberstampers, constantly informing us peons out here that the U.S. economy is the best it's ever been. She's speaking from HER vantagepoint, which ain't too far away from those she serves, the 21st century robber barons.

VIRGINIA FOXX MEETS HER MATCH

See Congresswoman Foxx wrestle fellow Republican welter-weight Michelle Bachmann (Minn.) for the right to feel up El Presidente last night. We haven't seen such sexual hysteria since Elvis left the building.

WEDNESDAY MORNING, COMING DOWN

Roundup of percolating trouble:

1. Incoming students at UNC-Chapel Hill will be asked to read a book by Sister Helen Prejean (played by Susan Saranwrap in "Dead Man Walking") that is deeply anti-death penalty. Probably nobody will care, ya reckon?

2. Rep. Sue Myrick goes public with a feud with fellow Republican (super) conservative Robert Pittenger, who represents Charlotte in the state senate. 'Pears Pittenger was trying to push Myrick into the race for guv so he could run for her seat in the U.S. Congress. Not so fast there, Bob, sez Myrick. Pittenger blames it all on Myrick's chief of staff, Hal Weatherman, "an angry young man." Now everybody's angry!

3. Tough guy John Edwards makes threats anent Iran RE nuclear bomb ... to an Israeli audience.

GIMME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME: EL PRESIDENTE'S 6TH SOTU

Or, Can We All Pretend the Wheels Haven't Come Completely Off?

Not exactly a kegger in the Congressional halls tonight, with the Republican side particularly and noticeably lacking the fire of moral certitude. There was an air of sweaty necessity in the air, rather like watching Baptist deacons dutifully file into church every weeknight in July because the pastor has decided, "We need a revival!"

9:00 - 9:07 ... on C-SPAN, blessedly free of yammering voice-over commentators, Nancy Pelosi and Dick Cheney have to stand awkwardly side by side on the dais in cool silence, awaiting El Presidente's appearance at the backdoor. What kind of small talk would be possible at such a moment anyway?

9:10 ... El Presidente is announced. Everyone stands and applauds. Applause is desultory, at best, and soon dies. El Presidente is doing his best Regular Guy at the frat house, coming down the aisle. "Commander Codpiece," someone remarks.

9:14 ... El Presidente begins with a gracious flourish on "Madam Speaker," an historical moment. Genuine applause for Nancy Pelosi.

9:16 ... "large endeavors underway" ... congrats to the "new Democrat majority" -- he can't hide the smirk

9:17 ... "evil" ... didn't take long to make an entrance

9:18 ... "wages are rising," so can I take credit for what my party would never have done on its own?

9:19 ... "economic reforms" ... and did he just say we should balance the federal budget? That takes balls, you gotta admit ... "eliminate the federal deficit in five years" (big, BIG balls!)

9:21 ... "We can fix Medicare and Medicaid and save Social Security," thus ending the mystery of whether Vlad the Impaler can successfully impersonate a bleeding-heart liberal

9:21 ... "No Child Left Behind" -- there it is!

9:23 ... "No Child Left Behind" again ... camera pans glum faces on the Republican side

9:24 ... "affordable and available health care," 'cause, apparently, if it ain't affordable, it ain't available, and vice versa. But for two full minutes at least, we're told we're sick sick sick

9:27 ... "the best medical decisions are not made by government and insurance companies but by patients and their doctors" ... interesting words coming a day after the man spoke (by phone) to the National Right to Life rally, which is in love with the idea of government interference in private medical decisions

9:28 ... "temporary worker program" ... camera finds Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) in the crowd, who looks like he's choking on a sour lemon drop

9:29 ... "but no amnesty for illegals" ... Ton Tancredo looks happier

9:30 ... Pelosi appears to be working a sesame seed out from betwixt two molars

9:30 ... omigawd ... El Presidente is now channeling Al Gore ... "alternative energy" ... "hybrid vehicles" ... "reduce gas usage by 20 percent in 10 years" (right after bats fly out of Dick Cheney's posterior)

9:32 ... best, most cryptic three words of the speech ... "mandatory fuel standards"

9:33 ... yeah, but enough of that environmental doo-doo, 'cause we've gotta pump more oil in this country, and you chickenshits are gonna help me

9:34 ... "be better stewards of the environment" ... Al Gore is back, and Rahm Emanuel leaps, applauding, from his seat

9:35 ... Vlad the Impaler returns ... "terrorists ... terrorists ... terror ... take the fight to the enemy"

9:36 ... "terrorists" ... and you can't quarrel with the logic of this: "We cannot know the full extent of attacks we didn't suffer" ... Oooo-kay

9:37 ... the man's on a roll ... "terrorists ... terrorists ... evil ... America is still a nation at war"

9:39 ... "Sunni and Shi'a extremists"

9:41 ... "a decisive ideological struggle" ... which is apparently some necessary groundwork for bombing the shi'ite out of Iran too

9:44 ... "This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it's the fight we're in" ... Again, that impeccable logic! "Let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory" ... gosh, much of Congress appears to have left its resolve in its other pants

9:45 ... "a new strategy in Iraq" ... Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-N.M), a recent defecter from Republican orthodoxy on the war, appears to be studying her shoe laces

9:48 ... "I chose this course of action" ... at which Cheney smirks

9:49 ... "September 11th"

9:50 ... "War on terror"

9:51 ... "I need boys, I need man-flesh, I need 92,000 more soldiers in the active Army in the next five years, 'cause, guys, this perpetual war is hard to sustain"

9:53 ... "Iran ... nuclear weapons" ... isn't this where we came in four years ago, only it was "Iraq ... nuclear cloud" back then?

9:54 ... "Korean peninsula ... nuclear weapons" ... O God, make it stop

9:54 ... here comes the bleeding heart liberal again: "hunger ... poverty ... disease ... HIV-aids ... continent of Africa" and then he throws in malaria too

10:02 ... it's over! If your own personal drinking game hinged on variations of the word "terror," you're roaring drunk by now

10:09 ... El Presidente is making his way out of the chamber, and this person, this woman, I think, starts pawing at him, grabs a hank of hair or a shoulder pad of the President of the United States, and pulls him into a wet kiss ... Oh Jeez, it's Virginia Foxx! She's mugging the man.

VOX POPULI: 'WHY, BUSH, WHY?'

The Hickory Daily Record sent a reporter out to Shell's Bar B-Q to see what was on ordinary people's minds on the eve of El Presidente's State of the Union address, and the poor reporter couldn't find a single citizen who wasn't ready to tongue-lash the president on a whole range of topics but especially on the war. Read it.

And that's in one of the most thoroughly and dependably Republican counties in the state.

GOSS & TARLETON ... ADVOCATES FOR ASU

It IS a new day for ASU in the state legislature, following those clods in a churn who've supposedly represented our state university's best interests in the past (we're talking Virginia Foxx here, and Gene Wilson, not John Garwood).

But is it our imagination, or did ASU Chancellor Ken Peacock sound slightly less than enthusiastic about his new House & Senate members in the closing paragraphs of the article linked above?

Chancellor Peacock is something of an overly lubricated weathervane, swinging wildly with the prevailing tradewinds. Up until 8/21/02, he was a registered Democrat. He switched to Republican on that date and remained in that camp through the election of The Madam to the U.S. Congress in 2004 (and how many times in a few months post-election did he manage to get his picture taken with Virginia Foxx?). Then, perhaps sensing a shift in wind direction -- we don't know -- he again changed his registration on 9/16/05 to Unaffiliated. Politically, he's just plain jumpy.

ON MONDAYS, WE FEEL LIKE A RUDDERLESS BOAT

It's like standing at the water cooler, trying to shake off the last lingering penumbra of a too energetic weekend, and hearing your fellow office clones rave on about a TV show you watched one time and would never watch again, not even with a cocked revolver pointed at your temple, and you're amazed that so many people could be so enthusiastic about so little.

That's the way we feel this a.m. with -- what? -- eight Democratic presidential hopefuls to choose from ... SO FAR.

Here's the chatter at the water cooler:

...just terrific people. They are each bright and capable. Person by person, they are committed to bringing out the best in America. In ethnic and gender terms, they represent a marvelous picture of the real America, and not a one of them appeals to hate or divisiveness.

Of course, each of the Democratic candidates would be vastly superior to the incumbent. Each would study the issues, bring fine people into public service with them, honorably represent America, and make tough but moral decisions. Not a one is unqualified. Not a one lacks adequate experience. Not a one harbors extremist views, or is unaware of the significance of the Presidency to not only Americans but everyone in the world.

--Reed Hundt

Oh, God, make it stop. We feel so strangely guilty that we've not up for the happy talk. Where's the Excedrin, anyway?

Chuck Hagel ... why isn't HE a Democrat?

Unless things change -- and they WILL, as they always do -- we'll put our energies into defeating our two female bobbleheads in the House (Foxx) and the Senate (Dole), and let the presidency take care of itself.

VIRGINIA FOXX IMPERSONATES THE ROMANOFFS

$15,000 in political contributions from Tom DeLay apparently can induce both deafness and dumbness:

This week, in a report broadcast on WFDD-FM, 5th District Rep. Virginia Foxx said that former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is not facing trial, has not been indicted and certainly does not face criminal charges. She hadn't heard. When informed that DeLay's trial on criminal charges of money-laundering is pending, Foxx concluded, with no further research, that the indictment was a "trumped-up charge."
W-S Journal, 20 Jan. 2007

Meanwhile, in the job we all pay her to do, the Madam continued to harden her already miniscule heart:

On the Clean Energy Act of 2007 (H.R. 6), which repeals special tax breaks for oil & gas producers ... the Madam voted "no" (Roll Call # 40)

On the College Student Loan Relief Act (H.R. 5), which will reduce interest rates on federal student loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over the next five years ... the Madam voted "no" (Roll Call # 32)

On the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007 (H.R. 4), which would require the Secretary of Health & Human Services to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies "in hopes of lowering drug prices" for Medicare Part D beneficiaries ... the Madam voted "hell no" (Roll Call # 23)

On the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 (H.R. 3), which would direct the Secretary of Health & Human Services to allow federal research $$ to go to support embryonic stem cell research (under certain stringent conditions: see below) ... the Madam voted "no" (Roll Call # 20)

*To receive federal $$ under H.R. 3, experiments must meet all three of the following conditions: (1) the embryos must have been donated for use in "in vitro fertilization" processes; (2) the head of the clinic to which the embryos are donated must certify that they would never be implanted in a woman and would otherwise be discarded and; (3) the individuals donating embryos must sign a letter of written consent for the embryos to be used in research and must not have received any financial benefit from the donation.

On the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (H.R. 2), which would raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over 26 months ... the Madam voted "f**king NO!" (Roll Call # 18)

On Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act, which would (duh) actually implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations ... the Madam voted "no" (Roll Call # 15)

Much additional detail on all these bills available at US House Digest (hat tip to Stumpy).