I remember reading PFc Jesse Givens' letter to his then unborn son, nicknamed Bean, right here on dKos with tears streaming down my face.  It brought the cost of the war home in a way nothing else could.

Having been on the receiving end of about 100 viral emails from well meaning folks about Barack Obama's Secret Muslim Jihadist Plans!!!!, I have a newfound appreciation for the power of such emails. I'd just like a few to send in the opposite direction.

I'm looking to put together on the GOP's Plan to End The War in Six Months!!!! which means, of course, I'd like to put together a comprehensive selection Friedman Unit quotes; that is quotes from Very Serious Pundits and others talking about how we'll know in "six month" how things are going in Iraq, or to get things under control in Iraq, etc. - all with dates, of course from 2004, 3005, 2006...

Google your heart out and let's do some oppo research.

It boggles my mind that there there could conceivably be a filibuster in the Senate over whether to raise the minimum wage.

It boggles my mind that there are jobs, any jobs, which only pay the minimum wage.  I pay my babysitter more than the minimum wage and I am wondering if I am alone.  

I've tried to Google this, but I can't find it.

If anyone has a copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, please give me the recipie for his Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream.  I just need the ingredients, not the directions.  And yes, I use the raw egg - it makes ALL the difference.  I'm going to turn it into cinnamon ice cream for Thanksgiving.

The GOP is dependent on fear-mongering to get people to the polls; but it seems to me that after six years of Republican controlled government - you should be afraid.

After having spent the entire 2004 presidential campaign deriding the "law enforcement " approach to fighting terrorism promoted by Senator Kerry and the Democrats, in favor of the "military" approach promoted by Republicans, Republicans yesterday feigned amnesia about their former disdain for the law enforcement approach and rushed to claim credit for the  success of British law enforcement in stopping a planned terrorist attack.

Saw something today about the GOP's plans to dump tons of money into the Santorum race and thought I'd go take a look at opensecrets.org's records to see who is contributing to Santorum.  I thought it might be interesting to check on who his out of state donors are.  I thought it might be interesting to see if there were contributions bundled from various individuals on the same day all employed by a certain employer (ala Virgil Goode and Katherine Harris and MZM).  I wondered how many of trial lawyer hating physicians who had contributed to Santorum  would find it interesting to receive info in the mail about Santorum's wife's malpractice claim against her health provider  (hey - Howie Kurtz says this sort of thing is relevant). I wondered why two physicians listed their addresses as Anonymous, AK 99999 when a few seconds on Google indicated they both live in Philadelphia and whether it is legal to put a false address on an FEC form.

But, unfortunately, before I could pursue any of that, I got distracted by the plight of Mr. Elliot Baines of Vero Beach, Florida.

IF the Admin is allowed to frame the domestic spying issue by saying "Look, if someone in the U.S. is talking to someone in Al Qaeda, we want to know why" we are going to lose.

Most Americans are OK with that kind of spying because they can't see far enough down the road to realize that this kind of extraordinary power can (and has) also been used to stifle dissent, imprision political opponents, manipulate markets, etc.  Most Americans just haven't read enough history.  

It's a catch-22 for the Dems if protecting civil liberties lets them be painted as soft on terrorism.  It doesn't have to be that way.  But there's a solution...

dKos has a rep as a liberal blog; although some might prefer the terms "reform Democratic" or "progressive."

But having posted here for since before the new system I am well aware that there are tons of dKos users who would consider themselves to be conservative in one form or another:  everything from fiscal conservatives/social progressive to libertarians to republicans who are simply disgusted by Bushco to conservatives who are simply disgusted by Bushco.

This whole "global test" thing has me befuddled (damn, this is what it must feel like to be Bush). At the time he said it I thought he meant to say it needs to pass the SMELL test, and simply misspoke, much in the way GWB does everyone day (as in "that was just their guess, oop I meant estimate").

All you have to do is listen to Kerry's very next words about the "test".  He said it is all about getting YOUR people (Americans) and YOUR countrymen (Americans) behind the war effort.

I just don't see the problem here.  

So Kerry misspoke and let loose with a Bushism, BFD.

My problem with Bush is not that he misspeaks, it that he doesn't think (but he hopes!).

This winter all the young ski instructors for the kiddie classes at the West Virgina ski resort were from New Zealand and a number of other low level employees at the resort were from South America.  Now, I just got back from Hilton Head and the young girl who checked us in was from Australia and the young girls working the convenience store were from Russia (with minimal English language skills).

Why this influx of cheap foreign labor?  I know these are seasonal jobs but are there really no takers in the U.S.?

Apparently this seasonal insourcing of cheap foreign labor is quite common in the "hospitality" industry. My brother has become involved online with a Latvian woman who has been here several times to work in the hospitality industry.  Now my brother is bringing her over allegedly to work in his business on the same type of visa.  Apparently all you have to do is say there are no Americans for the job - you don't have to show zip in the way of proof - and you can bring over a foreign worker who will work for peanuts - payroll tax free.

Yes, the employers do have to withhold income taxes (which of course come out of the employees already meager pay anyway) BUT the employers don't have to pay any payroll taxes (FICA and Medicare) on those workers. I don't think they even need to provide health insurance.  If they get who pays?  Probably you and I.

Yet another scam big industry is running against the American taxpayer.

As I "reported" on Saturday...

The government wants to transport radioactive waste by rail and truck through 43 states for deposit at Yucca Mountain.  They assure us this can be done safely.  

But in the real world, the DOE's environmental manager, Bechtel Jacobs, and their subs couldn't transport even one truckful of Strontium 90 a few miles within the Oak Ridge, TN area without leaking drops of radioactive waste along a State Highway.

UPDATE:  Initial reports said only a  25 ft area of tainted asphalt would need to be removed and fresh pavement laid. Now four other roads have become involved and cleanup costs are estimated at $1.5 - $2 Million.  

All this from one truck moving one load of waste a couple of miles.  I don't know if Yucca Mountain is a good idea or not but before we start trucking massive amounts of radioactive waste throughout the country, we need to learn how to do it right. Clearly they have a ways to go.

As, we all know, the government wants to transport radioactive waste by rail and truck through 43 states for deposit at Yucca Mountain.  They assure us this can be done safely.  (Of course, they also assured us the troops would be greated with...oh, never mind.)

In the real world, the DOE's environmental manager, Bechtel Jacobs, and their subs couldn't transport even one truckful of Strontium 90 a few miles within the Oak Ridge area without leaking drops of radioactive waste along a State Highway.  The highway is now blocked.  A 25 ft area of tainted asphalt will need to be removed and disposed of and fresh pavement laid. Anyone who drove their vehicles over the contaminated area needs to contact the DOE or their health department.

Yep, can't wait until 43 states start having this problem all along their highways.

See this morning's story at knoxnews.com.

This Dean supporter is thrilled that Dean is finally out of the Presidential race.  There are far more important things for him to do.

This country was sliding into utter madness: starting wars under false pretenses, trading our clean air and clean water for a bump in the next quarter's earnings, squandering our economic resources, incurring unimaginable debt and on and on...absolute insanity.  And yet, our so-called leaders were, astoundingly, silent.

This country desperately needed someone to come along and say, actually, to shout "No.  This is wrong and I'm not afraid to say so."  

I supported Howard Dean because he was willing to be that man.  Because he had the courage to be that man.  I gave contribution after contribution because if someone was going to have the guts and balls to say what so desperately needed to be said, the least I could do was fund the effort.  I never for a minute thought he stood a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination.  I'm astounded that he got as far as he did. Who could possibly say the things he's said and survive politically?  The one who has the courage to stand up to the crowd by definition will never win the election.  Hell, they are usually lucky to avoid being burned at the stake.

Dean as a candidate, or god forbid, Dean as an administration official, is Dean in a muzzle.  Released from such constraints he has the potential to be the voice this country needs.  He's proven that if you give him a pulpit he knows what to do with it.  We need to give him a pulpit.  And we can create one out of thin air with nothing more than dollars.  Nothing talks these days like money.  

I'm thrilled by the hope that I might be able to keep this man saying the things that need to be said for the good of my country.  I can hardly wait to stroke the first check.

Dean is my first, second and third choice but I'm watching Clark's wife Gert on C-Span (or C-span 2, I'm not sure) and is she ever impressive - she's really wailing on the R's alleged family values.

She has a brother who was laid off, then 2 months later had a heart attack, is on COBRA now and only has a part time job, if he can't get a full time job before COBRA runs out, he'll be uninsurable.  They are worried sick about this - this is a family value issue.  We all need affordable health insurance...moves in to mental health...moves into spiritual health...whatever religion you belong to, they all say that those of us who have the most should help those of us who have the least.  The Rs who want to cut Medicaid, etc. all say they are religious people but I don't know what religion they are practicing...

YES...YES....YES

I'm impressed.  To paraphrase Ayn (!?!)Show me the woman a man chooses to be with and I'll tell you what he kind of man he is. This raises Clark in my opinion hugely.  

Let's keep this primary going all they way to the convention.

I sat stunned, amazed and cheering last night as I watched Anderson Cooper grab a spine and decide to call a spade a spade.  His comments on several stories were zingers.  I'm beginning to wonder if I missed the intro that said he was doing satire or what.  My favorite:

"Bush apparently has confirmed some of what Paul O'Neill has said in that he admits that he once listened to Paul O'Neill for 45 minutes without saying anything because "it was boring as hell.""

Cooper's comment (paraphrasing):  Right.  He doesn't want to listen to boring information about the boring economy, which affects the lives of millions of boring Americans.

Let's all send CNN an email raving about Anderson's show last night.

Tonight my mother, a committed Faux viewer, knowing I'm a Dean supporter made the mistake of starting the following conversation...

MOM: Don't you think its strange that Howard Dean's wife isn't out campaigning with him.

ME:  Hmmm, which of the Democratic candidates' wives do you find the most compelling?

MOM: Well, I really don't know anything about any of them.

ME:  Really?  OK.  Well which one do you think is the best looking?

MOM:  Actually, I really don't know what any of them look like.

ME:  So let me get this straight.  You watch cable news virtually 24 hours a day.  You haven't really seen any of the candidates' wives in the course of all that coverage but for some strange reason you're only worried that you haven't seen Judy Dean.  At what point is it going to occur to you that you are just parrotting Fox's talking points???

FWIW, my mother and my step-Dad will be voting Dem.  At Christmas I sat them down with Paul Krugman's Tax Cut Con article and told them the ten day food and alcohol orgy I provide for everyone at the holidays would not begin until they'd read it.  I scared the hell out of them about the Starve the Beast plan to gut social security and medicare.  This really resonated with two folks in their early 60s.

I don't want to belittle the fact that 3,000 Americans lost their lives on 9-11 - but according to a press release issued today 18,000 Americans lost their lives in 2002 due to a lack of health insurance.

This is a travesty that needs to be shouted from the rooftops.  Where or where in the hell are the media?  Oh right, Kobe, Laci, Micheal...