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January 3


expand/collapse What if Iowa Caucused and Nobody Listened?
by Brendan Spiegel
This Thursday evening, approximately 0.05 percent of the United States population will gather together for an arcane ritual in which they will prematurely anoint the next Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

Skull and Bones Society? Stonemasons? Nope. The Iowa caucuses.

expand/collapse An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove
How American Democracy Relies on Fascism
by Ted Rall
History is clear: Over and over again, the US government places fascists in powerful positions. Once in office, they exploit wars and national tragedies to roll back hard-won freedoms. They're Democrats as well as Republicans.

As has happened with increasing frequency in recent years, another blockbuster story revealing the anti-democratic impulse within the top echelon of the U.S. government has appeared and vanished overnight. According to Cold War-era files declassified last week, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover repeatedly advised President Harry Truman to arrest "all individuals potentially dangerous" to national security, jail them in military prisons and try them before kangaroo tribunals that "will not be bound by the rules of evidence."

Today's Quote:

"We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom."
- Stephen Vincent Benet
Editor's Notes & Rants:

Vaginal politics. I am constantly amazed at how many liberal women are willing to sacrifice everything else they believe in just to vote for a candidate with vagina. All these years we had to listen to them preaching that a candidate's gender should not be an issue, and it turns out that gender is the only issue that really matters to them. There is no way a real liberal could ever consider voting for Hillary Clinton. If you look at her voting record, she has voted the wrong way on every major piece of legislation and presidential appointment. The only exceptions being when she knew the GOP had all the votes they needed, so she could try to score political points with the left by pretending to be on their side. Not to mention advocating a constitutional amendment to ban burning the flag, and opposing equal rights for gays/lesbians in marriage. If she's a "liberal," then most Americans don't even appear in the political spectrum anymore. As an independent liberal, I couldn't vote for her, even if she were running against Dick Cheney himself. If the Democrats make the mistake of nominating her, they'll just be handing the White House to whatever nightmare candidate the Republicans come up with. And you'll be able to thank your feminist friends for that.

Today is the Iowa caucus, and Obama has surged ahead of Edwards in the polls, with Hillary falling back to third place. So much for "inevitable."

Taliban rising. Religious extremists overwhelmingly supporting Huckabee.

Republicans Great White Hope expected to drop out of the race soon. Or not. Maybe he has to wait for the writers strike to end so he can have a resignation speech to read.

Huckabee "The Scab" crosses picket lines to appear on Leno. He'll say he "didn't know," but the union made it very clear to him beforehand. Hillary Clinton appeared on Letterman, but he has a side deal with the guild, so there weren't any picket lines to cross.

I've been following this group for quite a while, and have to say I can't see the point of a bipartisan ticket. The top tier Dems are all closet Republicans anyway, so what difference does it make who wins the nomination, or who wins in November? They're all conservatives.

Congressman Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) has announced he has cancer, and will not run for reelection.

Justice in America. Wrongly convicted man to be freed after 26 years in prison for crime he did not commit.

Cheney's energy policy has been a raging success. Oil prices now at record highs. Cheney's oil buddies are raking in the dough, while American families are wondering how they will keep the house heated during the winter. And that's just fine with Dubya.