Howard's first of course.

But now we know for sure that the Florida Democrats have been on board with the scheme to get the earlier primary.  We have the word of Marco Rubio,  house speaker, and the word of the spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party.    It angers me so because they had it all planned...vote for it,  deny they were on board....and then blame it on Howard Dean and the DNC.

Read this...they had it planned.

 http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1562

Make that....the Florida Dems have been on board with the GOP here since March 2006.   They had the vote all planned 115 to1.  And then they pretended the GOP did it to them.

They had the vote all planned 115 to1.

What's the difference between Florida's Democrats and Republicans?

The same as between most of DC's Dems and Repos........

But at least there's always one Feingold in every crowd. 

floridagal

you have done a HOWARDLY job of reporting

thank you very much for your diligence on this issue

I believe Howard's toughness has kept Iowa from moving earlier, Sadly it has made Iowa even more important probably, at least the candidates think so and are pouring resources into here

the scheme backfired on Florida, marginalizing an important state

~~~~~~~~~~

I greeted a couple of cars from Florida and part of the job was noting where attendees were from: California, Arizona, Washington, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina 13 states in all and 63 Iowa counties, and I only worked the gate three hours.

Iowa has no National Park but functionally our National Monument is the same and this was a local group working in partnership on Hawk Watch (which was why Iowans came who had heard about the program, only one came from out of state in my brief conversations explaining the event)

First weekend of October every year is leaf weekend here, with the Artfest, and bumper to bumper traffic from leafers come on over next year folks (or next weekend when the leaves peak this year)

at least the Iowa format makes the candidates answer the tough questions, face to face with voters

nite all

(we had a lovely fall day for the event, followed by a quick four more inches of rain in two hours with flash flooding one more time right at dark, kind of a Florida pattern)

floridagal, I second Phil's Howardly! Great work in getting the information.

I hope you have forwarded that informaiton to the newspapers and you and fellow Floridians call Nelson and Hastings and call them out for their bullying, lies and threats over their improper actions.

Very good read. Thank you.

nite Phil.

Retiring Republicans May Help Democrats Pad Congress Majorities

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Ralph Regula, a Republican representative from Ohio, lost his coveted subcommittee chairmanship when Democrats took control of the House in January. Now, looking at his party's 2008 prospects, he's thinking retirement.

``I've discovered I prefer the majority,'' said Regula, 82.

While, judging by their actions since being put in the majority, most DCDems prefer the minority and want to get back to it as quickly as possible.

Good morning, BFA!

*******
floridagal: I *third* the Howardly! You have not only been reporting here, but doing a great job over at DU! Thanks so much for caring and for reporting!

*******
I'll post just a few things, but then must track down a few people to get a few things done while I can take advantage of contractors and subcontractors still being on site.

One of the stools that I bought from IKEA had a fairly unsightly defect so it will have to be returned and exchanged. Sigh ... what a nuisance. But for bookcases and closets, IKEA definitely provides great value ... and the instructions are easy enough for even kultz personified such as myself to follow.

Some unsurprising, if damning, news about Blackwater:

============
Iraqi Probe Faults Blackwater Guards
17 People Killed Without Provocation At Baghdad Square, Officials Conclude
By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 8, 2007; A12

BAGHDAD, Oct. 7 -- An Iraqi government investigation into the Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater USA has concluded that the security firm's guards fired without provocation into a Baghdad square, killing 17 and injuring 27, a government spokesman said Sunday.

The Blackwater convoy that entered Nisoor Square, in response to a bomb attack near a State Department convoy a mile away, was not attacked, "not even by a stone," Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman, said in a statement.

The employees of the North Carolina-based company, he said, committed "an intentional murder that needed to be called to account according to the law." The casualty toll he gave was higher than the previous official tally of 14 dead and 18 injured based on hospital records.

The Iraqi government's inquiry echoed similar findings by the Interior Ministry as well as U.S. military reports from the scene. Blackwater insists that its guards were ambushed and that Iraqi policemen and civilians shot at their vehicles.

The announcement came as a joint commission composed of Iraqi and U.S. officials met for the first time to devise a blueprint for improving the operations and accountability of private security contractors in Iraq.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Well, let us sincerely hope that this is true. If so, Pelosi may feel empowered enough to put impeachment back on the table ... finally.

It should have been there already.
================
Pelosi Says House Close to Overriding Bush on SCHIP

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Democrats are fewer than 20 votes short of overriding a presidential veto and expanding the country's health insurance program for children. She added that her caucus would work over the next two weeks "to try to peel off" about 14 Republicans to move closer to achieving that goal.

[...]
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/...

Here's a good article about Clinton's prowess in the Dem contest so far. One interesting thing to me, however, was that the poll question accompanying this article literally has a three-way tie among *Yes* *No* and *I hope not*.

Nothing is *in the bag.*

Check it out.

===================
How Clinton has built her lead
Her base is voters who dominate the Democratic nominating process. But the presidential campaign season is still young.
By Janet Hook and Mark Z. Barabak
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 8, 2007

WASHINGTON — Carol Levesque, a retired New Hampshire social worker, used to think Hillary Rodham Clinton was not cut out for the White House. Levesque looked askance at Clinton's decision to run for the U.S. Senate. She was lukewarm about how Clinton conducted herself as first lady to an unfaithful husband.

Now, Levesque is an avid fan. After seeing Clinton three times, she was wowed by the New York Democrat's apparent brainpower. She was, to use her word, "underwhelmed" by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) when he made a presidential campaign stop in Peterborough, N.H., recently. And as the granddaughter of a pioneering supporter of women's suffrage, Levesque, 65, is thrilled with the prospect of electing a woman president.

Levesque's conversion offers a window into how Clinton has emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination: One of the most demonized politicians in America has begun to win a second look from skeptics. And among women and seniors, such as Levesque, she has built big leads over her rivals.

That underscores one of Clinton's most important assets in the turbulent few months ahead of the balloting set for early January. She has built a political base -- reflected in polls -- of voters who dominate the Democratic nominating process: seniors, women and blue-collar voters.

[...]
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-...

Well, I am not at all happy about the rise of the RW here, but in my experience, violence attributed to the left is generally deliberately instigated by RW provocateurs who are seeded throughout the demonstrators.

I wonder whether such will actually prove to be the case here. These incidents are definitely shaking up this generally staid little country.

I have also observed that the country is actually like two separate ones, with the French-speaking areas generally much more liberal and humanitarian than those that are German-speaking. Micheline Calmy-Rey, the current President, is a Socialist and a Genevoise.

===================
Switzerland reeling as radicals create havoc at rightwing political rally
· Rioters hurl petrol bombs and torch cars in capital
· Fear that riot will increase support for the far right
Ian Traynor in Berne
Monday October 8, 2007
Guardian

The Swiss capital of Berne was turned into a battle zone at the weekend when leftwing radicals seized control of the main square outside parliament, routing the main far-right political party two weeks before a general election and catching the Swiss police off guard.

Dozens of protesters were arrested and around two dozen people injured, mostly police officers, as police deployed tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets to try to regain control from gangs of highly organised, masked people who turned the small and normally sleepy capital of Switzerland into a scene of devastation.

The clashes on Saturday and the revulsion triggered among mainstream Swiss by the unusual street violence are likely to play into the hands of Christoph Blocher, the tough-talking populist and millionaire industrialist who leads the Swiss People's Party (SVP), the far-right movement tipped to win the elections later this month following a campaign denounced as overtly racist by a United Nations watchdog.

Mr Blocher called a campaign rally of his party in the capital and some 10,000 of his supporters converged on Berne to march to the capital's main square in front of parliament.

But the planned rally was hijacked by up to 1,000 masked street fighters who blocked the SVP's progress, outwitted the police by operating in small groups moving in and out of the crowds, and ransacked the SVP stage and campaign equipment.

The Federal Square, site of a charming Saturday morning flower and vegetable market, resembled a war zone by Saturday night, littered with debris, masonry, shattered glass and torched metal.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33090...

Betrayus ... repeating his mantra ... as puppet-like as putz, both teleguided by prick.

And with most silly DC Dems buying it, look for putz to begin his third catastrophic war.

===================
US blames Tehran for escalating Iraq violence
· Petraeus says Iran's envoy is in Revolutionary Guard
· Allegations could be part of build-up to attack
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Monday October 8, 2007
Guardian

The commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, yesterday sharpened America's confrontation with Iran, claiming that a leader of its Revolutionary Guard corps was in direct charge of policy in Baghdad.

The charge that Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, was a member of the Quds force, a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, takes US accusations of Iranian meddling in Iraq's violence to a new level. It strengthens suggestions that Washington is ratcheting up the rhetoric against Tehran in preparation for military strikes against Revolutionary Guard facilities in Iran.

"The ambassador is a Quds force member," Gen Petraeus told reporters at the weekend. "Now he has diplomatic immunity and therefore he is obviously not subject [to scrutiny]."

Hours after Gen Petraeus spoke to CNN and Reuters at a US military base near the Iranian border, the US military said it had arrested three members of an Iranian-backed militia believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of five Britons.

The Britons - a computer expert and four bodyguards - were taken from the finance ministry in Baghdad last May by gunmen dressed in police commander uniforms without a shot being fired.

The general, who told Congress last month that Iran was playing an increasingly dangerous role in Iraq by providing arms to Shia militia, provided no evidence that Mr Kazemi-Qomi was a member of the Revolutionary Guard. The Iranian ambassador has held two sessions with the top US diplomat in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, to discuss the violence in Iraq.

Responding to the accusations at a news conference, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said: "His remarks are not new and what he said was in line with the previous accusations against Iran."

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33090...

It doesn't sound like we are *winning* here either.

==============
'Depleted' Taliban steps up suicide bombings
By Kim Sengupta in Gereshk, Afghanistan
Published: 08 October 2007

British forces used to describe the Gereshk valley as the "black heart of Taliban country". After months of ferocious fighting, much of this area of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan has been reclaimed, and reconstruction and development work is at last under way.

But the violence has not abated. Instead, it has taken on the lethal form of suicide bombings.

The Taliban have incurred heavy losses in the area recently and this has prompted them to adopt the type of suicide bombing attacks prevalent in Iraq. Such bombings have claimed the lives of 35 people and have wounded 82 in a series of attacks in and around the town.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia...

OK, must get serious about tracking people down.

But first, here's this week's edition of the Top Ten. It's another fine piece of work by DU's EarlG. Pay close attention to the new RNC logo ... and be sure to see the comments that include some wonderful adaptations. Have fun!

================
The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 309
October 8, 2007
Tortured Explanations Edition

This week we learn that The Bush Administration (1) definitely does not torture, at least not in public. Meanwhile George W. Bush (2) hates poor kids, Rush Limbaugh (3) hates the troops, and Fred Thompson (5) barely knows where he is or what his name is. Enjoy, and don't forget the key!

[...]
http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

Good morning, everybody

I still don't believe that bombing Iran will be carried out by the Pentagon, because I don't think the Pentagon is fraticidal.  They must know that an attack on Iran will unleash the missiles against the U.S. missile and radar bases in Iraq, including the mega air installation at Balad.    The Pentagon may be willing to sacrfice as many of the national guard IED targets as it has, but its engineers, technicians and mission specialists are another matter. Never mind all the precious equipment.

Frankly, I've been thinking for a while that Sy Hersh has been co-opted by the Pentagon propaganda machine.  He started writing about the air war over Iraq, which has indeed been stepped up and whose missiles and bombs are, by general accounts, responsible for about twenty percent of the one million dead, and then, all of a sudden he was distracted with stories about bombs for Iran.  It's almost as if somebody said, "if Sy's interested in bombs, let's give him something to write about bombing Iran."  

That story serves two purposes.  It pulls the covers back over what they don't want us to know about the planes being dispatched from Balad Airbase (every five minutes) alone and it sends a warning to Iran not to even think about going after the elite troops on the bases--our very own hostage sitting ducks.

You see, I've elaborated

http://bluehampshire.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2022 

For the record, what takes you maybe two minutes to read, took me two hours to write and that was quick. 

Randall Rolph does not live on Corination Street:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/07/clintons_iran_vote_prompts_a_h.html

Randall Rolph said he came to New Hampton, Iowa, on Sunday to see Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with an open mind about whether to support her candidacy. After a tough exchange over Iran, he left saying he had ruled her out.

Rolph was one of several hundred people who turned out in this small town in northern Iowa for Clinton's appearance. When she called on him for a question, he pulled out a piece of paper and read a question about Iran.

Rolph asked Clinton to explain her Senate vote Wednesday for a resolution urging the Bush administration to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Rolph interpreted that measure as giving Bush authority to use military action against the Iranians.

"Well, let me thank you for the question, but let me tell you that the premise of the question is wrong and I'll be happy to explain that to you," Clinton began.

She offered a detailed description of the resolution, which she said stressed robust diplomacy that could lead to imposing sanctions against Iran, and then pointedly said to Rolph that her view wasn't in "what you read to me, that somebody obviously sent to you."

"I take exception," Rolph interjected. "This is my own research."

"Well then, let me finish," Clinton responded.

Rolph, from nearby Nashua, fired back that no one had sent him the material.

"Well, then, I apologize. It's just that I've been asked the very same question in three other places," she said.

Clinton then explained that she had gone to the Senate floor in February to state that Bush does not have the authority to use military action against Iran and that she is working on legislation to put that into law. Rolph once again challenged her recent vote, suggesting that it amounted to giving Bush a free hand..

"I'm sorry, sir, it does not," she said, her voice showing her exasperation. "No, no, let me just say one other thing because I respect your research. There was an earlier version that I opposed. It was dramatically changed ... I would never have voted for the first version. The second version ripped out what was considered very bellicose and very threatening language."

...

When the event was over, Rolph was surrounded by reporters and said he felt the need to stand his ground when Clinton challenged him: "She tried to ... accuse me of using someone else's words and being stupid. And that offended me. I felt the need to defend myself in view of that kind of comment."

Had he come to the meeting supporting any candidate? "I came here with an open mind, that's why I had to ask this question. By asking this question, that was going to be the defining moment for me. But it has been a defining moment," Rolph said.

*rdorgan, do you think if right to castigate Clinton for for voting for the Iran Bill when Obama didn't take a stand and even vote on this Bill.....along with the MoveOn Bill? As Biden also did.

20.  No, I think that both Clinton and Obama should be called out on this one.  On the other hand, if the military of a sovereign nation can now be identified as a terror-monger, then that's, perhaps, a good development because it, realistically, identifies the group by the results of its actions on the victims, rather than the intent and, by extension, makes it entirely plausible that the U.S. military should be categorized as such an organization, as well.

Considering that "terror" has simply been used as neologism for what used to be referred to as  "communist" or "socialis," this is actually a welcome development.

On the other hand, the aggressive attitude towards Iran is troubling.  If the U.S. is sincerely concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons, it should support the extension of the Central Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone and urge the inclusion of Israel in this club, rather than in NATO which serves as the umbrella for stashing U.S. nukes in Europe. 

"CONSERVATIVE" PUNDITS

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8799#comment-397397

For starters, people got tired of being associated with these drooling retards. Then, when they realized that these drooling retards had ideological allies running the show in the Bush administration and then began to experience their idiotic policies, they moved from disgusted to outright hostile.

Like me. It had nothing to do with Burke, and everything to do with what the party had become. A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion.

Seriously- what does the current Republican party stand for? Permanent war, fear, the nanny state, big spending, torture, execution on demand, complete paranoia regarding the media, control over your body, denial of evolution and outright rejection of science, AND ZOMG THEY ARE GONNA MAKE US WEAR BURKHAS, all the while demanding that in order to be a good American I have to spend most of every damned day condemning half my fellow Americans as terrorist appeasers.

And that isn’t even getting into the COMPLETE and TOTAL corruption of our political processes at every level. The shit is really going to hit the fan after we vote these jackasses out of power in 2008.

Screw them. I got out. They can have their party. I will vote for Democrats and little L libertarians and isolationists until the crazy people aren’t running the GOP. The threat of higher taxes in the short term isn’t enough to keep me from voting out crazy people and voting for sane people with whom I merely disagree regarding policy. Hillarycare doesn’t scare me as much as Frank Gaffney having a line to the person with the nuclear football or Dobson and company crafting domestic policy.

That is why the Republican party is in shambles. The majority of us have decided that the movers and shakers in the GOP and the blogospheric right are certified lunatics who, in a decent and sane society, we would have in controlled environments in rocking chairs under shade trees for most of the day, wheeled in at night for tapioca pudding and some karaoke.

You are not going to believe this.  No, you are not.  Not never.  Not no time.  There is a NEW THREAD!!!

And I scored firsties.  Life is not fair.

Monica, agreed.

I also think it a bit funny that Iran turned around and declared the CIA and the US Army terrorist groups, 3 days later.

The following is my letter to the editor of the Bethel, Connecticut Beacon. I was unable to find it online by googling, so I will recreate it manually :

To the Editor:

I was born into a Republican household diring the Eisenhower presidency.

When the Republican Party slandered Sen. Lowell Weicker because he stood up to Richard Nixon, I became an unaffiliated voter, voting for whichever candidates and party better understood the difference between right and wrong.

My heart and respect are now with the Green Party, and my vote is with the Democratic Party whenever there is not a Green Party candidate on the ballot.

The Progressive wing of the Democratic Party works to protect working-class Americans, promotes real American family values, promotes individual rights and responsibilities and respects the Constitution.

In 2007, the Republican Party of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Nancy Johnson and Grover Norquist have succeeded in making government both ineffective and bloated - adding $3 trillion to the tax bills of future American generations, surpassing the tax increases on future generations imposed by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The two most recent Democratic presidents reduced the national debt.

The Republican Party - as well as the so-called "Pro-Bethel" party and so-called "Independent" party promote big box stores like Wal-Mart, which not only siphon money away from Bethel but also away from America. Small business owners and middle-class Americans suffer because Republicans give away our tax dollars to HMO's, energy giants and agri-businesses.

George Bush and his party shamelessly describe their base as the "haves and the have-mores". They pretend to be the party of "family values" while their policies condemn more families to poverty. They pretend to believe in the "rule of law" while they dismantle the Constitution.

Which party better represents the core values of Bethel and of America ? That's for you to decide on election day.

David A. Stevenson

Bethel

[Note: Mr. Stevenson is a Democratic candidate for the Bethel Board of Education.]

· Rioters hurl petrol bombs and torch cars in capital
· Fear that riot will increase support for the far right

The Swiss capital of Berne was turned into a battle zone at the weekend when leftwing radicals seized control of the main square outside parliament, routing the main far-right political party two weeks before a general election and catching the Swiss police off guard.

If the fascists had won the battle they would have been characterized as strong and self-assured going into the election. 

I still don't believe that bombing Iran will be carried out by the Pentagon, because I don't think the Pentagon is fraticidal.

But they are moral cowards when it comes to carrying out the NeoCon agenda.

Frankly, I've been thinking for a while that Sy Hersh has been co-opted by the Pentagon propaganda machine.

He's trying to prevent the next escalation of Bush's global war by exposing the machinations which are leading up to it. He would be co-opted if he were only covering the Iraq occupation like a beat reporter while an even bigger disaster unfolds under his nose.

Last Friday NPR's Science Friday had a couple of experts talking about all the different types of biofuels. I was disappointed that the fact that biofuels still create CO2 as their byproduct, and that truly clean ways of producing energy like wind and solar weren't even mentioned.

The fix still seems to be in.