While GM is hemoraging money and jobs at a dizzying rate they are persisting in pursuing a "head in the sand" policy.   I just noticed the new Hummer marketing campaign in which a dude, embarrassed bringing tofu and other "homo-food" through a grocery counter checkout line while behind him a "real man" is buying racks of ribs and other "man-food", runs directly to buy a hummer to restore his manliness.  Then the commercial brags that the H3 gets a whopping 20 miles a gallon...highway!   That is the problem with GM, it is run by the same stupid people who elected George Bush the Lesser.   Now comes word that hope may be on the way in the form of a Toyota buy-in    which would bring cash, technology and IQ.  Details below the fold.  

I have been having a running email debate with a rabid suppy sider who I will call "Mr. Supplyside".  In his most recent rebuttal to logic he used this blast of fairie dust:

"You really believe our deficit is $10 trillion dollars. Your lack of education is way worse than I thought. We are a $13 trillion economy and our deficit is 2.1% of that which is a LOT less than $10 trillion."

This disconnect with reality is why conservatives can drive the economy into the ground and trample our children's future.  Below the fold is my imperically correct attempt to straighten the record.  Of course I expect "Mr. Supplyside" to come back to me with more insanity.  But at least we know better.

A   FAUX NEWS poll fresh off the presses clearly indicates the luster is coming off the presumptive GOP POTUS nominee Senator John McCain.   As the mythical McCain is replaced with the candidate McCain his favorable rating has dipped to 49% versus 25% unfavorable.  Not only are these his worst numbers since the 2000 primary season, the favorable is considerably worse the Dems presumptive standard bearer, Senator Hillary Clinton.   It only figures to get worse: McCain is a great myth, but under the primary microscope the idea of an independant, bipartisan Republican is as mythical as a Minotaur.

First off, this is a question, not an answer.   Seymour Hersh may be the most respectable, reliable, resourced investigative reporter on the American Military-Industrial Complex today.   He has four decades of experience and connections so when I read his assertations   that the Pentagon is working up a nuclear gameplan for Iran at crisis status I believe him.   I think the Generals in the kitchen are cooking up detailed recipes to solve the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad problem.   The calculus makes sense.   This administration doesn't like middle eastern strongmen who hate America and the new Persian President keeps making statements and policy that literally sells itself as "crazy nuclear madman".  My question is why is this breaking now?   Are Hersh's Pentagon sources merely putting out a calculated news release from the PR firm of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush?

Tomas De Torqamada of the Spanish Inquisition would have had a tough time torturing logic more than  Douglas J. Besharov (same thing)of the American Enterprise Institute (same thing),  achieves in his essay "Poor America.  It is as if Jonathan Swift had written "A Modest Proposal" in all sincerity with not a hint of a tongue in his cheek.   Perhaps more frightening in this homage to conservative callousness is the fact that he uses a Census report that seems to echo his sentiment with flabbergasting inhumanity.

We know for sure that NBC has bought the MS out of MSNBC.  The name is going for sure and soon.  Now, the scuttlebutt is that the programming chief, whose love story with Matthews, Carlson and Scarborough hasn't garnered any Oscar or ratings buzz, is on a fast ride out.   Also making the rounds, they will dump live daytime news for all canned programming (probably adding a third shift of reruns).   We should all send MSNBC a message that if they want their reinvention to be a success they can start with us.   Below is the email that I sent to MSNBC

.  Please send them your progressive programming ideas as well.

Sure looks like alot of peoples didn't read the complete handbook before voting lately.   Unfortunately for those who didn't do their homework elections can have very bad results.   Perhaps everyone deserves to vote for their government but that doesn't mean they deserve a good outcome.   Hopefully the Pentagon will keep these cautionary tales in mind before they roll M-1A1s into Demascus with Diebold machines strapped to the radiators:

The word from EXXON today in a nutshell, bend over and share the lubricant.  In a statement today the worlds second most powerfull nation told the rest of the world that our "addiction" is uncureable so we better just get used to it.  Here is the unabridged version per Rueters:

Corruption and influence peddling are going to be the big issue this November at the polls and it is important that we, as Democrats, protect our moral high ground.   Governor Ed Rendell has painted himself into a horrible corner by taking over a hundred thousand dollars from a developer who is now the lead candidate for a slots license in Pittsburgh.  A Dem can't win PA without Allegheny County and Lynn Swann has a far better rep in Pittsburgh than Rendell, who has been a flop.   I've emailed his campaign, begging that they insulate themselves from this issue before the voltage gets cranked up.

So you get nervous when you see John McCain whomping Hillary's butt in 2008 Presidential Polls?   Well, apparently the hard righties don't see McCain as much of an alternative to the honorable Senator from NY.  Here, from the "Rightwingnews.com" are the results of a push poll done via email with a couple hundred "Republic" bloggers.    Turns out the Reds don't care any more for "Mr. Congeniality" than Pat Robertson does:

Thanks to all the SAHDs who helped with the online survey over the weekend.   It was unbelievable how many of you took two minutes to help put together a picture of our newest and most affluent demographic.   Tom Shiavo may have been "killed off" as a homedaddy yesterday on Desperate Housewives but this is a demographic that advertisers will be targeting in the future.   Over a hundred surveys came in during the couple hours after my post on Friday.  Even  John Zogby can't extrapolate a population number out of that but it shows me that there are a lot of ...

I have written a book about being a stay at home dad and the drastic shift this movement is making in our country.  My publisher has recommended that I add a chapter based on fresh information so I am conducting an online survey of SAHDs.   Okay, I apologize in advance for the fact that this topic isn't overtly political but I think it is of interest to a lot of KOS readers and it is important to our countrys future.  I would not be surprised if a lot of our most prolific posters are at home raising their kids or working from home with kids on their laps. This survey might give us a better idea.

I can understand why we at Kos are outraged about the NSA wiretaps but why aren't the Conservatives?  That fact is under King George we have become a police state with our every movement traced:

It seems that on further reflection Ohio state rep.  Danny Bubp doesn't want to be lynched on the same tree as his (former?) partner-in-shame US. Rep. Jean (I stole the election from a real war hero) Schmidt.   Schmidt, most notable for stealing jump-suits from Mary Lou Retton, displayed the balls we all suspected she had last Friday by taking the stump during the Republican's Cut & Run proposal.   Using the clever "I didn't say this but a real US Marine did" technique, she called our most distinquished Democratic hawk a "coward".   It was obvious that just about the entire assembly shit their pants that moment but the US Marine in question apparently has had a delayed-reaction bowel movement and is now disowning Mrs. Schmidt's meaning if not his words.

What many who did not listen to Rep. Murtha's manifesto have missed is the notion that Iraq's democratisation can not be won with continued American troop presence.   What doesn't fit on the news loop is the proposition that the presence of our troops makes any Iraqi democracy untenable.   Murtha finally understands that Iraq is not Vietnam and we can only acheive our noblest goal: a democratic Iraq, by pulling our troops out now.   Below the fold are the reasons that Iraq is not Vietnam and why withdrawl is the only Brave, Honorable and Patriotic thing to do:

I won't post a link to Drudge but the Right Wing Propaganda Minister has notified the sheep that Frist and Hastert will announce a bicameral hearing into the WaPo leak of CIA offshore prisons.   Not that they are concerned about kidnapping persons of interest and shipping them to offshore gulags where they can be tortured with no oversight...no they are aghast at the toll this information has had on the War On Terror.

It's time for all of us to notify our congress and senate that we are against having these Stalags, not the whistleblowers who would protect us from ourselves. (UPDATE) Here's a link to RAW STORY with the actual letter from Husky Und Fritz.

Moderate dems are saying Alito is not evil. That's not quite Harry Reid kissing Harriet Miers on the capitol steps but it is a clear visible symbol that Dems aren't rushing to demonize bushes SCOTUS pick.   Red State Survivor, Sen. Ben Nelson told reporters that he got assurances that Alito would not be a "judicial activist" or "take an agenda to the bench" if confirmed.   "He assured me that he wants to go to the bench without a political agenda,".  

With months before any hearings commence are Reid & Co. planting seeds in the Rightwing Blogosphere to insure Alito has to make his Roe ambitions black and white to the world?

I was going to post this on Jeromes outstanding energy thread however by the time I finished i wasn't talking about Montana, or even coal to oil technology.   What I was realizing was that at least two of Americas Democratic Governors are launching high profile energy initiatives that put the White House to shame and show how much traction we can make against the Oil Monopolists with a little public vision and money.  Could this be the tip of a coordinated Democratic Energy Policy that can win us big money and big votes in 2006 and 2008?