The Democrats are about two steps away from the Reality TV business.

The 2006 elections will be an opportunity for Democrats. For the first time in many years, Democrats have a strong chance to win majorities in both houses of Congress. Forward Together PAC has already contributed to more than 50 campaigns in more than 30 states. Now we are opening up the process.

You can help us choose the next group of candidates we’ll support. We are looking for fresh faces with fresh ideas - and for solutions-oriented Democrats with a focus on the future - candidates who will help us change the political map. Which candidates are you supporting? Register below and tell us who your Map Changers are!

The first round of voting runs through June 13. The top votegetters thee will advance to a second round (voting from June 14-25), where the top ten will receive a $5K contribution from the PAC. Finally, there will be a third election (June 26-July 4)to determine two final winners, each of whom will get a fundraiser thrown by Gov. Warner.

And the winner is the guy running against Tom Tancredo:

“After an exciting few weeks the MapChangers contest has come to a close. More than 9,000 people voted over the course of the contest, casting 18,500 votes. In a very close third round and after hard-fought final day of voting, Forward Together PAC is excited to declare Colorado’s Bill Winter the winner of our MapChangers Grand Prize.”

“A Fighting Dem, Bill is running in Colorado’s 6th district against controversial Republican Tom Tancredo. The Winter campaign ran a spirited campaign and had tremendous success in turning out their online supporters to bring them to victory. Governor Warner congratulates all eleven MapChangers: Chris Bell (TX-Gov), John Courage (TX-21), Diane Farrell (CT-04), John Laesch (IL-14), Jerry McNerney (CA-11), Patrick Murphy (PA-08), Nancy Skinner (MI-09), Stephanie Studebaker (OH-03), Jon Tester (MT-Sen), Jim Webb (VA-Sen), Bill Winter (CO-06). The online mobilization skills those campaigns developed for the contest will be helpful all the way to election day.”

I’m reading down a bit further, and I see this gem:

Last Friday night I attended a benefit for the Douglas County Women’s Crisis & Family Outreach Center. It was a dinner called “The Empty Bowl” at the Douglas County Events Center. There were several hundred people there to raise money to help protect women from domestic violence. It turns out that domestic violence against women is rampant in Douglas County, which suggests to me that it is likely a problem all over Congressional District Six and America.

Santa Fe County suffers from outbreaks of bubonic plague; you remember, that “Black Death” thing. This suggests to me that it is likely a problem all over Congressional District 3 (NM) and America. But I digress. . .

As the program for the evening said, “Domestic violence is not a private matter. It is a national, state, and foremost, a community issue. Domestic violence affects not just victims, but neighbors, coworkers, relatives, partners and friends. It crosses all age groups, all ethnic groups, all socio-economic groups, and all genders. The consequences of domestic violence know no boundaries.” Surely domestic violence is something we could all agree is a bad thing that we should fight against.

So I looked around to see if Congressman Tancredo was in attendance. He was not, but then that’s not surprising. Did you know that Mr. Tancredo was one of only FOUR members of the U.S. House of Representatives, out of 435, to vote AGAINST re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act? This act is designed to reduce violence against women and contains important laws that protect women. What kind of man would vote against something like that? He can’t even say he voted a party line, because with 431 House members voting yes, and only 4 saying no, it’s clear that this was a non-partisan issue.

I don’t read minds, so I can’t say why Mr. Tancredo voted against this bill. Does he SUPPORT violence against women? That may be going too far, but I do think it’s safe to say that he isn’t particularly bothered by violence against women. I don’t think he really cares about violence against women. And I don’t think that really reflects how the people of Congressional District Six really feel about this important issue!

I am bothered by violence against anyone, and I will stand up for the right of women to be free from violence in their lives. If you agree with me on this important issue, I hope you will support my campaign and make a donation of whatever size you can afford right now!

So Bill Winters is against domestic violence, violence against anyone in fact? Maybe he could get in touch with one of his fellow “Mapchanger” contestants, Stephanie Studebaker. I’m certain that Bill could help out Steph and her husband, it’s a moral imperative almost.

Help me, Bill Winters!

Yup, it seems ol’ Steph and her husband enjoy going a few rounds now and again.

“This is Jim Studebaker. I’m in Union Ohio. I just got an emergency call from my son. Whose wife Stephanie is attacking him at the moment.” Studebaker then gives the couple’s address.

“There is a history of her breaking a rib once. She has a history of alcohol abuse and domestic violence.”

“She’s very physical.”

“He called me…(unintelligible)..She was attacking him and I didn’t think he would be able to get on the phone to you. He asked us to call you.”

“Send someone to go right away because she is extremely violent.”

Maybe Bill can find out for us how Steph would have voted on the Violence Against Men act?

After an inspiring speech to a crowd of rowdy activists, Congressman Peter DeFazio, a champion against the MAI in Congress, delivers a blow to the “Corporate Fat Cat!”

Um, power to the people, or something.

The latest PSP is bringing up a ton of controversy for the following ad being run in Europe.

PlayStation Portable. White is coming

The Guardian Unlimited’s Games Blog tries a broadside with the following:

It’s questionable, however, whether the world is ready to explore themes of race and domination in the context of a videogame console ad. Although not as wilfully controversial as Benetton’s infamous ‘United Colours’ campaign, many viewers will be unwilling or unable to decode the imagery until it becomes about two different colours of plastic.

Importantly perhaps, the ads are for the European release of the white PSP and are appearing on billboards in Amsterdam rather than in the US where racial tension remains a fraught issue.

This is why I want to write for the Guardian. It would be great to post things without having to bother about that pesky, “Jives with reality on planet earth” thing. This was classic, “Thank God they’re doing this in Europe, and not with those racisit Troglodytes in America.

To wit I respond, “soccer”.

MSNBC:

Claims of racist abuse targeting players at the World Cup emerged hours after FIFA and local organizers promoted the “Say No to Racism” campaign on Wednesday.

France coach Raymond Domenech said black players were taunted as they entered the stadium before their second-round match against Spain at Hanover the previous night.

“When the bus arrives at the stadium, when you hear some fans making monkey chants … I just turned my head away,” Domenech said in Hameln. “I don’t even give them the satisfaction of a look.”

USA Today:

In Germany and several other European nations, crowds shower minority players with racial insults at times. Several of the U.S. team’s African-American players who compete professionally in European leagues say they have been targets of discrimination and verbal and even physical abuse because of their race — on and off the field. There are concerns about how racial incidents might affect the World Cup in Germany, where the 32-team tournament begins June 9 and will be held in 12 cities.

*snip*

“You just ignore it, because whenever you react, that provokes them to do it more,” says Onyewu, 24. “I know it’s not the majority, it’s a minority of people. … I can’t tell you why it started or why it still exists. I just know it exists in Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain … you name it.”

*snip*

An anti-racism group in Germany is so concerned that it has warned non-white World Cup visitors to avoid rural towns and villages outside Berlin, in the formerly communist eastern part of the country.

And just to drive the point home, US Soccer player Eddie Pope:

Making monkey noises at an NBA game or NFL game? It would be ridiculous

Soccer breeds racism. Abolish soccer.

Even without the soccer-inspired racism, there’s still all that North-African and Middle Eastern racism. Remember folks, nothing going on in Europe is about Islam. Therefore, if it isn’t about religion, it must be about race, right?

Let’s go look at those “tolerant” folk in the Netherlands.

Theo Van Gogh was unavailable for comment.

What about France?

No racial tension here.

Great Britain?

A HIGH COURT judge condemned the Government yesterday for failing to fund Britain’s prisons adequately after ruling that a catalogue of failures had led to the murder of an Asian inmate by his racist, psychopathic cellmate.

Guess not.

Oh well Europe, if it makes you guys feel any better (until you get butchered or your property goes up in flames) to stick your head in the sand and pretend that the US is the center of “racial tensions” in the world, rock on. We really don’t mind, since we’ve come to expect your smug condescension and superiority, coupled with a total inability to handle your own problems. How very Europe of you.

Steve Terrell is a good guy. I don’t care what anyone else says, he’s a good guy.

He relays the following from some leftist New Mexican PAC (find it yourself, no traffic for you, NM leftists):

“The Black Balloon Fiesta represents a new mode of peaceful political action,” the site says. “In an era when progressives are, for whatever reasons, less inclined to take to the streets and protest, PAC505 is formulating new ways of providing them with a unified voice.”

Losing stinks, doesn’t it? I mean, back in the day you guys could get out there with your chants and your signs and meet 19 year chicks eager to…get back at mommy and daddy. Nowadays? Not so much, huh.

Then again, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for nobody showing up at your little shindigs. I got it! It’s tough finding enough wheelchair accessible busses for all those geriatrics from the ’60s. And if the college whackjobs decide to get all, “Bush lied, kids died” their parents would want to come to the rally too. And what twenty-year old kid wants to be seen in public with his tye-dye wearing mom?

Anyhoo, I think we haven’t celebrated enough Zarqawi’s death, because the leftists haven’t gotten unhinged enough over it. Let’s crank it up a notch. (H/T Irish Elk). Bonus Question: Is that Jesse Macbeth’s uniform?

Mother Sheehan shows her concern for those who serve our country. (H/T: Beth’s minion John.)

Support the troops? I support only those who are NOT supporting the exploitation of the Iraqi people, and those who do not allow the war profiteers to carry on with their death and destruction all for the sake of an opulent lifestyle. I do not support those who are supporting a criminally insane and treacherous foreign policy.

I guess that’s why it took her so long to get Casey a headstone.

From the U.S. Army Ranger Association

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the saga of Jesse MacBeth, the Wendy’s employee who claimed to have been an Iraqi-slaughtering Army Ranger. Personally, I’m waiting for Dan Rather to turn up a memo from his former CO, Dave Thomas, ordering him to commit the atrocities he detailed in some left-wing “documentary”. In any event, the thing had barely hit the internet when military folks started sending up all sorts of red flags. Folks who know about such stuff started poking all sorts of holes in MacBeth’s story based on how he wore his uniform in what was supposed to be an official photo. The short form is, the “uniform” he wore looked like something thrown together for an Andy Sidaris flick.

Jesse MacBeth

My question is, why did you people go to all that trouble? I didn’t even have to think about how his sleeves were rolled, or how he wore his beret, or anything of that nature. Heck, all I had to do was listen to his “testimony”.

Here’s an excerpt from a transcript, provided by The People’s Voice, or something:

Once I was in Baghdad, once I got there, my whole aspect of the country changed. When we were in Kuwait we got debriefed about our missions, about the Rangers. Our job over there is to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqis. That is what they told us. They said do whatever it takes. We’re not going to hold anything against you, you’re not going to get charged for anything. Do whatever it takes to make them fear you; they told us to be brutal. They said we’re not there for them. We’ve got our own purpose. The Geneva Convention, it doesn’t mean crap. The Geneva Convention is something for political crap.

Ok, let’s go past the fact that you get “briefed” before you go to do something and “debriefed” after you’re done doing it; the words are almost interchangeable nowadays to some. Let’s look at something else Jesse said.

Our job over there is to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqis.

Take another look at this guy.

Our job over there is to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqis.

Riddle me this, was the A/V Club already deployed? Could they not scrape up a Girl Scout Troop to send to Baghdad? Somebody in the Pentagon said, “What can we do to really make those Iraqi’s fear us? I got it, send that Jesse MacBeth guy over! After the Chess Club and the SCA, he’s our last line of defense!” And then someone hit a big red button or something?

Come on, look again:

Our job over there is to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqis.

Who on earth is going to be afraid after getting a look at this guy? Ok, ok, besides, “I’m afraid I might pass out from laughing so hard.” Really, you leftists must believe the Pentagon Halliburton is just a bit craftier than this, don’t you? Come on, you gotta believe we’ve got some really super scary Ranger/Seal/Recon ninjas that we could call up for missions like this. Maybe you guys need to watch an Andy Sidaris film or two and concentrate on the gunfights and explosions and not on the…you know…other stuff.

The documentary Jesse MacBeth was interviewed for was carried on a website called Socialist Alternative; I checked the site. While looking it over, I think I found Jesse an opportunity to be involved in another project they’ve put together.

It’s one thing to be stupid. It’s something else entirely to be painfully stupid. Or an America-loathing leftist terrorist-enabler. The Washington Post goes for the trifecta:

The Bush administration is holding a number of terrorism suspects incommunicado in secret prisons abroad without due process or even notification of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and some detainees have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This is a gross violation of international law and American values, and it’s essential to our democracy that such an exceptional policy be subject to public debate. Maybe disclosure of the prisons damaged national security — the CIA has offered no evidence of that — but it’s hard to imagine what could be more damaging than the existence of the system itself.

Here, let me help you imagine:

Waddya think, WaPO, could this possibly be a bit worse for our national security? You hippies are all into visualising, right? Visualise with me here:

It’s one thing to be stupid. It’s something else entirely to be painfully stupid.

Just got this from the Lair of the Catholic Caveman:

In an exchange with Florida Congresswoman Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen on the HBO program “Real Time with Bill Maher” (big shocker there, huh?) Law & Order’s Richard Belzer claims that he knows more about war than the troops that have a combat tour already under their belt.

Ya know what, Rich? You don’t know enough about being an overly white, weird TV cop. In other words, James B. Sikking knows more about being a TV cop than you do. Is Law and Order the closest you’ve gotten to a firearm in your life?

Fake fake cop

Real fake Cop

This just in: water is wet, sun rises in east!

Josef Stalin once asked, “How many divisions does the Pope have?” I guess he’s got eternity to ponder that one.

Quick answerto that one, Joey, “Enough to bury your totalitarian fiefdom.”

According to Reuters:

Leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981, an Italian parliamentary investigative commission said in a report.

A final draft of the report, which is due to be presented to parliament later this month, was made available to Reuters on Thursday by the commission president, Senator Paolo Guzzanti.

“This commission believes, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul,�? the report said.

“They relayed this decision to the military secret services for them to take on all necessary operations to commit a crime of unique gravity, without parallel in modern times,�? it said.

The report also says “some elements�? of the Bulgarian secret services were involved but that this was an attempt to divert attention away from the Soviet Union’s alleged key role.

A 36-page chapter on the assassination attempt was included in a wider report by parliament’s Mitrokhin Commission, which probed the revelations of Vasili Mitrokhin, a senior Soviet archivist during the Cold War who defected to Britain in 1992.

The Pope was shot in St Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981 by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who was arrested minutes later and convicted of attempted murder.

At the time of the shooting, events in the Pope’s Polish homeland were starting a domino effect which was eventually to lead to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.

The Pope was a staunch supporter of Poland’s Solidarity union and most historians agree he played a vital role in events that led to the formation of the East Bloc’s first freely elected government and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Do you have a cat you want to share with us all? email Der_Tommissar at goowy dot com

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From a ton of sites all around the blogosphere:

The University of Washington’s student senate rejected a memorial for alumnus Gregory “Pappy” Boyington of “Black Sheep Squadron” fame amid concerns a military hero who shot down enemy planes was not the right kind of person to represent the school.

Student senator Jill Edwards, according to minutes of the student government’s meeting last week, said she “didn’t believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce.”

Ashley Miller, another senator, argued “many monuments at UW already commemorate rich white men.”

Senate member Karl Smith amended the resolution to eliminate a clause that said Boyington “was credited with destroying 26 enemy aircraft, tying the record for most aircraft destroyed by a pilot in American Uniform,” for which he was awarded the Navy Cross.

Smith, according to the minutes, said “the resolution should commend Colonel Boyington’s service, not his killing of others.”

Dear Senator/Congressman _______________,

I am writing you to express my strong support for the return of the draft. I strongly urge you to do everything in your power for this to come back into being.

It is my understanding that in the past it was claimed that the draft disproportionately affected the poor and minorities. I further understand that a reason for this was due to draft deferments being given to those in college. In my plan, there would be no burden for the poor at all. I want those drafted to be selected only from the ranks of our college students. Since it appears that the poor do not go to college, they will not be subject to the draft at all.

Now I know you guys love having loopholes in everything, so I know that you would want to have some sort of deferment built into this new draft. I have thoughtfully provided for this. You may provide draft deferments for any student whose major does NOT contain the words “Studies” “Art(s)” “Theory” “Womyn” “Queer” or “Social”. In other words, please put students with those majors at the top of the list.

Oh, and don’t forget grad students. Make sure you get grad students in there too.

I know another objection is the affect that conscripts could have on the combat capability of our current units. I do not suggest you place any of these draftees in any type of a combat role. Lord knows I wouldn’t trust those kids with a staple gun let alone an actual weapon, nor would I expect our military to do so either. Aren’t there latrines that need to be dug in Afghanistan? Don’t we have sandbags that need to be filled, or concrete mix that needs to be spread? This has the added benefit of working around those pesky “conscientious objector” types. My only recommendation would be to keep these individuals away from anything dealing with food or water, given the average level of hygiene displayed by this subgroup.

In order to lower the expenses for these new recruits, and to give them some valuable experience amongst diverse cultures, I heartily recommend they be made to spend each night among the indigenous peoples. Since this type of student loves to learn about other cultures, let them sleep in a strict Islamic culture each night. Who says the draft can’t be educational? Of course, additional security would have to be in place when these soldiers reenter our military facilities.

In an effort to stress their noncombatant role, I believe these drafted individuals should be given pink uniforms and referred to as the “Pink Corps” or pinkos. As an American, I think it is time we put the pinkos to work for our security.

Finally, I would like to bring up the delicate subject of our “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For the purposes of our draftees, I believe this will need to be changed to, “Don’t Ask, Really Don’t Care”. There will be a number of students who claim to have alternate sexual proclivities in an effort to dodge the draft. Anyone who has studied deconstructive literary theory can tell you, however, that in reality these are the people most eager to serve! I ask only some tolerance for them as they seek to fulfill their obligations with dignity and honor. Some of these folks might also provide video or photographs of such alternative acts prior to induction. The only fitting thing to do with such material would be to distribute them to the locations where those individuals would be living and working in Iraq and Afghanistan. After all, diversity is a two way street! It will be just one small way in which these people will bring tolerance across the globe.

War zones, as we all known, are very dangerous places. A number of the people drafted may sadly never return. However, that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.

Sincerely,

Name

PS Support the Naval ROTC Detachment at UW!

H/T to the Curt Jester for reminding me about this story:

Australian Greens senator Kerry Nettle has apologised for any offence caused by a T-shirt she wore during the abortion pill debate but says she will not step back from its message.

Senator Nettle wore the T-shirt emblazoned with the message: “Mr Abbott get your rosaries off my ovaries” earlier this week as the Senate started an emotion-charged debate over who should have power of approval over the RU486 abortion pill.

Kerry Nettle

Don’t forget to vote!