CA Secretary of State certifies flawed voting machines...

Just in time for the primary, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson grants conditional certification of Diebold voting machines in California. GuvWurld takes an in depth look at this announcement and points out the flaws of McPherson's addressing the flaws...

WMD?

There has been many a word written about the VP Cheney's recent shooting a man in the face 'incident'. Cartoonist Charlie Padow 'shows' it best in his So It Goes series.

Ohio GOP Wasteland - Update: Coin dealer and GOP fundraiser indicted...

Life is just getting worse for Ohio Republicans as Tom Noe is charged with stealing at least $1 million from a $50 million coin investment. This does not look good for the Ohio Republican Party in this an election year.

In recent years, Noe became one of the state's top fundraisers and personally contributed more than $105,000 to Republicans including Bush and Taft during the last campaign.

Republicans ranging from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the two GOP Ohio officeholders who are seeking the governor's job this year have given back Noe's donations or contributed the money to charity.

The landscape is grim... Gov. Bob Taft and two former aides plead to ethics charges. Congressman Bob Ney steps down from a leadership position because of his connection to LobbyGate master Jack Abramoff, Freshman Congresswoman Jean Schmidt narrowly wins against Democratic challenger, Paul Hackett in a heavy GOP district, only to be censured on the House floor for unpatriotic comments against Dem. Congressman, Murtha, a 3-decade, decorated Vet. And, of course, lingering questions and inaccuracies about the 2004 Presidential election results, all with a partisan GOP Secretary of State in charge. Ohioans must be reeling from these scandals, one after another.

McCain vs. Obama...

The corporate Media is making something out of nothing. It light of it being an election year, McCain's "disagreement" with Obama of campaign finance reform and lobbying ethics is a little nod and a wink to the GOP radical right. Josh Marshall at TPM alludes to this quite clearly. It is important for McCain to do his part for the GOP smear machine...

To recap, McCain's letter in response to Obama thanking him for including him in bipartisan discussions on lobbying reform but still expressing reservations on the GOP approach, noted:

"I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable... "Thank you for disabusing me of such notions."

Well, well? Difference of opinion? I assume that this is the process of "bipartisan" talks...

The great T-shirt threat

I loved this title from the San Francisco Chronicle regarding Cindy Sheehan's arrest at the SOTU Tuesday night for wearing a T-shirt. I retrospect, we should expect this type of stifling of free speech by BushCo. To be fair, they even kicked out the outspoken wife of a GOP Florida congressman for wearing a 'Support our Troops' T-shirt. But they did not arrest her.

"We will fight for democracy over there, so we don't have to fight for it here... "