CENTRAL ILLINOIS CONNECTION TO UGLY STORY

The outstanding student who was killed @ Clemson is the Grandchild of some very nice people from Springfield. We're sorry for their pain. This is the third female student killed there in the last 14 years. Time for women to consider matriculating somewhere else.

MARINE DISCIPLINE

By now you all know the story. Marines are alleged to have killed some non-combatants after one of their buddies was killed by an explosive device of unknown origin.

Let's keep in mind that USMC is the best trained, best disciplined light infantry force in the world. No matter how angry they may have been, it is difficult to believe their platoon Sgt. would let them get that far out of control. So let's give them what they deserve: the presumpiton of innocence.

THE GOP ADMINISTRATION IS OUT TO CREATE MORE DEMOCRATS--BUT THE "SWIFTIES" WILL TRY AND STOP THEM

This is a bit of along read from our friends and MSNBC but it shows that the arrogance of the current powers structure is catching up to them AND what the Swifties really are--a bunch of GOP Ops, posing as a true "truth squad".

ARLINGTON, Va. - Thirty-seven summers ago, in the swelter of An Hua Basin, Marine Lt. James H. Webb saw more bloodshed and death than most people see in a lifetime.
Since his decorated tenure in Vietnam, Webb has added hitches as President Reagan’s Navy secretary, an Emmy-winning journalist and author of best-selling, military-suspense novels to his made-for-the-movies biography.
Why, then, suddenly run this year as a Democrat to unseat Sen. George Allen, a Republican former governor whom Webb endorsed just six years ago?


“When I look at where this administration has taken its own party, I cannot help but think about the pendulum of history,” Webb said. “The pendulum has swung, I think, as far as it can swing given the principles this party had once espoused.”
Webb says Allen is part of an arrogant Republican majority in Washington bent on repeating in Iraq the blunders that killed so many of his buddies in Vietnam a generation ago.
Fiscal governance complaints: He accuses President Bush, whom he backed in 2000, of betraying conservative fiscal governance by pushing the federal debt toward $9 trillion. He claims the GOP, his former party, and Allen in particular are Bush’s eager accomplices.
“We really need to get back to a time when the members of Congress will stand up to an administration that is abusing its constitutional privileges,” Webb said.
Allen campaign spokesman Dick Wadhams dismissed Webb’s criticism with a chuckle, a rhetorical question his only reply: “So is Jim Webb still a Democrat today or did he switch back over to being a Republican?”
Just three months into his first run for elected office, Webb is still learning how to be a candidate. He can seem ill at ease in a crowd; anger sometimes flashes through.
After the taping of a contentious television talk show in Norfolk with Webb and his rival for the Democratic nod, former technology industry lobbyist Harris Miller, reporters asked each if he would support the other as the nominee. The primary is June 13.
As Webb began his response, Miller interrupted. Webb glared at him.
“Harris, if you’ll shut your mouth, I’ll answer the question,” Webb snapped. “If you win, I will support you.”
A credible challenge on Iraq: Webb, 60, is powerfully built and square-jawed with a close crop of thick auburn hair, a mischievous grin and intense gray eyes. In a deliberate counterpoint to Allen’s trademark cowboy boots, Webb always wears buff-colored desert combat boots like those his son will wear as a Marine rifleman in Iraq this fall.
If he defeats Miller, Webb brings a credible challenge on the deadly Iraq conflict into the fall campaign against Allen, whose 2008 presidential ambitions could be ruined by a poor showing this November.
In Vietnam, Webb commanded a Marine rifle company in 1969 in some of the war’s bloodiest fighting. He was awarded two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars, the Navy Cross and the Silver Star.
“Thirty-seven years ago this week, over a two-week period of time, we were in about 12 battles and lost a lot of guys,” said Michael “Mac” McGarvey, a radio operator in Webb’s unit who lost his right arm to enemy fire. He’s now Webb’s wheel man, driving his camouflage-painted Jeep sport utility vehicle.
An illustrious career: In 1984, Reagan made Webb an assistant secretary of defense. The Naval Academy graduate became secretary of the Navy three years later, but he quit in 1988 rather than sign off on a budget-cutting move to downsize the Navy fleet.
Webb’s experiences informed six novels, including “Rules of Engagement,” which was adapted into a film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. In 2004, his first nonfiction book, “Born Fighting,” detailed the history of America’s Scots-Irish, including his own soldier-ancestors who fought in the Civil War.
Allen has no military service, but he’s prepared to take on Webb’s record if necessary. A top Allen adviser, Christopher J. LaCivita, was the mastermind behind Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Vietnam veterans who made unsubstantiated allegations challenging Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s record of wartime heroism.
Webb entered the race late—in February—betting that his portfolio, his shiny military record and his populist views would bring middle-class conservatives back to the Democratic Party.
A similar path to Gov. Warner’sIt’s comparable to the path popular former Gov. Mark Warner charted in 2001. The Democrat sponsored a NASCAR car, supported gun owners and promised jobs for downtrodden mill, mining and tobacco towns to win areas Allen and Bush dominated in 2000. Warner is exploring a 2008 presidential bid, and the architect of his gubernatorial triumph, Democratic strategist Steve Jarding, now runs Webb’s campaign.
Webb’s first challenge, however, is to win over more Democratic insiders and activists in the primary than Miller, 54, a 30-year party loyalist with deep ties to many key state Democratic leaders. Webb clocks his time as a Democrat in months.
Black Democratic legislators endorsed Miller, citing columns Webb wrote criticizing affirmative action. Retired Gen. Claudia Kennedy, the Army’s first three-star female general, endorsed Miller because of Webb’s long-ago writings and comments questioning women’s fitness for combat.
But mostly, Miller assails Webb’s Republican past, his endorsement of Allen over Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb and his criticisms of President Clinton.
“What didn’t Jim Webb like about the Clinton presidency, the peace or the prosperity?” Miller asks at almost every Democratic gathering.
Miller appeared to be closing in on the nomination until Webb got some outside help on May 11.
Five senior Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, had just endorsed Webb. Eleven of Robb’s former top aides forgave Webb for backing Allen and endorsed Webb. Warner hosted a $125,000 fundraiser for Webb.
Warner has also raised money for Miller and is neutral in the primary, but his appearance with Webb was a critical signal to Virginia Democrats that Webb is one of them.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: UPCOMING EVENTS

The next meeting of the Adams County Young Republicans, according to "upcoming events" is day before yesterday. If you hurry, you can be late.

DROOLING IDIOCY WITH A LOCAL FLAVOR: HASTERT, PELOSI AND FRIST AGREE AND ARE ALL WRONG

After Mr. 90 Grand in the Freezer Jefferson was the subject of a search of his Congressional office. Hastert went nuts (a relatively short journey), Pelosi Joined in and Frist, as always, opined. They all protested the incursion into the legislative branch by the executive branch (FBI). They all screamed "separation of powers". They skip the important fact that the third branch of government--the judiciary, whose job it is to decide these things--heard evidence and issued a search warrant for George Jefferson's office. What the Hell was the FBI supposed to do, just say "never mind"? A search warrant is a command from the court to go search a certain locale. That's what the FBI did. The republic will somehow hold itself together. The best way to handle this would be to have Congressmen stop committing crimes. What a concept!

THE STEALTH STATE REP. RACE, 94th DISTRICT: SUBTITLE "MR. MYERS, THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR"

While Chuckasaurus Rex was blocking out the sun, moon and stars, not to mention almost all the media, a funny thing happened. Rich Myers caught an opponent on the other side of the Legislative District. This race could be a grease fire for Myers.

Rich is a great guy. The folks around the collar of Macomb love him. If there's a family event such as a wedding or funeral, he's there.

He's also pretty good at constituent services.

Still, it's fair to say he's not a star and his minority party is so incredibly poorly positioned that he can't do much anyway. On his best day, he's a poor public speaker. Moreover, while people may like him, polls show ordinary citizens don't like "the legislature" or even "the government". He's both. At this stage, it appears the tendency among independent voters will be to vote the "ins" out, especially if they are republicans. Finally, and this is odd, his party's house committee is not raising much money. He probably won't be a featured race so there may not be a lot for him out of that pot.

Add to this that every time he's had a presentable opponent, he has just narrowly won. This despite one of his opponents having had some reputation problems and one having a geography problem. They still scared the beJesus out of him. And that was before some preposterous fiction writer on crack invented a John Sullivan.

While the free world is watching the Chucker's Oddesy (Also known as Larry Ehmen's Agonistes), democrats could shoplift the "other" seat.

ONE THE GREAT BEN FRANKLIN GOT WRONG: NEVER, EVER, CUT OFF YOUR BLOOD FOR ANY REASON!

This is from our friends at "Delancey Place". Almost every family has some of this. Avoid it at all costs. I think an analogy can be made to political parties as well. Amazing to think that a man so brilliant could have broken his own heart by such stunningly stupid and prideful behavior:

In today's excerpt, Benjamin Franklin becomes estranged from his son, William Franklin. William had grown up close to Ben and was his constant companion during their years together in London. Ben had helped secure William's appointment as Royal Governor of New Jersey, yet when the Revolution started, William had remained loyal to the King, creating a rift between the two that was never repaired. William was imprisoned during the war, released in a prisoner's exchanged in 1778, and after a lengthy period with no communication between them, wrote his father in 1784 to "revive the affectionate intercourse and connexion which till the commencement of the late troubles had been the pride and happiness of my life." (Blogger's note: here at least William displays some innate wisdom which he must have picked up from his philosopher father.)

Ben replied: " 'Nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me with such keen sensations as to find myself deserted in my old age by my only son; and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against me, in a cause wherein my good fame, fortune and life were all at stake." 'You conceived, you say, that your duty to your King and regard for your country required this. I ought not to blame you for differing in sentiment with me in public affairs. We are men, all subject to errors. Our opinions are not in our own power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible. Your situation was such that few would have censured your remaining neuter, though there are natural duties which precede political ones, and cannot be extinguished by them.'"Franklin underlined these last words...he could forgive (friends) for their political differences with him on the issue of allegiance to the Crown; family he could not....He did not accuse Loyalists as a group of waging war on him personally...but he so accused William. (blogger's note: here is where Ben blew his chance to be whole--he confused principles and family, thereby consigning himself to the emptiness of family separation. A bad call, especially when William was extending his hand.) He seems not to have considered that William might have leveled an analogous accusation against him. After all, Franklin was the rebel of the two."Ben and William met only once more, briefly and awkwardly, and remained estranged for the remainder of Ben's life.

H.W. Brands, The First American, Doubleday, 2000, pp. 645-6

NICK SCHOLZ, MAN OF STEEL.....

....Managed to hold a polyethylene sign up over his haid for 45 consecutive minutes while balanced on the edge of the fountain in Clat Adams Park without ever once putting it down or falling into the water. A truly amazing feat.

Oh, yeah, some guy with a beard announced he was running for State Rep., too.

THE NEW "MIAMI VICE"

Colin Farrell as Crockett? What, Pee Wee Herman wasn't available? This is taking that new "Guest Worker" thang to ridiculous extremes. Crockett was an SEC tough guy, not a life support system for abs.

I KINDA GET THIS FEELING THAT THIS IS NOT WHAT THE SUPREME COURT MEANT WHEN THEY SAID LAWYER ADVERTISING IS LEGAL

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/19/firm.indicted.ap/index.html

Rule of thumb in the practice of law: If your mother wouldn't approve of it, you probably don't want to do it.

INTERLEAGUE PLAY OR METH?

Which threatens the fabric of our society more critically? Meth merely gives dopers a specific substance to whack on. It would have been something else anyhow. Interleague play actually causes Cardinal and Cub fans to root for the Yankees, simply because they are playing the Mets.

Besides, Bud "the dud" Selig, we already had interleague play. It was called the World Freaking Series and it was based totally on merit. Only you, Bud baby, could water down the Fall Classic. So we can watch the Marlins play the Devil Rays? Puhleeeeeeeez!

MOVED UP FROM MAY 15: HALF STAFF TODAY--REMIND EVERYONE WHO FLIES OLD GLORY

MOVED UP TO FEATURE SOME EXPERT COMMENTARY

PEACE OFFICERS MEMORIAL DAY--GOD BLESS ALL WHO DIED FOR OUR SAFETY

YOU HAVE TIME TO DO THIS BEFORE CARLOS AND "THE BLONDE" GET MARRIED

This is kinda fun and doesn't require any identification. Rumor has it that the chairman of the county board had it timed out before he completed the ten questions, but that's another story.

My results surprised me. Maybe yours will too. Two different friends, a Lefty from Pittsburgh and and a flame-o righty from Atlanta tipped me onto this. Enjoy

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

PUTTING THE "SHALL" IN SOCIAL SECURITY

No, this is not a policy thread. It's a pronunciation thread. Listen to all the well educated commentators talking about saving the program and they say "So-security", leaving that second syllable completely out. Drives me totally bat-flop! So repeat after me "So-shall Security". There, that wasn't hard, was it?

17th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT PRECINCT COMMITTEEMAN MAIL-A-THON REPORT CARD

Without commenting on the merits of any candidate, I thought today would be a good day for a report card on their direct mail efforts. A nice lady committeeman lets me read her political mail. So, without further adieu (or "adon't") let's get to it:

BOLAND -- "B-" Frequency on the low side. Letters too long to read but well organized. No effort at geographic diversity;

HARE -- "C+" Letters too frequent. Every one of them requires a table of contents and an index. Tolstoy wrote shorter books than these letters. Ample grammos and typos. OTOH, excellent effort at showing support in all corners of the district.

MELLON -- "B+" Light on frequency but short, good optic attraction and white space. At least the reader will absorb his message on the way to the shredder.

SULLIVAN -- "B" Successfully fought the impulse to write the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin. Trying to strike the right balance between being a pest (Hare) and being light on frequency (Mellon)

SCHWIEBERT -- "B-" What he has sent has been good but his frequency is off. Composition and brevity have been good. Not sure the QC paper endorsement was a good idea for a mailer to, say, Calhoun County.

Schwiebert and Sullivan could earn "A" grades overall for the semester with a tasteful and effective closing kick. Hare's grade could go up if he'd either just quit or if he'd obtain a proofreader who is actually a native English speaker.

From just the mailers, you can see that Hare's strategy is to make himself look inevitable and indistinguishable from Lane Evans. Schwiebert is appealing to the higher governance instincts of committeemen he doesn't know (always a bad idea--armtwisting and dealmaking are the universal language of central committees). Sullivan is trying establish a sense of neighborliness with the "out" counties. Mellon' just introducing himself. Boland has never settled on just one strategy. He sort of landed on "electability" early, then switched to "accomplished legislator", then switched to "partisan leader". In my opinion, he could have benefited by testimonials about what hard electoral worker he is. He has taken his very best asset and put it in about the fourth layer of his communication.

Anyhow, I love to review political direct mail, so keep those cards and letters coming, boys.

FRENCHY VERSUS "THE OUTSOURCER"

Big litigation (Honest) over who owns the rights to the round, yellow smiley face. In one corner is "French Guy" and in the other "WalMart". This like watching Duke play North Carolina in the NCAA finals. A little hard to find somebody to root for.

ORACLE'S TOPPS ROOKIE CARD

"The Oracle" is usually used by the indiscriminate to refer to the Delphic Oracle. The best scholarship discloses at least two interesting things:

1. That particular Oracle was either an abducted Egyptian slave woman or possibly the daughter of such a woman who feigned wisdom to cover up her powerless and vulnerable status;

2. That particular Oracle related that Socrates was the most brilliant of all men, to which Socrates replied that all men were equally intelligent and equally ignorant and, if he had any intellectual advantage, it was that he realized how ignorant he actually was.

Of course, there's also a guy in the NBA who calls himself "Smoosh" too. No accounting for what people will choose to call themselves.

MONDAY MAYOR MUSINGS

Nothing against either man, but Mayor Schwiebert resembles Ed Smart. Is this intentional to pick up the Nauvoo vote?

YOU MUTHAH-BLOGGERS TAKE THE DAY OFF!

WE'LL CHECK THE TRAFFIC A TIME OR TWO BUT NO NEW MATERIAL MOTHER'S DAY--GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND MAKE MOM FEEL AS SPECIAL AS SHE REALLY IS!

17th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT COMMITTEE NOMINATING MEETING: PRECINCT COMMITTEEMEN AND ORPHEUS HAVE NOW LEFT THE BUILDING

Wonderful facility, Great Hosts (even met us on the side street and gave parking tips), Neat Building. A special thanks to the Galesburg Street and bridge department for routing us to the back parking lot by destroying the surface of Kellogg St.
No particular Shenanigans and very good parliamentary skills by the Chair. Six things of note:

1. Hare, Schwiebert, Mellon worked the door;

2. Hare had the best orchestrated standing "O" of the group--one, two, three, kick, everybody up, cue the balloon drop;

3. Mangieri had a reception for Hare afterwards;

4. Boland nominated Mellon (this is not a typo);

5. One Citizen stood up during the meeting and demanded the voting results be made public. The Chair agreed. The same guy then did a TV interview "demanding" that the results be made public. Either a hearing aid or a little less publicity hunger is in order for that fellow;

6. Schwiebert and Boland pledged their undying love and a new District Office to Macoupin County (That appears to me to be a virtual financial impossibility but it shows how much attention a County can get when it pledges to vote as a block and won't tell anyone for whom--damn good leadership!)

Fill in the blanks for the rest of it (NAFTA stole G'burg's jobs, I'm most electable because I beat the Creature from the Black Lagoon in the last election 75-25, I used to walk four miles uphill, both ways, to and from my log cabin to school, in the snow every day, I think outside the box because I can't find the box, Ronald Reagan was not good name for a Highway or a President, I vote pro-labor at least more often than Orrin Hatch, I love the Arsenal more than any of these other guys, I invented ethanol before Al Gore invented the itnernet.)

Actually the speeches were quite good. Mellon's speaking learning curve has been notable, Schwiebert and Boland marshall arguments very well, Sullivan just has a warm, personal style seasoned with a decent story-telling gift and Hare is just a good, old-time lefty red meat speaker.

All the while, Zinga is at an undisclosed location in Anger Management class. It'll never take. Andrea, you're no Amy Stockwell.

YOUR CALL: I JUST WRITE 'EM

A citizen in another blog has used the word "diatribe" to describe what is written here. Merriam Webster defines diatribe "a bitter and abusive speech or writing".

I just write about topics that catch my interest. Sometimes it's baseball. Sometimes it's social policy. Sometimes it's gasoline. I pretty much don't do journalism and I don't do gossip and don't do "who's in and who's out in the Cool Kids' Club." My purpose sometimes is just saying something that's on my mind, sometimes holding up for somebody who deserves it and sometimes it's to provoke thought. What the heck do I have to be "bitter" about? Nobody who knows me well would call me "bitter".

So if I write in a way that makes you angry, tell me. If you are not interested in what I'm saying, don't visit here. I do this pretty much as a hobby for me and some folks who encourage me to continue. Don't read me. No skin off my nose. This is not what I do for a living. This is not the site for you if you think pictures of someone on the crapper are either particularly entertaining or useful political discourse.

HELL, WE'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS AND WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT WAS PROGRESSIVE

This is from May 11 "Southern Illinoisan". Unusual they're all excited about it, but interesting

Cannabis law enforcement brings nearly $200,000 to Carbondale
by andrea hahn,

CARBONDALE - "Win-win-win" and "possession of cannabis" don't usually fit well in the same sentence, but in Carbondale a two-year-old city ordinance has proved there are ways to ameliorate a situation when a law has been broken. In March 2004, the city council passed an ordinance amendment allowing city court to try some cannabis and drug paraphernalia possession cases rather than referring them to circuit court.

In a press release issued Wednesday, Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole called the ordinance and cannabis law enforcement program a "tremendous success."Cole said city prosecution of 378 illegal drug possession cases from March 2004 until the end of April 2006 has brought nearly $200,000 to the city's general fund. "The numbers show that our efforts have been worthwhile," he said.Cole said the first part of the tripartite "winning scenario" is the city takes a firm stand against the use and sale of cannabis and drug paraphernalia. The minimum fine for breaking the ordinances is $250 with a maximum fine of $750. First-time offenders have the option of paying the minimum fine, or of paying a lower fine of $125 and completing 25 hours of community service work within 45 days. Assistant City Attorney Casey Parker, who handles the cannabis cases in city court, said the ordinance seems to prevent some people from repeating the offense - at least, within city limits."For some of them, especially some of the students, once they are fined, they don't repeat," she said. "Most of our repeaters are repeat offenders no matter what."Parker noted the fines in Carbondale are high - a good deterrent against repeat offenses. The trade-off is the city does not send anyone to jail. And for many people, that is worth paying a little more money. That, and the opportunity to have an offense listed as a city ordinance violation rather than a criminal misdemeanor. If an offender is eligible for court supervision, his or her record won't show even the ordinance violation, Parker said. "We try to give supervision if they are eligible for it," she said. Eligibility requirements include that a defendant not already be on supervision for another case, or not have a significant number of other violations or repeat offenses. Cole said that is the second part of the "win" scenario. Offenders at the lowest level of involvement - those in possession of less than 10 grams of cannabis - have "the opportunity to reconcile their actions against society without a lengthy court process and without the resulting possibility of a damaging criminal record," Cole said.Finally, sending minor cannabis and drug paraphernalia offenses to city court helps alleviate some of the burden from the circuit court system without overburdening the city. Cole said part of his goal in promoting the ordinance was for the city to answer "Jackson County's call for assistance in dealing with public safety costs"Jackson County State's Attorney Michael Wepsiec noted that skimming off the little offenses helps reduce the workload for his office and gives those with minor offenses a chance to keep a clean record."It cuts down on the crime lab's work load, too" he said, noting that prosecution of cannabis offenses requires official testing of the suspect substance by the state police crime lab. Offenders who admit breaking the law and go to city court - especially those first-time offenders who are eligible to use the city's pay-by-mail option - save the labs the trouble of proving the cannabis is cannabis. "The cases are intermixed with everything else," Parker said, adding that the addition of the cannabis cases is not overwhelming the city court docket."I'm very happy with the ordinance," she said. "There was a need for it."Parker said the need was communitywide. She said she was initially surprised by the age of many offenders, but has since gotten used to seeing repeat offenders over 35 years old."This is a program that fits within our communitywide policing efforts - it is not just something focused on young people or college students," Cole said. "I think it is fair to say that the 'win-win-win' scenario was accurate."

BONUS RANT -- SUPPORT YOUR SHERIFF AT HIS FUND RAISER: FROZEN TUNDRA AND THE SILLY NCAA

Before I turn in tonight I should bring two things to your attention. Tomorrow is the Sheriff's Golf Outing @ NATIVE AMERICAN NATURE WALK IN CAMP POINT. You don't have to play golf to help. Come out about five thirty (call and let them know you're coming) and eat a pork chop for whatever Fish's bargain price is. The Pig's already dead. Can't hurt anything.

Now for those of us committed to playing golf, keep in mind it's going to be Iditarod cold. One guy is going to wear shorts. DO NOT BE FOOLED. He wears shorts in freaking January! Dress in layers or they'll find your bleached bones out there around the fourth of July.

Finally, and this is really important: Indian Trails has just learned that its name is offensive to the NCAA and they cannot hold any college tournaments there. After a long talent search the NCAA found a guy who is one sixteenth Ho Indian living in Northern Idaho working at a convenience store who is deeply offended. He's never been in Camp Point and has no plans to visit, but he is very depressed about it. He has started taking antidrepressants. Unfortunately he was taking them from co-worker's purse so he no longer works at the convenience store.

As a consequence, there will soon be announced a naming contest to pick a new name for the golf course which is not offensive to Native Americans. I hereby reserve "Polish Paths" as my contest entry. My backup is "Mexican Meadows". By God, we gotta be sensitive here.

A TEXAS-SIZED REACH

This is a little strange but I'll try to explain it briefly. The City of San Antonio is suing the on-line booking services like Expedia and Travelocity for "lost" hotel tax revenues. The logic works like this: The services pay a wholesale amount for blocks of rooms; That's what the operator gets paid for the room. The services then mark the rooms up a little bit and book them on line. The difference between what the service pays for the room plus its costs of operation and what the operator gets paid is called "profit"; The money that actually lands in San Antonio is the lower, wholesale amount. that's what the property pays hotel tax on; San Antonio wants the services to cough up the tax on the difference between the wholesale and web-charged prices of the rooms, saying it lost something like 1.9M on the profit.

OK, that's a legal theory, I guess. If you're the attorney for the city, how do you prove that, but for the web service, the guest would be staying in San Antonio AT ALL? I'm guessing it would be easy for a hired propeller-head to create an economic model that shows the services actually ENHANCED the tax revenues of San Antonio. Now throw in the money those internet-enabled guests spend in beautiful Bexar County and you've got a wealth creation model. Hard case for the City to prove.

I mean, come on, You got a basketball team and a Burn Center (nobody really wants to have to go to a Burn Center). You moved the knifings off of the Riverwalk and the prostitutes out from in front of the Alamo, destroyed a historic golf course and built some overpriced bumpty-humpty-dumpty golf course resorts/developments. Just be glad you have people coming into your city and leave bargaining for room rates in the private sector.

Surely, there are some Repubs out there who agree with me on this one!

RECOMMENDED READING

I heartily recommend the Quincy Fire Blog for Responsible and thought-provoking commentary.

They are linked here and, while I may occasionally disagree with them, I'm convinced they do their dead level best to be responsible. Blogging is a "flip" medium and occasionally we all do things of which our mother may not have approved. It takes a responsible board to resolve any ambiguity about fairness and taste by taking the questioned post down.

I also appreciate the several now off-the-record visits QF has recently made in here.

Continued success!

LEGISLATIVE VACANCY DERBY: THE BIGGEST LOSER

If you're one of the handful of people who hasn't yet heard. There's soon going to be a vacancy in the State Legislature from this area. Names are flying about but I haven't heard anybody identify the person with the most to lose in the whole exercise.

Listen closely: That huge sucking sound is money and volunteers zipping from the Jon McCoy campaign into defending what could have been a safe seat for two more terms.

Whoever runs for that legislative office this time is gonna be "flavor of the month" for Repubs. The traditional givers would rather have the ear of a legislator than a Sheriff. To be sure, Jon's got his own cadre of friendlies but this is going to hurt him.

WE'RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT. WE'RE HERE TO HELP

If you a senior and you have not made your incredibly complex Medicare Part D decision by May 15, you will be declared an "enemy combatant" and sent to Guantanamo or quail hunting with Uncle Dick.

Another step in the Compassionate Conservative approach.

DATE-STAMPING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

Doctor, I get these terrible headaches.....

First, the president pre-dates, antedates, post-dates (I never can get these right: Why is a check written on the first of the month, to be cashed on the tenth "Post-dated"when it's actually been freaking "pre-dated"?) the Cinco de Mayo. Then, the Adams County Young Republicans list under "Upcoming Events" in their website something in the middle of April. Boys and Girls, that was last month.

Does that make Bush progressive and the ACYRs regressive? It's kinda like the modified Bible Verse "For everything, there used to be a season..."

Note to YR's. Call it a "Calendar of Events" and then it doesn't matter if it's not current. It's a historical document.

MAKING 'EM DEFEND A LOT OF TURF

This came the other day from my friends at DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA.

For some reason, the pictures of these candidates didn't copy well. They are very presentable. Busby could be the shock of the year and shoplift Cunningham's seat. It's a bit of a long read but we should be both encouraged and warned by it. We get cocky and think that far lefty can win the 17th CD and we could lose a "safe seat" here. It's an argument Mayor Schiewbert and Senator Sullivan are making, and they are not wrong.



Dear Tony,

A blank check. A rubber stamp. A culture of corruption. These shouldn't be the first things that jump to mind when asked about Congress. But that's exactly what our Republican-led legislature has become. Democracy for America members are fighting back. Together, we're making races competitive that were out of reach for Democrats two years ago. This is a different strategy -- we're running great candidates everywhere and we're not ceding a single district to Republicans.

Let me tell you about three of those great candidates.

As you probably know, Francine Busby is running for convicted Republican Duke Cunningham's open seat in southern California. A few weeks ago, Francine took a commanding first place in the primary. Now it's on to the special election on June 6. Francine is just the type of leader who can change the tone in Washington. A win in this district in June will send a signal across the country that bigger changes are coming in November.

National Republicans are desperate to keep this House seat, and they will do everything they can to slander Busby during the final four critical weeks of this race. They are flooding the district with despicable attack ads and Francine needs your help today to fight back:
https://contribute.democracyforamerica.com/candidates#busby
If we're going to take control of Congress, we're going to have to defeat some incumbents. In New Jersey, Linda Stender is running against a Rubberstamp Republican who needs to go. Linda's already racked up endorsements from Emily's List and New Jersey for Democracy. Now, she's got DFA on her side too.

Grassroots activists from across New Jersey have been flooding the 7th Congressional District for months. And Assemblywoman Stender has done a terrific job raising money and building momentum. Please do you your part and help her today:
https://contribute.democracyforamerica.com/candidates#stender

It's hard to imagine a Congressman more embarrassing than John Sweeney of the New York 20th Congressional District. In addition to voting in lock-step with President Bush, enjoying ski trips with lobbyists, accepting thousands of dollars from Tom DeLay, and partying at college fraternity houses on the weekends, John Sweeney's found time to try to privatize Social Security and give away billions to the oil industry.

Thankfully, Kirsten Gillibrand is everything that Sweeney is not. She's smart, ethical and will represent Upstate New Yorkers with the honor and dignity they deserve.
Kirsten has deep Democratic roots in New York, and she'll be a public servant in Congress who voters can trust. Last cycle, the Democratic nominee in this district raised less than $35,000. Kirsten has already raised more than 20 times that amount -- giving John Sweeney the biggest scare of his career. Let's help Kirsten bring dignity back to Washington, DC:
https://contribute.democracyforamerica.com/candidates#gillibrand

Two years ago at this time, the pundits had already announced the winners in these three districts. Today, they are all in play. That's because of you. You've adopted the strategy of competing everywhere. And because we're running everywhere this year, control of Congress is in play. Thanks for all that you do. And thank you for helping Francine Busby, Linda Stender and Kirsten Gillibrand in any way you can.

All the best,
Jim DeanChair

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BETH TWITTY HERE TO EDUCATE US: FOOTNOTES

I'm very sorry Beth Twitty has been through what she's been through with her daughter Natalee Holloway. Still, I could have thought of about three thousand better speakers on child security. Let me suggest a couple of footnotes to Beth's remarks, which she is free to incorporate.

1. Graduation Trips should be limited to a civilized destination in the United States (Gulf Shores, Any State's Capital, Ft Lauderdale, Corpus Christi all would have workd) instead of leaving the country for HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION;

2. Have a Supervisory system in place that prevents teenagers from going into predatory night clubs like Carlos 'n Charley's;

3. Have and enforce a Buddy System with teeth. If your buddy drinks or ditches you, you're both going home early.

4. Chaperones do aperiodic, unannounced cell phone checks, must talk to both "Buddies";

5. Chaperones have room key cards, can do routine and unannounced curfew/room checks (must be paired up male/femael for this.)

While I'm sorry for both Ms. Twitty and Mr. Holloway, this is no time for her to pretend to be a security consultant and no time for him to be flacking a book. To some extent--and I admire her sponsor here--her host got "took".

QUATRO de MAYO?

It is a measure of the presidential administration's attention to detail that they held the Cinco de Mayo celebration on fourth of May.

IF I HEAR ONE MORE FREAKING GASBAG REPUB SENATOR SAY

"Gas prices are just a result of supply and demand"

I'm gonna hurl!

I think Senator Kyl from Arizona had a peanut butter and ethanol sandwich before is disjointed, nonsensical remarks. Fortunately for him, Dr. Frist actually made him look less bad. Has there ever been a politician more disconnected from the American People than Frist? Maybe Strom Thurmond in a coma.

If we don't take the Senate away from these insensitive boors, we should be horsewhipped.

TAKING CARE OF YOUR FRIENDS, ROUNDABOUT WAY

From our friends @ Delancey Place:

In today's excerpt, managing Winston Churchill was a constant challenge for Franklin Roosevelt, George Marshall of the United States military policy leaders during WW II. They needed his support, but he was given to proposing unsound and distracting strategies. The United States was helped, though, by the calming, reasonable presence of Sir John Dill, Churchill's liaison to the United States. There inevitably came the time that Churchill became frustrated with Dill and wanted to replace him, something that created great concern for General Marshall, who came up with an innovative way to keep Dill in office:"Marshall suggested (to Secretary of War Stimson's special assistant Harvey Bundy) that getting Dill 'an honorary degree from your old friends at Harvard would impress the old man in England.'Bundy tried but failed; Harvard would grant no quickie degrees nor call a special convocation to present an honorary doctorate.'Try Yale,' Marshall ordered.As an old Eli, Bundy felt more secure. But even his alumnus status could not circumvent the problem of granting a degree without a ceremony. Instead, the university's president, Charles Seymour, proposed Dill be named the first winner of the Charles P. Howland Award for contributions to international relations. Seymour offered to lay on a full-dress academic parade for the ceremony, and the Army's public relations staff arranged extensive press coverage. Marshall went on to line up other degrees for his friend, always making sure that the publicity crossed the Atlantic.Six weeks later, a smiling Marshall informed Bundy, 'My underground tells me that the Prime minister said, 'You know, that fellow must be doing quite a job.' ' The honors-laden Dill would stay on.

Ed Cray, General of the Army, Cooper Square, 1990, p. 447