Phoenix Woman

This has me gobsmacked. Remember how Bush and McCain were having trouble getting more donors than protesters to show up at their recent Arizona shindigs? Michelle Obama didn't have that problem: While the staffs of the president and of Arizona's sitting senator scrambled to find smaller gathering spaces, Michelle Obama, stumping in Phoenix, McCain's hometown, filled a large banquet room just around the corner from where the Republicans originally planned their event -- many of the Obama donors driving through the Bush-McCain protests on their way to hear the Democratic candidate's wife speak.

HuffPost's Max Blumenthal reports that even after John McCain has finally rejected bigoted preacher John Hagee, his good friend Joe Lieberman is still embracing the guy and all he stands for: "Senator Joseph Lieberman is scheduled to headline Pastor John Hagee’s 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit this July 22. In accepting Hagee’s invitation, Lieberman became the most senior elected representative confirmed to appear at the annual gala. Last year, when Lieberman spoke at Hagee’s summit, he compared the Texas televangelist to the biblical prophet Moses, dubbing him 'an Ish Elochim,' or 'a man of God.' Unless he rescinds his pledge to appear at this year’s summit, Lieberman can be expected to deliver another soul-stirring tribute."

Most of you have no doubt heard about the FBI’s plan to get informants to infiltrate vegan potlucks in the Twin Cities area to hunt down those evil liberal hippies plotting violence for the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, even though there’s no evidence that the hippies are actually plotting violence — though there are recorded incidents where the moles in these groups were the ones inciting violence.

With $4.00 a gallon gas staring us in the face -- and the near-certainty of $5.00 a gallon gas before the summer is over -- here are some tips for those of you who are considering pedaling instead of driving to work.

Here are some things that Republicans can get away with that Democrats can't: 1) Having wives who wear corsets and garters while posing in front of a four-poster bed and who sell products called "Blo and Go". 2) Claim that their great hero did something everyone knows he did.

John Sidney McCain III is pushed by the adoring GOP/Media Complex as a non-elitist man of the people, despite his being from a prominent family of Mississippi plantation owners and Navy brass, and his being married to a woman worth over $100 million. Likewise, John Sidney McCain III uses wind plants for photo-ops even though his staffers are working with Big Coal and other anti-wind interests backing astroturfed NIMBY groups.

It's spring up here in the Northern Hemisphere! With spring comes rains, if we're lucky (sometimes too much rain, if we're not lucky), and then flowers. Even in the city we find flowers in the oddest places, such as underneath a stairwell. Even in the city, gardens and farms can grow.

You'll have to excuse the mess, folks. My head just exploded. John Sidney McCain III just lied away the existence of the Iran-Contra scandal, and the press took him at his worthless word, preferring to save their outrage for Barack Obama, who had inadvertently dared trespass into sacred Bush territory and given a reporter a Bush-like nickname.

First, there was Doug Goodyear, who'd been tapped by the McCain campaign to oversee the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul this summer but quit after his paid lobbying for Myanmar was discovered. Next, there was Doug Davenport, who quit his job with the McCain campaign after his lobbying for the Myanmar junta was discovered. Now, we find that Senator Norm Coleman and Congressmember Michele Bachmann have their own Myanmar ties.

Tonight at FDL I'm inviting Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar to come over from their cable-access station in Aurora, Illinois to bring their cable-related expertise to bear on the interesting situation of The Weather Channel, which is looking to get big bucks selling itself to a new owner even as it tries to suppress the news of their having lost a sexual-harassment suit against them. Take it away, Wayne and Garth!