This hits close to home....

I was always told when growing up: "If you lay with dogs, you're gonna get fleas." Rep. Tom Feeney for FL-24 has worse than the fleas, he's got full blown mange. The Congressman has been asked by FBI agents for information about his dealing with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Others that have been asked that same question include imprisoned former Congressman Bob Ney, and indicted former House Majority Leader Tom Delay.
This story brings me a personal sense of satisfaction, because Rep. Feeney just happens to be my Congressman. Everyone in Florida's 24th has known for years that he was a crook, and has only held his seat in Congress because of a lack of a true Democratic party structure in the district. With that being said, Feeney did face a moderate challenge from a virtual unknown in 2006. Feeney is a weak candidate, with even weaker personal ethics.
Feeney really should never have won this seat, it baffles my mind that he did. Volusia county, which is largely in this district was one of the few counties in Florida that went overwhelmingly for Kerry in 2004.
Hopefully this latest investigation will encourage someone from my district who hasn't had the ability to run in the past to step up and help to return Florida to its status as a blue state. I wish I weren't going to be in Montana through the 2008 election so that I could help this happen.

I don't even know what to say

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am not a politically correct person when it comes to humor. I think just about anything is capable of being laughed at. With that said; I am absolutely appalled by what Rush Limbaugh played on his radio show yesterday. He play a song called "Barack the Magic Negro".
After the Imus controversy a few weeks back, how is the media not jumping all over this guy?? Why aren't the people who jumped all over Imus all over Limbaugh's ass??? Is it because it's a well established fact that Limbaugh is a racist so we expect this from him??
I understand that Imus had a history of making racist comments, and I'm not justifying them at all. Those comments were wrong. Imus' actions though prove that the jokes that he made on his show were not how he really felt. Imus supported progressive causes all the time.
Limbaugh on the other hand has a long documented history of racism. Which is why people should be more up in arms about this than the Nappy Headed Faux Pas

Dean the Disenfranchiser

The rush is on. Nearly every state is pushing to move their 2008 Presidential Primary date forward in order to have a larger say in who the respective nominees for each party are. This is not setting well with the national parties, who want to decide the order of the primary election dates for each state.
In a speech to the Mortgage Bankers Association, Dean said that if Florida, the state that looks like it will jump ahead of most other states and hold their primary on the 29th of January, does so they will lose all of their delegates in the nominating process. He also went further to say that any candidate who campaigns in the state if it does this will lose all of their delegates from the state also. The Republican National Committee has said that they will do the same thing as the DNC.
It amazes me that the one thing that the RNC and the DNC can agree on is the potential of disenfranchising one of the largest states in the nation if they don't bend to their will. While I understand that their needs to be an equitable way of determining the order of the primary elections, is removing their say in their representation the best way to accomplish this?
I had hoped that our country was moving beyond the heavily party dominated politics, and instead it would be controlled from the bottom up. This proves that we still have a long way to go before this can happen.

We're headed for overtime!!!

The Senate just followed the lead of the House of Representatives by passing legislation funding the war in Iraq, but would also set up a series of goals that much be reached on schedule. The vote was 51-46, which was almost the same vote breakdown that the legislation received when the Senate first voted on it a few weeks ago. The bill now goes to the President where the first major battle of this Congress is expected to continue.
The vote was largely along party lines, with only a few people crossing the aisle. Joe Lieberman, who was once a Democrat, and now is just kind of a bitch spoke during the debate, saying the was funding bill was "a strategy based on catchphrases..." Maybe it's just me but I can't name a single catchphrase that the Democratic majority in Congress has come up with regarding the war in Iraq, unless you count "Let's do what's best for our troops." It's not very catchy, and it's not even a phrase. Meanwhile I recall several notable catchphrases from the Bush administration and the Republican minority, such as "Cut and Run" "Last throes" "Turning the corner" "Smoking Gun to be the mushroom cloud" all of which are catchy, and phrase-y. And how could I forget the phrase that's been heard coming from Republicans around the Capitol lately "We fucked up."
Even if the President does veto this legislation this is still a huge victory in the fight to end the Iraq War. We now know that the majority of Americans and the majority of those in Congress want this unjust war to end, and to pull our troops out of the middle of a civil war. This war is ending whether Mr. Bush wants it to or not.

Democratic Primary Debate

The first Democratic Primary Debate just ended. It was pretty much what I expected it to be. Nothing major said, no major policy points laid out. Mostly just posturing. There were a few highlights:

Hillary Clinton

• Once again dodged an opportunity to say that her vote to authorize military force against Iraq was wrong.

John Edwards

• It seems like the only criticism that he is faced with is the fact that he paid $400 a haircut. If this is the only thing he can be attacked about then he's in pretty good shape.

Joe Biden

• Fairly unimpressive. He needed to be a little more bold so that he could have a chance of breaking out the poor position he is in.
• Brought some levity to the debate when asked about being a "gaffe machine" and if he would be able to ensure that he would not do this again. He responded with "Yes."

Bill Richardson

• Also needed to make more bold statements so that he could officially break out of being a lower tier candidate.
• Was hit harshly for his late call for Alberto Gonzalez to step down.

Dennis Kucinich

• I hate him
• He blows
• He's a hypocrite
• Rather than speaking of his views, he simply spouted off bill numbers.
• He's a douche

Christopher Dodd

• Claimed that he believed that gays and lesbians deserve the same rights as heterosexual couples, and then said he opposed gay marriage. Does this make sense at all???

Mike Gravel

• Was really the break out person in this debate. This isn't because he'll gain points in the polls, but he will be the person to force Democratic candidates to say things that matter.
• Definitely made the toughest call to end the war. Suggested that the Congress make it a felony to stay in Iraq, and laid out a plan that might actually work. Let's not forget that Gravel was one of the major players in the effort to get us out of Vietnam.

All in all the debate was what I expected. The top tier candidates basically just hoped that they wouldn't trip. It was a very odd format for a debate i.e. "Show of Hands" questions. Just kind of strange. I definitely think the Democratic party is in much better shape to retake the Presidency than they were in 2004.