Even his own people don't like him any more

Gallup has dropped Bush's approval to 60% among Republicans, Pollster has his overall at 28.3%. Among all the primary hoopla we forget that the American people hate Bush more every day. Bush will hang from McCain's neck in November.

Night music from Andy & the Bey Sisters

Andy Bey is one of my favorite singers. He's been around for a while, but I've only known about him for the last couple of years. His recent stuff is amazing. His voice is rich and full of emotion. He got his start playing piano and singing with his sisters but he's on his own now. This video is from the early days because I couldn't find anything recent with acceptable quality. This should give you an idea of what he sounds like, though.

Sleepless in Santa Rosa

What is it that causes the body to reject the sleep cycle for no good reason? Last night I went to bed on time and just couldn't get to get to sleep. I hadn't had any caffeine since 9am. I didn't eat anything wierd, no medication other than the allergy med I take every day. I don't think I'm under any particular stress, nothing noisy was going on outside. The only thing I can think of is that it was a little warm and we still have the winter bedding on. That doesn't seem to be enough on its own.

I hate that shit, man. The longer I toss and turn, the angrier I get and the sleeplessness feeds itself. The next day is wasted, although today I forced myself to plant some strawberries in the garden. Maybe a shot of Jaegermeister befor bed tonight.

Wingnut turf war?

Special Counsel Scott Bloch's office was raided today by the FBI. Bloch, like seemingly everyone in the Bush Administration, generated controversy by politicising his office. His position, created after Watergate, was to protect whistleblowing federal employees. When his own employees leaked that he refused to do his job by not protecting them from sexual discrimination, he retaliated against them. This seems to be what brought the raid on.

Josh Marshall has a question about that. Bloch was also investigating Karl Rove in the firings of U.S. attorneys and had complained about being blocked by the justice department.

So was Bloch raided for not doing his job or doing it?

The death of satire

How can it survive when real life becomes so absurd? Last month I mentioned the Supreme Court decision to allow Indiana to force voters to show photo ID at the polls. This is what we end up with:

Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.

The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway.
"One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,'" Sister McGuire said.

Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives. They weren't given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back in the 10-day time frame allotted by the law, Sister McGuire said. "You have to remember that some of these ladies don't walk well. They're in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts."

Nuns. In wheelchairs. This country gets more ridiculous every day.

Another one of McCain's very good friends

Since it's apparently fair to judge Obama on everything Jeremiah Wright has said, it should be fair to question the other candidates on their associates, too. We've been over McCain's overt courting of nutballs like Pat Robertson and John Hagee, but here's another one.

G. Gordon Liddy. You remember him? The Watergate burglar who was convicted and served time in prison over that and came out even crazier than he was when he went in? It appears our straight talkin' maverick has close ties with the former Nixon thug. To the point of being a guest on Liddy's radio show and Liddy has hosted a fund-raiser for him.

Since Obama is being questioned over and over about the incendiary things Wright has said, in fairness we should ask whether McCain agrees with these statements by Liddy regarding his admiration for Adolf Hitler:

"...at assemblies where the national anthem is played I must suppress the urge to snap out my right arm."

"Hitler's sheer animal confidence and power of will (entranced me). He sent an electric current through my body."

So if McCain hasn't disavowed Liddy and given his money back can we assume McCain agrees with those sentiments?

Happy WTF Day

Today used to be May Day; we were supposed to dance around a pole or something. I think strippers took over that gig. Now it's called International Workers' Day, to, what? Honor workers? I still had to work. The dockworkers shut down the ports here on the west coast to protest the war, which is cool, but nobody's going to fight a dockworker over it.

Evangelicals have proclaimed today National Day of Prayer, but only if you're a Christian. Everybody else is supposed to STFU I guess.

Bush, with his usual sensitivity, proclaimed today Law Day to celebrate the rule of law. Let that one soak in. So far I haven't seen any reports that he resigned and turned himself in. Maybe we should call every day Global Irony Day.