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Via Boing Boing, a doormat with a mixed message.

This looks interesting: NBC war reporter Richard Engel’s video diary of the war in Iraq, on MSNBC tonight at 10:00pm EDT. Should be lots of repeat showings, if you miss the first one.

Boy, I love it when the TV reporters do their homework, and get air time to connect the dots. Crooks and Liars has video.

Since the House Judiciary Committee released over 3000 emails last night, new details are starting to emerge about the behind-the-scenes scheming by the DoJ to handle the prosecutor purge backlash in Congress and in the media. David Shuster reporting for Hardball connects the dots and reveals the myriad inconsistencies.

Watch the video. That’s journalism!

Think Progress says Gonzales aide Kyle Sampson is still lurking about:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales planned to install his former aide Kyle Sampson as a lawyer in the Justice Department’s environment division even after Sampson’s “resignation,” NPR reported today. …

In fact, Gonzales “started to set up a new office for Sampson” in the Justice Department, and Sampson only resigned on Tuesday when “the scandal surrounding eight fired U.S. Attorneys continued to grow.”

The truth is like kryptonite to these guys. Even a tiny sliver could be fatal.

Colorado Jyms is thinking about learned helplessness. What do we do when all the disasters are more than we can handle?

Back in the 80’s there was a song called ‘walk the dog’ by Laurie Anderson. The important lyric is, “When I came home, you were on fire, the house was on fire… so I decided to walk the dog. Walking the dog… walking the dog.”

When I think of the complete and utter disaster in Iraq, the end of oil around the corner, global warming and the fact that Zefrank is stopping his show… I wonder just how true these lyrics are. How much can we take before we simply snap and decide that the best thing to do is to walk the dog, not put out the fire?

The psychological term is ‘learned helplessness’. There was a bunch of sick scientists who discovered they could shock a dog so often that when the door out of the room that is shocking the dog is open, he doesn’t see it.

Are we there? Are we so used to being shocked that we cannot see an open door out? Why are the democrats SOOOOO afraid of issuing articles of impeachment for the lies this administration told to bring us to war? How can we put out the fire if we are not even willing to see it.

I’m ambivalent about impeachment. It’s never been more justified than it is today, but there simply aren’t the votes for it. There are better ways to use our time and energy. We need to fully expose the crimes and incompetence of the whole right-wing machine, so the whole country learns to help itself and keeps throwing the bums out.