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From HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher:

Confronting an assertion that the new Republican budget, cutting $10 billion from Medicaid and adding over $100 billion in tax cuts for the rich, was a necessary setting of priorities to cut our huge budget deficits, Martin Short asked:

Would you say that the rich have gotten poorer under George Bush?

Discussing new polls showing George W. Bush’s approval rating at only 44%, Bill Maher said:

The American public always wanted to vote for a guy — and Bush was the perfect guy — who they’d want to have over for pot roast. And George Bush is that guy. He does that well. You’d like to have him over for pot roast. He reminds you of yourself.

Well, now he’s been over, he’s had the pot roast, but he’s getting drunk, and now he’s talking about stem cells and Terri Schiavo and gay marriage, and now he’s the guest that won’t leave.

Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

President Bush’s favorite Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia:

government—however you want to limit that concept—derives its moral authority from God. It is the “minister of God” with powers to “revenge,” to “execute wrath,” including even wrath by the sword

…

The reaction of people of faith to this tendency of democracy to obscure the divine authority behind government should not be resignation to it, but the resolution to combat it as effectively as possible.

I kinda suspected Bush and his pals had a problem with democracy.

Now, here’s an interesting way to make America safer: not satisfied with just carrying a concealed weapon? In Florida, you can shoot first and ask questions later. The NRA promises to bring old Dodge City to other states, too:

A retired police officer in St. Petersburg, writing in the St. Petersburg Times, described the legislature’s bill as the “citizens’ right to shoot others on the street if they feel threatened” and asked, “Are they nuts?” That, we cannot answer.

We do, however, recognize a bad law when we see one, and any measure that increases the possibility of innocent people being killed or injured is a threat to public safety and does not belong on the books. This law, first of its kind in the nation, encourages people to be quick with guns, knives or fists. That’s scary. According to the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Inc., there are already “6 to 7 million untrained gun owners in Florida.”

Telling them that they need only feel threatened in a park or a hospital or a stadium or a domestic dispute to start pulling the trigger is tantamount to turning Florida into Dodge City.

That’s so macho!

Just by chance, today I heard Barack Obama’s keynote speech from last year’s Democratic Convention. It’s a good speech. If you missed it last year, give it a listen:

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our Nation — not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

That is the true genius of America, a faith — a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted — at least most of the time.

This year, in this election we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we’re measuring up to the legacy of our forbearers and the promise of future generations.

And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, I say to you tonight: We have more work to do

…

If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.

It is that fundamental belief — It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

John Kerry:

Every day Republican leaders are crossing lines that should never be crossed:

• the line that says a leader in the House of Representatives should never carelessly threaten or intimidate federal judges
• the line that says the leader of the Senate should never accuse those who disagree with his political tactics of waging a war against people of faith
• the line that says respect for core constitutional principles should never be undermined by a political party’s quest for power
• and most important of all, the line that says a political party’s leaders should never let their obsession with amassing power, or just with politics, overwhelm the needs and interests of the people who elected them — America’s families.

Yes, the Republican-controlled Congress has been so busy walking America’s highways and byways — grandstanding on Terri Schiavo and baseball players, obstructing ethics investigations, and attacking the independence of the courts — that they’ve forgotten to pay the war bill:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has sent letters to congressional leaders urging them to pass the final 2005 budget supplemental bill before the Army runs out of operating funds.

The Army has slowed its spending, so it can continue operations in Afghanistan and Iraq through early May when the funds are due to run out, Rumsfeld said.

He sent the letters Wednesday, along with handwritten notes that read, “Our folks out there need these funds.”

Tom DeLay is the true face of the Republican Party these days. Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter says DeLay must stay, to give voters a clear choice in the next election:

A couple of years ago, Tom DeLay was chomping on a cigar at a Washington restaurant with some lobbyists. The manager went over to tell him he couldn’t smoke because the restaurant was located on property leased from the federal government, which bars smoking. “I am the federal government,” DeLay replied, in words that will follow the onetime exterminator from Sugar Land, Texas, like ants at a picnic.

The line reeks of the arrogance and self-importance that may bring DeLay low, but it also has the advantage of being true: all three branches of the federal government belong to Republicans, and the autocratic House majority leader is the purest representation of the breed. On every issue—ethics, the environment, guns, tax cuts, judges—he is a clarifying figure for anyone who might be confused about the true nature of today’s GOP.

…

If DeLay goes down, his shamelessness will go with him, which will make it harder to see the GOP’s true agenda.

…

DeLay’s views on muscling the judiciary and ending the separation of church and state (which he believes is a fiction) offend the Constitution. That makes it too important to leave to the media and the rest of the Washington scandal machine to remedy. This job belongs to the voters, who can hammer the Hammer by siding against his many acolytes in Congress. Let’s make 2006 a referendum on the right wing. For that, DeLay must stay.

Another front in the jihad: banning books and authors:

Republican Alabama lawmaker Gerald Allen says homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle. As CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports, under his bill, public school libraries could no longer buy new copies of plays or books by gay authors, or about gay characters.

“I don’t look at it as censorship,” says State Representative Gerald Allen. “I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children.”

Books by any gay author would have to go: Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal. Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” has lesbian characters.

Allen originally wanted to ban even some Shakespeare.

Yeah, books are dangerous. You start reading, and before long, you’re thinking.

If you think people with this mindset intend to stop anywhere short of death camps, you don’t know them very well.

Update: You know, I think this belongs here:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak out.

— Martin Niemöller

I’m a bigot, all right. I’ve used Apple computers since I bought my first computer way back in 1983. I had to use Windows computers at work, and I tried, not very successfully, to overcome my prejudices against the criminal monopolist Microsoft. But a few years ago, when Apple Computer seemed to be near collapse, I declared that if Microsoft was the only software choice available, I’d just do without a computer. It’s not entirely a rational response; some of Microsoft’s products are very good. Some aren’t. Now, via John Moltz’s weblog, I’ve got a specific reason to be glad I’m a Macintosh user:

Microsoft is currently paying a $20,000 a month retainer to former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed’s consulting firm Century Strategies. Which now begs the question of whether Reed was in any way involved with Microsoft’s recent decision to abandon its decades long support for gay civil rights in order to curry favor with anti-gay bigots of the radical right.

First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams on The Daily Show:

If you take away an independent judiciary, you take away the first amendment, as well.

Are we winning or losing the War on Terror? The Bush Administration deep-sixed a long-standing annual report on terrorism which showed terror attacks increasing, not declining. Now they want partial credit for almost catching bad guys. We nearly caught Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in Afghanistan. Now, according to CNN, officials are bragging that they nearly caught Abu Musab al-Zarqawi:

U.S. troops chased down a suspicious vehicle and later determined that al-Zarqawi had been in it but had escaped.

Gosh, if we actually started winning the War on Terror, there might be less reason for the extraordinary powers the Bush Administration has claimed for itself. Hmmm…

It’s a whole new era for American Liberty—telecommunications industry representatives have been kicked off an international commission for supporting John Kerry:

The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets three times a year in various cities across the Americas to discuss such dry but important issues as telecommunications standards and spectrum regulations. But for this week’s meeting in Guatemala City, politics has barged onto the agenda. At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry’s 2004 campaign.

The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants. Only after the start of Bush’s second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say.

The latest report from the National Counterterrorism Center doesn’t seem to support the Bush Administration line that they’re making excellent progress in the War on Terror. So, following standard Administration procedure, they’re eliminating the report:

The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government’s top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

Now that’s spin doctoring!

More good stuff by cartoonist Ruben Bolling. Same deal as before: you can click to get free access after viewing a short ad. Watch the ad once, and you can access any of the cartoons for the rest of the day.

Meet the Regulators, a crack squad of specialists handpicked by President Bush to regulate industry for the public good.

In 2002, a Wall Street Journal editorial complained that people who make $12,000 a year or less pay “a little less than 4 percent of income in taxes” and called them “lucky duckies.” (Really!) Now, the administration wants to rescue Social Security for Lucky Ducky.

Judge Scalia in “Kids These Days.”

Judge Scalia walks a lonely path across the American states, meting out justice.

It’s a few days old, but This Modern World remembers the murders in Oklahoma City, and reminds us just what Ann Coulter stands for:

Ten years ago today, at 9:02 a.m. midwestern time, terrorist Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Among the victims were 19 children attending day care in the building.

“My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.”

–Ann Coulter as quoted in the New York Observer, Aug. 20, 2002

“RE: McVeigh quote. Of course I regret it. I should have added, ‘after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters.’”

–Ann Coulter, from an interview with Right Wing News

Cartoonist Ruben Bolling on President Bush’s Culture of Life Blowout Sale.

(The cartoon is easy to see if you’re a paid subscriber to Salon.com. If not, you can click for a “Day Pass,” which will show you an ad, then give you access to the Salon site.)