Last week in Annapolis at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin , professor of law at American University, was requested to testify. He did so.

At the end of his testimony, a right-wing senator said: “As I read Biblical principles, marriage was intended, ordained and started by God — that is my belief. For me, this is an issue solely based on religious principals.”

Raskin: “People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution; they don’t put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.”

…via onegoodmove via WayneBesen.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a $781 billion increase in the federal government’s debt limit, the fourth time lawmakers have raised the cap since President Bush took office.

Uh oh, the deficit is getting out of control. Must be time for another fat-cat tax cut…

I love Keith Olbermann.

Bill O’Reilly of FOX”News” is a consummate ass who never met a lie he couldn’t spin and a standard he couldn’t double. Keith Olbermann rips him a new one — with humor.

Republican leaders are all wearing their brown pants today. Not because they talked on the phone last night and coordinated their outfits like schoolgirls do, but because of this story on the wires today:

WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges on Tuesday and agreed to help U.S. prosecutors in a corruption probe that could involve several top Republican lawmakers, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Bend over, boys. What goes around comes around and you’ve got some some serious buttfucking on the way.

My glee is tempered only by the sure and certain knowledge that the Democratic party will somehow fuck this gift up.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — “Intelligent design” cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.

Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said. Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives, he said.

Now that’s intelligent. But how will kids learn about the Flying Spaghetti Monster now?

Jack Cafferty of CNN said, in a recent on-air column, what I’ve been thinking so much better than I could have:

Who cares about whether the Patriot Act gets renewed? Want to abuse our civil liberties? Just do it.

Who cares about the the Geneva Convention? Want to torture prisoners? Just do it.

Who cares about rules concerning the identity of CIA agents? Want to reveal the name of a covert operative? Just do it.

Who cares about whether the intelligence concerning WMDs is accurate? Want to invade Iraq? Just do it.

Who cares about qualifications to serve on the nation’s highest court? Want to nominate a personal friend with no qualifications? Just do it.

And the latest outrage, which I read about in the New York Times this morning: Who cares about needing a court order to eavesdrop on American citizens? Want to wiretap their phone conversations? Just do it.

What a joke. A very cruel, very sad joke.

George Bush and his White House have been running roughshod over our rights from the moment he was “elected.” Now, that’s not news to the people on my side of the W issue — those of us with brains, in other words — we’ve been saying it from Day One. But it’s surprising even to me just how far they’ve taken it and with how much hubris, given the recent revelations about secret prisons and torture and, now, domestic spying by the NSA. I don’t know why it surprises me — I put nothing past those chowderheads — and yet it does. Even when they’re getting every little thing they want to go their way, they still find a way to fuck it up. Truly, they are the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

But I find myself insanely wishing that Bush had more time left in office before his term runs out. With just a little more time, we surely would see him impeached.

Something else I wanted to mention and forgot in the last entry: politics. I pulled way back on the politics in here because it was just too tiresome. The same stupid arguments with the same stupid people holding the same stupid positions making the same stupid points with the same stupid insults… And that’s just what they thought about me. I got bored with it because, really, what’s the point? Nobody ever changes anyone’s mind in a political argument; it’s all about scoring points for your side. Why bother? So I laid off it.

Ah, but the recent events on the political landscape… Plummeting opinion ratings, indictments, investigations, truth finally coming to light, etc… You’d think I’d be excited. But no, I’m just tired. The rest of the country is finally waking up to what I was saying six years ago. I’ve been here all along, so it’s not news to me.

The really sad part is that being able to say “I told you so” doesn’t make it worth it. At all.

What happened/is happening down in New Orleans right now is a perfect example of what an utter failure Bush is and what bullshit his “defending America” rhetoric has been.

Consider this:

• New Orleans is (was) the #4 seaport in the US and thus a prime terrorist target.
• Bush and his Department of Homeland Security have taken protecting us from terrorist attack as their sacred duty and #1 priority.
• If terrorists wanted to strike a serious blow to US shipping, oil production, the economy and morale, drowning New Orleans would be an excellent way to do it.
• The surest way to drown New Orleans would be to blow holes in the levees surrounding it.
• Any Department of Homeland Security worth its salt would surely have plans in place to respond decisively if such an attack took place to minimize its impact.

I won’t connect the dots for you; I have faith that my readers are smart enough to do that on their own.

They’ve had four years — FOUR YEARS — to prepare for an emergency of this magnitude and this is what they’ve come up with? I can’t see how anyone, not even the most die-hard Kool-Aid drinker, can continue to have any confidence in this Administration after what we’ve seen in New Orleans.