With all the cone of silence talk, I thought it would be worthwhile to do a little research on Rick Warren's background. Sure, we all know he wrote a best-selling book that some woman used to get through a terribly frightening ordeal. Yeah, we all know he's a bit on the portly side. Of course, we all know he created one of the biggest, most slickly marketed mega churches   ever conceived; one that, if like our local mega church, has professional security (you don't find that much in liberal churches). But do we really know Rick Warren for the douche bag that he is?

He’s an experienced campaigner, he can debate, he’s from the South, he can raise money; and, if change is the goal, who better to turn Washington on its head? This is my case to convince you to convince Obama that he needs to choose Colbert for Veep

The strength of America is not her military might, nor her economic power. It’s not that we have better people or a more hospitable climate. All of the above helps a great deal to create an environment where diversity, our greatest strength of all, exists peacefully.

Diversity, in this context, is not just about race or gender; although those are included categories. It’s much broader and harder to define. It’s about cowboys and Indians; Socs and Greasers; blue-collar and white-collar; preppy and grunge; and homophobes and queens just to name a few examples. Our diversity isn’t always perfect, but it’s usually productive, because, sometimes, sadly, conflict leads to progress.

So, Mukasey hung a picture of George Orwell in his office. So what? Is the inference that Mukasey craves an Orwellian society? Maybe he does, but hanging a picture of Orwell certainly doesn't prove anything.

"Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear."—from a preface to Animal Farm

Orwell was a great and important writer. To try and slime someone over their admiration of Orwell is, to be honest, Orwellian.

If I have my way, "Undecided" will win the election. Maybe it's because I never had a chance to decide anything. Perhaps it's because the candidates disappoint me. I can't even choose which of those is right.

Either way, I can't decide which one of the candidates I don't like. I like them all. They're terrific. I'll bet each of them would rank among the best presidents ever.

Whenever I think of our candidates, my brain starts singing, "Everything's coming up Roses" to itself.

More below...

Look, before you zot me, just let me say that I'm a fair-minded Democrat, and I appear to be lost.

I thought I was logging on to Daily Kos (don't hate me), but I found myself here and I'm not sure how it happened.

Granted, I was hoping to innocently find some dirt on Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee (sorry), but I found myself reading a bunch of posts smearing democratic candidates.

Needless to say, I'm a bit befuddled, confused and redundant.

Please see my request below.

This story – like most, I assume – begins with a question. We’ll get to that question in a minute, but first, let me tell you how we got to the question this tale will address.

Late last spring, the family and I went camping. I would say I took them camping, but really, they took me. For me, camping is fun, but it’s a lot of work. It’s not the work I’m used to, though. That makes it okay.

We loaded up the car and traveled to Prizer Point. It’s on Lake Barclay near "Land Between the Lakes" – a national recreation area.

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Minneapolis, MN – Many prominent Republicans voiced their concern about the withering criticism leveled at industrial food giant General Mills during a time of war. House minority leader, John Boehner went as far to call critics "un-American." Said Boehner, "These unfair criticisms of General Mills can only undermine the moral of our troops, who happen to love the free market."

Critics have accused General Mills of a cover-up during their recent voluntary recall of nearly 5 million Totino’s brand and Jeno’s brand frozen pizzas suspected of being tainted with the E. Coli virus.

Outing gives Potter passages new meaning

The British author stunned her fans at Carnegie Hall on Friday night when she answered one young reader's question about Dumbledore by saying that he was gay and had been in love with Grindelwald, whom he had defeated years ago in a bitter fight.

I never saw this one coming and I'll bet the crazy, right-wing evangelicals did, either. But, I can hear the distant pops, as there heads explode with righteous indignation.

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Today's edition of the Courier Journal features a story that calls Mitch on his bullshit.

McConnell knew of e-mails about boy
TV interview included denial

By James R. Carroll
jcarroll@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell knew last week -- at a time when he was denying it -- that his staff had sent e-mails encouraging reporters to look into the background of a 12-year-old boy used by Democrats to support expansion of a health-care program.

Update: The Mitch McConnell story is currently up to #2 on the "Top Clicks" and they've moved the story to the top of the page. Also, another new reader comment highlighted below.

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For further reading, please see my previous two diaries, "Blackwater and the Matewan Massacre," and "Blackwater and the Ludlow Massacre."

This will be a shorter diary with less comment from me, because in my research on Baldwin-Felts and Pinkerton (I’ll eventually be writing a "Blackwater and the Battle of Homestead" and a "Blackwater and the Haymarket Massacre" diaries), I ran across this article. It really puts a lot of things in perspective and will give you a shiver up your spine.

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This is a follow up of most recent diary, my "Blackwater and the Matewan Massacre." I would like to give a tip of the hat to El Maso for giving me a crucial bit of knowledge.

The Ludlow massacre pertains to the violent deaths of 20 people during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in the U.S. on April 20, 1914. These deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard. Two women, twelve children, six miners and union officials and one National Guardsman were killed. In response, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard.

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Link

In the spring of 1912 at the height of one of the bloodiest coal mine wars in West Virginia history, a sweet-looking, grand-motherly little old lady by the name of Mary (better known as "Mother") Jones mounted the capitol steps in Charleston and made the following pronouncement:

"Unless (Gov. William E. Glasscock) rids Paint Creek and Cabin Creek of these goddamned Baldwin-Felts mine guard thugs,there is going to be one hell of a lot of bloodletting in these hills."

This diary will attempt to show the danger inherent with companies like Blackwater by examining the actions of the infamous Baldwin-Felts "thugs."

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Department of Utter Nonsense
Memorandum

To: ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, WASHINGTON POST, New York Times
From: MrHinkyDink
Date: October 2, 2007

Subject: Branding the war with Iran

The corporate office sent word that the war with Iran is now on the schedule. It is now time to start thinking about how to brand this new war. "War with Iran" has not tested well and the higher-ups are looking for a catchy new slogan that people can rally around.

-- continued --

President Bush said:

"It's one thing to attack me. It's another thing to attack somebody like Gen. Petraeus."

Fine. I’ll take the bait, Mr. President. You are the problem. General Petraeus is an honorable soldier doing what he believes is best for the country. In this particular case, he’s running a surge.

Let’s forget, for a moment, that his line of thinking about surges is outside the top-brass mainstream, and concentrate on how you picked him to run this surge.

Flip it

President Bush hits a new low in Kentucky.

President Bush has the lowest approval rating of any president ever tested by The Courier-Journal's Bluegrass Poll, according to its most recent findings.

And it found that much of the dissatisfaction appears to be rooted in his handling of the war in Iraq.

Apparently the return to success hasn't soaked in yet. We haven't gotten word that the surge is working.

flip it

Nobody can speak for all the troops, including me. In fact, I don't know that I can even speak for a significant percentage of the troops, even though, at one time, I was one.

I was in a reserve unit called to active duty and served six months, most of it split between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It sucked, but it's one of those things I'm glad I did. One day, I'll have highly embellished stories for the grandchildren.

Now, however, I was like to give politicians, especially the Republicans, an unvarnished and unembellished look at how I, the troop, viewed you, the politicians, pundits, and officers.

Flip it.

AP - The missing link has announced that he will "throw his hat into the tree" and compete for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, AKA, "The Biggest Loser."

Link, as he likes to be called, cited numerous similarities to President Bush, including "physical appearance" and a strong fondness for "peeing on anything that moves" as reasons for his "grounded optimism."

He went on to say, "I'd tell you I'd be a shoe-in to win this thing, but I don't know what a shoe is."