At least for now, I’m signing off as a diarist and commenter. All will be told at length below. Stand by for venting.

This might be my shortest diary ever, but among the trillions of words written on our New National Nightmare that is neoconservativism, George W. Bush, Iraq, the gutting of the Constitution and on and on and on, I don't think I've ever seen it put more directly and succinctly.

Lots of chatter about evolution since the Redumblican debate. My thoughts below.

It’s a brilliant idea – and one that any Republican governor could have tried in order to look somewhat human – but Oregon’s Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski, along with the First Lady, will live on an average food stamp budget for one week.

I saw a story diaried this week -- no cite handy, sorry -- about a report that the US military has taken over Iraqi security, in a tacit admission that training the Iraqis is no longer feasible as a central part of our Iraq "strategy." Amazingly, an Army official minimized this acceptance of what was an Iraqi responsibility key to our extrication as "another leg of our mission."

That got me wondering: How many legs does the Iraq mission have? A bipod is two legs. A tripod is three.

Peter Ueberroth isn't likely to get an Air America gig any time soon. Not that he's way over on the Dark Side, but the former baseball commissioner is a big business kind of guy and a registered Republican. So, as I was watching the live announcement of what city the US Olympic Committee would pick, Chicago or Los Angeles, to bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, imagine my surprise when he had some unexpected words of praise for Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, and Hizzoner Da Mare Richard M. Daley of Chicago.

As foolish as it is to think that DOJ is not a political animal, it's even more foolish to misunderstand those politics -- or, more accurately, to so badly misrepresent them, as our neoconservative "court jesters" have tended to do in recent weeks.

I am a great admirer of teacherken.  I read with interest his diary of today, They will have no choice but to impeach, and I am moved to disagree. Note that this is an opinion piece without a lot of research. I want to get the thoughts out there fast and let the Kosmos pick it apart. You may fire when ready, Griswold.

Us, and them
And after all we're only ordinary men.
Me, and you.
God only knows its not what we would choose to do.
Forward he cried from the rear
And the front rank died.
And the general sat and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side.

--Us and Them (Waters and Wright), Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd

Paraphrasing, the question was asked, HOW/WHY is it that the Bush Maladministration is, well, so extraordinarily ham-handed in its indiscretions? The answer came to me in a flash: The GOP has no compliance capabilties whatsoever. Moreover, those in the White House and the Maladministration who are emerging as taking actions in violation of one standard after another don't even know what compliance, as a term of art, means.

Lordy, this is funny! It's just one whip-saw after another with the Goopers. The latest is this controversy over White House senior staff testifying to Congress under oath. This is where perception turns in the favor of justice, and it's the words of the Ultra-Wrong that help it along.

It was reported yesterday that Shirlington Limousine & Transport, which has been under investigation as part of the whole Duke Cunningham et al. mess, will no longer be one of DHS’s rides now that it has lost its protest of contract non-renewal and the terms of a new bid. The news is courtesy of Government Executive at GovExce.com.

Am I the first to note this curious similarity in linguistic efforts to minimize a looming political catastrophe for a sitting President?

Yeah, that’s right. If you recognized the line you are now or at one time were a Star Trek geek. It’s from "The Savage Curtain," a fair-to-middling episode of the original series.

Sorry, folks. Read it and weep.

If this has been diaried, I really don't care. I'm writing it more for myself and thank you for stopping by. I've grown to respect Charlie Cook quite a bit. His predictions were accurate but cautious and he was the first to come out with a solid, statistically based "Who the Hell are they kidding" column when the GOP's self-immolation in November 2006 was portrayed as "not that bad."

I like this column because it echoes something I wrote about a lot last year and applies this year: Politics is a game played under a clock.

I've given this a lot of thought (I know, you're happy for me) and have come to the conclusion that what's happened with religion and politics is that the Christian Right, as doubly oxymoronic as that phrase is, really is a movement against the openness that human sexuality has achieved in Western society. Most of their issues can be boiled down to the sacrament of marriage and the belief that the sex act should be limited to taking place within that sacrament.

This is not a new idea. theleftcoaster brought it up twice that I know of, most recently in connection with the ABC mendacity known as "Path to 9/11." The continuing saga of radio station KSFO has brought this idea forward once again, so anticipating questions about it, here's the scoop.

Timing, as they say, is everything and railing against a radio station is best done when the renewal of broadcast licenses is on the line. There's good news and bad news here.

The bad news is that the three-year FCC radio licensing cycle has just been completed for the nation's radio stations to obtain their eight-year licenses, so there's nothing we can do right now. The good news is, if this crap keeps going on--and I expect it will--for the next four years, we have plenty of time to plan for the first renewal in the next wave of licensing, which begins in the spring of 2011.

I'll revisit this closer to that time, but here's a preview, and the teaser is, we can hit Disney right between the eyes all over the country.