Thanks be to George...

Over Thanksgiving weekend, take the time to remind yourself of all of the things you have to be thankful for this year. Perhaps your Republican family members and you can find common ground with a short list of the wonderful things America has given us and can't take away.

Until, of course, the right-wing agenda gets underway in a few short months.

I am thankful the emotional rollercoaster that is sure to be the next election is just under 4 years away. Hopefully some of us will have enough time to heal by then.

I am thankful Bush promises to make the tax code simpler. Finally we will have a definitive, easy-to-understand system of how the wealthy screw everyone.

I am thankful that the intelligence community is getting a makeover and America will no longer be embarrassed in the eyes of the global community. With the CIA becoming more partisan, there won't be any intelligence that makes us look bad. Or makes us look honest either, I suppose.

I am thankful that doctors can now make decisions based on their conscious. It was terrible before when they were forced to make decisions based on science and fact and the choices of their patients.

I am thankful that this past election was not rife with as many problems as most Americans feared. Isn't it great to learn that 51 % of the country really did vote against their self-interest or the interest of their fellow citizens?

All sarcasm aside, though, I am thankful for stuffing.

Tom DeLay or a ham sandwich. Who would you vote for...

So the unscrupulous House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay is about to be indicted for campaign finance violations in Texas. This is the same DeLay who earlier this year orchestrated the completely partisan and unjustified redistricting effort in Texas that gained 5 seats in the House for the GOP and caused Texas Democrats to flee the state in protest. He's a terrible man who holds an awful lot of cards in Congress right now. He's an extremist who happens to be the leader of their party.

The House of Reps, though have a rule that any member o its leadership who is indicted must immediately step down. While DeLay has not been indicted just yet, it is coming down the line very soon. So what do the power-hungry fanatics that constitute the Republican leadership decide to do in the meantime? Why, change the rules of course!

Last week, DeLay's allies made a new rule enabling GOP steering committee to first review any indictment to decide whether it is politically motivated and has merit. Hmmm. I wonder if when asked if they think their boss who controls all the strings should be removed from his position of power, they will say no. It's awfully convenient to have the rules suddenly changed in your favor just moments before your post is in jeopardy. But as Ronnie Earle, the district attorney of Texas who is charging DeLay, wrote in today's New York Times, "there is no limit to what you can do if you have the power to change the rules."

In defense of this indefensible power play (when has that ever stopped Republicans?), Congress members are calling this change in the rules an effort to "raise the standard" and "protect the institution" from a ham sandwich!

"You have to look at protecting the institution," Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers told local paper the Anniston Star late last week. "I'm an attorney, and any attorney knows you can get an indictment with a ham sandwich. We’re trying to raise the standard, to make it so that you don't allow what is purely a political indictment to make someone step aside from a leadership role."

Idiots! The line isn't that you get an indictment by using a ham sandwich. It's that you "could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. The ham sandwich is no friend to a prosecutor. They are mortal enemies. All the prosecution has ever wanted to do is to send that dastardly sandwich to the big house. Prosecutors are notorious for their acid reflux disease.

I can't tell which is worse - devious political shenanigans that favor the corrupt, or the incorrect use of an adage.

Excuse me Congress, I'd like to report a suspicious charge on my tax bill...

All right this is an easy one. The DNC should be all over this like Gilligan on the Skipper.

From Reuters

The U.S. Congress on Saturday passed a $388 billion package financing government programs in this fiscal year after days of tough talks, but a last minute snag means it may not be sent to President Bush for signing into law for several days.

The Senate voted 65-30 for the legislation late on Saturday that sets aside funds for a range of priorities including a presidential yacht, foreign aid and energy. It is one of the final pieces of work for the 108th Congress and they may return to finish a spy agency overhaul before the end of the year.

A presidential yacht! The Repulicans cut financing for cruicial education, environment, and health programs while providing funds for the president to sail leisurely of off the coast of Kennebunkport. There is not reason why the Dems can't shout this to every sharp corner of every last red state. Docotrs can now refuse to treat patients without penalty, the global fight against AIDS will once again not be adequetely funded, nuclear waste will be dumped into the mountains of Nevada, and Pell grants will be cut.

And the president just bought himself a yacht and sent us the bill.