There has been some crazy contraversy about something that Sen. John Kerry said. That was this:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Now I thought this to mean that those who can't afford college need to work hard to get scholarships so that they don't have to join the military to pay for college and end up in Iraq. I was wrong. This is what he said at another time which is probably closer to what he meant:

"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq." - Senator John Kerry

That one I can appreciate. But now the right wing media crazy people are all up in arms about how Kerry is anti-soldier- even though he is an ex-soldier. Weird. But here's Kerry in rare form retaliating:

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq . It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men. And this time it won't work because we're going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq ."

I had to read that one part a couple of times. Did Senator Kerry use the word "doughy" to describe Rush Limbaugh? Love it! He needed to show us a bit more of this personality when running in 2004. I think its too late for 2008 though, people have already made up their mind about him. Obama maybe?

Dave Letterman lets Bill O'Reilly have it yet again.

If you get a chance to see Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black's show on tour, you should go. Trust me. Unless of course you're lame and have no sense of humor or you didn't like Stella or the State which probably means you're lame and have no sense of humor. Kidding- this is a type of humor not all people seem to get, hence the cancellation of Stella. But to me Showalter is hilarious. Black is good too, but seemed really irritated by the heckling from the crowd. Morons kept yelling out stupid things that weren't really worth responding to and it pissed him off. Showalter just kept answering the crowd and made it part of his routine. Very funny guy. Showalter gets 5 out of 5 butters, Black gets 4, so average them out and that would be 4 1/2 out of 5 butters- very much worth the price of admission.

Chris Rose makes me cry again:
Hell And Back

Good news for democrats today:
Rising star Obama weighs White House run
Okay, he didn't say he was running but him even just weighing the option gives me hope for 2008. There is no one in politics today who is more charismatic than this guy. I think even Bill Clinton would have a rough time beating Obama, I don't think Hillary has a chance. Of course he doesn't have the name recognition as of yet but that won't matter once people start seeing him speak. Of course the republicans will go nuts trying to soil his name with all their "flip-flop" nonsense or some such crap but since he's only been in the national scene since 2004 they will have a hard time. Of course I'm not saying he would be the best guy for the job, he is kind of young to be a president. I thought Kerry would have made a good president, but I noticed that people really don't care who would do a better job. Its more about who people would rather have a beer with and in 2004 the people chose the alchoholic. What a bunch of crazies. But I trust Obama would do well as a president, he couldn't do any worse than our current one.
So who should be the vice-president? Hillary? Kerry? Feingold? Stewart? Colbert?

Here's today's headlines:

This could be one of the reasons there are so many criminals running around. The police catch them and some dumbass judge releases them. And lately the mayor has been not been very mayorly. Sure he kept saying stupid things but to not show up at all anymore? Can we get a new one yet?

New Orleans is getting pretty scary lately, multiple shootings daily. Here's what Wednesday's headlines from nola.com looked like:
I don't feel so good.

Everybody in New Orleans: when the cameras are on make sure you're all sulking in the misery of Katrina because if you're not, people are going to judge you for not caring about all those people (like yourself) who have suffered from losing your/their home. Its only been a year! Sulk! I just read Chris Rose's latest column where he quoted a few Letters to the Editor from USA Today about how appalled people are by re-opening the Superdome. Also my good friend now living in Portland OR (hey Me!) pointed out that people around her are aghast that New Orleans actually celebrated the opening of the Superdome and bringing back the Saints when so many homes are not yet fixed. People are clueless when it comes to what's going on in New Orleans. Homes are being fixed, but at a slow rate because there are only so many city inspectors around to okay the work being done on electrical, water and gas lines. So far that, the lack of plumbers, electricians, carpenters and of course money is what is holding everyone back. Did the Superdome's construction stop the building of so many homes? It being a completely different building type, I doubt it. And for those who say the Superdome should have been demolished, just remember if it weren't for that building so many more people probably would have died from Katrina. If you were here in the last year you would have seen the progress of the Superdome, the most distinguishing building of our skyline being repaired day to day. Tiny little people all over the dome on ropes working to repair it for the September 24th game when it would re-open. I would get giddy everytime I passed by, even though I had only been to one Saints game in 33 years. It wasn't about football as much as it was about our city just being itself again- although that football game did put a really big smile on everyone's face. And is that so wrong?

Update: Here's a photo montage from Nola.com for those who need some perspective on what this event meant to this city.

Unless you're living in a cave, you have probably heard about the Mark Foley scandle. Yes, yes, very interesting, blah, blah, blah. Above is a picture of Brownie, Bush and Foley, who is to the right of Bush. The interesting thing about this picture is the bizarre size of the Foley's head. Its ridiculously small! It appears almost half the size of the guy's head behind him! Who, by the way, appears to be staring in wonderment at it thinking, 'So tiny, must not stare.' Either that or is worried that Foley will come on to him next. Here's where the photo comes from.

AAWWWWEEEEE.