The mayor of San Diego reversed his position on gay marriage when a resolution from the city council appeared on his desk. His public statement shows his emotional struggle with coming to his new political position. I found it an amazing and riveting bit of video. It is the first time I have seen a politician consider the ramifications of a political position and publicly struggle with the right thing to do. I commend him and only wish that we had politicians with this strength and bravery in Texas.

...and not because he's a man with an unfortunate name OR because he was governor of Iowa. Vilsack made some comments about GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani (Watch here) that has some conservatives calling "Foul!" I don't see why? The GOP has put themselves up as the party of family values and if people don't know that Rudy married his cousin and is estranged from his own children then maybe they ought to know that.

If it's fair that people call John Edwards a homo, Hilary Clinton a lesbian with a philandering husband then why can't we hear about Giuliani's marriages?

Ugh, while googling on how to even spell Giuliani's name I ran across a story about his fundraising in Texas and a possible Giuliani/Perry '08 ticket. Now I have to go vomit.

Remember the lawmaker that filed a suit against God in Nebraska? Well, God has finally responded to the suit with a filing in the Clerk's office. There are two responses. One response claims immunity from prosecution...clearly that's from George Bush's God. The other response claims the lawsuit is frivolous and without merit as God created Man and Woman with free will and he cannot be held responsible or liable for their actions.

This response lists a phone number of a law firm in Corpus. I don't know why God had to settle for a lawyer in Corpus. That just seems so bottom of the pile. I know several lawyers on the East Coast that would love a case like this one. He should have asked for a referral.

The Texas Observer has spent two years fighting the DPS for the surveillance tapes in the Capitol on the day that it was rumored Dr. Leininger made his first foray into politics up there. The DPS has lost every challenge, but continues to pay such high-price law firms as Akin Gump and Diamond McCarthy to fight the Texas Observer.

Since the Observer doesn't have tons of taxpayer money to waste, they did what all good press folk do. They posted all those invoices online and asked all of us to go look at them. Once you do, you can probably call the DPS yourself or send a strongly worded letter to the official of your choice.

Okay, you all may have already seen this Samantha Bee story from "The Daily Show." But if not, watch it now!

My favorite part (well, it's all good, really): the conservative commentator who says that she's not ready for a nurturing President. Because who needs that - really - at this time in our nation's history?

And, no, I'm not voting for Hillary unless I absolutely have to.

I finally watched that video and I still think that little shit deserved to get tasered. When the police surround you and you don't comply then you're pretty much asking for it. I don't think it infringed on his freedom of speech at all. He was obnoxious and totally deserved it.

Protests at events are going to happen. I remember one campaign I worked on and we had people showing up in Pinocchio costumes to the events and I had to put volunteers all over the place with signs to block out these freaks from getting on camera. I didn't realize the White House had a full-on manual about it, cause that would have come in handy!

State Representative Kirk England (Grand Prairie) is joining the dark side and becoming a Democrat. FWST He said he was tired of the bullshit and called Craddick a sissy boy. (I wish)

The last election results for his district:

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 106
*England R 10,459 50.6%
Hubener D 10,224 49.4%

The Republican majority will change to 79-70 (not counting Rep. Mowery seat) with the switch.

The White House has named a new spokesman, Dana Perino. While she may be woefully unqualified for the job, I found a few quotes in this Austin Chronicle article to be on the verge of offensive. Let's take them out of context and you tell me what you think.

Five years ago I was having lunch in San Diego with a friend, a PR bunny [emphasis added] who was pitching high tech companies.

On one level, Perino's rapid accession certainly provides further evidence that the Bush administration has been the land of opportunity for midlevel staffers, a Washington, D.C., where those old bugaboos of achievement and experience are not as important [emphasis added] as loyalty and faith.

She is tiny, wee, munchkin short. Her appearance on TV is another White House-orchestrated ruse. They must have her standing on a stepladder at the podium.

...a cutie press secretary...

(Austin Chronicle)

Next week, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will feature an online display of a photo scrapbook that depicts the day-to-day lives of Auschwitz's SS officers. It was donated to the museum by a former United States Army intelligence officer who found the photographs over 60 years ago in Germany. The New York Times has an audio/visual slideshow of some of the photographs. (via)

Well, you know those rabble-rousers that blog. They create such problems for big companies. A hospital in Paris is suing to obtain the name of an anonymous blogger that posts information critical of the hospital.

The hospital claims that the blog has violated HIPPA laws by releasing patient information on the Internet and that employees of the hospital have violated HIPPA laws by providing patient records to the blogger. If true, these are the two things that will get this blogger into trouble.

Being critical of a company and having employees of that company post anonymously on a blog isn't defamation. It's the truth, and instead of focusing on going after the blogger and the commenters the hospital should be doing some Quality Assurance reviews of their procedures.

That's only if they didn't violate HIPPA. If they did that, they're screwed.

From Mark Russell: "Sure it isn't fair, but there is no stopping the inevitable laid back Fred Thompson jokes: What can we look for in the Oval Office under President Fred Thompson? A La-Z-Boy recliner."

"How would Fred Thompson restore the legacy of Ronald Reagan in the White House? With the cabinet meeting nap."

"Would a Thompson White House pet be a dog or a cat? Maybe a turtle named "Speedy."

"What would be the theme of Fred Thompson's Inaugural Address? "Ask not what you can do today, but what you can put off until tomorrow."

Since I haven't even watched the entire video of the kid being tasered at the Kerry event, I feel absolutely qualified to discuss it ad nauseum. Clearly this jackass kid should have been tasered. He was resisting arrest and causing a disturbance. I would like to have my own taser and when some asshole was "loud-talking" and disturbing me I could just take him out for a while.

Tasers for everyone!!

The New York Times is back to being free. The paid walled off parts of their site became free at midnight. They claim that subscriptions went well, but it does not outweigh the potential ad revenue from those pages viewed when visitors link through to their site.

Really? Gee...we could have told them that months ago.

It appears that Austin is the most congested medium sized city in the nation. Duh!! But who in the hell wants to live in Laredo? The Austin traffic is a disaster, but, at least we have a good public transportation system! Bwahahahahahahahahaha

Disclaimer: This post is not really funny except for the fact that people are taking Ron Paul SERIOUSLY.

The popular networking website Facebook.com has an application that allows users to vote for their favorite presidential candidate. The Election '08 feature has tallied 219,001 votes as of 8:53 p.m. 9/17/07. So far the results are:

1. Barack Obama 25% (55,724 votes)
2. Rudy Giuliani 9% (20,318 votes)
3. Hillary Clinton 8% (18,411 votes)
4. Ron Paul 7% (16,845 votes)
5. Fred Thompson 5% (11,128)

It's interesting to see what college students think and even more that Ron Paul is on the top five. We will see if college students actually show up to vote though.

(PD Adds: Does anyone really think it's interesting what college students think? I don't. I guess I could be interested to know if they do think at all. They don't vote and no matter how many times we hear that the youth are invigorated in this election it rarely turns out to be true. This concludes my "bitter old man" rant. Thank you...I'll be playing dominoes at the Petticoat Junction later this week.)

A Nebraska Senator is suing God.

Chambers says in his lawsuit that God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

All I can think of is that I wouldn't want to be anywhere near this man that is suing God, because the smiting that is going to take place from the Heavens above may have some unintended collateral damage.

... while keeping this quote in mind:

"It's a sad, sad state of affairs when liberals campaign like Republicans to get elected and Republicans govern like liberals to be loved. If you see a candidate who wants to tax like a Democrat, regulate like a Democrat and educate like a Democrat, they should not have the honor of being called a Republican."

.
Craig's Arrest Makes Airport Restroom New Tourist Attraction. You gotta know that we can find some equally interesting places in Texas to promote for tourism. Maybe we can compile a list and send them to the Texas Dept. of Tourism!

Yeah, for example...Visit the floor of the state legislature. This is where Tom Craddick took a shit all over parliamentary procedure!!

I am guessing it was MoveOn that put together the big anti-war rally in Washington over the weekend. Only 150 people were arrested out of thousands that marched. I'm not part of the generation of protesters, so I've never really understood the people that do. I can see that it gets coverage in the media, but I've never been convinced that it changes policy.

If I ever got up to protest, I'm afraid it would be because I was about to go beat the shit out of somebody. I'm pretty sure that would be effective. The true sad part about protests is the only real effective protest is through your vote.

I'm all for voting and those of you that spend your energy making signs and marching ought to do that kind of stuff right around election day with GOTV campaigns.

Besides that, protesting this war is kind of like saying "I love puppies" because at this point everybody is pretty much opposed to what's going on over there.

A PinkDome reader and history buff went to Washington, D.C. recently and sent us this great walk through history about our nation's capital. Enjoy! This is a long post, but we're keeping the whole thing up without a break because I love it!

Washington DC is rich and vibrant, a place pulsating with history and hookers. As an important gift to our PinkDome readers, we're providing this tour of great spots in American History and who made them famous.

GEORGE WASHINGTON: The White House
" History tells us that even as the city's planners debated the final design of this house, masons laid its stone foundations 4 feet thick. Like our Nation's Founders, these men were building a monument to freedom that they wanted to last. Over the course of two centuries, as all of you know--and we've seen some references tonight--this old house has withstood war and fire and bulldozers, just as its inhabitants have faced a stern test or two."

-- Bill Clinton, White House Bicentennial Dinner, Nov. 9, 2000

"Man, this place smells like ass." --PinkDome DC Spy

BILL CLINTON: Oval Office Bathroom--to the right

"[W]e made an arrangement that . . . he would have the door to his office open, and I would pass by the office with some papers and then . . . he would sort of stop me and invite me in. So, that was exactly what happened. I passed by and that was actually when I saw [Secret Service Uniformed Officer] Lew Fox who was on duty outside the Oval Office, and stopped and spoke with Lew for a few minutes, and then the President came out and said, oh, hey, Monica . . . come on in . . . . And so we spoke for about 10 minutes in the [Oval] office. We sat on the sofas. Then we went into the back study and we were intimate in the bathroom."

--Starr Report

"You guys won't believe what I had to do to see this room. Let's just say like a Texas Lawyer I got shot in the face." --PinkDome DC Spy

Click here for the rest of what I think is some of the funniest shit I've read in a long time.

Neil Bush is back in the news again. His company Ignite! is now being called out by a watchdog group that says his company's products do not even meet the requirements of NCLB. Funny how school districts are spending federal dollars on a curriculum that the only thing I've ever read about it says it's not very good.

Clearly, the fact that the company is run by the president's brother has absolutely nothing to do with their success. The AISD spend over $70,000 on 'projectors' with this Ignite! curriculum loaded on them. I'm hoping that bought 70,000 units because if they cost more than a grand a piece it's a ripoff. I'd like to know what schools have these products and how they are performing in that ever-important scorecard we see every year. Have these products improved test scores? Graduation rates? Overall grades of the students?

Ah, don't you love it when a plan comes together? Oh, that's right...Texas schools don't seem to have a plan. Always in the weeds, never reaching for the stars.

Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that the two departments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.

Ok, this continues to fascinate me. I can remember being a child and hearing anecdotes about the $100,000 toilets (was it on Johnny Carson or something maybe?). I am consistently amazed at the levels of incompetence. Here's why: "Failing an audit in any other venue could have dire consequences — a public company's stock could plummet, state and local governments could see bond and credit ratings sink."

Damn. Somebody tell these folks in Washington about QuickBooks. Better yet, they should hire the lady in our company in charge of expense reimbursements. That battle-axe refused to reimburse me for toothpaste one time because I ran out while I was on a trip. That's hardcore right there, my friends.

Did anybody else watch this interview? Two quick notes: Damn, he's old as Methusala. He's so smart it makes my head hurt just to pay attention.

Job Responsibilities: Repair damage to organization through goodwill efforts with antagonistic Congress and stonewalling White House. Uphold rule of law and correct previous position's poor decisions.

Requirements: Must be able to testify before Congress without sweating or stuttering...or lying. Must be basically competent in legal analysis.

This is a short-term contract job and you must be willing to take a significant pay cut and limit future opportunities based on accepting this assignment.

Interested parties should apply to George W. Bush. Seriously...please...someone?

The Emmys were on TV last night. I didn't watch them. But, Sally Field won and Fox cut her off. Here's what she said, "Let's face it. If mothers ruled the world there would be no more goddamn wars."

The funny thing is that Fox didn't bleep out the goddamn, but cut out the word 'war.'