The Dem Diatribe Project

Dem Diatribe's Pick for the special election on Tuesday, Aug. 2, to elect the successor in the 2nd District to Congressman Rob Portman, who recently appointed by the President to a high trade post: Paul Hackett The 2nd District it is gerrymandered to wind from eastern Cincinnati’s prosperous suburbs and posh commercial sites through such small farm counties as Brown, Adams and Pike, part of Warren and Clermont, and all the way east across the state to downtrodden Portsmouth in poverty-ridden Scioto County. The race is down to Republican Jean Schmidt, who was the only female in a 10-person primary race, a 100 percent Bush backer from Loveland, who is the head of an anti-abortion group in Cincinnati. Her opponent is Paul Hackett, a charismatic, impressive lawyer from Indian Hill, who recently returned from a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq as a Marine major, where he served on the front lines in battered Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold. If elected, he will be, incredibly, the on...

President Bush is completely back-pedaling from his 2004 pledge to fire anyone involved in leaking the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Now that it appears that his most trusted, most evil confidant is the guilty party, Bush is adjusting his rhetoric. According to the Shrub, Darth Rove must now be convicted of a crime before said Shrub will fire him. I guess giving Rove his walking papers will be a lot easier once convicted, as he will be on his way to prison anyway. The Shrub is on his way to being a bigger flip-flopper than John Kerry and he might want to pay careful attention to some of the things he says with such conviction. e.g.: "...if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration ..." Well Mr. Shrubbery, if you were to live by those words, you would have a pretty empty office. You might want to adjust your rhetoric again in the future to something like, "If someone in my administration who is not Karl Rove or Dick Chen...

Yeah, right. We believe you. See Also: Power Line . Rove: the architectect of most Bush Administration lies.

Democracy For America has put out a short Flash animation describing the Downing Street Memo and what it means for America. Take a look: http://democracyforamerica.com/memo_movie.php

"Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does." That's what Dick Cheney had to say about my brother, Howard Dean, on Monday. This wasn't a quote from an insecure schoolyard bully at recess -- this was our vice president speaking on prime time television. It's outrageous! But then again, this is a guy who has no regrets about misleading America into a war with Iraq and the deaths of over 1,700 brave men and women in uniform. He has no remorse over mismanaging our nation's economy and running up the biggest deficit in history. He wants to destroy Social Security. And he has given away billions to his corporate cronies at Halliburton. Howard has said a lot of things about Republicans, but he was wrong about Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney has worked a day in his life -- and the nation is worse off because of it. Vice President Cheney says he has never met anyone who likes Howard - well, it's time for us to re-introduce ourselves to him. It...

To: Democrats in U.S. Congress Recently some Democrats in Congress have chastised Governor Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, saying that he does not speak for the party. We the undersigned have a simple message we would like to convey to you: Howard Dean Speaks For Me. And, we respectfully request that you refrain from public criticism of your fellow Democrats and that you begin to speak for us as well Sincerely, The Undersigned Sign the petition.

I'll take "The Obvious" for $1000, Alex. Providing yet more evidence that Bush cannot think more than about one move ahead in any situation, the Washington Post is reporting on British analysis that the Bush administration had not given any serious thought regarding what to do with Iraq after the invasion. Forget chess. This man probably sucks at checkers. And he is "leading our country", YOW! A briefing paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers eight months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq concluded that the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a "protracted and costly" postwar occupation of that country. The eight-page memo, written in advance of a July 23, 2002, Downing Street meeting on Iraq, provides new insights into how senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable, and realized more clearly than their American counterp...