Item! When I got home from work yesterday, I walked in the door, and Nathalie was sitting at the computer with the news on the telly. Before I can take off my coat and put away the groceries, she starts railing about the Bush tax cuts, an uninformed electorate that doesn't realize how much the tax cuts were skewed to the rich, and people blindly voting along party lines without knowing what the facts are. And I said to her, "Wow, so this must be what it's like to live with me."

Then I had a dream last night that I walked outside and started screaming at some random people about what a miserable failure Shrub has been--the lost jobs, illegal war based on deception, massive deficits, war profiteering, joke medicare bill, lost respect of the world, etc etc. And then I went back inside the apartment and realized that there was a whole other room that we hadn't been using.
The last time that I had a dream like this, I was yelling at Shrub himself. Maybe my subconscious needs to have these cathartic events in order to keep me from actually accosting random people on the street. And maybe tonight I can go back to dreaming about being able to dunk a basketball or play drums for a Led Zeppelin reunion tour.

Item! From the NY Daily News gossip column:
GET READY TO RUMBLE: Fox News star Bill O'Reilly apparently has done something to annoy Snoop Dogg, the tough-talking rapper who has, I hope, put his tough-acting ways behind him.
When Maxim magazine asked Snoop whom he wants to fight, the rapper replied: "Bill O'Reilly, that bitch-a--. 'Cause he's a bitch."
O'Reilly said yesterday through a Fox flack, "I'll be happy to have lunch with him anytime."
No, Bill, maybe you didn't hear right: That's punch, not lunch.

Item! The Bushies are planning their ad campaign against John Kerry, and the strategy appears to be trying to use Kerry's past against him. There are two more indications that these people live on some other planet. First, the Bushies say that Kerry's anti-war activism is fair game as they will try to tarnish his image as a decorated veteran. Even after all the TANG controversy, it is amazing that they would go this route. And it's not like there are many people around these days other than the chickenhawks in the administration who avoided military service who think that the Vietnam war was a good thing. Of course, in 2002, the Republicans managed to question the patriotism of former Ga. Senator Max Cleland, a Vietnam vet who left three limbs over there.
And secondly, the turd who is the the chief media advisor for the Bushies says, "The beauty of John Kerry is 32 years of votes and public pronouncements." So if the past 32 years of statements are also fair game, then will the Kerry campaign see the beauty in these statements from Shrub's past?

Reporter: "When you're not talking politics, what do you and [your father] talk about?"
Shrub: "Pussy."

In response to a question on marijuana or cocained use: "It is irrelevant what I did 20 to 30 years ago."

When asked about militants in Iraq attacking American forces: "Bring 'em on."

On deficits: "You know, I was campaigning in Chicago and somebody asked me, is there ever any time where the budget might have to go into deficit? I said only if we were at war or had a national emergency or were in recession. Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta." (the funny thing here is that he said this on at least sixteen different occasions, yet it was Gore who actually made those three caveats during the campaign. And who'd they tar as being dishonest? To his credit though, Shrub added the joke about the "trifecta" because 9/11, war, and a bad economy are so goddam funny.)

And just for kicks, "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream"

My point here is, I don't think they've got much ground to stand on. But in an indication that even the Bushies realize this, they say that they will campaign on Shrub's proposals rather than his accomplishments. That, I have to agree, is a rather simple choice to make since Shrub's main accomplishment has been to make Franklin Pierce look like a competent president. Ooh, SNAP! Nuthin brings down the house like a good Franklin Pierce joke.