Howling Latina

Virginia Political Blogs has two simultaneous writings meant to help Sen. George Allen in the debate over his despicable use of the "N-word" and then his despicable baseless charge that Webb did it too, so there.

Yes, my dear sweet GOP wingnuts, read your own headlines.

Never mind that the lying Allen hack has a tape of his entire Webb interview minus the alleged dialogue where Webb revealed his dark side.

No recordings, no pictures, no proof is my my response to General Grievous' Dog's post.

Thank you, Staunton News; thank you very much.

Meanwhile, let's get back to talking about the real issues; and Jim Webb's use of the word horny, shall we? The esteemed former Republican Congressman Mark Foley would no doubt enjoy the renewed discourse.

Maf54: You in your boxers, too?Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late.Maf54: Well, strip down and get relaxed.

Another message:

Maf54: What ya wearing?Teen: tshirt and shortsMaf54: Love to slip them off of you.

And this one:

Maf54: Do I make you a little horny? Teen: A little. Maf54: Cool.

Tucked inside the news story by The Virginian-Pilot about the latest poll numbers in Virginia is a "beaut."

[O]ver half - 53 percent of those polled - said that illegal immigrants working in the United States should be given a chance to stay, while 36 percent said they should be deported.

Fifty three percent?!? Hay Dios Mio!

Now relax, allow the sound of the harmless number to rise, ever so slowly, and float through space, between your ears, gently, rising, ever so slowly.

Relax, allow the vibrations of the digit to float into the ether of your consciousness; receive the field; your loving source.

Now click your heels; yes, victory is at hand; repeat it often. The immigration issue will carry the day; and Republicans will get to cross the river banks of Georgia on Election Day.

A little skeptical? Keep repeating! Besides, Jerry Kilgore will be happy to give you a testimonial.

Oh, that's right, my bad, he lost the governor's race on this winning issue.

Today was a very good day for Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb.

In a trifecta of good news, a Navy Academy graduate and former Sen. George Allen supporter now endorses Jim Webb, Raising Kaine reports.

Linda Ponstenriender, a 1982 Naval Academy grad who was recruited to speak at a press conference commandeered by the Allen campaign earlier this month, said she has since heard from Jim Webb and liked what he has to say. Today, Ponstenriender officially endorsed Webb’s candidacy.

Also, the black caucus in Virginia's General Assembly today publicly endorsed Jim Webb, Daily Press reports.

And in a new poll, Webb and Allen are now even, The Virginian-Pilot reports.

Yep, since July, Allen's once formidable 16-point lead has vanished.

And just how and why did Allen's lead disappear, you might ask?

Allen’s lead disappeared this month amid his angry denial and subsequent acknowledgement of his Jewish roots, and allegations that he often used a racial epitaph to refer to blacks when he was a student at the University of Virginia in the early 1970s. Allen says the reports about his language are false.

But rejoice GOP batwings; your sorry-ass candidate deserves to lose and you know it. Moreover, if you truly place the welfare of nation ahead of partisan politics, you, too, will vote for Webb on Nov. 7.

Remember, no one will ever need to KNOW!

This Sunday, "Meet the Press" is sponsoring their third debate in their "Senate Debate Series" with Republican Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio and challenger Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown.

However, the debate will not run all the way through the entire program so that a prior interview with President Pevez Musharraf of Pakistan and author of "In the Line of Fire: A Memoir" can be shown.

Russert asks Musharraf about the "hunt for Osama Bin Laden , the war on terrorism and how the war in Iraq has affected the insurgencies in the Middle East."

Since the topic of literature has been so very popular in Virginia's blogosphere lately, Howling Latina thought she'd try to get her hands on a copy of the erotic book Sisters by Second Lady Lynn Cheney.

You know, just to do a little analysis mano-a-mano with literature scholar Spark it Up!

But alas, no copy is available since its publisher refused to reissue the novel in spite of great interest from others. USA Today reported last year that Mrs. Cheney claimed "the book did not represent her 'best work."

Cheney's attorney, Robert Barnett... contacted the publisher, which agreed this week to pull the novel.

Why, that's rubbish. Mrs. Cheney is simply being too modest. Let the audience be the judge of that sentiment through book sales, for there is no nobler truth that the Grand Old Party's core platform that capitalism reign supreme.

Indeed, it's a lamentable shame that the simple fraternity of literature lovers are deprived of such lofty words and work; only copies at $282.50 a pop are available on Amazon.com.

Well, here is the sweet fragrance from one of her passages:

"Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl," Miss Travers had written to Helen."

Yes, the cross-stitching is all that is left for us poor saps who can't afford to fork $282.50 to read quite possibly one of the greatest American "pieces" of lesbian erotica.

Oh my dear dumb “macaca,” did you really think you could walk away from your shameful racist past with some party loyalist spewing false claims that were totally outside the realm of Jim Webb’s core character?

The Washington Post front-pages today’s news conference by the Virginia chapter of Sons of Confederate Veterans but then reveals something much, much, much more interesting.

It seems that little story about Jim Webb running amok through the streets with rifles aimed at the folks who lived in Watts has now been debunked by a dose of reality.

Thursday, a former roommate of Webb's challenged a report that Webb had used the N-word and harassed blacks. An associate of Webb's, Dan Cragg, told the Post on Wednesday that Webb told him he took drives through the black neighborhood of Watts, where he and members of his Reserve Officer Training Corps unit used racial epithets and pointed fake guns at blacks to scare them. Cragg was referred to the Post by the Allen campaign.

Oleg Jankovic, 60, said he was Webb's roommate in 1963 and 1964.

"No. No. It just wasn't happening," Jankovic said of Cragg's allegation. He said Webb once shot rifles into the air from the top of a dorm, but never drove through Watts with one or yelled epithets. "No. Absolutely not."

Hopefully, this latest fraudulent ploy by Allen will be the final straw to weigh in favor of an endorsement by every black legislator in Virginia's General Assembly.

Meanwhile, news of the latest credible first-hand witness, Patricia Waring, is also featured in the story. Waring flat-out contradicts Allen's lying assertion.

[A]nother person emerged on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" to accuse him of using the N-word.

Patricia Waring, who described herself as the wife of Allen's rugby coach in law school, said she overheard Allen repeatedly using the epithet during a rugby match in 1978. She said she confronted Allen at the time, urging him not to use that word.

"I heard to my left, the N-word, and I heard it again, and I looked around and heard it again," she said. "And there was this fellow sitting on the ground. He was putting on red rugby shoes -- it is seared in my brain, believe me. And he was kind of showing off, I guess, but he was telling a story and . . . in the story was a lot of N-words."

Now, when asked to comment about this latest witness, Allen's campaign manager Dick Wadhams replied: "It's the latest false accusation. It's patently untrue, made by a self-confessed partisan liberal Democrat."

Yep, they're all a bunch of lying liberals: Patricia Waring, Oleg Jankovic, Doug Thompson, Ellen Hawkins, George Beam, Christopher Taylor, Ken Shelton and Larry Sabato; every last one of them.

Let's face it, folks. Jim Webb's spirit is too powerful for the likes of Allen to triumph. Webb ain't like any person Allen has ever politically faced before.

He ain't no Mary Sue Terry who hardly riveted the progressive base with her stupid claim about capital punishment that innocence was irrelevant; or even former Sen. Chuck Robb who'd been whacked too many times by too many rumors for too many years.

Jim Webb is morally upright, his core is strong and this latest Allen ploy only serves to prove to Virginians that they really didn't know Allen, after all. You see, the junior senator is a lying vermin and now folks know it!

Another condemning op-ed, this time from conservative National Review Online.

It seems the good ol' boys don't want Allen to slam Webb from the right; and the condemning column is useful to show how Allen's henchmen will say ANYTHING to win a race, including mischaracterizing Webb's words in the much-talked about article of 1979 where Webb questioned whether women were ready to hold leadership positions in combat or not.

"Remember Tailhook," the campaign literature heralds, according to the column that "featur[es] black-and-white images of young women who look like rape victims...[I]nside is a quasi-feminist attack on Jim Webb for having the guts to stand up for the Navy during one of its darkest political hours."

Howling Latina can discern Allen's desperate campaign strategy: strip away the female vote from Webb, especially in Northern Virginia. But with Allen's rubberstamp support of Bush's disastrous Iraq war policies and women reproductive rights in danger, the only thing that Allen's campaign accomplishes is to piss off core supporters.

Conservatives don't want Allen to "make the case that Webb is too "insensitive" for Virginia -- but rather that he's too "liberal."

Great op-ed in The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg by a voter in Virginia.

One of Sen. George Allen's slick but lying ad tells viewers that Jim Webb is a quitter; after only serving 10 months in the Reagan administration, Webb quit in a huff.

But the fact of the matter is that Webb "served in the Reagan administration for almost four years -- 10 months as secretary of the Navy."

And as John Kozicki correctly explains, "Sen. Allen does not tell us why Jim Webb resigned as secretary of the Navy," if he did he would have to "praise" him.

James Webb took a principled stand and resigned to protest Reagan proposals to cut the Navy shipbuilding program. Mr. Webb believed these cuts would be detrimental to the future security of the United States.

Meanwhile, what exactly has George Allen done for our fighting men and women? As it turns out, not a damn thing.

Mr. Kozicki points out that Allen "voted against adding $21.9 billion to the Department of Veterans Affairs to support the health needs of veterans; against $500 million for the years 2006 to 2010 for readjustment counseling associated with post-traumatic stress disorder; and against ensuring that there would be sufficient future funding for veterans' health care."

So much for Allen's meaningless tribute to our armed forces in his slick focus group tested campaign ad.

Sen. George Allen would like Virginians to forget past deeds when forming an opinion about charges that he habitually peppered his language with the N-word; or whether the latest trumped tale of me-too racism lobbed by his campaign at Webb is true.

In the past, the junior senator has had a long affair with racism and its symbols. On the other hand, Webb has had a history of advancing racial equality and justice for all.

Indeed, while Allen was busy clothing himself with the Confederate flag, hanging a noose in his office and campaigning on the back of Willie Horton with his ‘truth in sentencing’ sloganeering relegating mostly people of color to lengthy prison sentences without hope of parole, Jim Webb was defending a poor black soldier charged with war crimes and fighting for the inclusion of an African-American soldier in the Vietnam War Memorial.

By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds;
Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:

William Shakespeare from Sonnet 61-90

Ben "Cooter" Davis played a television character who drove the backroads in a pickup truck he named the General Lee; he is holding a fundraiser for Jim Webb.

Well, conservative wingnuts are all up in arms. SWAC Girl decries: "

The General Lee, don't ya know, has a CONFEDERATE FLAG ON ITS ROOF.

[...]

Where's the outrage? Where's the indignation? Where's the call for Webb's resignation?

My dear child, do you not see the obvious difference between the made-up character of Cooter and the real McCoy, sort've speak, in the form of Sen. George Felix Macacawitz who draped himself with the Confederate flag?!?

Here's a few definitions that hopefully will make the point clear for you.

Reality - something that exists independently of all other things and from which all other things derive; something that is real.

Real - existing or occurring as fact; actual rather than imaginary, ideal, or fictitious.

Fiction - something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story; an
imaginary thing or event.W

Wait...holy batwings! Guess next time there is a crime scene, you better get on the batmobile and call Val Kilmer, for sure.

Update for the intentionally clueless: Ben "Cooter" Davis drove around the General Lee because that's what the character he played in "Dukes of Hazard" did; and he hoped it might trigger voters' memories at the polls. If Leonard Nimoy of "Star Trek" opted to run for public office, so what if he decided to don some Spock ears while campaining to cement his "brand"? On the other hand, Allen has absolutely no past ties to Dixie, that is, other than in his imaginary racist mind.

Well, Sen. George Felix Allen found a sap to strike back. You see, Webb candidly told the Republican Richmond Times-Dispatch that he didn't "think that there's anyone who grew up around the South that hasn't had the word pass through their lips at one time in their life."

A hell of a lot more credible than Allen's unequivocal bullshit denial; but of course, that's all the Allen campaign needed; it was off to the dirt races, the Washington Post reports:

Webb's comments to Richmond Times-Dispatch prompted Allen campaign officials to direct a reporter to Dan Crag, a former acquaintance of Web's, who said Web used the word while describing his own behavior during his freshman year at the University of Southern California in the early 1960s. Webb later transferred to the US Naval Academy.

[...]

Crag, 67, who lives in Fairfax County, said on Wednesday that Web described taking drives through the black neighborhood of Watts, where he and members of his OTC unit used racial epithets and pointed fake guns at blacks to scare them.

[...]

Crag said Webb told him the Watts story during a 1983 interview for a Vietnam veterans magazine. Crag, who described himself as a Republican who would vote for Allen, did not include the story in his article. He provided a transcript of the interview, but the transcript does not contain the ROTC story. He said he still remembers the exchange vividly more than 20 years later.

Hmmm, so here's a journalist handed a news breaking story and he immediately does what? Oh yea, he sits on the story; you see Webb and he were best pals; and of course, no notes of the incident.

Spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd told the Post that Webb vehemently repudiated this bullshit account.

"He said it's not true. It's not even close to being true," Todd said. She quoted Webb as saying: "In 1963, you couldn't go to Watts and do that kind of thing. You'd get killed. So of course I didn't do it. I would never do that. I would never want to do that."

So let's examine the Allen 'get-out-of-jail' story advanced by his campaign next to the story for which Webb had absolutely nothing to do with:

At least five witnesses confirm that Allen used the N-word during his college years and later; all extremely credible witnesses with one even confirming the deer story --- even if he couldn't back up that the mailbox was that of a black family.

On the other side of the ledger, one lonely false witness miraculously comes forward at the behest of the Allen campaign.

By the bye, the devastating Watts riots of 1965 where 34 people were killed was the climax of racially pent up anger stewing over the years; the neighborhood was 99 percent black at the time.

Is anyone stupid enough to believe blacks were going to be scared off in their own turf by a few white jarheads?!? It would be equal to a few white red-necks going into Southeast DC and trying to scare off the boyz in the hood. This trumped-up story reeks of historical ignorance and Southern racial stereotypes.

Basically, it comes down to Allen throwing this lying story out there to ward off the accurate and faithful accounts of his past racism. He's trying to muddle the issue with the tried and true bait and switch tactic of the he-said-she-said-so-who-knows variety that the media always swallows.

Howling Latina reports, you decide.

Virginia Beach Dems posted results from the latest Virginian-Pilot poll on whether folks believe Allen's denial that he never used the N-word.

First the absurd Allen campaign spin:

"I think the preponderance of evidence shows these charges are false," Dick Wadhams, Allen's campaign manager, said of charges by three people Monday that Allen used racial slurs in the early 1970s as a student and football star at the University of Virginia. "When this campaign gets back to the issues, we'll be fine."

Now the poll question: "Do you believe the allegations of U.Va. classmates that George Allen used a racial epithet for blacks?"

The results in this post are slightly more recent; but the bottom line is that most readers ain't buying the latest snake oil potion being marketed by Allen and his toadies.

Out of 1572 votes, 59.67 percent believe the classmates over the junior senator. Three-and-three quarter percent of voters are undecided and 36.58 percent actually believe the lying bastard.

Now go vote!

Breaking news, folks. Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe and other great American authors were racist; yep, they used the word n****r in their literature.

Howling Latina swears that some of the posts by Allen apologists are written for people with an IQ of -20 or 3rd graders or BOTH.

In the latest incantation, Commonwealth Conservatives breathlessly reports.

Today we learned, and you may want to sit down for this, Webb may have used the N-word. For people who have read Webb’s books, this comes as something less than an earth-shattering revelation. The only thing proven by this is that the Webb campaign flunkies who decided to make a big issue of Allen’s alleged use of the N-word aren’t just playing dumb.

Good job, CC; what a terrific scoop! No doubt the media will be all over that ONE!

MUHAHAHAHAAAAAA...

In trying to take the pulse of reaction to the incredible news that Sen. George Allen only learned his mother was Jewish this summer (even though folks have confirmed to the media that it was a well-known fact around RFK stadium during Allen father's years as Redskins coach that his wife was Jewish), Ynetnews.com - News from Israel writes:

WASHINGTON - Until recently, Virginian Senator George Allen planned to run with the Republican party for the US presidency. But in the past two weeks, he ran into a “problem”: He discovered his Jewish roots – and then turned his back on them. Now, it is not at all clear whether he will even manage to be reelected and keep his senate seat, nevermind running for president.

[...]

Rumors of his family’s Jewish ancestry are not new, but they were first fully exposed recently by the New York-based Jewish newspaper The Forward.

[...]

Last week Allen appeared for an interview with Channel 9 TV in Washington. When the reporter asked about his mother’s Jewish background, he answered irately, “She was raised Christian.” When the reporter insisted on digging deeper, he turned away the questions aggressively: “That’s it, that’s it,” he said.

[...]

His attempt to evade the issue was pathetic, and even Allen was aware of that.

Hmmm, to update Ol' Abraham Lincoln's truism to modern day: You can fool some of the people most of the time; and most of the people some of the time, but you can't fool most of the people most of the time; and that especially includes ethnic groups with high levels of education and intellect.

Allen's sobbing lame excuses about his over-the-top reaction to the Peggy Fox question about his heritage is well, rather incredibly phony, like the rest of him.

Is lying a Republican congenital disease?

Last evening, former Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie told a whopper on "Hardball." Asked by Chris Matthews to comment on Sen George Felix Allen's possible career ending missteps, Gillespie proclaimed:

"He was always going to be subject to negative attacks because the fact is he has been a very successful former governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a very effective current senator. He has won every campaign he's ever waged and they don't want to debate the issues with him and so they are going to attack his character."

Oh really, he's won every political race he's ever waged? Even his first race for the Virginia House of Delegates in 1979?!? Or the Congressional campaign where he was tossed out of the House in January 1993?!?

Apparently, Gillespie will say and do anything to try to save the brand of his piss-poor candidate. You know the one of Allen as an affable good ol' boy with a sunny disposition beloved by all Virginians.

When asked about the credible witnesses who've accused Allen of using the "N-word" and stuffing the head of a doe inside a mailbox in a black neighborhood, Gillespie assures us that Allen can be fully trusted when he denies the charges:

"I do take him at his word because I have the benefit of knowing the man. And the fact is, this is a man who abhors with every fiber of his being anything that is antithetical to treating people with respect, equal respect regardless of religion, race, background, ethnic background. He was raised in a football family where it was made clear to him that all that matters is what you do and your performance, and the color of your skin has no bearing whatsoever. And I believe that."

Well, forgive Howling Latina if she's more than a little disbelieving when a liar proceeds to reassure her of the merits and truthfulness of another liar.

In other words, nice try, but no "macaca."

In a recent Zogby poll via Scoop, voters questioned whether the outcome in the '04 election was "fair and square."

A mid-August Zogby poll asked 1018 likely voters how confident they were that George Bush "really won the 2004 election." Only 45.2 percent said they were very confident; 20 percent said they were somewhat confident, 32.4 percent said they were not at all confident and 2.4 percent said they were not sure.

Hmmm, not exactly a ringing endorsement for democracy; As Scoop points out, "Webster’s defines 'somewhat' as follows: '…in some degree or measure: SLIGHTLY.'" When you add "somewhat confident" likely voters to "not at all confident" likely voters, the "results are a clear vote of no confidence."

Fifty-nine percent of Democrats, 34 percent of Independents and 5 percent of Republicans said they had absolutely no confidence. Broken down by race, 54 percent of Asians and 71 percent of blacks also "lack confidence in the president's legitimacy to rule. "

Even a substantial number of NASCAR fans, born-again Christians, military members and rural voters doubt Bush really won with 28 percent of NASCAR fans, 25 percent of born-again Christians, 32 percent of members in the military and 28 percent of rural voters saying they had no confidence.

A whopping 44 percent in the East had no confidence; and a surprising 30 percent the South and 35 percent in the West also had no confidence.

Of the 45 percent who had no doubt Bush won "fair and square," 15 percent are Democrats, 80 percent are Republicans and 39 percent are Independents. " Dividing respondents by race, 39 percent of Asians, 51 percent of Whites, 38 percent of Latinos and a measly 9 percent of blacks are absolutely certain Bush really won.

Confident born-again Christians lead the poll with 58 percent; however, only 46 percent of voters in the South, 42 percent in the West and 32 percent in the East share that confidence.

As Scoop points out, "All of these figures in the low fifties [and forties] indicate that even among core constituencies, there are barely a majority of voters with a high degree of confidence that the election was legitimate."

The “in betweens” show less difference than the “very confident” and the “not confident at all” responders among the various subgroups polled.

For example, 24 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Independents are "somewhat confident" and the difference by region varies only slightly. Fifteen percent of born-again Christians are "somewhat confident" and 19 percent of non sectarian are also slightly confident.

Scoop correctly observses:

There won’t be much discussion of this Zogby poll by corporate media reporters and pundits. If it occurs, it might go something like this: “Most Americans confident in 2004 Election;” “Bush Still Solid with the People;” “Core Groups Support Outcome of 2004 Election.” Of course, none of those headlines will appear. For one or a multitude of reasons, the American corporate media has studiously ignored any controversy concerning election 2004. To discuss questions of legitimacy in public would entail raising the question of a stolen election. It won’t happen but it should.

If we assume that this data is actually discussed by the corporate media, a dismissal strategy is available. The headlines would read: “Doubt in Legitimacy of 2004 Presidential Election Based on Attitude toward Bush Performance” or, for certain news organizations, “Complainers Doubt 2004 Outcome.” Those who think the country is headed in the right direction comprise 79 [percent] of those who are very confident in 2004 results. They comprise only 8 [percent] of the “not confident at all” group. Those who think the country is headed in the wrong direction represent 26 [percent] of the very confident responders and 47 [percent] of the not confident at all group.

Howling Latina is just glad that Virginia has a Democratic governor to look over the shoulders of democracy and voting results; and she hopes that voting in Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states is so lopsided in favor of Democrats that GOPers won't be able to steal the elections.

Because an image is worth a thousand words, here's a noose next to a Confederate flag; just ignore the klan uniform.

When Sen. George Felix Allen feigns ignorance in symbols of Dixie, like everything that comes out of his mouth, the junior senator has zero credibility with Virginians based on elementary commonsense.

Howling Latina came of age around the same time as Allen, and she can vouch that Confederate flags were the fetish du jour ONLY with the crowd who lamented the South's loss to the North: red-necks with deep-seated racial animus.

Like her good friend Jack Hughes of evilgopbastards notes, "Felix's past is coming back to haunt him like the ghost of a Confederate racist."

Howling Latina was going through her latest batch of posts and came across the recent hysteria over the Monkey-fest line by Raising Kaine.

Yet...not a peep out of anyone when the conservative Weekly Standard plastered a monkey on Sen. George Allen's back on their front cover and declared: "George Allen Monkeys Around."

Oh my dear wingnuts, where is your faux outrage????

Think of the children, the babies, the little "macacas."

Meanwhile back at the dude ranch of our minds, racist Sen. George Felix "Macacawitz" is the toast at Macaca-fest.

No illegal wiretapping bill for Bush and Company.

The differences between the House and Senate versions are too great; the clock will run out, the Associated Press reports.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday that his chamber would bring up a bill by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. Asked whether that version could be reconciled with the Senate's White House-approved bill, Boehner replied:

"We'd like to, but I think that might be a stretch."

The Senate bill, struck by an agreement between Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and the White House, is being reviewed by the Intelligence Committee and unlikely to receive a floor vote this week, the aides said.

This is HUGE!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Washington Post breathlessly headlines, "Wiretap Bill Moves Closer to Passage."But pay no attention to the eye popping banner, time is definitely not on the side of the White House.

Quick passage of the bill will still be difficult. Republican leaders were struggling yesterday to win the blessing of Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.), the author of competing legislation in the House. If Wilson and other House Republicans agree, the House and Senate may bring up identical bills by week's end in hopes of sending legislation to the president before the November elections.

If the two chambers pass different bills, there will be no time to broker a ompromise and pass it through the House and Senate again before Congress recesses Friday.

Wilson is in a tight race with state Atty. Gen. Patricia Madrid.

Oh yea, when Democrats take over Congress next January, this administration will at long last have to account for their criminal wiretapping; the rule of law will return to the homeland.

As for all those telecommunication companies that went along with Bush, oh yea, subpoena the bastards and hold them accountable as well.

Former teammate Doug Jones rose to defend Sen. George Allen against charges of racism by Dr. Ken Shelton and others.

Forbes.com reports that according to Jones, Allen absolutely never, ever, ever used racial slurs while in college; or at least if he did, Jones never heard him.

Doug Jones, who said he roomed with Shelton at Virginia, said in a statement that he never saw or heard anything from Allen that supports Shelton's claims. "I never heard George Allen use any racially disparaging word nor did I ever witness or hear about him acting in a racially insensitive manner," Jones said.

You see, Shelton told Salon.com, an online magazine that while deer hunting, Allen the prankster, decided to chop off a female deer's head, drive to a black neighborhood and shove the "severed head...into a black household's oversized mail box."

Oh, and for rhetorical effect, Allen liked to sprinkle the word n****r in a few of his sentences.

Another former roommate of Allen during his carefree college years at UVA stepped up to the plate to help dispel charges that Allen is a racist. Chicago Sun-Times reports that Charlie Hale, an 'Allen for Senate' campaign volunteer bravely told reporters that perish the thought, "he had hunted often with Allen, and 'there was not even a rumor on the team' about the alleged deer incident."

Well, maybe there weren't any rumors about the story because everyone knew it as fact. In other words, bigotry was accepted as a way of life by the senator's friends, and Jim Crow was every white man's right in Dixie.

Now, inquiring minds might want to know just who are Charlie Hale and Doug Jones? .

As governor, Allen appointed Hale to Virginia's Board of Mineral Mining Examiners. As for Mr. Jones, why he's the co-chair of Fairfax County Republican Committee and Unit Operations for Allen's campaign. What's more, Jones would like to invite every "real" Virginian to a pep-rally breakfast on October 14. Business attire, please.

With each passing hour, more testimonials about Sen. George Allen's use of the N-word while in college.

So far, three former college football teamates including Dr. Ken Shelton, Larry Sabato, political analyst extraordinaire, Doug Thompson, a business executive and fellow GOPer, Christopher Taylor, an anthropologist at the University of Alabama and former acquaintance, and a few anonymous sources too scared to publicly come forward have confirmed that in spite of what Allen claims, he did use racial slurs as a young man and even later.

Indeed, blacks weren't the only targets as Thompson notes:

In 1991, while serving as Vice President for Political Programs for The National Association of Realtors, I attended a GOP fundraiser where Allen, then running in a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives, was one of the featured guests.

[...]

As a representative of the nation's largest trade association and heading up what was then the country's largest political action committee, I was often cornered by politicians wanting contributions. George Allen was no exception.

"I need your help and support," he said. "Virginia is an old-fashioned state with traditional ideas. Just because we've got a black face in the governor's mansion doesn't mean the niggers are taking over." Doug Wilder, America's first African American Governor, had taken office in Richmond a year earlier.

[...]

During my next 12 years in Washington, I would run across Allen at one event or another. I tried to stay away from him. I didn't like him (and still don't) but all too often found myself nearby when he issued a long string of racial epithets, ethnic slurs and jokes that would qualify as racial harassment in any workplace.He would call Arabs "rag heads" and Afro-Americans "niggers" in normal conversation with other Republicans. They would laugh at his racist jokes. When he and another well-known Senate Republican racist, Montana's Conrad Burns, got together the slurs would fly like confetti through the air.

Howling Latina supposes that Allen's hateful racial slurs directed at every ethnic groups is his sadistic way to equalize the hate all around; you know, his sick idea of racial equality.

Yep, this latest story thread serves to prove that the goober is an equal opportunity hatemonger. Expect more and more "real" Americans to come forward and affix the final nails to Allen's moribund campaign.

And in the spirit of this post, here are dirge lyrics from Bob Dylan;

I hate myself for lovin' you and the weakness that it showed
You were just a painted face on a trip down Suicide Road.
The stage was set, the lights went out all around the old hotel,
I hate myself for lovin' you and I'm glad the curtain fell.

I hate that foolish game we played and the need that was expressed
And the mercy that you showed to me, who ever would have guessed?
I went out on Lower Broadway and I felt that place within,
That hollow place where martyrs weep and angels play with sin.

Heard your songs of freedom and man forever stripped,
Acting out his folly while his back is being whipped.
Like a slave in orbit, he's beaten 'til he's tame,
All for a moment's glory and it's a dirty, rotten shame.

There are those who worship loneliness, I'm not one of them,
In this age of fiberglass I'm searching for a gem.
The crystal ball up on the wall hasn't shown me nothing yet,
I've paid the price of solitude, but at least I'm out of debt.

Can't recall a useful thing you ever did for me
'Cept pat me on the back one time when I was on my knees.
We stared into each other's eyes 'til one of us would break,
No use to apologize, what diff'rence would it make?

So sing your praise of progress and of the Doom Machine,
The naked truth is still taboo whenever it can be seen.
Lady Luck, who shines on me, will tell you where I'm at,
I hate myself for lovin' you, but I should get over that.

Add another brick and mortar to Allen's Hall of Shame.

Salon reports that as a young man, Sen. George Allen repeatedly used the "N" word, a derogatory racial epithet, when referring to blacks.

Allen moved to Virginia during his college years, and a former football teamate told reporters that Allen was real happy to play in Virginia because you see, 'blacks knew their place."

"Allen said he came to Virginia because he wanted to play football in a place where 'blacks knew their place,'" said Dr. Ken Shelton, a white radiologist in North Carolina who played tight end for the University of Virginia football team when Allen was quarterback. "He used the N-word on a regular basis back then."

So, Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert, what sayeth thou, now?!? Howling Latina bets that surefire endorsement of a few weeks ago probably doesn't look so kosher right about now; and perhaps a few of the dissed donkeys will acquire the memory of an elephant right around Election Day.

Shelton also told Salon that the future senator gave him the nickname "Wizard," because he shared a last name with Robert Shelton, who served in the 1960s as the imperial wizard of the United Klans of America, a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. The radiologist said he decided earlier this year that he would go public with his concerns about Allen if a reporter ever called. About four months ago, when he heard that Allen was a possible candidate for president in 2008, Shelton began to write down some of the negative memories of his former teammate. He provided Salon excerpts of those notes last week.

Allen is no better than David Duke -- same dark soul -- only a phony smile to disarm.

Seriously folks, in light of everything we've unearthed these last few days, wonder ye then at the fiery hunt of Allen by progressives?

It was to save Americans and Virginians from the vile noose of this shameful shameful man. To paraphrase the second lady, Lynn Cheney: "Sen. George Felix Allen is not a very nice man, not a very nice man at all."

Update: MSM will not be able to ignore this important story; every progressive blogger has a link to it from Buzz Flash, Daily Kos, Huffinon Post, MyDD, Raw Story, Talk Left, The Moderate Voice, Think Progress, even Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.

Please, dear Sen. George Allen, do tell Virginians why we invaded Iraq!

There were no weapons of mass destruction; there were no ties to Al-Qaeda; there is no democracy, but instead a tragic Civil War; and now we learn that the war in Iraq has "made the overall terrorism problem worse."

The New York Times front-pages what some of us suspected long, long ago; things are worst now than before 9/11. "American intelligence agencies" conclude that we are less safe because of Bush's war on terror.

[A] classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

So the White House and Republicans in Congress are lying to the American public, well what else is new?

An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology. The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

Now ain't you guys glad we've spent over $300 billion and counting. The truly sad thing about this meaningless war of choice is that 2700 brave American soldiers needlessly lost their lives.

Oh yea, it's accountability time. Throw every last bum out; and when '08 rolls around, throw out the folks who won in '02 playing the terror trump card and scaring poor Americans into voting for their sorry asses; this love dedication especially goes out to that inbred lying GOP bastard, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

Breaking news, conservative Virginia bloggers are A-holes, not A-teamers.

Breathlessly right-wing wackos report that Ingrid Morroy, the treasurer of Jim Webb's campaign, gasp....talks to Lowell Feld.

THE HORROR, the horror, lock the children up!

Of course Mr. Feld talks to Webb supporters, you band of idiots; and any supporter is always welcome to post on Raising Kaine when he or she can add context to a breaking stories, such as Allen hiding behind the skirt of his mommie to try to escape the shame and blame of his ill-timed tirade when a reporter asked him a perfectly legitimate question during Monday's debate.

Spin it any way you want, folks. But Sen. George Felix Mean Macacawitz, Jr. is going down. His phony persona is but a twinkle in the would-be president's eyes; nobody else is buying his schtick, anymore.

States Voters Should Elect Rishell "Because She is Smarter Than I Am."

Sponsored by the Prince William County Committee of 100, Democratic Jeanette Rishell debated Republican Jackson Miller in front of a standing room only crowd; both are candidates for Virginia’s 50th House of delegates.

Stressing the need to follow Del. Harry Parrish’s model of leadership based on mutual respect and cooperation across party lines, Rishell proceeded to fuddle and fluster poor Jackson Miller to the point of him telling the audience, "Vote for Ms. Rishell, she is smarter than I am.”

Now, the debate questions tracked closely to the concerns Rishell has been hearing from voters as she knocks on the doors of over 9400 Virginians.

On transportation, Miller argued for changing the funding formulas as a way to bring more money to the 50th district; but Rishell rightly noted that once all expenses have been paid, the amount left for formula spending is a mere $775 million; in other words, there ain't no $$$ coming to Northern Virginia for transportation unless voters take matters into their own hands and vote for the candidates who promise to make transportation a top priority.

Rishell noted:

“That might be enough to buy us a few interchanges in Northern Virginia with nothing left for other pressing needs.”

Oops...

But that ain't all; it looks like Miller left his fact book on education at home. He told the crowd that Gov. Tim Kaine’s Pre-K program was “universal,” “mandatory” and “government sponsored daycare.”

Well, tell that to the mothers and fathers of small toddlers in Virginia, you small-minded miser.

Jeanette is a strong supporter of Kaine’s initiative, and she tried hard to convey to clueless Miller that nearly all of our education dollars are geared towards kids older than five; we need to feed young minds at the critical age when their brains are developing.

“Children’s brains are almost fully developed by the time they are 5 years old and we need pre-K in order to better prepare our children for success in their later school years.”

But the absolute highlight of the evening came when each candidate asked a question of the other. Rishell forcused on education. Miller hammered away at immigration.

And in response to Rishell's question about Miller’s education funding formula and how his plan would starve school resources, Miller answered that people should vote for Rishell because she was obviously smarter than he. “That question just went over my head,” a struggling Miller admitted.

DUH! We noticed.

The Potomac News reports Miller'a claim that "the general assembly ha[d]...nearly $2 billion surplus in 2006 that was used for other things, but which should have been 'used for transportation.'" Those other little things Miller refers to are expenditures on homeland security and teaching our children.

On the immigration question, Rishell hit it out of the park. She reiterated her strong support of the less fortunate by helping with food, clothing and shelter, as the three Abrahamic faith traditions encourage; and then she added, "However, the government is under no obligation, and should not use taxpayer money to provide services to those who are here illegally.”

Bottom line: Miller's platform is nothing more than, "I am a conservative and she is a liberal." And of course, Virginia voters should trust GOPers because they nearly bankrupted the commonwealth the last time they held absolute power in both Houses and the governor's mansion.

As someone once said, "Lead, follow or get out the way."

It's quite clear that when comes to the issues that matter to everyday working families in Northern Virginia, Miller can't lead. He is too beholden to the rabid radical wing of the Republican Party; the only thing he hopes will save his admittedly dumb ass is the GOP brand, which by the bye, ain't looking so hot nowadays.

(Friends of Jeanette Rishell with extemporaneous observations by Howling Latina)

Conservative bloggers have fallen in love with the word "horny." They use it over and over again.

You see, Jim Webb used the expression "horny woman's dreams" to characterize co-ed military units when he was a young man in a verbal youthful indescretion. And ever since then, conservative batwings can't get enough of the word.

Youthful indescretion, like the Laura Bush type when she ran over and killed an old boyfriend; or the George W. brand when he was arrested for drunkeness; or the George Allen special, his tribute to Dixie with his collection of Confederate flags and noose.

Geez, Howling Latina feels a rush of passion with all this talk of horniness.

Quixote Center is a religious nonprofit with Catholic roots that began their quest in a humble apartment building in the "not-so-nice" part of Prince Georges County in Maryland.

The Washington Post has a nice story about the center's 30-year milestone.

Howling Latina had the good fortune of meeting the folks at Quixote when she was a volunteer a few years ago. Quixote raised millions of dollars for Nicaraguans during the 80s, in spite of American policies and laws that prohibited any organization to give aid (you know, the comfort schtick).

At the time, members refused to abide by the "let the people starve and teach them a lesson" mentality and raised and contributed millions of dollars.

The center is now run by a former sister and priest; and every employee earns the same income, with the same number of days off, vacation days and benefit package.

A neat little place in a small corner of Prince Georges County that has increasingly become more gentrified -- but where utopian values from the 60s and 70s survive to today!

Howling Latina almost forgot her weekly ritual, posting the names of "Meet the Press" guests for their upcoming show on Sunday.

Tomorrow, President Bill Clinton will be interviewed by moderator Tim Russert.

Also on the show will be Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan and John Danforth, former Republican senator of Missouri, former ambassador to the United Nations and author of Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together.

It should be a good show; in the meantime, HT understand Clinton lets Fox's Chris Wallace have it but good; so if you're not doing anything around 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, tune in and watch and hear Chris squirm at the truth.

"That Sen. George Allen–he just can't do enough to alienate various ethnic and religious constituencies, can he?" A very astute observation from U.S. News & World Report in writing about the latest Allen gaffe.

His ancestry became an issue in his quickly imploding bid for re-election as a Virginia Republican when Allen was asked about his Jewish heritage during a debate with his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb. Allen nastily chided the reporter who posed the question and dismissed it as irrelevant.

"My mother is French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her," Allen told the panelist. He said he had been raised as a Christian and made no mention of any Jewish heritage. On Tuesday, Allen acknowledged his Jewish ancestry publicly for the first time, in a statement his campaign issued. In fact, the reporter who posed the question, Peggy Fox, noted that Allen's mother was not only Jewish but from Tunisia (where French is spoken). She asked whether he might have begun using the word "macaca" after learning it from his mother. "Macaca" is a racial slur often used by French-speaking people to mean "monkey." Allen's implosion began when he was caught on videotape calling an American of Indian descent "macaca" in front of an audience of small-town Virginians on a campaign stop.

So, Allen first makes a racial slur, then gets mad during the debate with Webb and accuses his questioner of casting "aspersions." Then he does a 180 and the next day issues a statement saying he takes "great pride" in his Jewish heritage. Later, he states in an interview: "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops." Jews who keep kosher don't eat pork.Conservative Virginia bloggers have taken to insulting

With the Allen campaign in serious trouble (and if Wadhams wasn't fired--he probably should have been), conservative Virginia bloggers have picked up the gauntlet on behalf of their failing candidate who apparently can't speak a word without sticking his fake cowboy boots in his mouth.

And to their end, countless hours of photoshopping pictures with little to do with the substance of ANYTHING and a healthy dose of insults for measure are the backdrop of their posts; and the basis of their argument with the insults and pictures as proof.

It reminds Howling Latina of the old joke, "I know I am right. I read it somewhere; yep, I wrote it down and then I read it."

So what is going on this morning? Well, we learn from a blogger that the Richmond Times-Dispatch has opined on the subject of bloggers and the latest evidence of Allen's foot-in-the-mouth disease. Bloggers should not, absolutely not concern themselves with Allen's eruption about his heritage.

Bloggers are supposed to be the independent voices that will set America free. Yet as Virginia daily sees, the more partisan among them (especially those on party or campaign payrolls) prolong the feeding frenzies and negativism that creative minds are said to despise. Regarding Allen’s ancestry, for example: Why were bloggers associated with Webb relentlessly pounding the story?

Oh my; yesterday bloggers were the scourge in the media and today we're supposed to set America free.

Well, as any educated person who has ever taken a course in rhetoric knows, the basis of any persuasive argument is the credibility of a speaker; and included in this bundle of qualities that contribute is persona, "the mask or façade presented to satisfy the demands of the situation...the public personality."

So if the public personality of Allen is of some smiling guy on a horse named 'Bubba' with a cowboy hat, boots, flags, noose, chewing tobacco and all the accouterments of his role as Southern rebel; and Allen has a penchant for dividing folks into neat categories, "real" and "unreal," "us" against "them," Howling Latina thinks it's extremely germane for bloggers to expose the phony cowboy behind the empty suit in a little game of reality vs. made-up.

And about those photoshopped pictures, my dear GOP wingnuts, remember, "[i]n November, Virginia will elect a United States senator, not president of the third grade. Grow up."

God bless Harris Miller!

Howling Latina had previously written about Harris Miller's sharp tongue and his deftness with a quote that smacked his opposition with derision; and begged him to use his quick wit to smack George Allen and defend Jim Webb against the baseless charges of anti-Semitism.

In the latest story thread of the Allen brouhaha, he publicly weeps on CNN to try to save his political career; it's all about the CHILDREN, the children! Oh, and Webb's anti-Semitism.

Allen had the arrogance and sheer balls to frame the issue for his lack of forthrightness as not one of dishonesty and ducking the issue of his past -- but of a poor mother protecting her babies, meaning the 54-year old Allen and his fully grown siblings. Okay, that might be true of mommie, but what the hell is his excuse?!?

Here's a great quote from Miller by the Virginian-Pilot that hopefully will put to rest that somehow Miller endorses Allen.

"George Allen is trying to divert people from the fact that he has been misleading people about his background," Miller said. "George Allen has shown an insensitivity across his political life to people of various minorities."

To recap: Allen wants us to believe that only after the article by the Jewish Forward came out did he ever ask his mother about his heritage; he was then sworn to secrecy and because of it, lashed out at a reporter when she asked him about his roots; you see, he was fighting to uphold his mother's honor as well as her right to "pass." All for religious freedom, of course.

A more likely story thread is the one featured in an editorial by the Daily Press.

Five minutes of research on the Web will tell you that once German Gen. Erwin Rommel got into Tunisia during World War II, the Gestapo quickly followed and began rounding up anyone suspected of being Jewish. This was the Holocaust.

[...]

All his career, Allen has employed the phrase "Virginia values," never with much precision, but with cool certainty that his audiences got the message. If you had "Virginia values," you were on his side of the line. Inside, outside. That's Allen's game. You're either one of us or you're not.

Perhaps his angry outburst at reporter Fox was all that came to him when he suddenly found himself on uncertain ground in his own game.

To believe Allen's cockamanie story is to suspend all reality. Sure...and there is a tooth fairy, Easter bunny, Santa Claus, weapons of mass destruction; and no reason to suspect Allen was lying when he said he made up the word 'macaca' on the spot -- even though he's now retracted that statement also.

Like a Democratic media consultant noted in a Baltimore Sun article yesterday, "Things keep happening to this guy that call his character into question."

Indeed!

Thus far, Sen. Allen's response to his outburst during last Monday's debate has been filled with nonsense; so in the theme of this post, here's a a little Yiddish chuckle from Andy Martin of Political Commenstary.

DOES GEORGE REALLY THINK HE BELONGS IN THE WHITE HOUSE? OY VEY.

(Washington)(September 20, 2006) Prior to September 18th, Senator George Allen of Virginia considered himself a potential occupant of the White House in 2009. any conservative Republicans agreed. No more.

Earlier in 2006 Allen was considered a shoo-in for reelection. Then he referred to a junior staffer of his Democratic opponent as a "macaca." Today Allen's continued service in the U. S. Senate is doubtful. All because of an almost forgotten Yiddish newspaper in New York, The Forward (formerly the Daily Forward).

Some persons of Jewish ancestry are sensitive about their family history. I have a friend in West Palm Beach, Dick Farrel, who insists he's Irish. He's not. He recently ran for office under his birth (Christian?) name, Farrel Levitt. But whatever Dick's legerdemain about his ancestry, he wouldn't think of denying who his mother is. I love her. Norma is a champ. A bubbe in waiting.

When Senator Allen was asked at a campaign debate with his opponent whether Allen had Jewish ancestry, he initially demurred. Yesterday (19th) he issued a statement saying his grandfather was Jewish. O.k. But bubbe was bupkis, nowhere to be found. His maternal grandmother had disappeared.

The media immediately connected Senator Allen to other public officials with forgotten family memories of Jewish heritage (don't ask, don't tell was the essence of what Allen said his mother told him). John Kerry, that "Irish" candidate for resident, was trotted out; he had Jewish relatives in his family tree. But no Irish.

Who can forget former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who married into a WASPy family name and quickly forgot her Jewish heritage?

But, wait, there's more: the media forgot "Jewish" Hillary Clinton. She has said she had a Jewish relative. "You don't have to be Jewish…to be Jewish." But it helps.

It is almost enough to remind you of the classic advertising campaign for bread in New York City, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's."It seems illogical to me that Allen would see himself as a president and expect to be a stealth candidate on his religious and ethnic heritage. As always, the cover-up is more critical than the fact which is concealed. Rewriting family history is a risky business when you are running for national office. Does George Allen really think he belongs in the White House? Does anybody? [Full disclosure: "I was raised as a Christian, too."]

All of this strum und drug would have passed but for the efforts of the Forward, and old Yiddish newspaper that has morphed into the modern age, and which ran an article connecting Senator Allen's "macaca" controversy to his North-African family history. North-African? Well, ask.

Is Senator Allen an African-American? Or a North-African-American? A "brother" with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Now I understand why George is worried. If Allen's bubbe and zadie lived in North Africa (Tunisia) what is he? A good ole boy? Will he substitute a yarmulke for cowboy boots on the campaign trail?

Only one thing is certain. If the Kenyans are luxuriating in Barack Obama, the Tunisians are about to go gaga about their own home-grown Tunisian senator and presidential candidate, George Allen. There won't be any "aspersions" cast in Tunisia; Senator Allen has nothing to fear there. Couscous instead of barbecue? It's a lock. Or lox.

Ah, the melting pot. Often invoked, never forgotten.

But, still, where's Allen's bubbe? Now that's a gantzeh megilleh in the making. Oy, vey.

(This humurous commentary was published with Andy Martin's permission.)

Today we learn that two Republican Jewish legislators have picked up the Dixie gauntlet to defend Allen for his bizare overreaction when asked about his Jewish roots during Monday's debate.

Not that it will make any difference with Jewish voters; they're one of the most educated people in America; we're not talking about some 8th grade inbred bubba here; and the damage in Virginia is going to be monumental.

Just like when Allen made his "truth in sentencing" campaign pledge when running for governor and African-Americans understood who Allen was trying to appeal to; and just as when Allen called for "securing the borders" and Latinos knew that Allen wasn't exactly trying to win their votes; and just like when Allen called a young Webb campaign worker a "Macaca" and then taunted him with his "real" Virginia and "real" America commentary, Indian-Americans understood exactly what Allen was trying to convey to his audience; Jewish Americans aren't idiots; they know exactly why Allen was outraged when the question of his grandfather's heritage was asked.

Allen can trot out every Jewish leader in the country, but Jews don't have a pack herd mentally; in fact, quite the opposite; they're strikingly independent.

Also, expect Allen's KKK buddies to either stay home or vote for the Scots-Irish guy with the red hair and combat boots. Sure, if asked about their sudden lack of love for Allen, they'll cushion it with lofty words about the senator's recent disrespect of Dixie on "Meet the Press" when he said he regretted the noose and the flag.

But with his latest eruption, Allen lost the Jewish vote; and he also lost one of his most reliable constituency groups, the red, white and blue bigots of Virginia.

Allen's plan for terrorism, gut the Geneva Convention and place our soldiers, contractors and even private citizens at greater risk.

Is there really any doubt where Allen stands on this issue of Geneva in spite of ducking the question on "Meet the Press" last Sunday?

Oh, and of couse, stay the curse; talking points right out of Bush's 'fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over' bullshit.

Webb's plan for terrorism: defeat Allen in November, bring a fresh set of eyes to the Senate, raise the credibility of the United States in the eyes of the world and work with the Middle East nations to bring stability to the region.

Voters in November will need to ask themselves one simple question, "Who are they going to trust, the former secretary with an impeccable record of honor, duty and service or the phony cowboy with the snake oil persona and facile answers, which even Allen readily admits are not credible?"

Allen is like the used car salesman trying to convince voters his lemons on the sales lot are the best deals in town.

Sen. George Allen's troubled campaign is creating national ticks AND revisions. .

Congressional Quarter just upgraded Democratic chances in Virginia.

CQ writes, Webb's "strong criticism of Allen’s support for Bush’s handling of the war and his relentlessness in taking the fight to the incumbent have raised his stock among Democratic insiders."

This, in turn, could help Webb address perhaps his biggest shortcoming against Allen: in campaign fundraising.

Today the Richmond Times-Dispatch bemoans the current state of campaign affairs; they'd like Webb and Allen to focus on the war on terror and other GOP issues -- of course, failing to mention the giant elephant in the room, Bush's deadly and costly war in Iraq with no end in sight (so much for their credibility).

Well, with Allen's dismal performance on "Meet the Press" and bizzare outrage on Monday, of course GOPers and their media shills want to switch the debate; after all, could things get any worst for Allen and his rabid supporters?

Oh yea, when the next round of polls comes out.

From on High, a conservative Virginia blogger writes that the "D" in front of the Democratic Party stands for defeat.

His proof? Jim Webb refuses to rubber stamp the president's mind-boggling war in Iraq and his reasons for "staying the course."

Howling Latina fully agrees the blogger, though. Democrats are going to do some serious ass whipping in less than two months and defeat every rubber stamp GOPer. Remember, the "R" in front of the Republican Party stands for endless rubber stamps and Americans want to "change the course" and bring accountability to government.

The day of reckoning draws near as Bush poll numbers remain in the toilet bowl.

This morning the Washington Post front-paged the story on Sen. George Allen's Jewish awakening.

IN two months, Allen has managed to piss off Indian-Americans and Jews; and previously, he'd ticked off Latinos and African-Americans; but it's not Allen's fault, it's Webb and his merry band of liberal bloggers.

Gosh, the Allen campaign is imploding--fast!

Dear Ms. Fox,

Thank you for your question to Sen. George Allen; and shame on the crowd for thinking that somehow it was out of bounds for you to clarify the record on whether Sen. Allen's grandfather was Jewish or not; it was a legitimate question.

I had submitted the very same question to "Meet the Press" prior to Sunday's debate, although I'd framed it in the context of Ryan Lizza's article and the bizarre statement by Bob Gibson of Charlottesville's Daily Progress that Allen asked him to retract a story for the first time in all his years of covering him when he wrote about Allen's Jewish heritage.

Allen's faux outrage was just a way to bully you and every other journalist to steer clear from your line of question into his family background. You see, it went against EVERYTHING he'd so carefully constructed with his phony good ol' Virginia gentryman on a horse named Bubba persona.

I just hope another reporter is equal to the task as you were and asks him how it is possible that he only learned of his Jewish heritage after the Lizza or Forward article, especially in light of his prior objections to the Bob Gibson story in Daily Progress?

I mean, it's just not credible. Why would anyone clamor for a reporter to take back a story without first finding out whether it was accurate of not?

In other words, like the Macaca incident, Sen. Allen is lying through his goober teeth.

(Ms. Fox's e-mail is pfox@wusa9.com)

Update: Here's the lame statement released to the media by George Allen's office regarding the latest brouhaha.

"Yesterday, I found it especially reprehensible that a reporter would impugn the attitudes of my mother, as Ms. Peggy Fox did in her first question at the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce Senate debate. My mother and father both taught me to abhor bigotry, and Ms. Fox's suggestion to the contrary was deeply offensive.

"The notion peddled by the Webb campaign that I am somehow embarrassed by my heritage is equally offensive, and also absurd.

"I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a Christian. And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line's Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed. "

On several occasions through the years, I have mentioned publicly that my mother's father was incarcerated by the Nazis. I have never known whether he was persecuted by the Nazis because of his nationality, his religious faith, his role as a community leader, or his part in the anti-Nazi resistance."

What I do know is that my grandfather's imprisonment by the Nazis had a profound impact on my mother. It was a subject she found painful to discuss and so we almost never discussed it.

"Some may find it odd that I have not probed deeply into the details of my family history, but it's a fact. We in the Allen household were simply taught that what matters is a person's character, integrity, effort, and performance - not race, gender, ethnicity or religion. And so whenever we would ask my mother through the years
about our family background on her side, the answer always was, "Who cares about that?"

"My mother has lived a long and full life, and I hope and pray she will enjoy many more years. She deserves respect and she also deserves privacy, especially where painful memories are concerned. I sincerely hope that simple decency will be respected."

Howling Latina would sure like Allen to explain how asking whether his grandfather was Jewish somehow "impugns the attitudes" of his mother? Or how that shows Ms. Fox to be a bigot? Or how Ms. Fox suggested that's it okay to be a bigot? Or how the public learning of his mother's Jewish roots somehow disrespects her privacy?

This whole incident gets curiouser and curiouser.

At long last, Sen. George Felix Allen affirms his Jewish heritage.

The Washington Post reports that "a day after responding angrily during a campaign debate to a question about whether his family has Jewish roots," Allen's office "for the first time today" disclosed his Jewish ancestry.

In a statement released by his campaign, Allen denounced the TV reporter who asked the question but said he is proud to have recently discovered that his grandfather, a Nazi resistance fighter in North Africa, was part of a well-known Jewish family.

[...]

"I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a Christian," Allen said. "And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line's Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed."

Guess the junior senator didn't want the "J" story to overshadow the fall campaign like the "M" story had earlier sucked all the air out of his listening tour.

"I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a Christian," Allen said. "And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line's Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed."

Hmm, so Allen just recently discovered his Jewish heritage after the magazine article...?

One would think that even before the Ryan Lizza article of New Republic, Allen might've wanted to know about his heritage when Bob Gibson of Charlottesville's Daily Progress wrote about his mother's Jewish background -- especially since at the time, he vehemently denied it; and for the first time in Gibson's long career of covering Allen, the junior senator had demanded he retract the story.

Shouldn't a public official check out the facts before he clamors for a reporter to take back a story?

Allen admits that some might ask how is it that he didn't earlier know he was Jewish; add Howling Latina to the disbelieving list.

Hopefully reporters will follow the story thread with follow-up questions regarding the Gibson incident; never mind his raging anger and the bit about ethnic "aspersions" towards his family; seems like Allen was doing a little projecting.

Projecting (psychology): to ascribe one's own feelings, thoughts, or attitudes to others.

The New York Times has a providential story about the wrongful and illegal extradition of a Canadian computer engineer to Syria where he was tortured and kept in a tiny cell for over a year.

The Syrian-born Mr. Arar was seized on Sept. 26, 2002, after he landed at Kennedy Airport in New York on his way home from a holiday in Tunisia. On Oct. 8, he was flown to Jordan in an American government plane and taken overland to Syria, where he says he was held for 10 months...and beaten repeatedly with a metal cable. He was freed in October 2003, after Syrian officials concluded that he had no connection to terrorism and returned him to Canada.

It was all an honest mistake, so sorry.

A government commission on Monday exonerated a Canadian computer engineer of any ties to terrorism and issued a scathing report that faulted Canada and the United States for his deportation four years ago to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured.

This is the kind of ungodly thing our so-called born-again Christian president and his GOP rubber-stampers want to continue to do under the shield of law.

Howling Latina has faith that God works all things for the good; the timing of this report just as the White House is trying to bully McCain, Graham and Warner only serves to restore any faith lost during the last five years of the Bush administration.

But no doubt about it; justice damands that any American official involved in this tragedy should be tried and convicted for crimes against humanity, all the way to the top.

Jim Webb won the second debate.

Jim Webb won yesterday's debate.

Jim Webb is going to win the third and final debate.

Jim Webb is going to win in November.

Let's face it, Jim Webb is a winner.

By the bye, for those who didn't hear about the brouhaha during yesterday's debate, Sen. George Allen went ballistic when Peggy Fox of WUSA-Channel 9 asked Allen about his grandfather's Jewish heritage.

Like TeacherKen of Raising Kaine reasonably inquires, "Please, someone tell me [how] asking when...[your] forebears decided to cease being Jewish is 'making aspersions because of their religious beliefs'"?

Yep, Howling Latina would sure like to know the answer to that one! Maybe another intrepid reporter can ask again in the context of Allen's disproportionate and inappropriate response during the next debate.

Vous voir plus tard, le Sénateur.

Howling Latina just read that Peggy Fox of WUSA-Channel 9 finally asked the seminal question she'd submitted to Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" with the hopes that he'd ask the junior senator on national television.

HT wanted to ask:

"Senator, in an article at The New Republic, Ryan Lizza writes that he interviewed Bob Gibson with Charlottesville's Daily Progress and Mr. Gibson told him that the 'only time [you] ever wanted a correction from [Gibson] in 27 years of covering [your] races was when [he] wrote about [your] mother's Jewish family origins.'"

"Was your grandfather, the man your middle name Felix honors, Jewish? And if so, why would you ask Mr. Gibson to correct the record?"

Heads-up via Huffington Post; go check it out. Allen totally "freaks out." Poor George, his campaign to keep his Senate seat is imploding.

By the way, thank you, Peggy Fox.

I mean who knew...that George Felix "Macaca-Bubba-Goober" Allen was Jewish?!?

Imagine that!

Howling Latina supposes that's exactly the point; and why Allen went ballistic when Fox asked about his grandfather's Jewish heritage.

You see, Allen had worked hard -- very hard -- to project a good ol' boy Southern persona. Now the news is all over Virginia.

Tomorrow, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post writes a column about the debate and Allen's disproportionate and knee jerk response to the question inside the fold.

Allen knows the drill; once a reporter asks a question, it's Katy-bar-the door and a free for all; the jig is up.

Everyone who reads a newspaper will now find out that the guy who had a noose in his office with Confederate flags all around, yes the very same guy who wears cowboy boots, rides a horse named Bubba during a parade and chews tobacco, alas, has more in common with John Kerry than any Conferate soldier; he's both French and Jewish.

AHHHHHHH!!!

George, looks like you're having a bad September equal to your bad August.

Wow! In an ominous column via Daily Kos, Jordan Paust, professor of law at the University of Houston who teaches U.S. Constitution and Foreign Affairs, International Criminal Law, International Human Rights, International Law, Jurisprudence and Use of Force and Terrorism has warned Congress not to tinker with the Geneva Conventions.

Amending national laws to circumvent Geneva, according to Paust could lead to charges of war crimes. House members and senators might want to keep in mind Nuremberg after World War II, Milosevic at Hague, Pinochet and others; no statute of limitation for war criminals.

Here is one the professor's more startling observation:

[E]very violation of the law of war is a war crime, punishable here or abroad in any country under the principle of universal jurisdiction. War crimes are also prosecutable in international criminal tribunals that have jurisdiction over particular perpetrators. A denial of the rights and protections under the Geneva Conventions (such as those expressly set forth or incorporated by reference in common Article 3) is a violation of the Conventions and a violation of the Conventions is a war crime.

Geez, no wonder folks with military experience and a modicum of military law knowledge have huge reservations about dire-dark talk from Bush about a government's need to fight terrorism with an array of tools -- including those explicitly banned by Geneva.This idiot president wants Congress to sign their own bench warrants.

Members of Congress are thus on notice that minimum due process guarantees under customary international law must not be denied when Congress attempts to articulate what forms of procedure a military commission should adopt. If members participate in a plan to do so or are complicit in the deprivation of minimum due process guarantees under customary international law incorporated by reference in common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions or any other rights or protections under common Article 3 (e.g., concerning the right to humane treatment even at the hands of CIA interrogators), they would be participating in the denial of rights, protections, and duties under Geneva law. Such denials are war crimes.

Howling Latina doesn't reckon legislators in Washington cherish the prospect of looking over their shoulders in fear of some international bounty hunter for the rest of their lives; or being whisked away at the airport in London, Paris or Rome.

Folks, this ain't no party; this ain't no disco; this ain't no fooling around. This is dead serious business beyond national politics, the presidency and history's verdict on Bush.

(Reposted by HL due to immediacy of subject.)

Courtesy of the New York Times, anyone recognize these bad puppies?

Folks, this Virginia race is on the national radar scene, front and center; and it represents the sixth seat Democrats will win to take back the Senate.

In the meantime some Virginia blowhard is claiming the situation in Iraq is not as we would like but...[insert your favorite sunny outlook and lame justification from the last three and a half years, here].

Wah, ha, ha, ha, ha. This guy better start walking 'cause come November Secretary Webb is going to stump the cowboy boots off Allen at the polls and any cult supporter still around.

Now here's an oldie for your morning; you know, to take your mind off Bush's disastrous presidency and Allen's rubber stamp allegiance to the idiot-in-chief.

You keep saying you've got something for me
something you call love, but confess.
You've been messin' where you shouldn't have been a messin'
and now someone else is gettin' all your best.

These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do
one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

You keep lying, when you oughta be truthin'
and you keep losin' when you oughta not bet.
You keep samin' when you oughta be changin'.
Now what's right is right, but you ain't been right yet.

These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do
one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

You keep playin' where you shouldn't be playin
and you keep thinkin' that you'll never get burnt.
Ha!
I just found me a brand new box of matches yeah
and what he know you ain't HAD time to learn.

These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do
one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

Are you ready boots? Start walkin'!

“Oy vey!”

Words from Dean Barnett of Hugh Hewitt, a blog of Townhall.com after watching today's debate between Sen. George Allen and war hero, best selling author and former secretary of state, Jim Webb on "Meet the Press."

Let's read what Mr. Barnett had to say on the subject:

[G]iven the vital partisan stakes involved this election season that Hugh and I have frequently discussed here, I squarely and unequivocally support Allen’s re-election.

Or at least I did until this morning’s debate. Now I’m not so sure.

[...]

[F]or reasons that I don’t fully understand, Allen has decided to attack Webb from the left on this issue. When Russert pressed Webb on the matter, Webb was subtle and effective. While he apologized for his intemperate tone and wished that he had been more mature when he wrote the currently controversial article 27 years ago, he refused to throw his argument under the bus. He acknowledged room for women in the military, but he did not surrender the common sense ground that the infantry and similar areas should remain a male preserve.

The National Review editorial page expressed identical sentiments; but it gets worst for the junior senator.

There were also the notable stylistic differences between the two candidates. Allen seemed like a politician through-and through. Webb seemed like he was intellectually and spiritually slumming while exchanging barbs with Allen and dealing with the sometimes insipid questions from Russert (e.g. “Both of you chew tobacco. Is that a good example to set for the young?”).

Barnett goes on to chastise Allen for not being better prepared for the obvious '"Macaca" question. That Allen claimed he'd only used a word he'd made up in the Zeitgeist of the moment last August was "shockingly" unconvincing, Barnett notes.

Indeed, in any debate, the elephant in the room is "ethos," credibility. And let's face it, Allen's cockamamie response overshadowed any goodwill that may have been left from his affable smiling mien; subtract a majority of Allen's debate points.

Barnett concludes: "AS EVERYONE HERE KNOWS, I THINK IT’S A MATTER of considerable import that Republicans maintain control of Congress. But, I have to admit, I can imagine far worse things than having a man like James Webb in the Senate."

Folks, Jim Webb is going to capture almost every Democratic vote, a majority of Independents and a sizeable chunk of Republicans; and for those conflicted GOPers, resume versus party brand, they'll simply stay home.