Is Edwards Ahead?

CREW’s Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2007

17 Dec 2007 // Washington, DC – Today, in light of another year rife with corruption, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released a new report on the Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2007. It is available in its entirety HERE

Impeach The Bush Mob in 2008

I can't understand how we could have a dozen investigations into the criminal antics of The Bush Family-and Pelosi says that impeachment hearing would slow Congress down???!!!Combine all the hearings into one and throw the bums out!!!
Vote against Pelosi in 2008.

Royskopp

I think Royskopp are the NEW Beatles. Their two releases "Melody AM" and "The Understanding" have been glued to my CD player for weeks now. It truly IS 2008.
Happy New Year.

http://www.myspace.com/royksoppall

New Archived Shows Available

My good friend Armin has posted 6 new shows including :
12/09/07 The Christmas Mashup show - After a random Hour 1, Part 2 features some amazing all-star Christmas mashups. Some amazing stuff here!
12/02/07 Potpurri- including songs about spies, stormy weather, and a tributes to Evel Knievel (Hey, there's fresh air down here... ) and Lucianno Pavarotti (...and Breakfast!)
11/25/07 Foggy Potpurri- Stina Nordenstam, Claudine Longet, Sgt. Pepper's in 5 minutes, and the Jones family (Sharon, Gloria & Tom).
11/18/07 * The Wild Ride- Potpurri featuring man-trapping hints from Helen Gurley Brown, advice for kids, a Song You Used To Hate, 33-cent whistleing records, and much more. (1st hour only, sorry.)
11/11/07 The "The House of Representatives Votes To Send Cheney's Impeachment To Committee And Nobody Notices" Show
11/04/07 The Funky Warmup Show- Marc features some cool recently acquired R&B CDs, plus some features w/ Astrud Gilberto, the late Porter Wagner, plus the usual suspects Zoltan, Tom Jones and your horoscope, plus a brand new feature "Songs You Used To Hate," and Christmas with... BILLY IDOL???????
All HERE: http://www.ahammer.com/marctime/

Busy Thursday

Work, Funeral, Work and then DJ ing at Dance for Impeachment!Whew~!

The Grinch

Couple Wearing Protest Shirts First Through The Door On Black Friday

From My Fave Blog CROOKS AND LIARS :

By: Logan Murphy @ 3:28 PM - PST
"I was watching MSNBC this morning and during a segment on the Black Friday shopping frenzy and the throngs of people waiting in line to get into a New Jersey mall, when something caught my eye. I rewound the video and sure enough, the first two people through the door were wearing protest shirts — “Impeach Bush” and “Out Of Iraq”.
I don’t know who these brave souls are, but I thought I’d thank them for waiting in line to get the chance to make their statement and give them props for getting the holidays off to a great start and trying to spread some good will. We can only hope security didn’t tackle, tase or beat them…"

Give them the Congressional Medal of Honor or something! Did they get interviewed and is there footage of that?
KUDOS x 10000

Merrill Womack, Burn victim

Thanks to Generation Exploitation.

JFK Still Dead!!

And 44 years later NO One really knows who murdered him. The one thing I do know it wasn't Lee Harvey Oswald;a cop found him on a lower floor drinking a Coke shortly after the last shot was fired.
And so today in 2007 the American people don't really know or care about the reasons for going to war in Iraq; all I know is that we were lied to about WMD.
Happy JFK day.
God Bless America.

White Noise Maker

(written by: Frank Black)

from Teenager Of The Year

You know I hear a lot of talk
So I'm headed for the stereo store
To get a white noise maker and turn it up to ten

Or maybe the interior
Of somewhere like Siberia
Yeah, the yak is back again

Like harvest moon o'er my head
Yes, it was
That billboard prose shining on me
And it shines because
It's been so long since my telstar
I hope it crashes in the sea

Or maybe the interior
Of somewhere like Siberia
Yakety-yak is back again

You know I hear a lot of talk
So I'm headed for the stereo store
To get a white noise maker and turn it up to ten

Like harvest moon o'er my head
Yes, it was
That billboard prose shining on me
And it shines because
It's been so long since my telstar
I hope it crashes in the sea

House Votes To Impeach Cheney and NO ONE notices

This article by Dave Lindorff here at http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/lindorff/036 sums up what happened this week. This was a very HISTORIC vote and NO ONE Covered it in the News! I told people at work, they didn't believe me-I told my good friend and he accused me of being on LSD!
If this vote took place and no one heard it, does it mean it didn't happen?:
Highlights from Dave's excellent summation:

"Dave Lindorff: Suddenly, Impeachment Hearings are Starting to Look Likely

You wouldn't know it if you just watch TV news or read the corporate press, but this past Tuesday, something remarkable happened. Despite the pig-headed opposition of the Democratic Party's top congressional leadership, a majority of the House, including three Republicans, voted to send Dennis Kucinich's long sidelined Cheney impeachment bill (H Res 333) to the Judiciary Committee for hearings.

The vote was 218 to 194.

For the Judiciary Committee to sit on it now and not schedule a hearing would be a gross travesty of parliamentary procedure and custom.

Indeed, some House members not associated with Kucinich's resolution are now openly calling for immediate hearings into Cheney's impeachable actions -- specifically lying the country into a war in Iraq and threatening war with Iran.

One indication of the change in the political climate in the House is the announcement by Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), a six-term congressman and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, that he will call for the Judiciary Committee to take up Kucinich's impeachment bill. This is significant because Wexler, no left-wing hothead, is not a co-signer of the Kucinich bill.

In an e-mail message to constituents, Wexler said: "I share your belief that Vice President Cheney must answer for his deceptive actions in office, particularly with regard to the preparations for the Iraq war and the revelation of the identity of covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson as part of political retribution against her husband."

"...Cheney and the Bush Administration have demonstrated a consistent pattern of abusing the law and misleading Congress and the American people. We see the consequences of these actions abroad in Iraq and at home through the violations of our civil liberties. The American people are served well with a legitimate and thorough impeachment inquiry. I will urge the Judiciary Committee to schedule impeachment hearings immediately and not let this issue languish as it has over the last six months. Only through hearings can we begin to correct the abuses of Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration; and if it is determined in these hearings that Vice President Cheney has committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors, he should be impeached and removed from office. It is time for Congress to expose the multitude of misdeeds of the Administration and I am hopeful that the Judiciary Committee will expeditiously begin an investigation of this matter."

Also calling for prompt action by the Judiciary Committee in the wake of the Tuesday House vote was Carol Shea-Porter, a first-term Democrat from New Hampshire, who also is not a sponsor of the Kucinich measure. In explaining her vote to send the Kucinich bill to the Judiciary Committee, she said:

"It is the duty of the Vice President to faithfully execute the laws of the United States of America and to defend the Constitution. There is growing evidence that the Executive Branch has ignored some of our laws and has attempted to bend the Constitution to its will. Members of both parties decided that this issue is too important to ignore. I voted with my Republican and Democratic colleagues to investigate the Vice President's actions in office."

She characterized the resolution sending the bill to the Judiciary Committee a "strongly bipartisan vote."

With these kinds of endorsements and calls for action, it is clear that Speaker Pelosi is looking increasingly pathetic and out of touch with her "impeachment is off the table" mantra, and also that Judiciary Chair John Conyers (D-MI), who seems to have been intimidated by the Speaker for the past year, but who earlier had been a leader in exposing the crimes of the Bush/Cheney Administration, is getting strong support for taking a bolder stand.

Stephen Cohen (D-TN), a member of the Judiciary Committee who is a co-sponsor of the Kucinich resolution, says he thinks that there will be an impeachment hearing in the committee.

The 22 House members who have already signed on as co-sponsors of Kucinich's Cheney impeachment resolution are: Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Albert Wynn (D-MD), William Lacy Clay (D-MO), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Jim Moran (D-VA), Bob Filner (D-CA), Sam Farr (D-CA), Robert Brady (D-PA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI), Ed Towns (D-NY), Diane Watson (D-CA), and Danny Davis (D-IL).

The change in attitude toward impeachment among the rank and file, and the evident increasing willingness to buck the Speaker, reflects growing awareness of the groundswell of popular anger with the Bush Administration and the Democratic Congress over continued funding of the Iraq War, and over continued erosion of Constitutional government and civil liberties by an administration that wants unfettered executive power and by a Congress that is afraid to act.

The latest polls show three in four Democrats in favor of impeaching the vice president and president, while a majority of all Americans favor impeaching the vice president and roughly half of all Americans favor impeaching the president.

This is before hearings and presentation of evidence have even begun!

As recently as a month ago, it didn't look like impeachment was in the cards; Now it's starting to look like Cheney's going to be put in the dock.

It may not be long before we start to see bills of impeachment filed against President Bush too.

The corporate media enjoy making fun of Rep. Kucinich, a height-challenged but dedicated progressive who has made a career of standing tall for his views. If his bill ends up leading to impeachment hearings against Cheney, Kucinich will end up having the last laugh. "
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/lindorff/036

Cheney Hunting Costume

My fave new Halloween outfit is the Dick Cheney Hunting Costume--posted by the NY Times HERE
Note the drunken smile and hip flask.

Sunday: Halloween Program!!

Music for a Halloween party-a little late cuz most of the parties are Saturday Night. If if you want to hear some crazy-ass scary dance music tune in to the Hangover this Sunday morning at 10 AM.
88.1 KWVA Eugene Oregon .
On line streaming at www.kwvaradio.org
archived at http://www.ahammer.com/marctime/

Autumn Radio

Thanks to my friend Armin, there are Two New Shows available:
Go To: http://www.ahammer.com/marctime/

9/30/07 *NEW* September Song- Inspired by the great WFMU's Beware Of The Blog, Marc pays multiple tribute to the last day of September by way of Kurt Weill's classic composition, performed here by James Brown, Gene Bianco, Lee Hazelwood, Santo and Johnny, Arthur Lyman, Ian McCulloch and Lou Reed (to name but a few); also some stormy visit from ELO & Steve Lawrence; The Rev. gets spiritual with Edwin Hawkins and the Scala Belgian Children's Chorus and organic with The Band, Booker T. and Spencer Davis. And what, you think he'd forget Tom Jones & Zoltan?

9/23/07 *NEW* Welcome To Autumn- Pavarotti? Andy Williams? Chevalier? Uncle Junior? The Rev. waves goodbye to the summer, the picks things up in Part 2 with Norman Greenbaum, Eric Burdon, Daffy Duck, some cool rare stuff from the 99-cent bins, and of course visits from Zoltan and Tom Jones.

Found These Right-Wing Notes on my Windshield:Part 2

You may not remember my post from July 15 about finding these anti-lib anti-muslim righty war- monger's note on my windshield at Smith Family Books Parking lot.
Well, here we go again.All this was brought on by my Move On bumpersticker.
Has this happened to anyone else in the Smith Family/Feinstein's area of Eugene?

Is this Gunther or Rudy?

More Rudy Giuliani in Drag

Rudy in Drag

Thanks to Shakesville for this gross clip of our future president.

Tasered for Being an Asshole

Did you see the video of a Florida student being dragged out of a Kerry speech and tasered? He had a right to ask those questions, but he wouldn't leave the podium and the security and crowd turned against him .
I agree that the untrained campus security police were way too heavy handed.They could've handled thiswithout tasers-but he really was being an asshole, and many You Tubers agree:

"When i saw this on the TODAY show i was pissed at the cops but now i see the whole story, they cops had every right to do that."
"Freedom of speech my ass. That was pathetic. America is officialy a fascist regimn."
"They didn't arrest and taser him for voicing his opinion. They were going to escort him out of the room, but he had to keep making a scene. He was acting crazy and they clearly warned him that they would taser him, but he kept acting like an ass!"
"Obviously this person has a lack of respect for authority as well as control issues. Not only do I think the police were completely in line by using a taser, I also think that someone this volatile may need to be evaluated to see if they pose a risk to other students on campus."
"He should have asked the one question .. BUT, in no way did he deserve tthe treatment he got. Shame on Kerry for not standing up for this kid. Kerry just mumbles on as they were manhandling him. Disgraceful. That kid asked some important questions that Kerry needs to answer."
"well at least he can say he got his fifteen minutes of fame, by the way was this a public or private function?"
"If 10 people from the audience had stood up to help the guy"
"In case you didn't notice, they were cheering when he was escorted away from the microphone because he was being a jerk. Then he hyped the incident to try to get sympathy and it looks like he was successful. You are being played for a fool."
"In NYC, if you resist being handcuffed by officers for a few minutes, you better hope you only get tasered....maybe a few blows to his head with a night stick would of been better way to subdue him."

By the Way, EVERYTHING this butthead said was TRUE, and I laughed when he asked the Skull and Bones question.
Also he gave a false name at the beginning of his rant.
I heard today that this student was Andrew Meyer, a U Florida student in the College of Journalism and Communications,and was a known prankster and provocateur.
They should've asked the crowd if they wanted him off the podium.

What do YOU think after watching the video?
Watch the video here:

In Defense Of Britney

By now you've seen the footage of Britney Spears at the MTV Awards. A lot of people are laughing, saying she can't lip sync, can't dance and is too fat. But most of the comments are overly mean spirited.
As much as I like to make fun of rich overpaid drug addled celebrities like Britney,I think that it has become a major league sport to dwell on the failures of our bloated "stars". All too frequently it's the blonde young females that are the easy targets. Yeah , I'm no fun anymore. I guess you are officially considered an old fart when you prefer to monitor the criminals running our government rather than the bread and circus.
But even tho' Brit looked like a deer in headlights and shook like a bowl of Jello I think it took BIG BALLS for her to try to stay in the public eye after being
seen totally wasted in public for the last few years. And I'd like to see any of you reading this get up in front of the world half naked and try to sing, dance and remember words and moves to stupid songs.
It wasn't your best performance Britney. But I love you anyway.

Bush Is an Ass Man

And so am I--especially when it comes to about 50 Aussies showing their Asses to protest Bush at APEC!This is where Bush referred to the summit as OPEC and called the Australian Army "Austrians". Like I said....

Come To My Birthday Party!

Party Naked Sunday Morning in the privacy of your own living room as Rev. Marc Time has his Birthday Party ON THE AIR!
Sing along, help cut the cake and open presents, and dance to my fave Party songs.The Party starts at 10 AM on KWVA Radio 88.1 Eugene OR
www.kwvaradio.org
Listen or Download this broadcast HERE

I'm Not Gay

Junction City's Water Tower

This our landmark for our sleepy little town of 4500 people--it is our only tall structure. The bottom photo was taken by me 3 years ago at the Scandi Fest and the top night photo was taken at last week's Scandi Fest by my friend Peter Herley.

Family Pic of the Week

Me and My cousin, Chris Bruning, in Chris' backyard, Orange Terrace West Haven Connecticut 1961.

The WORST of ELVIS

I don't know why I am jumping on all this 30 year Elvis anniversary crap but one of my fave CD's is called "Elvis' Greatest Shit".
It features the worst songs Elvis ever committed to tape and today on the Hangover at 11AM I am going to play the worst of the worst Elvis. Why play the best? Everyone else is already doing that.
Now available for download HERE.
KWVA

Myself, Dad and Michael -Easter 1962 ish

Me and Paul Xmas 1964ish

Sleepy Christmas Morning

That's me and brother Michael opening presents Xmas1961 or 1962. Note Flintstones game and Etch a Sketch.

Four Brothers Circa 1964

My Brother Michael found the missing family slides and sent them to me-I am so Happy!! I hope more are on the way! This is My Brothers Skip, Paul Me and Mike 1965(?).

BALLBUSTER

My fave blog is the WFMU site and here is a great video of my fave game.

Diggin' Nancy Sinatra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Sinatra
This show is now available HERE

In the words of my friend Armin: "Swingin' with Nancy- Part 1 of today's show is a special tribute to the career and recordings of Young Blue (brown?)-Eyes, Miss Nancy Sinatra. This great show was broadcast prior to the annoucement of the passing the previous day of Nancy's producer, writer and singing partner, the great Lee Hazelwood . Great stuff."

Airship Radio Theatre Crashes

This is how I found out that our radio show and all other local shows were no longer to be aired.:The Register-Guard
Liberal station KOPT scraps local content
By Ilene Aleshire
Published: Thursday, August 2, 2007

Liberal-leaning KOPT radio station has pulled the plug on local programming, switching to a nationally syndicated format as of today.

"Despite gaining a loyal listenership, the station, which debuted in November 2004, has been a challenging business venture for Churchill Media," the company said in a statement.

"The challenge is going up against the big guys, the Clear Channels, satellite feed talk radio programs," Churchill Media General Manager Paul Danitz said. Although KOPT did include some satellite feed programs, it also ran a full line news department - an expensive proposition, Danitz said.

Syndicated programming essentially "costs nothing," he said. "You give them a couple of commercial units per hour and they provide you with programming." The only cost to the station is the equipment, and one person to run it, he said.


In contrast, KOPT spent more than $250,000 per year to staff its local news department, Danitz said. Nine news people have now been laid off, he said. One remains.

"Progressive/liberal talk radio is having a very difficult time surviving around the country," Danitz said. "We felt that, with the liberal attitude of the Eugene-Springfield market, we could swim upstream. We couldn't."

The station was never able to get the commercial sponsorship it needed, he said.

Churchill will now concentrate on its core market of Hispanic radio, Danitz said. Churchill owns and operates seven other radio stations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, six of them Hispanic stations.

Churchill got in on the ground floor of Hispanic programming in the Pacific Northwest, and that division is doing well, Danitz said, to the point that KOPT could have survived if it only broke even. In this region, it's still a small market, he said. "But the cost of operating a Hispanic property is far less than the weight of full-line programming."

KOPT will continue to carry syndicated Air America shows - at least for now. Churchill Media President Suzanne Arlie said Wednesday that she is open to selling KOPT. If the station is not sold within three months, she said, it may be converted to a jazz format.

Danitz said that he's been in radio for 37 years, but that Wednesday was a hard day.

"Today when I went down to deliver the news, to a news department that won 20 awards in 18 months, people knew they were under the gun," he said. "But they gave it everything they had, until the last second."

Letter from my Congressman about Impeachment

The Following is a response to my last email to my Congressman Peter DeFazio urging him to join the others in Congress pushing foe Impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney for the many crimes.:::

"Thanks for your message in support of impeaching the President, Vice President, or both. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.
I share your outrage at the administration's many transgressions over the last six-plus years. I have used my voice and my vote to oppose the administration on multiple fronts. I have always opposed the war in Iraq. I voted against the so-called USA PATRIOT Act. I voted against the legislation establishing military tribunals, which also included provisions retroactively immunizing administration officials for authorizing torture and provisions allowing the President to detain American citizens indefinitely without charge. I voted against legislation authorizing warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. I have led the effort to prevent the administration from attacking Iran without congressional authorization. Despite my long and vocal record of opposition to the administration's harmful policies, I believe that impeachment is a dubious strategy that will fail to bring about the change our country needs.
Supporters of impeachment need to ask themselves a question: is the primary goal to attempt to personally punish the President and Vice President or is it to reverse the many detrimental policies that have been enacted over the last six years?
If it is the former, then I can understand why individuals would believe an attempt to impeach is the best option. But, if it is the latter, which is what I think the goal should be, then impeachment will not work because even if Members of the House put aside all urgent issues and consumed the next six months with impeachment and then voted to impeach, the Senate will never vote to convict the President or Vice President and remove them from office, meaning at the end of the process they will remain in office with their policies unchanged and all that will have been accomplished is a 6-12 month delay in trying to overturn their harmful policies.
The reason I draw that conclusion is based on the math in the Senate. Even with the Democratic takeover of Congress last November, there are only 51 Senators that caucus with the Democratic Party (including two independents, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont). Even if all of these individuals supported impeachment (an unlikely prospect given the large number of conservative Democrats, not to mention Senator Lieberman), it would still require 16 Republicans to vote to convict the President or Vice President (2/3rds of the Senate, 67 votes, are needed to convict and remove from office). There is no evidence that any Republicans, let alone the 16 or likely more that would be required, will consider voting in favor of impeachment.
Just because an impeachment strategy is certain to end in failure doesn't mean Congress is impotent in terms of holding the administration accountable or reversing harmful policies.
I have advocated for an aggressive strategy of hearings, investigations (including the use of subpoena power) and legislation to overturn the administration's harmful policies.
This strategy is already bearing fruit. Although there are not yet quite enough votes in Congress to force a change in the President's Iraq policy, the President has been seriously challenged on Iraq since the Democratic takeover via both hearings and legislation. There have been multiple votes on bringing our troops home and establishing enforceable benchmarks for the administration's policy. This is something that did not happen under Republican control when the President was provided whatever he wanted with no questions asked. Further, the aggressive Democratic oversight has contributed to crumbling support for the President and his war even among members of his own party as evidenced by the recent public defections of key Republican senators.
Further the investigation and hearings into the political firings of U.S. Attorneys (again, something that never would have happened under the prior Republican leadership in Congress) have led to the resignation of several senior Justice Department personnel and hopefully will force out the Attorney General as well.
The Democratic takeover also led the administration to cave-in on its warrantless wiretapping program, agreeing earlier this year to subject future requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. Though, what the administration is actually submitting to the FISA Court needs further oversight.
And, while the administration continues to try to obstruct various investigations, Democratic leaders have not been shy about threatening to issue contempt citations and to take the administration to court to enforce subpoenas for testimony and documents.Finally, I am concerned that pursuing impeachment would suck all of the oxygen out of Congress, bringing all other issues to a halt and making it impossible to make progress on other priorities, such as taking on the oil companies; reorienting our energy policies toward clean, renewable electricity and fuels, as well as conservation; reforming and funding the No Child Left Behind law; expanding access to health insurance and affordable health care; among many other issues you and I care about.Since impeachment will not succeed in the Senate, pursuing it will not actually do anything to hold the administration accountable or overturn harmful policies. It would be a hollow effort. So the choice is real action via hearings, investigations and legislation, or symbolic action that won't change anything via impeachment. I prefer real action.
That said, for those concerned that a message needs to be sent to future presidents, I am a cosponsor of H.Res. 530, a resolution censuring President Bush for his manipulation of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq, the leaking of the identity of an undercover CIA agent's name, and the pardoning of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Passage of this resolution, which only requires a majority vote, would send a powerful signal to future presidents and congresses.
Thanks again for contacting me. Please keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Rep. Peter DeFazio
Fourth District, OREGON "

It's Armin Hammer Time

I want to take this brief moment and space to thank the man responsible for archiving and recording my radio shows, Mr. Armin Hammer. As well as being a member of San Francisco's amazing True Margrit he also has over 27 years experience as an audio recordist, mixer, mastering engineer, film transfer engineer. 5 years experience as Multimedia Production, and is now cosidered the Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness now that the great James Brown is gone.
Check his extensive credits HERE and HERE
Also he used to be my bandmate in some of my musical projects including late 70's new wave band The Jars. And Girls, he's single and available!
I could go on and on but please take a moment to meet the man who works so hard for nothing but the love of music, comedy and radio-the guy responsible for archiving my shows listed below, -Thank You Gary Hobish!!!

Listen To My Archived Radio Shows

I dunno if you ever followed the link to my archived programs, but they are available HERE
Just for chuckles,left click on the above HERE link,and each 1 hour segment will download to your desktop.Listen or burn as you please--but hurry, the older shows will be removed very soon!

Broadcast Date: Featuring:

7/15/07 *NEW* Guilty Pleasures- Ever wonder what MARC likes? Well, you asked for it! (What's that you say? You DIDN'T ask for it? Well... tough!) (Sorry for the short fade on The Man Band at the end...)

7/8/07 The Holographic Show- A potpurri show with Marc in a meloncholy mood- which is more fun than most of us being happy, y'know?

7/1/07 The Amazing World of Tiny Tim- In hour #1, Marc examines the underrated and misunderstood genius of Tiny Tim. Give it a shot- you'll be amazed by everything you didn't know about this ukelele-toting giant. Hour 2 is a sampling of things floating by The Rev. Mr. Time's windows the last few weeks.

6/24/07 The Summer Sunshine Show- It's summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertine- Join the Reverend as he celebrates sumnmer, sunshine, and explains why this year is the summer of love! Plus your Cancer horscope and a special on the Cackle Sisters. Get the point?

6/17/07 The Father's Day Show- The Rev.'s tribute to all the "Mr. Grooves" out there. The history of Father's Day, stories, interviews and of course plenty of songs about our dads. Also, a segment featuring the unusual story of jazz musician Billy Tipton, and Marc's take on last Sunday's Sopranos finale.

6/9/07 A Sonar Map Radio Show Special- Start steaming your brats and hike up your liederhosen as The Rev. Marc Time pays tribute to his two favorite Krautrock bands, Cluster and Neu!

6/3/07 The HAPPY! Show- Ho, what fun! Including specials on classic world music songstress Yma Sumac, and a dip into the 5 Disc Fonotone Records Box set of Jug Band and Hillbilly Music.

5/27/07 The Memorial Day Show- Things to love about America: Johnny Cash, John Wayne (who apparently loves America for her geography), B.B. King, an extended segment on Korla Pandit, the Cackle Sisters, Betty Boop, June Carter, stag party records and the Kinks. (Hey, wait a minute...)

5/13/07 The Mother's Day Show- That says it all! Tributes and dedications to all the moms!

4/15/07 The Art Of Sleep- Music and commentary inspired by the activity to which humans devote 1/3 of their lives. No, not Anna Nicole's baby-daddy, sleep!

4/8/07 Riding The Chocolate Train to Easter Everywhere- Marc's tribute to the rebirth of Spring, rabbits, peeps, and the glory that is chocolate. Wanna buy a bunny?

4/1/07 The Rush Limbo Extravaganza Show- Guest host Rush Limbo playes the Best. Music. Ever. Visits from Paul Harvey, the Guvonater, John Wayne, Our Pal W., and a heartfelt tribute to the late Bob Dylan.

3/25/07 The Regular Show- Marc wings it this week. Exotica meets the romance of German cover songs. Hilarity ensues. (Hey Marc, personal request from Armin: can you do anything about a Nyquil hangover?)

3/18/07 "Back From The Shadows-" The Rev. Marc Time examines War, the Spring and the History Of The World. And a visit from Blue Boy.

3/11/07 The It Was 40 Years, 2 Months and 4 Weeks Ago Today Show- The Rev. Marc Time gets a jump on all those John-Paul-George-Ringo-Come-Latelies with a great tribute to what many consider to be the Most Influential Pop Record of All Time, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Spilling over with session tapes, rare alternate and mono mixes and track deconstruction & commentary from The Beatles and producer George Martin.

3/4/07 The Incorrect Show- Oh this is just so wrong. Loaded up with both "incorrect" and "outsider" music, even more than you usual run-of-the-mill Hangover. They should have known better. Also, a young & beautiful camera crew interviews Marc. Nobody knows why. And a hummer from Mama Cass.

2/25/07 The Hangover Goes To Hollywood- On the morning of the Academy Awards, The Rev. Marc Time presents a tribute to some of the great music composed for the movies.

2/18/07 The Negative Show- And how are YOU today? Some wonderful rants & raves from the Reverend on death, ducks and the myth of Sysiphus. (I'm fine. And you? Fine. And you? And how are you? Fine. I'm fine. Are you fine? Fine. And now, a song about little children getting run over.)

1/28/07 BETTY BOOP SPECIAL- Part 1 of today's show is a tribute to the great songs of the Betty Boop cartoons, as originally heard in the original cartoon soundtracks and voiced by Mae Questel.
Part 2 finds a globetrotting Rev. Marc Time taking us to foreign lands for some unusual covers and a chase in the Jungle of Love. Also, Eartha Kitt gets evil and we get a hummer from Mama Cass.

1/14/07 Fun With Nukes! Celebrate our upcoming Nuke-u-lar Wars in the Mideast with the Rev as he plays excerpts from the Bear Family box set of Cold War stuff, Atomic Platters.This box set is a $230 list price German import and you may never hear it again! Listen to the likes of Johnny Cash, Groucho, Boris Karloff and Connie Francis teaching you how to build fallout shelters. Experience actual nuke attacks. Enjoy the Rockabilly, C&W and R&B sounds of artists like Wanda Jackson, Ann Marget, Bo Diddley and Hank Williams singing about blowing up Commies and the aftermath. 20 mega-tons of Fun!

1/7/07 The Free Design. It's hip to be square- or were they? Hip yes, square no. Listen with an open mind to the complex choral pop group that has inspired Cornelius, Pizzicato Five, Blueboy, Gentle People, Louis Philippe, Tomorrow's World, Stereolab and Belle and Sebastian. Interspersed with interviews with band leader/ writer arranger Chris Dedrick courtesy of KCRW and WKPS. Free Design

Bush Declares that He is Now The King

Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings
White House Says Hill Can't Pursue Contempt Cases

By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 20, 2007

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.
The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals.
Under federal law, a statutory contempt citation by the House or Senate must be submitted to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, "whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action."
But administration officials argued yesterday that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases, such as the prosecutor firings, in which the president has declared that testimony or documents are protected from release by executive privilege. Officials pointed to a Justice Department legal opinion during the Reagan administration, which made the same argument in a case that was never resolved by the courts.

"A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case," said a senior official, who said his remarks reflect a consensus within the administration. "And a U.S. attorney wouldn't be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen."

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, added: "It has long been understood that, in circumstances like these, the constitutional prerogatives of the president would make it a futile and purely political act for Congress to refer contempt citations to U.S. attorneys."

Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues, called the administration's stance "astonishing."

"That's a breathtakingly broad view of the president's role in this system of separation of powers," Rozell said. "What this statement is saying is the president's claim of executive privilege trumps all."

The administration's statement is a dramatic attempt to seize the upper hand in an escalating constitutional battle with Congress, which has been trying for months, without success, to compel White House officials to testify and to turn over documents about their roles in the prosecutor firings last year. The Justice Department and White House in recent weeks have been discussing when and how to disclose the stance, and the official said he decided yesterday that it was time to highlight it.

Yesterday, a House Judiciary subcommittee voted to lay the groundwork for contempt proceedings against White House chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten, following a similar decision last week against former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers.

The administration has not directly informed Congress of its view. A spokeswoman for Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the Judiciary Committee's chairman, declined to comment . But other leading Democrats attacked the argument.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) called it "an outrageous abuse of executive privilege" and said: "The White House must stop stonewalling and start being accountable to Congress and the American people. No one, including the president, is above the law."

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) said the administration is "hastening a constitutional crisis," and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said the position "makes a mockery of the ideal that no one is above the law."

Waxman added: "I suppose the next step would be just disbanding the Justice Department."

Under long-established procedures and laws, the House and Senate can each pursue two kinds of criminal contempt proceedings, and the Senate also has a civil contempt option. The first, called statutory contempt, has been the avenue most frequently pursued in modern times, and is the one that requires a referral to the U.S. attorney in the District.

Both chambers also have an "inherent contempt" power, allowing either body to hold its own trials and even jail those found in defiance of Congress. Although widely used during the 19th century, the power has not been invoked since 1934 and Democratic lawmakers have not displayed an appetite for reviving the practice.

In defending its argument, administration officials point to a 1984 opinion by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, headed at the time by Theodore B. Olson, a prominent conservative lawyer who was solicitor general from 2001 to 2004. The opinion centered on a contempt citation issued by the House for Anne Gorsuch Burford, then administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

It concluded: "The President, through a United States Attorney, need not, indeed may not, prosecute criminally a subordinate for asserting on his behalf a claim of executive privilege. Nor could the Legislative Branch or the courts require or implement the prosecution of such an individual."

In the Burford case, which involved spending on the Superfund program, the White House filed a federal lawsuit to block Congress's contempt action. The conflict subsided when Burford turned over documents to Congress.

The Bush administration has not previously signaled it would forbid a U.S. attorney from pursuing a contempt case in relation to the prosecutor firings. But officials at Justice and elsewhere say it has long held that Congress cannot force such action.

David B. Rifkin, who worked in the Justice Department and White House counsel's office under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, praised the position and said it is consistent with the idea of a "unitary executive." In practical terms, he said, "U.S. attorneys are emanations of a president's will." And in constitutional terms, he said, "the president has decided, by virtue of invoking executive privilege, that is the correct policy for the entire executive branch."

But Stanley Brand, who was the Democratic House counsel during the Burford case, said the administration's legal view "turns the constitutional enforcement process on its head. They are saying they will always place a claim of presidential privilege without any judicial determination above a congressional demand for evidence -- without any basis in law." Brand said the position is essentially telling Congress: "Because we control the enforcement process, we are going to thumb our nose at you."

Rozell, the George Mason professor and authority on executive privilege, said the administration's stance "is almost Nixonian in its scope and breadth of interpreting its power. Congress has no recourse at all, in the president's view. . . . It's allowing the executive to define the scope and limits of its own powers."

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.

Found This note on my windshield

I found this note on my truck today in the Smith parking lot next to the Museum of Unfine Art. The same person(I assume) defaced my Moveon.org
End This/Endless War Bumper sticker. Do you recognize the handwriting?
Who is dumber, me or the asshole who supports War?

The Politics of Fear

Did you ever notice that when Bush and Cheney are in trouble they drag out some old video of Bin Laden???
Booga Booga Booga!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bin Laden Appears in New al-Qaida Video
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A new al-Qaida videotape posted Sunday on a militant Web site featured a short, undated clip of a weary-looking Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom.

The bin Laden clip, which lasted less than a minute, was part of a 40-minute video featuring purported al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan paying tribute to fellow militants who have been killed in the country.

Bin Laden glorified those who die in the name of jihad, or holy war, saying even the Prophet Muhammad "had been wishing to be a martyr."

"The happy (man) is the one that God has chosen him to be a martyr," added bin Laden, who was shown outdoors wearing army fatigues and looking tired.

The authenticity of the video could not be verified, but it appeared on a Web site commonly used by Islamic militants and carried the logo of as-Sahab, al-Qaida's media production wing. It was not immediately clear when the video of bin Laden was filmed.

Bin Laden was last heard from in a July 1, 2006 audio tape in which he voiced support for the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and warned nations not to send troops to fight a hardline Islamic regime that had recently seized power in Somalia.

Sunday's video, dedicated to Muslims who have left their homes to fight jihad, included a series of animated scenes showing green fields overlaid with Arabic names written in gold, representing Arab fighters who had died in Afghanistan.

Following one such sequence, the self-proclaimed leader of al-Qaida in Afghanistan appeared praising his fellow fighters.

"Your hero sons, courageous knights have left to the land of Afghanistan ... the land of jihad and martyrdom, answering the call for the sake of God to kick out the occupier who has desecrated the pure soil of Afghanistan," said Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed.

In another clip, a man identified as Mujahid Haidarah al-Hawn was shown sitting in front of a tree with an AK-47 paying tribute to a Syrian fighter, Osama al-Hamawi, who died in an air raid in Afghanistan.

"I lived with him for four years," said al-Hawn, who wore a black scarf to cover his face. "He used to be my emir (commander) . . . He was a brother with extreme modesty."

A photo of al-Hamawi's face, apparently taken after his death, was broadcast, showing bruises around his eye and a red gash on his forehead.

A bearded man identified as Abu Yahia al-Libi, a Libyan al-Qaida operative in Afghanistan, appeared in the video wearing a black turban, saying the Muslim world was "offering the best of its men and sacrificing the good of its sons ... to protect its ideology."

Al-Libi escaped U.S. custody in 2005 and is believed to be behind a suicide bombing that killed 23 people outside the main U.S. base in Afghanistan during a February visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Several other al-Qaida operatives from various countries who had apparently committed suicide attacks in Afghanistan were shown reading statements lashing out at the West before their deaths.

The video also contained a series of clips with militants wearing traditional Afghan dress and carrying rifles and RPG launchers through the mountains. Militants could also be seen exercising in training camps.

At the end of the broadcast, images of the Sept. 11 attacks were shown, and a voice could be heard saying, "In a few days, the crusaders' landmarks were flattened."

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Fang:Grunge Pioneers

I remember these guys coming into my record store(Universal) on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley in 1980 shoplifting. Sammy was real obnoxious but not as obnoxious as Rob Noxious or Johnny Puke.
Fang was a notorious Berkeley post-punk pre-grunge band from Berkeley that put out 2 Must Have EPs in the 80's(now a must have CD.)
Even Kurt Cobain was a fan and covered this song "Money Will Roll right In."
Sammy was great, I even saw them in Norwalk Connecticut in 1985(?) and they put on a Blistering show.
Too Bad Sammytown got sent to the slammer for killing his girlfriend.

Reply from Congressman Peter DeFazio and My Response

Subject:Reply from Congressman Peter DeFazio
Date:Friday, July 13, 2007 1:05:36 PM


Thanks for your message in support of impeaching the President, Vice President, or both. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.
I share your outrage at the administration's many transgressions over the last six-plus years. I have used my voice and my vote to oppose the administration on multiple fronts. I have always opposed the war in Iraq. I voted against the so-called USA PATRIOT Act. I voted against the legislation establishing military tribunals, which also included provisions retroactively immunizing administration officials for authorizing torture and provisions allowing the President to detain American citizens indefinitely without charge. I voted against legislation authorizing warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. I have led the effort to prevent the administration from attacking Iran without congressional authorization. Despite my long and vocal record of opposition to the administration's harmful policies, I believe that impeachment is a dubious strategy that will fail to bring about the change our country needs.

Supporters of impeachment need to ask themselves a question: is the primary goal to attempt to personally punish the President and Vice President or is it to reverse the many detrimental policies that have been enacted over the last six years?

If it is the former, then I can understand why individuals would believe an attempt to impeach is the best option. But, if it is the latter, which is what I think the goal should be, then impeachment will not work because even if Members of the House put aside all urgent issues and consumed the next six months with impeachment and then voted to impeach, the Senate will never vote to convict the President or Vice President and remove them from office, meaning at the end of the process they will remain in office with their policies unchanged and all that will have been accomplished is a 6-12 month delay in trying to overturn their harmful policies.
The reason I draw that conclusion is based on the math in the Senate. Even with the Democratic takeover of Congress last November, there are only 51 Senators that caucus with the Democratic Party (including two independents, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont). Even if all of these individuals supported impeachment (an unlikely prospect given the large number of conservative Democrats, not to mention Senator Lieberman), it would still require 16 Republicans to vote to convict the President or Vice President (2/3rds of the Senate, 67 votes, are needed to convict and remove from office). There is no evidence that any Republicans, let alone the 16 or likely more that would be required, will consider voting in favor of impeachment.
ust because an impeachment strategy is certain to end in failure doesn't mean Congress is impotent in terms of holding the administration accountable or reversing harmful policies.
I have advocated for an aggressive strategy of hearings, investigations (including the use of subpoena power) and legislation to overturn the administration's harmful policies.
This strategy is already bearing fruit. Although there are not yet quite enough votes in Congress to force a change in the President's Iraq policy, the President has been seriously challenged on Iraq since the Democratic takeover via both hearings and legislation. There have been multiple votes on bringing our troops home and establishing enforceable benchmarks for the administration's policy. This is something that did not happen under Republican control when the President was provided whatever he wanted with no questions asked. Further, the aggressive Democratic oversight has contributed to crumbling support for the President and his war even among members of his own party as evidenced by the recent public defections of key Republican senators.

Further the investigation and hearings into the political firings of U.S. Attorneys (again, something that never would have happened under the prior Republican leadership in Congress) have led to the resignation of several senior Justice Department personnel and hopefully will force out the Attorney General as well.
The Democratic takeover also led the administration to cave-in on its warrantless wiretapping program, agreeing earlier this year to subject future requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. Though, what the administration is actually submitting to the FISA Court needs further oversight.
And, while the administration continues to try to obstruct various investigations, Democratic leaders have not been shy about threatening to issue contempt citations and to take the administration to court to enforce subpoenas for testimony and documents.
Finally, I am concerned that pursuing impeachment would suck all of the oxygen out of Congress, bringing all other issues to a halt and making it impossible to make progress on other priorities, such as taking on the oil companies; reorienting our energy policies toward clean, renewable electricity and fuels, as well as conservation; reforming and funding the No Child Left Behind law; expanding access to health insurance and affordable health care; among many other issues you and I care about.
Since impeachment will not succeed in the Senate, pursuing it will not actually do anything to hold the administration accountable or overturn harmful policies. It would be a hollow effort. So the choice is real action via hearings, investigations and legislation, or symbolic action that won't change anything via impeachment. I prefer real action.
Thanks again for contacting me. Please keep in touch.

Sincerely,

Rep. Peter DeFazio
Fourth District, OREGON

My Response:

Dear Congressman-

Per "do the Math" and to whether we could get enough votes to impeach, or for that matter end the war:

Did our patriot forefathers in the18th century decide that because they"didn't have the numbers" they couldn't declare independence and release themselves from King George?
The commutation of Libby and Miers' giving Congress the finger are both tyrannical and grave offenses-President Bush's lying us into war and the other 999 scandals are grounds for impeachment.
The people are waiting. If we let this president get away with all of this we will have to deal with every other president in the future looking back on all this as the green light to do whatever he or she wants to do, no matter what the consequences.
I appreciate your stance and your voting record-but it is your duty as my representative to uphold the constitution and keep the executive branch in check. It is our duty as Americans to resist tyranny and treason in the White House.

Thanks for your speedy replies and your service,

Marc Time

Tiny Tim

I got a CD from the library this week:"God Bless Tiny Tim: The Complete Reprise
Studio Masters...And More" and I can't believe how amazing Tiny Tim was. This is a 3 CD set of his Reprise albums with outtakes from the late 60's and it is truly astounding!
Today on the first hour of the HANGOVER I am featuring the best of this CD by this musical genius.

Go Here for more.

Happy Fathers Day!!!

I've seen some posts on other blogs about what terrible fathers people have,abusive dads, a lot of deadbeat dads and how this holiday is overrated.
Well my Dad was a good Dad, did the best he could,supported our family, worked his ass off, made time to be with us and was never abusive, He served in WW2 and Korea and stayed active in many civic groups.
Today he is 90 years old, healthy, happy and married and enjoying his life.
I want to say here in case he sees this--"Happy Fathers Day Dad- I Love You!".

Airship Takes Off!

I've Got a New Radio Show!
I will be a member of Airship Radio Theatre, a comedy and interview sketch experiment that will be airing on KOPT-AM 1600 the local Eugene Air America affiliate. Our weekly one hour show will start NEXT saturday June 23 at 12 Noon!
Of course myself and my crew mates Captain Pettigrew and Professor X are very excited to launch this flying Airship Utopia.
Please help us out by tuning in to your AM radio Next Saturday at noon! We are also looking for any businesses that are interested in sponsoring and advertising on our program.

Sopranos Finale

***WARNING:SPOILERS***
Everyone is speculating so I might as well also: We,the Audience GOT WHACKED.
The final blackout was David Chase's way of telling us that we don't matter anymore, life goes on even though we aren't watchong and that Tony lives on.
"When the bullet hits your head, you won't see it or hear it"
The more I watch the episode, the more I like it.
The "Good" guy wins, Phil loses, everyone left in the Family moves on to better things and and as AJ says, we should remember the good times.
Whatdya gonna do?
More analysis here:http://testpattern.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/06/11/222698.aspx
http://origin.mercurynews.com/tv/ci_6115407

My Big Ten Inch

records will be played today at 10 AM on the Sunday Morning Hangover Radio Program---www.kwvaradio.org -88.1 FM Eugene!
Nothing but 78's from my massive collection of Ten Inch records.
Forward Into The Past on this edition of the Hangover!

FCC says that Bush and Cheney have Potty Mouths

Court Rebuffs F.C.C. on Fines for Indecency

"If President Bush and Vice President Cheney can blurt out vulgar language, then the government cannot punish broadcast television stations for broadcasting the same words in similarly fleeting contexts.
Under President Bush, the F.C.C. has expanded its indecency rules, taking a much harder line on obscenities uttered on broadcast television and radio. While the judges sent the case back to the commission to rewrite its indecency policy, it said that it was "doubtful" that the agency would be able to "adequately respond to the constitutional and statutory challenges raised by the networks."

The judges said vulgar words are just as often used out of frustration or excitement, and not to convey any broader obscene meaning. "In recent times even the top leaders of our government have used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced sexual or excretory organs or activities."
Mr. Bush was caught on videotape last July using a common vulgarity(..."shit") that the commission finds objectionable in a conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. Three years ago, Mr. Cheney was widely reported to have muttered an angry obscene version of "get lost" to Senator Patrick Leahy ("go fuck yourself") on the floor of the United States Senate."

Of course the most obscene act of the Bush Administration was lying to the American people about the reasons for going into a war that has killed almost 5000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

Airship Radio Theatre

We just got the green light for our new Radio theater program to air on KOPT 1600 AM on Saturdays, perhaps in the afternoon.

KOPT is the local Air America station and our weekly show will feature bits and sketches as well as musical segments.

The show is conceived and written by Dudley Clark, with additional material by Marc Time and James Stegall. Appearing are Amy Wray, Allen Erickson, Mark Lewis, Kristi Koons, Dudley Clark, Marc Time, Andy Schanz and James Stegall.

Our Musical Director is the Reverend Marc Time.

Future shows will include interviews with Mason Williams, Mojo Nixon,and many other artists, musicians and authors.

Stay Tuned!

Best Pizza in America--Pepe's New Haven CT

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid435563705/bctid459255759

Pissed Off at the Democrats

Keith says it perfectly HERE:

This is, in fact, a comment about… betrayal.

Few men or women elected in our history-whether executive or legislative, state or national-have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear: Get us out of Iraq.

Yet after six months of preparation and execution-half a year gathering the strands of public support; translating into action, the collective will of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who reject this War of Lies, the Democrats have managed only this:

* The Democratic leadership has surrendered to a president-if not the worst president, then easily the most selfish, in our history-who happily blackmails his own people, and uses his own military personnel as hostages to his asinine demand, that the Democrats "give the troops their money";

* The Democratic leadership has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans;

* The Democratic leadership has given Mr. Bush all that he wanted, with the only caveat being, not merely meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but optional meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

* The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised, are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.

You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions-Stop The War-have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans.

You may trot out every political cliché from the soft-soap, inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is the "beginning of the end" of Mr. Bush's "carte blanche" in Iraq, about how this is a "first step."
Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning… is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected and re-elected to do.

Because this "first step"… is a step right off a cliff.

And this President!

How shameful it would be to watch an adult hold his breath, and threaten to continue to do so, until he turned blue.

But how horrifying it is to watch a President hold his breath and threaten to continue to do so, until innocent and patriotic Americans in harm's way, are bled white.

You lead this country, sir?

You claim to defend it?

And yet when faced with the prospect of someone calling you on your stubbornness–your stubbornness which has cost 3,431 Americans their lives and thousands more their limbs–you, Mr. Bush, imply that if the Democrats don't give you the money and give it to you entirely on your terms, the troops in Iraq will be stranded, or forced to serve longer, or have to throw bullets at the enemy with their bare hands.

How transcendentally, how historically, pathetic.

Any other president from any other moment in the panorama of our history would have, at the outset of this tawdry game of political chicken, declared that no matter what the other political side did, he would insure personally-first, last and always-that the troops would not suffer.

A President, Mr. Bush, uses the carte blanche he has already, not to manipulate an overlap of arriving and departing brigades into a ‘second surge,' but to say in unequivocal terms that if it takes every last dime of the monies already allocated, if it takes reneging on government contracts with Halliburton, he will make sure the troops are safe-even if the only safety to be found, is in getting them the hell out of there.

Well, any true President would have done that, sir.

You instead, used our troops as political pawns, then blamed the Democrats when you did so.

Not that these Democrats, who had this country's support and sympathy up until 48 hours ago, have not since earned all the blame they can carry home.

"We seem to be very near the bleak choice between war and shame," Winston Churchill wrote to Lord Moyne in the days after the British signed the Munich accords with Germany in 1938. "My feeling is that we shall choose shame, and then have war thrown in, a little later…"

That's what this is for the Democrats, isn't it?

Their "Neville Chamberlain moment" before the Second World War. All that's missing is the landing at the airport, with the blinkered leader waving a piece of paper which he naively thought would guarantee "peace in our time," but which his opponent would ignore with deceit.

The Democrats have merely streamlined the process.

Their piece of paper already says Mr. Bush can ignore it, with impugnity.

And where are the Democratic presidential hopefuls this evening? See they not, that to which the Senate and House leadership has blinded itself?

Judging these candidates based on how they voted on the original Iraq authorization, or waiting for apologies for those votes, is ancient history now.

The Democratic nomination is likely to be decided… tomorrow.

The talk of practical politics, the buying into of the President's dishonest construction "fund-the-troops-or-they-will-be-in-jeopardy," the promise of tougher action in September, is falling not on deaf ears, but rather falling on Americans who already told you what to do, and now perceive your ears as closed to practical politics.

Those who seek the Democratic nomination need to-for their own political futures and, with a thousand times more solemnity and importance, for the individual futures of our troops-denounce this betrayal, vote against it, and, if need be, unseat Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi if they continue down this path of guilty, fatal acquiescence to the tragically misguided will of a monomaniacal president.

For, ultimately, at this hour, the entire government has failed us.

* Mr. Reid, Mr. Hoyer, and the other Democrats… have failed us. They negotiated away that which they did not own, but had only been entrusted by us to protect: our collective will as the citizens of this country, that this brazen War of Lies be ended as rapidly and safely as possible.

* Mr. Bush and his government… have failed us. They have behaved venomously and without dignity-of course.
That is all at which Mr. Bush is gifted.

We are the ones providing any element of surprise or shock here.

With the exception of Senator Dodd and Senator Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidates have (so far at least) failed us.

They must now speak, and make plain how they view what has been given away to Mr. Bush, and what is yet to be given away tomorrow, and in the thousand tomorrows to come.

Because for the next fourteen months, the Democratic nominating process–indeed the whole of our political discourse until further notice–has, with the stroke of a cursed pen, become about one thing, and one thing alone.
The electorate figured this out, six months ago.

The President and the Republicans have not-doubtless will not.

The Democrats will figure it out, during the Memorial Day recess, when they go home and many of those who elected them will politely suggest they stay there-and permanently.

Because, on the subject of Iraq the people have been ahead of the media….

Ahead of the government…

Ahead of the politicians…

For the last year, or two years, or maybe three.

Our politics… is now about the answer to one briefly-worded question.

Mr. Bush has failed.

Mr. Warner has failed.

Mr. Reid has failed.

So. Who among us will stop this war-this War of Lies? To he or she, fall the figurative keys to the nation.

To all the others-presidents and majority leaders and candidates and rank-and-file Congressmen and Senators of either party-there is only blame… for this shameful, and bi-partisan, betrayal.

The Mother of all Mothers Day Shows

This Sunday is Mothers Day,so for all you Muthas out there if you want to dedicate a song to your Mom on the air this Sunday morning give me a call at 541-346-0645 between 10 and noon PST and I'l give you and your Mom a shoutout.
This radio show and many other past shows are available for listening and download at:
http://www.ahammer.com/marctime/