The Blue State

Come on in, take a look around!

I'd like to give all those of you from CrooksandLiars.com a good welcome to The Blue State.  This site is updated frequently each day, and is your no nonsense stop for realism-based political news, political humor, media critique, foreign policy analysis and Democratic strategy.  You'll also get a daily dose of political videos. 

So take a look around, and come back often!  Most importantly, see the An Inconvenient Truth, out in theaters right now -- being informed about our global crisis is worth two hours of your time.

When you thought you had seen everything

Well this one will give right-wing conservatives something to think deeply about:

Surgeons operated on a 2-month-old Pakistani girl Tuesday to remove twofetuses that had grown inside her while she was still in her mother'swomb, a doctor said.

The infant, who was identified only as Nazia, was in criticalcondition following the two-hour operation at The Children's Hospitalat Pakistan Institute of Medical Science in the capital, Islamabad,said Zaheer Abbasi, head of pediatric surgery at the hospital.

Abbasi, the chief doctor who led the operation, said the case wasthe first he was aware of in Pakistan of fetus-in-fetu, where a fetushas grown inside another in the womb.

"It is extremely rare to have two fetuses being discovered insideanother," Abbasi told The Associated Press, adding that he did not knowwhat caused the medical abnormality. "Basically, it's a case oftriplets, but two of the siblings grew in the other."

If only the two fetuses had been in a persistent vegetative state would we have seen Bill Frist get involved.

R.I.P. Dana

(Courtesy of Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant, Cagle Cartoons)

Sorry this is a few days late!  Lung cancer is such a tragedy, even for those that do not smoke.  A few days ago, CNN gave a very informative report on their prime time show "Anderson Cooper 360" about this kind of cancer, which can easily go unnoticed.  Here is a small report from their web site on the disease.

Nearing the end of the quarter

Sorry that the updates today are rather minimal.  Last night I was up writing a 7-page paper -- and that was only the rough draft. 

But I will write another blog post before 5:40 PM ET/2:40 PM PT.

Bush gets jiggy with it

Michael Feinstein, a popular crooning vocalist, was invited to the White House by the President to perform Valentines Day music for Laura and an exclusive group of friends.  Why is this news, you ask?  I have no idea. 

But I will say that while there are many reasons why John Kerry would have made a better President than George W. Bush, I will side with Bush when it comes to originality.  It is entertainment scenes like this where people like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were at their best. 

Could you even picture John Kerry in this kind of a setting with the Heinz Ketchup lady?  I couldn't.

Lastly -- and I found this very revealing -- among Bush's 100 friends in attendance, Joseph Lieberman was one of them.  Getting too close to the President these days, aren't we Joe?

Maybe it wasn't meant to be

Well, that one really hurt!  I'll have to say, the Steelers made the big plays, and in the Super Bowl big plays are what win the game.  Sorry to throw around a cliche, but it was frustrating to have the referees, over and over throughout the course of the night, dictate the game like they did. 

I thought the officiating was terrible.  They gave a touchdown to Pittsburgh in the second quarter; they took away two touchdowns from the Seahawks; and they also did not call the left defensive end of the Steelers when he jumped offsides three times in the fourth quarter.  Again, it was frustrating to have the game that you waited your whole life for to have ruined by the officials.  Of course, the Steelers made a number of great plays.  But the Seahawks had control of the offense from the very beginning of the game -- no one, whether you're a Steelers fan or somewhere in between, can deny that.  We were moving the ball on them the whole game.  Yes, the Seahawks' defense could have played better at times.  But overall, they were pretty solid if you subtract that 75-yard touchdown pass.

Well, I could go on forever.  I've waited my whole life for this day.  But there is always next year; and more importantly, it's just a game.  Congrats to the Seahawks for what was an excellent year.  I hope we can re-sign Alexander.  I guarantee we will be back.

Good luck to my Seahawks in the Super Bowl

The moment I've been waiting for my whole life as finally arrived.  The Seattle Seahawks, a team that I have watched through their ups and downs ever since I was four years old, are now finally on the national stage in the Super Bowl. 

I know most of you all could care less -- since you are probably visiting this site to read my political opinions.  But just keep in mind that until I was in college, I had aspirations of becoming a sports writer -- that was until the 2000 election mess and 9/11 happened within 12 months of each other.  Even though I want to go into politics, I still find the time to live and die with my Seattle sports teams (Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics, Storm, and University of Washington Huskies).

So good luck to the Seahawks in less than an hour, and hopefully the victory parade will reign down on the Northwest!

Michael Jackson in Bahrain

Sorry, I just found this to be just a horrible sight.  This was pop star Michael Jackson today dressed in what an MSNBC story describes as a "traditional Arabic women's" veil.  And then look over at his son to see child abuse in action.  Just sad.

Here are more photos, if you care.

Life-long wait, and my Seahawks are in the Superbowl!

Well what a day this has been!  My voice is gone, I have to wake up in five hours, and my Seahawks are headed to the first Superbowl in team history.  Myself and about 68,000 other screaming fans spent an entire day being part of an experience that none of us will ever forget for the rest of our lives.  All those years of watching the Seahawks on television during the 1990s when they were 7-9 every year finally paid off.  This is such an awesome feeling.  Qwest field tonight was the loudest sports stadium I have ever been in.  The noise was piercing, and it had a lot to do with why Carolina's offense struggled.  Bring on those Steelers in Superbowl XL.

Now that I got all this out of me, it's back to talking politics for two weeks until Superbowl weekend.  By the way, if anyone wants to offer free airfare, hotel and tickets to the big game in Detroit, now is your chance to play the role of an angel and offer a Seahawks fan and someone else the dream of a lifetime!

GO SEAHAWKS!

I have tickets to the big Seahawks game today.  Watch at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT as Seattle will finally get put on the sports map and finally overwhelm the east coast bias!!  GO SEAHAWKS!  More posts tomorrow.

If we lose, don't expect a lot of happy posts on here tomorrow (don't worry, it won't come to that!)!  Good thing I'm writing this, not speaking, because my voice will be gone.