The Blue State

Dead Democratic candidate in SD beats Republican

You think the anti-Republican sentiment is not felt in every pocket of the country?  Try this on for size:

Marie Steichen died two months ago but she won a battle to become acounty commissioner for a small South Dakota town in the US elections,an official said.

Jerauld county auditor Cindy Peterson said that the election listclosed on August 1, and while Steichen died from cancer in Septemberher name was kept on the list for Tuesday's election.

Steichen beat a Republican rival by 100 votes to 64 and Peterson saidshe believed that voters knew the woman was dead but wanted to maketheir political point.

This is analogous to what happened in November of 2000 when John Ashcroft lost to Mel Carnahan for Missouri's Senate seat.  Carnahan died about two weeks before the vote.  Ashcroft went on to become Bush's Attorney General.

Cheney to hunt on election day for first time since incident

For those hunting with Cheney, stand behind him at all times.  Also, don't let him drink beforehand:

Vice President Dick Cheney will spend Election Day on his first hunting trip since he accidentallyshot a companion last February while aiming at a covey of quail on aprivate Texas ranch.

The vice president, after working at the White House on Monday morning,will head to South Dakota to spend several days at a private huntinglodge near Pierre. Lea Anne McBride, his press secretary, said it wasan annual hunting outing and said Cheney spent Election Day in 2002 atthe same lodge.

Also, throw rocks into the distance so he thinks it's a bird and points the gun in the other direction.

Is this a wasted post?  Yes, absolutely!  But it is nice to loosen up a bit before a very serious election.  The polls will open on the east coast in about 50 hours.

Next post will be in about an hour.

Cartoon: All Tricks, No Treats

(By Andrew Wahl, The Wenatchee World, Offthewahl.com)

Sorry it is one day late.

(Video) Letterman thinks and O'Reilly reacts

Last night in an exclusive interview on the David Letterman show -- a segment that was taped earlier in the week -- Letterman discusses his philosophic difference with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and the President on Iraq:

(Video) Bush and Hume SNL skit

In a skit last night on the NBC weekend show Saturday Night Live, Brit Hume interviewed George W. Bush about Iraq.  As Hume ran through a list of all the realities in the war -- such as the depleted security situation, worsened political tensions between Shii and Sunni and eroded support here at home -- it became apparent at the end that all the Fox News host wanted was for Bush to say we are going to win.  Fox News and the White House make a great team.  But these days, it's getting harder and harder to deny reality:

Watch Video Clip

--- Partial Transcript ---

HUME: ...there's news that in an overwhelming display of force, the Shiite militia led by rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr briefly took the city of Amara in an area once considered safe.  So, Mr. President, considering all these factors, my question to you is can we win this war in Iraq?

BUSH: Absolutely, Brit.

HUME: That's good enough for me.

Didn't I say that the White House and Fox work well together?

Cartoon: Nuclear Reaction

(By Andrew Wahl, The Wenatchee World, Offthewahl.com)

America's 10 Dumbest Congressmen

Holly Martins of Radar Online came up with these rankings:

1. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL)
2. Rep. Donald Young (R-AK)
3. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
4. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
5. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
6. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
7. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
8. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT)
9. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)
10. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY)

You can read the full story here to find out why they were ranked where they were.

Cartoon: A Dark Dawn

(By Andrew Wahl, The Wenatchee World, OffTheWahl.com)

Let's not give this dictator the satisfaction of impacting our election in November.

(Video) Significant decline in Bush's speaking skills

Adbuzz put together a nice video piece that illustrates the grammatical differences between George W. Bush today and George W. Bush ten years ago.  This is pretty sobering.

On political philosophy alone, I might disagree with Ronald Reagan for the rest of my life.  But I still have to hand it to him.  The 40th president was one of the best communicators we have ever had as our commander-in-chief.  It is important to have a president that has a solid command of the English language because charisma can inspire a nation.  When Ronald Reagan spoke, people listened.  You can't say the same thing about George W. Bush.

But there was a time when George W. Bush had a strong command of the English language.  This video montage compares the 1994 version of Bush with today's version.  The differences are striking.

I don't think that I agree with some of the conclusions that the author of this video made.  But it still is embarrassing to have a President that can barely formulate a sentence.

http://www.adbuzz.com/bushbuzz.htm

Cartoon: Coming to Term?

(By Andrew Wahl, The Wenatchee World, Offthewahl.com)

Andrew's weekly commentary:

This week’se-mail features not one but two new cartoons. The first, “Doc Is on theJob” [Archive No. 0635] was an attempt to localize the rapidlyexpanding Congressional page scandal. With disgraced pederast MarkFoley’s lurid tale dominating headlines (and editorial cartoons) thispast week, I was looking for a different approach. Enter mycongressman, Doc Hastings, chairman of the House ethics committee andlapdog to Speaker Hastert. To call him a do-nothing on the ethics frontwould be kind. In a classic case of too little too late, Hastings isheading up the Foley investigation. Can’t wait to see where that leads(or, more accurately, doesn’t).
    I finished this cartoon up at about 1 a.m. on Monday, then made themistake of checking the latest news online before going to bed …
    Kim Jong Il had gone and done the bomb thing.
    I’d already worked up a sketch for just that event, but it was farfrom finished. Still, the North Korea nuclear test called for a timelycartoon. A couple hours later I finished up “A Dark Dawn” [Archive No.0636] and crawled off to bed. Which is where I’m headed now, too.
    Before signing off for the week, a quick word of warning: I’m goingto be switching Web hosts this week. It’s all behind-the-scenes stuff —my e-mail and Web addresses will remain the same. The new host assuresme there won’t be any problems, but, well, you know. So ifoffthewahl.com suddenly disappears, or your e-mails get bounced back,know it’s just a temporary thing. With any luck, I’ll be back in seven.

Till then,
Andrew
toon@offthewahl.com

Great cartoon, as usual, Andrew.