In case you missed it, the federal government used the "sneak and peek" warrant provisions of the Patriot Act to bust up the Cock County cockfighting scene.

It seems we have forgotten that the "Patriot" in "Patriot Act" stands for "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism," (you can thank John Ashcroft for the tortured acronym, which along with color coded terrorist threat charts are keeping America safe from terrorist attacks since 2001).

Not that I'm trying to defend it, but can someone explain when cockfighting became "terrorism"? First they came for the cockfighters...

Michael Silence has more here and here, and Joe Powell comments re. the ever expanding threat to civil liberties.

Man, the crap is flying faster than feathers at a Newport cockfight. I hope the late Friday bad news cycle is over and things will settle down*.

We've got backroom deals, strong-arm tactics, nepotism, double-reverse patronage, sex, drugs -- the only thing missing is... cockfighting!

OK, then.

(*Oops. Guess not. Just saw Mark Harmon's post at the same time as this one. Looks like there will be more drama this weekend.)

Cockfighting arrests in Middle Tennessee
DOWELLTOWN, TENN. (AP) -- Authorities in DeKalb County say they have broken up a cockfighting ring where thousands of dollars were being bet.
Police said they arrested ten men Saturday night, and among those watching the birds fight to near death were a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old.

Oh my!

I propose we have a community "Come to Jesus" meeting. We've got some folks who are really great regulars who, despite some obvious differences of opinion, have made this blog very strong, very quickly. Unfortunately, we have some problem folks who insist on making a stink, most often anonymously. The first call came from our friend, R. Neal, announcing that if this weak-minded behavior doesn't cease, then tent poles  down and folding thereafter.

We do need to affirm some rules and maybe set some more for conduct here.
I'd like to put on the agenda two things:

• No more anonymous posting
• Moderators should have the ability to delete individual posts

I consider this to be my blog in the sense that I enjoy contributing even if this contribution leads to agreeing with # 9 or getting under SayUncle's skin. I know it is R. Neal's site, but the concept of the way this place works makes it so strong. I give # 9 as an example of someone who gets overheated at times and mystifies me with his logic, but has become more disciplined over time. Look back at the SKBlog dustup and how even old adversaries such as me can virtually shake hands and treat each other civilly (though I won't let him get away with too many shenanigans!). What do y'all say.

--toby 

...to the wrong person. Beck told newly elected Congressman Keith Ellison he wanted him to "prove to me that you are not working with our enemies" because Ellison is a Muslim. Beck felt really bad about being so suspicious.

Maybe the reason Beck couldn't discard the question is because it's an important question. If only Republicans had the sense to ask it of people who actually do things that help our enemies. For example, it would be a great demand to make of the people who punched a hole in our intelligence firewall for Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress buddies. That hole would be the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, created from whole cloth during the lead-up to the invasion, inserted into the intelligence hierarchy above any vetting or oversight, then quietly disbanded after Chalabi's coziness with Iran was discovered.

When will the person responsible for sharing critical state secrets with Chalabi be asked to prove he is not working with our enemies? 

Well, here she is:

Link...

From Star Power to Blood Sport, Tennessee Senate Race Has It

Or so says the New York Times:

Mr. Clinton is about to say nice things about Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., the Democratic Senate candidate, but first he has to say how much he loves Ms. Shepherd’s movies and how he always looks for them when he is home alone at night, channel surfing.

Which has about as much to do with Tuesday’s election as cockfighting, and in northeast Tennessee that is what the burly welder is getting in Bob Corker’s face about. The man, arguing that the blood sport should be legalized, is cocksure about his love of cockfighting. Mr. Corker, a multimillionaire Republican running a small-government campaign against Mr. Ford, is less sure. People should be free from state regulation, but he is undecided about birds. He promises to learn more.

We must know! We must know now!

WHERE DOES BOB CORKER STAND ON COCKFIGHTING?

And he came out four-square against polygamy. I am NOT kidding.

Over the weekend, he put out giant "Vote Randall Parker for Traditional Marriage" signs. Evidently he thinks this is his money issue. Wonderful how these bachelor Republicans champion an institution they avoid like a barbed wire enema in their own lives.
And actually, Parker, who never speaks of his own family, came here from Arkansas in '03 or so and started running against Harry Tindell as soon as his feet hit the ground.
This race has gotten very little attention. Parker is a Campfield clone -- even rented one of Campy's slum houses for several years and had Campfield's minions going door-to-door for him.
Harry, who has lived a Tennessee life ;-) has been a good legislator who has built up considerable respect and clout on Capitol Hill. I think he deserves another term.

It was once obvious to Americans that someone being snuck into the White House under false pretenses was a cause for concern, a red flag indicating a security breach or hidden interests at play. A pretend reporter in the White House press corps was the kind of thing that required an explanation and perhaps a change in policy or personnel.

When it also turns out the bogus reporter is a gay prostitute who was not just participating in press briefings, but also routinely visiting the White House itself, the red flag becomes a flashing warning light. In the No-Account Era of Bushco, however, such warnings just alert the faithful to grab their shovels and head to the barn. When it became known that Jeff Gannon of Talon News Service was actually James Guckert, a former serviceman with a web page advertising the dimensions of his penis and his rates for nightly or weekend-long escort services, parroting administration spin for a "news service" that was merey a website funded by one of Bush's Texas fundraisers, the Bullshit Brigade switched into denial overdrive.

Willing dupes like Les Jones turned into helpful tour guides, "Nothing to see here, folks. Move along." They talked incessantly about day passes and how unregulated they are, but they refused to talk about any of the facts that made this case unique. None of the dupes wanted to touch the eight-inch, uncut penis. Now Ted Haggard, a trusted Republican spiritual advisor with White House access, has resigned after his hired gay lover outed him as hypocrite, and campaign records have shown the RNC taking big donations from a gay-porn producer whose catalog includes many films starring former servicemen.

Is it all a coincidence, or were Haggard and Guckert working on a five-part box set of a gay-sex-themed "West Wing" ripoff filmed on location?

What bothers me about the Gannon affair is not the gayness or the sex or the hypocrisy. What bothers me is I feel like I'm living in a world that has gone batshit insane. How can a clumsy, inconsequential remark by John Kerry spark a media frenzy during of time when truly important news is in steady supply? Haggard's career has just been ruined by his gay lover. How do we know that Guckert is not blackmailing someone far more important and powerful with the threat of exposing whoever it was in the White House that was sneaking him in?

If Republican leaders want to be lying hypocrites, fine. What I really want to know is what the hell is wrong with rank-and-file Republicans and the mainstream press? Is there no level of truth and decency for which they are willing to take a stand? Must our nation rewrite every law the President violates? Must we willingly go along with every rewriting of history and repackaging of current events that spins out of the mouthpieces? Has my country gone insane?

From my hometown paper.

Sen. George Allen’s criticism of novels written by his opponent is the last straw in a negative campaign the likes of which Virginians have not seen before. It also has convinced us to endorse Democrat Jim Webb in the Nov. 7 election.

Sen. Allen claims the books demean women. Mr. Webb, speaking in Martinsville on Tuesday, said they reflect what he saw while fighting an “ugly war” in Vietnam. It is the duty of a writer, he said, to portray human beings, with all their flaws. Authors from Shakespeare to Hemingway knew that. For some reason, George Allen does not.

But: 

Sullivan: "This not an election anymore, it's an intervention."

Link...

Ok, here's a challenge. Our Tory friends find it implausible that political messages can be imparted through inference. Perhaps that's why GOP ads are as subtle as a fart in a phonebooth.

I spot at least three big unstated premises and/or conclusions in this ad from Wesley Clark & Co. Anybody see more? 3000 bonus points if you can write the syllogism in haiku.

Tricky Dick and Lucky Lynne are on the attack:

Link...

Les and I agree on little. We both couldn't stand Kerry as a candidate for different reasons. Still he's right.

It looks like desperation is the name of the game for Stacey Campfield these days. I've got a couple of friends who live in District 18 and have Schree Pettigrew signs in their yards. (shocking, I know.) Each of them received a call in the last couple of days from Campfield, asking them why they had a Pettigrew sign in the yard and whether they planned to vote for Pettigrew.

One of them used the term "badgered" and the other one used "harrassed" to describe the phone call.

I don't know how desperate you have to be to personally call and badger your opponent's supporters, but this clearly can't be good for Campfield.

Any other residents of the 18th District with Pettigrew signs get an ominous call from The Rep asking them who they're voting for?

p.s: Don't forget to come out and see Governor Bredesen as he campaigns with Schree on Thursday... should be a good time.

In the Rolling Stone and by Mike Taibbi you will find nuggets like this:

What this means is that the current Congress will not only beat but shatter the record for laziness set by the notorious "Do-Nothing" Congress of 1948, which met for a combined 252 days between the House and the Senate. This Congress -- the Do-Even-Less Congress -- met for 218 days, just over half a year, between the House and the Senate combined.

Who sets the Congressional schedule? I think this is part of what Pelosi is talking about when she says "drain the swamp." I really love the Lunch Tuesday to Lunch Thursday work week. "It's so we can spend more time in our constituencies!" Right. I bet there is a regular queue at the private jet hangar with wannabe-Jack-Abramhoff's footing the bill for it all even today after the body count in jail cells mount. "Gotta get some golf in or a bit of skiing in Banff. Be sure to call in some hookers and don't forget to write the check to my PAC not me personally."

Then there is this (and I approve of this sort of writing) riff on checks and balances:

One gets the sense that Bush would have to drink the blood of Christian babies to inspire hearings in Congress -- and only then if he did it during a nationally televised State of the Union address and the babies were from Pennsylvania, where Senate Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter was running ten points behind in an election year.

Let me say that he should have left the 'evangelical' in front of Christian, but I assume that either that was too inflammatory or just a given considering the subject matter. No oversight? If the Dems take a house this election, it could get ugly. 

Let us join in a bond of BIG ORANGE tonight.

At half da VOLS are up and Steve is as cunning as a Kennedy driving with a 23 year old across a bridge!

Heck of a great game, so what don't we all drop the walls of hate and pull for Phil and the team!

Come on, get in the game

206 on direct TV and ESPN2 on the cable.
If you are a hippy with a potato on the telly and no cable then tune in 107.5 for Bob and the play by play.

GO VOLS!

A friend of mine received an unintentionally hilarious flyer in the mail from the Tennessee GOP today. Here's the cover:

The inside content is after the jump. See how the Dems are preventing the government from intercepting all those calls from Tennessee to Al Qaeda (on rotary phones, no less). It's priceless.

This is the weirdest little piece of video. Apparently Mamaw Corker was captured on camera welcoming Harold Ford Jr. to Chattanooga. Lord, she reminds me of Bar Bush.

Link...

This is the funniest thing you will read all night, guaranteed:

Last week Quince and I went down to the Ford,Jr/Bredesen HQ to man the phone banks in an effort to break the Repub stranglehold/pillage on our once great nation when a call was received that threw the entire staff for a loop.

Read the rest here. Hank's right. You can't make this stuff up.

If we ever meet in person, remind me to relate my personal George-Allen-using-the-n-word-4-times-in-two-minutes experience.

Until then (from my hometown paper The Martinsville Bulletin), caption this photo.

Just saw the TV spot Corker has allegedly renounced -- the one that ends with the hookerish looking woman stage-whispering "Harold, call me"

My question is how many of these trashy things will Corker indignantly renounce before people figure out that this is just a way of trying to appear above-it-all while sliming HFJ?

There's an old maxim that politics is show business for ugly people. Maybe not this year. WaPo has an interesting feature about the politics of beauty.

Link...

Checked out the "Fancy Ford" website today --
Link...

and followed some links. Here's a good one:

Link...

The fine folks at Fancy Ford are all over this one, clutching at their pearls while touting it at the top of the website:

NRSC Updates Link... As Harold Ford, Jr. Makes Washington Life's "100 Most Invited" List
Wednesday, October 04, 2006

WASHINGTON--The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) today updated Link... after Washington Life Magazine placed Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. on its second annual list of the "100 Most Invited; A Spotter's Guide To The Washington Social Scene":

"As one of Washington's A-List celebrity party scene goers, it's a wonder Harold Ford has the time or energy left to represent the people of his congressional district," said Dan Ronayne, NRSC Spokesman. "Maybe his full dance card explains all the votes he's missed. It's never good when your social calendar is more impressive than your voting record."

They quote a chunk of the magazine article's copy:

"Washington Life Magazine Released Its Second Annual List Of The "100 Most Invited; A Spotter's Guide To The Washington Social Scene." "So, raise a Baccarat flute of Veuve Clicquot to the ever spinning, dizzying turnstile and welcome Washington Life's second annual roster of the 100 Most Invited, here in alphabetical order (after the Bushes and Cheneys) in case you think we're actually daring to rank them." ("100 Most Invited; A Spotter's Guide To The Washington Social Scene," Washington Life Magazine, Link..., September 2006)

"And #34 In Washington Life Magazine's List Of The DC Social "Bright Lights" And "Pretty Young Things" Is Harold Ford, Jr., The "Democrat With Movie Star Looks" That Add "Star Power To Any Scene, Public Or Private" - "The Sky's The Limit If He Wins The November U.S. Senate Race In Tennessee" Washington Life Raves. ("100 Most Invited; A Spotter's Guide To The Washington Social Scene," Washington Life Magazine, Link..., September 2006)"

But wait! Turns out the GOPers are very selective editors. Look who's listed right behind Ford on the alphabetized "Most invited" list--

"35 BILL and KARYN FRIST SENATE MAJORITY LEADER & WIFE If the surgeon/senator has to duck out of a party to make a vote he can count on Karyn to pinch hit. And if someone chokes on the cornish hen, the doc's got the Heimlich maneuver down pat."

Good to see they're bringing up such real, substantive issues.

Surprise! Meanwhile, in Iraq and at the Pages' Dorm....

...Dropping. Well, there went the "It's the Democrats and all their tolerance and butt touching policies" line of attack. Hastert covered up to preserve a vote. He allowed a predator to prowl to make sure such wonderful policies as torture, increasing debt and Terri Schiavo were either passed or used to deflect the American attention from the utter disaster the last 6 years have been both in the White House and in Congress. Drain the Swamp, Nancy. Drain the Swamp.

Who would've thunk that GOP Senatorial candidate Bob Corker, the Battlin' Banty Rooster from Chattanooga, in the last week of September, would be moved to blastfax an email proclaiming himself ahead of Harold Ford Jr?

I (and every other political writer in the state, probably) am accustomed to having my inbox deluged with Corker crap. It's been going on for months and months, and the volume is absolutely incredible. I probably delete at least five Corker propaganda pieces a day -- sometimes many more. The latest Corker email, though, beats them all. It's an announcement of a Zogby poll that finds Corker leading Ford by five percentage points.

This is news that this is news, I guess. The smugness that the Corker camp exhibited earlier this election season seems to have evaporated.

Make him spend it all, Junior!

......................................................

For Immediate Release Contact: Ben Mitchell

September 28, 2006 423-756-1994

NEW WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL
SHOWS CORKER BEATING FORD BY 5%

Tennesseans Rejecting Ford’s Liberal Washington Talker Record As Corker Increases Lead

Chattanooga, TN – A new poll released today by the Wall Street Journal, and conducted by the respected polling firm Zogby International, shows that Republican U.S. Senate nominee Bob Corker is in great position to win the seat of retiring Sen. Bill Frist. The Wall Street Journal poll shows Corker beating Memphis Congressman Harold Ford Jr. by 5%, 47.6% to 42.4%, an increase from a survey earlier this month.

“This poll just confirms what our internal polling has shown – that once Tennesseans learn about Congressman Ford’s record, the more they agree that he does not share our Tennessee values,” stated Corker Campaign Manager Ben Mitchell. “Tennesseans want their next Senator to be in the mold of Sens. Alexander, Thompson and Baker, and not in the mold of Sens. Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and John Kerry.”

The Wall Street Journal poll was conducted September 19-25. A poll released by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month also showed Corker beating Ford.

Bob Corker, Republican Candidate for the United States Senate in Tennessee, is the former Mayor of Chattanooga. After a successful career as a businessman, he entered public service to offer conservative solutions and a businessman's focus on results. His achievements as Mayor, as a civic leader, and as former Commissioner of Finance and Administration make him uniquely qualified to chart a constructive course and represent Tennessee values in Washington.

###

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