It took just eight decades but H.L. Mencken's astute prediction on the future course of American presidential politics and the electorate's taste in candidates came true.

On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun:

MSNBC, after five years, asks the question Liberals have asked for years. This is from former Representative Joe Scarborough (R), turned pundit for "Scarborough Country."

The interesting thing is that he is the best thing for the opposition. People are doing a "cut and run" from the Republican Party with the quickness.

• Cracks appear in NASCAR voters' Republican loyalty.
• William F. Buckley has said "Bush Not A True Conservative."
• Pete McCloskey, a lifelong Californian Republican says he wants a Democrat majority in 2007.
• Richard Viguerie, a conservative icon and key architect of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 victory has recently published "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause."

  “Sixty-five months into Bush's presidency, conservatives feel betrayed... The main cause of conservatives' anger with Bush is this: He talked like a conservative to win our votes but never governed like a conservative.” -- Richard Viguerie, “Bush's Base Betrayal,” The Washington Post, Sunday, May 21, 2006"

• The Oracle was once a Conservative.
• John Dean, who considers himself a "Barry Goldwater Republican," has written a book entitled "Conservatives without Conscience."
• Chuck Hagel says, "I think we've (Republicans) lost our way."
• Tiberi latest Republican to break step with Bush "I can’t defend how the president laid out the need for (going to war in Iraq). I don’t support Rumsfeld."
• John Danforth, Republican shortlisted to be Bush's Vice President to lay out most explicit case for gay rights; Blasts Frist, GOP handling of Schiavo case.
• Video: Bob Schieffer says that five years after 9/11 and the president is having a hard time selling his policy to Americans, including those in his own party.
• Wave of Party Switchers Hits Republicans: Citing extremism, more GOPers are joining the Democrats

Oh, there's more, much more.

Wow! Lay and Skiling were guilty? It appears those little Granny's in So Cal have the last laugh. Lay's arguments I heard in court was beyond the "reality distortion field" I am accustomed to.

Poor Ken, his sentencing is September 11th of this year.

Rawstory:

Sources vary from maximum sentence estimates from 45-165 years. Federal sentencing guidelines are no longer mandatory.

Lay, aged 64, was found guilty on all charges brought against him.

Skilling, 52, was found guilty of the first 35 counts brought against him. He was acquitted, however, of all but one count of insider trading. Skilling sold stock in the company shortly before its downfall.

I guess the "Evil Button" worked for a time, then failed.

In case you haven't heard, the FTC has determined the Oil Industry is not guilty of price fixing.

"An investigation by U.S. antitrust authorities found no evidence that oil companies illegally manipulated gasoline prices or constrained oil refining operations, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. However, the agency said it had found 15 examples that fit lawmakers' definition of price-gouging at the "refining, wholesale, or retail level." It said factors like regional and local market trends appeared to explain the pricing in nearly all the cases."

CNN -- The Georgia woman known as the "runaway bride" is unattached again.

Why is this news! Who didn't know this would happen?

This my reader is the face of evil. The fact CNN covers this shit is disturbing. They bumped this up over Bono's stupid ass editorial.

I'm debating who is the biggest idiot.

USAToday (via Yahoo):

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

Falls under the "are you fucking kidding me" area.

Raw Story

"The 99-tonne cache of AK47s was to have been secretly flown out from a US base in Bosnia. But the four planeloads of arms have vanished.

Orders for the deal to go ahead were given by the US Department of Defense. But the work was contracted out via a complex web of private arms traders. The Moldovan airline used to transport the shipment was blasted by the UN in 2003 for smuggling arms to Liberia, human rights group Amnesty has discovered.

It follows a separate probe claiming that thousands of guns meant for Iraq's police and army instead went to al-Qaeda Amnesty chief spokesman Mike Blakemore said: "It's unbelievable that no one can account for 200,000 assault rifles. If these weapons have gone missing it's a terrifying prospect." American defence chiefs hired a US firm to take the guns, from the 90s Bosnian war, to Iraq."

From CNN's "Breaking Wind" news flash.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay indicted on one count of criminal conspiracy by Texas grand jury, according to Travis County clerk's office.

Everyone around him are unethical sleaze bags and indicted themselves.

Bout damn time!

The The Smoking Gun has a copy of the indictment.

Wow! Another WTF moment brought to you by the Bush administration.

From CNN (Celebrity News Network):

Brown, who resigned on Sept. 12 amid mounting criticism over the agency's handling of the Katrina crisis, told congressional investigators that he remains on FEMA's payroll. He is being paid $148,000 as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

To help determine what went wrong! What a fucking joke!