The Presidential Candidates as of today

Declared, or about to declare Democrats running for President [1]

Senator Hillary Clinton
Ex-Vice-President and Ex-Senator Albert Gore
Sen. Barack Hussein Obama
Ex-Senator John Edwards
The Reverend Al Sharpton (he's making noises)
Senator Joe Biden, Delaware
Gov. Bill Richardson, New Mexico
Senator Christopher Dodd, Connecticut
Ex-General Wesley Clark
Ex-Governor Mark Warner, Virginia

Democratic dropouts
Senator Evan Bayh, Indiana
Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts
Gov. Tom Vilsack, Iowa

Declared or about to declare Republicans running for President [2]

Governor Mike Huckabee, Arkansas
Ex-Governor Mitt Romney
Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Senator John McCain, Arizona
Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas
Ex-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
Ex-Governor George Pataki, New York

Republican Dropouts
Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska
Ex-Senator George Allen
Ex-Senator Rick Santorum
Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who, really, just floated a couple of trial balloons before bailing out)
William Hobert Blakley
Tommy G. Thompson

The Dingbat Party Presidential Candidates

Congressman and Ex-mayor Dennis J. Kucinich -
"Crusader" Ralph J. Nader - He's always a threat, but most folks have long since written him off as the dingbat who put George W. Bush into office in the first place, while acting as a spoiler in the ill-fated 200 Presidential election.

___________________

[1] The list is actually much, much , longer: The following "Announced" candidates have formed or announced a Presidential exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission or filed a statement of candidacy. "Potential" candidates have publicly expressed an interest in a Presidential campaign or their interest has been suggested by the media.

Democrats
Announced Laura Davis Aaron Democrat
Announced Roland Aranjo Democrat
Announced Warren Roderick Ashe Democrat
Announced George H. Ballard Democrat
Withdrawn Evan Bayh Democrat
Announced Joseph R. Biden Democrat
Announced Christina Gerasimos Billings-Elias Democrat
Announced Robert Edwin Boyer Democrat
Announced Ryan Joseph Brady Democrat
Announced Emperor Caesar Democrat
Announced Raymond Joseph Caplette Democrat
Announced Tommy C. Cardenas Democrat
Announced Willie Felix Carter Democrat
Potential Wesley K. Clark Democrat
Announced Hillary Rodham Clinton Democrat
Announced Randolph Wilson Crow Democrat
Announced Jack L Dietz Democrat
Announced Christopher J. Dodd Democrat
Announced John Reid Edwards Democrat
Announced Philip Epstein Democrat
Announced Gary Espinosa Democrat
Announced Richard Francis Flynn Democrat
Announced Michael Keith Forrester Democrat
Announced Danny M. Francis Democrat
Announced Dory Frank Democrat
Announced Wrendo Johnson P. Godwin Democrat
Potential Albert Gore Democrat
Announced Maurice Robert Gravel Democrat
Announced Gerald Lamar Hankins Democrat
Announced William Charles Hughes Democrat
Announced John Joseph Kennedy Democrat
Withdrawn John Forbes Kerry Democrat
Announced Karl Everett Krueger Democrat
Announced Dennis J. Kucinich Democrat
Announced Dal Anthony LaMagna Democrat
Announced Monroe Lee Democrat
Announced John Christopher Mason Democrat
Announced Orleans Victor Mcfoy Democrat
Announced Sherry Ann Meadows Democrat
Announced Lee L. Mercer Democrat
Announced Sal Mohamed Democrat
Announced Grover Cleveland Mullins Democrat
Announced Barack Hussein Obama Democrat
Announced Michel Anissa Powell Democrat
Potential James John Prattas Democrat
Announced Larry Keith Reed Democrat
Announced Bill Richardson Democrat
Potential Gary Rostad Democrat
Announced Barbara Ann Scaff Democrat
Announced Scott J. Sheldon Democrat
Announced Jeffrey Chapman Thomas Democrat
Withdrawn Tom Vilsack Democrat
Potential Mark R. Warner Democrat
Announced James Wellington Wright

[2] The list is actually much, much , longer: The following "Announced" candidates have formed or announced a Presidential exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission or filed a statement of candidacy. "Potential" candidates have publicly expressed an interest in a Presidential campaign or their interest has been suggested by the media.

Republicans
Announced Virginia Algar Republican
Announced Michael Andrew Arterburn Republican
Announced George Brent Bailey Republican
Announced Daniel James Barnett Republican
Withdrawn William Hobert Blakley Republican
Announced Dewey R. Broughman Republican
Announced Samuel D. Brownback Republican
Announced Edward Allan Buck Republican
Announced John Lee Campbell Republican
Announced Anthony Lungo Carter Republican
Announced Eamon Patrick Clune Republican
Announced Hugh Cort Republican
Announced John H. Cox Republican
Announced Susan Gail Ducey Republican
Announced Lowell Jackson Fellure Republican
Announced Robert Leonard Forthan Republican
Announced David Ernst Furniss Republican
Announced Anthony Keith Gallagher Republican
Announced Anne Hart Geisler Republican
Announced Daniel A. Gilbert Republican
Withdrawn James S. Gilmore Republican
Potential Newton Leroy Gingrich Republican
Announced Rudolph W. Giuliani Republican
Announced Raymond Ferrill Green Republican
Potential Charles T. Hagel Republican
Announced Joe Honeychurch Republican
Announced Mildred T. Howard Republican
Announced Albert Howard Republican
Announced Michael D. Huckabee Republican
Announced Duncan L. Hunter Republican
Announced Alexander Michael Huton Republican
Announced Jerry Roland Johnson Republican
Announced Timothy Charles Kalemkarian Republican
Announced Mark Irwin Klein Republican
Announced Philip A. Kok Republican
Announced Yaphet Kotto Republican
Announced Alden Link Republican
Announced Elvena E. Lloyd-Duffie Republican
Announced Stephen D. Macmillan Republican
Announced Yehanna Joan Mary Malone Republican
Announced John Sidney McCain Republican
Announced Raymond Louis McKinney Republican
Announced James Creighton Mitchell Republican
Announced Robert Edward Moreau Republican
Announced Abdul (Kareem) Muhammad Republican
Announced Jesus Bilal Islam Allah Muhammed Republican
Announced Frederick Eugene Ogin Republican
Potential George E. Pataki Republican
Announced Ronald Ernest Paul Republican
Announced Rajesh Srinivasa Raghavan Republican
Announced Charles G. Railey Republican
Announced William Nathaniel Raven Republican
Announced Willard Mitt Romney Republican
Announced Launeil Neil Sanders Republican
Announced Marshall Samuel Sanders Republican
Announced Jack Shepard Republican
Announced Freddy Irwin Sitnick Republican
Announced Michael Charles Smith Republican
Announced Richard Michael Smith Republican
Announced Keith Robert Sprankle Republican
Announced Johns Wallace Stevenson Republican
Announced Tom Gerald Tancredo Republican
Announced Fred Dalton Thompson Republican
Withdrawn Tommy G. Thompson Republican
Announced Corrogan R. Vaughn Republican
Announced Charles Gordon Vick Republican
Announced Virgil L. R. Wiles Republican
Announced Marc Wolin Republican
Announced Vernon Edgar Wuensche Republican
---o0o---

You write the caption!/What are they thinking?

...click the image to enlarge...

What caption would you put on this found photograph? A collective phrase, evil little thought bubbles emanating from each of the student's heads? And why is everyone staring at the word "cop," anyhow?
---o0o---

Richard Gere, The Gerbil Story, and Sylvester Stallone

We've all heard the Richard Gere gerbil story. Here is an interesting tale from http://sujet.co.uk about the origins of that story. And it's almost as hard to believe as the gerbil story it purports to debunk.

"According to Stallone, Gere thinks he started the famous gerbil rumor because of a fight they had on the set of “The Lords of Flatbush in 1974 over a greasy chicken:

“I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper,? said Stallone. “I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘If it gets on my pants you’re gonna know about it.’ He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay.

So a guy spills mustard on your pants and you come up with a gerbil story that follows him the rest of his life? Boy, that tells you one thing. . .don't ever f*** with Sly Stallone!
---o0o---

President Bush's Foot In Mouth Disease Rages Unchecked

According to Reuters, The President we know and love has returned. No more of this weeper stuff:

"Even for someone as gaffe-prone as U.S. President George W. Bush, he was in rare form on Friday, confusing APEC with OPEC and transforming Australian troops into Austrians.

Bush's tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney.

"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction," he told Prime Minister John Howard. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."

Several hundred people at the conference laughed. Bush corrected himself and joked, "He invited me to the OPEC summit next year." Australia has never been a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Later, Bush mentioned that Howard had gone to visit "Austrian troops" last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 Australian military personnel in and around the country.

After his remarks, Bush took the wrong way off-stage and, looking baffled, and had to be re-directed to a center-stage exit. A veteran White House correspondent seized the opportunity to ask Bush whether there had been any new message in his speech. POTUS bristled: "Haven't you been listening to my past speeches?" he asked before turning away.

---o0o---

Kent, Washington's Meeker Street 1946

This photograph shows Kent, Washington's Meeker Street, in 1946. . .seven years before I was born. I lived in the same house at 534-4th Avenue S. (at Crow Street), six blocks south of Meeker Street from the day I was born until 1971. Meeker Street didn't look much different in my youth, except the cars were about ten years newer (1953 Packards, 1957 Chevies, and Mercury Monterey squad cars). Even today in 2007, most of the same buildings exist on Meeker Street. Meeker Street was home to Shoff's Sporting Goods, Blessing's Jewelers, Dave Leonard's (R.I.P. -- he died a couple of months ago) Rexall Drugs; Grunstead's cafe; The White Spot Tavern, Red's Greyhound Bus Depot and Grill, the Big Bear Grocery store, the Cohen's hardware store, the Kent Barber Shop, J.C. Penney's, the Bible books store, the Club Tavern, The Pastime Tavern, Don Bell's Insurance. and the Ben Franklin five and dime store.
--o0o---

Ex-Senator Fred Thompson tosses his hat into the crowded ring (with links to Jeri Kehn Thompson photos)

Fred Thompson tossed his hat into the ring yesterday on the Jay Leno Show, as his Republican brethren were debating in New Hampshire. The former Senator drew scathing criticism from fellow Republicans after he ducked out on last night's debate in favor of Jay Leno's show to announce his presidential bid.

465 people arrived here today looking for articles, photos, parodies, etc. of Fred Thompson, now that he has once again hit the news cycles. Unfortunately for Fred, however, the search engine and hot-link referrals shows that 25 of them were looking for information on Fred Thompson. Over 400 searchers were looking for the Jeri Kehn photographs that have appeared here:

A Jeri Kehn Thompson cameo appearance in a Fred Thompson campaign video, four new Jeri Kehn photographs, and a Mrs. Fred Thompson photo roundup

Three additional photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson a/k/a Jeri Kehn

One More Jeri Kehn Thompson photo

Jeri Kehn Photos, Part 3: Three more photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson

More Jeri Kehn photos--> A follow-up to "Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos) "

Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)

---o0o---

Poem: There's A Civil War In His Head

click the digital painting to enlarge


He won't or can't encrypt
The toxic thoughts emanating
From his cranium.
He doesn't even try to hide them
Under a bush, oh no,
And attempts to radiate goodness
And cloak the toxins
In a warp of avuncular benevolence,
But the unfeeling insect eyes
Stare through and past you
And the absence of humanity
Burns chinks in your retinae
With real and imagined thought crimes.
This is no personality disorder
Where something broken
Might be fixed
This is an actual defecit
Where the soul is missing
And presumed dead,
Lost somewhere along the way.
Maybe he scuttled his soul
To the bottom of a rumbling green river.
Maybe it was never issued
In the first place.
---o0o---

G.O.P. rethinks policies on gays in light of recent events

Top ranking insiders in the Republican Party have disclosed to Vanya Newton at All This Is That's Washington D.C. desk that the party is debating changing its positions on homosexuality. The party has long battled against gays in the military, equal rights for gays, anti-gay discrimination, and gay marriage and adoptions. "In light of recent events," one official told us, "we have begun rethinking these policies." The senior official would not speak for attribution. Another top ranking Republican said, "this isn't totally foreign to us, as you well know. The Log Cabin Republicans have a long tradition in our party now."

Interestingly, the Log Cabin group may not be on board. Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon made the following statement about the resignation of Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): Senator Craig made the right decision in resigning from the U.S. Senate. He lost his credibility to serve the people of Idaho and his actions damaged the credibility of the Republican Party. Senator Craig had no other choice but to resign—for the good of his State, the good of his Party, and the good of his family."




"Of course, that's what the Log Cabin guys say," another G.O.P. source told us. "They fought for years to 'mainstream,' and these knuckleheads are ruining it for them. At least they have achieved a patina of respectability, and now they see it all falling apart."



A leading fund-raiser inside the party said, "Look, it sounds completely crazy, but it's kind of like 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do,' or even 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.' I mean, just this year you've got Congressman Mark Foley slobbering all over the pages; Reverend Ted Haggard buying gay prostitutes (and snorting crank!); Senator Craig, of course...or, the straw that broke the camel's back; Congressman Bob Allen offering an undercover cop $20 for oral sex; and Glen Murphy Jr., chair of the Clark County Party, who got himself in quite a pickle fellatng a sleeping man who turned out not to be gay at all."

The Republican money man added "If this is who we are, let's accept it. Let's bring in the gay voters. God knows, we need them now. We are not going to win any elections going forward shoveling the same old s**t at the voters. We didn't know it before, but we are clearly the gay party. It's time to accept that, embrace it, and exploit it."

A top aide to Republican Chair Mike Duncan said that the high command of the Republican Party is meeting in Key West at a weekend retreat to discuss whether this change in direction is viable."That's five righteous outings this year alone, man! How many dozens more went unreported? You can see why it might be in our best interest to embrace the gay lifestyle, if not in practice, with our support for our differently swinging brothers and sisters. The outcome of all this may well be that we don't end up supporting the gays, but we need to dial back the rhetoric and the anger and the hatred. . .at the very least. Sure, we may lose a few red states. So what? Think of all those blue states out there, ripe for the plucking."
---o0o---

The Weeper:

POTUS at a Medal of Honor Ceremony for Marine

Corporal Jason Dunham in January, 2007

In Robert Draper's forthcoming book, "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush," taken from several extended interviews in late 2006 and early 2007, President Bush is quoted as saying, "I've got God's shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot. I do a lot of crying in this job. I'll bet I've shed more tears than you can count, as president. I'll shed some tomorrow."

"I try not to wear my worries on my sleeve" or show anything less than steadfastness in public, especially in a time of war.

"I fully understand that the enemy watches me, the Iraqis are watching me, the troops watch me, and the people watch me," he said, "I do tears."

---o00---

Protect The Children From Internet Predators

...click to enlarge...

---o0o---

Jesus Christ Wanted Poster

---o0o---

Alien Lore No.112 /The abduction of Jack Brummet

click to enlarge - The abduction of Jack Brummet

---o0o---