The Senate, The House, Judith Miller, global warming, Religious Right and Hobbits.

The Senate, figuring that there's nothing else to do and needing to kill some time, voted to make English the national language of the United States. I know we'll all sleep better knowing these guys are in charge.

After an emotional debate fraught with symbolism, the Senate yesterday voted to
make English the "national language" of the United States, declaring that no one
has a right to federal communications or services in a language other than
English except for those already guaranteed by law.

Over in the House they're spending China's money like crazy, $2.8 trillion for FY 2007. I guess we should really be thankful that the budget balancing Republicans are in charge.

Democrats said the House budget fails to provide adequate funding for veterans'
care, education, public health and environmental protection. "This shamefully
shortsighted budget resolution cuts crucial investments in our nation and our
people," said Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer
(Md.).
Democrats pounced on a late-night statement by House Speaker J. Dennis
Hastert (R-Ill.), who declared: "Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and
have a family of two, you don't pay any taxes. So you probably, if you don't pay
any taxes, you are not going to get a big tax cut."

The GOP, the party of tax cuts and big debt.

The big story today is White House stenographer and NYT reporter Judith Miller claims she was told by a top White House source in July 2001 that there was to be an Al Queda attack on the U.S.. But she never wrote the story. And Bush went on vacation.

Here's her interview.

Now, in an exclusive interview, Miller reveals how the attack on the Cole
spurred her reporting on Al Qaida and led her, in July 2001, to a
still-anonymous top-level White House source, who shared top-secret NSA signals
intelligence (SIGINT) concerning an even bigger impending Al Qaida attack,
perhaps to be visited on the continental United
States.
Ultimately, Miller never wrote that story either. But two months later -- on
Sept. 11 -- Miller and her editor at the Times, Stephen Engelberg, both
remembered and regretted the story they "didn't do."

FoxNews says global warming is just a liberal plot. And Big Oil is going after Al Gore. They can deny it all they want but it's a fact and it's here. I'm telling ya', they think we're stupid.

"It's so overtly political, it's so overtly full of scare tactics... I just
think the man has gone over the edge.... You know, in science, all we have are
facts."

Today, the Competitive
Enterprise Institute (CEI) will unveil two 60-second TV ads focusing on what
it calls global
warming alarmism and the call by some environmental groups and politicians
to reduce fossil fuel and carbon dioxide emissions. The ad, which will be aired
in more than a dozen cities across the country, is being released just a
week before the May 24th opening (in LA and NYC) of Al Gore's new movie on
global warming, An Inconvenient
Truth.

The Religious Right cracks down on Laura Bush for saying same sex marriage shouldn't be a campaign issue. The Religious Right had better be careful, you know God talks to her husband.

The lesson here for Republicans and corporate America is that whether you're a
big American company (Ford) or the president of the United States (Bush), if you
get in bed with these people they WILL burn you. They know no loyalty, no
limits, and have no sense of politics other than threatening to destroy you
unless you agree with 110% of their agenda. To hell with gas prices going
through roof, seniors getting threatened with Medicare cut-offs, the war in Iraq
getting worse every day. The religious right Republicans will demand that you
focus on THEIR extreme fringe agenda, even if it shoots you in the foot, or
you're dead.

Speaking of God talking to idiots, Pat Robertson said God told him that storms will hit the American coast this year. Won't that be a big surprise. He goes on to say there may be a possible tsunami. Possible? You mean God don't know?

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed
by storms," Robertson said May
8.

He added specifics in Wednesday's show.

"There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest,"
he said.

How simple do you have to be to send Pat Robertson money?

Black Jack, MO. The city counsel here decided that if you're living together with more than one kid and you're not married, you'll be evicted. Can they do that in this country?

The current ordinance prohibits more than three people from living together
unless they are related by "blood, marriage or adoption." The defeated measure
would have changed the definition of a family to include unmarried couples with
two or more
children.
Mayor Norman McCourt declined to be interviewed but said in a statement that
those who do not meet the town's definition of family could soon face eviction.

While 99.something% of scientists agree on global warming, they're having a fit over whether the so-called "Hobbits" separate species or just humans with a disease.

More than 1 1/2 years after discovering a race of ancient, "Hobbit"-like
little people on a remote tropical island, scientists still do not know what to
make of them. Are they a new species of human ancestor? Or were they modern
humans suffering from a debilitating genetic deformity?

In dueling papers being published today by the journal Science,
researchers offer fresh insights on both sides, seeking to explain how a
30-year-old female with a grapefruit-sized brain could have appeared 18,000
years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores.