Eleventh elderly rich white Republican enters race

The co-star of Curly Sue, the one who has Republicans everywhere wet with pleasure, is "testing the waters". His presidential campaign committee, "Friends of Fred Thompson" -- rhymes with 'soft' -- will raise money for him without his actually having to say he's running.

This news naturally has the hearts of Houston conservatives aflutter. Because there's nothing like an unemployed actor that screams "WHITE HOUSE" in their heads.

Let's briefly review the man's career:

2007: Warming up for his turn in the spotlight, Thompson puts on a hairpiece and portrays President Ulysses S. Grant for the HBO docu-drama Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. During his one scene and ten seconds of screen time, he grumbles and smokes a cigar. Obviously a method actor.

Also this year: responding to Michael Moore's challenge to debate him on health care policy, Thompson has a YouTube filmed of him grumbling and chewing a cigar.

Is there a pattern here?

-- Too many years to bother counting: his portrayal of New York district attorney Arthur Branch spanned four different versions of the TV show "Law and Order".

His film roles would make a pretty good resume' for an aspiring politician, if they had not been film roles, of course: CIA director in No Way Out; a Senator (himself) in Albert Brooks' Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World; a major general in Fat Man and Little Boy and a rear admiral in The Hunt for Red October. He played Racehorse Haynes in the "special TV event" Bed of Lies and former AmEx chief and corporate sleaze Jim Robinson in HBO's Barbarians at the Gate (two roles also requiring precious little departure from his everyday life).

I'd say he's eminently qualified to be the GOP nominee. I really hope he can turn back the likes of Sam Brownback and Tom Tancredo, because compared to them he's positively liberal.

Registered users can vote in the poll

here:

As a result of the congressional vote on Iraq funding last week ...

	... I'm quite pleased. Timetables are a bad idea.
1%	61 votes
	... I'm OK with the vote. I believe the Democratic leadership knows what it's doing and will move in the right direction.
3%	174 votes
	... I wish the bill included timetables or other restrictions, but most of the criticism of the Dems who voted for it is over the top, and I will remain a strong backer of Dems.
22%	1169 votes
	... I'm angry at those who voted for the bill, but I'm going to contribute money and/or work for the election of individual Dem candidates.
24%	1305 votes
	... I'm furious, and I'm going to be wary about contributing money or working for Dems. But I will still vote for them.
19%	1009 votes
	... I'm furious, and I'm seriously considering not contributing to, working for, or voting for Dems in 2008.
8%	454 votes
	... I'm furious, and I've already given up on the Dems and will possibly vote for a third party in the next election.
5%	260 votes
	... I am so furious that I am abandoning politics altogether.
1%	38 votes
	... I have decided to devote my time to non-electoral politics, such as the antiwar movement or other issues.
1%	59 votes
	... I have never been a Dem, and this vote is the reason why.
2%	101 votes
	... I was a Dem once, but betrayals made me wise up years ago.
2%	101 votes
	... I am not furious, I am in despair, and I don't know what to do.
7%	360 votes
	... I am a Republican and I love Democratic in-fighting.
1%	56 votes
	... I am a Green (or Libertarian) and I told you so.
3%	173 votes
	... Other
2%	105 votes

| 5425 votes

I'm in the at-the-moment 24% majority.

Cindy Sheehan's grief and rage

Will hopefully and shortly come to an end:

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried ever since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.

I went to Camp Casey the weekend before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. It was one of the most seminal experiences of my life. Sheehan organized the anti-war movement when 70% of Americans believed George Bush and his lies. Now, of course, 70% don't, but as Sheehan points out the Democrats in Congress who were elected to stop the war have failed us all in their duty to do so.

And even as she exits, the flying monkeys fling their poo at her.

I hope Cindy Sheehan finds peace.

"Surf's Up" in the San Antonio Current

Ironically this feature is one of the only things that doesn't make it into the online edition, so you'll have to pick a copy of last week's San Antonio Current to verify if this is the truth:

A hundred years from now, history may very well remember Perry Dorrell as one of the founding pillars of the Texas blogosphere, having launched his Brains and Eggs in 2002 after a long career working on the executive side of the Texas print media, including a stint with Hearst, parent of San Antonio's daily. Since then, he's developed Brains and Eggs into a serrated, left-heavy journal covering everything political on the national, state, and local (Houston, where he's based) fronts. Dorrell's also a veteran of Texas politics, having served as statewide coordinator of David Van Os' (failed) 2006 bid for Texas Attorney General. Check out Dorrell's recent posts on George Irish, former publisher of the San Antonio Light, as well as his weekly "Sunday Funnies" posts, a compilation of the week's best leftish cartoons, similar to MSNBC's Daily Political Cartoon Index (cagle.msnbc.com).

*buffs, then admires manicure*