NEXT TIME YOUR PLANE IS DELAYED, ONLY DEMOCRATS ARE ALLOWED TO COMPLAIN

I don't understand why no one else seemed interested in the air safety debacle unfolding in real time before our eyes this week but the rubber-stamp Congress has once again endorsed another lame, dangerous, ideologically extreme Bush Regime diktat. A few days ago I wrote that the House would be voting on whether or not Bush crony, Marion Blakey, the completely incompetent FAA head, would be allowed, in the name of running the air traffic control system "like a business," to endanger the lives of the flying public.

The people fighting for public safety in the skies needed 67% of the Congress to go along. Is that too much to expect from these outrageous jerks? But even with every single Democrat-- even the worst corporate shills-- voting yes, and joined by 76 Republicans-- the forces of utter insanity and extreme right wing lunacy mustered the 148 votes they needed to prevent the 271 congressmen from protecting air safety.

If you fly or you have relatives or friends who fly, this alone-- forget Iraq, forget immigration issues, forget corruption, forget social security, forget all the reasons the Republicans should be defeated-- should be enough of a reason to vote out the incumbents who voted against this. Unfortunately, most of them don't have serious challenges. A few do, particularly right-wing nut case Ginny Brown-Waite, struggling for political survival against the forces of sanity led by Rick Penberthy in FL-05. Here is a list of some of the other Republican incumbents who want to kill you in airplane crashes for the sake of misplaced ideological purity, the kind that would make Adam Smith blush. Each of these freaks has a strong opponent who could beat him or her if every frequent flier in their district decided to withhold their vote:

Mike Pence (IN-06), the most extremist right winger of anyone in the GOP House leadership, who is being challenged by progressive minister Barry Welsch.

Virgil Goode, Jr. (VA-05), one of the more corrupt Republican bribe-takers among the current crop, this right-wing ass is being challenged by an outstanding progressive Democrat named Al Weed.

Thelma Drake (VA-02), a whacko and completely incompetent Republican freshman being challenged by a solid Democratic moderate, Phil Kellam.

Jerry Lewis (CA-41), quickly replacing his pals DeLay, Cunningham and Ney as the most written-about member of Congress, at least here at DWT as his bribery and kick-back schemes come more and more into the public light. He's also a far right fanatic and he's being challenged by a moderate Democrat, Luis Contreras, far more in touch with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people who live in the district. (Someone just has to explain it to them.)

Chris Chocola (IN-02), one of the 3 or 4 Republicans most likely to be defeated in November-- and the furthest to the right of that batch. Hopefully the next congressman from northern Indiana will be Joe Donnelly.

Barbara Cubin (WY-At Large) will hopefully be swept away with the rest of the garbage as the West turns bluer and bluer, in this case by a moderate Wyoming-values Democrat named Gary Trauner.

Joe Knollenberg (MI-09), a likely loser in November at the hands of independent, progressive commonsense Democrat, Nancy Skinner, an outstanding candidate who was winning the DFA's voting for best challenger in the nation last time I looked.

James Sensenbrenner (WI-05), corrupt, extremist, unprincipled, rotten to the core and always battling with Phil English and Denny Hastert to see which can consume more calories at a single sitting, the hate-mongering pigman, who voted against aid to Hurricane Katrina victims but for aid to beleaguered billionaires in the form of countless tax cuts, finally has a challenger to put the fear of God in him: Bryan Kennedy.

Clay Shaw (FL-22), a tired and worthless Republican in a Democratic district who knows his time is up. Ron Klein is going to send him packing in November.

Two more extremist loons from Indiana, Michael Sodrel and Mark Souder, each vulnerable based on extremism and each facing a formidable Democrat, respectively former Representative Baron Hill and Thomas Hayhurst.

Cliff Stearns (FL-06), another nutcase who is far too extreme for a moderate district and he's facing a much respected Fighting Dem, Dave Bruderly.

John Doolittle (CA-04), as corrupt and filthy as they come this guy may have met his match in Fighting Dem Charlie Brown (a good man).

Tom Tancredo (CO-06), a vicious racist and the closest thing to a KKK Grand Dragon anywhere in Colorado, Democrats are counting on Bill Winter to show America what people think of knuckledraggers like Tancredo.

Charles Taylor (NC-11), a runner-up in the always dynamic race for "Most Corrupt in The Class," Taylor looks like he's finally come to the end of the road. If the feds don't get him first, local legend Heath Shuler will.

Dan Lungren (CA-03) is a rubber-stamp wingnut who only breaks from the Party line when they're not as far to the right as he prefers things. This one is insane and as well as corrupt and hopefully with a little help Bill Durston can put an end to his revolting career in politics.

And last but not least is the closeted gay homophobe David Dreier, an ineffective rubber-stamper to the core. Last time Cynthia Matthews came closer to beating him than any challenger from either party did to any incumbent in California. November should put her over the top.