Will Marilyn Musgrave Take A Job Counseling Lashkar-e-Taiba Next?

Extremists and fanatics = terrorists

According to a London tabloid "the Mumbai terrorists may have pumped themselves full of drugs to keep going during their murderous three-day rampage." The headline screams that they "took cocaine and LSD before carrying out attacks." And steroids. The last time I took acid was on New Years Eve 1968 and, maybe it was a different kind of LSD, but it barely bet me walk down the street, let alone go on a murder rampage for 50 hours.

An Indian TV station has released footage showing Kasav [the captured terrorist] being lynched by a mob on Wednesday after his getaway vehicle was stopped at a roadblock.

It shows police firing at the white Skoda, unleashing a volley of bullets that kill Ismail. Kasav then stumbles from the car and appears to play dead as the police beat him repeatedly with riot batons.

A mob then joins in the attack on Kasav, who has curled into a ball.

Finally a senior police officer steps in to stop the attack. Some reports say Kasav pleaded with medical staff to save him, saying: “I don’t want to die.”

Wow! If that doesn't stop him from ever using drugs again...

I guess they couldn't use the Twinkie defense if it could be shown that pumping themselves up with LSD was done with the intent of murdering 180 or so people. I'm sure some sharp lawyer will come up with something to blame other than themselves. Or perhaps they can hire like-minded religious fanatic and all around angry person, Marilyn Musgrave. She's an expert in not taking responsibility and blaming everyone and everything else.

Musgrave has been in hiding ever since Betsey Markey thoroughly thrashed her in last month's election. She has refused to concede, let along congratulate Congresswoman-elect Markey, who beat her by a whopping 12 points, one of the worst drubbings any incumbent from either party took anywhere in America. It's what you would call a thorough and complete repudiation by the voters of Colorado's 4th CD. But the unhinged Musgrave doesn't see it as a repudiation at all. Congress' most fanatic hate-monger, Musgrave has built a kind of political career on one issue: hysterical and irrational homophobia. She recorded a robo-call for her soul brother, Saxby Chambliss, which was targeted at mentally ill women in Georgia. In it she blames her lost re-election bid on "Pro-abortion radicals and liberal activists" and "leftist special interests" that "overwhelmed us with money and ... smothered the truth with vicious attacks and lies."

A staffer for one of the longest-serving Republican members of Congress told us he had never quite seen anything like it before. "She's some piece of work. No one could stand her and there's probably not a member of Congress who will miss her. I've worked here for almost two decades and I can't remember a losing member of Congress, from either party, not congratulating the winner."

One has to wonder if Mike Huckabee didn't have Musgrave-- as well as higher profile GOP whiners like John Boehner, James DeMint and Mark Sanford-- in mind when he told Republicans to quit blaming others for their shortcomings and start looking at themselves. “You hear these Republicans bragging about not raising taxes, when they’ve been spending out of control, racking up huge deficits and then kicking the can down the road," he told reporters. “Republicans didn’t lose because they were social conservatives. They lost because they have been irresponsible with the taxpayers’ money... If you advertise one thing and you deliver another, people are going to start reaching for another product off the shelf." Yes indeed, and Marilyn Musgrave's "good until" label was long out of date.

Maybe Dick Pombo Wouldn't Be The Best Suicide Prevention Counsellor For Marilyn Musgrave

Suicide is painless

A few weeks ago we talked about how, in 1963, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc captured the attention of Vietnam-- and that of many in America-- by killing himself, the method a very public self-immolation. I know Republican members of Congress, both those experiencing their last days at the public trough like Ric Keller and Robin Hayes, and those who have been left behind and feel the noose tightening-- how many more fundraising days before November, 2010?-- are down in the dumps.

Few, however are as down and dumpy as extremist loon Marilyn Musgrave, whose constituents turned her out in an angry landslide against her right-wing values and right-wing voting record. Not even Mark Sanford, Tony Perkins and Grover Norquist could make the preposterous claim that her overwhelming defeat was anything but Colorado voters giving a big thumbs down to the far right and all it stands for.

Musgrave is the nastiest of this year's batch of discarded Republicans. While some, like the aforementioned Ric Keller and Robin Hayes are moping around the gloomy Republican Capitol Hill Club asking long defeated old hacks like Dirty Dick Pombo how to drum up some lobbying business, Musgrave is refusing to face reality. Like Virgil Goode (R-VA) and Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Musgrave has been unwilling to concede defeat, even though she lost by double digits. Perhaps she has already heard Pombo's bleak assessment of what lies in store for defeated wingnuts-- he admits he's been "scrounging for business"-- but Musgrave has been in hiding.

Not congratulating the victor may be rude but it's far from unheard of from Republican losers. But Musgrave has gone way beyond that, refusing to even thank her dedicated-- if delusional-- campaign staff for their hard work on her behalf. She's hardly a Buddhist or a monk-- she's a Pentecostal Assemblies of God fanatic-- but wouldn't it just be a national tragedy if she set herself on fire on the steps of Capitol Hill? No one in recent times has put more pure hatred and vitriol into tormenting gay families than Marilyn Musgrave and making their lives more difficult and dangerous.

Crazy Day In The Endorsement Universe: McCain Gets Al Qaeda & The KKK, Obama Scores The World's Most Popular Evangelist, Dr. K.A. Paul

And Sir Bob Geldorf, who helped me sneak into a London club in 1977 or '78 to see The Damned, long before he was a Sir slobbered all over Bush's ass. Look, I am certain that McCain was at least somewhat uncomfortable when Sarah Palin ran in, breathless, to tell him the great news about the Ku Klux Klan. It's even worse than being endorsed by all those crooked, snake-handling, anti-Catholic preachers a few months ago. (And it isn't just McCain the KKK has endorsed. McCain's northern California stand-in, Tom McClintock is a longtime KKK endorsee.) Is it worse than the Washington Post's report today that al-Qaeda is praying for a McCain victory too?

Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.

And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.

"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush.

Spencer Ackerman was on a McCain campaign call yesterday and he wrote that the lobbyists who are driving the bus are freaked out and panic-stricken.

And while the KKK and al-Qaeda were banging the drums for McCain, Houston-based evangelical K.A. Paul came out for Obama.

Dr. Paul, a long time spiritual advisor to many Republicans leaders and the world of big business, said there were three main reasons for his endorsement of Democrat Senator Obama.

"Number one, speaking from an evangelical perspective, the current administration, I believe, has delayed the second coming of Jesus. Since the Iraq war, missionaries have been forced out of many countries, their work unfinished. As it says in Matthew 24:14, "the gospel will be preached in the whole world." The Bush administration's Iraq war policy has been in direct contradiction to Matthew.

"Secondly, as I travel around the globe, it is apparent that America's image is at historic lows. Senator Obama can change this trend and help restore our country to where we are once again respected around the world.

"And my third reason is that four more years of Bush-like economics, which I believe Senator McCain represents, will turn our current crisis into a full blown economic disaster. Senator Obama can restore confidence and vibrancy to our economy."

I don't know much about him but Adrian Rogers, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention says he was "raised up by God. It is likely that he has preached the Gospel to more people face to face than any other living evangelist. God's hand is upon him in a mighty way."

Other endorsements-- and virtual withdrawals of endorsements-- were even more stunning. The NRCC, whose job is to keep Republicans in Congress and get new ones in, is so fed up with Bachmann's big mouth and extremist statements-- yes, she's at it again-- that they've pulled out of MN-06 entirely, leaving the crazed right-wing psychopath on her own.

And speak of crazed extremist psychopaths, the NRCC is following up their abandonment of Bachmann with an abandonment of another loser, Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO). They wasted $800,000 on her race, which they had to borrow, and she just keeps falling further behind Democratic challenger Betsy Markey. The three polls in the district show Markey beating her pretty decisively, 43- 36%, 50- 43% and, the most recent, 47- 38%. Looks like Musgrave will be another victim of GOP failure, her own extremism, and McCain's toxic coattails.



Of course, when it comes to teh crazy, it's only New Jersey fringe lunatic Scott Garrett who can compete with Bachmann and Musgrave (and Mean Jean). And yesterday northern New Jersey residents went to their mailboxes and were confronted by an outlandish, even sociopathic, claim from Garrett that Dennis Shulman, his Democratic opponent, is paling around with terrorists. Shulman is a blind professor, author and psychologist and a distinguished rabbi and devoted friend of Israel's. But crazy Garrett thinks he can persuade NJ-05 voters, by showing pictures he photoshopped to insinuate he is friends with Hamas, that Dennis would jeopardize Israel. The man, like McCain and Rove, knows no shame; he's off the deep end. The GOP has also given up on extremists Joe Knollenberg in Michigan and Tom Feeney in Florida.

OK, let's take a short step back from the dangerously insane to the merely dishonest and deceptive. Yes, Gordon Smith territory. He went from being the most dependable Bush rubber stamp on the West Coast and chairman of McCain's Oregon campaign to trying to imply to low information voters that he's part of the Obama team. Now he's running around denouncing McCain for his vicious negative robocalls even though he's spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on his own vicious negative robocalls against Jeff Merkley-- and he's paying the same sleazy firm to do it that McCain has been using against Obama!

And rounding out the endorsements, some gays endorsed McCain, Mike Rogers is probably not asking these questions in preparation of endorsing Mitch McConnell, and Bullwinkle... well, Mr. Fish:


I wonder if McCain will ever admit he made a mistake when he picked her, the way George H. W. Bush did with Quayle. This MSNBC interview looks like it might not be so long before that happens:

LIKE PIGS TO THE TROUGH-- REPUBLICANS TEARING EACH OTHER APART OVER PLUM POSITION-- MUSGRAVE JUMPS IN

So many Appropriations Committee members! No coincidence there

What makes Republicans tick? Is it the hatred and bigotry? The fear? The loathing of free will-- ala Ms. Coulter and the rest of the authoritarians in the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's brilliant Dark Materials book, Golden Compass-- or is it something more prosaic, just plain old greed and selfishness. I vote for the last door there (although I heartily recommend the movie) because, at heart, what makes a right-winger a right-winger usually boils down to the uncontrolled avarice and unquenchable lust. And no one practices that better than a professional 24/7 Republican: their political leaders.

Today's Hill carries an hilarious story about the piggy squabbling over the coveted open seat on the Appropriations Committee-- the source of most congressional bribes. (Roger Wicker gave up the seat when he was appointed to fill in in the U.S. Senate for a spell after Trent Lott's official move from Capitol Hill to K Street.)

The funniest part about the bitter and vicious battle is that it pits NRCC Chair Tom Cole, whose job is to try to save the necks of as many endangered Republican rubber stamps as he can, against some of the most endangered rubber stamps who think the only way to save their worthless necks is to get on the Appropriations Committee and start gobbling up bribes. The undercurrent is that the few Republicans who are desperate for their corrupt party to shed the DeLay-Abramoff "Pay to play" Culture of Corruption reputation, are now on the warpath against Cole, Blunt and the rest of the DeLay hold-overs.

The most desperate of the endangered Repugs is Dave Reichert of Washington, who is clearly going to lose his seat to Darcy Burner in November. Goldy at Horsesass.org explains Reichert's dilemma, which has transformed a pitiful cry-- "I need that seat"-- into a call for transparency and accountability. Far right reformer are backing ideologue Jeff Flake (R-AZ) for the seat, who is denouncing his own colleagues as the greedy earmarking swine they are.

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s (R-CO) entrance into the contentious battle for the open Appropriations Committee seat pits the House campaign committee chairman against two of his most vulnerable members.

...Musgrave and Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), who is also seeking the seat, are members of the Regaining Our Majority Program (ROMP), a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) fundraising effort that is geared toward retaining members who sit in targeted districts.

...NRCC Chairman Tom Cole’s (Okla.) decision to run for the open seat has ruffled feathers inside and outside the Capitol. Some Republicans believe that the coveted seat should go to a vulnerable member of the conference, while other GOP officials and groups are pushing for earmark foe Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

Cole’s office declined to comment specifically on the race Tuesday.

...During an interview with The Hill last week, Cole declined to answer questions about his bid for the spending panel.

“I don’t have anything to say about it,” Cole said.

The NRCC spent $1.8 million to defend Musgrave and $2.3 million defending Reichert last cycle. Both members narrowly won reelection and are once again targets for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). [Blue America is strongly backing Darcy Burner for the seat Reichert now holds. Please donate if you can.]

“Tom Cole is challenging his own vulnerable members using the same‘pay to play’ tactics that were a hallmark of the old corrupt GOP majority,” said DCCC spokesman Doug Thornell. “If he gets the appropriations seat, it is further evidence that the legacies of Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay still rule congressional Republicans. Just goes to show you that Republicans can change their leaders but can’t change their culture.”

...In addition to Reichert, Cole, Flake and Musgrave, GOP Reps. Henry Brown Jr. (S.C.), Jo Bonner (Ala.) and Michael Turner (Ohio) declared their intentions to run earlier this month.

Brown, Bonner and Turner just want access to the bribes and don't want to get involved in any philosophical disputes.


UPDATE: GOP TO GIVE REICHERT THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE JOB BECAUSE HE'S THE LEAST QUALIFIED?

In today's Washington Post GOP mouthpiece Bob Novak slams his own part as the The Pork-as-Usual GOP, whining how the Republicans won't give Jeff Flake the open seat on the Appropriations Committee and how they won't put a moratorium on earmarks and pork barrel spending that has become a key to continued GOP dominance in scores of congressional districts.

Republicans are staring into a 2008 election abyss, having lost credibility as upholders of lean government by sponsoring profligate pork-barrel spending during 12 years in the congressional majority. And they have not reformed since the 2006 Democratic takeover. The message out of West Virginia this week predictably will be business as usual.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Appropriations Committee's ranking Republican, is leading fellow appropriators against the moratorium. They are joined by the most seriously challenged Republican incumbents, who see political salvation in bringing funds home to their districts, principles be damned.

...The most likely winner of the Appropriations derby will be Rep. Dave Reichert, a former sheriff of King County, Wash., who has not distinguished himself during three years in Congress and gets only a 60 percent rating from the American Conservative Union. His sole qualification appears to be that he is the most endangered Republican House member in 2008 and needs to bring home the bacon to Seattle.

Same old GOP; some things never change!

DOES MARILYN MUSGRAVE GET A FREE RIDE TO RE-ELECTION NOW THAT ANGIE HAS DECIDED NOT TO RUN?

There are a lot of races across the country for grassroots, anti-war and progressive activists to get involved with. Colorado's 4th CD was a special target for two reasons: one of the worst incumbents anywhere, a wretched homophobic maniac who has never voted in the interests of humanity-- on anything-- since she took office and in the person of Angie Paccione, a truly worthy opponent who would have made an excellent representative of the interests of ordinary people.

Last year 827 Blue America activists donated over $15,000 to Angie's campaign. Over 225,000 votes were cast and only 7,000 separated Angie from Musgrave. W had every reason to hope that 2008 would be a victory for the forces of progressive democracy over the forces of Hatred and Bigotry embodied by the foul Musgrave.

I have no inside information about why Angie dropped out. According to an article about the race in today's Congressional Quarterly "Kyle Saunders, a Colorado State University political scientist who analyzes congressional races, described Paccione as the party’s strongest candidate and said her decision not to run is not great news for Democrats." Instead of a forthright, fighting progressive CO-04 will now have to make due with a moderate establishment insider who is widely viewed as part of the Bush Dog-leaning Salazar machine (i.e.- Republican lite). Better than Musgrave? Absolutely. Worth fighting for? Well... that's a tougher question.

Betsy Markey is unlikely to be the kind of leader progressive nationally are looking for. But she will probably be a semi-dependable vote for core Democratic initiatives and could be a decent representative for CO-04. Blue America will certainly be rooting for her to beat the execrable Musgrave but we'll leave the fundraising to the insiders and machine pols to work out.

We're far more interested in the candidacies of progressives than we are in hack Democrats. Today Sandra from DFA blogged about the latest turn of events in a race we are very much interested in, the primary against Bush Dog Dan Lipinski by Blue America-endorsed candidate Mark Pera. The elder Lipinski, the right-leaning ex-congressman who was able to install his right-leaning shiftless son from Tennessee into the Chicago area congressional seat, is working a scam to help finance his son's tough re-election campaign. Basically, he's using a charitable children's fund to raise money for little Dan. You can help thwart the Lipinskis and defeat an anti-choice, pro-war Bush Dog by helping Mark Pera-- here.

Announcement: Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7:30pm, EDT Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) will be a guest at Firedoglake, discussing the Iraq occupation on the 5th anniversary of the authorization for the Use of Force which, of course, he opposed-- and still opposes. Come meet this extraordinary congressman, who's running against pathetic rubber stamp Liebermanite Susan Collins.

DCCC TROUNCES THE GOP FUNDRAISING MACHINE

Yesterday DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen took questions from new media folks on a conference call. Many of us wanted to know how well Democratic congressional candidates were doing in the fundraising arena. There was some worry that the Clinton, Obama and Edwards machines were sucking up all the contributions that were available and that it might hurt our candidates for Congress. CVH said he had some good indications that money was flowing in to the candidates-- and he told us some had already started reporting exceptional quarters-- but he wasn't certain of the overall figures yet. And, moreover, he warned us, Bush had done his mega annual fundraiser for the Republican congressional committee and managed to vacuum up almost $8 million in one night.

I've been getting reports from some of the Blue America candidates in the last few days and they are spectacular. Rep. Tom Allen, our progressive alternative to Lieberman's Susan Collins for the Maine senate seat, not only kept pace with Collins (just over a million dollars) but he reports that at the same time Lieberman raised $150,000 from corporate lobbyists for Collins, the netroots brought in $300,000 for Congressman Allen. Today Jim Himes, the Blue America progressive who is going up against fake moderate Christopher Shays-- the last Republican House member in New England-- and who will be our Firedoglake live guest on Saturday, July 28, reported over $350,000, the most of any Democratic challenger for a House seat in the country. And a few days ago when I spoke with Darcy Burner-- who will be joining us at FDL this coming Saturday (11am, PT)-- she also told me money had started flowing into her campaign, especially after Karl Rove targeted WA-08 in that illegal GSA powerpoint presentation in March.

Today's Roll Call reported that the DCCC slaughtered the NRCC. The Repugs managed to bring in $13 million while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added $17 million to the $2 million they already have in the bank. (The NRCC is $4 million in debt.) In the first 6 months of the year the DCCC raised $36 million compared to $29 million for the Republican version-- even with Bush's help and even with corporations panicky that Democrats could gain effective control of Congress next year and start governing in the interests of workers, consumers, entrepreneurs and ordinary Americans.

The Democrats now have almost ten times the cash on hand that the Republicans do. Republicans always manage to get enough money from their corporate buddies but it is very satisfying to see small donations from concerned citizens coming in at this rate so early in the cycle. And the DCCC has been spending it wisely. Since Emanuel was kicked upstairs the DCCC has stopped waging war against grassroots candidates, anti-war candidates and progressives and instead is spending money on getting out an effective Democratic message. I was really impressed with their July 4th weekend radio and TV blitz in districts where vulnerable GOP incumbents are always screaming about supporting the troops on the stump and then come into Congress and consistently vote against the troops. Among the rubber stamp Republicans who got this treatment were Robin Hayes (NC), Jim Walsh (NY), Jon Porter (NV), Don Young (AK), Mark Kirk (IL), Heather Wilson (NM), Randy Kuhl (NY), Phil English (PA)... and, of course, the hideously reactionary Marilyn Musgrave. Take a look at what the DCCC spent some money on showing her constituents:

BLUE AMERICA: ANGIE-- NO ASTERISKS, NO PARENTHESES

Before we welcome Angie Paccione back to Firedoglake today, I want to ask you to humor me for a moment. The video, below, takes 1 minute and 19 seconds to view and it neatly sums up why Blue America is Angie Paccione Country. (Besides, if you don't watch it, you won't understand the title of today's post.)



If you've watched it you understand why more than 800 of us contributed over $15,000 to Angie's campaign last year and why we decided to use our Blue America PAC to place hundreds of radio ads all over Morgan and Yuma counties. You will also understand why the Denver Post urged its readers to vote for her and why I was on the phone to Angie several times after the election asking her to consider running again. A few weeks ago she called me and told me she's decided to go for it, this time with help from part of Ed Perlmutter's winning '06 election team. Here's the archive of her first FDL session.

Today Angie joins us after having won 97,670 votes (43%) against Musgrave's 104,876 (46%) in a district with 170,294 registered Republicans (40%), 145,759 unaffiliated voters (34%) and only 108,642 registered Democrats (25%). Look closely at those numbers! It appears that almost all the registered Democrats turned out for Angie and only 60% of Republicans voted for Musgrave, nearly negating the GOP registration advantage. (Bush won the 4th CD against Kerry with 58%.) It might also be worth bearing in mind that Angie spent $1,951,000 and Musgrave spent $3,212,000. The difference this year is that where Angie was only well known in her own Larimer County in 2006 (which, unlike previous Democrats, she won), this year her name recognition district wide is an astounding 84%. Many incumbents don't have name recognition that high.


It often takes more than one try for a candidate to defeat an incumbent. In 2004 Pombo beat Jerry McNerney 61-39%. Two years later McNerney's grassroots campaign came roaring back and helped make America a better place by taking out Pombo 53- 47% in a Republican district Bush had won with 54%. In 2004, far right lunatic Jim Ryun (KS-02) beat Nancy Boyda 56- 41% and last year Boyda turned the tables on the nutcase, 51- 47%. The DCCC offered McNerney and Boyda no substantive support; they ran grassroots campaigns and the difference in 2 years in both races was name recognition garnered from the previous cycle. I'm certain you follow my drift.

This year, even though Angie is wildly popular among CO-04 Democrats-- especially in Larimer and Boulder counties, where she increased Democrat margins and beat Musgrave-- before Angie can challenge Musgrave again, she has to face some Democrats who have decided to take advantage of the work she and her team have done in the district. One guy, state Senator Brandon Shafer, who was supposedly being touted by Inside-the-Beltway types, and who Angie described to me as "high quality" and "a rising star," quickly got a sense of the district's loyalties and almost immediately bowed out. However, if Washington reactionaries are backing away, local reactionaries aren't. Colorado's horrible right-wing Senator (not Allard, the other one-- Salazar) has dispatched one of his staffers, Betsy Markey, to take on Angie. Salazar has a crappy overall voting record, votes with Republicans to confirm Bush's worst anti-choice judicial nominations, and voted with Republicans for the anti-consumer/anti-worker bankruptcy bill. If Markey reflects his positions she may be better than Musgrave, but not much better.

And Angie? I asked her how we're going to end the occupation of Iraq. "We've got to separate the notion of supporting the troops from the notion of supporting this president's agenda." In 2006 Angie strongly opposed Bush's occupation of Iraq. Two days ago she told me "I'm against this president's agenda for Iraq... and against his agenda for Iran. I supported going into Afghanistan and I think we should have done a better job there. I'd like to ask President Bush about Osama bin-Forgotten."

Locally she says there are several issues that are resonating with the voters. "When it comes to health care, people are ready for a solution. They've had enough. There are nearly 800,000 people in Colorado without health insurance, particularly children and older women. People I meet when I'm campaigning are telling me that they're spending more on medical insurance than on their mortgages!"

Fixing what the Republicans have done to public education is another of Angie's key issues. Makes sense; she was a teacher for over 2 decades. She told me "No Child Left Behind is a hollow soundbyte. An educated population-- with fully funded quality public schooling from kindergarten through college-- is essential for genuine national security in the 21st century."


So Angie's back on the Blue America list and I hope you'll join me in donating some money to her campaign. We're not going to find a better candidate, not anywhere, to help us reclaim our country. Avalon Books sent us a box of the just-released YOUNG J. EDGAR: HOOVER, THE RED SCARE, AND THE ASSAULT ON CIVIL LIBERTIES. Each book has been autographed by author Ken Ackerman and it sells in stores for $28.95. Every Angie donation for $30 or more gets a Blue America thank you with a book (until the box is empty.) Add a cent to your donation if you don't want the book. One more thing, Jacquie is already planning out an aggressive paid-media strategy for CO-04 in '08 so if you want to stick some dough in the Blue America PAC, please don't be shy.