Prosecution of Iowa Democrat Goes Down In Flames

In a prosecution that looked all the world like another example of a purely political prosecution, the Bush DOJ got slammed by a jury out only two hours--including lunch--and exonerating a high profile local Democratic politician. From today's Des Moines Register:

A federal jury in Des Moines took less than two hours Thursday, including time for lunch, to reject charges that state Sen. Matt McCoy used his political power to pry $2,000 from two former associates in a business deal gone wrong.

McCoy's relatives sobbed with relief when jurors announced their verdict in court. The smiling senator, who faced up to 20 years in federal prison, repeatedly hugged his lawyers.
"I'm ready to enjoy Christmas," McCoy said later. "I've got a lot of Legos to buy between now and Christmas Eve."

Bill McCoy, the senator's father, choked up as he pronounced it "the most wonderful day of my life."

Thursday's not guilty verdict apparently ends federal authorities' pursuit of McCoy over the past two years. The charge he faced was attempted extortion, rather than extortion, because the money McCoy eventually received was provided by the FBI, not the former business partners.

Courtroom testimony during the nine-day trial showed the case began in late 2005 when Thomas Vasquez, a security company salesman and former friend of the senator's, complained to a Des Moines police detective about having to pay McCoy $100 for each sale of ADT QuietCare, a system to monitor frail, elderly people.

Vasquez, who pocketed about $2,600 as a paid government informant against McCoy, recorded a conversation with McCoy within days of his first contact with the FBI, court testimony showed. Eventually, more than 11 hours of recordings were compiled, as McCoy and Vasquez met in various coffeehouses, usually with FBI agents nearby.

One meeting included Reid Schultz, Vasquez's boss and another alleged extortion victim.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Brickley told jurors Thursday morning: "The government is not asking you to take Tom Vasquez home with you for Christmas. We're just asking that you consider his testimony."

Brickley also stressed to jurors that it was McCoy's own words, not just Vasquez's, that damned the senator. The taped conversations include McCoy inaccurately bragging about his role in winning state Medicaid approval for QuietCare purchasers and issuing profane threats to drive Schultz out of the security business if Schultz ignored their deal.

"Public officials don't get to use the power of their office for their own private game," Brickley told jurors. "He took advantage of their ignorance, and he misrepresented the type of powers he was going to take to the state Medicaid office."

Much of the defense-driven testimony during McCoy's trial focused on topics such as Vasquez's drug use, his unpaid loans, his repeated lies about his role in Schultz's company, and his poor treatment of women.

The discrediting campaign culminated earlier this week when two of Vasquez's former Alcoholics Anonymous sponsors referred to him in court as "a pathological liar" and someone lacking "the capacity to be honest."

Defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown chastised federal authorities in his closing arguments for failing to check out a questionable informant.

"The government was warned," Brown said. "Why they hitched their coal cart to the Vasquez Express ... I don't know."

Outside the courtroom, Brown and attorney Jerry Crawford later stopped just short of previous assertions that the case against McCoy, a Democrat, was politically motivated. U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker, a Republican appointed by President Bush, previously has denied any such allegation.

Whitaker declined to comment Thursday other than to note his "complete confidence in the jury system."

More later.

And furthermore,

The unintentional level of comedy is high today at NRO:

Glib Ignorant Demagoguery [Jonah Goldberg]

Another thing about the Democratic debate yesterday. John Edwards said that Bush has "in every conceivable way expanded the executive power."

Really? Every conceivable way? Every conceivable one? Lincoln, Wilson, FDR — to name just three — expanded the power of the executive in ways that Bush has not.

Yeah, they won their wars.

"Conservative Thinker"

Why is the GOP setting itself up for a slaughter? [It's a race to the bottom between Bush and the GOP against Democratic Congressional Leaders, but the GOP has such a large, large lead]

Look no further than the musings of the "man" whose pants are filled with dough:

The Debates [Jonah Goldberg]

A couple random notes. I watched a big chunk of the GOP debate on Tivo yesterday. I agree with the general consensus that it was lame with an extra dose of stupid. Though I kind of dug Alan Keyes' crazy guy on the bus routine. I also thought — from what I saw — that Fred Thompson, not Mitt Romney, was the winner. I loved his "I agree with Alan Keyes' position on Global Warming" line.

Yeah, that's why Grandpa Fred's campaign has taken off like a rocket...a rocket-shaped suppository.

It's trenchant analysis like this (and the ever timely 'Star Trek' joke) that keeps Jonah waist-deep in it.

Logical as ever

After shopping for casual wear, writing couplets that rhyme with "Mitt", and admiring the tattoo she made with a soldering iron that says "Kathryn Jean Romney", K-Lo doesn't have much time left for contemplating the result of her logic.

For example, yesterday, Nancy Pelosi stated that it is obvious "Republicans Love the War".

This leads to this bon mot:

Some Brave Republican [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Could respond to Pelosi by stating that Democrats "like" abortion. It might highlight how absurd a "leader" Nancy is.

12/13 03:52 PM

I guess this would work, if a Democrat had knocked K-Lo up...but we all know the Democrats barely have the bravery to curb Bush from even bigger fuckups, none of them have the courage to take on "America's Slump Buster".

I'm sure there's nothing fishy going on

Is it more fitting that Bush's Inspector General on Iraq Reconstruction is being investigated for "Corruption" because he is a Bush Appointee?

Or because of this:

In May, the White House confirmed that Bowen's office, whose revelations of waste and corruption in Iraq have repeatedly embarrassed the Bush administration, was being investigated by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency after complaints from former employees. The executive branch organization was created to investigate allegations of misconduct by inspectors general at federal agencies.

At the time, the White House rejected suggestions the integrity inquiry was an act of retribution against Bowen, with then-press secretary Tony Snow saying the council was "an independent investigative organization" that did not directly follow the White House's direction.

That investigation, triggered by a lengthy anonymous complaint filed by former staff members, focused on a number of fraud and abuse allegations, as well as descriptions of possible workplace violations, including sexual harassment. It included charges that Bowen's office overstated the amount of savings that it generated in order to justify a budget request and that money was wasted on the book project.

Attack a person on the basis of their strengths how Rovian.

I'll tell you how this should be reported.

Either way Bush loses.

But in the end it's really Nancy Pelosi's fault -- and it just proves that the whole invasion of Eye-Rack was the bestest thing ever!

Meanwhile, I'm sure every possible groper will consider these charges against Bowen proven...in the same way many of them have accused a woman of making up rape allegations against Halliburton/KBR.

I for one...

Cannot believe that C.C. Sabathia was not on the "Steroid" users list.


Photo from here.

Too Lazy

To even "cut and paste".

What Do You Want For Nuthin?

Not that it makes it any more palatable suffering through this train-wreck-in-progress known as the Bush administration, but on the question of failed leadership I must ask: What did we expect from the boy king? Really. What should we have expected? One might argue that we have a right to expect that the person who takes the oath of office follow the oath but really all we had to do was look at the man's history. Not that we should have expected torture one might say. Maybe. But more than anything, particularly after September 11, 2001 we needed, the world needed, leadership and that is a commodity never demonstrated by the boy-king. It is a sad but true fact that Bush was never anything more than a made for tv movie. Saccharin for the masses. Leadership would have been nice, but he is who he always was and always will be.

Ruining Michelle Malkin's Bushmas

So many things to be ignored for O'Reilly's "Wahhhhhhh on Christmas" but none more likely than this:

A Muslim man jumped to the aid of three Jewish subway riders after they were attacked by a group of young people who objected to one of the Jews saying "Happy Hanukkah," a spokeswoman for the three said Wednesday...

One member of the group allegedly yelled, "Oh, Hanukkah. That's the day that the Jews killed Jesus," she said. [ed: Huckabee's base]

When Adler tried to intercede, a male member of the group punched him, she said.

Another passenger, Hassan Askari -- a Muslim student from Bangladesh -- came to Adler's aid, and the group began physically and verbally assaulting him, Hellerstein said.

"A Muslim-American saved us when our own people were on the train and didn't do anything," Adler said.

It's a Kwaanza Miracle.

(photo from NY Daily News)

Giuliani Time!

I can't remember if I've mentioned Paul Slansky before (and I'm too lazy to search the archives). Slansky wrote a terrific book called The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American '80s, a day-by-day account of the mendacity, idiocy, and criminality that was the Reagan presidency. I remember buying ten copies to give to friends when it was published in 1989. (Keep this to yourself, but I think I'm going to send one to Dr. Atta J. Turk for Festivus.)

I sure hope that Slansky gives BushCo™ The Clothes Have No Emperor treatment. But in the meanwhile, he writes for the HuffPo (among other venues) and contribute these great quizzes to the New Yorker. This week's quiz, which examines "America's Mayor" in all his glamorous glory, is, happily, online. Go take it now. Your TPS reports can wait.

Once again...

I did not see yesterday's so-called debate. I plan on missing another one today. These are two of the many things I particularly loath in American politics right now.

1. The fact that all coverage is about "the horse race" and virtually none of it is about issues. This is an old lament, and made by many others, but each year it gets worse -- and the biggest offender of all is Chris Matthews.

2. The alleged debates, which are nothing of the kind.

But yesterday, the hero was purportedly Grandpa Fred whose rheumatism and general sloth prevents him from raising his hand above the level of Jeri's twin-policy planks. Apparently, for Republicans it causes, what passes for, orgasms when one of their candidates treats a professional woman with contempt.

It could only have been better if the Ol' Cracker had called her "Toots".

Heckuva Job

Sometimes it is just too much to put up with. On the same day the General in charge of military tribunals on torture says "Waterboarding confessions" can be used if they are "in the interest of justice" (yep, he said that), comes this.

After the invasion of Iraq, the US government claimed that women there had 'new rights and new hopes'. In fact their lives have become immeasurably worse, with rapes, burnings and murders now a daily occurrence...

Even under Saddam, women in Iraq - including in semi-autonomous Kurdistan - were widely recognised as among the most liberated in the Middle East. They held important positions in business, education and the public sector, and their rights were protected by a statutory family law that was the envy of women's activists in neighbouring countries. But since the 2003 invasion, advances that took 50 years to establish are crumbling away. In much of the country, women can only now move around with a male escort. Rape is committed habitually by all the main armed groups, including those linked to the government. Women are being murdered throughout Iraq in unprecedented numbers.

In October the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (Unami) expressed serious concern over the rising incidence of so-called honour crimes in Iraqi Kurdistan, confirming that 255 women had been killed in just the first six months of 2007, three-quarters of them by burning. An earlier Unami report cited 366 burns cases in Dohuk in 2006, up from 289 the year before, although most were not fatal. In Irbil, the emergency management centre had reported 576 burns cases since 2003, resulting in 358 deaths.

The Great Imperial Enabler of Murder. The Bush Administration.

Stunning

Lederman says: This is what it has come to.

Our government is now unable to say whether it would be a violation of the Geneva Conventions for the Iranian government to waterboard a downed U.S. airman. How do officials such as Brigadier General Hartmann sleep at night, I wonder? How many decades will it take to undo this damage? Kudos to Lindsey Graham, whose disgust is really the only appropriate response. Now, if he can only muster some of his colleagues to support a two-thirds vote to override the forthcoming presidential veto of the law that would end the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Stunning because I expect it from dissemblers like Gonzalez and Mukasey. Stunning because while I do expect it from anyone who believes it is necessary to protect the higher-ups who authorized the torture, including Democrats, I do not expect active-duty generals to demur when asked the question whether having one of their own subjected to waterboarding would violate the Geneva Conventions.

What we have become will take years to unravel but as the process begins, let it spare no soul who allowed it to happen.

Mullah Huckabee

Oh, this is rich:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, ''Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?''

The article, to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, says Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn't know much about it. His rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is a member of the Mormon church, which is known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The authoritative Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992, does not refer to Jesus and Satan as brothers. It speaks of Jesus as the son of God and of Satan as a fallen angel, which is a Biblical account.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.

The LDS lady is right.

Huckabee is slandering the Mormon Church about a totally false and stupid thing. He's incompetent AND dumb. So he's like totally qualified to succeed Bush!

Look, if you are going to question the Mormon faith, do it in the classic style of all religion, expose their doctrines to ridicule and logic. Works with any faith.

Joseph Smith, pretty much used his abilities as a flim-flam man to say Native Americans were a lost tribe of Israel and dyed red by God for beating the original "white" lost tribe of Israeli-Americans; he could read "magic lost golden plates" with seeing stones placed in a hat; and MOST IMPORTANTLY TO HIM he could shag as many women as he wanted because God told him he could.

IT'S ALL PERFECTLY LOGICAL, HISTORICALLY ACCURATE AND A GREAT WAY TO GET LAID, RIGHT?

And the next thing you know, you've got Osmonds.

It's much like Saul of Tarsus when he said he saw the "Jeebus" on the road to Damascus...and later magically divined that grown men don't have to have their weiner-sweaters lopped off to be members of a faith in good standing. A smooth political move if ever there was one. And, of course, just like Mohammad saw Gabriel, Joe Smith saw Moroni (I should say, as an American prophet, Joe Smith did leave the world in a uniquely American way [ask Ernest T. Bass, ESQ], he didn't ascend into heaven, he wasn't crucified...no, he left the mortal stage on the losing end of a shoot-out. Like Butch & Sundance, Bonnie & Clyde, Huey & Long).

The problem for Mormons is they had all their bizarre-ass religious miracles occur in the last couple centuries. You have to give them another millennium before their bullshit sounds respectable and such statements sound like blasphemy.

Dear Game Reviewers

I'm not a big "game" guy. I sort of stopped playing them sometime before either the Doom Sequels or the Quake Sequels. I certainly haven't played much at all since I discovered blogs.

...Yep, I'm just that boring.

Anyhoo, those who have lives more fulfilling and richer than mine, game geeks (yes, my standards are just that low) tell me that the Nintendo Wii is about the greatest thing ever.

And if an inability to buy one is any indication, they must be right.

So I give this advice to game reviewers. If nobody can actually buy the Wii Gaming Counsel because they just don't care enough to show up at Best Buy at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, why are you writing reviews for its components?

I know, I know, some people -- magical, mythical people, may actually have the machine and buy those components, but really.

In the Land of Brooks & Beinart

Where the war they craved, has turned into the "Occupation" real people don't really care about (the facts be damned) -- because it is suddenly going so gosh darn swell:

Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 wounded when three car bombs exploded in quick succession in a southern Iraqi Shi'ite city on Wednesday, police and hospital officials said.

The attack in Amara city was one of the deadliest in Iraq in months, and came as tensions are running high across oil-rich southern Iraq as rival Shi'ite factions battle for influence as British forces across the region draw down.

A doctor at the emergency unit of the biggest hospital in Amara said 26 bodies and 100 wounded had been brought in. The bombs exploded along a main street in the city, the capital of Maysan province.

Welcome to the preview of Iraq of this Spring and Summer...just like the Iraq of Last Spring and Summer.

Only with walls. Lots and lots of walls.

Mastubatorial

Oh my God, I worry that K-Lo may have a terminal disease or something, because this sure seems like the work of "The Make-A-Wish Foundation".

Yeah, that'll work

Given the stellar accomplishments of Karen Hughes, one can only drop their jaws in wonder at Bush nominating "Uber Wanker" James "puts the Ass in" Glassman “to lead the State Department’s struggling efforts to improve the U.S.’s image abroad..."

You may recognize Glassman from his many years at AEI, where he published such memorable columns stating things like,

"[James] Inhofe is one of the best-informed Senators on the science and economics of global warming. And "global warming" -- as it's used by environmental extremists -- is indeed a hoax."

Or some of these other fabulous gems, sure to win the hearts of literally a handful of people abroad:

April 2003:

Conscientious opponents of the war should say they were wrong, wrong, wrong - on all counts. Certainly, if there had been failures, they would have condemned Bush administration officials and supporters of the war.

And, as for supporters: no, it is not over yet, but a little celebration, even gloating, is in order.

And then there was this in 2000:


Heckuva Job.

How can you tell your field kind of sucks?

When it has tremendous volatility.

Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republican voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about whom to support...

Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate, the poll found. And in a sign of the fluidity of the race, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who barely registered in early polls several months ago, is now locked in a tight contest nationally with Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

When not one of your candidates has a winning favorable score, EVEN WITH THEIR OWN PARTY, you have problems.

Meanwhile, Grandpa Fred has lost everyone but David Broder.

Mr. Giuliani was the choice of 22 percent of respondents, Mr. Huckabee of 21 percent, and Mr. Romney of 16 percent. Mr. McCain and Fred D. Thompson each had 7 percent.

Thompson was, if I recall accurately, the second choice just a few months ago. Until he ran for President with less vigor than he didn't run for President.

Honestly, Fred's exercise program appears to be wearing flannel pajamas.

Culcha

No, I did not go to the movies with Atrios last night, but I did also see "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," which I recommend for its beautiful images and the way it telegraphs the frustration, sadness, and loneliness of isolation and salvation of its hero through his imagination and creativity. I'm grateful to Julian Schnabel for not screwing up a perfectly wonderful book.

Last Friday, I saw "I'm Not There," and I was crazy about it. Did you see "Across the Universe?" I loved that, too, especially the "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Because" sequences.

Last night I caught Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller at Lizz Winstead's "Shoot the Messenger." I think this was my fourth visit to "Shoot." If you're in New York, you should check it out. Monday nights at Cabaret Under ACME 9. Next week's guest is Rachel Maddow, about whom there are interesting rumors on the internets.

Finally, I hear that there's a new David Mamet on the way that I'll probably check out. And later this week I'll see the new Tom Stoppard.

Most Dishonest Ad Ever

Giuliani has released an ad in New Hampshire (he's given up on Iowa, I'd say to our State's credit except look at the rest of the GOP field...) which is among the most dishonest ever broadcast.

In it he asserts that he remembers how after 444 the Iranian Hostage Drama ended within one-hour of Reagan being President because they were afraid.

Of course, this is complete and utter bullshit.

"October Surprise" anyone?

And let's just remember, as Juan Cole does, just how "tough" Reagan was on Iran.

The White House illegally sold Iran hundreds of powerful TOW anti-tank and HAWK anti-aircraft weapons [which Reagan came on television and told us were shoulder-launched weapons!], for use against Washington's newfound ally, the Iraqis, who were being assured that the US was trying hard to "prevent an Iranian victory . . ."

James McFarlane clandestinely sent Khomeni a note from Reagan, a bible, and a cake.

Yeah, I know.

The comedy gets greater...here's the Chicago Tribune making swiss-cheese of it.

And after all the laughable errors, the Giuliani Campaign responds:

"The ad uses the fact that the Iranian hostages were released an hour after Ronald Reagan was sworn into office to illustrate that the only way to defeat terrorism is to have a president who understands you need to stay on offense and can’t back down,” Campaign Spokeswoman Maria Comella said.

Cue Laugh-track.

I doubt Maria Comella and Dana Perino are a powerful Trivial Pursuit tag-team?

Justice in a single sentence

-- Ex-NFL star Michael Vick sentenced to 23 months in prison for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy.

Seeing that in my email inbox this morning helped with a dreary morning of more Rethuglican tactics on well, everything. Now, waiting for the sentence we all so desperately need:

-- Impeached former President George W. Bush sentenced to 223 months in prison for his role in Iraq War conspiracy.

Hey, a guy can dream can't he...

"Whether you like Al Gore or not, you have to admit..."

I tuned into Scarborough this morning, hoping to witness a thorough thrashing of Rudy Bada Bing! given his disastrous "Meet the Press" appearance, but the Oprah-Obama tour of Iowa and South Carolina was getting as much, if not more, attention from the "Morning Joe" crew, which was actually absent the GOP propagandist for whom the show is named.

But that's not what I want to talk about. At one point, Mika and Willie switched over to Oslo, where Al Gore was receiving his Nobel Peace prize. At that point, Willie lapsed into one of those "Whether you like/agree with X or not" constructions to which wanker "news" professionals default when confronted by someone or something that will send Wingnuttia into paroxyms of rage.

Let me explain something to you, Willie. Al Gore is not "controversial." Neither is global warming. And neither was the goddamned 2000 presidential election, which Al Gore won, by the way. A 'controversy" exists when there are two opposing views on an issue. When one side of those views is comprised of lies, there is no "controversy." There is, rather, sucking up and wussing out for fear of ... what? A bunch of emails and phone calls from the idiots who even Peggy Noonan admits are running the Republican party? Can't you ignore them like the GOP does after election day?

Sideshow Jay

The perfect example of why the President has consolidated monarchical power in his office is the pathetic, spineless, worthless work of Jay Rockefeller, Jane Harman, and others. Really, is there anything less appealing in these people than the response that they were sworn to secrecy? Via Balkinization:

No, not the Office of Legal Counsel. The intelligence oversight apparatus. Yes, a large part of the problem is the particular Democrats who happen to be among the "Gang of Eight" and "Gang of Four." (To get a good sense of why the Senate Intelligence Committee will not get to the bottom of the latest scandal, just take a look at this lackluster performance by Jay Rockefeller yesterday on Face the Nation.) But even if we had the very best Dems on the Committee, there would still be virtually nothing they could do to address possible unlawful, or even just unwise, conduct by the intelligence agencies. (But cf. this post by Michael Froomkin on the Speech and Debate Clause.)

The pattern is by now very familiar. Whenever the Administration begins to do something of dubious legality, it:

1. sends to Congress messengers who the Intel committees trust -- solemn, serious, professionals, often uniformed military officers

2. to inform a very select, small number of legislators of the conduct -- legislators who have developed close and trusted relationships with the intel officials briefing them and who are, quite understandably, loathe to undermine such relationships, which do, after all, facilitate trust, access, and oversight itself

3. and to provide such briefings after the conduct has commenced

4. in a highly classified setting

5. putting the conduct in its best possible light -- in particular, making sure to insist that it has prevented terrorist attacks

6. while assuring the legislators that it has been vetted by the lawyers and is legal

7. without showing the legislators the legal analysis supporting the conduct

8. without disclosing the legal arguments that cut the other way

9. without informing the legislators of any policy-based or legal dissent within the executive branch

10. while warning the legislators that they may not legally breathe a word of it to anyone -- certainly not to staff, or their fellow legislators, nor to experts outside Congress who might be able to better assess the legality and efficacy of the conduct

11. and while insisting that the legislators cannot second-guess the need for classification and secrecy, even in cases -- such as with respect to OLC opinions concerning what techniques are lawful and which are not, and with respect to conduct that has been revealed to the enemy already -- where there is no legitimate justification for the classification.

The reaction from the Intel Commmittees is, alas, predictable: Muted, furtive and internal (i.e., entirely ineffective) protest, at best. More often than not, acquiescence and encouragement.

And to think I was raised to respect these learned and devoted public servants. Good lord. (the link to Rockefeller on FTN)

When Bullshit meets Horseshit

Not much more need be said:

The Two Presidents Problem
Posted by Joe Klein

A wise column from David Ignatius.

Know Your Bushie

Dana Perino -- About as smart as the rest of the bunch:

Appearing on National Public Radio's light-hearted quiz show "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me," which aired over the weekend, Perino got into the spirit of things and told a story about herself that she had previously shared only in private: During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- and she didn't know what it was.

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

So she consulted her best source. "I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.' "

Let's sum this up

I'm supposed to believe that Congressional Democratic Leaders were powerless to prevent waterboarding and therefore I must give them a break?

On the one-hand these clowns, with notable exceptions, are averse to moral courage, as long as they wouldn't act like Republicans if they had power (ignore the fact that they sort of are).

While simultaneously, those of us who demand they actually stand for their principles more than say, once a month, are unrealistic denizens of the blog hordes.

And it's the "base" that's the problem?

(picture from here)

Let the Closet Doors Open and the "Outing*" begin

Cross-posted from Firedoglake...

At the Great Orange Satan (thanks Atrios) diarist Bhagamu points out that yet another war enabler's declared deadline is pending. On September 26, 2007, Sen. Lindsay Graham, rug collector (not at all like Trent Lott is a rug collector), stated:

"If they can't pull it together in the next 90 days," he said, "I don't think they are ever gonna do it." He followed that prediction with a promise: "If they don't deliver in 90 days, I will openly say the chances for political reconciliation are remote." ...

Though he would not elaborate on what kind of plan he would push if the Iraqis fail to meet the deadline, Graham did say a change in strategy would be warranted. "If they can't do it by the end of the year," he said, "how do you justify a continued presence?"

So "half a Friedman" (must Atrios coin all the phrases?). As Bhagamu elaborates, this means the deadline occurs on Christmas Day.

How's that coming so far?

Iraqi legislators suspended parliamentary sessions yesterday until the end of the month to mark the Muslim religious season - the end of much-delayed efforts to pass U.S.-backed legislation aimed at achieving national reconciliation this year.

When not engaging in amazing discount carpet purchases, Senator Graham is big on predicting stuff. He clearly has the pulse on the Bizarro Universe Iraq where the mortars fire "Bush Rules" T-Shirts and we're greeted as Liberators. It was, after all, Graham who stated in early September...

Within the next weeks, not months, there will be a major breakthrough on the benchmarks regarding political reconciliation.

When will Graham be asked to say 'Bad-Bye'?

(picture from here)


*I mean "out" as in "out of Iraq", what did you think I mean?

Gosh!

Scott Horton On The President-Tyrant

Horton is a person with the rare ability to translate precisely and in just a few words thoughts that capture the essence of the potential unraveling of the republic. I spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff as do most of our readers and the liberal blogosphere, but few of us have the capacity to translate what forms the basis for our nightmares into a coherent and brief essay. Horton does have the capacity and he exercises it regularly but this essay, to me, captures this moment in our history perfectly:

On Friday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse went to the well of the Senate to deliver a speech. I very rarely quote from floor debate and speeches in the Senate. Frankly that’s because there is only very rarely anything worth quoting. But listening to and watching Senator Whitehouse, I saw the spirit of a modern-day Cicero rising to defend the life of the republic against the encroachments of a man who would be dictator. It is not just Whitehouse’s rhetoric which commands respect and attention, but also the evidence he musters.

Whitehouse used his position on the intelligence committee to gain access to the Justice Department’s new torture memoranda and to summarize their reasoning and content. And, exactly as we have long suspected, the essence of the reasoning latent in the legal infrastructure of torture is simple:

The word of the president is the law. The president defines the law. The president stands above the law and cannot be made accountable under it.

In order words, George W. Bush has asserted precisely those powers and prerogatives for which King Charles I lost his head. He has laid claim to a measure of power far beyond anything that the U.S. Constitution accords. He has even claimed more power than the British monarchs against whom the Founding Fathers fought the Revolution.

Senator Whitehouse is a former prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney, former Attorney General of Rhode Island, and former legal advisor to the state’s governor. He is a man with a long and honorable tradition of law enforcement. Here’s how he summarizes the situation:

In a nutshell, these three Bush Administration legal propositions boil down to this:

1. “I don’t have to follow my own rules, and I don’t have to tell you when I’m breaking them.”
2. “I get to determine what my own powers are.”
3. “The Department of Justice doesn’t tell me what the law is, I tell the Department of Justice what the law is.”

When the Congress of the United States is willing to roll over for an unprincipled President, this is where you end up. We should not even be having this discussion. But here we are. I implore my colleagues: reject these feverish legal theories. I understand political loyalty, trust me, I do. But let us also be loyal to this great institution we serve in the legislative branch of our government. Let us also be loyal to the Constitution we took an oath to defend, from enemies foreign and domestic. And let us be loyal to the American people who live each day under our Constitution’s principles and protections.

Important words. An important call. And who was listening.

And another lesson flows from this. Is it any wonder that torture lurks in the background behind all these suggestions of the paramount power and authority of the president? Torture is inevitably and inextricably bound to tyranny. It is an attribute of a tyrannical system, and it is anathema to democracy. We are living this proposition today, in these weeks.

These are the headlines of one simple week, the first week of December 2007. We watch as our republic fades and erodes. And the public continues in its consumer glee, not oblivious to the disasters unfolding about it—it recognizes that something horrible is happening—but feeling powerless to stop it.

What’s needed? First, the power of memory. To recall our own history, the sacrifices of those who went before us, and the dream of democracy and informed citizenry upon which the nation was founded. Second, the realization of danger that is present in a Government which disrespects the ideals and institutions upon which the nation was built. Third, action—demands upon those who have acquiesced in this conversion of power that they restore the constraints of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson formulated the call perfectly:

Let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.(bold is mine)

I wholeheartedly agree, but as I have said before, I am not sanguine about our ability to get out of this mess largely because the people who are the opposition leaders of our cause are so ineffectual. And that is where I believe other commentators are correct in their criticism of Whitehouse who surely did say what had to be said, but he still got it only half right. There are always going to be awful people like Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, and others that would do their bidding, but where have our champions been and where are they now? It surely is time to stand and be counted but when the leaders on our side are the thin gruel we have seen since the end of 2006, I find no reason for optimism, let alone hope. If I am proven wrong it will be because of people like Whitehouse but then we will need more from Harry Reid than making a big deal of keeping the senate in session over the recess as that kind of "bold" action won't be enough to overcome the evil empire.

Just so you know

The place I live...as dangerous as Baghdad.

I just hope my big ball of fur can protect me.

(somebody needs to vacuum back there)

MATLOCK!!!

Shorter Broder:

Mitt Romney, he sure is pretty.

Actually contains this quote:

And the Constitution means what it says: No religious test for public office.

Yes, but that doesn't really apply to what Romney said. Romney said "Liberty requires religion" -- which is absurd on its face. All the empty suit demanded is that he be considered within the small tent of the dogmatic religious sycophants who wear their beliefs to provide both judgment and excuses. In short, the tiny winger base that votes in caucuses.

Good luck with that one.

Broder, as relevant as beri beri.

They all "Got Their War On"

As Lambert accurately put it, "I guess I know why impeachment was off the table". Congressional Democratic Leadership are the world's greatest enablers.

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique[ly illegal and unconstitutional?] CIA program designed to wring [torture] vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the Bipartisan group, which included future-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites [gulags] and the harsh techniques [torture] interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill [not to mention the US military**]. But on that day, no objections were raised.

With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods [torture] during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).

Read Lambert's post, I agree with everything it says.

If Wayne Dumond was Gay...

He would never have been able to get on Hucksterbee's sweet side:

Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk."

As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies...

Huckabee did not return messages left with his campaign.

When Huckabee wrote his answers in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact...

Also in the wide-ranging AP questionnaire in 1992, Huckabee said, "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

Hucksterbee does, now, support more money on AIDS research, 'cuz he's such a nice guy.

Uh-huh.

R.I.P.

Well CompUSA is going down. I'm thinking it's because they sold my nephew a dead PC and then tried to stick him with a 50% restocking fee.

But in any case, it calls for this...


Video found here.

Tut tut looks like lame

Deborah Howell, so-called Ombudsperson of the Washington Post takes a look at it's atrocious "Obama sort of like Osama" page one story and says the real problem is the readers.

Oh, the story may have been atrociously misleading, but those emailers and commenters were so impolite.

Rick Stengel would be proud.

Atonement

I've been making my way through Ian McEwan's ouvre of late. I read Atonement a few years back. I read On Chesil Beach this summer. I finished Saturday about two months ago. And I'm reading Amsterdam now. I was clicking around on the internets and found this McEwan quote, which I thought I'd post up in light of Willard Mitt Romney's Holy War:

Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious conviction, and they still have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in the past. It's a little easier if you've got a god to forgive you.

Students for Guns!

Isn't it nice to know that some schools are open to the gore and death that will result from students carrying guns. Because of all of the people in the world who deal so well with stress, are paragons of all virtue, and only make mature decisions -- we all think: college students! But I suppose once we let the free market dump cheap and accessible handguns into the hands of students at the University of Utah students only good things can result, right?



Friend of Guns everywhere... "Bob" (left) and his pal are very photogenic!

Taking up the Slack?

Are State Attorney Generals actually making a difference when the so-called current executive and his monkey branch refuse to do their job? Could be worse, we could depend on the Wiggles to teach civic engagement, community, and environmentalism to our kids. What? Oh, Damn.

Hey, if you get shot by a gun-toting psychopath it's not his problem

From Mr. Celebrate Diversity, Professor Ernest T. Bass, BLAM BLAM BLAM:

...it's worth noting -- since apparently most of the media reports haven't -- that this was another mass shooting in a "gun-free" zone. It seems to me that we've reached the point at which a facility that bans firearms, making its patrons unable to defend themselves, should be subject to lawsuit for its failure to protect them.

Nice one Mr. Libertarian. Yes, people should be allowed (encouraged even) to go into retail establishments with guns...and the retail establishment has no choice in the matter ... OH, GOOD FUCKIN' IDEA CHIEF! I'm sure NOTHING bad can ever come of that.

I'm waiting for the demand that Childcare center workers AND patrons be required to pack heat too.

Dear Mike Hucksterbee

You're fucked, and deservedly so:

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning, Huckabee said of our story: "there are factual errors in what they have printed, some of it is outrageously incorrect." As an example of our factual errors, he cited... well, nothing. Not one...

But none of Huckabee's finger pointing (he mentioned Bill Clinton 12 times while discussing the Dumond case in his press conference on Tuesday) addresses the key questions raised by this tragic story: why Huckabee continued to favor the rapist's release, even after being sent police reports and wrenching letters from several of his victims detailing his horrific crimes (which included raping a woman while her 3 year old daughter lay beside her in bed); and why Huckabee, to this day, continues to insist "No one could have predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out" when we can read for ourselves the words of his victims predicting that the man would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.

"Dear Wayne," Huckabee wrote in a letter to Dumond, after having read the victims' letters. "My desire is that you be released from prison." And no amount of spinning can change that, or the conclusion that Huckabee allowed his judgment to be swayed by the bleating of a collection of right-wing zealots who put their hatred of Bill Clinton over the well being of the public (Dumond's victim was a distant relative of Clinton, and the daughter of a major Clinton donor).

In interviews, Huckabee claims that his stand on Dumond was clouded by a surfeit of compassion. In reality, it was clouded by a surfeit of cynical pandering to a group whose support he felt he needed.

I watched the Huckabee interview with Scarborough yesterday, and as expected, it was horrendously executed. After a deluge of sympathetic outcries for "poor Mike Huckabee" and his being Swiftboated by terrible attack ads (true attacks on Republicans are "Swiftboat-like attacks" -- as opposed to false smears about Democrats which are reported as "rumors that won't die" on the Campaign trail).

There was absolutely NO follow-up. As if how the Bush Administration treats the press corps is the way all interviews are supposed to be conducted (as opposed to O'Reilly-like harangues).

But this situation is so easy to research and as I posted a few days ago, Huckabee is quoted at the time as making statements saying that Clinton especially had railroaded this serial rapist and murderer. And, of course, Huckabee can't walk away from those quotes nor from letters he both wrote and had written to him by simply uttering, "the Clenis".

I missed the part where Baptist ministers are exempted from the "do not bear false witness" Commandment, but I admit I'm no biblical scholar.

Meanwhile in the Land of "We're Winning"

More demonstrations of "joy":

A female suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed 15 people in a town northeast of Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi police said.

Another 24 people were also wounded in the blast in the town of Muqdadiya, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad, in volatile Diyala province.

Police said the attack targeted members of the 1920s Revolutionary Brigades, a Sunni Islamist insurgency group which has recently begun working alongside security forces against al Qaeda.

Suicide bombings carried out by women are rare in Iraq.

There is something tragically laughable about that last sentence.

But then, what hasn't been a gigantic tragedy tinged with comedy in Iraq since March 2003?

Get Your War on...for Peace!

Cross-Posted from FDL because I'm lazy.

Your modern GOP ladies and gentlemen...now determined to believe that the reason Bush isn't popular is because he is neither dumb enough, nor war mongering enough. While people seem drawn to the fact that the Democrats don't have a unified message and criticize them or even laugh at them, the GOP's problem is that they have a message -- an awful one.

War, what is it good for? Well, them.

To a certain extent Eisenhower's warning has been gleefully ignored by both parties. They both love to dump money into a top heavy, hardware-based military that keeps the pork flowing to hundreds of Congressional Districts. But while Democrats uniformly love the pork as much as the GOP, the latter loves to watch shit done get blow'd up, blow'd up real good. Generating even more cash on the taxpayers' dime. And now that we've pissed people off even more by bombing them, we need to spend even more money to keep them from swimming over here to bomb us -- or in Lou Dobb's world, preventing Mitt Romney's Mexican gardeners from planting a bomb under his rhododendrons. For them, perpetual war is the thing that really does give life meaning -- a constant state of paranoia and bullying. It's also the great way to call their disagreeing fellow citizens traitors and browbeat them into submission.

And when reality raises its head, to the extent that even Bush has to accept it...well, that just won't do:

Senate Republicans are planning to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran as well as the specific intelligence that went into it, according to congressional sources...Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said he plans to introduce legislation next week to establish a commission modeled on a congressionally mandated group that probed a disputed 1995 intelligence estimate on the emerging missile threat to the United States over the next 15 years.

Golly, that sounds kind of dubious on the surface, can it be any more questionable? Why yes, voices in my head, it can:

While other NIEs have been the subject of intense criticism -- most recently the 2002 assessment on Iraq's program to develop weapons of mass destruction -- critics of the new assessment are modeling their response after the clash over a 1995 NIE on ballistic missile threats. That document concluded that no country other than the major declared nuclear powers "would develop or otherwise acquire a ballistic missile over the next 15 years that will threaten the contiguous 48 states or Canada."

President Bill Clinton used the NIE to veto a fiscal 1996 defense authorization bill that would have required deployment by 2003 of a missile defense system capable of defending all 50 states, a project costing tens of billions of dollars.

But a congressionally mandated commission, headed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, who would become President Bush's defense secretary, concluded in 1998 that the United States "might have little or no warning before operational deployment of a ballistic missile by a hostile Third World country." Its conclusions formed the basis for the Bush administration's push for a missile defense system.

Ah, Reagan's "Star Wars" that's been a tremendous fraud-based cash cow for the arms industry in the name of incredibly stupid policy for a quarter-century now. So par for the course then, what a great precedent to follow, no wonder Rummy has so many 'Medals of Freedom'.

The article then goes on to quote Norman Podhoretz (without mentioning he's on Rudy's foreign policy advice team) and Danielle Pletka, of the AEI who is paid to breathe and dream up awesome 'World of Warcraft' tournaments:

"The problem is not the nature of the intelligence, it's the nature of the presentation. This NIE was presented with a clear intention to deceive and to redirect foreign policy," wrote Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, in an e-mail. "I have no doubt that these people believe they are protecting the nation from the President, but our constitution doesn't contemplate the non-proliferation center at the ODNI governing U.S. national security policy."

I seemed to have missed that day in ConLaw I (or II) where Intelligence Analysis was even mentioned in the Constitution. But then again, I'm just a simple man who likes to contemplate and understand the world in which I live. As opposed to cutting out the middleman and blowing up the shit I don't want to understand.

"And furthermore, he is clearly hung like a horse!"

What does masturbation look like in language?

Well most of us just take the pedestrian approach of typing *fap* *fap* *fap*.

But Hugh Hewitt's Mitt-Love is so strong that he must put his masturbatory rituals into prose:

Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech was simply magnificent, and anyone who denies it is not to be trusted as an analyst. On every level it was a masterpiece. The staging and Romney's delivery, the eclipse of all other candidates it caused, the domination of the news cycle just prior to the start of absentee voting in New Hampshire on Monday - for all these reasons and more it will be long discussed as a masterpiece of political maneuver.

Somebody, and no thank you if you're asking, get that albino a towel.

Shorter Advanced Copy Mitt Romney

"America's great value is its tolerance of the religious beliefs of others. I will not let my religious beliefs influence my decisions...except for those that you agree with because we all know those are awesome and it's those values that make America great. I do not believe in discriminating against people based on their beliefs, unless you find those beliefs offensive, in which case I too find those offensive and damn them. And protecting our children from the beliefs of others that we find offensive is what makes America a great country.

Oh and Muslims, fuck all of them, am I right people? Because hating all the Muslims, except for America's Christian and Jewish Muslims, is what makes America great. Tolerance for some, stereotypes for others, God bless the U.S.A.!

Oh, and Mexicans...they're a religion right? I sure don't like them, which is what makes America the greatest country in the history of the world all the way back to the first Jesus. And Jesus is what makes America great."

Facts, we don't need no stinkin' facts...

"We've got taxpayer money to give a way in phony multi-billion dollar projects to our campaign contributors.

...instead of universal health care for you....SUCKERS!"

The United States says it will not alter plans to build a missile defense system in Europe despite findings by U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons program.

Since U.S. officials have said the threat from Iran was the main reason for building the defense shield, however, the Americans may have a harder time persuading European allies that it still is necessary.

Shorter Bush:

SUCK ON THIS, NEW ORLEANS!

MATLOCK!!!

What more can really be said about the irrelevance and outright stupidity of David Broder than this:

Bush's stance is likely to be copied by most of the major Republican presidential candidates. They can take heart from the successes the administration is beginning to score with its foreign policy. Surely, their position is stronger than the one they were defending early this year -- when Iraq looked to be lost, the Middle East was in turmoil and the threat of war with Iran loomed.

He lives in a different world than most of us.

I believe the name of this world is "Shady Acres Nursing Home".

DuMond was freed to get back at the Clenis

Eventually, if Huckabee continues to be a viable candidate this has to be known (and for once I think it will be as the media starts to rediscover the story)

Via the incomparable Digby this 11 year old story from Odious Maximus Rupert Murdoch beloved Steve Dunleavy (warning link goes to a winger site and it's format will make you blind):

"Sometimes, " said Mrs. Dumond, "I just want to give up. But now, who knows? The new governor has personally assured me that Wayne's case will be the first thing on his desk, after he clears up everything from this Whitewater thing."


Dwayne Harris, a spokesman for Huckabee, the Republican lieutenant governor who will succeed Democrat Tucker, told me Friday that Huckabee " has voiced a very special intention to thoroughly review the case of Wayne Dumond."...

...The truth, the terrible truth is, that one of the guys she first identified as the rapist but who had an ironclad alibi had been going out with the girl. But the new governor has indicated to me on several occasions that he was more than disturbed about Wayne's case and the way Clinton and his boys handled this terrible thing. " You know, this is Arkansas. Right up until now this has been Clinton territory. Maybe not anymore."

Murray Waas (who should be addressed as "The Incredibly Excellent Murray Waas" [ed. must everyone in this story have an appellation?] had a great story on this whole case -- including the shoddy (is there any other kind he did?) sensationalist reporting Dunleavy did on the actual facts of Dumond's case...outside of the quotes he obtained.

"Hey, don't blame me, I don't know stuff a lot of people know"

Ignorance, it isn't just for denying evolution happened anymore:

Reporter: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday …

Huckabee: I’m sorry?

Reporter: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it –

Huckabee: No.

Reporter: Have you heard of the finding?

Huckabee: No.

This, of course, was well after the report had been the lede story in broadcast, radio, and newspaper headlines across the country.

What to make of it -- well, Eraserhead enthusiast Byron York used one of his many hairpicks and took a pathetic stab at it:

After Kuhn explained the NIE's findings to Huckabee, Huckabee seemed confused about what it meant. Beyond doing nothing to resolve doubts about his foreign policy qualifications, the exchange underscores the fact that Huckabee doesn't really have much of a campaign, in the sense that Giuliani and Romney have campaigns, with teams of advisers and carefully-thought-out policy positions.

How much of a fucking team do you need to know the lede story in the news for an entire news cycle?

Those who forget the past are destined to write equally shitty editorials in the future

Fred Hiatt, demonstrating that Chimpanzee's really do have better short term memories than many humans.

There's no editor more capable of finding a way to shake off the errors of the past and concentrate on ramping up the errors of the future than Fred Hiatt.

Why just look at him go:

September 25, 2007:

Even if Tehran provides satisfactory answers, its uranium enrichment -- and thus its progress toward a bomb -- will continue. That doesn't trouble Mr. ElBaradei, who hasn't hidden his view that the world should stop trying to prevent Iran from enriching uranium and should concentrate instead on blocking U.S. military action. Do Russia and China share this judgment? If so, they are more likely to precipitate a U.S. or Israeli military strike than to prevent one.

One can literally see Hiatt salivate at writing the editorial stating Dick Cheney had no choice but to bomb those Iranians so hard that that even Kathryn Lopez bounced. "See what you made him do?"

One may think that the latest NIE stating Iraq stopped working on a nuclear bomb in 2003 would temper Fred from enriching his own codpiece, but why would logic and rationality take hold now?

Iran's "decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs," says the public summary released Monday. That sounds like an endorsement of the diplomatic strategy pursued by the Bush administration since 2005, which has been aimed at forcing Iran to choose between the nuclear program and normal economic and security relations with the outside world. It strengthens

Bush during his Press Conference....

One can literally see Bush try to kick start his brain into "hyper-lie" with his eyebrows:

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRR-flump, flump, flump



(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRR-flump, flump, flump



(REUTERS/Jim Young)
RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRR-flump, flump, flump

Brett Favre Sportsman of the Year

I'm from Minnesota (0-34) so I mean this sincerely when I say...

PLEASE KILL ME NOW!

Take that Jeebus!

Shorter Bush Press Conference in advance

Gimme mah money!

Gimme!
Gimme!
Gimme!

We're winning, there I said it again, now gimme mah money.

NO QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW I KNOW WE'RE WINNING!

Gimme mah money!

Gimme!
Gimme!
Gimme!

And the streak ends

Joe DiMaggio eventually met Jim Bagby, and now the GOP's string of perverts -- as it was destined to do -- cums to an ignominious end:

A member of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell's staff has been charged in federal court after a sting operation in which he allegedly solicited sex from what he thought was a 13-year-old boy.

James Michael McHaney, 28, was charged Saturday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., with using a computer to arrange a sexual encounter with an informant posing as a boy, according to court records.

Silly Democrat, that's a Homeland Security guy's job if ever there was one.

I only hope John Derbyshire can come forth and comdemn this behavior!

But I come here to commemorate the ending of this streak...

From "the Cock-headed Manwhore" to "I'm afraid of black men so I had to give one head" to "I have a Wide Stance" it has been one hell of a ride...uh, so to speak.

So I salute you GOP-Perverts at the conclusion of your heretofore unheard of streak of sexual perversions (well since the "Era of Good Feelings" when there was a non-partisan Gang-Bang or Daisy Chain every fucking day in the Capital Rotunda...Henry Clay was a fantastic catcher -- ask David Broder, he was there, misses the era terribly).

I wonder what Ted Haggard is up to?

There's a Reason They Call Him "The Boss"

The coveted "Cavuto THIS IS GOOD NEWS FOR REPUBLICANS Award" goes to...

After several years of war mongering, the Bush Administration finds that the latest NIE (held up by Cheney for a year while he glowered) says they have been full of shit (as always) about Iran for years.

And the response from Victor "Tiberius Leonidas Leviticus Deuteronomy Hippopotamus Irkutsk from Kamchatka" Hanson?

The latest news from Iran about the supposed abandonment in 2003 of the effort to produce a Bomb — if even remotely accurate — presents somewhat of a dilemma for liberal Democrats.

Keep on wankin' there Spaz, keep wankin'.

UPDATE:

BOEHNER, BOEHNER, BOEHNER...he's gonna cry again.

Though you all have done smelt it...

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Someone gets some brown shirt Levitra

'Cuz Georgie can't quite get it up anymore.

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

He may be an outright fraud

But dag-nabbit he writes shit the way we imagine it to be!

So sayeth K-Lo in her defense of gargantuan shit-thrower Thomas Smith. A guy who makes GI Beauchamp look like Edward Murrow.

I wish this hadn’t happened. I still think Smith is a well-intentioned reporter. We post him on a submission-by-submission basis and will continue to do so unless we have reason to decide otherwise.

Now, back to the Waffle-Cone Mobile!

You just have to marvel at my mad photoshop skilz, no?

The Stench Coming Out of the White House

According to Scott Horton, one of the best writers going on issues pertaining to law stuff (and particularly the Siegelman prosecution in Alabama) tells it like it is in identifying that odor emanating from the place where George W. Bush has been defecating on the rugs and peeing on the drapes:

The trail of the Abramoff investigation led several times directly into the White House, but Bush Administration Justice Department investigators, headed by Public Integrity head, Noel Hillman, consistently refused to follow any leads. Hillman was rewarded for keeping things on the right track. He’s now a federal judge.

One likely trail led straight to Alabama and the current controversy surrounding the politically motivated prosecution of former Governor Don E. Siegelman. Abramoff and his sidekick Michael Scanlon, a former assistant to current governor Bob Riley, were deeply involved in advising and representing gambling interests in the Southeast. They turned their clients to support Riley in his campaign against Siegelman, and are linked to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars which flowed into the Riley campaign coffers. It seems likely that Rove knew of or perhaps even had some marginal involvement in these funding and campaign efforts, which sit firmly in the background of the efforts to remove Siegelman from the political process through a corrupt prosecution.

One of Aristotle’s key tests in the definition of forms of government is recited in the Politics: What do you call a state whose ruler, in his conduct of the affairs of state, is enshrouded in secrecy, particularly when the facts, if disclosed, would alert the people to his lawlessness or criminality, but conversely, the same ruler spies constantly upon his people giving them no repose in the conduct of their own personal affairs? Such a ruler, says Aristotle, is called a tyrant, and the quality of his rule is called tyranny. So let’s be clear what the Bush Justice Department is busily constructing. The standards for a democracy are something altogether different.

It is going to take Servicemaster a long time before it gets out the mess of this stench when Bush and Cheney are gone.

Dear Rummy,

Perhaps, in a just world, some day you and Hugo Chavez will have adjoining cells at the Hague.

But until then the little Venezuelan despot remains a few war crimes behind you.

So in short, fuck you.

Sincerely,

Atta J. Turk


P.S. Fuck you

Oh dear, dear, dear

Josh Marshall notes that some folks have managed to dig up an article called,

Judith Giuliani is creating a rose garden at the Hamptons summer home she shares with her husband, Rudy Giuliani. And while there are many people on both sides of the aisle who hope this foreshadows a bid for the White House, Judith will say only: “I just love digging in the dirt; I am obsessed with gardening.”

...and of course a good role in the hay with the man who's marriage I assisted in wrecking...hurray me!

OH...MAH...GAWD!

Bestill my snarky black heart.

An inveterate multi-tasker herself, Judith is also working on developing a Level One trauma center for Saint Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. It will serve as a response center for potential nuclear, biological, and chemical attacks and illicit, sloppy, two and a half-minute sex."

Some of that last part may be edited to make it more realistic.

UPDATE:

It should be noted that Watertiger & Res Ipsa were on this story 7 months ago.

Remember folks

If you've got money to burn and you want to get that fairly expensive gift that makes people wonder...

"Do they dislike me, or are they just kind of clueless?"

The Microsoft Zune is a definite consideration.

MATLOCK!!!!

Here we go:

The Dude that believes in bombing the fuck out of places in the name of freedom and the other dude that doesn't believe in evolution...they sure would put a nice face on the Republican Party.

And now cue the celebration!

The Continuing Adventures of Rudy & Judi (Part VII)

This morning, in the Presidential suite of Des Moines' finest hotel ...

JUDI: (on the phone) "Yes, Yes. I understand. There is always the possibility that he could decide to take a second wife. Just as long as I retain the top spot at all times. What? Who gives a damn about her? I don't give a shit about MS, PMS, or PTSD. Make it clear that I run the show."

RUDY: "Judi? What the hell is this?"

JUDI: (puts hand over receiver) "'What's this? What's this?' I'll tell you what 'this' is, Rudy. This is me bailing."

RUDY: "You're bailing for Romney? The guy's a chump."

JUDI: "Maybe. But he only strapped a dog to the roof of a car...

RUDY: "Well, God knows you've got the experience in that area, Judi."

JUDI: (hits him over the head with rolled up copy of The NY Daily News) ."You have your own dog problem now, motherfucker!"

RUDY: "You asked me to order them drive you there, Judi."

JUDI: "Can you read, you dago dipshit! You used the wheelchair kids' money to ferry your mistress to God's Country! You ordered it! Not me! (into phone) Just get it done, goddamnit. I'm packing now. And I'm gonna need insurance to cover shipping my tiara. (slams phone down) "Look, Rudy. I can't afford to be with someone with such lousy political instincts. You knew you were gonna run for president one day. Did you think that doling out goodies to your girlfriend on the public dime wasn't gonna come back to haunt you? 'Cause if you did, you're an even dumber goombah than your pal Bernie Kerik."

RUDY: "This is unbelievable. I am America's Mayor! I am the hero of 9/11! I fought the terrorists singlehandedly! The French called me 'Mayor Héro.' And you're leaving me for this Morman gasbag hairball?"

JUDI: "Look, Rudy. I'm still young. I'm still hot. Being a mayor's girlfriend is one thing --

RUDY: "'America's Mayor's' girlfriend, Judi. 'America's Mayor.'"

JUDI: "...but being first lady is quite another. If I move now, I can still get to the White House."

RUDY: "But Romney's already married, Judi."

JUDI: "Big fucking deal. We already talked about it. He's gonna amend the Constitution to simultaneously ban gay marriage and decriminalize polygamy. Plus, you ever read Jane Eyre? That bottle blonde automaton is gonna wish she had it as good as Mr. Rochester's first wife soon enough. The White House is a very big place, Rudy."

Previous episodes: VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

Goon Squad

For some reason, I felt sort of sorry for Scotty McLellan -- lying out of his ass, to his credit, just didn't seem to be a talent [of course, he still took the paycheck to lie out his ass].

But even if I didn't have a "very" small soft-spot for the worst poker player in the history of the universe, I'd still feel for him after seeing Bill Orally send his stalkerbots to Scotty's home is the kind of giant asshole behavior we have learned to expect from FoxNews best known sexual deviant.

"It's good to be Mayor"

Wow, just imagine the high-quality level of assholery he could do with Air Force One?

In the fall of 2001, city cops chauffeured Rudy Giuliani's then-mistress, Judith Nathan, to her parents' Pennsylvania home 130 miles away on the taxpayers' dime.

Records show that city cops refueled at an ExxonMobil station down the road from Nathan's childhood home in Hazleton on Oct. 20, 2001, while Giuliani stayed behind in New York attending 9/11 funerals.

A similar receipt pops up at a different Hazleton gas station two months later, when Nathan apparently went home for a pre-Christmas visit with her parents.

Granted, it's hard to drive with that tiara on one's head, but still.

File under Asshole

Joe Klein, apparently believes the "beltway" goes up his shitter.

After the embarrassment of his FISA misunderstanding and misquoting, he goes right out and does it again.

He's starting to make Broder sound relevant in comparison.

How long before Klein makes the Time webmaster in regard to those who comment on his wankery the magic words, "DELETE THEIR FUCKING ACCOUNTS!"?

How you earn affordable psychological care in America

Well, it appears that the hostage taker at Hillary Clinton's office was (as far as we known) neither a regular at Free Republic nor one of the scary brown people Michelle Malkin's posters are always wanting to see.

No, just your regular fucked-up, desperate, pathetic, moron who takes one way you're guaranteed to get counseling in this country...perform a high-profile criminal act.

Leeland Eisenberg was already in trouble before he walked into one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign offices.

Three days earlier, his wife had filed for divorce; he was due to appear in court with her for a domestic violence hearing in about half an hour.

Then, the nicely dressed, gray-haired man peeled open his jacket to reveal what looked like dynamite strapped to his chest, authorities said, and things got much worse...

Eisenberg said he wanted help getting psychiatric care, but had been turned away because he didn’t have the money.

“I need to speak to Hillary Clinton,” CNN quoted him as saying. “Something’s got to change. Ordinary people need help” with their insurance.

Naturally, this will lead to right-wingers adding yet another quiver to their poisoned arguments against moving toward universal health care -- it would be giving it to the terrorists.