Raid kills roaches dead.

The FBI has raided the home of Dusty Foggo (NOT the name of a fictional character). The guy who just resigned as the #3 man in the CIA.

I wonder why Goss REALLY resigned. This CAN'T be a coincidence.

Move along, folks, nothing to see here....

Push poll

You may have read - and been shocked - by reports that a poll says that 2/3rds of Americans have no problem with the Bush administration mining phone calls.

Here is the actual question:

It's been reported that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. It then analyzes calling patterns in an effort to identify possible terrorism suspects, without listening to or recording the conversations. Would you consider this an acceptable or unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?

Note that the question itself ASSUMES that the act is benign, and states things as fact that WE DON'T KNOW (such as that conversations are not listened to or recorded). The question is framed in terms of fighting terrorism, falsifies the known facts, fails to mention the questionable legality, and was obviously thrown together on the fly. For many poll respondents, this was probably the first time they HEARD about it.

This is a push poll.

And I suspect that other polls released in the coming days will show very different results.

Today?

Tweetybird Matthews thinks Rove might be indicted today.

From Imus this morning"

Transcript:

MATTHEWS: If, however, something happens with Karl Rove, we’re going to go to general quarters around here.

IMUS: What does that mean?

MATTHEWS: Meaning we will be taping probably on Saturday or late night because everything will change. Last time, when he picked up Scooter, when he nailed him 30 years of charges, that happened on 1:00 on a Friday. So we don’t know when it might happen, if it’s going happen.

IMUS: Are we expecting something with Karl Rove today?

MATTHEWS: Well, it could be today. It could be next week. Everybody is buzzing about when or if. It’s a big if, big when. There is a lot of talk because he is still being interviewing by the special prosecutor. He keeps being hauled before the grand jury. So something is going on here with the special prosecutor. We don’t know whether he is going to clear him or nail him.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has again refused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to terrorism suspects held in secret detention centers, the humanitarian agency said on Friday.

Isn't it interesting that the whole motto of this administration is "If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide"?

Explains why they hide everything.

Headline says it all

Bush denies spying infringes on privacy

Roll THAT phrase around in your head a few times.

Lewis Carroll wishes HE had thought of that one, I'm sure

Gonzales Lied

As surely as weasels are weasels.

From the Muckraker:

Did Gonzales Mislead Congress about NSA Program?
By Paul Kiel - May 11, 2006, 2:32 PM

Reacting to today's news that the NSA is "amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans," Reps. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) have put out a statement questioning the legality of the program.

Their statement contains this: "when the Attorney General was forced to testify before the House Judiciary Committee a few weeks ago, he misled the Committee about the existence of the program."

Here's what they're referring to. On April 6, 2006, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and in one exchange, Rep. Gerald Nadler (D-NY) tried to nail him down:

NADLER: Number two, can you assure us that there is no warrantless surveillance of calls between two Americans within the United States?

GONZALES: That is not what the president has authorized.

NADLER: Can you assure us that it's not being done?

GONZALES: As I indicated in response to an earlier question, no technology is perfect.

NADLER: OK.

GONZALES: We do have minimization procedures in place...

NADLER: But you're not doing that deliberately?

GONZALES: That is correct.

"There's no doubt in my mind there are safeguards in place to make sure the program focuses on calls coming from outside the United States in, with an al Qaeda -- from a -- with a belief that there's an al Qaeda person making the call to somebody here in the States, or vice versa -- but not domestic calls." - Bush, 01/26/06.

Bush lies some more

President Deer-In-The-Headlights decided to throw a little gasoline on the fire:

Facing intense criticism from Congress, President Bush did not confirm the work of the National Security Agency but sought to assure Americans that their privacy is being "fiercely protected."

"We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans," Bush said before leaving for a commencement address at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Biloxi.

Well, gee whiz, codpiece-for-brains, you ALSO said that you were only listening to INTERNATIONAL Communications. You ALSO said it was only a FEW HUNDRED.

Liar.

Every new story that comes out shows that the administration lied about the last story that came out but they say that we should believe them this time.

NOBODY is that gullible.

By the way, giving the White House info on yur phone calls was VOLUNTARY on the part of the phone companies. Qwest was the ONLY major carrier to refuse. So if you are with AT&T or Verizon, switch to Qwest. And call them and let them know why. DEMAND that they respect your privacy.

It's all true

Everything you thought MIGHT be true IS.

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

Colbert - SOMEBODY gets it.

Here's a great article from the TV Critic at the Chicago Sun-Times about Colbert's public evisceration of His Ignorance. This may be the only thing I have read in the mainstream press that actually understood the reaction to Colbert's speech.

How did Bush tickle reporters? He made fun of the fact that he can barely speak English (he is quite simply the worst communicator of all U.S. presidents), that our vice president is a heartless face-shooter, and that Bush is basically an idiot.

Ha ha, our "war president" knows he's a village idiot? To members of the White House press corps, that's some real funny stuff. To non-insiders, this looked like another example of good old boys and gals slapping each other on the back.

Colbert's routine was more remarkable for its unique and creative brazenness. He joked that Bush's presidency is like the Hindenburg; that Bush's wiretappers were monitoring this very event, and that the White House press corps, sitting in front of Colbert, gave Bush a free pass, scandal after scandal, until recently (when his polls numbers dropped).

How's this for a newsworthy lead? It was perhaps the first time in Bush's tenure that the president was forced to sit and listen to any American cite the litany of criminal and corruption allegations that have piled up against his administration. And mouth-tense Bush and first lady Laura Bush fled as soon as possible afterward.

From whom were they fleeing? A star comedian pretending to be a Fox News-like blowhard doing a sort of performance art that America hasn't witnessed nationally since the days of Andy Kaufman. Even if Colbert's bit had been reported as a train wreck, that would have sufficed. Instead, shocking lines like the following were barely covered by any traditional organ except industry magazine Editor & Publisher: "I stand by" Bush, Colbert cracked, "because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble, and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world."

For TV reporters in particular to quote that gruesome line would be an agreement with Colbert, that they helped Bush mix politics with corruption from the ashes of 9/11 ("aircraft carriers and rubble"), and failed to see through Bush's politicization of the drowning of an American city after a hurricane ("recently flooded city squares").

Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job.

The question isn't "Why do only 31% still support these incompetents" - the question is, "why the hell is it still that high?"

WASHINGTON — Hours after Hurricane Katrina hit, former FEMA director Michael Brown dismissed reports that floodwaters had breached New Orleans' levees, and he obsessed over media coverage of his agency, according to newly released e-mails.

At one point early that morning, Brown reported to an aide that he was "sitting in the chair, putting mousse in my hair" while waiting for media interviews to begin.

What total dicks.

Poll vault

(CBS) President Bush and the Republican Congress show nearly record low ratings while Democrats are viewed much more favorably in their performance on the issues that matter most to Americans, according to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll.

Well, that just great. You think - maybe - the Democrats MIGHT just stop acting like their afraid that challenging thi clown will hurt them?

The Best little whorehouse in Washington

Mary Tyler Ivins - better known as Molly. On Hookergate. Required reading.

AUSTIN, Texas—Of course I am above sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. So serious a servant of the public interest am I, I can fogey with the best: On my better days, I make David Broder look like Page Six.

I don’t care what anyone smoked 20 years ago, I approve of those who boogie till they puke, and I don’t care who anyone in politics is screwing in private, as long as they’re not screwing the public.

On other hand, if you expect me to pass up a scandal involving poker, hookers and the Watergate building with crooked defense contractors and the No. 3 guy at the CIA, named Dusty Foggo (Dusty Foggo?! Be still my heart), you expect too much. Any journalist who claims Hookergate is not a legitimate scandal is dead — has been for some time and needs to be unplugged. In addition to sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, Hookergate is rife with public-interest questions, misfeasance, malfeasance and non-feasance, and many splendid moral points for the children. Recommended for Sunday school use, grades seven and above.

C-Span

A reader drew my attention to this:

C-SPAN Asks Sites to Pull Colbert

The cable network asked two internet video providers, YouTube and Ifilm, to pull clips of Stephen Colbert's April 29 performance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner from their websites.

C-SPAN said it contacted the companies because the copyright material was posted online without its permission.

I don't know if this is the usual case of the lapdog media doing trying to protect the Clown Prince from criticism. If you go to C-Span's site, the Colbert video is quite prominent, not buried.

But I think that stuff from C-span must appear on YouTube all the time. Have they ever ordered that a video be taken down before?

Rupert Murdoch raises money for Hillary

This worries me.

Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch will host a fundraiser for liberal New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Financial Times reports.

They are, of course, both opportunists. But I am afraid that this means that Hillary - who has been WAY too acquiescent to Bush on Iraq and other things - has not yet BEGUN "compromising." Murdoch knows that she's a shoo-in, so he wants to be able to influence her. Hillary knows he has money, and well may allow him to do so.

This is not good.

Paul Krugman

As usual, the New York Times won't let you read it there, so read it here.

Who's Crazy Now?
Paul Krugman

Some people say that bizarre conspiracy theories play a disturbingly large role in current American political discourse. And they're right.

For example, many conservative politicians and pundits seem to agree with James Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, who has declared that "man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

Of more immediate political relevance is the claim that the reason we hear mainly bad news from Iraq is that the media, for political reasons, are conspiring to suppress the good news.

As Bill O'Reilly put it a few months ago, "a good part of the American media wants to undermine the Bush administration."

But these examples, of course, aren't what people are usually referring to when they denounce crazy conspiracy theories.

For the last few years, the term "conspiracy theory" has been used primarily to belittle critics of the Bush administration — in particular, anyone suggesting that the Bush administration used 9/11 as an excuse to fight an unrelated war in Iraq.

Now here's the thing: suppose that we didn't have abundant evidence that senior officials in the Bush administration wanted a war, cherry-picked intelligence to make a case for that war, and in some cases suppressed inconvenient evidence contradicting that case.

Even so, it would be an abuse of the English language to call the claim that the administration misled us into war a conspiracy theory.

But the administration officials who told us that Saddam had an active nuclear program and insinuated that he was responsible for 9/11 weren't part of a covert alliance; they all worked for President Bush.

The claim that these officials hyped the case for war isn't a conspiracy theory; it's simply an assertion that people in a position of power abused that position.

And that assertion only seems wildly implausible if you take it as axiomatic that Mr. Bush and those around him wouldn't do such a thing.

Right-wing pundits have consistently questioned the sanity of Bush critics; "It looks as if Al Gore has gone off his lithium again," said Charles Krauthammer, the Washington Post columnist, after Mr. Gore gave a perfectly sensible if hard-hitting speech.

Even moderates have tended to dismiss the administration's harsh critics as victims of irrational Bush hatred.

But now those harsh critics have been vindicated. And it turns out that many of the administration supporters can't handle the truth.

They won't admit that they built a personality cult around a man who has proved almost pathetically unequal to the job.

Nor will they admit that opponents of the Iraq war, whom they called traitors for warning that invading Iraq was a mistake, have been proved right.

So they have taken refuge in the belief that a vast conspiracy of America-haters in the media is hiding the good news from the public.

The crazy conspiracy theories of the right are supported by important people: powerful politicians, television personalities with large audiences.

And we can safely predict that these people will never concede that they were wrong. When the Iraq venture comes to a bad end, they won't blame those who led us into the quagmire.

They'll claim that it was all the fault of the liberal media, which stabbed our troops in the back.

Bush: Close Guantanamo

Bush now says he wants to close Guantanamo, and you know why he hasn't? Because of that nasty, procrastinating Supreme Court:

BERLIN (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said he would like to close the U.S.-run prison at Guantanamo Bay -- a step urged by several U.S. allies -- but was awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on how suspects held there might be tried.

I'm sure you've noticed Bush just clamoring for a ruling from the court. Heck, it's only been three years.

There is something in the way these people think that is totally divorced from reality.

"Our top court must still rule on whether they should go before a civil or military court," he said.

"They will get their day in court. One can't say that of the people that they killed. They didn't give these people the opportunity for a fair trial."

Did the man fail civics? =sigh= Unless they have some sort of trial, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE GUILTY? They may not have killed ANYBODY.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES doesn't know THAT?

Eight-year-olds know that.

As a form of penance, I sometimes watch Fox News (actually, it's sometimes on the TV at a place I frequent, and I have no real choice except to watch it). So today, they were showing this film a Zarqawi basically looking like a buffoon who couldn't operate a gun. Which he does.

Well, I guess it's fun to sit there and say, "Doesn't HE look like an idiot." But I couldn't help but wonder why HE STILL FREE if he's such an idiot. If Zarqawi is so inept that he needs intruction to operate a gun, how come we haven't caught him?

The Vatican Rag

I DO wish American fundamentalists would listen to those guys with the incense and robes, at least when they're right, and aren't molesting altar boys or anything. This isn't really news to anyone who has been aware of the Roman Catholic position, but lots of people aren't, and assume the Catholics are creationists:

Creationism dismissed as 'a kind of paganism' by Vatican's astronomer

BELIEVING that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed yesterday.

Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a "destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies.

He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events.

Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was a supernatural one, a belief that had led the clergy in the past to become involved in science to seek natural reasons for phenomena such as thunder and lightning, which had been previously attributed to vengeful gods. "Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That's why science and religion need to talk to each other," he said.

"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do."

Scotty

Today is Scott McClellan's last day. Yes, I know, I'm all choked up about it, too. First Draft, has a retrospective, with photos.

Goss Goes

Perter Goss is resigning as CIA Director. That was quick. He's only had the job since September 2004.

My guess is that he decided he didn't want to spend the rest of his life associated with the most corrupt and scummiest bunch of criminals ever to disgrace the White House.

Any guesses on his replacement? My money is on Vlad the Impaler.

JeffyLube comes out

How come the "All-Monica-All-The-Time" mainstream media don't think this is a big story?

It not only has sex - unlike Monica, it actually bears on real issues.

Excerpt:

In what is unlikely to stem the controversy surrounding disgraced White House correspondent James Guckert, the Secret Service has furnished logs of the writer’s access to the White House after requests by two Democratic congressmembers.

The documents, obtained by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal Guckert had remarkable access to the White House. Though he wrote under the name Jeff Gannon, the records show that he applied with his real name.

Gannon’s ready access to President Bush and his work for a news agency that frequently plagiarized content from other reporters and tailored it to serve a conservative message may raise new questions about the White House’s attempts to seed favorable news coverage. Democrats have sought to paint Guckert in the context of other efforts by the Administration to “plant” positive spin by paying for video news releases and columnists to espouse their views.

Guckert made more than 200 appearances at the White House during his two-year tenure with the fledging conservative websites GOPUSA and Talon News, attending 155 of 196 White House press briefings. He had little to no previous journalism experience, previously worked as a male escort, and was refused a congressional press pass.

Perhaps more notable than the frequency of his attendance, however, is several distinct anomalies about his visits.

Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities.

On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out.

In March, 2003, Guckert left the White House twice on days he had never checked in with the Secret Service. Over the next 22 months, Guckert failed to check out with the Service on fourteen days. On several of these visits, Guckert either entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his usual one. On one of these days, no briefing was held; on another, he checked in twice but failed to check out.

“I’d be worried if I was the White House and I knew that a reporter with a day pass never left,” one White House reporter told RAW STORY. “I’d wonder, where is he hiding? It seems like a security risk.”

Others who have covered the White House say not checking in or out with the Secret Service is unusual, especially in the wake of Sept. 11. The Secret Service declined to comment.

“We responded to the FOIA request and can provide no further information,” Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry said.

Guckert declined to comment, directing all questions to the Service.

Zombie rights

Sometimes, you just can't resist the News of the Weird:

They came, they saw, they lurched

By Gary Kemble.

Their big day ... zombie brides lurch through Sydney (Photo: Rachel Young)

About 100 undead lurched from the Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House today as part of the city's inaugural Zombie Lurch.

Carrying banners that read 'I crave the flesh of the living, and I vote' and 'What do we want? Brains!', the ghouls shambled through the city, watched by police and wary onlookers, to raise awareness of zombie rights.

Head zombie Rachel Young says the highlights for her were the sight of the zombie horde at the Opera House, and the zombie who craved footwear more than brains pausing outside a shoe shop to groan 'shooooeeeessss'.

The zombies were apparently also popular with Japanese tourists, but some of the walking dead were a little too realistic for some small children, who started crying when the mass passed by. (Although others seemed to think it was a regular laff riot).

My favourite zombie was the hapless explorer run through with a spear.

(P.S. AJ in Perth points out the infection has spread further than initially thought, popping up in Perth last August.)

The Reaming of the Rummy.

You've probably already heard about Rumsfeld being confronted by an articulate questioner who knew his facts.

The clowns in the White House seem to be getting confronted with some regularity despite continuing to appear before only friendly hand-picked audiences. (Check out the Rumsfeld video. The crowd cheers when he says "I did not lie." Now, THERE'S an applause line, eh? Not to mention a lie itself.)

But what has changed is that you probably already know about it. The mainstream press is actually giving it coverage and not leaving the reporting to the blogs. Now, that MAY be because it was Rumsfeld getting reamed instead of Bush, the Boy Prince Who Must Be Protected. But perhaps, just perhaps, the press is starting to realize that this disaster is in part THEIR fault, and that maybe, just maybe, they should start reporting.

This is the one we WON

Taliban increase attacks in Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Taliban militants and their allies have launched an intensified campaign against thousands of NATO troops deploying to southern Afghanistan, where the multinational force is taking over from U.S. soldiers.

Whether ambushing Afghan police from mountain passes or detonating bombs on lonely highways, remnants of the ousted Islamic regime have stepped up attacks, causing havoc and insecurity across a cluster of provinces.

Military officials and analysts said Wednesday the Taliban threat is the No. 1 challenge facing more than 7,000 U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops that by September will be fighting under the NATO flag in four southern provinces.

"This is counterinsurgency warfare (and) there will be casualties on both sides," said British Col. Chris Vernon, chief of staff for NATO forces operating in southern Afghanistan. "This is not the north or west of the country. This is a counterinsurgency war zone."

Thank you.

"The greatest thing about this man (Bush) is he's steady - you know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday - no matter what happened Tuesday." - Steve Colbert

If you haven't seen Stephen Colbert reaming George W. Bush and his Puppydog Press right to their collective faces, check it out here, and give Steve a Thank You.

Lord, the man's balls must have been hammered out by a blacksmith. Color me impressed.

Comedy is an awesome weapon when used by an expert.

If you read one thing on a blog today, please go read David Neiwert's piece on the rise of the new racism.

Family Values

In red states in 2001, there were 572,000 divorces. Blue states recorded 340,000. In the same year, 11 red states had higher rates of divorce than any blue state …

In each of the red states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico, 46.3 percent of all births were to unwed mothers. In blue states, on average, that percentage was 31.7. Delaware has the highest rate of births to teenage mothers among all blue states, yet 17 red states have a higher rate. Of those red states, 15 have at least twice the rate as that of Massachusetts.

There were more than 100 teen pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in 5 red states in 2002. None of the blue states had rates that high. The rate of teen births declined in 46 states from 1988 to 2000. It climbed in 3 red states and saw no change in another.

The per capita rate of violent crime in red states is 421 per 100,000. In blue states, it’s 372 per 100,000. The per capita rate of murder and non-negligent manslaughter in Louisiana is 13 per 100,000. In Maine, it’s 1.2 per 100,000.

As of 2000, 37 states had statewide policies or procedures to address domestic violence. All 13 that didn’t were red states.

The 5 states with the highest rates of alcohol dependence or abuse are red states. The 5 states with the highest rates of alcohol dependence or abuse among 12- to 17-year-olds are also red states.

The per capita rate of methamphetamine-lab seizures in California is 2 per 100,000. In Arkansas, it’s 20 per 100,000. The number of meth-lab seizures in red states increased by 38 percent from 1999 to 2003. In the same time frame, it decreased by 38 percent in blue states.

Residents of the all-red Mountain States are the most likely to have had 3 or more sexual partners in the previous year. Residents of all-blue New England are the least likely to have had more than 1 partner in that span. Residents of the mid-Atlantic region of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were the most likely to be sexually abstinent. Residents of the all-red West South Central region (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana) were the least likely.

Five red states reported more than 400 cases of chlamydia per 100,000 residents in 2002. No blue state had a rate that high. The per capita rate of gonorrhea in red states was 140 per 100,000. In blue states, it was 99 per 100,000.

Even the right-wingers.

Bush is now being attacked by the right-wing think tank the Cato Institute.

President George W. Bush had shown disdain and indifference for the US constitution by adopting an “astonishingly broad” view of presidential powers, a leading libertarian think-tank said on Monday.

The critique from the Cato Institute reflects growing criticism by conservatives about administration policy in areas such as the “war on terror” and undermining congressional power.

“The pattern that emerges is one of a ceaseless push for power, unchecked by either the courts or Congress, one in short of disdain for constitutional limits,” the report by legal scholars Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch concludes.

That view was echoed last week by former congressman Bob Barr, a Republican, who called on Congress to exercise “leadership by putting the constitution above party politics and insisting on the facts” in the debate over illegal domestic wiretapping of terrorist suspects.

On Thursday Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the judiciary committee, noted: “Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress.”

The more serious charges concern Mr Bush’s actions in the “war on terror”. Citing a 1977 interview with President Richard Nixon, who said, “Well, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal”, the report argues that the administration’s public and private arguments for untrammelled executive power “comes perilously close to that view”.

The authors cite spying by the National Security Agency and the “torture memos”, produced by the Department of Justice to defend the authority of the president over interrogation techniques. “The constitution’s text will not support anything like the doctrine of presidential absolutism the administration flirts with in the torture memos.

Sorry guys - you don't have my sympathy. You helped create this monster. George W. Bush thinks he should be dictator, and it's been obvious for YEARS now. If you haven't seen it, it's because you haven't WANTED to. You turned a blind eye to incipient totalitarianism in the name of party politics, and sacrificed every single one of what you claimed were your principles in the service of a single, very unimpressive man.

You have probably wondered how maniacs like Adolph Hitler actually gained support and got into power.

Well, look in the mirror. Because there's your answer.

The Star-Spangled Mess

Republicans claim to be against Government Intrusiveness, in favor of Individual Liberty and all that sort of high-sounding stuff.

So how come as soon as I hear that some twit of a legislator is proposed a resolution determining what people may and may not sing, I know damned well which party he belongs to without even looking?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - English is the only language in which the U.S. national anthem should be sung, a lawmaker declared in a Senate resolution on Monday, jumping into a hot debate over a new Spanish version of the song.

Is this the final move toward Bizarro World or something? A resolution declaring what language people are allowed to sing a song in?

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, said singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a foreign language could be divisive in a nation of immigrants united by a common language.

Not NEARLY as "divisive" as trying to outlaw the native language of one of those groups.

Maybe they should have arrested Louis Prima for recording "Che La Luna."

"English is part of who we are as Americans. It's part of what unites us," he said. "That's why we should always sing it in our common language, English."

How about this for a radical proposal? You can sing any damned thing you please in any damned language you please. You know, as though this was a free country, or something.

Weirdly enough, Condoleezza Rice is the only one who actually sounds sane:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weighed in on the subject on Sunday, saying she had heard the anthem done in musical genres ranging from rap to classical.

"From my point of view, people expressing themselves as wanting to be Americans is a good thing," Rice said on the CBS show "Face the Nation," adding that the focus needs to be on immigration policy.

Protest

Boy, you leave New York for one weekend, and they party without you.

"Anti-war activists march down Broadway, to protest the war in Iraq, with thousands of supporters in New York April 29, 2006. The marchers demanded an immediate withdrawal of troops, the same day news organizations noted April as being the most deadly month for U.S. troops in Iraq, with at least 69 killed."

And silly me was on vacation. I never get to have any fun.

Hi, Atus

Bye, Atus.



I'm off to a Red State to hang with subversives. I'll be back on May Day (that's May 1st) to dance around the maypole and indulge in more wishful thinking.

This is very scary:

And it's actually real, and you shouldn't be finding out about it from a blog.

Click the link and read the whole article.

Deadly fungus devastating populations of amphibians

By John Biemer
Tribune staff reporter

A devastating fungus is sweeping the world, wiping out entire populations of amphibians at such a rate that Brookfield Zoo biologists are helping pull together a massive "Noah's Ark" project to capture frogs, toads and salamanders and put them in safe places.

A variety of factors already have combined to cause more than 120 amphibian species to vanish since 1980, in what one biologist has called "one of the largest extinction spasms for vertebrates in history."

A third of the world's nearly 6,000 amphibian species are threatened—their populations weak and susceptible to disease. If they go, ecosystems will tilt out of balance and potential medical breakthroughs—such as potent painkillers or HIV inhibitors—could be lost.

It is hard to determine how many species have been affected by the fungus because they cannot be assessed fast enough, but it has factored into most of the recent extinctions and declines, said Bob Lacy, the zoo's population geneticist and chairman of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group.

That leaves no time for anything but a triage attempt to get some of the animals out of harm's way until this "tragically unique" disease can be further studied and countered, he said.

"It is a race against time, and it's a matter of months," Lacy said.

From Think Progress:

John King, CNN’s political correspondent, just reported:

CNN is told by three force sources familiar with the investigation that this morning Karl Rove, the president’s deputy chief of staff and top political adviser, is meeting with his attorney and is to meet this morning — if it is not already under way — with the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald. According to sources, the goal of the meeting is for Karl to clear up some lingering questions about his role in a White House campaign to undermine Ambassador Joe Wilson — remember he was the the critic of the Bush administration case ever going to war in Iraq, his wife the CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose name was Outed.

It’s a complicated legal investigation and it has become a complicated political problem for the White House. Our understanding, Karl Rove is meeting with his attorney this morning, meeting with the special prosecutor this morning and the hope from Rove’s camp is that he can answer the few remaining questions about his involvement, his back and forth with reporters, during that time frame, his comments to the FBI and other investigators including the grand jury that is investigating this for quite some time now. And the hope from the Rove camp, all can be resolved and Karl Rove cleared of wrongdoing in the relatively near future.

The AP is also reporting that Fitzgerald went before the the grand jury this morning.

Maureen Dowd

Brought to you by Blog Free America.

A PRIUS IN EVERY POT
by MAUREEN DOWD

It's taken over five years, but George W. Bush finally made a concession speech to Al Gore.

He conceded that America needs to conserve, by buying hybrid vehicles and developing new energy sources.

Trying to calm the yips in his party and the country over exploding gasoline prices, the president sounded a bit like a wild-eyed Ozone Man himself yesterday, extolling the virtues of alternative fuel derived from cooking grease, sugar, grass, wood chips, soybean oil and corn.

But then he got ahold of himself. "You just got to recognize there are limits to how much corn can be used for ethanol," he said, standing in front of a bucolic mural. "After all, we got to eat some."

You could run a fleet of S.U.V.'s on the gas that W. was spewing about fuel. Bill Clinton would have been more likely to crack down on fast food than W. and Dick Cheney would be to crack down on Big Oil.

Even the usually supportive Wall Street Journal editorial page chastised Republicans for putting on "Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi fright wigs" to shout about corporate greed and market manipulation.

W.'s big move was to ever so slightly beef up a federal investigation into oil company price manipulation that's been under way since Katrina. "It's a great idea," said the Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid. "So good that we passed a law last year calling for that."

Price manipulation could explain the marginal — why gas went from, say, $2.70 to $2.90 — but not why gas went from $1.40 to $2.70. That's more about fundamental forces: Chinese and Indian demand, markets spooked by Iran's threats, Nigeria's unrest, Venezuela's talk of nationalizing its oil industry, and the Pentagon's bungling of the restoration of Iraq's infrastructure.

Gasoline prices may be hurting average folks, but the oilers who helped put the Boy King and the Duke of Halliburton in office with lavish donations are enjoying record profits and breathtaking bonuses.

The Oilmen in the Oval, incompetent in so many ways, have brilliantly achieved one of their main objectives: boosting the fortunes of the oil industry and the people who run it.

All those secret meetings the vice president had back in 2001, letting the energy and oil big shots help write our energy policy — one that urged more oil and gas drilling — worked like a charm.

In all their years in government, Mr. Cheney and the Bushes have never done anything to hold the oil companies' feet to the fire, or get Americans' feet off the gas pedal.

As Representative James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, noted, "The Republicans are the party with the keys to the executive washrooms of Halliburton, Exxon and the big oil corporations."

Consider Lee Raymond, the recently retired chairman and chief executive of Exxon. Recently, we learned about his stunning secret compensation: he got more than $686 million from 1993 to 2005, according to a Times story, which calculated: "That is $144,573 for each day he spent leading Exxon's 'God pod,' as the executive suite at the company's headquarters in Irving, Tex., is known."

The only oil baron who isn't cashing in these days is Saddam. We pulled up to the pump in Baghdad and plunked down $10 billion a month, and we're still not getting any gas out of it.

Instead of easing our oil dependence and paying for Iraq's reconstruction, the bungled invasion and subsequent nuclear sparring with Iran have left even Republicans looking for Priuses.

The last time W. began wringing his hands about our addiction to oil — in the State of the Union address — the vice president was dismissive about the notion of sacrifice afterward.

And the energy secretary clarified the president's words, saying they shouldn't be taken literally and that the idea of replacing Middle East oil imports with alternative fuels was "purely an example."

Even if W. shows up on TV in a gray cardigan, it's patently preposterous for the Republicans to make this argument, after selling us on the idea that it's our manifest destiny to get into giant cars and go to giant Wal-Marts and giant Targets and buy more giant bags of stuff.

Now they're telling us to squeeze into tiny electric cars and compete for precious drips of oil with the Chinese and Indians who are swimming in enough of our dollars to afford cars.

The U.S. could have begun developing alternative fuels 30 years ago if Dick Cheney hadn't helped scuttle an ambitious plan in the Ford administration.

By the time these guys get gas from cooking grease, global warming will have us cooked.

Nancy Pelosi

Quick and dirty transcript, cleaned up from Atrios' quicker and dirtier transcript:

If you want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and therefore improve our national security situation, you can't do it if you're a Republican because you are too wedded to the oil companies. We have two oilmen in the white house. The logical follow-up from that is $3 a gallon gasoline.

That is no accident. It is a cause and effect. A cause and effect.

How dare the president of the United States make a speech today in April, many, many, many months after the American people have had to undergo the cost of home heating oil.

A woman told me she almost fainted when she received her home heating bill over this winter. And when so many people are making the minimum wage - which hasn't been raised in eight years, which has a very low purchasing power - have to go out and buy gasoline at these prices?

Where have you been, Mr. President? The middle class squeeze is on, competition in our country is affected by the price of energy and of oil and all of a sudden you take a trip outside of Washington, see the fact that the public is outraged about this, come home and make a speech.

Let's see that matched in your budget, let's see that matched in your policy, let's see that matched in you separating yourself from your patron, big oil.

Cut yourself off from that anvil holding your party down and this country down, instead of coming to Washington and throwing your Republican colleagues under the wheels of the train, which they mightily deserve for being a rubber stamp for your obscene, corrupt policy of ripping off the American people.

Via Think Progress:

So Tony Snow is the new Press Secretary.

Here is some of what he has said about Bush in the past:

– Bush has “lost control of the federal budget and cannot resist the temptation to stop raiding the public fisc.” [3/17/06]

– “George W. Bush and his colleagues have become not merely the custodians of the largest government in the history of humankind, but also exponents of its vigorous expansion.” [3/17/06]

– “President Bush distilled the essence of his presidency in this year’s State of the Union Address: brilliant foreign policy and listless domestic policy.” [2/3/06]

– “George Bush has become something of an embarrassment.” [11/11/05]

– Bush “has a habit of singing from the Political Correctness hymnal.” [10/7/05]

– “No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives.” [9/30/05]

– Bush “has given the impression that [he] is more eager to please than lead, and that political opponents can get their way if they simply dig in their heels and behave like petulant trust-fund brats, demanding money and favor — now!” [9/30/05]

– “When it comes to federal spending, George W. Bush is the boy who can’t say no. In each of his three years at the helm, the president has warned Congress to restrain its spending appetites, but so far nobody has pushed away from the table mainly because the president doesn’t seem to mean what he says.” [The Detroit News, 12/28/03]

– “The president doesn’t seem to give a rip about spending restraint.” [The Detroit News, 12/28/03]

– “Bush, for all his personal appeal, ultimately bolstered his detractors’ claims that he didn’t have the drive and work ethic to succeed.” [11/16/00]

– “Little in the character of demeanor of Al Gore or George Bush makes us say to ourselves: Now, this man is truly special! Little in our present peace and prosperity impels us to say: Give us a great man!” [8/25/00]

– “George W. Bush, meanwhile, talks of a pillowy America, full of niceness and goodwill. Bush has inherited his mother’s attractive feistiness, but he also got his father’s syntax. At one point last week, he stunned a friendly audience by barking out absurd and inappropriate words, like a soul tortured with Tourette’s.” [8/25/00]

– “He recently tried to dazzle reporters by discussing the vagaries of Congressional Budget Office economic forecasts, but his recitation of numbers proved so bewildering that not even his aides could produce a comprehensible translation. The English Language has become a minefield for the man, whose malaprops make him the political heir not of Ronald Reagan, but Norm Crosby.” [8/25/00]

– “On the policy side, he has become a classical dime-store Democrat. He gladly will shovel money into programs that enjoy undeserved prestige, such as Head Start. He seems to consider it mean-spirited to shut down programs that rip-off taxpayers and mislead supposed beneficiaries.” [8/25/00]

What a shit.

Ok, so gas prices are soaring and everybody is pissed off about it.

What is Bush's proposed solution?

Cut back on Environmental Regulations.

"Gee, we have a real problem. What do we do?"

"Let's use it as an excuse to do what we wanted to do anyway."

Where have we seen THAT before?

How frigging predictable.

You know, you'd think that with all the crap coming down, these clowns just MIGHT say, "Hey, let's actually try to help this time Just to build up some good will."

But I don't think that even occurs to them.

By the way, those regulations were in place 5 years ago when gas was cheap. They aren't the cause, you idiot.

From TPM Cafe: "There is a fundamental moral and ethical difference between someone who leaks information in order to serve the public good and someone, like George Bush, who authorizes leaks only for the purpose of saving his sorry political ass."

Gas up, polls down.

How come Bush only thinks that something is a problem if it affects him POLITICALLY?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, his popularity sinking while gas prices soar, hopes to stave off a potential election-year problem for fellow Republicans with a drive to stop price gouging and push alternative fuels.

In a 10:05 a.m. EDT speech on Tuesday, the president will push a four-part plan to ensure fair treatment for motorists, promote fuel efficiency and alternative fuels, and boost U.S. gas supply, his spokesman said.

"We have a strong economy, but high gas prices are like an additional tax on families that are trying to live within a budget," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "It puts a strain on working families, farmers and small businesses."

No, Scotty, you idiot, it ISN'T "like a tax." A tax paves roads, builds schools, helps the homeless, and is returned to community in a concrete benefit. This takes money out of people's pockets, and stuff it into the pocket of some CEO.

But I don't expect you to grasp the distinction.

Greasy Rice

Remember when people in countries like Greece were HAPPY when an American dignitary came to visit?

ATHENS - Greek riot police on Tuesday hurled teargas at demonstrators trying to march to the American embassy in Athens to protest against visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Police in full riot gear clashed with protesters trying to break through their cordon and police used teargas. The leftist and anti-war activists fired back with sticks, stones and petrol bombs.

Thousands of protesters, waving banners reading "Rice Go Home", gathered in central Athens vowing to reach the heavily-guarded embassy but most retreated under the teargas.

Looks like Tony Snow is the new Press Secretary.

We are a strange species: I wonder what makes a man willingly destroy his career and reputation for the rest of his life like that.

The Emperor's New Clothes and the Fucking Blogger.

Dear Mr. President

Live performance by Pink.

Worth watching.

Leaky Rice

Now that say that RICE leaked and they are issuing subpoenas.

Lawyer: Rice Allegedly Leaked Defense Info

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaked national defense information to a pro-Israel lobbyist in the same manner that landed a lower-level Pentagon official a 12-year prison sentence, the lobbyist's lawyer said Friday.

Prosecutors disputed the claim.

The allegations against Rice came as a federal judge granted a defense request to issue subpoenas sought by the defense for Rice and three other government officials in the trial of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. The two are former lobbyists with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who are charged with receiving and disclosing national defense information.

Great defense, methinks: "Hey, it's okay if I did it because so did the Secretary of State."

I especially like this because it's a legal matter. The Bushies treat everything like it's a political problem, and are completely unable to adjust to problems that AREN'T political. Legal problems don't go away by spinning the press. This one will last months.

No caption required.

Lou: Who is China's President?

Bud: That's right.

Lou: What's the name of China's President?

Bud: No - Watt's the name of the old Secretary of the Interior.

Lou: WHO is Secretary of the Interior?

Bud: No, Hu is China's President.

Lou: I don't know!

Bud: He's the new Press Secretary.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Rove may get indicted.

According to MSNBC's Dqavid Shuster, Karl Rove may actually be getting indicted (video here).

According to Shuster, the latest court documents name Rove as a subject (not a target, not yet, anyway) of the investigation, and they say that Rove will NOT be called as a witness (even though he would be a material witness). If they have decided that they won't call him as a witness, it may well be that they want to leave open the possibility of charging him.

What country is this?

George W. Bush gave a murderous dictator a 21-gun salute yesterday. Feted him with pageantry.

And Georgie is apparently VERY ANGRY that his new friend, the murderer, actually had to hear something unpleasant.

The one off-script moment in an otherwise meticulously choreographed day came when a member of the Falun Gong religious sect that is suppressed in China screamed at Hu for several long minutes as he addressed hundreds of Bush aides and ticketed guests on the lawn. "President Hu! Your days are numbered," she shouted. "President Bush! Stop him from killing!" A startled Hu paused until Bush leaned over and encouraged him to continue. "You're okay," Bush assured Hu.

Bush, described as angry by aides who saw him afterward, apologized to Hu when they sat down in the Oval Office. "This was unfortunate, and I'm sorry this happened," Bush said, according to a White House official.

So Bush APOLOGIZED to the murderer for the unpleasantness.

And they ARRESTED the protester:

When she screamed from a press riser where cameras were recording the event, it took several minutes before uniformed Secret Service officers could get through the throng of photographers to remove her. Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said she would likely be charged with attempting to intimidate, coerce, threaten or harass a foreign official in the performance of his duties, punishable by as much as six months in prison.

I'm at a loss for words. In the United States of America, a New Yorker is going to jail for speaking her mind in the presence of a foreign dictator?

Is Rove about to be indicted?

According to Jason Leopold's sources, whatever those may be, Fitzgerald is seeking an indictment.

The grand jury session in federal court in Washington, DC, sources close to the case said, was the first time this year that Fitzgerald told the jurors that he would soon present them with a list of criminal charges he intends to file against Rove in hopes of having the grand jury return a multi-count indictment against Rove.

In an interview Wednesday, Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove remains a "subject" of Fitzgerald's two-year-old probe.

"Mr. Rove is still a subject of the investigation," Luskin said. In a previous interview, Luskin asserted that Rove would not be indicted by Fitzgerald, but he was unwilling to make that prediction again Wednesday.

Stop the presses

A major American newspaper is actually reporting the news.

Ok, it's a columnist, but it's something.

Robbery, not reconstruction, in Iraq

Halliburton and its hundreds of millions of dollars of overcharges or baseless costs are well known. But millions more were taken by companies that promised to build or restore libraries or police facilities, or deliver trucks and construction equipment. Money was given to the puppet government with no follow-up. US government investigators can account for only a third of the $1.5 billion given by the CPA to the interim government and it appears that a substantial portion of the $8 billion given to Iraqi ministries went to ''ghost employees.''

Because of the way the United States set things up after the invasion, contractors are immune from prosecution by Iraqis. And even when firms are prosecuted, the millions of dollars in fines go to the US Treasury, not the Iraqi people. It amounts to two invasions. First the bombs. Then the banks.

This is robbery, not reconstruction.

Look, I'm as pissed off at the Democrats as anybody, and they aren't doing much to change my mind. But, for God's sake, they have GOT to get the majority in Congress because this crap has GOT to be investigated.

Goodbye, Scotty

Countdown with Keith Olbermann has a tribute to the departed mouthpiece. Courtesy of Crooks and liars.

Changing the label./

To read press reports about Rove, it is obvious that the idiots who control our national discourse actually think that Rove changing his job title means he is going to change his job. C'mon people, even the Knights of the Keyboard can't be THAT stupid. Bush still wants Rove to advise on policy, therefore he will advise on policy, even if his title is Armpit Sniffer.

Think progress has a qood question: Now that Rove is "changing jobs" has his security clearance been revoked?

I'm the Decider Pt II

From a Kos Diary

"I'm the Decider"
by Roddy McCorley

"Well, it took me awhile, but I finally realized what "I'm the decider" reminds me of. It sounds like something a character in a Dr. Seuss book might say.

"So with apologies to the late Mr. Geisel, here is some idle speculation as to what else such a character might say:"

I'm the decider.
I pick and I choose.
I pick among whats.
And choose among whos.

And as I decide
Each particular day
The things I decide on
All turn out that way.

I decided on Freedom
For all of Iraq.
And now that we have it,
I'm not looking back.

I decided on tax cuts
That just help the wealthy.
And Medicare changes
That aren't really healthy.

And parklands and wetlands
Who needs all that stuff?
I decided that none
Would be more than enough!

I decided that schools
All in all are the best
The less that they teach
And the more that they test.

I decided those wages
You need to get by
Are much better spent
On some CEO guy.

I decided your Wade
Which was versing your Roe
Is terribly awful
And just has to go.

I decided that levees
Are not really needed.
Now when hurricanes come
They can come unimpeded.

That old Constitution?
Well, I have decided
As"just goddam paper"
It should be derided.

I've decided gay marriage
Is icky and weird.
Above all other things,
It's the one to be feared.

And Cheney and Rummy
And Condi all know
That I'm the Decider -
They tell me it's so.

I'm the Decider
So watch what you say
Or I may decide
To have you whisked away.

Or I'll tap your phones.
Your e-mail I'll read.
`cause I'm the Decider -
Like Jesus decreed.

Yes, I'm the Decider
The finest alive
And I'm nuking Iran.
Now watch this drive!

"Now that I think about it, Dr. Seuss anticipated this administration pretty well when he wrote Yertle the Turtle..."

I'm the decider

You must see this.

Shake your booty

I'm sure I don't have to say this to anyone reading this blog, but don't swallow the presses breathless talk about a "White House shakeup." Replacing the press secretary isn't a shakeup - it's just buying a new mouthpiece when you're still playing a broken saxophone.

And Rove will change his title, while keeping the same level of influence.

I WOULD say that it's like lipstick on a pig, but I have a higher opinion of pigs.

Bush say he's the "decider,"

Well, if he's the "decider," then ALL THE FUCK-UPS ARE HIS FAULT.

Can't have it both ways, George.

Scotty, we hardly knew ye

Scott McClellan just resigned. I'll actually miss him. There was something inspiring about watching somebody so thoroughly incompetent, and yet still willing to go out there day after day to display himself as a public fool.

I wonder who will replace him. I hear that Bagdhad Bob is available.

Thank you, Wonkette

Regarding Il Douche's claim to be a "decider," Wonkette spotted this definition on the Wikipedia:

A "Decider" is a "Machine that always halts."

In computability theory, a machine that always halts — also called a decider (Sipser, 1996) — is anyabstract machine or model of computation that, contrary to the most general Turing machines, is guaranteed to halt for any particular description and input.

Well, Bush says that Rumsfeld has done a good job.

I don't know how that's possible, unless the PLAN was to lose the war.

The ugly face of arrogance.

He's the "decider."

Yeah, George, you've made just great decisions so far, haven't you.

I think he's been hitting de cider.

Some folks have a LOT of time, and use it well.

No wonder they call him "Rummy."

He wouldn't make less sense if he WAS a drunk.

In his radio interview with Rush Limbaugh, Mr. Rumsfeld said that those who had spoken out against him represented "the same kinds of criticism that occurred in the Revolutionary War and World War I and World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War; it's not new." - New York Times

In the first place, it speaks volumes that the Defense Secretary of the United States goes on the radio show of a drug-hazed right-wing extremist to defend his failures. I guess that's the only sympathetic audience he has left.

In the second place, those wars he is talking about weren't fought anything LIKE this one. Isn't Rummy's whole thing that he was going to fight a war in a NEW WAY? And NOT like they were fought in those other conflicts?

In the third, is he just NUTS? Has he been taking as many drugs as Rush?

He thinks that because SOMETIMES criticism is invalid, he can therefore ignore ALL criticism and ASSUME that ALL of it is invalid?

Well, no WONDER Iraq is such a filthy mess, when the operation is being run by someone whose thinking process is that diseased.

Donald Rumsfeld and the neocons have not been right about a SINGLE THING. Not one thing. And they STILL stand there and pretend that they're experts, and it's the people who have been proven RIGHT who don't know what they're talking about.

Here Donald, tell us us how great everything is going:

Four Marines were reported killed in fighting west of Baghdad, bringing the U.S. death toll for this month to 47 — compared with 31 for all of March.

Slam dunk

From Raw Story: Howard Dean does a slam dunk on Bush's ass.

Dean: Bush should declassify info about 'weapons' trailers

The following statement was issued by the Democratic National Committee to RAW STORY.

The Washington Post reported today that President Bush detailed the alleged existence of mobile biological weapons laboratories and claimed that "We have found the weapons of mass destruction," two days after a "Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington" in a May 27, 2003 field report that directly contradicted the President's statements. The final version of that report remains classified to this day. [Washington Post, 4/12/06]

This week, President Bush stated that he declassified and authorized the leak of cherry-picked portions of the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate because he "wanted people to see the truth," and "to see what some of those statements were based on." [President Bush, 4/10/06] In a breakfast discussion this morning with a couple dozen journalists hosted by the American Prospect, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on President Bush to release or declassify the final Defense Intelligence Agency report on the trailers so that the American people can learn whether they were misled about the claims of Iraqi biological weapons:

"Given that the President has been willing to declassify information for his own political purposes, he should declassify this report so that the American people can know if they were misled. The onus is clearly on the President to clarify the situation surrounding this report. Was this incompetence, meaning that he did not know something that he clearly should have known, or is this an instance of dishonesty where information was misused or withheld to support a political agenda?"

Ouch.

Thank you, Chairman Dean.

Disgusting pigs.

Just one more shining example of how the Bushites support the troops.


By giving them sewage to drink.

Doctor alleges water linked to infections
Halliburton contends it met Army standards

WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army doctor serving in Iraq has linked a small outbreak of bacterial infections among U.S. troops to allegedly contaminated water supplied by Houston-based Halliburton Co.

In the latest broadside against Halliburton and its performance in Iraq, Senate Democrats produced an e-mail Friday from Capt. A. Michelle Callahan, a family physician serving at Qayyarah Airfield West, recounting how she treated six infections over a two-week period in January, at the same time she was noticing the water in base showers was cloudy and foul-smelling.

Follow-up testing of the water soldiers were using to bathe, shave and even brush their teeth revealed evidence of coliform and E. coli bacteria, Callahan wrote in an e-mail to a staffer for the Democratic Policy Committee, led by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR was responsible for treating water at that base, under a contract to provide logistical support to U.S. troops.....

Further investigation revealed that the water the troops were using was actually wastewater from a purification unit, she wrote.

More lies

Yeah, I know. Ho hum. It begins to seem redundant. But that leak is turning into a pouring faucet. Maybe it can become a flood to wash the bastards away.

Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary

Washington Post - On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.

How come there are still those who refuse to admit that Bush obviously lied? How brainwashed IS that 34%?

Building a wall

There are suddenly a whole bunch of people saying we should build a wall on the U.S. Mexican border.

Serious question: where, exactly, do people propose building this wall? Half of the border is the Rio Grande River. You can't build it on the Mexican side - that doesn't belong to us. If you build it on THIS side, you cut the people of Texas off from access to the river. You can't do that - it would destroy the State's economy. What are you going to do - put a wall in the middle of the river?

Letter to Schumer

I recently received a letter from Senator Charles Schumer on behalf of the DSCC asking for money to help elect Democrat in November.

I just sent him this (in their Business Reply Envelope):

Senator Schumer:

I have recently received from you and the DSCC a request for money "so we can elect Democrats and take away Bush's rubberstamp."

Senator Schumer, simply put - unless you back Senator Feingold's call for censure, you aren't getting a dime out of me.

I am tired of hearing you guys tell me what you WILL do or WOULD do if only you had the majority. What are you doing NOW?

If you don't take a clear and principled public stand while you are in the minority, you aren't going to GET the majority. You don't need money - you need a spine.

It's not enough to say that IF you get the majority, you'll do something. People judge you on your current actions, not your worthless promises.

The Democrats don't even seem to trying to SLOW DOWN Bush's rubberstamp. They aren't even standing up and being counted.

What the hell are you all so afraid of? Bush is EXTREMELY UNPOPULAR. The American People OPPOSE this crap in Iraq. Why are YOU afraid to? The American People OPPOSE illegal wiretaps. Why are YOU afraid to? The American OPPOSE selling the Government to lobbyists. Why are you afraid to?

Why are you afraid of coming out LOUDLY and CLEARLY as opposing total incompetence and criminality? What the hell will it take?

You send ME these stirring letters detailing all the rotten things that Bush has done. Well, parden for asking, but why are you telling ME? I KNOW all that. I'm on your frigging mailing list. We call this preaching to the choir. Why the hell aren't you saying these things to the GENERAL PUBLIC? To the newspapers? To the press?

The people in the White House are plain criminals. If you meekly refuse to try and do anything about it, why would I support you?

SUPPORT THE CENSURE OF GEORGE W. BUSH.

If you don't, then you don't deserve MY support, and I will gladly work to have you replaced with REAL Democrats who will actually behave like an opposition party.

Wild speculation

Seymour Hersh's article about the possibility of bombing Iran has really upset His Pissiness:

"And by the way, I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend. It was just wild speculation, by the way. What you're reading is wild speculation, which . . . happens quite frequently here in the nation's capital."

Gee, something about that phrase "wild speculation" just doesn't make me rest easy.

After all, Bush says stuff like that all the time.

"Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations." - Bush, Third Bush-Kerry Debate

"And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him."

"So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you." - Bush

Bush's claims aren't worth a hill of beans.

Why have we lost the respect of much of the world?

Because we are the sort of nation that refuses to sign the Kyoto protocols, but tells other people that they'd better not pollute, that's why.

Death from a thousand paper cuts?

Well, maybe, but only because the sycophantic right-wing media keep pretending that bullet holes are paper cuts.

Here's a NEW bullet hole:

Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House

WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The Republican officialdom says that that's "preposterous."

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

WHY, exactly, is it "preposterous"?

Preposterous to suspect THIS crew of dirty tricks?

When have they done ANYTHING the honest way?

Seriously - we are cursed with a media corps that is dedicated to minimizing right-wing criminality. And the only reason it isn't working is because there is SO MUCH criminality.

Yes, He Would

By PAUL KRUGMAN, whom the New York Times won't let you read for free.

NEW YORK TIMES
April 10, 2006

"But he wouldn't do that." That sentiment is what made it possible for President Bush to stampede America into the Iraq war and to fend off hard questions about the reasons for that war until after the 2004 election. Many people just didn't want to believe that an American president would deliberately mislead the nation on matters of war and peace.

Now people with contacts in the administration and the military warn that Mr. Bush may be planning another war. The most alarming of the warnings come from Seymour Hersh, the veteran investigative journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib scandal. Writing in The New Yorker, Mr. Hersh suggests that administration officials believe that a bombing campaign could lead to desirable regime change in Iran — and that they refuse to rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

"But he wouldn't do that," say people who think they're being sensible. Given what we now know about the origins of the Iraq war, however, discounting the possibility that Mr. Bush will start another ill-conceived and unnecessary war isn't sensible. It's wishful thinking.

As it happens, rumors of a new war coincide with the emergence of evidence that appears to confirm our worst suspicions about the war we're already in.

First, it's clearer than ever that Mr. Bush, who still claims that war with Iraq was a last resort, was actually spoiling for a fight. The New York Times has confirmed the authenticity of a British government memo reporting on a prewar discussion between Mr. Bush and Tony Blair. In that conversation, Mr. Bush told Mr. Blair that he was determined to invade Iraq even if U.N. inspectors came up empty-handed.

Second, it's becoming increasingly clear that Mr. Bush knew that the case he was presenting for war — a case that depended crucially on visions of mushroom clouds — rested on suspect evidence. For example, in the 2003 State of the Union address Mr. Bush cited Iraq's purchase of aluminum tubes as clear evidence that Saddam was trying to acquire a nuclear arsenal. Yet Murray Waas of the National Journal reports that Mr. Bush had been warned that many intelligence analysts disagreed with that assessment.

Was the difference between Mr. Bush's public portrayal of the Iraqi threat and the actual intelligence he saw large enough to validate claims that he deliberately misled the nation into war? Karl Rove apparently thought so. According to Mr. Waas, Mr. Rove "cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged" if the contents of an October 2002 "President's Summary" containing dissents about the significance of the aluminum tubes became public.

Now there are rumors of plans to attack Iran. Most strategic analysts think that a bombing campaign would be a disastrous mistake. But that doesn't mean it won't happen: Mr. Bush ignored similar warnings, including those of his own father, about the risks involved in invading Iraq.

As Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently pointed out, the administration seems to be following exactly the same script on Iran that it used on Iraq: "The vice president of the United States gives a major speech focused on the threat from an oil-rich nation in the Middle East. The U.S. secretary of state tells Congress that the same nation is our most serious global challenge. The secretary of defense calls that nation the leading supporter of global terrorism. The president blames it for attacks on U.S. troops."

Why might Mr. Bush want another war? For one thing, Mr. Bush, whose presidency is increasingly defined by the quagmire in Iraq, may believe that he can redeem himself with a new Mission Accomplished moment.

And it's not just Mr. Bush's legacy that's at risk. Current polls suggest that the Democrats could take one or both houses of Congress this November, acquiring the ability to launch investigations backed by subpoena power. This could blow the lid off multiple Bush administration scandals. Political analysts openly suggest that an attack on Iran offers Mr. Bush a way to head off this danger, that an appropriately timed military strike could change the domestic political dynamics.

Does this sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Mr. Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn't do it again?

If you're crazy and you know it, bomb Iran.

It looks like they want to attack Iran. Seymour Hersh, who breaks the story, is usually reliable.

Hersh says that they are mulling tactical nukes. I think that much is bluster - it's the old strategy, indulged in by many six-year-olds, of proposing something totally extreme, to make something less extreme seem not so bad.

But it's very easy to believe that they will attack Iran, because it's the MO of these maniacs. Just like Iraq, they've had a hard-on for attacking Iran since before Bush was even in office, and they have needed an excuse. And just like Iraq, Iran is worth a whole lot of money to George's cronies.

The fact that Georgie's Iraqi Adventure turned out to be so disastrous has forced them to put Iran on the backburner. But now poor George sees the possibility of attacking Iran slipping away with the passage of time. So of COURSE he needs to figure out how to do it before he leaves office. He may never have another chance. And he needs war to make him feel like a man. As long as somebody else does the actual fighting.

Of course, you would think that the fact they they've completely decimated the United States Army would slow them down. But they can always withdraw from Iraq to give them a few extra troops for Iran.

I think that by November, George will suddenly pull out of Iraq and leave them to rot - Iraq is no longer useful to him. And then announce the invasion of Iran, on the grounds that Iran is a terrible danger to us all. And he will claim that he needs no Congressional approval, because the authorization to invade Iraq was really ALSO an authorization to invade Iran.

What may stop him? A serious outcry from the hard-right. George couldn't care less if such an action is opposed by almost every human being in America. He only cares if it's opposed buy right-wing extremists. If the Republican Congess can convince him that it would be POLITICALLY disastrous (Bush couldn't care less about any other kind of disaster) that may do it.

Bush knew that his claim about uranium from Niger was false.

Yes, you knew that. Now, the press is noticing because the evidence is just too damning.

Here is what George H W Bush said of people who did the same thing that his own son has done:

"Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."
-- George Herbert Walker Bush, 1999

Me too, George, me too.

Sing, you sinner

Scooter Libby has fingered BUSH.

Gee - Bush said he wanted to know who the leaker was.

"[I]f there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of. ... I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." - George W. Bush, September 30, 2003

He knew who the leaker was.

Him.

Heh.

Can you say "disarray," boys and girls?

"Yes, I know we have made tactical errors, thousands of them, I am sure." - Condoleezza Rice

FARGO, N.D., April 6 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he's puzzled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's remarks that many tactical errors were made in Iraq.

"I don't know what she was talking about, to be perfectly honest," Rumsfeld said in an interview on WDAY-AM in Fargo, N.D., when asked about the remark.

Rumsfeld said her remark suggested she didn't understand warfare, the Washington Post reported.

I knew that you could.

AMERICAblog has this great clip of Jack Cafferty absolutely reaming Tom DeLay.

One comment, though: I enjoy this as much as the next fellow. But why didn't anybody in the media talk like this about DeLay BEFORE he went down?

Throwing flowers

Really. Everything's going just great.

Civilians take up arms amid Iraqi violence.

Iraqis are being targeted at an unprecedented rate. Wary of the ability of police and soldiers to provide protection, civilians are attempting to provide their own security, relying on neighbors and family or hiring armed guards.

In the 29-day period following the mosque attack, 955 people were murdered in Baghdad province, which includes the capital city and its outskirts, according to the U.S. military.

That's more than the number of murders in New York City, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, Boston and Seattle combined for all of 2004, according to the
FBI. Those cities have a combined population of 10.8 million, compared with Baghdad province's 7 million.

An additional 146 Baghdad residents were killed in bombings during that period, according to the U.S. military.

WE caused this disaster.

And the clueless-in-charge don't even have the decency to be ashamed.

Maybe this...

Below, I wondered why DeLay dropped out, and if it meant that something nasty was about to happen to him. I had forgotten about this, from just last Friday:

CNN.com - Ex-DeLay aide pleads guilty to fraud - Mar 31, 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former senior aide to Rep. Tom DeLay pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to fraud conspiracy, saying he joined a scheme with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others to enrich themselves and illegally influence members of Congress.

Rudy faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but the court said he was likely to get much less time if he keeps his promise to cooperate with prosecutors.

Yeah, that might do it.

DeLay Withdraws

Tom DeLay has just announced that he won't run. No online link that I can find yet. He told Chris Matthews.

Something is going on. DeLay just won a primary, and did better in it than anyone, including me, predicted. And gave no HINT during that primary - in fact, no hint before now - that he was thinking of dropping out.

I could be wrong, but I think something very ugly is about to break with the man's name all over it.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

England is our Ally

Not Bush's ally. Our ally. Blair is Bush's ally. England agrees with us.

Let's recap the gigantic Public Relations triumph that was Condoleezza Rice's trip to England.

Something inside me tells me that I SHOULD feel sorry for her, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't.

Rice went to England as a sort of reciprocation for Jack Straw's visit here (Jack Straw, in case you didn't know, is the British Foreign Secretary who sounds like a character in a nursery rhyme). Straw is Rice's British counterpart, and when he was in the United States, Rice showed him around her hometown of Birmingham. So Straw invited her to England to look around HIS old stomping grounds in Blackburn, Lancashire, England (even though the place had enough holes to fill the Albert Hall). Isn't that nice?

So the first thing Straw did was invite her to a soccer match.

But the team, the Blackburn Rovers, wound up rescheduling the soccer match for the sake of TV revenues. So Straw took Rice on a tour of an empty soccer stadium instead.

Then Straw took her to his old school, Pleckgate High School. Most of the students are Indian and Pakistani, and Straw wanted to show her how diverse they were.

But let us just say that the Indian and Pakistani students were not happy to see Dr. Rice, at all, at all. In fact, they were sort of screaming things.

Things like "Condi, go home!"

And, "Hey, Condi, hey, how many kids did you kill today?"

And "Who let the bombs out?"

Through megaphones.

Since Blackburn is close to Liverpool, Rice thought it would be neat to meet Sir Paul McCartney (who wouldn't?).

But Sir Paul declined the invitation, so poor Condi never got to meet him.

She took a tour of his school instead. And saw a performance at the Paul McCartney Theatre.

And when she got to the Paul McCartney Theatre, the first thing she saw - standing abreast right inside the front door - were six people wearing black T-shirts that said, "No torture. No compromise." With the school director's permission.

Then, in response to a question by the British Press, she tossed out THIS little winner:

"Yes, I know we have made tactical errors, thousands of them, I am sure."

By evening's end she was (ahem) assuring everybody that she was only speaking "figuratively, not literally." Which, I suppose, means that by "thousands," she meant, oh, I don't know, four or something.

Her embarrassing gaffe was preceded by a talk from Douglas Hurd, Maggie Thatcher's Foreign Secretary and Straw's predecessor. In her presence, Hurd said this:

"The world only works if the world's only superpower follows the rules like everyone else."

Of course, Hurd was too polite to say precisely who he was referring to by "the world's only superpower."

On Friday night, they went to a performance by the Liverpool Philharmonic.

The host cancelled his appearance to protest Rice's visit.

One of the performers sang John Lennon's Imagine, and dedicated it to "the protesters outside," and spliced a piece of "Give Peace a Chance" into the song.

Then they decided to visit Masjide al-Hidayah mosque. A fine symbolic gesture.

But the mosque decided that they had had symbolic gestures up to here. They cancelled the visit. They had received many angry phone calls from many angry people threatening to "invade" the mosque should Rice show her face.

So it looks like Rice got an up-close-and-personal view of just what England thinks of Mr. Bush and his policies.

And it seems pretty obvious that they aren't his ally.

They are ours.

"I don't hate George Bush. He's just the hood ornament on a machine run by a bunch of right-wing ideologues going over a cliff." - Kris Kristofferson