I am heading out for a few days to attend a wedding. I will be returning Wednesday evening, though I don't know when.
The wedding is in Jamaica and the resort we are going to does not have internet access, so I will be off the grid until I return.
While you are here, check out the archives for my wit and wisdom from the past year. Don't forget the blogs in my blogroll.
Let them know David sent you, and you will get a discount.
"Talk" to you when I get back.
Cheers,
David
From flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers:
sitting in a car driving to the airport
we are on our way to bilbao spain where we are gonna play in front of
the guggenheim museum
i am looking forward to that
to be next to beautiful art and architecture
and to put some art of our own into the open air
george w bush should definitely be impeached
he is a liar
and his lies have bought misery to millions of people
and bought no good to anyone except for the corporate oil
billionaires who are making huge profits
they are profiting during wartime
that is unscrupulous and terribly sad
w bush has made the world a much less safe place
before the war iraq was not a place for terrorists
saddam hussein, brutal dictator that he was was secular and had
nothing to do with al queda
and was sanctioned to death and had no power outside of his country
now it is a breeding ground for terrorism and anti-americanism is at
an all time high all over the world
and the people of iraq are no better off at all
all those people want is for the americans to leave
decent families and people like you and i who never wanted america
there in the first place
goerge w bush has sent american soldiers over there to be maimed and
killed
only to serve his selfish oil company needs and for his ego
american soldiers who are loyal to each other and who only want to
have a good job get an education and support their country are being
used for an unjust cause
i support the troops
they, like all americans are being betrayed by george w bush
he has betrayed his country he should be impeached
the administration's line that they were over there because they
wanted to spread democracy and freedom
is nothing else besides a lie
if they had any interest at all in the well being of other human beings
they would be doing what they could for people who desperately need
and would love help in africa
i pray to god that george w bush and his administration does not
invade iran
it would be a bloodbath
why dont they just leave the iranians alone
and go through the united nations
and work on making the united nations as strong and as just as possible
an invasion of iran would be the worst possible thing that could happen
i pray to god that it does not happen
i am just another guy sitting in the car on the english motorway
"There are people I know who won't hurt me. I call them corpses."
--Randy K. Milholland
Babbling on about things he knows so little about.
To summarize, before subjecting yourself to Jonah's latest column:
More Americans disapprove than approve of how George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Congress are doing their jobs, while a majority approves of Condoleezza Rice. President Bush’s approval hits a record low of 33 percent this week, clearly damaged by sinking support among Republicans.
"Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night."
--Philip K. Dick
Can you think of any policy-decision or action President Bush has taken in his five-plus years in office that didn't enjoy its greatest popularity on day one and then become more or less consistently less popular over time?
China "must know that this Bush administration is good at controlling crowds for themselves, and the fact that they couldn't control this is going to play to their worse fears and suspicions about the United States, into mistrust about American intentions toward China."
Stoller on the shuffling of the deck chairs:
We have a man frightened to be President clinging desperately to the comforting adults who tell him what to do. These 'adults' happen to be vicious ideologues bent showing the world their manliness no matter how weak they transparently are. In other words, this isn't a real shake-up, because at this point Bush can't shake up the White House staff.
Michelle Malkin saw fit to publish the names and contact information of some students who organized a protest against military recruiters on the U.C. Santa Cruz campus. After those students started receiving death threats from supporters of Michelle Malkin, she received a request to remove their contact information from her website.
Malkin's response? Publish them again.
Now Malkin thinks she is all tough because she will stand up to those to play tit-for-tat.
Most people had the decency to remove her contact information as soon as it was published on their blog.
However Malkin has no such sense of decency. She is a person with no morals. For her sake, she had better hope no harm comes to the individuals for whom she cares so little, and is willing to endanger so quickly.
Note to Michelle Malkin: And it is about you Malkin. You made it about you.
Technorati Tags: Malkin
Any man who is such an idiot that he doesn't know how war is declared, yet continues to claim he does, after having been instructed in the actual process, deserves no respect.
And then that same person, approves of the swift boating of military commanders just because he doesn't agree with them, has to be the leader of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders.
Glenn Reynolds is that man.
I am sure that such a person would support the swift-boating of a soldier who, after fighting in a war he didn't agree with, chose to protest the same war after coming back from the war zone wounded. Probably even if that person left limbs in the war zone.
Technorati Tags: Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, Iraq War
The new Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters recently stepped up data collection and analysis based on bloggers worldwide and is developing new methods to gauge the reliability of the content, said OSC Director Douglas J. Naquin.
"A lot of blogs now have become very big on the Internet, and we're getting a lot of rich information on blogs that are telling us a lot about social perspectives and everything from what the general feeling is to ... people putting information on there that doesn't exist anywhere else," Mr. Naquin told The Washington Times.
[...]
"I can't get into detail of what, but I'll just say the amount of open source reporting that goes into the president's daily brief has gone up rather significantly," Mr. Jardines said. "There has been a real interest at the highest levels of our government, and we've been able to consistently deliver products that are on par with the rest of the intelligence community."
"But now our customer base literally ranges from the president to local police departments," Mr. Naquin said. The Fairfax County police use OSC products, as do police departments in San Diego, New York and Baltimore. The center also provides support to the U.S. military.
"Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality."
--George Santayana
I have a feeling that if this investigation goes forward, no one will like what they find:
This morning local leaders want to know what happened, and are even calling for an investigation into what left parts of South Austin powerless Monday.
Senator Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay asked the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to fast track an investigation surrounding the rolling blackouts.
In a letter to the PUC chairman, Senator Fraser said, "ERCOT made no attempt to contact appropriate members of the legislature and the executive branch,” and "local law enforcement and emergency services were not notified" either.
While Senator Troy Fraser is calling for such an investigation, Gov. Rick Perry said yesterday that he is pleased with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas's response to the crisis.
"We feel comfortable that ERCOT handled it correctly," Perry said. "I think it's important that the public understand what happened. Yesterday was an absolute freak of nature, if you will."
In addition to McClellan resigning, there was the announcement that Karl Rove is being repurposed:
Karl Rove, the chief adviser to President Bush, is to give up his role in formulating policy as the shake-up continued in President Bush's White House team today.
Mr Rove, referred to by political commentators as the President's Brains, will instead focus more on politics with the approach of the mid-term elections this autumn, said a senior administration official.
Mr Rove took up the post of deputy chief of staff in charge of most White House policy co-ordination about a year ago. The new portfolio came on top of his existing title as senior adviser and role of chief policy aide to Mr Bush.
Joel Kaplan, currently the White House’s deputy budget director, will take over the job of deputy chief of staff for policy, said the official.
Yes, this is a blatant copy from Atrios, but this Rolling Stone magazine cover needs to be seen everywhere:
Technorati Tags: Bush, Rolling Stone
Having lived here in Texas during the migration of many people from California to Texas, people here were deathly afraid that in addition to the high tech jobs being imported to Texas, much of the California culture that Texans don't like would be imported as well.
However, the one thing that no one really anticipated, was that we would be Enronned:
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs the state's power grid, said the statewide shortage was caused by record-breaking heat striking at a time when as much as 15 percent of the state's power supply was already off-line for seasonal maintenance. Then four power-generating plants shut down unexpectedly, ERCOT spokesman Paul Wattles said.
Is he unpopular yet?
President Bush's job-approval rating slipped for the third consecutive month and remains near the lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll.
Thirty-five percent of 1,008 U.S. adults surveyed in the telephone poll think Mr. Bush is doing an "excellent or pretty good" job as president, down from 36% in March and significantly lower than 43% in January. This compares with 63% of Americans who said Mr. Bush is doing an "only fair or poor" job, down from 64% in March.
Watching CNN right now, Scott McClellan announced his resignation.
I am surprised he was able to last as long as he did.
Technorati Tags: Scott McClellan
How else would you describe a dance in which a seven to eleven year old girls recite this to their fathers:
I pledge to remain sexually pure...until the day I give myself as a wedding gift to my husband. ... I know that God requires this of me.. that he loves me. and that he will reward me for my faithfulness.
I, (daughter’s name)’s father, choose before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity. I will be pure in my own life as a man, husband and father. I will be a man of integrity and accountability as I lead, guide and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home. This covering will be used by God to influence generations to come.
Oh was a deluded world Donald Rumsfeld lives in:
There have always been people who have opposed wars…I think we just have to accept it, that people have a right to say what they want to say, and to have an acceptance of that and recognize that the terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have media committees.
They are actively out there trying to manipulate the press in the United States. They are very good at it.
The future depends on it.
Ned Lamont is the only non-Texan I am soliciting contributions for. People like Joe Lieberman are bad for the Democratic Party, and bad for America. We absolutely do not need war with anyone, let alone a war with Iran.
Thanks to Atrios for this link.
Technorati Tags: Lieberman, Lamont, Iran
I thought I was well on my road to recovery. Maybe I am, but from the way I feel right now, you wouldn't know it.
Continued light blogging.
"The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him."
--Russell Baker
The case against AT&T by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proceding. An editorial appeared in the NY Times today:
A former AT&T employee has come forward with documents suggesting that there may be a lot more domestic spying going on than President Bush has admitted. The AT&T documents suggest that telephone companies may be helping the government engage in wholesale interception of telephone calls, e-mail messages and Web surfing. If AT&T is violating its customers' privacy rights, it should come clean, and stop immediately.
According to Mark Klein, a longtime AT&T technician who is now retired, AT&T maintained a room at its San Francisco Internet and telephone hub where its customers' data could be mined by keywords, e-mail addresses and other attributes. Mr. Klein says the National Security Agency was given access to the room and the data. He says other technicians have reported to him that similar rooms exist at other AT&T sites.
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms."
-- Albert Einstein, obituary in New York Times, 19 April 1955
I'm now able to sit up and move about without much effort. I think I have kicked off the worst of this infection.
I think, contrary to my protestations to Mrs. David, I will in fact survive. My head will most likely not explode from the pressure, and the likelihood of one of my lungs being coughed up, is probably nil.
But at least it gave me something other than George Bush and the Republican Party to complain about for a week.
"We have too much privacy, and those who govern us have too little."
The editorial board of the NY Times, bitch slaps the Washington Post.
Technorati Tags: NY+Times
Today, Washington Post Ombusman Deborah Howell, whitewashes the Fred Hiatt's willful ignorance:
The lead editorial and a front-page story last Sunday on the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby leak case left many Post readers confused.
The front-page story by reporters Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer, drawing on legal papers filed by Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in the perjury case, put Libby and his former boss, Vice President Cheney, at the forefront of an effort to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador and controversial critic of the Iraq war.
[...]
Reader Thomas J. Cassidy of New York wrote: "Do the Post editorial writers read the Post articles before publishing their opinions? . . . It is understood and correct that editorial staff and news staff be kept at a distance. But it is not understood that editorial writers do not read revealing and well-researched articles by their reporters."
In fact, the editorial writer had not read the Gellman/Linzer story. The editorial was written Friday; the story appeared in the Sunday edition. Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt said it is unlikely that the story would have influenced the editorial.
Editorials and news stories have different purposes. News stories are to inform; editorials are to influence.
Atrios calls him a wanker.
I call him a fool:
Alterman had me castigating the "liberal wing" of the party, which I was careful not to do. There is a crucial difference between liberals and leftists, especially on foreign policy
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."
--Mark Twain
"When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we'd been saying they were."
--John F. Kennedy
Sorry for the dearth of posting lately. According to my doctor, I have some sort of viral infection.
To say it is kicking my ass, is an understatement.
"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives."
--William Dement
I suppose it should now be a given that anything any member of the Bush admnistration said, as justification for the war in Iraq, was a lie:
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.
The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.
The authors of the reports were nine U.S. and British civilian experts -- scientists and engineers with extensive experience in all the technical fields involved in making bioweapons -- who were dispatched to Baghdad by the Defense Intelligence Agency for an analysis of the trailers. Their actions and findings were described to a Washington Post reporter in interviews with six government officials and weapons experts who participated in the mission or had direct knowledge of it.
None would consent to being identified by name because of fear that their jobs would be jeopardized. Their accounts were verified by other current and former government officials knowledgeable about the mission. The contents of the final report, "Final Technical Engineering Exploitation Report on Iraqi Suspected Biological Weapons-Associated Trailers," remain classified. But interviews reveal that the technical team was unequivocal in its conclusion that the trailers were not intended to manufacture biological weapons. Those interviewed took care not to discuss the classified portions of their work.
"There was no connection to anything biological," said one expert who studied the trailers. Another recalled an epithet that came to be associated with the trailers: "the biggest sand toilets in the world."
David Sirota explains what is wrong with the Democratic Party, and the party leadership in Washington.
There's a lot of talk - and a lot of books out - these days about how consultants have ruined the Democratic Party. Consultants are, of course, an easy target - they are nameless, faceless svengali-like figures. It doesn't take a ton of courage to simply bash "the consultant class." As Time columnist Joe Klein shows, all you need is egomaniacal opportunism - not insight, ideology or ideas (the excerpt Klein self-references in his latest Time column shows just how vapid he really is). But here's the thing: most people who have worked on political campaigns know that this consultant bashing is just a bit off the mark.
Let me preface the explanation of what I mean with a disclaimer: I in no way endorse the tired, pathetic, often half-witted thinking of today's consultant class. And I do believe consultants have contributed to the Democratic Party's awful election record in recent years.
"Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind."
--Marston Bates
Note: I am still sick. Continued light blogging.
Immigrant women fired after attending rally:
Fifteen immigrant women were fired from their jobs as meat cutters after attending a protest for immigrant rights last month.
The women had been told they would be terminated if they missed work on the day of the March 27 rally in Detroit, said Jay Bonahoom, general manager of Wolverine Packing Co.
Is it really surprising that the White House was involved in the New Hampshire phone jamming scandal?
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.
Courtesy of La Queen Sucia:
MICHAEL SAYS: 3. They do not register for selective service and do not serve in the military - forcing legal Americans to defend them.
I am sick.
I don't have the energy to deal with blogging right now.
Hopefully it is just a 24 hour thing.
Post Happy.
Setting up a telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas is an expensive proposition. Companies like AT&T (formerly SBC), and others aren't too willing to foot the bill to do so without incentive. The Universal Service Fund (USF) is one of those incentive programs that help companies defray the cost of deploying telecommunications to rural areas.
The USF is a fee that your telephone company tacks onto your phone bill, which the federal government then collects and distributes to the telephone companies that serve rural, and other areas to help defray the cost of deployment.
Texas Congressman Joe Barton, apparently doesn't think too highly of this program, because he wants to kill it.
Joe Barton represents Dallas and the Dallas suburbs. He doesn't have to worry too much about his telephone service level, because there is a well established infrastructure. However Texas does not begin and end around the suburbs of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
I think he may need to be reminded of that.
Technorati Tags: Joe Barton, Telecom, USF
It seems that the tone of the reporting about the immigration rallies across the country today has gone from overwhelming anti-immigrant to positive or at least neutral:
Thousands of demonstrators wearing white T-shirts and waving signs and American flags filled the streets of an immigrant neighborhood Monday for the first of dozens of marches planned in a national day of action billed as a “campaign for immigrants’ dignity.”
The two-mile Atlanta march was in support of immigrant rights nationally as well as in protest of state legislation awaiting Gov. Sonny Perdue’s signature. If signed, it would require that adults seeking many state-administered benefits prove they are in the country legally.
Carlos Carrera, a construction worker from Mexico, held a large banner that read: “We are not criminals. Give us a chance for a better life.”
Because the Bush administration and the truth are but two ships passing in the night:
For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.
In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
"A neurosis is a secret that you don't know you are keeping."
--Kenneth Tynan
Better late than never, eh?
Spending any time explaining why Fred Hiatt is an idiot?
Technorati Tags: Iraq War, Lies
This morning I will be a bit busy with yard work and what not.
So, what's going on today?
Atrios points us to Letters to Romenesko for this:
Is nothing sacred? George W. Bush plagiarized an episode of the 1980s BBC comedy "Yes, Minister." As fans of that Brit-com will recall, Prime Minister Jim Hacker ordered an investigation of a government leak, demanding that if found the leaker be tossed in jail. After the usual expensive, lengthy inquiry, his staff reportered back -- we've found him. Well who is he, the PM asked? It's you, Prime Minister. (Dialogue from memory.)
P.S. OK, maybe it wasn't plagiarism, it was an homage.
Jim Hacker's predecessor wants to publish his memoirs. Jim isn't happy about a chapter dealing with himself, so he tries to get it suppressed during a 'clearance meeting'. The chapter in question is then leaked to the press, along with the fact that Hacker tried to suppress it. Jim is angry, particularly when he realises that the material must have been leaked by someone who was at the clearance meeting. Sir Humphrey shows Bernard how to 'doctor' the minutes of the clearance meeting to hide Hacker's attempted suppression. The Press Secretary suggests giving the press something else to think about, so Hacker agrees to Sir Humphrey's request for the expulsion of seventy-six diplomats.
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something."
--Plato
Part 3564 in our neverending series on Trying to Find the Good News in Iraq Stories the Right Wing Bloggers are Convinced the MSM is Covering Up:
Three suicide bombers dressed as women killed at least 55 people at a Shi'ite mosque on Friday in Baghdad, police said, putting more pressure on Iraq's divided leaders to form a government and face up to sectarian violence.
The bombers were dressed in traditional Shi'ite women's black robes when they struck, two inside the mosque and one just outside, a police official said.
Some police sources said the bombers were women; others said they were a woman and two men dressed as women.
The bombing, the biggest single suicide attack since November 2005, also wounded 158 people.
Bush yet again threatened to use his veto power, this time over the budget:
President George W. Bush warned Congress on Friday he will veto budget legislation if it does not restrain spending.
Bush, appearing before reporters at the White House, also welcomed a Labor Department report that the U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs in March, calling it evidence of an overall economic resurgence "that is strong and broad and benefiting all Americans."
Amid protracted negotiations in Congress over the amount of spending in an election year, Bush urged lawmakers to restrain spending to stay on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009.
Matt at MyDD.com points us to an article that shows the Republican Immigration "reform" bill that Frist and others put forward is collapsing.
Apparently last night, the entire negotiation collapsed:
The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation Friday, leaving in doubt prospects for passing a bill offering the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.
A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.
Just 36 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, his lowest-ever rating in AP-Ipsos polling. By contrast, the president's job approval rating was 47 percent among likely voters just before Election Day 2004 and a whopping 64 percent among registered voters in October 2002.
[...]
By a 49-33 margin, the public favors Democrats over Republicans when asked which party should control Congress.
That 16-point Democratic advantage is the largest the party has enjoyed in AP-Ipsos polling.
Texas Governor Rick "Goodhair" Perry wont hold special election to replace DeLay:
Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he will not call an emergency special election to replace Republican Rep. Tom DeLay, meaning the suburban Houston congressional seat will be left unfilled until November.
DeLay, who is under indictment on campaign finance charges, announced this week that he will resign sometime before mid-June.
[T]he election of a Democrat now could give the Democratic Party a leg up in November.
DeLay promised that he wouldn't go quietly in the night.
Via Josh we now get the first taste of what he meant.
First, The Houston Chronicle:
As Tom DeLay backers yelled in the background, Congressional candidate Democrat Nick Lampson called on Texas Gov. Rick Perry today to hold a special election May 13 to fill Tom DeLay's unexpired term.
Lampson's morning news conference in front of Sugar Land City Hall was disrupted by about two dozen DeLay supporters, who shouted slogans and displayed signs against him.
The news conference and demonstration broke up after about 20 minutes with Lampson supporters and DeLay backers exchanging shouts. There were no arrests..
In a Thursday press conference disrupted by protesters organized by Tom DeLay’s campaign, Democratic congressional candidate Nick Lampson called on Texas Gov. Rick Perry to clear the way for a special election to fill the remainder of DeLay’s term in the 22nd Congressional District.
[...]
After about three minutes, the crowd began to grow. Lampson was suddenly surrounded by about 30 sign-waving protesters, some shouting and one blasting an air horn. Protesters flanked Lampson on either side and stood close behind him, shouting and chanting.
Lampson supporters jostled for position, making their own signs visible. Lampson continued with his press conference, but the noise was so loud reporters were forced to stand face to face with the Democratic candidate to hear.
“You ask Tom DeLay’s people to do the right thing,” Lampson said, pointing a thumb at protesters shouting behind his head, “and this is what their answer is. It’s time the people of this district had a real congressman.”
I will soon post photographs of a "demonstration" (read: violent disruption) of Nick Lampson's news conference this morning in Sugar Land. Tom DeLay's campaign and a member of the State Republican Executive Committee called for volunteers to meet on the first floor of the parking garage and "wreck" Lampson's press conference.
One elderly Democratic woman was slightly injured when she was assaulted by a DeLay protester. The male DeLay supporter first hit her in the face with a sign and then grabbed her hat and tried to pull it down over her eyes. Think about this: Your Congressman asked his supporters to go out and assault old women. Okay, "wreck" them. But, that's all right because one of the Democrats shoved the DeLay protestor away from the elderly woman. We ain't doing non-violent protests when it comes to protecting our elderly.
But that's all right. It's all right. They're just helping prove what a stone-cold hypocrite DeLay and his supporters are. One day DeLay laments the "polarization" in the district and how horrible it is. The next day, he calls a hit.
We would meet tomorrow morning at 9:45 am on the first floor of the parking garage attached to the Marriott. Please get folks to call our campaign office 281.343.1333 and let us know they can do it – or e-mail Leonard Cash (in the cc field above) so that we can get some head count. Let’s give Lampson a parting shot that wrecks his press conference.
EFF files legal notice to AT&T over wiretapping:
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Wednesday filed the legal briefs and evidence supporting its motion for a preliminary injunction in its class-action lawsuit against AT&T. After asking EFF to hold back the documents so that it could review them, the Department of Justice consented to EFF's filing them under seal -- a well-established procedure that prohibits public access and permits only the judge and the litigants to see the evidence. While not a party to the case, the government was concerned that even this procedure would not provide sufficient security and has represented to the Court that it is "presently considering whether and, if so, how it will participate in this case."
"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."
One of the great features of the American form of Government, is the ability to prevent, what Alexis de Toqueville called "The Tyranny of the Majority".
There are processes in place that provide an opportunity for a minority to seek protection from a majority who would seek to do the minority group harm. From the Civil Rights Act, to the Voting Rights Act, and on and on, the Federal Government has, throughout history, provided protection for groups who are not the majority in this country.
The first amendment of the United States Constitution exemplifies this belief by enshrining into the very basic structure of this country, freedom of speech, and freedom of religious expression. Implicit in that freedom of religious expression, is the right of ALL Americans to be free from having any one religion, or even any religion forced on them.
With this in mind, when I read this that I weep for the state of our country:
Amidst the threat of numerous legal battles, the Brunswick County [North Carolina] board of education decided Tuesday, 3-2, to make a leap of faith by allowing religious groups to hand out scripture to area teenagers.
Disregarding school board attorney Joseph CauseyÂ’s advice and warnings from politically active groups, board members decided during their monthly meeting Tuesday night to move forward with initial changes to its current religion in schools policy that could potentially give the board the right to decide which faiths county high schools will open their doors to and which ones they will turn the lock on.
"I detest life-insurance agents; they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so."
--Stephen Leacock
Atrios points us to a sickness that pervades the Republican Party:
[Curt] Weldon also suggested [Ret. Adm. Joe] Sestak should have sent his daughter to a hospital in Philadelphia or Delaware, rather than the Washington hospital. Sestak said that as soon as doctors give his daughter the all-clear, he’ll buy in Pennsylvania.
Congressman Weldon's remarks to the Hill magazine in a story published this morning regarding my daughter Alex's treatment are inappropriate. To imply, that I should have sent my daughter to a hospital in Delaware or Pennsylvania for political purposes is beyond the pale.
I understand the political arena. I knew that this campaign would thrust my family into the media spotlight and we are prepared for that. But I want to make it very clear to Congressman Weldon, that any remarks regarding my daughter, Alexandra's, treatment will not be tolerated.
Like many families dealing with illness, we have had our challenges in the last year. Through the grace of God, the many prayers of our friends and family, and the wonderful doctors and nurses, we have made it through this experience with our daughter Alex, who continues to inspire us everyday.
While that is a true statement, in George Bush's America it certainly is easy to be rich:
The first data to document the effect of President Bush's tax cuts for investment income show that they have significantly lowered the tax burden on the richest Americans, reducing taxes on incomes of more than $10 million by an average of about $500,000.
An analysis of Internal Revenue Service data by The New York Times found that the benefit of the lower taxes on investments was far more concentrated on the very wealthiest Americans than the benefits of Mr. Bush's two previous tax cuts: on wages and other noninvestment income.
But I think the other key angle here is noting just how much this story destroys Republican rhetoric, particularly the president's. Dan Froomkin highlighted some of the rhetoric we heard before these cuts became law.
For example, here's Bush in January 2003:"Double taxation falls especially hard on retired people. About half of all dividend income goes to America's seniors, and they often rely on those checks for a steady source of income in their retirement."
True? Not even a little. The NYT explained that "few taxpayers with modest incomes benefited because most of them who own stocks held them in retirement accounts, which are not eligible for the investment income tax cuts."
No wonder more Americans trust Dems to deal with taxes.
Anothing Bush Administration official arrested for inappropriate sexual advances towards a child.
This person was in charge of Operation Predator, a sting operation to stop this type of activity.
Technorati Tags: Frank Figueroa, Operation Predator
The Agonist's Sean-Paul Kelley put up a letter to "Smokey" Joe Barton signed by some of the biggest names in internet content provding:
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We write to express our concern that the telecommunications legislation being considered by the Committee fails to preserve the longstanding openness of the Internet. Without critical changes, the legislation puts at risk consumer choice, American innovation and global competitiveness.
"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."
--Thomas H. Huxley
"There’s nothing worse than a woman know-it-all."
--Tom DeLay to Chris Matthews while yukking it up before Hardball. If there is any remaining doubt that Tweety is pro-Republican and anti-Democrat, this should be one of the final nails in the coffin.
Technorati Tags: Chris Matthews, Tweety, Tom DeLay, Hillary Clinton, Liberal Media Myth
Recently there was the NASA appointee who faked is resume.
Now it's Congresswoman Jean Schmidt:
The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, or COAST, has endorsed Schmidt's opponent in the GOP primary, Bob McEwen. The group claims that some of Schmidt's claimed endorsements are bogus, and instead of two bachelor degrees as stated on various biographical material, she has one.
"If it was one incident, I might think there was some merit in letting it go," COAST's Jim Urling said. "But we've got a very troubling, disconcerting pattern of misrepresentations here."
DeLay: No, no. Look: I have had hundreds of people work for me. Unfortunately, there's three - one that we let go, Scanlon - that I don't yet, I'll wait until they're found guilty. But it looks like they have violated the trust of my office.
It was nice while it lasted. Bob Schieffer was an excellent anchor for the evening news. It was (relatively) informative, actually news oriented, and climbing in the ratings.
However, it seems CBS didn't like that, so they go and hire
Katie "Navy Seals Rock!" Couric to replace the best what is arguably the best news anchor since Walter Cronkite.
If CBS wanted a female anchor, why not promote Lara Logan to the spot. She is excellent as a field reporter, and I suspect will make a good anchor.
Technorati Tags: Katie Couric, CBS Evening News, Lara Logan
Not much different than George Bush's America:
While President Bush vows to transform Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, his administration has been scaling back funding for the main organizations trying to carry out his vision by building democratic institutions such as political parties and civil society groups.
The administration has included limited new money for traditional democracy promotion in budget requests to Congress. Some organizations face funding cutoffs this month, while others struggle to stretch resources through the summer. The shortfall threatens projects that teach Iraqis how to create and sustain political parties, think tanks, human rights groups, independent media outlets, trade unions and other elements of democratic society.
The shift in funding priorities comes as security costs are eating up an enormous share of U.S. funds for Iraq and the administration has already ratcheted back ambitions for reconstructing the country's battered infrastructure. While acknowledging that they are investing less in party-building and other such activities, administration officials argue that bringing more order and helping Iraqis run effective ministries contribute to democracy as well.
DeLay stayed in the race long enough to raise money for his legal defense fund and general vindictivness:
DeLay's decision allowed him to set the terms of his departure, avoiding what could have been a personally devastating loss at the polls in November. DeLay was determined to hang on to his seat at least through the primary, said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. That was because he considered his three Republican challengers gadflies and traitors and he was determined to try to block them from succeeding him.
[...]
An additional impetus for putting off the resignation until now was suggested by John Feehery, a former aide to DeLay and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "He needed to raise money for the defense fund. That was the bottom line," Feehery said. "He wanted to make sure he could take care of himself in the court of law." Under federal campaign rules, any reelection money a lawmaker raises can be used to pay legal fees stemming from official duties.
Now, if only more Democrats would stand up and be counted.
Kerry Op-Ed:
Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military. If Iraqis aren't willing to build a unity government in the five months since the election, they're probably not willing to build one at all. The civil war will only get worse, and we will have no choice anyway but to leave.
If Iraq's leaders succeed in putting together a government, then we must agree on another deadline: a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces by year's end. Doing so will empower the new Iraqi leadership, put Iraqis in the position of running their own country and undermine support for the insurgency, which is fueled in large measure by the majority of Iraqis who want us to leave their country. Only troops essential to finishing the job of training Iraqi forces should remain.
For this transition to work, we must finally begin to engage in genuine diplomacy. We must immediately bring the leaders of the Iraqi factions together at a Dayton Accords-like summit meeting. In a neutral setting, Iraqis, working with our allies, the Arab League and the United Nations, would be compelled to reach a political agreement that includes security guarantees, the dismantling of the militias and shared goals for reconstruction.
Deputy DHS Press Secretary arrested for soliciting sex from a minor:
Brian J. Doyle, DOB 4/7/50, the Deputy Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., was arrested this evening at his residence in Silver Springs, Maryland, on 23 Polk County charges related to the use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. Doyle's arrest is the result of a joint investigation by the Polk County Sheriff s Office, working with Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jerry Hill s office, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General s Office.
Remember the woman who was pulled over and cited for having a bumpersticker that said "I'm Tired of All The BUSHIT"?
Well, the charges against her dropped:
Bush bashing will not cost an Athens woman $100 after all.
Denise Grier, who was cited in DeKalb County for her "I'm Tired of All The BUSH—" car decal, has had her case thrown out, DeKalb Recorders Court Chief judge R. Joy Walker said Monday.
"We couldn't prosecute it," Walker said, because Georgia's lewd decal law was ruled unconstitutional in 1990. Walker said a letter of dismissal was mailed to Grier's home Friday.
[...]
Caviness joined the department in 1992, two years after the law changed, according to DeKalb County police spokesman Herschel Grangent. Asked how an experienced sergeant could have made such a mistake, Grangent declined to comment.
TPM Muckraker wonders what Tom DeLay's threat against Travis County DA Ronnie Earle will entail?
There are only two methods that could be used to remove Earle's ability to continue, especially since Earle is holding an elected position:
The way I see it, DeLay has two options: he could somehow use the Texas legislature to strip Earle's jurisdiction over the case, but that could get sticky. Or (eureka!) he could have the Texas legislature defund Texas' Public Integrity Unit, which would cut Earle off.
The Agonist has been doing yeomans work on the issue of Internet Neutrality. Sadly Texas Congressman "Smokey" Joe Barton has proposed legislation at the behest of the telecommunications industry that will, in essence, allow companies like AT&T (SBC), Verizon, and others to set up a tiered system, by which those who are willing to pay telecommunications companies, can get high priority access to the internet, and everyone else gets shunted to the low bandwidth internet. The end result will be a segregated system in which those with the ability to pay will get preferential treatment on the internet, and those who don't get booted.
Today Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey has a diary on The Agonist outlining Barton's bill, and his work on trying to counter that bill to ensure that the internet remains equal for all.
This is a serious problem. The success of the internet is due to the egalitarian nature of it. That anyone (such as myself) can set up and maintain a space that anyone can access, promote the free flow of information, goods and services, and knowledge is a Good Thing, and should remain so. The FEC recognized it with their ruling on political advocacy from bloggers and other internet sites. Right now, this attempt to stifle all those things is coming from Republican Congressmen who are beholden to telecommunication companies.
Matt Stoller at MyDD.com says it best:
This is scary stuff. The right-wing used to be against regulation; as it turns out, they just want to privatize who gets to regulate.
"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand."
--Bertrand Russell
Another Republican candidate is sunk and doesn't yet know it:
[I]n the past 10 days, [Florida Senate Candidate Katherine] Harris has:
•Had locks changed and posted a security guard at the door of her campaign headquarters in Tampa and had former staff members escorted in to retrieve their belongings.
•Told a gathering of supporters in Cocoa Beach on Saturday that the Republican Party had "infiltrated" her campaign staff to put "knives in my back."
•Told a reporter that a longtime, trusted political adviser had leaked a story about her staff members quitting, then called back to retract the comments.
•Announced hiring her new staff without identifying them.
Those events come atop previous reversals and contradictions, including her announcement last month that she would spend her inheritance from her father on her campaign, which she changed, saying she would sell her assets.
Former campaign manager Jim Dornan, who left in November, called the most recent events in the campaign "unbelievable."
"It smacks of real paranoia," he said of the headquarters lockout and comments about infiltration. "That campaign staff was so loyal to her, and to be treated like that is absolutely unconscionable."
In interviews over the past few weeks, speaking in confidence, former employees from Harris' congressional and campaign staffs said the trauma of the unexpected death of her father has taken a toll.
"She's in total meltdown. The campaign is in chaos," said a longtime Republican operative who worked closely with Harris until recently. "She hasn't mourned for her father." Like many other former staff members interviewed, that GOP operative didn't want to be quoted by name.
Not that anyone expected otherwise, but courtesy of Think Progress we can see that DeLay wont sit still for long:
SNOW: Okay, so at this point, you know — are you willing to let bygones be bygones?
DELAY: Absolutely not. Texas should not allow a district attorney from Travis County have this kind of power. And they can take his power away from him because there was the Texas legislature that gave him this power. And I think that will happen in the next session of the Texas legislature.
With Tom DeLay's woes consuming the news cycle, the desparate GOP tries some misdirection.
House GOP Pushes McKinney-Related Measure:
House Republicans pushed a resolution Tuesday commending the Capitol police force for professionalism after a confrontation between an officer and Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney.
Woah:
"He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year.
First the good news: It wasn't a dream, Tom DeLay is still resigning:
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, said this morning that he will give up his seat rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable.
In a videotaped message aired this morning on stations in his home district, DeLay said that "the voters in the 22nd District of Texas deserve a campaign about the vital national issues they care most about . . . and not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me. So today I am announcing my intention to resign my seat in the House."
The decision came three days after Tony C. Rudy, his former deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay's operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach.
DeLay, who is withdrawing from his reelection bid, also is entitled under federal election rules to convert any or all of his remaining campaign funds to his legal expenses, whether or not he resigns, is indicted or loses the election. Election lawyers say one advantage of bowing out of the election now is that the campaign cash can be converted to pay legal bills immediately, instead of being drained in the course of a bid to stay in office.
Tom DeLay’s resignation is a great victory in the fight to clean up corruption in politics, but the war is far from over. The culture of corruption is about a heck of a lot more than Tom DeLay. We need to move toward real progress by turning the conversation from how bad one man is to how good we can all be.
Unfortunately for Texas, Tom DeLay’s protégé, Gov. Rick Perry, has institutionalized Washington-style politics in Austin. The problem with the culture both in Washington and Texas is an excessive tolerance for corruption in which what they do that’s illegal isn’t as bad as what they do that’s legal. That’s why I’ve proposed my “Don’t Mess With Ethics” reform plan.
A friend of mine joked that if God has a sense of humor, Tom DeLay will leave Congress and return to a Texas where Chris Bell is Governor. After DeLay’s surprising news, it’s looking like my friend might not be too far off the mark.
According to Karl-Thomas at Burnt Orange Report there may actually be a special election to fill DeLay's unexpired term.
The question is the timing. Does Texas election law allow for a Tom DeLay to be removed from the ballot after the primary, and is there enough time to hold a special election to certify a new candidate.
With the Secretary of State being a Republican, I suspect that the law will be interpreted to allow for such a thing to happen, but it is nice to see the heartburn that DeLay is causing Republicans this time, instead of Democrats.
Via Charles Kuffner the good thing, is that if there is a special election, it will be decided by majority vote, rather than in a primary format. That means Nick Lampson, Independent Steve Stockman, Libertarian Bob Smither, and an as yet undetermined Republican candidate will be on the special election ballot. If one candidate does not get a majority, there will be a runoff. However, this can create the situation of Lampson having to run two elections, unless he sits out the special election.
However, at this time everything is speculation, because no one knows for sure if there will be a special election, or if DeLay's replacement will be via appointment from Perry's office. More information should be coming out tomorrow from the Texas Secretary of State office, so we wait until then.
Technorati Tags: Tom DeLay, Nick Lampson, TX-22
Atrios points us to this nugget of wisdom from Hugh Hewitt:
A Texas prosecutor with a history of abuse of his office, Ronnie Earle, has indicted Tom DeLay. Earle is a sort of Jim Garrison without the integrity. Soon to follow: Giant MSM coverage, show trial, acquittal and exoneration, DeLay's return to Majority Leader for another 20 years.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texan touched by a lobbying scandal that ensnared some of his former top aides and cost the Republican his leadership post, won't seek re-election to Congress, officials said Monday.
They said DeLay also is likely to resign his seat and leave Congress by the end of May.
DeLay said he is likely to leave by the end of May, depending on the Congressional schedule and finishing his work on a couple of issues. He said he will change his legal residence to his condominium in Alexandria, Va., from his modest two-story home on a golf course here in the 22nd District of Texas. "I become ineligible to run for election if I'm not a resident of the state of Texas," he said, turning election law to his purposes for perhaps on last time. State Republican officials will then be able to name another Republican candidate to face Democrat Nick Lampson, a former House members who lost his seat in a redistricting engineered by DeLay.
The jury hearing the Moussaoui case have deemed that he should be eligible for the death penalty:
A federal jury found al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible Monday to be executed, deciding that his lies to FBI agents led directly to at least one death in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Atrios notes that on 1 April, the Social Security Trustees report was supposed to have been released. Since 1 April was on a Saturday, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that it would be released today.
However, Matt Yglesias (via Josh and Atrios) contacted the Treasury Department to find out if/when we can expect to see the report.
The answer? There will be a report, just no one knows when, despite the fact that they are mandated by statute to release the report by 1 April.
Fishy? Yes. Especially since productivity gains were up for 2005 (as touted by the Bush administration). You cannot simultaenously claim that Social Security is going bankrupt when incoming revenues are up, thus extending the solvency date.
Technorati Tags: Social Security, Trustees Report
Debbie Schlussel continues her anti-Jill Carroll jihad by going after her Conservative blogging bretheren for not denouncing Jill Carroll loudly enough.
I have to say that Ms. Schlussel has really gone off the deep end with her ranting and raving. At first the anger was apparently that Carroll had the AUDACITY to not be beheaded by her captors.
Now the anger is directed at those who aren't sharing Ms. Schlussel's anger at Ms. Carroll not being behaded by her captors.
In Ms. Schlussel's mind, the mere fact that Jill Carroll had the NERVE TO BE critical of America's policy in the Middle East is bad enough. So bad, in fact, that she devotes a majority of her post, decrying this as support for the "Islamists" who captured her. Ms. Schlussel apparently needs to be made aware that people who are sympathetic to Arabs, ARE NOT ALL sympathetic to Islamists. But that distinction is too fine for people as "sharp" as Ms. Schlussel.
And they call the left "angry".
Technorati Tags: Jill Carroll, Iraq War, Debbie Schlussel, Angry Right
"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them."
--Mark Twain
Right-wing blogger, after right-wing blogger love to traffic in the fallacy of "good news in Iraq" and how the media are biased against Bush so much they won't report things like schools opening and health clinics being built:
A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.
The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.
Parsons, according to the Corps, will walk away from more than 120 clinics that on average are two-thirds finished. Auditors say the project serves as a warning for other U.S. reconstruction efforts due to be completed this year.
[US Reconstruction Auditor Stuart] Bowen called the outcome "a worst-case scenario. I think it's an anomaly." He said, however, that U.S. reconstruction overseers overwhelmingly have neglected to keep running track of the remaining costs of each project, leaving it unclear until the end whether the costs are equal to the budget.
"I can't say this isn't going to happen again, because we really haven't gotten a grasp" of the cost of finishing the many pending projects, Bowen said.
That help wanted sign has been hanging outside the FEMA offices since Brownie resigned, however no one wants the job:
The calls went out across the nation, as Bush administration officials asked the country's most seasoned disaster response experts to consider the job of a lifetime: FEMA director. But again and again, the response over the past several months was the same: "No thanks."
Unconvinced that the administration is serious about fixing the Federal Emergency Management Agency or that there is enough time actually to get it done before President Bush's second term ends, seven of these candidates for director or another top FEMA job said in interviews that they had pulled themselves out of the running.
"You don't take the fire chief job after someone has burned down the city unless you are going to be able to do it in the right fashion," said Ellis M. Stanley, general manager of emergency planning in Los Angeles, who said he was one of those called.
Now, with the next hurricane season only two months away, the Bush administration has finally come up with a convenient but somewhat embarrassing solution. Mr. Bush, several former and current FEMA officials said, intends to nominate R. David Paulison, a former fire official who has been filling in for the past seven months, to take on the job permanently.
When the RNC asked Harris to drop out of the Florida Senate race, Katherine Harris insisted she could win. When campaign contributions dried up, she promised to spend he own money to win. Now that her campaign staff is jumping ship, what is Katherine Harris's plan to win?
Technorati Tags: Katherine Harris, FL-Sen
In CNN's "Opinion & Analysis" section of the Politics page, CNN is trying to present a "fair and balanced" opinion page.
The two columnists it has chosen are Molly Ivins and R. Emmett Tyrrell.
I don't know how long CNN has been doing this, as I rarely troll the pages of CNN.com unless I am looking for a specific story. However, after reading the latest offering from Tyrrell, I am left asking, what is it with Conservatives?
Why can't a conservative columnist for a major news site offer anything other than name calling, and spittle spraying? The column was ostensibly about Harry Reid's reaction to Bush appointing Josh Bolten as White House Chief of Staff.
It didn't end up that way. It turned into an all out tempter tantrum with Tyrrell railing against the "Angry Democrats"/dismal Democrats which then turned into invective against Air America (which appears to be evil incarnate).
Who are supposed to be the angry ones again?
Technorati Tags: CNN, Emmett Tyrrell
"An expert is a person who avoids small error as he sweeps on to the grand fallacy."
--Benjamin Stolberg
That was the entire tone of John McCain's appearance on Meet the Press.
From George Bush, to tax cuts, to support for Jerry Falwell; John McCain has become exactly 180° from what he claimed to be in his Straight Talk Campaign.
Funny how when John Kerry said it, it was a sign of indecisiveness, and when John McCain says it, it is a sign of maturity.
Technorati Tags: John McCain, Meet the Press
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
--Soren Kierkegaard
Fired Up Missouri has a copy of an email sent from Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis to a Republican colleague about the issue of contraception:
Your letter seemed to indicate that if we create chemical and pharmaceutical ways to tamper with mother nature, then we will solve the problem. Even if you solve a physical problem you still have not solved the moral, emotional and spiritual problems that come with a promiscuous lifestyle.
When I was listening to the debate last week I wondered what kind of man would want to enjoy free sex and then expect her to provide for her own contraceptives? These are the kind of men who want free whores. Any man who would be so low life as that does not deserve to have any woman love him. Smart women will stay away from men who use them and abuse them.
Why is it that most of the e-mail letters I get on this topic is from men? I have concluded that the chemicals and drugs are their way to have all the goodies and not pay the price. When you encourage this behavior, you create more of it. In other words, if the state starts paying for contraceptives we will have more babies than if we just teach people to not expect free prostitution from poor people. Don't you think having to pay child support for the next 18 years is a suitable disincentive?
A consultant to Joe Lieberman's campaign "clarified" the Democratic Senator's commitment to stay with the Democratic Party:
But a Connecticut political consultant working for Lieberman said today that the writer for the Internet newsmagazine that published that report may have read too much into the senator's response.
"I'm a Democrat, I'm sticking with the Democratic Party,"
"We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered."
--Tom Stoppard
Another of your associates is guilty:
A former top aide to Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy on Friday in the influence-peddling investigation involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Tony Rudy, the former deputy chief of staff to DeLay, entered the guilty plea in federal court as part of a deal with Justice Department prosecutors. He was be the second former DeLay aide to plead guilty in the probe.
He faced a maximum penalty of five years but under the agreement he was expected to serve between two and 2 1/2 years. As part of the agreement he will cooperate and provide "complete and truthful information" in the Justice Department investigation.
Racist.
Blogs For Bush(emphasis original):
Thirty years of allowing race-baiting politicians to cynically play up to hispanic separatism, and this is what we've got - hundreds of thousands of Mexicans demonstrating in our streets, demanding that America give them what they want (and there's no other way to describe them other than as Mexicans...they sure in heck waved enough Mexican flags to convince anyone paying attention). America is for Americans - curious thing, though, is that anyone can be American...all you have to do is decide to be American, and you are American...but these illegals: they are remaining foreign, and demanding that Americans bend the knee to them.
Yesterday, Jill Carroll, the journalist kidnapped in Iraq was freed. Thankfully unharmed.
In response, the right is obviously dissappointed that she was not beheaded so that they could have their masturbatory fantasies fufilled with another video of someone having their head chopped off.
Witness, Debbie Schlussel:
Here's a clue for the obviously dimwitted. Why was Jill Carroll freed? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she HATES AMERICA and our Mid-East policy. And, oh yeah, she HATES ISRAEL, too.
It appears that some Republicans in Congress are so intent on magnifying the non-existent "War on Christians" that they are willing to go so far as to demand an executive order telling military chaplains to do what they alread can:
An association that represents more than 70 percent of the chaplains in the U.S. military, including many evangelical Christians, is opposing a demand by conservatives in Congress for a presidential order guaranteeing the right of chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus.
The rising calls for an executive order are based on "confusion and misinformation," because Christian chaplains routinely pray in the name of Jesus, in public, thousands of times a week in military chapels around the world, said the Rev. Herman Keizer Jr., chairman of the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces.
"This has been portrayed as though chaplains are not allowed to pray in Jesus's name, without any distinction between what they do all the time in worship services and what they do occasionally, in ceremonial settings where attendance is mandatory," Keizer said.
[...]
Prodded by complaints from ICECE, 74 members of Congress signed a letter to President Bush last fall saying that "it has come to our attention that in all branches of the military it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christian chaplains to use the name of Jesus when praying."
In December, Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) and three other congressmen unveiled a supporting petition that has since swelled to more than 200,000 signatures. Calls for congressional hearings and an executive order have become a staple on religious radio and television broadcasts, generating protests of White House inaction by conservative Christians, who are usually strong supporters of Bush.
[...]
In a Feb. 21 instruction to commanders, the secretary of the Navy distinguished between prayers given by chaplains at "divine worship services" -- on which there are no restrictions -- and those delivered at "command functions" that people of many faiths are encouraged or required to attend.
"Absent extraordinary circumstances," any religious elements in a command ceremony "should be nonsectarian," it said. Air Force guidelines issued a few weeks earlier made essentially the same distinction, calling for "non-denominational, inclusive prayer" or a moment of silence at military ceremonies.
Keizer said NCMAF sees nothing wrong with a commander asking a chaplain to offer nonsectarian prayers at such events, as long as the chaplain can decline to participate, with no repercussions.
But Baugham said evangelical chaplains must represent the church that endorses them for military duty, and "they are not authorized to give nonsectarian prayers." He also said he does not believe that chaplains are truly free to pray as they wish in worship services.
"There are chaplains who get their knuckles rapped pretty hard, and we have documentation of this, for praying in Jesus's name in chapels," he said.
Posted without comment
President to attend three-way summit
with Mexican President Vicente Fox,
left, and Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, right.
(WashingtonPost.com/Getty)
Atrios points us to this Hartford Courant column about George Bush's favorite Democrat, Joe Lieberman:
It started the first day. The day Ned Lamont announced his run for the Democratic Senate nomination, Sen. Joseph Lieberman's campaign put out a blistering press release.
"Attacking Senator Lieberman's character and integrity was a predictable but dishonorable way to begin this campaign," it started. "Mr. Lamont is clearly going to run a very negative and angry campaign where the truth doesn't get in the way."
Can't you imagine the sparks flying as they typed that bad boy? What could Lamont have done to poor Joe?
He called him "Republican Lite."
He said he was "George Bush's favorite Democrat."
Vicious stuff, huh?
"A" for effort, but it was pretty unconvincing. I'll spare you the details; here's the digest: Ned Lamont is doing what every challenger going after an incumbent does. He's highlighting the votes, quotes, news items and other tidbits that support his contention that the guy's gotta go. It's called politics.
Anyway, how could anyone expect Lamont to resist tying Lieberman to Bush? Maybe W's "favorite Democrat" is really some good ol' boy back in Midland, but he did plant a big wet one on Lieberman's cheek, and he mentioned Lieberman at least twice in speeches defending the war in Iraq.
[...]
Smith says Lieberman's campaign has been put in a corner: If they ignore Lamont's digs, Lieberman gets accused of being out of touch. If they engage, Smith said, he's accused of overreacting.
But the Lieberman campaign isn't engaging, it's whining. And there's another way to counter Lamont.
What strikes me about Lieberman's thin skin is how unnecessary it all is. He's a decent guy with a good record in many areas - someone who can hold his own in any debate about Democratic goals and values.
But unless his campaign strategy is to position himself as a coddled incumbent with an overgrown sense of entitlement, he ought to do just that.
As hard as it is to believe, George Bush's approval in Texas is at 41%
Bush's highest approval group with with those 55+ years of age at 52%. Bush was very popular with the 35-54 year old group, but that has now dropped to 41%.
To say that Bush is unpopular is merely over-stating the obvious at this point.
When will the media accurately report Bush as an unpopular President?
Technorati Tags: SurveyUSA, George Bush, Aproval Rating
"If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking."
--Lyndon B. Johnson
After getting called out on his picture of Bakirkoy, Turkey while claiming it was of Baghdad, Iraq, Howard Kaloogian puts up a new picture of Baghdad, with the same caption about how things are so peacful and tranquil in Iraq.
Only, the picture was taken inside the Green Zone of a Police station in Baghdad, and since that picture was taken (13 July 2005), that building was blown up (4 December 2005).
So, what finally was Kaloogian's response to this?
"You're being really picky on this stuff," Kaloogian told me. "It's not that big a deal. It was a mistake. I'm sorry."
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there is a general lack of responsibility acceptance on the part of Republicans. Especially when the Hero of the Republican Party is so adept at shifting the blame:
President George W. Bush said the instability in Iraq today is a legacy of Saddam Hussein's regime and not the result of the U.S. invasion that toppled his government.
5 years, 10 months, $20+ million in restitution:
Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist at the center of a Washington corruption scandal, was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison Wednesday for fraud in the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line.
U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck sentenced Abramoff and a former business partner to five years and 10 months in prison and ordered them to pay restitution of more than $21 million.
The sentences were the minimum under their plea agreement in the case.
Abramoff, 47, and Adam Kidan, 41, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud.
They won't start their for at least 90 days so they can continue cooperating in a Washington corruption investigation
Only Bush can get you elected:
President Bush drives our image and will do so until we have real national front-runners for the '08 nomination. Attacking the President is counter productive for all Republicans, not just the candidates launching the attacks. If he drops, we all drop.
Kaloogian says that fake Baghdad picture was due to campaign staff webmaster:
[O]n the way back from Baghdad some of the crew stopped in Istanbul as a layover. We turned all the photographs [from the trip] over to the webmaster, and it appears he took one from the stopover and not from Baghdad. If a mistake happened, we'll correct it.
We are currently being hit with a Denial of Service attack. We're got lots of people fighting the attack and working to get the site back up. Thank you for your patience.
"Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it."
--Laurence J. Peter
Well, that didn't take long. The photo that Republican Congressional Candidate Howard Kaloogian claimed he took of downtown Baghdad, is actually from Bakirkoy, Turkey.
I don't know, but if I thought I was headed to Iraq, and ended up in Turkey, I would have a real problem with my travel agent.
Technorati Tags: Kaloogian, Fake Picture
CORNYN: Well, you know, that's the problem in America, we're always having elections.
Today, it's a column by David Ignatius.
Why do we even continue to pay attention to what the Washington Post has to say. Right from the beginning we have the "Democrats should sit back and let the Republicans implode" conventional wisdom. Then into the "Hillary Clinton in 2008 Presidential Election destroying the Democratic Party message" line.
Let's not forget "Howard Dean as bumbling leader" point. Ignatius brings up the greatest slogan ever invented: "America Can Do Better"
Oh yeah, no column would be complete with the "Democrats are weak on National Security" line.
And, let's not forget Karl Rove's and Ken Mehlman's favorite attack, "The Angry Democrat".
It seems that the Washington Post now has a formula for writing columns and articles about the Democratic Party. One or more of the above points must be included, and if you can get them all, such as Ignatius as, 500 point bonus.
Technorati Tags: Washington Post, David Ignatius, DNC, GOP
Look at this picture.
It can be found on Howard Kaloogian's campaign website with the following caption:
Downtown Baghdad
We took this photo of dowtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq. Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism.
It seems that Tom DeLay is none too happy that the laws of the State of Texas are being applied to him:
Under a Texas law passed in 1995, a license may be suspended if the holder is charged with a Class A or Class B misdemeanor or indicted on felony charges.
Now having said that, I agree with Commissioner Patterson that a blanket ban like that serves no rational purpose. Suspending a CCL as a condition of bail makes sense, but let's be honest: Tom DeLay is no less a menace to public safety without his gun than he normally is. The law is what it is, however, and I see no reason why he should get any special treatment. If there's a reason permitted in the statute to un-suspend his license before his trial then fine, but if not, let him act like any other aggrieved citizen and petition his State Rep to change the existing law.
"Hell, there are no rules here-- we're trying to accomplish something."
--Thomas A. Edison
From the party who promised to bring "honor and integrity" to Washington:
Amid broad congressional concern about ethics scandals, some lawmakers are poised to expand the battle for reform: They want to enact legislation that would prohibit members of Congress and their aides from trading stocks based on nonpublic information gathered on Capitol Hill.
Two Democrat lawmakers plan to introduce today a bill that would block trading on such inside information. Current securities law and congressional ethics rules don't prohibit lawmakers or their staff members from buying and selling securities based on information learned in the halls of Congress.
The two Democrats who wrote the bill say they were motivated by the trading activity of a former top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, the onetime Republican majority leader in the House. The aide, Tony Rudy, bought and sold hundreds of stocks from his computer in the U.S. Capitol in 1999 and 2000, according to financial-disclosure forms and other DeLay aides.
This really isn't news, but it is a good confirmation that Bush was more interested in pursuing war with Iraq, than he was about pursuing terrorists:
... NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
[...]
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.
[...]
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.
The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.
“People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.
[...]
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
This amicus brief argues that the legislative history of the DTA supports the Government's position. Specifically, the brief cites a lengthy colloquy between Senators Kyl and Graham themselves which purportly took place during a Senate floor debate just prior to passage of the bill.Sounds harmless, huh? Here's the catch:Apparently this entire 8 page colloquy--which is scripted to read as if it were delivered live on the floor of the Senate, complete with random interruptions from other Senators--never took place.
Andy Card resigns. Bush has been under pressure to change his staff. Not that anyone really expects anything to change, but now Josh Bolten, director of OMB will be his replacement.
I wonder how many things are going to be pinned on Card, now that he is leaving?
Technorati Tags: Andy Card, Josh Bolten, Chief of Staff
Because the Swift Boaters did such a good job sliming John Kerry and his service during the 2004 election, Republicans know who to go to for their campaign sliming needs:
The Republican businessman has the backing of two high-profile GOP strategists: Keith Appell and Gary Abernathy. You can call them political consultants, campaign spokesmen and a little bit controversial.
Appell is known on the national level. If you've never heard of him, you've likely heard of one of his PR projects, the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth.
United States troops will pull out of Iraq if the new leaders to be elected on Sunday requested it, President George W Bush said in an interview published on Friday by The New York Times, although he added that he expected the Iraqis to ask US troops to remain as helpers, not occupiers.
IRAQ'S ruling parties have demanded US forces cede control of security as the government investigated a raid on a Shiite mosque complex that ministers said involved "cold blooded" killings by US-led troops.
[...]
"The Alliance calls for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government," Jawad al-Maliki, a senior spokesman of the Shiite Islamist Alliance and ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told a news conference.
[...]
Baghdad provincial governor Hussein al-Tahan said he would halt all co-operation with US forces.
Rail security is non-existent:
Gates to the depot are unlocked and unguarded, allowing unimpeded access to tracks where cars loaded with deadly chlorine, ammonia or oleum gases are stored.
Along the track bed, many switching devices are unlocked, so unauthorized passers-by could redirect, and possibly derail, a train by simply pulling a lever. Security is so lax that a reporter and photographer recently spent 10 minutes driving along a rail bed beside cars holding toxic chemicals without being challenged, or even approached, by railroad employees.
In the years since the 9/11 attacks, public concern about a potential terrorist strike at one of the nation's chemical plants has caused federal and local officials to inch toward tighter safeguards at manufacturing and processing plants. On Tuesday, in a speech before the American Chemistry Council, Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security, said he would ask Congress to adopt a series of chemical plant security measures that have largely been endorsed by the industry.
[...]
The Homeland Security Department has been reluctant to tighten regulations regarding the transportation of deadly chemicals by rail. In his speech last week, Mr. Chertoff made only passing reference to the risks of transporting the deadly cargo, and there is no indication that the department will require the kind of changes in equipment and procedures that security experts say will reduce the risk of a terrorist attack or catastrophic accident.
This advertisement was rejected by various media outlets for being too controversial.
Go figure.
More from The Street Prophets:
The conclusion is hard to escape: unless you're Jesse Jackson (and it's before 2001), if you're on Sunday morning television to talk religion and politics, you're almost certainly white, male and conservative, and you probably don't represent anyone other than your own advocacy group. Is it any wonder that public discourse about religion has become so distorted in the past few years? The news shows have stopped talking to people who do religion in favor of people who talk about "religious values," and usually from a particular perspective.
Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff and special adviser to President George W. Bush, has recently been providing information to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the ongoing CIA leak investigation, sources close to the investigation say.
According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush's senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent "discovery" of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar."
--Donald Foster
Some people aren't content unless they think they are being persecuted:
The much anticipated War On Christians And The Values Voter In 2006 conference convenes today (March 27) at noon in the Blue Room of the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Conference hours are noon to 5:30 p.m. today (with a banquet from 7 to 9:30 p.m.) and 8:30 to 6 p.m. tomorrow (with a luncheon from 12:30 to 2 p.m.). All sessions are open to the media.
The conference will cover every aspect of the far-reaching assault on Christians and Judeo-Christian values from activist organizations, government, Hollywood and America's cultural elite.
Keynote Speakers include such Values Vote leaders as Phyllis Schlafly, Vision America President Rick Scarborough, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Janet Folger, Congressman Tom DeLay, Janet Parshall, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Sam Brownback.
George Bush didn't want to go to war, explain this:
In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.
But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.
Mr. Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.
Atrios gives us the results of the year of work he, Kos, and a few others have been working on the FEC to do. Namely, ensure that bloggers, and those who publish on the internet, are afforded, at least, the same protections from campaign finance regulation as the regular media.
The FEC went one better, and said:
As a whole, these final rules will make plain that the vast majority of Internet communications are, and will remain, free from campaign finance regulation. To the greatest extent permitted ...the Commission is clarifying and affirming that Internet activities by individuals and groups of individuals face almost no regulatory burdens under the Federal Election Campaign Act. The need to safeguard Constitutionally-protected speech allows no other approach.
from others plagarizing their work?
Larisa Alexandrovna:
On March 14, 2006, the AP did their own article, left out any attribution to me or my publication and lifted not only my research but also whole sections of my article for their own (making cosmetic changes of course).
We contacted an AP senior editor and ombudsmen both and both admitted to having had the article passed on to them, and both stated that they viewed us as a blog and because we were a blog, they did not need to credit us. What we are or are not is frankly irrelevant. What is relevant is that by using a term like blog to somehow excuse plagiarism, the mainstream press continues to lower the bar for acceptable behavior. It need not matter where the AP got the information, research, and actual wording from. What matters is that if they use it in part or in whole, they must attribute properly. A blog or a small press publication or grads students working in the corner of a library all equally deserve credit for their work, period.
Unfortunately this is far too common and has happened to me and to other writers and bloggers far too frequently. This time, however, we made a point of tape recording the AP apparatchiks admitting to taking our work and using it without attribution, stating "we do not credit blogs".
The Media asks "How High?"
Howard Kurtz:
[HOWARD] KURTZ: Thank you.
Bush and Cheney essentially seem to be accusing you and your colleagues of carrying the terrorist message by reporting on so many of these attacks. What do you make of that?
[LAURA] LOGAN: Well, I think that's -- that is a very convenient way of looking at it. It doesn't reflect the value judgment that's implicit in that.
As a journalist, if an American soldier or an Iraqi person dies that day, you have to make a decision about how you weigh the value of reporting that news over the value of something that may be happening, say, a water plant that's being turned on that brings fresh water to 200 Iraqi people. I mean, you get accused of valuing human life in a certain way depending on how you report it.
And also, as -- I mean, what I would point out is that you can't travel around this country anymore without military protection. You can't travel without armed guards. You're not free to go every time there's a school opening or there's some reconstruction project that's being done.
We don't have the ability to go out and cover those. If they want to see a fair picture of what's happening in Iraq, then you have to first start with the security issue.
When journalists are free to move around this country, then they will be free to report on everything that's going on. But as long as you're a prisoner of the terrible security situation here, then that's going to be reflected in your coverage.
And not only that, but their own figures show that their reconstruction project was supposed to create 1.5 million Iraqi jobs. To date, 77,000 Iraqi government jobs have been created. That should give you an indication of how far along they are in terms of reconstruction.
We have to put everything in its context. We can't go to one small unit and say, oh, they did a great job in this village and ignore all the other villages that haven't seen any improvement in their conditions.
"You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
Whenever the specter of the Clinton is raised, be it Bill or Hillary, Republicans seem to have the uncanny ability to go off the deep end:
"Hillary Clinton is really worried about me, and is so worried, in fact, that she had helicopters flying over my house in Southampton today taking pictures," according to a prominent GOP activist who was at the event.
Don't you dare have a drink while you are here:
Problem is, the TABC has drawn its line too far by taking it upon itself to start arresting bar patrons who aren't causing any disturbance, especially if they're not planning to get behind the wheel.
That's apparently what happened to Burton Byers. He was drinking beer at the hotel he was staying at in Irving when police approached him. Undercover alcohol commission agents had ratted him out, identifying him as intoxicated either because of his behavior or because he'd had a few beers.
The Arkansas aircraft repairman was taken outside, handcuffed and sent to jail, where he posted $360 bond and was released. He later lost his job, he said, in part because of the arrest.
