Circus Minimus

"I don't care what Kanye says, I do TOO care about Negroes."

2006-02-06T22:45:00.000-06:00

Today’s Incongruous Headlines:

Bush Lauds Dance Theatre of Harlem

Excerpt:

A White House tribute to Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of Harlem put President Bush and wife Laura in a dancing mood Monday night.

Following a dinner in the State Dining Room toasting 71-year-old school founder Mitchell, the president and first lady took in a performance featuring dancers from the school and some all-star singers — and then showed off some moves of their own.

Bush honored Mitchell at the dinner, saying: "Tonight, I offer a toast to the achievements and continued success of Arthur Mitchell and the Dance Theatre of Harlem."

Full ludicrousness here.

Bush’s $2.5 Trillion Budget Plan Slashes Funding for Arts, Education

Excerpt:

President Bush plans to unveil a $2.5 trillion budget today eliminating dozens of politically sensitive domestic programs, including funding for education, environmental protection and business development, while proposing significant increases for the military and international spending, according to White House documents.

About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back to help meet Bush's goal of shaving the budget deficit in half by 2009. One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education.

More immorality here.

If the President says it, it must be true

2006-02-06T20:11:00.000-06:00

Who Would Jesus Starve?

2006-02-02T23:02:00.000-06:00

Bush Sends Congress $440 Billion Defense Budget

Here.

Congress Slashes $39 billion from Medicaid, other social programs

And here.

Today's GOP: Habitat for Inhumanity

2006-02-02T13:25:00.000-06:00

These stories just in:

Congress Passes Budget Bill; Slashes $39 billion from Medicaid, Foster Care, Child Support Enforcement and Student Loans
Here.

Bush to Request $70 Billion More for War Funding
There.

Same shit, different day from the Repugnicans. But then, what else would you expect on Groundhog Day?

Rep. Boehner Elected House Majority Leader

2006-02-02T13:04:00.000-06:00

Boehner Shares Broad Network of Lobbyist Ties With Tom DeLay

Excerpt:

Boehner, 56, who has been in Congress since 1991, has said he and DeLay have had conflicts in the past, and other lawmakers say they are not close. Even so, Boehner has strong connections to lobbyists: He met weekly with leading lobbyists to enlist their support and discuss strategy during his four years as House Republican Conference chairman, from 1995 to 1998.

Sallie Mae

The top donor to Boehner's leadership PAC in 2003-2004 was SLM Corp., the Reston, Virginia-based student-loan company better known as Sallie Mae. SLM contributed $65,170 to Boehner's Freedom Project, more than twice as much as the second-biggest donor, New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The money came as the House Education and Workforce Committee, which Boehner chairs, prepared to write new legislation governing student loans.

In 1995, Boehner handed out campaign checks from the tobacco industry to members on the House floor at a time when lawmakers were considering eliminating a tobacco subsidy.

Representative Chris Shays, a Connecticut Republican, said he believes that Boehner is even closer to lobbyists than Roy Blunt. ``The problem John faces is that he's so close to K Street; that's the challenge he's got,'' said Shays, who's backing Blunt.

Full story here.

(P.S. Nice form, Congressman. But you seemed to have whiffed. Need a mulligan?)

George W. Bush: "America is addicted to oil..." Philip Morris: "...but not to nicotine."

2006-02-02T12:44:00.000-06:00

$80 Million Judgment Against Philip Morris Is Upheld

Excerpt:

The Oregon Supreme Court upheld on Thursday a $79.5 million punitive damages award to the family of an Oregon smoker who died of lung cancer, saying the amount isn't excessive given the "reprehensible" conduct of tobacco giant Philip Morris in marketing cigarettes.

"Philip Morris knew that smoking caused serious and sometimes fatal disease, but it nevertheless spread false or misleading information to suggest to the public that doubts remained about the issue," the court said. "It deliberately did so to keep smokers smoking, knowing that it was putting the smokers' health and lives at risk, and it continued to do so for nearly half a century."

The Oregon court upheld a 1999 Multnomah County jury award of $79.5 million in punitive damages to the family of Jesse D. Williams, a janitor who died in 1997 of lung cancer at the age of 67. The man's family also was awarded $500,000 in non-economic damages, to compensate for pain and suffering.

According to testimony in the trial, Williams started smoking in the 1950s when serving in the Army in Korea, and later he smoked three packs of Marlboros a day. Williams' family said he kept smoking because he did not believe a company would sell something that was truly harmful.

Full story here.

I hear there’s uproar on the Internets

2006-02-02T12:25:00.000-06:00

Over this:

Seems that the wingnuttosphere is aghast that Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles would demean our troops in such a callous way.

It started with a rare and unusual letter to the Post from the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, which read in part:

“We believe you and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to your readers and your paper's reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defend this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds. ... As the Joint Chiefs, it is rare that we all put our hand to one letter, but we cannot let this reprehensible cartoon go unanswered."

That was followed by a great post by John Aravosis of AmericaBlog, which included this:

"Now that the Joint Chiefs have addressed the insidious threat cartoons pose to our troops, perhaps they can move on to less pressing issues like getting them their damn body armor."

Which was then followed by the Post’s own defense of the cartoon by Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt:

"While I certainly can understand the strong feelings, I took it to be a cartoon about the state of the Army and not one intended to demean wounded soldiers."

And by Toles himself after recent remarks by Rumsfeld about "battle-hardened" troops

"…what came soon to mind was the catastrophic level of injuries the Army and members of the armed services have sustained . . . I thought my portrayal of it was a fair depiction of the reality of the situation. I certainly never intended it to be in any way a personal attack on, or a derogatory comment on, the service or sacrifice of American soldiers. I think it's a little bit unfair in their (the Joint Chiefs’) reading of the cartoon to imply that is what it's about."

But the wingnuts are all a titter, claiming the cartoon embodies the left’s lack of support for the troops. Aravosis posted some of the hate mail he has received, including this from a man purporting to be a retired Marine :

“In reference to your recent above statement...you have no idea
what the hell you are talking about! Once you wake up from your
stupor and grow in maturity maybe then you will start to gain
some real perspective about what is going on in Iraq/Afghanistan
and how one successfully fights a war. Until then, I strongly
suggest you keep your inane, arrogant comments to yourself!”

I gotta tell ya, it was perfectly clear to me that Toles was being critical not of the soldiers but of Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon’s mismanagement of the war in Iraq. Somehow that mutated in the minds of the tinfoil-hat crowd as liberals being anti-soldier.

Hey nutjobs: highlighting and criticizing the DOD’s tactics in prosecuting the war in a way that puts soldiers at greater risk – e.g. by not equipping them with enough body armor – is a much more effective way to support the troops than by putting a $2 magnetic ribbon on your pick-up truck.

Someone in Washington Finally Apologizes to Cindy Sheehan

2006-02-01T21:43:00.000-06:00

Too bad the President wont.

Charges against Sheehan dropped

Excerpt:

Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman’s wife from President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages.

“The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol,” Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement late Wednesday.

“The policy and procedures were too vague,” he added. “The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine.”

Gainer added that he was asking the U.S. attorney’s office to drop the charge against Sheehan. The statement also said he apologized to the Youngs and “share the department’s plans for avoiding this in the future.”

“A similar message has been left with Mrs. Sheehan,” Gainer said.

Full story here.

Letterman said it best, to Bill O'Reilly:

"I'm very concerned about people like yourself who don't have nothing but endless sympathy for a woman like Cindy Sheehan. Honest to Christ. Honest to Christ."

Badlands

2006-02-01T21:32:00.000-06:00

"Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And the king ain’t satisfied
‘til he rules everything."

- Lyrics: Bruce Springsteen
- Graphic: Bartcop (Tip of the Top Hat, Bart)

Reality bites

2006-02-01T11:16:00.000-06:00

Today's headlines:

Bush tries to ride post-speech momentum

Speech received the lowest level of positive reaction of Bush’s tenure

I don't know what to thimk

2006-02-01T11:01:00.000-06:00

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use a hijacked airplane as a missile."

“I don’t think anybody predicted the levees would fail.”

"I don't think there is anyone who wasn't caught off guard by Hamas' strong showing."

A Million Little Lies

2006-02-01T10:09:00.000-06:00

Literary Agent Drops Disputed Author Frey

Full story here.

This is what should happen when someone blatantly, consistently and unrepentantly lies.

Too bad Oprah is the only media person willing to hold someone accountable for telling them.

Frey lied; nobody died.

Why not these two?

2006-02-01T09:53:00.000-06:00

AFP: Prince Harry could be sent to Iraq

Full story here.

I guess Jen and Babs aren't part of the Coalition of the Willing.

A Public Service Announcement from The Ringmaster

2006-02-01T09:02:00.000-06:00

Think getting telemarketing calls at your home is maddening?

Later this month, all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. Isn't that exciting? Not only that, if you pay for minutes, YOU will pay for these calls.

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time and it blocks your number for five years.

Also…

Cell phone companies typically charge $1.00 or more for 411 / information calls when they don't have to.

When you need to use the 411 / information option, simply dial 1 800 FREE 411 or 1 800 373 3411 without incurring a charge at all (except for the minutes required to make the call.)

Black History Month

2006-02-01T08:29:00.000-06:00

As we begin Black History Month, I couldn’t help but reflect on all the ways the Bush administration is doing their part to make blacks history.

I’m sure Kanye West agrees.

Day is done

2006-01-31T23:27:00.000-06:00

Coretta Scott King passes away in the morning.
Cindy Sheehan is arrested for wearing an antiwar tee-shirt in the evening.

We shall overcome, some day.

Weak POTUS; Weaker SOTU

2006-01-31T21:10:00.000-06:00

Comment: His worst SOTU yet.

Prediction: He not only gets no bounce, he sinks further in the polls

Conclusion #1: He proves again that there are lies, damn lies and State of the Union lies.

Conclusion #2: Bush complaining that America has an addiction to oil is like the CEO of Philip Morris complaining that America has an addiction to nicotine.

Conclusion #3: Bush's has spent his political capital and it's America that's broke.

Let’s Put Together a Party

2006-01-31T21:03:00.000-06:00

Not that kind of party.

Let’s face it, the Democrats’ lackluster attempt to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court was a joke. But it serves as yet another opportunity to assess where the Democratic Party is and where it wants to be, now and in the future. And with so many Democrats voting with the Republican majority to confirm Alito after the filibuster threat evaporated, it is critical to realize that the very attributes that could easily make the Democrats the majority party are the same ones that conspire to place it in jeopardy of becoming a near-permanent minority party. Just as Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Rick Santorum would have it.

The Democratic Party is by nature inclusive, a so-called “Big Tent” (and The Ringmaster loves a Big Tent.) It is a tent filled with a loosely-connected coalition of unionists and scientists, ethnic immigrants and racial minorities, entertainers and environmentalists, students, teachers, pro-choice, pro-peace and pro-equality populists – in short, a large majority of Americans. Yet its support seems evanescent, tentative, shallow: a mile wide and an inch deep. There hasn’t been any life in the party since Bill Clinton’s presidency. Hell, Clinton was the party, or at least the life of it. Then, the clock seemingly struck midnight and the party was pretty much over.

Both Al Gore and John Kerry were dreadful candidates – not only because of their own individual limitations, personality quirks and eccentricities but also by the shortcomings of their party. Ironically, Gore - who actually won the 2000 election before he lost it – and Kerry – who got more votes than any other Democratic presidential candidate in history and also lost – could have won their respective elections but both failed. They failed to connect with voters on a personal level, failed to define themselves, failed to neutralize the labels placed on them by the GOP smear merchants and swift-boaters, and failed to enunciate a vision for the country – because each had none. But this doesn’t explain how the Republican Party - especially this ghastly incarnation of it - whose core support is largely limited to conservative business interests and fundamentalist religious and social ideologues, is able to convince people to vote against their own self-interest and win national elections.

So how does this keep happening? Perhaps Shakespeare put it best: the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

The same amorphous blob of an alliance that constitutes the Democratic electorate also comprises its elected officials. It is a party so disparate and diffuse in views, it cannot even hold a united front against an illegitimate war, an immoral national budget, a criminally monarchical President or a radical Supreme Court nominee. The party is so unsure of itself that it adopts the slogan, “Together, we can do better”, but can’t define what it does now, let alone what it can do. Better. Together.

As one blogger – Media Girl - noted recently on the website, BlogSheroes:

“What does the Democratic Party stand for, what does it represent, if it can't even put together a coherent message about progressive values, civil rights, human rights and basic equality? What good is a Democratic Party if it won't even stand up to the egregious and offensive push by the now-so-radical Republican Party to regulate one's body and one's bedroom?”

Much will be said and written in the coming months about what the Democrats must do in the 2006 midterm elections to start reversing their recent trend of marginalizing themselves out of power, and I will humbly add my $.02. Paradoxically, however, the way out of the margins is not through the center, but left of it. Just as young students need to master the fundamentals – the ABC’s - and a winning football team has to master the fundamentals - blocking and tackling - so, too, does a political party have to master the fundamentals - appealing and re-appealing to a core group of supporters: its base.

In a post I will put up shortly, I will attempt to remind the Democratic leadership and those empowered to make strategic decisions for the party, about their fundamentals - the ABC’s.

Huh?

2006-01-31T20:08:00.000-06:00

Today's business headlines:

"Wages Up by Smallest Amount in Nine Years"
Story here.

"Consumer Confidence Highest in Three Years"
Story here.

Some things seem to defy explanation.

State of the Union...

2006-01-31T16:20:00.000-06:00

...Wesley Clark-style

"Will we choose to emphasize boastful rhetoric or constructive engagement abroad? Will we lash out in anger with military force, or will we pursue every reasonable avenue to avoid the terrible destruction of war? Will we “fight fire with fire,” relying on the means and techniques of our adversaries, or live and lead by the higher standard of the values we have professed? At home, will we persist in shortsighted partisanship, or will we follow a stronger vision to the deep reforms needed to secure our future? Will it be selfishness or shared sacrifice that is our rallying cry?

These are the choices before us."

Full speech here.

Right now, I'm leaning Wes's way for '08.

Pin the Tale on the Donkey

2006-01-31T15:43:00.000-06:00

Chris Matthews: “Ted Kennedy, the guy that molested Samuel Alito’s wife”

Margaret Carlson: “Democrats who don’t applaud at Bush’s State of the Union speech will look bad.”

Deborah Howell: “Democrats received contributions from Jack Abramoff, too.”

Scott McClellan: “Bill Clinton also approved wiretaps without first obtaining a warrant”

Just some of the recent ones.

It would be a task of which I am not worthy to try and list all of the ways in which Republicans – aided by the so-called liberal media – have created an image of Democrats as a bunch of whining, flip-flopping, obstructionists with no agenda, simply by planting and spreading the same phony memes.

The Dems inability to dispel these images by crafting their own unified message and forwarding their own agenda is a source of never ending amazement to many, and should be an embarrassment to the party’s leadership.

I'll have more thoughts on this in a future post.

Narrowly defeating Camilla Parker-Bowles

2006-01-31T08:51:00.000-06:00

Jack the Ripper chosen 'most evil' Briton

Excerpt:

The top 10

1. Jack the Ripper (19th century)

3. Eadric Streona (died 1017)

= King John (1167-1216)

= Titus Oates (1649-1705)

= Hugh Despenser (the younger)

10. Oswald Mosley (1896-1980)

Jack the Ripper, despite never having been identified, has been chosen in a poll as the "worst" Briton of the past 1,000 years.

The serial killer who preyed on prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888 has lost none of his notoriety. Nearly 5,000 people voted for their least favourite figure from a shortlist representing each century over the past millennium in a poll for BBC History Magazine.

Full story here.

We Shall Overcome

2006-01-31T08:02:00.000-06:00

Coretta Scott King
1927 - 2006

Today has not gotten off to a good start.

The State of Our Union is...Nucular

2006-01-30T21:18:00.000-06:00

If you don't like the State of The Union address the Preznit gives tonight, listen to this one.

Hysterical.

And you'll know THEM by their white hoods

2006-01-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

Brownback: 'Fruits' Comment Not Gay Joke

Excerpt:

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), a potential presidential candidate, said Monday he meant no offense to homosexuals when he used the word "fruits" in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

In a lengthy profile titled "God's Senator," the magazine quotes the Kansas Republican as criticizing countries like Sweden that allow civil unions between same-sex couples.

"You'll know them by their fruits," Brownback said, quoting a biblical passage from Matthew 7:19.

Full story here.

What's the word I'm looking for? Oh, yeah...

2006-01-30T20:45:00.000-06:00

Smarmy.

I hate to seem petty. I guess I just get the same visceral reaction every time I see Republican leaders with their smug, unctuous, sycophantic gloats.

Democrats Can't Muster the Sam Alito Filibuster; 19 Cross Over to Vote with Republicans on Cloture; Full Senate Confirmation Expected Tomorrow

2006-01-30T16:53:00.000-06:00

And a nice little State of the Union gift to George W. Bush.

Hapless Senate Democrats once again took a page from John Kerry's failed playbook and decided to execute another strategy that has resulted in one election loss after another.

Their approach today on the filibuster is the prolongation of a passionless course of action that continues to demonstrate the impotence of the Democratic party. No party discipline, just a bunch of meaningless rhetroric to mask a defeatist attitude. No attempt to act on principle, just a vote for what they think is best for the party. How about what's best for the country? Afraid to take a stand for fear it would make them look obstructionist. To whom, Republicans?

Playing not to lose is the best way to insure defeat. The Democratic party will never enjoy power again until it develops, embraces and promotes populist ideas forcefully and confidently, no matter what the political consequences.

What's the difference between an elephant and a donkey?

2006-01-30T14:31:00.000-06:00

From “Sutton Impact” by Ward Sutton, via The Village Voice:

Excerpt:

Republicans can take nothing and turn it into a Democratic scandal.
Democrats can take a Republican scandal and turn it into nothing.

Republicans run on what they believe and win elections.
Democrats run on what they believe will win elections and lose.

Full ‘toon here.

Enough Already

2006-01-30T11:59:00.000-06:00

There is a point at which it’s time to tell the news organizations that we admire them for telling the story, but the IED-infested streets on the front line of the war in Iraq is not the place to embed reporters who have families and young children, for Chrissakes.

It’s horrific enough that we have to send soldiers there.

Sandy, we hardly knew ye

2006-01-30T11:31:00.000-06:00

The Supreme Court's Surprisingly Unanimous Abortion Decision: A Parting Gift for Justice O'Connor?

Excerpt:

In what will likely be the last opinion she authors for the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently announced a surprisingly unanimous decision in an abortion case. In Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Court invalidated a New Hampshire law requiring minors seeking abortions to notify their parents. The law was deemed unconstitutional because it failed to include an exception for circumstances in which a serious but non-life-threatening medical emergency requires an immediate abortion.

Ayotte is the first unanimous abortion decision since the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which itself was 7-2. Some of the Court's most important abortion rulings, including the 2000 decision striking down Nebraska's "partial-birth" abortion ban in Stenberg v. Carhart, were decided by a 5-4 margin.

Full story here.

Doing Dick Cheney Proud

2006-01-30T10:44:00.000-06:00

Exxon Sees Record Profits for Any U.S. Company

Excerpt:

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday — $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year — as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose nearly 3 percent in morning trading.

The company's earnings amounted to $1.71 per share for the October-December quarter, up 27 percent from $8.42 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the year ago quarter. The result topped the then-record quarterly profit of $9.92 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter of 2005.

Exxon's profit for the year was also the largest annual reported net income in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, a stock market analyst for Standard & Poor's. He said the previous high was Exxon's $25.3 billion profit in 2004.

Exxon's results lifted the combined 2005 profits for the country's three largest integrated oil companies to more than $63 billion.

Full story here.

As a businessperson, a small investor and a libertarian, I tend to view corporate profits as a good thing. I mean, hey, we’re all in business to make money.

But when a company’s profits come as a result of a confluence of natural and man-made events - hurricanes, artificially inflated prices, price-gouging, access to government officials through secret meetings, etc. – and the rest of the country suffers, I view that as the worst kind of malevolent greed. An insatiable gluttony of wretched excess; an offense with prejudice and special circumstance. So typical of companies like Enron, Halliburton and others who lurk and work in the shadows, and create policies that enrich themselves at the public's expense.

Question for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the Republican Congressional Leadership: Why the hell does an industry with the highest profits in American corporate history need tax breaks to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge when many Americans can’t afford to heat their homes with the products these companies make??

Pigs.

An Open Letter To Senator Barack Obama

2006-01-28T18:22:00.000-06:00

VIA FAX: (202) 228-4260

January 28, 2006

Senator Barack Obama
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Obama:

I write to ask that you actively support the filibuster of Judge Samuel Alito and encourage your colleagues to do so as well.

Judge Alito has proven to be far outside the mainstream of even conservative thought in this country, let alone the thought of the citizens of Illinois. His lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court would be a major setback for all Illinoisans who favor giving women more control of the reproductive rights, not less, and giving the President less authority to make unilateral decisions without Congressional approval, not more.

A vote on the nomination of a would-be Supreme Court justice is one of the most important duties we ask of our senators. Now, more than ever, it is critical that Democrats such as yourself be on record as vigorously opposing any action on the part of this administration and this Congress to further erode the Constitutional rights of all Americans.

Do not fear the so-called backlash many Republican politicians and right-wing pundits predict will befall those who vote against this nominee. Only those who didn’t vote their conscience will feel the repercussions, so let your conscience guide you now. Whether your vote prevails in this matter is an issue over which you have no control; the important thing, however, is to do what is just and what is right.

I hope you will use your considerable influence to promote and support a filibuster and vote “no” on this nomination should the filibuster not prevail.

signed

"No Contest"

2006-01-27T22:08:00.000-06:00

Chicago, NYC battle for best U.S. city claims

My hometown...in a landslide.

Excerpt:

King Cormack, 50, a media designer who has lived in both cities and is now in Chicago, prefers the Windy City. He gives New York the advantage when it comes to museums and opera, but wrote on craigslist that Chicago "exceeds NY on so many other quality-of-life issues that there's no contest."

Full story here.

Today's Filthy Roustabout

2006-01-27T15:51:00.000-06:00

Ann ~~Coldsore~~ Coulter

Beating Keith Olbermann to the punch, here's today's serve up of why she is once again the Worst Person in the World.

(See earlier post titled "Meet the Stars of Circus Minimus" for descriptions and examples of all the clowns, animals, roustabouts and freaks featured here.)

AP: Budget Office Projects U.S. Deficit to hit Record $477 Billion in 2006

2006-01-27T15:14:00.000-06:00

Trust Me

2006-01-27T14:57:00.000-06:00

Hello, I’m George W. Bush with another of my 98 reasons why you should trust me to safeguard your liberties.

Reason #12: When you hear the words roving wiretap, it means we have to go to the courts first and get a warrant.

And I’m Henry Block with another of my 42 reasons why you should trust H&R Block to prepare your tax return.

Reason #18: Our specially trained surgeons will come to your home and remove your corneas, enabling you to receive additional benefits as a blind person.

Musings on the Palestinian Elections

2006-01-27T14:26:00.000-06:00

The landslide victory by Hamas in the Palestinian elections raises three key questions:

For all the adulation shown Yassir Arafat in life and even more so in death, what does it say about the accomplishments his leadership yielded that barely a year removed from his departure from the scene, the Palestinian Authority would turn so dramatically to an agenda much more radical than his?

For all George W. Bush’s bluster about spreading democracy in the Middle East, what does the ascendancy of Shi’ites in Iraq, pro-Hezbollah fundamentalists in Iran and now Hamas in the Palestinian Authority say about the realistic prospects of American-style democracy taking hold in a region with no such historical tendencies?

Will Bush accept the results of democratic elections in the Middle East when he doesn’t like the outcome?

"You are a partisan - what do you call it - hack"

2006-01-27T10:23:00.000-06:00

Chris Matthews has become an insult to professional journalism and the laughingstock of MSNBC. And that's a tall order on a network that features Rita Cosby and Joe Scarborough.

From his on-air bias to his grating style of "interviewus interruptus" to his latest crude joke about homosexuality, Matthews is a poster boy for the mainstream media's complicity in the degradation of public political discourse.

Some legitimate public figure other than Jed Clampett needs to go on "Hardball" and do to Matthews what Jon Stewart did to Tucker Carlson on "Crossfire":

JON STEWART: "I think, oftentimes, the person that knows they can't win is allowed to speak the most freely, because, otherwise, shows with titles, such as "CROSSFIRE" or "HARDBALL" or "I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS" will jump on it.

"…In many ways, it's funny. And I made a special effort to come on the show today, because I have privately, amongst my friends and also in occasional newspapers and television shows, mentioned this show as being bad.

"…I felt that that wasn't fair and I should come here and tell you that I don't -- it's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America.

"…Here's just what I wanted to tell you guys: stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.

"...You are partisan, what do you call it, hacks."

Paging Stephen Colbert.

There Goes the Neighborhood

2006-01-26T12:47:00.000-06:00

Hamas Wins in Landslide.

Full story here.

This is not good.

Osteopathic Surgeon to O.R. - STAT!

2006-01-26T12:40:00.000-06:00

When the New York Times publishes an editorial titled “Senators in Need of a Spine”, and declares that there are few things more frightening than Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court, perhaps a few Democrats would get the message – like maybe New York’s two, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton?

But this Democratic caucus is in need of more than a spine, for they also lack guts – always on the defensive, always playing it safe, always pandering, always fearing public criticism that they will be labeled as soft on something, unpatriotic, anti-American, or worst of all…LIBERAL! And, as always, unable to muster the will to defend themselves against the smears and lies from the right.

How about standing for something, Senators?

Show us you have a spine. Show us you have some guts. Show us you have a freakin’ pulse.

Filibuster Alito.

Harry Gives 'Em Some More Hell

2006-01-24T19:38:00.000-06:00

Remarks as prepared for delivery by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid at the Center for American Progress:

Excerpt:

What is the state of our union in 2006?

We have a national security policy that protects Halliburton's bottom-line with no-bid contracts but sends our troops to Iraq without body armor.

We have Vice President Cheney's energy policy that helped Big Oil make a hundred billion dollars in profit in 2005 but this same policy has America paying 70 dollars for a barrel of oil and families paying twice as much for heat and gasoline as did in late 2001.

We have students priced out of college by skyrocketing tuition - and Republicans in Congress who want to cut student loans in order to pay for special interest tax breaks.

We have 46 million Americans without health insurance and poverty numbers on the rise - but a President whose economic policies benefit the wealthy and well-connected.

This is what happens to the state of our union when leaders put special interests ahead of the America's interest.

These are the costs of Republican corruption.

Harry's right, of course. And there are many more examples of how the grimy Republican corruption machine continues to ooze slime, soiling everything around it.

Full text here.

In a related story, the NRA said it will offer all US citizens free lifetime membership from birth

2006-01-24T17:29:00.000-06:00

From WTAE:

8-Year-Olds May Be Allowed To Hunt In Wisconsin

Current Limit Is 12

MADISON, Wis. -- Legislators who fear young people are losing interest in Wisconsin's hunting tradition want to allow children as young as 8 to shoot deer.

Rep. Scott Gunderson's proposal would lower the hunting age from 12 to eight. The Republican from Waterford said it's important to get kids hunting at a younger age.

But the idea of a lower hunting age horrifies Joe Slattery, whose 14-year-old son was accidentally shot and killed by a 12-year-old while deer hunting in Marinette County last year. He said 8-year-olds don't have the ability to handle guns.

The state Assembly already approved Gunderson's bill. The measure still needs approval from the state Senate and governor to become law.

Bush: "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him."

2006-01-24T16:57:00.000-06:00

(Tip of The Ringmaster’s Top Hat to Bartcop for the graphic.)

Chance that ethically-challenged Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will actually appoint one: 0%

2006-01-24T16:39:00.000-06:00

New USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll:

Percentage of Americans who said they support the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate President Bush’s illegal domestic spying program: 58%

Full poll results here.

(Major tip of the Top Hat to flickr.com for the graphic.)

Looking back at looking forward

2006-01-24T14:17:00.000-06:00

Back in 2000, just after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bush v. Gore awarding the Presidency to George W. Bush, I wrote a brief essay predicting the coming rise and and eventual fall of the corrupt, power-drunk GOP. It was worth a re-read.

The Politics of Self-Destruction
December 13, 2000

Even before the speeches by Al Gore and George W. Bush, the tone for the next four years in Washington had already been set. As if on cue, the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party - led by Trent Lott and Rush Limbaugh - called on Gore to make a "gracious, conciliatory" concession speech, and on Bush to immediately stake out his territory on the far right. This, they said he should do by calling for implementation of his "mandated" programs such as social security privatization and large-scale tax cuts.

This consummate presumptuousness, and the similarly absurd power grabbing vs. power sharing approach in an equally divided Senate, exemplifies the GOP’s continuing inability to govern from the majority position, as did their antics during the Bill Clinton impeachment farce. As long as Republicans were in the minority in Congress, they could remain the loyal opposition, attacking the majority but lacking the popular ideas and the political clout to effect changes to the policies they rejected. Once they claimed the congressional majority, they could neither stop their predilection for "the politics of personal destruction" nor even concur on a platform from which to legislate. Their failure to lead manifested itself by bitter intra-party infighting, the ferocity of which was usually reserved for enemies from outside their ranks. It ultimately cost the autocratic Newt Gingrich his career, and they never did achieve their ultimate goal of driving Bill Clinton from the presidency.

Viewed from this perspective, there is a sense - sadly unsurprising - that the election of George W. Bush is cheered by Republicans not so much as a victory on its merit for their own party, but more as a defeat for the Democratic Party - a political zero-sum-game. "We didn't just win, you lost and we're going to make you pay over and over again."

It will hardly be unexpected, then, to watch the GOP attempt to wield like a machete the newfound power vested in them by virtue of their control of the legislative and executive branches, and a seemingly like-minded judiciary. There will be no attempt to govern from the center, or to adopt a pragmatic, populist position. Compassionate conservatism will become counterfeit currency. There will be a lot more dividing than uniting. And where they once attempted to use their putative power to merely to attack the opposition, they will now use their presumptive absolute power to try to destroy it.

If the past is any indication, they will succeed only in destroying themselves.

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

2006-01-24T12:41:00.000-06:00

Bush Defends 'Terrorist Surveillance Program'

Excerpt:

President Bush pushed back Monday at critics of his once-secret domestic spying effort, saying it should be termed a "terrorist surveillance program" and contending it has the backing of legal experts, key lawmakers and the Supreme Court.

So let’s see...

A program that leaves kids behind: “No Child Left Behind Act”

A program that increases air pollution: “Clean Skies Initiative”

A program that destroys forests: “Healthy Forest Initiative”

A program that spies on Americans instead of terrorists: "Terrorist Surveillance Program"

(Tip of the Top Hat to Bush Watch for the graphic.)

Alito Nomination Goes To Full Senate

2006-01-24T11:41:00.000-06:00

In a straight party line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee today favorably recommended Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination to the ~~Rubber Stamp Company~~ full Senate, virtually ensuring the conservative jurist will join the high court bench. All 10 Republicans voted for Alito, while all eight Democrats voted against him.

Proving once again that all the good jobs are going overseas

2006-01-24T10:31:00.000-06:00

Investigator: U.S. 'Outsourced' Torture

The head of a European investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons in Europe said Tuesday that evidence pointed to the existence of a system of "outsourcing" of torture by the United States, and that it was highly likely European governments were aware of it.

Full story here.

Headline of the Week: "Sharapova Nears Climax Down Under"

2006-01-24T10:23:00.000-06:00

Courtesy of USA Today.

Okay, a little off-topic, but too funny not to mention!

"I did not have sex with that man, Mr. Abramoff"

2006-01-24T10:17:00.000-06:00

Full denial here.

GOP Shoves $22 Billion Health Care Emema Up the Asses of Senior Citizens

2006-01-24T09:30:00.000-06:00

Closed-Door Deal Makes $22 Billion Difference

GOP Negotiators Criticized for Change in Measure on HMOs

Excerpts:

House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

That change was made in mid-December during private negotiations involving House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the staffs of those committees as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee. House and Senate Democrats were excluded from the meeting.

The change in the Medicare provision underscores a practice that growing numbers of lawmakers from both parties want addressed. More than ever, Republican congressional lawmakers and leaders are making vital decisions, involving far-reaching policies and billions of dollars, without the public -- or even congressional Democrats -- present.

Full slime-infested story here.

So, we now have a corrupt Republican President who uses “Signing Statements” to create laws he knows even his own party-controlled Congress wouldn’t pass, and a corrupt Republican Congress that creates laws that benefit special interest groups without the knowledge of the minority party.

And the band plays on.

D'oh. Canada.

2006-01-23T15:49:00.000-06:00

Polls Predict Conservative Win in Canada

Excerpt:

Canadians voted Monday in an election sure to dramatically change the country's political landscape. All the polls predict a victory for Conservative leader Stephen Harper. That would end nearly 13 years of Liberal Party rule, shift the country to the right and move to improve relations with the U.S.

Canada’s Liberal Party has angered Washington in recent years, condemning the war in Iraq, refusing to join the continental anti-ballistic missile plan and criticizing President Bush for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions and enacting punitive Canadian lumber tariffs.

Full story here.

Poor Canadians. They’ve always feared becoming nothing but America’s 51^st state, with no real identity of their own.

And now they have.

Bush aide says Abramoff photos a coincidence.

2006-01-23T14:17:00.000-06:00

Just like these:

Full story here.

The only thing he didn't say was, "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you"

2006-01-23T13:37:00.000-06:00

Excerpt:

President Bush on Monday rejected critics' assertion that he broke the law by authorizing domestic eavesdropping without a warrant, saying he was doing what Congress authorized him to do to protect Americans from terrorist attacks.

Full story here.

He sounds like a serial abuser who beats his children senseless under the guise of protecting them.

Thank you sir, may I have another?

Bush to Take Unscripted Audience Questions

2006-01-23T12:08:00.000-06:00

Pathetic.

Excerpts:

Move over, Oprah. President Bush is making himself into television's newest talk show host by featuring audience participation in his appearances.

…Bush has been taking questions from audience members in recent speeches, and the White House says none has been prescreened even though the sessions are limited to invited groups.

…Many of the people he has called on have fawned over him, thanking him for his wartime leadership, saying they pray for him and bringing best wishes from other fans in their family who couldn't be there.

"It's always good to have a plant in every audience," Bush joked last week in Sterling, Va., after a woman rose and said she was proud of him.

Full, pathetic story here.

Hey Mr. Pretzeldent...when the audience is pre-screened, the questions don’t have to be.

Really Real Desperate Housewives

2006-01-23T10:46:00.000-06:00

Just what we don't need.

Buttafuocos, Amy Fisher Plan TV Reunion
NEW YORK - More than a decade after 16-year-old Amy Fisher had a sexual relationship with a much-older car mechanic and shot his wife in the face, the one-time "Long Island Lolita" and Joey and Mary Jo Buttafuoco have agreed to appear together in a televised reunion.

Full story here, if you must.

Like a herd of thundering elephants, more GOP hypocrisy on parade

2006-01-22T21:35:00.000-06:00

AP, July 2003:

"The White House attacked administration critics yesterday when new chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, accused opponents of politicising the war on terror."

AP, January 2006:

"Embattled White House adviser Karl Rove vowed Friday to make the war on terrorism a central campaign issue in November."

Aaaarrrrrrrgh!

2006-01-22T21:08:00.000-06:00

This is a true story, me buckos.

My wife and I were walking in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia last Friday night. It was fairly quiet for a Friday night, I thought. A group of six people, three men and three women, were walking towards us. We all nodded hello.

I noticed that one of the men was missing his right arm; one of those shiny silver hooks - the kind you used to see more of before the advent of more realistic looking prostheses - taking the place of his hand. As I scanned the faces of the others, I also noticed that one of the other men was wearing a black eye patch; an expensive-looking one, not the kind you get at the drugstore after having a sty removed.

Then it struck me.

If only the third guy had had a parrot on his shoulder and you combined them all - they would have made one good pirate!

Dude, where's my country?

2006-01-22T20:46:00.000-06:00

Just back from a weekend in my old hometown of Washington, DC. I haven't been back in a number of years, pre 9/11 I think. Man, how the place has changed since I was a kid. In 1972, you could drive around all sides of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue, 15th Street, 16th Street, The Ellipse. Now, you can't even get close. At least not in a car. Same at the Capitol.

Today, the view you get around the White House and the Capitol is of concrete and steel barricades, a massive armed police presence, Do Not Enter signs and a general sense that the public is no longer welcome in the Public's House.

How sad. In some sense, the terrorists have already won.

Still, no matter how much it troubles me to see what has become of the city I love - and no matter the disdain, disgust and sheer animosity I admit to possessing towards the current occupants and leaders of these two most important icons of our democracy - I confess to still being awestruck by the mere sight of that elegant white mansion and that spectacular alabaster dome.

Say "Bye-Bye Intelligent Design"

2006-01-20T09:49:00.000-06:00

"Intelligent design" not science: Vatican paper

Excerpt:

The Roman Catholic Church has restated its support for evolution with an article praising a U.S. court decision that rejects the "intelligent design" theory as non-scientific.

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said that teaching intelligent design -- which argues that life is so complex that it needed a supernatural creator -- alongside Darwin's theory of evolution would only cause confusion.

Full story here.

When even the Pope is off the reservation, maybe the rest of the tribe should be too.

Nothing gets between me and my Hahr-ley

2006-01-20T09:43:00.000-06:00

Except my face.

Bush's IRS goes after the tax refunds of the neediest Americans

2006-01-20T09:14:00.000-06:00

Talk about trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

Excerpt:

The taxpayer advocate at the Internal Revenue Service told Congress last week that since 2001, the I.R.S. has labeled as fraudulent the tax returns of 1.6 million people and has frozen their refunds without notice, although most appear to have done nothing wrong. Overwhelmingly, the taxpayers are poor and are simply applying for a break created for them.

Full NY Times editorial here.

Tax cuts for millionaires. A million little cuts for the rest.

Disgusting.

You like me; you really like me!?!

2006-01-20T00:15:00.000-06:00

Dear readers,

Thank you. I've been blogging for just four days now. Somehow, a number of you have found me. Either through my own shameless self-promotion on other bloggers' sites or through word of mouth. Your feedback here and elsewhere has been amazing; what an awesome feeling.

Those of you that have posted comments here have been especially kind and helpful. Thanks for your words of encouragement. I will try to make time to post my thoughts here regularly. Hopefully you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

Thanks to all my muses out there in the blogosphere for your dedication. You're all listed in my links. There is a lot more work to this blogging thing than I imagined, and you all - ahem - do a heckuva job. You inspire me greatly.

I'm off for a family function this weekend. I'll try to post a bit while I'm away. More to come.

Thanks again...and may all your days be circus days!

Bin Laden warns of new attacks on U.S.

2006-01-19T15:34:00.000-06:00

Excerpt:

"The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing," said the speaker on the tape, which CIA analysts confirmed is, in fact, bin Laden.

Full story here.

Sounds an awful lot like the pre-9/11 chatter mentioned in the Presidential Daily Brief in August, 2001, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within the U.S."

I'm not worried though. My president says we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here.

CNN: FAUX DEUX

2006-01-19T11:47:00.000-06:00

CNN just can’t seem to cut it. Not on any day, not in any time slot. Not against Fox News.

Fox News - affectionately known on the left as "Faux News" - that unfair and imbalanced nuthouse that each night brings John “The War on Christmas” Gibson, Bill “Falafel” O’Reilly, Sean “Insanity” Hannity and an endless parade of convicted felons, hate-mongers, bigots, immoral morality mavens, disgraced politicians and other intellectually-dishonest, ethically-challenged Kool-Aid drinking gasbags right into your living room. Well, maybe not your living room. But the living rooms and bedrooms of millions of like-minded God-fearin’ Amuricans who think that Bill O’Reilly’s Talking Points Memo is the nightly Sermon on the Mount.

Despite its comically over-hyped delivery, ludicrously pro-Republican bias and demonstrably fictionalized reporting - all chronicled daily by Newshounds (“We watch Fox, so you don’t have to!”) – Fox now slaughters erstwhile news leader CNN in the ratings department.

Just look at last Thursday’s carnage, courtesy of TVNewser:

TOTAL VIEWERS:

Total day: FNC: 1,006,000 / CNN: 400,000
Primetime: FNC: 2,002,000 / CNN: 732,000
Hourly:

4pm: Cavuto: 1,081,000 / Blitzer: 367,000
5pm: Gibson: 1,299,000 / Blitzer: 487,000
6pm: Hume: 1,760,000 / Dobbs: 533,000
7pm: Shep: 1,886,000 / Blitzer: 597,000
8pm: O'Reilly: 2,673,000 / Zahn: 748,000
9pm: H&C: 1,844,000 / King: 808,000
10pm: Greta: 1,489,000 / Cooper: 640,000

I report. You decide.

You don’t have to be a network news executive to read the numbers. Unfortunately for CNN, when it comes to measuring TV audiences, there are lies, damn lies and Neilsen ratings.

So what conclusion has CNN News Honcho Jonathan Klein drawn from this? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

Good bye CNN. Hello FAUX DEUX!

“The Most Trusted Name in News” has become the Most Mismanaged Name in News. The company now known as something like AOL/Time Warner Turner/CNN NewLine Pictures Broadcasting Bros, Inc., should be called “AWOL Bros.” for short.

CNN had a huge head-start over FOX and MSNBC. They had assembled a team of well-respected international journalists, positioned them around the world and let them do what they do best – report the news. Whenever there was a story, CNN was there. They were the first and they were best. If there was breaking news, America - and the world – tuned in to CNN. Hell, they invented the 24-hour News Cycle.

Their video footage became iconic: Anita Hill’s testimony, Baby Jessica’s Rescue, The Challenger Disaster, The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Gulf War I, Arthur Kent – “Scud Stud”, The Bronco Chase and Simpson Trial, Oklahoma City bombing, Pennsylvania miners' rescue and the list goes on and on and on.

Sure, they no longer have a monopoly on instant news as they did during the first Gulf War. And, yes, they’ve lost some good people like Bernard Shaw and Judy Woodruff to attrition. So they needed to shake off the cobwebs and bring in some talent – both management and on-air – and retool the network for the new millenium. And they blew it. Big Time. Cheney Time.

I really thought they were going to make a run at being a serious 21st century news organization. They did away with the acrimonious shoutfest known as Crossfire, which really hadn’t been any good since the days of Michael Kinsley and Pat Buchanan – and failed miserably before a live audience – after some well-placed on air words from none other than a true pioneer of really, real fake news, Jon Stewart. In fact, the only thing positive you can say about the latter day Crossfire is that it enabled us to share in the spectacularly fitting end to Robert Novak’s career on the network. Add his obscenity-punctuated walk-off to the “CNN Greatest Hits” reel. (And by the way, in case you missed it, where did Novakula end up? Why FOX News, of course. (Or, as Josh Marshall so eloquently put it “After decades in captivity at CNN, Robert Novak has now been allowed to return to his natural habitat.”)

But then, CNN’s brass made some real prime-time blunders. First, they paired Aaron Brown with Anderson Cooper. They weren’t exactly Huntley and Brinkley or MacNeil and Lehrer. In fact, they were a train-wreck, but one you COULD stop watching. And people did. They stayed away in droves

Then CNN shit-canned Brown altogether – while he was on vacation no less. He never had a chance to say good-bye. Or even “Courage”. Yeah, he only had about 600,000 viewers a night but dammit, they were true believers; you either loved Aaron Brown or you hated him. Those 600,000 loyal fans felt like, well, like they lost a key player from their World Series-winning team. Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you?

Koo-koo-cha-choo.

Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like Anderson Cooper. A lot. He’s passionate and quirky and if I may say so in a very manly and hetero way, he’s damn good looking. He and Headline News reader Erica Hill make such a cute team; every 30 minutes she pops in for a news update and you can just feel the sexual tension between them. I’m spent just watching an entire 2-hour block of AC 360.

But there’s something a little too cutesy, too pop-culturish, a little too “American Idolish” about the show. Maybe it’s the camera angles, the set, his laptop…It sort of feels like a TV reality show about a TV news show. That’s hot.

If Cooper is CNN’s – and America’s – Next Top Model, Larry King is Marcus Welby, MD, the network’s Father who Knows Best. (Okay, Channeling Robert Young here. Sorry.) Actually, Larry King is the Energizer Bunny. 30,000 interviews and he’s just warming up. 30,000 pairs of suspenders and not a single sport coat! He’s the franchise player and his is the network’s highest rated show.

Hey, I love Larry. He was Oprah before Oprah was Oprah. He always gets the big get and no one makes guests or viewers feel more at ease than The King. I guess it’s just that after 25 years, it’s probably time to begin the farewell tour. Larry, you have a beautiful wife and some cute, young kids. Go home and be with them, man. You’ve earned it.

Then there’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer – “Where news and pictures from around the world come together in one place all the time!” Really?? News AND pictures? Sound, too? It’s like Thomas Edison barnstorming the country and announcing that he could now record - and playback! - the sound of a human voice. And you can purchase a new device called a “phonograph” to hear it for yourself!

Wolf Blitzer – what a great name for a news anchor. But can you imagine what is must have been like growing up with it? Hey Wolf….bite me!! Hehehehe. With his white beard, cropped top and clipped delivery, he is a combination Ernest Hemingway and David Brinkley. I’m not sure if CNN has made the best use of Wolf. He’s more than proficient reporting from the field and he handles anchor duties just as well. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi about Wolf that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe he just seems a little two-dimensional; you get the sense that if he turned to the side he’d disappear.

Well, at least the Situation Room has the curmudgeon and eye-candy factors covered with Jack Cafferty and the cute internet twins, Jacki Schechner and Abbi Tatton. Now that’s entertainment.

Paula Zahn. The hair, the eyes, the mouth. The legs! Naperville, Illinois’ prodigal daughter. She’s bright, beautiful, articulate and boring as hell. She has the emotional depth of an artichoke. Her passion seems contrived, if it exists at all. She was once a rising network news star, who rose to fame Icarus-like, a la Jessica Savitch, but didn’t fly too close to the sun and suffer the same horrific fate. I don’t know what really happened to Paula. She could have been a huge force in network news, possibly Dan Rather’s replacement, had she remained with CBS. Maybe it was bad management on the part of her agent or perhaps she just lost her bearing somewhere along the way. Whatever the case “Paula Zahn Now” feels like the wool filler in a cashmere blend coat. Paula Zahn Now? I prefer Paula Zahn Then.

The one bright spot on CNN’s evening lineup is my personal favorite – Lou Dobbs, that Harvard-educated, no-nonsense, ball-bustin’, take-no-prisoners, four-star news general who has devoted the last ten years of his life to exposing our dirtiest little secrets – America’s “Broken Borders” and the "exporting of American jobs to cheap overseas labor markets”. Damn, no one can stay on message like Lou Dobbs. Other than Ken Mehlman. Lou Dobbs is The Man. You can almost see his disciples - Kitty Pilgrim, Christine Romans, Bill Tucker and Lisa Sylvester - sitting around the table raptly listing to Lou tell his war stories over and over again. Dobbs has won nearly every major award for television journalism. I believe that if Lou Dobbs says it, it must be so.

Yet even Lou Dobbs, arguably CNN’s most respected anchor, can’t compete with Fox in the 6pm time slot. Going head-to-head with one of the most intellectually corrupt members of the Faux Fighting Force – Brit Hume – Dobbs draws less than a third of the viewers.

And so, the decision has been made. CNN is horribly wounded but Ted Turner’s equivalent of the Six-Million Dollar Man can be rebuilt! We can make him stronger than before. A robotic arm here, some steel plates there and - BAM! – we have The Bionic News Network! The only problem - the treatment is worse than the disease.

Here are CNN’s three latest hires from the lunatic wing of the Republican Party:

1. Bill Bennett, the disgraced former Education Secretary, FOX News contributor and self-appointed morality czar caught nursing a serious gambling addiction. His most-recent abomination? This quote: "It's true that if you wanted to reduce crime ... you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."

2. J.C. Watts, former Oklahoma Congressman and front-man for the GOP’s supposedly pro-African American policies that actually hurt African Americans and other minorities. He turned to television after he left Congress and found a promising career in infomercials shilling for the National Grants Conference (NGC), a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that helps individuals “qualify to receive government money.” As highlighted in The Carpet Bagger Report, Watts's new line of work has earned him some sneers. A senior Republican aide snickered about his role on television, saying, "It makes the Cher infomercials look serious." As a rule, when someone compares your work to Cher's hair-care and makeup ads, and concludes that Cher's infomercials are better, it's a problem.

3. Glenn Beck, nationally-syndicated radio personality who, in full Rush Limbaugh mode, recently referred to survivors of Hurricane Katrina who remained in New Orleans as "scumbags" and, after acknowledging that nobody "in their right mind is going to say this out loud," attacked victims of the disaster in general and the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, saying: "I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims."

Yes, say hello to the new CNN and say good-bye to cable news as we once knew it. By adding all these conservative commentators to their line-up, CNN now makes a dramatic and unnecessary dive downward and to the right. Perhaps they think they can outfox FOX. Perhaps they think that by eliminating any journalistic integrity, the NSA will stop eavesdropping on Christiane Amanpour’s phone calls. My guess is that the red hue you will soon see on CNN will be the color of embarrassment.

So, ready on the set, roll tape and cue James Earl Jones, the Voice of God, with the new commercial break bumper:

THIS!...was CNN.

Sideshow Freak of the Day: Pastor Ken Hutcherson

2006-01-18T15:36:00.000-06:00

John has the story at AmericaBlog.

Excerpt:

KEN HUTCHERSON: I think it's going to be controversial to those believers who don't want to admit the suffering that Christ had to go through to pay for our sins. I think it's going to be controversial to the whole view of the Jewish nation. The truth is that they did push to have Christ crucified. That's just plain truth... that's Biblical truth.

Isn't it amazing that Americans can quickly spot religious insanity in every other country but our own?

(See earlier post below, "Meet the Stars of Circus Minimus", for definitions and descriptions of Sideshow Freaks and other denizens of the Big Top.)

Today's GOP

2006-01-18T11:17:00.000-06:00

Never missing an opportunity to over-reach.

Oink.

2006-01-18T09:53:00.000-06:00

What a joke.

The lobbying "reform" bill proposed by the House GOP - and led by Dennis Hastert - has a huge loophole as reported in today's Washington Post:

According to lobbyists and ethics experts, even if Hastert's proposal is enacted, members of Congress and their staffs could still travel the world on an interest group's expense and eat steak on a lobbyist's account at the priciest restaurants in Washington.

The only requirement would be that whenever a lobbyist pays the bill, he or she must also hand the lawmaker a campaign contribution. Then the transaction would be perfectly okay.

"That's a big hole if they don't address campaign finance," said Joel Jankowsky, the lobbying chief of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, one of the capital's largest lobbying outfits.

Did you catch that? Now all the the lobbyists have to do is make a nice fat campaign contribution to Tom DeLay after they take him on a $40,000 golf trip to Scotland and everything is A-OK. This bill doesn't restrict lobbyist spending, it encourages them to spend even more!

Calling it "reform" is the classic GOP approach: disguise it as one thing when it actually does the opposite. "Lobbying Reform" doesn't reform anything or help anyone other than themselves and their cronies. It's just like the "Clear Skies Initiative" that pollutes the air and reduces restrictions on coal-fired factory emissions; the "Healthy Forest Initiative" that promotes the cutting of trees; the "No Child Left Behind Act" that leaves kids behind; and the "Bankruptcy Reform" bill that hurts the poor while enabling banks to reap larger profits.

Their greed knows no limits. They're just pigs feeding at the public teat.

Secrecy - It's not just for dictators anymore

2006-01-18T08:37:00.000-06:00

White House Silent on Abramoff Meetings

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON - The White House is refusing to reveal details of tainted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's visits with SEARCH
President Bush's staff.

Abramoff had "a few staff-level meetings" at the Bush White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday. But he would not say with whom Abramoff met, which interests he was representing or how he got access to the White House.
McClellan said Tuesday that he checked on it at reporters' requests, but wouldn't discuss the private staff-level meetings. "We are not going to engage in a fishing expedition," he said.

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060117

So, let's understand:

US Energy Policy? A secret.
9/11 testimony? A secret
Information on detainees and "enemy combatants"? A secret
How the costs of the Iraq War were calculated? A secret.
How the costs of the Medicare Drug Program were calculated? A secret.
FBI records of any investigations? A secret.
Bush's Texas Driver records? A secret.
Bush's drug use? A secret.

What does this president and his administration have to hide?

At what point do we look in the mirror and see a Soviet-style society ruled by leaders engaging in an unparalled assault on the principle of open government?

Is Bush Stupid -- Or Is America?

2006-01-17T22:16:00.000-06:00

Robert Parry over at Consortium News always nails it, and he's done it again:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/011706.html

Meet the stars of Circus Minimus

2006-01-17T21:17:00.000-06:00

In Ring One: The Clowns

Morally corrupt, ethically challenged, hypocritical right-wing politicians who paint on their happy faces to mask the hideousness beneath. They make people cry instead of laugh.

In Ring Two: The Animals

The tobacco-chewin’, pick-up truck-drivin', NASCAR-watchin', country music-listenin', gun-totin', abortion clinic-bombin’, bible-thumpin’, red state-livin' residents of the wingnutosphere. They produce many tons of feces each day.

In Ring Three: The Roustabouts

The filthy faction of intellectually dishonest media shit-shovellers who walk behind the elephants and try to clean up the dung they deposit everywhere.

Behind the Tent: The Sideshow Freaks

Televangelists, intolerant zealots, Kool-Aid drinkers, true-believers and other self-appointed morality mavens who preach one version of biblically-mandated behavior but practice a vastly different version in their words and deeds. These atrocities of human development are frequent found in houses of worship.

And in the Middle: The Ringmaster

That would be me, your humble announcer.

Paul Bremer, Clown: Telling the truth is not how things are done in Washington

2006-01-17T19:29:00.000-06:00

Paul Bremer is on the Talking Head circuit promoting his new book, “My Year in Iraq”. Today on CNN’s “The Situation Room”, Wolf Blitzer asked Bremer to contrast his on-air remarks in 2004, when he was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, to new revelations contained in his book.

Back then, he repeatedly stated in on-air interviews that he felt we had enough military personnel to do the job in Iraq. But – and I know this will come as a shock – Bremer now reveals that in the summer of 2004, he sent a message to Condoleeza Rice that he felt the US had about half the number of troops it needed to do the mission, and he compared the situation on the ground in Iraq to the Gulf War, where the U.S.-led coalition amassed a fighting force of over 500,000.

When asked why he didn’t reveal the truth to the American people at the time, Bremer replied “That’s not how things are done in Washington.”

That’s right, Paul Bremer says that telling the truth to the American people is not how the Bush administration operates.

Clown. Ass Clown.

New Poll Shows Majority Favors Impeachment

2006-01-17T14:54:00.000-06:00

A new Zogby poll will be released tomorrow showing that by a 52% to 43% margin, Americans believe that Congress should consider impeaching George W. Bush if he wiretapped the people of this country without court approval (and everyone knows and Bush has admitted that he ordered just such huge secret spying operation.) The poll, with a plus or minus margin of error of 2.9%, shows that 66% of Democrats, 59% of independents, and 23% of Republicans support impeachment for wiretapping. Majorities favored impeachment across the country: the East (54%), South (53%), and West (52%), Central states (50%). The significance of this poll can be seen by way of comparison with public attitudes in the months before the impeachment of Clinton. In August and September 1998, sixteen major polls found that only 36% supported hearings to impeach Clinton.

Why not go and cast a vote yourself:

www.VoteToImpeach.org

We need a new Declaration of Independence

2006-01-17T10:05:00.000-06:00

The old one was pretty good. Served us well for a long time.

But since George W. Bush is so quick to destroy the principles that formed the foundation of our country, maybe we should just scrap the old one and create something new.

How about this:

The NEW Declaration of Independence

(SLIGHTLY MODIFIED, AND WITH EMPHASIS ADDED, FROM THE ORIGINAL)

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 (AND AMENDED JANUARY 17, 2006)

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen (NOW NINETEEN) united (BLUE) States of America,

When in the Course of (IN)human events, it becomes necessary for one people (-THE REALITY BASED COMMUNITY -) to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of (SCIENCE, DARWIN,) Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation (BECAUSE THE REST OF THE WORLD THINKS WE’RE A JOKE).

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by (EVOLUTION AS WELL AS) their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of, (NOT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RIGHTS OF) the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government (PREFERABLY LED BY BILL CLINTON), laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes (UNLESS SAID GOVERNMENTS WERE INSTALLED BY A CORRUPT AND PARTISAN JUDICIAL ACTION); and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, (INCLUDING INVADING SOVEREIGN NATIONS AND WAGING PRE-EMPTIVE WAR BASED ON FAULTY INTELLIGENCE; HOLDING PRISONERS INDEFINITELY WITHOUT LEGAL REPRESENTATION; ADVOCATING TORTURE, SPYING ON AMERICAN CITIZENS WITHOUT A WARRANT, AND OTHER GRIEVOUS ACTS) pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present (SELF-PROCLAIMED AND COURT-ANNOINTED) King of (THE UNITED STATES, THE FORMER 13 COLONIES OF) Great Britain, George (W. BUSH) III is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, (CORRUPTION, CRONYISM, INCOMPETENCE AND INJUSTICE), all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world (THAT DOESN’T NEED MUCH CONVINCING.)

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good (AS NOTED ABOVE).

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, (PREFERING TO PASS DIVISIVE AND FRIVOLOUS ACTS SUCH AS THE TERRI SCHIAVO BILL, AND IMMORAL BUDGET MEASURES THAT REDUCE BENEFITS TO THE POOR AND ELDERLY) unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them (MUCH THE WAY HE NEGLECTED TO ATTEND TO THE NEEDS OF HURRICANE VICTIMS ALONG THE GULF COAST).

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, (SAVE FOR THE WEALTHIEST 1% OF ALL AMERICANS, BIG CORPORATIONS, LOBBYISTS AND DONORS) unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, (WHICH THEY UNWILLINGLY DID DUE TO HIS ILLEGAL REDISTRICTING AND MASSIVE ELECTION FRAUD) a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He (ALONG WITH HIS SURROGATES) has (DEFIANTLY OPERATED WITHOUT OVERSIGHT, HELD SECRET MEETINGS OF AN “ENERGY TASK FORCE” AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS KNOWN ONLY TO THEM) and called together legislative bodies (WHO CHANGED THE RULES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE BODIES AT THEIR OWN WHIMS) at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has (THROUGH VOTE FRAUD AND REDISTRICTING) dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with a manly (AND RIDICULOUS TEXAS SWAGGER AND) firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has (WITH THE HELP OF DIEBOLD) refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without (ABSURDLY CLAIMING THAT WE FIGHT THE ENEMY OVER THERE SO WE DON’T HAVE TO FIGHT THEM OVER HERE), and convulsions within (BECAUSE EVEN AFTER 9/11, HE HAS DONE NOTHING TO SECURE OUR BORDERS).

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States (THROUGH ALL MANNER OF ELECTION IRREGULARITIES); for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands (SUCH AS THE ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE AND ONCE PRISTINE FORESTS WHICH HE HAS OPENED TO THE CORPORATE AND SPECIAL-INTEREST GROUPS THAT LINED HIS POCKETS.)

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers (AND BY CIRCUMVENTING THE JUDICIAL BRANCH ALTOGETHER, WHENEVER IT SUITED HIS PURPOSES).

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, (NOMINATED UNQUALIFIED CRONIES TO THE HIGHEST COURT IN THE LAND AND ESTABLISHED A RADICAL RIGHT-WING LITMUS TEST FOR ALL HIS JUDICIAL NOMINEES) for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has (MADE RECESS APPOINTMENTS TO THE UNITED NATIONS), erected a multitude of New Offices (INCLUDING THE MASSIVE FEDERAL BUREOCRACY KNOWN AS THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY), and sent hither swarms of Officers (FROM THE NSA) to (SPY ON), harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies (WAGING WAR ON SCIENCE, WITH AND) without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power (WHICH HAS LED TO GROSSLY INHUMANE ABUSES SUCH AS THOSE UNCOVERED AT ABU GHRAIB AND GUANTANAMO BAY).

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to (AND IN VIOLATION OF) our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation (THAT HAVE CAUSED GRIEVOUS HARM TO THE MOST VULNERABLE AMERICANS, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN AND THE POOR)

For Quartering large bodies of armed (SYCOPHANTIC) troops (OF RIGHT-WING OPERATIVES, LYING POLITICAL HACKS, INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST MEDIA PUNDITS AND TALKING POINT ACTION-FIGURES) among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment (OR ANY CONSEQUENCES OF ANY KIND ALTOGETHER) for any (INCOMPETENCE, INEPTITUDE OR) Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these (OR ANY FOREIGN) States:

For (RUNNING UP MASSIVE DEFICITS AND) cutting off our (FORMER NATO ALLIES AND) Trade, (BRIBING JOURNALISTS AND DISPENSING PROPAGANDA TO) all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent (WHILE CUTTING THOSE OF THE RICHEST 1%):

For depriving (MANY OF) us, (INCLUDING JOSE PADILLA OTHER PERSONS HELD AT GUANTANAMO BAY) in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For (SPYING ON, AND), transporting us beyond Seas to be (KEPT IN SECRET PRISONS, TORTURED AND) tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing (REPRODUCTIVE, RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL RIGHTS, AND) the free System of English Laws (HERE, AND) in a neighbouring Province (OF IRAQ), establishing therein an Arbitrary (YET FUNDAMENTALIST, PRO-IRANIAN) government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies (AND BY FALSELY CLAIMING TO HAVE ESTABLISHED DEMOCRACY ABROAD ALL THE WHILE DESTROYING IT AT HOME).

For taking away our (RIGHTS, FREEDOMS AND) Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the (CONCEPT OF SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, AS WELL AS THE VERY) Forms of our Governments:

For suspending (THE RULES OF) our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever (AND THREATENING US WITH THE HERETOFORE UNKNOWN “NUCLEAR OPTION” IF WE OPPOSED THEM)

He has abdicated Government here, by (GOVERNING ONLY FOR THE BENEFIT OF HIS BASE,) declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

(WITH ACTS SUCH AS THE EGREGIOUSLY NAMED “CLEAR SKIES INITIATIVE”), He has plundered our (EARTH, AIR AND) seas, (AND THROUGH THE INCOMPETENCE OF CRONIES LIKE MIKE “HECKUVA JOB, BROWNIE” BROWN”, HE) ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large (BUT EVER-SHRINKING) Armies of (RELUCTANT) foreign Mercenaries (THE SO-CALLED COALITION OF THE WILLING) to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens (INCLUDING OUR NATIONAL GUARD AND RESERVES, AND THOSE) taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us (AND INFLAMED THE ENTIRE MUSLIM WORLD AGAINST US), and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, (ILLEGAL ALIENS AND) the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all (W)ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: (BY ACTUALLY ACTING LAWFULLY, IF INEPTLY). Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A (SO-CALLED UNITER NOT A DIVIDER) Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a (DIVIDER AND A) Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our (MODERATE REPUBLICAN) British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity (AND FOUND THEY HAVE NONE), and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity (BECAUSE THEY ARE INHERENTLY EVIL). We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the (PROGRESSIVE AND DEMOCRATIC) Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to (THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER), the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free (FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOREVER) and Independent States (LIBERATED FROM A RADICAL RIGHT-WING AGENDA); that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to (THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT, THE NRA, JACK ABRAMOFF AND THE REST OF THE CORRUPT K-STREET PROJECT LOBBYISTS) British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the (RED)State(S) of (AMERICA, THE FORMER 13 COLONIES OF) Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent (BLUE) States, they have full Power to levy War (ONLY WHEN WE ARE ATTACKED, AND ONLY AGAINST THE ENEMY THAT ACTUALLY ATTACKED US), conclude Peace, contract (AND RESTORE SHATTERED) Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with(OUT THE NEED FOR A TOTALLY DISINGENUOUS AND) firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the (NEW) Declaration represented the new (BLUE) states as follows:

Clown of the day - Alberto Gonzales

2006-01-17T08:00:00.000-06:00

Channeling Richard Nixon, US Attorney General Alberto "Gonzo" Gonzales believes his boss George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program doesn't merit an investigation. Remember, if the president does it, it isn't illegal.

From CNN's Larry King Live last night:

KING: Back to former Vice President Gore asking for a special counsel to investigate, would you object to that?

GONZALES: Well, I don't know why -- I don't know why there would be a need for a special counsel at this time, Larry, because what I can tell you is that from the very beginning, from its inception this program has been carefully reviewed by the lawyers at the Department of Justice and other lawyers within the administration and we firmly believe that the president does have the legal authority to authorize electronic surveillance in order to gather up foreign intelligence particularly, Larry, when we're talking about foreign intelligence of the enemy in a time of war.

Investigate?

Bill Clinton’s stain on a dress – yes. George Bush’s stain on the constitution – no.

It just keeps on getting worse

2006-01-16T23:01:00.000-06:00

From today's NY Times:

Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends

By LOWELL BERGMAN, ERIC LICHTBLAU, SCOTT SHANE and DON VAN NATTA Jr.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month.

But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.

Read the complete story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/17spy.html

People, our government is spying on us, plain and simple. Welcome to the Gulag Archipelago - American style.

2006-01-16T20:21:00.000-06:00

I Have a Dream

2006-01-16T18:43:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Dr. King. You are missed.

John at AmericaBlog links to the speech here:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/01/i-have-dream.html

Stepping into the big pile of elephant dung today: Willard Helander

2006-01-16T16:07:00.000-06:00

Ms. Willard Helander is the County Clerk of my idyllic suburban Chicago paradise known as Lake County. Now, truth be told, I don’t know much about the responsibilities of the Lake County Clerk. And I wouldn’t know Willard Helander if I bumped into her on the street. But recently it has been reported in our wonderful homespun weekly – The Pioneer Press – that Ms. Helander has been stopped three times recently for speeding in and around our lovely community.

In an interview with Randy Blaser, a columnist for the paper, Ms Helander defended her driving records with, among other things, the phrase “everybody does it”. You heard it right: the same excuse we hear from ethically challenged politicians at all levels of government. Tom DeLay would be proud.

By the way, Ms. Helander is running for re-election. Her opponent is Sharon Narrod, who hasn’t had a speeding ticket in 21 years!

Lake County, Illinois residents can cast their vote on March 21.

Way to step in it, Willard.

Today's Freak: Ralph Reed

2006-01-16T15:44:00.000-06:00

When will they learn:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/15/AR2006011500915.html

39%

2006-01-16T15:33:00.000-06:00

President Bush's latest approval rating, acording to Zogby.

Details here:

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1056

Today's Clown: John Ashcroft

2006-01-16T15:12:00.000-06:00

Ashcroft stakes out lucrative new ground

Chicago Tribune

Published Friday, January 13, 2006

WASHINGTON - Less than three months after registering as a lobbyist, former Attorney General John Ashcroft has banked at least $269,000 from just four clients and appears to be developing a practice centered on firms that want to capitalize on a government demand for homeland security technology that boomed under sometimes controversial policies he promoted while in office.

Three clients of Ashcroft’s lobbying firm want his help in selling data or software with homeland security applications, according to government filings.

A fourth, Israel Aircraft Industries International, is competing with Chicago’s Boeing Co. to sell the government of South Korea a billion-dollar airborne early warning system.

While Ashcroft’s lobbying is within government rules for former officials, it is nonetheless a departure from the practice of attorneys general for at least the last 30 years. While others have counseled corporate clients or perhaps even lobbied in a specific case as part of law firm business, Ashcroft is the first in recent memory to open a lobbying firm.

Former lawmakers and other senior government officials routinely pass through the Washington revolving door and become advocates for commercial interests seeking to influence government, but the practice of former attorneys general has been to move to think tanks or academia or return to the practice of law.

The office of the attorney general, along with the secretaries of state, defense and treasury, is among the oldest and most prestigious in the president’s Cabinet.

"One would have thought that a former attorney general wouldn’t be doing that," said John Schmidt, a former associate attorney general in the Clinton administration, who is now a lawyer at Mayer Brown.

"To take the kind of prestige and stature of the attorney general" and lobby ..., "it seems a little demeaning of the office, honestly," he said.

Attorneys general, while not always apolitical, have tended to avoid the role of "a hired gun selling his connections," said Charles Tiefer, a former deputy general counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives and author "Veering Right, How the Bush Administration Subverts the Law for Conservative Causes."

"The attorney general is very much supposed to embody the pure rule of law like the" Department of Justice’s "statue of ‘Blind Justice’ and he’s not expected afterwards to cloak with the mantle of his former office a bunch of greedy interests," said Tiefer, who teaches law at the University of Baltimore.

Attempts to obtain comment from Ashcroft’s firm were unsuccessful, but in the past, a senior company official has defended the business as proper.

The changes in government operations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks opened up numerous new commercial alliances between the private sector and the government. Before the attacks, "there hadn’t really been the commercial opportunities in the justice department. There hadn’t been a lot of call for lobbying," said Elizabeth Garrett, a law professor at the University of Southern California and a member of President George W. Bush’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform.

Since the attacks, however, the justice department has become a key clearinghouse for huge homeland security-related contracts. "That’s big bucks," Garrett said.

During a frequently contentious four years as attorney general, Ashcroft championed a series of measures, including the USA Patriot Act, which gave police and intelligence authorities greater latitude to conduct secret surveillance and gather information on people even if they were not alleged to be terrorists.

Now, Ashcroft could sign up to advocate for interests "who are arguably making it possible for the government to infringe on our privacy," Garrett said. "That will give people more pause."

And the totals that Ashcroft has reported so far represent in some cases only initial retainers or billings.

In year-end filings, Ashcroft’s firm, The Ashcroft Group LLC, reported collecting $269,000, including $220,000 from Oracle Corp., which won justice department approval of a multibillion acquisition less than a month after hiring Ashcroft in October.

One of the world’s biggest software companies, Oracle makes large databases, including some used by intelligence services, and plans to use Ashcroft as a consultant for business opportunities on homeland security issues, a company spokesman said.

As attorney general, Ashcroft sued Oracle in 2004 to try to block an earlier acquisition by the company.

Ashcroft’s clients also include ChoicePoint, a data broker that sells credit reports and other personal information to the FBI and other federal agencies, and LTU Technologies Inc., a Washington and Paris-based maker of software for analyzing large batches of video and other visual images.

The Ashcroft Group reported payments of $15,000 from ChoicePoint, and $20,000 from Israel Aircraft Industries.

Would you buy a used war from this man?

2006-01-16T14:57:00.000-06:00

What has happened to America?

2006-01-16T14:03:00.000-06:00

Over the last 25 years, Republicans have gained control of most major American institutions. This kind of concentration of power has moved the country dangerously close to an authoritarian regime not unlike those of the countries over which we prevailed in two world wars and numerous other armed conflicts.

The nation founded on so many freedoms, to which tens of millions immigrants were drawn by the promise symbolized by the Statue of Liberty and memorialized in our Constitution, now careens towards a fascist state where ethically challenged leaders emboldened by their morally challenged lawyers assume powers not granted them. They impose limitless authority over their citizenry and demand unquestioned loyalty from all. America is now country in which opposing views are squelched, patriotism and loyalty are questioned and acts of dissent are labeled as treason.

Where truths were once held to be self-evident, they have become like shapeless sand constantly morphed by the blowing winds and shifting seas. The bewilderment of dogma trumps the logic of science. Tenets and principles upon which this nation was founded - such as Freedom of Speech, and the Separation of Church and State - are now subject to tortuous new interpretation. Laws, treaties and basic human rights - concepts that have governed us in peacetime and in wartime for over two-hundred years - are scrapped. Even new statutes designed to limit and constrain the unchecked authority of the government are shunted aside with the stroke of a pen on a Presidential Signing Statement.

Power is now controlled by a theocratic single-party monopoly that seeks as its stated objective permanent majority status in this country. To wit:

· In the United States government, Republicans now occupy the White House, command a significant majority in the House and Senate, and hold seven of nine seats on the Supreme Court. Redistricting schemes, election irregularities and lax campaign financing laws created and perpetuated by Republicans all conspire to thwart the candidacies of Democratic opponents.

· In the federal judiciary, Republican appointees far exceed Democrats by virtue of the GOP having won six of the last eight Presidential elections.

· In lobbying, special interest groups most likely to gain access to power are overwhelmingly Republican, due to the K Street project organized by Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay that virtually eliminated any Democrats from having influence in government affairs.

· In state government, Republicans control the majority of statehouses, legislatures, governor’s mansions and the offices of state Attorneys General.

· In the media, leading radio talk show hosts and pundits are overwhelmingly Republican. Ultra-conservative FOX News dominates the cable TV landscape with coverage that is unapologetically neither fair nor balanced. Major cities like New York and Washington have newspapers such as the NY Post and The Washington Times that have an unabashedly conservative bias. Conservative authors and publishers churn out factually-challenged non-fiction titles like “Slander”, “Treason”, “Women who Make the World Worse”, “The Truth About Hillary” and “100 People Who are Screwing Up America” that top the charts even after their lies, smears and character assassinations are debunked.

· In churches, Christian religious leaders now come down squarely in favor of Republicans, and those that have made the leap from the pulpit to the airwaves - most notably Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell - only further the far-right’s domination of the media.

· In business, corporate leaders and their advocacy groups overwhelmingly endorse conservative Republican candidates and the policy positions they espouse.

The net result of this imbalance of power has been as potent as it was predictable, for as it has been said, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The president maintains that in a time of war, there should be no limits on his authority, effectively granting him an imperial presidency. That twisted reasoning is what led to the prolonged imprisonment of “unlawful enemy combatants”, the abuses of detainees in foreign prisons, legalized torture policies, and the warrantless domestic spying program.

In addition, congressmen brazenly engage in the kind of conduct and expose themselves to the kind of dishonor that once led to removal from office but now barely merit an inquiry of their peers and colleagues. No wonder they are now considered among the least trustworthy and most corrupt of any group in society.

Powerful corporate special interests groups that act on behalf of gun manufacturers, oil companies, banks and investment firms now control the legislative agenda and people who don't have paid lobbyists like Jack Abramoff don't have a voice. Former lawmakers and other senior government officials routinely pass through the Washington revolving door and become advocates for commercial interests seeking to influence government. Upon leaving office, former Attorney General John Ashcroft opened a lobbying practice centered on firms that want to capitalize on a government demand for homeland security technology. Within than three months of registering as a lobbyist, Ashcroft banked at least $269,000 from just four companies hoping to benefit from the sometimes-controversial policies he promoted while in office.

Journalists, once typified by the inestimable Edward R. Murrow and the intrepid Woodward & Bernstein, have become models of how to abuse the public trust. Subjectivity has subverted objectivity. Demagoguery has trumped debate. Not long ago held in high regard for their impartiality, today’s media mavens now foist upon the American people the kind of regurgitated misinformation that would have made the editors of Tass and Pravda proud.

The scene of a religious leader exposed, humiliated and defrocked has become so common as to be caricature. As has the picture of a downfallen CEO – having amassed a fortune by manipulating his company’s stock price, limiting employee benefits, cutting retiree pensions, and shamelessly looting the company coffers to fuel an egregiously profligate lifestyle – doing the perp walk just before losing everything he ever owned.

Sadly but not surprisingly, all of this has meant a near complete erosion of public confidence in the institutions that make up the seams of the fabric our society. If this erosion continues unabated, it is not hard to envision an anarchic social order, a nation not of laws but of men. Men who would try to impose their strict constructionist vision of a morality system where the rights of the many - such as the poor and the weak - are sacrificed for the rights of the few, the wealthy and the privileged. We can not let that happen.

Lady Liberty’s light is strong and still shines brightly as a beacon to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But the freedoms for which she stands - freedoms that have long withstood the attack of despots from without - are now under assault by tyrants from within. As the New York Times stated in a recent editorial, “Nothing in the national consensus to combat terrorism after 9/11 envisioned the unilateral rewriting of more than 200 years of tradition and law by one president embarked on an ideological crusade.”

Our choice is clear: liberty or repression. Freedom or subjugation. The rule of law or the will of men. We must change the course of government and put and end to Republican totalitarianism before there is no country left to defend. If you don’t vote Democratic in the next election, you will get the government - and the America - you deserve.

Ladies and gentleman, children of all ages...

2006-01-16T13:54:00.000-06:00

Step right up and get ready to enter the Big Top.