Sunday Interlude

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Apoplectic

First of all, I love that word. There are some words that are just plain fun and some that are fun to say (one of my favorites is "Odierno" - say it a few times with the emphasis on the "o"s - fun, isn't it?) Secondly, apoplectic is what every single pundit was today, over the gawd damned Daschle withdrawal.

What is the deal?

I do believe that Idio was correct, this is Monica on steroids and it is bad. I hope that the Dems wake the fuck up now and do not try to deal with the Wingnuts. The friggin' Wingnuts and their buddies, "The Liberal Media," are just falling all over themselves to see who can say that the Obama Presidency is an abject failure first.

It is the media's fault that they are so quick to grab the GOP narrative on everything rather than report the stoopid news as it really is...and they do not even report the fucking news. We have to find the actual news ourselves because the media is so busy trying to make scandals where none exist [target: Democrats] and so busy ignoring actual scandals and catastrophes [target: Republicans.]

I was so furious today because our fucking country is going down the shitter and it is going down quick - due to the Republican hacks who fucked us endlessly. The People got busy and threw the bums out. The media seems not to notice that the villagers are restless and instead of reporting on what is really wrong, what we are really mad about, these pricks spend all of their time creating problems where none exist. Why do the media dumb asses hate this country??

Listen, and this is to us impatient Liberals too, Obama was handed over a shitstorm of nasty that he has barely even had the time to uncover, the GOP are being the obstructionists that they are (I do not think that they are capable of being anything else - even when they are in charge,) the GOP has managed to block Obama's Cabinet on top of their other sabotage activity, the media is reaming him endlessly and the whole fucking country is asking him why everything isn't better yet and because the whole world has not miraculously changed in the two fucking weeks that he has been in office does that mean that he has broken his campaign promises?

Jeebus people. Everyone is freaking out because Bushco has not yet been indicted and is not yet sitting in prison when Obama's Attorney General was not even sworn in until today! Crap!

Let's all just take a deep breath, settle down, relax, take a chill pill and at least allow Obama to have his staff in place and sworn in before we demand that all things be better. Apoplexy be damned!

/Rant over.

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Pissing Off Everyone

I wonder if Obama is doing something right – not because some groups of people are happy with his choices so far, but because, it appears, that he has succeeded in pissing off just about everyone. What this means to me is that Obama is more concerned with doing what he believes is best for the country and less concerned with poll numbers or any particular interest group.

Continue reading, after the jump, to find out who Obama has pissed off today.

This is different than President Bush’s arrogance and his ‘fuck you’ attitude towards the world. Bush is concerned with an interest group; Big Business and those interested in making money at the expense of everyone else. I have yet to see evidence of Obama being beholden to the big moneyed crew who have ruled, or attempted to rule, this country for the last century or more.

It is time, once again, to break up monopolies and put big business in their place – I think that the Obama Administration will do this. I just have to be patient and wait for the poor guy to be sworn in before I start inundating his Administration with my expectations.

Expectations are part of Obama’s current problem. The Left would like him to deliver on campaign promises that he made (or campaign promises that we projected onto him) and the Right is waiting for him to implement some drastic Left-Wing-Agenda. He is doing neither. He has not yet been sworn in and he is, by far, more popular, interesting and followed that than the Still-President, Bush.

Obama has succeeded in pissing off the press.

Obama has been given an ‘F’ on his transition transparency.

Of course there is the whole Blagojevich scandal, which numerous people and interest groups are using as examples of “things that Obama has done wrong.”

Obama has even succeeded in causing controversy between those of us who do not exercise religiously and the obsessive health junkies.

The big conflict of the month, however, is inviting Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration.

Frank Rich wrote a scathing editorial yesterday, the highlights of his slam are below.

"But for the first time a faint tinge of Bush crept into my Obama reveries this month."

...

"Bestowing this honor on Warren was a conscious — and glib — decision by Obama to spend political capital. It was made with the certitude that a leader with a mandate can do no wrong."

...

"Equally lame is the argument mounted by an Obama spokeswoman, Linda Douglass, who talks of how Warren has fought for “people who have H.I.V./AIDS.” Shouldn’t that be the default position of any religious leader? Fighting AIDS is not a get-out-of-homophobia-free card."

While I absolutely agree with Rich, that fighting for people who have H.I.V./AIDS is not a substitute for tolerance and love of all people – and while I agree with Rich that Obama should not have invited Warren to begin with - I do not believe, necessarily, that Obama made the decision glibly or that there is “a tinge of Bush” in his actions. After all, Obama succeeded in pissing off the Religious Right at the same time.

Also from Rich’s opinion is this statement, highlighting the anger that the Fundies have over Obama’s invitation and Warren’s acceptance of it. Nothing shows “Christ’s Love in Action” like a bunch of anger-filled emails rabidly flowing into CBN.

There is comparable anger and fear on the right. David Brody, a political correspondent with the Christian Broadcasting Network, was flooded with emails from religious conservatives chastising Warren for accepting the invitation to the inaugural. They vilified Obama as “pro-death” and worse because of his support for abortion rights.

Angering the Fundies is not, in itself, a free pass for Obama. I, personally, would have preferred that he had never invited Warren. I actually do not even really like the whole “invocation” thing at my President’s inaugural. If they must have a preacher there, for "tradition" or whatever, I personally would like it to be a non-denominational woman preacher…but that is just me.

I think that Obama’s intention in inviting Warren was to neutralize the Christian Right. I do not think that he did it as an intentional slight to the LGBT community. However, Obama has tremendously thin ice to skate on with those of us who support equal rights regardless of sexual identity, orientation or parts…I hope that he does not fall through it before he even takes the oath of office.

For now, though, I am reserving judgment until I see actual policy. It is not that symbolism isn’t important to me – it is. It is just that policy has the real impact. In addition, I am having a little bit of fun watching Obama do his thing and watching everyone get uptight.

When I compare the disaster that is the Still President Bush Administration (and the horrible last minute policy and law changes that he is implementing – with almost no scrutiny from the media,) - I am heartily warmed by the tiny (by comparison) problems coming from Obama.

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Disaster Governing

Though it happened last week, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history is not getting much ink. Just another feather in the bu$h cap of disaster governing.

On Monday, toxic coal sludge burst through a retention wall in eastern Tennessee, causing massive property and environmental damage. Federal studies have shown that coal ash contains “significant quantities of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium, which can cause cancer and neurological problems.” The incident — already being called the “largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States” — may now be even worse than originally anticipated. Tennessee Valley Authority officials “initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled” in the disaster. Yesterday, however, they “released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.”

Open Thread.

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Idiosynchronic: Rest Easy

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Except for copying - that is the very greatest form of flattery.

The Progressive is calling for "Shoeing Bush Out."

Last night, as I said, I received an email on a Democratic District group asking us to send Bush our shoes.

There are numerous posts out there about it.

I have even read posts of people who have already done it.

The only thing that I have not yet seen is the call to include directions to forward them to charity. I think that we should create the PDF instructions directing them to do so and then all of these other places can link to us! It is not easy always being the "Linker". I think that it is high time the L&L Pt 2 is the "Linkee".

Addendum: (by id) dday has observed that the Iraqis are getting pissed over the incarceration and probable beating of al-Zaidi. Now someone has to sit and really think of what do we put on the sheet. The earliest I may get to it is Friday morning.

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Thursday To Do's

If you do nothing else Thursday,

1. Please call Senator Carl Levin
2. Call your own Senators
3. Call your Representative

Tell them all that you support an independent commission and indictments for anyone in the Bush Administration who authorized and participated in torture.

Tell them that you support indictments and prosecution for war crimes.

Tell them that you want everyone, and we mean everyone (including any Democrats who knew and did nothing) held accountable.

Tell them that we are a nation of laws, not of men. Tell them that the Rule of Law is the only thing that keeps us free.

4. Tell everyone who you know to do the same.

The Congress must hear from us or nothing.will.happen.

5. Go to Change.gov and tell Obama the same.

UPDATE: BTW, Senator Carl Levin was on The Rachel Maddow Show tonight advocating for said commission [this is why we are calling his office first.]

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What I Refuse to Learn

Discouragement is the death of most good ideas. And so it is with Idiosynchronic’s shoe plan. I refuse to allow discouragement and a bunch of cranky turn the page cynics to ruin a good idea. Spplttt! Phoeey! No way.

First of all, Id, what can we do to help? Seriously. What tasks do you need help with? The answer is always “no” until you ask.

I saw over on TLC that one of the commenters had already sent a pair of size 10 shoes. It is happening organically; we will just take the organic movement and add to it. The idea is to make certain that enough people send the shoes that the media picks it up. They are still reporting on the story – we have a short period of time.

This is what I see as the steps that need to occur.

1. Do not get discouraged by the dicks. There are always dicks...we shall overcome!

2. I do not have Adobe. Does anyone here have the ability to create a PDF?

3. Let's actually get the PDF created before we proceed. Let's keep it simple. What are the things that should be included in the PDF?

a. A statement. My vote is for something like "We stand with the citizens of Iraq. We are sorry for the invasion and the destruction of your country. This is for the women and the children" [or whatever it was that the journalist said...it will not take long to find the quote.]

b. Something to the effect of "Mr. Muntadar al-Zaidi should be released immediately and President Bush should apologize for not coming to his aid sooner. Although we do not advocate violence in any way, we understand the frustration of the Iraqi people and Mr. Muntadar al-Zaidi should be released and an envoy should be sent to hear him, to understand his concerns and to understand why he felt that he needed to take the actions that he did. The only way that healing can happen is for open dialogue to take place."

c. “These shoes are a statement of our frustration. The American people have been ignored for far too long in this process. You work for us. We do not want this occupation in Iraq to continue. Bring the troops home now."

d. “These shoes should be donated to x, y, z and a... [List the charities, contact info and the recycler.]"

e. What else should we include? Trying to keep it simple - but what else do you think that we should include?

4. Include also shipping options. SoS votes UPS [are they completely US and completely Union? Let's state that.] I like the USPS, because the post office has been suffering for so long and these are government jobs and government monies so it will help the National Debt. Government jobs are Union [at least they had that right up until last week when Dubya changed some BS rule.]

5. After the PDF is created then we all need to branch out and post where ever we can. I will post at TPM, someone post again at KOS (we can all go and recommend) someone can post again at TLC (maybe we can email Erin) and someone can post at HuffPo, SoS can post at Left is Right, I will post at PAS (not that anyone goes there...but the web crawlers will pick up the words) and we should make sure that we include a link to the stories at NYT and WaPo, etc because those links bring traffic.

Let's get busy. We can do this with very little effort. Especially if we act as a team.

(Note: previously posted in the comments.)

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“This Is A Farewell Kiss, You Dog...”

Update by Anjha: MSNBC has the video, Bush has never reacted so quickly to anything...:



Now this is funny! When bu$h made a surprise visit to Baghdad today, during a press conference, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at him! CNN's Michael Ware reports:

...it just sailed past his head and while the man was dragged out of the room, President Bush is said to have remarked that, “This was a size 10 shoe he threw at me you may want to know,” even as the man was heard screaming in the hallway.

More at the Think Progress link:

McClatchy identified the man as Iraqi television journalist Muthathar al Zaidi and reports he threw both of his shoes at Bush just after he finished prepared remarks. The New York Times notes that the first shoe “narrowly missed” and the second shoe also missed. “This is a farewell kiss, you dog,” the Zaidi shouted.

Video should be out soon Ware said!

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I Disagree

Even after the reprieve of two movies today, I am already bored with the whole Blagojevich crap.

I found this interesting though.

Jane Hamsher thinks that if Caroline Kennedy wants the NY Senate Seat, then she should campaign for it.

I get her point. I do. She says that we do not need political dynasties, blah, blattity, blah. The thing is though that the Kennedys already are a political dynasty. We can't stop that. It already happened, years before I was born.

I say, get over it. If New York does not mind, then neither do I. Also, it is only for two years and then she will have to campaign for it.

Caroline Kennedy is a progressive and everything that she has done she has done with humility and honor. Give it to her. Or not. Truth is, it is not up to us, it is up to the Governor of New York. That is what our laws say. I'll abide with whatever Patterson does. I won't complain or cheer. Honestly, with Bush still in office for another 41 days, we have a whole lot of other shit to worry about.

What do you think?

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Open Thread

What to talk about today. Obama citizenship case will not be heard by SCOTUS. People are still dying in Iraq. Little bu$h is still pResident for another 40 some odd 42 days. And I'm still pissed at paradox for not explaining what P-Dip did wrong. Here's an open thread.And here is the rest of it.

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Taking Bets: How Long Until it is Pulled

(Picture courtesy of Whitehouse.gov via Politico. By now, though, you can probably find it all over the web...it has been out for a few hours already.)

Dubya has never been known as "bright" - he is, contrarily, quite gullible. Not bright plus very gullible, leads to pictures that one will regret for the rest of one's life.

I saw this in Politico.

The comments led me to the definition of "the shocker." Unbelievable. When I read the definition, I too, spit coffee.

If I were in college and had the opportunity to meet the Pres and get my photo taken and the President were Dubya....I imagine that I might have done the same.

Holy Fuck.

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What's Up With That?

Yesterday I was actually moved by President Bush's statement congratulating Barack Obama. I felt that he was being "honest" and that Bush was actually really "impressed and proud" of Barack Obama and his victory.

I was confused by those feelings.

Now, this morning, Bush just spoke to his executive staff and Cabinet, talking about "cooperation" and "a smooth transition" and how a smooth transition is "a part of a functioning democracy."

Ya, he said all that stuff. Again I am impressed and confused by my feelings.

Honestly, I have been secretly prepared on some levels for Bush to declare Martial Law and stop the elections or stop the transfer of power or whatever. Now, his seeming cooperation and actual speaking the right words and appearance of wanting to do the right things confuses me greatly.

Is this a last ditch effort to try to redeem himself? Is he trying to preserve some of his legacy by hoping that history remembers how well he handled the transition instead of how poorly he governed? Is this all to calm us down and take away our angst in order to catch us off guard?

Seriously - I am really confused by his behavior. Somebody tell me please, what is up with that!?!?

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Did Anyone Else Catch the Confession?

Maybe it was because I was napping while watching Meet the Press and my zoning in and out of consciousness tuned me in to something apparently overlooked by everyone else. I have not yet heard or read anything about this on the nets (though I have not researched it completely either.)

I double checked the transcript just to make sure that I heard what I heard.

From Meet the Press on Oct 26th, 2008:

MR. BROKAW: Four years ago I interviewed President Bush at a time when it looked like he may be in trouble against John Kerry, final weekend of the campaign. I showed him a map. He said, "Oh, I just don't do that. Karl Rove does that." As soon as the interview was over, he said, "I'll win here," and pointed to southeastern Ohio. Where will you win if you win?

Interesting. So, after the camera's were turned off, GW Bush pointed to Brokaw exactly where they were going to steal the election.

Now, look at the transcript from Oct 24, 2004. It is also very interesting. This is not the show that Brokaw was referring to, this show features Ed Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe.

From MTP, Oct 24, 2004:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me talk to you about some of the things that have been in the paper about both political parties. This is The New York Times from yesterday. "Big GOP bid to challenge voters at polls in key states. Thousands recruited as monitors in Ohio," some 3,000 people being paid money per hour to go to the polls and monitor them. Democrats are saying you're trying to suppress the vote.

Gillespie answers Tim with a bunch of crap about "fictitious registrations" for "Mary Poppins" and "Dick Tracy," (this year it is "Mickey Mouse.")

Tim then responds:

MR. RUSSERT: But if you have monitors at the voting booths challenging perspective voters, you could delay the balloting, causing huge lines and discourage people to go home without voting.

Which is exactly what happened in Ohio in 2004. Long lines in the cold rain and millions of people left without voting.

Then McAuliffe goes on:

MR. McAULIFFE: Let's be very clear on this, Tim. The goal of the Democratic Party is to make sure that everybody who has a right to vote in this country can go into those polls and can vote. We know what the Republicans are trying to do. They're going to try and disenfranchise voters. We want everybody to vote. It's the Republican Party today that is still under a consent decree because of 20 years of a history of voter suppression.

Now, who gets disenfranchised? Predominantly, it's the African-American community which supports this party 92 percent of the time. It's the Hispanic community that votes for this party 66 percent of the time. There are two statewide investigations going on right now because of a company that was paid a half a million dollars by the Republican National Committee. In Nevada and in Oregon, a young man, a registered Republican, who worked for this company was told he wouldn't be paid and to rip up any voter registration cards for Democrats.

We're not going to tolerate it. We know what happened in 2000. We know about the tens of thousands of people who were disenfranchised in Duval County, in other counties of Florida. Our promise is we are prepared for it this time. It will not happen. I want to encourage everybody to go vote in this election. This is the most important election of our lifetime. And I have spent four years dealing with these issues, started the Voting Rights Institute to make sure that we are promoting and protecting that right to vote in this country. So I want everybody to feel comfortable. When you go vote this time, we're going to make sure that you can go in, you can vote, and we are going to make sure that those votes get counted. There's a big difference between our parties.

McAuliffe goes on about all of the attorneys that they have in place and how they will not allow this election to be stolen, blahtity, blahtity, blah...

The problem is that they did allow that election to be stolen! I will never forgive Kerry for that concession. I cried compulsively that morning. He conceded before the votes were counted.

Obama - it appears - is ready and he says that he will not stand for voter suppression and that he will not allow this election to be stolen too. But I wonder, after reading the above.

We thought Kerry was ready too. I am still convinced that someone got to Kerry between election night and that concession speech. We will probably never know what happened, but something changed. He was ready to fight for us and then he did not. We have to make sure that Obama does. AND we have to make sure that we fight too. That we are ready to make sure that every vote is counted. We cannot allow a concession speech until the votes are counted - not this time. No way.

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Holy Crap Coyote - Terrifying

Yesterday, Coyote posted this in a thread over at TLC.

I finally read it this morning.

Good gawd.

I am not at all well versed in military issues and I do not really understand the law when it comes to these kinds of things. However, my limited understanding is enough to scare the crap out of me when I read an article like that. So, I have some questions.

1. Isn't it against the law to turn the military against the people?

2. When Bush attempted to destroy posse comitatus, didn't the Congress restore it within a few months?

3. Aren't these types of missions what the National Guard are supposed to be used for?

4. Doesn't this take control away from the Governors of the states and give it to the President and the Pentagon?

5. Do the Governors know about this "new policy" and what do they say about it?

6. Isn't it curious that it begins October 1st? My guess is that it is being put in place so that those unruly Democrats don't get too out of line when they are attempting to vote November 4th (attmpting to vote, or demanding that their franchise not be denied.) And, even more likely, that the unruly Democrats don't raise too much hell, taking to the streets, when this election is again stolen from us.

This will also come in handy when the economic meltdown hits and many, many Americans are left homeless. When the rabble take to the streets and demand that the top 5%, secure in their gated communities, give us some food and shelter - the marines can shut those demonstations down too.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

We are in for a strange ride, people. A very strange ride.

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Do We Really Trust bu$h To Have Carte Blanche... Again?

Why don't I trust the bu$h administration on their rush to rescue our financial giants? Could it be that we were blindly hurried into the Patriot Act... or was it the fast moving attack on Iraq... hell, it's really both. And both have been huge blunders. The bu$h administration has a record of screwing the pooch on way too many items over the years... and we are supposed to just let him have Carte Blanche?
More after selections of the N.Y. Times article.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Saturday formally proposed a vast bailout of financial institutions in the United States, requesting unfettered authority for the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets from the private firms.

The proposal, not quite three pages long, was stunning for its stark simplicity. It would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

“This is a big package, because it was a big problem,” President Bush said Saturday at a White House news conference...

Some Congressional Republicans warned Democrats not to overreach...

The administration’s plan would allow the Treasury to hire staff members and engage outside firms to help manage its purchases. And officials said that the administration envisioned enlisting several outside firms to help run the effort to buy up mortgage-related assets...

You have got to be kidding me right? "...unfettered authority...?" Like Cheney? Like Rummy? Like "Gonzo"? Like "heck of a job" Brownie? Sorry, I've been down this road before... you're incompetent bu$h and so is your staff. If Paulson was so great why has the problem gotten so huge?

bu$h telling me it's a "big problem" does not ease my fears or bode well with me... I don't trust the man. A man I call "King Midas in Reverse!" I can sense a real rip off of the American people here, name one thing he has successfully done for U.S. citizens. Or better yet, reel off all the things bu$h and his cronies have benefitted from when they expedite policy at the expense of the American public.

"Some Congressional Republicans warned Democrats not to overreach..." WTF? Who the fuck are they to tell our Democratic congressional leaders "not to overreach..." I hope they "overreach" and finally protect the electorate from bu$hco.

"...the administration envisioned enlisting several outside firms to help run the effort to buy up mortgage-related assets..." This sounds like outsourcing of jobs and special contracts to me, ala Iraq. How much will this cost? Who will be doing the work? The same schmoes who were working on Wall St. and got us into this mess?

In conclusion, I don't trust a fucking thing bu$h proposes, especially when he is trying to ramrod a plan down the American public's throat. We've been screwed too many times before.

Of course I'm no economist, but Paul Krugman is and he agrees with me: No Deal.

I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal. Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets...

Here’s the thing: historically, financial system rescues have involved seizing the troubled institutions and guaranteeing their debts; only after that did the government try to repackage and sell their assets. The feds took over S&Ls first, protecting their depositors, then transferred their bad assets to the RTC. The Swedes took over troubled banks, again protecting their depositors, before transferring their assets to their equivalent institutions.

The Treasury plan, by contrast, looks like an attempt to restore confidence in the financial system — that is, convince creditors of troubled institutions that everything’s OK — simply by buying assets off these institutions. This will only work if the prices Treasury pays are much higher than current market prices; that, in turn, can only be true either if this is mainly a liquidity problem — which seems doubtful — or if Treasury is going to be paying a huge premium, in effect throwing taxpayers’ money at the financial world.

And there’s no quid pro quo here — nothing that gives taxpayers a stake in the upside, nothing that ensures that the money is used to stabilize the system rather than reward the undeserving.

I hope I’m wrong about this. But let me say it again: Treasury needs to explain why this is supposed to work — not try to panic Congress into giving it a blank check. Otherwise, no deal.

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Beelzebub Still Has His Minions at Work

The headline reads: Justice Staffers Won't Be Prosecuted For Illegal Hiring Practices.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday... "not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."

I'll use that as my defense if I ever get arrested... should work, eh?

Of course those strong armed Democrats were on the ball with a public tongue lashing:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Mukasey "seems intent on insulating this administration from accountability."

The Vermont Democrat said Mukasey's remarks "appear premature based on the facts and evidence that congressional investigators and the inspector general have uncovered so far" in the hiring scandal. "We must continue to pursue the truth and facts, and hold any wrongdoers accountable," Leahy said.

After Leahy's wag of the finger, I could swear I saw a picture of bu$h doing a tex-ass jig... no, that was only in my head, I guess. But Beelzebub did say in his most hideous voice, "I have many more crimes to commit before I leave office!"

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Sign On

Impeach

Kucinich will hand deliver your signature, supporting impeachment, directly to your congressperson.

I do not buy that it is too late. In fact, with the looming Iran War, I think that it is more important now than ever. Impeachment would hopefully render this administration impotent.

At minimum, we need the hearings. We need to get this shit on record. Indelibly.

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Dammit, Dammit, Dammit

Full list of capitulators here.

If you have not yet called your Representative and two Senators, please do so now. We have the slimmest possibility of a successful filibuster in the Senate...the slim prospect swells a little with every call to the Senate supporting it.

Greenwald's excellent rundown is well worth the read.

Wired has a fantastic article up as well as links to historical articles on the danger of this bill.

And, as always, Firedoglake is on top of it.

Telecom Immunity - Retroactive Immunity - is such a travesty. I was listening to the call-ins on the SPAN after the vote. Only one caller, out of about 10, Democrat and Republican, supported this vote. Of course, in his heavy southern accent, he pleaded with all of the ignorant callers to "remember 9/11 and the terrists!"

This Country does not support the destruction of our Constitution; the Congress members who underestimate the public's knowledge of what they are doing will be sorry in the fall.

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Try and Hide in Paraguay bu$h!!

Six decades of single-party rule in Paraguay came to an end...

Left leaning, Fernando Lugo, won on a platform of change and "promise to help the poor".

Lugo, the 56-year-old ex-bishop, was a popular candidate as he campaigned to support the Paraguay's indigent population...

Lugo, who calls himself an independent, is backed by the Patriotic Alliance for Change -- a coalition of center and center-left parties.

"I believe that the politics of exclusion long practiced in this country doesn't have a future," Lugo has said.

He has also called for the renegotiation of Paraguay's hydroelectricity agreements with Brazil and Argentina, saying Paraguay, a landlocked country plagued by poverty, is losing money...

Bad news for the bu$h/cheney carpet baggers!

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But I thought that "Iraq was the central front on the war on terra"?!

Not according to the GAO.

After the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters retreated across the mountainous 373-mile border into Pakistan's unpoliced tribal areas.

But we've given Pakistan almost as much money as we spend on one month in Iraq.

Isn't that enough?

I listened to some of the GAO report being read and it is bad news. I doubt that we will hear much about it from the corporate media. Luckily the PDF of the actual report is linked to; I'm sure that most people will have the time to read it.

Is there one single thing that this Administration has done that actually benefits this Country? Have they handled anything correctly? Anything?

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