It Begins (Finally)

From Think Progress:

In a sign of the growing fissure between the White House and its congressional allies over the war, NBC News reports tonight that 11 Republican members of Congress pleaded yesterday with President Bush and his senior aides to change course in Iraq.

The group of Republicans was led by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA), and the meeting included Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, and Tony Snow. One member of Congress called the discussion the “most unvarnished conversation they’ve ever had with the president,” and NBC’s Tim Russert said it “may have been a defining pivotal moment” in the Iraq debate.

One Republican actually told Bush that "[t]he word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus." Another congressman asked Bush this question: "How can our sons and daughters spill their blood while the Iraqi government goes on vacation?"

That's a really good question, particularly given that "Iraq's maverick parliament speaker [Mahmoud al-Mashhadani] on Wednesday rejected U.S. criticism of the 275-seat legislature over its summer break plans, saying it amounted to unacceptable interference in Iraqi affairs as Vice President Dick Cheney was expected to take up the issue during a visit to Baghdad. * * *"

Last I heard, most Iraqis want the American occupation to end, and now they have the perfect tool to make that happen. Go on vacation. If the Iraqi parliament does that, then any support Bush has in Congress for this ongoing debacle will fall away faster than you can say 2008 General Election.

UPDATE: Here's more on this:

Participants in the Tuesday meeting among Bush, senior administration officials and 11 members of a moderate bloc of House Republicans said the lawmakers were unusually candid with the president, telling him that public support for the war is crumbling in their swing districts.

One told Bush that voters back home favored a withdrawal even if it meant the war was judged a loss. Rep. Tom Davis told Bush that the president's approval rating was at 5 percent in one section of his northern Virginia district.

The funny part about all of this is that we won the war. The invasion was successful. We achieved the goals of ridding Iraq of an evil dictator (Saddam's still dead, right?) and of WMD (there weren't any). It's time to bring our troops home.

Vegas Trip 2007

Linda and I just spent last weekend (Thursday through Sunday) in Vegas, and we had a lot of fun. Linda's friend Lisa joined us on Friday. Danimal, Todd, Erika, Mike, and Mike's Linda were also on the trip. All of us Bend folk took advantage of cheap airline tickets from Allegiant Air, which flies directly to Vegas from Central Oregon.

On Friday, Dan and I played in a tournament at Caesar's Palace with a field of 140 players. Caesar's has the largest poker room I've ever seen -- although I understand that The Mirage also has a large poker room -- and it was a very comfortable place to play (soft chairs, roomy tables, no smoking, great dealers, and fairly prompt drink service). The $80 buy-in got us 1500 in chips, and the $50 rebuy -- which you could take at anytime in the first 80 minutes of play regardless of stack size -- got you 3000 more chips, so the rebuy was pretty much mandatory.

The tourney was a blast -- the blinds went up every 40 minutes and you had plenty of chips (assuming you took the re-buy), so it was like playing a tourney on TV. It was a completely different experience from playing in tourneys where you feel rushed from the beginning to make moves.

Dan lasted about 3 hours and finished in the top 1/2, and I lasted about four hours and finished in the top 40 (both of us finished well out of the money, though -- only folks making it to the final table won money, with the winner taking home over $5,000). I got great cards for the first two hours -- including a near double-up on the second hand of the tourney when my A-J suited held up -- and was the chip leader at my table for a while, then lost the bulk of my stack when I called an all-in on the turn with trip aces but got beat by a straight.

After that, my only move for the last two hours was all-in, which worked every single time except for the last time (funny how that works). Dan won a monster hand playing his favorite pocket cards -- a 9-6, aka "sixty-nine" -- which must have infuriated the two players who busted out of the tourney when Dan hit his full house.

The only thing I didn't like was the fact that I stayed up into the wee hours the night before playing craps, so I was pretty tired once I got into the third hour of play or so. Next time, I'll try to get a good night's sleep before playing in it.

Gambling was so-so for me winnings-wise. I broke even on craps after that long Thursday night session, but got crushed on Friday, losing a total of $350 that day ($100 on craps, $20 at video poker, and $230 at live poker, which included the tourney buy-in and re-buy). But I won about $125 playing poker on Saturday and won $75 at craps on Sunday, so I lost only $150 for the trip. Danimal fared much better than I did. He won many hundreds of dollars playing $1/$2 no-limit at the Flamingo, where he and I did several JagerBombs on Saturday night while we were playing (which was like drinking cough syrup, something I gave up doing a long time ago ;).

Linda and Lisa hit a place called Tao on Saturday night, and saw lots of celebrities who were in town for the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight, including Will Farrell, P Diddy, and some famous basketball players whose names escape me.

This trip was much less frustrating than the last one, mostly because this time we were staying right in the middle of the strip at the Flamingo, so we didn't have to deal with long cab waits. Also, our plane out of Vegas didn't leave until late afternoon on Sunday, which meant that we were able to hang out on The Strip on Sunday morning/early afternoon. I got to play craps for about 90 minutes on Sunday, which was great because it gave me my first winning craps session in Vegas after a long drought.

A Bit Of A Double Standard?

OK, let me see if I got this straight -- it is treason for the Democrats to propose a timetable for withdrawal from the Iraq Debacle because it would embolden the enemy, but it is OK for the Republicans to say shit like this:

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who has taken a hard line in Bush's favor, said Sunday, "By the time we get to September, October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't, what's Plan B."

If I were one of the Evildoers, I would read what Boehner had to say, and then just keep the attacks coming full throttle until September comes around -- you know, kind of like what they are doing right now. It just seems to me that the GOP has imposed a timetable of its own with regard to Iraq, yet they're not being called traitors.

Of course, the entire city of Baghdad could be reduced to rubble by September, but BushCo and its congressional apologists will find some little thing to hold up as a success ("Look! The sewer system remains virtually untouched!!!").

Rats Fleeing A Sinking Ship

From the AP:

Top members of President Bush's national security team are leaving in one of the earliest waves of departures from a second-term administration - nearly two years before Bush's time ends.

As rancor in the nation rises over handling of the war in Iraq, at least 20 senior aides have either retired or resigned from important posts at the White House, Pentagon and State Department in the past six months.

Some have left for lucrative positions in the private sector. Some have gone to academic or charitable institutions. The latest was Deputy National Security Adviser J.D. Crouch, who spoke favorably of Bush's policies as he announced he was leaving last week.

Turnover is normal as an administration nears its end, but "this is a high number," said Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University and an expert on government.

George "Longshanks" Bush -- The Commander Guy

Our president said this at a press conference today on the issue of whether or not more U.S. troops might be needed in Iraq:

"The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear -- I'm the commander guy."

OK, The Daily Show is going to have a field day with that comment. Who knows -- maybe Stewart and Company will treat us to another episode of "The Decider."

But as I read about Bush's comment, the image of the King Edward I character (aka "Longshanks") from the movie Braveheart popped into my head. Bush kind of reminds me of a dumb version of Longshanks. This exchange took place during the film's last major battle scene:

Longshanks: "Archers."

English Commander: "Beg your pardon sire, but won't we hit our own troops?"

Longshanks: "Yes... but we'll hit theirs as well. We have reserves... attack."

Sure, it was a pretty cold thing to rain arrows down on your own troops, but at least Longshanks did what he did to win a battle. And at least Longshanks had reserves. We don't.

Bush, however, is sacrificing our troops -- not in the hope that he can be victorious in Iraq -- but in the hope that he can extend the U.S occupation of Iraq until after he leaves office. I truly believe that Bush is terrified that our military involvement in the Iraq Debacle will end before his term is up.

You can't really blame him for feeling that way, though. Iraq will be his legacy whether he wants it to be or not; but can you imagine if history reflects that Bush was president both at the beginning and the end of the United States' military involvement there?

So he's not about to throw in the towel. And if a few thousand more troops have to die because of Bush's political cowardice, so be it. He doesn't care about stuff like that. And he claims we are the ones who hate the troops. I love it.

But to be fair, I don't think Bush hates the troops any more than the Longshanks character hated his troops in that movie. Bush just doesn't care in the least whether they live or die. That's why he doesn't go to any of the funerals. He didn't even go to any of the funerals during the days of "Mission Accomplished" when members of the Corporate Media were dutifully reporting on our "great victory" in Iraq.

But I kind of feel sorry for Bush. I really do. I can't imagine what it would be like to be president of the United States and to know that in all likelihood history will remember you as the worst U.S. president ever.

It's pretty sad, really.

Tony Blair's Sad Legacy

From The Independent:

Seven out of 10 people believe that Iraq will prove to be Tony Blair's most enduring legacy, according to an opinion poll for The Independent to mark the 10th anniversary today of the election victory that brought him to power.

As the Prime Minister prepares to announce his resignation next week, the survey by CommunicateResearch reveals that 69 per cent of the British public believe he will be remembered most for the Iraq war. Remarkably, his next highest "legacy rating" - just 9 per cent - is for his relationship with the American President, George Bush.

That's pretty bad to have those two things at the top of your legacy list, particularly given that that they are basically the same thing.

Uh, What Box Would That Be, CNN?

I watched a bit of CNN's coverage this afternoon of Bush's veto of the Iraq Debacle Funding Bill, and I heard CNN commentators say this more than once: "The Democrats are in a box on this issue."

OK, I freely admit that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but what the f*ck are they talking about? Last I heard, two-thirds of the country want the U.S. to get the hell out of Iraq. Are the CNN commentators suggesting that America's attitude about the Iraq Catastrophe will suddenly flip in the months ahead? If anything, the Iraq situation will only worsen as the year progresses.

I'll tell you who's in a box, and it's not Bush. He doesn't care. He'll be out of office in a little over a year and a half, and I'm certain that even he -- despite his extreme idiocy -- has figured out that he's going to go down as the worst American president ever and there is nothing he can do about it. His only hope is that we'll still be in Iraq when he leaves office -- then at least he'll be able to blame it all on somebody else.

No, the folks who are in the box are the GOP Congressmen and senators who have to run for reelection in 2008 and are still supporting Bush and his disastrous War in Iraq. They are the ones who are supremely hosed right now.

And speaking of Iraq, this is pretty good.

Satan's Attorney Had No Comment

This is funny:

Utah County Republicans ended their convention on Saturday by debating Satan's influence on illegal immigrants.

The group was unable to take official action because not enough members stuck around long enough to vote, despite the pleadings of party officials. The convention was held at Canyon View Junior High School.

Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan's minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.

In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants "hate American people" and "are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won't do."

Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to "destroy Christian America" and replace it with "a godless new world order -- and that is not extremism, that is fact," Larsen said.

At the end of his speech, Larsen began to cry, saying illegal immigrants were trying to bring about the destruction of the U.S. "by self invasion."

Republican officials then allowed speakers to defend and refute the resolution. One speaker, who was identified as "Joe," said illegal immigrants were Marxist and under the influence of the devil. Another, who declined to give her name to the Daily Herald, said illegal immigrants should not be allowed because "they are not going to become Republicans and stop flying the flag upside down. ... If they want to be Americans, they should learn to speak English and fly their flag like we do."

Senator Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, spoke against the resolution, saying Larsen, whom he called a "true patriot and a close friend," was embarrassing the Republican Party.

"I agree with 95 percent of this resolution but it has some language that is divisive and not inspiring other people to its vision," he said. "This only gives fodder to the liberal media to give negative attention to the Republican Party."

Four Years Ago Today

I clearly remember where I was four years ago today when Bush landed on the aircraft carrier, pranced around the deck in a flight suit for a bit, and then delivered his now-infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. My wife and I -- along with a couple of friends -- were in a condo in Key Largo. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, mostly because I was convinced back then that Iraq was going to turn into the Mother of All Quagmires. I think I made the comment that "this will be recognized as the most foolish campaign stunt in history."

Well, I was right and wrong -- it was probably the most foolish-looking campaign stunt in history, but Bush did end up "winning" the 2004 election, so it apparently didn't hurt him as badly as I thought it would.

Jodie Foster To Play Leni Riefenstahl

This should be interesting:

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster will play the leading role of Riefenstahl in a work that is bound to generate immense argument, as it examines the beautiful woman who became Adolf Hitler's favourite director and whose slick propaganda helped the Nazi war machine.

The on-again, off-again project has been in the works for at least seven years, but now a script is being written - by British writer Rupert Walters - and a director is being negotiated. People involved in the movie say the director should be announced within two or three months and shooting should start by the end of next year at the latest. 'I am hoping to be shooting before then,' said Gabriele Bacher, a producer at Primary Pictures, who will make the film along with Foster's own company.

Yet Another Big Scandal Brewing

From the Washington Post:

Miz Julia was the pseudonym for Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the woman at the center of a sex scandal that has caused a deputy secretary of state to resign and has lawyers calling around town trying to keep their clients' names out of public view. A one-time law student, Palfrey ran for 13 years what she insists was a legal escort service. Federal prosecutors allege she was providing $300-an-hour prostitutes, and a grand jury indicted her in February on federal racketeering charges. * * *

Randall Tobias was the deputy secretary of state who resigned over this. He immediately invoked Rev. Ted Haggard's "It Was Only A Massage" Defense:

On Friday, Randall L. Tobias resigned as deputy secretary of state one day after confirming to Brian Ross of ABC that he had patronized the Pamela Martin firm. Speaking yesterday on "Good Morning America," Ross said Tobias told him Tobias's number was on Palfrey's phone records because he had called "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." There had been "no sex," Ross quoted Tobias as saying, and that recently he has used another service, "with Central American gals," for massages.

Tobias, who is 65 and married, was director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He previously held a top job in the Bush administration overseeing AIDS relief, in which he promoted abstinence and a policy requiring grant recipients to swear they oppose prostitution.

More revelations are apparently on their way with regard to the "10,000 to 15,000 phone numbers" on Palfrey's list: "Ross said the list includes the names of some 'very prominent people,' as well as a number of women with 'important and serious jobs' who had worked as escorts for the firm."

Unlike all of the other recent scandals, however, this one will probably not be limited to Republicans. As Josh Marshall notes:

Some people are downright giddy that the Bush Administration is about to be ensnared in another scandal. But I would remind them that nothing is more bipartisan than sexual indiscretion.

Tap Into Global Warming

Spinal Tap is reuniting in support of global warming -- I mean, in support of being against global warming.


Oh hell, just watch the video.

The Whore And The Slut

The Whore (David Broder).

The Slut (Michelle Malkin).

Oh, This Will Be Good (Maybe)

From MSNBC:

A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the two-thirds majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote. * * *

I would have been happy merely watching Goodling repeatedly take the Fifth, but now it looks like we'll get much more than that.

I think that Goodling had a lot more involvement in PurgeGate than Gonzales did -- after all, Goodling was the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, and it is clear that the White House (i.e., Karl Rove) was calling the shots with regard to this particular scandal. Of course, she is a former Bush Administration official, which probably means she is an accomplished liar, but maybe her Christian faith will overcome her desire to lie.

Oh wait -- forget what I just wrote. Goodling, it turns out, is a graduate of Regent University, which was founded by Pat Robertson. She'll lie her ass off.

Go Get 'Em

From the LA Times:

Most of the time, an obscure federal investigative unit known as the Office of Special Counsel confines itself to monitoring the activities of relatively low-level government employees, stepping in with reprimands and other routine administrative actions for such offenses as discriminating against military personnel or engaging in prohibited political activities.

But the Office of Special Counsel is preparing to jump into one of the most sensitive and potentially explosive issues in Washington, launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House. * * *

This is the same outfit that is looking into whether U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was wrongfully terminated due to his Navy Reserve duty, which I think is funny as hell because everybody knows that Iglesias was fired for political reasons. According to the White House, though, the "real" reason he was fired was because he missed a lot of work due to his Navy Reserve duty, which, of course, would be unlawful grounds to fire someone.

Oops.

Karl Rove -- First-Class Prick

At last weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David tried to have a conversation with Karl Rove on the issue of global warming. The discussion started out combative, and then it just got weird:

In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unphased, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

OK, I guess we already knew Rove was an asshole, but geesus. Perhaps BushCo's "Political Genius" is a little grouchy these days given that everything he touches now turns to shit.

And Karl, since you are working for the American people and all, maybe you can explain to us what the hell you and the Idiot-In-Chief were thinking the other day when Bush did this:

George Bush stood up in front of the public with cameras rolling and by all appearances gave away our positions to the enemy. This wasn't a careless slip of the tongue either. He displayed a prepared map with arrows marking the locations of two dozen new US outposts in and around Baghdad -- with major streets and landmarks thrown in for reference. Keep that in mind when those locales get hit and the routes leading in and out of them start sporting IEDs (Which may have already begun BTW).

Prepared maps? What do you want to bet Karl Rove had something to do with that? Apparently Rove wanted to make Bush appear he had a handle on things militarily -- you know, to make up for the embarrassing fact that Bush deserted his post during the Vietnam War. Ironically, all Rove did was help Bush commit an act of treason.

The next time Cheney or one of the other neo-fascists accuse a war opponent of aiding the enemy, that war opponent should simply respond: "Well, at least I don't give Al Qaeda our troop positions like President Bush does."

I Want Gore To Run, But . . .

From the Sunday Telegraph:

Friends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House.

Two members of Mr Gore's staff from his unsuccessful attempt in 2000 say they have been approached to see if they would be available to work with him again. * * *

If he runs, I hope Gore assembles a different team this time. I don't think his year 2000 team served him very well.

The Telegraph article contained some other interesting tidbits, including this comment from an unnamed Republican strategist: "Gore could be the toughest Democrat to beat."

I think a lot of Republicans probably feel that way. I spoke with a couple of my conservative friends recently about the 2008 election. Both of them want Hillary to get the Democratic nomination because they feel she can easily be beaten. Much to their chagrin, I agreed with them, and said other things that expressed my extreme dislike for Candidate Hillary.

Perplexed, my conservative friends then asked me who I wanted on the Democratic side, and I said I wanted Gore to run. They reacted as if I had just endorsed Satan for president, and went on and on about how much they hated Gore. They were clearly scared shitless that Gore might indeed run, because I think they know in their hearts that Gore will crush anyone the GOP nominates in 2008. He is untouchable on Iraq and global warming, which will both be huge issues in the next election.

Gore/Obama 2008.

Mike Luckovich

The Cho Controversy

Here's what Atrios has to say:

I'm a bit puzzled by all the conversation about whether NBC and other news outlets should've broadcast Cho's videos. While there can always be debates about what should be front and center, the idea that this kind of thing should be withheld by a Media That Knows Best is rather disturbing. Emphasis and placement is always an issue, which is why if nothing else this stuff can be put on the internets where people can make the effort to take a peek if they wish.

And, no, I didn't have much desire to see any of it, I just reject the idea that our Elite Filters really know what's best for us.

Kevin Drum agrees with Atrios, and I find myself in that camp as well -- but I still think NBC and the rest of them handled it wrong. Cho had two clear goals: (1) kill a lot of people, and (2) get his f**ked-up message out. He accomplished the first goal on his own, but he needed help to accomplish the second one, and NBC and the rest of them were more than happy to provide the assist.

That's the problem I have with all this. Although I appreciate Drum's point that Cho's images and video are "a key part of helping us understand one of the biggest news stories of the year," I just think it could have been handled a little better. NBC could have instead simply shown a couple still shots from Cho's videos, and then said something like:

"Due to respect for the victims and their families, we have decided not to display these videos on air. We do, however, appreciate that these images and videos are an important part of a major story, so we have made them available on our website."

Sure, I'm probably splitting hairs on this one, but that's how I feel about it. What I really hated about the coverage was when folks like Blitzer and Zahn would have some "expert" on their programs and then say: "Mr. Expert, watch this video." The video of Cho doing and saying his thing was then played at length, and then Blitzer or Zahn would ask, "So, what does that video tell you about Cho, Mr. Expert?" The expert would, of course, reply with something like: "Well, it shows that Cho was one screwed-up dude."

Really? That was the exact conclusion I reached after I heard that Cho shot over 30 people to death, but of course, I'm no expert.

Rove's "Let's Sacrifice Gonzales" Plan Remains On Track (With Updates)

I've listened to bits and pieces of the Gonzales testimony today, and things are not going well. Indeed, I heard on CNN over the lunch hour that White House insiders are very unhappy with how the Attorney General is handling himself. One White House insider even told a CNN reporter that watching the testimony is like watching a baby seal getting clubbed.

Of course, this is all going according to BushCo's plan. The White House is hoping that they can put Gonzales out there as a punching bag for Congress; and that once the crap is totally beaten out of him and he resigns, then Congress will give up on this particular scandal and will not have the energy to go after Karl Rove, the real mover and shaker behind PurgeGate.

Gonzales was just a bit player in all this. That's why he's doing so badly today, despite the fact that he has had weeks to prepare for today's testimony.

UPDATE: What Josh says:

From the buzz I'm hearing today, if Alberto Gonzales were a stock, we'd be at that point when those automatic trading halts kicked in because so many people are trying to sell. But let's not get distracted by Alberto Gonzales. He's just a cog. In almost every case, what we're talking about here is Gonzales's willingness to take orders from the White House -- most importantly from Karl Rove and President Bush -- on firing US Attorneys for corrupt purposes and using the Justice Department to suppress Democratic turnout in swing states. Mr. Gonzales is a secondary issue. The real players are in the White House.

UPDATE II: Here's what Senator Schumer said to a reporter moments after Gonzales' testimony ended:

"[I]t may have not been a knock-out punch, but he took twenty steps backwards. It's hard to believe that after today's performance the White House would want him to stay in office -- it would show a stubborness and an intransigence and most of all a lack of regard for the people who work in the Justice Department and the American people in terms of the faith in the criminal justice system. * * *"

Schumer also stated that the "arrow points more and more to the White House," and that he thinks it is going to be important to hear from Karl Rove and Harriet Miers.

They're Expecting Only 3000 Arrests?

From the Star-Tribune (via Hoffmania):

About $550,000 for a possible open-air, fenced detention facility to hold protesters next to the Ramsey County Workhouse; $1.7 million for overtime, and $62,000 for biohazard decontamination equipment.

These are among the items included in a $4.4 million budget proposal by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who was told by St. Paul police to plan for 3,000 arrests during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

The ACLU has criticized this budget proposal, saying that the projection of 3000 arrests is "far too high and represented an overreaction by authorities."


I guess we'll find out in 2008 whether the projection is too high -- I have a feeling it won't be.

But just to be on the safe side, maybe Sheriff Fletcher should also acquire a few of those people-scooping trucks from Soylent Green.

CD Review: Live At Massey Hall

I rarely post music reviews here, but Neil Young's "new" CD release, Live At Massey Hall, is worth a mention. Actually, it is old in that it is a previously-unreleased recording of a 1971 concert consisting of just Neil and his guitar and piano.

What I really like about the CD is that a lot of the songs he performs -- e.g., Old Man, Heart of Gold, A Man Needs A Maid -- were being played to an audience which had never heard them before because they were brand new songs that had not yet been released on any album. [Before he gets into the new stuff, Neil tells the audience: "I've written so many new ones that I can't think of anything else to do with them other than sing 'em."]

So on my first listen-through, I tried to put myself in the audience's place and imagine how I would feel about the songs had it been the first time I heard them. Sometimes I go to a show where the artist is testing out new material, and I'm usually fine with that, but the new stuff is rarely received with the same enthusiasm as the artist's more-famous material. But I'm pretty sure I would have loved these "new" Neil tunes from the git-go, especially "Old Man." It was great to hear these classic tunes for the first time, if you know what I mean.

But he did play some of his "older" material. Neil's acoustic versions of "Ohio," "Don't Let It Bring You Down," "Cowgirl in the Sand," and "Down By The River" are particularly good.

Your Tax Dollars At Work Yet Again

This is both hysterical and pathetic (thanks for the link, JB):

Federal prosecutors said Friday they would retry a marijuana grower known as the "guru of ganja," even after a judge urged them to drop the case.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer demanded to know who in the Justice Department made the decision to continue pursuing Ed Rosenthal, whose conviction was overturned last year.

Newly appointed U.S. Attorney Scott Schools made the decision, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan. Bevan said he was unsure whether Justice Department officials in Washington were involved.

Here's my favorite part: "Rosenthal, 62, cannot be sentenced to prison even if he is convicted again because an appeals court upheld the one-day prison sentence imposed by Breyer in 2003." Well, it's my second favorite part of this story -- my favorite part (obviously) is the Guru of Ganja's court attire (pictured below -- the Guru is the second one from the right).

Remember -- your tax dollars are paying for this one. Don't our government employees have better things to do with their time and our money?

This Is Interesting (And Somewhat Troubling)

Wonderful:

The world's bee colonies are dying mysteriously, and a study from Landau University suggests that mobile phones may be to blame. The colonies are subject to "Colony Collapse Disorder," (science-ese for "we don't know where all these bees have gone") and the disorder accounts for the death of anywhere from 50-70 percent of bee colonies. Since bees pollinate most crops, flowers and fruiting trees, the end of bees is seriously bad news for the world's food supply.

It's been long understood that bees respond to electromagnetic radiation. Dr Jochen Kuhn at Germany's Landau University has shown that bees don't return to their hives when cellphones are present. The study doesn't prove that cellphones are responsible for CCD, but it does provide evidence that mobile phones are implicated in the death of hives. * * *

Enough Already

OK, I'm not surprised by this -- after all, the Bush Regime is all politics and no substance -- but I am certainly getting tired of the bullshit:

Last week, Bush administration officials invited senior congressional reporters to the White House and pressured them to increase their coverage of how Iraq war critics are "divided" over legislative strategy, multiple sources have confirmed with ThinkProgress.

The sources say White House officials pointed to examples of national political reporters who have highlighted such "division" and pressed the congressional reporters to follow suit. Specifically, the White House pointed to a recent AP piece on Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), which reported that Obama believes that "[i]f President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to." * * *

Forget the fact that "[t]he AP report never directly quoted Obama saying that Congress would give up its fight for a withdrawal timeline, and Obama has said the AP’s characterization is false." We wouldn't want facts like that to get in the way of a good GOP talking point.

Bush and his apologists have a problem, namely, the majority of the country wants out of Iraq. I guess they figure that the only way to change peoples' minds with regard to the Iraq Catastrophe is to demonstrate that there is disagreement amongst war critics on what to do about it. It's pretty much all they have left, given how badly John McCain's recent trip to Baghdad backfired.

PurgeGate Update (with -- uh . . . An Update)

Fun times ahead:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has virtually wiped his public schedule clean to bone up for his long-awaited April 17 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—a session widely seen as a crucial test as to whether he will survive the U.S. attorney mess. But even his own closest advisers are nervous about whether he is up to the task. At a recent "prep" for a prospective Sunday talk-show interview, Gonzales's performance was so poor that top aides scrapped any live appearances. During the March 23 session in the A.G.'s conference room, Gonzales was grilled by a team of top aides and advisers—including former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie and former White House lawyer Tim Flanigan—about what he knew about the plan to fire seven U.S. attorneys last fall. But Gonzales kept contradicting himself and "getting his timeline confused," said one participant who asked not to be identified talking about a private meeting. His advisers finally got "exasperated" with him, the source added. "He's not ready," Tasia Scolinos, Gonzales's public-affairs chief, told the A.G.'s top aides after the session was over, said the source. * * *

At first I thought it was odd that Gonzo's difficulties in preparing himself were being leaked to the press, but then I remembered that there is always a reason behind BushCo leaks, and the reason this leak occurred is because Rove wants Gonzales to be the center of this particular scandal. Rove is clearly preparing to throw Gonzales to the wolves.

I find this extremely hilarious because I truly believe that Gonzales had very little to do with the firing of the prosecutors, and that's why he is having such a difficult time getting his testimony straight. This whole PurgeGate Scandal has Rove's fingerprints all over it, and Bush Regime officials are clearly hoping that the scandal will be over once Gonzales takes the fall for this. And I have no doubt that a Medal of Freedom will be involved.

UPDATE: Read this (hat tip to JB).

When Bad Republicans Act Idiotically

The Extreme Right hates CNN's Michael Ware, and for good reason. The week before last, Ware had this to say about Senator John McCain's claim that Americans could walk safely in some parts of Baghdad:

"I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad. The fact that Senator McCain and a delegation can drive from the airport and walk around parts of Baghdad wrapped in a heavy security envelope is not new. Generals and American representatives have been doing such things throughout the war."

Well, last week, McCain traveled to Baghdad to prove Ware wrong, and he did indeed walk through a market in Baghdad. But during his stroll, McCain was accompanied by "100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead."

Obviously, McCain's trip to Baghdad was a political catastrophe not only for McCain but for all the other Bush Apologists who have refused to accept that the Iraq situation cannot be resolved militarily. The radical right apparently knows that McCain really screwed the pooch on this Iraq trip, so it is doing its best to move attention away from McCain's colossal frack-up by claiming . . . [brace yourselves] . . . that Ware heckled McCain at a press conference:

A group of conservative political weblogs offered new evidence in continuation of their allegation that CNN reporter Michael Ware disrupted a Sunday press conference in Baghdad with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other Congress members. However, RAW STORY learned from the writer who reported the article that was the basis for their claims that she observed "no disruption of the press conference."

On Tuesday, a group of blogs pointed to a Sunday, April 1 story from Agence France-Presse reporter Jennie Matthew as evidence that a reporter in the back of the press conference had "giggled" while the Arizona Republican spoke.

She told RAW STORY in an e-mail that Michael Ware was not the culprit.

"As far as I'm aware there was no disruption of the press conference at all," wrote Matthew from Baghdad. "The reporter who giggled at the back was not Michael Ware, whom I don't remember giggling or making any kind of disturbance. I think I remember him wanting to ask a question, but the congressmen ended the news conference."

On Monday, RAW STORY posted unedited videos from CNN of the Sunday press conference. News aggregator Matt Drudge had alleged that Ware, the Baghdad correspondent who has criticized Sen. McCain for exaggerating the Iraqi capital's safety, had "heckled" the senator. The videos appeared to confirm Ware's assertion that the press conference had ended without incident and before he could ask a question. * * *

Is this the best the wingnuts can do? You know, if there is a scandal here, it is that Michael Ware and the other reporters did not heckle McCain at that ridiculous press conference.

Maybe there was no heckling because the folks in the audience sensed that McCain's political stunt effectively ended his candidacy for president and they felt sorry for him. I think Josh Marshall has referred to this as McCain's "Dukakis in a Tank" moment, but I think it more resembles a Kaloogian. The word "idiocy" also applies.

And speaking of idiots, this is very funny:

When Justice Department official William Moschella was asked why the Department had fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, he told Congress that “Iglesias had delegated to his first assistant the overall running of the office. And, quite frankly, U.S. attorneys are hired to run the office.” Internal documents from the time show officials planning to accuse Iglesias of being an "absentee landlord" to justify his firing.

Iglesias did, in fact, leave the office for 45 days each year. But that's because he's a a captain in the Navy Reserve -- something that was no secret to his superiors.

So now the Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Iglesias was wrongfully terminated due to his reserve duty, Newsweek reports. It is against the law for employers to discriminate against members of the U.S. military. * * *

This just keeps getting better and better.

Democrats Not Taking Any Shit From Bush

At least not yet:

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today that they are introducing legislation that will effectively end the current military mission in Iraq and begin the redeployment of U.S. forces. The bill requires the President to begin safely redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq 120 days from enactment, as required by the emergency supplemental spending bill the Senate passed last week. The bill ends funding for the war, with three narrow exceptions, effective March 31, 2008.

“I am pleased to cosponsor Senator Feingold’s important legislation,” Reid said. “I believe it is consistent with the language included in the supplemental appropriations bill passed by a bipartisan majority of the Senate. If the President vetoes the supplemental appropriations bill and continues to resist changing course in Iraq, I will work to ensure this legislation receives a vote in the Senate in the next work period.”

“I am delighted to be working with the Majority Leader to bring our involvement in the Iraq war to an end,” Feingold said. “Congress has a responsibility to end a war that is opposed by the American people and is undermining our national security. By ending funding for the President’s failed Iraq policy, our bill requires the President to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq.”

I was certain that the Democrats would simply back down once Bush vetoes the recent funding bill -- and they still may yet back down -- but this recent move certainly sends a signal to Bush that there is indeed a new Congress in town.

Bad Timing

Oops -- it looks like John McCain picked the wrong time to go to Baghdad (but is there ever really a good time to go?):

After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said Americans lacked a “full picture” of the progress. The U.S. military later reported six soldiers were killed in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad.

And John -- while you are working on your whole timing deal, you might want to get rid of the "Americans aren't getting the full picture" talking point. It's soooo 2005.

Here's more on McCain's excellent adventure (from Think Progress, which also has the video of the NBC report on this):

Sen. John McCain strolled briefly through an open-air market in Baghdad today in an effort to prove that Americans are “not getting the full picture” of what’s going on in Iraq.

NBC’s Nightly News provided further details about McCain’s one-hour guided tour. He was accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.” Still photographs provided by the military to NBC News seemed to show McCain wearing a bulletproof vest during his visit.

The trip wasn't a complete political catastrophe, though. McCain did get to show off his great sense of humor. He had a press conference after he and all those heavily armed soldiers toured the market. When he was asked about a statement he made last week when he said there are areas in Baghdad where you could walk around freely, McCain responded, "Yeah, I just came from one."

Hilarious.

Nick Anderson

More Trouble For McCain Candidacy

First we had all the flip-flopping, and now this:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.

Democrats had contacted Jeffords and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in the early months of 2001 about switching parties, but in McCain’s case, they said, it was McCain’s top strategist who came to them. * * *

Wow.

What Is It With These People?

From ABC News:

Bush administration officials throughout the government have engaged in White House-directed efforts to stifle, delay or dampen the release of climate change research that casts the White House or its policies in a bad light, says a new report that purports to be the most comprehensive assessment to date of the subject.

The reason why most members of the Bush Regime always seems to have their heads up their asses is because, with these people, it's all politics all the time. The recent PurgeGate Scandal arose from this obsession with politics. There's simply no substance. None. That's one hell of a way to run a country.

John DiIulio, the former Bush director of the White House Office Of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, summed it up this way (via Kevin Drum):

In eight months, I heard many, many staff discussions, but not three meaningful, substantive policy discussions. There were no actual policy white papers on domestic issues. There were, truth be told, only a couple of people in the West Wing who worried at all about policy substance and analysis....On social policy and related issues, the lack of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing more, was somewhat breathtaking -- discussions by fairly senior people who meant Medicaid but were talking Medicare; near-instant shifts from discussing any actual policy pros and cons to discussing political communications, media strategy, et cetera. Even quite junior staff would sometimes hear quite senior staff pooh-pooh any need to dig deeper for pertinent information on a given issue.

The last straw for me on all of this was when Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, was put in charge of the post-Katrina reconstruction effort. Heckuva job, Rovie.

Joe Conason States The Obvious

It is funny that nobody in the Corporate Media has really come right out and said this yet, given that it is incredibly obvious (from Salon):

The proposal to interview the president's chief political counselor without an oath or even a transcript is absurd for a simple and obvious reason. Yet the White House press corps, despite a long and sometimes testy series of exchanges with Snow, is too polite to mention that reason, so let me spell it out as rudely as necessary right here:

Rove is a proven liar who cannot be trusted to tell the truth even when he is under oath, unless and until he is directly threatened with the prospect of prison time. Or has everyone suddenly forgotten his exceedingly narrow escape from criminal indictment for perjury and false statements in the Valerie Plame Wilson investigation? Only after four visits to the grand jury convened by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, and a stark warning from Fitzgerald to defense counsel of a possible indictment, did Rove suddenly remember his role in the exposure of Plame as a CIA agent.

Not only did Rove lie, but he happily let others lie on his behalf, beginning in September 2003, when Scott McClellan, then the White House press secretary, publicly exonerated him of any blame in the outing of Plame. From that autumn until his fifth and final appearance before the grand jury in April 2006, the president's "boy genius" concealed the facts about his leak of Plame's CIA identity to Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper.

There is no reason to believe that Rove would ever have told the truth if Fitzgerald had not forced Cooper to testify before the grand jury and surrender his incriminating notes, with a contempt citation and the threat of a long sojourn in jail. Indeed, there is no reason to think that even knowing Cooper had testified would have made Rove testify accurately. He failed to do so from July 2005 until April 2006, after all. But in December 2005, Fitzgerald impaneled a new grand jury and started to present evidence against him.

The Bush Regime is made up of liars, with Rove being the lying-est liar of them all. Demanding that they be under oath when they testify seems like a reasonable position to take given their past history.

Hell, an oath to tell the truth probably isn't enough for someone like Rove, who had to go before the Plame grand jury four times before he got it right. I wonder if he could be put under oath and hooked up to a lie detector when he testifies. A loud buzzer could go off every time he lies (like the lie detector Moe was hooked up to on The Simpsons).

It's About Freaking Time

The editorial writers of the Washington Post came out with yet another hit piece attacking the Democrats' position on the Iraq Catastrophe. This is what Democratic Rep. David Obey said on the House floor today with regard to the Post's editiorial page (via Talking Points Memo):

Let me submit to you the problem we have today is not that we didn't listen enough to people like The Washington Post. It's that we listened too much. They endorsed going to war in the first place. They helped drive the drumbeat that drove almost two-thirds of the people in this chamber to vote for that misbegotten, stupid, ill-advised war that has destroyed our influence over a third of the world. So I make no apology if the moral sensibilities of some people on this floor, or the editorial writers of The Washington Post, are offended because they don't like the specific language contained in our benchmarks or in our timelines.

What matters in the end is not what the specific language is. What matters is whether or not we produce a product today that puts pressure on this Administration and sends a message to Iraq, to the Iraqi politicians that we're going to end the permanent long-term dead end babysitting service. That's what we're trying to do. And if The Washington Post is offended about the way we do it, that's just too bad.

I've often expressed my view that the American News Media are just as responsible for getting us into the Iraq Debacle as anyone else, and it's about time someone in Congress brought this up.

My Favorite Exchange From Yesterday's Global Warming Hearing

There were a lot of great moments, but this one was clearly my favorite:

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has said Al Gore is “full of crap” and compared people who believe in global warming to “the Third Reich.” During [yester]day’s Senate hearing, Inhofe used a considerable amount of time to attack Gore’s use of carbon offsets and try to convince him to sign a sham “energy ethics pledge.” (Find the real facts on Gore’s energy usage HERE and HERE.)

Inhofe asked Gore for his reaction, but then quickly cut him off saying Gore had taken up too much time. When Gore tried to go on, Inhofe repeatedly interrupted, adding, “I don’t want to be rude, but from now on, I’m going to ask you to respond…in writing.” Inhofe said Gore could respond verbally only if it was a “very brief response.”

Committee chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) finally intervened. “Would you agree to let the Vice President answer your questions?” Inhofe said Gore could respond when he was done talking, but Boxer wouldn’t have it: “No, that isn’t the rule. You’re not making the rules. You used to when you did this. Elections have consequences. So I make the rules.” The hearing audience applauded loudly.

Beautiful. I also enjoyed how Gore kept his cool through all of it, even though that Inhofe Asshole was clearly trying to get Gore to lose it. Gore even invited Inhofe to have lunch with him so they could talk about these issues in a more relaxed environment.

Gore/Obama 2008.

The Final Nail?

From the Washington Post:

The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.

Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.

She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim a closing argument they had rewritten for her, she said.

"The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said. "And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public." * * *

Senator Feinstein said the other day that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg on this ProsecutorGate Scandal, and it looks like she was right. The real story doesn't necessarily involve the prosecutors who were fired for not doing the White House's bidding, but the prosecutors who weren't fired because they gave in to the political pressure.

Of course, this scandal wouldn't have snowballed like it did if it wasn't for the Democratic victory last November. Sure, Josh Marshall would have still broken the story, but a GOP-controlled Congress would have ignored it (just like it ignored the Downing Street Memos) and the mainstream media certainly would not have picked up on it. And folks like Sharon Eubanks would still be keeping their mouths shut on this issue if it wasn't for the fact that the Democrats now control both branches of Congress.

UPDATE: Robert Reich chimes in on this:

The real question isn’t whether the eight U.S. attorneys were fired because they refused to carry out the Republicans’ political agenda. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain capable of processing information that’s exactly why they were fired.

The real question concerns the other eighty-five U.S. attorneys who are still there. What kind of political vendettas have they engaged in, in exchange for keeping their jobs? Until all the information is out about the White House’s and the Attorney General’s political operation, a cloud hangs over the entire federal prosecutorial system. Senator Pat Leahy, whom Dick Cheney suggested copulating with himself, and who now runs the Senate Judiciary, should bear this in mind.

Bong Hits Cause Rift Between Bush And Religious Right

The first two words of this post's title should probably be in quotes, but punctuation was never one of my strengths. Anyway, it looks like our highest court has a major free speech case on its docket next week (from the New York Times):

A Supreme Court case about the free-speech rights of high school students, to be argued on Monday, has opened an unexpected fissure between the Bush administration and its usual allies on the religious right.

As a result, an appeal that asks the justices to decide whether school officials can squelch or punish student advocacy of illegal drugs has taken on an added dimension as a window on an active front in the culture wars, one that has escaped the notice of most people outside the fray. And as the stakes have grown higher, a case that once looked like an easy victory for the government side may prove to be a much closer call.

On the surface, Joseph Frederick’s dispute with his principal, Deborah Morse, at the Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska five years ago appeared to have little if anything to do with religion — or perhaps with much of anything beyond a bored senior’s attitude and a harried administrator’s impatience.

As the Olympic torch was carried through the streets of Juneau on its way to the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City, students were allowed to leave the school grounds to watch. The school band and cheerleaders performed. With television cameras focused on the scene, Mr. Frederick and some friends unfurled a 14-foot-long banner with the inscription: “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” * * *

The student, after receiving a ten-day suspension for his efforts, sued the principal and the Juneau School Board, who are both represented in this litigation by Ken Starr, the right-wing sex freak best known for his role in the PenisGate Scandal.

The Religious Right is concerned about this case because they see it as an attack on the religious freedom of students, which is hysterical because the kid who designed the banner testified that he first saw the slogan on a snowboard and that he used it so the banner would be "meaningless and funny," which would help it "get on television.”

OK, So This Isn't All That Surprising . . .

. . . but it is still interesting (from Editor & Publisher):

Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, told a congressional committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The White House had first opposed Knodell testifying but after a threat of a subpoena from the committee yesterday he was allowed to appear today.

Knodell testified that those who had participated in the leaking of classified information were required to attest to this and he was not aware that anyone, including Karl Rove, had done that.

He said that he had started at the White House in August 2004, a year after the leak, but his records show no evidence of a probe or report there: "I have no knowledge of any investigation in my office," he said.

Rep. Waxman recalled that President Bush had promised a full internal probe. Knodell repeated that no probe took place, as far as he knew, and was not happening today.

Knodell said he had "no" conversations whatsoever with the president, vice president, Karl Rove or anyone about the leak.

Asked by chairman Rep. Henry Waxman if he knew this was an issue of concern, he said "yes." Asked if he learned this from the White House or the press, he said, "through the press."

Rep. Elijah Cummings said all of this was "shocking." Waxman said that Knodell's office's lack of action was a "breach within a breach." Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton called this a "dereliction of duty."

Bush promising an internal probe of the Plame outing is akin to O.J. promising to look for his ex-wife's killer.

What A Load Of Crap

I laughed when I read about the so-called "growing rift" between the White House and the attorney general over the ProsecutorGate Scandal:

The two Republicans, who spoke anonymously so they could share private conversations with senior White House officials, said top aides to Mr. Bush, including Fred F. Fielding, the new White House counsel, were concerned that the controversy had so damaged Mr. Gonzales’s credibility that he would be unable to advance the White House agenda on national security matters, including terrorism prosecutions.

“I really think there’s a serious estrangement between the White House and Alberto now,” one of the Republicans said....

Serious estrangement? Why? Did I imagine it, or didn't I read somewhere that Harriet Miers and Karl Rove -- i.e., people from the White House -- were involved in the firing of the U.S. attorneys?

Maybe the two Republicans referred to above didn't hear about the recently-released memos and e-mails that showed a White House connection to all this, but I guess you could hardly blame them. It's hard to keep track of everything, particularly with regard to an administration that is coming apart at the seams like this one is.

And speaking of Rove, I thought this was pretty funny as well:

[I]nside the White House, aides to the president, including Mr. Rove and Joshua B. Bolten, the chief of staff, were said to be increasingly concerned that the controversy could damage Mr. Bush.

“They’re taking it seriously,” said the other of the two Republicans who spoke about the White House’s relationship with Mr. Gonzales. “I think Rove and Bolten believe there is the potential for erosion of the president’s credibility on this issue.”

It's hard to have erosion when there ain't no soil or bedrock left.

What The Uproar Over Ann Coulter Is Really About

From Gary Kamiya at Salon:

[T]his isn't really about Coulter at all. This is about a pact the American right made with the devil, a pact the devil is now coming to collect on. American conservatism sold its soul to the Coulters and Limbaughs of the world to gain power, and now that its ideology has been exposed as empty and its leadership incompetent and corrupt, free-floating hatred is the only thing it has to offer. The problem, for the GOP, is that this isn't a winning political strategy anymore -- but they're stuck with it. They're trapped. They need the bigoted and reactionary base they helped create, but the very fanaticism that made the True Believers such potent shock troops will prevent the Republicans from achieving Karl Rove's dream of long-term GOP domination.

Truer words have never been written.

This Guy Should Move To The U.S. And Become A Republican

He'd fit right in:

Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found naked, bound and drunk, according to Israeli media reports confirmed Monday by a government spokeswoman.

The longtime diplomat, Tsuriel Raphael, has been removed from his post and the Foreign Ministry has begun searching for a replacement, said ministry spokeswoman Zehavit Ben-Hillel.

Two weeks ago, El Salvador police found Raphael in the yard of his residence, tied up, gagged with a ball and drunk, Israeli media reported. He was wearing sex bondage equipment, the media said. After he was untied, Raphael told police he was the ambassador of Israel, the reports said.

More GOP Scumbaggery (With Update)

You really can't make this shit up:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

"The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson to be aired Friday, according to a transcript provided to The Associated Press. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."

Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.

"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials. Especially when it involves a blow job. But perjury and obstruction of justice is OK if it is merely committed by the vice-president's chief-of-staff who is also a top advisor to the president, and it is merely committed during an investigation as to whether someone in the White House outed a CIA operative who was working on WMD proliferation issues during a time of war. Then perjury isn't that big of a deal.'"

OK, so I made up those last few sentences -- everything above "especially when it involves a blow job" is Newt's actual quote -- but that's really what he is saying, isn't it? Newt's timing for such an announcement is a bit off thanks to the recent Libby verdict, but is there ever a good time to admit you are a hypocrite?

He obviously wants to run for president and he's just trying to get this little problem out of the way now before he makes an announcement. I wish him luck. I really do hope he gets the GOP nomination.

And by the way, this is a great cartoon.

UPDATE: Here's a little background on Newt Gingrich's marital history (from Scoobie Davis via Eric Alterman):

1) Gingrich marries his high school teacher, Jackie, who was seven years his senior; 2) Jackie puts Gingrich through college and she works hard to get him elected to the House in 1978 (Gingrich won partly because his campaign claimed that his Democratic opponent would neglect her family if elected -- at that time it was common knowledge that Gingrich was straying); 3) Shortly after being elected, Gingrich separated from his wife -- announcing the separation in the hospital room where Jackie was recovering from cancer surgery (the divorce was final in 1981); Jackie Gingrich and her children had to depend on alms from her church because Gingrich didn't pay any child support; 3) Six months after the divorce, Gingrich, then 38, married Marianne Ginther, 30; 4) "In May 1999, however, Gingrich [55] called Marianne [48] at her mother's home. After wishing the 84-year-old matriarch happy birthday, he told Marianne that he wanted a divorce." This was eight months after Marianne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; 5) In 2000, Gingrich, 57, married ex-congressional aide Callista Bisek, 34, with whom he was having a relationship while married to Marianne.

Bill Clinton is an amateur compared to this guy.

I Guess Third Time Is Not A Charm For Some People

From CNN:

A Southern Baptist leader said Tuesday that evangelical voters might tolerate a divorced presidential candidate, but they have deep doubts about GOP hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who has been married three times.

Richard Land, head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention, told The Associated Press that evangelicals believe the former New York City mayor showed a lack of character during his divorce from his second wife, television personality Donna Hanover.

"I mean, this is divorce on steroids," Land said. "To publicly humiliate your wife in that way, and your children. That's rough. I think that's going to be an awfully hard sell, even if he weren't pro-choice and pro-gun control."

The fact that all GOP candidates for president have to pass through their party's Evangelical base is the Achilles' Heel for the Republicans. Indeed, it is such a powerful force that even an alleged "straight-talker" like John McCain has been forced to flip-flop like a madman in order to cozy up to these radical religious extremists.

Although Giuliani doesn't seem like a very nice person -- his own son reportedly won't have any part in his campaign -- he appears to be a moderate Republican who probably wouldn't be a bad president. Of course, I felt the same way about George W. Bush when he was appointed to the presidency, so maybe I'm not a very good judge of character.

In any event, it will be interesting to see how Giuliani will handle these wingnuts. I'm kind of rooting for him to pass through this Evangelical filter and emerge as the GOP nominee without having to flip-flop like McCain has. If that happens, then maybe the GOP can finally break away from these radical elements and this country can get to work on solving real problems.

It's FitzMas Morning In America

Scooter found guilty on four out of five counts. Sure, he'll probably be pardoned, but it is still a great day for this nation.

UPDATE: Fitzgerald just said that he doesn't anticipate any more charges being filed in this investigation and that the investigation is inactive at this time. He also said that if new information comes forward, then his team will take a look at it.

UPDATE II: I watched FauxNews over the lunch hour -- I love watching that channel when the big story of the day amounts to bad news for the Bush Regime -- and Brit Hume basically said that Bush has a moral obligation to pardon Scooter Libby given that his trial amounted to a miscarriage of justice. If this article is any indication, the extreme right has apparently decided to run with this Pardon Scooter! talking point. Oh, and Hume also took the opportunity to call Joe Wilson a liar.

Kos basically summed up my position on all this:

So let me get this straight -- according to conservatives, lying about a blow job was an impeachable offense, but lying about outing a CIA agent focused on the Iranian nuclear program is much ado about nothing? Okay, got it.

What I found fascinating about the Libby trial was how much came out about BushCo's efforts to discredit war critics. Cheney was obsessed with the desire to crush Joe Wilson, which basically told me that Cheney and the rest of them knew that they took this country to war based on a lie.

You Left Out "Immoral Piece-Of-Shit," But . . .

. . . otherwise it was a good start:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) got the [Conservative Political Action Conference] crowd cheering early in the day. "I have been called -- my kids are all aware of this -- dumb, crazy man, science abuser, Holocaust denier, villain of the month, hate-filled, warmonger, Neanderthal, Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun," he announced. "And I can just tell you that I wear some of those titles proudly."

Inhofe repeated his view that man-made global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and he quarreled with a Bush administration proposal to list polar bears as a threatened species. "They're overpopulated," he declared. "Don't worry about it: The polar bear is fine." His staff handed out supporting documentation, including the claim that "MARS HAS GLOBAL WARMING DESPITE ABSENCE OF SUVs."

I'm embarrassed to be from the same species as this guy.

That's One Hell Of A Reporting Job, BBC

Via Wonkette:

The Internets are buzzing with the bizarre story of BBC News reporting the 9/11 collapse of WTC7 before the building actually collapsed — all over a live shot of Ground Zero, with the 47-story highrise clearly in view and clearly standing.

What it “proves” is anyone’s guess, but it sure makes for hilarious viewing. But BBC reporters and anchors who maybe didn’t know the Manhattan skyline so well could possibly be forgiven for reporting an erroneous story and not knowing that great big highrise was World Trade Center 7 (otherwise known as the Salomon Brothers building). So why doesn’t the BBC simply say it got a story wrong and didn’t know any better? Stranger still, why did New York-based CNN anchor Aaron Brown do the same exact thing on September 11, 2001?

This unfolding story is a 9-11 conspiracy theorist's dream. The BBC is now claiming it lost all of its 9/11 video (yeah right), and Google deleted its copies of the video yesterday. YouTube still has it here, but you better hurry.

ProsecutorGate (With Update)

I haven't written anything on the emerging scandal involving BushCo's apparent politically-based firings of several federal prosecutors. This New York Times editorial summarizes the situation pretty well:

It is time for the Justice Department to stop issuing rote denials that are becoming increasingly hard to believe about the suspicious firing of eight United States attorneys. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should appoint an impartial investigator to get to the bottom of this unfolding scandal.

Just this week, David Iglesias, one of the eight fired United States attorneys, charged that he was dismissed for resisting pressure to begin a politically charged prosecution before the 2006 election. His allegation came shortly after performance evaluations came to light that throw considerable doubt on the Justice Department’s claim that the United States attorneys were fired for poor performance.

United States attorneys, the highest federal prosecutors at the state level, must be insulated from politics. Their decisions about whether to indict can ruin lives, and change the outcome of elections. To ensure their independence, United States attorneys are almost never removed during the term of the president who appointed them.

The Bush administration ignored this tradition, and trampled on prosecutorial independence, by firing eight United States attorneys in rapid succession, including one, Carol Lam of San Diego, who had put a powerful Republican congressman in jail. Mr. Iglesias, who was the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, says two members of Congress called him last October and urged him to pursue corruption charges against a prominent Democrat before the November election. He did not. He was dismissed.

Most of the fired United States attorneys’ performance evaluations praise them for the quality of their work, and for following the priorities set in Washington. These do not appear to be the evaluations of people who were fired for poor performance. * * *

I guess I didn't get too excited about this because, well, we have seen this type of thing before. The main reason Bush's presidency will be lumped amongst the worst in American history is because every decision this adminstration makes is based purely on politics and/or revenge. Folks like General Eric Shinseki, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, Coleen Rowley, and Richard Clarke all served this country with distinction and yet were treated like shit by the Bush Regime. So when I heard that all of these U.S. attorneys were fired, I merely thought it was "business as usual" for Bush.

But the background of the David Iglesias firing is very interesting, especially the part about two Republican members of Congress calling him last October and urging him to indict a Democrat before the November election. I have no doubt they were ordered by Karl Rove to make these calls. If this did indeed occur, then these acts would constitute ethics violations at the very least. Congress is investigating.

And speaking of that investigation, I thought this was pretty funny:

On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., issued subpoenas to require Iglesias and three other ousted U.S. attorneys to testify before Congress.

The judiciary subcommittee on administrative law authorized the subpoenas by a 7-0 vote. The five Republican members of the subcommittee didn't show up for the vote.

I love that last part about the GOP members of the subcommittee not showing up for the vote. What a political hot potato this must be for them. After all, if they showed up and voted against the subpoenas, then their political opponents could label them as being "pro-corruption," and if they voted to allow the subpoenas, then BushCo and its apologists would brand them as traitors.

I'm certain that we'll be seeing a lot more of this "not showing up for the vote" stuff in the months ahead. It should be a fun couple of years.

UPDATE: Well, it looks like at least half of Iglesias' story is true. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) has admitted that he did make such a call:

In retrospect, I regret making that call and I apologize. However, at no time in that conversation or any other conversation with Mr. Iglesias did I ever tell him what course of action I thought he should take on any legal matter. I have never pressured him nor threatened him in any way.

Domenici then fully embraced the BushCo talking point on this and stated that Iglesias was fired because he wasn't working hard enough on issues such as immigration. What a crock.