Inside the Fristian Spaces in the Senate:

BF: So, you're comfortable with being the next Scalito? Gonna help us to do those Political Pelvic Exams on whorish and unseemly women who have turned their faces from Dr. Dobson?

SA: Sure, Senator anything you want. My vision for America is set around Salem, 1692. You know, they had it right back then: any backtalk, you just burn'em. You know, no chatter from the chattel...

BF: We'll get along great Sammy, mind if i call you Sammy? Now, we'll get you confirmed. We already have a plan to get you through. You need to just do me one favor...

SA: What's that?

BF: One day I may come to you and ask a favor. Any paperwork ever crosses your desk with my name on it and referencing the SEC and some Doctor'n bidness of mine...

SA: Absolutely. I saw the Godfather. (kissed the Fristian ring, exits walking backwards)....

So Bunnypants just couldn't wait to move the focus off of Scooter and get on with Harriets replacement killer. This Alito guy is a real piece of work looks like. Judicial views right from the beginning of the dark ages.

Ted Kennedy has it right...

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), another member of the Judiciary Committee, said the nomination was "based on weakness, not on strength." In a statement, he said Bush "picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing."

Does anyone else have the feeling that Preznit Priestly Whipped got an earful since mid-week last week from the Gott mit Uns crowd out of Colordo Springs? Let's face it, with the way the republicans are going right now, it's gotta make them drop down on their knees and pray to Political Jesus that the mid-term elections are not tomorrow...because even though they're a year off, they are still likely to get an ass-kicking that they sorely deserve.

The Alito nomination is going to be some old-style hardball politics inside the beltway. The difference is that now the 49% who voted for Kerry are vindicated in their knowledge that the only straight fact in the 1600 Crew is that Mehlman is probably not. Anyone want to bet that the scandals and bullshit from Schiavo to Frist to Scooter are not slowly starting to register in the dimly aware brains of those sought-after "swing voters"? And that doesn't even count the Nekkid Emporer's Mess O'Potamian ClusterFuck.

So Scooter has been indicted and resigned. Gee, could Preznit Pompous Prevaricator have been any bigger of a fucking liar two years ago? It's probably been a well-known fact within the West Wing that Scooter was lying and leaking simultaneously, and yet as the CNN clips showed over and over again there was Bunnypants getting all deer-in-the-headlights about anyone in his Truth, Justice and The American Way Gang being involved. You know, other than being involved all the way up to the top of their heads.

So, with the trial, it's a sure bet that Crashcart's gonna get called...everything that Scooter did, he did with the acquiescence of his boss. They set out to go to war together, if by "going to war together" you mean sitting behind a desk and sending young Americans off to die for nothing. They fabricated their cover stories together for the war and probably later for Scooter to fall on his sword. Now the big question: will the 1600 Crew try and "close" the trial on "National Security" grounds to keep from being embarrassed? I would not put it past them.

Fitzgerald came off looking like an absolute choir boy. Any smears that the republican noise machine tries to throw at him won't stick. If they go after Joe Wilson, then at Scooter's trial, any mud they try and toss at him is going to not only fall off, but fly back and hit them...because Joe Wilson was right.

The PNAC case for war was one of the factors that brought Scooter Libby down today. Beloved Leader wanted Texas-style Justice against Saddam because he (1) tried to kill his daddy and (2) put daddy's face on the floor of the Al-Rashid hotel lobby, I believe. Both humiliations he had to avenge at whatever cost to his Texas-sized Ego with his Topo-Gigio Courage. So he was a receptive vessel for the PNAC schemes of Libby and his fellow war-mongers.

As cliche as it is to say this, remember that no one has ever been held accountable for the escape of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. And the liablility for the unprovoked invasion of Iraq and ultimately the deaths of Americans, Iraqis and others may now becoming home to roost with the 1600 Crew because they were so desperate to hide their motives for war they got caught in their web of deceit.

Will the trial of Scooter Libby end the war in Iraq? No. But it may finally bring an awareness of how wrong it is and that there was no compelling National Security or Defense interest in invading a country that posed no immediate threat. The only mushrooms PNAC was interested in were the ones they kept us under in the dark. They knew there were no mushroom clouds coming from Iraq, Wilson told the truth about it, and Libby tried to shut him down by discrediting him, and the indictments today say he lied about that.

Happy Fitzmas. Indeed.

So, is the descent of Preznit Scratched Teflon becoming inevitable? Apparently the Virginia republican goobernatorial candidate can't find time to show up with Bunnypants in Norfolk. Here's their excuse:

He (Trent Duffy - ed.) noted that the speech would focus on terrorism. "The president's event is not a political rally. It's an official event."

Kilgore press secretary Tim Murtaugh echoed that.

"We really wouldn't be invited to a presidential event," he said. "They keep the political events and the presidential [events] separate. We appreciate the president's support."

That doesn't even pass the smell test. Kilgore doesn't want a Preznit Bottom Feeder appearance in the last 10 days before the election. After all, one incompetant per stage show is enough, and by all accounts those two empty suits on stage togehter and someone is likely to mistake a campaign event for a suit sale.

How long after the unsealing of indictments (if any) will it be before the somewhat paper-trained attack dogs of Preznit Shits Where He Eats will be out there decrying "Judicial Terrorism"?

Let's face it, the most successful word in the 1600 Crew vocabulary is "Terrorist" or the variant "Terrorism", add that to their already focus-grouped word "Judicial" and baby you've got an attack strategery worthy of Stalin.

Popcorn and galoshes please...the show's about to start, and it's gonna get deep.

Not being a lawyer or anything I was pondering this: if they indict Rove, Libby and name Cheney and one or two others as "unindicted" co-conspirators (yes, you know who I mean), couldn't they seek a prosection under RICO if not the espionage acts? I mean if they formed a criminal conspiracy to lie and suppress evidence or give false statements and can be shown to have acted in concert (like they never, ever talk to each other, right?), wouldn't RICO be an option?

I mean, this is a criminal enterprise...it would be only fitting. IMHO.

Apparently the Irani government is trying to get a rise out of everyone who is not an adherent of Islam. I think they can reasonably check that action item off their their to-do list:

Several world capitals have condemned Iran's leader for saying Israel should be "wiped off the map," and Israel's vice premier has called for Tehran to be expelled from the United Nations.

During a meeting with protesting students at Iran's Interior Ministry, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."

But wait, it's almost better...this just in from the Israelis:

Israel's Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Iran should be expelled from the United Nations.

"Since 1945, the establishment of the United Nations, no head of state which is a member of the United Nations ever called for the destruction of another member of the United Nations, publicly and clearly, as the president of Iran did," said Peres, a Nobel peace laureate.

Gee Shimon, I'll take Mess O'Potamia for $1000 please.

She's gone. Not the old Hall and Oates standard either. Harriet has withdrawn. So, it is SCOTUS interruptus after all...

President Bush on Thursday accepted the withdrawal of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, according to a statement from the White House.

In the statement, Miers said her nomination presented a "burden for the White House."

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the suggestion that senators have been reluctant to come out in support of Miers because they are unimpressed with her as a nominee.

Hurricane Katrina and Brownie...the gifts that keep on giving.

Michael D. Brown was days away from announcing plans to resign as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29, according to e-mails released by separate House and Senate investigations into the government's flawed response to the disaster.
...
"The fact that it appears that Michael Brown was planning to resign may explain in part his curious detachment during the Katrina catastrophe," Collins said.
...
Brown had privately shared his intentions with acquaintances, and FEMA announced in the aftermath of Brown's resignation that the director of the agency's recovery division, Daniel A. Craig, had also planned to leave a month later.

In an Aug. 31 e-mail to FEMA aide James Tillie, Brown wrote, "I should have done my announcement a week early." That evening, Craig wrote to Brown: "We need to get this done right or neither of us are leaving on great terms . . . and we were days away."

And now we know he's a fucking liar.

That's Two Thousand Americans who did not have to lose their lives.

There is no celebration at the number 2000. Only sadness for the lives they will never live.

Anyone want to bet that on the Fitzmas Day (or Patranakka, if you prefer) the 1600 Crew announces

• the capture of bin Laden
• the capture of the #2 al-Qaeda guy in Iraq
• the retirement of Darth Dick
• the invasion of Syria
• the invasion of Venezuala
• the nationalization of The New York Times
• that Harriet Miers is stepping aside, and Neil Bush will be nominated in her place, because of his long-time relationship with the Preznit and his moral fiber

Incoming....

Back in that Other Country, you know the one that harbored the men who actually attacked us in 2001. The spreading of Freedoms and Democracies is apparently not going so well over there.

For the first time since the fall of the Taliban's Islamic government four years ago, a journalist has been convicted by a Kabul court under the country's blasphemy laws.

Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the editor of a monthly magazine for women called "Women's Rights," was sentenced Saturday to two years in prison by Kabul's primary court. The sentence will automatically go to appeal.
...
The prosecutor called for the death penalty, accusing the editor of apostasy, the abandonment of the faith, so the sentence appeared to have been a compromise. But it is a reminder that Afghanistan is still ruled by the Islamic legal code, Shariah, and that on issues of religion, conservatives are determined to enforce it.
...
This is not the first time that accusations of blasphemy have been raised against editors and writers under Mr. Karzai's government, but until now Mr. Raheen has managed to discourage convictions by the conservative judges and members of the Supreme Court.

"I don't want any kind of damage to the freedom of speech," he said. "I have been working very hard on this."

He added, "There are always some fanatics behind these things and they take sides very quickly."

I guess that Preznit Short-Bus Rider couldn't be bothered with actually spreading Freedoms and Democracy to Afghanistan. After all, the opium kick-backs laundered through his warlord buddies are probably pretty lucrative, and gee, why bother snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, he's never done it before, why start now?

In a hundred years historians will be sure to mark up the Invasion of Afghanistan as yet another of Preznit Elusive Success's many, many failures...and the first that fucked up a country. Followed by Iraq and sadly US.

Commenter Danny had an interesting point in my "Judging Judy" post. He's right, we don't want to so discount the quote unquote Main Stream Media so that they all become a parody of Fox News, with their fax machines being converted to LAN-based mail relays from the Press Office of the 1600 Crew or any future administration.

Instead, I would hope that the media organizations who are not touched as deeply by the Judy Miller scandals from WMD stenography to Sleeping with Scooter, whether figuratively or whatever, take a long hard look at their news-gathering and journalistic practices overall and make adjustments to keep then next Miss (or Mr) Run Amok from showing up in their newsrooms. It would be deeply embarassing for them, I'm sure, though if it happened not undeservedly so, but worse it would provide exactly the further devaluation of the trust we all once had in the Fourth Estate to be fair arbiters of information, something the Times stopped being when they allowes Miller to practice stenography at at the salary of a Pulitzer-prize winning "investigative" reporter. From the last line of her biography:

She lectures on the Middle East, Islam, national security, and terrorism.

I guess that the headiness of access to all the "secrets" that never existed made her become what she is today, or perhaps she never really was all that and more, but just put on a really, really good front.

MoDo, as has been reported around blogtopia nails St Judy of the Gutters to the stake. The locals are out gathering pulp for fuel now. Apparently, St Judy is under the impression that she's a credible reporter on issues of minor import, like National Security.

Judy's stories about WMD fit too perfectly with the White House's case for war. She was close to Ahmad Chalabi, the con man who was conning the neocons to knock out Saddam so he could get his hands on Iraq, and I worried that she was playing a leading role in the dangerous echo chamber that former Senator Bob Graham dubbed "incestuous amplification." Using Iraqi defectors and exiles, Mr. Chalabi planted bogus stories with Judy and other credulous journalists.

Even last April, when I wrote a column critical of Mr. Chalabi, she fired off e-mail to me defending him.
...
Judy told The Times that she plans to write a book and intends to return to the newsroom, hoping to cover "the same thing I've always covered - threats to our country." If that were to happen, the institution most in danger would be the newspaper in your hands.

Hey, maybe she can do her "rehabilitation" in one of those high-priced CPA jobs through the Heritage Foundation, if they are still passing those out. Maybe she could be the senior economic minister for Tikrit, where I'm sure the local indigenous persons would welcome her with open arms. No, really.

If the 1600 Crew pulls out the Miers nomination, is that SCOTUS Interruptus?

Here's the Casual Observers guide to Beltway Terminology...for your weekend enjoyment.

Rove Rage: The act of being pissed off before you can be pissed on.

Miller-Culpa: Lying about lying to make previous lying seem less substantial.

Scootering: Taking a grudge as far as constitutionally possible, and then just a little farther.

Floundering: Finding as many ways as possible not to answer a direct question, without actually saying anything.

Darthism: Expressing an unnatural interest in eating small children or pets as a deterrant to being asked inconvenient questions by the media.

Kellerism: Claiming to have been blindsided by an event only a blind man could not have seen. See also: Miller-Culpa.

Pinching: To steadfastly and tenaciously support a bullshitter, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence.

Boltonism: The act of intemperate destruction, no matter what the cost.

Fristianity: Making a religion of deliberate analytical errors, induced by presidential aspirations and a desire to be Dobsoned.

Dobsoned: To intentionally seek lobotomization to prove that existence without intellect and free will are possible.

Delayed: Just fucked.

Sessionism: Dunce-like state induced by auto-erotic self-asphyxiation.

Exspecterate: To orally reject an unqualified Supreme Court nominee by a president of your own party.

Cornynism: to take both sides of the same argument and punish yourself for being wrong.

Tancredoed: Campaigning against guest workers, just for demagoguery, causing cascading economic problems for millions. Use: "We would have had a great harvest, but it was tancreoed".

Duking: Ensuring the welfare of the richest of your constituents, especially Defense Contractors, at any cost. Even your own self-respect.

Hastertized: The new unwritten rules of the House of Representatives since 2000, allowing changes to made "at will". Just because.

Condying: Never being held responsible for anything. And making sure your husband isn't either.

Feel free to add your own...

Well, this can't be good news for anyone living in RealityLand. You know, that little corner of the world where those of us live who wince everytime there's a story that seems to indicate that Condi and Mr. Rice haven't gotten it yet...the world is not their sandbox and the military are not their private army to play with like a video game.

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called today for the Security Council to take urgent action in response to a United Nations report implicating high-ranking members of the Syrian government in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon.
...
Ms. Rice said that "accountability is going to be very important for the international community." The Security Council, she said, "is going to have to be the focal point."

The comments indicated that the United States was determined to capitalize on the United Nations report to further its campaign to isolate Syria, which it holds responsible for financing anti-Israel guerrilla groups and encouraging insurgents crossing its border into Iraq.
...
John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said the report required a "strong follow-up" from the council members.

He suggested the focus ought to be on pressing Syria to end its noncooperation with the investigators which he called "diplo-speak for obstruction of justice."

The only thing that deserves "strong follow-up" is Bolton's appointment to the UN on a recess basis. I doubt that if the Senate were to impeach him, or whatever you do to "Ambassadors", there would be much political fallout right now from within the 1600 Crew. Impending indictments seem to put the day planner into laser-sharp perspective, and defending Bolton probably wouldn't make it even as a C-list "to do" item. OTOH, he might be an ancillary Fitzmas present, in which case, he'd be too shackled to "other priorities" involving obstruction of justice to do much agitation at the UN.

Hey, a fish can dream, right?

What was supposed to be the one actual working plan implmented by Preznit C-Plus Augustus, No Child Left Behind, is just like everything else he's done in his life: a miserable failure.

The first nationwide test to permit an appraisal of President Bush's signature education law rendered mixed results on Wednesday, with even some supporters of the law expressing disappointment.
...
"The absence of really bad news isn't the same as good news, and if you're concerned about education and closing achievement gaps, there's simply not enough good news in these national results," said Ross Wiener, policy director of the Education Trust, a group that seeks to bring attention to the needs of poor and minority students and has consistently supported the federal law.
...
"We have more non-native speakers, there are lots of so-called at-risk, hard-to-educate students, and in spite of that, steady progress is being made," she said. "We're on the right track with No Child Left Behind."

So, let me see if I understand this: we're handing a massive amount of federal debt, a trashed economy and world-wide reputation as a nation of self-centered assholes off to a bunch of functionally illiterate children who will learn the earth was created in seven days 6,000 years ago as part of the 1600 Crew educational agenda?

Damn, I'm glad the children is our future. Is this a great country, or what?

America's Worst Legislator is trying a new tack, since his smears of DA Ronnie Earle have been largely unsuccessful. He's trying to smear the judge. Who'd a thinked it?

The judge in the case, Bob Perkins, said he was holding the case up temporarily in light of a defense motion demanding he recuse himself because he was a Democrat who had made recent donations to the Democratic Party and to Democratic candidates.

Mr. Earle, who has prosecuted a variety of politicians, most of them Democrats, during more than a quarter-century as Travis County district attorney, said after the court hearing that it was "absurd" to think of Judge Perkins removing himself from the case.

"What this means is that if a judge had contributed to Crime Stoppers, that judge could not hear a burglary case," Mr. Earle said. "Carried to its extreme, this is what I think this motion means."

As we get farther down the road from the Shitstorm that was Katrina, it looks like more and more of the facts are starting to appear. Funny how that works with the 1600 Crew, isn't it? Kinda like Mess O'Potamia...lack of cogent action, toss lots of money at it, and when it's still fucked up, blame everyone else. Well, it's starting to come home to roost.

On Aug. 29, Bahamonde said, he called Brown about 7 p.m. and warned him of "massive flooding," that 20,000 people were short of food and water at the Superdome and that thousands of people were standing on roofs or balconies seeking rescue.

Brown replied only, "Thank you. I'm going to call the White House," Bahamonde said.

Meanwhile, Preznit Nearly Nero strummed while Americans drowned.

Love it or not, the CIA has had a role in US Foreign policy since the end of WWII. Sometimes good/bad, sometimes right/wrong but usually always with a point of view that it offered up to key decision-makers when asked. For all the knuckleheaded cowboys who have been through the Agency, there are and have been thousands of men and women who have tried to work on and present essentially "good" intelligence, "good" being subjective and qualified as intel that presented balanced viewpoints to the folks requesting it. Have they gotten things wrong? Absolutely, and we all know about some of those failures. Have they gotten things right? Yes, and we'll likely never know about most of those things, because their successes probably mean that an event will never become front-page news, ever.

So it's a bit disconcerting to see this after the (like everything else) 1600 Crew politicization of CIA:

When Porter J. Goss took over a failure-stained CIA last year, he promised to reshape the agency beginning with the area he knew best: its famed spy division.

Goss, himself a former covert operative who had chaired the House intelligence committee, focused on the officers in the field. He pledged status and resources for case officers, sending hundreds more to far-off assignments, undercover and on the front line of the battle against al Qaeda.

A year later, Goss is at loggerheads with the clandestine service he sought to embrace. At least a dozen senior officials -- several of whom were promoted under Goss -- have resigned, retired early or requested reassignment. The directorate's second-in-command walked out of Langley last month and then told senators in a closed-door hearing that he had lost confidence in Goss's leadership.

The turmoil has left some employees shaken and has prompted former colleagues in Congress to question how Goss intends to improve the agency's capabilities and restore morale. The White House is aware of the problems, administration officials said, and believes they are being handled by the director of national intelligence, who now oversees the agency.

I remember when Jimmy Carter appointed Admiral Stansfield Turner to the CIA post, and how much howling and gnashing of teeth there was over that appointment because of his interest in the development of intel sources unrelated to "HUMINT". How when the reign of Bill Casey began there was a general moaning and groaning over the reduced capabilities of the CIA and the intelligence community in general. And look what "Wild Bill" Casey's most enduring legacy has been: Al-Qaeda. Great job, guys. Trying for a mulligan?

Harold Meyerson in todays Post.

A revolt of House conservatives has persuaded that body's Republican leadership to offset the increased federal spending going to rebuild the Hurricane Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast by reductions in Medicaid, food stamps and other programs for the indigent. If things go according to plan, this week the House will begin to cut $50 billion from those efforts.

The emerging Republican response to Katrina, apparently, is to comfort the drenched poor and afflict the dry.
...
That, however, would have meant less money for defense contractors and the highway industry and other contributors to congressional Republicans' campaigns. GOP committee chairmen made that point so forcefully that the idea was scrapped.

The beauty of taking the cuts out of Medicaid and student loan programs, by happy contrast, is that it doesn't reduce the flow of funds to the Republican campaign committees by a single dime.

Getting the people most affected by these cuts to the polls next year and in 2008 with a clear understanding of the reason for, and source of, their pain will overcome all the republican gerrymandering and slander even in places as red as Mississippi.

Keeping this issue alive might prove that the republicans have finally Overreached Too Far.

With the rumours flying around about Darth Cheney potentially taking a hit from the Plame Game Blame Team ... aka Patrick Fitgerald and his Musical Grand Jury (singing informants, optional), there have been all these rumours about Condi being elevated to Veep if Crashcart heads off for his date with Mr. Jethro of Allentown.

Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Lying, treacherous, Pwned by corporate America. Condi.

For all that, she's still a lying sack of shit who still chooses to put the 1600 Crew agenda ahead of what's in the best interest of this country.

Condi. Truly the republican choice for America...dishonest and disingenuous all in one pair of black-leather knee-high stiletto heels.

Condi, the female embodiment of the 21st Century Southern Strategy in a plain brown wrapper.

Condi.

Oh to have been sunbathing on the balmy shores of the Sundance Sea on this day...

Tracks of a previously unknown swimming dinosaur have been found along the shores of an ancient sea in Wyoming, scientists announced today.

The tracks reveal an event 165 million years ago when a six-foot-tall, two-legged dinosaur waded into the inland sea and gradually lost touch with the ground.

Or maybe these guys have a better explanation... or not.

Sly Stallone is going to remake not just one, but two movies that made him. Proving that at least in Hollywood it doesn't take George Romero or Roger Corman to provide a Little Zombies Shop of Horrors...

Sylvester Stallone has signed on to reprise his role as the boxing champ for a sixth installment in the once mighty franchise.
...
Rocky isn't the only muscle-bound hero Stallone is taking out of mothballs. He's also breaking out the bandana for a fourth turn as Rambo. Stallone will also write that screenplay.

Nor does the craving for Zombies in the Valley apparently. Now for the hat trick...Night of the Living Dead Career...

The 1600 Crew has trotted out some of its most beholden vassals to come to the Sewer that was The Peoples House to pimp for Miers. I wonder if they could be arrested for either pandering or violating the Mann Act; crossing state lines for immoral purposes involving a female.

The White House on Monday brought in six former justices of the Texas Supreme Court to voice support for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers and try to quell grumbling about her from conservative Republicans.

The event marked an attempt by White House officials to change the subject to Miers' legal credentials from last week when the administration got bogged down in a debate over her religion.
...
"I'd trust her with my wife and with my life," former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John Hill told reporters on the White House driveway after a meeting with President George W. Bush.

Any Texas Supreme Court justice aspiring to the federal bench can expect rough sledding in the U.S. Senate. In much of the country, people are shocked to learn that our Supreme Court justices are elected in million-dollar campaigns that are heavily financed by special interests that have cases before the court. A 1999 Texas Supreme Court poll found that even within Texas, 83 percent of the public, 79 percent of lawyers, and 48 percent of judges say that campaign contributions significantly influence judicial decisions.

Texas Ethics Commission and Court records reveal that 37 percent of the $1.4 million that Justice Owen raised for her campaigns came from lawyers and litigants who had a direct stake in cases before her court. In a 1996 opinion, for example, the Court reversed a lower court ruling and lowered the tax exposure of a major donor, the H.E.B. grocery store chain (H.E. Butt Grocery Co. v. Jefferson County). In another case, the Court upheld a verdict for a plaintiff injured in an H.E.B. store. Yet Justice Owen–who has taken $7,500 from H.E.B.’s owner–joined a dissent that would have overturned that jury verdict (H.E. Butt Grocery Co. v. Bilotto).

On the day of the H.E.B. tax case, the court issued an Owen-authored opinion that haunts her nomination like a nightmare. That decision overturned a lower appeals court ruling to free Enron Corp.–the justices’ No. 1 source of corporate donations–from having to pay $224,989 in school taxes (Enron v. Spring Independent School District). Speaking about Owen’s nomination last month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT), said, "I have heard from a lot of Republicans who are concerned about her Enron connections." One question that seems certain to arise in an Owen hearing is something like: "Justice Owen, please explain how a judge who is not blind to appearances of impropriety would take $8,600 from Enron’s PAC and executives–including $1,000 from Ken Lay–and then NOT recuse herself from a $224,989 ruling in Enron’s favor?"

Ah, and more stellar Sleeping Capital Murder Lawyer Texan Justice:

In 1999, a new trial was ordered but the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, appealed and the original verdict was upheld.

Mr Cornyn has not yet said whether he will appeal again to the US Supreme Court.

Because there's no Crony like and old Crone-y. Ever.

Well, just remember to Die Bold, Iraq, Die Bold.

Iraq's electoral commission said Monday it intended to audit "unusually high" numbers in results coming from most provinces in the country's landmark referendum on the draft constitution.

The U.S. military said, meanwhile, that its warplanes and helicopters bombed two western villages Sunday, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a roadside blast. Residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians.

Oh, wait.

Never mind. I forgot we were Spreading Democracy and Freedoms one Five-hundred pounder at a time. My bad.

Yup, the hits just keep on coming. Hoosiers...you have have a Delay Corruption Baby, named Chris Chocola. Gee, is that a lawmaker or a breakfast cereal? Well, it seems your Chocola could count on donations from Tommy-boy to reassure you Hoosiers that no one would take away your guns. Like there's any danger of that anytime soon.

Tom DeLay's political group used nearly $100,000 in corporate and unlimited donations to mail last-minute political appeals praising five congressional candidates despite rules meant to keep such money out of federal races, documents released Thursday show.
...
They show DeLay's ARMPAC sent money from its so-called soft-money account before the November 2002 election to pay for mailings for such candidates as Indiana Republican Chris Chocola, who won election to the House that year.

An ARMPAC mailing to gun-owning voters in Chocola's race for an open congressional seat praised him as someone who "will protect the sporting traditions that Indiana sportsmen have passed on. For future generations to continue to enjoy our heritage, we need the leadership of Chris Chocola."

And I'm sure you've all seen the Godfather, right? Make sure you know where all the horses are.

In their quest to continue to their campaign of domestic terra, the 1600 Crew is quietly continuing it by running terra drills against New Yorkers by emailing the well-connected among them.

The city's rich and well-connected were tipped off to last week's subway terror threat days before average New Yorkers, the Daily News has learned.

At least two E-mails revealing the purported plot were sent to a select crowd of business and arts executives early last week by New Yorkers who claimed to have close connections to Homeland Security and other federal officials, authorities said.
...
"I have just received a most disturbing call from one of my oldest friends from growing up in Washington," one E-mail began. "He called with a very specific caution to not enter or use the New York City subway system from Oct. 7 through 10th."

A second E-mail sounded a similar ominous tone: "As some of you know my father works for Homeland Security, at a very high position and receives security briefings on a daily basis.

"The only information that I can pass on is that everyone should at all costs not ride the subway for the next two weeks in major areas of NYC."
...
The early warning infuriated several police officials, who noted that Homeland Security officials had challenged the credibility of the threat after the city and FBI warned the public.

"We're briefing the mayor, ratcheting up security, talking about when to go public - and Homeland Security is downplaying the whole thing while their people are telling friends to stay out of the subways," a police source said. "It's pretty bad."
...
Bloomberg has defended his response, arguing the city had no choice but to act on the "specific threat." He has said he held off alerting the public until Oct.6 to give authorities time to round up suspects in Iraq.

Drinks are on me.

This is almost enough to make me smile on a cool autumn Friday morning.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday he might run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 — unless some candidates promote his ideas.

A possible winning ticket: Gingrich/Lieberman...a blow-hard and a puritan moralist all in one. Toss in Bill Bennett somewhere in there and you get the All-American Hat-Trick of Incomptant Governance.

One of the themes that the DNC needs to get on right now is tagging every single republican house member who speaks well of Tom Delay as a corrupt crony. True or not, it should be up to them to disprove their feeding at the Teat of Delay. If these House republicans can hold their noses and speak well of the man who is trying for an acquittal by publicity, then they need to be targeted as just as corrupt and malign as Delay himself.

"He is still a full-fledged member of Congress and has lots of political capital, and we are still very interested in his views," said Representative Deborah Pryce of Ohio, chairman of the House Republican Conference.

The republican scandals aren't going away any time soon. When the "adults" took charge, they made sure that they were available to the highest bidders, including Delay and the interests he represented and still represents.

Here's to hoping that Ronnie Earl survives the coming PR blitz against him by the Friends of Tom. I don't think he's going to back down just because of some adverse publicity. He's already indicated that the prosecution of Delay is his swan song, so what's he got to lose? Certainly no future friends from Congress...

H and G. The Love Letters.

My favorite line from Preznit Scheisskopf to HM:

"PS - No more public scatology"

Dear Wapo Editors,

RE: Richard Cohen

Let this Idiot Go.

The inimitable Bob Somerby has a compendia of Cohen.

"This is not the place to examine why Bush is so hated," Cohen continues. But does his acquaintance really "hate Bush?" It's hard to tell from the exchange he describes. What exactly did Cohen's friend mean when he compared this election to 1939? Either Cohen didn't ask, or the answer wasn't colorful enough to be included in this column. Did Cohen's friend really say or imply that American Jewry might be wiped out in a Bush second term-or did Cohen add "that bit" without prodding? What exactly did his friend mean? Cohen doesn't bother to tell us. But so what? We're supposed to tremble with rage about this gentleman's private and largely unexplained comment. Meanwhile, is nasty Bush-hatred occurring in public? Cohen cites that one obscure novel, but seems to have found nothing else.

According to Cohen, he hates this stuff-this fearsome lack of moderation. "The demonization of Bush is going to cost John Kerry plenty," he even declares. Cohen’s views are very clear: "[S]ome of us cherish moderation, recoil from conspiracy theories and would like, if possible, to stick to the facts." We tend to support those values ourselves. But as we read, we found ourselves wondering when Cohen began to feel them so strongly. ...

COHEN (10/14/97): [C]onsider why so many people spent so much time and money looking into Foster's death. His widow, Lisa, has remarried and moved on to a new phase in her life. Only Washington remained mired, fixated, believing that the Clintons could be so evil that they would-God only knows how-murder their troubled friend, move his body from the Oval Office or where the Rose Law Firm billing records were kept (Iron Mountain, I suppose) and place that gun in his hand. The scenario is so preposterous it wouldn't even make a bad movie, but the investigations came one after another.

Some of this, I grant you, is Clinton's fault. He is not a truthful man, and maybe that accounts for the venomous attacks that come his way. Last week, for instance, Mark Helprin, a Wall Street Journal contributing editor, called Clinton "the most corrupt, fraudulent and dishonest president we have ever known." Helprin is a novelist, so a little leeway should be granted, but has he forgotten Richard Nixon? Nineteen of the president's men went to jail—and not, mind you, for crimes committed before coming to Washington.

Cohen gave leeway to novelists then, even when their nasty claims were being published in important places. But Cohen didn't show much outrage by the jihad against Clinton, who had brought the venomous attacks on himself. "Now can we have an investigation into why there have been so many investigations?" he quipped. "I ask that question a bit tongue in cheek-but also because I am at a loss to explain what has happened in Washington since George Bush departed the place and Bill Clinton came in." Today, though, he sees the problem clearly. When an intelligent man complains privately about Bush, Cohen goes into print to describe it as "hatred." But back then, when crackpots drove the discourse for a decade, he chuckled. He couldn't figure it out.

And everyone there would just idolize Beloved Leader. He'd be sooo happy.

Mess O'Potamia is proving deadly for the Guard and Reserve men and women who are going over there...you know the ones with half the benefits and all the risk...

The National Guard and Reserves are suffering a strikingly higher share of U.S. casualties in Iraq, their portion of total American military deaths nearly doubling since last year.
Reservists have accounted for one-quarter of all U.S. deaths since the Iraq war began, but the proportion has grown over time. It was 10 percent for the five weeks it took to topple Baghdad in the spring of 2003, and 20 percent for 2004 as a whole.

The trend accelerated this year. For the first nine months of 2005 reservists accounted for 36 percent of U.S. deaths, and for August and September it was 56 percent, according to Pentagon figures.

There has even been a fatality from the Air National Guard. I wonder if that serviceperson would rather have been sorting mail in Alabama and getting their teeth cleaned, all things considered? Or maybe hanging out with an 'ambitious secretary' or three.

Interestingly the 1600 Crew really is the New American Taliban, in its larval stages. Or Government by Python, maybe.

ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, [angels sing] her arm clad in the
purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of
the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to
carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing
swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive
power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some
farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power
just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!*

President Bush suggested today that religion was a factor in his choice of Harriet Miers for the U.S. Supreme Court.
...
"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers," Bush said. "They want to know Harriet Miers's background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. Part of Harriet Miers life is her religion," he said, noting that she was also a "pioneer woman and a trailblazer in the law."

Unless the goal is to Talibanize the judiciary. In which case we are well and truly fucked. Coming soon, howitzers at dawn at Mt Rushmore? Stay tuned as they say. Film at 11...if that's not illegal by then too. Harriet Miers, clad in the purest shimmering samite...lobbing swords. Now there's an image for the ages, and it's close to our system of government now.

*© The Pythons. Who were way too prescient.

Watching M_Ann Coulter self-destruct on Bill Maher was pretty funny. She was almost shaking with anger over the appointment. Gotta love that. I think she was almost about to call Beloved Leader retarded, but caught herself at the last minute, knowing that would nix any chance she'd ever have for getting to compete with Condi for "best beltway stillettos" at the next conservitard love-fest. But enough about Ms Adams Apple 2004.

This column in the Post has a really amusing (in that ironical way) comment by George Allen, who is probably the only man in the republican party actually stupider than Jeff Sessions and Beloved Leader.

Here are a few snippets of comments made about Miers by GOP senators often mentioned as considering presidential bids in 2008:

* Sen. George Allen (Va.): "I want to be assured she's not going to be a [Associate Justice David] Souter."; "Right now, I'm keeping an open mind. I need to learn more. I'm trying to discern as best I can what her judicial philosophy is."

50 quatloos he doesn't succeed. 100 quatloos Allen never breaks the code.

Oooh. Well, I guess someone at the Pentagram must have penetrated the bubble around Preznit Cowardly Asshat and gotten word in there that the invasion of Iran, while most satisfying in terms of being a "War Preznit" probably made less sense than speaking to a group of stoned ANSWER protesters. So now Beloved Leader is "warning" Syria...ooooh, bet they're trembling.

President Bush on Wednesday called on Syria's government to be a "good neighbor" in the Middle East, warning Damascus not to interfere in Lebanon, incite Palestinian militants or allow insurgents to cross into Iraq.

"We're making good progress toward peace in the Holy Land, but one of the areas of concern is that foreign countries such as Syria might try to disrupt the peace process by encouraging terrorist activities," Bush said.
...
He also demanded that Damascus pay closer attention to its border with Iraq, where U.S. troops have battled an insurgency since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"We expect Syria to do everything in her power to shut down the transshipment of suiciders and killers into Iraq," Bush told reporters at the White House. "We expect Syria to be a good neighbor to Iraq."

So glad that the 1600 Crew has a plan for the destruction of an American City in the wake of an attack or disaster. Oh, wait. Never mind.

Lot of catching up to do. On it tomorrow...

Rove needs to start getting advice from Martha on cell decorating for Allentown, and Scooter needs to change that name before he gets ridden like a Mike Brown Arabian.

Popcorn...pass the popcorn...

It really does stretch the limits of belief sometimes...the Air Force, aka Christ's Bomber Legions, PTE, LTD, Inc. apparently had a document floating around that directed their chaplains to proselytize the "Unchurched". Really.

The Air Force, facing a lawsuit over alleged proselytizing, has withdrawn a document that permitted chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

The document was circulated at the Air Force Chaplain School until eight weeks ago. It was a "code of ethics" for chaplains that included the statement "I will not proselytize from other religious bodies, but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated."
...
...Among other evidence, the suit cited a July 12 New York Times article that quoted Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force's deputy chief of chaplains, as saying: "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched."
...
Weinstein called the guidelines insufficient, but evangelical Christian groups attacked them as overly restrictive. "Mikey Weinstein might not like it, but it is the job of an evangelical Christian chaplain to evangelize," said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for the Colorado-based Focus on the Family. "It's protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion."

A question for Mr. Minnery...would he be pleased if we were to solicit for the Druid (reformed, we love shrubs too) Church side by side with his ministers at an Air Force function? Nope, didn't think so...I guess all that Freedom of Religion stuff only works for dead carpenters and alcoholic preznits.

Ah, with Preznit A Crony Too Far, there's never enough to say about the patently unqualified. Except to make shit up.

In his weekly radio address yesterday, Bush praised Miers as "a remarkable woman and an accomplished attorney"

Well, if there are any cases that come before the Supreme Court that involve deadbeat tenants and fishing shacks, then she is The Woman. Conversely, she was last seen wandering around the West Wing looking for a woman named Miranda who wanted to talk to the police.

Because you know, you can never be unqualified enough to be a 1600 Crew Crony Appointee. Right?

Hi all. Been on a road trip for the last few days, and I've been too tired to do much writing...I'll be back off the road in a few days.

Meanwhile, have you been checking in where all the non-slackers hang out? Over at Main and Central? Drop by and visit them. It's the best show you can get for free, and to a man, they're all smarter than me.

Trust me.

What a shame that this quote applies to more than just Born-Again Harriet Meirs (which seems to be her chief qualification, besides utter sycophancy).

I picked the best person I could find.

Well, at least he didn't say "I didn't have sex with that woman". That we know of.

Eeew.

Liar Liar Pants On Fire!

Joe Biden is forming an "exploratory committee" to gauge his chances for a presidential bid in 2008. Here's why his committee will find that his chances of having sex with a polar bear are better.

Two weeks before a new, more restrictive national bankruptcy law goes into effect, financially strapped Americans are rushing to file for protection from their creditors, with filings climbing to an unprecedented average of 13,000 a day last week.

Week after week records are toppled. Last week's 68,287 filings surpassed the record set the week before by 24 percent, and this week's total is likely to be higher, according to data released yesterday by Lundquist Consulting Inc., a financial research firm. Daily filings averaged 10,367 in September, compared with an average of 6,079 in September 2004.

In the macabre irony sweepstakes, the republicans who crawled up and had cash inserted into their asses by the banking industry lobbyists to get this bill passed, piously proclaim that people should not get themselves into a position where they need to declare bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, those good god-fearin' souls forgot to exempt or allow any leniency at all for folks who are forced into bankruptcy because of medical bills or even, hmmmmm, natural disasters. Imagine that. CongressCriminals who have run our country into massive debt for generations to come, lecturing penniless Americans on "Personal Responsibility".

Just think what would happen if every American went and filed bankruptcy on October 16th before the close of business, whether they needed to or not. One word: Chaos. I guess that the banking industry could say "Missed it by that much".

If all spam, and I'm guessing that's what this is, were this good many of us might have different feelings about spammers.

Guilty Prediction on Criminal Conspiracy Charges? How About Money Laundering? B****.com Posts Odds World’s Most Comprehensive Online Sportsbook, Casino and Poker Site Leads Trend for Wagering on Pop Culture Events

October 04, 2005 – After seeing an unprecedented amount of betting action on whether Texas Republican Representative Tom DeLay, the House Majority leader, would be found guilty on conspiracy charges, B****.com has now released odds on whether DeLay will be found guilty on charges of conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering.

“We are seeing such a drastic increase in the volume of betting action on political proposition wagers that we have set up a separate team to specifically handle this type of wagering activity,” says Calvin Ayre, Founder and CEO of B****.com. “We are happy to offer an exciting and entertaining medium in which the general public can test their predictions.”

DeLay, one of the highest-ranking members of the Republican Party, was re-indicted on conspiring to money launder and money laundering charges a few days after being charged with conspiring to have corporate contributions funneled through his political action committee to help fund the campaigns of Republican state candidates.

A majority of B****.com bettors have placed their money on Tom DeLay being found guilty on charges of criminal conspiracy. With the two new charges, B****.com anticipates a large amount of betting action.

Last week, DeLay temporarily stepped down as House Majority leader, abiding by the Congressional House rules, which dictate that any member in a position of leadership must resign if charged with criminal activity. With the new charges, DeLay could possibly face up to life in prison.

DeLay will remain in Congress while he fights the charges. The Texas congressman vehemently denied the charges, saying the indictment was sparked by political retribution.

Among a host of other political proposition wagers on B****.com, bettors can wager on the outcome of the Iraqi Constitution, which is scheduled to be announced in mid-October, and on whether Harriet E. Miers will be confirmed as Supreme Court Justice by the US Senate?

I'm not really into giving these guys free advertising, so I blanked out the name of the site. But damn, that's some good Spam.

Deafness defined: the 1600 Crew.

NCLB

No Crony Left Behind.

Right on the heels of hiring Mr. Arabian Horses Ass to investigate himself.

Interesting article on the trial in Pennsylvania over teaching Unintelligent Fairy Tales in HS biology. But the most interesting part of the article was about the founder of the Thomas More Law Center, Richard Thompson. Here's Thompson:

Mr. Thompson's major argument in defending the board is that intelligent design is not religion, but science. He is, however, absolutely open about his own religious motivations.

During the lunch break on Thursday, Mr. Thompson said he founded the law center to defend Christians who he thought were losing the culture wars. The center was initially financed by Thomas Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza. Both men are Roman Catholics.

"There are two worldviews that are in conflict," Mr. Thompson said. "I do feel that even though Christians are 86 percent of the population, they have become second-class citizens."

Then and only then will he be spared the nagging fear of becoming the next meal for the lions in the coliseum, I guess. Haven't we heard this tune before?

So Preznit Incredibly Lazy pulled another Dick Cheney out of his ass, literally. Cheney, as we all recall was in charge of "finding himself" to be the VP candidate for Preznit Tippling TeaTotaler. Now, our Beloved Leader, so lazy that he can't pull his dick out of his pants to pee without help from Laura or Condi has let Harriet Miers, the "head" of his SCOTUS search committee select herself.

Her qualifications? Stating that Preznit Brain Damaged is the "most brilliant man she'd ever met" or words to that effect. Which do not make me think she's exactly the best-qualified candidate for the job. Senate Democrats are already lining up behind her, presumably because she's not Janice Rogers Brown or Priscilla Owens. We'll see. The one thing that worries me, and will for a long time to come, is the fact that Preznit Fundie Swallower says she's in favor of "judicial restraint" which is republican-speak for "I got mine, screw you" politics.

It might be fun to watch the republicans self-destruct over this, if that happens. But on the flipside, after the 1600 Crew managed to successfully avoid releasing all the papers that French Fry had written in his various tenures in all the past Wingnut Administrations, I suspect any requests for papers that Mier has written will be met with blank stares and the phone being held up to the running shredder so that every member of the Judiciary Committee can hear the big "Fuck You" from the Oval Office.

You did it to yourselves boys and girls of the Senate. Now we have to live with it. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Read this and then ask yourselves a question: and if it's "Huh?", that's ok.

In gunbattles and air strikes, US forces killed at least eight insurgents while sweeping through a village near the Syrian border in an offensive aimed at rooting out al-Qaeda militants in the region, the military said yesterday.

About 1,000 US troops, backed by attack helicopters and warplanes, began the offensive in the western village of Sadah on Saturday morning, also hoping to close insurgent supply routes and stem violence ahead of Iraq's crucial vote on a new constitution this month.

Is there something fundamentally wrong with this picture, or is it just me?

From Scooter to Judy:

Dear Judy,

Your reporting, and you, are missed. Like many Americans, I admire your principled stand. But, like many of your friends and readers, I would welcome you back among the rest of us, doing what you do best - reporting.

Geez, I just hope old Scooter isn't throwing Judy Judy a curveball here.

Okay, next year when it comes time for the Koufax Awards I want everyone to think of one name for best series: Firedoglake. Jane Hamsher has truly been a Woman on Fire over the whole Judy Miller "I'm a Martyr" schtick.

Go over there. Read Everything (if you haven't already). Jane is finding almost every hole in the "Cover-me-Judy" story that the Times has perpetrated (and perpetuated), and managed to skewer every aspect of Judy Millers' nonsensical claims to "privelege" all while sipping a latte and playing with her enormous poodles.

If I could be so forward, I'm thinking we should just nominate Jane Queen of Blogtopia for the rest of the year. Second?

1. Horsehead Theatre
   
2. Another bucket o'piss
   
3. Phase II
   
4. P.U.
   
5. When will it start?
   
6. A question...
   
7. Well, with maybe one exception...
   
8. Awww, Harriet, say it ain't so...
   
9. republican understatement award
   
10. Two Kay