You migh have noticed that I got a chance to add some entries today, since we are in-port. Be safe out there!!

See you next week!!!!

Fascinating, isn't it how the lawn-order Kill-their-appelate rights, and kill them, Tom Delay can have so many bites at the appelate apple before even getting to trial isn't it?

The state's highest criminal court has asked prosecutors to respond to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's request that the charges against him be dismissed.

The all-Republican appeals court on Tuesday gave prosecutors a week to submit arguments regarding the request filed Friday by DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin. The court will decide whether to take the case after the prosecutors' response is received.

Hmmm...an all-republican court hearing a Tom Delay case in Texas...gee, wonder how that's gonna go? Well, let's have some faith that they're not all Priscilla Owens and move on to the New Year...

Buried in this story about attorneys interested in finding out whether or not the illegal wiretapping program was used against their clients, is this little gem:

... In a Virginia case, Edward B. MacMahon Jr., a lawyer for Ali al-Timimi, a Muslim scholar in Alexandria who is serving a life sentence for inciting his young followers to wage war against the United States overseas, said the government's explanation of how it came to suspect Mr. Timimi of terrorism ties never added up in his view.

F.B.I. agents were at Mr. Timimi's door days after the Sept. 11 attacks to question him about possible links to terrorism, Mr. MacMahon said, yet the government did not obtain a warrant through the foreign intelligence court to eavesdrop on his conversations until many months later.

Mr. MacMahon said he was so skeptical about the timing of the investigation that he questioned the Justice Department about whether some sort of unknown wiretap operation had been conducted on the scholar or his young followers, who were tied to what prosecutors described as a "Virginia jihad" cell.

"They told me there was no other surveillance," Mr. MacMahon said. "But the fact is that the case against a lot of these guys just came out of nowhere because they were really nobodies, and it makes you wonder whether they were being tapped."
(my emphasis)

The legality of the wiretaps is, I am sure going to make it all the way to the Supremes. I don't know if French-Fry has the same feelings of deference to the alleged "Chief Executive" in times of ShopKreig that Rehnquist had, but it will be interesting to see how the "strict constructionalists" who tortured Bush v Gore will take this on.

Someone order Clarence a double espresso and cocaine now, he might need to be awake for oral arguments.

So, the Feds are tightening the noose around the Enron Gang...seems that the accounting guy is now testifying against Lay and Skilling in return for some reduction in his Prison Bitch Time. Well, it ought to be interesting, I wonder if they offered that deal to Skilling too? Or is he too big a fish?

Former top Enron Corp. accountant Richard Causey pleaded guilty to securities fraud Wednesday and agreed to help pursue convictions against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, the Associated Press reported.

Lay, Skilling and Causey were scheduled to be tried together Jan. 17 on conspiracy, fraud and other charges related to the scandal-ridden company's collapse more than four years ago. The deal leaves Lay and Skilling with another opponent rather than an ally who has been part of their united defense front since the trio was first indicted last year.

Causey will serve seven years in prison and forfeit $1.25 million to the government, according to the plea deal. However, if the government is happy with his cooperation, prosecutors can ask that his sentence be reduced to five years.

Seeing Kenny-boy in an orange jumpsuit will be only marginally better than seeing Beloved Leader and his Lying Fuck Henchman, Crashcart in one. But, alas, that may have to be another day....so moral, so righteous, so ... convicted. Yeah, Baby!

Guess you all noticed that I have not been here for a few days...went off to sail one of the seven seas for the holidaze. Sooo, I have not been able to post without taking out a second mortgage...

However, that does not mean that I have not been keeping an eye on Preznit Bunnypants and the other lying fuck, Crashcart. Jeebus, why don't they just declare Martial Law now and short-circuit the outrage? Gotta wonder how they'll feel when the shoe is on the other foot, and we're making the rules...heh. Indeed.

Anyhow, back to regular posting after New Year, if the weather gods let me.

Best thing I've heard so far (well, one of the best)...

Common Sense 1
Discovery Institute 0

Now we just need to see Kansas in the 21st Century too...like that's gonna happen.

Happy Saturnalia, or whatever.

Fair winds and following seas, see you all after New Year. Be safe out there.

So the Coward-who-would-be-King has decided that absent the objection of any member of congress with a fucking spine, he can (or his lawyers) can just abrogate the Constitution at will?

Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.
...
The Bush administration views the operation as necessary so that the agency can move quickly to monitor communications that may disclose threats to this country, the officials said. Defenders of the program say it has been a critical tool in helping disrupt terrorist plots and prevent attacks inside the United States.

Administration officials are confident that existing safeguards are sufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, the officials say. ...
...
The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

Mr. Bush's executive order allowing some warrantless eavesdropping on those inside the United States ­ including American citizens, permanent legal residents, tourists and other foreigners ­ is based on classified legal opinions that assert that the president has broad powers to order such searches, derived in part from the September 2001 Congressional resolution authorizing him to wage war on Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, according to the officials familiar with the N.S.A. operation.

It is not clear how much the members of Congress were told about the presidential order and the eavesdropping program. Some of them declined to comment about the matter, while others did not return phone calls.

Before the 2004 election, the official said, some N.S.A. personnel worried that the program might come under scrutiny by Congressional or criminal investigators if Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, was elected president.

This corruption, bastardization, and evil is gonna come crashing down on these fuckers one day. I wonder on the day after that happens, how many folks will be willing to admit they were once "republican supporters of Preznit Scrambled Brains", or will they be like the post-surrender Germans..."Ve vas not Nazi's"...

Funny ... in that pathetic, wish-you-could-look the other way (scroll down) kind of a way...

"HUME: Let me get your thoughts, Mr. President, on -- on how you think or hope you'll be remembered.

"BUSH: You mean, just kind of a blanket statement?

"HUME: Yes.

"BUSH: I hope that first, as a person, I'll be remembered as a fellow who had his priorities straight: his faith, his family and his friends are a central part of his life.

"Secondly, I hope to be remembered, from a personal perspective, as a fellow who had lived life to the fullest and gave it his all. And thirdly, I'd like to be remembered as the president who used American influence for the good of the world: bastioning freedom and fighting disease and poverty, by recognizing to whom much is given, much is required and that -- that I wasn't afraid to make a decision."

He'll certainly be remembered as one of the only presidents to reward incompetance and criminal behavior by promotion and a greater role in public policy. So, he's got that going for him in the eyes of history..oh, and his strategeric thinking.

OK- sometimes the jokes just write themselves, don't they? Preznit Drooling Moron has just made a pretty stunning pronouncement...

President Bush said yesterday he is confident that former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is innocent of money-laundering charges, as he offered strong support for several top Republicans who have been battered by investigations or by rumors of fading clout inside the White House.
...
"I hope that he will, 'cause I like him, and plus, when he's over there, we get our votes through the House," Bush told Fox News's Brit Hume.

So let's see...Preznit Addled Cokehead's track record on prognostication ... hmmm... pretty slim ...No WMD's, the Mission is Not Accomplished, Terri Schiavo was not giggling at the balloon, and Harriet Meirs was really not the best candidate for the Supreme Court. So forgive me if I express a little reticence in believing that the Beloved Leader's Crystal Balls are good for much more than proving that he could sire a couple of drunken party girls. Or invade a sovereign country to get his war on...

The crooked, greedy republicans who never never met a fight they couldn't win by cheating have decided to go all Ted Stevens on the budget...either give them what they want, American People be damned, or they're gonna throw a millionaire hissy-fit at the expense of our men and women in uniform. Knowing that they'd never get drilling in ANWR approved with honest debate, the millionaire criminal and crony critters are trying to tack a drilling provision onto a defense spending bill, knowing that they can beat opponents over the head with it if it doesn't pass and claim that those in opposition don't "Support the Troops".

With a budget-cutting measure stymied by stiff resistance to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, Congressional Republicans began exploring Wednesday a new tactic to win approval of both $45 billion in cuts and the drilling plan.

Lawmakers and senior aides said they were seriously considering tacking the drilling proposal onto a Pentagon spending bill that is among those that must pass before Congress heads home in the next few days. The switch, they said, could clear the way for approval of the spending cuts sought by conservatives and the Arctic drilling plan that is a priority of Republicans and the Bush administration, provided they could defeat any filibuster.

The 1600 Crew, and in particular Preznit Yellow Stripe has decided to go along with John McCain's anti-torture language to get legislation passed.

The White House, after weeks of resistance, agreed today to Senator John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel or inhuman treatment of terror suspects anywhere in the world.

Mr. McCain met with President Bush at the White House this afternoon, and an announcement of a deal followed.
...
Late Wednesday, in a rare bipartisan rebuke to the administration, the House of Representatives voted, 308 to 122, to endorse a measure by Mr. McCain to bar cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody anywhere in the world.

That vote was nonbinding. ...

These fucking criminals never change....ever.

No, really. Remember, as Steve Gilliard says, the republicans and the 1600 Crew love our troops ... us Democrats we hate'em according to the hyper-traitorous wingnuts.

A local family said fallen soldiers and Marines deserve better and that one would think our war heroes are being transported with dignity, care and respect. It said one would think upon arrival in their hometowns they are greeted with honor. But unfortunately, the family said that is just not the case.

Dead heroes are supposed to come home with their coffins draped with the American flag -- greeted by a color guard.

But in reality, many are arriving as freight on commercial airliners -- stuffed in the belly of a plane with suitcases and other cargo.

John Holley and his wife, Stacey, were stunned when they found out the body of their only child, Matthew, who died in Iraq last month, would be arriving at Lindbergh Field as freight.
...
The bodies of dead service members arrive at Dover Air Force Base.

From that point, they are sent to their families on commercial airliners.

Reporters from 10News called the Defense Department for an explanation. A representative said she did not know why this is happening.

Given the numbers of middle-aged men and women whose exposure to the military has been Gomer Pyle, Rambo and all the Chuck Norris war movies, I doubt that many would be saavy enough to know the difference. They probably get a letter or telegram notifying them of the shipment, and instructions for to have their funeral home pick up the remains from the airline cargo office.

You have to wonder what's happened to the whole Casualty Assistance Calls Officer program, that used to be sort of the province of local reserve units (now probably in Mess O'Potamia), and local active duty folks (if any). I'm sure that Dancing Donnie has found some local CheneyBurton affiliate to outsource it to, on no-bid basis of course, and they don't work evenings or weekends.

I'm sure that the 1600 Crew is not too interested in the process, because once they're in "transfer tubes" they can't stand behind Beloved Leader for a political speech on base anymore.

Republicans ... loving some service people, as long as there's no actual time, money or inconvenience involved.

crossposted at Main and Central

Reddhead over at Firedoglake has this story from (of all places) Fox News about an issue that has bothered me quite a bit...i.e. Bunnypants making openly partisan political speeches and attacks in front of uniformed service people. After all, DoD regs forbid in no uncertain terms going to a purely politcal event in uniform...seems it's bothering more than a few other folks who are thinking about it too...

Questions have been raised about the military's attendance at events where Bush says something like "they spoke the truth then, they're speaking politics now." Several members of the military told FOX News that Bush is inviting the troops to take sides in a partisan debate in his speeches.

"This is a very bad sign," said retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, who led Central Command in the early 1990s and is an administration critic. "This is the sort of thing that you find in other countries where the military and political, certain political parties are aligned."

"They're the ones who are defending our freedom," said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett. "They should be able to listen to the debate, they should be able to hear both sides."

Holy Shit...Falafel O'Loofah is gonna spring a leak when he sees this...

Some of the nation's most prominent megachurches have decided not to hold worship services on the Sunday that coincides with Christmas Day, a move that is generating controversy among evangelical Christians at a time when many conservative groups are battling to "put the Christ back in Christmas."
...
...Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., always a pacesetter among megachurches, is handing out a DVD it produced for the occasion that features a heartwarming contemporary Christmas tale.

"What we're encouraging people to do is take that DVD and in the comfort of their living room, with friends and family, pop it into the player and hopefully hear a different and more personal and maybe more intimate Christmas message, that God is with us wherever we are," said Cally Parkinson, communications director at Willow Creek, which draws 20,000 people on a typical Sunday.

Wow...for those members of the 101st Fighting Keyboard Commandos who are in imminent danger of getting kicked out of Mom's basement or cut off from their Cheezey Snax or both, here's a new way to make some quick cash...help others cheat at on-line games. Shoot, they're republicans, so the cheating and corruption gene is there at birth ... moral dilema? No problem. Cheat for profit? Next stop, Congress...

One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for money.
...
One huge site here in Fuzhou has over 100 computers in a series of large, dark rooms. About 70 players could be seen playing quietly one weekday afternoon, while some players slept by the keyboard.

"We recruit through newspaper ads," said the 30-something owner, whose workers range from 18 to 25 years old. "They all know how to play online games, but they're not willing to do hard labor."

Enuff to make you chortle...Fearless Leader goes to Washington and gives a "speech".

"Only a few hundred members showed up for the hastily organized event at a Washington hotel and empty chairs were removed from the back of the ballroom before Bush arrived. The audience interrupted Bush for applause only once during the speech and even then, many, if not most, did not clap. There was polite applause when he finished."

How long is the mysterious "no-fly" list that the US Government passes on to airlines? Well, according to one source, there are 80,000 names on it, and it's managed by the Department of Homeland Security...home of some of the most incompetant people in Government service today (think: Mike Brown & Co.).

A watchlist of possible terror suspects distributed by the US government to airlines for pre-flight checks is now 80 000 names long, a Swedish newspaper reported on Thursday, citing European air industry sources.

The classified list, which carried just 16 names before the September 11 2001 attacks in New York and Washington had grown to 1 00 by the end of 2001, to 40 000 a year later and now stands at 80 000, Svenska Dagbladet reported.

Some bunch of security-conscious folks running the show, eh? Naaaah, just morons, half-wits and greedheads. And that's just the 1600 Crew...

Gotta wonder how many new-born infants are still on that list...more than one, I'm sure.

Because you can never fuck over our children, our soldiers, and all the future generations of citizens enough, it's time to have another tax-cut.

The House passed three separate tax cuts yesterday and plans to approve a fourth today, trimming the federal revenue by $94.5 billion over five years -- nearly double the budget savings that Republicans muscled through the House last month.

GOP leaders portray the tax bills -- for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, affluent investors, U.S. troops serving in Iraq and taxpayers who otherwise would be hit by the alternative minimum tax -- as vital to keeping the economy rolling.

Finally, the House passed a modest, $153 million tax break that would extend a provision allowing members of the military to use their combat pay to claim the earned income credit.

This is for the working poor. You have to have income earning from wages of less than $29,900. This credit was enacted under President Gerald Ford in 1975

Oh,and doing the math, 153 million is something like .16% of the proposed 94.5 Billion dollars being allocated to the wealthiest 1% of Americans, most of whom are probably just thrilled with their votes to destroy the America these soldiers defend with their lives for poverty-level minimum-wages.

Fellow Vet Bulldog has posted an interview with a friend of his who just got back from Mess O'Potamia over at Main and Central. Worth a read if you haven't seen it already.

Well, the conspiracy charges against Delay will not go forward, but the money-laundering charges will...

A judge dismissed the conspiracy charges Monday against Rep. Tom DeLay but refused to throw out the money-laundering counts, dashing the Texas congressman's hopes for now of reclaiming his post as House majority leader.
...
Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against the Republican, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which DeLay's attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed.

While this is all well and good, none of this is even related to the activities of Delay's good buddy Jack Abramoff, who is probably just waiting to see how much he can get for ratting out everyone from top to bottom all at once.

Grab some popcorn...the show is just getting underway.

Coming up next, how all those who aren't signed on with the 1600 Crew program are part of "Old Europe".

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chastised Europe leaders today, saying that before they complain about secret jails for terror suspects in European nations, they should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that helped "save European lives."
...
"We must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible," she said. "But there have been many cases where the local government cannot detain or prosecute a suspect, and traditional extradition is not a good option.

"In those cases," she added, "the local government can make the sovereign choice to cooperate in the transfer of a suspect to a third country, which is known as a rendition.

"Sometimes, these efforts are misunderstood," she said.

She made an effort to frame the debate as one over the effectiveness of terror enforcement and not over the propriety of holding suspects indefinitely in secret prisons.

"We consider the captured members of Al Qaeda and its allies to be unlawful combatants who may be held, in accordance with the law of war, to keep them from killing innocents," she said. "We must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible."

And remember: the 1600 Crew is so honest and forthcoming about everything it's OKeyBeDokey to just "trust them" on this, and all the Terra™ attacks they've prevented, because they were so right about the WMD's in Iraq.

Fuckers.

OK, fuck the political correctness. In our name, our Slightly Retarded Preznit has been allowing, even personally encouraging "renditions" to happen In Our Name. This is horrifying. This is the story of one man who was mistakenly captured by the CIA and had his life destroyed. Apparently our score-keeping Retard-in-Chief has made a few other mistakes.

Coats informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public.
...
The CIA inspector general is investigating a growing number of what it calls "erroneous renditions," according to several former and current intelligence officials.

One official said about three dozen names fall in that category; others believe it is fewer. The list includes several people whose identities were offered by al Qaeda figures during CIA interrogations, officials said. One turned out to be an innocent college professor who had given the al Qaeda member a bad grade, one official said.
...
Masri was held for five months largely because the head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center's al Qaeda unit "believed he was someone else," one former CIA official said. "She didn't really know. She just had a hunch."
...
Members of the Rendition Group follow a simple but standard procedure: Dressed head to toe in black, including masks, they blindfold and cut the clothes off their new captives, then administer an enema and sleeping drugs. They outfit detainees in a diaper and jumpsuit for what can be a day-long trip. Their destinations: either a detention facility operated by cooperative countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, or one of the CIA's own covert prisons -- referred to in classified documents as "black sites," which at various times have been operated in eight countries, including several in Eastern Europe.

In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the CTC was the place to be for CIA officers wanting in on the fight. The staff ballooned from 300 to 1,200 nearly overnight.

"It was the Camelot of counterterrorism," a former counterterrorism official said. "We didn't have to mess with others -- and it was fun."

Thousands of tips and allegations about potential threats poured in after the attacks. Stung by the failure to detect the plot, CIA officers passed along every tidbit. The process of vetting and evaluating information suffered greatly, former and current intelligence officials said. "Whatever quality control mechanisms were in play on September 10th were eliminated on September 11th," a former senior intelligence official said.
...
Others criticized Black's CTC for embracing a "Hollywood model" of operations, as one former longtime CIA veteran called it, eschewing the hard work of recruiting agents and penetrating terrorist networks. Instead, the new approach was similar to the flashier paramilitary operations that had worked so well in Afghanistan, and played well at the White House, where the president was keeping a scorecard of captured or killed terrorists.my em

Khaled Masri came to the attention of Macedonian authorities on New Year's Eve 2003. Masri, an unemployed father of five living in Ulm, Germany, said he had gone by bus to Macedonia to blow off steam after a spat with his wife. He was taken off a bus at the Tabanovce border crossing by police because his name was similar to that of an associate of a 9/11 hijacker. The police drove him to Skopje, the capital, and put him in a motel room with darkened windows, he said in a recent telephone interview from Germany.
...
"The Skopje station really wanted a scalp because everyone wanted a part of the game," a CIA officer said. Because the European Division chief at headquarters was also on vacation, the deputy dealt directly with the CTC and the head of its al Qaeda unit.

The director of the al Qaeda unit supported that approach. She insisted he was probably a terrorist, and should be imprisoned and interrogated immediately.

Others were doubtful. They wanted to wait to see whether the passport was proved fraudulent. Beyond that, there was no evidence Masri was not who he claimed to be -- a German citizen of Arab descent traveling after a disagreement with his wife.

The unit's director won the argument. She ordered Masri captured and flown to a CIA prison in Afghanistan.
...
Masri was guarded during the day by Afghans, he said. At night, men who sounded as if they spoke American-accented English showed up for the interrogation. Sometimes a man he believed was a doctor in a mask came to take photos, draw blood and collect a urine sample.

Back at the CTC, Masri's passport was given to the Office of Technical Services to analyze. By March, OTS had concluded the passport was genuine. The CIA had imprisoned the wrong man.

On the day of his release, the prison's director, who Masri believed was an American, told Masri that he had been held because he "had a suspicious name," Masri said in an interview.

Several intelligence and diplomatic officials said Macedonia did not want the CIA to bring Masri back inside the country, so the agency arranged for him to be flown to Albania. Masri said he was taken to a narrow country road at dusk. When they let him off, "They asked me not to look back when I started walking," Masri said. "I was afraid they would shoot me in the back."
...
Masri can find few words to explain his ordeal. "I have very bad feelings" about the United States, he said. "I think it's just like in the Arab countries: arresting people, treating them inhumanly and less than that, and with no rights and no laws."

The normal channels and procedures that the CIA has used for all the years of the Cold War were tossed out the window with the events of 9/11 because the fear-mongering and jingoism ruled the day. The tragic consequences of having a severly brain-damaged retard at the helm of the republic will play out for many more years than need be because of stupid shit like this.

In a world where reality rules, we've always seen the "strength" and "character" of Preznit Damaged Brain are just a sham covering for his intellectual dishonesty, personal cowardice and true lack of character or allegiance to anything other than the trappings of power accorded him by his sycophantic followers and the opportunists interested making money at the expense of our National Pride, Integrity and Security.

IN OUR NAME.

Protect Democracy from the right-wing hacks who want to steal every election for the next millenium. Go sign Rush Holt's petition.

What else do you have to do on a Sunday besides rake leaves and Save the Republic?

So how do you go from being the "Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave"? Well, take one part nanny-state politics, one part fear-mongering adminstrations and one part just general laziness and look what you get:

Citing a "real and substantial" threat of a terrorist bombing in New York's subways, a federal judge ruled yesterday that random police searches of passengers' bags and backpacks were constitutional because they were effective in helping to prevent an attack.

Rejecting a challenge to the searches by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan found that the incursion on subway passengers' privacy was minimal enough to be justified by the deterrent effect on potential terrorists.

So much of the "Home of the Brave", eh? Maybe it needs to be changed to the "Home of the relatively insecure and perpetually terrified", but that's hard to work into a National Anthem, no matter how true it is, I guess.

As for the "Land of the Free" part, hell the 1600 Crew has three more years to take care of that part.

Yeah, really. Scalito is getting to the point where he can't ever lie convincingly anymore. He lied to the senate when he was confirmed as a federal judge about the Vanguard issues, and now he's trying to get everyone to believe his words of 20 years ago were all to suck up for a promotion. Like he's trying to get now ... so, was he lying then, or is he lying now?

Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. yesterday tried to tamp down criticisms of several past statements -- including his assertion that the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion -- by saying they were personal views or an advocate's work and not necessarily indications of how he might rule if confirmed, according to a key senator who quizzed him for more than an hour.

Alito's effort to distance himself from the recently disclosed 1985 documents came as liberal groups said the writings show him to be much more conservative than the newly confirmed chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr. Alito's explanation was meant to lessen the documents' impact, but it may expose him to accusations of insincerity or irresolution, advocates said.

Oh, but now we have features of coming attractions...

Several conservative groups, meanwhile, plan a major push beginning Monday to portray Alito's opponents as anti-God. Talking points for the effort, which will involve ads and grass-roots organizations, were laid out in a strategy memo by Grassfire.org, which opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. Alito's opponents are united by "an agenda to purge any and all references to religion from our public life," the memo says.

The coalition, which includes the Judicial Confirmation Network, plans to send 2.3 million e-mails on the subject and hopes to "flood Senate offices with letters, faxes and phone calls." It will be joined in the effort by Fidelis, a Roman Catholic organization that describes itself as "pro-life, pro-family and pro-religious liberty."

Interesting article about how Murtha's position is playing in his district, the folks who will ultimately send him back for his 18th term. Seems that his predilection for "bringing home the bacon" influences his constituents opinions. A lot. But Murtha's stature as a vet and respected congressman don't hurt. If the 1600 Crew are planning to try and Swiftboat Murtha, they're not going to get the John Kerry no-fight response.

For many who no longer support the war - and all those who never did - Murtha's call for a new direction fits their own conviction that the war is past winning. Others see such talk as a betrayal of patriotism comparable to the backlash against the Vietnam War.
...
"I've been going through this Iraq thing," he told locals at Latrobe. "We missed a window of opportunity.... We have to change direction, and that's going to happen. However [Bush administration officials] try to phrase it, it's going to happen. But I hope they listen to me, because less people will be killed."

It's a message that sets off strong - and mixed - views among his constituents, many of whom have ties to men and women serving in Iraq.

"I feel great about what he said," says Don Carns, a construction worker dropping in for lunch at the Byers-Tosh Post of the American Legion in Ligonier, Pa. "Bring the kids back. It's a millionaire's war, and the poor people suffer."

But combat veteran Chris Williams, in Johns-town, worries that Murtha's call for a pullout will demoralize Americans in Iraq and undermine a war effort that the US can't afford to lose. "It's a shame people are dying. I'm a Vietnam veteran, and it was a shame people had to die there, too. But it's the right thing," he says. "These people are free."

In historical terms, Murtha's stand on the Iraq war could prove to be as important as the late Sen. J. William Fulbright's turn against the Vietnam War in 1966. That move jump-started congressional opposition to the war.

"Fulbright was the senator who literally pushed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution through the Senate for Lyndon Johnson, then turned against the war," says Julian Zelizer, a congressional historian at Boston University. "With Murtha, it's the drama of a hawk's hawk saying, 'It's not working.' It's very powerful. That's why it's so hard for the administration to stop it."

It's going to be interesting to see how Murtha plays out, and how much support he gets from the Democratic leadership. Right now it's looking pretty strong, and that might begin to drive some of the "cut the baby in half" Dems to finally shit or get off the pot and start talking up Murtha's suggestions. Especially those triangulators who are ginning up "committees", if you know what I mean.

1. Happy New Year
   
2. Delay's Delays
   
3. The Lying Fuck Brigade (aka The 1600 Crew) Strikes again
   
4. I know why the soon-to-be-Caged Bird Sings
   
5. FYI
   
6. Simply Frightening
   
7. Remembered? As a Dipshit...
   
8. His Crystal Balls
   
9. They hate our soldiers, part MCMLXVII
   
10. They just Lie. And Lie again