Mega-fraudster and leading republican light Tom "Coin-Toss" Noe pled guilty to federal charges today in Ohio. Yessssss, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.

A coin dealer and prominent GOP fundraiser at the center of an Ohio political scandal pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges he illegally funneled about $45,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign.

Tom Noe, once a powerful political figure who also raised money for Ohio Republicans, still is charged with embezzlement in an ill-fated $50 million coin investment that he managed for the state workers' compensation fund.
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Noe was charged with exceeding federal campaign contribution limits, using others to make the contributions and causing the Bush campaign to submit a false campaign-finance statement.

He said Wednesday that he pleaded guilty to "spare my family and many dear friends" the ordeal of a trial.

Noe still faces those charges about the coin investment scandals, and his impact on Ohio politics might be felt for years.

Oh, and as for the rest of the money that Herr Crook Noe delivered to Beloved Leader as a toll for an Inaugural Ball ticket...

Noe personally contributed more than $105,000 to Republicans during the 2004 campaign, including donations to Bush and Taft.

The Bush-Cheney campaign donated $6,000 it received from Noe and his wife to charity. The rest of the money donated at the 2003 Bush fundraiser remains with the Republican Party.

Well, here's a serprize from the Chickenshit Bedwettin' Prevaricatin' Preznit who said, back during the initial Valerie Plame days:

Bush - September 30, 2003: " And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of. ... I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

So there's no great deal of credibilty when the Deserting Drunken Fratboy makes this statement concerning the events at Haditha:

"I am troubled by the initial news stories," Mr. Bush said. "I am mindful that there is a thorough investigation going on." If laws were broken, the president said, "there will be punishment."

Oh, but wait, it gets better...

"Nobody is more concerned about these allegations than the Marine Corps," he said. "The Marine Corps is full of men and women who are honorable people, who understand the rules of war (my emphasis). And if, in fact, these allegations are true, the Marine Corps will work hard to make sure that that culture, that proud culture, will be reinforced and that those who violated the law, if they did, will be punished."

Because 9/11 changed everything. The morality of the republican party most of all...everything goes if it's in the furtherance of bedwetting and chickenhawkery.

The lives of Iraqi's and our troops are as nothing to them, as long as they can have their pyramid of bodies to swagger up and proclaim their steely-eyed resolutness on, before climbing back into their SUV's and heading to dinner with a lobbyist for the Oil Companies.

Been a long time since we had any Duchess of Dupont material up here, but browsing throught Andrew's new digs at Time I found this touching story written (allegedly) by one of her "correspondants" (remember that for years many of us have alleged that Her Royal Wrongness writes her own "fanmail")...anyhow, the story is from a gay man who helps out two Marines on liberty in New York City. The give-away line is this:

...During our conversation, one of the marines mentioned that his brother, a second lieutenant in the navy, is gay.

I'll say this for the Captain of Self-Admitted Cognitive Dissonance, once an idiot, always an idiot.

How's worshipping that Idiot@1600 going for you these days, Andrew? Same Same, I imagine.

Will Fearless Leader be appointing a "Blue Ribbon" commission on the massacre at Haditha to be chaired by Colin "Me Lie?" Powell?

Don't tell me they haven't thought of it. He did so well the first time around.

During the Vietnam War, Powell, as deputy assistant chief of staff at the Americal (the 23rd Infantry Division) with the rank of Major, was charged with investigating a detailed letter by Tom Glen (a soldier from the 11th Light Infantry Brigade), which backed up rumored allegations of the My Lai massacre. Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I'm going to no parades. I'm going to no sales. I'm not partaking in any of the nonsense that the Media seems to feel is requisite with "Memorial Day".

I was a cold-war guy. I never fired a shot in anger, or vertrepped a bomb that got used as a lethal weapon. I spent my days up at Gonzo station, and other exotic locales, playing hide-and-seek with the Russians both in the air, on the surface and undersea.

I'm going to sit out on the back porch and pay tribute to all my friends and squadron-mates who paid with their lives for their keeping our country free and secure back in the days when a good 80% or more of America was obsessed with disco, punk, Pat Benatar, LBO's and MBA's and greenmail.

So this is for you guys. You were all too young, and I remember you all.

Mark, Cappy, Steve, Tommy, Ken, Hal, David. And you too John, I'm gonna go have that beer we never got to have at the club because you were killed on a stupid night over-water training/DLQ flight you didn't need to be on after working 13 hours.

My buddies, I remember them today and every other day.

What do you call an ex-Hiltler Youth who becomes Pope O'Rome and asks this question?

Pope Benedict XVI visited the Auschwitz concentration camp as "a son of the German people" Sunday and asked God why he remained silent during the "unprecedented mass crimes" of the Holocaust.
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"In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"

Benedict said that just as his predecessor, John Paul II visited the camp as a Pole in 1979, he came as "a son of the German people."

So the VA secretary trots off to Capital Hill to 'splain away how the data theft occured (wait for it...)

Officials of the Veterans Affairs Department told angry lawmakers today that an agency employee had been taking home sensitive data for three years before it was stolen from his residence, compromising the records of 26.5 million veterans.

"He said that he routinely took such data home to work on it, and had been doing so since 2003," George J. Opfer, the department's inspector general, told senators, some of whom expressed amazement at how the department has handled the theft.

Apparently some congresscritters are making noises about the VA doing more than just telling us to check our credit reports.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Representative John T. Salazar of Colorado, both Democrats, have introduced a bill that would provide free credit monitoring for veterans affected by the lapse. "This breach should not have happened in the first place, and someone needs to be fired for it," Mr. Kerry said.

Oh, and as for the 1600 Crew HQ holding anyone responsible? Well, it's the same old story...

At the House hearing, Rep. Bob Filner (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., called Nicholson's response unacceptable.

"In the last five years, a host of agencies have reported that the VA has had many problems with information security," he said. "How did the VA react? With indifference."

"You're not taking responsibility for this mismanagement debacle," he said. "The most dramatic thing to take responsibility is to resign."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said Thursday that wasn't going to happen.

"He'll have his opportunity to testify on Capitol Hill today," Snow said of Nicholson. "I'm sure they will have sharp questions for him. But he's not tendering his resignation."

Beloved Leader has "great confidence" in Nicholson...he'll be handed his hat only because he has committed the ultimate sin of embarrassing Preznit 29 Percent while his poll numbers continue to decline. If it weren't for that, he'd continue to be fat, dumb and happy until 20 Jan 2009.

Show of hands, how many of you are in the 26.5 million? Thought so.

Well, golly. It looks like the racist fuck congresscriminals in an effort to change the discussion from corruption and incompetance have succeeded in some part by flogging the bodies of the brown people from the south.

They want a "national database" of US employers and employees to make sure that everyone is legal. They want it, despite the fact that prototypes (beta tests?) have apparently got the same success rate as the strategic defense initiative's missle intereceptors.

A federal database program with a checkered track record could dramatically expand to affect every U.S. employer and worker under provisions of the sweeping immigration legislation being considered by Congress.

The program is intended to keep illegal immigrants from working in the United States and to discourage more from entering, but in nearly a decade of small-scale tests, it has had trouble distinguishing between those who are here legally and those who are not. Fixing it and rolling it out nationwide could cost more than $1 billion.

Meanwhile, to combat the inevitable delays look for "Tex" Sensenbrenner to roll out the National ID program.

Welcome to the Soviet Union, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood republican party. Comrade.

The bloom is off the rose, John. The end came after your staffer decided to take a New School student to task in your name, insulting her, her character and her passion. Sorry, you're done. Oh, and it's nice that you're give back the money from the Wyly Brothers...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) returned $20,000 in campaign contributions from two prominent Texas businessmen after staff members for his political action committee discovered that there was an investigation into one of their companies.

The donations were made to Straight Talk America -- McCain's leadership political action committee -- by Sam and Charles Wyly, billionaire brothers who have been major players in Republican fundraising for years. Each cut a $5,000 check to Straight Talk, as did Sam's wife, Cheryl, and Charles's son, Charles III.

The presidential campaign manager for Sen. John McCain filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Monday alleging that a recent anti-McCain ad paid for by the seemingly spontaneously created Republicans for Clean Air Committee -- organized and paid for by a number of allies of Texas Gov. George W. Bush -- is in violation of federal laws.

The ad, launched last week in swing areas of New York, Ohio, California and Vermont, touted Bush as an environmentalist and accused McCain of being a polluter, a charge disputed by environmental organizations like the Sierra Club. The ad -- and at least a $2.5 million ad buy -- is being paid for by Sam and Charles Wyly, who together have given more than $210,000 to Bush's past two gubernatorial campaigns.
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Hughes also charged that "the media should be ashamed for playing along with" the McCain campaign's charges, providing unbalanced coverage of the Wyly brothers' ad and the ensuing controversy. Although the Bush campaign has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the ads, Hughes says, "If you read the [press] reports over the last two days, it's sort of a wink and a nod, like 'Sure they did.'"

Davis said that the charge filed with the FCC was just against the Wyly brothers for an alleged "violation of the disclaimer law." Since Republicans for Clean Air is not a real organization, Davis said, the ad should say "paid for and authorized by Sam and Charles Wyly," Davis said.

The more serious charge, filed with the FEC, claims the Bush campaign "coordinated expenditures," a serious violation of federal law. Since Charles Wyly is a "Pioneer" -- the Bush fund-raisers charged with raising more than $100,000 apiece for the governor's campaign -- he falls into one of two categories in relation to the Bush for President campaign, Davis said.

Republicans, nice to look at, but don't feed them please, they'll just multiply.

Jeebus, it doesn't get much more obvious than this. Jack Cafferty nailed it when he said that once again there is a double standard for CongressCriminals in everything from healthcare to parking spaces, and now how their "privacy" is treated. So, the fucking FBI goes and takes some documents with warrants before evidence can be destroyed. And the congressional buttheads whine. Hey, shitheads, you just handed police-state powers to an mentally defective juvenile who sits in the people's house over the last 5.5 years. Good Morning, how do you like the police state so far?

In a rare bipartisan action, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi demanded yesterday that the Justice Department immediately return documents that were seized when federal agents raided the office of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) as part of a bribery probe.

Noting that "no person is above the law, neither the one being investigated nor those conducting the investigation," Hastert (R-Ill.) and Pelosi (D-Calif.) asserted that the Justice Department must cease reviewing the documents and ensure that their contents are not divulged. Once the papers are returned, "Congressman Jefferson can and should fully cooperate with the Justice Department's efforts, consistent with his constitutional rights," the statement said.

Hey, Denny and Nancy: Fuck You. Together.

Shit, it seems that Preznit Barely Literate might be the actual missing link after all...

Researchers taping calls of the putty-nosed monkey in the forests of Nigeria may have come a small step closer to understanding the origins of human language.
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Language is a surprising faculty because it seems to pop up almost out of nowhere in the human lineage, instead of evolving in steady stages.

Researchers studying monkeys and apes have learned that they possess all the basic apparatus needed to make and analyze sounds. But the nonhuman primates did not seem to possess either of the two combinatorial features of language, those of combining discrete sounds into compound words, and of stringing words together under rules of syntax.
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"Because there is no evidence that the calls are words or even wordlike, the connection to language is tenuous." he said.

Abu Gonzales™ is threatening journalists from the NY Times, trying for the double-play of intimidating both the press and those in the government who leak info to them.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales raised the possibility yesterday that New York Times journalists could be prosecuted for publishing classified information based on the outcome of the criminal investigation underway into leaks to the Times of data about the National Security Agency's surveillance of terrorist-related calls between the United States and abroad.
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Yesterday, Gonzales said, "I understand very much the role that the press plays in our society, the protection under the First Amendment we want to promote and respect . . . but it can't be the case that that right trumps over the right that Americans would like to see, the ability of the federal government to go after criminal activity."

My guess? The real reason that the 1600 Crew wants to arrest and try journalists is to save themselves any embarrassing moments, and I am sure that there are a lot of them. After all, we know that they don't give a rat's-ass about "National Security", unless it's as a campaign issue.

I doubt that unless they do the trials in secret, any journalist would be convicted...this is purely a measure designed to intimidate the press and the whistleblowers. Again, history will judge these motherfuckers for what they are: con men and low-lifes.

To all my brethren, on either side of the ideological divide, this is pretty bad news.

Personal data, including Social Security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans, was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee this month after he took the information home without authorization, the department said Monday.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said there was no evidence so far that the burglars who struck the employee's home have used the personal data _ or even know they have it. The employee, a data analyst whom Nicholson would not identify, has been placed on leave pending a review.

The VA needs to pay for every veteran to have unlimited lifetime "credit/fraud insurance", because those SSN's are prime territory for sale to the credit-scam artists. 26+ million of them means a smart burgular retires today. The VA also needs to get with the DoJ and Social Security Administration to change the SSN's of all of us. Like now, because we are all Pwn3d. For life.

I'm sure that well all get solicitiations from the major credit bureaus and other assorted scum-suckers for "protection", because the 1600 Crew will sell all our data to them to, of course, "help" us.

Uh-huh.

This is the Grey's Anatomy of a Clusterfuck.

As chaos swept Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, the Pentagon began its effort to rebuild the Iraqi police with a mere dozen advisers. Overmatched from the start, one was sent to train a 4,000-officer unit to guard power plants and other utilities. A second to advise 500 commanders in Baghdad. Another to organize a border patrol for the entire country.

And we wonder why there's an "insurgency" in Iraq. Must have been those 1000's of small errors, all on Preznit Hopelessly Fucked's watch.

I always have to wonder about flag officers who make statements like this, and wonder what they are saying privately. I do understand the need to salute and give a "cheery aye-aye"...goes with the job and uniform. But with the recent outspokeness of the retired flag officers about Mess O'Potamia, and some of the criticism they got for not resigning and speaking out about George and Dick's Excellent Adventure.

The commander of the National Guard pledged yesterday that 6,000 troops will be trained and ready to carry out President Bush's order to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border starting next month, but the narrowness of their mission and long-standing doubts about U.S. enforcement efforts shadowed Bush's call to "gain full control of the border."
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The deployment of up to 6,000 troops is expected to begin in June and could extend into a second year with a smaller force of about 3,000, said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. They will be replaced as more Border Patrol officers are hired and trained.

McHale said the military force will consist mainly of National Guard troops from California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico who will rotate to the border for three-week tours in lieu of their annual 15-day field training.

These men and women will be facing issues that I wonder how well they wil be prepared for. The last time we saw woefully-unprepared Guard troops put in position of authority over detainees and too-little supervision we got Abu Ghraib. Not to say that would happen again, but it seems that the 1600 Crew is setting up the situation again, all to get a photo-op and a hopeful poll-bounce.

I wonder how this will affect the Guard in the long-term, I wonder how this policy will do more than provide an opportunity for the deserting frat-boy to put on a uniform and prance around the Rio Grande on his way to another vacation on his "ranch". I wonder how the Commander of the Guard will reconcile his conscience knowing that he might have helped to undermine the organization he loves and has dedicated his life to, by not speaking up if that's the right thing to do now.

Because I can never read things like this too often...

Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.

Dissatisfaction with the administration's policies in Iraq has overwhelmed other issues as the source of problems for President Bush and the Republicans. The survey suggests that pessimism about the direction of the country -- 69 percent said the nation is now off track -- and disaffection with Republicans have dramatically improved Democrats' chances to make gains in November.

Howard Dean's 50-state strategy is our answer to the republican's bigot-pandering racist-coded Southern Strategy. It truly emphasizes our inclusiveness and willingness to give voice the small and the large and the weak and strong.

We need to campaign like republicans, quietly paying attention to the details and govern like Democrats as representatives of all Americans not just those whose zip code includes Northern Virigina, DC and Maryland.

We do this right, the permanent republican majority that Tom Delay and his band of whackos dreamed of will be nothing but a bad, repulsive memory. And that's just fine with me.

Preznit aWol is gonna announce that the border-with-brown-folks will be patrolled by the National Guard henceforth. I guess that the good folks in the Guard can stop by the dusty towns of the southern border states to relive their days in Iraq and Afghanistan...like they'll be missing those places, or something?

President Bush tried to ease the worries of his Mexican counterpart yesterday as he prepared for a nationally televised address tonight unveiling a plan to send thousands of National Guard troops to help seal the nation's southern border against illegal immigrants.
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"This is not about militarizing the border," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "The president is looking to do everything he can to secure the border. It's what the American people want, it's what he wants to do."
...
"We've got to secure our borders," Frist said on CNN's "Late Edition." "We hear from the American people. We've got millions of people coming across that border. First and foremost, secure the border, whatever it takes. Everything else we've done has failed, we've got to face that."

Some in the president's conservative base called on him to be even more aggressive. Rep. Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (R-Ga.) said Bush should send 36,000 National Guard troops and eventually up to 48,000, drawn from around the nation. "If President Bush signed that order Monday night, our border would be secure for the first time in decades by Memorial Day at the latest," Norwood said in a statement. "Mr. Fox and [the National Council of] La Raza wouldn't like it -- but the American people sure would."

The saddest part of this is that had Beloved Leader ever been tasked with 5% of the things that the average soldier in the National Guard is tasked with under his administration, he'd have probably deserted. Oh, wait. He did, and he was never even asked to leave Houston, except to go off and learn to fly jets at the taxpayers expense, after lying about wanting to do it "for the rest of his life".

Bravo Zulu to the men and women of the National Guard who will once again be asked to pick up the slack of the slackers in the republican party. Hey, maybe now that they won't think they'll have to deploy to a war zone, the Yeller Elephant College republicans will enlist and fight their "war of ideas". Nah never happen, once a Chickenshit, always a chickenshit.

A: When they say they're not. This is so unbelievable...I guess that John Walker Lindh ought to be getting his pardon from Preznit Build'n A. Dynasty any day now...

Here's a news flash for Americans: Remember that country we invaded right after 9/11? You know: The one that actually had a connection to terrorists. It turns out that the Bush Administration now says that the Taliban are not terrorists.
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s the Christian Science Monitor reports: "When the US State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Terrorism ..., it listed numerous state-sponsors of terrorism, like Iran, and groups it considers foreign terrorist organizations, like Hamas, Al Qaeda, and Hizbullah. Conspiciously absent from the lists, however, was the Taliban.
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He says a political motive is behind this double standard. In order to gain a broad base of support, Afghan President Karzai has reached out to Pashtuns, many of whom were members of the Taliban. 'You can't call them 'terrorists' and at the same time reconcile with them,' Tarzi says."

More fiscal irresponsibility from the Congress Criminals.

The House of Representatives approved a $69 billion bill to extend President Bush's tax cuts for two more years this afternoon, sending the measure to the Senate, where passage is expected by Thursday.

The House vote was 244 to 185, with nearly all Republicans voting in favor. Although most Democrats voted no, more than a dozen voted in favor. The measure also temporarily blocks a big jump in the alternative minimum tax.
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Those tax cuts on dividends and capital gains were the heart of Mr. Bush's 2003 tax-cutting package, and Republicans had credited them with spurring a rebound in investment and economic growth in the past three years. They also had enormous support from business groups and Wall Street.

Democrats and some Senate Republicans opposed extending them this year, arguing that the dividend tax cuts would not expire until 2009 and would primarily benefit the top 10 percent of income-earners.

The investors and businesses who are going to benefit from this could give a flying fuck about the cost of a gallon of gas. Not true of the rest of America...maybe the Democrats need to frame this in terms of the cost of a gallon of gasoline. I suspect that no tax cuts for rich folks would get passed by anyone Democrat or republican if it were presented in that context.

Tax cuts have been a great tool for the credit-card conservatives, but now the bills are coming due and their solution is just continued borrowing for as long as possible. That should be November, 2006. No Kidding.

This has to make the racist republicans just soil their panties...

The same coalition of labor leaders, Latino activists, Catholic priests and radio deejays responsible for massive pro-immigrant demonstrations in Los Angeles described a new coordinated campaign on Tuesday that they hope will register 1 million new voters before the November elections.

Under the umbrella of the newly formed We Are America Alliance, organizers will make similar announcements in New York, Chicago and other cities, including a news conference in Washington on Wednesday. In Los Angeles, they gave details for the first time of a strategy voiced repeatedly during marches: "Ahora marchamos, mañana votamos" -- Today we march, tomorrow we vote.
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...Activists hope to encourage citizens who usually ignore elections to head to the ballot box, and they will push those who are almost citizens to complete their paperwork.

It's the little things you know? And I do believe that when the little things add up, elections turn on them. It's gonna be fun to watch this...and as a first-generation American Citizen (became naturalized 34 years ago to apply for an NROTC scholarship), I applaud this drive to sign'em up! It's an American thing to do...Vote!!!

And speaking of Cruella de Harris, Evil Queen of the Recount, it looks like the guy that JEB! and Bunnypants wanted to run against her in the Florida Senate primary isn't gonna bite.

Citing both family and business considerations, House Speaker Allan Bense announced Wednesday that he will not challenge U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
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Bense's announcement is sure to be a major letdown to Gov. Jeb Bush and other leading Republicans, who have aggressively been searching for an alternative to Harris.
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A growing number of Republicans are increasingly concerned that Harris' presence at the top of the ticket could depress voter turnout and make things tougher for other GOP candidates on the ticket.

"If she's the Republican candidate, the best we can hope for is that she doesn't bring down the rest of the ticket," said Brian Ballard, a lobbyist and fund-raiser for Attorney General Charlie Crist, a candidate for governor.

You best believe that Bill Nelson won't let them, and that's as it should be.

So, Beloved Leader was in Floridia this morning to diss "Tammy Faye" Harris, Evil Queen of the Recount and pimp Beloved Brother for Preznit. Now kids, that would be a hoot, having JEB! run for Preznit in Ought-8.

President Bush would like to see his brother Jeb run for office again and says he would make "a great president."
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Asked if Jeb should run for president, Bush said, "I think Jeb would be a great president. But it's up to Jeb to make a decision to run."

Hoo-boy, I'd pay to be in the room when it got announced at the RNC that they were supporting JEB! over JOHN!. I'm guessing that the "straight talk" from McCain would have a lot of words that began with "F" in it.

Check it out...

Career appointees at the Department of Agriculture were stunned last week to receive e-mailed instructions that include Bush administration "talking points" -- saying things such as "President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq" -- in every speech they give for the department.

"The President has requested that all members of his cabinet and sub-cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq," the May 2 e-mail from USDA speechwriter Heather Vaughn began.
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Now, you might still be scratching your heads, trying to figure out how this is going to work when people expect a talk about agriculture issues. Not to worry. The attachments -- which can be viewed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/fedpage -- show how easy it is to work a little Iraq happy talk into just about anything.

There's a sample introduction: "Several topics I'd like to talk about today -- Farm Bill, trade with Japan, WTO, avian flu . . . but before I do, let me touch on a subject people always ask about . . . progress in Iraq." See? Smooth as silk.

Do these people ever stop? Apparently, not.

An apology shout-out to the Go-go's for that one...seems that Brazil has just announced that they will be taking their energy independence one step further ... they're opening a do-it-yourself Uranium Enrichment plant and they once planned to build a nuke-q-lar bombe. Yes, they are in the axis o'weevil. And, they can produce energy from sugar, which makes them a target for some sugar company that's paid off a 1600 Crew employee to plan an invasion! Don't you see it, evil right here in our hemisphere. Why, they have that Godless Carnivale every year! Topless Beaches! Sex with comlete strangers! Invasion is the only solution!

Brazil has inaugurated a uranium enrichment center capable of producing nuclear fuel for the South American country's power plants.
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In 2004, the Brazilian government drew attention when it refused unrestricted inspections by the International Atomic Energy Association, arguing that full access to its centrifuges would put it at risk of industrial espionage.
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Brazil's nuclear program began during a 1964-85 military dictatorship, and the ruling generals had secret plans to test an atomic bomb underground in the Amazon jungle.

We have to invade friends, they speak some funny furrin language, they do sexy dancin', worship the Pope O'Rome and have all that non-oil-based energy just lyin' around waiting to be conglomerated by ExxonMobileTexConShellMaraBP.

You know, if say Malta or Sicily were to attack Brazil, well there's always the Monroe Doctrine....yeah, that's it, the Monroe Doctrine to allow us to "defend" Brazil and her sugar and uranium...

Shaw rejects the notion that he is a Bush toady, citing his differences with the administration on Social Security reform. He disagreed with the president's proposal to privatize Social Security using payroll taxes, but instead supports creating personal accounts using general revenue funds, which wouldn't dip into current reserves. Shaw also opposed oil drilling off Florida's coast and criticized Bush's actions on the Dubai ports deal and his proposed budget for cancer research.

Zacharias Moussaui makes Preznit Intellectually Impaired look like a frackin' Rhodes Scholar. And that's a feat that takes some stretching.

Convicted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui says he lied on the witness stand about being involved in the plot and wants to withdraw his guilty plea because he now believes he can get a fair trial.

In a motion filed Friday but released Monday, Moussaoui said he testified March 27 he was supposed to hijack a fifth plane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House "even though I knew that was a complete fabrication."
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Moussaoui's court-appointed lawyers told the court they filed the motion even though a federal rule "prohibits a defendant from withdrawing a guilty plea after imposition of sentence." They did so anyway because of their "problematic relationship with Moussaoui" and the fact that new lawyers have yet to be appointed to replace them.

Well, you never know in about 10 years or so he might be allowed out to discuss existenstalism with Ted Kacsinzsky...there's an image of two folks who will talk over each other's head and have nothing to say... wow.

Since the massive failure of the 1600 Crew at everything, they've looked for everyone under the sun to scapegoat. Congress, Democrats, Republicans who don't support them, CIA officers who disagree, husbands of CIA officers who disagree...you get the picture. So, while the morons on Pennsylvania Ave spent the last six years making an incompetent loser into a "war preznit" they have also managed to destroy the premier intelligence agency, the CIA. The one thing about CIA is that right or wrong, they always kept trying to perform their mission of providing intelligence to decision-makers. I don't think that their hands have always been "clean", certainly there are unsavory things that they have done, but at least the CIA has been accountable to someone, usually Congress ultimately, which has excercised oversight to some extent.

No more. Rumsfeld has begun to use his not-incosiderable sway with Prenzit Marginal IQ to begin to build a rival intelligence apparatus at DoD, which is being built with none of the statutory strictures against minor things like domestic spying and violating Posse Comitatus, which the Whiny Ass Titty Babies may do away with because there might be boogeymen under our beds.

So, what's up with Hayden? Well, with the Rumsfeldian drive to build an unaccountable agency he certainly isn't going to be roadblocked by a guy whose paycheck is signed at DoD, is he? Also, a civilian CIA director can walk into the Oval Office anytime he wants and tell the occupant to fuck off and eat shit. A four-star general can't by law.

Gee, think that would chill discourse?

Not that any other 1600 Crew appointee will be any better because Preznit Incredibly Incompetant is spring-loaded to appoint either a totally-unqualified crony or someone who contributed lots of money to his campaign.

Hayden has no respect for the Constitution, he's already made that perfectly clear, and it seems that even the ass-kissing oversight-free congress is figuring that out. If Hayden is confirmed it will be evidence that the only function congress has is cashing their paychecks and taking vacations.

Oh, and looking for another JACKabramOFF-like sugar-daddy to hire them post-election.

[/RANT]

No wonder most of the civilized world is convinced that we have a boob and a charlatan in the two highest elected offices in this country. Darth Cheney, Sith Lord of the Old EOB:

Vice President Dick Cheney had some tough words for Russia during his current tour of Lithuania. Cheney said Vladimir Putin's Russia is restricting the rights of its citizens and proclaimed that "no legitimate interest is served" by turning energy resources into implements of blackmail.
...
"And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements."

And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor

rrrrralph.

The right, whose other motto besides "Saddam Bad" is "All your Uterii (plural for uterus?) Belong to US!" may have a little problem with this:

Poor women are getting pregnant unintentionally at considerably higher rates now than in the mid-1990s, and they are giving birth to many more unplanned children and having more abortions.

In contrast, the rate of unplanned pregnancies and resulting abortions for more affluent women declined substantially during the same eight-year period, according to a new study by researchers at the Guttmacher Institute who analyzed federal data.
...
Asked what was driving the trends, the authors noted that some state and federal reproductive health programs have been cut and made more restrictive in recent years, and the decline in contraceptive use could be a result of those changes. Both have increasingly focused on abstinence rather than contraception, and some have argued that switch is also leading to reduced contraceptive use and more unintended pregnancies. Many social conservatives argue, however, that contraceptives all have limitations and that the only way a woman can ensure she will not have an unintended pregnancy is to refrain from sexual intercourse until she is ready to have a child.

I love the phrasing: "...that the only way [a woman] ... is to refrain from sexual intercourse until she is ready to have a child." Because the whole making babies thing is so Asexual/One-sided. Well, it was one time according to them. Jesus Christ, what a bunch of freaking morons.

I guess that they really do believe they hold the deed to all American Women's Uterii, except if they live above the poverty level, and then selectively depending on state of residence.

November can't get here soon enough.

We all know what SwiftBoating is. How about a couple of new words after Stephen Colbert's outstanding performance Saturday night?

Colberting (pronounced: Koal-Bearing) - To have Bullshit called on everything you've ever said. Useage: I am Coberting everything you just said; it's demonstrably false. You don't even need to be fact checked, you're so demonstrably full of shit.

Colberted (pronounced: Koal-Beared) - To have been put down with intuitively obvious truth. Useage: I Colberted him in that debate, he went cryin' home to mamma. You, mothefucker, have been Colberted.

Perhaps they'll become as common as this. A Fish can only hope.

For all the morons, wankers and fuckwits like Richard Cohen, Mary Matalin, Noam Scheiber (and Bean):

But I think that message was just too much for the self-satisfied upper crust of the media elite to handle when Colbert threw it right in their faces on Saturday night.

Here they were, holding a swanky party for themselves, and Colbert was essentially telling them that they've completely screwed up their number one job these past six years. Is it any surprise they were defensive?
...
What Colbert was saying about the guy sitting a few feet away from him -- and I think this is what made so many people in that room uncomfortable -- was: Don't believe a word he says.

You know, statements like this really are inquisition-enabling. When someone in Preznit Coke-Line Epiphany starts talking about how the nation is one that is primarily a bunch of prayin' fools, and then has the unmitigated gall to start locking up US Citizens with no recourse to the courts, how long until he starts channeling Torquemada?

President Bush said Thursday that America's history is inexorably tied to prayer.

"America is a nation of prayer. It's impossible to tell the story of our nation without telling the story of people who pray," Bush said during a White House celebration of the National Day of Prayer. "At decisive moments in our history and in quiet times around family tables, we are a people humbled and strengthened and blessed by prayer."
...
"We are a people united by our love for freedom, even when we differ in our personal beliefs," the president said. "In America, we are free to profess any faith we choose, or no faith at all."

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

...the president thanked those who pray for him, calling it the greatest gift a citizen can offer him.

"In my travels across the great land, a comment that I hear often from our fellow citizens is, `Mr. President, I pray for you and your family.' It's amazing how many times a total stranger walks up and says that to me," Bush said.

February 6,2003 at a "National Prayer Breakfast":

It is fitting that we have a National Prayer Breakfast. It is the right thing to do, because this is a nation of prayer. I know, from firsthand knowledge, that this is a nation of prayer. See, I work the ropelines a lot, and I hear all kinds of things on the ropelines. But the thing I hear the most, the comment I hear the most from our fellow citizens, regardless of their political party or philosophy, is, Mr. President, I pray for you and your family, and so does my family. That's what I hear. I turn to them without hesitation and say, it is the greatest gift you can give anybody, is to pray on their behalf.

Good thing that Colbert didn't get into this area, the uproar would have been monumental. Well, when they get Beloved Leader back on his meds again one day, perhaps he'll become more rational... Not.

The Inquisitions, what a show,
The Inquistions, here we go,
We know you're wishing that we go away
But the Inquisition's here and it's here to
Hey Torquemada, whatta ya say?
I just got back from the auto-da-fe
Auto-de-fe, what's an auto-de-fe*?
It's what you oughten't to do, but you do anyway

It's hard to believe, well no not really hard to believe that Ignatius writes in the Washington Post that John McCain would not "sell his soul" to become President. Yeah, right. What, giving Jerry Falwell a reach-around was what, political foreplay?

Part of McCain's appeal is that he seems to straddle such partisan political calculations. He's the victim of torture who opposes torture, the man caught in the "Keating Five" ethics scandal who insists on reform, the critic of Iraq policy who insists that America must win the war, the conservative who is beloved by moderates. A McCain candidacy, if he makes the formal decision next year to run, will be rooted in his image as a man of principle. But it will also be something of a balancing act -- one that the candidate himself is likely to find uncomfortable.

I never had any illusions about McCain's politics in 2000, but I tried to ensure that he'd be the republican nominee to face Gore a battle that might have had a far different outcome in many ways than what we see from recent history.

McCain did the next worst thing in modern politics to getting caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy: he sucked Jerry Falwell's dick at a time when he needed to look like a moderate republican to Democrats who might have gotten on board with his campaign (not me ever again). He's proven who he wants to lie down with, now he can snuggle up to them and see how far a reach-around will get you in the morning.

Hey, just got an email from our buddy Leonard Clark out in Arizona and he's getting with the program.

Hello Mr. Fish, I'm writing to give you a campaign update from Arizona. This Saturday (May 6th, 2006) is going to be a big day. That day, the State democratic party meeting is going to be held. This meeting will be held at the Pheonix Wyndham hotel. The main meeting will probably not start until late morning but there will be activities held before then. Progressive Democrats of America will be hosting an immigration panel which is open to the public. Some well known communities members will probably be there such as Ben Miranda.

People do not have to be members to attend the meeting. There will be much useful information there. Candidates are not supposed to speak to the whole audience at once but rather will be allowed to man tables at the meeting to meet people. I have contacted the state Democratic party and we will see if they are cooperative (because we know whom they are favoring in the U.S. Senate race. But, one word of caution many people who work in the party at lower levels support our grassroots campaign to win the U.S. Senate for the Clark campaign.)

I'm hoping any of our supporters who are in attendance will help us man our campaign booth because you know that the other guy's 2 million dollars is going to buy him lots of support. I will try to keep you updated on what's going on. By the way, if you or any of your friends can attend this meeting it will be very helpful. I will be there.

Is it a long shot? Yeah, but this may be the year of the Long Shot. No kidding. I suspect that piles o'lobbyist/special interest cash won't be enough (it might even be a detriment if played right) to keep some incumbents in office.

Pass this on, I am.

Interesting stuff. Apparently during WW One Montana had one of the most draconian sedition laws in the US. The governor has issued posthumous pardons for folks convicted and imprisoned under that law.

Seventy-nine Montanans were convicted under the state law, considered among the harshest in the country, for speaking out in ways deemed critical of the United States. In one instance, a traveling wine and brandy salesman was sentenced to 7 to 20 years in prison for calling wartime food regulations a "big joke."
...
The sedition law, which made it a crime to say or publish anything "disloyal, profane, violent, scurrilous, contemptuous or abusive" about the government, soldiers or the American flag, was unanimously passed by the Legislature in February 1918. It expired when the war ended, Mr. Work said.

Hey, I'm only being half-facetious here y'all. Congress passes a bill: There shall be no Sedition Laws anywhere...Beloved Leader attaches a "signing statement" that reads "Like Hell" and off we go, forward into the past!

Poll numbers down? The bulk of America despising your party? Two choices, Wag to Dog and bomb Eye-Ran or dole out some more tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

President Bush and congressional Republicans agreed yesterday on a $70 billion package of tax-cut extensions that they hope will help halt the deterioration of their political fortunes.
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The package would extend the 2003 cuts to the tax rates on dividends and capital gains, continue tax breaks for small-business investment and the overseas operations of financial service companies, and slow the expansion of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel income tax system that was enacted to target the rich but is increasingly snaring the middle class.
...
For the Republicans, the tax cuts may have to substitute for other measures proposed last week to help consumers cope with gasoline prices. ...
...
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday. "Particularly at a time when Americans are paying more at the pump, the president believes the last thing they need is for Washington to take more of their hard-earned dollars out of their pockets."

In 2003, Congress passed a measure to lower the tax rate on most dividends to 15 percent from as high as 38.6 percent and to lower rates on most capital gains from 20 percent to 15 percent. That measure is set to expire in 2008 but would be extended through 2010 under yesterday's agreement, at a cost to the Treasury of $21 billion over five years and an additional $30 billion between 2011 and 2015, according to aides familiar with the deal. The alternative-minimum-tax provision would restrict the reach of the tax for one year, at a cost of $34 billion.

The agreement would also allow small businesses to write off investments worth up to $100,000 for an additional two years, 2008 and 2009, while letting banking, securities and insurance companies defer income tax payments on overseas trading profits for one additional year.

I suspect that $3/gallon and beyond will cook these motherfuckers like gutted trout on a Snake River campfire in November. It's not going to be hard to pull the handle for change when you've just driven to the polls in your car that's running on gasoline sold by a company that makes record profits thanks, in part, to the subsidies you as a taxpayer are giving them courtesy of your soon-to-be-former bought-and-paid-for CongressCriminal.

Yeah baby, a new broom sweeps clean. They continue to mortgage my kid's future? Toss'em out.

Beloved Leader to Congress: You are Fucking Irrelevant, Don't waste my time, I'll ignore you and all your work at my pleasure. Go home, take a junket, talk trash, collect cash for re-election to do my future bidding. You,Congress, are all LESS THAN fucking NOTHING as far as I am concerned, if you don't like it: BITE ME!

Buzz around left blogistan: Preznit Dik Tator is pretty much a de facto dictator, as the talk about signing statements seems to illustrate. Well, the discussion is somewhat academic until you look under the hood. Here are some samples.

Dec. 30: When requested, scientific information ''prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay."

Bush's signing statement: The president can tell researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch.
.
.
.
Dec. 23, 2004: Forbids US troops in Colombia from participating in any combat against rebels, except in cases of self-defense. Caps the number of US troops allowed in Colombia at 800.

Bush's signing statement: Only the president, as commander in chief, can place restrictions on the use of US armed forces, so the executive branch will construe the law ''as advisory in nature."
.
.
.
Aug. 5: The military cannot add to its files any illegally gathered intelligence, including information obtained about Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches.

Bush's signing statement: Only the president, as commander in chief, can tell the military whether or not it can use any specific piece of intelligence.
.
.
.
Nov. 5, 2002: Creates an Institute of Education Sciences whose director may conduct and publish research ''without the approval of the secretary [of education] or any other office of the department."

Bush's signing statement: The president has the power to control the actions of all executive branch officials, so ''the director of the Institute of Education Sciences shall [be] subject to the supervision and direction of the secretary of education."

The republican fuckwits who have stood by and allowed this to happen while they controlled congress...gee, how long would they have stood for this if the Clenis™ been writing signing statements like these on the legislation they passed.

I think it's time someone took these fucks to court over this, if that's possible. Clearly they have crossed separation of powers off the list of things they need to worry about. I have a feeling that if this story gets out and is more widely reported and understood, many Americans will start to wonder about the actual machinations that have been going on in their names, and that may well translate into a sea-change in the Congress in November. We can only hope...

I have to wonder about MBNAJoe Biden and his grasp of reality. His recent op-ed proposing a return to an Ottoman-like partition of Iraq (hey, that's progress returning to pre-WWI boundries, sort of) and leaving troops garrisoned there has to be a recipe for disaster. Biden proposes partitioning Iraq into three provinces and making the capital of Iraq be Baghdad. Gee, I wonder if the dope he's smoking is that good or if he's just that stupid.

In an op-ed essay in Monday's edition of The New York Times, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., wrote that the idea "is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group ... room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests."

The new Iraqi constitution allows for establishment of self-governing regions. ... The Constitution must be amended to guarantee Sunni areas 20 percent (approximately their proportion of the population) of all revenues."
...
Biden and Gelb also wrote that President Bush "must direct the military to design a plan for withdrawing and redeploying our troops from Iraq by 2008 (while providing for a small but effective residual force to combat terrorists and keep the neighbors honest)."

The story of Joe's Fantasy League Iraq closes with this gem talking about force levels in Iraq:

Rumsfeld has rejected criticism that he sent too few U.S. troops to Iraq, saying that Franks and generals who oversaw the campaign’s planning had determined the overall number of troops, and that he and Bush agreed with them. The recommendation of senior military commanders at the time was about 145,000 troops.

This is the media that fantasizes that they accurately report the goings-on in DC. I guess the press release must have come out as they were cleaning up the cocktail weenies and having last call at the open bar. Because you'd have to be fucking stoned to miss the fact that the Army Chief of Staff called Rumsfeld out on that reality-based fact and not report it, or just blithely say "senior commanders recommended 150,000 troops" and mean it.

1. Noe Noe Noe, Guilty? Yes Yes Yes!
   
2. Preznit Fucking Clueless
   
3. Sully the Gullible
   
4. Colin's New Gig?
   
5. Memorial Day
   
6. Irony is dead, part 4,392
   
7. Oh, Great... (part II)
   
8. Because we need a police state, this freedom and liberty thing is overrated
   
9. Mr. (uh-huh) Straight Talk McCain
   
10. The obvious...