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.

1. Another DeLay Baby
   
2. Simply Fucking Amazing
   
3. Newt-erd
   
4. Deny DeLay
   
5. Love Letters
   
6. Idiot
   
7. Reserved
   
8. The N.A.T.
   
9. Mo 'n' Mo Miers, agin.
   
10. Dog. Wag. Tail.