The 1600 Crew, never a group to miss the opportunity to put Politics ahead of Policy went to the mat to give Preznit Utterly Corrupt a campaign talking-point on his "Medicare Reform", has demonstrated how much they are in the pockets of their biggest contributors with their "reform". They have managed to fuck over a whole generation of Americans, "fixing" a problem by destroying an institution. Gee, this makes reforming FEMA look like a relative success.

On the seventh day of the new Medicare drug benefit, Stephen Starnes began hearing voices again, ominous voices, and he started to beg for the medications he had been taking for 10 years. But his pharmacy could not get approval from his Medicare drug plan, so Mr. Starnes was admitted to a hospital here for treatment of paranoid schizophrenia.
...
Most of the residents are on Medicare, because they have disabilities, and Medicaid, because they have low incomes. Before Jan. 1, the state's Medicaid program covered their drugs at no charge. Since then, the residents have been covered by a private insurance company under contract to Medicare.

For the first time, residents of Dayspring Village found this month that they were being charged co-payments for their drugs, typically $3 for each prescription. The residents take an average of eight or nine drugs, so the co-payments can take a large share of their cash allowance, which is $54 a month.
...
Douglas D. Adkins, executive director of Dayspring Village, said: "Some of the pharmacists have been saying, 'No pills unless we get a co-payment.' Well, how are these people going to get the money for a co-payment? They don't have it."

But, it's OK, because they get to practice what the feel is their "god-given" right (and we all know that they believe in god, since the never, ever fail to mention it, right?), pissing on the heads of their fellow Americans not as fortunate as themselves. While they repeat to themselves, "It's OK If You Are A Republican" so they can sleep well at night.

I'm guessing that the next group to be "excluded" from the pre-staged, taxpayer-funded "Pleasantville Town Hall Meetings" of Beloved Leader will be anyone who looks like a Senior Citizen eligible for Medicare benefits. Or would I be wrong?

My buddy, Jeff Huber over at Pen and Sword has been following and investigating the defective armour scandal closely. You need to read his coverage if you haven't already. It's worth a minute or two of your day.

I guess when it's a by-invitation-only canned happy-talk "townhall meeting/photo-op", the journalists (or whatever they call themselves these days) have to report things like this and ask no meaningful kwesschunz:

The Senate may be the place for some former first ladies, but
President Bush on Thursday categorically ruled out a run for office by his wife,
Laura Bush.

"She's not interested in running for office. She's interested in literacy," Bush said during an appearance at JK Moving & Storage.

With an influence-peddling scandal swirling around Washington, Bush also said he expects elected officials to comply with the law and be open to scrutiny.

"In Washington, D.C., there needs to be high standards for the conduct of public officials," he said after a man asked him about tax fraud.

I'm sure Unka Karl wet himself laughing when Preznit Perpetual Prevaricator managed to get that line out with a straight face.

I wonder how he's gonna answer at the impeachment hearing?

This is all we need, another moron who is beholden to the christofascists for everything...

Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) is nearing a decision with major implications for the 2008 presidential primaries.

The WaPo:

As of 4:15pm ET today, we have shut off comments on this blog indefinitely.

At its inception, the purpose of this blog was to open a dialogue about this site, the events of the day, the journalism of The Washington Post Company and other related issues. Among the things that we knew would be part of that discussion would be the news and opinion coming from the pages of The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com. We knew a lot of that discussion would be critical in nature. And we were fine with that. Great journalism companies need feedback from readers to stay sharp.

But there are things that we said we would not allow, including personal attacks, the use of profanity and hate speech. Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we've decided not to allow comments for the time being. It's a shame that it's come to this. Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it's a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about.

We're not giving up on the concept of having a healthy public dialogue with our readers, but this experience shows that we need to think more carefully about how we do it. Any thoughtful feedback on that (or any other issue) is welcome, and you can send it to executive.editor@washingtonpost.com.

Thanks,
Jim Brady
Executive Editor, washingtonpost.com

Thin Skin? Why yes.

Note: to all meanie commenters, this might not have happened if you had used this. Deborah said so.

When Preznit Eternal FUBAR is not out selling programs that are just downright disasterous (Medicare comes to mind), or just in general behaving like the incurious jackass that he is, he's trying to get into your bedroom, the Supreme Court be damned. He is, after all, the Cockwatching Commissar...

The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.
...
The government contends it needs the data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches as part of an effort to revive an Internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.

What anyone googles is no ones business but their own. Beloved Leader is not going to be satisfied until everyone who is not his "base" has nothing left but paying taxes and dying. Preferably in the service of the State. Victory Gin at your funeral: optional, but expensive.

Kicking these motherfuckers out: Priceless.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every internet user would, just to make the 1600 Crew's life a living hell, google "hot sex" once every day. No need to follow the links, just do the search. Methinks that would skew the results a bit...not to mention rendering any "searches" meaningless.

California finally got around to executing its oldest inmate. A not-so-savory guy, who ordered a "hit" on a teenage girl. But he was in prison for so long that he developed all kinds of health issues while there...and he was executed last night. Which is really not a story, as executions have become so commonplace, it takes something noteworthy for them to get any wide-spread media attention. Something like this:

Having suffered a heart attack in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor.

"We would resuscitate him," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon, then execute him.

Resuscitate to Execute. Because anything less than a full pound of flesh is cheating.

Well, sitting on economic tenterhook here in the US, with record federal deficits and a weak economy, it will be worth watching this:

A stampede of sellers forced an early close of the world's second-biggest stock exchange Wednesday, with investors panicking over a mounting financial scandal that could affect the financial gains made during Japan's economic comeback.

The alarm spread after a series of government raids began Monday on the offices of Takafumi Horie, the 33-year old billionaire president of Internet and corporate investment firm Livedoor Co. and whose golden touch may have been the product of Enron-like cooked books. ...
...
Some analysts feared a domino effect of falling stocks if investigators find that other sizzling Japanese investment companies and start-ups had been engaging in similar activities.
...
Known affectionately nationwide as Horiemon -- a fusion of his last name with Doraemon, the beloved Japanese cartoon cat famous for his ability to pull anything out a pouch -- the pudgy entrepreneur became a leading figure in the reelection campaign and reform crusade of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Horie's pizzazz planted a seed in Japan, nurturing a new crop of young and brash business start-ups that helped revitalize the economy.

An just as the Enron trial is about to single-up all lines and get underway.

Some things are just so obvious, that writing about them makes me feel like the guy managing the Department of Redundancy Department.

The Bush administration's attempts to defend inhumane interrogation methods and seek exemptions from planned anti-torture legislation compromised campaigns for human rights around the world in 2005, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

It said those practices by U.S. allies -- combined with the European Union's practice of subordinating human rights to trade in its relationships with many rights offenders -- left a "global leadership void" in defending human rights.

"Sadly, Russia and China were all too happy to fill that void by building economic, political, and military alliances without regard to the human rights practices of their partners." the report said.

The new motto for the 1600 Crew: "Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory". Preznit Constitutional Crackpot went around talking about how the republican-led (remember how they kept the floor vote open past in violation of House rules to pass it) Medicare legislation would make everything sweetness and light for our nations seniors. Even if he had to threaten and fire a few actuaries who told the truth, by the Hairy Thunderer this was some plan!!! Especially since it made big bucks for Big Pharma, deep-pocket contributors to the RNC and Bunnypants '04.

With tens of thousands of people unable to get medicines promised by Medicare, the Bush administration has told insurers that they must provide a 30-day supply of any drug that a beneficiary was previously taking, and it said that poor people must not be charged more than $5 for a covered drug.
...
The handling of the drug benefit threatens to become a political liability for Republicans, as older voters and people with disabilities complain that they have been denied essential medications.

• Appoint unqualified crony's and contributors to responsible government jobs? Check
• Make sure that corporate contributors get to make the rules for their industries? Check
• Play politics with absolutely everything? Check
• Violate the law and have Congress look the other way? Check

Don't you feel safer now? Oh, and do those people that Preznit Silver Spoon calls his base, do the worry about not being able to find the money to get their prescriptions? Magic 8-ball sez: Not fucking likely.

I really thought Dianne Feinstein was smarter than this...can we get Barbara Boxer to go slap some sense into her colleague?

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee member, said she hopes not to see a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Speaking on CBS` 'Face the Nation,' Feinstein said Sunday she intends to vote against Alito`s nomination, but saw no need for a Democratic filibuster.

'When it comes to filibustering a Supreme Court appointment, you really have to have something out there, whether it`s gross moral turpitude or something that comes to the surface,' she said. 'This is a man I might disagree with, (but) that doesn`t mean he shouldn`t be on the court.'

Especially when facilitated by Democratic Quislings.

Gotta wonder here: Specter is making interesting noises at a funny time about the NSA scandal. He's ostensibly a pro-choice republican, who seems to be following the party-line on Strip Search Sammy, but is also making noises like he's not too happy about the 1600 Crew's legal pretzel logic...

A key Republican senator says he's dubious about the White House's need to bypass domestic spying laws and would seek impeachment if the administration broke the law.

The White House has defended the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program since it was revealed last month, citing President Bush's "inherent" constitutional powers and Congress' authorization to use force against Iraq.
...
But Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is holding hearings on the surveillance program next month, said Sunday he's skeptical there's a good argument to change the law to allow warrantless eavesdropping.

"I'm prepared to listen, but I'd be very dubious," Specter said on ABC's "This Week."

Specter also said that although the question of impeachment had not yet arisen for him, he would pursue it if he believes Bush broke the law.

It's pretty obvious to the casual observer that Preznit Dickheaded Dictator might have suborned a few statutes on his way to building his perfect police-state. I don't know why ex-prosecutor Arlen is even hestitating over that. The sad part is that since there was no oral sex involved on White House property anyhow (that we know of), the Traditional Media have no sense of outrage; nor do the highly moralistic blowjob-centric Christo-Fascists (see: Baptists in BlowjobLand).

I'd make some remark about domestic wiretapping being a bigger stretch than RoseMary Woods and her favorite tape recorder, but that would just be a cheap shot and we don't do those here.

Yeah, all this "pressure" for behaving like a choir-boy.

Yielding to intense Republican pressure, Rep. Bob Ney yesterday said that he would temporarily give up his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee.

Ney, who is under investigation by federal prosecutors because of his links to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, said in a statement that "it has become clear to me in recent days that the false allegations made against me have become a distraction" to House Republicans and to his committee, which provides lawmakers with office space, equipment and parking.
...
Ney vowed "to continue working as hard as possible on behalf of my district and my constituents. It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the people of 18 th District for the last 10 years and I have been gratified by the tremendous support that I have received from so many of my constituents in recent months."

In fact, it might would be interesting if someone like MoveOn did a simple direct mail piece to Ney's constituents with pictures of some of the luxury resorts that Ney has enjoyed on their behalf courtesy of Jacky-Boy...it might make them wonder how un-bought he really is....just a thought.

1. When a "D" begets an "F"
   
2. Read this...
   
3. J-Skool wuz gud too them
   
4. Oh No!
   
5. Waaaah!
   
6. The Nanny State
   
7. Twisted
   
8. Bad Karma Wednesday?
   
9. Duh
   
10. Same old story...