Another great interview at The Talking Dog with another GITMO defense attorney. Drop by and check it out.

Preznit Leak Plugger was apparently making politically motivated leaks to silence Joe Wilson, ensuring that information that was classified something like TS/SCI (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmentalized Information) was used for pure political gain.

President Bush authorized White House official I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to disclose highly sensitive intelligence information to the news media in an attempt to discredit a CIA adviser whose views undermined the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, according to a federal prosecutor's account of Libby's testimony to a grand jury.

But, SCI info is not normally shared and even when it finally hits the public domain years (if it ever does) it's usually so stale and heavily redacted that historians and archivists can only make any sense of it be contextual references to other contemporaneous documents. So, yeah it's a big deal to try to commit character assasination via classified documents. Imagine the manufactured outrage platoons being led by Conveniently Christofacist Tommy-boy Delay if this were committed by the Clenis™. Outrage of biblical proportions, my friends.

To keep it all in perspective, here's my friend Jane Hamsher from FireDogLake:

...Bush constantly reinforces the lie that he must have unlimited powers in order to fight terrorists, but in fact he uses this unchecked authority to fight journalists. ...

But Clinton got a blowjob.

I don't write much about the middle east, i.e Israel and all it's attendant issues, because frankly I'm pretty clueless about a lot of what goes on over there. But this seems to be a pretty interesting (and saavy) move on the part of Hamas.

The Islamic militant group Hamas is ready for a "two-state" solution with Israel, a senior official said Friday, a position that would imply recognition of the Jewish state for the first time.
...
n a published interview Friday, Zahar said his government is prepared to discuss the idea of a settlement with Israel with the Quartet of international Mideast negotiator _ the U.S., European Union, Russia and United Nations.

"Let us speak about what is the meaning of the two-state solution," he told The Times of London. "We will ask them what is their concept concerning the two-state solution."

Interesting development...any bets that the 1600 Crew will come charging out of the gate dead set against it, because someone in Hamas once took a piss in the stall next to some al-Qaeda member?

With Preznt Neverreada Poll's numbers going down faster than meteorite passing through the stratosphere, it's getting fun to smell the flop-sweat of the GOoPer consultants and others as they begin to see how the elections in the fall might shape up.

On an issue the GOP has dominated for decades, Republicans are now locked in a tie with Democrats - 41 percent each - on the question of which party people trust to protect the country. Democrats made their biggest national security gains among young men, according to the AP-Ipsos poll, which had a 3 percentage point margin of error.

The public gives Democrats a slight edge on what party would best handle Iraq, a reversal from Election Day 2004.

"We're in an exceptionally challenging electoral environment," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a former GOP strategist. "We start off on a battlefield today that is tilted in their direction, and that's when you have to use the advantages you have."
...
Bush's approval rating is down 12 points among Republicans since a year ago. Six-in-10 Republicans said they disapproved of the GOP-led Congress.

"I'd just as soon they shut (Congress) down for a few years," said Robert Hirsch, 72, a Republican-leaning voter in Chicago. "All they do is keep passing laws and figuring out ways to spend our money."

Yeah, it's not going to be hard. The national Dems just need to have the stomach for this, oh, and fire every consultant from 2000 and 2004 in the DLC mold. It's time to move back to being Democrats, not republcan-lite.

All over the news today.

Katie Couric, the most successful host in the more than 50-year history of NBC's "Today" show, told her audience of more than 6 million viewers this morning that she will step down from the program and leave NBC when her contract concludes at the end of next month.

Getting nowhere near as much press: the fact that there has been documentation of the fact that Preznit Airhead knowingly lied us into war. Look! Kevin Federline got knocked up by Angelina Jolie and is having her baby with Britney!

A recently announced fossil find brings a closer understanding of the evolution of land animals from creatures of the deep.

Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375-million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land.
...
In the fishes' forward fins, the scientists found evidence of limbs in the making. There are the beginnings of digits, proto-wrists, elbows and shoulders. The fish also had a flat skull resembling a crocodile's, a neck, ribs and other parts that were similar to four-legged land animals known as tetrapods.

Other scientists said that in addition to confirming elements of a major transition in evolution, the fossils were a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who have long argued that the absence of such transitional creatures are a serious weakness in Darwin's theory.

The discovery team called the fossils the most compelling examples yet of an animal that was at the cusp of the fish-tetrapod transition. The fish has been named Tiktaalik roseae, at the suggestion of elders of Canada's Nunavut Territory. Tiktaalik (pronounced tic-TAH-lick) means "large shallow water fish."

Duane T. Gish, a retired official of the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego, said, "This alleged transitional fish will have to be evaluated carefully." But he added that he still found evolution "questionable because paleontologists have yet to discover any transitional fossils between complex invertebrates and fish, and this destroys the whole evolutionary story."

From Powertool AssRocket:

...DeLay was an effective leader, albeit too liberal in recent years. It's possible, of course, that he did something wrong along the way. But there is no evidence of that in the public domain;...

Talk about living on in an opiate-filled delusion...no pain, only tranquility and beautiful music filling the air. The longer I live, the more I'm sure that the Powertools are really an advance guard of Aliens sent here like the ones from ID4. It's the only rational explanation for their ... weirdness.

It would be utterly naive of me to even think that the insurgents in Iraq, of whatever religious or political persuasion would for one minute think that their conduct was covered under any rules of conventional warfare. Partisans in any conflict have rarely held themselves accountable for their actions or actions taken against adversaries captured, but you know, you have to wonder how the chickenhawk repudiation of the Geneva Convention might affect captured US Forces in the Middle East.

A video posted on the Internet Wednesday in the name of an extremist group claimed to show Iraqi insurgents dragging the burning body of a U.S. pilot on the ground after the crash of an Apache helicopter.

The outright abrogation of the Geneva Convention by the 1600 Chickenhawks was another "swaggering moment" for them in their mas macho phase that led the gullible to believe that they stood for National Security, even as they were destroying it both from within by attacks on our Constitution, and from without as they managed to piss off people who were not even mildly annoyed with us.

Now there's talk of "surgical" airstrikes into Iran to "take out" their nuclear capabilities. Yeah, once again their chickenhawk guts, someone else's blood is the Plan of the Day.

I shudder to think what happens when a US aircrew is captured by an adversary who wants to make a North Vietnamese style propaganda show of "war criminal" before summarily executing them, because that Geneva Convention thingy? Why it's just a quaint idea.

I'm liking this guy. Admiral Sestak, you'll be getting some dollars from me and I don't even live in Pennsylvania.

If you haven't seen the piece over at Atrios, give it a read. Is Curt Weldon that stupid, or just that "republican arrogant"? Or both.

The Admiral is the real deal.

The 1600 Crew and it's beloved leader, Preznit Mano-a-Mano have managed to yet again skewer their own talking point. You know, the one about building a "Democratic Iraq". The rationale du jour which followed searching for WMD's, Saddam Very Bad, People Just Wanna Be Free...

While President Bush vows to transform Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, his administration has been scaling back funding for the main organizations trying to carry out his vision by building democratic institutions such as political parties and civil society groups.

The administration has included limited new money for traditional democracy promotion in budget requests to Congress.

I wonder if in 20 years anyone will admit having voted for these idiots, thieves, pedophiles and felons?

I was wondering how long it would take before this happened.

Apple Computer Corp. released software today that will allow users of its new Mac computers to run the Windows XP operating system and programs that were previously available for use only on Windows computers.

Called Boot Camp, Apple's new software is available for download at the company's Web site and is scheduled for inclusion in the next update of the Mac operating system. The software allows owners of new Apple computers, ones with Intel processors inside, to run Microsoft's operating system natively.

The reason the new Intel-based Macs are going to be good? The inter-operability that will make the new Macs attractive again to businesses, and the new apps being written (or rewritten) in Universal Binary to take advantage of the new machines capability. Other than having an original 1985 model Mac on my shelf, I've never been much of an "early adopter" of most whiz-bang technology (heck, I still don't use a GPS in an airplane, dead-reckoning and pilotage work just fine for me on a nice VFR day). But I'm pretty happy with this new addition to my collection of toys er...tools.

And it is fast...blazing, even at 1.83ghz. Apple reborn...knew it would happen, thank iPod.

*apologies to R.E.M

So Preznit Disobedient Deserter went to reliably republican Cincinatti to throw out the first pitch of the season. Interesting that he walked out onto the field with two soldiers, both recipients of the Purple Heart.

I guess that's one way to ensure that no one boos you from the cheap seats.

Short note: read somewhere that Condi and her British poodle, Jack Straw flew into Baghdad Airport. Apparently the weather was so bad that they couldn't get a helo airborne to transport them from the airport to the Green Zone. Word is that poor little Condi was a mite uncomfortable on that ride.

Gee, why? Aren't all the media reports wrong and skewed? Surely the road was strewn with rose petals and candy, thrown by cheering crowds of nattily dressed women, happy healthy children and prosperous men-folk on their way to their mosques from their shops and places of offices.
Or, perhaps not.

If Condi was uncomfortable with the formidable security that follows her, I wonder if she appreciates how that PFC feels mounting up for his daily run down a road with or without IED's, religious fanatics of some persuasion and people who just wish he's return to his hometown, and leave theirs for good.

Well, maybe she does for a day or so....

Oh yeah, same song, different day.

President Bush used the upcoming income tax-filing deadline and his weekly radio address to promote tax-cut proposals and set up an election-year debate with Democrats over the issue.
...
"As tax day approaches later this month, many American families are now finishing their tax returns," Bush said. "And as you do, an important debate is taking place in Washington that will affect the amount you will pay in the years ahead."

Just what America needs, more debt piled on top of more debt. Because that money to pay for minor budget items like Mess O'Potamia, has to come from somewhere, and in an election year, it's a lead-pipe cinch it ain't coming from Medicare, Social Security or DHS.

Failed father, failed military officer, failed businessman, failed Preznit and given his shredding of the Constitution; failing American. And he's been entrusted with THE credit card.

Delay has seen the handwriting on the wall, and is not going to take a chance of seeing his district go Democratic in the fall. We'll see. This article from Time has a really interesting quote in it. During a tour of La Casa Delay in folksy, aw shucks Sugar Land, Texas, Mrs. Graft and Corruption makes this stunning observation:

His wife, a formidable daily force in his office with a voice in nearly all scheduling and media decisions, pointed to a photo of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and noted, "That's when we thought she was going to be conservative."

I really have no feelings about Zacharias Moussaoui, one way or the other. He was not a participant in the horrific events of 9/11, Karl Rove's favorite day of the 1600 Crew administration. He might have known about it, but insiders from Al-Qaeda seem to indicate even if he did, his knowledge was sparse at best. But the "kill 'em all" crowd is crowing for their pound of flesh. The 1600 Crew blew their chance catch Reagan Adminstration creation, Osama bin Forgotten in Afghanistan. Right after they let all his relative leave the country when no one else could fly out. So someone's gotta die. It's the American Way, after all.

A federal jury found today that Zacarias Moussaoui was responsible for at least some of the deaths that occurred in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, meaning that he could be subject to the death penalty.
...
The trial, whose sole purpose was to determine whether he would be sentenced to death or life in prison, also gave a newly detailed and vivid picture of the missed opportunities that followed his arrest three weeks before the attacks.

Well, if they decide to execute the guy who's already pled guilty, then all that's happened is that the US Government has created a martyr where one did not exist before. There were a few home-grown nutjobs who celebrated the death of Tim McVeigh for his terrible act, and have lionized his deeds. Imagine how the many adherants of Islam, who already aren't real thrilled with our conduct in Mess O'Potamia will feel after we execute Moussaoui. I suspect that there will be Zacharias brigades taking vengence in his name, in the not too distant future. If they had just locked his ass up in SuperMax for 30 or 40 years, no one would remember him or anything he did or said. Now we get the chance to elevate him to the status of Martyr, all on the taxpayers dime.

Well done. Idiots.

Oh, Baby. It's all coming home to roost now. The Gubmint is spending like a drunken sailor (and I know whereof I speak, having been both drunk and a sailor and had some cash). Seems that the alleged "conservatives" are a little bit upset.

Federal spending is outstripping economic growth at a rate unseen in more than half a century, provoking some conservatives to complain that government under Republican control has gotten too big.

The federal government is currently spending 20.8 cents of every $1 the economy generates, up from 18.5 cents in 2001, White House budget documents show. That's the most rapid growth during one administration since Franklin Roosevelt.

Remember that campaign stunt that Bunnypants used to pull, where he'd take four quarters and illustrate how the Government was taking some percentage (I think it was 25 cents) of every dollar that belonged to the American Taxpayer and wasting it? I wonder how all the "true believers" would feel if someone were to have told them that five years hence, an additional 20.8 cents per dollar was going to wasted doing things like lining the pockets of defense contractors and 1600 Crew cronys?

That might have cost the fool a few votes, if not the election. Well, we have all been saying that the fiscal policies of a failed MBA would be the death of us all, but I don't think we meant it quite this literally.

It's a shame that the rubber-stamp republicans in congress just gave this fool another increase in the National Credit Line. Now we can be in debt until 2301 instead of 2201. And isn't that a comforting thought?

Media Nutz speaks...

Night after night, President Bush is being kicked, punched, slapped, poked, stomped and otherwise disrespected in one small corner of the cable television world.

The real reason Howie is pissed off at Olbermann? He wishes that his reliably right-wing "Reliable Sources" had the kind of numbers that Countdown gets. Green-eyed monster, much?

You know, they never seem to report the good news from Mess O'
Potamia. Never. Like the power plants being rebuilt, the schools being repainted/rebuilt, or those medical clinics being built...ooops, belay my last.

A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.

Parsons, according to the Corps, will walk away from more than 120 clinics that on average are two-thirds finished. Auditors say the project serves as a warning for other U.S. reconstruction efforts due to be completed this year.

I wonder how many other contractors are getting ready to pull the plug on their reconstruction efforts. I'm sure that they all bought into the wingnut NeoCon fantasy of the cakewalk in Iraq, and saw massive windfall profits on the government dole (the rugged right-wing corporate small-government conservatives that they are) and jumped on the CPA no-bid donor list. I guess that when the cost of doing business is having your employees potentially kidnapped and murdered, it gets to be a bit too high, even for the Donor Contingent.

I wonder if there's buyer's remorse in that boardroom right now...and if they're scraping off their "Bunnypants for King '04" bumperstickers today.

1. Yes, the dog talks...
   
2. Wingnut Talking Point
   
3. Bunnypants Spited?
   
4. Hope this continues
   
5. Yawn
   
6. Gone Fishing...sort of
   
7. Just change the names...
   
8. The Quaintness of Convention
   
9. Another DemVet, Navy
   
10. True to Form