Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars: "
Joseph Wilson has a problem with Booby
It certainly gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. He was taking an advocacy position when he was a party to it,' Wilson said-- Before publicly disclosing his involvement in the leak case on Wednesday, Woodward was a frequent critic of Fitzgerald's investigation in television and radio appearances. Woodward has described the case as laughable and Fitzgerald's behavior as 'disgraceful' and has referred to him as 'a junkyard dog.'"

Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars: "Texas GOP Promises To Stop Committing Crimes

The Texas Republican Party has struck what might be the sweetest deal in the criminal justice system since Al Capone went to jail for income tax evasion...

The Republican Party of Texas avoided prosecution Thursday by agreeing to stop using corporate money in several ways being investigated by Travis County Attorney David Escamilla."

Baseball Players Tell Congress To Shove It

In Senate hearings today...

Pam's House Blend

Pam's House Blend: "Slavery is alive and well if you're an undocumented worker on the post-Katrina clean-up effort, according to a Salon article (day pass or registration req'd).

Folks were worried about low wages, no-bid contracts and general corruption in the Gulf region, but this is the height of immorality, courtesy of Bush/CheneyCo's friends at Halliburton/KBR."

Early April Fool?

From The "If Ain't Already There, It Ain't Gonna Get There" Department

Think Progress : The New Hit Single Ready to Rock a Generation: "�Bush Was Right!: The New Hit Single Ready to Rock a Generation"
RightMarch.com, a conservative online advocacy group, has launched a campaign trying to get a right-wing musical duo, The Right Brothers, onto MTV.
Well grab your iPods and crank up your speakers, because ThinkProgress has a sneak preview of the Brothers� new single, �Bush Was Right.� If any song was ever a virtual lock to top the TRL charts, it�s got to be this rockin� tribute to all things Bush.
Some sample lyrics and an audio excerpt below (and no, this is not a parody):
Freedom in Afghanistan, say goodbye Taliban
Free elections in Iraq, Saddam Hussein locked up
Osama�s staying underground, Al Qaida now is finding out
America won�t turn and run once the fighting has begun
Don�t you know that all this means�
Bush was right! Bush was right!
Real Media | MP3
RightMarch.com has big plans for The Right Brothers. Here�s a bit more from a recent email to their supporters (again, this is not a parody, we promise):
This is what the youth in America need. They�re already bombarded with songs on the radio and videos on MTV that trash our President, conservative beliefs, and traditional American values. From �Mosh� by Eminem, to �Idiot Son of an A**hole� by NOFX� all of these songs serve to fill young people�s minds with LIES. [�]
WILL YOU HELP US? We�re putting together a �kickin�� music video right now, and we�re preparing a HUGE grassroots campaign to get hundreds of thousands of people to request �Bush Was Right!� on MTV�s �Total Request Live� show� leading to our demands for it to be played in regular rotation!
If they DON�T - then we�ll hit the m"

Witnesses leery of testifying while Roberts stays on leak investigation

Witnesses leery of testifying while Roberts stays on leak investigation: "Two witnesses interviewed by the FBI in its probe of classified information leaked from a joint congressional inquiry in 2002 say they are very concerned about cooperating with a Senate Ethics Committee review of the matter because Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) has not recused himself from the review...

...The witnesses are reluctant to cooperate with the ethics panel because, they said, the FBI’s investigation focused on Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who at the time was the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, and because Shelby’s former staff director Bill Duhnke and deputy staff director Jim Hensler now serve as Roberts’s top aides on Intelligence.

The Washington Post reported last August that federal investigators concluded that Shelby had divulged classified intercepted messages to the media in 2002 during the joint House-Senate inquiry into the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Does anyone have a scorecard?

Another Chickhawk Proposal

Rush Adopt a Soldier Program Limbaugh: "Strangely, Rush took the opportunity of this announcement of the 'Adopt a Soldier Program' as something of a test for liberals.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I've got an idea for you liberals. Liberals are always out there saying you 'support the troops.' Well, then adopt a soldier! Join the Adopt-a-Soldier program at RushLimbaugh.com if you're a lib and you want to say you support the troops. This is a great way to prove it.

END TRANSCRIPT


The irony in all of this is massive. Limbaugh evaded serving his country at a time when it needed him, by getting his private doctor to declare he had a pilonidal cyst and needed a 4f (Rush could have gotten treatment). Today, instead of encouraging his listeners to make thoughtful donations, he is exploiting their sense of patriotism to enrich himself and his network. The troops should be supported by sensible policy and civilian leadership that objectively considers facts, admits and corrects mistakes, and supplies them with everything they need. Subscriptions to consume the rhetoric of an opportunistic radio entertainer is hardly a substitute of any kind. "

Ethics Committee Overlooks Senatorial Indiscretion

Crooks and Liars: "How could the Senate Ethics Committee find no wrong doing from a Senator who immediately passed on classified information to two reporters as soon as he left the meeting and soon after a report appeared on CNN? Why does it take 15 months to investigate this story when obviously there are so few players to actually investigate?
'Had the Ethics Committee probe determined that a Republican senator had leaked sensitive classified information, so soon after the indictment of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, the finding would have had wide-ranging political ramifications, Democrat and Republican congressional staffers said in interviews.'
That about explains it."

Ahnold, Ahnold Part II

The Smirking Chimp: "
This must be a grass roots effort. The infinite expanse of cowardice that is the national Democratic Party was recently highlighted when Joe Biden felt compelled to surrender preemptively on Bush's latest Supreme Court nomination. In California, the same phenomenon was at work when the Democrats who control the legislature did not impede Schwarzenegger's attempts to hijack the constitution. It was the unions that slew the dragon in the Golden State. Nationally, the heavy lifting must be done by labor and environmentalists and consumer activists and human rights workers and all the other despicable special interests that stand between Corporate America and avaricious nirvana."

Ahnold, Ahnold

The Smirking Chimp: "Thus the returns on Election Night have provided liberals with a multiple orgasm moment. For the fascists who run the state GOP there now exists that horrible sinking feeling, the political equivalent of learning that your husband is about to make a movie with Angelina Jolie. Rather than kicking the butts of the public servants, Schwarzenegger got his butt kicked or - as I prefer to think of it - the nurses and their allies fondled Arnold's breasts against his will.

The California experience provides an invaluable lesson for Democrats nationwide that relates to the contemptible cowardice of 'keeping our powder dry'. There is but one surefire way to vanquish conservatives, and that is to beat the shit out of them."

The Boston Progressive

The Boston Progressive: "GOP strategy, in a nutshell
The Senate committee on Indian Affairs has been holding hearings on the lobbying efforts of Jack Abramoff and his former business partner Michael Scanlon. (they of the 'I didn't know who was really paying for this golfing junket to Scotland!')

It is very revealing.

I've been looking through the exhibits entered into the record from the hearings on Nov 2, and the hubris is, humbling."

More Timmy Hijinks

Crooks and Liars: "Russert pulls a Sean Hannity
One of the tactics Sean Hannity uses to sandbag his democratic guests is to read a quote and make believe somebody else said it. Then when the guest answers, Hannity says that John Kerry said it. When Russert reads his graphic, he usually ends with who said it before asking for a reaction. Not this morning. Tim Russert did that today to Senator Kennedy to try and trip him up over the vote on Iraq. I can't remember Timmy acting like Sean Hannity before"

Of Mobs and Murder

The Smirking Chimp: "Carl Hiaasen: 'Adventures of Jack Abramoff � an ugly story'
Posted on Sunday, November 06 @ 09:29:28 EST (16 reads)


Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald

The glistening slime trail left by lobbyist Jack Abramoff leads to an infamous homicide scene in South Florida.

And while the indicted bosom buddy of indicted Rep. Tom DeLay says he had nothing to do with the mob-style execution of casino fleet founder Gus Boulis, Abramoff probably wasn't turning cartwheels when three men were recently charged with murdering Boulis back in February 2001.

One of the defendants is Anthony 'Big Tony' Moscatiello, identified by police as an associate of the Gambino crime family. Moscatiello is a longtime pal with lawyer Adam Kidan, who was Abramoff's partner in what prosecutors say was a fraudulent purchase of Fort Lauderdale-based SunCruz casinos from Boulis.

Kidan and Abramoff go way back. At the Georgetown Law Center they were both members of the College Republicans."

Carter Says America Mislead on Iraq

The Smirking Chimp: "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Friday that there isn't 'any doubt' the American people were misled about the war in Iraq and that President George Bush's policy on the war is a 'radical departure from the policies of any president.'

In an interview with CNN, Carter addressed some of the comments made in his new book, 'Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis.' In the book he says the Bush administration was determined to attack Iraq using 'false and distorted claims after 9/11.'

Carter said the Bush administration spoke of mushroom clouds, weapons of mass destruction and the threat of thousands of Americans dying to garner support for the war. No weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq"

The Raw Story | NYT Saturday: Ex-public broadcasting chair under investigation by State Department

The Raw Story | NYT Saturday: Ex-public broadcasting chair under investigation by State Department: "NYT Saturday: Ex-public broadcasting chair under investigation by State Department
RAW STORY

Print This | Email This
Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the head of the federal agency that oversees most government broadcasts to foreign countries, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, is the subject of an inquiry into accusations of misuse of federal money and the use of phantom or unqualified employees, officials involved in that examination said Friday, the New York Times' Stephen Labaton is set to splash on Saturday's page ones, RAW STORY has learned. Tomlinson was ousted from CPB Thursday. Excerpts follow.
#"

Reed's fees all paid by casino | ajc.com

Reed's fees all paid by casino | ajc.com: "Reed's fees all paid by casino

By JIM GALLOWAY , ALAN JUDD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/03/05
WASHINGTON � Ralph Reed's anti-gambling work in Texas and Louisiana was funded by an Indian tribe that derives all of its income from a single casino, according to U.S. Senate testimony Wednesday.
Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader who is running for lieutenant governor of Georgia, is an avowed opponent of legalized gambling. He has said he never knowingly accepted gambling money."

Political Wire: Fox News Paid for DeLay's Travel

Political Wire: Fox News Paid for DeLay's Travel: "Fox News Paid for DeLay's Travel
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) 'filed a report with the Clerk of the House of Representatives indicating he received free travel valued at $13,998.55 from Fox News Sunday for 'officially connected travel' on October 1-2, 2005, from Sugarland, TX to Washington, D.C. and back to Sugarland, TX. Rep. DeLay appeared on Fox News Sunday on October 2, 2005, the weekend after his indictment on September 28, 2005.'

Hat tip: Political Money Line "

Browniie The Fashion God:The Smirking Chimp

The Smirking Chimp: "The e-mails show that Brown, who had been planning to step down from his post when the storm hit, was preoccupied with his image on television even as one of the first FEMA officials to arrive in New Orleans, Marty Bahamonde, was reporting a crisis situation of increasing chaos to FEMA officials.

'My eyes must certainly be deceiving me. You look fabulous -- and I'm not talking the makeup,' writes Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs to Brown on 7:10 a.m. local time on Aug. 29.

'I got it at Nordstroms,' Brown writes back. 'Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?' An hour later, Brown adds: 'If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god.'

A week later, Brown's aide, Sharon Worthy, reminds him to pay heed to his image on TV. 'In this crises and on TV you just need to look more hardworking ... ROLL UP THE SLEEVES!' Worthy wrote, noting that even President Bush 'rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow.' "

More Media Bias: Los Angeles Protests

Crooks and Liars: "Thursday, November 03, 2005

Los Angeles Protests

In LA's local news-Anti war protests shut down most of Wilshire Blvd. near the Federal Building yesterday.

Brad Friedman writes: '...did you notice how the guy interviewed from the 'handful of Bush Supporters' was given the same amount of airtime as the hundreds of Anti-Bush supporters, including Karen Meredith who lost her only son? Most troubling, perhaps: The Bush Supporter interviewed was labelled on the screen as 'Supports U.S. Troops', implying, of course, subliminally or otherwise, that the Anti-Bush folks do not. Sigh...'"

Christians Led Astray by Anti-Christ(s)

Years ago one of my relatives was ripped-off by a preacher. Later I was also screwed by a couple of "Christians." I've spent my life in church and nothing makes me angrier than believers getting misled by their "peers." Good grief, people. If you are a believer, then how can it be any clearer what's been done to you than the following (Salon has much more.):

Salon.com News Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze: "Consider one memo highlighted in a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday that Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tx., sent the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to describe his strategy for protecting the tribe's gambling business. In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.

'The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees,' Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

'Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them.'"

For all our sakes, wise-up.

Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars

Think Progress: 23 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak

Think Progress: 23 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak: "23 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak." Get the list there.

Mad In The Middle Post List

Suck It Up, New Orleans
ABC News: Poll: Bush Approval Sagging to New Lows
An Amateur Review of Al Franken's The Truth (with jokes)
Cheney Approval Nearing Rock Bottom at 19%
Christians Led Astray by Anti-Christ(s)
More Media Bias: Los Angeles Protests
NBC Sock Puppet Parlez-Vous El Latino
Republican Boo-Hoo In The Senate
Goals for the Future
Thomas, Sowell misleadingly portrayed Libby ind ... [Media Matters]
What Judy forgot: Your right to know - Los Angeles Times
Buckley Hits The Nail Squarely
More Media Corruption?
Give 'Em Hell, Harry!
Tall Tales In Italy
Et Tu, Tim?
Congress Screws the Poor--Again
How Liberals Can Win (Back) The South
Blueprints