22 December 2006

Previously unaired song from their VH1 Unplugged special..

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5 U.S. soldiers killed...

Insurgent attacks killed five more American troops west of the Iraqi capital, the military said Friday, making December the second deadliest month for U.S. servicemen in 2006.
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Police on Friday recovered 21 bodies in the cities of Baghdad, Baqouba and Kut, many of them believed to be victims of sectarian violence.

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- Bush Gives Cheney Pay Raise -- Congress Postpones Their Raise Until Minimum Wage Is Increased

- NY Times Publishes Controversial Redacted Article By Flynt Leverett

- Billions In Tax Incentives To Big Oil Provide Little Return

- Right Wingnut Dennis Prager Condemned By Council He Serves On

- Sleepy Joe Endorses Escalation -- Contrary To Campaign Promises Of Bringing Troops Home

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Newsweek's Christopher Dickey on how Bush is rejecting an honorable withdrawal in favor of a humiliating retreat...

And there was Bush: trying desperately to contrive some way to claim a triumph in a country he has turned into death’s dream kingdom, pretending to have strategies where none exist, ignoring realities and taking refuge in willful ignorance even as he claimed to feel the pain of the dying.

What Bush appears to be talking about now is essentially an incremental change masquerading as a bid to turn the tide of the conflict.
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The surge is a surefire formula, in fact, for turning what still could be called a retreat with honor into an outright defeat with humiliation. That is just what America’s enemies around the world would like to see—and it is just what the wise men and the sage woman on the Iraq Study Group wanted to avoid. Their plan as of two weeks ago (it seems so long already) was for “our” Iraqis to win the war, of course, if such a thing were possible, but much more importantly for the Iraqis to bear responsibility for losing it if they fail to get their act together. It was a cynical strategy for shifting blame, and far from ideal, but at least it wasn’t built on a cheerleader’s delusion that more American muscle is what it takes to set the Iraqis straight.

And for good measure, he tosses in this little gem about Iran...

Meanwhile, the chances to pursue diplomacy that could stabilize the region are fast disappearing. Flynt Leverett, formerly a senior CIA analyst and a National Security Council staffer in Bush’s first term, presented a powerfully argued paper at a Century Foundation conference in Washington earlier this month advocating a “grand bargain” with Iran. To help defuse the conflict in Iraq, stabilize Lebanon and persuade Tehran to curtail its nuclear ambitions, the United States would offer Iran solid security guarantees as well as economic and technological cooperation. Why does Leverett think this would be effective? Because he and his wife, diplomat Hillary Mann, were involved with the secret negotiations the Bush administration conducted with Tehran for a year and a half. His paper traces those talks—and the way the administration fumbled them, then sabotaged them—step by step. Now, Leverett warns that the window for any such agreement is closing as Iran sees American power and prestige waning quickly, its own strength growing and its nuclear centrifuges spinning.

The White House reaction to Leverett’s ideas? He sought official clearance to publish essentially the same material on The New York Times op-ed page last week (as a former CIA man, Leverett has to do this, and he already had gotten approval for the academic paper). He was told the op-ed piece couldn’t be published. It touched on material that was too sensitive.

And so we go on: led by the hollow men toward a waste land of their own making.

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Crooks and Liars has the video of Jack's latest rant....

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All I Don't Want for Christmas
Steven Weber

Dear Santa,

Here's what I don't want:

No more presidents snickering like gormless fools when cornered or sitting slack-jawed like an inbred carny upon hearing calamitous news.

No more Fristing ("She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." ). After the first 20 minutes it can hurt.

No more nicknames ("Brownie meet Turd Blossom. Turd Blossom, meet Altoid Boy. Altoid Boy meet Balloon Foot. Balloon Foot meet Pooty-poot. Pooty-poot meet Dubya. Dubya meet...Oh, hell. That's me, right Poppy? Heh heh heh!"). Familiarity breeds contempt.

No more paperless trails. I mean, come on!

No more texting from the House floor. Even if you're really horny.

No more high-ranking, cranky, cagey, old bastards ("Go fuck yourself!").

No more known knowns, known unknowns or unknown unknowns.

No more "missions" accomplished.

No more national debt in trillions. That's paltry. Let's go for zillions!

No more secret prisons. Torture 'em on Pay-Per-View.

No more secret energy task forces. Burn clubbed seals on Pay-Per-View!

No more poppies from Afghanistan. The seed glut is negatively impacting the price of bagels.

No more Intelligent Design. Unless it applies to a cool wall paper pattern.

I could go on but that wouldn't be in the spirit of the season. See what you can do. 'Night.

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As mentioned earlier, the seat vacated by Krazy Katherine Harris is still in question, and will more than likely be decided by Congress (who should order a special election). The problem stems from an "undervote" of some 18,000 votes (14%), compared to roughly a 2% undervote for absentee ballots, and surrounding districts. The Democratic challenger claims it is a result of faulty programming code, or faulty machines, while the company argues their machines aren't flawed.

Wednesday, the expert testifying on behalf of Election Systems & Software Inc, Profressor Michael Herron of Dartmouth University, claims there is "essentially a 100 percent chance that Jennings would have won" the race had they voted in another county. The reason, he explained, was not because of faulty equipment, but a poorly-designed ballot. Either way, the voters' will need to be upheld, and hopefully Congress will take the appropriate step and call for a special election...

TPM Muckraker has the info...

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After weeks of badgering... he finally addresses the smear attack against him...

The Virginia lawmaker criticized for writing an "Islamophobic" letter to his constituents would be wise to learn more about Islam, the first Muslim elected to Congress said Thursday.

"I think the diversity of our country is a great strength," Ellison told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "It's a good thing that we have people from all faiths and all cultures to come here."
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"We all support one Constitution, one Constitution that upholds our right to equal protection, one Constitution that guarantees us due process under the law, one Constitution which says there is no religious test for elective office in America," Ellison said.
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"What I'd tell him is that there might be a few things about Muslims that he might want to know," said Ellison. "He might want to know that Muslims -- there are about 5 million in the country -- that they are here to support and strengthen America.

"They are nurses, doctors, husbands, wives, kids, who just want to live and prosper in the American way and that there's really nothing to fear," the new lawmaker said. "And that all of us are steadfastly opposed to the same people he is opposed to, which is the terrorists, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

"And, that what we should do is to tell our constituents -- we should reach to each other and not be against each other and we should find ways for common ground."
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In his letter, Goode wrote that strict immigration polices are necessary "to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America."

"The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran," he wrote.
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Ellison, a Democrat from Minneapolis, was born in Detroit and converted to Islam in college.

Goode is quite the tool. He's deeply connected to the Duke Cunningham/Mitchell Wade/MZM scandal, supports sending our troops to the Mexico border, and, judging by his immigration stance, believes we should grants visas to residents of "European" (ie "White") countries only. To further defang Goode's attack -- Ellison can trace his American heritage back into the mid 1700's...

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The DHS as finally admitted that the TSA violated the law by using brokers to gather passenger data without notifying airline passengers...

The agency found that by gathering passenger data from commercial brokers in 2004 without notifying the passengers, the program violated a 1974 Privacy Act requirement that the public be made aware of any changes in a federal program that affects the privacy of U.S. citizens. "As ultimately implemented, the commercial data test conducted in connection with the Secure Flight program testing did not match [the Transportation Security Administration's] public announcements," the report states.

The finding marks the first time that the Homeland Security Department has acknowledged that the problem-plagued Secure Flight program has violated the law. It comes at a time when a separate program to screen international passengers is under attack for officials' failure to disclose until recently that they were creating passenger profiles that would be stored for 40 years.

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Federal judge cuts Valdez judgement in half...

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As mentioned earlier, Crazy Curt Weldon blamed the FBI for leaking that he was under federal investigation, saying the leak was timed to inflict the most damage on his (failed) re-election campaign. Lo and behold, the LA Times reports that Weldon violated House rules by not disclosing that he had been supoenaed by a Grand Jury...

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London Version -- No specific intel, but risk of a nuke/chemical attack is "unparalleled...

U.S. Version -- Bombs could flood New York-New Jersey tunnels, according to computer models...

Don't tell me... we're supposed to be vigilant.. yet continue to shop?

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21 December 2006

From Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer...

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Military leaders believe Bush's reversal on increasing the size of the military is a not-so-subtle bribe to win their support for his "surge" (escalation) option...

Think Progress has the video of NBCs Jim Miklaszewski's report...

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After spending years "deferring to the wisdom of" (aka.. blaming) the generals on the ground for determining troop levels, it appears as though Bush will now overrule them if he chooses the "surge" (aka.. escalation) option...

The internal struggle over troop levels in Iraq has exposed a schism between civilian and military leadership 45 months into a war that, at the moment, has no end in sight. Testifying before a Senate committee Nov. 15, Abizaid bluntly rejected the surge option, saying: "I do not believe that more American troops right now is the solution to the problem. I believe that the troop levels need to stay where they are." Other generals have been equally resistant in public and private comments.

Bush has traditionally paid public deference to the generals, saying any decisions on moving U.S. forces in the region would depend on their views. At a Chicago news conference in July, for instance, Bush said he would yield to Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Iraq commander.

"General Casey will make the decisions as to how many troops we have there," Bush said, adding: "He'll decide how best to achieve victory and the troop levels necessary to do so. I've spent a lot of time talking to him about troop levels. And I've told him this: I said, 'You decide, General.' "

By yesterday, however, Bush indicated that he will not necessarily let military leaders decide, ducking a question about whether he would overrule them. "The opinion of my commanders is very important," he said. "They are bright, capable, smart people whose opinion matters to me a lot." He added: "I agree with them that there's got to be a specific mission that can be accomplished with the addition of more troops before I agree on that strategy."

A senior aide said later that Bush would not let the military decide the matter. "He's never left the decision to commanders," said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so Bush's comments would be the only ones on the record. "He is the commander in chief. But he has said he will listen to those commanders when making these decisions. That hasn't changed."

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"Success in Iraq will be success" -- Dubya

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Finally hits his breaking point...

Crooks and Liars brings us the video...

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At the beginning, we were promised the cost to taxpayers would be no more than $1.7 billion, and reconstruction would be paid with oil revenue. Not to mention the fact that we would get cheaper gas out of the deal. Now, the Pentagon has requested an additional $100 billion, pushing the total for 2007 to $170 billion...

The Pentagon wants the White House to seek an additional $99.7 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to information provided to The Associated Press.

The military's request, if embraced by President Bush and approved by Congress, would boost this year's budget for those wars to about $170 billion.
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The additional funds, if approved, would push this year's cost of the war in Iraq to about $50 billion over last year's record. In September, Congress approved an initial $70 billion for the current budget year, which began Oct. 1.
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The budget request includes:

_$41.5 billion to cover the costs of ongoing military operations.

_$26.7 billion for replacing and repairing equipment damaged or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

_$10 billion for body armor and other equipment to protect U.S. troops from attack.

_$2.5 billion to combat roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

_$2.7 billion for intelligence activities.

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20 December 2006

Michael Schenker era..

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Think Progress reminds us that in a 2004 presidential campaign, Bush described Kerry's call to increase the size of our military as making our country "less safe"..

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When asked if an investigation had been launched to uncover who leaked the Hadley memo (the one undercutting the Iraqi PM just prior to the big summit meeting in Jordan), Bush couldn't say for sure...

TPM Muckraker brings the goods...

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What a difference an election makes. Less than two months ago, Bush was boldly announcing to his hand-picked crowds how we were winning the war...

President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the "stressed" U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists.

As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. "We're not winning, we're not losing," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. The assessment was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, declared, "Absolutely, we're winning."
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Democrats have been calling for additional troops for years. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) proposed an increase of 40,000 troops during his 2004 campaign against Bush, only to be dismissed by the administration. As recently as June, the Bush administration opposed adding more troops because restructuring "is enabling our military to get more warfighting capability from current end strength."

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Tag, you're it...

U.S.-led forces handed over security control of Najaf province, whose capital is seat of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite clerics, to Iraq on Wednesday, calling it a major step forward in strengthening the government.
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“One time I raised the Iraqi flag and we had a ceremony with the governor of Najaf present ... and now they are handing over security again,” Habib said.

“I don’t think this will be the last time, because the U.S. forces, when they want to arrest somebody, they take back control of security, and after the arrest they hand it back again to the Iraqis. It’s just a game.”

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Think Progress has the video of looney right-wing extremist talk show host Mark Gallagher's meltdown on Faux News...

GALLAGHER: ...I think we should round up all of these folks. Round up Joy Behar. Round up Matt Damon, who last night on MSNBC attacked George Bush and Dick Cheney. Round up Olbermann. Take the whole bunch of them and put them in a detention camp until this war is over because they’re a bunch of traitors.

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Newt blames Rove for GOP woes..

"Newt bit his tongue for months and now feels he has to tell his base the truth: the White House does not have the will or the power to promote any agenda," a source close to Mr. Gingrich said.

The sources said Mr. Gingrich, who refuses to commit to a presidential bid in 2008, blames White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for Mr. Bush's mistakes, including the loss of Congress in 2006. They said Mr. Gingrich's criticism of the top Bush political adviser has been considered by the president and this could lead to Mr. Rove's early departure.
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Mr. Gingrich, lamenting the waste of the Republican Party's huge ad campaign during the 2006 election, called on Mr. Rove to either change his losing strategy or quit.

"2004 was pathetic, and 2006 was worse," Mr. Gingrich said, referring to the Rove-directed GOP campaigns.

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Virgil Goode, a Republican congressman from Virginia, warns of a Muslim takeover of Congress, unless we ban any more Muslims from entering the country...

This letter was sent to hundreds of constituents by the office of Republican Rep. Virgil Goode Jr. of Virginia:

Thank you for your recent communication. When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.

The Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust" are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, "As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office." Thank you again for your email and thoughts.

Sincerely yours,

Virgil H. Goode, Jr.

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As mentioned earlier, the Bush administration is enthusiastically engage in a War Against Information. TPM Muckraker adds to the long list of information that has been surpressed or has "vanished"...

* In 2004, the FBI attempted to retroactively classify public information regarding the case of bureau whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, including a series of letters between the Justice Department and several senators.

* In October 2003, the Bush administration banned photographs depicting servicemembers' coffins returning from overseas.

* In December 2002, the administration curtailed funding to the Mass-Layoffs Statistics program, which released monthly data on the number and size of layoffs by U.S. companies. His father attempted to kill the same program in 1992, but Clinton revived it when he assumed the presidency.

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Gary Sargent from TPM Cafe had a chat with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham regarding the exclusion of their own poll numbers in their article analyzing the electability of Hillary/Obama...

"We routinely poll on the horse race numbers. Whether we put them in the magazine varies from week to week. We have tended not to use horse race numbers because we are so far out."

They aren't afraid to speculate on a candidate's chances this "far out", but if a poll contradicts their speculation...

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First it was Rummy, now it's been reported that Gen Abizaid is headed for retirement, followed closely by Gen Casey...

A shuffle of top American generals in Iraq is likely to accompany the shift in U.S. policy that President Bush is considering.

Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, has submitted plans to go ahead with a retirement that is months overdue, according to the U.S. Central Command.

And the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, has indicated in recent months that he also may not stay much longer than the end of this year.

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19 December 2006

Retro Rock from the early 90's...

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Argue that Bush's "surge" option is a coverup for his lack of a clear plan...

The Bush administration is split over the idea of a surge in troops to Iraq, with White House officials aggressively promoting the concept over the unanimous disagreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to U.S. officials familiar with the intense debate
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But the Joint Chiefs think the White House, after a month of talks, still does not have a defined mission and is latching on to the surge idea in part because of limited alternatives, despite warnings about the potential disadvantages for the military, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the White House review is not public.

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Newsweek's latest poll has Hillary kicking Saint McCain's ass, and running neck and neck with Rudy (who will never get the nomination).

Kind of odd that the "liberal" Newsweek isn't publishing their own poll. Maybe because it conflicts with their cover story analyzing the electability of Hillary/Obama...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton beats John McCain and ties Rudolph Giuliani in a new Newsweek national poll, a stunning counterpoint to recent surveys showing the former first lady trailing the GOP's dueling presidential frontrunners.

The poll, taken earlier this month, shows Clinton besting McCain 50 to 43 percent among 1,000 registered voters nationwide. It also showed her in a dead heat with McCain among independents, a group that has proven stubbornly resistant to her centrist message.

Clinton leads Giuliani -- her onetime Senate nemesis -- by a 48 to 47 margin, a technical tie that falls within the poll's 4 percent margin of error.
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The Newsweek numbers on the head-to-head presidential matchups were not publicized by the magazine. They appeared in a press release on the magazine's Web site but weren't included in a Clinton-Barack Obama cover story, which focused on whether Americans were receptive to black or female presidential candidates. A Newsweek editor said the poll matchups were not pertinent to the cover story.

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A new Pentagon report indicates attacks have spiked to 1,000 per week...

Attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops and Iraqi civilians jumped sharply in recent months to the highest level since Iraq regained its sovereignty in June 2004, the Pentagon told Congress on Monday in the latest indication of that country’s spiraling violence.

In a report issued the same day Robert Gates took over as defense secretary, the Pentagon said that from mid-August to mid-November, the weekly average number of attacks increased 22 percent from the previous three months.
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A bar chart in the Pentagon’s report to Congress gave no exact numbers but indicated the weekly average had approached 1,000 in the latest period, compared to about 800 per week from the May-to-August period. Statistics provided separately by the Pentagon said weekly attacks had averaged 959 in the latest period.

American casualties, dead and wounded, rose from 19 to 25 per day, up 32 percent in the last three months.

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Duncan at Atrios points out that 3 months ago, ISG commissioner Lee Hamilton issued a dire prediction, but neglected to mention the consequences...

The next three months are critical. Before the end of this year, this government needs to show progress in securing Baghdad, pursuing national reconciliation and delivering basic services.

nod to Atrios

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Iraqi Military (imposters?) rob bank of over $700k...

Gunmen in military uniforms raided a Baghdad bank Tuesday, stealing the equivalent of $709,000, police said.
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It was the second such robbery in Baghdad in a little more than a week. Gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers stopped a bank truck carrying $1 million, stole the money, and kidnapped its four guards on Dec. 11.

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The Bush administration wants to spend $100 million on a courthouse at Gitmo that would try 60 cases. If you aren't a math whiz, that breaks down to $1.6 million per defendant...

The U.S. government already has a courthouse at Guantanamo Bay, but the Pentagon isn't satisfied, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. It plans to spend $100 million of your tax dollars to build a huge new facility just down the hill.

"This is very expensive for the number of cases, 60, which they anticipate trying," says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

That's right, a $100 million courthouse to try about 60 cases. That's $1.6 million per defendant ... just for the building. The trials will cost many millions more.

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Will forgo gifts, meals and trips from private groups or individuals...

Vowing to focus on ethics in her first term, Democratic Sen.-elect Amy Klobuchar said on Monday that she will not accept gifts, meals or trips from private groups or individuals.

She said she'll abide by a personal gift ban regardless of what Congress does and that it will be styled after Minnesota's law, featuring few exceptions: She'll still be allowed to accept plaques, and "my husband is still going to give me a Christmas gift, I hope."

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Will Bush pardon Libby to spare Deadeye Dick from going through the humiliation of testifying?

Vice President Dick Cheney will be called as a defense witness in the CIA leak case, an attorney for Cheney's former chief of staff told a federal judge Tuesday.

"We're calling the vice president," attorney Ted Wells said in court. Wells represents defendant I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is charged with perjury and obstruction.

Early last week, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said he did not expect the White House to resist if Cheney or other administration officials are called to testify in Libby's trial, expected to begin in January.
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Cheney, who would be the trial's most anticipated witness, has said he may be called to testify. If so, prosecutors could ask how the White House responded to Wilson's criticisms. Cheney was upset by Wilson's comments, Fitzgerald has said, and told Libby that Plame worked for the CIA.

That conversation is key to Fitzgerald's perjury case. Libby testified that he learned about Plame's job from a reporter.

Cheney could also help prosecutors undermine Libby's defense that he was so preoccupied with national security matters, he forgot details about the less-important Plame issue. Prosecutors argue that Plame was a key concern of the vice president, and thus would have been important to Libby.

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No doubt the neocon war-mongers will use this as a reason to "bring liberty to the oppressed Iranian people"...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered a significant setback in nationwide elections held on Friday for municipal councils and a key supervisory body, with voters evidently rebuking him for failing to deliver on promises to improve the economy.

Although results from the councils were still coming in on Monday, the tally so far indicated that candidates from the reformist and pragmatic conservative camps — the two main groups opposing the populist, hard-line president — emerged stronger from the vote. Presidential allies took a drubbing in important cities.

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18 December 2006

Jazz legend...

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The damage he's inflicted on our country won't be absorbed and understood for a generation....

American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.

Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.

But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.

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Over the weekend, 5 of our soldiers were killed, 135 bullet-riddled bodies were found in Baghdad, thirty Red Crescent workers were kidnapped, and a jailbreak occurred inside the Green Zone...

A former Iraqi government official awaiting trial on corruption charges escaped from a Baghdad jail Sunday with the help of Western gunmen, an Iraqi official said Monday.

The gunmen seized former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Sammarae from his cell at a police station inside the Green Zone, according to the head of Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, Judge Radhi Hamza.
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Meanwhile, three bombings in Baghdad on Monday morning killed six people and wounded at least 25 others, while the Iraqi Red Crescent suspended its work in the Iraqi capital to protest the mass kidnapping of its workers.
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Also, Iraqi police found 44 bullet-riddled bodies scattered across Baghdad on Monday, according to an Interior Ministry official.

Over the weekend, police found 91 bodies in the same condition -- 53 on Saturday and 38 on Sunday.

Most of the victims had their hands tied and their bodies showed signs of torture, the official said.
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Armed gunmen, dressed in camouflage Iraqi commando uniforms, arrived at the Red Crescent office Sunday in more than 20 vehicles and stormed the building, the spokesman said. The Interior Ministry official put the number of abductors' vehicles at eight.
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Five U.S. military personnel were killed in attacks in Iraq Friday and Saturday, the U.S. military said.

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After almost 32,000 earmarks, Bush decides it's time to put his foot down and end'em (the relation to congressional control is purely coincidental)...

Think Progress has the details...

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Since Bush admitted to illegally spying on Americans...

Federal agents continue to eavesdrop on Americans' electronic communications without warrants a year after President Bush confirmed the practice, and experts say a new Congress' efforts to limit the program could trigger a constitutional showdown.
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On Dec. 17, 2005, Bush publicly acknowledged for the first time he had authorized the NSA to monitor, without approval from a judge, phone calls and e-mails that come into or originate in the U.S. and involve people the government suspects of having terrorist links.

Bush said he had no intention of halting what he called a "vital tool" in the war on terror.

When the Republican-controlled Congress adjourned last week, it left the spying program unchecked.

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Denies Bush admin is blocking an article he knows nothing about..

Think Progress with the video and transcript...

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We have a two-for-one this time... his (mock) "sensitivity" of his big ears... and the "shady" land deal that wasn't so "shady"...

Media Matters brings the goods...

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TPM Muckraker takes a look at some of the standard reports that have been discontinued by the Bush administration as a way to coverup their misdeeds and failures...

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Crooks and Liars has the video of Minnesota's own, Gretchen Carlson, screwing up and describing DeLay as an "extreme" conservative...

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Not sure what Reid was thinking when he snuck in a couple of earmarks in the final hours of the 109th Congress, but I sure hope he won't try it again...

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It's a shame Powell sold out to the rush to war -- his opinion would hold much more credibility than it does now..

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Last week's botched execution was bad enough to force brother Jeb to suspend all executions, apparently til they can find a way to kill a person more efficiently...

Jeb Bush suspended all executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that prison officials botched the insertion of the needles when a convicted killer was put to death earlier this week—suspended all executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that prison officials botched the insertion of the needles when a convicted killer was put to death earlier this week
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As a result of the chemicals going into Diaz's arms around the elbow, he had an 12-inch chemical burn on his right arm and an 11-inch chemical burn on his left arm, Hamilton said.

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15 December 2006

Acoustic version

Electric version

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We're less than two months shy of the Jonah Goldberg's deadline...

Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn't want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading. If there's another reasonable wager Cole wants to offer which would measure our judgment, I'm all ears. Money where your mouth is, doc.

One caveat: Because I don't think it's right to bet on such serious matters for personal gain, if I win, I'll donate the money to the USO. He can give it to the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or whatever his favorite charity is.

Not surprisingly, Cole found the idea of betting on people's lives revolting...

nod Juan Cole, via Atrios..

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Will the right-wingnuts cover this as extensively as they did their make-believe controversy?

SNOW: Okay, before I get to that, I want to address something else, because you and I had a conversation last week that got a whole lot of play in a lot of places where I used the term "partisan" in describing one of your questions. And I've thought a lot about that, and I was wrong. So I want to apologize and tell you I'm sorry for it. And the reason I do that is not only because it's the right thing to do, because I want people in this room and also people who watch these to understand that the relations in this room are professional and collegial. And if I expect you to do right by us, you have every right to expect that I'll do right by you.

So, in any event, I just want to say I'm sorry for that.

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Think Progress brings the goods on the latest round of false information passed on as fact by Bush spokesperson Tony Snow...

SNOW: ...whatever the discontent may be with the President, the level of confidence in Congress is even lower.

FACTS:
– 57 percent trust the incoming Congress “to do a better job coping with the main problems the nation faces.” Just 31 percent trust Bush.

– 56 percent trust the incoming Congress to better deal with the situation in Iraq, compared to just 32 percent for Bush.

– 50 percent trust the incoming Congress to better fight the war on terrorism, compared to just 41 percent for Bush.

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14 December 2006

Mike Viqueira of NBC was on Hardball today, discussing Obama's presidential prospects. Of course, high among the characteristics voters will key on will be his middle name (Hussein), and the fact that he's a smoker. Liberal media, indeed.

Transcript not yet available..

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Vintage 2003

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Scores of merchants kidnapped in the heart of Baghdad...

Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people Thursday from a commercial area in central Baghdad.

The attackers drove up to the busy al-Sanak area in about 10 SUVs and began rounding up shop owners and bystanders. Two police officers said 50 to 70 people were abducted.

The assault came nearly a month after gunmen in Interior Ministry commando uniforms abducted scores of men from a Higher Education Ministry office building. The Education Ministry is predominantly Sunni Arab and about half of the victims were released.

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Novelist and global warming critic Michael Crichton sinks to new low in attack against reporter Michael Crowley -- who wrote a cover story that questioned Crichton's rejection of global warming. Crichton's latest novel includes a fleeting reference to a character named "Mick Crowley", a Washington-based political reporter who rapes a 2 year old boy...

Think Progress has more...

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“I never understand that question, you have a President that’s in deep shit. He got us into the war, and all the reasons he gave have been proven invalid, and the whole electorate was so pissed off that they got rid of anyone they could have, and then they ask, ‘What is the Democrats’ solution?’”

-- Rep Charles Rangel (D-NY)

nod to TPM Cafe

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Instead plan to focus on building up Iraqi forces...

The chiefs do not favor adding significant numbers of troops to Iraq, said sources familiar with their thinking, but see strengthening the Iraqi army as pivotal to achieving some degree of stability. They also are pressing for a much greater U.S. effort on economic reconstruction and political reconciliation.

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Congenital vein problem in his brain led to bleeding.. long-term affect still unknown...

Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson was in critical condition recovering from emergency brain surgery Thursday, creating political drama over whether his illness could cost Democrats newly won control of the Senate.

The South Dakota senator, 59, suffered from bleeding in the brain caused by a congenital malformation, the U.S. Capitol physician said. He described the surgery as successful.

The condition, usually present at birth, causes tangled blood vessels that can burst.

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Iraq intel deciever Ahmad Chalabi is back on the scene, acting as the unofficial liason between Syria and the U.S....

A little-noticed visit by Ahmad Chalabi to Syria is igniting speculation that the former Iraqi exile leader is emerging as a key channel between Damascus and Washington.
...
Mr. Chalabi regularly consults with the American ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad. On Saturday, Mr. Chalabi told reporters that Syria and Iraq were considering joint patrols along the porous border they share.

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Children left to fend for themselves after meat-packing immigration bust...

“I’m standing here in protest of the raid that took place at Swift yesterday,” said Local Union 1161 — UFCW President Mike Potter. “It was so overwhelming. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life.”

Potter said his main concern was the “aftermath of the raid” and the children and families who were affected.
...
Jesus Alcantar, a Swift employee and union representative, said through an interpreter that he had found four children knocking on doors looking for their mother.

“I took them by the hand and started knocking on doors, looking for family members who would take them in,” he said. “I saw a little girl on the street. I saw someone take her, but I don’t know who that was.”

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Faux News already "strategerizing" on how to declare Senator Johnson "incapacitated", while the Associated Press has already declared the Senate to be split 50/50 with Johnson "out"...

Update: AP has now revised their article to reflect a "what if" scenario...

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13 December 2006

A little grungy..

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Texas Democrat Ciro Rodriguez knocked off Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla by a 9-point margin, increasing the Democratic majority in the House to 233 -- more than Republicans had at the peak of their much-vaunted "Republican Revolution"...

Former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez defeated seven-term Republican Henry Bonilla in a runoff election Tuesday, adding another Democrat to Congress.

With nearly all precincts reporting in the state's largest district, Rodriguez had 54 percent to Bonilla's 45 percent.

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Nobody does it better...

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, President Bush apparently in no hurry now to come up with a change of strategy in Iraq.

I mean, hey, what's the rush? Things are going to sell over there, right?

Last week he got the Iraq Study Group report amid expectations that he might announce a change in strategy sooner rather than later. Now it looks like it's going to be later.

Instead of a Christmas present to the nation and the people of Iraq in the form of a way to stop the insanity, the decider has decided not to decide until January.

In the meantime, American troops get butchered every day. The American death toll approaching 3,000 now, as December looks to be a very bloody month. Forty-seven soldiers and Marines have been killed in Iraq since December the 1st. And since the start of the war now, 2,937 U.S. troops have been killed.

And for innocent Iraqi civilians, it is much, much worse on a daily basis. Today, 71 Iraqis looking for a job, hoping to find a day's work so they could feed their families, were slaughtered by a suicide truck bomber in Baghdad and 220 additional Iraqi civilians were injured.

And yet President Bush told Brit Hume over at the "F" word network in an interview the other day that the load of the war in Iraq is "not heavy." He called it a joyful, not a painful, experience, because millions of Americans are praying for him.

So, as our soldiers get ready to spent their fourth Christmas in this hellhole, here's the question -- how long should it take President Bush to figure out what to do in Iraq?

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The "liberal" CNN takes a page out of Saxby Chambliss' handbook and shows Obama in a split screen with both Osama and Saddam, both with the heading "What's In A Name?"...

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The high-profile raids at various meat-packing plants across the nation doesn't bode well for supporters of our Constitution...

If only for a few minutes, Maria felt like an ''illegal alien'' in her homeland - the United States of America.

She thought she was going on break from her job at the Swift & Co. meat processing plant here on Tuesday, but instead she and others were forced to stand in a line by U.S. immigration agents. Non-Latinos and people with lighter skin were plucked out of line and given blue bracelets.

The rest, mostly Latinos with brown skin, waited until they were ''cleared'' or arrested by ''la migra,'' the popular name in Spanish for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), employees said.

''I was in the line because of the color of my skin,'' she said, her voice shaking.
...
''They're discriminating against me. I'm from the United States, and I didn't even get a blue bracelet.''

nod to TPM Muckraker

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Josh at Talking Points Memo has the photo to prove it...

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If if backing Saddam's cronies wasn't bad enough, they also oppose talks involving Iraq. But there's more... King Abdullah apparently read the "riot act" to Cheney during his recent visit...

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has warned Vice President Dick Cheney that Saudi Arabia would back the Sunnis if the United States pulls out of Iraq, according to a senior American official.

The official said the king "read the riot act" to the vice president when the two met last month in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The New York Times first reported the conversation Wednesday, saying Saudi support would include financial backing for minority Sunnis in the event of a civil war between them and Iraq's Shiite majority.
...
Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution said Saudi Arabia has a reason to take sides.

"They're terrified that Iraq is going to fall into civil war. They're terrified that civil war will spill over into Saudi Arabia. But they're also terrified that the Iranians, backing the various Shiite militias in Iraq, will come out the big winner in a civil war," Pollack told CNN.

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As mentioned earlier, AP's John Solomon (newly hired by WaPo) has been on a crusade to bring down Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. As usual, another one of Solomon's attacks has failed..

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not break Senate rules in accepting free ringside seats at boxing matches from the Nevada Athletic Commission, the Ethics Committee has concluded.
...
"There is not substantial credible evidence which provides substantial cause for the committee to conclude that a violation within the jurisdiction of the committee has occurred," the committee's chief counsel and staff director, Robert L. Walker, wrote to Rose.

Attendance at the matches "was a matter appropriately left to (Reid's) discretion," Walker wrote. The committee will take no further action and the matter is dismissed, the letter said.

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Two of Minnesota's new members of Congress get some welcome news -- Keith Ellison was named to serve on the Financial Services Committee, while Walz was named to the House Agriculture Committee...

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David Sirota takes a look at NYC Mayor Bloomberg's refusal to reverse a $20 million cut in the pensions of subway workers, but how NYC provided $1.5 billion in bonds to help finance the new HQ of Goldman Sachs...

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The Dem's toughest member to win over gives the thumbs-up to cutting pork out of the '07 budget...

Sen. Robert Byrd has built a reputation in Congress and in West Virginia using special interest funding to bring federal jobs and money home, but the king of pork said he's willing to give up his projects for 2007 to find a way out of the " fiscal chaos" left by the outgoing Republican-led Congress.

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Fined close to $300K by the FEC...

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12 December 2006

Hard to believe this was 10 years ago...

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The Boy President not too popular, according to the latest CBS poll..

97% oppose staying the course
71% say the war is going "badly"
15% say we're winning the war
19% disagree with the ISG recommendations
75% disappove of his handling of Iraq
70% feel uneasy about his ability to make decisions about Iraq
Democratic Congress more trusted to make decisions by 2-1 margin
31% approve of his overall performance (34% one month ago)
63% disapprove of his overall performance (61% one month ago)
62% believe it was a mistake to send in troops (Vietnam peaked at 61%)
65% are optimistic about the new Democratic Congress
28% are pessimistic about the new Democratic Congress

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Twin car bombs in Baghdad kill 63, wound 150...

Two car bombs targeting day laborers looking for work exploded within seconds of each other Tuesday on a main square in central Baghdad, killing at least 63 people and wounding scores, the government said.
...
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said at least 63 people were killed and 236 were wounded, although some police put the number of dead as high as 71 with a lower wounded toll of 151. The different figures could not immediately be reconciled.
...
In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police discovered a bomb hidden outside the revered Shiite Golden Mosque on Monday, and it exploded while coalition bomb disposal officials were removing it, damaging the building’s front door and entranceway, the U.S. command said.
...
On Monday, at least 66 people were killed or found dead in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq. They included 46 men who were bound, blindfolded and shot to death in the capital — the latest apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

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I'm sure it's Clinton's fault...

A column published today on conservative website World Net Daily claims that use of soy products leads to reduced penis size and higher rates of male homosexuality.

In "A devil food is turning out kids into homosexuals," author James Rutz claims that soy raises human estrogen levels, causing the shifts.

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First, they attacked his middle name, then described him as "halfrican", and now, the "liberal" CNN's Jeff Greenfield compares him to the lunatic leader of Iran because of... wait for it.. his penchant to go tie-less...

GREENFIELD (voice-over): The senator was in New Hampshire over the weekend, sporting what's getting to be the classic Obama look. Call it business casual, a jacket, a collared shirt, but no tie.

It is a look the senator seems to favor. And why not? It is dressy enough to suggest seriousness of purpose, but without the stuffiness of a tie, much less a suit. There is a comfort level here that reflects one of Obama's strongest political assets, a sense that he is comfortable in his own skin, that he knows who he is.
...
But, in the case of Obama, he may be walking around with a sartorial time bomb. Ask yourself, is there any other major public figure who dresses the way he does? Why, yes. It is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, unlike most of his predecessors, seems to have skipped through enough copies of "GQ" to find the jacket-and-no-tie look agreeable.

And maybe that's not the comparison a possible presidential contender really wants to evoke.

MAYBE a comparison he doesn't want to evoke?

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As mentioned earlier, Minnesota State Rep Mark Olson is in hot water over charges that he allegedly abused his wife...

Rep Mark Olson pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he assaulted his wife during a domestic dispute Nov. 12. In a court appearance that lasted less than one minute, a pre-trial hearing was set for Jan. 19, and Olson left the courtoroom quickly refusing to comment.
...
Olson’s arrest sparked discussion about whether he should resign. Olson said at the time he was not considering the move but fellow Republicans in the House have since voted to remove him from their caucus and House Republican leadership has suggested he should resign if he is convicted

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The Saudi ambassador to the U.S. abruptly resigns to "spend more time with the family". Seems like there is more to the story... possibly a connection to the 28 redacted-pages of the Congressional 9/11 report, or a connection to the Saudi charity that had been funding terrorist activities?

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, has resigned his post after just 15 months on the job and returned home, an official from the Saudi Embassy said on Tuesday.

"The Embassy can confirm that he is leaving. He wants to spend more time with his family," said the embassy official, who asked not to be identified. His predecessor, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, held the job for 22 years.

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Looks like congressional Republicans screwed up by closing up shop early before their work was done. The incoming Democratic majority will lop-off thousands of earmarks...

Democrats taking power in January have settled on a plan to clean up $463 billion worth of GOP budget leftovers, but they're not happy about it - and neither is the White House.

The plan by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees would kill thousands of hometown projects, called "earmarks," that lawmakers add to spending bills. Staying within President Bush's thrifty budgets for domestic agencies like the Agriculture and Education departments is part of their proposal.

"There will be no congressional earmarks," Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Read more! »

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Selling a video game that forces the player to either convert opponents to Christianity or to kill them...

Liberal and progressive Christian groups say a new computer game in which players must either convert or kill non-Christians is the wrong gift to give this holiday season and that Wal-Mart, a major video game retailer, should yank it off its shelves.

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Rare live recording...

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"A blatant admission of abject failure by the most useless Congress in modern times" -- Wisconsin Democratic Representative David Obey, commenting on the Republican's dumping of almost a half-trillion in spending bills on the next Congress

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Now that Friedman has retired the "Friedman Unit" (or better known as "FU"... a 6 month window to resolve the Iraq conflict), Joe Biden has stepped in with "Biden's One Last Shot", or BS for short...

Duncan at Atrios did the heavy lifting and provides us some notable quotes...

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No... this isn't from The Onion...

When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.

Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way -- by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as "Iran and nuclear," three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations.
...
But that argument can also put the U.S. government in the awkward position of relying, in part, on an Internet search to select targets for international sanctions.

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11 December 2006

Think Progress has the video of Faux's "liberal" finally melting down over the relentless war-mongering from his neocon fellow panelists...

WILLIAMS: This is really — sometimes i just want to scream. You guys have been going on since this thing began. I mean, you don’t give credit to people, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Barbara Lee, people who said from the start this is a mistake. You put them down. Now it’s everybody’s a surrender monkey or impatient or squeamish or weak. Why can’t you say, hey, there’s a real problem in Iraq?

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Outgoing Majority Leader Bill Frist dodges blame for unfinished work, blames "the process"...

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TPM Muckraker has the story of the AP's John Solomon landing a gig at the "liberal" Washington Post...

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As mentioned earlier, NY Rep and frat-boy wannabe, John Sweeney found himself in some hot water after reports surfaced about his private life (spousal abuse). Apparently, he's blaming his erratic behavior on a "bug" (virus) he picked up while in Iraq/Afghanistan that "lodged in his brain"...

Since losing re-election last month, Rep. John Sweeney has played hooky in Congress, skipping votes, dodging reporters and avoiding his new make-shift office in a basement cubicle set up for lame ducks.
...
Sweeney believes he picked up "a bug" during congressional trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Sessions.

"A bug got into his system and lodged in his brain," Sessions said. "It caused unimaginable pain and stress."
...
On Nov. 13, Sweeney skipped the three votes and on Nov. 14, he also didn't show. On Nov. 15, Sweeney voted for a financial bill and for a measure congratulating the St. Louis Cardinals on winning the 2006 World Series.

Last Tuesday, Sweeney missed two votes but he came on the House floor on Wednesday to cast two votes, including one to require women seeking abortions after 20 weeks to decide whether they want anesthesia for the fetus. He skipped a vote Dec. 7 and missed seven votes on Dec. 8.

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said not showing up for votes after defeat amounts to "sour grapes."

"The public hired you to do a job and you shouldn't quit before it's over," Cooper said.

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Saddam's nephew escapes from prison...

A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for making bombs for Iraq's insurgency escaped from prison Saturday in northern Iraq, authorities said.

Ayman Sabawi, the son of Saddam's half brother Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, fled the prison some 45 miles west of Mosul in the afternoon with the help of a police officer, according to local police Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri.

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Won't reinstate "Dollar" Bill Jefferson to Ways and Means Committee

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Think Progress has the video of Rick "man-on-dog" Santorum suggesting that if we had supporter an Iranian taxi-cab driver strike, we just might have toppled their gov't...

“We should have quietly gone in there and given them a whole boat-load of money so they could sustain the strike and continue to cause unrest within Iran to try to topple the government.”

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The pinheads at Powerline were having problems thinking of corrupt administration officials. The good folks at TPM Muckraker provides a list...

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"Human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity,” Annan’s text said.

When the U.S. “appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused,” he said.

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Barnes:…and the day before he leavers office—carry out the military option in Iran. Wipe out their nuclear facilities….

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Think Progress with the video of Republican Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtninen welcoming the assassination of Castro or any other "leader who is oppressing the people"...

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Another pissed-off Republican...

Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire yesterday used his last major floor speech as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee to blast his own party's leadership in Congress, accusing Republican leaders of engaging in the type of fiscal recklessness that he said led voters to oust the GOP from power.
...
"The American people took the reins of government away from the Republican Party relative to the Republican Congress in this last election," Gregg said in a speech on the Senate floor. "They did so, I think, in large part because they were tired of our hypocrisy as a party on the issue of fiscal responsibility. And it would appear that their concerns are justified. It is true, I guess."

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09 December 2006

Great video concept...

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GOP leaders were found negligent, but no punishement was meted out...

The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct among many "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences" of Foley's conduct.
...
The report found that Hastert was likely told about Foley's e-mails by two Republican leaders last spring.

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Another sign that things are changing...

Congress has held off on giving themselves another raise -- at least for this year. Democrats have insisted that the scheduled congressional cost-of-living adjustment be delayed for the time being until they can hold a vote next month on raising the minimum wage.

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Pretty serious speech from a faithful Republican...

Republican Sen. Gordon Smith says he's tried to be a "good soldier" for his party and his president, but has reached "the end of his rope" supporting the Bush Iraq policy and wants to bring the troops home whether it's "cut and run or cut and walk." Smith made his remarks in an emotional speech on the Senate floor last night to an almost empty chamber, feeling the need to "speak from my heart."
...
"And I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that any more. I believe we need to figure out not just how to leave Iraq but how to fight the war on terror and to do it right. So either we clear and hold and build or let's go home..."

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Why does Hagel hate America?

Possible presidential candidate and GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel says a new strategy for Iraq "must include timeframes." And while not blatantly embracing Democrats' oft-used terms of "timetables," he clarifies that "timeframes are forcing mechanisms that prompt action and define consequences."

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Josh at Talking Points Memo catches Republican Rep John Shimkus in a wee bit of a predicament over Foleygate...

Accusation:
Republican Rep. John Shimkus demanded Friday that two of Congress's leading Democrats apologize for what he said were accusations that he tried to cover up the Capitol Hill pages' scandal involving former GOP Rep. Mark Foley.

Confession:
After Foley resigned, Shimkus told another Republican member of the Page Board _ Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia _ why he never informed the Democratic member of the board, Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan, about Foley.
Shimkus said, 'Dale's a nice guy, but he's a Democrat, and I was afraid it would be blown out of proportion."

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Revenge is sweet...

Democrats are evicting Vice President Cheney from his sumptuous House-side suite, NBC's Mike Viqueira reports. But even more interesting is who he's vacating the office for. Six years ago, Republicans gave Cheney some prime real estate on the House side: a corner office just off the chamber to use on his occasional journeys to the Capitol.

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Another example of Bush's belief that saying something makes it so...

Bush used the word "prevail" 11 times in the hour-long White House press conference in his first expansive remarks since the Iraq Study Group offered a devastating assessment Wednesday of US policy in Iraq.

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Imus attacks "Money-grubbing Jews"...

Media Matters has the goods...

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Accuses reporters of being "semi-treasonous"...

Steyn: …on the central issue of this our time, they're either dupes at best or actually semi treasonous in colluding with the enemy in demoralizing America on the home front.

Crooks and Liars has the video...

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08 December 2006

Ethics still valued in Minnesota politics...

State Rep. Mark Olson, who goes to court next week to face charges of physically abusing his wife, was kicked out of the Republican House caucus this week with a unanimous consent vote of his colleagues.

House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said Olson was "suspended" from the caucus at a regular private meeting Thursday. The sanction is largely symbolic, and Olson, who was reelected in his central Minnesota district with 58 percent of the vote, will remain in office unless the full House takes action against him when it convenes in January.

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07 December 2006

The nerdiest horn section ever assembled.. the song kicks ass, though

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Whatever happened to this man's honor?

Later today, Sen. John McCain's exploratory committee plans to announce veteran GOP campaign operative Terry Nelson as his pick to be his national campaign manager, should the Senator choose to turn his exploring into a full-blown run for the White House.
...
Nelson's hire is clearly a huge get, but will not come without controversy. Nelson made political headlines in the 2006 cycle as the strategist tapped to head up the RNC's independent expenditure which was responsible for that extremely controversial ad in Tennessee against Harold Ford, Jr. featuring a young blonde actress portraying a woman who met Ford at a Playboy party and who suggestively asks him to call her at the end of the ad. (It caused enough heartache for one of Nelson's other clients, Working Families for Wal-Mart, that they sought and received his resignation after the episode.) Nelson was also tied up in the recently settled New Hampshire phone jamming case and in Tom DeLay's TRMPAC troubles from his days at the RNC.

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Foregoes recommending any more Friedman Units and says we need to set a date certain for withdrawal...

Friedman: This thing is not working and we need to dramatically change course—We have to set a date—a clear and defined date circled on the calendar for us to leave there.—if they have to stare in the face, a very clear reality that on date X, 6,9,10 months from now—we are gone.

via Crooks and Liars

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Think Progress reminds us of Saint McCain's prediction from a year ago...

“I think the situation on the ground is going to improve. I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren’t making progress, I’d be despondent.” [The Hill, 12/8/05]

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I'm not a big fan of Obama, but right-wing wacko Melanie Morgan continues the crusade to smear him...

MORGAN: Senator Obama, who is, as you call, a 'Halfrican' --

Media Matters has the audio and the transcript...

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David Sirota takes a closer look at the key votes that differentiate between the Money Party politicians and the People Party politicians...

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Had great intentions.. was hamstrung by a greedy and arrogant Republican majority...

Sen. Mark Dayton's final Senate speech:

It has been almost six years since I was sworn in as Minnesota's 33rd United States Senator, with my friend and colleague, Senator Paul Wellstone, at my side. I began my term hopeful and optimistic. The Senate was evenly divided with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, and President-elect George W. Bush was promising to "change the tone" in Washington with a new era of bipartisan cooperation.

Read more! »

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As mentioned earlier, radical righty Dennis Prager is in a heap of trouble over his relentless smear campaign against Minnesota Congressman-elect, Keith Ellison. When asked if Bush would remove Prager from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, the administration had no immediate comment...

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06 December 2006

Live in Minneapolis, Minnesota -- 11/2/96 on the first G3 Tour (I was there.. 11th row)

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As mentioned earlier, the Republican-controlled Congress worked 100 days per year (2 days a week), resulting in one of the least productive legislative sessions in our history. Fortunately, the incoming Democratic majority are about to change things...

Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January.

The horror.
...
For lawmakers, it is awful, compared with what they have come to expect. For much of this election year, the legislative week started late Tuesday and ended by Thursday afternoon -- and that was during the relatively few weeks the House wasn't in recess.

Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said.
...
"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

I wonder if Jack expects sympathy from the families of soldiers serving in Iraq?

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Ten U.S. troops killed by IEDs...

Ten American service members were killed in two improvised explosive device attacks in Iraq on Wednesday, NBC News reported. The news came hours after a mortar attack killed at least eight people and wounded dozens in the Sadr City Shiite district of the capital, police said.

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As mentioned earlier, House Republicans are closing up shop before settling some half-trillion worth of required spending bills, with the intention that they will score political points in the opening weeks of the 110th Congress by forcing Democrats to break their "pay-go" pledge. As icing on the cake, they are now trying to delay paying for the spending choices they make now until the next session, making it even harder for the incoming majority to instill pay-go...

Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month.

Already, the Republican leadership has moved to saddle the new Democratic majority with responsibility for resolving $463 billion in spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. And the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas (R., Calif.), has been demanding that the Democrat-crafted 2008 budget absorb most of the $13 billion in costs incurred from a decision now to protect physician reimbursements under Medicare, the federal health-care program for the elderly and disabled.

The unstated goal is to disrupt the Democratic agenda and make it harder for the new majority to meet its promise to reinstitute "pay-as-you-go" budget rules, under which new costs or tax cuts must be offset to protect the deficit from growing.

"I think we're trying to get an accommodation," said Speaker Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) last evening. "You're digging a hole now and filling up with money from '08," he said of Mr. Thomas's demands. "He says he's trying to move away from that."

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When you're talking about a Bush policy...

The United States has offered a detailed package of economic and energy assistance in exchange for North Korea’s giving up nuclear weapons and technology, American officials said Tuesday.

Way back when, Bush was criticizing the Clinton policy of providing NK with energy and food assistance in exchange for their suspension of their nuke program. Now, a half-dozen nukes later, the "appeasement" Bush so cockily discarded a half-dozen years ago has become policy once again..

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No surprise...

The Democratic co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group said Wednesday that America's ability to resolve the crisis in Iraq is narrowing and the costs could rise to more than $1 trillion.
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The commission's report warns that the United States faces a “grave and deteriorating” situation after nearly four years of war in Iraq, prodding Bush to launch a diplomatic offensive to stabilize the country and allow withdrawal of most combat troops by early 2008.
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The commission recommended the United States reduce “political, military or economic support” for Iraq if the government in Baghdad cannot make substantial progress toward providing for its own security.

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Not only admits we are not winning in Iraq, but also that Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism...

Robert Gates, the White House choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary, on Tuesday acknowledged the US was not winning the war in Iraq.

Asked at his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee whether the US was winning the war, Mr Gates responded: “No sir.”
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In another display of independence that won Mr Gates admiration from Democrats, Mr Gates said he did not believe Iraq was “the central front” in the war on terror, which President Bush has consistently argued.

Asked by Lindsey Graham, an influential Republican on the committee, whether Iraq was “the central front”, Mr Gates paused before replying: “I think it is one of the central fronts in the war on terror”.

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05 December 2006

Richie Kotzen live...

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Car bombs claim 30 Iraqis in Baghdad...

Suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them, the government said. In another attack in the capital on Tuesday, two car bombs exploded in a commercial district, killing 15 other Iraqis, police said.

The U.S. command said an insurgent attack on an American military patrol in Baghdad on Monday killed one soldier and wounded five. Another U.S. serviceman also died in southern Iraq that day in an accident involving his vehicle.

Their deaths came after a weekend during which 13 American service members died in Iraq, including four whose Sea Knight helicopter plunged into a lake in volatile Anbar province on Sunday, the military said.

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Even after being warned to be "extra sensitive" about Webb's son having had a close call in Iraq (three Marines were killed in the vehicle next to his), Bush stayed the course...

But according to Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Bush was told that Webb’s son had a recent brush with death in Iraq and was warned to be “extra sensitive” when talking to the Sen.-elect. ThinkProgress yesterday spoke with Moran’s office and confirmed the congressman’s statement, first reported by hcc in VA:

Not only did Bush know about it, he was specifically briefed on the incident before meeting with Webb, and was cautioned to be extra sensitive in speaking with Webb about his son.

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Q: Do you know if President Bush has seen the movie yet?

GORE: Well, he claimed that would not see it. That’s why I wrote the book. He’s a reader.

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Instaputz on Instapundit's sad and pathetic history of suggestions/observations...

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Those funny republicans and their wacky sense of humor. In response to CREW's request to obtain visitor records to the White House, administration officials provided over 100 pages... each page almost entirely redacted (blacked-out)...

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I wonder if the relation between a state's health and it's political preference is coincidental?

An annual report released Tuesday put Minnesota at the top of its health rankings for the fourth straight year, while concluding that the nation’s health improved slightly.
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Vermont was second on the list, followed by New Hampshire, Hawaii and Connecticut. At the other end, the report listed Louisiana as the least-healthy state, followed by Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas.
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Illinois saw the biggest gain in the past year, jumping three to a ranking of 25. The report credited the state for decreasing child poverty by 13 percent and the prevalence of smoking by 10 percent.

Other states saw health gains. Ohio was cited for cutting smoking statewide by 14 percent and increasing immunization coverage by six percent.

Wisconsin rose three places to a ranking of 10, largely due to lowering the number of children in poverty by 24 percent, its high rate of high school graduation and low violent crime rate.

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Wear and tear on equipment surpasses our capability and funding to rebuild/replace them, as well as depriving our troops at home of valuable training...

Field upon field of more than 1,000 battered M1 tanks, howitzers and other armored vehicles sit amid weeds here at the 15,000-acre Anniston Army Depot -- the idle, hulking formations symbolic of an Army that is wearing out faster than it is being rebuilt.

The Army and Marine Corps have sunk more than 40 percent of their ground combat equipment into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to government data. An estimated $17 billion-plus worth of military equipment is destroyed or worn out each year, blasted by bombs, ground down by desert sand and used up to nine times the rate in times of peace. The gear is piling up at depots such as Anniston, waiting to be repaired.

The depletion of major equipment such as tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and especially helicopters and armored Humvees has left many military units in the United States without adequate training gear, officials say. Partly as a result of the shortages, many U.S. units are rated "unready" to deploy, officials say, raising alarm in Congress and concern among military leaders at a time when Iraq strategy is under review by the White House and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
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The military's ground forces are only beginning the vast and costly job of replacing, repairing and upgrading combat equipment -- work that will cost an estimated $17 billion to $19 billion annually for several more years, regardless of any shift in Iraq strategy. The Army alone has 280,000 major pieces of equipment in combat zones that will eventually have to be fixed or replaced. Before the war, the Army spent $2.5 billion to $3 billion a year on wear and tear.

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Apparently members of Congress from both sides of the aisle had second thoughts...

House Republicans abruptly pulled from floor action Tuesday a bill to open a large area of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling after it became clear the legislation lacked the two-thirds vote needed for passage.

The bill, which has already passed the Senate, was to have been one of the last major legislative achievements of this session of Congress.

It would open 8.3 million acres of the Gulf that is now off limits to drilling and also steer hundreds of millions of dollars of federal royalty payments to four Gulf coast states -- a windfall for Louisiana, which would get about half the money.

Republicans leaders gave no reason for the decision.

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Daffy Pete Domenici (R-NM) was caught walking the halls of the Senate building in his pjs...

“What are people talking about ‘walking the halls’? I work!’” the 74-year-old Domenici said, sounding a tad indignant that folks would assume his lightweight wool plaid pants were pajamas. “These pants have two pockets like any else.”

He explained he wears the hunting pants around the house and if he leaves to go to the office, “I don’t necessarily take them off.”

They’re comfy, and they’re fun, he said. “People stop me to talk about them. They’re Christmasy, they’re black and white.”

Looks like Kos had the same reaction..

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I hope this puts an end to his presidential aspirations... I'm sick of seeing his smarmy mug on Hardball every week. Let him stick to appearing on Faux News..

The speaker was U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, a likely candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
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Delaware, he noted, was a “slave state that fought beside the North. That’s only because we couldn’t figure out how to get to the South. There were a couple of states in the way.”

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As mentioned here and here, radical righty Dennis Prager has been on a crusade to smear Minnesota's newest member of Congress, Keith Ellison. Think Progress reminds us that Prager was appointed by Bush to serve on the taxpayer-funded United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Because of his bigoted and unpatriotic rantings, several organizations are calling for his removal from the council...

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The pay gap between genders has narrowed.. only because wages for men have withered...

Data show that the pay gap has been narrowing not because women have made great strides, labor experts say, but because men's wages are eroding.

The disparity in median hourly pay between men and women narrowed to 18.3% in August from 21.5% five years earlier, according to recently released census figures. In addition, the U.S. Labor Department noted recently that the wage differential in 2005 was the smallest since the department began tracking it 33 years ago, when it was 36.9%.

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04 December 2006

I'm feeling ornery...

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Terrorizing by fighting waste and fraud in gov't contracts...

The new chief of the U.S. General Services Administration is trying to limit the ability of the agency's inspector general to audit contracts for fraud or waste and has said oversight efforts are intimidating the workforce, according to government documents and interviews.

GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan, a Bush political appointee and former government contractor, has proposed cutting $5 million in spending on audits and shifting some responsibility for contract reviews to small, private audit contractors.

Doan also has chided Inspector General Brian D. Miller for not going along with her attempts to streamline the agency's contracting efforts. In a private staff meeting Aug. 18, Doan said Miller's effort to examine contracts had "gone too far and is eroding the health of the organization," according to notes of the meeting written by an unidentified participant from the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
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Doan compared Miller and his staff to terrorists, according to a copy of the notes obtained by The Washington Post.

"There are two kinds of terrorism in the US: the external kind; and, internally, the IGs have terrorized the Regional Administrators," Doan said, according to the notes.

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Another GOP presidential hopeful knows who butters his bread...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former tobacco industry lobbyist, won a long battle in court to withdraw all funding for Mississippi's highly successful anti-smoking program, and last week the last dollar ran out.

"This is truly a case of one man, a longtime tobacco industry lobbyist, using his power to destroy a program that was reducing tobacco use among Mississippi's kids," said Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national nonprofit organization.

In a report to be issued Wednesday, the group documents what it calls Barbour's "relentless attack" on what it said was the nation's most successful anti-smoking program.

Barbour complained that the program received its funding directly from the courts and that it needed legislative approval, according to Myers. When the legislature passed a bill to continue the funding, Barbour vetoed it and went back to the courts to withdraw all remaining monies from the program.

Myers says he believes Barbour's motive was to protect his longtime clients in the tobacco industry. Barbour served as a lobbyist for tobacco clients from 1998 to 2002. His firm, Barbour, Griffin, & Rogers, was paid a total of $3.8 million by the tobacco companies, according to reports obtained by the United States Senate Office of Public Records.

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Baghdad blasts kill 43 shoppers, wound 91...

Three parked car bombs exploded in central Baghdad on Saturday near a predominantly Shiite area packed with vendors, killing at least 43 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

The bombs were about 100 yards apart in the busy al-Sadriyah shopping district and exploded nearly simultaneously, according to police Lt. Ali Muhsin. At least 10 other parked vehicles were destroyed in the area, where vendors sell fruit, vegetables and other items such as soap.

Muhsin and hospital officials said 43 people were killed and 91 were wounded.
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The attack came more than a week after a Nov. 23 bombing and mortar attack killed 215 people and wounded more than 200 in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, stoking sectarian tensions.

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Apparently a looney caller to C-Span smearing President Carter is considered "news" by that noted leftist Joe Scarborough...

Think Progress has the details...

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Work 100 days at $165k a year... not bad work, if you can get it...

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Legislating is hard work...

"This may be the most bizarre recommendation, but I am sincere," Sununu said. "I'm not saying it's not an issue or it's not important, but proportionally speaking, stop complaining about health care."

Sununu said business leaders would be better off putting their energy elsewhere. For starters, "if there was something that we could do about it that were quick or easy, it would be done," he said, predicting only marginal policy changes. "There is no solution" anytime soon, he said.

nod to Josh at Talking Points Memo

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$1.1 billion program to train police deemed a failure, thousands of trucks issued to police are missing....

On the bright side...

“Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin, broke all records in 2006.”

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As mentioned earlier, Radical Righty Dennis Prager attacked incoming Congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, comparing him with Nazis and warning of the destruction of American civilization. Now, despite his acknowledgment that his demand "may well be" unconstitutional, he vows to press forward...

Think Progress has the info..

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Why celebrate the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in the western hemisphere when you can block it with a semantic argument? Besides... we have another celebration to concentrate on... VI Day - the Commemoration Of Success Of The Armed Forces In Operation Enduring Freedom And Operation Iraqi Freedom

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House Dems who opposed the war are now sowing the oats of their wisdom...

Although given little public credit at the time, or since, many of the 126 House Democrats who spoke out and voted against the October 2002 resolution that gave President Bush authority to wage war against Iraq have turned out to be correct in their warnings about the problems a war would create.

With the Democrats taking over control of the House next January, the views that some voiced during two days of debate four years ago are worth recalling, since many of those lawmakers will move into positions of power. They include not only members of the new House leadership but also the incoming chairmen of the Appropriations, Armed Services, Budget and Judiciary committees and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

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And the military is paying only $85 per can!!

American troops in Iraq have become masters of improvisation, like bolting jury-rigged armor to humvees to shield themselves from sniper fire and shrapnel. Lately, an even more novel item has joined their battle kits. Stratford, N.J., mom Marcelle Shriver recently got a call from her son Todd requesting ... Silly String. Marines working with his unit in Iraq had shown the Army combat engineer how it can be used to detect trip wires. Before searching buildings, for example, personnel spray doorways from at least 10 ft. away with streams of foam--and see if they're snagged by barely visible wires, which are often affixed to bombs.

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"Aw geez" -- Republican presidential hopeful and outgoing Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, when confronted about using illegal aliens as groundskeepers at his home..

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Hastert looks like a clown, Fordham and Reynolds look like heroes...

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Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports that there is a videotape of the Jose Padilla interrogations...

Lawyers for "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla claim he is so disoriented from three years of isolation and aggressive interrogations that he is now mentally ill. In new court filings, Padilla's lawyers also assert for the first time that Padilla's interrogations were taped, thereby providing a potentially extensive video record of how the government treated a man once considered a dangerous Qaeda operative.

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They don't even make an effort at spinning something even partially factual...

"Despite the support of a strong bipartisan majority of senators, Ambassador Bolton's confirmation was blocked by a Democrat filibuster, and this is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process," Perino said.

(Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee cast the deciding vote to block Bolton's nomination)

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David Sirota explains the difference between the two, and names the major figures backing each...

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The blue wave claims another victim...

Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.

Bolton’s nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton.

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The leaked Rummy memo proves his "resignation" was forced...

Two days before he resigned as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld submitted a classified memo to the White House that acknowledged that the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq was not working and called for a major course correction.

“In my view it is time for a major adjustment,” wrote Mr. Rumsfeld, who has been a symbol of a dogged stay-the-course policy. “Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough.”

Nor did Mr. Rumsfeld seem confident that the administration would readily develop an effective alternative. To limit the political fallout from shifting course, he suggested the administration consider a campaign to lower public expectations.

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Why would anyone possibly be against paper trails for voting machines? You'll have to ask a Republican.

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Answer = When he's a white, radical righty...

Demetrius "Van" Crocker of McKenzie, convicted in April of attempting to obtain a chemical weapon and possession of stolen explosives, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Todd in Jackson.

Crocker, who told undercover FBI agents of his desire to explode a briefcase bomb while Congress was in session, was found guilty by a jury in about 90 minutes in April.

The 40-year-old farmhand and father of two was convicted of accepting what he thought were ingredients to make Sarin nerve gas and a block of C-4 explosive from undercover agents in October 2004.

nod to Ornicus via Crooks and Liars

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01 December 2006

Pat's still rockin'..

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As mentioned earlier, the days of Congress under Republican control are waning, and instead of fulfilling their obligations to serve their constituents, congressional Republicans are more than happy at the thought of leaving a half trillion in spending bills unaddressed, thus bogging down the agenda of the new Democratic majority. But now they are making one last, desperate attempt to play to their base, proposing a "fetal pain" bill that they have admitted has no chance of passing...

Next week, the 109th Congress returns for a final lame-duck session. “In a blend of pique and laziness,” conservatives are choosing to simply ignore their responsibility to complete nine overdue spending bills. Instead, they plan to pass an emergency stop-gap bill — called a “continuing resolution” — that will result in millions in funding cuts to vital programs. CongressDaily explains:

– The Social Security Administration has told congressional staff it might have to furlough every employee.
– HUD funding would not keep pace with demand for low-income housing vouchers, meaning “literally thousands of people would be out in the street,” one source said.
– School breakfast and lunch programs would face a $1 billion shortfall, cutting off 1.2 million participants.
– The Veterans Health Administration would have to absorb the $3 billion increase to meet this year’s requirements.

But while spending bills aren’t on the agenda, a “fetal pain abortion bill” — which has no chance of passing and is described as a “last bid for loyalty” from the “base of social conservatives” — is:

The bill, by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., defines a 20-week-old fetus as a “pain-capable unborn child” a highly controversial threshold among scientists. It also directs the Health and Human Service Department to develop a brochure stating “that there is substantial evidence that the process of being killed in an abortion will cause the unborn child pain.”

A report last year by the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed nearly 2,000 studies on fetal pain and concluded that “legislative proposals to allow fetal pain relief during abortion are not justified by scientific evidence.”

Think Progress brings the goods...

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Media Matters highlights his latest meltdowns, including accusing "secular progressives" wanting out-of-wedlock births to reach record highs, and accusing NBC of rooting for the U.S. to lose in Iraq...

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With that done, what will be the next thing Pelosi is criticized for?

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has chosen a Border-Patrol-agent-turned-congressman to take over the House Intelligence Committee, according to congressional aides.

The two aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they considered it an internal party issue, confirmed that Democratic leaders are contacting congressional and other political officials to tell them Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, will be the new chairman of the committee when Democrats take control in January.

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A war that would cost taxpayers "$1.7 billion", that would be financed with Iraqi oil revenues is now expected to cost taxpayers $200 billion in 2007 alone...

Including the money already approved, the cost of the total military spending for Iraq and Afghanistan could come close to $200 billion in 2007. About $120 billion was spent in the 2006 budget year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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TPM Muckraker details the investigations and court cases on the horizon, and handicaps their chances of getting to the truth...

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Torture advocate and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can't think of a mistake he's made in the six-plus years he has served Bush...

Think Progress has the transcript

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