Thursday, August 18, 2005
They Only Eat Their Young...
Big Bob Novak takes time out from his busy schedule managing all his various scandals to take a chomp out of ol' Bill Frist's leg.0 comments
Can't all the crooks just get along?
posted by Gotham 8:40 PM
It Begins...
Wow.1 comments
Whoever thought that moderate Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, so hated and reviled by the wingnuts for not being pure on taxes, would be the first major GOP player to go down on the corruption madness that will certainly wash so many away in 2006?
If the various investigations across the country which are looking into GOP corruption start rolling in with indictments from here on in, then the resounding THUD heard from Republican campaign honchos' flop-sweat hitting the floor should begin to grow deafening.
Back to Taft:
His is the ultimate non-apology apology.The judge ordered him to apologize.
''From the shores of Lake Erie to the banks of the Ohio River, I want them to know that you are sorry for what you have done...''
But not for our Bob. Oh, no... His apology barely made it across the room.Taft's voice cracked as he spoke later at a news conference.
''There are no words to express the deep remorse that I feel over the embarrassment that I have caused for my administration and the people of the state of Ohio,'' Taft said.
What garbage.
He doesn't apologize; he feels "remorse."
He didn't commit a crime; he "caused embarrassment."
The GOP obviously won't lose in the upcoming elections; they'll "underrepresent their base numbers."
posted by Gotham 12:55 PM
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Gary Who?
Manuel reads the GOP their Miranda Wrongs:0 comments
Marginal Cost:
The risk of running up the score on the Roberts confirmation vote.
I do admit to loving the sound of Republican squabbling in the morning...
I also love the WSJ's attempts to rehabilitate the ever-popular Gary Bauer.
Here is their description of Bauer, before offering a quote of his decrying the political correctness of the White House's approach to handling Supreme Court nominations:"former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer"
While technically true, his seeming 48 hrs. of running for high office ended not at all well—humping a young campaign staffer, and having the rest of his staff turn on him for it. Here's leadership for you.Despite his evangelical crusades, Bauer's personal behavior has been the subject of sharp criticism from his employees and political allies. He was accused of adultery by his 2000 presidential campaign staff, who "charged Bauer with ill-advised private meetings with a 27-year-old female campaign aide. In October, campaign manager Charles Jarvis and almost half the campaign staff left Bauer over the charges of impropriety."
When Bauer called his own press conference to combat the rumors of adultery, he refused to answer questions about which campaign he thought was spreading the rumors (although he had claimed a rival campaign was doing it), and whether or not any of his former colleagues had approached him about his seemingly inappropriate behavior with the female aide.
According to the People for the American Way, after Bauer dropped out of the 2000 presidential race, The Family Research Council's [which he co-founded] "Board of Directors quickly confirmed that [Bauer] would not be back—no surprise, as FRC had previously given Bauer a thinly veiled notice of expulsion when it released the results of a poll conducted among their staffers. . . In addition, Bauer had reportedly angered James Dobson, founder and head of Focus on the Family, mentor to Bauer, and underwriter of much of the FRC, when he decided to run for president."
Plus, this pleased the wingnut leadership no end:When Bauer dropped out of the presidential race, he endorsed the campaign of Sen. John McCain, which drew criticism from conservative leaders: "On his 700 Club television show, Pat Robertson, who himself sought the GOP's presidential nomination in 1988, said, 'I don't think the Bauer thing makes one hill of difference. He didn't do anything anywhere all over the country... I would think, frankly, that his political activity is pretty much over."
Despite his attempts to become a leading member of the religious right, he has been known for "scaring the hell out of the Republican establishment... Bauer is leading his flock toward a moralist economic philosophy that often seems more Democratic than Republican...The China debate drew Bauer into an open alliance with liberals. He coordinated strategy with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), attended a Kennedy family dinner, staged a press conference with the AFL-CIO, and dined with Richard Gere after they shared the same stage at a rally."
Just so we don't overlook Bauer's long-held worldview:Bauer is currently the president of another organization named American Values. He was also a signatory on the Project for the New American Century's letter to Bill Clinton advocating an overthrow of the Iraqi government.
So, this allusion in the WSJ to "his constituents" becomes laughable. And slimey on the Journal's part. Bauer has never held office, so has no constituency—only followers, and even those he's had trouble hanging onto.
So, Bauer's comments on the internal conflicts within the GOP are enlightening to everyone in the congregation, I'm certain.
Plus, anyone having lunch with Richard Gere is icky just on general principles.
posted by Gotham 3:08 PM
An Oil Well In Every Pot
It's nice to see those times when The Wall St. Journal actually comes up with an idea that is worth exploring.0 comments
But anything that's connected to the name Chalabi is automatically suspect on its face.
posted by Gotham 1:48 PM
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Today's "GOP Crook of the Day"
"All Graft Is Local..."0 comments
via Buzz Flash:
Effort to recall Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens finds support in police
It's just not good when you've got the local constabulary on your corrupt butt.
posted by Gotham 3:29 AM
Legal Advice
2 Lobbyists Are Charged in Pentagon Information Leak0 comments
The indictment said that Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman disclosed information on such issues as American policy in Iran, terrorism in central Asia and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American military airmen.
My. Such meager, meat-and-potato classified drivel.
Accused spymasters/lobbyists Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, formerly senior staff members at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, would be well advised to simply say the classified info that THEY passed on to reporters was just the names of a bunch of covert CIA agents in charge of moles buried deep within Osama bin Ladin's main hideout.
It acts as a "Get Out of Jail, Free" Card.
posted by Gotham 2:52 AM
Needed:
Gun Control?
Or War Control?
The war comes home.0 comments
Two "friends" stage High Noon over Bush's Folly .
Slaying in dispute over war might be a first
posted by Gotham 2:40 AM
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Harris: 'Republicans Colorized My Brain'
GOP Laughing Stock:0 comments
Katherine Harris: 'Newspapers colorized my photograph'
She should have no problems with the black & white supermarket tabloids, then.
Can the eventual "I mated with aliens!--K. Harris" be far behind?
Or even "Florida Senate Candidate and Bat Boy in Love Tryst?"
posted by Gotham 6:42 PM
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
GOP Shell Game?
via Talking Points Memo:0 comments
Feds Search Homes, Car Of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Julian Murray was more forthcoming.
"This is astounding," he said. "You can't say it's unprecedented, but it certainly is quite a move. I mean, a man's home and his car -- to get any magistrate or judge to issue a search warrant for a United States congressman, you can pretty much imagine there has to have been alot of probable cause would have gone into that."
A lot of probable cause?
Or a lot of Patriot Act abuse?
With the massive corruption on the GOP side of the aisle, sitting, waiting to find a courtroom, I get very suspicious of any federal agency investigating anyone on the Democratic side of the aisle.
This better be good.
This is something to keep an eye on.
posted by Gotham 8:56 PM
Yet Another Class for Bush to Cut...
...And fail.0 comments
Bush: Schools should teach 'intelligent design'
posted by Gotham 8:17 PM
Chaos
Blood in the sand.0 comments
American troops, and now reporters, are increasingly caught in the cross-fire of this U.S.-sponsored Iraqi Civil War.
On Monday, in Sunni-controlled Haditha near the Syrian border:
6 Marine Snipers Are Slain in Ambush in Western Iraq; Another Dies in Suicide Attack
The deaths on Monday took the American toll in Iraq past 1,800, The A.P. reported.
Violence continued in other parts of Iraq as well. A group calling itself the Supporters of the Sunni People said its members had killed 15 Shiites at a fake checkpoint it had set up on a highway south of Baghdad. The Web site posting said the insurgents had stopped cars and pulled out Iraqis who appeared to be members of Shiite militias.
"More than 15 Shia who were proven to be related to the parties who support the crusaders in Iraq were killed," the posting said.
On Tuesday night, in Shiite-controlled Basra:
New York Journalist Is Executed in Iraq
[Steven] Vincent was particularly incensed about the sharp divide between men and women in the Islamic world, and about the increasingly religious mores in Basra that forced women to wear full-length black robes in public. He said he fully supported the Iraq war, believing it was part of a much larger campaign being waged by the United States against "Islamo-fascism." But Mr. Vincent said he was also disappointed by the failure of the United States and Great Britain to enforce their visions of democracy here in Iraq, instead allowing religious politicians to seize power across the south.
Conservative Shiite parties have strengthened their hold on Basra since the January elections. They include the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which was founded in Iran and wields enormous power in Baghdad, and the Fadilah Party, started by Ayatollah Muhammad Yacoubi, a hard-line cleric. The organization of Moktada al-Sadr, the young cleric who has led two rebellions against the Americans, also has great influence in Basra.
In his op-ed in The New York Times, Mr. Vincent wrote that "it is particularly troubling that sectarian tensions are increasing in Basra, which has long been held up as the brightest spot of the liberated Iraq."
Policemen, he said, were responsible for carrying out many of the assassinations of former Baath Party officials, in revenge for the oppression of the Shiites under Saddam Hussein.
"Unless the British include in their security sector reform strategy some basic lessons in democratic principles, Basra risks falling further under the sway of Islamic extremists and their Western-trained police enforcers," he wrote.
On Wednesday, again in Sunni-controlled Haditha:
14 U.S. Marines Killed in Iraq When Vehicle Hits a Huge Bomb
And this madness we've unleashed is still waiting to explode in the north, where the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are waiting for the first salvo to be tossed in order to wage war among themselves over control of the Kurdish territory, especially oil-rich Kirkuk. Of course, this has the potential to embroil all the warring factions within Iraq, along with Iran, Turkey and Russia, all of whom have large Kurdish populations in their territories bordering Iraq. This fight could become regional with a few well-placed bombs or assassinations.
Faoud Masoon, the deputy chairman of Iraq's constitutional committee, said two of the most contentious points in the new charter—the future of the contested city of Kirkuk and the control of a number of Kurdish-populated enclaves in the north—would be largely put off for a future government to resolve.
Mr. Masoon said the committee members had reached a tentative agreement to include language in an "annex" to the constitution that would call for a reversal of the ethnic cleansing of Kirkuk, then the conducting of a census and a plebiscite to determine whether the city would revert to Kurdish control.
In a campaign known as Arabization, agents of Saddam Hussein's government evicted tens of thousands from Kirkuk and the surrounding region in the 1980's, and imported thousands of Arab families from the south to take their place. Since the fall of Mr. Hussein, Kirkuk has become a violent metropolis, contested by Arabs, Turkomens and Kurds, while tens of thousands of Kurds trying to return to their homes have piled into squalid shantytowns outside the city.
Still, Mr. Masoon said the annex calling for the reversal of Arabization in Kirkuk included no timetable for the policy.
Likewise, he said, the annex contained no timetable for determining the status of a number of smaller Kurdish enclaves in northern Iraq that Kurdish leaders want to bring under the control of the Kurdish regional government.
"We are not discussing the territorial issue in the constitution," said Mr. Masoon, who is also a leader in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the main Kurdish political parties.
A bomb, sitting on an explosive, sitting on a powderkeg.
With coalition forces sitting right in the middle.
Support The Troops.
posted by Gotham 2:24 PM
Why Ken Melman Is Soiling His Sheets Tonight...
First, Democrats drew blood:0 comments
OH-02 Election Results
Now, they smell blood:
Tidal
OH-02: Hackett Concession Speech
[Hackett] sounds like a candidate who is kicking off a campaign, not ending one.
Newly elected Congresswoman-For-A-While Jean Schmidt probably shouldn't get too comfy in her new D.C. digs. She's now facing any number of ethics violations and will be spending her time with those, along with doing the business of merely 52% of the good folks of OH-02.
She has to run for the seat outright again next year. Which means she'll spend her year in Congress begging House Majority Leader and Ethics Consultant Tom DeLay for all the taxpayer money he can steal for her.
Paul Hackett will most likely be waiting. Battle-toughened, prepared and hungry.
Wow. What a night!
This was a VERY GOOD NIGHT if you were Howard Dean.
NOT A GOOD NIGHT if you were sitting in the closet with the rest of the folks at the RNC.
Hmmmmm...a thought:
They've run out of SCOTUS appointments.
... BushRove is sure to attack Iran if this election thing keeps up.
posted by Gotham 12:22 AM
