Thursday, December 06, 2007
National Media (BrokenHearts) Huckabee
Of course, it sounded too good to be true.0 comments
An affable outsider with a quick wit and warm personality taking on the high-priced stiffs for the Republican nomination. A pastor, even, instead of the corporate hucksters and shills the GOP spits out like sunflower seeds.
But how many times have hearts lept, as attractive strangers from across a room slowly steered towards each other, only to find one of them had snot hanging from their nose and stains on their sleeve?
Salon.com | Mike Huckabee's record
Alas. The 2008 Election Media's new darlings have not borne up well under closer scrutiny. And remember: At a time that the GOP is desperate to retain power, THIS is the best they could do for a field of candidates. (Has there been a Tom Tancredo sighting recently?) Cheeesh...
Rudy Giuliani, after being coronated in the early stages of this obscenely long campaign, is imploding faster than an old Vegas hotel.
We've written earlier about Mike Huckabee being outed by the very people of Arkansas who know him best—but this time, it's on a national stage. So, the attention from the national MSM ratchets up the stakes a bit.
Now, maybe it stems from growing up poor in Hope, AR, but it seems ol' Pastor Mike has a wee bit of a sticky-finger problem with the array of perks that come from celebrity and position—along with that Bill Clinton vendetta you've read about, which led him to uncage a monster to kill twice.
Arkansas Times' Max Brantley in Salon:(GN emphases) In the governor's office, his grasp never exceeded his reach. Furniture he'd received to doll up his office was carted out with him when he left, after he'd crushed computer hard drives so nobody could ever get a peek behind the curtain of the Huckabee administration.
Until my paper, the Arkansas Times, blew the whistle, he converted a governor's mansion operating account into a personal expense account, claiming public money for a doghouse, dry-cleaning bills, panty hose and meals at Taco Bell. He tried to claim $70,000 in furnishings provided by a wealthy cotton grower for the private part of the residence as his own, until he learned ethics rules prevented it. When a disgruntled former employee disclosed memos revealing all this, the Huckabee camp shut her up by repeatedly suggesting she might be vulnerable to prosecution for theft because she'd shared documents generated by the state's highest official.
He ran the State Police airplane into the ground, many of the miles in pursuit of political ends. Inauguration funds were used to buy clothing for his wife. He once took control of the state Republican Party's campaign account -- then swore the account had been somebody else's responsibility when it ran afoul of federal election laws. He repeated the pattern when he claimed in a newspaper story that his staff controlled the account to stage his second inauguration. When I filed a formal ethics complaint over what appeared to be an improper appropriation of donated money, he told a different story, disavowing responsibility for the money. He thus avoided another punishment from an Ethics Commission, which had sanctioned him on five other occasions. He dodged nine other complaints (though none, despite his counter-complaints, was held to be frivolous). In one case, he was saved by the swing vote of a woman who left the chairmanship of the Ethics Commission days later to take a state job. She listed the governor as a reference on the job application. Finally, unbelievably, Huckabee once sued to overturn the ban on gifts to him.
My newspaper chronicled all this and so much more. Since my paper wrote critically about him, I didn't often experience the "nice" Mike Huckabee that so many national commentators have enjoyed. In fact, ultimately Huckabee ended press services, which are publicly financed, to my newspaper. The Arkansas Times received no news releases from the governor's office, no notices of news conferences, no responses to routine questions. He was condemned for this by journalism organizations.
Truth is, we were happy to be thrown into the governor's briar patch. The world is full of disaffected Huckabee campaign workers, former employees and garden-variety Republicans who love to pass on tips about a governor they'd found self-centered and untrustworthy. If you think he left a well of warm feelings in Arkansas, note that Hillary Clinton had raised more money in Arkansas at last report and that a recent University of Arkansas Poll showed her a 35 to 8 percent leader over Huckabee in the presidential preferences of Arkansas residents. Only one-third of 33 Republican legislators have said they will support him for president.
Thanks to such unhappy people, we've broken numerous stories about Huckabee, from the first early word of his destruction of state computer hard drives (more fully reported by the Democrat-Gazette); to the time and place of his announcement for president; to his sale and purchase of homes; to his infamous "wedding registry." About the last: Three decades after the Huckabees' wedding, his wife registered at department stores so their new home, post-governor's mansion, could be stocked with gifts of linens, toasters and other suitable furnishings. In early 2007, our reporting also prompted the former first lady to decline dozens of place settings of governor's mansion china and Irish crystal that had been purchased with tax-deductible contributions to the Governor's Mansion Association, nominally set up to improve the mansion, not to buy going-away presents for former occupants.
Ouch. That's just a portion of the sins Brantley outlines.
Rudy, Mike. The GOP field may not be able to field a candidate if they keep dropping like flies.
Mitt Romney is an airhead supreme, but with all his vast fortune, at least he gives the appearance of being an ethical one.
Maybe it's simply time to disband the Republican Party, and allow the adults to govern the daily affairs of the American public.
Just asking.
posted by Gotham 5:32 PM
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Just Stupid...
Top contender for Stupid Story of the Year:0 comments
AP | Bush Calls on Iran to 'Come Clean'
They did, George. Four years ago. But your greed made it hard to hear.
The REAL story:
America Calls on Bush to 'Come Clean'
Really, George, what have you been hiding all these years? Yours is the most secretive administration in the history of the United States.
There are no "State Secrets." There is no "Executive Privilege." There is only "CYA."
There are only scores of events where you helped yourselves and your friends and cronies, at the American citizen's expense, and you simply will go to ANY extreme to keep from being caught, tried, convicted, and perhaps executed, for all the crimes committed on your watch.
As your friends in the right-wing mob like to say, "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear."
Let it all out, George. Release EVERYTHING.
Who knows? Maybe you're innocent. But with everything hidden, we all will just assume you are guilty as sin.
Of everything.
'Come Clean,' George. When God talks to you the next time, that's Him whispering what to do.
posted by Gotham 4:31 PM
Al Franken Announces For Senate
We at GN knew Al Franken back in the late '70s/ early '80s during his Saturday Night Live days. He was, in short, a jerk. But in hindsight, he was no more arrogant than everyone else connected with such a powerful show in those days.0 comments
Over the years, he's seemed not only to "get older," but to "grow up." While the ego came through clearly in his Air America show, he became quite capable of understanding complex issues and presenting them simply for his listeners; he appeared capable of great moral outrage at what he saw this nation becoming; he was able to speak with impressive humility about his numerous trips to Iraq to entertain U.S. soldiers.
So, we watched the last couple of years, as this morphed from a good joke to an idea to be considered to a full-blown strategy:
USA TODAY | Al Franken enters Minn. Senate raceSo, Franken has decided to give up an easy, well paid life as an outside carper to take on Norm Coleman, someone who, as a first termer, has supported George Bush's rape of our Treasury, our middle class existence, our rights as U.S. citizens under the Constitution and the full dismantlement of our heroic military.
USA TODAY's story herein is short and rather to the point. The meat of the link, however, is the comment section on all this. Definitely a Must Read. It's just hilarious!
Franken's announcement has certainly brought out the mouth-breathers.
They're very cute in their rantings. Dangerous, but cute. Kinda like NY alligators. Very cute, but you finally have to flush them down the toilet.
As is usual, their diatribes are all ad hominem attacks. Variations of "Al Franken is a doody-head!" Along that general line of unreasoning.
One thing I dearly love about the wingnuts (and the wingnut sponsors in the MSM) is their tenet that ANYTHING a Democrat had done for a living before seeking public office automatically disqualifies him or her, whereas biography for a Republican is simply a trifle to be ignored fully, unless it sounds sexy enough be used as a marketing tool.
To these bright lights, if you disagree with them, you're an asshole, period—even if you were pope, or God or had saved millions of starving, dying children.
To them, if you agree with them, being a bug exterminator is OK. Or being someone who worked to free convicted rapists so they could kill again is cool, so long as it was done to get back at Bill and Hillary Clinton. Or being a Watergate burgler and co-conspirator; or an Iran Contra co-conspirator while in military uniform. Or a Klansman. Or any amount of jail time for an array of offenses against humanity. That's all cool.
But if you simply disagree:
YOU are an asshole, and you should move back to (whatever place they can think of that sounds really bad)!!!!! And whatever it is/was you do/did SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! Gottit, DUDE?????
We here at Gotham Notes make really bad wingnuts. Our spelling is just too good. (Sigh.) Oh well...
To encapsulate:
Ted Nugent is cool; The Dixie Chicks should shut up.
Ronald Reagan and George Murphy were cool; Jeannine Garofalo and Sean Penn should shut up.
Life is easy and very simple when you're scared and stupid.
But this race is easy to understand.
Franken is a comedian.
Coleman is a joke.
The race is on.
posted by Gotham 2:57 PM
Corporations Seek Regulations Rehab
CEOs: "Please save us from ourselves! We've been stealing so much money from folks for so long, that we just don't know how to stop! Please HELP us!"0 comments
AMERICAblog | UK business now sees benefits to environmental regulations
We're witnessing a early stage of the rout of the Milton Friedman school of neo-con economic crap. It's devastated entire swaths of this planet.
Even the greedy red-tie set is beginning to realize that there are limits to just how greedy a human being can get before he/she starts to vomit gold. Hot, molten gold.
After this long corporate-highwaymen reign of terror here in the U.S. and elsewhere, blessed, worshipped "market forces" are now turning on the RedTies and they're now beginning to devour each other and even their own entrails.
All these regulations the far right, the Neo-Cons and all their Think Tanks have railed against for decades were instituted in the first place for a simple reason: to keep us from our worst human impulses; to protect us from ourselves. We humans are unruly creatures, barely able to sustain civilized interaction unless there is a large body of accepted law, and a large police presence to enforce it, helping us to get to work in the morning. Otherwise, we'd each simply kill the moron next to us who forgot to shower. And fight over his bones.
Every time you hear a pundit expound upon Deregulation or "The Market Forces," what you should hear is "I WANT MORE! FOR ME!" You would be well served to respond, "Such a greedy wretch."
The subprime mess is a perfect example. BushCo gave business full, unfettered leeway to do whatever it wanted, whatever "the market" would allow, in the pursuit of making ever more bountiful profits.
And it seems they took that newfound license, gobbled all they could hold, then, oops! took a massive, collective dump on the village green. And now they're feeling oh, so ill and oh, so woozy. They would dearly love for someone to come along and clean up this mess for them. And pat their foreheads with a cold compress, and tell them they can come back and steal some more another day.
But, clearly, "the market" is working perfectly and it's now ready to shed those many players who thought to play it cheaply. So, we should just allow it. Let it shed ALL of its latter day Ken Lays and Ivan Boeskys into the abyss of accursed lower-middle-class.
The only downside to that is they're going to take the rest of us down along with them.
Until we institute severe re-regulation.
Just to keep us all from ourselves, mind you.
posted by Gotham 3:31 AM
As If Bush and Rudy Aren't Enough
Of A Heartache...
Ahhh, hope springs eternal in the Gotham breast...0 comments
But the Mets'll kill that pretty quick.
The NY Metropolitans just announced their Spring Training schedule for 2008.
The Not-So Amazins begin withballsand bats on Feb. 26.
Since hapless Mets GM Omar Minaya has struck out mightily this winter in trying to get ANYONE running another team to consider his group of gutless wonders as having any value, and since nobody wants any of these guys in a trade and there's nothing but over-priced rummies available as free agents, it's looking more and more like "second verse, the same as the first."
Should be pretty much the same lineup of bipeds and the same pitiful staff as last year.
Oh boy, we can start Opening Day with a collapse! Is that even possible?
posted by Gotham 12:35 AM
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
How The Catalog Stole Christmas
Hate all those catalogs the direct marketers dump on you every Christmas season? (And, in all honesty, Charles Gibson and Falafel Bill O'Reilly's War On Christmas Sanity notwithstanding, it IS the fault of Christmas season, so far—hell, I still haven't received ONE Kwanzaa or Chanukah or Ramadan catalog yet this year—AND IT'S ALREADY DECEMBER 4TH!!! What'll I do, Bill??!!??0 comments
OK, breathe...Relief is on the way.
This is a magic button.
This button will make catalogs go away.
We've placed it here to make it easy, plus down towards the bottom of Gotham Notes' sidebar on the right is the new home for this button, which will take you to the site of Catalog Choice, which is sponsored by The Ecology Center of Berkeley, CA:
The Ecology Center provides information, tools, technical assistance, referrals, political strategies, and models for sustainable living. We address the public need for non-commercial information about ecologically sensitive practices and the numerous toxic threats to society and the environment. In addition to our Environmental Resource Center, we provide direct services including Berkeley's residential curbside recycling pickup, the three Berkeley Farmers' Markets, the Farm Fresh Choice food justice program, Terrain magazine, the EcoHouse demonstration site, and a wide range of fiscally sponsored projects.
Pick the catalogs you wish would go away, and these kind folks will contact the catalog publishers with your request to remove you from their mailing lists.
Et Voila!
Hey, we're here for you, y'know?
posted by Gotham 7:37 PM
Choices, Choices...
Now, this is always a tough call for a community to make:0 comments
Lose good-paying jobs or continue to produce day-glo children?
Such a weighty responsibility for shareholders, as well.
Yahoo! News | Dow Chemical to shut plants, cut jobs, take charge
Lord...!
posted by Gotham 6:55 PM
Monday, December 03, 2007
Rudy: "I Do Not Talk To People
Who Charge Me With Corruption"
Then, this could make it very difficult for Rudy—or any Republican for that matter—to get his message out.0 comments
This could mean a total press blackout.
Hell, we're just starting to see the first Mike Huckabee corruption stories float up, out of Arkansas.
To be fair, the ATU's Larry Hanley of Staten Island, while not an overly articulate man, is not charging Rudy Giuliani directly with corruption. If you listen to him, he's warning the Mayor that some within his administration may be corrupt.
Notice also, Rudy's burning curiosity to find out who in his City Hall MIGHT have corruption charges brought against them. Nahhhh, just shout down the talker. He found out soon enough anyway, as they started carting off his staff.
Because, in typical Rudy M.O., ALL of Rudy's chosen people are as pure as the driven snow. So, attack the attacker. Again, until all the frog walks begin, mind you...
Thank you, Larry.
Another interesting sidelight is the date on the video: 6/27/01.
Those of you around the country can now finally see how much—just over two months before we were to go to the polls on Primary Day, September 11, 2001 to elect Rudy's successor—just how much Rudy had pissed off the citizenry of New York. This rowdy meeting was pretty typical everyday fare all over the city when it involved Rudy by that point.
We couldn't WAIT to be rid of him.
That's why New York laughed so hard at him when he wanted to suspend terms limits, to stay on as mayor for the good of all after he turned tail and ran from his post at the World Trade Center, leaving hundreds of NYers to die.
Now, honestly, isn't all this tired Nixonian "I Am Not A Crook!" crap how we all feel now about Bush? Why go there again? Because, that's exactly where Rudy would take us. Make no mistake. Same crap; nastier spin.
Hat tip to Henry M. for sending the video along!
posted by Gotham 11:00 PM
If Krugman Is Scared...
Yesterday, we showed you the political underpinnings of the financial disaster BushCo has saddled us with.0 comments
Today, Krugman supplies the economic explanations for how screwed we're all gonna be.
Tips for Congress:
1) Kill all of Bush's tax cuts NOW!
2) Pass some WHOPPING big tax hikes on all the rich guys NOW! Before we're all sunk along with them.
Tip for everyone in the financial corporations arena:
Time to go back to school, dude, maybe become a social worker; or a teacher. You'll need to make a living somehow. The financials workforce could lose 30% to 70% of its numbers within the next two years.
posted by Gotham 4:31 PM
Made My Day...
"Hey Chuck!! How did you get so smart, to talk your boss, Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, into finally bucking his party and standing up to Bush and Cheney on all those terrifying GOP initiatives, like laying waste to Iraq and looting the national Treasury?"0 comments
"Ohhh, thanks, Sally. But I'm not really smart. I didn't really get him to do that. But, hey! I DID manage a Holiday Inn Express last night!!"
The Raw Story | Tough job market for GOP: Congressional staffer bolts to become motel manager
Chuck Knapp: The New Wave of GOP job prospects' poster boy.
posted by Gotham 3:55 PM
Sunday Wingnut Rabble on Fox Watch Rudy Stumble
The Neo-Con riff-raff is turning on Rudy. There's blood in the water for Fox's favorite candidate!0 comments
The Raw Story | Kristol: Giuliani nomination 'problematic' in scandal's wake
Bill Kristol? Fred Barnes? Chris Wallace?
Uh, Judy, have your police driver stop and pick up some bi-carb for your husband tonight. I think he's gonna need it.
posted by Gotham 12:56 AM
Hell Freezes Over
The Jets Win! My Word! The Jets Win!0 comments
It must have been the snow we had today (even though they played in Miami).
It's hard to fathom that someone else sucks worse than we suck.
But, NY Jets 40, Miami Dolphins 13 tells the tale.
posted by Gotham 12:01 AM
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Snow Today...
0 comments
A nice light dusting came to beautiful Gotham City today.
I've always loved how even the slightest cover makes the city look magical.
Update: No, your eyes aren't going. I didn't get to take a shot of the snow until 9pm this evening. Which is why it looks a bit dark for a 2pm post.Labels: New York City, snow
posted by Gotham 2:09 PM
Huck's Rudy Problem?
Seems that Mike Huckabee might just have something of "a Rudy problem."0 comments
There's the little thing about records keeping.
Then, there's the matter of Mike's flitting around the country, instead of sitting at his desk, doing his job—all while using state of Arkansas equipment and planes. Not to mention the liberal use of on-duty State Police personnel. And bringing along his wife and staff, of course. It actually turns out that for the dates listed—Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2005—Huckabee was out of the state for almost a full quarter of that year.
Testing the political waters, perhaps? As illegal as that would be?Labels: Mike Huckabee, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani
posted by Gotham 1:52 PM
Arkansas (Hearts) Huckabee?!
My, oh my...0 comments
This just doesn't look like the year for political homefield advantage! Does it?
Looks like Arkansas has it in for Mike Huckabee, who's not the affable nice guy he's portrayed as.
Crushing hard drives with info on them about your scandals? Wow! Now, THAT'S executive privilege!
And here, NYers thought we were all the rage for despising Rudy.
Gee, I wonder how Alaska feels about Mike Gravel?Labels: Mike Huckabee, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani
posted by Gotham 1:43 PM
The Real Story on Subprime Lending
Bird & Fortune, British comedians roughly equivalent to the U.S.'s Bob & Ray, take dead aim on the entire subprime mess.0 comments
And nail it.
Brilliant!
There are two "George Parr" routines on it, actually.
Here's the first:
And here is the second.
Enjoy, and learn:Labels: banker, hedge fund, mortgage, subprime
posted by Gotham 12:11 PM
Saturday, December 01, 2007
VT DAY!!!
It's official! George says so!0 comments
The Bush White House:
THE WAR ON TERROR IS OVER!!
We're safe now!
There's nothing more to FEAR!
YIPPEEE! Go get 'em, George! Thanks!
Whatta guy!
(Hunh? What?...Oh,... damn.)
posted by Gotham 9:05 PM
Judy! Judy! Judy!
What goes around... (Vol. XXXXVIII):0 comments
Many of you across the country may not know that NYC has a 24-hr. all news channel on Time Warner Cable here that reports solely on New York City stories. Very handy to have.
Andrew Kirtzman was its City Hall reporter for much of Rudy's two terms, and has since moved over to the CBS affiliate here. He, like much of the rest of the City Hall press corps then, was shat upon pretty severely by Rudy. Kirtzman, again like much of the rest of the City Hall press corps, is slowly letting out all those tasty items in their notebooks that they could never use before. We can safely assume this trend should continue. Words like "payback" and "bitch" come to mind.
From Kirtzman:"The Rudy Giuliani campaign has denied allegations that Judith Nathan, Giuliani's one-time mistress and current wife, abused police protection during his tenure as mayor. The campaign issued a statement, saying: 'That assertion is absolutely ridiculous. The security detail was only used to protect the personal safety of Mrs. Giuliani.'"
Ummmmm, that, of course, would be the police protection that she never should have had in the first place?
Honest, everybody! Judy NEVER abused her corruption of the Mayor of New York!
Even Rudy's own staff is having fun being sources, and getting into the payback party:A source involved with the mayor's operations at the time tells CBS 2 HD that Nathan took flagrant advantage of that police car and driver.
The source says Nathan forced police to chauffeur her friends and family around the city—even when she wasn't in the car. (Emphasis: GN)
That set off alarms with ethics watchdogs.
"The rules are clear, you can't use city resources for private reasons," said Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "And if you're using a city car, a police driven car to chauffeur around relatives, unless they're explicitly protected and they're deemed to be the subject of potential security threats, it's just wrong."
Nathan's detail was approved by the NYPD after a stranger made an unspecified threat to her. The commissioner at the time was Bernard Kerik, who was recently indicted on tax fraud charges in an unrelated matter.
"It wasn't about her being the mayor's girlfriend," Kerik said. "The person spoke to her by name and made comments to her."
Gee, I wonder, could that have been Giuliani's WIFE?
And Bernie..., that's different from the hundreds of thousands of NYers who get called by name every day and have comments and threats made to them, HOW?
Are there hundreds of thousands of police details protecting all of THESE people? Uh,... nah! Again, we see what a useless sack of shit Kerik was as Commish—always with the bodyguard/driver mentality.
Question: Did Nathan ever have a moment of civic duty, when she said, "Thank you, honey, that's very sweet of you, but won't you get into trouble by having all these very nice policemen around me all the time?"
Or was she just having too much fun enjoying all the perks that come from fucking the Big Guy?
Also, the campaign flak above has glaringly missed their "mrs." Judy Nathan wasn't "Mrs." Giuliani at that point, although she was working very hard to become one. New York First Lady Donna Hanover was "Mrs." Giuliani at that time, and it was SHE who had the correctly allocated, city-financed security detail which was "only used to protect the personal safety of Mrs. Giuliani."
"Aspirin salesgirl" doesn't usually require 24/7 police protection under the New York City Charter.
Hell, if SHE gets a police detail, WE ALL want a police detail!
AND A CAR!! We all want cars!
posted by Gotham 7:52 PM
Leave No Senator Behind
From TPM:0 comments
Well, now we know what we're getting Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for Christmas.
Good ol' Merriam-Webster defines "muckrake" thusly.
So who knows, Lisa? Santa may just bring you that wonderful, informative tome, chock full of definitions that every U.S. Senator is wise to have handy, which should be required reading in every congressional office! It serves SO many purposes (decipher White House press releases, or use as a paper weight to keep graft money from blowing off the desk)!Labels: Muckraker, Murkowski, Talking Points Memo
posted by Gotham 5:58 PM
Happppppy Holidays!
Thanks to Cedubose for passing this along. Every Holiday season needs great cheer and fun!0 comments
Daily Kos — National Review: GOP in Deep Doo-Doo
Goes along with my assessment that America sorely needs to have No Republican Standing after Election Night '08.
posted by Gotham 5:38 PM
Building a Dumber Beast
The joys of teaching "Making Your Kids Dumber by Design"—instead of Darwinian Theory in our schools—truly come home when your brilliant progeny later grow into engineers, who can only stand around a hole in the ground and pray to the Lord that "a great and mighty condo be raised by the hand of God within this hole, which will make us all millionaires!"0 comments
And then stand there and wait.
The evil part is that "Intelligent Design" is simply another way of depriving your kids of the tools they need in order to become active participants in their society.
The fun part will come from watching how badly disadvantaged the "religious dumb" kids will be in trying to make their way in the world, which, of course, fully reproves Darwinian Theory!
Voila!
posted by Gotham 5:23 PM
Ah, Sweet Music...
This is the phrase all Americans pray to see more of:0 comments
"According to the company's former top lawyer..."
C'mon, let's have it!
Dish the dirt, boys and girls!
There are still hard-working, true, patriotic Americans throughout our corporate world, our political structure, our police and fire departments, our military.
In this ongoing War on Terror, the PR campaigns are spot-on:
If You See Something, Say Something!
It's just that now the terrorists are the folks we elect and work for.
posted by Gotham 3:02 PM
Pax Bushicana
George Bush's Democracy spreads around the world.0 comments
What an impact our powerful leader has had on world affairs!"Competition for survival has become ruthless and morality disregarded," says Kim Mun-cho, a Korea University sociologist. "In the competition to be ahead of others, people resort to any means available, resulting in corruption."
In George's Dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-richest Utopia, it's good to see his tenets taking root.
And this here is just some good, ol'-time, ol'-fashioned Republican values:... small stuff, however, next to the allegations of comprehensive corruption made against the Samsung Group, a corporate behemoth with interests ranging from electronics to construction and shipbuilding.
According to the company's former top lawyer for seven years until 2004, Samsung has crafted a network of bribery that extends to the judiciary, government tax and finance officials, academia and the media. The attorney, Kim Yong-chol, described a system in which cash was handed over in briefcases, or disguised to look like books or CD cases.
Shielding himself behind a respected organization of Roman Catholic priests, Kim told a nationally televised news conference from a Seoul church that even the country's top prosecutors were on Samsung's payroll. The list included the government's nominee for chief prosecutor and the head of the national commission looking into corruption, he said.
[snip]
In February, Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor Co., was convicted of embezzling more than $100 million from the company to create a slush fund that prosecutors said was used for bribery.
Chung received a three-year prison term, but his sentence was commuted to community service when the court ruled that his incarceration would have too detrimental an impact on the South Korean economy.
Ahhhhh...
If you can't beat 'em; buy 'em; our way of life demands it! — GOP campaign plank #2
(It may be time to ditch that Samsung TV or that Hyundai in the driveway. Just to let "the market" determine who succeeds or fails in business.)
posted by Gotham 2:55 PM
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tortured Logic, Indeed
Today's NY Daily News editorial, "Tortured logic," leaves a lot to be desired.0 comments
Like, oh, facts...
Now, I can see where a hometown paper would tout a competent, honored, hometown judge sponsored by a hometown Senator.
But this piece ignores the reality of the situation. Were this to be any other time, with another administration, the full experience and merits of former Manhattan Federal Judge Michael Mukasey as a potential attorney general would be sufficient for his confirmation.
But they forget with whom we're dealing here. Mukasey's qualifications are fully and totally immaterial here. His job, as it is for anyone walking into the Cheney/Bush Circle of Hell, is to cover his masters' respective asses; tout the party line with every utterance; tell them that any insane thing they want to do is jake with you; and convey that message consistently to an incredulous world. Just do what everyone else does, and shut up.They have set aside Mukasey's credentials as a man of the law and his established record of integrity to roast him unfairly as a man who advocates the use of torture in the war on terror.
Ummm, fellas, they never said that. Sure, Mukasey is a man of law. A good one, as far as I can tell. But that's beside the point. No one is roasting him for "advocating" torture. This is a big whopper of a lie. People are upset because, at the bidding of Cheney/Bush, Mukasey switched his testimony, and now, he won't RENOUNCE torture. Big difference, if you're not ignoring it just to shill.
That is why we saw Mukasey change between the first two days of his testimony; like any other person who wanders too near a powerful crime syndicate with violent urges, Mukasey was "spoken to." He was "straightened out."
So, on the second day, he goes from: "All Torture Is Bad..." to "...Unless Cheney Says It's OK. And the boss REALLY likes this waterboarding stuff."
More problem areas for the Daily News:"Mukasey was crystal-clear on the matter when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Torture is unlawful under the laws of this country," he testified.
But Bush long ago waved that law aside, had his army and the CIA and his hired mercenaries torture, then had his last AG (then, WH Counsel) come up with the tortured legal logic to prop it up. (This would be Mukasey's new job, BTW.)"The President has said that in an executive order."
Which with Bush always carry the air and weight of whimsy. Remember the 2003 executive order stating that no action in Iraq could be held accountable by either an Iraqi or American court? State-sanctioned Wild West. One reason why so many are dead.But beyond all of those legal restrictions, we don't torture -
Ummm, yes we do. Where is the NYDN getting its intelligence? Tom DeLay?not simply because it's against this or that law or against this or that treaty.
Which the Bushies break, simply by getting up each morning.It is not what this country is about.
Yes, it is. Hankering for those simpler times of lynching negroes or burning witches, eh, guys?
We see that the Daily News' editorial staff has its collective head stuck firmly in the sand. "I have my hands over my ears! I have have my eyes closed! You can't spoil me with your facts! The Bush administration is simply another version of U.S. leadership. They're not a cadre of war criminals! Really!"He said waterboarding would be illegal if it amounted to torture but that he didn't yet know whether the practice, as applied by the U.S. under limited circumstances, met the definition. Yesterday, he called waterboarding "repugnant."
No, guys, rats and roaches are "repugnant." The cellars of half the buildings in Manhattan are "repugnant." Water torture is "illegal." Water torture is "immoral." Water torture is "sickening." Water torture costs you your immortal soul.Lacking definitive information, Mukasey's hedging was reasonable.
Make no mistake, here. This argument has nothing really to do with water torture. It's simply another Bush diversionary tactic.
The issue on the table is: Will Mukasey demand Independence as U.S. Attorney General and demand to conduct his job in the way that best protects the Constitution and the rights and will of the American people, or will he simply be a rubber stamper who will tell Bush what he wants to hear, which is that he's always right, and whatever he wants is cool. And definitely legal, because he wants it to be so.
posted by Gotham 2:30 PM
Friday, August 17, 2007
Rudy Has the Runs Again...
AmericaBlog writing on Rudy's squeals against basic goose/gander fairness, again nails it.0 comments
Oh,Rudy, you're hurting me...
Rudy, now really.
Please, just SHUT UP!
Here's why...
All of your various issues are fair game (especially for us here in NYC who had to put up with your vicious crap for eight years!)
Partially because you worked so damned hard to keep any of it from ever being private. You are: The Public Mayor.
But mostly,
BECAUSE YOU'RE A RUNNER, RUDY!
You always run.
You ran away from reality when you married your cousin, Rudy. Then you ran away from her when some piece caught your eye. Nice trick getting the annulment after all that times. Who'd you get it from, the pedophile priest who works in your security consultancy today? Was there a deal there?
As U.S. Attorney, you ran away from getting convictions on all those cases you got all the big press conferences for when announcing the indictments. ("Honey, oh no! I left the conviction on the bus!!")
You ran away from your campaign promises within hours of first being sworn in as mayor, throwing the arts industry in NYC overboard as your first official act by cutting off all funding to non-Institutional Art Organizations, drying up the Arts scene in NYC for years to come.
You ran away from courage by ignoring the drug cartels who owned major sections of this city, and who slaughtered hundreds of opponents along with with scores of non-involved, civilian citizens, mostly children. Who'd YOU go after? The squeegee guys, who tried to wash car windows by the tunnels in order to survive another day without dying of hunger. Your internal constitution prostate had already malfunctioned by then.
You ran from the NYPD, who you used as a pawn to whip up hatred against blacks overall and Mayor David Dinkins, specifically. Remember your famous police march across the Bkln Bridge and the rally/riot you fomented at City Hall? You used those cops to get elected, then screwed them over on their pay every single chance you had.
You ran from becoming a competent manager by hiring good people, aligning them with all of the positive trends occurring across the country, then taking ALL the credit whenever things improved somewhat. (Really bad thing to do, Rudy, ask Bill Bratten, LAPD or Mary Jo White, former U.S. Attorney for Manhattan.)
You ran from your marital vows by reportedly screwing your communications director on your desk downstairs, while your family slept upstairs.
Rudy, you ran from sanity when you built your emergency command center in a bullseye, despite official recommendations against it, simply because you could walk to it from work, so that you could have a lovenest with the new goummah, the aspirin salesgirl.
You ran from basic human decency when you hired Raoul Felder to slash and burn NYC's First Lady, Donna Hanover, on the front pages of the NY Post. Just because she called you on your crap, and wouldn't just slink away without a dime, and let you back up the truck of hookers so the party could begin.
You ran from credulity when you filled the pages of the NY Post every day with a scolding tongue lashing for NYers on how we should all be leading a much more virtuous, decorous life. All while sliming your family in the papers and bouncing on the aspirin salesgirl. One of your high points, there, Rudy.
You ran from fiscal honesty when you had one full, 24-hr. on-duty police guard detail, on the taxpayer dime, for the city's First Lady and your kids as stipulated in the City Charter, while you had a second, exact same detail, again on the taxpayer's dime, outside the aspirin salesgirl's apartment house, so she wouldn't be hassled by reporters, and you could slip in and out (I guess) without notice. You ran from ever paying any of that detail money back to the Treasury of the City of New York.
Then, your greatest run...
YOU RAN AWAY FROM YOUR POST DURING THE DEADLIEST DAY IN THE HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY, LEAVING HUNDREDS TO DIE THROUGH YOUR COWARDICE AND INABILITY TO PERFORM YOUR DUTIES PROPERLY.
Those great pictures showing you striding the streets of Gotham Under Attack, that the mouthbreathers love so much, we in NYC know are really showing you running like the gutless coward you are, fleeing to save your own damn ass. And not only did YOU leave your post, causing the deaths of untold NYers, right behind you in those pictures is Bernie "The Most Corrupt Cop in NY?" Kerik, who also had abandoned his post as the top police official to run around town with you, to act as your personal bodyguard. Who, pray, was running the NYPD actions if the Commish was hauling ass with you? You panicked and ran, Rudy. Yeah, you're quite the security expert. All you know about the subject is, the first sign of trouble, you want a security detail around you. Nice.
With all these ghosts running faster than you could ever hope to, Rudy, how can your past—that you worked so very hard to earn—ever be off limits?
No matter where you run, there they'll be. Waiting for you.
Ghosts do that.
posted by Gotham 10:25 PM
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Of Course...
...The dismissal of each of "the Ousted Eight" was "performance related."0 comments
They kept PERFORMING, DAMMIT!
Just too damned good at their jobs.
Got in the way of the enterprise.
If they want to toss the occasional Democrat in the hoosegow, fine.
But these were good, honest corrupt Republicans they were harrassing!
Campaign donors, all!
So, of course, the GOP had to stop the bleeding before the Lame-Duck Dictator lost anymore of his support in Congress to frogwalks.
posted by Gotham 12:34 AM
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Nov. 4: Draft Day '08!
I've been saying this for a while now, so I might just as well put it in writing:1 comments
Gore vs. Leiberman, 2008.
The presidential race in 2008 will be decided by two teams furiously working to draft their respective faves for the nominations. One movement is growing outside-in with swelling support; the other is growing inside-out and is entirely self-generated.
But each could work. Here how:
DEMOCRATS:
This has already begun. It's clear from the outset that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are evenly matched, and have begun an epic struggle that should result in neither gaining a clearcut advantage. We can safely assume that (world events notwithstanding) they will gain equal amounts of loyalty, money and primary votes in the Democratic universe. Also, that all the air for other candidates will successfully be sucked out of the room. (Bye, Gov. Tom! Sen. Visa (D-DE)? I don't think so...) An excellent case can be made that we go to the convention with neither Clinton nor Obama having a clear advantage, and that after close to two years of wrangling, arm-twisting and vicious sniping, there will be no desire whatsoever to barter.
If, in fact, Al Gore wins the Oscar tonight, and/or the Nobel later, the screaming will intensify for him to enter the race. If he does, he's nuts. Who in their right mind would piss away an enviable position and come into a marathon with strong leaders at the 4-mile mark when you can happily jump in at the 25-mile marker and literally run away with it all by acclimation?
Not Al, we say. Again, an excellent case can be made to let HC & BO bash their brains in throughout '07 and early '08. Let them (and us) come to the convention battered, bruised and exhausted, and needing a way out.
Al just continues to do what he's already been doing—being the sage from on high. Spending his days watching his Google stock, speaking wisely, then demurring when asked the daily, obligatory "Are you running?" question. Meanwhile, those who only have his best interests at heart begin the negotiating that's necessary with all the air-starved candidates for their support, IF he were to allow himself to be subject to a draft at or before the convention.
And, GOSH, if it's THAT important to everybody that he be the nominee in '08, then, "well, someone's gonna have to do it, right? So, OK! Let's go do it!"
Of course, Hillary would never take the VP slot, so she'll start angling to replace Harry Reid as Majority Leader.
We can assume that, at that point, Barack would still be open to the visibility the 2nd slot would offer, and we may have a Gore-Obama 'o8 ticket. Affectionately referred to by the masses as: "GORBAMA!" But don't count out Gore-Edwards '08 or Gore-Richardson '08, though they're more unwieldy verbally. That'll be decided by how the negotiations go this year.
This idea actually has been getting a decent amount of play, so I'm not unique with this call. I'm just handicapping it to play out this way.
Meanwhile...
REPUBLICANS:
Here's the one that I don't see anyone addressing, which I find very odd. Seems perfectly logical to me. Here goes...
The GOP field at this point is a circular firing squad of poor souls with absolutely no chance of being elected president. They also have a fallow farm system with no national stars on the horizon. This is proven by the almost wall-to-wall coverage of HC/OB.
Duncan Hunter and Sam Brownback get good marks among the Right, but this is president we're talking about here, not some county commish slot. That leaves the Big 3: Mitt Romney, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.
Poor Mitt. He makes the podium look fluid. I've rarely seen anyone stiffer—other than George Pataki maybe—enter the fray. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Nice guy; charisma-challenged. Unfortunately also for Mitt, he's this year's Hubert H. Humphrey. In 1972's California epic primary battle between Humphrey and George McGovern, we sat and watched HHH give TWELVE DIFFERENT views in front of TWELVE DIFFERENT groups on that year's hot-button issue—busing. We were stunned; we never thought there WERE that many sides to a cube. The hairs were split VERY thinly, yes, but twelve there were. Mitt is quickly gaining a reputation of having as many views on issues as there are people asking him. And, as with HHH, all that does is show people you stand nowhere on anything. Not good leadership fodder.
Then, we have the Desperate Twins.
John McCain has muddied the water faster than I thought a human being capable of. Lord! He's pissed EVERYBODY off! From "Straight Shooter" to "Mean, nasty, angry guy" in just a couple of quick years! From the guy you want to go have a beer with to "Ewwwwww! Do I HAVE to go see Grandpa??!! He's so mean, and sooo icky!" Now, for everyone from Kos to Cheney, he's simply a royal pain in the ass. Not the way to build a groundswell. Oh, and that "surge" that's about to blow up in our national faces? Yep, McCain's idea. What a loser.
Rudy. "Aw, Rudy, you're killin' me!"
Perhaps the meanest, nastiest person on the face of the earth. Close to universally loathed by the very people who know him best: New Yorkers who were here during his terms as mayor. 9/11 was actually primary day here. In NYC, we were happily going to the polls to pick Rudy's successor. The election was postponed. In the weeks following the attacks, after seeing what great press he was getting, Rudy tried to get the city to overturn the term limit laws he fought so hard for, in order to oust his enemies and pack the City Council with his friends. NYers said a resounding "NO! Take your clippings and leave!" I actually admit to still having a Rudy voodoo doll, left over from his days as mayor. Played every segment of NYC off against every other segment. Sold the city off to the richest of the very rich. Destroyed the middle class in the city, utterly. Hated every idea he couldn't take full credit for. He would screw around WHILE preaching to you on how you were immoral and your life was badly handled. Why so many would lie across his desk for this man is anybody's guess. He's an amoral, vengeful, egomaniacal prig, not a Christian fundamentalist. To many, that's farrrrrr worse. Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family is Bill Clinton next to Rudy. Not exactly presidential timber here. Rudy can be safely assumed to make the far right vomit when his "America's Mayor" tag soon wears off, and they actually look at him. Even Pataki sounded cogent in the couple of weeks after the attacks, and George is NOBODY'S idea of a president. Plus, on the other end, the left would go to any legal means to stop Rudy if he got that far. He is slime incarnate.
And remember, this is the man who fired Bill Bratton as police commissioner because Bratton took too much credit for a job well done, and who was much happier with the useless dirty cop, Bernard Kerik.
Case closed.
Hmmmmm...
Where does that leave us, then? Whoever will the GOP be able to find who has a national standing, is insanely hawkish on Iraq, gets fawning media coverage whenever he wants it, enjoys public displays of affection with the Lame-Duck Dictator, is REALLY pissed off at the Democrats and wants to have ALL the attention for himself? Hmmm...
"Well, Hidey-Ho-o-o-o, boys and girls!" It's Mr. Hankey, himself: JOEMENTUM!
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D for a while-CT)
Lieberman-Somebody '08!!
Because in your heart, you hate America!
Yes, boys and girls, that's what all this postering and posing ol' Joe's been doing since Ned Lamont started mounting a serious threat to Joe's job in DC. Will he? Won't he? Oh, he's being sooo cute. Gosh, whatever will he decide? Who WILL he caucus with? Are you a Good Democrat, Joe?
What, you MIGHT switch parties? Right.
Folks..., this is a lock. Joe hates everything that Democrats are, by this point. His poor feelings are so hurt, and mixing that with his astonishing ambition, he's maneuvering to set up a GOP draft in 2008. He'll soak the media for as long as he can. Then, he'll switch just in the time necessary to file papers before the GOP convention. Remember how he seemed to know all the myriad ins and outs of filing as an Independent in CT? Long before any of the rest of us has any hint that this was an option? Joe does his homework. He can probably tell you all he has to about running as a Republican in 'o8. How he needs to set up his mechanism, fundraising, logistics, etc.
But, how could this be, you ask?
Simple. He knows he's their answer. And he knows they're his. But, like his almost-boss, Gore, the idea is to play it cagey, and let the announced candidates kill each other off. The GOP would have to turn to SOMEBODY, and he's already shown he can pull enough Republican votes to win in a blue state.
Why doesn't he just switch now?
To avoid the primaries. Why get dragged into someone else's fight? Also, he'd get killed if he merely switched parties, and threw the Senate to the GOP. It's bad enough that Democrats hate him, he doesn't want the entire country on his ass. However, by playing the Coy Card, he keeps everybody guessing, thereby keeping CNN and FOX pinned down outside his office door.
He also must figure that he can paint anyone the Dems throw out as a far-left, out-of-touch, dangerous dreamer. Hill? Bring her on! He'll find that live Hillary nerve in the heart of the far right, and just keep poking it until she gets stalkers. He'll be the "skilled, experienced guy" against the "paperweight/he'll get us all killed" Obama. Perfect. As dirty as Joe needs to go, Joe goes.
Depending on how that other draft goes, though. The AFL is definitely looking at who the NFL picks.
The one fly in Joe's unctuous ointment, is Al. Al Gore has never engendered the bitter mania Hillary has; he's more experienced than even Joe, so the Obama tactic won't work on Al. Al's walked every necessary walk.
Yes, Al is Joe's nightmare. You figure Joe blames Al for costing him the VP in 2000, and thereby the White House in 2008. It was all right there! Waiting for Joementum! Oh well.
It would be a mercilessly ugly campaign, with Gore finally putting Joe out of our political misery.
Here's how I'm handicapping the next two years.
Democrat: Al Gore
vs.
Republican: Joe Lieberman
Winner: Al Gore '08.
That's my story and I'm sticking by it.
posted by Gotham 2:51 PM
Being Small, Livin' Large
This story is hysterically, but painfully, funny.0 comments
Smithsonian Head's Expenses 'Lavish,' Audit Says
To say the least.
I don't know what's most shocking through the course of the entire story. There are SO many wacky elements to this thing.
We are reminded, yet once again my fair ladies and gentlemen, that in Republican-held Washington, DC, we citizens are merely a 300 million+ person ATM machine for those who are well connected. YIIIPPPPEEEEEEEE! FREE CASH, DINNERS, JETS, TRIPS, JEWELRY, AND EVEN MOORRE CASH FOR ALL MY FRIENDS!!! THANK YOU, PEONS OF AMERICA! YOU'RE ALL SOOO KIND!!
OK. I'm better now. My, where to begin?
Do we look at our hero, Lawrence Small, Director of the Smithsonian Institute, for his extravagent lifestyle, for which he has spent over six years sending you and me the (VERY LARGE) bill? Do we look at how he negotiated a series of financial conditions when he took the job in 2000, only to flagrantly blow off each of those conditions, along with all other federal expense reporting regulations, as if certainly he were more important than those paltry triffles? Do we look to his staff who rode the Small gravy train for years without blowing the whistle, and then—unethically, but creatively—pitched in to do the paperwork for his investigation by auditors, so as to make him (not to mention, themselves) look MUCH better on paper?
Does it matter that Small was formerly president and COO at Fannie Mae, which has been dogged by corruption?
Do we look at Small's following of the George W. Bush/Neo-Con-mandated ideological corruption of the fully non-partisan inner workings of the American government? And perhaps take a look at how he stopped funding for scientific programs, and sold off major research access to America's Main Museum's archives to Showtime Networks? We can only assume he was so proud of that coup that he felt entitled to put the entire access fee directly into his pockets.
Do we look at harried acting Smithsonian Inspector General A. Sprightley Ryan and his team of auditors—American heroes, all—who MUST have gone through cases of Scotch, just trying to absorb the stunning enormity of Small's brazenness? How sore were their foreheads from slamming them on their desks at each new disclosure? And, remember, this is the ACTING Inspector General. He's the SUB! Where are their Medals of Freedom? And how, exactly, did former Smithsonian Inspector General Debra S. Ritt miss all this for so very long, hmmmm? Wouldn't Rep. Henry Waxman love to chat with her sometime? I'm sure she must have some fascinating stories.
Need we start making book on what poor, courageous Mr. Ryan's chances are, at this point, for confirmation to the fulltime gig...? Nah, didn't think so.
We should really, also, take a look at the 17-person Smithsonian Board of Regents, and their 4-member Audit and Review Committee—in place to oversee exactly this type of scenario. Well, yeah, they oversaw it, all right. And they loved it!
Three of the four people on this supposed Audit and Review Committee—the type of group which, if this were a corporate entity, would have been bound heavily by strident SEC regulations—included the co-founder of worldwide electric power comglomerate AES Corporation, who also is a former co-worker and longtime friend of Small's (and, BTW, has his wife also been installed as the president of the National Gallery of Art, which is also under the Smithsonian?); a "Washington real estate developer and philanthropist"; and the CEO of Bill Gates' shiny new foundation.
Obviously, the kinda folks who have their ears finely tuned to the voice of the common American. Not only were they not offended by Small's lavish taxpayer-paid lifestyle, they defend it!
"I think that any of that is far outweighed by his performance as secretary in the past seven years," [Roger Sant, chairman of both the Audit and Review Committee and the executive committee] said. "On any measure I can think of, his results have been outstanding."
***
Sant defended the expense but said Small's handling of [a $14,509 round-trip Lear Jet charter flight to San Antonio in May 2001] "was a little less rigorous than it should have been."
Oh.
In American, that's, "Hey Larry! I got your back, man! You go, bro'!"
Another sticking point: the full roster of 17 for the Regents Board, by charter, includes the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Vice President of the United States, 3 Senators and 3 Representatives, along with a gaggle of rich folk.
We can safely assume Dick Cheney believes Small was correctly keeping taxpayer cash safe, so Iranian terrorists couldn't get at it; Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. was asked about Small, and the man who recently whined about Justices being underpaid said, "No comment."
"No comment."!!?? Yikes!! Do you really want this man sitting in judgement of ethics cases? Does there need to be another investigation here? Is Roberts seeing this as a learning exercise? Cheeesh!
The rest of the Regents gaggle can be assumed to be OK with all this since they've raised Small's base pay from $300,000+ to over $600,000 in six years. And that's before and apart from his becoming thoroughly expense account-challenged. So the millions in misspent American cash must not bother them all that much.
My favorite part though, is seeing Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), now in politically threatened waters, being shocked—SHOCKED, I SAY!!!—at finding out about the auditors' finding.
NOW? Now, they become the party of SMALL GOVERNMENT??
This is all hilariousness!
It just hurts so much when I laugh.
posted by Gotham 2:18 PM
Night of the Generals...?
This just in from Rupert Murdoch, in England:0 comments
US generals ‘will quit’ if Bush orders Iran attack
I guess Rupe's afraid of not having military cover while he's whipping up more warfare.
Considering all the various caveats that Iraq invasion foes were offering to the general discourse before George W. Bush actually took his army into Iraq have come true, it's particularly unnerving to see similar warnings cropping up, in terms of Iran.
... army chiefs fear an attack on Iran would backfire on American troops in Iraq and lead to more terrorist attacks, a rise in oil prices and the threat of a regional war.
Britain is concerned that its own troops in Iraq might be drawn into any American conflict with Iran, regardless of whether the government takes part in the attack.
So, are we looking at slaughtered U.S. soldiers, a wave of suicide bombings across the U.S., gas just too expensive for a trip to the Piggly Wiggly leaving children to die, and all the Middle East (including Israel) in nuclear flames? And Blair hanging outside of Number 10 Downing St.?
However, there is another question this brings up.
If the generals resign, and deny implementing The Lame Duck Dictator's blood lust, then it seems feasible for the legions down the ranks to do the same, n'est pas? It's feasible then to have the pilot's of those bombers view this as "a reckless attack" as well, ditch their bombs in the sea, and return to ship.
Because the plaque, "The Buck Stops Here!" was never meant to be seen sitting on a therapist's couch.
posted by Gotham 12:36 AM
Hmmm...
Hmmmm...0 comments
Draft Gore?
Joementum?
Could that possibly set up...
Al vs. Joe?
More Sunday.
posted by Gotham 12:17 AM
Missing the Point...
AMERICAblog most likely is my favorite blog reading. Smart, savvy, an interesting mix of temperate outrage and take-no-prisoners élan. Plus, the're not afraid to walk any needed walk by organizing boycotts and other actions when called for.0 comments
But they, along with the other main blogs, like TPM, are consistently missing the major endgame regarding the GOP presidential race, as it stands at the moment:
JOEMENTUM...!
It's late. More on this on Sunday.
posted by Gotham 12:04 AM
Saturday, February 24, 2007
THIS JUST IN...
DICK CHENEY STILL ALIVE!
Admit it, you weren't sure there for a moment, were you?0 comments
But, all options remain on the table for ol' Richard B. Cheney, including Impeachment, perhaps a Black Box Prison cell in the Czech Republic, some rest home Brittney Spears might recommend or just simple, total insignificance.
Cheney Says All Options on Table for Iran
This pathetic old fool has become America's latest update of the old "Generalísimo Francisco Franco is still dead!" stories from SNL's first year.
He used to be so powerful, too. We used to quake at every utterance. Whenever he'd insist that the sun rose in the west, serious journalists nodded seriously. Headline editors used his quotes in banner headlines: CHENEY: 'THE EARTH IS FLAT!' And besotted Republicans would drive their SUVs off the end of the Earth into the oblivion of space.
Cable news operations would take his pronouncements (I HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH HALIBURTON GETTING ALL THOSE NO-BID CONTRACTS FOR IRAQ... . OR ALASKA... . OR KUWAIT... . OR SAUDI ARABIA..., OR..., OR..., ALL THOSE OTHER PLACES! or WE HAVE CLEAR INTELLIGENCE THAT PROVES NANCY PELOSI IS OSAMA BIN LADIN'S MISTRESS!) as absolute gospel, and repeat them hour after hour, news cycle after news cycle.
Now, however, he's merely relegated to wandering from nutjob rally to nutjob rally in backwards states or even more-backwards countries, insisting that Saddam Hussein is alive and threatening the U.S. with imminent destruction with his vast nuclear arsenal.
He may still look fatter and redder in the face than ever, but you can see Dick deflating by the second.
posted by Gotham 12:32 PM
Monday, February 19, 2007
Bush Finds Religion...
Or At Least, Afghanistan
Brother...0 comments
Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power
With all due respect to Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde, this article stumbles through the smell test.
If this is a Tony Snow Special, complete with blind quotes, it fits the M.O. perfectly. The administration has happily rediscovered its neglected stepchild war just this past week as its "Last Chance for Iraq" surge doesn't seem to be working. With grand announcements from The Lame Duck Dictator, and sly asides from administration minions (all to take your attention off of how badly they've battered and abused Number One Son War), it seems we have a new toy!
"uhhh, OK, so Iraq doesn't scare you anymore? It just pisses you off? Umm, You say you like THIS war, over here? OK, THEN, WE'RE ALL ABOUT THIS WAR! THAT DOPEY OTHER WAR IS SO-O-O-O LAST WEEK! THIS WAR? IT'S REEEALLY SCARY! SCARY!...SCARY!"
Scared yet?
If, however, this is actual reporting from Misters Mazzetti and Rohde, my apologies, and we're in deep Bush-induced shit.
Question:
Has anyone noticed anything happening in the last six years that hasn't been EXACTLY the way Osama bin Laden would have drawn it up on paper?
2nd Question:
Could President George W. Bush have done ANYTHING more to aid and abet the enemies of the United States?
If Frank Gaffney, Jr. of the Washington Times and the other Neo-Con zombies want to go around hanging people for treason, let them start with their own leadership which has so much blood on its collective hands.
I assume they've recently stepped up work on Bush's retirement home in Paraguay.
From Mazzetti and Rohde:
Officials said that the United States still had little idea where Mr. bin Laden and Mr. [Ayman al-]Zawahri had been hiding since 2001, but that the two men were not believed to be present in the camps currently operating in North Waziristan. Among the indicators that American officials cited as a sign that Qaeda leaders felt more secure was the release of 21 statements by Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri in 2006, roughly twice the number as in the previous year.
They "couldn't" find them, because they didn't "want" to find them, OK?
But, yes. We are scared now. Because these are the really bad guys. They've killed before and they'll kill again.
And they've been given a bloody, absolute, Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card from this administration.
Do government types really want to know where these men are? Really?
Simple. Do we have to tell them EVERYTHING!? Cheeesh!
OK. This is easy. GOP campaign fundraisers. Just back up the paddywagon. There is no more safe and secure a haven for crooks, cranks and evildoers in the world than your basic white tie affair among Bush's Base, with folks trying to get their Paraguay tickets punched. But only if you've got tons of cash and no soul. Osama bin Laden would blend right in.
posted by Gotham 10:16 AM
Sunday, February 18, 2007
A Question
A Film Star in Kampala, Conjuring Amin's Ghost0 comments
Who plays the Lame Duck Dictator when the U.S.'s film gets made?
posted by Gotham 3:46 PM
They're ANIMALS! ANIMALS, I Say!...
...oh, they're us? Oh. Well, sorry, never mind, move along then, nothing to see here...0 comments
Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans
This is such a damning quote:
Through it all, Mr. [Laith al-]Ani was never actually charged with a crime; he said he was questioned only once during his more than two years at the camp.
...
“He was released because the board that reviewed his case didn’t believe he any longer posed a threat,” said First Lt. Lea Ann Fracasso, a spokeswoman for detention operations, in a written answer to questions. “He was originally detained as a security threat. I don’t have anything more.”
...Driving While Iraqi, obviously.
Maybe this had something to do with his finally seeing an end to his nightmare:
Just three weeks earlier, his last letter home — with its poetic yearnings and a sketch of a caged pink heart — appeared in The Times in one of a series of articles on Iraq’s troubled detention and justice system.
Arrested for no reason. Held for two years. Questioned once. Abused often. Forced to say it was Club Med to finally get out. His whereabouts passed on to the Shiite Death Squads.
Sounds more like your typical, local corrupt police precinct. Maybe Mississippi or Alabama in the early '60s, with Ani playing "the Negro."
Hey, the leadership at SITCOMM may be scum. But they're OUR scum.
This is what the Neo-cons of Cheney and Rumsfeld have made out of our once proud and vaunted military.
posted by Gotham 3:24 PM
Michael, Take A Letter...!
"Mimeograph Michael" Gordon is at it again.0 comments
One wonders if he takes the time to check the White House's grammar before submitting their press release copy to his editors. Or run a spellcheck, maybe?
Michael and his New York Times editors are at it again. Page 1/Top Of The Page space is SO VERY HARD to fill on most Sundays nowadays!
Planning Seen in Iraqi Attacks on U.S. Copters
Judith Miller isn't available these days, so they've teamed "Mimeo Mike" with David S. Cloud, from the Pentagon beat. Of course, you might know that David's already reported on this story 10 days ago under Richard Oppel, Jr. and James Glanz's byline, as part of a gaggle of New York Times staff:
THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ; LOSS OF COPTERS SUGGESTS CHANGE IN IRAQI TACTICS
Here's David's part:
"REPORTING WAS CONTRIBUTED BY DAVID S. CLOUD FROM WASHINGTON, AND ALI ADEEB, QAIS MIZHER AND AN IRAQI EMPLOYEE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES FROM BAGHDAD. (NYT); Foreign Desk"
One can only surmise that: a) lifting this basic story from other Times reporters is jake with the Times' editors (and with Oppel and Glanz); and b) David was responsible for the spiffy "Kingfish"-style quotes from the Pentagon brass ("...And the bazookas were a 'zookin'! ZOOK-ZOOK! ZOOK-ZOOK!"—Amos & Andy, a 1950s sitcom), added to give some spice to the tale.
Michael's usual crassness notwithstanding, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow worked overtime to work in some basic, core GOP threads within the release.
First, the Whining...
From the Pentagon and the GOP: "Muh-o-o-o-m-m-m! They won't hold still and let us beat them! They keep moving around! Mom, they keep shooting at us!"
Sure sounds like Gen. Charles Cornwallis is running this operation.
Then, the Shock of Recognition...
After downing the helicopters, the insurgents often laid ambushes for the American ground troops they expected to come to the rescue, sometimes using roadside bombs that they placed in advance. American troops were attacked in five instances in which they rushed to the scene of aircraft that had been shot down, military officials said.
Where have we seen this double-attack technique before? Hmmm, oh yes...now we remember, abortion clinic bombers in the U.S.
Then, the Grudging Admiration...
The intelligence report supports the concerns expressed by an American general this month that militants were adapting their tactics in an effort to step up attacks against helicopters. Such strikes have increased since the United States expanded its military operations in Baghdad in August. From December to January, the number of antiaircraft attacks rose by 17 percent, according to an American military report.
Insurgents in Iraq have boasted about the helicopter downings and posted video of some of the wreckage on militant Web sites. While Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has claimed it has “new ways” to shoot down the aircraft, some American analysts believe they are probably not employing new types of weapons but rather are making more effective use of arms already in their inventory.
The insurgents try to plan their attacks by studying flight patterns near American bases and along supply routes, according to the intelligence report.
In several recent helicopter downings, the attackers used a variety of weapons, including shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and unguided rockets that cannot be diverted by the flares helicopters disperse to fool heat-seeking systems.
Hmmmm... looks like the Sunni's intelligence operation is better than ours. "What Porter Goss hath wraught!"
Then, the Inherent Racism...
"Wow, who knew these dirty little towelheads could figure out a Plan?!?!? They're actually using a strategy! Clever little wogs! They're actually adapting!!! We may actually have to go back and rethink this. Looks like we may have to give these little savages a tad more credit, eh wot?"
The bloodthirsty GOP wanted a war. Now, they've got one.
Doesn't seem to be going so well for them. Eh, wot?
posted by Gotham 2:25 PM
So Much for Waffling—
On My Part
As a New York resident, I'm conflicted about Hillary Rodham Clinton. She'll say something I like; she'll say something I don't. But I can say my view's been mostly positive, overall.0 comments
But Hillary just found Michael Dukakis' Tank! And Ed Muskie's teardrop.
Clinton Gives War Critics New Answer on '02 Vote
In short, she's toast.
As a presidential candidate, she makes a great Senator.
She's out to prove she's bulletproof on being a tough, strong leader. Just when America has just shouted to the rooftops that we don't want another macho president, male or female. We want someone wise, resourceful and with internal fortitude. Not machismo.
Now she says she believes in the Imperial Presidency; only, just with her in it.
Deja vu? Remember when the Lame Duck Dictator said having a dictatorship wasn't that bad an idea? As long as HE was the dictator?
No diff. So, you can view into the future, at some reporter wretch asking Hillary what mistakes she's made. And hearing the same stoney silence.
It's time the Bush and Clinton families officially relinquish the White House and let some of the other 300 million Americans play, too. N'est pas?
posted by Gotham 4:35 AM
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Cheney: My Kingdom For A King!
Shuuuuuuush! This is something SOOOOOOO secret, from a White House attack on Seymour Hersh in 1975 for finding YET ANOTHER administration abuse of power, Dick Cheney hasn't even told himself! Even from 1975! Boy, can he keep a secret!0 commentsThen, as in 1975, Mr. Cheney played a central role in managing the White House’s relationship with the press. It was not precisely the same, however. In 2003, for instance, Mr. Cheney was not protecting secrets but authorizing Mr. Libby to peddle them to Judith Miller, then a reporter for The Times, in an effort to counter the points made in the opinion article, according to Mr. Libby’s grand jury testimony. But his combative relationship with the press and the goals that animate it have not changed.
“He’s had the same idea for the past 30 years,” said Kathryn S. Olmsted, a history professor at the University of California at Davis, who wrote about the Cheney file in her 1996 book, “Challenging the Secret Government.”
“His philosophy is that the president and the vice president and the people around the president decide what’s secret and what’s not,” she said [emphasis ours -- GN]. “They thought they had to aggressively go after the press and Congress to reclaim the powers the president lost in Watergate.”
Ahhh, well offered Mr. Cheney! But, then, only the American people decide who's a crook and who's not!
Perhaps Mr. Cheney should consider emigrating to the country with the monarchy of his choice. For it's clear that he's just not going to be happy here, or get very far trying to turn the chief executive of a republic into a king. But that's certainly not for trying!
posted by Gotham 7:45 PM
Rudy Watch: Rudy Makes A Funny!
Like hundreds of thousands of other social misfits who kept going west in search of reinventing themselves over the next hill, only to find the last hill had the Pacific Ocean behind it, Rudy Giuliani brings his "Land of Broken Firemen" campaign tour to California's GOP dinner.0 comments
Since Stephen Colbert was obviously not available, Rudy had to step into the humorist spot:
Rudy: "Presidents have to take decisions and move the country forward, and that's the kind of president I would like to be: a president who makes decisions."
hehhehhehhehhahhahhehhehhehhehhahhahhehhehhehhahhehhehhehhahhehhahhahheh!
Hoo, BOY! That RUDY! He's such a kidder... .
Yes, poor Rudy would LIKE to be that. The only rub is that he's simply incapable of being that. Here's Rudy "The Two-Week Mayor" Giuliani in a nutshell.Rudy: “Yes, I am committed” to the race. Asked when he would formally announce his candidacy, he said: “I don’t know. If you go back to my speech, I think I may have. I’m not sure. I think I did, I’m not sure. I don’t know what formally means. We’ll figure out how to do it in five places where it gets more attention.”
The only thing Rudy EVER wants is more attention.
This is also what his EVERY press conference as president would be like. Be forewarned.
The only issue Rudy has shown apt ability to make decisions on is staffer-banging.
Rudy! What a kidder... !
posted by Gotham 6:55 PM
The Havoc of Puny Men...
I posted this on an Eschaton comment board last night. Thought I'd repost it here today.0 commentsLord, Lord, Lord...
I was raised a devout Catholic; was a long-time unmolested altar boy; went to Catholic schools from k to 1st year of college; once seriously planned to attend the seminary (until puberty struck!); played CYO basketball; went to CYO dances; hung out at the local K of C hall with my dad and his pals. Unfortunately, I've also been forced to listen to the drooling rantings of this fool for a couple of years now and been forced to hear him described as "a Catholic," simply because I'm also a News junkie.
Ladies and gentlemen, please remember at all times:
1) The Catholic League is not a Catholic league; it is a hate group; like the Moonies or the KKK; but a very small one. Their aim is not discourse, it's Total Control--by all six of their members, if they have that many. Has any news organization done the mundane reporting part of their job, and checked? Is there any other member of this supposed "group" besides [Bill] Donohue, all by his lonesome? Which cable news operation or media conglomerate, to date, has asked Donohue to provide a copy of his membership rolls to establish authenticity?
2) Donohue is to Catholicism as
Spam is to finely marbled filet mignon.
3) Fire the TV producer who first had the brilliant idea that putting him on the air meant they were doing their job competently.
Please, no more air time for this whack job, and spend no more computer bytes angsting over anything this moron says.
I don't have a dog in the '08 race as of yet; I'm certainly not a Barak Obama supporter yet; but his approach of freezing out fascist whacks who have media access has definitely gotten my attention. Bravo, sir!
[John] Edwards: take a lesson here. Your very first reaction should have been to crush this little weasel utterly. Or dismiss him totally at the outset. You allowed this one puny individual to have huge sway over the campaign you've lovingly spent years trying to build. Not wise form, sir. How do we think you'd go nose-to-nose with belligerent world leaders who might mean us harm, if you can't handle a pipsqueak like Donohue?
posted by Gotham 1:59 PM
McCain: New Support for the "Who Me?"-Feingold Bill
McCain Taps Cash He Sought To Limit0 comments
Scum.
posted by Gotham 3:21 AM
