Patridiot Watch

OK, there's really no chance that Doug Forrester was going to get my vote for Governor of New Jersey. His stupid tax plan, his being a Republican, his profitting from no-bid contracts while claiming to want to end them all make me want to vote some other way.

But this idiocy really got me:

Forrester, meanwhile, recently said he's a fan of both the Eagles and Giants, a stance conflicting with laws of nature.

What a dumbass. Now he's pissed off both south and north Jersey.

Poppy at 01:35 PM | Permalink

Senator Kay Baily Hutchinson of Texas apparently thinks that perjury is not a real crime.

Ms. Hutchison said she hoped "that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars."

So maybe this is how she avoided conviction by Ronnie Earle?

Poppy at 12:50 PM | Permalink

Hillary Clinton is still trying to portray her vote in support of the Iraq War as one that she would still cast today given we've experienced over the past three years. Given what she knew then, maybe you can accept that and move on. But to say that you would vote again for the war if we had not invaded in 2003 but knew that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, that it would inflame world tensions and result in a long, slow, deadly and failed struggle for our troops is insane.

Even worse, the Clinton camp is trying to portray her initial vote as a principled stand based on her experience as First Lady.

Clinton's vote was rooted in her husband's frustrating attempts to disarm Saddam Hussein in the 1990s.

Here's the thing: President Clinton may have been frustrated but he was successful. There were no weapons of mass destruction, and even the Bush administration admits that. To say that, knowing that there was no threat to the United States, you would still vote for this war means that you are willing to invade any country with an asshole running it.

I expect that kind of idiocy from the Bush/neocon crowd, but not from someone who wants to be the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party.

Hillary needs to disavow her vote in support of the Iraq War of lose my vote in the primaries.

Poppy at 10:53 AM | Permalink

President Bush likes to tell us how wonderful Afghanistan and Iraq are going to be once they have freedom and women's rights and stuff like that. A veritable paradise where everybody gets to do what they want, say what they want and worship how they want. All thanks to the incredible perserverence of the Bush adminsitration in the face of its own incompetence.

Now we hear that the editor of a women's magazine was arrested and jailed earlier this month for having the temerity to suggest that women should not be stoned to death for adultery and that leaving the Islamic faith is not a criminal act.

And the guy is an Islamic scholar. Really.

One of the stories published in "Women's Rights" questioned the harsh punishment under Shari'a law for women found guilty of adultery, such as stoning. Another article argued that giving up Islam is not a crime.

The magazine's editor, Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, was arrested on 1 October following a complaint made to the Supreme Court by a religious adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Since then, Mohaqiq Nasab has appeared twice in court. The judges in charge of the case have accused him of intentionally publishing anti-Islamic articles and have said he should be severely punished.

Mohaqeq Nasab, who is also an Islamic scholar, denies the charges.

Bush is probably not that upset about this. In fact, given his recent problems with the formerly pliant American media he is probably green with envy, or purple wth jealousy.

But either way you can be damned sure he doesn't care about Freedom, because not one message from the White House has decried this violation of free speech.

Poppy at 10:36 AM | Permalink

I was scanning through the blogs, and two of my favorites had posts regarding Treasury Secretary John Snow that let me put two and two together and uncover the biggest story of the century!

The Stakeholder notes this from Joe Klein:

[Ahmed Chalabi] currently serves as Deputy Prime Minister in Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government. And now - trumpet clarion here - he is coming back to Washington in November at the invitation of Treasury Secretary John Snow.

The National Journal Online's Hotline On Call reports:

Treas. Sec. John Snow plans to announce a nominee to replace retiring Fed. Chairman Alan Greenspan at a White House press conference today at 1 p.m, an administration official tells the Hotline.

Snow invites Chalabi to the Unites States as his guest, and is about to announce a new Federal Reserve Chairman? The coincidence is just too much for me, and so I am the first to report: Ahmed Chalabi will be the next United States Federal Reserve Chairman.

Someone tell Judy Miller.

Poppy at 09:03 AM | Permalink

I really didn't expect this. I don't like a lot of the Iraqi Constitution and in particular what it does to women, but really believed and kind of hoped it would pass. If this fails it will embolden the insurgents and depress the Iraqis who believe they can have their own country. Civil war is likely inevitable, but the failure of the Constitution -- however bad it is -- guarantees a civil war in the next year.

Two provinces in Iraq have rejected the Iraqi draft constitution, Iraqi electoral officials have reported.

The Sunni-dominated provinces of Salahuddin and Anbar rejected the document by vast margins.

The Sunni province of Diyala has voted for the constitution.

This means the fate of the current document depends on the result in the Sunni province of Nineveh, which is expected on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Under the rules of the referendum on the constitution, three provinces have to vote "No" for the constitution to be rejected.

To date the only thing that has kept Iraq from boiling over and the Shiites from slaughtering the Sunni are the Ayatollah's like Sistani who have given fatwas forbidding sectarian war. If Sistani believes that his hopes of a constitutional Muslim state are dashed, he may release his followers and all hell will break loose.

So I find myself in a very weird position. The Iraqi Constitution is reprehensible, but it is better than full scale war. Do I hope that it fails and give my prayers the the idea that a better one could be written and passed before war between Iraqis breaks out? Or do I hope that this odious document passes and give my prayers to the hope that an open war will be quicker and cleaner than the current catastrophe by a thousand deaths?

I don't know. The situation in Iraq is so screwed up, and we screwed it up. There really are no good solutions.

And to put the final irony on this, the report above suggests we will learn the fate of the Consitution on Tuesday or Wednesday. Since we are only three deaths away from 2000 American soldier fatalities in the Iraq War, we could reach that milestone and see the Constitution fail on the same day.

Poppy at 08:48 AM | Permalink

Repeatedy we are told that the Patriot Act is necessary to provide our law enforcement officers with the power they need to protect us, and that we shouldn't worry about the more intrusive aspects of the Act becasue these White Hats would NEVER abuse the power.

I call Shenanigans:

Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but are largely hidden from public view.

In one case, FBI agents kept an unidentified target under surveillance for at least five years -- including more than 15 months without notifying Justice Department lawyers after the subject had moved from New York to Detroit. An FBI investigation concluded that the delay was a violation of Justice guidelines and prevented the department "from exercising its responsibility for oversight and approval of an ongoing foreign counterintelligence investigation of a U.S. person."

In other cases, agents obtained e-mails after a warrant expired, seized bank records without proper authority and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search," according to the documents.

That last one would be going into a private home without a warrant or the owner's permission, a violation of law known as "breaking and entering." Or it would be doing an anal probe for drugs without the person's consent, a violation of law known as "battery." Anything they took with them would be "theft."

These are the good guys we are supposed to trust with enhanced powers to search, seize, investige, spy and restrict the liberties of American citiens. I don't think we should.

Poppy at 06:42 AM | Permalink

Bill Frist lied to America. Bill Frist lied to his constituents. Bill Frist lied to the Senate.

Bill Frist lied.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was given considerable information about his stake in his family's hospital company, according to records that are at odds with his past statements that he did not know what was in his stock holdings.

Managers of the trusts that Frist once described as "totally blind," regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, according to the documents.

In January 2003, after winning election as majority leader, Frist was asked on CNBC whether his HCA holdings made it difficult for him to push for changes in Medicare, a federal health program for seniors that added to the hospital company's revenue.

"I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust," Frist replied. "So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." He added that the trust was "totally blind. I have no control."

Two weeks before that interview, M. Kirk Scobey Jr., a Frist trustee, informed the senator in writing that one of his trusts had received HCA stock valued at between $15,000 and $50,000.

As a physician, Bill Frist should know the difference between "totally blind" and "20/20 vision."

Poppy at 06:37 AM | Permalink

In one of the dumber comments he's ever made -- and he's made quite a few -- John Stossel tries to argue against the use of the law to regulate guns by talking to criminals in prison and noting that they can get guns.

I wanted to know why the [gun] laws weren't working, so I asked the experts. "I'm not going in the store to buy no gun," said one maximum-security inmate in New Jersey. "So, I could care less if they had a background check or not."

"There's guns everywhere," said another inmate. "If you got money, you can get a gun."

Talking to prisoners about guns emphasizes a few key lessons. First, criminals don't obey the law. (That's why we call them "criminals.") Second, no law can repeal the law of supply and demand. If there's money to be made selling something, someone will sell it.

You know, I wanted to know why the Oxycontin laws didn't stop Rush Limbaugh from getting his hands on it. Now we know it is because Rush is a criminal! Take off the requirement for a prescription to get Oxycontin.

You know, I wanted to know why the drinking age laws didn't stop President Bush's daughters from boozing it up while underage. Now we know it's because the girls are criminals! Let's get rid of drinking age laws.

Let's get rid of the heroin laws, and methamphetamine laws, and pollution laws, and speed limits, and on and on! We should live in anarchy just like John Stossel wants becasue there are criminals out there!

[As a side note, I'd like the editors who publish this drivel to find out is Stossel actually talked to any criminals.]

Poppy at 03:35 PM | Permalink

They're after you again. Maybe it's time to realize that your money, effort and votes are wasted on people who hate you.

A group of four college professors and one pediatrician debated the wording and consequences of the proposed amendment, coming to drastically different conclusions.

Witnesses for the amendment said it would enable states - not individual, activist federal judges - to determine the meaning of marriage. The one law professor and pediatrician opposing the measure said it might actually weaken the concept of marriage. They argued that children raised by gay parents are not adversely affected.

"We will have to define marriage - the only question is who will do the defining - the people or the judges," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said in support of the resolution. Brownback chairs the constitutional subcommittee.

The only other lawmaker present at the crowded committee hearing, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., countered that federal intervention in defining marriage would not be a good idea, and there's no evidence courts are going to act unfairly.

"The main problem is we still don't know what effect it will have if it becomes part of the Constitution," Feingold said. "There's certainly no crisis warranting a constitutional amendment. ... The Constitution was never meant to limit basic rights."

See, the Republican wants to zone you out of the Constitution, and the Democrat doesn't see a crisis if you all get married to each other. Got it?

Poppy at 08:47 AM | Permalink

The DesMoines Register had this to say about potential 2008 nominee and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack:

Vilsack has no military background but has worked to establish military and foreign policy credentials this year by seeking out experts during his increasingly national travel schedule.

His lack of experience shows in this idiotic plan.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack on Friday offered a new strategy for Iraq, proposing U.S. forces set up heavily guarded zones around key areas and wait for insurgents to "come to us" instead of pursuing them.

Vilsack told reporters at a Democratic Leadership Council forum here that such zones would allow Iraqis to focus on establishing a new society that they eventually would be confident protecting themselves.

Ummm, Tom? Have you heard of the Green Zone? They launch missles at us all the time. And, not for nothing, but the insurgents look just like Iraqis because -- and this is key -- they are Iraqis. So if we walled off Baghdad there would still be insurgents there we couldn't tell apart from Iraqis who like us.

I suppose you could build castles and pretend you were an invading crusader, stand in your turrets and shoot at the siege engines below. That'd really work.

Stay in Iowa, Tom. We get enough stupid ideas from the Bush fiolks.

Poppy at 08:41 AM | Permalink

In February 2004 the legitimately elected, if incompetent and failed, government was overthrown by a military coup. The United States stepped in and helped -- remove Haitian President Aristide from office and the country. It's one of the reasons why I don't believe the Bush administration when they say that they are in Iraq to foster new democracies. Their actions in Haiti, Venezuella and Liberia show that White House interest in democracy is as a sound byte, not an end in itself.

Now we discover that Haiti is almost two years from its coup and still hasn't held an election. That's right -- the government of Haiti was installed by military insurrection, and now has delayed its elections another month. From Maxine Waters:

The interim government of Haiti has announced recently that the elections scheduled for Nov. 20 will have to be postponed until December. It is the fourth time the interim government has changed the dates for the upcoming elections, and it is now clear that the interim government’s own incompetence along with its determination to manipulate the electoral process is responsible for the delay.

The deadline for eligible voters to register for the elections has been postponed several times because few Haitians were able to register. Some voters had to walk 20 miles to register, and some had to return several times because the registration offices were closed when they arrived or the election workers did not have enough fuel to operate the generators for their computers.

Twenty-two of the 54 candidates who turned in applications to run for president were rejected by the Provisional Electoral Council for reasons that in some cases seem arbitrary. Some of the disqualified candidates are appealing their disqualifications to the Haitian Supreme Court. The Provisional Electoral Council cannot even begin to print ballots for the elections until the Supreme Court resolves these disputes and determines just who will be on the ballot and who will not be.

There is not one foreign policy effort that has gone well for the Bush cabal. North Korea has nukes, Iran is possibly restarting their nuclear efforts, the Taliban is strengthening in Afghanistan (though elections seem to be working), terror attacks are up globally, almost 2,000 troops have died in Iraq, Africa is seeing genocide and starvation and HIV/AIDS at increasing rates, Europe largely can't stand us and Canada is winning free trade cases against us.

It's enough to make one wish we could do a California-style recall election and vote for a porn star. At least the level of fucking competence would increase.

Poppy at 08:07 AM | Permalink

Two potential presidential candidates -- one from each major party -- took a hard swipe at President Bush's tax-reform panel's proposal to end deductions for state and local taxes. Governor George Pataki (R) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D) joined Senator Charles Schumer (D) in the attack.

Pataki said the plan would "devastate hardworking New Yorkers who already send billions more to Washington every year than they get back. I oppose it and will fight against it."

Schumer said the proposal would force New Yorkers to pay an additional $12 billion in federal taxes if they could no longer deduct state and local taxes: "It is a dagger to the heart of the people of New York." Schumer, presumably, will use his position on the Senate Finance Committee to make that point. California Treasurer Phil Angelides said the proposal would cost Californians $13 billion more a year in federal taxes.

Clinton called it "very troubling to hear that the president's tax-reform panel has recommended the elimination of a tax benefit for more than 3.2 million New York families who are disproportionately burdened by high property and state income taxes." She said an attempt to eliminate the deduction in 1986 was unsuccessful and called for this attempt also to be defeated.

Not for nothing here, but how the hell can the Republican Party keep talking about "double taxation" of the estate tax and then force people to pay federal taxes on money they used to pay state and local taxes? What a load of crap.

And the President's experts' plan sucks for other reasons, too:

Eliminating state and local tax deductions isn't the only potentially harmful aspect the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has proposed. The panel would also reduce by about two-thirds the current $1 million mortgage interest deduction and cap the now-unlimited deduction for employers who offer health-care benefits, as well as possibly taxing employees on the value of their health-care plans.

The panel would eliminate the alternative-minimum tax, which Congress enacted in 1969 to prevent the very wealthy from avoiding paying taxes but never indexed for inflation. Because it was not indexed, the tax has engulfed more and more Americans as salaries rose over the years. Eliminating the AMT would cost the Treasury $1.3 trillion, money that would be made up through eliminating deductions.

Eliminating the AMT would free middle-class taxpayers who were never intended to pay it in the first place. But it also lets the wealthy off the hook. Better to index the AMT for inflation retroactively and return the tax to its original purpose of ensuring that the super-rich pay their share of taxes.

Poppy at 10:46 AM | Permalink

Because you have to be happy when you are booked for felonies. Doesn't that Congressional pin look nice on the lapel.

Click the pic for the full-size.

Poppy at 02:42 PM | Permalink

This is the headline from an article in the Washington Post today:

DeLay Puts Legal Fate in Democrat's Hands

This is the guy they are calling a Demcorat:

DeGuerin considers himself a loyal Democrat. He is not a prolific political contributor, but when he gives he largely backs Democrats.

But the candidate who has received the most contributions from DeGuerin is his former client Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. He has contributed about $10,000 to her campaigns between 1990 and 2006.

The lawyer is also involved in Texas' 2006 gubernatorial campaign as an unpaid adviser to Kinky Friedman, a musician, mystery writer and all-around wiseacre who is running as an independent. His slogan: "Why the Hell Not?"

So he donates the most money to a Republican and works on an independent campaign against Democrats, but "considers" himself a Democrat so that gets the headline.

Jeebus.

Poppy at 01:38 PM | Permalink

It looks like we have finally found Bill O'Reilly's loofah falafel. The Factor's sexual aid is, at this time, orbiting the planet Saturn as it awaits its master's call. It is, after all, the only one big enough for his huge ego.

Poppy at 01:09 PM | Permalink

In the wake of Katrina and the eve of Rita, it was understandable that gas prices would rise well past three and sometimes four dollars a gallon. Barrels of oil rose, refining capacity was down and panic ruled the day. It made sense that for a while we would all have to deal with paying a hundred dollars a week to get to work and back.

Gas prices started their rapid rise on August 29th or so, and peaked out in early September. That was less than two months ago. But today oil fell below $60 a gallon for the first time in three months, and gas prices have still not fallen back to a reasonable range. Regular gas in NJ, usually one of the cheaper states to buy gas in, is over $2.70 in most stations.

Refning capacity is coming back on, oil prices are falling back to pre-Katrina levels, the summer driving season is over and the winter heating season hasn't begun. So WHY IS GASOLINE SO DAMNED EXPENSIVE?

We'll find out, I suspect, when the third and fourth quarter earnings reports for gas companies come out.

Poppy at 12:35 PM | Permalink

When we first went into Iraq it was because of WMDs. They weren't there. So we were there to topple a brutal dictator. That appeared pretty easy and no one cared. Then we were there to stop terrorism. There's more terrorism in Iraq and in the world than there was before the war. So then we went in there to democratize the middle east.

Every couple weeks it seemed like we were getting a different reason why we needed to go to Iraq.

And now we are getting the same technique with Harriet Miers. Cronyism not good enough? OK, then she has a good heart! Not good enough? She's an evangelical Christian! Still not buying it? How about her great legal skills! You want to know why the lottery commission was a mess and she had her law license suspended for not paying her bills? She's never been a judge!

Poppy at 11:49 AM | Permalink

I never realized that Bob Graham was so close to being our Vice Presidential pick last year, but apparently the bumper stickers and posters were printed and ready to go just in case Edwards backed out.

FM: True or false: the Democrats would have won Florida and the election had you been John Kerry’s running mate.

BG: I don’t know. Whereas Gore quote “lost” Florida—although I will go to my grave very suspicious of that—by less than 600 votes, Kerry lost it by two or three hundred thousand, and whether the vice presidential candidate could have made that much difference I’ll never know.

FM: The Kerry campaign printed Kerry-Graham posters and bumper stickers in case John Edwards declined the vice presidential candidacy. Did you manage to get your hands on any of these?

BG: We have some posters.

Poppy at 11:46 AM | Permalink

Does it really matter who told Karl Rove about Valerie Plame? He's saying Scooter Libby told him, but the important question is who he told.

White House adviser Karl Rove told the grand jury in the CIA leak case that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, may have told him that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence agency before her identity was revealed, a source familiar with Rove's account said yesterday.

In a talk that took place in the days before Plame's CIA employment was revealed in 2003, Rove and Libby discussed conversations they had had with reporters in which Plame and her marriage to Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV were raised, the source said. Rove told the grand jury the talk was confined to information the two men heard from reporters, the source said.

I've been assuming that Rove had clearance to know this information, as did Libby. Their talking to each other about Valerie Wilson is not that big a deal if this is the case.

However, if Libby had clearance and Rove did not then libby is now accused of leaking the name and job of a CIA operative to someone without the proper clearance. That would exclude Rove from the no leaking spy names law that Bush 41 loves.

But Rove could still have problems with simply divulging confidential or secret info. Just because he wasn't supposed to have it doesn't remove his obligation to protect it.

Guessing is such fun, but ultimately useless. Sorry. :-(

Poppy at 10:01 AM | Permalink

This doesn't bode well for our favorite Patridiots:

Top White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby discussed their contacts with reporters about an undercover CIA officer in the days before her identity was published, the first known intersection between two central figures in the criminal leak investigation.

Rove told grand jurors it was possible he first heard in the White House that Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration Joseph Wilson, worked for the CIA from Libby's recounting of a conversation with a journalist, according to people familiar with his testimony.

They said Rove testified that his discussions with Libby before Plame's CIA cover was blown were limited to information reporters had passed to them. Some evidence prosecutors have gathered conflicts with Libby's account.

Since I don't believe Rove as far as I can throw Rhode Island, I think he's lying. Especially since Miller says she got the name from the administration, and Cooper says he got it from Rove.

Poppy at 08:05 PM | Permalink

Former FEMA incompetent Michael Brown alleged that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin were "dysfunctional" and the reason why the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was so bad.

His boss, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, disagrees.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday disagreed with a charge by the former top federal disaster official that state and local authorities were to blame for the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.

Chertoff told a House of Representatives special committee investigating the highly criticized government response to the hurricane that he had no difficulty dealing with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other state officials.

"My own view is this, I've got to get my own house in order," Chertoff said. "I am not here to judge others. I did not have a problem with state and local officials."

Michael Brown, who quit as Federal Emergency Management Agency director under fire for his agency's slow response to the hurricane, told the committee last month that Louisiana officials were "dysfunctional."

Brown gave his testimony under oath in front of Congress.

Plus, the former fired horse judge is a whiner.

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, said e-mails from Brown that have been turned over to the panel showed that he resented being named the "principal federal officer" in charge of the Katrina response, a title he saw as a demotion.

Davis said "it struck me as rather odd" that Brown was worried about his title in the middle of a catastrophe.

Poppy at 06:54 PM | Permalink

If the Mayor is not safe ...

The mayor of Baghdad Hatem Mirza Hamza and his driver were killed Wednesday in al-Durra neighborhood in the Iraqi capital, Interfax reported citing a statement of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. A group of gunmen opened fire in the car of the mayor and then escaped.

Poppy at 03:53 PM | Permalink

Terry Neal, who has a Talking Points of himself, argues that Bush lied in 2000 when he talked about wanting to change the tone in Washington and work with others. To this I say, no shit?

During the year and a half that I covered George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, I must have heard his stump speech a thousand times. The lines changed little over the months, and the ending almost never changed -- Bush would raise his hand, as if taking an oath, and promise to restore honor and dignity to the White House.

He also vowed to restore civility to the poisonous atmosphere of the nation's capital, declaring at a GOP fundraiser in April 2000 that "it's time to clean up the toxic environment in Washington, D.C."

A few months later, Bush told voters at a campaign event in Pittsburgh that his administration would "ask not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves." [snip]

Political strategist Karl Rove, aka "Bush's Brain," and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, are believed to be possible targets in the investigation. An indictment of either man would be a serious blow to the administration, but what many observers are watching is how President Bush will respond.

After all, back in June 2004 the president said he'd fire anyone involved in the leak of Plame's name. But Bush seemed to lower the standard this summer -- when it became clear that Rove and Libby did in fact have conversations with reporters about Plame -- saying only that if someone "committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."

Given the opportunity on Monday to reassure the public that he meant all of those things he said back in 2000 during the campaign and specifically what he said in June 2004 about the Plame scandal, the president punted.

"There's a serious investigation," Bush said when asked by reporters during a White House photo-op with the Bulgarian prime minister. "I'm not going to prejudge the outcome of the investigation."

Can you say, Hypocrite? I think you can!

Poppy at 02:25 PM | Permalink

The Republican Party talks a good game on supporting the soldiers, but bumper magnets and yellow ribbons are not enough.

The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).

The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.

“This is outrageous,” the senator said in a telephone interview. “It makes me angry that this administration has broken another promise to our troops.”

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed the bonuses had been canceled, saying they violated Pentagon policies because they duplicated other programs. She said Guard and Reserve members would be eligible for other bonuses.

Krenke said some soldiers had been paid the re-enlistment bonuses, but she was unsure how many or whether the money would have to be repaid.

Would have to be repaid? They promised these soldiers the money, gave these soldiers the money, and now want to get the money back?

Only if the soldiers ge their enlistments back.

{via Atrios]

Poppy at 06:28 AM | Permalink

The rumors are out there -- will Dick Cheney resign?

parked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"It's certainly an interesting but I still think highly doubtful scenario," said a Bush insider. "And if that should happen," added the official, "there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP."

Said another Bush associate of the rumor, "Yes. This is not good." The rumor spread so fast that some Republicans by late morning were already drawing up reasons why Rice couldn't get the job or run for president in 2008.

Poppy at 02:16 PM | Permalink

Remember when everyone was trying to figure out why the CIA jazzed up its weapons of mass destruction analysis of Iraq against the wishes of many analysts and the opinion of many other departments? The accusation at the time was that the White House pressured the CIA to do it, and Republicans and right wing nuts went ballistic at the idea.

Standing nearby, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., the committee's chairman, shot back: "I do not think there is any evidence of undue pressure on any analyst."

Even people directly accused of leading the charge to pressure for "good news" slammed the idea, including Dick Cheneyhttp://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/justify/2004/0712whpressure.htm.

But Vice President Dick Cheney refuted the charges over the weekend, saying that the Democrats were showing signs of "selective memory." "...The committee interviewed over 200 individuals from the intelligence community. They could find no one out of that entire group that indicated they felt pressure directed by the administration with respect to the kind of intelligence they should produce."

But now, via Atrios, Patrick Fitzgerald appears to have a different view.

As the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name hurtles to an apparent conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney's office, according to lawyers familiar with the case and government officials. The prosecutor has assembled evidence that shows Cheney's long-running feud with the CIA contributed to the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame.

In grand jury sessions, including with New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Fitzgerald has pressed witnesses on what Cheney may have known about the effort to push back against ex-diplomat and Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, including the leak of his wife's position at the CIA, Miller and others said. But Fitzgerald has focused more on the role of Cheney's top aides, including Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, lawyers involved in the case said.

One former CIA official told prosecutors early in the probe about efforts by Cheney's office and his allies at the National Security Council to obtain information about Wilson's trip as long as two months before Plame was unmasked in July 2003, according to a person familiar with the account.

Poppy at 05:17 AM | Permalink

Oh, here's shocking news. Condoleeza Rice supports Harriet Miers for Supreme Court.

Why even write the article?

Poppy at 08:23 PM | Permalink

I know this will come as a shock to all of you out there, particularly my loyal readers out there, but Arnold Schwartzenegger is a hypocrite. It turns out that his wife is a special interest.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot call for California to live within its means is triggering questions about whether his own administration is living within its means -- especially when it comes to his wife, Maria Shriver.

Shriver doesn't hold elected office, but records show she does command a half-million-dollar-a-year staff -- which, depending on how you cut it, is anywhere from $60,000 to $180,000 more than what her predecessor, Sharon Davis, had.

Recently, Daniel Zingale -- a Democratic gay rights advocate who had been working on Controller Steve Westly's gubernatorial campaign -- was appointed Shriver's $123,255 chief of staff. When he takes over Nov. 1, he will be earning about $30,000 more than Davis' top aide, Trish Fontana, was paid.

You'd think that with the Kennedy fortune and the Kindergarten Cop fortune they could staff her on their own.

Poppy at 07:53 PM | Permalink

It appears that nothing worse than usual happened during the vote for the Iraqi constitution today. The bad news is that the usual happened, with firefights and bombings and deaths and gunfire throughout the country while people were trying to vote.

Millions of voters in Iraq ignored the threat of attack and cast ballots Saturday in a constitutional referendum that was remarkably calm, with isolated insurgent attacks on polling stations and sporadic clashes with U.S. Marines west of Baghdad, but no major bombings or mass killings.

As the polls closed at 5 p.m. after 10 hours of voting, it appeared that the worst violence of the day occurred in Ramadi, an insurgent and Sunni Arab stronghold about 55 miles west of the capital, where firefights between militants and U.S. soldiers forced three of the city's main polling centers to close shortly after opening at 7 a.m. Hospital officials said that at least seven people seeking to vote were killed by insurgents.

We keep making paper progress in Iraq, but are losing ground on the infrastructure and security fronts. There is no way that a constitution or an elected legislature makes a difference when you can't keep stores, factories or mosques open without worrying about your employees, customers or family being killed.

Wesley Clark said pretty much the same today, taking President Bush to task for hsi failures to make any real progress in providing freedom to the Iraqi people, or securing the world from terrorism.

Poppy at 04:22 PM | Permalink

Put the rich in the lifeboats first.

Really.

Poppy at 07:13 PM | Permalink

If you can read this and still think that Republicans support veterans and honor their service to the freedom we all enjoy, you're nuts.

An Army veteran who fled to Canada to avoid prosecution for growing marijuana to treat his chronic pain was yanked from a hospital by Canadian authorities, driven to the border with a catheter still attached, and turned over to U.S. officials, his lawyer says. He then went five days with no medical treatment and only ibuprofen for the pain, attorney Douglas Hiatt said.

Steven W. Tuck, 38, was still fitted with the urinary catheter when he shuffled into federal court for a detention hearing Wednesday, Hiatt said. "This is totally inhumane. He's been tortured for days for no reason," Hiatt said.

At least both the Democratic and Republican candidates for Governor in New Jersey came out in support of medical marijuana. Maybe sanity will return someday.

Poppy at 07:11 AM | Permalink

For all that the right wing would like to believe it, the fact is that the current ethical investigations and potential disasters facing the Republican leadership in Washington, D.C. are not the doing of crazy Bush-hating unpatriotic liberals. The major setbacks -- Bill Frist's stock sale, cronyism, Tom DeLay's money laundering, The Plame case, and Jack Abramoff -- cause great joy in the liberal world but we can't take credit for them.

Bill Frist may be innocent in his sale of the family business' stock weeks before it tanked due to poor earnings, but it is the Security and Exchange Commission that is pressing the issue. The SEC is part of the Bush administration, and has been under Bush control for a little under five years, pretty much ensuring that the liberals didn't set this one up.

The people most upset about Cronyism right now are the religious right as they look at Harriet Miers. True, we were pretty pissed off that former horse judge judge Michael Brown's incompetence lost lives, but it was when Fox News reporters on the scene yelled at their anchors that things were really bad that it his the fan. Then Michelle Malkin (hardly a liberal) started attacking the appointment of Julie Myers to the head of immigration control with the headline: NO MORE CRONYISM: BUSH DHS NOMINEE DOESN'T DESERVE THE JOB.

And the right wing has gone off the rails about the cronyism in appointing Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Democrats reacted with caution and, sometimes, with approval to the appointment and the blogs and religous right folks went ballistic. The White House has held conference calls and pleaded with both the internet kids and the churchified to accept Miers as their own, but it is not happening.

Now, you might get Tom DeLay as a liberal attack, except for the fact that Ronnie Earle is hardly a partisan hack. He has indicted 12 Democrats and (prior to the Texas Campaign Finance scandal) four Republicans. He has a winning record of 13-3. If he lets his partisan Democrat leaning influence his work as a District Attoney he has a funny way of showing it.

Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and maybe Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney are in deep doo-doo over the outing of Valerie Wilson, nee Plame, but it was not liberals who led the attack. The CIA requested that the Justice Department investigate the leak. The Justice Department tried, but discovered too many conflicts and hired a special prosecutor. The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, was appointed a United State's Attorney by President George Bush, and is a Republican. Not a single liberal there.

The same Justice Department used a federal grand jury to indict Jack Abramoff in the SunCruz Casino's scandal for wire fraud and conspiracy. His co-indictees are also accused of a mob-style hit.

Believe me, liberals, progressives and Democrats are enjoying watching the corrupt Republican leadership and money machine unravel, but it is actually entities primarily under control of the corrupt Republican leadership that is taking them down.

And that makes it all the better.

Poppy at 06:40 AM | Permalink

Earlier this year Hillary Clinton was blasted by many on both sides of the political spectrum for parsing her pro-choice credentials when she said that Republicans and Democrats should work together to reduce the number of abortions. Supporting education, contraception and other means of preventing pregnancy would do the trick.

The offense to the left was that this was a huge shift away from abortion orthodoxy, and the offense to the right was that she once again proved that the Clintons were willing to say anything to get elected. Well, I call shenanigans.

Pandagon has a link to The National Reviews' paean to itself as it republished its 200 reasons to get rid of Preident Bill Clinton, The Clinton 200.

Number 4 is "Safe, legal and rare."

It was published on October 26, 1998.

Poppy at 11:06 AM | Permalink

It looks like NARAL Pro-Choice America is keeping its powder dry on the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination. They stepped right up and opposed John Roberts, for all the good it did, but are holding their counsel on this one.

Although she's never been afraid to lead a political fight, Montana's Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, is withholding judgment on Harriet Miers, President Bush's newest nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

”We don't know much about her,“ Keenan said in an interview in Helena Friday. ”There's not a record.“
Keenan, Montana's superintendent of public instruction for 12 years after six years representing Anaconda in the state Legislature, said NARAL and other groups are still doing their research on Miers.

”We don't know her individual beliefs,“ said Keenan, who is in Montana this weekend speaking to NARAL leaders and supporters. ”She gave $150 to the Right to Life of Texas and gave money to (Democrat Al) Gore. She really is an enigma.“

This is probably the best move they can make, because an instant opposition would be a signal to the right wingnuts that Miers was one of them. The left has been confounding the right by staying out of the fray and letting the social conservatives rip the political conservatives to shreds. Any step into the battle could coalesce the two sides and push Miers into the Likely column.

Poppy at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Tagean Goddard has a quick post on Tom DeLay's newfound love for local media in Texas.

"Setting aside his own aversion to the media," Rep. Tom DeLay (R)TX) "has waged a blitz on radio, on TV and in print as he tries to shore up support in his suburban Houston congressional district while assuring fellow Republicans he plans to return to power," the AP reports.

DeLay "already has made more than 20 radio and TV appearances" since his first indictment on September 28.

I wonder if any of these 20 radio and television appearance by the indicted Texas Republican reached the Travis County, TX area where the jury pool for his conspiracy and money laundering trial could be. I'm not saying that Tom DeLay is trying to piss in the jury pool or anything, just that the water appears to be turning yellow and he's the only one with his dick in the ringer.

Unless best buddies like co-indictee Jim Ellis are helping him.

Poppy at 12:16 PM | Permalink

Last year St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly, an alleged Democrat, endorsed George Bush for President.

Now John Kerry is hanging in St. Paul working for former St. Paul city councilman Chris Coleman to defeat the son of a bitch.

Poppy at 11:33 AM | Permalink

This is the first time I have seen "Insurgents" as it relates to Afghanistan.

Insurgents Kill 19 Afghan Policemen

Suspected Taliban rebels ambushed a police convoy traveling on a mountain road in southern Afghanistan, killing 19 officers in the deadliest attack ever on the fledgling police force, officials said Tuesday.

The convoy of 150 police was attacked late Monday while driving on a dirt road in Helmand province, Interior Ministry spokesman Yusuf Stanikzai said. Dozens of insurgents opened fire on the convoy, sparking a gunbattle that lasted until early Tuesday, when the militants fled into the mountains, he said.

Among the 19 dead was Helmand's deputy police chief, Stanikzai said. Four police officers were wounded and four police vehicles were destroyed, he said.

That's not good.

Poppy at 11:17 AM | Permalink

It looks like the Bush-Cheney cabal is losing a lot of support from the right wing nuts out there.

Raw Story and Talk Left report that Vice President Dick Cheney was supposed to speak at the 50th Anniversary Party of the William F. Buckley's National Review at 7:30, and asked to have his slot changed to 7:00 p.m. for health reasons.

The National Review refused to accomodate the sitting Vice President of the United States. Now that's an insult right there.

Of course, Joe Lieberman was there in all his Blue Elephant splendor.

Poppy at 06:51 AM | Permalink