More on creepy Claude Allen, top Bush aide charged with felony

The Claude Allen story is just weird. You can't make this stuff up. Allen, who was one of Bush's top policy aides, is a former top aide to Jesse Helms, too:

Allen rose steadily through the Republican political ranks. From congressional campaign aide, to Senate staffer, state Cabinet secretary, federal appeals court nominee and the upper reaches of the Bush administration -- all by age 45.

But Allen's once-soaring career has taken a bizarre turn with his arrest Thursday on theft charges for allegedly ripping off two department stores in a phony refund scheme.

The arrest of Allen, who suddenly resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, startled those in his big-ticket Gaithersburg neighborhood and at the White House who knew him as a soft-spoken and collegial aide who was loyal to his young family and devoted to his church.

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Frist wins GOP Presidential straw poll

Yes, the good doctor, who diagnosed Terri Schiavo via videotape (incorrectly, as you recall) and who is serves as a full-time puppet for the theocrats, became the frontrunner for the GOP in 2008 tonight:

With home-field advantage, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist placed first in an informal poll of 2008 presidential hopefuls at a Republican conference Saturday night.

The two-term Tennessee senator received 526 first-place votes, or 36.9 percent, in the Southern Republican Leadership Conference's "straw poll" sponsored by Hotline, a political digest. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 14.4 percent and Sen. George Allen of Virginia finished third, tied with President Bush - who cannot seek a third term.

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Saturday Night Orchid Blogging

With John under the weather seems we missed our orchids again last night. John has a much better collection of plants and photographs, but tonight you're stuck with my collection. As last week, here's another stalk of my Taida Lawrence Gold Medal. Click the image for a larger version.


This is a second stalk off the same plant as last week, currently with three active flowers.

Consider this an open thread. Read More......

Alexander Haig compares mistakes of Vietnam and Iraq

Another Republican with strong military credentials is comparing Vietnam and Iraq. This time it's Alexander Haig:

Former Nixon adviser Alexander Haig said military leaders in Iraq are repeating a mistake made in Vietnam by not applying the full force of the military to win the war.

"Every asset of the nation must be applied to the conflict to bring about a quick and successful outcome, or don't do it," Haig said. "We're in the midst of another struggle where it appears to me we haven't learned very much."

Bush hasn't learned much. And there a lot of dead people because of his mistakes. Read More......

Under Bush, there is no port security

Port security is a joke. The best thing about the Dubai/UAE scandal is that it focused attention on the deporable state of port security in America. The Bush administration and the Republicans on the hill have ignored port security for five years -- and a new study confirms that:

Lapses by private port operators, shipping lines or truck drivers could allow terrorists to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States, according to a government review of security at American seaports.

The $75 million, three-year study by the Homeland Security Department included inspections at a New Jersey cargo terminal involved in the dispute over a Dubai company's now-abandoned bid to take over significant operations at six major U.S. ports.

The previously undisclosed results from the study found that cargo containers can be opened secretly during shipment to add or remove items without alerting U.S. authorities, according to government documents marked "sensitive security information" and obtained by The Associated Press.

The study found serious lapses by private companies at foreign and American ports, aboard ships, and on trucks and trains "that would enable unmanifested materials or weapons of mass destruction to be introduced into the supply chain."

Doesn't that make you feel safer? Read More......

"Senior Republicans" want Bush to dump Card, Rove

Well, well, well, they are a catty little bunch down at the big GOP meeting in Memphis this weekend. They're backstabbing Card and Rove to Ad Nags -- all off the record, of course:

Some senior Republicans with ties to the White House, who asked for anonymity because they did not want to be identified describing internal White House deliberations, said there was a widespread feeling in Republican circles here that Mr. Bush would be well served to bring in some new senior advisers, either replacing Andrew H. Card Jr., Mr. Bush's chief of staff, or Karl Rove, his senior political adviser, both of whom have been in the administration since Mr. Bush came to Washington.

It sure is fun to watch them fight each other. Think Karl knows which "senior Republicans" are trashing him? Read More......

FYI, super computer deal

From one of our readers who knows his Macs, has been a Mac consultant forever, etc. Just thought someone might be interested:

I was just at Costco yesterday, and they are featuring the iMac G5 20" top-line model for $1479. Why is it $400 less than it used to be, when Apple NEVER discounts anything, ever?

Because they've stopped making the G5's, and are now completely shifted over to the Intel-chip model. If you want a killer deal on a superb computer, this is your chance. I saw this at the Costco over by Qualcomm Stadium.

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Call this the "put me down, now" open thread

(Fair warning: This is one of my occasional whines. It's funny, because someone asked the question at yesterday's AMERICAblog coffee in San Francisco whether my mood affects my writing on the blog. I said, I don't think so. Ha!)

OMG. I have a chest cold/flu like I haven't had in quite some time. The last time I felt this bad on a day was I was flying, I remember sitting next to this very nice Indian-American woman (from India, I mean), who was a psychologist by training, and I board the flight, sick as a dog, throbbing migraine to boot, she sits down next to me, turns and say "why don't you love yourself?"

I had no clue what to say, not to mention I was in pain. All I could do was politely tell her, I'm really sorry, but I'm about to die and I really need to sleep for a few hours. I popped four aspirin and went into a coma.

Ah flying.

Anyway, other than taking the training, my trip to SF has involved a lot of unsuccessful attempts to sleep all day in my hotel room. I'm flying back to DC early this afternoon out of Oakland, via Chicago, and arriving at Dulles airport at midnight tonight. Tried calling United to see about changing my seating to economy plus (they're booked - who knew it was only $40 more?), upgrading my seat (for cash or miles), or even changing my O'Haire to Dulles leg to an O'Haire to National flight (which is, oh, 40 minutes closer to my apartment). I got successively lost on their automatic answering lady machine thing, and the Web site couldn't do it either.

I have no shame at the moment, this is the kind of flu where every muscle in your back feels like a knife is in it. If anyone out there has United contacts and has it in their heart to help make this flight more bearable in any way, like I said, I'm shameless at this point :-) Thanks, JOHN Read More......

NYT outgoing Baghdad bureau chief says US effort in Iraq will likely "fail"

Of course, this isn't new to any of us, but that the traditional media is finally coming to turns with the magnitude of Bush's disaster in Iraq, that's a good turn.

A day after returning to the U.S., after another long term as bureau chief in Baghdad, John Burns of The New York Times said on Bill Maher's Friday night HBO program that he now feels, for the first time, that the American effort in Iraq will likely "fail."

Asked if a civil war was developing there, Burns said, "It's always been a civil war," adding that it's just a matter of extent. He said the current U.S. leaders there--military and diplomatic--were doing there best but sectarian differences would "probably" doom the enterprise.

Burns said that he and others underestimated this problem, feeling for a long time that toppling Saddam Hussein would almost inevitably lead to something much better.

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That whole lobby reform thing in Congress...forget about it

Because absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the party in power is corrupt, there's not going to be any real reform in Congress. They love the free meals and corporate jets:

The drive for a tighter lobbying law, just two months ago a major priority on Capitol Hill, is losing momentum, a victim of shifting political interests, infighting among House Republicans and a growing sense among lawmakers of both parties that wholesale change may not be needed after all.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Yep, it's still early. I'm heading to the pool.

What do we need to know? Read More......

'President's Nephew Defends Port Deal'

That was the title of the Today Show's first segment this morning...and I am not kidding. The Today Show just did a 5 minute interview with Bush's nephew, Pierce Bush. Apparently, the 19 year old Pierce wrote a letter to the editor defending his uncle on the port deal. The Today Show found that newsworthy enough to make it the morning's first story.

I don't know what is more pathetic...that the Today Show thought this was news...or that the only person they could find to defend Bush on the port deal was the 19 year old nephew of the Prez. Read More......

Another sort-of terror threat

Oh boy, the Bush ratings must really be in the tank with this story being floated. As millions around the US are following the end of the year college basketball tournaments, surprise, surprise, a mention of terror is put out there just to let everyone know that we should all be afraid...very afraid.

Could something happen? Of course. Am I sick and tired of this administrations games with scaring the hell out Americans when serious threats don't really exist? Definitely. Maybe that's why the US public is turning away from the Bush administration and their claims of protecting America. The public has turned but the administration doesn't get it yet. Why should we believe anything that they have to say? How did such a non-story actually become a story? Who's pulling strings to try and play the fear card once again? Read More......

So tell me how the GOP will protect ANWR oil drilling

Seems like disasters like this always seem to happen with the oil industry. We don't hear as much about a lot of these problems when they happen in remote, poor countries but it's just a reality of the industry. Keep this in mind the next time the GOP wants to pay back their Big Oil friends. Read More......

Open thread

And off to bed. Read More......

Another Bush aide in legal trouble

That whole ethics training they did at the White House after Scooter got indicted really sunk in. Okay, this is a weird story, but the guy was a top aide to the President:

A former domestic policy adviser to President Bush has been charged with theft for allegedly receiving phony refunds at department stores.

Claude Alexander Allen, 45, was arrested Thursday by Montgomery County police for allegedly claiming refunds for more than $5,000 worth of merchandise he did not buy, according to county and federal authorities.

Allen was the No. 2 official in the Health and Human Services Department when Bush nominated him in April 2003 to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. Bush nominated Allen to the court again a year later, but he never received a Senate vote.

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