Rats jumping off the Team Fred ship?

The campaign ship hasn't sailed yet for the former Tennessee senator and Law & Order actor, but the shake ups at Team Fred Thompson continue. Tee hee.

Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson's lead political advance operative*, Sam LeBlond, resigned this morning, associates of Thompson said, and several other advisers were expected to quit before the end of the week.

Mr. LeBlond is nephew to President George W. Bush.

He joined the Thomspon committee less than two weeks ago.

One person who's going to go down with the ship is James Carville bedmate Mary Matalin. Chris Cillizza at The Fix (WaPo):

The Fix can knock down one of the major ones: Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and longtime Republican political operative, is staying put.

Reached in Croatia (are we good or what?), Matalin said she chats daily with the Thompson organization and remains 100 percent on board.

Our sense of the ongoing Thompson staff shuffle is that it is teetering on the brink of becoming just plain bad news. The sharks are circling and whispers about the too-prominent role of Thompson's wife -- Jeri -- are everywhere. With news of every departure, the story tilts away from Thompson's best interests.

The audience for this story remains largely confined within the Beltway for the moment, which is good for Thompson. But staff stirrings can lead to stories about disorganization, unhappiness and general disorder, and that is a narrative that does Thompson's "campaign" no good, especially as he prepares to launch his bid formally sometime in the next month or so.

More bad news...

Sources close to the presumptive campaign tell NBC News that Fred Thompson's fundraising is down "markedly." One claimed it has "slowed down big-time." The pace is described as a consequence of the delayed announcement to enter the race."The Friends of Fred, Inc." will report to the IRS its revenue by July 31st. Sources reveal to NBC News that number will be in the range of about $3 million.

But don't tell any of this to the Freeper set -- it's full steam ahead in their minds for this Titanic of a wannabe campaign.

These dolts are throwing their money away...they are also pissed that Thompson has hired Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Michigan) as his non-campaign manager. Malkin refers to him as "Open Border Spence," so that puts him at odds with "The Brown Menace is coming^TM" yahoos.

Actual Freeper Quotes

He got $500 from me the night his website went up...and not a dime since. Get in, Fred, and my checkbook will open again.

Fred has to jump in or out. He's waiting too long to announce.

Why doesent he contact his Arab friends?

Agreed. I won't donate to someone who is thinking about running, only someone who is actually running. Enough testing the waters!

DITTO! Thompson got my contribution on day 1, and will continue just as soon as it is official! I am sure that there are many out there just like me!

When Fred officially tosses his hat in the ring I will open my check book. Not before then.

I'm in for $100 until later in the year and assuming there is an announcement.

I'm sending in modest amounts every month just to keep the cash flowing, but intend to increase that monthly contribution significantly the day he announces ... the continuing attacks by innuendo notwithstanding.

I'm not wasting a dime contributing to a candidate with an uncertain life expectancy...and a ZERO probability of winning the general election against the Clinton's.

Cassandra would say that Fred Thompson is experiencing difficulty raising money not because he has failed to declare but because all Republicans are having immense difficulty raising money. Thompson will soon declare, there is no hurry for that, but I doubt if it will significantly change the financial landscape.

I understand that Republicans, even Romney, are gravely behind the Democrats not only in the amount of money collected but in the critical number of donors. We are losing the Internet wars for money to the likes of Obama who is running about four donors to every one for Romney. The disparity is even greater in the amount they contribute.

We had better hope that, with all the plagues and trials which are about to befall the Republican Party in this election season, we will not for the first time in modern memory fall behind the rats in raising money as well as in sheer numbers.

In addition, a lot of conservatives are now alarmed at his hiring of losers from McCains train wreck express, to Spencer Abraham (another loser), and most likely loser... Snakehead Carville's wife. Thompson has surrounded himself with well-seasoned losers. It did not have to be this way. I like Fred Thompson. It's a shame he's now surrounded by proven losers.

Maybe the Republican leadership will step back next time, instead of stepping off into a war with their own base.

Explain how anyone Thompson hires from McCain's campaign is a loser. I could have sworn that it's McCain who's the loser, who ran his campaign stupidly. (I understand that he put the cart before the horse, among other things.) McCain is widely known to be a jerk. He finished himself off with the immigration bill vote. Tell me how his personnel are losers because McCain is a cluck.

Could these staffers not ?see' he was a cluck? A lot of us here have seen through McCain for years. And these brilliant staffers could not?

I like Fred Thompson too, and I tend to agree with tennmountainman's remarks. I think Fred needs to face the fact that his honeymoon is starting to fade. He needs to get out there as a real candidate, declaring the specifics of his positions, and proving he can be an articulate and passionate spokesman for them. I don't think anyone has the energy to prop up another message bumbler like GWB. We need to see him in action to know he's not.

Great. Low fundraising for F. Thompson, conservatives holding on to their checkbooks, bad (i.e. not conservative) choices in his campaign staff. We will be left with Romney or Guilianni. Isn't it time to support Duncan Hunter and help him out of the pack?

You're absolutely right! And the aching frustration of seeing the Republican Party and the conservative movement bashing itself to pieces is made only the more insupportable by the knowledge that we are utterly impotent to deflect George Bush from his obdurate course of destruction. By God, George Bush dreams of a multicultural society without Borders and he will see that we get it even of it does cost us everything.

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Defining Patriotism Down

The blogosphere is alive over Scott Thomas Beauchamp's Iraq blogging. Mr. Beauchamp blogged some controversial posts about his military unit for The New Republic, under the pseudonym of Scott Thomas (not sure he has a career in fiction ahead of him if his pseudonym is any indication).

Of course, the right wing blogosphere went nuts, accusing TNR of fabricating a soldier and lying about his experiences. There were repeated attempts to prove that Scott Thomas was a fake.

Today, Mr. Beauchamp unveiled himself, proving that he a) does exist and b) is in Iraq. Rather than admit they were wrong, the right-wing has now taken to slandering Mr. Beauchamp. Here's Ms. Malkin, at her best.

Scott Johnson at Powerline doesn’t mince words in his assessment of Beauchamp: “Pretentious ass.” I’d add, in the parlance of p.c. pop psychology: A pretentious ass with issues. Major issues.

So there you have it. Michelle Malkin supports our troops. Unless they are liberal and disagree with her views on the war. Then they become a "pretentious ass with issues." Has there ever been a group of people more intellectually dishonest than this group of conservative pundits? Read More......

Gonzales and the endless corruption of this administration

The headlines speak for themselves...

Democrats ask for perjury investigation of Attorney General Gonzales

FBI director contradicts Gonzales's testimony

Democrats call for special prosecutor, subpoena Rove in U.S. attorney matter

I'm trying to figure out how screwed over matters have to get in Washington before people wake up and see how the country was stolen out from beneath them by this administation, which is rife with pathological dissemblers who believe they are above the law. Look at this exchange in the Gonzales hearing (h/t Liberty Street). Gonzo simply refused to answer a question to him posed by Chuck Schumer.



Josh Marshall has been opposed to impeachment, but he's giving it a hard look now; he wrote about the dustup in his post, "Gonzales to Schumer: Blow Me":

[T]estifying before Congress is like testifying in a court of law. The questions aren't voluntary. You have to answer every one. You can invoke a privilege and the court's will decide whether the argument has merit. But no one can simply decline to answer a question. And yet this is exactly what Gonzales did.

Melissa McEwan was ready for the "I" trigger the other day:

Gonzo's testimony yesterday was just completely absurd. He is a liar and a toadie who cannot be remotely trusted. This man fills the highest law enforcement job in the nation, and he can't even be relied upon to tell the truth in front of Congress. That Bush won't fire his ass should tell us everything we need to know about the president and his corrupt administration -- and should itself be grounds for impeachment. I quite honestly cannot believe we continue to allow this band of mendacious miscreants to run our country.

And Jeff Fecke at Shakes Sis:

Ideally, the president would ask for Gonzales's resignation. Indeed, I would imagine that 42 other presidents would have fired Gonzales by now, but of course, Bush is the exception that proves the rule. With the president unwilling to actually deal with the incompetent, deceitful nincompoop that he's installed at the head of our nation's justice department, congress must act to preserve the rule of law and respect for our nation's democratic institutions. It is not a political calculation that should drive this; had Bill Clinton lied under oath demonstrably and directly to congress I would have been hard-pressed to argue against impeachment. That is precisely what Alberto Gonzales has done, and precisely why congress must move with all deliberate speed to remove him.

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Donate to the blog banned by Bill O'Reilly

We've been blown away by the response to the our AMERICAblog 2.0 fundraising drive. Thanks to everyone who has contributed. The new site is going to be amazing. We had hoped to reach our goal by August 15th and we're almost 3/4 of the way there.

What John has been doing to expose the hypocrisy of Bill O'Reilly is a classic example of AMERICAblog's work. As you know, John's done such a good job that O'Reilly banned him from BillOReilly.com. As John put it:

Apparently threatening to take a gun to Hillary Clinton and suggesting we burn down the US Capitol building is okay to post on Bill O'Reilly's Web site, but complaining about those terrorist and assassination proposals gets your banned. Which brings into question just how serious Bill O'Reilly is about the death threats being posted on BillOReilly.com since an attempt to find those threats is cause for being banned. Where's your free speech now, Bill?

So, if you like what we do now, it's only going to get better with AMERICAblog 2.0. Consider making a contribution to AMERICAblog, the blog that was banned by O'Reilly. Do it to piss off Bill O'Reilly and the Fox News crew.

You can donate quite easily and safely online via this link.


You can also write a check to "John Aravosis" and send it to:

PO Box 21336
Washington, DC 20009

Note: Donations are not tax-deductible, and we cannot cash checks made out to "AMERICAblog" - please make the checks out to "John Aravosis."

John mentioned that anyone who donates by August 15th will be invited to be a beta tester for the new site.

Thanks for all the support. Read More......

Exxon Mobil nets a cool $10.26 billion in Q2

Gosh, how are they going to find the money to fund global warming denier Lee Raymond's retirement program? You know if the GOP still controlled Congress, they would be shoveling over more corporate welfare because Exxon only hit $10.26 billion, down slightly from Q2 2006 when they set the all time record for a quarterly profit. At least Exxon found a schmuck from the AP to give them an easy headline "Exxon Mobil 2Q profit slips" in hopes of minimizing the downright massive profit they just reported.

A normal company in the energy business might invest profits like this in alternative energies but no, not our good friends from Exxon. Exxon remains stuck in the stone age, unwilling to invest in renewable energy but you know they will be the first in line for government handouts, crying that they they need help, when the tide shifts. Think about that the next time you are looking to fill up your gas tank and think about how much Exxon is squeezing today and how much they're going to ask you to pay them tomorrow. The choices are all pretty bad but at least the other Big Oil powers are making some kind of an effort to divest. Let Exxon sell to the Fox News crowd. Read More......

Bush: 65% disapproval

Disfavor for Bush Hits Rare Heights. Believe it or not, that number is nearly a record; you'd think it would be higher than that.

Bush knows all about hard work, doesn't he? It takes real nose-to-the-grindstone effort to achieve this, but Dear Leader has succeeded beyond all expectations --

The latest Washington Post-ABC News survey shows that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's job performance, matching his all-time low.

In polls conducted by The Post or Gallup going back to 1938, only twice has a president exceeded that level of public animosity -- Harry S. Truman, who hit 67 percent during the Korean War, and Richard M. Nixon, who hit 66 percent four days before resigning.

The historic depth of Bush's public standing has whipsawed his White House, sapped his clout, drained his advisers, encouraged his enemies and jeopardized his legacy. Around the White House, aides make gallows-humor jokes about how they can alienate their remaining supporters -- at least those aides not heading for the door. Outside the White House, many former aides privately express anger and bitterness at their erstwhile colleagues, Bush and the fate of his presidency.

But does this faze our man of action?

Bush has been so down for so long that some advisers maintain it no longer bothers them much. It can even, they say, be liberating. Seeking the best interpretation for the president's predicament, they argue that Bush can do what he thinks is right without regard to political cost, pointing to decisions to send more U.S. troops to Iraq and to commute the sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.

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O'Reilly's no-spin zone eats some crow

Billo's been taken to task by John over the Faux News chat show host's pummeling of the liberal blog Daily Kos (along with the convention Yearly Kos, which is next week), and progressive blogs generally for the tenor of some of the comments there, even as O'Reilly's own forum commenters have drawn the attention of the Secret Service.

He's also recently had to eat crow over one of his "fair and balanced" reports on The No Spin Zone. Faux News "Crime Analyst" Rod Wheeler and Billo had to admit the inaccuracies and exaggerations in the show's unbelievable report that claimed a pink-pistol-toting lesbian gang "epidemic" was sweeping the country. Here's one of the outlandish exchanges:

O'Reilly asked, "Now, when they recruit the kids, are they indoctrinating them into homosexuality?"

"Yes," Wheeler answered. "As a matter of fact, some of the kids have actually reported that they were forced into, you know, performing sex acts and doing sex acts with some of these people."

After the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) looked into Wheeler's stats and called O'Reilly on the issue, it was time for the crow:

"During the O'Reilly Factor segment on June 21st, while engaged in a discussion on Lesbian gangs, I inadvertently stated that gang members carry pistols that are painted pink and call themselves the "Pink Pistol Packing Group." I was not referring to the gay rights group "Pink Pistols" who advocates for the lawful rights of gays to carry weapons for protection. Further, I mentioned that there are "over 150 of these gangs" in the greater Washington DC area. What I actually meant is that there are over 150 gangs in the Washington DC area, some of which are in fact lesbian gangs. Lastly, I mentioned in the segment that there is this "national epidemic" of lesbian gangs. A better choice of words would have been to say that there is a growing concern nationally, and especially in major urban areas, of increased gang activity, which includes some lesbian gang activity. I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused."

Wheeler, by the way, has received an endorsement in the past from the White House. Tony Snow said: "We turn to Rod Wheeler to help us better understand and solve some of these terrible crimes in America." Read More......

Rove subpoenaed by Senate

Finally, the Senate is getting to the key player in the U.S. Attorneys scandal: Karl Rove.

Okay, when Rove doesn't respond to the subpoena -- and he won't, play hard ball: cut his salary from the budget, take away his security clearance, make him pay. The guiding principle for Senate Democrats should be: what would Rove do?:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday issued a subpoena for top White House adviser Karl Rove to compel him to testify about the firing of several U.S. attorneys.

“The evidence shows that senior White House political operatives were focused on the political impact of federal prosecutions and whether federal prosecutors were doing enough to bring partisan voter fraud and corruption cases,” Leahy said. “It is obvious that the reasons given for the firings of these prosecutors were contrived as part of a cover-up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort.”

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Please join us in welcoming a few guest bloggers for the rest of the summer

As you now already know, Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend will be joining us for the month of August, and then some, to write about whatever her dear heart pleases (but Pam focuses a lot on GLBT and race issues, so I've asked her to keep it up here as well). We'll also be welcoming my mysterious friend BC, who also blogs over at Cliff's site. I've know "BC" for years, and he's got a great political wit and biting logic. I think you're going to like him. And we'll also be announcing two special guest bloggers, including a recent Iraq vet and a man rather well-known as a progressive powerhouse here in town (not a politician, but more on him later). Both of them have a special stick in their craw about Iraq. So, I think it should be a fun summer. Enjoy. Read More......

O'Reilly banned me for exposing terrorist and assassination chatter on his Web site

Apparently threatening to take a gun to Hillary Clinton and suggesting we burn down the US Capitol building is okay to post on Bill O'Reilly's Web site, but complaining about those terrorist and assassination proposals gets your banned. Which brings into question just how serious Bill O'Reilly is about the death threats being posted on BillOReilly.com since an attempt to find those threats is cause for being banned. Where's your free speech now, Bill?

Why are jetBlue and Home Depot insisting on supporting people who seem more concerned about liberals than they are terrorists? Perhaps you should ask them. Here is jetBlue's contact:
corporatecommunications@jetblue.com

Home Depot Web contact form.
Phone number 1-800-553-3199

Mailing address:
2455 Paces Ferry Road
Atlanta, GA 30339 Read More......

BillOReilly.com suggests terrorist attack against US Capitol building

"Maybe it's time to burn down the capitol building like Hitler did with the Reichstag building."

And how do jetBlue and Home Depot, big supporters of O'Reilly, feel about launching a terrorist attack against the US Capitol that would assassinate all 535 members of the US Congress? Read More......

Breaking new ground at AMERICAblog

Thank you, John and the bullpen, for welcoming me aboard here at AMERICAblog as its first guest blogmistress. I'll be spending the month of August with you, and then some. I'm a long-time reader and was a regular commenter way back when (2004), not long after starting up my blog, Pam's House Blend. I won't bore you with tales about me; you can read about the Blend here, and learn more about me here.

I mostly blog about LGBT issues, race and gender, the religious right crazies and, well, the plethora of hypocrites in the world of politics (in other words, a lot of the same stuff that drives John crazy too). What fertile territory that is, huh?

Be kind and withhold the tomatoes -- at least for the first couple of posts anyway.

Carry on... Read More......

A Top House Repub. on Dems: "They can send their members home crowing about their accomplishments"

The Democrats are on the verge of passing several pieces of legislation that have been long needed. Today's Washington Post asks the key question:

But against such philosophical stands, there is a stark political problem: How many Republicans are really going to oppose legislation expanding insurance coverage for children, tightening ethics rules and bolstering homeland security?

Never, ever underestimate the capacity of Congressional Republicans to stand in the way of progress. But, the Democratic success of late have even been noticed by House Republicans:

"They've had a pretty strong quarter," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), who praised the insurance bill as "creative" and suggested the homeland security bill would pass overwhelmingly. "The first quarter was not so good, and that's why they're not looking so good in the polls, but this quarter is looking very good for them. They can send their members home crowing about their accomplishments, and they've done it in a bipartisan way, which is exactly what they promised to do," LaHood said.

That's some pretty strong praise from a leading House Republican. Don't worry, though, the Republican leaders are gearing up to fight any legislation that helps kids get health insurance:

House Republican Conference Chairman Adam H. Putnam (R-Fla.) conceded that his party has its public relations work cut out for it, battling what he called "the underlying warm and fuzzies" of the bills' titles -- especially the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. But he said Republicans would be able to make the case that a multibillion-dollar expansion of a government-funded program runs counter to taxpayers' wishes.

That's more like it. Putnam always comes through with just what we expect from Republicans. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

No wonder the Iraqi government wants a extra long vacation. George Bush is making himself their role model for leadership. No one vacations more than Bush. So the question still remains: Who will take a longer vacation? Bush or the Iraqi parliament.

What do we have going on today? Read More......

Shell profits jump despite lower production

Isn't that just lovely news? What other industry can overcome so many obstacles and still fall forward with an 18% jump in profits? Read More......

More wasted contracts in Iraq

As if we needed to hear of yet another bloated defense contract that has failed to deliver despite healthy costs to US taxpayers, Bechtel is the latest contractor to be cited though it is still up for debate who is at the center of this costly failure. Whether the problem is with USAID who oversaw the contract or Bechtel, the end result is yet another taxpayer funded fiasco. The American middle class - who is footing the bill - is not a bottomless pit of money and deserves some accountability instead of the constant waste that has been the hallmark of the Bush adventure in Iraq.

A new federal audit released Wednesday, however, found that a big chunk of Bechtel's reconstruction work for USAID, the federal agency that issued the contract, was never achieved on the second contract. Auditors checked the 24 jobs Bechtel was supposed to complete.

"Ten did not achieve their original objectives," the auditors found. In another three projects, "we were either unable to determine what the original objectives were or the achievements were unclear."

The cost to American taxpayers for unfinished efforts was high: the U.S. government approved a total of $180 million dollars in payments for Bechtel’s ten allegedly unfinished projects. They include a $24 million water treatment plant in Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City, a $26 million children's hospital in Basra and a $4 million Baghdad landfill that was never built

"The Bechtel audit is emblematic of the reconstruction problems in Iraq," said Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, whose office conducted the audit.

Ah yes, Mission Accomplished, indeed. Read More......

GOP tax breaks to Big Pharma get limited return

Every time I read about the latest urgent, must-have tax break to a big corporate power that has to have the tax cut or else the end of the world is near, I always wonder who provides these give-aways that rarely include penalties of the big corporate fails to deliver on their own promise to add new jobs. In the business world a contract would almost always include a penalty if the other party failed to deliver on a deliverable but with tax breaks, you would be hard pressed to find anything like it. It's always easy money for business without having to produce.

In this specific case, these are the companies that Bush wants to coddle and protect from price negotiations with the government instead of the standard practice in the real world of being a power buyer and negotiating based on volume. Pelosi and the Democrats are spot on with demanding price negotiations and when you see stories like this, it's obvious Big Pharma can't be trusted as an honest broker and do the right thing with prices. Negotiate and negotiate hard for goodness sakes. It's American tax payer dollars at stake.

Drug makers were the biggest beneficiaries of the amnesty program, repatriating about $100 billion in foreign profits and paying only minimal taxes. But the companies did not create many jobs in return. Instead, since 2005 the American drug industry has laid off tens of thousands of workers in this country.

And now drug companies are once again using complex strategies, many of them demonstrably legal, to shelter billions of dollars in profits in international tax havens, according to their financial statements and independent tax experts.

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