Fake moderate GOP Senators cave to Bush on domestic spying

No matter how much Olympia Snowe tries to spin this, she caved to Bush, again. There really are no Republican Senators who actually stand up to Bush -- and there is NO SUCH thing as a moderate Republican Senator:

Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.

This quote from Snowe is just a joke:

"We are reasserting Congressional responsibility and oversight," Ms. Snowe said.

The GOP doesn't know how to do oversight. Read More......

Dubai Ports World tells Congress to go to hell

That is my interpretation of the following paragraph from tomorrow's Washington Post story:

DP World officials suggested yesterday that within days, Peninsular & Oriental's operations will belong to them, no matter what Congress does.

No matter what Congress does? Oh, they really don't understand American politics if they think they can throw a challenge like that at the US Congress, and the American people, and it won't be answered. These are people who ignore entire paragraphs of the US Constitution, and you think they can't scuttle your ports deal?

Bad move, people. Read More......

House GOPers jumping ship on Bush over ports

This is what a 34% approval rating gets Bush:

Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation challenging a Dubai-owned company's acquisition of operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote next week that could kill the deal.

Try as they may, the House GOP can't distance themselves from Bush and his policies...they are one and the same. Read More......

A quick word about the Oscars

Sorry, but I'm not that broken up about Brokeback Mountain winning "only" 3 Oscars, or so. I thought Brokeback was a very good movie, BUT I didn't love it as much as Joe and Rob did. I gave it a good B+. Parts of it were a bit hokey, I thought the scenes didn't flow together particularly well at times, and the ending bothered me (well, not the ending, but the part where Ennis is talking to Jack's wife on the phone, I'm sorry but I rolled my eyes at that scene). Having said that, Heath Ledger was amazing, AMAZING, but I never saw Capote or Crash, so I can't fairly compare the performances. I did see Good Night and Good Luck, and that film was Oscar worthy, in my mind, for best film and best lead actor.

My point being, there was some damn good competition, and for best picture I personally felt it was a very good film (certainly the best "gay" film ever), but again, to me it was only a B+, not an A. So I don't feel like Brokeback was cheated. And in any case, it got 3 Oscars, including best director, and that's pretty damn good.

Anyway, a few of you asked for my take on the awards, and there you have it. Read More......

Primary Polls are closed in Texas

The Texas Secretary of State's web page will have results...they claim the results are updated every ten minutes:

Ciro's primary results are here.

DeLay's primary results are here.

Read More......

Lead conservative activist labels liberal professors terrorist sympathizers

I think the terrorist sympathizers are Republicans who think America was better off under Senator Joe McCarthy. Read More......

Open Thread

We need to do some threading...openly, of course. Read More......

From the same crowd that gave you the disaster in Iraq: All options are on the table...again

When the polls start to really suck and an election is looming, the White House has a strategy: start a war. Bush/Cheney rolled out their "all options are on the table" talking points for Iraq in 2002. Look where that got us. They ran an incompetent war and showed their weakness. Now, they are adopting the same failed strategy...again. This time, it's Iran...and this time, it's clearly part for political gain. This crowd is dangerous. Very dangerous.

Bush on Iraq, March 13, 2002:

And so one of the -- what the Vice President is doing is he's reminding people about this danger, and that we need to work in concert to confront this danger. Again, all options are on the table, and -- but one thing I will not allow is a nation such as Iraq to threaten our very future by developing weapons of mass destruction.

Cheney on Iran, March 7, 2006:

"For our part, the United States is keeping all options on the table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime," Cheney said in a speech to the pro-Israel lobby group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.

"And we join other nations in sending that regime a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

Just watch the Hill GOPers start to line up behind the drumbeat. It's an election year, after all. Read More......

Rummy blames the media's exaggerations for the problems in Iraq

When all else fails -- and everything else is failing in Iraq -- blame the media. It's an old trick of the right wing. And another sign of the weakness of their policies. So suspend belief and pay no attention to the actual images from Iraq. Rummy has identified the real problem: the media is exaggerating:

Rumsfeld, citing information from his top commander in Iraq, said the news media has exaggerated the number of attacks on mosques in the latest sectarian violence, the number of Iraqi deaths and has mischaracterized the actions of government security forces.

"From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation," Rumsfeld said.

"Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of the nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq."

Is the media exaggerating the deaths of 2,300 American soldiers, too? Read More......

O'Reilly says he'll send the police to the home of anyone who mentions "Keith Olbermann" on his show

This is just sad. Read More......

Josh goes Mac

Another one bites the dust.

I'm, finally, getting pleased with my decision to buy an Apple laptop. Took me a good 6 weeks or so to finally start to get comfy with the keyboard and the different function keys, etc. But finally it's all starting to make sense - though I still am having a hard time figuring out where to save files, documents, things like that, in an orderly fashion. But, I've already been finding free software online to do various tasks and have been quite pleased to find that it does exist for Macs. Also, the machine does seem to start up and shut down quicker than a PC, which I like. Also doesn't seem to slow down as much when I have many programs open at once.

Still getting my sea legs, and still haven't had my socks rocked by anything on the Mac vs the PC, but then again, just like Josh, I've been a bit bad about reading the instructions :-)

PS Oh yeah, and my battery does rock. Read More......

US ambassador to Iraq says US opened a "pandora's box" in Iraq and there might be a civil war

Happy us.

The top U.S. envoy to Iraq said Monday that the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime had opened a "Pandora's box" of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions that could engulf the region in all-out war if America pulled out of the country too soon.

In remarks that were among the frankest and bleakest public assessments of the Iraq situation by a high-level American official, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the "potential is there" for sectarian violence to become full-blown civil war.

So, America must not pull out too soon. Okay, then when must we pull out? After Iraq has become a peaceful democracy? And when would that be? 2050? The Republicans want to keep throwing good money after bad in this Vietnamesque quagmire, hoping that if we just spend a few more billions some miracle will happen and everyone will stop fighting. Well, no one thinks that's possible. So why are we there?

At some point, it's time to pull the feeding tube. Read More......

Action Alert: South Dakota bans practically all abortions

I needn't remind folks that our few gay civil rights victories in the Supreme Court are based on the court decisions favoring a woman's right to choose. Whether you like it or not, the issues are linked legally.

Planned Parenthood has an action alert on the latest atrocity. More from the International Herald Tribune:

In a provocation intended to pose a direct legal challenge to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal, the state of South Dakota has made it a felony to perform any abortion except in a case of a mother's life being in jeopardy....

Rounds, a Republican, said in a statement after signing the legislation in Pierre that it was the right thing to do. He said he fully expects the law to be challenged, and that it might ultimately wind up in the Supreme Court. He compared the possibility of a reversal of Roe v. Wade - which in 1973 established a constitutional right to abortion - to that of the changing legal precedents around racial segregation.

The law will also almost certainly force a showdown before it ever comes into effect, an outcome its supporters, eager to overturn the 1973 decision, had intended.

"In the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society," the governor said.

That's nice. So I assume the governor has a stellar record on support for civil rights legislation and for programs to help the poor and children at risk? Somehow I doubt it. With this crowd, your life is precious before you're born, but afterwards you're on your own.

You can find Planned Parenthood's action alert here. Read More......

Tom Delay's primary is today. He's spending it with lobbyists.

You just can't keep a bad man down. Read More......

Help get out the vote in Texas on Tuesday for Ciro Rodriguez

Democratic primary, Ciro is challenging a Democratic in Name Only who actually votes Republican and may be thinking of switching parties soon. More here. Read More......

GOP is panicked over the politics of port security

AP has an analysis looking at how the GOP has really stumbled on the port security issue -- and they're mostly worried because of the political implications. Take it from the mouth of a top GOP operative:

''This ports issue has ricocheted around the country and made it to people's dinner tables like nothing I've ever seen,'' said Scott Reed, a GOP consultant. ''It's now an out-of-control political problem.''

While the GOPers in Congress scurry from Bush like rats on a sinking ship with a 34% approval rating, Democrats can't let them escape. They had a role in the failure of port security, too:

''When it comes to protecting the ports, Republicans really do have a pre-9/11 mind-set,'' said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

Among the votes:

--In 2003, House Republicans, on a procedural vote, agreed to kill a Democratic amendment that would have added $250 million for port security grants to a war spending package.

--Two years later, nearly all House Republicans voted against an alternative Homeland Security authorization bill offered by Democrats that called for an additional $400 million for port security.

--Senate Republicans stood together in 2003 to set aside a Democratic amendment that would have provided $120 million more for port cargo screening equipment.

--One year later, all but six Senate Republicans voted to reject a Democratic attempt to add $150 million for port security in a Homeland Security appropriations bill.

Bush and the Hill Republicans have both failed on national security. They can't escape from each other. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Let's get it started... Read More......

Iraqi General for Baghdad area killed

Nothing to see here, keep moving. Everything is fine and dandy and not a problem in the world. This must be what General Pace was talking about when he was on "Meet the Press" chatting about how well everything is going in Iraq. Black is white and white is black.

"It could be a blow that takes a long time to overcome," said Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, who oversaw U.S. troops in Baghdad for a year ending in January. "Losing a strong commander for even a little while in Baghdad could cause a further power shift toward what looks like the Shia control of the city."

Read More......

GOP financial ties to anti-consumer legislation

Shocking. Who would have guessed that new House majority leader Boehner and whip Blunt might be influenced by money to vote against the US public protection? It's not like Boehner has ever been a strong backer of tobacco or anything and Blunt is as clean as they come, never giving in to special interests who line his campaign coffers or provide his family with cushy work. When they paint this story as one to protect all Americans and not just those in a few states, golly, I believe them 100% because they have earned the trust of the public.

"This helps explain why the food industry has blocked any efforts to have hearings," said Ben Cohen, attorney for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group.

"They think they've got it greased by using well-connected lobbyists to slip this thing through the full House without following the normal procedures," Cohen said.

State warnings alert consumers to mercury in fish, arsenic in bottled water, pesticides in vegetables and many other potential problems. The food industry wants consistent warnings across state lines. The bill would let states petition the federal government if they want to add extra warnings.

According to reports filed with Congress, the bill's lobbyists include Blunt's wife, Abigail, who works for Altria, parent of Kraft Foods. They also include former Boehner staffers Mason Wiggins, lobbyist for the Food Products Association, an industry group, and Brenda Reese, lobbyist for the American Beverage Association.

"It's a perfect storm of insider access, big money and bad policy," said Andy Igrejas of the Washington-based National Environmental Trust, which did the lobbying research. "They're sweeping away 200 state laws without a hearing, all because very wealthy interests want them to."

Read More......