Big-time conservative is predicted winner of Canadian election

Just what North America needs, another George Bush. Sad. Read More......

AP on the cell phone records privacy story - now everyone wants a piece

Now every lawmaker wants a piece of the action. Did I give this story to the Hill Democrats before I even wrote about it for the first time on the blog? Yes. Did they do anything with it for an entire week? No.

Anybody surprised?

Sigh.

From AP:

Disclosures that companies are selling private phone records have lawmakers and federal regulators moving to try to halt the practice.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said in a statement Monday that he will work with the head of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on a bill to criminalize the practice....

The Web site Americablog.com said this month that it was able to buy the cell phone records of former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark. All the site needed, it said, was Clark's cell phone number and a credit card payment of $89.95 _ and it received 100 calls he made over a three-day period last November

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Monday Evening Open Thread

Oh, there is so much to talk about.... Read More......

So, MSNBC does know how to apologize for hateful language

Good thing, because they're going to have to get used to it since their so-called "talent" have become nothing but right wing puppets. And kudos to everyone from the blogosphere who responded to the homophobic tirade last week from Chris Matthews and Imus. It got a response. Rush and Molloy at the NY Daily News got the scoop

Gay-rights activists are blasting Don Imus and sidekick Bernard McGuirk as gay-bashers, Last week, when fellow MSNBC talker Chris Matthews asked Imus if he'd seen the cowboy love story "Brokeback Mountain," Imus sneered, "Why would I want to see that?" He added that McGuirk had his own name for the movie — a crude candy reference we'll skip. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation called the "slurs" a "juvenile display of homophobia." MSNBC has apologized for the banter. …

I'd like to see said apology from MSNBC...and Imus and Matthews each still owe a specific apology.

When MSNBC's hosts continually adopt the hate-filled language, lies and talking points of the radical right wing, MSNBC will learn that's not good for business. Read More......

Bush says he's not a crook

Sounding very Richard Nixon:

"It's amazing that people say to me, `Well, he's just breaking the law.' If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?" said Bush.

Well, there is the question of whether you really briefed question. And, then there is the fact you think you're above the law. Read More......

FOX Cable airing cell phone story at 7 Eastern

I just got a call from FOX, they're apparently airing a segment on FOX cable at 7pm Eastern tonight, Shep Smith's show, about the phone records privacy issue - I taped an interview with FOX Chicago last week, apparently it's included in tonight's show. Just FYI. Read More......

Open thread

Rainy day in DC... Read More......

Hell in a Handbasket in Eight Easy Steps

Just to be clear how screwed up this country has become since 9/11:

1) The US was attacked on 9/11 by Osama Bin Laden.
2) The US invaded Afghanistan ostensibly to find Bin Laden - "dead or alive."
3) The US toppled the Taliban for harboring Bin Laden.
4) So, of course our next move is to pull troops out of Afghanistan and search for Bin Laden where? Iraq. Where Bin Laden isn't.
5) Bin Laden and al-Qaeda bomb trains and busses in the UK.
6) Bin Laden releases a tape saying:

"The proof of that is the explosions you have seen in the capitals of European nations," he said "The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your homes the minute they are through (with preparations), with God's permission."

7)The CIA confirms that the tape is indeed Bin Laden.
8) The US decides NOT to raise the terror threat level after the man who attacked us on 9/11 releases a tape saying he's going to attack us:

U.S. security officials said Thursday there were currently no plans to raise the nation's security threat level because of the new tape.

Awfully reminiscent of "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the US," no?

Hell in a handbasket... Read More......

Chris Matthews might ask, why do so many Republicans sound like Osama?

Here's Bin Laden in 2002:

"Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no punishment. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and remembered by nations?"

Do Chris Matthews and MSNBC think Osama sounds just like the Republicans that impeached and prosecuted Clinton?

Bin Laden also said:

"We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honor, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication [and] homosexuality..."

Hmmm... Does Chris think Osama also sounds a lot like James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Richard Land, Phyllis Schlafly, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, and the entire religious right?

I wonder when we'll be hearing Chris Matthews and MSNBC comparing these Americans to the greatest terrorist in American history?

(Hat tip to LiberalOasis) Read More......

Chris Matthews likes to tie Democrats to Osama? Maybe he should talk to his buddy Jack Abramoff about Osama

Just a coincidence? You decide.

Washington Post, 9/27/01:

SunCruz Casinos LLC has turned over to the FBI surveillance pictures and other records from two Florida gambling cruises on Sept. 5. In both cases, a company official said, there was a passenger who looked similar to one of the [9/11] hijackers, and the name given by the passenger was either the same or similar to the hijacker's name.

Associated Press, 9/27/05

Police would not comment on whether they got any big breaks from Abramoff or his former partner, Adam Kidan, both of whom were indicted Aug. 11 on federal fraud charges in connection with their September 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos for $145.7 million from Boulis.

I'm just sayin'...

(Hat tip to Marty and bro) Read More......

Who said Bush doesn't know Jack?

We all know Bush doesn't know jack about many things....but he does know Jack Abramoff. Time Magazine has seen the pics. Despite the Bush team's effort to act like they've never heard of Abramoff, Jack was, after all, a major Bush fundraiser earning the distinction of being a "Pioneer." Since Time posted the photos article, both AP and Reuters have picked up the story and distributed it very widely. Time's take:

As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought to portray the scandal as a Capitol Hill affair with little relevance to them. Peppered for days with questions about Abramoff's visits to the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the now disgraced lobbyist had attended two huge holiday receptions and a few "staff-level meetings" that were not worth describing further. "The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him," McClellan said.

The President's memory may soon be unhappily refreshed. TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While TIME's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them. And that has been a fear of the Bush team's for the past several months: that a picture of the President with the admitted felon could become the iconic image of direct presidential involvement in a burgeoning corruption scandal like the shots of President Bill Clinton at White House coffees for campaign contributors in the mid-1990s.

It's just a matter of time before we see the pictures. The longer the White House stonewalls, the worse it gets for them. And, you know, this White House will stonewall. Read More......

Blood in the Water; Dan Bartlett Trotted Out

Joe is right. You know there is blood in the water when the White House trots out Dan Bartlett to do their bidding at 7:15 AM. I watched him on CNN with Miles O'Brien, who did ask him about warrants, going to Congress, etc.

Bartlett basically said he can't talk about anything of substance (national security of course!) and lied his way through the rest. He said they consulted the "highest levels" of Congress and they approved of the program. (Certainly Jay Rockefeller didn't.) He said they are using FISA and everything is fine. (Then why are the FISA judges saying that they think that the program was used to illegitimately gain wiretapping warrants?)

And finally, here's where Miles and I have an issue. And every other journalist who talks to the Bush administration. The warrant question is great, and it's an important question to ask. However, there is a corollary (and simpler question) to the warrant question:

How is wiretapping without a court order NOT a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution?

The Fourth Amendment is unambiguous:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Fourth Amendment, United States Constitution

It's a clearly defined right, with the standard for violating that right, and an instruction set further confining the government's ability to violate that right by stating that the warrant must define ahead of time what is being searched or seized.

For strict constructionists, this one should be easy to answer. Why not ask him next time he's on?

Democrats can win on this one, but when Miles is asking Bartlett about McCain's meager critiques, you know the Democrats aren't taking the kind of lead they need to make this story move. Read More......

White House in overdrive to sell their illegal domestic spying program

The White House is launching a major p.r. offensive this week to build support for their illegal spying program. They have been in a frenzy to justify this illegal action since it was first leaked. Their response has been way overboard, which leads to the conclusion that they know it is illegal and are trying to prevent that from taking hold:

A number of Republicans have joined Democrats in challenging the surveillance program, pointedly reminding the administration that precedents established today will be in place whenever a Democrat returns to power.

"A lot of Democrats?" said one prominent Republican supporter of Mr. Bush, who did not want to be identified while being critical of a White House that famously does not brook criticism. "Democrats, Karl? Republicans, too."

David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said: "A lot of conservatives are very skeptical about it. It is not as clean-cut a political win as the administration thinks that it is."

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Top Brass cover-up at Abu Ghraib?

No, not at all. The similarities of torture and abuse at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan are all just a matter of coincidence. If the president and the US military leadership tell us something, we must believe every word of it like a good borg. Asking questions is un-American. Read More......

The Iraqi brain drain

Another great example of a prosperous nation on the road to democracy. The Bush team made this mess and now they can't even provide safety for the community leaders who could rebuild the tattered country.

"I think it's part of the plan for the country's destruction," Kubasi said by telephone. "The situation in the last six months has gotten so bad, we couldn't continue."

"Of course I would leave if I could," said Ihana Nabil, 22, who will soon graduate from Baghdad University with a degree in political science. "There's no peace, no stability and no jobs here," she said. Other students at the campus, a temporary oasis in a violent city, agreed.

Anyone displaying signs of wealth, often professionals and businessmen, are particular targets of kidnappers in search of high ransoms. However, payment is no guarantee a hostage will not simply be killed and dumped; some authorities claim dozens of bodies are found every day but never reported.

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