Kerik had third wife, kept marriage a secret for 20 years, and may be a bigamist!

Man, this guy is the Christmas gift I always wanted. What did Bush do, find this guy's name in a fortune cookie?

From the Chicago Trib:

Investigators conducting a background check of Bernard Kerik last week as part of his confirmation hearing uncovered that the then-Secretary of Homeland Security nominee was married to a woman he has apparently kept a secret for the past 20 years.

Friends of his said they were not aware of the woman, and Kerik did not acknowledge the marriage in his best-selling autobiography, "The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice."

Instead, he wrote about only two marriages, one to a New Jersey woman named Jacqueline, whom he married in 1983 when he was 28, and one to his current wife, Hala, whom he married in 1998.

But Kerik, who withdrew his name for consideration for the nation's top security post on Friday, was also married to the former Linda Hales in North Carolina.

Kerik and Hales, who has since remarried and changed her name to Priest, were married Aug. 10, 1978, when she was 27 and he was three weeks shy of 24, according to her lawyer, Ronnie Mitchell. They separated in 1982 and were officially divorced June 6, 1983, Mitchell told Newsday.

In Kerik's book, however, he wrote that he married Jacqueline in the winter of 1983, raising questions about whether his first and second marriages overlapped.

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Evening open thread

I have no idea what to say to initiate a discussion, so I won't say anything (even though I just did). Read the rest of this post...

File an FCC complaint against Rush Limbaugh

I'm feeling better already :-)

From Atrios:

FCC Action Alert!!!

1. Go to http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/menu/rush.guest.html and find your local radio station that broadcasts Limbaugh's show.

2. Send an email to fccinfo@fcc.gov with your own version of the following:

On Monday, December 13 in the 2nd hour of his program (1pm EST) broadcast on [INSERT RADIO STATION CALL SIGN HERE], Rush Limbaugh used the vulgar, sexual term "dick" when referring to a Miss Plastic Surgery pageant. Specifically, Limbaugh said:

"LIMBAUGH: Miss Plastic Surgery. (chuckle) And – I’d – I’d – I – I don’t – I don’t know what the winner – I – and, oh, I didn’t print out both pages, so I don’t know what the – I don’t know what the winner gets. Probably a certificate to go to San Francisco to have an add-a-dick-to-me operation."

I demand that the FCC launch an immediate indecency investigation of this vulgar and obscene use of our airwaves to talk about genitals and to attack and demean transgender people.

Read the rest of this post...

"It's a Wonderful Life" - done by bunnies in 30 seconds

Love these guys. Read the rest of this post...

Thin-skinned...thanks, George and Don

Okay, we all heard last week about the soldier who confronted Rumsfeld about having to pick through garbage for materials. Today, Salon magazine posted a clip from a documentary, Gunner Palace, that showed this has been a problem for a long, long time in Iraq. Our soldiers are driving around in vehicles they call "thin-skinned" because they have no armor protection. Of course, Rummy and Bush act "thin-skinned" when they are asked about this mess.

Salon (which requires registration) has a link to the startling piece of film -- they have the trailer for "Gunner Palace." I agree with Salon...watch this clip:

Watch this brief clip from the forthcoming documentary "Gunner Palace," which follows the lives of the 2/3 Field Artillery, aka the "Gunners," as they experience the occupation of Baghdad, Iraq.

The clip shows these soldiers' take on the issue that grabbed headlines just last week when an Army reservist asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when they'd be able to get the armor they needed for their Humvees instead of having to dig through scrap heaps to improvise some protection. Back in March, 2004, when the featured interview was completed, this was already a problem that troops lived with daily.

Documentaries like Gunner Palace (and Control Room from earlier this year) seem to be the only way we get the true story of what is happening to American kids in Iraq. Too bad we don't have an independent media in this country to tell the story. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Governor of Vermont fights to protect purity, wants pornography removed from state property

UPDATE BY JOHN: The article Chris links to also mentions that "The lamp is a replica of ‘‘The Greek Slave’’ — a chained female slave crafted by a Vermont artist in 1843 that became an icon of the abolitionist movement before the Civil War." The figure was okay for the abolitionists 160 years ago, but today it makes the governor uncomfortable. "It may, frankly, be awkward to explain why there is a nude Greek slave on the governor’s desk to a third-grader," the governor's spokesman said. Well here's a thought: Tell the kid how the figure is actually a symbol of the fight against slavery, and maybe educate the kid about art and history all at the same time, moron.

Perhaps it's time we called the governor and suggested he stop the jihad and start the educating:

Governor Jim Douglas
109 State Street, Pavilion
Montpelier, VT 05609-0101
Phone: 802 828-3333
(toll-free in VT only: 800 649-6825)
TTY: 800 649-6825
Fax: 802 828-3339


As you can plainly see, this lamp which is a replica of "The Greek Slave" is without doubt shocking and obscene. What would the children think? If they see this, the next thing you know they will all be fornicating right there on the spot. This Greek whoopsee was originally created in 1834 and became a symbol of the abolitionist movement prior to the Civil War.

The woman depicted in the statue, her hair tied back in a bun, is looking downward, a chain attached to her wrists. In the original, her clothes are beside her and a locket and cross are visible.‘‘It’s a wonderful statue,’’ said Vivien Fryd, an art historian at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, who has written about the statue. ‘‘It was the first time the American public accepted the female nude.’’

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Radical right criminals

Note to self: Next time try to intimidate minorities in a red state where they have no rights.

A preliminary hearing will begin Tuesday for 11 evangelists arrested after a confrontation at a gay festival.

Repent America director Michael Marcavage and 10 followers were charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting and ethnic intimidation after they attempted to break up the October 10 Outfest gay pride block party in Center City.

A motion to block the prosecution was rejected by U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker.

Repent America is represented by the Mississippi-based American Family Association which is involved in a number of cases across the country opposing gay rights.

Big surprise the American Family Association is defending them. Apparently now conspiracy, rioting and ethnic intimidation is a family value. Read the rest of this post...

Why do Republicans Hate Voters?

The GOP has a thing about vote counting. As we saw in 2000, they do not trust the voters and sure as hell do everything to prevent votes from being counted.

Currently, there are two races where the GOP is trying to prevent all the votes from being counted.

In Washington State, it now appears that Democrat Christine Gregoire may be ahead because....all the votes are being counted. Gregoire has been under enormous pressure from GOP hacks to drop out. The Associated Press is now reporting "Democrat May be Leading in Wash. Race." The Republicans are playing nasty hardball, as usual. According to the Seattle Times, "A huge video billboard on Interstate 5 near Fife is flashing a 'Christine: Concede' message to commuters." Fortunately, Gregoire has insisted that ALL the votes be counted. Now, she will probably end up being Governor.

In another important race across the country, Republicans are trying to prevent the counting of votes in a New York State Senate Race. In the latest tally, incumbent Republican Nick Spano is ahead of Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins by 93 votes. Spano's people, led by a lawyer, Anthony Mangone (who has a history of his own when it comes to election shenanigans), are doing everything possible to prevent all the votes from being counted. The New York State Senate has been led by Republicans for decades. This year, the Democrats made serious inroads, already picking up 3 new seats. New York is a very blue state and should have a State Senate that reflects that.

While the Bush administration talks about elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, their flunkies are doing everything they can to subvert the legitimate votes of Americans. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

The mantra of the Democrats needs to be: count all the votes. Say it over and over and over. Don't let the Republicans steal anymore elections by not counting all the votes. Read the rest of this post...

Merck to layoff even more people in 2004

Ouch...
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Serious question -- why are Republicans so obsessed with sex?

Why do I care whether Bernie Kerik gets laid? And by how many people at a time? Can someone tell me how that impacts his ability to run a governmental department?

Hey Rudy, it's preview time. If you ever had any hope of running for even a cabinet post, let alone President, Republicans will make sure you get torpedoed by where and how often you stick it. From the New York Post:

An emotional Bernard Kerik yesterday admitted "I'm not perfect" and begged forgiveness from everyone in sight for his bungled nomination for homeland-security chief ? Including two women with whom he allegedly had affairs.

Kerik acknowledged a "close relationship" with correction officer Janet Pinero and book publisher Judith Regan, with whom he reportedly carried on simultaneous affairs.

Meanwhile, it emerged that Kerik has been married three times although he has never publicly discussed his first wife and didn't mention her in his autobiography, "The Lost Son." A friend said he told the White House about all three marriages.

"I'm not perfect"? Are you kidding me? To see a New Yorker kissing Fundamentalist ass like this is repulsive. How is it that Bush and the Republicans can castrate so many people so easily? So he gets around. Big deal. Why do Republicans obsess so much about sex?

We on the left have got to figure out the answer to this question so that we can start being able to dismiss their sex-obsessed politics as the childish foolishness that it is. We need to be able to call them out on it plainly and clearly as sex obsessed fifth-graders. Read the rest of this post...

Dixie rising once again

Judge Ellender of Louisiana somehow seems surprised that anyone could have been offended by his Halloween costume. Some people just don't get it.

A judge who wore blackface makeup, handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit at a Halloween party will be suspended for six months, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The justices voted 5-2 to suspend Judge Timothy Ellender for a year without pay for dishonoring his position, but to defer half of that penalty. Ellender will lose more than $50,000 in pay, one judge noted.

Ellender, who is white, testified the costumes worn by him and his wife — she was dressed as a policewoman — were meant only as a joke to show he was her prisoner.

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More "compassion" coming? Hide the elderly, poor and disabled

...because I don't think they can take any more GOP compassion. The GOP spin-meisters usually mean trouble is ahead when they start throwing out touchy-feely words like compassion. The Axe-man commeth and his name is Leavitt. Besides hacking into Medicare and Medicaid, it will be interesting to see what kind of impact Leavitt has on other HHS divisions such as National Institutes of Health. Surely we would not see religion dictating projects over there, would we?
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Iraq Primed for "Iraqi Hitler"

This is what's coming from the interim President of Iraq Ghazi al-Yawer. This is the same guy who said this about a military assault on Fallujah "The way the coalition is managing the crisis is wrong. It is as if someone shot his horse in the head to kill a fly that landed on it. The fly flies away and the horse dies." If this guy is the President of Iraq, will someone tell me why no one in the Administration seems to want to listen to him?



From AP:

Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawer warned in an interview published Monday that long-term instability and violence in his country could create the conditions for an "Iraqi Hitler" to emerge.

"If the situation in Iraq will continue like this, it will create within the Iraqi people feelings of bitterness, rage and humiliation which will provide, in the long run, an appropriate environment for an Iraqi Hitler to appear similar to the German Hitler who emerged after Germany's defeat and the humiliation of the German people in World War I," al-Yawer was quoted as saying in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

In a separate interview in London, where al-Yawer made a brief stop after visiting the United States, the interim president said the U.S.-led coalition was wrong to dismantle the Iraqi security forces after last year's invasion.

"Definitely dissolving the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior was a big mistake at that time," al-Yawer told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"We could have screened people out instead of screening them in, and this could have saved us a lot of hassle and problems," he said.

But hey, everything is going great in Iraq, and we've got 70 year olds being called up for duty. Oh yeah, everything is going great. Read the rest of this post...