Meanwhile, in the quagmire

The carnage continues:

Also Thursday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of five U.S. soldiers Wednesday in a roadside bombing during combat in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a hotbed of Iraq's insurgency.

It was the deadliest single attack against American troops in more than a month, bringing to 1,934 the number of U.S. service members who have died since Iraq's war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. More than 140 people, including 13 U.S. service members, have been killed in the past four days.

But don't worry. Seriously, Bush is going to give a speech soon. Read the rest of this post...

If George had a Hammer....

Froomkin asks "Is Bush losing Congress?" Better question might be "Is Bush just plain old losing it?":

His second-term agenda is in shambles. His spending plan for Hurricane Katrina has torn his party apart. Support for his increasingly unpopular war is eroding. His political capital is spent.

And now he's lost his Hammer.

For President Bush, who was already seeing his influence wane in Congress, yesterday's indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay -- forcing the iron-fisted House majority leader to step down from his leadership post -- was an enormous blow.

Furthermore, DeLay's troubles add to the sense that the Republican Party and the White House are under siege, plagued by missteps and ethics scandals.

Read the rest of this post...

Arnold Sucks it Big Time

More Arnold from Reuters:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a widely expected move vetoed a bill on Thursday that would have allowed gay couples to marry.

The Republican governor had earlier this month indicated he would veto the bill passed by California's Democrat-led legislature. The bill was the first of its kind approved by a state legislature.

Schwarzenegger said he would leave the contentious issue of same-sex marriage to voters and the courts. "I do not believe the legislature can reverse an initiative approved by the people of California," he said in a written statement.

"This bill simply adds confusion to a constitutional issue," Schwarzenegger wrote. "If the ban of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, this bill is not necessary. If the ban is constitutional, this bill is ineffective."

Bad actor, worse liar. The Republican Party can't have it both ways. In Massachusetts and on a Federal level, it's the Courts that need to be controlled. Bad Activist Court, Bad Court!

But Arnold says what? "Schwarzenegger said he would leave the contentious issue of same-sex marriage to voters and the courts."

Black is white! White is black!

On gay issues, the Republicans aren't about scholarly legal interests, they are about one thing and one thing only -- hate.

It's time we ALL see it for what it is and call it by the name it deserves. Read the rest of this post...

Arnold vetoed the gay marriage bill

BASTARD. Read the rest of this post...

Miller Out of Jail

From the Kansas City Star:

Miller left an Alexandria, Va. jail at 3:55 p.m., a jail official said.

She was released after she had a telephone conversation with the Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, sources said. In that conversation, Libby reaffirmed that he had released Miller from a promise of confidentiality more than a year ago, sources said.

Wonder if seeing the DeLay/Frist/Katrina house of cards start to fall got her to start singing... Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Now you know we can talk about anything. Read the rest of this post...

Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"

Or you could just abort Bill Bennett and the racism rate would go down. Read the rest of this post...

US military police guards having sex with female detainees, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and more

But in all fairness to the Pentagon, how do we know they were real breasts?

To get a sense of what may be shown in these images, one has to go back to press reports from when the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was still front page news.

This is how CNN reported it on May 8, 2004, in a typical account that day:

...A military report about that abuse describes detainees being threatened, sodomized with a chemical light and forced into sexually humiliating poses...

"'The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,' Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'We're talking about rape and murder -- and some very serious charges.'

"A report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad says videotapes and photographs show naked detainees, and that groups of men were forced to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped. Taguba also found evidence of a 'male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.'...

The military later screened some of the images for lawmakers, who said they showed, among other things, attack dogs snarling at cowed prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other.

Read the rest of this post...

It's becoming one big GOP scandal with many tentacles

All the GOP scandals are morphing in to one giant monster of corruption:

The indictment sent a shock wave through the GOP establishment, which is already reeling from a swath of criminal and ethics investigations. Three individuals, eight corporations and two political action committees connected to DeLay have been indicted as a result of the probe. In addition, the government's top procurement official, David Safavian, was arrested in September for obstructing a criminal investigation into über-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close DeLay ally. Abramoff himself is under criminal investigation for defrauding Indian tribes and was indicted for wire fraud in Florida in a separate case. Top White House aides, including Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, have been targeted by a special prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Representative Duke Cunningham announced he would not run for re-election after overselling his house for $700,000 to a military industry lobbyist; he too has been indicted. FDA chief Lester Crawford resigned unexpectedly after just two months on the job, possibly because of failure to report his wife's sizable pharmaceutical-industry holdings. And DeLay's Senate counterpart, Bill Frist, is battling possible insider-trading charges for dumping millions in HCA stock, a company founded by his father and run by his brother, weeks before it plunged in value. The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Frist and HCA in September.

Read the rest of this post...

The boys were screaming as they were being raped

"Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers."
President George Bush - Oct. 8, 2003

I'm sure the Pentagon will tell us there's no way to prove that these are real boys being raped in our custody.

In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: "Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men ... . The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.'

"Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."

Read the rest of this post...

The blue ink on his fingers will NOT mean he just voted

But it still stands for freedom. Read the rest of this post...

House Repubs. to gut enviro laws as response to Katrina

Every sane and thinking person in the world is worried that our desecration of the environment exacerbated the hurricanes through global warming and loss of wetlands. However, no one ever accused the House GOP of being sane or thoughtful:

House Republicans on Wednesday will launch a rapid-fire assault against environmental protections on the pretext of helping the U.S. oil and gas industry recover from hurricane damage, environmental groups charge.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Resources Committee are holding separate meetings to finalize legislation on Wednesday, with the aim of combining them into a single energy bill for the full House to debate next week.

The resources panel, led by Richard Pombo of California, wants to lift a ban on Florida offshore drilling, promote oil shale and sell a dozen national parks for energy development.

Read the rest of this post...

Judge orders release of Abu Ghraib photos, again

Man, bad timing for the Bush administration. Lynndie England convicted, the snuff-for-porn photos come out this same week, and now this. Photos photos photos.

But hey, once the really bad Abu Ghraib photos come out maybe the Pentagon can argue that it's not really clear that those are in fact US soldiers or real Iraqis they're torturing.

Saying the United States "does not surrender to blackmail," a judge ruled Thursday that pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."

Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Attack! Read the rest of this post...

Bush grants pardons to drug dealers, embezzlers, a man who used explosives on an energy facility.

So not making this up.

9/28/2005 4:23:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, Office Public Affairs, 202-514-2008 or 202-514-1888, Web: http://www.USDOJ.gov

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- President George W. Bush granted pardons to the following....

-- Rusty Lawrence Elliott, Mount Pleasant, Tenn.

Offense: Making counterfeit Federal Reserve notes; 18 U.S.C. 471.

Sentence: April 26, 1991; Western District of Missouri; 12 months and one day imprisonment; two years supervised release, and a $500 fine.

-- Adam Wade Graham, Salt Lake City, Utah

Offense: Conspiracy to deliver 10 or more grams of LSD; 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A)(v), and 846.

Sentence: Nov. 23, 1992; District of Wyoming; 30 months imprisonment, later reduced to 11 months and 21 days of imprisonment, and five years supervised release conditioned upon performance of 250 hours community service.

-- Jesse Ray Harvey, Scarbro, W.Va.

Offense: Property damage by use of explosives and destruction of an energy facility; 18 U.S.C. 844(i) and 1366(a).

Sentence: April 17, 1990; Southern District of West Virginia; 25 months imprisonment and three years supervised release.

-- Larry Paul Lenius, Moorhead, Minn.

Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine; 21 U.S.C. 846.

Sentence: Sept. 29, 1989, District of North Dakota; 36 months probation conditioned upon three months service in community confinement and payment of $2,500 in restitution.

-- Larry Lee Lopez, Bokeelia, Fla.

Offense: Conspiracy to import marijuana; 21 U.S.C. 952 and 953.

Sentence: July 19, 1985; Middle District of Florida; three years probation.

-- Bobbie Archie Maxwell, Lansing, Mich.

Offense: Mailing a threatening letter; 18 U.S.C. 876.

Sentence: Sept. 6, 1962; Middle District of Georgia; 12 months probation.

-- Denise Bitters Mendelkow, Salt Lake City, Utah

Offense: Embezzlement by a bank employee; 18 U.S.C. 656.

Sentence: May 21, 1981; District of Utah; two years probation conditioned upon payment of restitution.

-- Michael John Pozorski, Schofield, Wis.

Offense: Unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm; 26 U.S.C. 5861(d) and 5871.

Sentence: Sept. 14, 1988; Western District of Wisconsin; four years probation conditioned upon 90 days residence in a community treatment center and payment of a $750 fine.

-- Mark Lewis Weber, Sherwood, Ark.

Offense: Selling Quaalude tablets (one specification), selling, using, and possessing marijuana (three specifications), U.C.M.J., Articles 92 and 134.

Sentence: Aug. 20, 1981; United States Air Force general court-martial convened at Little Rock Air Force Base, Little Rock, Arkansas; 30 months confinement at hard labor, forfeiture of $334 pay per month for 30 months, reduction to the rank of airman basic, and a dishonorable discharge.

Read the rest of this post...

Roberts is the Chief

Senate just voted 78 - 22 to confirm him.

Rumors are that Bush will probably name a new justice this week -- and given the DeLay scandal and their need to change the story, that's probably likely. Read the rest of this post...

Frist insider trading investigation expands

When it rains, it pours:

While insiders at HCA Inc. were selling millions of dollars of their own stock this year, they were also painting a sunny picture of the company's outlook for investors. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the sale of HCA stock by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose family founded the company that grew into the nation's largest for-profit health care chain.

The SEC turned its initial inquiry into a formal investigation of the company, HCA announced Thursday. The company said it is cooperating with investigators.

Read the rest of this post...

Iraq disintegrating...but fear not, Bush will give a speech

The situation in Iraq is getting worse by the day. The concern is growing stronger among our allies:

The administration has come under growing pressure at home and abroad over the past two weeks, with dire warnings from Arab allies and a prominent international group about the looming disintegration of Iraq. In an unusual public rebuke of U.S. policy, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called a news conference in Washington last week to predict Iraq's dissolution. He said there is no leadership or momentum to pull Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds back together and prevent a civil war. Other countries have expressed similar concerns in private, according to U.S. and Arab diplomats.

Dire warnings. No leadership or momentum. That's so frightening. So what's the Bush plan? Another public relations offensive:

In a push to boost public support for his Iraq policy, Bush will give a speech on Oct. 6. Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also will give major foreign policy addresses over the next week.

Yes, they're going to give more speeches. Their incompetence would be pathetic if it wasn't killing so many people. Read the rest of this post...

It's getting uglier for the GOP by the day

Yep, these two paragraphs pretty much sum it up:

On almost every front, Republicans see trouble. Bush is at the low point of his presidency, with Iraq, hurricane relief, rising gasoline prices and another Supreme Court vacancy all problems to be solved. Congressional Republicans have seen their approval ratings slide throughout the spring and summer; a Washington Post-ABC News poll in August found that just 37 percent of Americans approve of the way Congress is doing its job, the lowest rating in eight years.

On the ethics front, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is under investigation for selling stock in his family's medical business just before the price fell sharply. The probe of well-connected lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a former close associate of DeLay, threatens to create even more troubles for Republicans. Finally, the special counsel investigation into whether White House senior adviser Karl Rove or others in the administration broke the law by leaking the name of the CIA's Valerie Plame is nearing a conclusion.

Read the rest of this post...

Early AM Open Thread

So the President likes shots. In recognition of the last 24 hours of news, may we suggest today he try a ...

Royal Scandal

Scale ingredients to servings
1 part Crown Royal® Canadian whisky
1 part Southern Comfort® peach liqueur
1 part amaretto almond liqueur
1 splash sweet and sour mix
1 splash pineapple juice

Add liquors and mixers into a shaker with a few ice cubes. Shake and strain into a shot glass over ice, and serve.

Open thread away! Read the rest of this post...

New Labour uses thugs to remove 82 year old man from conference

Brown shirts anyone? How sad is it that Blair's New Labour is so weak, so feeble, so unsure of themselves that they have to resort to using five thugs to grab an 82 year old man and remove him from their party conference after he yelled out "nonsense" in response to Jack Straw's defense of the Iraq invasion? These are sad times indeed when democracy is so distorted that freedom of speech is grounds for such treatment in the US and UK.

Walter Wolfgang, a party member for 57 years, was bundled out of the conference hall by stewards after shouting "nonsense" as Mr Straw, the Foreign Secretary, defended Britain's role in Iraq. He was later stopped under anti-terrorist powers as he tried to re-enter the hall.

Mr Wolfgang fled Nazi Germany as a teenager for the freedom of Britain. He said: "I shouted out 'nonsense'. That's all I said. Then these two toughies came round and wanted to manhandle me out. 'I said: 'Do you want me to leave? I will leave, you don't need to manhandle me.'

Mr Blair also blocked a motion for the conference to pay tribute to Robin Cook, the cabinet minister who resigned over the war and died in August. Yesterday's protest was muted by Labour's standards, but the over-reaction by conference stewards backfired and turned into a public relations disaster for the party.

When the Prime Minister was asked by a journalist whether he would apologise to Mr Wolfgang, he did not comment.

What a coward and a bully. Just like his mate in the White House. Read the rest of this post...

DeLay replacement has ties with indicted consultant

Blunt is actually the second option since Dreier didn't quite work out but this is amazing. Is it not possible to shake a stick within the GOP leadership and not touch someone who is tainted?

The political committee of Rep. Roy Blunt who is temporarily replacing Rep. Tom DeLay as House majority leader, has paid roughly $88,000 in fees since 2003 to a consultant under indictment in Texas with DeLay, according to federal records.

Records on file with the Federal Election Commission show the fund linked to Blunt retains Ellis' firm, J.W. Ellis Co., and has made periodic payments for services. Political Money Line, a nonpartisan Internet tracking service, places the total at about $88,000.

Ellis is one of three political associates of DeLay, R-Texas, who have been indicted in an alleged scheme to use corporate political donations illegally to support candidates in state elections. Ellis also runs DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority.

Read the rest of this post...

FEMA continues to dazzle

Despite Bush posing for photo-ops as a man in charge during and after Rita, FEMA isn't exactly winning high grades from its reaction to Rita. Sounds like a lot of Drownies around that place these days.

But the agency was not ready for the roughly 1,500 people displaced by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina who sought help at the Houston center when it reopened Wednesday.

The line started forming Tuesday night, and as temperatures reached record highs, some people fainted and had to be carried off by police and other refugees.

FEMA spokesman Justin Dombrowski said the agency closed the center for the day because of the heat and the unexpectedly large crowds. [Sure, who would have guessed that you would have crowds after a natural disaster?]

Griffith said he has asked Gov. Rick Perry to set up a commission to study the emergency response to Rita. Congress is holding hearings this week on the federal government's response to Katrina.

FEMA spokesman Ross Fredenburg in Austin said communications between Austin and rural East Texas have been troubled, in part because of power problems. But he said FEMA had set up 27 distribution points in 27 southeastern Texas cities.

Great, another GOP-run commission searching for answers. That'll take care of everything. Why not ask DeLay to head the commission since he'll be having some free time coming up? I'm so confident that they will get the bottom of this including the power problems because who ever would even imagine that "power problems" might occur after a hurricane? Nope, there's absolutely nothing out there anywhere in the world that could work without local power or cell phone relay stations. Not in their 1900 world, anyway. Read the rest of this post...

Aside from the Wash Post, the coverage has been good

Check this out, I think CBS reported on it on the air.

The Independent (UK).

CNN International.

Al Jazeera.

The NYT has a story for Thursday with possibly the worst quotes yet from the military. Not only does the Pentagon claim they have nothing to identify the soldiers with (oh, how about THEIR FACES IN THE PHOTOS, YOU MORONS), and they say they can't tell if those are real body parts or not. I kid you not, this is their excuse. They think perhaps the man sitting in the car with his head blown off and two US troops peering in is, what, a dummy? The dismembered arm dangling from the wall with the soldier smiling at it, is, what, a stage prop he just happened to import into Baghdad? Amazing. Absolutely amazing. But don't worry, I've got several more angles and more to report on this story in the days ahead. If they think this is going away, oh....

ABC News

BBC News

And there are lots more articles here. Read the rest of this post...

Wash Post publishes weird story about military death-porn photos

The story is just weird. It underplays the fact that DOD pretty much said today the investigation is over because they just can't figure out who these soldiers might be. (If only someone had pictures of the soldiers faces...) It also fails to quote the American Mulsim group as making very clear that DOD's response today is totally inadequate. And finally, it quotes the Web master of the porn site suggesting the photos are well hidden and hard to find, when in fact there's a big momma section of the site devoted to these "gory" photos from Iraq and Afghanistan, and it's clearly labeled as such on his home page.

But hey, far be it for the Washington Post to actually get a story right. Read the rest of this post...