Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid invokes the DSM re: Bolton nomination

Oh, this is getting fun. Read the rest of this post...

Bush approval down to 42....he's tanking fast

The lame duck is getting lamer according to the latest poll via the NY Times:

Increasingly pessimistic about Iraq and skeptical about President Bush's plan for Social Security, Americans are in a season of political discontent, giving Mr. Bush one of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and Congress one of its lowest rating in years, according to the New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Forty-two percent of those polled said they approved of the way Mr. Bush is handling his job, a marked decline from his 51 percent rating in the aftermath of the November election, when he embarked on an ambitious second-term agenda led by the overhaul of Social Security. Sixteen months before the midterm elections, Congress fared even worse in the survey, with the approval of just 33 percent of Americans, and nearly three-fourths saying Congress did not share their priorities.

Let's just say, the numbers don't get better. In fact, they get worse. Try this one:

Only 25 percent said they approved of the way Mr. Bush was handling Social Security, down slightly from what the poll found in March.

and this:

only 37 percent said they approved of Mr. Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, down from 45 percent in February. And a strong majority of Americans now say the United States' effort to bring stability and order to Iraq is going badly - 60 percent, up from 47 percent in February.

Watch how quickly the GOP rats on the hill jump ship. Read the rest of this post...

ABC's Terry Moran kicks McClellan's ASS!

Oh my God. From time to time, I've been a critic of Terry Moran for going soft on this administration. But oh my God.

Just read this transcript of his back and forth with White House spokesman Scott McClellan today. I literally laughed out loud. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Geez, the guys post like madmen all day, then when I got out for dinner, bam, no posts! Read the rest of this post...

Senator Kyl (R-AZ) who won't cosponsor the lynching resolution is lecturing us about civility

Come out strongly against lynching, then come back and talk to us.

Kyl's DC office, (202) 224-4521.

PS Kyl just said the detainees at Gitmo are "the worst of the worst." Pretty strong words when we don't even have enough evidence to even try one of them. Isn't it nice when we throw out due process simply based on the gut of a Senator who can't even come out against lynching. Read the rest of this post...

Rebroadcast of the Downing Street Memo hearing Friday

DSM forum will be rerun Friday on C-Span 2 at 8 PM EST. Not sure if it's on tonight as well again. Read the rest of this post...

So now the ADL is sucking up to Bush too

Another great profile in liberal courage, this time from the Anti-Defamation League, conveniently joining the coordinated right-wing criticism of Senator Durbin for sticking up for international law and - eeks! - Muslims.

Gay people were killed in the Holocaust too. The ADL doesn't have a monopoly on Nazis. Their rebuke is wrong, inappropriate, gratuitous, and smacks of an effort to curry favor with the White House. Yet another example of a once-great organization that has since passed its prime and usefulness. (Gee, am I gonna get a nasty letter too now?)

Just to check with the ADL, but was Pol Pot close enough to the Nazis for you? How about Stalin killing tens of millions of his own people? Does that get close enough? The murder of a million people in Rwanda?

Here's my favorite part of the ADL letter to Durbin:

Whatever your views on the treatment of detainees and alleged excesses at the Guantanamo Bay facility, it is inappropriate and insensitive to suggest that actions by American troops in any way resemble actions taken by Nazis in their treatment of prisoners. Suggesting some kind of equivalence between their interrogation tactics demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about the horrors that Hitler and his regime actually perpetrated.

Really? Wow. Nothing our soldiers could ever do could EVER EVER EVER compare to what the Nazis did to their prisoners. Wow. Is that because we're Amurikans and, you know, that 'banality of evil' thing doesn't infect us? Was it just genetic, the whole Nazi thing?

So, attacking prisoners with dogs, did the Nazis do that? How about summary executions of innocent untried people, simply because they're of a faith or a race that makes them suspect? Any of that happen in Nazi Germany? The debasing of the faith of an entire people? Attacks on women, children? Mass dehumanization of people without any due process whatsoever? And how about an incredible hubris that our way is the right way, the law and rules of humanity be damned? No, none of that. And particularly the guy on the floor at Gitmo with all of his hair in a ball on the floor next to him because he pulled it all out in a fit of insanity, THAT in particular was MUCH MORE HUMANE than what happened in Nazi camps, per the ADL.

I just want to make sure our PC meter is operating properly the next time we discuss the Nazis. Because, you know, God forbid anybody tried to learn from the mistakes of the Nazis and ensure that no modern government in our time, or our country, started making those same mistakes and leading us or anyone else down that same path. Oh no. The ADL has appeared to have adopted the Republican line on Nazi Germany. One big abberation. Yep. Won't ever happen again, so don't you DARE even suggest you're seeing indications of it happening, anywhere.

Way to learn from history, guys.

Or is it simply that this time around the victims are Mulsim, so that makes it okay? Read the rest of this post...

Why the Downing Street Memo is THE smoking gun

The reporter who broke the Downing Street Memo story in the Sunday Times of London on the meaning of "fixed" - from an online Q and A session he did today on washingtonpost.com:

Michael Smith: There are number of people asking about fixed and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed and as for the reports that said this was one British official. Pleeeaaassee! This was the head of MI6. How much authority do you want the man to have? He has just been to Washington, he has just talked to George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq. Fixed means the same here as it does there. More leaks? I do hope so and the more Blair and Bush lie to try to get themselves off the hook the more likely it is that we will get more leaks.

(Hat tip to Briebrooks) Read the rest of this post...

McClellan says White House won't communicate with any member of Congress who votes "wrong" on the war

That's what he just said. Read the transcript. "How did they vote?" is his answer to whether the White House will even respond to letters from Congress? Gee, how's that "uniting" going?

As for Scottie's little comment that whether Bush lied about the war is looking to the past while he wants to look to the future. Well, fortunately, the statues of limitation on the Bush administration's crimes will still afford us the chance to "look back" and throw his ass and all of the rest of them in jail once we take over in 3 years.

Can't wait to see Scottie explaining himself with all these cute little phrases when he's extradited to Belgium. Read the rest of this post...

Game, set, match: Now the White House criticizes Senator Durbin

The coordinated attack on Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has been sprung, and now it's the White House's turn to pretend they're upset.

Durbin, as you'll recall, had the temerity to suggest that the torture of innocents in violation of international and US law at the hands OF OUR OWN MILITARY, might, just might, be something Americans should have a problem with. That debasing the reptutation of our own soldiers, that putting our soldiers at risk of trial and jail for violating US and international law governing torture, just might be something that Americans should be outraged about.

(And it turns out Durbin was right. See what ABC News discovered last night.)

So of course, the White House and the coordinated right-wing attack machine kicks in and feigns outrage - outrage I tell you! - about how dare a US Senator TELL THE TRUTH!

You'll remember, perhaps, when I testified before the US House a few weeks ago. I said at the time that the GOP's favorite tactic is to take take something a critic says that is true, and damning, then blow up in that critic's face BECAUSE HE SAID THE TRUTH.

Well, our slumber is over. We're not going to sit back and let these un-American, law-breaking, torture-enabling criminals in the White House and the right-wing noise machine defend an outright violation of the law, defend the torture of innocents, and think that we're going to sit back and shrink like a violet.

Why do Republicans want our soldiers to break the law and go to jail?

Let me give you a flavor of the actions the White House, FOX News, and the Republican noise machine are today defending at Guantanamo Bay:

On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night.

Nah, doesn't sound like Nazi Germany at all. Stalinist Russia, perhaps. The Khmer Rouge. Rwanda. Mussolini. Caligula. Sure. But Nazis?

How dare you suggest a democracy hold its military acountable to the law?! What do think this is, America?

Call Senator Durbin and tell him we're with him, and to keep on holding these bastards accountable:

(202) 224-2152
Web Form: durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm Read the rest of this post...

Did the Pentagon just threaten members of Congress?

Chief Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita on congressional critics of Abu Ghraib.

The Pentagon on Thursday invited more members of Congress to visit the Guantanamo jail for foreign terrorism suspects, saying criticism by some U.S. lawmakers showed "a real ignorance of what's really going on...."

"And the way they are describing it is unfortunate, and in some places I believe those people will regret having made those kind of comments."

What do you mean, Larry? Are you saying you have some inside information on the coordinated conservative swarm attacking Senator Durbin for telling the truth about what you people have done to violate international law at Gitmo? What do you know and when did you know it, Larry?

God I can't wait until you guys lose the presidency in 3 years. You're all going to jail. Read the rest of this post...

More Ohio Coin-gate Shenanigans

More bizarre and disturbing developments in Ohio.

Today's Toledo Blade has the email correspondence between the former head of the Bureau of Workers Compensation and the Governor's office. Contrary to his seeming ignorance, the Governor knew months ago they were investing in risky hedge funds. But, my favorite is the one where he blames the Toledo Blade for all their troubles:

“While I am told on one hand The Blade is after a certain individual in Toledo and we a (sic) simple collateral damage, I have also been told by several Democrat friends (yes, I do have one or two) that the minority party caucus hopes to use these articles and resulting investigation as a way to kill workers comp reform and make it so unpalatable that a veto might be forthcoming. We continue to point out the truth and hope it will prevail (‘‘Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free’’)....On April 14, Mr. Conrad wrote to Mr. Taft under the heading “Capital Coin: “I believe we ‘‘may be’’ starting to turn the corner (knock on wood) on this issue. Our message is being sought out and delivered via Toledo-area media — Toledo Free Press, Toledo Business Journal (extensive article soon to be published), WSPD AM radio, and the local ABC TV affiliate — which are all concerned with the one-sided approach demonstrated by the Blade.”

Yeah, it was all a big conspiracy between the Democrats and the Toledo Blade....Right. The whole thing really exploded when it turned out "a certain individual in Toledo" a.k.a. Tom Noe was missing $12 million in public funds.

Yesterday, from the Toledo Blade, we learned that the Colorado home belonging to a Tom Noe associate -- a home that was raided by the authorities a couple weeks ago -- was burglarized this week:

The suburban Denver home of a former employee of Tom Noe was burglarized over the weekend, with thieves making off with artwork, guns, jewelry, cars, and $300,000 in wine — possibly purchased with money from the state of Ohio.

A tad suspicious....like everything else involved with Tom Noe and "Coin-gate." Even Colorado law enforcement is intrigued according to Chris Nelson who works for the local sheriff:

“There were immediately some red flags when you have a house of a suspect in a high profile case getting burglarized,” he said. “We are very aggressively pursuing this in light of the other ongoing investigations.”

Read the rest of this post...

I'll be on Mike Signorile's radio show at 3:30pm Eastern today

Such competition. DSM hearings, Mike's show.... You can listen online, though there's some kind of free 3-day registration or something. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread about the DSM hearings

It's pretty good. Very good, in fact. The folks at the White House can't be happy about this. And I understand all the TV media is there, except FOX, of course. Read the rest of this post...

Frist lies to NBC about Schiavo

Uh oh. Lying isn't a family value. From ThinkProgress:

Majority Leader Bill Frist this morning on the Today Show:

LAUER: But when you stood on the floor and you said, She does respond, are you at all worried that you led some senators…

FRIST: I never said, She responded. I said I reviewed the court videotapes – the same ones the other doctors reviewed – and I questioned, Is her diagnosis correct?

Frist on Senate Floor, 3/17/05:

I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond.

More from Frist, 3/17/05:

She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli…

Read the rest of this post...

Family Values Assault and Battery

Man-wores and porn stars and chokers, oh my! Read the rest of this post...

You REALLY want to see this

I think our message about the lynching resolution is getting out there. Read the rest of this post...

Updated DSM t-shirt & the hearing is at 2:30pm Eastern today

Per popular demand, the back of the t-shirt now explains what the Downing Street Memo is. You can buy the t-shirt online here. There are lots of colors and varieties for men and women.

Don't forget, the Conyers Hearings on THE DOWNING STREET MEMO will be shown on C-SPAN 3 AT 2:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME today. Watch it!

This is the front of the shirt:



This is the new back of the t-shirt (note: the women's spaghetti tank has NOTHING on the back):

Read the rest of this post...

Teresa is taking down Santorum

You go girl. Read the rest of this post...

Radical Religious Right Demands Republican Presidential Hopefuls Bow Before Them

A who's who of the radical far right religious hate groups -- James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, Rev. Donald Wildmon of American Family Association, Gary Bauer of American Values, Paul Weyrich of Free Congress Foundation -- are banding together to screen Republican Presidential hopefuls.

Gary Bauer, president of American Values, said in an interview that the sit-down sessions, likely to begin after the 2006 elections, would be "a very effective way to nail down where people are on cultural issues." He said candidates have become "very astute" at answering written questionnaires in ways that avoid making firm commitments.

They might even endorse one candidate if all those power-hungry fellows can agree to support the same guy. (Rick Santorum, perhaps?) I'll be praying that they do -- a Republican candidate branded as the choice of these far right radicals would be hobbled severely during the general election.

Imagine being able to link him (or her?) to every single wacky, hate-filled statement these guys indulge in. He'd either have to distance himself from them repeatedly or finally repudiate them if he wanted any pretense of being in the mainstream, thus ticking off their followers. Or he'd stay arm in arm with them and scare off the sane moderate majority of Americans.

Please, please, please, fellows, hand out a scarlet letter to your favorite candidate. Make our day. Read the rest of this post...

Black Church Leaders To Bush: We're No Fools

Black church leaders in the US are realizing that Bush's actions don't match his words. (Maybe his pro-lynching buddies in the Senate were a tip-off.) Condi Rice met with leaders to try and gain cover -- I mean support -- for Bush's actions in Africa. According to the LA Times, once they saw what Bush actually did -- refuse to increase aid, drag his feet on releasing the money he has promised and de-funding international health organizations doing great work in Africa -- those top black pastors have backed away from the White House.

The criticism came in a letter delivered Tuesday to the White House from five of the nation's most high-profile African American pastors. They called on the president to give his "ardent" support to a proposal by British Prime Minister Tony Blair under which industrialized nations would double their aid to Africa by 2010. Bush rejected the proposal last week....

The pastors' letter also marked the second time this week that the administration has faced public criticism over its Africa policy. On Monday, leaders of several African nations told Bush at an Oval Office meeting that bureaucracy was delaying the delivery of needed relief funds through one of the president's signature programs, the Millennium Challenge Account....

The letter couched African relief as a national security issue, saying that U.S. aid was an important defense against the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Some pastors made that point to Rice last month, contending that a greater role for black churches in Africa would help block efforts by terrorist groups to recruit the millions of orphans resulting from the AIDS epidemic.

"Our failure as a nation to adequately support Africa is fundamentally a failure to adequately support our own national security," the letter said.

Jakes, Blake, Long and Rivers all represent large churches, and each has developed a high profile through television, radio or books. White House officials view the pastors and their large churches as a key entry point to a voting bloc that has long sided overwhelmingly with Democrats.

Maybe the cynical links between the far right and African American religious leaders -- based solely on their shared hatred of gays -- will continue to fray. Sorry Bush, you have to actually fight poverty in Africa if you want credit for fighting poverty in Africa. Read the rest of this post...

Mary Carey wants to have sex with the Bush twins

Presidential porn star Mary Carey told me something about the Bush Twins during my interview with her late late late Sunday night (she called me at 12:45AM). It was something she promised me I wouldn't report until AFTER she attended the president's dinner the other night, lest she be uninvited. Here's goes:

"Oh my God, his daughters! I’d LOVE to party with his daughters. I’d love to meet them. I totally want to have sex with them. You can write it the day after I leave here."

Yes, Concerned Women for America, your little White House had no problem with this. (Not that I do, but hey, it's YOUR family values White House - NOT!

Read the rest of this post...

Senator Alexander (R-TN) being held accountable by local MSM

At least someone gets it. Two points for Mike Madden and the Tennessean.

Sen. Lamar Alexander was one of 16 senators who did not join in when the Senate apologized for its failure to pass a federal law against lynchings....

Although 84 senators signed on to the lynching apology, Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, did not. He said he preferred a resolution he introduced called "celebrating Black History Month," which condemned lynching and pledged to address racial disparities in education and health care. His version made no mention of the Senate's failure to ban lynching....
Civil rights leaders said they didn't understand why Alexander or any lawmaker would decide not to join the apology as a co-sponsor.

"An apology begins with an acknowledgement of wrongdoing," said Hilary Shelton, the director of the Washington bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "For those who weren't willing to do that, you have to pause and take wonder as to why they're here in the first place."

The Rev. Enoch Fuzz, president of the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship in Nashville, said he was disappointed by Alexander's decision.

"There were lynchings that took place in Tennessee,'' Fuzz said. Tennessee lawmakers "should just be as proactive as they can to move our nation past the hurt and the history and the old wounds because of the terrible history of racism in Tennessee."

Read the rest of this post...

Downing Street Memo hearing on C-Span today!

The Conyers Hearings on THE DOWNING STREET MEMO will be shown on C-SPAN 3 AT 2:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME today. Watch it!

I believe you can watch this online, and listen via radio. Check AfterDowningStreet.org for details (it's at the top of the page).

There's also going to be a rally in front of the White House at 5pm today, more here. Read the rest of this post...

Morning open thread

Gday Read the rest of this post...

Five more Marines killed in Iraq

Remember, everything is under control in Iraq according to Bush and Cheney. However, the reality continues to discredit them again and again. Associated Press has the latest tragedy:

A roadside bomb attack killed five U.S. Marines, and gunfire killed an American sailor in a western Iraqi town, the U.S. military said Thursday.

The U.S. deaths came amid an upsurge in violence appeared to be aimed at derailing stepped up efforts by Shiite politicians to bring the disaffected Sunni Arab minority into the political process.

Yeah, more deaths and an upsurge in violence. Meanwhile over in the delusional White House, Scott McClellan, talking about Terri Schiavo, told the New York Times:

"The president believes we should stand on the side of defending and protecting life."

Of course, that only means for Terri Schiavo and other theocracy issues, not the kids being killed in Iraq. Read the rest of this post...

A loss for Bush in the House on Patriot Act

Washington Post reports on a big loss for lame-duck W:

The House handed President Bush the first defeat in his effort to preserve the broad powers of the USA Patriot Act, voting yesterday to curtail the FBI's ability to seize library and bookstore records for terrorism investigations.

Bush has threatened to veto any measure that weakens those powers. The surprise 238 to 187 rebuke to the White House was produced when a handful of conservative Republicans, worried about government intrusion, joined with Democrats who are concerned about personal privacy.

The GOP really is starting to back away from Chimpy....the Repubs. in Congress are feeling more free to buck Bush...they are reading the polls, too. Read the rest of this post...

Republican political appointees in Justice Department lowered tobacco settlement by $120B

For those who have been wondering why the Justice Department reduced the settlement with the tobacco industry from $130 Billion to $10 Billion, the search is now over. The long time Bush friend, Associate Attorney General and former tobacco attorney, Robert McCallum has been pressuring the Justice Department attorneys to lower the settlement and surprise, surprise, McCallum has had his way. Politics once again manipulating policy. Sound familiar?

"We do not want politics to be perceived as the underlying motivation, and that is certainly a risk if we make adjustments in our remedies presentation that are not based on evidence," the two top lawyers for the trial team, Sharon Y. Eubanks and Stephen D. Brody, wrote in a memorandum on May 30 to Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum that was reviewed by The New York Times.

The newly disclosed documents make clear that the decision was made after weeks of tumult in the department and accusations from lawyers on the tobacco team that Mr. McCallum and other political appointees had effectively undermined their case. Mr. McCallum, No. 3 at the department, is a close friend of President Bush from their days as Skull & Bones members at Yale, and he was also a partner at an Atlanta law firm, Alston & Bird, that has done legal work for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, part of Reynolds American, a defendant in the case.

Read the rest of this post...

Hydrogen motorbike coming to the US

You mean to tell me that companies can create new jobs even though they are not giant petroleum companies? What the? Who would have guessed? Certainly not the GOP who seems set on government welfare for the oil industry. Intelligent Energy is moving their operations to the US after starting the business over in the UK. Their new motorcycle will run on hydrogen power which will cost around $3 for 100 miles and it will be clean energy as well as silent. The estimated cost of the bike is $6,000 though on the downside, it appears too sleak and sporty for only 8 horsepower so I am not sure the buyers who like that look will appreciate the lack of speed, but it's a start. Read the rest of this post...

Very late night open thread

Well the trolls are descending. Because they can't handle the truth. Read the rest of this post...