Friday night open thread

From the Onion News Network, the real reason for Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- a "general" reveals that gays are too precious to sacrifice:



Speaking of humor and the military -- Steve at The Frontlines asks, "How Many Push-Ups Can Elaine Do?" (Elaine Donnelly, shrill doyenne of discrimination at the Center for Military Readiness). Read the rest of this post...

Giuliani's Family Affair

I read John's take on Rudy Giuliani's plea to leave his family alone. I agree with that wholeheartedly. If Rudy wants to make judgments on other families, then he's going to have to deal with people judging his own family.

But there is a question - when is it appropriate to talk about a candidate's family? I think candidates do have the right to some privacy for their families, if they try to keep their family out of the limelight. But the problem for Rudy is, he put his family at the center of his campaigns and his mayoralty. The Mayor's son was out front at many of his events (Saturday Night Live did a skit mocking the Mayor and his son). He also made his divorce a very public affair. It's ridiculous now for the Mayor to ask people to respect his family's privacy, when he did no such thing during his career. Read the rest of this post...

Rick Scarborough: what's next - bestiality, crossdressing debates?

Do these people ever tire of dipping into the same sleazy well? Hat tip to Right Wing Watch again for this incredible nonsense out of the mouth of Vision America's Rick Scarborough about the HRC/LOGO presidential forum. In his eyes it's a slippery slope to Santorumville:

This week every single Democrat candidate participated in a first ever homosexual sponsored debate carried live on a homosexual television network.

...So far this political season we have had Frosty the Snowman asking questions over YouTube and now the "Gay Debates" to see just which candidate is willing to grant the most favor to a lifestyle which historical Christianity calls sinful. What's next? The Cross Dresser Debates? Or perhaps the NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Lovers Association) Debates? Or here's one for the ages -- The Bestiality Debates. Not possible? That's what I thought about our leaders attending a debate sponsored by homosexuals twenty years ago.

Need I tell you at the bottom of his article he begs for cash: "Make a donation to support the ongoing work of Vision America Action by clicking here. Your donation will immediately impact the future of our nation."

He obviously needs the cash. His "70 Weeks to Save America" Campaign is in debt. 70 Weeks is Rick's tour with Alan Keyes and a cavalcade of bible-beaters traveling around the country to hold rallies in advance of the 2008 election to focus on "biblical and family values, and religious liberty." Some video for your entertainment:

Read the rest of this post...

Friday Old Europe Cat Blogging

Damn French cats. Look like Democrats. Or is that Demo-cats? Read the rest of this post...

Run on banks in L.A. as it's time to pay the piper for Countrywide

The Bush economy comes home to roost. The formerly go-go sub-prime market's crashing down -- and one bank's woes are roiling customers.

Anxious customers of Countrywide Bank jammed its phone lines, branches and website after the nation's largest mortgage lender -- which owns the bank -- announced it was facing problems from a credit meltdown.

"Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest home-loan company in the nation, sought Thursday to assure depositors and the financial industry that both it and its bank were fiscally stable," wrote the LA Times Friday. "And federal regulators said they weren't alarmed by the volume of withdrawals from the bank."

"The rush to withdraw money -- by depositors that included a former Los Angeles Kings star hockey player and an executive of a rival home-loan company -- came a day after fears arose that Countrywide Financial could file for bankruptcy protection because of a worsening credit crunch stemming from the sub-prime mortgage meltdown," the paper continued.

Don't worry, be happy. Read the rest of this post...

Cheney tries (unsuccessfully) to shrug off 1994 remarks about Iraq

Remember that 1994 video of Darth saying what a disaster Iraq would be if we invaded Baghdad ("How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?"):



A CBS affiliate called the Dark Lord's office about the matter, and this was the response:

"He was not Vice President at the time, it was after he was Secretary of Defense," a spokesperson told CBS 5 San Francisco. "I don't have any comment."

But then there's this bit of business unearthed by Think Progress that makes it even more difficult for the VP to blow off those remarks - Cheney reiterated his position again in August of 2000 on Meet the Press as Bush's VP nominee:

CHENEY: I don't, Tim. It was–and it's been talked about since then. But the fact of the matter is, the only way you could have done that would be to go to Baghdad and occupy Iraq. If we'd done that, the U.S. would have been all alone. We would not have had the support of the coalition, especially of the Arab nations that fought alongside us in Kuwait. None of them ever set foot inside Iraq. Conversations I had with leaders in the region afterwards -- they all supported the decision that was made not to go to Baghdad.

They were concerned that we not get into a position where we shifted instead of being the leader of an international coalition to roll back Iraqi aggression to one in which we were an imperialist power, willy-nilly moving into capitals in that part of the world taking down governments. So I think we got it right, so suppose it's one of those things that'll be debated for some time. But I thought the decision was sound at the time, and I do today. [Meet the Press, 8/27/00]

The lying out of this White House is non-stop and shameless. But hey -- who's holding them accountable? Read the rest of this post...

Gonzales perjured himself AGAIN to Congress. Do the Dems care? Or have they no backbone?

There's a general perception in America that Democrats are weak and have no backbone. Democrats can't be trusted with defense, with our military, with the war on terror because they don't know how to fight, lack the will to fight. As an acquaintance said to me before the 2004 elections, she hated Bush, but with regards to Kerry said: "He doesn't defend himself, how is he going to defend my kids?"

So today we find out from the Washington Post that Attorney General Gonzales perjured himself again last month before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The number of times Gonzales has committed this crime - and it is a crime - is heading towards ten or so, if not more.

From today's Washington Post:

Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was "feeble," "barely articulate" and "stressed" moments after a hospital room confrontation in March 2004 with Alberto R. Gonzales, who wanted Ashcroft to approve a warrantless wiretapping program over Justice Department objections, according to notes from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that were released yesterday.

One of Mueller's entries in five pages of a daily log pertaining to the dispute also indicated that Ashcroft's deputy was so concerned about undue pressure by Gonzales and other White House aides for the attorney general to back the wiretapping program that the deputy asked Mueller to bar anyone other than relatives from later entering Ashcroft's hospital room.

Mueller's description of Ashcroft's physical condition that night contrasts with testimony last month from Gonzales, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Ashcroft was "lucid" and "did most of the talking" during the brief visit. It also confirms an account of the episode by former deputy attorney general James B. Comey, who said Ashcroft told the two men he was not well enough to make decisions in the hospital.

So what does Judiciary Committee chair Senator Leahy plan to do about it? Hold more hearings? Ooh, scary. We have a criminal as the top law enforcement officer in the land and you people do nothing about it except hold hearings and issue press releases. He has lied to you. He has even lied to you when you asked him about his previous lies. Yet you do nothing. We have a word for people like you. It's "chump." You have the power of the purse. You have the power to defund Gonzales 100% if he doesn't step down. You have the power to defund the US attorney for DC if he won't file charges. You have the power to impeach Gonzles. But instead you hold hearings. When I worked for Ted Stevens, in the minority in the early 90s, with Clinton as president, we simply moved ahead with plans to cut the budget of a senior agency official who crossed our path. It worked wonders.

No Bush official should give the Democrats the time of day. They should just lie, cheat and steal - break the law when they don't get their away, and tell the Dems to go to hell. Hell, it's what the Bushies are already doing, with impunity. Everyone knows the Democrats won't do a damn thing anyway. So if they're going to act like chumps, why not play them like chumps? I really think the only way things are going to change in our country is for everyone and everything to hit rock bottom. The Republicans are going to have to destroy our country in order for Democrats to start defending it.

And the Democrats wonder why people label us the party of wimps? Read the rest of this post...

Fed cuts discount rate

MSNBC just reported "Breaking News" that the Federal Reserve Board cut the discount by 1/2 percent. Stocks had been continuing their dive around the world.

Yesterday, Bonddad explained what's been going on in a special comment at Huffington Post. That guy is a genius. If you're trying to figure out what's going on, read his whole post. But, given the Fed's decision, here's one of his key points:

Fourth - and not like they listen to me anyway - but unless there is a serious slowdown in the economy, the Fed should not lower interest rates right now. That would simply bail-out a lot of people who got us into this mess. And frankly, they need for the market to hand them their hat (as it were). Sometimes the only way to learn a lesson is to swallow the bitter pill called "responsibility." Lowering rates just isn't the answer.

Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Finally Friday. Been a pretty wild week from Rove's resignation to the Bush administration trying to scam the Iraq report next month to that stock market/mortgage madness. Lots of other stuff in-between.

So, what's in store for today? Read the rest of this post...

AMERICAblog "Old Europe" meet-up this Sunday in Paris

Be there or be carré.

We'll be meeting this coming Sunday, the 19th, at 630pm at the art studio of my friend Marcus, in the 11th (more of Marcus' art here). If no one shows up, it will be me and Marcus having coffee and then wine with his dog Grover. If more people show up, all the better. Here are the details:

152, rue Saint Maur, 75011 Paris
code: A4590, premier escalier à gauche, premier étage à droite (entry code is A4590, enter then take the stairs on the left to the first floor, the door is on the right (in France, the FIRST floor is the American SECOND floor, i.e., one flight up from the ground floor))
tél : 01 49 29 08 94.

And now, some more photos.



A number of you had asked for photos of Paris Plage (aka Paris Beach). Every summer the city spreads 2000 tons of sand on a roadway running along the Seine river and turn it into a massive, mile-long beach. It's a brilliant idea. And people use it, a lot. More here.



These are simply a row of trees at the southern end of the Jardin de Luxembourg, a park near our place that was built by Marie de Medici in the early 1600s when she got bored of living in the Louvre. She built a palace and park in this location - now it houses the French Senate. It's a great park, huge, with tons of people just hanging out reading books, sun-bathing, playing tennis, kids everywhere. Just a great place to hang on a nice day.



These are the windows at Sainte Chappelle, Louis IX's private chapel built in 1248. It was only partly sunny the day we went. It really needs to be a fully sunny day to appreciate the windows. When the Republicans talk about "Old Europe," they're talking about people who constructed marvels like this 500 years before we even existed as a nation. Age comes with its own wisdom. Read the rest of this post...