Bashing Judges and Gays at "Justice" Sunday

Well, the theocrats had their meeting today. All the big names were there: Dobson, Perkins, DeLay, Zell Miller and Phyllis Schlafly. Doesn't that group just evoke the concept of justice?:

Prominent conservative political and religious leaders called Sunday night for Senate approval of Supreme Court nominees who will vote to end the constitutional right to abortion, against recognition of same-sex marriage and for fewer restrictions on religious expression in public places.

The Supreme Court has sanctioned "the right to kill unborn children" and opened the door to legalized "homosexual sodomy," declared Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which co-sponsored "Justice Sunday II."

From the articles, there seemed to be an increased amount of venom aimed at gays. Are they worried John Roberts is soft on homos? That pillar of judicial temperament, Robert Bork, joined in on the gay bashing:

Rejected Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork warned that the high court has defined homosexuality as "a constitutional right . . . and once homosexuality is defined as a constitutional right, there is nothing the states can do about it, nothing the people can do about it."

This crowd wants Justices who will impose theocratic rule. They are going to do everything they can to succeed. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Night Open Thread

What will this week bring? Read the rest of this post...

Rove's truthfulness doubted early on by Justice, FBI

This is actually very interesting. Thanks Ed N Sted for pointing us to this piece in the Village Voice by Murray Waas. An investigative journalist, Murray Waas, has done some of the groundbreaking work on the Plame leak scandal. He writes that Attorney General Ashcroft had to finally recuse himself because of the serious questions investigators had about Karl Rove's version of events:

Justice Department officials made the crucial decision in late 2003 to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the leak of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame in large part because investigators had begun to specifically question the veracity of accounts provided to them by White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to senior law enforcement officials.

Several of the federal investigators were also deeply concerned that then attorney general John Ashcroft was personally briefed regarding the details of at least one FBI interview with Rove, despite Ashcroft's own longstanding personal and political ties to Rove, the Voice has also learned. The same sources said Ashcroft was also told that investigators firmly believed that Rove had withheld important information from them during that FBI interview.

Ashcroft is a pig, no doubt. So things must have been pretty bad for him to have to recuse himself. Ashcroft knew that turning the matter over to real prosecutors would mean real trouble for Rove:

During his initial interview with the FBI, in the fall of 2003, Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed Plame with Time magazine correspondent Matthew Cooper, according to two legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter. Federal investigators were also skeptical of claims by Rove that he had only first learned of Plame's employment with the CIA from a journalist, even though he also claimed he could not specifically recall the name of the journalist.

As the truthfulness of Rove's accounts became more of a focus of investigators, career Justice Department employees and senior FBI officials became even more concerned about the continuing role in the investigation of Ashcroft, because of his close relationship with Rove. Rove had earlier served as an adviser to Ashcroft during the course of three political campaigns. And Rove’s onetime political consulting firm had been paid more than $746,000 for those services.

Rove is such an arrogant bastard. He plays word games and semantics with political people and the press all the time. That doesn't work with the FBI. Actually, the FBI prosecutes people who lie to them.

Of course, in any other administration, Rove would already have been fired and tried for treason. Hard to think of another President who would tolerate a traitor who outed a spy during war time. Read the rest of this post...

Bush needs a "balanced life"

Yeah, don't we all. From Atrios:

"But," he added, "I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

Remember, it's hard work. Read the rest of this post...

Bush polls at all-time low for 2d termer - but the GOP borg still support him

90% of Republicans still approve of him, fine. Send your own kids to die in Iraq, get blown up in New York, pay $3.00 for gas, and learn about creationism grade school.

Or shut up. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Tell us about it. Read the rest of this post...

Tell the Washington Post to stop sponsoring pro-Bush rallies

Enough already. It's time for the Washington Post to start acting like a real newspaper again rather than the spokesman for the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

Mr. Bo Jones, Publisher
The Washington Post
1150 15th St NW
Washington DC 20071
jonesb@washpost.com Read the rest of this post...

Washington Post endorses Pro-Bush, Anti-Democrat war march

That's exactly what it is. Read the lyrics to this jerk's (Clint Black's) song - a song I'll bet he'll be singing at the Washington Post's little Bush campaign rally - then tell me why the Washington Post is sponsoring some rally that basically brands us as basically un-American. And be sure to check out just how bad this song is - these lyrics are the worst thing since that other idiot, Lee Greenwood, wrote that God Bless the USA crap.

"I RAQ AND ROLL"

Words and Music by Clint Black and Hayden Nicholas

YOU CAN WAVE YOUR SIGNS IN PROTEST
AGAINST AMERICA TAKING STANDS

[Ah, so we're all against America taking stands. That's why we oppose the war based on a lie.]

THE STANDS AMERICA'S TAKEN
ARE THE REASON THAT YOU CAN

[So now the Iraq war is the reason we're free.]

IF EVERYONE WOULD GO FOR PEACE
THERE'D BE NO NEED FOR WAR
BUT WE CAN'T IGNORE THE DEVIL
HE'LL KEEP COMING BACK FOR MORE

[So Democrats and the rest of us who have realized that Bush lied about the war are in fact "ignoring the devil."]

SOME SEE THIS IN BLACK AND WHITE
OTHERS ONLY GRAY

[I'm guessing the "gray" is us - people who can't see things clearly, have no sense of right and wrong.]

WE'RE NOT BEGGING FOR A FIGHT
NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY

[Which "they" is he talking about - us?]

WE HAVE THE RESOLUTION
THAT SHOULD PUT'EM ALL TO SHAME
BUT IT'S A DIFFERENT KIND OF DEADLINE
WHEN I'M CALLED IN THE GAME

CHORUS
I RAQ, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
I'M BACK AND I'M A HIGH TECH GI JOE
I PRAY FOR PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR
AND I NEVER WILL FORGET
THERE'S NO PRICE TOO HIGH FOR FREEDOM
SO BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU TREAD

THIS TERROR ISN'T MAN TO MAN

[Ok, so this is a pro Iraq war song that links Iraq to the war on terror - lovely. Nice job Washington Post - since you bought the pack of lies about this war and shoved it down the public's throat, big surprise you're now endorsing a rally where this is the kind of theme we can expect.]

THEY CAN BE NO MORE THAN COWARDS
IF THEY WON'T SHOW US THEIR WEAPONS
WE MIGHT HAVE TO SHOW THEM OURS

IT MIGHT BE A SMART BOMB
THEY FIND STUPID PEOPLE TOO
AND IF YOU STAND WITH THE LIKES OF SADDAM
ONE JUST MIGHT FIND YOU

[Again, are WE standing with the likes of Saddam? Not to mention, Saddam's gone, so what are we doing there?]

CHORUS II
I ROCK, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
I'M BACK AND I'M A HIGH TECH GI JOE
I'VE GOT INFRARED, I'VE GOT GPS AND I'VE GOT THAT GOOD OLD FASHIONED LEAD
THERE'S NO PRICE TOO HIGH FOR FREEDOM
SO BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU TREAD

BRIDGE
NOW YOU CAN COME ALONG
OR YOU CAN STAY BEHIND
OR YOU CAN GET OUT OF THE WAY
BUT OUR TROOPS TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE
FOR THE GOOD OLD U.S.A.

I ROCK, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
IN THE USA
I ROCK, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
I'M TALKIN' ABOUT THE USA

Read the rest of this post...

Howard Dean on "Face The Nation"

"Today, in [The Washington Post] there was an article that said the troops STILL don't have the proper equipment. What are these people doing that are running the armed forces? I'll tell you what they're doing. People like the President and people like Secretary Rumsfeld are ignoring the advice of career experts like General Shinseki who told them before we went in that we needed adequate equipment and adequate troops. They thrust that aside. These people do not know what they're doing that are running this country. They have no conception of what it is to fight a war because none of them ever have."
-- Howard Dean

Using a question on Intelligent Design, Dean turned it into a comment on Bush and how he ignores facts:

"it never pays to ignore facts. Reason we're in trouble in Iraq? The President didn't care what the facts were. The reason we have an almost $8 trillion national debt? The President didn't care what the facts were. The facts matter. The truth is you can't run a business, a state, a country or a family if you don't care what the facts are."


Dean's four word platform for running against Republicans:

"We can do better." Read the rest of this post...

Six more soldiers killed in Iraq

This is how Bush is building success in Iraq:

Elsewhere, the U.S. military said three soldiers were killed and one other wounded in a roadside bombing late Saturday near Tuz Khormato, 95 miles north of Baghdad.

One soldier on a patrol was killed Sunday and three others wounded in a blast east of Rutbah, 250 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. In another roadside bombing, one soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded in western Baghdad.

On Friday a U.S. commander said the number of roadside bomb attacks against American convoys in Iraq had doubled in the past year to about 30 per week. Dozens of bombings, usually detonated by remote control, target U.S. and Iraqi patrols each day.

The military said in a brief statement from Baghdad that one soldier was found dead Friday of a gunshot wound. The military said an investigation was underway and did not say where the soldier was found or if an attack was suspected in the soldier's death.

Read the rest of this post...

Romeo and, well, umm...actually Juliet and Juliet...

I guess the folks at NCFR won't have a website for swans anytime soon, either. Read the rest of this post...

Leave September 11 the fuck alone

Enough already. I was there, you were there, we were all there. Enough.

We now get word that Bush is planning (via Rummy) some big stupid march and concert on September 11 to, apparently, once again link Iraq to September 11, stand by our troops, whip up nationalist fervor, and of course, help Bush's sinking poll numbers.

Enough of the Republican party abusing the deaths of the thousands who died on September 11. And for Rummy to have the nerve - the nerve - to link this concert to Iraq, Jesus.

Okay, folks, what can we do to fight back, to strike back? I'm serious. This concert is disgusting, it's a cheap trick, and a lie. We need to get it canceled. What can we do? I'm open to suggestions for the campaign, and will talk to the other bloggers.

Maybe we start with the Washington Post, who's apparently cosponsoring the ridiculous thing. A newspaper is cosponsoring a government propaganda rally. Lovely. How low can the Washington Post go? They got us into this war and now they're going to help keep us there. Way to go Wash Post. Read the rest of this post...

Morning open thread

So what do you have planned for this Sunday? Read the rest of this post...

Frank Rich Kicks Ass Open Thread

Do one thing: Read Frank Rich's latest column, "Someone Tell the President the War Is Over." Read the rest of this post...