Somebody is playing games with the Secret Service logs on Abramoff

UPDATE: I just heard from Paul at TPM Muckraker who explained the following: "Conyers and Slaughter were able to get Guckert's visits because they sent a FOIA to the Executive Office of the President after they were told that the Secret Service didn't have the records." Okay, that explains that, but it doesn't explain how the White House can justify turning over the Gannon records but not the Abramoff records - what's the difference? Why release one and not the other? Man-whores are okay but convicted criminals aren't?

How is it that the Secret Service now claims, per TPM Muckraker, to have no visitor logs prior to October 2004 - supposedly the Secret Service gave all the pre-10/04 logs to the White House which you can't really FOIA - when Congress was able to FOIA Secret Service logs about Jeff Gannon's visits going back to February of 2003?

They don't have logs pre October 2004, so gosh they just can't help with that FOIA request for visitor logs on Jack Abramoff's White House visits before that date, but they had hundreds of Gannon logs from 2003 and 2004 that they were more than happy to provide.

Now, the FOIA request for Gannon's stuff seems to have been made to the Secret Service, while the response came from Homeland Security. But so what? The point is they provided the records requested. Why are we now being told that only the White House has these logs when in fact it's clear from the Gannon request that the logs are in fact available to be FOIA'd quite easily?

Somebody isn't telling Judicial Watch the whole story. Read the rest of this post...

Rep. Murtha: Marines killed innocent Iraqi civilians "in cold blood"

Let's remember that Murtha is a hawk on defense. He's as conversative as they come on military issues. And he's the one who's now saying this. This is very bad. And it's more evidence of what happens when a failed war goes on too long. Things start to go wrong, terribly wrong. And we're sending our war-weary soldiers to the Mexican border next? (Bush is sending the National Guard - don't forget, it's the National Guard who has borne much of the brunt of the war in Iraq.) I'm sure things will go just swimmingly on the border, after three years of the hell we've already put our soldiers through. Read the rest of this post...

BBC accidentally puts job applicant on the air as Internet music expert

UPDATE: Okay, seems the BBC reported on its own mistake, which is good (this apparently happened last month). They actually covered the issue, more of the video is here.

This is absolutely hysterical. A guy comes in for a job interview, they assume he's a guest on their show and they put him on the air! Read the rest of this post...

The War on Mexicans

Let's call the immigration debate what it really. It's the War on Mexicans. Let's make sure not a single Republican voter remains among Latinos in this country. Read the rest of this post...

Don't miss the YearlyKos blog conference in Vegas

I'll be there, Joe Wilson will be there, Harry Reid, and Howard Dean. What more could you want? Seriously, most of the top bloggers will be there, on panels as well, and a lot of other folks. It should be a hoot, and I'm sorry but I love Vegas. The place just makes me laugh.

The conference is June 8-11 in Vegas, and sorry but lobbyists are specifically asked not to register. But for the rest of you, this thing has quickly turned into 'the' conference of the year.

Registration and more info is here. Read the rest of this post...

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' grandparents may have come to the US illegally

He says "it's unclear" whether they came to the US legally or not. How is it unclear? I mean, I know damn well how my grandparents came to the US - it's called a passport, and you read it and see if it did or didn't have a visa in it. We've got our grandparents' passports from Greece dating back to the early 1900s. Come on now. His parents don't know how their parents came to the US? That's patently absurd. What, the Gonzales family never was curious to ask mom and dad about when and why and how they came to America? Give me a break, that's just a lie.

We're sending US troops to the Mexican border to deal with these supposedly horrible people and our own Attorney General can't tell us if his own family is here legally? Are these people a threat to our jobs or not? But don't tell me you're hiring their family members for your cabinet at the same time you're bashing them and talking about kicking them out. Read the rest of this post...

Boston Globe Editorial: Keep Net Untrammeled

Untrammeled. Now there's a word you don't hear often. Read the rest of this post...

Religious right Republicans attack Laura Bush, call her "tragic"

Picking on the first lady because she doesn't think bashing gays should be an issue Republicans exploit in the fall elections. This should be interesting. And from the American Family Association, no less.

Then again, it has to suck for the American Family Association to finally see all of Mary Cheney's inside influence coming home to roost. You don't invite an avowed lesbian activist, which Mary very much was once upon a time (she wasn't just the gay liaision for Coors, she was also on the board of a gay-straight activist group), into the inner most circles of Republican power and NOT expect her openly-gay presence and rather strong-willed views to influence those around her.

Pick up Mary's book, folks (but please don't buy it, it's really not worth it, just browse at a bookstore). In the book Mary makes clear that lots and lots and LOTS of Republican aides came into her office, closed the door, and told her how awful they thought this anti-gay constitutional amendment was. Mary was their friend, and they didn't want to do ANYTHING to hurt their friend. Does anyone in the religious right REALLY think ANY of those staffers are pulling the extra hours to help make gay-bashing a high priority in the Mary Cheney White House? I don't think so.

And you just saw Mary's influence on Laura Bush. Does anyone really believe that it's a coincidence that Laura Bush is speaking out rather unfavorably on the religious right gay-bashing agenda the same week that Mary Cheney's "I'm a lesbian and dad thinks it's okay" book comes out? Please.

The lesson here for Republicans and corporate America is that whether you're a big American company (Ford) or the president of the United States (Bush), if you get in bed with these people they WILL burn you. They know no loyalty, no limits, and have no sense of politics other than threatening to destroy you unless you agree with 110% of their agenda. To hell with gas prices going through roof, seniors getting threatened with Medicare cut-offs, the war in Iraq getting worse every day. The religious right Republicans will demand that you focus on THEIR extreme fringe agenda, even if it shoots you in the foot, or you're dead.

You created Frankenbigot, my Republican friends, now you get to live with it. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

News news news, I want news. Read the rest of this post...

Religious right Republicans now attacking straight unmarried couples

And you thought the religious right Republicans were only interested in telling gays how to live? Well, now they're telling straight unmarried couples that they no rights either.

The city council has rejected a measure allowing unmarried couples with multiple children to live together, and the mayor said those who fall into that category could soon face eviction.

Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving were denied an occupancy permit after moving into a home in this St. Louis suburb because they have three children and are not married.

Read the rest of this post...

Big Oil attacks Al Gore

Big Oil is apparently freaking out that the issue of global warming is getting some traction, so they're pulling out all the stops and attacking Al Gore, who has a movie coming out about global warming.

Yes, global warming isn't REALLY a problem. All those drowning polar bears are actually midgets in fur suits.

I'm serious, polar bears are DROWNING for the first time in recorded history because of the melting ice brought on by global warming. That's how bad it's getting. Read the rest of this post...

So why exactly did Simon & Schuster reportedly pay the daughter of the vice president $1 million dollars?

I'm just trying to understand this, because it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Simon & Schuster, a massive book publishing company that clearly hasn't been around this long by wasting its money, reportedly pays the daughter of the sitting vice president a $1 million advance on a book that, well, doesn't seem to do much of anything.

I just went with Joe to the local bookstore and we took a look at Mary's book. Sure, we'd read the reviews that said Mary's book had nothing new in it, but we thougt we'd take a look for ourselves.

What we found was 200 sparse pages of Mary's reflections on the 2000 and 2004 elections, and some mentions of her gayness. What we did not find is a book that anyone in their right mind would pay $1 million for.

Let's face it. Mary wasn't even on the map until I launched the DearMary.com campaign against her in early 2004. Most people hadn't even heard of Mary, let alone did they know she was a lesbian. Mary became a household word during that year expressly because of my campaign (inspired by gay writer Michelangelo Signorile) - just Google it and check how news stories there were before and after my campaign.

Let me give you a sense of the news coverage the DearMary.com campaign got that first week it was launch (and there are only a few of the news hits we got that week):

- Mary Cheney urged to fight a ban on same-sex marriage (Washington Post, 2/24/04)
- CNN, Newsnight with Aaron Brown, 2/24/04
- Something About Mary (Newsweek, 2/15/04)
- MTV News, 2/24/04
- The O'Reilly Factor, 2/23/04
- Gay-Rights Group Seeks an Ally in Cheney Daughter, (LA Times, 2/21/04)
- Mary Cheney's views on gay marriage sought (AP, 2/19/04)
- Mary Cheney: Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (The Hill, 2/18/04)
- Freedom to Marry activists protest across the country (Gay.com/PlanetOut, 2/13/04)
- Mary Cheney gets the Dr. Laura treatment (The Advocate.com, 2/17/04)
- Washington Blade, 2/20/04
- KABC Los Angeles radio, 2/18/04
- FOX TV, San Francisco
- ANSA (Italy's new service)
- Der Spiegel (Germany), 2/22/04
- La Repubblica (Italy), 2/21/04

There is one reason, and one reason only, that Mary Cheney was and is interesting to the American people. And it's not because of her quick political insights. It's because she's the lesbian daughter of an uber-conservative in a Republican administration based in large part on gay-bashing.

So it would only reason that if Simon & Schuster were interested in Mary at all, it would be to write the lesbian daughter of the VP book. But that isn't what this book is at all.

It's a book that appears to be mostly about her political take on the campaign, which is of interest to just about no one. The gay stuff is there, though clearly not the main focus of the book, and what was most astounding of all, the entire DearMary.com campaign I launched doesn't seem to be mentioned at all (and if it is, it's so quick that we couldn't find it). This is the campaign that's the reason Mary became a story in 2004, the campaign at the center of the entire gay controversy surrounding Mary, the campaign that made Mary a household word, a fact that made John Kerry and John Edwards think of mentioning Mary, and a fact that must have played heavily in her getting her the book (the book is called, after all, "Now It's My Turn." Her turn to respond to her critics, one would assume.)

It's hard to think this was unintentional. Look at the way Mary treats the entire issue in the book. She writes about how John Kerry mentioned her during the presidential debates in October of 2004. She writes about how the Wall Street Journal wrote an op ed following the debate saying something to the effect of "Kerry Outs Mary Cheney." Mary then writes in the book that her plan to be the low-key-under-the-radar lesbian has obviously now failed.

And to that, I give a hearty bullshit.

This is October of 2004 and Mary would like us to believe that she was still the low-key-under-the-radar lesbian until John Kerry outed her? Uh, Mary, you were page 3 of the Washington Post eight months before because of my campaign. It was all over the TV networks, and Newsweek even printed my milk carton with your face on it. So how, pray tell, did the cat get let out of bag in October of 2004 when in fact you were "outed" eight months earlier in all the press? Or is there some reason you're rewriting history here (oh, to attack John Kerry perhaps?), and more importantly, why didn't Simon & Schuster hold you accountable to the facts?

So my question is this. What editor, what book publisher, would give Mary a reported $1 million to write a book that does NOT discuss, let alone focus in a major way, on the major reason she was apparently given the book in the first place? Namely, that she was the subject of a major "outing" campaign (even though Mary has been "out" for a decade, the word works). So why the short shrift on THE issue that would interest the paltry audience that Mary might have for the book?

Unless of course this book wasn't REALLY meant to be a serious discussion of Mary's lesbianism at all. Then what was it meant to be? Why would a major American corporation give $1 million to the daughter of a sitting politician if not for the reason they publicly stated? Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

What now? Read the rest of this post...

Bush is already a lame duck

Dick Meyer at CBSNews.com says Bush is already a lame duck, and that the religious right is pissed about it:

On the more distant right flank, the party's Christian soldiers have stopped being such good soldiers. They are furious that Bush and the Republican Congress have delivered lip service but no action on issues like gay marriage, immigration, prayer in school, obscenity standards and abortion. "I can't tell you how much anger there is at the Republican leadership," Richard Viguerie, a veteran conservative consultant and activist told The New York Times. "I have never seen anything like it."

Dick just provided the Democrats with their agenda for the year - well, at least the hidden part of their agenda. Do everything you can to block the follow issues from getting addressed this year and the religious right will blow a gasket at the Republicans for being inept and unresponsive, thus furthering a rupture in the Republican party, depressing the religious right vote this fall, and more and more and more:

- gay marriage
- immigration
- pray in school
- obscenity/porn
- abortion

Read the rest of this post...

Mexican, it's the new fag

Whatever the merits of the immigration debate, we're having it for one reason. George Bush's approval rating is at 29% and the Republicans are afraid they're going to lose control of the Congress in the fall elections.

The Republicans are afraid that they've milked gay-bashing for all they can, and even though they're going to AGAIN vote next month on an amendment to the US Constitution to make gays second class citizens, they've tried that trick before and apparently it just isn't getting them the political mileage it once did.

So what's a Republican to do who has no issues to run on, no real ideas to help the country move forward, nothing to address the real problems facing America from gas prices to the war in Iraq?

Bash a Mexican.

I'm serious. Put aside whatever your personal views are on immigration. The fact remains that there is no reason we are discussing immigration this month as though it's some massive crisis that's just exploded and needs to be addressed this moment lest it take the country down by next week. It's been a problem for a while, and will continue to be a problem for a while. But just as "Iran" was the Republicans' boogeyman last month, this month it's the invasion of the Mexicans (you'll notice you don't hear the administration freaking out about Iran's nukes any more - funny, that). They need to manufacture a crisis to get the public's attention off of the real crisis, the crisis of governance in Washington.

Immigration reform, it's fag-bashing with an accent. Read the rest of this post...

Business as usual in the GOP-led House

And they probably wonder why everyone hates them:

Just two weeks after the House passed a reform bill requiring lawmakers to attach their names to pet projects, GOP leaders are advancing spending bills containing billions of dollars in such parochial "earmarks" whose sponsors remain anonymous.

Read the rest of this post...

PA GOP voters re-nominate adulterer/alleged abuser to run for Congress

Congressman Don Sherwood, described by his former lover as "very charming," won the GOP nomination in his quest for re-election. To refresh, his former lover, the one who called him "charming," also accused Sherwood of trying to choke her last year. He faced a much tougher than expected challenge from an unknown. Sherwood is a poster boy for GOP hypocrisy:

Sherwood, R-Tunkhannock, who is seeking his fifth two-year term for the 10th Congressional District, defeated Kathy Scott of Williamsport who had never before run for political office. She reported spending 60 times less than what Sherwood reported spending since 2005 in campaign finance reports.

Sherwood said voters are clearly frustrated with the federal government – and his conduct.

“Certainly it had an effect,” he said of the allegations by his former mistress. “People weren’t happy about that. I’m not happy about that.”

“People are dissatisfied” with the government overall, he added, speaking at a celebration at the Ramada Inn in Chinchilla, near Clarks Summit. “The voters sent a message that they want more and I got that message.”

Sherwood is a typical GOP hypocrite. Very sanctimonious about other people's morals, not his own.

Now, you know he supported the so-called the anti-gay marriage amendment last time around. Like most GOP hypocrites, he should worry more about his own marriage. It would be very interesting to know how many supporters of the anti-gay amendment actually practice what they preach. Maybe we should start asking and documenting. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Just saw the White House/FOX News press secretary on the Today Show - we learned that the West Wing is a happy, upbeat place. Very upbeat.

Clearly, they are not only incompetent and dangerous, they're delusional. Read the rest of this post...

More phone companies added to class action lawsuit

AT&T and BellSouth are now added to the class action suit against Verizon. Let's see how well the rule of law works in the US these days.

The complaint, filed in Manhattan District Court, is asking that the companies pay $200 billion in fines to their 200 million subscribers.

Attorneys Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran said that since the lawsuit was filed Friday they have been overwhelmed with calls from people wanting to join the suit.

"They are violating federal law, which mandates a minimum penalty of $1,000 for every person whose records have been disclosed," Afran said, adding that many who have called his office are "outraged" by the government's and phone companies' actions.

Read the rest of this post...

Rule of law prevails in Nigeria

The Nigerian Senate knocked down amendments to the Nigerian constitution that would have paved the way for president Obasanjo to stand for a third term. The issue of whether or not to change the law for Obasanjo has been a hot topic of debate in Nigeria and many claim that the outbreaks of violence in the country are directly connected to this. Changing the constitution has been a hot topic in many emerging democracies across Africa who are deciding between rule of law and individual exceptions.

So far, so good. It will be a very positive move when Nigeria officially and peacefully transfers power from Obasanjo to the next president, following the constitution. Read the rest of this post...