AJ and Joe on Sam Seder's Air America radio show

A.J. and I did an interview with Sam Seder for his Air America radio show. It'll be broadcast on Sunday. We got to tell the story of how John started the blog -- and how much fun we have doing it.

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Gonzalez Caught Lying Again

I'm sure you're all shocked, shocked! to hear that Attorney General Gonzalez has once again got caught fibbing to Congress. The latest adventures in truth telling are in regard to a question asked by Ted Kennedy. Kennedy asked Gonzalez if the AG's staff participated in political briefings. Mr. Gonzalez said no. Of course, it turns out that the leadership at the AG's office did attend political briefings.

At this point, it's getting hard to tell whether Mr. Gonzalez is just a pathological liar or if he believes he can pull the Jedi Mind Trick on the Judiciary Committee. Either way, it's clear he isn't telling the truth.

Justice Department officials attended at least a dozen political briefings at the White House since 2001, including some meetings led by Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, and others that were focused on election trends prior to the 2006 midterm contest, according to documents released yesterday.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he did not believe that senior Justice Department officials had attended such briefings. But he clarified his testimony yesterday in a letter to Congress, emphasizing that the briefings were not held at the agency's offices.

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YKos presidential panel

Joe and I are hanging out at the YearlyKos presidential panel. A good reception for everybody, and huge cheers especially for Obama and Edwards.

Richardson takes the first question, about his very foolish previous answer regarding Supreme Court appointments; then a related question to Dodd.

Pretty interesting setup, and the ballroom is packed. We'll have a wrapup later, I'm sure.

This is Joe: Edwards just got an amazing response from the crowd when he spoke about cleaning up Washington. He doesn't take campaign contributions from lobbyists and noted that Obama doesn't either. To a rousing response, Edwards challenged all the Democrats to take the same position. The crowd loved it. First real standing ovation of the day. Read the rest of this post...

Bush wants us to know he cares that a bridge collapsed. Really, he's cares -- and it's not his fault.

Yeah, he should care, but he really doesn't. The infrastructure of America is collapsing under his watch. But he's been too busy giving tax breaks to the rich and spending hundreds of billions on the Iraq debacle to worry about anything as perfunctory as roads and bridges:

Still criticized for his administration's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush hurried to Minnesota soon after the I-35W bridge buckled on Wednesday. The collapse sent dozens of cars sliding in the Mississippi River, killing at least five people and injuring about 100 others.

"Clearly, this was not something that we expected to happen," said his transportation chief, who flew with the president on Air Force One.

In his weekly radio address, tape Friday and released before the trip, Bush said: "This is a difficult time for the community in Minneapolis, but the people there are decent and resilient, and they will get through these painful hours."

The painful thing is that this was preventable. Totally preventable.

Has the Bush team blamed Clinton yet? Read the rest of this post...

Mitt gets roughed up on health care by waitress in NH diner

Romney sweats as he tries to roll out his pre-programmed message about health care to patrons of the Red Arrow diner in Manchester, New Hampshire, and a waitress behind the counter wasn't having any of it. Via the WaPo:

One of the things I'm proud of doing in my state is putting on track a plan that gets everybody health insurance," Romney began, seeing an opening for his standard stump speech about his efforts as governor of Massachusetts.

But Griffin was in no mood for platitudes, and interrupted.

"After we pay our huge deductibles for our insurance and our cost for our prescriptions, there's nothing left," she said.

"Are you a Massachusetts resident?" Romney asked.

"No I'm a New Hampshire resident," Griffin said, and then added, before Romney could jump in, that "we pay over $1,000 a month for our insurance. Then we have co pays. Every time you go to the doctor, it's $50 a visit. Then you have co-pays for our prescriptions. Can you tell me what your co pay is?"

"Yes," Romney said. "$10 for each prescription."

"That's very nice isn't it?" Griffin answered dryly.

"Yes. What are yours? Romney asked.

"Mine are like $30-$50. I have three sick children."

There's plenty more of the exchange. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Joe is still at YKos being hateful. Read the rest of this post...

Dems sell out again, give Bush sweeping power to spy on you without a court order

And again they wonder why their approval ratings are in the hole. More from the Washington Post.

Privacy advocates accused the Democrats of selling out and charged that this bill gives the government more authority than it had under a controversial warrantless wiretapping program begun in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Under that program, the government could conduct surveillance without judicial oversight only if it had a reason to believe that one party to the call was a member of or affiliated with al-Qaeda or a related terrorist organization. This bill drops that condition, they noted.

Democrats "have a Pavlovian reaction: Whenever the president says the word 'terrorism,' they roll over and play dead," said Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

So much for that "one of the people being listened to needs to be a terrorist" line that Bush kept selling us. Apparently, he never intended that to be the case, and now it isn't. And the more congress permits itself to be rolled, the more Bush knows he can roll them. The man is at 28% in the polls and the Democrats are scared to death of him. Pathetic. Read the rest of this post...