Woah, two days after George Allen's campaign manager said Allen did nothing wrong, George Allen is now calling his racist remark "insenstive"?

That's nice:

"I've said all I care to say about it - and I'm moving forward," Allen told the AFP. "I've apologized for the insensitive remark - and that's all I'm going to say about it. There's nothing more that needs to be said. I've said all I need to say - and I'm moving forward."

Funny, but earlier this week George Allen's campaign manager wrote in a memo that Allen did nothing wrong, and that the entire incident was the work of the "liberal media."

It is very clear that the news media created what they call a "feeding frenzy", with the Washington Post alone doing major stories on the same issue for 5 consecutive days.

Literally putting words into Senator Allen's mouth that he did not say (by speculating, defining and attributing meanings and motives that simply are not true), the Webb campaign and the news media seeming worked hand-in-hand to create national news over something that did not warrant coverage in the first place.

So which one is, Senator? You were wrong for making an "insensitive" racist remark, or is this all the fault of the liberal media (and you know who controls them)? Read the rest of this post...

Remember that American city that George Bush wiped off the map? Still screwed

George Bush doesn't care about black people. Read the rest of this post...

Dynamite on a flight, no big deal

Bush's Homeland Security at its usual efficiency:

A stick of dynamite was found in a college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina, authorities said, in one of six security incidents Friday affecting U.S. flights.

Federal authorities were investigating why the student, who got off the Continental plane in Houston before it continued to Newark, N.J., had the explosive, FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said. She said the student did not appear to be connected to terrorism.

Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said the man told authorities he works in mining and often handles explosives. Longoria said federal officials were investigating whether the explanation was true.

Ya think? A stick of dynamite and you don't think the kid was connected to terrorism? Unless this kid just came out of a cave, no one is going to put a stick of dynamite in their luggage unless they want to kill a lot of people, or they're a fool who deserves a little jail time. We're putting Muslims in prison for 5 years with no trial and no attorney for no good reason, and the dynamite kid is okay? Are these people for real?

Oh, it gets better:

In Buenos Aires, Marcelo Sain, head of Argentina's Airport Security Police, told local TV that authorities found "a Coca Cola bottle with mud, and inside it was a tube with ammonium nitrate, a little bit of dynamite and a detonator."

Mark Mancuso, deputy director for public safety at Houston airports, said the man told authorities the items were souvenirs purchased at a mine in Bolivia.

Right, because they were all out of dirty-bomb souvenirs. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

"So this is how liberty dies . . . to thunderous applause."

Stupid HBO was keeping me from my important blogofascisting today. Who turned on the TV?!? Oh, wait . . .

Anyway, it's been a long day, you all deserve some chat time. Have at it. Read the rest of this post...

Freedom is on the march . . . oh, wait, that's 'flogging,' not 'freedom'

Reflecting increasing imposition of strict religious rule, Islamic fundamentalists publicly lashed a woman in Somalia yesterday, punishing her for allegedly selling $1.00 worth of cannabis.

The woman, who throughout the beating insisted she was innocent, was flogged alongside five other men at the Yassin Square in Mogadishu in front of several hundred people.

The most mind boggling thing, though, is this paragraph, practically an aside in the article:

Somalia has not had a police force or judiciary for 16 years since the warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other

I mean, on the Top Ten Signs Your Country is a Failed State, no police or judiciary for 16 years has got to be pretty high on the list, yes? No? Yes? Read the rest of this post...

Bush thinks there's "no point" in considering whether we've lost Iraq

It's just a philosophical discussion, according to Bush, whether we've lost and need to find a way out. How is it philosophical when we have over 100,000 troops in that country and they're getting shot at every day? How is a cost of $100 billion a year "philosophical"?

The man has lost touch with reality. And he's running our country. And the Republican controling the congress are giving him a rubber stamp to do whatever he wants. Read the rest of this post...

Why was George Allen willing to let Bush close down VA highways for 6 hours just so Allen could fundraise?

From Attywood:

On Tuesday, the Secret Service asked Virginia officials if they would be kind enough to shut down all of the HOV lanes on I-395 from 1 to 7 p.m. the next day so President Bush could get where he needed to be, according to state officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing the president's travel.

The request was made ahead of a fundraiser for Sen. George Allen (R) held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at a house near Mount Vernon -- a good hour's drive from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during a typical rush hour.

The request came into Virginia's Smart Traffic Center on Tuesday morning, one official said. "We were sort of dealing with it all day," the official said.

All day because they couldn't shake the image of what closing the HOV lanes would do: Buses that normally use the high-speed lanes would have to be rerouted or canceled; commuters who hitch rides in carpools would be stranded; and thousands of cars would be added to the congested regular lanes of I-395.

King George finally decided to take a helicopter and avoid closing down the highway. Putting aside the question of why the White House couldn't have done this in the first place, where was George Allen when all of this was going on? The Senator from Virginia didn't have an opinion about practically shutting down his own highway for six hours, including rush hour, in order to help him raise money while the little people suffered?

Senators are supposed to help their states when they get into jams with the federal government. They're not supposed to help facilitate the jam itself. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

I'm in Maine for the weekend visiting family.... as is our President. It was a year ago this weekend that he stayed on vacation while Katrina destroyed the lives of millions along the Gulf Coast. I'm sure Bush will be reflecting on that as he zips around Kennebunkport over the next few days. Read the rest of this post...

Bush tells low-income students they don't need to learn about evolution

Classic move from the incompetent idiot-in-chief.

Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.

But to be fair, I understand they added "speaking in tongues."

More from Jon Swift. Read the rest of this post...

NYT editorial on "scary" intelligence

Wanted: Scarier Intelligence Read the rest of this post...

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 8/25/06

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

God I am getting sick and tired of writing about sycophantic, self-important, GOP nipple-suckler Joe Lieberman. But every time I think the cybernetic, pseudo-ecclesiastic, corporate wet-dream is done screwing the Democratic Party -— to deafening silence from elected Democrats in Washington (with notable exceptions Russ Feingold, John Kerry and Maxine Waters) only broken by methane backfires emanating from Bush’s alimentary canal and the guffaws of a circle of Pioneer offspring giving each other handies—Little Joey one-ups himself on the quisling scale.

These days Joe is not only repeating nauseating Cheneyisms (maybe he too can soon have his heart pump Exxon leaded), using a right-wing pollster who works for the troglodytic Rick Santorum and Connecticut Republicans Rob Simmons (one of the most vulnerable GOP House Incumbents) and Jodi Rell, but he has finally completed his quest to sink as low as it takes for electoral self-preservation by campaigning with these very same GOPers. Please Joe, tell us again how you’re really a Democrat?

Because it would seem to be as comfortable for you these days as riding shotgun with Mel Gibson after a fifth of Southern Comfort while writing a screenplay about Torquemada.

Joe also thinks the current terrorist threat is more dangerous than were the Nazis or Soviets, which leads me to conclude that he has ascended a full four-levels of crazy, all the way from Jean Schmidt past Katherine Harris, John Mark Carr and up to James Inhofe. It will take some effort to get past Inhofe, however, who thinks global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated upon the American people” and extols what has been accomplished in Iraq as a “nothing short of a miracle.”

Funny, that is the word I would use to describe how this cretin occupies a US Senate seat instead of being used as a crash-test dummy.

But back to my main point. Joe, I am really asking nicely now, please do us all a favor and just go away, so we can write about a new topic, preferably involving someone who doesn’t talk like they need a napalm inhaler. I know Saturday night cocktails aren't as good in Waterbury as Georgetown. And what would Karl Rove do without his "date rape" Democrat?

He had Bob Bullock back in Texas to convince people a right-wing changeling governor was accomplished and bipartisan. Then he found Crazy Zell, fresh off of an encounter with a pack of rabid kinkajous. Now he needs you, Joe, to provide the similar facade of “unity,” which just happens to be your campaign message (I know, major coincidence there).

But Karl can find someone else for the part. Ben Nelson is certainly auditioning. Or maybe we can make Al Wynn a Senator. Hell I’d take Tom Cruise in a trade at this point (I hear he has some free time). Please Joe, a lot of people in Connecticut already tried to subtely imply they don't really like you. And I promise, there is a kicking career waiting for you as a mortician if you’d just give it half a chance. Read the rest of this post...

Washington Post does a massive profile of "Macaca"

George Allen needs to learn that if you let your aides blast the media, the media gets the last laugh. Read the rest of this post...

TV show "Survivor" plans battle of the races

Sounds creepy to me. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Gday. Read the rest of this post...

Rove's imagines different outcomes for 9/11 -- how about if his boss was paying attention?

Karl Rove is in full campaign mode. It's terror, terror, terror. He's always speculating about all the ways 9/11 could have been prevented:

Presidential adviser Karl Rove criticized a federal judge's order for an immediate end to the government's warrantless surveillance program, saying Wednesday such a program might have prevented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rove said the government should be free to listen if al-Qaida is calling someone within the U.S.

"Imagine if we could have done that before 9/11. It might have been a different outcome," he said.

It might have been a different outcome if we had a President who didn't ignore the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S." Imagine if we had a President who took terrorism seriously back in 2001. We didn't. The reason Bush and Rove accuse everyone else of being weak on terror is because they were weak. They ignored the warnings. And, Al Qaeda did strike in the U.S. -- as predicted by the CIA.

Bush got a free ride after 9/11...his failure to protect America was never fully exposed. If anyone challenged him, they were unpatriotic. As we approach the fifth anniversary of 9/11 and the first anniversary of Katrina, the White House will be in spin overdrive. Never forget that both of these disasters happened on Bush's watch. Read the rest of this post...