Stolen VA data included 50,000 active personnel

Gotta love all the new ways the Bush administration finds to "support the troops":

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said his agency discovered after an internal investigation that the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of up to 20,000 National Guard and Reserve personnel who were on at least their second active-duty call-up were "potentially included."

In addition, the same information on up to 30,000 active-duty Navy personnel who completed their first enlistment term prior to 1991 also were believed to be stored on the computer laptop and disks stolen from a VA data analyst on May 3.

Read the rest of this post...

Disco Saturday Night open thread

Beautiful night in DC. Anyone for a little adultery? Read the rest of this post...

Additional sources for finding our GOP adulterers

Some folks have sent me some good URLs for Web site that list Republican adulterers, and more. The only problem is that those sites do not provide any sources whatsoever for the information they provide, so we can't use them unless every name is fact-checked. I want a newspaper (or other reliable) source for each and every name on those pages, then we can use them (and in the future, let this be a lesson to you if you decide to create lists like this in the future - people can't use them without sources proving they're correct).

Anyway, the lists are a good place to start, so please start fact-checking away, then pos the Web addresses proving the names are correct.

- DailyKos diary
- America Held Hostile Read the rest of this post...

Australian force attacking freedom of citizens

Absolutely shocking. They're sending people into the street to crack down on smokers who are exercising their God-given right to litter.

We all know that smokers are not the ones dropping butts on the streets, littering and damaging the environment. It's well known that freedom smokers are the victims, if not the heroes and that this is just another conspiracy against smokers who just want to be left alone and mind their own business while blowing smoke onto others.

Nicknamed by local media as "Butt Busters" and the "Butt Force," the rangers have been issuing fines of A$60 ($45) for smokers who dump their butts in the streets instead of in designated bins.

The fine jumps to A$200 for smokers who dump lit cigarettes.

If it works, they will next want to send the force to Paris tackle the pro-dog-pooh-on-the-street crowd who want to exercise their freedom to let their dogs crap wherever and whenever they please without picking it up, even if that is in front of an elementary school like the one next door. Read the rest of this post...

Adulterer

UPDATE: The list of Senators supporting the gay-bashing amendment are listed below.



Okay, here are your orders for the weekend. I want the definitive list of family values boo-boos by Republicans and Democrats who support the anti-gay constitutional amendment. Both House and Senate, White House, RNC, top party officials, etc. We're talking adultery, adultery involving strangulation (you know who I mean), divorce, homosexuality, you name it. But I want everything sourced, I want links to public sources of information (i.e., credible news articles) about each one. Use the comment thread to add to the list.

Okay, here's it the lst of who supports the anti-gay constitutional amendment (bad guys) and who doesn't (good guys). There are a few who haven't made clear how they're going to vote. Only one Democrat supports the amendment. Tell me again how gay-bashing isn't a partisan issue.

Senators who support the Amendment (bad guys):
Alexander, Lamar (R-TN)
Allard, Wayne (R-CO)
Allen, George (R-VA)
Bennett, Robert F. (R-UT)
Bond, Christopher S. (R-MO)
Brownback, Sam (R-KS)
Bunning, Jim (R-KY)
Burns, Conrad (R-MT)
Burr, Richard (R-NC)
Chambliss, Saxby (R-GA)
Coburn, Thomas (R-OK
Cochran, Thad (R-MS)
Cornyn, John (R-TX)
Craig, Larry E. (R-ID)
Crapo, Mike (R-ID)
DeMint, Jim (R-SC)
DeWine, Mike (R-OH)
Dole, Elizabeth (R-NC)
Domenici, Pete V. (R-NM)
Ensign, John (R-NV)
Enzi, Mike (R-WY)
Frist, William H. (R-TN)
Graham, Lindsay (R-S
Grassley, Charles E. (R-IA)
Hatch, Orrin G. (R-UT)
Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R-TX)
Inhofe, James M. (R-OK)
Isakson, Johnny (R-GA)
Kyl, John (R-AZ)
Lott, Trent (R-MS)
Lugar, Richard G. (R-IN)
Martinez, Mel (R-FL)
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY)
Murkowski, Lisa (R-AK)
Nelson, Ben (D-NE)
Roberts, Pat (R-KS)
Santorum, Rick (R-PA)
Sessions, Jeff (R-AL)
Shelby, Richard C. (R-AL)
Smith, Gordon (R-OR)
Stevens, Ted (R-AK)
Talent, James M. (R-MO)
Thomas, Craig (R-WY)
Thune, John (R-SD)
Vitter, David (R-LA)
Voinovich, George (R-OH)

Unclear on the Amendment
Coleman, Norm (R-MN)
Gregg, Judd (R-NH)
Warner, John W. (R-VA)

The rest are NO votes (good guys) Read the rest of this post...

Gino's Steaks in South Philly now requires all customers order "in English"

Sieg Heil, baby!

Time to boycott Geno's.

(Hat tip Atrios) Read the rest of this post...

Evildoers

Read the rest of this post...

CNN's Jack Cafferty rips Republicans for wasting time on gay marriage when country has so many other priorities and problems to address

Via Atrios:

Guess what Monday is? Monday is the day President Bush will speak about an issue near and dear to his heart and the hearts of many conservatives. It's also the day before the Senate votes on the very same thing. Is it the war? Deficits? Health insurance? Immigration? Iran? North Korea?

Not even close. No, the president is going to talk about amending the Constitution in order to ban gay marriage. This is something that absolutely, positively has no chance of happening, nada, zippo, none. But that doesn't matter. Mr. Bush will take time to make a speech. The Senate will take time to talk and vote on it, because it's something that matters to the Republican base.

This is pure politics. If has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in gay marriage. It's blatant posturing by Republicans, who are increasingly desperate as the midterm elections approach. There's not a lot else to get people interested in voting on them, based on their record of the last five years.

But if you can appeal to the hatred, bigotry, or discrimination in some people, you might move them to the polls to vote against that big, bad gay married couple that one day might in down the street.

Read the rest of this post...

Bush bashes Mary Cheney and Heather Poe in his radio address

The President used his weekly radio address today not to talk about Iraq or gas prices or global warming or Katrina or even his favorite subject, "September the 11th." No your President used his radio address to do some gay bashing. This issue is not about "protecting marriage." It's about using gay and lesbian Americans as a political weapon:

"Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his Saturday radio address. "Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening this good influence on society."

Democrats say Senate floor time is being wasted on the issue, and accuse Republicans of making a pre-midterm election appeal to social conservatives whose votes were key to Bush's re-election.

It's amazing that the media covers this like it's an issue with any policy merit. It's pure, unadulterated hate politics.

If it can happen to the gays, it can happen to anyone. Read the rest of this post...

How high up does the Haditha cover up go?

George Bush is too pre-occupied with gay-bashing these days to worry about the pesky situation in Iraq. But while he tries to change the subject, most Americans know that Iraq is a disaster. The latest controversy over the Haditha killings continues to focus on the cover up and just how high it extends. Bush can't deal with that while he's worrying about the private lives and loves of Americans. But the cover-up of Haditha is a burning question:

A senior Marine general familiar with the investigation, which is being led by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell of the Army, said in an interview that it had not yet established how high up the chain of command culpability for the killings extended. But he said there were strong suspicions that some officers knew that the Marine squad's version of events had enough holes and discrepancies that it should have been looked into more deeply.

Once again, no surprise, Rumsfeld is not taking any responsibility. In fact, it sounds like he's blaming the Iraqis:

But [Rumsfeld] sought to dispel the notion that there is a systemic problem involving the conduct of U.S. troops in Iraq or heightened concerns over the ability of U.S. forces to maintain security in Anbar Province.

The major obstacle to progress in Iraq, he suggested, was not the United States' doing at all, but the slow efforts of Maliki's government to appoint Defense and Interior ministers, two jobs that are central to securing Iraq.

Read the rest of this post...

Bubble boy or not?

The Washington Post actually examines whether or not the President is still the bubble boy. Seriously, it's really hard to state how pathetic this President is. And how dangerous. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

It's early. It's the weekend. But, we've got a lot of work.

The gay bashers are holding "Marriage Protection Sunday" tomorrow.

They better make sure all their supporters on the Hill are sticking to their vows: no divorces, no adultery, no sodomy. If they want the subject to be marriage protection, we all need to know that their marriages are meeting the standards set by the theocrats who run the GOP.

Some reporter needs to ask about the policy at the White House on divorce, sodomy and adultery for the staff and the Bush and Cheney families. At a minimum, it should be: no marriage, no sex.

The theocrats are aiming for gays now. But they are waging a war on sex. That affects everyone -- even all the red-state, red-blooded men who voted for Bush. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Bed Read the rest of this post...