Reuters nails Bush

This is one of those first paragraphs that doesn't even need the rest of the article.

President George W. Bush sought on Saturday to dispel concerns about the readiness of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces, declaring himself "encouraged" even though his top generals say the number of battalions that can fight insurgents without help has dropped.

Hello? Toto already pulled the curtain back. Read the rest of this post...

Why is ABC sucking up to religious right hate groups?

Cuz they are. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Oh my God. Just back from the marathon hunt for shelving and lights for my plants. Geez. You'd think it would be easy, but no. Then again, had the boxes of light fixtures at Home Depot not all shown signs of massive water damage - gee, lights with water damage, now there's a recipe for fun - I'd have been back hours ago. Anyway, just got in. Now comes the fun part, assembling this all. Fortunately, I have a ridiculously nice, and handy, friend who's current parking the car and then going to help me assemble this mess. I promise pictures when I'm done :-)

JOHN Read the rest of this post...

NY Daily News: Bush hits "political panic button"

Okay, I'll admit, I love the idea of Bush and the GOPers scrambling around:

President Bush hit the political panic button yesterday, calling a strategy session with top Republicans to salvage their shredded agenda.

A day after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted, and with Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war hanging over him, Bush convened the summit with new House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and a few others.

"The Republican Congress is united," a defensive Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said earlier. "We are going to press ahead on important priorities."

That had to be a fun meeting between that bunch. But, it's just a little scary to think about what those "important priorities" might be. What will they come up with next to distract us? Read the rest of this post...

GOP losing major potential contenders

The bad news swirling around George Bush and the GOP is taking a toll on candidate recruitment.

In Illinois, former GOP Governor Jim Edgar was considered a leading candidate to challenge Rod Blagojevich. Not anymore.

And, in North Dakota, Governor Hoeven has decided not to challenge Kent Conrad. Rove took a strong, personal role in recruiting Hoeven, as reported by the Reverend Moon's paper earlier this week:

White House political adviser Karl Rove's attempt to persuade North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven to run against Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad next year underscores the overriding factor that likely will determine who wins the key 2006 Senate races -- recruitment.

Mr. Conrad's seat is considered safe right now, but it could fall into the vulnerable column if Mr. Rove can persuade the Republican governor, whose approval ratings are nearly 70 percent, to challenge the senator in a state that President Bush won last year with 63 percent of the vote.

Mr. Bush's chief political strategist flew to Fargo, N.D., on Saturday to meet with the governor, who is leading Mr. Conrad in early head-to-head polls 35 percent to 27 percent -- with 27 percent undecided. The White House has promised to give Mr. Hoeven its fullest support if he runs, but he has not revealed his intentions and isn't expected to until later this fall.

Karl must be losing his magic touch...or rather, the touch is radioactive.

However you look at it, 2006 is shaping up badly for the GOP. The question is whether the Dems. can take advantage. Read the rest of this post...

Sat. Afternoon Open Thread

Just in case the President has DeLay and Frist over to the White House this weekend, may we suggest he skip his shots and serve an...

Extended Jail Sentence

Scale ingredients to servings
1/2 oz Jack Daniel's® Tennessee whiskey
1/2 oz Southern Comfort® peach liqueur
1/2 oz gold tequila
1 splash pineapple juice
ice

Flash blend with ice cubes.

Open thread away! I'm watching the not so fun Red Sox game... Read the rest of this post...

Fitzgerald's wrapping up

Indictments this month?:

The investigation led by Chicago-based U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has questioned many members of the Bush administration - including the president himself. Karl Rove, Bush's deputy chief of staff and chief political strategist, also has been identified as a reporter's source in the investigation, though his lawyer too asserts that Rove is not a target of the probe.

The grand jury has until Oct. 28 to return indictments if anyone is to be charged in the matter, and a lawyer close to the investigation says Fitzgerald should "be in a position to wrap up" the inquiry now that Miller finally has testified.

"You'll have to ask Mr. Fitzgerald why it was so important," Miller said of her testimony Friday.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald, Randall Samborn, refused to comment on the investigation.

It is unknown whether any Bush administration officials will be charged in the matter. But the investigation has already clouded the image of a White House dealing with an investigation into the actions of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, as well as investigations of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and charges against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

In the course of the grand jury's two-year investigation, Libby and Rove were identified as sources who aided reporters inquiring about Joseph Wilson. Wilson is a former ambassador who was asked by the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium for nuclear weapons, one of the Bush administration's prewar allegations against Saddam Hussein.

Read the rest of this post...

Not a news flash, but Bush is delusional

In case you had any doubts, in his radio address today, he talks about progress in Iraq:

The sunny presentation of the situation in Iraq is part of a renewed push by the administration to win support for the war effort from an increasingly reluctant American public.

It conflicts with the news from Iraq and some assessments from top commanders.

On Friday, Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Sunni Arab opposition to Iraq's draft constitution has increased the potential for instability and called into question U.S. hopes for substantial troop cuts next spring.

Just because he says things are better, doesn't make it so. But I really don't think he understands that. Read the rest of this post...

I'm off for a while

Off to find a light set up for my orchids. Oh the things we do for our plants (insert: "cats, dogs, kids" here). Hopefully one of the other guys is around to post, but maybe not :-) I'll try to post from my cell in a bit, see if that's working again. Read the rest of this post...

GAO: Bush White House broke the law by paying Armstrong Williams to disseminate propaganda

What to say? Now they're criminals too. Or still. The GAO also uncovered another instance of the administration illegally spreading domestic propaganda. Lovely. Oh yeah, and the GAO laywers said the Bush administration is wrong about their contention that it's ok for them to issue video news releases pretending to be real news stories, but in fact they're pro-Bush propaganda.

Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.

In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.

When I did work with the government years ago, the issue of propagandizing to the domestic market was anathema. You simply did not do it. We could even submit the Web page we built to Yahoo and Google because they were American-owned companies, and by submitting them we'd be propagandizing to Americans - or so they worried. How screwy is that? But it shows how serious this issue is, how seriously some people in government take it. But not the Bushies. Lie to the American people, propagandize to them lik we're the Soviet Union or communist China. No big deal.

In the course of its work, the accountability office discovered a previously undisclosed instance in which the Education Department had commissioned a newspaper article. The article, on the "declining science literacy of students," was distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate and appeared in numerous small newspapers around the country. Readers were not informed of the government's role in the writing of the article, which praised the department's role in promoting science education.

Read the rest of this post...

Multiple explosions hit Bali

Very little news yet but it doesn't sound good. It sounds like four bombs went off at about the same time in popular tourist areas. The local reports say at least two dead and many wounded according to BBC News. Read the rest of this post...

October 21st Court date for DeLay

No handcuffed perp walk....yet:

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has been ordered to appear at an arraignment on Oct. 21 in an Austin courtroom, where he plans to plead not guilty to the charge that he conspired with two associates to funnel corporate donations to Republican candidates for the Texas legislature.

DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said yesterday DeLay will be allowed to fly on his own to Texas in response to a summons. "They are not going to come up and arrest him," DeGuerin said.

By appearing on a summons rather than an arrest warrant, DeLay may be allowed to avoid the standard booking procedure of being fingerprinted and photographed, although Travis County District Judge Bob Perkins could order a booking that day, according to a source familiar with the case who is permitted to speak only on condition of anonymity.

Read the rest of this post...

Consumer spending drops for second straight month

And the forecast for the next couple of months is not looking good either. The steady rise in gas prices, the delicate economy and then Katrina is really taking its toll on the economy. (Hey Greenspan, what about the impact of gas prices now?) With no jaw-boning in sight and no relief from high gas prices it's not going to turn on a dime no matter what is done along the Gulf Coast. Congress and the president keep suggesting energy programs that will continue to put more money into the traditional fossil fuel business and might eventually offer some relief in the next 5-10 years but as for the near term, forget it.

All of the tough talk about keeping America safe won just enough votes in the last few years but now that that too has withered away, what happens now? We're not safer, the country is running a massive deficit that is being snatched up by China and Japan, the war in Iraq is a mess and we have a GOP who can't seem to balance the budget because they're too busy dishing out tax cuts to the wealthiest while sticking the middle class with the bill. So how do they get the country out of this slump? Read the rest of this post...