CNN does Republicans' bidding because real journalism is apparently too difficult

I'm really getting fed up with the mainstream media playing their cute little "because they say it, it must be true" games with the Republicans.

The latest? The "democrats must have been behind the Foley story" GOP talking point. A talking point that CNN and other media sources have been all too happy to push all day long (CNN was one of the worst offenders.)

Now, when Denny Hastert's office is asked if he has any proof that Dems were behind the scandal coming to light, Hastert's office says no. No one else credible has come forward to suggest that Dems were behind. Only one source that I know of has claimed this, and it is a source that in my eyes, and the eyes of many people I know, both Republican and Democrat, is completely not credible as to the point of being laughable. But the media doesn't bothering doing its work, so they simply repeat the lie because saying so apparently makes it so.

So if the media is going to keep printing Republican demands that Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean testify as to whether they were involved in the scandal, I think I'd like Wolf Blitzer and Larry King to testify too. As to whether they were involved in leaking, or not leaking (it's so difficult to keep up with the republican attack day to day - first we're bad for not exposing the documents, then we're bad for supposedly exposing the documents), and for good measure I'd like Wolf and Larry to testify that they've never engaged in sex with minors. Remember, today's news isn't about facts, it's about groundless allegations. So let's hope Wolf and Larry do the right thing and prove that they're not criminals.

This is disgusting of CNN.

I'm actually supposed to be on CNN tomorrow afternoon talking about the Foley scandal. As a last minute question the producer of the segment wants me to be asked why I had the emails in July and didn't turn them over to the FBI - because, of course, that is the GOP talking point of the day (as noted before, shortly after I got the emails CREW told me they had sent them to the FBI and I figured that was the best way to handle them - silly me, since the FBI is now part of the cover-up).

If CNN dares go there with me, I've already told them that I'll be asking the host in return why it is that ABC, the LA Times, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, several other publications and little old me had the memos all this time but CNN didn't. Kind of odd for the most trusted name in news to be dead last in actually getting the news on such a big story, don't you think?

I'll also be asking CNN why they're asking the question at all - do they turn all their sources in to the FBI? Do they report every story tip they receive, even before they're able to verify it's true? CNN knows the GOP is full of crap on this one, it's already been reported by numerous publications that ABC got its tip from Republicans. That Republicans were behind many of the news organizations in town receiving the emails.

But hey, why trust an already established fact when you can defame people based on innuendo. Read the rest of this post...

NYT: Republicans in serious trouble in more House races because of Foley-gate

Funny how covering up for a child sex predator can piss off the voters. Read the rest of this post...

Oh my God. Battlestar Galactica is about the Bush administration and Iraq

It's the season premiere tonight. The entire thing is one big allegory of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. It's absolutely wild. Except this time WE'RE the "insurgents" and we're resorting to suicide bombings because the folks who came to liberate us are actually not very nice. And now the invaders are training a civilian police force, except the police force is just as bad as the occupiers. It's absolutely hysterical. I can't wait for the right-wing freak out in response. And the show is good. More later. Read the rest of this post...

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 10/06/06

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

Just wondering if there are any Republicans who are at this point not under investigation for massive corruption, criminal cover ups or perhaps just thinking 16-year old boys whose friends are in “great shape” are the logical choices with which to establish cyber-pen pal relations? But hey, alcoholism and touchy-feely priests have been known to turn a perfectly normal man into Mr. Measure It.

Or maybe it’s just that the true story here is you’ll find more scruples in the Gambini residence than the Republican Caucus.

I mean c’mon, you have a parade of legislators who believe that holding onto power is more important than preventing one of their own from holding onto his crank during voting sessions.

Not just should Reps. Denny Hastert, Tom Reynolds, John Shimkus, Rodney Alexander and John Boehner immediately resign and crawl back into that pus-filled, scurvied hole from wence they came. But Heather Wilson, Sue Kelly and any other Republican even remotely involved with the page program on the Republican side should come clean right now--although for them that might involve a good steam-cleaning and delousing.

And is anybody else starting to see a pattern here?

You may remember that Frank Figueroa, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tampa–who was in command of Operation Predator, the agency's program to arrest child predators–was charged with walking up to a 16-year-old girl in a mall, pulling up his pant leg and masturbating for 10 minutes.

I mean I do understand the Kung Pow Chicken in the food court can get pretty exciting. And really, who hasn’t looked at the mannequins in The Gap and thought to themselves, maybe I need some me time in the fitting room for a few minutes?

And then there was the case of DHS Deputy Press Secretary Brian Doyle. He liked to pick up 13-year olds on that series of tubes Senator Ted Stevens warned us about. I mean seriously folks, you just can’t make this crap up.

George Bush is shockingly standing by his man Denny, who's rubber stamped an entire agenda that is to good governance what Barbara Bush is to a silky epidermis. And who has time to read the facts of this case, when the president is busy digesting those “couple Shakespeares” and the newly released My Pet Goat II: This Time I’ll React When We’re Attacked.

And what makes this all complete? Why it’s Fox’s tenth birthday, so we can look back at what journalism has become with the likes of that moronic, white-supremacist-loving, blow-dried, rhesus-monkey known as Sean Hannity, trying to blame Bill Clinton for Republican pedophilia. Nice try Seany-boy.

Maybe just for kicks Sean, you can tell us again how Jeff Gannon is a “terrific…White House Correspondent.” Ok buddy, whatever your hair says.

And to think GM just made this jackass a spokesman for the company. You might want to think about that when next purchasing an automobile.

In any case, I think we need to set up pool. Whoever guesses next Republican occurrence of law-breaking wins the prize. I mean there are so many possibilities for them to break new ground. For example, a deer’s head could be stuffed into the mailbox of an African-American family. Oh…right, they covered that already.

I don’t think necrophilia has yet been discovered among the GOP, however.

Although you might want to check with Henry Hyde’s wife on that one.


Mandatory Plugs:

My new blog, to be updated as often as possible.

My two recent MSNBC appearances, here and here, if you haven't already seen them.

This week's episode of Republican Sexcapades on The Young Turks on Air America

My HuffPost piece about standing up the to the loud imbecilic voices of the right. Read the rest of this post...

Chicago Trib blog on Hastert's troubling press conference

Chicago Trib:

Hastert's language betrays something troubling. He speaks of someone leaking the information to the press. Leaks occur when insiders give secret information to reporters, information that others wish to keep from the press.

Is Hastert saying that he would've preferred to keep the Foley matter a secret? And, if so, does he believe it should've stayed a secret until after the election or until he decided to retire from the House?

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senate candidate in NJ, Tom Kean Jr., calls on Hastert to resign

Yikes. Read the rest of this post...

George Bush's favorite GOP journalist, Maggie Gallagher, says Hastert & Reynolds must resign or she's voting Democrat

When payola Republicans turn on you, you're really in trouble. More from Gallagher:

The Washington Times is right: [Hastert] should resign his leadership post.

So should Rep. Tom Reynolds, the House GOP campaign chairman, who according to news accounts said: "I don't think I went wrong at all; I don't know what else I could have done."

I do....

It is enough for me that GOP leaders knew that a parent and child had lodged a complaint. They should at a minimum have questioned other pages to find out if other boys may have been involved.

A full investigation must now take place, and Dennis Hastert simply cannot credibly oversee it.....

With great power comes great responsibility. Memo to GOP House leaders: Have the decency to accept responsibility and resign from leadership. Or come November, I vote to let the other side put their bums in charge.

Read the rest of this post...

63% of Americans say Hastert should resign the Speakership or resign Congress

Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Remember those? Read the rest of this post...

How is Denny Hastert's congressional page abuse 800-number not an obstruction of justice?

We have an FBI criminal investigation going on and Denny Hastert is asking potential witnesses to contact him first and to give him their evidence rather than the FBI. In what possible world is that not obstruction of justice, especially since Denny Hastert is one of the people being investigated for an attempted cover-up of this possible crime?

When does the FBI permit people under investigation to tamper with evidence before the FBI has even seen that evidence? That is exactly what will happen when potential witnesses call Denny Hastert's new 800 number with information about page abuse.

Who will be taking these phone calls on the 800 number? Hastert's staff? The very staff he said yesterday he was considering firing because of their involvement in this scandal?

I've spoken to a former federal official who is very concerned about the potential for obstruction of justice and tampering with witnesses. And to think that Denny Hastert has even asked the FBI to do a criminal investigation of witnesses who have failed to come forward with their evidence in this case? Then why would those same witnesses want to come forward now, and to Denny Hastert no less?

Someone needs to shut Denny Hastert down, now. Read the rest of this post...

New merchandise in the AMERICAblog shop...

All of these, and more, are available as clothing and bumper stickers.

Read the rest of this post...

Do conservative Christians have a predilection towards pedophilia?

It's no secret that all five of the House Republican members of Congress accused of covering up the Mark Foley congressional page child predator scandal are Christians. And most of them, not surprisingly, are conservatives.

In these dire times for America's youth one must ask: Are conservative Christians genetically pre-disposed towards coddling pedophiles?

It may sound like bigotry, but facts are facts. These conservative Christian men all knew a long time ago about Foley's "overly friendly" attempts to befriend young children. They all had a chance to stop Foley before he sinned again, and they didn't. They're all Republicans. And they're all Christians.

Need more proof of how conservative Christians coddle child predators?

Did anyone else notice how many days it took the religious right to condemn Foley's actions and the actions of the Republican leadership in covering-up Foley's crimes? Foley's sickness was announced publicly on Thursday. The religious right didn't respond until the following Monday. What - they were too busy preparing for Columbus Day? Apparently man-on-boy sex isn't a big deal to conservative Christians so long as the man and boy (and their enablers) are all Republicans.

And when the conservative Christian groups finally did speak out, they were more preoccupied with promoting their anti-gay agenda than they were the health of the children and the sins of their predators and enablers.

America must ask itself why so many conservative Christians are involved in this scandal? And why so many conservative Christian groups were so slow to condemn the sexual abuse of our children?

These are uncomfortable questions, but we live in uncomfortable times. For the sake of our children we must find out why conservative Christian leaders seem to have a predilection towards pedophilia. Perhaps we've tolerated conservative Christians in our congress, in our schools, and in our pulpits for far too long.

Read more here. Read the rest of this post...

Republicans raise a whopping $23,000 for Senate candidates in September via the Web

That would be an amazing $766 a day raised by the powerful Republican machine. I can only imagine the money they'll bring in this month now that they're courting the all-important "pedophile dads." (Click the image below to see a larger copy.)

Read the rest of this post...

Economy chokes out a pathetic 51,000 jobs in September

Par for the course when you have a long track record of underachievement but compared to the Clinton years, this is another sorry month. September falls about 100,000 short of keeping up with new entrants. Mission Accomplished? Read the rest of this post...

Heather Wilson (R-NM), who cried about Janet Jackson, served on Page Board when pages were warned about Foley

In all the coverage of the Foley Republican child predator scandal, we almost overlooked the key role of Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM). Wilson, who you may recall literally wept for the cameras after the Janet Jackson/Super Bowl episode, served on the House Page Board at a time when pages were warned about Foley. In fact, she was on the page board when Foley gave that creepy speech in 2002 about he cruised down to Morton's in his BMW with one of the pages:

U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson's service on the seemingly innocuous House Page Board has brought the Mark Foley scandal into the Albuquerque Republican's hotly contested race for re-election.

Wilson's Democratic opponent, Attorney General Patricia Madrid, charged Monday that Wilson failed to protect the pages from a sexual predator when she was one of five members of the board from 2001-04.

"This board was specifically charged with taking care of the pages," Madrid said.

Rep. Wilson loved the media attention she garnered from her tears over Janet Jackson. She was so worried about the children. Too bad she didn't pay as much attention to the pages for whom she was responsible. Heather Wilson was either ignorant about what was going on with Foley or she ignored it. Either way, she failed to protect the kids. Read the rest of this post...

The GOP base is cracking

Just the kind of news you like to see 4 weeks from the election. The evangelical base that Karl and Ken have worked so hard to feed and care for is deserting the Republican party:

A nationwide poll of 1,500 registered voters released yesterday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of white evangelicals are inclined to vote for Republican congressional candidates in the midterm elections, a 21-point drop in support among this critical part of the GOP base.

Even before the Foley scandal, the portion of white evangelicals with a "favorable" impression of the Republican Party had fallen sharply this year, from 63 percent to 54 percent, according to Pew polls.

In the latest survey, taken in the last 10 days of September and the first four days of October, the percentage of evangelicals who think that Republicans govern "in a more honest and ethical way" than Democrats has plunged to 42 percent, from 55 percent at the start of the year.

The Washington Post looks at this development throught the prism of the race in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District. Democrat Patty Wetterling is running against ultra-right winger Michelle Bachmann. Candidates don't get more extreme than Bachmann. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

The White House "is very much involved" with damage control on the Foley scandal according to Russert.

Now, even John Warner is talking about changing the course in Iraq.

The White House should be very much involved with actual damage control in Iraq. And, I've been meaning to say just how much I love watching CNN's Michael Ware. Brutally honest.

Tell us what you know.... Read the rest of this post...

It's the Bush way or the highway

And the rubber stamp Congress can go to hell if they don't like it. The GOP Congress will never stand up to Bush and his signing statements and they will just sit quietly in the corner which makes me wonder, why do we even have a Congress if this is the result? Sure, the issue was discussed but after taking no action, it's back to business as usual. If ever there was a time for change it's now.

In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints.

But Bush, in a signing statement attached to the agency's 2007 spending bill, said he will interpret that section "in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it's appropriate for the administration to know what reports go to Congress and to review them beforehand.

"There can be a discussion on whether to accept a change or a nuance," she said. "It could be any number of things."

The American Bar Association and members of Congress have said Bush uses signing statements excessively as a way to expand his power.

Read the rest of this post...