A Spork in the Drawer

Li'l Ricky Lies Again

From the Inky:

Picture the TV commercial, a deep voice delivering this ominous message, in a slow, deliberate cadence: "Even al-Jazeera endorsed Democrat Bobby Casey Jr. Whose side is he on, anyway?"

It's hard not to think that was partly why Republican blogs and aides to U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) sounded giddy last week as they passed around a commentary from a Web site, www.Al-Jazeerah.info.

"Don't ask Santorum to 'apologize,' folks. Vote Democratic," stated the commentary, which denounced the senator's July 20 speech describing the United States as fighting a war on Islamic fascism, not terror.

Santorum referenced it himself Thursday on Fox's O'Reilly Factor.

But there was one little wrinkle.

The Web site was not related to the Arabic TV network based in the Middle East - spelled al-Jazeera, no h.

The goal of al-Jazeerah, according to its Web site, is to "promote cross-cultural understanding between people all over the world." It's based in Dalton, Ga., not Qatar.

"Rick Santorum has reached a new low in gutter politics by trying to ridiculously link Bob Casey to terrorists," Casey spokesman Larry Smar said.

Santorum's spokeswoman, Virginia Davis, said it doesn't make a difference. "We thought we should share these kind of sentiments."

.

Joe's New Low

Sterling Newberry:

Word from a commenter on mydd.com, and confirmed from a source on the ground is that either the Lieberman campaign, or his proxies, are blanketing African-American churches with fliers that imply that Ned Lamont is a racist. It is the final meltdown in the hysterical last days of Joe Lieberman's attempt to hold on to power inside the Democratic Party.

Lovely.

.

Confirmed.

The New York Times knee-caps Holy Joe.

.

Happy Democrat!

(Source.)

.

The End of Joe?

The word on the street is the New York Times is going to endorse Ned Lamont tomorrow.

Buh-bye, Joe.

.

Ummm, OK...

Man accused of biting off rooster's head.

.

Say...

...since I'm avoiding the obvious news I think I'll take the day off.

Why don't you do the same?

.

"Is the government trying to kill us?"

That's the question The Bad Astronomer is asking.

The question, while maybe provocative, isn't as crazy as it sounds.

.

Just Shoot Me Now

Former Wonkette Ana Marie Cox has been named Washington Editor of Time magazine.

Long time readers of Time will no doubt be dismayed by the sudden and frequent appearance of the term "assfucking."

Our national news media is circling the drain, methinks.

.

Heh Heh

Poking the Republican Juggernaut:

DNC Chief Stops in Florida to Revive Ailing Harris Campaign

DNC chairman Howard Dean gave a fiery speech in Florida yesterday, with at least one zinger aimed at Rep. Katherine Harris that's sure to rile up her weary supporters in the GOP base. "This is not Russia and she is not Stalin," Dean told a crowd of Democratic supporters Wednesday, comparing "Pink Sugar" herself to the infamous autocratic Soviet leader who was responsible for the deaths of millions.

That line gave the Harris campaign what's sure to have been a refreshing change of pace -- a chance to comment on how crazy someone else is. "The people of Florida know that Congresswoman Harris will stand for what is right and not respond in kind to such scurrilous attacks," Jennifer Marks told reporters, responding to Dean's scurrilous attack.

.

The Wingers' Nightmare

2026:

On Oct. 17, a Hispanic woman, living somewhere in Los Angeles, will give birth to a baby boy. It will be a landmark moment. The arrival of her son will make the population of the United States hit 300 million for the first time.

Or so predicts William H. Frey, an internationally regarded demographer from the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"It is a little speculative," he said, laughing

[...]

Looking to 2026, Frey imagines a country that is even more diverse -- where many more people are bilingual and more road signs and products are labeled in English and Spanish. He imagines a country split by age, with older and younger states driven by different political interests.

[...]

What will change going forward? In 10 years, minorities are expected to make up nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population, Frey says. Ten years after that, they will have a plethora of high-profile positions as members of Congress, judges and business leaders, he predicts.

Some will have moved from the melting-pot areas to growing states such as Nevada and Arizona. But other places -- such as the Midwest -- will remain largely white, he says. There, baby boomers will stay settled while younger residents move away. This will lift the age of the population and shift the political landscape.

Retired, but still active, they will revisit the techniques they used in the 1960s when they fought passionately for civil rights and equality for women, Frey maintains, but their cause will have shifted. "There may be some '60s radicalism among the baby boomers, but this time it will be for medical care," he says.

Maybe the xenophobes (including the so-called "Minutemen") ought to get a clue and emigrate now.

.

Remember Iraq?

Things are going swimmingly:

But some soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division -- interviewed over four days on base and on patrols -- say they have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750 people arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded.

"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."

"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. "We were excited, but then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take. Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning around the scorched sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, toward the trash-strewn streets of Baghdad outside, "there is no enemy, it's a faceless enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding."

[...]

"At this point, it seems like the war on drugs in America," added Spec. David Fulcher, 22, a medic from Lynchburg, Va., who sat alongside Steffey. "It's like this never-ending battle, like, we find one IED, if we do find it before it hits us, so what? You know it's just like if the cops make a big bust, next week the next higher-up puts more back out there."

"My personal opinion, I don't speak for the rest of anybody, I just speak for me personally, I think civil war is going to happen regardless," Steffey responded. "Maybe this country needs it: One side has to win. Be it Sunni, be it Shiite, one side has to win. It's apparent, these people have made it obvious they can't live in unity."

We'll be paying for this in the years and decades to come.

.

More Evidence...

...that the Global War on Terror© isn't serious:

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, though he says he never admitted being gay and his accuser was never identified.

Don't we need more Arabic linquists to fight the Muslimofascists who seek to kill us all and enslave our women-folk? I guess not.

.

Cough It Up, Dickie!

When last we heard of the sure to be messy divorce of Dickie and Margaret (Ritchie) Scaife Ritchie was attempting to abscond with the family dog, Beauregard the Golden Lab.

Now Ritchie wants her stuff:

Mrs. Scaife, who moved out of the couple's Shadyside home last year and has a legal separation agreement with the publisher of the Greensburg-based Tribune-Review newspaper, filed a lawsuit on Monday. She seeks to reclaim what she says were personal items she had before the couple married more than 10 years ago or gifts she received since then.

[...]

The list includes 29 paintings with a combined minimum value of $6.65 million.

The most expensive painting is by Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte known as "Man Wth Derby Hat," valued at more than $1 million. There are also three paintings by noted American John LaFarge, three by New England impressionist and landscape artist Gertrude Fiske, and two by American impressionist Charles C. Curran.

Other than the paintings, the most expensive individual items are "a rare Biedermier carved, inlaid, ebonized and parcel-gilted lady's sewing table" from the early 19th century and a table "in the style of John Linnell, circa 1765." Each are valued at $200,000.

[...]

Mrs. Scaife's attorney, William Pietragallo II, said he filed the lawsuit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in advance of a divorce proceeding to get her items back as soon as possible.

[...]

Mr. Pietragallo said he asked the court to "do what we think is the right thing" and give the dog to Mrs. Scaife so he can be with the two other dogs.

No court hearing has been set on the lawsuit.

So pop the popcorn and pull up a chair 'cuz this is going to be fun.

.

Snarlin' Arlen

Salon's Michael Scherer takes a look at at Pennsylvania's Senior Senator:

For Specter, such public dismay has become routine. Time and again, he has complained about disrespect from the White House, the overextension of executive power, and the limits of his ability to fight back in the current political environment. He has called hearings and chided administration witnesses. But when push comes to shove, he has also unflinchingly bowed to an apparent political reality, choosing compromise over confrontation and incremental procedural victories over significant, substantive ones.

[...]

Specter's posturing has caused some to question the political legacy of one of the Senate's most remarkable members, a former prosecutor of pimps and prostitutes who rose from the courtrooms of Philadelphia to become the Supreme Court's Senate gatekeeper, always remaining a conundrum for both the left and the right. In his 26-year Senate career, he has been attacked as a pro-abortion liberal who upended the nomination of Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan's 1987 Supreme Court nomination. He has also been savaged as the mean-spirited inquisitor who defamed Anita Hill in 1991, after she testified she had been sexually harassed by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. In 2004, he nearly lost his reelection primary after a strong conservative challenge and was forced to beg for his committee chairmanship after conservatives mounted an effort to unseat him for being too moderate. In recent weeks, he has become a punching bag for liberal bloggers, who have called him a "bald-faced liar" and a "sellout" over his proposed surveillance legislation.

[...]

"The issue for Specter is: What does he think he is getting from this in terms of his reputation by just walking up to the line and flinching?" said attorney Bruce Fein, a veteran of the Reagan Justice Department. Fein has been working closely with Specter on legislation to challenge the numerous presidential signing statements Bush has been using to circumvent bills passed by Congress. "He is not going to be president," Fein said. "What is his legacy going to be?"

[...]

"On the one hand, he seems to know that what the administration is doing is wrong," explains Lisa Graves, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union who previously worked on the Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff. "But on the other hand, he is unable to stop himself from helping to ratify it."

[...]

"He is not an ideologue," says G. Terry Madonna, a professor of public affairs at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. "For Arlen, it's as much about consulting him and making him a player and putting him under the tent."

That description may be as good as any to explain Specter's latest maneuvers. As committee chair, he has held four hearings on the warrantless wiretap program and has increased the committee's oversight of the Justice Department. But when faced with White House objections, he abandoned his earlier bill, proposed with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, which would have insisted the president adhere to the current system for authorizing electronic surveillance.

But then Specter appears to be less a maverick these days than a man who is resigned to his fate and satisfied to keep the trains running. At the end of his Op-Ed defense on Monday, he seemed an awfully long way from the courage, clout and conviction touted in his '04 campaign. "If someone has a better idea for legislation that would resolve the program's legality or can negotiate a better compromise with the president," he wrote, "I will be glad to listen."

Good summary of Arlen.

.

Net Neutrality Update

Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens is rounding up votes for his bill. Art Brodsky has the details.

.

The Return of the Crisco Kid

Ruth Marcus:

Alberto Gonzales is achieving something remarkable, even miraculous, as attorney general: He is making John Ashcroft look good.

[...]

There is no polite way to put this: Gonzales doesn't seem to have an adequate grasp of what's happening in his own department or much influence in setting administration policy.

To apply the Peter Principle to Gonzales (and most members of the Cheney administration) would be to assume he was competent to begin with. And there's no evidence for that assumption.

.

Gee, Do Ya Think?

It looks like Our Glorious Leader's™ tax cuts come at a price:

The federal government will need to either cut spending or raise taxes down the road to pay for extending President Bush's recent tax cuts, the Treasury Department said in a report released yesterday, dismissing the idea popular with many Republicans that such sacrifices can be avoided.

[...]

The report acknowledged the debate delicately, saying "the issue of how, or even if, these policies need to be financed remains a source of discussion among economists."

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

.

Mystery Solved

The mysterious Republican turns out to be Maryland Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate Michael Steele.

This would be the same Michael Steele of non-existent Oreo infamy.

.

Booting Liberals

In today's edition Max pulls out the snark:

REMEMBER HOW idyllic the Middle East was before that crazy cowboy moved into the White House? Oh for the good ol' days when Saddam Hussein would invite Kurdish and Shiite leaders to his palace for a lamb roast followed by a nice game of checkers. When the Iranian mullahs would host Fourth of July festivities in Tehran in honor of the Great Angel. And when Hamas and Hezbollah big shots would balance yarmulkes on their turbans and visit Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Now Max gets to his point (such as it is):

Wait. You mean my memory is playing tricks on me? None of that actually happened? Well, then, why on earth are so many pundits blaming President Bush for the current mess in the Middle East? A typical example comes from fellow Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks, who writes: "The Bush administration's tunnel-vision approach to foreign policy has pushed the U.S. and the world into a devastating tailspin of conflict without end….We promised to make the world safer, but we've turned it into a tinderbox."

Why are so many people blaming Bush? I'll spell it out so even Max can understand: I-R-A-Q. Oh, and five-and-a-half years of "Palestinians? Never heard of them" helps.

Iran was developing nuclear weapons and sponsoring terrorism long before Bush came into office. Critics attack him for not being diplomatic enough with Tehran, but in fact he has been supportive of the efforts of France, Germany and Britain to strike a deal. More recently, his secretary of State has offered to talk to Tehran directly. So keen is the Iranian government for such talks that it hasn't deigned to reply to the U.S. offer.

Apparently Max forgets - or conveniently omits - that the US and Iran were in regular contact before and during the attack on Afghanistan. Heck, the Iranians even gave permission for the occasional overflight and pledged to help the pilots of any downed US aircraft. All of that ended with the infamous "Axis of Evil" speech. Who gave that speech? Oh, that's right. Funny that Max doesn't bring that up.

Bush hasn't exactly been a warmonger when it comes to Iran's ally, Syria, either. Even as Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was turning his country into a staging ground for the Iraqi insurgency, the Bush administration repeatedly sent envoys to Damascus in an attempt to negotiate. Far from being interested in a deal, Assad was only emboldened into thinking that he would suffer no consequences for his hostile acts.

Evidence? Anyway, if Syria and Iran are "emboldened" why is that? Maybe because a certain President of the United State of America broke his country's army? It's worth a thought.

Both Iran and Syria have continued backing Hamas and Hezbollah, but this is hardly a new problem; it dates to the Reagan presidency. Critics suggest that these terrorist groups have gotten more powerful because of Bush's push for democracy. Hamas, after all, now runs the Palestinian Authority, and Hezbollah is part of a coalition government in Lebanon. But their power doesn't derive from their political positions; it comes from their militias, which remain outside the democratic process. Hamas was attacking Israel even when it was in opposition. So, for that matter, was the party it replaced — Yasser Arafat's Fatah.

Actually, a good part of the power possessed by Hamas and Hezbollah comes from those groups providing social services to their people. Social services that no one else - not even the Arabs who profess such concern - are willing to provide.

But surely, you say, Bush has made things worse in Iraq.

Yes.

Admittedly, the situation there is grim.

Good of you to notice.

But is it more grim than when Hussein was invading his neighbors and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of his own people? Or when the U.S. was enforcing sanctions that killed an estimated 60,000 babies a year?

Yes, I suppose it is better now that the US is performing those functions.

Many now claim that Hussein was a bulwark against Iranian adventurism, but Iranian-backed terrorists were at least as active in the 1980s (when they grabbed dozens of Western hostages in Lebanon and blew up the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut) as they are today.

But Iran didn't have a playground in southern Iraq. Now they do.

Critics are right that Bush hasn't transformed the Middle East into a bastion of peace, love and harmony. But he never promised to work miracles; he has consistently spoken of our current struggle as a generational challenge — the Long War. Sure, he could have done more to help win the war. But there is no reason to think that the critics' preferred approach — more diplomatic blather, more international confabs, more concessions to the terror-mongers — would have produced any better results. In any case, to suggest that his policies are the cause of today's woes, rather than a reaction to them, reveals a stunning historical amnesia.

Ah, the return of the "Long War." Is it the Long War? I thought it was World War III. Or IV. Or MCMIV. I lose track.

"[T]o suggest that his policies are the cause of today's woes, rather than a reaction to them, reveals a stunning historical amnesia." Bush threw existing diplomacy under the train; occupied a country that didn't threaten the US and botched it, creating more enemies; abandoned the US's traditional role of "honest broker"; and neutered US ground forces.

Somebody has historical amnesia and it isn't liberals.

.

Lebanon

The Editors speak for me, too:

I’ve said nothing about war in Lebanon or Ethiopia because I have nothing to add, and also because - as you may or may not be aware - the United States is actually involved in a hugely bloody war right now, and this is more of a pressing concern to me personally. I don’t know the secret formula for unshitting any of these beds - I promise I wouldn’t be shy if I did - but I currently only have to sleep in one of them; and, as it turns out, that’s the one bed where I actually have some miniscule chance of influencing the situation. So that’s my concern.

[via Atrios.]

.

Bill Clinton Makes Me Sad

(Actually, I was never much of a Clinton fan anyway. (Heresy!))

spazeboy and birthday girl Jane were prevented from attending the speech Clinton gave in support of Joenertia. See the dramatic recreation.

.

Let's Just Admit It

The majority of the American people are as dumb as dirt:

Despite being widely reported in the media that the U.S. and other countries have not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, surprisingly; more U.S. adults (50%) think that Iraq had such weapons when the U.S. invaded Iraq. This is an increase from 36 percent in February 2005 [.]

[Via Think Progress.]

.

Our Good Friends

I speak, of course, of Iraq:

“I personally think whoever kills an American soldier in defense of his country would have a statue built for him in that country,” the speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a conservative Sunni Arab, said at a news conference on Saturday. “The parties that we cannot conciliate with are those who deliberately killed an Iraqi citizen.”

[Via Think Progress.]

.

Double Posting

Blame Blogger.

Because Blogger sucks.

.

We'll See

Snarlin' Arlen to sue Our Glorious Leader™? Prove it.

A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush's signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.

"We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president's acts declared unconstitutional," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.

Here's my safe guess: Specter will "negotiate" with Cheney, walk out of the meeting and pronounce himself satisfied, and nothing will change.

It's what he always does.

[Via TPMMuckraker.]

.

Your Media

In a USA Today article on Daniel Schorr we find the following:

Daniel Schorr is used to producers popping into his Washington, D.C., office at National Public Radio to ask, on deadline: Which war came first, Korea or Vietnam? (Answer: Korea.)

But when one asked, ‘‘You covered the Spanish-American War, didn't you?” Schorr couldn't help but respond, matter-of-factly: “That was 1898.”

“Oh, sorry, of course,” the younger man said, excusing himself.

Jesus Christ on a tostada. This is who decides what is news.

[Via Romanesko.]

.

More Lies

Remember that Pakistani nuclear reactor? It turns out that BushCo knew all about it:

The Bush administration acknowledged yesterday that it had long known about Pakistan's plans to build a large plutonium-production reactor, but it said the White House was working to dissuade Pakistan from using the plant to expand its nuclear arsenal.

"We discourage military use of the facility," White House spokesman Tony Snow said of a powerful heavy-water reactor under construction at Pakistan's Khushab nuclear site in Punjab state.

You tell 'em, Tony! No doubt Pakistan will cease and desist after that tongue-lashing.

.

Run Away!

The WaPo's Daba Milbank writes about an anonymous Republican candidate:

The candidate, immersed in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, sat down to lunch yesterday with reporters at a Capitol Hill steakhouse and shared his views about this year's political currents.

On the Iraq war: "It didn't work. . . . We didn't prepare for the peace."

On the response to Hurricane Katrina: "A monumental failure of government."

On the national mood: "There's a palpable frustration right now in the country."

It's all fairly standard Democratic boilerplate -- except the candidate is a Republican . And he's getting all kinds of cooperation from the White House, the Republican National Committee and GOP congressional leaders.

Not that he necessarily wants it. "Well, you know, I don't know," the candidate said when asked if he wanted President Bush to campaign for him. Noting Bush's low standing in his home state, he finally added: "To be honest with you, probably not."

[...]

He spoke of his party affiliation as though it were a congenital defect rather than a choice. "It's an impediment. It's a hurdle I have to overcome," he said. "I've got an 'R' here, a scarlet letter."

That left the candidate in a difficult spot. "For me to pretend I'm not a Republican would be a lie," he reasoned. But to run as a proud Republican? "That's going to be tough, it's going to be tough to do," he said. "If this race is about Republicans and Democrats, I lose."

The Preznit has become toxic in his own party but until members of the GOP start speaking out - by name - little if anything will change. Two decades ago the Republican leadership in Congress went to a president and told him it was time to go. They did so openly. While no doubt there was political calculation involved, they still put country above party.

But things have changed. Power at all costs, even if it weakens the country, is the standard now. When Mr. Candidate, above, speaks out openly I'll be impressed. But I'm not expecting it.

.

Yipping Redux

Snarlin' Arlen takes to the pages of the WaPo to complain and split hairs:

President Bush's electronic surveillance program has been a festering sore on our body politic since it was publicly disclosed last December. Civil libertarians, myself included, have insisted that the program must be subject to judicial review to ensure compliance with the Fourth Amendment.

[...]

Critics complain that the bill acknowledges the president's inherent Article II power and does not insist on FISA's being the exclusive procedure for the authorization of wiretapping. They are wrong. The president's constitutional power either exists or does not exist, no matter what any statute may say. If the appellate court precedents cited above are correct, FISA is not the exclusive procedure. If the president's assertion of inherent executive authority meets the Fourth Amendment's "reasonableness" test, it provides an alternative legal basis for surveillance, however FISA may purport to limit presidential power. The bill does not accede to the president's claims of inherent presidential power; that is for the courts either to affirm or reject. It merely acknowledges them, to whatever extent they may exist.

Wow. Really standing up to the Administration, aren't you, Arlen? Acknowledging "inherent presidential power" and then tossing the issue to the courts (unelected judges!).

Arlen concludes petulantly:

In my opinion, it is intolerable to let this matter drift indefinitely. If someone has a better idea for legislation that would resolve the program's legality or can negotiate a better compromise with the president, I will be glad to listen.

OK, Arlen, listen up: MAKE THE PRESIDENT ADHERE TO THE CONSTITUTION. Really, this isn't all that difficult to grasp.

But maybe it is for a small, annoying dog.

UPDATE: Glenn has more.

.

Double Standards

So Pakistan is building the capacity to produce plutonium yet I don't hear any threats emanating from Washington. I doubt India will take this well:

"South Asia may be heading for a nuclear arms race that could lead to arsenals growing into the hundreds of nuclear weapons, or at minimum, vastly expanded stockpiles of military fissile material," the institute's David Albright and Paul Brannan concluded in the technical assessment, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post.

[...]

"Pakistan's nuclear program has matured. We're now consolidating the program with further expansions," the official said. The expanded program includes "some civilian nuclear power and some military components," he said.

The development raises fresh concerns about a decades-old rivalry between Pakistan and India. Both countries already possess dozens of nuclear warheads and a variety of missiles and other means for delivering them.

And let's not forget Pakistan's crackerjack security:

Pakistan, like India, has never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One of its pioneering nuclear scientists, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who confessed two years ago to operating a network that supplied nuclear materials and know-how to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

[...]

"Such a reactor could produce over 200 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium per year, assuming it operates at full power a modest 220 days per year," it says. "At 4 to 5 kilograms of plutonium per weapon, this stock would allow the production of over 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year."

Let's see, Iraq was invaded and occupied despite the lack of nasty weapons of any sort (despite the advertising), Iran is bad bad bad for trying to acquire nukes, Bush cowers in fear of North Korea's nukes, yet Pakistan, the one country proven to hand out nuke technology like candy, gets a pass.

Odd.

.

Keith!

Keith Olbermann, host of the MSNBC show, 'Countdown With Keith Olbermann,' holds a mask of conservative talk show host Bill O'Reilly, a frequent target of 'Countdown's' Worst Person In The World segment, at the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour, Saturday, July 22, 2006, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

.

This Says It All

NYT:

The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of their fortunes to their children and others.

[...]

Over the last five years, officials at both the I.R.S. and the Treasury have told Congress that cheating among the highest-income Americans is a major and growing problem.

Well, the original Gilded Age did lead to the Progressive Era so maybe there's some hope.

.

Bang Bang

Unlike many liberals the subject of firearms just doesn't get me worked up. And as an observer of the increasingly violent rhetoric coming from the right I figure keeping the option of self-defense open is smart. That said, this guy is a menace:

Sanford M. Abrams began selling guns from his shop in Baltimore County in 1996 and almost immediately started losing track of them.

In 1997, he couldn't account for 45. In 2001, it was 133. In 2003, there were 422 firearms missing -- more than a quarter of his inventory -- including semiautomatic assault rifles, 12-gauge shotguns and Glock 9mm pistols, according to federal investigators.

This year, a decade after he started losing track of guns, Abrams's store lost its firearms license. But he still intends to sell guns.

How could this guy lose more than one quarter of his inventory in a year and stay in business?

Abrams, a member of the National Rifle Association's board of directors, did not dispute the substance of more than 900 violations of federal gun laws filed against his store. But he called them unintentional recordkeeping errors that posed no threat to public safety and said it is impossible for anyone to comply with all firearms regulations.

[...]

He said it is impossible not to make mistakes when filling out the nine forms required for the sale of a firearm, some of which have 37 sections. "And some of the forms are going to go missing," he said. "Forms fall behind the counter. Or maybe someone throws it away."

Abrams said "mathematics and logic tells you you're going to have to make errors." He added: "I just screwed up paperwork. . . . There is no crime here."

Uh, no. Things don't "go missing" on this scale. Forms don't "fall behind the counter" on this scale. Such excuses beggar belief.

In court, Abrams's attorneys argued that the government should have to prove not only that the company violated the law but that it did so "with the bad purpose to disobey or to disregard the law." The judge disagreed.

It probably won't come as any suprise that this has moved to the halls of Congress:

The fight then shifted to Congress. One of Abrams's attorneys, Richard E. Gardiner, testified in March before the House subcommittee that oversees ATF about the need to change the laws that govern revocations of gun licenses.

One week later, Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), the subcommittee chairman, introduced a bill that would, among other things, allow a gun store whose license has been revoked to remain open during any appeal. It also would require a much higher burden of proof -- almost the same one Abrams proposed in his court case -- before ATF could revoke a license.

"It could be crippling," said David DiBetta, an 18-year veteran of ATF who is president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association's ATF division.

"That bill would make it virtually impossible to enforce the nation's gun laws," said Joseph J. Vince Jr., former chief of ATF's firearms division.

What a suprise.

Coble, who received about $13,000 in campaign contributions from the NRA between 1999 and 2005, said the legislation would prevent ATF from abusing its power. The bill, HR 5092, gained momentum last month when House Republicans added it to the American Values Agenda, their list of high-priority legislation aimed at energizing social conservatives.

"I am not anti-ATF, but I am anti-heavy-handed law enforcement," Coble said. "I don't see that this is going to emasculate, or even weaken, in any way, the ATF. That's certainly not the intent."

When asked whether Abrams, who has appealed his case, could continue selling guns if the bill passes, Coble said: "I think he probably could." He said the impetus for the bill was not Abrams but ATF behavior at a gun show in Richmond, although he could not recall details about the incident.

My my my but Coble is a real piece of work. He's even in favor of concentration camps.

It's pretty clear, in my opinion, that Abrams is dirty and the firearms, including machine guns, are being sold "off the books:"

Valley Gun was then ranked 37th of 80,000 dealers in the country for firearms linked to crime, according to a 2004 study by Americans for Gun Safety. Almost 500 guns associated with crime were traced back to the store, the study found.

What a coincidence! It's funny how a few bookkeeping errors led to all of that.

At the very least, Abrams is such an incompetent businessman that he should be limited to working as a greeter at WalMart. But he should not be allowed to continue selling firearms.

.

Baghdad, USA

Apparently, one doesn't need insurgency and/or civil war for the electrical infrastructure to break down and stay down:

Queens.

New Orleans.

.

Typical

What does BushCo do when faced with an inconvenient truth? Change a few words:

From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.”

In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”

[...]

Mr. Steitz, the NASA spokesman, said the agency might have to improve internal communications, but he defended the way the change was made, saying it reflected the management style of Michael D. Griffin, the administrator at the agency.

“Strategic planning comes from headquarters down,” he said, and added, “I don’t think there was any mal-intent or idea of exclusion.”

[...]

The “understand and protect” phrase was cited repeatedly by James E. Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA who said publicly last winter that he was being threatened by political appointees for speaking out about the dangers posed by greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr. Hansen’s comments started a flurry of news media coverage in late January; on Feb. 3, Mr. Griffin issued a statement of “scientific openness.”

The revised mission statement was released with the agency’s proposed 2007 budget on Feb. 6. But Mr. Steitz said Dr. Hansen’s use of the phrase and its subsequent disappearance from the mission statement was “pure coincidence.”

[...]

Dr. Hansen said the change might reflect White House eagerness to shift the spotlight away from global warming.

“They’re making it clear that they have the authority to make this change, that the president sets the objectives for NASA, and that they prefer that NASA work on something that’s not causing them a problem,” he said.

See? Now the (political) problem is gone! Who knew solving difficult problems was so easy?

.

The End Game Starts

Reuters:

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a top government official told Reuters -- anonymously because the coalition of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remains committed in public to a U.S.-sponsored constitution preserving Iraq's unity.

"The parties have moved to Plan B," the official said, saying Sunni, ethnic Kurdish and majority Shi'ite blocs were looking at ways to divide power and resources and to solve the conundrum of Baghdad's mixed population of seven million.

"There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into east and west," said the official, who has long been a proponent of the present government's objectives. "We are extremely worried."

.

Li'l Ricky Sets It Up

America's favorite dog-lovin' Senator spoke yesterday at the National Press Club and touched on a theme we'll be hearing more of:

Santorum also severely criticized the news media for revealing details of secret surveillance programs, saying these reports "have put American lives at greater risk."

"There has been a war against the war," he said. "A joint campaign by some people inside the government and allies in the media to undermine critical national security programs."

[...]

The threat from Islamic fascism is not being taken seriously enough, Santorum said, "or we would not be screaming and hollering about how our government is tracking terrorists' money and monitoring their telephone conversations."

Disclosures in the news media about the warrantless wiretaps conducted by the National Security Agency and the SWIFT program of monitoring bank transactions have played into the hands of the enemy, he said.

Journalists and members of the government "made bad choices when they decided to betray the secret" of these surveillance programs, Santorum said.

"It will be hard to win this war if people inside the government violate their oaths and provide information to irresponsible members of the media, who then provide our enemy with information that hurts our country," he continued.

[...]

"I respect the freedom of the press," he said. "... I just wish the press would respect our freedom, too. It appears to me many in the press do not. Their behavior deserves scrutiny and direct criticism."

Ricky respects freedom of the press? Heck, he doesn't like it when teenage girls hold contrary opinions.

But as America's standing in the world continues to fall and we're increasingly weakened by foolish and poorly run military conflicts we'll be hearing more about being subverted from within.

Dolchstosslegende, anyone?

"It would be BULLY! to beat this poltroon!"

.

Oh. My. God.

LTE in The Daily Scaife:

I hope Andrew Clearfield takes full advantage of being a student at Carnegie Mellon University. He has a lot to learn.

The globe has been getting progressively warmer since the Pleistocene ice age epoch peaked 165 million years ago. Why is anyone surprised?

Man's contribution to this may be because the world's population has doubled over the past 45 years and all the additional exhaling of CO2 as we work for a living is a factor.

William R. Casey
West Mifflin

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I think we may have found the stupidest person on the planet.

UPDATE: Welcome Pharyngula-ites! (To coin a term.)

.

Modern Justice

Being demonstrably innocent of a crime can put you in prison:

Benamar Benatta, believed to be the last remaining domestic detainee from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was released yesterday after negotiations involving Canada, the United States and his attorneys ended his captivity at nearly five years.

[...]

The Algerian air force lieutenant spent more than 58 months behind bars even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001 that he had no connection to terrorism.

[...]

He was initially charged with carrying fraudulent papers until a federal magistrate called those accusations a "sham." Since then, he has been held for overstaying his visa as he waged a multiyear battle for political asylum in the United States or Canada, alleging he would be killed if he were returned to Algeria.

Government officials have been repeatedly criticized about Benatta's treatment. In 2003, federal Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. found that Benatta had been "undeniably deprived of his liberty." Keeping him in prison any longer "would be to join in the charade that had been perpetrated," he wrote.

Despite the findings, Benatta was kept in jail while he made a claim for U.S. asylum that was ultimately refused. At one point, he was offered release on a $25,000 bond but was unable to pay. Later, when his attorneys sought his release on bond, the government declined.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in New York declined to comment, and a press officer for Canadian immigration officials said privacy laws prohibited her from discussing the case.

Remember: The Cheney Administration claims it can do the same to anyone.

.

Move Over, Einstein and Hawking

Coulter is brilliant

In reply to the July 9 letter, "All-Around Ugliness," from Ellen Pierson who blasted Ann Coulter, I would like to see her most recent Miss America photo.

Whether she likes it or not, Ann Coulter is a genius. A brilliant woman.

ROSE M. McELLIGOTT
Shadyside

.

Li'l Missy!

Melissa Hart, who represents a boom district north of Pittsburgh, took to the floor of the House yesterday to defend Our Glorious Leader's™ (PBUH) veto of the stem-cell bill. Unfortunately, in the process of doing so she revealed that she doen't have a clue what she's talking about.

For those who don't know: Missy is and up-and-comer in the GOP and a protogee of Li'l Ricky.

Ricky's long-lost sister?

.

.

.

Desperate Ricky

Maria experiences a Santorum push-poll!

This is nearly as tacky as Sen. Manondog's (R-AKC) haberdashery.

.

Please, Ohio...

...dump this creep:

The controversial video of the burning World Trade Center towers in a television campaign ad for Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine is doctored, U.S. News has learned. The television spot, which has been lambasted by critics as a political exploitation of the Sept. 11, attacks Democrat challenger Rep. Sherrod Brown for being weak on national security.

[...]

"This particular image is impossible," says W. Gene Corley, a stuctural engineer who led FEMA's building performance study on the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. Corley reviewed the ad atwww.brownvotes.com for U.S. News. "The north tower was hit first [so] the south tower could not be burning without the North Tower burning." Corley also says, "the smoke is all wrong." The day of the attacks, the plumes of ash were drifting to the southeast. "The smoke on 9/11 was never in a halo like that," Corley says.

Not only is the image impossible, it's a realy bad Photoshop job:

[Via TPMMuckraker.]

.

No Photography Allowed

Patt Morrison examines the increasingly ridiculous country we live in:

One by one, like pixels in an image, incidents assemble and a pattern appears. Someone takes a picture, or tries to, of a public space, in a public place. Muscle appears. Sometimes badges are flashed. Vague laws are vaguely invoked.

A man taking pictures of a symmetrical array of school buses gets a visit from Homeland Security. A shutterbug shooting 16-millimeter film of the scenery outside the train window is questioned, and the film is confiscated. A history student taking photos of the New York state Capitol for her class project finds the police at her door. Another student in Seattle, photographing a popular tourist sight, is corralled by men declaring themselves to be "homeland security." A Texas railroad buff takes pictures of trains and gets grilled for five hours by the FBI and the cops.

To the absurdities of overreaching "no-fly" lists that keep infants off airplanes, add this one: photographers, amateur and professional, being menaced for taking pictures of public sights in plain sight.

I've yet to run into this absurdity...no, this isn't absurdity. Among some, maybe, there's a pants-wetting aspect to this but more often, I believe, this is about control. Over the past nearly five years (more, really) there has been a concerted effort by law enforcement (led by the Ministry of Homeland Security) to place everyone and everything under control. Seemingly petty government harrassment - being grilled by the FBI for photographing a sculpture, for example - is effective in letting people know, "we're watching you."

It's very effective.

.

All Is Well

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman visits Baghdad and says:

“The situation seems far more stable than when I was here two or three years ago,” he said in an interview in the fortified Green Zone. “The security seems better, people are more relaxed. There is an optimism, at least among the people I talked to.”

Notice: "he said in an interview in the fortified Green Zone."

Today:

(Slahaldeen Rasheed/Reuters)

.

Coward

Media barred from witnessing Our Glorious Leader's™ veto of the stem-cell bill.

.

Let's Just Nuke Ourselves

Things have become too absurd even for me:

The title of a recent e-mail from PBS caught my eye: “Editing of Coarse Language/New Practices.” Henceforth, producers would face two new requirements: (1) if a word is bleeped or wiped (silenced), the entirety of the word must be bleeped or wiped, meaning that “mother-F-word” would now have to be “bleep bleep,” and (2) if the F-word or the S-word were uttered to camera so that viewers could recognize it from the speaker’s mouth, the lips must be pixelated.

Honestly, we've become too stupid to be allowed to exist.

[Via Romanesko.]

.

Blogger...

...is acting dodgy.

Again.

.

Déjà vu

Bill Kristol:

QUESTION: You know, the down side, though, you know very well, to all of that being that we’re involved in Iraq and Afganistan. Also that Iran is much different than Iraq. It’s huge and more formidable.

KRISTOL: It is, but also the Iranian people dislike their regime. I think they would be – the right use of targeted military force — but especially if political pressure before we use military force – could cause them to reconsider whether they really want to have this regime in power. There are even moderates – they are not wonderful people — but people in the government itself who are probably nervous about Ahmadinejad’s recklessness.

"Sweets and flowers," anyone? Maybe a "cakewalk"?

.

From Bad to Worse

Now Turkey might jump into World War CCLIX:

Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there - a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States.

Turkey is facing increasing domestic pressure to act after 15 soldiers, police and guards were killed fighting the guerrillas in southeastern Turkey in the past week.

Wheeeee!

[via Americablog.]

.

What's the Matter With South Dakota?

The Bad Astronomer notes this South Dakota Republican Party Resolution:

Resolution 16: WHEREAS, education on species origin is a vital aspect in the understanding of nature and the purpose of human life; and, WHEREAS, evolution is a theory that is taught in public schools as fact and at the exclusion of all other theories; and WHEREAS, the South Dakota Republican Party believes there are other plausible theories, including creationism; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the South Dakota Republican Party supports efforts to expand beyond evolution the knowledge, scope, and debate in public education on the theories of species origin.

It looks like South Dakota wants to play with Kansas and certain disreputable parts of Pennsylvania in the ignorance game. Then again, the only thing Republicans have shown to be competent at is ignorance.

.

Nobody Likes Him Anymore

The neocons are revolting:

Conservative intellectuals and commentators who once lauded Bush for what they saw as a willingness to aggressively confront threats and advance U.S. interests said in interviews that they perceive timidity and confusion about long-standing problems including Iran and North Korea, as well as urgent new ones such as the latest crisis between Israel and Hezbollah.

"It is Topic A of every single conversation," said Danielle Pletka [Pletka!], vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank that has had strong influence in staffing the administration and shaping its ideas. "I don't have a friend in the administration, on Capitol Hill or any part of the conservative foreign policy establishment who is not beside themselves with fury at the administration."

Remember: Anything less than World War XXXIV would disappoint this crowd.

GOP lawmakers, meanwhile, appear to be lining up closely with the president on foreign policy. It has not helped the neoconservative case, perhaps, that the occupation of Iraq has not gone as smoothly as some had predicted.

"[T]he occupation of Iraq has not gone as smoothly as some had predicted." Do ya think?

And our pal Max Boot (whose column today is another mundane "let's have another war" cut-and-paste job) makes a cameo appearance:

For many neoconservatives, a final straw came with the U.S. decision to offer direct talks and potential benefits to Iran as an inducement to curb its nuclear program. There appears little confidence that Bush will be able to muster support for strong international action against Iran, including air strikes to take out nuclear facilities.

"They are starting to see multilateral talks as an end to themselves," said Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "They are fooling themselves to think it could lead to tough sanctions."

Regardless of the whining from the war-at-any-cost nutters I suspect that some fairly frightening planning is going on the offices of Cheney and Rumsfeld. Pletka and Boot and Kristol and Gingrich may have their dreams fulfilled yet. And the rest of us will be left with nightmares.

.

More Helen

Via Athenae, we find the following exchange between Helen Thomas and Pony Blow:

Helen Thomas of Hearst Newspapers then questioned the sincerity of Cheney’s MySpace page in what became a rather heated exchange.

THOMAS: How do we know these are really the vice president’s words? That it’s not just a summer intern filling up his pages?

SNOW: Because I just told you, Helen.

THOMAS: So Dick Cheney watches Pimp My Ride and listens to the Butthole Surfers?

SNOW: Apparently, yes.

THOMAS: All right, fine. Can you tell us the vice president’s favorite Pimp My Ride episode, or his favorite song by the...the Butthole Surfers? Or DMX? This...Weezer? Black Eyed Peas? Any of the musicians listed on his MySpace page?

SNOW: I’ll plead ignorance on that. You’ll have to ask him yourself, Helen.

THOMAS: I’d be glad to, but he only seems to address the press after disasters, or when he’s threatening the American public with new ones.

SNOW: I’m not sure what you’re referring to, Helen, but I won’t get into any what’s-the-sound-of-one-hand-clapping philosophicals.

THOMAS: [crosstalk] Nigga, please.

[laughter]

SNOW: Oh, Helen, you really are the bee's knees, aren’t you?

.

The Children Are In Charge

And now we come to Tony Snow:

[Helen Thomas]: The United States is not that helpless. It could have stopped the bombardments of Lebanon. We have that much control with the Israelis.

SNOW: I don’t think so.

[Thomas]: We have gone for collective punishment against all of Lebanon and Palestine. And what’s happening — and that’s the perception of the United States.

SNOW: Well, thank you for the Hezbollah view, but I would encourage you… [Emphasis added.]

Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?

.

The Rub

Wolcott on our shoulder massaging Preznitwit.

Question: Why didn't Our Glorious Leader™ give a shoulder rub to Vlad Putin? Or Jacques Chirac? Or Tony Blair? (Actually, Blair would've purred in satisfaction.