David Brooks: The Sacred Cause of No Transcript

Today David Brooks weighs in on Bush and The Prosecutors -- or as Brooks calls it -- The Sacred Cause of No Transcript!

Even David Brooks sounds rational next to Bush. Admittedly, I picked the most coherent comment (below) from an entire column.

But is anybody besides Turdblossom and Harriet Miers siding with Bush?

-- A Proper Distinction, by David Brooks:

"And the White House, instead of trying to restore some proportion, has picked a fight over a transcript. The president says he will allow White House staff to appear before Congress, but not in public, not under oath and not with a transcript. The president apparently expects his supporters to rally behind the sacred cause of No Transcript. In time of war, he’s decided to expend political capital so that his staffers can lie to Congress without legal consequences."

Read more . . .

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Stepping on the Dream

College Money
By BOB HERBERT

One of the weirder things at work these days is the fact that we’re making it more difficult for American youngsters to afford college at a time when a college education is a virtual prerequisite for establishing and maintaining a middle-class standard of living. . .

In a nation as rich as ours, it should be easy to pay for college. For some reason, we find it easier to pay for wars.

Read more . . .

Bob Herbert News Politics

Video: Bush's Nixonian Press Conference

After claiming the Nixonian right to be above the law, Bush pretended to be grateful for the service of the prosecutors he fired. In an Op-ed in today's New York Times, David C. Iglesias says that's not good enough, he wants a written retraction from the Justice Department.

Hat tip Wonky Muse

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Prosecutor-Gate: 18 Day Gap in Emails

Now why would there be an 18 day gap -- between November 15th and December 4th of last year -- in the emails released by the sneaky Bush Administration?

Did somebody say Watergate?

"In DOJ documents that were publicly posted by the House Judiciary Committee, there is a gap from mid-November to early December in e-mails and other memos, which was a critical period as the White House and Justice Department reviewed, then approved, which U.S. attorneys would be fired while also developing a political and communications strategy for countering any fallout from the firings."

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NY Times: Mr. Bush's Nasty Bumbling Comments

I was waiting for the nasty snarling belligerent pResident to snap, "I'm not a crook!" in his Prosecutor-Gate press conference yesterday.

And I was waiting for the angry pResident Pissypants to call the Democrats part of the Axis of Evil.

Instead, the belligerent pResident just snarled and growled at the American people cause only 30 percent of us believe a word he says.

New York Times editorial:

In nasty and bumbling comments made at the White House yesterday, President Bush declared that “people just need to hear the truth” about the firing of eight United States attorneys. That’s right. Unfortunately, the deal Mr. Bush offered Congress to make White House officials available for “interviews” did not come close to meeting that standard. . .

The Bush administration is trying to hide behind the doctrine of “executive privilege.” That term does not appear in the Constitution; the best Mr. Bush could do yesterday was a stammering reference to the separate branches of government. When presidents have tried to invoke this privilege, the courts have been skeptical. President Richard Nixon tried to withhold the Watergate tapes, but a unanimous Supreme Court ruled against him.

It is no great surprise that top officials of this administration believe they do not need to testify before Congress. This is an administration that has shown over and over that it does not believe that the laws apply to it, and that it does not respect its co-equal branches of government. Congress should subpoena Mr. Rove and the others, and question them under oath, in public. If Congress has more questions, they should be recalled.

That would not be “partisanship,” as Mr. Bush wants Americans to believe. It would be Congress doing its job by holding the president and his team accountable — a rare thing in the last six years.

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Tony Snow: Executive Privilege is a Dodge

Here's a priceless gem from the pen of Tony Snow, and it comes via Glenn Greenwald who has lots more great finds from the newfound rightwing champions of executive privilege.


Executive Privilege is a Dodge, by Tony Snow, Op-Ed - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 29, 1998

Evidently, Mr. Clinton wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration. Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything. He would have a constitutional right to cover up.

Chances are that the courts will hurl such a claim out, but it will take time.

One gets the impression that Team Clinton values its survival more than most people want justice and thus will delay without qualm. But as the clock ticks, the public's faith in Mr. Clinton will ebb away for a simple reason: Most of us want no part of a president who is cynical enough to use the majesty of his office to evade the one thing he is sworn to uphold -- the rule of law.

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The Troika and the Surge

The Surge
by Thomas Friedman

President Bush’s Iraq surge policy is about a month old now, and there is only one thing you can say about it for certain: no matter what anyone in Congress, the military or the public has to say, it’s going ahead. The president has the authority to do it and the veto power to prevent anyone from stopping him. Therefore, there’s only one position to have on the surge anymore: hope that it works.

Read more . . .

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White House Tries to Ward Off Subpoenas

With the threat of subpoenas imminent, the White House has deigned to permit Congress to talk to Rove and Miers behind closed doors.

The White House will not permit the duo to testify under oath, and no transcript will be allowed.

Gee, why doesn't the talking White House just come right out and say that it has something to hide?

Appearing less than amused, Senator Chuck Schumer said, "That’s fine. Let’s have a conversation under oath, with a transcript."

Schumer added, "We'll proceed with subpoenas on Thursday."

Bush will speak (defensively) about The Purge at 5:45 PM, EDT, today, March 20, 2007. Tune in to find out the answer to today's question. The question: Exactly how much will Bush sound like Tricky Dick Nixon?

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If Gore Could Redo 2000

"If I had to do it all over again, I'd just let it rip. To hell with the polls, the tactics and all the rest. I would have poured out my heart and my vision for America's future." -- Al Gore

In an insightful and wishful piece in Politico -- Can Gore Let It Rip? -- John Harris describes the above statement as Al Gore's "pledge to Democrats after the 2000 election."

Support Al Gore's testimony before Congress tomorrow by adding your name to Gore's message to Congress.

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Iran’s Operative in the White House

Cheney and Iran
By Nicholas Kristof

If an 18-year-old American soldier were caught slipping obscure military paperwork to Iranian spies, he would be arrested, pilloried in the news media and tossed into prison for years.

But in fact there’s an American who has provided services of incalculably greater value to Iran in recent years. So you have to wonder: Is Dick Cheney an Iranian mole?

Read more . . .

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White House Desperately Seeking Gonzales Replacement

It's over for Alberto Gonzales.

Politico has the story and is reporting that the only real question that remains is: Who will the desperate Republicans persuade (or bribe) to take over the smelly job?

It's also likely that no matter how many heads roll, nothing is going to stop the Democratic Congress from pursuing this matter by following the perpetual smell of something stinking to high heaven in the disgraced White House.

Republican officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun seeking a possible successor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose support among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has collapsed, according to party sources familiar with the discussions.

Among the names floated Monday by administration officials are Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and White House anti-terrorism coordinator Frances Townsend. Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson is a White House prospect. So is former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, but sources were unsure whether he would want the job.

Republican sources also disclosed that it is now a virtual certainty that Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, whose incomplete and inaccurate congressional testimony about the prosecutors helped precipitate the crisis, will also resign shortly. Officials were debating whether Gonzales and McNulty should depart at the same time or whether McNulty should go a day or two after Gonzales. Still known as "The Judge" for his service on the Texas Supreme Court, Gonzales is one of the few remaining original Texans who came to Washington with President Bush.

Other names on the GOP wish list:

--Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee
--Ted Olson (2000 election infamy)
--Larry Thompson
--Retired federal judge Laurence H. Silberman
--George J. Terwilliger III

via

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Nashville's Anti Al Gore Gannett Paper

The paper we like to call the Southern Baptist Times has finally found something besides church news to put on its front page.

Al Gore will testify before the House and Senate about global warming this week. The Tennessean, aka, the Southern Baptist Times, decided to mark the event by firing off another hit job at the former Vice President.

The Gannett paper has never been shy about alienating readers.

This is the same Gannett paper that was recently seen snooping through Gore's utility bills.

The front page headline in Sunday’s edition of the Southern Baptist Times:

Tenn. Mine Enriched Gore, Scarred Land

Wade through the very long and boring story and you discover that Al Gore does not and never did own the zinc mine. Gore -- along with hundreds of other Tennessee residents -- was merely paid royalties in return for access to the underground zinc.

Enriched? Gore earns as much in 3 speaking engagements as he earned in 30 years from this little ole' zinc mine. The zinc mine has enriched Tennessee a hell of a lot more than it has enriched Al Gore.

The state of Tennessee has judged the mine to have no real environmental problems, and no one can recall any "health problems ever associated with the mining."

But there have been serious environmental problems with zinc mines in some other states. And one day it might happen here. If it does, it will be Al Gore's fault.

The Southern Baptist Times is an embarrassingly conservative environ-mental pollutant that spreads misinformation via National Enquirer style headlines.

That's the only story here. [via memeorandum]

Graphic seen at Down With Tyranny!

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Party Before Country, That's How Republicans Do It

Carol Lam "notified the Justice Department of search warrants in a Republican bribery scandal last May 10, one day before the attorney general's chief of staff warned the White House of a "real problem" with her, a Democratic senator said yesterday."

"The prosecutor, Carol S. Lam, was dismissed seven months later as part of an effort by the Justice Department and the White House to fire eight U.S. attorneys."

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Don’t Cry for Reagan

Reagan Lives
by Paul Krugman

As the Bush administration sinks deeper into its multiple quagmires, the personality cult the G.O.P. once built around President Bush has given way to nostalgia for the good old days. The current cover of Time magazine shows a weeping Ronald Reagan, and declares that Republicans “need to reclaim the Reagan legacy.”

But Republicans shouldn’t cry for Ronald Reagan; the truth is, he never left them. There’s no need to reclaim the Reagan legacy: Mr. Bush is what Mr. Reagan would have been given the opportunity.

. . . Mr. Bush, not Mr. Reagan, is the true representative of what modern conservatism is all about. And it’s the movement, not just one man, that has failed.

Read more . . .

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Video: Gonzales Must Go

Karl Rove Attorneygate Alberto Gonzales Harriet Miers The Purge News Politics Republican Liars Bush Fire Gonzales

The Ides of March 2003

The March to War
by Frank Rich

TOMORROW night is the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s prime-time address declaring the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the broad sweep of history, four years is a nanosecond, but in America, where memories are congenitally short, it’s an eternity. That’s why a revisionist history of the White House’s rush to war, much of it written by its initial cheerleaders, has already taken hold. In this exonerating fictionalization of the story, nearly every politician and pundit in Washington was duped by the same “bad intelligence” before the war, and few imagined that the administration would so botch the invasion’s aftermath or that the occupation would go on so long. “If only I had known then what I know now ...” has been the persistent refrain of the war supporters who subsequently disowned the fiasco. But the embarrassing reality is that much of the damning truth about the administration’s case for war and its hubristic expectations for a cakewalk were publicly available before the war, hiding in plain sight, to be seen by anyone who wanted to look.

By the time the ides of March arrived in March 2003, these warning signs were visible on a nearly daily basis. So were the signs that Americans were completely ill prepared for the costs ahead. Iraq was largely anticipated as a distant, mildly disruptive geopolitical video game that would be over in a flash.

Now many of the same leaders who sold the war argue that escalation should be given a chance. This time they’re peddling the new doomsday scenario that any withdrawal timetable will lead to the next 9/11. The question we must ask is: Has history taught us anything in four years?

Here is a chronology of some of the high and low points in the days leading up to the national train wreck whose anniversary we mourn this week [with occasional “where are they now” updates].

March 5, 2003

“I took the Grey Poupon out of my cupboard.”

— Representative Duke Cunningham, Republican of California, on the floor of the House denouncing French opposition to the Iraq war.

[In November 2005, he resigned from Congress and pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from defense contractors. In January 2007, the United States attorney who prosecuted him — Carol Lam, a Bush appointee — was forced to step down for “performance-related” issues by Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department.]

March 6, 2003

President Bush holds his last prewar news conference. The New York Observer writes that he interchanged Iraq with the attacks of 9/11 eight times, “and eight times he was unchallenged.” The ABC News White House correspondent, Terry Moran, says the Washington press corps was left “looking like zombies.”

Read more . . .

Frank Rich Iraq News Politics War Bush

Video: Ralph Nader - An Unreasonable Man

Preview of Ralph Nader -- An Unreasonable Man


See it beginning today, March 17, at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. I'm still battling the flu, so I'll probably have to purchase the film to see it. But I will see it -- it's on my must-see list.

via liberal messenger at KnoxViews

Ralph Nader Unreasonable Man Nashville News Politics Tennessee Bush 2000

Free Emergency Contraception

Planned Parenthood is passing out free packages of Plan B next Tuesday -- to help spread the word that the morning after pill, or Plan B, or Emergency Contraception is now available over the counter. Tuesday, March 20, 2007 is the sixth annual Back Up Your Birth Control Day of Action.

Excerpted from an email from Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee:

We'd like to invite you to drop by one our hometown Health Centers next Tuesday, March 20th between 9 am and 4 pm to pick up your package of EC for FREE!

In Nashville, we are conveniently located at 412 D.B. Todd Blvd near 18th and Charlotte Ave., (615) 321-7216.

In Knoxville, we are conveniently located at 8373 Kingston Pike, Suite 3000, (865) 694-7155 in East Tennessee.

No appointment is needed to pick up your EC, just walk-in and ask at the desk!

What is Emergency Contraception? It is a form of contraception, meaning it prevents a pregnancy BEFORE it happens. EC does not and will not cause an abortion in women who are already pregnant, and will not affect a developing embryo.

EC Plan B News Politics Tennessee Nashville Knoxville Free Emergency Contraception

Hot Tots, and Moms Hot to Trot

Hot Tots
By JUDITH WARNER (Standing in for Maureen Dowd)

Bling-Bling Barbies and pouty-lipped Bratz. Thongs for tweens, and makeover parties for 5-year-olds. The past couple of shopping seasons have brought a constant stream of media stories — and books and school lectures and anguished mom conversations — all decrying the increasingly tarted-up world of young girls and preteens. Now the American Psychological Association has weighed in as well, with a 67-page report on the dangers of the "sexualization" of girls.

The report takes aim at the music lyrics, Internet content, video games and clothing that are now being marketed to younger and younger kids, and correlates their smutty content with a number of risks to girls' well-being. It finds that sexualization — turning someone into "eye candy" — is linked to eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression in girls and women. Adopting an early identity as a "Hot Tot" also has, the researchers wrote, "negative consequences on girls' ability to develop healthy sexuality."

This isn't surprising, or even new. But what did surprise me, reading through the A.P.A.'s many pages of recommendations for fighting back (like beefed-up athletics, extracurriculars, religion, spirituality, "media literacy" and meditation), was the degree to which the experts — who in an earlier section of the report acknowledge the toxicity of mother-daughter "fat talk" — let moms themselves off the hook as agents of destruction requiring change.

I know that sounds pretty nasty. We're not supposed to be judgmental these days. We're not supposed to blame parents — especially mothers. I also know that what mothers do or don't do (short of out-and-out abuse) doesn't, single-handedly, "cause" much of anything. But I think it's fair, even necessary, to wonder: how can we expect our daughters to navigate the cultural rapids of becoming sexual beings when we ourselves are flying blind? How can we teach them to inhabit their bodies with grace and pleasure if we spend our own lives locked in hateful battles of control, mastery and self-improvement?

Read more . . .

Gender Politics Judith Warner News Misogyny Patriarchy APA Sexualization of Girls

Gonzales Pulls a Libby

According to Sen. Chuck Schumer, the emails exposing Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales as liars -- who were involved in the prosecutor firings from the outset -- were leaked by a seriously pissed Bush administration official.

It appears that the Bushies may finally get to endure just a tiny taste of the living nightmare they have inflicted upon the world.

But the Bushies have a plan. Heh. When all the lies come crashing down, it's time to invoke the most famous Republican defense of all . . . uh, I forget, er, I can't remember, uhm, my memory fails me, uh, I have no recollection, duh, I mean I am a forgetful Republican . . .

Statement from DoJ:

"The Attorney General has no recollection of any plan or discussion to replace U.S. Attorneys while he was still White House Counsel. The period of time referred to in the email was during the weeks he was preparing for his confirmation hearing, January 6th, 2005, and his focus was on that. Of course, discussions of changes in Presidential appointees would have been appropriate and normal White House exchanges in the days and months after the election as the White House was considering different personnel changes Administration wide." [via ]

Graphic seen at All Hat No Cattle

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The Spy, Valerie Plame Testifies Today

Valerie Plame testifies before Congress today:

"She has been silent nearly four years. Today, the CIA officer whose unmasking fueled a political uproar and criminal probe that reached into the White House is poised to finally tell her own story -- before Congress."

Valerie Plame Joseph Wilson Plamegate CIA Leak News Politics Bush Congress

Marching With a Mouse

A Message
By Thomas Friedman

There aren’t a lot of environmental groups with their own investment bank consultants, so when you hear that Environmental Defense has just hired the boutique Wall Street firm Perella Weinberg Partners, you know that we’re in a new world. Every college activist should study this story, because it is the future. In the old days, when activists wanted something done, they held a sit-in or organized a protest march. Now they hire an investment bank.

O.K., maybe every activist group can’t afford Goldman Sachs, but such groups should nevertheless analyze how Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council used the Internet and the market to save the planet from tons of CO2. The story started last year when a giant Texas power company, TXU, announced plans to build 11 coal-fired, CO2-belching power plants, raising the ire of environmentalists worried about climate change. Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, which has an office in Texas, wrote to John Wilder, TXU’s chairman, and asked for a meeting, but was brushed off. TXU made it clear that it was on a fast track to build its plants and had the governor of Texas on its side.

Talk about not knowing what world you’re living in.

Read more . . .

Thomas Friedman Global Warming News Politics Environment Texas Climate Change

Attorneygate: Emails Put Blame on Rove, Not Miers

White House -- or Cronyville -- Cover-up

How just like the Republicans to blame everything on a woman. The loyal work wife Harriet Miers gets the blame. But ABC News is reporting that "new unreleased emails from top administration officials" show that the White House has been caught lying again.

Apparently it was Karl Rove who came up with the idea of firing all 93 prosecutors! Rove was involved at an earlier date than the White House has admitted. The man has turned the entire nation into Texas. This is just one more chapter in the Rove plan to bring about a permanent Republican majority.

Prosecuting Democrats is one way to win elections! Like they say, All Roads Lead to Rove.

The news here folks is that there is proof.

And the emails catch Gonzales in more lies. The squirmy innocent-eyed Alberto Gonzales -- who has repeatedly said that he knows nothing about anything -- "discussed the idea of firing the attorneys en masse weeks before he was confirmed as attorney general."

In a scathing assessment of the talents of Gonzales, Andrew Cohen says: "Gonzales is to the Justice Department and to the Constitution what former FEMA chief Michael Brown was to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina."

Our Democratic Congress is not going to like any of this. Heads are going to roll, and it's about freakin' time.

[Please click on the ad in the sidebar and tell Congress to fire Gonzales and make mincemeat of Rove!]

The e-mails directly contradict White House assertions that the notion originated with recently departed White House counsel Harriet Miers, and was her idea alone.

Two independent sources in a position to know have described the contents of the e-mail exchange, which could be released as early as Friday. They put Rove at the epicenter of the imbroglio and raise questions about Gonzales' explanations of the matter.

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Harold Ford and Santorum Join Fox News

I guess this means we are freezing out Harold Ford. It's high time.

While the Democratic base organizes against Fox, Harold Ford joins the Republican Party's mouthpiece.

Ford, Tennessee's own rightwing Democrat, is moving on up to Fox News as a political commentator. I'd say some people will do anything for a dollar, except that Ford will fit in real well over at the Republican propaganda network.

Oh, and Rick Santorum has been hired too. That's just Fox's way of being fair and balanced -- rightwing and more rightwing. [via NIT]

More on Freeze Out Fox

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Daily Show: Serving At the Pleasure of King George

Raw Story has the must-see video clip of Jon Stewart's hilarious summary of Attorney-Gate. Laughing beats crying.

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Obama Works for the GOP

This is really disappointing. But it's also a telling example of why it is far too early to pick a favorite. The irony is that Obama has criticized the msm for ignoring his own substantive record and instead focusing on how he looks in a swimsuit.

So, Obama turns around and does the very same thing to John Edwards.

Republicans plot to portray Democrats as wimps, or "faggots," and Obama joins in the fun and games. Whose side is Obama on?

Until today, my feelings about Obama have been an equal mixture of awe and hope at the man's JFK-esque way with words and a healthy suspicion that Obama is just too damn good to be true.

Let's hear it for a healthy suspicion.

The Hill:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) slipped in a compliment — of sorts — about a fellow 2008 hopeful during his appearances on the Iowa stump last weekend.

“I want to wait and hear what John Edwards has to say, he’s kind of good-looking,” Obama envisioned Iowa caucus-goers from the small town of Clinton telling themselves. During an appearance in West Burlington, Iowa, the phrase appeared again, this time with Edwards as “kind of cute.”

One Edwards supporter was nonplussed by the reference, coming as Obama stresses rising above petty politics and chafes at press attention to his own good looks. . . more
[via]

Obama John Edwards News Politics 2008 Democrats

Video: Fox Attacks Black America

And the campaign to freeze out Fox News continues. The Congressional Black Caucus recently chose CNN over Fox to host their presidential debate in South Carolina.

But the CBC is planning more debates and Fox News is still under the illusion that it is a legitimate news organization and so wants to be involved. The great thing about the Republican propaganda machine is that it provides us with the evidence against itself.

via Fox Attacks

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Bob Herbert: The Danger Zone

By Bob Herbert

The national unemployment rate came in at 4.5 percent last week and was generally characterized as pretty good. But whatever universe those numbers came from, it was not the universe that black men live in.

Black American males inhabit a universe in which joblessness is frequently the norm, where the idea of getting up each morning and going off to work can seem stranger to a lot of men than the dream of hitting the lottery, where the dignity that comes from supporting oneself and one’s family has too often been replaced by a numbing sense of hopelessness.

What I’m talking about is extreme joblessness — joblessness that is coursing through communities and being passed from one generation to another, like a deadly virus.

Forget, for a moment, the official unemployment numbers. They understate the problem of joblessness for all groups. Far more telling is the actual percentage of people in a given segment of the working-age population that is jobless.

Black men who graduate from a four-year college do reasonably well in terms of employment, compared with other ethnic groups. But most black men do not go to college. In big cities, more than half do not even finish high school.

Their employment histories are gruesome. Over the past few years, the percentage of black male high school graduates in their 20s who were jobless (including those who abandoned all efforts to find a job) has ranged from well over a third to roughly 50 percent. Those are the kinds of statistics you get during a depression. . .

Instead of addressing this issue constructively, government officials have responded by eviscerating programs that were designed to move young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into the labor market.

Robert Carmona, president of Strive, an organization that helps build job skills, told Senator Schumer’s committee, “What we’ve seen over the last several years is a deliberate disinvestment in programs that do work.”

Read more . . .

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Al Gore Scores Highest Favorable Rating

Al Gore has a higher favorability rating than any of the Democratic presidential candidates, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.

The poll finds that forty-nine percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Hillary Clinton. Obama scores 44 percent and Edwards comes in with 42 percent.

Al Gore scores 50 percent.

Another interesting finding: The number of people who view the 2000 election as less than fair and honest has increased.

"In 2000, 48 percent said President Bush won fair and square. That number has now dropped to 40 percent."

And in the actual race for the presidency, "Clinton has a lead of about 15 percent, followed by Sen. Barack Obama in second place and former Vice President Al Gore and John Edwards tied for third."

Al Gore News Politics Tennessee Nashville Poll Bush 2000 2008

Beverly Marrero Wins Special Election!

It's another progressive victory in Tennessee! Beverly Marrero will be moving from the House to the Senate as she takes over now U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen's former state senate seat.

Senator Marrero is one courageous woman. She will be hanging with one of the most rabidly conservative legislative bodies in the country.

With Marrero in the senate, the creaky old conservative senators will definitely be moving their old time legislation a little slower. The progressive Democrat will continue Steve Cohen's tradition of exposing the stuck in the 1950s senators to new and exciting ideas.

Photo via the Memphis Flyer: Beverly Marrero, holding great-granddaughter Adelai on election night, son Michael Robison and daughter-in-law Leslie Robison.

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Eight-Gate: Gonzales is Harriet Miers in Drag

Turns out that Alberto Gonzales is Harriet Miers in drag.

The Attorney General's role models?

"[M]y mom, my dad and our President."

Just call Alberto the Attorney General from the Department of Republican Justice.

And speaking of Harriet Miers, the Bushies are still piling on the blame:

[T]he White House insisted that the president’s role had been minimal and laid the blame primarily on Harriet E. Miers, who was White House counsel when the prosecutors lost their jobs and who stepped down in January.

Since Harriet is a "work wife" we guess that means she won't be testifying against her beloved hubby Bush.

Attorneygate Alberto Gonzales Harriet Miers Rove The Purge News Politics Fired Prosecutors Bush Gonzales Eight

Fox News Urged by Air America to 'Stick it to Stalin'

Too funny! The president of Air America writes a letter to Republicans offering to host their state presidential debates.

Liberals are just so kind-hearted!

Republicans filtered through the critical liberal lens . . . is there any other way to view the tired old relics from yesteryear?

Will the angry old white men at Fox News rise to the challenge?

Recall that when the Democrats cancelled the Fox News hosted Nevada debates, the fair and balanced in your dreams channel responded by charging that the Dems were acting like big bad ole' Stalin. More recently, O'Reilly said the Dems were acting like Nazis. Seriously.

Via Ben Smith's Blog at Politico:

Tweaking the Fox News Channel, the president of liberal Air America Radio this morning sent a letter to the chairmen of four state Republican parties, offering to host and broadcast the state parties' upcoming presidential debates.

Agreeing to the debate “would allow Republicans to differentiate themselves from Democrats,” Air America President Mark Green wrote to the Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina Republican chairmen in a deadpan communication provided this morning to The Politico.

The Nevada State Democratic Party dropped plans for Fox to broadcast an August debate after furious pressure from online activists, a move that drew attacks from Fox and the label of “Stalinist” from one Fox News commentator, Mort Kondracke.

“Should you accept Air America’s offer, Republicans would both embrace free debate and stick it to Stalin at the same time,” Green wrote.

Read more -- including a priceless letter to Republicans from Air America. [via]

Air America News Politics Bush Fox News Presidential Debate Liberals Republican 2008

Why Does Jim Cooper (TN-05) Want the War to Last Forever?

Matt Stoller has the list of Democratic sell-outs on the Iraq withdrawal legislation. The Blue Dogs don't want to have anything to do with a bill that has a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq.

Jim Cooper is the only Tennessean on the list.

Why does Jim Cooper want the war to last forever?

See: Take Action on Iraq Bill

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Pelosi: We Don't Need Moral Judgment from Gen. Pace

"We need the most talented people, we need the language skills, we need patriotic Americans who exist across the board in our population. We don’t need moral judgment from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs." -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Speaker Pelosi was responding to General Pace's judgmental view that gays are immoral, therefore, the bigoted 'don't ask, don't tell' military policy is a good idea.

General Pace said he got his bigoted ideas when he was just a child.

Gay Politics News General Pace Nancy Pelosi Bush Don't Ask Don't Tell

Gonzales Schedules Press Conference Today

As the calls for his head grow louder and louder, Alberto Gonzales schedules a press conference at the Department of Justice today at 2:00 PM.

Republican Scandals Attorneygate Alberto Gonzales Press Conference The Purge News Politics Rove Bush Gonzales Eight

It Was All Harriet Miers' Fault

By now you've heard that the "White House was deeply involved" in the purge of U.S. attorney generals, but did you hear that it was all Harriet Miers' fault?

The almost Supreme Court Justice apparently had an original idea when she suggested firing all 93 U.S. attorneys, but, thank Rove, the slyer heads of Gonzales, and his top aid (who resigned yesterday), and Karl Rove prevailed. Bush had nothing to do with this! He was seen napping at the time.

Bush may have "informally" mentioned the dire problem of too many people voting to Gonzales, but he certaily never suggested firing attorney generals because they failed to prosecute Democrats! Nor did his brain have anything to do with it. Just ask Harriet.

The dismissals took place after President Bush told Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in October that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations, according to a White House spokeswoman.

Gonzales approved the idea of firing a smaller group of U.S. attorneys shortly after taking office in February 2005. The aide in charge of the dismissals — his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson — resigned yesterday, officials said, after acknowledging that he did not tell key Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information to Congress.

Lawmakers requested the documents as part of an investigation into whether the firings were politically motivated. While it is unclear whether the documents, which were reviewed yesterday by The Washington Post, will answer Congress’s questions, they show that the White House and other administration officials were more closely involved in the dismissals, and at a much earlier date, than they have previously acknowledged.

Seven U.S. attorneys were fired on Dec. 7 and another was fired months earlier, with little explanation from the Justice Department. Several former prosecutors have since alleged intimidation, including improper telephone calls from GOP lawmakers or their aides, and have alleged threats of retaliation by a Justice Department official.

But it's about to get even more interesting.

Congress has requested the presence and testimony of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. And, of course, Congress is calling for Gonzales' head! [via memeorandum and Cursor]

Attorneygate Alberto Gonzales Harriet Miers Rove The Purge News Politics Fired Prosecutors Bush Gonzales Eight

How Do You Solve a Crisis Like Darfur?

Solving Darfur
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

For anyone who thinks that “genocide” is absolutely the rock-bottom possibility, keep an eye on Darfur.

The area of crisis has already spread from an area the size of France to one the size of Western Europe, encompassing Chad and Central African Republic while threatening to reignite the separate war between north and south Sudan. And aid workers increasingly are finding themselves under attack, so that humanitarian access is now lower than at any time since 2004.

Read the whole thing . . .

Nicholas Kristof Darfur News Politics Genocide Bush

Video: Rudy Giuliani on Public Funding of Abortion

"There must be public funding for abortion for poor women." -- Rudy Giuliani, November 3, 1989

Yes! Way to go, Rudy! Now let's get a Democrat to say that in 2007.

Hillary?

via Hotline

Video Abortion News Politics Rudy Giuliani Medicaid Hyde Amendment 2008

Overblown Personnel Matters

The Purge
by Paul Krugman

Nobody is surprised to learn that the Justice Department was lying when it claimed that recently fired federal prosecutors were dismissed for poor performance. Nor is anyone surprised to learn that White House political operatives were pulling the strings.

What is surprising is how fast the truth is emerging about what Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general, dismissed just five days ago as an “overblown personnel matter.”

Sources told Newsweek that the list of prosecutors to be fired was drawn up by Mr. Gonzales’s chief of staff, “with input from the White House.” And Allen Weh, the chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, told McClatchy News that he twice sought Karl Rove’s help — the first time via a liaison, the second time in person — in getting David Iglesias, the state’s U.S. attorney, fired for failing to indict Democrats. “He’s gone,” he claims Mr. Rove said.

After that story hit the wires, Mr. Weh claimed that his conversation with Mr. Rove took place after the decision to fire Mr. Iglesias had already been taken. Even if that’s true, Mr. Rove should have told Mr. Weh that political interference in matters of justice is out of bounds; Mr. Weh’s account of what he said sounds instead like the swaggering of a two-bit thug.

And the thuggishness seems to have gone beyond firing prosecutors who didn’t deliver the goods for the G.O.P. One of the fired prosecutors was — as he saw it — threatened with retaliation by a senior Justice Department official if he discussed his dismissal in public. Another was rejected for a federal judgeship after administration officials, including then-White House counsel Harriet Miers, informed him that he had “mishandled” the 2004 governor’s race in Washington, won by a Democrat, by failing to pursue vote-fraud charges.

As I said, none of this is surprising. The Bush administration has been purging, politicizing and de-professionalizing federal agencies since the day it came to power. But in the past it was able to do its business with impunity; this time Democrats have subpoena power, and the old slime-and-defend strategy isn’t working.

You also have to wonder whether new signs that Mr. Gonzales and other administration officials are willing to cooperate with Congress reflect the verdict in the Libby trial. It probably comes as a shock to realize that even Republicans can face jail time for lying under oath. . . .

In other words, the truth about that “overblown personnel matter” has only begun to be told. The good news is that for the first time in six years, it’s possible to hope that all the facts about a Bush administration scandal will come out in Congressional hearings — or, if necessary, in the impeachment trial of Alberto Gonzales.

Read more . . .

Alberto Gonzales Paul Krugman The Purge News Politics Fired Prosecutors Bush Impeach Gonzales

Video: Bill Maher on Giuliani and Republican (Low) Standards

See Crooks and Liars for the portion of the show where General Eaton says: The Republican Congress is the worst thing that’s happened to the US Army and Marine Corps.

Also, rightwingers are throwing fits because Maher said that "Republicans love Ronald Reagan in a way that’s just gay." Sounds perfectly true and complimentary to me. [via ]

Another astute observation: Romney, the Mormon, appears to be the only Republican candidate who practices monogamy. Heh.

Hat tip to Al Rodgers at dkos

Bill Maher Video Real Time News Politics Rudy Giuliani Dana Milbank Ronald Reagan General Eaton

Video: Darth Cheney and Libby Chronicles

Stephen Colbert & Letterman Sunday Funnies:

Hat tip to Al Rodgers at dkos

Colbert Report Video CIA Leak Case News Politics Scooter Libby Dick Cheney Bush

If Zell Miller Had Been Aborted . . .

Zell Miller, the disgrace to the Democratic Party, admits that your government wants you to breed so that there will be more kids to fight and die in wars.

If only abortion were illegal, all those aborted fetuses would be alive (or dead) from fighting in Iraq, screams Zell.

See the video from the Sav A Life {for the War} banquet in Macon, Georgia.

'Pro-Life' Graphic from Seeds of Doubt

What they're saying:

Bonus Misogynist of the Day
Zell Miller Diagnoses Military Recruitment Problem
Zell Miller: Women Who have Abortions Hate America!
Oh, The Wars That Could Have Been....

News Politics Bush Zell Miller Abortion Georgia Democrats DINOs Iraq War