After giving his company a free plug and touting some bogus insider scoops, inbred hillbilly Matt Towery uses Hurricane Katrina to whine about the Yankees hatin' on his beloved Dixie.

They assume we are dumb and poorly educated. That ignores the massive improvements that have been made since the Civil War ended. That's when a dual set of second-class citizens was created overnight -- destitute whites, including many in the former planter class, and uneducated former slaves.

You are dumb and poorly educated, Matt. Before the Civil War, the South had a rather large set of second-class non-citizens. It was the basis of the Southern economy. And those destitute "planters" you whine about were slaveholders, whose only valuable capital was the humans they owned. They were lucky to be living after the Civil War, let alone granted citizenship.

There wasn't a Southern utopia, intellectual or otherwise, before "the end of the Civil War," no matter how much you imagine yourself in the role of slave owner.

By the way, Matt, when you identify casino gambling as an economic foundation of the South, you aren't making a convincing case for either the economic significance of the South or its role in the growth of America.

I'm not here to bash the South (or any other region). I'm only here to bash those whose vision of Southern greatness excludes -- beyond lip service -- a significant portion of the South's population. Those whose version of Southern heritage is nothing more than a whitewashed fantasy land.

Miserable Failure

"Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control at a moment when television has been showing long lines at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been reported."

Sorry, NYT, but you're shite out of luck. The war president before which you prostrated yourself doesn't care. It's hard work, and he's tuckered out from his five-week vacation. He'll do what he needs to do to protect his war, his tax cuts and his corporate masters, and no more.

Oh, and he may include looters in his growing list of terrorists. Otherwise, don't hold your breath.

Gone With The Wind

Listen to the Neo-Confederates at The Corner wail about a supposed tragedy:

HISTORY LOST [Jim Robbins]

Katrina destroyed Confederate President Jefferson Davis' final home Beavoir. It was also the site of the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. This is a significant loss to history.

Yeah, a real tragedy. Like the destruction of one of Saddam's palaces or Mussolini's summer home.

I'm more saddened by the collapse of an Office Depot than the thrashing of a shrine to the leader of a terrorist nation who was complicit in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans - and even more southerners. Too bad Jeffy Dave wasn't alive when it happened.

Free Enterprise Fraud

More lying right-wingers:

A PR firm the fund retained, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, sent out a pitch this month to reporters saying Factor "just replaced Stephen Moore as the president of Free Enterprise Fund. Big shoes to fill! But did you know he is the heir to the Max Factor Makeup fortune? And now he runs one of the must influential policy groups in DC!"

Quite a story line: eyeliner to advocacy, rouge to riches. Except it's apparently not true. When asked about his ties to Max Factor, Mallory Factor said he knew of no link. He said it's possible "someone in the family way back" was related, but he's no heir. "I grew up in low-income housing in Bridgeport, Connecticut," Factor said. He blamed the PR firm for the bad information. The PR firm blamed Factor's "handlers."

Wow. These guys are such losers you'd think they were rightwing bloggers.

Oh wait, they are.

The New York Times gets letters -- from dopes:

Democracy requires freedom of the press. Judith Miller was jailed, not for anything she wrote, but for something she knew but refused to divulge.

The freedom to maintain silence - except with respect to a crime, and even then, if the information would incriminate the speaker - is essential to every one of us, and if we allow that freedom to be denied to one, it can be denied to all.

Marilyn E. Williams
Ithaca, N.Y., Aug. 29, 2005

I hate to break it to you, Ms. Williams, but the freedom to maintain silence except for self-incrimination is denied to all, equally. So how essential is it, if you didn't even know this?

The Death of Reaganomics

On Schmuck Central Station, Jimmy "Astroturf" Glassman pens an appreciation of Jude Wanniski, who died of a heart attack on Monday.

Seems Jimmy prefers Jude's earlier wacko ideas (Reaganomics) to his more recent ones (opposition to the War Against Iraq). Jimmy rather coldly suggests that Jude went the way of St. Ronnie once he became eligible to receive Social Security: "Wanniski, a disciple of the Columbia University economist Robert Mundell, who won a Nobel Prize in 1999, valued history and -- at least until the final years -- logical clarity."

Jimmy also describes Wanniski's more recent writings as "sadly loopy," but undercuts that claim by referencing an Wanniski article castigating Bill Kristol for his war cheerleading. If that's an example of loopy, Jimmy should be so sane.

It's a shame Wanniski didn't live to see the Dow reach 36,000.

Land of Genuises

You might have seen the story about an Illinois student newspaper which published a series of articles about an eight-year-old orphan girl whose father served and died in the War Against Iraq. The story turned out to be a hoax; the question remains as to whether the paper's editor was in on the scam.

The larger story -- not the fake one -- is chock full o' morons. Here's the editor's tale:

He [Michael Brennan] was the student newspaper editor when some of the Kodee "Kenningsology" columns were published but was quick to point out in the Friday interview that other Daily Egyptian editors had also published the columns.

He said he spent "1,000 hours" talking on the telephone with a person he said he believed was Kodee. He now believes it was Colleen Hastings, a person identified by the Daily Egyptian in its Friday edition as Jaimie Reynolds, a 27-year-old from Marion who graduated in 2004 from the SIUC School of Radio and Television. In the edition, the student newspaper published a front-page apology under the headline, "To all, we deeply regret our error."

What kind of freaking idiot spends a total of 42 days on the phone with a 27-year-old woman and thinks he's talking with an eight-year-old girl? For that matter, what kind of freak spends 42 days on the phone with an eight-year-old child he's not related to?

Brenner's clearly a half-wit; the only question is whether he's a half-wit for thinking anyone would buy that story.

And then there's the chuckleheads who allowed their ten-year-old daughter to be passed off as someone else's child:

On Thursday, 10-year-old Caitlin Hadley sat between her parents on a couch in her mom's office, retelling the two-year odyssey that began with her belief that she was going to be the star of a documentary film about a little girl named Kodee.

"It was sort of weird, but I had a lot of fun," Caitie said.

Her father, Richard Hadley, is a pastor at a Nazarene church in Montpelier, Ind., and her mother works for the church's regional office. Both said they felt they'd been scammed by Reynolds.

"I just realized that I didn't know this girl," Tawnya Hadley said. "In the profession that my husband is in, we move and meet new people all the time. What if she'd never brought Caitie back? We feel like we're idiots."

...

As Caitie's involvement continued, the Hadleys began asking why the documentary had not been finished.

A documentary film about a little girl named Kodee.

We feel like you're idiots too, Tawnya.

Remind me never to get pastoral counselling from a Nazarene pastor.

I completely had forgotten about the sacrifices that Judy Miller is making for the good of our nation until last weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, Lifetime Televison for Women aired Prison of Secrets, a 1997 television movie based on a true story. It starred Stephanie "Remington Steele" Zimbalist as a wife and mother setenced to prison for 10 years for fraud. In prison, Zimbalist discovered that her fellow inmate, Finola "General Hospital" Hughes, was exchanging sex with prison guard Dan "the father on The Wonder Years" Lauria for drugs and a toothbrush. I didn't watch the whole movie, but I understand that the point of it was that Zimbalist blew the whistle on Dan Lauria and some other, less famous actors and, as a result, steps were taken to limit the use of male guards at womens' prisons.

Thanks to Patrick Fitzgerlad, Ms. Miller can use her time behinds bars constructively, to champion similar reforms in the penal system. Or to demand that Kristy McNichol portray her in the teevee film. It's her call.

Katrina and the Waves

Hurricane Katrina could bring 15 inches of rain and a storm surge of 20 feet or higher that would "most likely topple" the network of levees and canals that normally protect the bowl-shaped city from flooding.

(link)

Update: I'm not sure this post has/had a point. It also comes off as insensitive. My only excuse is that I'm just tired right now.

Andrew Sullivan has been selected as presenter of the latest DIY/makeover programme by Britain's Channel Four. He explains the show's premise here.

It should air on BBC America next spring.

Sounds About Right

August 27, 2005 -- WASHINGTON -- Cyber-sleuths working for a Pentagon intelligence unit that reportedly identified some of the 9/11 hijackers before the attack were fired by military officials, after they mistakenly pinpointed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other prominent Americans as potential security risks, The Post has learned.

But what mistake? Condiliar, Rumsfeld and the rest of the neo-clowns were and are security risks.

(Link to N.Y. Post, requires registration.)

Prattle Fatigue

If you accept the offical estimates, nearly 1,900 American servicemen and women have died in Iraq and over 13,000 have been wounded.

Focusing on the dead and injured, while understandable, does a grave disservice to the real American casualties. These victims can be ignored no longer. Listen to their voices:

"I think everyone is tired. I was tired of the war before the invasion of Iraq and my involvement has been rather more peripheral than GWB's."

Such suffering calls out for greater exposure. I propose that the widow Reynolds travel to Texas and announce the opening of "Camp Cracker," to honor the sacrifice of these war-weary men and women. They have sacrificed their credibility, their attention spans, yea, the very circulation in their well-upholstered asses to support the Administration's destruction of Iraq; in return, all they ask is to not be asked to do anything.

They have earned their naps. Let a grateful nation tuck them in.

Terror Master Of His Domain

James Wolcott catches neo-con tosser Michael Leeden attempting to rewrite history, starting with his own book, The War Against The Terror Masters.

I predict Leeden will get away with it, since most copies of his book are disintegrating in his storage unit or being used as coasters at AEI.

Nick Kristof would do well to read this article in The Nation before he undertakes his next messianic photo-op trip to Southeast Asia.

Roger's News Quiz: 35 Years Too Late Edition

Which school features the following Summer Reading List for AP English classes?

Sula - Toni Morrison
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Angels in America - Tony Kushner

Nip/WTF

You know you're about to read something that sucks when it starts like this:

"The Breastapo ...."

What's next, Dr. Satel? Will you accuse feminists of perpetrating the Areolaecaust?

For a less result-oriented review of the risks involved, read here.

Update (8/23/05): Our Sal loves the phrase "Breastapo." For her, the term not only encompasses purportedly anti-implant feminists but also "judgmental, relentlessly pro-breast feeding" health care professionals. The Breastapo is a regular feminist juggernaut!

Two Different Ones

Did anyone see today's Road to the White House 2008 on C-SPAN? It featured Newt Gingrich at the Iowa State Fair. Newt was wearing a white 44 gallon Hefty Cinch-Sak and touring an exhibit of the fair's Largest Boars.

It's a shame C-SPAN is so humorless. The scene screamed for a Chyron reading:

SNOWBALL (R-GA)
"Two Legs Good, Four Legs Bad"

The New York Times' Go To Guy For Right-Wing Pseudo Science On Race And Gender

Today marks the first official appearance of Steve Sailer, writer for the white nationalist webrag, VDare, in an John Tierney op-ed column. Tierney has cited his bigoted pal in the pages of the Times before, but not in his op-ed column.

Tierney's column is filled with "evolutionary psychology" mumbo-jumbo purporting to show that golf is a manifestation of mens' hunting instinct. (Next column: "Aiming At The Urinal Cake Reveals Nature's Plan For Male Dominance"). Perhaps the similarities between Tierney's column and this three-year old Sailer column reveal the natural male instinct to recycle crap.

The web version of Tierney's column approvingly links to another Sailer piece containing this profound analysis: "On the other hand, the Ladies Professional Golf Association's Nabisco Championship in Palm Springs has become one of the largest annual lesbian get-togethers in the United States, but, as Camille Paglia has noted, lesbians tend not to be interested in the classic visual arts, and, indeed, are often resentful of the prestige of Dead White European Male artists." Do Tierney and the Times endorse this bigotry?

You can read more about John Tierney's best buddy here and here.

Has it really been two years?

"Two years ago an artwork featuring Kylie Minogue's bottom was pulled from the Royal Academy's summer show after the singer's lawyers complained." -- bbc.co.uk

Just Us Sunday

(This is the post the computer ate. Seems to me it was funnier than this.)

As last Sunday approached, I was at a hypothetical crossroads. On the one hand, I could have spent an afternoon in the company of Southern California's finest bloggers at a fete hosted by Jane Hamsher of firedoglake and Stephen Anderson of SteveAudio. On the other hand, there was the once in a lifetime opportunity to liveblog Justice Sunday II: The Constitution's Dead. Torn between two such attractive choices, I spent the day curled up in bed, writhing and in a fetal position, like Clarence Thomas. Just an ordinary Sunday as Casa Ailes, really.

Kobepalooza, the Southern California event to which I was actually invited, did in fact feature the best SoCal polibloggers (except Digby). Jane Hamsher advises that I, or more accurately, the thing you're reading, also was a topic of conversation, in regard to my/its on-again off-again status on the Huffington Post blogroll.

Arianna Huffington told Jane that when my blog appeared on her blogroll the first day, the other Ailes called her asked why she was making fun of him. Apparently the other Ailes thought he was so important -- or so deserving of ridicule -- that someone created over two years of blog posts just to twit him. That, or he didn't actually bother to read this blog.

Arianna (may I call her that?) had no idea what was going on, she didn't create the blogroll or know anything about this blog. She thought someone in the office was playing a joke. So they just took the link down and eventually everything got straightened out.

The bottom line: Neither of them knew who the hell I was.

Not necessarily a bad thing.

And, in the end, my reinstatement on the blogroll was a pyrrhic victory. Just this week, the Huffington Post replaced its blogroll with banner ads and relegated the blogroll to a barely noticeable drop-down menu link.

Ah, well.

Grand Old Police Blotter: House Arrest Edition

Accused Republican war profiteer Randall "Duke" Cunningham will have to bunk with Mitchell Wade for a while, if the Feds have their way:

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Attorney's Office has initiated attempts to seize the home of U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, alleging that the California Republican's $3.5 million estate was purchased with bribe money, court records show.

Cunningham, 63, an eight-term congressman, has been under investigation by federal prosecutors, the Internal Revenue Service and the criminal investigative arm of the Pentagon over his ties to a defense contractor who purchased another home of his in late 2003, then sold it for a loss.

The sealed court documents, filed on July 21 and first reported by the San Diego Union Tribune, give notice of a civil lawsuit seeking title to the Rancho Santa Fe, California, property, owned by Cunningham and his wife, Nancy.

The court filing, which was made a week after Cunningham announced he would not seek re-election in 2006, said that the congressman's house "constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 201."

That federal law relates to bribery and conflicts of interest by government officials.

The only growing profession in the Bush economy is Republican criminal defense attorney.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Terrorists for Bush Edition

Let them get away with it once, they'll try it again and again. Bush supporters impersonating Secret Service officers to intimidate law-abiding citizens.

John Joseph Blaisdell was hanging around the camp between about midnight Wednesday and 6:30 a.m. Thursday, telling people that he was with the Secret Service detail for Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother and governor of Florida, according to protester Ann Wright.

Chief Deputy Randy Plemons of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office said that at about 6:30 a.m. protesters asked the Alameda, Calif. resident to produce a badge. At that point, Blaisdell became irritated and threatened to harm one of the protesters, Plemons said.

Plemons indicated that Blaisdell proceeded to make hand gestures indicating that he had a weapon before running up the dead-end Morgan Road, away from the protest camp.

Sheriff's deputies were alerted and Blaisdell was apprehended a short distance up the road without incident.

Blaisdell was charged with impersonating a peace officer, a Class C felony; a Class C misdemeanor threat; and making a terroristic threat, a Class B misdemeanor. He remained in the McLennan County Jail Thursday night, awaiting arraignment.

It seems selective enforcement of the law is emboldening the wingnuts. The Jeb Bush tie is a nice touch. Did Jebby ever hold those "pro-life" nuts responsible for their criminal trespass at Ms. Schiavo's hospice?

Grand Old Police Blotter: Lord of The Cells Edition

Bad news for Lord" Conrad Black, ex-Canuck and neo-con press baron:

A longtime business partner of the former press baron Conrad M. Black was indicted on fraud charges yesterday and - in what may be bad news for Lord Black - has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.

The former partner, F. David Radler, is the former publisher of The Chicago Sun-Times, and co-founded Hollinger International Inc. with Lord Black....

....Legal specialists said Mr. Radler's deal was ominous for Lord Black.

"Cooperation by Mr. Radler can only spell trouble for Mr. Black," said Robert A. Mintz, a former federal prosecutor who is now a criminal defense lawyer. "In this particular case, the road to cooperation leads in only one direction."

...

The charges relate to payments totaling more than $32 million made to executives and parent companies of Hollinger International, which were ultimately controlled by Lord Black. Mr. Radler was the second-biggest shareholder of the companies. Prosecutors say that when Hollinger sold dozens of newspapers several years ago, the defendants disguised payments to them as part of agreements not to compete with the papers. But prosecutors said the payments were bonuses that should have been taxed.

...

Since then, a blizzard of civil actions has engulfed the company and its big-name roster of current and former directors - including former Gov. James Thompson of Illinois; former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger; a senior Reagan administration official, Richard N. Perle; and Marie-Josée Kravis, the wife of the financier Henry R. Kravis.

...

In past interviews and court filings, Mr. Black, 60, said he looked forward to vindicating himself in court. He argued that any money he took out of the company was authorized by the company's board. He also said he was blindsided by "corporate governance terrorists" who hijacked his company for their own gain.

"Are there dangerous men in federal prison, Frum?"

"Up to a point, Lord Black."

Computer ate a large post. Will try again tomorrow.

Do Tread On Me

Mister Ed used to hate flag desecration. Weeks ago, he hated it so much that he made shit up about the desecration of flags just to show how much he hated flag desecration.

Today, the aftermath of a flag desecration was photographed and made widely available on the 'net, and the perpetrator of the desecration was identified. This time, Mister Ed managed to suppress his phony outrage.

Why the silence, Mister Ed?

Romenesko Letters:

From DAVID EHRENSTEIN: Lucy Dalglish to Newsday: "I know what's bothering [Judith Miller] more than anything is she cannot read the Internet. ... People are telling her about some allegations about her that are in the blogosphere and she has no way to fight back."

Now please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Judy Miller write for a publication called the New York Times? And wouldn't the New York Times be more than glad to print absolutely anything she had to say about her current situation, helpfully supplying Miller with hard copy of what any number of different parties in greater blogistan have written? Better get back to complaining about that foam mattress. That's the best way to play the victim card, dear.

To which I'd add -- the allegations in the blogosphere (and elsewhere) against J.F. Miller were in circulation long before Miller was sentenced to prison. I'm not aware of any new ones popping up since she was sent down -- at least ones that don't have to do with what she's refusing to testify about. Why couldn't Miller be bothered to respond before now?

Disabled and Dangerous Wingnuts

Like, I said -- IT'S REGNERY. Why would any sane person trust Regnery?

Here's a flashback to Weldon's fellow Regnery fraud, Michelle Malkin, confessing her unfamiliarity with the truth:

Accordingly, I am retracting my claim that Herzig-Yoshinaga "surreptitiously shared confidential documents with" Irons. I have made a note of this on the errata page of my book. Moreover, I am directing Regnery to excise the words "surreptitiously" and "confidential" from future editions of the book.

In addition, I retract the following statements which appeared on my blog:

August 24, 2004:

Contrary to [University of North Carolina law professor Eric] Muller's assertion that the papers shared were "publicly available documents sitting in publicly available files at archives open to the public," the article makes clear that Irons did not obtain permission to receive the papers he acquired from Herzig-Yoshinaga.

August 25, 2004:

As I noted, these records, however, had not been cleared for public use, and Iron's request to copy them had been explicitly denied. By the way, this was not the only time Irons engaged in these sort of shenanigans.

I apologize to Irons and Herzig-Yoshinaga for the errors.

Regnery: Home of the Bullshit Claim and the Unsubstantiated Smear. Anyone who buys a Regnery book buys garbage.

p.s. -- I'm going to start calling Regnery "RegneryEnron." Aren't I a clever chops?

Who Moved My Ability to Reason?

Heh.

I hope she turned down the Op-Ed job the NYT gave to that libertarian dolt, John Tierney. There's no other excuse.

Gopfellas

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be Republican Senator.

New York Republican senate candidate Jeanine Pirro is no stranger to taking campaign money from alleged wiseguys. In fact, the Daily News reports that Pirro took campaign money from a former New York Post executive/convicted criminal named Dick Nasti.

Whaddya mean I'm nasty? Like I'm Dick Morris, I'm here to repulse you? What the fuck is so nasty about me?

Albert Pirro's name has shown up an a Gambino wiretap, and he's already been convicted of applying Reverend Moon's tax accounting principles to his own returns.

Now, Jeanine gets to live the rest of her life as a schnook.

You Eeediots!

The man wrote a book for Regnery.

What more do you need?

Mysteries of Modern Life

Who reads the bridge column? Do people who play bridge even read the bridge column?

"Your honor," the district attorney began, "we will prove South committed a felony, in that he went down at a cold 3NT."

"Proceed."

"North-South were using an antiquated bidding system," the DA began. "In modern methods, North's raise to three diamonds would be invitational or preemptive. South treated it as forcing since he bid 3NT with minimum values."

"I can see the bidding was vintage 1950," sighed the judge. "Get on with it."

"South took the queen of spades," the DA said, "and led a heart to dummy's queen. East won and returned a spade, and South won and let the nine of diamonds ride. East took the king and led his last spade for down one."

Why no column for euchre or pinochle or hearts? Why do papers waste valuable space which could be dedicated to Cryptoquote, or This Day in History?

The Light At The End of The Carpal Tunnel Or, When Jonah Comes Marching Home

Frank Rich's column raises the question: What will the Fighting Keyboarders do when the war ends?

Wbat lies ahead now in Iraq instead is not victory, which Mr. Bush has never clearly defined anyway, but an exit (or triage) strategy that may echo Johnson's March 1968 plan for retreat from Vietnam: some kind of negotiations (in this case, with Sunni elements of the insurgency), followed by more inflated claims about the readiness of the local troops-in-training, whom we'll then throw to the wolves. Such an outcome may lead to even greater disaster, but this administration long ago squandered the credibility needed to make the difficult case that more human and financial resources might prevent Iraq from continuing its descent into civil war and its devolution into jihad central.

Sure, Mister Ed has his lucrative career as an Alan Hale impersonator to fall back on, and the PowerDrain boys can spend more time surfing for gay porn. But will the nation organize parades for the other vets as they emerge, pale and winded, from their familial basements? Will federal funds be available to treat those suffering from Cheeto Dust Syndrome? Will their sacrifice be honored -- or mocked?

Their Satanic Hannities Request

Other songs on the forthcoming Rolling Stones album which aren't about the Miserable Failure:

Lawn Fighting Man
Tumbling Polls
When The Wimp Goes Down
Pickles' Little Helper
Let Them Bleed

Previous Rolling Stones songs which weren't about the Miserable Failure, but could have been:

Monkey Man
Empty Heart
Turd on the Run
Lies
Bitch

You see, if we profile Arab men and stop the unconscionable P.C. harassment of real Americans, we'll all be safe from terrorism ... until the moment that the blast provides us with sweet, sweet relief from the burdens of this life.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Hush Yo' Mouth Edition

WASHINGTON - The Republican Party says it still has a zero-tolerance policy for tampering with voters even as it pays the legal bills for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring to thwart Democrats from voting in New Hampshire.

James Tobin, the president's 2004 campaign chairman for New England, is charged in New Hampshire federal court with four felonies accusing him of conspiring with a state GOP official and a GOP consultant in Virginia to jam Democratic and labor union get-out-the-vote phone banks in November 2002.

The Republican National Committee already has spent more than $722,000 to provide Tobin, who has pleaded innocent [sic], a team of lawyers from the high-powered Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly.

Dual representation -- where one client pays the lawyer's fees and another client is the ostensible recipient of the lawyer's representation and best counsel -- raises a host of legal ethics issues.

Often, the interests of those financing the representation and those receiving the representation diverge. For example, it may be in Tobin's best interests to negotiate a plea deal where he agrees to cooperate with authorities and provide information about other RNC crimes in exchange for a lighter sentence. It may be in Tobin's best interest to testify at trial, whereas the RNC might prefer for him to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. It might be in Tobin's best interest for W&C not to share his confidences, or the firm's work product/information obtained in its investigation, with the RNC; the RNC might like to know what Tobin and W&C know. Those are all actual conflicts of interest.

I'm confident that W&C would provide full disclosure to both clients and withdraw from representing Tobin in the event of a conflict of interest. They're a preeminent Washington D.C. law firm and have no reason to favor the interests of the RNC over those of Tobin, after all.

Mr. Tobin would be well advised, however, to be wary of geeks bearing gifts.

In the meantime, we eagerly await the American Center for Voting Rights' strongest condemnation of these felonies designed to disenfranchise voters. Or for Mark F. "Thor" Hearne, ACVR Legislative Fund Counsel, to join Tobin's defense team. Whichever comes first.

The Hairless Hack has found the key to ripping off his employer: Simply cut-and-paste large chunks of what Slate already has paid other contributors to write. Dana Stevens, Bruce Reed, etc. Everyone already has read them before reaching the Midget's reactionary drivellings, but Kaus is happy to add a sentence fragment or two to their work and call it a day.

The Washington Post Corporation may be a full employment act for right-wing hacks, but you'd think Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC would require their employees to do real work for their paychecks.

Advertisement

Mohammad Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague in April 2001.

Dr. Steven Hatfill was responsible for the anthrax mailings in 2001.

Saddam Hussein has stockpiles of chemical weapons and other WMD.

Who can you trust?

George Will's Profiles In Morality

"David Stockman had custody of the stolen briefing book; I only read the stolen book."

Yes, it's okay if you're only an accessory after the fact.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Jack Shit Edition

The long road to bring Jack Abramoff, the best bud of Texan Bugchaser Tom Delay, began with the single step of taking the scumbag into custody:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 - Jack Abramoff, the once-powerful Republican lobbyist involved in ethics allegations facing Representative Tom DeLay, was indicted in Florida on Thursday on unrelated fraud charges involving his purchase of a fleet of gambling boats from a businessman who was slain amid bitter wrangling over the sale.

The indictment by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale charges Mr. Abramoff and a business partner with conspiracy and wire fraud in the $147.5 million purchase of the shipping line, SunCruz Casinos, in 2000. They are accused of presenting lenders with a counterfeit document suggesting that they had arranged a $23 million wire transfer to the seller.

...

The Associated Press reported late Thursday that Mr. Abramoff had been taken into custody in Los Angeles. Mr. Sonnett said that Mr. Abramoff had not surrendered immediately to the authorities on Thursday because he was traveling with his 12-year-old daughter and needed to arrange for her safe return to the Washington area.

"The government has taken the position that if he doesn't turn himself in immediately, that they are going to consider him a fugitive," Mr. Sonnett said. "The government doesn't seem to care that he's with his 12-year-old."

The government isn't the only one who doesn't care.

Don't worry, Jack. I'm sure you can get a lighter sentence if you tell the truth about Tom.

And Michael Medved can watch your kids while you're repaying your debt to society.

An actual e-mail to Roger Ailes:

To whom it may concern:

We have suffered greatly over the past fifteen years, having had our name associated with lies and malicious smears. We raised our son to tell the truth, to respect the privacy of others and not to have sex with produce. We have no idea what happened. We do not agree with the dishonest, politically-motivated bile of our son. He now promotes a corrupt administration at the expense of our family's good name and reputation. Believe us, had we known, we would have had him committed. At a minimum.


Sincerely,

Mr. and Mrs. Drudge

Apuzzo Lied, People Said "Who The Fuck Is Appuzo?"

Tbogg has some good, clean fun at the expense of Jason Apuzzo, pretend filmmaker and husband of a positive immigrant maid.

While waiting for a sugar daddy to bankroll his next epic, Mr. Apuzzo has taken up fiction writing -- Only he wants you suckers to think it's nonfiction.

Writing about real filmmaker Paul Weitz, the fauxteur says:

This 'satire' from Universal Pictures deals with Pakistani suicide bombers out to kill the US president. The film stars Hugh Grant, Richard Dreyfuss, Willem Dafoe and Mandy Moore. According to writer-director Paul Weitz ("American Pie"), "The film is a comic examination of ... cultural obsessions" like the War on Terror "and how they can anaesthetise us to the actual issues of our day."

In reality, Weitz said:

"The film is a comic examination of our cultural obsessions and how they can anaesthetise us to the actual issues of our day."

Did Weitz actually call the "war on terror" a "cultural obsession"? No. By doctoring Weitz's words, Apuzzo tries to make it seem like Weitz said something he didn't say. Some might call it defamation. It's certainly dishonest.

Will the right-wing arselickers -- and Assrockets -- who cite this cut-and-paste tool as an expert on Hollywood castigate their boy for fabricating quotes? Don't hold your breath.

(And don't give me any of that maybe Appuzo didn't know the real quote crap.)

All Things Bright And Beautiful
All Creatures Great And Small
All Spores Vile and Botulus
Ron Reagan Sold Them All

A BRITISH cow that died in an Oxfordshire field in 1937 has emerged as the source of Saddam Hussain's "weapons of mass destruction" programme that led to the Iraq war.

An ear from the cow was sent to an English laboratory, where scientists discovered anthrax spores that were later used in secret biological warfare tests by Winston Churchill.

The culture was sent to the United States, which exported samples to Iraq during Saddam's war against Iran in the 1980s. Inspectors have found that this batch of anthrax was the dictator's choice in his attempts to create biological weapons.

...

The odyssey of the Iraqi anthrax was unravelled by Geoffrey Holland, a politics student and antiwar campaigner at the University of Sussex. The exact batch chosen by Saddam was disclosed in the CIA report by Charles Duelfer, the former UN weapons inspector, last autumn.

...

A congressional investigation into Gulf War syndrome by Don Riegle had already uncovered invoices showing that this batch was shipped from the United States between 1986 and 1988.

Chris Comes Up With A Justification Even The Administration Won't Peddle

We invaded Iraq to restore stability to the country:

"Bad as Iraq may look now, it is nothing to what it would have become without the steadying influence of coalition forces.

"Hic!"

World O'Crap delivers a merciless beat down to the increasingly senile Roger el-Simon.

How's that Depends Media project coming, Rog?

Most Tedious Subject Ever

What is the future of network news?

or

Are bloggers journalists?

You make the call!

Grand Old Police Blotter: Wild, Wild West Edition

Spokane's Republican mayor, Jim West, gets a visit from the feds:

The warrant is based on suspicions that West might have violated federal public-corruption laws using interstate wire communications, the newspaper reported.

The FBI obtained the warrant to search West's home after convincing a federal judge there was probable cause to believe a federal crime has been committed.

The warrant says there is sufficient evidence to believe that West "knowingly and willingly engaged in a scheme to entice others to engage in sexual activity with him through offers and grants of city of Spokane jobs, internships or appointments," the newspaper reported.

I didn't realize a job with the City of Spokane was so valuable.

FCC Hires Bush Administration Shill

Reuters has a watered-down version of the story:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outspoken anti-pornography advocate has been hired by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to advise the agency on consumer issues involving the cable and broadcast industry, which has been under scrutiny for airing racy material.

Penny Nance, who previously ran the "Kids First Coalition" which advocates on the issues of adoption, crime, pornography, abortion and computer safety, has been hired as a part-time adviser in the FCC's Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, an agency spokesman said.

Nance, a self-described religious conservative, has testified before Congress and has been interviewed on cable television about Internet child pornography. She did not return calls seeking comment.

Reuters left out "Bush Administration shill" in Nance's list of disqualifying attributes. Media Matters chronicled Nance's shilling on Faux last summer:

NANCE: Well, I'm clearly in favor of President [George W.] Bush because I believe he is the man that American women trust to protect our children and he cares about the safety and well-being of our children.

NANCE: [W]hat American women are looking for, what we security moms are looking for is tough leadership, the kind of man President [George W.] Bush is.

Watch for the FCC to levy huge fines against broadcasters who expose innocent children to the truth about George W. Bush.

Nance is aligned with all the big name wingnut media crusaders:

In January, Nance joined others in the letter urging Bush to appoint as FCC chair someone committed to enforcing indecency laws. Other signatories included stalwarts of the conservative political movement such as Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, and Phyllis Schlafly, president of Eagle Forum, as well as longtime FCC critics Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, and Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council, who both argue the agency has shirked its responsibility to crack down on indecent broadcasts.

"The breakdown of standards on TV and radio is a 'moral values' problem we cannot ignore," said the letter to Bush, which was widely interpreted in D.C. as a plea to appoint Martin. It called for "repeated and expanded" fines "until broadcasters understand they are not above the law." It also cited "a huge indecency problem on basic cable channels."

Actually, I can't feel too sorry for the media monoliths that have spent so much time sucking up to and shilling for Bush. They have nobody to blame but themselves when their Bushlicking backfires and hits them in their bottom line.

Scooped!

I've been scooped by Max Blumenthal at the Huffington Post and patriotboy at Jesus' General.

Last week, someone e-mailed me a link to some candid snaps of College Republicans doing what they do best, with a surprising amount of publicly-displayed affection. Perhaps they were practicing hugging widows and widowers and their kids for when they become President. Or perhaps they've learned that when you're well-connected and hard right, anything you do in your first forty years doesn't matter.

I started to write about these jackasses back on August 5, but hit a brick wall. What can you say about people who lead meaningless lives and are impervious to ridicule? Usually I can say quite a bit, but this time the well of contempt was dry. And, to be blunt, the photographs tell the whole story.

Why I Call Him "Pumpkinhead"

Exhibit A

Jane Hamsher takes a close look at G.O.P. Timmy's role in the Administration's treachery re: Valerie Plame. Is it any surprise that the Administration went to its friends, Pumpkinhead and Mitchell, to do its dirty deeds?

Read, enjoy, and then scroll down for a snap of Unfrozen Caveman Governor. ("Fire bad. Fire scare unfertilized ovum. Me position on fire evolve.")

Fuck Those Bastards In Kansas

So says the eminent Fraudian, Charles Krauthammer, who's up for a little realpolitik horse-trading:

Some of the president's greatest supporters in the war on terror are shaking their heads in disbelief at his remarks. Charles Krauthammer, a neoconservative commentator, said the idea of teaching intelligent design -- creationism's "modern step-child" -- was "insane".

"To teach it as science is to encourage the supercilious caricature of America as a nation in the thrall of a religious authority," he wrote. "To impose it on the teaching of evolution is ridiculous."

Krauthammer's scathing article appeared in the current issue of Time magazine before Bush expressed his opinion. He believes it prompted a reporter to ask the president where he stood.

Caught off-guard, Bush gave an unrehearsed answer. "It is very clear to me that he is sincere about this," Krauthammer said. "He is not positioning."

However, he added: "If you look at this purely as a cynical political move, it will help in the heartlands and people of my ilk care a lot more about Iraq than about textbooks in Kansas."

Creationism is for the insane. Except when it keeps those Mid-Western feebs in line and thus allows Our Glorious Leader to practice his own theory of reverse evolution on the lower life forms in Iraq.

Coming soon: Quackhammer agrees to swap most of Article II and the Bill of Rights for the murder of some Central American nuns and the rearming of our friends the Iranians. Oh, wait, I think he's already done that one. As a Doctrine.

Where you've already read this: James Wolcott.

The best tribute to Robin Cook would be to listen to what he had to say.

There'll Always Be An Engnald

I never point out other bloggers' typos unless there's something unbearably funny about the wording of the mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, and bloggers aren't paid to proofread themselves. You get that for which you pay. And any post mocking a typo is guaranteed to contain an even more embarrassing typo, no matter how many times you reread it.

But when your output lacks any substance whatsoever, shouldn't you use spellcheck just to make yourself look a little less stupid? I give you Kathryn Jean Lopez:

I HOPE NO ONE OUT THERE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
is playing this. It's Saturday for Pete's sake. That's strickly weekday material.
Posted at 02:34 PM

FROM BRITIAN [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Robin Cook, the official who famously resigned during the run-up to the Iraq war, has died. RIP
Posted at 02:25 PM

Of course, when Lopez does attempt a thought, it's an abortion of both style and substance:

I CERTAINLY KNOW LIFE DIDN'T BEGIN IN THE FALL OF 2001, BUT... [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Am I wrong to be justifiably uncomfortable with the Hiroshima headline in the Washington Post today? "The Original Ground Zero." Anyone who's lived in America in the past few years knows what "Ground Zero" conjures up. What we dropped in Japan is such a complicated question. What was done to us on 9/11/01 has no reasonable-people-can-disagree justification. I am pretty sure I am reading way too much into that Post headline, but it left me feeling like it should have been written some other way.
Posted at 02:17 PM

No reasonable people can disagree that Lopez is a moron. The centers of the sites where American atomic bombs were dropped on Japan have been called Ground Zero since at least 1946. To suggest that using the original meaning of the term is improper reeks of arrogance born of cult-like devotion to the Miserable Failure and the myth that his greatest failure was a triumph. It's also a pathetic attempt to sanitize this Nation's history and, indirectly, the indiscriminate use of bombs by the current Administration.

Meanwhile, Cliff May just gets stupider and stupider.

It's Hard Work

A spokesman for the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation said that neither the council nor Bush had any way of knowing that the person they were honoring was a condemned multiple murderer.

Today's Republican Party: It's Hardcore!

Readers of Atrios and Ed Cone already will have heard about Republican Klansman Heritageman Doug Hanks, who sought to represent the Republican Party on the Charlotte (N.C.) City Council.

Here's the story of Doug and his pals at stormfront.org:

Doug Hanks said the postings on the site were fictional and designed to win white supremacists' trust as he researched a novel he was writing.

"I needed information for the book and some other writings I was doing," Hanks told The Associated Press on Friday. "Obviously, when you go to a site like that as a reporter, nobody's going to give you the time of day. I did what I thought I needed to do to establish myself as a credible white nationalist."

Hanks' 4,000 postings to the Web site over the past three years were first reported Thursday by The Rhinoceros Times, a weekly newspaper.

In a June 1 posting, Hanks wrote: "When Blacks start acting equally, only then will they enjoy the benefits of being treated equally. I treat a rabid dog differently from a healthy one. In fact, this gives me a terrific idea! Let's treat all the Blacks like the rabid beasts they are. 'Yeller! Here Boy!'"

Mr. Hanks ain't no ordinary racist peckerwood. No, according to his bio at "Patriot Publications," he's

a licensed general contractor, legally ordained minister, and the chief conservation officer of an experimental redwood reforestation project in the North Carolina mountains. He is presently an honorary co-chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee's Business Advisory Council, and received an award for environmental protection achievement from the President of the United States. He is currently working on a series of pro-Second Amendment novels.

He's not only a Republican racist, he's a religious bigot too:

Described as "'Unintended Consequences' and 'Harrison Bergeron' meets 'The Turner Diaries'," "Patriot Act" foretells of a future where a Zionist-controlled government eliminates all freedom and individual thought; where patriotism is akin to terrorism, and being proud of one's heritage is criminal.

Hanks is no namby-pamby either, according to his fans:

I finished reading "Patriot Act" ... AWESOME! It's the Turner Diaries for the 21st century. It's better than I had hoped. I was thinking it was more of a pro-Constitution, pro-Second Amendment novel which only touched peripherally on the race and Jewish problem. Not so, it's hardcore! It's a really compelling read because of your extensive character development and the way you tied them together in the end.

Billy in North Carolina

Does Dennis Prager know about this?

But don't take Billy's word for it -- here's the "Overview/Forward" (.pdf) to Hanks' racist and subliterate novel.

Hanks has already taken down his campaign website, but it's cached here.

On his site, the closeted Klansman boasted that "[i]n conjunction with the historic preservation group, HPEPC I climbed to the top of the 50-foot tall pole in freezing temperatures" to replace a Confederate flag taken down by the city council. He claimed, "[t]his was not an issue of North vs. South; it was about right versus wrong, and the fact that taking down any flag of heritage is inherently wrong."

If you wish contact the loathsome bigot by e-mail, he requests that you send your feedback via the links listed here.

If you wish to congratulate the National Republican Congressional Committee on its discernment in selecting advisors, you can do so here.

Peggy Works Blue In The Red States

Now that Bob Novak has given legitimacy to the art form, Peggy Noonan has decided to work blue as well.

I end that sentence with a preposition to segue into my favorite story this summer of cultural tensions and differences as navigated by two American women. A Southern lady sees a vacationing society lady from the Northeast. The Southern lady is gregarious: "Where y'all from?" Society lady is put off: "I'm from a place where they don't end sentences with a preposition." Southern lady smiles, nods her head: "Beg your pardon. Where y'all from, bitch?"

It's fun to see cultures collide, because that's one of the ways you know they still exist.

Such fun. Almost as much fun as when the Southern lady saw three law-abiding Muslim men and up an' called the po-lice men.

And it's a true story, too. Barbara Bush tried to have the woman killed for her insolence, but Peggy distracted Bar with some gin.

We've gotten ahead of ourselves.

Peggy's foul-mouthed joke is featured in the opening paragraphs of her most recent WSJ Online column. After a well-deserved absence, Nooners has returned to her column with her verbal vacation slides from West Virginia, the Nation's Ashtray.

Reading Peg's ramblings, blogger Tristam Shandy points out that Peg never takes a vacation from inaccuracy. Quoting Peg, Tristam writes:

Someone else said, approvingly, "Everyone keeps a gun in West Virginia. Crime is low." Later I would be told it has the lowest violent crime per capita in the United States. It is very nice, when traveling, to see your beliefs and assumptions statistically borne out.

Something about this didn't ring true, didn't jibe with Peggy's usual strict, zen-like adherence to accuracy. Hmmmm, what could it be? Yes, the careless use of easily accessible statistics! In this case, we refer to violent crime numbers.

Peggy, we say this with all the love and admiration in the world: whomever "told you" that little nugget of heartland bushwa is retarded. Because there are eight -- count 'em, eight -- states with lower numbers than West Virginia.

As our contribution to this essay, we point out this emerald Peg dug from the turds:

We went to a little old coal-mining town, where we visited what used to be the company store and is now an antique shop. I saw the scrip with which the operators paid the miners. I thought scrip was paper money, but it's thin metal ovals like quarters and nickels, with the number of the mine the miner works in stamped through. In a side room was a picture of the company store as it had been circa 1900. The whole right side of the store was a long polished bar, with rows of whiskey bottles along the walls. This in a place that was relatively impoverished. The other half of the store sold dry goods.

You can see the whole beginning of the Ladies Christian Temperance Union right in this picture, I thought: Maybe Prohibition was a Protestant movement and not a Catholic one in some part because the Catholics of the East weren't paid in scrip but with green money, so an edge of coercion -- We'll work you to death and then force you to pay high prices for our whiskey as you pour out your woes -- and the resentment coercion brings, was missing.

Besides, Irish Catholics would sell their children before giving up the drink.

PegAnon means to refer to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, but we'll cut her some slack because...well, you know.

But I'm not sure what to make of her incoherent theory that temperance crusades began as a Prot revolt against overpriced booze in company stores. The WCTU tells a different tale:

Hillsboro, Ohio is credited with being the birthplace of the Woman's Temperance Crusade. Dr. Dio Lewis gave a lecture on Temperance at the Hillsboro Music Hall on the evening of December 23, 1873. On the morning of December 24, 1873, under the leadership of Mrs. Eliza Thompson, daughter of a former governor and wife of a highly respected judge, seventy women arose from their knees and started from the Presbyterian church to the saloons.

Sounds like the foremothers of that uptight Northern society bitch were behind it all.

Peg will be glad to hear that the modern WCTU opposes stem cell research, equal marriage rights and human cloning. Peg could get elected president of the U., if not for one thing.

Okay, two, three, tops.

Finally, there is no rational explanation except advanced dementia for this final set of Peg anecdotes:

At the store the man behind the counter was friendly, intelligent and missing an eye. He had no artificial eye, no eye patch, just a red space where the eye would be. When I asked his name he said, "Jack, but my friends call me One Eye." I nodded at this information and remembered what a friend told me. He works with a local man who was complaining about his lazy brother-in-law who's on welfare. "He wouldn't take a job in a pie factory!"

Congratulations To The Residents Of Ohio's Second District

Good news. Joe Braun has not been gagged.

Campaign manager Joe Braun, who is overseeing Schmidt's transition, said her campaign office would remain open so it can gear up for next year's re-election campaign.

In the meantime, Schmidt made herself at home in her new office.

"Can I get an outside line? How do I do that?" she called out, then dialed her husband, Peter, a financial adviser for the investment firm Legg Mason.

"Guess where I'm sitting?" she asked. "I'm sitting at my new desk in my new office in Washington, D.C."

Schmidt also called her daughter, Emilie, who worked in the same office as an intern for Portman. Braun worked there as a Portman intern in 1995.

Joe and Emilie would make a cute couple.

Obscenity

Fuck that asshole Bob Novak, as those pricks Bush and Cheney would say if Novak wasn't their whore. CNN allows Novak to spew bullshit for more than a decade, then shitcans (but only temporarily) his saggy ass when he says the word "bullshit" between his lies.

To hell with all those pricks, the dickwad Novak, the dickless CNN and the fucking death-loving shitstains in the Administration. To hell with them.

Ken Auletta wastes his talents observing the trivial:

"Today" is generally more substantive in the first half hour, with more Washington news and international stories. Even when "Good Morning America" or CBS's "The Early Show" run the same story, they usually devote less time to it. However, the similarities are probably greater. All three programs are partial to tabloid stories, whether it be the tragic disappearance of a teen-ager in Aruba or a finger found in a bowl of chili at a fast-food restaurant.

There's no substance to Today. Yesterday, the program's first hour hit the WTWWA trifecta - Natalee Holloway (she thought she was getting into a cab!), Laci Peterson (someone saw a length-wise indentation on her bedspread!) and the Mentally-Ill Bride (her on-line registration at Crate & Barrel (?) had an error on it!) . G.E. loves to keep the viewers stupid.

You Didn't Hear It From Me

From the Boston Herald:

Cambridge-based Forrester Research reported yesterday that fewer than 2 percent of Americans who go online read blogs once a week or more.

Even among tech-savvy pioneers - those with laptops and WiFi networks in their homes -just 4 percent say they read blogs.

The surprising figures were uncovered after an exhaustive survey of 68,664 households.

How is this surprising? Is it surprising to the 98 percent of Americans who don't read blogs? Do those people think they're the exception, hold outs against a national blogmania?

And how was the survey exhaustive? 68,664 doesn't come close to exhausting the number of American households. Did they pester the "households" they did interview? ("Are you sure you don't read blogs more than once a week? Think hard! We want you to review all the sites you visited last week, just to make sure. No, we're serious. We're not hanging up until you do.")

Hooray for Peckerwood

The only thing I want to know about the Dukes of Hazzard movie is if they kept the Klan flag on top of the car.

The Lunde Hop

Mr. Ed goes down with the ship.

In an effort to backfill and fend off the "trolls" who have boarded his dinghy, Mister Ed cites Brian Lunde as proof that the American Center for Voting Rights isn't the creation of Bushlicking shills. You see, Lunde once worked for the Kentucky Democratic Party (in the Carter era) and for the DNC.

But Mister Ed's spyglass doesn't work so well. His Google search apparently didn't turn up "Brian Lunde, National Executive Director of 'Democrats for Bush.'"

Linking to opensecrets.org, Mister Ed also asserts "His [Lunde's] only campaign contribution in the past four years went to Congressman Mike Ross (D-AR)."

According to Fundrace.org, a Brian A. Lunde gave $2,000 to George Bush in the 2004 Presidential election and Barbara A. Lunde of the same address gave another $2,000 to Bush. (The Fundrace Bri has the same middle initial and city and zip code as the opensecrets link.)

And, per Ed's own opensecrets link, Lunde gave money in 2003 to Freshmen PAC, a G.O.P. political action committee whose goal is to "Maintain A Republican Majority." (That's the dream of all true Democrats, don'tcha know?)

(Or, you could even do this opensecrets search and find Lunde's 2004 Bush donation.)

In his own comments, Mister Ed says he "think[s] we have established that the two co-signers to the report are activists from each party," which "buries the notion that it was a put-up job by the GOP." Yes, the bipartisanship of a Bush/Cheney lawyer and a Bush/Cheney donor who wants to maintain a Republican majority is impossible to argue with.

Seems Ed's still blowing smoke up your porthole.

Update: Opensecrets links added.

Mr. Ed Takes It In Shorts Again

The world's most gullible pretend Captain proves again there's nothing he won't swallow. And why he's well qualified to write for the Daily No-Standards.

Linking to a fake memo, Mister Ed disclaims:

I missed this when it first came out in yesterday's Arizona Central Bizwire, but an independent report from the new American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund identifies far more incidents of voter intimidation and fraud on behalf of Democrats and their candidates than it did on behalf of their opponents.

Independent, Mr. Ed?

If you'd bother to do the work that Steve M. and Jesse Taylor at pandagon and Brad Blog and others too numerous to mention did, you'd know that the "independent report" of the august ACVR (established, Feb. 2005) was penned by a Republican shyster.

In fact, you should read the whole Brad Blog series.

Rather pathetic, Ed.

And Mr. Ed changes his soiled shorts even as we type:

UPDATE: Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice says that the ACVL has some controversial and potentially partisan financing. He's checking into it now. It's worth maintaining some skepticism on this report until more is known about the organization, which came into existence this past February and describes itself as a non-partisan effort to ensure clean elections. I'd consider Joe to be a pretty solid resource on this type of issue. I don't think all the mea culpas he issued on his post were warranted -- after all, we could get most of the information in this report from media accounts -- but he does have a point about ensuring that the group isn't acting as a front.

I guess the fact that the original "article" was clearly identified as a friggin' press release wasn't enough to stop Ed from linking without thinking.

Be sure to read Mr. Ed's entire post, so you can "judge the vanishing credibility of" the fake seaman.

Update: Here's the Google cache of the "article," clearly identified as a press release (via Steve M.); here's the original press release; and here's a "report" on the story by Greg Pierce of the Moonie Times, whose writing style is astoundingly similar to that of a p.r. hack writing a press release.

It's A Beautiful Day

Rush Limbaugh must be in heaven today, as fourteen pukes have given their meaningless lives for the glory of the George W. Bush. Fourteen losers who won't be able to return to American soil and smear the Republican Party. That news should stir the desiccated Little Pharma more than it's stirred in decades.

Meanwhile, el-Brent Bozell rails against the traitors who even mention the deaths of these Americans in "the war on terrorists in Iraq."

The problem with MSNBC: Not enough wingnuts.

Cliff won't be happy 'til the network begins running "The Situation With Reed Irvine's Decaying Corpse."

God Says Don't Let Your Roast Beef Touch Your Mashed Potatoes

Dennis Prager takes a break from debating how many angels can dance on his cranium to explain why G-d hates whoever Dennis hates:

...humans are separate from animals (see part XV); and man is separate from woman. Blurring any of these distinctions is tampering with the order of the world as created by God and leads to chaos. So important is the notion of separation that the very word for "holy" in biblical Hebrew (kadosh) means "separate," "distinct."

This helps to explain one of the least known and most enigmatic laws of the Torah, the ban on wearing linen and wool together in the same piece of clothing (sha'atnez). Linen represents plant life, and wool represents animal life. The two are distinct realms in God's creation.

And that is why the Torah bans men from wearing women's clothing.

It's all so clear now.

By the same logic, men shouldn't wear clothes made from either plants or animals. Which might explain Prager's wardrobe.

Frankly, any clothing blurs the distinction between man and woman. Take off your pants, Dennis, or shut the hell up.

(Link via Pandagon)

Judy Miller Died For Your Sins

DLC Dick Cohen is the latest to install Judy Fucking-Miller on a pedestal, albeit one constructed of sand:

Before Judith Miller of the New York Times went to jail for not revealing her sources, I offered her my services. I suggested that she tell me her source and then, once she was in jail, I would reveal that I knew, and the special prosecutor would jail me as well -- but not before I told another journalist. After four score and seven of us were in the calaboose, the prosecutor would -- like the British facing the indomitable Gandhi -- collapse before our moral force and leave us to honor our solemn commitments as we have done since time immemorial. I now know my plan would have failed. Apres moi, as the late Louis XV once said, too much of the press would still be writing about how Miller deserves her fate.

The way to honor a confidentiality pledge is to betray your source to Richard Cohen. Frankly, no one would care if Cohen was locked up. And the WaPo editorial page would improve considerably.

The most oft-heard and fervent denunciation of Miller amounts to a political indictment: She was wrong about the war in Iraq. By that, these people mean that Miller wrote stories for the Times that buttressed the administration's argument that Iraq possessed fearsome weapons of mass destruction -- none of which were ever found. Miller, however, was not the only one writing such stories. It seems that much of the press, not to mention the Bush administration itself, was relying on a clique of ill-informed or outright deceitful sources who maintained that Saddam Hussein had these weapons by the barnful. Contradictory evidence was ignored.

It's possible that Miller came across dissenting arms experts or intelligence officials and failed to take notice of them. It is also possible that after the war she had a stake in perpetuating the WMD canard and failed to report that none of the weapons existed. These and other allegations have been brooded about in journalistic circles and on blogs where the usual journalistic standards of proof are for some reason suspended. I do know that Miller was not, as some irrationally insist, solely responsible for taking the United States to war -- no matter how influential her newspaper may be. Let me go out on a limb: George Bush would have gone to war without Judith Miller.

Do you mean, Dick, the usual journalistic standards of proof that Miller followed? Apparently Cohen is only bothered by half-assery (to put the most charitable spin on it) not committed by a friend and colleague.

Yes, Richard, some may be happy at Miller's fate because she was a dishonest reporter. But the reason she is in prison is that there is no journalist/source privilege. That, and not Miller's well-deserved unpopularity, is the real story.

Coming soon on the Pecker/Bosner Blog: A 4,000 word post on those jerks who leave the sports page in the bathroom stall, and how they're undermining the newspaper industry.

The Highest Compliment

Markos may disagree, but I think this ranks as one of his greatest accomplishments:

Of course it helps her, both because attacks from the left make her look centrist and because Kos is one of the few people on the planet with a personality so unappealing he allows Hillary to seem warm and enchanting!

What exactly does the demented hack hate about Kos? His success? His lucidity? His full head of hair?

I can't imagine Markos would spend two seconds with Kaus if he had a choice. Maybe the midget cornered him at one of Arianna Huffington's bashes and Kos was too polite to step over him. In any event, this is the equivalent of a lifetime acheievement award. Well done!