Category: Politics

Because Republican Senators Have Nothing Better to Do With Their time

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So the hippy-dippy city council of Berkeley California decides to waste its time declaring a Marine recruiting station “unwelcome” in the town, and in reaponse, “Six Republican senators, led by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and an Orange County representative on Wednesday introduced companion bills called the Semper Fi Act of 2008 that seek to take away $2.3 million from Berkeley earmarked in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill and give it to the Marine Corps.”

You’re wrestling with a pig, dudes. You both get dirty, and the pig loves it.

Where that money would come from:

  • $243,000 from the Chez Panisse Foundation, which provides 10,000 daily school lunches for Berkeley public schools
  • $243,000 for the Ed Roberts Campus, a project that houses offices for disability organizations
  • $750,000 for water ferry service planned from Berkeley to San Francisco
  • $94,000 for a police and fire emergency communications system
  • $975,000 from UC Berkeley’s Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, which houses the papers of the late U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui

Morons.

Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson Accused of Coercion for Business Buddy

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This joker was accused of telling people that he would not grant contracts to people who supported Democrats, and then claimed it was a joke, and now it’s claimed that he, “demanded that the Philadelphia Housing Authority transfer a $2 million public property to a developer at a substantial discount, then retaliated against the housing authority when it refused to do so, a recent court filing alleges.”

This is business as usual for Bush and His Evil Minions&trade.

911 Panel Ececutive Driector Had Close Ties to Bush and His Evil Minions™ and Regularly Talked to Karl Rove

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What a bloody surprise. Neocon, and former Concoleeza Rice aid Philip Zelikow is hired as the executive director of the 911 commission, and it turns out that we was working to protect Bush, not the country. (here, here, and here)

The problems:

  • “In his book, Shenon also says that while working for the panel, Zelikow appears to have had private conversations with former White House political director Karl Rove, despite a ban on such communication, according to Holland. Shenon reports that Zelikow later ordered his assistant to stop keeping a log of his calls, although the commission’s general counsel overruled him, Holland wrote.”
  • Staffers accuse him of refusing to allow a report showing Rice to be incompetent to be submitted.
  • Zelikow was responsible for demoting Richard Clark, but never told the committee members about this.
  • His resume given to the 911 commission omitted details of his involvement in the events leading up to 911.
  • He told his secretary to stop logging his phone calls.

Zelikow claims that, “Out of 85 staffers, half a dozen were disgruntled, Zelikow told ABC News. “Under the circumstances, that was a pretty low fraction,” he said. “But they all talked to Shenon.”

No for whistleblowing, 1 out of 500 is a low fraction. 1 our of 15 is insanely high.

The Most Banal Moment of Election 2008

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Yes, the good Reverend Gastric Bypass (Huckabee), is criticizing Captain Goodhair (Romney) because he took the skin off his chicken at a KFC before eating it.

While I agree that the skin is the best part, this is silly.

  1. You are arguing over how someone eats fried chicken.
  2. It’s not real fried chicken, its KFC.
  3. Huckabee does not eat fried chicken himself to keep his weight down.
  4. You are arguing over how someone eats fried chicken.
  5. It’s not real fried chicken, its KFC.

Dumbasses.

Fallout of US Attorney Firing Scandal

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We have more politically motivated prosecutions, this time of pathologist Cyril Wecht, and that of attorney Geoff Fieger. (I’ve noted to the prosecutions in Mississippi ( here and here) and Don Siegelman before.)

In the case of Wecht:

Prosecutors plan to prove that Wecht used county resources in his private business, defrauded private clients with bogus travel invoices, and submitted falsified mileage receipts to surrounding counties. His attorneys say the charges are either false or amount to minor infractions, such as the improper use of fax machines.

The initial indictment charged 84 counts, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Stallings recently dropped more than half of them to “streamline” the case for the jury. Wecht’s attorneys called the gutted indictment signs of a rush to judgment and shoddy investigating.

In the two years since the indictment, Wecht’s attorneys have attacked prosecutors for alleged political biases, although the judge won’t allow them to argue political motives to the jury.

They have even accused the judge of bias. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request for a new judge while chiding Schwab for admitting 300,000 pages of documents into evidence over the objections of the defense.

So we have an intensely sloppy prosecution, over an amounts that are miniscule, they are including misuse of the office fax machine.

And the US Attorney is involved.

With Feiger, best known as Kevorkiann’s lawyer, but also a major Democratic party contributor (shades of Mississippi), you have a number of irregularities:

  • The U.S. Attorney two aids , were recused , and the Judge has had to compel the office to give the reasons to Feiger’s lawyers.
  • The size of the raid by the FBI is such that the Judge has directed the FBI to give examples of similarly sized raids.
  • Prosecutors violated rules in not getting DoJ authorization of the investigation.
  • Typically, the FEC handles such probes.

There will be decades of fallout of the corruption and politicization of the DoJ by Bush and His Evil Minions™.

Good Analysis of Pushback (Bushback) Against Bush

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I noticed that Americans United for Change will be spending $8.5 million on ads to keep Bush’s approval numbers down for the rest of his term.

My first reaction was that this was a waste of money, public disapproval has never prevented Bush from doing the wrong thing. After all, he has a year left, and who cares.

Steve Benen, of the Carpetbagger, sets me right, and he makes the point that the Republicans have welded themselves to Bush for at least this election cycle, and they won’t begin to extricate themselves from his toxic embrace until after tie 2008 elections.

It’s true, the weaker Bush is, weaker ‘Phants are, and there is this little bon mot of Mr. Benen.

And, one assumes, if John McCain gets the Republican nomination, this initiative, coupled with a ubiquitous picture of McCain hugging Bush, should help tilt the scales a little.

True.

I just wish that I hadn’t been drinking when I read that. Steve Benen ows me a screen cleaner.

Noonan Says That Bush has Destroyed the GOP

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Of course, she opens up with a slam against Bill Clinton, though she forgot to pimp her friendly dolphins.

That being said, there is one paragraph about Bush that I find amusing:

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Bush had inflicted damage on the GOP, but this has not been a failure of George W. Bush, but an artifact of his success.

He has been remarkably successful in producing results in the Republican agenda:

  • Never ending war.
  • Fear of those who appear different from us.
  • The privatization of essential government services.
  • A widespread belief that the government cannot work.

The problem, is that the Republican agenda has consequences:

  • It has destroyed the US Army.
  • It has destroyed the US Marines.
  • It has destroyed our respect worldwide.
  • It has destroyed our economy.
  • etc.

George W. Bush did not destroy the Republican Party, no has he wounded our nation for years to come, movement conservatism has.

Foot Tapping Republican Opposition to Bush’s ATF Pick

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Yes, everyone’s favorite foot tapping senator Larry Craig, and as well as Senator Crap Crapo oppose him because he enforces the law.

They have both put “holds” on his nomination, because as acting head of the ATF, “The ATF stripped the license of Red’s Trading Post in Twin Falls, Idaho, in March after an audit found numerous record-keeping violations over a five-year period,” though this license is still in effect pending litigation.

Senate Democrats Mull Adding Retirees to Rebate Plan, Extending Jobless Benefits

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Senate Democrats are looking about, “giving retirees tax rebates, extending unemployment benefits, boosting heating subsidies for the poor and temporarily increasing food stamp payments.”

This is great politics!!!, and here’s why:

  • Republican or Democrat, the Senate is smarting at having not been involved in the negociations, and there is a bipartisan consensus, in fact a near unanimous consensus that the Senate’s prerogatives should be respected in that body.
  • Getting more money to retirees is a politically powerful thing, because senior citizens vote.
  • There is widespread political support for extending unemployment benefits in the real (i.e. outside of DC) world.
  • Increasing food stamp payments will be seen as being good for American farmers, who figure prominently in a number of red states.
  • Heating subsidies for the poor is also very popular nationwide.

On a policy level, if they were to strike the business tax credits, which will take months to have any effect, and are very inefficient, that would be a good thing.

My Letters to My Senators on Telco Immunity

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I had to send two very different letters, because Ben Cardin voted against retroactive Telco immunity, and Barbara Mikulski voted for it.

To the Honorable Barbara Mikulski:

I have no idea why you were one of the 12 Democratic Senators to vote for Telecommunications Company immunity in the recent vote on the FISA update.

However, I will tell you as a lifelong Democrat, I can find no reason for you to do so.

Given the electoral dynamics of Maryland, you are at no risk, and in any case, you are not up for election this year.

The activity that you voted to indemnify PRE-DATED THE 911 ATTACKS, and the demands of the Bush administration, and were CLEARLY illegal.

Indemnification is an attempt to cover up the clearly illegal actions of the Bush administration and the NSA to illegally spy on Americans.

Absent a convincing justification for this vote, I cannot support you, or vote for you in the future.

This is not an issue of national security. FISA as it exists already includes the necessary mechanisms to make our country secure, notwithstanding DNI Michael McConnell’s lies on this matter.

This is not a matter for politics, or for listening to lobbyists employed by the telecommunications industry.

These actions were clearly illegal, which is why Qwest refused this access, and given the intensity of the desire of the Bush administration on this issue, I can only conclude that the purpose of this immunity is to cover up systematic surveillance of political opponents.

To the Honorable Benjamin Cardin:

I appreciate your vote on to remove telecommunications immunity from the FISA update.

This is a matter beyond politics, and it strikes at core of our constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches.

Much of the illegal activity in question was taken months before the attacks on 9-11, and it was unequivocally illegal.

The desire for immunity on the part of the Bush administration is clearly driven by a desire to cover up their role in illegally spying on American citizens, which very likely involved spying political opponents.

Personally, I would consider any vote to create retroactive immunity to be unacceptable, and dangerous to our republic.

You can find a list of the Democratic Senators who betrayed their oaths of office here.

I’m Confused on the FISA Progress

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First, Harriy Reid attempts to exhibit some intestinal fortitude, and demands real filibusters, and then 12 Democrats (Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tom Carper (D-DE), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Ken Salazar (D-CO)) voted with the Republicans to keep Telco immunity.

I have to figure that this is Reid playing both ends against the middle. He says, “Real Filibuster”, and defuses efforts to remove him as leader, but then twists arms to get Dem Senators to vote to support bush’s position.

It still appears, however, that George W. Bush won’t get what he wants from the house easily, so he hasreleased White House wiretap docs to the house.

NOTE: When reading this article, there is a significant factual error, “The companies were helping the administration carry out the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program, a still classified effort that intercepted communications on U.S. soil without oversight from the FISA court from Sept. 11, 2001 to January 17, 2007.”

This is not true.

This program was initiated in February, 2001, predating the attacks by 7 months.

Deal Reached on Tax Rebates for Stimulus – washingtonpost.com

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Deal Reached on Tax Rebates for Stimulus – washingtonpost.com

High points:

  • 1200 Per couple for the middle class

  • $300 credit for children.

  • Limits of $75K/150K for single/family

Low Points:

  • No unemployment or food stamp spending, the BEST way to stimulate the economy.
  • Only $300 for the working poor.
  • Completely bogus tax giveaways to businesses that will take months if not years to show effect, and generate less economic activity
  • An increase from $417,000 to as much as $700,000 for “jumbo” mortgages bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Like we need to involve the government in bad mortgages for rich people. It’s a bailout of the rich, and it’s bad policy.

If the Democrats had any guts, they would have held out for better, but I guess that guts is just ,”not on the table”.

I won’t do the Pelosi pic again.

It Looks Like Musharraf is Toast

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I think that he is done, and that his options will be death or exile.he’s losing retired military officers, the new Pakistani Chief of Staff, General Ashfaq Kiyani, is forbidding active duty military men from meeting with him, etc.

Of course, through all this, Bush and His Evil Minions™ are without a clue:

Frustration is growing among Musharraf’s military and political allies partly because he is not listening to their advice, U.S. and Pakistani analysts said. “He’s locked in his own bubble that ‘l’etat, c’est moi’ — the state is me. He doesn’t understand how anti-democratic he is. He’s not thinking clearly anymore,” said the senior congressional official.

The Bush administration is still backing Musharraf, even as officials speak more frequently of working with “the Pakistani people,” instead of “the Pakistani leader.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday met Musharraf on the outskirts of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in the highest-level contact since he declared emergency rule in November.

Rice pressed him to ensure that the vote is free and fair and that the Pakistani people have confidence in the results, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Such remarks suggest that the administration is discounting the new assessments on Musharraf from intelligence and congressional officials.

This is unlikely to end well.