Monday, March 19, 2007

Monday

Gonzo Watch! Day 8!

gonzo_cannon.jpg

Listener Nancy has been eliminated in the "Gonzo Is Gone-zo" pool. She said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would resign on St. Patrick's Day. Unless Gonzo's resignation has been sitting on President Bush's desk since Saturday, Nancy did not have the luck of the Irish. Marc Maron could be eliminated as well -- he said Gonzo would be gone-zo today.

On the show today:

BILL SCHER, regular guest and proprietor of Liberal Oasis, author of Wait! Don't Move to Canada: A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America on GONZO WATCH!

PAUL KRUGMAN, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University and op-ed columnist for The New York Times.

ERIC BOEHLERT, senior fellow at Media Matters for America and author of Lapdogs: How The Press Rolled Over for Bush joins us to talk about the imbalance of Sunday talk shows. Report is available online at www.SundayShowReport.com

116 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gonzo morning!

toniD said...

Finally, a new thread!!

I amlloking forward to Krugman!

Anonymous said...

Jason said...
Sam,

You MUST talk about Tom DeLay and Richard Perle's idiocy on Meet The Press yesterday morning. What a bunch of asshats.


DUDE !

did you hear those hideous lies they were spreading?

Oh my god i was gonna puke....

those fucks WOULD NOT admit they were wrong about everything.

AND HOW THE HELL IS A disgraced... INDICTED

congressman on national TV giving advice on the iraq war ?

truly scraping the bottom of the barrel

toniD said...

U.S. Attorney’s firing may be linked to CIA probe. McClatchy reports tonight:

Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent an e-mail that said Lam needed to be fired, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday.

Feinstein, D-Calif., said the timing of the e-mail suggested that Lam’s dismissal may have been connected to the corruption probe.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse denied in an e-mail that there was any link.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said last week that while President Bush has the authority to fire attorneys at will, “if it is done to stop an ongoing investigation, then you do get into the criminal area.”

LINK

blah blah blah said...

I missed meet the press but found the following review of it:

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cm/content/view/287/162/

Tim Russert should be ashamed

Written by Doug Thompson
Monday, 19 March 2007
I'm trying, and failing, to understand why Meet the Press gave an indicted former member of Congress, a corrupt politician who resigned in disgrace, a forum upon which to espouse hate and division Sunday as President George W. Bush's illegal and immoral Iraq war enters its fifth year.

Is Tim Russert so desperate for controversy that he has to book Tom DeLay, easily one of the most criminal political hacks in Washington, on the top-rated Sunday news talk show and let him call war protestors unpatriotic and claim that anyone who wants to end the Iraq war is "aiding and abetting the enemy?"

DeLay is political vermin, one step away from a jail cell for influence peddling and taking bribes and, yet, there he was on Meet the Press being treated with deference by lap-dog Russert.

Instead of pretending to any standard of journalism or decency, Russert let DeLay expound on why he thinks those who protest war are not patriots.

Said DeLay:

Well, I--it, it is my opinion that when you go to war, we ought to all come together. You can debate going to war, that's a legitimate debate. But once you have our soldiers and our, our young people dying on the battlefield, we should come together, and we shouldn't have what we had yesterday on the Mall of, of, of--in Washington, D.C. When the--those are not, in my mind--my opinion, patriots that are talking about impeaching the commander in chief.


When asked if he thought Congressional attempts to set a withdrawal date for getting the hell out of Iraq fell into the same category, DeLay replied:

I think it's aiding and abetting the enemy. When you tell the enemy what your strategy is, that's aiding and abetting the enemy because they can use that strategy to come back and harm your soldiers.

Russert, who some feel is a strong interviewer, let DeLay walk all over him. When he tried to question DeLay on his praise of failed former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, DeLay shot back:

The premise of your question is always put forward without the rest of the story. And maybe we ought to have Paul Harvey here to, to talk about the rest of the story.

Russert said nothing and didn't' push to get an answer to his question. Instead, he went to another guest.
It's bad enough that corrupt slime like Tom DeLay remained in Congress as long as he did. It's worse that after his many crimes finally caught up with him and he was forced to resign by his own Republican colleagues he is then given a podium on a national news show to continue his hate-filled diatribes.

His claim that "we ought to all come together" is political hypocrisy of the worst kind. In Congress, DeLay thrives on dividing and conquering. He refused to cooperate and worked to destroy any attempts at coalition buildings.

Tom DeLay is a crook. He was so corrupt that even the past Republican leadership of Congress, itself the most corrupt in modern times, could no longer tolerate his presence.

Tim Russert is not a journalist. He's a political hack, a non-practicing lawyer who worked for New York Senator Daniel Patrick “Pat” Moynihan and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. Crooks belong in jail, not on television. Political hacks belong in the dustbin of history. Tim Russert owes his viewers an apology for giving a crook a national forum. Then he owes journalism the decency to resign and let someone with real credentials take over Meet the Press.

toniD said...

Disorder in King George's Court

By Michael Isikoff, Richard Wolffe And Evan Thomas
Newsweek
March 26, 2007 issue - At highly charged moments, attorney General Alberto Gonzales can seem placid, passive—at times, just plain out of it. In the summer of 2002, high-level Bush administration officials met to debate secretly a delicate issue: how aggressively could the CIA interrogate terror suspects? While the lawyers from Justice, Defense and the vice president's office hotly debated definitions of torture (at times discussing specific interrogation techniques), Gonzales, who was then the White House counsel, sat by and said virtually nothing. The attorney general's behavior was typical, say administration officials who have worked with him. His defenders say he likes to keep his counsel. Others wonder if he's ill prepared, insecure or simply has nothing to say.

Last week Gonzales's bland, what-me-worry? smile seemed to fade. He appeared slightly forlorn as he answered hostile questions from reporters at a hastily called press conference. He was asked about the role of the White House in firing a group of U.S. attorneys. "As we can all imagine," he began, "in an organization of 110,000 people, I am not aware of every bit of information that passes through the halls of the Department of Justice ..." He was aware, he said, that there was "a request from the White House as to the possibility of replacing all the U.S. attorneys. That was immediately rejected by me." The impression was that Gonzales was merely responding to the ill-considered scheme of his successor as White House counsel (Harriet Miers); that he, personally, had not been in the loop for a series of controversial decisions that have set off a congressional brouhaha over the dismissal of one U.S. attorney in the summer of 2006 and seven more in December.

LINK

Anonymous said...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

From Hillary to the Senate resolution, is there ANYBODY out there on the Democratic side calling for TOTAL pull-out of Iraq before Bush leaves office in January 2009?

or just "the beginning of a pull-out" by as late as Septemeber of 2008?

And wouldn't pulling ONE soldier out on Labor Day next year be the "beginning of a a pullout"?

Anonymous said...

And wouldn't pulling ONE soldier out on Labor Day next year be the "beginning of a a pullout"?

no

Anonymous said...

Uh, never mind....

I see the "What Can We Go Nutty About TOday" talking point is out....re-fighting Tom Delay.

Let's just skip this "war thing" and tepid Democratic opposition and discuss "Bugsy" for an entire morning.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
And wouldn't pulling ONE soldier out on Labor Day next year be the "beginning of a a pullout"?

no

March 19, 2007 6:16 AM

What does the Senate resolution say....SPECIFICALLY?

toniD said...

Good article blah 3!

Russert is a political hack!

The other "guest that raised the hairs on my back was Richard Perle.

Sometimes, I think, that these guys pay to get on or put the pressure on the network or something.

And Russert didn't stand up to these guys at all.

toniD said...

18: The percentage of Iraqis that have confidence in U.S.-led coalition troops as the war enters its fifth year today. Six in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going badly, and only one-third expect things to improve in the next year.

LINK

toniD said...

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, who was fired “after Republican complaints that he neglected to prosecute voter fraud,” had been “heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes.”

LINK

toniD said...

Last week, the White House pressured the Office of Management and Budget to withhold earmark data from the public. OMB Director Rob Portman said privately last week: “My hands are tied” due to directives from the White House. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) remarked, “I think the American people should be very disappointed.”

LINK

Anonymous said...

Are we going to hear some commentary today about the White House, in full, breaking Executive Order 12958, as testified to by James Knodell on Friday.

If anyone is looking for impeachable offenses, here they are, testified to under oath in front of Congress. What more do we need?

Anonymous said...

Waxman is asking Josh Bolten for answers

Anonymous said...

How about comparing/contrasting "Section 502" of the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization to the "Feeney Amendment"?

No one seems to be doing this, but it shows that unconstitutionality is policy.

toniD said...

Obama campaign posts
stunning anti-Hillary ad
It may be the most stunning and creative attack ad yet for a 2008 presidential candidate -- one experts say could represent a watershed moment in 21st century media and political advertising.

LINK

Anonymous said...

Perle and DeLay on MTP has to be the low point for a show that is sinking lower every week. Everyone know's that Russert is Cheney's go to guy. Not one did he challenge either one with one of his on screen "gotcha" quotes. Nothing about Perle's involvement in PNAC and their desire for a "Pearl Harbor" like event to promote their global strategy. I guess his tactic of "gotcha" only applies to Democrats and not disgraced indicted Republicans or totally discredited ideologues.

Unknown said...

The Republicans are still insisting that Valerie Plame was not "covert" in spite of her testimony and the CIA signing off on Waxman's intro. And yet the "anchors" of these news shows are not letting up. This is nuts! Why does no one call them on obvious lies?

bibimimi said...

oh yeah

tom 'criimy' delay and the perlejam on MTPoop

what the EFF?

bibimimi said...

oh, and another thing

lynn westmoreland is a douche!

i think i'm done with my invectives.

Anonymous said...

FYI, Plame said she was STILL with the CIA, on different assignment.

Anonymous said...

Westmoreland wears his partisanship on his sleeve

Anonymous said...

Great comments on DeLay's service in the "war on pests" Priceless

bibimimi said...

Fitzgerald's assesment of loyalty on solomon and mier's little e-mails was redacted@!

blah blah blah said...

bibimimi troll'p said...
oh, and another thing

i think i'm done with my invectives.

rats, i was hoping you were just getting warmed up.

Anonymous said...

Meant to say great comments on Crooks and Liars about DeLay's service in the "war on pests." LOL funny

Anonymous said...

EFF = Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org

Echelon & Carnivore stoked privacy concerns. I think EFF was born out of those concerns.

toniD said...

Few Iraqis trust
US forces four years on
Only 18 percent of Iraqis have confidence in U.S.-led forces, a new poll showed on Monday, as President Bush faced anti-war protests at home four years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

LINK

Anonymous said...

what was that about gore?

Anonymous said...

As was just pointed out Party loyalty is what matters to Republicans. They share that in common with the Nazi party of the 20's, 30's & 40's. Party loyalty was instrumental bringing down the Weimar Republic. Republicans would like to do the same thing with our Constitutional democracy. Republicans will always be Republicans before they are Americans.

Anonymous said...

Have a friend who does research at a major university who has colleagues at the Center for Disease Control. Scientists there have been questioned by agents (FBI?) in regards to their thoughts about GWB. Her friends found the questioning intimidating and very chilling.

Anonymous said...

They had to have found out about Plame when they did some background checks on the guy who didn't seem to be a "loyal bushie"

Valerie Plame had something to do with the decision to send Joe Wilson, even if the involvement was only cursory.

They knew that Wilson was a Democrat, from the 1999 FEC disclosure for an Al Gore donation. There was also a record of his wife's donation, which included her employer/cover.

Someone evidently made the Valerie Plame/Valerie Wilson connection.

toniD said...

Both parties expect Gonzales to resign
Key figures in both parties believe Gonzales, who first went to work for George W. Bush as his general counsel in the Texas governor's office in 1995, will wind up resigning over the imbroglio. "I think he's gone," said a Republican official .

LINK

bibimimi said...

i came to work in my flannel domenicis

bibimimi said...

PANDEMIC!

bibimimi said...

i was hoping you were just getting warmed up.

March 19, 2007 6:50 AM

COUNT BLAH

when i get more coffee in me, or they talk about fox news or 'dr coburn', i may get the b.p. over 180 again.

bibimimi said...

i think the 'backup noise' is an effing riot!

Anonymous said...

Watch out!

Here comes the Straight Talk Express!!!

:LOL:

WilliamHenryMee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pbtrue1 said...

Marty Kaplan on Hufpo

Marty makes a spin on the new Faux show, Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Are You Smarter Than A Neocon?

True or False:

1. Saddam threw the UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq.

2. Saddam's Iraq was a refuge for al-Qaeda.

3. "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" is an historical statement.

......
It's so sad it's funny.

WilliamHenryMee said...

Tonid,

Thank you for the excellent links this morning.

I am a Demo from Santa Fe, N.M., so I take great interest in David Iglesias.

We had a voter fraud issue where a woman working for ACORN (a nonprofit grassroots organization) registered a 13 year old boy to vote. Seems she was being paid by the ACORN 527 organization a $1.50 a registration form in 2004. She was fired by ACORN for suspect registrations and these were turned into the Bernalillo County Clerk as “suspect” by the ACORN org. Then she was hired by Republican operatives to continue registration. The Republican Party then had press conferences with the 13 year old boy and said “see the Democratic Party cheats.” This is all documented by Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller in his book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the Election and will do it again.

There is talk here that the Jack Abramhoff monies bilked from Indian Tribes totaling between $100-150 million dollars of which only $50 million has been traced.......

….that this money was used to fund this fake voter fraud and therefore has ties back to the White House and Rove.

This is why Iglesias would stop an investigation. This evidence---but it goes back to his own party. Senator Pete Domenici and Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM) punishing him for protecting Republican operatives is ironic......

toniD said...

Dems: Emails Show CA Atty Fired To Stop Investigation Into State GOP

The Los Angeles Times | Richard A. Serrano | March 19, 2007 08:38 AM

Senate Democrats signaled Sunday that of the eight federal prosecutors abruptly ousted by the Bush administration, the case in San Diego is emerging as the most troubling because of new allegations that U.S. Atty. Carol C. Lam was fired in an attempt to shut down investigations into Republican politicians in Southern California.

Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) revealed evidence that Lam had notified Washington about search warrants in a Republican corruption case last year. Soon thereafter, a top Justice Department official in Washington wrote to the White House about a "real problem we have right now with Carol Lam."

LINK

bibimimi said...

Here comes the Straight Talk Express!!!

:LOL:

March 19, 2007 7:21 AM

backed over by the Straight Talk Express. Taste the hypocracy and diesel fuel. suck it, mr and mrs america!

Anonymous said...

John McCain has a banner ad on the AAR News page under the article "Troop Withdrawal Defeated in Senate"

I reads "It's time for straight talk on Iraq"
grrrrrrrr....

bibimimi said...

It's time for straight talk on Iraq"
grrrrrrrr....

March 19, 2007 7:30 AM

not gay talk. str8 talk.

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Police arrest 21 during melee; gunfire heard in crowd

CBS 2 Exclusive Video: Madison Square Garden Riot

toniD said...

So Bush will be on TV again today because of the 4 year anniversary of his Folly in Iraq.

What will he say? The same ole, same ole! Give the surge a chance.

I want this whole admin gone NOW!!

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

City Vows to Improve Aid to Homeless Families

With the number of homeless families at a record high halfway into Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s five-year plan to reduce the homeless population by two-thirds, city officials are acknowledging missteps in their approach and are looking to revamp a controversial rent subsidy program geared toward poor families.

Officials from several nonprofit agencies said that Robert V. Hess, commissioner of the city’s Department of Homeless Services, told them in a meeting last week that he was considering changes, including stabilizing the value of vouchers given to homeless families under the Housing Stability Plus program.

The course correction is a painful admission for an administration that predicted it could tackle homelessness by providing the right incentives for poor families while treating them more humanely. While the number of single homeless men and women in city shelters has fallen noticeably since August 2004, when Mayor Bloomberg implemented his plan, the number of families has increased to 9,250 as of last night. Not only is that the highest number of families in shelters since the city began counting in 1982, it is nearly 2,000 families above the goal the city said it would reach by this point.

Some advocates for the homeless contend the increase is a consequence of the city’s insistence on managing the problem through the shelters instead of tackling more fundamental issues.

“Homelessness is a horrible symbol of a failure of a whole broad range of government policies,” said Steven Banks, attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society, which is representing homeless people in a 20-year-old class-action suit against the city and state. “Unfortunately, just announcing a series of programs that treat the most visible manifestation of the problem without getting to the root still leaves the children and adults we represent in desperate circumstances.”

More >>

Anonymous said...

one of the ones "not fired" was the only one on Comey's firing list

Anonymous said...

It depends what you mean by "weak"

Anonymous said...

it's called FASCISM

Anonymous said...

I want this whole admin gone NOW!!

--

A quick look around reveals that that what is gone are the bloggers that used to be here. Is this place some kind of joke with two old leftovers hanging out? Turn out the lights! Tha party's over!

toniD said...

White House hopes Gonzales will stay on By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
11 minutes ago

The White House said Monday that it hopes embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales survives bipartisan calls for his resignation and remains in President Bush's cabinet.

When asked if Gonzales will serve for the rest of Bush's term, White House press secretary Tony Snow said, "Well, we hope so."

Gonzales is under fire for the removal of eight U.S. attorneys and the bungled way in which their firings was explained to Congress.

Bush has expressed confidence in Gonzales and defended the removal of the prosecutors, but also voiced frustration that lawmakers were not provided straightforward information.

On Monday, the Justice Department planned to turn over to Congress documents that could provide more details of the role agency officials — including Gonzales — and top White House officials played in planning the prosecutors' dismissals.

The White House was also expected to announce this week whether it will let political strategist Karl Rove and other officials testify in congressional hearings.

LINK

Anonymous said...

Sam Cam now?

blah blah blah said...

Tony Snow said, "Well, we hope so."

he's gone...

Anonymous said...

Sad and Silly said...

A quick look around reveals that that what is gone are the bloggers that used to be here.

yup, i remember when i used to have to walk ten miles to school in the snow.

toniD said...

From Huffington Post:

Four Years

"Pessimism Growing" Among Iraqis… Rice Admits Mistakes… Protests Mark War

Nathan Gardels: Lost Luster: The Strategic Cost Of The Iraq War… Gary Hart: Lessons From Iraq: America's Role In The 21st Century World… Arianna Huffington: The Past Is Indeed Prologue… Ned Lamont: Two Months… Joseph Nye: A Lesson In Moral Reasoning

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Homeless - Emergency Assistance Unit

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Mentally Ill Boy Kills Himself in Shelter Hotel

Everyone knew Jason-Eric Wilson was a boy with troubles and a troubled mind.

His depression and anxiety, which first emerged in seventh grade, grew much worse last year, as his family moved from one relative to the next after eviction from their Brooklyn home. Within the past 10 months, he was hospitalized twice for mental illness.

But in the last two weeks, Jason's troubles were compounded as his family turned to the city for shelter. With his father and his 10-year-old sister, Lani, Jason was bounced between temporary shelter rooms and the crammed Emergency Assistance Unit in the Bronx, where he had to sleep on the floor through the night.

On Monday, Jason, 16, killed himself, swallowing every pill he could find in the family's Harlem shelter hotel room, including his own psychotropic medication.

Court decrees require a quick shelter placement for medically fragile families. In the Wilson family's case, a city nurse listed Mr. Wilson's leukemia and bone marrow transplant and Jason's psychiatric history on a screening form that identifies the most vulnerable families so that they be given priority for shelter.

Yesterday, Linda I. Gibbs, the city's commissioner of homeless services, promised a full investigation. ''The question is whether this system could have done a better job,'' she said, ''because this is obviously a great tragedy and a terrible loss for this family.''

There is no way to know why any teenager takes his own life, and Jason's psychiatric history and troubled background alone were a combustible mix. But to Jason's father, Eric Wilson, there is little doubt what drove his son to kill himself.

''My son committed suicide because we were being threatened with being sent back there, to the E.A.U.,'' he said, weeping as he recalled his son's reaction to returning to the Emergency Assistance Unit, the city office where homeless families apply for shelter and where families often end up spending the night.

More >>

Anonymous said...

"A quick look around reveals..."

March 19, 2007 7:45 AM

Spoken like a good FOX Iraq correspondent

...if they had an Iraq bureau, that is...now that's sad and silly

bibimimi said...

"The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me."

Alice said...

Good Morning!
*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfa5RTPywWQ
There There
(Radiohead Live In Glastonbury 2003)

Anonymous said...

Anybody given any thought to HOW LONG a fight the NEW Attorney General nomination process might take?

April 1- Gonzales gone

April 1-7- Bush "looking at new candidates"

April 11- New candidate announced.

April 11- Dems oppose new candidate, stories emerge about "something"

April 20-30- Senate hearings on new nominee.

May 2-7- Senate debate on new nominee OR Judiciary Panel rejects nominee, Bush works on new one.

May 10-15- New nominee or vote up or down on previous one.

That's nearly two months killed and the ENTIRE FOCUS of Washington on some new AG.....and then we're into summer, Surge continueing, and the possibility of impeachment has now COMPLETELY been removed due to time constraints.

This isn't "9/11 Conspiracy" stuff...Bush can use the Gonzales resignation and new AG thing...to KILL TIME until Summer and end all impeachment talk about himself or Cheney!

bibimimi said...

Alice said...
Good Morning

bon matin, ma jolie!

bibimimi said...

May 10-15- New nominee or vote up or down on previous one.

tim griffin is free...

Jenise said...

good morning, everyone.

i'm not sure what i think about this comparison...but it's being made.

Billboarding the Iraqi Disaster

Anthony Arnove looks at the numbing numbers four years in to the war and puts them next to the better - and equally numbing - numbers in Darfur. Looking closely at what the US attack on Iraq unleashed, Arnove notes: "The focus on Darfur serves to legitimize the idea of US intervention at the very moment when the carnage that such intervention causes is all too visible and is being widely repudiated around the globe."

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2954.shtml

Alice said...

Marching on the Pentagon

gnn

videos

Anonymous said...

The point is that for the past 3 years Clear Channel did everything they could to kill progressive talk radio.

http://www.pissedonpolitics.com/2007/03/counter_clock_culture_marketin.htm

Alice said...

Chiapas: paramilitaries threaten journalists

...
Zapatista communities report a wave of land invasions and armed threats by OPDDIC militants in recent weeks. The EZLN General Command issued a statement protesting that they had been unable to send a delegation to the meeting of the National Indigenous Congress in Tuxpan, Jalisco, due to the "paramilitary offensive" in their Chiapas stronghold.
...

Zapatista communities continue to protest the militarization of their lands by the federal army as well. The community of El Momon issued a statement protesting that a recently-established army camp was blocking access to a local spring.
...

Jenise said...

did sam just say secretarian violence? violent secretaries? we've got a lot of terrorism to fight...

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Judge Orders City to Stop Housing Homeless in Office

In a move that increases pressure on the city in a long-running battle over homeless policy, a judge yesterday ordered the Giuliani administration to comply with a new City Council measure aimed in part at ending overnight stays by homeless families on the floors of a city office in the Bronx.

The measure, passed last month with other shelter regulations over the Mayor's vehement opposition, requires the city to provide families with a self-contained, lockable sleeping room and a bed or a crib where appropriate while their applications for shelter are under review. It also requires the city to help families gather government documents like Social Security cards and birth certificates that they need to qualify for shelter.

The order by Justice Helen E. Freedman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan was another setback for the Giuliani administration, which since 1995 has paid $5 million in fines for forcing homeless families to sleep on the floors, desks and chairs of the Emergency Assistance Unit at 151 East 151st Street in Mott Haven, in violation of court orders. The order issued yesterday gave the city 30 days to comply before facing new sanctions.

More >>

bibimimi said...

JOEL!

are YOU at least readin' this cornhole bloggie?

bibimimi said...

Jenise said...
did sam just say Secretarian violence?

HORSEFIGHT!!!

Jenise said...

that was fast...as soon as i posted the above, this corrected update came in.


Anthony Arnove looks at the numbing numbers four years into the war and puts them next to the better known - and equally numbing - numbers in Darfur, comparing the response in US progressive circles to both tragedies. Looking at what the US attack on Iraq has unleashed, and at widespread appeals for US military intervention in Sudan, Arnove notes: "The focus on Darfur serves to legitimize the idea of US intervention at the very moment when the carnage that such intervention causes is all too visible and is being widely repudiated around the globe."

bibimimi said...

the biggest gay event of the year!

Anonymous said...

Jenise: "did sam just say secretarian violence? violent secretaries? we've got a lot of terrorism to fight..."
March 19, 2007 8:16 AM
----------------------------------
Emily Latilla: "What's all this talk about secretaries of violins?"

Lukin Kittenberger said...

I'm glad Delay was on MTP.

He fell flat on his face.

Alice said...

http://www.stopfundingthewar.org

http://www.stopfundingthewar.org

http://www.stopfundingthewar.org

!!!

blah blah blah said...

Nukeboot said...
People who want to impeach the President are unpatriotic?

you miss the point. even though delay is a scumbag, the message got put out there. somewhere there's households that had the tube on and implanted in their subconcious is the repeated lie. people who don't like bush are unpatriotic. its like a constant drumbeat and eventually it takes its toll.

Lukin Kittenberger said...

Sorry, I was being obtuse.

I was thinking of another impeachment process...

Alice said...

blah blah blah said...

Nukeboot said...
People who want to impeach the President are unpatriotic?

you miss the point. even though delay is a scumbag, the message got put out there. somewhere there's households that had the tube on and implanted in their subconcious is the repeated lie. people who don't like bush are unpatriotic. its like a constant drumbeat and eventually it takes its toll.

March 19, 2007 8:34 AM

Yes! Like the lie told to my entire county this morning with their Fox news feed on the local radio station telling everyone that 2/3 of the Iraqis want the US to stay!

I hope media matters finds it & corrects it...

bibimimi said...

Nukeboot said...
I'm glad Delay was on MTP


i kept thinking 'this is all they got? they are SO effed...'

Alice said...

a Weird al, Happy Birthday for ToniD

:)

bibimimi said...

Emily Latilla: "What's all this talk about secretaries of violins?"

March 19, 2007 8:24 AM

what's all this brouha-ha i hear about stovepiped intelligence? who wants a smart stove?? food in, food out, i say!!!

toniD said...

Speaking of Russert, he is on MSNBC, now, for the "celebration" of four years in Iraq!

bibimimi said...

Alice said...
a Weird al, Happy Birthday for ToniD

:)

March 19, 2007 8:40 AM

happy toniDay!

blah blah blah said...

bibimimi troll'p said...
Emily Latilla:


i miss the wit and wisdom of emily latilla. do you think dewey's real name is richard feder and that he lives in ft. lee, new jersy...

Jenise said...

win without war and families for a peaceful tomorrow were both on japanese and british TV on lamenting the fact that they could not get on american TV.

bibimimi said...

win without war?

hollywood elite poopoo...

ya wanna give russert credit? for what?? SWALLOWING???

bibimimi said...

dewey's real name is richard feder and that he lives in ft. lee, new jersy...

March 19, 2007 8:47 AM

yes. and he's still wearing that shirt that 'smells a little funny...'

bibimimi said...

MEET THE FLESH PRESSERS!!!

bibimimi said...

Joel bought cafe bustelo por alberto

Lukin Kittenberger said...

I missed Krugman today.

Any highlights?

toniD said...

Rice: Bush administration erred on troops in Iraq RAW STORY
Published: Monday March 19, 2007

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is admitting that the White House erred on the number of US troops first sent to Iraq, The Associated Press reports.

Rice on Monday "staunchly defended going to war in Iraq, but acknowledged the Bush administration likely erred by failing initially to send enough troops to quell the civil strife that followed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein," writes Ben Feller for the AP.

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq, which has resulted in the deaths of well over 3,000 US soldiers and countless tens of thousands of Iraqis. President Bush will mark the anniversary with a prepared statement to the press on Monday morning.

Rice, Feller continues, "said patience still is required and asserted anew that the Iraqis are making headway in completing the transition toward democracy."

The Secretary of State appeared on a number of Sunday news shows to help counter "plans by congressional Democrats to pass legislation effectively forcing the withdrawal of troops from Iraq by the fall of 2008," says Feller. "That means a standoff over war funding is looming, just as the battle to secure Baghdad intensifies and the war enters its fifth year."

LINK

toniD said...

– President Bush said this morning that "success would take months, not days or weeks." Because, you know, four years worth of days, weeks and months hasn't been nearly enough for us to find those flowers and candy. If you want some analysis, try Juan Cole. Because working brains require more than nifty phrasing, no matter what Frank Luntz says – and I find a President who is honest with himself and his advisors to be a wonderful thing. And I'm looking forward to us having one at some point in the future. (Oh, and while we're at it. Afghanistan? Still dangerous — nothing like having your US Embassy convoy attacked to show just how far we have to go, eh?) Can someone please ask George Bush if he defines "winning" as simply riding out both conflicts until he is out of office and no longer has to make the tough decisions? (Of course, since he's running away from questions today, that's going to be a little tough.)

LINK

Anonymous said...

Sam Seder is a Democratic Party shill, no progressive. Proof? He has YET to comment on this story from last week in the NY Times---

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and PATRICK HEALY WASHINGTON, March 14 --

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ☼ foresees a "remaining military as well as political mission" in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced military force there to fight Al Qaeda, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds and possibly support the Iraqi military.

In a half-hour interview on Tuesday in her Senate office, Mrs. Clinton said the scaled-down American military force that she would maintain would stay off the streets in Baghdad and would no longer try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence -- even if it descended into ethnic cleansing.

In outlining how she would handle Iraq as commander in chief, Mrs. Clinton articulated a more nuanced position than the one she has provided at her campaign events, where she has backed the goal of "bringing the troops home."

She said in the interview that there were "remaining vital national security interests in Iraq" that would require a continuing deployment of American troops.

The United States' security would be undermined if parts of Iraq turned into a failed state "that serves as a petri dish for insurgents and Al Qaeda," she said. "It is right in the heart of the oil region," she said. "It is directly in opposition to our interests, to the interests of regimes, to Israel's interests."

"So it will be up to me to try to figure out how to protect those national security interests and continue to take our troops out of this urban warfare, which I think is a loser," Mrs. Clinton added.

She declined to estimate the number of American troops she would keep in Iraq, saying she would draw on the advice of military officers.

Anonymous said...

Hey!

Lucky me! Someone just left a message for me from the National Republican Congressional Committee, and I have won the National Leadership Award!!!

What?

What a scam!! Apparently they also want you to donate money ... this woman said something about a press release. I am sure that is when they ask you for money to help pay for the press release. Can you believe they get away with this shit?

Look at what others have said about this scam...


"It is with a great deal of humility yet pride that I announce that I have been selected to recieve the National Leadership Award from the National Republican Congressional Committee. I am deeply honored by this generous award, proud of all my hard work and the support of loving family and friends over the course of my life. I truly feel that this is the pinnacle of my life and career; nothing can top this.

And co-chairmanship of the prestigious Business Advisory Council? Please, I’m not worthy!

Um, huh? What’s that? In order to recieve this generous award I have to be generous to the Republican Party in turn?

Yes, indeed, this is a political fundraising scam (see here, here, and, ooo, this one is really good...) Oh, for Pete’s sake, do this Google Search to join in the fun. I REALLY love the bio pages where people include it as a real honor. Sheesh. The party has apparently doing this for five or six years.

Obviously they don’t even do the most basic research into who they are calling. If they knew even the smallest thing about me they would know that I would prefer to live in modern-day Bhagdad to supporting the Republican Party. Please, no offense if you’re Republican (or Iraqi). It just ain’t my party. Democrat isn’t either.

http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/donkiely/archive/2006/06/01/21550.aspx

http://aggressive-voice.com/zz532.html

bibimimi said...

WWW lamenting the fact that they could not get on american TV.

March 19, 2007 8:53 AM

piss not on the parade. and the reputation of thw WHOLE COUNTRY suffers...

bibimimi said...

piece of crap...

March 19, 2007 9:30 AM

indeed...the cut rate option...the motel 6 of blogage.

bibimimi said...

DakotaOutlaw said...
Geesh! Sammy! So pissy so early in the morning

ya, senor sam do spike them calls like a bear on cocaine

Alice said...

From Missy's blog...

arsenal of hypocricy

Alice said...

Pelosi and the Democrats: PUT UP OR SHUT UP!

The voters have spoken! They are tired of the foolish and brutal war and occupation of Iraq. They are tired of stripping away our basic civil liberties in the name of the so-called war on terror. They are tired of the far-right agenda which has been the hallmark of the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. The voters have demanded change. It is time for the Democrats to deliver change or end any pretense of being anything but what they truly are: jackasses promoting a pro-war, anti-worker agenda while at the same time pretending to be something else.

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has already said that the Democrats will "rule from the middle." But the politics advanced by the two parties of capital and war have moved so far to the right that "the middle" resembles what would have been mainstream Republicanism a mere 10 years ago.

Progressives, workers, supporters of a rationale foreign policy who voted Democratic in the hope of bringing about change must now insist that the Democratic majority in Congress pass real change. But the sad fact is that on the crucial issues which face our country there is no significant difference between the Democrats and Republicans, and the next two years of a Democratic-controlled Congress will demonstrate that reality.

Some pressure can be brought to bear on the Democrats in order to convince them that change is necessary if they are to retain their new majority. Voters in California can contribute to that pressure by registering to vote with the Peace and Freedom Party. As long as progressives remain in the Democratic Party, they will be taken for granted and their issues will not be addressed by the Democratic leadership. Demonstrate your commitment to change by registering in the only party on the California ballot which stands for fundamental change: a change not in the types of corporations which control us, but an end to corporate control and its replacement with working class control of our economy and society.

Tell the Democrats where you really stand, and how they must move to keep their majority, by telling the Democrats that you stand for real change in our society. Register Peace and Freedom Party tody.

But more importantly, become active in the anti-war, anti-occupation movement, in the movement for workers' rights, in the movement for health care for all. And become active in the Peace and Freedom Party.

bibimimi said...

Condi;

shut the eff up!

toniD said...

Tony Snow ‘Defensive’ On Iraq Anniversary, Tells CNN’s Ed Henry To ‘Zip It’ »
President Bush will address the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion in a speech today at the White House.

During this morning’s press gaggle, Tony Snow told reporters that Bush will use the speech to attack the House plan for Iraq as a “recipe for defeat” that would “provide a victory for the enemy.”

CNN’s Ed Henry told Snow that since he was attacking the House plan, he should explain the Bush administration’s “recipe for success.” According to Henry, Snow “tried to turn it around on me,” asking Henry what his recipe for success was. When Henry objected to Snow’s question, Snow told him to “zip it.” Watch it:

Henry reported, “Snow later apologized. He said he felt that was inappropriate for him to say that to me. But I point it out because I think it shows the White House a little bit on the defensive this morning about this anniversary.”

WH and Snow are touchy, touchy!

toniD said...

Shameless plug of my blog. New post today.

President Bush speaks on Fourth Anniversary of Iraq war.

Comments welcome.

toniD said...

Feinstein: U.S. Attorneys Are Not ‘Political’ Appointees »
E-mails show that the Bush administration rated the “performance” of U.S. attorneys on whether or not they were “loyal Bushies.” The White House is now justifying its prosecutor purge by arguing that since these attorneys are “political” appointees, they “serve at the pleasure of the President” and need to follow the administration’s political whims.

President Bush, 3/14/07:

U.S. attorneys and others serve at the pleasure of the President. Past administrations have removed U.S. attorneys. It is their right to do so.

White House Advisor Karl Rove, 3/8/07:

Look, by law and by Constitution, these attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president and traditionally are given a four year term.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 3/7/07:

Like me, U.S. attorneys are political appointees, and we all serve at the pleasure of the president. If U.S. attorneys are not executing their responsibilities in a manner that furthers the management and policy goals of departmental leadership, it is appropriate that they be replaced.

Similarly, yesterday on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace claimed that it’s “the very nature of the game that these are going to be political appointees.”

But as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pointed out yesterday on CBS Face the Nation, political means only that they are appointed by the President. “[O]nce that prosecutor takes the oath of office, that prosecutor must become independent,” she said. “That prosecutor must be objective and what I worry about most of all in this is the chilling effect this has on objectivity of the American U.S. attorney who is the main prosecutor for the federal government of big cases under federal law.” Watch it:

Ousted prosecutor David Iglesias has also stated that one of the “most important tenets of a U.S. attorney’s office” is to never “mix politics with prosecutions.” “I think Americans need to have full confidence that their federal prosecutors are above politics,” said Iglesias.

LINK

toniD said...

Here's one of Kyle Sampson's emails:

UPDATE: Perhaps this was the “real problem” Sampson was referring to:

LINK

Was Carol Lam Targeting The White House Prior To Her Firing?

Referring to the Bush administration’s purge of former San Diego-based U.S. attorney Carol Lam, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) questioned recently on the Senate floor whether she was let go because she was “about to investigate other people who were politically powerful.”

The media reports this morning that among Lam’s politically powerful targets were former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and then-House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA). But there is evidence to believe that the White House may also have been on Lam’s target list. Here are the connections:

– Washington D.C. defense contractor Mitchell Wade pled guilty last February to paying then-California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes.

– Wade’s company MZM Inc. received its first federal contract from the White House. The contract, which ran from July 15 to August 15, 2002, stipulated that Wade be paid $140,000 to “provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney.”

– Two weeks later, on August 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht for $140,000 for Duke Cunningham. The boat’s name was later changed to the “Duke-Stir.” Said one party to the sale: “I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that…Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it — all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away.”

– According to Cunningham’s sentencing memorandum, the purchase price of the boat had been negotiated through a third-party earlier that summer, around the same time the White House contact was signed.

To recap, the White House awarded a one-month, $140,000 contract to an individual who never held a federal contract. Two weeks after he got paid, that same contractor used a cashier’s check for exactly that amount to buy a boat for a now-imprisoned congressman at a price that the congressman had pre-negotiated.

That should raise questions about the White House’s involvement.

LINK

toniD said...

Another post to my blog:

Pelosi Ask for Gonzales resignation.

toniD said...

The significance of the FBI’s law-breaking
By: SilentPatriot @ 9:02 AM - PDT

Greenwald pays attention to a story that the media is all but ignoring and one that is far more grievous and far-reaching than Gonzales' purge.

Salon:

In essence, the FBI and our nation's telecommunications companies have secretly created a framework whereby the FBI can obtain — instantaneously and without limits — any information it asks for. The Patriot Act already substantially expanded the circumstances under which the FBI can obtain such records without the need for subpoenas or any judicial process, and it left in place only the most minimal limitations and protections. But it is those very minimal safeguards which the FBI continuously violated in order to obtain whatever information its agents desired, about any Americans they targeted, with literally no limits of any kind.

Worse, in many of these cases where these letters were provided, they were completely false — both because there were no "exigent" circumstances of any kind and there were no subpoenas that were submitted or being processed. So the FBI agents who submitted these instruction letters repeatedly made false statements in order to obtain highly intrusive records. Read more…

LINK

toniD said...

The baby boomers speak:




Poll: Anti-war sentiment grows
in Americans 50 and over


As the war in Iraq steadily plummets in popularity, opposition has grown mostly among Americans older than 50 and Democrats, survey results released Monday show.

toniD said...

Attorney firings may have been against the law RAW STORY
Published: Monday March 19, 2007

The Bush Administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys may have broken various laws, according to a New York Times op-ed by lawyer and editorial page assistant editor Adam Cohen.

"It is true, as the White House keeps saying, that United States attorneys serve 'at the pleasure of the president,' which means he can dismiss them whenever he wants," writes Cohen. "But if the attorneys were fired to interfere with a valid prosecution, or to punish them for not misusing their offices, that may well have been illegal."

Cohen lists four crimes that may have been committed in the firing of the attorneys and the subsequent statements made by Administration officials.

Cohen writes that "It is illegal to lie to Congress" and to impede its getting information. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as well as Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson are all under scrutiny for conflicting statements made to Congress.

Contacting prosecutors to influence or impede investigations is also a punishable crime, writes Cohen. Both Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) have been found to have contacted one of the fired U.S. attorneys, David Iglesias, in order to inquire about ongoing investigations.

The intimidation of Congressional wittnesses also violates the law, writes Cohen. One of the fired U.S. attorneys, H.E. Cummins, stated that he had been contacted and threatened with retaliation by McNulty's chief of staff.

LINK

toniD said...

Later!

Work today.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sam...looking for a "catch phrase" for the inevitable Karl Rove resignation? How about "HIT THE ROVE, KARL...AND DON'T YOU COME BACK NO MORE, NO MORE, NO MORE, NO MORE"?

Anonymous said...

THE ONLY WAY OUR PROTESTS WILL BE COVERED BY THE 'NEWS' MEDIA IS TO MAKE THEM PART OF THE STORY. IMAGINE THOUSANDS OF PEACEFUL WAR PROTESTERS OUTSIDE CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, THE NY TIMES, ETC. WOULD WE STILL BE IGNORED? It is worth a try.
Peace be upon us all. Edie, Atanta