Let me tell you a story about my grandmother. This is a woman who left home at 19, first member of her family ever to cross the state line. She moved to the city, got an apartment with five other girls, and trained to become a nurse. She worked in what would now be called the neonatal ward of a small Catholic hospital, taking care of babies nobody else wanted. Sick kids, abandoned kids, kids who were dying of illness of varying levels of horror. She did this for years, until she married, at the age of 31. She moved … Continue reading Get It

From Holden: Sorry about the sports metaphor, I’m watching basketball at the moment. The Congressional Budget Office has a new report pushing the break-even date for Social Security back a couple of years. The Social Security system will take in more money annually than it pays out in benefits until 2020, two years later than earlier estimated, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday in a modest change unlikely to alter the growing political debate over the program. Congress’ budget analysts also estimated the program’s trust funds will be depleted in 2052, “meaning that beneficiaries will be able to count on … Continue reading CBO Sends Social Security Into Overtime

From Holden: Atrios’ alter ego has a nice round-up of Charles Krauthammer’s ethical problems at the Post over at Media Matters. Someone needs to ask Krauthammer if he is on contract to the administration. Continue reading Kraphammer

From Holden: Lunaville reports 1,435 U.S. servicemen and women killed in Iraq since Bush decided he had to invade a country that did not threaten us in order to appear to be a “wartime president” and win re-election. However, many other Americans have been killed and wounded in Iraq without being included in that total. At least 232 employees of private contractors have been killed in Iraq while working on U.S. military and reconstruction contracts, according to a quarterly report to Congress. [snip] It cited Labor Department figures in reporting that U.S contractor deaths rose 93 percent during the fourth … Continue reading The Other American Body Count

From Holden: The “Do as I say, not as I do” president. Q Scott, there’s been talk about the elections in Iraq. Let’s talk about elections here. The Congressional Black Caucus met with the President last week and they said that they asked the President — one congressman, in the last question to the President, asked him about the renewal of the portion of the Voting Rights Act that’s up in 2007. The President said, I don’t want to speak on that, because I don’t know that much about it at this time. The President was asked that in 2000 … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: The guy is a friggin’ munchkin! Continue reading The Real Reason Chimpy’s Favorite Author is Natan Sharansky

From Holden: Another loss for Chimpy’s War on Terra in federal court. A federal judge here [in Washington, DC] ruled today that the Bush administration has been wrongly blocking terrorism suspects held in Cuba from fighting their detention, and that the review procedure set up to determine whether they are “enemy combatants” is inherently unfair and unconstitutional. Judge Joyce Hens Green, who has been reviewing claims filed by several dozen detainees at the United States naval base at Guantnamo Bay, said the detainees were clearly entitled under a Supreme Court ruling last June to challenge the basis for their detention, … Continue reading Federal Judge Slaps Down GITMO Detention Hearings

And all I have to say to this is hell yeah, baby, and more where that came from: I hope President Bush learns a lesson from this. Because while December’s tragedy caught our attention, there are everyday, slow-motion tsunamis of poverty and disease and mass killings engulfing villages and nations all around our world. These places may seem far away from us, but we learned on September 11th that even Manhattan is not an island, that we live on a tiny globe and that the world’s problems have a way of reaching us here at home. We need to dry … Continue reading HARRY!

From Holden: Juan Cole calls it like he sees it. [I]f it had been up to Bush, Iraq would have been a soft dictatorship under Chalabi, or would have had stage-managed elections with an electorate consisting of a handful of pro-American notables. It was Sistani and the major Shiite parties that demanded free and open elections and a UNSC resolution. They did their job and got what they wanted. But the Americans have been unable to provide them the requisite security for truly aboveboard democratic elections. With all the hoopla, it is easy to forget that this was an extremely … Continue reading The Great Iraqi Electoral Joke

From Holden: Despite Condi’s concilliatory opening statement during her confirmation hearing earlier this month, the Bush administration is dead set against using diplomatic means to solve any percieved problems with Iran. The United States has rebuffed pleas to join a European diplomatic drive to persuade Iran to give up any ambitions to add nuclear bombs to its arsenal, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats say. For months, Britain, France and Germany have hoped to improve their bargaining power with the Islamic republic by involving Washington in a proposed accord over an end to its uranium enrichment activities. That effort has intensified … Continue reading The Time for Diplomacy Is… When?

From Holden: The last time an “election” was held in Iraq was October 16, 2002. 11,445,638 eligible voters cast ballots that day, 100% of which were tallied in favor of keeping Saddam Hussein in power. As with the election held yesterday, celebrations erupted throughout the streets of Iraq after the 2002 election. Although the reported 100% support for Hussein is laughably ficticious, the words of one of Saddam’s officials at the time ring true today. “If the U.S. administration makes a mistake and attacks Iraq, we will fight them,” [Izzat] Ibrahim [vice chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council] said. “If … Continue reading The Last ”Election” Held in Iraq

From Holden: The last time an “election” was held in Iraq was October 16, 2002. 11,445,638 eligible voters cast ballots that day, 100% of which were tallied in favor of keeping Saddam Hussein in power. As with the election held yesterday, celebrations erupted throughout the streets of Iraq after the 2002 election. Although the reported 100% support for Hussein is laughably ficticious, the words of one of Saddam’s officials at the time ring true today. “If the U.S. administration makes a mistake and attacks Iraq, we will fight them,” [Izzat] Ibrahim [vice chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council] said. “If … Continue reading The Last “Election” Held in Iraq

From Holden: Michael Chertoff, Georgie’s lastest bestest nominee as head of Fatherland Security, lied to congress on November 28, 2001. Shouldn’t he be charged with that crime instead of sitting before the same committee as a cabinet nominee? On Nov. 28, 2001, then-Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff took a seat before a Senate committee and offered reassurance on two fronts: The Justice Department was unrelenting in pursuit of terrorists. And none of its tactics had trampled the Constitution or federal law. Every detainee has been charged, Chertoff told the senators. Every detainee has a lawyer. No one is held incommunicado. … Continue reading Fatherland Security Search, Part II

Keith Olbermann. Bow down before him, mortals. It goes back to the core of the Dobsonian point of view here: the fear of the “pro-Homosexual” agenda. That may be the way he delicately phrases it, but it is not shared by most of his followers who emailed me. They were clearly angry that there was no anti-homosexual agenda. A. Continue reading Department of Damned If He Didn’t Put It Right On The Button

In a story about Barbara Boxer: Republicans say they can work with Feinstein. Her advice and endorsement are courted by Schwarzenegger and others on issues while Boxer, whom they generally despise, is left on the sidelines. “I don’t think attack dogs are ever useful,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who lost a 1998 GOP primary election for the chance to run against Boxer. Now, imagine you’re the reporter writing that piece. How in God’s name do you keep a straight face? A. Continue reading Department of The Irony Impaired Part 357

From Holden: Rocket hits US embassy in Baghdad, killing two. Let’s get something straight here. Predicting a disaster and praying for a disaster are two separate things. I anticipate the slaughter to continue in Iraq. As an atheist I do not pray, but I fervently hope for a peaceful election in Iraq. I just don’t think that will happen. If you were to see a school bus, loaded with children, stuck at a rail crossing with a freight train bearing down on it at 60 miles an hour, would you yell, “Look out! That train is going to hit the … Continue reading How Many More Will Die for Bush’s Sham Election

What a gutless bunch of bastards PBS is these days: This week, the new US secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, denounced PBS for spending public funds to tape an episode of a children’s program that features Pike, a lesbian, her partner, Gillian Pieper, and their 11-year-old daughter, Emma. The installment of “Postcards From Buster,” which is produced locally at WGBH-TV (Channel 2) and which had been scheduled to air March 23, was promptly dropped by PBS, which is refusing to distribute the footage to its 349 member stations. “It makes me sick,” said Pike, a 42-year-old photographer in Hinesburg, Vt., … Continue reading PBS Wusses Out

From Holden: Attacking Talon News/GOP-USA assclown Jeff Gannon is suddenly a cottage industry (here, here, and of course here and here). But Gannon’s whorage is nothing new to the gaggle obsessed. Hell, I even had a nickname for him months ago (“Scottie’s Suppository”). So let’s take an obsessive stroll down gaggle lane, being careful to step over the little piles Gannon deposited along the way. Here’s an oldie-but-goodie from July 19, 2004. I was subbing for Atrios at the time when I happened to obsess on this gaggle exchange. Here Gannon gives Little Scottie McClellan the opportunity to revise the … Continue reading I Outed Jeff Gannon Before Outing Him Was Cool

From Holden: Bugman, Chimpy and Denny the Meatpuppet. Continue reading God DAMN, Denny Hastert Is One Fat Bastard

From Holden: Little Scottie regales us with touching stories about Iraqi’s experiencing democracy – outside of Iraq. Holden illustrates Scotties’ stories with images of Iraqis experiencing democracy within Iraq. One woman who cast her vote in Jordan said, “I’ve been waiting for this day, I’ve been dreaming of this day to tell my grandchildren that in the first election in the history of Iraq, I was the first woman to vote.” You had another individual who was in Australia said, “When I look at the ink on my finger, this is a mark of freedom.” And just one more quote. … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Disappointing growth in fourth quarter 2004 GDP sends My Bush Boom into hiding. The American economy’s expansion slowed somewhat in the last three months of the year, the government reported today, as the nation’s widening trade gap took a growing toll on growth. The Commerce Department, in its initial estimate, said the nation’s gross domestic product – its total output of goods and services – rose at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004, less than the 3.5 percent that many economists had been expecting. In the third quarter, the economy grew at … Continue reading I Ain’t Got No Bush Boom, And No Bush Boom Got Me

Today’s action is courtesy of the League of Conservation Voters. It’s simple, too. Go here and send a letter telling Bush not to ruin our environment. Thanks for taking today’s action. posted for Tena, via Hecate — A. Continue reading Today’s Action Alert

From Holden: Apparently, Freedom of Speech ain’t free. A lawsuit has been filed accusing a man with strong political opinions of attacking another man over a bumper sticker. The bumper sticker said “George Bush is a serial killer.” Jeffrey Trapp said in the lawsuit that he went into a liquor store on Nov. 18 and was talking to a store employee when Kirkwood Dormeyer walked in. Dormeyer allegedly told them he had used his knife to scrape a bumper sticker off an unknown person’s automobile because he found it offensive. Trapp said he told Dormeyer that the bumper sticker was … Continue reading Item #357,891 in the Stupid Wingnut File

From Holden: Elections in Iraq on Sunday you say? Evil, dishonest exercise in cynicism I say. On Sunday, thousands of Iraqis will line up to be slaughtered by suicide bombers, mortar fire, RPGs and snipers. Iraqi policemen, soldiers and guardsmen will die in bunches, as will U.S. soldiers. Scores will die, for what? A sham election that seeks to cast an aura of legitimacy around American hegemony over the second largest known source of oil in the world. The lucky few who live to mark their bloodstained ballots will be casting futile votes, as the 275 assembly members have already … Continue reading The War Crime to Come

peekaboo A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

From Holden: Krugman explains. Continue reading Bush, the Lying Bigot

Hell yeah. Going head to head with Bush, who was unveiling his plan for computerized medical records at about the same time, Kerry criticized the administration’s failure to negotiate drug prices or consider drug reimportation. “That’s how the president who promised to usher in a ‘responsibility era’ proposes to deal with a real health care crisis, even as he seeks to gin up a phony crisis in Social Security,” said Kerry, in remarks prepared for delivery to the nonprofit consumer group Families USA. “It sounds like a cradle-to-grave irresponsibility plan to me.” Look, I know a lot of people are … Continue reading Shadow President: Health Care Edition

From Holden: Surgeon: “Helllo (Hello-Hello-Hello-Hello).” NOTE: I did not photoshop this image. Continue reading An Afternoon at the Captions

From Holden: Dan Froomkin offers a tasty morsel for the gaggle-obsessed. There are assigned seats in the briefing room, and Bush started, like press secretary Scott McClellan normally does, by working his way through the first few rows, [Towson University professor Martha Joynt ] Kumar said. With one exception: “He called on everyone in the front two rows except for Helen,” Kumar said, referring to firebrand Helen Thomas, doyenne of the White House press corps, now a columnist for Hearst, and a scourge to the Bush administration. Add to the list of things Georgie is afraid of: 70+ year old … Continue reading Your Daily Froomkin

From Holden: The WaPo tells us that one more vote against Condi as Secretary of State would have tied a 180-year-old record. Not since 1825 — when 14 of the Senate’s 48 members voted against Henry Clay — have so many senators opposed a secretary of state nominee. Even at the height of the Vietnam War in 1973, Henry A. Kissinger’s nomination drew only seven negative votes. What was that you were saying about a mandate, Mr. Bush? Continue reading One Vote Shy of the Record