The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. Martin Luther King Jr., “Strength to Love” I thought I’d put up a quote from Martin Luther King, one of the truly great Americans. Extraordinary men seemed to rise up during those times; too many of them were felled. They took a lot of what was best about us with them. There must be extraordinary men and women out there now. Here’s hoping they remember Dr. King and the others who have gone before, and rise up soon. Continue reading Martin Luther King

“Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” —-Voltaire [thanks to Visual Politics in comments at Eschaton for this quote. I can think of some foreheads I’d like to see it written on in indelible ink.] Continue reading Your inspirational quote for the weekend

Trying to defray the stink of Armstrong Williams from his side of the political aisle, Glenn Reynolds is trying to whip up something about DailyKos and MyDD, except the facts don’t align with the Reynolds smear. He says: I could just as easily ask how many other lefty bloggers (since Zephyr says there were more, too) were on campaigns’ payrolls, and pronounce the entire lefty blogosphere suspect. 1. Markos and Jerome disclosed their relationship with the Dean campaign. 2. They were not illegally paid taxpayer money. Sorry, pal, but you guys are the ones under suspicion here. Armstrong Williams didn’t … Continue reading Glenn Reynolds: Dumb on Purpose

My grandmother moved out of her house last fall and into an apartment complex, and she’s selling the house next month, so I’m headed out to her place to, in her words, “pick out something you want from all that junk before we get rid of it.” So chat away. A. Continue reading Weekend Open Thread

From Holden: Get a room! Seriously, you guys are making me sick. Now that’s just disgusting! Continue reading Fun With Captions

From Holden: In today’s gaggle Little Scottie was channeling the Queen of Hearts. Damn, she even looks like Scottie, doesn’t she? Q There’s a report out that Iraq could become an important breeding ground for terrorism. Is the President concerned about that? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think the report talks a lot more — about a lot more than that. We welcome the report. I think the report confirms that our strategy of staying on the offensive and spreading freedom to win the war on terrorism is the right approach. We are in a struggle of epic proportions and the … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: How dare the press corps plebes question Scottie about the coronation! Q Scott, there’s been some criticism of the inaugural costs, $40 million being spent on the inauguration at a time when people are dying in Iraq and the tsunami disaster has created a sobering mood. Does the President feel that it’s appropriate to have a lavish celebration like that at such a time? MR. McCLELLAN: I think we talked about this earlier in the week, and I think the Inaugural Committee has talked about it, as well. But the inaugural is a great American tradition, and this … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle: Coronation Edition

From Holden: How many times are we willing to lose the Battle of Fallujah? Continue reading U.S. Launches Airstrike on Fallujah

From Holden: Earlier today I linked to this WaPo article about the CIA’s National Intelligence Council report citing Iraq as the new training ground for terrorists. You probably can guess what the response from the White House was, but here it is just for grins. The White House on Friday played down a government report which said the war in Iraq is providing an important training ground and recruitment center for Islamic terrorists. “This is a speculative report about things that could happen in the world,” press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters on Air Force One as President Bush traveled … Continue reading That Did Not Take Long

From Holden: Not me. Not until I read this article about the folks who are speaking out against the Coronation of Georgie (read it!), including billionaire Bush-supporter Mark Cuban. As a country we face huge budget deficits. We face a declining currency. We have service people dying. We face responsibilities to help those suffering from the ongoing consequences and devastation from the Tsunamis. Then of course there are our obligations to our own citizens. [snip] It’s up to President Bush to set an example. How about it Mr. President? Can you take the first step? I can help you figure … Continue reading Who Knew Mark Cuban Had a Blog?

From Holden: Ha! Froomkin tells us that Chimpy’s kinda-sorta admission of a mistake could only be extracted from him on the third attempt. And even in yesterday’s nearly hour-long session with more than a dozen reporters, Bush ducked the regret question the first time around. Chris Mondics of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that when first asked, Bush replied: “Biggest regret, first term, hmm, let’s see,” he said. “What was the other ? Have I changed? Well you better ask my wife that question. They say my hair is grayer. But I come from a pretty white-haired gene pool. At least … Continue reading Drag It Out Of Him

Shorter everyone on the whole Kos/Zephyr/Dean/Williams/WSJ kerfluffle: “So what you’re saying is that the third story on the news tonight was that someone I didn’t know thirteen years ago when I wasn’t president participated in a demonstration in which no laws were broken in opposition to something so many people were against, it doesn’t exist anymore? Out of curiosity, what was the fourth story?” –Andrew Shepherd, The American President A. Continue reading Out of Curiosity

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Iraqi police searched Friday for 28 prisoners from Abu Ghraib who escaped while being transported to another facility in Baghdad, police and U.S. military spokesmen said. Two police officers may have been involved in Thursday night’s escape, Iraqi officials said. The detainees were aboard a bus from the prison to another Iraqi correctional facility, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson. Iraqi police said several detainees had their hands bound with rope. The inmates loosened the rope and managed to overpower the police and guards. One took an AK-47 assault rifle from a police officer and shot the … Continue reading Prison Escape in Iraq

From Holden: When I mentioned earlier today that this report would be released I had no idea that the Dept. of Justice’s Inspector General would be so supportive of Sibel Edmonds’ story. Evidence and other witnesses support complaints by a fired FBI contract linguist who alleged shoddy work and possible espionage within the bureau’s translator program in the months after the September 2001 terror attacks, according to a report Friday by the senior oversight official at the Justice Department. The department’s inspector general, Glenn Fine, said the allegations by former translator Sibel Edmonds “raised substantial questions and were supported by … Continue reading DOJ Inspector General Supports Sibel Edmonds

Today’s Action comes from NRDC. Tell your senators and representative to oppose oil development in the Arctic Refuge! President Bush and his allies in Congress are planning to use a budget ploy to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to massive oil development in the next 90 days. If they succeed, this extraordinary wildlife nursery will soon be turned into a vast, polluted oil field. Please contact your senators and representative right away and tell them to oppose this sneak attack on the Arctic Refuge. Here’s a sample letter: Dear [Senator or Representative], I am deeply opposed to President Bush’s … Continue reading Action Alert – Alaskan Wilderness

From Holden: It all boils down to “I don’t always talk good.” “Sometimes, words have consequences you don’t intend them to mean,” Bush said Thursday. “‘Bring ’em on’ is the classic example, when I was really trying to rally the troops and make it clear to them that I fully understood, you know, what a great job they were doing. And those words had an unintended consequence. It kind of, some interpreted it to be defiance in the face of danger. That certainly wasn’t the case.” Shit, he’s still clueless. No one interpreted “Bring it on” as “defiance in the … Continue reading Chimpy Almost Sorta Admits a Mistake – Maybe

Fox, trying to blend with his natural habitat. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

From Holden: dock boggs informs us in Atrios comments that one of my favorite gagglers, Les Kinsolving, is recovering from triple-bypass surgery after suffering a heart attack on January 5. As I mentioned on Tuesday when I first noticed Les was missing from the gaggle, those daily White House briefings just aren’t the same without him. Get well soon, Les. Continue reading I Miss Les

From Holden: A: Nobody in our military knows. That’s because they’ve discharged 26 gay Arabic and Farsi translators over the past six years (although the Pentagon previosuly admitted to discharging only seven). Link. Continue reading Q: How Do You Say “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Arabic?

From Holden: A: Nobody in our military knows. That’s because they’ve discharged 26 gay Arabic and Farsi translators over the past six years (although the Pentagon previosuly admitted to discharging only seven). Link. Continue reading Q: How Do You Say ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Arabic?

From Holden: The latest Pew poll places Chimpy’s job approval rating below that of the last five incumbent presidents entering their second term. President George W. Bush (news – web sites)’s approval rating is lower than the past five second-term US presidents, according to a poll, with a plurality of Americans seeing Iraq (news – web sites) a top US concern. At 50 percent Bush has the lowest approval rating when compared to presidents Bill Clinton (news – web sites), Ronald Reagan (news – web sites), Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Dwight Eisenhower at the moment they took office for … Continue reading What Mandate?

From Holden: Rod Paige should learn to keep his mouth shut. Bush’s Secretary of Education, who once called the NEA a “terrorist organization” and has a history of fraud, is now defending his agency’s decision to violate federal law by entering into a contract to illegally distribute government propaganda through the mouth of Armstrong Williams. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige yesterday defended payments to a conservative black commentator to promote the No Child Left Behind law as a standard “outreach effort” to minority groups who stand to benefit most from the Bush administration’s showcase education program. Paige, the nation’s first … Continue reading Rod Paige Condones Illegal Propaganda

From Holden: The Justice Department finally finds the time to open an investigation of the allegations of detainee abuse and torture that DOJ has been receiving from its own FBI agents for the past couple of years. The Justice Department has opened a wide-ranging investigation into reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the military’s use of coercive and abusive tactics against prisoners held in American custody at Guantnamo Bay and in Iraq, officials said on Thursday. The investigation, initiated recently by the inspector general at the Justice Department, will examine not only how reports of abuse witnessed by … Continue reading Justice Delayed

From Holden: If there are any doubts about the post below, in which the National Intelligence Council reports that Iraq has become a terrorist training ground, the Sophia News Agency finds confirmation in Bulgaria. Iraq has become a recruiting ground for Al Qaeda, which is training agents, including Western nationals, and sending them home to set up networks or form sleeper cells, according to two France-based experts. “There is very clear information on this,” notably from Bulgarian intelligence, said Paris-based Algerian journalist Atmane Tazaghart, who is also a specialist on Islamic fundamentalist groups. Continue reading Bulgaria Agrees

From Holden: Chimpy’s War has transformed Iraq into Terrorist University: Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of “professionalized” terrorists, according to a report released yesterday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director’s think tank. Iraq provides terrorists with “a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills,” said David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. “There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will … Continue reading Terrorist Training Ground

From Holden: While hanging out over at Atrios’ pad yesterday I read a comment that claimed Christian missionaries were planning to take Muslim tsunami orphans and raise them as Christians. I thought it was apochryphal until I read this today. The Virginia-based missionary group WorldHelp has dropped its plans to place 300 Muslim “tsunami orphans” in a Christian children’s home, the group’s president, the Rev. Vernon Brewer, told news agencies yesterday. [snip] The group’s plan to raise children from Muslim families in a Christian home struck a nerve in Indonesia, which had regulations in place even before the tsunami requiring … Continue reading Stranger than Fiction

The grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Thursday protested use of FDR’s image in a television ad touting President Bush’s plan to partially privatize Social Security. “My grandfather would surely oppose the ideas now being promoted by this administration and your organization,” James Roosevelt Jr., wrote in a letter to Progress for America, a private group that supports conservative issues. link here. Goddamn, is there nothing these assholes won’t do? They pay commentators to broadcast propaganda. Now they usurp the image of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man who was responsible for saving generations of elderly Americans from grinding poverty by … Continue reading In which I spit on the Bush administration

Why, you ask, are we rewarding boring ol’ Harry with the sterling honor that is the Happy Democrat’s position today? This. Kickass politicking gets you on my deserves-a-kitten list whenever you engage in it. A. Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: Harry Reid Edition

I’ve had an internet stalker over at Atrios’ house for over a year now. His latest game is to pull old comments of mine out of archives, drop them into a thread to validate his fake identity and go from there. It’s insanely banal and silly, but since my identity is the issue, I’m publishing this to let people know that one of us is the real Tena. Continue reading Trolls and Stalkers

From Holden: It’s a New and Improved Gaggle, Now with Extra Snark! MR. McCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everybody. The President was pleased to go over to the Pentagon and receive an update on our tsunami relief efforts by the military, as well as to participate in a briefing on the global — in the — on the global war on terrorism. [snip] Q Did he get an update on the search for Osama bin Laden? MR. McCLELLAN: I’m not going to get into the discussion of the meeting. It was a classified briefing, and I’ll leave it there, where the President … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle