Now the party can start. Digby’s here: It’s kind of funny that I and others spent last week arguing whether Democrats ought to be encouraging Hollywood to stop selling sex, (which even David Brooks agrees doesn’t seem to correlate to any real negative change in the way kids behave.) But, here we have a real problem, a real coarsening of the discourse which has resulted in our politics becoming so polarized and rhetorically violent that it’s as if we live on two different planets. While Ann Coulter makes the cover of Time for writing that liberals have a “preternatural gift … Continue reading Salsa Dancing on the Deck of the Titanic

From Holden: Republicans in the House Ethics Committee are ready to investigate Tom DeLay. Republicans on the House ethics committee said today that they were ready to open an investigation into Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, one of the House’s most powerful members, to deflate Democrats’ charges that Republicans are trying to protect Mr. DeLay. And of course Congressman Hastings is completely unbiased. Mr. Hastings said today that he and his party colleagues were eager to go ahead counter “an outrageous and completely baseless claim” by Democrats that Republicans changed some committee procedures to shield the majority leader. [snip] Mr. … Continue reading Republicans To Investigate Innocent Tom DeLay

From Holden: Little Scottie came out swinging his pudgy fists today on the sinking Bolton nomination. Shorter Scottie: It’s all those lying Democrats’ fault! Bolton testified for eight hours! WAH!!! Q A follow-up on John Bolton — is that nomination lost? MR. McCLELLAN: No, absolutely not. I think what you’re seeing is some Democrats on the committee trumping up allegations and making unsubstantiated accusations against someone the President believes will do an outstanding job at the United Nations. He is someone who has been an effective manager, a strong diplomat who has gotten things done. And I think he’s earned … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: I can’t let the gaggle go by without a brief visit with Les. Today former Episcopal Minister Les Kinsolving wants the Catholic Church to excommunicate Senator Barbara Mikulski. Q Scott, in Maryland, Catholic U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski supports the semi-infanticide of partial-birth abortion. And Sister Jeannine Gramick, whom Cardinal Ratzinger personally ordered to stop promoting sodomy acceptance, has called his election as Pope, devastating. And my question: Does the President believe this new pontiff will never excommunicate either Mikulski or Gramick? MR. McCLELLAN: You know, Les, you might want to direct some of these questions to the Vatican. … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with Les

From Holden: Luckovich, submitted by reader mmmm … sultry. Continue reading Cartoon of the Day

From Holden: Here’s a little gem of a poll Dan Froomkin mentioned today: The number of US university students who hold traditional liberal views increased sharply over the past year, pushed by excitement over the 2004 election and dissatisfaction with George W. Bush’s foreign policy, according to a Harvard University poll released yesterday. [snip] It found that 43 per cent of college students fell in the liberal category – supportive of health insurance and abortion rights while opposing Mr Bush’s foreign policy – up 11 percentage points from one year ago. Some 14 per cent of college students were described … Continue reading Bush Pushes Youth to the Left

From Holden: McClellan said Bolton faces “trumped-up” allegations, and said the Bush administration is confident Bolton will be confirmed. “I think what you have are some Democratic members of the committee who continue to bring up unsubstantiated accusations,” he said. “They are unfounded.” Both Democrats and Republicans had predicted that the GOP-controlled committee would vote along party lines to recommend Bolton for the job. “The dynamic has changed,” Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., said after the tense committee meeting. “A lot of reservations surfaced today. It’s a new day.” Link. Continue reading Scottie Stamps His Little Feet, Rolls on the Floor Holding His Breath

From Holden: Via Juan Cole, the Senate is sick and tired of Chimpy’s “emergency” off-budget appropriations for his endless wars. In a symbolic blow to the Bush administration, the U.S. Senate has signaled its disdain for funding Iraq military operations outside the annual budget cycle. The Senate attached a non-binding resolution Monday evening to the $80.7 billion supplemental 2005 spending bill now being considered. The resolution said war funds should be allocated in annual budget requests from the White House. [snip] Receiving support from 21 Republicans, Senate Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd’s, D-W.Va., amendment reflects a growing bipartisan unease with … Continue reading The Senate Sends a Message

From Holden: With all the media attention paid to a few measley puffs of smoke in Italy, is there any bandwidth left for reports from Iraq? Let’s see, we’ve seen nine U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the past four days, more than 50 bodies of suspected Iraqi hostages found floating in the Tigris [UPDATE: make that 100 bodies], insurgents round up 19 Iraqi National Guardsmen, herd them into a soccer stadium in Baghdad, and then execute them, and Iraqi police clash with armed protestors demanding jobs in Dewayah. Freedom is On the March! Continue reading What About Iraq?

From Holden: And those three letters are G, O, and P. The Transportation Security Administration has failed to stop excessive spending, raising concerns of “unethical and possibly illegal activities” by employees who spent $500,000 on artwork and silk plants for a new operations center, according to a government report released yesterday. [snip] The report is the latest to find lavish spending at the three-year-old agency. In 2002, the agency was criticized soon after its creation for spending $410,000 on the executive office suite of its first leader. In 2003, the agency threw itself a $461,000 birthday party and awards banquet … Continue reading You Only Need Three Letters to Spell the Word ”Corruption”

From Holden: And those three letters are G, O, and P. The Transportation Security Administration has failed to stop excessive spending, raising concerns of “unethical and possibly illegal activities” by employees who spent $500,000 on artwork and silk plants for a new operations center, according to a government report released yesterday. [snip] The report is the latest to find lavish spending at the three-year-old agency. In 2002, the agency was criticized soon after its creation for spending $410,000 on the executive office suite of its first leader. In 2003, the agency threw itself a $461,000 birthday party and awards banquet … Continue reading You Only Need Three Letters to Spell the Word “Corruption”

From Holden: Dust off those WIN buttons boys and girls, they may be making a big comeback. Consumer prices jumped 0.6 percent in March, the biggest inflation surge in five months, as the costs of energy, clothing and airline fares all rose sharply. The Labor Department said last month’s increase in the Consumer Price Index, the most closely watched inflation gauge, followed a 0.4 percent rise in February and left consumer inflation rising at an annual rate of 4.3 percent in the first three months of this year. That was a full percentage point above the 3.3 percent rise in … Continue reading Maybe My Bush Boom Lives In A P.O. Box In Illinois, Too

From Holden: I did not know Crawford was a suburb of Chicago. They’ve got a house in rural Texas and a nice home-office setup on Pennsylvania Avenue. But for tax purposes, President Bush and his wife, Laura, claim a Chicago post office box as their “home address.” On the 1040 they signed, which the White House released last week, the listed home address is “Northern Trust Co., P.O. Box 803968, Chicago, IL 60680.” White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Tuesday that’s because Northern Trust handles the blind trust the couple uses for their holdings since Bush took office. “As near … Continue reading Hey, Illinois Can Have Him

From Holden: Maybe it’s not such a good idea to be a show-off, huh Condi? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried out her rusty Russian in a Moscow radio interview Wednesday, only to get caught out by a question on whether she might run for president. “Da (Yes),” Rice answered in Russian, before realizing her misunderstanding and hastily adding “Nyet” (No) — seven times. Rice’s interview on Ekho Moskvy radio turned into a linguistic ordeal when the Soviet expert and former provost of Stanford university fielded a schoolgirl listener’s question on how she achieved her career success. “It’s too complicated … Continue reading Da-Da-Run-Run-Run, Da-Da-Run-Run

“I met an unusual man today. He didn’t walk into the room with a political agenda. He didn’t walk in with his mind made up. He genuinely wanted to do what he thought was best. He didn’t mind saying the words I don’t know.” –The West Wing No kidding, this guy has some balls on him. As Holden points out below, he’s bucked fush before, but today was something else. I was watching the Bolton hearings (you can see a replay of highlights here) and it was all about to go south. Joe Biden was pounding on the table, saying … Continue reading How To Say Thank You

From Holden: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst . George Voinovich (R-OH) showed us that there are decent, independent Republicans in the Senate. Of course it’s not the first time. Voinovich tried to limit Chimpy’s tax cuts for the rich two years ago and the Chimpster responded by going after him in his own state. He owes nothing to Bush. Mr. Bush had asked Congress for $726 billion in cuts over 10 years. The House capped new tax relief at $550 billion, while the Senate agreed to cuts of no more than $350 billion. The White House has scaled back its expectations, saying at … Continue reading Thank You, George Voinovich

From Holden: Jeebus. Less than two years after it was plunged into a rape scandal, the Air Force Academy is scrambling to address complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive. There have been 55 complaints of religious discrimination at the academy in the past four years, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet. Continue reading Onward Christian Soldiers Airmen

From Holden: The full, seven-judge panel federal appeals court in Washington rejected an appeal today from Judith Miller and Matt Cooper in regards to their contempt citations in the Plame case. And, if you read to the end of the excerpt below, one judge provided some confirmation that Bob Novak spilled the beans. Two reporters facing up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify about their sources lost another round in the courts today. The reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, now have only one appeal left, to the United … Continue reading Plame On

From Holden: Number of times the words “terror” or “terrorism” appear in Chimpy’s statement on the tenth anniversary of the terror bombing that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building along with more than 180 Americans: 0. Number of times the words “terror” or “terrorism” appear in Big Time Dick’s speech in Oklahoma City on the tenth anniversary of the terror bombing that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building along with more than 180 Americans: 1, but it was a reference to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Continue reading No Terrorism Here

From Holden: CNBC Anchor Ron Insana interviewed Georgie yesterday and asked one helluva question (that the Chimp did not answer, of course): It’s been five years since we hit the all-time highs for the Dow Jones industrial average or the Nasdaq. Someone joked earlier that the bad news is the stock market is going down, the good news is that my Social Security money isn’t in there. Is it the wrong time to be talking about putting Social Security money in the stock market? HA! Continue reading Good Question

From Holden: Talkin’ Tom DeLay in today’s gaggle. Q How closely has the President looked at the details involved in the controversy of Tom DeLay? I mean, has he actually looked at the various cases of trips and who paid for them and who hasn’t, or has he looked at the situation from more of the point of view of overall support, and perhaps looking at the Democratic opposition as mal-intentioned? I mean, has he gotten into the case, the merits of the case? MR. McCLELLAN: Those are issues that congressional leaders and Congressman DeLay are addressing, as I pointed … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

Was just re-reading this the other day: The “power” of the priest is not as decision-maker exercising veto- powers in faith and morals against the will of the majority. The power of the priesthood is to fix the point where the will of the majority ends and obedience begins: obedience in confronting the truth, which does not come from voting. There will be no women priests, nor married priests, under this pontiff. In other news, my local station is doing pinhead-on-the-street reaction, and it’s incredibly painful to watch. A. Continue reading Pope Benedict XVI on the Priesthood

From Holden: Earlier this morning I linked to a brief report that a U.S. soldier in Iraq had attacked Iraqi Parliament member Fatah ash-Sheikh, a story I thought was a bit odd. Now the Turkish Press reports more details, and it looks like the incident is creating quite a ruckus. Iraqi deputies demanded Tuesday an official apology from Washington over the manhandling by US soldiers of an MP at a Baghdad checkpoint, with some calling for the fortified Green Zone to be “liberated from the occupation”. Deputies suspended their session for an hour in protest at the incident involving Fatah … Continue reading ”The End of Occupation Begins Here.”

From Holden: Earlier this morning I linked to a brief report that a U.S. soldier in Iraq had attacked Iraqi Parliament member Fatah ash-Sheikh, a story I thought was a bit odd. Now the Turkish Press reports more details, and it looks like the incident is creating quite a ruckus. Iraqi deputies demanded Tuesday an official apology from Washington over the manhandling by US soldiers of an MP at a Baghdad checkpoint, with some calling for the fortified Green Zone to be “liberated from the occupation”. Deputies suspended their session for an hour in protest at the incident involving Fatah … Continue reading “The End of Occupation Begins Here.”

From Holden: From Steve Clemons’ Washington Note: One Senator — any U.S. Senator — can go down to the floor of the U.S. Senate today at 2 p.m. and say the following: Mr./Madame Chairman: As the U.S. Senate has been in session for more than two hours, I hereby object to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting. . .until adequate and complete answers posed by esteemed Members of this Senate to the administration are responded to, in full, by the administration. Until that occurs, I object to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holding further meetings. That would shut the committee … Continue reading Stop Bolton Now

From Holden: Poor Michelle Maglalang. She wants so badly to express her love for Timothy McVeigh as her mentor has done in the past, but she just doesn’t write well enough to pull it off. Michelle opens her post today on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing with Charles H. Porter IV’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Oklahoma City fire Capt. Chris Fields carrying an injured 1-year-old Baylee Almon to safety. But with that homage to partiotism and small children out of the way she gets to the meat of her post. First she heaps derision on those … Continue reading Michelle and Timmy, Sittin’ in a Tree

From Holden: Representative Jim McGovern vists our fifty-first state. I was in Iraq as part of a delegation of eight members of Congress, led by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Everything we have been told about Iraq by the Bush Administration has either been an outright lie or overwhelmingly false. There were no weapons of mass destruction; we have not been greeted as liberators; and the cost in terms of blood and treasure has outpaced even their worst-case scenarios. Trust is something I cannot give to this Administration. [snip] We were in Iraq for one day–for security reasons, it is … Continue reading One Day in Iraq

Today’s Action comes from MoveOn. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper explaining why the Republicans should not use the nuclear option to eliminate the filibuster.� Here are some talking points, but you should put these in your own language. In the next 10 days the Republicans will try to use the “nuclear option” to seize absolute power to appoint judges who will roll back decades of progress in protecting worker rights, the environment, and privacy. The “nuclear option” is a parliamentary trick to eliminate the filibuster – the right to extend debate on controversial judicial nominations. … Continue reading Action Alert – Nuclear Option

Not to worry, Ass Missile. I’m sure you’ve got lots of photos and stories just like these, right? Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Jim MacMillan: The three photos included in the Pulitzer portfolio were all taken while MacMillan was embedded with coalition troops during some of the most intense fighting of the last two years. In the battle of Najaf, MacMillan captured the resourcefulness of one soldier who created a dummy out of his helmet, sunglasses and a stick to try to draw out enemy snipers. Another photo taken during the same blazing hot August day shows soldiers hugging the ground, … Continue reading Freedom Isn’t Free