From Holden: Today’s gaggle was a quickie aboard Air Force One en route Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That means no Helen Thomas (Damn, does Helen not fly?), no Les Kinsolving (Damn, dos Les not fly?) and Trent “Hillary” Duffy standing in for Little Scottie (Damn, does Scottie not fly?) After reading the following exchange my gaggle-sense tells me that it was Chimpy himself who decided to address the Georgian Hordes after they overwhelmed the metal detectors the Secret Service set up to screen them – opening himself up to a grenade attack. Apparently the president was nearly hoisted on his own retard. … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: “It” being the Newsweek flap. The retraction should have come quicker, but the administration should slow its attempt to shift blame for the deadly protests to a weekly publication. They’ve yet to explain why two Defense Department officials passed up the chance to correct the source’s assertion when the magazine took the unusual step of submitting the report prior to publication. The reporter took silence as confirmation. Wrong in retrospect? Sure. Silence is always ambiguous. But the Pentagon has managed to dodge the inconvenient question of why it didn’t raise a red flag when given the opportunity or … Continue reading Margaret Carlson Gets It

Because we here at First Draft have advanced ethics clauses and rules and stuff (Rule #1: Don’t Let’s Make Shit Up If We Can Help It), I have to inform you that I am: 1. Stealing this entire story wholesale from the LA Times because I want to spare you the horrifying blinking ad that rendered it unreadable in the original. 2. Taking strong exception to number six below. Number six pretty much described my life. Not to get all Wonkette on you. COMMENTARY Who Needs Ethics When You’ve Got Guidelines? The new Journalism 101. By Crispin Sartwell Crispin Sartwell … Continue reading Getcher Red Hot Ethics Here!

From Holden: Via Kos the latest ARG Poll has more bad news for the Chimpster in Chief. Job Approval Approve: 43% Disapprove: 51% Handling of the Economy Approve: 38% Disapprove: 56% 59% say the national economy is getting worse (+6% over April’s results) 51% say they expect the national economy to be worse a year from now (+7%) 61% say the financial situations in their households are getting worse (+11%) Can I get a “Less Than 40 By The 4th” from the congregation? Continue reading Look Out Belooooooooooow!

From Holden: The Index of Leading Economic Indicators fell in April, the fourth consecutive month that the index has declined. The New York-based Conference Board’s gauge declined 0.2 percent following a 0.6 percent decrease in March that was the biggest since September 2001. The measure attempts to project the likely performance of the economy over the next three to six months. [snip] “Clearly overall growth is decelerating,” said Michael Gregory, a senior economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns in Toronto. [snip] Half of the 10 indicators that make up the Conference Board’s leading index contributed to the decline in April. An … Continue reading My Bush Boom Crosses Over To The Dark Side

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote this week to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being wasted on new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. Contact your representative today and tell them to VOTE YES on the Chabot/Andrews Tongass Subsidy amendment. Call your representative today 202-224-3121 . Last June, by a strong bi-partisan majority, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Chabot/Andrews amendment to eliminate taxpayer subsidies for logging road construction in the Tongass. However, the provision was eventually dropped from the bill in conference. This year, Representatives Steve Chabot (R – OH) and Robert Andrews (D – NJ) … Continue reading Today’s Action Alert – Save Togass National Forest

From Holden: How ironic, the “signature wound” of Dear Leader’s vanity war is traumatic brain injury. Because more soldiers in Iraq are surviving severe brain injury, doctors are witnessing a potentially long-lasting set of medical and mental problems unique to participants in modern-day war. “Traumatic brain injury is the signature wound of this war,” said Lt. Col. Rocco Armonda, an attending neurosurgeon at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Armonda and another neurosurgeon treated brain-injured patients in 2003, the first year of the war in Iraq. They performed 270 brain surgeries, 60 of which were for penetrating wounds. … Continue reading Dubya’s Signature

From Holden: The NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll pegs Chimpy’s approval rate at 47%. The surprisingly popular Attaturk has more. Continue reading And The Slide Continues

From Holden: Our Military leaders agree with 54% of Americans who are not confident that the U.S. will succeed in Iraq. American military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in Iraq, adding to the mood of anxiety that prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to come to Baghdad last weekend to consult with the new government. In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive trends in Iraq could allow a major drawdown in the 138,000 American troops … Continue reading Military Leaders In The Field

From Holden: We all saw this happening at the time. Four hurricanes hit Florida prior to the November election, prompting Dear Leader to fly down and look concerned among the rubble while passing out bundles of cash. Now our worst fears are confirmed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency made $31 million in questionable payments to residents of Miami-Dade County for damage from Hurricane Frances last September even though the storm caused only minimal damage in that area of Florida, government investigators said yesterday. More than $8 million of that amount was given to 4,300 people to rent temporary housing even … Continue reading Buying Votes in Florida

Someday you, too, can grow up and learn to kick ass just like your Uncle Chuck did. Schumer hit Frist with the CHAIR today. And then the table. And then he pulled up some carpet and smacked him around some more. A. Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: Gimme Chuck! Edition

This has some writers I know fairly het up: Link. Fanfiction:� �It creeps out most of the authors I spoke to (a few, it should be noted, have no problem with it and knew of several novelists who got their start writing fanfiction). They’re all struck by the double standard — it’s okay for fanfic writers to steal your work, but if they see something similar to one of their stories in your book they’ll threaten to sue (or write very nasty letters). They said if the fans truly respected the author and his work, they should ask for permission … Continue reading On Writing

From Holden: The new Harris Poll gives Dear Leader his WORST RATINGS EVER on his handling of Iraq. Highlights: President’s Handling of Iraq: 61% Negative Rating * President Bush’s 61 to 37 percent negative rating on the handling of Iraq is a decline from the 56 to 42 percent negative rating in March. By way of comparison, two years ago the president had a 63 to 36 positive rating. Confidence that US Policies in Iraq will Succeed: 54% Not Confident * By 54 to 26 percent, American adults are not confident that U.S. policies in Iraq will be successful. This … Continue reading Worst. Ratings. Ever.

From Holden: Shall we have some gaggly fun with pictures? Q No, there was a gap in front. Q — big gaps. A big gap in the front. Q There was a big gap in the front? All right, well, what I’m getting at here — MR. McCLELLAN: I don’t know how you describe it — you all saw the pictures there. OK, enough of that silliness. On with the gaggle. Little Scottie sez: The Uzbekikitty may not be house-trained, but he’s our Uzbekikitty, dammit… Q Scott, the President of Uzbekistan has now admitted that his government killed upwards of … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: How many American service men and women have given their lives for Chimpy’s vanity war in Iraq? Lunaville counts 1,624 who have died in country. However, Soldiers For The Truth [UPDATE: original source here] (via Daily Kos) says the actual total is at least 7,834 when you consider this jaw-dropping statistic: U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005. UPDATE: Over at Kos Steve M did some clever spot-checking and found some soldiers who died in Germany listed … Continue reading How Many?

From Holden: We already know that Uzbeks are excluded from the March of Freedom! Add Egyptians to that list. From today’s Washington Post editorial page: Few Egyptians expected Mr. Mubarak to allow a fully free election this year, but even the government’s tamest opponents have been offended by the draft constitutional amendment the ruling party unveiled last week. It limits the presidential competition to the mostly tiny or moribund parties that have been officially recognized by the government; independents would have to obtain 250 signatures from current members of parliament and local councils, almost all of whom are members of … Continue reading The Freedom March

From Holden: The end of the republic is nigh. While Washington plunged into a procedural fight over a pair of judicial nominees, Stuart Butler, head of domestic policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and Isabel Sawhill, director of the left-leaning Brookings Institution’s economic studies program, sat down with Comptroller General David M. Walker to bemoan what they jointly called the budget “nightmare.” [snip] “The only thing the United States is able to do a little after 2040 is pay interest on massive and growing federal debt,” Walker said. “The model blows up in the mid-2040s. What does that mean? Argentina.” … Continue reading Repent!

From Holden: Last night at the Republican National Committee’s Gala Dinner (which was attended by such celebrities as…. well, uh – I hear Don King was there) Chimpy responded to polls reporting his lowest approval rating ever: “I do not need a poll or a focus group to tell me where I need to lead this country.” Perhaps he is correct, but I get the feeling that better poll numbers would give him more influence with members of his own party. Continue reading Back to Focus Groups

Schanberg in the VV: If we believe that the present war in Iraq is just and necessary, why do we shrink from looking at the damage it wreaks? Why does the government that ordered the war and hails it as an instrument of good then ask us to respect those who died in the cause by not describing and depicting how they died? And why, in response, have newspapers gone along with Washington and grown timid about showing photos of the killing and maiming? What kind of honor does this bestow on those who are sent to fight in the … Continue reading Why Sydney Gets A Paycheck

From Holden: The federal government will spend nearly $2 billion in the next decade on male impotence drugs under its Medicare program, according to a new cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that is fueling some lawmakers’ efforts to end that spending. Link. Continue reading Federally Subsidized Boners

From Holden: I’ve been noticing increased interest in the gaggle recently, both from the left (here, here, here, here, and here) and the right (here and here). The obsession is spreading, you might say. Though I am flattered to read that TBogg thinks I “own” the gaggle, I don’t agree with him. I’ve said this before in comments around the blogosphere but it bears repeating. The gaggle is a target-rich environment. Here you have the president’s spokesman making himself available to an increasingly skeptical press corps on a daily basis (and if you don’t think the gagglers are becoming increasingly … Continue reading Everybody Loves Raymond Scottie

From Holden: Your President told Republican members of Congress about the great time he had in Georgia. Then I went to Georgia. It was — standing in front of 150,000 people that love freedom was a fantastic experience. Turns out he nearly got his ass blown off. A grenade found near where US President George W. Bush spoke at a rally in Georgia last week had been thrown, was armed and was a threat to his life, a US official said, contradicting initial reports from Georgian authorities. “The act of tossing a hand grenade towards the podium where the US … Continue reading From Georgia, With Love

From Holden: James Wolcott notes that despite missing their fundraising goal by a whopping 75% the denizens of The Corner are back to normal. [T]he gang is oddly reticent, nay, eerily silent, regarding the royal shellacking George Galloway gave Norm Coleman today. Instead, they’re monkey chattering about the new Star Wars movie, which they’re denouncing for being liberal propaganda, and comparing notes on some new online “timewaster” Jonah has discovered in his neverending quest for utter vacuity. Continue reading Wolcott Has Them Cornered

From Holden: Following on the heels of yesterday’s announcement of an unexpected rise in producer prices (a 0.6% increase, exceeding expectations by 50%) we learn today that Consumer prices increased 0.5% last month, surpassing analysts’ prediction of a 0.4% increase for the month. Stagflation, anyone? Continue reading The Guards at GITMO Flushed My Bush Boom Down The Toilet!

From Holden: Women are fighting and dying in Iraq with out any noticeable loss of unit cohesion or effectiveness. I personally don’t believe violence is the answer to any question, but if we are going to put American soldiers in harm’s way I can think of no argument for limiting the risk to men only. The paternalistic House Republicans thinks otherwise, despite opposition from the military itself. A House measure aimed at keeping women out of combat would bar female soldiers from at least 21,925 Army jobs that are now open to them, a senior Army official said yesterday. The … Continue reading Oh, Just Re-institute the Draft Why Don’t Ya’

From Holden: Liars go to hell, don’t they? New FBI documents to be released today show that anti-terrorism agents who questioned antiwar protesters last summer in Denver were conducting “pretext interviews” that did not lead to any information about criminal activity. [snip] FBI officials and then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said at the time that the interviews were based on indications that radical protesters may be planning violent disruptions. Authorities said one specific threat involved plans to blow up a media van in Boston. But the new memos provide no indication of specific threat information. Instead, one heavily censored memo … Continue reading John Ashcroft is Going to Hell

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge, cry God for Harry, America, and the filibuster. A. Continue reading Happy Harry Photo: The Game’s Afoot

From Holden: We find mixed results in the University of Connecticut’s survey of the opinions of reporters and people in general regarding the news media, but there’s one thing you can say for sure: the press enjoys an approval rating that is twenty percentage points higher than the president’s. Two widely divergent views of the media and the First Amendment turned up in two national polls by the University of Connecticut. The polls, one a survey of reporters and the other a survey of the general public, were released Monday at a forum on the future of the First Amendment. … Continue reading Americans Love The Media More Than The President

From Holden: Today’s gaggle begins with a bit o’ the ol’ snark regarding the filibuster followed by the pat Scottie lie that sets off a constitutional debate Scottie cannot win. Q Scott, the Senate has managed to function — or not function, as the case may be — for more than 200 years without a ban on judicial filibusters. Is the President concerned about the historic nature of what’s being talked about up on the Hill? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, John, the Senate is working to move forward on their constitutional responsibility, which is to give nominees and up or down … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle, Part I: Judges Edition

From Holden: The press corps gets all up in Scottie’s grill over Newsweek. Q With respect, who made you the editor of Newsweek? Do you think it’s appropriate for you, at that podium, speaking with the authority of the President of the United States, to tell an American magazine what they should print? MR. McCLELLAN: I’m not telling them. I’m saying that we would encourage them to help — Q You’re pressuring them. MR. McCLELLAN: No, I’m saying that we would encourage them — Q It’s not pressure? And later, the gagglers want to know if Little Scottie is calling … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle, Part II: Newsweek Edition