Seriously, can we at least get him to be campaign spokesman for someone? A. Continue reading Clark/Clooney ’08!

From Holden: Remember Ashley Smith, the Atlanta woman and darling of the Religious Right who was taken hostage by Fulton County Courthouse-shooter Brian Nichols who talked him into surrendering after reading the drivelly Purpose-Driven Life? Turns out the oh so Christain Smith supplied escaped murderer Nichols with Crystal Meth Nichols asked her for marijuana, she writes, but she had only a small amount of crystal methamphetamine. She thought offering him the drug might curry favor, but she says she refused to take the drug with him. “I was not going to die tonight and stand before God, having done a … Continue reading A Meth-Driven Life

From Holden: Your president, in Beaumont, Texas, today: THE PRESIDENT: I just met with local county judges and mayors, along with the Governor. [“The Governor?” Don’t you know his name? He was the Lt. Governor when you where Governor of the state.] Obviously this area is hurt. The Governor knows that. [You don’t remember his name, do you.] I saw it firsthand how it’s hurt. [Oh, did you now.] We’ve got some priorities that we’re in the process of working together to achieve. The first is food and water. The second is electricity and generators moving this way, there’s a … Continue reading Drunk or Stupid: Does It Matter?

I haven’t taken a swing through Backslider’s place in quite a while, and damn, I really need to not forget to read over there. Because while his whole post on Katrina and its aftermath is worth a read with a vengeance, one part in particular struck me because I’ve been trying to come up with a way to get this across for months: They way I look at it, the federal government (and state and local, for that matter) has one job and one job only: make sure things run smoothly. When something tries to stir up the pot, be … Continue reading Hammer, Meet Nail

From Holden: US Troops In Iraq use 250,000 Bullets for every person killed. In fact, the US military is using so many bullets that American manufacturers cannot keep up with the demand so we’re buying our bullets abroad. US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan – an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed – that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel. A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more … Continue reading Shoot ‘Em Up

From Holden: Don’t look now, but the housing bubble may be about to pop. Sales of new homes plunged in August by the largest amount in nine months as the nation’s housing industry continued to flash mixed signals about whether the boom is starting to fade. The Commerce Department reported that new home sales declined by 9.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 1.24 million units. Consumer confidence also plummeted as Americans woke up and realized George Bush is their president. In other economic news, the Conference Board in New York reported that consumer confidence plunged in … Continue reading Housing Bubble vs. My Bush Boom

From Holden: Much worse under US occupation than it was under Saddam. Continue reading Life in Baghdad

From Holden: The Bush Assministration’s attempts to protect Jack Abramoff by reassigning federal prosecutor Frederick A. Black are now themselves the center of an investigation. The Justice Department’s inspector general and the F.B.I. are looking into the demotion of a veteran federal prosecutor whose reassignment nearly three years ago shut down a criminal investigation of the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, current and former department officials report. They said investigators had questioned whether the demotion of the prosecutor, Frederick A. Black, in November 2002 was related to his alert to Justice Department officials days earlier that he was investigating Mr. Abramoff. … Continue reading Meet Mr. Black

If I read one more blog post about how we shouldn’t associate with dirty hippies or people who are like this or like that, I’ll scream, and I don’t care where you are, you’ll hear it. Could there be a greater illustration of our battered wife syndrome than all the bellyaching going on in blogtopia (yes, skippy coined that phrase) about Saturday’s anti-war march and the portions of it C-Span chose to show? Jesus, people, get off the mat already. By blatant neglect, we allowed ANSWER et al. to put a radical, extremely controversial, and politically disastrous face on the … Continue reading I’ll Turn This Internet Around And Send You All Home Hungry

Hot Zone columnist Sites is a damn fine writer: She lived here once, in a house behind this pitted dirt alleyway. But now, Maria Osman cannot bear to raise her head as she walks past. This is, after all, the place where her already difficult life slipped the last few notches into misery, the place where pain can last a dozen years without pause. The place, she says, where an American Black Hawk helicopter fell from the sky and crushed her three-year-old daughter. “There was not enough of her left to bury,” she says, nervously covering her mouth with the … Continue reading Kevin Sites Rocks, Part II

From Holden: It’s a gaggle double-header today. I can’t believe Scottie gaggled on the Sabbath, but he did. Here are a few snarky questions from yesterday. Q Scott, what was the President’s initial reaction, I guess to this response? When he said three weeks ago, that was not acceptable, what did he think today from what he saw? [snip] Q Does he believe so far — how are the results so far? [snip] Q Did he tell anyone they were doing a fine job? And in today’s gaggle we learned that Cherite is doing a heckuva job. Q Currently, under … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: US Predident George W. Bush (C) speaks during a briefing on Hurricane Rita at the US Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Bush, hoping to polish his tarnished reputation as a strong leader in a crisis, monitored Hurricane Rita and said he was pleased with the government’s response.(AFP/Jim Watson) Link. Continue reading Hangover?

From Holden: Condoleezza Rice’s State Department is screwing the pooch when it comes to bringing order to the chaos that is the Iraqi Defense and Interior Ministries, so the Pentagon is taking over. The U.S. military plans to take over responsibility from the State Department for providing assistance to Iraq’s Defense and Interior ministries, following a determination that greater resources and technical expertise are needed. Getting the ministries to exercise effective control over Iraq’s fledgling security forces remains key to enabling those forces to operate on their own and allow the withdrawal of U.S. troops. But while the number of … Continue reading Psst. Condi. Your Incompetence Is Showing!

From Holden: You can’t turn around these days without finding a pony in your political discourse. Aside from Atrios repeatedly giving me the pony prize, ponies have popped up everywhere. From The Daily Show last week to the latest adventures of Battle Action Bush and the Keyboard Kommandos to today’s This Modern World, ponies fucking rule. Continue reading Ponies Fucking Rule!

From Holden: Are these the utterances of a sober man? Governor Perdue of Georgia I thought did a — showed some leadership by saying we’ve got to — anticipating a problem, here’s what we need to do to correct it. Continue reading Your President Speaks

From Holden: Arianna called our attention to the plight of CBS cameraman Abdul Amir Younes Hussein, detained by U.S. forces in Iraq for over five months without charges. If reading her post doesn’t get your pulse up, consider that Younes Hussein is one of four journalists for international media being held without charge by the U.S. military in Iraq. The latest victim is Reuters cameraman Samir Mohammed Noor. A second Iraqi journalist working for Reuters has been ordered detained indefinitely by a secret tribunal and the news agency demanded on Monday that he be released or given a chance to … Continue reading Stamping Out Free Press

Today on Bloggers: Undeniable Influence, Questionable Credibility: Hollinger International’s prominent independent directors, including Richard N. Perle, Henry A. Kissinger and James R. Thompson, remain in their paid positions more than a year after several were censured for their conduct in an internal company report. A number of the directors were sharply criticized, and two, including Mr. Perle, are even being sued by the newspaper company. Several directors, including Mr. Thompson and Mr. Kissinger, are among a group of current and past board members who agreed in May to pay $50 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit contending that they failed … Continue reading Department of Thieving Bastards

From Holden: Here in Austin the grand jury investigating Tom DeLay’s TRMPAC (Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee) will end its term on Wednesday. Rumor has it that attorney’s for both DeLay and Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick have been scrambling to find out if their clients will be indicted. Stay tuned. Continue reading Indictment Watch

While at Eschacon earlier this month, the charming and lovely Paida asked a number of people a question that started a lot of really good conversations, so I’d like to open it up to the Internet at large. Who was the first presidential candidate you voted for? And why’d you vote for him (or her)? My answers: Bill Clinton. And at the time it probably had a lot to do with pissing my parents off. A. Continue reading An Informal Survey

From Holden: The bus that caught fire near Dallas, killing 24 elderly passengers, would not have been allowed on the road were it not for Texas Governor Rick Perry. Mark Cross, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation, said Saturday morning that the bus’s registration expired in July and that the vehicle had been taken out of service. But it was allowed back on the road because of a waiver signed last week by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas intended to get as many vehicles as possible involved in the hurricane evacuation and relief effort. “I direct that all … Continue reading When The Evacuation Is The Disaster

Yes, yes, oh God baby yes. A. Continue reading Marry Me

From a letter to the Chicago Tribune, probably the most concise summation of the Bush presidency ever: Since Bush is the most powerful man in the world, that’s very scary. The strength of our feelings about the president would be mitigated if we felt he had done even one thing correctly since he was first elected, but he has failed in every arena: – He created No Child Left Behind and then failed to support it. – He has trashed laws protecting the environment, jeopardizing our and our children’s health. – His prescription drug program for the elderly will not … Continue reading S.E. Fisher, Whoever He or She Is, Nails It

From Holden: Less than one year into his second term and already all flavors of the GOP are dissing the Chimp. As President Bush moves to fill the second vacancy on the Supreme Court, he faces a new challenge in finding a jurist who can not only withstand Democratic scrutiny but hold together the support of Senate Republicans as well. [snip] Now, both socially conservative and more liberal Republican senators say they may vote against confirmation of the next nominee if the pick leans too far to the left or the right on prominent issues like abortion rights. Any Republican … Continue reading Lame Duck

From Holden: Chimpy’s tax cuts, if you recieved them at all, may be costing you money. Over the next 10 years, Americans will not receive nearly $750 billion in tax cuts sponsored by President Bush because the cuts will be offset by the alternative minimum tax, a new report by Congressional tax specialists shows. The report, prepared by the staff of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, said that from 2006 to 2015, Americans would pay as much as $1.1 trillion more under the alternative minimum tax, partly as a result of the Bush tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts … Continue reading Tax Cuts My Ass

Go read Ntodd’s blogging from the trial of the St. Patrick’s Four. A. Continue reading Readings On Dissent

You shall not side with the great against the powerless. Look what Cindy Sheehan did. People will tell you you’re naive for thinking one person can’t make a difference. And that’s easy to say, it’s nice, it lets you sit in your house and not think about what you ought to be doing. Civil rights activist Addie Wyatt once said, “Lord, I wish my eyes had never been opened.” But that’s not all it takes. Plenty of people open their eyes and close them again, and tell themselves what they see is merely a dream, and even if it is … Continue reading Voiceless

From Holden: Looks like Bill Frist’s blind trust had 20-20 eyesight, and Dr. Frist’s greed got the best of him. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is facing questions from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission about his sale of stock in his family’s hospital company one month before its price fell sharply. The Tennessee lawmaker, who is the Senate’s top Republican and a likely candidate for president in 2008, ordered his portfolio managers in June to sell his family’s shares in HCA Inc., the nation’s largest hospital chain, which was founded by Frist’s father and brother. A … Continue reading Scratch One Senate Majority Leader

Frank asks a hell of a good question: Why is White House Hurricane Point Man Karl Rove Heading for North Dakota on the Day Hurricane Rita is Expected to Hit Texas and Louisiana? A. Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: Lautenberg Edition

Guys, seriously. First let’s talk about Hugh Laurie, the only reason to watch network TV, losing to James Fucking Spader. SPADER, people.

But no sooner did I work myself into a righteous rage about that than I was reminded by the little voice in my head that’s always thinking about Galactica that Edward James Olmos, who rocks like a big rocking thing, was not even nominated, and then my hatred of the Emmys and all involved with them began to reach proportions previously reserved only for Tom Cruise.

Rusty. Chainsaw. Spoilers in the extended for the season finale.

Continue reading “Hi. Emmy voters? Emmy nominators? Bite Me. The Galactica Thread”

White Houses – Vanessa Carlton In The Deep – Bird York Lullaby for Katherine – Marta Sebestyen Blue Lips – Joseph Arthur Lights of the Commodore Barry – Matthew Ryan Olympic Reel – Natalie MacMaster Love Is Everything – Jane Siberry Death Valley Queen – Flogging Molly Answer – Sarah McLachlan Everybody’s Waiting For A Change – Holly Williams This is what happens when your music library consists entirely of things your 20-year-old sister gives you. Cept the Bird. She’s mine. A. Continue reading Friday Random Ten