Steve’s post on kids and homework made me think of something that had nothing to do with either kids or homework. It made me think about how many people are comfortable viewing a job as something to be despised. You’re taught, from family, from friends, from television, from rotten cubicle-slave posters that say things like “When you die you won’t wish you’d spent more time at work” that you’re supposed to suffer through your job for the sake of the few moments you can snatch to yourself for whatever enjoyment you can squeeze out of the stones that are your … Continue reading One Life

Read all about it! His office is messy! He adopted a cat! He’s a prosecutorial badass who’s a sex machine with all the chicks! Okay, that last maybe not so much, but the more I read about Fitzgerald and the more I see how he’s operating, the more I wonder how anyone can think they’re gonna get away from this guy scot-free. And any smear of him can be answered thus: While Bush was fapping around in Texas daydreaming about being a war preznit, Fitzgerald was trying and convicting Osama bin Laden. “I’ve tried a lot of cases, and he’s … Continue reading Get To Know Father Fitzmas

World Series starts tonight. Got my Sox shirt, got my beer, pizza’s on its way. Tell me about the best sporting event (game, fight, whatever) you ever attended. A. Continue reading Sporto Open Thread

Paris Hilton gets a ferret. They are purse-sized, I suppose, though if you tried to put Fox or Stripe into my bag, they’d eat the lipstick, chuck out the keys and shred my planner before jumping out onto the first unsuspecting store clerk they saw. A. Continue reading Saturday Celebrity Ferretblogging

Syria: The United Nations investigative report, which Bush called “deeply disturbing,” made a link between high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the car bombing that killed Rafik Hariri and 20 others in February. The findings and the reaction to them marked the latest escalation in tensions between the United States and Syria. U.S. officials have accused Damascus of harboring terrorist groups and permitting fighters to cross into Iraq to attack U.S., Iraqi and other forces there. The report, issued Thursday to members of the U.N. Security Council, did not implicate Syrian President Assad directly, but said his government … Continue reading Here I Go, Here I Go, Here I Go Again

From Holden: AFP/POOL/Jay Janner The woman in red next to the Bugman is his wife, Christine. I wonder if the young woman next to Chrisitne DeLay is their daughter, Dani Ferro, who famously allowed a lobbyist to pour champagne on her while she was in a hot tub. Continue reading DeLay in Court

From Holden: Posted in the comments section to Eschaton by happyBoy. Continue reading DeLay’s Booking Record

From Holden: Dick DeGuerin, Tom DeLay’s hired gun, is making lots of noise about Judge Bob Perkins political donations. That lead me to query the OpenSecrets.org database to see where DeGuerin has been putting his money. It turns out that since 1992 DeGuerin had contributed $2,500 to the Democratic National Committee, $1,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and a total of $11,800 to six Democratic candidates including a $1,000 donation to Nick Lampson in 1996 who just happens to be running against Tom DeLay in 2006. In fact, DeGuerin has contributed to the campaigns of just two Republicans, $1,000 … Continue reading Strange Bedfellows

From Holden: For my money Dan Froomkin is among the best lefty-bloggers in the biz. Here are two gems from today’s offering. John Borland writes for CNET News.com: “In a quiet cafe in Washington, D.C., a cell phone rings. But instead of the commonplace digital bleeping or buzzing, it plays a recording of President Bush’s voice. ” ‘Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,’ he says, and Arlo Guthrie’s ‘City of New Orleans’ starts playing under the looped quote. The remark is a snippet from a speech Bush made in the flooded southern city, in which he praised Federal … Continue reading Best of Froomkin

From Holden: The new Get Your War On strips are up. Continue reading Let’s Get It On

You know, when I was working for my college paper David Broder came to campus and spoke to our newsroom. Most of us were fanboys and girls so this was hugely impressive; as he went around the room shaking hands, my friend Matt leaned over and asked, “So when does he bless and annoint us?” He was kind to us journo-niblets and later spoke well of the paper in a speech he was giving that night, and man, when you’re working for free for 70 hours a week in a windowless basement, validation from somebody getting paid to do what … Continue reading Broder Vs. Girl With Website

From Holden: There goes the rubber stamp. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., called for release of documents when Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was White House counsel. The Senate Judiciary Committee members broke with GOP colleagues who say executive privilege must not be pushed — an effort Vice President Cheney has spearhead for five years to strengthen presidential prerogatives, The Hill reported Wednesday. [snip] Brownback said he would like to see Miers’ policy documents — not legal documents — from her term as White House counsel. “Where there’s a close call, the tie goes toward disclosure,” Graham … Continue reading Lame Duck

Fox wants his Fitzmas treats! A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

From Holden: The Marines need a few good grannies. Sally-Alice Thompson had to laugh when she got a letter from the Marine Corps’ commanding general, telling her the military “is in need of your service” and inviting her to find out more by sending in an enclosed card. “What else could I do? I mean, I’m 82 years old,” Thompson said. Not only that, Thompson is a well-known local peace activist who is a charter member of the Center for Peace & Justice in Albuquerque and belongs to Veterans for Peace and Raging Grannies. So instead of sending in the … Continue reading Letters, She Gets Letters

Norbizness tells us the only safe way to criticize the war: — First off, you can never have contributed one red cent to anyone affiliated with the Democrats (candidates, state or national parties). It doesn’t matter if the Democratic candidate was an old personal friend, or if 99.5% of your remaining cash went to Republicans. However, this has a 10-year statute of limitations. Texas Governor Rick Perry, after all, was Al Gore’s Presidential Campaign Manager in Texas in 1988. But then he traded the wrong for the right. — Also, never say “I used to be a Republican, but…”. Nobody … Continue reading Finally

From Holden: Looks like the indictment and arrest of Tom DeLay is starting to blowback on the Texas State Representatives who accepted his laundered money. State Rep. Todd Baxter, an Austin Republican facing a tough re-election campaign, will resign his office Nov. 1. [snip] “I am stepping aside because my family and my professional career come first,” Baxter said in a written statement. “My wife and I are expecting our second child this spring, and I am looking forward to spending more time with my family. As I prepared for yet another winning campaign, I realized the full cost of … Continue reading Ripple Effect

From Holden: From the Raw Story: President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, provided erroneous and incomplete information to the Senate Judiciary Committee about her membership on a Board of Directors for a real estate investment company, RAW STORY has learned. Miers also neglected to mention a class action lawsuit that accused the firm, Capstead Mortgage, of violating federal securities laws. The suit, which was later dismissed, came during the period Miers failed to include in her responses to the Senate questionnaire. [snip] Miers neglected to mention a class action lawsuit for violation of the Securities Exchange Act … Continue reading Miers, Miers, Pants of Fires!

From Holden: Today regarding Miers’ SCOTUS exam do-over: Secondly, the questionnaire that she filled out is an important questionnaire, and obviously they will address the questions that the senators have in the questionnaire — or as a result of the answers to the questions in the questionnaire. Continue reading Your President Speaks!

From Holden: Chimpy’s Vanity War has nearly destroyed the Army National Guard. Army National Guard units are short of equipment on the home front partly because they are told to leave vital equipment such as armored Humvees in Iraq for replacement troops, according to a report released Thursday. As of June, Army National Guard units had left overseas more than 64,000 pieces of equipment worth more than $1.2 billion, and more than half cannot be accounted for by the Army, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office. On average, National Guard units at home have only 34 percent … Continue reading Our Ravaged Guard

From Holden: Harriet Miers is woefully unqualified. Meanwhile, several constitutional law scholars said they were surprised and puzzled by Miers’s response to the committee’s request for information on cases she has handled dealing with constitutional issues. In describing one matter on the Dallas City Council, Miers referred to “the proportional representation requirement of the Equal Protection Clause” as it relates to the Voting Rights Act. “There is no proportional representation requirement in the Equal Protection Clause,” said Cass R. Sunstein, a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. He and several other scholars said it appeared that Miers was … Continue reading She Just Can’t Cut It

From Holden: My hometown DA, Ronnie Earle, did Tom DeLay a big favor by requesting that a warrant be issued for DeLay’s arrest. U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, might not want to be tried in Travis County on money-laundering charges — and he also may skip getting booked in front of a media circus expected at his first Travis County court appearance Friday. State District Judge Bob Perkins on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for the former U.S. House majority leader that allows DeLay to be booked in any Texas county, including in his hometown of Sugar Land, away … Continue reading Doing DeLay A Solid

From Holden: Hee. The Miers nomination gets more entertaining each day. The Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers suffered another setback on Wednesday when the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked her to resubmit parts of her judicial questionnaire, saying various members had found her responses “inadequate,” “insufficient” and “insulting.” Senators Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee chairman, and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat, sent Ms. Miers a letter faulting what they called incomplete responses about her legal career, her work in the White House, her potential conflicts on cases involving the … Continue reading Failing the Written

From Holden: Colin Powell’s former Chief of Staff speaks out. In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made. “Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences.” Mr Wilkerson said such … Continue reading The Cabal

But this is, by far, the best resignation letter I’ve ever read. Dear Moronic Corporate Disaster, I am very happy to announce that as of this moment, I resign. It may interest you to know that soon I shall be earning twice your salary in a new field: I shall be involved in the flinging of porcupines between ocean going cargo ships and the shore. We plan to attach messages to the backs of these porcupines and in some cases, to write directly on them. We hope that some day this new form of communication, we call it the Porcupine-Mail-Service … Continue reading I’m not saying Rove will need it

From Holden: Little Scottie-No-Answer was in fine form today. Q Scott, did the President talk to Karl Rove two years ago about the leak? MR. McCLELLAN: Steve, I appreciate the question. That’s a question relating to an ongoing investigation, and I’m just not going to have further comment while that investigation is underway. Q Because The New York Daily News says the President rebuked Rove two years ago. MR. McCLELLAN: There are a lot of news reports out there and I’ve seen a lot of conflicting news reports, and we’re just not going to comment any further on an ongoing … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

My father maintains that there are different hells for different classes of offenses. Christmas Hell, his favorite, is reserved for people who put up a fake tree or open presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning. Bakery Hell is for people who put nuts in brownies. I’m proposing we establish Broadcast Hell for petty wingnut bastards who sue their critics: Broadcasting giant Sinclair NewsCentral LLC is suing its former Washington bureau chief, whom the company fired last year after he publicly criticized Sinclair’s decision to tell its stations to run an anti–John Kerry documentary as a news story. In … Continue reading TV Hell

From Holden: WaPo: Despite a new federal educational testing law championed by the Bush administration, scores among fourth and eighth graders failed to show any improvements in reading, and showed only slow gains in math nationally during the past two years, according to a study released today. Most troubling for educators are the sluggish reading skills among middle school students, which have remained flat for 13 years, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which has been testing students for three decades and bills itself as the “nation’s report card.” There is no rationale on eighth-grade reading other … Continue reading Reality is How You Perceive it

From Holden: Ndera Pickler, via Dan Froomkin, reports that Karl Rove is hearing footsteps. Juggling appearances before a grand jury and conservative admirers didn’t seem to make sense, so presidential adviser Karl Rove has canceled three such outings as he waits to hear whether he or anyone else will be indicted in the leak of a CIA officer’s identity. Rove canceled plans to attend two Republican fund-raisers, the national party confirmed Tuesday. And he did not give his scheduled speech to the conservative Hudson Institute think tank on Oct. 11. Continue reading Unka Karl Puts His Affairs in Order

From Holden: Oh my. Classic Scottie from this morning’s gaggle, as summarized by Talk Radio News Service’s Gregory Gorman President Bush’s Anger at Karl Rove In response to a question about a story in the “New York Daily News” which reported that the president was angry with Karl Rove in 2003 over his role in the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name as a CIA operative, McClellan would only say that he would not comment on an ongoing investigation. McClellan went on to say that he challenges the overall accuracy of the story. When pressed on giving an answer to why … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle Summary

From Holden: Last week’s Rove lied to the President! story must not have been gaining any traction. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove personally assured President Bush in the early fall of 2003 that he had not disclosed to anyone in the press that Valerie Plame, the wife of an administration critic, was a CIA employee, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the accounts that both Rove and Bush independently provided to federal prosecutors. [snip] During the same conversation in the White House two years ago-occurring just days after the Justice Department launched a criminal probe … Continue reading Meta-Lying