From Holden: Somehow, I don’t think this was part of the NeoCon wet dream. A lot of eyes are fixed on Qalqilya, where the radical Islamic group Hamas won every seat on the city council five months ago. It was a major shock for Fatah, the dominant faction in the Palestinian Authority, and is emerging as a test case of Hamas’s foray into electoral politics. Hamas, which advocates Israel’s destruction and is regarded by Israel and the United States as a terrorist group, is fielding candidates in the Palestinian local and parliamentary elections. Here in Qalqilya, its rule has already … Continue reading Freedom On The March

Fox has a plastic tube. Fox enjoys hiding things in the plastic tube. Like my shoes, and my car keys, and toys that are his brother’s, and his food, and the effing camera battery. Stripe bed-head. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

From Holden: The commander of the Indiana Maine National Guard is pissed by the way his troops are being used in Iraq. Maj. Gen. John “Bill” Libby, freshly returned from visiting his Maine Army National Guard troops in Iraq, called it “inexcusable” that the 152nd Maintenance Company is being used primarily as a security force. “Three years in . . . it’s inexcusable to have brought a maintenance company over there to do anything but maintenance,” Libby said. “It’s particularly galling to me when I strip myself of full-time mechanics and they get there and they’re in a tower.” [snip] … Continue reading Losing the Generals

From Holden: Jeebus! The Bush Economy created only 56,000 new jobs last month while September’s numbers were revised downwards by 43,000 jobs and August’s numbers were also revised downwards, by a whopping 63,000 jobs. When is it exactly that I should expect those tax cuts for the rich to kick in? A smaller-than-expected 56,000 new U.S. jobs were created in October despite the fading impact of hurricane Katrina, while total job growth over the two prior months was revised lower, a Labor Department report on Friday showed. [snip] Wall Street economists had forecast that 100,000 jobs would be created last … Continue reading My Bush Boom Gets A Pony!

From Holden: I haven’t read much in the blogosphere about this Plame case update posted at the Times last night. I’m not sure it is wise to believe any of the New York Times’ reporting on this case given their track record, but it looks like Karl got caught in a lie and is now trying to weasel out of a perjury indictment. The prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case has narrowed his investigation of Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, to whether he tried to conceal from the grand jury a conversation with a Time magazine reporter in … Continue reading Zeroing In On Rove

From Holden: Kenneth Tomlinson, who tried to tilt your Corporation for Public Broadcasting to the right, is kicked off of CPB’s board for “inappropriate” actions. Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, whose controversial leadership of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s board of directors sparked an internal investigation into his tenure, resigned from the board yesterday in advance of the imminent release of the report, which is expected to contain criticism of his actions. Tomlinson’s abrupt departure — characterized in a statement as a mutual decision by him and the rest of the board — came after they met in a closed session for … Continue reading Tomlinson Forced Out At PBS

From Holden: I always thought Chimpy’s Arabic teevee station was a stupid idea, but I forgot that with Republicans stupid walks hand-in-hand with corruption. Al-Hurra, the Arabic language satellite television network set up by the US administration to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East, is to be investigated for possible irregularities, the state department confirmed on Thursday. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, a federal agency, has asked the state department’s inspector general to investigate, a spokesman for Karen Hughes, under-secretary for public diplomacy, told the Financial Times. Mrs Hughes, a board member, was aware of allegations and awaited … Continue reading Bush Assministration Propaganda Organ Under Investigation

Go help Harry give ’em hell. A. who’s all about the short posts today Continue reading Change The Course

And reader David sends this, which is just the story of everything: Casey Owens completed his first marathon yesterday, which is always a tremendous accomplishment. But it was especially so for Owens, who just over a year ago was injured in an antitank mine explosion in Iraq. As he crossed the Marine Corps Marathon finish line, the 24-year-old Marine corporal from Houston was mobbed by well-wishers, including Marine Commandant Michael Hagee. “It went great,” Owens said. “It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, a lot more enjoyable. I couldn’t imagine a better marathon.” Owens was … Continue reading Marathon

Reader Chris sends this, to which I can only add yeah, and hee. A. Continue reading Live A Little

From Holden: Man, these courthouse sketches always make you look like a crook, don’t they? AP Photo/ Dana Verkouteren Continue reading Irving Libby Goes To Court

From Holden: The Washington Post’s editorial page published a series of editorials critical of the Bush Assministration’s torture policy. Here is the latest. As The Post’s Dana Priest reported yesterday, the CIA maintains its own network of secret prisons, into which 100 or more terrorist suspects have “disappeared” as if they were victims of a Third World dictatorship. Some of the 30 most important prisoners are being held in secret facilities in Eastern European countries — which should shame democratic governments that only recently dismantled Soviet-era secret police apparatuses. Held in dark underground cells, the prisoners have no legal rights, … Continue reading Tied to the Whipping Post

Hell yeah it’s better than yours. Whereas the Republican Leadership and Committee Chairmen have denied requests for hearings, defeated resolutions of inquiry for information, and failed to aggressively pursue serious allegations, including how far up the chain of command the responsibility lies for the treatment of detainees; Whereas the oversight of decisions and actions of other branches of government is an established and fundamental responsibility of Congress; Whereas the Republican Leadership and the Chairmen of the committees of jurisdiction have failed to undertake meaningful, substantive investigations of any of the abuses pertaining to the Iraq war, including the manipulation of … Continue reading Nan-CY!

From Holden: Looks like Interior Secretary Gale Norton got herself tangled up with Abramoff and DeLay. Tisk-tisk, the company you keep… Rep. Tom DeLay’s staff tried to help lobbyist Jack Abramoff win access to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, an effort that succeeded after Abramoff’s Indian tribe clients began funneling a quarter-million dollars to an environmental group founded by Norton. “Do you think you could call that friend and set up a meeting,” then-DeLay staffer Tony Rudy wrote to fellow House aide Thomas Pyle in a Dec. 29, 2000, e-mail titled “Gale Norton-Interior Secretary.” President Bush had nominated Norton to the … Continue reading An Abramoffer You Can’t Refuse, Part II

From Holden: The International Committe of the Red Cross wants a peak at the CIA’s gulag. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Thursday for access to all foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States after a report of a covert CIA prison system for al Qaeda captives. [snip] “We are concerned at the fate of an unknown number of people captured as part of the so-called global war on terror and held at undisclosed places of detention,” Antonella Notari, chief ICRC spokeswoman, told Reuters in response to a question. “Access to detainees is an important … Continue reading Checking Out the Archipelago

From Holden: Ya’ gotta love the Bush Crime Family. Cheney’s former top aide has hired well-known criminal trial lawyers Ted Wells and William Jeffress to bolster his legal team. Wells won acquittals for former Agriculture Secretary Michael Espy and former Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan. He is a partner at the New York-based firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Jeffress is from the firm Baker Botts, where Bush family friend and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is a senior partner. Jeffress has won acquittals for public officials accused of extortion, perjury, money laundering, and vote-buying, his … Continue reading Libby’s New Legal Muscle

From Holden: Man, it’s hard to keep track of all this Republican corruption, but it sounds like yesterday’s Indian Affairs Committee hearing was a doozy. Former legal counselor Michael G. Rossetti, seated beside [Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton’s former legal counselor Stephen] Griles before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said he repeatedly rebuffed Griles’s efforts and, at one point, confronted him in front of other officials. He accused Griles of attempting to do Abramoff’s bidding on an issue affecting the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana, an Abramoff gambling client. “I wanted Mr. Griles to know I had my eye on him … Continue reading An Abramoffer You Can’t Refuse

From Holden: Incompetence runs deep in the Bush Assministration. In nearly three hours of questioning by the House committee investigating the government’s sluggish response to one of the worst natural disasters in the nation’s history, top procurement officials with the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers repeatedly said they would need to do more research into exactly how government money is being spent. Lawmakers made it clear they didn’t like that answer. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) peppered officials with questions about news reports that the government was paying a contractor more … Continue reading Katrina, Still Fucked Up

From Holden: Just what Chimpy needs, another investigation. The European Commission said Thursday it will investigate reports that the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe. European Union spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said the EU head office would informally question the 25 national governments over the reports. “We have to find out what is exactly happening. We have all heard about this then we have to see if it is confirmed.” He said if such secret prisons existed, they would violate EU human rights rules. Continue reading Can War Crime Trials Be Far Behind?

From Tena: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 Thank you by US Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) – 11/02/2005 07:58:00 PM This afternoon my office has been inundated with flowers, balloons, cards and good wishes. I wanted to say thank you all. You support means the world to my staff and me. In addition, I am happy that so many people understand how important yesterday was. Democrats have been demanding answers on the pre-war intelligence for two years. Now Republicans have finally agreed to complete the investigation that will provide the answers to these vital questions so we all can know the truth … Continue reading I love this man

Dear Santa, Can I have one? Pretty please? I promise I’ll walk him and feed him and … brush him, I guess, and tie little ribbons in his panda fur, and call him Puff, and he shall be my Puff, forever and ever and ever and I’ll never ask for anything again! A. Continue reading For No Reason Wednesday Pandablogging

From Tena: from Eschaton: CBS poll: Bush approval – 35% Cheney – 19% Continue reading Only 5 more points and Holden gets another pony

From Holden: Not unlike the Halloween antagonist, Tom DeLay just won’t go away and he’s splitting House Republicans like a banana at Dairy Queen. Although he was forced to relinquish his leadership post Sept. 28, after the first of two indictments for alleged involvement in money laundering related to the 2002 Texas election, DeLay continues to use an office in the leadership suite, occasionally presides over private meetings with committee chairmen and lobbies members during key floor votes. Also, the Texas Republican’s staff continues to maintain the House schedule and dash off memos to lawmakers, ostensibly as employees of a … Continue reading House Majority Leader Michael Myers

From Holden: September 14, 2004: MR. RUSSERT: Now, Ambassador Joe Wilson, a year before that, was sent over by the CIA because you raised the question about uranium from Africa. He says he came back from Niger and said that, in fact, he could not find any documentation that, in fact, Niger had sent uranium to Iraq or engaged in that activity and reported it back to the proper channels. Were you briefed on his findings in February, March of 2002? VICE PRES. CHENEY: No. I don’t know Joe Wilson. I’ve never met Joe Wilson. A question had arisen. I’d … Continue reading Rummy Channels Dick (Ewwwww)

From Holden: Sheesh. Bush revealed the contents of his pockets on Tuesday to an Argentine newspaper reporter who was interviewing him in advance of a presidential trip to Latin America later this week. When the reporter from La Nacion asked Bush to show him what he carries, the president stood up, fished in his pockets and then dramatically pulled his hands out, holding nothing but a white handkerchief that he waved playfully in the air. “Es todo,” Bush told the Spanish-speaking reporter, meaning the handkerchief was all. “No dinero, no mas. No wallet.” He doesn’t need any cash, since his … Continue reading Out of Touch

From Holden: The UN rejects US conditions for inspecting GITMO, which are more restrictive than those agreed to by China. The U.S. agreed after four years of negotiations to allow United Nations human rights officials to visit its Guantanamo Bay prison facility, while setting ground rules for interviews with detainees that would prevent the trip. [snip] The Department of Defense said in an Oct. 27 letter that three human rights officials invited to Guantanamo Bay wouldn’t be allowed to conduct private interviews with suspected terrorists, according to Manfred Nowak, UN rapporteur on torture and other degrading treatment of prisoners. That’s … Continue reading America: We Have Something to Hide

From Holden: Katrina clearly illustrated the fact that shuffling the National Guard to the abattoir that is Iraq has severely weakened our response to disasters at home. Now our nation’s governors are finally complaining about what Bush has done to the Guard. This widespread deployment of guard units for combat missions is not only straining reservists and their employers, it’s also compromising the ability of guard units to respond to disasters in their home states, [Pennsylvania Gov. Ed] Rendell and other governors say. The problem isn’t so much personnel, it’s equipment. [snip] “Much of our equipment is now in the … Continue reading Weaker at Home

From Holden: So says Texas Governor Rick Perry. Amid new allegations that federal hurricane disaster aid is being bungled, Gov. Rick Perry warned Tuesday that as many as 65,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees could face eviction in Texas before Christmas because federal officials have not paid the rent. Perry also complained in a tersely worded letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that: “Our victims of (Hurricane) Rita are being treated differently from the Louisiana victims of Rita. Natural disasters recognize no state boundaries, and neither should FEMA.” [snip] At a Dallas news conference, officials with the Texas Apartment Association said … Continue reading FEMA Still Sucks

John has ways you can show Harry you’re out there cheering him on. Even if what you can send is a note saying thank you, please send something. It’s going to be important that he know who we are and how happy we are that he did what he did today. Remember what happened to Dick Durbin when he stood up against torture? He was pounded on, demonized, called names, his words were twisted and used against him. And deep down when he apologized I felt bad for him, felt I hadn’t done enough to tell him how brave I … Continue reading The Next Ten Yards

More Reid, in the form of Mark Schmitt talking about what a stone fox Harry is. Politically, of course. Yeah. A. Continue reading The Boys They Want To Sex Me