From Holden: According to the latest ABC News/WaPo poll an overwhelming majority of Americans want George Bush to come clean on his Assministration’s dealings with confessed felon Jack Abramoff. Do you think the Bush administration should or should not provide a list of all meetings any White House officials may have had with Abramoff? Should 76 % Should not 18% No Opinion 5% Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling Ethics in government? Approve 42% (-3) Disapprove 56% (+4) No opinion 2% (-1) Which political party, the (Democrats) or the (Republicans), do you trustto do a … Continue reading America to Bush: Stop Stonewalling

Francis R. Scobee (2), Commander Michael J. Smith (1), Pilot Judith A. Resnik (2), Mission Specialist 1 Ellison S. Onizuka (2), Mission Specialist 2 Ronald E. McNair (2), Mission Specialist 3 Gregory B. Jarvis (1), Payload Specialist 1 Sharon Christa McAuliffe (1), Payload Specialist 2 (TISP) Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in January 1986, killing all aboard and destroying the orbiter. Columbia’s homepage is dedicated to the crew of the orbiter that exploded just before landing, when: Upon reentering the atmosphere on February 1, 2003, the Columbia orbiter suffered a catastrophic failure due to a breach that occurred during launch … Continue reading In Memoriam

From Holden: Oh, my. Texas Governor Rick Perry is rapidly being sucked into the legal whirlpool that has engulfed Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, much to the delight of one of his gubernatorial campaign foes, Little Scottie’s mom. The maelstorm surrounds Goodhair Perry’s decision to hire private lobbying firms connected to both DeLay and Abramoff to replace Texas’ own Office of State-Federal Relations. It looks like the lobbyists took state payments from Perry and turned them into campaign donations for Delay, a creative twist on a common Republican tactic. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn [yeah, that’s Scott McClellan’s mom] , responding … Continue reading More Texas Money Laundering

From Holden: Fox News provided a corporate jet to shuttle Tom DeLay from Texas to Washington and back for a Chris Wallace interview days after DeLay was indicted in Texas. Must be time for another conference on blogger ethics. Four days after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s stunning indictment last September in Travis County, the political talk show “Fox News Sunday” trumpeted an exclusive interview with the combative Texas Republican. Unsaid, but revealed in documents DeLay later filed in the U.S. House, was that DeLay’s Oct. 2 appearance cost Fox News $14,000. The money rented a private jet to ferry DeLay … Continue reading It’s Good Ta Be Da King

CBS suggests that the “market-driven” Bush administration has no problem letting 60,000 American jobs go down the toilet, so long as there’s no government guarantee of loans to keep union members working at Ford and/or GM. So, what does the President have to say about the prospect of watching America’s two biggest domestic carmakers go under? Here’s a tidbit, but you really ought to read the whole thing. “I think it’s very important for the market to function,” he said in an interview in the Thursday editions of The Wall Street Journal, which said Mr. Bush suggested that he was … Continue reading Bush: “Boom!” : Market to decide carmakers’ fate

From Holden: Hot times in the Old Dominion. A Virginia lawmaker accidentally discharged a handgun in his General Assembly office Thursday morning, firing a bullet into a bulletproof vest that was hanging on the wall of his office. No one was hurt. [Holden Note: He accidentally discharged his pistol into a bulletproof vest he happened to have in his office? Gimme a break, I bet he was testing the vest to see if it really could stop a bullet.] Del. John S. “Jack” Reid (R-Henrico) apologized to his colleagues on the floor of the House of Delegates Thursday afternoon, saying … Continue reading Stupid Republican Tricks

From Holden: I’ve been trying to come up with an effective way to illustrate the monetary costs of Chimpy’s Vanity War in Iraq recently, and I wonder if this will do it. The repository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, currently holds 147.3 million ounces of gold. Gold is trading at $559.80 per ounce in New York as of this writing. Therefore Fort Knox houses $82.5 billion in gold. To date the Bush Assministration has spent $236.5 billion in Iraq. That’s 2.87 times the value of all the gold in Fort Knox. That means Chimpy has flushed the entire gold reserves in … Continue reading Bush Sent Fort Knox To Iraq — Three Times!

From Holden: Little Scottie, yesterday: Q Anyway, this study ordered by the Pentagon, called by the drafter “The Thin Green Line,” says, in effect, bottom line, that the U.S. Army is stretched so thin it cannot prevail against the insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq. Did that come up at all in this morning — MR. McCLELLAN: And that’s why you’re rushing to get over to the Pentagon, too, I’m sure, to bring up that very question. I tell you that our commanders would be in the best position to answer that question because they reject such a characterization very strongly. … Continue reading Scottie vs. The General

From Holden: Silly Europeans. Don’t they know that the rule of law is for suckers? A European Parliament investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons could ask Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify, although it has no legal power to subpoena them, a member of the panel said Thursday. “Very senior people” would be asked to answer the allegations of human rights violations on EU territory, said Sarah Ludford, vice president of an investigation into the alleged prisons being conducted by the parliament. “I don’t see why we should not invite Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney,” … Continue reading Dick and Rummy in the Dock

From Holden: From today’s presser, let’s start with Chimpy’s extra-consitutional spying. First, Chimpy tries to explain why he did not seek to amend FISA. BUSH: Now, my concern has always been that, in an attempt to try to pass a law on something that’s already legal, we’ll show the enemy what we’re doing. [snip] And so, of course, we’ll listen to ideas. But I want to make sure that people understand that if the attempt to write law makes this program — is likely to expose the nature of the program, I’ll resist it. And I think the American people … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

From Holden: I’m still looking for reactions from the short-bus side of the blogoshpere to Hamas’s apparent victory in the Palestinian elections. So far I have not found a peep about it at Maglalang’s place or Le Corner, and over at InstaJerk Professor Reynolds typically responded with no original words of his own. Count on Captain Kangaroo Ed to step up to the hypocracy plate. The first item on our list should be an absolute end to all aid to the Palestinian territories and government. The US should not subsidize Hamas, nor should it give money to a people whose … Continue reading Democracy? You’re Soaking In It!

From Holden: The GOP is doing all that it can to cover Rick Santorum’s spotty ass, but I think it’s too little, too late. Republican lawmakers yesterday ended their long practice of routinely summoning lobbyists to the Capitol to try to persuade them to hire their aides and colleagues, in the wake of the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal. GOP lawmakers for years have regularly presented lists of job openings on K Street to lobbyists to encourage them to hire Republicans over Democrats. The program is a remnant of the K Street Project once championed by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) … Continue reading Senator Ricky K. Street, R-PA

From Holden: Jeebus, I hate linking to Mickey Louse but I’ve been praying for the early demise of Times Select since it was launched. TimesSelect Hitting the Wall: On November 9, 2005 the New York Times announced that its new TimesSelect service had attracted approximately 135,000 paying Web subscribers (i.e., people who weren’t getting the service for free as print subscribers). Today, two month’s later, the Times reported it has attracted 156,000 paying Web subscribers, according to E&P’s relentless Joe Strupp. Doesn’t this mean TimesSelect has gained only 21,000 subscribers in the past two months, after attracting 135,000 in the … Continue reading Free Paul Krugman!

From Holden: Your president, Monday: History has shown that democracies yield the peace. But then… Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters And now your president sez: US President George W Bush said he would refuse to deal with the Islamist movement Hamas, which had a strong showing in the Palestinian elections, until it ends its drive to destroy Israel. ‘A political party, in order to be viable, is one that professes peace, in my judgment, in order that it will keep the peace,’ Bush was quoted as saying in a Wall Street Journal interview. ‘And so you’re getting a sense of how I’m … Continue reading A Purple Finger In Your Eye

From Holden: Everything you wanted to know (and Republicans are afraid you will ask) about the Gus Boulis murder, courtesy of Arianna Huffington. Continue reading Big Tony, Little Tony, and Pudgy

From Lubbock, Texas via local TV station KCBD TV, the end of a mystery proves that you don’t have to live in New Orleans to risk death by lack of funds. Unpaid Utility Bills May Have Led to Couple’s Death The Lubbock Medical Examiner said Alfredo and Adita Quiroz both died of “accidental hypothermia.” The two were found dead inside their Central Lubbock home Monday night. NewsChannel 11’s Kealey McIntire has been following this story and has the latest: Tuesday police returned to the neighborhood to conduct follow up investigations. Mail that was still in the mailbox indicates the Quirozes … Continue reading Death by poverty

From Holden: What’s with this press corps, asking no Abramoff questions today? Oh well, there were many questions about Chimpy’s extra-constitutional snooping, particularly the Assministration’s new and improved definition of domestic spying. Q Back to the NSA. The White House last night put out paper backing up its claims that this was a terrorist surveillance program, saying the charges of domestic spying — you defined what “domestic” meant. Isn’t one end of that phone call on domestic soil? Why is the charge of it being domestic spying so far off? MR. McCLELLAN: For the same reasons that a phone call … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Sen. Arlen Specter sent Abu Al Gonzales a letter today outlining the questions he would like the Attorney General to address in his opening statement at the Judiciary Committee hearing set for Feb. 6. A sample: (1) In interpreting whether Congress intended to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by the September 14,2001 Resolution (Resolution), would it be relevant on the issue of Congressional intent that the Administration did not specifically ask for an expansion for Executive powers under FISA? Was it because you thought you couldn’t get such an expansion as when you said: “That was … Continue reading Questions, So Many Questions

From Holden: The housing bubble has sprung a leak. Sales of existing U.S. homes dropped 5.7 percent in December to a 6.6 million unit rate, marking the third consecutive decline and hitting the lowest level since March 2004, according to trade group data on Wednesday that pointed to slowing in the housing market. Continue reading My Bush Boom Has Blood In Its Urine

From Holden: Check out Harold Meyerson in today’s WaPo. Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it’s hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president’s defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his war in Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina and his Medicare drug plan, will have to grapple with how one president could so cosmically botch so many big things — particularly when most of them were the president’s own initiatives. [snip] How could a president get these things … Continue reading Teh Shrill

From Holden: I’ve previously discussed the Bush Assministration’s decision to keep the American people from seeing photos depicting Chimpy gladhanding with Jack Abramoff. Today we learn that the White House is also stonewalling the investigation into their horrid response to Hurricane Katrina. The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response. [snip] The White House’s stance on storm-related documents, along with slow or incomplete responses by … Continue reading President Stonewall

From Holden: When it was revealed last week that Texas Governor Rick “Good Hair” Perry’s administration had awarded a lucrative contract to an Abramoff-connected firm that refused to meet with Texas Democrats in Congress Perry’s spokesman claimed that Cassidy & Associates had won the contract by submitting the lowest bid. It turns out that was a lie. When the state approved hiring a lobbying firm with close ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2004, it rejected competing bids that met more of its selection criteria and cost less, according to documents obtained by the Austin American-Statesman. What the winning firm, … Continue reading Pssst, Rick. You Have Some AbramOffal On Your Chin!

From Holden: Now tell me, what would the gaggle be without Scottie completely ignoring a series of questions from Helen Thomas? Q I have two questions that can be dismissed with a yes or no. One, is the President going to seek any legal — more legal permission from Congress to spy on Americans without a warrant? And two, does he think, does he believe that his new designation of the spy program, terrorist surveillance, will tarnish people who are spied on and are guilty or not guilty? MR. McCLELLAN: Let me take the first part of your question, and … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

Tucson’s KVOA carried a story tonight from AP that says Billy Graham hopes to preach during son Franklin’s upcoming crusade in New Orleans. Spokespeople claim Graham wants to encourage the city’s churches, pastors, and survivors and bring “a message of hope” to the city. Franklin Graham’s “religious festival” is slated for March 11 and 12. Placido Domingo, meanwhile, will headline a concert in NOLA March 4, according to a scotsman.news.com. (That web site belongs to one of the United Kingdom’s oldest papers.) story. Domingo’s concert will benefit the arts in NOLA, and be the first operatic event in the city … Continue reading Ridin’ on the City of New Orleans …

From Holden: Reader RobertEarle alerted me to the fact that Dan Froomkin has returned to his spot at the online WaPo after a monthlong paternity leave. Lately I’ve been wondering if Froomkin would address the controversy surrounding his employer’s ombudsman, Deborah Howell, and her on-again, off-again parroting of Ken Melman’s talking points regarding AbramOffal (only Howell pulled it off with a bit more butch than Melman). After all it was Howell who agreed that the online WaPo should “remove the ‘White House Briefing’ label from Froomkin’s column” so that their beetle-browed readers won’t confuse columnist Froomkin with a Post reporter. … Continue reading Froomkin is Back!

From Holden: TalkRadio News Service has their summary of today’s morning gaggle up, and one bit struck me as odd. Congressional Wiretapping Authorization Helen Thomas asked Scott McClellan if the President is planning to go to Congress to ask for the authority to legally eavesdrop on telephone calls. McClellan responded, “The President has the authority to act within the Constitution to do this to protect the American people and that is exactly what he intends to do”. McClellan explained the wiretapping program as a terrorist surveillance program aimed at detecting and preventing attacks focused on al-Qaeda communications. He said the … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle Summary

From Holden: Well, what do you know. The White House has up to a dozen photos of Chimpy and Abramoff but they won’t release them to the public. Sounds like they have something to hide. Several White House officials have been briefed about pictures of President Bush and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff taken since 2001 but will not release them on grounds that they are not relevant to the ongoing money-for-favors investigation, aides said yesterday. “Trying to say there’s more to it than the president taking a picture in a photo line is just absurd,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan … Continue reading White House Stonewalling on Bush-Abramoff Photos

From Holden: The Council of Europe’s ongoing investigation has reached a preliminary conclusion: Chimpy’s torture flights are illegal. Dick Marty, a Swiss parliamentarian heading a Council of Europe investigation into the claims, said in an interim report that US activities had been both illegal and counter productive. “No cogent evidence has yet emerged of the existence in Europe of detention camps like the one at Guantanamo Bay“ he said. “On the other hand it has been proved (and in fact never denied) that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and all rights and transported to different destinations in … Continue reading Europe Says Chimpy Broke The Law

From Holden: A federal judge has once again slapped down an element of Chimpy’s “enemy combatant” detainee policy. A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to release the names and nationalities of hundreds of prisoners detained at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, rejecting the government’s argument that it would be a violation of their privacy and expose them to retaliation by terrorist groups. The ruling, issued yesterday by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan, came in a lawsuit brought by The Associated Press in April 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act. The suit sought to force the … Continue reading Bush Assministration Loses Another One

From Holden: Chimpy was in Manhattan, Kansas, yesterday and he actually *gasp* took a few questions from the crowd. It seems that most of the participants passed the loyalty test. Q Hello, Mr. President. I am an American Iraqi Kurd. I would like to salute you and salute all the troops are freeing 27 million people. They are free. (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Q Mr. President, I would like to share this thought with all our nation and everybody who is questioning what happened to the chemical weapons. Saddam burned 4,500 villagers. I lost more than 10 members of … Continue reading Questions, They Have Questions