From Holden:

Little Scottie McClellan: Card Shark.

Q Does the President think that this move today will satisfy the concerns of many Republicans who were calling for a White House shakeup?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Terry, I know that there’s a tendency in this town to look at it in those terms and look at it in kind of zero-sum ways. That’s not the way the President approached this. Let me back up, because I think it’s best to kind of lay out some of the facts for you.

[snip]

But I think Andy recognized that it is time for a change. So he and the President had a good discussion about that over the last few weeks. The President reached out to Josh, to talk to him about the possibility of succeeding Andy. And that’s some of the facts.

[snip]

Q The question, though, Scott is, did the President feel the change was necessary as he tries to better his political standing in his second term?

There’s more in store for Scottie the Whore — Click Read More!

Continue reading “Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle”

From Holden: Your President Speaks, June 24, 2005: The Prime Minister is a great Iraqi patriot, he’s a friend of liberty, he’s a strong partner for peace and freedom. [snip] I appreciate Prime Minister Jaafari’s brave leadership. Prime Minister Jaafari is a bold man. I’ve enjoyed my discussions with the Prime Minister. He is a frank, open fellow who is willing to tell me what’s on his mind. And what is on his mind is peace and security for the people of Iraq, and what is on his mind is a democratic future that is hopeful. I want to thank … Continue reading My, My, How Things Change

Jesus: More than 260 friends, relatives and beneficiaries of Abramoff’s largesse have written letters to a federal judge who is sentencing him Wednesday, asking that he be shown mercy and viewed in a different light.[snip]Abramoff is “a man of exceptional generosity and kindness, often to those he doesn’t even know,” former ABC News reporter Tim O’Brien wrote. Via Romenesko. A. Continue reading Your Liberal Media

From Scout: FEMA had promised the flood maps which will guide how or whether people in NOLA will rebuild would be out at the end of the month. Now they say they will not make the deadline (again) and would not say when the maps will be done.. “I’m not happy with the progress we’ve made on the base flood elevation maps. We’re going to push to get them out as quickly as possible. They need to come out quickly,” said R. David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “But we want them to be right. They … Continue reading FEMA to miss deadline for flood maps

From Holden: Juan Cole: The Badr Organization, a political party that represents the paramilitary Badr Corps, the Shiite militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, demanded Monday that Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, be expelled from that country. Continue reading When Sovereignty Bites You In The Ass

From Holden:

My fellow South Austinite John Kelso conducted an informal survey earlier this month.

A couple weeks ago, I asked y’all to vote on who you thought should have the lowest approval rating: George W., Saddam Hussein, Kenneth Lay, O.J. Simpson, Barry Bonds, Jeffrey “Let’s Do Lunch” Dahmer and Sarah, the nasty old former bartender out at the Dry Creek Cafe on Mount Bonnell Road.

One guy e-mailed me all honked off for including Osama bin Laden in the same poll with George W. I never mentioned bin Laden in my poll, and I told the guy so. Seems he had gotten bin Laden and Saddam mixed up.

Isn’t that how we got into this Iraq mess in the first place?

Bush was a shoo-in for lowest approval rating with 534 votes, or 62.17 percent of the vote. Sarah came in a distant second with 89 votes, or 10.36 percent. What this proves is that there are more people chapped about the war in Iraq than there are folks who have been thrown out of the Dry Creek Cafe.

The rest of the field came in like this: Hussein, 83 votes (9.66 percent); Dahmer, 47 votes (5.47 percent); Simpson, 45 votes (5.24 percent); Bonds, 32 votes (3.73 percent) and Lay, 29 votes (3.38 percent).

There’s more of to read, so click Read More!

Continue reading “George Bush: Unpopular President”

From Holden: On September 11, 2001, Andy Card made the President of the United States of America shit his pants in front of a classroom full of Florida schoolchildren. REUTERS/Win McNamee/Files Thank you, Andy. Continue reading And Card’s Place In American History

Conservatives stole my work, which proves liberals are the real thieves here. A. Continue reading Shorter Debbie Schlussel

From Holden: It’s Arianna’s turn. Continue reading Let’s Play 20 Questions

When Howard Kurtz tells you your face is too far up Bush’s ass: Wheeling, W.Va.: Last week President Bush visited my hometown of Wheeling, West Virgina for a town hall meeting. The local publisher, Ogden Newspapers, proudly listed itself as a ‘sponsor’ of the visit, along with the local Chamber of Commerce and some other businesses. The papers (yes, we still have morning and afternoon papers, both owned by Ogden) had numerous articles over the course of about a week before and after the visit, as well as several editorials. I would characterize the coverage as supportive of the President … Continue reading How To Tell You’ve Journalistically Fucked Up

That’s what Think Progress dubbed it, and I think they’re pretty well on the mark:

The Phase II report on the misuse of Iraq intelligence will not examine how “political appointees at the Pentagon deliberately distorted intelligence and subverted analysis by the Central Intelligence Agency to gin up support for the invasion.” Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) “didn’t offer a timetable” for an investigation into “activities before the war by the office of former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.”

Click on “Read More” to, well, read more …

Continue reading “Senate Coverup Committee”

From Holden:

Let’s kick off the gaggle with that liberal meanie, Helen Thomas.

Q In a follow up for — from this morning’s briefing, I said that the President was aware in the run-up to the war that there were no weapons — no weapons — unconventional weapons had been found, and you sort of denied that it was in the memo.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, this morning you said that the President was aware there were no weapons of mass destruction. And that is not what that article spelled out.

Q This is what it — the memo says: The President and Prime Minister acknowledge that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq in the run-up to the war.

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, let me remind you and take you back to that time period, because there was a U.N. weapons inspection team that was looking at these issues. And that team put out I think some sort of interim report back in December of ’02, and that report showed that the regime was not coming clean. And we said at that time that the regime was continuing its pattern of non-cooperation and that if they continued —

Q They also said they didn’t find any weapons.

MR. McCLELLAN: — if they continued down that path, then we were prepared to use force. The President pursued a diplomatic solution. That’s why we went to the United Nations. That’s why we passed a 17th resolution that called on the regime to disclose or face serious consequences.

Q The memo says he wanted a war, basically that he was determined, and there were no weapons found.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, Helen, that’s not an accurate assessment, and you know it. Because you covered —

Q Is this memo wrong?

Obsession continues, click “Read More”.

Continue reading “Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle”

From Holden: Oh my, this could get ugly. From the Raw Story. According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush’s senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent “discovery” of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. [snip] According to one source close to the case, Rove is providing information on deleted emails, erased hard drives and other types of obstruction by staff and other officials in the Vice President’s office. Pentagon sources close to Rove confirmed this account. Continue reading Turdblossom vs. Big Time

From Holden: Looks like Ned Lamont is giving Joe Lieberman the heebie-jeebies. “As I read the law I think the president’s tapping or surveillance without a warrant was wrong,” Lieberman said on “Face the State” on WFSB-TV. “It was outside the law.” “This is an important program,” said Lieberman, who is seeking a fourth term this year. “I don’t find anybody in Congress who thinks we ought not to be listening to the phone conversations and reading the e-mails of people that we think are involved in and we have reason to believe are involved in terrorist groups. But it … Continue reading No More Kisses for Joe

From Holden: The Bush Assministration’s Strategy for Success in Iraq characterizes the “enemy” as “rejectionists, Saddamists, and terrorists affiliated with or inspired by Al Qaida.” It says nothing whatsoever about Shiite militias. American and Iraqi government forces clashed with Shiite militiamen in Baghdad on Sunday night in the most serious confrontation in months, and Iraqi security officials said 17 people had been killed in a mosque, including its 80-year-old imam. Reuters. It appears that US forces are giving the Shiia a taste of what we’ve been cooking up for the Sunnis for the past three years, and the Shiia do … Continue reading Lovely Progress In Iraq

Forget March Madness. Forget basketball. True madness, true sport, is a four-and-a-half-hour, hard-checking, dramatic-saving, screaming, howling, booing-the-officials, scoreless hockey game: Jack Skille’s goal midway through the third overtime gave Wisconsin a 1-0 victory over Cornell on Sunday and ended the longest scoreless game in NCAA tournament history. Skille’s goal with 8:47 left in the period came on an assist from Josh Engel, whose pass from the right point found Skille on the doorstep. He beat Cornell goalie David McKee and set off a wild celebration as Wisconsin advanced to the Frozen Four for the first time since 1992. A. Continue reading Sunday Night Sporto Post

Maybe the best thing I’ve ever read on Kos:

And here’s where it all comes together.

The lack of strategy in Iraq? �It couldn’t have happened without (candidate).

The record deficit? �It couldn’t have happened without (candidate).

The poor response to Katrina? �It couldn’t have happened without (candidate).

The continuation of illegal wiretapping? �It couldn’t have happened without (candidate).

And on and on.

Bush is at 34-39%. �Local lawmakers are at 63%. �Turning the local (R)s into Bush is our best chance of winning in ’06.

That’s exactly what we need to say. Enough of this “we need to find the One True Candidate,” or “we need to find a winning message” or “we need to pick over every single district’s data and have seventeen messages for every house on that one block that didn’t vote for us that one time plus the cat because cats are important” crapola.

There’s more …

Continue reading “Hang It Around Their Necks”

“It has come upon us,’ he said. ‘I don’t mean the war. I mean our time of judgment, yours and mine…Men choose one side or the other, making the best choice they can with the knowledge they have. Yet they know little, and the turns and twists of war are incalculable. They may fight for a righteous cause and yet at the end of it all have become as evil as their enemies, or they may in error espouse an evil cause and in defense of it grow better than they were before. And so the one war becomes each … Continue reading Sunday School

From Scout:

OK chinchillas get a piece of paper and a pen. Here’s the question….

How many occupied FEMA trailers are there in New Orleans?

Write your answer down, fold it in half and the answer is After the Cut

Continue reading “Sunday Morning Trivia”

From Scout: OK I’m thoroughly confused. I really don’t know how the good people of NOLA can have any patience left. People down there have been waiting on the FEMA flood maps to determine how high they will need to raise their houses and how much flood insurance will cost them. Why raise you home 3 feet if it will later be determined it must be 5 feet. So re-construction has been on hold. NOW FEMA says this…. They say people who build now will not have to pay higher flood insurance rates even if the new maps and building … Continue reading To FEMA: Will you put that in writing?

Here’s the radio interview I did with the editor of The Progressive magazine about the Feith book. For the six of you who aren’t sick of it yet. A. Continue reading Speaking of Teh Evil MSM

Atrios wants to know what it’s going to take for the press to wake up to violations of the law in supposed pursuit of terrorism. What it’s going to take for every news show, every talk show, every front page, every stupid bobblehead to be demanding answers in a chorus of angels singing in unison for justice and the American way. Damned if I know. After two years of writing about this stuff at my last job, I started to feel like the girl at the party screaming about the world burning down, and nobody likes that girl. Everybody wants … Continue reading What It Will Take

From Scout: From WWLTV Recovery teams discovered the body of a young child in the debris of the Lower Ninth Ward early Friday, the ninth victim that has been recovered since searches resumed March 4. Continue reading Offered with no comment

This is another Ben post. Achenbach: Someone I know who does a fair bit of online work for this paper, whose initials are Gene Weingarten, said this afternoon, “Journalism is journalism, and you need people who have an idea what they are doing, even if they are just fulminating on the web…Doing the chat in real time is a little dangerous and a little terrifying. There’s no editing, no lawyering, no time for contemplation, and all of that is coupled with an understood mandate to be as provocative as possible. The thing is instantaneous and haphazard, but not random or … Continue reading Not Getting It, vol. 697

Death threats. Vile, profane language. Outrageous, over the top statements. No, it’s not another Ben post. So much for that monopoly the “Left” apparently has on hateful rhetoric. A. Continue reading Outrage

Augustine tells his side of the story. Predictably, he misrepresents what happened and is generally whiny and full of shit. I know that charges of plagiarism are serious. While I am not a journalist, I have, myself, written more than one thing that has been plagiarized in the past. But these charges have also served to create an atmosphere where no matter what is said on my Red America blog, leftists will focus on things with my byline from when I was a teenager. Yes, and once you reached adulthood, and were writing for NRO, you continued to plagiarize. In … Continue reading The ‘Ow, My Ass Hurts’ Defense

Stripe (still fat and happy, with new tail fur that he grew out of nowhere) would say hi, but he’s way too comfy right now to move. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Mom’s Jacket Edition

From Holden: My appologies to the late, great Warren Zevon. Poor, Poor Plagiarist Ben (sung to the tune of Poor, Poor Pitiful Me) I put my blog at Post.com To balance that damn Froom-kin But the moonbat hordes were on my ass Poor, poor plagiarist Ben Poor, poor plagiarist Ben Poor, poor plagiarist Ben These librul fucks won’t let me be Lord have mercy on me Woe is me Well I met a girl via Regnery She had a funny way of talkin’ I edited all her fiery words From the lips of Jesse Malkin Poor, poor plagiarist Ben Poor, … Continue reading Poor Plagiarist Ben

Per Air America Radio. Link. Now, of course, the questions begin. Who made the decision to hire him? What was the vetting process? What does this say about the journalism of the Washington Post? Who will be held accountable for this debacle? Will this have a noticeable effect on the uncritical acceptance of right-wing media talking points by major media managers? And what, if anything, will Red State do now that their beloved Ben’s gone down? Update: Comedy line of the day from the Red State comments: It’s only a witch hunt until you find the witch. A. Continue reading Ben Resigns

When the Freepers are calling for your head? They create a conservative blog and hire someone who with a little research turns out to be an out-and-out plagiarist. (Sigh) Domenech has become the Jason Blair of conservative writing I think his blog has only been online a couple of days, so there isn’t much there. But if he’s a plagiarist, he makes all con bloggers look bad — toss him out on his ear. That’s when you’re officially done. A. Continue reading Forget Malkin