From Tena: Sistahs, if you read my post about Roger Hunt, the South Dakota representative, sorriest male human alive, who drafted the anti-abortion legislation, then you know what a true piece of shit he is. If you didn’t see it, and haven’t read anything, here’s a taste: “A lot of this discussion about back-alley abortions are myths that were created,” said Mr. Hunt, a 68-year-old Baptist lawyer, who said he’s never seen reliable statistics on illegal abortions. “The fear that we’re going to have women dying in coat-hanger abortions are largely figments of the imagination.” [snip] In drafting the law, … Continue reading Well well, imagine this – it’s easy to get in touch with demons from hell

Missouri doesn’t want its taxes paying for naughty naughty no-baby pills: The proposal’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Susan Phillips of Kansas City, said contraceptive services were an inappropriate use of tax dollars. “If doctors want to give contraception privately or personally, they can,” Phillips said. “But we don’t need to pay for contraception with taxpayer funds.” I think this is a brilliant idea. From now on, when you pay your taxes, there will be a long list of boxes you can check to fund what you agree with and defund what you think is gross. Here’s a short list of things … Continue reading 1. Missouri

Queen Victoria v. O’Reilly I love the Internets. A. Continue reading Something To Be Said For Celibacy

From Holden: Helen Thomas nails it. Q Does the President know that he’s in violation of international law when he advocates preemptive war? The U.N. Charter, Geneva, Nuremberg. We violate international law when we advocate attacking a country that did not attack us. MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, I would just disagree with your assessment. First of all, preemption is a longstanding principle of American foreign — Q It’s not a long-standing principle with us. It’s your principle. MR. McCLELLAN: Have you asked your question? Q It’s a violation of international law. MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, let me back up, preemption … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Via Froomkin, your president channels his father encountering a UPC scanner. When you go buy a car, you know exactly what they’re going to charge you. (Laughter.) Well, sometimes you don’t know. (Laughter.) Well, you negotiate with them. (Laughter.) Well, they put something on the window that says price. (Laughter.) His point is, is that the more you know about price, the better you can make better decisions, and I appreciate that. Continue reading Your President Speaks!

From Scout: I think I may be back online. I’ve had some major pc problems which I may have corrected. Time will tell if I need to pick up more baling wire to hold this thing together. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is holding it together despite death threats from the wingnut fringe of the internets which she discussed last month and was reported in Legal Times yesterday….. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she and now-retired colleague Sandra Day O’Connor were the targets of an Internet death threat last year because of their citation of foreign law in decisions. … Continue reading Way to go

From Holden: New jobless claims edged up again last week. In the week ending March 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 309,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 304,000. The 4-week moving average was 296,500, an increase of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 293,750. Continue reading New Bush-Boomless

From Holden: Shiite religious leaders can’t hold back the tide. Iraqi Shi’ite religious leaders’ restraining influence on militia groups is waning fast and senior clerics fear they are dragging Iraq into civil war, a source close to the clerical authorities said on Wednesday. Sounding the most urgent note of alarm yet from the Marja’iya, the religious establishment led by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior source told Reuters: “People are paying less and less heed to the Marja’iya every day because of how sectarian killings are affecting Shi’ite public opinion.” Ordinary Iraqi families are preparing for the worst. Om Hussein, … Continue reading Here It Comes

From Holden: Halliburton’s negligence and incompetence nearly lead to mass killings of US soldiers. Then they covered it up. Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused “mass sickness or death,” an internal company report concluded. The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq. The problems discovered … Continue reading Thanks A Lot, Dick

From Tena: Roger Hunt, the state legislator who sponsored the bill, doesn’t think there’s much chance of that happening. “A lot of this discussion about back-alley abortions are myths that were created,” said Mr. Hunt, a 68-year-old Baptist lawyer, who said he’s never seen reliable statistics on illegal abortions. “The fear that we’re going to have women dying in coat-hanger abortions are largely figments of the imagination.” Mr. Hunt also does not think much of the complaints that the bill is too restrictive — it would allow abortions only if the life of the mother were at risk. Doctors who … Continue reading Ladies, this sucker is just beggin for a serious discussion with a load of brick

“We fight the fights we can win? We fight the fights that need fighting!” — The American President Howard and Russ, that’s pretty much what I’m left with these days. The rest of you, take a fucking hike. Except Kerry and Menedez and Boxer and Harkin. They stood up. Everybody else, take a fucking hike. See ya, senators. You have a pre-2006 mindset, and I’m done with it, and with you. Seriously, we are eight months from the midterms, and our national message is that we don’t think the president should be censured, except we kinda do, but we want … Continue reading Mouthing Off

From Holden: After mouthing off a bit to the WaPo’s Jim VandeHei, Little Scottie denied that the White House was considering some personnel changes — before seeminlgy confirming that they were. Q Scott, at the risk of making you even more tired, I’m wondering — MR. McCLELLAN: I’m not tired, Jim. You might be — Q Well, after this question you may be. The calls from the current senators, and even former senators, from what we understand, to change the staffing, expand it, if not swap out, is there anything to it? Are any staff changes at the White House … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Froomkin: Youssef M. Ibrahim, a former New York Times reporter turned Dubai businessman, writes in a USA Today opinion column: “On the first day of the firestorm involving Dubai’s purchase of a global port management company, I phoned my friend Rashid al-Oraimi, opinion editor at Al Ittihad, a government-owned newspaper of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss the fierce reaction in the USA. No problem, Rashid said. The deal would go through ‘because Abu Abdullah OK’d it.’ “Who is Abu Abdullah? I asked. ” ‘George Bush, of course,’ my friend answered, laughing, explaining that Abu Abdullah is the … Continue reading Abu Abdullah

From Holden: Spike Lee (via HuffPo). [H]e was talking about When the Levees Broke, his forthcoming documentary about Hurricane Katrina, and Condoleezza Rice. He was cracking up, giggling and cackling—in fact, caggling. Mr. Lee recalled the story of a shopper who approached Ms. Rice at the pricey Ferragamo shoe store on Fifth Avenue during Katrina and reportedly shouted “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” before Secret Service physically removed her. Mr. Lee picked up The Observer’s tape recorder and held it close in front of his face. “To the lady that got in Ms. … Continue reading He Used to Be Mookie

From Holden: But his body language says “34%”. AP Photo/Evan Vucci Continue reading His Underoos May Say “Commander in Chief”….

From Holden: But his body language says “34%”. AP Photo/Evan Vucci Continue reading His Underoos May Say ”Commander in Chief”….

From Holden: Attaturk nails it. Continue reading Today on William Lloyd Garrison’s Obsession With The Gaggle

From Holden: My, my, change is reletlessly rapid, ain’t it? Monday: Budget Restraint Emerges as G.O.P. Theme for 2008. Wednesday: Senate G.O.P. Blocks Tight Budget Rule. Senate Republicans on Tuesday narrowly defeated an effort to impose budget rules that would make it harder to increase spending or cut taxes, a move that critics said that showed Republicans were posturing in their calls for greater fiscal restraint. In the first of several politically charged budget and spending issues confronting Congress this week, the Senate rejected on a 50-to-50 tie a proposal to restore what are known as “pay-go” rules, a requirement … Continue reading Republicans Don’t Have A Plan

From Holden: Yet another reason why US forces should be removed from Iraq immediately: our “commanders in the field” are willing to wipe out an innocent family of eleven in order to capture a single insurgent. Eleven people — most women and children — were killed when a house was bombed during a U.S. raid north of Baghdad early Wednesday, police and relatives said. The U.S. military acknowledged four deaths — a man, two women and a child — in the raid that they said netted an insurgent suspect in the rural Isahaqi area, about 50 miles north of the … Continue reading Hearts and Minds, Livers and Spleens

From Tena: Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton. I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues where you reach out to the other side and try … Continue reading Molly Ivins

Dear Pat Robertson, In order, here are the things about your latest communication from God that are annoying the shit out of me presently. 1. If you really put your back into it, do you think you could act a little more like the propaganda distributed by ever fucking mullah looking to capitalize on our president’s stupid-assed crusade? Really, if you just put your shoulder up to it and pushed, do you think you could do a little more to make us look a little worse? Don’t get me wrong, you’re doing a fine job right now, but I’m kind … Continue reading sigh

From Holden: New Harris Poll Approval Ratings Bush: 36% (-4%) Cheney: 30% (unchanged) Rumsfeld: 35% (+1%) Rice: 51% (-1%) Rove: 28% (no prior number reported) Methinks the 40% Pony Bar is set too low. Continue reading More Ponies

From Holden: Your president is an insuffereable ass… I want to thank Antonia Novello. Dr. Novello, where are you? She’s here — oh, there you are. Good to see you. Appreciate you coming. She’s the Commissioner of Health for the state of New York. I’m honored you’re here. I’ll tell old 41 I saw you. That’s the number for my dad — see, he’s the 41st President, I’m the 43rd President, so — I’ll tell him I saw you. …who never misses the opportunity to put an underling in his or her place… I called upon a fellow named Dr. … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

Scared of old people. A. Continue reading Our Manly Preznit

From Holden: More bad news for Chimpy’s Vanity War from CBS News. More than seven in 10 Americans — majorities of both Democrats and Republicans — say a civil war is currently going on in Iraq, while another 13 percent think civil war is likely to break out in the near future. Americans cite Iraq as the most important problem facing the U.S. and are more pessimistic than ever about the chances of eventual success there. Just 15 percent say the U.S. is very likely to succeed in Iraq, down from 21 percent in January. Another 36 percent say success … Continue reading The Clapping Does Not Seem To Work

From Holden: What’s the word on the street in Baghdad? Just three days after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld criticized what he believes to be “exaggerated” and one-sided press coverage of apparently sectarian violence in Iraq sparked by the Feb. 22 attack on a Shiite mosque in Samarra, U.S. military intelligence reported that “most Iraqis increasingly fear an all-out civil war will begin soon.” “In fact, the entire group believes that Iraq is at least in a state of low-level civil war and most believe that the country is one assassination or Samarra-type event away from all-out civil war,” it … Continue reading The Mosquito’s Buzz