From Holden: Cue Nelsom Muntz with a British accent. PRESIDENT George Bush can’t get no satisfaction — after Mick Jagger grabbed his hotel room. The Rolling Stone splashed out £3,600 a night for the suite days before the US leader tried to book it. Now Mick, 62, who has been a fierce critic of the Bush-led war in Iraq, is refusing to give it up. The veteran rocker hired the luxury Royal Suite at the five-star Imperial Hotel in Vienna, Austria, for June when the Stones are due to play a gig in the city. Bush’s aides then tried to … Continue reading Fool to Cry

From Holden: Another quickie gaggle today aboard Air Force One as Chimpy flies to some godforsaken place to talk about some godforsaken policy. Just remember: everything is Harry Reid’s fault. Q How can the President just solely blame Senator Reid for blocking the bill, when it also has had considerable trouble because of the dissension in the Republican ranks? MR. McCLELLAN: I don’t think it’s the President; I think it’s a lot of people. I mean, I’ve seen editorials across the U.S. point to the fact that he used procedural gimmicks to stop debate from moving forward. It’s important for … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Scout:

As Laura Bush made Happy Happy with the children of Katrina in one of the most disgusting displays of crass opportunism at the White House Easter Egg Hunt here is the reality of far too many of the young survivors….

MONICA Then:

A 30 foot wave took out her home. She was saved from drowning by a neighbor who placed her in a floating cooler and got her to safety.

MONICA Now:

Each time the 3-year-old gets in the bathtub, she thinks she’s going to drown. Monica whimpers when her grandmother turns on the faucet, sobbing softly at first, then wailing as the tub begins to fill.

“She cries and cries. ‘Don’t be crying,’ I tell her. ‘I gotta wash your hair,'” says her exasperated grandmother, Ruth May Smith.

GABRIELLE Then:

During the evacuation her mother caught pneumonia and died in her sleep.

GABRIELLE Now:

When her father takes a nap, 8-year-old Gabrielle Riley circles the bedroom, on edge. Eventually, she quietly turns the doorknob. “I just go in his room and see if he’s OK. But sometimes he don’t answer me so I just scream loud, ‘Daddy are you OK?'” she explains.

MICHAEL Then:

For the evacuation his parents told him to pack one bag of clothes He didn’t take any of his toys.

MICHAEL Now:

He returned to find his toys caked in mud. That’s when he asked his parents for a suitcase, one with wheels and a handle. In it, he began storing every new toy he was given since the storm.

Now, he doesn’t let the suitcase out of his sight, lugging it behind him on errands, to the store, to restaurants and to sleep-overs. Inside are his treasures: Sponge Bob and Batman. A Game Boy. A growing collection of plastic, Hulk-like men.

It annoys his grandmother, Deirdre Domino. No more taking the suitcase to school, she says. “I tell him, ‘Michael, take out a few and take them with us,'” Domino says. “He says ‘Mawmaw, what if we have another hurricane?'”

It’s PTSD. According to one study as many as 100,000 of the children of Katrina are expected to develop Post-traumatic Stress Disorder but…..

(continues….click Read More)

Continue reading “Shame on Laura Bush”

From Holden: What’s this? Our Brave President is opposed to the latest special appropriation for Our Troops in Iraq? Wasn’t he for the war before he was against it? The White House and Senate Republican leaders are gearing up to oppose a $106.5 billion spending bill for the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina this week because some lawmakers have added unrelated aid for farmers and fisheries, highways and ports. The unusual battle pits President Bush and Republican leaders concerned about rising federal budget deficits against members of the Senate Appropriations Committee who have attached dozens of items sought by … Continue reading Support Our Troops!

From Holden: REUTERS/Larry Downing “You wouldn’t have any spare pardons hanging around the house, wouldja’ Gerry?” Continue reading Wait, I Thought He Only Held Hands With Despots

From Holden: We have a precedent! In New York City, anyway. Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet. Administrative Law Judge John Spooner reached his decision in the case of Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education who had been accused of ignoring supervisors who told him to stop browsing the Internet at work. [snip] In his decision, Spooner wrote: … Continue reading Slackers of the World Unite!

From Holden: Oh my, I have some catching up to do. Little Scottie put up two gaggle transcripts over the weekend, one from Friday and another from a rare Sunday gaggle. On Friday there was much interest expressed in the ongoing rearrangement of deck chairs on the USS Chimptanic. Note to Harriet Miers: any time Little Scottie uses the word “absolutley” twice in describing the security of your position in the White House that’s a hint that you better start stocking up on empty copy paper boxes in order to make cleaning out your office more efficient. Q Is Harriet … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Dems on the firing of Mary McCarthy. I don’t know this woman, and I do not condone leaks of classified information,” said Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, referring to the firing of Mary McCarthy. [snip] Harman added that “while leaks are wrong, I think it is totally wrong for our president in secret to selectively declassify certain information and empower people in his White House to leak it to favored reporters so that they can discredit political enemies,” she said on Fox News Sunday. [snip] Kerry, on ABC’s “This … Continue reading I’ll Have the Standard — Make It A Double

During the whole Ben Domenech debacle, I became rather fond of Red State. Its earnestness, the constant meta, the e-penis waving, all reminded me in online fashion of my college newspaper, which was steadfast in its journalism but relentless in its intraoffice bullshit. This “I’m WAY more committed than someone who I won’t name but whose intials are Q and P” bitchery could be charming provided you were safely on the sidelines, 40-ouncer of malt liquor in hand, watching the cats with their tails tied together hang over the clothesline. That’s what Red State has come to be for me: … Continue reading Conservative Implosion

I am out of salsa. This cannot be allowed to continue. What snack can you absolutely not survive a week without? A. Continue reading Sunday Nibble Post

From Scout: Talk Left links to this Tmesonline (UK) article which looks at “jittery” Republicans ideas on how to give Bush a “fresh start.” Fred Barnes who is prominently quoted in the article believes Bush should dump Cheney for Condi….. “It’s unlike Bush to dump somebody whom he likes and respects,” he cautioned. “But the president needs to do something shocking and dramatic such as putting in Condoleezza Rice.” SNIP The best scenario, Barnes added, would be for Bush to announce that “Dick Cheney will be around as an outside adviser and I can call him on the phone, but … Continue reading How do you solve a problem like George

From Scout: CNN just reported in a breaking news bulletin that Ray Nagin and Mitch Landrieu were winnerss in that order in todays mayoral election. The The Times Picayune online reports the same. TP reports Nagin ahead of Landrieu 39% to 28% with 415 of 443 precints reporting. Ron Forman has 17%. TP reports turnout appears low. Nagin and Landrieu will face each other in a run off May 20. UPDATE: With all precincts reporting Nagin………….38% Landrieu………29% Continue reading NOLA Election

From Scout: Bill Maher has his own “Katrina Kids” sing a rebuttal to Laura Bush. VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE SORRY Continue reading More Katrina Kids

Dude. Dude dude dude dude DUDE: Typing rambling screeds in an anonymous blog he called “Fast Times at Regnef High,” a Fenger High School teacher unleashed his frustration over the chaos he saw around him. He labeled his students “criminals,” saying they stole from teachers, dealt drugs in the hallways, had sex in the stairwells, flaunted their pregnant bellies and tossed books out windows. He dismissed their parents as unemployed “project” dwellers who subsist on food stamps, refuse to support their “baby mommas” and bad-mouth teachers because their no-show teens are flunking. He took swipes at his colleagues, too–“union-minimum” teachers, … Continue reading Another Day, Another Moron Online

John Scalzi has discovered quite possibly the stupidest person on the entire Internet. And on an Internet inhabited by the people of Pajamaline, that’s a major accomplishment. A. Continue reading Saturday Fun: ‘George Lucas Is Going To Eat Your Face’

From Scout: From WaPo… NEW ORLEANS, April 21 — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, touring a neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina, ripped into the Bush administration Friday for failing to move faster to clean up the city, and he predicted that voters will punish President Bush and the Republican Party for what he called the federal government’s inadequate response to the storm. “I think it’s a searing, burning issue, and I think it’s going to cost George Bush his legacy, and it’s going to cost the Republicans the House and Senate [in November] and maybe very well the presidency … Continue reading Dean Rips Bush on Katrina Recovery

I look at this picture and all I can think is, “Keep smoking, asshole. If you have any love at all for your country, keep smoking.” A. Continue reading College Republicans

But Colin Powell was a retired general when he described President Clinton’s Kosovo plans as hope to win, and I was kind of young then, but I don’t recall the automatic military coup that followed, nor the country sinking into the sea, nor really any alteration at all in American government as a result of this stunning breach of separation of powers or etiquette or Yahtzee or whatever the hell the 101st is claiming is about to happen now. It’s all just one big dodge, yet again, to discount the opinions of people who would otherwise be listened to with … Continue reading Not That It’s Likely To Matter in Wingnuttia

From Holden: Terrorist attacks worldwide TRIPLED last year. Christian Science Monitor: In a report to be released next week, US government figures will show that the number of terrorist attacks in the world jumped sharply in 2005, totalling more than 10,000 for the first time. That is almost triple the number of terrorist attacks in 2004 — 3,194 Knight Ridder: More than half the fatalities from terrorism worldwide last year occurred in Iraq, said a counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the data haven’t been made public. Roughly 85 percent of the US citizens who died from … Continue reading Losing The GWOT

Stripe shows an interest in his namesake beer, Fat Weasel Ale. (Confidential to PETA: No, we don’t give them beer. The sugar and carbonation would make them very sick. Don’t e-mail me.) A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

From Holden: This is one entertaining crack-up. Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush’s counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday. The Republican, who was granted anonymity to talk openly about sensitive internal White House deliberations, said that Mr. Bolten had floated the idea among confidants, but that it was unclear whether he would follow through or if the move would be acceptable to Mr. Bush, who … Continue reading President Crybaby Clings To Mommy Figure

From Scout: watertiger of Dependable Renegade has the pic of Cheney hard at work. Be sure to check out the rest of watertiger’s coverage of all things Bush and China. Continue reading See Dick Sleep

From Holden: According to E&P’s story on the latest Fox News poll placing Chimpy’s job approval rating at 33%: Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld’s job approval rating also hit a record low this week with 35% of Americans saying they approve. Continue reading Rummy More Popular Than Bush

From Holden: REUTERS/Jason Reed Continue reading I Take It Morale Is Low In The White House These Days

From Scout: Atrios links to a Fox poll……33% I think that calls for a reprise of Holden’s Ponies: Continue reading 33%

From Scout: I like this and the Democrats should hammer the Republicans on the ongoing disaster that is Katrina from now to November and beyond….. Wielding hammers, crowbars and shovels, Democrats plan to clean out hurricane-ravaged homes in this slowly recovering city, a project designed to highlight the party’s criticism of the Bush administration. The choice of New Orleans for the Democratic National Committee meeting that begins Thursday was part of a political calculation, as is a three-day agenda for the 400 delegates that combines party business with community service. Eight months after Hurricane Katrina and the widespread criticism of … Continue reading DNC Meets in New Orleans

Digby’s got a post up, needs reading. As he does most every day. But this discussion about making our party the party of the common good has been on my mind a good long while.

I don’t mean to be dismissive. I think it’s important to embrace big ideas and big philosophy and reach for some inspiration. The Democrats have been issuing stultifying laundry lists for as long as I can remember and I couldn’t be happier that people are thinking in these terms. But I can’t help but feel that we always end up back at the same spot somehow. The unions, the womens groups, the civil rights groups, trial lawyers, consumer advocates — the whole array of narrow special interests being held responsible for the fact that half of this country really resents the hell out of minorities, women and working people getting a fair shake. And the Democrats continue to pay the political price for that resentment.

For too long now, we’ve been fed nothing but this resentment, until it’s become a kind of virus, these urban legends about some minority somewhere who’s not grateful enough for their lot in life and wants what’s rightfully “ours.” For years and years, we’ve voted on the basis of protecting our own against one or another of the invading hordes, be they communists, terrorists, gays or immigrants. The Republicans will never lose appealing to selfishness, to anger too petty to be called hatred, to the instinct that if it wasn’t for somebody else out there, we’d all be kings, we’d all be rich, we’d all be perfectly safe and wildly happy.

But. There’s a but. Follow along inside by clicking “Read More.”

Continue reading “Government, Investment, Output”

From Holden: So, Tony Snow says a job that paid $161,000 per year in 2003 doesn’t pay enough to wean him from Rupert Murdoch’s teat? Maybe one of John McCain’s $50/hr. lettuce pickers will take the job. Continue reading Pick Some Lettuce