From Holden: Pressed for time yesterday afternoon, I could not give the gaggle the attention it deserved. I had to cover Pony Blow accusing Helen Thomas of being a terrorist symp, but I was also struck by his tortured historical revision of Chimpy’s avoidance of the NAACP. With his notoriously low approval rating among African Americans you have to wonder why he would want to attend the NACCP’s national convention at all. American Urban Radio Netwrok’s April Ryan kicks it off for us. Q Tony, one other question on another subject, what you announced at the beginning of the briefing. … Continue reading Gaggle Extra: Chimpy Does the NAACP

Affectionate humor: Helen Thomas of Hearst Newspapers then questioned the sincerity of Cheney’s MySpace page in what became a rather heated exchange. THOMAS: How do we know these are really the vice president’s words? That it’s not just a summer intern filling up his pages? SNOW: Because I just told you, Helen. THOMAS: So Dick Cheney watches Pimp My Ride and listens to the Butthole Surfers? SNOW: Apparently, yes. I honestly don’t know what’s funnier: the idea of the exact shape of snarl on Cheney’s face as he experiences the Butthole Surfers, or the idea of Helen Thomas saying “Butthole … Continue reading More Helen

From Holden: Today Pony Blow called Helen Thomas a terrorist. Q The United States is not that helpless. It could have stopped the bombardment of Lebanon. We have that much control with the Israelis. MR. SNOW: I don’t think so, Helen. Q We have gone for collective punishment against all of Lebanon and Palestine. MR. SNOW: What’s interesting, Helen — Q And this is what’s happening, and that’s the perception of the United States. MR. SNOW: Well, thank you for the Hezbollah view, but I would encourage you — Q Nobody is accepting your explanation. What is restraint, a call … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Scout: Here is part of what CNN’s Jack Cafferty had to say on the slow evacuation of Americans from Lebanon…. There are an estimated 25,000 Americans there and presumably a lot of them would like to leave. Good luck with that. Remember Katrina? SNIP There was a time and I can remember this when Americans who were in harms way anywhere in the world would have been taken out yesterday. Apparently not anymore. We’re still bumbling around, trying to charter boats, whatever. It’s kind of embarrassing actually. And get this. You want out? You gotta pay.That’s right. The State … Continue reading Cafferty: Welcome to the Twilight Zone

Suck it, bigots. The 236-187 vote for the proposal to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman was 47 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment. It followed six weeks after the Senate also decisively defeated the amendment, a top priority of social conservatives.[snipping Marilyn Musgrave’s hateful bullshit]Opponents dismissed the proposal as both discriminatory and legislatively irrelevant because of the Senate vote. The measure is “all for the purpose of pandering to a narrow political base.” said Rep. Tammy Baldwin, an openly gay Democrat from Wisconsin. “This hateful and unnecessary amendment is … Continue reading 47 Short

From Holden: Worse and worse. A UN report says nearly 6,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in May and June. American ingenuity. A member of the Wyoming Army National Guard who was arrested in early June after a highway chase near Hardin told investigators he went on a five-day crime spree in Montana and Wyoming to avoid deployment to Iraq. Continue reading Turning Corners

From Holden: The good news is John Bolton’s recess appointment expires in January (and if Chimpy gives him another he will have to serve without pay). The bad news is for the time being he is still the US Ambassador to the UN. US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from “malicious terrorist acts”. Asked to comment on the deaths in an Israeli air strike of eight Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon Sunday, he said: “it is a matter of great concern … Continue reading News, Good And Bad

From Holden: Why is Katherine Harris yanking money out of her campaign in order to remodel her Washington abode? Because her train wreck of a Senate campaign is effectively over. Federal investigators have interviewed U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris’ former top political strategist about the congresswoman’s dealings with a defense contractor at the center of a widening Capitol Hill corruption probe. Political consultant Ed Rollins confirmed Monday that Justice Department lawyers and FBI agents recently questioned him for two hours in Washington. He said the discussion focused on Harris’ dealings with Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor who funneled $32,000 in illegal … Continue reading Coffin Nails for the Republican Juggernaut

From Holden: If the Israelis really want the Lebanese Army to push Hezbollah out of Southern Lebanon why are Israeli forces bombing Lebanese Army facilities? Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanese army barracks for a second straight day Tuesday, killing at least nine soldiers, Lebanese army sources said. Continue reading Tuesday Morning Terrorist State Update

From Scout: Coulter….. Continue reading Worst Person

From Scout:

For some reason while reading this story in WaPo I was recalling the promise of the efficiency and effectiveness to be expected from Bush the MBA CEO President. Ahh those were the days.

In fiscal 2005, major federal agencies reported about 3,600 incidents that were serious enough to warrant alerting the government’s cybersecurity center at the Department of Homeland Security, including 304 instances of unauthorized access and 1,806 cases of malicious computer code, according to a yearly OMB report.

But that does not present a full picture. Despite requirements to do so, agencies are “not consistently reporting incidents of emerging cybersecurity threats,” government auditors said last year.

The grades that agencies receive on the congressional report card — compiled by the House Government Reform Committee — reflect their level of compliance with the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act, which outlines security procedures for agencies.

In 2005, in addition to Agriculture, the departments of Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, State and Veterans Affairs received F’s.</blockquote

Click Read more for the rest

Continue reading “The C Prez and the F Agencies”

From Scout: It appears a warrant has been issued in relation to deaths at a New Orleans hospital in the days of Katrina. From WWL…. Eyewitness News has learned the Department of Justice could be closer to making an arrest into the deaths of dozens of patients who died at Memorial Hospital during and after Hurricane Katrina. Attorney General Charles Foti will call a press conference for Tuesday. Officials with the Justice Department have been tight-lipped about the investigation. They would not admit when the arrests would come, but sources told Eyewitness News that at least one arrest warrant was … Continue reading NOLA hospital mercy killings?

Man. Wheaton reader Morey Rothberg noted that the murder of a white man, Alan Senitt, was on Page 1 and the murder of Chris Crowder, who was black, was on the front of the Metro section.[snip]It was an easy call to put Senitt’s killing on Page 1. The victim’s throat was cut — very brutal for a street robbery. There was an attempt to rape his female companion. And there were quick arrests and charges against two men, a woman and a male juvenile. The three adults, all black, were pictured in the next day’s paper. And, yes, it was … Continue reading Debbie Comes Right Out and Says It

From Scout: After making light of Bush’s open mic moment (below) here is a serious perspective from Juan Cole…. So, the whole blow-up is Syria’s fault, for putting Hizbullah up to making mischief. No reference to Israeli actions in Gaza. No reference to, like, the wholesale destruction of Lebanon by the Israeli air force. And no blame for the Lebanese government of Fouad Siniora. And Bush thinks that Nasrullah of Hizbullah takes direct orders from Damascus. And he thinks that if Bashar al-Asad orders Hizbullah to stop firing its little katyushas and give back the two Israeli soldiers, everything will … Continue reading Serious “shit”

From Scout: Other countries are evacuating their citizens from Lebanon but the US is slow once again in the evacuation department. CNN conducted this interview with an American waiting and feeling abandoned. Sound familiar??? HARRIS: Okay. So, Sara, finally, we wish you well, be safe, but are you, do you want to leave or do you want to stay? AHMADIA: I don’t know. I’m waiting for the United States to, you know, they haven’t been very communicative with people here. We feel very abandoned, quite frankly. I’m just waiting for them to come up with something. If I may say … Continue reading What we have here is a failure to communicate…and evacuate.

Apparently that’s the new term for being a total idiot: The word is spreading: The Internet is not a big truck. It’s “a series of tubes.” Two weeks ago Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, shared this information at a Senate committee hearing to explain why he voted against an amendment aimed at ensuring that traffic on the Internet be delivered equally, an idea known as “net neutrality.” And while it is true that the Internet is not a big truck, the senator might feel as if he has been run over by one. His comments have been posted … Continue reading ‘A Slip of the Tongue’

More like this, please: For those who counter that any statement by the president or by members of his administration is by default newsworthy, it is incumbent upon the press to question the validity and worth of those statements. If enough publications and stations immediately followed a quotation with context that revealed it as misleading, false or a hackneyed talking point, the administration’s public relations arm might begin to think twice about inventing or repeating “news.” A. Continue reading True Dat

I like this diary a whole lot: Now, I don’t know if this new-found revelation will only last a week. But even if it does, I know I’ve embedded the kernels of truth back there, and all that needs to happen is for them to be sprouted by a constant Democratic message. And you know the amazing thing? I didn’t use one-third of what was in my arsenal. I didn’t talk about civil rights for gays. I didn’t talk about abortion. I didn’t even talk about terrorism, and I barely touched on support for the military–and yet, what I had … Continue reading I Am My Own Politician

Courtesty of Another Conundrum. Would you rather have that man as your Congressman, or this guy: A. Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: Laesch Edition

Christ on a pogo stick: Democrats had featured the video ad for nearly two weeks on the DCCC Web site where it had gone largely unnoticed until Republicans began objecting to it this week. On Thursday, more than a dozen Republicans, many with military backgrounds, called on DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., to apologize. Democratic Reps. John Spratt of South Carolina and Chet Edwards of Texas asked Emanuel to pull or alter the ad. “We’re moving to another major effort that we’re highlighting on our Web site,” DCCC spokesman Bill Burton said. In South Carolina, Spratt’s Republican challenger, state Rep. … Continue reading Knuckling Under

Link: Nanou comes from the ancient southern Lebanese city of Tyre, where until Wednesday he and his children sold lottery tickets in the street. That night, as Israel launched its attack on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in retaliation for the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, he and his family — four of the children still in diapers, he said — fled north by using back roads and crossing open fields. The Israelis had already bombed the bridges and main highways north to Beirut in their initial assault. Soon after the family fled the area, the Israeli air force bombed … Continue reading Albritton

From Scout: It was a Hot and Humid day for the peloton. There was a dramatic crash in today’s Stage 14 of the Tour de France. 3 men in a 6 man break away went down….. Rik Verbrugghe is at the front (hard to see)…. David Canada in a yellow/red jersey and finally Kessler in the pink T-Mobile jersey. Veerbrugghe apparently suffered a broken leg and Canada a broken collarbone. Amazingly Matthias Kessler in the pink T-Mobile jersey actually remounted. continued racing and finished the stage. Here’s my video take on it….. Continue reading The tough men of the Tour de France

Did you go on family vacations when you were little? If you did, what kind? A. Continue reading The Great Getaway

From Scout: This just brought a nice smile to my face…. Welcome Home Mr. lb0313 (and lb of course) (English translation of the lyrics) And go to Matt’s place for more Continue reading Smile

Two things about this post of Atrios’s interest me. First, this: As a sort of compromise I’d propose the option for the under-21 crowd to choose between a drinking license and a driving license. You couldn’t have both until you become 21. We could figure out if this was a one time choice irreversible choice or if switching were possible, and there are some other logistical issues, but it would seem to make sense. My cousin recently graduated from high school and is going away to college in the fall. She’s a bright kid with nice friends and had an … Continue reading Flying and Drinking and Drinking and Driving

Because October’s still insanely far away, let’s talk about Farscape. Jacob, who does the Television Without Pity recaps of Battlestar Galactica and therefore is my sexy boyfriend, and who I could read writing about cereal or cars, is doing Farscape now: He’s like Zhaan that way: they spent hundreds of years in jail, and they both built these amazing castles in the clouds of how powerful and strong and special they were, how God had chosen just them above all others, and it is both their strength and their tragedy. What makes you awesome is always, always the same thing … Continue reading Saturday Geekery

From Scout: Senators Collins and Lieberman got their lame reform of FEMA through the Senate which included changing the agency’s name. But I propose this name change… Fears Embarrassing Media Ambush …given this: Agency employees’ refusal to appear before a Hancock County Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday was the result of a “misunderstanding,” said Aaron Walker, FEMA’s national spokesman. He said local agency representatives would continue to attend public meetings in Mississippi. However, Walker said, the FEMA employees were not obliged to appear at the Hancock meeting if they perceived it to be a media ambush. SNIP A FEMA official … Continue reading Hey Joe Lieberman how about this for a new FEMA name….