From Scout: Oyster on Texas (Houston that is) hospitality. And then there is this commentary on it as seen in the Lower 9th Ward of NOLA. (But perhaps they merely were not a fan of John’s The Unforgiven) (Photo: scout prime 8/25/2006) Continue reading Inform Babs….Houston not working so well for them
The Internet is killing journalism: That same month, McClatchy quickly pawned the Beacon off on Black Press for $165 million. The Canadian company’s owner, David Black, assured staffers that he cared about journalism, wouldn’t mess with their union, and wasn’t going to lay anyone off. Some breathed a sigh of relief. Others knew better. “We knew more layoffs were coming,” Wilson says. A few weeks later, Black finally must have taken a good look at the books “and said, ‘Oh, shit!,’” Wilson believes. On August 22, Black laid off 40 staffers — almost a quarter of the newsroom. So the … Continue reading Blogger Ethics
From Holden: The Republikkkans are in deep shit. A crowd of thousands cheered Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson for calling President Bush a “dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights violating president” whose time in office would “rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.” The group – including children and elderly and some hailing from throughout Utah – then marched to the federal building Wednesday to deliver a copy of a symbolic indictment against the president and Congress for abuse of power and failure to uphold the U.S. Constitution. With their signs labeling Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza … Continue reading Voices from the Heartland
From Holden: Crap. Ramadi, Aug 31, (VOI) – An Iraqi family of four people was killed by U.S. sniper fire on Thursday morning in Ramadi, Anbar province, eyewitnesses said. “A man, his wife and two children were walking home in al-Huz neighborhood when a U.S. sniper shot them dead at 11:00 a.m. in al-Ma’ared Street,” a witness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). U.S. Marines have been stationed on the roof tops of high buildings in several neighborhoods of Ramadi for two days, he said. Earlier on Thursday, witnesses reported that U.S. forces blew up many government … Continue reading Tonight on American Justice Files
From Scout: Well I’m about to leave for the airport to fly home but I wanted to thank my wonderful hosts and friends lb, R. and S. for having me here. They have been so great words truly can not express.Thank you! And I wanted to thank the wonderful, hard working NOLA bloggers who have made me feel so welcome. They put on a GREAT conference! I loved meeting everyone (bloggers and blog readers) and just want to say from my heart…Thank You. I will be back and will keep on writing about NOLA. I have a few posts to … Continue reading Leaving New Orleans…
From Holden: The Orlando Sentinel publishes its endorsements prior to next week’s Florida primary elections. Republican U.S. Senate primary Republicans cannot beat Bill Nelson regardless of who wins this race, but there remains a compelling reason to vote for Katherine Harris. Entertainment. Continue reading Your Thursday Morning Republican Juggernaut Update
From Holden: Craptacular. “PROGRESS” IS GOING THE WAY OF “STAY THE COURSE”… [Rich Lowry] …thankfully. People are in no mood to believe optimistic assurances about Iraq anymore, but I think they will still be receptive to a message of resoluteness grounded in a no-nonsense realism. This means Bush is taking the right tack in his new Iraq push, as reported in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Yeah, this Rich Lowry. Continue reading Deep Thoughts from Rich Lowry
From Scout: The talking point this past week to explain the miserable lack of progress down here appears to have skirted on Louisiana (Democrats) is Slow, just look at Mississippi (Republicans). Bush has stated things are slower in Louisiana…. “Money is beginning to go out the door so people can rebuild their lives,” Bush said Monday in Biloxi, Miss. “In Louisiana, it’s been a little slower.” During his August 21st press conference Bush pointed out …”Mississippi has developed its own plan.” On August 24 in an interview with a local Biloxi reporter Bush again pointed to MS plan… And I’ve … Continue reading Bush’s Fairy Tale Explanation
From Holden: Following up on a couple of yesterday’s posts, the man of whom AssRocket said, “His intelligence, competence, judgment and reliability cannot be questioned.”, will be fined for his stupidity, incompetence, poor judgement, and unreliability. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will probably be fined and have to make up for failing to do continuing medical education that Tennessee requires of doctors with active licenses. We also learned yesterday that Rove’s pal Kenneth Tomlinson secretly gave a friend of his a $250k government job, ran his horse racing business from his government office, and double-billed the government for his time. … Continue reading Follow-Up
From Holden: This is going to help our image in Iraq. The man who lead the Haditha Massacre was recommended for a medal for his actions that day. The platoon commander for the squad of Marines who killed as many as two dozen Iraqi civilians during an attack in Haditha last year recommended later that the sergeant who led the attack receive a medal for his heroism that day, according to military documents. Lt. William T. Kallop wrote in a praise-filled memo that the incident on Nov. 19, 2005, was part of a complex insurgent ambush that included a powerful … Continue reading Give Him The Iron Cross Why Don’t You?
From Holden: Oh Christ, I spill tons of electronic ink following Katherine Harris’ many adventures but Margaret Spellings may just be the stupidest woman in American Politics. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday the No Child Left Behind Act is close to perfect and needs little change as its first major update draws near. “I talk about No Child Left Behind like Ivory soap: It’s 99.9 percent pure or something,” Spellings told reporters. “There’s not much needed in the way of change.” Spellings’ comments signal what amounts to the Bush administration’s starting position as the law comes up for renewal. … Continue reading Perfect?
First Drafters in Our Nation’s Capital can come see me speak at this event on Sept. 16: Beginning September 5th, we will launch a non-partisan camp for peace, democracy, and the restoration of the rule of law. Camp Casey will move from Crawford, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to create a larger camp focused not only on ending the war but also on righting injustices here at home and on holding accountable the Bush Administration and Congress. I’ll be in the main tent from 1-1:30 p.m. talking about blogs and books and signing copies of the Feith book, for the six … Continue reading The Book Tour Continues – DC Edition
This piece has been all over the place today and its wankery and stunning dumbassery is not so very surprising when you realize that we’re talking about this newspaper: Case in point. About halfway through this panel, Owen Ullman, deputy managing editor for news at USA Today, opined that the problem with blogs was that no one knew who was behind them. He described, with a sort of touching helplessness, a huge mass of “noise” on the Internet which it is impossible for journalists to sort through. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but his overall opinion of blogs was that we … Continue reading USA Today & Blogs
From Scout: Even shit has a purpose as Mark at Wet Bank Guide points out. You came and gave us the same damned speech you gave last November in Jackson Sqaure. Perhaps most of America, lulled into catatonic fear by lurking child murderers and burning airplanes, is fooled. We know you for what you are, a sack of shit that comes complete with the full smell, but not a bit of the stuff of life, the things we need to rebuild. SNIP Too bad you didn’t share some of your real world experience of civics and free enterprise with the … Continue reading Bush ain’t shit…..and NOLA residents let him know it
From Scout: Maitri from VatulBlog gave this excellent summary in concluding one of the Rising Tide Panels she moderated… One year ago, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As the natural and man-made disasters engulfed the region, the nation turned its attention to the storm’s immediate aftermath. However, a year later, the crisis continues. Today, less than half of pre-Katrina New Orleans residents have been able to return home; over 70,000 of them are living in 240-square foot FEMA trailers (which are particularly vulnerable during the hurricane season) and many people are still waiting for trailers … Continue reading A Summary
From Holden: Dana Peroxide opens with a stunning announcement. Tomorrow the President will kick off a series of several speeches on the global war on terror, that will go through his speech at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on September 19th. Huh-the-what now? How many “several speeches on the global war on terror” has Chimpy embarked upon, and have any of them ever worked? Looks like I was not the only one taken aback by Dana’s announcement. Q What is different about this particular push than the previous three over the past year, and even before that, dating all … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle
From Holden: The latest Strategic Visions Poll (a Republikkkan firm, BTW) suggests they do. Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush’s overall job performance? Approve 37% Disapprove 55% Undecided 8% Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush’s handling of Iraq? Approve 40% Disapprove 49% Undecided 11% Do you view President Bush as a conservative in the mode of Ronald Reagan? (Republicans only) Yes 14% No 64% Undecided 22% Would you like to see the United States Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade? Yes 36% No 57% Undecided 7% Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Katherine … Continue reading Florida Gets It?
From Holden: Marginal candidates become winners when the voters are reminded of the War in Iraq. The U.S. Senate race between Republican Tom Kean Jr. and Democrat Robert Menendez is virtually deadlocked, but if voters weren’t so concerned about the war in Iraq, Kean could hold a clear lead, according to a poll released Wednesday. A portion of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind Poll designed to test the impact of national issues on the race indicated that if the war were not a factor, Kean could be leading Menendez by 47-36 percent. As it stands, however, 43 percent of voters polled … Continue reading Chimpy’s Vanity War A Huge Issue
From Holden:
Note that in in this case both ends of the telephone conversations (which were illegally eavesdropped upon without a warrant) were within the United States despite Bush Assministration claims that they only eavesdrop sans warrant on calls where one party is located abroad.
A federal judge suggested Tuesday that he would try to keep alive a suit that challenges President Bush’s domestic wiretapping program, despite claims by government lawyers that doing so would damage national security.
U.S. District Judge Garr King said he expected to render his decision next week in a case involving an Oregon-based Islamic charity that the government said had links to Osama bin Laden. The charity alleges that it was illegally wiretapped and says a document the government accidentally gave to its lawyers in 2004 bolsters its case.
The government said the document is a state secret and any further court action involving it would, even if accidentally, lead to security breaches. The government has asked King to dismiss the charity’s suit.
Continues, Read More…
From Holden: AssRocket on Frist: I spent part of the day today with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. He is, of course, a very impressive guy: a physician, a heart and lung transplant surgeon, an upstart politician, a hands-on doctor in places like Sudan and New Orleans, and one of the most powerful people in our government. [snip] Based on my observations today, Senator Frist is a highly viable Presidential candidate. His intelligence, competence, judgment and reliability cannot be questioned. Yeah, that Frist, no one can question his judgment or competence, right? Ignore if you can Frist’s belief that HIV … Continue reading Judgment
From Holden: Getting better, Stand Up/Stand Down Division. SAMAWA – Clashes between Iraqi police and civilians turned away from an army recruitment centre killed one civilian and wounded nine, including five policemen. Iraqi police said hundreds hoping to land jobs turned violent after they were turned away and threw rocks at policemen, who fired at the crowd. Getting better, No Longer A Threat To Her Neighbors Division. Kuwait has reported renewed border tension with Iraq. On Aug. 21, a Kuwaiti border patrol came under fire from Iraq. Officials said this was the most serious incident in months and could mark … Continue reading I Used To Get Mad At My School
From Holden: Alberto Gonzales is a fucking disgrace. “It is a somewhat difficult decision as to where to draw the line,” Gonzales said, referring to possible measures that Iraqi police might use to extract information from suspected insurgents and death squad leaders. “It is difficult to decide what is appropriate and what is allowed under law,” said Gonzales, who has drawn criticism in the past for describing the Geneva Conventions against prisoner abuse as “quaint”. Gonzales, who arrived in Baghdad Tuesday, told reporters the issue of interrogation tactics came up during his meeting with Saleh but said the techniques to … Continue reading Torquemada Speaks!
From Holden: Katherine Harris is reviled, yet Florida Republicans are likely to go to the polls next Tuesday and nominate the candidate least likely to unseat Senator Bill Nelson. The poll, conducted Aug. 25-27 by Strategic Vision, a Republican political consulting firm based in Atlanta, shows that Harris’ unfavorability rating increased to 61 percent from last month. Her favorable rating is 17 percent. The poll also shows that 38 percent of likely Republican primary voters would choose Harris, down from 45 percent in the firm’s last poll. Will McBride, an attorney from Windermere, stayed essentially the same at 21 percent. … Continue reading Juggernaut Update No. 1: The Most-Hated Woman In American Politics
From Holden: What ever happened to Rep. Katherine Harris’ nationally televised pledge to pump $10 million of her own money into her flagging Senate campaign? Not much, apparently. After months of hearing members of even her own party second guess her run for the U.S. Senate, Katherine Harris said she would pump $10 million of her own money into her financially strapped campaign. In an emotional announcement on national TV in March, Harris said she would use every penny her late father had left her. Minutes later, while still in the New York studio where she made the announcement, Harris … Continue reading Juggernaut Update No. 2: Show Me The Money
From Holden:
Brand Name Republican is becoming the Mark of the Beast, as the GOP just can’t seem to recruit anyone to run against Democratic incumbents.
Missed opportunities, stumbles and bad breaks in a half-dozen states or more in 2005 have tilted the map toward the Democrats in ways that are still unfolding.
“In every single state where they were challenging one of our incumbents they did not get their first choice and in many cases they did not get their second,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, head of the Democratic campaign committee.
As a result, he said, “we can spend our time and money challenging their incumbents.”
Continues, click Read More…
From Holden:
Remember Kenneth Tomlinson, Karl Rove’s pal who lost control of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting after he tried to push PBS’s programming to the right?
The dood is slimy but the Bush Assministration stands by his renomination as chair of the the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.
The report said that the official, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, had repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit.
The summary of the report, prepared by the State Department inspector general, said the United States attorney’s office here had been given the report and decided not to conduct a criminal inquiry.
The summary said the Justice Department was pursuing a civil inquiry focusing on the contract for Mr. Tomlinson’s friend.
[snip]
Three Democratic lawmakers, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Representatives Howard L. Berman and Tom Lantos of California, requested the inquiry after a whistle-blower from the agency had approached them about the possible misuse of federal money by Mr. Tomlinson and the possible hiring of phantom or unqualified employees.
Mr. Tomlinson, a Republican with close ties to the White House, was ousted last year from another post, at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, after another inquiry found evidence that he had violated rules meant to insulate public television and radio from political influence.
His renomination to a new term as chairman of the State Department office that oversees foreign broadcasts, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, is pending before the Senate.
[snip]
The State Department report noted his use of his office to oversee a stable of thoroughbreds but did not mention one specific way in which his professional responsibilities and personal interests appear to have intersected. The horses, according to track records, include Karzai, as in Hamid Karzai, and Massoud, from the late Ahmed Shah Massoud) references to Afghan leaders who have fought against the Taliban and the Russians, as well as Panjshair, the valley that was the base used by forces to overthrow the Taliban.
[snip]
The lawmakers who requested the inquiry sent a letter to the president on Tuesday urging him to remove Mr. Tomlinson from his position immediately “and take all necessary steps to restore the integrity of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.”
A spokeswoman for the White House, Emily Lawrimore, said President Bush continued to support Mr. Tomlinson’s renomination. Ms. Lawrimore declined to comment on the State Department report.
Continues…
From Holden: If bad art were a crime Kinkade would be riding a needle by now. The FBI is investigating “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade and company executives over allegations that they fraudulently induced investors to open galleries, then ruined them financially. Relying on information from former Kinkade dealers contacted by federal agents, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the FBI is focusing on issues raised in civil litigation by at least six former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners. At least 10 former dealers in Michigan, Virginia and other states have alleged in arbitration claims that Kinkade – a … Continue reading Thomas Kinkade, Asshole of Light
From Scout: Since I have been following this closely for a year I just had to say these numbers are not correct. The official death toll in Louisiana was reduced recently leaving the total Katrina number of dead which is least controversial at…. 1720 The number missing in Louisiana is 135 See also Robert Linsdey who has also closely followed this and puts the deaths at 1723 as he includes 3 deaths of some controversy which he explains. Continue reading Katrina Death Toll
From Scout: (New Orleans 8/29/2006 Photo:scout) Continue reading She’s just saying
From Scout: To the people… And he said local communities could count on him to do everything he could to make sure the government did its part. He said his administration had committed to spend $110 billion to rebuild scarred areas, and “$110 billion is a lot of money.” Delivery not so much….. According to figures compiled by the Bush administration, only about 40 percent of the money available — or about $45 billion — has been doled out by the federal government. And the bulk of that money has gone for the initial rescue efforts, debris removal and the … Continue reading Bush big on Promises….