Chimpy was inDes Moines, Iowa, yesterday campaigning for Republikkkan congressional candidateJeff Lamberti. Dave’s Not Here, Man No doubt in my mind, with your help, Dave [sic] Lamberti will be the next United States congressman. Dave [sic] and I believe a lot of things. We believe that you ought to keep more of your own money. We believe in family values. We believe values are important. And we believe marriage is a fundamental institution of civilization. Put Just Of Your Money In The Hat I appreciate you giving — helping fill the hat. But I also want to encourage you to … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

Good discussion of the Clenis going on recently. But there’s one thing Clinton demonstrated quite clearly in his 1992 election, and it’s not what’s being highlighted here. It’s the need to have a credible third party candidate to split the GOP and cause massive infighting amongst the Republicans. Roy Moore 2008! Who’s with me? I’m not being facetious about this. Were it not for Nader, Gore would have won clearly in 2000. Had somebody been able to peel off even a tiny fraction of Bush’s support, I’m not talking Ross Perot-sized pie slices, I’m talking 2-3 percent, Kerry would be … Continue reading Clenisism

A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

Republikkkans write steamy books, too. Instead of tax policy, it’s falling pajama bottoms. Instead of internal audits, it’s heavy breathing. Welcome to the Texas comptroller’s race — normally a staid affair, but this year steamed up by the contents of a novel written 26 years ago by one of the candidates, Republican Susan Combs. Although the book includes its share of overheated moments, a spokesman for the Combs campaign denies that it’s pornography, as Combs’ Democratic opponent has claimed. [snip] But Democrat Fred Head, 67, says he knows pornography when he sees it — and Combs book, he says, is … Continue reading When Will Senator Allen Denounce Susan Combs?

David Safavian gets about half the sentence prosecutors were recommending. Still, it’s hard to spin this asgood news for the Bush Assministration. Former White House official David Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison for lying and obstructing justice in the investigation of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. [snip] “This was an abuse of the public’s trust,” U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said in imposing sentence today in Washington. Continue reading Safavian Gets 18 Months

With a 35 point lead in the polls on the hapless Katherine Harris and a campaign war chest seven times that of his opponent, Senator Bill Nelson is spreading the wealth. Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson — ahead in the polls and in fundraising — transferred another $250,000 to the Florida Democratic Party on Thursday, a sign that his campaign is confident of a win and in his ability to help his party. Nelson already had given $250,000 to the state party in September and raised another $600,000 for the party and tight races for governor, attorney general and chief … Continue reading Bill Nelson Does It Right

Boo-Fucking-Hoo Former Bush administration official David Safavian wept as he asked for leniency in his obstruction of justice case Friday, telling a judge that his lobbyist friend Jack Abramoff manipulated him and drew him into the scandal. [snip] “Yes, Jack Abramoff was a friend but he wasn’t my coconspirator and I wasn’t his,” Safavian said. “There was no conspiracy to defraud anyone, least of all the taxpayers.” Safavian didn’t say, however, what U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman wanted to hear. Early in the hearing, Friedman told defense attorneys he was leaning toward a sentence of 15-21 months in prison … Continue reading Throw The Book At The Crybaby

US military fighting vehicles damaged in Iraqare repaired in Texas. As bullet-riddled, bomb-scarred fighting vehicles are slowly towed into the production lines of the Red River Army Depot in northeast Texas, 57-year-old Elnora Harris often wonders about the young soldiers who have been in them, traveling in harm’s way through the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. [snip] In a business made brisk by world conflict, Red River officials say they do not have enough money or manpower to keep up with the incoming shipments of crippled combat vehicles. Row after row of disabled Humvees, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, cargo trucks … Continue reading The Other Graveyard

The US economy sputtered to an anemic1.6% increase in GDP during the third quarter of 2006, the worst showing in three-and-a-half years. Economic growth slowed to a crawl in the third quarter, advancing at a pace of just 1.6 percent, the worst in more than three years. The latest snapshot of the economy, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, showed that the slumping housing market figured prominently in the economy’s dramatic loss of momentum. Investment in homebuilding was cut by the biggest amount since early 1991. The reading on gross domestic product was weaker than the 2.1 percent pace … Continue reading Let’s Talk About The Economy

Either Chimpy, Cheney, or (more likely)both. Q Sir, do you agree with the Vice President that a dunk in the water is a “no brainer” when it comes to interrogating a terror suspect? PRESIDENT BUSH: This country doesn’t torture, we’re not going to torture. We will interrogate people we pick up off the battlefield to determine whether or not they’ve got information that will be helpful to protect the country. Continue reading Someone’s Lyin’

Tom DeLay has responded to his indictment for conspiracy and money laundering by attacking Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle’s integrity. As part of this strategy he questioned how much Earle spent investigating his crimes. TheHouston Chronicle filed a Texas Open Records Act request for a detailed accounting of all expenditures on the case that was supported by Texas’ Republikkkan Attorney General Greg Abbott (and don’t for a second to believe that Tom DeLay is not powerful enough to get his hometown paper to make such a request). YesterdayDeLay and his cronies lost – big time – and were embarrassed … Continue reading DeLay Loses Again

Chimpy clocks in with a38% job approval rating in the latest AP-AOL poll (which is usually referred to as the AP-IPSOS poll, causing some confusion among pony-hoarders). Less than two weeks before the Nov. 7 election, the latest Associated Press-AOL News poll found that likely voters overwhelmingly prefer Democrats over Republicans. They are angry at President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, and say Iraq and the economy are their top issues. At the same time, fickle middle-class voters are embracing the Democratic Party and fleeing the GOP – just as they abandoned Democrats a dozen years ago and ushered in … Continue reading Unpopular President

Once again we are treated to the robotic stylings of Dana Peroxide intoday’s gaggle. Oh, and Potomac Flacks? Dana Peroxide isnot a“hottie”. Peroxide, seen here with Karl Rove drooling down her neck… …is in no way“hot”. She willingly shills for the Bush Assministration, and by doing so she forfeits all pretentions to hotness. Corruption, torture and warmongering are not “hot”. Now with that settled, on to the gaggle where we find Ms. Peroxide is a wee bit defensive. One thing you’ll get soon — it’s being worked on at the White House — is a Setting the Record Straight on … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

No, it’s not some super-easy version ofWhere’s Waldo?, designed soley for mentally impared apes. I’m just wondering why I don’t see Denny Hastert at the Super-Duper Border Fence Signing Ceremony. I see Boner and Frist and Cheney, but no Denny. AFP/Mandel Ngan Continue reading Where’s Denny?

Chimpy’s approval rating is falling faster than Mark Foley’s pants at an Abercrombie and Fitch fashion show. The poll found 36 percent of voters thought Bush’s job performance was excellent or good, down from 42 percent a month ago. The job rating for Congress remained the same, with 23 percent calling it excellent or good. Things are still looking fantastic for the good guys. Democrats have an 11-point edge, 44 percent to 33 percent, when voters are asked which party’s candidate they will support, up slightly from a 9-point lead in the last Reuters/Zogby poll a month ago. [snip] Independents … Continue reading Bush Drops Six Points In Latest Reuters/Zogby Poll

A desire was expressed at some point for more Susan Enan, so I went out and found some. Some more of her songs: Here. A. Continue reading More Loveliness

Line of the night: Hot Dog, above, “Well, this should be different.”

Spoilers inside, click “comments.”

Continue reading “And Yet He Gains: Galactica Thread”

The British aredeclaring victory and pulling out. The number of British troops serving in Iraq will be halved early next year after commanders on the ground yesterday claimed to have reached the “tipping point” in defeating insurgents in the southern city of Basra. Senior Army officers said the number of British troops serving in Iraq would be reduced from 7,200 to 3,500 by February if the military campaign continued at its current rate of success. Continue reading Brits To Pull Out Half Their Troops Early Next Year

Yes, let’s. New home prices took their biggest hit in more than 35 years in September, according to a government report Thursday that was a further sign of builders struggling to move homes under a glut of unsold homes. [snip] [T]he median price of a new home tumbled 9.7 percent from a year earlier to $217,100. It was the sharpest drop since December 1970, when prices posted an 11.2 percent decline, and was the fourth largest year-over-year decline on record. The September price slump also marked a 9.3 percent decline from August and a 15.5 percent drop from the record … Continue reading Let’s Talk About The Economy

Add another row toAtrios’ conversion table, as Nuri al Malikitalks some smack. Iraq’s prime minister said on Thursday he could get violence under control in six months, half the time U.S. generals say they need, provided Washington gave him more weaponry and more say over his own forces. In sharp criticism of the handling of Iraq’s security by the United States, Nuri al-Maliki denied U.S. assertions he was working to a timetable of steps agreed with Washington. He also told Reuters in an interview he had no fear the Americans might oust him, after President George W. Bush said on … Continue reading One Maliki = One Friedman

Pony Blow rejects the idea that Chimpy is “frustrated”, by developments (or the lack thereof) in Iraq on August 16, 2006 :

HoldenOne other note: A number of newspapers today had — or a couple, The New York Times and L.A. Times — had pieces about the President’s meeting the other day with Iraq scholars. Just a couple of nits to pick with the Times piece — and I have spoken with the notetaker in the meeting, I was in the meeting, I’ve talked to others in the meeting and I’ve talked to all four scholars today, and all, to a person, take exception to a verb or variations of that verb that appear a number of times at the top of the piece, which is that the President is “frustrated.” He’s “frustrated” that the new Iraqi government and the Iraqi people have not shown greater support for the American mission. All the participants said that that did not reflect the meeting they attended.

“A sense of frustration on the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq, generally” — again, all of those in attendance said that that did not reflect their characterization. And a paragraph that said, “The President expressed frustration that Iraqis have not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States has made in Iraq and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd.” That was unanimously rejected, as well.

Yet today, writing for theNational Review Online, Byron “Breck Girl” York unwittingly contradicts Blow.

Everybody knows George W. Bush is determined to win the war in Iraq. What came through in a meeting with conservative journalists in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon, though, was the president’s frustration in not being able to find more meaningful ways to measure progress in the war, and in not being able to make the case more effectively to the American people that progress is, in fact, being made.

But beyond that loomed an even larger concern: In today’s Iraq, the president conceded, it is the enemy, and not the United States, that is defining what victory means.

Continues…

Continue reading “Bush “Frustrated”, “Vexed” Over Iraq”

I already did one Juggernaut post on the latest Quinnipiac poll which shows that Katherine Harris is 35 points behind her opponent, incumbent Democratic senator Bill Nelson. But I love the spin that theBradenton Herald put on it. Fears among Florida Republicans that U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris’ campaign bid for the U.S. Senate could hurt the party in other races may have been well founded, a poll released Wednesday indicates. Incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson has widened his already comfortable lead over Harris in results announced by the Quinnipiac (Conn.) University Polling Institute. Nelson was favored by 64 percent of likely … Continue reading Your Thursday Morning Republican Juggernaut Update

As they have discovered inVirginia, voting machines here inmy home town are truncating candidates’ names. As voters review their ballots, they may be surprised to see that the Hart InterCivic Inc. eSlate voting machines chop off candidate names longer than about 15 letters. So Kinky Friedman becomes “Richard ‘Kinky’ F.” Carole Keeton Strayhorn: “Carole Keeton St.” And Texas’ senior senator? Just call her “Kay Bailey Hutch.” The problem is not new, but it won’t be fixed before the Nov. 7 election, either. Both Hart InterCivic and local officials stress that every candidate’s name appears correctly on the voting screen. The … Continue reading Long Names Get Short Shrift

I had never heard ofPotomacFlacks, a blog authored by Adam Kovacevich (“Assistant Vice President at Dittus Communications, a Washington, D.C. public affairs and communications firm.”). But apparently, PotomacFlacks has heard of me. It seems that Adam Kovacevich (who thinksDana Peroxide is “hot”) readthis past Tuesday’s edition of Obsession and was not amused by my take on Tony Fratto’s gaggle debut. Kovacevich sez: Theseguys may not have cared for Fratto’s first at-bat (then again, how can you please someone who calls Perino “Dana Peroxide” and Snow “Pony Blow Don’t Know”?), and it’s true that Fratto’s performance might not have been as … Continue reading I Piss-Off The Beltway Elite

Campaiging within 100 feet of a polling place is illegal, even if you are the Florida Secretary of State. Me, Political? Florida’s top election official said Wednesday that she was simply trying to help voters — not give an advantage to her party — by recommending polling place notices saying votes for disgraced ex-U.S. Rep. Mark Foley would count for his replacement Republican candidate. A circuit court judge blocked the plan last week, but Secretary of State Sue Cobb’s office has asked an appeals court to overturn that ruling and allow posting of the notices. [snip] Cobb is an appointee … Continue reading Cobb Web