Steve lays it out: What the Dems didn’t do, while the GOP did, was target and reach their voters over and over, in a trusted setting. For argument’s sake we’ll call it a church. David Kuo explains in great detail how the White House could and would use government money to buy church votes. The media went on and on about values voters and scared the Dems away from their base. Don’t pay too much attention to the blacks or the gays or the urban voters. It was Soccer, then Security moms and NASCAR dads. The Dems were being told … Continue reading How Republicans Win

What a backwards-ass bunch of idiots we’re harboring in this fucking country: Pete Wilson, the anchor of ABC’s local evening news and host of a radio show on KGO 810 AM, criticized Supervisor Bevan Dufty and his friend Rebecca Goldfader, who are sharing a home and co-parenting a newborn, during a radio broadcast Tuesday.Their daughter, Sidney, was born last week. Wilson, who said he supports same-sex marriage and lesbian and gay couples raising children, referred to her as an “experiment” because they’re not in a romantic relationship. “The Dufty-Goldfader baby is, in my mind, a travesty,” Wilson said during an … Continue reading Your Liberal Media: Stupid Squared Edition

So here’s an example of what I call a story dying on the table. You had a thought, you went out, started reporting, seemed to find some stuff that supported your idea, but then, the next fifteen phone calls totally contradicted everything you thought you knew, and it’s starting to look like you’re full of shit, and you have this mishmash of stuff that doesn’t fit, doesn’t work and certainly isn’t a story. Ordinarily, as a reporter, you’d go back to your editor and say, look, I thought I had it, I pounded on it as hard as I could, … Continue reading Trying Too Hard

It’s time once again for the annual First Draft fundraising drive. Go blog, it’s your birthday We gonna party like it’s your birthday Seriously, last year around this time we asked you to tell us what you thought of the work we’d been doing by clicking the donation link. Clickety! We’re doing it again because we’ve done some major work this year, work which was supported by your voices and your wallets. We upgraded to the chinchilla servers last fall, and though the past couple of weeks have had some hiccups it’s only because someday pretty soon we’re gonna need … Continue reading Fundraising Time

It’s getting better, A little better all the time (can’t get not worse). Iraq’s government indefinitely postponed a much-anticipated national reconciliation conference yesterday as a two-day surge of sectarian revenge killings and insurgent bombings left at least 86 Iraqis dead. Meanwhile, a militant network that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq announced in a video that it had established an Islamic state in six provinces. This was viewed as a propaganda push in the network’s drive to force the withdrawal of US forces and to topple the US-backed Iraqi government. [snip] The Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of insurgent groups, … Continue reading Have To Admit

Jesus frack.

Spoilers under the cut, as always.

Continue reading “Never Dreaming That Our Dreams Would Come True: Galactica Thread”

Birthplace of the Republican Party boarded up and surrounded by caution tape. A. Continue reading Department of Heh

What did the president know andwhen did he know it?

Q Tony, when Congressman Mark Foley was still in office, apparently he communicated fairly frequently with Governor Jeb Bush of Florida. And according to someemails obtained by the Palm Beach Post on September 29th of last year, in particular, he complained about not being welcome at a couple of events that the President was attending in Florida, one in Fort Pierce and one in Martin County, saying, “Have I done something to offend the White House, they came to Fort Pierce a few weeks ago, said I was not allowed to attend, yet, Joe Negron, another congressman, was there. Tomorrow POTUS is in Martin County. I’m told I’m not allowed to be there, either.” Was Congressman Foley ever told not to appear at events with the President, and, if so, why?

MR. SNOW: We don’t know anything about it, and it sounds pretty silly. Look, as a matter of course, you usually invite members of Congress to these — when you’re in town.

Q Are you saying he was mistaken?

MR. SNOW: I don’t know. I’m not aware of it. It’s not unusual for members of Congress to want to be in on things. But, you know, again, what you’ve got is an email to a third party, to which I really can’t respond. But it just seems to me —

Q Could you check to see if anyone at the White House ever asked Congressman Foley not to attend those events?

MR. SNOW: Holden far as we know the answer is no, but I’ll try to give you an actual definitive — is it 2004 or 2005?

Q This was a September 29, 2004 email.

MR. SNOW: 2004 — so this was during the — okay, see that — we’ll find out.

Q This is when he said they were invited, and he was not.

MR. SNOW: Poor guy. He was invited last year when the President — we know for a fact that the President was in the state quite often last year, hurricanes and other things, and Congressman Foley was there. He’s been at the White House a bunch of times. I’ll try to find out if there’s — is there any particular reason we’re worried about this particular batch of emails?

Q Just wondering if the White House didn’t want the President to be seen with him, and if there was a reason.

MR. SNOW: Well, the answer is, no.

Holy Jeebus!

Obsession continues…

Continue reading “Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle”

Nice. Less than 24 hours after shetried to patch things over with Jewish Floridians due to her “if you don’t elect Christians you are legislating sin” remarks Katherine Harrisreturns to her fundamentalist Crusade. Congresswoman Katherine Harris took her uphill Senate battle to a tiny Avenue Q church on Thursday, carrying a leather-bound Bible and praying with a group of six dozen ministers, community leaders and educators. Harris, Republican U.S. Senate candidate, asked the group to consider how biblical figures would feel to know modern politics keep religion and government separate. “There are no Ten Commandments in our halls of Congress,” … Continue reading Your Friday Afternoon Republican Juggernaut Update

Bath time. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Wet Pet Edition

Expect moe stories likethis in the coming months. Sixteen Afghans and one Iranian released from years in captivity at Guantanamo Bay prison arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, an Afghan official said, maintaining that “most” of the detainees had been falsely accused. [snip] One of the released prisoners, Sayed Mohammead Ali Shah, said he had been a delegate at the country’s first loya jirga, a council of leaders that helped establish the interim government in 2002 after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001. “For four years they put me in jail in Cuba for nothing,” said Shah, a … Continue reading Torturing the Innocent

Vote Democratic, for the good of the country. Continue reading Gramma Broder Sez…

Man, I’mloving this shit. Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News. Continue reading Kolbe Fingered in Probe

AP Photo/Wade Payne In other Bush family news, it looks like they’reshipping Jenna to Paraguay Hmmmm…Paraguay… Seven of the 20 countries designated by the President as major drug transit or major illicit drug-producing nations are located in Latin America—Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. The strategic deployment of approximately 38 percent of DEA’s foreign workforce to Latin America is testament to the important role the region plays in feeding America’s appetite for drugs. Continue reading This Has Been Another Edition Of Unfortunate Podium Signs

More shameheaped upon America by the Bush gang. The Pentagon’s Inspector General ordered an investigation into alleged abuse at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay that holds suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members, a spokesman said on Friday. The order followed a statement last week from a U.S. Marine saying Guantanamo guards described physically and mentally abusing detainees, including slamming one inmate’s head into a cell door and denying others privileges just to anger them. —– Continue reading Sure Glad We Don’t Torture

Last month Tom DeLay crawled out of his hole in order to address an important issue of the day. Sara Evans has been a strong supporter of the Republican Party and represents good American values in the media. From singing at the 2004 Republican Convention to appearing with candidates in the last several election cycles, we have always been able to count on Sara for her support of the things we all believe in. … One of her opponents on the show is ultra liberal talk show host Jerry Springer. We need to send a message to Hollywood and the … Continue reading Defend Marriage!

Beautiful, Chimpy’s job approval rating is collapsing in every major poll just in time for the mid-terms. Today brings us anew Harris poll in which his approval number slipped from 38% to 34% and his disapproval number is a whopping 64%. President Bush’s job-approval rating fell, with 34% of Americans voting him “excellent” or “good,” down from 38% in September, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults now have a negative view of Mr. Bush’s job performance, compared with 61% who ranked him “only fair” or “poor” in a similar poll last month. The drop … Continue reading It’s All In The Timing

Karl Rove promised us an October Surprise,and boy did he deliver. Foley, Woodward, the NIE on Iraq, Jim Baker calling for cut-n-run — all we needed were a few corruption reminders. So today we learn thatdisgraced Republikkkan Congressman Bob Ney has offically plead guilty to charges that could send him to prison for a decade. Then on October 27, less than two weeks before the election, White House staffer David Safavian should learn how long he will be wearing an orange jumpsuit. The government is pushing for three years in prison for a former Bush administration official found guilty of … Continue reading Safavian to Follow Ney

This time the victim of American War Crimes isone of our only allies. A coroner ruled on Friday that a British journalist who died in Iraq at the start of the war was unlawfully killed by American forces. Terry Lloyd, a correspondent with the British TV network ITN , was killed outside Basra in southern Iraq in March 2003. Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said he’ll be writing the director of public prosecutions to seek to bring the perpetrators to justice. “Terry Lloyd died following a gunshot wound to the head. The evidence this bullet was fired by the … Continue reading War Crime

Looks like the president has advanced beyond knuckle-walking. AFP/Jim Watson Continue reading He’s Learning

Chimpy was inSaint Louis today blathering on about renewable energy and, despite the best efforts of the Secret Service, he was actually heckled. THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I’m sure there are some people out there saying, well, you know, he’s just dreaming. Well, I’m just listening to the dreamers who happen to be good, smart, capable people who know what they’re talking about — AUDIENCE MEMBER: Out of Iraq now! Out of Iraq now! Soldiers are not renewables! THE PRESIDENT: Since 2003, my administration has made hydrogen and fuel-cell technology a priority — (audience interruption) — and we will continue to … Continue reading Your President Speaks!