Joey shows off his new winter coat (seriously, his tail is insane right now) underneath the Christmas Bush. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Gay Apparel Edition

The Boston Globe’s Michael Kranish via Dan Froomkin: Bush’s former chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., who was by Bush’s side as he formulated many of his key decisions on the war, said Bush hears many opinions and thus believes that ‘his knowledge is more complete than anyone who is advising him.’” Continue reading Chimpy Knows More Than All Of You Fuckers Put Together

That’s one helluva Bush Boom you got yourself there, America. A slowdown in the U.S. economy will likely drag on global growth next year, economists predict, but Asia and Europe are expected to remain fairly resilient amid signs of healthy consumer demand. Even as a cooling U.S. housing market weakens Americans’ appetites for foreign-made electronics, clothing and other exports, the swelling ranks of middle-class consumers in China, India and the rest of emerging Asia are seen picking up the slack, experts say. Continue reading Welcome To The Third World, Baby

Pony Blow has entered his own Colbertian nightmare.

MR. SNOW: Helen.

Q I have two questions. Since the President knows how many Iraqis were killed in the two months period, how many were killed in the four years of war?

MR. SNOW: Two things; I know you asked the question in the gaggle. What you had was the President had a briefing on how many people were killed in combat activities. The Iraqi government, itself, compiles its own statistics on those who have died in the violence. I am sure that there is a briefing paper that has that exact number on it, or at least their best guesses on it.

Maybe the one important number is the nearly 27 million Iraqis no longer have to live under the terror and despotism of Saddam Hussein. They have an elected government, which many of them risked their lives to vote for. It’s a unity government. And one of the chief aims, as we’ve just pointed out, is to get rid of the violence that is claiming lives unnecessarily and to allow that democracy to move forward peacefully.

Q That isn’t an answer.

MR. SNOW: Yes, it is.

Q Why? Why can’t you count the number who were killed in four years?

MR. SNOW: Well, apparently it’s a difficult task, and I would refer you to the government of Iraq.

Q How do you know 5,900 were killed in two months?

MR. SNOW: I’m telling you, those are the confirmed kills on the battlefield as passed on by commanders.

Q And what about going after ACLU, when you didn’t go after the Hadley memo —

MR. SNOW: We do not talk about any ongoing court activities. You know that, Helen.

Q But you are going after the ACLU, aren’t you?

MR. SNOW: As I said, we don’t — you could chase me around the table as many times as you want on it, but we do not comment on ongoing court activities.

Q That’s not fair.

MR. SNOW: It may not be fair, but it’s the policy of any administration not to talk about ongoing court activities.

Q As a former Holden —

MR. SNOW: As a former newsman, I know when to stop chasing somebody around the podium. This is a case where it has always been the standard of administrations, Democratic and Republican, that you do not talk about ongoing court issues.

[snip]

Q Tony, in answer to Helen’s question, were you confirming that there is an investigation of the leak of the Hadley memo?

MR. SNOW: No, I wasn’t. I was saying that you don’t — we don’t confirm.

Q Would you?

MR. SNOW: No.

Q Can I chase you around the podium? (Laughter.)

Obsession continues…

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

This one nearly slipped by me. In a Pew poll released December 12 (that dealt primarily with the public’s embrace of the ISG report) Chimpy set a new all-time low job approval rating of 32%. Continue reading Another All-Time Low

Police in Piedmont CA were stumped by dozens of Beanie Babies showing up again and again in the yards of 2 residents… Now, police in the tranquil East Bay city think they may have identified a suspect: Gertie, one of the family’s cats, which was caught on a surveillance camera carrying the furry toys in its mouth. A felonious feline? Maybe not. Two-legged creatures might still be involved, police said. “The cat was caught on tape, but we don’t know if it was moving the Beanie Babies from the location where somebody put them,” police Capt. John Hunt said Thursday. … Continue reading Friday Catblogging…Beanie Baby Bandit nabbed

Latest column’s up: Maybe I’m skeptical of the usefulness of national unity because I saw it up close in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. I saw the crowds of people lining Harlem Avenue in Bridgeview, waving flags and singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And I saw some parts of those crowds turn into ugly mobs that marched on places of worship and beat up Sikh cab drivers, that hurled ugly racial slurs and broke windows and threatened women and children. The nostalgic picture of America in those days is of a country united. It was reductive then. It’s a … Continue reading ‘Unity’

President Bush Speaks at the White House Summit on Malaria Because Nothing Says Festive Like Malaria Thanks for inviting me to what sounded like a festive occasion. (Laughter.) America is Halfway Around The World There are members of our own families here in America who are ill, and they live in villages halfway around the world away. Kids These Days Because of your work, children who once wanted [sic] to die are now preparing to live, and whole regions are replacing suffering and fear with hope and health. Guess Which Side He Is On In this new century, there is … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

Holy crap! Pony said something stupid in today’s gaggle…

MR. SNOW: The Syrians have been adventurous and meddlesome in Iraq, and in Lebanon, and working against the causes of democracy in both of those countries.

And wound up pissing off Helen Thomas.

MR. SNOW: Well, I think Helen wants to follow on that one. So go ahead, Helen.

Q Who are we to keep meddling in Iraq itself? You talk about meddling and adventuresome? And who are we to give orders to Syria and every other country?

MR. SNOW: We’re not giving orders to anybody, Helen. They’ve got their choices to make. As far as the Iraqis, they made it clear —

Q Recommendations, constantly — they’re taking in a thousand refugees every day — every month from Iraq.

MR. SNOW: And many of the refugees in Iraq are there because acts of terror have been perpetrated against them. The Syrians certainly have not been helpful in securing a more peaceful Iraq. The Syrians are under suspicion —

Q — them shelter —

MR. SNOW: The Syrians are under suspicion of having some involvement in the assassinations of Rafiq Hariri and Pierre Gemayel. They have been fighting mightily against an open tribunal to figure out what happened. And again, our commitment is to democracy and we think that people in the region are going to be better off living in free democracies rather than under the sway of governments that deny their rights and use such things as murder and terror as ways of imposing their will.

Q That’s such a broad accusation. How many people do we have that we have accused and held in confinement in limbo for four years without any trial without any trial, without any charge?

MR. SNOW: Holden have provided for the civil rights — notice that you’ve completely jumped off of the topic now of the behavior of the Lebanese. What we are doing is that we have passed a law with regard to the Hamdan legislation that guarantees the civil rights of people who have been pulled off battlefields. We have a reasonable suspicion they’re trying to kill —

Q Four years without a charge or a trial —

MR. SNOW: — who we have reasonable suspicion to believe have been trying to kill Americans. And I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a bad thing. And I think you do, too.

Q Tony —

Q That’s a lousy way to twist it.

MR. SNOW: No, it’s not. What has happened is you and I have now been in a series of questions where I’ll answer a question and then the subject changes. And so we’ve hopscotched from the human rights record of the Syrians to the democracy in Lebanon —

Q What about our human rights record?

MR. SNOW: Well, we will stand by it.

Obsession continues…

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

And I surrender to today’s theme started earlier when I posted about the return of 2 Bad Pennies but then there’s…David Duke on CNN. At this rate maybe we’ll get a nickel’s worth of yuck by the day’s end. David Duke hits at Blitzer in the interview below. He opened the interview resentful of CNN’s intro setup piece of him (too much mention of KKK for David). He proceeded to tell Wolf Blitzer… I think you’re biased because you’re a former lobbyist for AIPAC. You’re a Jewish extremist, supporter of Israel, so you want to bias anyone who criticizes Zionism. … Continue reading David Duke calls Blitzer a Jewish extremist

The Pentagon itself was worried about the way Chimnpy’s detainees were being handled in South Carolina. A previously undisclosed Pentagon report concluded that the three terrorism suspects held at a brig in South Carolina were subjected to months of isolation, and it warned that their “unique” solitary confinement could be viewed as violating U.S. detention standards. According to a summary of the 2004 report obtained by The Washington Post, interrogators attempted to deprive one detainee, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari citizen and former student in Peoria, Ill., of sleep and religious comfort by taking away his Koran, warm food, … Continue reading Torture In The Brig

Oh, what a fabulous family we have in the Bushes. President George W. Bush’s aunt and other members of a prominent Greenwich church showed up in federal court Tuesday to support a former music director who pleaded not guilty to possessing child pornography. Robert F. Tate, 64, of Greenwich, remained behind bars after the hearing. FBI agents arrested him last month in Los Angeles. Tate was the longtime music director of Christ Church in Greenwich, where former President George Bush attended services while growing up. Funeral services for his parents, Prescott Bush Sr. and Dorothy Walker Bush, were held there. … Continue reading Love The Sinner, Hate The Child Porn

…bad pennies. (See post below) TPM has a report from Robert Novak that Karl Rove will be retiring from politics after his stint at the White House. We can only hope…good riddance and don’t return.—– Continue reading Speaking of …

We totally need to do this. A. Continue reading Guys?

The rich can’t wait with you peasants. The U.S. government approved new technology that will automatically scan shoes and boots for bombs, and promises that travelers will soon be spared the trouble of scurrying through security in their socks. But the new machines will be available only to travelers who pay to join a special program, at least at first. The shoe-scanner approval will give a crucial boost to the Registered Traveler program, which is designed to provide faster airport security screening, via a special security line, to travelers who sign up in advance and undergo a background check. But … Continue reading Lines are for Loosers

Besides establishing an all-time low job approval rating for the Chimpster (note to self: revive the list of all-time lows from this past summer) the latest NBC/WSJ Poll shows that Americans want to pull our troops out of Iraq – NOW! According to the survey, 69 percent say they are less confident that the war will come to a successful conclusion, while just 19 percent — a new low in the NBC-Journal poll on this question — say they’re more confident. Moreover, 65 percent believe the U.S. is already doing everything it can to reduce the violence there. Only 25 … Continue reading Get Out, Goddammit!

Incoming Republikkkan congressmen are not interested in good governance or bipartisanship. When Harvard’s Institute of Politics sent out invitations to newly elected members of Congress for a powwow being held this week, over 80 percent of Democrats accepted compared to under eight percent of Republicans. Thirty-five of the 36 confirmed attendees at the biennial conference—which brings together newly elected Congressional members to learn about effective lawmaking and leadership—are Democrats. The lone Republican planning to attend is Vernon “Vern” Buchanan of Florida, who picked up Katherine Harris’ vacated House seat, according to the Institute of Politics (IOP) list of participants. Earlier … Continue reading Freshman Republicans Opt Out

At the Pentagon, today. Excuses, Excuses I put off my speech — actually, I was quite flexible about when I was going to give my speech, to begin with — and one of the main reasons why is I really do want the new Secretary of Defense to have time to get to know people and hear people and be a part of this deliberation. And he will not be sworn in until next Monday. I also — one of the interesting things about this experience is that there’s a lot of ideas and a lot of opinions. And I … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

Oh, my. Chimpy gets beat out by his one-termer dad.And Jimmy Carter. History’s view of George W. Bush will be harsh, Americans predict. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, a 54% majority says Bush will be judged as a below-average or poor president, more than double the negative rating given any of his five most recent predecessors. Just 19% expect him to be seen as outstanding or above average, placing him last among the six. Bush, re-elected in 2004, now trails three presidents who were rejected by voters when they sought second or full terms, including his … Continue reading Worst Evah!

Man, I love me some Helen.

Let’s have her open today’s gaggle, shall we?

Q Does the President Holden to leave this war for the next administration, as he has indicated? Or does he have any option to get out?

MR. SNOW: Helen, what the President has said is that the war on terror will continue. He has made no firm predictions because neither he, nor I know exactly when hostilities will cease in Iraq. But we hope that there will be an Iraqi government that stands up and has successfully fought back against forces of violence in its midst.

Q We’re the invader. Do you realize that?

MR. SNOW: Helen, we’ve engaged in this conversation a few times. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they think that America’s involvement in unseating Saddam Hussein was historic and liberating. The real tragedy is that there are people who are willing to kill by the thousands to prevent Iraq from becoming free. And I would —

Q How can they feel free when they’re under occupation?

MR. SNOW: I would warn against — I would warn against drawing moral equivalents between people who take IEDs and blow up civilians and Americans who are laying their lives on the line so that there can be a democracy in Iraq. As for our occupation, the United States would like to be able to leave as quickly as possible. The Iraqis would, too. But the Iraqis say, don’t leave until the job is done. We agree. It is important to win in Iraq as defined by a free democracy that sustains, governs, and defends itself.

Q When did the Iraqis say that?

MR. SNOW: They’ve said it on a number of occasions; they’ve made it known.

Obsession continues…

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

Looks like the judge, who ruled that FEMA“had violated evacuees’ constitutional rights by eliminating their housing payments without notice,” is losing his patience and FEMA is stalling… WASHINGTON – A federal judge called the Bush administration’s handling of a Hurricane Katrina housing program “a legal disaster” Wednesday and ordered officials to explain a computer system that can neither precisely count evacuees nor provide reasons why they were denied aid.</blockquote Quotes from the judge –“Let me make this clear,” [Judge] Leon told government attorney Michael Sitcov. “Tell FEMA that I’m expecting them to get going on this. Like immediately.” –“I’m not … Continue reading FEMA machinations

Dana Milbank swipes one of my seminal Gaggle observations (see here and here). Goddman librul media. When will President Bush roll out his new Iraq policy? “We do not know,” Snow said at yesterday’s White House briefing. When did Bush decide to postpone the speech? “I don’t know exactly when,” the president’s press secretary said again. Has everyone working on the policy read the Iraq Study Group report? “I don’t know,” came the refrain. “I’m assuming — but I don’t know.” After Snow spoke multiple times of the “urgency” surrounding Iraq, CNN’s Elaine Quijano asked him, innocently, “Tony, what does … Continue reading Pony Blow Don’t Know!

Rumors swirl that Bush will send more troops to Iraq which appears unrealistic and risky given this WaPo report… The Army and Marine Corps are planning to ask incoming Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Congress to approve permanent increases in personnel, as senior officials in both services assert that the nation’s global military strategy has outstripped their resources. In addition, the Army will press hard for “full access” to the 346,000-strong Army National Guard and the 196,000-strong Army Reserves by asking Gates to take the politically sensitive step of easing the Pentagon restrictions on the frequency and duration of … Continue reading You and whose Army?

Finally Skilling must go to jail… Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in his two-page order Tuesday that “Skilling raises no substantial question that is likely to result in the reversal of his convictions on all of the charged counts.” As a result, Higginbotham denied Skilling’s request for bail pending his appeal and vacated an earlier order staying his prison report date. Skilling is now required to report to a low-security federal prison in Waseca, Minn., to begin serving his 24-year sentence on 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading. —– Continue reading Some good news

emptywheel at The Next Hurrah caught this in the Iraq Study Group report… The ISG report is full of a bunch of asides that reveal as much as anything else in the report. Like this one: Soldiers are paid in cash because there is no banking system. Blah blah blah blah blah and oh by the way did you know there is no banking system in Iraq? Now correct me if I’m wrong, but we sent Peter McPherson and a whole bunch of recent college grads picked by the Heritage Foundation over to Iraq to, among other things, set up … Continue reading Where’s that banking system?

Breaks Glenn Beck’s lizard brain: BECK: OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I’ve been to mosques. I really don’t believe that Islam is a religion of evil. I — you know, I think it’s being hijacked, quite frankly. With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, “Let’s cut and run.” And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” And I know you’re not. I’m not accusing you … Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo: Ellison Edition

This is hilarious, right? BAGHDAD, Iraq — A television cameraman working for The Associated Press was shot to death by insurgents while covering clashes Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul, police said. Aswan Ahmed Lutfallah, 35, was having his car repaired in an industrial area in the eastern part of the city when insurgents and police began fighting nearby and he rushed to cover the clash, police Brig. Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said. Insurgents spotted him filming, approached him and shot him to death, Khalaf said, citing an initial report. Lutfallah had not reported any prior threats against him. Lutfallah … Continue reading Hey! Michelle, Ann and Melanie!

Yesterday an enterprising gaggler asked if the reason Chimpy decided to postpone announcing his “new way forward” in Iraq until after Christmas was because he planned to call for an influx of American soldiers into the chaotic country. Pony Blow, of course, poo-pooed the idea. Q Is it possible that the President does not want to announce the deployment of thousands of more U.S. troops to Iraq before the holidays? MR. SNOW: No, it has nothing to do with that. Cynical, but false. Then today we learn that’s exactly what’s going on here. As President Bush weighs new policy options … Continue reading Yesterday And Today