Bob Somerby parses that WashPo story on Kerry’s “offshore” contributors.

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Billmon on the two faces of Alan Greenspan.

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TGIF
Friday, Friday:
It is an old political tradition to dump unpopular news on Friday, because fewer people are reading newspapers or watching television news over the weekend. But the Bush administration has been using the trick so routinely that it is losing effectiveness. “They’re not as successful now in hiding these Friday stories,” said Robert Lichter […]

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THE TRUTH IS WORSE
An Austin paper goes public with the Gov. Rick Perry rumor. They say there’s nothing to it, but point to a worse scandal:
For the record, Naked City looked into the Perry rumors when they first surfaced some weeks ago – inevitably accompanied by the warning, “The divorce papers are being filed today!” […]

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Nice profile of Atrios in the local city mag.
At the bar of Marathon on the Square, a quiet man in a gray turtleneck sweater sips a martini. It’s the night of the Iowa caucuses, and a gaggle of Philly media and political types is watching the returns on a large TV screen. By Philadelphia standards, […]

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FAIR PLAY
I posted this a few months ago. I still like reading about it - remember how incensed the wingnuts got about “following the rules” whenever a Democrat was involved?
President Bush moved one step closer Wednesday to securing a place on Illinois’ presidential ballot this fall, but partisan politics at the Democratic-led Statehouse could still […]

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MORE OF THAT ‘RUNNING GOVERNMENT LIKE A BUSINESS’
Reported in Drudge (no link):
More than $3 billion in Secret Service retirement benefits could not be adequately accounted for during a recent independent audit of the Homeland Security Department’s books, Congressional Quarterly reports on Thursday.
The audit also showed the Coast Guard could not account for $497 million in […]

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“Broadcasters promise to curtail indecency.” Oh, you mean they’ll stop broadcasting fireside chats with the Boy King?

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LET THEM EAT AIR
No soup for you:
A Senate measure to extend federal unemployment benefits failed by two votes Thursday despite the election year support of 12 Republicans from states hit hard by layoffs.
Democrats tried to attach the amendment to a gun liability bill, but it failed 58-39 in the GOP-controlled Senate. The margin was […]

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QUACK QUACK
So this wasn’t the first time:
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was the guest of a Kansas law school two years ago and went pheasant hunting on a trip arranged by the school’s dean, all within weeks of hearing two cases in which the dean was a lead attorney.
The cases involved issues of public policy […]

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Bob Kerrey is about to quit:
Frustrated by Bush administration restrictions, a former senator said yesterday he might quit the special commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks.Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), now president of New York’s New School University, told the Daily News that resigning is “on my list of possibilities” because the administration continues to […]

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MONEY TALKS
Miss Molly:
You know, when a bleeding heart liberal like me has to sit around lecturing a Republican administration on fiscal responsibility, we’re in a sorry pass. I watch the entire corporate and financial structure of this country running around raising money like crazy for the re-election of George W. Bush, and I am reminded […]

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FLOWERS FOR AL AND DON
If you want to donate money to buy flowers for the happy couples in San Francisco, here’s the link. Go on, you know you want to.

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IF ONLY IT WAS A BLOWJOB
So why won’t Bush and Rice testify in front of the 9/11 commission under oath, and in public? A reminder from a May 2002 WashPo article:
On July 5 of last year, a month and a day before President Bush first heard that al Qaeda might plan a hijacking, the White […]

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WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: “Cradle of Love,” Kelly Willis, “What I Deserve” - Baby you look tired/ And baby you look beat/ Seems like you’ve been working/ Eight days a week/ Baby take a break from all you been thinking of/ And come into my cradle of love/ Baby let me hold you and rock […]

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Rosie: If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

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STATISTICS, LIES, ETC.
Just 38% of Californians think Bush is a leader they can trust.
Then again, they really like The Tick.

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Could yiz speed it up with that toxic waste, hon?

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Terry McAuliffe will resign as DCN chairman in January. Now let’s see if the rumors about Dean as his replacement pan out.

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER?
This is interesting, if only because Vin Weber, prominent wingnut, signer of PNAC and buddy of the current White House incumbent, is on the board. CEO Rand V. Araskog sits on the board of the Wall St. Journal and Shell Oil, and is a member of both the Trilaterial Commission and the […]

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Today is my ex-husband’s birthday. As you may remember, although deceased, he’s still co-habitating with me - right there across the room, on my bookshelves. (My kids still haven’t decided on a final resting place.)
But since he’s a quiet sort and we both like a lot of the same music, it works out.

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CONNECT THE DOTS
Hmmm. So if you want to make money in the stock market, you have to become a Senator.
The Ziobrowski study notes that the politicians’ timing of transactions is uncanny. Most stocks bought by senators had shown little movement before the purchase. But after the stock was bought, it outperformed the market by 28.6 […]

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WHAT HE REALLY SAID
Greenspan says he wasn’t actually suggesting cuts in Social Security. Why, then, the only thing that leaves is… repealing those tax cuts. Heavens, I feel faint…
Mr. Greenspan was in many ways reflecting a widespread view that the only solution is to either cut benefits or raise taxes by huge amounts. But that […]

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ANOTHER BRILLIANT MOVE
Remind me again: Why is it everyone thinks Karl Rove is so smart?
Hoping to mollify its critics, the Bush administration said Wednesday that it would conduct a yearlong study of how prescription drugs might be safely imported from Canada. But it then infuriated the critics by selecting Dr. Mark B. McClellan, the commissioner […]

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THE POWER OF A GOOD IDEA
See how that Middle East democracy fad is spreading like wildfire, encouraged no doubt by our invasion of Iraq:
With the victory of religious hard-liners in this week’s parliamentary elections in Iran, the Central Intelligence Agency is warning of a new era of repression and inflexibility.
A new C.I.A. assessment, shared […]

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