AGAINST ALL ENEMIES
While reading this in Richard Clarke’s book (p. 144), I laughed. I thought about all the wingnuts who said, “If Al Gore was president, he would never have gone into Afghanistan after the terrorists.”
The first time I had proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with […]

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BREAKING NEWS
CNN reports Condi will testify in public in front of the 9/11 commission. They will have a signed agreement that this does not set a precedent. Even though it does, but it makes them look “principled” in that way Karen and Karl seem to like.

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BOOM
Here we go:
The global housing boom that has propped up the world economy in the face of falling share markets in the past few years is teetering on the edge of a crash, The Economist has concluded.
Pam Woodall, economics editor of the British weekly, said it had conducted global housing surveys and sector research […]

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HA HA
Sean Hannity boasts on his website of his “exclusive” interview with Condi Rice.
I guess it depends on what you mean by “exclusive.”

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SCREW DEMOCRACY
Josh Marshall with more good stuff:
Look at what this is: using the CIA and the classification process for an explicitly and exclusively partisan purpose, at the direct behest of the White House. Call me old-fashioned but back in the good-old-days this used to be done with a bit more indirection, subterfuge and cover, no?
It’s […]

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JUNG WAS RIGHT
Ever notice how many of these moral crusaders have a dark side of their own?
An activist with ties to anti-abortion violence went on trial Monday charged with molesting a teenager at a home he ran for troubled girls and women in this Florida Panhandle city.
The trial of John Burt, 66, began with jury […]

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GIVE
Obviously, the solution to this is to donate to Kerry, or anyone else who can rebut Bush’s attack ads.
By the way, you may have noticed a new ad for Gary LeShaw, who’s running for the Democratic Senatorial nomination in Georgia. Please check out his site. If you like what you see, throw him a few […]

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SLEEPY TIME
I really don’t understand why so many parents seem incapable of seeing that their children get enough sleep. I wish I had a dollar for every parent who tells me, “I just can’t get little Joey/Catlain to go to bed!” Like they get a choice? Aren’t you bigger than them?
For older children, caffeine consumption […]

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‘THIS IS NOT AMERICA’
Krugman:
On the terrorism front, here’s one story that deserves special mention. One of the few successful post-9/11 terror prosecutions — a case in Detroit — seems to be unraveling. The government withheld information from the defense, and witnesses unfavorable to the prosecution were deported (by accident, the government says). After the former […]

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DRIP DRIP DRIP
Hmm. No wonder Tom “Buggy” DeLay has been so quiet lately:
Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff received $10 million in previously undisclosed payments from a public relations executive whom he recommended for work with wealthy Indian tribes that operate casinos, congressional investigators have determined.
Abramoff, one of Washington’s best-connected Republican lobbyists, this month was forced out […]

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Oh, good. See how well this war on terrorism is working?

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COOL
Richard Clarke will be Jon Stewart’s guest tonight. (He has Karen Hughes on tomorrow night, which should be cool in a different way.)
Don’t miss it!

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The thing about the Republicons is, they think big. No wonder they hated the Clinton administration. I mean, why rent a night in the Lincoln bedroom when you can buy the entire Congress?
That is one reason that GOP activists have been pressuring interest groups to hire Republicans for upper-echelon lobbying positions. The K Street Project, […]

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BIG DOG
I’m watching the C-SPAN rerun of Clinton’s speech at the Democratic Unity dinner for, oh, maybe the third time. I’m always impressed by what a compelling speaker he is. (Particularly since I remember his famously bad nominating speech for Dukakis. “Dear God, won’t someone shut this guy up?” I thought to myself.)
I wish he’d […]

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BLOOD TIES
Remember this? Disgusting.
At the order of a federal appeals court, a Federal District Court judge in Portland, Me., has reopened the sentencing hearing for a boy who as a 14-year-old in 2002 set fire to a boatyard containing an engine that belonged to former President George Bush and was sentenced to 30 months in […]

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SO WE’RE DOING REALLY WELL WITH THAT MIDDLE EAST ‘DEMOCRACY’ THING
I’ll bet this is making us even more popular:
American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.
You mean, like Newsmax? Or the Moonie Times?
Or the […]

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HAPPY DAYS
In today’s episode, Pinky says Fonzie was “wrrrrrrr-oooonnnnnggggg” when he said he wasn’t at Arnold’s with Potsie, talking about whether Joanie and Chachi got a motel room for after the prom.
And Pinky says that even if Fonzie was, um, you know, that “W” word, that anyone who knows Fonzie knows he didn’t mean anything […]

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HOME SWEET HOME
They’re so disconnected from the real-world consequences of what they do (or don’t do). So when a couple of busloads of people showed up to demonstrate at Karl Rove’s house, he got pretty upset.
Palacios said that Rove was “very upset” and was “yelling in our faces” and that Rove told them “he hoped […]

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HOLIER THAN THOU
You gotta admit, this is pretty damned funny:
“The Scriptures say, what does it profit, my brother, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” Kerry said. “When we look at what is happening in America today, where are the works of compassion?”
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Kerry’s comment “was […]

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The Center for American Progress has this to say about Condi’s “60 Minutes” performance tonight. As you might suspect, she doesn’t come off that well:
RICE CLAIM: “The administration took seriously the threat” of terrorism before 9/11.
FACTS: President Bush himself acknowledges that, despite repeated warnings of an imminent Al Qaeda attack, before 9/11 “I didn’t feel […]

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Breslin:
Reading this in Clarke’s book, and listening to him at the hearing in Washington on Wednesday, I was struck with the sameness in the story about her. Condoleezza Rice always is introduced as a former provost of Stanford University. You can’t get anything to sound much better. Provost! She must be in charge of science […]

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NASTY PEOPLE
Good piece from the Guardian about the Bush administration policy on company loyalty:
In his book “Against All Enemies,” Clarke predicted retribution from a White House “adept at revenge.”
But Bush and his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, are essentially following the same game plan that the late Lee Atwater - an early political mentor […]

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AGREEABLE
Via Pandagon, we learn the happy news that Richard Clarke agrees: His testimony should be declassified.
You heard right - today on NPR, Richard Clarke answered the thermonuclear attack of the Bush administration on his 2002 testimony with his Giant Fucking Armageddon Beam - declassify everything.
The Bush Administration has no choice but to come back […]

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Oh swell. I’m feeling even safer now.

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HOW IT BEGINS
This editorial in the Times makes a strong point that’s close to my heart:
Too many politicians figure they can get away with little things because everyone knows you can’t be bought for a free dinner or a plane ride. That’s how it starts. In Connecticut, Gov. John Rowland’s career began unraveling over such […]

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