Here’s the consensus on the newly-released White House documents related to the Roberts nomination: He’s a freakin’ hardcore conservative!
Imagine. How did he manage to get a job in the Reagan administration?
Much of Roberts’s time at the Justice Department was taken up by the debate over GOP-sponsored bills in Congress that would have stripped the Supreme [...]

Read Full Post »

That Dr. Phil, he’s a smart one. “When you have nothing to hide, you hide nothing.” He says it all the time - to alcoholics, shoplifters, unfaithful spouses and binge eaters.
Shame he forgot to mention it when he interviewed Bubble Boy and Pickles. Oh well.
Anyway, via Pontificator: The White House has announced it will not [...]

Read Full Post »

Flounder today:
Q Scott, on another topic, former President Bill Clinton spoke to the “Today Show” recently and he basically called the CIA leak issue terrible. And he said, “Rove is a brilliant political strategist and he’s proved brilliantly effective at destroying Democrats, personally.” He says, “I mean they’ve gotten away with murder and he’s really [...]

Read Full Post »

Oh, come on. Karl Rove is having an affair - with a woman? [Via Kos.]
In a fortuitious coincidence, Jerome and I have just finished interviewing a long-time Texas political writer here in Austin who says that Rove is absolutely having an affair with Karen. Rove is married and has a teenaged son. According to this [...]

Read Full Post »

Okay, so torture doesn’t work. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun:
A new study finds some people under interrogation will confess to crimes they did not commit, either to end the questioning or because they become convinced they did it.
An unrelated study last year found it is fairly easy to create false memories in people [...]

Read Full Post »

Ruy Teixeira says it looks like the white folks are finding their way back to the Democratic Party:
Pundits like to point out how dependent the Democrats are on the minority vote and, therefore, how vulnerable the Democrats would be to any weakening in that support. True enough. But it’s also true–perhaps even more so–that [...]

Read Full Post »

Not like their word is worth much to begin with:
WASHINGTON (AP) - If confirmed to the Supreme Court, John Roberts would not be bound by his past statement that the 1973 decision legalizing abortion is settled law, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday.
Roberts testified before Congress in 2003 that he considers the Roe v. Wade [...]

Read Full Post »

It amazes me that people don’t know the military command is making shit up about Iraq.
They did it in the first Gulf War. They did it in Vietnam, they did it in Korea and both World Wars. Why would they stop now?
Especially considering we have such a moral and principled bunch running the show these [...]

Read Full Post »

Matt Iglesias points out the obvious: No one has ever accused Hillary Clinton of being a liberal except the wingnuts. He quotes this New York Times article on her new and closer affiliation with the DLC:
Republicans immediately fired back at the criticisms, mocking the council for reaching out to Mrs. Clinton, whom conservatives have long [...]

Read Full Post »

Okay, the vampire-impregnated lady isn’t the only Froot Loop in the box. Apparently the talk-radio “full mooners” (as James Wolcott calls them) are back from their triumphant tour of Iraq and declaring victory is at hand. Wolcott says:
The Sunday pages of The New York Times must have brought Michael Graham only further confirmation that [...]

Read Full Post »

Don’t forget: tonight is Drinking Liberally at Tangier, 18th & Lombard, 6-9 p.m. We’re the crowd in the back and also at the outside tables.
If you don’t have a Drinking Liberally near you, you can go here and learn how to set one up yourself.

Read Full Post »

Well really, if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If money is a sign of God’s favor, and if you make a lot of money - and this is a Godly country, rich people = Godliness = government. Are we all clear on this now?
TAMPA - When 50 Cent raps about [...]

Read Full Post »

For many years, there was a moratorium on construction and other causes of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Once they lifted it, this was bound to happen:
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - More than a third of the Chesapeake Bay was a low-oxygen “dead zone” during monitoring in July, meaning the nation’s largest estuary is on pace [...]

Read Full Post »

I thought I wouldn’t ever have to do this again, but I’m asking for help one last time.
I sorted through all my grown-up office-type clothes yesterday and most of them don’t fit anymore. If you guys could kick in a few bucks, I can get enough things at the thrift store to tide me over [...]

Read Full Post »

And I thought people who voted for a second Bush term were gullible:
PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros from a woman in the Sicilian city of Palermo after convincing her they were vampires who would impregnate her with the son of the Anti-Christ if she did not pay them.
The man, a [...]

Read Full Post »

This is interesting. A very connected Texas Republican attorney (worked on the 2000 recount in Florida) was appointed an Iraq inspector general and has turned into a prominent critic of the abuse of Iraq rebuilding funds.
Apparently at least one BushCo insider still has a functioning conscience.

Read Full Post »

Have you checked out the cost of living in Baghdad lately? No wonder they need two jobs:
Iraq’s nascent police force has suffered from inadequate recruiting and vetting of candidates that has apparently even allowed some insurgents to join up, a U.S. government report said Monday.

Read Full Post »

Mitt does the old bait-and-switch:
“Three years after expressing support for ‘the substance’ of Roe v. Wade,” Masschusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) “today criticizes the landmark ruling that legalized abortion and says the states should decide separately whether to allow it,” the Boston Globe reports.
Romney outlines his stance in an op-ed in today’s Globe.

Read Full Post »

They say we may break the record of 101 degrees today. I’m sure this is wussy stuff to those of you reading from Arizona, but we’re not used to it here.

Read Full Post »

Duncan points out that Little Ricky was on CNN last night, attacking the court decision that first articulated a right to privacy - Griswold v. Connecticut.
In fact, he said the state has the right to regulate the use of birth control by married couples.
I’m sure the news that every sex act must be open to [...]

Read Full Post »

Via Kos: Now they’re going to go after Fitzgerald. Naturally.
[Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) spokeswoman Sarah] Little said the Senate committee would also review the probe of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been investigating the Plame case for nearly two years.

UPDATE: Hmm. Saw a comment from Grytpype over at Daily Kos, saying they might [...]

Read Full Post »

The gift that keeps on giving:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Gulf War veterans exposed to chemical munitions at Khamisiyah, Iraq are nearly twice as likely as their unexposed peers from the same war to die from brain cancer, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health.
“We found an approximately twofold excess of [...]

Read Full Post »

I don’t think people should be murdered for sending spam. But hey, I’m looking on the bright side - I should be getting a lot less Russian spam.

Read Full Post »

You know, some things are just plain stupid. This is one of them:
THE Church of England will today give its blessing to gay clergy who want to enter into civil partnerships.
But the Church is refusing to accord civil partnerships the status of marital relationships and gay clergy will be told that they must remain [...]

Read Full Post »

Fresh-grilled Flounder:
Q Do Karl Rove and Scooter Libby still have top secret clearance here, access to classified documents?
MR. McCLELLAN: You asked this question last week, and —
Q I did. And I’m asking again.
MR. McCLELLAN: — the President has said what our answer is to these questions. We’ll be glad to talk about [...]

Read Full Post »

Sen. Pat Leahy says uh uh, there is no attorney-client privilege when you work as White House counsel so Roberts really ought to cough up those memos.
U.S. Rep. John Conyers writes Fearless Leader a letter, demanding he not pardon Karl Rove.
Ho hum, another Republican governor accused of ethical violations. File this one under “Dog [...]

Read Full Post »

Just because it’s bugging me:
My best friend has a login shortcut to her firm’s software vendor on her Windows XP desktop. She’s been using it all along, no problem. On Friday, it stopped working. Not only that, she can no longer get to the website via her browser. (No one else was having a [...]

Read Full Post »

From today’s online chat via WashPo:
Washington, D.C.: What are you doing to address the crushing tax burden on American families, particularly low-income and minority families?
Senator Rick Santorum: First off, the tax burden on low-income families is actually very light. The bottom 25% of tax filers pay no income taxes and in fact, many get an [...]

Read Full Post »

You wouldn’t think standing up against torture would warrant a press release, but these are some strange times:
WASHINGTON, July 25 /U.S. Newswire/ — Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), a nonpartisan veterans’ organization with 12,000 members, called for a commission to investigate torture allegations today, in response to the Pentagon refusal to release photos and videos [...]

Read Full Post »

Billmon steers us to some excellent reporting on Iraq. I’ll single out just one, but do go read the rest:
As Iraq resumed its sovereignty after the period of American occupation, the new American team that arrived then, headed by Ambassador John D. Negroponte, had a withering term for the optimistic approach of their predecessors, led [...]

Read Full Post »