Here Comes the Fun

Mukasey has refused to refer the Congressional contempt motions to a grand jury. House is promising to go to civil court to force him to do so. Hold tight!

I Want Some

I didn't watch the debate last night (I've just lost the stomach for it) but I've seen clips and read the reviews and analyses. I have just one question: what WAS Russert smoking last night, and where can I get some?

Bill Buckley Dies at 82

William F. Buckley, the godfather, if not the father, of modern conservatism, died today at his home in suburban Connecticut. More than any other figure on the right, Buckley made conservatism mainstream. His intellect and wit took the movement from crazy uncles with conspiracy theories to a vibrant, intellectual level. Agree or disagree with him and his ideas, he was a brilliant thinker and his rapier wit and razor tongue did much to make the crazies acceptable.

In almost every way, Bill Buckley was the source of my interest in politics. My earliest political memories are of sitting mesmerized in front of the teevee as he and Gore Vidal debated and discussed one of the conventions (I think in Chicago in 68.) I was fascinated by the display or wit, intellect, and the blazing exchange of ideas (and vituperations) and along with the other political events of that year turned me into a political junkie. For a number of years, I was a pretty rabid conservative and followed Firing Line and NR religiously. Eventually, I came to see the emptiness and destructiveness that lay at the heart of conservatism (and in its wake), and gradually became almost as rabidly anti-conservative. But without Bill Buckley, I would never have become as intensely interested in politics and governance as I have. And for that, I thank him.

McCain Flap

I'm not going to comment on the whole McCain brouhaha over his relationship with a lobbyist from ten years ago. There's probably something there, but at this point, it's all so nebulous, with so few facts available, I can't begin to make heads or tails of it. The one thing we do know is that McCain is a corrupt, flipflopping, self-absorbed scuzbucket, and however this story breaks, it will only confirm that in one way or another.

19%

Bush approval rate, per ARG

Obama Crushes Hillary

Ouch! With 95% of the vote in, Barak leads Hillary by 17%

Texas Dilemma

Hillary has expected all along to win Texas, and I suspect that she will win my native state. But it's got to be tough these days to be some good old boy from West Texas, lifelong Democrat that he is, trying to decide between the coon and the cunt. Life is interesting, and change tends to confuse most Texans :)

Castro Steps Down

Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced (via the internet, oddly) that he is stepping down. It appears baby bro Raul will take his place permanently. This should lead to interesting times in both Cuba and the U.S. as the new order makes its way forward in both countries. Could be signs of good things to come, or just more of the same. We'll have to stay tuned to find out.

Keith Goes Off.... Again

YAY! I love Keith Olbermann's Special Comments. The guy has the best writing staff in the news biz and delivers the polemics with EXACTLY the right demeanor. It's hard to excoriate someone and pull it off gracefully; KO manages to do this once a month or more, with grace, brilliance, and sometimes, even, wit. Today, he lays into the Preznit, and doesn't leave much behind for Cheney to sweep up. Check out the links at C&L.

Someone Pimpslap Me

Ummm... I sorta neglected to mention the main story of the day. Apparently, we're all going to be killed by terrorists, since the House Dems, reaching down and finding some cojones, told Bush to go fuck himself, they were going on break, and since he hadn't liked any of their earlier attempts at revamping the FISA bill, they'd just have to let it expire and worry about it later. I LOVE IT! Hell, if I'm wrong, and the the only thing standing between us and oblivion is the rending of the Constitution by this exremental bill, then I'm willing to be posterboy for wrong (since I'm basically living in ground zero point one, here in Socal...)

We'll see if the sudden attack of balls, and Bush's all too predictable tirade of inanity we're sure to be subjected to this weekend, and the warm, glowing, internally gooey sense of winning that Congress is sure to be feeling, can carry over past the break and give them the guts to do it again, and again, and again...... nothing succeeds like success.

Letters With Teeth

Cong. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tx), Chairman of the House Intel Cmte wrote a letter today to the Preznit. The entire thing is a masterpiece of patriotic snark and smack to the face of the Boyking. Read it (Atrios has it in full here.)

The conclusion makes me smile:

I, for one, do not intend to back down - not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.

We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.

Sincerely,

Silvestre Reyes

Member of Congress

Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Someone Grew A Pair

The House has moved to start duel-track actions for contempt against the WH. A criminal contempt action against Bolton and Miers for not responding to sub poenae, and a civil action to deal with Mukasey's pre-refusal to prosecute anyone in the Admin.

Give Me A Break

Or at least, give Ed Rendell a break. Yesterday, the PA Gov made a comment that some whites in his state would not vote for a black man for President. And all hell broke loose. Well, let me try some of the same: the sun will come up in the east tomorrow!!!!!

All Rendell said was the truth. Truth sometimes is ugly and hurtful, but it is none the less true for it. There are some, maybe a lot, of people who won't vote for a black for President; there are a lot, maybe more, maybe less, that won't vote for a woman for President. Rendell wasn't saying this was right or wrong, merely fact. Let's not get so lost in the PC woods that we forget that the truth is out there (hmmm, I should copyright that!) and ignoring it or railing at it and killing the messenger won't make it any less true. Let's instead rejoice that there enough enlightened folk in the country to make a black man and a white woman the leading contenders for the Presidency (yeah, yeah, there's a couple of old white guys out there too, but does anyone really want THEM?)

Dianne Must Go

I've had it! Sweet Jesus, Dianne Feinstein is a fucking tool and needs to be replaced immediately (well, at the next election, I'm not calling for a recall!) The stupid fucking bitch just shat all over her constituents (she doesn't have any honor left to shit on!) by voting not to strip immunity from the FISA bill. Check the link and about halfway through, you'll see Dianne listed amongst the traitors; traitors to her Constituents and to the Constitution.

We can only hope that the version that comes out of the conference will be in line with sanity and the Bill of Rights.

Anyone Surprised

Today comes the news that the Pentagon received a RAND report in 2005 that EVERYONE involved in planning the Iraq fiasco had screwed the pooch. This, apparently, was not Pentagon policy, so they buried the report (which normally would have been declassified as a matter of course.) From the NYT report:

A Pentagon official who is familiar with the episode offered a different interpretation: Army officials were concerned that the report would strain relations with a powerful defense secretary and become caught up in the political debate over the war. “The Army leaders who were involved did not want to take the chance of increasing the friction with Secretary Rumsfeld,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because he did not want to alienate senior military officials.

Paul Kiel at TPM has more.

Where Are We Going?

Well, Super-duper Tuesday has come and gone and what have we learned? Mainly, that the Mittster wants to deny us our fun! Romney bowed out today with all the grace of a dog in a carrier strapped to the roof of a speeding car. Apparently, if he stayed in the race, the terrorist would win, and then who would the Repugs rail against!?!?! So, now, we're basically down to McCain, which makes the Repugs SOOO happy! Rush must be ecstatic.

On the left side of the aisle, Tuesday didn't really tell us much. Barak couldn't beat Hillary in the big states, she couldn't beat him in the small ones, and they ended up pretty much where they started out, more or less even in delegate count. Barak has the money advantage, Hillary has most of the 'establishment' Dems behind her, and not much clarity as to who will come out on top, altho has Romney and Giuliani have shown, money may not be that much of an advantage.

I don't have any real preference between the two Dems left (I did vote for HRC in the primary, but it was pretty much a coin-flip.) Either one would be a good President (hell, even McCain would be better than what we've got now!) so I can live with either. We'll just have to wait and see who comes out on top.

Why Newspapers Are Dying

I've read a lot of analyses of why local newspapers are having such a rough time selling papers these days. There are a lot of reasons, and I think this post makes most of them seem dead obvious. As usual, the culprit is rapacious big business, Wall Street, and consolidation. His summary:

Now the tailspin continues, and the damage to our democracy is hard to overstate. It's no coincidence that the United States stumbled into Iraq and is paralyzed before serious challenges at home and abroad at precisely the moment when real journalism is besieged. It almost might make the conspiracy minded think there was a grand plan to keep us dumb.

(emphasis mine)