GOP/Delay Corruption Grows

"A lobbyist and former staffer of outgoing Rep. Tom DeLay set up a retirement account for the Texas congressman's wife ... federal investigators are looking at Buckham's role in establishing the account and whether DeLay performed official acts in return for money sent to it ... Buckham's firm was tied to convicted ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, receiving referrals from Abramoff's office. Buckham also accompanied DeLay and his wife on a Scotland golfing trip in 2000 that was partly paid for by Abramoff ..."

"Smart Hollywood" Speaking Out Against Bush Crimes

John Cusack's motivation for his latest film grew out of something he did not see - flag-draped caskets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon policy bans media coverage of America's war dead as their remains are returned. The Bush administration has strongly enforced the ban, something Cusack describes as 'one of the most shameful, disgraceful, cowardly political acts that I've seen in my lifetime."

Unintended Irony

Still traveling this week, posting via email.  Couldn't help hearing Rumsfeld on BBC touting the Zarqawi killing.  The part of his speech that really grabbed me though was the claim that "no single person on this planet" had more women & children's innocent blood on their hands, and that he "personified a dark, medieval, sadistic version of the future."  For a moment there I thought Rummy had turned a corner and was speaking out against Darth Cheney ...

Sexual Psychosis

In the debate over "protecting the sanctity of marriage," some more ignorant but equally ludicrous claims about sexuality have sprung forth from GOP's loins...er, mouths. Republican Senator Jim Inhofe claimed from the well of the Senate that he had no homosexuals in his family. Stonewall Democrats press release. Given the fact that current estimates put the rate of homosexuality at between 3 and 4 percent, such a statement is most likely untrue. It is sad that in our current political climate a U.S. Senator could feel comfortable standing before his colleagues and stating with pride at the lack of homosexuals among his peeps. While not a "battleground" state in the war over homosexual rights, Okies have waged their own fights, including one lesbian couple who was married in the sovereign Cherokee nation, which caused quite a furor throughout Indian Territory. The couple hoped to circumvent Oklahoma's ban on gay marriage that passed in 2004 after facing difficulties when they weren't recognized as a legal couple. Won't it be wonderful when one day we can all stand hand-in-hand, sing "Kum By Yah" (or that song that that Whos sing on Christmas morning), and forget about all of this fear over what our neighbor does in the privacy of their bedrooms? To tell the truth, I am quite freaked out about what my neighbors do in their bedrooms, but they're all straight. Ugh. I shudder at the thought. J. Mc.

More Guilty Pleas In Republican Ohio Scandal
"A former top official at the Ohio workers' compensation fund pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking kickbacks from brokers and others who wanted to handle the fund's investments. Terrence Gasper, the former chief financial officer, was charged in a scandal that has shaken the state's Republican-dominated government and led to ethics charges against Gov. Bob Taft ... He also said he accepted $25,000 from Tom Noe, a coin dealer and prominent GOP donor who was hired by the bureau to oversee an investment in rare coins ... Noe pleaded guilty last month to illegally funneling about $45,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign."

Specter Grows A Spine, Challenges Cheney On Warrantless Spying
"Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter wants Vice President Dick Cheney to stop trying to influence his committee's review of the White House's warrantless surveillance program. 'It is neither pleasant nor easy to raise these issues with the administration of my own party, but I do so because of their importance,' the Pennsylvania Republican wrote Cheney in a three-page letter Wednesday."

Bush Failure On All Fronts: Democracy Declines In Middle East
"Three years ago, just before the Iraq offensive, George Bush announced his ambition to "spread democratic values" to the Middle East. A new regime in Baghdad would serve as a "powerful example of freedom for the other nations in the region." ... But three years after Bush's announcement, the dynamism seems to be arrested. Iraq is courting chaos and regimes are hardening up. Egypt has reinstated a state of emergency first established in 1981 .. Syria snaps up writers and re-establishes itself in Lebanon. In Saudi Arabia, the palace has specified that a constitutional monarchy is not on the program."

I'll be in Geneva and London for the next few days, so posting will be spotty.
Anyone who knows how to make the sidebar show properly both in Firefox, Safari AND MSIE, please advise. I just got it working in explorer and now it's dropped to the bottom of the page in safari & firefox.

Y'all behave now.

An Inconvenient Truth:
"... the film's title is really a metaphor for all the problems that the Bush administration continues to deny, from the war in Iraq, to the torture at Guatanamo, to the way the war on terrorism is being conducted. If Americans learn the truth, and broadcast to others via town hall meetings, maybe we can recapture what we lost ... even though George Bush has suddenly discovered that there may be an energy crisis ... the inconvenient truth to this new-found environmentalism is but an empty promise because money for large-scale renewable energy has been compromised by the ongoing expenditures on the global wars launched by this administration ..."

Fun For The Rapture-Obsessed On 6-6-06:
"One of the mysteries of Revelation has been the identity and connection of a second beast who rescues the antichrist and serves as his prophet... Karl Rove rescued bush from political death after his defeat in a Congressional race, and since 1993 he has served as the brains and the cleverness of the antichrist ... No mere presidential advisor has ever held so much power.  He is often referred to as 'President Rove', and even other people within the bush regime worry  about his growing influence and power. Every decision Bush makes is calculated and spun by Rove for political effect, with absolutely no regard for the truth."

If this is true, of course, we are really screwed. Any Scripture scholars out there that know whether impeaching the antichrist is a possibility?

Fuel On The Fire:
"A new army manual produced by the Pentagon has omitted a key tenet of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly bans 'humiliating and degrading treatment' ... The rest of the world is completely convinced that we are busy torturing people ... Whether that is true or not, the fact we keep refusing to provide these protections in our formal directives puts a lot of fuel on the fire."

The Price Of Bush Incompetence: Multiple Quagmires - Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia...
"America is barely treading water these days in Iraq and the situation on the ground in Afganistan may actually be even worse. Our armed forces are beginning to wear down from these two extended engagements ... while the specter of hurricanes and other possible natural disasters requires a significant contingent to remain at home ... if we cannot dedicate the attention or the resources required today by Somalia as a result of our commitment to Iraq ... are we not giving tacit approval for Somalia to become the next Afghanistan, a failed state in which a radical Islamic militia is able to impose Sharia at the barrel of the gun? We already know what came of an Afganistan under the Taliban..."

Desperate ... Pandering And Failing At The Same Time:
"The conventional wisdom at this point insists that Bush and the congressional GOP are touting the anti-gay constitutional amendment to rally the base ... the argument is the GOP will gin up the conservative base with votes that fail to ban same-sex marriage, fail to ban flag burning, and probably fail to repeal the estate tax ... But the GOP base is crazy, not stupid. Pandering can be an effective strategy, but pandering-while-failing, when your side controls every branch of government, strikes me as a recipe for more frustration, not enthusiasm."

Libby Trial Closes In On Culprits:
"...Walton repeated his desire to prevent Libby's defense team from turning the trial into a debate on the legitimacy of the war in Iraq or the accuracy of Wilson's statements in the op-ed piece in The Times. The judge said what matters is whether Libby lied to a grand jury and the FBI about what he told three reporters ... about Plame.   Fitzgerald has revealed in court filings that Cheney... was a pivotal player in declassifying portions of a highly secret intelligence assessment so Libby could share information on Iraq with a select group of reporters ..."

Cowardly, Wrong, And Dangerous:
"As prospects grow for a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, this November, the idea of impeachment is gaining attention. Yet even as polls show increasing numbers of Americans supporting the idea of removing Bush from office before the end of his term, Democratic Party leaders keep backing away. This is not simply bad politics. It is cowardly, wrong and dangerous."

ABA Investigating Bush Lawbreaking:
"The board of governors of the American Bar Association voted unanimously yesterday to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws ... Among the laws Bush has challenged are the ban on torturing detainees, oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act, and 'whistle-blower' protections for federal employees."

Immoral Bush, GOP Push Paris Hilton Tax Cut While Deficit Soars:
"In the interest of stiffening those spines, let me remind senators that this isn't just a fiscal issue, it's also a moral issue. Congress has already declared that the budget deficit is serious enough to warrant depriving children of health care; how can it now say that it's worth enlarging the deficit to give Paris Hilton a tax break?"

IMPEACH NOW - We May Have <12 Months To Avoid War With Iran:
"Bill Kristol said a senior administration official told him the timeline to resolve the problem of Iran’s nuclear program is 12 months. By that time 'will have diplomatic success, or we’ll have success through pressure and sanctions, or we’ll be forced to use military action'…"

Corrupt Bush + Incompetent Rumsfeld + Iraq Adventure = Haditha Massacre
"... retired Army General John Batiste said there was a 'direct link' between allegations of serious misconduct against Iraqi civilians at Haditha and the 'bad judgment' of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2003 and 2004. Batiste explained that Rumsfeld’s war plan left troops 'under-resourced [and] overcommitted.' The result was an 'unbelievable' strain on U.S. forces."

Bush Promises + $3.75 Will Get You A Cup Of Coffee At Starbucks:
"Bush promised that preventive war, regime change, and unilateral action would stop proliferation, spread democracy, and lead to a new era of great power cooperation. Yet, Saddam didn't have nukes, but now North Korea and Iran do. Democracy's advances have been tepid with some of the main cases producing reactions that have hurt U.S. interests - from Baghdad to Palestine to Ukraine. And relations with Europe, China, and Russia have soured since 2002."

Scandal-Ridden GOP Drags Feet On Lobbying Reform:
"The stench of scandal on Capitol Hill is getting stronger five months after lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to influence-peddling charges, but a lobbying overhaul has yet to see the light of day.  The Senate passed its version at the end of March and the House bill was approved in early May. In the month since, the House has not taken the next step, naming negotiators for talks with the Senate on a compromise bill."

Heat Turned Up On Bush-Abramoff Links Investigation:
"David Safavian faces a second day of cross-examination by prosecutors about assistance he provided, as a Bush administration official, to Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff.  The former chief of staff at the General Services Administration and chief federal procurement officer in the White House was returning to the witness stand in U.S. District Court on Monday."

The People Demand Action:
"Anti-war and anti-Bush fervor is growing among rank and file Democrats ... creating a rift between increasingly belligerent activists and the party's leaders in Washington. Many outside-the-Beltway Democrats want the party to turn forcefully against the war in Iraq and to investigate, censure or even impeach President Bush should the party win control of Congress this fall."

Polluted Web Of Big Oil, Republican Judicial Appointees, And Lobbyists:
Let's see if we can follow this trail ...

1. Big Oil backs GOP presidential campaigns, 
2. Reagan & Bush push through conservative judicial nominations, 
3. Bush pressures EPA to reverse scientific consensus and strike CO2 from list of pollutants to be regulated, 
4. Exxon-Mobil & lobbyist friends fund junkets to 'educate' judges about global warming issues, 
5. GOP-appointed, Exxon-Mobil-fattened judges cast deciding vote to back EPA's CO2 decision against lawsuit by coalition of states & environmental groups.

Does that sound like the system Jefferson, Madison et al had in mind?

Liar In Chief Plays Dangerous Trump Card To Stop Litigation:
"Facing a wave of litigation ... the Bush administration is increasingly turning to a legal tactic that swiftly torpedoes most lawsuits: the state secrets privilege ...  The privilege has been asserted by the Justice Department more frequently under President Bush than under any of his predecessors ... Under Mr. Bush, the secrets privilege has been used to block a lawsuit by a (FBI) translator ... who was fired after accusing colleagues of security breaches; to stop a discrimination lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Sterling, a Farsi-speaking, African-American officer at the Central Intelligence Agency; and to derail a patent claim ... evidently to guard technical details of government eavesdropping ... if the government is not truthful, plaintiffs will lose and there's very little chance to straighten it out ..." (emphasis added)

These days, of course, it's not a matter of "if the government is not truthful" but rather how outrageously untruthful the Bush government is in any given circumstance.  Make no mistake, Bush is invoking the state secrets privilege to hide his administration's crimes, errors and incompetence - NOT to protect national security.

Mother Of All Guest Blogger Lineups:
Steve Clemons over at The Washinton Note has pulled in some great talent to pinch hit while he's on vacation.  The Budowsky bit below was a first taste; some others include:

• Gary Hart: "In a government envisioned by James Madison, the Congress, a branch of government equal to the executive, would be asking questions about our strategy of stealth. But this Congress is Madison's worst nightmare--quiescent, passive, emasculated, rubber stamp, and totally abandoning its Constitutional duty of oversight of the executive. The current Congress resembles most the Duma in the Soviet era."
• Mohammad Mohamedou: "... the abysmal failure of the 'adventure in Iraq'... has set back the United States' standing in the Arab and Muslim world by decades ... we tend to miss the larger historical picture; namely a steady pattern over four years of systematic and systemic human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, secret prisons, ghost detainees, and globalized and privatized torture practice, all of which orchestrated around an originally-conceived design of cultural and religious humiliation ... Osama Ben Laden and ... Abu Musab al Zarqawi ... are well on their way to winning Iraq including the "hearts and minds" of the humiliated ones..."
• On deck: Nir Rosen, Arianna Huffington, Joe Trippi, Clyde Prestowitz, 007, and many more.  Keep your eyes on these guys.

Budowsky's Hammer Comes Down Hard:
"The George Bush Republican Party is the Party of Big Government, Big Spending, Big Budget Deficits, Big Trade Deficits, Big Current Account Deficits, Big National Debt, Big Brother, Big Oil and Big Scandal ... George Bush has done major damage to the readiness, recruitment, and morale of the Army, Marine Corps, National Guard, Reserves, CIA. As Hurricane Season arrives we remember that four years after 9-11 his disaster preparedness was so incompetent that an outraged Nation watched good people die in New Orleans because they were too poor, too elderly, too young, too handicapped and too weak to protect themselves and those who should have protected, did not ... "

Winding Up For Another Hurricane Season:
"Meteorologists and coastal residents are keeping a wary eye on the Atlantic Ocean following last year’s devastating hurricane season ... Anybody from Brownsville, Texas, to Portland, Maine, is vulnerable ... The season is expected to produce 17 named storms, nine hurricanes and five major hurricanes. Two to four of those storms could hit the United States ... In an average year, only 10 named storms would be expected ... For the entire U.S. coastline, the probability of a major hurricane landfall is 82 percent compared to the last century average of 52 percent ..."

Meanwhile, Bush May Have A New Candidate For FEMA Head...
"Eccentric hurricane forecaster Dr. Bo ''Shaky'' Howard brushed off the predictions of other weather experts this week ... He has often criticized the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and well-known experts such as Dr. William Gray for being 'wishy-washy' in their forecasts ... 'I've got a real simple system for predicting hurricane activity,' he says. 'There's a tracking map attached to a dart board in my Nintendo room. What I do, basically, is get trashed on cheap rum and start firing away.'  When all the upcoming hurricanes are darted, Dr. Howard says, he then turns to Mr. Stumps, his pet Jack Russell terrier. "

Bush Duplicity On Climate Crisis Revisited:
"President Bush's decision to abandon his campaign pledge to limit carbon dioxide emissions was routed through a key Bush aide who had lobbied for one of the world's largest manufacturers of automobile exhaust systems ... Calio and Chadwick also lobbied for Arco (n.b. - now owned by BP), formerly one of the country's largest oil companies and one with strong ties to the Bush family ... Arco has a long history with the Bush family and benefited from a provision inserted by former President George H.W. Bush into the Clean Air Act ... George H.W. Bush had worked hard, though unsuccessfully, to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. ... George W. Bush has made it clear that he favors his father's policy. The majority of Arco's oil reserves were in Alaska."