More Right Wing Partisan Politics

Remember this extremely hypocritical and partisan post from JimK, a Connecticut Blogger at "far right wingnuts thoughts," last December?

As you listen to JimK talk about Kerry and Dodd's planned visits to the Middle East:

Right Thoughts - Dodd Plans Trip To Middle East:
"I’m far more concerned with the idea of two Senators from an opposing party blatantly and openly undermining the sitting President in matters of foreign policy. This kind of behavior has consequences that go well beyond the next two years of Bush’s term.

It’s time to get past this cheerleading for the Dems or the GOP and start thinking about how this dirty political pool is affecting the way we can govern this nation going forward."

Well JimK, when are you going to get past the partisan political cheerleading? You are real quick to paint Kerry and Dodd as having undermined the president and even suggested they are breaking laws, even though the fact is they have not and will not break any laws on their trips.

But if you were really being honest about the paritsan cheerleading your diary would have mentioned the treacherous and traitorous Republican Specter:

Nelson said he reported the information to embassy officials and will brief his congressional committees on the trip. Also expected to visit Syria is Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa..

"We don't think that members of Congress ought to be going there," White House press secretary Tony Snow said, adding that the United States continues to denounce Syria's meddling in Lebanon and its ties to terrorist groups.

It is highly appropriate that Tony Snow starts off the sentence there with "We don't think...",

Well... The little GOP talking pointy head footballs just can't seem to get kicked around enough these days as more Hotair expells from the partisan dung heap side of the Blogosphere:

This makes three prominent Democrats who have gone abroad to undermine our foreign policy in the past three months. Kerry’s done it twice, Dean-o’s boasted of having done it repeatedly, and now, by far and away the most high profile of the lot, Madam Speaker herself’s going to Damascus to meet with the proprietor of the launching pad for 85-90% of the suicide bombers in Iraq, according to the State Department’s estimation.

ABC News has learned Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Syria next week to meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The visit will make Pelosi the most senior U.S. official ever to meet with President Assad…

Pelosi’s visit to Syria would come as the United States has severed high-level contacts with Assad’s government…

Traveling with Pelosi will be Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN), Nick Rahall (D-WV), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), and David Hobson (R-OH).

Mind you, Assad and his terror apparatus are also the prime suspects in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, whose pro-western political heirs are currently deadlocked with Hezbollah in Lebanon. If she’s not loyal enough to her own country to refrain from handing one of its biggest enemies a propaganda windfall, you’d think she’d at least be decent enough not to legitimize a suspected killer under UN investigation by doing meet and greets with him.

Repulsive. As usual.

Yep... Repulsive as usual. And as per usual they ignore the fact that the State Department has to OK travel like this. This has become another right wingnut blowhards sudden story of the day BUT where was all of this Hotair when this happened?

Pelosi's outreach to a state sponsor of terrorism is a ``really bad idea,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said at a briefing in Washington. ``Someone should take a step back and think about the message that it sends and the message that it sends to our allies.''

Perino's remarks come as a group of Republican lawmakers has embarked on their own trip to Syria. Michael Lowry, a spokesman for Representative Robert Aderholt, said that the Alabama lawmaker will visit Syria as part of a Republican delegation led by Representative Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican. Wolf is the top Republican on the House appropriations subcommittee that funds the State Department.

Perino wasn't available to comment about that trip.

Another embarrasing chapter in the far-right-wingnut's archive of shameless GOP talking points.

One day partisan right wingnuts might "get past this cheerleading for [...] the GOP and start thinking about how this dirty political pool is affecting the way we can govern this nation going forward." But if that day ever comes listen for a loud POP as they all pull their heads out of their asses.

Republican Cronies Were Scanning OR Reading?

Josh Marshall over at TPM digs this up:

If you're a Cunningham case afficionado, you know that in early 2002 Mitchell Wade was still acting as a cut out for his corruption mentor Brent Wilkes -- who's now awaiting trial in the Cunningham case. And around the same time Wilkes was greasing palms in DC trying to get into the Anthrax mail screening racket himself.

He got some help from Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) who got money from Wilkes. We pick up that part of the story from the San Diego Union-Tribune from March 19th, 2006 ...

Julie Doolittle was working at Buckham's offices in 2002 when Buckham introduced Brent Wilkes to her husband. Federal contracts for his flagship company, ADCS Inc., were drying up, partly because the Pentagon had been telling Congress it had little need for the company's document-scanning technology. So Wilkes was trying to get funding for two new businesses.

One was tied to the 2002 anthrax scare, when tainted letters were sent to Capitol Hill. Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.

He called his proposed solution MailSafe – similar to the names of several anti-anthrax companies launched at that time – and began vying for federal contracts, even though the company had little to its name other than a rudimentary Web site.

The House Administration Committee, on which Doolittle sat, oversees the congressional mail system. Doolittle told his colleagues about MailSafe and introduced them to Wilkes, but the project never got off the ground.

Note the reference to the House Administration Committee. That was the committee then chaired by another Abramoff buddy -- the now-imprisoned Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). And Ney, as he'd earlier done for Abramoff associate Adam Kidan, actually read into the House record an encomium to Wilkes.

So it all comes back to the same question. Why did a company like Wade's, which had no track record whatsoever and had only been approved to receive federal government contracts two months earlier, get a contract from the White House to screen the mail of the President of the United States?

Are you sure it was only the Presidents mail they were screening?

Note the Tribune story:

Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.

All Capitol Hill mail? Wouldn't that mean that these Republican cronies were also "scanning" sensitive mail from the Democratic party side of the aisle (and to and from God knows who else inside the Hill?) as well?

To me, this seems to give these Republican cronies the ability to spy on people's mail if they were unethical enough to abuse this contract for their corrupted GOP's advantage... Does anyone think these guys weren't reading what they were scanning? "Oooh, here's a hot one! Send it to Karl..." It's not like the GOP has ever been known to be ethical when given the opportunity.

Joe neocon Lieberman surrounding himself with Republicans

Joe neocon Lieberman knows who he is in bed with, as he surrounds himself with Republicans. Via ctblogger at MLN:

Even those who didn't vote for Lieberman in November have higher expectations for him than this. Pouting about the last election? Proposing a war tax without any plans to pursue it?

Then there's his fixation with seating charts.

As chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Lieberman should be focusing on the many security issues facing the nation. But this month, the big news from the committee was that Lieberman had rearranged the seating chart.

From now on, he announced, the senators will sit Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican, instead of one party on one side of the room and the other party on the other side.

[...]

Instead of focussing on seating charts, instead of proposing a war tax that's dead on arrival, instead of reveling in his hurt feelings, Lieberman should do what he said he would do while running for re-election last year " focus on representing Connecticut, focus on holding the Bush administration accountable for its war policies.

Yep! His biggest boldest action since winning the 2006 election with the support of Republicans' money and the Connecticut Republican vote is to surronund himself with Republicans.

Does anyone on the Democratic side of the Senate think this is a good thing?

Short Circuiting Labor

Ever see a great reason for the resurgence of unions? The Hartford Courant shows you one:

courant.com | Circuit City Step Risks Backlash:

"A new plan for layoffs at Circuit City is openly targeting better-paid workers, risking a public backlash by implying that its wages are as subject to discounts as its flat-screen TVs

The electronics retailer, facing larger competitors and falling sales, said Wednesday that it would lay off about 3,400 store workers - immediately - and replace them with lower-paid new hires as soon as possible"

Risking a public Backlash??? They have got to be kidding?

They are kicking 3400 employees to the curb and then replacing them with even lower paid workers.

A nice little extra thought to warm the hearts of those recently unemployed curb dwellers via Vassmer at dKos:

And of course, Circuit City's CEOs' salaries will not be cut for being overpaid:

Circuit City Chief Executive Officer Philip Schoonover was paid $8.52 million in fiscal 2006, including a $975,000 salary. Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson received $3.85 million, including a $1.17 million salary.

Mmmm, what do you expect from a company who donates 90% of its political contributions to Republicans, according to BuyBlue?

Figure the odds? Well... I guess I am not shopping at Circuit City ever again.

This is the epitome of the bush economy. Someone should unionize those workers just to fuck with these unethical bums.

[update]
The Onion does an intersting parody of blaming immigration for these kinds of problems. An issue that republicans will try to push, hopefully with the same laughable results, in the next election cycle:

Immigration: The Human Cost


It is obvious that, in the case of Circuit City's fiscal abuse of employees to continue the enrichment of incompetent Management like their CEO, it has little to do with immigration and everything to do with the deterioration of workers rights in the USA under the Corporate owned Republican party.

The Flip Flop Express

The Flip Flop express flies off the never-ending GOP deepend:

The McCain peace train in 1993 on Somalia:

MCCAIN: …this resolution establishes, in effect, a date certain for a vote on the commitment of United States forces to Somalia…I think we all realize that we have drifted from the use of force to secure humanitarian relief to an open-ended effort at peace enforcement and nation building. …the orderly way to stop it is for the President to present a plan for shaping U.S. withdrawal, set a date for that plan, and have the congress of the United States either endorse or reject such a proposal. [Senate floor speech, 9/9/93]

In that 1993 vote McCain and his other peaceniks - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Bennett, Bond, Cochran, Domenici, Hatch, Hutchison, Lugar, Specter, Stevens and Warner — ALL voted in favor of cutting funds and setting a timetable for withdrawal.

The McCain Flip Flop Express today:

MCCAIN: These same provisions were rejected by the Senate two weeks ago by a 48-50 vote. Now here we are debating the same provisions that we have — that have the same serious problems. I hope they’ll be rejected again by the same, if not a larger margin. Supporters of this provision say they want a date certain for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. But what they have offered us is more accurately described as a date certain for surrender — a date certain for surrender — with grave consequences for the future of Iraq, the stability of the Middle East and the security of Americans at home and abroad. And they offer it just as the situation in Iraq, though fraught with difficult challenges, is beginning to improve.

The Flip Flop Express is rolling, and smoking some pretty strong drugs to manage live in these two seperate realities.

What about the Fifth?

Denis Horgan gives you a peek at the latest bush league maneuver:

DenisHorgan.com:

"It is a vital piece of our freedoms. It protects Americans from the goverment:

'No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.'

Neither is it a Get Out of Jail Free card for Bush administration types who rather simply do not choose to have be asked thunderously important questions by the trifling, insignificant legislative branch of the American people's government."

I read the Fifth Amendment and the only thing I can see by Monica Goodling taking the Fifth is precisely what everyone else can see:

Effectively conceding that there is criminal activity involved which could trigger a "criminal case" Monica Goodling turns to the Fifth.

The key here is that you can't take the Fifth (by my layman's reading of it) unless there is criminal activity involved. This not some political ploy to be trifled with.

Either she is admitting there is criminal activity that she knows about and/or is involved in OR she is attempting to abuse a law that doesn't apply to her for political purposes. Either way, it is a telling sign of how the corrupt bush administration and GOP operates.

Iraq Good News Explosion

Lewis Black brings us the good news from Iraq:



I like the new video service The Daily Show is providing but I hope they change it to make the video feeds permanent archives of this shows high quality news and comedy format. Otherwise they will, likely, go the way of the dinosaurs in the wake of the YouTube evolution. Expiring in a month is not good enough for what the Blogs are trying to do.

Not 60... It is a 50 Vote Hurdle for Withdrawal Timetable

BooMan takes a look at a common misperception concerning current legislation on the timetable for withdrawl:

THE DUDE: Yeah, my thinking about the case, man, it had become uptight.

All the time I have been thinking about this supplemental bill for funding the war in Iraq I have been working on the assumption that the Senate would need 60 votes to pass the legislation. I thought, briefly, that Reid could invoke reconcilation because the bill would affect the budget, but that only pertains to regular budget legislation, not supplemental funding. Nonetheless, it looks like I've had my head up my ass.

Proponents of the troop withdrawal deadline face a lower hurdle than in earlier Senate votes. Earlier efforts to win approval for a withdrawal timetable needed 60 votes to overcome a filibuster; this time, opponents will be trying to strip a withdrawal plan that's already in legislation. That means it will require a simple 50-vote majority to keep it in.

So, okay, I'm still learning Senate procedure.

WALTER: Dude, nothing is fucked. Come on. You're being very unDude.

This changes things substantially. There was literally no chance that the House version would pass the Senate if it required 60 votes.

But at 50 votes... The hurdles don't seem quite so insurmountable, eh?

It even renders Joe neocon Lieberman's vote and positions as a moot point. There will be enough moderate Republicans that will, likely, make the 50 vote mark an easy one to surpass in this political climate. Ya gotta love that! heh Poor ol' obsolete Joe...

Daily Show: Viacom vs YouTube

I don't know how well this Comedy Central embed works...



Just testing it out here. I won't know if there are comercials or anything like that until I post this and check it out myself.(update: Nope! No commercials, YET, and the video quality is A1 primo)

The BIG problem with these videos?

They expire in a month.

How are we supposed to keep a record of The Daily Show's comedic and politically insiteful genius if it expires? And does their genius expire with this link?

Don't Tread on the 9-11 Dead

Via Nicole Belle at Crooks & Liars:

Kansas City Star: (h/t Sisyphus Shrugged)

The pulverized remains of bodies from the World Trade Center disaster site were used by city workers to fill ruts and potholes, a city contractor says in a sworn affidavit filed Friday in Manhattan Federal Court.

Eric Beck says debris powders - known as fines - were put in a pothole-fill mixture by crews at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, N.Y., where more than 1.65 million tons of World Trade Center debris were deposited after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I observed the New York City Department of Sanitation taking these fines from the conveyor belts of our machines, loading it onto tractors and using it to pave roads and fill in potholes, dips and ruts," Eric Beck said.

Beck was the senior supervisor for Taylor Recycling, a private contractor hired to sift through debris trucked to Fresh Kills after the trade center attacks. Before the arrival of Taylor's equipment at Fresh Kills in October 2001, the debris was sifted manually by workers using rakes and shovels.

Beck's affidavit was filed by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims who are suing the city in hopes of creating a formal burial place for debris that they say contains human remains.

"It's devastating," Norman Siegel, an attorney representing the families, said of Beck's statement. "When the 9/11 families found about this, they were wiped out."

No wonder the FDNY wasn't too happy with Giuliani. What a way to honor our fallen heroes.

WTF were they thinking?

Have they no decency?

Kucinich: IMPEACH? Yes or No

Watch it, think about it, and respond to it.





Impeach for Peace wants you to tell him what you think:

Respond to this video question from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) via comments, e-mails, letters and most importantly a DIY Impeachment petition of memorial.

Call Rep. Dennis Kucinich at 202-225-5871 or E-MAIL REP. KUCINICH.

We report... You decide. No spin on this one.

UPDATE:
Chuck Hagel talks impeachment via Saramerica:

“Any president who says, I don’t care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don’t care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed — if a president really believes that, then there are — what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that,” said Sen Chuck Hagel R - Nebraska.

Oooh! Tell me more Chuckie!! I love it when Senators actually speak as if they have (gasp) balls. Or a scrotum, to use the word a certain subsector of librarians loves to hate.

"He’s not accountable anymore, which isn’t totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don’t know. It depends on how this goes,” Hagel says in an interview in the April edition of Esquire magazine.

A far-right-wingnut (and make no mistake on this, he is a wingnuton ALMOST every other issue) talking impeachment.

amnesty day marches on

As Blogtopias' (Y! YCTP!) one and only skippy carries the banner forward with his John Swift inspired Blog amnesty day:

amnesty day marches on:

"amnesty day marches on
one bitchin' bottom line of our blog bump business from the big box blogs' blogrolls brou-ha-ha, if we may be alliterative, is all the new cyber-friends we have made thanks to our subsequent whining about the whole fiasco.

we have not only found a literal plethora of wider scopes and broader swaths in analysis, ideas and opinions, we've made long-lasting acquaintenances with a variety of interesting thinkers and writers"

I want to encourage everyone in the left to take a few minutes every week visiting Blogrolls on other people's Blogs... You never know what gems you might find just by clicking around aimlessly from Blog to Blog. :)

Minutemen Violence Gets Exposure in Court

Battles for control. Defamation of character. Trashing peoples' personal belongings. Stolen money. Beating on women.



The Minutemen Project, founded by ctblogger's favorite Danbury no-show and noted bigot Jim Gilchrist, has it it all and is getting exsposed for what it really is as the battle over control of this freakshow of "armed vigelantes" run amok starts to heat up in the public domain and, more importantly, in the courtrooms.

Man Eegee - Latino Político:

"I can't help but smile. There's a lot going on with the vigilantes this week. Their multi-faceted leadership spat is being battled out in the courts, along with some concrete action by law enforcement to ferret out the ways these nativist movements are fertile ground for hate crimes and human rights violations.

San Diego Police served the leader of the San Diego Minutemen, Jeff Schwilk, and another prominent member of the group with search warrants on Wednesday. The warrants were granted in connection with vandalism at a Rancho Penasquitos migrant camp. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has details.

Last January, six people sliced up migrant workers’ belongings in the camps. Police say the vandals cut up blankets, clothes and even workers' shoes.

It's important to understand the context of this investigation. The Minutemen are actually two separate groups that underwent a schism between founder Jim Gilchrist and prominent leader Chris Simcox. This formed the Minutemen Project and Minutemen Civil Defense Corps."

Click on for more on this as Man Eegee fills out the rest of this story.