The Real Reason For McCain's Friday Night Phil Gramm Dump

Stephen D reports on a Phil Gramm Friday night dump attributing Gramm's resignation from the McSame campaign to the "Americans are whiners!" comment. I think that is just cover for the more likely real reason:

UBS, LGT Helped Hide Assets, Evade Taxes, Senate Says

By David Voreacos and Carlyn Kolker

July 17 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG and Liechtenstein bank LGT Group aided rich U.S. clients who wanted to disguise ownership of accounts and evade taxes on hidden assets, a Senate subcommittee said.

UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, hid as much as $17.9 billion for 19,000 Americans who didn't declare assets to the Internal Revenue Service, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a report released in Washington late yesterday. LGT, owned by Liechtenstein's ruling family, fostered a ``culture of secrecy and deception'' while assigning code names to U.S. clients, the panel said.

Remember that Phil Gram works for and lobbies for one arm of UBS in the USA. More below... And an interesting side note from similar article ABC story posted earlier before you get there:

A former UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, has agreed to a plea deal and is reported to be cooperating with US authorities in bring charges against American citizens on tax evasion charges.

As soon as I read that article linked out by jimstaro at ePM I figured there might be a link.
UBS is still Phil Gramm's gig, isn't it? So sayeth his Wiki:

"Gramm is a vice-chairman of UBS Investment Bank."

And we all know about McCain's lobbying troubles because of Gramm:

U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign faces questions regarding a top economic adviser's work for Swiss banking giant UBS Warburg.
Economist and former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm is vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank and has lobbied Congress on the company's behalf.
UBS has been hit hard by the U.S. housing and mortgage meltdowns.

Smoke >>> Fire? Might be worth fanning the flames a little? Face it... Calling Americans whiners is nothing compared to things that republican criminals typically do.

It would be interesting if Cindy McCain's (or one of her trusts') name was on that list of IRS tax dodgers, eh? That would clearly typify a republican circle jerk we have come to expect from the GOP these days. Nevermind the fact that Cindy McCain has a proven track record of not paying her taxes. And when there is a Friday Night Dump involving corrupt republicans and meant to distract the candy coated media from the real story, timing is everything.
idredit, over at Booman Tribune where this is x-posted, as well, chunked in the last piece I was about to go looking for.

you may be on to something here...

but it depends on the meaning of resign Gramm remains in the background as an advisor. But coupled with the UBS naughty naughty, there's the deep in the poop sub-prime debacle.

The Carpetbagger Report

Is Gramm gone, or is he only kinda sorta gone?
Yesterday, the McCain campaign disputed part of Novak’s report, saying that Gramm would no longer be a surrogate. But the report also said Gramm would advice McCain on economic matters, and on this, the campaign said nothing.

Gramm’s decision comes after word that, in his weekend column, Robert Novak was to report that the Gramm and McCain had talked subsequent to the ill-time remarks and that he’d stay on as a surrogate and adviser.
But McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said earlier today that Gramm would no longer represent the campaign.
Gramm’s move tonight appears to be a move to clarify his status. But when asked whether this meant he’d no longer advise or represent McCain, Bounds only said that it was Gramm’s decision to step down from his co-chair post.

So, it’s just another round of double-talk from McCain. First the campaign agrees with Gramm, then it doesn’t. Gramm is a surrogate, then he isn’t, then he is, then he isn’t. Gramm is an advisor, then he isn’t, then he might be.

I can understand the campaign’s embarrassment, but this is ridiculous. Gramm not only thinks we’re a “nation of whiners,” he’s also, more importantly, the man whose financial deregulation efforts made the market meltdown possible.

While Gramm's help in advancing banking deregulation is widely considered partially responsible for the Mortgage Crisis, you have to remember that his deregulation also made it easier for UBS to enter into all kinds of schemes that helped along their offering these illegal tax havens.

The deregulation is much bigger than just mortgages when you look at Gramm.

[update] Welcome to Crooks and Liars readers who may have made their way over here from Mike's Blog Roundup. And also thanks to idredit for saving me a lot of time in finding the last piece of a story that I was editing and building on the run.

Bush Impeachment Will Go To Committee

And this time it doesn't look like they are sending it there to bury it:

Kucinich Says Unidentified Foreign Official
Wants to Speak at Impeachment Talks

An unidentified government official of a U.S. ally wants to participate if and when Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich makes his case to impeach President Bush before the House Judiciary Committee, according to the Ohio Democrat.

The House voted, 238-180, on Tuesday to send Kucinich’s latest impeachment effort (H Res 1345) to the Judiciary Committee.

Chairman John Conyers Jr. said he will hold a broad hearing on the general topic of abuses of power by the Bush administration.

“There’s never been one [hearing] that accumulated all the things that constitute an imperial presidency,” Conyers said, explaining that the anticipated hearing would review more than a year of committee inquiry into such matters as the firing of U.S. attorneys, the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame and the information provided to Congress in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Read on... But before you go to read that, why is torture not on that list? It should be.

West of the Border Bigot

A storyline that has come to typify republican hate is going on just west of the border from North-Western Connecticut:

During a July 2nd meeting of the Pawling, NY town board. Republican town supervisor Beth Coursen called town republican chairman Glenn Carey a "faggot" and said "everybody knows it". The town of Pawling sits about 70 miles North of New York City. This wouldn't be the first time Ms. Coursen has used such language against Mr. Carey.

Lucy Watson, wife of Democratic Councilman David Watson, said, while she did not hear the July 2 exchange, it was familiar to her.

Watson said she was present in late 2007 at a restaurant and in May 2008 in town hall after a board meeting when Coursen referred to Carey in the same manner.

Cross Posted at Political Newsline

Of course, ctblogger is still being kept busy documenting the worst that Connecticut has to offer:

Would you like some death threats with that racism?

Danbury News-Times=all the comments that's fit to print.

And ctblogger is right... It does sound familiar.

How Does Obama Offer an Olive Branch for FISA Capitulation?

This may be one way:

Obama Seeks Info on Dodd in Vice President Search - TIME

Barack Obama's presidential campaign has requested information from Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd as part of its search for a possible vice presidential candidate.

The former White House hopeful and Connecticut lawmaker indicated Wednesday that he has been approached by the campaign. "There's been some inquiries, yeah," Dodd said. "They ask for a lot of stuff. I'll leave it there."

Senator Dodd may not make the final Vice Presidential cut, but the choice would go a long way towards repairing the minor rift among his supporters that resulted because of Obama's participation in eviscerating the 4th amendment. Needless to say, McCain was even worse on this issue because he wasn't man enough to actually show up and vote on it - something McCain does almost every time there is an important vote. Spineless Republican.

Dodd was the most vocal Senate opponent of protecting the telecoms from civil suits arising from their aiding the bush administration's illegal spying on Americans. CTNewsJunkie has more on the possible implications of Dodd as VP candidate.

Robocall Watch CT-05 Edition

Apparently a Republican attack dog, Freedom Watch, is planning on running a robocall campaign against House Rep. Chris Murphy:

Freedom’s Watch, the conservative advocacy group that has vowed to spend millions against Democratic congressional candidates this fall, will be running robocalls this week in 16 congressional districts where Democratic incumbents seem vulnerable or where an open seat has given rise to a competitive election.

The robocalls will focus on the issue of high gas prices.

No Nutmeggers... It's not the Enron-esque practices of the oil industry, where the oil industry owns leases on millions of acres of undeveloped oil and refuse to develop them, or unregulated market speculation, nor the lack of refineries needed to actually meet today's demand. And it's certainly not the result of illegal invasions and occupations.

It's that pesky 5% to 10% in taxes (depending on your state) that are the direct result of gas more than doubling in price at the pumps.

And Freedom Watch is out to piss you off with those insane Republican robocalls full of complete and total BS.

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Republican Lies About Offshore Drilling

environmentalist from dKos cuts through the GOP's BS concerning offshore drilling:

First of all, there is no "ban".

"Ban" is just more GOPer-speak. In reality, there is a moratorium on drilling in certain coastal areas. Other areas are not only open to drilling but leases and drilling permits have already been issued.

And they are not being drilled.

In fact, only 17% of the leased areas [are] in production. So, with about 33 million acres of offshore areas already available to drill and not being drilled, why does the oil and gas industry need to have access to still more? The fact is that nearly 25 BILLION barrels of oil off the coast of the United States is currently available for drilling...and industry is not drilling it.

Not to mention natural gas. Most of the natural gas occurring offshore (over 328 TRILLION cubic feet – an eleven year supply at current consumption rates) is currently available for leasing and development.

And they’re not going after it.

This is the story throughout the country, more than 44 million acres of onshore public lands are leased for oil and gas development and yet most of it is not being drilled. All told (onshore and offshore), 68 million acres are leased and sitting idle. Over 10,000 permits are currently 'stockpiled' by industry. But still they want more.

Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%. And did you see your gasoline costs drop? How about your electricity costs? Propane? natural gas? Uh...no. There is absolutely no correlation between the industrialization of public lands and the price of fossil fuels.

It has been estimated that if all of those currently inactive leases were drilled, the USA would produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas EVERY DAY, accounting for a doubling of US oil production and a 75% increase in US natural gas production. The Minerals Management Service tells us that about 80% of fossil fuels available in offshore are currently available for development.

What's going on here is yet another cynical attempt by the GOP and the oil and gas robber barons to increase and assure huge industry profits at the expense of the American people. These companies don’t want to drill these areas. They want to hold them as [assets] to limit the amount of oil and gas on the market so that prices rise still further - and they make more money.

Republicans and the oil industry are lying to America out the ying yang on this. Surprised? I didn't think so...

Panamanian Born McCain Sends Out Insane Clown Posse

Panamanian born GOP candidate, Senator John McCain, sends out his surrogates to attack American born Obama's credentials...

In unrelated news...

Facts: Flying in the face of lying Un-American fucktard Republicans daily.

Iraqi PM Maliki Proposes Setting Timetable for Withdrawal

So... There goes another artificial Republican talking point down the drain:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has raised the prospect of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

It comes as the US attempts to push through a new security deal before the end of 2008, when the UN mandate allowing a US presence in Iraq expires.

The Pentagon has played down the suggestion of a withdrawal timetable.

But correspondents say Iraqi MPs would be more likely to back Mr Maliki if the deal includes such a timetable.

This is as big an issue in the upcoming Iraqi elections as it is in the USA as most Iraqis, like most Americans, want the occupation to end.

There is a clear choice in the upcoming US elections between John "100 years in Iraq" McCain and Barack Obama's sane and much needed 16 month plan for withdrawal.

In other Iraq news and via the BBC:

• Female bomber kills nine in Iraq
  
  
• UAE waives billions of Iraqi debt
  
  
• US 'to scrap' contractor immunity
  
  
• Canada ruling boosts US deserter
  
  
• Abu Ghraib inmates sue US firms

Partisan Politicization of the DoE by the GOP

So sayeth The Caretaker at Region 19 BOE Gazzette:

My, my, my. The dirty tricks never end. For Independence Day Margaret Spellings has announced which States will enjoy relaxed NCLB protocols. Of the seventeen states that applied, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio were -cough- chosen.

Given the electoral importance of these states, one cannot help but wonder aloud how tax money that pays for federal bureaucracies can be so cynically and shamelessly targeted toward the unethical influencing of federal election sentiments.

Given the politicization of so many arms of the government this is just more proof that the reckless pattern of politicization is SOP for the GOP SOBs, showing a complete disregard for what is actually good for the country.

A sampling of the GOP's partisan politicization of government, effectively putting their political party over the needs of the country, via Think Progress:

Partisan campaign or electoral activities on federal government property are illegal. This prohibition, however, has not stopped the Bush administration from politicizing virtually every agency under its control. Below is a quick review of the extent of the White House’s efforts to politicize the federal agencies:

Office of Faith Based Initiatives: The office was “used almost exclusively to win political points with both evangelical Christians and traditionally Democratic minorities. The office’s primary mission, providing financial support to charities that serve the poor, never got the presidential support it needed to succeed.” [MSNBC, 10/13/06]

General Services Administration: After a GSA meeting during which White House deputy director of political affairs Scott Jennings gave a PowerPoint presentation that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy, GSA Administrator Lurita Doan asked how GSA could help “our candidates.” Special Counsel Scott Bloch has since advised the President that Doan should “be disciplined to the fullest extent for her serious violation of the Hatch Act.” [Congress Daily, 6/12/07]

Department of Justice:

“Unlike federal judges, immigration judges are civil service employees, to be appointed by the attorney general based on professional qualifications, not their politics. [During Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s aide Monica Goodling’s] tenure, vacancies were apparently not always posted and she selected lawyers to be considered for interviews based in part on their loyalty to the Republican Party and the Bush administration.” [New York Times, 5/25/07]

Department of Justice: “After the 2004 election, administration officials quietly began drawing up a list of US attorneys to replace. Considerations included their perceived loyalty to Bush and a desire by White House political adviser Karl Rove to increase voter fraud prosecutions, documents and testimony have shown. Most of the proposed firings were for US attorneys in states with closely divided elections. Among those later fired was David Iglesias, from the battleground state of New Mexico, where many of his fellow Republicans had demanded more aggressive voter fraud probes.” [Boston Globe, 5/6/07]

Interior Department: “A midlevel Interior Department official” received a “phone call from [Vice President Dick] Cheney in 2001, setting in motion a secret move to undermine the science of federal biologists who had said diverting water from the Klamath would violate the Endangered Species Act and devastate two imperiled species of fish.” [The Oregonian, 6/30/07]

Interior Department: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald has consistently “rejected staff scientists’ recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act.” A civil engineer with no training in biology, she has “overruled and disparaged” the findings of her staff, instead relying on the recommendations of political and industry groups. [Washington Post, 10/30/06]

Defense Department: “[T]he Pentagon’s public affairs division has become a dumping ground for administration cronies…seek[ing] to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt.” [Harper’s Magazine, 7/16/07]

Defense Department: “The Defense Department…has stepped up intelligence collection inside this country since 9/11, which now includes the monitoring of peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups.” [MSNBC, 9/14/05]

NASA: “The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming…officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard [Institute for Space Studies] Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.” [New York Times, 1/29/06]

Food and Drug Administration: “The top Food and Drug Administration official in charge of women’s health issues…resigned in protest against the agency’s decision to further delay a final ruling on whether the ‘morning-after pill’ should be made more easily accessible. ‘I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled,’ she wrote in an e-mail to her staff and FDA colleagues.” [Washington Post, 9/1/05]

Health and Human Services: “An internal investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services confirms that the top Medicare official threatened to fire the program’s chief actuary if he told Congress that drug benefits would probably cost much more than the White House acknowledged.” [New York Times, 7/7/04]

Health and Human Services: “The Department of Health and Human Services recently revised its website, 4Parents.gov, and replaced factual data designed to help parents talk about preventing teen pregnancy with biased and misleading claims” reflecting administration policy. [NARAL, 7/10/07]

Office of the Surgeon General: “The first U.S. surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush accused the administration on Tuesday of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research.” [Reuters, 7/10/07]

Environmental Protection Agency: In a government report on the state of the environment, strong language that “climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment” was stricken by the White House, as was government research that suggests recent climate change is “likely mostly due to human activities.” The changes were protested by EPA staffers, who wrote in a confidential memo that the report “no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change.” [CBS, 6/19/03]

Office of National Drug Control Policy: “At the request of Sara Taylor, the former White House Director of Political Affairs, John Walters, the nation’s drug czar, and his deputies traveled to 20 events with vulnerable Republican members of Congress in the months prior to the 2006 elections. The trips were paid for by federal taxpayers and several were combined with the announcement of federal grants or actions that benefited the districts of the Republican members.” [House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, 6/17/07]

Corporation for Public Broadcasting: During his tenure, former CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson “moved to address what he contend[ed was] the left-leaning lineup of news programs at PBS by advocating the addition of new shows with a conservative outlook.” He “failed to strike a proper balance by infusing politics into so many decisions at CPB” and by “in essence, allowing the White House to help direct plans of the CPB.” According to Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, this extreme politicization was “unprecedented.” [National Public Radio, 6/20/05]

Bear in mind that these are just some of the examples and does not include some of the major propaganda campaigns illegally used to disseminate partisan GOP talking points like the lies and deceptions used against us in the run up to the illegal Iraq invasion and occupation.

These are the GOP's WMDs. Weapons of Mass Dissembling...

McCain's Connecticut Calamity

John McCain's Campaign has, thus far, been wobbly at best. But now he has even more campaign problems, as per BooMan:

I hadn't thought about the problem McCain will have trying to create a GOP platform. Good luck with that one.

The current GOP platform is a 100-page document, and all but nine pages mention Bush's name. Virtually the entire platform will have to be rewritten to lessen the imprint of the president, who has the highest disapproval rating of any White House occupant since Richard M. Nixon.

It is the prospect of a total rewrite that worries some.

McCain is "really out of step with the strong majority of his party," said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which opposes McCain's positions on climate change. "He might get what he wants. And he might get a change. But I don't think it's going to sit well with a lot of Republicans."

Climate change is the least of McCain's problems. How about immigration? How about campaign finance reform?

McCain's campaign has been self-undermining to this point - effectively tied to bush policy failures by not only the opposition but by his own incompetent self - and he only has five months left to turn around numbers like this:

Rasmussen filed a poll the other day that has Obama 52, McCain 35 in Connecticut,
sharply reversing their previous poll a month ago which supposedly
(*cough* BS) had it a close race, Obama 47 McCain 43. This makes the
third poll which has Obama up by between 17 and 22 points, effectively
putting Connecticut out of play, if it ever was in play.

Obama is viewed favorably by 62%/37, McCain 54%/43.

Research 2000: Obama 57 McBush 35 (7/03/08)

Quinnipiac: Obama 56, McSame 35 (7/02/08)

Good luck on that one, too.

I suspect that the current hostilities towards the GOP by voters in this state coupled with the likely down-ticket effects of the Obama campaign had Chris Shays worried and Jim Himes celebrating a bit this weekend when these numbers were released.

Which Way Today McCain?

Wherever the wind blows...

McCain Pot Calls Republican Kettle Black

Even John "100 years in Iraq" McCain is trying to run away from his and the GOP's legacy:

John McCain's top economic adviser has attacked Congressional Republicans, saying they have brought "shame and disgrace" on the party.

In a BBC interview, Doug Holtz-Eakin accused them of busting the budget with profligate spending programmes.

The comments are part of a strategy by Senator McCain's camp to distance themselves from the Republicans and avoid blame for the economic downturn.

John McCain and his bestest friends forevah brought this economic disaster upon the country... Perhaps McCain could grow up and take responsibility for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and multiple economic disasters on the domestic side of policy that are largely responsible for our country's current dismal economic outlook?

Independent Republican Joe Lieberman, John McCain
and bush addresses the Dead Elephant caucus of the GOP.

U.S. army study says Iraq occupation was understaffed

No Kidding?

U.S. army study says Iraq occupation was understaffed
DENVER - A nearly 700-page study released Sunday by the army found that "in the euphoria of early 2003," U.S.-based commanders prematurely believed their goals in Iraq had been reached and did not send enough troops to handle the occupation.

FULL STORY

While bush was claiming that major combat operations had ended:

Planners in the Iraq headquarters said 300,000 troops would be needed for the occupation. Even before the invasion, some planners had called for 300,000 troops to be sent for the invasion and occupation.

...snip...

Some commanders told the authors they asked about plans for making the country stable and got no answers.

...snip...

Its writers said it was clear in January 2005 that the Army would remain in Iraq for some time, the writers concluded.

That was only about 7 Friedman units ago.
Take heart, dear reader, that our fearless leader took his military commanders advice on troop levels and... Oh wait! he ignored the military, never sent in the 300,000 troops they wanted and lied about the Friedmans too.

I would feel used if I didn't know this since the day they sacked General Shinseki for telling them, and us, the truth about needed troop levels.

Retired generals speak out to oppose Rumsfeld:
"In this, Powell echoed former Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, who told Congress just weeks before the 2003 invasion that several hundred thousand US troops would be necessary to secure Iraq after the invasion. For this he was publicly contradicted by then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Rumsfeld named General Shinseki's replacement a year before he was to retire and broke custom by not attending his retirement ceremony."
--- csmonitor.com

In case you don't remember exactly what Shinseki said to get pushed out the door by the bush administration:

McCain makes a good point with his "whackamole" comment, but clearly the only other thing that McCain is correct in when he talks about sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq is at the end of the video where he says, "I don't know where the troops are going to come from."

He hasn't a clue that it would take a draft to get enough troops. Firstly, because we already don't have the troops to spare. And, secondly, because you need to be looking at the several hundred thousand pairs of boots on the ground deemed neccessary by General Shinseki, before he was chased out of the military by the neocons for being honest, if you really want to secure Iraq and you get the idea of how wrong McCain is.

“Something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers, are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We’re talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so, it takes significant ground force presence to maintain safe and secure environment to ensure that the people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with administering a situation like this.” [Sen. Armed Services Committee testimony, 2/25/03]

Now, of course, several years later we have a bush flack in charge named Petraeus. Nothing more than a yes man for the neocons and eternal war. He took over from a reasonable Admiral that stood in the neocons way when it came to attacking Iran.

All they need is to get their warmongering McCain in to the White House and we can be sure to be playing whackamole in Iran for a hundred years too!

Who the heck is Andrew Malcolm?

Almost everybody who Blogs knows who skippy the bush kangaroo is, and certainly they know who the link lovin' Mike Finnigan from Crooks and Liars is, as well. But, honestly, who the heck is Andrew Malcom? Never even heard of his Blog before either... skippy writes:

mike finnigan of crooks&liars responds to andrew malcolm's snide dismissal of skippy's question:

mr. malcolm,

having read your dismissive response to skippy, i'll address you in the tone that you apparently favor. i must say i wasn't surprised by the lack of respect and royal impatience your note conveyed. i guess peons like us should just be damn grateful you deigned to reply to the impertinent skippy. thank you, my liege! the unaccountable arrogance of our corporate press seems to be contagious, even when one of it's members turns to..(cough)..blogging. i'll be sure and see that the over 1 million visitors per week which read crooks and liars get a chance to sample how one of the denizens of our pathological press reacts to a legitimate question, politely posed.

mike finnigan

thanks, mike! we appreciate your time and effort!

Everyone appreciates what both Mike Finnigan and Crooks and Liars do so well. Mike's Blog Roundup also points to his royal heiny's, Andy "blogger wannabe" Malcolm, incompetence and failures:

skippy the bush kangaroo: The impertinent skippy had the gall to write to three journalists, questioning them on why the press corps insisted on framing Obama as “arrogant” in the presidential seal story when McCain’s own senatorial campaign committee did the same thing. Two ignored him, and another reacted the way royalty always does.

Seriously... I'd have never heard of this Andy Malcolm guy, nor his Blog (top of the ticket), had it not been for one of the big national Blogs that pointed to their little "B lister" corner of the internet...

McCains Owed 4 Years of Taxes on Home

According to HuffPo and via ThinkProgress:

The article reports that the McCains had been delinquent in paying taxes until Newsweek inquired about the matter. The McCains then paid off $6,744.42 in back taxes, but still owe more. Newsweek writes:

When you’re poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you’re rich, it’s hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It’s a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. […]

County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: “The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due.”

That settles that.

John McCain is the epitome of a
modern day "GOP fiscal conservative."

Trust fund babies that can't balance their own checkbooks, nevermind the budget of a country.

But this raises an even more important issue. In the military little things like unpaid bills and not paying your taxes can lose you your security clearance. It makes you a security risk in as far as the possibility of being blackmailed. I can't imagine the rules are much different for public servants and politicians.

John McCain is a security risk according to military standards.

John McCain and his wife's finances need to be fully investigated to ensure that this is an isolated incident. From the Army Adjudicative Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Information:

Guideline F
Financial Considerations

The Concern. An individual who is financially overextended is at risk of having to engage in illegal acts to generate funds. Unexplained affluence is often linked to proceeds from financially profitable criminal acts.

Conditions that could raise a security concern and may be disqualifying include:

a. A history of not meeting financial obligations;

b. Deceptive or illegal financial practices such as embezzlement, employee theft, check fraud, income tax evasion, expense account fraud, filing deceptive loan statements, and other intentional financial breaches of trust;

c. Inability or unwillingness to satisfy debts;

d. Unexplained affluence;

e. Financial problems that are linked to gambling, drug abuse, alcoholism, or other issues of security concern.

Conditions that could mitigate security concerns include:

a. The behavior was not recent;

b. It was an isolated incident;

c. The conditions that resulted in the behavior were largely beyond the person's control (e.g., loss of employment, a business downturn, unexpected medical emergency, or a death, divorce or separation);

d. The person has received or is receiving counseling for the problem and there are clear indications that the problem is being resolved or is under control;

e. The affluence resulted from a legal source; and

f. The individual initiated a good-faith effort to repay overdue creditors or otherwise resolve debts.

(emph. mine)His security clearance, as a politician, must demand a full investigation of his family's finances given this news of his and his wife's tax delinquency. For what it is worth, and as far as his security clearance is involved, McCain also filed deceptive loan statements that have resulted in his breaking campaign finance law.

I mentioned earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC's rules, we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)

I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can.

Those are two huge red flags as far as John McCain's security clearance is concerned.

[update] oceanstar17 was kind enough to drop these links in comment at dkos:

the key standard for granting security clearances falls under the DCID 6/4. You can read about it here This website also has information about the adjucation process.

Furthermore, if you want to read cases of appeals that have gone up to the DOD, you can read about them here. You can see that applicants are allowed to have negative information about them. The key is how they handled their situations.

I guess I have some more reading to do.

[update deux] More as a matter of curiousity... How does this effect any income taxes John and Cindy McCain may have claimed? From comment at HuffPo:

What exactly do these Trusts and S Corporations involve? Do they earn taxable income? One would think that things like Mortgage interest charges and property tax would be very important when the tax returns are done since they are tax deductable and reduce the amount of taxes owed. Does the failure to pay property tax indicate that they also failed to file tax returns for the trust involved in this little condo? Or they just paid more tax than they owed?
Its clear that mortgage interest and property taxes must be on Cindy's returns because they dont show up on the Schedule A for any of the tax returns that John has released.

Was she claiming tax deductions on these property taxes while not paying the actual taxes? Sounds like the republican way!

Cindy McCain needs to open her books for public scrutiny.

Craig, Vitter: AC/DC Marriage Protection Amendment

Given the hypocrisy of what these two wayward Republicans are up to:

Larry Craig and David Vitter — “two United States Senators implicated in extramarital sexual activity” — have named themselves as co-sponsors of S.J. Res. 43, the Marriage Protection Amendment. If passed, the bill would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”

Just a quick reminder...

AC Craig:

Maybe Craig is Bisexual?

Maybe the media is asking the wrong question to a GOP member that has been trained in the rovian skill of hairsplitting?

He denounced the longstanding probes by the Statesman -- he called it a "witch hunt" -- for inspiring him to plead guilty to the offense even though he said he was actually innocent. He said he had been "viciously harassed" by the newspaper. "I am not gay," he said twice. "I love my wife."

...snip...

His full remarks on The Statesman read: "For eight months leading up to June, my family and I had been relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman. If you’ve seen today’s paper, you know why. Let me be clear: I am not gay and never have been.

Gotcha Senator...
But are you or have you ever been bisexual?
I haven't heard you deny that one yet.

Via BooMan:

Sen. Larry Craig is a weird dude. I can't relate. But it's important to remember that Craig tried to weasel out his arrest.

After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, "What do you think about that?" the report states.

Nice attempt to pull rank, dontcha think?

You can snigger about Craig's sexual proclivities and hypocrisy...he deserves it.

But you would not believe what the freak did to get hauled in to begin with...

Via Yahoo News, a few of his hypocrisies in action:

This story would not matter if Craig wasn't using his position to advance the Republican Party's officially homophobic agenda. In November, 2006, Craig flamboyantly endorsed Idaho's successful anti-gay constitutional amendment, HJR 2, which banned gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships in his state. Pam Spaulding has more background on Craig's anti-gay voting record here. It's also worth recalling Craig's 1999 interview with Tim Russert in which he mocked Bill Clinton as a "naughty boy" for his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Craig is up for re-election in 2008. Will his carnality in public restrooms put an end to his career in public life? Idaho conservatives may be willing to reward bigotry, but lying is another matter.

No... No hypocrisy there. Just another typical republican gay-bashing gay man who happens to have some kind of shitty fetish. Perhaps a foot fetish as well?

Craig is now saying he is not guilty after, ya know, pleading guilty to this in court:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has reported that Larry Craig has resigned his appointment as co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, and the campaign has accepted his resignation.

...snip...

Sen. Craig has issued a statement in response to this story: “At the time of the incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions. I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.”

There is still no word from the Romney campaign on whether Mitt and Larry ever shared a bathroom. What is it with Republicans and bathroom sex? Remember Florida State Rep Bob Allen? He isn't gay either. He just offered to give a man a BJ and $20 because he thought the guy would beat him up because, ya know, all black men only use restrooms to beat people up...

You remember a little while back we brought you the story of Florida McCain campaign co-chair, Rep. Bob Allen (R). Right on the heels of Giuliani Southern Regional Chairman David Vitter's exposure as a serial user of prostitutes, Allen got caught in a Titusville park restroom offering to pay an undercover police officer to allow him to perform oral sex on him.

Now it turns out that Allen revealed the true reason for the alleged park-john-offer in a tape recorded statement he made just after his arrest.

"This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park," said Allen, according to this article in the Orlando Sentinel. Allen went on to say he was afraid of becoming a "statistic."

I guess this raises the question of whether if you thought you were about to get mugged by a group of stocky black guys, your first plan of escape would be to try to give one of them a blowjob. But I guess maybe you had to be there.

One day the politicians in the GOP may figure out that most people, even most black people, actually use restrooms to go to the bathroom. The fact that some in the GOP seem think it is only a sexual playground or a boxing ring may explain why they are so full of shit.

DC Vitter:

David Vitter Family Jewels Edition

TPM Muckraker gives a few good gems in their round up on David Vitter's Family Values:

As for now, the race is on for who can pile up the most vividly hypocritical quote from the family values (or as he put it, "Louisiana values") conservative. In the running: Sen. Vitter maligning the "Hollywood left" for violating the "sanctity of marriage," and Vitter arguing that President Clinton should step down for his extramarital affair (Vitter, by the by, replaced Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA) after the speaker was forced to step down because of an affair). There are, you can be sure, many more. Glenn Greenwald has a rundown here.

Update: The prevailing quote of the day seems to be this one:

In 2000, Vitter was included in a Newhouse News Service story about the strain of congressional careers on families.

His wife, Wendy, was asked by the Newhouse reporter: If her husband were as unfaithful as Livingston or former President Bill Clinton, would she be as forgiving as Hillary Rodham Clinton?

“I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary,” Wendy Vitter told Newhouse News. “If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

“I think fear is a very good motivating factor in a marriage,” she added. “Don’t put fear down.

TPM Muckraker

Have you seen
David Vitter's Bitter Penis:

If you see this lost member of the Lorena Bobbit Club in your community, please return it to its owner!

Come to think of it, might be better off to leave him alone?

He looks much happier not having to hang around with Vitter anymore.

[update] Integrative Media wonders just how much of a PR media nightmare this may be.

It is the DC Madam's kiss of death, IMHO.

Ahhhh! Republican sex scandals... The gifts that keep on giving!


ok...Mark Foley, David Vitter, Jim Kolbe, Glenn Murphy Jr, Larry Craig, etc.

Continuing to carry the republican family values banner in fine form they just keep digging deeper and deeper on sex scandals, hypocritical voting records, prostitution and gay/bisexual trysts outside of their "traditional republican marriages".

As I noted when Bob Allen and Larry Craig got caught in their respective bathrooms:

At least neither of these Republicans pulled a full GOP and tried pick up kids like Foley...Or, at least, nothing has been proven in Larry Craig's case, but I certainly do have to say: This has got to be the worst year for political sex scandals in the history of the GOP... And that is saying a lot.

Many White Supremacists Supporting Obama Presidency

But for all of the wrong reasons...

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center many of the Neo-Nazi's and KKK members want an Obama presidency in the hopes of starting a race war or, at least, in the hopes of using it as a recruiting tool:

With the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate clinched, large sections of the white supremacist movement are adopting a surprising attitude: Electing America’s first black president would be a very good thing.

It’s not that the assortment of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, anti-Semites and others who make up this country’s radical right have suddenly discovered that a man should be judged based on the content of his character, not his skin. On the contrary. A growing number of white supremacists, and even some of those who pass for intellectual leaders of their movement, think that a black man in the Oval Office would shock white America, possibly drive millions to their cause, and perhaps even set off a race war that, they hope, would ultimately end in Aryan victory.

...snip...

Opinion on the radical right is far from unanimous on the topic of a possible Obama victory. Many of those writing on the topic — perhaps half of those who have posted recently — think an Obama presidency would destroy the country and oppose it mightily.

These bigots are as sick as they are hateful.

And as a side note to Southern Poverty Law Center: It ain't just "neo-Nazis, Klansmen, anti-Semites and others who make up this country’s radical right," You can add the neoconservatives, theocrats, as well as the many other groups assaulting our Constitution, world stability, and the environment to the radical right. Just to mention a few...

Republican Lies About Offshore Drilling

environmentalist from dKos cuts through the GOP's BS concerning offshore drilling:

First of all, there is no "ban".

"Ban" is just more GOPer-speak. In reality, there is a moratorium on drilling in certain coastal areas. Other areas are not only open to drilling but leases and drilling permits have already been issued.

And they are not being drilled.

In fact, only 17% of the leased areas [are] in production. So, with about 33 million acres of offshore areas already available to drill and not being drilled, why does the oil and gas industry need to have access to still more? The fact is that nearly 25 BILLION barrels of oil off the coast of the United States is currently available for drilling...and industry is not drilling it.

Not to mention natural gas. Most of the natural gas occurring offshore (over 328 TRILLION cubic feet – an eleven year supply at current consumption rates) is currently available for leasing and development.

And they’re not going after it.

This is the story throughout the country, more than 44 million acres of onshore public lands are leased for oil and gas development and yet most of it is not being drilled. All told (onshore and offshore), 68 million acres are leased and sitting idle. Over 10,000 permits are currently 'stockpiled' by industry. But still they want more.

Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%. And did you see your gasoline costs drop? How about your electricity costs? Propane? natural gas? Uh...no. There is absolutely no correlation between the industrialization of public lands and the price of fossil fuels.

It has been estimated that if all of those currently inactive leases were drilled, the USA would produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas EVERY DAY, accounting for a doubling of US oil production and a 75% increase in US natural gas production. The Minerals Management Service tells us that about 80% of fossil fuels available in offshore are currently available for development.

What's going on here is yet another cynical attempt by the GOP and the oil and gas robber barons to increase and assure huge industry profits at the expense of the American people. These companies don’t want to drill these areas. They want to hold them as [assets] to limit the amount of oil and gas on the market so that prices rise still further - and they make more money.

Republicans and the oil industry are lying to America out the ying yang on this. Surprised? I didn't think so...

New York City Is Becoming So Pedestrian

Mayor Bloomberg announces an experimental plan to stop traffic altogether in part of New York city:

The scheme, called Summer Streets, will run on three consecutive Saturdays in August - the 9th, 16th and 23rd.

A seven-mile (11km) route linking Brooklyn Bridge in the south to the Upper East Side will close to traffic.

...snip...

Exercise classes, such as dance and yoga sessions, will be held along the route, which will run from Lower Manhattan to East 72nd Street, via Centre Street, Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue.

Bikes will be available to rent along the route, and there will be rest areas at various points for cyclists to take on water and repair bikes.

Throw in some beer and free street music and this would be an even bigger draw for suburbanites... And I would promise to take the train into town, Mikey. :)

"That's a little racist..."

So sayeth my daughter upon seeing this while reading over my shoulder:

A booth at this weekend’s Texas Republican convention sold buttons asking, “If Obama Is President…Will We Still Call It The White House?”:



The company that makes the buttons boasts providing “Patriotic and Republican Products.” Another button they sell features a picture of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), with the phrase: “Life’s a b**ch, don’t vote for one.” (HT: AmericaBlog)

I couldn't agree with her more as we get a glimpse of the kind of campaign the GOP will be running in this election cycle. And if that Hillary slogan is what they are offering to the former Hillary supporters to crossover and vote for 4 more years of failed bush policies... Well? Good luck with that to the bed wetting set in the insane asylum known as GOP headquarters.

CT BOB interviews Rep. Chris Murphy

From Bob Adams, aka Ct Bob:

Congressman Chris Murphy from the 5th CD joined me for an interview on Saturday morning. The video covers topics such as the 2006 election, the Supreme Court, the Constitution, current bills before the House, and Chris's impressions from his first term in Congress. The entire interview runs 22 minutes.

McCain Campaign Runs out of Toilet Paper

As evidenced by the stains on their campaign ads:

Dump and Dumper...

Needless to say: Eeewwwww...
(photo h/t TPM)

Those two bush turds weren't the only Hershey squirts staining the McCain campaign recently...

Parents Magazine has asked Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama to share their favorite cookie recipes, with readers voting on their favorite. “Apparently, the winner of the cookie contest has predicted the election the past four times.” However, McCain’s recipe for Oatmeal-Butterscotch cookies is an exact copy of Hershey’s recipe. In April, the McCain campaign was caught having duplicated three recipes from the Food Network almost word-for-word, posting them on the campaign website. The error was blamed on a “low-level unpaid staffer.”

The only question? Which McCain staffer will be used to wipe up these messes?

Obama VS McCain: Man of Action VS Cheesy Egomaniac

ThePoliticalCat draws a sharp contrast between the Obama and McCain campaigns... How some men are men of action, and others are do nothings that just pay lip service to critical situations:

La Casa de Los Gatos votes for the man with the shovel. The man who is not afraid to go to the site of the disaster and pick up the tools and work alongside the affected people.

Where is FEMA? These people have lost access to clean drinking water. They need portable toilets and water, medicine, clean food, supplies, health care, temporary shelter. Where the fuck is FEMA? Why aren't they on the ball? Where is Michael Chertoff? Why hasn't Georgee cut short his taxpayer-funded jaunt in Europe and headed home to pick up a shovel, the worthless PoS?

Senator Obama's Website features a plea for help for the victims of flooding in the Midwest:

Click to embiggen

Ancient McInsane's site features a cheesy picture of the egomaniac with his Daddy and a cheesy Father's Day message.



Listen up, McSenile: Lots of fathers in the Midwest are worried about being able to take care of their children now, and in the future, thanks to your best bud's policies, which you promise to continue if elected. Now is the time to get your ancient, pasty, wrinkly behind into gear and help some of those people. Not flit between your eight or nine multi-million-dollar houses with a paid staff of servants waiting on you hand and foot.

Oh, it looks like we forgot to whom we were speaking. John McBush wants you to know how he feels your pain, Midwesterners:

Statement by John McCain on the Midwest Floods

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today issued the following statement on the flooding in the Midwest:

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted by the flooding throughout the Midwest. Cindy and I would like to extend our sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones, and stand ready to help those in the Midwest to recover and rebuild."

Standing ready doesn't cut it, Mr. Multi-millionaire. How about shelling out a few shekels?

That's right, we forgot. The last time a natural disaster hit, you were pictured doing this:

Iz mai birfday! Wut hurrykains?

Read more at ThePoliticalCat...

Foreclosures Hitting Record Highs

As I mentioned a while back, my family already lost our home... I hope that many of these homeowners manage to avoid slipping through the cracks of this GOP created mortgage crisis:

"Nationwide, 261,255 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48 percent from 176,137 in the same month last year and up 7 percent from April.

According to the RealtyTrac report, one in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in May, the highest number since RealtyTrac started the report in 2005 and the second-straight monthly record."

And, meanwhile, back on the corporate ranch:

"Struggling to make ends meet;
CEO pay creeps up only $280K in 2007:

As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard
& Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4
million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both
workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a
housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food."

Previously brewed in New Milford:

On the Sub-Prime Crisis

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

The bad news? We have given up trying to save our home.

The good news? Unlike the many American families that are, right now, living in tent cities (from the morgtage crisis and also from hurricane Katrina) we have been fortunate enough to find a house to rent. And we will not have to move from New Milford, either. The kids are happy about that second part. They have made friends and like living here.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Lemons Meet Lemonade (Continue reading...)

Blogger Arrests Hit Record High Worldwide

We are all in this together...

While China, Egypt and Iran have accounted for more than half of the reported arrests of Bloggers since 2003, the threat of being arrested for exercising acts of free speech is on the rise according to the BBC:

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

The World Information Access (WIA) report found that:

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task.

The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the "growing" political importance of blogging. It noted that arrests tended to increase during times of "political uncertainty", such as around general elections or during large scale protests.

Bloggers averaged about 15 months of prison time when arrested, but the report acknowledges that, like in the case of Burma where there were hundreds of reports of arrests, many of whom were purported to be Bloggers, verifying the arrest of these internet scribes was not always possible.

Predictions of rising numbers of arrests are expected for the entire Blogging world, including the USA and partially due to elections this year and higher Blogging participation rates.

Welcome to the new and improved corporate owned America that the GOP built during the criminal bush years. Where spying on innocent Americans, lying America into illegal wars of aggression and "100 year" occupations, torturing innocents and criminals, spending this country into recession, selling nuclear secrets to the enemy and outing entire spy networks are treated as acts of conservatism heroism... And speaking and the truth liberally could cost you your not-so Constitutionally protected right to freedom.

P.S: I am testing the Scribefire add-on for my Firefox browser, so I am not sure how well this will work for posting to my Blog. Sorry. in advance, if it messes with things! :)

What Will Lunatic Shays Say About This?

Given his knowledgeable background in sports, as evideneced by his statements at the baseball/steroid hearings, I am looking forward to hearing Chris Shays comments on this blockbuster basketball news:

NBA referees rigged a 2002 playoff series to force it to a revenue-boosting seven games. That's what a former referee at the center of a gambling scandal is alleging. Without identifying anyone or naming teams, disgraced referee Tim Donaghy (DAHN'-uh-gee) also claims the NBA routinely encouraged refs to ring up bogus fouls to manipulate results but calls against star players. Speaking before the start of the NBA finals Game 3 featuring the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, NBA commissioner David Stern calls the allegations baseless

Will we get to hear him be outraged about this serious sports issue instead of the minor issue of people dying in Iraq?

Previously brewed in New Milford:

The Twisted Republican Perspective

Nearly 4,000 dead American soldiers and over 29,000 wounded

U.S. Casualties By Calendar Year

Year	US Deaths	US Wounded
2003	486	2,416
2004	849	8,002
2005	846	5,947
2006	822	6,400
2007	901	6,084
2008	56	231
Total	3960	29080

And the senile old fart, Republican John McCain, thinks debating his age will distract us?

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis today sent an unmistakable message to Barack Obama over the Illinois Democrat's effort to stoke the obvious age contrast between himself and the 71-year-old McCain: Bring it on.

Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis...

We maintain a daily count based on news reports. It is not intended to be complete. There is no agency that keeps track of accurate numbers of Iraqis killed. JustForeignPolicy maintains a running estimate based on the Lancet study with the rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count.

And Republican Senator Arlen Specter is intent on hunting down football tapes?

"There was confirmation that there has been taping since 2000, when Coach Belichick took over," Specter said.

Specter said Goodell gave him that information during the 1-hour, 40-minute meeting, which was requested by Specter so the commissioner could explain his reasons for destroying the Spygate tapes and notes.

On the home front, the country is getting flushed down the toilet by failed conservative policies run amok:

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.

And Republican Rep. Chris Shays is in a steroid induced stupor:

Once again, Chris Shays embarrasses the state of Connecticut with one of the most embarrassing tirades to date. Our congressman from the fourth district took grandstanding to a whole new level with his browbeating of Roger Clemens trainer Brian McNamee during today's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on steroids in baseball.

After hearing Shays refer to McNamee as a "drug dealer" and spewing out what can only be described as complete nonsense, WFAN's sports radio personality (and former Shays supporter) Chris "Mad Dog" Russo saw the light.

Living up to his famous nickname, Russo took Shays to the woodshed and became Jim Himes' biggest supporter...all in the classic Mad Dog fashion that's made Russo famous.

It is obvious that the only campaign platform these spineless GOP candidates have to run on this election cycle is to avoid and deflect from every issue that is really important to this nation. These Republican children need to grow up and take responsibility for the failures they have created. There is no doubt about this fact:

The GOP has lost all perspective of reality.

And anyone would have to be a fool to vote for any of them...

[update] Changed video to add extended version of ctblogger's uploaded video. Original video is here... And normally I wouldn't ask this BUT... Help Connecticut Bob shut up:

"Shays struck out swinging with his ridiculous tirade. His wild pitch embarrassed everyone in the 4th District. Help Jim Himes hit a grand slam by contributing to Jim's ActBlue fund.

If you do, I promise I'll stop with the stupid baseball references."

JK Bob :)