It sickens me to think that Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were disqualified as choices for Attorney General because of nanny taxes and yet we get Attorneys General who believed in stomping on the Constitution (Ashcroft), approve of voter suppression and torture as well as lie to Congress and reporters (Gonzales) and who think torture is only torture if it is done to him, won’t prosecute or investigate crimes committed by the Executive Branch and now thinks that not all violations of the law are crimes (Mukasey).

Thanks for that last one, Senators Schumer and Feinstein.

Whether you look at the "regular" definition of the word "crime" or even the legal definition, you will find the most basic "violation of law" as part of the definition.

There's a woman involved.

More...

Earlier today, a friend of mine near Detroit told me she'd gotten an email saying that it was ridiculous to pillory Shrub for starting the Iraq boondoggle--er, war--while Dem presidents who started war get lionized.  

Looking at this one, it has the looks of something that's made the rounds for awhile.  Looking at it, it's laughably easy to refute.  So let's cut this one up piece-by-piece, shall we?

At the rates, apparently, that Emperor VIP was charging the "rich and famous" had to be the clientele. If we take the reports at face value that the proprietor (pimp), was pushing in excess of $1M through his front. at $4K per "transaction" that's 250 transactions (assuming all the funds went through the pimp, I'd guess the girls were paid before the $ went out through the launderer). I don't know if that is a big number or not, but we've only heard of one of the johns.

Who else is in the "black book" (or on audio tape) and why haven't they been outed?

c.
3983

With all the hoopla going, I thought it would be nice to have a little photo essay:

Well, who'd a thunk it?  A former Republican congressman got caught supporting terrorists and then lying about it.

WASHINGTON - A former U.S. congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday, accused of being part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

A 42-count indictment accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying — money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Here's an amazing example of slanted reporting by Charles Babbington of the Associated Press in an article titled, "Poor Smokers Would Pay for Health Bill."

In the very first paragraph, Babbington blames Democrats for pinning the cost of the expanded SCHIP program on smokers:

Congressional Democrats have chosen an unlikely source to pay for the bulk of their proposed $35 billion increase in children's health coverage: people with relatively little money and education.

The program expansion passed by the House and Senate last week would be financed with a 156 percent increase in the federal cigarette tax, taking it to $1 per pack from the current 39 cents. Low-income people smoke more heavily than do wealthier people in the United States, making cigarette taxes a regressive form of revenue.

Ahh, the old double standard--military personnel are prohibitied from appearing in uniform at political campaign events UNLESS it's for a republican.

From the Boston Globe:

Seven on-duty Army personnel participated in a campaign event for Senator John McCain earlier this month in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in an apparent violation of a Pentagon directive against partisan political activity, two military officials confirmed this week.

More after the jump...

So many of the people ... were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.

-- Barbara Bush

Well, except for the poison gas, Babs.

The latest bombshell from the cesspool of Republican incompetence

    ...wait, that could be any Federal agency!

known as the Federal Emergency Management Administration

    That's better.

comes to us courtesy of the Washington Post.  According to this article by Spencer Hsu, FEMA has known for over a year something in the trailers it provided for evacuees from the Gulf Coast was making those evacuees sick.  Gulf Coast doctors have noticed a pattern of upper respiratory tract infections amoung Katrina survivors living in the trailers, according to current FEMA director R. David Paulison, infections that subside when the families move out of the trailers.  

An interesting bit of background information on GOP hopeful Mitt Romney:  according to the Boston Globe, Mitt Romney has said he "longed" to fight in Vietnam and was "frustrat[ed]" by the fact that he was never drafted.  

Aside from the obvious flaw in this complaint -- the services all accepted volunteers, and there was no need to wait for the draft board to make its call -- the Globe reports that Romney obtained a draft deferment as a Mormon "minister of religion," and that he relied on that deferment to avoid the draft during the height of the Vietnam war.

Rather than take his chances in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Little Mitt went to France.

Pundit #1:  General Wesley Clark (D-AR), 2003

I think it is a very strange thing that CNN chose a potential Democratic presidential candidate to be one of the key commentators on the war . . . could they not see the obvious conflict of interest there? The man was privately organizing to run. All kinds of Democratic activists and financiers have been talking to him, and yet here he is on CNN pretending to be an impartial observer.

--Larry Sabato, speaking about Wesley Clark to the National Review, April 17, 2003 (exactly four months prior to Clark's announcement that he planned to run for President)

I had a very clear understanding with CNN that if I ever decided to go forward in considering becoming a political candidate that I would at that point, leave CNN. That's what I did in June.

--Wesley Clark, speaking to Fox News about his June 2003 separation from CNN, on August 26, 2003 (20 days prior to announcing his candidacy)

So?

So well before Wes Clark decided to run for President -- before the draft movement even really caught fire  -- bigfeet like Larry Sabato were complaining that it was unseemly for CNN to employ Clark as a military analyst, simply because people were attempting to lure Clark into the race.  And Clark himself recognized that if he even considered running, he ought to disassociate himself from CNN.  And he did separate himself well in advance of his candidacy, well before he committed to running.  What we can take away from this is that the ethical standard for pundit-candidates is either A) they should quit their pundit gigs as soon as they're discussed as possibilities (the Sabato Standard), or B) they should quit once they, themselves, are considering a candidacy (Clark's position).

Pundit #2:  Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), 2007

Date that Fred Thompson formed his presidential exploratory committee:  June 1, 2007

Date that Thompson wrote his most recent blog entry, and recorded his most recent podcast/radio commentary, for ABC Radio: June 22, 2007 (that'd be two days ago)

Number of times that Thompson's employment by ABC was mentioned in a (remarkably insipid) February ABC puff piece on Thompson's defense of since-convicted felon Scooter Libby: Zero

Links to Thompson's ABC Radio blog from his official campaign blog: "As widely distributed as oxycodone HCl in Rush Limbaugh's bloodstream"

Number of times that Larry Sabato has complained about ABC's decision to continue employing an active presidential candidate: Zero (as far as I can tell -- lemme know if I'm wrong, Larry!)

ABC Radio's phone number: 212.735.1700

Forget about Sicko, the big digital piracy news is that the President's daughters are up to their elbows in it.  The Associated Press stumbles upon the scandal:

Bush's twin daughters gave him a CD they had made for him to listen to while exercising.

Man, this makes the Obama MySpace kerfluffle look like, well, a kerfluffle.

To the extended text!!

Can someone please help me out here? A man in a community in Southern California has about 250 little U.S. flags planted in his front lawn. Some of his neighbors object to his having them there, and have asked him to remove them.

Okay, simple enough. I mean, it’s pretty obvious who’s the left-wing pinko radical here, and who’s the "Support the troops" yellow-ribbon-magnet-on-the-back-of-the-SUV right-wing Gee Dubya-supportin’ Republican, right?

Wrong. Neither. Check this out:

Replete with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Michael "Savage" Wiener and Mark Levin among many others, and combined with the tragic failure of Air America, conservatives have become convinced that they own the radio broadcast airwaves, dominating those airwaves with up to 20 million listeners per program. Many of these shock DJ demagogues play an assortment of rock 'n' roll, hip-hop and electronic dance music as intros and themes for their shows. Popular music has a long and colorful history in the United States, originators of forms of music appreciated worldwide, from jazz to house music. One thing that popular American music is not is conservative.

Four things Bush doesn't want you to know about Nancy Pelosi's Syria visit:

1. The Israelis are GLAD she’s there.

2. Far from her trying to hurt Israel or the US (as Bush implies), The Israelis think so much of her that they are using her as a trusted go-between from Israel to Syria.

3. There are three Republican Congressmen in Syria meeting with Assad RIGHT NOW.

4. The three Republican Congressmen, including Joe Pitts (R-PA) are in Syria ON BUSH’S ORDERS (or least with his OK).

Please spread the word.  Thanks.

Press secretaries are like goldfish.  You get it, you look at it, you start to love it... and then one day it's circling the toilet bowl.  Luckily, like goldfish, it's easy to replace one so that the children don't really notice the difference.  

While we here at The Scotty Show! (really, it's just me here) wish Tony a swift and complete recovery, we cannot help but notice that if you close your eyes and just listen, Ari is Scotty is Tony is Dana is whoever else they put behind the podium.  That makes my job a hell of a lot easier, let me tell you.  

If you’re new to this here’s how we run things.  Tony Snow Dana Perino gives a press briefing to a group of trusting, doe-eyed "reporters".  I then post the press briefing – edited, abridged, and full of mocking, profanity and crude pictures of kitties drawn in MS Paint.  To make it more reader friendly, we (still just me here) follow this format:

Press questions and comments are italicized for her (and/or his) pleasure.
Tony Snow’s bullshit is thick and bold, like in real life.
My comments are in plain text, which I’m sure signifies something profound.

Update - Changed title for relevancy

When it comes to a governmental policy, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is one of the lamest policies ever thought up by actual adults, although labeling them adults may be strictly interpreted by the physical requirements of adulthood, depending on who you talk to.

"Don't ask, don't tell" is the common term for the U.S. military policy which implements Pub.L. 103-160 (10 U.S.C. § 654). Unless one of the numerous exceptions from 10 U.S.C. 654(b) applies, the policy prohibits anyone who has sexual bodily or romantic contact with a person of the same sex from serving in the armed forces of the United States, and prohibits any homosexual or bisexual from disclosing his or her sexual orientation, or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces. The policy also requires that as long as gay or bisexual men and women in the military hide their sexual orientation, commanders are not allowed to investigate their sexuality. - (Source)