(* You know, as if what Rosie has to say about the news is more important than the news itself? It is when a progressive says it. *)

(* Now that’s funny. I don’t recall O’Lielly espressing similar outrage when ABC hired Glenn Beck as a contributor. Or when CNN Headline News gave Beck his […]

In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush’s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal. A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, (* Yeah, there’s only so much peace and prosperity one person can stand. *) Mr. Dowd was impressed […]

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has estimated that the Army has enough budget flexibility to pay for its military operations through July in the event that a standoff between the White House and Congress over Iraq holds up the money the administration says it needs for the war effort. The service’s report, made public Friday […]

(* Doug: Great cartoon, unfortunately, too close to the truth to be funny. *)

The mother of Pat Tillman is accusing President Bush of helping hide the facts in her son’s death. Mary Tillman tells The Associated Press today that new documents suggest Bush knew within a week that the onetime N-F-L star had been killed by friendly fire. The White House denies that. Mrs. Tillman tells the A-P […]

(* Doug: OK, so I made the last part of the headline up myself. Does that make it any less honest? And do you think anyone in the media would add it? Someone has to. *)

The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures,” Bush said during a nearly three-hour visit to […]

A Republican congressman on Saturday urged Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign, citing what he said were Gonzales’ contradictory statements about his role in the firing of eight federal prosecutors. “I trusted him before, but I can’t now,” said five-term Rep. Lee Terry, whose district includes metropolitan Omaha. “My views were that this was Democrat […]

Just seven days after Pat Tillman’s death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon […]

(* Amazing isn’t it? If you accuse the most inherently dishonest administration this country’s ever been afflicted with of being dishonest - in particular, being dishonest about 9-11 - all of a sudden - the administration is honest? And you’re the whack job? Can anyone explain the logic behind this premise? *)

A trio of retired generals concerned that President Bush might use his scheduled appearance this afternoon at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to try and score political points against Democrats, urged the president, via a teleconference with reporters, to focus strictly on the problems with military medical care. The generals were spurred into action […]

Ann Coulter Toilet Paper!!

(* This is the latest oratory from Ms. O’Donnell that has the rabid right literally wetting their pants. They’re calling it her latest and biggest “meltdown.” Really? I didn’t see that. Mind you, I think she would’ve been well advised to keep her comments regarding WTC Building #7 to herself, but meltdown? The member of […]

(* Doug: Wow… and it only took him, what… 4 years to say it? What a visionary and trail blazer! Say what you want about bin Laden. He wouldn’t screw his Muslim brothers for a barrel of oil. And you’d never see a photograph of bin Laden holding George W. Bush’s hand. *)

King Abdullah’s harsh […]

According to the Associated Press:

In northeastern Baghdad, two suicide bombers killed at least 79 people and wounded 81 at a market Thursday.
In Khalis, north of Baghdad, three suicide car bombers killed at least 43 people and wounded 86 at a market, police and officials said.
In Baghdad’s Al-Bayaa neighborhood, a bomb under a parked […]

When a college intern in the Justice Department whined that all he was doing was filing and answering phones, Monica M. Goodling took him aside. If he wanted to do “substantive work,” she told him, he was going to have to prove himself first. The intern walked out of the office in a huff, and […]

Five suicide bombers struck Shiite marketplaces in northeast Baghdad and a town north of the capital at nightfall Thursday, killing at least 122 people and wounding more than 150 in one of Iraq’s deadliest days in years.

Remember this story from a little over a week ago? Was Patrick Fitzgerald in administration’s “attorney purge” sights? Brad Friedman reports…

Has the Washington Post been fooled (again) by high-level ‘leakers’? It sure looks that way. On Tuesday, March 20, the Post ran a front-page article on the DOJ-U.S. Attorneys scandal that led off:

U.S. Attorney Patrick […]

At the annual Radio/Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner Tuesday night, comedians Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” brought Karl Rove up on stage for a tribute rap song. Which is fine - the bit is actually pretty funny and well done. However, if you look at who else is on stage, […]

I think the American people want honesty in a candidate,” Goldstein said. “When I am going to screw you, you’ll know it.” Goldstein has launched his campaign with a series of video clips on his website www.goldstein08.com, in which the 71-year-old addresses topics including racism, gay marriage, and the Internet. Goldstein also takes aim at […]

Alberto Gonzales’ former Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson’s opening statements.

Senator Diane Feinstein asks Sampson about Carole Lam.

Sen. Kennedy asks Sampson if and how he knew appointment of Griffin would please Rove

Arlen Specter asks Sampson about Carole Lam.

Senator Durbin (D-IL) questions Kyle Sampson about his early evaluations of Patrick Fitzgerald

Sen. Whitehouse asks Sampson about his […]

Forty-eight Democrats and independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont were joined by two Republicans, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon, in voting for the measure. Opposed were 46 Republicans and Connecticut independent Joseph Lieberman.

Mr. Bush, his advisers and his loyalists on Capitol Hill threw up a cloud of propaganda aimed at making Americans think there is a debate going on between those who want to win the war and those who want to lose. That’s nonsense, and the White House knows it. Mr. Bush’s inadequate response was a […]

Henry Waxman’s opening remarks.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said “This appears to be a textbook example of what should never happen at a federal agency. You can’t engage in partisan political activity on government time.”

Kentucky sees it. Why won’t he?

Hey Mitch… See a dentist!

While we defended him from some of the outlandish charges made during his confirmation hearings, we have never seen evidence that he has a fine legal mind, good judgment, or managerial ability. Nor has his conduct at any stage of this controversy gained our confidence. What little credibility Gonzales had is gone.

All that now keeps […]

An influential retired Army general released a dire assessment of the situation in Iraq, based on a recent round of meetings there with Gen. David H. Petraeus and 16 other senior U.S. commanders. “The population is in despair,” retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey wrote in an eight-page document compiled in his capacity as a professor at […]

CNN’s Michael Ware destroys McCain’s claim that you can walk around Baghdad without protection. Ware said “McCain is “way off base.” He also stated, “To suggest that there’s any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I’d love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he […]

(* Or would that be… heim-lick? *)

Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman’s chest. The dog’s owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

May 4, 2004 - New York Times

Led by the wails of bagpipes, hundreds of friends, relatives and admirers of Pat Tillman, the football player turned war hero, gathered on Monday in a sun-drenched park in his hometown to hail his life and mourn his death last month in a firefight in Afghanistan. In a long […]

The ITT Corporation, a major manufacturer of night-vision goggles used by the American military, pleaded guilty yesterday to illegally sending classified military information to other nations, including China, and agreed to pay a $100 million penalty. This is the largest conviction of a big military contractor for violations of arms export controls, and ends a […]

Americans overwhelmingly support a congressional investigation into White House involvement in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, and they say President Bush and his aides should answer questions about it without invoking executive privilege. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday-Sunday, respondents said by nearly 3-to-1 that Congress should issue subpoenas to force White House […]

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday endorsed a March 31, 2008, target date for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq, moving Congress a step closer to a showdown with President George W. Bush over the war. By a vote of 50-48, the Senate defeated an amendment that would have stricken the withdrawal language from a $121.6 […]

Our collective failure has been to take our political leaders at their word. It’s time we held our leaders to account for the 650,000 Iraqi dead. The figures have now been vindicated by the government’s own advisers. This week, the BBC reported that the government’s own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on […]

The impetus for the show was Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel’s ongoing discussion of the impeachment prospect — Hagel’s not quite a supporter of sanctioning Bush, more a speculator about the prospect — and a new column by Robert Novak that suggests Bush has dwindling support within the congressional wing of the GOP.

“Citing concerns that a Senate Intelligence Committee report may be inaccurate, Chairman Waxman asks the CIA for Agency memos related to Ambassador Wilson’s February 2002 trip to Niger and the subsequent disclosure of Ms.Wilson’s covert status. Ms. Wilson recently testified before the Oversight Committee that the Senate report incorrectly claims that she was responsible for […]

The colon cancer that Tony Snow successfully battled two years ago has returned and spread to the presidential spokesman’s liver and elsewhere, the White House said Tuesday.

(* Doug: Gut check time. As a humanitarian, I know the appropriate sentiment is to wish Mr. Snow (and his family) well in his battle. And that’s what […]

“The final bill is likely to have the offending language in it,” the Senate minority leader said as the Senate prepared to begin debating the war-funding bill, which sets March 31, 2008, as a goal for removing combat troops from Iraq. At that point, he said, Bush would have to veto the legislation and lawmakers […]

In the April edition of Esquire magazine, Hagel described Mr. Bush as someone who does not believe he is accountable to anyone. “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,” […]

(* Right. Because George W. Bush is so winning this war right now!

Bush guaranteed “defeat” when he lied America and its soldiers into the God-awful disaster in the first place. Can you hear the Vietnam excuses resurfacing? “If only we’d stayed longer, we could’ve won. But those damn, defeatist Democrats snatched victory from us.” Right. […]

Emails released by the Department of Justice over the past two weeks in conjunction with a Congressional investigation into the firings of eight US attorneys show that White House officials have communicated with DOJ staffers about the attorney purge, using email accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee in possible violation of the Presidential Records […]

Host Chris Matthews opened the segment by asking Mark Pryor (D-AR) how much he knew about the White House’s decision to replace the US Attorney in his state, Bud Cummins, with one of Karl Rove’s associates, a partisan operative named Tim Griffin…

…Cummins told Matthews before going on the air that he had heard a “conspiracy […]

Monica Goodling, a Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday. “The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real,” said […]

The findings end a yearlong inquiry into the conduct of the U.S. soldiers who shot Tillman in 2004 and a possible subsequent cover-up. A separate investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general will blame nine officers — including four generals — for failing to follow regulations and using poor judgment in a series of missteps that […]

Iran said Monday it is interrogating 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was “intentional or unintentional” before deciding what to do with them — a first, tentative sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff.

Update

Iran: British sailors admit to illegal entry into Iranian waters

Iran […]

One of the eight former U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration said Sunday that White House officials had questioned his performance in highly partisan political terms. The statement came from John McKay of Washington state on a day when three Republican senators voiced fresh concerns about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ handling of the dismissals.

For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.

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.

(* Altho’ I’ve felt pretty much alone on this, I have said for the past few years that I do not support the war on terror; that I find it as idiotic as the war in Iraq; that you might as well declare a war on lust. You don’t declare a war on terror, you […]

This is a gem, folks. It comes about 2 minutes into this “New Rules” segment. Bill Maher at his very best. With a picture of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the background, Maher begins by saying “New rule. Traitors no longer get to question my patriotism.” And that’s just the opening. It gets […]

Regarding the disaster in Iraq, I am so sick of hearing right wing pundits and politicians ask the question, “Don’t you want America to win?” The next time some Bush toady asks this moronic question, I’d like to hear someone answer, “Well, not to sound like I’ve evolved to a higher level here or anything, […]

Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accused the Democrat-led House of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger. “They’re not supporting the troops. They’re undermining them,” Cheney told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the oceanside Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, […]

On Hannity & Colmes, Colonel David Hunt shot down Sean Hannity’s Republican talking points about the House Iraq war spending bill. If you listen closely, you can hear Rep. Andrews (D-NJ) tell Sean he picked the wrong witness to lead.

Hannity: Won’t this guarantee defeat?!

Hunt: No.

Hannity: Won’t this embolden the enemy?!

Hunt: No.

Hannity: You’re willing to let […]

A Senate Republican aide said “We just hope they leave without doing any more damage.”

(* Don’t hold your breath. Damage is what these people do. *)

Public allegiance to the Republican Party has plunged during George W. Bush’s presidency, as attitudes have edged away from some of the conservative values that fueled GOP political victories, a major survey has found.

(* Nice reporting. Attitudes haven’t “edged away” from some conservative values. Today’s conservatives don’t have any values to be “edged away” from. […]

(* Doug: Oops. He lied. *)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals.

(* Doug: Is there anyone in this administration capable of telling the truth? *)

Rep. Patrick Murphy, an Iraq War veteran: “For four years, Republican Congresses followed lock-step as this President led our country into an open-ended commitment refereeing a religious civil war on the streets of Baghdad and Iraq. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, ensuring no weapons of mass destruction and several elections, the Republican Congress still […]

Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty Friday to obstruction of justice in a Senate committee’s investigation, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal. The former No. 2 official in the Interior Department admitted in federal court that he lied to the Senate about his relationship with […]

Yesterday, we featured a video of Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson taking Bill O’Lielly to the wood shed. Billo had Rocky on to discuss his call for Bush’s impeachment. Today we find out that republican presidential Mitt Romney endorsed Rocky Anderson back in 2003. Watch for yourself and enjoy.

Ignoring a White House veto threat, lawmakers voted 218-212, mostly along party lines, for a binding war spending bill requiring that combat operations cease before September 2008, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave […]

Congress called a timeout Thursday in its confrontation with the Bush administration after a Senate committee voted to authorize subpoenas to compel White House officials — including political advisor Karl Rove — to testify about why eight U.S. attorneys were fired last year. Democrats said the voice vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee, following a […]

I have a question. Does Kraft Foods know Shrill O’Lielly is using one of their products to demean, ridicule and demonize people who disagree with him? I’m just asking…

And did you know that Kool-Aid’s high concentration of food coloring and its low retail cost has led some to use Kool-Aid to dye fabric and hair. […]

Federal prosecutors took the first steps toward reducing the prison sentence of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, currently scheduled for release in 2011 for a Florida fraud conviction. Documents filed in federal court say Abramoff has provided “substantial assistance” in a separate Washington corruption scandal investigation and continues to work with investigators from his prison […]

Bravo, Mayor Anderson. Bravo.

Did you catch this gem from the John and Elizabeth Edward press conference earlier today? Listen to what she says about the media.

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, key liberal members today broke down and decided they couldn’t get in the way of a bill that, for all its alleged flaws, does put a date on the end of the war. The legislation would force a pullout by Fall 2008 at the latest.

According to a […]

Watch Ban Ki-Moon’s reaction and watch Nuri al-Maliki’s as well. While Moon hits the deck, al-Maliki doesn’t even flinch. For him? Just another day in Baghdad. I guess this is the “one pesky bombing a day” Laura “Pickles” Bush talked about.

The creator of a widely circulated viral web video portraying Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton as an Orwellian Big Brother was identified Wednesday as an employee of an Internet consulting firm that works for one of her opponents, Sen. Barack Obama. The Obama campaign denied any involvement in the ad and the consulting firm […]

A new video service is being launched to rival YouTube. NBC Universal (*General Electric*) and News Corp (*Rupert Murdoch*) have teamed with several major internet companies to distribute TV shows, video clips and movies online. The new network, which would launch this summer, comes in response to the explosive growth of Google’s YouTube, a do-it-yourself […]

Democrats pushed forward on Thursday with their efforts to force top White House officials to testify under oath about the controversial sackings of eight US attorneys, as a second congressional committee authorised subpoenas for Karl Rove, the chief political aide to President George W. Bush.

President Bush has offered to make Mr Rove and Harriet […]

In a letter late Wednesday, Rep. Henry Waxman presented numerous instances in which subpoenas were used by Congress to compel the testimony of presidential staff in former administrations. White House Spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that the demand for sworn testimony from presidential advisers is “unprecedented” and “highly unusual in any White House.” However, in […]

Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales’s office began micromanaging the team’s strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government’s claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.

She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations […]

A Chicago woman sued Menu Foods on Tuesday, alleging the pet food manufacturer delayed announcing a recall of 60 million containers of dog and cat food despite knowing its products were contaminated and potentially deadly. Dawn Majerczyk, 43, said her orange tabby, Phoenix, fell sick last week just two days after he ate a single […]

Reports of a rising death rate and rooms spattered with blood, urine and feces at the Armed Forces Retirement Home prompted the Pentagon yesterday to begin investigating conditions at the veterans facility in Northwest Washington. The Government Accountability Office warned the Pentagon this week that residents of the home “may be at risk” in light […]

John Edwards said Thursday that his wife is now battling an incurable reappearance of cancer but vowed to continue his second bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. “The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly,” Edwards told reporters, his wife by his side. The recurrence of the cancer — this time on Elizabeth Edwards’ […]

Senator Barbara Boxer reminds the neanderthalic republican Senator James Inhofe that “elections have consequences.”

Senior Justice Department officials began drafting memos this month listing specific reasons why they had fired eight U.S. attorneys, intending to cite performance problems such as insubordination, leadership failures and other missteps if needed to convince angry congressional Democrats that the terminations were justified. The memos, organized as charts with entries for each of the […]

Al Gore — star of an Oscar-winning movie, former U.S. vice president and the object of 2008 presidential speculation — on Wednesday took his crusade against global warming to Capitol Hill. Glad-handing like the lifelong politician he was until losing the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush, Gore called his return to Congress “an […]

“As a loyal Democrat and paid commentator on CNN, I am hopelessly biased — but at least I admit it. The folks at Fox News, on the other hand, are just as hopelessly biased — and they deny it. While I openly admit that I love all things Clinton, think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is […]

Democratic congressman John Conyers is going to introduce the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, in response to the problem of violent hate crimes committed against individuals based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability - and the Traditional Values Coalition calls it a fraudulent anti-Christian bill?

It’s guerrilla politics at its cleverest. The mysterious Internet video that compares Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to Big Brother is the boffo hit of the YouTube Web site. The 74-second clip, a copy of a 1984 Apple ad for its Macintosh computer, has recorded more than 1 million views, with an enormous surge in […]

MySpace launched a U.S. presidential campaign site Monday, and it has the potential of reaching millions of people who don’t otherwise go to political Web sites, one analyst said. MySpace, a division of Fox Interactive Media Inc., launched MySpace Impact, featuring MySpace pages for 2008 presidential candidates. MySpace hopes to play a “powerful role” in […]

Rep. Jean Schmidt wrote in her weekly column sent out to reporters on Monday that stories about horrible conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were “overblown.” Schmidt, a Clermont County Republican, decided to take “several hours” to travel to the hospital in Washington, D.C., to see the situation “first hand.” Her conclusion? “I found […]

Sorry, as a devout Beatles fan, I couldn’t resist. (Hey, who said they all have to be political?) Here’s Heather Mills on Dancing With the Stars.

A House panel on Wednesday approved subpoenas for President Bush’s political adviser, Karl Rove and other top White House aides, setting up a constitutional showdown over the firings of eight federal prosecutors. By voice vote, the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law decided to compel the president’s top aides to testify publicly and […]

OpEd in today’s N. Y. Times…

In nasty and bumbling comments made at the White House yesterday, President Bush declared that “people just need to hear the truth” about the firing of eight United States attorneys. That’s right. Unfortunately, the deal Mr. Bush offered Congress to make White House officials available for “interviews” did not come […]

As some of you know, I have my degree in classical piano, having studied for 14 years. All the while I was studying, Vladimir Horowitz was my absolute favorite. My favorite classical piece was Robert Schumann’s Traumerei, which means “The Child Sleeps.” Traumerei was one of 13 short pieces that made up Shumann’s Kinderszenen (Scenes […]

Rep. Artur Davis:“Mr. Fine, how is it possible that you did not review the fact that the former head of the unit raised questions about the misuse of NSL’s, how is it remotely possible that was not reviewed?”

Check out the grilling Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) gives the Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine and FBI […]

Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Nadler:
“Some of us have predicted that the unrestricted authority the FBI to issue NSL’s would be abused, and unfortunately our worst fears have now been realized.”

If you’ve been following the news lately, you can be excused for believing that government service is harder on human memory than Alzheimer’s.

Leahy: “I don’t accept his offer. It is not constructive and it is not helpful to be telling the Senate how to do our investigation, or to prejudge its outcome.”

Conyers: “We will move forward to authorize subpoenas for current and former White House and Justice officials, as well as documents.”

Update
Conyers Announces He Will Issue Subpoenas […]

The White House offered Tuesday to make political strategist Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers available for congressional interviews but not testimony under oath in the investigation of the firing of eight federal prosecutors. “Such interviews would be private and conducted without the need for an oath, transcript, subsequent testimony or the subsequent issuance […]

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration’s ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ firing of eight federal prosecutors.
….the Senate by a 94-2 vote passed a bill that would cancel the attorney general’s power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the […]

The House Judiciary Committee announced Tuesday that Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., would seek the authority to subpoena White House adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

The media reports this morning that among Lam’s politically powerful targets were former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and then-House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA). But there is evidence to believe that the White House may also have been on Lam’s target list.

Just days after Democrats canceled a Nevada debate co-sponsored by the cable news network, Fox is negotiating with the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute to broadcast up to two face-offs by presidential candidates.
(* Doug: Why can’t people just say no? Why can’t people just say “We’re not going to allow you to […]

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had “not distinguished themselves” on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading the CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday. The […]

For US troops from 9th Cavalry Regiment bumping around the dangerous streets of Baghdad in Humvees after dark on Monday, news that their deployment in Iraq could be extended fell like a hammer blow. Their commanders had cautioned that their second one-year tour due to end in October could be prolonged while US President George […]

Your boss starts looking for a new attorney general.

On Face the Nation yesterday, Senator Feinstein told Bob Scheiffer she has evidence that U.S. attorney Carol Lam was pinpointed for firing after she notified the Justice Department she was issuing search warrants for a Republican corruption case. According to Feinstein, an email was sent from the DoJ to the White House shortly after this […]

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ hold on his job grew more uncertain Monday as the Senate debated removing his authority to unilaterally name U.S. attorneys and the White House said it merely hoped he would survive the tumult. The Justice Department also planned to turn over to Congress late Monday a couple of thousand pages of […]

When asked on Meet the Press this morning if he “had any evidence that a U.S. attorney was removed and that removal jeopardized an ongoing investigation,” Senator Schumer said he does and that the evidence is “becoming more and more overwhelming.”

Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent an e-mail that said Lam needed to be fired, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday. Feinstein, D-Calif., said […]

Friday, Valerie Plame came to tell her story UNDER OATH on the Hill and explained that every bit of slime smeared on and about her was either an intended lie or plain wrong. Bill never mentioned Plame nor the story on his radio show Friday but did find time to continue his attack on the […]

The thrice-married-and-now-single Limbaugh not only commented on Plame’s looks, but told his audience he’d have no problem romantically pursuing her if her marital status were different. “This woman is a babe, and if she weren’t married, I don’t care what she’s done or what her political affiliation is, I’d be throwing my hat in the […]

“If only I had known then what I know now …” has been the persistent refrain of the war supporters who subsequently disowned the fiasco. But the embarrassing reality is that much of the damning truth about the administration’s case for war and its hubristic expectations for a cakewalk were publicly available before the war, […]

Seven American troops have been killed in Iraq, including four in a single incident, the U.S. military said Sunday. A roadside bomb killed four soldiers Saturday while they were on patrol in western Baghdad, the military said in a statement. Small arms fire followed the blast, wounding another soldier. The attack occurred as the soldiers […]

Denouncing a conflict entering its fifth year, protesters across the country raised their voices Saturday against U.S. policy in Iraq and marched by the thousands to the Pentagon in the footsteps of an epic demonstration four decades ago against another divisive war.

A major 9NEWS NOW EXCLUSIVE — allegations from a former inspector at Walter Reed of widespread and dangerous problems in nearly all the buildings at the Army’s premier hospital. Burst steam pipes near electrical cables, rats, mold, and holes in floors and walls — all of that extends far beyond the well-publicized problems at the […]

(* Doug: Hat tip to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog. Watch how many ways the N.Y. Times calls the Bush administation liars, without actually using the word. You’ve seen one in the headline already - “shifting explanations.” *)
Indeed, the administration’s changing explanations for the dismissals seem to be at the heart of the current clash, which […]

In its fumbling attempts to explain the purge of United States attorneys, the Bush administration has argued that the fired prosecutors were not aggressive enough about addressing voter fraud. It is a phony argument; there is no evidence that any of them ignored real instances of voter fraud. But more than that, it is a […]

Alberto Gonzales gets in trouble - we get KSM’s multiple confessions. Valerie Plame testifies - we get this malarkey. Who was it that said, “Timing is everything?”
Forget the outed CIA agent. Forget the dishonest Attorney General. Forget Iraq. Forget Iran. We got terrorists. right.

Newt Gingrich’s attempted phoenix-like rise from his own political ashes to a presidential candidacy will run next week into a harsh assessment by his former House Republican colleague Tom DeLay. The former majority leader’s forthcoming memoir assails Gingrich as an “ineffective” House speaker with a flawed moral compass.
(* Doug: The Bug Man, Toxic Tom DeLay […]

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman, has told new Democratic members of Congress to steer clear of Stephen Colbert, or at least his satirical Comedy Central program, “The Colbert Report.”
(* Doug: Huh? *)

According to Gen Hayden, current head of the CIA, Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA agent at the time that her name was published by Robert Novak. Rep. Henry Waxman read a prepared statement today — prepared with the express approval of the head of the CIA and reviewed therewith — that substantiated […]

James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, told a congressional committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Knodell said that he had started at the White House in August 2004, a year after the leak, but […]

Valerie Plame, the CIA operative at the heart of a political scandal, told Congress Friday that senior officials at the White House and State Department “carelessly and recklessly” blew her cover to discredit her diplomat-husband. “My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior officials in the White House and State Department,” Plame […]

The White House on Friday backed off its earlier contention that then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers first raised the idea of firing U.S. attorneys — an act that led to a firestorm of criticism of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “It has been described as her idea but … I don’t want to try to vouch […]

Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration’s warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews. Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department […]

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., has become at least the ninth of Coulter’s approximately 100 newspaper clients to drop her since she used the word “faggot” when talking about Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards during a March 2 speech.
Click here for an interesting take on Coulter’s recent remarks.

Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, one of the men claiming to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby, is royally pissed over a few choice words that Bill O’Reilly used to describe him on air, and now he wants $10 million to ease his pain.
(* Doug: I think this is probably a stupid lawsuit, but […]

Robert Siegel (of NPR) talks with Paul Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005 (at the National Intelligence Council), who says that while it’s extremely unlikely Mohammed is involved in all of the more than 30 plots listed, he’s still a very big fish. […]

Democrats aggressively challenged President Bush’s Iraq policy at both ends of the Capitol on Thursday, gaining House committee approval for a troop withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008, but suffering defeat in the Senate on a less sweeping plan to end U.S. participation in the war.
(* Doug: Good. Again, let republicans own this Iraq […]

After ABC News broke the story that new e-mails have surfaced that place Karl Rove at the center of the purge scandal, Senator Schumer addressed the media to discuss where the road goes from here.

Schumer told reporters, “I know, from other sources, that there is an active and avid discussion in the White House whether Gonzales should stay or not,” adding that “the odds are very high that he will no longer be the attorney general.”

Alberto Gonzales must resign. But his departure is required not merely because of his ham-fisted and duplicitous role in the firing of the Gonzales 8. Gonzales’ disservice to the nation goes back to his days as White House counsel. For lying under oath, for abusing the office of Attorney General, for enabling a regime of […]

Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon says Gonzales has lost the confidence of Congress. Smith joins New Hampshire Senator John Sununu, who yesterday publicly urged President Bush to fire Gonzales.
(* Doug: “Lost” the confidence? That would presume Gonzo had the confidence of Congress at one point. If indeed he did, shame of them for being […]

“I am extremely concerned by the report that the Attorney General may have known he was a target of an internal investigation relating to his authorization of the illegal NSA wiretapping program, and yet advised the President to effectively shut down the probe by denying investigators the necessary security clearances. Congress and the American […]

New unreleased e-mails from top administration officials show that the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was raised by White House adviser Karl Rove in early January 2005, indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than the White House previously acknowledged. The e-mails also show that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discussed the idea […]

The suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has confessed his role in the atrocity for the first time at a military trial at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon has said. He admitted involvement in a host of seperate attacks or plots, which are listed below, as shown in the tribunal transcript released by […]

The Bush administration on Wednesday rejected key recommendations from a citizens’ group asked by Congress to find out people’s health care wishes. Suggestions included guaranteeing health coverage for specific checkups and treatments and protecting consumers from high medical expenses. The group released its report Sept. 29 after hearing from about 6,500 people at 84 meetings.
(* […]

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure in office has served only to deepen our conviction that he should never have been confirmed, has dismissed the firings as an “overblown personnel matter” and assured lawmakers that “I would never, ever make a change in a U.S. attorney position for political reasons.” It’s become clear, most […]

In response to the Nevada Democrats pullling out of the FAUX News sponsored debate, Kucinich said “FOX is a legitimate news agency that has the ability to reach out to millions of Americans, so why not get that message out? That is what I want to do, and all Democrats should be capable of doing […]

“The issue should be addressed scientifically and not theologically,” they said, calling on the group’s board to either rein in Cizik or encourage him to resign.
One of the board members, the Rev. Paul de Vries, said, “It ought to be God’s agenda, not the Republican Party’s agenda, that drives us.
(* Doug: That’s what we’ve been […]

Senate Democrats will unveil a 2008 budget today that would boost spending for uninsured children, students and veterans without cutting funds for defense or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget also would not roll back any of President Bush’s tax cuts after 2010, when they are set to expire. It says the tax […]

Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely. The measure, which drew bipartisan support and passed by a veto-busting 333-93 margin, was among White House-opposed bills the House passed that would widen […]

Banana company Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday it has agreed to a $25 million fine after admitting it paid a Colombian terrorist group for protection in a volatile farming region.
(* Doug: A fine? A fine?! But I guess we can’t blame George W. Bush for not coming down harder on a company that knowingly […]

(* Doug: By past guest on this show, Paul Waldman. And thanks to Cindy for the tip. *)
We can’t deny it any longer. There’s no point in hiding it, no point in trying to explain it away. Yes, it’s true: We progressives are angry. And we no longer care if the centrist, moderate guardians […]

(* Doug: Hat tip to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog. *)
From Townhall.com, probably the number one Republican Web site in the country:
Heres what Ann Coulter should do immediately:

Start a website called Global War on Fags today.
Begin writing essays calling for the cleansing and purification of society via the mass murder of homosexuals.
Distribute videos on […]

Police said Delp had sealed himself inside a bathroom with two charcoal grills sometime between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday afternoon, when he was found by fiancee Pamela Sullivan.
(* Doug: One of the greatest rock and roll voices in the history of music. *)

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to that attack and a string of others during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Pentagon.
(* Doug: And we believe this transcript released by the Pentagon… because? And was this “confession” the result […]

(* Doug: I thought this odd at the time. Hersh appears on Hardball on MSNBC; the Situation Room on CNN; and then the story just… went away. *)
Now imagine the response: Front-page headlines; editorials nationwide calling for answers, Congressional hearings, or even the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into some of the […]

Democratic-backed legislation to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq cleared its first Senate hurdle Wednesday, but Republicans confidently predicted they would soon defeat it and President Bush backed them up with a veto threat.
(* Doug: Good. This is their war (and their lies). Let them own it and pay the price in 2008. Later […]

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on Tuesday denounced the dismissal of the U.S. attorney in Las Vegas, Dan Bogden, as “completely mishandled by the United States attorney general.”
“I was either intentionally misled or someone was misinformed,” said Ensign, who nominated Bogden for the U.S. attorney job in 2001.
(* Doug: Just say it, Senator. […]

Saying “our troops don’t lose wars, bad polices, bad leadership loses wars,” Biden, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, let loose during comments before the vote to even open debate on the Democratic proposal to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by this time next year.

(* Doug: This is by 2-time past guest on the show, award winning investigative journalist Greg Palast. *)
BBC Television had exposed 2004 voter attack scheme by appointee Griffin, a Rove aide. Black soldiers and the homeless targeted.
by Greg Palast
There’s only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That’s replacing an honest prosecutor with […]

Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ dismissal, hours after President Bush expressed confidence in his embattled Cabinet officer. “I think the president should replace him,” Sununu said in an interview with The Associated Press.
(* Doug: This one might have […]

We wish we’d been surprised to learn that the White House was deeply involved in the politically motivated firing of eight United States attorneys, but the news had the unmistakable whiff of inevitability. This disaster is just part of the Bush administration’s sordid history of waving the bloody bullhorn of 9/11 for the basest of […]

On Saturday night, Beltway Boys co-host Morton Kondracke completely lost it while discussing the snub and compared Nevada Democrats to communist propagandists. On Monday night, Fox News talker Bill O’Reilly went one better and likened the “radical” Nevada voters to Nazis.
(* Doug: FAUX News. “Being the illegitimate news organization we are, our purpose is to […]

A California woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive is not immune from federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The case was brought by Angel Raich, an Oakland mother of two who suffers from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments. On her […]

A top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned over the firing of U.S. prosecutors and Gonzales pledged on Tuesday to get to the bottom of a growing flap that has embarrassed the White House and prompted calls for him to step down. Democrats in the U.S. Congress vowed to quickly expand their investigation into […]

THE US has indicated for the first time that it might be willing to back plans by elite echelons of the military in Islamabad to oust Pervez Musharraf from power, as the Pakistani President was beset by major new difficulties over his attempts to sack the country’s chief justice.
The US report suggests a growing disenchantment […]

As the prosecutor purge scandal continues to become more serious and more damaging for the Bush gang, the right has struggled to come up with a coherent defense. They seem to have embraced one, but it’s surprisingly weak. Clinton did it too. In 1993, Clinton replaced H.W. Bush’s prosecutors. In 2001, Bush replaced Clinton’s prosecutors. […]

“The best way for Attorney General Gonzales to accept responsibility is for him to step down,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. “The Bush White House has consistently put protecting the President and doing his bidding ahead of upholding the integrity of our nation’s laws. Karl Rove should pack his bags and go too. […]

High rates of mental health disorders are being diagnosed among US military personnel soon after being released from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to investigators in San Francisco.
(* Doug: The Bush administration. Supporting Destroying our military. *)

The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday.
And this from Josh Marshall’s blog…
“Perhaps as telling, according to the new Times article, Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales’s Chief of Staff and the guy who […]

Tonight, Bill O’Reilly attacked the “radical movement” that opposed the Nevada Democratic Party’s debate with Fox News. O’Reilly said that MoveOn, “the Daily Kos or whatever that stupid thing is,” and others “use propaganda techniques perfected by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of information.
(* Doug: Is it just me, or does the prospect of […]

Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush’s authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war. Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending […]

“Where the hell were you in the Vietnam War? If you had gone to Vietnam like the rest of us, maybe you would have learned something about war. You can’t keep troops on the ground forever. You gotta have a mission. You gotta have a purpose. You can’t keep sending ‘em back and back and […]

Click here.

“United States law and military doctrine has banned the resort to torture or cruel and degrading treatment. Tragically, documented cases of torture and inhumane and cruel behavior have occurred at various sites in the war on terror,” the National Association of Evangelicals said in a statement. “Current law opens procedural loopholes for more to continue,” […]

(* Doug: Just what this country needs. More hatred and dishonesty. And get the title - “If Liberals Had Any Brains, They’d be Republicans.” Once again, the word and ideology “liberal” is under attack. Which is why we keep saying, progressive don’t need to just battle conservatives on issues and policies, they need to battle […]

If it’s good enough for Prince Harry, why not them?

Jared Bernstein - a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute and author of All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy - asks that very question.

(* Doug: Best line in the article… *)
Defending his network, Kondracke claimed, “If Fox was embarrassingly right wing or something like that, it would be plain for all to see.”
(* Doug: Amazing how low some people will pimp themselves, isn’t it? *)

In a new report by Media Matters for America — If It’s Sunday, It’s Still Conservative: How the Right Continues to Dominate the Sunday Talk Shows, we show that the Sunday shows — Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday — have consistently given Republicans […]

Last week, at least seven daily newspapers around the country announced that they had decide to drop Ann Coulter’s column in the wake of her latest offensive comment, a reference to former Sen. John Edwards in which she used the term “faggot.” An eighth paper has now cut the column: The Herald and Review in […]

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical […]

Halliburton Co., the energy services giant and controversial defense contractor, said Sunday it is opening a new corporate headquarters in Dubai in the Middle East.
Time Magazine asks the prescient question, could it be to get beyond the reach of Congressional subpoenas? At a minimum, reincorporating in Dubai would mean that Halliburton will be paying less […]

By Doug Thompson - Capitol Hill Blue
Turn off the life support. Disconnect the IVs. Bring in the priest for last rites. The US of A is brain dead with no chance for revival.
…Another despot occupies the Presidency, an evil man whose lust for power surpasses Nixon and who poses a far greater danger to the […]

Richard Jeni, a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds, was a regular on the “Tonight Show” and appeared in movies, died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.

The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors as House investigators declared their intention to question him about any role he may have played in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Rove relayed complaints from Republican officials […]

Nearly 90 percent of Army National Guard units in the United States are rated “not ready” — largely as a result of shortfalls in billions of dollars’ worth of equipment — jeopardizing their capability to respond to crises at home and abroad, according to a congressional commission that released a preliminary report yesterday on the […]

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said, “Clearly, the administration put dollars above honoring the nation’s promise to the Cold War veterans.” He added this is “almost worse” than the bad conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. That was negligence, Udall said, where “this seems to be a pretty callous plan that the administration knew could […]

(* Doug: Best line in the article… *) Said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism: “You do wonder whether she’s destined for `Dancing With the Stars’ at some point.”

(* Doug: You’re kidding. You mean the “torture guy?” He seemed so reasonable, so forth-right, so unbiased. *)
Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.
From an op-ed in the New York Times titled ‘The Failed Attorney General’ - “He has never stopped being consigliere […]

In an interview Saturday with McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh, the party chairman, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove and asked that he be removed. Weh said he followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House. […]

Army Secretary Francis Harvey resigned last week after the neglect and squalor at Walter Reed military hospital was exposed by the Washington Post.
(* Doug: Could a presidential medal of freedom be far behind? *)

President Bush’s troop buildup in Baghdad apparently will be bigger and more costly and perhaps last longer than it seemed when he unveiled the plan in January as the centerpiece of a new Iraq strategy.
(* Doug: He had no idea… really. *)

General Eaton was on Bill Maher’s Real Time program on HBO last night. He thanked God for the new Democratic majority. Click here to watch the video.

(* Doug: I’m telling you folks, you can’t make this stuff up! *)
Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate “bad spirits” after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday. “That a person like Bush, with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the […]

“I may be their only conservative on air, but someone has to do it.”
(* Doug: No, but you’ll be their only “indicted but not yet in jail” conservative.
I guess he hasn’t seen Terry Jeffries, William “the Bookie of Virtues” Bennett, J.C. Watts, Dick Armey, Michael Steele et al in the Situation Room? Or Paula […]

The Huffington Post can confirm that the Nevada Democratic Party has decided to back out of a Fox News-sponsored presidential debate in August following Fox President Roger Ailes’s recent remarks comparing Democratic Senator Barack Obama to al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
Click Here for the video of Ailes delivering his “last straw” joke.
(* […]

the military corporal named Matt Sanchez, an ex-Marine who appeared on the Hannity and Colmes and the O’Rielly Factor programs on Faux News, alleging that while studying at Columbia University, he was called a “baby-killer” by members of that school’s International Socialist Organization. For his supposed courage in the face of liberal cruelty, Cpl. Sanchez […]

Click Here to watch the video.

The Sanford (N.C.) Herald has become at least the sixth newspaper this week to drop Ann Coulter’s syndicated column following her March 2 remark concerning Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards that included the term “faggot.” The DeKalb Daily Chronicle in Illinois, a Lee Enterprises paper, then became #7.
(* Doug: And listen to what the […]

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.
(* Doug: This from a man who attributed at least part of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy to a “failure of […]

Fox News’ Roger Ailes receives a First Amendment award
(* Doug: This is so wrong on so many levels. Count the ways. *)

The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.

Media Matters for America has learned that the American Press of Lake Charles, Louisiana, has dropped right-wing pundit Ann Coulter’s nationally syndicated column from its opinion pages, apparently in response to her March 2 remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), referring to Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) as a […]

Media Matters for America has compiled a confirmed list of daily newspapers that currently carry Coulter’s column. Readers may want to contact the editors of these newspapers to discuss the papers’ decisions to carry Coulter’s column.
(* That’s your mission, Mr. Phelps, should you decide to accept it. *)

Waxman said in his letter to Fitzgerald, “After the verdict was announced yesterday, one juror expressed the view that former chief of staff to the vice president Libby was only a ‘fall guy.’ This juror’s views encapsulated questions that many in Congress and the public have about whether the ultimate responsibility for the outing of […]

The House minority leader threatened Thursday to get his members to vote against a $96.3 billion spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan if Democrats persist in plans to attach conditions to the money that would tell President Bush how to conduct the wars.
(* Doug: Repubs have accused Dems of not supporting […]

In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of next year.
Update
(* Doug: Hunter at the Daily Kos says it all *)
“Let me try and make something clear to the Democratic members of the House and Senate. There’s a […]

It is her recent “joke” about John Edwards being considered a “faggot” that is the back-breaking straw for a decision we’ve openly discussed for some time. We had a dialogue with readers last year regarding whether Coulter was a responsible commentator and journalist. Her repeated use of hyperbole in the call for the death of […]

MANIPULATION OF THE CLUELESS
By Don Bendell
I am an American cowboy, a real cowboy with a real horse. Real American cowboys believe in simple things, starting with truth, filled with tenacity, and ending with faith. When I was a bachelor, decades ago, and much younger, dumber, more insecure, and self-absorbed; I lived in a beautiful rustic […]

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) has hired a top defense attorney to handle the pending ethics investigation into allegations that he pressured a federal prosecutor to bring indictments against New Mexico Democrats on the eve of the 2006 elections. Lee Blalack, who recently represented former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), who is now serving time […]

Aides to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said they were engaged in discussions Tuesday about the possibility of holding immediate hearings and subpoenaing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to provide details of his nearly four-year-old investigation, and the evidence he obtained regarding the […]

Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias testified today that he “felt sick” after an October phone call from his onetime mentor, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, asking whether indictments in an Albuquerque corruption case would be issued before the November elections. “He asked, `Are those going to be filed before November?’ ” Iglesias told the Senate Judiciary […]

“We will not be participating in the Fox debate. We’re going to make lots of appearances in Nevada, including debates. By the end of March, we will have attended three presidential forums in Nevada - and there are already at least three proposed Nevada debates. We’re definitely going to debate in Nevada, but we don’t […]

“Lancaster County residents of whatever political view — conservative, moderate, or liberal — deserve intelligent discussion of issues. Ann Coulter no longer provides that.”
(* Doug: Excuse me? Ann Coulter never provided that. *)
Update
Wed. March 7,2007. Two more papers drop Coulter column.
“When we picked up Ann Coulter, it was because we felt we needed a […]

Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was convicted Tuesday of lying and obstructing a leak investigation that reached into the highest levels of the Bush administration.
Though the case never proved a White House conspiracy to out Plame as retribution for Wilson’s criticism, Fitzgerald showed how adamant some members […]

In his report, Frank Barnaby argues that air strikes, reportedly being contemplated as an option by the White House, would strengthen the hand of Iranian hardliners, unite the Iranian population behind a bomb, and would almost certainly trigger an underground crash program to build a small number of warheads as quickly as possible. “As soon […]

At least three major companies want their ads pulled from Ann Coulter’s Web site, following customer complaints about the right-wing commentator referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a “faggot.” Verizon, Sallie Mae and Georgia-based NetBank each said they didn’t know their ads were on AnnCoulter.com until they received the complaints.
(* Doug: Firstly, […]

She actually had the nerve to say, “faggot” was not offensive to gays. Watch the video here.

“It was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean.”
Ann Coultergeist. Unbelievable, just unbelievable.

Say it isn’t so, George.

from the Daily Kos…
…”The problem that we have is that allowing Fox News to singlehandedly host the debate gives that channel the legitimacy of claiming to be a real news source.”
(* Doug: Amen, brother. As we’ve been saying for a few years now, don’t legitimize the illegitimate, and don’t defend the indefensible. *)

Substandard living conditions found at the Army’s flagship veterans hospital likely exist throughout the military health care system, the head of a House panel investigating Walter Reed Army Medical Center said Monday.
Click Here for the video of one Staff Sgt. John Shannon testifying.
(* Doug: Here what bothers me about this. While it’s good that […]

MSNBC reports that it was “potentially serious,” but that the doctors found it early enough, and Cheney has already gone back to work today.
(* Doug: Wow… I wonder what kind of medical coverage he has. Oh yeah… I forgot. *)

Same old, same old. Either you’re with us, or you’re with the terrorists.
Vile. Psychopathic. Unhinged.
Dangerous.

A public debate over allowing gays to serve in the military hurts the U.S. War on Terror, a top Pentagon official has asserted.
(* Doug: #1, that remark is just plain stupid; #2, even if a ‘gay debate’ did hurt the war on terror, who cares? When will someone stand up and shout from […]

The Bush administration’s assault on some of the founding principles of American democracy marches onward despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections. The new Democratic majorities in Congress can block the sort of noxious measures that the Republican majority rubber-stamped. But preventing new assaults on civil liberties is not nearly enough. Full Story

Must be more of that compassionate, Christian conservatism, right? Here’s DNC Chair, Howard Dean’s response. You can click here to watch the video of Coulter’s remarks. Click Here to read the statement issued by the Human Rights Campaign. Is Mitt Romney really distancing himself from Coulter, who endorsed him at the CPAC? Reuters reports on […]

Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency has reportedly dropped its representation of radio host Michael Savage two days after announcing that it had signed him as a client. CAA’s dumping of Savage followed a rant on February 26, documented by Media Matters for America, over singer Melissa Etheridge’s Academy Awards acceptance speech, in which she thanked her […]

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for war-wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday. A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him. If his mother had been insured. If his family had not lost its Medicaid. If Medicaid dentists weren’t so hard to find. If his mother hadn’t been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six […]

Here’s what’s interesting, tho’…
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and subcommittee Chairman John Tierney asked Weightman to testify about an internal memo that showed privatization of services at Walter Reed could put “patient care services at risk of mission failure.” And this from the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform chair, Democrat Henry Waxman.
Privitization. Republicans. Both […]

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers today issued subpoenas against certain former U.S. Attorneys who were recently fired by the Bush Administration.
“The former U.S. Attorneys are alleging very serious charges against the Administration and we need to hear from them,” Chairman Conyers said. “We want to hear their stories and we want the Administration […]

Former US Attorney David Iglesias has now all but named Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) as the two members of Congress who pressured him to indict a New Mexico Democrat before the November election.

The “Kiley” referred to in the story beneath this one, is one Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. So guess who the Bush administration picks to replace Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, the top administrator at Walter Reed? Uh huh… the same Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley!! I told you you can’t make this stuff up. […]

(*And by the way, this is what reporting is supposed to be. Kudos to the WaPo’s Dana Priest*)
Beverly Young said she complained to Kiley several times. She once visited a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. When a nurse ignored her, Young said, “I went flying down […]

Fired US Attorney from New Mexico says two members of Congress put pressure on him to expedite case against Dems before the election

While the U.S. Department of Defense says that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff discovers — through an internal VA report — that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments, including more than 73,000 diagnoses for mental disorders.

Strained by the demands of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a significant risk that the U.S. military won’t be able to quickly and fully respond to yet another crisis, according to a new report to Congress.

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media. “Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble […]

Archaeologists and clergymen in the Holy Land derided claims in a new documentary produced by James Cameron that contradict major Christian tenets, but the Oscar-winning director said the evidence was based on sound statistics.

Wait for it … … … … here it comes… … …
CONSERVA-pedia?! (*Good grief!*)

New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the “single most explosive” element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.
Click Here for the video of Sy Hersh on […]

Like Bush needs help in that area?

Tension in the Gulf region has raised fears that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely before President George Bush leaves office. The Sunday Times has learnt that up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack.

The attorney for a former Baptist church leader who had spoken out against homosexuality said Thursday that the minister has a constitutional right to solicit sex from an undercover policeman *THUD!* (sound of jaw hitting floor). The Rev. Lonnie W. Latham had supported a resolution calling on gays and lesbians to reject their “sinful, destructive […]

Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at more than 54,000 and could be much higher; some unofficial estimates range into the hundreds of thousands. The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq reports more than 34,000 deaths in 2006 alone. Among those polled for the AP survey, however, the median estimate of Iraqi deaths was 9,890. The median […]

This is no way to treat a wounded warrior: Walter Reed Hospital’s flaws are indefensible. When former defense chief Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush were planning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, did they never think to determine how the wounded would be helped? Did they not know that today’s injured soldiers are dealing with […]

A complaint made against a Hell Pizza billboard featuring US President George Bush has been partially upheld by the Advertising Standards Complaints Board (ASCB). The advertisement featured Mr Bush and the words “Hell. Too good for some evil bastards”. Objections were made to the use of slang in a public place, […]

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country’s military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.

It is an admission of defeat. Iraq is turning into one of the world’s bloodiest battlefields in which nobody is safe. Blind to this reality, Tony Blair said yesterday that Britain could safely cut its forces in Iraq because the apparatus of the Iraqi government is growing stronger. In fact the civil war is getting […]

Does the saying “What were they thinking?” ring a bell? The Nevada Democratic Party responds.

It’s like another wife told Annette McLeod: “If Iraq don’t kill you, Walter Reed will.”

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between […]