Friday, August 08, 2008

Another one bites the dust

The Friday news dump almost always brings something interesting and today we learn that former presidential candidate John Edwards cheated on his wife.
Every Democrats first thought after the initial shock I'm sure was "Whew! We dodged a bullet on that one!"
But how could Edwards be so stupid?? How could he go out and get all these people to commit to his campaign for the presidency knowing he had this ticking timebomb on his person? Did he really think it would never go off?

I'm afraid Ann is probably right, we've probably lost him as an attorney general in the Obama administration. That's a real shame. But if Elizabeth Edwards is still up to it maybe she could do the job instead.
Sex scandals are the real third-rail of American politics these days. It's hard to believe that so many politicians still play fast and loose on that issue.

Who’s next? Bin Laden’s milk man?

The Bush administration finally finished its first prosecution of one of the big, bad, scary “terrorists” from Guantanamo using the controversial military tribunal system and what did the guy get?
An acquittal from the most serious charge (conspiracy) and a five and a half year sentence which, with time served subtracted out comes to just five months.
But what did you expect? The guy was not a big-shot al-Qaeda operative. He was Osama bin Laden’s driver, fer crying out loud! What’s next? Are they going to go after bin Laden’s gardener? His milk man? The pool boy? Sheesh!
If this was their best case then we might as well just throw in the towel right now and let everyone go. I mean, what were they thinking? Shouldn’t they have started out with their No. 1 worst terrorist in custody? I assume we’ve got a few who are more serious threats than this former Bedouin goat herder with a fourth-grade education.
My Lord, these people are incompetent.
Bin Laden and his minions clearly have nothing to worry about until we can finally get these oafish buffoons out of office. It will be up to Obama to finally catch Osama.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Forgeries, lies and sex

Wow. I’ve had no time to blog the last couple of days and now my head is just spinning with all that has been going on so much that I don’t know where to start.
The new Ron Suskind book that reveals a White House scheme to forge a letter linking Saddam Hussein with Al-Qaeda is just incredible. The fact that the Bush administration would have done such a thing is disturbing enough, but even more disturbing in my opinion is the way the national media has downplayed the whole thing like it’s no big deal. You can’t even find the story on CNN right now. Instead, we’ve already moved on to gawking over Paris Hilton’s new ad mocking John McCain.
Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann had Suskind on for an exclusive interview and it was revealed that two of his key CIA sources in the book are suddenly backing away from what they said in the book. But it comes a little late since Suskind has all of their lengthy interviews on tape. Why would they have said these things to begin with if they weren’t true and who is pressuring them now to back away from their comments?
And if Republicans are going to claim that the Bushies didn’t do it, then who did? The letter truly exists and is clearly a forgery. Where did it come from and who wrote it if Suskind’s CIA sources aren’t telling the truth?
Combine this with the ongoing Anthrax controversy about the “sources” who told ABC News way back that the deadly spores were laced with Bentonite, a blatant falsehood meant to link the attacks to Iraq, and we have a clear pattern of manipulation by shadowy elements within our government trying to push us into a war and then invent reasons for us to stay.

And here are some more things I would have blogged about if I had the time:

A great article by Greg Anrig advancing the theme from his book about the failure of GOP ideas as the key reason why McCain’s presidential hopes are going nowhere.

Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, held a fundraiser last year at a Las Vegas strip joint.
And yesterday, John McCain goes to some biker bar and jokes about having his wife take part in a lewd, bikini beauty contest that regularly features women going topless and simulating sex acts on stage.

And when Republicans aren’t out promoting their brand of family values, they are going completely nuts over every little thing that Obama says in a desperate search for a “gotcha” moment. The latest was a hyped up attempt to ridicule Obama for making the very true and common sense statement that keeping your tires properly inflated improves your car’s gas mileage and saves money.
I think all the Republicans running around the last couple of days waving tire guages are the perfect symbol for a Republican presidential campaign that is running on four flat tires.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Texas Progressive Alliance roundup 8/4

It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly Round-Up.

Last week on Bluedaze , Big Oil threatened TXsharon. In "Big Oil" Threatens Harm to My "Lovelies" and Me she calls out the abuser and includes a new PR plan that will save Chesapeake Energy millions of dollars and help clean up Big Oil's act.

Mike Thomas of Rhetoric & Rhythm is critical of a campaign to knock off Blue Dog Democrats , even if it means electing Republicans, all in an effort to punish Democrats for failing to hew the line on certain progressive issues.

refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left has always heard that What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas or does it for Pete Sessions?

Burnt Orange Report went on strike last week to raise $1000 for Chris Bell's State Senate campaign. 12 hours later, 15 donors raised $1,075 for Bell and the BOR team is back to blogging.

jobsanger opines about the lack of Democratic leadership from Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Pelosi: Where's The Leadership?, and lets us know the Nanny State is alive and well in The "Nanny State" Strikes Again.

The Texas Cloverleaf is on a strike for change! Help raise money for selected candidates. What do we want? Donations! When do we need them? Now!

Texas Liberal suggests that life is like a harbor where ships come and go.

Off the Kuff calculates how many eligible but unregistered voters there are in Harris County, and compares it to 2004.

Obama came to Houston but only for a few high-dollar fundraisers in River Oaks, a trend sadly that is repetitive of past Democratic presidential nominees. PDiddie at
Brains and Eggs
had the report, and the total take was $1.5 mill.

Mean Rachel gets a response from Rep. Elliott Naishtat to her modest proposal from last week, and at dinner discovers just how unwired the Yankee in the Texas House really is.

Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker makesthe case for a Republican straight ticket ballot, for the Democratic slate (with Video)! It may be the only way to save the Republican Party from its present delusional masters!

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders which will come first - the death of the Republican Party or a full blown police state. CBT, ever the optimist, predicts the former.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones is going to run for U.S. Senate if and when Kay Bailey Hutchison vacates her seat to run for Governor.

Aimlessness at WhosPlayin got one too many email forwards about "Why Men are Republicans", and decided to retort with "Why Men Prefer Democrats".

McBlogger takes a
look at the ability of DHS to snoop on you. And you thought the FISA stuff was bad...

BossKitty at TruthHugger wonders about "What is Adrenarche and Why Are AmericaĆ­s Services Sexually Immature"