Senators Laud Convicted Felon Ted Stevens

Only a bunch of rich, out of touch millionaires with free health care and untouchable pensions, as the economy spirals in freefall, could spend an hour feting their pal, convicted felon Ted Stevens.

Here's his standing ovation, and a nauseating paean to [convicted on seven counts of corruption] Sen. Toobz from Harry Reid.



Rachel Maddow rips the Senators a new one:

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: November 18, 2008

Tee shirts celebrating the victory of President-elect Barack Obama are offered for sale at a shop on Michigan Avenue November 17, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. Obama, a long-time resident of Chicago, has set up his presidential transition office in the federal building a few blocks off Michigan Avenue. By Scott Olson/Getty Images.

We don't just need more Democrats -- we need better Democrats; the Senate Democrats are poised to leave Traitor Joe Lieberman in charge of the Homeland Security Committee. He failed to investigate the Bush Administration's failures in Katrina and Iraq during the past two years, but you can be sure he will be in high dudgeon soon enough for some perceived weakness by Obama. This is just disgusting behavior on the part of Senate Democrats who may as well be wearing "kick me" signs on their backs today.

In other bad news, AP reports that Obama's Justice Department will not prosecute anyone for torture. Again, this is a sign of weakness on Obama's part, and of not knowing his recent history. Democrats failed to prosecute the Iran-Contra criminals in the 1980s; and they formed the nucleus of the PNAC that led us into the disastrous war with Iraq. The torture cabal must be prosecuted and imprisoned so that they can't regroup and take over government again in 15 or 20 years. What Digby said: "when you let Republicans get away with murder, they will do it again."

Bushco is "burrowing" political appointees into civil service jobs -- career jobs -- in federal agencies. They're going to spend the next 63 days laying landmines for the Obama Administration.

Obama has named two attorneys who have fought in favor of Net Neutrality to head his FCC transition team.

Gregory Craig has been named Obama's White House counsel; he "quarterbacked" President Clinton's impeachment team.

The TSA's security theatre of the absurd is completely ineffective. Their own statistics show that less than 1% of people singled out for "behavior detection" were arrested (1,266 arrests of more than 160,000 people searched). As BoingBoing notes, who could have anticipated that a "'behavior detection' system whereby slack-jawed, water-confiscating security officers [are] trained to recognize your 'micro expressions' and single you out on the basis of a twitchy eyelid or a sweaty upper lip" would not work?

Query: Is Lisa Miller, Society Editor of the Newsweek (and OnFaith panelist at the Washington Post), the AntiChrist? Because she wrote a column that will be published in next week's Newsweek asking the same question about Barack Obama. Newsweek, asking if our next President is the AntiChrist. As evidence of bias, I present the fact that Newsweek never asked this question of either George W. Bush or Dickhead Cheney, both of whom could credibly claim to be Satan walking. Seriously, Newsweek: WTF?

Friday Afternoon News Dump

Boston.com: Boston City Hall tops the list of the "World's Top 10 Ugliest Buildings and Monuments" compiled by VirtualTourist.com.

I love this headline: Summers may be off of Treasury short list. A guy who thinks I am biologically unqualified to understand math and science has no business in high government office. Neanderthals need not apply. We've all got the necessaries, Larry.

Vermont Senator Pat Leahy sez Traitor Joe Lieberman should lose his chairmanship. So does his colleague Bernie Sanders. They're right. Lieberman is frantically trying to save his plum, but when he tried to call Obama to talk about it, he got pawned off on Biden. Reap what you sowed, you sanctimonious gasbag. Connecticut voters overwhelmingly disapprove of the job their senior Senator is doing. 2012 can't come fast enough for the Nutmeg State.

The assistant US Attorneys trying Alabama governor Don Siegelman passed notes to the deliberating jury through the U.S. Marshals. All of those people should be fired, and the lawyers should all be disbarred. It's a shocking breach of ethics. Par for the course for the Bush Crime Family. Those AUSAs were only taking their cue from the U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, who was writing emails to them long after she had supposedly recused herself from the case because of a conflict of interest.

Ann Dunwoody is now the nation's first ever female four-star general.

Traitor Joe In His Own Words

He has lied and lied and lied repeatedly. He is no longer to be trusted. Sure he says he'll caucus with the Democrats, but he's made so many promises he's broken.

And as Jane Hamsher points out, he's abused the position of committee chairman:

While it's one thing for Obama to personally forgive Lieberman for the race baiting and other gutter tactics that he engaged in on McCain's behalf during the campaign, it's quite another to let the chairmanship of such an important committee, which Lieberman has used for years to prevent Senatorial investigation into no-bid contracts and contractor abuse within the Department of Homeland Security, to serve as an olive branch.

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Lieberman, many will recall, was responsible for holding hearings into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. But after winning his 2006 election with the help of the GOP, he decided it would be too "divisive" and refused to do so.

Good governance is going to be about more than passing new legislation, it's going to be about cleaning up the mess that has been made over the past 8 years. It's going to be about weeding out the graft and greed and corruption that has caused American taxpayers to foot the bill for outrageous deficits. The military industrial complex has been bilking the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security with no-bid contracts for things nobody needs that we're not allowed to know about for years now. The only way we're going to find out about these abuses, and right then, is if our elected officials accept that responsibility.

Not only is Joe Lieberman not doing that job, as Chairman of the Department of Homeland Security Committee he's keeping anyone else from doing it. He happily allowed a seat on the Homeland Security Advisory Council to be doled out as political patronage to a corrupt Bush Pioneer. He has no interest in cleaning up the mess he helped to make.

Is his continued happiness worth the cost of healthcare? Of the environment? Of putting Americans back to work? Of reducing our dependence on oil and getting the economy back on its feet?

Allowing Lieberman to retain control of a committee where he has done nothing but suppress meaningful oversight is going to be an awfully bitter pill to swallow when we're told that the price of "change" we all thought we were voting for is going to be too high.

Corporations Bailing Out Randy With Money They Stole From You

Just received this in email from Eric Massa's campaign:

Randy's latest "48 hour" FEC financial report reads like a who's-who of the financial services industry (the recent recipients of $850 BILLION of your tax dollars), as well as oil and gas companies.

Here's just a small sample, lifted directly from Randy's report:

$5,000 - EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION
Date Contributed = 10/30/2008

$3,000 - SALLIE MAE INC POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
Date Contributed = 10/30/2008

$2,000 - CONOCOPHILLIPS SPIRIT PAC
Date Contributed = 10/30/2008

$2,000 - JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. PAC
Date Contributed = 10/30/2008

$1,000 - KPMG PARTNERS/PRINCIPALS & EMPLOYEES
Date Contributed = 10/30/2008

$2,000 - WAL-MART STORES INC. PAC
Date Contributed = 10/30/2008

$1,000 - AMERICAN GAS ASSOCIATION
Date Contributed = 10/29/2008

The same Sallie Mae that receives PUBLIC funds and just got a huge cut of the bailout bill? Why, yes.

The same Exxon Mobil that is gouging working families at the pump with record prices while only days ago reporting the largest single quarter profit in American history? Yup.


Please give what you can today. We cannot allow Wall Street to decide who our next Congressman will be.

It's an outrage that these companies -- whose greed has so damaged our political and economic system -- would receive billions in tax breaks and grants from hard-working Americans, and then funnel that same money back to the career politicians that perpetuate the system.


It's outrageous, it's wrong, and it has to stop.

The Gambler

This ad is being run by Campaign Money Watch in Virginia and Florida:



hat tip to Seeing the Forest

While I Was Out

Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty: Senator Ted Stephens of Alaska found guilty on all seven counts in corruption case. How was he supposed to know that doubling the size of his house and jacking it up to add an additional floor cost $250,000? Sheesh. (under Alaska law, Stephens cannot vote for himself next week as he is now a convicted felon.)

The feds broke up a neo-nazi plot to assassinate Barack Obama and kill an additional 102 black high school students.

40 call center workers walked off the job in Indiana rather than read a sleazy attack on Obama from the McCain campaign.

Jimmy Johnson, one of the original founders of NASCAR, endorses Obama.

GM is going to eat fellow automaker Chrysler. The Bush economic plan has worked out so well, hasn't it.

McCain-Palin Rallies: Document the Atrocities

Wow.

Denver, Colorado, October 24, 2008:



Kids pretending to be monkeys, calling Obama a monkey, Obama wears a turban, is a Muslim, a socialist, a communist. Your modern Republican Party.

Sarah Palin's "Executive Experience"

More like Cronys-R-US:

LATimes: Palin appointed friends and donors to key posts in Alaska, records show
100-plus jobs went to campaign donors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent regard to qualifications. Several donors got state-subsidized loans for business ventures of dubious public value.

She makes George W. Clusterfuck look like Einstein. Well, maybe that's giving Bush too much credit. She makes George W. Bush look smart. To be stupider than Bush, now there's an achievement.

John McCain: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Meeting without preconditions, palling around with terrorists, for John McCain, that's all Been there, Done that, Got the Armani t-shirt.


HuffPo: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet Revealed For First Time

John McCain, who has harshly criticized the idea of sitting down with dictators without pre-conditions, appears to have done just that. In 1985, McCain traveled to Chile for a friendly meeting with Chile's military ruler, General Augusto Pinochet, one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights credited with killing more than 3,000 civilians and jailing tens of thousands of others.

Sarah Palin starring in "The Grifters"

Sarah Palin took her kids along to public events to which they were not invited, and charged Alaska taxpayers for the kids' travel expenses. On August 6th, after Alaskan reporters questioned those expenses, she amended the forms to say "First Family attended" and "First Family invited", even to events the organizers say the kids were not invited to.

She's a real Republican, all right. A liar and a tax cheat.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

Who Is John McCain Going to Work For?

Bush & McCain's Base: The Haves

Top donors to the McCain campaign:

Merrill Lynch $349,170
Citigroup Inc $287,801
Morgan Stanley $249,377
Goldman Sachs $220,045
JPMorgan Chase & Co $206,392
AT&T Inc $183,663
Credit Suisse Group $175,503
PricewaterhouseCoopers $163,670
Blank Rome LLP $153,426
US Government $152,118
US Army $150,470
Wachovia Corp $147,456
Greenberg Traurig LLP $145,737
UBS AG $141,365
Bank of America $133,975
FedEx Corp $121,904
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher $120,246
US Dept of Defense $118,125
Lehman Brothers $115,707
Bear Stearns $108,000

The Wasilla Project: #3

The third in the series of videos by the Wasilla Project. Here's how they describe this one:

On the heels of the final, historic 2008 presidential debate, the Wasilla Project releases Part 3 of our series, where we examine Palins record as a fiscal conservative. Clearly, the economy has emerged as the dominant issue of the 2008 presidential campaign and we hope that this video will be a useful contribution in understanding some of the history of Palins public service in Alaska.

After 8 years of a Republican White House, there still seems to be a reality distortion field around the concept of Fiscal Conservative. Governor Palin presents herself as a fiscal conservative who has a record of helping taxpayers in her state. The reality has often been quite different.

Its surprising that someone who came into office as mayor to cut wasteful spending and lower property taxes, actually left office with Wasilla over $20 million in debt, when records show that she entered office with city debt at one million or less.

Some $14-15 million of that debt was due to a hockey rink she built while in office, land for which Wasilla negotiated the purchase for $145,000. They eventually paid out nearly $1.5 million for the land, not counting legal fees, due to Palin moving forward on the project before the city had clear title to the land. This echoes in significant ways Palins later negotiations as governor on the Alaskan pipeline, where she committed $500 million in taxpayer money, without assurances that a Canadian company would even build the pipeline.

As the economy worsens in the United States, markets around the world are crashing and people are losing their homes and pensions, its irresponsible not to question the economic positions and records of the candidates. In the case of Palin, her record has been extremely troubling and reflects part of the reason that she has lost credibility with so many Alaskans in recent weeks.

6th Circuit Strikes a Blow for Vote Suppression

MSNBC: Ohio must set up a way to verify all new voters
Federal appeals court rules the system must be in place before Friday

Tuesday's order directs [Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer] Brunner to verify new registrations by comparing that information with data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration.

The 6th Circuit is one of the most conservative, Bush-Bush-Reagan laden federal courts in the country. Not surprising that a decision which could disenfranchise tens of thousands of new voters comes from such a conservative circuit.

Somewhere tonight, Hans von Vote Suppressor is smiling.

Why the Rich Love McCain's Tax Plan

In a nutshell, because under George Bush, 31% of the tax cuts were given to the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Under McCain's plan, 58% of tax cuts will go to the wealthiest 1%.

John McCain and His BFF Charles Keating: The Real Story

From the new Obama website KeatingEconomics.com

Racist Moron Reveals Self In Print

Republican Party of Buchanan County, Virginia: The one and only. . .Bobby May [right] with [Virginia Attorney General, current candidate for Virginia Governor] Bob McDonnell [left].

Bobby May, your white sheet is showing.

The chair of the McCain campaign in Buchanan County, Virginia has written a racist, reprehensible column in the Buchanan County Voice claiming that these are the "positions" of Barack Obama:

REPARATIONS TO BLACK COMMUNITY: Opposes before Election Day and supports after Election Day.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology classes taught in all churches - raise taxes to pay for this mandate. Put Rev. Jeremiah Wright in charge. Condemnation of homosexuality from the pulpit will become a Class 1 Felony.

HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE: Raise taxes. And coddle sexual perverts. Give tax breaks for NAMBLA membership fees.

DRUG CRISIS: Raise taxes to pay for free drugs for Obama’s inner-city political base.

ABORTION: Anywhere, anytime, for anyone for any reason up to 9 months and send taxpayers the bill. Encourage Partial Birth Abortion.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Keep buying foreign oil and sending billions to Muslim countries that hate us and want to destroy us. [Wait, isn't that the Republican platform?]

2ND AMENDMENT: Under Obama will only apply to gang-bangers, illegal aliens, Islamo-Fascist terrorists, and Senator Jim Webb’s aide.

THE WHITE HOUSE: Hire rapper Ludacris to “paint it black.” Taxes to be increased to buy enough paint for the job plus spray-paint for graffiti.

THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: Raise taxes to send $845 billion, most of it to Africa so the Obama family there can skim off enough for them to free their goats and live the American Dream.

NATIONAL ANTHEM: Change to the “Black National Anthem” by James Weldon Johnson. And raise taxes.

U.S. FLAG: Replace 50 stars with a star and crescent logo; red stripes changed to green to represent Obama’s tree-hugging radical environmentalism and his lack of experience. Flag lapel pins, having become a substitute for “real patriotism,” will henceforth be banned. And raise taxes.

U.S. MILITARY: Confiscate all weapons, substitute water pistols, pea shooters and bows with suction cup arrows. Replace U.S. flags on uniforms with peace symbols changing uniform color from green to pink and abolishing the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, replacing it with “A queer in every foxhole and a camouflage sex toy in every backpack” requirement. Condoms will be issues instead of bullets and brotherly love will be encouraged. Barney Frank will be the new Secretary of Defense (renamed Secretary of Peace and Love) and Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Lindsay Lohan, and Rick Boucher will all be made 5-star generals. And raise taxes.

He claims in the LATimes that this is not racist. Claiming Obama will paint the White House black is not racist? He thinks we're stupid. But we're not, and we see Bobby May's KKKolumn for what it is.

Bobby May will be out of the campaign by tomorrow night, but this is a window into the racism that permeates opposition to Obama. They don't see Obama. They see the scary black man.

Bobby May, Buchanan Courier: The (clarified) platform of Barack Hussein Obama (pdf)

LATimes: Frank talk of Obama and race in Virginia

dailykos: McCain Spokesman Writes Racist Column

firedoglake: Macaca Squared

The Perfect Marriage

Drunk Broke America

President AmericaFucker
yahoo

Ultimately, it is a good thing that it's all out on the table before the election, but really, media? The guy has been a MISERABLE FAILURE since Day 1. Nice of you to notice.

The Scurvy Little Spiders Come Out to Play

Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not. That's why. He's picking up some bargains. Now, we can get through this thing all right. We've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other.

- It's a Wonderful Life George Bailey tries to stop the panic during the run on the bank.

You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter! In the... in the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider.

- George Bailey after Potter offers him a job.

Life imitates film:

WaPo: Fresh Signs of Recovery Or Just Opportunism?

In the past week, Warren E. Buffett put up nearly $10 billion to acquire Constellation Energy Group and a stake in Goldman Sachs. Japan's largest bank company has agreed to invest billions of dollars in Morgan Stanley. Private-equity firms, meanwhile, are lining up funds so they can pounce on assets that are priced to move quickly.

They're playing us all for suckers.