Tom: It's Called 'Vetting'. Try It

Massachusetts, while one of the most progressive and liberal states in the country, has had Republican governors for the last 20 years. We'd really like to end that streak. Why can't we get better candidates?

Yesterday's Boston Globe:

Reilly picks St. Fleur for campaign
Running mate is seen as rising political star

This morning's Boston Globe:

Reilly's pick delinquent on taxes, loans
St. Fleur says she is repaying debts

State Representative Marie P. St. Fleur, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's choice to be his lieutenant governor running mate, has had three delinquent tax debts in the last four years, including an April 2005 federal tax lien of $12,711 against her and her husband, according to records examined yesterday by the Globe.

St. Fleur, in an interview last night, disclosed that she also owes $40,000 in delinquent federally backed student loans.

St. Fleur told the Globe last night that she had paid down the federal tax debt to about $8,000 by making $500 monthly payments since last spring. But later last night, Corey Welford, a Reilly campaign spokesman, corrected her, saying that she had in fact made only one $500 payment last May and that the balance is still more than $12,000.

From boston.com this afternoon:

Rep. St. Fleur withdraws as Reilly's running mate

State Representative Marie St. Fleur today pulled out as a candidate for lieutenant governor after the Boston Globe reported that she has delinquent tax debts in three of the last four years and owes $40,000 in student loans, a senior Democrat said today.

The announcement came one day after Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly announced that St. Fleur was his choice to run as his running mate. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately until the party primary, and then run as a ticket for the general election.

Where do they get these people? Who thinks they can aspire to high public office while a tax delinquent? How can a career politician who's been our Attorney General for 8 years, before that Middlesex County District Attorney for 7 years, an attorney for 36 years, pick a running mate without a cursory reference check? They would have caught the delinquent loans on a routine pre-employment credit check.

As a result of this, and in what may be an opportune time for him to get this out, our other declared Democratic candidate, Deval Patrick, revealed today that he himself is also tax delinquent, though in his case it is 'former' tax delinquent. From the Boston Herald:

St. Fleur quits race; Patrick reveals tax delinquency

Deval Patrick, Reilly’s top rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, released a statement disclosing that he, too, had been a tax delinquent.

"More than a decade ago, Diane and I had an installment agreement with the IRS to pay, on a monthly basis, an unexpected tax liability,” Patrick said in a statement issued to The Associated Press. “We missed one or two of our installments. This triggered an IRS lien. We took immediate steps to pay off the balance and within five months discharged in full the $8,778 we owed.

I thought the Republicans had the market on incompetence cornered. This is pissing me off. We'd better beat the empty dress (Kerry Healey, Lt. Gov. to the Mittwit) in November.

We Love Lists

100 Best First Lines from Novels

Somebody Has To Make Sure Mines Are Safe

The feds aren't doing their job, so the state of West Virginia has stepped in:

Governor orders all West Virginia mines closed for safety checks

DRAWDY, W.Va. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin has ordered all mines in his state to stop production until safety checks can be conducted. His decision follows the deaths of two people in separate mine site accidents today. The accidents bring the state's death total to 16 within a one-month period.

State officials say one miner was killed after a mine support popped loose at the Long Branch Energy underground mine in the Wharton area.

A federal mine safety spokesman says a bulldozer operator was killed during a gas fire at the Elk Run Black Castle surface mine.

via Suburban Guerilla

Add Another Count of Obstruction of Justice

via Talking Points Memo:

Leak prober got supersecret files

Fitzgerald, who is fighting Libby's request, said in a letter to Libby's lawyers that many e-mails from Cheney's office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy.

Has Rosemary Woods arisen from her grave? Will we see some poor Republican sap secretary demonstrating her delete key mistake?

UnAmerican

The First Amendment was violated by Bushco and the Capitol Police at the State of the Union last night:

First Cindy Sheehan was dragged out: Police Remove Sheehan From Bush Speech

Then, the wife of Rep. Bill Young of Florida, who was wearing a shirt that said "Support the Troops": Lawmaker's wife told to leave during Bush speech

First Amendment lawyer Glenn Greenwald's take: Learning From Dear Leader

Update: Capitol police have dropped the charges against Sheehan, admitting she broke no laws. Of note, Mrs. Young was merely removed, and was not arrested and charged as Sheehan was.

Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day!

Today, February 1, 2006, is the 20th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

NGWSD began in 1987 as a day to remember Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman for her athletic achievements and her work to assure equality for women's sports. Hyman died of Marfan's Syndrome in 1986 while competing in a volleyball tournament in Japan. Since that time, NGWSD has evolved into a day to acknowledge the past and recognize current sports achievements, the positive influence of sports participation, and the continuing struggle for equality and access for women in sports.

Sports have been very important in my life. I loved playing and am a fan. When I became a lawyer, sports helped me survive the five years I spent as the only woman lawyer in my law firm. It gave me something to talk about in attorney's meetings, and there was automatic respect because I knew more about baseball, basketball, football, hockey and soccer than anyone else in the room. And you can tell from that last sentence that I do not lack for confidence, and I attribute some of that confidence to playing sports.

One of Bushco's early failures was their attack on Title IX in 2003:

In 2003, the administration empaneled a commission to "clarify" read "lessen" Title IX's compliance standards. A minority report issued by commissioners Julie Foudy and Donna de Varona condemning the commission's recommendations for change drew bipartisan support and the backing of women's groups across the country and compelled the Department of Education to withdraw plans to modify the standards for compliance adopted in 1979.

Not that Title IX has ever been enforced with any rigor by the Justice Department of any administration. Do you know how much in fines has been leveled by the Office of Civil Rights for Title IX violations? That would be zero, zip, nada. No educational institution has ever been fined by the federal government for violating this federal law.

We've come a long way, but there's still a ways to go. Happy NGWSD!

From the Wayback Machine

I don't know how I missed this last year, the one thing Rep. Charles Rangel likes about George W. Bush:

Tennis star John McEnroe might not have much experience in news, but during the Democratic convention in Boston last week, McEnroe knew how to get a good quote for his CNBC show.

He sent his correspondents to the convention Thursday to ask Democrats to think of one thing they like about George Bush. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said:

“He’s done more to destroy the myth of white supremacy than anyone I know.”

First Amendment? That's so 1789

U.S. Constitution, First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Cindy Sheehan was arrested, dragged out of the U.S. Capitol, and roughed up by the police prior to the Chimperor's State of the Union address last night, because she dared to assert her First Amendment rights and wore a t-shirt that read: "2245 Dead. How many more?"

What Really Happened.
by CindySheehan

Freedom is on the march. Somewhere, but not in the good ol' US of A.

Or as skippy says: they hate us for our freedoms...only we don't have them any more

Tee Hee

Received in email:

Did you hear about the agnostic dyslexic insomniac who
stayed up all night wondering if there was really a dog?

'the usual Kabuki theater'

Eugene Robinson in Tuesday's WaPo, on what the State of the Union should have been:

Into the Freying Pan

I couldn't watch, because a) I was at my friend's house babysitting and didn't want to swear in front of the kids, and b) my blood pressure can't take more than 2 minutes of the Chimperor. Especially if people applaud anything he says.

Groundhog Day

Received in email (must stop blogging and finish email....)

Subject: Groundhog Day

This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fall on the same day. As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog."

This joke would be much funnier if today were indeed Groundhog Day, but that's Thursday, February 2nd. Maybe it will work next year.

Right to Die, Considered

From today's Boston Globe, a compelling essay by Jerry Fensterman, a young man suffering from end-stage kidney cancer.

I see why others choose to die

Mine has been a long, difficult, and certain march to death. Thus, I have had ample time to reflect on my life, get my affairs in order, say everything I want to the people I love, and seek rapprochement with friends I have hurt or lost touch with. The bad news is that my pain and suffering have been drawn out, the rewarding aspects of life have inexorably shrunk, and I have watched my condition place an increasingly great physical and emotional burden on the people closest to me. While they have cared for me with great love and selflessness, I cannot abide how my illness has caused them hardship, in some cases dominating their lives and delaying their healing.

Perhaps the biggest and most profound change I have undergone is that my addiction to life has been ''cured." I've kicked the habit! I now know how a feeling, loving, rational person could choose death over life, could choose to relieve his suffering as well as that of his loved ones a few months earlier than would happen naturally.

Sandy Baby, Don't Let the Door Hit You in the Ass On the Way Out

Thankfully I am too busy to watch the 'debate' on the nomination of Strip Search Sammy today, because right now Dick Durbin is talking about how great Sandra Day O'Connor has been on the bench. From my previous post, July 1, 2005:

Just so we don't forget, "This is terrible!" were Sandra Day O'Connor's words upon hearing that the networks had called the 2000 race for Al Gore (remember him, the guy who won by 500,000 votes or more?)

[]

So, she picked the guy who will replace her despite the fact that he didn't win the race.

That's the legacy of Sandra Day O'Connor. Like a butcher with his finger on the scale, she tilted the scale in favor of the side she favored. She was in the seat of justice, but she didn't wear the traditional blindfold.

Sheesh.

It's a Shoo-in, Not a Shoe-In

I was reading a blog about Alito and the author said he was considered a shoe-in last week. And that's the second time I noticed that weird, incorrect spelling in a week. So I did a google blog search for 'Alito shoe-in' and got this result: 47 blogs using that spelling.

So I googled the term shoe-in and got this result: 988,000 uses of the term shoe-in.

Here's the difference between the two terms:

A race horse so fast that you can merely shoo it across the finish line rather than having to urge it on with stronger measures is a “shoo-in”: an easy winner. It is particularly unfortunate when this expression is misspelled “shoe-in” because to “shoehorn” something in is to squeeze it in with great difficulty.

I wonder if this mistake is being made so often that it will become the alternate, correct spelling by default?

I hope to write this fall that the Democratic re-taking of Congress is a shoo-in. And that Republicans' attempt to convince voters that they are not corrupt is a shoe-in.

RIP Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King Dies at 78

I'm Not the Only One

Diary from dailykos today: Bob Woodruff was set up.

I suspect that Bob Woodruff was set up by insurgent spies working within the Iraqi Army, and that the US Military was unable to protect him.

[]

First of all, I should tell you that while in Iraq, I was stationed at an IA training base in Diyala Province. I saw the IA train everyday. What first grabbed my eye about this story was that Woodruff was riding in an armored vehicle which was supposed to belong to the IA. The problem is that the IA doesn't have any armor. They drive around in Toyota pickup trucks. They are white with brown stripes and usually have M-60's (or a Russian equivalent) mounted on the back. They have zero tactical vehicles. I can't imagine they have aquired them in the last 90 days.

So where the hell did they get the armor?

My guess is that some IA unit was selected for a crash course in "how to drive a 113" or whatever in the hope of giving ABC News the impression that the IA was indeed becoming mechanized, which is an absolutely vital step towards them becoming effective. In short, this would have been very irregular and conspicuous activity for the IA to be engaged in. Again, the IA NEVER TRAIN IN OR OPERATE ARMORED VEHICLES!!!

Second, the IA is completely compromised by the insurgency. Once insurgents within Woodruff's embedded unit saw what was going on, it would have been all too easy for them to get the word out and set up an ambush.

My post from Sunday: Set Up

News Round-Up January 31, 2006

Some news you may have missed:

Front paged all over Europe yesterday, the UK issued a report stating "the Greenland ice sheet is likely to melt, leading sea levels to rise by seven metres over 1,000 years." Stark warning over climate change

James Carroll states the obvious in an op-ed in the Boston Globe: You can't have a war when there is no enemy. Is America actually in a state of war?

State of the Union? Catastrophe, pure and simple.

The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2005.

#1 Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government

#2 Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death

#3 Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage

#4 Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In

#5 U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia

#6 The Real Oil for Food Scam

#7 Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood

#8 Iraqi Farmers Threatened By Bremer’s Mandates

#9 Iran’s New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency
#10 Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy
#11 Universal Mental Screening Program Usurps Parental Rights

#12 Military in Iraq Contracts Human Rights Violators

#13 Rich Countries Fail to Live up to Global Pledges

#14 Corporations Win Big on Tort Reform, Justice Suffers

#15 Conservative Plan to Override Academic Freedom in the Classroom

#16 U.S. Plans for Hemispheric Integration Include Canada

#17 U.S. Uses South American Military Bases to Expand Control of the Region

#18 Little Known Stock Fraud Could Weaken U.S. Economy

#19 Child Wards of the State Used in AIDS Experiments

#20 American Indians Sue for Resources; Compensation Provided to Others

#21 New Immigration Plan Favors Business Over People

#22 Nanotechnology Offers Exciting Possibilities But Health Effects Need Scrutiny

#23 Plight of Palestinian Child Detainees Highlights Global Problem

#24 Ethiopian Indigenous Victims of Corporate and Government Resource Aspirations

#25 Homeland Security Was Designed to Fail

Go Vote

How Do You Grade Him?

Although his nickname is C+ Augustus, I have to go with the 'F'.

'Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!'

Animal House was on AMC tonight and this scene cheered me up:

Animal House
written by Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller, & Harold Ramis

D-Day: War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.

Bluto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Otter: [whispering] Germans?

Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.

Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... [thinks hard] the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go! [runs out, alone; then returns] What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer -

Otter: Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.

D-Day: Let's do it

Bluto: LET'S DO IT!!

[Chaos ensues--for most of the rest of the movie]

Remember the Alito

18 Senate Dems sold us out today:

Akaka (HI)
Baucus (MT)
Bingaman (NM)
Byrd (WV)
Cantwell (WA)
Carper (DE)
Dorgan (ND)
Inouye (HI)
Johnson (SD)
Kohl (WI)
Landrieu (LA)
Lieberman (CT)
Lincoln (AR)
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Pryor (AR)
Rockefeller (WV)
Salazar (CO)

Not one penny to these traitors. That means Emily's List: I drop out. I'm not giving money to any organization that supports any of 'em. Cantwell is one of your candidates. There's a web page out there where she describes herself as 100% pro-choice. Liar.

Robert Byrd, the ol' Klucker carrying around his tattered copy of the Constitution, he may as well burn it. And Joe Lieberman? You just earned your opponent in Connecticut a campaign contributor, and a volunteer. Same for Lincoln Chafee, triangulating madly down the road in Rhode Island. He's voting against Alito, but voted to defeat the filibuster. Real slick, legacy admission boy.

My giving just became much more targeted. You can't have my cash if I don't know exactly who gets the money and how they're going to vote on the critical issues.

Remember the Alito.

Fax Every Senator Through This Link

The Dean People

Be sure to mark the button to the left for "ALL RECIPIENTS" and the mark the bullet "Fax" to the right of all recipients. Makes much more of an impact than emails.

Make sure to ask them to FILIBUSTER Alito, and if they won't do that, to ABSTAIN from the cloture vote. Frist needs 60 votes to WIN cloture, no matter how many votes against cloture there are. An abstention is as good as a no vote on cloture.

Hit It

I'm signing off to go get ready to help shut down the Senate switchboard at 9:00 a.m. this morning with voters asking their Senators to "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way":

EITHER SUPPORT THE FILIBUSTER
OR ABSTAIN FROM THE CLOTURE VOTE,
BUT DON'T GET IN OUR WAY.

Use these toll-free numbers (ask for the Senators by name): 888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641.

More numbers (from Dailykos)

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

In Germany, they called these concentration camps. From BusinessWire, via Guerilla News:

Homeland Security To Build Detention Camps In The United States

ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 24, 2006–KBR announced today that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) component has awarded KBR an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contingency contract to support ICE facilities in the event of an emergency. KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL).

[]

The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.

The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts.

The christo-fascists are making more end runs to end reproductive freedom in this country. From WaPo:

Health Workers' Choice Debated
Proposals Back Right Not to Treat

More than a dozen states are considering new laws to protect health workers who do not want to provide care that conflicts with their personal beliefs, a surge of legislation that reflects the intensifying tension between asserting individual religious values and defending patients' rights.

About half of the proposals would shield pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control and "morning-after" pills because they believe the drugs cause abortions. But many are far broader measures that would shelter a doctor, nurse, aide, technician or other employee who objects to any therapy. That might include in-vitro fertilization, physician-assisted suicide, embryonic stem cells and perhaps even providing treatment to gays and lesbians.

60 Minutes ran a story last night about another incompetent Bushco crony, former Amtrak lawyer Stewart Simonson, who is Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services. From No More Apples:

ANOTHER MICHAEL BROWN ENDANGERS US ALL

To sum up: We have a drug, tested and approved by the Pentagon, that would save people from radiation exposure []. The HHS has ordered only 100,000 doses instead of the minimum 10 million recommended by the 9/11 Commission, because the guy in charge of Project Bioshield is another Bush political appointee in the mold of Michael Brown. In other words, Bush is at it again, making us "safer" by installing unqualified cretins in the most sensitive of posts. Who in their right minds trusts this guy to protect us?

And Heckuva Job Brownie and FEMA's incompetence are still news, from WaPo:

Interior Offered Extensive Katrina Aid
FEMA Ignored Proposals or Didn't Use Resources Effectively, Department Says

And in the unimportant, but interesting category: Who knew? Country singer Toby Keith is actually a Democrat. From Preemptive Karma:
Toby Keith is a registered Democrat

Some Reasoned Dems Oppose Filibuster

I'm in the "If you don't fight, you can never win" camp and support the attempt to filibuster Strip Search Sammy Alito. I also believe that we must take principled stands. This is right. Alito is a right-wing idealogue who has no intention of changing any of his core beliefs against checks on executive power and abortion rights. I am in favor of filibuster because the Constitution is at stake.

There are some persuasive voices on the other side. I don't agree with their conclusion, but I agree with their take on the players and the strategy.

Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast: Who said the blogosphere is homogeneous?

Sam Alito, or someone like him, was a foregone conclusion when John Kerry took his $14 million of leftover campaign money and left Ohio, while his running mate was still telling supporters that the ticket would not give up until every vote was counted.

[]

The time for hue and cry was November 2004.

John Aravosis at Americablog: Why I Oppose the Filibuster

4. So the question remains, what possible good comes from the Democrats launching THIS filibuster now? No one has been able to answer that question for me. If you are going to support a filibuster, you support it because you think it is going to, on average, help and not hurt Democrats, when all is said and done. You do not do it just because it feels good. That's political masturbation. It's not politics. It's not smart. It achieves nothing, other than an endorphin high.

I'm here to make a difference in the world, not get high, and not base my political moves on what feels good. I support filibusters, or any other in-your-face political move, when they accomplish something beneficial for our side. I don't support them simply because John Kerry wants to be president, and decides to use the Netroots in a futile, unwise, half-cocked effort that he knows is bad politics, but that he runs with anyway because he wants to win the hearts of the Netroots in order to get our support for his future run at the presidency - to hell with how much damage he does to us.

The man announced the filibuster from Switzerland, people? What, he couldn't get a camera on his windsurfer? If John Kerry were serious about this filibuster he wouldn't go off gallivanting to Swizterland in the middle of it. He'd have stayed in DC, met with the million-dollar groups, met with the blogs and the grassroots, and coordinated a REAL campaign to win this, a REAL campaign to win public support, or at the very least he'd try to lose this in a way that's still "a win."

5. You don't have to win to win, but...
And let me expand a little on that last point. It's not always necessary to win in order to win. You can win by losing. Democrats have a big problem with the public. The public thinks we stand for nothing, and even if we do believe in something, we have no backbone. So, yes, I can see why some people might think this filibuster at this time meet both needs - shows we stand for something and shows we have backbone. But I'd submit to you that neither need is being met by this particular campaign.

Tell me exactly what clear message John Kerry, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the million-dollar non-profits are telegraphing to the public about why Alito is bad? Tell me, seriously, because I haven't heard any clear message at all from any of these people. We know Alito is going to overturn Roe, but the Dems and the groups are terrified to talk about abortion - even though the majority of the public supports OUR position on abortion - so that issue is gone from the debate. So again, tell me, what's the clear anti-Alito message the Dems and the groups are channeling to the public right now - the clear standing-up-for-something position they're standing up for? I can't enunciate it, and neither can you, because they don't have one.

Massachusetts Residents: Were You Duped Into Signing the Anti-Gay-Marriage Petition?

From a local bulletin board:

If you were asked to sign a petition sometime last fall to make it legal for grocery stores to sell wine, you may have been duped in to signing a petition to ban gay marriage. Here is a site that will tell you if your name appears on the petition and what steps to take if you want your named removed.

Personally, it shouldn't matter how you feel on the subject, you should just know what it is you are signing WHEN you are signing it and not be duped in to something.

Always read what you're signing!

knowthyneighbor

Local Slumlord Goes National

Landlord with Boston ties lashed for Katrina evictions

TERRYTOWN, La. -- Until the eviction notices began to arrive, Solomon Benjamin and Patti Joseph believed they had dodged the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina.

Their one-bedroom apartment in this New Orleans suburb, which suffered no flooding or widespread destruction, was unharmed in the storm. Its good condition was verified by a federal inspector who found Joseph ineligible for housing assistance because of ''insufficient damage." Their landlord took a different view, launching an aggressive three-month campaign to remove Benjamin, Joseph, and all remaining tenants from the complex of about 200 units. Former residents believe the ouster took place so the units can be renovated and rented to higher-paying tenants.

"They didn't have to put nobody out," said Benjamin, 65, a retired shipyard painter who had lived in the complex for two years. "They just wanted us out."

"They" are Leonard J. Samia, one of Boston's largest and most notorious landlords, and LES Realty Trust, a Samia partnership that owns Louisburg Square Apartments, a sprawling cluster of low-income, two-story buildings on the west bank of the Mississippi River, 6 miles from the French Quarter.

According to former residents, housing advocates, and legal aid attorneys in Louisiana, Samia took advantage of the chaos that consumed New Orleans after the hurricane -- a lawless time when police, courts, and social service agencies were overwhelmed with emergencies -- to force out tenants. The tenants were among the city's most vulnerable residents, their lawyers said, lacking the money and know-how to fight the eviction pressure they faced.

I can't believe these sleazebags the Samias are still in business. My first apartment out of college was on Glenville Ave. in Allston, rented from the Samia Companies. The place crawled with cockroaches, the ceilings were falling in, and there was no maintenance. You could call for maintenance all you wanted, but it never came. As soon as I had a little money in the bank I moved out.

I always hoped to read that some Housing Court made one of the Samias live in one of their own hellhole apartments, but apparently that never happened.

Set Up

ABC's Woodruff, Cameraman Injured in Iraq

Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were wearing body armor and helmets, but were standing up in the hatch of the Iraqi armored vehicle when the device went off. No one else was hurt in the explosion, the network said.

The two men had been embedded with the 4th Infantry Division. The Iraqi mechanized vehicle they were riding in is considered more dangerous than U.S. vehicles. ABC said the two were traveling that way to get the perspective of the Iraqi military, and were aware the Iraqi forces are the frequent targets of insurgent attacks.

The so-called Iraqi Army is filled with spies. They were the only two hurt. They were probably set up.

New Blogs I'm Reading

Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory Smart lawyer blog.

The Gristmill Blog The Grist is an environmental magazine, and their blog is great for following environmental news.

Lawyers, Guns and Money Besides the awesome name & tribute to Warren Zevon, smart, funny take on law & politics.

ThinkProgress: Not a new blog, but new to my daily reading. Great design, pithy take on the stories of the day.

Apartment Therapy: Design site, scours ebay weekly for furniture and accessory bargains, good decorating ideas.

Windfall Tax in Order

Oil companies are stealing us blind. Will the government step in? This would be a great issue for Democrats to push.

Shell and Exxon to smash transatlantic profit records

OIL companies on both sides of the Atlantic will gush record profits this week, with America’s Exxon Mobil posting the world’s biggest-ever profit, and Shell setting a new record for British companies.

Exxon is tomorrow expected to unveil a profit of about $32 billion (£18 billion) for 2005, according to Thomson Financial. It will be the largest single profit in the history of corporate America.

It shatters last year’s previous record for a company of $25 billion, set by Texas-based Exxon, the world’s largest listed oil company, and easily trumps the benchmark $22.1 billion made by Ford in 1998.

On Thursday Shell will top record-setting results with an estimated profit of $23 billion for 2005. This is up nearly a third from 2004, when its profits were $17.6 billion, at the time the biggest by a British company.

BP is expected to continue the trend on February 7 by revealing full-year profits estimated at $21.7 billion. This contrasts with earnings of $16.4 billion in 2004.

Oil-company profits, driven by the surging price of oil and gas, have drawn criticism as the cost of petrol remains high and domestic-heating bills soar.

Animal Cruelty

The State of Alaska has a barbaric policy that allows hunters to shoot wolves from a plane or a helicopter. Which means that they don't really know if the animal is killed, and may be leaving it to bleed or starve to death. Really sick.

More than 400 wolves have been killed since the Alaska Board of Game resumed the practice of aerial killing, despite the fact Alaskans have twice voted to ban the practice (1996 and 2000) in statewide referenda.

You can go to this site Wolf Campaign to send an email to Secretary Gail Norton protesting the wolf kill.

Via Booman Tribune

Deny, Deny, Deny

Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change
Some Experts on Global Warming Foresee 'Tipping Point' When It Is Too Late to Act

in today's WaPo, starts out:

Now that most scientists agree human activity is causing Earth to warm...

And from today's NYTimes, how hard Bushco fights to deny the truth of science:

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him

The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Send a Fax - Save the Court

Apparently we have filled up most Senators' voice mail boxes. If you go to this link,

Save the Court

click on the box that says FAX Key Senators. This will take you to a form that allows you to send a form to 12 key senators with the push of a button (just a little longer, if you modify the message to make it personal).

Stop A-Lie-To

More phone numbers and addresses for contacting Senators to stop Strip Search Sammy; from dailykos. Hit the dailykos link as there may be updates and additional information:

A-LIE-TO FILIBUSTER CALL-ATHON: It Continues This Weekend!
by patrioticliberal
Sat Jan 28, 2006 at 02:13:28 AM PDT

(Note: Updates are being made as you post, in some cases, to update numbers, e-mails, links, etc. Thanks! Please recommend!!)

Yesterday, I posted a diary asking people to call their Senators to make sure that they support John Kerry and Ted Kennedy's call for a filibuster of, as Sam Seder of The Majority Report has called him, Sloppy Seconds Strip-Search A-lie-to.

It may be the weekend, but you can still fight for this cause. Yesterday afternoon, this diary was only about Ken Salazar taking tallies on how many people wished for him to support the filibuster. Later, we learned that other Senators were also taking tallies of people who call in - even people who have indicated that they may even vote for A-lie-to.

* patrioticliberal's diary :: ::
*

Below are numbers for the various offices. However, many of the voicemails are full, so use other numbers, fax, and e-mail. Please do this no matter where you live in the U.S. (And no, you don't need to lie about where you live. If they ask, be honest. If they don't, fine.) Also included in the list: people on the fence or people that we need to work on, indicated by various offices. Robert Byrd already said he would vote in support of Alito. Some offices have given out these names. We need them. If they don't want to vote "No" on cloture, ask them to "Abstain". Don't vote at all - stay home.

Here we go:

Senators You Can Contact:


* (Reports are Mary may vote for cloture!!!): Mary Landrieu (D-LA) - PHONE: (202) 224-5824 . FAX: (202) 224-9735 OR New Orleans FAX: (504) 589-4023 . OFFICES: http://landrieu.senate.gov/services/offices.cfm . WEB FORM: http://landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm .
* Kent Conrad (D-ND) - PHONE: (202) 224-2043 . He has indicated he may even vote YES on Alito! NO! At the very least, do not vote at all, Conrad! OTHER OFFICES: http://www.senate.gov/~conrad/contact.html . WEB FORM: http://www.senate.gov/~conrad/webform.html

* Tom Harkin (D-IA) - PHONE: (202) 224-3254, FAX: (202) 224-9369, http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
District Offices: Des Moines - (515) 284-4574, Cedar Rapids - (319) 365-4504, Davenport - (563) 322-1338, Dubuque - (563) 582-2130, Sioux City - (712) 252-1550 .

* Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) - PHONE: (410) 962-4510 and FAX: (410) 962-4760 for the Baltimore office, PHONE LINES: 410-263-1805, 410-269-1650 and FAX: 410-263-5949 for the Annapolis office. PHONE: 202-224-4654 and FAX: 202-224-8858 for the D.C. office.

* Ken Salazar (D-CO) PHONE: 1-888-355-3588 press 2, or (202) 224-5852 . FAX: (202) 228-5036 OR FAX: Denver, CO (303) 455-8851 .

* Maria Cantwell (D-WA) - PHONE: (202) 224-3441 . OFFICE LOCATIONS AND NUMBERS: http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/office_locations.cfm . WEB FORM: http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

* Mark Pryor (D-AR) - PHONE: (202) 224-2353

* Mark Dayton (D-MN) - PHONE: (888) 224-9043 . (He will vote no. But he's unsure about a filibuster.)

* Evan Bayh (D-IN) - PHONE: (202) 224-5623

* Ben Nelson (D-NE) - PHONE: (202) 224-6551 or FAX: (202) 228-0012. Ben Nelson originally stated that he would vote Yes for Alito. His office even stands by it. But they are taking a tally of people supporting the filibuster. So call.
OTHER NUMBERS: Omaha - PHONE: (402) 391-3411, FAX: (402) 391-4725. Lincoln - PHONE: (402) 441-4600, FAX: (402) 476-8753. Chadron - PHONE: (308) 430-0587. Scottsbluff: (308) 631-7614 . WEB FORM: http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

* Bill Nelson (D-FL) - PHONE: (202) 224-5274 . Bill Nelson says that he is not getting enough calls from his constituency. Even if you don't live there, call. The Republicans are calling him continously to ask him to oppose a filibuster. OTHER OFFICE NUMBERS AND FAX NUMBERS: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/offices.cfm
WEB FORM: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

* Robert Byrd (D-WV) - PHONE: (202) 224-3954 or (304) 343-7144 or (304) 342-5855, OR FAX: (202) 228-0002 OR FAX CHARLESTON, WV OFFICE: (304) 343-7144. http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html

* Daniel Akaka (D-HI) - RECONSIDER PLEASE! 1-888-355-3588 ask for Akaka. OTHER OFFICES: http://akaka.senate.gov/offices-b.html . E-MAIL ADDRESS: senator@akaka.senate.gov .

* Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - PHONE: (800) 225-5605 OR FAX (860) 549-8478 . WEB FORM: http://lieberman.senate.gov/contact/

* Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) - PHONE: (202) 224-2921 . WEB FORM: http://chafee.senate.gov/webform.htm

* Joe Biden (D-DE) - PHONE: (202) 224-5042 . E-MAIL FORM: http://biden.senate.gov/contact/emailjoe.cfm

* Frank Lautenburg (D-NJ) - PHONE: (202) 224-3224 ,
http://lautenberg.senate.gov/webform.html

* Robert Menendez (D-NJ) - PHONE: (202) 224-4744



* Tim Johnson (D-SD) - PHONE: (202) 224-5842

* Barack Obama (D-IL) - PHONE: (202) 224-2854 . FAX: (202) 228-4260 . PHONE (SPRINGFIELD, IL): (217) 492-5089, FAX (SPRINGFIELD, IL): (217) 492-5099 . EMAIL FORM: http://obama.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm?cat=legal

* Olympia Snowe (R-ME) - PHONE: (202) 224-5344 · Toll Free in Maine: (800) 432-1599 · Fax: (202) 224-1946 OR FAX BANGOR, MAINE OFFICE: (207) 941-9525 .

* Susan Collins (R-ME) - PHONE: (202) 224-2693 OR FAX (202) 224-2693 . FAX: (202) 224-2693 or FAX BANGOR, MAINE OFFICE: (207) 990-4604 .

* Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) - PHONE: 202-224-2551

* Republican Lamar Alexander (R-TN) - Not likely, but he's a moderate. Try? PHONE: (202) 224-4944

More will be added - no doubt. Unsure about your Senator? Call. Fax. Email. If you can visit their local office on Monday in person, even better.

As a commenter stated below, it's possible the fax machines could run out of paper, or the mailboxes could be full. But here are some other resources for you:

1. congress.org directory listing
2. Senate's member listing
3. visi.com search tool
4. ACLU's search page
5. Congressional leadership listing

So what else can you do? Host a house party. Call local TV and radio outlets. Make some noise.

Call in and watch the Young Turks filibuster-athon. They're going to be live on the air until 4:30 PM on Monday. Thom Hartmann is coming in this weekend to host, as well.
And as someone else said, actually Cedwyn - isn't it filibuster freeway blogging weekend? ;) . And a LTE weekend?


And did you know, you can fax your Senators via the Internets? http://www.tpc.int/

Ridiculous Story of the Week

A 17-year-old boy has filed a complaint with the US Dept. of Education's Office for Civil Rights claiming Milton (Mass.) High School are discriminating against boys and favoring girls.

"The system is designed to the disadvantage of males," Anglin said. "From the elementary level, they establish a philosophy that if you sit down, follow orders, and listen to what they say, you'll do well and get good grades. Men naturally rebel against this."

This kid definitely flunked history, because "the system" was definitely designed long before girls were permitted to go to school. I mean really. So ridiculous. I can't even begin to deconstruct this one. Lucky for me some able bloggers have already taken on this steaming pile of entitlement:

Amanda at Pandagon: Daring white boy rebels strike for stupidity

Pinko Feminist Hellcat: Would you like a pony, too?

Call Senators, Save the Constitution

My brother and I went to Florida in 2004, monitored a polling place. That didn't work out. Spending a few hours calling a few senators is child's play in comparison.

Please call your own senators, if you don't have time to call the rest. I've read on other blogs that senators are taking and counting calls from outside their states in support of filibuster. Strip Search Sammy is a Borklette. Even the right knows this. They love him. We can stop him.

From Democrats.com: WE CAN STOP ALITO THIS WEEKEND

The last two days have been amazing.

Early Thursday afternoon, we broke the news that Senator John Kerry would lead a filibuster against Judge Sam Alito if he could get 41 Senators to sustain the filibuster. Three hours later, CNN confirmed our story.

Naturally, the White House freaked out and told Senator Bill Frist to schedule a cloture vote as quickly as possible - Monday at 4:30 p.m. - to prevent Democrats from uniting behind Kerry.

[]

At the start of the day, only Dick Durbin and Debbie Stabenow supported Kerry and Kennedy. Just before noon, Hillary Clinton's office called to say she supported us. Then Harry Reid came on board, along with Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, Ron Wyden, Chris Dodd, and (I think) Chuck Schumer.

Most importantly, we even picked up Dianne Feinstein, who just yesterday said she opposed a filibuster.

That's 12 votes for a filibuster - and exactly 12 more votes than we had two days ago!

I believe we really can stop Alito by Monday at 4:30 p.m. - but here's what we must do.

[]

2. Keep calling the Senators who are undecided or opposed to a filibuster. You can call their DC office all weekend and leave polite but firm voicemails urging the Senators to support Kerry's filibuster. When offices open on Monday 9 a.m. ET, make another round of calls. Let's shut down the Capitol switchboard on Monday!

http://democrats.com/alito-48

3. Call the DNC (202-863-8000) and the DSCC (202-224-2447) and tell them your 2006 contributions will depend on the success of the Alito filibuster. Tell them they need to get every Democratic Senator on board.

Here are the "Filibuster 48" with their direct phone numbers. You can also use these toll-free numbers (and ask for the Senators by name): 888-355-3588 or 888-818-6641.

Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D- AR), 202-224-4843
Joseph I. Lieberman (D- CT), 202-224-4041
Thomas R. Carper (D- DE), 202-224-2441
Daniel K. Inouye (D- HI), 202-224-3934
Tom Harkin (D- IA), 202-224-3254
Barack Obama (D- IL), 202-224-2854
Evan Bayh (D- IN), 202-224-5623
Barbara A. Mikulski (D- MD), 202-224-4654
Paul S. Sarbanes (D- MD), 202-224-4524
Carl Levin (D- MI), 202-224-6221
Mark Dayton (D- MN), 202-224-3244
Max Baucus (D- MT), 202-224-2651
Frank Lautenberg (D- NJ), 202-224-3224
Robert Menendez (D- NJ), 202-224-4744
Jeff Bingaman (D- NM), 202-224-5521
Jack Reed (D- RI), 202-224-4642
Lincoln D. Chafee (R- RI), 202-224-2921
Patrick J. Leahy (D- VT), 202-224-4242
Maria Cantwell (D- WA), 202-224-3441
Patty Murray (D- WA), 202-224-2621
Herb Kohl (D- WI), 202-224-5653
John D. Rockefeller, IV (D- WV), 202-224-6472
James M. Jeffords (I- VT), 202-224-5141

Mark Pryor (D- AR), 202-224-2353
Ken Salazar (D- CO) , 202-224-5852
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D- DE) , 202-224-5042
Bill Nelson (D- FL), 202-224-5274
Daniel K. Akaka (D- HI) (1,), 202-224-6361
Mary Landrieu (D- LA) (1,), 202-224-5824
Byron L. Dorgan (D- ND) (1,), 202-224-2551
Kent Conrad (D- ND) (1,), 202-224-2043
Olympia Snowe (R- ME) (1,), 202-224-5344

Ben Nelson (D-NE) 202-224-6551
Tim Johnson (D- SD) , 202-224-5842
Robert C. Byrd (D- WV) , 202-224-3954
Ted Stevens (R- AK) , 202-224-3004

This is Hilarious

State of the Union Preview (quicktime animation)

Return of the Prodigal Son

The No. 3 all-time scorer in the history of the English Premier League, Robbie Fowler, has rejoined Liverpool.

Liverpool make shock Fowler swoop
Manchester City striker Robbie Fowler has made a surprise return to his former club Liverpool.

Fowler makes dramatic Liverpool return

Fowler rejoins Liverpool

The second coming:"God" is back

Coach Mom is ecstatic!

I imagine this may have precipitated Liverpool's decision:

Star Cisse admits assaulting wife
Liverpool footballer Djibril Cisse has been cautioned by police after assaulting his pregnant wife.

What a hideous joke, a striker who never strikes on the field, yet takes it out on his pregnant wife. Let's hope the Reds dump him pronto, and for the assault, not for his poor play.

Blog Round-Up January 27, 2006

Humor today, in alphabetical order:

Art Pottery, Politics and Food: Walk Like A Pundit

Thankfully the Russerts only breeded once so we can rest assured no other talentless progeny can be sprung on the unsuspecting American public.

Driftglass: The Anti-Sinatra

Frank: Grew up poor, liked to dress up rich and hang out with his crew.

Dubya: Grew up rich, likes to dress like a cowboy and hang out with lickspittles and yes-men.

King of Zembla: Axis of Lesser of Two Evils

Ah wisht ah could quit you, mullahs . . . .

Molly Ivins Won't Keep Quiet, Thankfully

Molly Ivins facing third round of cancer
Nigh hairless, not hopeless, Austin writer won't let disease keep her quiet.

The California native, who grew up in the tony River Oaks section of Houston, fielded her latest (and third) cancer diagnosis around Thanksgiving. Surely she could be excused for feeling sorry for herself or slowing down.

"Actually," she said, "I feel pretty good." Renewed chemotherapy appears to be helping.

Ivins has all but forbidden gifts of food and other items. She was overwhelmed with well-intended advice and goodies after she wrote of her initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 1999. The outpouring kept her from telling readers of the recurrences in 2003 and two months ago, her assistant, Betsy Moon, said.

Lately, Ivins has urged friends and fans to give instead to The Texas Observer, a liberal biweekly of politics and literature run on a shoestring for 51 years. Ivins, co-editor with Kaye Northcott from 1970 to 1976, even let the magazine put her face on a $10 gourmet chocolate bar available online and at the magazine's ramshackle Austin office.

If you want to give to The Texas Observer, here's their donation page.

Attack of the Vegans

ACLU Releases Government Photos

For example, more than two dozen government surveillance photographs show 22-year-old Caitlin Childs of Atlanta, a strict vegetarian, and other vegans picketing against meat eating, in December 2003. They staged their protest outside a HoneyBaked Ham store on Buford Highway in DeKalb County.

An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs. The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of his unmarked government car.

Homeland Security. Protecting Honey-Baked Ham stores around the country, since 2002.

Sheesh.

Support for Anucha Browne Sanders

Hard to find on the sports pages, but here's a little:

Jon Heyman in Newsday:

Thomas speaks, says nothing

The Knicks' spin machine is suggesting she wasn't a great employee now, after previously telling us she was a "rising star" (Garden honcho Steve Mills' words, Advertising Age, 2002). The real word back at the Garden is that she's both "professional and not approachable," a characterization that could easily fit what a Northwestern basketball teammate told Newsday. (A disclaimer: I attended Northwestern at the same time as Browne Sanders but did not know her.)

[]

Thomas and his Garden people are trying to paint Browne Sanders as a gold digger. I am unmoved. What they offered [reportedly, $250,000, one year's salary] was not a good trade for her if she's telling the truth. Last week she was a respected executive, the NBA's third-highest ranking female, behind the Lakers' Jeannie Buss and the Wizards' Susan O'Malley. Today, she is unemployed and fighting a famous, powerful, (usually) persuasive man and his PR machine.

Andrew Peyser in the New York Post:

UGLY TACTICS LOSING HIM POINTS FOR CREDIBILITY

Thomas said he ignored advice to keep his mouth shut. He wanted to speak publicly so he might "look all of you in the eye" and deny the charges, said his lawyer, Peter Parcher.

But Thomas looked at the table. Out the window - anywhere except in my eye as he refuted charges he told a woman executive that he loved her, wanted to have sex with her, and finally, fired her.

[]

Spiel done, Thomas sped out of the room. Earlier, Thomas' accuser, Anucha Browne Sanders, also spoke to the media.

I have no idea if she's telling the truth. But when I met her afterward, she looked me in the eye - though she's a 6-foot-1 giantess, and I'm a 5-foot-3 shrimp.

"It's outrageous," she told me, as lawyers tensed.

"Outrageous." Then she let out a bitter laugh.

"I complained, and they fired me. It's a crazy time," she said, explaining the laugh.

Are we being used in an extortion plot?

It goes with the script that Thomas' camp reached instantly for an ulterior motive, rather than deal with the charges. They changed the subject.

I can't imagine why one of the highest-ranking women in all of professional sports would toss away her career, make herself a target, in the hope of winning a few bucks.

But that's me.

This has just begun.

Selena Roberts at the New York Times also writes in support of Browne Sanders, but her article is behind the subscription wall. A quote* from her article: "What transpired between Browne Sanders and Thomas isn't known as fact. But many elements of her complaint square with the Garden's history of hubris and male privilege."

Previous post: Color Me Not Surprised


*FAIR USE NOTICE

This article contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is made available to advance understanding of democracy, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this article is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes.

Another Republican Talking Point Poll

This one's on MSNBC. You say "up-or-down vote", I say "Harriet Miers."

Go give 'em a piece of your mind.

Live Vote
Should the Senate give Alito an up-or-down vote?

Yes, he has been thoroughly examined and the outcome is certain anyway. Get on with it.

No, he would be a dangerous addition to the court. Any means possible, including a filibuster, is justified to stop his nomination.

Vote to see results

Why Bother With Security When Guns Are Allowed?

I can't imagine having to go through security to get into the Virginia state capitol, now that I know that concealed handguns are allowed in.

And how do I know that? Because a Virginia Delegate (R, natch) shot a coat rack in his own office with his gun. Accidentally. Luckily, the coat rack was wearing a bulletproof vest.*

Gun-Toting Delegate Misfires at Va. Capitol

*OK, I stole the coat rack line from Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D).

Bush-Abramoff Picture Scrubber Well Paid

From rawstory:

Studio that scrubbed Abramoff/Bush photo earned $140,000 from 2004 campaign

Previous post:

Can You Say, Spoliation of Evidence?

Summing Up Bush, in a Sentence

Writing about Hamas winning the Palestinian election, Digby gives us this pithy summary of the Bush presidency:

You cannot successfully run the world on comic book slogans and third rate biblical homilies.

Freedom is on the march!

Hell Will Freeze Over Before CNN Runs a Poll Like This About George W. Bush

QUICKVOTE

Why do you think John Kerry wants to filibuster Samuel Alito?

Conviction

Politics

Please go vote.

Personally, I think Kerry is doing it because people like me called his office and said "Oppose Alito. In favor of filibuster. Save the constitution." That's called representing your constituents.

1417

The latest Katrina death toll, sure to rise:

Katrina deathtoll rockets to 1417

Over 3200 people are still missing after the storm.

Post of the Day

9/11 means never having to say you're sorry

The story of the 6 Muslims detained for months after 9/11 who are now suing the US government.

Go Vote

MSNBC question of the day:

Is unauthorized spying okay in times of war?

("Times of War" must be like "An Enemy". Grammar is for the rest of us.)

Can You Say, Spoliation of Evidence?

Talking Points Memo says Reflection Photography, a studio that does photo shoots for the Republican Party in Washington, has destroyed a previously publicly-available photograph of George W. Bush with Jack Abramoff.

Convenient, no? Illegal? Probably.

Spoliation has been defined as the willful destruction of evidence or the failure to preserve potential evidence for another's use in pending or future litigation.

Or maybe they can apply this law:

The federal crime of obstruction of justice is defined by 18 U.S.C. § 1503 to include conduct that, among other things, corruptly endeavors to obstruct or impede the due administration of justice. To sustain its burden of proof, the government must prove that there was pending judicial proceeding, that the defendant knew this proceeding was pending, and that the defendant then corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct, or impede the due administration of justice.

NYTimes Calls For a Filibuster

Senators in Need of a Spine

A filibuster is a radical tool. It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court.

Count Me Skeptical

From alternet:

Kerry will filibuster

He said so.

Two quotes:

"As a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. helped devise a legal strategy to persuade the high court to restrict and eventually overturn Roe v. Wade , the historic decision legalizing abortion."
-- Page A01, Washington Post, 12/1/05

"I am prepared to filibuster, if necessary, any Supreme Court nominee who would turn back the clock on a woman's right to choose..."
-- Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), AP, 6/20/03

(Kerry quote via Buzzflash)


Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.

The King of Zembla writes Kerry a "Dear John" letter.

Dear Senator Kerry,

[]

The one and only way to keep Alito from sitting on the Supreme Court for the rest of our natural lives is to filibuster his wack ass, and that means pulling your own party into line. Could you do us that little favor? Are you up to it?

Not News To Me

Academia may preach diversity, but it has a woeful record:

Study: White Men Dominate NCAA Leadership

ORLANDO, Fla. -- White males make up an overwhelming majority of leaders at NCAA Division I-A programs, from presidents and athletic directors to football coaches and coordinators, according to a university study released Wednesday.

Though small improvements have been made in certain areas, whites hold 330 of the 357 campus leadership positions at the 119 schools, according to the report from the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

Eighty-one percent (97) of college presidents are white men, even with a 0.8 percent increase from last year in minority presidents. Black men headed four schools (Bowling Green, Indiana, Middle Tennessee State and Ohio), while Latinos led three (Akron, Florida International and New Mexico).

None of the schools had an Asian or American Indian president. Fifteen women, all white, were listed as university presidents.

"I am rarely surprised on issues of race and gender that the movement is so slow to get more people of color and women in those top positions," study author Richard Lapchick said.

In Memoriam: Fayard Nicholas

Dancer Fayard Nicholas Dies at 91

One of the greatest athletes ever to grace a stage. I remember watching "Stormy Weather" as a child, on our black & white Zenith. We couldn't believe Lena Horne had ever been so young (and this was 35+ years ago) and those amazing Nicholas brothers. How could those moves be real?

I'm Boycotting Friendly's - Join Me

No more Friendly's for me. The 500-restaurant chain has essentially eliminated health care for most of its employees.

The new plan provides a maximum annual benefit of $2,000 for outpatient care, and covers only a small portion of the costs associated with major illnesses. Under the plan, employees could be liable for thousands of dollars in bills after a short hospital stay, leading some to seek free care from the state. Until last fall, the company offered them comprehensive healthcare insurance.

And of course,

Employees at the assistant-manager level and higher can still choose comprehensive coverage, employees said.

Friendly's slashes health benefits for 454 workers

Rich board member claims surprise. I don't believe him:

Perry D. Odak, a member of Friendly's board of directors, said he was unaware of the change in healthcare benefits and would look into the matter if it comes before the board.

''For me, whether you're a cashier or you're the CEO of the company, you ought to have the same benefits," said Odak, the former chief executive of Vermont ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. and now chief executive of natural foods grocers Wild Oats Markets Inc. of Boulder, Colo. ''As one member of the [Friendly's] board, I'd take the position that treating employees well is the right thing to do."

Makes Me Proud to be a Lawyer

Saying 'no' to torture and Gonzalez

Georgetown University law students protest speech by Attorney General Abu Gonzales.

"When you're a law student, they tell you if say that if you can't argue the law, argue the facts. They also tell you if you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue either, apparently, the solution is to go on a public relations offensive and make it a political issue... to say over and over again 'it's lawful,' and to think that the American people will somehow come to believe this if we say it often enough."

"In light of this, I'm proud of the very civil civil disobedience that was shown here today."

- David Cole, Georgetown University Law Professor

Global Warming

2005 was warmest year on record: NASA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Last year was the warmest recorded on Earth's surface, and it was unusually hot in the Arctic, U.S. space agency
NASA said on Tuesday.

All five of the hottest years since modern record-keeping began in the 1890s occurred within the last decade, according to analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

In descending order, the years with the highest global average annual temperatures were 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, NASA said in a statement.

I had CNN This Morning on this morning and heard the brain-dead anchors, the O'Brien twins, laughing about global warming after yet another 'weird weather' weather report. Will they ever learn?

Color Me Not Surprised

Sexual Harassment Suit Filed Against Thomas and Garden

A former high-level Knicks executive filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing Isiah Thomas, the team's president, of sexual harassment and discrimination, saying he had made unwanted advances, cursed her and barred players from working with her on community events.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, said that Thomas refused to stop his actions despite her protests and discomfort, and that her immediate supervisor, Steve Mills, the president of Madison Square Garden Sports, did nothing to intercede on her behalf.

Why the defendants *should* settle:

1. Sanders has got a great lawyer, one of the top employment discrimination lawyers in New York: Judith Vladeck. I can hear her cigarette-scarred voice now. She wouldn't have taken this case without thoroughly evaluating it first. They've got something here.

2. Sanders has been with the Knicks since 2000, so she has three years worth of good performance evaluations on her side.

3. She's been in the workplace for over 20 years and her previous employer was IBM. This was an executive position with the Knicks, and knowing the NBA and its teams, there weren't too many women this high in an organization. She's no figurehead.

4. Isiah is socially personable, but not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Remember him saying that Larry Bird would be just another player if he were black?

Another take: Isiah Thomas Handles Women As Well As He Handles ... Well, Everything Else

Actually, she’s not just an “employee;” she’s Anucha Browne Sanders, the former vice president of marketing whose bio is still up on the Knicks’ Web site. She’s hardly some opportunistic floozy; she’s a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year at Northwestern, she made Sports Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list in 2003 and before coming to the Knicks, she did IBM marketing efforts for 11 years, including spearheading their Atlanta 1996 campaign. She also is married and has three children.

Sanders bio from nba.com:

Anucha Browne Sanders

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Operations
New York Knickerbockers

Knicks Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Operations Anucha Browne Sanders was elevated to her current position in the spring of 2002 after joining the organization as Vice President of Marketing on Nov. 20, 2000.

The Brooklyn, New York native is responsible for the day-to-day management of the business side of the Knicks front office and serves as the team’s chief marketing officer. She oversees all of the club’s business activities and revenue streams, including partnerships, ticketing, fan development, field marketing, event presentation, community relations, special events and new media. She also works closely with MSG’s other sports properties - the New York Rangers and New York Liberty - in finding new and innovative ways to integrate the three very distinct and highly successful brands and is the primary liaison between the team and the NBA. Her professional success has not gone unnoticed, as she was named to the Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under Forty” list in 2003, honoring the top 40 professionals in the sports field under 40 years old. She was also honored for her work (along with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton), by Greater New York Links, Inc. an organization comprised of 11,000 African-American women nationwide, and has been a featured speaker at numerous sports marketing conferences and seminars ranging from the Harvard Business School to the Active 2002 Sport and Recreation Industry Conference in western Australia. Most recently, Anucha was honored with the 2004 Miracle Award by The Miracle Makers, a not-for-profit family and children’s services group in New York.

Prior to joining the Knicks, Anucha spent 11 years with IBM Corporation, serving in a number of roles, most recently as a Program Manager in IBM’s Worldwide Sports Office. In that capacity, she was responsible for a number of IBM’s marketing efforts during the Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996, Nagano 1998 and Sydney 2000), including corporate sponsorship efforts that allowed IBM to leverage their investment as a Worldwide Olympic sponsor.

The Northwestern University graduate was no stranger to success on the hardwood. She was a three-time All Big Ten selection and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year for the Wildcats, finishing her career as the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten women’s basketball history, as well as the school’s all-time leader in points (2,307) and rebounds (951). The two-time Wade Trophy nominee and 1985 Kodak All-American also led the nation in scoring with a school record 31.5 ppg in 1984-85. She was also selected to play on the U.S. National Team that toured Europe and Asia following her graduation. Her long list of athletic honors includes being selected Northwestern’s Athlete of the Decade for the ‘80’s and being inducted to the Wildcats Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. She was also honored by the Empire State Games as one of it’s top athlete’s of the first 25 years the competition has been in existence, in the summer of 2002.

Among her numerous philanthropic activities, Anucha serves on the board of Children’s Village, a private, New York State, not-for-profit corporation that provides aid, comfort and hope to over 80,000 children. She also traveled to Southern Asia this past summer to assist the victims of the tsunami with their recovery and rebuilding efforts as part of a trip organized by Phillips Exeter Academy. Anucha holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Communications from Northwestern, and a Masters degree in Marketing Communications from Florida State University. She resides with her husband Roy and their three children in New Jersey.

Stonewalled

Funny how the White House is bothering to cover up its role in a "bipartisan" scandal. Guess the ombudsperson doesn't write the WaPo editorials:

Mr. Abramoff's Meetings

It's undisputed that Mr. Abramoff tried to use his influence, and his restaurant and his skyboxes and his chartered jets, to sway lawmakers and their staffs. Information uncovered by Mr. Bush's own Justice Department shows that Mr. Abramoff tried to do the same inside the executive branch.

Under these circumstances, asking about Mr. Abramoff's White House meetings is no mere exercise in reportorial curiosity but a legitimate inquiry about what an admitted felon might have been seeking at the highest levels of government. Whatever White House officials did or didn't do, there is every reason to believe that Mr. Abramoff was up to no good and therefore every reason the public ought to know with whom he was meeting.

'Bush the Incompetent'

Harold Meyerson in today's Washington Post:

Bush the Incompetent

Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it's hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president's defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his war in Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina and his Medicare drug plan, will have to grapple with how one president could so cosmically botch so many big things -- particularly when most of them were the president's own initiatives.

[]

How could a president get these things so wrong? Incompetence may describe this presidency, but it doesn't explain it. For that, historians may need to turn to the seven deadly sins: to greed, in understanding why Bush entrusted his new drug entitlement to a financial mainstay of modern Republicanism. To sloth, in understanding why Incurious George has repeatedly ignored the work of experts whose advice runs counter to his desires.

He omits 9/11, Bush's other great incompetent feat, when he ignored the advice of experts who advised: Bin Laden determined to strike in US

Blog Round-Up Wednesday January 25 2006

Glenn Greenwald: The Administration's new FISA defense is factually false in which he details how Congress considered & declined to change the standard for spying from probable cause to reasonableness. (which wouldn't have passed constitutional muster anyway, by the way -- Congress can't change the constitution by legislation, it needs an Amendment)

Two from Suburban Guerrilla: Republican Environmental Policy, in which we learn that 20% of the catfish in Maryland's South River have liver cancer.

and Throwaway Lives about Bush's incompetent OSHA letting a murderous construction company murder again.

Americablog: A tale of two sentences Real bloodletting v. symbolic. Which one gets the greater sentence?

Update: One more, from People Get Ready: The worst disaster in American history Oh yeah, you know his name.

Right Wing Blogs Exhibit Myopia Over Medicare Part D(isaster)

From Michael Hiltzik's Golden State Blog:

More on Medicare: A Thunderous Silence on the Right

At some point over the last few days, while researching my latest columns on the Bush Medicare fiasco, I became aware of a curious void in the harmonic fabric of commentary on the issue—as if the entire brass section had gone out for a smoke during a performance of Gotterdammerung.

It didn’t take me long to figure out what had happened. While the absolute chaos associated with the Medicare drug program’s rollout has made the front pages of newspapers across the country, inspiring governors of more than two dozen states to undertake emergency action, the right-wing blogosphere has scarcely printed one word about the program. Thousands, possibly millions of American citizens have been hurt, many of them in life-threatening ways. Patients, doctors, and pharmacists are outraged. State governments are committing tens of millions of dollars to bail out the feds.

Yet, from the right: Silence.

Myopia:

[] "being myopian" designates a subsequent stubbornness to look ahead as well as a resulting narrow-mindedness and pessimistic attitude towards the society as the frame for life's conduct.

St. Patrick's Four Sentenced

If spilling blood were truly a crime, the entire Bush Administration would be in jail. Instead, some good people will be wasting time on the federal dime:


Burns gets 6 months
First of St. Pat's 4 sentenced in Binghamton

War protestor De Mott sentenced

Burns' wife plans plenty of visits; atmosphere subdued outside courthouse

Previous posts:

Good Article on St. Patrick's Four

This Just In: St. Patrick's Four Convicted of Lesser Charges, Acquitted of Conspiracy

Jury Out on St. Patrick's Four

The St. Patrick's Four

We're No. 28! We're No. 28!

Not really something to celebrate:

UK ranked fifth best in world green list

Gus Speth, dean of the Yale school of Forestry and Environmental studies, warned that America's performance, ranked 28th, was of global concern. "The lagging performance of the US on environmental issues, particularly on energy and climate change, signals trouble not only for the American people, but for the whole world."

The US had the best water quality in the world, but was ranked low on energy. On individual issues, the UK scored highly on environmental health but did not score highly on greenhouse gas emissions, or air quality.

League tables The good, the bad and the underperforming

Overall top 10 by EPI Score

1 New Zealand 88.0
2 Sweden 87.8
3 Finland 87.0
4 Czech Republic 86.0
5 United Kingdom 85.6
6 Austria 85.2
7 Denmark 84.2
8 Canada 84.0
9 Malaysia 83.3
10 Ireland 83.3
--------------------------------------------------
28 United States 78.5

Overall bottom 10

133 Niger 25.7
132 Chad 30.5
131 Mauritania 32.0
130 Mali 33.9
129 Ethiopia 36.7
128 Angola 39.3
127 Pakistan 41.1
126 Burkina Faso 43.2
125 Bangladesh 43.5
124 Sudan 44.0

Top 5 Environmental health

1 Sweden 99.4
2 France 99.2
3 Australia 99.0
4 United Kingdom 98.9
5 Finland 98.8
--------------------------------------------------
13 United States 98.3

Top 5 Productive natural resources

1 Paraguay 100
2 Armenia 100
3 Kazakhstan 100
4 Bolivia 100
5 Zimbabwe 100
--------------------------------------------------
84 United Kingdom 71.6
124 United States 38.9

Top 5 Biodiversity and habitat

1 Benin 88.0
2 Venezuela 88.0
3 Jamaica 86.1
4 Panama 83.1
5 Cambodia 82.6
--------------------------------------------------
33 United States 66.8
52 United Kingdom 58.8

Top 5 Air quality

1 Uganda 98.0
2 Gabon 96.1
3 Rwanda 91.1
4 Burundi 90.9
5 Ghana 87.3
--------------------------------------------------
42 United Kingdom 61.6
97 United States 44.7

Top 5 Sustainable energy

1 Uganda 92.4
2 Mali 92.1
3 Democratic Rep of Congo 90.1
4 Laos 89.8
5 Cambodia 89.1
--------------------------------------------------
55 United Kingdom 77.8
80 United States 69.7

· Scores determined by researchers at Columbia and Yale Universities, who ranked 133 countries according to how they tackled domestic and world problems and met targets

Blog Round-Up January 24, 2006

From Steve Gilliard, BushCo proposing its own federal police: This is how dictatorships start

From Art Pottery, Politics & Food, two good ones: Egghead = Gen. Michael V. Hayden (head of illegal wiretapping program)

Mystery Meet (Tim Russert's asking Barack Obama to comment on Harry Belafonte)

Brilliant at Breakfast on Florida exposing Diebold's easily-hacked voting machines: More on the Florida Diebold hack test

Digby can't take it anymore: Killing Me Softly (I love the use of the phrase "American sheeple")

Update: One more, from a new blog I've been loving, Glenn Greenwald on how Republicans can say anything, but Democrats are out of line: Rules for Political Discourse

Carmageddon

Ford to Cut 14 Plants And Up to 30,000 Jobs
N. American Auto Division Lost $1.6 Billion in 2005

30,000 jobs -- poof.

The Bush Economy.

The Standard Is Probable Cause

When the CEO President delegates his responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution, shouldn't he pass along a copy of said document to his minions? apparently, the general in charge of the illegal domestic spying program doesn't know his Constitution. I have a few copies to spare. Maybe I'll mail him one. Why don't we all?

From Editor & Publisher (highlighting the invaluable reporting of Knight-Ridder):

Defending Spy Program, General Reveals Shaky Grip on 4th Amendment

NEW YORK The former national director of the National Security Agency, in an appearance today before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., today, appeared to be unfamiliar with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when pressed by a reporter with Knight Ridder's Washington office -- despite his claims that he was actually something of an expert on it.

General Michael Hayden, principal deputy director of National Intelligence with the Office of National Intelligence, talked with reporters about the current controversy surrounding the National Security Agency's warrantless monitoring of communications of suspected al Qaeda terrorists. Hayden has been in this position since last April, but was NSA director when the NSA monitoring program began in 2001.

As the last journalist to get in a question, Jonathan Landay, a well-regarded investigative reporter for Knight Ridder, noted that Gen. Hayden repeatedly referred to the Fourth Amendment's search standard of "reasonableness" without mentioning that it also demands "probable cause." Hayden seemed to deny that the amendment included any such thing, or was simply ignoring it.

Here's the Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

New Blog

Apropos The Maryland Moment, a new blog has been created to log comments on the reportage of the Washington Post.

Comments here won't ever be shut down.

Open Letter to the Washington Post

A Crack in the Gitmo Wall

Judge Orders Release of Gitmo Detainee IDs

EW YORK -- A federal judge ruled Monday that the Defense Department must release the identities of hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees to The Associated Press.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff told the government to provide the information in the form of unredacted copies of transcripts and documents related to 558 military hearings in which detainees were permitted to challenge their incarcerations.

Most of the hundreds of prisoners at the U.S. prison in Cuba have been held since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks without being charged or publicly identified, which has troubled human rights groups.

American concentration camp. Take down that wall, Mr. Bush.

Bye Bye Free Internet

The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet

Washington Post Political Reporter Jim VandeHei is Married to a Former Aide to Tom Delay

Wouldn't you have wanted to know that when you read this a month ago:

President Says DeLay Is Not Guilty of Money Laundering

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 15, 2005; Page A07

President Bush said yesterday he is confident that former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is innocent of money-laundering charges, as he offered strong support for several top Republicans who have been battered by investigations or by rumors of fading clout inside the White House.

VandeHei's wife is described as "a social/family policy advisor" in the office of Tom Delay on Steve Clemons website, The Washington Note.

Why is he allowed to report on the Delay or Abramoff scandals? Why isn't this at a very minimum disclosed to the readers?

Presstitute. Notorious House of Presstitution.

Save the Constitution Day

The Senate votes on Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States tomorrow.

Have you called your senator and registered your opposition?

Senate Contact Information

Game of the Day

Liverpool-Manchester United. Rafa's resurgent Reds v. Sir Alex's slumping Mancs. England's two best players, Stevie Gerrard and Wayne Rooney. The biggest game of the EPL season to date.

Wish I got Setanta Sports so I could buy this one on pay-per-view.

Match preview from Kopblog: Rafa's Reds to put Man Utd Has-Beens in their place

United Rant: Overview

My prediction: Liverpool 3-1, Liverpool goals by Stevie G., Crouch, Kewell, and Van Nistelrooy for MU. Bonus predictions: yellow cards to Rooney, Ronaldo, and Sussoko.

Update: Man Utd 1-0 Liverpool Unfortunately, the only predictions I made that came true were yellow cards to Rooney and Sussoko. A big wasted opportunity by Liverpool.

She Still Doesn't Get It

Deborah Howell's latest shot at getting the Abramoff story right is half right, and still half wrong:

The Firestorm Over My Column

Right:

I wrote that he gave campaign money to both parties and their members of Congress. He didn't.

Wrong:

I should have said he directed his client Indian tribes to make campaign contributions to members of Congress from both parties.

Still clinging to her "directed to" language, while ignoring the import of the actual facts. Abramoff's tribes (only 6 of the 500 recognized tribes in the US, by the way) actually gave far less to Democrats after he began representing them as their lobbyist.

Well, at least she's figured this much out:

It's not a bipartisan scandal; it's a Republican scandal, and that's why the Republicans are scurrying around trying to enact lobbying reforms.

More on Howell's poor journalism from firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, and dailykos.

New Acronym - Wino

As in, Women In Name Only.

Phyllis Schlafly, Wino Emeritus
Ann Coulter, Wino
Laura Ingraham, Wino
Kate O'Beirne, Wino

Actually, it works for other groups too.

Joe Lieberman, Dino, Democrat in Name Only