Celebration

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (First ever female House Majority Leader)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
Enjoying the post-Democratic win election afterglow.

Some fun links to keep your buzz going:

Freedom (Youtube video)

Suddenly nobody is talking about John Kerry anymore... (TBogg)

Richard Pombo Takes a Pounding (Wonkette)

Dr. Death (Billmon)

Turn, turn, turn (Billmon)

Classic Clinton Riff - Hilarious and So, So True! (Raising Kaine)

Bitch-Chokers Stick Together (Wonkette) […or, as an astute tipster put it, “Congressman McChokey Gets Help From Congressman McSmacky.”]

The admiral sinks Curt Weldon (R-Russia). (Attytood)

Video: John Hall victory speech (and song) (Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record)


WAHHHHHHH!!!!
(President Bush reacts to a reporter's question during his press conference in the wake of Democrats taking over the House and perhaps the Senate. Photo by Pete Souza of the Chicago Tribune.)

Get Out There and Vote

SNCC Chairman John Lewis [now Congressman John Lewis, (D-GA)] Attacked By Alabama State Troopers, March 7, 1965, Suffered Fractured Skull

In 1964, Lewis coordinated SNCC's efforts for "Mississippi Freedom Summer," a campaign to register black voters across the South. The following year, Lewis led one of the most dramatic protests of the era. On March 7, 1965 -- a day that would become known as "Bloody Sunday" -- Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. At the end of the bridge, they were met by Alabama State Troopers, who ordered them to disperse. When the marchers stopped to pray, the police discharged tear gas and mounted troopers charged the demonstrators, beating them with night sticks. Lewis's skull was fractured, but he escaped across the bridge, to a church in Selma. Before he could be taken to the hospital, John Lewis appeared before the television cameras calling on President Johnson to intervene in Alabama.

Here's Hoping

The German newspaper Bild imagines Jurgen Klinsmann as USA National Team Coach.

London Calling

And Liverpool, and Manchester. This year's EPL Tour begins Saturday at Anfield. (Stevie G., baby!) Posting will be rare for the rest of the month. Pray for sun.

Daily posting will resume the first week of November.

Redrum

A man mourns his son Friday in Baqubah, a city north of Baghdad. The child died in random gunfire near a family home in the village of Khan Bani Saad. (By Mohammed Adnan -- Associated Press)
WaPo: Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.

It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.

Kerry Healey: Stop Calling Deval Patrick a Cop-Killer

I've thought this every time I heard Healey's ad attacking Patrick for defending a cop-killer, and Charles Pierce deconstructs what's wrong with her misleading ad:

TAPPED:

ONE WHAT? As much as I hate to risk the wrath of the Tapped Grammarians again, I have to point out that this advertisement, which is causing a stir in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race, is an even cheaper shot than it would appear at first glance -- and, at first glance, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Kerry Murphy Cuchulain Tir na Nog Healey ought to be thoroughly ashamed of it.

However, pay close attention to the last two lines, which say: "While lawyers have a right to defend admitted copkillers, do we really want one as our governor?"

That "do we really want one" business is the problem. It's a rancid enough business to imply that a defense attorney who does his job too well is disqualified prima facie from being governor, but look a little deeper. That sentence also can be reasonably read as calling Deval Patrick a "copkiller," whom we don't want as our governor. Taken in at the lickety-split pace of television advertising, it certainly can be heard that way. (By the way, no arguments based on the premise, "No voter would be stupid enough to..." have been valid since 2004, so keep them to yourself.) I don't think it's an accidental double-entendre. I think some smug little ad boy was being clever here. I think he ought to be fired, too.

--Charles P. Pierce

I saw this on Suburban Guerrilla.

The Sleazy Shenanigans of Shady Senator Macaca

Between being governor of Virginia and his current position, the Senator from Virginia, George Allen, tried to make money by trading on the business relationships he had cultivated while governor. He was appointed to the boards of directors of several public companies. One of them was a Virginia high-tech company called Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc. This company gave him options to buy 15,000 shares of stock. Allen disclosed the options in 2001 but never reported them again. His attorney apparently took the position that since the current stock price is less than the option price, they are worthless; but they're still an asset and should certainly have been disclosed. What if he was voting on some bill that would benefit Commonwealth Biotechnologies? The voters have a right to know if he has personal interests at stake.

Allen was also on the board of directors of another Virginia company called Xybernaut, which made wearable computers. Xybernaut seems to have been little more than an elaborate stock fraud. The company formally declared bankruptcy in July of 2005 (despite the fact that it in fact had $40,000,000, or 40 million dollars, in assets; in the modern world of bankruptcy, even huge thriving companies can declare bankruptcy to screw their unsecured creditors [see, asbestos examples]). Allen has never disclosed his stock options in Xybernaut, despite the fact that they were at one time worth $1.1 million dollars, and even went to so far as to advocate for the company with the Army while he was Senator.

Here's how AP summarizes Allen's sleazy shenanigans:

An Associated Press review of Allen's financial dealings from that era found that the senator:

- Did not have to look far to find corporate suitors, joining three Virginia high-tech companies he assisted as governor. Allen served on boards of directors for Xybernaut and Commonwealth Biotechnologies and advised a third company called Com-Net Ericsson, all government contractors.

- Twice failed to promptly alert the Securities and Exchange Commission of insider stock transactions as a Xybernaut and Commonwealth director. The SEC requires timely notification and can fine those who file late.

- Kept stock options provided to him for serving as a director of Xybernaut and Commonwealth, but steered other compensation from his board service to his law firm.

And that AP article made me realize something. George Allen is an attorney. He raised his hand and swore to uphold and protect the US Constitution. He swore to conduct himself in an ethical manner at all times. Doesn't Virginia police their attorneys? I can't believe someone hasn't filed a complaint with the Virginia bar about these several ethical violations.

Great comment on the Huffington Post article, by 'Kenosha Marge':

Let's see, racist, bully, and now a crook. What makes him different than any other Republican?

Trey Ellis, HuffPo: Sen. Allen's Shameless Stock Fraud

Bloomberg: Allen's Undisclosed Stock Options Were Worth Up to $1.1 Million

WaPo: Xybernaut Hid Gathering Storm In Bright Forecasts

SiliconInvestor.com: XYBERNAUT ROUGES GALLERY

WaPo Editorial: Mr. Allen's Ethics
A new report raises questions.

WaPo: Stock Options Held by Allen Not Disclosed to Congress
Senator Requests Opinion From Ethics Committee

AP: Allen didn't disclose stock options

Listen to Eric Massa (NY-29)

Here's how a real military man would respond to the North Korean nuclear explosion:

1) Reconvene. President Bush should call an emergency session of Congress tonight to respond to this crisis. Last year, during the Schiavo family medical tragedy in Florida, the Congress reconvened in emergency session to pass a law that had nothing to do with national security, nothing to do with making America safer, nothing to do with the public welfare. Instead, they passed and signed a law in midnight session that purported to intervene in the private medical decisions of a family in crisis. If this Administration and its allies in Congress truly value life, truly value the security of this nation, then they ought to be able to give the same consideration to national defense.

2) Refocus. The obsessive focus on Iraq that has characterized the Bush Administration's approach to the world has left us willfully ignorant of ever changing political dynamics across the globe--particularly in East Asia. It is no longer sufficient to reduce the world to slogans and Axes of Evil--we must fundamentally refocus our efforts on a global level.

3) Redeploy. Over time, our military has been gradually withdrawn from bases in South Korea and repositioned to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This has had the dual effect of suggesting to the North Koreans that we are not committed to the defense of South Korea and of dramatically reducing our ability to exert force in that part of the world. In addition to redeploying our military, we must also redeploy the other facets of our international power--trade, diplomacy, and economic aid. The flow of resources in this government has been focused for too long upon a misguided and counterproductive war in Iraq to the detriment of our interests worldwide.

4) Re-energize. We must now seek to understand the motives and machinations of our adversaries even as we seek to reach out to our traditional allies in that region: Japan, Australia, and South Korea. Using these relationships, and employing skillful diplomacy instead of a reckless cowboy approach, we may be able to leverage our power, and that of China, to force North Korea to disarm.

He was on the Ed Schultz Show yesterday. Here's the audio.

Or read his diary on dailykos.

Check out his website.

Donate to him here on my ActBluepage.

And if you live in his district, vote for him in November! We need more voices of reason like Eric Massa in Congress.

RIP Mooch

Sad news. He was so young. My heart goes out to his family. What a shock.

Goal.com: USA's Myernick Taken Off Life Support
American football is mourning today after respected coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick was taken of life support early Monday morning.

USSoccerplayers.com: US Mourns the Loss of Glenn "Mooch" Myernick

Foxsports: Myernick loses fight after heart attack

Howard Dean Was Right

I am a proud Deaniac. Oh, I swallowed my doubts and supported John Kerry after he got the nomination, but I was on the Dean train before he got cow-catchered off the tracks by the corporate media's playing fast and loose with his speech in Iowa. Because Dean was smart and knew what was really going on. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post reminding us what Howard Dean had to say about North Korea and Iraq before Bush's ill-fated adventure began.

Unclaimed Territory: Invading Iraq and the North Korean threat -- a historical reminder

Contrary to the propaganda campaign enabled by the passive, mindless 2003 media, most anti-war advocates (such as Howard Dean) did not oppose the war in Iraq because war itself is wrong or even because preemptive war in response to a truly imminent threat is wrong. They opposed it because the evidence that Iraq posed an imminent threat was so shady and unconvincing and that the case that no other options short of war existed was so unconvincing (anyone with doubts about that should just go read Dean's speech -- "Secretary Powell's recent presentation at the UN showed the extent to which we have Iraq under an audio and visual microscope. Given that, I was impressed not by the vastness of evidence presented by the Secretary, but rather by its sketchiness").

More importantly, Dean pointed out that there were far greater threats to U.S. security than Saddam Hussein -- and he particularly emphasized the threats posed by North Korea and Al Qaeda, which would be neglected -- if not outright ignored and worsened -- by the mammoth, unpredictable and highly dangerous project of invading Iraq and attempting to re-build it into a stable democracy (see e.g. the resurgent Taliban, the uncaptured Osama bin Laden, the takeover of much of Iraq by Al Qaeda and Iran, and yesterday's North Korean nuclear test). The only way to see the Bush movement as "serious, weighty, tough" foreign policy thinkers, and the only way to see Democrats like Dean as "frivolous and weak on defense," is to completely ignore (or distort) history and to operate from the premise that being terribly wrong is a sign of seriousness and wisdom and being completely right is a sign of frivolity and weakness.

See No Evil

The Chimperor in Chief gives the Axis of Evil speech. All hat, no cattle; all talk, stupid action.
The US gave North Korea $95,000,000 dollars (95 million) in 2002 to build nuclear reactors, but waived a requirement that those nuclear reactors be open to inspectors. And yesterday North Korea exploded a nuclear weapon. The incompetence, it burns, it burns, arggggggggggggh.

firedoglake: Why Did Bush Drop Ball On Inspectors in N. Korea?

...I'd like some answers as to why the Bush Administration failed to require any inspectors in North Korea before we handed over a big, fat chunk of our money. And why we failed to initiate any real diplomacy in the four years since we handed over that big chunk of American fundage. And why it seems like we are always on a reactionary footing in our foreign policy under the Bush Administration, instead of taking a pro-active, problem solving approach? And I hope to hell someone asks Tony Snow about this today, since the President scuttled out of the room without taking questions after his speech this morning.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

BBC, April 3, 2002: US grants N Korea nuclear funds

The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.

Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built.

In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors.

President Bush argued that the decision was "vital to the national security interests of the United States".

[]

The head of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Centre in Washington, a critic of the Agreed Framework, has warned that even when the new reactors are completed they may not be tamper-proof.

"These reactors are like all reactors, They have the potential to make weapons. So you might end up supplying the worst nuclear violator with the means to acquire the very weapons we're trying to prevent it acquiring," Henry Sokolski told the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Mooch Still Critical

The Oneonta Daily Star talked to a nursing supervisor at the hospital where Mooch Myernick is being treated, and he is still in critical condition. Mooch is a legend in Oneonta, where he starred for Hartwick College in the mid-1970s. He won the Hermann Trophy as the nation's top college player in 1976. We're pulling for you, Mooch.

Oneonta Daily Star: Myernick in critical condition

Former Hartwick College men's soccer standout Glenn "Mooch" Myernick was in critical condition Sunday in a Colorado-based hospital, a nursing supervisor said Sunday night.

[]

North Suburban Medical Center confirmed Sunday that Myernick remained in its intensive-care unit, but said he was in critical condition. Hartwick assistant sports information director April Raynovich said Sunday that Myernick was on life support and has not come out of the coma.

Dear Senator Macaca,

Welcome to the United States of America. We have these standards for the conduct of public officials. They're called 'ethics' and 'disclosure rules'. You might want to familiarize yourself with them. Or get a lawyer. Fast.

WaPo: AP: Allen Failed to Report Stock Options

'Strategic Failure of the First Order'

North Korea has exploded a nuclear weapon, or in the passive voice used by the media, 'conducted an underground nuclear test'.

Talking Points Memo

For the US this is a strategic failure of the first order.

The origins of the failure are ones anyone familiar with the last six years in this country will readily recognize: chest-thumping followed by failure followed by cover-up and denial. The same story as Iraq. Even the same story as Foley.

Shoes Dropping All Over Tonight

More shit hits the proverbial fan on the front page of tomorrow's Washington Post. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), the only openly gay Republican* member of the House*, saw sexually explicit messages from Rep. Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA) to a young page in the year 2000 and confronted Foley about the emails.

Reading between the lines of the rest of the article, it seems that WaPo is pointing to Kolbe as another member of Congress with an 'unusually close' relationship to the underage pages:

In interviews with The Post last week, multiple pages identified Kolbe as a close friend and personal confidante who was one of the only members of Congress to take any interest in them. A former page himself, Kolbe offered to mentor pages and kept in touch with some of them after they left the program, according to the interviews.

Kolbe once invited four former pages to make use of his Washington home while he was out of town, according to an instant message between Foley and another former page, Jordan Edmund, in January 2002. The pages planned to attend a first-year reunion of their page class. But because of a snowstorm, they did not take Kolbe up on his offer, according to one of the four pages.

Hastert's spokesman's statement also seems to portend the later throwing of Kolbe under the GOP megabus:

In addressing the revelation about Kolbe, Bonjean said, "This allegation reiterates why the speaker has also called for a full review of the House page program to ensure that it is as safe and secure as possible."

Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000
Page Shared Exchanges With GOP Rep. Kolbe


*Edited 10/9/06; at first I said only openly gay member of the Senate. There are no openly gay members of the Senate (cough, cough, Lindsey Graham, cough, cough). After I demoted Kolbe to the Senate, I realized that there are a few openly gay Democrats. Whew. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Memorable

Hastert and his chief of staff, Palmer, say they don't remember being told about Foley being a predator. Newsweek has an article up saying that the meeting with Palmer was called because Foley had showed up drunk as a skunk at the page's dorm in 2002 or 2003.

Having a Congressman show up drunk at the residence of a bunch of high school students is pretty memorable, no?

Newsweek: A Secret Life
Mark Foley's explicit e-mails could bring down the GOP. His story, and the fallout.

Senator Macaca - More Witnesses to His Racism

Daily Progress: Never say 'never'

In the 27 years that I’ve known him, I can say I have not heard him utter the n-word, but I cannot automatically dismiss or ignore the three current and former Charlottesville residents who swear to me that they heard him use it often.

One is a doctor, one is a nurse and one is retired and a former classmate of mine at the University of Virginia during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Only the former classmate does not wish to be named because a close relative works at a high level in the Bush administration.

To put their recollections in some context, the alleged usage was in the 1972-1975 period when Allen was a UVa quarterback and then a UVa law student.

Yes, that’s more than 30 years ago, but never is a longer time.

The nurse who said she heard Allen’s use of the n-word, who agreed to be identified by a maiden name of Leah Deason, lived then in a house on Route 20 near the Key West subdivision. She and her housemates, including a UVa jock or two, often hosted poker games.

“He just threw it around so casually, it’s like he didn’t know any better,” she said. In poker games, “whenever he’d get a black card that he didn’t like, he would refer to it as a ‘nig--- card’ he needed to get rid of,” said Deason, a registered nurse and widow of a UVa faculty member. “Allen was in law school at the time,” she said.

Why would she bring up such a thing now and notify a reporter? “What infuriated me was the way he got up there and flat out lied about it,” she said.

The former classmate attended the same poker parties and recalled the same language from the then-law student. “It was part of his everyday speech,” he said. “It just rolled off his tongue. He’d get a black card he didn’t like and he’d toss it back and say, ‘I don’t need that nig--- ten.’”

Brian Schweitzer Hits NYTimes

Catherine Ledner for The New York Times
He's my guy in 2008. He even rides a white horse!

NYTimes Magazine: The Big-Sky Dem

Schweitzer veers right on many economic and social issues: he opposes gun control, favors the death penalty and preaches about lowering taxes and balancing budgets. At the same time, he leans left on some issues that matter to progressives: championing energy conservation and environmental regulation, opposing governmental restrictions on abortion and criticizing free-trade deals. “He’s as much a prairie centrist as he is a prairie populist,” Bruce Reed of the Democratic Leadership Council told me. Schweitzer has the ability to reduce a complicated issue to a few sharp lines, reframing it with themes of patriotism and underdog know-how. “I was a critic of Nafta, I was a critic of Cafta and I’ll be a critic of Shafta,” he says of free-trade agreements, long the hobgoblin of even the most articulate liberal politicians. “Why is it that America supposedly creates the best businessmen in the world, but when we go to the table with the third world, we come away losers?”

When A Rethug Say "Gerry Studds", You Say...

The Heckuva Jobbers
RJ Eskow, HuffPo: The Real Difference Between "Foley and Studds" in 9 Statements (Plus 3 About "Ethics" And 2 About Clinton)

1. As far as we know Studds was not forcing his unwelcome attentions on a series of pages, one after the other.

2. No page went to the Democratic leadership asking for protection from Studds, only to be rebuffed and ignored.

3. The Democratic Party did not run on a platform of "righteousness" and anti-homosexuality, while behaving hypocritically in private.

4. The Democratic Speaker of the House did not make statements about the incident that were immediately revealed to be outright lies ... by fellow Democrats.

5. The Democrats did not then begin an orchestrated media campaign to blame the entire problem on ... the Republicans (or the young man, for that matter).

6. Democrats did not take to the airwaves with talking points that were transparent lies.

7. Pro-Democratic writers (there weren't any bloggers then, remember?) didn't violate the privacy of the young man involved and give his name out to the press. They didn't call the young man a "beast" or blame him for Studds' behavior, either. (Have you heard any Republican leaders criticize the bloggers who gave out the young victims' names?)

8. How many times does this need to be said? It's the cover-up, stupid.

9. The Democratic leadership did not protect a predator, conceal his wrongdoing, and allow him to continue his activities in secret.. The Republicans did.

Let me repeat that last point, because it's getting overlooked:

The Democratic leadership did not protect a predator, conceal his wrongdoing, or allow him to continue his activities in secret. The Republicans did.

Yup

PredatorGate Drip, Drip, Drip

The Los Angeles Times reports today that Foley had sex with one of the pages he pursued after he left the page program. The fact of Foley's predatory behavior was well known in the page program, as "The Times found the former page after others identified him as someone whose contacts with Foley went beyond graphic messages." The page served during Foley's first term in Congress, so we know this went on for the entire decade plus Foley trolled for young boys in Congress.

A soldier in Iraq has been subpoaened as a witness in the Foley investion.

Tom Reynolds, the NRCC Committee Chair who was one of several Republican leaders who failed to stop Foley, has gone from a safe Republican seat to fighting for his political life; the Buffalo News reports today that he is now trailing his opponent 48 to 33 percent.

Sounds like the voters won't distinguish between the predators and the Congressmen that harbor them, either.

Just For Laughs

Bob Geiger: The Saturday Cartoons

Maybe Someday We'll Be Able to Stop Taking Off Our Shoes at Airport Security, Too

Patrick Andrade for The New York Times

Barriers at Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street have been removed, leaving imprints on the concrete.
NYTimes: Security Barriers of New York Are Removed

They started appearing on Manhattan streets immediately after September 11: concrete and metal barriers in front of skyscrapers, offices and museums. Some were clunky planters; others were shaped artfully into globes. They were meant to be security barriers against possible car or truck bombers in a jittery city intent on safeguarding itself.

But now, five years later, their numbers have begun to dwindle. After evaluations by the New York Police Department, the city’s Department of Transportation has demanded that many of the planters and concrete traffic medians known as jersey barriers be taken away. So far, barriers have been removed at 30 buildings out of an estimated 50 to 70 in the city.

Officials found that the barriers obstructed pedestrian flow — and, in the case of planters, often ended up being used as giant ashtrays. Counterterrorism experts also concluded that in terms of safety, some of the barriers, which building owners put in of their own accord, might do more harm than good.

RIP Buck O'Neil

NYTimes: Buck O’Neil, Negro Leagues Pioneer, Is Dead at 94

WaPo: Negro League Great Buck O'Neil Dies

The man was a great ambassador for the game, yet inexplicably, when a special panel was convened to admit as many Negro Leagues players as possible in 2006, O'Neil was not voted in. Reportedly he lost out by one vote.

His credentials:

- First baseman and later manager of the Kansas City Monarchs from 1938 until 1955 (interrupted by service in the Navy from 1943 to 1945), leading the team as manager to five pennants and two Negro World Series titles and winning a batting title in 1946.

- Career batting average of .288, including four .300-plus seasons at the plate. In 1946 the first baseman led the league in hitting with a .353 average and followed that in 1947 with a career-best .358 mark. He also posted averages of .345 in 1940 and .330 in 1949. He played in four East-West All-Star games and two Negro League World Series.

- Became a scout for the Chicago Cubs in 1956, signed Lou Brock to his first major-league contract

- First black coach in major league history, Chicago Cubs, 1962

Good article on the stupid secret process and how he was omitted:

The Tufts Daily: Buck O'Neil, 94, is rejected by Hall of Fame Committee

[The special committee] did, however, vote in Andy Cooper, who was (see if this sounds familiar) a fine player and manager for the Kansas City Monarchs. He died in 1941. []

The committee also voted in Effa Manley, the first woman inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Her credentials? She co-owned the Newark Eagles with her husband, Abe, for 14 seasons. The team won one championship. Also, she was outspoken. Also, her biographer, Jim Overmyer, was on the committee.

[]

All his life, Buck O'Neil has had doors slammed in his face. He played baseball at a time when the major leagues did not allow black players. He was a gifted manager at a time when major league owners would not even think of having an African-American lead their teams. For more than 30 years, he told stories about Negro Leagues players and nobody wanted to listen.

Now, after everything, he was being told that the life he had spent in baseball was not worthy of the Hall of Fame. It was enough to make those around him cry. But Buck laughed. "I'm still Buck," he said. "Look at me. I've lived a good life. I'm still living a good life. Nothing has changed for me."

A few minutes later, when he was told that 17 persons had made it, he shouted: "Wonderful."

That's Buck O'Neil. Who else would respond that way to such a shameful vote? No one. I don't know what the July day will be like when 17 persons long dead - 10 of the 17 have been gone for more than 50 years - get inducted into the Hall of Fame. It's hard to believe it will be much of a celebration. Who will speak for the dead?

"I don't know," Buck O'Neil said. "I wonder if they'll ask me to speak."

Would he really speak at the Hall of Fame after he wasn't voted in?

"Of course," Buck said. "If they asked me."

They asked, and he spoke, but he should have been in the hall. Shame, shame on baseball, once again.

Induction Transcript: Buck O'Neil
Negro League Legend speaks at Hall of Fame Induction

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Chairman's Message

Pray For Moochie

SI: Myernick has heart attack
U.S. men's national team assistant in intensive care

Foley Blots Out Darker Stories

This blots out this:

Condoleeza Rice WAS warned that Al Qaida planned to attack inside the US -- in July 2001. She says, incredibly, that she doesn't remember.

There's no way 9/11 happens two months later and you don't remember a meeting like that. So she's been lying about her complicity in the Bush Administration's chillingly gross negligence of terrorism prior to 9/11.

All those people dead, and she didn't have the guts to tell the truth. 343 firemen died because the Bushies were asleep at the wheel, dreaming of Iraq and Star Wars.

And all we're talking about is one Congressman who treated the Congressional page program like his own personal dating service. Well, whatever it takes to get the Cheney Adminstration out, I'll take it.

We Don't Distinguish Between The Predators and The Congressmen Who Harbor Them

Albany Times-Union Capitol Confidential Blog: "Flop Sweat"

Sad End

Some residents near the Catskill Game Farm are concerned that animals there will be shipped off to exotic game hunting camps when the farm closes on Monday. (G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)

When I was a kid, a trip to the Catskill Game Farm was a thrill. Walking around the grounds surrounded by fairly tame wild animals (I saw no contradiction there) with a cup of feed in my hand, trying to get them to eat (or fighting off the hungry ones) are vivid memories of childhood.

New York Times: Farm’s Fate Is Certain, but the Future of Its Animals Is Not

CATSKILL, N.Y. Oct. 2 — For three-quarters of a century, exotic animals have sidled up to fences at the Catskill Game Farm here to nibble food from the hands of visitors.

Adults and children alike can slip crackers through a fence onto the waiting blue tongue of a 15-foot-tall giraffe or bottle-feed a baby goat at the park’s nursery. But on Monday, the game farm will shut its gates for the last time, the latest casualty of a struggling economy in upstate New York. And though the fate of the farm is all but certain, the future for many of the animals is not.

My New Mantra

From an astute commenter at dailykos:

We won't distinguish
Between the predators and the Congressmen that harbor them.

PredatorGate Logo

I saw this on Suburban Guerrilla.

Oh Fer Christsake

I'm watching the press conference by the Ethics Committee announcing the House is going to investigate itself. And the Senior DEMOCRATIC Member of the Committee, Howard Berman (D-Dummy) of California just announced that the investigation is going to be nonpartisan.

Is he an idiot? It's a partisan scandal! It's a scandal about how the partisan Republican House leadership was willing to throw a bunch of high school kids to the wolves for base partisan gains! The Democrats were cut out of the loop from the beginning! All official information about Foley's predilection for young boys was kept within the Republican leadership. It's a Republican scandal. Period.

Why is this moron providing cover for the Republicans? Is he a politician or a mouse? For Christsake, if you're worried about the House, HOLD A SEPARATE PRESS CONFERENCE and say so. But why give the Republican leadership a life buoy while they're drowning?

Don't these jamokes realize that politics v. the modern Republican party is a battle to the death? That when you roll over and say you're trying to work together, they'll cut your throat and go out for a beer without a second thought?

How will the Democrats ever win anything if they don't know how to fight?

Arggghhhhh.

Not a Question Any More

Heckuva job, boys

Talking Points Memo: Had Enough?

A Limerick

There once was a Congressman Foley;
Deaf and blind to political toll, he
Text-messaged a page,
The fallout we'll gauge,
On a level with epidemic E. coli.


From Emma's Writing Center, Ithaca.

A Post I Wish I'd Written

The News Blog: Leadership

They couldn't protect us on 9/11

They can't protect our troops in Iraq

Now they can't even protect our kids in the halls of Congress

Mark Foley: Giving Alcoholism a Bad Name

WaPo: Foley Lawyer Cites Alcohol, Childhood Abuse
Attorney Says Lawmaker Never Tried to Have Sex With a Minor

Foley Acquaintances Question Alcoholism

Steve Lopez, LATimes: Foley on the Prowl: 2 Creepy 2 B 4Gotten

After getting caught hitting on congressional pages with lurid shorthand e-mails and instant messages, the Florida congressman first blamed his keyboard adventures on alcohol, insulting alcoholics everywhere.

Again .... Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww

ABC News: New Foley Instant Messages; Had Internet Sex While Awaiting House Vote

Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages.

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.

This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp.

Maf54: I miss you
Teen: ya me too
Maf54: we are still voting
Maf54: you miss me too

The exchange continues in which Foley and the teen both appear to describe having sexual orgasms.

Maf54: ok..i better go vote..did you know you would have this effect on me
Teen: lol I guessed
Teen: ya go vote…I don't want to keep you from doing our job
Maf54: can I have a good kiss goodnight
Teen: :-*
Teen:

The House voted that evening on HR 1559, Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations.

According to another message, Foley also invites the teen and a friend to come to his house near Capitol Hill so they can drink alcohol.

Teen: are you going to be in town over the veterans day weekend
Maf54: I may be now that your coming
Maf54: who you coming to visit
Teen: haha good stuff
Teen: umm no one really

Maf54: we will be adjourned ny then
Teen: oh good
Maf54: by
Maf54: then we can have a few drinks
Maf54: lol
Teen: yes yes ;-)
Maf54: your not old enough to drink
Teen: shhh…
Maf54: ok
Teen: that's not what my ID says
Teen: lol
Maf54: ok
Teen: I probably shouldn't be telling you that huh
Maf54: we may need to drink at my house so we don't get busted

Email excerpts

Rehab - The Last Refuge of the Truly Unrepentant

Disgraced Representative Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA), purportedly in 'rehab' in Florida, signed onto a chat room three hours ago using his AOL chat name Maf54.

Raw Story: Foley still logging into chat account with screen name linked to scandal

Blogactive: A word of advice... (with screen capture)

Howie My-Wife-Is-A-Republican-Operative Kurtz: Despicable Victim-Blamer

Howard Kurtz, your presstitute of the day.

Mr. Sherri Annis contributes this vile opinion to Predatorgate:

WaPo Media Notes: Cone of Silence

Among the many depressing aspects of the downfall of Mark Foley--who has now done the inevitable checking-into-rehab thing--is that a number of young people could have blown the whistle on this deceptive congressman in recent years, but didn't.

The Washington Post tracked down a couple of them. Former page Patrick McDonald said that at a 2003 reunion he learned of sexual messages that Foley sent three or four ex-classmates and thought, "if this gets out, it will destroy him."

Matthew Loraditch says he has known for years about the "creepy" messages the Florida Republican sent three of his 2002 classmates. But no one wanted to come forward. "You take down a Congress member, and you can't end up trying to do something later," Loraditch said.

Now I don't want to come down on 16-year-old kids (though some are now as old as 21) who must have been intimidated by the whole thing. Indeed, the power imbalance between a big-shot member of Congress and a lowly page is part of what makes this infuriating.

But did they really think that if they told the outside world that the co-chair of the Exploited Children's Caucus was sending them, or their friends, graphic sexual messages, that their future careers would be ruined? That they would be washed up in politics? Isn't it more likely that they would be hailed as brave for doing the right thing?

You fucking sheltered moron, they would be humiiated in the eyes of the world as the targets of a sex predator. All their friends asking, why did he target you? And some of these kids may be gay, and that may be why Foley with his practiced gaydar targeted them. Maybe they're not ready to talk about that yet. Look at Lindsey Graham. He's been in the military and the U.S. Senate, and he's still not ready to talk about being gay.

Howard Kurtz makes me sick. Who could write such drivel? Doesn't he have an editor? Oh, that's right, he works for the Post.

Frist Has Friends

Check out my post on Bill Frist (Frist!) below.

A purportedly anonymous commenter posted Frist's CYA statement from his blog in full in comments.

Sitemeter is a wonderful thing, because sometimes you're not as anonymous as you seem. The post by 'anonymous', at 10:53:56 a.m., came from

12.150.190.# (AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LIFE INSURERS)

Why is the American Council of Life Insurers trying to save Bill Frist's political bacon?

The Party of Values

From Americablog:

Hastert, Boehner and Bush to help fundraise for GOP congressman whose mistress says he strangled her

The October Surprise

Looks like Commander Codpiece is going to wag the dog to save the Republicans on election day. This is, of course, madness. The madness of King George. He's already started and lost two wars. Solution? A third war. It is so insane that I don't know what to say other than that this is certifiably nuts. Our president is insane.

Crooks & Liars: Retired Col. Sam Gardiner says we’re in Iran right now

Global Researcher: The March to War: Naval build-up in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean.

dailykos: 20,000 Sailors Go To War - Massive US and Allied Naval Deployment

Frist!

Bill Frist could be the worst politician in the history of politicians. I'm serious. The man has the instincts of an inanimate object. He put a fork in any presidential ambitions last night:

Washington Post (AP): Frist: Taliban Should Be in Afghan Gov't

QALAT, Afghanistan -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" and their allies into the government.

The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield.

"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

So, I guess all that rhetoric over the last five years about how 9/11 changed everything, and any group that harbors terrorists will be treated as terrorists, and all that other Bush-neo-con-Rethug bullcrap, has been exposed as utter bullcrap. As you can imagine, the wingnuts are beside themselves. Some have even pledged to vote Democratic in November! Tee hee.

Apparently someone in Frist's camp smelled the defeatism and pulled back; too little, too late:

VOLPAC: America will Never Negotiate with Terrorists or Support their Entry into Afghanistan’s Government

Dead Man Blustering

Washington Times: Resign, Mr. Speaker

House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.

Of course, being the Moonie Times, they call on the House to appoint Henry Hyde (D-Hypocritical Adulterer) to take his place.

Tony Snowjob Says They're "Simply Naughty Emails"

Apparently Tony thinks he is still at Faux News. This snow job won't work.

ThinkProgress: Snow on Foley Scandal: ‘Simply Naughty Emails’

This morning on CNN, Soledad O’Brien asked Tony Snow why “any communication between a 16-year-old and a congressman” didn’t “raise red flags — major, massive red flags” with Speaker Dennis Hastert and others who have known about the communications for months.

Snow responded, “I hate to tell you, but it’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.”

Hastert's CYA Letter

Did you hear that Denny Hastert (R-Denial) has asked the Justice Department to investigate the Foley scandal? He hasn't. He's asked the DOJ to investigate who leaked the scandal to the media.

Look over there! Don't look at me!

Unclaimed Territory: Hastert's letter to the DOJ advances the cover-up and worsens the scandal

The premise of Hastert's letter is that the only issue worth investigating is whether someone specifically knew of the more explicit IMs, and that anyone who did not know of those IMs by definition has done nothing wrong, even if -- as is true for Hastert -- there was ample other information they knew of regarding Foley's conduct. This is how Hastert defines what ought to be investigated (emphasis added):

Unlike the first communication, the second communication was a set of instant messages that contained sexually explicit statements and were reportedly generated three years ago. Last week, ABC News first reported these sexually explicit instant messages which led to Representative Foley's resignation. These sexually explicit communications warrant a criminal referral in two respects.

Hastert has defined the relevant issues in such a way as to ensure that he and his House allies would be excluded from the investigation just as long as they managed to avoid learning about the IMs specifically.

But the scandal here is that Hastert and friends deliberately avoided investigating the glaring signs that Foley was sexually pursuing pages.

Rehab

Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA) has announced he's going into rehab. He's going into rehab like Mel Gibson went into rehab. Like alcohol causes someone to be a predator. Like alcohol causes someone to hate Jews.

Not gonna fly.

AP: Ex-Rep. Foley Checks in to Alcohol Rehab

WaPo: Ex-Rep. Foley Checks Into Rehab

Clemens a 'Roider?

Roger was already in the twilight of his career when he left the Red Sox (yes, that's a Dan Duquette joke), but I always did think Clemens was suspicious because he got really big after he left the Red Sox. (Now many Red Sox fans will say he got real big during his last year with the Sox, but those were 'get out of Boston' fat pounds, not muscle.) And after he met Andy Pettite, remember all the stories about how Clemens introduced Pettite to his 'workout' routine, how Pettite all of the sudden put on 20 pounds and bulked up? And then Pettite was basically on the DL for the next two years. So I'm not surprised that their names have surfaced in a steroids probe.

LATimes: Clemens Is Named in Drug Affidavit
The star pitcher and five other players used performance-enhancers, according to a former teammate who took steroids, prosecutors say.


Roger Clemens, 1986

Roger Clemens, 2006

Lying About 9/11

WaPo: Two Months Before 9/11, an Urgent Warning to Rice

NYTimes: 9/11 Panel Members Weren’t Told of Meeting

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action.

PredatorGate Expands

Foley's conduct as revealed to date goes back to at least 2001. The Republican supervisor of the Republican pages warned them about Foley in 2001; the Democratic pages got no warning. 16-year-old boys left hanging in the wind by the Rethugs.

Hastert was caught lying about what he knew; now he admits he knew about the first set of emails.

Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), the National Republican Campaign Chair, who was the second Republican member of the House to learn about Foley's inappropriate emails, gave Foley $5,000 after he learned of them, then accepted $100,000 from Foley into the NRCC war chest.

I think Hastert will be the first casualty; even some right wing bloggers have called for him to resign.

ABC News: GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001

A Republican staff member warned congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page.

[]

Several Democratic pages tell ABC News they received no such warnings about Foley.

ABC News: FBI Opens "Preliminary Investigation" of Foley

Daily News Politics Blog: Reynolds Knew, But Gave?

Reynolds's personal PAC, TOMPAC, wrote Foley a check for $5,000 on May 10, 2006.

According to the AP, Reynolds was told of the allegations against Foley "sometime this spring."

[]

UPDATE: Also: On July 27, 2006, the NRCC, which Reynolds chairs, accepted an unusually large contribution of $100,000 from Foley. Hard to imagine something of that size just slipping past the chairman.

Laugh - A Little

Bob Geiger: The Saturday Cartoons

Grand Ol' Police Blotter: Who Else Goes Down With Foley?

Mark Foley (R-FL) was some piece of work. Check out his dirty email exchange, which was turned over to ABCNews after it published a story about these creepy emails Foley sent to a 16-year-old page. Members of Congress emerging from a closed-door meeting yesterday said there are 35 pages or 36 pages of this garbage.

It's clear that this page's complaints were made to Republican leadership several months ago. But they were brushed off, or worse, actively covered up.

Now the unraveling of the cover-up begins. The original, complaining page worked for Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who says he contacted Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, several months ago. Alexander says he didn't do anything more because the parents of the page didn't want to pursue the matter. Reynolds says Alexander told him the same thing so he didn't do anything more.

John Shimkus [R-Ill.], head of the Page Board, says he was told about the page's complaint by the Clerk of the House and did an 'immediate investigation', which seems to have consisted of asking Foley, "Hey, Mark, what's the deal here?" and accepting his denial of perversion without doing any real investigating or even reading the emails themselves.

This tale of Republican incompetence at dealing with a known threat (sound familiar?) comes from today's Page One article in the Washington Post Rep. Foley Quits In Page Scandal; Explicit Online Notes Sent to Boy, 16.

And boy, are the heads of the party wriggling on the spit:

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.

Man, wouldn't you have wanted to hear that conversation between Hastert and Boehner? You told the Post WHAT?

Oh, and the Democratic member of the Page Board, who has served in that position for 20 years, wasn't told about the page's complaint about Foley. Which made it easier to cover up, n'est pas?

The only thing everyone can agree on here? Foley has $2.8 million in his campaign war chest; he should donate the entire amount to charity. Foley's House website has been taken down, so you can't contact him that way, but I bet his AOL email account is still active: MAF54@aol.com

Drop him a line, why don't you? But you might want to use one of your alternative email addresses, or you never know what you might get back from him. Ewwwwww.

Foley Out

While I was writing my previous post, Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned his House seat. Apparently investigation revealed more instant messages, more sexually explicit, to more young pages. And get this: he was Co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus in the House. Ewwww.

Yahoo: Foley submits resignation to Congress

ABC: Foley To Resign Over Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors

Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) planned to resign today, hours after ABC questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former Congressional pages under the age of 18.

GOP: Grand Ol' Police Blotter

Trout Lips Pirro, doomed candidate for New York State Attorney General, caught on tape trying to get Bernie Kerik to eavesdrop on her cheating hubby.

RNC Chair Ken Mehlman's been giving out federal money for political contributions; indictment to follow.

Ewwwwww, Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) caught writing creepy emails to a 16-year-old boy who was formerly a Congressional page. Oh, and Foley is one of those: Republican by day, Democrat by night. Since he's been in the closet his whole life, he's probably a 16-year old inside, too.

The United States of....Torture

The Republican-controlled Congress voted to enshrine torture as a legal and approved US policy yesterday.

The law passed is unconstitutional on its face, since it abrogates the constitutional habeas corpus writ, and will be challenged within days.

George Bush is an experienced torturer.

Torture doesn't work anyway.

Joe Lieberman was against it, before he voted for it yesterday.

No time to get off the Democratic bus; this is the time to stand and fight.

Jesus' General said it best.

Selling Soap On The Ashes

Yesterday I was in Worcester getting my car serviced. I didn't feel like sitting in the waiting room, so I went for a walk. Across the street from the car dealership is a new grocery story, PriceRite. They just opened in the last two weeks. Every window has huge red, white and blue signs. I noticed that one of them said "September 11th, 2001 -- We Will Never Forget" with a painting of the Twin Towers below. As I got closer I could see the writing on the bottom of the sign: "Impossibly, Inconceivably, Incredibly Low Prices - Every Day!"

This is just appalling. How can you put up a picture of the deaths of thousands of human beings and use it to sell soap? I certainly won't set foot in a store that uses 9/11 in its advertising.

Forget Jim Rome - Keith Olbermann Is On Fire

YouTube: All The President's Lies

The Bushies, asleep at the wheel before 9/11.

I saw this on dailykos

Blogger is bloggered, so posting will be spotty until google fixes us.

Crouchie!

(BBC Sport) Shortly after the break, Crouch has the Kop in raptures when his spectacular goal appears to have finished off the visitors

BBC Sport: Liverpool 3-2 Galatasaray

More fun with Crouchie: the unoffical fan site for peter crouch