Sunday, May 08, 2005

Moneyshot Quote of the Week

There were some strong contenders, but this week's prize goes to the Reverend Pat Robertson for saying that the threat posed by liberal judges is "probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."

And when an incredulous George Stephanopoulos asked if the good reverend really believed that these judges posed "the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, more serious than al Qaeda, more serious than Nazi Germany and Japan, more serious than the Civil War?," he responded: "George, I really believe that."

Here's the quote in context, from last Sunday's broadcast of This Week. You can also watch a video snippet of that portion of the interview at the link.

This domestic terrorism being practiced on our nation's judiciary by the religious extremists who control the GOP is really just a warmup -- an air assault in advance of the 'nuclear option' -- for next week's showdown in the Senate.

Armando at Kos has more, including the backstory about the ally of Tom DeLay's who keeps the fire under this hatred burning.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Who do you like in the Derby today?

I'll be leaving shortly to pick up Mom and take her to the casino in Louisiana (hey, it's what she wanted to do), and we'll watch the Kentucky Derby while we're pulling the arms of the bandits.

I perused the morning line and came up with Afleet Alex, High Fly, and Bandini.

You got any picks?

Friday, May 06, 2005

Everybody knows his name

and they're not necessarily glad he came.

Jesse at the Stakeholder has everything below the line (it's from his latest e-mail):

=========================================

Tom DeLay is a man who best operates in the shadows.

If nobody knows your name, you can hardly be at the center of a national scandal. And as it happens, despite DeLay's near-total control over the agenda of the US House of Representatives, facilitated by years of blind loyalty from his fellow Republicans, less than half of America even knew his name when they heard it. It was for this reason that there was little electoral fall out when he was admonished three times by the Ethics Committee, when two of his associates came under Senate and federal investigation for an $80 million lobbying scam, or when three people, including two of his closest aides, were indicted in connection with his PAC in Texas.

But Tom DeLay will no longer toil in anonymity. TIME Magazine reports:

"At first, it was easy to believe that the storm clouds gathering around House Majority Leader Tom DeLay signaled little more than another Washington tempest. After all, most Republicans reassured themselves, hardly anybody outside the Beltway or DeLay's district in Sugar Land, Texas, had even heard of the Congressman, much less cared about his inflammatory comments about judges or his overseas junkets that might have been paid for by lobbyists. But not any more. Letters and phone calls to congressional offices about DeLay have picked up sharply of late, an aide to the House GOP leadership says. The Majority Leader has become a punchline for late-night comedians; two weeks ago, he was the subject of the lead skit on Saturday Night Live. And one national poll, by Democrat Stan Greenberg, shows DeLay's name recognition at 77% - making him more famous than any other House member in modern history, except Newt Gingrich."


That is pretty famous, congratulations!

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post writes on some of DeLay's new problems...

"Tom DeLay sneaks around the Capitol like a fugitive these days, using back doors and basement passages to avoid television cameras. He skips meetings where reporters might get a chance to film his answers to their questions. He makes unscheduled appearances so he won't attract a media mob and disrupt colleagues' events."

And it still doesn't work."


Of course Tom DeLay will never come up for election across the country - that honor will fall to the rest of his loyal Republican rubberstamps. The Associated Press brings it home for him, however...

"A new poll shows 51 percent of voters in DeLay's district disapprove of the job DeLay is doing in Congress. The poll of 548 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points."


And the Houston Chronicle brings word that Democracy For America has taken the fight right into his district:

"Think the sniping over U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's ethics might fade away anytime soon?

Read the signs.

A left-leaning political action committee brought the simmering D.C. Beltway battle to the U.S. House majority leader's home turf this week, posting two billboards criticizing him near area roadways."The signs, erected south of downtown Houston and in La Marque, read: 'Lobbyists sent Tom DeLay golfing; all you got was this billboard.'"


But of course it wouldn't be any fun without Democrats filing to run against him. Nick Lampson, a former Democratic Rep. who was redistricted out of his seat by DeLay's gerrymandering scheme, is coming full circle to challenge DeLay is his own district, which just so happens to include about 120,000 of Lampson's former constituents.

Some folks say fame and fortune have a downside...

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Scroll down for a picture of the billboard.

Tragic news

State Representative Joe Moreno, D-Houston, was killed earlier this morning when the pickup truck he was driving left the road, on US 71 near LaGrange.

State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and Monica Pinon, chief of staff for State Rep. Joseph Pickett of El Paso were also injured in the accident. Their injuries are not believed life-threatening.

Among the many accomplishments in his short tenure in the Legislature, Moreno, 40, was the chairperson of the Harris County Delegation, a caucus of 14 Republicans and 11 Democrats in the Texas House, all of whom represent districts within Harris County.

My sincerest condolences to the family and friends of "Big Joe".

Thursday, May 05, 2005

'Nuclear option' vote as soon as next Tuesday?

Daily Kos has the comprehensive wrap-up.

At this point I think I'll just post the inflamed rhetoric coming out of the mouths of the far right radical extremists and let you judge for yourself:

"I believe it's concrete," (Manuel) Miranda (chairman of the National Coalition to End the Judicial Filibuster) said. "It must happen next week. It would be considered intolerable to delay any further than next week." He added, "Were it to be delayed beyond the next week, the Senate GOP should expect tens of thousands of angry phone calls and faxes to tie up their lines." (PD's note: Formerly a senior aide to Frist, one of Miranda's responsibilities in that capacity was to screen judicial nominees.)

“We’ve made it clear that patience is running out,” said Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union.



This from the Right Hook:

"The art of politics today is not to compromise, but to demonize," Brian Fahling of the American Family Association aptly noted on Wednesday. He was in fact referring to a recent speech by Al Gore denouncing the Republican effort to dismantle the filibuster as "an American heresy." Fahling went on to say that "Democrats like Mr. Gore wish to continue populating the federal courts with judges who fancy themselves masters of good and evil," and that "holding President Bush's nominees hostage is their only hope, as they see it, of continuing to impose their radical social agenda on a reluctant nation."

James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who previously offered glowing remarks likening Supreme Court justices to members of the Ku Klux Klan, revisited the Terri Schiavo saga in his April newsletter to constituents. "This cooperative effort between the judiciary and the media to kill an innocent woman," he said, "is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history."

"Judicial hostility to faith, and especially Christianity has never been greater than today," Dobson went on. He urged supporters to pressure the seven "squishy" Republicans who haven't committed to nuking the filibuster. And he personally warned the legislators not to squander their party's rare grip on power:

"You have been made the majority in the House, in the Senate, and a Republican occupies the White House. Together they represent the coveted 'Triple Crown' of American politics. If you fritter away the responsibility to reform the courts, and if you ignore the 'values' that motivated those who supported you at the polls, you do not deserve the trust given to you."


It's only Thursday, but that last one is probably the Moneyshot Quote of the Week.

If you haven't telephoned your Senators -- no matter who they happen to be -- now would be a good time.

Update (5/11/05): Well, yesterday came and went without a vote on the 'nuclear option'. Now Dr. Kitten Killer says it will be on for next week. He's been saying 'next week' for several weeks now. The fact of the matter is that Bill Frist would call the question if he had the votes. Harry Reid called Frist's bluff yesterday; did you see his statement? I think it's incredible that Frist can't hold his caucus together with a six-vote majority (including Dick Cheney as tie breaker) and he wants to be president ...

Wednesday, May 04, 2005


I just want to know if all that cash paid for a duffer to go shank a few drives into the North Sea.

Busted

The Next Hurrah pulls a loose thread and unravels a big hoary (or is that whore-y) mess:

Last week I pointed out the irony that one of Bush's filibustered judicial nominees is the son of the former Republican Senator who led the last filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee. Today we'll look at another of Bush's filibustered nominees and his
connection to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Michigan Court of Appeal Judge Henry Saad was nominated in 2001 for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal. His confirmation was blocked, Bush renominated him, and his appointment is again stalled in the Senate. Saad's wife is Mara Letica, an attorney and vice president of her family business, Letica Corporation. In 1992 she was nominated by the elder Bush as ambassador to Croatia, but the nomination occurred late in Bush's presidency, and like her current husband, she wasn't approved by the Senate, in that case so incoming President Clinton could appoint his own ambassador. In 2004 Letica was one of 105 members of Small BusinessLeaders for Bush-Cheney '04.

The small business group was not, however, Mara Letica's only contribution to last year's presidential contest. In addition to some contributions to congressional candidates, she gave $25,000 to the Republican National Committee. (Some of her donations were recorded as "Mara Letica," others as "Mara Letica Saad," and her home address on Michigan campaign finance disclosures is identical to Judge Henry William Saad.) While some people may wish that judges and their familes come to the bench having been above partisanship, that's just not a realistic expectation, and probably shouldn't be. But after all the protests by George W. Bush, his campaign and the White House about being shocked -- SHOCKED -- to learn about the Swifties' scurrulous attacks against John Kerry, and their denials about any associations between the Swifties and the Bushies, some enterprising reporter might want to ask Bush or Scott McLellan or somebody else at the White House what they think about the wife of one of his filibustered judges giving $10,000 to Swift Boat Veterans forTruth to help them spread lies about John Kerry's military service in Vietnam.

On August 31st of 2004 Rush Limbaugh said "if you really dig deep, you might find some Clinton PAC [political action committee] money, laundered three or four different ways, found its way to the Swift Vets. But that's just me." As usual, it was just Limbaugh. In reality, you don't even have to dig that deep to find money getting to the Swift Vets straight from the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan home of a filibustered Bush judicial nominee.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Corruption as art

Salon peels back the layers of Tom DeLay's charitable organizations, political action commitees, and the cronies and hacks and lickspittles that bind them all together. And one question (at least for me) remains: what's DeLay's golf handicap?

At one time in our recent history, the mere appearance of impropriety was enough to trigger the resignation of Congressional leaders -- of both parties.

Not so with DeLay. Have you ever seen a cockroach dig in his heels and grimace?

Me neither. I mean, usually they just scuttle away.

Create a backdrop slogan for Bush's next appearance

Go to this site:

Bush Backdrop Generator

Be sure and select different photos for creative options. Hours of fun.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Moneyshot Quote of the Week

"The Republicans are out of their cotton-picking minds on this issue,'' said (Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charles) Munger, a self-described right-wing Republican. Social Security is "one of the most successful things that the government has ever done.''


Bold and italicized emphasis is mine.

It occurs to me that if the man who occasionally puts the reins on Warren Buffet (sixth graf) can't convince the GOP that they're screwing up ...

... that there's going to be a lot more screwups to come.

I'd go out to the lobby for more popcorn if I could say I was only watching this Saturday morning Western, and wasn't acutely aware of being in the stagecoach, with them, about to go over the cliff.

This guy and his housecats

are just freaking killing me...

"Let's ask the cats about the FDA's new Food Pyramid".

A regeneration of vertebrae

in certain Democrats is observed by Robert Parry of Consortium News:

The mystery is, how did this happen? How did the Democrats find their voice and gain the upper hand over Bush on a number of issues: Social Security, his right-wing judicial appointments, the Terri Schiavo case, Tom DeLay’s ethics mess and the John Bolton nomination? What has caused the Democrats to grow a new spine?

Certainly part of the explanation is Republican miscalculation, starting with Bush’s post-election decision to make partial privatization of Social Security his major domestic policy initiative. Bush also brazenly named the undiplomatic Bolton to a sensitive diplomatic job as U.N. ambassador.

Congressional Republicans overplayed their hand, too. They changed the ethics process to protect House Majority Leader DeLay from more reprimands. They appeared to pander to the Christian Right by intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was removed. The Republicans even let the Schiavo debacle taint the battle over confirming right-wing
judges.

But another part of the answer lies with the Democrats. They appear less defensive, more willing to make their arguments without so many equivocations. ... One explanation for the Democrats’ turnabout is the rise of progressive media, most notably progressive AM talk radio which has expanded rapidly over the past several months. Finally, Democratic leaders can go on sympathetic radio shows and make their case directly to listeners.


Lots more about the rehab, and the cutting-edge medicine responsible for the improved prognosis, at the link.