No on Gonzales

Let's be clear: His tortured legalese resulting in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib ought to be reason enough for the Senate to reject the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

But now comes word that he pulled strings for then-Governor Bush at a voir dire so that Bush could avoid disclosing his own DUI conviction -- and has subsequently prevaricated about it, under oath, before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

I am reminded of attorney Tom Hagen's line in the opening scene of "The Godfather", where he explained to the movie mogul: "I have a very special practice. I represent one client."

Throughout his career as consigliere to Dubya, the task of Al Gonzales -- indeed his mission -- has been to find, or absent that, invent the justification for whatever it is that needed doing. Questionable or not, shady or not, legal or not. You can almost hear Bush saying "Git it done, Al," spoken with his trademark smirk, through the years.

Can't have the Guvna answer no questions about drinkin' and drivin'? Call in a chit wit' the judge. Got a death row inmate that needs killin'? Gloss over the fact that the condemned man's lawyer fell asleep during his trial. Need to make some camel jockeys -- errr, terrists -- spill their guts? Hell, that Geneva Convention's not only sixty years old, it's for pussies.

Conservatives get apoplectic when the Bush administration is called thugs, gangsters, or God forbid, a multinational corporation. When they do, we should simply open a page from any one of the law books in Alberto Gonzales' library. They all say the same thing.

"Git it done, Al."

To vote to confirm this man as attorney general goes against seemingly every concept of freedom, liberty, and democracy mouthed by the President last Thursday and espoused in the Constitution. Not that that sort of thing matters much.

The Senate should reject this nominee.

Sorry, been sick

And more than a little beesy.

Will now get right back to reporting.

Remember when Bush first came into office, he made a lot of the fact that he was the first president with an MBA, and who had no previous experience with the way things are done in Washington? I distinctly remember one of his weekly addresses, given sometime between January 20 and September 11 2001, where he announced that he would use his business skills to make government more efficient and more responsive.

Problem is, if you think of government as a business and the president as its CEO, you will also see things like, oh, international law as just another annoying impediment to your freedom to make decisions -- much like a CEO may think of the tax code and all those other tedious regulations they have to deal with, like worker safety and environmental protections. You won't think of governing as a solemn obligation; that you have a duty to uphold, and that maybe you should occasionally exceed its literal requirements to create goodwill. Instead, you will tell the government's legal experts that they are now the equivalent of corporate lawyers, that it is now their job to probe for loopholes in the law, and then exploit them as best they can.

Strange as it seems, there are some things that traditional Washington insiders do right, and maverick MBAs don't get. More generally, you don't necessarily improve government by pretending it's a business.

Zero, zip, nada, f*ck all

So today we read that, apart from the centrifuge buried in someone's backyard for a decade, no WMDs have been discovered in Iraq, and BushCo is finally admitting it.

Since 51% of Americans voted for Bush despite coming to this realization long before the election, it should be obvious to "everybody" that "nobody" (that would be 100% of everybody -- or 100% of nobody if you wish to use the prevailing conservative logic) cares.

On this same rationale you will see a federal budget that freezes or slashes spending on every single government program except defense and homeland security. Not even COLAs will happen, meaning that spending won't keep up with inflation.

You will see the administration attempt to ram through judicial nominees that were previously turned down by changing Senate rules that have been in place since the Founders' signatures on the Constitution were still wet.

And you'll see the majority party continue to whine, bitch, and cry about how the minority is "obstructing" them.

They will do -- or attempt to do, based on how hard the Democrats choose to fight back -- all of this in the name of that 51% "mandate" they claim.

Audacity just simply does not begin to describe it.

Astros season already swirling the drain?

Well, we lost him.

Dammit.

After calculating the effect of New York's state income tax (and the corresponding increase in federal income tax) I figured that either Empire State team would have to pay an extra $15 million over the 'Stros' offer just for Carlos to break even. This, I speculated, kept us strongly in the running for the services of the talented Mr. Beltran.

Maybe Scott Boras had his bluff called (and his client will wind up with less net jack from the Mets with the hometowners folding and the Yankees already overspent), maybe Tim Purpura messed up (when he blurted that the Astros had made their final offer a couple of days ago), maybe Uncle Drayton blinked at the price tag (though you'd never suspect based on the spin coming from the Chronic today).

Maybe it really was a fumble:

"It slipped through our fingers in the last, last few minutes," McClain said. "It was just some sticking point. It should never, never have gotten to this."

Who's it sound like he's blaming? Maybe it was a no-trade clause. Whatever, if it was just a few million dollars, we could all be really, really upset.

It's too late for the Astros to make smart upgrades with Beltran's former money, as most of the desirable free agents on the market have committed. They don't have lots of good prospects to trade, and the only free agent that should interest them is Magglio Ordonez, who's just beginning to work out after offseason surgery.

Five-to-one Clemens decides he's done now.

The good news is Chris Burke and Jason Lane get onstage. The bad news is Berkman will be a month late (as he rehabs his busted knee until May), Biggio may be reduced to the role of supersub, Bagwell still can't throw the ball from first to home on the fly, the rotation has to replace Wade Miller and the bullpen has to replace, well, everyone except Lidge.

Despite my rather negative header, let's reserve judgment a bit longer and see if they have a free-agent trick or two up their sleeve.

I'll have the rest of the winter, spring, summer, and fall to blast them otherwise.

This woman simply has one of the best blogs around.

I first started chatting with Bean back in the late Nineties on a discussion forum named Abuzz, which was run by the New York Times. When they pulled the plug on it, most of the membership (that wasn't trolls) migrated over to another site I won't name (since they don't reciprocate linkage).

Bean finally got tired of the moderated thing and started blogging. The rest is history, as they say.

Prairie Weather belongs in your bookmarks.

The Bush Black Market

One of my favorite blogs lately is Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, and he's got a post up about Armstrong "I'm just tryin' to make my way in the world" Williams:

In an attempt to "sell" its No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, the Bush Administration, it was revealed, paid prominent black guy and TV host Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote the program and urge other prominent black guys to do the same. Armstrong was also hired to conduct and air interview spots with fellow prominent black guy and soon-to-be-ex-Secretary of Education Rod "The NEA is a Terrorist Group" Paige. Williams, 45, host of the syndicated The Right Side, is also a former clerk for prominent black guy and Supreme Court Justice and Number-One-Porn-Fan Clarence Thomas.

Who says a brother can't catch a break under Bush?

No Vo?

A well-connected blogger reports that the Texas House will next week overturn the victory of Hubert Vo, the Vietnamese-American who won the 149th district race in southwest Houston by less than 50 votes, and will instead seat the incumbent Republican Talmadge Heflin he defeated on November 2nd, and in a subsequent recount.

Why, you say? Because they can:

Sound far-fetched? Think for a moment about what the GOP, at both the state and federal level, has had the audacity to do in the last couple of years -- redistricting, ethics changes, now trying to eliminate the filibuster from the U.S. Senate, etc -- and you may reach the same conclusion the state senator has. "These guys just don't give a sh*t." Bad press? Who cares. Public outrage? They'll get over it. Politically dangerous? Not a chance -- all we have to do is win a GOP primary anyway. Democratic retribution? (After several moments of laughter) Who?

If they dare do this, there must be an outrage expressed so loud and so long that the GOP will be forced to relent. There will have to be thousands of Texans on the Capitol steps demanding that the Republicans follow the expressed will of the people and not their greedy lust for ever more power.

We'll have to scare the nasty bastards into changing their mind. It wouldn't hurt if we started letting them know how we feel right now.