Not Moneyshots, but still on the mark...

"The federal government began investigating allegations of fraud against the Coalition Provisional Authority, a U.S. contractor accused in a bid-rigging operation involving millions of dollars. Asked to comment, a spokesperson for Halliburton said, 'Millions? With an M? That is adorable.'"

-- Amy Poehler on Saturday Night Live

"President Bush, is on his Asian tour now. He'll visit Japan, China, South Korea, Mongolia. Once again, he's skipping Vietnam."

-- David Letterman

"Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito says he's embarrassed by some of the things he wrote in the 1980's. Apparently Alito wrote the song 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.'"

-- Conan O'Brien

"While the Democrats are focusing on how we were misled to war, Bush is focusing on how to mislead us out of it. ... If we were wrong about why we went in, we have to be wrong about why we're leaving. Otherwise it sends our enemies the message that America lacks the will to remain incorrect."

-- Rob Corddry on The Daily Show

"President Bush is planning on spending Thanksgiving out at his ranch in Crawford. And you know how he always pardons the White House turkey? Bad news for the turkey: There are three cabinet members ahead of him."

-- Jay Leno

If I don't see you again before the holiday, have a happy Thanksgiving.

2008 Presidential straw poll

Daily Kos is conducting the last of these for 2005, so go cast a vote here.

The Kossacks have consistently picked Wesley Clark as their favorite, with Russ Feingold and John Edwards running second and third. The MSM's presumptive front-runner, Hillary Clinton, barely leads the rest of the pack, which includes Senators Kerry and Biden, Governors Warner and Richardson, and a few lesser lights.

So far the order for November holds true to form: Clark, Feingold, Warner (who is obviously getting a bounce from the November 8 results in Virginia) and Edwards.

Update (11/22): The results are in.

Lack of an exit strategy

Another Swift Boat blown up

The latest incarnation of the New McCarthyism blew up in the Republicans' faces on the floor of the House last night.

The vote last night on the rule to bring the "Murtha Resolution" -- that's what the Shut Up and Clap Louder Crowd called it before they suddenly all started saying 'this isn't about one man' -- to a vote passed 210-202, but every Democratic representative voted nay. And 5 Republicans joined them.

The actual vote on the referendum itself (which was to end the occupation of Iraq immediately) was 403-3, with the nays carrying. John Murtha voted against it. Even Dennis Kucinich voted against it.

But the signature moment was the nasty attack on Murtha by Rep. Jean Schmidt -- the GOP House member with the least seniority, who managed to squeak past a decorated war veteran in a special election, who built herself a straw man in order to call another decorated war veteran a coward.

That said it all.

The Republicans went after the wrong Marine.

This has all the earmarks of a Karl Rove-Swift Boat-style smearjob. Hunter at Kos writes about Newsweek's Howard Fineman indicating precisely that.

Another Moneyshot Quote

"I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."

-- Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania, on Dick Cheney.

Murtha, who has a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts from his service in Vietnam, retired as a colonel from the Marines after 37 years and was elected to Congress in 1990. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee, which among other things oversees military spending. White House press secretary Scott McClelland, following the Chickenhawk-in-Chief around in Korea, took his mouth off the President's boots long enough to describe his boss as "baffled" -- no surprise there -- but then began the Swift-Boat-style smear by saying Murtha was "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party."

Now I proudly consider myself one of those, and as such don't consider that kind of comment an insult, especially when I consider the source. But how I would take it isn't the point; how it's intended is.

Speaker Denny Hastert, himself a Vietnam draft avoider (he had bad knees, so he stayed home to wrestle) described his own fat ass as "saddened". "Rep. Murtha and Democratic leaders have adopted a policy of cut and run," he said.

This is how the White House and the Republican leadership treats the people who actually supported them on the war. The ones who truly believed they were doing the right thing at the outset.

They piss all over them. Publicly.

Reuters buried the lede (but I dug it up)

Not that there wasn't anything newsworthy on the first page, but on the second page of this Reuters news item, rather innocuously headlined "Post urged to probe Woodward's role in CIA case":

A White House official said on Thursday that national security adviser Stephen Hadley was not Woodward's source on Plame. According to current and former administration officials and lawyers, neither was: President George W. Bush himself, top political adviser Karl Rove, Libby, White House chief of staff Andrew Card, counselor Dan Bartlett, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former CIA director George Tenet, and former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin.

You may have noticed that Dick Cheney is conspicuously absent from that list.

Now on the one hand, why should I believe an unnamed White House official when it turns out I shouldn't have believed Scottie McClellan when he said that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby had nothing to do with the CIA leak?

Unnamed sources in the Bush administration lie like rugs. Even the offical White House spokesperson doesn't know what the truth is. And besides, why doesn't this conflict with the offical position that the White House does not comment on an ongoing investigation?

Are they lying now or were they lying then?

Eh...

My money is back on Vice President Torture as the felonious leak, especially with the news yesterday that Cheney refused to comment on the Woodward bombshells.

No wonder "Last Throes" Dick has been so grouchy lately.

Moneyshot Quotes of the Week

The last couple of weeks I have simply made headlines out of them ...

(Pat Robertson, by virtue of his condemning the city of Dover, PA for kicking their creationists out of office, has been inducted into the MsQotW Hall of Fame. From now on we can all ignore everything he ever says.)

"War is not a Republican or Democrat (sic) issue. The casualties of war are from both parties. The Bush Administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge or criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democracy nor what this country has stood for, for over 200 years."

-- Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., departing again from the Rove talking points

"When we have our majority leader being indicted and a bridge to nowhere, then it's time for us to reflect upon the Republican Party."

-- Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., who also said that the House Republican conference "would be healthier and more unified if we had real elections and if Tom DeLay would step aside".

It was Hadley all along

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley was the senior administration official who told Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward that Valerie Plame Wilson was a CIA officer, attorneys close to the investigation and intelligence officials tell Raw Story.

Hadley, you may remember, has been previously implicated in the Niger forgeries, and has also been the point man in 'catapulting the propaganda that "everyone believed" Iraq had WMD.

You may also recall that Hadley was the fall guy for the infamous "sixteen words" in the State of the Union speech. His excuse? "I forgot I was told to take that out."

So it would seem that the National Security Advisor of the United States of America appears to have been at the center of most of the lies told by this administration over the past four years.

If he keeps going at this rate, he'll be promoted to Secretary of State when Condi Rice replaces Cheney (who will be resigning shortly due to health concerns).

Update (11/17): I could still be correct about Cheney.

Woodward's disgrace

One of my favorite sites described Bob Woodward, all the way back in September, as a "Pre$$titute Extraordinaire." And did so again in October with Bob Woodward, Pre$$titute Extraordinaire (Part 2).

Rook's Rant:

"Woodward has to be the biggest disappointment in all of journalism. At what point did he stop being a reporter and start being a Republican mouth piece? It seems traitorous to journalism. Even worse, he appears to be an apologist for the administration."

Pamela at the Democratic Daily has more:

"This all comes out now, more than a year after disclosures of this sort might have swayed voters' opinions in the ‘04 presidential election. How convenient is that?"

Others commenting on the Woodward bombshell include The Carpetbagger, Mahablog, and BooMan.

Woodward and Bernstein were icons of journalistic integrity, modern-day Thomas Paines who saw corruption and followed the links to the nation's first constitutional crisis. They were idols of mine as soon as I saw All the President's Men. I was 18 years old when I first saw Redford, Hoffman, Robards, Holbrook, et. al. reprise the real-life journalists -- and "DeepThroat", whom we finally learned (from Woodward, who hid the secret for thirty years) was a CIA man named Mark Felt. The lesson I learned was that no man, not even the President of the United States, is above the law.

Richard Nixon was brought down by two dogged reporters (and the editors that backed them) who were unafraid of pressure and threats. At least, that is how my eighteen-year-old brain interpreted it.

And now Woodward's image lies in tatters. At his own hand. You might as well have told me that Babe Ruth used steroids.

The man who brought down Nixon turns out to be nothing more than a shill for Bush.

And a liar.

The President has four Mommies

OK, this is just weird.

The Washington Moonie Times' Insight magazine, courtesy of Americablog:

President Bush feels betrayed by several of his most senior aides and advisors and has severely restricted access to the Oval Office, administration sources say. The president’s reclusiveness in the face of relentless public scrutiny of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and White House leaks regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame has become so extreme that Mr. Bush has also reduced contact with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, administration sources said on the condition of anonymity.

And then Drudge follows up with this:

The sources said Mr. Bush maintains daily contact with only four people: first lady Laura Bush, his mother, Barbara Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes. The sources also say that Mr. Bush has stopped talking with his father, except on family occasions.

Who says the United States has never had a woman President? Hell, we have four of them right now.

But don't tell the other kids at school; they might tease little Georgie. That could be very traumatic for him, and later in life he might start to drink, take drugs, lie, deceive and evade his responsibilities.

Georgie, I want you to know that it is perfectly fine to have two four mommies. We are not prejudiced. Diversity is beautiful. It's like a game! No daddies allowed in your clubhouse!