Good guys win nomination fight

You may recall Sam Fox. He's the big Bush contributor who played a part in bankrolling the lying bastards knows as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Bush nominated Fox to be Ambassador to Belgium.

Well, Senate Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, including Swift Boat Veterans for Truth target John Kerry, made clear that they would not vote to favorably recommend Fox to the full Senate. In light of that, President Bush has withdrawn the nomination.

Score one for the good guys.

Get Well, Tony Snow

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow's cancer has returned.

Politics aside, I hope he gets well.

I surely won't suggest that the timing of Snow's cancer announcement has a political motivation. Because that would be wrong.

And I would certainly never suggest that Snow's cancer announcement was made to deflect attention from the numerous scandals in which his boss's administration is mired. That would be even more wrong.

And I definitely won't question whether Snow decides to continue working or leave his job to concentrate on his recovery. I'm pretty sure that would be the most wrong.

Gonzales aide takes the Fifth

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' liaison with the White House will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.

Goodling, one of several aides involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer senators' questions.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," Dowd said. Goodling was key to the Justice Department's political response to the growing controversy. She took a leave of absence last week.

Think Republican loyalists and their media enablers can continue to claim there's no wrongdoing in the US Attorney firings?

Another Republican Hypocrite

Today's entry is Republican hack Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida. From Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone:

I turned on C-Span the other morning, expecting to watch the latest chapter in the purification-by-fire of Alberto Gonzales, and saw an amazing thing. It was so amazing and so hilarious that I coughed hot coffee all over my new laptop. Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, was howling on the House floor about the lack of "openness" demonstrated by the new Democratic leadership.

"In bill after bill after bill," he shouted, "the minority is closed out!"

Taibbi continues:

The issue at hand -- the reason the esteemed Florida congressman was addressing the House floor -- was the failure of the Democrats to allow an "open rule" in the matter of the Gulf Coast Recovery Act, an aid package directed to hurricane victims. An "open rule" is a bill that is sent to the House floor without any restrictions on the number or type of amendments majority or minority members might want to tack on. For instance, a few years ago, when the reauthorization of the Patriot Act was sent to the House floor, Vermont's Bernie Sanders submitted an amendment to restrict government access to citizens' library records. The Republicans who controlled the Rules committee at the time rejected that and other amendments, and sent a closed rule to the floor.

They did that a lot in those years. In the two years of the 109th Congress, the Republicans allowed only one completely open rule. This was a reflection of a decades-long general evolution in congressional procedure away from bipartisanship and in the direction of unilateralism. The trend really began with the Democrats -- in 1977, when the Democrats were the majority party, eighty-five percent of all bills went to the floor as open rules. By 1994, when the Democrats were kicked out of power, that number had dropped to thirty percent. Particularly during the Reagan years, congressional Democrats had turned the House floor into something of a bully pulpit. And guess who led the Republican charge in bitching about it? You guessed it, Mr. Strychnine-Mummenschanz himself, Lincoln Diaz-Balart. This is the congressman's remarks on the subject back in 1994:

"You know what the closed rule means. It means no discussion, no amendments. That is profoundly undemocratic."

All I can say is what a hypocrite.

Why Executive Privilege if it didn't happen?

Lane Hudson:

In the White House Press briefing that just concluded, press secretary Tony Snow said that he was not aware of the president being briefed on the US Attorney issue. He further said the president did not sign off on the firings.

CNN's Ed Henry hit the nail on the head: if no conversations occurred with the president, and no advice was given, then how can the White House assert executive privilege, claiming the need to shield presidential advice?

Tony Snow's response: "That's an intriguing question."

That's the best retort Snow could come up with? Democrats have been in charge of Congress for only two months and already they've shown that the Bush administration's contempt for Congress when Republicans failed to exercise oversight had the administration convinced it was omniscient. They're starting to find out that's not so.

Tom DeLay, liar

How big a liar does a Republican have to be for even Chris Matthews to be taken aback?

THIS big.

Tonight on Hardball Matthews quizzed DeLay about passages in his new book, focusing on passages where DeLay beat up on former House Majority Leader and fellow Texan Dick Armey. Matthews asked The Hammer about describing Armey as "drunk with ambition."

DeLay denies writing it. "I wrote that he was 'blinded by his ambition.'"

Matthews turns to the passage in question and reads it out loud to DeLay -- it describes Armey as "drunk with ambition."

DeLay keeps denying it.

Matthews finally hands the book to DeLay and tells him to read it for himself. DeLay looks down, pauses, and says "I don't have my glasses."

Is there a word more descriptive than "liar" that describes a purveyor of untruths larger and more obvious than simple lies?

And mind you, Matthews is a fan of DeLay, but even he couldn't stand a falsehood this blatant.

Still another typical Republican hypocrite

Arnold Schwarzenegger, yesterday:

"All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant."

Arnold Schwarzenegger, today:

Limbaugh sounded pleased when Schwarzenegger eased out of the interview, saying he wanted to smoke more cigars with him.

"The key thing is that people should know that you and I, we don't have a fight," Schwarzenegger said.

Another Typical Republican hypocrite

Tony Snow, 2007:

Bush insisted this week that the principle is central to a president's ability to get good advice. "If the staff of a president operated in constant fear of being hauled before various committees to discuss internal deliberations, the president would not receive candid advice, and the American people would be ill-served," he said.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday the matter is non-negotiable. "We're laying down a marker in terms of internal White House deliberations," Snow said.

Tony Snow, 1998:

"Evidently, Mr. Clinton wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration,'' the columnist wrote. "Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything."

Typical Republican hypocrite

Newt Gingrich, 2007:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in Nashville that the personal lives of White House hopefuls shouldn't become an issue in the 2008 campaign.

Earlier this month Gingrich said he was seeking forgiveness for his own extramarital affair committed while he pursued President Clinton's impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Since the announcement, Gingrich said he's received a positive response from colleagues and others.

He's considering a race for the presidency. Gingrich was in Nashville Tuesday night to speak at Vanderbilt University.

Newt Gingrich, 1998:

House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused Clinton of degrading the presidency, through his handling of the Monica Lewinsky investigation, to "a level of disrespect and decadence that should appall every American."

Typical. Republican. Hypocrite.

You fucking douche

Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt of Ohio's Second District, in her weekly column. She's describing her "inspection" of Walter Reed Army Hospital:

While I believe that this building is beneath the standard of what is acceptable, I think it is wrong to suggest that mold found behind an air conditioner somehow is an excuse to say that all of our veterans are receiving substandard medical care.

Are you fucking kidding me? Must be Schmidt is too busy "inspecting" to have read this or this or this or this or this or this.

What a disgrace this woman is. What a waste of a Congressional seat. Thanks a lot, Ohio.

Can't you even tell plausible lies?

President Bush says sending presidential aides to testify before Congress will "harm the President's ability to get good information."

Oh, PLEASE!

Congressional Research Service says LOTS of presidential aides have testified before Committees of both the US House and Senate, including these Clinton aides:

Harold Ickes, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff - 7/28/94

George Stephanopoulos, Senior Adviser to the President for Policy and Strategy - 8/4/94

John Podesta, Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary - 8/5/94

Bruce R. Lindsey, Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President - 1/16/96

Samuel Berger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs - 9/11/97

Beth Nolan, Counsel to the President - 5/4/00

Arlen Specter is delusional

Apparently Republican Senator Arlen Specter doesn't know the Democrats won a resounding victory in the 2006 elections and that Senator Patrick Leahy, not Specter, is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Leahy: "I don't know what this Mr Fielding's talking about. I've never met him, I understand he's a very nice man. And I'm not sure who he's negotiating with on capitol hill. The power on putting on the agendas and putting on subpoenas is mine and that will be on Thursday of this week when they'll be voted on. They'll be one for Karl Rove and one for Harriet Miers and one for her deputy."

Specter:

Specter said he had a long talk with Fielding on Friday and was reserving judgment. Specter said he would like to see Rove and Miers testify openly.

"I want to see exactly what the White House response is," Specter said. "Maybe the White House will come back and say, 'We'll permit them to be interviewed and we'll give them all the records.'"

Say it with me, Arlen: Patrick Leahy is Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Hypocrites

Glenn Greenwald exposes the Republican hypocrisy over the US Attorney firings:

The fundamental difference between (a) a new administration replacing all U.S. attorneys (as multiple Presidents have done -- including Clinton, Reagan and even Bush 41) and (b) cherry-picking ones for firing in the middle of an administration, has been amply documented. Alberto Gonzales' own Chief of Staff recognized the unprecedented nature of what they were planning in an email he wrote to the White House.

Nonetheless, Republicans sought in 1993 to depict the routine and standard replacement of U.S. attorneys by the Clinton administration as some sort of grave scandal which threatened prosecutorial independence and was deeply corrupt. Yet now, people like The Wall St. Journal's Paul Gigot -- one of the most vocal critics of the 1993 U.S. attorneys replacement -- insist that the President has the absolute right to fire any U.S. attorneys at any time and for any reason.

President seeking Gonzales replacement

See my previous post -- I told you so.

Republican officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun seeking a possible successor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose support among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has collapsed, according to party sources familiar with the discussions.

Among the names floated Monday by administration officials are Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and White House anti-terrorism coordinator Frances Townsend. Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson is a White House prospect. So is former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, but sources were unsure whether he would want the job.

Gonzales is on the way out

Tony Snow couldn't have made it more obvious:

The White House on Monday offered tepid support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over a controversial prosecutor purge that may cost him his job, expressing "hope" that he will stay on.

"The president said he's got confidence in Al Gonzales," spokesman Tony Snow said amid a growing chorus calling for the attorney general to resign or be fired. "We hope he stays."

Asked whether Gonzales would stay on until US President George W. Bush's term ends in January 2009, Snow told reporters: "Well, we hope so."

Did US Attorney firings break law?

The Bush Administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys may have broken various laws, according to a New York Times op-ed by lawyer and editorial page assistant editor Adam Cohen.

"It is true, as the White House keeps saying, that United States attorneys serve 'at the pleasure of the president,' which means he can dismiss them whenever he wants," writes Cohen. "But if the attorneys were fired to interfere with a valid prosecution, or to punish them for not misusing their offices, that may well have been illegal."

More liberal media bias

Again, from Media Matters:

Mara Liasson falsely claimed that the Bush administration's "interim" U.S. attorney appointees "couldn't stay there" without Senate confirmation.

Actually, Mara, a little-known (until recently) provision of the renewal of the USA Patriot Act DOES allow an interim U.S. Attorney to serve indefinitely WITHOUT Senate confirmation. The whole point of this law from the Bush administration's point of view, was to have the power to appoint USAs that would not be able to clear the hurdle of Senate confirmation. Like this guy, for instance.

How did Liasson miss the entire point of the ongoing media coverage of this scandal?

Republican apologists

I haven't posted in the last couple of days -- working one night, doing my taxes another.

From Media Matters:

Commenting on Sen. Pete Domenici's (R-NM) alleged involvement in the firing of U.S. attorney David Iglesias, National Journal's Stuart Taylor Jr. said he "doubt[s] that there'll be anything discrediting to Senator Domenici," ignoring Domenici's reversal on his contact with Iglesias.

Nothing discrediting to Senator Domenici? How about this? Or this?

Why do these guys feel so compelled to apologize and cover up for corrupt Republicans?

Disgraceful Joe Lieberman

This guy needs to go:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) are changing the seating arrangements for members of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, according to Washington Wire.

"For future hearings, Democrats and Republicans won’t sit on opposite sides of the dais but rather, next to each other -- alternating Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican etc."

In a joint statement, Lieberman and Collins said "In the last election, the voters said they were sick of the partisanship that produces gridlock… So, as a start, instead of sitting on opposite sides of the room like a house divided, we want the American people to see us sitting side by side as our committee members work together make our nation more secure and our government more efficient."

Lieberman can't be serious. Voters in 2006 didn't ask for bipartisanship. They made a clear and unequivocal statement that Republicans were unchecked, and too strident, and WAY wrong on too many issues.

If LIEberman doesn't get that or chooses to ignore it he should be stripped of his committee chairmanship, no matter what the consequences for the Democratic majority.

The definition of truthiness

Truthiness:

Andrea Mitchell today on Hardball:

"...They're going to try to really tamp this down and appeal to the polling which indicates that most people think, in fact, that he should be pardoned. Scooter Libby should be pardoned."

A new CNN poll says 18% support pardon.

Only in the world of the So Called Liberal Media can eighteen percent be described as "most people."

YAY!

Army's Kiley Ousted

Army Surgeon General Kevin C. Kiley abruptly stepped down under pressure from military superiors, the third top Army official forced out in the fallout from revelations of shabby treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Army said Monday that Lt. Gen. Kiley had submitted a request to retire over the weekend. Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren had asked Kiley for his retirement, said a senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the events.

BOO!

Army Ordering Injured Troops To Go To Iraq

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

On Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical conditions from the 3rd Division's 3rd Brigade were summoned to a meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men responsible for handling each soldier's "physical profile," an Army document that lists for commanders an injured soldier's physical limitations because of medical problems — from being unable to fire a weapon to the inability to move and dive in three-to-five-second increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and other soldiers claim that the division and brigade surgeons summarily downgraded soldiers' profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq. It is a claim division officials deny.[..]

That [..] worries Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, who has long been concerned that the military was pressing injured troops into Iraq. "Did they send anybody down range that cannot wear a helmet, that cannot wear body armor?" Robinson asked rhetorically. "Well that is wrong. It is a war zone." Robinson thinks that the possibility that physical profiles may have been altered improperly has the makings of a scandal. "My concerns are that this needs serious investigation. You cannot just look at somebody and tell that they were fit," he said. "It smacks of an overstretched military that is in crisis mode to get people onto the battlefield."

CNN -- liberal media

Tom DeLay is becoming a commentator for CNN, according to John Fund:

“Despite his antipathy toward liberals, Mr. DeLay joked that he’s happy to work with them. He told me he is about to sign on with CNN as a commentator. ‘I may be their only conservative on air, but someone has to do it.’”

The only conservative on CNN? Who were the last three commentators they hired?

* Right-wing blowhard and hypocrite Bill Bennett.

* Right-wing former Congressman J.C. Watts, Republican of Oklahoma.

* And over at CNN's Headline News, right-wing radio host Glenn Beck.

Apparently, Tom DeLay’s criminal indictments, resignation in disgrace, record of vituperation and hate-mongering, demagoguery, and admonishments by the House Ethics Committee aren’t enough to keep CNN from putting him on the payroll.

Liberal media bias my ass.

AP's lazy journalism

This has to be seen to be believed:

The reporters of the Associated Press are so lazy in covering the dispute between Rudy Giuliani and the firefighters that AP quoted someone and identified him as the head of an "independent" group, "Firefighters for Rudy," without mentioning that he is a campaign aide for Giuliani.

The Giuliani campaign tried to blunt the International Association of Firefighters attack by sending out a campaign release offering interviews with Tim Brown, who was identified as the executive director of a group called "Firefighters for Rudy."

Unfortunately for AP however, Tim Brown is actually an aide to Rudy. In fact the "group" likely has a membership list of one. The phone number for Firefighters for Rudy is the same one as that of the Giuliani campaign press office.

How could supposedly capable reporters make a mistake this huge?

Kerry and the swift-boating victims

Check out this awesome Wade Sanders post about the nomination of Sam Fox to be Ambassador to Belgium:

I have no personal interest in Belgium, but one feature on Mr. Fox's long list of support for all things Republican caught my attention: "Foxy," as President Bush affectionately calls him, had donated $50,000 to the distasteful smear machine known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 election.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but one of the lessons drilled into me by the military and preserved through the memory of friends who were lucky enough to come home from Vietnam alive, is that truth matters above all else. And as a military man, it doesn't matter much who is being attacked -- John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry, or Jack Murtha -- I just don't believe that assaults on the military records of veterans belong in our politics. Nor do I believe that those who finance smears of decorated Vietnam veterans deserve to represent America on the world stage.

Fox News boss -- Fair and Balanced?

Last night the Radio-Television News Directors Association honored former Republcian political operative Roger Ailes with the organization's First Amendment Award.

During the 17th annual event, RTNDF presented the First Amendment Leadership Award to Ailes, who oversaw the successful launch of Fox News Channel in 1996.

Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni presented the award to Ailes, praising Ailes' "strong belief in freedom of speech and diversity of thought" and "his propensity to truly believe in the people he works with and do anything to support them."

Here's what Ailes said in his acceptance speech:

A man in France was arrested today for using his car to run down a pedestrian. He said he thought it was Osama bin Laden. Ok, it was a mistake, but it still ranks as France's biggest military victory ever....

[Laughter]

It is true that I said Britney Spears looked great at the Academy Awards. and I later found out it was Jack Nicholson.

[Laughter/ooohs]

It is true that just in the last two weeks Hillary Clinton has had over 200 phone calls telling her in order to win the presidency she must stay on the road for the next two years. It is not true they were all from Bill.

[Laughter]

And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?'

How's that for diversity of thought?

Fox News. We "report," you decide.

Another gay Republican porn star/escort

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.

Max Blumenthal passes on word “several gay blogs revealed late yesterday” that Marine Reserve Corporal Matt Sanchez, winner of the Jeanne Kirpatrick Academic Freedom Award at this year’s CPAC, “was known during his halcyon days as Rod Majors, a majorly well-endowed gay porn star.” In his spare time, he was “a $200-an-hour male prostitute who advertised himself as an ‘excellent top.’”

What? Jeff Gannon wasn't bad enough for you guys?

David Gergen, comedian

David Gergen, former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, talks about the Scooter Libby trial and the Bush administration on CNN's Larry King Live:

"This is an administration that has been mostly free of scandal over the last six years and now they have the taint that they cannot erase," he said. "It has damaged this White House, and I think it's damaged the Republican prospects for 2008 in taking the White House and keeping it."

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

Hah.

David Rivkin is a fucking liar

David B. Rivkin, a Republican lawyer and author, is on Hardball as I write this. To put it mildly, he's a fucking liar. Worse, the Democrat who's supposed to respond to Rivkin is Richard Ben-Veniste, who has completely rolled over. Between Matthews not letting Ben-Veniste finish an answer without interruption and Ben-Veniste not being willing or able to take on Rivkin, Rivkin is just lying and lying and lying.

Rivkin is advocating for a pardon of Scooter Libby.

To make his case, Rivkin argues that there was no underlying crime that led to the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

First, there doesn't need to be an underlying crime -- if you hinder an investigation or lie under oath, you're committing a crime. Period. Read this to see more.

Second, Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald made clear that he was unable to tell whether an underlying crime had been committed. Why? Because of Libby's obstruction and perjury!

In addition, there may very well have been an underlying crime -- violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.

Rivkin also tried to argue that Valerie Wilson wasn't a covert operative. That's just bullshit -- read this, and this, and this, and this.

I looked this stuff up in about two minutes. You think Richard Ben-Veniste might have come up with a stronger response to Liar Rivkin?

Libby -- Guilty

Scooter Libby. Guilty. Yay! The system can still be made to work. Let's hope this is the first of many Bush administration officials to be held accountable for their misdeeds.

Conservative lies about Bill Maher

Newsbusters.org has a masthead that reads "exposing and combating liberal media bias." It makes me wonder why they have to LIE about Bill Maher.

Newsbusters.org has a cartoon that purports to show Bill Maher in the opening monologue of his HBO Show last Friday -- the cartoon at the top of this post. Since the Newsbuster.org cartoon was posted other conservative blogs have repeated the story that Maher advocated killing Vice President Cheney.

There's just one problem -- Bill Maher absolutely, positively did not say the words that are alleged to be his. Here's what he actually said:

Have you heard about this, this week? The Taliban tried to blow up Dick Cheney. Don’t worry, he’s okay. [laughter] [audience reacts “aw”] [laughter] No, he was never in danger. At the time of the attack he was safely asleep in his coffin. [laughter] So… [applause] I’m joking. I just hope that this attempt on his life doesn’t turn him bitter, vicious and paranoid. Because that… [laughter]

Seems to me I can tell who in the media is biased, and it's not Bill Maher or any liberals.

John Ashcroft is a whore

John Ashcroft is a whore:

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who sent a letter this week to his successor Alberto Gonzales blasting the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., approached XM in the days after the merger was announced offering the firm his consulting services, a spokesman for XM said Saturday.

The spokesman said XM declined Mr. Ashcroft's offer to work as a lobbyist for the company.

Mr. Ashcroft was subsequently hired by the National Association of Broadcasters, which is fiercely opposed to the merger.

Ashcroft is the guy about whom George W. Bush said this upon nominating Ashcroft for Attorney General:

"...man of great integrity, a man of great judgment and a man who knows the law..."

In addition, if you appreciate irony, you'll want to know that the motto of Ashcroft's firm, The Ashcroft Group, is "Leadership. Integrity. Results."

What would you call a guy who has no principles and will take money from anyone? I'd call him a whore.

General Kiley blames troops

This guy needs to go:

At today’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, who oversaw Walter Reed until 2004 and remains Army surgeon general, admitted that the condition in Building 18 was “clearly unacceptable,” but again denied responsibility for it. He blamed the neglect on “a failure of leadership at the junior level in that building.”

The problem is deeper than the substandard physical conditions of just one building. See here, here, here, and here. General Kiley clearly doesn't get it. Worse, he blames wounded and injured soldiers for their own misfortune. That's just unprofessional, and the Army cannot allow its top level leaders to get away with it. General Kiley should be relieved of his responsibilities now.

GOP blames troops for conditions at Walter Reed

The conditions at Walter Reed Hospital are deplorable. Any rational person would agree that American service men and women who were wounded and injured in the service of their country. But the Republicans are clearly not rational.

Republican mouthpiece Brit Hume, today on Fox News Sunday:

I think it tells you a lot about the effect of the last election and the political atmosphere in Washington. This is an administration which is known or had been known for sticking by people even when they were embattled. The idea that conditions at Walter Reed hospital, a hospital that is on its way out of business, had deteriorated, that’s probably one of the reasons they wanted to put it out of business. This is unfortunate. It looks terrible, which is the problem. The problem is that it looks as if this administration, which has sent troops into harm’s way, is now neglecting them when they’re injured and need care and help. But make no mistake about it, this was a — there was a potential political firestorm on Capitol Hill began to brew about this. The administration did what it did to try to get it over with, and it may well have succeeded.

So according to Hume, the problem isn't wounded and injured veterans who are receiving substandard care, it's that this fact might make the Bush administration look bad. And in true "we report, you decide" fashion, Hume opines, on no evidence, that the administration has succeeded in soloving the problem -- the problem being, not poor conditions at the hospital, but bad press for the Bush administration.

Republican Senator Trent Lott (Segregationist, Mississippi), was as bad as Hume. Appearing on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Lott said the conditions at Walter Reed were understandable because the facility is on the base closing list.

Are you kidding me? If "support the troops" means anything, it ought to be that the country doesn't shortchange veterans who have given lives, blood and limbs in service to America.

For a stark contrast between how the Bush administration and its Republican cronies treats veterans and how it's done in a country that truly supports its troops, read this story.

The Bush administration and its Republican rubber stamps and its media enablers cannot be driven from power soon enough.

I got the photo from Middle East Online.

What does it take for people to say "Enough!"?

Ann Coulter, speaking at the American Conservative Union:

"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so..."

Of course, the "family values" audience laughed and cheered.

On the other hand, Michael Savage was represented by Creative Artists Agency for just a few days before the agency dropped him in response to Savage saying this a few days earlier:

"I don't like a woman married to a woman. It makes me want to puke. ... I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it's child abuse."

Melissa Etheridge is also a CAA client.

I wonder what it will take to get Coulter fired from her numerous media gigs and public speaking appearances?

More liberal media bias

Rick Santorum, who made such a fool of himself while serving as a Republican US Senator from Pennsylvania that he lost his bid for a third term, is about to begin a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In addition, he's also going to begin work as a Fox News contributor.

To give you an idea what a dumbass Santorum is, read this, this, this, this, and this.

I thought the media was supposed to be a liberal bastion -- how come conservative idiots like Santorum keep getting gigs?