GOP: the party of "values"

Why does it seem like the Republican Party is America's largest crime syndicate? Jam-packed with criminals, liars and hypocritical gay man-whores... these guys are being outed, forced to resign, indicted and/or locked up at a rate that shames even big city drug lords. Mayor James West...

...the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported that West was a closeted homosexual who visited gay chat rooms using his city-owned laptop computer and offered internships and other favors to young men he hoped to have sex with. West, a former Boy Scout executive and sheriff's deputy, was elected mayor in 2003 after serving more than two decades as a Republican in the state Legislature, where he voted against gay-friendly bills.

James "America Hater" Tobin...

A federal prosecutor yesterday described James Tobin as the linchpin in an "evil scheme" to jam Democratic phone banks across New Hampshire on election day in 2002.

Tobin, a former New England campaign chairman for President Bush, faces up to 19 years in prison and $1 million in fines on four counts stemming from the 2002 incident. His trial began yesterday in U.S. District Court in Concord and is expected to last up to eight days.

Two men have already entered guilty pleas for their roles in the phone jamming: Charles McGee, who was the executive director of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee at the time of the 2002 election, and Allen Raymond, then head of a Virginia-based Republican consulting firm. McGee served a seven-month sentence in federal prison; Raymond has been sentenced to five months but has not yet served his time.

Katrina's Window: Confronting Concentrated Poverty Across America

a report from the Brookings Institute on poverty and disasters. From the lede:

This paper argues that the conversation should focus special attention on alleviating concentrated urban poverty—the segregation of poor families into extremely distressed neighborhoods.

among the report's conclusions:

• Overall, nearly 50,000 poor New Orleanians lived in neighborhoods where the poverty rate exceeded 40 percent.
• Areas of concentrated poverty are not confined to New Orleans.
• These neighborhoods did not appear by accident.
• A large body of research has demonstrated that concentrated poverty exacts multiple costs on individuals and society.
• With a set of smart policy tools and a booming economy, progress was made in the 1990s towards reducing concentrated poverty in America.
• Congress should consider several policy options to put the nation back on track towards alleviating concentrated poverty, by supporting choice and opportunity for lower-income residents in distressed neighborhoods.

9/11 commissioners to DHS

You either don't know or don't care about effectively doing your jobs... You have made it abundantly clear that you are all incompetent. [paraphrased]

fire donald rumsfeld

seriously. No, I mean... seriously. And, would you please get around to firing Wolfowitz while you're at it? In fact, maybe its time to clean out all of the civilian wannabes in the Pentagon. Fire them all for failure to adequately perform the core functions of their jobs. I'm so sick and tired of Bush administration dumbasses (including McFlightsuit himself) delivering jingoistic ramblings to entirely-sympathetic audiences in a seemingly-endless effort to cover for monumental fuck-ups that, with a little planning and preparation, could have been avoided.

some company you keep there Mr. McCain

stumping for Santorum?!? Shame on you.

Israeli Air Force warns Lebanese of Hezbollah

Drops leaflets over Beirut

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli planes dropped thousands of leaflets denouncing Hezbollah over Lebanon's capital of Beirut and its southern province in an attempt to galvanize the Lebanese people against the guerrilla group. "Hezbollah is causing enormous harm to Lebanon," the leaflets said in Arabic, adding that Israel is determined to protect its citizens.

Harry Reid says...

Osama died in Pakistan earthquake

state-by-state rundown

of GOP scandals. Wow, that's one criminal party.

quick hits...

the Oxford Research Group says the Iraq war may go for decades Was the American public intentionally misled into war? Murray Waas' latest suggests: yes, Think Progress agrees. If you're a Hurricane Katrina evacuee living in a hotel in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, California, Tennessee, Arkansas or Nevada; have access to a computer, and for no good reason whatsoever have accidentally stumbled upon this blog entry... FEMA brings you good news: FEMA will keep paying for that shitty hotel room you're in for 6 more weeks. Your hometown is probably screwed though. The Yemeni guy who was holding those hostages must have realized they were Swiss and released them. They plan to continue their tour of sunny Yemen. Eric Martin beats his head against the wall dealing with the latest lies from Dick Cheney. Who, it should be noted, is showing very respectable creativity with his latest fear-mongering:

First Rumsfeld tried his hand at solidifying American resolve with some pretty outlandish scare tactics (discussed here). It shouldn't surprise anyone that Cheney would upstage him with an even more fantastical fable:

"Would the United States and other free nations be better off or worse off with (Abu Musab al-) Zarqawi, (Osama) bin Laden and (Ayman al-) Zawahiri in control of Iraq?" he asked. "Would be we safer or less safe with Iraq ruled by men intent on the destruction of our country?"

Wow. The un-holy trinity of Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Zarqawi. Rumsfeld was far too bashful with his choice of only one bogeyman. Should I point out what a big favor it would be to us if Bin Laden and Zawahiri decided to come out of hiding and take up residence in one of Saddam's palaces? Out in the open? Within range of an air strike even if our troops are out of country? Regardless, I don't really think I need to explain how utterly and completely out of the realm of possibility such an al-Qaeda led coup would be. But could someone please explain how someone who would spout such nonsense on a regular basis holds such a high public office? Can't the GOP do better than this? Are there really three years left for this administration?

boy mayor

Here's what I wanna know... why is he only now (as a senior) taking Algebra?

oh $@*%

There's a Freakonomics blog. And I'm totally with Kos on this one. I considered throwing the rest of my Starbucks coffee at one of those schmucks today, until I remembered that I paid four friggin dollars for it.

Jeremy Miljour and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Damn, dude should have stayed in bed that day. While he had a grand ole time getting wasted, then naked, then breaking windows and finally accosting unsuspecting women... the second-half of his day wasn't quite as fun (well, not for him anyway). He was later arrested, shot in the nuts with a Taser, taken to a hospital, and hauled away to jail.

the death penalty is wasteful

and provides absolutley no social benefit whatsoever to New Jersey. And considering that Texas apparently just executed an innocent man, maybe this is the appropriate time to reconsider the whole notion of state-sponsored murder.

Still no Oreos

"The air was not thick with anything except political bullshit."

Odds that Paul Schurick corrects the record...? Nil.

this morning's conversation with Jay Rosen

during a live online chat this morning, Jay Rosen, author of the blog PressThink fielded questions from Washington Post readers and shared some of his thoughts on a variety of issues. Among them: the current state of traditional journalism in the wake of the Judith Miller (and now Bob Woodward) 'scandals', Bob Woodward's fate, the importance of accuracy in reporting and the same for blogging, and the overall impact of weblogs on the mainstream media. Check it out. An excerpt:

Richmond, Va.: Dear Mr. Rosen,

Much of the mainstream TV/News Media is ultimately owned by a small number of people. How do you think the rise of the Internet, and blogging specifically, undermined the ability of this small group to influence our perception of the news?

Jay Rosen: Very effectively and completely. That's how.