Billmon covers the Hayes-touted AQ/Saddam “connection” very, very well. If it sounds like bullshit, well, that’s because it probably is.

Scan through this content-free article to the end, and you’ll find a gem:

While in Colorado, Kerry made a quick stop in Aspen for a $500,000 fund-raiser at the home of Michael Goldberg, president of Miami-based airline leasing company Aerolease International. Kerry invited Aspen resident and writer Hunter S. Thompson to ride in his motorcade and brought three copies of Thompson’s book about the 1972 presidential race, “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail” for autographs. “Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly,” Kerry told the fund-raiser. “How does this sound — Vice President Hunter Thompson.”

Via jwz.

And our press corps SUCKS. Administration officials are lying with confidence that they won’t be called on it. See the discussion at Daily Howler (about halfway down to the BORGER’S RETREAT headline) or at Fair.org of his appearance on MSNBC with Gloria Borger. To summarize, here’s a bit:

Borger: Well, let’s get to Mohamed Atta for a minute because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was, quote, “pretty well confirmed.” Cheney: No, I never said that. Borger: OK. Cheney: I never said that. Borger: I think that is . . . Cheney: Absolutely not. (…)

Of course, there’s also this from his appearance on Meet the Press on 12/9/2001:

What we now have s developed since you and I last talked, Tim [Russert], of course, was that report that — it’s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack.

And we impeach people for lying about blow jobs? Christ.

Remember that “GOP aide steals Democratic memos” problem a while back that finally resulted in someone being forced to resign?

The guy who resigned — Manuel Miranda — has been named the president of the new Ethics in Nominations Project, the group whose job it will be to prevent such unethical behavior in the future.

I think Mike’s reaction is about right.

He’s smarmy and too-clever-by-half most of the time. But this time, he’s on to something with this piece about the creeping fundamentalism of George W. Bush.

This may be the only time you hear us say this, but “way to go, Jon Bon Jovi!”

Salon’s article on the platform of the Texas GOP would be hilarious if it weren’t for the actual platform. They call for the abolition of, amoung other programs, the Department of Education, and insists on the repeal of laws making voter registration easier (such as Motor Voter laws). Oh, and they affirm that the US is a “Christian nation,” contrary to the ideals of the Founders, natch.

Remember what you’re voting for when you vote for these clowns. Fortunately, there’s more than enough infighting this year to cause ’em some internal strife; keep your fingers crossed.

See Discourse.net, where the first 56 (redacted) pages are reviewed point by point. It makes for interesting reading.

The Village Voice’s Tom Carson weighs in on the Reagon lovefest.

An omnibus “jobs creation” bill in the House would drastically reduce the restrictions on church-based political activity (currently, church leaders that openly support candidates risk losing their tax-exempt status). Josh Marshall has more.

Bruce Sterling explains the results with a primer on Lysenkoism over at Wired. Read it.

There are those who say that Ashcroft’s terror briefing last week was over the top and needlessly alarmist, but I think they’re just whining.

Slacktivist provides three counterpoints to the ongoing Reagan hagiography machine.

Krugman over at the Times has more to say on the subject, wherein he sets the record straight on a number of points.

The Decemberist takes a run at describing how the Senate works today vs. how it used to work.

Adam Felber lists a few new words coined as a result of this president’s shenanigans. We can’t decide if we like “yellowcake” (a sham or conterfeit. We thought we’d found Hitler’s diary, but it was just yellowcake) or “chalabi” (to dupe an unusually trusting victim. He was so confident about his billiards skills, it was easy to chalabi him.) better.

The Axis of Eve has some undergarments you may find amusing.

1. A response to both the President’s speech last night, and to his administration’s ongoing behavior;
2. Remember that poetry high school poetry controversy in New Mexico? Thankfully, it appears it’s been misrepresented — or, at the least, the school hasn’t been allowed to have its say. The Agonist is the first place I’ve seen this side of the story.

This Newsweek story discusses a post-9/11 Justice Dept. memo that insists, much to the consternation of the State Department, that the US need not follow international law or the Geneva Conventions where the Afghani and Iraqi prisoners are concerned. It does conclude, however, that these prisonoers could be tried in military tribunals for offenses against international law.

“Do as we SAY, not as we DO” has never been terribly convincing. On the international level, it’s also a terribly dangerous precedent to set.

Zenarchy.com offers a fine selection of satirical banners, of which we reproduce two below.

The Democratic Underground offers this list of their top ten conservative idiots. Frankly, however, it’s awful hard to make a case that any of these positions have or had any merit at all.

Respectful of Otters — which is a great blog name — has some thoughts up on this innovative program in New York State. Basically, familes deemed at-risk are eligable for home nursing visits to help parents get on the right track; the visits begin before birth and continue until the child is two. The results (studied over 13 years) have been staggering. The big number is this: over the course of the program, researchers found it reduced child abuse and neglect by 79 percent.

Predictably, it’s woefully underfunded. However, it’s serving as a model for programs in 22 states, so there’s also that.

The Catholic Church has been in the news quite a lot lately, but that’s apparently not enough for Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan; he’s just issued a pastoral letter saying Catholics cannot receive communion if they vote for folks who support abortion rights, gay marriage, stem cell research, or euthanasia.

This is clearly a political position now. Stating that good Catholics ought not support these issues is one thing; overtly stating that you must vote a certain way — and that if you don’t you can’t be in a state of grace — is quite another, and should clearly call into question the American church’s tax-exempt status. “Vote like I tell you to” is absolutely a political position, and the tax-exempt aren’t supposed to advocate such things.

As always, Slacktivist has interesting commentary on the issue, including a brief review of the historical record.

The Post has more coverage of the ACLU suit discussed here previously, wherein the PATRIOT act makes it illegal to disclose that the ACLU has sued to dismiss the PATRIOT act.

Posted at Slacktivist, natch:

. . . if we, somehow, excuse this behavior on the grounds that they were bad people, they killed Americans, all that kind of stuff, then we put ourselves on the same moral … plane that they are. We cannot do that. The reason why we are there is to give them a different life from the kind of treatment that they got from Saddam Hussein. […] CALLER: Hello. Senator McCain, do you believe that the Muslim teachings regarding their culture has any understanding of the Geneva Convention and our American soldiers? McCAIN: I believe that people who are in the Iraqi army who are many of these prisoners fully understand that we abide by the Geneva Conventions. We expect governments to abide by them. I don’t remember whether the Iraqi government was a signatory or not. And it doesn’t matter too much to me whether some Muslims understand them. What does matter to me is that we understand them. If I can leave you with one point, we distinguish ourselves by the way we treat our enemies. And that means we are a nation that doesn’t employ those same kinds of torture and mistreatment because we’re better than that. [emph. added] Larry King Live, 11 May 2004

These two bits are each great in their own right.

First, a good old fashioned Primal Scream.

Second, Adam Felber’s discussion of the Delay response to abuse-related criticism of Rumsfeld, et. al.

Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek vis MSNBC:

The basic attitude taken by Rumsfeld, Cheney and their top aides has been “We’re at war; all these niceties will have to wait.” As a result, we have waged pre-emptive war unilaterally, spurned international cooperation, rejected United Nations participation, humiliated allies, discounted the need for local support in Iraq and incurred massive costs in blood and treasure. If the world is not to be trusted in these dangerous times, key agencies of the American government, like the State Department, are to be trusted even less. Congress is barely informed, even on issues on which its “advise and consent” are constitutionally mandated. Leave process aside: the results are plain. On almost every issue involving Iraq postwartroop strength, international support, the credibility of exiles, de-Baathification, handling Ayatollah Sistani AliWashington’s assumptions and policies have been wrong. By now most have been reversed, often too late to have much effect. This strange combination of arrogance and incompetence has not only destroyed the hopes for a new Iraq. It has had the much broader effect of turning the United States into an international outlaw in the eyes of much of the world. Whether he wins or loses in November, George W. Bush’s legacy is now clear: the creation of a poisonous atmosphere of anti-Americanism around the globe. I’m sure he takes full responsibility.

A recent Pentagon email orders military personnel not to read the widely-published Taguba report.

Wow.

Less funny and more disturbing, though, is the claim (not yet verified) that Halliburton is yanking email access from our Iraqi installations. I have yet to see this from a traditional news outlet, but it’s come up on two different commentary blogs so far (Kathryn Cramer and Daily Kos). I wouldn’t mention it at all, except it makes sense: the damning photos that took the Abu Grahaib scandal over the top were digital, taken not by press corps photographers but by the soldiers themselves, and then circulated by email. Food for thought, at least.

(Or not). Approximately Perfect takes the time to view recent events through the lens the Right is clearly using. It’s got some cheap shots, but it’s still funny.

Read what one soldier has to say about Rumsfeld’s testimony.

Bush’s stem cell research ban affects real humans with real diseases, like Type 1 diabetics. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have both covered the issue recently (Word file links).

Remember this stance when you vote.

Quoth Gina Lynn:

Mrs. Ashcroft should tie her husband up in front of a sinfully large television and make him watch “Footloose.” While drinking an Irish coffee. I don’t care where you identify yourself on the political or religious spectrum. Having Ashcroft in your bedroom is an intrusion you should not have to put up with. Indeed, I’m sorry I even planted the image in your head. Ew.

Full story here.

Frequent Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me! contributor Adam Felber has some amusing bits to say about the Administration’s inability to admit mistakes. And also kittens.

Billmon over at Whiskey Bar has a nice set of quotes in re: the treatment of prisoners, the Geneva Convention, and our moral high road.

Rob sez: “if you go to www.benandjerrys.com and promise to vote they will give you an iTunes song.” It’s true.

So, how much do YOU know about the separation of Church and State? We got a 12, which is apparently average.

Have a look at www.JohnKerryIsADouchebagButImVotingForHimAnyway.com.

Mykeru has lots to say, and it involves the phrases “Commander Bunnypants” and “bone chewing psycho bitch with the ethics of a deer tick.”

Bush is stumping for renewal of the PATRIOT act. Fortunately, even some in his own party disagree.

This editorial is a bit dry, but stick with it. HR 3077 is more than a bit scary, and utterly at odds with ideas like “academic freedom.”

There is a great deal at stake for American higher education and academic freedom. If HR 3077 becomes law – the Senate will review the bill next – it will create a board that monitors how closely universities reflect government policy. Since the legislation assumes that any flaw lies ‘with the experts, not the policy’, the government could be given the power to introduce politically sympathetic voices into the academic mainstream and to reshape the boundaries of academic inquiry. Institutional resistance would presumably be punished by the withdrawal of funds, which would be extremely damaging to Middle East centres especially.

Slacktivist presents some commentary on an article in the current New Yorker. If you think the war went well there, read it. Actually, read it no matter what you think about the war.

Veteran newsman Walter Cronkite’s column has this to say about the way the Bush Administration has been running things:

One sometimes gets the impression that this administration believes that how it runs the government is its business and no one else’s. It is certainly not the business of Congress. And if it’s not the business of the people’s representatives, it’s certainly no business of yours or mine. But this is a dangerous condition for any representative democracy to find itself in. The tight control of information, as well as the dissemination of misleading information and outright falsehoods, conjures up a disturbing image of a very different kind of society. Democracies are not well-run nor long-preserved with secrecy and lies.

Damned hard to argue with that. Read the whole piece here, or (no doubt) in several other places, as he’s syndicated.

Harold Meyerson’s OpEd (use nogators@nogators.com/nogators to get in) on the deteriorating situation in Iraq from Wednesday’s Post pretty much nails it:

The only unequivocally good policy option before the American people is to dump the president who got us into this mess, who had no trouble sending our young people to Iraq but who cannot steel himself to face the Sept. 11 commission alone.

Slacktivist has a bit more background on the speech the White House won’t release.

1. Atrios comments on the widening scope of the Plame inquiry; others suggest Rove may well be in legal jeopardy on this.
2. Author Bruce Sterling reproduces comments by Tom Dachle concerning the administration’s abuse of power.
3. Sidney Blumenthal echoes Daschle’s concerns in this Guardian editorial.

Oh, and the White House is also blocking the release of Clinton-era papers requested by the 9/11 commission. Er, why might that be?

A mysterious and shadowy mailing list post sent us off to this blog, which reproduces a bit of the transcript from Clarke’s appearance on NPR‘s Fresh Air. A bit, just to tease:

GROSS: You say in your book that you think invading Iraq actually increased the problem of terrorism. CLARKE: Well, in three ways. First of all, it’s costing us $180 billion in the first two years, and may be even more than that. That money could have been used to reduce our vulnerabilities here at home. […] Well, many things in the United States are not protected. There’s a long list of vulnerabilities which we could reduce. […] But we didn’t do that. And in large part we didn’t do that because the money that would have been necessary is being spent on Iraq. So that’s the first thing: It’s costing us the alternative of reducing our vulnerabilities. Second, actual military and intelligence assets that were in Afghanistan — looking for al Qaeda, looking for bin Laden — were removed and sent to Iraq. Now, in the last few weeks, they’ve been returned. But that’s two years too late. Two years during which al Qaeda has morphed into a hydra-headed organization with independent organizations and independent cells, and likely the group in Madrid. So we didn’t go after al Qaeda the way that we should have. And we didn’t secure Afghanistan. There are more police in Manhattan — not the city of New York, but just Manhattan — there are more police in Manhattan than the United States put troops into Afghanistan. And yet we were supposed to secure and stabilize the country so that never again would it be a base for terrorism. We were supposed to be draining the swamp. Well, we haven’t. And one of the reasons we haven’t is that we withheld forces that should have been going into Afghanistan. We withheld them for the war in Iraq. […] The third way is that, al Qaeda had been saying, bin Laden had been saying, that the United States is the “new crusader,” the new westerner come to occupy an Arab country, an oil-rich Arab country. And we did exactly that. We did exactly what bin Laden said we would do: We invaded and occupied an oil-rich Arab country that had not been threatening us. And the sights on Arab television of American troops fighting in Iraq, and now occupying Iraq, have infuriated Arab opinion. […] We can’t just arrest and kill terrorists. Even Donald Rumsfeld figured that out. In his internal memo in the Pentagon, which leaked, he said it may be the case that we’re turning out new terrorists faster than we’re killing and arresting them. He’s right; we are. And we have to win the war for ideas. And we can’t do that so long as we are reviled by occupying a country like Iraq.

Jack Beatty’s The Faith-Based Presidency appears in the March Atlantic; while certainly partisan, it’s hard to find fault with his point.

Several hundred protestors converged on Karl Rove’s home over the weekend. (Washington Post link; username nogators@nogators.com, password nogators for access.)

He didn’t take it well, apparently.

Update: additional coverage at CNN, which sensibly doesn’t require registration.

Cousin Charles — who is not a racist, but who still shouldn’t be on the appeals bench, as recess appointments are cheesy — was on 60 Minutes last night. It appears he came off well, which is nice. It’s always pleasant to see national media do a story on Mississippi that doesn’t make us look like unreconstructed rubes.

All of us, anyway.

As it happens, Ashcroft may have the first post-9/11 terror convictions overturned because of gross prosecutorial misconduct.

It looks an awful lot like a Catholic Church employee has been fired for supporting John Kerry.