April 30, 2007

Crushed

Not a single person manages to complete a tour though the Bush Administration intact. Name me one person who had a better reputation after they serve in this Administration than before. Sit down Mr. Powell.

Next up is former CIA Director George Tenant, who ass-covering book will attempt to shift blame from...well Geoge Tenet and on people who...are not George Tenant.

In attempt to distract you from that whole "Missing Weapons of Mass Destruction" thing and that whole "9/11" thing and that "Presidential Medal of Freedom" episode, Tenant will offer all kinds of insidery stuff, like the fact that The Office of the Vice President had a schoolgirl crush on Chalabi.

But still.

April 28, 2007

Best

The best Hasidic Jewish Reggae music you will hear all day.



Fringe Canidate Update

So Dennis Kucinich was notable in 2004 as representing the far leftmost outpost of the Democratic Presidential field (Establish a Department of Peace, etc) and for being a bachelor. Jay Leno even did a dating show bit with Jennifer Tilly (Mmmmm) winning a date with Dennis.

Well Dennis is back running for President, but in the intervening 4 year he got hitched. And woah. I guess even a hopeless Presidential campaign can help your love life.

Well done Mr. K. This development should translate into 20, no 30 more votes nationwide.

April 26, 2007

Even NASA

From the always must read TPM it seems the Rove and company are fundamentally messing with the Federal Government:

Karl Rove deputies gave GOP campaign briefings to top officials in at least 15 government agencies last year.

Who's vulnerable, who's not and how you can use your agency's resources for the team effort -- that seems to have been the basic idea. Pretty much every department got a briefing. And oddly enough NASA too. That must have been an interesting one.


Look, at some level, every aspect of Government is political. But it occurs at the level of run the Government well, don't mess up, benifit the American People and score political points. Or the opposite.

What is not done is to turn the Federal Government in an extension of the Republican Campaign committees. Staff at Homeland Security should not be briefed on targeted House races. Health and Human Services should not be working to help endangered GOP Congressman. And you don't try to turn NASA into a political campaign shop. Fundamentally, this government needs to be for all people. Rove is trying to turn the Federal Government into nothing more than fodder for his attempts to elect Republicans.

April 25, 2007

Liveable

How cool is this:

For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.


So how long will it take to get there at warp 4.5?

April 24, 2007

I Helped

I helped do this:

For the first time ever, Toyota sold more vehicles globally in a quarter than General Motors.


Remember when we were all so worried about Japan taking over and buying up everthing?

I wonder what happened to all that.

Stay and Die

Nine more in one attack alone.

I think the plan is to keep the troops in Iraq till every last one of them is dead. There doesn't seem to be any other plan. Just stay and die, forever.

April 23, 2007

Boris the Pickled

Now that he's dead, we really should remember him for his greatest moment. But why does every story about him involve drunkenness?

Nasty Newt

Newt Gingrich has been entierly too warm and fuzzy as of late. His non-Presidential run has been filled with nice, soothing technobabble, that strange futurism he always goes back to. A future conservatism in which the goverment uses technology and becomes more efficent in order to ... do nothing because the government is the problem and...blah blah.

Nice to see him get back to his roots. Blaming the Virginia Tech killings On Liberalism.

Thats the nasty I remember.

April 21, 2007

Saturday Night Monster Feature

Robot!

Giant! Robot!

Giant! Nazi! Robot!

Giant! Nazi! Robot! On! A! Rampage!



From Yglesias.

April 20, 2007

Get Your Mafia Nickname

This handy site will instantly confer upon you a suitable moniker.

I apparently am "The Undertaker"

April 19, 2007

Quotes

The AG did not fair so well.

What's the senate hearing version of the "mercy rule"?

Ana Marie Cox

If Alberto Gonzales were a stock, we'd be at that point when those automatic trading halts kicked in because so many people are trying to sell.
Josh Marshall

Like clubbing a baby seal.
Senior White House aides quoted by CNN

Even his own guys are baggin on him. Time to go spend time with your family Al.

Grilled AG

Attorney General Gonzales is on the hot seat today.

He has apologized. He has said he's done nothing improper.

He's apologizing for doing nothing improper.

I don't think he's going to make it.

Go Out

I'm just going to outsource all of my commentary on the Supreme Court abortion ruling yesterday to Dahlia Lithwick.

April 18, 2007

The Doolittle Raid

The FBI has raided the home of Congressman John Doolittle, political target number one here at Craigorian Chant. This, together with the fact that a top former aid has resigned from his job lead Muckraker to believe that Doolittle's doom is fast approaching.

Yeah.

Rant of the Day

MICHAEL DALY of the NY Daily News on Virginians and their fraken guns.

April 17, 2007

HA HA

I would just like to take the time to note, on this tax day, that this year marks the first time in the recorded history of Craig that I filed my taxes on a day other than the last day.

That's right I did my taxes ahead of time! Woo.

Nancy Pelosi: Popular

Polling at 53% approval in the latest WaPo/ABC poll. Opposing Bush is very good for business these days.

April 16, 2007

Now Do You Understand?

Larry Johnson on our tragedies and Iraq's.

Fox News Makes You Dumb

And The Daily Show makes you smart. Proven scientific fact. Let us comence with the smug liberal superiority.

To keep that theme going, check out Bill Maher's tribute to The Elite:

I don't get it: In other fields -- outside of government -- elite is a good thing, like an elite fighting force. Tiger Woods is an elite golfer. If I need brain surgery, I'd like an elite doctor. But in politics, elite is bad -- the elite aren't down-to-earth and accessible like you and me and President Shit-for-Brains. But when the anti-elite crowd demonizes the elite, what they're actually doing is embracing incompetence. Now, I know what you're thinking: That doesn't sound like our president -- ignoring intelligence.

April 14, 2007

April 13, 2007

Get Him, Get Him, Get Him

Time for a little confrontation:

But if the Congress instead uses its own power to arrest recalcitrant witnesses and seize documents demanded but not produced under valid Congressional subpoenas, the situation is reversed. Not only is there no delay, but a judicial refusal to intervene leaves the victory in Congressional hands. If the Sergeant-at-Arms shows up at RNC headquarters with an order to take the servers, is the RNC going to physically resist? I don't think so.

If Congress orders Karl Rove to appear, he fails to appear, and Congress issues a warrant for his arrest, his defiance of that warrant would make him, in effect, a fugitive from justice. Would the President order the Secret Service physically resist the lawful service of a Congressional warrant? In defense of a Watergate-like virtual "shredding" of the emails? I doubt it. It helps that Rove is ludicrously unpopular; Fox News has him at 18% favorable, 37% unfavorable.


You know where this blog stands on the issue.

April 12, 2007

Better Bring Your A Game

So the Presidential campaigns are thinking of running ads during the Superbowl next year.

If you think about it, it starts to make sense. Lots of States are moving their primaries up to Feb 5, including New York and California (Represent!) The Superbowl is on the Sunday before this new super-duper Tuesday.

Everybody votes on Tuesday and everyone is watching on Sunday.

But if campaigns want to try this, they are going to need to get better ads. The Superbowl is where the funniest, best produced, talk-about-it-the-next-day ads all show up. Political campaign ads are almost always the worse looking things on TV, produced cheap so they can be run more often. And most political ads are crude attacks lacking any humor or cleverness.

You can't bring these kinds of ads to the Superbowl party.

April 10, 2007

Correction

In 2005 the Govenator of California held a special election. Every single one of his proposed ballot measures (A collection of right-wing causes, like kicking unions) went down. His polls rating sucked. In response, the Governator shifted his political stance. To the left. He dropped all of his right wing policy proposals and started signing laws to combat global warming and giving more money to schools. He cruised to reelection.

The National Republicans are not learning this lesson. When you are unpopular, when you get beat in an election you have got to move. Or you're going to get thumped. Again

April 9, 2007

Sell What? From Who?

What the hell?

Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.

The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.


So the US busts its own sanctions so we can pore more weapons into the Horn of Africa and North Korea of all people get paid in the process? Even if more weapons into Ethiopia/Somalia was a good thing, there are something like 160 Countries who we would rather make money off the deal than North Korea, which will take the profits and reinvest in making nukes.

Lovely.

PS For a good look at the world of Arms Dealing - Check out Lord of War.

April 8, 2007

Sunday Church

Twice a year. Today is one. In honor of the occation here a little church music of a sort.

Mindy Smith - Come to Jesus.

Craigorian Chant approved Church Music.

April 6, 2007

UltraLies

I swear, Dick Cheney has entered into a type of lie so vast, so misleading, so blatant I feel the need to make up a new name for it.

April 5, 2007

More

Hey, we haven't done immigration in while, right?

Technology companies may face a shortage of skilled workers later this year after U.S. immigration services reached its annual quota for visa applications in one day.


We don't allow enough legal immigration to this Country. Discuss.

Money, Money, Money

Barack Obama raised 23.5 million in the first quarter of the year putting him ahead Hillary. This is a real shock. The one thing everyone knew going in was that Hillary would be a fundraising giant. Unstoppable. Untouchable. The fact that Obama is keeping pace or even beating her says a lot. He is clearly a better speaker and charmer. If she doesn't have an advantage in money...

April 4, 2007

Today in Confrontations

Iran announced that it is freeing the British sailors, so I guess the chest thumping set will just have to come up with some other excuse for their nifty upcoming war with Iran.

Everybody yelled a little. Both sides put on a show and scored their points. And then it was done.

April 3, 2007

Showdown, Slowly

So everybody seems to be digging in for the big showdown over Iraq, with Harry Reid now sponsoring bill to flat out end war funding and Bush giving a tough-talking news conference even as I write this. Every reporter is warming up their "Game of Chicken" metaphors.

Of course, a game chicken implies that both sides can turn aside and that both side get hurt if they collide. The polls are with Democrats here. 2/3's of the American people want the war to end. The GOP just got it ass handed to it in the last election, based on this fact. An end to the war in inevitable at this point. Maybe not at this exact moment, but the war is coming to an end. And anybody trying to stop that is going to get crushed. Bush is playing chicken with a train.

Oh Baby, A KITT of My Very Own


The Knight Rider Trans-Am is up for sale.

You know, I do have a birthday coming up.

April 2, 2007

The Money Chase

Forget poll numbers. The real numbers that matter at this stage of the Presidential game are the fundraising numbers. Democratic numbers are here. The big Democratic three - are coming on strong and running in exactly the same order as you find in the polls Clinton #1, Obama #2 and Edwards #3.

On the GOP side Mitt Romney is winning the money race, despite the face he is going nowhere in the polls.

Setback for Porn

The .xxx domain registry has been rejected by something called ICANN, which, it turns out is the enity that approved domains. This is a massive setback for the porn industry. I wonder if they can still stay vialble on the internet.

April 1, 2007

Tick, Tick, Tick

Is time running out or is just one more deadline to blow?

“Petraeus went to the Republican caucus and told them, I will have real progress to you by August,” Mitchell said. The Republicans claim they told him that after August, they will end their support for the war. “They have told him at a caucus meeting as very, very recently, that if there isn’t progress by August — and real progress means not a day of violence and a day of sanity — that they will pull the plug.”