Atrios Blog

Life�s a thread and we all play a part.

Out as leader.

Hot Repub on Repub action:

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, is likely to be indicted in an ongoing public corruption scandal, according to a fellow Republican congressman, Jim McCrery of Louisiana.

Ney has been linked by prosecutors to Jack Abramoff, a former lobbyist who pleaded guilty to charges this week that include mail fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. He also is linked to Abramoff's associate, Michael Scanlon, who pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials.

"He'll probably be indicted," McCrery speculated Friday.

There aren't exactly an infinite number of female American journalists in Iraq.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (UPI) -- Iraqi police officials said Saturday unidentified gunmen have kidnapped an American female journalist after killing her Iraqi translator in Baghdad.

They said the driver of the bus in which the journalist and translator were riding managed to escape the incident when he fled and sought the help of a police patrol that happened to be in the same area at the time.

The woman and the translator were attacked by gunmen in the Arab Sunni district of al-Adel in western Baghdad as they were heading to meet the head of the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front, Adnan al-Dulaimi.

The name of the journalist was not released.

These excerpts from Thursday night's Hardball make more sense if you imagine it being said by Dr. Evil:

Suddenly, the man who handed out campaign cash like Johnny Appleseed is watching those ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR gifts being sent back to charity like Christmastime fruitcake. Even HILLARY CLINTON'S got some hot Abramoff cash to shed.

...

Everybody is giving away their money, giving it away. Hillary Clinton even giving A THOUSAND BUCKS away.

...

There are some outlying names that keep popping up. Hillary Clinton gave back ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS today.

I've never listened to Springer's radio show so I have no comment on it, but this is really funny.

Assrocket.

I'm surprised this guy can tie his shoes.

I don't care what time it is, unlock his cell, unstrap him, and bring him to the thread!

I think this thread is mostly filler.

A thread with family and friends. That sure as hell wasn't in the brochure.

Though I'm not sure whose.

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times.

Threadbot must be out partying.

Tweety and the gang are so in touch with heartland America.

That day in "prayer" may have been a really really bad idea.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, called Cunningham a friend and colleague in a statement Tuesday that emphasized his accomplishments as a fighter pilot.

"We, his remaining friends, have spent the last day with Duke praying and talking about a new chapter in Duke's life, a chapter of service to God," Hunter said.

Cunningham, who was in his eighth term, is free as he awaits sentencing Feb. 27. He faces up to 10 years in prison for tax evasion and conspiracy, having admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering government contracts to coconspirators.

Wonder what else he said into the Dukestir's little microphone...

(thanks to mykyeru)

Because your opinion is important.

Oy, watching CNN makes me want to stab my eyes out. Toensing was on bringing up the case of the Aldrich Ames case and saying that because Jamie Gorelick argued that the president had the inherent authority that it's just what Bush did.


For the record I don't think a warrantless search was a desirable thing for Clinton to do, but as Toensing of course knows at that time there was no specific statute covering such things. It led to the expansion of FISA to cover physical searches, and the Clinton administration never aruged that they were not bound by the requirements of the expanded FISA authority. They just argued that since there was a statutory gap the executive had the right. Once that gap was closed, they followed the law.

That is the fundamental issue here - not what the president should and shouldn't be allowed to do with respect to searches, warrantless or not, but whether or not the Bush administration believes they have the right to explicitly break the law. They said they can, they have been, and will continue to do so. That's the issue.

Shorter version:

Clinton said there's no law covering this so we can do this. Congress passes law covering such circumstances. Clinton administration (presumably) follows law and never claims they have the right to not follow the law.

Bush administration situation covered by existing law. Decide they don't want to follow it. Realize Congress won't change law to make them happy. Decide they have Divine Right to explicitly break law. Gives speech saying how proud he was to have broken law.


There is a civil liberties issue, and we can have that debate too, but this is about President Bush willfully and intentionally committing multiple felonies.

The Right makes shit up, the RNC puts it out as gospel.

York Daily Record destroys former Dover school board wankers:

Investigate perjury in Dover ID case


Judge Jones issued a broad, sensible ruling - finding that some board members lied.

Daily Record/Sunday News



Dec 21, 2005 — They lied.
William Buckingham and Alan Bonsell wanted to bring God into high school biology class, and in the process, they lied.

They lied about their motives.

They lied about their actions.

They lied about what they did or didn't say at public meetings.

They even lied when they claimed newspaper reporters lied in stories about Dover school board meetings.

In his ruling on the Dover case, U.S. Judge John E. Jones III said it was "ironic" that individuals who "proudly touted their religious convictions in public" would "lie" under oath.

Yes, ironic - at the very least. But also sinful according to the 9th Commandment.

And perhaps also criminal. We can only hope that the appropriate authorities are investigating possible perjury charges in this case. There should be some consequences for what Mr. Bonsell and Mr. Buckingham have done in depositions and on the witness stand by otherwise misrepresenting the facts.

Not to mention what they've done to their community.

They've cost Dover its reputation. The district, even after sensibly voting out the entire school board, again has been made a national laughingstock - last week "The Daily Show" aired yet another embarrassing and insulting piece on Dover.

They have potentially cost Dover taxpayers perhaps a million or more in legal fees. The judge has indicated the plaintiffs are entitled to such fees.

The unintelligent designers of this fiasco should not walk away unscathed. They've damaged and divided this community, and there should be repercussions - a perjury investigation - beyond a lost election.

The ruling suggests board members who approved the ID policy were shockingly ill-informed and lackadaisical about what they were getting the district into. They allowed themselves, taxpayers and students to be made grunts on the front lines of the national culture wars without bothering to learn what they were fighting for.

Turns out it was a lie.

Click the link for the rest.

(via E&P)

Just in time:

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist at the center of a U.S. Justice Department-led investigation, may plead guilty in a Florida wire-fraud case as early as next week, a person close to the case said.

A plea a may help federal prosecutors build cases against lawmakers and their staffs in both the Florida investigation and in a related probe of Abramoff's lobbying activity in Washington.