Yep, Abramoff is a Republican Scandal, Through and Through

A new analysis of Abramoff tribal money by a nonpartisan firm shows it’s a Republican scandal.

[I]t’s highly misleading to suggest that the tribes's giving to Dems was in any way comparable to their giving to the GOP. The analysis shows that when Abramoff took on his tribal clients, the majority of them dramatically ratcheted up donations to Republicans. Meanwhile, donations to Democrats from the same clients either dropped, remained largely static or, in two cases, rose by a far smaller percentage than the ones to Republicans did. This pattern suggests that whatever money went to Democrats, rather than having been steered by Abramoff, may have largely been money the tribes would have given anyway.

These patterns strongly suggest that Abramoff’s representation of the tribes manifested itself largely in a dramatic rise in contributions to the GOP. And it also suggests it’s likely that Abramoff had little impact on giving to Democrats.

The article notes "when Abramoff entered the picture, contributions to Dems dropped, while donations to Republicans more than doubled."

Sounds like Republican scandal to me.

The Truth About Abortion

When it's illegal, or 'suppressed', like it is today, women die.

Moms. Daughters. Sisters. Wives.

They die.

We die.

Maybe I die.

More at The 3rd WWWave

Faux "Joke" Should Get Coulter Arrested, IMO

For threatening a Supreme Court Justice.

I fail to find this thigh-slappingly funny, in much the same way that others might fail to find it funny when people joke about killing presidents, or popping off, say, half of the legislative branch of our government.

So, Ann Coulter engages in more "unhinged" speech by suggesting that Justice John Paul Stevens ought to be killed:

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media."

Of course! How could I have missed that? Just a joke!

Although, perhaps, Ann could explain just what was supposed to be humorous about it. Perhaps I'm just dense, but assassinations have never been very funny matters in my experience. Is this a new hip thing?

Pictures are Worth A Thousand Words

Here are many thousands: Indelible Images of a Failed Presidency

Thought for the Day

US audit finds 'spectacular' waste of funds in Iraq

And, in our corrupt center of government, Prosecutor Will Step Down From Lobbyist Case. To wit, "the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush." Hm!

So good to know, when, what, hundreds of thousands? of senior citizens are getting shafted by their "new and improved" medical care.
(PATIENTS SNARLED IN MEDICARE MESS, leaving the states holding the bag, natch.
State To Help Those Denied Drugs by Medicare Errors)

Meanwhile, my senators step up to the plate.

Keep it up, Reid!

"The president has been giving us doublespeak for years"

"Democrats know that keeping Americans safe means more than talking tough."

Required Reading on the Racist Extremist "Minutemen"

What's in a Name
Rotten From the Top
Rank Ranks
The Law in Their Hands
The Mainstream Embrace

And an earlier post, "Scaping the Goat", discussing the Minutemen as representing "the spear point -- the opening public-relations foray, as it were -- in a larger effort by right-wing extremists to scapegoat and demonize Latino immigrants, legal and otherwise."

Beautiful Speech

David Englin: “Marriage Amendment”=”Gays Not Welcome in Virginia”

Listen to our veterans

Col Wilkerson, Rep. John Murtha, Gen. Wes Clark, Gen. Anthony Zinni, Brent Scowcroft, Richard Clarke.

Breaking Ranks
The real face of the Iraq War opposition: veterans

Global Warming? Or Angry Jellyfish? Or both?

Japan Grapples with Invasion of Giant Jellyfish

Vast numbers of Echizen kurage, or Nomura's jellyfish, have appeared around Japan's coast since July, clogging and ripping fishing nets and forcing fishermen to spend hours hacking them apart before bringing home their reduced catches.

Thought Police

Students Being Paid by Rightwing Group to Report on UCLA Faculty

Not only is UCLAProfs.com trying to intimidate profs at UCLA, it's asking students to violate the Student Conduct Rules of the school.

To those who claim Gore Hypocrisy, Among Other Things

Tu Quoque "He did it, too." (So it's OK that I do.)

No. It's not.

And, he didn't.

More eloquently than I put it

From Gore's speech of yesterday (also here):

… As President Eisenhower said, “Any who act as if freedom’s defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.”

Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: “Men feared witches and burnt women.”

The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk.

Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.

Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment’s notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously?

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

We have a duty as Americans to defend our citizens’ right not only to life but also to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is therefore vital in our current circumstances that immediate steps be taken to safeguard our Constitution against the present danger posed by the intrusive overreaching on the part of the Executive Branch and the President’s apparent belief that he need not live under the rule of law.

I endorse the words of Bob Barr, when he said, “The President has dared the American people to do something about it. For the sake of the Constitution, I hope they will.”

Emphasis most enthusiastically added.

So, the next time someone says "please! suspend my rights!", you shoot right back: patriots died for those rights, how dare you cheapen their sacrifice?

Gore Speech on Rebuilding America

and truly restoring the Constitution.

"America's Constitution is in grave danger"

In Martin Luther King Day address, Gore compares wiretapping of Americans to surveillance of King.

downloads:

MP3 (audio) of the speech
alternative MP3 (audio) of the speech
bittorrent of mp3 audio
Video stream link
alternative video stream link
CSPAN has a Real video stream of the entire speech.

[dld links pulled from a post on the guerillanews Livejournal community.]

Taking on the Republican Mob

If we can beat mob, we can fight DeLay-style politics

In 1977, I was appointed chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. It was a difficult time for the gaming industry and Las Vegas, which were being overrun by organized crime. To that point in my life, I had served in the Nevada Assembly and even as lieutenant governor, but nothing prepared me for my fight with the mob.

Over the next few years, there would be threats on my life, bribes, FBI stings and even a car bomb placed in my family's station wagon. It was a terrifying experience, but at the end of the day, we cleaned up Las Vegas and ushered in a new era of responsibility.

Reid goes on to say "[o]ur nation's capital has been overrun by organized crime — Tom DeLay-style."

In our country today, we are seeing what happens when lawmakers and lobbyists conspire to put the needs of special interests before the needs of the American people. We have a country that grows more dependent on foreign oil each day. We have cronyism like that exposed by Hurricane Katrina, and we have a national security policy that does a good job of protecting Halliburton's bottom-line but not a good enough job protecting the American people.

I believe that together, America can do better. We can have a government that puts the American people — not special interests — first, and it all starts with cleaning up Washington.

If we could kick the mob out of Las Vegas in the 1970s, we can change the culture of Washington and give America a government as good and honest as the people it serves.

Make me proud, boys. Come back with your shield, or on it.