Apparently, $9.11. That's right. Some Giuliani-supporting assface decided it'd be a good idea to suggest a $9.11 donation to attend his Giuliani House Party fundraiser event.
[Abraham] Sofaer was a State Department adviser under President Reagan and is a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Federal election data indicates Sofaer has given nearly $50,000 to Republican causes and candidates, including Giuliani, since 1995.
According to the invitation, "$9.11 for Rudy" is an "independent, non-denominational grass-roots campaign to raise $10,000 in small increments to show how many individual, everyday Americans support 'America's Mayor.'"
I swear to Yahweh, I wish this type of crap never happened in politics. Wouldn't it be cool if our reps could spend their time doing something positive for the country, rather than cover their ass (or in the case of Hastert, add to their ass). But when things like this come along, it proves the Dems are just patsies. Networks like Fox KNOW they can pull this bogus "error" bs and get away with it.
In the wake of "wildlife warrior bloke" Steve Irwin's death, his duuuuuuuuumbest supporters have apparently concluded that the animal kingdom must be punished. Up to 10 mutilated stingrays have washed up in coastal waters since his death.
The stingrays probably have a larger capacity for abstract thought, but God love em, these fans sure can connect the dots.
He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides, but forget about getting people to gas about that.
Criminal charges may be advanced in the coming months for federal employees of NORAD who deliberately lied to local authorities and the media on 9/11. Aside from that, the transcripts that have come to light do not restore your faith in U.S. competence.
POWELL: Is this real-world or exercise?
BOSTON CENTER: No, this is not an exercise, not a test.
ROUNTREE: Is that real-world?
DOOLEY: Real-world hijack.
WATSON: Cool!
The motive?: "The false testimony served a purpose: to obscure mistakes on the part of the F.A.A. and the military, and to overstate the readiness of the military..."
"How good would it have looked for the government in general if we still couldn't have stopped the fourth plane an hour and 35 minutes [into the attack]? How good would it have looked if there was a total breakdown in communication and nothing worked right?"
American superficiality... still our deepest value.
Ken Lay has reportedly died of a "massive coronary," which may be another way of saying he was killed by the collective thoughts and hopes of millions of people.
Gitmo hangings "good PR" according to US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Wow, she must really be important with a title like that. DEPUTY Assistant? Is that like a Junior Ranger Rick badge or something? Where does the Bush administration FIND these morons? Oh, right, they're all friends. Dur.
after he shot him, the scent of blood drove him into a frenzy
Imagine that - Cheney nearly offs someone, and just goes about his business, since he has his personal ambulance (filled with vials of blood from vestal virgins, of course) that follows him round the clock.
But I don't think I will ever get the hunter/killer mentality. Here's a quote from the woman who owns the ranch where the Vice Imperialist was at:
"This is something that happens from time to time. You know, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.
"Wreck the Nation" is Monopoly played the topsy-turvy, neo-con way.
Just imagine the expression on the faces of all the right-wing dopes in your family when they find this under the tree Christmas morning.
I wouldn't hire this guy to oversee the making of a cheese sandwich. I suppose his first client will be himself, so he can plan how to fix his disaster of a career.
No time for accountability, because it's all booked up with spin.
After a heated exchange with the White House press over accountability in the Bush administration where McClellan argued that "now is not the time to point fingers," he somehow found the time to clarify Barbara Bush's inexcusable and insensitive comments from the other day.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said: "I think she was making a personal observation on some of the comments that people were making that she was running into. ... But what we're focused on is helping these people who are in need."
Asked if Bush agreed with his mother, McClellan said: "I think that the observation is based on someone or some people that were talking to her that were in need of a lot of assistance, people that have gone through a lot of trauma and been through a very difficult and trying time. And all of a sudden, they are now getting great help in the state of Texas from some of the shelters."
BULL. SHIT. What she quite clearly said was, "Hey, this is a step up for the everyday no-hope poverty and squallor these people live in. Hurricane Katrina did them a FAVOR."
Scotty, OF COURSE she was making a "personal observation." She just happened to make it in front of the press while touring a shelter for thousands of displaced people who just got collectively kicked in the nads by Mother Nature and their government. Keep your personal observations to the fucking country club dining room, if you must voice them at all, Babs.
We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)
I am utterly disgusted and embarrassed that this waste of flesh is the President of our country. I feel sorry for Trent Lott getting dragged into such an insane statement.
A team of cheerleaders attending a camp in Ann Arbor did what came naturally after witnessing a crash on Wednesday afternoon.
The Lincoln High School varsity cheerleading squad turned a license plate number into a cheer when a man driving a pickup truck involved in the collision fled the scene, according to the Ann Arbor News.
It is being reported that Karl Rove was the source that revealed the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. This story is just beginning to break, we'll see how much momentum it actually has. Given the shit this administration has gotten away with, however, I wouldn't be surprised if Rove managed to spin this into some sort of Congressional medal for himself.
The Huffington Post has more on Rovegate. (Do I get points for being the first to call it that?)
So, it turns out it was Brian H. Darling, a lawyer for first year Senator Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who suggested in a memo that Republicans could use the Terri Schiavo case for political gain.
Hmmm, that's funny. I thought all those self-righteous windbags were standing up to protect their good friend Terri?
The comedy of errors continues. Not only didn't Martinez know Darling wrote the memo (he claims), he went ahead and passed it along to another senator without reading it.
Florida, between Jeb and this guy, you're in capable hands. Godspeed.
An e-mail warning of the coming tsunami arrived an hour before the wave hit southern Thailand, but the government-run Earthquake Bureau failed to read it because they were too busy sending faxes about earthquakes in the region and didn't check their mail.
Burin Vejbanterng, the duty officer at the time said, “To be honest I did not think of the waves because my speciality is earthquakes.”
JH: - I think the Earthquake Bureau needs a new spokesperson... - People still use fax machines?
States that favored Kerry had higher IQ and higher personal incomes.
Maybe there was something to the caption on the cover of the Daily Mirror from yesterday?
This web page correlates the average IQ's of the states residents with the candidate that they voted for.
On another web page they correlate the average income of the states residents with the candidate that they voted for.
Apparently we need to either get more money into the red states for education, or introduce some genes from the blues states into the gene pool of the red states to help get their IQ's up above that 100 point threshhold?
Okay, I have to be honest here. I've been going back and forth and back and forth on whether or not Dubya is really as dumb as he appears, or if it's all just a good ol' boy act.
Exhibit #29845 for the former: The President of the United States' explanation of tribal sovereignty.
Wow. It's almost as though the words hurt coming out.
Bob Costas and Katie Couric: Our Ambassadors of Ignorance
I have a feeling this is probably one of many future rants on these idiots.
First, they decided to talk straight through Björk's performance (not that I'm a big Björk fan or anything, but shut yer traps!)
During IOC President Jacques Rogge's speech, Couric was seemingly translating as Rogge addressed the crowd in French. The only problem was, he hadn't actually gotten to that part yet, and ended up giving that portion of the speech in English. So NBC obviously had an advance copy of the address, how 'bout some subtitles for your largely ignorant monolinguist audience?
When Rogge did switch to English, Costas played the Jackass American Card with, "He has now switched to English, much to our relief."
Dipshit.
UPDATE It appears as though the Bob and Katie Phenomenon is an international problem.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush told a roomful of top Pentagon brass on Thursday that his administration would never stop looking for ways to harm the United States.
The latest installment of misspeak from a president long known for his malapropisms came during a signing ceremony for a new $417 billion defense appropriations bill that includes $25 billion in emergency funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we," Bush said.
The website for the Bush-Cheney campaign featured a create your own banner tool, where you could enter your own slogan and print out your own poster, with the Bush-Cheney logo, and a note at the bottom "paid for by Bush-Cheney '04, Inc." Democrats, of course, couldn't get enough of this. The original sloganator accepted everything, then it started censoring profanity and words like "dictator," and "evil." Nevertheless, many clever folks exploited the sloganator to their own ends before its sad demise only a couple of weeks after its birth, and its mourners assembled some of the best for the slide show.
*Make sure you have your sound on & props out to snoonen.
Dis piece uh legislation is like uh play I ran once against da Packers
I'm sure Chicagoans already heard about this, but tapping oaf/douchebag/sociopath Mike Ditka to run as the Republican candidate for Governor made me laugh out loud. Ditka has all the qualities the GOP loves; a primitive reactionary lizard brain, a natural resistance to considering any topic longer then 4 seconds and all the interactive skills of a bully.
Chalk one up for the cult of personality.
Already matching Bush's aptitude for destroying the language, Ditka said Tuesday, "I'll make the final decision-making."
The Ozarks, MO - In May Judge Randy Anglen came home from work, had dinner and swigged a Miller Lite. When he drained the last bit into the sink, he heard a "plop." When he peered into the bottle, the first thing he saw was a long tail coiling around the inside of the bottle. Then he saw the rest of the mouse.
"The first thing I did was...
Step1: ...scream in horror."
Step 2: "Then I screamed in revulsion."
Step 3: "Then I dropped to the ground, holding my head in my hands"
Step 4: "while I was still screaming."
Step 5: "My wife ran in, holding our 1-year-old, and she started screaming and..."
Step 6: "...the baby was screaming because she didn't know what was wrong.
It was 5 minutes before I could regain enough composure to say: 'Don't worry. I'm OK.'" Anglen says retelling the story engenders nausea. "I was so revulsed [sic]. I wanted to reach inside my body and pull my guts out and hose them off."
In an effort to reach that highly-sought 16th minute of fame, the previously respected judge generously pantomimed the event for the cameras.
A juror named Justin Falconer has been let go from the Scott Peterson jury for talking to Laci's brother-in-law, which is a no-no. Since he is now free to speak this ADD wonder rambles on about how he couldn't follow the prosecutions case.
"You are dismissed juror #5. You are free to go back to playing video games..."
He's exhibit A in the case for the quote: "Would you want your fate in the hands of 12 people dumb enough to show up for jury duty?"
Still not getting the hang of faking the role of innocent widower, murderous pariah OJ Simpsons disclosed Wedneday he is not happy with his dead ex-wife. "There are times I'm angry at her," the former football star said in comments, "There are things that she could be doing with the kids better than I, you know? When it's emotional stuff, especially with my daughter, I am angry with her."
huh? for not surviving your attack?
Someone needs to tell the jerk that it's very hard for a woman to raise her children once she's been decapitatied.
The problem with being an autocratic asshole is that when cracks finally appear, everyone piles on. After getting away with too much for too long, the Bush admin now can't do anything right. His old-school hard-lining takes the admin deeper and deeper into the slime he has successfully hidden till now.
- At todays military interrogation senators sneered at military stonewalling and aren't falling for the token court martials. i.e. "...no oone authorized anything amiss, no one did anything amiss, so we have a general apology with no one to blame..."
- The military bombed an Iraqi wedding today killing somewhere between 20 and 40 people.
- An army-issue rocket launcher was found near an Atlanta airport yesterday.
- A poll indicates that 73% of Americans believe that the low-level court-martials are just a cover up.
- General Pappas has affirmed he DID give orders to strip and handcuff detainees.
- A new disk of abuse pictures was found todaywith pix of soldiers giving the thumbs up over Iraqi corpses on ice (!!!)
- Even conservative pundits have shifted from knee-jerk defense of the scandal to concern/neutrality when probed. I haven't seen a far-right defense of this crap in at least a week.
- Colin Powell is distancing himself from the admin, departing from the offical story with an interview the other day stating he was deliberately misled about WMD.
- Gas prices continue to go through the roof.
Here's where the stink from the Bush camp has reached.
- Texas Justice - The nations most depraved and draconian penal system set up Abu Ghraib.
- "Surpised" Rumsfeld set up the rules at Abu Ghraib himself!
Article on the cigarette chompin', thumbs-up givin', genital-pointin' good ol' gal of Abu Ghraib.
"To the country boys here, if you're a different nationality, a different race, you're sub-human. That's the way girls like Lynndie are raised."
Is it ironic or sad that most Americans probably consider West Virginia to be inhabited by sub-humans?
Where is the personal responsibility? Certainly, there is none coming from the superior officers of those involved. But statements like
"They are trying to pin all of this on the lower ranks. My daughter was just following orders. I think there's a conspiracy. "
and that other idiot Fredrick's father claiming his son is a "scapegoat" are so predictable. Nothing is anyone's fault anymore. Things just "happen," and individuals are "sorry" for things that "happen."
Huh? Did someone use some fucking alien mind-meld mojo on you and FORCE you to stack naked Iraqis like cordwood, as you stood behind them with a shit-eating grin on your face, givin' the boys back home a big ol' thumbs up?
A cartoonist generated some controvesy noting that letting yourself be used by the military and the excuse-swappping GOP is actually dumb, not heroic, or if anything it's just a waste. No one would have cared if Tillman didn't look like like he was assembled from some uber-male checklist. The continued assertion that he died protecting our freedom is bizarre.
How has Iraq ever threatened my freedom?
"Tillman -- who gave up a $3.6-million National Football League contract to join the military and then died last month -- "falsely believed Bush's war against Iraq had something to do with 9/11. Actually, he was a cog in a low-rent occupation Army that shot more innocent civilians than terrorists to prop up puppet rulers and exploit gas and oil resources. So when Tillman got killed by the Afghan resistance, one word naturally came to mind: 'Uh -- idiot?' [says one person in the cartoon's final panel]. 'Sap?' [says another]. 'Hero!' [says an editor]."
One of the soldiers facing court martial, Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Chip Frederick, is a reservist who is a prison guard from Virginia. Frederick is pleading not guilty, despite photos like these (Warning: Possibly NSFW, and definitely disturbing) yet claims no personal responsiblity in these events due to a lack of "rules and regulations" on how exactly to run a prison from his commanding officers. WHA?!?!
"Well, they never said we couldn't make 'em strip and sit on top of 'em!"
Criminal charges may be advanced in the coming months for federal employees of NORAD who 
I'm sure Chicagoans already heard about this, but tapping oaf/douchebag/sociopath 
The Ozarks, MO - In May Judge Randy Anglen came home from work, had dinner and swigged a Miller Lite. When he drained the last bit into the sink, he heard a "plop." When he peered into the bottle, the first thing he saw was a long tail coiling around the inside of the bottle. Then he saw the rest of the mouse.