Larry Craig to resign tomorrow

I’m not exactly surprised, but that it happened so quickly as opposed to being all drawn out like ol’ Foley did surprise me. So Larry Craig will resign Saturday, and yet another chapter of the GOP party (which a few have started referring to as “Gross Old Perverts”) goes by.

Asked Friday at the White House if the senator should resign, President Bush said nothing and walked off stage.

Republican officeholders and party leaders maintained a steady drumbeat of actions and words aimed at persuading Craig to vacate his Senate seat.

GOP lawmakers, hoping to get the embarrassment to the party behind them quickly, stripped Craig of leadership posts on Wednesday, one day after they called for an investigation of Craig’s actions by the Senate Ethics Committee. Craig complied with the request.

I caught that bit with Bush on MSNBC earlier today. It was during the press conference concerning Tony Snow’s resignation, and he did indeed swiftly walk off after being asked that.

You know, I’ve been accused a lot of hypocrisy because I still support Bill Clinton but vilify someone like Larry Craig. The thing is, the GOP continually touts itself as the party of good ol’ fashioned family values. Vote Republican because they represent the pure and pious family lifestyle, as opposed to those pervert-coddling Democrats. Ann Coulter once referred to the “Marquis de Sade” lifestyle of the liberals.

So when a Larry Craig pops up, it’s especially scandalous since it’s someone who purported to represent that pure, wholesome ideology. And it’s always a lot creepier anyway. I mean, adultery’s bad to be sure (so there’s Newt and Clinton both), but Craig’s little bathroom fracas is just plain weird. I’m sure a whole boatload of political officials have cheated on their wives, but I don’t think quite as many are trying to hit on guys in bathrooms or offering random men money for sex secretly.

That and the fact that, aside from Clinton, there’s not much on the Democratic side. While Larry Craig by himself is hardly enough to cause a ripple, when it comes as part of a series of GOP freakboxes, it’s that much more severe.

Military bans ThinkProgress from their network

It isn’t often that the government does something that so blatantly exhibits their hostility toward dissent. Earlier we got news of that whole “how to deal with dissenters” handbook the Bush team was using, but this is just ridiculous. It seems the United States military has banned the website ThinkProgress from their network.

The ban began sometime shortly after Aug. 22, when Ret. Maj. Gen. John Batiste was our guest blogger on ThinkProgress. He posted an op-ed that was strongly critical of the President’s policies and advocated a “responsible and deliberate redeployment from Iraq.” Previously, both the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times had rejected the piece. An excerpt:

It is disappointing that so many elected representatives of my [Republican] party continue to blindly support the administration rather than doing what is in the best interests of our country. Traditionally, my party has maintained a conservative view on questions regarding our Armed Forces. For example, we commit our military only when absolutely necessary. […]

Rush Limbaugh’s show is broadcast in Iraq on the American Forces Network right with Sean Hannity and Colmes’ respective radio shows, and they’ve blocked a progressive website.

I’d be curious as to whether Free Republic, Powerline, and Michelle Malkin are available on their networks.

9/11 families don’t want Rudy to appear at memorial

I swear there’s nothing out of Rudy in the past year or so that doesn’t involve either his nonstop 9/11 bleating or his interesting family situation. This time it’s the families of 9/11 victims who are saying they don’t want Rudy at the 9/11 memorial service this year.

“There should be no political shadow over this day,” said Diane Horning, who helped found the family group WTC Families for Proper Burial after losing her son Matthew when the twin towers collapsed.

Giuliani’s estrangement from the family groups isn’t anything new. Some of the most outspoken families have already shown opposition to Giuliani’s tendency to bring up 9/11 in speaking engagements for his presidential run by protesting outside his appearances. And one of the nation’s largest firefighters unions created a video titled Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend giving details on how they believe Giuliani failed the city of New York before, during, and after the terrorist attacks.

The rescue workers don’t like him, the victims’ families don’t like him, it all centers upon an attack as opposed to an accomplishment, and yet the guy keeps acting like it’s a strength.

I’m going to say this again, and I know it’s going to sound callous and cruel, but it’s true. Eventually we’re going to have to move on. While we still commemorate Pearl Harbor Day, it’s not a visceral attachment. We remember the victims and pay our respects, but there is simply going to have to be a time when we move on.

You know what probably helped people recover from Pearl Harbor? The fact that we went into Japan and defeated them. I have a feeling there’s some satisfaction in actually retaliating against those who attacked you and defeating them in war. That’s probably got something to do with why assholes like Rudy can continually evoke the attack. Although, strangely, it only seems to work with people who didn’t live and work in the city at the time.

“Strikingly negative” GAO report on Iraq

Contrary to what some folks on the right may say, I don’t want Iraq to fail. I want something to happen that results in our troops coming home. There’s this attitude with conservatives that liberals want Iraq to blow up and collapse just so they can point and say “we told you so,” and while I’m always happy to know that I’m right about something, it’s sort of like predicting that your house is going to burn down and kill your family. Sure you get the satisfaction of being correct, but that’s kind of overshadowed given all the death and misery.

On that note, the Washington Post got a hold of the Government Accountability Office’s report on Iraq prior to its official release, and things are not looking good.

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress.

…

“While the Baghdad security plan was intended to reduce sectarian violence, U.S. agencies differ on whether such violence has been reduced,” it states. While there have been fewer attacks against U.S. forces, it notes, the number of attacks against Iraqi civilians remains unchanged. It also finds that “the capabilities of Iraqi security forces have not improved.”

“Overall,” the report concludes, “key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds,” as promised.

So in other words, almost zero progress has been made and the Iraqis aren’t standing up.

Which reminds me, have you noticed that talking points go away mostly because their intended message is proven to be inaccurate or crazy? Tough talk on Osama, “stay the course”, they kind of go away over time. Lately we haven’t heard anything about Iraqis standing up so we can stand down. It’s hard to think that this has nothing to do with the fact that the Iraqis are apparently not standing up.

Oh by the way, why did the WaPo get the report early?

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version — as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

So keep an eye out for the official version to come out, likely with things changed just a wee bit.

A simple difference of priorities, I guess.

A quick whip-through of the major American news sources, specifically their respective politics pages, reveals something interesting. See if you can spot it, based just on the main headline of each. It’s subtle, but you may be able to pick it out.

ABC:

CNN:

MSNBC:

FOX:

If you can’t see it at first, don’t get discouraged. It might take a while before you catch it.

Poverty under Bush, poverty under Clinton

I caught an article on ABC News that pointed out that this year was the first significant drop in the poverty rate since 2000. Take a look at this little nugget.

The last significant decline in the poverty rate came in 2000, during the Clinton administration. In 2005, the poverty rate dipped from 12.7 percent to 12.6 percent, but Census officials said that change was statistically insignificant.

See, that got me thinking. If 2000 was the last time the poverty rate declined, how did it do under the entirety of Clinton’s presidency? It’s time for… a chart. Let’s start with 1989, the year George Bush Sr took office when poverty rates were at a record low, and move right on to this one.

Source: US Census Bureau

It’s interesting to note that 1989 was the previous record low according to the USCB (way to go, Gipper, I suppose), and that despite Bush Sr bringing it up to 15.1%, Clinton still managed to shatter the old record.

But remember, “tax and spend” Democrats are bad for the economy, isn’t that right?

Next GOP senator in weird sex allegations

You know, I almost didn’t want to write about this because frankly I’m tired of these types of stories. So by now I’m sure most of you have heard about Larry Craig and his little airport bathroom fracas, which is actually the most mild so far.

“I could see Craig look through the crack in the door from his position. Craig would look down at his hands, ‘fidget’ with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again. Craig would repeat this cycle for about two minutes,” the report states.

Craig then entered the stall next to Karsnia’s and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door.

“My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,” Karsnia stated in his report. “From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me.”

I don’t believe I should have to explain just why it might be that ol’ LC wanted to block anyone from looking inside his stall, but hey. His recent excuse for the ensuing footsie was that he has a “wide stance” when he takes a crap, which aside from just being stupid doesn’t explain what in the world he was doing standing in front of the stall all that time.

It’s just amazing that, for all their bleating about morals and ethics, the Republican party seems to be a breeding ground of absolutely awful corruption. The Democrats have William Jefferson with a hundred grand in his freezer, the GOP has Duke Cunningham swindling millions. The Democrats have William Jefferson Clinton getting frisky with an intern, the GOP has Bob Allen attempting to solicit sex from an undercover cop.

If anyone out there can give me anything close on the Democrat side to what’s going on in the GOP, I’d love to see it.

The battle over Alberto’s successor

I’m willing to bet that as soon as Alberto Gonzales stepped down, a whole whirlwind started up concerning who would take his place. Press Secretary and advisor may be big positions, but they don’t quite have the same far-reaching importance.

So you can imagine my concern upon reading a few ideas out of this AP article on the potential firestorm. No one on the list is there because the president wants to “reach out” to any extent, all of them are the types that would hardly make anything better (Michael Chertoff???). Then there’s this:

A more intriguing pick, Sherrill said, would be Sen. Joe Lieberman, the hawkish Connecticut Democrat whose nomination would allow his state’s Republican governor to appoint his replacement wresting control of the Senate from Democrats to a tie between the two parties.

While I cannot imagine this would possibly happen, what bothers me is that it would even be suggested. To even consider it within the realm of the possible means that throwing out the wishes of the electorate in order to give the majority to a party the people didn’t elect, and doing so by appointing a man to a position we have no reason to think he’s qualified for other than for the previously mentioned political wrangling, strikes at least one person as “intriguing”.

Alberto Gonzales: OUT

They say good things come in threes, and with Alberto Gonzales’s departure from the Bush Administration, I’d be tempted to agree with whoever “they” are. Seems hardly yesterday that Rove was stepping out, then came Tony Snow’s announcement that he’ll be gone soon, and now this.

“After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision,” Bush said from Texas, where he is vacationing.

Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found and confirmed by the Senate, Bush said.

Yes, Bush has a point. It’s so unfair that Congress would demand that the Attorney General answer for his actions and comply with the law. How dare they!

Anyway, who’s this Paul Clement guy? Well you can look him up on Wikipedia (before they go and change it, I assume), and from there you get all you need to know about the guy.

1. He was a clerk for Antonin Scalia.
2. He argued for Rumsfeld in four cases, all of which involved gross human rights violations.
3. He was an associate of Kirkland & Ellis, a law firm that produced Kenneth Starr and one of Bush’s domestic policy advisors.

And that’s just with really basic research. I can’t imagine what else the guy’s been up to. Once again we’re finding that our potential new blood isn’t much better than the old blood.

Robert Greenwald: Fox Attacks! Iran

I’ll let this video speak for itself. Robert Greenwald, of Outfoxed and Iraq for Sale fame, has put this video together and you simply owe it to yourself and your country to not only watch it but to show it to everyone who is willing to see it.

Take a look at the Fox Attacks website for more.