Sex Scandals

The Republican Party.

Classic Republicans in Action

Former IL gov. George Ryan.

After more than five months of sometimes complicated testimony in his federal case, and after five weeks of still more tangled deliberations, a jury convicted Mr. Ryan, a Republican, of granting state business to associates in exchange for cash and presents for himself, his family and for his friends.

He faces a sentence of up to 20 years for racketeering, the most serious of the charges brought against him.

That's just the tip of the iceberg for Republican corruption in this country. Read the article, it keeps getting better. Oh, and who was the prosecutor? FITZ!!!!!

On a side note, I will be out of the country on work for the next two weeks, and I'll probably have a cheney-load of it, so posting will be sporadic at best.

The Angry Left

Mwahahah.

Shout Louder

Six generals at once calling for Rumsfeld's resignation? Hahahah, don't even think about it with less than a dozen.

President Bush, brushing aside an intensifying clamor among retired military commanders for Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation, said Friday his defense secretary enjoys his full support and that Rumsfeld's leadership of the Pentagon was "exactly what is needed at this critical period."

Apparently now that Andy Card is gone only Rumsfeld will be able to rustle up the cheeseburgers needed at this critical period.

Why is this man still President?

Link.

Tax and Spend

Remember back in the 2004 presidential debates when Bush accused Kerry of being a "tax and spend liberal" and Kerry shot back by saying that Bush was a "don't tax and spend Republican?" I think we need to modify that a little bit.

As the Federal Emergency Management Agency wraps up the initial phase of its temporary housing program -- ending reliance on cruise ships and hotels for people sent fleeing by the Aug. 29 storm -- the toll of false starts and missed opportunities appears likely to top $1 billion and perhaps much more, according to a series of after-action studies and Department of Homeland Security reports, including one due for release today.

And that is just the housing program. We need to start calling them "don't tax and squander Republicans" or just "corrupt Republicans."

Let's face it. Republicans are not competent to manage your money and your lives, to care about your security and making life better for you. All they care about is themselves and their own. Such people have no business running the government.

Link.

The Morally Right Party

Democrats.

It's a pretty interesting story.

Projecting

Howard Kurtz.

When Republicans and former military men are ripping the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld handling of the war, I'd say that Houston, we have a problem.

My only question in these matters: What took them so long?

First off, it obviously does not matter when anyone who is not a Republican or in the military criticizes Bush. Their opinions do not matter and will be ignored.

Second, and more importantly, What is taking Howard Kurtz and the media so long? There are mountains of evidence at this point that Bush is screwing the country in every way possible, and, even if you're masochistic you have to say stop at some point, yet the media still isn't hitting him hard and just regurgitating Bush's talking points (see yesterday's post on objectivity). Stop projecting onto others that which you would like to do but are not, and start doing your job.

Shorter WaPo

Bush is a big, fat, stinky liar.

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A little late to the game, but what the hell?

Objectivity

Just caught a newsmedia panel in which Len Downie, the executive editor of the Washington Post, said that you can't be objective, but you can be fair, which means getting all the voices and opinions out there and into circulation.

To that, let me reply... HELL NO. 2 + 2 = 6 is not a valid opinion, no matter how many people fervently believe it to be so. Throwing all opinions into circulation just leads to "he said, she said" journalism in which no one is doing any actual reporting. It's like Steno Sue, vomiting back Bush's press releases and talking points without trying to qualify them or examine their truthfulness (or truthiness). The media's job is to filter out all the lies and bullshit in order to better inform the public, not muddle them even more.

These are the kinds of people who run the newsrooms at the major media institutions. The problem is that the left isn't as partisan as the right. Instead, the left would prefer the liberal idea of objective, fact based journalism, while the right doesn't give two shits and keeps getting wingnuttier and wingnuttier. This works against us in the fair realm of "all opinions are equally valid."

I think this idea of fairness will become increasingly irrelevant as people turn to alternative media and news consumption. If the major papers want to neglect their duties and dig their own graves, it's fine by me. We'll start looking elsewhere for nourishment.

Scary

If I articulate this I think I'll go into conniptions.

Fuck.