where can i go to increase my shame & disgust capacity?

It’s a shame that even the cover-up isn’t enough to get people fired/out of office/prosecuted for their crimes.

Nixon would have loved to operate in this current political environment. And so would J Edgar.

Why does Susan Collins talk funny? Has she ever done anything worthwhile in the senate? Has any R senator done anything worthwhile since 2000? What about Blue Dogs?

And then there’s Rummy’s throwing sand in the gears to prevent active duty troops from helping out in Katrina.

yeah anyway

Where the hell is the outrage.

I can’t believe how far we’ve fallen. We’re a nation of selfish cowards now.

Why are you stopping at 2000, eCAHN?

Has any GOoP Senator done anything useful since they went to Nixon and said, “Sorry, Dick, but if you stay you’ll be impeached and convicted.” Actually, now that I think about its consequences, that wasn’t a useful thing either.

Has any GOoP Senator done anything useful since they helped pass the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act?

Has any R senator done anything worthwhile since 2000?

lincoln chafee voted against the iraq war.

meant a lot to me at the time because my senator kerry (who knew better but didn’t let that get in the way of his ambitions) voted for it.

Too lazy to think back farther (and I was not as politically aware before 2000, so my mental file drawers are not fully stocked). Also, things got a lot worse after 2000.

Exception that proves the rule. And look where it got poor Lincoln Chafee.

Do you think the Whitehouse trade was, on balance, a positive one?

I still believe that the Bush crowd behaved like the Somoza family during the Nicaraguan earthquake.

If the files were opened it would disgust any Americans left capable of that emotion.

-G

We know that most of the gov’t departments were really screwed up under Bushco but the “homeland”
security group was a joke. Unfortunately many people paid a heavy price for their idiocy and are still paying. We haven’t heard much about it under Obama but we’ll surely find out when the next disaster occurs. I hope it is vastly improved.

probably. whitehouse is doing some very good work re torture and doj. but wonder how he would have voted re iraq in 2002 and i really didn’t know much about chafee. like you i only recently started paying more attention to politics (sept 12 2001 in my case), so i’m not a reliable judge.

Yes, this is what Karl Rove bought when he placed that first important phone call to Lieberman after Joey “Short Ride” lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont.

Karl bought cover for his own deliberate failures in the wake of Katrina.

And Collins was a good team player who marched lockstep with Karl and his new pull-toy, Joey “Short Ride” Lieberman.

Collins needs to be reminded that Katrina’s 1,836 dead and 705 missing remain proof of her f*cking failure to do her job.

True, dat.

I take it Brown wasn’t too put out by the direct blame. Otherwise, he would’ve spoken out by now, I should think.

After 9/11, I started self-educating in U.S. foreign affairs, and learning about the rest of the world. I didn’t start learning about domestic politics until several years later.

Chaffee may have voted against the Iraq war, but he didn’t seem to have many leadership qualities. Always seemed like a whipped dog to me.

I’m hoping WH turns out better, but he’s pulled a couple of Specters: talking strong then voting wrong. So I’m keeping my eye on him.

Imagine the idiot Vitter in Collin’s place? He would be thrown out by the voters. I wonder if the great state of Maine has any concern about representation these days?

via email, i have a long diary from a musician who used to live in nola. it’s not a personal diary (although the intro is), he just kept dated clips of news reports of the drowning and then abandonment of the city he loved. some day i want to google all the clips (to get the links) and then format it all into html to post on the web.

every time i start though, i can’t bring myself to read it all the way through. so very heart breaking.

Thanks Jane.

Swine-flu-Sue strikes again.

What could good-job-brownie possibly say in his self-defense? He’s a laughingstock.

They were all working from the play book of mommy Bush.

What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/…..fugees.htm

Bar’s a horror show. Wonder how they managed to get her to keep her fat trap shut as much as she did.

Heh. Reid’s favorables:unfavorables are 38:50.

Oooops. Forgot link.

Don’t forget her generous donation — to her son’s business.

Thanks, Rayne. We probably need a Lieberman timeline somewhere of all the shit he’s pulled.

I think there are a few people who would donate to that cause, but put me at the top of the list.

While Michael Brown was twisting in the wind, Chertoff was giving speeches and in Atlanta for a conference. When he was available for a presser all he could talk about was Posse Comatatus (sp). He was Brown’s direct superior yet received little attention. He and his predecessor, Tom Ridge, bear much responsibility for neutering FEMA.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Thanx for the post…this problem of ersatz Democrats coverin’ for the corporate fascists extends into the elected leadership of the Democratic Party. The last poll in Nevada shows Reid’s favorable-unfavorable at 38% to 50%…unless the Democrats wanna go through another Tom Dashle experience I suggest thatprogressive groups need to find a primary opponent for One Hung Harry ASAP or healthcare reform, EFCA and budget changes through reconcilliation will be dead on arrival.

Jest how did Reid get to be majority leader anyway??!!! WTF…is the Democratic Party leadership really owned by the corporate oligarchy? Is that how we get minority government at a time when Democrats control both houses and the White House?

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE FUCKIN AMMUNITION, AND REMEMBER WE STILL HAVE A WAR TO END!!!

The entire Katrina episode shows how far bush was removed from governing. He was simply not interested. You can see by his reaction when briefed by the Hurricane weather people just how little he cares. He spent more than 1 year on vacation, outdoing even Reagan on that. Same as when he was briefed on the terror threat, he simply told the briefer, well you covered your ass, now go away.
Power abhors a vacuum, which is how cheney became so powerful. While bush ran for prez, he really did not want the job and that was made really clear to the entire country after Katrina.

Blast from the past; how quickly we forget. She puts her money where her mouth is.

I seem to remember that Neil also benefited handsomely from NCLB.

They all showed the same disregard for human life as they did when they took down the towers.

Well, for one, he could spill the beans.

Hey GB
do you got a handy thumbnail link to that Nicaragua thing? Always glad to increase my understanding of not-so-ancient history!

Yeah, Susan Collins talking out her a$$. And the Lame-stream media swallowing it whole. No one could have predicted.

Funny Wheelie Diva

How is it that a publication like GQ breaks this story?
I suppose in a couple of years Cosmo will give us the scoop on torture.

You would think this might embarrass the investigative reporters stenos with the major news outlets into a little
action.

Picture worth 1,000 words: W NOLA flyover. And they published it because they thought it showed his concern.

Chafee was a legacy politician. A fundamentally decent man but hardly an effective leader or advocate.

We’ll see how he does as governor of RI, which is likely to happen in 2010.

-G

He’d have to own the beans in order to spill them, alan.

How clueless is Brownie? Clueless enough that he thought W meant it when he said, “Heckuva job, Brownie.” Of course, Bushie is clueless enough himself that he may well have believed it and meant it. More’s the pity.

We’d love it, but don’t think that would put Brownie in a good light. He tried to shift the blame shortly afterwards, and I’m sure a lot of what he said was accurate, but he has no credibility.

Oh dear. Yes, we’ll see.

He tried didn’t he. Thought his testimony was pretty damning.

Well if that’s the case (38 & 40), what’s Jane on about?

FD, here’s the Wiki synopsis.

In a nutshell in the 70’s Nicaragua was devastated by an earthquake. International donations poured in to help in the recovery and the vulgar family of the Somoza dictatorship used the money for themselves and their cronies and left people to languish. Thus began the unraveling of the family’s rule.

-G

No follow thru, no accountabilty. I wasn’t sure that Brownie’s speaking out was in testimony, but it wasn’t Collins’s committee. Don’t think she did anything.

You want another piece of crap for that Lieberman/Collins timeline?

You’re going to read any time now that the appeals court said the Office of the Administration isn’t subject to FOIA with regard to the missing emails (H/T JimWhite).

Unfortunately the remedy, Rep. Waxman’s HR 5811, Electronic Message Preservation Act, died in committee after passing the House last year.

It must be resubmitted to stand a chance of ever becoming law.

You can thank Joey “Short Ride” Lieberman for this, too, since it languished and died in his Homeland Security/Governmental Affairs Committee.

And that goes for Missy Collins, too, since I’ve not heard boo-hiss from her indicating she wanted the Senate version of HR 5811 passed — even though it would have provided transparency from Democratic presidents.

Re: Ecah’s # 35 post.

As someone who’s done print modeling, these pictures were so tellingly staged. Just notice the odd way Bush’s hands are placed in that picture. That was by the direction of the photographer in my opinion.

That was when I realized just how shallow and corrupt the whole Bush machine was. That nitwit flying around while his personal photographer tells him to fold his hands, look out the window, etc….While that treagedy was unfolding below.

All image, not one ounce of fucking substance.

-G

I see. Interesting.

What is striking to me is how Democrats are so scared to buck former Democrats like Lieberman. The fact is that the Democratic “majority” isn’t really a majority in reality. Legally, they won some elections. In fact, all they have done is protect the minority from legal and political scrutiny…warranted scrutiny.

It’s all about the numbers; you do recall that we don’t have 60 solid votes yet, correct?

If we could snag two more Republican senate seats in 2010, we wouldn’t have to tolerate Lieberman’s crap and could boot his butt to the basement on the committee.

This is why Levees.org has been pushing for an investigation. There was a lot of things that were never looked into. Our then Dem Governor claimed she asked the feds for help but they insisted she turn the whole show over to them in order to get the help, which is not standard procedure from what I understand.

We need another truth commission for this.