President Bush, stung last week by the resignation of his previous Supreme Court nominee, had nominated conservative judge Samuel Alito to the court. Alito's pick is sure to anger democrats, who know him as a very conservative judge who might help alter abortion rights. He has been compared to ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who many believe is one of the worst judges in recent history, and is known for his unprofessionalism on the bench. Alito is more reserved and less likely to badger lawyers in the way Scalia does, but it seems likely they would vote together on most issues.
St. Petersburg Times Online

Ann Coulter, the controversial right-wing pundit, admitted on a live broadcast that she had not heard of Scooter Libby, who was indicted on Friday for his involvement (and likely perjury) in the Valerie Plame case. She seems to "know" that the case does not involve the White House, Karl Rove, or George W. Bush. Karl Rove could still face indictment for his involvement in the case. Coulter also called Democrats "fascists" for their "political prosecution" of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Coulter was a well-educated lawyer, which is why I'm surprised she would make a statement like that without apparently looking at the evidence first. If she had, she would have realized that the district attorney in the case, Ronnie Earle, would have been neglecting his duties if he had not sought an indictment of DeLay. The evidence is so clear, I expect some sort of plea in this case. DeLay helped launder money, and he conspired to illegally move money around so that he would not appear to be in violation of campaign finance reform laws.
Coulter: "I never heard of Scooter Libby until ... [Media Matters]

Here is an article from Yahoo, with proper sources and citations, that indicates Valerie Plame's neighbors and friends were surprised when they learned she was a secret CIA operative from an article whose source was an illegal leak within the White House. This is a stark contrast to what the Drudge Report and other popular conservative news sources have been reporting all week. They have been reporting that nearly everyone who was somewhat close to Plame, including friends and neighbors, knew she was a secret operative. It now appears that those reports were just an attempt to invalidate the claim that the White House leak was the original source of that knowledge.
Plame Now Spends Her Days at CIA Desk Job - Yahoo! News

Bill Clinton, hoping there are some democrats out there that still listen to their most-successful party member since Franklin Roosevelt, is telling his party the strategy they need to use to take power back from the republicans. Clinton seems to believe that they need to go on the offensive, attacking the issues and not backing off when public opinion seems to sway against them. This seems simple, but in many ways it can be counter-intuitive, and the reason why democrats have done so poorly since Clinton left the White House nearly 5 years ago. Whenever public opinion goes against their issues, they step back and embrace the republican stance. We can all see where the republican stance has led us over the past 5 years. If democrats stood their ground against republicans and the religious right's ideology, eventually the public would take their side more seriously and opinion could sway back to the left. As it stands now, the public sees the democrats as weak, regardless of the issues, because they always seem to back down from a fight.
The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA

Marion Barry, the former District of Columbia mayor, was indicted today on charges of tax evasion. He was previously arrested in 1991 as part of an FBI sting that caught him on video tape smoking crack in a hotel room. He regained the mayor's throne in 1994 despite the previous arrest and six-month prison term. Isn't that terrific?
ABC News: Marion Barry Charged in Income Tax Case

Vice President Tricky Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was indicted on 5 counts surrounding the CIA Leak investigation. He resigned after receiving the indictments. Presidential chief of staff Karl Rove was not indicted, probably thanks to last-minute scurrying by his legal team. He is not out of the woods yet, as he could still be facing possibly perjury charges.
BREITBART.COM - Just The News

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination for Supreme Court Justice today. It had begun to seem unlikely that she would be confirmed by the senate, and senators had begun asking for documents of discussions she had with the president, and we can only guess what that would have revealed. Both Republican and Democratic senators denied that they had ever asked for privileged documents, so that part of the story is probably typical White House spin (jesus, that things like a top nowadays). With Miers nomination withdrawn, the president now has the opportunity to nominate someone with a little more history of corruption. He might also go with another fresh face. He knows this kid that goes to West Texas Law School. He hasn't taken the BAR exam yet, but he made some super-looking signs for the Texas delegation at last year's Republican National Convention. If he makes it through law school and passes the Texas BAR exam, which involves milking a cow and riding a horse over a small course, he could become the next supreme court nominee.
CNN.com - Miers withdraws Supreme Court nomination - Oct 27, 2005

Dick Cheney and Karl Rove could both receive indictments tomorrow for their involvement in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. The White House is rallying around Cheney, who could be the first vice president to be run out of Washington by an angry, torch-bearing mob. Oh wait, my sources are now telling me there was a vice president under Nixon named Spiro Agnew who left Washington in that exact manner. Ironically, George W. Bush is in a hard-fought struggle right now to de-throne Nixon as the worst president ever. Rumors from the White House indicate the president has been very "removed" and possibly depressed of late, as any chance of a positive legacy has rapidly slipped away, and his approval rating has fallen lower than Barry White's voice.
Indictments to be Handed Down in Plame CIA Leak

Rosa Parks has passed away. If you do not understand the political connection to her actions, read this forum post.

In addition to what is mentioned in the post, there is also the story of how the civil rights movement flipped the black vote in America. During the 1960 presidential elections (Nixon vs. JFK), Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a civil rights demonstration. He was sent to a jail, where he awaited his release. Authorities took him from the jail during the middle of the night, and he was taken to an undisclosed location. Nobody knew where he was, and many feared that he had been murdered. During the civil rights movement it was not unusual for civil rights supporters to be murdered by anti-civil rights police officers. MLK's wife, Coretta Scott King, pleaded with Jackie Robinson (the baseball player) to help get her husband released from jail before a lynch mob could get to him. Jackie Robinson was retired from baseball at this time, and he was very involved in politics. He was a strong Republican supporter. Robinson contacted Nixon, hoping he would publicize the MLK story and hopefully get him released from jail. John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby had already called the judge and pleaded for the release of MLK. Nixon, fearing he would lose a core base of his voters who were anti-civil rights, chose not say anything about MLK. He would later blame his secretary for not releasing a statement he claims he made, and even later on blamed Eisenhower administration, saying he had asked them to intervene and get MLK released. That was typical Nixon, shifting his position whenever the wind changed direction, always doing what he thought was best for himself.

In what was one of the fastest flips in US political history, black voters boycotted the Republican party and have voted Democrat (by rather wide margins) in almost every national election since then. Nixon lost the 1960 election by a slim margin. People forget that before 1960, blacks usually opposed the party that had oppressed them since the Civil War (remember, Lincoln was a Republican, and the confederacy was led by "Southern Democrats").
RIP Rosa Parks

Apparently the White House has not been busy enough lately. Even with it's various high-level job appointments, the Hurricane Katrina response investigation, and the CIA leak scandal, the president has still found time to root out a true evil corrupting American's everywhere: the use of the presidential seal on a popular parody website. The Onion, which Bush has continually confused with the Washington Post, posts a weekly parody radio address that uses a picture of the president and the presidential seal. The White House lawyer, who is well-paid by the American taxpayer (in other words, poor people), sent a letter to The Onion, demanding that they remove the presidential seal. The Onion wrote a response, claiming their site is free, and therefore not using the seal in a commercial venture, which is the only grounds on which the White House could force the seal to be removed.
Protecting the Presidential Seal. No Joke. - New York Times

President Bush will select the successor to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan later today. The leading contender is Larry, who used to give George tips on itemizing his deductables, although he is not a CPA. Larry spends most of his time at the Duke Diner in Crawford, Texas, where he reads the paper twice a day while nursing a single coffee. He prides himself on knowing what football teams should have done the night before if they wanted to win the game. He says he'll make a great "Reserved Fedora Chairman or whatever you call it" because he once lived an entire month on just $10. This is another fine selection by the Bush administration, who earlier in the month selected Harriet Miers for the supreme court, because "she knew all about them laws and stuff."
Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.com

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers received over $100,000 from the state of Texas for a small parcel of land valued at $10,000. A three-member committee was appointed by a judge to determine the price of the land. The judge had received $5,000 in campaign contributions from Miers, and one of the appointed committee members was Peggy Lundy, a friend of Miers. The state later reduced the assessed value by $26,000, but Miers has not yet returned that money.

There is no evidence suggesting that Miers sought out the judge or had any involvement in his appointment process, but she also did not report the obvious conflict of interest or question the unusually high price paid to her for the land. By the way, this land was a Superfund pollution cleanup site. Miers was paid $5 per square foot for a wasteland. I can't get that kind of money for my beautifully cared-for land, with grass so green and soft there's no need to wear shoes.

Republicans still write in to my local newspaper and mention the Clinton's whitewater dealings. In that deal the Clinton's were not ripping off the honest tax payer. Miers' actions here are not the kind of behavior I would expect out of a supreme court nominee. Shame on King Bush for appointing his personal lawyer to a position that is so important.
BREITBART.COM - Just The News

Traffic in parts of Los Angeles was brought to a standstill as the presidential motorcade halted other vehicles on its way to a fundraiser and dedication of a pavilion made especially for Air Force One. King Bush sipped champagne and ate cavier in his limo as kindergartners anxious to see a performance of "The Wizard of Oz" waited for the motorcade to pass. Some drivers were delayed for hours as freeway exits and entrances were closed. The children missed "The Wizard of Oz" performance. They were not given a rain check for their $6 tickets. The Air Force One Pavilion dedication went off without a hitch, but the King suggested one improvement to the facility, which will be implemented soon. Georgy suggested a rugged matting on the concrete floor. Bullet-proof vests that were being delivered to soldiers in Iraq will instead be used to make a floor worthy of the Royal one.

You may have guessed that some of this post has been... made up. Sadly, the part about the Kindergartners was true.
LA Daily News - News

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been investigating the White House following the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press, has widened his investigation. He is not piecing together against the White House that would expose what truly is a "vast conspiracy." Apparently the White House has been leaking various types of classified information over the past few years in an attempt to undermine critics. In a sense, the classified information they possessed was used as secret blackmail. Anyone who spoke against them would become a target of exposure. This is truly sickening news.
WSJ.com - CIA Leak Queries Look at Disclosure Of Classified Data

"CIA Leakgate" is zeroing in on guilty parties, and it would appear that the White House will not be able to escape this scandal unscaved. Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, chiefs of staff to the president and vice president, respectively, have testified before a grand jury that they learned of Valerie Plame's status at the CIA from each other or from reporters, and they only revealed that status to reporters who they believed were already "in the know." Evidence is starting to mount against that defense, which could mean perjury charges against both chiefs of staff, and other charges against other people in the White House. Now it appears that the chiefs of staff both "shopped around" their information, intentionally looking to leak Plame's status as an agent to multiple news sources to get back at her husband, who had made critical statements about the administration.

This will make George W. Bush the fourth victim of the second term curse. Bill Clinton's second term was mired in scandal, most notably the Monica Lewinsky affair and Ken Starr's slimy campaign against him. Ronald Reagan's second term was headlined by the Iran-Contra scandal, which revealed the president was involved in selling weapons to a terrorist nation in order to fund a secret, illegal war in Central America. Richard Nixon was forced to resign after his role in the Watergate robbery and its cover-up were revealed. He also faced income tax evasion charges, and would have likely spent time in prison had he not been pardoned by Gerald Ford. And that's your history lesson for the day.
BREITBART.COM - Just The News

Here's what we've all been waiting for: the Tom Delay mug shot. He looks well-dressed and happy, which kind of disappoints me. It still should make for a fun photoshop contest, and possibly even a t-shirt design contest. I'd like to see the look on this smug bastards face when the photographers outside his home start showing up in t-shirts with his indicted, ugly-ass face on them. You'll notice The Smoking Gun (who I've linked to) also has a copy of the arrest warrant, which reveals Tom DeLay's middle name to be ... drumroll please... DALE. They did not fill in ethnicity, which should have read: pasty white. The charges against him are in bold capitals: CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY and MONEY LAUNDERING >= $100K. Very nice, this makes my arrest for being under the influence of whippets look like child's play, which I guess it was.
Tom DeLay Mug Shot - October 20, 2005

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. If you see Tom DeLay anywhere, consider him armed and corrupt. DO NOT APPROACH HIM. DeLay will be booked and fingerprinted. I will post links to the mug shots as soon as they are made available to the public. T-shirts featuring said mug shot will be made if demand is high enough. A Photoshop contest might ensue. Good night, and good luck.
Texas Court Issues Warrant for DeLay

The New York Daily News is reporting that President Bush whacked Karl Rove over the head when he learned of the leak Rove made to a journalist involving CIA agent Valerie Plame. This news comes at a very opportune time for the president, which puts the credibility of the story into question. In the past few weeks, as the heat has been turned up over the Plame affair, it seems those surrounding the president have been more and more willing to come forward and take the blame for what happened. Did they secretly leak this information behind the president's back, or was the president somehow involved, and now they are doing whatever they can - including sacrificing themselves - to save his presidency?
New York Daily News - Home - Daily News Exclusive: Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak

Everyone in Washington is talking about the lastest rumor: that Vice President Dick Cheney is going to resign, and Bush will replace him with Condi Rice. Each day it seems more and more likely that Cheney's office was somehow involved with the Plame-CIA scandal, and he may have to step down in order to protect President Bush, who could also be implicated in the scandal. Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, is a likely source of at least one of the leaks, and it appears President Bush's chief of staff Karl Rove is also involved in some way. So would a Cheney resignation work, or will the American people want this thing followed through to the end (which could be Bush)?
USNews.com: N and W: Cheney resignation rumors fly (10/18/05)

GOP Senatorial candidate Jeanine Pirro has sent out letters asking for money to many New Yorkers, but she probably won't get a response to the one she recently sent to her opponent, Hillary Clinton. The letter, which was addressed to the White House, bashes Clinton repeatedly, and asks for up to $1,000 donations.

Pirro is facing a tough fight against Clinton, who has become popular in New York by not screwing up. Pirro has also faced the same personal issues as Clinton, but to a worse degree. Pirro's husband not only cheated on her, but had a child out of wedlock. He also served time in prison for income tax evasion. Pirro was humiliated during a speech several months ago when she misplaced a page from her speech, and paused for nearly 40-seconds while aids tried to find it. The video was shown on many national broadcasts.
Newsday.com: Pirro hits up Clinton for money to battle Clinton

I love all those US Army commercials that show young men who were once mere mortals like the rest of us, until a stint in the Army turned them into self-righteous a-holes. You now the ads I'm talking about, like the one where the guy comes home and his friends ask him what he's doing in the army, and he tells them that he works with computers. The friends asks him if he could have stayed home to do that, and the soldier gives him a look like he's the village drunkard, and tells him "not really." I've got an idea for a new line of commercials for the Army: show a soldier returning home on crutches, with one leg gone, the result of a booby-trapped bridge near Tikrit. He opens his mailbox and finds a paycheck from the Army. Sweet, he thinks, I can finally afford groceries. He opens the envelope and finds he receives $0.00, because he has been declared AWOL by the payroll system. The Army knows he lost his leg, they even flew him home on an Army transport plane. "Do they expect me to report for duty already?," he thinks to himself. "Why didn't I just get a government loan and go to college like everyone else I went to high school did," he wonders aloud. Then he remembers the new Army slogan: Be an Army of one... one who doesn't get paid.
USNews.com: Wounded soldiers too often find themselves having to battle the Army over pay mistakes (10/24/05)

Do you want to buy land in America's beautiful west for just $2.50 per acre? Well, if you're a mining company and friends with the Bush regime, you just might be able to. Thanks to a 1872 mining law that was originally enacted to encourage the sale of western land, mining companies have been able to buy up huge parcels of property for just a few thousand dollars. The government had stopped selling land that fell under the law, but the corrupt Bush regime, which has been known to do anything for a kickback (including swallowing nickels), found out about the law and has been selling huge lots to members of the Friends of Bush club, or the Pioneers, or Bush's Rangers, or whatever the heck Bush has decided to call the people who raise $200,000 for his evil causes. With that donation, you get a card that identifies you as a Friend of Bush, which will get you out of security checks at the airport, among other things. You can buy $85 million worth of land near Arizona's beautiful Roosevelt Lake - for just $8,500. That's right, everything in stock is 99.9% off! Don't wait, because this sale ends in 3 years or when Bush gets kicked out of office - whichever comes first!
Mining Companies Still Paying 19th Century Prices for Public Lands

Tom DeLay, proving that he only enjoys making the laws, not being prosecuted by them, has used his website to smear the prosecutor who has charged him with conspiracy and money laundering. Some say he could be tainting the jury pool, but he probably will never be charged with that, because the charges he faces are serious enough. I see this as just an embarassing effort from a desperate man. The charges against him are not some trumped up allegations, they are very serious and they are backed by lots of hard evidence. Mark my words: DeLay will have trouble beating these charges. Launching a public relations attack against the prosecutor is not going to help him, it's just going to make prosecutor Ronnie Earle work that much harder to prove that he's right, and DeLay is the scumbag many of us suspected.

One more thing: watch out for letters supporting DeLay in your local newspaper or messages on your local radio talk-shows. DeLay has supplied form letters and messages on his website to be distributed throughout the country. He even supplies an email with his version of the "facts" that you can send to your friends. Thanks a lot Mr. DeLay, I think I'd rather get my spam from pill pushers and genital enhancement makers than your corrupt, indicted... behind (see that, I can be politically correct once a week).
My Way News

This is not a list of innocent Iraqis, or the 1,000+ American troops that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are people who lost their jobs, were demoted, or were otherwise silenced by the Bush administration. These are people who challenged such things as no-bid contracts going to Halliburton (once run by VP "Tricky" Dick Cheney), or Bush's refusal to challenge North Korea's production of nuclear weapons. This can also be viewed as a list of the people who are most likely to testify before the US Congressional investigators for horrible events that are going to happen to this country in the next 20 years. Some will look back and say "how could we have seen this horrible thing coming?" and "there was no way to stop these tragic events." Well these people did see things that were wrong, they saw the warnings. The Bush administration just refuses to acknowledge them. Remember this: in a democracy, we get the government that we deserve. What does that say about us?
The Fallen Legion: Casualties of the Bush Administration

Here's an ingenious mug. When empty, it displays the Bill of Rights on the exterior. When you fill it with coffee, or any hot beverage, the rights disappear before your eyes. It's kind of like reliving the last 5 years, except it only costs $21.95, instead of the tens of thousands of dollars that have gone missing from your retirement fund since Bush took office.
Acorn Online, Catalog Merchandise: British Television

New York Governor George Pataki has decided that it's ok to keep criminals locked up, even after they've served their prison term. Pataki has been eyeing the GOP presidential nomination for about 12 years now, and every once in a while he needs to do something that will appeal to the dumbest 50% of voters and also proves that he's a republican.

If George Pataki happens to be reading this (what else would New York's governor do but surf the web for references to himself in blogs?) I've got a message for him: DO NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT. You've managed to get elected governor of New York as a republican, but that's not that amazing. New York has traditionally voted moderate to conservate for its state offices. A much tougher task will be convincing a man from Mississippi that a New Yorker (republican or not) is worthy of being his president. The south hates New Yorkers, and they will tear you apart. You'll need the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the POWs for Truth, and the John Birch Society on your side, and they all distrust New York yuppies. Things will get ugly, Bubba. Stick to governing New York, and let Hillary try to take on the south. That'll be an even uglier scene, despite her one-time affiliation with the state of Arkansas.
wnbc.com - Politics - Pataki 'Pushes Envelope' To Keep Criminals Confined

A teleconference that George W. Bush (I'm going to try dropping the "President" title, just to see if it catches on) had with 10 soldiers was actually a staged event. All the questions were rehearsed ahead of time, and the soldiers, who were all higher ranking or officers, knew exactly whom was supposed to answer each question. Even the passing of the microphone was rehearsed.

George W. Bush's policies with regards to the Iraq war have fallen out of favor in the past year, with only 40% of Americans now supporting the effort. This latest incident is clearly just one more example of Georgy (maybe that will catch on) wagging the dog. He can't talk to lower ranked soldiers in an unrehearsed setting, because many of them would probably say things to him that cannot be broadcast on television. I am friends with many good American soldiers who either are currently serving in Iraq or who have served in the past year, and all of them want Bush out of office immediately. It seems the longer they served in Iraq the more they feel Georgy has been reckless with their lives. Only three more years... three of the longest years of our lives.
BREITBART.COM - Just The News

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been appointed to investigate the Plame affair, has widened his investigation, believing that evidence is pointing toward a conspiracy within the White House that includes Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush. Although not nearly as interesting to "Tabloid America" as Bill Clinton's BJ, the possible charges here are much more serious. Even Nixon would look in awe at the magnitude of these charges and say "I thought I was a political mastermind. In comparison, my crimes were child's play."
WSJ.com - Focus of CIA Leak Probe Appears to Widen

A group of Vietnam veterans, who famously libeled and slandered John Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign, are suing him for slander and libel. What do they claim Kerry did? They say that he prevented them from airing a "documentary" that was really just a long attack advertisement, not unlike the other Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads.

Those ads were notorious for their stretching of the truth, such a having a group of veterans saying "I served with John Kerry in Vietnam," when in fact only one member served on the same swift boat unit as the senator. The others just meant that they served in the Vietnam War at the same time as John Kerry. Kind of misleading, isn't it? They also brought forward a doctor who worked on John Kerry's wounds. This doctor was a lifelong conservative. He somehow remembered, in detail, what he described as very minor surface wounds, no worse than a scratch. How does a man happen to remember a scratch on one of the hundreds or thousands of men he worked on during the war, 30 years after the fact? Many of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth also helped out George W. Bush gain the republican nomination in 2000, except then they used the name "POWs for Truth," and their target was John McCain. Their acts were disgusting, attacking a man who was captured and lost 6 years of his life while being held as a captive.

Liberals and conservatives alike need to join forces and bring about harsh litigation against these people. The American democratic system was suppose to encourage open discussion of issues that affect the American people, not trash people with half-truths and outright lies. These Swift Boat Veterans got George W. Bush elected twice. Read that last sentence again. How did we let this happen?
HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Vietnam Vets File Lawsuit Against John Kerry by Michael P. Tremoglie

Everyone American who pays even the slightest attention to national politics probably knows that Vice President Dick Cheney was previously the CEO of a company named Halliburton, which has been making money by the truckloads during the Bush administration. Halliburton received huge contracts without having to go through any bidding process in Iraq and New Orleans, and their stock price has soared. Cheney has fended off criticism of his apparent conflict of interest, continually saying that he has no financial stake in the company. That isn't entirely true. He does receive an annual deferred salary between $150,000 and $250,000. He also gets massive stock options that he can exercise and immediately sell for a profit of millions. Still not convinced? Well, he also owns $9 million in Halliburton stock. So why does he still believe he has no financial stake in the company?
Lautenberg: congratulations Halliburton and Vice President Cheney!

Lawyers representing Tom DeLay served prosecutor Ronnie Earle with a supoena, alleging misconduct with the grand jury. This is probably just a political move to sway public opinion toward DeLay, but I'm guessing it won't work at this point. The allegation seems to stem from a conversation Earle had with grand jury foreman William Gibson, which does not seem to fit the legal defination of a conflict of interest.

I know how grand juries work, and DeLay is probably hoping most people do not. A grand jury receives instructions from the district attorney, and they may ask questions about the procedure during this time, since grand jury members are not, and should not be, experts in the legal code and legal procedures. The district attorney will then call witnesses, who are granted immunity for their testimony, unless they are a defendant or a defense witness (which is unusual), in which case they must waive their immunity in order to testify. After witness testimony, the district attorney gives the jurors more instructions, and then they will vote either to indict, to not indict, or abstain. An indictment just means that the defendant will be tried by the court in front of a jury of his peers. The grand jury will usually serve a term of several months, in which time they will decide on indictments on dozens of cases. They may also make decisions on what types of evidence investigators can pursue (such as bank records, private email accounts, etc). During this process it IS NOT unusual for jury members to engage in many conversations with the district attorney, especially the foreman. The grand jury foreman has special duties that may require private conversations with the district attorney.

So what does all this mean? DeLay and his team of lawyers are full of BS, and are trying to fool a public that does not know any better. Unless they can show that the DA did something stupid like went to a grand jury member's home or told the jury how they had to vote, this supoena is a useless media ploy.
BREITBART.COM - Just The News

What's the definition of irony again? Elderly volunteers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library claim they have been barred from giving tours because they are too old. Ronald Reagan was so old during his presidency that he forgot all details relating to the Iran-Contra scandal. Officials at the library say the decision to prevent some people from giving tours was based on the intellectual rigours of the job, which unfortunately was not part of the criteria American voters used when they twice voted Reagan for president. Reagan, who spoke from an unknown eternal location, asked "has anyone seen my pants?"
Telegraph | News | Axe falls on Reagan tour guides 'for being too old'

An email sent from presidential adviser Karl Rove to deputy national-security adviser Stephen Hadley has surfaced, and it exposes Rove as a source of the leak in the Valerie Plame affair. Apparently the reason this email was not found until now was because White House used the wrong "search words" when doing its internal investigation. Apparently people at the White House need more practice using email and "the internets," as their boss George W. Bush likes to call it.
CIA Leak: Karl Rove and the Case of the Missing E-mail - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com

Conservatives seem more frustrated than liberals with President Bush's selection of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court judge. Liberals in congress are sitting back and letting the conservatives do much of their usual work. Conservatives are now suggesting that Miers could withdraw from her selection and avoid being smeared before congress. The reason some conservatives are so angry about the Miers selection is because there were so many other "very conservative" options that would have been more likely to overturn controversial past decisions.
Skeptical conservatives hint Miers could withdraw - Americas - International Herald Tribune

Karl Rove will testify for the fourth time in front of a grand jury in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. He has been warned that his testimony could be used against in a future indictment. This is the first time he has received this standard warning, which is required when a witnesses testimony could be used against themself. This could mean that another witness in the case named Rove as the source of the leak, or he may have in some way participated in the leak and could be charged.
Nola.com: NewsFlash - Rove said to testify in CIA leak case

Leanardo Arangoncillo, a naturalized citizen from the Philippines, has been identified as the first spy to be found working in the White House in modern times. He was working in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, and it's been reported that he passed on hundreds of documents to the Filipino government in the last couple of years. He had top secret clearance, and stole many of the documents from White House computers. This is the second major breach of standard security measures discovered during this administration. The other, involving a fake reporter who asked softball questions to the president to make him look better during press conferences, led to a media hailstorm after it was realized that the White House likely played a roll in sneaking this man in with the rest of the media pool.
ABC News: Espionage Case Breaches the White House

Many pictures of Harriet Miers have been appearing in newspapers across the nation, but one in particular is drawing some added interest. The New York Times ran this photo on its front page Tuesday, with a caption that mentioned she was briefing President Bush at his Crawford ranch in August 2001. The exact date is August 6, 2001, and she is briefing him on the memo that mentions Osama Bin Laden was determined to attack the US, and it appeared preparations were being made to hijack planes.

This memo has since been nicknamed the PDB memo, and it was at the center of the controversy surrounding the government's (lack of) effort to stop the 9-11 attacks. I was not at the Crawford ranch on the day that Miers briefed the president, but I can only imagine the events happened something like this:

Miers: Mr. President, this memo says this bad guy named Bin Laden is determined to attack the United States, and his people may be preparing to use our own planes to do it.
President Bush: Did you catch the Rangers game last night?
Miers: George, if I may be frank with you, this is a very serious matter, and it could have an major impact on your presidency.
Karl Rove: But have we considered whether the impact will be positive or negative?
Miers: What are you talking about? People could die!
Rove: Is that necessarily a bad thing? People died at Pearl Harbor, and FDR never saw such high approval numbers in his life.
Bush: Somebody get me a naner (banana).
Miers: I really think we need to do something about this.
Rove: Here, I'll do something. (Rove rolls up memo into one long tube, pulls out a zippo and lights the end of it. He uses the burning memo to light his cigar). There, I did something with it, are you happy now?
Miers: I'm leaving, call me in a few years if you have a Supreme Court vacancy.
Miers Briefed Bush on Famous Bin Laden Memo, But Newspapers Handle the AP Photo Quite Differently

Tom DeLay, who last week was indicted on charges that could have put him in prison for a few years, was re-indicted by a grand jury today on money laundering charges that could potentially put him in prison for life. Although we can't realistically expect a well-connected DeLay to spend the rest of his corrupt life behind bars, it seems quite possible now that he could actually go away for awhile. That would be a sad, sad, ending to the political career of a sad, sad, man.
My Way News

Here's a column by Pat Buchanan, in which he rips apart Bush Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. Apparently, this woman lacks all qualifications, and Bush picked her because she is his personal lawyer. I don't know if she's the one who got him off all those coke and DWI charges, but hey, he's president now, so she must have done something right.

The more I look at Miers, the more confused I am about her chances of being approved. This is another Bush pick that will look ridiculous in the history book. Never in US history has it been so possible for so many unqualified people to get high-ranking jobs in government.
HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Miers' Qualifications Are 'Non-Existent' by Patrick J. Buchanan

Just as I predicted several days ago, President Bush nonimated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. I was surprised to learn that Miers is a former democrat who gave money to the Al Gore's 1988 campaign, which failed to win the democratic nomination against Michael Dukakis, and would have faced off against George Bush Sr.'s eventual winning campaign. She also gave money that year to Lloyd Bentsen, who was selected as Dukakis' running mate. In recent years her donations went a bit more conservative. During the Florida recount she gave $5,000 to the Bush-Cheney Inc. Recount Fund, which should have been called the "Please Don't Recount Fund".

This nomination is already drawing a lot of criticism from liberals and conservatives. Liberals are wary of her lack of any track record on controversial issues, and conservatives are upset that Bush didn't pick people who would likely overturn Roe v. Wade and other controversial decisions.
BREITBART.COM - Just The News

Alcohol is one of several special interest groups that basically have to buy off some politicians in order to gain their favor on certain bills. So which politician takes in the most cash from the alcohol industry? Would you believe it's Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah, a man who does not drink? Hatch's hypocrisy doesn't end there. He takes in more money from alcohol, tobacco, and gambling special interests combined than any other member of congress. Hatch, a member of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), who oppose drinking, smoking, and gambling, even had a fund-raiser at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas in 2003, which likely included a little of all 3 vices.
deseretnews.com | Wine, beer, liquor cash flows into Hatch coffers