Last week, the John McCain MySpace page was "hacked" by someone with a lively sense of humor. When I say hacked, I don't mean they used some script to bypass the login screen. What happened is John McCain's people accidentally gave away his password. Someone decided to log in as McCain and post a few funny comments on his MySpace page.

Yesterday, two FBI agents knocked on the door of the prankster. On behalf of the McCain campaign, they had obtained search warrants that entitled them to search and take documents, audio tapes, video tapes, and electronic data that contained any reference to John McCain's MySpace page or anti-government activities. They took everything relating to computers from the man, including monitors. They were certain that he was some hacker using an illegal script to gain access to restricted material. Apparently, John McCain can't take an f-ing joke.

John McCain seems so willing to trample on the common rights of a law-abiding citizen, yet he thinks he can speak for those people as our president. He once opposed George W. Bush in the 2000 GOP primaries, including the fact that Bush was using some very ignorant and downright racist people like Jerry Falwell to promote his campaign. Now he is a supporter of President Bush and has even spoke at Liberty University, a college started by Jerry Falwell that has rules against interracial dating. Is this really the man that many GOP supporters want to be the next president of the United States? Have they at least considered Ron Paul?
Pranking McCain - Part 2

Democrats have finally grown a pair. The Senate voted today to withdraw troops from Iraq, despite the fact that they face a certain veto from the president. It was a symbolic gesture, in reality, showing that they will not blindly support a president who so willfully clusterf*cked the country over the past 6 years.

This vote also drew a line in the sand among presidential hopefuls. Those who voted against troop withdrawal, such as John McCain, will have to explain themselves to an American public that is growing more and more weary of a war that has done nothing positive for this country.
My Way News - Senate Signals Support for Iraq Timeline

Surprise, surprise, the Attorney General who has continually displayed an ignorance of our legal system now has an aide who is admitting that she will misuse the 5th Amendment during her upcoming testimony.

Monica Goodling, a senior Justice Department official, will be citing 5th Amendment protection while refusing to answer questions at Senate hearings this week. The problem is, the 5th Amendment was intended to protect a person from incriminating themselves during testimony. Monica Goodling is not facing prosecution, and there is very little that she could admit to that would result in prosecution. She has even come out and said this is not the reason she's citing the 5th. She's afraid that she will be prosecuted for perjury for something she says during her testimony.

You did read that right. Goodling will be citing the 5th because it the only way to avoid lying to protect the Attorney General. The 5th Amendment does not and should not protect a person from perjury charges for lying under oath during the same questioning that the 5th was invoked. Goodling's attorney, John Down, even had the audacity to claim that the recent prosecution of former Dick Cheney aide Lewis Libby is a good reason for his client to cite the 5th. If Ms. Goodling wants to avoid being the next Lewis Libby, why doesn't she just get on the stand and tell the truth? Is the truth a concept so far from Republican ideals that they don't even acknowledge its existence?
My Way News - Gonzales Aide to Invoke Fifth Amendment

Those 18 days of missing emails during the time the federal attorneys were fired have been found, and they do reveal that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied about his involvement in the firings.

The Attorney General has previously stated that he was not closely involved with the termination of the federal attorneys, but the emails show that he and five top Justice Department officials had a meeting to discuss a five-step plan to carry out the firings in the weeks before the action was taken. One of the steps of the plan was to notify Republican senators in the federal attorney's home states to prepare them for new nominations. They essentially wanted to make a quick switch to avoid any political upheaval.

Gonzales lied about his involvement on March 13, when he told reporters that he had been aware that there were discussions involving the dismissals, but he had not been part of the process.

Alberto Gonzales forced to resign in 5...4...3...2...
Documents Show Gonzales Approved Firings | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

The mysterious Apple/1984 commercial remake featuring Hillary Clinton as Big Brother was made by a man who works for a company under contract with the Barack Obama campaign. The man was not paid by Obama or his employer to make the ad, but he has since been fired.

I can see why Blue State Digital, the man's employer, had to terminate him. After all, his actions could make the Obama campaign look bad by making it appear that Obama is covertly supporting unsanctioned advertising and attack ads released on the internet. That said, it's clear that Obama has a passionate following. His people are people who will spend their free time doing what they can to support his campaign. Does Hillary Clinton have that? No, she has a few dozen multi-millionaires giving her donations.
ABC News: Anti-Clinton Ad Linked to Obama Campaign Tech

Fox News ass Sean Hannity recently made a challenge to Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson: debate me on TV. Anderson has been a critic of the Bush administration, despite being mayor of one of the most conservative cities in the country. To Hannity's surprise, Anderson responded that he would love to debate, as long as it was a structured format with a moderator.

This is where things get weird. Hannity's people contacted Anderson's people and told him he would like to do a "joint press conference". That's a much different format than Hannity had originally proposed, and it would have them each making speeches and not responding to each other. That's not a debate. That's not what Hannity had originally challenged Anderson to do.

Why is Sean Hannity so afraid of Rocky Anderson's oratory skills? I know Sean Hannity is not a particularly smart man, I've read his books, but surely he's not going to step down from a challenge he created, is he?
MyDD :: Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics

President Bush had warned Democrats in Congress that he will block their efforts to question his top aides, including Karl Rove, under oath. He has offered to have them testify, but he has been insistent that they not be put under oath.

What is the president trying to hide? The same questions will be asked whether the testimony is under oath or not. The only difference is that his aides can lie if not under oath. He's basically saying that his aides can testify, but only if they're allowed to lie and not get into trouble for it.

This is probably the 4th or 5th worst scandal of the Bush administration, but it could be the one that brings down the ship. The White House supported and encouraged the U.S. Attorney General to fire all federal attorneys who had not shown loyalty to the administration. Now they are going out of their way to cover it up, even if they have to admit that they are going to lie about it if questioned by Congress.

The only thing comparable to this that I can think of was when a Democratic senator tried to put a group of oil executives under oath a few years ago, only to be shouted down by that Alaskan scumbag, Senator Ted Stevens.

Alberto Gonzales' career will not survive this scandal. The question is, will Bush's?
Bush Warns Dems to Take Offer in Firings

The Firemen's union in NYC is getting ready to "Swift Boat" the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign. The men who served so courageously and risked their lives in 9/11 are going to attack Rudy's record, and the perception that he did anything special on that day.

The difference between this and the Swift Boat fracas is that the firemen who are now attacking Rudy Giuliani were actually there on 9/11. The Swift Boat veterans did not serve with John Kerry. They said they served in Vietnam with John Kerry, but they really meant they served in Vietnam at the same time John Kerry served in Vietnam. Check the records, it's true.

Rudy Giuliani was seen as a corrupt and immoral politician prior to 9/11. He became a hero after that day, for actions that nobody has been able to pinpoint. Now, after starting a lobbying firm that represents such squalid interests as big tobacco and Hugo Chavez-owned oil companies, Rudy thinks he can waltz into the White House because the whole country thinks he's a hero. His past will catch up to him, and his campaign will get torpedoed faster than a swift boat in open waters.
Firemen douse Rudy’s image as 9/11 hero-News-World-US & Americas-TimesOnline

Barbara Bush recently stated that she does not watch media coverage of the war in Iraq, because it's not relevant. I guess that's no surprise, as no member of the Bush family has actually served in the military (besides statue cleaning in the Texas Guard) since George H.W. Bush in WWII.

Barbara Bush is the mother of a man responsible for more innocent deaths than any man since Pol Pot. Why should we expect her to waste her beautiful mind thinking about that?
Like Mother, like son. The Bush family has disdain for U.S. soldiers. - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Fox News anchor Brit Hume just won't give up on the Valerie Plame affair. He is so cock-sure that it was actually Plame who is at fault, not the politicians who made a conscious decision to out her at a CIA agent, that he's willing to spread lies that have been debunked for over a year.

Brit Hume claims that Valerie Plame recommended her husband for a trip to Niger to investigate a possible WMD connection with Iraq. Hume cites a Senate Intelligence Committee report from 2004. He claims it was an unanimous decision of the committee that Plame recommended her husband for the trip. That is a lie. It was actually three Republican senators: Christopher Bond, Orrin Hatch, and Pat Roberts, who made the assertion in an addendum to the report. Their source was the testimony of another CIA agent. That agent would later tearfully apologize to Valerie Plame, claiming his words were twisted and distorted by the senators, and he never meant to imply that Plame recommended her husband for the job.

The rest of that committee never made any assertion that Plame was involved in choosing who was sent to Niger, yet Brit Hume keeps telling his loyal flock of sheep that she was. The Plame affair is one of many despicable scandals of the Bush administration. It goes right to the top, with our countries leaders "outing" a CIA agent and the cover agency she worked for in an attempt to get back at her husband, who had criticized the administration publicly. People working overseas when the cover agency's true identity was leaked were put in serious danger. Secret agents have been killed in the past when their covers were blown. THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS CRIME.

Why does Brit Hume continue to marginalize the seriousness of this crime perpetrated by the Bush administration by spreading a lie that there was a conflict of interest involving the victim and her husband? He now claims it is Valerie Plame who has lied under oath. That lie is so incredulous the only fair punishment is lobotomizing Brit Hume. This man should not be allowed on television, especially a television program that claims to provide people with the news.
Think Progress » Hume Launches New Smear: Plame Lied Under Oath

The loyalty of Bush's Boys will be tested once again, as Alberto Gonzales is expected to be fired or forced to resign in the coming weeks. The resiliency of the Bush presidency is based on this loyalty from people who have the opportunity to take him down. If Bill Clinton had this loyalty on his staff, his face would probably already be on a dollar bill, a coin, and a US stamp, despite the rules about honoring only the deceased.

Let's compare the attorney generals of the two presidents. Bush has Gonzales, a man who has gone out of his way to work "at the pleasure" of the president. You may have heard that quote a lot last week, as the GOP inner-circle tried to justify the firing of federal attorneys who did not "play ball" with the Bush administration. In reality, the attorney general works on behalf of the American people. He does not work directly under the president, and he certainly does not work at the president's pleasure.

Former Attorney General Janet Reno, who was appointed by Bill Clinton, went out of her way to appease the Republicans in Congress. She appointed Ken Starr, a well-known GOP lawyer, to investigate any wrongdoing in the Clinton presidency. At least that's what it appeared his job was. He was really appointed to investigate one case, the Vince Foster suicide. He determined that it was a suicide, an open and shut case. During the investigation he discovered that there were people from Clinton's past who were not pleased with him, so he extended his investigation over and over again. By the time Clinton left office, just about everyone he had ever known had been forced to testify in front of Ken Starr's team of lawyers. The fact that he could only muster one indictment of perjury from all of that testimony is amazing.

If George W. Bush and his boys had to testify about everything in W's past, we'd end up with a very sordid tale of reckless abuse of drugs, forced abortions, multiple incidents of drunk driving, and various other possible felonies. How many perjury indictments could they get from that group?

Alberto Gonzales was never a good Attorney General. I know nothing of his legal past, so I will not say he's not a good lawyer. He might know the law very well. What I do know is that Alberto Gonzales did everything the White House told him to do. Recently revealed emails show that he was in constant contact with the Oval Office, and he completed the various chores that were asked of him, including ranking the federal attorneys based on their loyalty to Bush. Alberto Gonzales will never get the chance to prove he has what it takes to be a great legal mind, because he threw away his ethics and became a puppet for a leader who was not smart enough to get into law school.
Will Gonzales Fall For Attorney Firings?, Sources: AG's Ouster Is Inevitable; Fired Attorney Blames Partisan Politics - CBS News

I've told you before that Rudy Giuliani has many skeletons in his closet, and many of you have asked for proof. You're right, I was wrong to just throw out those suggestions without providing supporting evidence.

The truth is, Rudy's skeletons aren't in his closet, they're sprawled out on the front lawn, decorated with Christmas ornaments. His law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, has represented some rather unsavory and "unamerican" clients. Take Citgo. Yes, the gas company. You see, Citgo is a state-controlled company. And what state controls Citgo? Venezuela, which is led by dictator Hugo Chavez, a man who has called President Bush a terrorist.

If the United States could remove Hugo Chavez from power without causing a fuss, they would. Rudy Giuliani not only does not support Chavez's removal, he represents his interests. It's hard for him to say that he can make America proud while lobbying for one of its sworn enemies.

I encourage you all to do a little more research on Rudy's law career. You'll find he's a stereotypical scumbag lawyer. I know, the accused are entitled to legal counsel, no matter what their crime, but Giuliani is not a defense attorney. Hugo Chavez is not a defendant, he's just a man who knows that you have to pay a lobbyist lots of money to grease the wheels of American government. Giuliani just happens to be the lawyer who stepped in and decided to take that money. Could that moral inconsistency hurt Giuliani's run for president? Absolutely.
Hugo Chávez Is Tied to Giuliani Firm - New York Times

Alberto Gonzales is facing calls for his resignation following the revelation that his firing of federal attorneys was politically motivated, but White House lawyer Harriet Miers actually wanted him to go further.

Following President Bush's reelection, Harriet Miers suggested that all federal attorneys should be fired so Bush could fill those positions with Republican supporters. If you don't remember where you saw Harriet Miers name before, Bush once nominated her for the Supreme Court. That was a move I compared to nominating your mother for a Grammy Award because she used to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" as she tucked you into bed.

Harriet Miers is perhaps the most politically charged of Bush's staff, or rather former staff (she resigned a few months ago, a couple years after her Supreme Court nomination was soundly rejected by Dems and Republicans, and referred to by some pundits as the dumbest nominee ever), and she certainly had influence over Gonzales, who is perhaps the most politically slanted Attorney General in recent US history.

You might remember Bill Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno, picked Republican bigwig Kenneth Starr to investigate Clinton and his staff after Vince Foster committed suicide. Can you imagine Alberto Gonzales calling for an investigation of George W. Bush? If he did, he's probably pick Kenneth Starr to do the investigating. I'm sure a Bush-supported would dig up a lot of dirt on Bush.

Alberto Gonzales will go down in history as the least-qualified Attorney General. He was a token selection; an attempt to pander to the Hispanic vote, which traditionally leans to the right. The only way he can save any piece of his legacy is to resign now before people have the chance to realize just how the White House used him as a means to their ends, including using him as a shield against attacks regarding the prison torture scandal, and the travesty of the wiretapping scandal. Do the dignified thing, step down now, Mr. Gonzales.
My Way News - White House Mulled Firing All Attorneys

If you use the internet, and if you are reading this then you are using the internet, you have probably at least once wanted it to be more private. Sometimes you'd like to send out an Anonymous Email, so nobody would know who sent it.

By using Google to find sites that will set up a temporary email address, you can finally send out that message to colleagues or even adversaries without anyone knowing who sent it. This service can be very important to my type of business, where information and privacy are as vital as air and water.

Alberto Gonzalez has been hearing more calls for his resignation of late, after it was revealed that he fired 8 federal attorneys because they were not targeting high-profile Democrats with their investigations.

The President initially denied any role in the firings, but emails revealed yesterday show that the president's attorney and the Attorney General were discussing just that sort of course of action after the president won his reelection bid in 2004. He was high on his own power at the time, and probably thought he could get away with firing every Democrat in the country.

Do you see now why we should never give too much power to the president?

I've always had a big problem with credit cards. The credit card companies take advantage of the poor, offering them a glimpse of the good life, then rewarding them with a lifetime of debt as they attempt to pay it off. Their return for this investment in the poor? Sometimes well over 100% on the original investment.

My major gripe with credit cards is the fees. I've had problems with companies that claim they never got my check, and instead of informing me about the lateness of my bill, they just sent me an extra charge the next month with fees that totaled well over the original debt. This problem was eventually cleared up when my bank showed me that the check had cleared, albeit a month late. I asked the company when they received the check, and to prove it with the canceled date on the postage. They decided to revoke all the late fees pretty quickly.

I'm not saying that there is a industry-wide conspiracy to nickel and dime customers with fees, but I believe there are many companies that operate this way. I believe there are some companies that hold checks and claim they were not received, just so they can charge late fees. For that reason, I encourage everyone to pay their bills electronically whenever possible.

As far as policy changes to regulate the credit card industry, I don't think it will happen anytime soon. The credit card companies can afford some very powerful lobbyists, and it's them, not the politicians, who have firm control over the federal government.

$2.3 trillion. That's the amount of money that has gone unaccounted for at the Pentagon since George W. Bush became president. That number is from Donald Rumsfeld's mouth.

$2.3 trillion is enough money to do just about anything. Power can be bought, lies can be hidden, the media can be manipulated. The Republicans in Congress and the White House shed their conservative promises, realizing they could steal $8,000 from every man, woman, and child in America and nobody would be able to do anything about it. They would have the money, they would have the power.

There is no way to get this money back. It's been paid out in small chunks to defense contractors, military consultants, and various other "Friends of the GOP". The lesson we should learn from all of this is that we should never give complete power to those politicians who favor the military-industrial complex. They do not have to rob us blind, they can rob us while we hopelessly watch them.

The money may be gone, but we might be able to find small chunks of it. I've heard Donald Rumsfeld has $50,000 stuffed into his colon. Who wants to get it out?
The War On Waste - CBS News

Everyone needs a good reference source. In recent weeks, you may have read something about a conservative version of Wikipedia. It's a joke, don't even bother with it. I think it was probably written by a liberal who is trying to make conservatives look bad. If so, well done.

Encyclocentral.com is a good alternative source of information on everything from animals to politics to making DVDs.

They might not be as big as Wikipedia, or as laughably wrong as Conservapedia, but they provide what you need: good information about things you're researching. Also, they are a great source to cite because they are don't have the negative connotation that comes with Wikipedia, which is currently banned as a source at many colleges.

This article from the Conservative Voice questions why evangelicals are ignoring the candidacy of Ron Paul. Ron Paul is a conservative in the truest sense of the word. Unlike John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, George W. Bush, and just about every other prominent Republican, Ron Paul does not pander to the GOP line if it stands in the way of true conservatism.

Ron Paul also scores higher on any other test of Christian faith than any other 2008 GOP candidate. So why are evangelicals like Jerry Falwell completely ignoring him? Instead, they favor candidates who have compromised their values in favor of oil companies and casino owners. Of course, that's no surprise for Falwell. He uses funds from charities he sets up to live lavishly, while claiming he's doing it all to help the world. How about showing a little self-control and saving some food for the rest of us, lardass?

I'm not supporting the candidacy of Ron Paul. I disagree with him on most issues. That said, I respect his integrity. His views often cross over into the realm of libertarianism, which I like to see from anyone who calls himself a conservative. He is the rare Republican who I might actually like, because he has not sold himself to corporate America or sacrificed our freedoms and told us it was done to "fight terrorism".
Why Do Evangelicals Ignore Ron Paul? by Chuck Baldwin

Andrew Sullivan is one of the leading writers in the world of conservative thought. He's also gay. When Ann Coulter, also considered a prominent conservative writer, called John Edwards a derogatory word for gays at a Conservative summit last week, she received both laughs and applause from the audience. Andrew Sullivan was in attendance, and he could not let it slide.

I've always liked Andrew Sullivan. He sticks to his conservative ideals, and does not make exceptions for people just because they happen to label themselves with the "Conservative" or "Republican" tag. Ann Coulter is the opposite. She calls herself conservative, writes about conservative ideals, but then becomes a shill for any Republican who will give her any attention. She only attacks Republicans when they do something bi-partisan. She fails to recognize the un-conservative nature of the current Republican party. In her mind, Republicans are all good, and Democrats work for the devil.

I urge you all to read what Andrew Sullivan has to say about the "Ann Coulter incident" and why it should scare anyone who identifies themselves with the Conservative Party. We have always known these bigoted feelings were running rampant on the Right, but now it appears that people aren't even afraid to be open about it. I'll link to the article below, but I've also got a request: if anyone out there has pictures or videos of the audience during the aforementioned incident, I'd like to see them. Let's "out" those people who think they have no one to fear when they spread their hateful feelings.
The Daily Dish: Faggot

Former VP Chief of Staff Scooter Libby was convicted of 4 charges relating to the Valerie Plame leak case. The charges were all relating to his obstructing the investigation of the case.

One juror talked to the press after the case, telling reporters that the jury recognized that Libby was the fall guy for Karl Rove and many others who were clearly involved in an intentional plot to leak the name of a CIA agent as revenge for her husband's criticism of pre-Iraq war intelligence.

This decision is not just about Scooter Libby. It's about the President of the United States, his actions, and the men who surround him. No one is above the law, and no misuse of power will go without punishment. Libby may seem like a small man, a scapegoat for the actions of our most powerful elected officials, but this decision leaves egg on all of their faces. Considering that Libby worked for Dick Cheney, I guess that's better than a face full of shotgun pellets.
My Way News - Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial

After reading more about the Vice President's insistence that the press only refer to him as an anonymous senior administration official and then referring to himself in his responses, I have come to the conclusion that the Vice President has become afflicted with a brain-rotting parasite. He probably picked up this bug while hunting last year, but it's taken a year for the larvae to hatch.

The Bush administration has made many attempts to assert its power over the press, but this situation is a little ridiculous. VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney is just doing this to punish the press that has told all the dirt about him. He tried to hide the fact that he recklessly shot a man in the face last year, an incident that happened after he had downed a few beers. He has been attacked relentlessly over the administration's failures, which include just about every action the administration has taken. Don't believe me? Remembering that Osama Bin Laden is still alive and there is a civil war in Iraq, what positive thing will we remember this administration for? They courageously led us into the war on terr... oh wait, I forgot about the "Bin Laden is still alive" caveat.

With the prez and VP both coming down with brain-wasting conditions, who is left in charge of this country?
FRAMESHOP by Jeffrey Feldman

The Bush administration has been the most secretive in American history. Even when quotes and statements are given to the press, they are usually attributed to "anonymous White House officials". The White House says it does this so that it can be more open with the media. Journalists have argued that even the anonymous sources have been far less than open.

In a recent anonymous statement, the official in question used the word "I" when referring to his trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He told about who he had talked to, and what he had learned. By not disguising the "I", it was clear that the source was Vice President Dick Cheney.

The White House did not deny that Cheney was the source, but said that it would not change its policy of giving statements without attribution.
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 02/28/2007 | 'Senior administration official' sounds a lot like Dick Cheney