WTF Is It Now?!?

Al Qaida operative captured by Coast Guard, sometime last May


More on Bugman DeLay/Bugs Bunnypants Buddy Norquist's Enemies List

Senate Majority Whip Harry M. Reid called on Laura's Little Loser Monday to condemn republicans close to the White House who are tracking the political activities of Democratic lobbyists in order to deny them lobbying jobs and access to key government officials.

Bunnypants "wanted to change the tone in Washington, but today we learn he's working in tandem with those keeping secret lists of people's personal activity," Reid (D-Nev.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. "For what? Intimidation, professional retaliation, or maybe even character assassination. I don't think it's criminal, but I think it's on the verge of being criminal."

White House spokes-tool Ari "the Liar" Fleischer said Rezdint Clueless has no plan to condemn the project because "he's not part of it." (Which begs the question.......)

Chimpy the Red-nosed Boozer "should pick up the phone, call his friend and denounce him," Reid said. "Tell him that George W. Bush won't tolerate what amounts to McCarthyism."

From the Washington comPost.





'Homeland Security Hacks'

Anonymous at BuzzFlash writes the following:

The Department of Homeland Security will not be authorized this year and it will be viewed as a major legislative misstep by the Bush Administration. The tempered and bipartisan skepticism you saw on the Sunday talking head shows masks the noise that echoed across Capitol Hill after the President's speech: a collective guffaw.

Let's set the scene. Colleen Rowley was poised to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and a leak war had broken out between the CIA and FBI in the Washington Post and New York Times. Yes, CIA, you did a better job than the FBI in connecting the dots before 9/11. But could you set your sights a little higher than that? Like, say, for example, matching the competence of the INS? And, lo and behold, a blockbuster announcement from the Pretender in Chief: after badmouthing Senator Joseph Lieberman's bill to set up a new agency of Homeland Security and threatening to veto the supplemental appropriations bill for providing funding for such an agency -- the President had a wonderful new idea: let's create a Homeland Security Agency!

And they said Al Gore had no core convictions.




Moments in Churchilliana

''These shadowy terrorists could hook up with a nation that has got weapons of mass destruction, the nations that I labeled the axis of evil.'' - The Oaf of Office, Kansas City, Mo, 6/11/02.




Brits to Bunnypants: 'Bullsh!t!'

British and European security officials are highly sceptical of the BFEE's claims that the alleged "dirty bomb" plotter, Jose Padilla, was preparing a radioactive attack.

British sources point out that despite extensive inquiries, no evidence has been produced to show that he had access to the radioactive material needed to build the bomb, or indeed that he had even worked out a time or place to launch the attack.

In Washington there was a growing suspicion that the arrest was seized on by the Bush administration in dramatic fashion for political ends.

Duh.

From The Independant.


NY Times to Nooculer Nincompoop: 'Nuts!'

The announcement by Attorney General Jesus John Ashcroft of the arrest of a man accused of planning to explode a radioactive device was a notable change from the administration's position that it would not disclose information about the plots it disrupted.

Some Democrats and civil liberties advocates have questioned whether the disclosure was timed to help counter criticism that the authorities, especially those at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had mishandled signals that might have uncovered the Sept. 11 plot. They questioned whether the disclosure about the case of Jose Padilla, also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, was part of a pattern in which the administration orchestrated its announcements to help it politically.

"Every time it looks as though the administration is going to face criticism, they emerge with a request for expanded powers or a new announcement," said Laura W. Murphy, the director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. " What they seem to be doing is timing things so they drown out really aggressive inquiry into their performance."

Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, said it was not possible to know whether the announcement's timing was being manipulated. "But," Mr. Waxman said, "it's hard to ignore that there seems to be a pattern that makes it appear they are being quite political in their calculations of the timing of these announcements."

Mr. Waxman also cited President Bush's announcement of a new Department of Homeland Security on the same day the Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony from Coleen Rowley, the F.B.I. agent who accused the bureau of bungling warnings before Sept. 11.

From Neil A. Lewis at The New York Times.