It has begun
The Blizzard of 2005 finally makes its' appearance. At 2:30 PM. La. You want to know what's so annoying? Schools here didn't even bother opening today. Back when I was a kid if there wasn't at least 6" already on the ground you could just suck it up and walk that half-a-mile to the bus stop, gol'darnit. And there weren't any parents with warmed-up SUVs waiting for you, either. Was the world safer then, or are people just such raging pussified asshats today? Christ.


***

Karma
Talon "News" - repuke meatstick and WH prostitute Jeff Gannon's non-gay-porn web home - has shut down due to "heavy criticism," assreaming.


Clicky.
***

Fascism and the WH #uck-slaves of the whore media
"How is it that an administration that screened thousands of people for attendance at Bush campaign rallies repeatedly let a fake reporter into the sanctorum of the White House pressroom under a false name?"

[T]he Bush White House forces the Secret Service to allow a former male prostitute into the White House so he can play reporter and lob softball questions to the president – and what do we get? Silence from the mainstream media. Silence from Republicans in Congress. Support for Guckert from many conservative commentators, who accuse liberal bloggers of anti-gay bias. And the scandal disappears from the radar screen.

If that's not a double-standard, I don't know what is. Why aren't the mainstream media making a big deal of this story? Why aren't they demanding a White House apology? Or a congressional investigation? Because they have no backbone, that's why. They're afraid of the Bush White House. And they've let Bush get away with everything, from lying about weapons of mass destruction to pampering a male prostitute.

Please, no more complaints about the liberal media. Today's White House reporters are in Bush's pocket.

- Bill Press.

***

Well, we're back. After being sick as a dog with another kidney infection, the bf took me to the Caribbean for a couple of days to sit in the sun and drink rum. I think he's trying to kill me.


Uh-huh

During a press conference, an obviously confused Bush offered up this interesting statement: "I live in a transparent country. I live in a country where decisions made by government are wide open."

Right... so you'll be telling us who was on the Energy Policy Task Force, then? Or why your administration finagled all that "evidence" about Iraq's WMD capabilites? Or who outed Valerie Plame? Or who was responsible for the Jeff Gannon scandal? Or... oh, forget it.

- from this week's top ten Conservative Idiots.

Divorced from reality, II

It's hard to believe the White House could hit rock bottom on credibility again, but it has, in a bizarre maelstrom that plays like a dark comedy. How does it credential a man with a double life and a secret past?

I'm still mystified by this story. I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?

- Maureen Dowd.


***

Ted Hitler, reporting...
The Daily Show covers Gannongayte: links here, here and here.


***

Divorced from reality
Jeff Gannon's buddies in the misadministration have deleted the words "gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender" from the title of the "Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals" workshop.


GOP gay icon Ken Mehlman, getting ready to swallow the santorum.
***

Slaughter to White House - "Stop the Stonewalling!"

During the February 10 White House briefing, Press Secretary Scott McClellan stated that Jeff Gannon, "like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly" in order to receive his day pass to press briefings. It has been confirmed that Jeff Gannon was in the White House briefing room, actively participating in these briefings, as early as February 28, 2003 a full month before Talon News even existed.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Rules, who has led the call for answers in this matter, today called on the White House to explain their relationship with the discredited "reporter" once and for all.

"It has been a week since I wrote President Bush seeking answers in this matter. I have not yet received a reply. With each new revelation it becomes more and more clear that the relationship between the White House and Jeff Gannon was anything but typical," said Slaughter. "It is time for this Administration to stop the stonewalling and come clean with the American people," she added.

Accountability, moral clarity
Bush nominates Iran/Contra's John "human rights abuses" Negroponte for National Intelligence Director.


Pic by Spade Hammer.
***

Values, integrity
GOP operative accused of theft

The chairman for the Young Republican National Convention has been busted for embezzlement.

"It is a brilliant strategy. When the Bush administration isn't using taxpayers' money to buy its own fake news, it does everything it can to shut out and pillory real reporters who might tell Americans what is happening"

- Frank Rich.



SCLM silent on security issue
Apparently it's A-OK that a gay male prostitute was given secret, classified National Security documents that exposed a covert CIA operative, by someone in the Bush misadministration.

The intrinsic media interest of the Guckert/Gannon story should be obvious to anyone who has followed his tale, which touches on hot topics from the homosexual underground and the investigation into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame to the political power of the Internet. But our supposedly liberal media becomes quite squeamish when reporting anything that might humiliate the Bush White House and the Republican Party.

Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White House... Then imagine the constant screaming on radio, on television, on Capitol Hill, in the Washington press corps - and listen to the placid mumbling of the "liberal" media now.

- Joe Conason.

“To me, the really amazing thing is that you know have the clear record of a guy who was a fake reporter from a fake news organization asking fake questions at a presidential press conference with a very questionable pass, and the best the mainstream media can do is an article in the C-section of the Washington Post,” [a senior Dem House] aide said.

“This isn’t even in the news section, this is in the style section,” the aide added. “I just think this is pathetic.

"Jeff Gannon" had decided to give an exclusive TV interview to a sober practitioner of by-the-book real news, Wolf Blitzer. Given this journalistic opportunity, the anchor asked questions almost as soft as those "Jeff" himself had asked in the White House.

Mr. Blitzer didn't question Mr. Guckert's outrageous assertion that he adopted a fake name because "Jeff Gannon is easier to pronounce and easier to remember." Mr. Blitzer never questioned Gannon/Guckert's assertion that Talon News "is a separate, independent news division" of GOPUSA. Only in a brief follow-up interview a day later did he ask Gannon/Guckert to explain why he was questioned by the FBI in the case that may send legitimate reporters to jail: Mr. Guckert has at times implied that he either saw or possessed a classified memo identifying Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

Might that memo have come from the same officials who looked after "Jeff Gannon's" press credentials? Did Mr. Guckert have any connection with CNN's own Robert Novak, whose publication of Ms. Plame's name started this investigation in the first place? The anchor didn't go there.

- Frank Rich, god bless him, probably somewhere on page 29, section Z of the NY Times.

Meanwhile, the #ucking chickenshit cowardly Dems are spinelessly folding into their usual gutless lumps of ineffectual, pointless superfluousness.

Democratic congressmembers are quietly mulling whether to respond to an article in the Washington Post which raises serious questions of how a man who sought to prostitute himself got access to the president, and potentially to a confidential memorandum naming a CIA agent.

Some staffers are frustrated with the Democrats’ inability to raise the prostitution issue, which many agree would have certainly been raised had a prostitute surfaced in the Clinton White House.

"[A] phony journalist, planted by a Republican organisation, used by the White House press secretary to interrupt questions from the press corps, protected from FBI vetting by the press office, disseminating smears about its critics and opponents, some of them gay-baiting, was unmasked not only as a hireling and fraud but as a gay prostitute."
- Sidney Blumenthal.




Officials warn of future terror attacks
Of course they do.

Proof that 'Jeff Gannon' was in the White House Briefing Room before 'Talon News' even existed.

Guckert/Gannon/whoever didn't even make an application to the Capitol Hill press corps until February 2004. A year before he does this, Feb 28th, 2003, he's there in the White House as we've seen here. On April 7th, 2004, he's turned down for a Capitol Hill pass.

So not only was he turned down for a Capitol Hill pass, but he was attending the White House briefings for a year before he even applied for one.

AmericaBlog and Kos have the videos.

Heh

The operators of FleetCenter in Boston decided it'd be a good idea to auction off single-day rights to rename the stadium and give the proceeds to charity. Honorable idea. Unfortunately for them, the winner of Monday, February 28, was the infamously crude news site Fark. They held a competition this afternoon to decide what the name should be. The winning entry: "Fark.com UFIA Arena.”

UFIA stands for “Unsolicited Finger In the Anus.”

Well, he already has a bitch named "Alan Colmes"...
Judd L. emails us to let us know that rightwing pud Sean Hannity is asking for suggestions on what to name his new puppy, here.

You know what to do.

The Fightin' Codgers
Octogenarian receives Army recruiting letters inviting him to re-enlist.


"Hey, you go with the Army you can get..."

Bringing honor and integrity back to the White House
Digby discusses the issue that is "threatening the GOP" - and how the pathetic, cowering Dems are still "ignoring the naked, gay conservative prostitute in the middle of the family values White House living room."

And Eric Boehlert in Salon asks, "Why was a gay male prostitute given access to the White House press room after being turned down for Capitol Hill press credentials?"

Addressing the question of why Guckert's personal life matters, [AmericaBlog's John] Aravosis wrote, "This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a 'daily basis.'"

Whether news that Guckert was able to go from posting his gay male escort services online to being ushered into the White House under a phony name on behalf of a fake news organization - and was never asked to pass an FBI background check - constitutes a real "story" among the Republican Party faithful, or the mainstream press corps, remains to be seen.

Puh - the "mainstream media' has already choked, much like Gannon with a big hot Rovian dick in his mouth:

Following a meeting [Tuesday] between the leadership of the White House Correspondents' Association and Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellan, neither side seemed to be in a hurry to alter the current system, which has drawn criticism amid the recent "Jeff Gannon" scandal.

After a 30-minute sit-down with McClellan, WHCA President Ron Hutcheson said he believed the current system was fine and hesitated to have the correspondents' association play a bigger role in distributing press passes.

America's Favorite Junkie back in the news
The prosecutor investigating whether whiny, cystic lardass Rush Limbaugh illegally bought drugs told the Florida Supreme Court on Monday that investigators should be allowed to review the loathsome, hopped-up windbag's medical records.

Assistant State Attorney James Martz, responding to arguments Limbaugh and his attorneys made asking that the records remain sealed, told the court "Privacy rights cannot operate as an impenetrable shield to conceal, camouflage, or secrete evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Dickheads.''
Limbaugh had no comment, as he was busy celebrating his third divorce by proinging his latest #uckstick, CNN's obviously insane Daryn "Duh?" Kagan.

You don't say

"Benefit cuts is an interesting word. Benefits are scheduled to grow at a certain rate, and one of the, one of the suggestions, for example ... was they grow at a, they grow, but not at a rate as fast as projected. You can call it anything you want. I would call it an adjustment to reality.”

- Monkey McMoron, torturing his already barely-working neurons, 2/14/05.

Values
Well-known serial liars the Swift Boats Veterans for Bush are going to receive an award at the Conservative Political Action Conference for their help in getting liar-in-chief Squinty McStupid elected. Yet "left-leaning" truth-telling bloggers are being vilified. You tell me. But do it later, 'cause I'm gonna go hurl.

Howard Kurtz, WH WHore, outstupids himself
The continuing saga of a slimy shill getting paid by a once-reputable news organization for being a spooge-dripping gpuke towelboy.

Today's chapter: In another lefty-blogger-bashing column in the WaComPo, wHoreward either completely misses the point or chooses to, well, prostitute himself - and gets a new nickname in the process: "Kneepads."

The X-rated twist has made for a lot of clandestine clicking in a town where Deep Throat conjures images not of a porn star but of a man in a parking garage. But it has also deepened the debate over blogging and the tactics used to drive a conservative reporter from his job as White House correspondent for two Web sites owned by a Republican activist. In most Beltway melodramas, the resignation ends the story.

Blah blah blah. Spurt spurt spurt. Gee, Howie, did you make as big a stink when Bill Clinton was being hounded? Or Eason Jordan? What about when Gannon himself "reported" last year - falsely, what a surprise - that a former Kerry intern had had an affair with the senator? You hypocritical whore. How can you sleep at night with the WH dick jammed up your ass like that? Is that why you always have that shit-eating grin on your stupid phiz? Well, here's something special, just for you -


Idiot.

WTF's happy fun time!
OK, for three points:

What type of tissue found on most on a water bird and also can be found on marge simpson

- actual search query that brought some poor shlub to this site. Well, I'm stumped. Anyone know the answer?

Heh
Via e-mail from Karl F, the Freedom of Information Act request from Reps Slaughter and Conyers, to Homeland Security:

... request today with the Department of Homeland Security asking for the release of all information related to Jeff Gannon, his credentialing/security clearance to cover the White House, the White House's involvement in credentialing/clearing reporters, and Gannon's involvement in the leaking of a classified Central Intelligence Agency memo containing the identity of undercover agent Valerie Plame.

How much longer must we wait for answers? By his own implication 'Mr. Gannon' has had access to classified documents that contained the identity of an undercover agent for the CIA. The American people deserve to know how this man was able to get access not only to the White House briefing room but also these very sensitive documents.

And Judd L. wonders if there's another "Jeff Gannon" out there. From yesterday's press briefing with Scottie:

Q: You talked about sanctions against Iran if they don't comply with dismantling their nuclear energy program. Sanctions, in the past, have proven to be a joke --

"Everyone on the planet knows Scott McClellan is gay"
- helpful e-mailer MikeD.

Everyone but me, obviously. And maybe James Dobson.

Raw Story has been told that the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan visited a gay bar in the basement of the Alamo Austin, Texas, on March 19, 1995. The source, who would only comment on condition of anonymity, reserved comment on whether McClellan was actually gay, but said he was frequently seen at gay clubs. Another source also confirmed this account.

“He was often seen in gay clubs in Austin, Texas and was comfortable being there,” the Texan said. “He’s been seen in places that normal people who are looking for heterosexual relationships are not seen alone.”

Supportin' the troops
White House turns tables on former American POWs tortured by Iraqis.

The Bush misadministration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The rationale: Today's Iraqis are good guys, and they need the money.

Supportin' the troops, II
Forty thousand US troops in Iraq have been informed that their enlistment has been extended until December 24th, 2031.

Family values
Repuke gasbag's third marriage officially over.

Pasty, anal-cystic blowhard Rush Limbaugh's latest divorce has been "signed and sealed," NoozeMax is reporting. He is now free to wed current inamorata, CNN's Daryn "I must be #ucking blind" Kagan.


"Why yes: I AM a disgusting pig rectum."

Effective opposition
Making a stand:

"The Republicans know the America they want, and they are not afraid to use any means to get there," Howard Dean said in accepting the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. "But there is something that this administration and the Republican Party are very afraid of. It is that we may actually begin fighting for what we believe."

We'll never know whether Democrats would have done better over the past four years if they had taken a stronger stand against the right. But it's clear that the time for that sort of caution is past.

- Paul Krugman.

Keeping it in the family
... the Bush/Cheney Crime Family

Condo Rice gives spawn of Cheney important Middle East position:

Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of VP Dick Cheney, will become the second-ranking US diplomat for the Middle East, the State Department said on Monday. Cheney, who previously worked in the department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and left to work on her father's 2004 re-election campaign, will become the bureau's principal deputy assistant secretary of state.

Controlling the message
Staging the Bubble Boy's faux "town hall meetings," "forums," and "conversations."

Regardless of the name, such events are always the same: Bush as congenial host with hand-picked guests with stories to prove the president's point.

In addition to orchestrating the on-stage portion of the events, there is evidence that the White House works to control the live audience. Presidential appearances are "ticketed events," with ticket distribution controlled by local officials and organizations... under marching orders from the White House "advance" staff.

When Bush is not out and about pushing his message the prime lines of communication are [spokesman Scott] McClellan's twice-a-day sessions in the White House Briefing Room.

Admission requires the approval of the White House Press Office. McClellan says it's pretty much an open-door policy. By showing affiliation with a legitimate news organization, you're pretty much in, he said.

Uh-huh.

Yes, my name is Heywood Jablowmie, and I'd like to apply for a press pass?

Moral high ground, national security and accountability
"Guckert was denied similar credentials to cover Capitol Hill because of questions about his legitimacy as a reporter." - the Houston Chronicle.

Remember how the g-pukes gloated that they would bring honor and respectability back to the White House? How do they now explain the access a gay prostitute using a false name got to not only the WH and classified CIA files, but to the president? Did he sign a loyalty oath? Who signed off on his background check when he applied for access to the president? Did the Secret Service know Gannon was a) an alias, and b) a rent-boy? What the hell was a gay hooker doing in the White House press room?



The way the rightwing knuckledraggers freaked out over Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinski, you'd think they'd be upset when the Bush misadministration gets caught giving WH access to a gay prostitute. Unless they really didn't care about the president's "moral values" and just wanted a witch hunt to remove him from office...

Good grief
Saw this at Kos and nearly swallowed my tongue:

"I've a constitutional responsibility to nominate well-qualified men and women for the federal courts – I have done so.” - President Bush, 2/14/05

"Nominations Sent to the Senate…Thomas B. Griffith, of Utah, to be United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit” - White House Press Release, 2/14/05

"Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush’s nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years, according to Utah state officials.” - Washington Post, 6/21/04

A gay old time
Faithful readers are telling me that WH press-tool Scott McClellan has been seen frequenting gay bars with 'Jeff Gannon.' Not that there's anything wrong with two hopped-up-on-Jebus family-value members of the Gay Bashing Party wanting to keep their choice of illicit sex partners secret.

Links! I need links!!

Which is probably what Scott and Jeff are screaming right now, too.

Howard Kurtz, WH whore
wHo(re)ward is still slapping on the lubricant. Here he is with CNN's "blog reporter" Jacki Schechner:

SCHECHNER: This is so fast. So absolutely quick. The other one we wanted to talk about was the Jeff Gannon story. Something that you're very familiar with.

Because you, too, are such a shameless whore for the GOP, Howie! LOL.

SCHECHNER: Now, he had originally -- let me show you first the trend. Let's look at that. You can see here it's the yellow line. Now there's a spike today and the reason why is because he had told you that some of these sort of racier sites that he had allegedly been a part of didn't exist.

KURTZ: He had registered the addresses, he said the sites never actually went up.

SCHECHNER: Well, we found it. Or actually, one of the bloggers found it. We found it through the blog. Americablog.com which is a liberal site found it. Now we would show you that but the pictures on that site are actually kind of racey. So we didn't want to go there but Wonkette.com has it as well. And you can read about that story.

KURTZ: She has the PG version?

SCHECHNER: She has the PG version and then she has a link to the sort of X-rated version.

KURTZ: So just like in primetime television sex apparently sells based on these pictures.

SCHECHNER: They were and actually they were pretty graphically displayed. And then we went back and they were covered over.

KURTZ: Although what this has to do with Jeff Gannon's job at the White House -- whether was criticized on the substance is debatable.

You are such a pathetic #ucking suckjob, Howie.

Speaking of big wangjobs up the ass
The Bushies' struggling taxpayers' $85 million national missile defense system fails for the second time.

Reporters to meet with White House on just who the #uck can get into these damn briefings
Members of the White House Correspondents' Association plan to meet with WH press secretary Scott McClellen to 'discuss tightening the White House press-credentialing process' in the wake of the disgraceful gay prostitute episode.

The meeting follows the recent uproar over James Guckert, a former White House "reporter" for a fake "news" "organization" who has gone by the aliases Jeff Gannon, Bulldog, Hootie McBoob and Hotcommandosantorum and still managed to not only receive access to confidential CIA files, but to get thisclose to Monkey McMoron.

Among the potential changes to the credentialing system: tighter restrictions on who can receive daily press passes, such as those Smegfilledmilitarystud had obtained; and a more active role by the WHCA in approving requests or credentials.

White House's fake journalist busted. Again.
GOP pet propagandist outed by his own gay men's porno websites as a liar and a gay hooker. But a reasonably well-hung lying gay hooker, so he has that going for him.

AmericaBlog gets the goods on 'Jeff "Hot militarycornholerforJesus" Gannon.'

This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions...

Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy?

Warning: some pictures are definately unsafe for work.


"Faaaaaaaaaaabulous!"

Why the hell aren't more people pissed off??

It was just a few weeks ago that Condoleezza Rice said to Barbara Boxer "I really hope that you will not imply that I take the truth lightly." Well there's no need to imply it any more: Condoleezza Rice is a flat-out liar. It was revealed last week that the Bush administration tried to suppress a report which shows that between April and September of 2001 they were warned numerous times that terrorists were planning to commit suicide attacks in hijacked aircraft.

- from this week's top 10 Conservative Idiots.

BTW, guess who was number one?!

Happy "corporate holiday to boost Hallmark stock" day!



Make your own heart, here.


I can't fight! I'm a corpulent, chickenshit d-bag!
Send doughy pantload Jonah Goldberg the international symbol of cowardice, via White Feathers for Jonah.

Are the internets moving really slowly today, or is it just me?

Blah.

Friday cat blogging
(Click pics to enlarge)


Where's Egon??


There he is!

Another story the WH doesn't want you to see
Monkey McMoron's job approval falls to 45% in a poll that wasn't fixed.

Uh - huh
Just like he didn't know Ahmed Chalabi and Ken Lay, the White House is claiming that Preznit Bubble Boy didn't know the fake reporter with a fake name and fake credentials from a fake newsorganization.