Poll: Bush ratings hit new low
Preznit Partyhat's approval ratings are at their lowest point ever.

A mere 37% now approve of the job he is doing as president. Only 45 percent see him as a 'strong leader,' down significantly from previous points in his presidency, and the lowest number ever in the CBS poll.

And for the first time, fewer than half approves of the way he is handling his signature issue, the campaign against terrism.

Rove ordered to talk again in leak inquiry
Let's reiterate: Turd Blossom 'ORDERED,' not 'offered' to testify. Huh.

The special prosecutor in the CIA leak case has summoned pasty asshat Karl Rove, the president's brain, liver and nutsack, to return next week to testify to a federal grand jury in a step that could mean charges will be filed in the case, lawyers in the case said Thursday.

The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has also asked neocon playmate Judy Miller to meet him next Tuesday to further discuss her conversations with Scooter Libby, the vice president's chief of staff.

Mr. Fitzgerald has focused on whether there was a deliberate effort to retaliate against Joe Wilson for his criticism of the Bush misadministration's Iraq policy. Recently lawyers said that they believed the prosecutor may be applying new legal theories to bring charges in the case.

Meanwhile, incontinent cranky traitor Bob Novak somehow remains free, though in disgrace.

Republicans swim for their lives in the wake of the Iraq/Katrina/gas prices/highway bill/Harriet Miers/Bill Frist/Bill Bennett/Tom DeLay/Karl Rove/Dick Cheney/Scooter Libby/Jack Abramoff/Brownie/Safavian disasters.


New York subway, Penn Station 'may be targets of terrorist attack'
Right on time! NYC boosts security after threat to Harriet Miers/Bill Frist/Bill Bennett/Karl Rove/Tom DeLay/Dick Cheney/Scooter Libby/Jack Abramoff....

Around the internets
“First, Bush has no right to say ‘Trust me.’ He was elected to represent the American people, not to be dictator for eight years.”

- #uckin’ DUH, b!tch. The Sideshow links to harpy skank mAnn Coulter so I don’t have to.


The Tom DeLay/Roy Blunt money laundering allegations reminds jimmymac at the BartCop Forum of something… hmmm…

Senator Pat Geary: Mr. Cici, was there always a buffer involved?

Willi Cici: A what?

Senator Pat Geary: A buffer. Someone in between you and your possible superiors who passed on to you the actual orders.

Willi Cici: Oh yeah, a buffer. The family had a lot of buffers!

LOL. Indeed.

Is Bunnypants amped on candycane again? AmericaBlog says all signs point to yes.

"Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th-hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer's leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.

“What this means is Rove's lawyer, Bob Luskin, believes his client is defintely going to be indicted.”

Bonus quote: "...at least three high level Bush Administration personnel indicted and possibly one or more very high level unindicted co-conspirators.”

- Lawrence O’Donnell – who broke the Rove-as-source story back in July – in the HuffPo.

Yellow Dog Blog reports that a new Quinnipiac poll has Bush’s NY approval rating at 29%. Boy, that sounds good… twenty-nine percent. Twenty-nine percent twenty-nine percent twenty-nine percent twenty-nine percent

More trouble for Karl: You Reap what you Rove, at Crooks and Liars.

Mail
Which I'm still trying to catch up on from last week...

Bill Christofferson sent us this link, to the Blame Game board game:

The Blame Game board game sells for $10 plus shipping at www.zzzingers.com, with all the money going to Hurricane Katrina victims.

When you play the game, it works pretty much the same way things worked for the poor schleps stuck in New Orleans.

No matter what you roll, you are screwed.

LOL

Breaking news
Karl Rove has to testify
Doo dah, doo dah...

Ride 'im, cowboy!
Gaping, greasy little WH wHore wHoward Fineman wears stained chaps.



Update
At this time, both traitorous self-abuser Karl Rove and corrupt, indicted scumbag Tom DeLay still are not getting raped in prison.



Heh
Find the Brownie

Strategery
Bush ties Iraq to 9/11. Again.

Bush this morning delivered what the White House said was a "major" speech on the struggle against global extr war against humanity war on terror, but seemed to be the same old tired bullshit: Terra, terra, 9/11. Freedom, democracy, terrists. It's hard work when we resolve to stay the course. But we're makin' progress! 9/11.

I could only catch bits and pieces of it at work, but he really didn't say that bin Laden is a man of wealth and privilege that doesn't actively participate in his own wars, did he? Or that Islamic radicalism is elitist, led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the masses? Because, dude... jebus, get a fucking clue.

Bunnypants obeys voices in his head, thousands killed
God told me to invade Iraq, Bush tells Palestinian ministers
Also told him to eat the whole boxa cookies, slaughter a few thousand Jebus-haters, stop playing with himself.

"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

- Nabil Shaath, Palestinian Foreign Minister.

Rove ‘very involved’ in Miers pick

Yesterday, we suggested that the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court was an attempt by the Bush team - particularly Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove - to plant a crony inside the court because they knew indictments were imminent, and therefore they might need an operative on the court should the ensuing congressional investigations move toward impeachment.

Last night, we learned that the Capitol is awash in rumors on two fronts related to the CIA Leak investigation. First, there is word that the special prosecutor will soon issue 22 indictments in the matter; and secondly, Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, refused to confirm or deny whether Rove had received a letter from the prosecutor naming him as a target of the investigation, which is significant because Luskin had earlier categorically denied that Rove was a target....

Read more at the Pensito Review!

Conservatives confront Bush aides
Anger over Miers nomination boils over during private meetings

Conservatives "openly distrustful of the president."

The conservative uprising against Preznit Doofus escalated yesterday as Republican activists angry over his nomination of his personal counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court confronted the president's envoys during a pair of tense closed-door meetings.

A day after Bush publicly beseeched skeptical supporters to trust his judgment on Miers, a succession of prominent conservative leaders told his representatives that they did not. Over the course of several hours of sometimes testy exchanges, the dissenters complained that Miers was an unknown quantity with a thin résumé and that her selection -- Bush called her "the best person I could find" -- was a betrayal of years of struggle to move the court to the right.

At one point in the first of the two off-the-record sessions, according to several people in the room, White House adviser Ed Gillespie suggested that some of the unease about Miers "has a whiff of sexism and a whiff of elitism." Irate participants erupted and demanded that he take it back.

Gillespie and [RNC head Ken] Mehlman came in for rough treatment: "They got pummeled. I've never seen anything like it."

Mwwwwaaaaaaaaaaa!

Tom Tancredo on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to oppose President Bush's choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, saying in scathing comments that she lacks credentials and ability. "She is apparently not the intellectual powerhouse that we could have put on the court," said Tancredo. "I do believe it was a mistake."

I love the smell of repuke brains frying in the morning...
************

WH braces for decisions in CIA leak case
Rumor on the internets: "more than a dozen indictments" coming down. My stomach hurts, I'm so excited.

'Twas the night before Christmas...

And all of a sudden, pasty svengali Karl Rove's lawyer isn't talking.

The federal prosecutor investigating who leaked the identity of a CIA operative is expected to signal within days whether he intends to bring indictments in the Valerie Plame case, legal sources close to the investigation said on Wednesday.

The inquiry has ensnared President PlayStation's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby. The White House had long maintained that Rove and Libby had nothing to do with the leak but reporters have since named them as sources.

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to say whether his client had been contacted by Fitzgerald. In the past, Luskin has said that Rove was assured that he was not a target. Libby's lawyer was "not immediately available" to comment.

After initially promising to fire anyone found to have leaked information in the case, Bush in July offered a more qualified pledge: "If someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration."

Update: Rove's lawyer will no longer deny that his client is a target

President Bush's most trusted adviser, Karl Rove, has been absent from recent White House events, leading those close to a CIA outing case to speculate that he has been told he is the target of an investigation, RAW STORY can confirm.

The buzz on Capitol Hill is that Rove has received what sources called a "target letter," or a letter from the prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson telling him that he is now a target in the investigation. To date, no reporters have been able to confirm this account. One lawyer says that at this point in the investigation it would be more likely any letters would normally be notifications of an indictment.

More here.

Oh please oh please oh please...

Frog march Frog march Frog march Frog march Frog march Frog march Frog march Frog march

Baked Alaska
First a $23 million bridge to nowhere, now a $500,000 paint job. Good one, dickheads.

Just when you thought we couldn't go any lower...

"We have finally reached rock bottom in George W Bush's quest to pull this nation down to his level of stupidity and incompetence."

- Link. And that's just today.


Bush nominates Mr Hanky to head Federal Reserve
"I believe I picked the best person I could find," the president said. "He thinks just like me. I haven't actually sat down with him, but I understand we share the same philosophy. Poop is funny. Heh heh."

President will reject requests for Miers documents
You've got to be fucking kidding me.

'Asked at a news conference whether he would release some or all of her legal work as White House counsel, Mr. Bush said that the principle of executive privilege was important, and that any Senate request for documents would be a distraction from considering Ms. Miers's qualifications.'

"Trust me! Have ah ever steered you wrong?!"

PSM
An anonymous e-mailer reminds us:


(Click to enlarge)

Scary
Indiana Republicans go back in time.

Cool
Mysterious glowing spot the size of Connecticut appears in satellite images of Indian Ocean.

Bioluminescent bacteria? Or undersea alien city?

Meanwhile, in the Situation Room...

JOHN KING (filling in for Wolf Blitzer): I'm maybe a contrarian here, but I think this president is suckering the Democrats, that he sees Scalia and Thomas on the court, sees them as intellectual powerhouses for his cause, sees Roberts to manage the court, and now wants not someone to go in there and be the intellectual powerhouse, but to be a damn good conservative vote and the Democrats saying oh, she's nice.

BILL PRESS: Let me tell you, John, I'll take your point but I'll up you one. I think he's conning the Democrats and I think he's conning the conservatives like Pat Buchanan. Look, this is one of the slickest con jobs I've ever seen. He wants an extreme conservative on there. He's not going to take one everybody knows is an extreme conservative. He takes a Scalia in sheep's clothing. He puts, you know, Harriet Miers up there.

Nobody knows anything about her. And I'm afraid the Democrats are going to fall for it just like they fell for John Roberts and say we don't know much about her, she seems like a nice person, and therefore, she's got to be maybe another Sandra Day O'Connor. Karl Rove and George Bush would not have nominated her if they didn't know here well, and know where she stands on the issues.

"[I]f the Democrats don't raise that issue in the confirmation hearings, they will continue their record, as a whole, with some luminous exceptions, as a whole, of being a party that is spineless, gutless, hapless, clueless and now leaderless." - Ralph Nader, 10/4/05.

Yep, pretty much.

Pic by James Wages.


"My job is to lead and to solve problems." - Bunnypants, 10/4/05.
Well, you suck at both.



"A political disaster"
No, besides former House majority leader Tom DeLay's second indictment.
No, not the SEC's investigation into Senate majority leader Bill Frist's alleged insider trading.
Ummm, no, not VP Cheney's office being named in the CIA leak probe.
OK, not Iraq, either. Geez.

'ABC's Terry Moran asked [WH spokes-tool Scott] McClellan if Bush appointing his personal lawyer, someone with no experience on the bench, is "not the definition of cronyism, what is?"'

She's a a trailblazer! She served as counsel to the president's gubernatorial committee in '93! She represented him in a fishing dispute!

Kelly O'Donnell: To what extent did the President's personal friendship with Harriet Miers have an impact on his ultimate decision? And those who say that it is sort of the appearance of cronyism, that -- did this relationship give her an advantage, and the fact that she was heading the search committee?

McCLELLAN: Well, the President knows her well. He has known her for some time now. But the decision was based on who was the best person to fill this vacancy. And she has the qualifications and experience needed {????? -Ed.} to do an outstanding job on the United States Supreme Court, and that's why the President selected her.

Q: Was he rewarding a friend?

McCLELLAN: I'd say look at her record. She helped clean up the Lottery Commission!

George W. Bush has just rung the death knell for his presidency, says a Star-Trib editorial:

For the Supreme Court of the United States, a president under fire for cronyism has chosen the ultimate crony.

Now the Ted Kennedy left will have a field day portraying Miers as an unqualified crony while the political right remains unenthused and silent -- because they, too, consider her an unqualified crony.

And those are just some conservatives. The blogosphere Monday was full of other conservatives who weren't silent, but outspokenly angry...

Preznit PlayStation holds a press con
"An' there should be no doubt in anybody's mind what I believe a judge -- the philosophy of a judge. And Harriet Miers shares that philosophy."

Ohhhhh.... kayyyyyy....

Q: You've taken time to express that you know her heart, her character, you've emphasized your friendship. So it seems reasonable that over the course of the years you've known her, perhaps you have discussed the issue of abortion. Have you ever discussed with Harriet Miers abortion? Or have you gleaned from her comments her views on that subject?

Bunnypants: I don't have a litmus test for judges. I want judges who are qualified and blah blah blah. But I do not have a litmus test.

Q: Sir, you've already said there was no litmus test --

The Doofus-in-Chief: Correct. And I'll say it again: There is no litmus test.

Q: But she is not someone you interviewed for the job that you didn't know. You've known her a long time. Have you never discussed abortion with her?

Preznit Stupid: In my interviews with any judge, I never ask their personal opinion on the subject of abortion.

Q: In your friendship with her, you've never discussed abortion?

Bunnypants: Not to my recollection have I ever sat down with her. John...

Q: Mr President, how are you going to pay for everything? You know, the war, Katrina, your tax-giveaways to your rich buddies?

Knucklehead: First, let me remind people that we are at war. Ah'm a war president. We're trackin' down the Zarqawis....and we're gettin' 'em... as you recall, we got that fella in Baghdad. We're makin' progress. In the war on terra. I mean the war on global extremism or whatever the heck we're callin' it today... Now, when it comes to discretionary spending, non-security discretionary spending, the budget I submitted to the United States Congress actually reduces non-discretionary -- discretionary -- non-security spending. And as a matter of fact, if you look at the trend line for non-security discretionary spending, I think...what the heck wuz I just sayin'? Let's see. April.

Q: Thanks. How are you going to bridge the divide of poverty and race in this country beyond economics and home ownership, after Hurricane Katrina and also the Bill Bennett statements?

Preznit Stupid: Ownership. People gotta own stuff. An' edumacashun.

Q: What if you don't own anything?

Bunnypants: Yore head is shiny. Heh heh.

Q: What about 2008 and the Republican Party trying to gain more of the black vote?

The Doofus-in-Chief: I am really disappointed I didn't get more votes with African Americans because I have tried to put black people in the cabinet, in the sub-cabinet... not just in positions, but in positions that affect people's lives. I gave a black guy a job!

Q: Are the response results from Katrina acceptable yet, sir?

Bush: I think it worked pretty good. But then there was the reaction about, how about getting this debris removed. And there was some bureaucracy, some rules that prevented the debris from getting removed right off the bat. And I'll explain why, if you're interested. Okay, now that you're interested, I'll tell you. Because they didn't want to be moving federally-paid dozers on private property. Imagine cleaning up the debris and a person shows up, and says, where's my valuable china?

Q: WTF? Dozers? Mr President, when Laura told you "It's Jim Beam or me," did you switch to Jack Daniels?

- Transcript.
*******

Huh
Boy, are there a lot of people pissed off at the Harriet Miers nomination. And by "a lot of people" I mean "mostly republicans."

Wtf is WH stenographer Miller playing at?
A lawyer for Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney's flatulent chief of staff, said yesterday that neocon playmate Judith Miller and her attorneys are responsible for Miller's time in jail, reiterating that she was given permission to talk to prosecutors a year ago.

Classy
The grown-ups are in charge...

Hey Cheney - go fuck yourself, you big-time major-league asshole.

Cleaning up Washington
Grand jury indicts scrofulous, morally vacant POS Tom DeLay on new charges, regrets that 'raving asshattery' isn't illegal in Texas.

The money laundering charge, a first-degree felony, carries a penalty of up to life in prison. The conspiracy to launder money charge carries a punishment of two years probation to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The charge to launder the former majority leader's undies: priceless.

But the loathsome, powermad brownshirted DeLay - who has been admonished five times since 1997 by the House ethics committee - may not have seen the worst of it yet, say new reports.

Follow-up
Bwwwaaaahahahahahahahaha!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Ahem. Linky.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
***

Breaking news
Corrupt, indicted scumbag and former House majority leader Tom DeLay has just been hit with a second criminal indictment, this time for money laundering.

Fabulous!

America's Mayor^™ Rudi Giuliani may run for president in 2008. I can't wait to see the campaign posters.
*****

Disappointed, depressed and demoralized
"It smacks of cronyism."

"We passed up Gonzales for this?": Conservatives, unhappy about the Miers nomination, ponder a filibuster.


***

It's raining Mehlman
Just how far up Bush's ass is RNC chairpuke Ken Mehlman's dick?

“President Bush has once again,..' - huh? Lost at Frogger? Misspelled 'and'?
"... after thoughtful deliberation and consultation,..." - yoink!!!! LOL. As if!
"... nominated an outstanding person in Harriet Miers..." - who? Outstanding how, exactly?
"... to serve on the Supreme Court. Harriet Miers has had a trailblazing career..." - wuzzah?
"... as one of the top lawyers in the country and is extraordinarily well qualified to serve on the Supreme Court." - dude, wtf's wrong with you??

Fun fact: "She apparently was on the board of Exodus Ministries, the convert-the-homos group." - one of RimJob's fretards this morning.


Ken Mehlman, swallowing the santorum for the misadministration.
***

"Last week it was announced that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) would henceforth be known as Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Shit Creek)." - from this week's Top 10 Conservative Idiots, at DU.

Mwwwwwwaaaa. Or as 'corrupt, indicted scumbag Tom DeLay (R-Prisonbitch).'




Harriet Miers pulls a cheney and selects herself as Supreme Court nominee
Preznit Poopers has chosen Harriet "no prior judicial experience" Miers, "a loyal member of Bubble-Boy's insular world of sycophants, cronies and minders the president's inner circle," to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

The daughter of a turd-miner and the granddaughter of a goat ball-licker, Miers rose to become Bush's personal lawyer in Texas, working hard to keep both his nose and his ass clean. She became his staff toady secretary in Washington, was promoted to deputy chief of staff, told him bedtime stories over Ovaltine and animal crackers, and has never been a judge.

"She's just extremely devoted to the president."

"In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met."

Miers has been an enthusiastic supporter of the misadministration on a broad of initiatives including tax cuts for the wealthy, ruining Social Security, restrictions on federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, national insecurity, edumacation reforms and fighting porn terrism.

In hosting an "Ask the White House" interactive forum on the Internet before the 2004 elections, Miers lavished praise on a litany of Bush misadministration initiatives, then gushed, "I could go on and on."

Good God.

"I believe that senators of both parties will find that Harriet Miers' talent, experience and judicial philosophy make her a superb choice to safeguard the constitutional liberties and quality of all Americans," Bush bleated this morning. "An' she makes neat balloon animals!"

"She'll do a heckuva job!" - Michael Brown.
****

Opus

Oh please oh please oh please
Source: Preznit PlayStation directly involved in leak scandal.


Oh please oh please oh please...
****

Contract on America
Bringing honor, integrity and moral values back to Washington...

Washingtonians with long memories were barely able to suppress their grins. If [corrupt, indicted scumbag] Mr. DeLay and his supporters grasped the irony of the occasion, they gave no clue. Eleven years ago this past week, Republican congressmen and candidates unveiled their "Contract With America." Their proposals came just in time for the 1994 midterm elections, which brought the Republicans to power after a 40-year stint in the minority. Back then, Mr. DeLay and other Republicans promised "a new order." They pledged to drain the swamp that was Washington. Just over a decade later, they find themselves up to their necks in the muck.

What goes around comes around for indicted scumbag Tom DeLay
IOW, karma's a bitch. Asshat.

Despite his readiness to condemn others, DeLay deserves the presumption of innocence. Even if the corrupt, venal piece of shit IS guilty as hell.

When Florida state and federal judges failed to order the prolonging of Terri Schiavo's vegetative state, DeLay said, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior." The time has come for DeLay sooner than for the judges.

[F]ew politicians are as fiercely partisan, and no one was more insistent that President Bill Clinton be impeached...

- from the Houston Chronicle.


Rep. Tom DeLay, whom a grand jury indicted on conspiracy charges.
***

Senior misadministration officials could be charged with criminal conspiracy
Perjurers make the Baby Jeebus cry.

The public defense of both Karl "the fixer" Rove and VP mechanic Scooter Libby in the CIA leak scandal have focused on the specific claim they didn’t know Valerie Plame’s name. Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean anyone is off the hook.

If Patrick Fitzgerald is unable to prove a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Rove, Libby and others could still be charged with perjury if they lied to investigators. Today’s Washington Post floats another possibility:

But a new theory about Fitzgerald’s aim has emerged in recent weeks from two lawyers who have had extensive conversations with the prosecutor while representing witnesses in the case. They surmise that Fitzgerald is considering whether he can bring charges of a criminal conspiracy perpetrated by a group of senior Bush administration officials. Under this legal tactic, Fitzgerald would attempt to establish that at least two or more officials agreed to take affirmative steps to discredit and retaliate against Wilson and leak sensitive government information about his wife. To prove a criminal conspiracy, the actions need not have been criminal, but conspirators must have had a criminal purpose.

The White House Iraq Group could be in trouble.

-from Think Progress.

DeLay dirtier than a $3 crack whore, says grand juror
"Ample indications of the congressman's involvement."

Grand jurors were presented a load of evidence, including testimony and phone records, that led them to believe corrupt scumbag Tom DeLay should be tried on a conspiracy charge, then smeared with honey and tied to an ant-hill, the leader of the Travis County grand jury that indicted the dirty, unethical slimeball said Friday.

"It was not one of those sugarcoated deals that we handed to [District Attorney] Ronnie Earle," William M. Gibson said.

"Mr. Earle has stacks and stacks of papers – evidence of telephone calls from Mr. DeLay and everybody," he added. "This asshole's going down."