OK, WTF was he doing at staff meetings??

Q: So, Scott, why would a Jack Abramoff have access to staff-level meetings here at the White House?

WH spokes-tool SCOTT McCLELLAN: I don't know the facts surrounding that, Peter. I said I'm checking into it. But as you know, we don't get into discussing staff-level meetings.

The next day...

Q: Any update on the Abramoff visits to the White House beyond the three parties that he attended?

McCLELLAN: Well, I indicated yesterday that I think there were some -- a few staff-level meetings. But, no, I'm making sure that I have a thorough report back to you on that. And I'll get that to you, hopefully very soon.

I'll bet (via Blah3).

Dems demand answers from WH
'In light of recent disclosures by NBC that CNN Reporter Christiane Amanpour's telephone calls may have been intercepted by the Bush misadministration, Democrats have asked for information regarding whether any reporters or other members of the media have had phone calls intercepted under the NSA program:'

January 5, 2006
The "President"
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Fuckface:

So that we may better understand the nature of your illegal wiretapping program, we would ask that you forward to us the following:

Any and all records identifying any members of the US press, other US media or members of Congress for whom communications to or from them were intercepted.

Yours in Christ,
Congressman John Conyers

Life in Bushistan
A Kos contributor reports that the author of Bush's Brain has been placed on the No-Fly list, can't get himself removed nor get an explanation as to why he was put on in the first place.

"I'm sorry, sir, I've already told you everything I can."

"Oh, wait," I said. "One last thing: this guy they are looking for? Did he write books critical of the Bush administration, too?"

Do I even bother renewing my passport?

Up or down vote
Sometimes, recess appointments are so odious that even your supporters are left slack-jawed.

It's good to be the...
"Today King George announced seventeen -- count 'em seventeen -- recess appointments, many of whom would have faced serious confirmation problems. Kos tells us that the three appointments to the Federal Election Commission never even had nomination hearings. No opportunity to even face questioning. None. Zero. Zip.

"The truly amazing thing about this is that he's had to do this to get past a Senate where his party has a 6 seat majority."

- firedoglake.

Breaking
Ariel Sharon reported to be brain-dead. Bill Frist says according to the videotape, though, he should be fine; still capable of outsmarting Bush.

Bush's NSA destroyed evidence of domestic spying
This just in from truthout.org:

The National Security Agency, the top-secret spy shop that has been secretly eavesdropping on Americans under a plan authorized by President Bush four years ago, destroyed the names of thousands of Americans and US companies it collected on its own volition following 9/11, because the agency feared it would be taken to task by lawmakers for conducting unlawful surveillance on United States citizens without authorization from a court.

Meanwhile, judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said they want to hear directly from misadministration officials why the Dictator-tot believed he had the authority to order, without the court's permission, wiretapping of phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11th attacks.

Forget Poland
The spokesman for the Polish Foreign Affairs Ministry has dismissed claims that Poland has pledged its support in the event of a Bush misadminisration decision to attack Iran.

Noble cause
"Last throes" of suicide bombers cause 118 Iraqis, seven US soldiers to "turn the corner."

Bush's illegal wiretapping illegal, says committee
The House Intelligence Committee told the Boy King that the White House broke the law by withholding information from the full congressional oversight committees about their domestic spying program.

In a letter to Bush, Rep. Jane Harman said the National Security Act requires the intelligence agencies to keep the entire House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States."

"We believe that Congress was briefed appropriately," a White House spokesliar said in response. Of course they do. They also believe the Constitution is just a "goddamn piece of paper."


9/11! Blowjob!

And when they allow you your one phone call, who else will be listening?

If you're a blog junkie, you may have seen the speculation bounding around "the Internets" that CNN's Christiane Amanpour was a subject of Bush's stepped-up post-9/11 spying campaign.

Why the speculation? It's all the fault of NBC's Andrea Mitchell, and this question that she posed on the air to the New York Times' James Risen - the reporter who broke the domestic spying story - earlier today. She asked:

You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?

He didn't, in fact. But presumedly Mitchell - Mrs. Alan Greenspan, who seems to know more than she reports - hears things, or she wouldn't have asked the question.

- Attytood.

Caught by the liberal blogosphere, NBC was busted again when they changed their official transcript of the Andrea Mitchell interview, completely deleting the reference to Bush's possible wiretapping of Christane Amanpour.

Their explanation, such as it is:

Unfortunately this transcript was released prematurely. It was a topic on which we had not completed our reporting, and it was not broadcast on 'NBC Nightly News' nor on any other NBC News program. We removed that section of the transcript so that we may further continue our inquiry.

John at AmericaBlog:

This is quite big. Note exactly what NBC said.

- NBC did not say it pulled the references to Bush spying on Amanpour because it was inappropriate conjecture about something which Andrea Mitchell had no evidence.

- No, NBC said it pulled the references because it was still investigating the accusation and didn't want to scoop itself before it was finished investigating. And make no mistake, NBC is "continuing their inquiry."

- UPDATE: One more point. NBC did NOT delete the part of the interview preceding the Amanpour question - where Mitchell asks if any reporters are being spied on. They only deleted the follow-up question about whether Amanpour was being spied on. Thus, their premature release of info regarding an "ongoing inquiry" wasn't about reporters generally - or they'd have deleted that part of the interview as well - they only deleted the Amanpour follow-up, suggesting that it's the question of whether Bush spied on Amanpour that they have been, and are still, investigating.

That's incredibly big news.

Yeah. It means Ms Mitchell didn't just pull this out of her ass.

What it means to John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Bill Clinton - and the rest of us - if the Bush wiretapping story is true.

Christane also worked for 60 Minutes. Were they also spying on CBS? During the whole Bush National Guard thing? Are those helicopters I hear??

Bringing honor and integrity back to Washington
'Ten years. That's all it took for Republicans to go from reformers to the most corrupt machine in recent history and perhaps ever.'

The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents?

- indicted, corrupt scumbag and former House majority leader Tom DeLay, 1995. Gee, what a difference unchecked power can make:

[T]he former House majority leader or his associates have visited places of luxury most Americans have never seen, often getting there aboard corporate jets arranged by lobbyists and other special interests.

- the WaPo, 12/05.

As politicians, led by Preznit Privilege, scrambled to "desperately wipe the stink from their financial records" and ditch campaign contributions from disgraced republican felon Jack Abramoff, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich cautioned rethugs on putting all the blame on lobbyists.

"You can't have a corrupt lobbyist unless you have a corrupt member (of Congress) or a corrupt staff. This was a team effort," Gingrich said.

What a beautiful day...


Pic from cuteoverload.com
*****

Anti-gay minister arrested on lewdness charge
Sanctimonious hypocrite busted for being a sanctimonious hypocrite hornjob. Oh, and for being a gay hooker.

Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, offered to perform oral sex on a plainclothed male cop Tuesday night and was subsequently arrested. In an area where people have complained about male prostitutes flagging down cars.

"I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police," the pastor said. Uh-huh. Well, he certainly was doing that.

Yay
Sources confirm: Jon Stewart takes almost as many vacations as George Bu will host the Oscars on March 5. America-hating asshole Tucker Carlson heard gnashing his rodentlike toofies in midst of petulant, nancyboy hissyfit.

Great moments in television
Jack Cafferty should be a porn star, his wang is so huge:

CAFFERTY: Meantime, one of my very favorite stories is the blood that's beginning to run in the streets of the nation's capital. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it were.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and wire fraud. It is his second guilty plea in two days. Probably more to come. He's going to help prosecutors investigating corruption in Congress. The Justice Department says they'll use Abramoff's e-mails and other records to focus on as many as 20 members of Congress and their aides. I can't wait.

As one expert told USA Today, quote, "the fear level on Capitol Hill on a scale of 100 is 105. Anybody touched by Abramoff is having difficulty sleeping these days." Gee - what a shame.

Get a load of who took money from Abramoff. This is just a partial list. House Speaker Dennis Hastert took $70,000. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is currently under criminal indictment in Texas, took $57,000. His successor, Roy Blount, also had his hand out to Abramoff.

Even the president's re-election campaign took money from this creep. Until something is done about the ability of lobbyists and special interests groups to buy influence, until realistic limits are put on campaign financing and until term limits force these clowns out of office before they can become corrupt, nothing is likely to change.

Here's the question -- what should happen to politician who took money from the lobbyist, Jack Abramoff? Can you spell orange jumpsuit? You can email us at caffertyfile@cnn.com or go to caffertyfile@cnn.com and we'll read some of your responses later.

Those guys are emptying their pockets, Wolf, faster than when you go through one of those airport security checkpoints and have to dump all your stuff in the little coin basket.

WOLF BLITZER: I suspect there's more of that coming down the road. Jack, thanks very much.

Heh. We'll post some of the responses when the transcript comes up.

If we don't all hang together, we'll all hang separately
Abramoff says he could implicate 60 rethug lawmakers.

Around the intarwebs
"[W] is not the slack-jawed, backy-chawin’ goober he pretends to be. He’s a pampered, prep-schooled aristocrat, born to parents whose combined lineage includes America’s wealthiest and WASP-iest families." - Pensito Review, Confessions of a ‘Bush Hater’.

State senator behind pro-marriage bill gets divorced.

2005: the year in review - in haiku form, at the Rude Pundit.

Commenting on an "ongoing investigation," Scott? So what's up with Karl these days? Oh, and how's your mom? :: snicker ::

Last throes.

Letterman to Bill O'Reilly: "60% of what you say is crap."

Preznit Peabrain's poll numbers in pooper again.
*****

Lobbying central to GOP's political strategy
Abramoff was key to the 'K Street Project,' designed to extend the party's culture of corruption influence.

"This is going to be a huge black eye for our party," said Rep. Ray LaHood, a senior member close to House Speaker Dennis Hastert. "Denny's going to have to be very tough and really speak out against people who are indicted. He's going to have to do it quickly and decisively and frequently."

Frequently?? Just how many of them are there??!

Integritude
Abramoff prosecutor a Bush/DeLay crony

One of the prosecutors involved in the Abramoff investigation is a Bush loyalist who has never before worked as a prosecutor and has ties to Tom DeLay's defense team.

"The larger question is whether Justice - run by Bush's buddy Alberto Gonzales - will aggressively seek evidence that could lead to DeLay or to other Republicans in Congress. 'I just don't know that they have the stomach for it,' said a lawyer close to the probe."
(Via firedoglake).

Enabling the terrists
Liberty for some, tiny American flags for others!

The terrorists have already won.

"Give me liberty, or give me a slight theoretical decrease in the already microscopic risk I face from terrorism..."

- Paul Campos, the Rocky Mountain News.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The back yard yesterday morning.


Our hero
Prez aWol McFuckwit gives out Purple Hearts to soldiers wounded in Iraq, tells them that he sympathizes, what with the scratch he got cutting brush during vacation at the Lazy W.

Moral bankruptcy
Former Democratic strategist Bill Press and crisco'd WH dicklapper Terry Jeffrey join CNN's Wolf Blitzer. In... The Situation Room...

BLITZER: Guys, thanks very much for joining us. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, issued a statement saying this, "Today, Jack Abramoff admitted to conspiring to bribe two members of Congress, a despicable action that strikes at the heart of our democracy. Sadly, it is not a surprise because this Republican Congress is the most corrupt in history, and the American people are paying the price." Strong words, Terry, from Nancy Pelosi.

TERRY JEFFREY: Well, they're very strong words. I don't know if it's the most corrupt Congress in American history, but clearly, the Republicans have a problem. I would caution the Democrats though, Wolf, that if they think that they can run the election this year purely on scandal, I don't think it will work. If you look back to 1994, when the Republicans took the majority, a lot of people say that the scandals in the Democratic Congress, which had been in power for 40 years, played a role in it. But if the Republicans hadn't had the positive agenda they had in the Contract with America, I don't think they could have nationalized the election and taken the majority. So far, the Democrats haven't come up with a positive public policy agenda.

BILL PRESS: Oh, for the love of criminey... Well, I appreciate the good advice from Terry Jeffrey, but I think the Republicans here are clearly the ones with the problem. Nancy Pelosi is right. Wolf, look, this is not an isolated incident. It comes on top of Tom DeLay's first problems, it comes on top of Bill Frist, it comes on top of Randy Cunningham and Scooter Libby. And as Vin Weber, former Republican member of Congress, has said, the problem with this Abramoff thing is the tentacles are so long, and they reach into the House of Representatives, into the United States Senate, all the way to the White House where there were meetings with Vice President Cheney, meetings -- if I may finish -- meetings with John Ashcroft. We don't know where it leads. That's why so many members of Congress are understandably nervous today.

JEFFREY: Well, we don't know where it leads, and it could also lead to Democratic members. This could be a bipartisan scandal.

PRESS: Jesus Christ. No, you fucking idiot. There will definitely be some Democrats, I believe, included. But look. This is a Republican scandal. Jack Abramoff was a Republican lobbyist. He was a Bush pioneer. Hew as former head of the college of Republicans. Tom DeLay...

BLITZER: When you say Bush pioneer, means he raised at least $100,000.

PRESS: Raised $100,000 for George Bush. And if you look at -- some Democrats may have gotten some money, but most of the money and the biggest money went to Republican members of Congress. The two we know today are Tom DeLay and Bob Ney, both of whom are in serious trouble.

JEFFREY: I don't know that it's a party scandal. It's a scandal for the people who are involved. And the people who are involved in corruption should be held accountable. Whether or not one party or the other is the right party to lead the country, I think, is determined by where they want to lead the country on public policy.

PRESS: You Christless whore. Hello! The Republicans lead the congress, they have to take responsibility. He was their guy. He was going to Republicans in charge of the committees to get what he wanted. The worst part about this -- here I do believe we agree -- is that nobody should rejoice in this. This is outrageous stuff. It puts a black mark on the whole United States government. And all Americans, I think, have to regret that. But at the same time, Terry's right. The people who were taking cash in return for official acts should be brought down, whether they're Republicans or Democrats.

BLITZER: This is what Vin Weber, former Republican congressman, said back in October. He said, "The one investigation that people are most worried about is Abramoff because it seems to have such long tentacles. This seems to be something that could spread almost anywhere." Terry and Bill, you guys know Washington. Usually, when the prosecutor accepts a guilty plea, a plea bargain arrangement, whether from Abramoff or Michael Scanlon, this other former lobbyist, these are relatively, in their view, small fish because they want bigger fish. They want these guys to testify against the biggest fish, if you will. And that's the normal way these prosecution, these plea deals, work.

JEFFREY: Sure. I mean, this prosecutor wouldn't have made a deal unless he thought he was getting something of value from Jack Abramoff. And clearly, a corrupt congressman is more valuable to a prosecutor than a corrupt lobbyist. I mean, I hope for the sake of this country that there aren't that many people who end up being in Congress who somehow were corrupted. But this investigation should go forward. It's a legitimate thing. I'm not sure it's really a partisan thing. And again, if the Democrats can't come up with a positive agenda that's right for the country and persuade the people on public policy, they're not going to win the election.

PRESS: It's a Republican scandal led by a Republican lobbyist and centered around the Republican former majority leader of the House of Representatives. You stupid fuck.

LESLIE: Thanks, guys. We'll continue this conversation down the road. But right now, I want to go back to Anderson Cooper. He's in West Virginia, covering the story of those 13 trapped coal miners -- Anderson.

Let's recap. Attention, please, Ed wHenry and worthless 'political analyst' Bill Schneider:

Number of dollars Abramoff donated to rethugs between 2001 and 2004: more than $127,000
Number of dollars Abramoff donated to Democrats: Zero.

A search of the Center for Responsive Politics database of campaign contributions did not find any contributions from Abramoff to Democrats or Democratic leadership political action committees.

ThinkProgress has a handy list.

Son, how can you work with those dickheads?
Karl Rove rises from self-imposed exile in layer of pondscum to put contract out on Scott McClellan's mom.

Troops to Bush: FU, you AWOL liar
Looks like its time for more photo-ops in front of handpicked soldiers...

Support for Chimpy McFlightsuit's "noble cause" fell among the US armed forces to just 54 percent from 63 a year ago, according to a poll by Military Times magazine.

The new poll "found diminished optimism that US goals in Iraq can be accomplished." Only 58 percent believed that the War Preznit had the military's best interests at heart, a sharp decline from 69 percent a year before.

Four inches of snow and it's still falling! It would be a beautiful day if I wasn't at work.


This helps, though...
Rethug pet lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close friend of indicted, corrupt scumbag Tom DeLay, will plead guilty to corruption and other charges, CNN reports.

Abramoff, who is also a longtime associate of ballless, rodentlike asshat Grover Norquist, crooked rep Bob Ney of Ohio and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, would join former DeLay aide and Abramoff business partner Michael Scanlon in cooperating with federal prosecutors. Prosecutors could then decide whether to charge members of Congress and their aides with accepting gifts in return for illegally helping the lobbyists' clients. Or, since they're republicans, simply blaming the Clintons and letting the lawmakers walk away.

Fun fact: Abramoff's money went only to republicans.

It's almost time
... to go downstairs with a cigar and some Cthulhu mythos books and vegetate mindlessly in front of the TV. Sort of like Ubbo-Sathla would, if he had cigars anyway.

And some Chef Boy-ar-dee ravioli.

Our war preznit
aWol McFuckwit visits Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, continues to lie to the troops:

"I can't think of a better way to start 2006 than here at this fantastic hospital," Bush gushed in a photo-op, where he met with injured soldiers wounded in his trumped-up war with Iraq.

"Many of these troops understand that by defeating the enemy there, we don't have to face them here. They attacked us before, and they will attack us again if they can," the Deserter-in-Chief lied. "We are at war with a bunch of cold-blooded killers who will kill at a moment's notice, and I have a responsibility to act within the law, which is what I am doing."

What #ucking nerve.


Freedom.
****

Tell me again how Bush has made us safer?

1. Osama? Osama who??

2. We've turned Iraq into the biggest terrorist training camp in the world.

3. Our military is bogged down in a war that has nothing to do with the war on terror.

4. Far too many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission have still not been implemented.

5. The Homeland Security budget is being spent on frivolous pork - like air-conditioned garbage trucks.

6. The 9/11 Commission gives Bush a grade of "D" under the category Maximum effort to prevent terrorists from acquiring WMD, such as nuclear bombs.

7. Most of the world now hates us. "Iraq has joined the list of conflicts that have deepened solidarity among Muslims and helped spread radical Islamic ideology."

8. "While the terrorists are learning and adapting, our government is still moving at a crawl." - Thomas Kean, the Republican chairman of the 9/11 Commission.

- from AmericaBlog.


"9/11. Freedom. 9/11. Heh heh. Suckers."
****

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

"The president of the United States likes to spend his suburban ranchette vacation killing time cutting stuff down with a chainsaw and then torching it. Holy shit. Does it get any more symbolic than that?" - Digby.

Constitutional thuggery
The Imperial Presidency

"This is a war. If somebody from al Qaeda is calling you, we'd like to know why," Bush said. Fair enough: but it still doesn't answer the core question as to the legality of what was done and WHY it was done...and why even Ashcroft wouldn't sanction it.

That's a theme Americans will hear again and again leading up to the State of the Union address, which officials say will position Bush as a "strong and decisive leader," prosecuting the war on terrorism as he reins in spending at home and spreads democracy around the world. "It's Bush as Churchill, Bush as Reagan and Goldwater and Bush as Woodrow Wilson," says a presidential adviser.

But when civil liberties are involved, inviting historic comparisons can be a dangerous business. "This is an Administration," says Patrick Leahy, top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, "that has tried to bypass courts and the legal procedures more than any since Richard Nixon."

We have met the enemy, and he is us.

The ability to spy on domestic conversations is obviously abusable. And we already know that Tom DeLay tricked the Department of Homeland Security into tracking the whereabouts of Texas Democratic legislators who had fled to Oklahoma to try to block a quorum for DeLay's redistricting scheme. And we know that DeLay got away with it. So if the question on the table is "Will the Republicans abuse domestic-security powers for political purposes?" we know that the answer is "Yes."

"The president's dead wrong. It's not a close question. Federal law is clear," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University and a specialist in surveillance law. "When the president admits that he violated federal law, that raises serious constitutional questions of high crimes and misdemeanors."

There can be no serious question that warrantless wiretapping, in violation of the law, is impeachable. After all, Nixon was charged in his bill of impeachment with illegal wiretapping for what he, too, claimed were national security reasons.

These parallel violations underscore the continuing, disturbing parallels between this Administration and the Nixon Administration. Bush has ordered a criminal investigation into the source of the leak. Such a criminal investigation is rather ironic - for the leak's effect was to reveal Bush's own offense. Having been ferreted out as a criminal, Bush now will try to ferret out the leakers who revealed him. - John Dean, who oughtta know about these things.

Voters cut and run in Australia over Iraq war

Voter support for John Howard's decision to go to war in Iraq is in freefall, with even Coalition supporters who backed the 2003 invasion now questioning the value of the protracted conflict.

Fewer than half of Coalition supporters now believe the Iraq war was worth it.

Bein' a dictator would be a heckuva lot easier...*
Top White House and Justice Department officials should be called to testify before a Senate committee investigating the misadministration's domestic eavesdropping program, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Sunday.

"To simply divert this whole thing to just looking at the leaker and saying everything else is just fine is typical of the corrupt assclowns this administration," he added.

Schumer's comments followed a report in Sunday's New York Times that James Comey, a deputy to then-Attorney General Jesus John Ashcroft, was concerned about the legality of the National Security Agency's surveillance program and refused to extend it in 2004. White House aides then turned to Ashcroft while he was laying doped up in his hospital bed for gallbladder surgery.

The Times said accounts of the hospital meeting differed, but that some officials said Ashcroft also appeared reluctant to give his authorization to continue with aspects of the program. It was unclear if the White House persuaded Ashcroft to approve the program by threatening to pull the plug or proceeded without it.

*"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - the Boy King.

Heck of a Job, Bushie
The Krug-man opens fire:

A year ago, most Americans thought Mr. Bush was honest.

A year ago, we didn't know for sure that almost all the politicians and pundits who thundered, during the Lewinsky affair, that even the president isn't above the law have changed their minds. But now we know when it comes to presidents who break the law, it's O.K. if you're a Republican.

-read it all, here.

Values
Catapulting the propaganda:

Sanctimonious hypocrite and newest whore in the CNN stable of whoredom was being paid by the Bush WH.

"But perhaps the most disconcerting aspect to [virtue czar drunken gambler Bill] Bennett moving to CNN is the questionable journalistic integrity he showed while working as a commentator for Fox News. Bennett would appear regularly on all of the major FNC programs and consistently, as one would expect, defended the Bush administration. Unfortunately, Bennett never disclosed the fact that his primary business venture at the time was on the administration's payroll....

Swallow coffee, then open link
BartCop always has the best pics. And don't forget the funnies over at BobGeiger.com!

Wha? Buhhh??? Meh!

Happy New Year, everyone!