These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For

[BlogBox]

Pay no attention to Monica (Goodling) - BushCo will investigate her instead. Pay no attention to the failed war in Iraq - FOX's new show is called The Money Shot. Pay no attention to Montana's Republican House Speaker - all he did was call the governor an S.O.B. and tell him to "stick it up his ass" in front of teenagers. Pay no attention to the Republican hypocrites who only ordered the Ted Haggard massage special - the DC Madam is only trying to ruin good men and true (LOL). All this and much, much more, including the US military's decision to shut down blogs... or at least slow them to an approved-post crawl. Enjoy!

Pay No Attention To The Gang That Couldn't Obstruct Straight

Don't Monica Goodling's email instructions to Kyle Sampson et al (to delete communications involving US Attorney purging) smack of Don Knotts andcompany? Firedoglake's Christy Hardin Smith (with kudos to Anonymous Liberal for the original catch) notes:

- Isn't it convenient that this particular e-mail was disclosed after the House Judiciary Committee voted for Goodling's immunity? Could it be that this was strategically disclosed in order to construct a potential barrier to her testimony? If so, to whose benefit would this accrue? Who has the most to gain from silencing Goodling publicly?

- On what day and time would Mr. Rove like to testify under oath and publicly about his role in all of this? Ditto for Ms. Miers?

?click">Click here to see the email. Hmm. What does Monica mean by "These are new or updated USA documents" and "Please delete prior versions" in the last paragraph?

By the way, I have it on the best authority that immunity deals can be rescinded any time before the subpoena is issued. Of course, a separate investigation by the, um, Bush administration could keep Goodling from testifying during "an ongoing investigation." Sounds like obvious obstruction, doesn't it? Speaking of obstruction, How about a nice dose of reality, brought to you from the horse's mouth? The Brad Blog caught Bill Mayer's (cough) guest, Lisa Schiffren (cough), trying to claim that the duty of U.S. Attorneys to uphold the Constitution was secondary to politics.

Funny thing, though - fired US Attorney, David Iglesias, had just said this moments before:

Iglesias: What they wanted me to do was come up with some bogus prosecutions with no evidence of voter fraud. That's number one. And number two, they wanted me to rush indictments against democrats who were engaging in corrupt activities. I couldn't do that because the case wasn't ready. It's that simple.

Simple for anyone with any intelligence or any sense of constitutional respect, maybe.

And a big ol' leak must have Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' big boy panties in a wad. Murray Waas, via Atrios, must've giggled with glee while typing this:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed a highly confidential order in March 2006 delegating to two of his top aides -- who have since resigned because of their central roles in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys -- extraordinary authority over the hiring and firing of most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department. A copy of the order and other Justice Department records related to the conception and implementation of the order were provided to National Journal.

(snip)

The existence of the order suggests that a broad effort was under way by the White House to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department, not just at the U.S.-attorney level. Department records show that the personnel authority was delegated to the two aides at about the same time they were working with the White House in planning the firings of a dozen U.S. attorneys, eight of whom were, in fact, later dismissed.

Hmm. There's only one place to file this news. File it under...

Pay No Attention, Even Though You Can't Make This Shit Up

Wait! There's a lot more shit you can't make up this week: FOX's new "news" show is called The Money Shot. Trivial TV has the down and dirty. But before we all get hot (under the collar, that is), Bravo TV is also using the same title for its new photography reality competition show.

Pay No Attention To The Son Of You Can't Make This Shit Up

When you're farked, you're seriously farked.

Montana House Majority Leader calls Governor an "S.O.B.", tells him to "go to Hell", and instructs him to "stick it up his ass". All in a days work at the Hillbilly House of Representatives.

And when you're Rep. Michael Lange (R-Bad Toupee), you're really farked:


By the way, Crooks and Liars has the video.

Pay No Attention To The Return Of You Can't Make This Shit Up

FOX NotNews ran with a fake story (that's spelled p-a-r-o-d-y, Fox & Friends idiots), made up quotes, and caused a school district nightmare. Think Progress has the skinny on the ham steak scandal. Just another day of FAUX News fluffing. Here's a screenshot 'cause you just never know when FOX might decide to make Think Progress take down the video:


Pay No Attention To... Screw It! You Still Can't Make This Shit Up

Leave it to The Rude Pundit to point out the obvious:

Because It Ought To Be Noted: Rudy Giuliani Looks a Little Too Much Like Count Orlok in Nosferatu:



Let's just let the pictures speak for themselves. No wonder he's been divorced twice. He keeps sucking their salty blood out.

Speaking of sucking the blood out of people, how about the media treatment of the first Dem candidates' debate?

Bill O'Reilly's arch nemesis Media Matters took a good look at MSNBC's wall-to-wall "Let's Slam The Dems" coverage before, during, and after the debate - and noticed a pattern of sexist, misogynist crap. Of course, Chris "Tweety" Matthews was the worst of the lot, and at the end of the evening, he naturally said, "I'm just kidding."

The best analysis of each candidate's performance comes from Skinner, who condenses the strengths and weaknesses on display oh, so succinctly:

There was no winner but if I had to pick one I would pick: Obama. I think that all of the three "top tier" candidates (Obama, Clinton, and Edwards) put in solid performances. None of the three landed a punch against their opponents, and none of the three took any damage. IMHO, a "draw" is arguably a win for Obama. He is the guy with the least experience at this level, and the fact that he was (at very least) even with Clinton and Edwards reinforces the fact that he is the real deal and he is in this race to win it.

(snip)

The dark horse winner: Biden.

(snip)

Solid performance: Hillary Clinton was overall solid, smart, and well-informed.

Check out Skinner's post for more solid analysis of each candidate participating in the debate. Let's hope that Skinner stomachs the Repub debate and enlightens us afterward.

Pay No Attention To Reruns & Comebacks

Repubs must hate this: is Paul Begala trying to be The Comeback (from the Darkside) Kid? For years now, we've all missed the Paul Begala of the 90's. Remember the smart-mouthed Clinton guy who smacked down Bob Novak on a regular basis? I sincerely hope that Paul's HuffPo blog entry this week is the first step in Begala's road-to-snark recovery. Here's a snippet:

One of the few regrets I have in life is that I allowed Ann Devroy of the Washington Post to talk me into apologizing for calling David Broder "a gasbag" in 1995. My admiration for Devroy trumped my contempt for Broder. Ann, sadly, is gone, but Broder remains. She was everything Broder is not: fearless, intellectually honest, scrupulously fair, and suspicious of power.

Broder, of course, is a gasbag. The Hindenburg of pundits.

It looks like Begala's coming back, and we've got him (or we're stuck with him). Read the rest and give Begala a shout out (post a comment). Repubs want you to focus on the Begala of the BushCo years only. This return of the old Begala won't please them at all, will it?

And they definitely don't want you paying attention to this: It's rerun time at the White House. Remember when BushCo first tried to hire a War Czar on the QT? Now, it's a painfully public search for - are you ready? - a commander-in-chief for the Iraq war effort. Lambert at Corrente writes:

White House seeks commander-in-chief for Iraq war effort Submitted by lambert

And Steven Hadley's been tasked with the job of finding one. Here are the qualifications:

Mr. Hadley is interviewing candidates, including military generals, for a new high-profile job that people in Washington are calling the war czar.

(HADLEY) "What we need is someone with a lot of stature within the government who can make things happen."

Er.

Um.

Gosh, it's like clubbing a baby seal, isn't it?

'Cause, you know, with God in the White House and all, I thought there'd be somebody there with "stature" who can "make things happen" already.

But I guess not. I think I'll go get really, really drunk now, and maybe when I wake up tomorrow all this will be over.

Truly heavy sigh.

Thank A DUer!

Thanks to Husb2Sparkly for this discovery:

Reptilius Hyperventelatus: New species discovered

And thanks to Blue State Native for this post:

So I told my husband that W said he was the "Commander guy" and my husband replied,

"I'm telling you, the Quaker Oats Lady dropped george on his head one too many times when he was a baby, that's what's wrong with him." :rofl:

Pay No Attention To... Oops! Excuse Me, Madam!

Republicans who'll claim that they only ordered the Ted Haggard Special (a massage) are currently wondering if their names are on the DC Madam's client list. TPM Muckraker's Paul Kiel is your go-to guy for the latest on the sizzling sex scandal.

Pay No Attention To The Tenet Book Cheat Sheet

Want to know what failed CIA Director George Tenet has to say about BushCo, but don't want to buy the book? Muckraked has the definitive cheat sheet. Here's a snippet:

- Tenet and Colin Powell were furious about conservative activist Michael Ledeen's secret meetings with Italian intelligence and Iranian conman Manucher Ghorbanifar. The CIA came close to filing a "crimes report" about Ledeen with the Justice Department. When Condi Rice naively claimed that Pentagon officials happened to bump into Iranian dissidents while crossing a street in Paris, Tenet told her, "Condi, in this line of work there is no such thing as an accidental meeting."

I'm sure Condi thinks everyone bumping into Iranian dissidents is polite, aren't you? As for accidental, you'd think Rice would know better by now. Guess not.

Pay No Attention To The War On Bloggers

Why is it that corporate media editors keep approving articles on the danger/frivolity of liberal bloggers? The Liberal Doomsayer takes on The New Republic's Jonathan Chait like a freight train on a straight-shot downhill track:

I read about Dumbya doing something else stupid, dangerous, illegal, or otherwise clueless, so I blog. I read about Repugs selling the working, middle class, heart and soul of this country down the river yet again, so I blog. I read about Dems sitting on their hands while the Repugs do what I just said, so I blog. I read totally tilted misinformation tinged with more than a little sarcasm from columnists such as Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Victor Davis Hanson, Suzanne Fields, Kathleen Parker, Jack Kelly, this Ruben Navarrette person now over at CNN, and of course Smerky, Kevin Ferris, Jonathan Last, and J.D. Mullane (though not lately, which is surprising), so I blog. I read about the exact opposite from people such as Paul Krugman, Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Campos, Gene Lyons, Joe Conason and a precious few others that I think I can use as part of posts, so I blog. I read about legitimate news stories that are twisted by misinformation, so I blog. I read about corporate media shills cozying up to Bushco and not doing their jobs, so I blog. I read about courageous Democrats trying to do great work such as Russ Feingold, Max Cleland, John Edwards and Patrick Murphy and I try to help them however I can, so I blog. I see information from the Democrats, Working for Change, the AFL-CIO, The Century Foundation or People for the American Way in my "in" box and I think, "Gee, it might be neat to tie this stuff into a post if I can," so I blog. And I see news items that, through no one's fault, are missing background information that I try to provide, so I blog.

Why do right-wing moonbats blog? It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that there's some kind of GOP Brownie Point system in place to reward them. No Brownie Points for U.S. military men and women, though. In fact, they can't even blog anymore without approval. Half A World Away has the latest on the ban:

I'm Still Here

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Sorry for the communication blackout. Blogs are once again blocked, hence the sparse posting for the last 2 weeks.

Ran across this article today, which explains some of the problem: http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/05/army_bloggers. The title of the article is: Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death. Basically the new policy is that you must get approval from your Commander before posting anything on your blog. Most of us are guessing that rather then waste the Commander's time, most units will just ban blogs all together.

It is really frustrating for us because I think most of you at home would agree that soldier blogs provide a window into this war that has never before been utilized. Not that it is always positive, but for most part they are real life.

Courage, Blogger! And thanks for those updates from the front.

Remember, readers: BushBots will always tell you to pay no attention to the headlines that grab your attention and scream, "Maybe this one will stop BushCo!" There'll always be a diversion or an obstruction, there'll always a #2 guy to report as captured, wounded, or killed... even if it's disputed later, and there will always be another bright, shiny BushCo object to divert attention from the real story. Stay alert (yeah, the world does, indeed, need more lerts) and keep sending those great blog links. You're the difference in a world of BushCo illusion.

-- Delilah Boyd

[Kolesar]

1. That's very spirited

Not knowing the background on some of the stories, I was pretty confused. Thanks for digging up the Ghouliani pics. were precious

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

2. I give this "Week in Review", 2 thumbs up!

A very good summary of the current events. Thanks!

[IWantAChange]

3. Outstanding Blog Box - u made my day

[Mabus]

4. I give it three snaps in a special Z formation

With all due respect to Antoine Merriweather and Blaine Edwards.