The GOPranos: Political Party Or Crime Syndicate?

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This week's hot blog topics: Conservative Comedy Capers crap out; BushCo private email use SOP; John McCain was Jack Abramoff's coverup go-to guy; Evangelicals call Mitt Romney "Satan"; and DUers Hissyspit and Chichiri comment on Richard Perle and on the passing of Tinky Winky nemesis, Jerry Falwell. All this and much, much more. Enjoy!

Spoiler Alert!

Remember in "Murder on the Orient Express," when the reader learns that there wasn't just one murderer... and that THEY ALL DID IT?

End Of Spoiler Alert

Well, The BushCo crime syndicate's use of private email accounts to sidestep federal law now includes a revelation from CREW:

CREW learns Dept. of Education staff are using private e-mails in violation of federal law

The use of private e-mails in the Bush administration isn't limited to White House staffers. CREW has learned that the Department of Education may not be able to provide complete information relating to its troubled "Reading First" program, because Department employees have been using non-governmental email accounts for official business.

So today, CREW asked the Department of Education Inspector General's office to initiate an investigation into employees who - in violation of federal law and with the full knowledge of the Department's Office of General Counsel - have been using non-governmental email accounts for official business.

Of course, we all suspected that the BushCo Aspen roots were all connected; we just didn't expect smoking gun evidence.

Conservative Comedy Capers

That supposedly funny fascist wingnut TV show - the one that's supposedly designed to give fascist wingnuts an alternative to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report - stinks to high heaven, according to a review by Crooks and Liars. Quelle surprise, mes amis. The most hilarious factoid: Jon Stewart does four shows a week; it took those fascist wingnuts a month to complete one episode. Wait! I lied. The most hilarious factoid: using Rush Limbaugh's drug of choice to lampoon Senator Hillary Clinton is just plain dumb.

Ahem...


Does that look remotely funny to you? Me, either.

Need some non-Rush/Oxy bliss? Here's a graphic of Bush's non-approval ratings from dreaminonempty at Daily Kos:

Bush Approval Map: No Safe Districts for GOP

As long as Bush remains unpopular, there are no more safe Republican House seats. That's the message I want to get across. But first:

It's been a long time since I made a map of Bush's approval ratings. But Bush has been holding steady at record low approval ratings for the past four months - I just had to see that lovely sea of blue spread across the country. The problem is, Survey USA is now doing 16-state surveys instead of 50-state surveys. So, averaging all the polls I could find over four months, and throwing in a few estimates, here you go, everybody:


Why the heck should we care about Bush's approval ratings anymore? Because they could guarantee our majorities in the House and Senate.

Before you leave Daily Kos, check out dengre's scathing expose on John McCain's cover up of the whole Jack Abramoff political favors back-scratching tango. (How' that for mixing metaphors?) Have a snippet:

Jack knows where and how many, many crimes were committed. And he is talking.

His specialty was finding off-the-books financing to fund the effort to establish One-Party-Rule in America. In the eighties he converted the College Republicans into a farm club and training camp for Conservative shock troops. Then he had a hand in Iran-Contra and other shadow efforts to fund and support the covert Wars of the Reagan era. That effort took him to South Africa where he worked to protect Apartheid and create bonds with networks of "anti-communists" working across the globe.

By the early 1990s his "cover" was a Hollywood producer, his job was to raise money for the cause. In 1994, he helped collect over $700,000 for GOP candidates. The money was passed through DeLay, who then won over Gingrich's candidate for GOP Whip. From the beginning of the Gingrich revolution Jack was there and he was a key player.

Lucky for Jack, JohnnyBoy McCain was there - as the chair of the Indian Affairs committee - to oversee the cover up. Too bad for McCain today, though. His efforts to please Bush have resulted in abject failure, haven't they? Wouldn't you have paid big time to see JohnnyBoy's face when he saw this...?

From Brian at Media Bistro:

CNN International Chyron: "Bush Resigns" Following up on this post, it did happen. Here's a screen grab from CNN International around midnight ET:


More bliss, anyone? This appeared on screen for 12 seconds. (Two seconds before, President Bush had appeared on screen, but the chyron accurately said "Pressure over Iraq.")

12 seconds of pure bliss. Of course, it was a mistake. But wait. There's more bliss. Don Davis at The Satirical Political Report never fails, does he?

BUSH MEETS WITH GOP DELEGATION: THE 'OH SHIT'S ELEVEN' By Don Davis

Hey, Falwell! God's Busy Dealing With Rs Running For Prez; Please Try Again Later

Via MoJo Blog, we learn that evangelicals are calling Mitt Romney "Satan."

I particularly like this crazy paranoid line, which betrays a deep insecurity:

"Romney getting elected president will ultimately lead millions of souls to the eternal flames of hell!"

I think it's important to condemn this sort of bigotry and ignorance. I know it's fun to watch a party with a problematic history with race relations -- and that is sometimes openly hostile to minority voters -- turn its prejudice in on its own, but liberal bloggers have an obligation to stay consistent. We would condemn this sort of nonsense if the angry reverend was attacking Muslim legislator Keith Ellison (D-MN), so we have a responsibility to condemn it when he attacks a Republican. Even if that Republican has no principles and is in the process of saying whatever he has to in order to be elected.

Man, this is fun, isn't it?

Well said, MoJo! Meanwhile, tightie whitie bigots are mourning the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell this week. John Aravois at AmericaBlog has gathered statements from national organizations on the passing of the divisive religious leader.

Largest gay civil rights group, Human Rights Campaign, weighs in on Falwell death

"Reverend Falwell's death today causes my thoughts to turn toward the members of our community who have at great personal sacrifice contended with the Reverend's work and teachings. As I remember Reverend Falwell's life, I also remember all of the families of people who have died of AIDS," said Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign. "Reverend Falwell's legacy is not about the tenants of Jesus' ministry such as healing the sick and standing with the disenfranchised but about shunning and ridiculing those who have suffered and died of AIDS and their families. Many faith leaders today are moving away from his divisive approach and toward the compassion and inclusiveness that Jesus modeled every day of his ministry."

Statement by Matt Foreman, Executive Director National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

"The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation's appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation."

Sad for Falwell's family but bittersweet for the millions he wronged.

Meanwhile, back on the comedy front...

DoD: Funny As... Well, Not Funny At All, Really

Chalk up another FUBARific move by our military geniuses, who ban soldiers from watching or posting videos on YouTube one day, then ask them to watch the approved military propaganda videos the next day. IraqSlogger has the details.

Blunder
DoD Flip-Flop: YouTube Banned, But Watch It
US Mil Calls on Troops to Watch Its YouTube Channel After Nixing YouTube Access


One day after the Pentagon banned US military personnel worldwide from accessing the wildly popular YouTube Web site via DoD computers and networks, the weekly electronic newsletter of the US-led Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) today makes a banner appeal for US forces and others to watch MNF-I's new YouTube channel.

Oops.

Unless the Department of Defense lifts (or doesn't fully apply) its YouTube ban, US military personnel won't be able to watch their own Iraq-focused YouTube channel unless they do so on non-DoD computers and via non-DoD Web connectivity.

Yesterday, the Pentagon began enforcing a ban prohibiting DoD computers and computer networks from accessing YouTube, MySpace, and 10 other popular Web sites, saying military personnel using the Web sites were hogging precious DoD computer network bandwidth and posing operational security risks.

SNAFU accomplished!

Thank A DUer!

Thanks to Hissyspit for the most refreshing description of Richard Perle to date:

Fucking Asshole Piece of Shit Monster Excuse for a Human Being Richard Perle!!!!!!

And many thanks to Chichiri for posting a handy-dandy Jerry Falwell timeline. Here's a snippet:

Jerry Falwell: a brief timeline

1965: Falwell gives a sermon on what he calls the "Civil Wrongs Movement," attacking Martin Luther King, Jr.

1971: Falwell founds Liberty University.

1972: The SEC files charges of "fraud and deceit" against Falwell's church for the issuance of $6.5 million in uninsured bonds. The organization wins its case in 1973, but Liberty University files for bankruptcy and reorganizes, losing millions in church investors' money.

June 1979: Falwell organizes the Moral Majority, a political lobbyist group tasked with bringing fundamentalist values to the forefront of the Republican Party platform.

1980s: Falwell is a strong supporter of the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

(snip)

2003: Falwell defends Roy Moore, the Alabama judge who wanted the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, comparing him to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Typical Falwell: if you can't smear them successfully, hail your fascist fundie friends as being just like them a generation later.

What To Do Next Monday

Dave Johnson and James Boyce at The Huffington Post have posted their strategy for dealing with the swiftboating about to happen when Al Gore's new book hits the stands.

We Guarantee Al Gore Will Be Attacked Next Week, We Absolutely Guarantee It

All too often, Democrats are swiftboated, ozoned, attacked and smeared and after the attacks happen, sometimes they respond - sometimes they don't.

We have had enough.

Here's what we know and here's what we're going to do about it.

On Monday, Al Gore has a new book coming out next week, titled, "The Assault On Reason".

(snip)

We're going to respond the minute the first attack shows up. We're going to be researching the apparatus that transmits the smear. We're going to explain the mechanism of the smear. We're going to expose those behind the smear. And we're going to launch a pushback against the smear, into the press.

Here's another idea... let's start by adopting Senator John Kerry's description of this current batch of Repubs: "The Flat-Earth Caucus."

Unlike the lovable characters driven to drastic measures on the Orient Express, BushCo's GOP crime syndicate is only in it for the money, honey. And it's a ponderously large chunk of change, considering how bankrupt the country is today, both morally and monetarily. Many of us keep wondering every morning if today is the day that BushCo goes down in flames. Surely, now that only 25% of the country thinks that we're on the right track, the corporate media will stop this 50-50 (trans. three GOPers for every Dem) coverage of the Bush administration mythology.

Not holding my breath, but keeping hope alive. I'm off to jury duty here in DC. Will blog the experience.

-- Delilah Boyd