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  • Monday, February 28, 2005

     

    Dopes to divinity

    This is your brain.

    This is Doug Giles' brain.

    This is why.

    Come to think of it … the only thing I got out of my first attempt at college was the handy student ID card. What a multipurpose little item that was. I used my student ID to the max for getting into movies at half price, breaking into my girlfriend’s dorm room to check her voice mail to see if the jock in her English Lit class was still calling her and the all important job of separating the seeds and stems from the Colombian Gold I kept hidden on a Frisbee under the passenger seat of my Z28.

    Yeah, most of the first two years of my campus experience were spent in a London fog of dope smoke, blowing the precious money my parents saved up for my education at rancid West Texas honky tonks while generating more F’s than Nelly would taking Hebrew at Knox Seminary.


    It's one thing to admit to being a stoner in college. It's quite another to admit to driving a Z28.


    posted by tbogg at 11:25 PM

    |

     

    Your 9/11 Presidential Flipbook

    According to the NY Times review of Ari Fleicher's book, Your Question Has Been Noted In The Building:

    ...the book simply tries to reinforce the presidential "persona" once outlined by the political adviser Karl Rove in a campaign brief: a "Strong Leader" with a penchant for "Bold Action" and "Big Ideas." On 9/11, Mr. Fleischer reports, Mr. Bush, "under inconceivable pressure," maintained "his composure and sent an image of calm to the nation."

    Oh.

    See 9/11

    See Andy talk to George

    See George projecting calm.

    See Air Force One fly

    See Barksdale Air Force base

    See George call attacks "cowardly".

    See Air Force One fly

    See Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska

    See George poke his head out.

    See George's mom talk to the press 6 hours after the attack

    See George fly back to Washington eight hours after the attack

    See George address the nation 11 hours after the attack.

    On 9/14 see George pose on the ashes of the dead for a photo-op.

    Pose George pose

    George Bush...steady leadership for unsteady times.


    posted by tbogg at 9:45 PM

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    What we talk about when we talk about bringing freedom


    The Torture Papers Posted by Hello

    Ted Rall:

    "The Torture Papers," then, is no historical artifact. It's why we do what we're (still) doing. It's a monument to denial, arrogance and hypocrisy. It's why they hate us. It's the most important book you'll never read.

    The availability of these documents at such an early date, authored by and for high-ranking officials toiling for an administration (in)famous for its secrecy, offers cause for optimism even among Americans who fear for the state of civil liberties. Can fascism be around the corner in a nation where the chief executive is still forced to bow to the Freedom of Information Act?

    The American electorate, on the other hand, has already seen the gruesome photos taken at Abu Ghraib, pictures of acts ordered and justified far up the chain of command. On Nov. 2, they passed judgment: four more years, and the big house is white. With popular indifference like that, who needs fascism?


    posted by tbogg at 2:06 PM

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    Shane! Don't go!

    Steve at No More Mr. Nice Blog is calling it quits, and while we respect his reasons (particularly the loss of reading time which we can relate to), we think he's making a big mistake. When I have ten minutes or so to check out what everyone else is saying, No More Mr. Nice Blog is always a definite stop.
    Steve writes:

    It's begun to dawn on me that there's nothing I can do here that isn't being done with more style, wit, and/or reportorial doggedness by dozens of others.

    Like that ever stopped Lileks.

    Maybe he'll be back or will join a group blog. Bloggohrea is like herpes you know...


    posted by tbogg at 10:40 AM

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    Sunday, February 27, 2005

     

    Doonesbury

    ...was particularly good on Sunday.


    posted by tbogg at 11:18 PM

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    I see a great smothering darkness in you future...

    I wasn't home to see the Academy Awards tonight, but I see by the big splashy headlines that Million Dollar Baby won the big enchilada, an event that was popular in our house since it was the only one of the best film nominees that we actually saw, all of which just goes to show you how discerning we are with our movie dollar if you ignore the fact that Casey and I actually paid good American dollars to see The Chronicles of Riddock this summer.

    Anyway, if we are to judge the national zeitgeist by reading the Oscar tea leaves, we would have to say that euthanasia is going to be all the rage.

    So let's start with Michael Medved. You may say that he's not that near death, but I know brain-death when I see it and we should just end the suffering and move on.

    Our suffering, that is...

    On another note I was also pleased to see that Born Into Brothels took home a trophy too. It's so good that it's already been remade as an American film

    For fashion don'ts and ...more don'ts, go to national treasure Go Fug Yourself...and you might want to visit the Ashlee Simpson archives since you're in the neighborhood. Just don't buy a souvenir t-shirt.


    posted by tbogg at 10:19 PM

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    Daily drive-by

    Keep an eye on the Freeway Blogger over the next few days.


    posted by tbogg at 10:27 AM

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    Saturday, February 26, 2005

     

    On the other hand, I'm down with creepy little white boys....

    Via Atrios, via WWDT, we learn:

    The battle over Social Security has been joined by an unusual lobbyist, a 9-year-old from Texas who has agreed to travel supporting President Bush's proposal.

    The boy, Noah McCullough, made a splash with his encyclopedic command of presidential history, earning five appearances on the "Tonight" show and some unusual experiences in the presidential campaign last year. He beat Howard Dean in a trivia contest at the Democratic National Convention and wrote for his local newspaper about his trip to see the inauguration.

    "He's very patriotic and very Republican," said Noah's mother, Donna McCullough, a former teacher and self-described Democrat. "It's the way he was born."

    [...]

    The trip was a brainchild of Stuart Roy, a former aide to Representative Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, who recently joined the DCI Group, a political consultancy here with ties to the Republican Party and Mr. Bush.

    The firm is heavily involved in Progress for America's efforts. The president of the organization, Brian McCabe, is a partner at DCI, and the organization contracts with the firm. In the 2004 campaign, the Progress for America Voter Fund paid DCI about $800,000, records show. Mr. Roy knew Noah because the boy lives in suburban Houston, part of Mr. DeLay's district, and the House majority leader has met him. "We'll have Noah there as the face of Social Security reform," Mr. Roy said. "It's about the next generation."


    Let's turn to one of our great moralists, Dennis Prager, and see what he thinks:

    To understand modern liberalism and its political party, it is vital to understand Democrats' desire to blur any distinctions between child and adult. Ever since the 1960s, liberalism has been largely a movement dominated by children (of every age).

    I enjoyed meeting Democrats last week. Many are people I would be happy to have as neighbors. But compared to Republicans, liberals and Democrats are often adults who do not wish to grow up. When George W. Bush was elected, I felt as if adults would now run the country after the adolescent-like President Clinton.

    Liberals and Democrats are not comfortable with adult-child distinctions. They therefore frequently treat and regard children as adults and frequently treat and regard adults as children.

    That is why liberals do not generally want children to call adults "Mr." or "Mrs." Such titles render adults distinct from children.

    That is why liberal teachers often dress and talk similarly to their students and ask to be called by their first names.

    That is why liberals led the fight to lower the voting age to 18 and why California Democrats are now seeking to lower it further (as low as 14).

    That is why liberal educators worked to enable students to design college curricula. To many liberals, a 55-year-old professor does not know anything more than a 20-year-old about what students should be studying.

    That is why liberals don't worry about protecting children's innocence as much as conservatives do. The early sexualization of children is therefore not a problem to liberal educators. In a nutshell, the differing views of childhood innocence are what the battles over sex education in elementary schools, condom distribution in high schools and AIDS education in fourth grade are all about.

    It is therefore not surprising that the Democrats invited a 12-year-old girl to address their convention.

    First, the politicization of children is no more a problem to most Democrats and liberals than is children's sexualization.

    Second, for many liberals, there is just as much to be learned about politics and society from children as from adults. The notion that wisdom accrues with age is generally alien to liberals. So why not have a 12-year-old share her own wisdom with a convention and nation of adults?


    Hmmmm. Wise words, indeed.

    On the other hand we look forward to Noah's first press conference when Jeff Gannon asks him:

    "Noah. As you seem less divorced from reality than the Democrats regarding Social Security, I was wondering: have you ever seen a grown man naked?"


    posted by tbogg at 3:24 PM

    |

     

    Well sure, but as management he doesn't get overtime when he works more than forty hours a week...and that's not fair.

    Via an post over at The Next Left (which is becoming one of my favorites), we have this interesting tidbit that you might want to drop into dinner conversation with friends tonight:

    Wal-Mart employees average only $8.23 an hour in wages ($329 for a 40-hour week). By contrast, CEO Lee Scott received $295,530 a week in 2003. More than 62% of his $15.3 million in compensation was in the form of stock options or restricted stock.

    For a forty-hour week, that works out to $7,388.25 per hour so he makes $7,380.02 per hour more than his average employee. That doesn't include tips, of course.


    posted by tbogg at 12:08 PM

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    A plague on your house

    It's been some time since we checked in on America's Worst Mother™ and it's probably a good thing we haven't been around since we're not too good with a mop and bucket. It seems that Meghan and the kids (Bushnell, Myopia-Ann, Hummus, and Polyp) have been 'delivering pizza', if you know what I mean...

    “Winter Bug Unleashes its Misery,” it said. “Protracted Vomiting Torments Sufferers.” The first paragraph warned easily nauseated readers to read no further, and being somewhat delicate these days, I obeyed, but not before catching sight of the name of the croup de jour: Winter Vomiting Disease.

    I should have paid attention. Like King Belshazzar, when the mysterious Hand began writing on the wall of his feast hall, my color should have changed, my thoughts should have alarmed me; my limbs should have given way, and my knees knocked together. But such is my blithe, Panglossian nature that I gave it no further thought


    (Cue music from Jaws)

    Late that night I struggle from a deep sleep to hear a tumult upstairs. I stagger up to find Phoebe cheerfully dancing about on the landing, and my husband holding his breath while he strips her bed. It is 3am, and she has disgorged her supper all over the bedclothes.

    When you become a mother — and I expect it is similar for fathers — your find that your circuitry has been marvelously re-mapped, your software dramatically updated, and situations which hitherto would have caused you to flap your hands fastidiously and emit little "Ew's!" instead bring out throbbing maternal sympathy.

    [...]

    "I'm afraid to sleep in my nursery without Phoebe to protect me!" So down she comes, too. Four in the bed, and cosy as all get-out, yet hanging over us, unread in the darkness, is that writing on the wall, the awful retribution of the Tarot card...

    Phoebe folds herself around me, then turns and embraces Violet, then leans over and gives my husband a big wet smack on the lips. Violet makes tiny marsupial noises as she snuggles her lamb fleece. The adoration of Phoebe goes on. She sits up, and strokes my hair. She hunkers down, and breathes in my ear. I am just saying, "Darling, settle down now, we really need to —

    Ralph Steadman: Artist!

    Ralph Cramden: Sit-com character!

    Ralph Feinnes: Actor!

    Phoebe Gurdon: Ralph!

    Some minutes later, my husband walks heavily downstairs with a second armful of ghastly sheets. Persons are scrubbed, beds remade, sighs exchanged, and lights go out. A day and another night passes. Again the household is settled into silence and oblivion, when —

    "Aw, Daddy, yuck," I hear Paris shout from upstairs over the sound of running water.

    "Shhh, don't wake the others," says my husband, and I hear the thud of the linen door shutting.

    "It went all over — "

    "Keep your voice down, darling."

    "But I didn't make a mess, did I Daddy?" comes Violet's voice.

    I struggle out from the heavy bedclothes, find a bathrobe, and go up the stairs into the glare of the bathroom light. It is 3 A.M., the ralphing hour, and the household has just experienced its first bona fide simul-barf — Paris in his bed and Violet, in the nick of time, appropriately in the bathroom.


    Okay. Recurring theme here. We notice that Meghan, when she is not being puked upon, is always somewhere else and oblivious to her own kids tie-dying the linens, and it is Mr. Meghan who is first to the rescue. We imagine Meghan hearing this from kids rooms:

    bleaghhhh!!-cough-cough, bluke bluke, mangalalang...hack...smeaagghhh, guckert, guckert-cough...ick, Muuuummmmmy!

    ...which Meghan hears and then proceeds to increase the volume of her deep breathing, throwing in an occassional light snore, to make Mr. Meghan think that she's in a deep sleep. Mr. Meghan, rueing the day he left gay lover, Administrative Assistant Phil, to return home for appearance's sake then gets up and does the scut work. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I've never known a mother who didn't hear the softest 'urp' from a sleeping child and not wonder if they were okay. Which is, yet, another reason why we call her America's Worst Mother™ and come back week after a week to read, scratch our heads, and maybe throw up just a little in our mouths...which our mother can hear from three states away.

    For more on AWM™ join World O'Crap for Meghan's dirty little secret and Femme Fetal for even more. And while you read them, wonder why their blogs have much cooler names than mine.


    posted by tbogg at 11:04 AM

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    B-List Armstrong Williams...if that's possible

    Local-based columnist Joseph Perkins, who has made a career out of rewriting Heritage Foundation memos and submitting them as columns, is calling it quits:

    Some of my friends wonder aloud if I am suffering some sort of "midlife crisis." They cannot fathom, for the life of them, why I would retire, in my mid-40s, from my writing job at The San Diego Union-Tribune; why I would forfeit my nationally syndicated column.

    Well, after nearly 15 years of daily deadlines, writing three to four editorials a week, in addition to a column, this seems as good a time as any to walk away from the grind.

    As the latter-day philosopher Clint Eastwood famously stated: "A man's got to know his limitations."


    As one of the San Diegans who has read Perkin's columns religiously, we are well aware of his limitations. Facts and clear thinking come to mind.

    I know there will be speculation in some quarters as to the "real" reason for my departure from daily journalism. Some will wonder whether I am the victim of some liberal coup at the Union-Tribune; whether I was "pushed out the door."

    Let me assure everyone concerned that I am leaving of my own volition. I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life and career. And so is my lovely wife, Yolanda, who is taking early retirement.


    We would never think that there was a "liberal coup" at the U-T, which just hired the somnambulant Reuben Navarrette to replace the shoved-out James Goldsborough, but I do have some questions regarding Perkin's leaving since a marginal writer like himself who couldn't even crack the Townhall line-up probably doesn't have much in the way of prospects other than his freakshow quality as a conservative black man.

    Interesting.

    Perkins gives a shout-out to his buddies before leaving:

    I owe a debt of gratitude to my loyal readers, in San Diego and around the country, for supporting my writings over the years. And to the folks at FreeRepublic.com, Lucianne.com and RealClearPolitics.com – my three favorite Web sites – for occasionally posting my columns and giving my writings an even wider audience.

    Your overwhelming feedback, measured in e-mails and voice mails, reassured me that my conservative thinking on the range of subjects was not nearly as far out as my preponderantly liberal journalistic peers often suggested.


    Yeah. The level-headed folks at FreeRepublic & Lucianne.com.

    Put that on your resume...


    posted by tbogg at 10:30 AM

    |

    Friday, February 25, 2005

     

    Tastes like chicken

    Funnysickfunny

    $15,000 raised so far.

    (Thanks gttim)


    posted by tbogg at 7:59 AM

    |

    Thursday, February 24, 2005

     

    If he wants to pick her up and beat the deer with her, I'll hold his coat.

    Think Progress has the best of Sean Hannity's Lowered Bar Dating Service. Who knew there were so many divorced "Christians" with "traditional values"?

    My favorite is this guy:

    My name is Dave, 40 years old, 6-1, 200 lbs, single, I live and work in Junction City, Oregon... yes there are nice, smart... red people that live around Eugene Oregon! All I want from this is to kill deer with Ann Coulter someday...

    And let's not forget Anna who says:

    About who I'm looking for--Fun, outdoorsy, moral, early riser, clean. Boy scout with a wild side. (*_~) Please don't over-analyze me--half the time 'I' don't know what I'm thinking. Or WHY. Great kisser--yes, you must be that. Christian, obviously. Brilliant, witty, patience of a saint, and so on and so forth. If this is multiple choice, I'm choosing ALL OF THE ABOVE this time. One person is more than the sum of their parts. You must add in their hopes, dreams, aspirations--everything they wish themselves to be. You must subtract out their regrets--God would want you to. Multiple by the love they feel towards you and divide the love you feel towards them--their love must be stronger than yours because they love YOU, after all. If you find a square root in the equation, you are SOL. I only aced Algebra, not Psychology.....

    After about twenty minutes of that you'll be looking for a wall socket to stick you tongue in so that the noise will...just...stop.

    This guy makes me a little nervous:

    About Me I'm divorced and starting over. I'm a cargo pilot and I love my job. I'm not home at night but I do get my sleep when I'm on duty...

    Enough said.

    As for this guy.Oh dear god.

    Even I'm not that cruel.


    posted by tbogg at 11:36 PM

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    Falafel for brains.


    Speechless. I'm just speechless... Posted by Hello

    (Thanks to Rob for the image)


    posted by tbogg at 10:31 PM

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    Thursday Night Basset Blogging


    Due to all the SoCal rain Satchmo isn't getting much exercise which would explain why he's pushing maximum density.
    He's porky, to put it nicely Posted by Hello


    posted by tbogg at 10:20 PM

    |

     

    Hi. My name is Phil. Mind if I snoop around in your vagina?

    Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline goes fishing:

    In an investigation conducted secretly for months, the Kansas attorney general is demanding that clinics turn over the complete medical records of nearly 90 women and girls who had abortions.

    Two abortion clinics are fighting the request in Kansas Supreme Court, saying the state has no right to such personal information. But Attorney General Phill Kline insisted Thursday he is simply enforcing state law.

    "I have the duty to investigate and prosecute child rape and other crimes in order to protect Kansas children," Kline, an abortion opponent, said at a news conference.

    Kline is seeking the records of girls who had abortions and women who received late-term abortions.

    Sex involving someone under 16 is illegal in Kansas, and it is illegal in the state for doctors to perform an abortions after 22 weeks unless there is reason to believe it is needed to protect the mother's health.

    Kline spoke to reporters after details of the investigation, which began in October, surfaced in a legal brief filed by attorneys for two medical clinics. The clinics argued that unless the high court intervenes, women who obtained abortions could find government agents knocking at their door.

    The clinics said Kline demanded their complete, unedited medical records for women who sought abortions at least 22 weeks into their pregnancies in 2003, as well as those for girls 15 and younger who sought abortions. Court papers did not identify the clinics.

    The records sought include the patient's name, medical history, details of her sex life, birth control practices and psychological profile.


    This is fine...provided Phil and his somewhat manly-looking wife are willling to answer a few questions.

    •We notice only one child. Whose reproductive equipment is broke?

    •Missionary, doggie style, or human wheelbarrow?

    •Spit or swallow?

    •Phil: Premature ejaculation? Seldom? Often? Three out of five?

    •Mrs. Phil: Same question.

    •Mrs. Phil: How do you get out nasty Santorum stains?

    •We noticed an uptick in 2002 of gonorrhea and chlamydia in Shawnee County (.pdf). Anything you'd like to tell us?

    •Ginger or Maryann?

    •Mr. Phil: same question.

    The dog. Is he somehow involved? (Sorry. Rick Santorum only...but feel free to answer)

    •Do any of your "safe" words include: "mommy", "Wolf Blitzer", or "Not the face!"? If not, what words do you use?

    •Mrs. Phil: Is Phil losing his hair on top because you've been forcefully guiding him to your "prairie pearl"?

    •The Bill of Rights: shred it or just roll it up and use it as a tampon?

    Be sure to get back to us....


    posted by tbogg at 2:58 PM

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    Someone locked the woodshed

    Day Three: Hindrocket Held Hostage.


    John Hinderaker hasn't made an appearance at Power Line since 9pm 2/21. This would coincide with his going all potty-mouthed on the mere mortals who questioned his judgement.

    In the meantime, the Big Trunk and the Deacon have carried on in their own...boring...(yawn)....fashi...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.


    posted by tbogg at 11:38 AM

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    The sons of William Calley...

    Attack of the Little Green Cowards:

    The Marine who shot an injured Iraqi holy warrior in Fallujah, and was filmed by Kevin Sites (who promptly released the footage to the world), may not be charged for the killing, in a triumph of common sense.

    A US marine filmed apparently shooting dead an injured Iraqi in a Falluja mosque last year may not be formally charged, according to media reports.

    Military investigators have concluded there is not enough evidence to prosecute over the shooting, US television network CBS news says.

    However, the US military said the investigation had not been completed.

    “The facts of this case are being thoroughly pursued to make an informed decision,” a Marine statement said.


    This Marine has been raked over the coals for doing the right thing to protect himself and his comrades in a combat situation.

    But Kevin Sites, who handed the enemy a tremendously useful piece of propaganda, is rewarded by Wired magazine: The 2005 Wired Rave Awards.


    Okay...let's go to the comments:

    TMF 2/24/2005 10:13AM PST

    Give that man a beer!

    ~~~~~

    TMF 2/24/2005 10:13AM PST

    The marine, not the douschebag reporter

    ~~~~

    sven10077 2/24/2005 10:13AM PST

    well partial justice....

    the esteemed mr. Sites still speads his bilge.

    ~~~~~

    maf 2/24/2005 10:14AM PST

    I can think of where to wire his new award, and turn the juice on high.

    ~~~~~

    Mike 2/24/2005 10:14AM PST

    TMF,

    I think we all knew who you meant.

    Of course the moonbats will be outraged, because to them any enemy casualty is "murder."


    That's just from the first seven comments.

    This has to be difficult for the Lil' LGFers. On the one hand, Sites' footage was "propaganda" for the bad guys (when a cover-up would have been so much nicer). On the other hand it has given them minutes of fun as whacking material.

    Such a dilemma...


    posted by tbogg at 10:48 AM

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    Wednesday, February 23, 2005

     

    And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out

    Bush administration lunatics and incompetents aren't limited to the cabinet. Nope, they run deep and generally unseen like termites destroying from within. Take Scott Bloch, director of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), for example. Here's what the OSC is charged with:

    OSC’s primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing. For a description of prohibited personnel practices (PPPs), click on the prohibited personnel practices link.

    The Senate unanimously confirmed Mr. Bloch on December 9, 2003. On January 5, 2004, he was sworn in to serve a five-year term. So...how's he doing? I guess that depends:

    MORE THAN A THOUSAND WHISTLEBLOWER CASES DUMPED — Special Counsel Dismisses Hundreds of Disclosures and Complaints in Past Year

    Washington, DC — The U.S. Special Counsel has dismissed more than 1,000 whistleblower cases in the past year, according to a letter from the Bush-appointed Special Counsel released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The Special Counsel appears to have taken action in very few, if any, of these cases and has yet to represent a single whistleblower in an employment case.

    In a letter dated February 14, 2005 and addressed to U.S. Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), Special Counsel Scott Bloch defends his stormy 13 months in office by pointing to a sharp drop in backlogged whistleblower cases.

    “Everyone agrees that backlogs and delays are bad but they are not as bad as simply dumping the cases altogether,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that this letter is the first account that Bloch has released of his tenure and that his office’s report for FY 2004, which ended in October, is overdue. “If the Office of Special Counsel under Scott Bloch is not helping whistleblowers then there is no reason for the office to continue to exist.”

    According to the figures released by Bloch, in the past year the Office of Special Counsel—

    Dismissed or otherwise disposed of 600 whistleblower disclosures where civil servants have reported waste, fraud, threats to public safety and violations of law. Bloch has yet to announce a single case where he has ordered an investigation into the employee’s charges. Bloch says that 100 disclosures are still pending; and

    Made 470 claims of retaliation disappear. In not one of these cases did Bloch’s office affirmatively represent a whistleblower to obtain relief before the civil service court system, called the Merit Systems Protection Board. Bloch says that another 30 retaliation cases remain in the backlog.


    In order to speed dismissals, Bloch instituted a rule forbidding his staff from contacting a whistleblower if their disclosure was deemed incomplete or ambiguous. Instead, OSC would simply dismiss the matter. As a result, hundreds of whistleblowers never had a chance to justify why their cases had merit.

    “According to Scott Bloch there is no waste, fraud or abuse in the federal government that deserves investigation,” stated Ruch, noting that there may be even more dismissals than Bloch reported because the numbers cited above are limited to what was defined as a backlog and do not include new cases.


    Now why would Bloch think there was no "fraud or abuse in the federal government that deserves investigation"? I dunno, maybe this:

    CRONY HIRING BY SPECIAL COUNSEL TARGET OF LAWSUIT — Former Boarding School Headmaster Retained as Consultant

    Washington, DC — The agency that is supposed to police compliance with federal civil service rules is itself circumventing civil service rules by using no-bid consultants and hiring on a non-competitive basis, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is withholding records about its own personnel practices, including a contract with a former Catholic boarding school headmaster to serve as a special consultant, according to a lawsuit filed today by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act.

    The current Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, is a religious conservative who had served as deputy director in the Justice Department's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. Since becoming Special Counsel in January, Bloch has brought in a series of special consultants and non-competitive hires, including recent graduates of the ultra-conservative Ave Maria law school. A number of these new non-competitive hires have been assigned to career positions, working for career managers who had no input into their selection; in fact, the managers did not meet the new hires until the day they started work

    "Scott Bloch's personnel practices are taken straight from The DaVinci Code rather than the civil service manual," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, pointing to what OSC staff members call Bloch's own "palace guard." "The mission of the Special Counsel is to protect the merit system, not subvert it."

    PEER is seeking copies of contracts and work products for –

    * Alan Hicks, a former headmaster of St. Gregory's Academy, a Catholic boarding school, who left in the wake of allegations concerning priests sexually preying on young students. Bloch has retained Hicks as a special consultant; and

    * No-bid management consultant contracts let by Bloch.


    Although OSC is struggling under large and growing backlogs of whistleblower disclosures and complaints, Bloch has increased the number of confidential assistants that report directly to him. By PEER's estimates, approximately 10 percent of the OSC staff positions are now personal picks by Bloch. Recently, the long-time Director of OSC's own Department of Human Resources, and her primary assistant, recently resigned their positions, and left the agency, giving only a few days notice.

    Ironically, one of OSC's duties is to oversee administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Yet, when PEER requested its contract files, OSC sent a form letter stating that "due to the departure" of its FOIA officer "and a queue of pending requests" that there would be some delay in response. Three months later in September, PEER appealed OSC's continued non-response and received another, virtually identical form letter. PEER's suit under FOIA seeks the contract records it originally sought in June.


    But wait! There's more! Some of Bloch's Greatest Hits:

    At a press conference held on Wednesday, October 6, two Democrats, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York Democrat, and Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who is gay, called on President George W. Bush to “take the necessary action” against Scott Bloch, director of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), over what they claim is Bloch’s refusal to implement a longstanding employment policy of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. The two congressmen raised the issue in a letter that they, along with Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, who is a lesbian, and California Democrats Henry Waxman and George Miller, have sent to the White House.

    Scott Bloch was chosen by Bush to head the OSC in February after Elaine Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, finished her term. Shortly after taking office, Bloch ordered the removal from the OSC Web site and training materials any statement that discrimination based on sexual orientation was a banned practice in the federal workplace. Bloch explained in a letter to Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, that because he was in the process of “evaluating many aspects of the agency” he removed such language until he could determine whether sexual orientation was a distinct category over which the OSC had jurisdiction.

    [...]

    After several lawmakers voiced their concerns about Bloch’s decisions, Bush issued a statement this past March stating his intent to continue the federal policy made by former President Clinton’s executive that “prohibits discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation.” The statement also said Bush expected to all federal agencies to enforce this policy.

    However, after stating that he agreed with this policy, Bloch refused to answer Frank in writing of whether or not the OSC could enforce sexual orientation discrimination policies, nor did he reinstate sexual orientation discrimination as a prohibited personnel practice on the OSC Web site or in its training materials. Bloch then subsequently wrote to Frank in a July letter that discrimination simply based on sexual orientation did not come under OSC purview, and that investigating a discrimination complaint based on an employee’s sexual orientation would have to fall under the “conduct” prohibited in personnel practices. The regulation states that a federal employee “cannot be discriminated against for personal conduct which is not adverse to on-the-job performance,” such as the example used in an OSC training brochure, a federal employee attending a gay pride event.

    “He appears to maintain the illogical position that gay conduct is protected but that employees who suffer discrimination because they are GLBT have no protection,” Frank said at the recent press conference. “In effect, Mr. Bloch appears to be replacing the policy of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ with a policy of ‘Don’t Be,’” Frank added.

    Congressman Engel called Bloch a “rogue agent” who should be terminated under the “neglect of duty statute.”


    Bad news there:

    The OSC is an independent body charged with defending federal employees who disclose incidents of abuse, waste or mismanagement, or who have been discriminated against in the workplace because of political affiliation or personal status. To protect the OSC from outside pressure, the agency’s director is appointed for five years and cannot be removed except in cases of illegal misconduct. (my emphasis)

    Sick yet? You will be:

    February 8 -- The U.S. Special Counsel has handed out termination papers to seven headquarters staff members who refused involuntary reassignment to a proposed new office in Detroit and an existing office in Dallas. The seven were given one week – the minimum period allowed – to change their minds or be removed from the federal service in 30 days, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

    Last month, Scott Bloch, the Bush-appointed Special Counsel, abruptly ordered 12 headquarters employees, on penalty of removal, to relocate to Dallas, Oakland and a newly created Detroit field office. Originally, five employees accepted the reassignments; with four of those five indicating that their acceptance was under duress. One of the four who accepted the reassignment under duress has found a position outside OSC and has submitted a letter of resignation. The remaining seven staff members declined the involuntary transfers and now are being removed.

    The 12 reassigned employees represent more than a fifth of the Special Counsel headquarters legal and investigative staff. Bloch did not consult beforehand with the people he selected for relocation nor did he ask for volunteers who might be willing to move. All 12 are career employees hired before Bloch became Special Counsel, an agency with the mission of protecting federal whistleblower and merit system rights.

    [...]

    “The person giving out these pink slips should be the one on the receiving end,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch whose organization is suing Bloch to obtain copies the no-bid consultant contracts he let out to friends and copies of the work produced. “In federal court, Scott Bloch is claiming that he does not have enough staff to even respond to Freedom of Information Act requests and then a week later he fires seven more staff—go figure.”

    Bloch’s 13-month tenure as Special Counsel has been marred by repeated missteps, including an embarrassing reversal on protecting federal employees on the basis of sexual orientation, issuing a gag order to his staff to deter what he described as “leakers,” and sewing confusion during the height of last year’s presidential campaign with a directive that candidates could not make campaign appearances inside federal structures.


    We won't classify Mr. Bloch as an incompetent of Condi-proportions. He's more the sneaky evil type: corrupt to the bone.

    Go here and poke around about Mr. Bloch's buddy, Alan Hicks.


    posted by tbogg at 11:34 PM

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    Doughy Pantload* Tonite!

    Northwestern University (which is in the midwest...go figure) to host Pop-n-Stupid:

    NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY GIG DETAILS [Jonah Goldberg]

    Here's what I know. I'll be there Feb 28. I'm speaking at 7:30 in Harris Hall (room 107). They want me to discuss web journalism, politics and whatnot, though I intend to work-in as much nude mopery as possible. It is supposed to be open to the "community." I think that you people count.


    Now it would be wrong to try and pie Jonah "Momma Never Bought Me No War Pants" Goldberg, because, well, he's Jonah Goldberg and he takes to pie like herpe to Ann Coulter, so you should just show up and ask questions about why he loves Islamofacists so much that he won't fight them.

    Meanwhile, since I didn't win a Koufax this year, we'll start the weekly Jonah fan fiction next week. Here's a little taste of what you have to look forward to:

    With surprising speed, K-Lo snatched Jonah's knife from his belt, tearing the material slightly. No one knew what to do as she took it out of its sheath and turned the blade on herself. She danced away as the Derb tried to grab her, then plunged the knife into her stomach, slicing back and forth. There was no blood and the team held their breaths as they waited for screaming, guts to fall out, anything but the giggling from the woman.

    "See? Immortal," she said, handing Jonah his knife. Jonah felt a faint sweat break out under his man-boobs.

    "I guess so," said the Derb, looking like he wanted to run back to his math books and pretend that women, particularly women like K-Lo, didn't exist. For it was because of just such women that he now sported polymer neuticles. Four of them.

    "And you," she said, turning to Rich-el, "are the most interesting of all. What is a First Prime of Apophis doing with these humans?" She traced his golden tattoo with her finger causing his downy skin to shiver with delight or maybe revulsion or maybe it was just involuntary. It's really hard to tell.

    "I no longer serve Apophis, or any Goa'uld," said Rich-el, and Jonah realised the woman was now speaking English. Just like the Maglalang. But she was definitely not a Maglalang since she wasn't foaming at the mouth.

    "Look, lady," Jonah said to her, "is there anything here besides yourself, the Stargate and the sarcophagus and those donuts on that table over there? Because we're tired, we're hungry and I left my asthma puffer in my other pants"

    "No, there's nothing else," she said, not taking her eyes from Rich's modest 'package' as she licked her eyebrows seductively just like the he/she-beasts of Coulter Prime.

    "Good, then we're leaving," said Jonah. "Derb, dial us home. We're going for some White Castle. And a Yoo-Hoo. No chaser."


    * "Doughy Pantload" courtesy of Norbizness™.


    posted by tbogg at 2:35 PM

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    Send in the economists...

    George Bush promotes new economic chairman that he won't listen to and even if he did he wouldn't understand.

    President Bush promoted Harvey Rosen on Wednesday to chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the White House said in a statement.

    Rosen currently serves as a member of the economic council. He previously was an economics professor at Princeton University. He replaces Gregory Mankiw, who resigned.

    Mankiw was a former student of Rosen’s at Princeton.


    Ah, the master now takes the students place which, in the Beltway, is referred to as a Reverse Obi-Wan*.

    Anyway, you may remember Mankiw as one of the brighter lights of the Bush Administration:

    Mr. Mankiw, a lanky man with a boyish demeanor and soft-spoken style, is chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. Three times in the last two weeks, he has found himself at the center of a firestorm on an issue of enormous political importance to the administration: jobs.

    First he drew fire from both Republicans and Democrats for saying that outsourcing jobs to foreign countries was simply another form of free trade that would ultimately be a "plus" for the United States.

    Even before that tempest abated, Mr. Mankiw (pronounced man-CUE) had to stand by while President Bush and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow scrambled to distance themselves from a forecast by the council that the nation would add 2.6 million jobs this year.

    Late-night comedians, meanwhile, lampooned Mr. Mankiw for suggesting in that same economic report that flipping hamburgers at a McDonald's might constitute a form of manufacturing. The punch lines glossed over the report's point, which was not to promote reclassifying fast food as manufacturing but to point out that official classifications are vague enough that many service companies could qualify for tax breaks aimed at manufacturers.


    Those are some pretty large shoes that Rosen has to fill, but we're sure that Rosen (seen here with the president) has the feet to fill them.

    * My apologies for the Star Wars reference. It won't happen again. Ever.


    posted by tbogg at 1:18 PM

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    A baffled Judy Woodruff runs to the dictionary to look up "investigative"

    Jesus, she's dumb.

    WOODRUFF: But some would say, listening to what you said and hearing your acknowledgment that you don't have any proof, that it's irresponsible or -- let me ask you, do you think it's responsible for you to say this without evidence?

    If no journalist had ever thought "what if...?" we would all be as stupid as Judy Woodruff by now and cockroaches would rule the Earth and Fox's ratings would be even higher.

    Not that were not going that way as it is....


    posted by tbogg at 9:36 AM

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    Tuesday, February 22, 2005

     

    Condoleeza Action Figure - competency not included.


    Your Condi® action figure comes with a Condi® dream house full of Condi® furniture including a couch, an easy chair, and a coffee table with dusty "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" memo sitting on it. Posted by Hello

    Piss off your friends! Invade your enemies!


    Condoleezza Rice is now an action figure, if by action you mean a National Security Advisor who sits on her hands in Crawford while she wistfully watches that man of hers chop down some brush in the dry Texas heat. Unlike the George W Bush action figure (that now features Super-Pooping Action™ whenever it hears a loud noise) just whisper the word "oil" in Condi's ear and watch her hands drip with real human blood*!

    Be the first neocon on your block and order today and we'll include an advance copy of her speech justifying the coming June Iran attack! Our operators are standing by.

    *Ice skates, piano, and one gallon blood refill sold separately.


    posted by tbogg at 9:47 PM

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    Monday, February 21, 2005

     

    Half Vast

    We begin with a flashback:

    Gil Davis and Joe Cammarata, Paula Jones lawyers of record, weren't the sort of attorneys attracted to the highly ideological Federalist Society milieu. But two of the young lawyers working with them, George Conway and Richard Porter, a former Dan Quayle aid who had joined Kenneth Starr's firm Kirkland and Ellis in its Chicago home office, were among the group's active members. At the urging of Conway and Jerome Marcus, another young Federalist lawyer, a group of Federalist-affiliated law professors and constitutional lawyers had signed "friend of the court" briefs in 1994 supporting Jones' right to proceedings against the president while in office.

    Now, as the date for argument on that issue in the Supreme Court approached, the young Federalist attorneys in the Jones camp called upon two of the organization's legal eminencies to help prepare Davis and Cammarata. During the first week of January, they brought Davis and Cammarata to the Army-Navy Club for a coaching session with Robert Bork, who had addressed the founding conference of the Federalist Society at Yale in 1982, and Ted Olson, the chairman of its powerful Washington chapter.

    [...]

    For two hours the lawyers sat around a table eating sandwiches, as Olson and Bork advised Davis how best to present his brief urging that the case against Clinton proceed immediately to trial. To the justices, Olson emphasized, the most pressing problem would be whether the President should be distracted from his elected job, and how the lower court could address his special needs. He urged Davis to convince the high court that Jones would accommodate the president in terms of court dates, depositions, and other infringements on his schedule.

    As they all prepared to leave, Davis said, "Someday somebody will ask me who was present at this meeting." Did anyone mind his name being mentioned? Olson didn't seem to care, neither did Bork. But Conway and Marcus, who had kept their participation in the Jones case from their law partners--some of whom were Democrats close to the White House--continued to insist upon complete anonymity.

    [...]

    "After gathering preliminary evidence to test the information¹s reliability, the OIC presented the evidence to Attorney General Janet Reno. Based on her review of the information, the Attorney General determined that a further investigation by the Independent Counsel was required."

    But that wasn't quite how it all happened. The January 12 date, for example, is deceptive. The OIC learned about Monica S. Lewinsky at least several days earlier than the report acknowledges, and from sources whose complicity with his investigation Kenneth Starr had powerful motives to conceal. In Michael Isikoff's version of the story in Uncovering Clinton, "it was not clear who first had the idea" of bringing the independent counsel into the Paula Jones case. Isikoff lists several possibilities: Lucianne Goldberg, Linda Tripp, Jerome Marcus and Richard Porter. Additional candidates would be Ann Coulter and George Conway, two more of the so-called elves helping Jones.

    But there is no doubt that the members of this group were in contact with one another from September 1997 onward, and that Goldberg, Tripp, Coulter, and Conway, at least, were regularly in touch with Isikoff. According to the Newsweek reporter (whose book expresses deep discomfort at his having become "a player--one of the acts in the scandal circus"), he never realized he was being used as a cat's-paw in a conspiracy against Clinton.

    [...]

    Rosenzweig traveled up from Washington for the January 8 dinner at the elegant Deux Cheminees restaurant in Philadelphia. Porter, Kenneth Starr's law partner and Lucianne Goldberg's conduit to the Jones lawyers, flew in from Chicago. "Largely for the hell of it," Isikoff reports, Conway came by train from New York. It was Conway whose timely leaks to the Drudge Report had helped prevent the Jones case from being settled several months earlier, and who had just that day helped find another Federalist Society lawyer to represent Linda Tripp. "Pure serendipity" is how Jerome Marcus later described the gathering.

    Before the others arrived that Thursday evening, according to Marcus, he had informed Rosenzweig "very briefly" about the tale of the president and the intern, Jordan's efforts to find Lewinsky a job, and Linda Tripp¹s tapes. "I don't know if it's real or not," he said. "But do you think this is something that your office would be interested in?"

    Rosenzweig didn¹t know, but would make it his business to find out. On the following Monday, January 12, Lucianne Goldberg called Linda Tripp. From Washington, Rosenzweig had called Marcus in Philadelphia, who had called Porter in Chicago, who had called Goldberg in New York, who had relayed the message back to Tripp in Washington. A deputy independent counsel named Jackie Bennett was definitely interested. But Tripp would have to call him directly. For the sake of propriety, the information would have to come in by "the front door."

    Even if the participants' accounts are taken at face value, it was surely no accident that the January 8 dinner was omitted from the Starr Report. For Rosenzweig to be meeting with a clique of attorneys who had helped the Jones team was bad enough. But the participation of Porter, as Starr's law partner, presented the OIC with ethical problems. Avoiding even the appearance of impropriety was the whole point of the Independent Counsel Act. It specifically states that "any person associated with a [law] firm with which such independent counsel is associated may not represent in any matter any person involved in any investigation or prosecution."

    Moreover, as Clinton attorney David Kendall pointed out when Porter¹s role came to light, by law "a legal representation of a client by one partner is attributable to all partners."


    Jump forward to 2004...

    The Democrats have nominated Viet Nam war hero John Kerry to run against President George W Bush who, as a self-professed "War President" finds the story regarding his desertion from the Texas National Guard, during the same war that Kerry is distinguished himself in, beginning to find traction with the larger media outlets.

    About this time a woman approaches Bill Burkett, a retired TANG officer with a longtime vendetta against George Bush, with a memo that confirms the story that Burkett has been telling for many years, but which has only led to his developing a reputation as a bitter crank who hates Bush.

    Burkett has battled the Guard for years since his retirement in 1998. He complained he did not receive adequate medical care when he became seriously ill after returning from a mission to Panama, and that Guard officials retaliated against him because he had conducted a management study critical of the Guard. Burkett told the New York Times he was hospitalized for depression in 1998 after suffering a nervous breakdown.

    Regarding the woman:

    Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.

    When Burkett gave copies of the documents to USA TODAY, it was on the understanding that his identity would not be disclosed. USA TODAY honored that agreement until Burkett waived his confidentiality Monday.

    "I didn't forge anything," Burkett said. "I didn't fake any documents. The only thing I've done here is to transfer documents from people I thought were real to people I thought were real. And that has been the limitation of my role. I may have been a patsy."


    Within three hours of the documents broadcast on CBS, Harold McDougald posting as "Buckhead" on FreeRepublic posts:

    To: Howlin Howlin, every single one of these memos to file is in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman. In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing, and typewriters used monospaced fonts. The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software, and personal computers. They were not widespread until the mid to late 90's. Before then, you needed typesetting equipment, and that wasn't used for personal memos to file. Even the Wang systems that were dominant in the mid 80's used monospaced fonts. I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old. This should be pursued aggressively. 47 posted on 09/08/2004 8:59:43 PM PDT by Buckhead [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]

    According to Trickster over at Tacitus:

    MacDougald is an Atlanta lawyer in the firm of Womble Carlyle et al. He has no professional background in printing or office equipment and his legal expertise lies elsewhere. He graduated from Brown University in 1980, and assuming he is the same Harry W. MacDougald who graduated in 1976 from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia--and my research reveals he very probably is--he would not have been old enough to have used typewriters on a professional basis in 1972-73.

    However, Mr. MacDougald does have another sort of expertise: the Republican variety. He is a member of the Federalist Society and is on the Legal Advisory Board of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, which advocates "limited government, individual economic freedom, and the free enterprise system." MacDougald helped draft the petition to the Arkansas Supreme Court that led to the five-year suspension of former President Clinton's license to practice law in that state, and worked with Mitch McConnell and Ken Starr to unsuccessfully challenge the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law. He is a Republican appointee to the Fulton County Board of Registration and Election.


    Next comes Powerline and LGF:

    Buckhead's doubts were No. 47 in a list of 217 comments, on one of dozens of such discussion threads. But they were noticed by Tom Mortensen and Liz MacDougald who, the next morning, emailed the link to Scott Johnson, a lawyer in St. Paul. Sitting at home, Johnson reprinted Buckhead on the blog he runs with two fellow lawyers, Power Line (powerlineblog.com), at 8:51 A.M., and then went to work. When he arrived at the office, he had nearly 50 reader emails waiting for him from people like John Risko, a former Navy clerk and typist, who explained why he, too, thought the memos might be forged.

    Powerline, as we all know, is run by three attorneys in Minnesota with various conservative "think tank" connections and interesting views regarding political discourse. History will show that the hitherto unknown Powerline boys rode the "Rathergate" story to fame and continuing media appearances.

    Jump forward to 2005...

    Having underhanded one softball question too many to Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClelland, faux Talon journalist "Jeff Gannon" is outed as gay prostitute James Guckert which is just the kind of story that has the ability to wake a complacent and cowed press. In the course of investigating Gannon/Guckert we learn that:

    After the CBS TANG story and the subsequent kerning saga, the right wanted someone to pay. The focus of the story soon turned to Mary Mapes, senior producer for 60 Minutes. Mapes, a highly respected, award-winning producer, had previously brought the Abu Ghraib photos to the world's attention. By the end of "Rathergate," however, she'd lost her credibility and her job...and J.D. Guckert was right in the middle.

    And...

    “Valid questions are being raised regarding the Bush White House’s relationship with James Guckert, also known as “Jeff Gannon,” and his access to documents that revealed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame.

    “This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint. It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential let alone access to sensitive security documents. In fact, it only raises questions as to the nature of the relationship between “Jeff Gannon” and the White House, and whether there was an alliance of interests that did not conform to ethical and security standards. President Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush, called the disclosure of an undercover operative’s identity treason.


    When asked about Gannon, Powerline's Hindrocket writes:

    The presence of a Bush-friendly journalist in the White House press corps was taken by the left as a deep affront. A study conducted a few years ago found that the White House press corps is 90% Democratic; apparently the left won’t be satisfied until the figure is 100%. So liberals began “investigating” Gannon. They found that he was a homosexual and started posting photos of him on their web sites, along with vicious personal attacks. Gannon, stunned by the virulence of the left’s attack on him, quit his job at Talon. Subsequently, a low-life named John Aravosis who is a gay activist and has a web site, found nude photos of Gannon and posted them online.

    Ever since this “story” broke, we have been inundated by emails from leftists demanding to know why we aren’t covering it. Actually, we have done a single post on the controversy, which explained why we don’t think there is any story there.


    The Rocket, confronted with the many gaps in his logic, fires back at an emailer:

    You dumb shit, he didn't get access using a fake name, he used his real name. You lefties' concern for White House security is really touching, but you know what, you stupid asshole, I think the Secret Service has it covered. Go crawl back into your hole, you stupid left-wing shithead. And don't bother us anymore. You have to have an IQ over 50 to correspond with us. You don't qualify, you stupid shit.

    ...and has since been taken out to the woodshed by the other Powerliners:

    I thank all of our readers who have written to express their support, encouragement, and appreciation of him and of our site in response to Rocket Man's expression of regret for the intemperate message he sent one of our emailers. Rocket Man has declared a brief moratorium on reading our email, but I have let him know of the response to his post below and want you to know that, although we are unable to acknowledge the messages individually, they are sincerely appreciated.

    ...and then there is this

    So...where am I going with this?

    Well, when I read that a Congressman from New York said (sorry, Little Green Hitlers link, you don't have to click):

    Well, you know, they are manipulating the media, they did it in the very beginning through intimidation. They would intimidate the people in the, uh, in the press conference. And ... they would ask — they would allow questions to be asked only of people that they knew were going to ask the right kind of questions, from their point of view. And, you know, that has its effect, had, had its effect on people. People have been — people in the media have been intimidated. The media has changed in the last four years. People have changed in the last four years. They’ve had a very very direct, aggressive attack on the, on the media, and the way it’s handled. Probably the most flagrant example of that is the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: it originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers. Why did they do it? They knew that Bush was a draft dodger. They knew that he had run away from his responsibilties in the Air National Guard in Texas, gone out of the state intentionally for a long period of time. They knew that he had no defense for that period in his life. And so what they did was, expecting that that was going to come up, they accentuated it: they produced papers that made it look even worse. And they — and they distributed those out to elements of the media. And it was only — what, like was it CBS? Or whatever, whatever which one Rather works for. They — the people there — they finally bought into it, and they, and they aired it. And when they did, they had ’em. They didn’t care who did it! All they had to do is to get some element of the media to advance that issue. Based upon the false papers that they produced.

    I think that we have some people who are afraid that they have built their house of cards on top of a quagmire. (Note to self: send that one to Doug Giles)

    Connect the dots any way you want.

    It's a free country, you know. At least it used to be...


    posted by tbogg at 8:48 PM

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    Taking time out from the snark

    Best wishes to the lovely Mrs. Glenn Reynolds.

    We look forward to hearing that everything went smoothly.


    posted by tbogg at 12:18 AM

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    Ambulance Chasing - Blogging Style

    Hmmmm.

    I wonder who this could be?

    If you are a central figure in a news story, or purported news story, who tried to contact me in my office last week, my secretary apparently took down your number wrong--when I returned the call, the number was out of service. Try me again.( my emphasis)

    Cash, check, contingency, or trade-out (as long as it's not 'rough trade'). Call us now. Our operators are are standing by....


    posted by tbogg at 12:06 AM

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    Sunday, February 20, 2005

     

    Dead Pool Fantasy League

    Would the person with the Hunter Thompson - Sandra Dee - John Raitt trifecta ticket please come by and pick up your winnings.

    (Tears up ticket with Keith Richards - Jesse Helms - Dennis Miller*)

    * Freak accident involving monkey poo. Just a hunch...


    posted by tbogg at 11:32 PM

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    The gift that keeps on giving

    I really don't want to keep on harping on Jeff Gannon...

    Okay. Actually I do, because how many times in life do you get to be so completely unfair and still be right at the same time? So, grab the gusto, I must. Which leads us to Jeff's threat:

    Jeff Gannon is considering suing liberal interest groups, bloggers and others for a "political assassination" that drove him from his job as a reporter for a conservative news outfit called Talon News, he told NEWSWEEK. Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, singled out Media Matters -- a "well-funded" liberal group headed by longtime "attack dog" David Brock. ("Everything we wrote about him came from the public record," Brock replied.)

    While all of the other bloggers are relishing the idea of the Eight Inch Bulldog being deposed on his connections to the White House, I'm much more interested in hearing about his full-time job as an Escort with Benefits in the DC area. In particular, a "client" list or little black book.

    That sound you just heard was Ken Mehlman's sphincter snapping shut so tightly that if you popped a briquet in his butt you'd have a diamond by Tuesday.


    posted by tbogg at 4:52 PM

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    Vomited up like a ...vomiting thing that vomits.

    When you read:

    If you read the biographies of great Christian leaders of yesterday and today, you get the sense that the majority of these guys and girls heard clearly from God, obeyed readily and started immediately reaping Taco Bell Grande-size rewards.

    ...it can only mean that Motel Messiah™ Doug Giles is on the loose again, mangling the Lord's words in pursuit of cultural validation in a world that that snickers and rolls it's eyes behind his back. Here are this week's Doug Droppings:

    In the Bible, there are huge chunks of copy where the saints’ lives and walks with God reeked worse than old spilled bong water in the back seat of a taxi in Miami during the heat of the summer

    [...]

    When Jonah ran from his call, God ran after him and used extreme measures, i.e., a violent storm, to get his attention. So much for everyone wanting to have a purpose driven life.

    [...

    I know this is not PC, but God will rock our world if we are avoiding our call. God has His ways of waking us up. Disaster comes to Jonah’s life not because of happenstance or demonic attack but because God is on the prowl. God is allowing all hell to break lose on Jonah’s world because Jonah is not taking care of business. God/life/circumstances will fight us if we’re blowing off what we were hardwired to do.

    [...]

    When we go through storms and are forced to hang out in a fish’s belly, sometimes it feels like an eternity, like we will never ever get out of the seaweed we’re in. When life disciplines us for goofing off, it can often leave us more depressed than a pimpled-faced 16-year-old boy just dissed by Lindsay Lohan.

    [...]

    I cannot relate to the perfect flawless ones who follow faultlessly their purpose in life. I find, thanks to my creepy heart, that I’m more like the guys who barely made it, who were seemingly always doing stupid junk, missing their purpose, chasing things they shouldn’t be chasing and paying retail for life’s lessons. Usually it takes a celestially swung 2x4 to get me to wake me up and back on track.


    When you think about it, "celestially swung 2x4" blunt head trauma explains so much.


    posted by tbogg at 3:22 PM

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    Do you suck up to Republicans with that mouth?

    To set this up, you first have to read Hindrocket's latest on 8+ inches and rising:

    The stupidity of these people, as well as their malice, is mind-boggling. Can anyone discern what this guy, and the dozens if not hundreds of Democrats who have sent more or less identical emails, are talking about? Why are liberals obsessed with the fact that Jeff Gannon was once a gay escort? Beats me. Why does this character think that as conservatives, we are duty-bound to hate gay escorts? Beats me. We've done close to 10,000 posts on this site, and I doubt that we've ever mentioned gay escorts one way or another. Would I want my son to be one? No. Do I think that having once been a gay escort should disqualify Jeff Gannon from becoming a reporter, or entering any other occupation? No. Why do liberals find this so hard to understand? And how on God's green earth does this make us "hypocrites"?

    Of course, what we've criticized the left-wing blogs for is posting nude photographs of Gannon. How does the twisted "logic" manifested by these emailers justify that contemptible practice? Once again: beats me. The only conclusion I can come to is that a great many liberals are so consumed by hate that they have gone stark raving mad.


    That's the public stance.

    Here's the private stance to one of those bull-goose looneys who had the audacity to email the Time Magazine Bloggers of the Year:

    MN Politics Guru sent Mr. Hinderaker a note questioning a post he did about "Jeff Gannon." Hinderaker's reply was a model of civility:

    You dumb shit, he didn't get access using a fake name, he used his real name. You lefties' concern for White House security is really touching, but you know what, you stupid asshole, I think the Secret Service has it covered. Go crawl back into your hole, you stupid left-wing shithead. And don't bother us anymore. You have to have an IQ over 50 to correspond with us. You don't qualify, you stupid shit.

    Do they teach you how to write so eloquently at Harvard? Clearly, I need to take lessons.


    I've read MN Politics Guru email to Der Rocket and it wasn't anything that I would find offensive (but then , you know me) and so I asked the Guru to post the originating email on their blog. Hopefully you will find it here soon.

    Ward Deacon? I think you need to have a little talk with the Beaver Rocket.

    Thanks to Mark for the original heads-up.

    Added: MN Politics Guru has the email up.


    posted by tbogg at 12:43 PM

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    Saturday, February 19, 2005

     

    Sure he's a hooker with a penis, but he's a hooker with a penis and a heart of gold...

    Hindrocket's laughable defense of the real Hind Rocket.

    The presence of a Bush-friendly journalist in the White House press corps was taken by the left as a deep affront. A study conducted a few years ago found that the White House press corps is 90% Democratic; apparently the left won’t be satisfied until the figure is 100%. So liberals began “investigating” Gannon. They found that he was a homosexual and started posting photos of him on their web sites, along with vicious personal attacks. Gannon, stunned by the virulence of the left’s attack on him, quit his job at Talon. Subsequently, a low-life named John Aravosis who is a gay activist and has a web site, found nude photos of Gannon and posted them online.

    Gay activist John Aravosis = "low-life"

    Gay male prostitute and serial liar "Jeff Gannon" = "a poor guy"

    Hindrocket writes:

    That is really one of the stupidest things I’ve read in a long time. Just try to parse Aravosis’s logic: The issue is Gannon’s White House access. But why is that an issue? There was nothing special about Gannon’s access, he got it the same way as everyone else. His “access” is an issue, according to Aravosis, because “the White House wouldn’t let him in the door right now, knowing of his background.” Huh? That is one of the most stunning non sequiturs ever. First of all, what is the evidence for the proposition that the White House would deny access to a reporter who was once a gay escort? The proposition is absurd on its face; it wasn’t the White House that drove Gannon out of his job, it was Aravosis and his friends. Second, even if that claim were true, so what?? How on earth would the White House’s attitude twoard(sic) gay escorts justify Aravosis in posting nude pictures of Gannon? (my emphasis)

    No. I believe Hindrocket's belief that the White House wouldn't bar a gay escort (whose profile is still active, I believe) as a "journalist" (and who the fuck does Hindrocket think he's kidding with that?) is one of the stupidest things that I've ever read. I mean, when we call Howard Fineman, Candy Crowley, Tim Russert, Howard Kurtz, Judith Miller, Brit Hume, Wolf Blitzer, and a cast of thousands "whores" we just kind of kidding. But Gannon was (is) a real-life "leave your money on the bedstand" blowmonkey. And it's not as if Aravosis broke into the Watergate to steal the super-secret gannonporn.jpg files.

    Additionally Hindrocket writes:

    The bottom line is that there isn’t any story here, other than the bottomless depravity of liberals in America. How any of their purported “grievances” against Gannon justifies posting nude photos of him is inexplicable.

    You know, it's getting downright impossible to tell who or what is is the 'bottom' in all of this, but one thing is for certain; all it takes to dazzle Hinderaker is a guy just trying to put his sordid history (even if it's only a few weeks old) behind him.

    That and 8+ inches...uncut.


    posted by tbogg at 2:18 PM

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    He don't write so much no more, but he paints a pretty picture

    Billmon.

    Thanks to Anna for pointing this out


    posted by tbogg at 10:11 AM

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    Irony eats it's own tail

    Ann Coulter (and need we remind you that the French refer to her as le skank) foams on about Ward Churchill:

    Even liberals don't try to defend Churchill on grounds that he is Galileo pursuing an abstract search for the truth. They simply invoke "free speech," like a deus ex machina to end all discussion. Like the words "diverse" and "tolerance," "free speech" means nothing but: "Shut up, we win." It's free speech (for liberals), diversity (of liberals), and tolerance (toward liberals).

    And , because, Ann Coulter isn't a liberal, she can't say things like:

    Coulter:

    My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.

    Coulter:

    When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors.

    Coulter:

    Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant.

    ...and find work on MSNBC, Fox, Human Events, etc.


    posted by tbogg at 9:51 AM

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    Friday, February 18, 2005

     

    Yet another urban term whitebreaded to death

    This is Tim Graham.

    This is Tim Graham on NRO:

    Liberal Washington Post reporter Evelyn Nieves writes the "peace" movement is plotting to re-emerge, and she's making a case for them: "In a way, the antiwar groups' task is easier than it was before the U.S. invasion, when the idea of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein attacking the United States with weapons of mass destruction convinced many people that a preemptive strike was necessary. Polls show that support for the war has eroded as its cost in lives, the economy and the social fabric of communities throughout the nation has climbed." But if you weren't a liberal reporter, you might see that in a way, the "peace" movement now looks like an "anti-democracy" movement.

    Yadda yadda yadda...whatever, Timmy. Then this:

    PS: To get the real flava of the current "peace" organizing with its radical-left talk of American "empire" and "killing machines," see here.

    "Flava"?

    You're Tim Graham. You can't say "flava". You can't say "mad props". You're not allowed to call anyone "g" either. You're Tim Graham. You put mayonaise on pastrami. You listen to Enya. You ask hookers if they take Discover card.

    But you aren't allowed to say "flava".

    Ever.


    posted by tbogg at 9:52 PM

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    I think we've seen this movie before

    Bush then:

    President Bush plans at least two more weeks of diplomacy before deciding whether to attack Iraq and may support a deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to visibly destroy his chemical and biological weapons, administration officials said Monday.

    Officials said the United States and Britain are likely to push for an enforcement resolution in the United Nations Security Council this week. One option being considered, a senior administration official said, was a demand for “actual disarmament” by Iraq within a specified number of days.

    “It would say, ‘This is your last window,’” the official said.

    [...]

    As the administration has tried to keep the pressure on Iraq, it often has implied in the past two months that a final deadline was near. Officials suggested Monday that Bush’s rough timetable has always been slightly longer than many diplomats assumed when he announced on Jan. 30 that the issue of how to deal with Saddam would be resolved in “a matter of weeks, not months.”

    But this time, the administration appears to have left little room for retreat from a timetable heading toward a final decision in about two weeks. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on Sunday implied that what she called a “diplomatic window” would close following the next council meeting at the end of this month, when members will again hear an assessment of Iraqi cooperation from Blix. She was dismissive of a French suggestion that the council schedule yet another meeting on March 14.


    Bush today:

    Military action against Iran’s nuclear program is not the United States’ first choice but can never be ruled out, President Bush said Friday.

    “First of all, you never want a president to say never, but military action is certainly not, is never the president’s first choice,” Bush told Belgian television channel VRT, when asked if he could rule out military action against Iran.

    “Diplomacy is always the president’s, or at least always my first choice and we’ve got a common goal, and that is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” he said in the interview taped in Washington earlier and broadcast before his arrival in Brussels on Sunday for summits with NATO and the European Union.

    EU officials want Washington to show more explicit support to efforts by Britain, France and Germany to win guarantees from Tehran that its nuclear program is peaceful — for example by easing U.S. resistance to Iran’s candidacy for the World Trade Organization.

    But Bush, applauding the European efforts, suggested there was no divergence between the policy of Washington and Europe on Iran and voiced confidence that they could succeed together in ensuring that Iran did not develop a nuclear device.


    ...and if you really want to re-live the run-up on Iraq, this is quite a hoot.

    Some ask how urgent this danger is to America and the world. The danger is already significant, and it only grows worse with time. If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?

    Whoops. Our bad. Nevermind. Strike that. Sorry....


    posted by tbogg at 1:11 PM

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    Cutting out the middleman

    As if the people of Afghanistan don't have enough problems, Rush Limbaugh is stopping by to sample some of their poppy by-products and practice a little immorality:

    Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew S. Natsios may be heading to Dubai and Afghanistan next week, taking along a small press contingent: Rush Limbaugh and, briefly, CNN anchor Daryn Kagan -- they are a famous item these days -- along with Mary Matalin, who is going as an ex officio White House adviser.

    [...]

    The always-reliable National Enquirer reported Jan. 11 that Limbaugh was divorced from his third wife and predicted Limbaugh and Kagan would marry soon. We are assured that this is utter nonsense, but the AID folks nonetheless speculated about a wedding in beautiful downtown Kandahar.

    Turns out AID folks in Kabul, who are coordinating the trip, found themselves begging for rooms in Dubai, which were hard to book because of a major event this weekend. At this point, it appears the visitors will be split up into three hotels.

    Cable traffic cautioned the group that "lodging is scarce" in Kabul and they should expect to be put in packing crates, known as "hooches," which are "multi-bunk rooms." AID folks were looking for a double bed for Limbaugh and Kagan's hooch, but none was available. Just as well, it turns out, because last night Kagan, who had been scheduled to go as Limbaugh's guest, dropped out of the trip.


    I guess Afghanistan will just have to wait to meet the future Mrs. Rush Limbaugh or, as we like to call her: Whalerider v.4.0.


    posted by tbogg at 9:58 AM

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    Thursday, February 17, 2005

     

    Thursday Night Basset Blogging


    Rare outdoors, on their feet, and awake shot. Posted by Hello


    posted by tbogg at 10:16 PM

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    Oddly enough, she is still more dignified on the air than Alan Colmes...

    Via The Next Left we see that all Fox reporters lack balance even at the local level. (warning: video with sound).


    posted by tbogg at 1:02 PM

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    Pitchers and catchers report.

    No, this isn't about Jeff Gannon. Just a reminder that baseball season is around the corner as players start reporting to camp.

    The smell of the grass.
    The sound a baseball makes when it hits a well-worn glove.
    The crack of the bat.
    And soon... Ken Griffey Jr.'s first leg injury of the year.


    posted by tbogg at 12:54 PM

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    Wednesday, February 16, 2005

     

    One works. The other doesn't.


    After taking more than a year off to assist her father's re-election campaign, US Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s daughter Elizabeth (L), seen here with her sister Mary in 2004, was reappointed to a senior State Department post dealing with the Middle East.(AFP/FIle/Jeff Haynes) Posted by Hello

    So, Elizabeth (or Liz as she's known to her friends. That's LIZ, L-I-Z!) lands another job with the Department of Nepotism, while, Mary, well, she's still not doing dick as far as we can tell.


    posted by tbogg at 11:09 PM

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    Since Sean already has a bitch named Colmes..

    Sean Hannity needs help naming his dog.

    We're kind of partial to "Smarter Than Me".

    "C'mere Smarter Than Me."
    "On the paper, Smarter Than Me."
    "Stop licking you balls, Smarter Than Me. That's Alan's job..."

    That kind of thing. Actually, based on the picture the puppy looks like a Bernese Mountain Dog, who really are, by definition, smarter than Sean Hannity.

    But then who isn't?


    posted by tbogg at 10:23 PM

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    Don't make me come over there with another pretzel

    It looks like our Steely-Eyed Rocket Man is whipped:

    Behind the scenes, first lady Laura Bush is making big changes for the next four years.

    [...]

    And with that confidence comes word the first lady and President Bush will be putting on their dancing shoes a whole lot more in the second term. In fact, on Valentine's Day, the Bushes hosted a black-tie dinner for 60 guests.

    "Perhaps this is how she is spending her capital," Gerhart said, using a term also employed by President Bush, who has vowed to spend the "political capital" he earned in the 2004 election.

    Gerhart added: "She is saying, 'Look, I know you don't want to stay up very late but darn it, every once in a while, I want to have some fun people around, a little music, a little dancing, a little wine, a little more fun at night.' And he says, 'OK dear.' "


    Because, you know, she's already killed one man...


    posted by tbogg at 9:34 PM

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    Tuesday, February 15, 2005

     

    Gonna have to get me some of that counseling too

    Golfer in therapy after anti-U.S. remarks

    Paul Casey, an Englishman who lives in Arizona, returns to the PGA Tour this week after undergoing counseling to deal with the fallout from his derogatory comments about Americans.

    Casey said in an interview with The Sunday Times of London in November that he learned to “properly hate” the Americans during the Ryder Cup. He also said U.S. fans can be “bloody annoying,” and the vast majority of Americans don’t know what’s going on in the world.


    You mean Americans aren't "annoying" and do know what is going on in the world?

    Since when?


     

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