i come not to praise coretta, but to score some cheap political points at her expense

It didn’t take very long for the other shoe to drop.

George W. Bush doesn’t venture forth into unscripted public appearances very often. His handlers keep the press corps cowed and the audience stocked with phony journalists to the point where a press conference may get a little sticky, but no one will actually press the Prez for a straight answer. And he can always flip them the bird on the way out.

And when he does make a public appearance, they can stock the audience with enlisted men and women who can be put under orders to applaud at appropriate times or with sycophants who believes Bush walks on water and talks directly to God himself.

By appearing at Coretta Scott King's funeral Bush ventured into an arena he should have faced five years ago. An arena not bought and paid for by lobbyist lucre and contributor cash. He heard a dose of the truth.

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there," the reverend Dr. James Lowery said to a standing ovation. "But Coretta knew, and we know, there were weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war? Billions more. But no more for the poor."

So why would Bush put himself out there amongst people who are diametrically opposed to everything he stands for and attend Coretta Scott King’s funeral? For a man who brooks no opposing viewpoint, an African-American funeral is the wrong place for the man to show up.

No doubt the Secret Service put Kevlar underwear on him and the earpiece through which Karl Rove feeds him his next line kept him calm by piping in a Toby Keith concert. But why go to the bother?

To score points, of course.

George W. has been taking it on the chin lately. His domestic spying operation has him on the ropes with the Senate Judiciary Committee, his poll numbers rank him slightly lower than the referees from the Super Bowl when it comes to both job performance and popularity.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and his lovely wife, Coretta Scott King, devoted their lives to improving the lives of those around them. They fought injustice – especially racially motivated injustice – and stood up for those among us in the greatest danger of being trampled by a steamrolling majority intent on securing the brass ring for themselves. They are revered for the lives they led and the people they touched, reached, and inspired.

George W. has spent his “political capital” trying to dismantle civil rights. He’s gone so far as to dispatch his beard, Condoleeza Rice, to battle affirmative action on college campuses.

So it’s no wonder his welcome at Mrs. King’s funeral was not exactly the stuff of warm puppy hugs. It doesn’t take a mental giant to forecast that one, so even Bush himself had to see this one coming.

So the point had to have been to actually subject himself to the direct ire of the people his administration has hurt the most. Why?

Why, to give his paid political pundits something to harp on, of course!

See, it was difficult to keep his chattering nabobs busy. It was hard for them to get any traction supporting warrant-less wiretaps and even they were having trouble spinning Jack Abramoff for the better.

So they rerun a play from the Paul Wellstone funeral and send Bush out to sit front and center while those mean, nasty liberals tell the truth about his administration and its failures. Those nattering nabobs can now play their snooty civility card and talk endlessly about how crass and mean liberals are.

The hypocrits.

Give it a rest. It’s about time the preppy president got a dose of truth – even if he was listening to Toby Keith at the time.

To be lectured by the people who saw nothing wrong with Dick Cheney dropping the “F-bomb” on the Senate floor on civility is hypocrisy in its purest form. These are the people who brought you Max Cleland’s face being morphed into Osama bin Laden’s. These are the people who stood by while the levees broke in New Orleans and who are standing idly by while there are still thousands of people unaccounted for in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. These are the people who have been up for sale to Abramoff and the rest of K Street. These are the people whose first reaction is to lie and let someone else search for the truth.

Look at it this way. Considering the domestic spying operation Bush is championing in the face of massive opposition and potential impeachment, he probably knew going in what was going to be said about him.

It’s about damn time he heard the voices of real Americans -- "the mythical little guy" his cronies mocked during the Alito confirmation hearings.

The last time they played this little game they managed to steal a senate seat in Minnesota for Norm Coleman. This time they're trying to steal your attention while they strongarm the senate into supporting their illegal, unconstitutional wiretapping program.

Shame on anyone who falls for it.

More soon.

et tu, johnny?

Here’s a new twist in the world of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” John McCain has learned how to use the word “Disingenuousness.”

In a mocking letter to Barack Obama, the Arizona “straight shooter” accused the freshman senator from Illinois of “self-interested partisan posturing” on the issue of ethics reform.

Excuse me? John McCain accusing someone else of “self-interested partisan posturing” after abandoning his own principles – let alone his stance on campaign ethics – to campaign alongside George W. Bush is laughable. And we can ignore the fact that McCain made a huge show out of banning torture of prisoners while negotiating a deal with the White House that does absolutely nothing to curb prisoner abuses. McCain can now campaign as a champion of human rights while the White House goes merrily on its way, rendering prisoners to any country they want so long as the thumbscrews are lubed up.

McCain was the victim of Karl Rove’s dirtiest campaign tactics. Rove made political hay out of McCain’s adopted child – push polling in the South claiming that the Arizona senator was the father of an illegitimate black child – and claiming that McCain had actually cracked under Vietnamese torture tactics while a prisoner in the Hanoi Hilton. And even if he didn’t, he was at least crazy after all that torture.

And now McCain going to lecture Barack Obama.

Let’s not even go to the place where we talk about the mocking tone McCain used with the lone African American member of the senate. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt – something McCain is incapable of doing.

According to an online story published on the Chicago Sun-Times website, McCain wrote:

"I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. . . .

"I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss . . .

"I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party's effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman Senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness."

Let’s put this letter in its proper context.

Barack Obama is probably THE most popular member of the U.S. Senate. He’s been riding a crest of popularity since giving a stirring keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. And Obama has taken on lead responsibility in his party’s attempts to enact actual reforms on the way lobbyists interact with members of Congress.

That’s too lofty a pulpit, and he must be taken down a peg. And not just any senator can be dispatched for that task. Well, actually, no Republican can be dispatched to accomplish that job, and the best they can offer is John McCain with a weak-assed Right hook.

McCain has been posturing for a run in 2008, hence his public courting of Bush and Rove – hoping to, if nothing else, get them to sheath their swords and not undercut him again they way they did in 2000.

In a way, this is good news. If this is the best the Republicans have on the issue of Lobby Reform, then their boat is seriously hemorrhaging water.

And to his credit, Obama did not respond in kind.

"I confess that I have no idea" what prompted the letter, Obama wrote Monday. "But let me assure you that I am not interested in typical partisan rhetoric or posturing. The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem."

Face it. Obama is the real deal and the Emperor still has no clothes.

More soon.

these jackboots were made for walkin’

Here we go. Game on.

Alberto Gonzales got bitch-slapped by Republicans and Democrats alike yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as it investigates the Bush Administration’s domestic spying program. Feeble excuses and shaky justifications were smacked down like a game of Whack-a-Mole on the midway – and not just by members of the minority.

George Washington did it, he protested.

Lindsay Graham and Chuck Hagel made Gonzales look like an L-One who didn’t do his homework for Contracts I. Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold made him look like an out-classed lightweight sparring a few rounds with George Foreman BEFORE the Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine came out.

In essence, Gonzales looked like the designated Bush flunky to dive onto this live grenade. And because he looked so feeble in the attempt, the administration pulled out the big gun. They unleashed Bush’s Brain. Turd Blossom is riding to the rescue.

Karl Rove is taking over.

News reports have the White House Deputy Chief of Staff threatening each and every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee with a blacklist if they vote against the administration. Sources say the blacklist would mean cutting off all White House political and financial support in November – never mind the fact that, with the way the tide is turning, the bigger, more effective threat would be to have TOTAL White House support.

According to a senior GOP congressional aide “It’s hardball all the way.”

As it stands, this won’t even be a close vote. Republicans, for a change, seem determined to uphold the Constitution of the United States and not their membership card in the Republican Party. This isn’t Sam Alito for the Supreme Court. This is a president violating the law and invading the private emails and telephone calls of millions of Americans – by definition.

In order to get the phone call and email intercepts, the NSA has to intercept ALL communications traffic. From there, they weed out traffic they’re not interested in and cultivate that in which they are. We’re supposed to trust them when they say they’re not really listening in – but then again, it all has to be run through their data mining software.

The Bush Administration is taking a great deal of damage on the issue and that damage could increase exponentially as the hearings continue to a conclusion that George W. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. If only two Senators vote against the president, the results could lead to eventual impeachment proceedings.

Rove has been twisting arms – and twisting hard. Every Republican on the committee has been summoned to Rove’s office, along with the leadership in Congress. Turd Blossom has been telling them all that voting against Bush would destroy his whole grand, Machiavellian Scheme for Republican domination for the next few decades. He’s been offering them plenty of free public television time in their November campaigns, lots and lots of money from Republican campaign coffers and plenty of photo ops with the president.

Say no and you’re on the blacklist.

The argument that opposing unwarranted surveillance is somehow soft on terrorism is a tough sell. “You’re with the President or you’re with Al Qaeda,” just isn’t going to work this time. Not when the NSA is intercepting letters to Aunt Fanny and IMs with porn sites while looking for terrorists.

And the fact that all this wiretapping has led to NO arrests is a trump card that has yet to be played. There is no court in the land that will allow evidence at trial that was initially obtained through domestic wiretapping.

It’s time to draw a line in the sand, Senators. Drop out of Republican lockstep and do your job.

More soon.

bibles? we don't need no steenking bibles!

Let me get this right. The Bush Administration has its collective panties in a bunch about the bible. They want it everywhere. They want it to be the guilding light of public policy. They want it to replace science textbooks in school rooms. Some of its supporters want the rule of law thrown out and replaced by the 10 commandments. The president said last week that even his foreign policy is based on his belief in "The Almighty."

So, why the terrible aversion to the bible when it comes to testifying in front of Congress?

Today Alberto Gonzales marched into a Senate chamber to chastise us all for our knee-jerk reaction to the administration's domestic spying operation. Like a good parrot, he was there to say "it's legal, it's legal" to any and all queries.

But before saying a word, Democrats asked that the Attorney General, the nation's highest-ranking law enforcement officer, be sworn in. They asked that he place his right hand on a bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

No, thanks. Gonzales declined. And like the loyal Republican soldier he is at heart, Arlen Specter defended him and allowed him to address the panel without being placed under oath.

In fact, Senator Jeff Sessions, the Republican from Alabama, suggested it was an affront to the Attorney General to even ask that he swear an oath to tell the truth. It's would impugn his honor, sir, to suggest that he might NOT tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

"My answers would be the same whether I was under oath or not," Gonzales said. One must conclude that this was just the first of the lies to be spewed today in response to questioning.

Why do so many Bush Administration officials refuse to be placed under oath? Bush and Cheney have collectively refused to do so while testifying to Congressional investigators. Condoleeza Rice refused to do so before revealing that the president had, in fact, received a Presidential Daily Briefing headlined by the prophetic words: Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within U.S.

How can people who loudly claim to live their life with a bible in their hand be so terrified of placing their right hand on a bible and swearing to tell the truth?

Put another way, would you believe a used car salesman who wouldn't sign an affadavit stating that the miles on your car's odometer are accurate, but swears you can trust him?

One can only conclude that this is a broad-based strategy of denial calculated for when the truth actually DOES come out. And that's an unsettling prospect. When the players are so blatantly going into "Cover Your Ass" mode NOW, what can we expect from them later?

We can already see a few clues about that, now, too.

exhibit a) Scooter Libby got his trial date -- and surprise, surprise, it's scheduled for AFTER the 2006 election cycle. So far after that it's January of 2007 before he sees a courtroom to ask for another continuance.

exhibit b) The federal attorney investigating the case, surprise, was recently named to the Federal bench -- in the real world that would be called a payoff. Or a buyoff.

and exhibit c) Some of the critical emails regarding Libby's activities have mysteriously disappeared. Does the name Rosemary Woods or the words "18-and-a-half-minute gap" ring any bells here?

What we're seeing here closely resembles a crime family closing ranks around its own.

And the bottom line is this: We can't rely on these people to protect our constitutional interests when they're already busy protecting their own ass.

More soon.

super bowl? what super bowl?

Tomorrow Alberto Gonzales will begin to cry about the press coverage given the Bush Administration's domestic spying operation. Time Magazine posted a story on its website yesterday outlining the plans to use a Congressional hearing to attack. Undoubtedly, he will characterize anyone who has criticized the warrentless eavesdropping program as being unpatriotic and supporting terrorists and terrorism.

How fascist can you get?

According to a story by the Associated Press, Gonzales will defending the program because, according to the administration, targets suspects, not innocents. That's like dropping an atomic bomb on Baghdad and defending it because it was targetting Saddam Hussein. You cannot justify eavesdropping on innocent Americans by claiming it's just collateral damage.

Let's be clear: this is not just a case of wiretapping or eavesdropping without a warrant. The Bush Administration's domestic spying operation is to wiretapping what Niagra Falls is to a leaky faucet. The NSA has been intercepting communications at the hub -- in essence corralling all communication, be it telephone conversations, cellular phone traffic or email, and subjecting it to a massive data mining operation. In other words, they run all communication traffic through powerful super computers, sifting data for keywords the NSA feels denotes communication with terrorists or terrorist organizations.

There is no court in the land -- including courts stackd to the brim with Republican loyalists -- that could possibly sanction this kind of operation. It's unconstitutional on its face, let alone in its details.

Sunday, AP reported Arlen Specter, chairman of the committee to which Gonzales will do his crying, said the Crony General's explanations to date have been "strained and unrealistic."

But really, what else can you expect from an administration with such disdain for the Constitution?

Bush is quoted as screaming at his advisors to "stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

This is an administration that feels that it can blithely disregard the rule of law. It can sign a bill that makes it illegal to torture prisoners and announce that that the President can order prisoners to be tortured any time he feels moved to do so.

We've all had our civil rights violated. We all need to feel and give voice to our outrage.

More soon.