09.30.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 4:09 am by SSquirrel
By Josh White and Bradley Graham
The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon.
Senators bristled at the disclosure that only one of Iraq’s 86 army battalions is ready to fight on its own, including rare blunt criticism from Republicans. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he believes the United States has not had enough troops to fend off insurgents permanently. McCain also chastised Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, who retires as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today, for being overly optimistic because “things have not gone as we had planned or expected nor as we were told by you, General Myers.”
How many sons and daughters will die today?
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Posted in SSquirrel at 3:44 am by SSquirrel
Ebony detests loud noises, like camera shutters
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Posted in SSquirrel at 2:53 am by SSquirrel
C&L points to Hunter at dKos
“Welcome to the world of the politics of personal destruction, you tubthumping, chin-jutting, Bush humping gits. Welcome to the nasty and partisan world that Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and a legion of insignificant lowest-rung toadies like yourselves nurtured into fruition daily with eager, grubby hands, and now look upon with dull-faced faux horror.”
~Hunter
Rock On! 
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Posted in SSquirrel at 2:37 am by SSquirrel
Apparently I’m required by law to post kitty pictures on Fridays.
So here is a rare sighting of Ebony, who, rumor has it, lives in my house.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 2:20 am by SSquirrel
courtesy Tapped
Mark Leon Goldberg
“The indictment alleges that TRMPAC took $155,000 in corporate contributions and then sent a check for $190,000 to the national Republican Party’s “soft money” arm. The national committee then wrote $190,000 in checks from its noncorporate accounts to seven Texas candidates. Perhaps most damning, TRMPAC dictated the precise amount and recipients of those donations.
This was an obvious end run around the corporate contribution rule. The more difficult question is whether it was an illegal end run — or, to be more precise, one so blatantly illegal that it amounts to a criminal felony rather than a civil violation. ”
That’s a good question. Fortunately, it’s one that a state district judge in Texas has already decided, albeit in a somewhat surreptitious way. Judge Joe Hart — a conservative Democrat appointed by a Republican, and whom the Republican defense lawyers specifically requested hear the case — ruled in favor of five state Democratic candidates who alleged that their Republican opponents in the 2002 elections used corporate contributions funneled through TRMPAC. Corporate campaign contributions are illegal in Texas, so money that TRMPAC solicited from corporations, totaling $190,000, was sent in a single check to the RNC. Two weeks later, the RNC’s state elections branch, the Republican National State Elections Committee (RNSEC), cut seven sequential checks to seven Texan candidates totaling — you guessed it — $190,000.
That’s been reported in abundance by now, but what has generally been omitted from this coverage was the $87,332 and $57,332 in damages that Judge Hart awarded to two of the defendants in the case. Those figures could only have been arrived at by taking into account the $35,000 and $20,000 that RNSEC paid to those candidates’ opponents. (The ruling assesses double the RNSEC contributions for damages, and the remaining $17,332 for other improper expenditures, like TRMPAC–financed phone surveys.) Though criminal charges were not a part of this civil case, these damages were, de facto, an indication that criminal laundering of corporate campaign donations had occured.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 1:53 am by SSquirrel
Roy Cohn’s cold, dead woody
Fucker made milk come out of my nose with that one.
Go read the rest.
Jesus General
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Posted in SSquirrel at 12:58 am by SSquirrel
By Susan Schmidt and Jim VandeHei ~WaPo
Joseph Tate, an attorney for Libby, said yesterday that he told Miller attorney Floyd Abrams a year ago that Libby’s waiver was voluntary and that Miller was free to testify. He said last night that he was contacted by Bennett several weeks ago, and was surprised to learn that Miller had not accepted that representation as authorization to speak with prosecutors.
“We told her lawyers it was not coerced,” Tate said. “We are surprised to learn we had anything to do with her incarceration.”
Tate said that he and Bennett then asked Fitzgerald whether their clients could talk without fear of being accused of obstructing the investigation, and were assured that Fitzgerald would not oppose them doing so. After the phone call from Libby on Sept. 19 or 20, Tate said, the lawyers wrote a letter to Fitzgerald indicating Miller accepted Libby’s representation that the waiver was voluntary.
This is known as “pulling a Cooper” in honor of Matt, who used this trick months ago. After receiving a release which you regard as coerced, and not credible(i.e. The fingers crossed exception), you act indignant and noble (puh-lease, Miller?). So after you finish climbing up on your cross, firmly attaching yourself with velcro, and screaming bloody martyr at the top of your lungs, you’re the story. Book deals, a syndicated column, movie of the week, talk show invitations out the ass. ‘Course you spend too long in jail, couple hurricanes, more scandals, that silly war you hyped…weeell, people who were begging for a 5 minute visitor slot suddenly have “emergency” manicures and botox. What to do? Pull a “cooper”. Have your lawyer call your source’s lawyer and say “Pinky swear?” and their lawyer, who knows damn well whatever he says will be in the paper very soon, says “My client doth pinky swear”. Now you can claim you’re not just a martyr but practically a friggin’ saint. A neat piece of blackmail, no ethics involved, no morals either, but you’re Judy, of the New York friggin’ Times, no less. You left that bullshit, namby pamby crap behind long ago.
And behold, Saint Judy is a story again! Judy is free, she’s suffered for her “craft”. Sacrificed for our sacred first commandm amendment! Back up on the cross for the standing O, baby.
This doesn’t change the fact that your source was coerced, except now he’s been blackmailed too. But who’s gonna call you on it, the media? Not hardly. Making “high six” for sitting at your desk and taking good notes when some hack bureaucrat calls with the latest talking points? You don’t fuck with a sweet deal like that, no way in hell. So let’s give a big hand for the little lady, MSM, she’s an asshole, but she’s one of your assholes.
-SSquirrel
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09.29.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 2:26 pm by SSquirrel
Elvis is alive and working as a short-order cook on Moonbase W.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 1:34 pm by SSquirrel
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
The Associated Press ~WaPo
Earlier, the military said a roadside bomb killed five American soldiers Wednesday during combat in the western town of Ramadi. It was the deadliest single attack on U.S. troops since a roadside bomb killed 14 Marines near Haditha in western Iraq on Aug. 3.
The five dead Americans were assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force and were hit while “conducting combat operations” in the insurgent hotbed, a statement by the Marines said.
The deaths brought to 13 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in the past four days. According to an Associated Press count, 1,934 U.S. troops have died since the war started in 2003.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 6:18 am by SSquirrel
Yeah, Tom, and we’re sure that the National Journal and the Florida Supreme Court put those blank checks into your PAC director’s hand. Fuckwad. — HOLLY MARTINS
Read, Laugh
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Posted in SSquirrel at 5:56 am by SSquirrel
Ask Why?
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Posted in SSquirrel at 5:39 am by SSquirrel
By Eric Schmitt The New York Times
A U.S. Army captain who reported new allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq said army investigators seem more concerned about tracking down young soldiers who reported misconduct than in following up the accusations and investigating whether more senior officers knew of the abuses.
The officer, Captain Ian Fishback, said investigators from the Criminal Investigation Command and the 18th Airborne Corps inspector general were pressuring him to divulge the names of two sergeants from his former battalion who also gave accounts of abuse that were made public in a report last Friday by Human Rights Watch.
Fishback said the investigators who questioned him in the past 10 days seemed to be less interested in individuals he identified in his chain of command or in who committed abuses.
“I’m convinced this is going in a direction that’s not consistent with why we came forward,” Fishback said Tuesday by phone from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he is going through Army Special Forces training. “We came forward because of the larger issue that prisoner abuse is systemic in the army.
Twas ever thus?
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Posted in SSquirrel at 4:58 am by SSquirrel
More Violence to Follow, Bush Warns
Arab Allies Say Iraq’s Dissolution Looms
By Robin Wright ~WaPo
President Bush warned yesterday that the bloodshed and violence by Iraqi extremists will escalate as the country moves into the last phase of its transition over the next three months — beginning with the referendum on a controversial new constitution on Oct. 15.
“We can expect they’ll do everything in their power to try to stop the march of freedom,” Bush warned during comments in the Rose Garden about terrorism.
Laughing through the tears…
“march of freedom”… Yeah, well, fuck you too George.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called a news conference in Washington last week to predict Iraq’s dissolution. He said there is no leadership or momentum to pull Iraq’s Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds back together and prevent a civil war. Other countries have expressed similar concerns in private, according to U.S. and Arab diplomats.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 4:30 am by SSquirrel
A birthday cake for Michele, no, the bananas aren’t symbolic of anything, really, I swear, sheer coincidence, just a pretty cake…you buying any of this?
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Posted in SSquirrel at 4:14 am by SSquirrel
Happy YesterBirthday to my little sister, hope you enjoyed it as much as Tbear and I!
Here’s 9:33 of Bruce, One of the best songs ever!
S(pringsteen) Squirrel
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Posted in SSquirrel at 12:37 am by SSquirrel
Sox 8, Tigers 2
D’Rays 1, Indians 0
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Posted in SSquirrel at 12:32 am by SSquirrel
Republicans See Signs That Pentagon Is Evading Oversight
By DOUGLAS JEHL- NYT
“We see indications that the D.O.D. is trying to create parallel functions to what is going on in intelligence, but is calling it something else,” Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview.
Even under the new structure headed by Mr. Negroponte, the Pentagon’s activities are widely understood to make up about 80 percent of an annual intelligence budget whose details remain classified but that is widely understood to total about $80 billion a year. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon is understood to have carried out a major expansion of its intelligence programs, including human spying efforts by Special Operations Forces and an arm of the Defense Intelligence Agency, whose missions have expanded into areas traditionally the purview of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The report said the committee believed that “individual services may have intelligence or intelligence-related programs such as science and technology projects or information operations programs related to defense intelligence that are embedded in other service budget line items, precluding sufficient visibility for program oversight.
In the interview, Mr. Hoekstra said the committee had been told that the Pentagon was creating parallel structures “so they don’t have to deal with the D.N.I.,” the abbreviation for the new intelligence chief.
This sort of shit is always a really, really bad thing for our country, and the world in general. Always.
And the number One way to tell when the Pentagon is Lying: Their Lips Are Moving!!!
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Posted in SSquirrel at 12:15 am by SSquirrel
Well the Delay Indictment…hic!…parties are winding down, champagne stocks are thoroughly depleted throughout real America, time to get back to work.
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09.28.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 1:11 pm by SSquirrel
Fox News keeps saying unintentially hilarious things and I keep falling out of my chair. Must…stop…laughing…can’t
By LARRY MARGASAK
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; 12:51 PM
Via WaPo
WASHINGTON — A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
DeLay, 58, also is the center of an ethics swirl in Washington. The 11-term congressman was admonished last year by the House ethics committee on three separate issues and is the center of a political storm this year over lobbyists paying his and other lawmakers’ tabs for expensive travel abroad.
Wednesday’s indictment stems from a plan DeLay helped set in motion in 2001 to help Republicans win control of the Texas House in the 2002 elections for the first time since Reconstruction.
A state political action committee he created, Texans for a Republican Majority, was indicted earlier this month on charges of accepting corporate contributions for use in state legislative races. Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used to advocate the election or defeat of candidates; it is allowed only for administrative expenses.
With GOP control of the Texas legislature, DeLay then engineered a redistricting plan that enabled the GOP take six Texas seats in the U.S. House away from Democrats _ including one lawmaker switching parties _ in 2004 and build its majority in Congress.
Delay steps down as majority leader, David Dreier (R-CA) to replace him. Ham sandwich quotes to be repeated ad nauseaum. Back to laughing. It’s Hammer Time!!!!!!!!!!!
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09.27.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 5:49 pm by SSquirrel
BITE
MY
ASS
BITCH
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Posted in SSquirrel at 4:28 pm by SSquirrel
To quote from the National Response Plan, one of his major responsibilites is-
“Ensuring the effectiveness of emergency response providers to terrorist attacks, major disastors, and other emergencies.”
Fema and the President are required to respond-
“If an event is beyond the combined response capabilities of the State and affected local governments.”
Hey Mikey, Fuck You!
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Posted in SSquirrel at 3:51 pm by SSquirrel
After losing their first and second string quarterbacks, the Jets scrambled to salvage their season by signing Vinny Testaverde today, bringing back the Brooklyn native who led the team to the American Football Conference championship game in 1998.
Testaverde, 41, will join the Jets in time for practice on Wednesday and will back up Brooks Bollinger on Sunday when the Jets go on the road to play the Baltimore Ravens.
I got a soft spot for the Jets, Chad gone for the season, but Vinny has allot of White Sox moments. 
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Posted in SSquirrel at 3:45 pm by SSquirrel
Courtesy of the lovely and talented Dan Froomkin-WaPo
“Nothing worse them them hollywood types saying conserve gas before getting on their private planes”
~common wingnut refrain.
Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune was yesterday’s pool reporter, and he faithfully tracked Bush’s fuel consumption.
“For the day’s procession to the Energy Department to assess the nation’s energy resources: Two armored limousines, three stretch utility vans, six black SUVs and a partridge-like medical truck.
“But no stop-and-go fuel consumption here: A very fast motorcade blew through all traffic lights south and across the Tidal Basin, then east on Independence to the east side entrance of the great cement-walled hall of Energy.”
Silva noted that Bush had his hand over his heart as he assured the audience: “Gasoline prices obviously are on our mind.”
Last night, Bush headed to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s home on swanky Kalorama Road for a farewell dinner for Gen. Richard Myers, who is retiring as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“This motorcade was marginally shorter in the SUV category — five, than the one that traveled to the Energy Department today, with six SUVs. But it was longer in vans, four tonight, compared with three this morning. Two limos, of course,” Silva wrote.
Of course using a fleet of planes for Photo Ops remains essential
“The White House also will be looking at ways to conserve, press secretary Scott McClellan said, although that didn’t include curtailing the president’s travel plans.”
Pickler notes one flaw in the argument that Bush’s travel is essential.
“Bush returned Sunday from a three-day trip in which he stopped in four cities that have been a base for government response to the storm. As he has in most of his previous trips to the areas hit by the hurricanes, Bush spent most of the time in meetings with state and local officials–many of them reporting by videoconference.
“On Saturday, in a visit to the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., some of Bush’s briefers were linked from the White House situation room steps from the Oval Office.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 3:46 am by SSquirrel
By Chuck Neubauer
Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A watchdog group, naming what it calls “the 13 most corrupt members of Congress,” is calling for ethics investigations of some of the most prominent leaders on Capitol Hill in a report to be released Monday.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says in its report that the 13 members, might have violated a variety of congressional ethics rules.
• Sen. Bill Frist: The report accuses him of violating federal campaign finance laws in how he disclosed a campaign loan. It also calls for an inquiry over his recent sale of stock in HCA Inc., his family’s hospital corporation. The sale has raised questions about possible insider dealing. Frist aides confirmed Friday that the SEC was investigating. They have denied claims of campaign finance violations.
• Rep. Roy Blunt: The report criticizes him for trying to insert provisions into bills that would have benefited, in one case, a client of his lobbyist son and in another case, the employer of his lobbyist girlfriend, now his wife.
• Sen. Conrad Burns: The report says that questions arose over $3 million in appropriations he earmarked for an Indian tribe in Michigan that was a client of lobbyist Abramoff. The senator received substantial campaign contributions from Abramoff and various clients.
“Sen. Burns did nothing wrong, and any accusation to the contrary is pure politics,” said James Pendleton, his director of communications. He said Burns had earmarked the appropriation at the request of the Michigan congressional delegation.
• Rep. Bob Ney: The report says the chairman of the House Administration Committee went on a golf outing to Scotland in 2002, arranged by Abramoff, at a time when the congressman was trying to insert a provision into legislation to benefit one of Abramoff’s tribal clients.
Ney reported to the House that the trip was paid for entirely by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, which denied paying any of the costs. Ney has said he had been duped by Abramoff.
• Rep. Tom Feeney: The report says he incorrectly reported that a golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff in 2003 was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which denied it. A Feeney aide said the congressman had been misled. Questions also have arisen about two other privately funded trips.
• Rep. Richard W. Pombo: He paid his wife and brother $357,325 in campaign funds in the last four years, the report says. He also supported the wind-power industry before the Department of Interior without disclosing that his parents received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from wind-power turbines on their ranch.
Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Pombo, said that “each of the charges is baseless.” He called the watchdog group “a Democratic attack group, and all of their charges should be taken with a grain of salt.”
• Rep. Maxine Waters: The report cites a December 2004 Los Angeles Times investigation disclosing how members of the congresswoman’s family have made more than $1 million in the last eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters has helped. Before publication of the Times investigation last year, Waters declined to be interviewed, but said of her family members: “They do their business, and I do mine.”
• Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.): The report says he encountered controversy over disclosures that Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for his children’s schooling while they lived in Virginia. Santorum maintained he did nothing wrong, and has pulled his children out of the school, according to reports.
• Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunningham and William J. Jefferson: Both congressional veterans are under federal investigation.
Cunningham, who has announced that he will not run for reelection, faces questions over his dealings with a defense contractor who allegedly overpaid him when he purchased Cunningham’s house. Jefferson is under scrutiny for his role in an overseas business deal. Normally the House ethics committee does not hold inquiries while criminal investigations are underway.
• Rep. Charles H. Taylor (R-N.C.): The report says that questions have been raised about his private business interests, including a savings and loan in Asheville, N.C., and personal business interests in Russia.
• Rep. Marilyn N. Musgrave (R-Colo.) and Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.): Both second-term House members encountered criticisms tied to campaign activities, the report says.
Musgrave was accused of misusing her congressional office for campaign purposes. Renzi was accused of financing portions of his 2002 campaign with improper loans.
I’m shocked, shocked…yada,yada,yada…
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Posted in SSquirrel at 3:23 am by SSquirrel
Bob Novaks column:
“Speculation in legal circles is that federal Appeals Court Judge Priscilla Owen of Austin, Texas, will be named to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. But sources close to President Bush warn he has not made up his mind whether to pick a woman for the vacancy.”
From this we learn two things: Bush will pick a woman and her name won’t be “Justice Prissy”.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 3:06 am by SSquirrel
New Feature!
The laughably biased Tne Note, DC’s unofficial resource for the days RNC talking points, defend themselves against being referred to as a “stinking repository of Bush-licking Pre$$titution,” by claiming the wingnuts hate them too. That might carry more weight if the wingnuts didn’t have organized phone banks calling C-Span every morning saying the same things about C-Span. The Right claim bias if they think you’re not kissing Bush’s ass enough, too.
Claiming that there are whiners on both sides doesn’t make you fair, it just means there are allot of whiners.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 2:20 am by SSquirrel
“Well, I think there was a huge amount of projection after 9/11. We really wanted to believe, you know, that the president knew what was going on … [Katrina] has really ripped the curtain away and we see the guy back there behind the curtain like in “The Wizard of Oz,” and I think there’s a lot of people now stepping back and saying, “Oh, my God. Maybe he doesn’t know what’s going on.”
Tom Friedman -noted Neo-Con butt boy and NYT columnist, on Meek The Press
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09.25.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 8:01 pm by SSquirrel
US-Shia clash erupts in Baghdad
Four militiamen loyal to Iraq’s radical Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr, have been killed in clashes with US forces in Baghdad overnight, Iraqi officials say.
It is the first such fighting since a rebellion by supporters of the cleric ended more than a year ago.
The US military confirmed it had fought “anti-Iraqi forces” in eastern Baghdad.
Meanwhile, at least nine people have been killed in a bomb attack on police in Baghdad, while two died in a market bomb in Hilla, officials said.
In another attack, at least six people were killed by a bomb at a Shia mosque in Musayyib, some 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, on Sunday.
Iraqi police told the BBC that the blast happened as people were arriving at a mosque for prayers.
‘We were attacked’
The overnight clashes in Baghdad broke out when American troops went into the Sadr City district in the east of the city to try to arrest members of Mr Sadr’s militia, the Mehdi army, according to Iraqi police.
A US spokesman would not confirm the nature of the operation, but said US forces came under attack.
“There were a series of engagements,” starting shortly before 0100 (2100 GMT Saturday) and lasting until about 0230, he told the AFP news agency.
“It appears we were going out to conduct an operation with the Iraqi army who had thrown a cordon around an area they wanted to search. It looks like they were attacked,” he added.
The Mehdi army, based in southern Iraq, led two uprisings last year against US forces.
The confrontation was settled when Mr Sadr agreed to enter the political process, and the militia handed over its heavy weaponry in a cash-for-weapons programme.
But the BBC’s Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says the new fighting comes at a time of tension in southern Iraq between British troops and Mr Sadr’s followers.
UK forces last week arrested two Mehdi army commanders, and later stormed a police station in Basra after two British soldiers were arrested and handed to the militia.
If you’re part of the problem, maybe you’re not part of the solution.
Or, if you prefer,
The first step in getting out of a hole, is to stop digging.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 7:51 pm by SSquirrel
By ELISABETH GOODRIDGE
The Associated Press via WaPo
WASHINGTON — Support for U.S. troops fighting abroad mixed with anger toward anti-war demonstrators at home as hundreds of people, far fewer than organizers had expected, rallied Sunday on the National Mall just a day after a massive protest against the war in Iraq.
“No matter what your ideals are, our sons and daughters are fighting for our freedom,” said Marilyn Faatz, who drove from New Jersey to attend the rally. “We are making a mockery out of this. And we need to stand united, but we are not.”
About 400 people gathered near a stage on an eastern segment of the mall, a large photo of an American flag serving as a backdrop. Amid banners and signs proclaiming support for U.S. troops, several speakers hailed the effort to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and denounced those who protest it.
Organizers of Sunday’s demonstration acknowledged that their rally would be much smaller than the anti-war protest but had hoped that as many as 20,000 people would turn out.
On Saturday, demonstrators opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House in the largest anti-war protest in the nation’s capital since the U.S. invasion. The rally stretched through the night, a marathon of music, speechmaking and dissent on the mall.
Seems to be a day for self-revelation, even if unintended.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 7:17 pm by SSquirrel
Dear Michelle Malkin,
Thanks for so thoroughly demonstrating just how shallow and offensive you and your fellow “fighting keyboardists” defense of the continued death of our beloved servicemen has become. You call people names, belittle the death of people who died serving Our Country, make fun of peoples looks, clothes, even their children. You equate a sign expressing anger with the systematic torture of men, women, even children, on a national scale, which you seem to endorse. You thinks this passes for wit, instead of exposing your hatred for hundreds of thousands of noble Americans trying to end a senseless war being botched by clueless bureaucrats. Bureaucrats who would rather let thousands more brave men die than admit their obvious ignorance and mismanagement. Pat yourself on the back Michelle, with you on their side, we can’t lose.
Big Kiss
S(moochy) Squirrel
PS- Desi says Hi too.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 5:50 pm by SSquirrel
Great work on the weirdest election day ever!
A sample, read it all, every word.
The fact that Bush far exceeded the 85% of registered Florida Republicans’ votes that he got in 2000, receiving in 2004 more than 100% of the registered Republican votes in 47 out of 67 Florida counties, 200% of registered Republicans in 15 counties, and over 300% of registered Republicans in 4 counties, merely shows Floridians’ enthusiasm for Bush. He managed to do this despite the fact that his share of the crossover votes by registered Democrats in Florida did not increase over 2000 and he lost ground among registered Independents, dropping 15 points.(4)
(4) Gore carried the 2000 Florida Independent vote by only 47 to 46 percent whereas Kerry carried them by a 57 percent to 41 percent margin. In 2000 Bush received 13% of the registered Democratic voters votes and in 2004 he got the virtually statistically identical 14% of their votes. Sam Parry, “Bush’s ‘Incredible’ Vote Tallies,” Consortiumnews.com, November 9, 2004.
See also Colin Shea’s analysis: “In one county, where 88% of voters are registered Democrats, Bush got nearly two-thirds of the vote–three times more than predicted by my model. In 21 counties, more than 50% of Democrats would have to have defected to Bush to account for the county result; in four counties at least 70% would have been required. These results are absurdly unlikely.” http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=321
Thanks to Mike at C&L
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Posted in SSquirrel at 5:36 pm by SSquirrel
Shakespeares Sister
And I thought soliciting bribes fundraising was the one thing Bush was good at!
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Posted in SSquirrel at 4:03 pm by SSquirrel
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal , who met later with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, faulted the Bush administration for adding to sectarian tensions by treating all members of Saddam Hussein’s mainly Sunni Baath Party as “criminals” after ousting Saddam. He urged the United States to work harder to persuade Shiites to reach out to Sunni Arabs to assure them of their safety and equality and of Iraq’s territorial integrity.
Although Saudi Arabia provided limited help to the United States in the initial phases of the war, Saud had recommended a coup to oust Saddam - not the dismantling of the Iraqi government. “It’s no secret that Saudi Arabia does not believe military action in Iraq will achieve the objective it is aimed at,” he said in a March 2002 interview with USA TODAY.
The State Department had no comment on Saud’s remarks.
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09.24.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 10:41 pm by SSquirrel
Cindy’s Speech(text)
Video(Courtesy BradBlog)
CNN fucktards pissing me off!
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Posted in SSquirrel at 9:18 pm by SSquirrel
The media still SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted in SSquirrel at 4:10 pm by SSquirrel
FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford Resigns
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press
Sep. 23, 2005 - Embattled Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester Crawford resigned Friday, telling his staff that at age 67 it was time to step aside.
His resignation came just two months after the Senate, in a long-delayed move, elevated the longtime agency deputy and acting commissioner to the top job.
Crawford’s tenure was marked by increasing criticism of the agency, as the painkiller Vioxx was pulled off the market for safety problems and regulators held up wider access to emergency contraception.
Still, his resignation was a surprise. An affable veterinarian who specialized in food safety, Crawford gave a speech Monday in Washington during which he betrayed no sign he was planning to leave, instead discussing upcoming FDA policy on the safety of cloned beef.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt accepted Crawford’s resignation “with sadness,” said HHS spokeswoman Christina Pearson. “We thank him for his service and wish him well.”
Asked if he was forced to resign, Pearson declined further comment, calling it a personnel issue.
WaPo
Sources familiar with his departure said Crawford was asked to resign, though it was unclear why. Crawford has had a stormy tenure at the agency, which has been beset by criticism from both the left and the right over its actions regarding drug safety and emergency contraception.
Yeah, It’s a real mystery all right, especially if you don’t READ YOUR OWN F*CKING NEWSPAPER!
WaPo Thursday, September 22, 2005; 11:24 AM
By LIBBY QUAID
The Associated Press
The Senate passed a $100 billion spending bill for agriculture, food and drug programs, averting debate over emergency contraception and other controversies.
“This is not the last word on this issue,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who had sought to cut millions of dollars from the Food and Drug Administration’s budget because of its refusal to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill called Plan B.
“The FDA is letting politics trump science in the way it approves medicines for the American consumer,” Murray said.
Senators ultimately decided not to offer controversial amendments from Murray and others, sparing colleagues from having to vote on issues that might make their re-elections next year more difficult.
I mean…C’mon Y’all…It was two days ago…A##holes!
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Posted in SSquirrel at 3:34 pm by SSquirrel
The U.S. Army has launched a criminal investigation into new allegations of serious prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan made by a decorated former Captain in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, an Army spokesman has confirmed toTIME. The claims of the Captain, who has not been named, are in part corroborated by statements of two sergeants who served with him in the 82nd Airborne; the allegations form the basis of a report from Human Rights Watch obtained by TIME and due to be released in the next few days (Since this story first went online, the organization has decided to put out its report; it can be found here).
Prisoners were designated as PUCs (pronounced “pucks”)—or “persons under control.” A regular pastime at Camp Mercury, the report says, involved off-duty soldiers gathering at PUC tents, where prisoners were held, and working off their frustrations in activities known as “F____a PUC” (beating the prisoner) and “Smoke a PUC” (forced physical exertion, sometimes to the point of collapse). Broken limbs and similar painful injuries would be treated with analgesics, the soldiers claim, as medical staff would fill out paperwork stating the injuries occurred during capture. Support for some of the allegations of abuse come from a sergeant of the 82nd Airborne who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch quotes him as saying that, “To ‘F____ a PUC’ means to beat him up. We would give them blows to the head, chest, legs, and stomach, pull them down, kick dirt on them. This happened every day. To ’smoke’ someone is to put them in stress positions until they get muscle fatigue and pass out. That happened every day. Some days we would just get bored so we would have everyone sit in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid. This was before Abu Ghraib but just like it. We did that for amusement.
“On their day off people would show up all the time,” the sergeant continues in the HRW report. “Everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your frustration you show up at the PUC tent. In a way it was sport. The cooks were all U.S. soldiers. One day a sergeant shows up and tells a PUC to grab a pole. He told him to bend over and broke the guy’s leg with a mini Louisville Slugger that was a metal bat. He was the cook.”
The Human Rights Watch report describes the Captain, in particular, as deeply frustrated by his attempts to report the abuse to his own superiors, who repeatedly instructed him to keep quiet, to ignore what he’d seen and to consider the implications for his career.
At one point, the Captain asserts, his Company commander told him, in effect, “Remember the honor of the unit is at stake,” and, “Don’t expect me to go to bat for you on this issue …”
The Captain told Human Rights Watch and Senate staff that he had contacted legislators reluctantly, believing it was the only way he could get the army to take him seriously. He also said that “I knew something was wrong” as he watched Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on television in 2004 testifying before a Congressional committee that the U.S. was following the Geneva Convention to the letter in Iraq.
Torches and Pitchforks available at most Home Depot’s
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Posted in SSquirrel at 1:17 pm by SSquirrel
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and R. Jeffrey Smith
WaPo
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is facing questions from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission about his sale of stock in his family’s hospital company one month before its price fell sharply.
A spokesman said Frist’s office has been contacted by both the SEC and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan about his divestiture of the stock. HCA disclosed separately that it was subpoenaed by the same U.S. attorney’s office for documents that were related to Frist’s sale. Frist and HCA said they are cooperating.
On Thursday, a Frist spokeswoman said the senator had not discussed the stock sale in advance with any HCA executives. On Friday, in a statement from Frist’s office, the issue was couched a little differently. It said the senator “had no information about the company or its performance that was not available to the public when he directed the trustees to sell the HCA stock. His only objective in selling the stock was to eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
Separately, documents unearthed yesterday by the Associated Press showed that Frist was told about stock trades in his blind trust. In documents filed with the Senate, trustee M. Kirk Scobey Jr. told Frist in 2002 that HCA stock had been transferred to his trust. Scobey, reached by phone last night, declined to comment.
The AP said that the documents disclosed that HCA stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was placed into Frist’s blind trusts several other times in 2002 as well. Frist maintained in a television interview in 2003 that he did not know how much HCA stock he owned, if any. Spokesmen for Frist did not return phone messages last night.
Congressional critics questioned the reason Frist gave for selling the stock. Senate rules allow lawmakers to divest all of their shares in a company from a blind trust, but only if they assume new duties and find that their ownership presents the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Frist has held HCA shares in a blind trust since he came to the Senate in 1995. He was promoted to majority leader in 2002. Frist regularly deflected concerns about owning the shares while leading health care debates by saying he kept them in a blind trust.
“I don’t know what new duties he would point to above and beyond becoming majority leader, and that was three years ago,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, an ethics advocate.
Amy Call, Frist’s spokeswoman, said the stock sale was motivated solely by the senator’s desire to avoid an appearance of conflict, but she could not cite any published criticism of his HCA holdings after April 2004
Democrats ain’t bad either…
“Bill Frist has this all upside down,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign committee. “He thought Terri Schiavo could see and his trust was blind.”
Frist ‘08 12?
8)
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Posted in SSquirrel at 12:50 pm by SSquirrel
By Blaine Harden
WaPo
With Rita closing in, the family of Albert Ruben Sr. drove here this morning to a high school basketball auditorium turned hurricane shelter of last resort — after taking the most maddening journey of their lives.
In a caravan of 20 cars, the Ruben family and their neighbors in the coastal town of Texas City had tried to obey the state’s mandatory hurricane evacuation order. With full gas tanks, food and water, they left on a designated evacuation highway on Wednesday at 11:30 p.m., hoping to beat the rush and avoid the heat.
Seventeen hours later, they had traveled just 60 miles and were stuck in traffic. They had driven most of that time — in daytime temperatures of about 100 degrees — without air conditioning to save fuel. All public services along the evacuation route — for gasoline, food, water, bathrooms — were closed.
Ruben, 50, a juvenile-detention officer in Galveston County, said he saw three ambulances carry away elderly people who had collapsed in the heat of their unmoving cars. His grandchildren, 4 and 7, had put on baby diapers to avoid soiling the car.
“It was like the end of the world,” Ruben said. “You know what it makes you want to do? It makes you want to go home and die. The government done us wrong.”
Ruben and most of his family gave up on the evacuation by Thursday afternoon and drove back home to Texas City for the night, having wasted most of their gas. Other family members, including his wife’s mother, decided to soldier on in the traffic and head north. Ruben said he has not heard from them and does not know where they are.
Houston Mayor Bill White made it clear in repeated interviews this week that he did not want city residents to look to city shelters as a primary option for riding out the hurricane. The much-publicized chaos, violence and despair at the Superdome and the Convention Center in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina convinced Houston officials that they must find a better way, several police officials said.
“We are not encouraging the general public to go into the streets looking for shelter,” White said Friday morning at a televised news conference. Later in the day, he emphasized that the Astrodome and the convention center here “are not shelters.” The mayor also said that “most folks are better off in their homes.”
The mayor even declined to name a shelter where people might go, saying that the police and emergency people will open shelters “without announcements to the general public.”
On his bleacher seat in the auditorium, Ruben, the juvenile-detention officer whose exodus from the Texas Gulf Coast had utterly failed, was finding it difficult to get over his anger. He was furious with the city, state and federal governments over their failure to organize an evacuation that would have allowed him and his family to actually evacuate.
“We are supposed to be the richest country in the world,” he said. “But what I have seen from the government so far is just pitiful.”
Note to poor people in Houston:
Please die at home where the media won’t see it.
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