I Got a Letter this Morning, How Do You Recon it Read?

...It said hurry hurry, cause that gal you love is dead.

Surge Report Card

A couple of months ago, there was a big uproar on whether to 'surge' more troops into Iraq. That surge is happening now. so, how well is it working out?

As expected.

More peaceful where the troops are. More dangerous where they aren't. Baghdad violence is down. deaths of US soldiers and Iraqi citizens outside Baghdad are up. How would you grade that?

D+

The Friday Dump

I heard the white house was gonna dump a bunch of new emails and records friday. this didn't bode well for them. they (anyone) dump the bad stuff on fridays because it means they don't have to put up with a week of news cycles chewing it up. it might, just might, slide away.

well, this one won't. Alberto, Mister "was not involved in any discussions about what was going on" Gonzales has now been revealed, through records, that he did approve the firing of the US Attorneys for political payback. the documents only came after the game was up. Gonzales' deputy had agreed to testify.

The sad, funny thing was that the records show the sad attempts they were making to justify the firings, and those all became the very same crappy talking points the Republicans have been using! immigration issues, voter fraud, etc. it's just pathetic. here's the quoted blueprint:

"The one common link here is that three of them are along the southern border so you could make the connection that DOJ is unhappy with the immigration prosecution numbers in those districts," Tasia Scolinos, a senior public affairs specialist at the Justice Department, told Catherine Martin, a White House communications adviser, in an e-mail.

If they want to operate the federal prosecutor office as a political arm of the GOP, they should just say so. it would have been so much easier than this. Are ANY of the policies untainted by deceit? any?

I guess this leaves me with one thing in my mind. is anything better for america after this presidency? seriously. anything?

Finally, to echo the faux concern and apprehension i heard ad nauseum during the Clinton years: with these lies, WHAT WILL WE TELL THE CHILDREN?!

Trouble Brewing?

You may have caught this story (Above link). 15 British marines were taken captive today after doing a routine inspection of an Iranian ship in the Persian Gulf. Upon completing their inspection, the men were surrounded by Iranian naval ships and taken into custody. The British are demanding their immediate release.

That's the story up to this moment.

Edwards Suspends His Campaign

In a bit of sad news, John Edwards has suspended his campaign for president. Sen. Edwards cites the return of his wife's cancer. It appears that the cancer has spread to her lungs. This may actually be the first step to ending the campaign (the press conference is airing live as i type this, on hold with an insurance company and no where near a TV). I hate that they are going through such a terrible time and it would be even worse if the US loses its chance to have, what i consider, the best potential president without regard to party.

UPDATE!

Sen. John Edwards will stay in the race for President! GREAT NEWS!

Elections Have Consequences

This comes directly from crooksandliars.com:

During today's hearings on global warming, global warming denier James Inhofe was asking Al Gore questions, but didn't want to hear the answers because he thought the responses would take "too much time". Barbara Boxer then explained to Inhofe how things work in Senate now.

Download (13591) | Play (10519) Download (7515) | Play (8075)

Boxer: "You're not making the rules. You used to when you did this, you don't do this anymore. Elections have consequences"

As You May Have Heard...

Karl Rove and Harriet Miers have been called to testify about their role in dismissing US attorneys that were investigating and prosecuting Republicans. It has been said they'll be subpoenaed if they do not come forward.

Well, evidently, the White House will allow Rove and Miers to testify about the issue...as long as they aren't under oath, It is held behind closed doors, and no transcript can be kept! yeah right!

I have heard the firings are OK because they are political appointments of the president, thus they serve at his pleasure...well, that's only part of the picture. It CAN be done, but it doesn't mean you can hide the fact that these firings were done because the attorney's weren't helping to smear democrats and they were catching GOP crooks. The President has a right to make certain decisions, however, in this case, it wasn't HIM but rather his Attorney General calling the shots.

More to the point, the there is no right to lie before congress about what you did, and THAT is where this story gets them in trouble. The act would've gone away if they hadn't lied about the attorneys, smearing their names by saying they were 'no good'. These were REPUBLICAN appointees, i might add.

They just weren't crooked enough. Heh.

The Company You Keep

Chiquita (Bananas) Brands International has just plead guilty to funding Columbian terrorists in order to aid their domination of Fruit exports in the area. Guess who was also a major donor to the President and to Republicans at the time? At least the justice department got them. $25 million in fines are to be paid...i hear.

So, What's YOUR Mayor Doing?

View As Web Page

Mine gets arrested...again...for parole violations...from the last time he was arrested.

The violations were minor and really not a big deal, it seems to me. The problem is that he's so hell bent on 'fighting crime' that he doesn't pay all that much attention to the "Law". He was a guy that was pretty well liked, and still is, only now he's supremely polarizing and can barely get anything done because of it. what a waste.

From the Clarion Ledger:

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton turned himself in at Hinds County Detention Center, nearly a week after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest for allegedly violating terms of his probation and Melton checked into a hospital.

"It appears to me that he didn't have any choice," said Jackson resident Ayres Haxton. "You could just sit in the hospital indefinitely or turn himself in and let the chips fall where they may."

Strangely, the paper doesn't mention that Ayres is an attorney (and friend of mine).

My Delta, My Trip (part 1)

Last week I went to the Mississippi Delta and took a few pictures I wanted to share. It took me a little while to transfer the photos, so this post is a little behind. The delta roughly runs from Memphis to Vicksburg (north to south). it extends from the Mississippi River to west, about 20 miles short of I-55 to the east, basically The Yazoo River. It is said that the Delta stretches from the Lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis to "Catfish Row" in Vicksburg. I say that's about as good a geographical line as I can dream up.

There's a history and connection to New Orleans, in part because of the cotton going down river. In some ways it's from the connection of the river, but more than that it's a history of the money moving up and down the river from those cotton fields to the markets down in New Orleans. It has come to shape a great deal of my thought and tastes. where i went to law school, the tastes I tend to have, even the language I like to hear. To this day, i recall more of the French I learned in a short stretch of time than any of the Spanish I learned living in Mexico.

I digress. My hometown is Clarksdale. It's somewhat ground zero for the Delta and The Blues and all the good and bad that's Mississippi. see this picture of the corner of a building? This was the first apartment my parents had. The building cuts a diagonal, a triangle across a corner downtown. it's the bus station for the Greyhound Line. If you look at that last door leading to the corner, you're seeing my parent's first front door. It was a tiny apartment attached to the station where my father worked. SPACIOUS! heh.

Ann Coulter and that Great CPAC Class.

In case you haven't heard already, Ann Coulter called John Edwards a "faggot" while on state at the CPAC (conservative political action committee). This instance, once again, disappoints because there never seems to be any repercussion for any comment this woman makes. who gets to say these things without repercussion...i mean as a political 'commentator'. oh well. anyway, that's not the disappointing part. click the link above and watch the video. the real shame is the reaction of the crowd. 3 cheers for a slur! CPAC shows its class.

No, I Don't Think You FULLY Understand.

This from Salon.com. A little running theme, or rather, a go-to answer for whatever is being screwed up this week:

At Lil Dizzy's Café in New Orleans Thursday, George W. Bush said: "I fully understand that there are frustrations and I want to know the frustrations. And to the extent we can help, we'll help."

It sounded a little familiar to us, and now we know why: Say what you will about the president's intellectual capabilities, the man fully understands an awful lot of things.

Among them:

Education: "I fully understand that if you read your newspaper articles -- which I do sometimes -- and listen carefully, you'll hear voices in both parties saying they don't like No Child Left Behind: It's too much testing, or, we don't want to be held to account, or whatever they say. The bill is working. It makes a lot of sense."

How Iraq would turn out: "I fully understand the consequences of what we're doing. We're changing the world. And the world will be better off and America will be more secure as a result of the actions we're taking."

How Iraq will turn out: "I told the American people I fully understand there are differences of opinion. But one of the things I have discovered is, in Washington, D.C., most people understand the consequences of failure."

Immigration: "I fully understand the need for there to be simplicity in the documentation. It needs to be easy for somebody who is known and a person that is -- makes a living on the other side of the border. There's -- a lot of kids go to college in, like, El Paso, Texas, and they're living in Mexico, so they've got to go back and forth on a regular basis. So I'm familiar with this issue a lot, and I really do emphasize the need for us to be mindful of what a onerous program could mean to good relations, as well as facilitation of trade."

The price of war: "I fully understand the consequences of making such a decision. I was at church yesterday in Twentynine Palms. In the pew that I was sitting in was a mother and stepfather grieving for a guy who lost his life. And I knew that I would have to deal with this as best as I possibly can."

The power of love: "And the other thing I want to do is to make sure that everybody can feel the great power of love. Again, I fully understand government's role is limited in love."

The job of the president: "I fully understand that as long as I'm the president I will face criticism. It's like part of the job."

The meaning of 9/11: "Listen, one of the interesting things about September the 11th that I want you to understand as we have this discussion is that I fully understand that for some, September the 11th was an important moment and a terrible moment -- and we appreciate the condolences of the people of the Netherlands -- but for us it was a change of attitude. I mean, it changed a lot about how I looked at the world, and a lot of Americans, it changed how they looked at the world. I mean, it was more than just an attack; it was a whole mind-set."

Cheeseheads: "As a matter of fact, I fully understand that right here in the state of Wisconsin, a lot of people are counting on the Social Security check."

Senior citizens: "I fully understand, and our government fully understands, many seniors don't want to change. They're not interested in change. And, therefore, what I'm telling you is, is that at least listen to what's available. You don't have to change if you don't want to, but at least be open-minded enough to listen."

The importance of being open-minded: "Look, I fully understand there is -- I guess, my reputation is, he sticks to his guns and -- it's a very legitimate question, do you ever kind of understand that maybe that you've got to be somewhat flexible?"