Recently in National Politics Category

I guess wingnut pols keep spewing the same memes time and time again because they just don't have anything better to put up. Sort of like how former almost-Speaker Bob Livingston (R-phonesex) used to always refer to the People's Republic of China as "Red China" well into the 1990s. Or how, even now, Vitty-Cent (R-hookers) still uses the "hollywood liberal" meme.

Here on the Gulf Coast, the "greedy trial lawyers" meme is a dog that won't hunt anymore. All too many people know that their only hope of getting money back from their insurance carriers is an attorney. Others will gladly join class action suits over the flooding in Jefferson Parish and the poisoning of residents of FEMA trailers.

The latest Washington use of the trial-lawyer meme is over the FISA legislation. Wingnuts argue that Dems don't want to give amnesty to Telecommunications companies because they want to put a lot of money in the pockets of trial lawyers.

As mcjoan points out at Daily Kos, Republicans spend a lot of money on trial lawyers themselves. And it's not always money well-spent, given how many of them are ending up in prison these days.

It may come back to haunt you like it has Hizzoner of Detroit:

The mayor of Detroit has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, stemming from a sex scandal six years ago. Kwame Kilpatrick, 37, who says he will fight the charges, could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. He was charged after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appeared to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide in 2002.

As soon as your stuff enters the "telco cloud," it's no longer yours. Never forget that.

It's important to keep in mind that both Steve Scalise and Tim Burns both have no problems with men like CAPT Mallard getting killed in Iraq.

Yet the National Archives is going to release Hillary's first-lady records?

The National Archives announced on Tuesday that 11,046 pages of Senator Hillary Rodham’s White House schedules will be released on Wednesday. The records were the subject of a legal fight between Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, and the National Archives, which has been slow to comply with a request to release the records, arguing that the vetting process takes time.

The request should be denied because Hillary's records are not the same as The Clenis.

Jon Kyl is right, there's really no point in debating the decision to go to war. if he could defend that decision, he wouldn't be trying to ignore it. The point for debate in the fall is whether or not Republicans should continue to fuck things up in Iraq.

But had I known there kids-for-pot market was as strong as Sen. Tom Harkin thinks it is, I have to admit, there are days when I might have given it a second thought:

The victims of the drug war are many - the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix; the police officer's family which must now learn to cope with the loss of their loved one as a result of a violent drug bust gone awry. These are the people I think of when I say that drugs pose a significant threat to the security of this nation.

There are some issues that just turn a politician' s brain to shit, and marijuana legalization is one of those. Pot is nowhere near the problem that cigarettes and booze are, still, mention legalizing the Goddess' Own Herb, and people turn into Teh Stoopit.

The Senate is debating the FISA bill and its provisions for Telecom Immunity today. Leahy's substitute bill (which removes that immunity) was tabled.

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama are there today to vote, much less lead the fight for our Constitution.

Seems like they're both cut from the same cloth when you get down to it.

I've been waiting for something like this to happen for years:

WASHINGTON, DC - December 20 - Lakota Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation status today in Washington D.C. following Monday's withdrawal from all previously signed treaties with the United States Government. The withdrawal, hand delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at the State Department, immediately and irrevocably ends all agreements between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and the United States Government outlined in the 1851 and 1868 Treaties at Fort Laramie Wyoming.

This is the sort of thing that can't be totally pawned off on BushCo, either. The feds have been screwing native american tribes for almost as long as this nation has existed.

Part the Second, courtesy of Rude:

The number of families seeking emergency food and shelter is rising around the country. Right now, the Rude Pundit is listening to the petulant, pissy fucktard President rant about how the Congress wants to destroy the jim-fuckin' dandy economy he's given us all, like he's St. Nick and every day is goddamn Christmas. Meanwhile, everywhere, people are being crushed by debt and stupid financial decisions, tempted by the promise of cheap and easy lives. As the President screeches about the Democrats raising taxes and how it will murder us all, the Rude Pundit can't remember a moment when Bush faced Americans and said, "You know what? Shit's expensive. And you may need to sacrifice." Nope, it's always, "As long as you give me everything I want, you can go about your business." Except that lie is becoming more and more pronounced, as with every tinpot dictator and petty emperor in history.

Profound as this is, I really wanted to quote Rude because he called Bush a "pissy fucktard." Still, it's important to keep in mind that this idiot and his cronies are screwing up more than the housing projects in the city.

Glenn Greenwald does a great job of evaluating the impact of yesterday's win by Sen. Dodd over the FISA bill. Greenwald is writing the best stuff on FISA, as he's so skillfully ripped JokeLine multiple new ones.