Citing evidence that senior White House officials are using RNC and other political email accounts to avoid leaving a record of official communications, Chairman Waxman directs the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign to preserve the emails of White House officials and to meet with Committee staff to explain how the accounts are managed and what steps are being taken to protect the emails from destruction and tampering.Good stuff. Keep it up, Waxman, you beautiful, bald-headed bastard! I love ya!
Waxman Rulezzz
WTP: Army Recruiters Gone Wild Edition
This has to be some of the craziest shit I've ever seen. A U.S. Army recruiter, Sgt. Marcia Ramode, upon finding out that Corey Andrew, who had been recruited through his CareerBuilder.com profile, is gay, replied with a rude email, and when Andrew, "who is black, criticized Ramode's word choices and poor spelling," Ramode unleashed a tirade via email that is just riddled with racist and homophobic trash:
"GO BACK TO AFRICA AND DO YOUR GAY VOODOO LIMBO TANGO AND WANGO DANCE AND JUMP AROUND AND PRANCE AND RUN ALL OVER THE PLACE HALF NAKED THERE."Andrew was not faultless in the exchange, as he evidently told Ramode, who identified herself as Native American, to "take that to your next rain dance." Yeesh.
Pam's got lots more, including copies of the emails from Ramode, which Andrew forwarded to SLDN, who have called for Ramode to be fired.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to head off to my Wango Dance lessons, and after that Spudsy and I have some gay voodoo to do.
The Sinister Stossor!
McLame Can't Keep His Yap Shut
(I love it when McLame gives me a reason to reuse images.)
The opening paragraphs of this article are just brilliant:
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is back in New Hampshire and back embracing straight talk. And talk. And talk. And talk.LOL! The article then goes on to recount how he—twice—said Republicans "lost the war" when he meant "lost the election," how he recently made a buffoon of himself on the Straight Talk Express not knowing what the hell his position is, how he's flip-flopped on lots of stuff, like Jerry Falwell being an "agent of intolerance," etc. etc. etc., and how all of it makes his staff "insane."
Aboard his campaign bus, the Arizona senator entertains reporters with stories, answers their questions and heckles bloggers. He's by far the most accessible of the candidates, Republican or Democratic. But McCain acknowledges there's a risk to full days on the record, without breaks to vent, decompress or even eat in private.
"I hope there's a statute of limitations on saying stupid things," McCain said on his bus last weekend between stops in Nashua and Milford.
There isn't.
Honestly, McLame's spectacular fall from grace could only be more awesome if it weren't Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney fighting over filling the frontrunner void.
This is Bad
And further evidence the Bush administration tried to turn the entire United States government into its political servant:
Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.The committee will now investigate whether the remarks made during the videoconference, confirmed by "multiple sources" according to Waxman, "violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts executive-branch employees from using their positions for political purposes."
With GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan and up to 40 regional administrators on hand, J. Scott Jennings, the White House's deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation on Jan. 26 of polling data about the 2006 elections.
When Jennings concluded his presentation to the GSA political appointees, Doan allegedly asked them how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections," according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Something I've noticed being increasingly expressed by people on both sides of the aisle is the thought that all administrations politicize the government. Rightwingers have long said it to justify what the Bushies are doing, like it's no big deal, but more and more leftwingers are now starting to say it with a sort of sigh of resignation, like what the Bushies are doing have wiped out all memory of previous administrations. It's simply not true that Bush administration attempts to turn every vein in every leaf on every twig on every branch of government into a political operation is typical of administrations of either party. There has been evidence that the Bush administration was, to be charitable, unusual in this regard for years, going back to engaging in paid propaganda and beyond.
We shouldn't lose sight of that, for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which being that casual acceptance of or resignation to profound corruption in one administration makes its manifestation in subsequent administrations all the more likely.
We really need to still get angry and write our representatives about every single thing that happens like this, because "What do you expect?" will eventually bring us to a point where we genuinely can't expect anything else.
I know all about outrage fatigue, but dammit if one of my worst fears isn't that the legacy of the Bush administration will be making all kinds of bullshit acceptable by comparison, because we all got too tired to care anymore.
9/11 Remains Used to Fill Potholes
Nice:
The pulverized remains of bodies from the World Trade Center disaster site were used by city workers to fill ruts and potholes, a city contractor says in a sworn affidavit filed Friday in Manhattan Federal Court.There's more at the link, in which Beck describes being pushed to hurry through sifting debris, possibly missing remains. Such a horrific job in the first place—I can't imagine some shithead of a boss telling me to make quick work of finding the body parts of my neighbors.
Eric Beck says debris powders - known as fines - were put in a pothole-fill mixture by crews at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, N.Y., where more than 1.65 million tons of World Trade Center debris were deposited after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I observed the New York City Department of Sanitation taking these fines from the conveyor belts of our machines, loading it onto tractors and using it to pave roads and fill in potholes, dips and ruts," Eric Beck said.
The shoddy recovery work aside, why on earth would any debris from the WTC disaster, no less fines, be used to fill ruts and potholes anyway? Nice Department of Sanitation ya had there, Mr. America's Mayor.
Mind you, I don't give a shit what happens to my body after I die; in fact, if my pulverized remains were used to fill a pothole on Lake Shore Drive, I'd actually think that was pretty cool—so I'm not really reacting to the (what some people might find) gruesome part of this story, per se. I'm not sure, however, that my family and friends would be equally thrilled, particularly if it were done without my or their permission. Mr. Shakes isn't especially romantic about what happens to his body after he dies, either, but, even knowing that, I can't pretend I'd be emotionless about finding out it had been used in construction work if he died tragically, especially in a tragedy the current president and leading GOP nominee had used to turn themselves into supposed heroes. It just shows such a deep disrespect for the 9/11 families, who have been given the runaround since Day One on so much stuff.
And, you know, for all the protestations people can make about what the hell else they were supposed to do with 1.65 million tons of debris, the truth is, obviously even the people doing this knew it was bullshit, or else it wouldn't have taken some low-level employee testifying under oath for us to find out about it. That's kind of the main point. If it's wasn't a big deal, then it shouldn't have been a secret. Or, conversely, it shouldn't have been a secret, and maybe then it wouldn't be such a big deal now—but telling hard truths, like "We don't have anywhere to put this stuff, so it's going into the streets," means treating people like adults, and that's something Republican administrations (presidential or mayoral) are never very keen to do.
H/T C&L.
"Rumsfeld"
From the first chapter of Andrew Cockburn's Rumsfeld, in the Times:
Rumsfeld finally made his way to the military command center. It was almost 10:30. Only then, as he later explained to the 9/11 Commission, did he begin to gain "situational awareness" of what was going on. After a brief interval he spoke with Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in a bunker under the White House and for the previous forty minutes had been issuing orders to shoot down suspicious airliners.Good lord. You've got to read the whole thing. I didn't believe my opinion of Rummy could fall any lower, but looks like I was wrong!
"There's been at least three instances here where we've had reports of aircraft approaching Washington - a couple were confirmed hijack," Cheney told Rumsfeld in his favored clipped, macho style. "And pursuant to the President's instructions I gave authorization for them to be taken out."
Actually, the presidential authorization cited by Cheney consisted, at best, of the words "You bet" from Bush as Air Force One streaked out of Orlando, Florida. In any event, it was Rumsfeld, not Cheney, who was legally in the chain of command and authorized to give such an order.
"So we've got a couple of [military] aircraft up there that have those instructions at this present time?" asked Rumsfeld, still catching up.
"That is correct," replied Cheney. "And it's my understanding they've already taken a couple of aircraft out."
Together, these two men dominated the U.S. government for six years. They must have had thousands of conversations, but this snatch of dialogue, as released by the 9/11 Commission, is the only known publicly available sample of a private conversation between them. Though brief, it is instructive. Not for the last time, they were reacting to information that was wholly inaccurate - there were no more hijacked airliners in the sky. One of the planes Cheney had ordered "taken out" was United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania ten minutes before he issued the command. The other was a low-flying medevac helicopter on its way to the Pentagon. Neither man seemed concerned that the president was not involved. Cheney was usurping his authority, since he was not in the chain of command. Lacking any experience in the military, the vice president may not have realized that military commanders like precise orders, and will not proceed without them, which was why the fighter commanders chose not to pass on his aggressive instructions to the pilots.
Rumsfeld, once he had finally settled into his place at the command center, got to work on the "rules of engagement" for the fighter pilots. This was an irrelevant exercise for he did not complete and issue them until 1:00 P.M., hours after the last hijacker had died.
Later, when asked why he had taken no part in military operations that morning, Rumsfeld blithely insisted that it was not his job.
Thanks to Oddjob, who hat tips Sully, for passing that along.
Two soldiers, two families, and justice for one
For service families searching for the truth of how loved ones died overseas, not even the seeming advantage of fame can push the military into a timely and decent response. It has taken the family of Army Ranger and former pro football player Cpl. Pat Tillman some three years to get to this point: the Associated Press reports that the Pentagon will soon fault a number of officers - ranking as high as generals - for errors in the handling and disclosure of the young soldier's death by fratricide.
In the meantime, the family of Pfc. LaVena Johnson - a soldier not famous, unremarked, unsung - is still rebuffed by an Army that refuses to reexamine her death or revisit its claim of suicide despite disturbing indications of foul play and sexual assault.
One year ago, I drew the too-clear parallel between the cases of Cpl.Tillman and Pfc. Johnson, but everything said can be pared down to the pointed observation once made by Tillman's mother:
"This is how they treat a family of a high-profile individual," she said. "How are they treating others?"
It's time to level the field. Full as much as the Tillmans, the Johnson family deserves an honest accounting of their soldier's death and the honor and respect due every service family.
Sign the LaVena Johnson petition, and learn more about her story and actions you can take on behalf of her family.
(Cross-posted at this, that, and the other.)
Big Girls
Shaker Spectrum Blue passed on this excellent article by ESPN columnist LZ Granderson about the best basketball player in the country that (comparatively) no one is talking about.
At 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, you will not see Courtney Paris gracing too many magazine covers. Not because she's undeserving -- obviously she is -- but because she's not "cover girl material." Paris is pretty. But she's also big. Not just tall -- but big. And she's strong and athletic and confident, and she and others like her make a lot of people feel uncomfortable. Particularly men. Consequently magazines, including the one I write for, will always hesitate to put her on the cover even during the height of basketball season despite the fact she's the best college basketball player in the country.It's a really interesting article, which touches on all sorts of issues we've discussed here before, from the correlation between women's sports and women's self-esteem to the arbitrariness of beauty standards. And underlying all of it is the notion that women's sports are both not as important as men's and that a woman's sport is valued by the beauty of its participants. (And not just beauty, but sexual orientation; the "dykier" a sport is perceived to be, the less valued it tends to be in the spectrum of women's sports.) Anyhow—read and discuss…
This is March madness.
Actually, I take that back. I do have a better description for it. It's blatant discrimination.
Caption This Photo
Barbara Neal, Ford employee and 20-year member of the United Auto Workers, suffers a
gigantic, idiotic fool—and with earnest civility tries to appear as though she's doing it gladly.
(Don't miss the Rude One's post about this picture.)
Weeping Mary, Bleeding Jesus
Sounds like a hot new kung-fu movie starring my hard boiled killer boyfriend, Chow Yun-Fat, but it's really just a duo of alleged miracles.
Actually, in Bavaria, not everyone is so sure it's a miracle they're witnessing:
Dozens of witnesses were on hand for the miracle. A Madonna statue in a hostel for pilgrims in the small Bavarian town of Heroldsbach suddenly began shedding tears two weeks ago -- fat drops of water running down her cheek and dripping off her chin. For skeptics, the photos are difficult to ignore. One worshipper even kissed one of the tears which had run down Mother Mary's cheek and plopped onto her hand.Von Stockhausen says he wants to submit the tears to forensic tests, which I just adore. A religious man turning to science to test the authenticity of a miracle—that's brilliant.
"They tasted salty," Annegret Mewis told the German news agency ddp. "They must have been real tears." Indeed, virtually every one of the 60 or so faithful present were likewise convinced that they had just witnessed a miracle.
But not all. Indeed, even after hurrying over to check out what was happening at the Heroldsbach hostel, the local priest, Rev. Dietrich von Stockhausen, still wasn't prepared to immediately believe what he was seeing. "When heaven wants to give us a sign," he said, "then it will be one that we can understand. It won't be such a vague one, and one that is so easy to manipulate."
The cleric has his reasons for being skeptical. In 2001, a statue of the baby Jesus likewise started to tear up, but when von Stockhausen locked the little guy in his closet, the tears stopped.
Meanwhile, in India, "thousands of people" are making the pilgrimage to police radio operator Eric Nathaniel's home in the remote Andaman Islands, where two portraits of Jesus in his house have been "bleeding" for two weeks, according to witnesses.Officials said red paint used in the portraits could be melting in the extreme humidity, but islanders and priests were coming in boats from remote parts of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago to pray.Okay. Who am I to argue?
"This is indeed a miracle and shows that Jesus was in pain because of our sins," said John Chrysostom, a priest at the Anglican Church of Port Blair.
Personally, I prefer the sightings in weird objects to the seeping of fluids, but I can understand why Jesus and Mary like to mix it up. No one wants to be a one-trick pony.
Holy folks Gone Wild on baking sheets, pizza pans, doggy doors, ice, peanuts, x-rays, turtles, ultrasounds, chocolate, dying plants, sheet metal, trees, more trees, more trees, more trees, more trees, wardrobes, water stains, grilled cheese sandwiches, potato chips, plates of pasta, drywall, fish, and more fish.
Illness, the great equalizer
Of all the people in the world to worry about today, I sure didn't expect Tony Snow. But then, I didn't know about his history with cancer.
Best of wishes to Mr. Snow and his family. May the press secretary return from surgery healthy, rested and ready to resume equivocating on behalf of his employer.
(Cross-posted.)
Attorneygate
Surprise! "In the runup to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson lied to committee staff in order to convince them that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) "was wrong" to raise questions about the U.S. attorney firings. The email was produced yesterday by Sen. Feinstein and demonstrates that the Justice Department did not turn over all documents relevant to the firings to Congress earlier this week, since the email was not among the 3000 pages." Who's shocked? No one?! Gee willickers.
And Josh explains it slowly for the dumb kidz: "The firings were not the offense. They were the clue that suggested the offense. ... There are many people in this conversation trying to avoid the issues, confuse the issues or just ignore them. And more than a few people are just plain confused. But it's not that complicated. Administration officials have repeatedly and demonstrably lied about the firings. And there is now abundant evidence of a pattern of using the president's power to hire and fire US Attorneys to stymie public corruption investigations of Republicans and use the Justice Department to harass Democrats by mounting investigations of demonstrably bogus 'voter fraud' claims. It's really that simple."
President Pissypants on the House Iraq Bill
"Political theater" says Commander Codpiece, flanked by people who actually served.
It's good to see the spoiled little scoundrel not get what he wants for a change.
Thanks, Petulant.
Hero
Shaker Karyn reminded me of a story about which I've been meaning to post. Mr. Shakes and I saw this on the local news the other night and were howling with shock and outrage. The below video is of Anthony Abbate, a 250-pound off-duty Chicago police officer, beating the shit out of Karolina Obrycka, a 115-pound bartender at Jesse's Shortstop Inn. Obrycka, you see, refused to continue to serve the already-drunk Abbate, so he went haywire.
But here's the really astounding part: the unbelievably tough Karolina, who suffered bruises to her head, neck, back, and lower body, not only keeps getting back up as this wankstain knocks her all over the place; she also steps in (at 0:26) and tries to stop Abbate from trying to attack another patron with a chair—the guy on the left of the screen—who then doesn't even try to intervene on her behalf, instead telling Abbate to "stop it," and calling someone on his cell. Sadly, it doesn't even appear to have been 911, as news reports mention the time of the emergency call, but do not say it was captured on the video or made by one of the "bystanders," even as questions have been raised about who that bystander was and whom he was calling. (One hopes he is not the officer now "suspected of helping to threaten and bribe Obrycka to keep silent about the beating," before the video was made public.)
In any case, the guys in this video are shameful—but Karolina Obrycka is a hero for standing up to one jerk and defending another, even though he wasn't worth it. Funny how the comments thread about heroes Hannah Bridgeman-Oxley and Karri Cormican, also employees of a bar, turned into a discussion of "getting involved" just days ago.
Friday Cat Blogging
For some reason, I found it amusing to set footage of Tils and Livs being
completely boring (though cute) to such stirring music. YMMV. In fairness
to Livs, at least she was going after a mouse, which I later rescued.
