AddieStan

Aided by an apparently disinterested mass media, the House yesterday passed a bill that, according to the Associated Press (AP), will "greatly increase" the funds available to the national intelligence director, John Negroponte -- by how much, you and your blogstress, dear reader, are forbidden to know. Seems the cost of the bill is classified. That this story has shown up in only a handful of outlets today reflects the media's aiding and abetting, whether by default or cowardice, the Republicans' not-so-secret plan to keep all manner of things secret from the people of the United States. From the AP via the Seattle Times : Democrats expressed outrage that the Republican-led House Rules Committee would not allow any of their five proposed amendments to be considered by the full House, including measures to expand congressional oversight of President Bush's warrantless surveillance program and the intelligence on Iran. Mad enough yet?

Your blogstress appears to stand corrected on her verdict of Treasury Secretary John Snow as a dullard. Apparently, the former railroad captain is an object of some fascination to those obsessed with monetary policy, as is your cybertrix's foxy (but, alas, spoken for) friend, Glenn Kellis, who writes: I was chuffed to read your reference to the mind numbing John Snow. Might you be taking a slight interest in monetary policy? If you are you may have noticed the US dollar is in a hell hole swan dive. See this chart . The Mogambo has some interesting things to say this week. And sorry to be a jerk and point out that CSX and the railroads in general have been kicking ass for quite some time, mainly because they transport a lot of raw materials and commodities like coal, timber, iron, add the like which are being exported to China and India at record rates. Here's a glimpse at their ass-kicking. Well, as soon as your Webwench can schedule some quality time for consuming bon-bo...

Were there ever any doubt of the role of Fox News as the mouthpiece of the Bush administration, it has been dispelled today with the appointment of Fox pundit Tony Snow as the replacement for beleaguered White House press secretary Scott McClellan. Snow, no doubt, is feeling a bit vindicated among his Fox News colleagues after having been pushed out, several years ago, to the glamour-challenged world of Fox's radio network from his Sunday morning TV gig as host of Fox News Sunday. Considering, as documented by Media Matters for America , the numerous instances of prevarication, disinformation and bald-faced toadying exercised by Mr. Snow, liberals are rightfully horrified at the president's choice of a press secretary -- the official who exemplifies an administration's accountability to the American people via the nation's mass media. (In fact, Snow has engaged in a bit of a pissing match with Media Matters, which the watchdog group appears to be winning .) Herewith a...

Your blogstress has been getting a lot of Al Franken these days, it seems, having found herself in the studio audience for yesterday's road version of Franken's Air America radio program , which was great fun. (The program broadcast for two days from the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University, here in Our Nation's Capital, before moving on to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for a day.) Woefully underreported, though, was the news Helen Thomas made as Franken's guest when the host asked her to answer her own question -- you know, the one the doyenne put to our president at his latest press conference: Why did you really go to war? When asked why she thought Bush went to war in Iraq, Ms. Thomas attributed the attack to "the neo-con manifesto," which she described as "their Mein Kampf for the 21st Century." But what do you really think, madame ? Mme. Thomas explained her interpretation of that manifesto as the neo-cons' desire to ...

LINK TO VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS Holding court at the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University yesterday was a most distinguished panel comprising David Brock, Al Franken, Eleanor Clift and the uncontested doyenne of the Washington press corps, the indefatigable Helen Thomas. Sponsored by Media Matters for America , the panel's focus was the Great Media Problem -- the ascendence of a disingenuous right-wing media and the cowering of mainstream media before the right's perceived might. Brock , once a self-described hit-man on the staff of the American Spectator , has made it his mission to expose the disinformation disseminated by the right, and he delivered an informative treatise on the means and measures by which the right does its dirty deeds. Eleanor Clift is one of few out liberals who has survived as such in the mainstream media, and she has found her rarified place not always appreciated by self-professed progressives. Recently, Clift penned a column for her em...

Whatever it takes to be a political appointee at the Department of Homeland Security is something your cyberscribe does not want to catch. At the helm, an egocentric incompetent -- at least as a protector of the homeland -- reigns. We know how the administration gutted and screwed FEMA, replacing career emergency professionals with political hacks and contractors, the conditions that led up to the unnecessary loss of life wrought by Hurricane Katrina. We've known about the budget crunch in the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that saw inspectors unable to fill the tanks of their official vehicles last summer because creditors had cut off the government's gasoline cards. And the rigging of assignments in the Transportation Security Administration and Customs & Border Protect that were designed to purge the personnel roles. Despite your blogstress's familiarity with these and many, many more of DHS's messes, nothing prepared her for the news com...

Just as he made his mug shot a happy head shot, today Tom DeLay used the occasion of his imminent resignation from the House of Representatives, on the heels of a plea deal for a former aide who has pleaded guilty to being party to running a criminal enterprise out of the majority leader's office, to take something of a surreal victory lap around the political talk shows. Particularly strange was DeLay's turn on Hardball with Chris Matthews . After making a big fuss over DeLay's profession of faith -- even quoting a right-wing minister friend of the Hammer's who compared DeLay to the crucified Christ -- Matthews asked DeLay if he believed Republicans are morally superior to Democrats, DeLay said no. When asked to name a moral Democrat, DeLay replied, "Barney Frank," the openly gay congressman from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Even despite Frank's "lifestyle?" asked Matthews. "I don't agree with homosexuality," DeLay said, ...

Yet another amazing day in Our Nation's Capital. It appears that we won't have Tom DeLay to kick around anymore. The bug-man is said to be ready to withdraw from his congressional race, with the Abramoff probe edging closer to his door. Though it appears the story was broken by Time , your blogstress herewith links you to The Washington Post , which has done such comprehensive work on the Abramoff scandal. Mes amis , let's all light candles for the rescue of the good people of the State of Georgia from the clutches of Ralph Reed, who is running for lieutenant governor. You see, Mr. Reed, once the choir-boy-faced evil genius behind the Christian Coalition, is quite caught up in the Abramoff mess himself, as Max Blumenthal reminds us . And so are Dobson and Minnery. How delicious it is to see the pious leaders of the right exposed for what they truly are. Of course, it won't make a whit of difference if no one in the opposition party stands up to say something like...

Indeed, it has been a while since your blogstress has checked in with her public, and for that she is most contrite. For the last several years, your cybertrix has felt the need to accept employment by others and, in recent months, the phenomenon of the pesky day job gobbled up all of the time one would ordinarily use for living and blogging (a.k.a virtual living). So, your écrivaine turned in her BlackBerry and hightailed it back to her beloved Oppo Factory, finding herself better suited to a life of creative poverty than one of well remunerated but restrained prose. But enough about her. On this evening’s edition of MSNBC’s Countdown , Keith Olbermann entertained the sporadically amusing Michael Musto in a conversation about celebrities and their foibles. Now, your Webwench is prepared to accept at face value the judgment of the critics on Sharon Stone’s latest feature, Basic Instinct II , a film your net-tête will not be seeing. And she let it roll off when the man who review...

"This Train" lyrics If you've lost track lately of the antics of the religious right, your blogstress recommends bringing yourself up to date via the blogs of Max Blumenthal and Josh Marshall. Blumenthal has been cranking out pieces on the relationship of Jack Abramoff and his evil schemes to the " target=resource window>purportedly anti-gambling leadership of the Christian right . Most delicious in this tale is the apparent manipulation of the self-important James Dobson, king of the Focus on the Family media empire, by the oily Ralph Reed, former director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, and currently a candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia. (Your cybertrix has difficulty envisioning the Chuckyesque Mr. Reed seeing this candidacy through, given the road to indictment on which he may well find himself. If only he were in Texas...where the indicted Mr. DeLay appears to be on his way to winning the primary for his House seat.) Blumenthal rem...

Think it can't happen to you, ma cherie ? I mean, who would want to examine the phone records of little old you -- you're just a regular Jane who graces the occassional Web site with the occasional rant, right? Welcome to the 21st Century, where the U.S. Constitution appears to be breathing its last. Remember all that scary talk about how, under the Patriot Act, the FBI could demand that libraries and publishers turn over files on the reading and writing habits of selected targets? Now comes word that bloggers -- well, at least one blogger -- are the targets. Doug Thompson, founder of Capitol Hill Blue, which claims to be the oldest news site on the internet, says that, in his capacity as the proprietor of his own Web-hosting company, he received a National Security Letter from the FBI, demanding that he turn over records concerning traffic on his blog. This means that they're not just looking at Thompson himself; they're looking to track who's reading him. Whi...

It seems to your blogstress that, despite some six days of protests and riots around the world, the people of the Western world seem intent on not getting the furor over a series of cartoons, run in a handful of European newspapers , that cariactured the prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) in a number of stereotypes ascribed to Muslims by bigots. It would have been enough of a blasphemy simply to depict the prophet, even in a positive light. Islam proscribes any depiction of the prophet, much like Jewish prosciptions of "graven images" of the deity. But to do so in such a disrespectful fashion, well, that was just gasoline thrown on already smouldering coals. Particularly distasteful is the fact that the cartoons in question originated as part of a "challenge to self-censorship" initiated by a Danish newspaper. In other words, these cartoonists were given the charge to be just as insulting as they pleased. And some pleased to be extremely insulting. All in th...

D.C. denizens: Don't miss your chance to see the incomparable J. Scales sing, play her bass and read some sage, poetic words this Friday at Mocha Hut.

Your blogstress is not one to lob the "L" word around -- no, not THAT L word; rather, she speaks of the one that ends in I-E. Yet so brazen was the section of the president's State of the Union speech that addressed his domestic spying program that your cybertrix calls her readers to this: Count the number of lies in the following passage: It is said that prior to the attacks of September 11th, our government failed to connect the dots of the conspiracy. We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to al-Qaida operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late. So to prevent another attack – based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute – I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected al-Qaida operatives and affiliates to and from America. Previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have ...

...and another one opens. Exit the era of Coretta Scott King--she who embraced civil rights for all, even non-heterosexuals--and enter the era of Justice Samuel Alito--he who appears to embrace rights for only the few, and who claims to have belonged to an organization that opposed the admission of women and minorities to his alma mater. Blessed Mother, pray for us sinners...

More on what your blogstress believes to be the fabrication of a certain credential on Alito's application for a job in the Reagan Justice Department comes from the indefatigable Chan Sethi of The Daily Princeton , the campus newspaper of Princeton University. Writing in The Weekly Standard, a prominent national conservative magazine of which he is currently publisher, Eastland added: "I didn't know Alito had applied for the job, and ... I didn't know that Alito had gone to Princeton, much less had any association with CAP [the Concerned Alumni of Princeton]." Alito's membership in the group was the subject of intense questioning during confirmation hearings this week. He said he has no recollection of CAP and likely put it on the 1985 job application — the only record of his participation in the group — to establish his conservative credentials for the Reagan administration. "You have to look at the question that I was responding to and the for...

On Friday, Bob Fertik of the blog, Democrats.com (apparently not officially affiliated with the Democratic Party) served up some weekend excitement for your blogstress by breaking news that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), of all people, would lead a filibuster against the confirmation vote for Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Any red-blooded, U.S.-Constitution-loving American, thinks your cybertrix, should be grateful to the senator and the blogger for saving the weekend. Now, let's see if we can collectively save the Court. Here's Fertik's Friday scoop : Original post 1 pm: I have confirmed reports that Kerry wants to filibuster Alito, and he is talking to his colleagues to round up the 41 votes he needs. Three Democrats (Ben Nelson, Tim Johnson and Robert Byrd) support Alito. So right now, without the support of any Republicans, we still have 42 possible votes for a filibuster. There are 4 moderate Republicans who should be targeted (Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins, ...

2005 (c) A.M. Stan for AFGE Two weeks after Katrina hit New Orleans, a city emptied of its citizens was one vast bin of debris. If only Lake Pontchartrain had been contained by a stone wall of equal height and strength to the one the Bush administration has erected against the Katrina queries of the U.S. Congress, the people of New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward might still have homes there today. From today's New York Times comes this account of obstruction , as the Administration seeks to shield its Katrina-related correspondence from prying eyes of Congress -- which, mes amis , is supposed to function as the eyes and ears of tu et moi , as nous --as in all y'all--are a bit too big of a plural to be granted an unobstructed view of the unitary executive. From reporter Eric Lipton: The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White ...

Listen to your blogstress! So much to moan about; so little time. Your blogstress is feeling mighty alone these days in her indignation over the notion of a Justice Samuel Alito. Does no one else feel this is a disaster? Is no one else bothered by an indefinite tilt of the court to the right? Are we ready to enter a world of strip-searches for 10-year-olds, jailings of 12-year-olds for eating french -- no -- freedom fries in a subway station, and the overturning of civil rights and women's rights decisions? And how 'bout dem Dems, huh? Can anyone explain to your cybertrix the disorganized questioning of Alito during his nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee? It's not as if this hearing was something that was sprung on them. He was nominated on Halloween, and the hearing began after New Year's, for Aphrodite's sake! Couldn't they have sent a bunch of staffers into a room together to come up with a plan? Your Webwench finds herself still a...

At last, another liberal who gets the game. Over at Liberal Oasis , the blogger has suggested that the Dems get into the constitutional amendment game. You'll recall that your humble blogstress has suggested that the minority party introduce one guaranteeing a right to privacy -- a right most Americans would be surprised to learn is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution. Liberal Oasis, on the other hand, is suggesting that Dems float one on campaign finance. In a post titled, Dems Make Their Stand on Ethics: Can They Draw A Bright Line Even Brighter? , the Oasis gives us this: On a Tuesday conference call with bloggers, Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid showed some spine and savvy, saying there was little point cutting deals with GOPers on ethics when they’re the source of the problem. Instead, Reid said Dems would offer proposals that draw a “bright line” between the parties on fighting corruption, so the public could see the difference. The bummer is that the Democrats' eth...