Every five years, the Congress passes a new farm bill. It's a huge, complicated mess that doesn't work in the best interest of all Americans anymore. While it used to be about effective supports for the American farmer, it's really...
After a five week absence due to a resurgence of his colon cancer, Tony Snow is back as the White House Press Secretary. No more contradictory, dishonest, or bellicose statements coming from Dana Perino. Instead, Tony will do the honors....
Some highlights of Republican misdeeds to brighten your morning: - Bush official resigns, linked to D.C. prostitute service: Randall Tobias, who ran foreign aid programs in the Bush administration, resigned from the State Department on Friday, after being identified as...
In a review by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, 7 of the 8 reconstruction projects they reviewed were non-functioning. Each one had previously been deemed a success and handed over to the Iraqis for ongoing...
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi asked retired three star general William E. Odom to give the Democrat's response to the president's Saturday morning radio address today. It was a blistering condemnation of President Bush: To put this in a...
On Monday, the Interior Department will release its five year offshore drilling plan, which opens up waters for drilling that have been off limits since the first Bush administration. In particular, Bristol Bay in Alaska, which was placed off limits...
You probably already heard about the 172 terrorist suspects that were arrested by the Saudi government on Friday. A seven month investigation led to the breakup of an alleged terrorist ring, plus the seizure of a buried cache of weapons...
Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced today that Boston will plant 100,000 new trees over the next 10 years. A recent tree survey put the current count in Boston at 500,000 trees, which cover about 29% of the city. When this...
On Monday, Paul Wolfowitz will be given an opportunity to defend himself. The investigative committee appointed by the World Bank's governing board has granted Wolfowitz's request for an audience before they decide his fate. But regardless of how things go...
From yesterday's Business Journal of Phoenix: U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., could soon step down in the wake of a federal investigation into his involvement in a federal land swap deal and FBI raids of an insurance agency owned by...
At least for the Republican Party and its adherents, hate can be a powerful motivator. That's why the Bush administration was pushing so hard for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the lead up to the 2004 elections. That,...
Those San Francisco liberals are at it again... First, those treehuggers on the city's Board of Supervisors banned plastic bags at large supermarkets and chain pharmacies. Now, eight San Francisco cabbies - who I like to call "America-hating hippies" -...
You know what's expensive? Retaining a law firm. Especially in politics. The Washington Post reports steep legal bills for the Republican Party and its members in the first quarter of the year. The Republican National Committee spent an astounding $500,000...
In August of 1961, the East German government, with the backing of the Soviet Union, erected a wall around the American, English, and French sectors of Berlin. This was done to stop the exodus of professionals and intellectuals from...
These days all we hear/read about is the next catastrophe. Peak oil. Al Qaeda. Bees. Ben Stiller's next movie. Staying on this positive tip, I thought I'd hip you to the newest FRONTLINE documentary entitled "Hot Politics" airing tonight on...
If 6 years of a Republican controlled federal government has taught us anything, it's that Republicans have absolutely no ability to effectively lead and run the country. And why would they? Grover Norquist, a guiding light in the Republican ranks...
Looks like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is asking the same questions we've been asking. Namely, what's the relationship between the Renzi corruption investigation and the firing of US Attorney Paul Charlton? In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Senator...
ThinkProgress has video of President Bush dancing at the White House for malaria relief in Africa. He's kinda getting down and the clip makes me sort of like him for a minute. But just for a minute....
By a 32-6 vote, the House Judiciary Committee has just approved immunity for Monica Goodling, former counsel to Alberto Gonzales. This means she cannot exercise her 5th Amendment right and can be compelled to testify before congress. Goodling has been...
While the U.S. took a significant step backwards in its defense of a woman's right to choose with a recent Supreme Court ruling, Mexico City has taken a giant leap forward by legalizing abortion in the Federal District of Mexico...
More good news. A federal investigative agency has opened a major investigation into political activities on government time by Karl Rove and the White House political arm. From a Chicago Tribune article: ... the Office of Special Counsel is preparing...
Good news. Willie ducks the law. Again. Willie Nelson, his sister Bobbie, his tour manager, and two drivers got charged with marijuana possession after a routine search of their tour bus. Why can't they just leave Willie alone? The man...
Last Thursday, he resigned from the Intelligence committee. Today, he resigned his other two committee posts - Natural Resources and Financial Services - on a temporary basis. He hopes. Back in October 2006, U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton opened up a...
Today's New York Times has a piece on the Colony Collapse Disorder that is plaguing 27 states and counting. According to the Apiary Inspectors of America, billions of honeybees have died. So far. And there's still little indication as to...
Yesterday, in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John McCain became the first Republican presidential candidate to take a position acknowledging the existence of global warming and the need to do something about it. Which is...
The hits just keep coming for Paul Wolfowitz, the beleaguered head of the World Bank. In a letter published in the Financial Times today, 42 former World Bank executives advise Wolfowitz to resign, for the good of the bank. From...
In the midst of political discussions surrounding our involvement in Iraq it's sometimes too easy to forget what's going on there and the individual acts of courage that surely take place every day. NBC's Richard Engel has been doing amazing...
A professor at Emmanuel College was fired after leading a disucssion on the Virginia Tech shootings that included the educator pointing a marker at students and saying "POW." This despite being encouraged by school administrators to engage the students in...
Here's some post Earth Day sunshine for you. Bees are dying. Millions of them, in the US, Europe, and elsewhere. More than 24 states in the US alone have seen substantial die offs this year. And people are freaking out....
Representative Rick Renzi's (R-Ariz.) family insurance business was raided by the FBI this past Thursday (April 19) in southern Arizona. That's the second Republican congressman to get a visit from the FBI in the past week and a half. The...
The German Minister of Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, told the Financial Times Deutschland that it's time for Paul Wolfowitz to step down as president of the World Bank: The situation, as it is, is no longer acceptable ... My conclusion is...
It's been a while since we've done the Friday video and this has certainly made the rounds of Bloggers high and low, but what the Hell, it's Friday!...
You know who is probably having the worst week of them all? Alberto "Fredo" Gonzales. Did he get a grilling yesterday, or what? No Senator on the Judiciary Committee was tossing him a bone, not even Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah),...
Crooks and Liars has a great clip of John Stewart sticking it to Bush and his bullshit rhetoric on the Defense bill and what it means to troop deployments. Too good to be missed. The gall of this administration...
John Podhoretz dismantles with simple logic the asinine and distasteful criticism by fellow National Review Online columnist John Derbyshire who said the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings lacked courage enough to defend themselves. Why didn't anyone rush the guy?"...
Not such a good week for Paul Wolfowitz, either. In a meeting of World Bank vice presidents on Wednesday, Graeme Wheeler, who is one of Wolfowitz's top deputies in the Bank, asked him to resign. Wheeler is a highly respected...
Not a good week for Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.). First, it was revealed that his Northern Virginia home had been raided by the FBI. Today, at the prodding of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), he resigned - temporarily, he...
If you don't live under a rock, you've probably already heard about the disastrous ruling yesterday by the Supreme Court on an abortion case. The patronizing ruling by 5 old men on the court - Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and...
More on the FBI raid at the Doolittle home in the New York Times today. As Doolittle notes in a statement, it's all his wife's fault: My wife has been cooperating with the F.B.I. and the Justice Department for almost...
If you're a United States Congressperson, and the media has identified ties between you, Jack Abramoff (in prison) and Randy "Duke" Cunningham (incarcerated), you know you can't be happy when a couple of g-men show up at your door. With...
The senate has adopted a resolution - S. Res. 153 - instructing the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to investigate Senator Domenici's role in getting U.S. Attorney David Iglesias fired. First, Domenici recommened Iglesias for the position. Then, he personally...
The ties between Paul Wolfowitz and Shaha Ali Riza go back further than has been previously reported. The New York Times reports that back in 2003, the Pentagon directed one of its contractors - SAIC - to hire Riza for...
The meaness of modern conservative commentary seems to know no bound as two chickenhawks dare to blame the victims of this week's shooting at Virginia Tech for not being "man enough" to stop their armed assailant in his tracks. Astonishing......
Huh? Viewpoint-based Exclusionary Determinations? What are those, you ask? Apparently, they allow the president to eject people from public events if he doesn't like their point of view. And it's all constitutional. At least, that's what lawyers for two Bush...
In an article entitled "Bush Allies in Congress Block Bill That Would Require Intelligence Disclosures", New York Times writer Mark Mazzetti reports on efforts by Republican Senators aligned with the Bush administration to deep six the intelligence reauthorization act. Yesterday,...
Charlie Savage, a Washington correspondent at the Boston Globe, won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting this year. The prize was for his coverage and exposure of the 750+ signing statements the President has made - a staggering number, more...
Anyone not sure of the Cult of Personality Jude detailed in his April 3 post, A Cult of Personality, In Living Colour, look no further than AJ Strata at the Strata-Sphere. This is maybe the best example of how some...
Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit uses today's tragic shooting at Virginia Tech to echo the old NRA battle cry that MORE guns, not less, lower gun crimes and had more students been packing then the death toll may have been...
Yesterday, Paul Wolfowitz anounced he intended to stay on board as the World Bank president. But the chorus of op-eds calling for Wolfowitz to resign is growing. Today's New York Times ends its editorial calling for his resignation this way:...
About 1.5% of American households earn more than $250,000 a year. That's the group which has benefited most from the Bush tax cuts - and they make an average of $434,757 a year. Not too shabby. Late last week, the...
Last Thursday, the AP did a story suggesting that Pete Domenici - after 35 years in the Senate and over 13,000 floor votes - might be considering retirement when he's next up for election in 2008. Why? Well, he is...
In today's Washington Post, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales clears himself of wrongdoing in his editorial "Nothing Improper". He also commits his department's resources to finding out who is, or is not, at fault: I have nevertheless asked the Justice...
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington - CREW - announced today that they have asked Patrick Fitzgerald to reopen the investigation into Karl Rove's role in Plamegate. Given the recent revelations that Rove continues to use an RNC account...
There's a lot of noise right now about how Paul Wolfowitz, as the president of the World Bank, orchestrated a hefty raise for his girlfriend. She went from making $132,660 to $193,590 thanks to his influence. There's a good chance...
Reports throughout the news today detail McCain's efforts to realign his campaign staff. The AP reports that the "campaign is eliminating some non-senior staff positions and cutting some consultants' contracts," both of which can only be a good idea for...
I love the smell of congressional oversight... it smells like... victory? justice? morning in america? This whole White House/RNC email accounts thing - and all the missing emails - looks like it's getting ready to blow up. Henry Waxman, chair...
According to a recent article in the Washington Post, the Bush Administration is searching for someone they can appoint to manage the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is really odd to me, particularly since our Republican friends constantly remind...
The White House is claiming that emails sent and received by staffers using Republican National Committee accounts (in itself a possible violation of law regarding the Presidential Records Act) have been erased and are, conveniently, lost forever. White House spokesman...
Back in the late '80's, Living Colour had a hit with their song, "Cult of Personality." The song included a litany of figures who have enjoyed personality cult status: Mussolini, Kennedy, Stalin, Ghandi, God, and Lennon. If an artist...
Poor John McCain. Determined to bolster his point that there's been progress in Iraq and to undermine the lambasting he took for saying there were neighborhoods in which "you and I" could walk freely, the old boy went out and...
Derek Phillips Derek "Phil" Phillips is the Main Boss of POLJUNK and sets the editorial direction of the site. He's co-founder of parent site Glorious Noise and also a member of the Chicago band Riviera. Phil is a full-time web...
