You just knew this was coming, didn't you? The FBI, with their IRS buddies in tow, raided the home of Senator Ted Stevens on Monday. Senator Stevens is nothing but a patriot. Why can't those jack booted thugs leave the...
A French and American joint venture is planning to bring the first new nuclear plant to the U.S. in over 20 years. This one is still in the planning stages, but if it gets approval and moves forward, it will...
I sometimes have sympathy for beat reporters. In this hyper-critical 24-hour news cycle, it can't be easy covering the Ground Hog Day mendacity of a presidential campaign and still post anything—ANYTHING—newsworthy. That said, this shit is bananas. Just days after...
Shame on the 79 House Democrats who voted against the Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment. The same day of that vote, federal DEA agents raided 10 marijuana clinics. You're welcome. If these are your representatives, get involved in your local politics...
Last week's Senate testimony from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did not do anything to help his situation out. In their reactions to his testimony (or lack thereof), the Senators on the Judiciary committee alternated between outright hostility and exasperation. Yesterday,...
Locals are fighting the good fight against Chevron in Ecuador. Texaco - now owned by Chevron - is being accused of contaminating about 1,700 square miles of Amazon rain forest with toxic sludge and other waste that resulted from drilling...
Another consequence of the Bush quagmire in Iraq: Gang activity clues are appearing in Iraq and Afghanistan, too. Gang graffiti is sprayed on blast walls – even on Humvees. Kilroy – the doodle made famous by U.S. soldiers in World...
Going to the heart of Hillary Clinton's weakness as a candidate, Barack Obama said that the most important thing the next President can bring is the ability to unite this deeply, deeply divided country. "The reason that this president has...
In response to Tony Snow's use of the sarcastic phrase, "I'm shocked. Shocked," while covering up for Bush's inappropriate (and probably illegal) briefings of diplomats, Last Plane to Jakarta reminds us of the phrase's origins: It is spoken by Captain...
Start warming up the Capitol jail, we're gonna have company. Senate Dems have now called for a special counsel to investigate whether Ag Big Alberto lied under oath when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee is asking...
Take Action: Tell BP: No More Dumping in the Great Lakes British Petroleum is planning for a 54 percent increase in ammonia and a 35 percent increase in solid waste containing dangerous heavy metals to be dumped into Lake Michigan....
The House Judiciary Committee voted today to issue contempt of Congress citations against Josh Bolton and Harriet Miers. Showing his utter lack of knowledge on the subject, the Snowman became unhinged in his response: "Now we have a situation where...
PG&E is getting ready to buy 553 more megawatts of solar energy, from Solel, an Israeli company. Solel will build a solar power plant in the Mojave desert to provide the energy - enough to power about 400,000 homes in...
Here's some good news on cars. Really. According to a new report, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), if widely adopted, could significantly reduce the country's contribution of carbon emissions. The study was done by scientists at the Electric Power Research...
42,642 Americans died in traffic accidents in 2006. So says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Believe it or not, that's good news. 43,510 people died in traffic accidents in the U.S. in 2005. It also turns out that the...
Answering a question we posed a few weeks ago regarding Congress' ability to enforce contempt charges against uncooperative White House officials, Frank Askin, a professor at Rutgers School of Law, and director of the Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic, says the...
In yet another appearance on the Hill to testify about the Justice Department destroying itself, Attorney General Gonzales fails again to clear things up, and senators on the Judiciary Committee treated him like a hostile witness. Which he is. Both...
From the too easy to pass up file... Headline: Doctors find no cancer in Bush's colon You have to wonder if they found his head though?...
This is a testament to federal gun laws here in the United States. According to a series by the Christian Science Monitor, drug gangs in Mexico get most of their guns from the U.S. Why? Because it's easier for them...
Remember those North Dakotan farmers we mentioned a while back? The ones that want to grow hemp for commercial use in the United States? Well, those hippies are still at it, and they've managed to garner the attention of the...
Based on a tip that they thought would lead them to a couple hundred marijuana plants, federal agents found over 10,000 marijuana plants on land owned by a local utility yesterday. That's the largest crop haul the Dallas area has...
About 75 dealerships are planned, and 20,000 people have put down a $100 deposit to reserve one when they arrive. I wonder how many more than that will ultimately be sold. They're small. But they are supposed to get 40...
Chicago police held a gun "buy back" event on Saturday. For every gun returned, the returnee got a $100 debit card. This was the 3rd gun buy back in this program, with the first and second getting, respectively, 3,000 and...
No End in Sight, a documentary on the the disastrous war in Iraq, opens on July 27. It garnered a special jury prize at Sundance earlier this year, and reviews suggest it's pretty damning. [July 22, 2007: I'm replacing the...
This upcoming Tuesday, the federal minimum wage will go up 70 cents, to $5.85/hour. With that increase, a person working full time - 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year - and earning the minimum wage will earn $12,168...
A John Kerry penned Vitter limerick: There once was a man named Vitter/Who vowed that he wasn't a quitter/But with stories of women/And all of his sinnin'/He knows his career's in the — oh, never mind...
You know things are bad for Senator Vitter (R-LA) if even Sean Hannity is saying he should resign. I don't follow Sean Hannity much, but as far as I know, this is the first time he's ever said something that...
Despite my membership on the Presidential Prayer Team for Kids (now defunct), I have never actually prayed for our president...until I saw this headline: Bush to go under; Cheney to take over Please Lord, let him be OK....
In this piece on the 2007 College Republican National Convention, Max Blumenthal shows us how uninformed, stupid, and hypocritical young Republicans can be. Plus, he introduces the piece with an audio clip from Funkadelic's March to the Witche's Castle. And...
Deborah Jean Palfrey, the so-called "DC Madam," appeared on Larry King, with Larry Flynt: Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, a Republican who pressed "family values" issues, admitted he hired a prostitute from so-called "DC Madam" Deborah Jean Palfrey after a reporter...
Writing in the Washington Post, David Ignatius suggests the tide may be turning against the rich paying too small a percentage in their taxes: Even the wealthy -- at least those with social consciences -- seem to share the new...
7 British cabinet members have admitted they smoked marijuana. Not now, of course, but in their youth. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, admitted smoking the weed in college. So have 6 others: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, later confirmed he had...
"Get thee behind me, beef!" was the 666th post on POLJUNK, and since 666 is the number of the beast, I thought it appropriate to highlight some news about Dick Cheney, who is, according to some reports, Satan's lead man...
According to a recent study by Japanese scientists, "A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home." A kilogram is equal to...
For reasons I don't entirely understand, many on the left in this country have a real distaste for Thomas Friedman. Personally, I find his writing generally insightful and provocative. Yes, he's been wrong - like on invading Iraq. But then...
From a Time article, Can Poverty Define John Edwards? [N]o other candidate is talking about poverty the way Edwards does - at length and to the exclusion of all other subjects for three long days. From time to time he...
This is what happens when people have too much money, and the government doesn't help them out by raising their taxes... In a law suit filed by an ex-employee, Broadcom founder and billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III is accused of...
After reading the Gilded Age article that appeared in this past Sunday's New York Times, a friend of mine posed the question "are we really living in a new Gilded Age?" I think there are definitely parallels, but there are...
Echoing the sentiments of Richard Pryor's 1985 comedy in which his character, Monty Brewster, must spend $30 million in thirty days and decides to run for office on the None of The Above ticket, Republican voters are none-too-impressed with...
Secretary of Veteran Affairs Jim Nichols tendered his resignation today. Nicholson had been the VA head since February 2005. If the disaster at Walter Reed was any indication, he was terrible at his job, so good riddance. Of course, this...
It seems some conservatives are embracing a tactic for ending this war that POLJUNK proposed last October, which is to basically declare victory in Iraq and begin a withdrawal as soon as possible. It wouldn't simply be a semantic...
A couple weeks ago, a POLJUNK commenter asked how to define "wealthy." I think the New York Times gives an adequate definition in The Richest of the Rich, Proud of a New Gilded Age: Only twice before over the last...
We've heard a variety of reasons for going into Iraq from the Bush administration. This one takes the cake, though. On his Saturday radio show, host Cappy McGarr describes what he heard from Tom Daschle about a leadership breakfast with...
Testifying in the court martial of one of his fellow Marines, Corporal Saul H. Lopezromo said "Marines in his unit began routinely beating Iraqis after officers ordered them to 'crank up the violence level.'" That can't be helping us win...
When the White House has really bad news to deliver, they roll out Tony Fratto to deliver it. Not that the Bush administration has any good news to deliver as of late. Here's a good example. Yesterday, Mr. Fratto let...
Looking for a succinct description of why "war on terror" is a terrible label? Check out David Bromwich on the Huffington Post. He does it in less than 120 words: Acceptance of the phrase "war on terror" is an implicit...
Bruce Fein and John Nichols on why impeachment is necessary:...
From The Nation's John Nichols: Also on board are three members of the House Judiciary Committee, California's Waters, Georgia's Hank Johnson and Minnesota's Keith Ellison. It is the Judiciary Committee that would take up the issue of impeachment, under the...
From Media Matters: On the July 6 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson read the following excerpt from a speech delivered by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) in Fairfield, Iowa, on July 3: "Somehow we have lost the capacity to...
Judge Reggie Walton, the Bush appointee who sentenced Scooter Libby to 30 months in prison for perjury and obstruction of justice, is asking why the President ignored his own administration's directives on federal sentencing guidelines when he commuted Libby's sentence....
On the Ed Schultz show Wednesday, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said she thinks the House has to consider starting impeachment proceedings. Here's an excerpt [ed. - emphasis added]: I've always said that you need to keep it on the table,...
In an interview with Chad Pergram of the Capitol News Connection radio service, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) imparted this bit of wisdom on the exposure of Senator Vitter as a "john": I think all of us have to look at...
In a press conference yesterday, the President fumbled through a question on the Libby commutation. In addition to admitting that someone on his staff "may" have leaked Valerie Plame's covert status as a CIA operative, he also said it's time...
A couple years ago when Michael Moore was promoting Fahrenheit 9-11, he was on the Howard Stern show telling the King of All Media that he understood why people (like Stern) fell for the President's bullshit in the run-up to...
I love my country...I just hate a lot of the people who live in it. Today's disturbing headline: Manhattan parking spot going for $225,000 Parking spaces in New York cost as much as $225,000 and could soon be going higher...
Some members of Congress might be breathing sighs of relief, now that one in their ranks - Senator David Vitter (R-LA) - has been nabbed in the DC Madame sex scandal. But there's blood in the water now, and a...
Those dirty, stinky hippies at the Union of Concerned Scientists are at it again. Scaring Americans with their "doom and gloom" outlook on the future. But as James Brown once said "reality don't ever lie." And typically, scientists don't lie....
You have to love it when seemingly unrelated news stories start to come together in some sort of cosmic waltz. Last week we had the President of the Unites States commute the prison sentence of a former staffer who potentially...
Before Monday, most of America didn't know who David Vitter was. Including me. But now the Republican Senator from Louisiana is a big, bright target in the sights of the Beltway media. And this story has lots of angles. First,...
The Honorable John Dingell (D-MI) is currently what they call the "Dean" of the House of Representatives. He is the longest currently serving member in the House, and the 2nd longest serving in the nation's history. He was a major...
From WAPO today: Former White House aide Sara M. Taylor will refuse to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee today "about matters President Bush has deemed shielded by executive privilege, but she will offer to respond to other questions from...
More fun with headlines... You know, I want to believe our President is above cheap scare tactics. Yes, I've seen all the articles pointing out how the threat level rose and fell with political bad news or in conjunction with...
We don't get a lot of these, but here's a recent letter we recieved regarding Live Earth from Paul Ebner in Indiana: I am appalled by Live Earth. I am so appalled and for such obvious reasons that a part...
Just when you thought the drums beating for Big Alberto's resignation were dying down, we get this headline: Gonzales was told of FBI violations After getting report, attorney general said he knew of no wrongdoing This is in reference to...
Oh boy... In a statement last night, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) apologized for a "very serious sin." That sin? Paying for services rendered by a, um, shall we say, lady of the night: This was a very serious sin in...
Given the actual looming constitutional crisis at hand—you know, the one where the president and vice president are claiming executive privilege in the face of congressional oversight of the US Attorney firings—I have to wonder what the normally strict constructionist...
With eroding support from both the public and now some key Republicans in congress, the Bush White House is understandably in a tizzy over Iraq and seems to be chasing its own tail in trying to quell the calls for...
Last night on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft presented a report called "U.S. Heading For Financial Trouble?" It is a depressing report on the financial reality this country is facing, after decades of deficit spending and promises by legislators that simply...
Lieutenant General William E. Odom was the head of the National Security Agency during the latter half of Reagan's presidency, and was the Army's most senior intelligence officer before that. On the Neiman Watchdog site this week, he calls for...
David Halberstam, a pulitzer prize winning journalist, was killed in a car accident in late April. Vanity Fair has published his last piece, and it is a withering indictment of George Bush and his war in Iraq. He mocks Bush...
A new poll from the American Research Group asks the question: Do you favor or oppose the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney? 54% of those polled want the House to begin impeachment proceedings....
This weekend, there will be 8 Live Earth concerts across 7 continents. The tagline for the event is "Concerts for a Climate in Crisis." The goal is to raise awareness of the realities of global warming, raise money, and get...
We need a distraction. It would be good for the country to take our minds off the diabolical acts of the Bush administration and the exhausting depression of Iraq. What DC needs right now is a good sex scandal and...
"Cave" is probably too strong a word when describing actions the White House takes that benefit the few and do significant damage to the public interest. That's just how this White House works - damn the public good, let's get...
It is the sense of Congress that the President and Congress should agree that the way forward in Iraq is to implement the comprehensive set of recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, particularly those specifically described in this Act, and...
Now here's a fascinating message I just received from the Presidential Prayer Team (For Kids)—Yes, there really is such a thing. I bolded the points of particular interest to me with comments in italics: Special Notice from the Editor of...
Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) - the same Senator under investigation by the Ethics Committee for his unusual call to then U.S. Attorney David Iglesias - has come out and called for a withdrawal from Iraq. Not an immediate withdrawal, but...
Calling Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence "nothing short of (a) political quid pro quo," Rep. Robert Wexler has drafted a resolution to censure the President and will introduce it next week. Extended quote from the Palm Beach Post: Wexler...
According to the Nation, a few more members of the House of Representatives are leaning towards supporting articles of impeachment against Vice-President Dick Cheney. H. Res 333, introduced by Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), calls for three articles of impeachment against Cheney....
Virtually everyone has an opinion on President Bush's decision to commute the 30-month prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Libby was convicted on March 6, 2007 of perjury for his questionable testimony in the Valerie Plame identity leak case. As...
A lot of letters condemning the President's commutation of the Libby sentence appeared in The New York Times yesterday. A couple said the commutation was the right thing to do, but most didn't. Here's a particularly pointed one, that calls...
Today, Andrew Sullivan has been doing a lot of posts under the theme of "Things We Love About America." That, and the fact that I've been listening to The Band a lot lately, got me to thinking about one of...
Sandy Levinson, in The New Republic: No one should doubt that we are in a constitutional crisis. And part of the crisis can be found within the Constitution itself. Perhaps it is a good idea that the President can pardon...
Second quarter fundraising is officially behind us now, and all the major candidates have announced their fundraising numbers. Looking at the top 3 campaigners in each party tells an interesting story. On the Republican side, Giuliani came out on top...
While Senator Barack Obama was able to announce that he'd raised more money in one quarter than any Democratic contender ever, Joh McCain... well, not so much. His fundraising was barely a third of what Obama collected - $11 million...
As has been noted here on POLJUNK and elsewhere, most of the country is responding to Bush's commutation of the Libby sentence with dismay and condemnation. This morning, the editorial boards at many of the country's papers take the president...
And now a few words from a decent and rational conservative...Andrew Sullivan weighs in on the Libby commutation: We now have a clear and simple illustration of the arrogance of this president. Tell the American people the core narrative of...
We at POLJUNK have been saying for some time now that the true voice and face of the new conservative movement is best represented by hate mongers like Ann Coulter. She's not a radical firebrand within the movement, but the...
BREAKING STORY from the AP: President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term on Monday, issuing an order that commutes his sentence. Additionally, ThinkPrgoress is reporting "Libby will never have to...
Four years and 3,300 dead US soldiers later and here we are....
Short but sweet: Adam Corolla Hangs Up On Ann Coulter - Watch more free videos...
An appeals court rejected Scooter Libby's request for bail while he's appealing his conviction, which is sure to renew calls form the Right for a presidential pardon. The most common argument they make as a basis for pardoning Libby is...
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) appeared on CBS's Face the Nation this morning; Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was on NBC's Meet the Press. Speaking on separate topics, both of their appearances are sure to remain part of the news cycle throughout...
July 1st marks the beginning of a new fiscal year in states across the country. So today, a lot of new laws go into effect. That includes a law in Colorado that bans abstinence-only sex education, and another in New...
In the second quarter of the 2008 primary season, Barack Obama raised $32.5 million - more than any other Democratic candidate, ever. Between April and June, the Obama campaign picked up donations from 154,000 individual contributors, bringing his six month...
As several other East African countries have already done, the Ugandan government is passing a law to outlaw the use, manufacture, and importation of plastic bags. They will join Rwanda in banning plastic bags (those thinner than 30 microns), and...
In advance of the upcoming Live Earth concerts, Al Gore contributes an op-ed to The New York Times - Moving Beyond Kyoto. Some short excerpts: This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue, one that affects the...
