Marcy Opts To Stay In DC

Marcy Kaptur will not enter Ohio's Gubernatorial race and will run for a 13th term in the US House. I agree with her rationale. From the Toledo Blade:

"I just think it's too great a risk for too little a reward," she said

Hard to argue with that. The republicans have run Ohio so far into the ground that sometimes I wonder why anyone would want the job.

The DomiNoe Effect

The first bunch of names have came out for investigation in the Tom Noe campaign contribution laundering case. Current Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber and Toledo City Councilwoman Betty Schultz will join former Toledo Mayor Donna Owens and state Representative Sally Perz on the hot seat.

Cheney In Hospital

Dick Cheney had to go to the hospital around 3:00AM. Must be getting to old to chase down those babies he likes to feast on.

Outside Abramoff: Who Else Was Buying Congressmen

The LA Times reports today that Charles Hurwitz gave Richard Pombo and John Doolittle some major contributions in exchange for shutting down a FDIC investigation about his role in a failed savings & loan. Doolittle will probably get implicated in the Abramoff scandal as well. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure he was tight the the Duke too, so his ass might be on tape. Jesus, it's one thing to go around with your hand out, but I think this guy took a butterfly net with him as well.

Doolittle and Pombo sabotaged the investigation by putting sensitive documents into the congressional record thereby making them public record. They inserted so many documents into the record that they had to pay $20,000 out of their congressional accounts to cover the additional printing fees. Sorry kids, no bonuses this year, we gotta bail out a billionaire.

The FDIC's take from the Times:

The FDIC was outraged over the documents' release.

Its chief spokesman, Phil Battey, said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee at the time that the publication of the materials was a "subordination … and a seamy abuse of the legislative process."

The FDIC, which was originally seeking to recover $300 million from Hurwitz had to end up settling for $200,000.

West Virginia

Over the past couple days, one of the things I've repeatedly heard in the media is that the families of the deceased miners from the SAGO mine are preparing to bury their dead "in their own way."

These people aren't some sub species of hominid, they're human beings just like you and me. Just because they work underground doesn't make them CHUDs. If they were anything but poor white people there would be a national outrage over this use of language. And this is coming from someone who makes fun of hillbillies all the time.

Mouse In The House

A recently convicted House republican played the bitch and went snitch before pleading out. Duke Cunningham wore a wire for the FBI. It's yet unclear who Duke was trying to get on tape and some republican House members are scared shitless about it. I wonder how many meetings noted prison food critic Duncan Hunter had with the Duke in his final days.

I also have to wonder how hard it is going to be for Bob Ney to get a meeting with anyone these days.

Found via Atrios

Ohio Gubernatorial Poll

Rasmussen has its first poll out for the new year in the Ohio Governor's race. Ted Strickland leads all three GOP candidates. TS / Blackwell 44-40, TS / Petro 43-38, TS / Montgomery 49-33.

Both Democratic Senate candidates trail Mike Dewhine by a similar margins.

I don't have access to Rasmussen's premium services so I don't know any internals. If someone does have them, please e-mail me them.

Abramoff Fallout: Best Line

Surprisingly, the best line so far in the Abramoff fallout comes from GOP apologist David Brooks in today's New York Times. While referring to the republicans screaming that a few Democrats took money also, (though zero Dems took money directly from Abramoff) Brooks penned this:

That's a great G.O.P. talking point: some Democrats are so sleazy, they get involved with the likes of us.

Saving Souls

Lonnie Latham loves him some cock. Who's Lonnie Latham? He's a senior pastor at the South Tulsa Baptist Church and anti-gay activist who was arrested Tuesday night for soliciting oral sex from a plain clothes policeman.

Latham claims he was set up, and I believe him due to this paragraph from KOCO television 5 in Oklahoma City:

He has also spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a Southern Baptist Convention directive urging its 42,000 churches to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual "if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle."

You see, he was just befriending. Apparently, the police haven't read Latham's ten point plan to personally suck the gayness out of every cock in the greater Tulsa area. That's community out reach! Or, at least community out reach around.

Beyond Ariel Sharon

It's pretty clear now that even if Ariel Sharon doesn't die, he's through with politics. So, what's next? I'm not sure I have any idea, and I have yet to read anyone who seems to have any idea. My best guess is that the Netanhayu led Likud bloc would absorb most of the Kadima party because Sharon was Kadima and I can't see that party being anything but dead without him.

Just guessing though.

Weird Or Wired?

As has been mentioned around the blogosphere, Andrea Mitchell asked author James Risen if he had found any evidence that the NSA had wire tapped CNN corespondent Christiane Amanpour. An odd question, indeed. But even odder was when MSNBC.com pulled that portion of the transcript. I don't know if you have tried to obtain transcripts online before, but they change a lot, and sometimes you never get a final so I shrugged it off at first.

Today, however, NBC released this quixotic statement to TVNEWSER:

"Unfortunately this transcript was released prematurely. It was a topic on which we had not completed our reporting, and it was not broadcast on 'NBC Nightly News' nor on any other NBC News program. We removed that section of the transcript so that we may further continue our inquiry."

Interesting, is NBC actually investigating whether or not the NSA bugged Amanpour? This statement makes me think they have some sort of lead they're working.

Know Your Hacks

Remember Julie Myers, Bush's nominee to head Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. When she came up for confirmation George Voinovich had this to say while holding up her confirmation:

"I’m really concerned about your management experience,” Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, told her, pointing out that ICE, with 20,000 employees, was the second-largest investigative agency in the federal government.

“I think that we ought to have a meeting with (Homeland Security Secretary) Mike Chertoff … to ask him… why he thinks you’re qualified for the job.

“Because based on your resume, I don’t think you are,” Voinovich concluded.

She just got a recess appointment along with sixteen other hacks, thereby avoiding Senatorial advise and consent.

A word for republicans in Congress. You've went far beyond being Bush's bitches, you're now his cunts, for use only when he wants some tension relief.

Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon has suffered a stroke and according to the BBC has sustained "massive internal bleeding." Sharon was taken by ambulance from his ranch in Negev to a hospital in Jerusalem, which is about an hour long journey. The failure to use an evacuation helicopter has probably killed him.

Should Have Read The Post First

Ney isn't going to get to the primary before being indicted. WAPO reports today that the Justice Department is currently deciding which Abramoff investigation will prosecute Ney. I suppose it doesn't matter, prosecutors will have access to related materials from both investigations.

OH-18: Beyond Bob Ney

With the Abramoff plea deals wrapping up today, the heat is really going to be turned up on Bob Ney. Ney appears to be the first one up on the DOJ hit list, so there is little chance he will be able to go the distance in his bid for re-election. The only question remaining is when will Ney drop out or get run out of the race.

It could be in the primary as republicans are supposedly courting state senator Joy Padgett to enter the race. You may remember Padgett as the candidate that painted former hostage Terry Anderson as soft on terrorism. The reality was and is that Anderson actually knows something about terrorism where as Padgett's idea of terrorism is someone stealing her pastry. Anyway, Padgett could be a tough out.

Of course, Ney may be able to make it through May before he gets indicted and he is an incumbent. But if Padgett gets in, Ney's money will go away real quick, and it should be a very ugly primary. Hopefully, Ney will win and then get indicted.

That may not happen though, so both Joe Sulzer and outsider candidate Zack Space had better be planning on running against Padgett should they win the primary.

Horrific Miscommunication

A horrible miscommunication took place over night in the plight of the thirteen miners trapped in the SAGO mine in West Virginia. Around midnight, the families were told that twelve of the thirteen miners had survived. In fact, that information was incorrect. Only one survived and is in critical condition. It took over two and a half hours before the families were given the sad truth.

It looks like most East Coast ink and paper versions of newspapers went to press last night with the false info.

Hell Hath No Fury

Well, via Raw Story we find out how the whole Abramoff scandal really got rolling. Michael Scanlon apparently dumped his girlfriend, whom he confided all his dirty dealings, for a manicurist. The girlfriend, Emily Miller, then promptly went to the FBI to inform them of Scanlon's and Abramoff's illicit activities.

Kind of reminds me of a story an old friend of mine who happened to also be a bookie told a long time ago. I asked him how he decided whether or not to accept bets from someone. He told me rule number one was no married men. He went on to tell me that a married man will do anything to pay you, but when the wives found out about it, they'd cut your throat. It was straight to the cops.

An interesting side note to this story is that Miller is the same Emily Miller that interrupted Collin Powell's interview with Tim Russert from Jordan on Meet The Press. Girl gets around.

Jack Abram"Not Going To Get"Off

Jack Abramoff plead guilty today in the SunCruz case and will serve up to ten years depending on the testimony he provides against up to twenty members of congress and their staff members according to MSNBC. Twenty is a lot higher number than I had previously heard. I'll try to come up with a list.

So this is what our government has become. Double digit members of Congress under investigation and a President who admittedly routinely breaks the law and says he plans to continue to do so. Aren't these guys the ones who have complaining that the UN is a corrupt institution? Looks like that glass house is about ready to be missing a few panes.

A Father Writes A Letter

A fallen Marine's father's anguish spills on to the Washington Post's op-ed pages today. I can't really comment on the emotional aspect of the piece, I've never had a friend or relative die due to failed presidential policy. I do know that he gets one thing exactly right though. From WAPO:

I am outraged at what I see as the cause of his death. For nearly three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy that makes our troops sitting ducks. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that our policy is to "clear, hold and build" Iraqi towns, there aren't enough troops to do that.

In our last conversation, Augie complained that the cost in lives to clear insurgents was "less and less worth it," because Marines have to keep coming back to clear the same places. Marine commanders in the field say the same thing. Without sufficient troops, they can't hold the towns. Augie was killed on his fifth mission to clear Haditha.

That pretty much sums up our merry go round approach to fighting insurgents in the Al-Anbar province, and given our current troop levels, I don't see how it's going to change anytime soon. As for waiting for Iraqi security services to stand up, those guys get clipped at a pace of at least twice what our soldiers do. The bottom line is we are stuck with this policy as long as this administration is in office.

New Year's Wish

Lately, blow hard republicans have been calling for an investigation into the NSA spying leak. Watch what you wish for bitches, I will now join you. I want a special prosecutor appointed to the case, one with broad prosecutorial powers. Someone who will prosecute all crimes committed. Let's throw all of the dirty laundry on the lawn and let the public see whose dirty undies have racing stripes.

That's why all this will simply go away. Radio and television shills for the administration are a little too small cocked to go all the way when their guy, and for that matter their girl's head is on the chopping block. It would be nice though to fulfill Condi's dream of being someone without a cock's bitch.