Ney Taking Sabbatical

Bob Ney has now officially temporarily stepped down from his position as the chairman of the House Administration Committee. Ney should ask Tom Delay just how well those temporary step downs work. Seldom is the seat warmer not willing to smile at your cold ass.

Pay Me Two Times, Baby

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been paying some of his top aides campaign salaries on top of their states salaries, The LA Times reported today. From the Times:

The combination boosted their overall annual compensation rates from the $120,000-to-$130,000 range to $180,000 to $190,000. That's more than the governor's job pays, although Schwarzenegger waives his $175,000 state salary.

The payments went to three of Schwarzenegger's most influential advisors: Patricia Clarey, who left her job as chief of staff in December; Rob Stutzman, who stepped down as communications director Friday; and Richard Costigan, who continues to serve as the governor's chief liaison to the Legislature.

Last week, Schwarzenegger's office confirmed that his new chief of staff, Susan P. Kennedy, would double as a campaign aide and be paid campaign funds in addition to her $131,000 government salary.

All the aides appear to be getting paid around five thousand a month for campaign activities. This is either dirty or dumb. California law prohibits doing campaign work on state time, so these guys are either breaking the law or they are working after work on Schwarzenegger's various campaigns.

Now, let's suppose they aren't breaking the law. If they were working an additional forty hours a week on the campaign that would break down to about $30 an hour, and I doubt these guys are putting in eighty hours a week. So, Schwarzenegger is probably paying closer to $100 dollars an hour for campaign work. That's pretty expensive, even for California.

Texas

Strange things appear to be afoot in Texas. Moderate republicans seem to be lining up to make independent bids for several offices thereby cutting their own party's throat. I guess they figure to save their party, they must first destroy it.

According to a Houston Chronicle poll, even Tom Delay would lose today with Steve Stockman pulling in enough votes to allow Democrat Nick Lampson to beat Delay. From the Houston Chronicle:

"Any vote Stockman gets is going to come out of Tom DeLay's hide," [University of Houston pollster Richard] Murray said. "DeLay's November fate depends on what happens in the real world. He has to be acquitted."

Stockman has stated that he will run, but is not yet on the ballot.

Also, in the upcoming Governor's race, Scott McClellan's mother is going to make an independent bid which will only draw votes away from current Governor Rick Perry, Although he may face a primary challenge from Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

All in all, a trend that makes me smile.

Bob Ney About To Quit Committee Chairmanship

Looks like the mayor of Capital Hill is about to abdicate.

Harriet?

Isn't kind of eerie how much German Chancellor Angela Merkel resembles Harriet Miers.

AP Photo

Rant Time

Tom Collier of Worthington writes an letter to the editor in today's Dispatch where he proclaims that President Bush needs to conduct unlawful surveillance to protect us from terrorists. From the Dispatch:

Many say Bush should not be allowed to do this, and to them I say: What do you need to change your minds? Another terrorist attack? Another couple thousand Americans dead?

Sometimes you have to give up freedom to obtain it. No, wait, you always have to give up freedom to obtain it. [emphasis his]

By the way, in this poorly written op-ed Collier doesn't say what "it" is, but I'll assume he's talking about national security. Digby and Kos and others have danced around the labeling of these guys, using more politically correct language than I am prone to use. That being said, if you are a feminist or sensitive to harsh language you might want to skip the next paragraph.

Tom Collier is a pussy, in fact, he might be the biggest pussy ever to grace the editorial page of the Columbus Dispatch. Tom, if you are so afraid of the big bad terrorists I have some advise for you. Go to the store and buy a ten year supply of canned beans, then take your bitch cunt ass to your bomb shelter, bunker, safe room, or wherever you sniveling little cunts go to cry for your mommies. If, during the duration of your stay, something even slightly resembling a penis happens to grow between your legs, feel free to rejoin our free society. Otherwise, just go away.

Look, I live at or near what would almost certainly be ground zero for a major terrorist attack in Columbus, Ohio. If one happens I will almost certainly die. But, for the freedoms this country affords me I am quite prepared to die, so I accept that. Even your beloved president stupidly says that "they hate out freedoms." It appears you do too, so I guess that makes you one of them.

If the rest of the United States were to adopt your views, then I would feel quite safe saying that the terrorist have won.

Know Your Hacks

One of President Bush's recent recess appointments was Ellen Sauerbrey who was tapped as the new Director of the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. This is the agency that helps out with refugees world wide. I wonder what she brings to the table? According to the New York Times, "Ms. Sauerbrey has zero experience in emergency management and refugee resettlement." Hmm, who is this hack and why was she picked? From the Eugene Register-Guard:

There's actually something even worse about Sauerbrey's back-door recess appoint to this post than her zero experience. She is revered by the religious right for her strident opposition to sex education, safe sex initiatives, emergency contraception, abortion and the entire range of women's reproductive health services that are absolutely vital to refugee populations.

Fully 80 percent of refugees are women and children. Because of the extremely high rates of sexual violence, coercion and disease risk in refugee camps, women must have access to effective reproductive health, contraception and sexually transmitted disease prevention programs.

It might not matter if the president of the United States wanted this television show host and two-time loser as the Republican candidate for Maryland governor to be the Minister of Silly Walks. But Bush has tapped Sauerbrey to head an agency with 100 employees and a $700 million annual budget that regularly confronts more complex and difficult global crises than FEMA typically faces in the United States.

One thing you have to admit about republicans, they throw their losers bones, even if it means putting thousands of lives at risk. Of course, if this kind of incompetence is good enough for republicans here at home, why would they export anything better abroad?

Found via John at Americablog

Republican Governors Association

The republican Governors Association has announced that it will give $500,000 that it received from Michael Scanlon to charity, eventually. They plan to donate the money over a two years period. Now, there are several gubernatorial elections this year which will be held this year, including here in Ohio.

I guess I only have one question. Which republican gubernatorial candidates are going to pledge not to dip into the RGA's dirty slush bucket until these funds are cleared from the books?

Voyeur Law

The Ohio House unanimously passed a bill that will close a loophole in Ohio law concerning the use of video or film in peeping tom cases. It's probably good legislation, although I haven't read it.

I heard the sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Scott Oelslager, R-North Canton, on NPR this morning and found a follow up article from the Dayton Daily News. Something didn't quite click. From the Dayton Daily News:

State Rep. Scott Oelslager, R-North Canton, said the loophole came to his attention when he and his wife watched a documentary film about a couple videotaped by a voyeur.

The film noted that few states had laws explicitly banning videotaping and filming, he said.

"I did the research and realized there was a loophole in Ohio law," Oelslager said.

A republican watching something as high minded as a documentary? So, I did a little research also and seems pretty clear that the "documentary" Oelslager was referring to is the based on a true story, Lifetime Original Movie entitled Video Voyeur - The Susan Wilson Story starring Angie Harmon.

So, Rep. Oelslager spends his spare time watching Lifetime, Television For Women. What a bitch!

Mike Pirik

Another day, another republican indicted. This time it's a local. Former Muni Clerk of Courts Mike Pirik was charged today with a felony count of tampering with records. He has no plans to fight the charges and will enter a guilty plea on Tuesday.

Pirik was beaten last November as the cloud of this investigation left the county republicans with only three elected officials in Franklin County. I don't count judges because the elections are non-partisan and they're really just name id contests.

Franklin County has been trending more and more Democratic in recent years due in part to white flight to Delaware County and also due to the fact that the county's East African population has steadily been gaining citizenship.

I have a feeling that Franklin Country republican chairman Doug Preisse secretly hopes that Ron O'Brien fails in his bid for State AG, because if he wins the Franklin prosecutor's job will come to this side of the aisle as well.

Back In The Drug Addle Again

Former DC mayor and current city councilman Marion Barry was back on the pipe, baby. The Washington Post reports that Barry failed a mandatory drug test after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges last fall for failing to file taxes in the last six years. Barry reportedly had cocaine in his system.

Really, if you still haven't figured it out by age 69, going back to rehab seems kind of pointless.

Roe Vs Wade

Samuel Alito said today under questioning from Dick Durbin that Roe Vs Wade is not settled law as John Roberts said. From The New York Times:

Giving careful, limited answers to probing and sometimes aggressive questions about his views on abortion, Judge Alito said he would give considerable weight to decades of rulings built on the concept that a decision to terminate a pregnancy falls under a constitutional right to privacy.

"Today, if the issue were to come before me, if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed and the issue were to come before me, the first question would be the question that we've been discussing, and that's the issue of stare decisis," the legal term for precedent, he said.

"And if the analysis were to get beyond that point, then I would approach the question with an open mind and I would listen to the arguments that were made."

Reversing Roe is what Alito is referring to when he says he'll "keep an open mind on abortion." This is one of those innocuous sounding code phrases the republicans have grown fond of in the past few years which sounds good to centrists, but means something entirely different in practice. Alito is keeping an open mind about changing settled law.

After Alito's statement Tom Colburn's hands rapidly descended below the table only to come up seconds later covered in an unidentified sticky white substance.

Intelligent Design: A New Angle

Frazier Mountain High School in Lebec, California is trying a new angle to get intelligent design into the class room. They are proposing, actually they have already starting teaching the class as a philosophy course, although I've never taken a philosophy course in which physical and chemical evidence were presented to "prove" any certain philosophical viewpoint. From the LA Times:

An initial course description, which was distributed to students and their families last month, said "the class will take a close look at evolution as a theory and will discuss the scientific, biological and biblical aspects that suggest why Darwin's philosophy is not rock solid. The class will discuss intelligent design as an alternative response to evolution. Physical and chemical evidence will be presented suggesting the earth is thousands of years old, not billions."

The course, which began Jan. 3 and is scheduled to run for one month, is being taught by Sharon Lemburg, a special education teacher with a bachelor of arts in physical education and social science, according to the lawsuit.

The suit adds that Lemburg "has no training or certification in the teaching of science, religion or philosophy," and is "the wife of the minister for the local Assembly of God Church, a Christian fundamentalist church, and a proponent of a creationist world view."

So, they got the special ed teacher to head up the ID department. I'd say that's apropos, wouldn't you? A fair amount of the proponents of ID belong her regular class anyway, so she'll be used to them.

The article doesn't mention whether or not this class is mandatory or an elective, or if it is an elective how many students signed up for it. I myself would have probably avoided this snoozer like the plague in my formative years. Then again, I might have taken the class to repeated proclaim the whole premise is bullshit and that Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is the only true path, which it is.

Speechifying

President Bush today gave a speech to the VFW in Washington. Here's MSNBC's description:

President Bush urged Iraqis on Tuesday to put aside political, religious and sectarian differences to form a government of national unity, warning that the country "risks sliding back into tyranny" if it dwells on old grievances.

"Compromise and consensus and power sharing are the only path to national unity and lasting democracy," Bush said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

That certainly has a hollow ring to it coming from a man who has done everything in his power to divide his own country and cater to extremists, doesn't it? Do as I say, not as I do.

Sam Alito

From the bits and pieces I've seen from the Alito hearings, I've sort of formed a personal opinion of the guy. He seems to be to have been a sheltered bookworm who was so traumatized by the hippies he encountered at Princeton he has spent the last thirty some years running away from any sort of freedom. He definitely appears to hold a grudge. What an odd man.

Tom Colburn

Another Supreme Court nominee hearing, another hysterical rant from Tom Colburn, this time bemoaning sodomy and abortion. At least he was a little more testicular than the Robert's hearings where his hissy fit left him in tears. Oh well, others will get to speak and Colburn can go back to his cross word puzzles, probably from Redbook.

Framing The Abramoff Scandal

Mark Schmitt is absolutely correct in his analysis on what the Democrats reform position should be. From TPMCafe:

Democrats and Republicans are falling over each other to introduce "lobbying reform" bills -- requiring lobbyists to disclose contacts with legislators, banning trips, etc. By the end of next week, we will have between two and four lobbying reform packages, and will enter a ridiculous debate about which bill would leave fewer loopholes.

Can I take this Sunday evening calm to plead with Democrats not to go down this road. Where's George Lakoff when we need him??? Please don't reinforce the frame that this is a "lobbying scandal" and the villain a "lobbyist" named Jack Abramoff.

That's the other side's frame. This is not a lobbying scandal. It's a betrayal-of-public-trust scandal. Lobbyists have no power, no influence, until a public servant gives them power. That's what DeLay and the K Street Project was all about. What they did was to set up a system by which lobbyists who proved their loyalty in various ways, such as taking DeLay and Ney on golf trips to Scotland, could be transformed from supplicants to full partners in government.

Exactly, it's impossible to stop every person who wants to bribe a congressperson. There are too many. But in a country with roughly 300 million people we ought to be able to find 538 of them who wouldn't take bribes.

The modern republican party built this machine fully knowing the personal rewards they would reap from it. Now that they've hung themselves with it, we sure as hell shouldn't be there to cut the rope. The republicans blaming the lobbyists is sort of like building your own sports car and then blaming the car when you get caught driving 150 mph on the highway.

The really sad thing is that this is unlike a poor college athlete that takes money to play for a certain university, these guys are all millionaires.

John Cornyn

Yesterday, Tim Russert asked John Cornyn about the $1,000 that an associate of Jack Abramoff gave him. I have to admit, my first reaction was to think was that with all the money that these assholes threw around, this schmuck only got a grand.

It reminded me of one of my favorite all time quotes by a politician. In 2002, during hearings into Enron's collapse, Fritz Hollings was asked if he had received any contributions from Enron. His response. "I sure did, but I got $3500 over 10 years, but our friend Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), she got $99,000. Heck, I'm the chairman of the committee. That wasn't a contribution. That was an insult."

Do you think Cornyn feels insulted? He said he wasn't going to return the money, which is dumb because it's only a thousand dollars. That's piss money.

Double Trouble

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today shot down Tom Delay's request to have money laundering charges against him dismissed. The court also refused to honor his request for a speedy trial.

Couldn't happen to a bigger asshole.

Zogby

I just completed my first Zogby International online poll. I had signed up for the polling four or five months ago and this was only the second time I have been queried. The first time was on a Friday and I missed the window. So, the next time you're looking at a Zogby poll and wondering what kind of assholes fill these things out, now you know. It's assholes like me.