Drinking Liberally®

Here is Al Gore's pledge for LiveEarth Day, 7-7-07. Take the pledeg below

I PLEDGE:

I love our President in exile, Al Gore.

Posted by vicki at 04:47 PM | TrackBack (0)

I just learned about this group, which is in KY until Labor Day, from DLers Carol and Judy. They and other worthy Orgs such as LPAC, are working together to put pressure on Sen. Mitch McConnell to stop backing the Bu$h Administration's *War* in Iraq and its escalation. Here is some background

Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is a major, multi- million dollar national campaign to oppose the President's proposal to escalate the war in Iraq by sending more than 20,000 additional troops into the violent civil war between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is a coalition of:

SEIU
MoveOn.org Political Action
Center for American Progress Action Fund
USAction
Win Without War
Vote Vets
Campaign for America's Future
USSA
Working Assets

I hope we can work with them. Ditch Mitch! He's bad for our state and for the country.

Posted by vicki at 10:36 AM | TrackBack (0)

From TPMuckraker.com

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) took a filleting knife to Vice President Dick Cheney's attempts to elide the Archives' Information Security Oversight Office on the House floor just now. Following through on his promise to defund the veep's office if it doesn't comply with an executive order mandating the ISOO inspect how each executive "entity" handles classified information, the House Democratic Caucus Chairman introduced an amendment to slice funding for the vice president's office from the executive branch's budget. Watch:

Click here

Hahahahahahahahaha.

Posted by vicki at 02:52 PM | TrackBack (0)

Jeepers H. Christmas. Does Mitt think animal cruelty scores him points with red state rednecks? These people scare me to death. This is from www.Time.com

The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest. [. . . [ Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was less circumspect. PETA does not have a position on Romney's candidacy per se, but Newkirk called the incident "a lesson in cruelty that was ... wrong for [his children] to witness...Thinking of the wind, the weather, the speed, the vulnerability, the isolation on the roof, it is commonsense that any dog who's under extreme stress might show that stress by losing control of his bowels: that alone should have been sufficient indication that the dog was, basically, being tortured." Romney, of course, has expressed support for the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques when it comes to terrorists; his campaign did not return repeated calls and emails about the treatment of his dog.

What a vicious, vicious man. No wonder he gives off such a major creep vibe. Read the whole, disgusting mess here

Posted by vicki at 10:16 AM | TrackBack (0)

Woo Hoo! DL Field Trip!

SICKO Starts June 29 at the Baxter Ave. Theater DL Field Trip Fri. night for the 7:15 showing! Acclaimed filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to investigate the American healthcare system. Sticking to his tried-and-true one-man approach, Moore sheds light on the complicated medical affairs of individuals and local communities.

And this from The Hillbilly Report.

The Kentucky Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP-KY) and Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care (KSPH) will hold a news conference to welcome Michael Moore’s “SiCKO” to Louisville and to kick off a movement for genuine reform to heal our broken health care system. Nurses and other health care professionals will attend the news conference in their scrubs and lab coats. The news conference is set for the opening day of SiCKO: Friday, June 29, 2007 11:00 AM In front of the Baxter Avenue Theaters (Baxter Avenue at Goddard, Baxter Avenue side of the Mid City Mall) Speakers will include community officials, health care leaders, physicians, nurses, medical students, and a cross section of the Louisville community. Participants in the news conference will urge everyone to see this remarkable documentary and will explain the only cure for our "sicko" health system, single-payer national health insurance as embodied in HR 676, introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). HR 676 is co-sponsored by 74 house members including Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY). HR 676 would cover every person in the U. S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care. HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs.

See you there!

Posted by vicki at 09:51 PM | TrackBack (0)

Why is a mainstream (?) cable news program like MSNBC and Chris Matthews hosting a vile, repugnant hater like Coulter? She offers no honest news, insight or contribution to valid pollitical discourse. She exists only to rile up irrational hatred and antipathy from her ignorant, viscous fans. Be very ashamed, Chris Matthews. You're feeding the Beast. Joan Walsh of Salon makes quick work of skAnnk Coulter.

Think Progress has the video and transcript: During Chris Matthews' one-hour sit down with Ann Coulter on Hardball today (hey, she sells books!), Elizabeth Edwards phoned in to confront the woman who called her husband a "faggot" earlier this year and who yesterday said that, in the future, she'll "wish he got killed in a terrorist assassination plot" instead. Matthews was in the middle of confronting Coulter on her Edwards comments (recall that in 2003, she made fun of his 16-year-old son Wade's death by suggesting his car sported the bumper sticker. "Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident") when Edwards herself called in. "I'm the mother of that boy who died," she said, and she said she was calling "to ask her to politely stop the personal attacks." A sputtering Coulter repeatedly insisted Edwards was trying to stop her from writing books.

Posted by vicki at 10:42 PM | TrackBack (0)

Your Big Dick, scary clown of the day.

Update Part 4 here

In the weeks following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as the White House was putting together an economic recovery package, Cheney gathered his kitchen cabinet, frequently interrupting the experts as he furiously jotted notes on a stack of cards embossed with the vice presidential seal. What kind of tax cuts are needed? Cheney wanted to know. How big?

A few days later, Cheney was "on fire" when he met with the president, Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, later told Conda. Cheney had decided that the best way to shake business leaders out of their post-attack paralysis was to let them immediately write off the cost of new plants and equipment. After hearing him out, Bush made Cheney's idea a centerpiece of his plan.

In previous administrations, such initiatives typically have been generated by the Treasury Department or the White House economic team. But Cheney has made the vice president's office a hub of tax policy, enabled by the fact that "this president appears to want to have Treasury take the orders from the White House," said John H. Makin, an economist and an informal Cheney adviser.

All this put Cheney in a position to outflank some of Bush's top advisers, and even his old friend Greenspan, to shape the administration's signature tax package: the 2003 cuts that Cheney sold at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.

Posted by vicki at 08:32 PM | TrackBack (0)

This is old news, in a way. The only difference is that Christy Witman had to take an oathe to tell the truth this time. Lying to Congress by current and former Bu$h officials is a routine event. Take a look:

Mrs. Whitman denied claims by committee members that she had been pressured to declare the air safe so the financial district could be reopened quickly, and she did not express regret for any of her statements in 2001. She acknowledged that there were early discussions at a high level about evoking the federal Superfund law, which would have given the E.P.A. broad powers to control the site. Although that option was considered, it was quickly ruled out for legal and political reasons, she said.

“We were working in a collegial nature with New York City,” she said. She said she had feared that New Yorkers would react badly if the federal government took the city to court to make the case that the debris pile represented “a substantive and imminent danger,” a finding that would give the federal government the right to seize control of the site.

John L. Henshaw, a former assistant secretary of labor who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2001, defended the controversial decision by the federal agency to not strictly enforce regulations on the use of respirators by workers at ground zero.

Instead, the agency entered into a partnership with the large construction companies working at the site, and the city, to voluntarily comply with the regulations. The city’s own records, however, indicate that compliance was often spotty.

Once again, business interests trumped the lives and health of our citizens. 9/11 changed nothing for the GOP in that regard. Read the Times article here

Posted by vicki at 11:47 AM | TrackBack (0)

CNN. The most trusted name in crap. Michael Moore exposes the health care crisis in this country and Paris exposes herself as a drunken, vacuous twit. Think Progress has this:
Who would you give top booking to?

Yesterday, CNN proudly announced that it has scored the first post-jail interview with Paris Hilton. To make room for Paris on Wednesday, CNN canceled its interview with Michael Moore about his new health care documentary SiCKO:

Hotel heiress and reality TV star Paris Hilton will give her first post-jail interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Wednesday, the show’s spokeswoman said on Saturday.

“She will be on for the hour,” Bridget Leininger told Reuters. “We had (filmmaker) Michael Moore originally scheduled for that time.”

CNN, the “most trusted name in Paris news,” continues to sink to new lows in its “assault on reason.” Hilton is the latest “serial obsession,” though the network recently hired a reporter devoted to “covering things like Britney, as well as the Michael Jackson memorabilia.” Now CNN has ditched coverage of America’s broken health care system in favor of an hour-long interview of an incarcerated socialite.

ThinkProgress spoke with Moore’s team, who confirmed that CNN has not yet rescheduled the interview. SiCKO, which opens nationwide this Friday, sheds light on the health care crisis that the media covers poorly, when it covers it at all.

UPDATE: ThinkProgress has confirmed that Moore’s interview with Larry King has been rescheduled for Friday.

Posted by vicki at 11:00 AM | TrackBack (0)

The 5 wingnuts on the Supreme Court have done it again. They've over-ruled Congres in favor of their own far right ideology by throwing out the ban on issue ads that mention a candidate by name 60 days before an election. That means more Swift Boat ads in the next election. This is ridiculous. They probably (wrongly) assumed the the GOP base would always out fundraise the Dems and therefore have the advantage in running these ads. Yep, the SCOTUS is just another cog in the GOP machine.

The Conservatives on the SCOTUS have no sence of humor or of their own RIDICULOUSNESS

How humorless are these 5 ass clowns, anyway? These ninnies need to get a life.

If you’re a public-school student, while you definitely have First Amendment free-speech rights, they don’t extend to holding a large “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS” banner at a public, school-sanctioned event.

So ruled the Supreme Court today in the case out of Juneau, Alaska in which a high-school senior got in trouble with school officials for unfurling said sign during an event to celebrate the passing of the Olympic Torch through Juneau in 2002.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that school officials have the right to crack down on such speech that appears to invite other students to participate in dangerous or damaging behavior, in this case pot smoking.

Dangerous or damaging behavior??? We'll leave that sort of thing for Big Dick. Sheesh.

Posted by vicki at 11:05 PM | TrackBack (0)

Maureen Dowd does *mean* like nobody's business in the press. I'd say in the case of Big Dick, she's justified. Have a look at her Sunday column:

It’s hard to imagine how Dick Cheney could get more dastardly, unless J. K. Rowling has him knock off Harry Potter next month.

Harry’s cloak of invisibility would be no match for Vice’s culture of invisibility.

I’ve always thought Cheney was way out there — the most Voldemort-like official I’ve run across. But even in my harshest musings about the vice president, I never imagined that he would declare himself not only above the law, not only above the president, but actually his own dark planet — a separate entity from the White House.

I guess a man who can wait 14 hours before he lets it dribble out that he shot his friend in the face has no limit on what he thinks he can keep secret. Still, it’s quite a leap to go from hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the capital to hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the Constitution.

Can't argue with her on the basics of this one.

Posted by vicki at 10:24 PM | TrackBack (0)

Keeeeee-rikey! Every scary thing you thought you knew about Big Dick is true and then some. You really have to read this 4 part series in the Washington Post. There is no way to encapsulate it in a few short paragraphs. One of the things that stood out for me was the understanding among WH insiders that Big Dick was not some rogue thug, (although he is that) operating outside Bu$h's orbit, but a man who was doing exactly what Bu$h approved. Somebody hold me!

Bellinger [legal adviser to the State Department ] was chagrined to learn, indirectly, that Cheney had read the confidential memo and "was concerned" about his advice. Thus Bellinger discovered an unannounced standing order: Documents prepared for the national security adviser, another White House official said, were "routed outside the formal process" to Cheney, too. The reverse did not apply. Powell asked for a meeting with Bush. The same day, Jan. 25, 2002, Cheney's office struck a preemptive blow. It appeared to come from Gonzales, a longtime Bush confidant whom the president nicknamed "Fredo." Hours after Powell made his request, Gonzales signed his name to a memo that anticipated and undermined the State Department's talking points. The true author has long been a subject of speculation, for reasons including its unorthodox format and a subtly mocking tone that is not a Gonzales hallmark. A White House lawyer with direct knowledge said Cheney's lawyer, Addington, wrote the memo. Flanigan passed it to Gonzales, and Gonzales sent it as "my judgment" to Bush [Read the memo]. If Bush consulted Cheney after that, the vice president became a sounding board for advice he originated himself. Addington, under Gonzales's name, appealed to the president by quoting Bush's own declaration that "the war against terrorism is a new kind of war." Addington described the Geneva Conventions as "quaint," casting Powell as a defender of "obsolete" rules devised for another time. If Bush followed Powell's lead, Addington suggested, U.S. forces would be obliged to provide athletic gear and commissary privileges to captured terrorists.

Clearly, Bu$h and Big Dick have a twisted view of *government reach* and executive power--but only as it applies to them-- not others. There has been a fundamental breach of executive power here, and we cannot allow it to thrive for another year and a half.

UPDATE Here is a link to Part 2 of the WaPo Big Dick series

Posted by vicki at 09:26 PM | TrackBack (0)

Thanks to Lucy for forwarding this to me. It's hard to wrap my head around irrational fear and hatred of gay folks. Obviously, the haters don't actually know any GAY peeps, or they would wonder how they missed out on so much creativity and rugged individualism. Click on the link below to take a stand for equal rights.

One in six hate crimes are motivated by the victim's sexual orientation. Yet Federal laws don't protect these people. Watch the video. Then tell your Senators to support the Matthew Shepard Act.

Watch the video here and sign the petition.

Mitch McConnell is the Senator my message will be forwarded to, so I edited the script to include the line that, "you of all people should know of the fear and stigma associated with just being who you are as a gay person." Feel free to edit the script as you please.

Posted by vicki at 08:53 PM | TrackBack (0)

It took them long enough, but the Dems have finally had enough of the WH refusal to comply with subpoenas and forced them to comply or face Contempt of Congress. Bu$h has shown complete contempt for Congress, the Constitution and the citizens of our country. From THe Hill.

House Judiciary Committee Democrats warned yesterday they would pursue a contempt of Congress motion if the White House fails respond to subpoenas for testimony and documents related to the firings of U.S. attorneys last year.

The deadline for a response is Thursday, June 28. If the White House does not comply, it opens the possibility of a constitutional showdown between the two branches. In an ironic twist, the Department of Justice (DoJ) would be called on to enforce the contempt motion.

More like this, please.

Posted by vicki at 04:45 PM | TrackBack (0)

Big Dick is making scary claims that he, as VP, is not part of the Executive branch and therefore he is above the law and can opperate as a lone wolf. Or is it the fox guarding the henhouse? The man is clinically insane.

The letter [from Henry Waxman] said that after repeatedly refusing to comply with a routine annual request from the archives for data on his staff’s classification of internal documents, the vice president’s office in 2004 blocked an on-site inspection of records that other agencies of the executive branch regularly go through.
But the National Archives is an executive branch department headed by a presidential appointee, and it is assigned to collect the data on classified documents under a presidential executive order. Its Information Security Oversight Office is the archives division that oversees classification and declassification.

“I know the vice president wants to operate with unprecedented secrecy,” Mr. Waxman said in an interview. “But this is absurd. This order is designed to keep classified information safe. His argument is really that he’s not part of the executive branch, so he doesn’t have to comply.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney, Megan McGinn, said, “We’re confident that we’re conducting the office properly under the law.” She declined to elaborate.

Henry Waxman is one of the few Dems I still respect. Read more from The Times here.

Posted by vicki at 04:22 PM | TrackBack (0)

Whew! Our former Lt. Governor has a serious problem with truth and ethics. The school was afraid the guy would cost the school their accreditation and entangle them in leagal problems. As usual, Henry claims everybody is out to get him and that everyone else is to blame--not him. Read the entire C-J article here.

Among other things, the records show that Johnson had tried for more than four years to remove Henry from his volunteer position but was blocked by superiors until late last year.

"I would be remiss in my responsibilities as Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery if I jeopardized the future of our residents and our program by allowing Dr. Henry to remain on staff," Johnson wrote in 2003 to Dr. Joel Kaplan, then the chancellor of the medical campus, who had decided to keep Henry on staff.

In addition to Henry's supervisory and on-call problems, the file alludes to other concerns, though it doesn't go into detail.

"These issues range from concern for patient care, billing questions, availability to residents when on call, clinic issues, etc.," according to a December 2003 letter from Johnson.

Henry said yesterday that the attempts to oust him had nothing to do with patient care and instead stemmed from personality conflicts between him and Johnson and the residents who worked under him.

Can you believe he had the gall to run for Governor?

Posted by vicki at 12:44 PM | TrackBack (0)

Just shoot me. The sub-heading to this NYTimes article is, "Democrats do not ask sharp questions on secret detentions." That just about sums up the whole article. The nomination of Jules Rizzo to lead the CIA Legal Counsel's office after he confirmed to the Senate that he offered no objection to the agency's legal definition of torture as being anything short of "pain associated with organ failure" is an abomination. Dear GOD. Only Feinstein expressed "concern." Unlike the roll over and play dead Dems, legal and human rights groups were appalled.

Human rights advocates who have long said Congress has failed to investigate adequately the detention practices expressed disappointment with the public part of the hearing.

“It was not the kind of questioning that could either produce more information on what the C.I.A. has done or that would result in people being held accountable,” said Christopher Anders, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Mr. Anders said Mr. Rizzo was “up to his eyeballs in developing and implementing the government’s detention and torture program” and added that his promotion “should have been a nonstarter.”

Duh. I think I'll write a letter to Congress.

Dear Congress,

Yours truly,
Vicki

Posted by vicki at 11:50 AM | TrackBack (0)

This story is important in that Dems have been working to get sentencing parity on convictions between crack and power cocaine. Past GOP legislation imposed way harsher sentencing standards on crack users and sellers than that of equal ammounts of powder cocaine. What say you, Mr. Law And Order Rudy?

See Rudy's SC campaign chairman's indictment for conspiracy to distribute crack.The charges carry a max sentence of 20 years.

Late Update: The original report in the South Carolina newspaper The State referred to crack cocaine. However, the indictment refers only to cocaine. And an updated version of the story at The State website seems to refer only to cocaine. Hopefully the Giuliani campaign can clear up the confusion.

Read the TPM scoop here.

Posted by vicki at 11:11 PM | TrackBack (0)

It just keeps on getting more hilarious for gay bashing Mitch. First, the The Hillbilly Report wonders if the "Gay Bomb" the Pentagon was developing landed on Ditch Mitch. It now seems that every nut and his brother assumes McConnell is gay but his own hillbilly constituents. Maybe it's because he vilifies gay folks as a danger to family "values" and runs whispering campaigns against Dems that they might be gay. Anyway, take a look at this AlterNet item:

I had to turn to "Washington's Most Dangerous Man," my pal Mike Rogers to try to get to the bottom of this. Mike's web site, blogActive, makes a habit of exposing the worst of the hypocrites, the ones with the consistently homophobic voting records who also participate in closeted gay sex, the only kind Republicans approve of.

Mike is ultra cautious. He wants multiple sworn statements from participants and clear pictures before he'll out anyone, no matter how viciously anti-gay they are. Mike totally blew the cover of Virginia wingnut Ed Schrock, now retired, and for years has been helpful in getting out the information on Mark Foley (F-FL), also retired, and three who are still hiding in their closets, David Dreier (R-CA), James McCrery R-LA), and Larry Craig (R-ID).

Craig is a senator and surely one of the 3 Barney was referring to since he outed him on the Bill Maher show last year. And the others? Well, most people in DC who know about these things feel that Miss McConnell (R-KY) doesn't just act that way; he's as gay as any panicky right-wing closet case you never want to meet. Ditto for Lindsey Graham (R-SC). That's the easy part. Everyone knows about McConnell, Graham and Craig. What about all those House members?

So have a GAY old time reading the full article here.

Posted by vicki at 07:40 PM | TrackBack (0)

Is there anything more shameful than David Broder, Richard Cohen and all the other inside-the-beltway pundit class calling for a pardon of convicted felon, Scooter Libby? They constantly shill for the worst administration in US history and believe their lofty opinions are of more value than a jury of Libby's peers. The pundits at the WaPo are particularly odious. Read laughably, so-called Liberal, Richard Cohen' s obnoxious column here To whom Salon writer, Glenn Greenwald responds below.

So sayeth the individual who plays the role of "liberal columnist" at the Washington Post, whose script on the Libby case would seem notably zealous even if it were published in National Review.

The Libby prosecution clearly was the dirty work of the leftist anti-war movement in this country, just as Cohen describes. After all, the reason Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed to investigate this matter was because a left-wing government agency (known as the "Central Intelligence Agency") filed a criminal referral with the Justice Department, as the MoveOn-sympathizer CIA officials were apparently unhappy about the public unmasking of one of their covert agents.

In response, Bush's left-wing anti-war Attorney General, John Ashcroft, judged the matter serious enough to recuse himself, leading Bush's left-wing anti-war Deputy Attorney General, James Comey, to conclude that a Special Prosecutor was needed. In turn, Comey appointed Fitzgerald, the left-wing anti-war Republican Prosecutor and Bush appointee, who secured a conviction of Libby, in response to which left-wing anti-war Bush appointee Judge Reggie Walton imposed Libby's sentence.

Read Glenn's entire piece in Salon here

Posted by vicki at 01:09 PM | TrackBack (0)

House Speaker Pelosi has some amazing testimony by Susan Ralston (former top Rove aid) up on her blog, as well as an interim report on all those "destroyed" emails Rove and a whopping 87 other administration staffers were exchanging on RNC Blackberries. For example:

The number of White House officials given RNC e-mail accounts is higher than previously disclosed. In March 2007, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said that only a “handful of officials” had RNC e-mail accounts. In later statements, her estimate rose to “50 over the course of the administration.” In fact, the Committee has learned from the RNC that at least 88 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts. The officials with RNC e-mail accounts include Karl Rove, the President’s senior advisor; Andrew Card, the former White House Chief of Staff; Ken Mehlman, the former White House Director of Political Affairs; and many other officials in the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Communications, and the Office of the Vice President.

White House officials made extensive use of their RNC e-mail accounts. The RNC has preserved 140,216 e-mails sent or received by Karl Rove. Over half of these e-mails (75,374) were sent to or received from individuals using official “.gov” e-mail accounts. Other heavy users of RNC e-mail accounts include former White House Director of Political Affairs Sara Taylor (66,018 e-mails) and Deputy Director of Political Affairs Scott Jennings (35,198 e-mails). These e-mail accounts were used by White House officials for official purposes, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments and policies.

There has been extensive destruction of the e-mails of White House officials by the RNC. Of the 88 White House officials who received RNC e-mail accounts, the RNC has preserved no e-mails for 51 officials. In a deposition, Susan Ralston, Mr. Rove’s former executive assistant, testified that many of the White House officials for whom the RNC has no e-mail records were regular users of their RNC e-mail accounts. Although the RNC has preserved no e-mail records for Ken Mehlman, the former Director of Political Affairs, Ms. Ralston testified that Mr. Mehlman used his account “frequently, daily.” In addition, there are major gaps in the e-mail records of the 37 White House officials for whom the RNC did preserve e-mails. The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent to Mr. Rove during President Bush’s first term and no e-mails sent by Mr. Rove prior to November 2003. For many other White House officials, the RNC has no e-mails from before the fall of 2006.

There is evidence that the Office of White House Counsel under Alberto Gonzales may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records.

Read the rest of the report here.

Posted by vicki at 09:14 PM | TrackBack (0)

The same two excellent reporters, Dana Priest and Anne Hull, who broke the VA hospital nightmare in the Washington Post have now exposed the horror show of abuse the VA is heaping on returning veterans seeking mental health care. For example:

By this spring, the number of vets from Afghanistan and Iraq who had sought help for post-traumatic stress would fill four Army divisions, some 45,000 in all.

They occupy every rank, uniform and corner of the country. People such as Army Lt. Sylvia Blackwood, who was admitted to a locked-down psychiatric ward in Washington after trying to hide her distress for a year and a half [story, A13]; and Army Pfc. Joshua Calloway, who spent eight months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and left barely changed from when he arrived from Iraq in handcuffs; and retired Marine Lance Cpl. Jim Roberts, who struggles to keep his sanity in suburban New York with the help of once-a-week therapy and a medicine cabinet full of prescription drugs; and the scores of Marines in California who were denied treatment for PTSD because the head psychiatrist on their base thought the diagnosis was overused.

They represent the first wave in what experts say is a coming deluge.

Posted by vicki at 04:55 PM | TrackBack (0)

His article in the New Yorker is so explicit and thorough that it's hard to choose a passage that sums up the whole story. In short, the entire Bu$h admin and Pentagon knew about abuses at Abu Graib and were not troubled by them at all. Quite the opposite. They wanted to destroy anyone who exposed what was happening there in plain sight. Read This and gnash your teeth in shame.

Posted by vicki at 11:09 PM | TrackBack (0)

I'll believe it when I see it that Republicans give a rip about this issue. There are others who have a more hopeful vision of Congress than I. Take a look at this article in The Nation and try to convince yourself that the GOP bravely stands up for the Constitution.

After Democrats won control of the U.S. House and Senate last November, the popular Internet site www.democrats.com asked people to identify the first action the new Congress should take. The online survey listed 140 possible changes. The top response? "Restore habeas corpus."

Of course, it was not just Democrats who were worried about the kick in the teeth that the Constitution had taken. Earlier this year, the conservatives and libertarians associated with the Liberty Coalition and the right-wing legal scholars at the Rutherford Institute signed onto a letter outlining 10 steps the new Congress could take to restore U.S. moral authority in the world. [my bold] The first step was: Restore habeas corpus.

The messages from the grassroots were heard in Washington.

Pardon me, but where were all these dissenters of the wingnuttery's system of "justice" over the last 6 years? Haven't heard but a tiny peep from them from them in the mainstream press or anywhere else. They could have made a lot of noise but didn't. I'm just not buying it. The largely silent right and independents have no ownership on this issue. None. They neither put up nor stood up for the Constitution.

Posted by vicki at 09:26 PM | TrackBack (0)

Does the clowning ever end with this gang in Frankfort?

The Fletcher administration will not get access to records of the special grand jury that investigated its hiring practices, Franklin Circuit Judge Reed Rhorer ruled yesterday. Thomas B. Stephens, general counsel for the administration's Personnel Cabinet, asked Rhorer to open the records to Cabinet Secretary Brian Crall. Stephens said Crall has undertaken his own investigation of hiring practices and needs to review the grand jury's work as part of that.

But Deputy Attorney General Pierce Whites argued against the request. He said now is not the time to give the records to the administration because the attorney general's office has launched what could be a new investigation, into the Transportation Cabinet's contracting practices.
[. . .]
Whites also said that the names and information supplied by many whistleblowers who cooperated in the hiring investigation are contained in the records. He said this is among the most sensitive information that must be kept confidential.

Stephens said after the hearing that the Personnel Cabinet was "absolutely not" trying to learn the names of the whistleblowers and what they told investigators.

Hahahahahaha. No, they would NEVER retaliate against whistleblowers! Except they already farking have!

Posted by vicki at 07:33 PM | TrackBack (0)

Talking Points Memo has this and video on the National Drinking Liberally 4th anniversary in NY. Meet some of your National Dear Leaders by clicking on the link below.

A couple weeks ago Drinking Liberally, a nationwide political and social organization where liberals and progressives gather in bars to socialize and talk politics, celebrated the 4th anniversary of its founding. In today's episode of TPMtv, we report from the flagship chapter at Rudy's Bar and Grill in Hell's Kitchen on what the group represents and how it affects the progressive movement in general ...

Late Update: For the full, unedited versions of all of our interviews at Drinking Liberally, CLICK HERE!

Woo hoo! I can tell you for a fact that Katrina and Justin's voices appear about 3 octaves higher on the video and that they are very good looking people. You'd never know it by the poor video and sound.

Posted by vicki at 08:14 PM | TrackBack (0)

Awesome song and video here

Posted by vicki at 05:09 PM | TrackBack (0)

Good lord! I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of this pronto. This investigation is a result of Monica Goodling's testimony before congress, which appeared to show that Gonzales sought to influence her testimony. He's obviously a liar.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is under investigation by his own department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility. From The Washington Post:

The Justice Department is investigating whether Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sought to influence the testimony of a departing senior aide during a March meeting in Gonzales's office, according to correspondence released today.

In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the two officials who are leading an internal Justice Department investigation of the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys last year said their inquiry includes the Gonzales meeting, which was revealed during testimony last month from former Gonzales aide Monica M. Goodling.

Posted by vicki at 03:23 PM | TrackBack (0)

Woo Hoo! Finally, someone in Congress has the good sence to realize that going green--as opposed to blowing off mountain tops and drilling in pristine wildlife habitats will be good for workers and the economy.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is excited. And when Sanders - longtime maverick populist - is in that frame of mind, you know something right and smart is in the works.

In this case it's the Energy Savings Act of 2007, which the Senate is now debating. Sanders is so keen on this legislation because of the opportunity not only to address global warming and energy needs, but also to create millions of new jobs and make sure our workforce has the skills needed to fill them.

Yesterday afternoon, the Senate adopted the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Workforce Development Amendment sponsored by Sanders and recent cosponsor, Senator Hillary Clinton ☼. The amendment allots $100 million to train workers in "green collar jobs" – jobs that involve the design, manufacture, installation, operation, and maintenance of clean, efficient energy technologies.

Posted by vicki at 07:42 PM | TrackBack (0)

Here we go again. The Senate just issued subpoenas to Sara Taylor and Harriett Meirs to testify about their role in the US attorneys firing scandal. From McClatchy News:

The White House's former political director was furious at Justice Department officials for disclosing to Congress that the administration had forced out the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., to make way for a protege of Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser, according to documents released late Tuesday.

Then-White House political affairs director Sara Taylor spelled out her frustrations in a Feb. 16 e-mail to Kyle Sampson, then the chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

She sent the message after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told the Senate that unlike other federal prosecutors, U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins wasn't fired for performance reasons, but to make way for former Republican political operative Tim Griffin. Griffin, serving as the interim U.S. attorney, then announced that he wouldn't seek confirmation to the Arkansas post, but would remain until the Senate confirmed someone else. Griffin has since resigned.

"Tim was put in a horrible position; hung out to dry w/ no heads up," Taylor lashed out in the e-mail, which was sent from a Republican Party account rather than from her White House e-mail address. "This is not good for his long-term career."

The Taylor e-mail was among 46 pages of documents that the Justice Department turned over to Congress Tuesday as part of the investigation into the firings of at least nine U.S. attorneys.

The Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees said the documents showed greater White House involvement in the firings than previously known.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the documents "provide further evidence that White House officials like former political director Sara Taylor were deeply involved in the mass firings of well-performing prosecutors."

Remember how Abu Gonzales and the WH have been insisting (Gonzales testified, under oath to Congress) that politics played no role in the firings. Bullshit! Lying to Congress is a crime, yet Bu$h and the Republicans in Congress don't think (at the very least) Gonzales should be fired. Ditch Mitch.

Posted by vicki at 01:16 PM | TrackBack (0)

Damn! Take a look at all the bombing going on in the Middle East today.

Shiite Mosque Bombed

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Authorities have evidence that Wednesday's bombing of the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra was an inside job, and 15 members of the Iraqi security forces have been arrested, a U.S. military official said.

The attack Wednesday destroyed two towers, referred to as minarets, at the revered Shiite shrine, police said. It was a repeat of the 2006 bombing that sparked Iraq's current wave of deadly sectarian violence.

Explosion In Lebanon

A member of the Lebanese parliament was killed in an explosion Wednesday outside a Beirut military sports club in what hospital sources called an assassination.

Lawmaker Walid Eido, known as a foe of Syrian involvement in Lebanon, his son, Khalid, and two of his bodyguards were killed, Lebanese media reports said.

At least six other people died and 11 were wounded in the explosion, believed to be from a car bomb, in the seaside neighborhood of Manara, according to Lebanese security sources.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, an outspoken critic of Syria, blamed Eido's killing on Damascus, calling it an attempt to reduce the anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese government.

Hamas Bombing

Hamas militants killed at least 11 members of the rival Fatah faction Wednesday after setting off explosives in a tunnel beneath a security compound in southern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said.

Fatah's Preventive Security headquarters in Khan Yunis is now under Hamas control, the sources said.

The blast came after Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, announced it had taken over northern Gaza and turned the region into a "closed military area."

Despite all this termoil, various US government officials are making inflamitory statements that Iran is not only arming militias in Iraq, but they are arming the Taliban in Afghanistan. They offer no proof, but the whole world should just "trust" them on it. Right?

Posted by vicki at 12:43 PM | TrackBack (0)

She's Baaack! The inspirational un-wed teenaged mother and former crack-head, Morgan Wilkins, is now a C-J blogger! Hahahahahaha. The joke is on the C-J. This girl is so extreme that the College Republicans tossed her out on her empty little head long ago. She's so extreme that even the most strident of wingnuts finds her appalling. Have a peek at some old coverage of the Dear One from Louisville DL's archives here Here's a snip:

The College Republican National Committee wasn't amused. The organization fired her [Morgan] on Friday.

The creation of the Facebook group was the final straw for the CRNC. The national committee put Wilkins on probation on Sept. 12 when she told The Michigan Daily that she wanted to plan recruiting events where participants would shoot BB guns at cardboard cutouts of Democratic leaders like John Kerry and try to catch someone posing as an illegal immigrant.

The suggestions prompted an outcry from both Republicans and Democrats, including the University chapters of the College Republicans and College Democrats. Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean also condemned Wilkins's ideas.

Wilkins's superiors banned her from working on the University campus when she held up a sign at a Sept. 17 rally on the Diag for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) that said "Debbie kills babies" - a reference to Stabenow's support for abortion rights.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Wilkins said her experiences have strengthened her anti-abortion stance. She got pregnant at age 15. Wilkins said she could have ended the pregnancy for $500.

Wow! I'm so inspired!! And so is the completely clueless Betty Baye who had this to say about her new bloggers:

"In the months to come, look for our young bloggers to weigh in on such subjects as technology, music, sports, popular culture, education, religion, fashion, politics, racism, sexism, feminism, health, patriotism, violence, war and gay, lesbian and transgender issues"

Can't wait to read that crap!

Posted by vicki at 02:23 PM | TrackBack (0)

Jeepers H. Christmas! It's official: Joe Loserman is stark raving MAD!

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent who strongly supports the war in Iraq, said today that unless Iran stops training Iraqis to carry out anti-coalition attacks, the United States should launch cross-border attacks into Iran. “I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” Mr. Lieberman said in an interview on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

This could be achieved mostly with air attacks, Mr. Lieberman said, adding, “I’m not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran.”

Oh, really? You and what army are gonna pull this off, Joe? WTF was CT thinking when they re-elected that warmongering fool?

Posted by vicki at 05:40 PM | TrackBack (0)

Whew! You've got to read the whole article to get the big chill on how very, very hostile to immigrants the wingnuts are. Whether it's Lou Dobbs whipping his viewers up with dark (and false) tales of rampant crime and Leprocy by Mexicans entering the US or hate radio hosts screaming, Amnesty! Amnety! Amnesty! there has been a serious mis-information campaign going on and the wingers have fallen for it again. The same dopes who thought Saddam was responsible for 9/11 are now convinced that the very harsh Immigration bill Congress was considering was "soft" on illegal immigrants and was nothing short of letting them jump the line ahead of everyone else. It's all completey bogus, of course, but that's the way conservatives operate. Once again, they are righteously indignant over a total fabrication.

Supporters of the legislation defended it as an imperfect but pragmatic solution to the difficult problem of illegal immigration. Public opinion polls, including a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted last month, showed broad support among Americans for the bill’s major provisions.

But the legislation sparked a furious rebellion among many Republican and even some Democratic voters, who were linked by the Internet and encouraged by radio talk show hosts. Their outrage and activism surged to full force after Senator Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who was an author of the bill, suggested early this week that support for the measure seemed to be growing. The assault on lawmakers in Washington was relentless. In a crucial vote Thursday night, the bill’s supporters, including President Bush, fell short by 15 votes. While there is a possibility the legislation could be revived later this year, there was a glow of victory among opponents on Friday.

“Technologically enhanced grass-roots activism is what turned this around, people empowered by the Internet and talk radio,” said Colin A. Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring, a conservative group.

Mr. Hanna suggested the passion and commitment were on the side of the opponents.

It must hurt being that stupid. I have to confess, I'm a little envious of the conservative base. When they kick and scream-- even when their views are in the minority-- their party listens. As for Liberals, even when there is overwhelming public support behind them, their party gives them the back of their hand.

Posted by vicki at 04:25 PM | TrackBack (0)

Rev. Todd discusses the role of religion and environment here:

Also in 2005, Christianity Today, a popular evangelical magazine, took up the issue for the first time by declaring, “Christians should make it clear to governments and businesses that we are willing to adapt our lifestyles and support steps towards changes that protect our environment.”6 Even more recently, in August 2005, Pat Robertson, who had debunked global warming in the past, called himself “a convert” during his 700 Club. “…It is getting hotter,” he admitted, “and the ice caps are melting and there is a build up of carbon dioxide in the air, and I think we really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. If we are contributing to the destruction of this planet, we really need to do something about it.”7 This sudden about-face by so many members on the Christian right is possibly as alarming as it is welcome. For we all know conservatives don’t change easily—that’s why we call them “conservatives.” Thus, their sudden shift in consciousness may be a harbinger of just how serious our environmental crisis has become. “There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole,” as the saying goes, and now, at what may be the eleventh hour for life on Earth, even the believers have become believers! At the same time, it is a relief to have conservatives actually standing for conservation, rather than merely the puritanical preservation of old ways and ideas. It further indicates that care for creation may have become a universal value that not only crosses religious barriers, but can also cross partisan, social, and economic divisions as well. Thus, it may be our universal concern for the health of our planet that unites us all, regardless of our beliefs and backgrounds. For none of us can afford to go on viewing our planet as an endless frontier waiting to be conquered. As we are discovering, it does have its limitations!

Get the rest of the sermon by clicking this link

Posted by vicki at 09:35 PM | TrackBack (0)

I can't wait to see how many of the brave Republicans who have called for Abu Gonzales' resignation put their votes where their mouths are. Let's face it: when it comes to covering for WH incompetence, illegality and lying to Congress, the Republicans have provided virtually no oversight in the past and there's no reason to think they will suddenly perform their duties now. The only thing that seems to get their dander up is the thought that a criminal like Scooter Libby might have to do time for his lawbreaking. Nothing short of a super-majority in Congress will stop the obstructionists in the GOP.

Senate Democrats said Friday that they intended to bring a no-confidence resolution against Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to a vote on Monday, a symbolic maneuver that could be their final effort to force his ouster.

Democrats privately acknowledged that the nonbinding measure appeared to have little chance of passage, largely because they are unlikely to marshal the 60 supporters they need to limit debate and bring the resolution itself to a vote.

The debate, Democrats said, will at least bring the discussion of Mr. Gonzales’s performance to the Senate floor, after months of Congressional investigation into last year’s dismissals of federal prosecutors.

Read more in the Times here

Posted by vicki at 07:56 PM | TrackBack (0)

Hoo,boy. Paul Krugman, of the New York Times tells the truth about Bu$h and it feels like hell to conservatives. Get a load of this:

Folks, this is serious. If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven’t changed a bit.

You may not remember the presidential debate of Oct. 3, 2000, or how it was covered, but you should. It was one of the worst moments in an election marked by news media failure as serious, in its way, as the later failure to question Bush administration claims about Iraq.

Throughout that debate, George W. Bush made blatantly misleading statements, including some outright lies — for example, when he declared of his tax cut that “the vast majority of the help goes to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder.” That should have told us, right then and there, that he was not a man to be trusted.

Word! Our press corp talks endlessly about who the public wants to have a beer with, how terrible it was that Al Gore was so damned smart (that's a bad thing?) and damned near everything but the issues. Now, all the rage is asking candidates to raise their hands like school children. My head hurts. Read Paul Krugman's fine opinion peice by clicking on this little blue link.

Posted by vicki at 07:31 PM | TrackBack (0)

Does this scenario seem eerily familiar to you? I'm afraid we've all seen this movie before.

Eight years before he shot a man during an argument at a four-way stop, then-Jeffersontown Police Officer Richard Koenig got in trouble near the same Stony Brook shopping center -- for wrongfully restraining and arresting a 16-year-old girl. According to court records, Koenig was initially suspended for two weeks in 2000 after the Jeffersontown Civil Service Commission ruled he acted inappropriately when he arrested the girl, who was collecting money for a church choir trip.

The commission's report noted that witnesses saw "rage on (Koenig's) face" before he pushed the teen to the ground and handcuffed her after she walked away from him when he told her not to collect money in the street while the stoplight was green. Other witnesses said they saw the girl strike Koenig after he grabbed her.

One witness, Sandra Moreland, said Koenig grabbed the teen from behind, causing her to drop the bucket of money she was collecting, then threw her to the ground, telling her to "f------ shut up and keep her mouth shut and shut the f--- up." according to court records. "I saw him come at her from out of nowhere and throw her to the ground and was cussing at her and her money flying everywhere," Moreland testified.

Once again, some jerk claimed "the girl" struck a cop and all hell broke loose. I'm sure she had it coming. Read the C-J article. Click here

Posted by vicki at 05:16 PM | TrackBack (0)

While the article is well reported and evenhanded, I wish the reporter had not taken the all too familiar and false stance that "both sides" are equivalaet in their stridency. Only conservatives approve of having dissenters shut down or thrown in jail for their political views. There is no equivalent to the right-wing roars of approval you hear on hate radio and other conservative media when law abiding protesters are thrown in jail and mauled by the police. None. The fact is, only a tiny MINORITY of people approve of this war yet they get to set the agenda and run roughshod over anyone who gets in their way.

The article also makes clear that dubious "Liberals" complained that Carol was out of line. That is just not believable nor were the official claims by Mayor Abramson's office concerning the arrest. Here is an excerpt of the article:

Nevitt [Trainer's attorney] has discussed the case with LEO and provided names of people the newspaper could contact for their version of the events of last Monday. I called several of these people, and in a phrase, it is amazing, but not surprising, that two groups of people, who each sound reasonable, observant and articulate, and who each saw the incident from a relatively close distance, tell two diametrically opposed stories. [. . . ] Clearly, it is difficult to project how the legal case will turn out. At the end of the day, though, we know the lefties are angry (certainly this telling has not gone far enough for some), and they fear that legitimate dissent has been marginalized in the United States, to the point of tyranny.

The righties are up in arms, too — any sympathy for the pansy left is sorely misguided, and surely this account is far too generous. With the right’s false dichotomies and their ever-so-effective name-hanging apparatus, they could make you think people like Carol Trainer spend their spare time uploading pep talks to Osama bin Laden’s smartcavephone.

There are other aspects. Who can protest, for example? Some folks say people who have been in the military get wider berth, automatically, to speak out … unless they leave the farm and go soft, of course, or run their mouth before they serve out their time. Others would like to think that a principle is a principle is a principle, and that what you see happening around you could, in fact, be as every bit as bad as it looks.

Regardless of what actually happened down at the Belvedere last Monday — and many people expect video of the incident to emerge, yet they are uncertain whether even that will prove anything — the heated and confused aftermath stands as a pretty good summation of where America finds herself in 2007:
Befuddled, agitated, and not too keen on having bad shit brought up when WE’RE TRYING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. We certainly don’t seem to be able to speak about disagreements, beyond finger-pointing, whining and name-calling, brinksmanship and intimidation.

Click here for the entire Leo article.

Posted by vicki at 11:30 AM | TrackBack (0)

Did torture do it? Repeatedly breaking the law via illegal wiretaps? Lying to Congress or his bungled war? Nope. Get a load of what pissed Bill Kristol off.

Bill Kristol, the founder of the Weekly Standard, decried the injustice of Libby's prosecution and sentence, going as far as harshly chastising President Bush for not having pardoned Libby already: So much for loyalty, or decency, or courage. For President Bush, loyalty is apparently a one-way street; decency is something he's for as long as he doesn't have to take any risks in its behalf; and courage--well, that's nowhere to be seen. Many of us used to respect President Bush. Can one respect him still?

Good lord. After everything that Bush has done over the years, after his complete trainwreck of a presidency, it's Bush's reluctance to immediately pardon a convicted felon that causes Kristol to lose his respect for the man?

Read the rest here

Posted by vicki at 07:44 PM | TrackBack (0)

Here's a good running commentary of last night's debate from Blackwednesday.org I watched as well as read the commentary and it's "right" on Thanks, Chuck!

BlackWedsday Debate Commentary

Posted by vicki at 01:23 PM | TrackBack (0)

OMG. Can the disaster in the desert get any worse? Why yes. Yes it can. Here is what the AP and MSNBC are reporting as of an hour ago:

Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials told The Associated Press.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

“It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands,” one of the officials told the AP by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

For now the US is making light of this, but it's a very serious, worrying matter. Stay tuned.

Posted by vicki at 01:12 PM | TrackBack (0)

DLer John M. sent me this link to the The Smoking Gun that has a link to the letters written on Scooter Libby's behalf to Judge Walton. Note the entry in bold.

JUNE 5--Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, and John Bolton top the list of individuals who wrote a federal judge on behalf of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators and a federal grand jury examining the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. On the following 30 pages you'll find an assortment of letters from former colleagues and friends of Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. The letters, which do not include a missive from Cheney himself, were filed this morning in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.. Included in the correspondence is a letter on former Cheney aide Mary Matalin's stationery which is signed by her and husband James Carville, the Democratic strategist. [my bolds] Others writing on Libby's behalf included Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Richard Perle, former Pentagon adviser; James Woolsey, ex-CIA director; Douglas Feith, former Under Secretary of Defense; Christopher Cox, ex-congressman and current Securities and Exchange Commission chairman; Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic; former Richard Nixon counsel Leonard Garment; former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson; former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky; former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard Myers; and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a National Institutes of Health official. Of the 198 letters sent to Judge Reggie Walton, 174 referred positively to Libby, while the balance urged Walton to throw the book at the convicted felon. (30 pages)

DUMP: Click here for a 373-page PDF of all the Libby sentencing letters.

Carville should be ashamed of himself. Neither he or his sleazy wife have any shame, however.

Posted by vicki at 09:09 PM |