Here’s one Jed — frequent Kos poster, Obama supporter — with a humorous example of Unity in action:

[JEDREPORT] I do hope people don’t stereotype him just because he’s old and senile. Maybe he shouldn’t run because the last thing the elderly in this country need is the triggering of ugly stereotypes about their bowel habits. They already suffer from enough incontinence.

Ha ha! Teh funny!

Hey, come on. Where’s your sense of humor?

Hey, are these the people I trust not to privatize Social Security, or what?

Anybody know anything else about Jed? Because he seems like a guy with many different interests. [OK, OK, this has just been a teaser….]  Read more 

WKJM burbles happily:

If you missed the two-night Hillary-O’Reilly lovefest extravaganza (as I did, deliberately), we’ve got an easier-to-digest six-minute highlight reel just for you…

Yeah, with a lead-in like that, I’m sure I can totally trust the highlights to represent the event accurately. No doubt about it. None.

Seriously, you’d think Obama supporters like “Marshall” would have learned something from about the perils of doctoring “editing” videos from their recent experiences, but n-o-o-o-o!

Which reminds me:

ABC called the doctored video of “War Room” that smeared the Clintons a “the definition of a dirty trick”; in other words, Ratfucking. And not only do we know that an Obama supporter created it, the Obama campaign has issued a classic “non-denial denial.” Sounds to me like there just might be a story here!

So, I thought I’d see if the tribunes of the people in the blogosphere had done to advance the story, and —- I know this will surprise you — *** crickets *** Not one single solitary link on the whole front page. Zip. Zilch. Nada. (Although I did find the burbling noted above.)

So, is it only TPM’s 2008 campaign coverage that’s completely corrupt? Or everything?

And how do I tell?

If I had reportorial resources, like WKJM does, there’s are the questions I’d ask:  Read more 

The man shows how it’s done. Surprise, the Kantor film clip video smearing the Hillary campaign was doctored. Nevertheless…  Read more 

Prominent Unity Warrior and Obama’s bestest fan evah is all excited LOL:

Podesta, Lux, McNary, and WVWV President Page Gardner think they can quarantine this inquiry off from anything outside of North Carolina, they had better look [Ooooh!] at the comment threads this controversy is generating.

Oh, great. Now we’re using comment threads from The Obama 527 That Used To Be Daily Kos to threaten people—make that Democrats—on the OFB’s ever-expanding Enemies List. It never ends, does it? It never ends.  Read more 

In Part I we saw where the term “ratfucking” originated and met two of the most infamous ratfuckers. In this part we will see how ratfucking went from being a small part of GOP political campaigns during the Nixon era to being the centerpiece of campaigns under Bush I.

Harvey Leroy “Lee” Atwater (February 26, 1951 – March 29, 1991) was an advisor of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. As shown in Part I, He got his start as a ratfucker thanks to Karl Rove. Rove, then the National Chairman of the College Republicans, introduced Atwater to George H.W. Bush who was then the RNC Chairman.  Read more 

Did you ever wonder what some of the obnoxious trolls claiming to be Obama supporters are hoping to accomplish by insulting the supporters of Hillary Clinton? Their tactics aren’t likely to win converts, and seem designed to make enemies.

Maybe they aren’t really Obama supporters after all.

Maybe they are a special breed of GOP trolls called “ratfuckers.”

Part I

Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention during the Watergate scandal investigation that during the 1972 presidential campaign the Nixon campaign committee maintained a “dirty tricks” unit focused on discrediting Nixon’s strongest challengers.  Read more 

Just a passing fancy. Even though the NSA does bug everyone including Aunt Molly, and ratfucking and blackmail are Republican signature moves.

Following up on Atrios’s post of the CNN transcript:

[MONTGOMERY SIBLEY:] Well, I’m shocked about two things, if I might, Larry. Please understand that this is one escort service out of approximately 60 [including Shirlington Limo] in the Metro D.C. area. And indeed there are more escort services than there are McDonald’s in D.C.

Now what’s happened here is one service by the coincidence of Jeane being in California had all the calls recorded in the telephone records [and in the NSA intercepts?], and therefore were able to track the customers back through the record numbers. As the other escort services may or may not coming forward, we’re going to get a real full picture of what have goes on in the District of Columbia environments.

[DEBORAH PALFREY:] There’s another point that needs to be mentioned as well, perhaps even more important, and that is the susceptibility of blackmail of certain clients having used the service over the years. Most people at the moment for obvious reasons are focusing upon the hypocrisy angle. However, intellectualize a bit, think about it a bit, and you’ll come to the conclusion that we’ve come to, that there are possible people who have used the service who have become subjects and targets of blackmail. And many of these people being in D.C. most likely have security clearances.

So, “intellectualizing” just a little, let’s ask ourselves the question that Jeanne and Montgomery didn’t explicitly ask:  Read more 

Josh Marshall went and talked to Jerry Nadler, and that’s what Nadler says. He’s right. Every time Bush reauthorized the warrantless surveillance program, he broke the law (FISA), which is a felony punishable by five years in jail, as Judge Jackson noted in her decision in Bush v. NSA.

And that’s the program we know about. Nadler wants to find out about the programs we don’t know about—The programs Gonzales carefully parsed his testimony to avoid mentioning.

More choice Nadler quotes:  Read more 

Just asking…

No doubt the story is even worse than WaPo lets on. Nevertheless:

FBI counterterrorism officials continued to use flawed procedures to obtain thousands of U.S. telephone records during a two-year period…

The flawed procedures involved the use of emergency demands for records, called “exigent circumstance” letters, which contained false or undocumented claims. They also included national security letters that were issued without FBI rules being followed. Both types of request were served on three phone companies.

“Exigent circumstances…” I love it. Sounds like some weasel-faced Federalist Society operative scribbling in the dimly lit dankness of Shooters’s bunker thought that one up, eh?

The exigency letters, created by the FBI’s New York office after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, told telephone providers that the FBI needed information immediately and would follow up with subpoenas later. There is no basis in the law to compel phone companies to turn over information using such letters, [Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A.] Fine found, and in many cases, agents never followed up with the promised subpoenas, he said.

Fine’s report said the bureau’s counterterrorism office used the exigency letters at least 739 times between 2003 and 2005 to obtain records related to 3,000 separate phone numbers.

“Related to” is awfully vague. Related through six degrees of separation perhaps?

FBI officials acknowledged that the process was so flawed that they may have to destroy some phone records to keep them from being used in the future, if the bureau does not find proof they were gathered in connection with an authorized investigation.

Actually, they can’t destroy them. Ashcroft’s order setting up the program under the so-called Patriot act mandates that they “shall” keep them, no matter whether they are flawed or not.

But Fine’s report made no mention of the FBI’s subsequent efforts to legitimize those actions with improperly prepared national security letters last year.

That’s bad enough. So much for the rule of law and the right to be secure in our papers and effects.

Now, the money quote:  Read more 

Josh asks: Why are Rove and Bush seemingly confident about this fall’s elections? Many have answered, “Diebold.” For you skeptics out there, let me remind you of just who it is we’re talking about:

 Read more 

No point giving AP any hits; Lord Kos does an excellent takedown of John Solomon’s story.

But let’s remember the nugget Xan dug up on Solomon, when he did his first non-story smear on Harry Reid (boxing tickets):

Go read this piece from 2003 from the Center for Public Integrity and decide for yourself:

WASHINGTON, September 17, 2003 — A month before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and all of the increased government secrecy that has ensued, the Justice Department secretly seized the home telephone records of respected investigative reporter and deputy bureau chief of the Associated Press in Washington, John Solomon. And earlier this year, the FBI opened and confiscated his mail. Center for Public Integrity executive director Charles Lewis recently interviewed Solomon about it.

This is hair-raisingly horrifying. The question seems to be, did they find something in Solomon’s phone records or mail that they’re now holding over his head, or has the pressure just gotten to him? God knows we all have our limits, and not all torture is done with physical implements of destruction.

Phone records, eh?  Read more