At what point do progressives stop being Democrats' whipped dogs and start acting like a movement capable of putting the Dems in their proper place as the party of the people? David Sirota wrote today about Obama's latest call to increase war spending beyond its already ludicrous proportions.

How many of the extreme right-wing and criminal policies of Bush-Cheney has Obama adopted? How many of those extreme right-wing policies has he exceeded? Last month, knowledge that Obama has gone a step further than Bush, authorizing the executive branch to murder American citizens on the flimsiest of rationales. This sh__ has GOT to end.

I'm sure everyone's read by now that James O' Keefe, creator of the infamous fake "Pimp and Ho" ACORN videos, was arrested today for allegedly attempting to wiretap Mary Landrieu's office. And I certainly appreciate the irony here, having been repeatedly brushed off when I called up Landrieu's office and voiced my opposition to the telecom immunity bill.

But anyway. In yet another proof of the self-similarity of the wingnut function, I found this little gem about acting Lafayette US Attorney Bill Flanagan, a Bush appointee and father of one of the suspects:

President Barack Obama has nominated a federal prosecutor in Lafayette to be U.S. Attorney for Louisiana's western district that is headquartered in Shreveport.

Stephanie Finley's nomination on Wednesday must be confirmed by the Senate before she can take the post.

Finley would replace Donald Washington, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and resigned on Monday. The U.S. Attorney's office is currently run by Bill Flanagan of Shreveport, the first assistant U.S. Attorney.

So Flanagan's "replacement" (not really, but he will be superceded) is set to be nominated tomorrow by a Democratic president. Today, his son gets busted trying to tap the phones of one of the most odious -- and therefore most important -- Democratic Senators.

Interesting, no? Alright, now let me roll out some foil for you.

Somehow I suspect that this nomination wasn't going to go through quickly. Was this part of a plan to catch Landrieu making some kinda crooked deal on healthcare and then blackmail Obama into... promoting Flanagan? Seems risky and insane, but this is Louisiana, after all.

Or maybe they were just trying to make more "gotcha" tapes. Since they're facing 10 years, things might get entertaining when the prosecution offers each of the 4 suspects a deal... I just can't believe that these were the only 4 guys in on this.

Texas' legislature hammered out some bills including one mandating a 3-foot clearance between passing cars and bicycles during their 2009 session. Just days after taking a fall from his bike that broke his collarbone, Rick Perry vetoed this bill. Burnt Orange report, like me, wondered why. At least one Texan's done more than wonder. She filed a FOIA, which revealed very few letters, emails or phone calls opposing the bill -- but one of them was written by a Kenneth Bain, who might be a TAMU classmate of Perry's and/or the father of a man currently out on bail for a double-fatality car-vs.-bike crash. The Dallas Morning News carried a photo of the SUV that killed two bicyclists last year.

Police say he hit and killed Mansfield bicyclists Meredith Hatch, 38, and 36-year-old Mike Alfaro. The pair, who were members of a cycling group, was out near Joe Pool Lake training

I'm sure you all recall the early days of the NSA Hoovering up all domestic data warrantless wiretapping scandal, when they referred to it as the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" and assured us that they were only targeting Al-Qaeda operatives.

Naturally, this turned out to be a lie enhanced duplicity technique, because it turns out they were spying on all of us everyday American citizens. Nobody was off the target list, and we were all potential Al-Qaeda operatives.

Now, there's a big hubbub about some sketchy CIA assassination ring, apparently answering to Cheney himself. Nobody's willing to talk about the nitty-gritty details, but it's enough to have even Nancy "off the table" Pelosi spooked or pissed off enough to start publicly discussing how fucked-up it was, whatever "it" was.

The public justification for this shadowy, super-classified, apparently reprehensible death squad?

They were only targeting Al-Qaeda operatives.

Yeah, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call bullshit. Does anyone seriously doubt that what we'll eventually learn is that they formed a group to assassinate American citizens in the National Interest? Consider this, via TPM:

Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, told TPMmuckraker that because we've been in a state of war against al Qaeda since just after September 11, there would have been no need for a secret CIA program that received special legal authorization...

As for what the program did involve, Cannistraro suggested that it involved Americans as targets, and that it went beyond surveillance, but declined to elaborate. He added that, though Cheney may have directly ordered the CIA to keep Congress in the dark, the veep wasn't acting alone. "The approval was from the president," said Cannistraro.

Hmm, I wonder...

Scott Horton: Securing the Crime Scene

As Obama put the Holder nomination on the table, he received assurances from leading Republicans, including Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter, that, while there would be some questions about the Rich matter, Holder could expect smooth sailing. Suddenly, however, this has shifted, and it is increasingly clear why: Rove urged leading Senate Republicans to take on Holder. This weekend, we learn Rove’s advice was taken and Karl Rove had been tapped to serve as lead strategist in this effort. ...

Until 1947, the United States habitually told the truth about at least one thing. The job title of the Pentagon's highest ranking civilian was the Secretary of War. But the recent slaughter of tens of millions in the Second World War had given the Pentagon's real function a bad name. So Democrat Harry Truman rebranded the Department of War, naming it the Department of Defense. From that day, the Secretary of War became the Secretary of Defense. War plants, war expenditures and bloodthirsty war industries became more benign-sounding defense plants, the defense expenditures and the patriotic defense industry.

I confess: I have no idea what's going on down there in TX. I do know: 1)Cheney is a monster 2)Gonzo is a liar 3)The American prison system is a horror and 4)It's a time-honored Republican tactic to muddy the waters and meddle with those seeking to prosecute them, by employing countering lawsuits and legal claims.

Anyway, this sounds like a carnival of corruption and anyone who knows more about this should chime in. Via Off the Kuff, and the local SCLM:

McALLEN — A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.

There are more links at Off the Kuff, and someone else suggested that it could be useful for bloggers to peruse the SEIU's Eye on Wackenhut for related background details.

and the verdicts are, on each of the seven counts, GUILTY.
Orrin Hatch's Senatorial legend is a felon. Wonder how that'll play with his constituents. Oh, wait ... Alaska GOP...

Here we go again.

Democratic voters in at least two Wisconsin communities have received absentee voter forms from the McCain campaign that -- if used -- could cause their votes to be ignored.

Is it a simple error? Or campaign shenanigans and voter fraud? You be the judge.

Keith Heck, a former Racine Unified School Board member who lives in Mount Pleasant, reports receiving a mailing containing two tear-out requests for an absentee ballot. The preprinted request form -- an 11x17 piece of card stock folded over twice for mailing -- is addressed to the clerk in the the village of Caledonia.

Heck says, "I spoke with the Caledonia clerk and learned if we (in Mount Pleasant) used the form and sent it to the pre-printed address they would have to forward it to the right jurisdiction (if they had the time and the people) who would then have to send out the absentee ballot. As the deadline to submit a request is Oct. 30, and the clerks have a deadline of Oct. 31, this bogus form not only gums up and overworks the process to get absentee ballots sent out, it could cause some to not even be mailed."

Inside, were two forms like this. see original post for pic

The election officials Heck spoke to -- Racine County and Caledonia -- said sending the absentee ballot request to the wrong clerk would not jeopardize a voter's registration, but might result in the absentee ballot not getting sent due to overworked personnel, or the possibility of missing the deadline.

Another report comes from Jennifer Jackson, a Kenosha County supervisor. She says a friend in Middleton received similar McCain literature, containing a large post card which was an application for absentee ballot. The return address was wrong. Instead of the Middleton address for her clerk's office , it was a Madison clerk's office address. Had she filled this out and sent it back, "her vote would never have been counted," according to Jackson

Behind the firewall: Bush loyalist Mike Connell controls Congressional secrets as his email sites serve Karl Rove

In the spirit of wishing openness and transparency for all our presidential candidates' affairs:

Mc Cain has a bit of a gambling problem -- he doesn't acknowledge that he does gamble, at least to the one group that matters, the IRS. From the Time article:

As you may have read, earlier today the FBI executed search warrants at the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC). The OSC is "an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency. Our basic authorities come from three federal statutes, the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, and the Hatch Act." You can see why the OSC could be a problem for this Administration.

Fortunately, the Bush Administration came up with a solution, putting Scott Bloch in charge of the office. Putting a Bush appointee in charge of the office that's designed to protect the career civil service against being politicized is like putting a lion in charge of protecting baby gazelles.

Just when we needed some comic relief from the primary!
Vitter might take the Fifth; D.C. Madam trial set to kick off Monday

WASHINGTON -- An attorney who has represented Sen. David Vitter, R-La., told a federal judge Friday that a client of his who was subpoenaed by the defense to testify in the so-called D.C. Madam case would assert his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination if the court insists he appear as a witness.

I am looking forward to having a good hearty laugh.

He's a lawbreaker. That's the fucking language we need to be using. If our Blue Laird is correct, and the battle this fall is "against the media," let's start with stuff like this. "John McCain is a lawbreaker and hypocrite who thinks the laws he writes only apply to other people." You can come up with a shorter way to say that if you like. Correctly focused Jane:

Having accepted public financing last fall for the primary, then deciding to thumb his nose at it when it didn't suit his purposes, John McCain is now laying the groundwork for accepting public financing in the general. Aided by reform groups like Democracy 21 who have hammered Obama for not accepting it but have uttered nary a peep about the fact that McCain is breaking the law, he's obviously looking to play the "holier than thou" card in the fall -- confident that a compliant press and the wouldbe watchdogs will all take a nap while he does it.

And do go on to contrast and compare Jane's direct speech to the timid and weak writing of the Boston paper of record at the link. It's pathetic. The press so loves this man, it's kind of gross and sick. It's like they are a thousand sycophantic twinks, all aiming to nail the ultimate Power Daddy. Ick.

Get ready for some sternly worded letters from the Dems.

But Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) disclosed during a hearing yesterday that the RNC has now said it "has no intention of trying to restore the missing White House e-mails."

"The result is a potentially enormous gap in the historical record," Waxman said, including the buildup to the Iraq war.

Mmmm. Taste the good oversight. But is anyone going to jail?

Nah, that would cause "partisan gridlock"!

"Things" (like Republican lawbreakers getting off scot free) wouldn't "get done" in Washington.

This is good to hear, I wish them luck. As SI notes, it's stupid because it just encourages people to make mirror sites. Stupid suits, still too dense to understand how the intertubes operate as they War on Freedom. Lots of livelinks in the original.

Note to Bank: Don't Wage War With the Internets

If you follow the political blogs, you probably know about the Wikileaks case. In a nutshell, last week a district court judge ruled in favor of Swiss Bank Julius Baer and ordered the Wikileaks domain name shut down because a former bank employee allegedly used the site to post proof that the bank is involved in a money laundering scheme. Wired's Threat Level gives an excellent, thorough run-down of the story.

Last night the ACLU, the ACLU of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit.

Via Digby:

Delahunt: You said if an opinion was rendered, that would insulate him from any consequences.

[Mike Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States, before the House Judiciary Committee today]: We could not investigate or prosecute somebody for acting in reliance on a justice department opinion.

...

Delahunt: If that opinion was inaccurate and in fact violated a section of US Criminal Code, that reliance is in effect an immunity from any criminal culpability.

MM: Immunity connoted culpability. [Well, is anyone culpable? -scar]

...

Delahunt: I find that a new legal doctrine. The law is the law.

The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide.

Plame emails, US Attygate, heck everything.

Why can't they all learn from Bush, Cheney and Hillary Clinton? You just don't use email.

This guy is shameless. Not only is nothing beneath him regarding dirty politics, but apparently he can get away with saying any old thing that Jesus whispers into his ears.

Like shooting voters dead, or slip into a warm tub and slit your wrists, or "Paul is Dead". Now it is the Lord's Will that Huckabee faithful go forth and clog the wireless to prevent reporters from sending in those bad field reports from Iowa. Where do you draw the line when commanding your followers to do your bidding?

NYTimes: (h/t thinkprogress)

Really long, but worth it. Bottom line: America has lost the War on Drugs, in every effective measure of those words. You knew that, of course, but what fascinated me about this piece was that despite the moderate, non-foily tone, it's impossible not to come away with the conclusion that our drug policy is directed by complete idiots or corrupt players or both. More radically minded people like me will point out that a big chunk of the failure must be the result of endemic corruption, but even without that, the shift is complete. The time when we can hopefully and unabashedly speak about drug policy reform is here, even if the media has yet to realize that fact. It's because there are three groups of people in this country, and one of them is finally in the majority.

The first, and largest, are those who believe it is time for sensible drug policy reform, from top to bottom. That group includes not only dope-smoking hippies and Rave-tripping teens, but experienced law enforcement officials and conservative politicians. One of many choice quotes from the article:

"What we learned was that in drug work, nothing ever stands still," says Coleman, the former DEA official and current president of Drug Watch International, a law-and-order advocacy group. For every move the drug warriors made, the traffickers adapted. "The other guys were learning just as we were learning," Coleman says. "We had this hubris."

Get a load of this:

The head of the federal agency investigating Karl Rove's White House political operation is facing allegations that he improperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a private computer-help company, Geeks on Call.

Scott Bloch runs the Office of Special Counsel, an agency charged with protecting government whistleblowers and enforcing a ban on federal employees engaging in partisan political activity. Mr. Bloch's agency is looking into whether Mr. Rove and other White House officials used government agencies to help re-elect Republicans in 2006.

At the same time, Mr. Bloch has himself been under investigation since 2005. At the direction of the White House, the federal Office of Personnel Management's inspector general is looking into claims that Mr. Bloch improperly retaliated against employees and dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination.

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year. They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.

So, to recap: Karl Rove is accused of retaliating against employees and then illegally deleting the evidence. The man in charge of investigating him is accused of retaliating against employees and then deleting evidence.

Fuck. This. Shit.

Wait, though, it gets better!

Larry Craig, Trent Lott and Mitch McConnell walk into a bar...

Sorry, I guess I'm just irresponsibly speculating. Don't let the door hit ya, and all that. Word is he's out now the better to avoid new ethics rules about former officeholders and lobbying.

Kucinich's Cheney Impeachment Resolution being read by Clerk of the House, charges of misleading information used to send the country to war on lies.

This is a wonderful day.

So just one Republican is enough to hold up a bill to restore sanity to "sensitive" presidential records.

The executive order, which Mr. Gonzales drafted, made it significantly harder for historians and the public to gain access to a former president’s official records, and it provided an early glimpse of two Bush White House themes: a mania for secrecy and a dangerously inflated view of presidential authority to override existing law.