Ok, yes I saw the Wright speech on CNN tonight. I know I saw it because I just saw another thread on corrente where Wright talked about the right-brained creative black child vs the wrong brained who-gives-a-damn white child. I thought that I had fallen asleep on the couch and dreamed that. Now I have to reconcile reality with um reality. Yes, Virginia this is 2008 not 1846.
Letting that sink in.
Wright went on to say in a tone that was as if all whites during desegregation ran and met in a big assembly room and said “we know what to do, they are right-brained creative AFRICAN children, we will desegregate thus keeping them down forever and ever!”  Read more 

Under the Bush Administration, reading is no longer fundamental. The Bush Administration has eliminated all funding for the program— which has been funded by every administration since 1975—in the 2009 proposed budget.

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.  Read more 

And Avedon has a nice summary of Hucklebee’s Wayne Dumond problem and its implications:

Murray Waas actually has new information on Huckabee and the rapist. To the question, “Who could have predicted that a serial rapist would rape and kill more women if he was prevented from serving his sentence?” the answer is: “Almost everyone.” [The letters are on record] And they all warned Huckabee, who let him out anyway because he was only jailed in the first place for raping someone who was related to Bill Clinton. Like Atrios says, the Clinton-haters really were/are lunatics.

But then we knew that. Now Hucklebee, of course, puts it all on the parole board, they did it, no pressure, it’s all been politicized, blame The Clenis, blah, blah, blah, crawfish, crawfish, crawfish:

When he spoke about the case, Huckabee suggested his role in the decision to parole DuMond was limited.

Huckabee said it was the decision by Clinton and Tucker that made DuMond eligible for parole, and Huckabee declined to reduce DuMond’s sentence further.

In 1996, Huckabee sent a letter to DuMond saying parole was the best option for him, the National Review reported.

“I’ve never made a decision about the DuMond case other than the decision to write the letter” to DuMond, Huckabee said. “That was my decision, but I didn’t parole him, because governors don’t parole people in Arkansas.”

However, Charles Chastain, a parole board member at the time, told ABC News he felt pressure from Huckabee when the board considered DuMond’s parole in 1996.

The Arkansas Times reported in 2002 that two other board members said they were influenced by Huckabee to parole DuMond.

Huckabee denied he asked the board to approve DuMond’s parole.

“No, I did not,” Huckabee said Sunday. “Let me categorically say I did not.”

Hmmm…. Well, if that’s true, why has Huckabee suppressed his Dumond files?  Read more 

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!  Read more 

It’d be a whole ’nother Bible, wouldn’t it?  Read more 

I know, I know- my smart friends keep telling me to ignore what I perceive to be a Republican revolt, and an upswell of “libertarianism” in that party. OK, I’m probably wrong. But then there is this thread. It probably means nothing. And yet- on a recent drive thru this state, going up north to the country, what did I see? A lot of poverty, and misery. And, a lot of signs. For one guy, and no one else. That guy was Ron Paul.

I am not a Paul supporter. But I keep talking about him, and his flunkies, because I know them to be like me. That is, lost, and forgotten, and without a real party or representation. I think they are confused about reality, but they likely think the same of me, and in the end, we all understand that we have more in common with each other than we do with our “leaders” in either party.  Read more 

LYING LIMBAUGH DOESN’T KNOW HOW LONG THE US MUST STAY IN IRAQ  Read more 

here.

I swear, sometimes, I cannot BELIEVE God lets these people run around loose claiming to follow Him. I’m all for free speech and I’m all for representative government, but while we’re at it, can we have honking big glow-in-the-dark permanently attached audio-enhanced warning signs on these IDIOTS? (Where is Leno when you need him?)  Read more 

The occupied White House has disengaged itself thoroughly from any pretense that it is acting on principal. It has now come out against measures that were its own, and that it espoused, until they were taken up by a Congress that it can’t control.

The latest, the DREAM act, actually incorporated measures the cabal had promoted in its own immigration reforms.

Previously, in vetoing SCHIP, the cretin in chief denied his own promised health insurance for millions of kids.  Read more 

From over at Media Matters,
the admission on his own show yesterday (yes, they have an audio clip there) that Rush Limbaugh attempted to use coercion and threats against children on a reporter whose story Limbaugh feared.

Can charges be brought for attempted blackmail against Limbaugh? This “entertainer” brags about blackmailing a reporter:  Read more 

are so good they MUST be repeated. First, What Digby Says about Rush Limbaugh is a must read. UPDATE: Keith Olbermann on successfully defending yourself  Read more 

Hello, and thank you to all the members of the members of the Mighty Corrente Building for allowing me to stop by.  Read more 

Erik-with-a-K Prince is due tomorrow to testify in Congress. Blackwater (another word for sewage!) recently pulled out of a real estate deal in North Carolina, near Ft. Bragg. UPDATE: Tons more info here:
Daily Kos on Blackwater. Several possible reasons for this are in play, but of interest is their newest contract: they’ll be helping with the War on Drugs, inside the US.

Contractors take on expanded role in drug war

By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com September 12, 2007

Late last month, the Pentagon tapped five major defense contractors to provide wide-ranging support in global counter-narcotics operations. The contract, worth up to $15 billion over the next five years, illustrates the extent to which the Defense Department is relying on contractors to perform critical missions while combat forces are stretched thin by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In response to specific task orders issued under the indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract, companies will develop and deploy new surveillance technologies, train and equip foreign security forces and provide key administrative, logistical and operational support to Defense and other agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration.  Read more 

So when will President Hillary invite Move On to the White House? President Edwards? President Obama? Anyone? Seeing as how Move On is all outrageous and evil and worse than Hitler, a sort of left-left-wing vanguard of the extreme left. In the same way that The Freepers are hard right extremist ideologues. I’m just wondering.

How low can you go, Mr. President?  Read more 

and it’s mean spirited. (Murdoch)
and it’s potty-mouthed. (Cheney)
and it’s sucking our intelligence out our ears. (Bush)

This just sucks.  Read more 

Spocko’s got all the disgusting details over at this entry, so go read. Then write letters, at least.  Read more 

What Dominionists believe in:  Read more 

You may not like everything in the film clip above, but you should pay attention to what “Crockett” says. Some things go so far out of style over forty-five years’ time, they come back in again. Franklin suggested the founders had given us a Republic, if we could keep it.  Read more 

Posted whole because it’s so good:

I took a jog around presidential candidate websites to see how they were responding publicly to the public’s dismay/astonishment over what happened 2 years ago and what hasn’t happened (in terms of Gulf Coast relief and recovery) since. (the photo of Bush and McCain holding cake above was taken not long after the levees breached in New Orleans and people were drowning).

The re-building of New Orleans and the Gulf region could have been a boon to the U.S. economy with one of the biggest public works projects in American history. New homes could have been built and bought at a time when the real estate industry needs help. New Orleans could have been a shining example of American industy, ingenuity and science as a sparkling clean, safe and energy-efficient metropolis rose from Katrina’s ashes.

That hasn’t happened. Yet. Instead, President Bush proposes $200 billion for Iraq spending while local police are running low on ammunition to protect folks here at home.  Read more 

I wonder what her “talent” was?  Read more 

“A lot of people like to say, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China — you know, if China were to revalue its currency, or China is to start making, say, toys that don’t have lead in them, or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up. And that means prices at Walmart, here in the United States, are going to go up too,” she told Hardball’s audience Friday. “So, I would say China is our greatest friend right  Read more 

Hat tip to DailyKos, where the diarist “Free Exchange On Campus” provided the quotes below:  Read more