Republican Looting

Rules? We don't need no stinking rules, beside "Democrats" passed them- they must be good! Like this one: if you can't pay my way for front seat tickets at the Bob Seger concert, I really don't care what you think. Here, have a "money" quote, it's the closest you'll ever come to the real thing:
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This movie is truly excellent. If you read this blog, much of what is discussed in it will not be new to you. Still, I encourage you to rent/buy it. What is best about it is the way in which it speaks so effectively to the audience that needs to hear the message the most- Bush voters. It is impossible to view this film and not come away with the sense that working class white Christians and patriots are little more than cannon fodder and slave labor for the elite warmongers and profiteers. Read below the fold...

CREW does such great work, from Foleygate to keeping pols honest on both sides, they always have to goods. Save this one for the next time you need a quick and well researched list of Republican cronies. Pass it on to your Republican friends.
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Yeah, I know we "knew" these things oh, three years ago or so. But this is why it makes a difference to have Democratic chairs of committees and hearings out in the bright light of day. Because then you know things from the Congressional Record and hear about them from the AP, not dirty fucking hippie bloggers. This piece from the Raleigh NC N&O/AP could be better with some copy editing, so I have taken the liberty of rearranging some paragraphs. The material is otherwise unchanged:
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Re the details about the Libby trial, and what's being said over there about who is the scapegoat and who is the bacon to be saved, Digby notes:
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Yuletide cheer, Interior and Pentagon contractors! More missing billions. And, funny thing, the excuse is the same as the previous kleptocray story today: Read below the fold...

This time, the much-touted Bush AIDS initiative:

President Bush's ambitious AIDS-fighting program in poor countries has pushed so hard for fast results that basic record keeping and accountability often went by the wayside, making it hard to judge the true success, according to government audits and officials.

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Yuletide cheer, Katrina contractors! Enjoy your no-bid billions in fraud.

Sigh. I guess it's just another example of a blowout... Read below the fold...

Via Blondesense, a Tom Paine dicussion about economic policy and China, and more from the idiots who brought you the fallen Saddam statue.
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Since the Saudi Consigliere suggested we be out of Iraq by 2008- to Dear Leader's vocal disagreement, the Rethuglicans have the potential of removing what little main$tream media attention the antiwar movement has been given since November. Read below the fold...

Ahem. I've said it before, I'll say it again: past all the foily, racist, oil-based, hubris driven, adventuristic, pro-hardliners in Israel, and Oedipal reasons that drive this war, one stands above all others. It's the profit, stupid. No, really. Here is one surefire winner for the Dems. Fix this:
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No, no, not Mark Foley--He's bound and gagged in rehab. Jack Abramoff:

"What is most important, however, is that this matter is kept discreet," Abramoff wrote to a colleague at the Preston, Gates & Ellis law firm. "We do not want the opponents to think that we are trying to buy the taxpayer movement."

No, no, of course not. Read below the fold...

Idiot media has (however inadequately and infrequently) reported every time the "number of appointments at the White House by Jack Abramoff or his employees" has changed, invariably upwards. What they have never, that I've seen anyway, made note of is that Abramoff had his own plant right in the heart of the White House. His former "aide" Susan Ralston, who has been Karl Rove's right-hand woman for most if not the entire BushCo presidency reign of terror. Read below the fold...

I put this one up under the "Department of Schadenfreud" department because I'm a cyincal, bitter radical and I hope the blogosphere survives long enough so that I can come back to this post and say "I told you so." As an economist recently described it to me, we're "borrowing from our great-grandchildren" now. Given the direction of so many vectors of doom, vectors that people seem intent on ignoring, all I can say is, /Cue obscure Jefferson Starship album/ "we tried to warn you." Read below the fold...

Have you heard about the curious incident of the international agreement that did not bark in the nighttime?

Yes, I'm talking about the Softwood Lumber Agreement, whose "meritorious initiatives" were to be determined today--All $450 million smackeroos of meritoriousness. But the dog didn't bark. No announcement.

I know, I know. Meritorious, WTF? [Yawn] ""Softwood Lumber Agreement"? Honestly, MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over). B-o-r-i-n-g. Read below the fold...