by Last Night in Little Rock

An indictment against the political action committee formed Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX,22) was released today in Austin, TX. No individuals were charged with any wrongdoing, including Rep. DeLay.

by Last Night in Little Rock

One good thing about the Neo-Cons is that they don't pay attention to The Daily Show or any show on Air America Radio because it provides comic relief and exposes them for the fools they are.

Everyday this past week, both sources lined up the video or audio of various Administration flacks, including the President, repeating the "phrase of the day." One can imagine Karl Rove faxing it around every morning: "This is the li[n]e for the day." After the third time, you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Tonight's on The Daily Show was "The Blame Game" being spoken by the President, DHS Secretary Chertoff, Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency Director Brown ("Brownie, you're doin' a great job" destroying a great city and my Presidency, not that I can't do a good job of it myself).

On the Al Franken Show Wednesday was the line about "It was in all the papers: New Orleans dodged a bullet," as to why DHS and FEMA were caught with their pants down after the storm. Chertoff, Joint Chief of Staff General Myers, and others dutifully repeated the phrase to absurdity. There was no such article in any paper. They made it up. Franken was outraged today, as well he should have been, because I was outraged listening to it. Liars.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The NY Times today has an article entitled As White House Anxiety Grows, Bush Tries to Quell Political Crisis. The lead says it all:

Faced with one of the worst political crises of his administration, President Bush abruptly overhauled his September schedule on Saturday as the White House scrambled to gain control of a situation that Republicans said threatened to undermine Mr. Bush's second-term agenda and the party's long-term ambitions.

The "political ramifications" appeared a few days ago here. Republicans are, hopefully, running for cover as the Commander-in-Chief (his aides, actually) struggled to come up with a CYA for the screw up of the Century.

While no one was looking, in the middle of the disaster in New Orleans, Bush found time Wednesday to bypass the Senate and appoint Alice Fisher as Chief of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in a recess appointment.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., had blocked the nomination because he wants to talk to an agent who named Fisher in an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo. Fisher can serve until January 2007.

There isn't any mention of the appointment on the Department of Justice's website or the White House site.

GOP uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, through his Miami lawyer Neal Sonnett, pleaded not guilty on Monday to fraud charges in federal court in Miami:

"I'm not going to summarize my defense strategy now," Sonnett told reporters outside the courtroom. "I can't summarize it. He committed no fraud. His case has been fairly stated in the civil cases, and that position is not going to change. Any defense theories or motions will be made in court."

In previous civil cases arising out of the SunCruz purchase, Abramoff has placed the blame for the phony wire transfer on his partner, Kidan. He has said in court filings that he believed Kidan had provided funds to the seller, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, who was later killed in a gangland-style shooting.

Since Kidan also is indicted, it appears that the Government isn't buying Abramoff's defense. Otherwise, one would think, they would offer him a deal to testify against Kidan, which it appears from the above statement, he is more than willing to do.

Background on the case is here.

Think Progress reports:

From the 6/6/05 New Orleans City Business:

In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding…The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.

....Landrieu said the Bush administration is not making Corps of Engineers funding a priority. “I think it’s extremely shortsighted,” Landrieu said. “When the Corps of Engineers’ budget is cut, Louisiana bleeds. These projects are literally life-and-death projects to the people of south Louisiana.”

Also, here's why there was no national guard to assist in evacuation by buses to safe shelters in unaffected communities, rather than leaving the poor and infirm in town

A similar warning that New Orleans would cease to exist causing thousands to face death if they remained, was given in 2004. [hat tip Patriot Daily.]

In fact, as Norwegianity pointed out last night, Fox made a aired a movie, Oil Storm, about it in June. From the synopsis:

What an editorial!

Rove's record has been consistent. Over 35 years, he has been a master of dirty tricks, divisiveness, innuendo, manipulation, character assassination, and roiling partisanship.

It's a two-pager that traces Rove's history and brings us up to RoveGate.

Related: Bush Launches Operation "Cindy Sheehan."[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

Marc Cooper writes that he learned at poker boot camp how to tell when Rumsfeld is lying...which is all the time.

When people start sucking their lips into their mouths, they’re probably lying or bluffing. That’s what I was taught this past weekend in a poker boot camp by former FBI counter-intelligence officer Joe Navarro.

Joe was offering us campers a seminar on how to read body language. When it came to the lesson on lip-sucking, he emphasized the above point by saying: “That’s why every time you see Don Rumsfeld on TV his lips pretty much altogether disappear.”

There's lots more. [Via Kevin Drum and Crooks and Liars]

Arianna reports that U.N. Ambassador John Bolton is having a very private reception at the Waldorf Astoria tonight. The conservative press has been invited, but look who's been excluded:

...some of the people who won't be there include Colum Lynch from the Washington Post and Warren Hoge from the New York Times, both of whom cover the U.N. for their respective papers. If you thought the Bush administration’s cowardice about having to face anyone who is not completely on board with them was confined to Crawford and the campaign trail, think again.

The Wall St. Journal (free article) has the results of a new Harris Poll. Bush is sinking faster than the Titanic.

President Bush's job approval ratings are at their lowest point of his presidency as only 40% of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of his job performance and 58% have a negative opinion, according to a Harris Interactive poll.

This is a decline from two months ago, when the president's ratings were 45% positive and 55% negative. The war in Iraq and the economy climbed to the top of a list of issues Americans say are most important for the U.S. to address. Social Security declined sharply.

Cheney and Rumsfeld dropped as well.

Vice President Dick Cheney's approval ratings slipped to 35% from 38% in June, while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's approval ratings dropped to 40% from 42%.

He was just misunderstood. Any takers on this one?

I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time," Robertson said on "The 700 Club." (Watch video)

...."If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson Monday. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war." (Watch Robertson's comments)

by TChris

Right wing extremists seem to believe that they are immune from the consequences of their crazed rantings. Not always, it turns out.

Washington, D.C. radio talk show host Michael Graham was fired on Monday after refusing to apologize for comments he made about Islam. On July 25, Graham said “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam. The problem is not extremism. The problem is Islam.” His station, WMAL, said he referred to Islam as a terrorist organization 23 times during that same show.

Graham can say what he wants to say, but his employer, a private business, doesn’t have to give him a forum to preach religious hatred.

Pat Robertson isn’t likely to lose his job for advocating the assassination of a foreign head of state, but his remarks have nonetheless triggered the “international firestorm” that they deserve.