First Door on the Left

If you take a photograph and you do not want anyone using that photograph for any purpose whatsoever, do not post that photograph on the internet.

Idiot.

Debra Saunders, a Conservative columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle writes…

The mortgage you didn’t know you had

WASHINGTON politicians, especially on the GOP side, often complain about inheritance taxes. U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, however, thinks elected officials should be talking about “the birth burden,” the $156,000 that represents each American’s share of the $8 trillion federal debt, plus $35 trillion in unfunded spending promises. Every child born in America receives this dubious legacy: a $156,000 IOU.

Walker was in San Francisco on Tuesday, speaking at what participants call, “The Fiscal Wake-up Tour.” Their first hurdle is to break through Americans’ numbness on numbers. You see a tab in the billions, and it doesn’t mean anything to you. So Walker puts the numbers in personal terms. The average household share of the federal fiscal mess is $411,000. Imagine if every household in America had a $411,000 mortgage, but no house.

You can thank the crew in Washington — President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress — for, among other mistakes, passing a new Medicare prescription-drug benefit without paying for it. America’s liabilities have more than doubled from some $20 trillion in 2000 to $46 trillion in 2005, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Click on the headline to continue reading.

I tried to tell you back in 2004 that it was time to put the adults back in charge, but you wouldn’t listen.

Dean Esmay says “we cannot count on the mainstream media anymore to tell us the story of what’s happening in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

That seems to be the prevailing sentiment of most on the right. They would rather read about a school getting a new coat of paint than things like this…

Military to Report Marines Killed Iraqi Civilians

A military investigation into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis last November is expected to find that a small number of marines in western Iraq carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians, Congressional, military and Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Two lawyers involved in discussions about individual marines’ defenses said they thought the investigation could result in charges of murder, a capital offense. That possibility and the emerging details of the killings have raised fears that the incident could be the gravest case involving misconduct by American ground forces in Iraq.

Officials briefed on preliminary results of the inquiry said the civilians killed at Haditha, a lawless, insurgent-plagued city deep in Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, did not die from a makeshift bomb, as the military first reported, or in cross-fire between marines and attackers, as was later announced. A separate inquiry has begun to find whether the events were deliberately covered up.

Evidence indicates that the civilians were killed during a sustained sweep by a small group of marines that lasted three to five hours and included shootings of five men standing near a taxi at a checkpoint, and killings inside at least two homes that included women and children, officials said.

That evidence, described by Congressional, Pentagon and military officials briefed on the inquiry, suggested to one Congressional official that the killings were “methodical in nature.”

Contrary to what many people wish to believe, bad things happen during a war. It’s not all rose petals and lemonade.

We in the United States have been fortunate. Though we tend to glorify war and warriors, we have never had to actually fight a war on our soil (unless you count the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, but those were a long time ago). We’ve been pretty much immune from the realities of war, except those we see on television or read about in newspapers or on the internet. And we get to pick and choose which of those we want to believe.

We should be looking at pictures like this…

Nice war

not pictures like this…

Bad war

or this…

Funeral

Lay, Skilling convicted in Enron collapse

Kenneth Lay

Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted of conspiracy and fraud Thursday by a federal jury that laid blame for one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history squarely on Enron Corp.’s two former top executives.

Jurors found that the men, who received tens of millions in pay and stock options, repeatedly lied to cover up accounting tricks and business failures that led to the company’s 2001 demise. The collapse wiped out more than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in pension plans and 5,600 jobs.

The verdict came in the sixth day of deliberations following a criminal trial that lasted nearly four months. Lay was also convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to banks in a separate, non-jury trial before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake related to Lay’s personal finances…

Lay was convicted on all six counts of conspiracy, securities and wire fraud against him in the corporate trial and all four in the personal banking trial. Former Chief Executive Skilling was convicted on 19 of the 28 counts in the corporate trial, including one count of insider trading, and acquitted on the remaining nine.

Lake set sentencing for Sept. 11. The charges against Lay, who is 64, carry a maximum penalty in prison of 45 years for the corporate trial and 120 years in the personal banking trial. The charges against Skilling, 52, carry a maximum penalty of 185 years in prison…

Lay was a campaign benefactor who President Bush nicknamed “Kenny Boy” when the two were up-and-comers in Texas. The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit group, said the Lays had given $139,500 to Bush’s political campaigns over the years.Those donations were part of $602,000 that Enron employees gave to Bush’s various campaigns, making the company the leading political patron for Bush at the time of the company’s bankruptcy in 2001.

Bush buddy? Yep.

Taylor Hicks.

Taylor Hicks

I think Mr. Cheney wanted Katharine McPhee to win…

Dick

I hope he isn’t having another heart attack. It looks like he may be.

Officials: Hastert “In the Mix” of Congressional Bribery Investigation

Dennis Hastert

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from senior U.S. law enforcement officials.

Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff who reportedly has provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government.

The letter was written shortly after a fund-raiser for Hastert at a restaurant owned by Abramoff. Abramoff and his clients contributed more than $26,000 at the time.

Two heartbeats away from the presidency.

No wonder he is so upset about the FBI searching Congressional offices. Who knows what they might find in his?

(Linked to Beltway Traffic Jam.)

Update: Statement from Ron Bonjean, Communications Director for Speaker Hastert

(Washington, D.C.) Ron Bonjean, Communications Director for Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) issued the following statement regarding the ABC Nightly News story that aired this evening:

“The ABC News report is absolutely untrue. As confirmed by the Justice Department, ‘Speaker Hastert is not under investigation by the Justice Department.’ We are demanding a full retraction of the ABC News story. The Speaker’s earlier statement issued today accurately reflects the facts regarding this matter.”

The Associated Press reports…

Feds Say House Speaker Not Under Probe

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department denied a news report Wednesday that it was investigating House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The statement by department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos came in response to a report by ABC News that Hastert was under investigation by the FBI to determine his role in a public corruption probe centered around convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff…

Hastert was among nearly three dozen lawmakers who pressed the Interior Department to block a Louisiana Indian casino’s casino application. An Associated Press review of campaign reports, IRS records and congressional correspondence found that Hastert and the other lawmakers had collected large donations from Abramoff and his tribal clients.

Between 2001 and 2004, Hastert collected more than $100,000 in donations from Abramoff’s firm and tribal clients. He also had used Abramoff’s restaurant to hold fundraisers.

The future of the world as we know it will be decided tonight…

Update: I think Taylor Hicks won it.

Former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen dies at 85

Lloyd Bentsen

HOUSTON – Lloyd Bentsen, a courtly Texan who represented the state in Congress for 28 years and served as President Clinton’s first treasury secretary, died Tuesday morning, his family said. He was 85.

Bentsen, also the Democratic 1988 vice presidential nominee, died at his home in Houston.

His distinguished political career took him from the humble beginnings of a county office in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1940s to six years in the U.S. House, 22 in the U.S. Senate and two in the Clinton Cabinet, where he was instrumental in directing the administration’s economic policy.

The NYT‘s Patrick Healy wrote a tabloid article on the marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton. It ran on today’s front page. His thesis:

Democrats say it is inevitable that in a campaign that could return the former president to the White House, some voters would be concerned or distracted by Mr. Clinton’s political role and the episode that led the House to vote for his impeachment in 1998.

Wrong. It is not the Democrats who spout that ridiculousness. And who exactly are these “some voters” he refers to? Nevermind… I don’t need you to tell me. I know who they are.

Atrios gives us the article that the Times should have run…

State of Candidates’ Marriages A Question for Republicans

Washington, DC, May 23 – Republicans say it is inevitable that some voters would be concerned and even distracted by the numerous personal indiscretions of the various candidates likely to seek the office of president, and express concern about whether they would be likely to repeat such behavior while in the White House.

While former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani’s popularity increased after the events of September 11, pushing his personal issues into the background, Republicans worry he would bring to the White House the kind of activities which marred his tenure at Gracie Mansion.

Giuiliani’s behavior led to a judge barring the presence of Judith Nathan, with whom he began having an affair during his last term as mayor, from the mayoral home. The judge’s order also criticized Giuliani for the emotional harm he inflicted on his children.

Twice-married Virginia Senator George Allen faces questions over claimed sadistic treatment of his siblings and his fondness for confederate memorabilia despite his having grown up in California. While divorce alone may not disqualify him from the ballot in Republican voters’ eyes – they overlooked it in 1980 when Ronald Reagan became the first, and only, divorced man to be elected president – it is still expected to impact his standing with conservative religious voters. Senator McCain of Arizona is in a similar position.

Thrice-married former Speaker of the House New Gingrich also concerns Republicans as he gears up for a potential presidential run. Gingrich, currently 62, began dating his geometry teacher, and future wife, while he was still in high school. He later served her divorce papers at her hospital bed where she was receiving treatment for cancer. He divorced his second wife after it was revealed that he had been having a long-running affair with a staffer 23 years younger than him during the Clinton impeachment saga.

The world is on fire and this is the kind of slime-ball politics we have to deal with. Shame on Karl Rove and the RNC!