First Draft

In the beginning....

Book bags did exist. I know because I have it on good authority that this is exactly like the book bag which Holden carried during grade school, high school and college.....

Also explains the pony thingee too

Christ To Sally Kern: Get Off My Side

What morally tone-deaf assholes her followers are:

Matt Barber, CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, "This astronomical show of support for Rep. Sally Kern today sends a strong message. People with traditional values who value God's design for human sexuality will not be intimidated and bullied into silence. Political correctness can never trump truth. Sally Kern stood for truth, and she was hated for it. She was persecuted for Christ, but the Body of Christ was there to lift her up. Sally was faithful to God, and He was faithful to her in return. This is a great day for all who love righteousness."

For those of us who despise hyperbole, however, it's a dark day indeed.

A.

Saturday Blogwhoring Thread

Post away.

A.

The Sound of the Thunder That Roared Out a Warning: Galactica Thread

Oh, have I missed you, beautiful girl.

Spoilers inside. You've been warned.

Bruuuuuuuuce!

A.

Holy Crap!™

What an embarrassment, making faces while his host, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, speaks.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Then again, he was drunk at the time.

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Hat-tip to P. O'Neill.

John McCain Admittedly Knows Less Than He Should About The Economy

Thanks for 2008!

U.S. consumer food prices normally rise by about 2.5 percent annually, but they increased by 4 percent in 2007 -- the biggest increase in 17 years, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data.

Prices continue to rise. A survey conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation in February showed that in the beginning months of this year, the cost of 16 grocery items, including flour and cheddar cheese, was $45.03, up $3.42, or 8 percent, from the fourth quarter.

Friday Cat Blogging

A dreamy Willie B:

I'm Rooting For Cannot Name Anyone

Gallup polls Republikkkan voters on their choice of a running mate for John McCain:

Cannot Name Anyone 31%
Other 21%
Mike Huckabee 18%
Mitt Romney 15%
Condoleeza Rice 8%
No Opinion 5%
Fred Thompson 4%
Ron Paul 2%
Rudy Giuliani 2%
Charlie Crist 2%
Joe Lieberman 2%
Colin Powell 1%
John Edwards 1%
Tim Pawlenty 1%
Newt Gingrich 1%
Bill Richardson 1%

Starbuck Overload

Entertainment Weekly has some words in it, but I think I'll just stare at the pictures for a while.

Thread tonight, as soon as I can get my thoughts together.

A.

Friday Ferretblogging: Things I Will Miss About Winter

Riot, sleeping in my hat:

Puck's winter fur, which is just ridiculous:

A.

John McCain Admits He Knows Nothing About The Economy

More good news for Republikkkans from the official Bureau or Labor Statistics release on March's job numbers.

Over the past 3 months, payroll employment has declined by 232,000.

[snip]

In March, the number of persons unemployed because they lost jobs increased by 300,000 to 4.2 million.  Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed job losers has increased by 914,000.

[snip]

About 1.4 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached to the labor force in March.  These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.  They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Oh, The Humanity!

The White House Press Office has its collective knickers in a wad over yesterday's New York Times piece in which Chimpy's cluelessness on the econmy was laid bare for all to see.

Setting the Record Straight: The New York Times Mistakes Its Own Blindness for Presidential "Invisibility"

Apologist For Democrat-Led Congress’ Inaction, Paper Criticizes President Bush For Public Unawareness Of Housing Event Old “Gray Lady” Forgot She Failed To Cover

"Democrat-led" Congress?

Holy Crap!™

Job losses in March exceeded even the gloomiest of predictions.

April 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost jobs for a third consecutive month in March and unemployment rose to the highest level in two and a half years, pointing to an economy that may already be in a recession.

Payrolls shrank by 80,000, more than forecast, after a decrease of 76,000 in February that was more than initially reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 5.1 percent, the highest since September 2005, from 4.8 percent.

[snip]

Economists had projected payrolls would fall by 50,000 following a previously reported 63,000 drop in February, according to the median of 79 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Economists' forecasts ranged from a decline of 150,000 to a gain of 65,000.

Revisions subtracted 67,000 jobs from the originally reported figures for January and February. The last time the economy lost jobs for at least three consecutive months coincided with the start of the Iraq War in 2003.

The jobless rate was forecast to rise to 5 percent from 4.8 percent in February, the survey said.

Forty

It's been forty years since the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Forty years.

It's important to remember that this man was murdered because he espoused the radical notion that people should be treated alike despite color or social status.   

Tributes

(Image credit: Loki at Humid City)

There is so much sadness in the NOLA blogosphere today yet so many have found words to pay tribute to  Ashley Morris who passed yesterday. If you were to go to any blog listed in our NOLA blogroll in our right hand sidebar you will likely find such a tribute. And that would only be a beginning. We wanted to highlight some of what is being expressed today from our friends in the NOLA blogoshpere. We have all lost a powerful and unique voice in the blogosphere and they have lost one of their family. Our hearts go out to them and to Ashley's wife and children. So in tribute:

From Loki at Humid City:

We have lost our excitable boy. His unrelenting passion for our city and his community will be missed as much as his unflinching and cuss-ridden dissections of the federal, state and local incompetence that has brought our city to its present state.

From Greg at Suspect Device:

Ashley was fire. Ashley was the furnace where the rage was forged, where the steam pressure built, where raw anger began its conversion to power and motion.

From Jeffrey:

Ashley was a remarkable human being with an awe-inspiring wealth of experience, an amazing sense of humor, and the kind of anger that is only born of a deep deep sense of humanity.

From AnimaMundi:

I can't begin to tell you the amazement I felt whenever you recounted your exploits in life. I would need a few lifetimes to do some of the things that you did in your brief life. You lived, Professor. "Better to die a devil in the fire, than an angel in the wings." Ah man, amen, you were never in the wings. You were always on the frontline. You made me laugh a lot. I thank you for that and salute your soul. I'll be in that second line to send you off.

From Maitri at VatulBlog:

It is needless to say that Ashley’s death is a huge blow to the New Orleans blogger community, but this is also where our community can be at its best. By helping its own. What Ashley would want is that we are there for his wife and three small children. Let us be at their service.

From  Varg at The Chicory

He detested all things snooty or uppity. He conducted a boisterous love of local peoples and cultures. He had the intelligence and repertoire to engage even the most critical thinkers. He possessed a vibrant joie de vivre. He was a pirate, a trickster, a madman. He was profound and profane; he was an intellectual and a fanatic. He was a bull in a china shop and if shit was going down, you wanted him on your side.

Much at Dangerblond but the title says it all of he who gave "Sinn Fein" to the NOLA blogosphere --"Ourselves, a little more alone"

From Oyster:

New Orleans Patriot, professor, musician, cigar aficionado, blogger, husband, father, Saints fan, techie, polymath... truly a generous, original, vital soul...and jesus napoleon bonaparte christ he could make you laugh.

Oyster gives us that laugh from Ashley with this short recording of him

Adrastos has wonderful pictures

Toulouse Street has a poem in remembrance

From Ray in New Orleans:

I miss you, old man.  More than you can ever know.

Ashley loved The Wire and had many great posts at The New Package blog.  Nancy Nall, who also writes at that blog, has a wonderfully written tribute at her site.  And today the creator of The Wire, David Simon, left this comment at the New Package blog and with that I cried...

Just heard.

I never met Ashley, but communicated with him only recently about his effort to have me speak at the DePaul commencement. As it happens, I was to be in the UK that weekend editing Generation Kill, and so sent regrets, but I feel for some weird reason that it is important for me to do the last thing that this fellow asked me to do.

Ashley understood the dynamics of addiction exactly and there wasn’t a subtext to any of Bubbles or Gary McCullough that eluded him. His voice was honest and blunt and full-throated. And rooted as he was in New Orleans, I felt that there was a possibility I was going to get to know him a lot better.

This is all very sad and sudden and upsetting.

I’m gonna call DePaul today and say that if they still want me to do it and they have not moved on to another speaker, I’m going to fly black and forth from London to do it. Might be too late, but Ashley worked hard to get them to extend the invite when they were of course wondering what the hell The Wire is, so…

Damn, damn, damn….

Ashley Morris --1963-2008-- beloved in the NOLA blogosphere and beyond......

Video from Greg  

UPDATE: Ray in New Orleans has the transcript of a speech, which honored the life and passing of Ashley, given by New Orleans City Council member Shelley Midura at today's New Orleans  city council meeting.

Haters Get Mad Cuz I Got Me Some John McCain

Something stirs within the Freepi:

By now, most McCain haters will have already skipped down to the comments section to post their expletives and tell me how it’s a free country and they have a 1st Amendment right, etc. to yammer on and on about how bad McCain sucks, totally missing the point of my post, again. But I’m here to tell you, in this free country, that in my opinion, you should SHUT YOUR STINKIN TRAP! To all you ingrates, rageaholics, and self-absorbed punks, WE KNOW YOU HATE MCCAIN. You can give yourself a rest now and stop posting on every single thread the same exact comments. I’m not going to name names, but I will if I have to. I think we all know by now who I’m talking about. The folks who post the same pictures and the same comments on EVERY SINGLE THREAD. We got it. You aren’t voting for McCain. Fine. Time to move on. Yes, that’s my opinion. You have had enough time to accept the reality that John Sidney McCain III, WAR HERO, is the Republican nominee. Some folks on FR have used this time to learn more about Johnny, realize that he isn’t as bad as they thought, grow up, act like adults, and get in gear to vote for him. Some of you have decided not only to beat your collective dead horse everyday, banging out the same tiresome gripes about McCain on every thread, but you’ve also gotten increasingly VITRIOLIC. I

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and the Freepi are fucking dumb:

Just one more anti free speech pro McCain groin leech.

---

Who the hell do you think you are? You sound like some kind of book-burning, speech muzzling Fascist!

Might I suggest you ‘Shut your stinking trap’.

---

I would normally recommend fireproof panties for a post like this, but you’re going to need the entire suit I think.

---

LOL! I didn’t know McCain’s campaign manager posted here?

---

Is your real name Alanis Morrisette?

---

You're a dirty rotten COMMUNIST!

---

I would never wish death or illness on anyone, not even a Democrat.

However, if McCain were to have a complete, Queeg-on-the-witness-stand meltdown in front of the cameras, causing him to have to step down from his candidacy or the Presidency, I'd buy a round for the house.

Also, when did we start calling him Johnny?

A.

Viva Paulistas!

They're stirring up some trouble in the Lone Star State.

Want a fresh political surprise?

How about supporters of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul for president staking a lasting claim in the Republican Party of Texas?

As Democrats tussled over their presidential candidates at recent regional conventions, Paul backers unexpectedly took control of a GOP convention in Austin and the Victoria County convention.

The results at Travis County's state Senate District 25 convention left old-guard Republicans wondering who lost the party's car keys — and worse.

Gail Suttle, active in GOP circles since the 1980s, watched the takeover in horror. Suttle e-mailed Republicans afterward: "This group is NOT Republican and they will not work together — remember this when you do have to be in contact with them."

At the confab at a local middle school, she'd likened the Paulies to Hitler youth, saying they were to the right of Attila the Hun.

"I am sorry," her subsequent e-mail says, "but I meant it all!"

[snip]

Delegates also whacked at typical Republican positions.

They voted in favor of deleting language in the state party's platform dealing with family matters such as a call for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. They said the U.S. Supreme Court should leave abortion rights to individual states; the state platform calls for a constitutional ban on abortion.

"Abortion is not an issue that affects most people in this country," McDonald said. "Foreign policy, the economy, personal freedoms affect everybody. ... Those are the things we need to concentrate on."

Delegates approved a resolution honoring Gov. Rick Perry. They scuttled a commendation of President Bush.

"A lot of people feel like he's let his party and his country down," McDonald said.

Rest in Peace

One of the first NOLA blogs I ever read was Ashley Morris: the blog. And the first post I read  was the now classic, legendary post of the NOLA blogoshpere--- "Fuck you, you fucking fucks."  I had instant respect for the bravery of those words and the man who expressed them. Actually I first thought Ashley was a woman and concluded-- "Man she can bring it better than Athenae"--that says something. Of course in short time I realized she was a he and though I did meet Ashley, I came to know him through his writings. And through Ashley I came to know and love even more the city he loved so...New Orleans. I think that is a testament for which he would be proud....that his words and expressions would guide one to love his city.

Ashley fought for the recovery of New Orleans like no other. Just read FYYFF and Sein Fein. Please do. But there was more to his voice and blog than the right and righteous anger. Ashley wrote of the food, the restaurants, the music, the celebrations and parades--the culture of New Orleans. His words breathed the lifeblood of the city and it was a joy to read each day.

And then there were the Saints.

If his many posts taught me of a New Orleans I'd yet to know, it was the Saints posts in which I found the universal common ground with this remarkable man.  I, being a die-hard fantactical Packers cheesehead, understood  the depth of emotion and the meaning of a team and stadium to the people who came together each Sunday. And it was a post that Ashley wrote not long ago about the people who came together in section 635 of the Superdome that I want to re-post for you to appreciate the man--the man that many in New Orleans consider a hero--and he was. But in this post he tells a story, a  New Orleans story, a damn good story that stood out in my mind and that in itself is a true testament in a city known for its stories and storytellers.  In it, Ashley our hero, writes of his heroes. The first time I read it I said aloud--"Man that is SO New Orleans. Right there, that's it."

It is rare to find in one man's voice, the fire of FYYFF and the gentle humble appreciation of "Heroes in our Midst." It is an homage to heroes and history and a city. It is all that he fought for and his leg of the fight is now over. Others will carry on. But no one will replace the  remarkable voice which  lives on for us to remember and appreciate at Ashley Morris: the blog. Thank you Ashley...

Heroes in our midst

I have season tickets to the Saints, and I sit by Mr. Cl10 and Dillyberto.  These are two good family guys that love New Orleans and the Saints as hysterically as I do. 

Most of the people in our section are like that.  There's the guy behind us that flies in from Huntsville for every game, the tattooed couple up a row on our left, the cross-dressers down the row, the good ol' boys on our left, the guys behind me who will actually accept when I offer to do them up in eye black, and so on.

In other words, our section, the cheap seats of 635, is a cross-section of New Orleans. We're the King Arthur krewe of sections. We're the Gentilly of sections.

We're lucky.  We're right on the rail, and the people across the walkway in front of us get about the same view, but pay about double the price. 

One couple that sits in the section in front comes in from Hattiesburg for every game.  It's a mother and daughter, and they love the Saints as much as any of us do, if not more.  They never miss a game.

The mother, Miss Ellie, has a bad knee and so Dillyberto (usually) or Cl10 or I (occasionally) will help her down the steps to her seat. Like us, she's up against the rail, but instead of a walkway in front of her, she has nothing but the expanse of the dome.  Her daughter, Bettie, is a riot, and loves to tell us stories about how Momma won't miss a Saints game.  As a former resident of the 'burg, I always manage to bring up Leatha's BBQ Inn, which is, I truly believe, where God goes when he wants barbecue.

Well, Miss Ellie was talking about how she was going to have to have a knee replacement, and Bettie was saying that she refused to have the surgery done during the season, because she wasn't about to miss a game.

That's a Saints fan, y'all.

On February 11, Miss Ellie had a total replacement of her right knee.  According to Bettie, she's in pain, but doing well.  From Bettie:

My last words to her before she was given her "la-la land shot" was GO SAINTS!!!!

This caused Bettie to miss the Thoth activities, but she planned to hold court at Lafitte's Blacksmith shop on Mardi Gras Day.

Dillyberto did a Google search on Miss Ellie Dahmer, and we found out, to quote Dilly Berto, that "Bettie Dahmer and Ellie Dahmer's toughest challenge has not been knee surgery".

We are blessed. We are Saints fans, and we have true heroes like Miss Ellie Dahmer walking in our midst.

Long live Miss Ellie.  One of my heroes.

Professor Ashley Morris. One of my heroes.

 

I have season tickets to the Saints, and I sit by Mr. Cl10 and Dillyberto.  These are two good family guys that love New Orleans and the Saints as hysterically as I do. 

Most of the people in our section are like that.  There's the guy behind us that flies in from Huntsville for every game, the tattooed couple up a row on our left, the cross-dressers down the row, the good ol' boys on our left, the guys behind me who will actually accept when I offer to do them up in eye black, and so on.

In other words, our section, the cheap seats of 635, is a cross-section of New Orleans. We're the King Arthur krewe of sections. We're the Gentilly of sections.

We're lucky.  We're right on the rail, and the people across the walkway in front of us get about the same view, but pay about double the price. 

One couple that sits in the section in front comes in from Hattiesburg for every game.  It's a mother and daughter, and they love the Saints as much as any of us do, if not more.  They never miss a game.

The mother, Miss Ellie, has a bad knee and so Dillyberto (usually) or Cl10 or I (occasionally) will help her down the steps to her seat. Like us, she's up against the rail, but instead of a walkway in front of her, she has nothing but the expanse of the dome.  Her daughter, Bettie, is a riot, and loves to tell us stories about how Momma won't miss a Saints game.  As a former resident of the 'burg, I always manage to bring up Leatha's BBQ Inn, which is, I truly believe, where God goes when he wants barbecue.

Well, Miss Ellie was talking about how she was going to have to have a knee replacement, and Bettie was saying that she refused to have the surgery done during the season, because she wasn't about to miss a game.

That's a Saints fan, y'all.

On February 11, Miss Ellie had a total replacement of her right knee.  According to Bettie, she's in pain, but doing well.  From Bettie:

My last words to her before she was given her "la-la land shot" was GO SAINTS!!!!

This caused Bettie to miss the Thoth activities, but she planned to hold court at Lafitte's Blacksmith shop on Mardi Gras Day.

Dillyberto did a Google search on Miss Ellie Dahmer, and we found out, to quote Dilly Berto, that "Bettie Dahmer and Ellie Dahmer's toughest challenge has not been knee surgery".

We are blessed. We are Saints fans, and we have true heroes like Miss Ellie Dahmer walking in our midst.

Long live Miss Ellie.  One of my heroes.

Professor Ashley Morris. One of my heroes.

 

The Next Fake Outrage

Obama hates babies!

“I’ve got two daughters; 9 years old and 6 years old,” Obama said. “I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”

For reasons that elude me, some conservatives — including Sean Hannity, a correspondent for Pat Robertson’s TV show, Hugh Hewitt, and some right-wing blogs — pounced on the “punished with a baby” line, suggesting that Obama somehow equates parenthood with punishment.

Word about this is apparently making the rounds in conservative circles, because the complaints are getting louder. In his Washington Post column, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson insisted that “Obama’s record on abortion is extreme,” and cited the weekend’s comment, among other things, as evidence.

Here's the problem. Who views babies as just punishment for being a filthy whore? That's right, conservatives:

Liberal parents put their daughters on birth control as soon as they reach puberty in order to avoid pregnancy -- certainly inviting them to participate without penalty.

Not that it'll stop them from screaming for months that Obama, who already hates whitey, thinks babies are tasty with ketchup.

A.

New Jobless Claims Breach The 400k Mark

I don't recall ever seeing a weekly new jobless number breaking the 400,000 mark before.

In the week ending March 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 407,000, an increase of 38,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 369,000. The 4-week moving average was 374,500, an increase of 15,750 from the previous week's revised average of 358,750.

I bet the Republikkkans are overjoyed to have chosen a presumptive nominee who admits he knows nothing about the economy.

Terrible News

Ashley Morris has passed away, according to his family.

News, I'm sure, as it becomes available, but for now ... just stunned. Ashley was just over here at my house for dinner a couple of weeks ago, filling up the house with laughter and noise and reminding me not to take any crap from anybody I didn't think was worth my time. The things he wrote are going to ring in my head for a long while, his passion and anger and joy and his love, above all, for his wonderful city.

Deepest condolences to those who knew and loved him.

A.

He Ain't Goin Nowhere

From The Swamp at the Baltimore Sun:

Here's a switch. A press release in which a high-ranking Bush Administration official claims he' not leaving.

FEMA Administrator David Paulison this afternoon put out a strongly worded declaration that, contrary to media reports, he's not not going anywhere.

That passes for news in the last year of a lame duck presidency generously sprinkled with top level boards and commissions lacking enough members for quorums and by a rush for the exits among senior officials. (See yesterday's announced departure of embattled HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson.)

Moving on is a fact of transitions, he said, but not imminent.

"It is a fact that I serve President Bush, and therefore my service will end when we move into the next administration,'' he said. "However, I can assure you that this announcement is not imminent. I have no job offers and have no plans to leave FEMA at this time.''

Errrr cue song I guess......"You Ain't going Nowhere." Also see The Radiators cover but I have a soft spot in my heart for Mary so.....

OK major crush...so I'll never work at Justice

Beck is an idiot...again

Glenn Beck condemning MSNBC regarding Wal-Mart dropping a law suit against brain damaged employee:

Well, what are the principles? The principles are right is right, wrong is wrong. No matter how much I need it, no matter how hard it is for me, no matter how much it sucks, it’s not right. My word is my bond. I made an agreement. I didn’t see it in there. … This is blackmail. And yet Wal-Mart folds. You don’t deal with terrorists? Really? You just did. You just dealt with economic blackmailers. … But then — and I don’t even put it on the family as much as I do on the media. The media, they just — MSNBC, man, they can just make hay with this. (my emphasis)

I guess Beck doesn't watch CNN or just ignores that he ought to "put it on" his employer. From an interview by CNN's Randi Kaye and the Wal-Mart employee's husband Jim Shank:

KAYE: Since our story first aired about your family we were overwhelmed with responses from the viewers, many of them angry with Wal-Mart. I know that you too have heard from a lot of the viewers looking to help. What have they told you, and were you surprised by such a reaction?

SHANK: Oh, the reaction is just -- I can't explain in words. I mean, this is a victory for people. People have spoken. We still have a voice in this country. It just shows that we can make a difference if we all stand together.

KAYE: And why in the end do you think Wal-Mart decided to do this?  To go ahead and forego the money?

SHANK: I hope it's just they saw the light. The pressure from the people and, you know, all the hits, like you said you've had millions of hits on your sites expressing what they think of Wal-Mart and for such a retail giant, you know, maybe they finally felt the pressure, you know, maybe we better rethink things and come out of this as the good guy instead of the bad guy. Most of the people have called me and sent me letters have seen it on CNN. (my emphasis)

CNN then proceeded to, I guess one would say, make a wee bit of "hay" for themselves:

KAYE: We've had viewers write in who told me they were in tears after reading that the family was able to keep the money. One viewer just wrote in big capital letters, justice, for the family. And we have a few -- I have a few blogs that I wanted to share some of the responses.

SNIP

Sara in California also wrote: "Way to go all of you at "AC 360" and CNN. This is a great example of using the powers of the media to give a voice to the voiceless. I'm very happy for the Shank family, one less thing that they have on their plates now. Thanks for bringing this issue out into the open and holding Wal-Mart accountable so that something could be done."

SNIP

KEILAR: All right Randi Kaye, amazing story. You really made quite a difference, allowing our viewers to make a huge difference. Thanks for that.

KAYE: Thank you.

You can catch more of Randi Kaye's in depth reports on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," weeknights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN.

Does that mean Beck works for the Terrorists?

A Certain Satisfaction

File this under "God, I wish it was still April Fool's Day so I could write this off as a joke."

Doug Feith and the torture memo:

It comes just as the Justice Department has released a declassified memo from 2003 that outlined the legal justification for military interrogators to employ harsh interrogation techniques. That memo laid out the administration's view that members of al Qaeda and the Taliban were not protected by the Geneva Conventions.

[snip]

Feith confirms that the logic of the law was not followed with respect to Geneva, rather it deliberately created a legal black hole into which the detainees were meant to fall—and that was the point. “Didn’t the administration’s approach mean that Geneva’s constraints on interrogation couldn’t be invoked by anyone at Guantánamo?” Sands asked Feith. “Oh yes, sure,” Feith replied. “Was that the intended result?” “Absolutely.” Sands writes that he asked again: Under the Geneva Conventions, no one at Guantánamo was entitled to any protection? “That’s the point,” Feith reiterated. As he saw it, either you were a detainee to whom Geneva didn’t apply (al-Qaeda fighters, because they weren’t part of a state); or you were a detainee to whom Geneva applied but whose rights you couldn’t invoke (members of the Taliban, because they hadn’t worn uniforms or insignia). What was the difference for the purpose on interrogation? Sands asked. Feith answered with a certain satisfaction: “It turns out, none. But that’s the point.”

When Sands asks Feith whether he was at all concerned that the Geneva decision might have diminished America’s moral authority, Feith tells Sands, “The problem with moral authority” was “people who should know better, like yourself, siding with the assholes, to put it crudely.”

According to Sands, Feith’s arguments were so clever that General Richard Myers, joint chiefs chairman, continued to believe that Geneva’s protection remained in force, and was “well and truly hoodwinked,” a seasoned observer of military affairs tells Sands.

Emphases mine.

First of all, Doug Feith is who Tommy Franks described as “the stupidest fucking guy on the face of the earth.” What on earth does that say about Myers?

Second, “a certain satisfaction?” Naturally. That’s all this was to them, a little game. A little game in which they were playing Jack Bauer, and then at night they went home to their snug little houses and slept like babies while the people affected by their decisions got shot at in Fallujah and tortured in Cuba, and for all Feith’s forthcoming bullshit in his book (coming out April 8) none of this was ever about anything for the Bush crew but how wicked awesome their war was gonna be.

Third, forget that it’s the Constitution he’s wiping his feet on. Forget that. Doug Feith’s satisfactory arguments did this:

Siding with the assholes?

That’s an awfully pretty glass house from which he’s chucking rocks.

A.

Well deserved!

Congratulations to Oyster

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE--Another Recognition: And  Edward Pound gets some well deserved recognition for all the heavy lifting he did alone on the Alphonso Jackson investigation before the big guys jumped in.....verry late near the end:

Typical D.C. scandal cycle, you might assume. 

But this time, for those who looked, there was something different. While the Philadelphia story may have been the attention-grabbing final nail in Jackson’s coffin, the basic carpentry was quietly done months before.

In October, November, and December, Edward Pound, an investigative reporter at The National Journal, produced a three-part series revealing that HUD’s inspector general was investigating allegations that Jackson had secured a HUD job in New Orleans for a lightly-qualified, out-of-state friend, and that the FBI, the Justice Department, and a federal grand jury were involved. Pound even got the contractor to tell him that, sure, Jackson had helped him get the job.

On October 5, the day after Pound’s first HUD story appeared, The Washington Post published an unsigned, 150-word squib briefly recounting the charges. The New York Times weighed in with a 450-word article.  Both cited The National Journal. Those pieces would be the last mention of Jackson’s troubles in either paper until the Post got on it’s Philadelphia story in February—four months later. All that time, Pound continued to break news: that a company with financial ties to Jackson was winning big contracts, that an Atlanta lawyer and Jackson friend may have gotten $1 million to administer the Virgin Islands Housing Authority, that Jackson’s chief of staff had resigned under the investigation’s cloud.

“I was pretty much out there on my own. No doubt,” Pound told CJR.  “I was hoping other people would jump on the train.  And they didn’t.”

Pound was vaguely tipped to the existence of the hush-hush inquiry by someone he considers a “good source.”

“It wasn’t one of those stories where you could call Justice and have it laid out for you,” he says. “It took digging.”

So much digging, Pound says, that after three or four days of initial inquiries he got back in touch with his original tipster to tell him he’d been wrong. After being reassured, he returned to the chase.

He was able to link Jackson and one of the contractors after seeing a Hilton Head newsletter that placed the secretary at a party at the contractor’s house. Other sources suggested he look at the contractor running the Virgin Islands Housing Authority—a local paper had noted his name.

“A lot of this was digging and talking to people in HUD or who’d left HUD,” says Pound. “It’s nothing fancy.”

At no point, Pound says, did he receive a call from an outside reporter or editor asking for a huddle or a signpost. “I think a lot of people down here don’t give a damn about agencies. They’re interested in politics and the horse race, and that’s an important story,” he says. “But this is why we’re here.”

(h/t Athenae) And may I say I wrote this back on February 2nd after months of watching the story not get the attention it deserved ....

This story gets more and more interesting yet National Journal is the only one covering it. Kudos to them...specifically Edward T. Pound but where is everyone, err anyone, else? I mean we are talking about a member of the President's Cabinet, the head of a major federal agency and one who is now becoming more  involved in dealing with the housing/mortgage crisis.  It would be nice to know if the guy is a crook, would it not?

 

This Is A Test

Let's see how Yoo do on this quick test...

Could be applied to much of what the Bush administration has gotten away with.  But just a thought for today....white team = Pvt. Lyndie England and company.....moonwalking bear = Yoo and company

Your President Won't Stop Speaking!

Today, in Bucharest, Romania.

What Ukraine and Georgia Is

And finally, of course, Ukraine and Georgia is a very difficult issue for some nations here.

Apply For Application

I think that these nations are qualified nations to apply for Membership Application.

Your President Speaks! AGAIN!

Today, in Neptun, Romania.

Intentions To Intend

Summits are for opportunities for people to make clear their intentions about how they intend to support this very important mission.

To Help Succeed

But in this case, it's in our interest to help succeed because we don't want an enemy that has been known to attack people -- nations in our Alliance to be able to develop safe haven again, to be able to use a launching pad like Afghanistan to plot, plan and attack.

What Our Allies Have Got

And our allies have got to understand it's hard.

The President Is Worth It

So the question nations have to ask: Is it worth it? And my answer is, absolutely, it's worth it -- and so is the President -- it's worth it for our own security, and it's worth it for the cause of peace.

Promote To Promote

We need to promote the scenario where you can promote energy independence.

Never Become Captured

All nations ought to have a variety of sources of energy from which to choose, so it's never become captured by a single supplier.

There Is Areas

Obviously I've had my disagreements with the President in the past, and -- but there's also areas where we need to work in common, such as proliferation and dealing with terror.

Expanding Interests

I made it clear yesterday that NATO needs to look at expansion in our interests, not -- and not give any nation a veto power over whether or not NATO ought to extend MAP membership and/or membership.

Meeting As A Presidency

And secondly -- and this is his last -- this will be our last face-to-face meeting as a presidency, and I'll thank him.

Find A Codiality

Just because you don't agree on issues doesn't mean you can't find a cordiality, to be able to discuss things in a frank manner, and that's the way our relationship has been.

The Global War On Articles Continues

And he made it abundantly clear that visa policy in America must take into account Romanian past, and also Romanian future and present.

Understands The Contradictions

And I assured the President that we will work with him as best as we can to adhere to our law and to, at the same time, understands the contradictions.

What We All Got To Guard About

And obviously, to the extent that somebody tries to come and not come back is something we all got to guard about.

We Make The News: Book Edition

The UW-Madison news service gives the book a nice plug:

It is the stories of the students, the fights and the successes of the Cardinal that lent her subject material for her new book "It Doesn't End With Us," about the legacy of the Daily Cardinal at UW-Madison.

"The Cardinal legacy is really two-fold. It lies in the journalism, like the ground-breaking stories," Hantschel says. "It also lies in the journalists. The Cardinal is an educational system. The work never really stops; it ripples out from the Cardinal and affects ordinary people."

"It Doesn't End With Us" gives readers not just a glimpse into the inner workings of one of the nation's oldest daily student papers, but a detailed description of the past 115 years of struggle by students to keep UW-Madison's Daily Cardinal afloat as an independent entity.

A.

Your President Speaks!

Today, in Bucharest, Romania.

I Say Tomahto

This week, our Alliance must also decide how to respond to the requests by Georgia and Ukraine to participate in NATO's Membership Action Plan. These two nations inspired the world with their Rose and Orange Revolutions -- and now they're working to consolidate their democratic gains and cement their independence. Welcoming them into the MATO [sic] -- into the Membership Action Plan would send a signal to their citizens that if they continue on the path to democracy and reform they will be welcomed into the institutions of Europe.

Rhyme Time

Afghanistan is the most daring and ambition [sic] mission in the history of NATO.

He meant "Afghaninato"

Our Alliance must maintain its resolve and finish the fight in NATO [sic].

Reality Check

The real unemployment rate is more than 8%.

An unemployment rate at 5% used to be called full employment. Today it's considered the sign of a recession.

When the Labor Department gives its March employment report this Friday, it's important to keep in mind that the relatively low unemployment rate isn't telling the whole story about the weakness of the U.S. labor market.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com are forecasting a loss of 50,000 jobs from the nation's payrolls in the month. That would mark the third straight month of job declines.

The unemployment rate is expected to jump to 5.0% from 4.8% in February.

But some economists point to other readings, which show that the market is much weaker than the unemployment rate would suggest.

For one, there has been an increasing number of people who want to work full time who are only able to find part-time jobs.

There is also a rise in the number of those who have stopped looking for jobs because they've become discouraged by the weak market. Finally, there has been a decline in the number of employees working as independent contractors.

[snip]

According to the February jobs report, there were 565,000 more part-time workers who wanted full-time jobs than a year ago. That's a 21.1% jump in the number of those who are under-employed.

In addition, a rapidly increasing number of people are being forced to take more than one job. There were 161,000 more workers in February who held more than one part-time job than there were in January. One economist said this is a further indication of how bad the market is.

"Basically, this is a sign that we're in a recession," said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's.

Wyss said another sign of the weakened market is the steady decrease in the past year in the number of temporary employees in the business and professional services sectors. There has been a loss of more than 100,000 jobs in this category in the past 12 months.

"This is a leading indicator, since these are very often the first employees cut," said Wyss.

[snip]

[T]he unemployment rate calculates only the percentage of workers who describe themselves as unemployed, divided by the number of those potential workers counted in the labor force. So under-employed people don't show up as unemployed.

Also not showing up as unemployed are those who want a job but are no longer counted as being in the labor force for a variety of reasons. The number of people fitting this category rose by more than a half-million between November and February.

And if you look at the number of people out of work in addition to part-time workers who want full-time jobs as well as people not searching for a job at the moment, a far more alarming picture emerges.

Keith Hall, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which prepares the monthly jobs reports, said in Congressional testimony last month that this broader measure stood at 8.9% in February, up from 8.1% a year ago.

"We've clearly had a broad weakening in the labor market," Hall said.

Heckuva Job Dept.

Way to go, Chimpy.

Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years.

In a stark assessment a week before Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is to testify on the war's progress, Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, said that the heavy deployments are inflicting "incredible stress" on soldiers and families and that they pose "a significant risk" to the nation's all-volunteer military.

"When the five-brigade surge went in . . . that took all the stroke out of the shock absorbers for the United States Army," Cody testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee's readiness panel.

He said that even if five brigades are pulled out of Iraq by July, as planned, it would take some time before the Army could return to 12-month tours for soldiers. Petraeus is expected to call for a pause in further troop reductions to assess their impact on security in Iraq.

"I've never seen our lack of strategic depth be where it is today," said Cody, who has been the senior Army official in charge of operations and readiness for the past six years and plans to retire this summer.

[snip]

The nation needs an airborne brigade, a heavy brigade and a Stryker brigade ready for "full-spectrum operations," Cody said, "and we don't have that today."

Soldiers and Marines also lack training for major combat operations using their entire range of weapons, the generals said. For example, artillerymen are not practicing firing heavy guns but are instead doing counterinsurgency work as military police.

The Marine Corps' ability to train for potential conflicts has been "significantly degraded," said Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.

Happy Boyfriend Photo: Wild Pitch Edition

"Not that George Bush can throw a pitch for shit, I mean, you all saw that fucking YouTube video, but even for him, this is pretty sad."

A.

We Sit Up In Our Storm And Drink A Toast To The Slim Chance

This caught my eye a week or so back:

Right now Marcy and I are listening to Naomi Klein talk about how the Left was ready for The Great Depression and responded with the New Deal, while we're not prepared with a progressive response to the economic crisis that seems to be looming.

At EschaCon last weekend, it was said (by whom exactly, I cannot recall right now) that we really needed to come up with a large public works project of some sort to give jobs to the nation during the Depression coming at us like an out-of-control Pinto bent on being ‘splodey. And it tweaked me a little, hearing it, because it’s not like there’s not plenty of stuff, as needs doing, that we don’t have to look very far to find:

1) There are currently an estimated 1 out of every 25 people in this city that are homeless. Indiscriminate city demolitions of private homes people are trying to gut and rebuild, coupled with the federally-sanctioned demolition of the city's housing projects (for which there are NO concrete plans and contracts for their replacement), and now a June 1 deadline for all residents of formaldehyde-leeching FEMA trailers to relocate themselves will only increase the numbers of homeless people here. Mr Blakely has stayed very, very far from this crisis, something that I would think any urban planner would want to sink his teeth into. Instead of rising to the challenge, Mr Blakely chooses to hide in a pile of red tape.

[snip]

3) Economically, New Orleans is the same as it ever was. Tourism dollars rule. Any attempts to get city government to attract other types of businesses here - perhaps software development, or sophisticated laboratories devoted to reclaiming wetlands, or even proper civil engineering - have not been observed amid the other serious problems the recovery process of New Orleans faces. Mr Blakely has not chimed in with any other suggestions in this area other than the ones he initially came here preaching. There are no cranes in the city's skyline. Any improvements that have been made here have been done by the city's residents themselves, by groups of volunteers who are thankfully taking vacation time out to help in any way they can, or by great organizations such as Kaboom!, which enlists bands of volunteers to erect a playground in a day. I want Mr Blakely to come to more of these events and see what kind of cooperation can exist between all races and creeds in the rebuilding effort - but he instead wants to take bicycle tours of this city and preach patience on our part while he does little.

On a very basic level, as Democrats, we need to keep an eye on what needs to get done while Bush and Co. are playing toy soldiers overseas, and the top officials of our party are having a competition to see who can be the biggest moronic tool. And the fucking ball to keep our eye on when it comes to “top of the priority list for rebuilding of any sort and scale in America” is the neglected, insulted, patronized and forgotten Gulf Coast, which we let get swallowed up and haven’t rebuilt yet. Dangerblond:

Individual people are fixing up their houses, non-profit local groups organize clean-ups, volunteers, bless their hearts, still come down here from all over to help people gut and clean out the muck from their former homes. Nothing has been done toward New Orleans’ recovery that was not accomplished by individuals using their own money. New grass on the median? Kiss my ass, Ed Blakely.

The Internet discussions are clearly an indication of just how little this is being discussed in circles of people who actually have the power to act, and that scares the living fucking daylights out of me that they’re gonna flail around looking for something to do when this entire portion of the country is just one long to-do list.

Do our presidential candidates get that it’s still this bad and that they don't have to invent something new to give a shit about when this is waiting there for them to give a shit about it? Because I don’t expect everybody to know everything about everything, or talk about everything all at once, which is the only way you could avoid pissing somebody off. But this isn’t like eliminating the penny or researching a wolves-only highway (ask me about my West Wing renaissance sometime), where I need a speech to validate that I’m being thought of and feel important.

This is an entire segment of our country that’s just been written off, and if we go hunting around for something shiny and new to shove to the top of the needs list so we can make ourselves look good without solving the actual problem in front of us that needs to be solved, I’m … well, it would be hard for me to be more bitter and disillusioned in the future than I already am right now. Still, every time I declare rock bottom reached, a trap door opens up fucking wide.

A.

Tremendous News For Republikkkans

They must be so proud that their presumptive nominee knows very little about the economy.

The U.S. lost jobs for a third month in March and manufacturing contracted at the fastest pace in five years, signs the economy continues to turn down, economists said before reports this week.

Payrolls probably shrank by 50,000, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Labor Department's April 4 report. The last time the economy lost jobs for at least three consecutive months coincided with the start of the Iraq War in 2003.

``The economy has slipped into a recession,'' said Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York. ``We expect the labor market to weaken, with payrolls falling steadily through the middle of next year.''

Your President Speaks!

Today, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

No Flowers And Candy?

Just because there was a bunch of, you know, Soviet-era flags in the street yesterday doesn't -- you shouldn't read anything into that.

Brain Wreck

And so, therefore, one should -- but you ought to take more than my stop -- more from my stop than just a -- trying to send a signal on NATO.

NSA Wiretapping/Alphonso Jackson/Cheney's "So?"

The key, of course, is to have government that's open, government that's transparent, government that's non-corrupt, government that actually listens to the voices of the people as it makes laws, which is what's happening.

There Is No Trade-Offs

I strongly believe that Ukraine and Georgia should be given MAP, and there's no trade-offs, period.

What Putin Got To Know

As a matter of fact, I told that to President Putin on my phone call with him recently. I said, you just got to know, I'm headed to Bucharest with the idea in mind of getting MAP for Ukraine and Georgia, and you shouldn't fear that, Mr. President.

There Is Rumors

So, yes, there's all kinds of rumors about things, but thank you for asking and giving me a chance to clarify.

Cerebral Vortex

On Sochi, I don't know, but the chances are -- advancing my logic is good, since I'll be there talking about it.

Actual White House Photo Caption

Not an April Fools joke:

President George W. Bush acknowledges the taste of bread

Surge

Another sign of succes.

Violent civilian deaths in Iraq have climbed to their highest level since mid-2007, Iraqi government figures showed on Tuesday, due to a spike in violence between Iraq security forces and Mehdi Army fighters.

A total of 923 civilians died violently in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to figures released by Iraq's interior, defence and health ministries.

[snip]

The latest Iraqi data showed 102 police officers and 54 soldiers were killed, compared with 65 and 20 respectively in February, and that 641 insurgents had been killed and 2 509 detained.

"Conga Line of Suckholes"*

Dana Milbank writing in today's WaPo:

Bush may be a loathed figure in much of the world, but one group owes him a debt of gratitude: the many opposition leaders who came to power after Bush-friendly ruling parties were voted out. Howard took his place alongside Jose Maria Aznar of Spain (whose party was dumped in 2004), Italy's Silvio Berlusconi (tossed out in 2006), and Britain's Tony Blair (stepped aside in favor of a Bush-skeptical understudy in 2007). Ruling parties in Poland and Japan also paid for their leaders' friendships with Bush with big defeats.

Bush's pariah status has turned his Coalition of the Willing into a retirement community and given the president an unusual role in the domestic affairs of other countries. In Australia, one of Rudd's predecessors as Labor leader, Mark Latham, got the top job after describing Bush as "the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory." He further described members of Howard's government as a "conga line of suckholes" to Bush.

*Greatest blog post title ever!

I've Had Enough

That's it.

I've had all I can stand of the Obama/Clinton struggle.

I can't take any more accusations of racism or sexism, any more dirty tricks, any more triangulation.

These people are as transparent as Saran Wrap, and, like Democrats everywhere, will say or do anything to get elected.  They have no vital center, no core principles that will guide them through difficult times.  Neither one of them deserves my vote. 

Clearly, there is only one option left for progressives.

We need a Ralph Nader/John McCain ticket. 

You can't go wrong with the anti-corporate zeal of Nader combined with the straight-shooting, principled McCain. Oh, I know what you're saying.  And I have a response for you after the jump.

Question I wake to in the morning and pass out with at night:

"What’s my popularity with my fellow white people?”

Second in a series of occasional meditations on the weird appropriateness of any given quote from Deadwood to the presidential campaign of John McCain.

A.

294 More Days of W

But the stupid pundits will be with us forever:

The Democratic primary is starting to look like World War I. The origins of the dispute are forgotten. Pennsylvania is the Somme. No chance, though, that the Clintons, who lead the imperial armies, will consent to paying reparations at the Treaty of Denver.

The most striking resemblance to the Great War has been the campaign-worker body-count. They're strewn all over the battlefield. Geraldine Ferraro (killed for bringing up if Obama weren't black), Samantha Power (Hillary's a "monster"), the intrepid if foolhardy Rev. Wright (multiple offenses), James Hagee (Catholics as the "anti-Christ"), Bill Cunningham ("Barack Hussein Obama"), Bill Sheehan (for bringing up Obama's drug use). All gone. Anyone working for or in support of a political campaign these days is entering a free-fire zone.

Some say the high casualty rate in the campaigns is the result of indiscriminate political correctness. Campus speech codes were put in place to monitor people who said the "wrong thing" about favored groups, often categorized as holding "minority status" by dint of race, gender or sexual preference. Now the Democratic campaigns are using the toxic PC gas on each other.

But something more powerful seems to be in the air. The Samantha Power incident was a case study in the campaigns' current habit of leaving the wounded for dead. Quoted in a newspaper published in Scotland, Ms. Power, an admired writer on genocide, said of Hillary Clinton: "She is a monster, too -- that is off the record -- she is stooping to anything."

Time was a remark like that would earn its imprudent utterer a trip to the woodshed. Now it's the firing squad.

This may just be a dirty fucking hippie talking, but I'm pretty sure that until all the veterans of a given war are dead, it is considered ... how to put this ... ridiculously fucking uncool to use said horrific, unimaginable war to make your cutesy metaphors about a presidential race that, unless I've been utterly misinformed, hasn't actually killed anybody. Just ... badly done.

Henninger goes on to deplore the idea that when people who are working for or associated with various candidates are fucking stupid, other people can read about it and see it on the Internets, a problem Roy handles with aplomb here.

Schmuck.

A.

The Silent Killer (Of Journalism)*

*Title and appropriate LOLcat via Matt.

My remarks at the panel on journalism can basically be boiled down to "never ascribe to bias what laziness and stupidity will adequately explain." What I meant by laziness and stupidity is the tendency, all across the board, to embrace the easy narrative.

The easy narrative in the form of cheap sentimentality, as in stories about how to explain school shootings to your children, or stories about how 9/11 made you love your family and go back to church.

The easy narrative in the form of exploitation of fear. Matt and I spent some time talking about all the various things which were called "the silent killer" by newscasts, but it's the false sense of urgency, and it's a very short step from "YOUR MASCARA COULD KILL YOU" to "TERRORISTS COULD KILL YOU" and getting people caught up in the outrage of the moment such that everything is always at a fever pitch, making you ripe for whoever can best pretend to solve the crisis you're not really facing.

The easy narrative in the form of ignorance and exceptionalism that audiences and readers are assumed to share, as in the difference between how a murder on the north side of Chicago, for example, is covered: "Oh my God, I thought this was a good neighborhood, things like this don't happen here!" and one on the south side: "Feh. We call it Thursday." It's a lazy assumption about your audience, that they won't be from the neighborhoods you're dismissing as expendable, and won't take offense. It's a convolution, usually defended with the "man bites dog" analogy, that is rampant in national journalism and it's tremendously damaging in that it allows us to dismiss what are real social problems by calling them predictable. Think of The Wire: "They were dead in the wrong zip code."

The easy narrative in the form of identification with the powerful, which as Susie pointed out is as much emotional conflict-aversion as anything else, and takes it shape in reporters seeing nothing wrong with going to an off-the-record barbecue at John McCain's house and laughing at the president's little funny nicknames for them. To take it back to the local-news place, which is where I tried to stay since the punditocracy makes my brain hurt, it's the way reporters drink and lunch with the mayor, and it's a very, very easy trap to fall into; talk to your high school sports writer. You spend a lot of time with your sources; after a while, the lazy reporter can start to see them as the real friends, rather than readers, who are after all usually pissed at you.

Take all of that and throw in the financial decimation of newsrooms, which destroys the camaraderie that might lead some colleagues to keep each other in check. Susie brought this back to training, too, journalism as tradecraft learned via apprenticeship model and seeing oneself as part of the working class as opposed to celebrity journalism. A college degree is no guarantee you'll be a moron, any more than it's a guarantee you won't be one, but I agreed in that I think the only way you fix this is to raise up a generation of journalists who don't see themselves as part of the system. Think of The Paper: "We live in their world but it is their world. You can't live like that. You'll never keep up."

Plenty of journalists are trying really hard to keep up, and we have only to look around for a minute to see the results.

A.

Your President Speaks!

Friday, in Freehold, New Jersey.

We Have Got A Issue

And the reason why I'm here is because we have got a issue in housing in America.

There Is Some Homeowners

There's some homeowners who have made responsible buying decisions, and who could keep their homes with just a little help, some information and some help.

He Became Working

He got -- he called HOPE NOW, and he became working with a mortgage counselor named Penny Meredith.

Gives Out Wrong Number -- Twice

And so one of my purposes is to make it clear there is a place where you can get counseling. And I want my fellow citizens, if you're worried about your home, to call this number: 188-995-HOPE [sic]. Let me repeat that again: 188-995-HOPE [sic].

What We Got

By the way, we got more work to do in Washington, and one of the things we can do is make sure the Federal Housing Administration gets the reforms it needs.

Gushy Gush Post of Gushing

You know how the Rude Pundit does this thing where he lists all the ways in which he wouldn't fuck Ann Coulter? Replace "Ann Coulter" in all those scenarios with "O'Hare Airport" and you'd have my day today. Or is it tomorrow? I dunno, after an hour and a half on the runway waiting to take off I said screw it, started ordering drinks.

(Best location for a Starbucks EVER: Next to the baggage claim at the airport. Also, never again am I flying out of that fucking zoo. Midway or no way, bitches!)

(I haven't really slept in a couple days.)

I'm just gonna do the squishy part of the post-mortem early, get it out of the way, make room for the serious and the snarky. Do read on, though, for a list of 22 of the thousands of things, in no particular order, about this weekend that were completely awesome:

Alphonso Jackson Expected to Announce Resignation on Monday

Hopefully this is true....

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, buffeted by allegations of cronyism and favoritism, is expected to announce his resignation Monday, sources close to the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

WSJ link

And From NYT:

Mr. Jackson has scheduled a news conference for 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes before Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is supposed to outline plans for dealing with the financial crisis set off by the risky mortgage lending.

If Mr. Jackson steps down, it would remove a key player from the administration team dealing with the problem.

UPDATE: For some background here are a few of the previous First Draft posts on Jackson's alleged cronyism and corruption:

HUD's Jackson Under Investigation--Oct 4 2007

Investigating Alphonso...Another Heckuva Katrina Contract Story--December 17 2007

Investigating Alphonso...Scott Keller and the Floridians for Family Values scandal--December 18 2007

Alphonso Jackson's wife had "financial ties to at least two companies that did business at" HANO--Feb 2 2008

Alphonso Jackson update--Feb 6 2008

Real people get hurt when....--Feb 8 2008

UPDATE:  A few thoughts. Jackson should have been gone last year for the improprieties with the NOLA/HANO/Katrina contracts. Then came the Philly problem. But he hung on and I suspect he may have been able to continue doing so if not for the housing crisis. GovExec.com reported last Friday...

Still, some senior administration officials worry that Jackson's troubles could tarnish the final nine months of Bush's presidency, especially if disclosures continue about suspected ethical missteps. "That is an interesting dilemma he is getting into with the Hill," says one official, who asked to remain anonymous. "He is the secretary of the department, they control his budget, and he refuses to answer their questions. Obviously that's a concern."

SNIP

Although the White House continues to support Jackson publicly, some think that the president may soon have to let his old friend go. "You have a housing crisis, families in peril, and a distracted HUD secretary," says a person who knows Bush and Jackson well. "The administration needs someone tending the boat 100 percent." (my emphasis)

That last quote would have been true for post Katrina NOLA in any one of the past almost 3 years. But I guess not all boats are equal......