No, he is not gay, please for the love of god do not call the Senator that plead guilty of asking for sex in a mens room gay. Sen. Larry Craig, a Republican of course wants you to know he is not gay… He just like men, a lot, but he is not gay because they do not kiss when they are humping. Here is a great story from Aus, the headline says it all, “I’m not gay, says toilet arrest Senator”

The Republicans today filibuster an Amendment offered by Jim Webb of Virginia (Former Marine, son is Active Duty as we speak) that would make it a requirement that the troops get as much time at home as they do in Iraq. Right now Bush is killing our troops by keeping them in Iraq for 18 months, and them giving them only 12 or less back home… This amendment would have given them as much time home.

Data point 2932 that the Republicans don’t give a shit about the troops. They also do not give a shit about family values, because how can you expect our troops spouses to remain happy in the marriage when they are gone 60% of the time.

The vote was 56-41, Webb, and the troops, needed 60 for it to pass.

The troops should think twice before they vote Republican, because Republicans HATE YOU!

Let the games begin, the DC Maddams list has been allowed to be release to the public, the first on the list republican Senator David Vitter of LA…

From AP via Yahoo

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., apologized Monday night for “a very serious sin in my past” after his telephone number appeared among those associated with an escort service operated by the so-called “D.C. Madam.”

Vitter’s spokesman, Joel Digrado, confirmed the statement in an e-mail sent to The Associated Press.

“This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible,” Vitter said in the statement. “Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.”

The statement containing Vitter’s apology said his telephone number was on old phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates before he ran for the Senate.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey was accused in federal court of racketeering by running a prostitution ring that netted more than $2 million over 13 years, beginning in 1993. She contends, however, that her escort service, Pamela Martin and Associates, was a legitimate business.

Fred Thompson has always said that he was a straight shooter, because he was the great republican that had the balls to ask a tough question in the Nixon investigation. He boasts that he was above partisanship, but this story may be just that, a story.From the Boston Globe

The day before Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson made the inquiry that launched him into the national spotlight — asking an aide to President Nixon whether there was a White House taping system — he telephoned Nixon’s lawyer.

Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In his all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, “At That Point in Time,” Thompson said he acted with “no authority” in divulging the committee’s knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon’s resignation. It was one of many Thompson leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for Democrats on the committee, Scott Armstrong , who remains upset at Thompson’s actions.

“Thompson was a mole for the White House,” Armstrong said in an interview. “Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was.”

Oh there is more, go read.

I am not sure what has caused the sudden destruction of unity in the republican party, but the GOP is over this lame duck. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), an administration cheerleader for the last 6 years sent a press release where he said, “I want a new strategy for Iraq. I continue to completely support the men and women in the American Armed Forces. They have not failed us. It is the Iraqi government that is failing to make even modest progress to help Iraq itself or to merit the sacrifices being made by our men and women in uniform. I am unwilling to continue our current strategy.” Oh no, what is Bush going to do now that a few Republicans are thinking of the troops!

One reason for the fleeing of the party could be the whole Libby thing, they are to cowardly to actually say something, but willing to toss Bush under the bus on every other issue. I personally think that this issue is really all about Domenici, he is under investigation because his hands are all over the purge of US Attorney. This may be a very unpopular man looking for any good publicity.

The whole press release is below.

(Read more…)

You may or may not know this but your elected officials represent people, because shockingly corporations cannot vote. Today the Republicans filibustered a plan put forth by the Democratic leadership to found and stimulate the growth of the alternative fuel industry. The Republicans showed, as if anyone ever doubted, that it is not Americas that is important to them, it is not the people that live in America that is important to them, no, it is Exxon. The same Exxon and made more money last year in any corporation has ever made in the history of the world, I kid you not in the entire history of man on earth no company has been more profit than Exxon. Thank God they have the Republicans looking out.

Now Republicans are telling you that they were stopping the crazy taxing that the Democrats wanted to do on the cash-strapped oil companies, but this is actually a flat out lie, and the Democrats were not raising taxes on the oil companies, but instead allowing some massive tax breaks granted to them when Republicans led Congress expire. So using Republican logic, if you have a coupon, and that coupon expires, the net is a tax increase to the person buying a can of corn.

So to wrap this post up, Republican senators who were elected to represent people use a procedural filibuster to make sure that some of the richest corporations in America do not have to pay taxes that they were supposed to pay, but because of their “generous” donations to reelection campaign’s, were given coupons not to pay. How dare those damn Democrats try to collect taxes from the richest corporations in the history of mankind.

Well it is not really making it up, it is leaving it out. In order to make sure that the numbers look good, and that Republican talking heads have something to point to and say "See it's working" the administration had to leave out the scores of people who have dies because of car bombs. To Bush, those don't count.

From McClatchy (bolds are mine)

U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

President Bush explained why in a television interview on Tuesday. "If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory," he told TV interviewer Charlie Rose.

Others, however, say that not counting bombing victims skews the evidence of how well the Baghdad security plan is protecting the civilian population - one of the surge's main goals.

"Since the administration keeps saying that failure is not an option, they are redefining success in a way that suits them," said James Denselow, an Iraq specialist at London-based Chatham House, a foreign policy think tank.

Bush administration officials have pointed to a dramatic decline in one category of deaths - the bodies dumped daily in Baghdad streets, which officials call sectarian murders - as evidence that the security plan is working. Bush said this week that that number had declined by 50 percent, a number confirmed by statistics compiled by McClatchy Newspapers.

But the number of people killed in explosive attacks is rising, the same statistics show - up from 323 in March, the first full month of the security plan, to 365 through April 24.

it's getting to the point that we may need to put a new topic on the blog for the number of Republicans that are under investigation by the FBI. Rick Renzi a Republican representative from the state of Arizona, told America today that he is under investigation by the FBI and therefore is stepping down from his position on in the House Intelligence Committee. this little confession dropped in the Friday news dump is on the heels of California Republican John Doolittle's earlier confession that he is leaving the House Appropriations Committee after the FBI raided his Virginia home.

The Republican motto for this war, “Thieves expoit chaos to steal” that is what this war is all about. Looks like the Republicans are going to end the war with Iraq sooner than the Democrats ever would if they are not careful.

Today the House plans on passing the next round of funding for the Republican Iraq War, attached to this bill is a very reasonable time table for ending the war. The Republicans are up in arms about this timetable, showing just how disconnected from the American people they are, they are using some great buzz words like “Micromanage” and “Tying the Hands of the President” and you know what, they are right. Simply put the war must be “Micromanaged” because the last 5 years under the Republicans, the war was not managed at all, so when something goes 5 years with no management, a little micro-management is in order. They are also right about “Tying the hands of the President” for almost the same reason, no one has done any oversight for the last 6 years, he need his hands tied.

So the demise of the War in Iraq may be a Republican event, in fact Bush himself may do it. Scenario one, the Republicans have said that if the bill moves to the floor of the Senate with the timetable intact, they will filibuster the bill, killing it, and by doing so, the Republicans will say to the world, “We will not fund the Troops, we will not fund the War”, and the war will be over. Scenario two is even more fun, the bill makes it thought the process and is sent to the White House, the “President” will have to make a choose, fund the war, or don’t. The Republicans can, and from what it sounds like, will defund the war, in short cutting of their own nose, to spite their own faces.

Now for this plan to work the Democrats need to stick to the mandate given to them by the people and fight to keep the timetables intact. They also need to pass the war funding and be done with it. Bush and the Republican have one chance to get it done, and if they filibuster it or veto it, the war is over because the bill will not return to the floor of either chamber. The bill dies, the money for Iraq dries up, the Democrats make it clear that they tried but the Republicans were the ones to kill this bill, to use one of there own dirty tricks, “They were for the funding before they were against it”

The Republicans are playing chicken with the Democrats, and if they stay strong, the RIGHT decision for Iraq will be made, the War will End, and the Republican will have no one but themselves to blame.

Years ago I had a hypothesis that the Bush, and the Republicans, did not give a rat’s ass about the troops. That the troops are nothing more than a fancy backdrop to a speech or photo-op, and the evidence is showing that I was in fact correct, Bush, and the Republicans don’t really give a shit about the troops. Remember that as we near the 2008 elections. A vote for a Republican is a vote against the troops. In fact the Republican refused to do oversight, Democratic Senator Carl Levin said out loud on “Meet the Press” this weekend that the Senate Armed Services Committee [under the Republicans] did not conduct oversight of the treatment at military facilities in recent years because “they did not want to embarrass the President.” It was more important to make Bush look good (I guess you can polish shit to a high gloss) than it was to care for our troops.

Now the Washington Post has a follow-up that is almost more disturbing than the original. (bolds are mine)

Top officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including the Army's surgeon general, have heard complaints about outpatient neglect from family members, veterans groups and members of Congress for more than three years.

A procession of Pentagon and Walter Reed officials expressed surprise last week about the living conditions and bureaucratic nightmares faced by wounded soldiers staying at the D.C. medical facility. But as far back as 2003, the commander of Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is now the Army's top medical officer, was told that soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were languishing and lost on the grounds, according to interviews.

Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, said he ran into Kiley in the foyer of the command headquarters at Walter Reed shortly after the Iraq war began and told him that "there are people in the barracks who are drinking themselves to death and people who are sharing drugs and people not getting the care they need."

"I met guys who weren't going to appointments because the hospital didn't even know they were there," Robinson said. Kiley told him to speak to a sergeant major, a top enlisted officer.

A recent Washington Post series detailed conditions at Walter Reed, including those at Building 18, a dingy former hotel on Georgia Avenue where the wounded were housed among mice, mold, rot and cockroaches.

This is a must read story, go and read the whole thing.