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Levi Johnston's mother charged with six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance.
Bristol's baby is due today.
Speaking of babies, an Arkansas woman has just given birth to her 18th child - or as the father puts it, "The ultimate Christmas gift from God."
And I'll add - another tax deduction that contributes to destroying our planet's resources.
Maybe it's time for a Prop to limit the number of children people should have.
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For nearly five years, FBI leaders encouraged employees on temporary assignment in Iraq to bill an average of $45,000 in overtime and extra pay by routinely claiming to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, even when some of that time was spent eating, exercising, watching movies or attending cocktail parties, the Justice Department inspector general reported yesterday.
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He didn't pour sugar into a bulldozer's gas tank. He didn't spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder's paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won't be opened to drilling anytime soon.
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"I didn't do a good job of changing the tone in Washington."
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h/t Dick
The Noose Tightens - Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and other top Bush officials could soon face legal jeopardy.
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This is the same company that begged $10 billion dollars from the Federal government to keep them from "going under", and only paid 1% in taxes this year.
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So what's the endgame? http://blog.badtux.net/2008/12/so-whats-endgame.html
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Welcome back to another day in the "Fourth Branch"
The NYTimes via AP is reporting that Darth Cheney has declared that he, and he alone, has the power to decide which, if any, of his papers are covered by the Presidential Records Act.
Dick Cheney's lawyers are asserting that the Vice President alone has the authority to determine which records, if any, from his tenure will be handed over to the National Archives when he leaves office in January
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Carl Levin talking to Rachel Maddow about the torturers:
"You can't just suddenly change something that's illegal into something that is legal by having a lawyer write an opinion saying that it's legal. Things can't work that way or else someone could get a lawyer to say a crime is not a crime and then that would be a defense. That is not a defense and I just, I was astounded frankly when I heard the Vice President of the United States sort of just blandly, blithely saying that oh he thought that was an appropriate thing and yes he was involved in the discussions about it."
You can encourage Senator Levin to do something about it.
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The Xmas card Bush should have sent:
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The Petraeus Conspiracy:
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In a bizarre coincidence, a man that Karl Rove threatened, has died in a plane crash.
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Consistently delusional, George Bush says he might not give a farewell address because he doesn't want us to go through a "real emotional goodbye" with him.
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4,209 soldiers killed in Iraq; 629 in Afghanistan.
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Ken Starr, the underwear sniffing zombie is back on the case.
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The Bailout as sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary
Keep singing:
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Obama-Warren: How Far Can You Lower the Bar Before You Stub Your Toe?:
If you're disappointed (like I was with Obama for the FISA vote and the windfall profits tax for oil companies), please be advised there's plenty of room here under the bus. We serve bitter burgers with arugula every day at 4 pm. Bring your own chips and pickles. And you might try eating a little crow while you are at it.
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Krugman: The Madoff Economy: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/opinion/19krugman.html?_r=1
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A little-noticed report from the agency's inspector general shows that SEC employees were too busy watching porn and running private businesses to investigate Madoff: http://www.propublica.org/article/sec-report-employees-browsed-porn-ran-private-businesses-1219#When:17:01:11Z
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Bush has bypassed Congress and approved $17.4b in loans from TARP to rescue the auto industry.
Of course, they're still holding the auto industry to an entirely different standard than they held Wall St. to, i.e., suddenly there are conditions and strings in order for the auto industry to get the money.
Marcy Wheeler states one of them bluntly:
The President of the United States just dictated that American corporations pay their employees significantly less than the employees of foreign owned manufacturers. And/or, he dictated that American corporations pick the pocket of their senior retirees.
This was always about union busting and in the hands of our current president, it still is.
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According to Bloomberg News, George Bush's recent brush with hurled shoes has spurred a spike in sales of the increasingly popular footwear hurled at the increasingly unpopular president.
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One would think that new power plants should have the ability to pollute less, but yesterday Bush's EPA ruled that they are not required to install technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
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Henry Paulson wants the second half of the $700 billion rescue funds that he had originally set aside to pass onto Barack Obama for Christmas. He says he needs it "to support financial market stability." Read it at Associated Press
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Now that your ISPs have agreed to spy for them, the music industry is going to abandon mass lawsuits for online music piracy.
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The fiscally conservative Republican governor of California with a $42 billion dollar deficit has ordered a state hiring freeze, a reduction of payroll by 10%, and has ordered state employees to take 2 days off per month without pay.
Recall this story that has disappeared down the Memory Hole: http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/13-schwarzenegger-met-with-enrons-key-lay-before-the-california-recall/
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Righties are upset because of this news item:
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a prominent bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health–and the brother of incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel–will serve as a senior counselor at the White House Office of Management and Budget on health policy, two Democratic officials said Thursday.
"Can you imagine if GWB had brought on a relative in such a manner. The Left's enmity would have over-flowed, and they would have ramped their seething factor to at least an 8 (remember, a 1 on the seething scale is their normal constant outrage.)"
I can imagine it:
- Vice President Dick Cheney's son-in-law, Philip Perry: Deputy Attorney General.
- Dick Cheney's daughter Liz Cheney: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
- Secretary of State Colin Powell's son, Michael Powell: Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
- Budget Director Mitchell Daniels' sister Deborah Daniels: Assistant Attorney General.
- White House press secretary Scott McClellan's brother Mark McClellan: Member, President's Council of Economic Advisers and Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration.
- Ken Mehlman's brother Bruce Mehlman: Assistant Secretary of Commerce.
- Michael Chertoff's chief of staff's wife Julie Myers: Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security.
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The Bush Legacy of Shame Tour continues, with an interview by C-SPAN.
"I do think the Florida recount set kind of an ugly mood amongst some in the electorate. In other words, the election was - in their minds, was in doubt."
"I have made the decision not to let there be a massive collapse, which would hurt the average guy in the street."
"But I made the decision that my team and myself will not let the economy go down."
"I didn't realize we'd be in war because, you know, the attacks of September the 11th came out of nowhere." That PDB on August 6th that you ignored while on vacation could have provided a big clue.
"Early on in the presidency I said, I want time to work out, because I think it's - I know part of doing this job is to be a disciplined person. Like, I start meetings on time, I end them on time." This is how history will surely remember the Bush presidency: he started meetings on time, he ended them on time.
"I do think the Florida recount set kind of an ugly mood amongst some in the electorate. In other words, the election was - in their minds, was in doubt."
"I have made the decision not to let there be a massive collapse, which would hurt the average guy in the street."
"But I made the decision that my team and myself will not let the economy go down."
"I didn't realize we'd be in war because, you know, the attacks of September the 11th came out of nowhere." That PDB on August 6th that you ignored while on vacation could have provided a big clue.
"Early on in the presidency I said, I want time to work out, because I think it's - I know part of doing this job is to be a disciplined person. Like, I start meetings on time, I end them on time." This is how history will surely remember the Bush presidency: he started meetings on time, he ended them on time.
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