Month: October 2006

Not-so-Super-Grover | Ney Day.

A new minority staff report by the Senate Finance Committee concludes that “[f]ive conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, ‘appear to have perpetrated a fraud’ on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.” Among the organizations called out are Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (sheah), an outfit created by Norquist and former Dubya Interior Secretary Gail Norton, whose office was already waist-deep in ill-gotten Casino Jack loot. (In fact, Abramoff’s point person in Norton’s office was CREA’s president, Italia Federici.)

Update: In related news, Abramoff flunky Bob Ney pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and making false statements (without, mind you, resigning his seat in Congress.) While he didn’t speak with reporters, Ney’s written statement noted that the “treatment and counseling I have started have been very helpful, but I know that I am not done yet and that I have more work to do to deal with my alcohol dependency.” Ok, one more time, people. Alcoholism means you drink too much. It does not mean that you bilk the public, indulge in bribes, or send teenagers dirty IMs.

Full Triage Mode.

“Before I liberate the speaker so he doesn’t have to stand up here for that long, Speaker, I want to say this to you…I am proud to be standing with the current speaker of the House who is going to be the future speaker of the House.” Hmm…I wouldn’t be so sure. As Dubya bequeaths a “heck of a job, Denny” upon an increasingly embattled Hastert, the GOP moneymen are nevertheless hedging their bets, and are pulling cash out of several races around the country to try to hold the (Maginot?) line in Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee. The financial “jousting will continue into the final days, but what is clear at this point is that Democrats are playing very little defense in the House and the Senate.“

Faaantastic.

“Experts Warn: NBA Season May Begin Sometime In Next Three To Six Weeks.” Yes, it’s true. In fact, our first look at Isiah’s up-tempo tweaks to the Knicks will occur tonight, in a pre-season game against the aging New Jersey Nets. (Yes, I’ll probably watch it, even though the Knickerbockers will no doubt once again be terrible all season. In fact, with that in mind, this may just be the year I finally break down and order the League Pass.)

Warner Out.

“This moment in life is not the right time for me.” In a possible boon for Evan Bayh, among others, former Virginia governor Mark Warner drops out of the 2008 presidential race, citing a (seemingly honest) desire to spend more time with his family. Well, I can’t say I’m too depressed about it. I’m not much for the “centrist” (re: protective camouflage) Dems anyway, and the one time I saw Warner on Meet the Press, he seemed woefully out of his depth on national issues. It’s just too bad he didn’t figure it out sooner, as he likely could’ve easily taken George Allen to the woodshed in the Virginia Senate race (not that Webb is doing all that badly, but Warner would’ve been a shoo-in.)

Jack’s Back.

“‘Voters are tying both of these scandals together,’ said Paul A. Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists, a lobbyist trade group in the capital. ‘First with Abramoff and now with Foley, corruption has risen to play a big role in this election. It disappoints me, but it’s happening.'” It disappoints you? As the lobbyists lament, it appears Foleygate has brought ethics in government back into focus as a central 2006 campaign issue, despite the GOP’s earlier banking on Casino Jack fading from memory. And, worse still for the Republicans, it seems the so-called “values vote” won’t save them this time ’round.

655,000?

655,000 deaths in Iraq?! A new report by Johns Hopkins researchers puts the number of fatalities from Dubya’s Baghdad debacle at over twenty times what other sources such as Iraq Body Count have been reporting (making it roughly comparable to the fatality rate in Darfur.) Dear Lord, can that really be right? (Also noted at Ed Rants.) Update: The study’s author explains its methodology.

McCain’s Chicanery.

“Sen. John McCain has skidded his Straight Talk Express off the highway into a gopher’s ditch of slime.” As Dubya rejects bilateral talks with N. Korea, Slate‘s Fred Kaplan puts the lie to John McCain’s recent attempt to carry water for the Bushies on the Korean nuclear issue. “McCain’s version of history goes beyond ‘revisionism’ to outright falsification. It is the exact opposite of what really happened.“

Terror & Pan.

In the movie bin, Robert Rodriguez wallows in 70’s B-movie kitsch in the new trailer for Planet Terror, his half of Grindhouse, with Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Michael Biehn and several others. And, more promisingly, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth gets another trailer, albeit one with Mr. Movie Voice.