Watched the President on MSNBC this morning, and most of the questioners were identified by name and affiliation, but not the guy who asked this question:

Q. Mr. President, you've expressed frustration with Congress, obviously, over the economic -- wanting them to do more on the economy. They've blocked you on Colombia. They've blocked you on the FISA issue. Are you frustrated? Are you angry? And do you have any real hope of being able to work with this Congress this year?

It's the war economy, stupid!

Stolen from the cover of Nation mag.

The White House had male prostitute Jeff Gannon pose as a reporter to lob softball questions at Bush and his press secretary. He also checked into the White House 39 times when there were no press briefings, and at least 14 times when he didn't check out. You would think the press would have asked if he was staying overnight and whether his client a certain Texas tard.

Cross-posted from Talk to Action.

The enormity of the White House scandal that broke in the blogosphere last Friday, and resulted in the same-day resignation of President George W. Bush's longtime aide Tim Goeglein, has yet to be revealed.

What is at stake is not merely the reputation of Bush's former gatekeeper to the religious right, but four million evangelical votes.

By Karl Rove's calculation, Bush won 15 million out of 19 million evangelical votes in 2000. Rove correctly reasoned that targeting those extra four million votes would be key to winning Bush a second term in 2004. These are votes which, if not secured by the GOP in 2008, could cost the election of its presumptive nominee, Senator John McCain. These are  votes that in 2004 and in 2008, Bush and Rove had personally entrusted Goeglein to shepherd. Now that Rove and his right-hand man, Goeglein, have both quit the White House, there is no shepherd to keep these four million evangelical voters in the fold.

. . .about the havoc of the lives of celebrities and stars resulting from the irresponsible antics of paparazzi; I certainly don't.  I really give nary a shit about the media crises of Britney, Tom, Paris, Matthew, Lindsay, Courtney, or any of the other media nonpersonalities.  I see them as getting more of what they bargained for in seeking fame and fortune, albeit no longer on their own terms.  I'm more sympathetic to the Princess Dianas and most Kennedys who really want to remain private persons, but are thrust into the public spotlight by their political situations.  Still, I see great foolhardiness in legal remedies such as the 20-yard "personal safety bubble" of "Britney Law."

I've got another idea altogether, after the fold.

Apparently Mr. Gannon has a book to sell and is planning on making the college tour to promote it. He also had this to say when asked on C-SPAN's Book TV about the male escort scandal:

"Well, there's not much to say about that. You know it, after two and a half years, there's nothing to it. I mean there's a lot of, of rumor and Internet gossip and you know "responsible journalists" paid some attention to that in the beginning and afterwards they decided there's nothing there. So."

Video below the fold.

The conservative commentariat and right-wing bloggers are apoplectic at revelations that Hillary Clinton fielded questions planted by her staffers during recent campaign appearances.  Confirming the worst stereotypes of the ever-calculating, risk-averse Clinton, Bush sycophant Michelle Malkin labeled Hillary a "crapweasel."  And she should know.  After all, from planted reporters and purchased pundits to invitation-only events in front of friends-only audiences, it is George W. Bush who perfected the art of the stage managed appearance designed to "catapult the propaganda."

Hillary = Bush 2.0?

Memories of Jeff Ganon, scripted public appearances, and FEMA fake news broadcasts appear to have been things to emulate by the Clinton camp instead of repudiate.

Jump below to find out what the Clinton campaign has ADMITTED !!! to and ABC news is reporting.

In another classic example of the wanker's prose, Jonah Goldberg has penned a column for the Los Angeles Times that proves he can't tell reality from satire.

Brought to you by...
News Corpse
The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.

Ladies and Gentleman, those in charge of right wing media outlets are starting to lay the groundwork for an election attack on Al Gore.

Their spin factory is in pre-production mode.

"All Republican political figures are gay, especially the men." - James Wolcott

Jeff Gannon's new book, The Great Media War: A Battlefield Report is available on www.amazon.com! I have not read this book yet, but I look forward to receiving my remainder copy soon. Without reading it, one can still argue with perfect propriety that this book by Gannon [aka James Guckert] should be titled "The Great Media Wh@re."

UPDATE:  So sad.  Somebody's used the same domain name to spoof Talon News.  Did a damn fine job of it too. :)  Thanks for the tip, commenters.

For those who may have missed it, Talon News is back on the air, apparently since May 10 (or at least they have archives back to that point.)

But with the imminent arrival of his tell-not-very-much book I took a quick cruise through the site, and found the amazing headline "Gannon Threatens TALONNEWS" which I just had to read (Note: all comment-type punctuation is original:

August 26, 2007
NEW YORK: Former journalist(?) for Talon News and (former?) gay prostitute Jim Gannon is now trying to spread self-serving rumors that he used to work for the publishers of this web site.

Talon News is disavowing that Gannon/Guckert ever worked for them???  Rest of the article after the jump...

One of the right-wing talking points regarding Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) is that "we don't know whether or not he did it", "we don't know what exactly happened", and/or "innocent until proven guilty."

Horsepucky.

The so-called (though untrained) reporter "Jeff Gannon" who worked for the so-called (though virtual-only) "news bureau" Talon News is back with a book meant to inform wingnuts and koolaid drinkers of why the country suffers from a liberal media. Oh Pulease. Saying the mainstream media in this country is liberal is like saying that most republican politicians are straight-arrow heterosexuals. Seems about right if you don't look behind the curtains.

Of all the characters in the Plamegate affair, none has the mystery or the unanswered questions that Jeff Gannon's presence during the whole mess offers.

He popped up with his shiney head in the camera light one day to lob the softballs to Scott McClellen that Scotty breathed in like gasps of oxygen.

Jeff Gannon. We've had a who, but there's never been a how - where and when and I don't mean the sex thing, (although am curious of that too of course) but rather how he got in the White House, what his role was. What he did during his many visits there. Was he a bag man? Was he a prostitute? What's up with that guy. His blog has never offered a clue, but today he offered his own "analysis" on the Rove firing. Oh wait, he doesn't do that, he just shoots the messenger:

Ladies and Gentlemen. I give you the wisdom of Jeff Gannon today.

Take a break from Karl Rove for just a minute.

Of course, we know that everything is militarized in BushGooperWorld Except for GOP leaders' offspring, of course. Why, just a few days ago,  presidential hopeful Mitt Romney equated his sons' van junket through the no-man's land of Iowa with GI service in war-torn Iraq. And any person, place or thing not wholly owned by the GOP is an enemy target.

But really now. There's a limit. Self-styled former Marine (his actual enlistment never substantiated) James Guckert aka "Jeff Gannon," still carrying on his lonely Army of One battle against the Liberal Media, now refers to his stint in the White House press corps in 2004-2005 as working "behind enemy lines"!

Imagine, the "Talon News" softball questioner whom nobody granted the special daily press pass he used for over a year was fighting behind enemy lines while enjoying unprecedented, unvetted access to the  Bush White House under an assumed name! No place is safe any more.

I was just sitting in the West Wing when Jeff Gannon ran in.  Naturally, I assumed he was here for his weekly rub down.  But I immediately realized that he was in a state of apoplexy.

"Russ Feingold wants to censure the President," stammered Big Jeff.  "What are we going to do?"

I simply laughed and explained to him how politics works.

"We The People Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident!"

by Ronald England

April 27, 2007

"We The People Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident!", Part 1.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident "and these words "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

What do these words mean? It means any person reading these words will and are able to understand these truths, they are self-evident. It means the words chosen were meant to provide the reader with all that is necessary to understand these truths.