CNN has a headline story up on their webpage, of an interview Bush just gave Wolf Blitzer.

In this interview, Bush claims he would send U.S. troops into Afghanistan to chase down Osama Bin Laden without seeking Pakistani permission for the operation and would ignore any Pakistani objections to it.

Bush is insane. Pakistan is a sovereign nation. Congress has not declared war on Pakistan. We have no treaty or UN permission to invade Pakistan to apprehend a fugitive.

Please read the piece for yourself:

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Words almost cannot express my incredulity and outrage at CNN's home page. If someone has tagging skills, could they save an image of the page within this thread.

Let me give some bona fides:

1) I don't like Pelosi

2) I don't like Jefferson

I'm no apologist for either, but the headline is completely disconnected from the pictures, of course, and so baldly so it must be deliberate, yellow journalism. Republicans are outraged at the FBI and Pelosi is not standing or screaming with Jefferson at all- the "news" item is she has told him to resign his committee assignments.

Before today, I thought CNN's infamous "Dems Indicted" webpage was the worst in its history. But, the Photoshop work today really takes the cake.

Normally, I would not waste a diary slot here with a hyperlink to Media Matters- most of you visit undoubtedly understand how important MM is and visit their site regularly.

But, if you haven't seen it yet, please visit their story on FoxNews' John Gibson, where Gibson on-air calls on "we" White people to increase our birthrate to "save" our "civlization" from Hispanics.

I'm not making this up.

To the large number of you who are insightful and honest, this is no "revelation" about Gibson, Fox or their Republican masters.

I have one note below.

Faced with the complete repudiation of Intelligent Design in science classrooms, portending worse days for the anti-intellectual climate necessary for George Bush's plutofascist takeover, the Dallas Morning News editorialized an endorsement of anti-intellectualism today.

Selective quotes below, with the obligatory "head explosion" warning, of course:
 

As is the case with his insider trading, this scandal is so stark it can't be spun away.

Frist used a tax deductible "charity" to illegally launder right-wing corporate money and disperse it to his croniest advisors.

Frist, a thorough and replete criminal, is giving Alaska's Ted Stevens a robust challenge for "most corrupt Senator in U.S. History."

Waiting to see Fox spin this as "bipartisan."

This is basically a one-line diary.

Former Presidents Bush and Clinton just announced the dispersal of $110 million they raised.

$20 million of this is being given to clergy for the benefit of their own congregations.

I wonder if anyone would have donated less money if they knew it was being distorted towards churchgoers, likely Christians.

Just when I think the level of inanity, vacuousness and tautology of right-wing rhetoric has peaked, Foxnews' Bill O'Reilly comes along to raise the bar, so to speak.

As has been documented by Media Matters, Foxnews' Bill O'Reilly is trying to distract from his troubles by railing against a straw man "liberal secular conspiracy against Christmas".

There is no need to explain to a crowd like this how absurd it is for a right-wing corporate shill to bemoan the secular aspects of Christmas. And yet, I think we should give O'Reilly the attention he craves here.

Follow me, below.

It may be difficult for us progressives to take the full measure of what Rep. John Murtha did by calling for the expedient withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Progressives are besieged, by more than Iraq, and, frankly, Murtha isn't "one of us."

But we need to take a moment and consider the measure of Murtha and his courageous act, in the context of the machinations by the Republicans in engineering their political future, Murtha not only served to hasten the end of a war and save countless lives, on our side and among Iraqis, he also helped the Democratic Party to an almost certain victory in 2006 and 2008.

My hypothesis below the fold.

In a copyright story, the Houston Chronicle has demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that Texas executed an innocent man in 1993.

The man's name was Ruben Cantu, tried and convicted based on the eyewitness testimony of a person who survived the shooting. The sleaze of this case involves not simply Texas' uniquely institutionalized fascism, a criminal justice system where everyone lies on behalf of prosecutors, particularly if the defendant is a person of color, but coercion by prosecutors of their star witness based on his status as an undocumented alien.

This story is important not simply because it demonstrates how Texas does not have the integrity to administer capital punishment, but because it reminds us, once again, that Texas is an uncivilized place unworthy of a star on our nation's flag. Major props to Lise Olsen for having courage and reminding us there are good Texans among the vile rabble.

Excerpts:

Today, reporting the indictment of Michael Scanlon, the Houston Chronicle goes out of its way to reinforce the ties between the Abramoff scandal and Houston's own Tom DeLay.

For those of you outside Houston rightly questioning the animus of the Chronicle towards DeLay, the rift goes way back to the first efforts to build rail mass transit in Houston. The Chronicle, a major stakeholder downtown, rightly advocated Houston address its larhe problems with traffic and smog. DeLay brazenly denied Houston funds in an overt pander to his racist constituency. The Chronicle's crusade retains its legs because there are a lot of decent people who live in inner Houston and who work for the Chronicle, despite the fact the Chronicle is, of course, an important cog in the corrupt Republican corporate cabal that runs Houston.

The lead to the story- count how many times DeLay is brought in:

This will be a brief diary.

SCOTUS nominee Samual Alito dismisses his statements on his application to work in the Reagan White House as those of a "job application" and not necessarily his true feelings.

The job Alito was applying for was a federal job, and Alito is now claiming he lied on his application for the job. This is actually a crime, lying to a federal official.

So, we now know beyond any doubt Alito was not only willing to lie about recusing himself from cases involving Vanguard, an ethical lapse, but that he was willing to lie on a federal job application, a crime.

Nt only is Alito the most radical right-winger to be nominated since Bork, Alito has lowered the bar in terms of candor and ethics to a historic abyss.

I worked extensively for John Edwards during the primaries in 2004. I felt he had the best message, but I mistakenly felt he was the best candidate to deliver it. In focus groups, the "gravitas" issue came up repeatedly, and I was forced to admit, eventually, the primary voters were right. Kerry came off as more substantive, despite the caclkes from friends from Massachusetts who knew Kerry and found this ironic, to put it mildly.

Yesterday/Today, in an amazing "mea cupla" Op-Ed, John Edwards finds the magnificent voice I had presumed to lie within himself. Edwards eviscerates Bush, Cheney and the Republicans.

Excerpts below:

By a mind-numbing 76-24 margin, Texas voters approved Porposition 2, a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

76-24, despite every major newspaper in the state, most of which are among the most right-wing in the nation, advocating its defeat.

We need to be honest about Texas. We're in a struggle to regain our country, against a well-financed enemy, and we need to be very rational about our resources and prospects in formulating our strategies.

Texas is gone.

Below the fold is a lengthy excerpt of the Dallas Morning News' editorial against Proposition 2 in Texas, the so-called "Gay Marriage Ban."

Normally, I would not subject Kossacks to ramblings of the right-wing DMN. But, the issue is extremely important. Frankly, and I mean this respectfully, it is more important in general than in its specifics. Gay rights are advancing, inexorably, and they can withstand a demagogic hit like the passge of Prop. 2. Rather, the vote today is about whether Texas is a civilized place. It is conceivable Prop. 2 will pass despite the rantings of bona fide right-wingers like the DMN Editorial Page. The passage of Prop. 2 would confirm Texas, as a place, is not civilized. There are millions of fine Texans, but Texas, the place, would not be civilized.

This story will be sickly hysterical to those of you who understand the Texas Supreme Court.

Republican Justice Nathan Hecht, desperate to fix Miers nomination in any way he can, in one sentence pronounces Miers a practicing Evangelical, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic and Heterosexual.

According to AP via Yahoo,

Miers has worshipped as a Catholic and attended Episcopalian and Presbyterian services, according to Judge Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, who has dated Miers.
 

Another young life lost in boxing, the male version of the strip club, where boys young and talented but born indigent earn a living being exploited to death by the Nero-Bushes of the world.

RIP- Levander Johnson.

If you have an opinion on boxing and/or on the libertarian implications of banning boxing, then please post.

I hate going to fucking Drudge for news items, especially when they link to the fucking Washington Times. But, in this case, I'm glad I did.

It seems two DSCC staffers obtained a copy of Maryland GOP Senate candidate Kevin Steele's credit report. It's unlawful to seek to obtain this report- their only hope for a defense is if someone mailed it to them.

Of course, Drudge/the WashTimes had no problems with conservatives being in unlawful posession of Ward Churchill's confidential military service record. And Republicans have for years had access to our most private documents- our tax returns (see David Dinkins).

That's not the point. The point isn't that the Republicans are not ruthless bastards without a shred of integrity. They ARE- the scum of the earth.

The point is we are not.