how 'bout a turd bounce?

Dear Leader

OK, I really like animals, on the whole, except maybe when they're trying to rip out my innards. So I don't want to use the term "dead cat bounce". However, it appears Dear Leader may be having a smoodgle of a problem with his poll numbers -- again:

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Maybe a turd bounce? I mean, if you fling anything hard enough, likely, it'll bounce. Just sayin'.

...and Abramoff

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Looks like Der Leader's orders to hide all pix showing him with Abramoff will avail him nothing - they're out there.

The real economic picture?

Texas Tom at The Daily Kos offers an excellent analysis of the job figures for the past month and the past year, in some kind of realistic perspective:

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I've always thought that the jobless stats were pretty damned unbelievable. I know an awful lot of people who are still out of work, some eight years or more after the dotcom bomb, or underemployed, or otherwise out of the workforce (back in school, started their own small business, et cetera ad nauseam). Part of the "wageless" economic recovery. Texas Tom's analysis fits in with what I've always thought. If anyone else has, or knows of, a good analysis of the current economy, please, feel free to add it in the comments.

Fall of the House of DeLay

If I remember correctly, Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert put a couple of loooong knives in Newt Gingrich's back. I hold no brief for Gingrich, but it's nice to see that Tom DeLay is getting his comeuppance in spades (schadenfreude, anyone?); and that Denny Hastert might be next on the list:

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Auditioning for The Supremes

Is anyone quite as annoyed by the sinister, smirking Samuel Alito as I am? Apparently, Dick Durbin, according to the Chicago Sun Times, and enough other Dem and RePug senators that there's a whiff of the "f"-word (filibuster, not fuck) in the air:

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If they filibuster that sanctimonious weasel away from the Supremes, I, for one, will be doing the Frabjous Day, Callooh Callay dance of happy happy joy joy all around the house.

Never take your eye off the ball

From WaPo, the EvilKarl speech:

Rove referred only indirectly to the corruption issue, warning Republicans against becoming complacent in power. "The GOP's progress during the last four decades is a stunning political achievement," he said. "But it is also a cautionary tale of what happens to a dominant party -- in this case the Democrat Party -- when its thinking becomes ossified, when its energy begins to drain, when an entitlement mentality takes over, and when political power becomes an end in itself rather than a means to achieve the common good."

I call that pretty cheeky, coming from a Republican as the scandals threaten to overwhelm them.

And a quick and fitting response from Howard Dean:

Democrats were quick to respond, with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean challenging Rove's fitness to serve. "Karl Rove only has a White House job and a security clearance because President Bush has refused to keep his promise to fire anyone involved in revealing the identity of an undercover CIA operative," Dean said in a statement. Dean added: "The truth is, Karl Rove breached our national security for partisan gain and that is both unpatriotic and wrong."

It was four years ago this week when Rove, appearing at another meeting of the RNC, said Republicans would make terrorism a central issue of the 2002 midterm elections. Rove's remarks infuriated Democrats, who protested that, until then, Bush had stressed bipartisanship and national unity in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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I made this a tinyurl, so if it doesn't work for some reason, try:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/20/AR2006012001853.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

However, in more heartening news, it appears that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has already met once more with the Grand Jury, and the pressure is getting to Karl:

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And other backlash

Anyone who is following the Abramoff case probably remembers what went on in Saipan several years ago - U.S. lawmakers, who traveled on Abramoff's dime to the Marianas Islands and received, um, consideration, voted against applying American labor laws to the workforce in the Marianas.

ABC revealed at the time that many of the workers, young Chinese women, were forced to have abortions to keep their jobs:


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Apparently, Christian Family Values Congresscritter Tom DeLay was heavily involved in this scandal. If his constituents knew he supported forced abortions, how do you think they'd react? Someone in Texas really ought to publicize this fact.

Another dirtbag caught with his hand in the cookie jar:

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This is my very first blog, and I'm a little rusty with HTML, so please bear with this blog as it keeps undergoing changes.

And if you haven't yet visited Daily Kos, Atrios' blog, or Americablog, you owe it to yourself to hie thee there forthwith.

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