Politics: Another Rat Scurries

off the sinking ship:

Hypocritical sleazebag and potential prisoner John Doolittle

Good news! Champagne all around!

Corrupt sleazebag and aptly-named political slimebucket John Doolittle is retiring from Congress. Doolittle, a Republican cobag from California (the state collectively blushes in shame), is currently under investigation in a lobbying scandal that ties him to Jack Abramoff.

Doolittle attributes his decision to step down at the end of his current term to God.

"My wife, Julie, and I have made this decision after much prayer and deliberation. It was not my initial intent to retire, and I fully expected and planned to run again right up until very recently," Doolittle said after addressing supporters in his Northern California district.

He has supporters in Northern California?? WTF?? Shame, shame, shame dudes. You bin smokin' too much of yer product.

The shameless cobag means he had a conversation with the Deity, in which said Deity told him to get the H-E-double-toothpicks outa Dodge, because neither his party nor his constituents were buying his bullshit this time around.

"But it distilled upon us (sic) that we were ready for a change after spending almost our entire married lives with me in public service. We are at peace with this choice and look forward to starting a new chapter in our lives."

"Distilled upon us?" Say what? This must be a usage of distilled with which I am thankfully unfamiliar. Either that or the guy's been hitting the booze. Not that I blame him, with his current problems. Oh, hell, yes, I do. He's a pinch-faced hypocritical lazy corrupt jerk with the look of constant constipation draining his jowly cheeks. And what do you mean, public service, you hypocritical swine? Public swilling at the trough is more like it.

The article goes on to say:

The development comes as Doolittle, in his ninth term, faced growing political pressure from fellow Republicans who considered him a liability because of his involvement, along with his wife, in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation. House Republicans, still smarting from losing control of Congress in 2006, are eager to put that ethics taint behind them.

Hopefully we won't forget, and won't let the Republican party forget, either. It ain't over till every last one of those pandering, corrupt criminals is behind bars. They have robbed and stolen and swilled from the public treasury as if the lives of the suffering taxpayers were completely inconsequential. The legislative branch must be cleansed of every corrupt slimebag, Republican or Democratic. The executive branch must be cleansed of every corrupt slimebag who worked hand-in-glove with those foreign or native who conspired to rob the Treasury and bog down this great nation in endless war. To the prisons with them all!

For months Doolittle resisted suggestions that he retire, branding his GOP critics "weasels." [...T]he Democrat he barely beat in 2006, Charlie Brown, collected 10 times as much money as the incumbent for a rematch.

Doolittle will be the latest in a string of House Republicans to announce their retirements, although most don't have his legal problems. Nearly 20 others are headed into voluntary retirement.

Break out the champagne, folks! The rats are leaving the sinking ship in their dozens!

Raw Story has the details.

Stumble It!

Another Rat Flees The Sinking Ship

I'll admit, I felt a frisson of delight upon viewing this headline on the InnerTubes: White House Budget Director Resigns

I don't know about other industries, but in the Silly Valley, "resigning to spend more time with [my/his/her/their] family" was codespeak for "I got the boot," or "Ship's sinkin', I am so outta here."

He's being replaced by one Jim Nussle, who I will dutifully research as time allows.

Stumble It!

Cain: He's Not Able

Another day, another disaster for the Republican KKKlown KKKar KKKandidates.

Srsly, how embarrassing is this, anyway? Looks like Herman Cain is down for the count and sinking. First, the candidate was forced to acknowledge that he had only $13.00 in his "Hermanator" PAC.

Then, he reported his fundraising hauls for the current quarter: $2.5 million. Which sounds really impressive, until you realize that that is the smallest amount ANY of the candidates has raised this quarter, and about half of what Timmy "FeeFee" Teapawz raised. Pawlenty raked in the smallest amount of the other WHITE candidates, and Cain raked in about half that amount. Pretty sad, ain't it?

The teabaggers talk about how Herman Cain *proves* they're not racist (Why? Because he's a self-hating black man who's willing to give cover to white people attacking our President?), yet they won't give him their money.

You know, just like when they made Michael Steele chair of the RNC, but immediately took away his ability to disburse money. They're not going to trust no black folks with money! Come ON, Herman! Where have you been for the last 60 years, Uncle?

Well, the news just gets worse for poor ol' Uncle Herman. Here we all were enjoying our nice, long, warm, summery Fourth of July weekend, and what was the Hermanator's organization doing? Pooping all over him in Iowa, that's what. Yup. His Iowa people just up and quit on him, en masse.

Hermie's trying to put a good face on it, his current spokesweasel claims they've already got replacements lined up for all the rats wut done jumped his sinking ship. But srsly, how lame is it that your entire campaign staff ups and quits? And, worse yet, accusing each other of homosexual affairs? What is this, high school?

But srsly. I don't think Uncle Herman will be with us much longer.

Oh, yeah, and some of that money he "raised" was his own. The old man actually broke down and put some of his own Hermanbux into the race. What a fool. He's actually paying for the privilege of hanging out with a bunch of rich old white guys who would be yelling at him to fetch their drinks if he was even allowed in their fucking country club.

Bye, Hermie. Wish I could say it's been nice, but I'm kinda sick and tired of us Brownz siding with the majority against our own and doing the dirty work of trying to take down one of the best Presidents this nation has ever had — for them.

Stumble It!

Politics - Rat Jam

Boy, when the rats start leaving the sinking ship, they just run right over each other in the race for the gangway, don't they? Pete Hoekstra is not, sadly, announcing his "retirement," unlike the five Republican members of the House who made me so happy today. However, according to the Detroit Free Press, he does have some hard words for Commander Awol von Bunnypants.

Meanwhile, Senator John Warner (R-noVA), who suggested this week that some troops leave Iraq in time to return home for Xmas, is being pressured by the WH to "clarify that he has not broken politically with President Bush," reports AP. The best part of the story comes at the end:

According to an administration official, Warner's staff agreed that the story was being portrayed incorrectly as Warner splitting with the president.

"They said they'd take steps to deal with it," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the private conversations.

However, in the AP interview, Warner said he personally had not been asked to revise his comments and he took no issue with how his views were reported. When asked whether he had indeed split with Bush on Iraq, he declined to say and noted his remarks speak for themselves.

"You have to surmise that on your own," he said.

In the words of the immortal Tom Lehrer, "Who's Next?" Any bets?

Stumble It!

Politics: Bigfoot Quits

Hughes attempting to rejoin her fleeing family

Tired of trying to make Shrub and his administration over as near-humans, Karen Hughes joined the other rats fleeing the sinking ship today, says the WaPoo. She is, reportedly, the last of Shrubya's Texas inner circle.

Secretary of State Bootsie Ferragamo announced, in a footsize snark:

"She will obviously leave a very big hole and big shoes to fill, ...."

Hughes was sworn in as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy in September 2005. Her job was supposedly "to combat negative opinions about the United States following the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and its chaotic aftermath."

Reuters reports that her sucess has been smaller than her footprint:

However, opinion polls around the world continue to show high levels of anti-Americanism, which the Pew Research Center in Washington says is strongest in the Muslim world.

Thanks to Maru for the great pic of Hughes in her natural habitat.

Stumble It!

Politics - The Rats Desert The Sinking Ship

Picture from generik.

My, oh my. Does it get much better than this? From The Raw Story comes the interesting news that Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former CoS, is talking impeachment about Bush and Cheney. Do those two idiots have the first clue just how deeply unpopular they are? Says the Raw:

Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, said on the public radio program On Point Thursday that "Bill Clinton's peccadilloes ... pale in significance" when compared to the "high crimes and misdemeanors" of Bush and Cheney.

Wilkerson did not directly call on Congress to begin impeachment hearings, and he brought up impeachment in response to a caller's question. Early in the show, however, he observed, "This administration doesn't know how to effect accountability, in my opinion."

Now we all know that when one public figure has a falling out with another public figure, s/he often will not speak of it directly. But hir "close friends," or "old friends," or "former staffers" will speak at length to others, notably the media. That might be what's happening here, or it might not. I haven't studied Powell or Wilkerson well enough to say. I do note with interest, however, that Wilkerson is using the language of impeachment. "High crimes and misdemeanors ...." Indeed.

Stumble It!

News this (well, last, really) week

South Carolina is proposing legislation that will give felons time off their jail sentence in consideration of their organ donation. Revolting. What happens to the innocent or wrongly accused person desperate to get out? How many organs can you donate?

Is there a limit? To the number of organs, or discount on the sentence, like, you can't get ten years off an eleven year sentence if you donate the bleeding lot?

It's more of this disgusting trend of using poor people for their body parts.

Rich? Need a heart, lungs, or liver? Travel to some third-world country and have someone executed so their still-palpitating body part(s) can be transferred to you.

Want a baybee of your own? Working too hard to conceive one? Disgusted by childbirth, or unwilling to deal with the biological difficulties? Rent-a-uterus and have your partner's genetic material mixed with yours, dumped in the Womb Mit Ein View, and par-tay! Your very own blue-eyed blond Little Precious can be decanted at your convenience.

Don't forget to throw a few pennies at the walking womb who nurtured it for the requisite time period.

And with the passage of this legislation, you won't even have to leave home.

I have visions of people agreeing to part, as it were, with their parts, coming to regret the pact with the devil. Or, worse yet, the potential donee ready for the part before the donor is done with it. "Oi!" they'll scream, as their livers, lungs, or kidneys are ripped out, "Not done with that yet, give us a year!"

Workers are, supposedly, less satisfied with their jobs than ever, according to this article.

Just one thing I want to say about this. What kind of people think it's news that people making $15K pa or less don't much like their jobs? Is that newsworthy, or surprising in any way? Oh, and once you hit 60 hours per week, your job satisfaction goes down. No!!! Really? Who'd'a thunk?

Did you, like me, think there was plenty of reason to suspect voter fraud put Dim Son and a bunch of other Rethugnican twits into power? Suspect no more. Bradblog has the story.

I actually like Tom Lantos quite a bit, though I don't always agree with him. However, overall, I've found him honest, which is more than you can say for most congresscritters. In any event, I believe he meant to say that Bush was treating both Congress and the American public like mushrooms here, you know, "Keep us in the dark and feed us nothing but horseshit," but was too polite to so state.

Apparently, Winston Churchill would have agreed with this pathetic excuse for a man. Anti-Semitism is alive and well among Christianists. (Christianists are to be distinguished from true Christians, who, while I may not believe in their deity, nevertheless strive to make the world a better place. Also, criticizing Israel's policy towards Palestinians and the post-60s wars of territory does not make you an anti-Semite. By throwing that term around so carelessly, the AIPAC/Israel First types are cheapening its meaning.)

Best News of the Week: SCOOTER LIBBY CONVICTED!!! Noted purveyor of porn now also a convicted felon. Even Better News:

Rules Governing Petitions For Executive Clemency:

No petition for pardon should be filed until the expiration of a waiting period of at least five years after the date of the release of the petitioner from confinement or, in case no prison sentence was imposed, until the expiration of a period of at least five years after the date of the conviction of the petitioner. Generally, no petition should be submitted by a person who is on probation, parole, or supervised release.

Post on Daily Kos, thanks to the person who posted this. Of course if the BoyEmperor George decides he's going to do what he damned well wants and screw the rest of us, we're, well, screwed, I guess. But he seems to be losing steam - or at least some of the hot air that has fueled his recent imperial excesses.

WARNING: NOT WORK-SAFE! JoeMyGod discovers that the Repuglicans' latest love affair is with a gay porn star. Oh-KAY, WHATEVER!

Michael Savage comes over all hissy-fitted, anaconda big bad Media Matters pointed out that he's a jerk for attacking Melissa Etheridge and bloviating the usual venomous hate speech. Big WOW.

Meanwhile, the rats continue to trample each other underfoot in their zeal to escape the sinking ship:

Rep Hensarling of Texas does not look like the kind of guy I would trust around small children or animals, but hearing him call GOP actions similar to a wino's certainly warmed the cockles of my heart.

Snotty McTellEmNothing, erstwhile White House spokestool and master of obfuscation sure has a lot of nerve, telling the WH to come clean on the Scooter Libby fiasco.

In other news from around the world:
Headline in the Independent reads:

British company claims ownership of Kenya's colourful national cloth

How's that for chutzpah?

A corrupt official narrowly escapes having a brand of rat poison named after him, in China.

Indian man calls home, interrupting sorrowing family's funeral service for him. Yowza. All's well that ends well, at least. Sheesh.

Okay, after reading that nearly half the population of China cannot effectively communicate in their own national language, I don't feel so bad about being really, really rusty in Chinese. And Bahasa Melayu. And Bangla. And Hindi. And Tamil.

Mexican women report violence from their boyfriends, which increases with their attempts to gain independence and autonomy. Really. I am so surprised.

Goodbye, Cruel WOOAAAAGH!

Stumble It!