Tuesday, September 26th, 2006

Armitage Threatened Pakistan!
Oh no! The then deputy secretary of state, Dick Armitage, allegedly told Pakistan's Intelligence Director back in 2001 that we'd bomb Pakistan back to the stone age if they dind;'t help us in Afghanistan! This, according to President General Pervez Musharraf. Whoa. Dick said that? The same Dick who "confessed" to being the leak to Novak about Valeria Plame's CIA status? The one who said he sort of said it as an aside, even though Novak insists he made it very clear he wanted such information printed? Maybe Dickles will say the same thing about this bombing threat. You know, like "Hiya, Pakistani Intelligence Director, I like you're tie, is that silk? Yeah, we've bombed the crap outta countries that didn't help us with Afghanistan, but let's talk about this salad. Are these dates? Your chef is a genius!" Of course Bush denies knowing about this. That's a no-brainer. You think we're ever going to get validation that Bush et al sit in weekly poker games and negotiate world politics over cognac and "patriated" Cuban cigars? "Hey, Dick, what did you tell that squirrelly ID guy from Pakistan? Gimme three, Rover." "Well, Dubya, two for me Karl, make 'em sweet, you been dealin crap tonight. I told that little Muslim sumbitch that if he and his don't step up and play in our new sandbox, we'd drop a coupla Truman specials on 'em and make their kids glow for the next 50 years." Maybe someday, when "The Daily Show" gets a seat at the Whitehouse press corps.

IRS Attacks Church
Call me a flip-flopper, or call me very precise in my beliefs. When I heard a church had used it's pulpit to make a campaign for a particular politician, my reaction was "hang 'em from the rafters!" Then when I heard this church was guilty only of making anti-war statements, my reaction was "It's about God-lovin' time!" Now the IRS is involved-- they’ve requested records from All Saint's Episcopal Church of Pasadena in order to determine if the church violated laws which state that non-profits can't overtly support politicians seeking office. The law makes sense in a country racked by problems with campaign finance reform. It would be too easy to dump illegal campaign contributions into a non-profit organization to do all the dirty work. But this church has refused to hand over documents, saying the IRS request is too intrusive. And more power to 'em. Making anti-war speeches more or less requires naming the President, and laws should protect freedoms, not merely hinder them. And the church is not trying to be secretive-- they just want this refusal to shift the IRS effort into the courts, where they can make their case more publicly. Good on you, Christians.

George's Further Macaca Woes
Not Bush, Allen. The Senator from Virginia who hit the national stage when he decided to call a young man of Indian descent "macaca" and to welcome him to America, despite his having been born and raised in Virginia. The ex-Governor who hung the confederate flag in his living room. Who in highschool wore a confederate flag pin in his yearbook photo. The one who angrily denied he was Jewish to reporters, then affirmed it after his mother explained that he was, then declared that he still eats ham sandwiches. And now, old colleagues are coming forward to say they he used the N word frequently when he was in college. Allen denies it of course, but that's hardly the point. He's brought this on himself. He's created an atmosphere that invites such accusations, and an atmosphere where such accusations are taken seriously. And that's why he's going down.

Get Your Scorecards Ready
For the November elections, the Senate races to watch are Maryland, Ohio (Bob Ney's old place), Pennsylvania (bye bye Santorum!), Indiana (though that one should not be competitive) New Jersey, Virginia of course (If George Allen pulls out a win, we are a sad, sad people) and Florida. There's a host of House races to watch too, but I don't have all those lined up yet. Actually, Florida should be interesting, as Katherine Harris has given up her safe house seat to make an ill-fated run for Senate.