Texas is the place

I'm moving on Sunday. ...Tis why I've not blogged. Here's some news: Air America Radio up 140% in LA, eating up Rush Limbaugh’s audience

In the fourth quarter of 2004 Al Franken's ratings in New York were 44% of Rush Limbaugh's. In just 3 months that ratio rose to 60%; that is bad news, but not for Air America. In the same New York Winter 2005 ratings, Air America's Randi Rhodes on in the crucial afternoon drive-time, went up 33%, while the conservative talk shows in same time slot on WABC and WOR each went down 33%. Air America's evening show, “The Majority Report” starring Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder went up 100%; while the WOR show in that time slot was flat and the WABC show went down 33%. In total audience, “The Majority Report” was the number one talk show in New York City in its time slot.

Until Texas, suckas.

Durka Durka

The Attack of the Killer Splinter

I just got THE most intense wooden splinter embedded into the fingernail of my right, middle-finger. Yeah, fuck you, too. It happened en route to Seward Park, where I planned on spending a pleasant afternoon reading and sunning. Youch. In other news, Paul Krugman lays the smack down on Plame-gate. My finger hurts too much for anything else. It's still in there, by the way...The Splinter. I'm going to soberly attempt home surgery tomorrow, with hot needles, shots of whiskey, and good-old Texas moxie. I think I may have to hit up a clinic.

Shit-filled Spokeshole

The White House press corps refused to let Scott McClellan get away with non-answers on the Rove-Plame affair. This clip is about 6 minutes long, but totally worth watching from beginning to end. Terry Moran and his pretty face are reason enough...not to mention the giggling in the background. David Gregory lashes out towards the end:

"Scott, this is ridiculous, I mean, the notion that you're going to stand before us after having commented with that level of detail and tell people watching this that somehow you've decided not to talk? You've got a public record out there! Do you stand by YOUR remarks from that podium or not?

Swing State Project has a great play-by-play,and Keith Olbermann brilliantly opines on the puffy subject at hand. Think Progress offered up FIVE separate posts regarding the conference, all worth the read: It's Not the Crime, It's The Cover-Up Breaking: White House Stonewalls on Rove FULL TEXT: July 11 White House Press Briefing McClellan's Evasive Maneuvers Scott McClellan Needs A Thesaurus

The similarities are mounting

London Bomb Hits During 'Terror Drill'

HOST: To get this quite straight, you were running an exercise to see how you would cope with this and it happened while you were running the exercise? POWER: Precisely, and it was about half past nine this morning, we planned this for a company and for obvious reasons I don't want to reveal their name but they're listening and they'll know it. And we had a room full of crisis managers for the first time they'd met and so within five minutes we made a pretty rapid decision that this is the real one and so we went through the correct drills of activating crisis management procedures to jump from slow time to quick time thinking and so on. According to Power the drill focused around 'simultaneous bombings'. At first the bombings were thought to have been spread over an hour, but that was later confirmed by police as being wrong and that in fact the bombings were only seconds apart, therefore simultaneous.

D'you remember the 9/11 terror drills?

Across the pond

Blair rejects calls for probe into bombings

As the death toll rose to 52 and police and security services continued searching for the bombers - thought to be Islamist terrorists - Downing Street said the prime minister believed an inquiry now into the outrage which killed at least 49 people would be a "ludicrous diversion." Instead, in a statement to the Commons on Monday following last week's Group of Eight summit, Mr Blair is expected to focus on the direction the government must take to ensure future terrorism is defeated.

London Suspects Al Qaida hired white thugs to carry out the attack

Police and intelligence agents areinvestigating the theory that a gang of white "mercenary terrorists" was hired by al-Qa'ida to carry out last week's devastating attacks on London. The Independent on Sunday can reveal today that investigations into the bombings of three Tube trains and a bus, which left at least 49 people dead, are focusing on the possibility that criminal gangs were paid to mount the worst atrocities in British history.

The Order of the Vulture

These are the President's remarks in the wake of the London tragedy:

I spent some time recently with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and had an opportunity to express our heartfelt condolences to the people of London, people who lost lives. I appreciate Prime Minister Blair's steadfast determination and his strength. He's on his way now to London here from the G8 to speak directly to the people of London. He'll carry a message of solidarity with him. This morning I have been in contact with our Homeland Security folks. I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London, and to be extra vigilant, as our folks start heading to work. The contrast between what we've seen on the TV screens here, what's taken place in London and what's taking place here is incredibly vivid to me. On the one hand, we have people here who are working to alleviate poverty, to help rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS, working on ways to have a clean environment. And on the other hand, you've got people killing innocent people. And the contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill -- those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks. The war on terror goes on. I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve. And that is we will not yield to these people, will not yield to the terrorists. We will find them, we will bring them to justice, and at the same time, we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate.

Does anyone in the world take our asshole of a President seriously anymore? I wonder if the dignitaries at the G8 felt patronized by his folksy vernacular and elementary reaction to the bombings in the UK. Is the blatant hypocrisy of his statement something that only the hate-America-first Liberals can spot? Do world leaders have to be reminded that they have just as much resolve as the leader of the free world? Will Bush keep his word this time around and really work on bringin' them to justice? This is a reaction from FOX News' Brian Kilmeade:

KILMEADE: And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 --believe it or not-- was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.

Nice. Way to stick to your irrational/rightwing/brainless guns. Obviously, the current Take-the-war-there-so-it-doesn't-come-here rationale has proven itself to be a bunk theory. I wonder when our soldiers will be back in our country, protecting our ports, nuclear facilities, and mass transit lines from the hundreds of NEW terrorists that we've helped create.

Sam Seder was incredible today as Randi Rhodes fill-in host. You can get the podcast HERE at the end of the day.

...and so it begins.

An Al Qaida group has claimed responsibility for the multiple explosions in London this morning. One has to wonder if its A-Q proper (ie. Osama bin laden) or an A-Q copycat group. I can't figure out which of the two would be better news...

News Dump: Blasts rock London, Blair breaks off G8 meeting London Blasts Set Off Chaos, Confusion Four London Blasts Kill 40, Injure 300 Al Qaida claim over blasts Blair vows terrorists won't win

Terra' Attacks - 3192 Freedom Fighters - 0

Terror Attacks Near 3,200 in 2004 Count

Iraq, with 866, had the most terror attacks against civilians and other noncombatants, according to the new database. In April, Iraq was said to have had 201 attacks. The new numbers included attacks on Iraqis by Iraqis, a category previously excluded because it wasn't considered international terrorism.

M-Diddy is like, totally HARD now.

Asked about the electronic monitoring device she must wear on her ankle — she has complained repeatedly that it irritates her skin — Stewart says she knows how to remove it. "I watched them put it on. You can figure out how to get it off," she is quoted as saying. "It's on the Internet. I looked it up." Her publicist's eyes "widened with alarm" when Stewart made the remark. The article didn't say whether Stewart claimed ever to have taken off the device.

The Palm Beach Post have an interactive map that documents the casualties as of Wednesday, June 29. I clicked on the Edinburg, TX dot and got these results:

Name: Dustin M. Sekula Age: 18 Gender: Male Rank: Pfc. Branch: Marines Status: Active duty Date killed: April 1, 2004 Incident type: Action Operation: Iraqi Freedom Name: Mark Anthony Zapata Age: 27 Gender: Male Rank: Spc. Branch: Army Status: Active duty Date killed: August 15, 2004 Incident type: Action Operation: Iraqi Freedom

I went to school with Pfc. Sekula's older brother, and I graduated with Spc. Zapata from ENHS. Sekula was the first casualty from Hidalgo County. Oy.

Happy 4th.

Sunday Reading

Here are my Independence Eve picks: Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) answers a few questions for the New York Times Sunday Magazine:

We built the biggest government history has ever seen under a Republican government. The Democrats are better because they are honest about it. They don't pretend. I admire that. They'll say: ''We want more money. We need more money.''

Check out the latest posts from Lawrence O'Donnell regarding the Karl Rove leak-case.

If what I have reported is not true, if Karl Rove is not Matt Cooper's source, Rove could prove that instantly by telling us what he told the grand jury. Nothing prevents him from doing that, except a good lawyer who is trying to keep him out of jail.

Newsweek discusses a future biography by President George W. Bush. Yikes.

Bush will also need some raw materials. His father wrote letters and kept a diary; Clinton taped conversations about his life with former speechwriter Ted Widmer. But President Bush does not write e-mail, unlike his father and brother Jeb. He scribbles thank-you notes and greeting cards with a black Sharpie marker, but that's a long way from making a historical and best-selling tome.

Slideshow of U.S combat trauma, as photographed by Lynsey Addario for the New York Times.

Do it, sucka

LIVE 8 coverage. Live feeds. Stream it. Donate some cash. Raise up and break the backbone of power, y'all.

Check it.

Apparently, The Leak has arrived in the form of a puffy-faced turd blossom named Karl Rove. Homework: Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson - the Vanity Fair article WIKI for Valerie Plame I vaguely remember Scott McClelland refusing to entertain the idea that maybe, just maybe...Karl Rove was behind the outing. Did Rove Blow a Spook's Cover?The White House won't say. (2003 Slate article) ...and one can't leave out those industrious bloggers over at dKos: `Jeff Gannon' and L'Affaire Plame: Summary of CIA leak Goodnight.