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RIP Tammy Faye

Jon Ponder

She died yesterday:

Tammy Faye Messner, whose can-do Christian cheer helped her survive the PTL scandal and forge a second career as a pop-culture queen, died Friday after battling cancer for more than a decade.

She was 65. News of her death at her home near Kansas City, Mo., was posted on her Web site Saturday night.

A family service was held Saturday in a private ceremony, where her ashes were interred, said Joe Spotts, Messner’s booking agent. Spotts said that the family is considering a public memorial service for the coming weeks.

For Tammy Faye, like Elvis, no last name was necessary.

Romney: When al-Qaida Calls, America Answers

Trish
“We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the Bush Administration.”

Mitt Romney is too stupid to live.

“Our president, for all the criticism he receives, has kept America safe these last six years, and he has done it by: One pursuing the Patriot Act, which has given us the intelligence information we needed to find out who the bad guys were and get them out before they got us, and No. 2, when al-Qaida was calling America, he made sure someone here was listening,” Romney said. “And No. 3 … when terrorists were detained, were captured, he made sure we interrogated them.”

Olbermann Not Always an Uber-Good Guy

Buck Banks

Co-editor Jon thinks MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is the cat’s pajamas. He’s fond of posting Olbermannic diatribes and lambastings and bully-pulpit blatherings of the increasingly distinguished-looking anchor of Count Down with Keith Olbermann. Jon even posted an angry seven-minute-plus Obermann oration today.

Now that one was a real tour de force, but as the folks at FishBowl NY note, Keith and Count Down don’t always take the high road:

Considering its “Nappy ‘Hos” history, MSNBC should’ve learned a lesson or two about off-handed, misogynistic remarks. Still, no one should be surprised — Olbermann and Countdown have done this kind of thing before. One example, as we reported way back in October, involved a pre-penitentiary Paris Hilton. At that time, it wasn’t the “A Slut and Battery” that drew our attention — it was what he said: “Paris Hilton claims she was punched in the face yesterday morning at a nightclub in Hollywood. [pause] ‘Course she’s had worse things happen to her face …”

Appears you can take the pundit out of the locker room, but you can’t take the locker room out of the pundit.

Cheney To Be President While Bush’s Ass is Probed

Trish

I was enjoying the thought of Bush’s impending colonoscopy and the discomfort it might inflict upon the world’s biggest ass’s ass. Then I realized with horrifying clarity that Cheney will be president while Bush is under anesthesia.

Snow says the president will hand over presidential powers to Vice President Cheney while he is under anesthesia.

White House press secretary Tony Snow says Bush will have the procedure at Camp David in Maryland.

Snow says the president will hand over presidential powers to Vice President Cheney while he is under anesthesia.

Bush did this before in 2002, at that time becoming only the second president in history to invoke Section 3 of the 25th Amendment. The first was none other than Ronald Reagan — again for a colon procedure — making Poppy Bush the first “acting” president in history.

Why the overabundance of caution? As Bush likes to persuade us, we’re at war. Whether an occupation really qualifies as “war” I’m not sure, but in a 2002 press conference he said it did.

Q Should we read anything into the fact that you are going to transfer the power, the length of time of this?

THE PRESIDENT: No, not at all. It’s just that I made the decision. We looked at the precedent. I’m the first President to have done so under this type of procedure and/or physical examination. I did so because we’re at war and I just want to be super — you know, super cautious.

And I informed the Vice President of this and he’s fully prepared to — he’s standing by. He’ll realize he’s not going to be President that long. (Laughter.)

The more cynical among us might wonder if he’s doing it so there can be no question of Dick’s authority.

Anybody up for a coup?

Bush Launches Campaign to Blame War Failure on Critics

Jon Ponder

The Pentagon’s attack on Hillary Clinton’s patriotism yesterday may be the opening salvo in an aggressive new disinformation campaign from the White House, according to Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s Countdown last night:

“This, sir, is your war. Sen. Clinton has reinforced enemy propaganda? Made it impossible for you to get your ego-driven, blood-steeped win in Iraq? Then take it into your own hands, Mr. Bush. Go to Baghdad now and fulfill, finally, your military service obligations. Go there and fight, your war. Yourself.”
– Keith Olbermann

…For days, possibly for weeks, there have been these murmurs and rumblings in places that this was the next political tactic to be taken by the administration, that it was time to get out the blame the critics, it‘s the antiwar faction‘s fault, if only they had not said what they said, did what they did, protested violations that they protested, this all would have gone well in Iraq.

Earlier in the week, Sen. Clinton wrote to the Pentagon to inquire about the status of planning for a redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, the senator’s request was hardly out of bounds. And yet the response from the Pentagon came in the form of a barely veiled allegation that even by inquiring about withdrawal she wasaiding and abetting the terrorists:

“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq,” [Under Sec. of Def. Eric] Edelman writes, “reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.”

Edelman adds: “Such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks.”

Edelman, a partisan Republican, was said to have written the letter under the direction of the vice president. (It sure doesn’t sound like Sec. Gates.) Sen. Clinton responded by calling Edelman’s accusations “outrageous” and “dangerous.”

Olbermann was less restrained. He accused the president of attempting to make his critics the scapegoats for his own failings as a war president:

[…]

West Hollywood Becomes 80th City to Call for Impeachment of Cheney and Bush

Jon Ponder

On Wednesday, the West Hollywood City Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the impeachment of Pres. George W. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney:

The … resolution states that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have repeatedly violated the U.S. Constitution and other laws of the United States.

The resolution cited these impeachable actions:

  • Stripping Americans of their constitutional rights
  • Ordering and authorizing the U.S. Attorney General to override judicial order for the release of detainees
  • Directing the National Security Agency to spy on Americans
  • Misguiding Congress and the country on false intelligence in order to lead the United States into war

The resolution was co-sponsored by Mayor John Duran.and city council member Abbe Land, one of two openly straight members of the five-person city council.

West Hollywood is the 80th city in the country to adopt an impeachment resolution, and, according to the National Impeachment Center in Los Angeles, it is the first in Southern California to do so.

President of the Christian Action League, 74, Is Arrested after Allegedly Paying Hooker with Checks

Jon Ponder

Privette on two occasions allegedly paid the prostitute with checks then reported the checks stolen.

Coy Privette, Tiffany Denise Summers

Rev. Coy Privette, the president of the Christian Action League, a North Carolina ultraconservative Christian political organization based in Raleigh, has been arrested for soliciting prostitution:

Privette, 74, was charged with six counts of misdemeanor aiding and abetting prostitution by renting a hotel room and paying for sexual acts, according to State Bureau of Investigation Agent Kevin Canty. Tiffany Denise Summers, 32, of Salisbury, was charged with six counts of misdemeanor prostitution, Canty said.

And:

Police said officers were investigating a forged check case, which led them to the prostitution charges. Privette on two occasions allegedly paid the prostitute with checks then reported those checks as stolen, officials said.

According to its website, the Christian Action League is:

a Christian public policy organization that addresses public policy and legislative issues from a Christian worldview. The Christian Action League has a full-time presence in the General Assembly of North Carolina and has garnered considerable respect from both the Republican and Democratic parties. The League’s purpose is to assist the church in fulfilling Christ’s command to be the “salt” and the “light” of the earth.

The Christian Action League is funded by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and it is affiliated with the ultra-rightwing American Family Association.

For over three decades, Privette has been one of the best known and most outrageous spokesmen for “family values” and Christian extreme right politics in North Carolina. In the 1970s, he was serving as minister at the North Kannapolis Baptist Church when he joined the tide of evangelicals entering politics that included the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition. He served in the N.C. Legislature from 1984 to 1992, and has been a member of the board of commissioners in Cabarrus County since 1998.

He and his wife, Betty, have four children.

Hat tip to VRW, LCD, Judy

Florida Democrats — The ‘We Too’ Party

Buck Banks

Well, she’s gone and done it again. Karen Thurman, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, has issued another one of her rah-rah memos rallying FlaDems to — save the environment! Sorry, Karen, Eco-Charlie, he of the eternal tan and immovable white mane, stole that issue away from the Dems last week at his climate change summit in Miami.

It took the Democratics a full week to come up with a response to try and take back the issue. Sorry folks, it’s too late. Still, Thurman seems to allege that Democratic efforts led to Gov. Crist’s conversion to greenness:

Yet, finally, it seems the Governor has seen the light.
— Karen Thurman

Sometimes, as Democrats in Florida, it can feel like we’re banging our heads against a wall, trying to talk sense into the Republicans in Tallahassee.

But if we keep trying … keep fighting … once in blue moon, we can get through to them.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist has been a politician for a long time. For years, he stood silently by and watched Democrats promote responsible legislation dealing with the dangers of climate change, while his fellow Republicans decried global warming a “liberal myth” and friends in the Bush Administration allowed polluters to run free under laws with phony names like “Clear Skies Act.”

Yet, finally, it seems the Governor has seen the light.

On the issue of climate change, Democratic leaders have paved the way. Now the Governor, too, recognizes the need for action and is following suit. Unfortunately, even with his support, our leaders can’t save Florida from the dangers of climate change without your help.

Man, if word gets out that Charlie Crist had an eco-epiphany because of the Florida Democratic Party, he won’t get invited to the annual Republican Governor’s Retreat and Camp Out. Now it was rather a surprise when Crist came out all Greenpeace-y all of a sudden, but fact is, he did it and he did it Hollywood Big Time.

But the Democratic attempts to take back the green only get more desperate. Thurman exhorts FlaDems to sign the newly minted Five Point Pledge, a petition that says you agree with the measures Crist signed in executive orders last week:

  • Point 1: I support the establishment of a renewable energy standard for the state. Furthermore, I believe benchmarks should be set to require that more energy come from renewable sources in the future.
  • Point 2: I support the Governor’s Executive Order to explore a cap and trade program for industry, but I also believe we must ensure that this program will offer flexibility to industries that cannot meet the strict standards while still achieving an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Point 3: I support programs such as a statewide net metering plan to give consumers and businesses a financial incentive to generate electricity with solar panels and other technologies.
  • Point 4: I support requiring that our full state vehicle fleet be made up of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles as soon as possible with a program to phase out older vehicles for more environmentally friendly ones.
  • Point 5: I support the idea that Florida should be a trendsetter in the construction of energy efficient buildings by adopting green building or similar standards for all new state offices and public schools.

Well, duh, who doesn’t support those measures? But signing a petition this week doesn’t change the fact that the gov signed executive orders last week, and he had his green buddy Arnold Schwarzenegger at his side when he did it.

What’s with the “we too” stuff? Can’t the FlaDems find some other environmental initiatives to tout? Ones that Crist is against? How about the condition of the state’s endangered rivers? Oh yeah, Crist already got some major stuff through the legislature on that. OK, how about Everglades restoration? Crist has already pushed measures supporting that, too. I know, how about offshore oil drilling? Doh! Florida’s Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson already pretty much owns that issue.

Sorry Karen, et. al., you might mean well, but with this kind of follow-the-leader leadership, who needs the Democratic Party in Florida?

CIA Opens FOIA Candy Jar to Bloggers — Kind of

Buck Banks

In an administration infamous for its secrecy, the CIA suddenly must look like a maverick. The agency has abandoned more restrictive policies and loosened the definition of “news media” to include — through no small amount of interpretation — bloggers among the media that can access government documents through the Freedom of Information Act for free instead of for exhorbitant fees.

But it’s the CIA’s explanation of the process by which it came around to not changing the rules that has to rank as a classic in the annals of gubmint gobble-speak:

… if any features of the proposed system were dropped, the advantages would not outweigh the disadvantages of adopting this system.
— CIA

The CIA received comments that supported some aspect of the proposed rule, while also receiving comments which were very critical of other aspects of this approach. After a review and consideration of all of the comments, it was clear that there was no way to reconcile the positive and negative comments into a refinement of our approach that was workable. We concluded that if any features of the proposed system were dropped, the advantages would not outweigh the disadvantages of adopting this system.

Since there was no support to proceed with the proposed rule as originally drafted, rather than implementing the sweeping changes set forth in the proposed rule, we have a more modest change by simply adopting the definition of “news media” contained in the March 27, 1987, Office of Management and Budget FOIA Guidelines. Although, the CIA remains confident in the adequacy and sufficiency of its previous interpretation of “news media” fee status, it has concluded that it is preferable to avoid sterile and unproductive technical litigation and the associated diversion of resources from more productive pursuits that that entails.

Sterile and unproductive technical litigation? Ew! Fortunately, a lawyer who speaks the language explained:

Meredith Fuchs, general counsel of the National Security Archive, a research institute and library located at The George Washington University, said the CIA changed its definition in an attempt to pre-empt a court ruling that the agency’s existing regulations were illegal. The Archive filed a lawsuit in District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2006, challenging a CIA decision that it did not qualify as “news media” and that its request would have to concern “current events” to qualify for the fee waiver.

“We hope these changes will minimize CIA efforts to discourage news media FOIA requesters in the future,” Fuchs said.

Yeah, that sounds likely. Meanwhile, we here at Pensito Review are compiling our wish lists of documents we would like to see revealed through the FOIA. They include — every scrap of paper and e-mail ever produced in Dick Cheney’s branch of the government, the doodles Alberto Gonzalez made during his congressional testimony, Harriet Meiers’ to-do lists, Michael Chertoff’s Maalox receipts — among many others.

Have some gubmint documents you’d like to see under the FOIA? Share your wish list with us in a comment.

Judge Dismisses Wilsons’ Lawsuit against Cheney and Leakers

Jon Ponder

No justice:

A federal judge dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s lawsuit against members of the Bush administration Thursday, eliminating one of the last courtroom remnants of the leak scandal.

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to leak her identity in 2003. Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband’s criticism of the administration.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove, former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Plame’s attorneys had said the lawsuit would be an uphill battle. Public officials are normally immune from such lawsuits filed in connection with their jobs.