Starr Vile

“He Took the Time to Chat”: Ken Starr’s Plea for a Child Molester:

What’s Ken Starr up to these days? According to Virginia court documents, the famously pious former Clinton prosecutor recently pleaded with a Fairfax County judge to let a confessed child molester go free. Because he’s a family friend. Here’s the letter...

One of the commenters over at Gawker wondered why this story wasn't front-paged on the New York Times. Good question.

Comment Of The Day: Palin As Quayle Edition

Palin Compares Federal Debt To Slavery - Dimwits We Have Heard On High - Esquire
Ed Tracey · Top Commenter · Pace University

And also Charlie: she "went there" in a taped tribute for Billy Graham's 95th birthday salute. She allowed that "My mom was raised Catholic, and she … was yearning for something more .... she became a Christian, led the rest of the family to Christ". I thought that was a thing of the past; with the entente between the evangelical fundies and the Bill Donoghues .... apparently not.

The Daily Flashback: Skippy Church Edition

USATODAY.com - Democrats voted out of church because of their politics, members say:

Democrats voted out of church because of their politics, members say

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Some in Pastor Chan Chandler's flock wish he had a little less zeal for the GOP.

Members of the small East Waynesville Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who didn't support President Bush. Nine members were voted out at a Monday church meeting in this mountain town, about 120 miles west of Charlotte...

The Nut Didn't Fall Far From The Cruz Tree

Ted Cruz's Dad Declares God Is Pro Death Penalty:

Evangelical pastor Rafael Cruz, father of shutdown dramatist Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), served up a stemwinder this week, laying out God’s positions on the death penalty, guns in schools, gay marriage, communism and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), all in an impassioned 45 minutes...

The Daily Flashback: Skippy Vet Edition

Dan Rather is right | Research | Media Matters for America:

...Now, I realize the accepted Beltway media takeaway from CBS' National Guard controversy is supposed to be that the network was guilty of a colossal, historic newsroom blunder from which there is no possible defense or redemption. (Personally, I'll leave that category to the Judy Millers of the world.) But the dirty little secret that bloggers and mainstream journalists don't want to discuss is that Rather is right -- the National Guard story was true...

Will Benghazi Retraction Be Rather-Level?

CBS’ erroneous Benghazi debacle explodes - Salon.com:

...We initially covered the questions about the 60 Minutes report last week, after Media Matters for America’s David Brock, author of the book, The Benghazi Hoax, penned a letter to CBS demanding a retraction of the story and a full investigation into what appeared to be a fabricated story by Davies.

Brock cited CBS’ response to questions about 60 Minutes‘ 2004 story on questions about George W. Bush’s Air National Guard service (which turned out to be true, though the provenance of one of the documents used in the report was never able to be verified as authentic.) Following that report by Dan Rather, CBS quickly launched a full investigation into the matter. “Similar standards must be applied in this case,” Brock said in his letter last week to CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and its president David Rhodes...

Lying Benghazi Liars Lying Lies Exposed

CBS Admits Error in Benghazi '60 Minutes' Story - ABC News:

CBS News said Friday that it was misled by a "60 Minutes" source who claimed he was on the on the scene of a 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya when it now turns out there are serious doubts about whether he was...

As Warned, SS Is The Target

Dumb Republicans are depriving the right of victory - Salon.com:

...Which brings us to the Op-Eds from the two top conservative “brains” in the House. As Jonathan Chait says: “The subtext of op-eds today by Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan is a promise to ratchet down their ransom terms.” Ryan, in particular, annoyed conservatives by not mentioning Obamacare in his Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. Only in the incoherent and self-contradictory world of the modern conservative movement can permanent cuts to retirement programs be considered a “ratcheting down” of terms from the (ostensibly) temporary delay of the Affordable Care Act. Ryan’s proposal is “structural reforms to entitlement programs” in exchange for “relief” from sequestration — they’ll trade ending a purposefully destructive policy for slashing social insurance programs...

The Management Underbelly

Some people will make much of this as a failing in education, but these two nabods were not in education, though that's what their paycheck says. They were in management. I have observed that when you hire a teacher you are going to get one of two kinds of people: those who will have their markers pried from their cold, dead fingers, and those who discover that teaching is work and immediately start scheming to escape the classroom by getting into management. Don't by surprised when these frustrated 1%ers turnout to be bullies, liars, and hypocrites

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A school official’s unbelievably racist texts - Salon.com:

...There is so much that’s contemptible about the exchanges between Como and Donato – the simmering, near constant anger they display, the grotesque, dehumanizing way they view pretty much anybody who isn’t a white man (to their credit, though, I didn’t notice any gay slurs in the lot) and the jaw-dropping amount of arrogance and privilege it takes to speak that hatefully, that freely. But what stinks most is the betrayal it represents, the lie that their jobs were. The disgust they had for their own kids. “They were friendly to our faces,” Zhaqweyza Armstrong, a 16 year-old Coatesville High junior, told the Inquirer Monday, “and then they talked about us behind our backs.”

Right on cue to back me up, Salon posts another essay on teaching:

Bug Man Squirms Loose

DeLay appellate lawyer: ‘We won the Super Bowl’ | www.statesman.com:

A 3rd Court of Appeals panel, split 2-to-1 along partisan lines, on Thursday reversed the money-laundering and conspiracy convictions that ended the political career of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay seven years ago.

The Sugar Land Republican was facing a three-year prison sentence before the court’s majority opinion ruled that there was “legally insufficient evidence” at DeLay’s 2010 trial before a Travis County jury...

Update: Bug Man's Greatest Hits! Here, here.

Perry The Hypocrite

Forward Progressives — Rick Perry is Now Asking President Obama for Funds From Obamacare:

Texas Governor Rick Perry is at it again, and by “at it” I mean acting like a complete hypocrite. The governor who has made a career out of attacking Washington is once again seeking money from Washington...

Clinton Tougher Than O Sez Furhead

Trump: Hillary Tougher for GOP to Beat Than Obama:

Donald Trump warned Iowa Republicans in a speech Saturday night that Hillary Clinton would be a tough candidate to beat in the 2016 presidential election.

"Hillary is going to be tougher to beat" than Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, Trump said, and he urged Republicans to choose "the right person, the perfect person" at their next convention, ABC News reported...

What Congress Has Earned

Nothing. They deserve no time off, no pay raises, and no exemptions from ACA or sequestration.

Fox News Poll: Congress Doesn't Deserve a Recess:

More than eight in 10 voters say Congress hasn't worked hard enough to take five weeks off, according to a new Fox News poll.

Clinton And The Deep End

Oh, Shut Up - Esquire:

...But, more important is the fact that NBC News has an awful lot of bad stuff to "own" just by itself without worrying about whether or not Chuck's stand-ups from Iowa will undermined by the work of Miss Diane Lane. The continued employment of the self-refuting Joe Scarborough comes immediately to mind. (Hint For Joe: your very presence on MSNBC every damn morning proves that MSNBC and Fox are not "exactly" the same, not even "at night." Where's the outright disinformation coming from Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow? What precisely has Chris Hayes said that reminds you of something Sean Hannity said? C'mon, Squint. I'd like an offer of proof here. Man up.) Why not "own" the fact that the departed, saintly Tim Russert took a dive on the fakery surrounding the run-up to the Iraq War?

It is nice to know that some things in American politics never change. The Clintons continue to have an amazing capacity to drive otherwise reasonable people insane.

Speaking Lies To Power

Seeking to tamp fears, confusion, intelligence officials defend spy programs as safeguards - The Washington Post:

 Dogged by fear and confusion about sweeping spy programs, intelligence officials sought to convince House lawmakers in an unusual briefing Tuesday that the government’s years-long collection of phone records and Internet usage is necessary for protecting Americans — and does not trample on their privacy rights.

But the country’s main civil liberties organization wasn’t buying it, filing the most significant lawsuit against the sweeping phone record collection program so far. The American Civil Liberties Union and its New York chapter sued the federal government Tuesday in New York, asking a court to demand that the Obama administration end the program and purge the records it has collected....

Speaking of that...

O'Keefe Kisses An ACORN Butt

James O'Keefe Pays $100,000 To ACORN Employee He Smeared-Conservative Media Yawns - Forbes:

 ...It seems that the master of the cleverly edited—if highly deceptive—video reel is now being required to pay the sum of $100,000 to Juan Carlos Vera, a one time California employee of ACORN. Mr. Vera had been portrayed by O’Keefe as being a willing participant when O’Keefe and his accomplice, Hanna Giles, proposed smuggling young women into the United States to work as prostitutes...

The Big Lies

Cover Up? Uncovered News Is The Real Scandal (VIDEO):

...Things are never as they seem. The mainstream media keeps the populace distracted generally with frivolities as decisions that are impactful and many times damaging to the middle class remain uncovered and under the radar. The real scandal in America is that there is a big cover up. There is a cover up of real news. The free press is really the owned and manipulated press.

There is hope and resolve however. As long as the fight to keep the Internet open and accessible remains, those wanting to provide real information and news will provide it. It is incumbent on them however to ensure it reaches the ‘necessary’ consumer.

Rove Lies Again

Karl Rove Melts Down When Confronted With Evidence of Bush IRS Investigation:

...Rove lied about his association with GPS by leaving out one important detail. Rove isn’t on the board, but GPS works in direct conjunction with the group Rove founded and still advises, American Crossroads. Rove saying that he isn’t involved with GPS was just like Mitt Romney claiming that his presidential campaign wasn’t involved with the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.

Plouffe was correct. Liberal groups were also targeted by the IRS. Bloomberg reported that the IRS sent the same letter to Democrats that they sent to tea partiers. The IRS did something to the liberal group Emerge America that they never did to the conservatives. They revoked their tax exempt status.

Stop me if you have heard this one before, but when confronted with evidence of the Bush administration targeting liberal groups, all Rove could do was stammer the word baloney repeatedly. Under George W. Bush, the IRS investigated the NAACP’s tax status for two years. Rove even gave the reason for the payback when he pointed to the Bush administration’s outrage over an ad that the NAACP had run...

The Daily Flashback: Contra Edition

McCain: Benghazi Is Just Like Iran-Contra | Crooks and Liars:

...When is Iran-Contra like Benghazi? Never, unless you're John McCain and are relying on the average IQ of the average Fox viewer to connect the non-existent dots into something that neither event is.

Let's see if we can refresh memories just a bit. Iran-Contra would be when Ronald Reagan agreed to sell weapons to the guy holding US diplomats hostage and then tried to cover up the arms sales by funneling the proceeds to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas Contras...

Comment:

Trantorian • an hour ago

Karoli, the funds from the sale of weapons to Iran went to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, not the Sandinista government. 

Also, the Anti communist organization you cite as McCain being a member actually was supporting Salvadoran death squads, as the Sandinistas were in power in Nicaragua in the 80's and did not have death squads.

Comment Of The Day: Bush Jobs Edition

You Just Move Over, Fred Barnes! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money:
 Boots Day says:
April 23, 2013 at 11:27 am

For the 96 months of Bush’s presidency, counting February 2001 through January 2009, the economy suffered a net loss of jobs in 39 of those months. We had net job losses every single month from March 2001 through May 2002, and again from February 2008 through the end of the Bush administration in January 2009 (along with several other periods of job losses as well).

There is simply no way even the wingiest of wingnuts can spin that into “7 1/2 years of job growth.” Does the Washington Post have an ombudsman? An editor? Any grownups at all working there?