Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
At the very least, can the news networks get a clip of her singing something different? Also, get off my grass.
Flame on.
*** Update ***
I’m not a hater. I thought it was great- the first 32,000 times I heard the story.
This Website is Officially Sick of Susan BoylePost + Comments (123)
This is absurd:
More than a dozen defense contractors with business before U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee, have donated thousands of dollars to Moran’s younger brother Brian, a candidate for governor of Virginia.
Brian Moran filed a campaign finance report this week that shows he collected $80,000 during the first three months of 2009 from 18 contractors that have been longtime backers of the congressman. Seven of the firms are awaiting approval of Moran-backed earmarks totaling $14.5 million.
Many of the firms are Virginia-based, and those executives who would speak about the gifts said they have long been politically active in the state and have known both brothers for years. Others have been heavy federal contributors with little involvement in state politics. Most have benefited from Jim Moran’s role in crafting defense spending bills each year.
Even if this didn’t have a bad odor to it, Brian Moran should at least have had the sense to reject the money, knowing full well how bad it looks.
And the thing you have to keep in mind is that this is the subtext of the upcoming fight over the Pentagon budget, which I suspect will be bruising. These companies have spent a vast sum of money and have spread the industry across so many districts so that cutting one program affects so many politicians that once a weapon system is approved, it becomes a perpetual motion machine as far as budgeting.
Maybe They Are Just Really Interested in Virginia Politics?Post + Comments (21)
Sullivan yesterday noted an odd silence over the torture memos, and I predict that will end now that the new talking points have been released in the WSJ op-ed pages. For fun, look for instances of the phrase “tied his own hands” in the right-wing blogosphere when they discuss the subject.
*** Update ***
The Bushbots are out in force. Frances Townsend on CNN says releasing these memos “handcuffs” us. It seems Bush Republicans measure the security of this nation using an odd metric. Apparently the safety of this country can be determined by gauging how sadistically we brutalize prisoners in our care.
Sick bastards.
Give Them Time To Coalesce Around Talking PointsPost + Comments (62)
Without GMC and Pontiac:
General Motors (GM), in its attempt to push its restructuring plan deeper than first proposed this year, is examining whether it makes sense to keep the GMC and Pontiac brands going, says a source briefed on the discussions.
But it may be a tough call: GMC makes money, and the plan for Pontiac was to shrink it to just one or two profitable models. Both are sold through the same Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealerships.
Still, the automaker is taking a look at every possible option for making the company smaller and leaner, says the source who didn’t want to be indentified because the discussions aren’t public.
It occurred to me while reading that story that I have no idea the relationship between GM, GMC, Chevy, Pontiac, etc.
At the height of the Beauchamp affair, his First Sergeant, 1SG Hatley, did something that I thought was unbelievable- wrote an open letter discussing one of his soldiers. Here is a snippet of that widely distributed letter written by 1SG Hatley:
I’m not in the habit of answering these email’s. It would be far too many. I appreciate all the support from home and I can assure you that not a single word of this was true. We’ve been fighting this fight for quite some time. Numerous soldiers within my unit have served on several deployments and this is my third year as a First Sergeant in this unit. My soldiers conduct is consistently honorable. This soldier has other underlining issues which I’m sure will come out in the course of the investigation. No one at any of the post we live at or frequent, remotely fit the descriptions of any of the persons depicted in this young man’s fairy tale. I can’t and won’t divulge any information regarding this soldier, but I do sincerely appreciate all the support from the people back home. Again, this young man has a vivid imagination and I promise you that this by no means reflects the truth of what is happening here.
As an NCO at one time myself, I could not believe he openly would discuss one of his soldiers with someone outside the chain of command, let alone to disparage him. What kind of NCO does that?
This kind:
A senior enlisted Army soldier was convicted on Wednesday of killing four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi men with pistol shots to the backs of their heads shortly after arresting them in Baghdad two years ago, The Associated Press reported.
A military jury in Germany, where his unit is deployed, found the soldier, Master Sgt. John E. Hatley, guilty of premeditated murder in the deaths of the men, whom he and several other members of his unit had detained after a firefight with insurgents in Baghdad in spring 2007, according to testimony in the case.
Meanwhile, Scott Beauchamp, the one with the “underlining issues” and the “vivid imagination,” is still serving his country honorably. 1SG Hatley will be serving life in jail.
But none of them would ever run over a dog. That isn’t SOP.
*** Update ****
This Stars and Stripes piece just reiterates what a horrible tragedy this is for everyone involved. The soldiers, their families, and the men they killed. Just awful.
Way to be, AIG:
An Oklahoma man who lost an eye and a leg in Iraq says the giant insurance company AIG refused to provide him a new plastic leg and fought to keep from paying for a wheelchair or glasses for the eye in which he has 30 percent vision.
“They bought the cheapest thing that they could get away with,” said 51-year old John Woodson, a truck driver for the KBR contracting firm who lost his leg when his truck hit a roadside bomb in Iraq.
“Everything’s been a struggle, a constant fight,” said Woodson, injured in Oct. 2004. “It’s been hell since.”
Stay classy.
Can’t he just declare himself a counterparty and get some fat loot?
