Can Anyone Else Smell The Desperation? update: This week, Tony Blair's sleeping over at the WH.

White tie indeed.  ¶ 8:00 PM 0 comments

  Hillary's Last Stand? I'd support Hillary in a New York minute. But, if Al Gore starts getting some media attention, Hillary is toast.

This was interesting. Maybe I'll start a chain post.
Third?
Polls, polls, polls.
And then there's that inconvenient truth of electability. < heh>
The Gorey Details.  ¶ 12:14 PM 0 comments

  You Can't Handle The Truth. Did you know that the attorney's character in the film, A Few Good Men, was based on the true life story of a young military lawyer named David Iglesias? Fascinating.  ¶ 12:04 PM 0 comments

  Special Elections! Charlie Crist appointed Sen. Nancy Argenziano to the Public Service Commission. Her open seat in the Florida legislature has resulted in three special elections. It should be fun.  ¶ 10:26 AM 0 comments

  More On Mercer.
Bill Mercer is back in the news.By NOELLE STRAUB Missoulian D.C. Bureau

Post says Mercer engineered rule change
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -
The Post reported that on Nov. 10, 2005, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wrote U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Montana that Mercer was not violating federal law by largely spending his time in Washington as a senior aide to Gonzales.

On the same day, Mercer directed a staffer for Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to place in a bill language changing rules so federal prosecutors could live outside their districts to hold other jobs, according to the newspaper. Several months later, Congress passed the provision in reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act, legislation Mercer was assigned to shepherd, the Post reported.

The staffer, Brett Tolman, is now the U.S. attorney for Utah. He did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

  ¶ 12:46 PM 0 comments

  "Does She Like Briefs Or Does She Prefer To Take Dicktation?"

From the Boston Globe:

ABC looked into women on Palfrey's phone list as well, including a legal secretary at the prestigious law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, who has been placed on leave, and a lieutenant commander in the Navy. The network seems to have exercised some compassion, with Ross saying the commander would probably face court-martial if identified.

The confidential secretary's lawyer is Athan Tsimpedes, of Akin Gump: Truly A 'Full-Service' Law Firm. Monica Goodling has also retained the services of Akin Gump. Miss Goodling (such a lovely name) is personally represented by the head of the firm, John Dowd, Esquire.

Miss Palfrey is being represented by Montgomery Blair Sibley.  ¶ 3:23 PM 0 comments

  "Support the troops." is an overused phrase, signifying nothing. Support for this war has boiled down to little more than rhetoric. We need a new expression, one that means what it says.

“For the health and well-being of every current and future veteran, Secretary [James] Nicholson should step down immediately,” said Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., an Army Reserve veteran and member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee...

Nicholson has survived worse blows than this — such as the loss of personal information for 26 million people last year and claims that VA is not fully prepared to handle Iraq and Afghanistan combat casualties.
Hare said veterans deserve better. “Our veterans have suffered tremendous setbacks on Secretary Nicholson’s watch,” Hare said. “After presiding over a $1 billion shortfall, a backlog of 600,000 disability cases, staffing shortages at vet centers, two security breaches that jeopardized the personal information of our veterans, and now, lavish bonuses to the very VA officials responsible for the whole mess, it is time to say enough is enough.”

VA spokesman Matt Burns said bonuses are used to narrow the pay gap with the private sector and help retain the agency’s top executives.
“Without such tools, VA would be much less likely to retain its most experienced career civil servants — which could reduce the quality of services provided to veterans and increase costs to taxpayers in the long run,” Burns said in a statement.

Republicans do not "support the troops."  ¶ 10:17 AM 0 comments

  Way Up North. North to Alaska.

Sam crossed the majestic mountains to the valleys far below.
He talked to his team of huskies as he mushed on through the snow.
With the northern lights a-running wild in the land of the midnight sun

It's a shame.  ¶ 9:11 AM 0 comments

  Montana U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer. Gone Like A Freight Train. Bump Bump, Bumpity Bump - It's not just a case of an absentee landlord, it's a case of double dipping. Not to worry. It's good to be king, because you can change the law to protect something that you have done in the past.

Gonzales again said he would have to get back to Leahy, prompting him to respond, “He's your associate attorney general. I mean, you would certainly know whether it's a week a year or several months a year, wouldn't you?...

“I'm talking about an office that the judge himself says is in disarray in Montana, and Mr. Mercer has testified that he's in Montana just three days a month - three days a month - while he's acting as your associate attorney general,” Leahy responded. “I just mentioned that because if we're talking about absentee landlords, sometimes the absentee landlords are created by your own office.”

  ¶ 2:48 PM 0 comments