Oh Shit

Georgie-Ann Geyer reports:

Friends of [the presidents] from Texas were shocked
recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping
himself on the chest three times while he repeated I
am the president! He also made it clear he was setting
Iraq up so his successor could not get out of our
countrys destiny.

Hysteria Driven Law Making Leads To Foolish Enforcement

Crusader's Son Arrested on Sex Charge

Son of crusader against sex predators Is charged with sexual conduct with minor.
The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio

The son of a man who became a national crusader for tougher sex-offender laws after his 9-year-old daughter was kidnapped, raped and killed has been accused of sexual conduct with a minor, authorities said.

Joshua Lunsford, 18, son of Mark Lunsford, was arrested May 18 after a woman accused him of fondling her 14-year-old daughter twice, at a skating rink and outside a shopping mall, according to police. He has pleaded not guilty to the felony charge.

Mark Lunsford's daughter, Jessica, was kidnapped from the bedroom of her Florida home in February 2005, raped and buried alive. The exact family relationship between Joshua and Jessica was unclear Wednesday night.

After his daughter was killed, Mark Lunsford traveled the country, testifying before state legislators on bills that would toughen laws against sex offenders that prey on young children. More than a dozen states have passed versions of Jessica's Law.

The girl Joshua Lunsford is accused of fondling was a willing participant in the contact in March, according to a statement by the girl's mother to the German Township Police Department. Ohio law prohibits anyone 18 or older from having sexual contact with anyone younger than 16.

Mark Lunsford, of Homosassa Springs, Fla., told The Tampa Tribune it has not been proven that his son has done anything wrong. Even what has been alleged cannot compared with the crimes of the pedophiles he has helped put in prison through his work with the Jessica Marie Lunsford Foundation, he said.

"We're talking about Romeo and Juliet here, not some 36-year-old pervert following around a 10-year-old," Lunsford said.

Attorney Mark Gelman, who was a liaison between the Lunsfords and authorities during the investigation into the death of Jessica Lunsford, said Mark Lunsford was not Joshua's custodial parent.

"I've always heard that Josh is a good kid. I would just tell people not to jump to any conclusions," Gelman said.

A woman who answered the phone at Joshua Lunsford's home Wednesday said he had no comment. A message seeking comment was left for Mark Lunsford.

John Evander Couey, who lived in a mobile home 150 yards from the Lunsford home, was convicted of killing Jessica Lunsford in March, and a jury has recommended the death penalty.

The Nutshell

I've been following sullivan's recent exploration of the etiology of the term 'enhanced interrogation techniques. I have been too distracted to whittle it down for GT12.

Politcal Wire does the job nicely:

"Enhanced Interrogation"

Andrew Sullivan: "Critics will no doubt say I am accusing the Bush administration of being Hitler. I'm not. There is no comparison between the political system in Germany in 1937 and the U.S. in 2007. What I am reporting is a simple empirical fact: the interrogation methods approved and defended by this president are not new. Many have been used in the past. The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn't-somehow-torture - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death."

I Need To Think About This

Andrew Sullivan (professed Goldwaterian Conservative)has been showing signs of Obamamania these last few months but I never predicted this ...

Nixon Republican Wanted

For "peace-with-honor." Ross has the ad they need. But who? The GOP has rather painted itself into a corner on Iraq, declaring anything that isn't "lets-keep-doing-what's-failing" as a "white flag." So McCain and Giuiani are non-starters. Romney could do it, of course. He could stand for anything, if it got a him a few percentage points. Fred Thompson? I'm sorry but I haven't seen a whiff of seriousness about the war on terror from the guy - except rhetoric. So if we're looking for a Nixon in '68, Obama may be the best bet, however strange the analogy, however different the men.

Because They're bullies, Not Christians

From Political Wire:

Giuliani Winning Over Social Conservatives

Rudy Giuliani, "whose positions on abortion and homosexuality mark him as the most socially liberal Republican presidential candidate in more than a generation, is so far winning the contest for the support of social conservatives, according to a new analysis of recent polls," reports The Politico.

"Widespread perceptions that Giuliani is the most electable Republican in this year’s field are driving his support among social conservatives." If Giuliani’s success continues, "this apparent willingness to support a candidate who fails what were once regarded as litmus-test issues would mark a landmark shift in the political behavior of a constituency that has been a pillar of the modern GOP. Already the shift is spurring sharp debate among prominent Christian conservative leaders, some of whom warn that Giuliani backers are abandoning core principles."

We Still have Work To Do ... Like Re-Negotiating The Civil War

News From The United States Of Jesus via Raw Story

Alabama site classifies environmental activists, gay rights supporters as possible terrorists

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a webpage that listed environmental, anti-war, and gay rights groups as possible terrorists, according to a report from the Associated Press.

"The director of the department, Jim Walker, said his agency received a number of calls and e-mails from people who said they felt the site unfairly targeted certain people just because of their beliefs," the AP reported. "He said he plans to put the Web site back on the Internet, but will no longer identify specific types of groups."

The site described the various groups as "single-issue terrorists" who include "people who feel they are trying to create a better world."

Excerpts

What Matters To GT12 Is Important To The Onion

The by-line may read New York, but we are at the pictured spot everyday on our way home from work. For the record, GT12 takes 'Cumberland North' to get out of traffic.

The Onion Covers the Holiday Weekend.

Nation Mobilizes For Beautiful Weekend

NEW YORK—"It may mean sacrificing TV shows and even chores, but we cannot sit idly by as this gorgeous weather rolls in," said one resident, checking multiple forecasts.

Putting Things In Perspective

Jesus' General helps us understand Monica's role:

Just a few innocent mistakes

I hope we can all get past this whole Justice Department scandal now that Monica Goodling has admit ed she made a mistake and broke the law by vetting civil service applicants for ideological and theistic correctness. After all, everyone makes a mistake. Goodling and the Administration who worked for should be entitled to a few as well.

It's not like this administration is completely mistake-ridden. These are the only mistakes I could come up with after thinking about it for a whole 5 minutes.

1. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior Julie A. MacDonald sends a confidential endangered species document to a guy she met on an on-line role-playing game. Her unofficial online consultant, apparently lacking an email account of his own, asks her to send it to his father's email account.

2. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks David P. Smith tracks Biff the Elderly Buffalo to a corner of his pen and successfully bags his arthritic trophy by shooting him in the eye.

3. Al Hurra, the government owned and operated public relations television network broadcasts terrorist messages, including exhortations to commit violence against Jews, to the Middle East. The mistake is excused because none of the management speaks Arabic.

4. Upon taking Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld stations troops to defend the Oil Ministry against looters while leaving museums, arms depots, and nuclear facilities unguarded.

5. The Vice President's Chief of Staff makes a mistake when he lies to the FBI and a federal grand jury.

6. White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card attempt to strongarm a drugged, semi-coherent, hospitalized John Ashcroft into approving a state security apparatus operation against the people.

7. Jose Padilla is arrested for plotting to explode a dirty bomb. The charges are later changed and Padilla is accused of plotting to turn on the gas in a number of apartments and then light a match to them. Those charges were eventually dropped and currently, Padilla is charged with being a Chechen Resistance recruiter and filling out an application to be a terrorist.

8. 8.8 billion dollars is placed on pallets and transported to Iraq where it is never heard from again.

9. In preparation for Hurricane Katrina, a FEMA contractor makes a web site inquiry about renting buses to evacuate New Orleans residents. The contractor finally orders the buses 18 hours after storm makes landfall.

10. The Department of Defense releases an 105 year old man from Guantanamo after it is determined he isn't a terrorist.

11. The White House Press Office issues credentials to an ideologically correct manwhore.

12. The US Government transports Maher Arar, a Canadian Citizen, to Syria to be tortured. He is released a year later when it was determined that he is innocent.

13. The President picks an ideologically correct horse show judge to run FEMA.

14. 380 tons of explosives disappear from the Al QaQaa arms depot in the weeks between the fall of Iraq and the day the Pentagon decides to finally secure the facility.

15. Nuclear waste is taken from the Tuwaitha nuclear waste dump during the weeks between the fall of Iraq and the day the Pentagon finally sent troops to guard the facility.

16. Ahmad Chalabi, the man who supplied much of the intelligence about Iraq's WMD capabilities, and was the Defense Department's choice to lead the first Iraq government, is arrested for telling the Iranians that we had broken their codes.

17. President Bush, forgetting a briefing where he was told that Katrina would likely breach New Orleans levies, tells the world that no one could have predicted it.

18. President Bush and his consort, Condoleeza Rice declare that no one could have foreseen the events of 911. Later, Sec. Rice confirms that just one month before 911, she and the President discussed a Presidential Daily Briefing titled "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.," in which the threat of hijacked planes being flown into buildings was mentioned.

19. The Department of Defense fails to plan for anything after the fall of Iraq.

News For Fox News Viewers

Study: 38 Percent Of People Not Actually Entitled To Their Opinion

CHICAGO—In a surprising refutation of the conventional wisdom on opinion entitlement, a study conducted by the University of Chicago's...

Annals Of Gay Parenting - Yuck Edition

The Anti-Christ's grandbaby is spawned

Reason Enough To Respect John Edwards' Decision Making

From Politcal Wire:

Shrum Blasts Edwards in New Book

The New Republic reviews No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner, the long-awaited memoir of Democratic strategist Bob Shrum.

"As befits a canny campaign veteran, the book is self-serving in some places and remarkably tough in others... But no one comes in for rougher treatment in this book than Shrum's former client, John Edwards... Shrum's constant swipes at Edwards feel like axe-grinding. Why the bitterness? The source close to Edwards cautions that Shrum had sought a bigger role in Edwards's campaign than the candidate was willing to grant."

Of course, with a record of leading eight presidential campaigns to defeat, who can blame Edwards?

Say No More!

How come police officers are never interested in my motivations when I go too fast?

She Speaks! Sort of:

... Goodling eventually relented, admitting, “I crossed the line of the civil service rules.”

Scott clarified, “Rules? Laws. You crossed the law on civil service laws. You crossed the line on civil service laws, is that right?”

She said, “I believe I crossed the lines. But I didn’t mean to.”

Crying For ... ?

Monica is sad ...
From Salon ...

Dont it make your brown eyes blue?
All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and
this administration and this department. -- Regent
University Law School graduate and Justice Department
White House liaison Monica Goodling in a teary
conversation with Associate Attorney General David
Margolis on March 8, 2007.
In an interview released by the House Judiciary
Committee yesterday in advance of Goodlings immunized
testimony today, Margolis says Goodling came to his
office on the evening of March 8 -- about a month
before she resigned from the Justice Department -- and
asked if Kyle Sampson had talked with him. When
Margolis said yes, Goodling proceeded to bawl her eyes
out. How long did the crying last? It seemed like
forever, Margolis says, but it was probably only 30 or
45 minutes.

What had Goodling so upset? Could it have been her
involvement in the firing of U.S. attorneys last year?
Her failure to brief some of her colleagues on just
how involved the White House was? Her efforts -- for
which shes now under investigation -- to block a local
U.S. attorney from hiring a line prosecutor because
she thought he was too liberal?

Well, an inquisitive or responsible or even mildly
sympathetic man might have asked Goodling what was on
her mind. But in Alberto Gonzales Justice Department,
Margolis figured it was better not to ask. I wasnt
anxious to hear so I didnt probe, Margolis tells a
House investigator. I -- I changed the subject to give
her -- to try to make her laugh, which didnt work, and
to give her some personal advice, which she didnt
take.

It's Monica Day!

Who will eat Who's lunch? After the cave-in yesterday of the Dems, I'm not so sure we'll win this one either......

Annals Of Gay Parenting

LONDON (AFP) - A pair of gay flamingos have adopted an abandoned chick, becoming parents after being together for six years, a British conservation organisation said Monday.

Carlos and Fernando had been desperate to start a family, even chasing other flamingos from their nests to take over their eggs at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge near Bristol.

But their egg-sitting prowess made them the top choice for taking an unhatched egg under their wings when one of the Greater Flamingo nests was abandoned.

The couple, together for six years, can feed chicks by producing milk in their throats.

"Fernando and Carlos are a same sex couple who have been known to steal other flamingos' eggs by chasing them off their nest because they wanted to rear them themselves," said WWT spokeswoman Jane Waghorn.

"They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them so last week, when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents."

Gay flamingos are not uncommon, she added.

"If there aren't enough females or they don't hit it off with them, they will pair off with other males," she said.

Bring Another Fifth Over Here Please!

From Raw Story

Former Rove aide pleads the Fifth on White House contacts with convicted lobbyist Abramoff

Susan Ralston, the former executive assistant to top White House adviser Karl Rove, invoked her rights against self-incrimination while she was being asked to answer questions by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Committee's Chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, announced in a memo Tuesday. The deposition for which she sat concerned contacts between convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rove, as well as the White House more broadly.

"The subjects this morning that she will be unable to testify to...are the subjects of the relationship between Jack Abramoff and his associates and White House officials, including Ms. Ralston, and the subject of the use by White House officials of political e-mail accounts at the RNC," Ralston's lawyer, Bradford Berenson said, during the May 10 deposition. "She has material, useful information about both of those subjects."

According to Waxman's memo, which was sent to Oversight Committee members, Ralston is seeking immunity from prosecution.

Read The Rest

Clean Living! Not.

From the "Things We Didn't Need to Know" Department, TPM Muckraker brings us the following excerpt from a new book on disgraced, convicted and resigned GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham:

"Even [defense contractor Brent] Wilkes drew a line on what he would do for
the congressman. For one thing, Wilkes was totally disgusted by the hot tub
Cunningham put on [his] boat's deck during the autumn and winter. What repelled
Wilkes -- and others invited to the parties -- was both the water Cunningham put
in the hot tub and the congressman's penchant for using it while naked, even if
everybody else at the party was clothed. Cunningham used water siphoned directly
from the polluted Potomac River and never changed it out during the season."

Retaining Good(ling)

I guess you have to go to a good law school to understand that immunity requires honesty and cooperation. From Salon:

Goodling: I've got documents, but you can't have them

Monica Goodling, who served as Alberto Gonzales' liaison to the White House, is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee about her role -- and, presumably, others' -- in the firing of federal prosecutors last year. One catch: The committee still doesn't have all the documents Goodling has, and Goodling's lawyer says she won't hand them over until the Justice Department says she can.

Late last week, the committee served a subpoena in which it demanded that Goodling turn over all documents in her possession regading the "termination, resignation, hiring, appointment, replacement, formal or informal evaluation or employement interview of United States Attorneys, Assistant United States Attorneys or other Department of Justice employees" -- including, but not limited to, any "communications to or from any White House personnel" relating to those issues and any "representations or preparations of representations" made to members of Congress about them.

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Goodling's attorney, John Dowd, says that his client has "copies of . . . electronic documents and emails" that would be responsive to those requests, "including un-redacted copies of documents produced to date only in redacted form" by the Justice Department. However, Dowd says that Goodling can't give the documents to the committee because Justice Department guidelines prohibit former employees from producing department documents "without prior approval of the proper department official." Dowd says he notified the Justice Department of the Judiciary Committee's document subpoena over the weekend but hasn't heard anything in response yet.

Conyers is not amused. In a letter back to Dowd today, Conyers cites a number of reasons why the Justice Department regulations in question don't apply in this case, then reminds Dowd and his client that the Justice Department has "repeatedly stated that it intends to cooperate fully" with the congressional investigation into the firing of the U.S. attorneys. Conyers writes -- and we'll assume that he's engaged in a bit of sarcasm here -- that he "cannot imagine" that the department "would at this point object" to Goodling's production of "relevant documents" in her possession.

A Map Of The World

or at least the Blogosphere