Category: Politics

So now the US has two Vice-Presidents who shot someone while in office. At least Cheney didn’t kill his guy.

A friend of mine with some actual experience hunting had this to say about the whole thing:

As a hunter, this perhaps one of the WORST POSSIBLE THINGS you can ever ever EVER do.

Quail hunting is dangerous. From what I read the lawyer was hidden from Cheney’s sight and then another covey flushed into the Veep’s direction.

RULE 1 of hunting: NEVER EVER EVER have 2 groups of hunters who aren’t parallel with each other in some fashion. Draw a line and don’t cross it. Better yet, stay spread out and never deviate.

The Veep is a f*cking asshole…but his hunting companion is none too bright either. Cheney’s actions would have him banned from most hunting clubs in my area for life.

My initial response on seeing this story was that it had to be some sort of bad joke. Apparently not.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been “authorized” by Cheney and other White House “superiors” in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration’s use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein’s purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

The article goes on to note that this is essentially the Oliver North defense, and that it more or less worked for North.

In the North case, the Iran-Contra independent counsel, Lawrence Walsh, was forced to dismiss many of the central charges against North, including the most serious ones-that North defrauded taxpayers by diverting proceeds from arms sales to Iran to finance the Nicaraguan Contras-because intelligence agencies and the Reagan administration refused to declassify documents necessary for a trial on those charges.

Given this administration’s penchane for secrecy, I would not at all be surprised if it worked again.

UPDATE: Shakes is POed too, but also feeling apathetic:

Every day, there are new stories emerging about which I should feel outraged, and yet five years of no accountability is making me weary. How many hundreds incidents of unethical or flatly illegal behavior am I meant to read without having the slightest bloody ability to do a damn thing about it?

Indeed. I feel the same way.

So, for the first time in the Bush administration, there’s a bill in play – the “Deficit Reduction Act” – that actually cuts Federal spending. Typically, it does so by screwing the poor. The CBO has weighed in on this bill, currently awating House approval. It’s not a pretty picture, according to the NY Times:

The budget office predicted that 13 million low-income people, about a fifth of Medicaid recipients, would face new or higher co-payments for medical services like doctor’s visits and hospital care.

It said that by 2010 about 13 million low-income people would have to pay more for prescription drugs, and that this number would rise to 20 million by 2015.

“About one-third of those affected would be children, and almost half would be individuals with income below the poverty level,” the report said in addressing co-payments for prescription drugs.

Under the bill, states could end Medicaid coverage for people who failed to pay premiums for 60 days or more. Doctors and hospitals could deny services to Medicaid beneficiaries who did not make the required co-payments.

The budget office said the new co-payments would save money by reducing the use of medical services.

“About 80 percent of the savings from higher cost-sharing would be due to decreased use of services,” the report said.

That last line is the money quote. This plan is pathetic.

Let’s say a company is losing money. One easy way to get the bottom line under control is to fire a bunch of employees. However, if you don’t look at why you’re not making enough money and take steps to change that, the layoffs won’t really solve anything. You’ll just be a smaller money-losing company. The same holds true for Medicaid. If you don’t fix the system, then forcing people off the rolls isn’t really going to solve anything.

Oh, and no, HSAs are not a good solution.

John Kerry to lead a filibuster against Alito? Interesting. Markos’ assessment seems pretty reality-based.

This whole “be offline for 6 to 8 hours at a time” thing with school and/or work really messes up my ability to stay on top of the news. I need to slack more (just kidding!).

Nice catch by Political Wire … but in what alternate reality do they really think the votes for impeachment exist?

“The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress,” Insight magazine reports.

Could be a trial balloon, I suppose…

Must be something in the water over in Indiana, this is the second time in the last 12 months that some wingnut legislator is trying to roll back the clock 100 years or so.

Abortion would be illegal for most women in Indiana, including victims of rape and incest, under a bill filed this week in the Indiana House.

Indiana’s legislators have chipped away at abortion for decades, imposing waiting periods and other restrictions, but the measure proposed by Rep. Troy A. Woodruff, R-Vincennes, is the first direct attempt in years to outlaw most abortions.

The only exception allowed under House Bill 1096 would be for women whose health or life would be permanently impaired if a pregnancy continued. The bill would define life as beginning at conception and make it a felony to perform all other abortions. Anyone convicted would face up to eight years in prison.