cheney

It started when Shuster said the Clinton's were "pimpin" out Chelsea to help with the election, which Shuster apologized for this morning. Then a conference call this afternoon with the Clinton campaign resulted in the campaign saying they would not appear on anymore MSNBC debates. Now MSNBC has suspended Shuster from any broadcasts, except to air his apology.

Yes it was wrong for Shuster to say that, but he apologized twelve hours later. When Matthews made his comment it took over a week before he apologized, and then he was heavily defended by Shuster and others, including Joe Scarborough, and the blogs were the ones blamed. It sounds like MSNBC has some serious problems going on there.

I want to clarify that I am in no way supporting Shuster for his comments. I have never heard anyone say "Bush is pimpin out Jenna" or "Cheney is pimpin out Mary" in the past, so there is a serious problem here and MSNBC did a good thing addressing it so quickly. Having said that, the same level of conduct and discipline need to be carried out throughout the entire organization - including Matthews.

Once you get past all the lies told last night at the GOP debate, I think there was one important message sent out by all the candidates, except Ron Paul. That message is simple - "We support George Bush". They tried to pin all the problems in America today on the Democrats. Considering the Democrats have only been in charge of Congress for a year, and that year was mostly ineffective due to Republican stonewalling, it shows that the Republican candidates are unwilling to take any responsibility for their failures.

What it comes down to is that the Republicans want to be the "feel good" party. They want to feel good about their own party, while ignoring the failures of their party. Perhaps the social conservatives should take them to task on that very notion. While the candidates are patting the party on their backs, ask them what has happened to the social conservative agenda? You don't hear any of them talking about Roe or gay marriage. Evangelicals - they have forgotten you.

News For The Left posted this yesterday:

After seeing this post by John Aravosis on AmericaBlog, I was incensed and concerned at the same time. Here is the comment on O'Reilly's blog that crossed the line:

If Hillary wins, I will be respectful of our leader. If you could read my thoughts, I would be on the SS [Secret Service] watch list.

So, I did what a responsible person should do when they see something like this on a blog. I called the Secret Service to report it. This comment isn't about politics or defaming Senator Clinton. It outright states a threat to her life. It is unacceptable.

After reading this, I got thinking about when that bomb went off in Afghanistan that was targeting Cheney. People posted comments like "damn they missed" on Huffington Post about the incident. Of course the staff at Huffington Post did the reasonable thing and instantly shut off the comments on that post. That didn't stop the rabid dogs on the right from launching a full assault against the Huffington Post and the left in general.

Now these comments appeared on a site that anyone can register to post on. You don't have to pay to voice your opinion over there, just register for a free account and post away.

O'Reilly's site is different. To post on his blog you need to pay $49.95 a year. To even access his forums, you must become a paid member. So why are posts like this allowed to exist? His posters don't have the anonymity that people posting on Huffington Post do (or any other progressive site). They have a record of payment from their posters, which must contain their personal information.

Not a pardon, but rather he commuted the sentence. That means no jail for Scooter. Bush says he felt the punishment was too harsh. So is that saying that lying about a blow job is a worse crime than lying under oath regarding the outing of a CIA agent? It appears so.

Bush just handed the Democrats a great campaign talking point. Only 19% of the people polled believe Libby should have been pardoned (and this is essentially the same). Let's see how Congress reacts to this now.

UPDATE #1

The Muckraker has Bush's statement up. I wonder why he just released a statement and chose not to address the nation? Sounds like the White House knew this would cause a shit storm.

Oh - and if you are ever called before the court, or involved in a legal investigation, go ahead and lie. George Bush sez it's ok. (end sarcasm).

UPDATE #2

Apparently the White House has turned off their phone lines. Sounds like they don't want to listen to the people they work for.

UPDATE #3:

Daily Kos has the reactions up of Democrats here and here. Sounds like it is time for Congress to open a full investigation into the leak and pull Cheney and Bush in to testify. Or is a blow job still more serious?

Then the Democrats need to start the subpoenas and date him to try and claim "executive privilege". Sorry - that applies to the "executive" branch - a branch Cheney is not part of under his own "rules". Let's see how the administration argues it's way out of that one.

The right wing blogs are all a flurry over the HuffPo. They are wondering why the comments on a post about Cheney's blood clot have now been closed.

So what does this mean? It is interesting that the only ones who appear to have a problem with this are the people on the right. These are the same blogs that typically don't even allow comments.

Putting this all together, could it be that the people posting lude comments on HuffPo come from the right? The fact that the wingnuts are constantly pointing out commenting actions and policies on left of center blogs kind of point in that direction. Considering Malkin is one of the biggest pushers of this issue and one of her dear followers was charged with sending fake anthrax letters to high profile people makes it all that more suspicious.

Just something to toss around the old noggin.

That is the latest piece by Froomkin in today's WaPo talking about the Libby trial:

There is a cloud over the vice president . . . And that cloud remains because this defendant obstructed justice," Fitzgerald said.

"There is a cloud over the White House. Don't you think the FBI and the grand jury and the American people are entitled to straight answers?" Fitzgerald asked the jury.

Libby, Fitzgerald continued, "stole the truth from the justice system."

This is a must read article that does a good job at summing the climax the month long trial. Marcy has done a great job at putting together a chronological list of Cheney's involvement and even said Fitzgerald is free to use it if he needs it to indict Cheney.

While the case of Scooter Libby is coming to a close, I got a feeling the entire Plame investigation is still far from over. The wingnuts have tried to say that the investigation ended when Fitzgerald announced his indictments against Libby, but Fitzgerald made it clear that this case was not closed and things could still come out, even in the trial.

Fitzgerald his the nail on the head by saying "Don't you think the FBI and the grand jury and the American people are entitled to straight answers?". Yes they do, but even more so, the families of the 3,100 plus soldiers that have died in Iraq deserve the truth. This case is about one of the key arguments for the Iraq war, an argument which has since been debunked. Perhaps it is time for the Democrats in Congress to put Cheney and Bush under oath and have them testify.