Spies R Us

As if our Constitutional rights haven't been pissed upon enough, here comes another doozy.

U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules
More Federal Intelligence Changes Planned

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

... law enforcement agencies would be allowed to target groups as well as individuals, and to launch a criminal intelligence investigation based on the suspicion that a target is engaged in terrorism or providing material support to terrorists. They also could share results with a constellation of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and others in many cases.

...Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the proposed rule may be misunderstood as permitting police to collect intelligence even when no underlying crime is suspected, such as when a person gives money to a charity that independently gives money to a group later designated a terrorist organization.

Excuse me while I go vomit.

Doddering Old Fool Says What?

Speaking to reporters about the situation in Georgia, Sen. John McCain denounced the aggressive posture of Russia by claiming that: "in the 21st century nations don't invade other nations."

(H/T Sam Stein)

UPDATE (8/16/08):

T Minus 160 Days

"The trial lawyers are very politically powerful... but here in Texas, we took them on and got some good medical - medical malpractice."

- Waco, Texas, August 13, 2002

Everything Always Looks Right From My Viewpoint

John Edwards Affair Redux - IOKIYAR

Can you believe these hypocritical motherfuckers? Sean Hannity has to be the biggest Republican ass kisser of them all. You'd think these imbeciles would have a working brain cell in their combined heads to figure out that if your Republican nominee for president has admitted to cheating on his first wife, then you might want to rethink your criticism of the Democrat who ran and lost the nomination of the same offense. It's just another case of It's O.K. If You Are Republican.

Hannity: "I’m not getting this. Explain to me and I’m wondering if you can’t keep the promise to your family, can’t keep your promise to your wife, you’re having an affair, you’re lying about the affair repeatedly, why should the American people trust you when you say you’re not going to lie to them? Why should we trust you?"

Luckily, Alan Colmes gives the GOP talking heads a slap-in-the-face wake up call in reminding them that their Republican nominee is guilty of the same fucking thing!

Colmes: "And by the way, that’s a great question Sean asks and so Amanda, if that’s true and you can’t trust somebody who had an affair. How can we trust John McCain to be President of the United States—he cheated on by his own admission on his first wife, he didn’t keep his martial vows, he didn’t keep his pledge to his first family…"

How can Hannity defend this?! And yet he tries. This idiot thinks that if you've spent time in a POW camp and if it was such a long time ago, that it's okay. I didn't know there was a moral statute of limitations on infidelity.

Hannity: "Thirty years ago after five and a half years of being a POW! ...He was in a prisoner of war camp! [He cheated on his wife] after five and a half years in prisoner of war camp!"

Lord, what fools these Republicans be!


(The fun starts at about the 3 minute mark.)



On the bright side, the distraction of discussing a person who cheated on his spouse and ISN'T running for president is better than an hour long show calling the presumptive Democratic nominee a secret Manchurian candidate jihadist.

(H/T C&L)

Through The Looking Glass

Geroge W. Bush: ...Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.

...Russia's government must respect Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

...Russia's actions this week have raised serious questions about its intentions in Georgia and the region. These actions have substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world...

I suppose he thinks that the rest of the world has never heard of a little sovereign country call Iraq.

T Minus 161 Days

"Let me put it to you bluntly. In a changing world, we want more people to have control over your own life."

- Annadale, Virginia, August 2004

Oh. My. God.

Someone explain to me why this race is as close as it is again .



What's going to happen once we get to the debates?

(H/T C&L)

Isaac Hayes Dies at 65

NY Times: Isaac Hayes, the singer and songwriter whose luxurious, strutting funk arrangements in songs like “Theme From ‘Shaft’ ” defined the glories and excesses of soul music in the early 1970s, died on Sunday in East Memphis, Tenn. He was 65.

...For much of the 1960s and into the ’70s he was one of the principal songwriters and performers for Stax Records, the trailblazing Memphis R&B label, and in the 1990s he revived his career by providing the voice for the amorous and wise Chef on the cable television show “South Park.”