Must Reads

Karoli: Prop 8 Ruling Exposes the Right's Moral Bankruptcy

Joe Conason: Democrats Deserve Credit -- Not Blame -- on Ethics

Steve Benen: Cantor Chooses Not To Celebrate Good News

Jason Linkins: First Punish The Unemployed, Then Declare War On The Employed

Daniel Stone: The Faux Scandal of Michelle Obama’s Spain Trip

Robert Reich: The Enthusiasm Gap and You

Fareed Zakaria: Build the Ground Zero Mosque

NPR, Radio Diaries: Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching

Quote of the Day

"Perhaps the alleged misconduct of Rangel and Waters is so deplorable that they must be punished. Let the evidence be set forth for their colleagues to evaluate. But if the House punishes any wrongdoing, that will happen because Pelosi’s reforms were real and the majority has enforced them. The only thing more foolish than blaming the Democrats for the alleged misconduct of Rangel or Waters would be to believe that the Republicans would enforce ethical standards with any semblance of rigor. They certainly never did so when they were in power."

~ Joe Conason

Must Reads

Markos Moulitsas: Why I Am Blacklisted by MSNBC

Paul Krugman: Arguments From Authority

Joe Conason: Facing Extinction: The "Responsible Republican"

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Wall Street Not Giving to Dems: Good Riddance

Bob Herbert: Restoring a Hallowed Vision

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Gin and Tacos: It All Makes Sense Now

Doug Draper: Ontario Amputee Has His Artificial Leg Ripped Off By Police And Is Slammed In Makeshift Cell During G20 Summit

Must Reads

Gin and Tacos: An Open Letter to Tim Pawlenty

Joe Conason: Republicans revive a debate they lost, badly

Chez Pazienza: The Notorious "Big"

Glenn Greenwald: The lynch-mob mentality

Derrick Z. Jackson: The double standard at CBS

Ezra Klein: It's just you, Democrats

Gail Collins: No Holds Barred

Must Reads

Daniel Klaidman, Newsweek: Independent’s Day - Attorney General Eric Holder may probe Bush-era torture

Matt Taibbi: On The ‘Everyone Was Doing It’ Excuse

Rob Tornoe: Cartoonist Reveals Unedited Michael Jackson Strip

Bill Moyers & Michael Winship: Some Choice Words For "The Select Few"

Sam Stein: Emanuel's Public Plan With Triggers Trial Balloon "Blew Up": Dem Lawmaker

Bob Herbert: The Human Equation

David Michael Green: A Saw The News On Television Today, Oh Boy

Robert Reich: When Will The Recovery Begin? Never.

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Joe Conason: The losers who gave us Sarah Palin

Must Reads

The Declaration of Independence

The Progress Report: The New 'Judicial Activism'

NY Times Editorial: Firefighters and Race

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard: No Justice Today at Guantanamo

Digby: How It Happens

Susie Madrak: Compare and Contrast: A Woman With Pneumonia Goes to The Local Clinic

Bob Cesca: Time for President Obama to Throw Down Against the Corrupt and Spineless

Steve Benen: A Pattern Emerges...

Joe Conason: Suddenly, a Trillion Dollars Is Too Expensive?

Paul Krugman: That 30's Show and Secrets of the WSJ

Robert Gordon: Letter to Obama from a Dying Man

The Rude Pundit: George Washington Would Kick Teabaggers' Asses

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Matt Taibbi: Goldman Sachs is reeling under public pressure

Andrew O'Hehir: The un-American way of life

James Wolcott: Sarah Palin Taunts John McCain with Her Runaway Caboose

Must Reads

Howard Zinn: Changing Obama's Mindset

Joe Conason: We Tortured To Justify War

Tom Andrews: Time to Stand Up as Congress Stands Down with War Funding Bill

Mahablog: The Unrelease

Bob Cesca: The Real Motive Behind the Cheney Family Torture Tour

The Rude Pundit: Nancy Pelosi Restores the Natural Order of Things

Must Reads

Joe Conason: Obama's Shrewd Choices

Robert Pear, NY Times: Bush Aides Rush to Enact a Safety Rule Obama Opposes

Ceci Connelly, Washington Post: US Health Care -'Not Getting What We Pay For'

Like Father, Like Chimp

Improper pressure on US attorneys from the powers-that-be seems to be nothing new for the Bushites. A story written by Joe Conason explains what happened in the summer of 1992 in regards to a little thing called Whitewater.

CONASON: "In September 1992, a Republican activist employed by the Resolution Trust Corporation provided [an] opportunity [to stop the Clintons and preserve the George H.W. Bush presidency] by fabricating a criminal referral naming the Clintons as witnesses in a case against the Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association (the small Arkansas savings and loan owned by Whitewater partner and Clinton friend James McDougal). The referral prepared by L. Jean Lewis lacked merit—as determined by [US Attorney Charles A.] Banks and the top FBI agent in his office—but she commenced a crusade for action against the hated Clintons. The FBI repeatedly rejected or ignored her crankish entreaties." Read rest of story.

In this case, US Attorney in Little Rock, Charles Banks, refused to implicate the Clintons in a baseless scandal just two weeks before the election under political pressure from Bush's Attorney General William Barr. Banks knew (and so did everyone else) that the smear would "lead to media and public inquiries of matters that are subject to absolute privacy. ... an investigation in today’s modern political climate all too often publicly purport to ‘legitimize what can’t be proven’ . . . ". Banks honestly "forfeited his promised judgeship and returned to private practice with his political career ended."

L. Jean Lewis however, "disappeared from public view until 2003, when the White House rewarded her with an important federal job. Those who had observed Lewis in action were astonished when she was named chief of staff to the Pentagon inspector general, at a salary of $118,000 a year."

Is anyone really surprised when it comes to this den of thieves, this crime family? The grandfather financially supported Hitler, the father can't remember where he was on November 22, 1963, when everyone else in the world does remember where they were the day Kennedy was assassinated, and the chimp-son lies the once honorable United States into a war with Iraq under the guise of fighting terrorism, while using the Constitution that he swore to protect as toilet paper.

This is just par for the course for the Bush Crime Family.

Al Franken Runs for Senate

When I first started listening to Air America Radio, Al Franken's was the show I would listen to. I was a devoted listener, as my fiancee would attest. She hated the car rides we took because I barely listened to anything else.

Over the course of the next three years, Franken would have weekly guests on his show such as Newsweek's Howard Fineman, Slate.com's John Dickerson, Media Matters' President David Brock, Christy Harvey, from The Center For American Progress and Joe Conason, a columnist for Salon and The New York Observer.

I really started learning a lot from the Franken show and started reading his books, and although I actually got a little tired of his radio schtick (he is a comedian and a comic writer after all) he was well worth listening to. I would get frustrated because he sometimes had too many guests on and therefore they didn't have time to answer the questions he asked, especially when he kept interrupting to get his jokes in, but I kept listening and kept learning. Through all the Air America troubles, Franken stayed on and kept plugging away, and although I tailed off in listening to him (my driving time schedule changed) I admired the guy for what he was attempting to do.

Well, February 14th marked Al Franken's last show on Air America. He has announced his candidacy for US Senate from Minnesota. Good luck to Al Franken in his political career. He would be a fresh voice in the Senate and work for the lower and middle classes in his state.

Here's his announcement: