Air America Still on the Air

Inside Radio reports:

Despite reports the liberal talk network would file for bankruptcy protection by week’s end — that apparently isn’t happening. Franken tells listeners “we’re not in Chapter 11″ and pokes at conservative talk hosts and websites for getting it wrong with quips like “who’s gloating now Bill O’Reilly?” We still believe it’s a tough economic situation at the libnet — and several staffers have been laid-off.

I should've gotten around to posting this sooner, but I got sidetracked with other things. From what I've been able to find out, AA's really revamping most of its lineup.

(h/t Think Progress)

Tags: news politics media liberal progressive Air America

Outing Ney's Buddies

Brian Ross of ABC has an interesting list at his blog, The Blotter. Jake Tapper writes:

In the wake of Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) guilty plea, Democrats are bringing back the "culture of corruption" charge and challenging House Republicans to give back the more than $472,000 in campaign contributions Ney has made to them.

Who took money from Ney? That's what makes the list so interesting; it's who and how much.

Spencer Bachus (AL): $23,357

Michael Rogers (AL): $6,000

Rick Renzi (AZ): $11,000

Mary Bono (CA): $1,000

John Doolittle (CA): $1,000

Bob Beauprez (CO): $6,000

Marilyn Musgrave (CO): $5,000

Tom Tancredo (CO): $1,000

Rob Simmons (CT): $6,000

Ginny Brown-Waite (FL): $2,000

Mario Diaz-Balart (FL): $1,000

Tom Feeney (FL): $1,000

Mark Foley (FL): $1,000

Katherine Harris (FL): $8,000

Ric Keller (FL): $1,000

John Mica (FL): $2,500

Phil Gingrey (GA): $5,000

Tim Johnson (IL): $2,000

Mark Kirk (IL): $1,000

Chris Chocola (IN): $8,000

Steve King (IA): $500

Tom Latham (IA): $3,000

Geoff Davis (KY): $4,000

Anne Northup (KY): $1,000

Rodney Alexander (LA): $6,000

Charles Boustany (LA): $10,000

Thaddeus McCotter (MI): $1,000

Candice Miller (MI): $1,000

Mark Kennedy (MN): $4,500

John Kline (MN): $1,000

Chip Pickering (MS): $7,000

Sam Graves (MO): $6,000

Jon Porter (NV): $6,000

Charlie Bass (NH): $1,000

Jeb Bradley (NH): $1,000

Mike Ferguson (NJ): $7,500

Scott Garrett (NJ): $1,000

Steve Pearce (NM): $2,000

Heather Wilson (NM): $6,000

Vito Fosella (NY): $500

Virginia Foxx (NC): $5,000

Robin Hayes (NC): $1,000

Steven LaTourette (OH): $13,250

Ralph Regula (OH): $5,000

Patrick Tiberi (OH): $25,857

Mike Turner (OH): $1,000

John Sullivan (OK): $2,000

Charlie Dent (PA): $5,500

Phil English (PA): $5,000

Michael Fitzpatrick (PA): $5,500

Jim Gerlach (PA): $7,000

Melissa Hart (PA): $21,121

Joe Knollenberg (PA): $2,000

Bill Shuster (PA): $7,000

Michael Conaway (TX): $1,000

Ralph Hall (TX): $500

Jeb Hensarling (TX): $1,000

Randy Neugebauer (TX): $5,000

Pete Sessions (TX): $5,000

Rob Bishop (UT): $1,000

Thelma Drake (VA): $1,500

Randy Forbes (VA): $1,000

Cathy McMorris (WA): $2,500

Dave Reichert (WA): $5,000

Shelly Moore Capito (WV): $7,500

Paul Ryan (WI): $250

Ohio GOP: $45,000

NRCC: $47,000

RNC: $75,000

If one of these incumbents are yours, ask them to give back the money. This request should be made as publicly as possible -- letters to the editor are always nice...

Tags: news politics Ohio congress elections crime scandal corruption republican Bob Ney

Bush Promises to Kill Americans

Here's Bush from today's radio address:

Reuters:

Bush reiterated in his weekly radio address that he would try to seek "common ground" on the legislation, but insisted the final version must allow the CIA questioning to continue because it has helped to foil plots.

"This CIA program has saved American lives, and the lives of people in other countries," Bush said.

But on friday, he threatened to kill the program:

Washington Post:

President Bush warned defiant Republican senators Friday that he will close down a CIA interrogation program that he credited with thwarting terrorist attacks if they pass a proposal regulating detention of enemy combatants, escalating a politically charged battle that has exposed divisions within his party.

So he's saying that, unless his demands are met, americans will die.

Isn't that pretty much Osama bin Laden's style of politics?

Tags: news politics terrorism CIA republican Bush crime

Molly Ivins on Ann Richards

I hope Molly Ivins outlives me, because then there's a slim chance that she writes my obituary.

truthdig:

She was so generous with her responses to other people. If you told Ann Richards something really funny, she wouldn’t just smile or laugh, she would stop and break up completely. She taught us all so much—she was a great campfire cook. Her wit was a constant delight. One night on the river on a canoe trip, while we all listened to the next rapid, which sounded like certain death, Ann drawled, “It sounds like every whore in El Paso just flushed her john.”

She knew how to deal with teenage egos: Instead of pointing out to a kid who was pouring charcoal lighter on a live fire that he was idiot, Ann said, “Honey, if you keep doing that, the fire is going to climb right back up to that can in your hand and explode and give you horrible injuries, and it will just ruin my entire weekend.”

Go read the whole thing.

Truthdig also gets credit for digging up the cool -- and public domain -- photo. Good on them.

Tags: news politics Texas feminism democrat liberal progressive obits Ann Richards Molly Ivins

What About the Enemy Within?

I'm not sure this idea's going to help any.

New York Times:

The Iraqi government plans to seal off Baghdad within weeks by ringing it with a series of trenches and setting up dozens of traffic checkpoints to control movement in and out of the violent city of seven million people, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Friday.

The effort is one of the most ambitious security projects this year, with cars expected to be funneled through 28 checkpoints along the main arteries snaking out from the capital. Smaller roads would be closed. The trenches would run across farmland or other open areas to prevent cars from evading checkpoints, said the ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf.

“We’re going to build a trench around Baghdad so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly,” he said in a telephone interview. “The idea is to get the cars to go through the 28 checkpoints that we set up.”

Is there some reason to believe that there are no terrorists or insurgents in Baghdad?

Tags: news politics iraq war terrorism crime disaster Baghdad

Griper Blade: The Religious Right is Hurting the Republican Party and the Republican Party's Hurting Christianity

Associated Press has an article about a book by former Republican Senator John Danforth:

Is the Christian right the Republican Party's real political base or have conservative Christians taken over the GOP, forcing the party to meet their demands?

For former Missouri Sen. John Danforth, the answer became clear when the Republican-controlled Congress intervened in the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died after her husband won the right to remove her feeding tube.

"The effort to keep Terri Schiavo alive artificially became a religious crusade and Republicans in Washington responded to a core constituency, even though it meant abandoning traditional Republican philosophy," Danforth writes in his new book, "Faith and Politics: How the 'Moral Values' Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together."

Danforth, an ordained Episcopal priest and a lifelong Republican who represented Missouri for 18 years in the Senate, argues that the religious right has focused its agenda on divisive issues that polarize Americans and create a stalemate in government.

I've always thought that history will remember the government intrusion into the Schiavo family's end of life decisions as an extremely low point in kiss-ass politics. The way Terri Schiavo ended her life is something that goes on almost every day, but the Schiavos won the heartache lottery and the party opposed to big government muscled its way into their lives.

Read More...

Tags: news politics republican religious right religion christian John Danforth

Bush Never Questions Anyone's Patriotism -- But You can if You Want

George W. Bush doesn't question anyone's patriotism -- but it's OK if you do.

Editor & Publisher:

At his televised press conference today, President Bush said her personally does not believing in questioning the patriotism of those you disagree with, but did not rebuke a Republican leader in the House who this week seemed to do just that.

He started to say that no one should do this, then caught himself and simply declared that he doesn't do it.

Earlier this week, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the GOP majority leader, said of Democrats, “I wonder if they’re more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people.”

Asked at the press conference if he agree with Boehner, or if he thinks "he owes someody an apology," Bush replied, "I wouldn't have exactly put it that way, but I do believe there's a difference of attitude" between his administration and the Democrats.

He doesn't do it personally, he has flunkies who do it for him, so that's OK.

E&P gives us a bonus quote from President Nihilglot that I thought was funny:

There's no doubt in my mind we needed to make sure the Patriot Act was renewed to tear down walls that exist so that intelligence people could share information with criminal people.

Should we really be sharing information with criminal people?

Tags: news politics Bush conservative republican John Boehner