What did they put in the attack poodles' alpo?

Last night we watched 60 Minutes and what to our surprise did we find but an entire segment about the propriety and consequences of the outing of Valerie Plame. Ex-CIA NOC after ex-CIA NOC interviewed testified to the expense of training an agent and the human and economic cost of outing one. Not a single red spinmeister to argue the opposite. It was weird. We suppose that the whatever CBS's problems with the White House, the CIA still has some serious clout in the newsotainment division.

At one point they replayed a clip of Robert Novak talking about Brewster Jennings. The practically perfect partner turned to me and asked, "why isn't he in jail?" We suggested he was singing to the grand jury. "Then he should be ostracized," she opined. We had a brief fantasy of a world in which pundits of all partisan stripes refused to appear on shows that offered a guest slot to Novak. Then we realized that we might as well fantasize about Democrats refusing to appear on Fox News Propaganda outlets.

Seeing the clip, however, made us wonder whether Wilson was the target of the leak, so much as the C.I.A., in general. "Watch us knock over your agents and your fronts with nary a care. We got a hundred more shills like Novak," we imagine the agency was supposed to hear the Dark Lord (who is the father of a lesbian) chortle. These reds are surely thugs.

Meanwhile, on Hardball, Chris Matthews was doing his best to convince us that the death penalty (or alternatively, the right to bear personal nuclear devices) might not be such a bad thing. Such an ego that man has, with so little to justify it. We have the following questions from watching the bloviator:

1) just how much does the RNC pay Mike Allen of Time Magazine?
2) Did the stare of utter disbelief and contempt which graced the faces of Matthews and Andrea Mitchell when Kate O'Beirne suggested that Friday was a good day for the White House presage a new phase in MSM coverage in news will not consist of RNC spin repeated without challenge?
3) Watching Matthews, Mitchell and the other panelists' utter inability to challenge O'Beirne's transparent mendacity about the "16 words," would this new phase last more than a weekend?

Matthews, Mitchell and their ilk are obviously not going to prepare (you know, work - read up, do some research) for these little pornagraphic moments in political propaganda. So we'll have a few weeks of blank stares of disbelief before the RNC reimposes its "reality" upon the MSM. What we saw last night was just some indigestion on the part of the MSM. No one's fortifying the Alpo.

Unindicted Co-conspirators

Maybe Fitz is squeezing Scooter to get Cheney. Maybe Rove is going to confront the new reality in the next week or two. Maybe not. But who's going to hold the media accountable? Tim Russert, Walter Pincus, Robert Novak, Matt Cooper, Judith Millar.

Inside the White House, the President's man Libby, and maybe his men, Libby, Rove, Cheney, Fleischer, etc., all thought that for theprice of a phone call to their special friends, they could trash a critic. True, they'd have to endanger national security to trash the critic. But they knew no one would ever ask the reporters and if someone did the reporters would not chat and the institutions for which they worked would pay millions to protect the reporters from the prospect of telling the truth.

Luckily for us, none of these mendacious bags of excrement could imagaine a reality which included a jesuit trained, Harvard educated, boyscout of a prosecutor. Let's be fair. How could they? They think Ken Starr was a prosecutor. More to the point, they obviously held the reporters in as much contempt as the reporters held their readers. Maybe there's a reason the powerplayers regard the media types with such scorn. All the reporters and their corporte lawyers folded their tents as soon as the boyscout prosecutor called. Except for Judy and the New York Times, who fought like tigers until the election was over. Then they folded too.

So, will it affect media coverage of the White House - the knowledge that these government officials hold them in such profound contempt? Will it cause reporters to question their committment to their invitations to a-list parties, oops, I mean, "sources?" Maybe the 4th estate should look at the mess they've gotten themselves into. Their "sources" despise them and their readers don't trust them. Maybe they should try reporting for a change, instead of transcribing gossip, or in this case, treason.

The Criminalization of Politics

What with Miers tanking, and fitzmas speculation running riot, the story today that the Dark Lord (who is the father of a lesbian), over the objections of White House lawyers, withheld documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee when it was investigating the intelligence (odd word there) that led to il Ducetto's not so excellent adventure in Iraq, gave us pause today. Someday, someone will ask to see the provision of the Constitution that provided Cheney with such authority, assuing a Constitution still exists, but that post is for another day.

Instead, today we're trying to imagine the right analogy for the mania that is Washington, D.C. today. We've decided that what's happening is not unlike what happens when a very good prosecution team successfully takes on a mob family. We, in fact, have never prosecuted a mob family, but we know folks who have, and, of course, we've watched the Sopranos and loved the Godfather series. So it's not like we know any less than other bloggers on this point.

Still, we think that the leak of the Dark Lord's little crime (it is a crime to withhold documents and information from Congress) tells us that Fitz, experienced mob prosecutor that he is, has cracked la famiglia bush wide open. It's not that BushCo is over, but the end is in sight.

The old hands in la famiglia have enough horses still to do a great deal of damage. But, the various cappos are eyeing their chances to strike out on their own. David Frum, a button man at best, whose only claim to fame was the coining of the term, "axis of evil." We know this is his claim to fame because he kept telling us so. But Frum, known within BushCo circles as, David, "the Cliche," Frum, is now the hero of the wingnuts over Harriet Miers. And Trent Lott, humiliated so publicly by la famiglia, left the Senate Republican caucus this morning singing, "Happy Days are here again." So the sorry saga of Harry, "Horsemeat" Miers, itself tells us that il Ducetto's iron hand is not so widely feared as it once was.

No doubt the Miers rebellion happened in part because il Ducetto's own consiglere, Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove has spent more time quivering before Fitz's grand jury than he has disciplining the unruly crew that is la famiglia. In the meanwhile, all the bagmen and numbers runners are furtively glancing at il Ducetto on the one hand, and Fitz on the other. And if and as they crack, Fitz gains more and more leverage on men who are never supposed to caught. And as we and the ordinary folk of la famiglia read the blogs and the headlines nervously, we all wonder, will Karl go down? Could Fitz even take down the Dark Lord?

And at a certain point in this downward spiral, someone decides to give the Dark Lord a push. So he drops a dime on the National Journal telling a dirty little secret about the mess that was Colin "the Suit" Powell's abortion of a wmd speech to the U.N. Even if Fitz doesn't get him, the thinking goes, the media will.

"We got newspapers guys on our payroll. They might like a story like that."

all this and fitzmas too?

Game 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E sox 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 8 0 astros 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0

With The Callow and Uncouth, Always A Little Patience

It happens that Pudentilla was fortunate enough to meet Desmond Tutu when he came to speak at a graduation ceremony on our happy campus some years back. What she remembers most particularly about his speech was the bishop's assertion that he "will always have an abundance of patience for the young." Pudentilla rather took this philosophy to heart and tries to let it guide her conduct in her relationship with all her students, especially the College Republicans. Pudentilla has a long standing interest in College Republicans and the activities of CRs in Maine of late has only whetted her enthusiasm for stories documenting the standards of citizenship towards which CRs strive..

Sometimes when dealing with post-pubescent youth, an abundance of patience is absolutely necessary. Sometimes post-pubescent youth, especially College Republicans, test the limits of the abundance of patience Pudentilla strives to maintain. In those cases, Pudentilla is reminded not of Bishop Tutu's motto, but of the old proverb, "with the rich and mighty, always a little patience." The latest stunt by CRs in Maine has moved Pudentilla to modify that formulation. When dealing with CRs, perhaps we would best be guided by the new adage, "with the callow and uncouth, always a little patience."

It seems that a Mainer who attends Bowdoin College, an estimable institution, not too far from the campus in Central Maine at which Pudentilla is lucky enough to teach, is also in the Marine Reserves. Thanks to Atrios, we learn from the local paper that the young man in question is also quite active in community service organizations.

A government and legal studies major, Cornell du Houx is also involved in a variety of activities at Bowdoin. Aside from his work with the Democrats, he is the co-president of Community Service Council, an active volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and the Young Alumni Leadership Program, and a tutor at local schools in the America Counts Tutor Program. He also works at the youth think tank — Youth Empowerment Program.

He has also been a leading light in campus and local Democratic political groups. Indeed, our hero, had entered the race for the local town council.* Well it seems that Marines have called Mr. du Houx up and he will have to postpone not merely his senior year in college, but will also withdraw from the political campaign in order to answer his country's call to service. As he understands it, he made a committment to the Marines and he's duty bound to fulfill it. It happens that du Houx is an opponent of the il Ducetto's not so excellent adventure in Iraq, where Mr. du Houx will serve.

Some might find the decision to honor one's committments to serve one's country, even as one excercises his rights of political expression and organziation in opposition to the country's foreign policy, an expression of patriotism of the highest order. We shall pass over mention of the raw courage it must take to face deployment to Iraq these days with the equanimity Mr. du Houx displays. Mr. du Houx is not without his campus critics, however.

It seems the CRs at his college, while they "respect his service", are trouble by his excercise of his First Amendment rights. Thus, comments Daniel Schuberth, a Bowdoin CR, who faces no imminent danger of being asked to serve his country because one must volunteer to serve it:

I find it troubling, however, that one of the most vocal opponents of our president, our country and our mission in Iraq has chosen to fight for a cause he claims is wrong. Mr. Houx's rhetoric against the war on terror places him in agreement with the most radical fringes of the Democratic Party, and I am left to question his logic and motivation.

One of the reasons college professors like Pudentilla need vast reserves of patience in dealing with the young in general, and CRs in particular, is the fact that young people in general and CRs especially are not overly burdened by a sense of irony, much less a capacity for self-reflection. It fell to a Bowdoin prof to explain the obvious to the CRs on campus.

"He exemplifies democratic citizenship at its best," Franco said of Cornell du Houx. "Though he opposes Bush's war policies, he still feels obligated to fulfill his duty. ... This is the exact opposite of what is done by those supporters of the war who would never dream of fighting in it themselves or sending their own children to fight in it."

Professor Franco, you're a more patient prof than we could ever hope to be. We certainly thought when we read Mr. Schuberth's comments, "stupid, cowardly, self-serving, ungenerous and worse, ungreatful, git you are." We'd like to think we, we'd have bitten back such words, however. Because, as you know, Gentle Reader, our motto, with CRs, anyway, is "with the callow and uncouth, always a little patience."

*Note to College Republicans - such service to community and party is part of what is called being a good citizen.

Tea Leaves

Last night on Countdown, the reds supplied Terry Holt to spin for the cameras. Last year, Mr. Holt served as a spokesperson for the BC 04 campaign. Interesting that they'd bring this guy out from the corners of corporate world, no?

Equally interesting were Mr. Holt's comments distancing il Ducetto from Kay Bailey Hutchinson's perjury remarks:

HOLT: Well, I don‘t think that it‘s proper to call perjury a minor thing. The president has called it a serious thing. And, in fact, he‘s brought honor and dignity back to the White House, as he said in 2000, by holding the law to high esteem.

Ooops. Sounds like there are multiple and conflicting sets of talking points, doesn't it. On the one hand, the Cheney-ites (and Rovians?) are doing the iokiyar dance on perjury (and no, Clinton is different, he was lying about sex, not national security - do you think when reds say "honor and dignity" they mean, "no one is going to enjoy sex in this administration"?). BushCo, however, seems to be trying to find a line in the sand behind which their man can stand with some semblance of self-respect. Not real self-respect, but a stance that the MSM will describe as self-respect.

It sounds like musical chairs with all the aides and apparatchiks scrambling to get on the right side of il Ducetto's line, doesn't it? That's what Mr. Holt implied:

At the end of the day, most Republicans are concerned about this president and getting his agenda passed. It‘s not about staff, it‘s about the president. It‘s about his ability to do his job in the next three and a half years.

In case you didn't get the talking point, Holt thoughtfully repeated it.

But ultimately, this president is going to do his job no matter what. Remember, it‘s the president got elected, not any of his staff. And he will turn this corner, Keith.

So il Ducetto's going to happily toss folks overboard. The big question, since the NYT reported that Cheney was Libby's source [she stops to dance a jig] for Ms. Plame's identity, well before the Novak column is no longer, "will Rove go down," but, "will Cheney go down." The story tells us that the sainted prosecutor, in fact, has Scooter Libby's notes of the meeting with Cheney. Now, if the story's true, Scooter has major perjury problems (which if he were a Democrat would no doubt draw the attention of many a red politician and commentator).

"But why," Aaron Brown asked Jeffrey Toobin later the same evening, "would anyone leak this?" Well Scooter might leak this to take the Dark Lord (who is the father of a lesbian) down with him - but that presumes a breathtaking fall out between the Dark Lord and his Nazgûl. Could the prospect of hardtime could engender such a fallout?

Alternatively, would the Dark Lord leak this, thinking it somehow helps him legally? We don't pretend to know the complexities of the prosecutor's case, but the political consequences of the fall out are not at all trivial. After all, il Ducetto said he wanted to know about if any of his people leaked. And Scotty promised us all that it wasn't Rove and Libby. Now it's clear that Rove and Libby didn't head the President's call. And Cheney hasn't. In fact, he's quite publically lied about his knowledge of Mr. Wilson and Ms. Plame, as Joshua Micah Marshall has thoughtfully demonstrated.

So, unless il Ducetto starts tossing people over the side of the boat, one might conclude that il Ducetto wasn't serious when he said he wanted to know about it if any of his boys leaked. Especially when it's revealed that they did and he didn't do anything in response. Indeed, one might conclude, without wearing a tinfoil hat, that il Ducetto himself was in on the game. And friends, let us remember the game was either a) to forge the Niger documents in order to bolster the case for war with deliberate fabrications; b) risk national security for the sake of partisan political purposes; c) risk national security to protect the Niger document forgeries; or d) all of the above.

We don't think BushCo wants folks to think il Ducetto was in on the game - whether or not all the players are indicted or simply named. Which is why Mr. Holt was drawing that line so hard. Everyone goes, even the Dark Lord. The alternative is Howard Dean, Hillary and Kerry on the talk shows for ever asking why the President won't fire Cheney's lying ass.

So maybe BushCo leaked the news of Scooters notes. That's what some of Steve Clemons' readers think. Anyway, it could be time for a rousing chorus of bye-bye, Cheney, good bye.

Just to prove that the God is not completely rearranging the cosmos, what with the White Sox going up 2 in the World Series and promised indictments and possible resignations in the same week, we pause to note that a nor'easter spawned by Hurricane Wilma is snowing (not sticking yet, but in the air) in the happy corner of Central Maine that Pudentilla is fortunate enough to call home.

Indeed

This is the most important thing. Much of the public already know a lot of this subconsciously. This case gives them a way to understand what happened without losing face. The "grown-ups" who led them into this war were liars and criminals. We need to make sure they realize that the "grown-ups" are the Republican establishment.

Digby has the right of it and then some. And any Democrat who does not use the word "corrupt" before every utterance of the word "Republican" between now and November 2008 should be horsewhipped.

Blame the Republicans

Can we call it quits now? Jihadi burned the bodies of mercenaries working for the coalition. Il Ducetto got pissed and flattened Fallujah. We burned the bodies of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, and took the opportunity to mock the religious and cultural beliefs of their friends and family as the flesh cooked. It's not clear what the jjihadi response to this will be. A dirty bomb? More suicide bombers? Something inelegant to the consuming class at a mall during the holiday shopping season? Or perhaps this is il Ducetto's exit strategy. Burn some bodies and say we're even.

We didn't hear a lot of Senators clamoring for investigations into this atrocity yesterday. Too harsh a word you say? We find the multi-cultural motif of the news coverage laughable. "For Muslims, the burning of a corpse is particularly offensive." Look, chowderheads, the issue isn't cremation vs. inhumation after culturally specific rituals of mourning in world religions. It's desecration of the bodies of war dead, particularly enemy dead. You don't have to be a Muslim to wonder what prompted the officer to tell his men, "hey, burn those stinking corpses." Burial would be such an impossible thing? You don't have to be a Muslim to wonder at the moral abyss that serves as a soul for the psy-ops guys that thought taunting either enemy jihadi or innocent villagers with the burning flesh of their brothers would be a helpful move in the global war on terror.

We attend a Christian church and we find what's alleged to be utterly repugnant. We say "alleged," but you know, our guys did it while tv cameras were rolling. Let's face it, thanks to the efforts of il Ducetto and Rummy, there's been a lot of inflation in the atrocity markets the last couple of years. It used to be folks went ballasitic if you tortured prisoners or desecrated religious texts. The Greek gods would not permit even Achilles in his rage and grief to outrage the corpse of his enemy, Hector. In America, now a days, crisping the corpses of the fallen doesn't even raise an eyebrow. Rummy, as far as we know, has not offered his resignation.

So, no call for hearings on burning enemy dead as part of plan to intimidate the opposition. Perhaps the Senators are exhausted by their efforts to get to the bottom of the torture thing. We know the outcome of the Abu Ghraib hearings. More reports of torture. We see the consequences of the Senate's valiant if obvious stand on the McCain amendment outlawing torture. The President threatens to veto the bill. House Republicans simply smile. Don't worry boss, we'll kill it in committee.

Perhaps it's just a matter of having a proper, Republican cloth coat set of moral values. Maybe, in the years to come, the poor bastards who gave the orders, and and the guys who lit the flames, and those who taunted their enemies from the pyre will wake in the dark of night screaming, haunted by the awful and distinct odor that a human body makes when it burns. But nobody in the administration, and nobody in the party that controls both houses of Congress, and no one in the red media will. After all, it's not like anyone involved had a blow job.

Who Knew?

We're Isis ( Indeed, you are 79% erudite, 70% sensual, 33% martial, and 41% saturnine). But, what's a girl got to do to be Athena, that's what we want to know.

A: Everything and from the very beginning.

Q: What did the president know and when did he know it?

Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the daily news. [--snip--]

Other sources confirmed, however, that Bush was initially furious with Rove in 2003 when his deputy chief of staff conceded he had talked to the press about the Plame leak.

Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said. [--snip--]

A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying rove had deceived bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the president.

Looks like il Ducetto's been lying to the American people. Remember il Ducetto's comments to the press? David Corn does:

Listen, I know of nobody--I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing....and if people have got solid information, please come forward with it....and we can clarify this thing very quickly if people who have got solid evidence would come forward and speak out. And I would hope they would....I want to know who the leakers are.

So il Ducetto's claims that he wanted "to know who the leakers are" now sounds oddly like Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky" moment. At some point, after the indictments are announced, when we learn whether anyone died because Karl Rove's notion of democratic political process is not quite as nuanced as the now under-appreciated Donald Segretti's, some "liberal" pundit or a "democratic" senator will urge us to unite behind il Ducetto because the country can't afford the turmoil and disruption that will result if the administration and the leadership of the republican party are held to account for their crimes in a time of war. There's a name for a person who makes suggestions like that.

It's "fellow traveler."

In America, Anything's Possible

The Chicago White Sox are in the World Series. We had just celebrated our first birthday the last time this happened. It's possible it will happen again in our lifetime. But as the Old Man advised Pudentilla when the Bears won the Super Bowl, "these things just don't happen all that often for Chicago fans. Enjoy it."

But wait, there's more. Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating the Dark Lord (who is the father of a lesbian). May the Flame burn bright. If the Dark Lord is indicted and convicted, evermore we will refer to Mary Cheney as "daughter of a felon."

And there's more. Angels in heaven, there's more. the same story says that Joe Wilson and his wife plan to sue Bush and Cheney for damaging her career - which lawsuit will proceed (even as Rove is serving time?) under legal precedent that the wingnuts established in their campaign against Bill Clinton's penis.

[Ed. note.] We apologize for the paucity of blogging of late. Despite repeated warnings, students came to class with their germs. The faculty has been mowed down. Every year, the fifth week of classes, the same thing.

Friday Bush and Iraq Blogging

If we can put a man on the moon....

Driving home this afternoon, the practically perfect partner and I were discussing cars. At the Common Ground Fair we had attended a discussion of using solar panels to power one's electric water heater. Pudentilla, admittedly a humanist, who considers the required science courses she was compelled to take in a college a salutory experience of failure at a formative age, asked, "why can't we make an electric car, which can sustain 55mph easily, and can go 300 miles round trip, and which you can plug into a solar panel on the barn (or garage) roof every night? "

The practically perfect partner noted that the power requirements of cars and water heaters might not be analogous. She also noted that in the NYC neighborhoods in which she grew up, families only had one car and that had to meet distance as well as commuting driving needs. People won't pay $25K for a car that can't meet both needs - no matter how fanatic the EV1 folks are. We grew up in 2 car Chicago (the city of a team that is against all odds playing post season baseball rather well) but we take her point.

Then we thought about the cost of war in Iraq. Andy Rooney says its 5.6 billion/month. So in the course of a year, we're spending 67.2 billion a year. If the sticker price of a new Toyota Prius is $26,000, Congress could have bought 2,584,615 hybrids for that sum. If you convert the cost of war in iraq thus far (about 199 billion), you would create an inventory of 7,653,846 cars.

Every year, about 20 million new cars are sold in the US annually. At this level of investment, in other words, the entire US car fleet (776/1000 of population x 296M population) of about 230 million cars, could be replaced in 85 years.

Pudentilla, will be long dead by that date, but it is an imaginable date, and she imagines as we inch ever closer to it, the cost of hybrid cars will decrease, as well as emissions which contribute to global warning. She supposes that if the government were buying cars at this clip that car manufacturers besides Toyota would hop to it as well. Ford, for example, might kill the Explorer in favor of the Escape hybrid. Perhaps someone in Detroit would manufacture a 4 wheel drive pick-up hybrid and fulfill the eco-butch fantasies of lesbians like Pudentilla everywhere.

Of course, we'd have to suffer through the restoration of our flagging manufacturing sector. And god knows, union pensions would inevitably be preserved by this suggestion. And bummer that it is, we'd have to give up our dependence on foreign oil, and the costs of maintaining military bases throughout the Persian Gulf. We'd have to accept the fact that we were fairly well equipped to ride out the end of the petroleum age on planet earth. And there would certainly be no more news stories about IEDs in Iraq, or the deaths of innocent civilians. Probably the torture numbers would plummet too.

Good think Il Ducetto started this war, and is prepared to stay the course. Because to imagine anything else would be defeat. His, at the very least.

The Right to Lie?

As you may know, Gentle Reader, the conservative controversialist David Horowitz, a man not overly burdened with an ardent desire to discover facts, nor an indecent compulsion to be restrained by them, recently visited our little corner of Maine. In his wake, local college and high school republicans have manufactured another controversy which they wish to label, “free speech.” We think “unfettered mendacity,” may be the more accurate characterization.

According to the local paper, a senior at the highschool distributed copies of the Maine College Republican newspaper(1). If you wish to consider the arguments and insights of the Pachyderm, you may download an issue from the Maine CRs' web site. Pudentilla is not overly familiar with this organization, but she has considered the activities of the 527, The College Republicans National Committee, in some depth elsewhere.

We, by the way, applaud and support the efforts of this young man to allow young minds access to the actual words of the CRs. Apparently, however, there is a tradition at the high school of having adults look over materials students distribute in order to ensure that the randy pubescent youth are not passing around porn. Pudentilla, it should be noted, declines to equate the literary efforts of the Maine CRs with pornography. It is true the Pachyderm has pictures, but none appear to be sexually suggestive(2).

Unfortunately, our young Republican hero took great umbrage at the effort of this teacher to inhibit his efforts to spread the non-pornography of the Maine CRs throughout the cafeteria. Indeed, he questioned the teacher's authority to suggest he needed approval to distribute the Pachyderm. He went so far as to appeal to an assistant principle, who, acknowledging the fact that the Pachyderm does not appear to threaten arousal to anyone, even adolescents, approved distribution and our hero returned to his efforts to distribute the paper.

The only problem with this story, is that there is no controversy. Only a process that worked. One cannot imagine that parents of high school students would want their children deprived of the opportunity to read the Pachyderm, anymore than one could suppose that parents of high school parents would want kids passing pornography around the cafeteria. Unfortunately for the spawn of Horowtiz, as anyone familiar with the fake Stevens Creek school controversy or Mr. Horowitz' unsubstantiated and untrue claims of liberal bias at University of North Colorado knows, stories about common sense resulting in good decisions are not the stuff of red agitprop. When confronted with common sense and good decisions - reds are often forced to retreat to cries of victimization and to, well, make stuff up. Did that happen here within the happy corner of the world that Pudentilla is fortunate enough to call home? We report, Gentle Reader, you decide.

The College Republicans' account

In a statement sent to media outlets and Republicans across the state, College Republicans alleged that a group of teachers confronted [the student] and threatened to suspend him if he didn't stop. Although he wasn't involved in the incident, Chairman Nathaniel Walton said the story came straight from [the student] and into the news release. In the release, [the student] is quoted as saying a faculty member ripped up several newspapers after hearing he had permission to give them out.

In the news release, College Republicans called the teachers' behavior "unprofessional" and "reprehensible." The group urged an investigation. [--snip--]

But Walton stands by the release and the story, even though he wasn't involved.

"They weren't there. The press release is an account of a student's experience. I think that's more reliable," said Walton, a friend of [the student's]. "Of course (school officials) don't think this is right because it's something they don't want to deal with."

The school's account

The principal interviewed the teacher and student in question. He

said he was satisfied that only a single teacher challenged Bowen that day in the cafeteria, and that she never threatened him with suspension. He believes no papers were ripped up in anger, although a few may have been thrown away as cafeteria workers cleaned up. [--snip--]

"I guess [the student] did the right thing, and I think we did, too," [the principal] said. "I think this thing has been blown out of proportion."

School Committee Chairman James Handy took it one step further, calling the news release "offensive" and "inflammatory."

"Clearly the generators of the press release didn't have all the facts in front of them," Handy said.

The student's account

[The student], for his part, changed his story during the course of the day. In a phone call from school Tuesday, he said he didn't know the teacher who challenged him, he wasn't sure whether other teachers had ripped up his papers and he was pleased with the administration's recent response to the situation.

It is controversies like these that cause Pudentilla to wonder whether future generations of political scientists and historians will have cause to equate the Republicans of our day with the Communist Party of the old USSR. Those in Russia who claimed to subscribe to a utopian ideology which envisioned economic and social equality for all, turned out to be totalitarian thugs whose record of doing right by their constituents was, at the very least, troubled. Similarly, although Republicans claim a "conservative" mantle, their champions have engaged in a disastrous war of choice, limited the civil liberties of our population while increasing the authority of the federal government, and have racked up budget deficits that might have given Nero pause. The gap between their practice and rhetoric, is, we think, rather large, and growing larger. The Republicans, moreover, have shared willingness of the Communists in the old Soviet Union to create controversies for their own political ends upon the shakiest of factual foundations - as the record of both Mr. Horowitz in the University of Northern Colorado case (allegations retracted) and the Alliance Defense Fund in the Stevens Creek Elementary School case (court dismissed free-speech claims, wingnuts drop case) makes clear.

Is it possible that we'd be better off letting the highschool kids read porn?


(1) The Maine CRs, incidently, have apparently declined to take an official stance on the efforts of hateful christianists to overturn a Maine anti-discrimination law which protects gay Mainers from discrimination in housing and employment. They would, however, like to ensure that those who support discrimination get more airtime on Maine campuses. [As Pudentilla has noted, she is not overly familiar with the Maine CRs and would be happy to correct this statement, if, in fact, they have taken a position on the amendment which seeks to overturn the anti-discrimination law.]

(2) It is equally true the the Pachyderm, which ardently supports the war in Iraq and prints a letter attacking Cindy Sheehan, does not appear to contain any editorial content or ads urging its readers to respond the national crisis in military recruitment which our country faces and which could very well undercut the President's ability to prosecute the very war the Maine CRs so ardently support.

Who's Your Daddy, Now?

We think that the Miers nomination represents a triumph of Republican corporatism (litigator for a union busting law firm, hello???) - and all the red Christinists (a neologism, Scorpio coined) and neo-cons and the six Republicans left who actually believe in limited government, international cooperation and fiscal sanity (sojourning in a rather pleasant retirement villa in a location we dare not name) finally figured out that il Ducetto's been punking them for the benefit of his commercial, industrial, corporate friends at the country club for more than a few years now. As for Ms. Mier's aptitude and accomplishements, her suitability for the job, we lack sufficient evidence to form a competent opinion. But the base does not. They know she's the lawyer from corporate.

We think the "base" has finally tweaked to this based on the round up of right-wing Bush-bashing that Kevin Drum has catalogued over at Washington Monthly. John at AmericaBlog has Richard Viguerie, bag man for the Movement's, cri de couer, as well. Three comments leap to the fore - John Podhoretz's description of the selection as an act of "droit de seignerur." What a sexist, little pig a red reveals himself to be when he's punked. We guess when Mr. Podhoretz realized he'd been nothing but Mr. Bush's bitch for the last decade, he couldn't resist snidely implying that il Ducetto, to the contrary, was porking the lawyer chick. Ms. Meiers, the first female partner in an old line Dallas law firm whose client's have included Disney and Microsoft, has been beating chest thumpers like Podhoretz like a drum for most of her career, so we think she can handle it.

Richard Viguerie, of course, blames the liberals. Now, Gentle Reader, Pudentilla, a card carrying, knee-jerk, Bush-hating, liberal, if there ever was one, feels quite confident that the only people in North America who had absolutely no influence on il Ducetto's decision, were the liberals. Viguerie, of course, can hardly admit to his soulless throng that the financial eminence grise of the "movement," tried and failed to play the old rope a dope with the same old business men who've been picking the pockets of the soulless throng since the turn of the last century. Can Viguerie say that, in fact, either knowingly or negligently, either in a hopelessly sentimental or inadequately Machiavellian move, he plumped for the scion of oil and gas. What can he say, "I'm an idiot"? No, of course not. So he has to blame the liberals. Which is what the leadership class of the movement have been doing to the rank and file fools for decades now. It may be the old reliable red meat libel that Viguerie is throwing to the mob, but jeesh you guys, isn't it a bit maggoty and rancid by now?

As for Bill Kristol, disappointed, depressed and demoralized, what on God's green earth makes you think that anyone in the White House gives the anal orifice of a single rodent what you think, Bill? You're the cheer leader in chief of the neo-con's shining vision for turning the Middle East into a resource rich, if easterly, province of Texas. Too bad you were utterly and completely wrong and mired il Ducetto up to his eyeballs in a quagmire that threatens, god-willing, the Republican majority dream like nothing since Watergate. Is Karl returning your calls, Billy boy? Perhaps not before Wolfie's.

But the wailing and nashing of teeth in the Christianist movement is the most pleasant music of all. Ms. Miers, it appears, is against a woman's right to choose (perhaps, the choice seems a bit abstract to her) but does not hate queers. She thinks Texas should lock 'em up if some Ranger catches them doing the nasty in the privacy of their own homes. She also thinks, however, that no one should discriminate against them in housing and employment, and mirable dictu, they should get to adopt kids if they want to. We guess this is her version of queer immaculate conception. She is not, it would seem, as AmericaBlog documents, a red Christianist.

Poor Pat Robertson. Poor Christianists. Liberals like Pudentilla think the way you read the Bible is wacky, but they agree with you that figuring out what the Good Book means is an important task. Il Ducetto and his friends simply despise you. Since Henry of Navarre converted to Catholicism as part of his struggle to claim the French throne because "Paris is worth mass," politicians have been willing to publicly pray any words you and your ilk say and then wash the words down with bourbon and branch as they they make the deals with the devils at the table to which your support has brought them.

So who's your Daddy, now, boys? Will you retreat to the desert to wander in search of your savior for another generation? Will you turn to a true believer, even more frightening to those who have a passing care for things like the Constitution, and spill your strength on fringe candidates for elections to come? Or will they come back with roses and chocolate, convincing you in 2012 that Jebb is the real one - whispering between subtle reassurances that you can love God and still fear dark skinned people and worse, women with social and economic autonomy (we don't even have to mention queers) - that "the old man, the son, didn't really believe, they were too easily played by liberals. But Jebb is one of us. Think of Terry Schiavo. Trust us. We get it. We're one of you. Donate at this url. Vote at this precinct. Tell the congregation."

Because your outrage makes this clear, children, that you desperately need a Daddy. The alternative, thinking on your own two feet, forging political and economic alliances across social and cultural difference, that's just too hard. You need a Daddy to tell you what to think. And today, all you know for sure is that il Ducetto sure as hell ain't your daddy no more.

Froggy's Gone A Courting

Our beloved colleague chez skippy, G. D. Frogsdong, has answered the call and begun helping to spread the progressive word throughout New Jersey. Check it out.

Hell is Freezing Over

No, Gentle Reader, it's not a rant on the environment. Just a well developed sense of Irish alarm at the pleasant events of the last week:

• The College Democrats were kind enough to give Pudentilla and her partner free tickets to see Al Franken when he came to campus for parents' weekend. The organizers of the event were kind enough to provide free outdoor seating before an a/v feed of Mr. Franklin to those in the community who couldn't get or afford tickets as well. Mr. Franken was a gracious and witty visitor who found time in his indictment of il Ducetto to urge students, in a charming way, to "do the reading." It takes so little to make a college professor of the lefty, lesbian variety happy. Mr. Franken also wondered why Mr. Gingrich would deny gay couples the pleasure of the marriage bonds he has enjoyed with any of his three wives. Implicit in his comments were a critique of the efforts of the reds to deny liberals any claim to patriotism or moral values. Mr. Franken, a liberal who has entertained U.S. troops serving in dangerous missions since the Bosnia campaigns, and who celebrated the anniversary of his marriage of 30 years this weekend, appears to take some umbridge at this comment. God bless him.
  
  
• One of Pudentilla's students' left the room when David Horowitz, who, to our knowledge did not urge students to do the reading, had the chutzpah to state in a visit to our campus that, "George Bush has never lied to the American people" about the Iraq war. "I was out of there, as soon as I heard that," the student stated. We did not have the opportunity to hear Mr. Horowitz speak, so it is possible he urged students to do the reading. If he did, the irony could not be overstated.
  
  
• George Stephanopolus claimed on the Sunday gab-fest that il Ducetto and the Dark Lord (who is the father of a lesbian) are directly implicated in the special prosecutor's probe of Plame-Gate. Although, as Steve Gilliard notes, the implications of this turn of events are truly terrifying.
  
  
• and, most mind-numbing of all for a girl from the south side of Chicago, the White Sox are in the playoffs. Here in the land of fanatical Red Sox fans, the outcome of the Boston-Chicago A.L. series are of profound consequence. Either Pudentilla or her students are guaranteed to suffer disappointment. The only good news is that our teams have each have prepared us well for coping with such disaster.

slowly, but exceedingly fine do they grind.