Ann Coulter on O'Reilly factor; tense and weird

More evidence of the right wing rupture under way during W's second term...

More Like an Air Ball

More Like an Air Ball
By Maureen Dowd
The New York Times

Saturday 28 April 2007

Poor Slam-Dunk.

Not since Madame Butterfly has anyone been so cruelly misunderstood and misused. Slam-Dunk says that when he pantingly told the president that fetching information on Saddam's W.M.D. would be a cinch, he did not mean let's go to war.

No matter how eager Slam-Dunk was to tell W. what he wanted to hear while polishing W.'s shoes, that intelligence they craved did not exist. "Let me say it again: C.I.A. found absolutely no linkage between Saddam and 9/11," the ex-Head Spook writes in his new book, self-effacingly titled "At the Center of the Storm." Besides, Junior and Darth had already decided to go to war to show the Arabs their moxie.

The president and vice president wanted Slam-Dunk to help them dramatize the phony case. Everyone had to pitch in! That Saturday session in December 2002 in the Oval Office was "essentially a marketing meeting," Slam-Dunk writes, just for "sharpening the arguments."

Hey, I feel better.

Slam-Dunk always presented himself as the ultimate guy's guy, a cigar-chomping spymaster who swapped jokes with the president. But now he shows us his tender side, a sniveling C.I.A. chief bullied by "remote" Condi.

He says Condi panicked in October 2002 and made him call a Times reporter, Alison Mitchell, who covered the Congressional debate about invading Iraq. He told Alison to ignore the conclusions of his own agency, which had said the links between Saddam and terrorist groups were tenuous, and that Saddam would only take the extreme step of joining with Islamic fanatics if he thought the U.S. was about to attack him. His nose growing as long as his cigar, he said nothing in the C.I.A. report contradicted the president's case for war.

"In retrospect," Slam writes, "I shouldn't have talked to the New York Times reporter at Condi's request. By making public comments in the middle of a contentious political debate, I gave the impression that I was becoming a partisan player."

Can't a guy be a lickspittle without being an ideologue?

There were so many nasties trying to push Slam around: Vice, of course, and Wolfie, and Wolfie's neoconcubine Doug Feith. Once, Slam writes, Wolfie "hounded" a C.I.A. briefer to translate the diary of Abu Zubaydah, a captured Al Qaeda official, even though the C.I.A. had decided it was just misogynistic ramblings "about what he wanted to do with women." Oh, that sexy beast Wolfie. Look out, Shaha!

But even though he was paid a $4 million advance to settle scores, Slam can't turn on W. Maybe it's the Medal of Freedom. "In a way, President Bush and I are much alike," he writes. "We sometimes say things from our gut, whether it's his 'bring 'em on' or my 'slam-dunk.' I think he gets that about me, just as I get that about him." (He had me at "slam-dunk.")

The worst meanie was horrid Bob Woodward. Slam socialized with Bob and gave him lots of intel for his best sellers, but then Bob "painted a caricature of me leaping into the air and simulating a slam-dunk, not once but twice, with my arms flailing. Credit Woodward's source with ... a fine sense of how to make me look ridiculous, but don't credit him or her with a deep sense of obligation to the truth."

A deep sense of obligation to the truth is something Slam keenly understands, even though he scurried around like the butler in "Remains of the Day," trying to toadie up to the president while, as he belatedly admits, W. was going to invade Iraq without debate or casus belli.

He says he warned Paul Bremer about de-Baathifying the Iraqi Army, but hey, he was just a staff guy. That's probably how the two worst intelligence disasters in our history happened on his watch. He was merely providing intelligence for the guys who wanted to ignore or warp that intelligence and make bad policy. What could he do?

Slam says he was Cassandra. A C.I.A. paper was given to the president's national security team in September 2002 tot sum up the possible negatives of invading Iraq, including anarchy and a breakup in Iraq, instability in the neighborhood, a surge of terrorism against U.S. interests, oil disruptions, and seething allies.

But it was discreetly tucked away in the back of the briefing book, after the stuff at the beginning about how great it would be to liberate Iraq and end threats to Iraq's neighbors, and the stuff in the middle about reforming Iraq's bureaucracy.

Slam gives tips to others who want to engage in public service, including: Don't forget that there are no private conversations, even in the Oval Office. Another might be: If you worry about your own survival more than your country's, you might end up as the whiny fall guy.

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Rush Limbaugh Under Fire for "Barack The Magic Negro" Song

Read story and listen to racist song here. It's also important to note that on average 12 million Americans listen to the Rush Limbaugh radio show every weekday.

Montana Republican Legislator Loses It

Let's remember, this is Montanta...

McCain to Critics of Bomb Joke: "Get a Life"

His explosive temper, an old McCain demon, is increasingly showing itself as the McCain campaign flounders.

Bush Dancing

Bloomberg: I Hope Al Gore Runs

Michael Bloomberg is a man who chooses his words carefully. That's why it's significant that he told reporters yesterday that he hopes Al Gore runs for president in 2008. Here's the wildly successful Republican mayor of the nation's largest city, a man who many believe has presidential ambitions of his own, encouraging Gore to run smack dab in Hillary Clinton's home. Gore/Bloomberg 2008, anyone?

McCain to Bush: Dump Gonzalez

Embattled US attorney general Roberto Gonzalez doesn't have too many friends in Washington these days, and with John McCain being the latest senator of his own party to call for his resignation yesterday, he can count one less. McCain continues to walk a fine line in his quest for the Republican nomination: he wants to appeal to the rabid right wing base of the party who believe it or not are still by and large totally supportive of the Bush administration, while distancing himself just enough to appeal to the more moderate and independent voters who are increasingly seeing the administration as being incompetent.

Killer's Bizarre Ebay Purchases

If there wasn't already enough evidence that the guy had completely lost it, The Smoking Gun reports on Cho's Ebay purchases...

Bill Richardson Up on The Air in Iowa

Richardson, although very qualified, stands very little chance of winning the Democratic nomination. He is the #1 candidate to be the VP choice for the any eventual winner, however.

Jon Stewart Reports: "Bush to America, Leave me the F*** Alone!!"

Obama Encroaches On Hillary's New York Turf

The New York Times is reporting today on Barack Obama's success in garnering crucial black support for his presidential candidacy in Hillary Clinton's New York. I believe the Hillary campaign believed that people would just take for granted that the same people who voted and supported Bill Clinton would then magically just support Hillary, but it's important to note that Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are two separate, distinct, human beings. This has been made painfully clear by listening to Hillary's tortured intonation when she addresses largely black audiences. Bill Clinton is a Southerner, born in a poor, broken family in rural Arkansas, while Hillary Clinton was born and raised in an affluent family from Illinois. Very different backgrounds, very different politicians. Most likely, very different results for their presidential ambitions.

The Day They Kicked God out of the Schools

In a new video, the the right-wing American Family Association attributes the tragedy at Virginia Tech to: a lack of prayer in school, a lack of the Bible in school, a lack of spanking kids, a lack of physical punishment in school, abortion, condoms, Bill Clinton, internet pornography, free speech, the entertainment industry, “satanic” music, and liberal culture in general. Watch it:

Karl Rove gets Feisty with Sheryl Crow

This exchange happened at the White House correspondents dinner last night in Washington. Could the pressure of a collapsing administration be getting to "Bush's Brain"??

Top 10 George W. Bush Moments (Letterman)

Newt Gingrich blames “Liberalism” for VA Tech massacre

See video here...

Paper: Gore 2008 Campaign Team Organizing in Secret

The Telegraph is reporting on something that many of us always suspected: Al Gore might indeed be planning a run for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

Iraq Is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac

April 22, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist, nytimes.com
Iraq Is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac
By FRANK RICH

PRESIDENT BUSH has skipped the funerals of the troops he sent to Iraq. He took his sweet time to get to Katrina-devastated New Orleans. But last week he raced to Virginia Tech with an alacrity not seen since he hustled from Crawford to Washington to sign a bill interfering in Terri Schiavo’s end-of-life medical care. Mr. Bush assumes the role of mourner in chief on a selective basis, and, as usual with the decider, the decisive factor is politics. Let Walter Reed erupt in scandal, and he’ll take six weeks to show his face — and on a Friday at that, to hide the story in the Saturday papers. The heinous slaughter in Blacksburg, Va., by contrast, was a rare opportunity for him to ostentatiously feel the pain of families whose suffering cannot be blamed on the administration.

But he couldn’t inspire the kind of public acclaim that followed his post-9/11 visit to ground zero or the political comeback that buoyed his predecessor after Oklahoma City. The cancer on the Bush White House, Iraq, is now spreading too fast. The president had barely returned to Washington when the empty hope of the “surge” was hideously mocked by a one-day Baghdad civilian death toll more than five times that of Blacksburg’s. McClatchy Newspapers reported that the death rate for American troops over the past six months was at its all-time high for this war.

At home, the president is also hobbled by the Iraq cancer’s metastasis — the twin implosions of Alberto Gonzales and Paul Wolfowitz. Technically, both men have been pilloried for sins unrelated to the war. The attorney general has repeatedly been caught changing his story about the extent of his involvement in purging eight federal prosecutors. The Financial Times caught the former deputy secretary of defense turned World Bank president privately dictating the extravagant terms of a State Department sinecure for a crony (a k a romantic partner) that showers her with more take-home pay than Condoleezza Rice.

Yet each man’s latest infractions, however serious, are mere misdemeanors next to their roles in the Iraq war. What’s being lost in the Beltway uproar is the extent to which the lying, cronyism and arrogance showcased by the current scandals are of a piece with the lying, cronyism and arrogance that led to all the military funerals that Mr. Bush dares not attend. Having slept through the fraudulent selling of the war, Washington is still having trouble confronting the big picture of the Bush White House. Its dense web of deceit is the deliberate product of its amoral culture, not a haphazard potpourri of individual blunders.

Mr. Gonzales’s politicizing of the Justice Department is a mere bagatelle next to his role as White House counsel in 2002, when he helped shape the administration’s legal argument to justify torture. That paved the way for Abu Ghraib, the episode that destroyed America’s image and gave terrorists a moral victory. But his efforts to sabotage national security didn’t end there. In a front-page exposé lost in the Imus avalanche two Sundays ago, The Washington Post uncovered Mr. Gonzales’s reckless role in vetting the nomination of Bernard Kerik as secretary of homeland security in December 2004.

Mr. Kerik, you may recall, withdrew from consideration for that cabinet post after a week of embarrassing headlines. Back then, the White House ducked any culpability for the mess by attributing it to a single legal issue, a supposedly undocumented nanny, and by pinning it on a single, nonadministration scapegoat, Mr. Kerik’s longtime patron, Rudy Giuliani. The president’s spokesman at the time, Scott McClellan, told reporters that the White House had had “no reason to believe” that Mr. Kerik lied during his vetting process and that it would be inaccurate to say that process had been rushed.

THANKS to John Solomon and Peter Baker of The Post, we now know that Mr. McClellan’s spin was no more accurate than his exoneration of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in the Wilson leak case. The Kerik vetting process was indeed rushed — by Mr. Gonzales — and the administration had every reason to believe that it was turning over homeland security to a liar. Mr. Gonzales was privy from the get-go to a Kerik dossier ablaze with red flags pointing to “questionable financial deals, an ethics violation, allegations of mismanagement and a top deputy prosecuted for corruption,” not to mention a “friendship with a businessman who was linked to organized crime.” Yet Mr. Gonzales and the president persisted in shoving Mr. Kerik into the top job of an already troubled federal department encompassing 22 agencies, 180,000 employees and the very safety of America in the post-9/11 era.

Mr. Kerik may soon face federal charges, and at a most inopportune time for the Giuliani presidential campaign. But it’s as a paradigm of the Bush White House’s waging of the Iraq war that the Kerik case is most telling. The crucial point to remember is this: Even had there been no alleged improprieties in the former police chief’s New York résumé, there still would have been his public record in Iraq to disqualify him from any administration job.

The year before Mr. Kerik’s nomination to the cabinet, he was dispatched by the president to take charge of training the Iraqi police — and completely failed at that mission. As Rajiv Chandrasekaran recounts in his invaluable chronicle of Green Zone shenanigans, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” Mr. Kerik slept all day and held only two staff meetings, one upon arrival and one for the benefit of a Times reporter doing a profile. Rather than train Iraqi police, Mr. Kerik gave upbeat McCain-esque appraisals of the dandy shopping in Baghdad’s markets.

Had Mr. Kerik actually helped stand up an Iraqi police force instead of hastening its descent into a haven for sectarian death squads, there might not now be extended tours for American troops in an open-ended escalation of the war. But in the White House’s priorities, rebuilding Iraq came in a poor third to cronyism and domestic politics. Mr. Kerik’s P.R. usefulness as a symbol of 9/11 was particularly irresistible to an administration that has exploited the carnage of 9/11 in ways both grandiose (to gin up the Iraq invasion) and tacky (in 2004 campaign ads).

Mr. Kerik was an exploiter of 9/11 in his own right: he had commandeered an apartment assigned to ground zero police and rescue workers to carry out his extramarital tryst with the publisher Judith Regan. The sex angle of Mr. Wolfowitz’s scandal is a comparable symptom of the hubris that warped the judgment of those in power after 9/11. Not only did he help secure Shaha Riza her over-the-top raise in 2005, but as The Times reported, he also helped get her a junket to Iraq when he was riding high at the Pentagon in 2003. No one seems to know what she actually accomplished there, but the bill was paid by a Defense Department contractor that has since come under official scrutiny for its noncompetitive contracts and poor performance. So it went with the entire Iraq fiasco.

You don’t have to be a cynic to ask if the White House’s practice of bestowing better jobs on those who bungled the war might be a form of hush money. Mr. Wolfowitz was promoted to the World Bank despite a Pentagon record that included (in part) his prewar hyping of bogus intelligence about W.M.D. and a nonexistent 9/11-Saddam connection; his assurance to the world that Iraq’s oil revenues would pay for reconstruction; and his public humiliation of Gen. Eric Shinseki after the general dared tell Congress (correctly) that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to secure Iraq after the invasion. Once the war began, Mr. Wolfowitz cited national security to bar businesses from noncoalition countries (like Germany) from competing for major contracts in Iraq. That helped ensure the disastrous monopoly of Halliburton and other White House-connected companies, including the one that employed Ms. Riza.

Had Iraqi reconstruction, like the training of Iraqi police, not been betrayed by politics and cronyism, the Iraq story might have a different ending. But maybe not all that different. The cancer on the Bush White House connects and contaminates all its organs. It’s no surprise that one United States attorney fired without plausible cause by the Gonzales Justice Department, Carol Lam, was in hot pursuit of defense contractors with administration connections. Or that another crony brought by Mr. Wolfowitz to the World Bank was caught asking the Air Force secretary to secure a job for her brother at a defense contractor while she was overseeing aspects of the Air Force budget at the White House. A government with values this sleazy couldn’t possibly win a war.

Like the C.I.A. leak case, each new scandal is filling in a different piece of the elaborate White House scheme to cover up the lies that took us into Iraq and the failures that keep us mired there. As the cover-up unravels and Congress steps up its confrontation over the war’s endgame, our desperate president is reverting to his old fear-mongering habit of invoking 9/11 incessantly in every speech. The more we learn, the more it’s clear that he’s the one with reason to be afraid.

Kentucky Fried Hillary Part II

By now it's becoming painfully obvious that Hillary Clinton is no Bill Clinton. This recording was taken in New York City at Al Sharpton's event over the weekend and it again catches her trying to adopt a Southern accent in front of an almost entirely black audience.

Drunken British Soldier Makes a Mockery of Iran Hostage Crisis Experience

You've really got to wonder if this guy is at all representative of what the British army has to offer these days. At 5'2 inches tall, he apparently burst into tears when the Iranians took his Ipod away from him.

Cho Was An Active Ebayer

This article reports that Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui bought the ammo clips that he used in the massacre in which he killed 33 people including himself on Ebay. The New York Times has a gripping account of the massacre in today's edition.

Limbaugh: Republicans Should Save "Idiot" Gonzales' Job

In case anyone wondered if Rush Limbaugh was even remotely good for the country, Media Matters provides us with this evidence. It is important to note that approximately 12 million Americans listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio daily.

GONZO-GATE: Jon Stewart Provided the Best Coverage…

Pearls of Wisdom from George W. Bush

President Bush appears to have made rambling, almost incoherent remarks last night to an audience in Ohio. It is important to note that over 60 million Americans cast their vote for this individual in the 2004 presidential election.

Bill Clinton: Al Gore Might Run in 2008

Among the more interesting things Bill Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Larry King Live last night was that Gore might indeed toss his hat in the ring for 2008. I suspect this is planned strategy on the part of the Clintonistas--as Hillary Clinton strategist James Carville touted a potential Gore run in a Rolling Stone story several months ago. That is, minimize the shock and surprise factor if Gore announces and be able to say, "This really isn't a big deal, Hillary has been expecting this all along. Game on, Mr. Gore."

Mess-o-potamia: Iraq Update From John Stewart

McCain Sings "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran" at South Carolina Campaign Stop

Sad Ending for "Sludgie" The Brooklyn Whale

Story here, video here.

Meanwhile, Over In Iraq

Many have rightfully focused their attention on the horrific Virginia Tech massacre this week, when a deranged student blew away 32 people for no apparent reason. It's important to keep in mind, however, that in Iraq on a daily basis including today, literally hundreds of similarly innocent civilians are too dying a grisly, violent deaths. Unfortunately a key differentiator is that the deaths in Iraq are US taxpayer sponsored.

Ramblings of a Madman

The Smoking Gun has posted a play that Virginia Tech mass murderer Cho Seung-Hui wrote for his English class last year. It's clear that Shakespeare has nothing to worry about. Apparently, he was obsessed with this girl. The right wing, pro-gun lobby propaganda machine has swung into high gear to defend against an expected outcry against guns in the country, arguing among other things that if other students had been able to legally carry guns in the class room, fewer people may have been killed. The logical extension of this argument, of course, is that all citizens should be walking around with guns at all times. Brilliant idea!

Webb Rips McCain over Iraq Comments

Virginia Senator Jim Webb, like John McCain, is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran. He is a Democrat, however, and thus as this Bloomberg News article reports, doesn't like it very much when John McCain impugns the patriotism of all Democrats in Congress for being against the war in Iraq. You'll recall, Jim Webb is the same guy who refused to exchange pleasantries with President Bush regarding Iraq earlier this year. McCain, like the desperate last gasps a fish on the deck of a ship makes, is doing and saying anything he can think of to spark his pathetic, moribund candidacy for the presidency.

Advantage Edwards

What has been a good past several weeks continued today for John Edwards, as he received positive news coverage for working at a nursing home for a day, doing among other things washing and shaving the aged and incapacitated inhabitants. Although Hillary and Obama continue to get most of the press coverage, Edwards has been quietly outflanking and beating them on a variety of issues important to Democratic primary voters. He continues to lead in Iowa, the first caucus state, and crucially is leading in many 'electability' polls--meaning that voters see him more electable in a national race than either Obama or Hillary. In what will be a ridiculously long and drawn out campaign for the Democratic nomination, Edwards certainly isn't in first place after the first few laps. As with the story of the turtle and the hare, however, it seems very possible that he is in good shape to finish first by the end, when it counts.

DIGG THIS

Jon Stewart Reports on McCain's Iraq Visit

The White House Easter Egg Roll Starring Dick Cheney

McCain Finds Age Question Offensive

It's well known that McCain has an explosive temper, and he kept it largely in check here in this snippet from a 60 Minutes interview. The issue of his age is the least of John McCain's problems these days.

The Bush Administration: 'Jesus Camp'

An amazing 150 graduates from a 29 year old Christian university run by bible thumping televangelist Pat Robertson work for the Bush administration. The motto of the university is "Christian Leadership To Change the World". Read the fascinating story here.

Green options grow for car makers

Bush Almost Explodes Himself and Car

This story could very well sum up the presidency of George W. Bush.

Edwards Drops Out of Another Debate Sponsored by Fox News

John Edwards is gaining significant traction in his presidential run as of late, as evidenced by this recent poll. His wife's cancer admission has clearly generated enormous sympathy nationwide and has sparked the campaign, but more importantly he has taken the lead on many real issues--including Iraq and health care. He has also been out in front of his competitors in isolating Fox News by refusing to participate in their sponsored debates. Fox News is regarded with supreme contempt by most if not all Democratic primary voters who view it as a right wing mouthpiece. This is smart politics by Edwards, he realizes that it's necessary to win your party's nomination first before worrying about a general election. It makes Edwards look like a leader and Hillary and Obama and the rest look like followers.

England to Bush During Hostage Crisis: Stay Out of This

I think Tony Blair has at long last learned a lesson regarding the Bush administration and foreign policy and world diplomacy: it is incompetent and toxic. Probably one of the best decisions Blair has ever made in his eight plus years as Prime Minister was to tell a war-hungry Bush administration, eager to provoke Iran, to stay the hell out of the recent hostage dispute between England and Iran. The story is told here in The Guardian. On the flip side, easily the most catastrophically poor decision Blair has made as PM was backing the Bush regime in its decision to invade Iraq. Unfortunately for Mr. Blair, that's the one the history books will record for the ages.

Joe Klein: An Administration in Epic Collapse

This is a pretty damning article that Klein has written about George W. Bush, but unfortunately it is spot on. People are getting on Nancy Pelosi for travelling to Syria and Saudi Arabia to conduct foreign policy separate from the Bush administration and I really do not understand why. I would take a trained chimp's diplomatic skills over those that have been displayed over the previous six years by the Bush administration. As Klein points out, the wheels have truly come off--Bush is a stubborn, lazy, partisan moron who is clearly in over his head; and the tens of millions of Americans who voted for him over the course of two elections (but especially those in 2004 after a body of evidence had been compiled) should be ashamed of themselves. They weakened their country. Hopefully the damage wrought will not be permanent.

Bill O'Reilly Loses His Mind

This is clearly made for TV but is funny nonetheless. O'Reilly attracts viewers in much the same way that car crashes and accidents do.

Bill Richardson, Democratic Darkhorse

If the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 were to be judged solely on qualifications or depth of resume, Bill Richardson would win: Congressman, lead negotiator, Secretary of Energy, Ambassador to the UN, and Governor. He quietly came in 4th in the first quarter cash race behind Hillary, Obama, and Edwards. He is my odds on for VP choice for any of the above if he doesn't win the nomination.

Bush Thumbs His Nose At Congress, Appoints Swiftboater as Ambassador

I guess we should have expected this, but the level of arrogance displayed by President Bush is nonetheless both surprising and unsettling. With Iraq raging out of control and scandal after scandal consuming his administration, the president decides to circumvent Congress and appoint Swiftboat Veterans for truth donor Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium--an act that will do nothing except infuriate the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This is a president who appears to sincerely believes that he is a monarch entitled to rule by decree. The battles between the president and the Democratic controlled Congress over the final two years of his administration will be ugly, very ugly.

Edwards Strong in Latest Iowa Poll

This poll was released today and among the most interesting things it revealed is Edwards' extremely high 'electability' number, it is the thing that propelled John Kerry's candidacy four years ago. The poll is ominous for Hillary, because it is further proof that her 'inevitibality/drown you with my cash' strategy for the nomination is clearly not working. Furthermore, with Edwards' wife Elizabeth's cancer revelation, it makes it difficult for team Clinton to attack him to bring his numbers down. Advantage, Edwards.

Cheney Lurks Behind Shrub as Bush Speaks Today

I didn't even see Cheney's lips move, did you??

It's Al Gore Versus Fred Thompson in the Tennessee Legislature

Some interesting coverage from inside the Tennessee state House of Representatives. A Republican who voted against a resolution honoring native Tennessean Al Gore runs into a roadblock as he tries to get a street named for Republican Tennessean and potential Republican candidate for president, Fred Thompson.

BILL O'REILLY TURNS OFF MICROPHONE OF COLONEL TO GET LAST WORD IN

Romney Rocks Republican Field with Huge Fundraising Number

Experts expected Mitt Romney to post a big first quarter fund raising number, but very few expected a number as big as $23 million--a number just shy of the $26 million raised by Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side. Rudy Giuliani came in second with a respectable $17 million, and now the attention and focus falls squarely on John McCain, who has not released his figures yet but has indicated that his number will not meet the campaign's goal. What the actual number is, and how far behind Romney's it is will go a long way to determining how dire a situation his campaign for presidency really is.

Bill O'Reilly Attacks ABC And Rosie O'Donnell

Colbert on McCain's Iraq Straight-Talk

McCain's Leisurely Stroll Through Downtown Baghdad: In Bullet Proof Vest, Guarded By 100 Soldiers, 3 Blackhawks, and 2 Apache Gunships

John McCain is starting to sound an awful lot like Dick Cheney, and that's bad news for his campaign. This Think Progress story shows McCain desperately trying to convince us that things are actually improving in Iraq, however it's plain to see that it's an arguement that defies reality.

First Quarter Fundraising Numbers are in and it's Hillary: $26 Million, Obama: $22 Million, Edwards: $14 Million

See article here: Hillary's 'inevitibality' strategy is on track as she rakes in the cash at a record breaking pace in the first quarter of 2007. Hillary, Obama and Edwards, the 'big three' are followed by Bill Richardson at $6 million, Chris Dodd at $5 million, and Joe Biden at $4 million.