The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after the election, raise new questions about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations. The Arizona U.S. attorney then overseeing the case, Paul Charlton, was told he was being fired in December, one of eight federal prosecutors dismissed in the past year.

Some more napalm for the Gonzo effigy, but there is a much larger problem here. Gonzo, as demonstrated at last weeks hearing, pretty much doesn't wipe his own ass without a green light from the oval office. This mess isn't going to end with him.

Delays in Renzi Case Raise More Gonzales Questions - WSJ.com

It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable - as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here. And that we are further along than we realise.

It is is no longer the lunatic fringe thinking things have gone awry, it is everywhere.

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

It also comes after FEMA acknowledged earlier this month that it would not have a federal plan ready for responding to emergencies before the approaching hurricane season, which begins June 1.

You have got to be kidding me. In 2004, four hurricanes hit Florida. In 2005 Katrina and Rita hit the gulf coast. It's now 2007 and they still don't have a plan? Who the hell are these morons???

FOXNews.com - Report: FEMA's Katrina-Related Waste May Have Been Illegal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

In late 2005, the White House-run President's Committee on Integrity and Efficiency opened an investigation into that charge and several others, including accusations that Bloch's office retaliated against employees who took issue with internal policies and discriminated against employees who were gay or members of religious minorities. The investigation is pending.

The guy being investigated is the guy going after Rove? Please, try he's the guy who wants to say Rove didn't do anything bad so he can try to get help with the guys who are after him.

The Blotter - Rove Investigator Faces Own Allegations

Yet another shoe drops in the Jack Abramoff investigation. A former aide to Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Mark Zachares, looks set to plead guilty to corruption charges.
...
The document does not implicate Rep. Young, but it does mention that in 2002, Abramoff "assisted Zachares in obtaining his position as a staffer on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee," which Young chaired. And Young has come up often in the course of the Abramoff scandal.

Okay, at this point I'm seriously thinking scorecard. If this were fiction no one would believe it. It's not, it's the GOP self immolating.

Former Aide to GOP Rep To Plead Guilty

The FBI has asked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney for information about his dealings with Jack Abramoff as part of its ongoing investigation into the lobbyist convicted of defrauding clients.

FBI agent Kevin Luebke refused to say whether Feeney, a Republican from the Orlando area, is under federal investigation.

At this point, we're starting to need a scorecard. Who's next?

Worldandnation: FBI asks Tom Feeney about trip with Abramoff

Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?

The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website -- which gave the world the presidential election results -- was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's firing of eight federal prosecutors.

That would be means, motive and opportunity, and as RFK Jr pointed out a year ago in Rolling Stone there is little question that it happened. The end is nigh.

Network Hosting Attorney Scandal E-Mails Also Hosted Ohio's 2004 Election Results

On Monday, Bush said Gonzales "went up and gave a very candid assessment, and answered every question he could possibly answer, honestly answer, in a way that increased my confidence in his ability to do the job."

(emphasis mine)
He what??? If Fredo's comments in front of the judiciary committee increased anyone's confidence in anything, it's that the actions taken at that hearing mean Fredo's job is to take a beating to direct attention away from the White House turning the Department of Justice into the enforcement arm of the Republican Party. Fredo is a human shield.

Gonzales Says He's Staying on the Job

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you a new low in journalism...

Quoted below is the unedited above-the-jump text from a FoxNews story about the VT Tech shootings entitled: "Did the Devil Make Him Do it?"

When unexplained violence takes center stage, we tend to turn to modern psychology to explain it.

But there is an alternative explanation, one that has been played out in film, stage and writings since the beginning of history.

Was Cho Seung-Hui schizophrenic … psychotic … manic-depressive? Or were the shooting deaths of 32 people, including Cho himself, at Virginia Tech University part of the ongoing struggle between God and Satan … good against evil … lightness and darkness?

Could Cho have been possessed by the Devil? Could that explain the massacre at Virginia Tech?

Dr. Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University, shouts an unequivocal “Yes!”

“Based on what I’ve seen in the news," Roberts said in an interview, "there’s no doubt that this act was Satanic in origin."

This surprises *anyone?* We're talking about Fox.

Just when you thought the posturing about Cho couldn't get any more stupid..

Frank: "Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Speaker - does [Republican] whining come out of my time?"

Barney Frank once again blistering the folks across the aisle. Hilarious!

Crooks and Liars » Barney Frank: “Mr. Speaker - does [Republican] whining come out of my time?”