They acknowledge their only hope of obtaining the death penalty for the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent is to persuade U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema she punished the government too harshly for tampering with trial witnesses and lying to defense attorneys.

We wanted to kill him so bad we tampered with witnesses and lied to the defense? Rule of law anyone? Dear Justice Department, go to hell. You either play by the rules or you go to hell.

Considering the first thing that's going to happen to this guy when he enters general population is that he's going to get shanked, I don't know why they're bothering. Getting the death penalty means in 6 years and after spending god only knows how much more money, they'll fry this guy. Stick him in general pop and he'll be dead in under six months.

U.S. Try to Revise Moussaoui Ruling - Yahoo! News

In e-mail exchanges that have been made public since his plea, Abramoff mentioned having an inside track at the department, and his clients donated heavily to the Republican environmental advocacy group Norton helped establish.

Please don't let the cell door hit you in the ass on your way in.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton Resigns

I, said O’ Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and formerly Communist countries, where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

Judicial activism? No, it's called you don't like it and look for a label to use to blame people.

When O'Connor came on the court she was a solid conservative. Not Rhenquist, but firmly on the right. That didn't really change, it was that the entire court shifted to place her in the middle. O'Connor represented the same sort of conservatism that fit with people like Eisenhower, Ford, or maybe Bob Dole. You may not agree with their positions, but they are intelligent, well reasoned, often common sense reactions. Her comments now, coming from someone in her position are something that is more than worth paying attention to, it's an instruction for keeping the country on a solid path.

Sandra Day O'Connor rips into GOP, DeLay, Cornyn, and warns of the

Rumsfeld was pressed to explain the U.S. military's plan to respond in the event that Iraq's sectarian violence grows into a full-fledged civil war.

"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the — from a security standpoint — have the Iraqi security forces deal with it, to the extent they are able to," Rumsfeld said.

In other words, "Try to stay in the way as long as possible, but hopefully jump out of the way of the speeding train at the last second."

Rumsfeld, Rice Say Iraq Not at Civil War - Yahoo! News

“Before [Abramoff’s] picture appeared on TV and in the newspapers, Newt wouldn’t have known him if he fell across him. He hadn’t seen him in 10 years.” A rankled Abramoff says “I have more pictures of [Newt] than I have of my wife.”

Ouch! I think maybe the original comment needs some updating.

Abramoff Interview: Lobbyist Details Relationship With Bush, DeLay, Burns

The bill's supporters argue that consumers deserve the same warnings on supermarket shelves across the country. The bill would allow a state to seek a nationwide warning from FDA.

"We ought to do it in all 50 states," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. "Chicken grown in Louisiana is going to end up on a plate in Michigan."

Rogers mentioned a warning his own state about allergy-causing sulfites: "If they're bad for Michigan citizens, I think they're bad in all of the other 49 states," he said.

Someone needs to explain how this guy gets to this conclusion... "It's bad for you, and my state has a label that says it's bad for you, but this other state doesn't so I'm voting to block the ability of my state to say it's bad for you???" How the hell does that make any sense at all?

House Moves to Strip Food Warning Labels - Yahoo! News

"We're eager to work with Congress on legislation that would further codify the president's authority," Ms. Perino said. "We remain committed to our principle, that we will not do anything that undermines the program's capabilities or the president's authority."

I think this is exactly the problem. If anything gets near King George III (how odd that the third George here is just as big a nutcase as the one we started a revolution under...) then they want nothing to do with it, and will actively work to hinder it any way they can. Never mind the fact that there are already guidelines about what is and isn't executive authority, that's just a "goddamn piece of paper."

G.O.P. Senators Say Accord Is Set on Wiretapping - New York Times

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

You know, before they even say "We're not going to say anything about what religion you pick" they say "we're not picking one." I guess some asshat here in Missouri never read that.

KMOV.com | St. Louis, MO | Top Stories

Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the video shows discussions that have been in documents previously made public. "I'm not sure what is shocking about this video. There's really nothing new or insightful from it," he said.

How about it exposes President Bush as a liar, that Chertoff was an active hindrance to getting anything done, and that the one guy on the feds side who didn't have his head shoved all the way up his ass was, of all people, Michael Brown?

N.Orleans mayor 'shocked' by pre-Katrina Bush video

Organized people have always had to take on organized money. If they had not, blacks would still be three-fifths of a person, women wouldn't have the vote, workers couldn't organize, and children would still be working in the mines. Our democracy today is more real and more inclusive than existed in the days of the Founders because time and again, the people have organized themselves to insist that America become "a more perfect union."

Moyers doing a good job of describing at least one of the things very wrong with this country right now.

Bill Moyers: DeLay, Abramoff, and The Public Trust