Indiana Senator Evan Bayh ...

Bayh wants to send other people into every proposed war he can find and keep them there forever without ever bearing any of the costs himself -- not in military service for him or his family nor even in higher taxes to pay for his glorious wars. Sacrifice is for everyone other than Evan Bayh and his friends. He runs around praising himself as a "deficit hawk" while recklessly supporting wars and indefinite occupations that the country can't afford and which drive us further into debt. He feigns concern over the "deficit" only when it comes time to deny ordinary Americans benefits which he and his family already possess in abundance. ...

I suppose the likes of Obama and Harry Reid approve, but ...

while Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter may be one of the better Republicans, he will make a very, very poor Democrat.

Specter switches parties, gives Democrats 60 votes, GOP irrelevance now official

Added: Sorta like Lieberman and Harry Reid. Specter doesn't believe in what Democrats stand for but being a Republican just isn't working out for him. So he's coming over to see if he can help move the covey of Democratic politicians further to the right.

---

---

Today's QUOTES:

I hope for their sakes that none of these Americans who think that torture should be "considered" ever find themselves in the grips of the legal system because allowing the government to ignore the constitution and disregard moral taboos against cruelty and barbarity can only logically lead to the same tactics being used at home. If there is no further investigation of this terrible breach of American values and constitutional principles and this philosophy is allowed to become a mainstream, respectable way of thinking, we will have gone a long way toward making ourselves an elected dictatorship subject to the good intentions of our leaders. Personally, I'm not crazy about that idea. I've lived long enough now to know that even the best cannot be trusted with such power. --Some Behavior Is Beyond The Legal System by digby, Hullabaloo ... [N]o matter how many times they are exposed as spreaders of absolute falsehoods -- as Ross, yet again, is so exposed today -- they continue to engage in the same behavior, rendering unavoidable the conclusion that such falsehood-spreading behavior on behalf of the government is what they are eager to do. --Brian Ross spread the same falsehoods about the Khalid Sheik Mohammed interrogation by Glenn Greenwald, salon.com

---

---

Jerk ...

Reid vows to lead till at least 2015
By JOHN BRESNAHAN, 1/7/09, Politico

Harry Reid vowed Tuesday that he’ll lead the Senate until 2015 and beyond, ...

The Nevada Democrat, who is up for reelection in 2010, said he’s actually looking forward to being considered a “vulnerable” incumbent then.

“You know, to be honest with you, I hope I am,” he said. “That way, [the Republicans are] going to spend lots of resources on me and leave states we’re looking at. They won’t have as many resources — and we have a lot of targets.”

Not that I trust Politico's reportage, but Reid is really a contemptibly obnoxious and destructive Senator and the Democrats in the Senate are incompetent fools, or worse, for keeping him in the position to do as much harm as he possibly can. For Heaven's sake sack him as Majority Leader and let him join his buddy Lieberman in the anti American Senatorial guerilla trenches supporting all things Republican.

Dared to ask to talk to Gonzales, did he?

This article gives the impression that US Attorney Paul Charlton's main mistake was not quite following the kill, kill, kill directive of Bush's US Attorney Generals Office.

For example he did not wish to seek the death penalty in one case "because there was no forensic evidence directly linking the defendant to the victim."

Charlton appealed to the deputy attorney general and Gonzales to reconsider. The lawyer said Charlton had asked to meet with former Attorney General John Ashcroft in a similar case and had been able to change Ashcroft's mind.

But Gonzales' office denied Charlton's request.

My, my don't confuse Gonzo with facts now, he's already made up his mind. I can see why Bush likes this guy. Besides the baby face he has a mind as open as Bush's.

Disagreement is deemed confrontation. Doing one's job is usually deemed poor performance by the Bush crowd. Failure to do one's job is cause for medals and ceremonies.

Thank you Talking Heads, thank you Washington Insider Journalist Types, thank you Corporate Media. This is what you wanted all along, right. Mush-for-brains as leaders so that you could buy the government and destroy all that didn't make your personal wealth explode exponentially. Thank you. Thank you.

They give us proof, almost daily ...

GOP Senators have shown once again that Republicans love their corporate masters and hate the rest of us:

Effort to let government negotiate Medicare drug prices falters in Senate