friday random ten

Photo by Ryan McManus

Music Snob Edition


1. "I Don't Know If She's Worth 900 kr" - Jens Lekman [You Deserve Someone Better Than a Bum Like Me EP]


2. "Allons dans les bois" - Nicole Paquin [Ultra Chicks Volume 1 - Filles in the Garage!]


3. "Your Worst is the Best" - I Love You But I've Darkness [S/T EP]


4. "Innoculated City" - The Clash [Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg]


5. "Trip Over a B" - Worm is Green [Push Play]


6. "Free Again" - Teenage Fanclub [Deep Fried Fanclub]


7. "Bat Macumba" - Os Mutantes [Os Mutantes]


8. "Je m'ennuie" - Helene April [Ultra Chics Volume 5 - Chicks à Gogo!]


9. "Corona" - Minutemen [Double Nickels on the Dime]


10. "With or Without U2" - Jawbreaker [split single w/Jawbox]

Bonus #11: "Open Road" - Galaxie 500 [demo]

Countdown Special Comment

Keith Olberman

Your words are lies, Sir.

They are lies, that imperil us all.

"One of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks," …you told us yesterday… "said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America."

That terrorist, sir, could only hope.

Not his actions, nor the actions of a ceaseless line of terrorists (real or imagined), could measure up to what you have wrought.

Habeas Corpus? Gone.

The Geneva Conventions? Optional.

The Moral Force we shined outwards to the world as an eternal beacon, and inwards at ourselves as an eternal protection? Snuffed out.

These things you have done, Mr. Bush… they would be "the beginning of the end of America."

And did it even occur to you once sir — somewhere in amidst those eight separate, gruesome, intentional, terroristic invocations of the horrors of 9/11 — that with only a little further shift in this world we now know — just a touch more repudiation of all of that for which our patriots died —

Did it ever occur to you once, that in just 27 months and two days from now when you leave office, some irresponsible future President and a "competent tribunal" of lackeys would be entitled, by the actions of your own hand, to declare the status of "Unlawful Enemy Combatant" for… and convene a Military Commission to try… not John Walker Lindh, but George Walker Bush?

Video and transcript over at Crooks and Liars

Worst. Congress. Ever.

Rolling Stone

These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula -- a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.

creepy

Grace Mosier lives with her mom and dad, goes to birthday parties, takes ballet classes and is just like a lot of other 6-year-old girls. Except that she happens to be obsessed with Dick Cheney.

“I really, really like him,” says Grace, who can tell you what state the vice president was born in (Nebraska), where he went to grade school (College View, in Lincoln) and the names of his dogs (Dave and Jackson). She gets her fix of Cheney fun-facts by visiting the White House Web site for children. It says there that his favorite teacher was Miss Duffield and that he used to run a company called Halliburton.

via watertiger

wednesday morning reads

Molly Ivins - Iraq Follows Vietnam Model

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) outed

Bill Moyers and Scott Fogdall - Against An Imperial Internet

twofer tuesday

Federal agents executed search warrants on Monday at the homes of Representative Curt Weldon’s daughter and a longtime political associate in an investigation into whether Mr. Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican, improperly aided their efforts to obtain lobbying and public relations contracts, law enforcement officials said.

Lester M. Crawford, former chief of the Food and Drug Administration, was charged yesterday with conflict of interest and lying about stock he and his wife owned in companies the agency regulates.

Dr. Crawford, who resigned abruptly in September 2005, just two months after his nomination had been approved by the Senate, is expected to plead guilty in federal court in Washington today, said his lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder.

slime

L.A. Times

For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations — even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.

Now he knows.

Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.

The e-mails show that Abramoff, whose client list included the Northern Mariana Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor changes in that U.S. commonwealth, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority.

"Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.

The exchange illustrates how, more than two years after the corruption scandal surrounding the now-disgraced Abramoff came to light, people are still learning the extent of the lobbyist's ability to pull the levers of power in Washington. The latest revelations provide more detail than the Bush administration has acknowledged about how Abramoff and his team reached into high levels of the White House, not just Capitol Hill, which has been the main focus of the influence-peddling investigation.

The e-mails, disclosed as part of a report by the House Government Reform Committee, show how Abramoff manipulated the system through officials such as Mehlman, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Doing so, Abramoff directed government appointments, influenced policy decisions and won White House endorsements for political candidates — all in the service of his clients.

(via AMERICAblog)

dynasty

Punk Rock Phil has made a video re-capping the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers 2006 Championship season.

The War of the Words

The Story of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders

Watch the trailer.