TODAY'S TOP FIVE: A President of Truth Storming Out of a Press Conference of Lies.
DeLay Lawyers Up A couple of weeks ago, Tom DeLay hired two criminal defense lawyers to represent him in the ongoing federal probe of Enron. Today, we're starting to see why: according to emails from lobbyists to Ken Lay, DeLay was pushing Enron for $350,000 in contributions in 2001, money that DeLay said would be spent on the wildly inappropriate redistricting effort. With Ken Lay being led in front of news cameras sporting handcuffs, you know that DeLay is starting to sweat.
Ronald Reagan to Speak at Democratic Convention No, don't worry: the Great Communicator hasn't risen zombie-like from the grave to once again proclaim Morning in America. This Ronald Reagan is the son of the late Freedom President/conservative fetish object, and he'll be addressing the Dems in Boston this year on stem cell research, an issue the Reagans have been interested in ever since Ron Sr. was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Although he won't be campaigning for Kerry, and although conservatives have long detested Ron Jr., symbolically, this is the equivalent of stealing the other team's mascot. Awesome.
Hate to Say We Told You So For about the entire time we've been doing this here weblog, we've been saying that the Taliban was not "crushed" in 2002, but that it's been waging a civil war against the Hamid Karzai organization (one hesitates to call it a government) ever since we declared victory in Afghanistan. From the looks of it, the mainstream press has finally noticed, no doubt spurred by the announcement last week that the elections which will usher in a new era of democratic freedoms that would put ancient Greece to shame will, in fact, be postponed, on account of the Taliban keeps killing poll workers. Next: the mainstream press notices that, as we've suggested, Bush really isn't very bright when it comes to some issues.
It Will Be Called "The Freedom Delay" I can't remember if this has been discussed here yet (if it has, mea culpa), but Newsweek has a story this week which reveals that Tom Ridge has asked the Justice Department for legal advice on how the government could go about "postponing" the election in November in the event of a terrorist attack. Apparently, this was provoked by the fact that a New York state primary on September 11 was delayed because of the attack, but there's no federal agency with the legal authority to "reschedule" a federal election. So the wonderfully-named DeForest B. Soaries Jr., chairman of the US Election Assistance Commission (worryingly, the group supposed to protect us from e-vote fraud), is asking Congress to pass emergency powers giving Tom Ridge the ability to "postpone" elections, just like they do in Afghanistan. "We are reviewing the issue to determine what steps need to be taken to secure the election," says Brian Roehrkasse, a DHS spokesman. Yikes.
Michigan Republicans Organize Effort to Get Nader on the Ballot in Key State Dear Pro-Nader People: Don't you ever get tired of being wrong?
-Love, Consider Arms
