Why is it that the “nicer” hotels in America charge you for Internet access when you can go to the Motel-6 or Holiday Inn Express and get free wireless internet throughout the hotel?

This is a good thing:

Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely.

The measure, which drew bipartisan support and passed by a veto-busting 333-93 margin, was among White House-opposed bills the House passed that would widen access to government information and protect government whistleblowers. – AP

When you consider all the scandal and corruption that this White House is responsible for, it’s no surprise that they don’t want this bill to be passed. However, it’s in the best interest of all those who support a fair and open government that’s accountable to it’s citizens.

And that’s the one thing that the Bush administration just can’t stand more than anything else: accountability.

Been sick the past few days but this piece from Josh Marshall made me laugh because CNN broke into live coverage with this “story” tonight:

BREAKING! 9/11 Mastermind who confessed to being mastermind after being captured like five years ago confesses again at Gitmo hearing and now the transcript is released by the Pentagon to get Gonzales off the front pages!

BREAKING!

The only other thing that I’ve caught in the past few days is a Milwaukee Alderman calling for National Guard troops to patrol the streets of Milwaukee this summer. Uhhh, what????

The next big scandal from the Bush administration is on the way. When an entire administration is built upon moral decay and deceit, it’s no wonder they’re constantly plauged by scandal and investigations.

Presidential advisor Karl Rove and at least one other member of the White House political team were urged by the New Mexico Republican party chairman to fire the state’s U.S. attorney because of dissatisfaction in part with his failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud investigation in the battleground election state. -McClatchy News

Firing U.S. attorney’s for political retribution? Nice one.

If you’re having a hard time keeping all the investigations of the Bush administration straight, no one blames you.

If the scandals keep up at this rate and either Rove or Attorney General Gonzalas has to resign, who’s the President going to be left with to tell him what to do? It’s like a basketball team that wins on dirty tricks that has to look down the bench for players in the 4th quarter because all of their “stars” have fouled out.

The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is threating to defeat any Democratic attempt to end the war, with Rep. Boehner almost seeming like he’s bragging they’ll do just that:

Republican minority leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, practically invited his Democratic colleagues to bring the measure (to end the war) to the floor.

“Can you defeat this bill?” Mr. Boehner was asked at a Capitol news conference.

“Oh, we can,” he replied. – NY Times

The Republicans want to continue the war in Iraq and the Democrats want to end it. It’s that simple no matter how much Republicans try to twist it.

Rudy in his own words on his support of Roe vs. Wade, gun control, and gay marriage. You can see why the Christian right thinks he’s just so peachy!

The President’s most recent “plan” was never meant to be a “surge” at all, but a long term escalation of the war and now there’s confirmation of what we all feared the most:

The day-to-day commander of American forces in Iraq has recommended that the heightened American troop levels there be maintained through February 2008, military officials said Wednesday. NT Times

What will all the talking heads say now that it’s clear we’re going to have an extended presence in Iraq for more than “the next six months”? After all, that’s what everyone in favor of this plan has been saying to support it.. Just give it a shot, if it doesn’t work in six months then we’ll try something else out.

What’s going to be their explanation now? I fully expect a simple doubling (again) of the amount of time we should give the President for his plan to work.

It’s clear now that President Bush lied about our commitment in Iraq being “open-ended” and the numbers he used in his justification for the “surge” were just pulled out of a hat if not deliberately underestimated.

The initial request was for 21,500 extra combat troops, plus as many as 7,000 additional support troops, plus “some 2,200 additional military police,” according to the Times. That would bring the total number of troops in Iraq to nearly 160,000, and if the above quotes from the Times are correct, that’s over 160,000 troops in Iraq for the next year at least if the President has his way.

Thankfully it looks like the Democrats in the House are finally getting their act together and will try to get consensus on a pullout by 2008, a direct contrast to President Bush’s plan for escalation well into 2008 and beyond.

Chuck Hagel, Nebraska “marverick” Republican, says out loud what a lot of people have been thinking lately in an interview with Esquire magazine. It might be time to consider impeachment of the President to get some accountability from this administration.

“The president says, ‘I don’t care.’ He’s not accountable anymore,” Hagel says, measuring his words by the syllable and his syllables almost by the letter. “He’s not accountable anymore, which isn’t totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don’t know. It depends how this goes.” – Sen. Chuck Hagel

That’s great and all, but is more than likely an attempt by Hagel to bring up an issue that would split Democrats and bog them down with an impeachment process.

I know it may shock some, but personally I’m against impeaching President Bush. While I certainly think he’s a terrible President who has committed acts which could be considered “impeachable”, what’s the benefit of doing it, other than the principle of the matter – which while important isn’t enough in my mind.

An impeachment process against Pres. Bush would accomplish a number of things, all of them bad for Democrats:
– Unite what remaining conservative support the President has against a common enemy, the evil liberals who want to hurt “an honest guy” like Bush.
– Bog Democrats down in impeachment hearings. Democrats have done a good job thus far in passing good legislation and have a chance to get a lot more work done in the next 18 months. Starting up the impeachment process would for all intense purposes mean abandoning any possible legislation during that time.
– It would become the #1 issue in Congress, pushing Iraq off the front page where it belongs.

Bush is a lame duck President and everyone knows it. It’s best that we keep him that way and look forward to the 2008 elections instead of focusing on a process that would only serve to unite conservatives, strengthen the President, and take our national off of Iraq.

The headline in this AP article says it all, “ Evangelical leader says Giuliani’s divorce a problem“.

Gee, ya think?

Like I’ve been saying for months now, the more people actually find out about the man behind the media bestowed “America’s Mayor” title, the more they’re going to find they don’t like.

I had to chuckle at money quote in the article:

“I mean, this is divorce on steroids,” Land said. “To publicly humiliate your wife in that way, and your children. That’s rough. I think that’s going to be an awfully hard sell, even if he weren’t pro-choice and pro-gun control.”

Because maybe, just maybe, if he was anti-choice and against gun control, then his personal history might be acceptable to the Christian Right!