The worst part of the whole "Spitzer Can't Keep it in His Pants" story is not that Spitzer slept with a prostitute, or that he paid huge sums of money for it, or that he got caught, or that his actions may for now derail reform in New York State. The worst part is the hypocritical, self-rightous chest thumping that Republican politicians and their media friends are engaging in.

Somehow, normal sex sets the right wing fanatics off in a fit of hysteria that would give Freud wet dreams. But if one of their own commits pedophilia, what do you hear from these people? Nothing! They cover it up if they can and circle the wagons if they can't. Let's keep this whole thing in perspective. Bill Clinton got a blow job, an act of consensual sex between adults, and the Republicans demanded impeachment. Eliot Spitzer hired an expensive sex worker and the Republicans are threatening impeachment. But a whole slew of Republicans on all levels of government engage in pedophilia and you hear nary a peep from the Republican noise machine. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

May 1st, 2003, Bush announced "Mission Accomplished"

And we are STILL bogged down in the Iraq quagmire four years later, with more than 3300 American soldiers dead, still no clear purpose, no exit strategy, no nothing. We are bogged down, with a new McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation putting more time, money and troops into the war based on lies in Iraq while Osama bin Laden is free as a bird, and al-Qaeda, the people who actually attacked us, stronger than ever.

Yeah...Mission Accomplished declared May 1st, 2003...here is what Michael Moore had to say about it:

Mission accomplished. And yet, the money and the blood keep flowing. The following is released in honor of the 4th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" by Americans United for Change:

The man who went from great to merely a lap dog of George Bush's, will say goodbye on May 9th. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's departure announcement was met with little interest even on BBC news' front page, or even on Daily Kos where merely brief mention is made of it.

Tony Blair, a man who could have been great, is slinking away with his tail between his legs under suspicion of a Tom DeLay/Abramoff style favors-for-donations (or should that be "favours"-for-quids) scandal.

from the Sunday Mail:

The inquiry began after it emerged that secret loans had been made to Labour before the 2005 general election. Some lenders were subsequently nominated for peerages...

Blair's chief fundraiser Lord Levy, No.10 aide Ruth Turner and multimillionaire businessman Sir Christopher Evans remain on police bail.

So here in the US you get a no-bid contract instead of a title, but otherwise it sure looks like Republican-style corruption. May Bush have the same fate as his lap dog...

Remember, as you pay those state and local taxes, Ratner thanks you: (from DDDB)

And remember...the taxpayer funded gift of Atlantic Yards is only the beginning of what the state and city can do for the man with no business plan. Ratner has already been promised more land with minimal review. How much with the NEXT corrupt Ratner deal cost us?

Ask Ratner's three stooges:

So Rudy Giuliani has "forgiven" Don Imus:

Embattled radio host Don Imus is getting support from many of the politicians and journalists who frequently grace his show - including presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. Despite many calls for the shock jock's resignation, Giuliani said he would again appear with Imus, and after talking to him on the phone he believes Imus "understands that he made a very, very big mistake."

"I take Don at his word that he understands the gravity of what he said," Giuliani told the Daily News. "He seems sincerely sorry about it and seems like someone who will endeavor not to do that again and I take him at his word."

Well, that didn't take long.

It's nice of Giuliani to absolve Imus on behalf of his fellow African-Americans. What's that? He's not? Well then, it's hard to see what business he has "forgiving" a repeat-offending racist like Imus, isn't it?

Of course, this is Rudy Giuliani, much of whose mayoralty was premised on channeling white resentment against blacks. The same Giuliani whose malicious reaction to the Diallo shooting only made a bad situation worse. The same Rudy Giuliani who inflamed racial tensions by trashing Patrick Dorismond after Dorismond had been shot and killed by the NYPD. The same Rudy Giuliani whose policy of divide et impera managed to get him re-elected with two-thirds of the white vote but only 20% of the black vote.

Giuliani forgives Imus. The cobra forgives the rattlesnake for its venom.

Clyde Haberman gets it. In a good interview with a few of the Billionaires for Bush, Haberman points out what Mayor Bloomberg's office is unwilling to admit:

The spied-upon included many groups that, agree with their views or not, engaged purely in political activity; they had no history of violence and no agenda other than a constitutional right to oppose the government. The Billionaires are a good example. The only bomb that they’ve been known to throw is a joke that falls flat.

Nobody is disputing that the police had a right and a responsibility to make effective security plans for the RNC. But it seems the NYPD acted recklessly in engaging in widespread spying that failed to make a distinction between legitimate political speech and conspiracy to commit violence - between Billionaires and bombers. As Haberman quotes one Billionaire, New York's authorities may "suffer from a post-9/11 case of 'not knowing when to stop.'"

Haberman puts it into perspective:

It isn’t as if New York hasn’t rethought other policies that were deemed absolutely essential in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks. With municipal blessing, hideous concrete barriers rose in front of one building after another across town. In recent months, most have finally been torn down — recognition that Fortress New York doesn’t cut it.

Similar questions have been raised about the refusal of the National Park Service, in the name of security, to allow tourists to climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Such a restriction at this potent symbol of American freedom has been strongly criticized by the likes of Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representative Anthony D. Weiner, who hardly see themselves as soft-on-terror types.

Likewise, respect for freedom of speech is not a concession to terror. Many New Yorkers would feel more secure if their mayor would acknowledge that.

We still don't know the extent of the spying program and how far it went across the line. We don't know whether the program's defenders have any basis for their arguments. We won't know until the city agrees to release the surveillance records. So: what are you afraid of, Mayor Bloomberg?

I have recently been covering the horrible comment by Japanese Prime Minsiter Abe denying that there is any proof that the sex slaves called "comfort women" used by Japanese soldiers in WW II had been coerced. You can see my coverage here, here and here. From this last one, let me point out that international legal findings disagree with Abe's statement:

"It is indisputable that these women were forced, deceived, coerced and abducted to provide sexual services to the Japanese military ... [Japan] violated customary norms of international law concerning war crimes, crimes against humanity, slavery and the trafficking in women and children ... Japan should take full responsibility now, and make suitable restitution to the victims and their families."

International Commission of Jurists, November 1994

The only response I ever got from my inquiries to the Japanese embassy was that Japan had apologized, set up funds for the comfort women (neglecting to say that these funds were not paid for by the government but mostly from private donors) and that Abe's comments changed nothing.

From the New York Times:

Lawyers for the city, responding to a request to unseal records of police surveillance leading up to the 2004 Republican convention in New York, say that the documents should remain secret because the news media will “fixate upon and sensationalize them,” hurting the city’s ability to defend itself in lawsuits over mass arrests.

Yeah, well; the City could have considered that before spying on a Martin Luther King Rally endorsed by sitting members of the City Council. One would think this would have been obvious at the time.

It gets better.

There's a big story in The New York Times today, confirming what many people involved have long suspected: the NYPD's intelligence unit infiltrated and subsequently filed reports on various Progressive left political groups in New York City that were engaged with the 2004 Republican National Convention under the pretext of stopping criminal activity in opposition to that event. This also provides a case study into government dysfunction in New York on several levels.

But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped “N.Y.P.D. Secret,” the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.

These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.

In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities. A police report on an organization of artists called Bands Against Bush noted that the group was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets, the report said, there would be political speeches and videos.

“Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda,” said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003. “Police departments in above listed areas have been contacted regarding this event.”

I wrote about this yesterday, but I am revisiting it with the smoking gun letter uploaded rather than just linking as a PDF. I want to emphasize that this is a scan of the letter sent by the company that makes the voting machines Sarasota County used warning of a glitch. This warning was ignored by Kathy Dent, the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections. The result was an election with an unprecedented, and HIGHLY suspicious, 18,000 vote undercount for Congress and that undercount is believed by election experts to have changed the outcome of the election, essentially stealing the election from Democrat Christine Jennings. Here's the letter:

This letter suggests a specific action...which the Sarasota election board NEVER ACTED UPON. Furthermore, posters were sent by the company that were meant to be posted at each polling place to warn voters of the delay. The posters were never posted. Finally, and probably criminally, Kathy Dent never released this letter when Christine Jennings' legal team filed a letter of discovery. That essentially is a cover up.