Sen Allen Considers Surgery -- To Remove the Foot in his Mouth

Sen George Allen (R-VA) now says he has Jewish roots. The statement comes just one day after a bizarre breakdown during a debate where he refused to talk about his mother's heritage and blasted the reporter asking the question for "making aspersions about people" because of their religion.

Allen's supporters didn't help, booing at the suggestion Sen Allen might be Jewish. (See Video)



From the Washington Post:

Allen's campaign manager said the senator believed the question was hostile because it followed another one about whether Allen had learned the word "macaca" from his mother. The word, which Allen used last month to describe a [Jim] Webb volunteer, is a French slur for a dark-skinned person. Allen's mother, Henrietta "Etty" Allen, is a native of Tunisia and speaks French.

Sen Allen faces an ever tightening race against Democrat Jim Webb, since a series of gaffes starting with the famed "macaca" slur caught on videotape. (WashPost/Wonkette)

Sweet Deal

A pair of front page articles in the Memphis Commercial Appeal have explored US Senate candidate Bob Corker's windfalls as Chatanooga Mayor. Financial reports show he made more money while Mayor than in the previous 24 years -- combined.

The paper reports that as mayor, Mr Corker was supposed to protect a conservation easement the city held.

Instead, his Osborne Building Corportation developed the land and sold it to a shopping center developer for $4.7 million.

Mr Corker is the Republican nominee for US Senate in Tennessee. (Chattanoogan)

Glad to Meet You, Too, Mr President

The Washington Examiner talks to Sen Obama Barack (D-IL) about his first meeting with President Bush:

On his first meeting at the White House, he remembers shaking the hand of the president, who turned to “an aide nearby, who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president’s hand.”

You Deserve a Medal -- For Not Suing Us

Haliburton tries to deflect a lawsuit by using its clout to get a man a medal from the Army.


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Read Them Lips

Scientific proof that politicians lie.


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Maybe Thong Girl will save us from Osama

President Bush scares the bejebus out of America, a creepy album cover could pop up in Congressional commercials, and Thong Girl angers Tennesseans.

The Mayor and the "Thong Girl"

Voters got their panties in a knot after Gallatin, Tennessee Mayor Don Wright allowed the filming of Thong Girl 3 in his office.

Said it was for "economic development" -- had nothing to do with scantily clad actresses in his office.

The Thong Girl website describes the superheroine as someone who "polices the skies" -- in a red thong -- to keep Nashville safe. (Tennessean)

Rock the Vote

Rock star John Hall -- the lead singer and songwriter for the group "Orleans" -- won the Democratic primary for Congress in his upstate New York district.

Orleans routinely makes the list of "Worst. Album. Covers. Ever." (see picture).

He co-wrote such hits as Still the One and Dance with Me for Orleans, and Half Moon for Janis Joplin.

He faces Republican incumbent Sue Kelly in a district that includes parts of Westchester, Putnam, and Orange Counties in the Empire State. (Editor & Publisher)

Podcast: Frankenbush

More in the neverending story of the Politics of Fear: Mad scientists have given way to politicians.


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Podcast: Go Navy!

An MP3 making the rounds among service members. It was e-mailed to me from a Petty Officer pal of mine.


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Blue & Gray -- More Black & White than in Iraq

Is Iraq in a civil war? The CIA knows -- but it's a secret.

The guys who put the "un" in -- or actually in front of -- "intelligent," have come up with a super, double-secret definition of "civil war" and shared it with the intel committees on Capitol Hill. The CIA has worked out a definition for letting us know if or when Iraq is actually experiencing a civil war. They just don't want to share that information with the general public.

From what Newsweek has been able to piece together from their sources, the CIA considers Iraq too chaotic to be in a civil war.

In other words, a civil war would be an improvement for Iraq. (Newsweek)

Osama bin Forgotten?

Five years after 9/11, President Bush is talking about Osama bin Laden again. The Democratic National Committee has launched a campaign ad suggesting it's just a tactic in the "politics of fear." (Raw Story)

Television Ad Shows Reagan Praising Webb In 1985 Speech

A Reagan appointee turned Democratic Senate candidate is catching flack for using the "Gipper" in a television ad.

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan has fired off a letter asking Jim Webb (right) to stop airing the ad (below) immediately.



Other Republicans complain that Mr Webb is being hypocritical -- using the late President's words of praise for the then Navy Secretary, after Mr Webb resigned in a dispute with President Reagan. (WashPost/YouTube)

Video Podcast: Against that Blue Sky

A video oral history of my experiences on Capitol Hill during the 9/11 attacks.

Podcast: Against that Blue Sky

An oral history of my experiences on Capitol Hill during the 9/11 attacks


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The President, Intellectual Disabilities, & American Idol

One-time American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken is in line for an appointment from President Bush.

It would be as a member of the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities -- not to be confused with the Committee for People with Intelligence Disabilities. That would be the CIA's pre-war Iraq Desk. (Raw Story)

The Language of Politics

"That's the lesson we learned several years ago. Not that amnesty doesn't work, but that you don't call it amnesty." -- Sen Jim Talent (R-MO), on politicking an immigration bill past voters



(The Hotline)