House Minority Leader John Boehner's resolution to censure Pete Stark failed 196-173 with eight members voting present. Stark was being censured for saying that President Bush sent troops to Iraq so they could get their "heads blown off for his amusement."

Even though 204 representatives weren't willing to say that he should be symbolically punished for his insults, Stark apologized anyway.

"I want to apologize first of all to my colleagues, many of whom I have offended, to the president. his family, to the troops that may have found (offense) in my remarks as were suggested in the motion that we just voted on, and I do apologize. ... With this apology I will become as insignificant as I should be and we can return to the issues that do divide us but that we can resolve."

Well, we can agree on that. This was a direct reversal of his announcement last week that he would not apologize. I suspect he cut a deal with Pelosi to keep her from letting the Democrats loose for this vote.

Ummm... [Ace] Note that he apologized for the less broadly offensive part of his statement -- just his insult of Bush.

He did not apologize for stating that the military goes over to Iraq to blow up innocent people. Nancy Pelosi won't force him to apologize for that, because she can't admit he said that in the first place.

The media will of course pretend he only insulted Bush.

Oh, wait, that presumes the media will cover this at all, which of course they have not and will not.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:24 AM | Comments (16)
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Slightly less robotic than the Christiansen/Portman romance.

Via Locusts & Honey.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:16 AM | Comments (3)
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This isn't the White House, but shows his schtick:

The "floating" outside the White House video is here.

As dri says, it's kind of obvious how he's doing it... but that doesn't fully explain how he's doing it.

Posted by: Ace at 08:01 AM | Comments (16)
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Michael Chertoff is on the local news talking about fire shelters down in San Diego and coordinating a federal response to the wildfires. He is apparently on his way out here to help. I'm so relieved.

This demonstrates, I think, why the Department of Homeland Security is so disappointing. What exactly is its mission? Natural disasters, immigration, and terrorism are important national issues; it's not unreasonable to imagine that when the department turns its attention to one issue, the others are neglected.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:59 AM | Comments (10)
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After leaving the White House, First Cat "Socks" was dumped on Bettie Currie, Bill's personal secretary (o/t, what a crappy job that turned out to be).

I suppose things worked out better for Socks than they did for Buddy.

Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan reminds us that Hillary wrote the book "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets", in which she said only with the arrival of Socks and his "toy mouse" did the White House "become a home".

Is it a big deal? Meh, not to me.

I hate f'n' cats.

tip: RG, Man of Substance, who thinks cats are ok as long as you leave them outside.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 07:46 AM | Comments (31)
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Yesterday, the terror funding case ended in a mistrial for most of the charges against individuals and against the Holy Land Foundation itself. It sounds like the jurors had some real problems.

Juror William Neal told The Associated Press that the panel found little evidence against three of the defendants and was evenly split on charges against Shukri Abu Baker and former Holy Land chairman Ghassan Elashi, who were seen as the principal leaders of the charity.

"I thought they were not guilty across the board," said Neal, a 33-year-old art director from Dallas. The case "was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence."

Some jurors were dead-set for convictions even before they began deliberating, Neal said.

"They brought up stuff that wasn't even in the case," he said. "They brought up 9-11."

Bank records, thousands of documents, video, and the testimony of an Shin Bet agent are "little evidence"? It sounds like pro-conviction jurors weren't the only ones to make up their minds before deliberations began.

Moreover, consideration of 9/11 in the jury room was inappropriate. One of the fundamentals of our justice system is that jurors reach a decision based on the evidence at trial, rather than their own experiences or other improper material.

Prosecutors will get the chance to try again, but as BSG-watchers know, at a second trial the advantage lies with the defense.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:37 AM | Comments (15)
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Will this bill never die? There were rumors last week that Reid would attach DREAM to the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriation as an amendment. I didn't mention it because every last rumor could be traced to a single release from the John Birch Society.

Today comes notice from Reid that the Senate may take up the bill again, though not as a part of the HHS appropriation. From the Congressional Quarterly's summary of this week's activity:

Beyond the spending bill, it is unclear what legislation will round out next weekÂ’s floor schedule. The chamber could take up an immigration bill related to children (S 774), said Regan Lachapelle, a Reid spokeswoman.

Sponsored by Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., the bill would allow children of illegal immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 and lived here at least five years to gain conditional legal status. Under the bill, they could attain eventual citizenship if they attend college or enlist in the military for at least two years.

At this point, I'd hope our guys and gals in the Senate know what we think about this legislation. However, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on them.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:55 AM | Comments (12)
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I suppose I should be encouraged by their pro-capitalist reasoning.

Whatever.

The court declared two provisions of the "Volkswagon" law to be illegal, in that they restricted the free flow of capital. One law capped shareholder voting rights at 20% regardless of its holdings. The other permitted Germany or some state with a goofy name to place two members on the board as long as they were shareholders.

Both were gifts to labor unions. Currently Porsche holds a 31% share of Volkswagon AG, the largest auto manufacturer in Europe. The EU has been running all over the place smacking other member nations for the same kind of government protectionism.

They are the über-nanny, all up in ya nostrils.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 05:45 AM | Comments (4)
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...since June.

Violence in Iraq has dropped by 70 percent since the end of June, when U.S. forces completed their build-up of 30,000 extra troops to stabilize the war-torn country, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

...

Washington began dispatching reinforcements to Iraq in February to try to buy Iraq's feuding political leaders time to reach a political accommodation to end violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs that has killed tens of thousands and forced millions from their homes.

While the leaders have failed to agree on key laws aimed at reconciling the country's warring sects, the troop buildup has succeeded in quelling violence.

Under the plan, U.S. troops left their large bases and set up combat outposts in neighborhoods while launching a series of summer offensives against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, other Sunni Arab militants and Shi'ite militias in the Baghdad beltway.

Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf told reporters that there had been a 70 percent decrease in violence countrywide in the three months from July to September over the previous quarter.

But ABCNews did cover it. Or rather they covered a story from three months ago, the pacification and renewal of Fallujah.

So they're only three months behind the times. So perhaps next January we can hope for a report on the stunning decline in violence in all of Iraq, including Baghdad.

Posted by: Ace at 10:01 PM | Comments (26)
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This is the actual logo of the CIA Counterterrorist Center. For some reason, I donÂ’t think Jack Bauer would approve.

I guess now that weÂ’ve got a logo, this whole terrorism thing is just about licked.

H/t Danger Room

Posted by: DrewM. at 07:19 PM | Comments (51)
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