Interesting. Bill Schneider just said that Eli Lilly had purchased thousands of copies of Frist's book to distribute to their clients.

Mormons cut hundreds of jobs.

A table everyone should read.

From Newsmax's email:

NewsMax Washington correspondent Wes Vernon cites well-sourced information that movers and shakers in the GOP told Lott that if he resigns from the Senate in an act of petulance over losing his leadership post, he can forget about offers of cushy corporate jobs in private life.

Usually, a former United States senator can write his own ticket after he leaves. Some were determined to deny that option to Trent Lott if his departure resulted in a Democrat Senate.

Jeebus, even Newsmax thinks we're in a corporatist plutocracy.

Those bastards at Dell actualy sent me a new power supply pretty quickly...back to the 'ole laptop. Now my Blogs will be back at Full Strength.

And, yes I know they're an evil republican company, but I didn't buy the thing..

Wal-mart guilty.


good.

And JP Morgan has some problems...

In a potentially pivotal court ruling, a federal judge in Manhattan will allow the insurers to introduce into evidence a series of email messages in which a J.P. Morgan executive refers to its dealings with Enron as a "disguised loan."

The judge's decision is a major blow to J.P. Morgan, because the insurers' main contention has been that the bank deceived them into writing a $1 billion insurance policy for the transaction, which was the subject of a heated congressional hearing this summer.

The insurers have refused to honor the policy, contending a series of so-called prepay oil and gas transactions involving J.P. Morgan, Enron and offshore company called Mahonia were really "disguised" bank loans to Enron and not actual contracts to transfer energy shipments.

And the emails that U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff is going to permit the insurers to present to the jury -- which began hearing evidence in the case two weeks ago -- would seem to be devastating to J.P. Morgan's legal position.

"A reasonable juror could find these emails highly probative of the defendants' central contention that Chase knew the prepays here in issue, when coupled with other aspects allegedly not disclosed to the defendants ... were really loans that were being disguised," the judge said in a 10-page ruling, issued prior to the resumption of testimony in the trial.

In one of the emails, a bank executive writes: "Legal says don't list it as a loan." In another, the financing deals with Enron are described this way: "I have asked for a thorough review of disguised loans. I know Commodities, under the heading of'prepaid' has a whole bunch." The person writing the emails was Donald Layton, a senior bank executive, who may be called to testify if the emails are introduced into evidence.

Josh Marshall gives the Mickster a good spanking.

And they said chivalry was dead...

Lisa McNulty writes to the Rittenhouse Review.

Rove gets a Fineman

This bit is interesting, however:

Rove doesn’t need a picture to prove his ties to George W. Bush. He’s been at his boss’s side since 1973, the “boy genius” strategist who masterminded Bush’s rise to the top and whose job it is now to keep him there.

1973 is Bush's "lost year." He didn't enter politics until 1978.

Cleveland Plain Dealer on Christian Reconstructionist Ahmanson.

I wrote about this guy here.

Public Eye has some more.

Top 10 things the Sunday Shows ignored about Bill Frist.

Neo-Confederate secessionist supporting racist Robert Stacy McCain has an article in the Washington Times today.

Alas, A Blog gives us another INS roundup update. (I swear, I try to find these stories but only Ampersand seems to have them...) Short version is not that many men are left in detention, though there are still "conflicting reports"(lies) about how many had actually been arrested in the first place. The good news is, as Charles Dodgson points out, that INS seems to be acting a bit embarrassed by the whole thing.

Either Michael Medved Wrote This...

Or I've had a hell of a lot to drink tonight.

Meanwhile, Sean Hannity on his Fox News program reminded viewers: "We have back in October of this year, William Jefferson Clinton, in Arkansas saying wonderful things, what a remarkable man J. William Fulbright, former senator from Arkansas is, a known segregationist. He gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, a known segregationist, one of 19 senators who issued a statement entitled 'The Southern Manifesto,' condemning the '54 Supreme Court decision of Brown vs. Board of Education, defending segregation. Why hasn't anyone condemned Bill Clinton for doing far worse than what Trent Lott has done here?"

The answer to that question is easy – because Clinton's praise for his former mentor, Fulbright, never emphasized or even cited his segregationist record, but stressed his better known service as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. No one objected to Clinton honoring Fulbright, just as no one protested Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond, the man. In fact, many Democratic senators offered their own fulsome tributes to their elderly colleague, and expressed overall respect for his long career. But only Trent Lott specifically endorsed Thurmond's disgraceful third-party presidential adventure, and expressed the wish that a segregationist had captured the White House.

Military Pay Hike Rollback

The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., recently asked the Defense Department to lower the 2004 pay raise from its expected 3.7 percent to 2 percent. Daniels also wants future raises tied to inflation, rather than basing boosts on what civilians doing comparable jobs in the private sector might make.

Slick Willie, come back...

I do not presume to speak for the military, but I am now speaking to them,” Cheney said. “To all of our men and women in uniform, and to their parents and families: Help is on the way!” - during the '00 campaign

Gary Farber's back after a semi-hiatus.

Brief movie reviews

Saw Star Trek Nemesis. You feel like if someone with half a brain had spent 15 minutes doing some script doctoring it would've actually been a really good movie. But, since we never really know why any of the characters do anything that they do, the whole thing feels pointless.

Two Towers was great - though the first 15 minutes were confusing and clumsy, but after that it was impressive. Never seen CGI/live interaction handled as well as they did with Gollum.

provide your own caption




(real one here)

Lott's a martyr.

Asked in an interview with The Associated Press whether he was disappointed in a lack of support from President Bush in keeping his post, Lott said:

"I don't think there's any use in trying to say I'm disappointed in anybody or anything. An inappropriate remark brought this down on my head."

However, he said there were those who had been gunning for his resignation.

"There are some people in Washington who have been trying to nail me for a long time," Lott said. "When you're from Mississippi and you're a conservative and you're a Christian, there are a lot of people that don't like that. I fell into their trap and so I have only myself to blame."

He wouldn't say who those political enemies were.

Talking outside his home here, Lott again said his comments at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party were not malicious and he repeated his pledge to turn the experience into positive action as he finishes his term in the Senate.

"I feel very strongly about my faith. God has put this burden on me, I believe he'll show me a way to turn it into a good," Lott said.

David Broder thinks blowjob=advocating segregation. Ah, that liberal media.