Monday, October 31, 2005

Worst Halloween Costumes...Ever!



If any kids come to your door dressed even remotely close to these, don't answer the door.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Cervical Cancer Vaccine Gets Injected With a Social Issue

quote[A new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer has set up a clash between health advocates who want to use the shots aggressively to prevent thousands of malignancies and social conservatives who say immunizing teenagers could encourage sexual activity.]

These neocons are fucking ridiculous. What next? Should we stop searching for an HIV cure/vaccine?

Canada finds flu in wild birds, checking strain

quote[OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada has discovered a strain of H5 avian flu in wild birds and is now checking whether it is the same H5N1 killer strain which has spread to Europe, an official said on Monday.

"It's definitely H5. We're still testing for the N subtype," said Alain Charette, a spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. There are nine different strains of H5 avian flu.]


Developing...

Friday, October 28, 2005

Put Ed Schultz on Armed Forces Radio!

quote[Last year, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced a resolution that was unanimously passed by the Senate, urging Secretary Rumsfeld and Armed Forces Radio to ensure more political balance in programming.

It looked like progress was being made when the Pentagon agreed to air the first hour of Ed Schultz's daily radio show live on Armed Forces Radio every day. Then, only hours before the first show would have been broadcast, the Pentagon suddenly reversed the decision and refused to air Ed's program.

We must let our voices be heard and exercise leadership to help ensure that the spirit of Senator Harkin's resolution -- and the spirit of fairness -- are at play on taxpayer financed programming.

Send an email to your Members of Congress now -- urge them to enforce fair play on Armed Forces Radio!]


Click to sign the petition organized by General Wesley Clark!

Merry Fitzmas!!!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

More Republican Corruption

quote[A federal grand jury has indicted Tom Noe, the former Maumee coin dealer suspected of laundering money into President Bush’s reelection campaign, Mr. Noe’s attorney told The Blade today.]

Will it ever end???

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The Latest Buzz: Aides To Be Indicted, Probe to Continue

quote[Two top White House aides are expected to be indicted today on various charges related to the probe of CIA operative Valerie Plame whose classified identity was publicly breached in retaliation after her husband, Joe Wilson, challenged the administration's claim that Saddam Hussein had sought to buy enriched uranium from Niger, acording to federal law enforcement and senior U.S. intelligence officials.

If no action is taken today, it will take place on Friday, these sources said.

I. Scooter Libby, the chief of staff of Vice President Richard Cheney, and chief presidential advisor Karl Rove are expected to be named in indictments this morning by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Others are to be named as well, these sources said. According to U.S. officials close to the case, a bill of indictment has been in existence before October 17 which named five people. Various names have surfaced such as National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, yet only one source would confirm that Hadley was on the list. Hadley could not be reached for comment.]


The suspense is killing me!

Dr. Angry and Mr. Smiles



quote[ On a close-up view, you can see on the left face, an angry man and on the right face, a woman with a neutral facial emotion. But further back, the faces change expression and even genders! if you squint, blink, or defocus, an angry man should substitute for the face of the woman and the left angry face should not be angry anymore.

This impressive illusion created by Dr. Aude Oliva and Dr. Philippe Schyns, illustrates the ability of the visual system to separate information coming from different spatial frequency channels. In the right image, high Spatial Frequencies (HSF) represent a woman w69, 243-ith a neutral facial expression, mixed with the low spatial frequency information from the face of an angry man.

The above two ambiguous faces, termed hybrid faces, are published in the journal Cognition, 69, 243-265, 1999.]


Freaky! This really works. Try it!

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Media failed to correct Sen. Hutchison's false Clinton impeachment claim

quote[On the October 23 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) downplayed the seriousness of a perjury indictment as a "technicality" and falsely claimed "there were charges against Bill Clinton besides perjury and obstruction of justice" during his 1999 Senate trial on impeachment charges. In fact, just two articles of impeachment against Clinton were approved by the House of Representatives: one for perjury, and the other for obstruction of justice. Hutchison's falsehood went uncorrected by host Tim Russert and was not mentioned by any of the news outlets that quoted her Meet the Press appearance.]

Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed.

Cheney Again at Center of Drama

quote[It should surprise nobody that Vice President Dick Cheney is at the center of another firestorm. He's got his hands in just about everything at the White House.

Now the administration's Mr. Fix-It faces a sticky political, if not legal, situation with the latest leak in the CIA leak investigation.

"His name is thrown into the mix," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar and political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "Big time."]


Anyone else giddy yet?

Target Letters Reportedly Sent

quote[Indictments Coming Tomorrow; Targets Received Letters Today

An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN:

1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.

2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.

3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow.

4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.

The shoe is dropping.

More soon.]

Monday, October 24, 2005

Bush Confident Miers Will Be Confirmed

quote[The White House said Monday that
President Bush is confident Harriet Miers will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, even though a Democrat on the Senate panel that will hold hearings on her nomination said she doesn't have the votes.]


He really is out of touch, isn't he?

Brent Scowcroft Goes After Dubya

quote[The Bush administration is bracing for a powerful new attack by Brent Scowcroft, the respected national security adviser to the first President George Bush.

A Republican and a former Air Force general, Scowcroft is a leading member of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment, and his critique of both of the style and the substance of the Bush White House, is slated to appear in Monday's editions of the New Yorker magazine.

The article also contains some critical comments on the handling of U.S. foreign policy by the current President Bush from his father, whose 1989-1993 presidency is hailed for deft management of the end of the Cold War, German unification, the first Gulf war and the collapse of the Soviet Union.]


Things couldn't look any brighter, could they?

Friday, October 21, 2005

Breaking...Bush Wants Another War

quote[President George W. Bush on Friday called on the United Nations to convene a session as soon as possible to deal with a U.N. investigative report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.]

Fitzgerald Launches Web Site



Doesn't look like he's about to close shop, does it??

Are indictments about to be announced?

(Thanks to DancingBear for the photo!)

Thursday, October 20, 2005

There Is No Green Dot

Freaky!

What's he smiling about?

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.


Re-post this if you believe love makes a marriage.

An affair to remember

quote[A camel has been condemned to death after a worker was caught having sex with it in the remote emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. The man, a Bangladeshi driver, was sentenced to three months in jail for his dangerous liaisons. His employer reported him to the authorities after spotting him making regular visits to the camel barn, Gulf News reported.

Ras Al Khaimah is one of the poorer and more traditional sheikhdoms that make up the seven United Arab Emirates, and its judiciary tends to be more conservative than its neighbours' (Dubai is about an hour’s drive away). Reports said authorities ordered the camel to be killed in accordance with Islamic or sharia law, because its meat was considered tainted by the man’s performances.]


Listen up, fundicrats: This is what happens when you let religion govern the rule of law.

Astrology is scientific theory, courtroom told

quote[Astrology would be considered a scientific theory if judged by the same criteria used by a well-known advocate of Intelligent Design to justify his claim that ID is science, a landmark US trial heard on Tuesday.

Under cross examination, ID proponent Michael Behe, a biochemist at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, admitted his definition of “theory” was so broad it would also include astrology.]


Just imagine me smashing my head upon my desk...repeatedly.

Rep. John Conyers: When Was the President Told?


quote[Today’s New York Daily News reports that “[a]n angry
President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair..” and that Rove conceded to Bush that “he had talked to the press about the Plame leak.”

Yet, just last year on June 11, 2004, the President responded affirmatively when asked if he would “fire anyone found to” have leaked the agent’s name.
...
If this story is true, it raises troubling questions to me -- and I think should trouble the White House Press Corps as well.

If Rove told the President about his role in the leak, why did the President say what he said last year?

If Rove told the President about his role in the leak two years ago, did that occur before or after McClellan made these statements? If it was before, why did McClellan say what he said? If it was after, why has he never corrected the record?]


Simple answer: Team Bush can't help lying; it's just their nature.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

My Faith In Humanity Has Just Been Severely Rattled

quote[About a year ago, a girl was born in this working-class town and was promptly flung out of a third-floor window. She tumbled down a thin air shaft, naked, her umbilical cord still attached. Her head smashed into the concrete 31 feet below. She died instantly. And there she lay, unnamed, buried in a grave of garbage and cigarette packs.

The story gets worse...]


And, it does. Very horrific-I just can't understand.

Ed Schultz To Be On Countdown 10/18/2005

Ed Schultz will be on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight live to discuss the Armed Forces Radio story at 8:10 pm, ET.

(Note: link is to Countdown main home page, no particular story.)

Cheney To Resign?

quote[Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.]

I say it will only happen if it is absolutely clear he's getting an indictment.

The case of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame is set to explode.

quote[The New York Daily News is set to report in Tuesday editions that a well-placed source interviewed by the newspaper believes a senior White House official has flipped and may be helping the prosecutor in the case, RAW STORY has learned.]

This is almost as nail-biting as last year's world series approached the ninth inning in game four.

Is it true?

Is it even possible?

I'm so giddy with thoughts!

Monday, October 17, 2005

Jesus Christ! Do They Really Think We'll Buy This...Again

quote[The Venezuelan government has made overtures to various countries about obtaining nuclear technology, according to U.S. officials, who worry that President Hugo Chavez might be taking the first steps in a long road to develop nuclear weaponry.
A Bush administration official monitoring Latin America said the entreaties have included communications with Iran, with whom Venezuela maintains increasingly close ties. Washington has branded Iran a state sponsor of terrorism and accuses it of pursuing nuclear weapons through its atomic industry.]


Give me a fucking break!!

Military reverses plan to add Ed Schultz show to Armed Forces Radio

quote[Schultz was told Sept. 29 he would be added to the military's programming today. That decision was reversed this morning. His producers are currently seeking answers from the military.

On his program Friday, Schultz attacked Alison Barber, an Armed Forces official, over President Bush's staged conversation with U.S. troops in Iraq. Barber is an Assistant Secretary of Defense.]


This is ridiculous! The right wing nut job radio hosts slammed Clinton daily, but did they ever get pulled from Armed Forces Radio??

It just goes to show: don't piss off heir Bush.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Become Republican

quote[We like small government in ways that help people in need. But we demand huge government in ways that control peoples' lives.]

This was an awesome animation!

I had quite a bit of difficulty choosing what quote I liked best.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

The Nexus of Politics and Terror

quote[Last Thursday on Countdown, I referred to the latest terror threat - the reported bomb plot against the New York City subway system - in terms of its timing. President Bush’s speech about the war on terror had come earlier the same day, as had the breaking news of the possible indictment of Karl Rove in the CIA leak investigation.

I suggested that in the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration, followed by a “terror event” - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning.

We figured we’d better put that list of coincidences on the public record.]


Olbermann hits a home run with this one!

Impromptu Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

quote[It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions
President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."]


Kind of reminds me of Bush and his fake turkey incident.

Cheney, Gonzales Opposed Miers Nomination

quote[Veteran conservative columnist and pundit John Fund asserts in the Wall Street Journal today that the offices of Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tried to block the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, RAW STORY has learned.]

Is team Bush falling apart?

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Who would you bomb next?

quote[CNNN (not US) asks people On the Streets of America who they would bomb next.]

Three words: OH MY GOD!

(closes eyes and repeats to self, "Please be fake...Please be fake...Please be fake...Please be fake...Please be fake...Please be fake...")

"Bloggers" may not be eligible for Shield Law protection

quote[Senator Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.) recently revealed that so-called bloggers would "probably not" be considered journalists by the Free Flow of Information Act of 2005, which will include provisions detailing "shield law" protections for journalists. In effect, this could mean that it will be open season on those pesky bloggers once this bill passes.]

So, am I going to get into trouble?

Halliburton awarded another $33 million contract for Katrina work

quote[The Arlington-based Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, was awarded a $33.6 million contract Sept. 30 for emergency reconstruction of military bases in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned.]

Aren't there any freakin' other companies in this country???

You Know Things Are Bad When O'Reilly Is Predicting Bush's Downfall

quote[O’REILLY: And then you have Libby, vice president’s chief of staff.

SAMMON: Right.

O’REILLY: And you have Rove, all right, both linked into these two reporters.

Now the two reporters are saying one thing to the grand jury. And Rove and Libby are saying another thing.

And now what looks like is Fitzgerald trying to figure out who’s telling the truth and who isn’t. And if Rove gets indicted, that could bring down the Bush administration, I think.]

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

States seeking to track cell phones for traffic conditions

quote[Driving to work with your cell phone on, you notice the traffic beginning to slow down. Instantly and unbeknown to you, the government senses your delay and flashes a traffic congestion update over Web sites and electronic road signs.

Other motorists take heed, diverting to alternative routes or allowing more time for their trips.

Futuristic as it may seem, the scenario actually is pretty close to becoming reality.]


How long before they see the "benefits" of not keeping the data anonomous?

You might want to turn off the phone while driving through MO.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Unmasked: the 'real Shakespeare'

quote[EXTRAORDINARY historical evidence suggests Shakespeare's plays were not written by the bard, but by a Tudor politician descended from King Edward III.

British Shakespeare scholar and former university lecturer Brenda James and university historian William Rubinstein propose that the real Shakespeare was Sir Henry Neville, an English courtier and diplomat.]


This is very, very interesting.

Bush's First Veto

quote[he Bush administration pledged yesterday to veto legislation banning the torture of prisoners by US troops after an overwhelming and almost unprecedented revolt by loyalist congressmen.

The mutiny was the latest setback for an administration facing an increasingly independent and bloody-minded legislature. But it also marked a key moment in Congress's campaign to curtail the huge powers it has granted the White House since 2001 in its war against terrorism.

The late-night Senate vote saw the measure forbidding torture passed by 90 to nine, with most Republicans backing the measure. Most senators said the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and similar allegations at the Guantanamo Bay prison rendered the result a foregone conclusion.]


Kind of says a lot about the intentions of this administration, doesn't it?

Friday, October 07, 2005

If Bloomberg really thought there was a chance for bombing would he be riding the subway?



quote[OLBERMANN: Thank you.

Remarkably enough, Karl Rove's possible legal problems were bookended by two pieces of terror news. Before, came a presidential speech on the war on terror. After, came a supposed terrorist threat to New York's subway system.

Stop what you're thinking. It is just an amazing coincidence. The terrorists just happened to wait to make these threats until there's bad news about the administration that it needs to preempt. Just a coincidence.

The threat in a moment...

...CRAIG CRAWFORD, MSNBC ANALYST: Hi, there. You're sounding a bit skeptical tonight.

OLBERMANN: Well, I'm—yes, and I'm going to raise this question as

skeptically and bluntly as I can. It's not a question that doubts the

existence of terror, nor the threat of terrorism. But we've cobbled

together in the last couple of hours a list of at least 13 occasions that -

· on which—whenever there has been news that significantly impacted the White House negatively, there has been some sudden credible terror threat somewhere in this country. How could the coincidence be so consistent?


CRAWFORD: It's, it is a pattern. One of the most memorable was just after the Democratic Convention in the 2004 election, when they talked about the threat to New York and even the World Trade—World Bank, and it turned out that was based on intelligence that was three years old, (INAUDIBLE) even before 9/11.

There is a pattern here. And I think it's difficult sometimes to take it at face value. But in these moments, when it looks like a crisis, it's (INAUDIBLE), those of us who bring it up get accused of treason. That's what Howard Dean was accused of when he raised that after the Democratic Convention scare alert.]


Quoted text and link are from the transcripts of Countdown With Keith Olbermann.

Interesting, eh?

Study: Euthanizing Right-wing Pundits would Solve Global Warming

quote[he scientific community was stunned today when famed French geophysicist Jacques Revanche published a study that concludes euthanizing right-wing talk show hosts would solve the global warming problem.

The report sparked a firestorm of controversy across the nation’s airwaves, even as Revanche sought to downplay its findings. “It’s true that if you wanted to stop global warming, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could euthanize every right-wing talk show host in this country, and the global temperature would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your temperature would go down.”

To gather data for the study, Revanche sneaked into talk show studios variously disguised as a plumber, hair stylist and, in the case of Bill O’Reilly, a falafel delivery boy. He then captured air samples in the vicinity of the hosts and subjected them to rigorous testing.

The results varied widely. For example, Rush Limbaugh’s breath was found to be the pollution equivalent of an 18-ton garbage truck while Michael Savage’s sample scored just below a battery-powered dildo.

The project was not without its setbacks, the data had to be reworked when it was discovered that Fox anchor John Gibson has no cellular activity and was reclassified as “undead.”

Upon learning of the study, conservative talking heads went into apoplexy. Sean Hannity became so enraged when co-host Alan Colmes suggested that right-wing punditry was responsible for Hurricane Katrina, he lifted him by the throat and gave him a category five wedgie.

But not everyone dismissed the idea. Senator Hillary Clinton suggested that the conservative broadcasters volunteer to be “put down.” In a speech on the Senate floor, Clinton asked, “how much do they love their country? This is an opportunity for a vast right wing conspiracy to save America and the planet. We should reach out to them with our thoughts, prayers and a loaded revolver.”

Meanwhile, the Christian evangelical community, which was conspicuously silent after Republican lackey turned talk show host Bill Bennett made similar remarks regarding aborting all black babies, went into full howl in defense of the right-wing pundits. CBN President Pat Robertson went the farthest saying he would get the CIA to “take Revanche out.”]


LOL!!!

Take that, Bill Bennett!

Is This A Joke?? A Soda Can???



For a second, I thought I had accidentally loaded the onion.

Also, anyone else notice that these terra' stories seem to always come out when Bush's numbers are tanking or another crony is about to be indicted?

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Breaking: Rove Said to Testify in CIA Leak Case

quote[Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th-hour testimony in the case of a
CIA officer's leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.
ADVERTISEMENT

The persons, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has not made any decision yet on whether to file criminal charges against the longtime confidant of
President Bush or others.]


Is a plea bargain in the making?

Rove missing from White House events; Word on Hill is that he has been told he's target of probe

quote[The buzz on Capitol Hill is that Rove has received what sources called a "target letter," or a letter from the prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson telling him that he is now a target in the investigation. To date, no reporters have been able to confirm this account. One lawyer says that at this point in the investigation it would be more likely any letters would normally be notifications of an indictment.]

It's coming soon, my friends.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Karl Rove's Latest Trick: Getting Bush To Hit The Bottle

quote[Mr President, you've got to start drinking seriously again.

What? Karl, are you out of your mind?

No, sir, it could really work to get your numbers back up.

What do you mean? Have you started drinking yourself?

No, sir, hear me out.

This had better be good. You've already embarrassed me mightily with that Valerie Plame shit.

Well, sir, what we do is, we first have rumors.

Rumors?

Yes, that you've started drinking again.

Uh-uh.

We feed them. We say you fell off your chair watching TV because you were unsteady on your feet.

Isn't that going too far?

Well, sir, you've done it before.

Uh-uh.

Then we have you come out at a press conference saying that, for Laura's sake, and the sake of the nation, you're going into rehab.

What!?]


This was very funny. Click the link to read the rest.

Earle says he has new evidence on DeLay

quote[New evidence obtained during the weekend prompted the money laundering charges that were brought against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay this week, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle said Tuesday.

Earle said the grand jury that indicted DeLay last week on the last day of its term "declined to indict" on charges other than conspiracy to violate the election code.

Earle said in a statement that "additional information" that he would not detail came to him during the weekend, leading him to present the money laundering charges to a new grand jury Monday.]


He is so going down...I hope.

Bolton Agitates Yale Audience

quote[The audience interrupted Bolton throughout his speech with loud banging on desks and hissing, the typical YPU expressions for approval and disagreement. When asked about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Bolton said the U.S. -- not other countries or international organizations ­-- should hold its own citizens accountable for possible abuse.

"We don't need anybody else to judge us," he said. "We judge our own."

The answer prompted loud hissing from the audience, but Bolton offered students a question of his own.]


LOL!

Monday, October 03, 2005

Role of Rove, Libby in CIA Leak Case Clearer

quote[But a new theory about Fitzgerald's aim has emerged in recent weeks from two lawyers who have had extensive conversations with the prosecutor while representing witnesses in the case. They surmise that Fitzgerald is considering whether he can bring charges of a criminal conspiracy perpetrated by a group of senior Bush administration officials. Under this legal tactic, Fitzgerald would attempt to establish that at least two or more officials agreed to take affirmative steps to discredit and retaliate against Wilson and leak sensitive government information about his wife. To prove a criminal conspiracy, the actions need not have been criminal, but conspirators must have had a criminal purpose.]

I just hope Fitzgerald can pin something on these criminals.

New Supreme Court nominee's ties to Bush's National Guard scandal

quote[The Bushies' concern began while he was running for a second term as governor. A hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers was retained to investigate the issue; state records show Miers was paid $19,000 by the Bush gubernatorial campaign. She and other aides quickly identified a problem--rumors that Bush had help from his father in getting into the National Guard back in 1968. Ben Barnes, a prominent Texas Democrat and a former speaker of the House in the state legislature, told friends he used his influence to get George W a guard slot after receiving a request from Houston oilman Sid Adger. Barnes said Adger told him he was calling on behalf of the elder George Bush, then a Texas congressman. Both Bushes deny seeking any help from Barnes or Adger, who has since passed away. Concerned that Barnes might go public with his allegations, the Bush campaign sent Don Evans, a friend of W's, to hear Barnes's story. Barnes acknowledged that he hadn't actually spoken directly to Bush Sr. and had no documents to back up his story. As the Bush campaign saw it, that let both Bushes off the hook. And the National Guard question seemed under control.]

Typical. More cronyism