Where to start. . . Instaputz notes that the Doughy Pantload is pleased to note that Vox Day likes his new book, Liberal Fascism, stating enthusiastically, “I like Vox.”

This, of course, being the same self-styled Vox Day who once marveled at German efficiency in ridding themselves of undesirable elements in the 1940s and opined that similar methods could be applied to undocumented aliens in this country:

Not only will it work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn’t possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens. . .

and then defended his comment by stating:

So, there are no lessons to be learned from the National Socialists?

The Pantload must be desperate for praise, indeed.

Of course, one of the lessons which should be learned from the example of National Socialism is what catastrophes can result from the false elevation of vapid, cretinous gasbags to the status of “intellectual” and treating their intellectual spoor as serious thought.

I haven’t read his book, but one of his apparent epiphanies is that the Nazis were pro-Gay Rights.

Which is pretty much true, except for the little parts about imprisoning homosexuals in concentration camps, castrating, and executing them.

(CNN) — The government asked a federal court Tuesday to order former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick to keep on hand assets valued at more than $900,000 — the amount earmarked for the care of 54 pit bulls. The animals were found on his property when a dogfighting operation was busted last April.

Vick turned himself in to authorities Monday to get a jump start on serving his sentence for running the ring.

In a motion filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson noted that Vick, in his plea agreement, agreed to pay “restitution for the full amount of the costs associated with the disposition of all dogs” in the case.

Vick agreed that those costs could include “the long-term care and/or the humane euthanasia of some or all of those animals,” which were seized from the “Bad Newz Kennels” on his property in Surry County, Virginia.

He’s now apparently going by the name, “Anne Tyrrell” and employed as a spokesperson for Blackwater International. We can tell it’s Bob by the dissonance between his statements and objective reality.

The New York Times cited unidentified civilian and military officials in reporting for Wednesday’s editions that the killings of at least 14 of the 17 Iraqi civilians shot by Blackwater personnel guarding a U.S. Embassy convoy were found to have been unjustified and violated standards in place governing the use of deadly force.

Responding to the Times report, Anne Tyrrell, a Blackwater spokeswoman, said the company “supports the stringent accountability of the industry. . . .”

In an industry where mercs are exempt from the USCMJ and Iraqi law, have been granted immunity by the State Department, and there is no accountability.

Although the report disclosed that:

No evidence supports assertions by Blackwater employees that they were fired upon by Iraqi civilians. . . .

Bob/Anne was unfazed:

“Without a doubt, the teams were faced with deadly force that day,” the Blackwater spokeswoman said.

“Without a doubt, the teams were faced with deadly force that day”

Who needs softball questions tossed by professional fluffers like Steve Sammon when you can just have actual government-paid lackies ask the questions:

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

Reporters were given only 15 minutes’ notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a “listen only” line, the notice said — no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.

~~~

He was apparently quite familiar with the reporters — in one case, he appears to say “Mike” and points to a reporter — and was asked an oddly in-house question about “what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration” signed by the president. He once again explained smoothly.

FEMA press secretary Aaron Walker interrupted at one point to caution he’d allow just “two more questions.” Later, he called for a “last question.”

“Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” a reporter asked. Another asked about “lessons learned from Katrina.”

“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response so far,” Johnson said, hailing “a very smoothly, very efficiently performing team.”

“And so I think what you’re really seeing here is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the benefit of good partnership,” Johnson said, “none of which were present in Katrina.” (Wasn’t Michael Chertoff DHS chief then?) Very smooth, very professional. But something didn’t seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA’s greatness.

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

Fake news perfected, even to the point of cutting out the middle man. Jeff Gannon, you’re obsolete.

(via atrios)

This gem from the head honcho of Trainwreck Media:

I think this story is emblematic of many aspects of the mainstream media’s bias and inability to confront reality

This from the guy who last I checked thought Saddam’s non-existent nukes were smuggled through imaginary tunnels into the territory of his non-ally Syria.

Bush apparently is going to finally be rid of his serial-prevaricating, corrupt, and less-than-competent Attorney General:

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. He is expected to announce the decision to reporters at 10:30 Eastern time this morning in Washington.

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation for months, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, a senior administration official said.

Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said early this morning, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.

The Post’s story on his departure:

His testimony on issues such as a federal wiretap program required follow-up explanations and was contradicted by documents or the statements of other federal officials. At hearings on the U.S. attorney firings, Gonzales frequently said he could not remember details about key events — frustrating members of Congress who felt he was trying to minimize his role in what they regarded as politically motivated dismissals. Some suggested that the nation’s top law enforcement official had committed perjury.

“Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove,” said Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), referring to the belief among many Democrats that political strategist Rove engineered the ouster of the U.S. attorneys to make room for appointees more loyal to Bush.

“This resignation is not the end of the story. Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House.”

~~~

Gradually, opposition to him spread from the Democrats to include key Republicans.

“I do not find your testimony credible,” Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told him flatly in a July hearing on the surveillance program.

“Under this Attorney General and this President, the Department of Justice suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), said as news of Gonzales’ resignation circulated. “I hope the Attorney General’s decision will be a step toward getting to the truth about the level of political influence this White House wields over the Department of Justice and toward reconstituting its leadership.”

He was the least credible attorney general in the last 100 years, and that is a list which includes at least two men who were the subject of indictments.

MORE: Supposedly Skeletor is on the short list to replace Gonzo:

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was among those mentioned as possible successors.

Weren’t his massive contributions to the FEMA/Katrina clusterfuck enough?

I can’t really add much more to this luminous commentary (click on the link — a must read) rescued from the memory hole by Digby, of which the climactic paragraph reads:

President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.

Except this: If Gaius Julius Caesar had been such a fucking moron he thought “disassemble” means “not tell the truth,” in those pre-heimlich days he never would have conquered eating prandium without choking to death, let alone Gaul.

If you put Bush in a Counsel’s garb and put him in charge of the legions, you get this:

The Right’s response to the White House being busted disassembling dissembling about the authorship of the so-called “Petraeus Report” is to deny that they’ve ever claimed that Crocker and Petraeus would actually prepare the report. But that, of course, is about as truthful and Fredo Gonzales testifying to Congress.

White House Spokesperson Dana Perino, August 14, 2007:

“Obviously, there is going to be a report from Ambassador Crocker and General David Petraeus in September. We’ll have to take a look at those.”

Philip Reeker, Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, August 10:

“As agreed in legislation, in mid-September, Amb. Crocker and General Petraeus will go back to Washington and make a report to the President and to the Congress of the United States.”

President Shrub, August 9:

“As you know, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will be coming back to report on the findings of the success of the surge.”

Tony Snow, August 2:

“I’m not going to try to project out to the time that General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker put together a report, because the situation could change dramatically for the better, who knows. “

Tony Snow, August 1:

“Now, let us keep in mind that the full burden of this report does not fall on his shoulders. A lot of the key judgments, especially about politics, will fall on Ambassador Crocker. So this is — although I know a lot of people talk about “the Petraeus report,” in fact, you have a report that is a joint report by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. And so we trust him.”

“Q Two questions, Tony. To what extent was the Vice President pre-writing the Petraeus report or setting expectations when he said he thinks it’s going to show progress?

MR. SNOW: No, I don’t think he’s pre-writing it. Look, again, the one thing — if you talk to military guys, the last thing they want to do is get themselves embroiled in politics. What they try to do is to play it straight and to do it straight. And obviously the Vice President has his impressions based on what he’s seen, but we’re going to have to wait to see what General Petraeus has to report. “

So, yes, Virginia, the White House has repeatedly claimed that Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker would be preparing a report and issuing it to Congress, knowing all the while that the White House itself would be preparing the report.

From today’s LA Times:

The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts.

The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year’s reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. The authority has been held by federal judges.

Under the rules now being prepared, if a state requested it and Gonzales agreed, prosecutors could use “fast track” procedures that could shave years off the time that a death row inmate has to appeal to the federal courts after conviction in a state court.

From yesterday’s Brewster Rocket, Space Guy:

I can see it now — Gonzo expedites the execution of several people, first claiming there was no evidence they were innocent, then after DNA clears them, stating that he made the decision to whack him but he wasn’t involved in the decision and had no knowledge of the reasoning upon which the decision was based.

After it turns out that Rove sent a bunch of emails urging Gonzo to put a bullet in each head personally, which emails the White House won’t turn over.

Better to give a gun to a fucking monkey.