The New Civility: Tom Coburn Draws Short Straw in 'SOTU Kumbaya' Raffle - Seems Kinda Happy About it

Chuckie Schumer, on the other hand, is just glad he doesn't have to sit next to that "tea-bagger" Scott Brown.

Click here to watch

Via RealClearPolitics. Cross-posted.

'I Really Don't Understand Why President Obama Got Involved in Our Primary'

I love the smell of Democrat civil wars.

Have at it, boys and girls.

Rep. Charles Rangel defended colleague Carolyn Maloney's right to take on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and lashed out anew at President Obama for butting into New York's Democratic primary.

"I really cannot say anything negative about a senior member who wants to run and whose polls, at this point in time, appear to be in her favor," Rangel, dean of the New York House delegation, told the Daily News.

Rangel stood up for Maloney while the state's senior senator, Chuck Schumer, and the Democratic establishment are rallying around Gillibrand.

"Nobody can challenge that she's not a hardworking member of Congress," Rangel said of Maloney, citing her work on behalf of 9/11 victims and her landmark legislation protecting credit card holders.

"She is certainly one of our most active members," he said.

In May, President Obama phoned Long Island Rep. Steve Israel to nudge him away from a challenge - a move that also prompted Rangel to criticize the President. Last month, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said publicly Team Obama favored Gillibrand.

"I really don't understand why President Obama got involved in our primary," Rangel said.

"I don't want to use the word wrong, but it doesn't seem like the astute political thing to do," he said.

Chuckles ought to look out for that bus that's about to run over him.

Shocker! Former Schumer Aide Busted in Million-Dollar Kickback Scheme

Chuckie Schumer was unavailable for comment, naturally.

A longtime Democratic consultant to former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is one of two men indicted today on a pay-to-play kickback scheme involving the state pension fund, officials said.

Hank Morris, who once worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and David Loglisci, who served as Hevesi's deputy comptroller for Pension Investment and Cash Management, are the first people to be charged following a two-year investigation by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Both men were charged with 123 counts, including enterprise corruption, grand larceny, money laundering and Martin Act offenses, according to a 123-page indictment filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

"By injecting politics and self-dealing into investment decisions at the State pension fund, the defendants are alleged to have corrupted the New York State Comptroller's Office," said Cuomo.

Morris is accused of pocketing $30 million in fees from financial firms that won business with the pension fund during Hevesi's time in office.

I wonder if Schumer will tax 100% of that $30 million?

The Associated Press, naturally, avoids mentioning the word Democrat.

More here.

A real big week for Chuckie Schumer. One of his biggest contributors in Bernie Madoff goes away for life and now one of his former aides gets busted for ripping off millions. Of course the only time we see him preening for the cameras is when he's threatening to tax AIG executives. Funny how his relationship to scandal goes virtually unnoticed.

Memo To Schmuck Schumer, et al

Going to Anbar anytime soon, Schmuck?

You're more of a disgrace than the Fat Drunk is. You make Trent Lott look like a member of MENSA.

Consider pulling your head out of your ass, go out to California and spend some time at the beach.

If you have balls enough to do so.

Useless putz.


Video courtesy of Mike Kaminski

Get Ready For Sunday

This will surely be dismissed by the Koslings as propaganda dictated by Dick Cheney to further facilitate the world takeover by evil forces working at the behest of Halliburton, which is wholly owned and operated by the Bushchimphitler-Pajamashadeen-Joooish Conspiracy.

Intel Report: al-Qaida Aiming at US

Al-Qaida is stepping up its efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, The Associated Press has learned.

And just what is it that George W. Bush, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Harriet Reid, Trent Lott, the Fat Drunk and others trying to do about illegal immigration undocumented migrant workers? In the real world, the concern is border security.

The draft National Intelligence Estimate is expected to paint an ever-more-worrisome portrait of al-Qaida's ability to use its base along the Pakistan-Afghan border to launch and inspire attacks, even as Bush administration officials say the U.S. is safer nearly six years into the war on terror.

Among the key findings of the classified estimate, which is still in draft form and must be approved by all 16 U.S. spy agencies:

- Al-Qaida is probably still pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and would use them if its operatives developed sufficient capability.

- The terror group has been able to restore three of the four key tools it would need to launch an attack on U.S. soil: a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas, operational lieutenants and senior leaders. It could not immediately be learned what the missing fourth element is.

Uhh, perhaps Jihad Warriors to carry out the attacks?

- The group will bolster its efforts to position operatives inside U.S. borders. In public statements, U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ease with which people can enter the United States through Europe because of a program that allows most Europeans to enter without visas.

The document also discusses increasing concern about individuals already inside the United States who are adopting an extremist brand of Islam.

Adopting??? WTF??? How about importing???

National Intelligence Estimates are the most authoritative written judgments that reflect the consensus long-term thinking of senior intelligence analysts.

Government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been finalized, described it as an expansive look at potential threats within the United States and said it required the cooperation of a number of national security agencies, including the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security Department and National Counterterrorism Center.

National security officials met at the White House on Thursday about the intelligence estimate and related counterterrorism issues. The tentative plan is to release a declassified version of the report and brief Congress on Tuesday, one government official said.

Ross Feinstein, spokesman for National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, declined to discuss the document's specific contents. But he said it would be consistent with statements made by senior government officials at congressional hearings and elsewhere.

The estimate echoes the findings of another analysis prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center earlier this year and disclosed publicly on Wednesday. That report - titled "Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West" - found the terrorist group is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," a counterterrorism official familiar with the reports findings told The Associated Press.

On Thursday, news of the counterterrorism center's threat assessment renewed the political debate about the nature of the al-Qaida threat and whether U.S. actions - in Iraq in particular - have made the U.S. safer from terrorism.

At a news conference Thursday, President Bush acknowledged al-Qaida's continuing threat to the United States and used the new report as evidence his administration's policies are on the right course.

"The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on Sept. 11," he said. "That's why what happens in Iraq matters to security here at home."

Yet Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Iraq has distracted the United States. He said the U.S. should have finished off al-Qaida in 2002 and 2003 along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

I'd love to hear this asshat pontificate about when in 1940, the French should have finished off the Wehrmacht.

Instead, "President Bush chose to invade Iraq, thereby diverting our military and intelligence resources away from the real war on terrorism," Rockefeller said. "Threats to the United States homeland are not emanating from Iraq. They are coming from al-Qaida leadership."

There is no al-Qaida in Iraq. Heard that one before.

He called for the U.S. to end its involvement in what he called the Iraqi civil war.

Read it all.

The Progressives in Congress are busy preparing for the Sunday morning interview shows.

With Trufer flipcharts and PowerPoint presentations at hand, no doubt.