Terry's new target: Is anyone else bothered by the fact that Randall Terry plans to lead a rally against the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court at the offices of Dr. George Tiller? Terry, of course, was one of the most rabid voices whipping up hatred of Tiller before his assassination ...

Obama to blame for Palin: This really has to be my favorite right-wing nutcase explanation for Sarah Palin's decision to step down as Alaska's governor, from the nuttiest of them all, Pam Geller:

My take? If Palin is anything like I think she is (know she is), Obama's treasonous presidency is responsible for this. She, like all patriotic Americans, is shocked by what is happening. Obama is destroying this country. She knows it. We all know it. We need a leader. She is answering our call.

Blatant Self-Promotion Dept.: Joe Conason interviewed me for the Progressive Book Club, as part of its inclusion this month of my book, The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, as a PBC Selection this month.

When it comes to scandals at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Reagan-era controversies would appear to take the cake. As Joe Conason explained not too long ago, Reagan’s HUD scandal included “politically connected Republicans criminally exploit[ing] the same housing assistance programs they routinely denounced as ‘wasteful.’”

As it turns out, Bush’s HUD scandals aren’t generating nearly the same amount of attention, but the controversies are nearly as serious.

Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson demanded that the Philadelphia Housing Authority transfer a $2 million public property to a developer at a substantial discount, then retaliated against the housing authority when it refused to do so, a recent court filing alleges.

The authority’s director, Carl Greene, contends in a court affidavit that Jackson called Philadelphia’s mayor in 2006 to demand the transfer to the developer, Kenny Gamble, a former soul-music songwriter who is a business friend of Jackson’s. Jackson’s aides followed up with “menacing” threats about the property and other housing programs in at least a dozen letters and phone calls over an 11-month period, Greene said in an interview.

Greene and his colleagues have alleged in the court filing that Philadelphia is now paying a severe price for disobeying a Bush Cabinet official. The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently vowed to strip the city’s housing authority of its ability to spend some federal funds, a move that the authority said could raise rents for most of its 84,000 low-income tenants and force the layoffs of 250 people. […]

“The secretary was determined that we turn over this land to this specific developer,” Greene said in an interview. “I refused. . . . He didn’t have the ability to remove me. So he resorted to these extraordinary measures to extract what he wanted.”

Mark Kleiman notes that Bush and Jackson have effectively turned the Department of Housing and Urban Development into “an extortion racket,” which, under the circumstances, sounds about right.

Agitprop: G-Dub to World's largest largest democracy..."BITE ME"

Calling All Wingnuts: Terriffic site featuring recordings of our hero calling winger talk shows and challenging the unhinged hosts...with facts! Rush, Laura Ingraham, O'Reilly, and more.

State of the Day: I feel safer knowing that singer, Morrissey, has been interrogated by by both British and American intel authorities. Singers seem to be drawing special attention. Recently, Henry Rollins was labled a "possible threat" by the Australian government. WTF?

Petrelis Files We may be safe from singers, but...these two DHS audits might frighten you about the current status of U.S. ports.

Not a blog, but Business as usual by Joe Conason is excellent.

Roger Ailes: Konservative Komedy KornerPetrelis Files We may be safe from singers, but...these two DHS audits might frighten you about the current status of U.S. ports.

Not a blog, but Business as usual by Joe Conason is excellent.

Roger Ailes: Konservative Komedy Korner

The Leftcoaster, AmericaBlog and Joe Conason have Jeff Gannon possibly involved in Rove-Gate.

There's nothing that fool would want more than is to have people talking about him again. That is except this part of his anatomy.

From Today's show, Al had Klein and Joe Conason on talking about the new Hillary book

Download | play -WMA-Part I

Download | play -WMA-Part II

Joe rips Klein.

Newshounds has the transcripts

From the Air America's website: FOR THE RECORD: KLEIN WAS TOLD ABOUT CONASON For those who just heard the interview with Ed Klein: Al called Adrian Zackheim, and was assured that Klein had been told that Joe Conason would be on the program. But it wasn't necessarily a lie. "He's been through so much this week," Zackheim told Al, "that maybe he forgot."