The violation of the no-fly zone Wednesday led more than 30,000 people to quickly leave the White House complex, the Capitol and the Supreme Court and triggered an eight-minute "red alert" at the White House.

At the time, Bush was riding a bicycle at a wildlife center in suburban Maryland and wasn't told of the alert until after he had completed his ride at 12:50

According to the latest campaign finance report, Wal-Mart has spent more than $280,000 trying to overturn one local ordinance. This makes this little local election the most expensive in Flagstaff's history. The Wal-Mart money is spent on full-page newspaper ads and mailings, both full of vicious Orwellian rhetoric implying that a zoning ordinance that limits store size is somehow the same as burning books. Yeah, go figure.

So, when H. Lee Scott Jr. says that Wal-Mart doesn't do that sort of thing anymore, he's a liar....I'm so surprised.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Blogging Banquet Hall. Your waiter today is once again Steven at The Opinion Mill, and he's ready with a list of today's specials:

The thick redneck line: Rick Perlstein traces the racist strain from today's conservatives to their allegedly enlightened forebears.

Wanna read about the Iraq movie that's gonna have the wingers and warwhores in full-froth mode later this month? Get your preview right here .

Who would you support: snakes or real estate developers? You need time to think about it? Joey Novick understands .

What becomes a legend most? When you're talking about the Divine Mr. R. it's the GOP presidential nomination, of course. Saucy thing!

Watch what you say, or AT&T will take away your Internets.

Family values versus valuing families: which president stacks up the best? Like we need to ask?

James Fallows says what needed to be said: Frog really don't sit still while the water around them gets heated to boiling. Several decades of political arguments and analogies have now been rendered inoperable. If you have any (scientifically accurate) replacement metaphors, send them to Mr. Fallows here.

BOOK NOOK: Trey Ellis offers whiny-ass memoir author Clarence Thomas some job advice. As a public service, the author of 211 Things a Bright Boy Can Do demonstrates the proper technique for removing one's underwear without taking off one's pants -- Justice Thomas will no doubt want to try this when things get slow during those Supreme Court sessions. And American master Louis Auchincloss shows why he's considered the literary heir of Henry James and Edith Wharton: "I just think the Bushes are a big family of shits." 

AP Via The Huffington Post:

With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium.About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa, and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and 'Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art.

While many of the buyers are Crimson Tide alumni or ardent football fans not entitled to any special Katrina-related tax breaks, many others are real estate investors who are purchasing the condos with plans to rent them out.

And they intend to take full advantage of the generous tax benefits available to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, or GO Zone, according to Associated Press interviews with buyers and real estate officials. Read more...

It looks like Air America has a new buyer...More details coming shortly ...

Air America Radio, a liberal talk radio network, said Monday that it had reached a tentative agreement to be sold to the founder of a New York area real estate company. The network also said that Al Franken, its longtime headline personality, would depart next month....read on

Media Matters:

Time reported that Democrats "got an unwelcome distraction this week when Senate minority leader Harry Reid ... found himself embroiled in a real estate scandal," but the magazine has ignored reports from June that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert made almost $2 million on the sale of land in Illinois after reportedly taking an active role in the inclusion in a transportation spending bill of an earmark for a highway project near the property. Read on...

UPDATE: Chicago Trib: Reid's Raw (Land) Deal

The tempest that's been created over Sen. Harry Reid's Las Vegas real-estate transaction puts me in mind of the famous poet's famous line "There is no there, there."

Roger Ailes

Just remember. When you read all the Bushlicking bloggers piss and moan about the New London decision -- They're all frauds.

In 1993, while walking through the stadium, Bush told the Houston Chronicle, "When all those people in Austin say, 'He ain't never done anything,' well, this is it." But Bush would have never gotten the stadium deal off the ground if the city of Arlington had not agreed to use its power of eminent domain to seize the property that belonged to the Mathes family. And evidence presented in the Mathes lawsuit suggests that the Rangers' owners -- remember that Bush was the managing general partner -- were conspiring to use the city's condemnation powers to obtain the thirteen-acre tract a full six months before the ASFDA was even created.

In an October 26, 1990, memo from Mike Reilly (an Arlington real estate broker and part owner of the Rangers), to Tom Schieffer, Reilly says of the Mathes property, "... in this particular situation our first offer should be our final offer.... If this fails, we will probably have to initiate condemnation proceedings after the bond election passes."

The Mathes memo reveals a sharp contrast between Bush's public pronouncements in defense of property rights and his private profiteering. While running against Ann Richards, Bush said, "I understand full well the value of private property and its importance not only in our state but in capitalism in general, and I will do everything I can to defend the power of private property and private property rights when I am the governor of this state." Roger Ailes

Just remember. When you read all the Bushlicking bloggers piss and moan about the New London decision -- They're all frauds.

In 1993, while walking through the stadium, Bush told the Houston Chronicle, "When all those people in Austin say, 'He ain't never done anything,' well, this is it." But Bush would have never gotten the stadium deal off the ground if the city of Arlington had not agreed to use its power of eminent domain to seize the property that belonged to the Mathes family. And evidence presented in the Mathes lawsuit suggests that the Rangers' owners -- remember that Bush was the managing general partner -- were conspiring to use the city's condemnation powers to obtain the thirteen-acre tract a full six months before the ASFDA was even created.

In an October 26, 1990, memo from Mike Reilly (an Arlington real estate broker and part owner of the Rangers), to Tom Schieffer, Reilly says of the Mathes property, "... in this particular situation our first offer should be our final offer.... If this fails, we will probably have to initiate condemnation proceedings after the bond election passes."

The Mathes memo reveals a sharp contrast between Bush's public pronouncements in defense of property rights and his private profiteering. While running against Ann Richards, Bush said, "I understand full well the value of private property and its importance not only in our state but in capitalism in general, and I will do everything I can to defend the power of private property and private property rights when I am the governor of this state."
Yet Bush and his partners used Arlington's powers to condemn the land for the stadium, and relied on taxpayers to repay the bonds sold to build the Ballpark -- receiving what amounts to a direct $135-million subsidy. Now, after tripling the amount they paid for the Rangers, Bush and his partners won't re-pay the city a measly $7.5 million.

(More here) 

Frontline: Private Warriors       rear window ethics

I got around to watching the most recent Frontline, entitled Private Warriors. In it, a Frontline reporting team follows private contractors in Iraq, both specializing in industry/infrastructure as well as private security. The level to which we depend on these private companies, their supply lines and their security teams is simply staggering, and the lack of transparency and accountability in their mission is deeply disturbing.

Watch the program now, online, here.

Yet Bush and his partners used Arlington's powers to condemn the land for the stadium, and relied on taxpayers to repay the bonds sold to build the Ballpark -- receiving what amounts to a direct $135-million subsidy. Now, after tripling the amount they paid for the Rangers, Bush and his partners won't re-pay the city a measly $7.5 million.
(More here)

``Ask the men and women who stood on top of the Trade Center,'' said Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif. ``Ask them and they will tell you: 'Pass this amendment.'''
The Guardian, June 23, 2005.

``Ask the men and women who stood on top of the Trade Center,'' said Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif. ``Ask them and they will tell you: 'Pass this amendment.'''
The Guardian, June 23, 2005.

President Bush made a personal appeal on Friday to one of the nation's most powerful business lobbies to help him sway wary lawmakers to back his beleaguered Social Security plan. The National Association of Realtors, the largest political action committee in terms of direct contributions to federal candidates, has so far sat out of the Social Security fight, while powerful labor unions and retirement organizations have rallied against Bush's plans for private accounts. "I ask you to contact the members of the House of Representatives and Senate, members of the Senate from your state, and encourage them to work in good faith to solve this problem," Bush told members of real estate group.

"We're in a bind. And now is the time to come together and fix the problem," Bush said.

So much for the "we have them right where we want them argument" that the talking heads have been babbling about on 24/7. This is the typical response when a question is posed on how bad the polls have showed that the American people are not supporting the President and his Social Security tour. If we use "Bay Buchanan" as an example, she'll usually say that the President has informed the public that there at least is a problem and the polls show that much. The problem is with the policy. Nobody wants their benefits cut.

In an unusual switch, Kenneth Starr is trying to overturn a case, instead of falsely making one!

From WaPo: Former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr yesterday took on a case unlike any he's had: the appeal of Arlington's only death row inmate.

As Salon has reported about Starr V.S. President Clinton:

What these carefully documented investigative stories underline is essentially this: In his zealous pursuit of the president, Kenneth Starr defiled "the temple of justice," to use his own righteous rhetoric. Lacking a fundamental sense of fairness and judicial proportion, Starr sought first to build his Whitewater real estate case against Clinton using irredeemably corrupt testimony, and then, when this failed, he latched onto Paula Jones' ill-fated civil suit, and then when that failed, he wired Linda Tripp and finally snared Clinton on adultery -- a crime that if aggressively pursued in Washington would depopulate our capital as thoroughly as the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh.

The new case involves Robin Lovitt:

Starr, a former federal judge and U.S. solicitor general, argued the case of Robin Lovitt before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond. He urged the judges to overturn Lovitt's conviction in the 1998 killing of an Arlington pool hall employee, who was stabbed six times with a pair of scissors.

If Lovitt is indeed innocent, let's hope for his sake that Starr has the same zeal for the (truth) hunt.