Please, stop the bullshit and stop trying to carry water for Wall Street.

Steve Krakauer:

Gasparino was being interviewed by anchors Brian Sullivan and Dagen McDowell, and said he had been trying to get in touch with Goldman all morning. “I just tried calling Goldman Sachs media department,” he said, laughing. “I got voicemail.”

But when Sullivan brought up the idea that this whole lawsuit was the fault of a “rogue employee,” Gasparino cut in. “That’s bullshit,” he said. “Excuse the language.”

“I’m sure it’s never been said on a trading floor,” joked Sullivan.

The FOX News Saturday morning stock shows are going to go ballistic tomorrow. That should be fun.

TVNewser sent me over to the Business Insider where Fox Business Network was interviewing Tila Tequila when the Goldman Sachs story broke. I have to admit that I did tune in to her reality show just to see what it was about. It was insane. Hey, it's my job to know what's going on in cable-land.

SHORTER Peter Feaver: "There is no difference between Obama's scare tactics on nuclear terrorism, designed to motivate nations to secure nuclear material, and CheneyBush's scare tactics on nuclear terrorism, designed to justify a US-led preventive invasion of Iraq."

So, yeah, let's watch the dangerous rhetoric about "the greatest threat to our national security," huh, guys? No need to get the conservatives all excited about justifying their past mistakes.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any more bizarre today, this gem crossed my Twitter stream, courtesy of Media Matters. Really, some folks ought to think before hitting the "tweet button." From the hatriot Neal Boortz, known as Talkmaster on Twitter, this little pair of gems:

Yes, it really DOES say that. Not content to leave that little bomb in the stream, he followed up with this:

While Media Matters was content to show this insanity with no further comment, I'm not. Small business is better off today than it was under Bush. This is fact. Their taxes are lower, they get an immediate tax credit for providing health benefits to their workers, and they finally get some parity with the big corporations.

Neal Boortz calls himself a libertarian, but he's really just a fool with a big mouth and a microphone.

I wonder if he's ever researched his company's past. If so, he'd know the founder of Cox Radio was Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate in 1920. FDR would NOT approve, and I somehow believe Mr. Cox would not either.

Two blasts have gone off during morning rush hour in Moscow's underground subways, killing dozens of morning commuters. Via RT.com:

The first explosion happened in a carriage at the central Lubyanka underground station and has claimed the lives of 26 people, with more injured, informs RIA Novosti news agency.

The second blast happened at the Park Kultury Metro station in the third carriage of a train. 15 or more people are reported to be dead, the quantity of injured is unknown.

According to Russia’s Emergency Ministry, the first explosion presumably happened in the second carriage of a Metro train stopped at the Lubyanka station in the very center of Moscow, only several hundred meters from the Kremlin. At 9:30am Moscow time, the Emergencies Ministry gave the number of casualties as 20 to 25 killed and 17 wounded on Lubyanka station, and 12 to 15 killed and over 20 wounded at Park Kultury station.

Officials are investigating the possibility of suicide bombers and/or a coordinated terrorist attack. The video has some stunning photos and video taken by eyewitness and people in close proximity. On a Monday morning rush-hour commute, there's a high likelihood that many more have died than initially reported.

Telegraph.co.uk reports:

Though it has yet to be confirmed, security sources said early indications suggested suspected suicide bombers from the volatile North Caucasus region that includes Chechnya were to blame.

If that is right, it would be the first time since 2004 that they have struck the Moscow metro. Prosecutors opened a criminal case immediately, saying they would be working on the basis that the explosions were the work of terrorists.

Reporters are updating at RT.com as more information is known. Other sources: MSNBC, CNN

Update #1: Video shot of the scene above ground.

Update #2: CBS News now quotes Moscow mayor as attributing both blasts to female suicide bombers.

Update #3: Via STRATFOR:

According to STRATFOR sources in Moscow, the two locations of the attacks on the subway in the city are symbolic. The first attack in Park Kultury is symbolic in that it is one of the city’s cultural centers being located near Gorky Park. The second location of the attack at the metro station of Lubyanka is nearly under the Federal Security Bureau’s headquarters—former KGB headquarters—the security hub of Russia. According to media reports, the attacks were caused by suicide bombers at the peak of rush hour in Moscow. Thus far, rumors are flying that Muslim extremists are responsible for the attack. In the past, there have typically been spring-summer attacks in Moscow in February, and spring is just now arriving in the capital.

Yesterday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nick George, a Pomona College student who was detained and aggressively interrogated by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) authorities, by the FBI and by Pennsylvania police when he tried to board a plane carrying Arabic language flash cards.

You heard right: Not liquids, not matches, not a bomb. Flash cards.

George, a physics major who's studying Arabic, was pulled aside for secondary screening at the Philadelphia International Airport as he tried to go through security. When he emptied his pockets, the inspector saw his flash cards and he was arrested, handcuffed, locked in a cell for hours and aggressively questioned. Because of some flash cards.

The following exchange took place between George and a TSA supervisor who questioned him:

TSA Supervisor: You know who did 9/11?

George: Osama bin Laden.

TSA Supervisor: Do you know what language he spoke?

George: Arabic.

At that point, the TSA supervisor held up George’s flash cards—which had words such as "to smile" and "funny" and on them—and said: "Do you see why these cards are suspicious?"

Ah, the smoking gun.

Here's the problem: During George's ordeal, no fewer than seven law enforcement officers took part in detaining and questioning him. The unnecessary arrest, detention and questioning of someone who, like George, poses no threat to flight safety, makes everyone less safe by diverting resources away from real threats.

George said yesterday, “As someone who travels by plane, I want TSA agents to do their job to keep flights safe. But I don’t understand how locking me up and harassing me just because I was carrying the flash cards made anybody safer. No one should be treated like a criminal for simply learning one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world.”

One of the FBI agents who questioned him put it best, we think. At the end of his ordeal, he said to George: “The police call us to evaluate whether there is a real threat. You are not a real threat.”

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Tucker Carlson, appearing on Fox News today, drooled all over Newt Gingrich as the guy who's grabbed the Golden Ring of the leaderless Republican Party:

Carlson: Yeah, this is about who's going to lead the Republican Party, not simply who's going to be the chosen presidential candidate in '12. But who's gonna be the soul of the party?

And there are a bunch of different elements here. I think Sarah Palin's presence, as always, brings a lot of excitement, also a lot of drama. And so a lot of stories going into this were about whether she will arrive in the first place, or whether she'll show up, whether she'll talk. Probably not a good storyline for the GOP.

Newt Gingrich, looks to me, is emerging as, certainly the intellectual center of the Republican Party -- the smartest, most energetic guy, and I think last night, kind of, is -- part of the process is solidifying that. Newt Gingrich is, I believe, running for president, and he's certainly the guy people are looking to for ideas in the Republican Party.

The deisgnated Fox liberal, Peter Mirijanian, manages to sound a note of skepticism:

I have some issues with Gingrich. It's kind of like 'Back to the Future' with him. I don't know if he necessarily is the face they want to put forward.

Yeah, you could say that, since a large chunk of the country sees him as a lying, bomb-chucking little troll.

But the best part of the whole exchange comes when Martha MacCallum, the Fox host, compares Gingrich to Ronald Reagan:

MacCallum: You know, Tucker, you think back to Ronald Reagan, who sort of, you know, entertained the idea of running for president for some time, and then kind of, you know, made a comeback later on. Do you see Newt Gingrich having sort of a similar path? Do you think he wants to run?

Carlson: I think Gingrich does want to run. I think Reagan was a little bit differently positioned, perhaps, coming from having served as governor of California than Newt is.

Well, Reagan, never exactly made a "comeback" -- he just was forced to hold off on his presidential aspirations during Nixon's presidency, and immediately continued his ascension up GOP ranks thereafter.

But if you're talking about Republican political comebacks, why not mention the most famous of these: The Tricky One himself? After all, Gingrich's planned comeback from defeat and disgrace is much more reminiscent of that than anything Reagan achieved.

Hmmmm, maybe that isn't the image wants to be projecting.

It's astounding how little attention Afghanistan gets.

A roadside bomb killed three service members and a local-national interpreter in a coalition convoy in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said.

With the deaths, the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan killed in June has reached 39, the highest monthly toll of the war, according to a CNN count of official figures.

The bombing occurred Thursday in the Sayed Abad District in Wardak province during a combat patrol.

The comes after a breathtaking piece in th LA Times this week:

Insurgent activity is increasing sharply in Afghanistan and has spread into once stable areas, with attacks up almost 40% in the eastern provinces alone, according to new American military data that have prompted alarm among senior Pentagon officials.

Rising attacks against Afghan and NATO troops in the east represent the latest in a series of troubling developments that have led to markedly higher U.S. casualties and have prompted the military's top leadership to order a review of its strategy in Afghanistan, including how to make do with limited numbers of American troops.

Pacific Views: What do the military junta in Myanmar and the Bush/Cheney regime have in common?

Discourse.net: US accused of operating secret, floating prisons.

U.S. Diplomacy: 111 countries sign a cluster bomb ban...but not the United States.

Consortiumblog: Among the many lobbyists McCain won't fire.

Intrepid Liberal Journal: Chronicling the uprising: An interview with David Sirota

Boing Boing: Screengrab from donut sleeper cell training video surfaces

OK, Hannity is total idiot. I know you know that, I do. I know you know it. I do......

Hannity: It's not that any of us on the conservative side like war, Phil.

Download | play Download | play (h/t bill w)

Has he checked his stock portfolio lately? Let's grab his good pal Joe Liebermann or the neocon's main man, Bill Kristol.

War, war, war. Ahhh, say it loud with me now. W-A-R!

Hannity: Nobody wants to see innocent people die. We don't want to see our neighbor's lose their legs and suffer for the rest of their lives.

Could he be talking about the thousands of innocent Iraqis that have lost their lives and limbs in this war? A man like Hannity would never think about something as humane as that.

So you are arguing that we are safer that we attacked Iraq?

You're darn right. Absolutely.

We are safer?

Yes. And it was the right thing to do.

And we'll be even safer when we bomb Iran, hmmm?

Well it all depends. blah, blah, blah...

Listen, I have to post these GOP mouthies that get their material from Drudge/Limbaugh/Rove and Co. because that's one of the major reasons why our nation is so screwed up. Controlling the messaging has been imperative to the wingnut cause. They hate it that we can fight back now...

Digby excerpts part of MLK's not very well known speech on Vietnam, you know the war that Bush says Iraq isn't:

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.

The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic wa...read on

And then she says:

Change a few words and that could have been said today about Iraq, no? It was incendiary at the time, when post WWII America was actually far more reflexively jingoistic than it is today (if you can believe that.)