We really are in the Era of Stupid, aren't we?

Started about 2000 and is building up steam ...

24 percent of Americans believe Obama was born outside the U.S.

Josh Marshall on the Supreme Court ruling:

....Thursday's Supreme Court decision that could have a big effect on future public corruption cases and will quite likely end up letting a good number of convicted public officials out of prison

Starbucksgate: CREW Calls for Investigation of White House

The allegations suggest that the Obama administration may be flouting the same recordkeeping laws that the Bush administration did: the federal and presidential records acts (FRA and PRA). Both laws require that White House staff retain records—including emails—related to their daily work. By using private email accounts to schedule coffee shop meetings with lobbyists (an apparent attempt to prevent these sessions from appearing in White House visitor logs), Obama officials can bypass normal email archiving procedures and "avoid the creation of any record that would memorialize those meetings." Since emails scheduling meetings with lobbyists would almost certainly be the type of emails that the FRA and PRA require White House officials to preserve, the Obama team is "in violation" of the FRA and the PRA, CREW writes.

Krugman:

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

The G20 as Naomi Klein sees it:

As thousands protested in the streets of Toronto, inside the G20 summit world leaders agreed to a controversial goal of cutting government deficits in half by 2013. We speak with journalist Naomi Klein. "What actually happened at the summit is that the global elites just stuck the bill for their drunken binge with the world’s poor, with the people that are most vulnerable," Klein says.

Endless war, a recipe for four-star arrogance

Trying to forget who caused the deficit.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Fossil Fueled

The Onion: 8-Year-Old Accidentally Exercises Second Amendment Rights

All this doesn't matter though. We're all doomed anyway.

The dog ate my homework

And the hard drives of every computer and server in the administration, the little scamp!

Steve Bates of The Yellow Doggerel Democrat notes:

A federal magistrate has ordered the White House to answer a simple question: does it, or does it not, have backups of White House emails between 2003 and 2005. The judge, John Facciola, ordered a lower court judge, Henry Kennedy, to issue a court order requiring an answer..

The White House's response to CREW's requests:

"CREW has yet to provide any basis for their assertions -- be it their original assertion, or their new claim. We are aware that some e-mails may not have been automatically archived in the past, but they may be available on backup tapes. Unlike what the liberal group CREW has asserted, we've never been without a backup system. The Office of Administration at the White House has been maintaining and preserving backup tapes for the official email system."

-Scott Stanzel
White House Spokesman

Has anyone checked those mysterious man-sized safes said to be in Dick Cheney's office?

Here's Jack Cafferty's take:

There's an endless supply

The top ten ethics scandals from CREW, via Think Progress:

No new enforcement mechanisms for congressional ethics;

Ted Stevens still sitting on Senate Appropriations;

Senate Ethics Committee looking into Sen. Craig, but not Sen. Vitter;

Millions of missing White House emails still unaccounted for;

Rep. Murtha’s abuse of the earmarking process remains unchecked;

Lurita Doan remains chief of GSA despite illegal conduct;

White House covering up its role in the firings of the U.S. Attorneys;

No Child Left Behind funds directed to Bush fundraisers who provide inadequate reading materials for kids;

Court decision regarding search of Jefferson’s office limits ability of DOJ to investigate other corrupt lawmakers; and

FEMA knowingly let Katrina victims live in hazardous trailers

And then there's the top ten idiots for the week.

Keeping track of the worst of the criminals

With a handy scorecard of the most corrupt officials of the Bush administration.

Even the FBI has to tell the truth

Via AmericaBlog: CREW 1, FBI 0. Following 'submitted by Melanie Sloan on 22 January 2007 - 4:00pm.'

Today was a very significant day for CREW.

Last July, I received copies of e-mails that were purportedly sent by Rep. Mark Foley to a sixteen year old intern. As a former federal prosecutor who had handled sex crimes – including crimes involving minors -- my immediate instinct was that something was wrong. Foley’s emails screamed sexual predator.

Like any trained prosecutor, my instinct was to turn the e-mails over to the proper authorities. That meant the FBI. I did it the very day I saw the e-mails -- I felt that strongly. Expecting the FBI to handle the matter professionally, I didn’t give the matter much further thought until the scandal blew wide open two months later. Only then did I discover – much to my surprise – that the FBI had never looked into the emails at all.

Shortly after the story broke on ABC News, CREW immediately called for an ethics investigation of Foley and we posted the e-mails. We were repeatedly asked by the media where we got the e-mails and what we did with them. I gave the same answer every time. I told anyone who asked that I had provided the e-mails to the FBI back in July.

The FBI provided the media with a different version of events -- a version intimating that CREW wasn't telling the truth. As someone who had worked in law enforcement, I was furious that the FBI would publicly lie about CREW’s actions, but lie it had.

So, CREW took the next step. We filed a complaint with the Inspector General's office at the Department of Justice asking for a full investigation into the facts and events surrounding both CREW’s and the FBI’s actions.

Today, CREW was vindicated. The IG found that the FBI should have taken some action when the agents received the e-mails. The IG also concluded that the FBI provided "inaccurate" information to the media about CREW. Not exactly news to us, but validation by the IG’s office is very important to those of us at CREW. After all, CREW is an ethics organization and a reputation for integrity is critical to our success.

It's not easy to get in to the ring with the FBI, but the Bureau challenged CREW’s (and my) honesty and credibility. That was worth the fight. And, in the end, the truth prevailed.

The House Ethics report hits the fan

From TPM Muckraker, Rep. Kolbe:
"...A former House page told the committee that he sent Kolbe, to his personal email account, a copy of an instant message he received from Foley in 2001 in which Foley had "made reference to the page's penis size."

When the committee asked Kolbe about this, he said he couldn't recall whether the page had contacted him or his assistant or whether it was by phone or email. What's more, he said he never knew the specifics of the young man's allegation against Foley, and "did not attempt to speculate."

As if that isn't bad enough, Kolbe appears to have tried to keep the kid quiet when the scandal broke: the former page also told the committee that he'd called Kolbe after the Foley story broke this September and asked for advice. He says Kolbe replied that "it is best that you don't even bring this up with anybody.... There is no good that can come from it if you actually talk about this. The man has resigned anyway."

Kolbe's side of the story? He told the committee that "the page had already decided that he was not going to report the IM, and the he merely responded, 'That's your decision.'"

But The Washington Post caught wind of the page's story anyway. And soon after being contacted by a Post reporter about it, Kolbe called the page and left a message: "It looks like you did some talking."

CREW says there were rules broken:
"Earlier today, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct released its conclusion that no member of Congress or congressional staff member broke any House rule by failing to take action upon learning that former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) was making improper advances against House pages.

In fact, Rule XXIII of the House Ethics Manual requires all members of the House to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.” This ethics standard is considered to be “the most comprehensive provision of the code.”
[snip]
"Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, stated today, “The fact that when faced with such egregious facts, the ethics committee did not find that so much as a single person acted in a manner that does not reflect creditably on the House just goes to show how utterly ineffectual the ethics committee is.” Sloan continued, “This report is proof positive that the ethics committee is incapable of handling allegations of wrongdoing. To restore the public’s confidence in the congressional ethics process, the new Congress should immediately move to create an Office of Public Integrity to handle complaints against members of Congress.”" (My bold).

Americablog goes into detail here and here and here and here and some more here and here.

The more you read, the more perverted and sick these people get.