Looking back

Because April 15th isn't that far away..

Someone actually reads the fine print:

Here's a detailed breakdown of all the changes for 2007 and how they affect your wallet, from AMT exemption amounts, to deductions for business-related mileage.

And as to why April 15th is tax day? An attempt to explain.

Backpedal!

Think Progress:

Earlier this week, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said God told him who will win the 2008 presidential election. “He told me some things about the election, but I’m not going to say,” he said.

Last night, Robertson appeared on Hannity and Colmes. When asked by Alan Colmes whether God had spoken to him about the election outcome, Robertson said he was “a little shaky on it” and was “not sure.” But Robertson then implied God told him a Democrat would win the White House:

COLMES: You said that you convene with God on a regular basis. You go into deep prayer and mediation, and you just recently say to you was revealed who would be the winner in November. Is that correct?

ROBERTSON: I felt so. But I’m a little shaky on it and I didn’t want to say anything about it publicly. I’m not sure I heard from the Lord. And if I did, I hope I heard wrong.

A 'little shaky', Mr. Robertson? What about that scary prediction about a nuclear attack in 2007? You're a little more than shaky... maybe you should cut back on those Jesus protein drinks....

Greg Palast says Rove may have already stolen the 2008 elections

But we may be able to stop it:

BuzzFlash: You’re having incredible success with the new expanded paperback edition of Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans -- Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild. Of course, the electronic voting machines and how they function is a very significant issue, but your specialty has really been how the Bush/Rove GOP political machine keeps persons who are likely to vote Democratic or Independent from voting.

Greg Palast: Yes. People ask me: Are they going to steal the 2008 election? No, they’ve already stolen the 2008 election. We still have a chance of swiping it back, but the reason I’ve expanded and put out the new edition of Armed Madhouse is to tell you how they will steal in 2008, and what to do about it. That’s one of the main new things. Plus a special chapter on New Orleans and my bust down there.

Of course, I was very flattered that the first review of the new edition of Armed Madhouse was written by Karl Rove and the Rove-bots -- it was subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee -- I can’t make this up. On February 7th, the Rove team, which had been writing several e-mails screaming about Armed Madhouse and "that British reporter," Greg Palast, were gloating that no U.S. media had picked up my stories. And they had a .pdf file attached. Of course, the reason my book was subpoenaed is that it has to do with the US prosecutor firings. The prosecutor firings were 100% about influencing elections -- not about loyalty to Bush, which is what The New York Times wrote. The administration team couldn’t tolerate appointees who wouldn’t go along with crime. In the book I present the evidence that Karl Rove directed a guy named Tim Griffin to target suppressing the votes of African American students, homeless men, and soldiers.

The Supra-Scandal?

TPM Muckraker:

A glimpse of the supra-scandal?

The Washington Post's front page story today is about a meeting in January between the head of the General Services Administration, Lurita Doan, top agency officials, and Scott Jennings, Karl Rove's deputy. The topic: how the agency could help "our candidates."

The GSA is the government's landlord and heads up nearly $60 billion per year in government contracts. The meeting was about how to turn that buying power to Republican advantage.

And one TPM reader writes in:

One of the puzzling aspects of the US Attorney purge is that it wasn't completed until after the 2006 elections. So far, most allegations have focused on the notion that these US Attorneys failed to do enough to help Republican candidates win in 2006, by failing to investigate enough Democrats or to pursue scurillous allegations of voter fraud. But it's looking more and more like what happened here has more to do with 2008 than with 2006. Only two USAs were asked to step down before the elections: Cummins, to make room for a specific Rove disciple, and Chiara, whose office was a mess. The plan to dismiss the rest had festered for well over a year, but it kicked into high gear immediately after the elections. Sampson sent out the formal plan on Nov. 15, marking its importance 'High'. "An associate of Rove" told the Times that Rove learned of the plan in November. And...wait for it...remember that 18 day gap? It begins on November 15.

What we're going to find, if Congress succesfully subpoenas officials or their e-mails, is that after the Republicans got routed in November of 2006 a panicked Karl Rove turned up the flame under lots of schemes that had simmered on the back burners for months or years. New orders went out - learn the lessons of the exit polling, and make sure that 2008 brings success. The White House, in its panic, abandoned caution, and got sloppy. It left its fingerprints all over the sorts of things it had generally manipulated at arms-length. And the man who headed up the effort, by all indications, was Karl Rove's right hand, J. Scott Jennings.

Beware the ides of 2008....