It's hard not to notice the explosion of "toldyaso" rhetoric and absolute jubilation at the revelations made by former WH Press Secretary Scott McClellan in his new memoir.  Many of us here are looking to this as yet another tool to use in undoing the damage done by the current president and his permanent camapaign syndicate.

However, I can't help but think it's another game of misdirection being played to both hide the truth and provide cover for Bush himself and his own culpability.

Embattled Speaker of the Texas House, Tom Craddick recently attacked three opponents for extending state health insurance for employees who only work part time.

It was revealed today by the Lone Star Project that Craddick himself, using a law that he co-authored in 1996, is keeping his 37 year old affluent daughter on the State of Texas Employee health-care plan.

Yes, you read that right.  Despite what you may have heard during the campaign, Tony Rezko's corruption trial just created a world of hurt for the Republicans again.  

It seems that  Tony, who once hosted  a BUSH fundraiser at his home,  called in the help of few famous Republicans to try to de-rail the investigation into the corruption for which he's now on trial:

A prosecutor told the judge in the Tony Rezko corruption trial Wednesday that a witness is prepared to testify about efforts by top Republicans to get the Bush White House to fire U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at a time he was spearheading investigations of Gov. Blagojevich's administration... The key players were Robert Kjellander, a Republican National committeeman from Springfield, and Kjellander's old friend, Karl Rove, who, at the time was a top White House adviser.

You rememeber the almost-forgotten US Attorney scandal?  Yeah that's about to come roaring back thanks to these disclosures:

We are going to try something different tonight; I have a headache, and need to get to sleep, but I will at least let you know who your Bush Administration Sycophant/Crony/Underling/Minion Obfuscator of the day is.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to find out all you can, and plaster it all over this diary (in the comments), about our man.

Who is our man, you ask?  Former EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Jeffrey R. Holmstead.Jeffrey R. Holmstead

Two hints where to start after the jump.

In honor of Mother Earth, today we will celebrate one of the unknown Bush Sycophant/Crony/Underling/Minion Obfuscators charged with the toil of "protecting" our dear mother.

May the SCUM-O Team proudly introduce Julie A. MacDonald.

Some days, you just get bogged down in real life, and you don't have time to write your daily diary of the newest worst Bush Admin Sycophant/Crony/Underling/Minion Obfuscator.

I wonder if Pat Robertson or John Hagee would say that today, God is rewarding me for righteous work.  Because some days, these really write themselves.

Today's SCUM-O, courtesy of TPM and Erica Werner of AP News, is Robert Coughlin.

Today, we pride ourselves on being part of a post-racist, post-sexist culture.  And today, April 17, 2008, the SCUM-O at least can pride itself on being post-sexist.  We have our first woman awarded the highest honor of cronyism: Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) at the Department of Justice, Alice S. Fisher.

Crony capitalism is a pejorative term describing an allegedly capitalist economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between businessmen and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, and so forth.

Crony capitalism is believed to arise when political cronyism spills over into the business world; self-serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals.

Wikipedia on Crony Capitalism

dont miss this diary, it is extremely important that this issue be in the forefront or we will see our system perverted further and denigrated as itself being corrupt rather than those who seek to manipulate it being the problem

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Back in the 1990s, I witnessed firsthand the ability of Barack Obama to make positive changes in the lives of ordinary people.  He didn't do it in a way that drew attention to himself, he did it through intelligence and efficiency and a high level of competence.  His tactics were unique in my experience with state government in Illinois, and made me take notice of his ability long before he appeared on the national stage.

In the late 1990s I was working at a transportation planning agency in Chicago as the principal communications liaison.  I wrote and distributed press releases, distilled dense planning papers from "Planningese" into brief executive summaries in understandable English, and worked to promote public involvement in the planning process.

In those days, it was an uphill battle to get anyone interested in even our main, "exciting," important function—developing long-range transportation plans for the Chicago area.  So in reaction, I kept trying to make the releases and policy papers ever more simplistic.  But not long after, I began getting calls from this one state senator’s office.  You guessed it—State Senator Barack Obama.

Jon Soltz just sent out an email requesting help in stopping another Bush cronyistic maneuver. And of course it involves the Pentagon. And of course it involves our soldiers safety. Helmets, that's right helmets.
 

 
VoteVets is requesting you sign a petition requesting hearings on this. Let your voice be heard, don't let the noise of the day distract you from this important issue.

And boy are we happy about that.  Really, we are.  Usually, Virginia goes first and Maryland and DC bring up the rear--long after the party leader has been chosen.  Not this year.  Very cool, indeed.

Why?  Because the Washington, DC Metro area has been ground zero to the greatest disaster of our young century: the disintegration of our Federal Government.  This disaster alone has beget all others: 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq, New Orleans, health care, recession, etc...etc...

Let Lou Dobbs bloviate about "broken government." He has no idea how broken it is.  We do.  And we get to do something about it.

Unbelievable.

On January 14, less than two weeks ago, Louisiana’s Democratic governor Kathleen Blanco left office as Republican Bobby Jindal was sworn in.

And guess what!  An expansion of Louisiana’s children’s health insurance program the Feds resisted when Governor Blanco proposed it, is now suddenly A-OK!

Details on the flip:

Is the tail wagging the dog?

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was apointed by President George W. Bush on Oct 24, 2005.  At the time of his appointment, George w. Bush was actually praised by many for the appointment because of Bernanke's qualitifications.

It appears that an economic muckstorm is about to hit the American people, one that will likely hurt most Americans, but may have outsized effects on the middle class, while the rich and well-connected will lose only "paper value." It appears that the sources of this muckstorm are related to deregulation, the lax oversight of regulators and the blatant crony corruption of the Bush administration. This economic muckstorm may wind up having effects far beyond everybody losing some money/value, it may also rearrange our political system.

Follow me over the jump...

DarkSyde recently published an excellent recommended diary that asks why the Angry Right is so angry, after having things mostly their way during the Bush presidence. His question has prompted may lucid and insightful answers.

But I'd like to suggest that there's a powerful faction of the right--arguably the most powerful--that isn't so angry and in fact continues to laugh all the way to the bank. This is the faction of the filthy rich...those who have benefited from tax cuts, the opening of public lands to exploitation, the GOP culture of corruption and the spiraling costs of a failed war that has nonetheless generated fabulous windfalls for the favorites of the present administration.

These guys have made money in bucket-loads. Even if the tax cuts, cronyism and corporate welfare that have made them ever-richer are rolled back under a new Democratic administration, they're still going to keep the vast proportion of the wealth they've skimmed from from the trough during the reign of Bushco. This link from The New York Times helps to make the point.

More analysis below the fold.

(This subject was diaried insightfully earlier today here by kossack, Bouldergeist but received barely any response. If We the People are ever to take back our government, the subject of our courts definitely deserves much more attention.)

The federal courts are dead to us.

Admittedly, the above phrase could conceivably be premature in this situation because the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability’s new rules and guidelines have yet to be officially released. However, considering the fact that the committee refuses to release its findings, not only vindicates the statement but also does not bode well for the public in general. In fact, if you listen to former judges, judiciary watchdogs and members of Congress, they’re complaining of having difficulty charting the general direction that federal courts are embarking upon in the 21st Century, and the judiciary's deliberate silence is deafening.

Sunshine, said Justice Brandeis, is "a marvelous disinfectant."  And with the exception of those obvious instances where disclosure of certain information would compromise national security (e.g., the 'outing' of Valerie Plame), government secrecy is always invoked to protect incompetent and/or corrupt public officials.

A delicious case in point is the outing of Rudy "9/11" Giuliani as an inveterate liar by Village Voice reporters Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins.  But you always find out about it at the back end; Giuliani's testimony was supposed to be kept under wraps until after the 2008 elections, so "America's Mayor" could defraud American voters into believing he was an expert on terrorism.

A more bizarre -- if not unprecedented -- instance of inappropriate government secrecy occurred in the federal judiciary, where Reagan appointee Judge Ralph J. Winter of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals chose to refuse to publish public comments on the proposed overhaul of the federal system of judicial discipline.