I think I'm going to be sick.

Today, both Devilstower and Larry O'Donnell let rip with a scathing criticism of a potential Jack Murtha House majority leadership position -- seemingly in reaction to a Washington Post Article endorsing Hoyer as House majority leader in lieu of the ethically 'questionable' Murtha.

I would like to reiterate the absolute importance of Pelosi's and the Democrats' exclusion of such questionable figures from leadership positions. Murtha has no business representing Democrats -- a party that has rightly adopted a "culture of integrity" -- one that intends to "Drain the swamp" of congressional corruption.

Pelosi should know better.

Last year when Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA), a twice decorated Vietnam War veteran, suggested that we begin to remove the troops from Iraq because the mission had soured, the Bush administration reacted in an interesting way. Instead of listening to the long time military man, an expert in military planning, they and their noise machine minions smeared the Congressman by questioning the circumstances surrounding the awarding of the two Purple Hearts he received for acts of valor in Vietnam.

This was the continuation of an extended media campaign that began with the the dismissal of Cindy Sheehan's anti-war protests. Essentially they dragged out the old war-horse, "We don't cut and run," meme and implied that to set a deadline for withdrawal would be somehow treasonous. Cindy Sheehan and Jack Murtha were uttered in the same breath as their anti-american strawman, Michael Moore.

Well, it seems the Bush Administration is going to have to include the entire US army serving in Iraq on their list of anti-american traitors. This, from Nicholas Kristof.

A new poll to be released today shows that U.S. soldiers overwhelmingly want out of Iraq -- and soon.

The poll is the first of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq, according to John Zogby, the pollster. Conducted by Zogby International and LeMoyne College, it asked 944 service members, "How long should U.S. troops stay in Iraq?"

Only 23 percent backed Mr. Bush's position that they should stay as long as necessary. In contrast, 72 percent said that U.S. troops should be pulled out within one year. Of those, 29 percent said they should withdraw "immediately."

Perhaps we can ship them to Gitmo and purchase the United Arab Emirates' army as a replacement.

The Murtha-Bashing Cybercast News Service Swarms with Pro-Exxon, Pro-Monsanto Reports, Quotes, and Commentary. Who's Paid to do What?

[Crossposted from Daily Kos]

"Facts don't really matter. In politics, perception is reality."

   -- Ron Arnold, Vice President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise

"We're out to kill the f**kers. We're simply trying to eliminate them. Our goal is to eliminate environmentalism once and for all."

   -- Arnold in a 1992 interview. Arnold's "Wise Use" movement has been linked to right-wing militia groups.

The website Daily Kos highlighted this story from BusinessWeek's Earnon Javers on Saturday:

Asked about the payments, Fumento says, "I'm just extremely pro-biotech." He says he solicited several agribusiness companies to finance his book, which was published by Encounter Books. "I went after everybody, I've got to be honest," Fumento says of his fund-raising effort. "I told them that if I tell the truth in this book, the biotech industry is going to look really good, and you should contribute." [...]

Fumento insists that disclosure of financial transactions between op-ed columnists and the companies they cover wouldn't be practical.

So here's a stunner. A senior fellow at the Hudson Institute -- one of those right-wing think tanks founded in order to provide haven for truthiness-based, business-friendly "science" that no actual scientific or knowledgeable policy institution would touch with a sterile, non-conductive ten foot science pole -- solicited money from a biotech company in the process of writing a book that would make them "look really good". And sure enough, Monsanto "contributed" $60,000 to get the book written.