Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - “100 Days, 100 Nights”

Here’s a nice retro video from this contemporary “old’school funk and soul band.” Here’s their Wiki entry and their Fresh Air interview. (The Dap Kings have also backed Amy Winehouse.)

Good one, but where are you going from here? Good check…..now get to CHECKMATE!

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate chairman acknowledged explicitly on Thursday that President Bush was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys last winter and therefore ruled illegal the president’s executive privilege claims protecting his chief of staff, John Bolten, and former adviser Karl Rove.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply “immediately” with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House’s role in the firings of U.S. attorneys.

“I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation,” Leahy wrote.

The ruling is a formality that clears the way for Leahy’s panel to vote on whether to advance the citations to the full Senate.

The executive privilege claim “is surprising in light of the significant and uncontroverted evidence that the president had no involvement in these firings,” Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in his ruling. “The president’s lack of involvement in these firings - by his own account and that of many others - calls into question any claim of executive privilege.”

More at the Guardian

Of course you didn’t, Rudy… we believe you! Just like we believe you’ve always maintained a strict anti-illegal immigration stance, have always been a big proponent of the flat tax, and that you’ve NEVER wavered in your opposition to public funding for abortions.

Hell, I’m beginning to believe you’ve never posed for this ridiculous photo either!

What a saint you are, Mr. Giuliani. Voting republicans all across this great land should be proud.

Giuliani dismisses claim about expenses

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Rudy Giuliani dismissed a report Wednesday that he expensed the cost of his security detail to obscure city offices for trips to a Long Island resort as the then-mayor began an extramarital affair with current wife Judith Nathan.

“First of all, it’s not true,” he said during a GOP debate hours after the story broke. “I had 24-hour security for the eight years that I was mayor. They followed me everyplace I went. It was because there were, you know, threats, threats that I don’t generally talk about. Some have become public recently; most of them haven’t.

“And they took care of me, and they put in their records, and they handled them in the way they handled them,” Giuliani said. “I had nothing to do with the handling of their records, and they were handled, as far as I know, perfectly appropriately.”

Breaking:

Prominent former Illinois congressman Henry Hyde has died.

Update:

Wiki puts the time of death around 3:00am. More information still not available though, at this time.

The congressman was a “powerful defender of life”, with decades of maintaining a strong anti-abortion stance by crushing the rights of women everywhere.

As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in 1998 he led House efforts to impeach Clinton for allegedly lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and then in 1999 was the chief House manager in the unsuccessful bid to win a Senate conviction.

Millions of taxpayer dollars spent and so much time wasted on a farce. But he had the best intentions at heart.

My head hurts. I can’t seem to justify this:

U.S. economic growth fastest in four years

GDP for third quarter steamed ahead at revised 4.9 percent rate

[...] The Commerce Department’s new reading of the gross domestic product from July through September, released Thursday, was even better than the government’s initial estimate of a brisk 3.9 percent growth rate for period. Stronger U.S. exports to overseas buyers and more inventory investment by businesses were the main reasons for the improvement.

…with the following stories.

Mortgage foreclosures up again in October

California, Florida and Nevada remain hardest hit

The number of mortgage foreclosure filings continued to rise in October as hundreds of thousands of Americans struggled with monthly payments they can-t keep up with.

Oil prices soar after deadly fire at pipeline

Fire is along the Enbridge Energy pipeline in northern Minnesota

Oil prices rose more than $3 Thursday after a fire erupted at a pipeline carrying crude oil from Canada to the heart of the United States.

Sears reports a 99 percent drop in profit

Retailer cites weak sales at Sears, Kmart department stores

CHICAGO - Sears Holdings Corp. reported a 99 percent drop in third-quarter profit Thursday on weak sales at its Sears and Kmart department stores and continuing investment losses under hedge-fund manager Chairman Eddie Lampert. Its stock price plummeted on the news.

Weekly U.S. jobless claims rise sharply

Data suggest labor market is softening as economy slows

WASHINGTON - The number of new people signing up for jobless benefits last week jumped sharply, suggesting that the labor market is softening as national economic activity slows.

But, then again, I’ve always been lousy at economics. I understand there’s a difference between short-term and long-term reporting. But we’ve been hearing bad news for quite some time now! Makes no sense.

BEIJING - China’s last-minute cancellation of a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong was not the result of a misunderstanding, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday, adding that ties had been “disturbed and harmed” by Congress’ honoring of the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Spokesman Liu Jianchao denounced an earlier report from Washington that said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told President Bush the incident was a misunderstanding.

But Liu offered no concrete explanation as to why China barred the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (amex: KHK - news - people ) and its escort vessels from entering Hong Kong harbor for a planned Thanksgiving visit.

“The report is not in line with the facts,” Liu said at a regular news briefing.

He refused to elaborate, but his negative characterization of U.S.-China relations appeared to indicate that Beijing had canceled the visit deliberately in order to register its displeasure over U.S. actions, as it has occasionally with previous Hong Kong port calls.

More at Forbes

“Yes: I TOLD YOU SO”

[...]The primary subject about which I would have such thoughts is the one that ought to concern everyone, the only subject that matters now in terms of what it could mean for the future of the world, and of the United States: the probability of an attack on Iran.
[...]

[Impeachment] is the one method the Democrats will categorically, absolutely not utilize — because the Democrats are a crucial, inextricable part of the identical authoritarian-corporatist system that has led us to these horrors. They have all worked toward this end over many decades, Democrats and Republicans alike, and now the horrors manifest themselves explicitly, without apology, even with the sickening boastfulness of the mass murderer who is proud of what he has done, and who vehemently believes he is right.

Visit Arthur’s Once Upon A Time… web blog. I guarantee you’ll be adding him to your Favorites/Bookmarks folder!