Does it seem like there's a new Republican scandal in the news every single week? Well, that may be because there is:

Following the GOP Scandals, 2007 edition.

Before he became a big acting star, Bill Paxton had a band on Sire Records, the company I was working for at the time. Bill was a totally great guy and really fun to work with. The band was called Martini Ranch and it never really got out of the clubs and onto radio. The video for their single, "Reach," was directed by James Cameron-- long before the Terminator films or Titanic, which Paxton had a role in-- and included a guest appearance by Judge Reinhold.

Bill Maher announces the new channel's Friday night lineup.

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From Meteor Blades at Daily Kos:

What? Yet another general has added his voice to the crew who have taken the Cheney-Bush regime to task for botching postwar operations in Iraq? Yep. This time, it's not American generals like Wes Clark, Greg Newbold, Paul Eaton, John Riggs, Paul Van Riper, Charles Swannack or John Batiste doing the pounding. It's "Macho Jacko," General Sir Michael Jackson, who ran the British Army in March 2003 when Iraq was invaded. He retired last year and began writing an autobiography, Soldier, which is being serialized in Britain's Daily Telegraph. (Hat tip to Magnifico.)

According to the Telegraph's story:

His attack - the first time he has revealed the depth of his anger towards the US administration - highlights the deep-seated tension between the British command and the Pentagon during the build-up to and the aftermath of the Iraq campaign in 2003.

Sir Mike, who took command of the British Army one month before US-led forces invaded Iraq, said Mr Rumsfeld was "one of those most responsible for the current situation in Iraq".

Crucially, the general writes, he refused to deploy enough troops to maintain law and order after the collapse of Saddam's regime, and discarded detailed plans for the post-conflict administration of Iraq that had been drawn up by the US State Department.

In the book, Sir Mike says he believes the entire US approach to tackling global terrorism is "inadequate" because it relies too heavily on military power at the expense of nation-building and diplomacy. Read more...

(h/t Heather for video)

On Real Time Overtime (shown after the program online), Bill Maher asks guest and Democratic presidential contender Mike Gravel about presidential politics and the role of the media in presenting the truth to citizens. John Mellencamp and Barbara Bodine chime in.

Friday night's Worst Person In The World segment on Countdown features the drunken mother who let her 5 year old son drive because she was too intoxicated, military censors who banned Think Progress from their network in Baghdad and the Worst Person honors went to disgraced former Speaker of the House, Tom Delay. Keith lays wood to the Bug Man, who likes to quote the right wing, bald, nutjob talk show host, Mark Levin, who has repeatedly claimed that Olbermann wears a toupee. As the picture shows, Keith gives an on-air demonstration to prove him wrong.

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Olbermann: "Tom, hate to break it to you, I'm still involved in politics, what are you doing these days? I mean, since your own party ran you out of Congress."

Former Nixon advisor, actor, TV game show host and comedian, Ben Stein appeared with FOXNews' Neil Cavuto and makes what is probably the most misguided, fact-free and delusional defense of Larry Craig we've found since the scandal broke earlier this week. Stein says Craig was railroaded, and that all he did was tap his foot. He repeatedly accuses the Minneapolis Police Department of using Gestapo tactics and aiding terrorists because they should be scouring the airport looking for terrorists, fervently states that gay sex isn't illegal because the SCOTUS says so and then claims the Executive Branch may have been involved in bringing Craig down to change the balance of power in D.C. WTF?

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White House Photo: Giuliani gives the Cheneys a tour of Ground Zero.

ABC News:

Families of September 11 victims and emergency responders raised alarms on Wednesday that former New York mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani might politicize the sixth anniversary memorial of the attacks....

"Families and first responders are outraged and call for this speaking invitation to be rescinded and insist that politics be kept out of the 9/11 anniversary ceremony," said a statement by four September 11 groups.

...Giuliani senior adviser Tony Carbonetti said the candidate would attend out of respect for the victims, not politics.

"If you know Rudy Giuliani, he'd be down there paying his respects whether he was invited or not," Carbonetti said in a statement. "To say he's politicizing it -- he never would do anything like that."

(photo courtesy of The Onion)

The Raw Story:

On his last day in the White House, Karl Rove gave President Bush one last politically charged booster shot.

In an essay published by the conservative National Review, Rove predicted that the president he has loyally served for more than a decade would be judged positively by history, and he took the opportunity to bash calls for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Rove reiterated the comparison of a troop withdrawal to the aftermath of Vietnam.

"History will see President Bush as right, and the opponents of his policy as mistaken -- as George McGovern was in his time," Rove wrote.

President Bush made headlines earlier this month when he reminded of the years of turmoil that followed America's withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, and some historians said Bush's analogy to the situation in Iraq was inaccurate.

Rove argued that history's view of Bush would be more "clear-eyed" than the assessments of current administration critics.

"He will be judged as a man of moral clarity who put America on a wartime footing in the dangerous struggle against radical Islamic terrorism," Rove wrote. Read more...

Disgraced Republican Senator Larry Craig announced that he would resign from the Senate effective September 30th. Apologizing to his family, colleagues and constituents, Craig was somewhat humbled, yet remained defiant to the end. It should be noted that someone brilliantly chose to hold the presser at the historic Boise Train Station -- we sincerely hope the Senator used his bathroom at home before leaving to make his announcement...

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