Republicans seem to be having some sort of summer corruption blowout. Between an on-the-run Karl Rove, a gagged EPA, a law breaking Justice Department and an indicted Senator Ted Stevens, it’s a jamboree of wrongness. The current Republican Party takes a daily bath in sweet corruption, but this week stands above all others.

Let us start with Karl Rove, everyone’s favorite pasty, flabby beast. Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Karl in contempt of Congress.

Karl is, of course, willing to speak to members of the House Judiciary Committee behind closed doors without any recording of the conversation, because that’s what innocent guys do. He also wants it to happen in a submarine in the middle of the Atlantic and everyone must be nude. Also, after the meeting all Senators must be sandblasted until their hair and skin is removed. Finally, they must be blinded and their memories erased.

Karl doesn’t want to testify in front of Congress because he’s as guilty as they come. But don’t expect the Democrats to do anything. Nancy The Coward Pelosi still has to approve the final vote in front of the entire House. If someone could be held accountable, you can be sure Nancy will run away. But still, it’s fun to see Karl’s name and “contempt” in the same headline.

The Justice Department is also looking like a giant, steaming turd today. Anyone could have read the story on the front page of the Washington Post yesterday. The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility released a report and, well, is it good when the Justice Department has been breaking the law? I'm guessing it's not good, mostly because it is called THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.

Oops. All that stuff is illegal, Monica. But it’s not surprising, considering she was the “White House liaison.” Huh, I wonder why Karl won’t answer questions under oath?

And speaking of breaking the law, what up Ted Stevens? Yesterday, Ted became the first Senator in 20 years to be indicted for felonies while serving in office. Well done, sir. The bat-shit, crazy Alaskan Senator was indicted on seven felony counts for lying to hide the $250,000 in “gifts and services” he received from an oil and construction company.

Shit. I didn’t realize I couldn’t take a three-bedroom first floor, a basement, a garage, a gas range and a wraparound deck from my buddy. How about if I give it back?

Stevens is looking at 5 years in the slammer. He’s 84. I’m laughing.

And finally, the EPA is going into some sort of Branch Davidian Waco lockdown, sans the kid fucking. Under Bush, the EPA has taken a lot of shit for lying and basically doing the opposite of what it was created to do. Several congressional committees have requested documents on the EPA’s position on global warming and the EPA responded with a giant, “Go fuck yourself.” Last week, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson decided not to appear in front of two Senate committees to discuss why the agency does the opposite of its staff's technical and legal recommendations. And now the agency is in crazy lockdown mode.

Let’s fire some tear gas in there and send in the battering rams. My God, just think of the shit we are going to learn about these agencies when Bush leaves office and a new crew comes in.

The current Republican Party is insane.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. You can read more of his blathering on his blog, Stop All Monsters.

On Sunday night, "60 minutes" broadcast a report that could have easily come straight out of Pakistan, instead of the great state of Alabama. The frightening aspect of this story is not that it occurred, but that it was done so brazenly. It is, quite simply, fascism, right here in the good old US of A. The story goes back years, but the most frightening part of the tale occurred on Sunday night, when the program was supposed to air on "60 Minutes". Many in Alabama never saw it because big brother shut it down.

Alabama is obviously a very Republican state. Nearly every big politician is a Republican, except for one very popular Democrat named Don Siegelman. Don used to be governor, but then Republicans targeted him for destruction. Now he sits in prison. Karl Rove started the ball rolling in 2001, when he made a request to Republican lawyer and activist Jill Simpson.

Well, it worked on Clinton and the Republicans were never punished, so why would they stop? Simpson could not produce the photos because Siegelman wasn’t fucking his aides. So, the Republicans switched to the courts to take down Siegelman and they succeeded. This is why the Attorney General scandal is so important. The Bush Administration has turned the independent branch of government responsible for justice into a Republican weapon. We no longer live in a country where laws apply equally to everyone.

Siegelman was investigated for bribery during his re-election campaign in 2002. Local prosecutors charged Siegelman and the case went to trial. The trial lasted an hour or so, before the judge tossed it out because there was absolutely no evidence. But the damage was done to Siegelman and he lost the election.

Siegelman decided to run for governor again in 2004 and the Republican machine went back to work. This time the Department of Justice decided to get their hands dirty, or as Karl Rove said to Jill Simpson:

On of the “girls” Karl spoke of was US Attorney Leura Canary, who just happened to be married to William Canary, a Republican campaign consultant. They built a case out of nothing. First they flipped a “witness.” The guy was a Republican named Nick Bailey, who just happened to have committed a few crimes and was looking at a long time in jail. The Republicans offered him a lot less time in jail and in return, all he had to do was lie in court.

Bailey worked for Siegelman, but the governor was not involved in his crimes and had no knowledge of them. Bailey told US Attorneys what they wanted to hear, or they told him what he would say: That he had seen Siegelman take a check in return for an appointed position on the state hospital oversight board. The Department of Justice claimed this was a crime. It is not. If it were, Karl Rove and George Bush would be in prison for their “Pioneers” and “Rangers” fundraising operation. People who donated $100,000 or more to the Bush campaign received one of those awesome titles and many were appointed to government offices, like an ambassadorship. 146 Bush donors were appointed to government offices after making large donations. There were zero prosecutions in those “cases.”

Okay, so ignore that it was a not even a crime. And ignore the fact that Siegelman didn’t even receive the check because it was made out to the Alabama Education Foundation, a vehicle the governor created to run a campaign for a state education lottery. Ignore that stuff and focus on this: The Republicans actually manufactured the not illegal evidence against Siegelman. They couldn't even decently frame the guy, and yet it worked. Bailey story was that he witnessed the check being handed to Siegelman. Total bullshit. It was actually pathetically false.

The check was cut days after the meeting and prosecutors knew it. Maybe that’s why they had to train their witness. According to Bailey, he was getting the story so mixed up during preparation they made him write it down over and over and over, until he got it right. That’s usually how the truth works; you have to get it right using a rudimentary memorization technique. Prosecutors then illegally withheld Bailey’s writings from the defense, because his false testimony it would have been devastated under cross-examination.

The Rove machines also attempted to force another Republican to testify in the case, but he refused. Jefferson County Republican Commissioner Gary White was pressured to back up Bailey’s claim. He refused to do so because,

Wow, a guy going to jail wouldn't back up their bullshit story.

Coincidentally, the federal judge overseeing the case was appointed by a fella named George W. Bush. Judge Mark Fuller was also a former member of the Alabama GOP’s Executive Committee and once claimed that Siegelman had a grudge against him. For some reason he refused to recuse himself from the case. Go figure.

Siegelman was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail. Usually, when a person is convicted of a crime such as bribery, he is allowed 48 hours to get his affairs in order. Not Siegelman. He had his hands and feet shackled, and was immediately taken to prison. Republican prosecutor Grant Woods said he had never in his career seen someone other than a violent criminal treated in this way.

Woods is co-chair of the McCain for President leadership committee and a former Arizona Attorney General. Dude is a hard core Republican and this is what he had to say about Siegelman’s prosecution:

It’s a big deal when a Republican heavy hitter comes out to attack his own party’s actions. Besides Woods, 52 former attorneys general have called Congress to investigate the case. The Department of Justice, of course, refused to speak to 60 Minutes and refused to allow Bailey to be interviewed on camera. That’s a sign that the government has done something on the up and up. Oh, but it’s worse than that. The Justice Department would only issue a “no comment” to CBS in response to the accusation of false evidence. It was also recently revealed that two career prosecutors refused to move forward with the Siegelman case due to a lack of evidence. Both of their careers stalled.

I feel like this is a good time to remind you that the White House and Karl Rove deleted over 10 million emails. How about that? I'm sure they are all the simple, "What's doing Karl?", "Nothing, LOL!" type of emails. No way are there emails about the Siegelman case. That's why they were deleted.

Now, this is where this story gets really creepy. This entire scandal was detailed Sunday night on "60 Minutes". Most of the nation watched, except in Northern Alabama – where the screen suddenly went black. Residents of Huntsville and Mobile did not see the broadcast.

Because bloggers are not retarded, one called CBS in New York to find the source of the problem that was blocking transmission in Alabama. Turns out nothing, according to CBS in New York.

Nice. Siegelman is a political prisoner. When evidence of his illegal prosecution was presented to the people of his state, it was blacked out. Feel free to explain to me how that is not a fascist maneuver.

The New York Times points out the similarities to a certain Asian country.

Luckily, during the original broadcast they had the problem worked out in time for the "60 Minutes" segment following the Siegelman story. And the station made good by airing the story at 10 p.m. -- right in the middle of The Oscars, one of the most watched TV programs of the year.

The station that blocked the transmission, WHNT, is owned by Oak Hill Partners, which is owned by the Bass Family. The Bass Family are big, big contributors to the Republican Party and a man named George W. Bush. They are long time friends and the Bass family has bailed out George on more than one occasion.

Now they Bass family is shutting down public airwaves, so the people of Alabama won’t hear the truth. And the action just happens to protect Karl Rove.

Time to be afraid. Not because to the act itself, but the brazenness of the undertaking. They know, as do many of us, that they will not be punished. This lack of justice will lead to a heightening of their shamelessness and an increase in their risk taking. The only question is, “When is it too late?”

The corruption of the current White House is fucking amazing, especially considering George told us he was going to bring honor and respectability back to the presidency. The guy is the ultimate example of everything that the Founding Fathers feared. Using tax dollars to aid Republican candidates in elections is just one more example.

What a bunch of cunts. Plain and simple. Between 2001 and 2006, the Treasury Department received White House political briefings on how they could aid Republican candidates. The Commerce Department received four briefings. These actions are quite simply not allowed, as defined by the Hatch Act, which bans the use of government resources for campaign activities.

The White House is already being investigated by the House Oversight Committee to determine whether the administration violated the Hatch Act by briefing at least 15 federal agencies.

After the briefings, Commerce and Treasury political appointees made public appearances and grant announcements that just happened to benefit GOP interests. That sounds like it completely violates the Hatch Act. I wonder how the Democratic Congress will fail to do anything about it? Unfortunately, violations are not illegal. They are treated as administrative matters and usually lead to suspension or termination of those who violate the ban.

The law needs to be changed so that these type of actions are illegal. Why would a loyal follower care about violating the act? They would lose their job, but probably end up with a cushier position somewhere else due to their partisan actions.

Take Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who just happened to be Bush's former campaign finance chairman. He made eight appearances with Republican incumbents during competitive races. While there he handed out millions of dollars in grants and made public announcements. He has already left the Commerce Department, so he will not be punished. I would like to at the very least, hold his head in a toilet and flush it.

The guy who took over for Evans, picked up right where the big E left off.

You tax dollars at work, helping those poor, poor Republicans. Don't get mad Democrats, just sit back and take it.

Karl Rove is stepping down from his position as Chief Asshole at the White House at the end of the month. Rove is trying to make the case that it is his decision, but it’s pretty obvious that is not the case. The president has matched Nixon’s disapproval poll numbers. He has led the White House into more than one ugly scandal. Also, he is really, really unattractive. That can’t be great to look at day after day.

Uh huh. Probably has nothing to do with Congressional Republicans calling for your head, openly stating in the media how your policies and tactics are killing the party. It also probably has nothing to do with the Attorney General scandal, of which you were clearly the architect.

Okay, but know that the mob is really fucking pleased. Also, it is not so much the mob that drove you out, as it was your own party. They think you are an albatross. You made short term victories and decimated the party long term.

Rove has been with Bush since his early days in Texas. He will return to Texas to be closer to his son. Yes, the demon has a son. In ten years we will all be horrified by the actions of Rove’s spawn. I’m not sure why Buffy never killed Rove, or at least sent him back into the hell mouth. Now it has reproduced and is training its apprentice demon.

As I have said before, the only way for Republicans to survive the 2008 elections will be to crush the White House. The administration is behaving like a reckless, drunk, angry 11-year old boy and will drag the rest of the GOP down to depths never before seen if it continues on its current path. Republicans in Congress just seem to be waking up and realizing this President will not alter policies to save them from hemorrhaging seats next year. Suddenly the Republicans on the hill are growing balls – and the White House is not happy about it.

Eleven moderate Republican Congressmen went to the White House this week to let the President know they expected a change in course in Iraq. The did not hear what they wanted to hear, and after the meeting Republican Tom Davis of Virginia said Bush is “in a bubble.” They then leaked the meeting to the press and the White House is not pleased.

DO NOT SPEAK ABOUT THE KING UNLESS HE GIVES PERMISSION! Rape their wives and cut off their feet – but let them live.

Sith Lord Dick Cheney let the Republicans in Congress know exactly where they stand with the administration.

Um, Dick, you are gonna need them on your side or you will be eating your own assholes for the couple of years. That’s how the government was set up by the Founding Fathers. Turns out they wanted to avoid everything that you are.

The Republicans in Congress are giving the White House plenty of warnings that they need to make a change. House Minority Leader John Boehner recently said:

And Senator Lott also made his stance known:

And now they are asking for face-to-face meetings with the President to express their displeasure – only to be rebuffed. Apparently the White House did not understand what it meant when the RNC leaked the information about Rove using their servers for his emails. Let me spell it out for you: You have served your purpose. You may be in the White House but we will kill you for the party’s survival.

On the other side is a White House so ruthless that they leaked the name of a CIA agent for payback. 2008 will be a glorious year for liberals. If you thought Republicans were savage when attacking the left, wait you see them go after their own.

The Office of Special Counsel is opening a "broad" investigation into the actions of Karl Rove and his White House political operation. Usually the federal investigative unit only goes after low-level government employees, but apparently the brazen arrogance and law breaking was too much.

Currently there are several investigations being conducted by Congress, but this would be the first to unify everything under one umbrella. A horrible fat man named Rove appears to be the creature behind every political operation the Special Counsel is investigating. Most damning of all, this inquiry comes from inside the administration.

The emails are the most exciting part of this investigation. The Democrats have discovered that the Republican National Committee maintained e-mails written by White House personnel under the domain name of “gwb43.com.” It is illegal for employees of the White House to use outside servers.

This is where it gets really interesting, according to Bob Fitrakis, political science professor and the co-author of "What Happened in Ohio? A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election." He believes those RNC servers were not just used for illegal e-mail.

First of all, you have to be either retarded or ignorant to not believe there was election fraud in Ohio. The evidence is overwhelming.

Bush was losing Ohio late into the night. Exit polls showed a Kerry victory. Then, just after midnight, for 90 minutes, election results were frozen on the Secretary of State’s website. The explanation was that the state was waiting for the rural counties results. Apparently they didn’t trickle in, they all came at once because 90 minutes later Bush was on top. By the way, exit polls are the main detector of voter fraud across the world. Just not in the USA.

So, what happened? We don’t know. The Republican Secretary of State attempted to have the ballots destroyed but was stopped by a judge. Now the Democrats control Ohio and they are seeking answers.

The Republican Party controlled the technology that allowed the tally of the vote in Ohio to be reported to the media and voters. The incredibly odd results were routed by country election officials through the Republican Secretary of State’s office and the final results were hosted out of a computer in Tennessee. The Party created, owned and operated the vote-counting system that reported Bush's re-election.

Don’t know if anyone has noticed lately, but the Bush administration doesn’t give a shit about the law. Voter fraud would, quite simply, be within character. What will investigators find if they look into RNC servers? Maybe nothing, maybe a lot. Would they be dumb enough to use RNC servers? Wouldn’t put it past them. But, most importantly, some crazy professor in Ohio wants investigators check it out, so they should.

It has not been a good day for douche bags. Karl Rove, Don Imus and Paul Wolfowitz all are in some deep, deep shit. I’m going to start with Imus because he has suffered the most, so far.

Today Don Imus, an awful, unfunny, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic asshole, was fired. Boo fucking hoo. As everyone knows, last week Imus called the Rutgers women’s basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Yesterday MSNBC announced it was pulling his show from their morning line up. Today CBS gave into the pressure from black leaders and pulled the plug on his radio show completely.

The show was carried on 61 radio stations and brought in more than $20 million annually. How big of an asshole do you have to be to have an entertainment company walk away from $20 million? A big, big asshole. As much as people will try to paint this as Imus being fired for one incident, in truth he has a history of racist, sexist, anti-Semitic comments. I heard a Dutch newspaper editor on NPR best sum up the controversy when asked what Amsterdam thought of the situation.

Fair enough.

And in a delightful turn of events, Karl Rove’s own party is now throwing him under the bus. Today it was revealed by CREW that the Bush administration has deleted over 5 million emails, beginning in 2002. According to a letter sent from Henry Waxman to the Attorney General, the RNC was ordered to stop deleting emails in 2004. But that did not stop Karl says RNC lawyer Rob Kelner.

Nice. Here’s how it works with Karl: He has served his purpose. They took back the White House, the Congress and the Senate, but the reversal has begun. Those Rove policies that took the Republicans to the top are now dragging them to a depth never before seen. The RNC covered their ass and now have the ammunition to take Karl down. Make no mistake about it: A war is coming in the Republican party. There has to be one or the next election will be a blood bath. Karl has to go down.

This new information is bad news for Karl. If Fitzgerald did not know about Karl’s deleting of emails, then that case will be opened again. Even if he does not, Karl Rove is one of the dirtiest political operatives in the history of DC, and those emails will be damning. It has the beautiful sound of obstruction of justice.

We’ll have to wait for Karl’s looming disgrace, but neo-con architect Paul Wolfowitz is in the middle of his and it is a wonderful thing to watch. Wolfy was President Bush’s selection to head the World Bank, so right there, you know it’s going to be a disaster. Now, the Wolf’s girlfriend worked at the World Bank, so she was transferred to the State Department because of conflict-of-interest rules. But he set it up so that the World Bank would still pay her. She then received two pay increases that violated bank rules because they were so large. His lady now makes a bloated salary of $193,000. Did I mention it is tax free ? And that she doesn't even work there?

World Bank employees have been upset at the blatant corruption by The Wolf and today the World Bank Staff Association held an open press conference. The chair of the Staff Association publicly called for Wolfowitz’s resignation, saying he had “destroyed the staff's trust in his leadership.”

That is when shit got crazy. The Wolf unexpectedly showed up. The chair asked him to speak. The Wolf babbled some usual bullshit, not taking responsibility, blah, blah. Then the crowd actually started chanting, "Resign." It was estimated there were 100 to 150 people there, all chanting, “Resign.” How’s morale, fuckface?

The Wolf was “visibly uncomfortable” and left. Never before have we so desperately needed a cell phone camera to have been turned on. Please God.

Midterm elections will be held in the US on November 7th and the Republicans are looking at a major ass kicking. Or are they? Liberals have been wondering about Karl Roves’ October Surprise and today they got their answer.

The sentences will be handed out the same day, which will be a big boost to Bush and co. Just two days before elections Saddam Hussein will be sentenced to death. The trial began over a year ago and includes seven other defendants who are facing convictions for the deaths of 150 Shiites in 1982.

The trial adjourned on July 27 so a panel of five judges could discuss the verdict. The court was supposed to have reconvened on Monday, but surprise, surprise, they will not reconvene until two days before US elections. Monday’s headlines: Saddam Hussein To Die By Hanging. Now go vote on Tuesday.