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DeMint Is Part Of DeProblem (And McBush Too)
2008-07-17 17:39:00
This McClatchy story about Repug South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint (pictured) offering to hold hearings on Afghanistan with all-but-named Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is really a hoot, because, after he did so??DeMint then joined forces with top aides to Sen. John McCain in criticizing Obama's war plans.DeMint's high-profile appearance with McCain's senior foreign policy aides came as McCain and Obama delivered speeches laying out sharply differing views on Iraq, Afghanistan and the broader U.S. effort to defeat fundamentalist Muslim forces.What a partisan hack.This SourceWatch article on DeMint tells us that he blocked the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 shortly before it was due to come to a vote so he could engage in some grandstanding over supposed earmark reform (with the blessings of Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, no doubt).Also, he blocked a Democratic attempt to implement one of the 9/11 Commission recommendations that would have ?require(d)...
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Little Ricky "Bombs" On Obama-Rama
2008-07-17 13:31:00
(May be my last regular post for a little while, for what it?s worth?).In today?s Philadelphia Inquirer, former Senator Man-On-Dog is glad to see here that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has apparently talked tough enough for him on the matter of Iran?But how, you might ask, can the candidate of MoveOn.org and the antiwar-forever crowd be aligned with Bush on preemptive strikes against Iran? Here's how: Last month, Obama declared, "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon - everything."It?s always worth a chuckle for yours truly to read Little Ricky make a snide remark about war when, in fact, all he did when ?the call to service? came from this nation was to run away as fast as he could to his mansion in Virginia?International Atomic Energy Administration director Mohamed ElBaradei said last month that if Iran expelled the United Nations' nuclear watchd...

Wednesday Stuff
2008-07-16 22:41:00
The line about infants is too far, but otherwise The Onion does it again (I have a feeling that the line about a McCain presidency isn't satire, though)...'No Values Voters' Looking To Support Most Evil Candidate...and hey kids, look! Lee Stranahan tells us about Phil Gramm's new self-help seminar (what fun).
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Say Bai To Credibility
2008-07-16 16:49:00
(Lots going on with your humble narrator before he heads out of town; while most everybody else has gone south to Austin, I?m going north to a true liberal haven, if you will. But first?)It?s taken me a little while to get to this, but last Sunday, the New York Times magazine carried this feature written by Matt Bai about the McCain and Obama campaigns, ostensibly communicating the theme that they?re ?reformers? (warning: more of the dreaded ?conventional wisdom? ahead).And with a bit of a nod to this prior post, Bai tells us?McCain, however, takes a personal and confrontational approach toward reform, which he sees fundamentally as a matter of overhauling the rules that govern Washington. By this thinking, a Rough-Rider-type leader should press for tough measures ? publicizing earmarks, for example ? that insulate legislators from moneyed interests.I hate to break the news to Bai, but even though there is more work to be done on the matter of earmark reform (once again, as long as ...

More McBush Wankery From "The Old Gray Lady"
2008-07-15 18:15:00
So Adam Nagourney tells us here that that ?straight-talking maverick? submitted the idea of participating in his beloved ?town hall? forums with Barack Obama to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.And?Mr. Obama initially seemed enthusiastic about the idea when it was floated by Mark McKinnon, an adviser to Mr. McCain, as it became clear in early May that Mr. Obama was going to win the Democratic nomination. ?I think it?s a great idea,? Mr. Obama said at the time. And for just a moment last spring, it seemed that voters might actually in be for the different kind of political campaign that Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama have both promised but, arguably, have yet to deliver.The idea slipped away, though, after what appeared to be a half-hearted response from the Obama campaign. Mr. McCain wanted to hold these town-hall meetings every Thursday until the Democratic convention at the end of August ? about a dozen of them in all. The Obama campaign countered with an offer of five ? ...
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More AP Fournier Follies
2008-07-15 13:57:00
(I may be able to squeeze in a couple after all?I?ll try.)So the AP?s Ron Fournier tells us here that Karl Rove should ?keep up the fight,? meaning that Rove should continue to ignore congressional subpoenas and thus break the law (with Fournier noting after he was caught that he ?regretted the breezy nature of the correspondence?).Well, in a category you might call ?breezy attempts at journalism,? I give you Fournier?s take on the nomination of Hangin? Judge J.R. as Supreme Court Chief Justice here (my bad for not citing the original story, which I can?t find now as luck would have it), in which Fournier tells us that ?a summer (of 2005) spent in the spotlight turned up no warts on the nominee,? even though there was ample fodder to protest the Roberts nomination here.Also, Fournier used the pardon of ?Scooter? Libby to attack the Clintons here, repeatedly asked John W. McBush if he thought Barack Obama was ?an elitist? here, mischaracterized the controversy over Dubya?s warrantles...

Monday Stuff
2008-07-14 22:14:00
"The Pap Attack" takes on the "straight-talk express" (not pretty, people)......and personally, I think Kagro X is being kind here to Dubya; this message is aimed at Repug Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, but at this point, the recipient is Commander Codpiece himself (and by the way, McBush didn't even bother to show up and vote No for this)......Josh Green of The Atlantic comments on McBush's very awful week last week with Rachel Maddow (another guest on "Countdown" pointed out that Obama surrogates Bill Richardson and John Edwards went after Gramm a little more)......and dag, that Stranahan guy is good.
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Monday Mashup (7/14/08)
2008-07-14 17:18:00
(Took awhile to finish this - sorry...).PA Governor Ed Rendell (pictured) was quoted as follows here?PHILADELPHIA ? The United States should establish a capital budget to pay for about $1.6 trillion in national infrastructure repairs to ensure the work gets down and prevent the risk of becoming a ?third-rate? economic power, (Rendell) said on Monday .In his first speech as 2008/09 chairman of the National Governors Association, Rendell said U.S. spending on facilities such as roads, bridges, and passenger rail is only 0.6 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 9 percent in China and 3.5 percent in the European Union.?According to a 2005 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. has a shortfall of $1.6 trillion in infrastructure funding over a five-year period.Without those repairs, the U.S. risks becoming a ?third-rate? economic power in 50 years' time, Rendell warned.This takes you to similar warnings from the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2005,...
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Today's Obama-Rama Dustup
2008-07-14 15:43:00
Above (h/t HuffPo) are some previous New Yorker Magazine cover illustrations by Barry Blitt; as you can see, he?s hardly an ideologue. I would only ask that you keep that in mind when you look at this week?s cover depicting the Obama s in a highly unflattering manner (here).Yes, it?s tasteless. Yes, it?s based on some fundamental misconceptions that reinforce right-wing stereotypes. Blitt could have depicted Obama in a negative light over his FISA vote or cowering with other Dems, and that would have been deserved; a recent Tony Auth cartoon features Bush as a cowboy rounding up the Dem donkeys into the FISA pen, or something like that, and the cartoon made the point.Or, the illustration could have shown Limbaugh, Hannity, Bill Orally and Smerky hiding in a cupboard or something with an expression on their faces as if they were saying, ?YA? SEE? YA? SEE? WE WERE RIGHT!? and that would have been fine; the spirit of the satire wouldn?t have been lost.But it?s a magazine cover. And it...

Snow Falls
2008-07-14 13:45:00
I promised I wasn?t going to say anything about the demise of Tony Snow , but I feel that I have to because ?it?s getting a little thick,? if you know what I mean.And yes, I know, if you don?t have anything good to say about someone, you shouldn?t say anything. That is why I will merely link back to prior posts and try as hard as I can to stow the disparaging remarks.I should say at the outset, though, that 53 is entirely too young an age for anyone to leave us. And I can?t imagine the guts it took for him to live his life with his family history of colon cancer (there is no good type of cancer, but that?s particularly debilitating) and knowing that the chances were good that he would acquire it also.However, his legacy as a conservative media hit man will live on in these less-than-shining moments, as well as many others?Snow equates the pardon of Scooter Libby with the pardons of Bill Clinton (here).Snow informs us that there was no attempt by the White House to link Saddam Hussein...

McBush as T.R.? Bull!
2008-07-14 12:01:00
(And I don't mean Moose.)Yesterday in the New York Times, Adam Nagourney and Michael Cooper published more McBush fluffery positing the ridiculous noting that, somehow, John W. McBush?s presidential role model is Theodore Roosevelt here (I mean, that may be true, but McBush?s public life is a marked departure from the actions of our twenty-sixth president)??I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold,? Mr. McCain said, referring to Roosevelt?s reputation for reform, environmentalism and tough foreign policy.There are so many directions I could go with this one, but I?ll stick to ?reform? and ?environmentalism.?For starters (on the matter of ?reform?), this post from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) tells us?For McCain, there is no better example of how the image of reform has obscured the intersection of corporate donations and DC lobbyists than the Reform Institute. A nonprofit with an O...
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Saturday Stuff
2008-07-12 23:32:00
So John W. McBush "won the week" according to something called "The Note" by (in addition to having one of his surrogates call Americans whiners, as well as McBush mixing up the Steelers and the Green Bay Packers) kicking out elderly librarians from campaign events, did he? And class move to claim that it was the Secret Service's idea, when in fact it was his campaign......and here's more lies; for starters, he opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Pay Act (more noted here)....I knew Edwards wouldn't have voted for FISA anyway, but he confirms it here......and here's "Free Evenings And Weekends (The FISA Song)" by Max And The Marginalized (here).
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Friday Stuff
2008-07-11 23:33:00
If you think you already detest KBR/Halliburton, get a load of this (and this)......and I have a feeling that Jonathan Turley was shocked to realize what he was saying, but he's absolutely right.
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The "Palmetto State" Comes Out Of The Closet
2008-07-11 17:28:00
This McClatchy story tells us that South Carolina?s Department of Tourism apparently needs to ?go back to the drawing board??South Carolina's top tourism agency has canceled an overseas advertising campaign targeting gay tourists.The campaign, tied to gay pride week celebrations in London, included ads that proclaimed "South Carolina is so gay." A handful of other U.S. destinations joined the campaign, including Atlanta, Boston and New Orleans.Yeah, yeah, I know, but guess what; we?re not doing too well when it comes to tourism in this country, even with the weak dollar (as noted here).So, as a bit of a public service, here are my recommendations for travel campaigns that could help impart goodwill to those traveling to our shores...Florida ? Mickey?s Packing HeatNew Jersey ? Land Of Toxic Waste And Tony SopranoNew Mexico ? We Are Not AloneNevada ? Come And Pump More Than GasVirginia ? Wanna See The World?s Largest Organ? (stalacpipe at Luray Caverns?easy now)But then again, instea...
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Bushco?Hazardous To Our Health, Again
2008-07-11 15:12:00
The New York Times opined as follows today?Dr. (John) Howard?s six-year term as director of (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the Department of Health and Human Services, expires on Monday. He had asked to be reappointed, but just before the long July Fourth weekend Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the disease control centers, let him know that she was beginning a search for a new director.Is it me, or is it patently ridiculous to be terminating someone whose work has been roundly praised in the service of a presidential administration due to expire (happily, at long last) after 192 days?Dr. Howard has gained particular renown over the past two years for coordinating and championing health programs for workers who were sickened at ground zero, including screening, monitoring and treatment.This post takes you to more information on Howard?s termination, including protests by Dem House Reps Carol...

Saint Petraeus Keeps Climbing The Ladder
2008-07-11 14:27:00
This MSNBC story tells us the following?WASHINGTON - The Senate has confirmed Gen. David Petraeus as the top commander in the Middle East and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno to replace Petraeus as the chief military officer in Iraq.The Senate voted 95-2 in favor of Petraeus and 96-1 for Odierno.And CNN reported that the two ?No? votes against Petraeus were cast by Robert Byrd and Tom Harkin, with Harkin also voting against Odierno; Byrd?s full statement is here, and I must say that it showed a lot of deliberation. Here is a notable excerpt (from the CNN story)?Gen. Petraeus' career will be judged in large part by his role in the Iraq conflict," Byrd said. "His reticence to address other regional issues raises questions about his willingness to devote the focus and the resources needed to address them properly."And Harkin voted against both Petraeus and Odierno because, in essence, they had no plan for redeploying our military out of Iraq to fight the greatest terrorist threats we truly fa...
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More Friday Financial Follies
2008-07-11 12:04:00
I?m definitely not an economist, but here?s how the markets seem to work (as nearly as I can get this); our weak dollar pushes up the price of oil, and when the price of oil hits a new record (sending oil futures soaring), the Dow Jones tanks, as it's doing again today. Other bad financial news impacts that also, of course, including unemployment statistics, as well as questions about whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will need a bailout, as is apparently the case as well.Where am I going with this? Well, this is actually a setup to a comment about this column from Kimberly A. Strassel of the Wall Street Journal in which she more or less compliments Dick Durbin (as much as anyone from the WSJ would compliment a Democrat, which is with faint praise of course) over his ?hands off? actions towards the futures markets, which are based in Chicago (and Durbin being one of the two senators from Illinois; perhaps you?ve heard of the other one? Hint: He bailed on FISA a couple of days ago)?...
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Thursday Stuff
2008-07-10 22:51:00
Even fighting a life-threatening illness, this man still has more courage in his little finger than practically all of his peers do in their entire bodies......and I thought this was kind of neat, though a bit dated, and it's Robin Williams as the American flag (I could use something a little humorous as a result of this week, and let's keep in mind what he says about showing it in about two months, OK?).
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Dubya Kisses Off The G8
2008-07-10 16:22:00
Thus sayeth President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History as he recently departed from a gathering of world leaders (here)??I wish for a world free from tyranny: the tyranny of hunger, disease and free from tyrannical governments,? the president wrote. ?I wish for a world in which the universal desire for liberty is realized. I wish for the advance of new technologies that will improve the human condition and protect our environment. I wish God?s blessings on all. George W. Bush.?193 days and counting, people?
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Still Trying To Mend Medicare
2008-07-10 15:47:00
The New York Times reported yesterday that?Congressional investigators said Tuesday that Medicare had paid tens of millions of dollars to suppliers improperly using identification numbers of doctors who died years ago.The government has no reliable way to spot claims linked to dead doctors, many of whom are still listed as active Medicare providers though they died 10 or 15 years ago, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said.And of course, ?no one could have predicted? that, right?Well, this story from last January tells us that Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services director Herb Kuhn (a former lobbyist, of course), enacted a new Medicare competitive bidding program for all manner of medical supplies, with ?market rates? used as a basis for accepting bids (which the CMS anticipated to be lower) versus government-established prices.And ?The Bush administration characterizes the program as an attempt to inject market forces into Medicare and reduce federal spending...

How The Army Treats A Patriot
2008-07-10 13:12:00
Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher tells us here about Gina Gray, who was the public affairs director of Arlington National Cemetery (Mitchell?s post is based on a story in today?s Washington Post by Dana Milbank).I say Gray ?was? the director because?When (Gray) took over?about three months ago, she discovered that cemetery officials were attempting to impose new limits on media coverage of funerals of the Iraq war dead -- even after the fallen warriors' families granted permission for the coverage. She said that the new restrictions were wrong and that Army regulations didn't call for such limitations.?Six weeks after The Washington Post reported her efforts to restore media coverage of funerals, Gray was demoted. Twelve days ago, the Army fired her. ?Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with it and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I'd still be there,? said the jobless Gray, who, over lunch yesterday in Crystal City, recounted what she is cert...
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A FISA Follow Up On The ?Limbo? Congress
2008-07-10 11:56:00
(As in, ?how low can they go,? of course?).Glenn Greenwald tells us here which Senate Dems voted in favor of the FISA disaster?Bayh - Carper ? Casey (voted for the Bingaman, Dodd and Specter amendments, but then voted for the bill anyway...unbelievable) - Conrad - Feinstein - Inouye - Kohl - Landrieu - Lincoln - McCaskill - Mikulski - Nelson (Neb.) - Nelson (Fla.) - Obama - Pryor - Rockefeller - Salazar - Webb - WhitehouseOh, and by the way (as Greenwald communicated), a Rasmussen poll conducted on Tuesday tells us that, of those surveyed, the 110th Congress received either a good or excellent rating from nine percent of those polled.Yep, that?s right; for the first time, a Congressional approval rating has entered the single digits. Congratulations!I?m sure we can expect such new capitulations as drilling in the ANWR and our coastal zones for oil any day now.Fortunately, the ACLU intends to file suit over this; you can read more about it and find out how to help here.

Wednesday Stuff
2008-07-09 23:14:00
"The Pap Attack" gives us a history lesson of the corpocracy under Bushco......so we're "a nation of whiners," huh Phil? At least none of us caused the subprime mortgage debacle - wish you could say the same......and oh yeah, remember the war, Senator McBush?......and Rachel Maddow interviews Russ Feingold with the sorry recap of today's awfulness (I want to believe him, I really do).
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The Deed Is Finally Done
2008-07-09 16:14:00
For the record, this was what was at stake (from here)??The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.?For the uninitiated, I should point out that the preceding text is, in its entirety, the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution.And here is further explanation (from the Wikipedia article)?The Fourth Amendment specifies that any warrant must be judicially sanctioned for a search or an arrest, in order for such a warrant to be considered reasonable. Warrants must be supported by probable cause and be limited in scope according to specific information supplied by a person (usually a peace officer) who has sworn by it and is therefore accountable to the issuing court.Well, as of about an hour...
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John W. McBush Sure Is A ?Drag?
2008-07-09 14:25:00
Looks to me like ?Senator Honor And Virtue? is taking lessons in comedy from Mike Huckabee, and I don?t mean that as a compliment (here)...The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was asked about the number of exports going to Iran, specifically the increase in cigarette exports.McCain looked surprised at that fact and in a line somewhat reminiscent of his "bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran" comment last year said, "Maybe that's a way of killing them." Then he followed it up quickly noting that it was a joke.Putting aside the fact that he apparently has no firm positions on anything unless it has been approved by a Repug-friendly focus group, I seriously question this man?s mental state and (God help us, if he were elected) would he highly concerned over whether or not he would ?lose it? altogether under the strain of serving as president (based on that remark and a few others, as well as his Dubya-esque tendency to get snippy at every perceived provocation).This, however, does serve a...
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"Going Green" With Patrick
2008-07-08 17:54:00
The following appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times today?There are too many families in Bucks County who are having a hard time coping with the price of gas. When one has to make a decision to cut down on food versus buying gas just to get to work, there is a problem. It's immoral that Exxon Mobil is making record profits while almost everyone I know pays more than $100 a week for gas just to get to work. The company made $40 billion in 2007 ? the largest profit of any company in American history. Two more oil companies announced they had made $17 billion in the first three months of 2008. I'm glad that Patrick Murphy, our congressman in Bucks County, has taken a hard line on these oil companies. Murphy voted to repeal the subsidies to big oil companies and wisely invest the money in renewable energy.It's clear that innovation will be the key to breaking our dependence on foreign oil and driving down oil costs. It is simple economics ? oil is a fossil fuel that cannot be re...
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Time Running Out On FISA
2008-07-08 17:31:00
The New York Time s thus sayeth the following today...Congress has been far too compliant as President Bush undermined the Bill of Rights and the balance of powers. It now has a chance to undo some of that damage ? if it has the courage and good sense to stand up to the White House and for the Constitution.The Senate should reject a bill this week that would needlessly expand the government?s ability to spy on Americans and ensure that the country never learns the full extent of President Bush?s unlawful wiretapping.The bill dangerously weakens the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA . Adopted after the abuses of the Watergate and Vietnam eras, the law requires the government to get a warrant to intercept communications between anyone in this country and anyone outside it ? and show that it is investigating a foreign power, or the agent of a foreign power, that plans to harm America.The FISA law created a court to issue those warrants quickly, and over 30 years, the co...
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A Strange Type Of "Success"
2008-07-08 16:30:00
If it?s Tuesday, then that means it?s time for more shameless wankery from Bret Stephens (here)?Richard Nixon came to office with a rumored secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. Maybe Barack Obama's plan to end the war in Iraq is going to wind up being a secret, too.The presumptive Democratic nominee set off media firecrackers last week by hinting at further refinements to his strategy for withdrawal. Previous strategies include his January 2007 call for a complete withdrawal by March 2008, followed by his call for a complete withdrawal by July 2010, or 16 months after he takes office. Stephens is only partially correct here (surprising that he got that much right); in January 2007, Obama called for a withdrawal of our combat troops from Iraq by March 2008 here, and afterwards (seeing as how Commander Codpiece has no intention whatsoever of even significantly drawing down our forces, to say nothing of removing combat personnel altogether), Obama revised that strategy to one combat...
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Monday Stuff
2008-07-08 04:21:00
The feeling is mutual, Senator McBush (h/t Crooks and Liars)......and it looks like somebody else saw "WALL-E" besides yours truly (minor spoiler alert)......Rachel Maddow pinch hits for K.O. on "Countdown" with more Bush scandals, including ignoring al-Maliki in Iraq to keep our people there, as well as DOJ nonsense and a reconstituted al Qaeda......and by the way, believe it or not, today is the five-year anniversary of the outing of Valerie Plame (my, how time does fly for the cowardly and well-connected).
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From Trash To Triumph
2008-07-08 03:45:00
(Spoiler alert - I may end up ?spilling the beans? on a popular movie currently in theaters.)I know a lot has been written and said already about the new Disney/Pixar film ?WALL-E,? which, as is the case with any well-done product of our pop culture, ends up as a prism for our own belief systems, with conservatives considering it to be a ?90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment? (actually, as noted here, the film runs for 98 minutes to be exact), and those left of center seeing the movie (more accurately, I think) as a tale of how truly entwined human beings are with every aspect of life on earth.I took the young one to see it at a monster multiplex near us over the weekend, and I have to tell you that it is truly a well-done, enjoyable film, despite the admittedly bleak aspects of its opening. Each Pixar movie contains original and well-realized stories, and I cannot emphasize the importance of that enough; if ...
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