Can someone please find out what it means to Bush?
President Bush will not attend weekend ceremonies including a Capitol Rotunda service, but he will return to Washington from his Texas ranch on Monday, pay respects to Ford while his remains lie in state at the Capitol, and speak Tuesday at services for Ford at the National Cathedral.
War is over if Bush wants it.
In other news, take a moment for the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.
Wow, this is a pretty somber xmas day post.
Peace and goodwill on earth for everyone. If we actually thought like that, maybe we could make a difference :)
Magical thinking has long pervaded this entire enterprise, and the pundits who
supported this whole thing long ago decided that they could evade responsibility
for their role in this by continuing to come up new Pony Plans. They can't come
to grips with the fact that this whole enterprise is doomed - and, in fact, has
long been doomed - and they can't come to grips with the fact that no matter
what they say George Bush is the decider.
Out to destroy his opponents in a not-so-honest way. Some tidbits from his latest bill:
– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal
images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”
– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports,
but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even
stiffer penalties” than ISPs.
— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.
As right as progressives have been on this war from the get go, we were wrong not to consider the realpolitik implications of what would happen. Not that we could have influenced anything, but it would have been an extra canary in the coal mine.
Josh Marshall has the full rundown, but the long and short of it is that the neocons were totally up for starting a region-wide civil war so they could get their hands on some black gold and set up some pro-U.S. states. Not only are these people psychotic, but they have also been wrong about everything, all the time.
The way I see things playing out is that if this civil war spreads beyond Iraqi borders we will have jumpstarted a conflict that will rage throughout the entire region. Shi'a states will go to war with Sunni states. It will not matter whose side we take, for no matter how much they might hate each other they surely hate the U.S. more than anyone else. No matter who wins a majority of the Arab world will bear nothing but enmity toward the U.S.
All so George W. Bush can gamble at greatness. No matter how badly history proves him to be a failure some crackpot will come along and attribute everything good that happens from here on out to Bush, much like Republicans like to attribute the economic growth in the 90s to Reagan and stability in Chile to Pinochet.
It is what it is, but it did not and does not necessarily have to be that way.
Like it or not, Mr. Pinochet had something to do with this success. To the
dismay of every economic minister in Latin America, he introduced the
free-market policies that produced the Chilean economic miracle -- and that not
even Allende's socialist successors have dared reverse. He also accepted a
transition to democracy, stepping down peacefully in 1990 after losing a
referendum.
Ezra Klein.
Why do we pay attention to people who are wrong about everything all the time?
What Lakoff says (yes, he has Digby status).
I think the only argument that can be made against Lakoff is that when you brand Bush and the Republican party as incompetent you are attacking a relatively small group of people, but when you label it a failure of conservatism you run the risk of getting under the skin of ordinary people who self-identify as conservative and might perceive it as an attack upon themselves. However, we are at a point where there is mass discontent with the poster boy for conservatism and now is the right time to push this meme and get people to reconsider their beliefs. As Lakoff repeatedly points out throughout his essay, progressivism is a very attractive alternative.
Incidentally, Democrats will find it very hard to attract people if they do not claim the mantle of progressivism and keep on aiding and abetting conservatism.
Oh right, we already marginalized one of those assholes. Heh.
Althouse has uncovered a nefarious plot.
As always, waiting for Altmouse to set the record straight.
h/t Atrios.
For those of you who have not yet seen The Power of Nightmares, a documentary on the origins of radical Islam and Neoconservatives, you can download it at archive.org.
After reading Atrios' comments about an old prison in Providence, RI
Anyway, in the diary were observations about the mental health of the prisoners.
The prisoners lived in solitary confinement, in small rooms lacking natural
light. The diarist expressed genuine surprise that it didn't take very long
(6-12 months) for prisoners - many of whom were in for minor offenses - to start
displaying signs of profound mental illness.
Oh Pam, the love of your life is going to have so much more time on his hands to fight islamofascism with you.
Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down
when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said
Monday.
The hacktacular George Will:
Webb certainly has conveyed what he is: a boor. Never mind the patent disrespect
for the presidency. Webb's more gross offense was calculated rudeness toward
another human being -- one who, disregarding many hard things Webb had said
about him during the campaign, asked a civil and caring question, as one parent
to another. When -- if ever -- Webb grows weary of admiring his new grandeur as
a "leader" who carefully calibrates the "symbolic things" he does to convey
messages, he might consider this: In a republic, people decline to be led by
leaders who are insufferably full of themselves.
In a republic, people decline to listen to self-styled media gasbags who are
insufferably full of themselves.
When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, "How's your boy?" Webb
replied, "I'd like to get them [sic] out of Iraq." When the president again
asked "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "That's between me and my boy."
Blackadder ain't got nothing on this guy:
At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers
shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal
serving in Iraq, was doing.
Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.
“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.
Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.
I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Among the things that we are thankful for, I think we should all take time out to be thankful for not being in Iraq.
The bloodiest bombings in Baghdad since the U.S. invasion in 2003, and the
reprisals that swiftly followed, show that Iraq's sectarian conflict may be too
far gone for leaders to stop, even if they want to.
The killings of some 250
people in just a few days last week marked a "high-water mark", analysts said.
It demonstrated with savage clarity how little control Iraq's government
exercises, with a security force accused of sectarian bias and a series of peace
plans doing little to slow the pace of killing.
Still the guy who knows funny.
I was originally going to go paragraph by paragraph and take Cohen apart, but everything he says is so abhorrent that you need to read his column in its entirety. For example:
Daily I read the casualty list from Iraq -- and I invent reasons to make the
deaths less tragic. This is a hopeless, maybe tasteless, task, but it matters to
me if someone is a career soldier who knew what he was getting into as opposed
to some naive kid digitally juiced on a computerized version of war -- or, even
sadder, some guardsman who enlisted for God, country or spare cash, but not by
any means for Baghdad. He's a volunteer, all right, but not for a war that
didn't exist when he raised his right hand and took the oath.
Marty Peretz of the New Republic.
All the talk of we could have done it better than Bush and trying to speak for what Iraqis really want - because some neocon magazine editor really knows - is Orientalism of the highest order, which is to say an assumption of one's omniscience and infalibility to the detriment of being able to more objectively assess reality. In Peretz's case, this has a lot to do with Israel. From over at TPMCafe:
It's pretty interesting once you understand that Peretz has only one yardstick
by which he judges people: pro-Israel and anti-Israel. The subcategory is Jewish
or not Jewish.
What Digby said.
and again,
What Digby said.
I think it is our duty as citizens of this country to make people aware of the level of discourse. If the Presstitutes want to party like it's 1998, then we need to take a (metaphorically speaking, I'm not Pam Oshry) baseball bat to their heads. If they want to play it like they're too cool for the Democrats, we need to loudly remind them of every time they went weak in the knees for Commander Codpiece and abetted his and the Republican party's destruction of this country. Such people have no right to spend hours agonizing over Bill Clinton's continued 'taint' on the party or Nancy Pelosi's already doomed leadership. They are part and parcel of the problem.
The correct answer is how Mary Mapes responded to Rush Limbaugh (I think there was someone else who said something similar, but I can't remember who):
"I don't need to be lectured on ethics from a much married, obese, drug addict."
If by "we" you mean the established media.
This shit should not fly. I stopped watching CNN after Kyra Philips spent more energy attacking Nancy Pelosi and defending Bush than reporting. I have not look back.
Glenn Greenwald nails it:
"Conservatism" -- like "communism" -- has only one real definition, only one
definition that matters: "that which 'conservatives' and the leaders they
support do when in power." Conservatism is a set of principles about how
government ought to function and the policies which political leaders should
implement. And those principles can be known not by how they exist in some
Platonic form, abstractly enshrined by think tank groups or in textbooks. One
knows it by how its proponents -- "conservatives" -- actually govern and by who
and what they support.
Michael Moore.
I can't wait to see how many different ways this can make Rush Limbaugh's and Ann Coulter's heads explode.
The race is on. Hoyer,
For the last four years, I have been honored to serve as your Whip, working
on a daily basis with Nancy, Jim, John, Rahm, and all of the Members of our
Caucus to bring us to this point. Together, our Caucus has achieved
unprecedented unity – and our unity, I believe, proved to be instrumental to
last night’s tremendous Democratic victory. This was a team effort!
Today, as part of the leadership team that helped our Caucus regain the
House Majority, I am writing to ask you to support my candidacy for the position
of Majority Leader when the Caucus elects its leaders for the 110th Congress on
November 16th. I would be honored to serve as your Majority Leader, and am
grateful for the depth and broad range of commitments that have been given by
Members for my candidacy. While my top priority has been helping our Caucus
regain the Majority, I assure you that I have given a great deal of thought to
the duties of this leadership position.
Talk is cheap, which is why, up until Iraq forced me to, I didn't do a lot of
it. But empty rhetoric is expensive. It has cost America three years in a failed
war at nearly three thousand lives lost and will cost us a trillion dollars by
the time we can extricate ourselves from it. Empty rhetoric has cost us years of
lost time in finding a solution to our dependence on foreign oil, at a price tag
that is nearly impossible to guess, but surely in the hundreds of billions.
David Brooks (free Times Select week, and look what we get stuck with. I want my Krugman):
In some ways, this election reminds me of the 1974 Democratic sweep. The
Republicans have screwed up. Democrats have surged in. But the result leads not
to a liberal tide but to Jimmy Carter, who in 1976 ran as a conservative
anti-political reformer who won on fiscal discipline and with the support of Pat
Robertson.
This election didn’t define a new era, but it marks the end of an old
one. If Democrats are going to take advantage of their victory, they will have
to do two things. They will have to show they have not been taken over by their
bloggers or their economic nationalists, who will alienate them from the
suburban office park moms. Second, they’ll have to come up with ideas as big as
the problems we face. Their current platform consists of small-bore tax credits
and foreign policy vagaries about, say, “redoubling” our efforts to get Osama
bin Laden. (Why not retripling or requadrupling?)
My predictions:
House - Dem gain of 22
Senate - Dem gain of 4 and Lamont wins CT
I realize I'm being conservative, but like many other left-wing bloggers, I've been burned badly before. Oh well.
As for Lamont, everyone's saying it's a stretch because the polls show Lieberman up, but there is record turnout this election - some think up to 70% - which my buddy, working on the ground has confirmed, and because I refuse to believe Schlesinger will get under 15% of the vote at the end of the day. He's #1 on the ballot with a big fat Republican next to his name, and when given the choice between the real Republican and the fake Republican - as we have found out time and time again in recent elections - voters will choose the real Republican. Furthermore, Joe's position on the ballot is dead last. My friend said you can't even see his name under the levers of the polling machine. Take a look for yourself:
Joe's seriously verkacht. Best quote of the election (aside from the KY assault), from Colin McEnroe:
Also, people report it is even harder than they thought to find Joe
Lieberman on the ballot. One correspondent: "You'd have to be stupid to
vote for Lieberman. And then they make it hard for stupid people to find him.
It's not fair!"
Republicans.
Andrew Sullivan and I actually agree on something. Almost makes you wonder how far out the Republicans are. Almost...
We promised no predictions, but Mr. Lamont has pretty much proven he was a
one-issue wonder, and despite the anti-war sentiment here and in other places,
we’d suggest Democratic party leaders figure out how to welcome Mr. Lieberman
back into the fold. (If only so Vice President Dick Cheney will stop using the
party’s shunning of Mr. Lieberman as encouragement for Al Qaeda-minded
terrorists.)
Jesus oh Jesus how I want to see Joe Lieberman lose. Connecticut Dems who say
they are voting for Lieberman: you know not what you do.
(adj.) - George W. Bush:
Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast
archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.
But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons
experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts
say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.
Oops.
Mr. Maliki’s public declaration seemed at first to catch American commanders off
guard. But by nightfall, American troops had abandoned all the positions in
eastern and central Baghdad that they had set up last week with Iraqi forces as
part of a search for a missing American soldier. The checkpoints had snarled
traffic and disrupted daily life and commerce throughout the eastern part of the
city.
Too bad kos didn't post the link to this, but I'm very proud to see that at least one leader on the Democratic side is learning how to fight back. It shows that we have spines, that we actually believe in something enough to stand up for it, and it is good morality, which translates into good politics. Take it away, John!
If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving
in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the
classic G.O.P. playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable
Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to
serve in war, but love to attack those who did.
Atrios points out the scary obvious:
Bush to his media sycophants:
As Greg points out, a strong majority support getting out. But more than that,
we weren't attacked by Iraq.
No wonder they hate us.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Of course, it's probably just politics, considering the race-baiting we've had in TN, but that probably makes it even stupider. Harold Ford:
"I do not support the decision today reached by the New Jersey Supreme Court
regarding gay marriage. I oppose gay marriage, and have voted twice in Congress
to amend the United States Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. This
November there's a referendum on the Tennessee ballot to ban same-sex marriage -
I am voting for it."
Remember all of Bush's platitudes about an ownership society?
He sure followed through - you've been owned!
In addition to grapes with seeds in them, and flies (and Susie Derkins), I really hate being taken for a complete and utter idiot. For example:
On CBS this morning, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett claimed that the
administration has “never” had “a stay-the-course strategy.”
Don't have a fucking clue.
Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is
vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical
intelligence.
“Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a
few weeks ago.
Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s
in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I
don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families
or something.”
To his credit, he asked me to explain the differences. I told him briefly
about the schism that developed after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and how
Iraq and Iran are majority Shiite nations while the rest of the Muslim world is
mostly Sunni. “Now that you’ve explained it to me,” he replied, “what occurs to
me is that it makes what we’re doing over there extremely difficult, not only in
Iraq but that whole area.”
er, John. Says Think Progress:
Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) explicitly blamed the Clinton administration
for North Korea’s nuclear weapons test on Sunday: “[I]t is a failure of the
Clinton administration policies…that have caused us to be in the situation we’re
in today.”
This morning on NBC, “Straight Talk” McCain had a different tune:
“I think this is the wrong time for us to be engaging in finger pointing when in
this crucial time, we need the world and Americans united.”
One death at a time.A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more
people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would
have died if the invasion had not occurred.
Digby has more.
We are all sinners - I am not using sin in a religious context, but in the context of - god and holy books aside - we have all done wrong in our lives - but some burn brighter than others. It is my hope that we can learn from our mistakes, both individually and as a people, and move forward to prevent these atrocities from happening again.
Lieberman believes the Republican party is the party of righteousness and the Democratic party is the party of sin. How else could he spout this garbage?
I mean that's just absolutely the wrong response, and it shows how politically
sick congress in Washington has become, because everything is seen through the prism of partisanship. I'm not naive, I've been in this business a long time, and I know that we are in an election year but my God! This is a guy who took advantage of a kid, a minor. Kids who came to Washington with a lot dreams about being a page, and maybe being a member of congress one day. This is the classic pattern that for years women have been complaining about, which is that a man in a superior position in their place of employment uses that to...basically for
sexual harassment so the thing was just immoral and outrageous. Obviously Foley
had to go and he did go. Now to make it into a political question is wrong.
“Joe Lieberman just can’t bring himself to hold anyone in Washington
accountable, even when the safety of our children is at stake. If Dennis Hastert
knew that Mark Foley was harassing minors and didn’t do anything about it, he
should resign immediately. Anyone who disagrees is morally tone deaf. The fact
that Joe Lieberman says calling for Hastert’s resignation is too “partisan”
demonstrates that he’s been in Washington so long that he can’t recognize the
difference between what’s right and what’s partisan.
We expect Senator Lieberman to stand by President Bush on the war and other failed policies, but until now we didn’t expect him to protect a public leader who put the safety of our children at risk. Connecticut deserves better than someone who puts a twisted definition of “bipartisanship” ahead of what’s right for this country.
It’s time for a change.”
Denny Hastert doesn't come to me for advice but if I were him I would tell them
get somebody who people in both parties respect in there quickly, immediately.
I would like to hear from the right-wing apologist who can chalk this up to an honest mistake.
Nice try, Falafel-lovers, but Foley is a REPUBLICAN. This is a Republican scandal, and only a Republican scandal.
I realize this is preemptive, but if some cutesy, jerkoff "journalist" thinks he can publish an article about how there have been previous homosexual sex scandals between Democratic members of Congress and page boys back in the day - it would not surprise me if they go back over a century to dredge something up - to show "balance" and that "both sides do it," then that journalist needs to be taken out behind the shed. This scandal is only about Republicans. The less important scandal is Foley (R-FL). The more important scandal is how the Republican House leadership covered it up so they could stay in power.
That's your Republican party, folks. Putting themselves before children and the country.
Republicans are disgusting and should have zero - negative, if possible - credibility with the American people. They have no principles besides obtaining and maintaining power - Foleygate illustrates this very well - and do not care about America.
QALAT, Afghanistan U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the
Afghan guerrilla war can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring
the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government.
The Tennessee
Republican said he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too
numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military
means.
"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government,"
Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the
southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished we'll be
successful."
I think that in any posts I have made on Iraq and Vietnam, I have always treated the comparison gingerly. There are many pitfalls that one can make in doing so and there is no silver bullet that will pierce through everything and nail the two together. Furthermore, I am of the opinion that a better comparison to our invasion of Iraq is Japan's invasion of China in the Pacific War. Regardless, even though I imagine it had been on the backburner, I had not spent much time considering this angle very much.
So, without further ado, what Digby said.
Who could "Maf54" be....
Maf54: You in your boxers, too?
Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late.
Maf54: Well, strip down and get relaxed.Another message:
Maf54: What ya wearing?
Teen: tshirt and shorts
Maf54: Love to slip them off of you.And this one:
Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.
The Big Dog.
Smackdown!
See? People like it when you stand up, lead and fight. That's sort of the opposite of what Hillary/Schumer have been doing. Sitting back and letting McCain own the spotlight - even if he couldn't put a band-aid on the Republican torture regime - is not leading, it's politics. We don't want politics for politics' sake, we want politics for morality's sake.
That's who's running the government.
Me: But isn’t it the Supreme Court that’s supposed to decide whether laws are unconstitutional or not?
Tony: No, as a matter of fact the president has an obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That is an obligation that presidents have enacted through signing statements going back to Jefferson. So, while the Supreme Court can be an arbiter of the Constitution, the fact is the President is the one, the only person who, by the Constitution, is given the responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend that document, so it is perfectly consistent with presidential authority under the Constitution itself.
First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he "thought" might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.
...
Armitage's silence for the next 2 1/2 years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse Rove of being my primary source.
I had long opposed military intervention in Iraq.
Zealous foes of George W. Bush transformed me, improbably, into the president's lapdog. But they cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson.
...
I was just watching the Senate on C-Span2, and I am convinced that Senator Stevens (R-AK) is senile. Senator Clinton (D-NY) had some procedural points for amendments and after she finished Stevens revealed that he had no idea what had just happened - I think he asked just that, which is pretty lame for a 3 term senator to not understand procedure - and then starting whining like a little baby about how the Democrats requisitioned time to talk about the amendments, but they had not given the Republicans equal time.
This is absurd because that is not something that the Dems, as the minority party, should be concerned with at all. If Stevens wants time to debate amendments he does not know anything about, he should request it himself without anyone from the other side of the aisle holding his hand. The most damning thing this was that it took Stevens a few minutes and several exchanges to actually articulate his complaints.
Remember folks, this is the man who is in charge of your internets.
I really liked this ad, by Kirsten Gillibrand, who is running against John Sweeney in NY-20, but I suppose it is not as effective if you have not seen "Good Night and Good Luck."
I am not sure if we can have a verdict on best ad this season, but so far I have to agree that this Vote Vets ad is ridiculously good and drives its point home really well.
Here's a map that will show you how much better off you are today than you were six years ago.
By Chris Bowers.
Do I agree? I understand Kos' pessimism, but I'm an optimist. If we don't reach the goals we set, we'll push the bar even further and work twice as hard.
If you are a member of the beltway media, then there a silver lining in every cloud for every Republican. In an election season where the stories should be focused on the overall anti-Republican trend - which is happening and is not just a progressive wet dream - how else can you explain an anti-Democrat fantasy like this?
In a year when Republicans are on the defensive almost everywhere else, the GOP smells a chance for victory in Michigan -- and a leg up on a vital presidential battleground for 2008, a state where such Republican hopefuls as Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are already spending lots of time.
In truth, parts of Michigan are doing well, including this area in the northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula, where more and more executives from Chicago and other big cities are living and working via Internet and cellphone while enjoying the lakes and golf courses in their back yards. Ann Arbor and other university towns are also thriving, and some high-tech businesses are beginning to arrive in the state, lured by new business incentives pushed by the governor.
Good month in Iraq? Good news for Bush! His plan is working!
Bad month in Iraq? Good news for Bush! He can paint Democrats as weak on security and step up the war on terror!
I know have not posted much on the economy of late - though I hope that will change if I get the job I really want - but both the big and small pictures are we're fucked.
However, I think bonddad is overly pessimistic because he is missing a couple points - namely, if we can get out of Iraq, or cut off funding, then we can spend that money domestically and we can get rid of Bush's tax cuts and corporate subsidies. These actions might help some, but we're still fucked.
Because it is no longer feasible to be outright racist to black people in public - although Republicans still do so, just look at Coretta Scott King's funeral - Republicans will turn to the next available minority:
"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great," Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Allen then began talking about the "war on terror."
Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.
Anyone who speaks French knows what Macaque means... both in context of the animal and the slur. And we know now, thanks to Dr. Cornier, George Allen speaks French.
Joementum has hit a brick wall.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman conceded to cable executive Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for the Connecticut Senate nomination Tuesday night but vowed to run as an "independent Democrat" this fall.With 94 percent of the precincts reporting, Lamont led Lieberman 52 percent to 48 percent, according to The Associated Press.
The Democratic CT-Sen primary is tomorrow, and it's more than a little obvious who I've been rooting for all along. There are a million and two posts out there on the progressive blogosphere right now about Lamont/Lieberman, and I must agree that regardless of whether Ned wins or loses tomorrow, this campaign has shown how far the progressive movement has come in such a short time, and we have already won a victory by being as competitive as we have. The best post I've read so far is by Chris Bowers, and although it's more of a random thought roundup post, he offers this profound insight:
In the end, that seems to me to be the biggest signal that can be sent in this race. The ultimate reason, bar none, that the progressive movement has formed and that the activist base has grown angry with Democrats in DC is that Democrats keep losing. This goes beyond partisanship, beyond ideology, beyond anything. If Democrats were winning, netroots anger at the establishment would significantly dissipate.
I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad.
Only five more days to go til we get rid of Joe!
The New Republic or The National Review? Does it matter? The once liberal The New Republic is growingly eerily close - and stupid - to the detached The National Review. So quotes Ezra Klein:
No wonder, several years after the blogosphere allegedly became a people powerhouse, the country is mired even deeper in Iraq and successfully distracted by one false public alarm after another.
Sorry, but that's so downright insane that, for the first time in the history of this blog, I have to quote it again. Remember, this is Lee Seigel, an employee of The New Republic, blaming bloggers for the continuation of the Iraq War:
No wonder, several years after the blogosphere allegedly became a people powerhouse, the country is mired even deeper in Iraq and successfully distracted by one false public alarm after another.
Oh yeah. That war.
Iraq's morgues are overflowing and 100 civilians a day are killed in communal violence, but official statistics tell only part of the story of a slide into civil war -- for the rest, just listen to ordinary Iraqis.
I highly recommend this piece in today's WaPo on the effort to create a lasting progressive infrastructure to help build ideas, messages, people, etc. I am glad to know that our side is finally beginning to learn how to effectively compete with the right wing. I will not go into the various reasons why this is necessary in this post; instead, I would like to point out where this effort is meeting some resistance. From the beginning of the article:
Democracy Alliance also has left some Washington political activists concerned about what they perceive as a distinctly liberal tilt to the group's funding decisions. Some activists said they worry that the alliance's new clout may lead to groups with a more centrist ideology becoming starved for resources.
But Democracy Alliance's decisions not to back some prominent groups have stirred resentment. Among the groups that did not receive backing in early rounds were such well-known centrist groups as the Democratic Leadership Council and the Truman National Security Project.
Some Democratic political consultants privately fear that the sums being spent by alliance donors will mean less money spent on winning elections in 2006 and 2008.
I'm beginning to get really sick of the argument that the public sector is horrendously corrupt and inefficient, and that an unregulated private sector - real capitalism - will lead to the best outcome for everyone.
Anyone who believes that argument can take and shove it.
Foxnews.com However, if Kos, who likely is now making a decent living from his blogging activities due to ad revenues, is suddenly becoming the pragmatist rather than the idealist — funny how money can do that! — how long can he retain such a following of folks who appear unwilling to accept a political status quo? After all, these are the Deaniacs. These people eschew the political expedience they see in politicians like Hillary Clinton. Are they going to sit idly by as their leader exhibits similarly deplorable traits? Hardly. (Democratic National Committee Chairman) Howard Dean making a statement to the press that doesn't disparage President Bush or a member of his administration is more likely.
The entire piece, though entirely unintentionally, is very funny, but I think the following quote from the lead paragraph gives a lot of insight into how this author - and many conservatarians - think:
After receiving some extremely negative press from major publications such as The New York Times, The New Republic and Newsweek immediately following his seemingly successful bloggers' convention in Las Vegas, Kos is now faced with an even greater challenge: dissension within his ranks.
Bush lies again.
"In the CIA's core, US-based bin Laden operational unit today there are fewer [operational] officers with substantive expertise on al-Qaeda than there were on 11 September 2001. There has been no systematic effort to groom al-Qaeda expertise among [operational] officers since 11 September ... The excellent management team now running operations against al-Qaeda has made repeated, detailed, and on-paper pleas for more officers to work against the al-Qaeda--and have done so for years, not weeks or months--but have been ignored..."
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman announced today he will petition for a place on the November ballot as an "independent Democrat," giving him a chance to stay alive politically should he lose an Aug. 8 primary for the Democratic nomination.
Senators on the Judiciary Committee accused President Bush of an "unprecedented" and "astonishing" power grab on Tuesday for making use of a device that gave him the authority to revise or ignore more than 750 laws enacted since he became president.
...
A lawyer for the White House said that Mr. Bush was only doing his duty to uphold the Constitution. But Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, characterized the president's actions as a declaration that he "will do as he pleases," without regard to the laws passed by Congress.
I should have been there instead of here at work:
President Bush, saying nuclear weapons in Iranian hands poses a "grave threat" to the world, used a commencement address today to warn Tehran again to suspend all uranium enrichment activity and join multi-country talks on containing its nuclear program.
...
"If Iran's leaders want peace and prosperity and a hopeful future for their people, it should abandon its quest for nuclear weapons," Bush told the graduating class of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., about 20 miles east of Manhattan.
More good news. From kos:
Today, former Connecticut Democratic Party chairman George Jepsen will endorse Lamont. While the endorsement itself may mean little for Lamont (I doubt many people care or know who Jepsen is), it does mean another round of positive press for Lamont, and another painful news cycle for Lieberman.
I'm glad Congress is looking out for us in the best possible way:
A U.S. House of Representatives committee on consumer protection says it will hold a hearing on the topic later this month, with a focus on "informing parents and protecting children" from the alleged dangers of those types of games.
Introduced by Rep. Jim Matheson, a Utah Democrat, the proposal would make it illegal for anyone to sell, rent, or attempt to sell or rent video games rated "adults-only" to minors under age 18, or "mature" video games to anyone under age 17. The Federal Trade Commission would be permitted to levy fines of up to $5,000 per violation. That approach is nearly identical to a bill unveiled last December by U.S. Senate Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joseph Lieberman. They propose imposing fines or community service hours on any business that sells or rents video games with a "mature," "adults-only" or "ratings pending" tag to anyone under age 17. That measure has not yet gone up for debate.
One of the things which constantly amazes me is the willingness of the mainstream media to give platform to people who hate them.
...
I suppose the reasons for this are very simple - by bringing on these idiot critics they placate the right wing frothers while simultaneously confronting cartoon criticism, letting themselves avoid confronting actual criticism.
I was watching This Week, and one of the guests was John Kasich, a former Republican congressman. They were not really arguing with each other, but it was interesting to see the disconnect between Kasich and Stephanopolous, a former Clintonite, in that Stephanopolous posed arguments and questions framed in "liberal" terminology, but Kasich always responded in Lakoffian terms, coming back to values based arguments and the government as head of family metaphor in his iteration of "if this is what we would teach our children, what kind of message does it send when government acts differently?"
I think it is very telling that so many politicians and other prominent members on the left still do not understand the kind of discourse they need to engage in to properly argue with the right, and to motivate and inspire people. Take a hint: read Don't Think of an Elephant, and if you have the time, Moral Politics.
Stop being so stupid. When your headline reads "Bear Hunting Caught in Global Warming Debate," you are giving credence to the idea that there is a debate. This is not true. There is no debate over whether it is happening, just on how to mitigate it. Stop giving life to untruthful right-wing narratives and do your job as journalists.
They've always been crooks. Now they're guilty crooks.
A U.S. jury convicted Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of orchestrating the fraud that destroyed Enron Corp., giving prosecutors a victory a case that came to symbolize corporate crime sparked by the stock market bust in 2000.
Lay, 64, and Skilling, 52, face at least 25 years each in prison after being convicted of using off-the-books partnerships to manipulate Enron's finances. Skilling faces additional jail time over his conviction for using inside information to sell Enron stock. Lay was also convicted on bank fraud charges after a trial that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake held without a jury while the panel in the main case deliberated.
Enron, once the world's largest energy trading firm, had more than $68 billion in market value before its December 2001 bankruptcy filing wiped out thousands of jobs and at least $1 billion in retirement funds virtually overnight. Investors suing over the company's collapse claim accounting fraud at the Houston-based firm caused at least $25 billion in losses.
I have not seen anyone blog this NYT article yet, but it caught my eye:
As the United States runs short of nurses, senators are looking abroad. A little-noticed provision in their immigration bill would throw open the gate to nurses and, some fear, drain them from the world's developing countries.
...
Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, who sponsored the proposal, said it was needed to help the United States cope with a growing nursing shortage.
He said he doubted the measure would greatly increase the small number of African nurses coming to the United States, but acknowledged that it could have an impact on the Philippines and India, which are already sending thousands of nurses to the United States a year.
History has shown that the Senate is not the best launching pad for a presidential run, but no fewer than 11 members of the world's greatest deliberative body are weighing 2008 bids. The latest is Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who told the Hartford Courant on Monday that he had "decided to do all the things that are necessary to prepare to seek the presidency in 2008."
Themselves, of course.
House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), on what Speaker Hastert might do to "protect the interests" of the legislative branch.
Well, I have got to believe at the end of the day it is going to end up across the street at the Supreme Court. I don't see anything short of that.He continued, later, speaking of the executive branch:
"They take the same oath, so somebody better start reading the Constitution down there."
WaPo.
Entire piece on GOP strategy and outlook, not one Democrat quoted, paraphrased, or referred to otherwise.
Woohoo liberal media!
The U.S.
Asked whether he was open to the possibility that The New York Times should be prosecuted for its disclosures in December concerning a National Security Agency surveillance program, Mr. Gonzales said his department was trying to determine "the appropriate course of action in that particular case."
"I'm not going to talk about it specifically," he said. "We have an obligation to enforce the law and to prosecute those who engage in criminal activity."
Feel the Nedrenaline!
1509 votes count
Ned Lamont - 505 (33.4%)
Joe Lieberman - 1004 (66.5%)
Between yesterday and this morning there was much speculation as to whether the telcos were lying about giving the administration access to all their data. All that speculation has now been put to rest. Via think progress:
Ordinarily, a company that conceals their transactions and activities from the public would violate securities law. But an presidential memorandum signed by the President on May 5 allows the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, to authorize a company to conceal activities related to national security. (See 15 U.S.C. 78m(b)(3)(A))
There is no evidence that this executive order has been used by John Negroponte with respect to the telcos. Of course, if it was used, we wouldn’t know about it.
Mr. 33 in the WaPo/ABC poll.
The spin: Bush can only go up!
The reality: The media can only keep going down on him.
Mr. Begala:
"What he has spent it on, apparently, is just hiring a bunch of staff people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose." -- Dem strategist Paul Begala on DNC Chair Howard Dean's spending, CNN, 5/11
This statement hitting on the eve of our convention, where we are about to nominate Congressman Jim Matheson for re-election, is not helpful. And, the "pick their nose" comment is hurtful to Democrats who are truly on the frontline. An apology to my hardworking staff is in order.
By leaving the GOP unopposed in places like Utah, it frees them up to concentrate on making inroads in marginal districts. Congressmen in tough places deserve support, too. Jim Matheson, Stephanie Herseth (keynote speaker at tonight's pre-convention dinner) and even a potential pick-up like Gary Trauner in Wyoming deserve the support they are getting from the DNC.
...
I wish I had more time today to be thoughtful. But this fight is disheartening, and not productive. Chairman Dean is not going to change what he has started. Too many DNC members appreciate it. (And, they are Dean's electorate.) I encourage you and Congressman Rahm Emmanuel to move on, and find a way to make it work for the DCCC.
Is watching you.
A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.
"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.
ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.
Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.
Not in that she doesn't discriminate between one person or another and instead looks at the facts, but rather because she has intentionally blindfolded herself to avoid looking at the truth:
An investigation by the Justice Department ethics office into the conduct of department lawyers who approved the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program has been closed because investigators were denied security clearances, according to a letter sent to Congress on Wednesday.
On C-Span right now, Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fl) is carrying an enormous stamp - it must be twice as wide as he is - with "Rubber Stamp Republican Congress" printed on it.
YES!!!!!!!
