Saturday, October 21, 2006
J. Pod Hearts Borat
A cheap-looking and extremely strange movie with an even stranger title--Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan--is opening in a few weeks, and it will make a sensation.
...
This is one of the four or five funniest movies ever made.
As I wrote before, it will be, for a moment, The Biggest Thing Ever. Whether that translates into actual ticket sales I have no idea, but it will take over everything for its moment.
Sailor Servants
Springfield, PA In his second debate against former Navy Vice Admiral Joe Sestak, Curt Weldon’s temper got the better of him. Weldon, in his opening statement at the Springfield Country Club debate, lashed out in a tirade, taking aim at Sestak’s 31 years of Navy service. In doing so, Weldon revealed his own lack of knowledge about the Navy, and denigrated the hundreds of thousands of men and women who currently serve. Weldon also made a series of inaccurate claims throughout the debate, some of which are catalogued below.
Although the debate was limited to economic questions by its sponsor the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce Congressman Weldon inexplicably used his opening statement to attack Admiral Sestak and his position in the Navy, ranting: “Were you always in the admiral quarter drinking out of your wine goblets and being waited on by your sailor servants?”
“A member of the Armed Services Committee like Curt Weldon should know better than to slander the working sailor officer and enlisted who serves this nation in war and peace,” noted Ryan Rudominer, communications director for Joe Sestak. “In any case, the regulations on alcohol in the Navy are very clear, and are publicly available. In fact, alcoholic beverages on board any underway ship of the Department of the Navy are prohibited.”
Retired Navy Captain Bill Walsh, who now serves as Admiral Sestak’s campaign manager, had the following to say after the debate: “When Curt unleashed that one, I just couldn’t believe it. Referring to any sailor as a servant is just outrageous. It is the officers who serve their sailors that is central to the Navy’s culture and always will be. If Curt’s aware of goblets being used in the U.S. Navy, he should make that known to the Secretary of the Navy as soon as possible. Perhaps the Congressman is referring to some visit he had with the Russian Navy?”
WHEEEEEEEEEEEE
While the new poll shows the president with a two-point bump in his approval rating—from an all-time low of 33 percent two weeks ago to 35 percent today—most Americans think Bush is already a lame duck. Fifty-six percent said he won’t be able to get much done in his last two years in office. Only 33 percent believe he can be effective.
and:
The poll found terrorism came fourth as the “most important” issue to voters, at just 13 percent; behind Iraq (31 percent), the economy (18 percent), and health care (16 percent). And a solid majority of Americans want the Democrats to take over Capital Hill, 55 percent, versus 32 percent who want the GOP to retain control—a 23-point margin. And the Republicans can’t count on their biggest name, George W. Bush, to help much. While the new poll shows the president with a two-point bump in his approval rating—from an all-time low of 33 percent two weeks ago to 35 percent today—most Americans think Bush is already a lame duck. Fifty-six percent said he won’t be able to get much done in his last two years in office. Only 33 percent believe he can be effective.
Most worrisome for the president, should the Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress, the American public supports their proposed “First 100 Hours” agenda. An overwhelming majority says allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies should be a top priority for a Democratic Congress (74 percent, including 70 percent of Republicans); 68 percent want increasing the minimum wage to be a top priority, including 53 percent of Republicans; 62 percent want investigating impropriety by members of Congress to be a top priority; and 58 percent want investigating government contracts in Iraq to be a top priority. Fifty-two percent say investigating why we went to war in Iraq should be a top priority (25 percent say it should a lower priority and 19 percent say it shouldn’t be done.)
Social Norms
Shorter me: stop crashing my party and telling me how to act.
Progress
It's slowly improved since, with the road in front of the building reopened and a slight improvement in the cosmetics of the security barriers. Now it sounds like the situation will improve a bit more.
To the delight of activist Ann Meredith, who led the fight to free Independence Mall from proposed six-foot security fencing, National Park Service Director Mary Bomar announced yesterday that the national shrine would remain fenceless.
Bookended by smiling U.S. senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, both R-Pa., Bomar said the Park Service had decided to "eliminate" the proposed fence and to remove the bicycle barriers outside the Liberty Bell Center.
"This is a great day for freedom," Specter said, adding, "Today, we have told the would-be terrorists, we're not going to pay any attention to them" when it comes to limiting public access to Independence Mall.
"There oughtn't to be a fence," Specter said. "People ought to have access."
Still, I wish someone would answer a very simple question - why the hell do people need to go through a metal detector to enter the building? It's ridiculous.
Media Matters
If you believe what you hear from prominent conservatives and political reporters, the following things are true:
1) Anytime terrorism is in the news, it plays to the political and electoral benefit of the Republicans.
2) Terrorists who are trying to destroy America are trying to help elect Democrats because they think Democrats are weak. The terrorists are doing so by increasing violence in Iraq and otherwise drawing attention to their existence, as the Osama bin Laden videotape released shortly before the 2004 election.
Those two things are obviously incompatible. The latter is based on the premise that increased news of terrorism benefits Democrats; the former is an explicit statement of the opposite. The two are fundamentally inconsistent. (OK, there is a way the two sentiments could rationally coexist -- but it requires us to believe that The Enemy has reached depths of incompetence previously explored by only Wile E. Coyote. And, in that case, why haven't we been able to defeat them yet? This possibility can be safely dismissed.)
The fact that the U.S. political media routinely tell us both of those mutually inconsistent things reveals almost everything we need to know about the state of the profession and the quality of the political information we receive. Almost everything.
Appointment Programming
Of course, stupid people like me have long suggested that the way to counterprogram a right wing news network was not to put on slightly less right wing programming, and that a left-of-center block of programming on MSNBC in prime time would spike their ratings, but no one listens to stupid people like me.
And, no, CNN with The Situation Room, Paula Zahn, Larry King, and Anderson Cooper does not qualify as a block of liberal programming.
Magazinery
If I were an evil genius trying to shore up the flagging fortunes of my little scrappy liberal magazine, I'd consider gathering up all the good liberal talent that was floating around out there and putting together a Slate Which Doesn't Suck.
Kneejerk contrarianism was always boring, and now it's become an absurd anachronism from a time when we had the luxury of pointless contrarianism.
Not Serious
It used to be a good magazine, even though one had to read it through the appropriate filter. It's been utter crap for the last 5 years+ or so.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Privilege
The bothersome effect of pseudynimity is that it gives the rest of us the privilege that AB takes for granted. And that’s the real problem: not that it gives others impunity, but that it creates a situation where impunity ceases to be her special privilege.
This is absolutely correct. The ability to participate in the public discourse is something which previously was available only to a select few, and is now open to everyone. Part of what allows that is the ability of people to not attach their name to everything they write. People who have job and income stability (say, tenured professors) take for granted that they can say just about anything in a public space (such as the internets) without fear of consequence. Many other people, not so much.
The only reason to care about the identity of the person at the other end of the internet is to allow for real world consequences for online activity, consequences that some people are largely shielded from.
There's no reason people should worry that their boss is going to get called if they make some whiny asshole upset on the internet, or that their phone number will get posted, or their children brought into the discussion. But there are assholes on the internet who happily do such things on a regular basis, and it's perfectly sensible to hide a real world identity which has nothing to do with what goes on in the virtual world.
If I'd blogged under the name "Roger Smith" instead of "Atrios" no one would have been the wiser. Knowing what they believed to be a real name would they have been entitled to know all of my personal details? Of course not. And, if not, a name really confers no meaningful information.
Certainly anonymity lets people be bigger assholes than they might otherwise be, but for the most part who cares. It's the internets.
Ann Bartow is the Today's Worst Person In The World
Terrorism
It is very strange that they're proud of this.
Get Your Shrill On
First Up Against The Wall
While some of the network evening newscasts paid homage to the robustish economy, and while the RNC's video press release on terror got some inexplicable "earned" media pickup, consider the iron wall into which such things run these days (based often on the Old Media's near-total inability to find upbeat Republican strategists, but also on the glee some press types feel about the current storyline).
War, What Is It Good For?
There's this attitude out there where one's foreign policy abilities are judged by whether you supported the right wars, with people like Peter Beinart checking off their little lists. The foreign policy hawks see supporting wars as courageous acts, as if sending other peoples' kids off to die and voting for massive defense budget increases requires courage instead of a healthy possession of sociopathic tendencies.
Wars are failures. A primary purpose of sensible foreign policy is to stop them. When wars happen, our foreign policy has failed. That isn't to say there's never a point when they're necessary or justified, but that point is simply an acknowledgment that the people in charge failed.
From Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead:
There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said -- no. But, somehow we missed it.
Well, we'll know better next time.
My Only Hope
Someone call Brendan Nyhan and tell him there's a job opening.
Drawing Lines in the Sand
As long as that's the case, I just don't see how the President of the United States and the head of CENTCOM are supposed to unilaterally announce that "we" are partitioning Iraq. Only Iraqis can partition Iraq.
Taking the optimistic view, it looks like Muqtada al-Sadr is beginning to do just that, so maybe this partition thing can work after all.*
*lame humor
Lies and the Lying Liars
A scan of the latest Federal Election Commission filings reveals two interesting facts about the 7th District race: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee finally plunked down the big bucks -- $1.58 million worth of TV ad time on Tuesday alone -- to help defeat U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon.
That much was expected.
But recent FEC reports also raise questions about Weldon’s latest statements regarding the federal probe that has ensnared his daughter and a longtime political associate.
Weldon told reporters Wednesday that an ex-FBI agent heard that Democrat Joseph Sestak’s campaign had inside information about the Justice Department investigation -- and when it would be leaked to the press.
"I’m telling you a retired FBI agent, whom I have named, came to me and said that a (Sestak) campaign worker told him three weeks ago that this was going to happen," he said.
While Weldon identified his source as Gregory Auld, he failed to mention that Auld has been on the campaign’s payroll since May.
Campaign finance reports filed this week show that Weldon Victory Committee has paid Auld & Associates Investigations $25,000 to conduct opposition research.
...
Much of Weldon’s story didn’t check out with Auld, who said he had heard through a man at a local gym that another man who frequently wore a Sestak shirt said three weeks ago that "something big was going to come down on Weldon" last weekend.
Auld, of Drexel Hill, said he spoke to the Sestak supporter Tuesday, but "he never said they knew" about the investigation before it hit the newspapers.
But This Won't Happen
The growing doubts among GOP lawmakers about the administration's Iraq strategy, coupled with the prospect of Democratic wins in next month's midterm elections, will soon force the Bush administration to abandon its open-ended commitment to the war, according to lawmakers in both parties, foreign policy experts and others involved in policymaking.
Senior figures in both parties are coming to the conclusion that the Bush administration will be unable to achieve its goal of a stable, democratic Iraq within a politically feasible time frame. Agitation is growing in Congress for alternatives to the administration's strategy of keeping Iraq in one piece and getting its security forces up and running while 140,000 U.S. troops try to keep a lid on rapidly spreading sectarian violence.
Al Gore Might Have Made Fundraising Calls From the Wrong Phone
Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush this week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
In a notice dated Wednesday, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissions Act (MCA), it said, provides that "no court, justice, or judge" can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future.
Immediately after Bush signed the act into law Tuesday, the Justice Department sent a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asserting the new authorities and informing the court that it no longer had jurisdiction over a combined habeas case that had been under consideration since 2004. The U.S. District Court cases, which had been stayed pending the appeals court decision, were similarly invalid, the administration informed that court on Wednesday.
The administration's persistence on the issue "demonstrates how difficult it is for the courts to enforce in the face of a resolute executive branch that is bound and determined to resist it," said Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law professor involved in the detainee cases.
We know what David Broder is more upset about.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Things Not To Do On the Internet
Dead Man Walking
The former clerk of the House of Representatives, Jeff Trandahl, who testified for more than four hours before the House Ethics Committee today, is believed to have testified that a top aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert was informed of "all issues dealing with the page program," according to a Republican familiar with the investigation.
The Republican source said Trandahl planned to name Ted Van Der Meid, the speaker's counsel and floor manager, as the person who was briefed on a regular basis about any issue that arose in the page program, including a "problem group of members and staff who spent too much time socializing with pages outside of official duties." One of whom was Mark Foley.
Trandahl's testimony before the House Ethics Committee could provide additional evidence that key members of the speaker's staff were aware of problems involving the page program for years.
Millions and Millions
Fungible
Of course, there's one other major federal office - president. And, yes, Clinton's senate campaign cash can slide smoothly into her presidential campaign fund if that time comes. This little quirk rigs the presidential game in favor of high profile senators at the expense of governors, who can't funnel money from either their gubernatorial campaign fund or from a leadership PAC (Mark Warner couldn't have converted the money in his PAC into a presidential fund). So they get to have a jump on fundraising if they're considering running for president.
Still, what's more important? Taking Congress or sitting on piles of campaign cash that you don't really need.
Fork it Over
Participate
Iraq'd
It's all very depressing.
Call for Change
Nutter
Uh, Dave?
I think a column along these lines would've been fine, but it's absurd to leave that little fact out.
Fork it Over
Lies and the Lying Liars
Washington- The Republican Party last night refused to cancel commercials that claim Sherrod Brown was a longtime tax scofflaw - even though the state of Ohio says the ad's claim is untrue.
Brown, the Democrat running against incumbent Mike DeWine, paid the tax bill years ago, soon after receiving a tax lien, according to newly released records from the Brown campaign and authenticated by the state.
But the Republican National Committee, supporting DeWine's reelection bid, is running commercials saying that Brown "didn't pay his unemployment taxes for 13 years."
DeWine ran his own commercial all day Wednesday with a DeWine family friend saying that Brown didn't pay "an outstanding tax bill for 12 years."
Hours after Brown campaign lawyers complained, DeWine spokesman Brian Seitchik said last night that the campaign would change its ad "as soon as possible," but that it still would reflect the fact that Brown "failed to pay a delinquent tax bill."
The RNC, however, said last night that it had no plans to change its ad.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Bye Conrad
HELENA, Mont. -- Democrat Jon Tester widened his lead against Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in a poll released Wednesday.
Tester led 46 percent to Burns' 35 percent, with a majority of respondents saying the incumbent's ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff were an issue in the campaign.
WHEEEEEEEE
WASHINGTON - Just 20 days until Election Day, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds approval of the GOP-held Congress is at its lowest mark in 14 years, the Republican Party's favorability rating is at an all-time low and President George W. Bush's approval rating remains mired in the 30s -- all ominous signs for a party trying to maintain control of Congress.
In fact, according to the poll, Republicans are in worse shape on some key measures than Democrats were in 1994, when they lost their congressional majorities.
"There is not a single number in here that would suggest the Democrats will not have their best showing in a decade -- and maybe two decades," says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican Bill McInturff.
...
In the survey, Bush's approval rating is at 38 percent, a one-point decline from a previous NBC/Journal poll released earlier this month after the Foley news first broke. Perhaps more revealing, only 16 percent now approve of the job Congress is doing -- its lowest mark since 1992.
Both sets of numbers suggest that the Republican Party is on more unstable ground than Democrats were in 1994, when they lost 52 House and 8 Senate seats. In October of that year, President Bill Clinton's approval rating among registered voters was at 46 percent, and 24 percent approved of the job the Democratic-controlled Congress was doing.
...
Moreover, 52 percent say they prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, compared with 37 percent who want Republicans to maintain power. It is the first time ever in this poll when a majority has sided with one party on this particular question. Earlier this
This I Want to See
Schlesinger: If you had someone doing a job for eighteen years, and after eighteen years, their record was one of complete failure, what would you do? What do you think should happen with that person?. . . Ned, you're a businessman: what would you say about someone like that?
Lamont: I'd say, "It's time to go, Joe!"
Why Did We Invade Iraq?
Perhaps somebody could ask him?
Shorter David Ignatius
Shorter shorter David Ignatius:
I am wonderful.
Your Liberal Media
Home
Peter Boyles
Open thread
Anyway, have at it, you orcs!
(Hm, must be something wrong, the window isn't showing me the usual little function buttons.)
19 Days...cannot come soon enough
WASHINGTON - In an ominous sign for the GOP, a Gallup Poll out yesterday says the public's approval of Congress remains at lows not seen since 1994 - when insurgent Republicans kicked Democrats out of power.
The survey found only 23% of the country approves of the job the GOP-led Congress is doing, with 71% saying they disapprove. In 1994, a Gallup Poll done from Oct. 22 to 25 before the Republican revolution election found the virtually identical anti-incumbent opinion.
The overall climate has Democrats eagerly anticipating Nov. 7 this year.
I'm glad Karl & the Gang are acting confident (what would you expect them to do?). It will make it that much sweeter.
Still a lot can happen. I guess this is where Atrios says give some money to people.
The Worst Musical of all time
Iraq, Iraq, it’s a helluva mess.
The Green Zone’s bad, and we’ve fucked up the rest.
600,000 dead means 40 games of chess.
Iraq, Iraq, it's a helluva mess!!
More Like This
STRATFORD, Conn. -- Weighing in on Connecticut's hotly contested congressional races, a group of religious activists have unveiled a giant billboard off busy Interstate 95 that accuses four candidates of voting to allow torture.
The billboard in Stratford names Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman and Republican Reps. Christopher Shays, Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson as supporters of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Democrats, It's Time
For my money, this is Joe Lieberman slapping Chris Dodd and the Democatic Party in the face. Say what you will about Dodd, but this Dodd cares about John Bolton's nomination. Dodd was the whip on the vote, and successfully blocked Bolton's confirmation. Dodd played the good soldier to Lieberman's campaign in the primary, campaigning for him and starring in one of Joe's ads. Even before the primary ended and while Dodd was campaigning for Joe, Joe stopped taking Dodd's calls, and he wouldn't talk to him on primary night, sending an aide to deal with Dodd as Dodd stood outside Joe's hotel room. Joe hates Dodd because Dodd treated Joe like he deserved to be treated, as the loser of the Democratic primary.
In other words, Joe is angry and vindictive, and is starting his retribution early. Just today he reversed himself and said Democrats should win Congress (he demurred a few days ago), but that Democrats need to change their tone. Lieberman essentially threatened Dodd on Pajamas Media, a right-wing media site. And now on Bolton, Lieberman is just stabbing Dodd and the rest of the Democrats in the front. He's not even bothering to stab us in the back anymore.
Bolton represents everything Democrats dislike about Bush's cowboy policy. It was Bolton's shop at the State Department that pushed the faulty WMD intelligence. You can see video above of Bolton getting grilled and denying responsibility for his underlings' work on this point. Bolton was also atrocious on North Korea, severely damaging our ability to negotiate years ago, and recently putting together a resolution that everyone knows will be ineffective. Bolton doesn't actually believe in diplomacy, and has no achievements to his name. He's also egregiously partisan and vitriolic; the only blog he's granted an interview is a right-wing anti-Islam hate site.
So why would Lieberman adopt Bolton now, after rejecting him twice before? It's probably the same reason Joe is selling out net neutrality, going back on his promise to support it by offering to help Senator Ted Stevens in the lame duck session pass a bill that would in all likelihood get rid of net neutrality.
Spite.
Hey Democrats, time to come out for Lamont. We're all in this together.
Serious
The ambassador [ed. Zalmay Khalilzad] argues that U.S. policy is finally on track. "We do have the beginning of adjustments that I think puts us on the right path," he told Gwen Ifill of PBS in one of his few on-the-record interviews. In addition to his own diplomacy, which has persuaded Sunni parties to compete in upcoming elections and Shiite and Kurdish parties to agree to post-election negotiations, there is, at last, a concerted counterinsurgency campaign underway, aimed at clearing areas of militants and then holding them. Khalilzad believes Baghdad should now be systematically secured, starting with the airport and then moving into the city. But the process will be slow and hard: Just pacifying the capital could take a year.
Joe Lieberman, November 29:
Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. And it is important to make it clear to the American people that the plan has not remained stubbornly still but has changed over the years. Mistakes, some of them big, were made after Saddam was removed, and no one who supports the war should hesitate to admit that; but we have learned from those mistakes and, in characteristic American fashion, from what has worked and not worked on the ground. The administration's recent use of the banner "clear, hold and build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.
23 American troops have died since Saturday, and who knows how many Iraqis. How many more people are going to die so pathetic vain old men desperately clinging on to their power and egos can feel good about themselves.
Remarkably Well
A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers west of Baghdad, the military reported Wednesday, raising the number of U.S. troops killed this month to 62...
UPDATE:
In other "Remarkable" news:
A roadside bomb killed a provincial police intelligence chief in southern Iraq early Wednesday, police said. The military reported nine U.S. troops killed in bombings and combat a day earlier, raising to 67 the number of U.S. troops killed in October.
So that's five on top of the prior four.
Meanwhile, in comments Cal refers us to this Atrios post from November 5, 2005:
The ambassador [ed. Zalmay Khalilzad] argues that U.S. policy is finally on track. "We do have the beginning of adjustments that I think puts us on the right path," he told Gwen Ifill of PBS in one of his few on-the-record interviews. In addition to his own diplomacy, which has persuaded Sunni parties to compete in upcoming elections and Shiite and Kurdish parties to agree to post-election negotiations, there is, at last, a concerted counterinsurgency campaign underway, aimed at clearing areas of militants and then holding them. Khalilzad believes Baghdad should now be systematically secured, starting with the airport and then moving into the city. But the process will be slow and hard: Just pacifying the capital could take a year.
As noted by Cal, there's only 18 days left in those two Friedman Units (or as I have always called such periods an "F.U.").
Naturally, our "ADD" afflicted media will not note this when "celebrating" the surprise verdict that Saddam was quite a bastard this November 5.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
National Character Counts Week 2006
That's what we have, right now:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 15 through October 21, 2006, as National Character Counts Week. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, parents, students, and all Americans to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.
Sweet...
If you already have enough character, how about some nice kitty pictures, here and here?
And yes, this is an open late-night thread.
I hate dial-up
I don't suppose y'all would want to help out by going over there to have a look and tell me what's going on, would ya?
Rallying Wingnuts
This is funny. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Gary Bauer, chairman of American Values and the Campaign for Working Families, and similar radical Christianists have been trying to talk the so-called "values voters" to go to the polls on November 7 and to vote Republican. Bauer:
"You are Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi and big media's worst nightmare," said former presidential candidate Gary Bauer. "You are values voters, and you intend to vote."
"There's an effort underway by the radical left and big media to suppress the Christian vote this year," said Bauer, chairman of American Values and the Campaign for Working Families. "They believe we are stupid enough to fall for it, and I believe with every fiber of my being you are smarter than all of them."
Mmm. Sort of like the war against Christmas, this effort?
In any case, what's funny is this:
The event was originally scheduled in arena with tickets to be sold, but later was moved to a church and free admission. Monday's crowd was substantially smaller than a "Justice Sunday" event held two years ago in the same church.
Dare to Dream
The Grim Freeper
On Iraq, Mr. Last Throes states:
If you look at the general overall situation, they’re doing remarkably well.
I'd call Cheney a lying sack of shit except that it denigrates three things I hold in higher regard than him.
Dr. Falafel
They send letters
The state attorney general's office is investigating a letter received by some Southern California Hispanics that says it is a crime for immigrants to vote and tells them they could be jailed or deported if they go to the polls next month.[...]
The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."
IDIOTS! We are governed by IDIOTS!
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.”
Good thing you think about this NOW shitheads (and only because you are prompted)!
Serious
We're obviously beyond the point where one could say with any degree of originality that Christopher Hitchens is a morally and intellectually bankrupt sociopath. He is the true heir to the Stalinist left that he relentlessly rails about; there is no limit to the death and destruction that he's willing to tolerate in service of his revolution. What's more important now is to note that those who willingly associate themselves with people like Hitchens and Bill Kristol should be viewed in the same light. To paraphrase Yglesias, even if we were to find something of value in the Euston Manifesto or the work of PNAC (and this is a tremendous "if"), associating with the people who press these intellectual projects is, in itself, evidence of a lack of seriousness about foreign policy.
War
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A poll conducted for CNN over the weekend suggests support among Americans for the war in Iraq is dwindling to an all-time low. Just 34 percent of those polled say they support the war, while 64 percent say they oppose it.
Women led the opposition, with seven in 10 saying they oppose the war. Twenty-eight percent say they support it, which is the lowest support among women in any CNN poll taken since the invasion more than three years ago.
Boy, I feel all Warm & Fuzzy
Let's see there's Famine, War, Pestilence and Cheney.
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
Bye Crazy Curt
A grand jury, impaneled in Washington in May, has obtained evidence gathered over at least four months through wiretaps of Washington area cellphone numbers and has scrutinized whether Weldon received anything of value, according to the sources. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.
The investigation focuses on Weldon's support of the Russian-managed Itera International Energy Corp., one of the world's largest oil and gas firms, while that company paid fees to Solutions North America, the company that Karen Weldon and Sexton operate.
The congressman, for example, intervened on Itera's behalf when U.S. officials canceled a federal grant to the company. He also encouraged U.S. companies to do business with Itera at a time when its reputation had been sullied by accusations of Russian corruption.
Read Arthur Silber
The Dynamics of Rising American Fascism
Monday, October 16, 2006
Better Tracking
Dear Duncan,
I wanted to send you a quick note to thank you for your contribution to my campaign through the Eschaton page at Act Blue last quarter.
Thanks to committed Democrats like you, we set a record -- raising over $2.1 million in 3 months, the strongest showing ever by any Montana candidate.
A small thing, but the first time I've noticed it.
Schlesinger for Senate
I believe the man says "WHEEEEEEEE!"
36% approval, lowest ever for that poll.
UPDATE: Liquid Paper points out I may be mistaken and it is the 61% disapproval that's the all-time high. In any case, let us come to the real point, Bush sure is "peaking" just before the elections. Good job Karl.
So Curt, care to comment on that investigation now?
Meanwhile, this seems like awkward news for another Keystone Non-Cop, Curt Weldon:
Federal agents raided the home of the daughter of U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) and his longtime friend Charlie Sexton this morning.
The agents departed Karen Weldon's three-story brick home on Queen Street in Philadelphia with arms loaded with boxes.
Thanks to Attytood.
Values In A Nutshell
Krugman's newest column contains a nugget of wisdom for the ages on the values-party and then the party which actually has values, if by values we mean justice, fairness and concern for others. It is this one:
The current Congress has shown no inclination to investigate the Bush administration. Last year The Boston Globe offered an illuminating comparison: when Bill Clinton was president, the House took 140 hours of sworn testimony into whether Mr. Clinton had used the White House Christmas list to identify possible Democratic donors. But in 2004 and 2005, a House committee took only 12 hours of testimony on the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
Krugman also points out this about Joe Lieberman:
In a recent interview with The Hartford Courant, Senator Joseph Lieberman said something that wasn't credible. When the newspaper asked him whether America would be better off if the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives next month, he replied, "Uh, I haven't thought about that enough to give an answer."
Uh, indeed.
Just what I needed
I was already in a bad mood, too. I still can't get them to give me my broadband connection back, which means no YouTube! Thank goodness I have a large supply of Fats Waller and and a copy of The Ultimate Rascals.
Aw, that's nice...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in an interview with USA TODAY that his government will not force militias to disarm until later this year or early next year, despite escalating violence in Baghdad fueled by death squads and religious warfare.
And from the "Twilight Zone" President this morning:
President Bush assured Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday that the United States had not set any deadline for the Iraqi government to bring the violence under control, the White House said.
Stay away from a course.
Shorter "40 games of Chess" Bush --- "YAHTZEE!"
Away for a Couple Days
Pom-Pom-Pom-Pombo!
Richard Pombo is taking good care of our shared assets: the oil shale leases on public lands:
Tucked into a massive energy bill that would open the outer continental shelf to oil drilling are provisions that would slash future royalties owed to the federal government by companies prospecting in Rocky Mountain oil shale deposits.
Sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, and passed by the House earlier this year, the bill would amend an existing requirement that the federal government receive a ``fair return'' from oil companies that hold oil shale leases on public lands. Instead, Pombo's bill would reduce royalties from the customary 12.5 percent of annual revenue to 1 percent.
Cheap at half the price? And how does Pombo justify this move? This is how:
Pombo stands by his provision, a spokesman said.
"The chairman and the majority of the members of the [House Resources] committee feel that it is the right thing to do because it is such a massive resource that it could provide relief for consumers and strengthen our economy," Pombo aide Brian Kennedy said.
Hmm. This guy must go.
Just what kind of Gym is Tony Snow Going to?
There were no mean words about Democrats. Mr. Snow, aware of his delicate balancing act, has vowed to “stick to factual defenses and advocacy for the president.”
Here was Mr. Snow on working in the White House: “The most exciting, intellectually aerobic job I’m ever going to have.” On the nature of the American soul after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11: “There is an ember of greatness burning in every heart.” On the intellectual acumen of his boss: “He reminds me of one of those guys at the gym who plays about 40 chessboards at once.”
Bush the chess player...40 boards where he constantly has to be reminded the "horsey" moves in an "L" shape.
"King Me!"
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Hostettler
Teen Spirit
My Cohort
These people came of age at the confluence of a few events. The anti-PC backlash was in full swing. People like Morton Downey, Jr. and Andrew Dice Clay were seen as rebellious figures, and of course there was the rise of Rush Limbaugh who was also seen similarly. The rise of rap and hiphop as prominent elements of pop culture, but before it had really penetrated white suburban teen culture, combined with a time of high urban crime rates led to somewhat of a racial backlash (add in fears of damaged crack baby epidemics). College campuses were getting hit with a wave of prohibitionism, which while not necessarily the fault of Democrats was generally associated with them as nanny state stuff often is. Pop culture was extraordinarily bland overall.
So, yeah, I'm not surprised.
Passive Voice
KURTZ: Mark Halperin, you repeatedly refer in the book to political coverage of politics campaign as "the freak show". If it is a free show, whose fault is that?
HALPERIN: Well, it's the fault of everybody involved in the process. It's the fault of the polarized system we have driven by politicians and activists and interest groups who have every incentive, we write in the book, to be polarizing, to be negative, to not care about substance.
It's the fault also, though, of the press, which began the old media has lost its way, infected too often by the new media, which cares more about gossip and scandal and attack. And it's the fault, frankly, of voters and readers and viewers who don't demand yet, at least, a type of dialogue in our country which is one in which facts do matter and where attack politics and polarizing politics aren't the order of the day.
There's a lot of blame to go around, and we do try to be optimistic. But the current trend lines are all in that direction.
We make it very clear in the book, again, that this system in presidential politics favors conservatives. They have got every incentive to keep it going, and liberals are pretty much now following that same passing.
Consider that this comes from the guy who writes The Note. I need a drink.
Meanwhile
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Suspected Shiite militiamen killed at least 46 Sunni Arabs in a weekend rampage of revenge killing in a city north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said Sunday, raising the toll in the latest sectarian bloodletting there to 63.
A string of bombings in the northern city of Kirkuk killed 10 people, including two girls who died when a man detonated explosives strapped to his body in front of the al-Mallimin girls high school in downtown Kirkuk, police officials said.
The U.S. military reported the deaths of a Marine and four soldiers. The Marine was killed in combat in Anbar province, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad on Saturday.
I can't believe we're still talking about this shit.
Murtha
Now, Karl Rove may call me a defeatist, but can anyone living in the real world deny that these statistics are heading in the wrong direction? Yet despite this bleak record of performance, the president continues to stand by his team of failed architects, preferring to prop them up instead of demanding accountability.
Democrats are fighting a war on two fronts: One is combating the spin and intimidation that defines this administration. The other is fighting to change course, to do things better, to substitute smart, disciplined strategy for dogma and denial in Iraq.
That's not defeatism. That's our duty.
Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy! Purple Fingers!
Brooks: Not really, no I don't. I think they're looking at policy options. One of those options is trying to replace the current government which seems to be doing nothing.
Wanker of the Day
We've tried to warn all the big guns in Washington that Joe no longer thinks of himself as a Democrat, but they won't listen. Between being unable to say if the country would be better off if Democrats take control of the House and sending out mailers referring to the "Democrat" party, Joe is a Republican.
It's time for his good friends in the Senate to figure that out.