Said elsewhere - Blogviations edition

By Libby

I didn't post here but I did find my muse today and posted more than I thought when I collected all the links. I'm just going to list the titles tonight.

Paranoia strikes deep.

The myth of executive privilege

Hillary searches for spine.

Politics preventing course change in Iraq

Profit driven health care is not better.

And just a link to my personal blog where I have photos of the hummingbird feeder I put up today and other details of my exciting wildlife.

Quick hits - Brain dead edition

By Libby

The news is just not inspiring me today so here's some reading material while I try to think of something meaningful to say about the sorry state of the union. I'm sure you don't need any help interpreting these stories.

Ted "Earmark King" Stevens is of course protesting his innocence while the FBI and the IRS raid his residence. The agencies aren't telling what they're looking for but one doubts it's tips on home decorating.

I broke this story in Detroit last night and I see it's receiving remarkably little attention. Rep. Jay Inslee will introduce a resolution today directing the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be impeached. This is from the local Seattle paper. The WaPo chose instead to run a lame-assed column in defense of Gonzales that ignores all evidence that he is a serial liar.

Cheney says he's a unique creature. That's the understatement of the week. Mustang Bobby and Shakes have their own ideas but I'm guessing he's one of these or perhaps he's just boasting and is just a garden variety souless humanoid.

Speaking of souless humanoids, Joe Lieberman is still holding up the works, standing in the door of the Democratic bus and threatening to jump off, however obliquely. Holy Joe seems to be laboring under the misapprehension that anything he has to say really matters and crows that he's having a great time being the center of attention as a GOP Co-dependent. For the love of God and country, can't somebody just kick his ass to the curb and get on with the itinerary?

And there's one place that Bush has succeeded in transplanting US style democracy to the Iraq government. Corruption among the leadership in firmly embedded in the system.

Supplies and medicine in strife-torn Baghdad's overcrowded hospitals have been siphoned off and sold elsewhere for profit because of corruption in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, according to a draft U.S. government report obtained by NBC News.

The report, written by U.S. advisers to Iraq's anti-corruption agency, analyzes corruption in 12 ministries and finds devastating and grim problems. "Corruption protected by senior members of the Iraqi government," the report said, "remains untouchable."

Just like back home except the Iraqis are more honest about their thievery. They just steal outright while our political robbers hide behind earmarks.

Send a kind thought to John Roberts

By Libby

John Roberts fell off something today. They say he's fine but this sure sounds scary to me.

St. George Ambulance responded to a call at about 2 p.m. Monday of a man who had fallen 5 to 10 feet and landed on a dock, hitting the back of his head. The patient was ashen and was foaming at the mouth. National news report quotes a Supreme Court spokeswoman as saying that Roberts was conscious the entire time of the incident. That spokeswoman has not returned a telephone call to the newspaper.

...A comprehensive neurological examination was administered to the chief justice and the seizure was determined to be a benign one, the hospital stated. The chief justice suffered a similar seizure in 1993.

A benign seizure? I wouldn't think any sort of seizure could be considered benign but I suppose they just mean it's not life threatening. Anyway, I'm no fan of the man's decisions but I hope he really is okay.

Happy Anniversary

By Libby

Okay, one more quick post. Today is John and Elizabeth Edwards' 30th wedding anniversary. Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple. Thirty years of marriage is quite an accomplishment for ordinary people, much less a political couple who have endured many unexpected hardships. In honor of the occassion the WaPo posts a very nice profile piece on Elizabeth and her participation in the campaign.

I'm telling you, the more she talks, the more I like her. I can't help thinking I wish she was the woman candidate in the race. It would be the best of all worlds to be able to really support a Democrat and a woman. But I have to tell you, rightly or wrongly, in a race where I'm not enthused about any of the candidates, she's having an effect on me. I find I'm warming up to John more and more, every time she speaks on his behalf.

I have a feeling I'm not the only one.

Capt Ed to CNN - Let me be The Decider

By Libby

I try to limit my blogroll to mostly lesser known bloggers on the premise that the big guys don't need the help and to encourage you to click on someone new. However, I'm adding Balloon Juice today. I find myself over there so often that it's for my own selfish convenience that I'm adding them. They certainly don't need the boost, but they're worth a regular read and I'm happy to promote John and Tim's work.

John Cole's take on Capt. Ed's latest exercise in self-importance is just priceless and the comment section is uproarious. As you know I swore off Capt Ed this week so I'm not linking to him but he has this grand idea to entice the GOP into participating in the YouTube debate they're chickening out of. He suggests CNN turn over the vetting of questions to an -- ahem -- impartial screening committee of bloggers. Comprised of course of bloggers from Wingtopia with maybe a couple of token Independents, to be determined by some unnamed person. Perhaps himself?

Man, if that White House conference makes his head any bigger, he won't be able to fit through doors. But I'm with Cole. I think it's a great idea. Let the American people see for themselves what the wingers consider "serious" questions. I can't think of a better way to marginalize their influence than by giving them enough rope to hang themselves on their own rhetoric.

Terrorists, impeachment, Gonzo and cleavage

By Libby

Posting was light this weekend because I'm trying to get some work done around the McPartment. It's getting ridiculous. I've been here for two months and still having unpacked yet. Not that I did much unpacking yesterday. I spent two hours shopping for a hummingbird feeder and another two figuring out how to hang it on the deck without causing any permanent damage.

Anyway, I have to run out again this afternoon and do a couple of errands, so if here are some links to my posts blogged elsewhere.

Unsurprisingly, the wingers made a big deal about this story on the Gitmo releasees that have joined the insurgency. As I pointed out at the NEWSHOGGERS, terrorists are made not born. Which seems to have confused Jules Crittenden to no end.

Newsswine: Chimpy McHitlerBurton lied, people died and his hated Crusader gulag, blight upon free Cuba, made these noble savages what they are. Also, bluecoats speak with forked tongue, U.S. out of North America … at least that’s what I got from it.

I'm taking up a collection at Newshoggers to enroll him in a reading comprehension course.

Impeachment is on my table. We had a good discussion at this post on why Bush and Cheney need to be immediately impeached. And I'm thinking Gonzales needs to go first.

For one thing, as the WaPo chronicles today, the man is a serial liar and Anonymous Liberal has convinced me that a good case can be made for perjury.

And by the way, I'm very curious to know what exactly the DOJ objected to in the illegal NSA surveillance scheme that would have caused them to threaten to resign en masse. The hints and rumors seem to center around data-mining. I'm guessing that my "conspiracy theories" about wholesale spying on innocent Americans weren't so far off the mark.

Finally, I really did try to avoid talking about Hillary's cleavage, but I had to respond to my co-blogger's post in Detroit. It's not often I agree with George. This will probably piss off some people, but I don't think Robin Givhan's stupid piece was all that bad and it surely didn't deserve the outrage it engendered.

I mean, who the hell cares what she says in the first place? And secondly, it's not like you can accuse her of being partisan about it. She also laid down some heavy snark on Condi Rice and John Roberts family's attire in the past. Personally, I think it's this kind of over-reaction to every minor sexist snark that gives feminism a bad name. Let's save our ammunition for things that matter. It's wasted on Givhan.

GOP operatives trample public health

By Libby

Every day brings new revelations of just how callously the Bush White House has politicized every, single, blessed, agency of our government. Sure, every president has appointed his cronies to high public office, but until now, they at least made an effort to appoint agency heads that were qualified in the areas they oversaw. In the Bush administration, qualified opinions are a liability. The only criteria that counts is political loyalty and a willingness to subvert the public good to protect Republican party interests.

Thus we have the EPA erroneously assuring New Yorkers that post-9/11 air was fit to breathe, the FCC covering up how media consolidation has disrupted the flow of honest reporting and numerous instances of withheld climate disruption data just to name a few. In today's news, we find another instance of suppression of public heath information.

A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post. [...]

Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was "called in and again admonished . . . via a senior official who said, 'You don't get it.' " He said a senior official told him that "this will be a political document, or it will not be released."

Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

What makes this even more egregious is that these suppressed reports are being paid for with our tax dollars and some incompetent twit, who probably graduated from a neo-con funded college, is being given the power to arbitrarily withhold it after praying for guidance to their favorite diety, the RNC.

As Steve Benen points out, there's a very long list of this sort of disappeared information. (By the way, I think it's time that list was bumped up to the front page again and updated). Small wonder the average Jake can't comprehend the full scope of this administration's malfeasance. It's so all encompassing, it's like standing on your front porch and trying to comprehend the immensity of the universe. It's too big to see all at once, so the mind tends to focus on just the one visible piece of sky.

I don't know how to make it comprehensible to the average voter but I do know we ignore it, or resign ourselves to its inevitability, at our own peril. As GTL pointed out months ago, we are under attack and our first line of defense it to remove all the partisan neoconservative Republicans from power.

The new DaVinci code - updated with the graphic

By Libby

Conspiracy theorist that I am, I just love this story. The DaVinci Code deepens.

MILAN (Reuters) - A new theory that Leonardo's "Last Supper" might hide within it a depiction of Christ blessing the bread and wine has triggered so much interest that Web sites connected to the picture have crashed.

Now Slavisa Pesci, an information technologist and amateur scholar, says superimposing the "Last Supper" with its mirror-image throws up another picture containing a figure who looks like a Templar knight and another holding a small baby.
"I came across it by accident, from some of the details you can infer that we are not talking about chance but about a precise calculation," Pesci told journalists when he unveiled the theory earlier this week.

Websites www.leonardodavinci.tv, www.codicedavinci.tv, www.cenacolo.biz and www.leonardo2007.com had 15 million hits on Thursday morning alone, organizers said, adding they were trying to provide a more powerful server for the sites.

I'll admit I was curious enough to click over to see the evidence for myself. The sites are all still down. What fun. It reminds me of the days when everyone was playing the Beatles White Album backwards and were convinced that Paul was dead.

Update: Another reason I love the intertubes. Gaius figured out how to manipulate the photo. [Click to embiggen]. That's his graphic and he's already thinking up other fun ways to use the technique.

I suggested he try Dali or Picasso. Or better yet to find an ear in a Van Gogh and create his own theory. I have a feeling he's going to use it on photos of his friends though or maybe Hillary Clinton.

By the way, for the record -- fond as I am of conspiracy theories in general, I am selective in what I believe. I don't see any knights and babies in that graphic, (although I do kind of see a turkey on the right), and even I find it hard to swallow DaVinci could have envisioned a time when this sort of technology was possible and had done it deliberately to send some kind of message.

GOPers gone wild

By Libby

I love Blogtopia but it can sure make you lazy. Dr Steven Taylor is a lot smarter than me. More eloquent too. Thus I don't have to spend any time thinking up a stinging retort to Hindracker's latest bit of whackery posing as serious thought. I'll just link to Steven.

Now, John, one may or may not like this situation, but it is wholly legal and constitutional. Indeed, you may recall many of your own political allies deploying the phrase “elections have consequences” back when the GOP controlled the Senate and the Democrats were blocking judicial nominations. Well, we had one of those elections thingies back in November and the Democrats won the Senate. This means, again back to the Math bit, that they have the votes to block a nomination if they so choose. Again, setting aside whether one likes that or not, it remains a firmly established constitutional fact.

As a side note, let me state that those (the President included) who seem to think that the Congress exists simply to approve what the President has asked for (like Bush stating that Congress is simply supposed to fund the war and otherwise be quiet) are all showing a great deal of disrespect to the Constitutional order.

Hey Hindreeker. Would you like an order of Freedom Fries to go with that crow?

Via my guy Cernig who posts a superb edition of Instahoglets this morning. Check out all the links but certainly don't miss this one, on the largest bribery scandal in military contracting yet. This one has been way underreported and the article itself is amusing.

I loved the guy's sister's explanation for the coded books that kept track of the payola. Oh those weren't bribes, she says, there were potential donors for her personal religious minisitry. I believe in GOP circles that's called the Church of Greed.

To be clear, I'm just assuming the Republicans are behind this at the moment. The investigation is still in its early stages, but it seems like a pretty safe bet. There hasn't been much accomodation made for Democratic war profiteering in this administration.

Arms and The Man

By Libby

The Bush administration appears to have solved the problem of not having enough ready troops to cause permanent conflict quell the chaos in the Middle East. George apparently woke up in the middle of the night, slapped himself upside the head and said, " I know! Let's give all of them guns and see what happens." How else to explain this move?

The Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors that is expected to eventually total $20 billion at a time when some United States officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq.

The proposed package of advanced weaponry for Saudi Arabia, which includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to its fighters and new naval vessels, has made Israel and some of its supporters in Congress nervous. Senior officials who described the package on Friday said they believed that the administration had resolved those concerns, in part by promising Israel $30.4 billion in military aid over the next decade, a significant increase over what Israel has received in the past 10 years.

Yeah that would be the same Saudi Arabia that was the home of the bulk of the 9/11 perps and the very same country we've discovered is aiding and abetting the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Hard to argue with the logic of that, since there is none. But that's not all. It gets better. We're also arming civilians.

The U.S. military in Iraq is expanding its efforts to recruit and fund armed Sunni residents as local protection forces in order to improve security and promote reconciliation at the neighborhood level, according to senior U.S. commanders.

Within the past month, the U.S. military command in charge of day-to-day operations in Iraq ordered subordinate units to step up creation of the local forces, authorizing commanders to pay the fighters with U.S. emergency funds, reward payments and other monies.

The initiative, which extends to all Iraqis, represents at least a temporary departure from the established U.S. policy of building formally trained security forces under the control of the Iraqi government It also provokes fears within the Shiite-led government that the new Sunni groups will use their arms against it, commanders said.

Gee, you think? And I suppose there's no possibility they might also use them against our troops too. Talk about your pony plans.

Gibbs, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, estimates that he needs up to 6,000 new police officers and 18 more police stations in Rasheed. "I am looking for a group of loyal Iraqis who will carry weapons and go after the same people we want," he said in an interview. "We will teach them U.S. rules of engagement and tell them to capture them, not kill them," he said. He said some of the men coming forward may have worked with insurgents in the past in order to survive.

Yeah, and I'm looking to win the Powerball lottery and retire to the Carribean in the next two weeks. That ain't going to happen either. I'm reminded of that old saying that goes something like, shoot anything that moves and let God sort out the dead.

On the upside, Bush won't be stuck with the legacy of having created a quagmire in the Middle East. He can take credit for a full-scale disaster. That sounds so much more macho, doesn't it?

The Lamest Story Ever Told

By Libby

Honestly, I tried to read this op-ed by Anne-Marie Slaughter but I got exactly this far before extreme nausea set in.

A funny thing is happening in American politics: The fiercest battle is no longer between the left and the right but between partisanship and bipartisanship. The Bush administration, which has been notorious for playing to its hard-right base, has started reaching across the aisle, with its admirable immigration bill (even though it failed), with its new push for a diplomatic strategy toward North Korea and Iran, and above all with its choice of three seasoned moderates for important positions: Robert M. Gates as defense secretary, John D. Negroponte as deputy secretary of state and Robert B. Zoellick as World Bank president.

Seasoned moderate Negroponte? Does she mean this John "Death Squad" Negroponte? Apparently she does. As Jim Henley, who apparently had the intestinal fortitude to read the whole thing notes, this is the "dumbest thing ever written by anyone in any venue."

It certainly does reinforce my long held theory that Ivy League academic credentials may look very nice in their frames on the wall, but don't necessarily make you any smarter.

Blogged elsewhere

By Libby

For those of you who don't follow me around Blogtopia to see what I'm saying and where I'm saying it, I posted a lot at Newshoggers in the last 24 hours. In case you want to know...

The GOP chickened out of the YouTube debates. What a bunch of wimps.

Some paid shills masquerading as scientists claim pot makes you crazy. I conducted my own study and discovered prohibition makes you stupid.

Those of you who have been following my adventures into tinfoil hattery may be interested to know that a former Reagan official validated my whole theory on martial law, so who's loony now?

I reposted on the wingnuts frag 'em campaign and added some links to John Cole that are more than worth reading.

And if you're following the incomprehensible rise of Fred Thomspon, I found a list of his staff. This guy isn't just testing the waters, he's analyzing them down to the last molecule before he finds the guts to declare. Hard to believe he has a credible tough guy persona. This coy dancing around makes him look pretty wimpy to me.

Capt Ed jumps back on Bush's sinking ship

By Libby
Updated below

Well this is it. I'm formally delinking Capt Ed -- again. The first time was in 04 after he reported on his starry eyed awe at being given a tour of the White House basement by Karl Rove. Oh he and the 101st were riding high on themselves in those glory days when they ambushed Dan Rather and managed the torpedo the debate on Bush's lies about his service record by focusing the discussion on typing fonts. Ed provided some of the White House's best hackery.

I reinstated him to the roll, in the last year or so, when he seemed to come to his senses and started offering more reasoned arguments again. I figured anybody could be seduced by power and he had perhaps seen the light. Now it appears, he was just waiting to worm his way back into the administration's good graces. He organized a blogger conference call with an anonymous White House source, who gave an anonymous group of bloggers the official White House talking points on unitary executive privilege, which he fully intends to pitch. He's quite pleased with his newly restored importance.

He knows it's wrong. He's pretty defensive about it and his cute little update doesn't really absolve him. Leahy was talking about ordinary assertions of privilege, not an all encompassing, unbreachable privilege that allows absolutely no oversight for wrongdoing. Once again Ed is willing to sell out the national interest for an invitation to the basement at 1600 Penn Ave.

That's his right, but I can't in good conscience send readers to a propaganda mill so he's off the roll. I doubt I'll bother to read him again myself. If I want White House talking points, I'll just go to Tony Snow. No offense to Ed, but Tony is much better looking.

Meanwhile, speaking of White House propaganda, this would be funny if it wasn't so deadly serious.

The White House offered a vigorous defense of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today, insisting that he had not given misleading testimony to Congress, but that national security factors prevented further clarification for now.

In other words, he didn't lie but we can't tell you what exact illegal surveillance program he was really talking about because it's a secret covered by executive privilege. This is the kind of double-speak you're intending to defend Capt. Ed. It's really too sad.

Update: I was pretty tired by the time I got to this last night and couldn't really fully articulate my disgust. In the interim, John Cole weighed in and summed it up perfectly.

Before the stupid gets too far out of hand, let us note one thing. There is a substantive difference between bloggers working with parties in regards to advocacy and pursuing electoral issues, and an administration issuing talking points to bloggers to assist in blocking investigations into alleged criminal wrongdoings.

Do you have a problem with President Hillary Clinton, in the spring of 2010, calling bloggers and issuing talking points to subvert the investigations by a Republican Congress into alleged misdeeds and lies by her Attorney General, Pat Leahy? Of course you would.

Granted, that is a far-out fictional hypothetical, since there is no chance in hell Republicans will control Congress again for the next ten years, but you get the point.

Read the whole post and all the comments. Cole really is on fire this week.

Right wing ragers to troops - frag 'em

By Libby

Like Andrew Sullivan, I didn't really pay much attention to the Scott Thomas tempest the armchair warriors have been brewing up for the last week or so. But now that reliable White House apologist, the WaPo's own Howard Kurtz, has piled on, it's worth noting how truly pathetic they've become as they attack even the most inconsequential challenge to their crumbling alternate reality.

As Digby points out in her eloquent post, the stories Private Beauchamp had to tell were ugly, but hardly the worst accounts of war atrocities ever aired in the history of mankind. War is ugly and good men sometimes do bad things when put under extreme duress. Wow. Who would have thought that could happen?

Typical of the rager's response is Uncle Dimbo Jimbo who ominously warns the soldier to watch his back and promises John Cole a good beatdown for daring to defend the man's reporting. I guess that beats the hell out of consciously processing the real war news of the day. That being Pat Tillman was murdered by his fellow troops.

Yeah, the same Pat Tillman who was hailed as an exemplary American by these very wingnuts when his death was spun by the Pentagon as a heroic charge against the enemy. Now that evidence clearly proves Tillman was fragged, what do we hear from the outraged right? Sound of crickets.

Only one armchair warrior weighed in and he basically says, yeah he was fragged and the leftist commie deserved it and his brother should be next. In the good old days we would have beat his ass out of commission before he a commission to serve.

These are your self-styled true patriots folks. These paragons of keyboard courage are fighting for your freedoms, as long as you don't use them to contradict their carefully constructed fantasies.

White House whites out bad news in Iraq

By Libby

Bad news? What bad news? I don't see any bad news. Hey George and Dick, you see any bad news about electricity in Baghdad? I didn't think so.

My man Fester has the wonkish explanation about why the White House has changed the way they're reporting the almost complete dearth of electrical service in the city. Me, I just have the anecdotal evidence that it's true, noting that this story is a month old.

But one byproduct of the four-year war is so pervasive that it is impossible to ignore. As the blast furnace of summer brought 115-plus-degree days, vast areas of Baghdad -- including Rahim's neighborhood -- still have as little as one hour of electricity a day, leaving the capital's 6 million residents to sweat and stew.

"We're getting about one hour every four days, and we don't have cold water or the refrigerator, so we're buying ice from the market," said Rahim, 32, who lives in the Karada neighborhood.

Their answer was to put a pool on their rooftop, which they use despite the danger of falling shrapnel, since the generators they spend almost all their money running are only capable of keeping a couple of refrigerators and the swamp box coolers going.

Meanwhile, the US taxpayer might want to ask where the money went?

A June 12 study by the National Security Network, a private advocacy group, found that while the United States has spent $3.1 billion to improve electricity in Iraq, the power generated in May was 6 percent less than prewar levels. "Over the past three weeks, Baghdad has suffered severe power and water shortages of up to 23 hours a day," the study said.

And anybody who wonders why the Iraqis grumble they were better off under Saddam might consider this.

For Abeer Rahim, the situation is particularly maddening because after the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the government of Saddam Hussein restored power in 40 days, she said, even though the United States had severely damaged the country's electric grid.

If I was forced to run around like a maniac trying to get six loads of laundry done in the sweltering heat when the electricity decides to briefly flicker on, I'd be pretty mad too.

GOP plays chicken with the people

Shorter version of my own post at the Newshoggers. Bawk, Bawk, Bawk!

Quick hits - profanity edition

By Libby

I'm crawling through one more day of this exhausting work rotation, so I'm just going to post a quick hits version of the stories I would have blogged more about, if only I had more time. In "honor" of Bill-O, I'm making this the profanity edition because what's happening to this country is just plain fucking awful.

These are all worth reading.

Fred Kaplan tells us why "Petraeus' intriguing new Iraq strategy will probably fail." Fred is a lot more politic in his analysis than I am. I'd say it's doomed to fail because it's still the same stupid plan dressed up in a few fancy new phrases that has failed to produce the desired results since the beginning of the cursed occupation.

Raw Story breaks an interesting development.

Congress is on the verge of barring the construction of permanent bases for U.S. forces in Iraq, a move aimed at quelling concerns in the Arab world that American forces will remain in the war-torn country indefinitely.

The ban, which was inserted into the annual defense spending bill, won House approval Tuesday night when the chamber overwhelmingly approved the mammoth defense appropriations bill, 394-22.

I'm not so sure this means a bloody thing in practical terms. We already have plenty of "impermanent bases" there now and we're still fortifying them. Not to mention the mini-Vatican City Bush is building as his vanity embassy. It's a pretty fine distinction between non-permanent and permanent, the only difference being the comfort level of the troops. I doubt the Arab Street will be fooled into thinking that means no sustained military presence -- which it doesn't.

I'm sure you've been following along on the contempt of Congress action and know the committee voted to issue cititations. I would be more cheered by that news if it wasn't for this.

A senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the House itself likely would take up the citations after Congress' August recess. The official declined to speak on the record because no date had been set for the House vote.

Fuck that. These guys are lecturing the Iraqis for taking an August break but they can't get off their posturing butts and just get this done? The presidential overreaching of executive power is the greatest threat to our republic today. It makes AQ look like a gang of six year olds with cork-guns. Nobody should be going on vaction until this is addressed and dealt with in actions, not rhetoric.

This has gone beyond irritating into flat out batshit crazy.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military has noted a "significant improvement" in the aim of attackers firing rockets and mortars into the heavily fortified Green Zone in the past three months that it has linked to training in Iran, a top commander said Thursday.

Give me a break. Doesn't it occur to these military geniuses that maybe their aim is improving because they're getting so much practice on shooting at the same target over and over again. Who the eff cares where they train anyway? Shouldn't the mightiest effin' army in the world be able to prevent them from firing in the first place?

More signs of impending fascism.

The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort to boost its intelligence capabilities.

According to a recent unclassified report to Congress, the FBI expects its informants to provide secrets about possible terrorists and foreign spies, although some may also be expected to aid with criminal investigations, in the tradition of law enforcement confidential informants.

You have to read the whole piece to really appreciate how far-reaching this scheme is. It's not just recruiting citizens to rat each other out, which by the way is the absolute worst way to collect intelligence. People with the kind of moral turpitude that lends itself to back stabbing their "friends" and neighbors aren't going to be any more honest with the cops and they use their position to pay back their enemies, not to work on behalf of any national interest. It's also datamining, more domestic surveillance... To call it Orwellian, doesn't do it justice. It's far more insidious than even Orwell could imagine.

You know some days, it's hard to conclude that we're anything but screwed. Late though it may seem, we really must begin impeachment proceedings, contempt citations, whatever the hell it takes to put the brakes on this White House. And we need to do it NOW.

Not in September. Not after a month long vacation. Now, as in should have started this yesterday.

Who is Norman Borlaug?

By Libby

Oh just a guy "widely credited with saving the lives of 1 billion human beings worldwide, more than one in seven people on the planet." As Eric puts it, "An elderly agronomist doesn't make news," ... but his "success in feeding the world testifies to the difference a single person can make."

Norman is a hot ticket but nobody is going to his show. More the pity since he has some wise thoughts on the mono-ag corporate welfare bill currently before Congress. I'm all for farming but $95 billion a year in subsidies has been going to a handful of corporate execs who have never even seen the farm.

Norman thinks it's silly to be subsidizing them. I think he's right.

Go forth and read

By Libby

I'm looking at a long and busy day so here's a few links to occupy you until I get back here this evening.

I talked about this scary new executive order at Newshoggers. It effectively criminalizes Bush's critics and allows him to seize pretty much anybody's assets for any trumped up reason our great decider can dream up. Cannonfire adds some good context to the analysis of just what this order really means.

I rarely read Kos these day, but I do follow the occassional link to a specific diary and Kangro X has a good post up on the latest Politico lies. They've become as flagrant as the White House and Fox News in spreading misinformation. Dingell calls them out for lying about his position on an energy bill.

And of course, the Newshoggers team is on the job even when I'm not. Cernig has a good roundup of links from the important news of yesterday that you likely may have missed.

David Brooks invents the facts

Busy day today at work so I only have time for this quick hit and run. Hot on the heels of admitting he doesn't have a clue about Iraq, (scroll down to media bytes, serious pundit David Brooks admits he just makes shit up to justify his talking points.

Yesterday, Media Matters observed that on this week’s Meet the Press, New York Times columnist David Brooks admitted to using a made-up statistic in order to argue against withdrawal from Iraq.

Specifically, Brooks rehashed the right-wing talking point that withdrawal in Iraq would certainly lead to “genocide,” alleging that 10,000 Iraqis a month would die after redeployment. But Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward quickly forced Brooks’ to admit his statistics were baseless:

BOB WOODWARD: I mean, you cite numbers which you have pulled out of the air of 10,000 dying. I mean, that’s–that–where does that come from? […]

DAVID BROOKS: So I just picked that 10,000 out of the air.

And they call me unserious? Brooks has been wrong about everything for five years and now he admits he lies. So how come this guy is getting the big bucks for punditry? In a just world, Brooks and all these idiots like himself and Kristol would have been laughed off the airwaves by now.

I am not a kook

By Libby
updated below

After no sleep and a long work day, I'm cranky and these grand pronouncements on acceptable debate are becoming tiresome. I feel like I'm channeling Nixon, with whom I coincidentially share a birthday.

It's not that I'm angry. I laughed out loud when I read this.

Update: And no, Bush won’t cancel the next round of elections to remain in power. That’s about the most ridiculous conspiracy theory I’ve seen in a long time. Some people on our side can be just as “out there” as the “black helicopter” crowd.

He paraphrased militant moderate right winger Jason Steck's scathing critique of my work perfectly. Rather ironic in that Jason accused me of daring to voice that irresponsibly wild theory in order to curry favor with Kossackians.

You have to love these young pups. They're so serious about being serious pundits. They simply cannot tolerate such uncouth narratives because they're so implausible as to be lunatic. It might ruin their creds in respectable society if they condone such talk. Besides, as Markos admits, for him it's not about ideology. It's about winning - however he defines his personal victories.

Well for me, I gave up respectability for freedom a long time ago. I don't care if I lose or am thought unserious. It's the prinicple of the thing. I do have an ideology, based on a honest concern for the common good. I have no ambitions inside the Beltway or within the punditocracy.

I'll be the the first to admit that the declaration of martial law and the suspension of elections is improbable. But that rests heavily on the assumption that you're dealing with a sane administration. It's not impossible and any dispassionate review of the available means would make it irresponsible to discount the possibility.

In fact, here's a little thought exercise for anyone who thinks it would never happen -- what if it did? What would you do if suddenly your town was invaded by tanks and armed soldiers and you were no longer free to move around at will. How would you stop it -- after it happened?

I've lived through ten presidents that I distinctly remember. Given the weighty record of unneccessary secrecy and insanely arrogant flouting of the rule of law by this administration, I don't think that's such a kooky question.

Update: Judging from the response, the reality line on this is drawn along the generation gap. Anyone who actually lived through the Nixon years and paid attention through the intervening years seem to understand exactly what I'm talking about. It's the youngsters who can't see the possibilities.

ExPat Brian weighs in with an excellent post in my defense.

Congress can exercise alternative methods of interrogation

I didn't get a chance to blog about it last week, but I'm sure you caught the buzz on Bush's declaration that the president's office is not answerable to the Congress and can't be held in contempt via the Justice system for failing to answer Congressional subpoenas. Since then, attention has been focused on obscure case law that allows Congress to invoke an inherent contempt provision and arrest non-compliant witnesses who fail to answer when served process.

Thus, the congressional alternative. Instead of referring a contempt citation to the U.S. attorney, a house of Congress can order the sergeant-at-arms to take recalcitrant witnesses into custody and have them held until they agree to cooperate -- i.e., an order of civil contempt. Technically, the witness could be imprisoned somewhere in the bowels of the Capitol, but historically the sergeant-at-arms has turned defendants over to the custody of the warden of the D.C. jail.

I know it's kind of silly but I'm amused by the idea of building a dungeon in the bowels of the Capitol building and holding Rove and Miers there until they talk. It would seem somehow fitting for an administration that seeks to turn back the legislative clock to the Dark Ages to be subjected to the techniques prevalent at the time.

Blogged elsewhere

At the Newshoggers:

There was a major shakeup on a local election in Georgia. I think it's a sign of a larger trend and no incumbent is safe.


This one generated some harsh criticism from Jason Steck. Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that Bush won't really declare martial law and suspend the elections. Anything is possible with this crazy president.

A leading Bush apologist on Capitol Hill, admits he's an idiot.

I'm loving the loose cannon effect she's having myself. Elizabeth Edwards shines in the spotlight.

And I threw down the gauntlet to my co-blogger John LaPlante, who is apparently scared Sicko of a national health care plan.

Short takes - Miserable failure edition

By Libby

Odd bits of quick stray news that are worth reading.

This one is hilarious really. Defense counsel for the police department that arrested an 83 year old guy for holding a anti-war sign within seeing range of our Reckless Leader argued that plaintiff shouldn't be allowed to mention Bush's name or the wording of the sign because just hearing W's name would prejudice the jury.

Thankfully the judge disagreed, thinking the jury would have a hard time deciding based on an unknown sign held during a rally for an unnamed candidate. Far cry from the days when the mere mention of King George was a guarantee of success.

Speaking of failure, Boston Globe editorializes that Bush is a complete and utter loser and his administration has been one disaster after another. They count the ways.

And the The NYT editor piles on, remarking on the imperial powers claimed by the president. He tells Congress to shake a leg for the good of the republic and do whatever it takes to haul this admistration into account for its actions.

Kind of reminds you of the old google bomb, doesn't it?

Gasbaggery

By Libby

The NYT posts an long apology for the oil corporations' obscene profits. The Gun Toting Liberal has already interpreted the double speak nicely so I'll just reiterate the main point.

The refineries are breaking down because they delayed essential repairs in order to boost profits. They were able to do this because industrial safety compliance under the Bush adminstration is a bad joke. It's non-existent. Not only is this environmentally negligent, it's why you're paying so much at the gas pump.

And by the way, the most ridiculous premise put forward in the piece is that the poor oil companies would be producing more gas, if only they could. If they produced more gas, there wouldn't be a shortage and they couldn't charge the outrageous prices for it. Their biggest problem is figuring out where to draw the line between their ability to withhold the supply without triggering consumer adversion to the gouging.

Ask Michael Moore

I would have included this in media bytes but I want to make sure no one misses it. Michael Moore will he doing a live chat from 4-5(et) today at Crooks and Liars. Submit your questions in the comments section.

Media malfeasance

By Libby

I'm becoming more convinced daily that the greatest threat to our republic is not terrorism but rather what passes for journalism. It's not just that media has become a profit-driven big business that delivers gossip instead of news, it's that the national reporters have become bigger stars than the subjects they cover. This elite cabal no longer reports news, they create it and they have become so drunk on their own power that they're just as arrogant as the thieves and liars inside the beltway they cover up for.

Media Matters posts the perfect illustration of this journalistic thuggery. "Marc Ambinder was one of the founders of ABC's The Note and is a contributing editor to the National Journal's Hotline newsletter." He boasts of their political brinksmanship, even as he excuses it.

There is a difference in the political reality: fairly or unfairly, a healthy chunk of the national political press corps doesn't like John Edwards.

Fairly or unfairly, there's also a difference in narrative timing: when the first quarter ended, the press was trying to bury Edwards. It's not so much interested in burying Romney right now -- many reporters think he's the Republican frontrunner.

Fairly or unfairly? There's nothing fair about it. It's not only irresponsible, it's negligent. As Media Matters points out, "President Bush hand-picks the cloth for his custom-made suits, each of which costs thousands of dollars." Have they once mentioned that while he's pushing for tax cuts for the wealthy? Of course not, because the tax cuts benefit them too.

Our journalists have joined the investor class. How on earth can we expect them to cover these issues fairly? They won't and they don't. The same elites who protested they couldn't cover the Downing Street minutes and ignored the Plame case for months because it was "old news," will mercilessly flog a candidate over a month's old haircut simply because they don't like him.

This is why Leftopia exists. They did it to Al Gore in 2000 and we couldn't stop them because we couldn't raise a collective voice. Make no mistake, they will do the same to whoever wins the Democratic nomination but this time, we can't let them get away with it.

Running with Ron Paul

By Libby

It's not an entirely flattering piece, in fact it's pretty damn snarky but it's a testament to Ron Paul that the NYT is profiling him in today's paper. Considering he was written off from the beginning as a fringe kook who didn't have a prayer, he's now garnered enough attention that he can't just be ignored.

This is the power of the internets in today's politics. Without his YouTube popularity or his web dominance, this piece would never have been written and Paul would have remained an obscure voice. Granted, it stills seems impossible that he'll ever get the nomination since the GOP seems to have embraced Fred Thompson as their grandfather figure. However, Ron Paul has a good reason to keep fighting.

“Politicians don’t amount to much,” he says, “but ideas do.” Although he is still in the low single digits in polls, he says he has raised $2.4 million in the second quarter, enough to broaden the four-state campaign he originally planned into a national one.

Paul's biggest problem, as the piece points out, is that his base is so incredibly diverse. Much will probably be made about the kooks crack in the article, but there's no denying that some of his base comes from the far reaches of the left and the right, as well as moderates who are sick of nanny governing. Whether he can somehow weave all these groups into a coherent campaign machine remains to be seen, but it seems certain he'll be able to retain their respect. As one of his key aides remarks:

“So many times, people say to us, ‘We don’t like his vote.’ But they trust his heart.”

For myself, I love his position on the drug war. He is a long time champion of sensible drug policy but I hate too many of his other stances on the government's role in society to support him as a president. Nonetheless, I think he's a rare bird -- a principled politician -- and I hope he keeps his seat in the Congress. We need more like him inside the beltway.

[cross-posted to The Reaction]

Media Bytes

By Libby

Wherein I try to keep up this meme on a weekly basis. A few videos for your eidification and amusement.

This one is heavy viewing for a Sunday afternoon but it's an important piece and shouldn't be missed. The brilliant Jill has a disturbing YouTube of an investigative report by Sean Smith, done while embedded with US troops in Iraq. As Jill asks: This is what they want to keep doing?

On a lighter note, via Radley, do you need a new drug? Try incarcerex. The list of side effects are priceless.

This one got a lot of attention, but in case you missed it, this may be the first thing NYT's resident putz David Brooks has ever said that rings of absolute truth.

And finally a trip down memory lane for the boomers. I was just having a conversation with a three year old about life before Leap Frog and remembered how much I loved these Terry Toons. And this is why I love YouTube today. Step back in time with The Bee and the Butterfly and Holland Days.

Blogged elsewhere

By Libby
Updated below

New readers who only read this blog may not be aware that my deal with both the Detroit News and NEWSHOGGERS is that I only post new content. I'm only allowed to cross-post at The Reaction. I will occassionally rewrite the same story for the three blogs but generally I cover different news at each site. Sometimes, like now, I have time to post links here to my other stuff but otherwise you're on your own.

So if you're not clicking around my personal corner of Blogtopia every day to see what's on my mind, I posted this morning at NEWSHOGGERS on Thompson's baldness problem. Follow the link at that post to some funny cartoons.

I also expressed my outrage about Fred Hiatt's latest sorry excuse for an editorial in the WaPo. I swear, the man should be declared a danger to civil society.

In Detroit, I've been ragging on Cox & Forkham for beating the Iran war drum, beating up on Bush for his pro-life veto, and defending the Democratic party, something I don't always do, regardless of what my critics tell you.

Also in case you missed Mark Kleimann's excellent post on his near death experience while waiting for health insurance authorizations, follow the links here for a hair-raising story on how his excellent coverage almost cost him his life. Makes a compelling case for a single payer plan.

Update: Just posted at NEWSHOGGERS, the White House begs for UN intervention. What a difference a failed surge strategy makes...

Meanwhile, the slow motion domestic genocide of Katrina just keeps on keeping on.

Get your schwag here

My partners at NEWSHOGGERS are so smart. Shamanic figured out in ten minutes what I haven't been able to grok in five years. The NEWSHOGGERS now has a Cafe Press site where you can buy our schwag. She already has multiple designs on tshirts, bags and magnets. I love it. Click over and check it out. Maybe buy something.

Of course, this does underscore what a technodope I am. I've been wanting to have a cafepress store for this blog and my other blog since I started them but I haven't been able to come up with a logo, much less a good slogan for either.

I'm more than willing to entertain suggestions if anyone is so inspired.

America deserves good answers

By Libby

I stole the heading for this post from the ad banner that runs above William "Krazy" Kristol's latest parody piece disguised as a serious editorial. It's an ad for auto insurance or something, but it struck me as a remarkably true statement. Unfortunately, America won't be finding any of those in the underlying text of Kristol's latest kraziness.

Kristol's current rewrite of his threadbare arguments is barely worth quoting. As Steve Benen points out, he's like an old scratched vinyl 45, endlessly repeating a vacuous recording made in 2003. However, a couple of his points brought out the snark in me. In speaking of Cindy Sheehan, he notes,

When she became an embarrassment, she, like others before her, was tossed onto the trash heap of history by her progressive minders.

Leaving aside the lack of merit in the statement, I can't help but think that it's too bad the neo-conservanuts are unable to recognize when one of their own has become such an embarrassment, else Kristol would be keeping Cindy company in his imaginary bin. But it was his closing statement that raised the biggest sardonic chuckle.

They are our best and bravest, fighting for all of us against a brutal enemy in a difficult and frustrating war. They are the 9/11 generation. The left slanders them. We support them. More than that, we admire them.

We anticipate that William will be showing his support and admiration by immediately moving his office to the Baghdad embassy, from whence he can dispense his tender accolades personally to the troops he so reveres. Perhaps he might even be persuaded to demonstrate his conviction on the surge's success by joining in the Pentagon's new PR efforts and walking around outside of the Green Zone, making eye contact while smiling warmly and waving to the people.

That's a mission this progressive would gladly support -- and admire.

[cross-posted to The Reaction]

Puns about buns

By Libby
Updated below

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem and I'll confess. I love puns and via Capt. Ed, who apparently is in bad need of one of these, I've got the ultimate news story on Bush's colonoscopy.

A shudder could be felt across Capitol Hill Friday after news came out that President Bush would be having his butt checked out which meant that while Bush was going through the colonoscopy, Vice President Dick Cheney would be in charge of the nation.

"It's a chilling thought," one passerby told AXcess News when asked if they were concerned over Cheney's short-term rule of the White House. ...

Bush last underwent colorectal cancer surveillance on June 29, 2002. At the time, the only thing doctors found was an attitude, which medical experts say is not cancerous though his administration has become quite malignant in their support of the President's plan to keep U.S. troops in Iraq.

Note to the Captain and "his crew." Lighten up. It's not an attack on the president when they use the same style of "reporting" in all their stories -- about everybody.

Update: The Xsociate goes undercover to discover George tried to get out of it.

Brand America

By Libby

The Pentagon apparently had a epiphany about the Iraq occupation. Being at a loss to explain why the Iraqis aren't grateful to be living under Stone Age conditions while facing the daily prospect of an untimely death at the hands of any number of competing players, they turned to their long time favored contractor, the Rand Corporation, wisely deploying $400,000 of the taxpayers' money to find out why "they" hate us.

And they weren't disappointed. The same corporation that absolved them from guilt by dismissing Gulf war syndrome as virtually imaginary in 1998 and produced the now forgotten study that in August 2002, "declared Saudi Arabia an enemy of the United States and advocated that the United States invade the country, seize its oil fields, and confiscate its financial assets unless the Saudis stop supporting the anti-Western terror network," has nailed the problem down for the military brass.

It's so obvious, they're probably slapping themselves in the forehead wondering why they didn't think of that themselves. It's not the daily carnage, the destruction of the infrastructure and the virtual non-exixtence of essential services like electricity. It's simply a marketing problem.

They sure got their money's worth with pearls of wisdom like this.

In an urban insurgency, for example, civilians can help identify enemy infiltrators and otherwise assist U.S. forces. They are less likely to help, the study says, when they become "collateral damage" in U.S. attacks, have their doors broken down or are shot at checkpoints because they do not speak English. Cultural connections -- seeking out the local head man when entering a neighborhood, looking someone in the eye when offering a friendly wave -- are key.

Yep. Nothing says "we care" like a hearty grin and a friendly wave before we bomb your neighborhood into rubble in search of the "bad guys." One wonders what the slogan will be for this new PR offensive will be. Something along the lines of: "USA - the friendly country who kills you with kindness, every single day." Sure to be a winner.

I feel like I'm living in Key West

By Libby

The internet went down town wide for the whole day and I really meant to post something of significance but we just had the most incredible sunset here tonight. The air was the same color as the sky. It lasted a really long time. I ended up on the outside deck drinking a beer with my neighbors. I ran out of beer before I ran out of sunset.

The picture doesn't do it justice. It filled the sky for 180 degrees. I'll be back tomorrow.

A word to commenters

By Libby

I love you all dearly but it's been a crazy week and I haven't had time to even read your pithy commentary, much less respond. Bear with me. I'm hoping to get to it sometime today or at least tonight at the latest.

What war czar?

By Libby

Hell, until Steve Benen reminded me, I forgot we even had a new war czar. I suppose I can be forgiven since he dropped out of sight immediately after confirmation.

And that’s it. Since taking over NSA Stephen Hadley’s responsibilities for Iraq and Afghanistan, Lute has not been interviewed on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, or PBS. He has not appeared on any national radio show. He has not been quoted in any newspapers.

Perhaps most importantly of all — maybe he’s media shy? — Lute has not been mentioned by Bush, Cheney, or Tony Snow, in any capacity, since he was confirmed by the Senate.

I guess rubberstamping the Great Decider's decisions leaves you with a lot of free time. He's probably at the beach. I hear it's hot in DC this time of year.

Filibuster for dummies

By Libby

I've been off-line most of the week and trying to catch up on the news has been dizzying. The big stuff always happens when I have zero time to follow it. But this is why I love Blogtopia [y!sctp]. Election Central has put together a handy guide for those who are as befuddled by the procedural maze as I am. Spencer explains the fine points, but this was the most cheering point.

More importantly, by raising the Iraq debate in the summer, the Democrats have created something of a public expectation that September is the beginning of the end for the war. Even Fred Barnes's summation piece for the Weekly Standard is titled "McConnell Holds The Line; At Least Until September." The benefit for the Democrats of the July push, even the unsuccessful one, has been to redefine the debate over the war.

By forcing the discussion now, Dems forced Republicans into the fall-back position of saying, "The war should begin to end not now, but in September." That means it will be tougher for Republicans to continue to back the war come September -- Petraeus report or no.

Two weeks ago, it was hardly clear that September would be the beginning of the end, as opposed to a potential rallying point for Republicans when Petraeus comes to Washington. But thanks to how the July debate unfolded, come September the GOP's victory today could look like a Pyrrhic one.

With the major media painting it as the Democrats holding up the works, I think it's a little dicey on how it will play with the average Jake in the short term. But over the long run, if Harry continues to hold the hard line and keeps hammering the point that it's the Republicans who are obstructing the votes, Akerman could be right on with that prediction.

Bush vows to veto kid's health care

By Libby

Our Feckless Leader is philosophically opposed to funding health care for children of poverty. He signals he will veto a bi-partisan plan that took six months to hammer out because he would rather force the legislature into adopting his own scheme for total privitization of health care. A Ponzi scam that would surely kick poor children completely out of the insurance pool altogether.

One wonders if he is trying to destroy the GOP with this incomprehensible intransgience. One can't help but remember his own calls for bi-partisan co-operation in moving the people's business forward. I guess in the Bush family dictionary, co-operation means everyone has to do what I say and like it. He certainly can't object on the grounds that it will raise the deficit. They figured out how to fund it with a cigarette tax.

As I said in Detroit, I'm no fan of balancing the budget on the backs of people addicted to a drug that was actively subsidized by their own government in order to get them hooked but still, it's seems to me to be a responsible and humane plan and since smokers use more health services, it doesn't strike me as entirely unfair that they should shoulder the burden.

In any event, this is exactly the sort of bi-partisan co-operation that should be encouraged, not thwarted by a man who has no problem spending $60 billion in three months time to kill people in Iraq. I don't think it's asking too much to spend that much over five years to save the lives of innocent American children.

[Thanks to Michael Linn Jones for the link.]

Billing proves Thompson lied

By Libby

The NYT has the goods on Fred Thompson and the alleged non-lobbying he did for a pro-choice group. He billed for 19 hours of consults, including over 3 hours of actual lobbying on The Hill.

It doesn't say who he lobbied, but as I pointed out at Newshoggers just now, the existence of the billing lends creedence to the client's recollections that he said he pitched Sununu, the denials from both he and Fred notwithstanding.

Seems to me, that Fred and his supporters want it both ways. They want to say it's impossible for Fred to remember exactly what he did 15 years ago, but he can accurately recall what he didn't do. I'm inclined to go with the client's memories. After all, they only have one case to remember. The one they paid for.

Not that this troubles Capt. Ed and the rest of the usual apologists. They've apparently never met a Republican lawyer liar they didn't like and aren't willing to cover for. One wonders what they would be saying if it was Hillary or Obama instead of Fred starring in this tale of deceit. Somehow I think they would be more concerned about the candidate's honesty.

Down and dirty in the Senate

By Libby

It's been a hell of a week for me and it's only Wednesday. I haven't had the time to really grasp the details as I would like but whatever is going on, Harry, I take back all the bad stuff I've been saying about you. Way to fight.

What this means is this: Reid is basically saying he won't allow any votes on any other Iraq amendments -- not the toothless Warner-Lugar amendment, not the Ken Salazar amendment that would force adoption of the Baker-Hamilton plan, nothing -- until the GOP agrees to allow straight up or down votes.

I have to admit I'm still a little pissed that the Dems doing pull these same tricks the GOP is pulling now to keep us out of this mess, but I'm really happy to see that at least they're figuring out how to fight back against the bullies as the majority party.

I haven't had the chance to look at this yet either, but I'm sure these video highlights are going to be enlightening.

End game

By Libby

Despite the incredulous spin from the White House it really couldn't be clearer that Bush deliberately endangered the national security. He knew that invading Iraq would only make AQ stronger but he did it anyway. Choose your own explanation. Stupidity. Cupidity. Simple insanity.

Whatever, Steve Benen nails the latest spokesmouth's explanation.

Perhaps Townsend understands game theory, perhaps not, but this is a dynamic in which we engaged in a confrontation which benefited our enemy twice — we backed off pursuit of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, giving the network a chance to regroup and grow stronger, and we foolishly launched an unnecessary war that ended up making al Qaeda’s recruiting and fundraising easier. We lose more of what we want, they gain more of what they want. It’s almost the definition of a zero-sum game.

Steve is more politic than me. I'd say it was a deliberate subversion of the public good for personal profit.

Rotten Fish

By Libby

There's really no excuse for this dereliction of journalistic duty. And this is really inexcusable.

Perhaps before his Instyimportantness has piled on approvingly with every misguided post he could find, he could have -- and we know did -- read Digby who points out that Chilean sea bass is now available commercially again and the fish in question was provided by Whole Foods, who only deals with reputable and environmentally conscious vendors.

Scaife scolds the President

By Libby

I'm on another brutal work schedule this week so I won't be able to post much during the day, but here's a interesting link to Richard Mellon Scaife's latest slap at the neo-cons. He did jump the good ship Bush-Titanic some time ago but it's notable that he's questioning our Feckless Leader's sanity.

Ron Paul leads with military

By Libby

This one is for long time commenter and Ron Paul supporter, Lester.

It's no surprise that our military personnel favor Republicans but according to this chart the donations in this primary cycle are overwhelmingly favoring Ron Paul over the other candidates. I'm sure I don't need to remind most of you that Paul has taken an anti-occupation stance and is calling for withdrawal of the troops while the rest of the field seems determined to channel Bush's warmongering without actually mentioning the lame duck president's name.

I'd say that speaks volumes about what the troops really think of the war.

Make the GOP walk their talk

By Libby

I'm working today on about four hours of sleep. Posting is likely to be light but here's a link to a good post by Chris Bowers giving the Dems some badly needly advice. It's time to call the GOP's bluff on filibusters.

Good. This is would be a welcome step and tactical change. No more simply allowing Republicans to defeat Democratic legislation just by holding a cloture vote. It is time to actually make Republicans carry out the filibusters they threaten when they vote "no" on cloture. If they want to use the threat of unlimited debate on issues like raising the minimum wage and providing mandatory time at home between deployments to Iraq for American troops, let's actually make them engage in unlimited, or at least nearly unlimited, debate on those subjects and see what the American people think.

Chris also has a list of important legislation the GOP successfully blocked with idle threats while FDL piles on with a few more choice words for Reid's cowardice in the matter.

I'm with them. I'm sick to death of watching the Dems cave into the GOP's schoolyard bully tactics. It's time to stand up to the Republicans and stop being so damn polite. Good manners won't save this country. Forcing the GOP's hand will.

The Rich are Different

By Libby

They don't pay taxes. They pay lawyers and accountants to avoid paying into the common fund. The NYT gives us a look at the new titans of the gilded age and it's not a pretty picture. Not since the 1920s has the majority of the national wealth been concentrated in so few hands and the business giants of today are not the men that Rockefeller and Carnegie were. Not that the barons of the 20s were all that honorable but at least they created products and jobs, by and for Americans and had some sense that they owed their success to the work of the "little people."

Today's parasitic tycoons, who make their fortunes by shuffling other people's money around the world, creating nothing but paperwork and profits for the few, feel entitled to their extravagant gains by dint of their "superior" talents. But as one of the few humane CEOs out there, James D. Sinegal, chief executive of Costco, says, “Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company. The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.”

More typical is Kenneth C. Griffin, "who received more than $1 billion last year as chairman of a hedge fund, the Citadel Investment Group." He and others of his class say “The money is a byproduct of a passionate endeavor.” But the claim falls apart at the prospect of having to share their good fortune with the less fortunate who contributed to it.

“The income distribution has to stand,” Mr. Griffin said, adding that by trying to alter it with a more progressive income tax, “you end up in problematic circumstances. In the current world, there will be people who will move from one tax area to another. I am proud to be an American. But if the tax became too high, as a matter of principle I would not be working this hard.”

What principle would that be? Selfishness and greed are the only ones I can think of off hand.

[Thanks to Avedon Carol for the link.]

Sea of madness

By Libby

Must read of the day is Johann Hari's piece in the Independent.

I am travelling on a bright white cruise ship with two restaurants, five bars, a casino – and 500 readers of the National Review. Here, the Iraq war has been "an amazing success". Global warming is not happening. The solitary black person claims, "If the Ku Klux Klan supports equal rights, then God bless them." And I have nowhere to run.

It's been done before, but Hari recounts his harrowing journey with riveting descriptions of the true believers that astound and appall even as they amuse. And he reminds me why I've resisted the impluse to take a cruise myself.

Having never been on the open sea, the idea appeals to me but the thought of being held hostage on a ship of such fools makes me wary. Hari is better man than me I think. I probably would have thrown myself overboard after the opening reception rather than face a whole week of making small talk with deluded souls who honestly think dissent is a hanging offence.

Kristolizations

By Libby

We're treated to double dose of Kristol clownery this morning. One can almost smell the skunk of our cowardly con's sweaty terror as he Kristolizes the facts in defense of his failed surge theory. It's not even worth quoting his latest tautology. You get the feeling he doesn't believe his own banal sloganery anymore and his heart's just not in it.

He's reduced to the same old tired out taunting. Defeatists aren't serious about security and anybody who doesn't agree that creating a region-wide human slaughterhouse in the Middle East is a great idea, hates America and that for which she stands. Which by the way, in Kristolonia would be corporate profits.

Willie musters up a bit more enthusiasm for his companion piece, a defense of the Bush presidency. Here he takes us on a tour of Kristolonia's famed What If Forest where Medicare D is a rousing success, beloved by all senior citizens, and George the Great courageously slews the evil hordes of demons, bringing peace and prosperity to all the lands. No wonder these neo-cons prefer to construct their own reality. It sounds like a much prettier place than the world the rest of us live in.

Update: Anonymous Liberal looks back and recalls the glory days of Kristol's confidence.

[cross-posted to The Reaction]

Impeachment - Do it for the children

By Libby
Updated below

Since I wanted to join in on the Bastille Day Blogburst, I've been thinking all day about impeachment. My earlier post generated a fair amount of discussion but I wanted to add something new to debate for this occassion. Fortunately, Crooks and Liars came to the rescue with this clip of Bill Moyer's roundtable.

Joined by John Nichols and Bruce Fein, who are, refreshingly in these days of lopsided talking head formats, ideological opposites, they raise an important point on why we should start impeachment, late though it may seem, that I hadn't considered. While the practical effect may be moot since I still doubt impeachment could be concluded much before the end of his term, it's more than about symbolic reprimands. It establishes a precedent for accountability.

If the Congress fails to hold Bush and Cheney responsible for failing to adhere to the rule of law that cements our republic, our form of democracy will crumble as future administrations also take the unitary powers being established by the Bush regime as their own. Nichols and Fein argue that impeachment must not only be immediately begun but it must followed through to its ultimate conclusion, even if they resign, which we failed to do with Nixon. A mistake that allowed Bush and Cheney to make the same power grab again.

While I continue to think that we should also be beseeching the dastardly duo to resign at the same time, the roundtable convinced me in that five minute clip that we need to do this to protect future generations from this danger. Contact your Senators and Congressmen. Let the impeachment proceedings begin.

Update: Via Avedon again, MEC has the list of impeachable crimes.

TPM Cafe has the transcript for the whole Moyers roundtable and hones in on the key talking points.

Blogswarm for Impeachment

Blogrolling

By Libby

I added a few new links lately. Ron at Middle Earth Journal is a long time read of mine that somehow never got on the blogroll. I don't think I announced the addition at the time.

Former GTL contributor Michael Linn Jones just started his own blog and we're happy to welcome him to our roll and thank him for including us on his. Check him out. He's already got an impressive list of posts up with an original view on what often feels like the SSDD world of politics.

As I mentioned in an earlier post today, I've been meaning to link to Robert Reich for some time now. Having spent time with him and worked extensively with his organization on a political campaign, I came to consider him a brilliant thinker and an unusually honest politician. He kicks butt on economic issues especially.

And I added a new news aggregator, Hinesight to the Buzz list at the request of my partner Jim Martin and I'm happy to do it. It's a great resource and I encourage you to check it out.

Stealing liberally

By Libby

Avedon has a treasure trove of links today that are just too good not to shamelessly steal and pass on. A few choice quotes to tempt you into clicking over.

On informed voting.

"Note to America: Next time you feel like voting for the guy you'd rather drink beer with, do us all a favor and write in the name of the guy you actually drink beer with." ~Freeway Blogger

More on The Mission.

"Slop Will Eat Itself" - Two days later, I am still awed by the simple perfection of Jim Henley's conclusion in this post: "But you've got to love the idea of "force protection" as a main mission. The US military could stay in Iraq for the purpose of trying to keep its members from being killed for being in Iraq. There's a stirring cause. I know a much more effective "force protection" plan, which I call "get the hell out." This is what they're down to: inertia. The "bipartisan" compromise the Ignatiuses of the world envision is that we stay in Iraq so that we can stay in Iraq. Because if we pulled out of Iraq, well, we wouldn't be there any more." ~Jim Henley.

On bootstrapping America.

America is the greatest entrepreneurial nation in the world. But there are really two kinds of entrepreneurs here - product entrepreneurs and financial entrepreneurs -and only one of them truly builds the economy. Product entrepreneurs find new ways of satisfying customers. Financial entrepreneurs find new ways of ... well, making money off money. ~Robert Reich

Avedon didn't know Bob had a blog. I've known for a long time and I really should have him on the blogroll. I think I'll do that right now. He's a politician I can claim some intimate knowledge of, and he's the only one I've ever worked for that I considered truly honorable. If Unity08 would tap him for their ticket, I could get a whole lot more enthusiatic about their project.

Celebrate Bastille Day in style

By Libby

Via the imcomparable Avedon Carol, you're invited to the Bastille Day Impeachment Party Blogswarm. Send your impeachment post links to TBTB2007@crablaw.com by 9:00pm this evening. Note that the deadline will not be strictly enforced.

A new vision of The Mission

By Libby

I've been having a hard time kicking into gear today but Think Progress finally inspired me to put the fingernails to the keyboard. I just realized that we've been talking about how Bush has been moving the goal posts in Iraq for these last five years but that's the wrong frame for the picture. He hasn't so much moved them as built new ones adjacent to each other, with each succeeding "definition" becoming a little bit narrower.

In effect, he's created an shrinking tunnel for his "vision" with no light visible at the end.

Peggy! Darling. You're late!

By Libby

Peggy Noonan's latest column has been rather well received. Most people are welcoming her aboard the unrose-colored reality train, but I'm not so inclined to take her apparent defection from the Bush Adoration Society at face value. I can't forget her fawning adoration for our Feckless Leader right up until the moment it became clear he's unlikely to recover an approval rating into the 30s.

It's not that I don't welcome her help. She may be an insufferable blowhard but she's an influential one and it's not to taken lightly when she spews her contempt for her former hero. But her mea culpas don't feel so very authentic. Even as she sort of admits her misplaced loyalty -- oh wait, she doesn't actually admit she was wrong... Even as she betrays her cherished leader, her pomposity rankles.

I'm not referring to what used to be called Bush Derangement Syndrome. That phrase suggested that to passionately dislike the president was to be somewhat unhinged. No one thinks that anymore.

Funny, but last I looked, the phrase was still in common use and not everybody is willing to give it up. But now that she, the oh so serious and important pundit, is dissing Bush, it's not deranged anymore? I wonder, are those who still use the phrase now destined to become the new unserious critics in Peggy's world?

I hate to be an ingrate but Peggy is inexcusably late to the party and I can't help but think if Bush's numbers went up again, she would turn around and jump back on the White House guest list in a New York minute.

Thugs for the Theocracy

By Libby
Updated below

I'm not a particularly religious person. I don't go to church now but I was raised in the Protestant faith. I still remember my Sunday School lessons and unlike the rabid Christian fundies, I've read the whole Bible. This particular verse has always stuck with me.

Mark 12:31: And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Perhaps the cretins that disrupted the first ever Senate invocation delivered by a Hindu priest would have served their God better by remembering those words. Instead they show their Christian "love" thusly.

"Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight," the first protester shouted. "This is an abomination. We shall have no other gods before You."

Rajan Zed, the Hindu priest was only briefly interrupted and managed to deliver his message that sounded pretty much in line with Christian theology to me.

"Let us pray," he began, "We meditate on the transcendental glory of the deity supreme, who is inside the heart of the earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of heaven. May he stimulate and illuminate our minds.

"Lead us from the unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. May we be protected together. May we be nourished together. May we work together with great vigor. May our study be enlightening."

Raw Story has the video. Those "good Christians" who proclaimed their hate in the name of God would have done well to listen but even if they are unwilling or unable to show Christian tolerance for their neighbors, perhaps they could go back to their Bibles and remember these words.

Luke 6:37: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned, forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.

That lesson appears to be lost on the zealots but one can only think they're in for a rude awakening when their rapture comes and they find out that "Christian" hate won't get them through the pearly gates.

Update: Capt. Fogg tracks down the contact info on the leader of this gang of Christian thugs, Reverend Flip Benham of the extremist group,
Operation Save America. Fogg has sent him a few thousands words of wisdom. You might want to send a little note yourself.