Tuesday’s Mini-Report

March 13, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits (that do not relate to the purge scandal. For that mini-report, check here).

* The president of Air America Radio this morning sent a letter to the chairmen of four state Republican parties, offering to host and broadcast the state parties’ upcoming presidential debates. “Should you accept Air America’s offer, Republicans would both embrace free debate and stick it to Stalin at the same time,” Air America President Mark Green wrote to the Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina Republican chairmen.

* Thomas M. DeFrank notes in the New York Daily News today Dick Cheney will not resign. Indeed, in 2004, he reportedly offered to step aside for Bush’s political benefit, the president declined, and it was never to be brought up again.

* In a pleasant surprise, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the Senate Armed Forces committee and former Secretary of the Navy, publicly rebuked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace for his anti-gay comments yesterday. In a written statement, Warner said, “I respectfully, but strongly, disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral.” Good for him. (Dobson is going to be most unhappy.)

* Speaking of Pace’s anti-gay animus, Speaker Pelosi called on the military to “carefully consider” reversing the ban on gay service members. “We need the most talented people, we need the language skills, we need patriotic Americans who exist across the board in our population,” Pelosi said, adding, “We don’t need moral judgment from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.”

* Halliburton’s plan to pack up and move to Dubai has not escaped the attention of lawmakers. Senate Commerce Committee member Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) asked yesterday, “I want to know, is Halliburton trying to run away from bad publicity on their contracts? Are they trying to run away from the obligation to pay U.S. taxes? Or are they trying to set up a corporate presence in Dubai so that they can avoid the restrictions that currently exist on doing business with prohibited countries like Iran?”

* CBS: “Three out of four — 76 percent of — Americans do not think the Bush administration has done enough to care for these veterans. A majority of Republicans agree with all Americans overall on this issue.” They’re right.

* Sen. Tim Johnson’s (D-S.D.) office released public photos of the picture today, showing the lawmaker reading and making “encouraging and steady progress in his recovery.” Good news.

* You know, Drudge really shouldn’t be the assignment editor for the mainstream media.

* Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have unveiled a measure that would allow Al Gore to host a concert on the Capitol grounds to help raise awareness about global climate change.

* Bill O’Reilly compared progressive critics of Fox News hosting a Democratic presidential debate to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of information. Have you ever noticed just how often conservatives rely on equating their opponents with Nazis?

* Readers K.W. and D.P. alerted me to this very amusing clip that was making the MySpace rounds yesterday. It’s a parody of Coulter, Fox News, and conservative comedy in general.

* In related news, nine papers have now dropped Coulter’s column.

* And finally, Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s, the alleged “Washington Madam,” defense attorneys announced today that his client has reached an agreement with a media organization to turn over company records from her now-defunct escort service. As a result, some of the names of her clients will be revealed. Much of the DC establishment just got very nervous.

If these items aren’t of any interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Strongest signal so far that Warner’s stepping down in ’08.

  • You know, Drudge really shouldn’t be the assignment editor for the mainstream media.

    At the very least, couldn’t they fact check Drudge’s crap before they publish it?

  • I think people on all sides of the political spectrum sink to Nazi and Hitler references far too easily. As Jon Stewart said once on The Daily Show, Hitler worked long and hard to be that evil, it’s a disservice to his malevolence to toss around Nazi slurs and comparisons to him at the drop of a hat.

  • Wilhelm von Reill—the Fokks commentator most likely to point at you and scream “Nazi!” while proving that he’s more of a Nazi than most Nazis can even dream of being. every time I see that guy’s face or hear his name, the “Hoerst Wessel” starts playing in the background….

  • Damn I was thinking the same thing, Steve. Psychological projection. After looking thru the list of screencaps from JP yesterday, I can see why Loofa is so defensive.

  • If you wear a pro-Bush T-shirt to the Gore concert, will they rough you, cuff you, and bus you to a “free-speech” zone?
    No. That’s the difference between Democrats and those who fuck pigs.

  • One of the talking heads on KNX Radio (Los Angeles) speculated this morning that Fred Thompson’s presidential boomlet might really be an opening gambit in a bid to replace a resigned Dick Cheney. Then, after an indecently short interval, he announces for president with the clout of being an incumbent vice president. Sounds pretty Byzantine, I know, but I thought it was an interesting idea.

  • Bill O’Reilly compared progressive critics of Fox News hosting a Democratic presidential debate to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of information. Have you ever noticed just how often conservatives rely on equating their opponents with Nazis?

    In line with that, here is a comment Ann Coulter left at Larry Johnson’s blog “No Quarter” last night (the address has been verified as hers). This is certainly a demonstration that the Bimbette of Belsen is entirely illustrative of the rest of the permanent-12 year olds of the Right:

    I guess the piece about Fox and Crazy Propaganda touched a nerve with the rightwing nuts. I received the following comment by the highly respected Ann Coulter. It appears to be legit.

    Post title: FOX NEWS, Crazy Right Wing Propaganda
    Author: View all comments by this person
    IP Address: 71.202.20.91 View all comments from this IP address
    URL:
    Email: View all comments from this email address
    Status: Published

    Let’s make this a fair and balanced discussion, with a voice from the right:

    —
    Eat shit, you greasy pacifist hippies.

    I am sick to death of the ludicrous anti-American ravings of you pissed-off geeks. Do you really believe the rest of us don’t see right through your mental pathology? Your entire political philosophy boils down to this: “The cool kids picked on me in high school, and I can’t get over it. I hate America”

    You may not be worse than Hitler, but if anyone worse than Hitler ever comes along, he’ll be depending on idiots like yourselves to make this earth a safe place for him.

    If there were any justice in this world (and there isn’t, thanks in large part to you dictator-appeasing ubermorons), YOU would be considered legitimate “Targets of Opportunity” for every God-fearing American choosing to exercise his second amendment rights.
    —

    For those who might want to let Ann know what you think of her, the e-mail addres is:

    ann@anncoulter.com

  • * The president of Air America Radio this morning sent a letter to the chairmen of four state Republican parties, offering to host and broadcast the state parties’ upcoming presidential debates. “Should you accept Air America’s offer, Republicans would both embrace free debate and stick it to Stalin at the same time,” Air America President Mark Green wrote to the Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina Republican chairmen.

    Is that our version of Fox/Nevada dem presidential debates? I wish we had a *TV* outlet like Fox with someone like Green (and his sense of humour) at its head….

  • Tom — I don’t think I’ll take the time to send Coulter any emails, but, is it my imagination, or is she about ready for the rubber room and a large dose of Thorazine?

  • It’s certainly nice to hear a Republican speaking out against General Pace. But where are the Democrats? I mean, what good is it being a Democrat, if you’re not willing to stand up?

    Did any Democratic members of Congress have anything to say here? I just checked presidential websites and searched the news, but found no evidence that HIllary, Obama or Edwards were willing to disavow his words.

  • These latest U.S attorneys revelations show more than a White House determined to enforce loyalty to President Bush and entrench partisan Republican hatchet men throughout the DOJ’s ranks. Simply put, the Bush White House planned to systematically drive down the turnout of Democrats and independents at the ballot box through an unaccountable campaign against “voter fraud.” For the full story, see:
    “THE LINK: GOP Purging Prosecutors – and Voters.”

    For more on the White House connection and all the latest news, hearings, legal filings and other essential documents on the Bush DOJ prosecutor firings, see:
    “The U.S. Attorney Scandal Documents.”

  • Hey jurrasicpork, see what you started with your list of Fox screenshots? (See Tom Cleaver’s post #9) Ann Coulter now hates your guts! Jurrasicpork, you rock! When Ann personally hates you, that’s when you know you’re doing something right in life.

  • “Your entire political philosophy boils down to this: ‘The cool kids picked on me in high school, and I can’t get over it.’ ”

    that’s where she (and those like her) have it wrong. we didn’t consider that it was the cool kids that were picking on us, we thought it was asshole bullies who were picking on us. and some assholes never change.

  • BC, or it could be that Warner is looking at the changing demographics of his state…

  • Did anyone else catch the Preznit’s verbal gaffes yesterday. Not sure if it’s worth an entire CB post, but I thought this one was quite telling (from NPR this morning):

    “We welcome a free press — most of the time.”

    Most of the time?!

    This one was may seem like a mistake, but it matches reality pretty well:

    “The American people would have been incredibly proud of watching our military folks dispense with basic health care needs to people who needed help,” Bush said.

    There’s about 45 million Americans who can relate.

    **sigh** Only 677 more days until a grown up is back in charge …

  • “Your entire political philosophy boils down to this: ‘The cool kids picked on me in high school, and I can’t get over it.’ ” – Just Bill

    Seriously ?? Ann was cool ?? Rove was cool ?? O’Reilly was cool ?? No way Gonzo, Miers, and Rush were cool. And is this is your argument, the R party is the cool kids party and the D party is the non-cool party. That doesn’t make sense on at least 5 levels.

    I think the ‘cool’ kids pretty much got over themselves around 10th grade and the only ones left were the abused and neglected who were simply projecting their home lives onto the rest of us.

  • Swan:
    You ask if ‘we like Mark Green.’ As a New Yorker, I find it hard to answer that question, and we’ve had him around for 30 years. His heart is generally in the right place, but his head is another question. He’s run for various offices for years, and is usually great at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but when he did get elected — to what was previously called “City Council President” but then became a “Public Advocate” position — he definitely did do a good job at highlighting abuses. On the other hand, a lot of New Yorkers blame him for giving us Mayor Bloomberg. (He was running for the nomination against Freddie Ferrer, the Hispanic Bronx Borough President, and in the 2001 primary there was definite evidence of his campaign ‘playing the ethnic card,’ and he was very slow to denounce this. He won the primary, but a lot of Hispanics stayed home — and a lot of people he had previously annoyed did likewise — and we got Bloomberg — admittedly not a disaster.)

    In his current position, he might do a very good job, as long as he doesn’t get a recurrence of his ‘jones’ for running in elections.

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