Tuesday’s Mini-Report

July 10, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* According to Larry Flynt, Hustler magazine was behind the Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) revelations, following a “multi-pronged investigation launched” by the porn mogul.

* Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy heard about Alberto Gonzales’ latest trouble with the truth and he’s not happy: “This inconsistency is a disturbing addition to a growing list of misleading answers by the attorney general to questions from the Judiciary Committee, and it is unacceptable,” Leahy announced. “I intend to pursue this matter with the attorney general prior to his appearance before the Judiciary Committee later this month.”

* Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) helped launch the U.S. Attorney scandal by pushing David Iglesias to file trumped up criminal charges against Democrats. Now, he’s tired of the controversy. Asked today if he’d be willing to testify about the matter, Domenici said, “I wouldn’t testify unless I am supposed to under our rules or unless I have to. From my standpoint, I’m not going to talk about it because I want mine over with, if six senators can pass on it.”

* TPMM: “Former White House counsel Harriet Miers will comply with the president’s assertion of executive privilege, her lawyer wrote the House Judiciary Committee yesterday. Nevertheless, Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) have asked Miers to appear anyway.”

* Kevin Drum has the latest in a series of excellent posts about selling universal, national healthcare to the country. (Aside from insurance company execs and Republican presidential hopefuls, I’m hard pressed to understand who would disagree and why.)

* Do you know who’s an articulate advocate of troop withdrawal? John McCain — at least when he’s talking about bringing democracy to Haiti.

* When Bill O’Reilly recommends turning responsibility for Iraq over to Iraqis, he’s a patriot. When the New York Times editorial board recommends the same thing, they’re terrorist sympathizers.

* House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) now believes Bush’s surge plan deserves “ample time to succeed,” and those who disagree are not acting in the “best interests of our troops or the security of our country.” He was singing a different tune in January.

* Remember Judge Janet Neff, a Bush judicial nominee blocked by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) because she had a gay friend as a neighbor? The Senate finally voted to confirm her yesterday, 83 to 4. But before the vote, Brownback took one last chance to lie about Neff’s record, and repeat demonstrably false claims. For the record, the four lunatics were Brownback, Bunning (R-KY), Kyl (R-AZ), and Martinez (R-FL).

* Rudy Giuliani on healthcare: “Look what happens with televisions. At first they are really expensive and they have some flaws, but eventually they come down in price, more people can afford them, and they are of higher quality. That is how markets work.” The poor guy just isn’t very smart.

* David Brooks doesn’t realize that Pink and Avril Lavigne are both married. Maybe he should have Wiki’d them before writing about them?

* It’s hard to overstate how tiresome Joe Lieberman has become.

* AEI neocon Fred Kagan, one of the principal architects of Bush’s surge strategy, defended his work yesterday: “The worst that can be said of [the escalation] at this point is that the results have been mixed. I frankly think the results are less mixed…We can argue about statistics, but at the end of the day, that argument is not going to get us anywhere right now…. Whatever you can say about the current strategy, it has not failed.” Presumbly, the “statistics” he referred to were U.S. casualties.

* And finally, 14 Springfields were competing for the right to be the “official” hometown of The Simpsons, including hosting the premiere of “The Simpsons Movie” on July 26th. The winner of the contest was … the Springfield in my adopted home state of Vermont (population 9,300, the smallest of the competing Springfields). “This is an exciting, exhilarating moment for Vermonters,” Gov. Jim Douglas (R) said. “Perhaps more importantly, it proves there’s really nothing a giant doughnut can’t do. To all the other Springfields, I say, ‘Don’t have a cow, man.'”

Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

According to Larry Flynt, Hustler magazine was behind the Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) revelations, following a “multi-pronged investigation launched” by the porn mogul.

Let’s hear it for public-spirited muckraking!

  • Nevertheless, Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) have asked Miers to appear anyway.”

    Not just asked, compelled. What’s the penalty for violating a subpoena order? What’s the penalty for attempting to coersce someone into violating a subpoena order? Does the Congress have any power to enforce those penalties against a rogue regime?

  • If Bush refuses to fire Gonzalez, Congress should refuse to fund DOJ. We’ll see who stands down.

  • The Springfield in The Simpsons is nota town in Vermont. It’s a town in Illinois. Duh. I mean, D’oh!

  • And finally, 14 Springfields were competing for the right to be the “official” hometown of The Simpsons, including hosting the premiere of “The Simpsons Movie” on July 26th. The winner of the contest was … the Springfield in my adopted home state of Vermont (population 9,300, the smallest of the competing Springfields). “This is an exciting, exhilarating moment for Vermonters,” Gov. Jim Douglas (R) said. “Perhaps more importantly, it proves there’s really nothing a giant doughnut can’t do. To all the other Springfields, I say, ‘Don’t have a cow, man.’”

    D’oh! Springfield, OR is the original Springfield. We’re Matt Groening’s home! We should have won!!!

    :'(

  • Re: #5: Pssh! Everyone knows Springfield has a port and therefore must be on the coast. Springfield, Oregon!

  • Kagan: “Whatever you can say about the current strategy, it has not failed.”

    I’m not convinced that the “statistics” he brushes aside so easily are necessarily U.S. casualties, but that’s not the point: he’s moving the goalposts and reframing the debate. It’s beyond reasonable debate that, at the time the surge was adopted, it was done so on the understanding that the Iraq government would have to show measurable progress, including the achievement of several specific benchmarks. By framing the issue in terms of whether the surge has “failed,” Kagan gets people to forget about those benchmarks, and argue about the “statistics” – which were never part of the benchmarks in the first instance.

  • Everyone knows Springfield has a port and therefore must be on the coast.

    That “port” is on Lake Springfield and it’s really more like a marina.

    Details, details. Yeesh. OK, but it’s not,/b> in Verfrikinmont!

  • There’s a Mt. Springfield in Illiniois?

    Slag heap. ‘Bout 10 miles north of town. It’s HUGE!

  • Rudy on my TeeVee!

    Yes! my first big TeeVee cost $549.00 and then it was without the benefit of high channel numbers for cable and my next TeeVee was smaller and cost $449.00 and got more channels for cable and now my new TeeVee cost $2000.00, it costs way more and the HD cable costs way more and there’s still nuthin’ on TeeVee – it’s the same ol crap.

  • (Aside from insurance company execs and Republican presidential hopefuls, I’m hard pressed to understand who would disagree and why.)

    The very wealthy who a) have just fine access to great healthcare and b) don’t want to pay any taxes much less more taxes to help pay for covering people who are not covered. That it might actually cost less and thus not need additional taxes is not an argument that they are open to. Greed and fear are what rule this people. In this case, greed is the main reason for their opposition.

  • There’s so much lunacy and outrageousness in these articles, CB, that I’m simply speechless. I hope you realize that a lot more of us appreciate your work who don’t always comment. I find that a lot of times I’ll start a post, but then by the time I go back and eliminate the expletives there’s just too little left to be worth posting.

  • The party that voted for Commander Codpiece after the 2003 Mission Accomplished charade will happily vote for the Hero of 9/11.

  • So about a week ago I mentioned a guy who went up 10000 feet in the air on a lawnchair attached to a bunch of balloons. Some local guy just did it again, and apparantly traveled 100 miles, almost to the Idaho border! It made the Oregonian today so if you have access to one look it up, or otherwise you can try http://www.oregonlive.com

  • Giuliani has a problem with making health care comparisons. Before comparing health care to buying a television he compared it to fixing a house or car. Then there’s his eroneous claim that the Democratic proposals are socialized medicine.

    I have a post on Giuliani’s health care comparisons at Liberal Values:

    http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=1809

  • “This inconsistency is a disturbing addition to a growing list of misleading answers by the attorney genera […] Leahy announced.

    What inconsistency? Abou has been lying, *very consistently*, every time he opened his mouth.

  • Ah… the power of the purse… From Think Progress:

    Senate panel cuts off funds for Cheney’s office. AP reports:

    A Senate appropriations panel chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., refused to fund $4.8 million in the vice president’s budget until Cheney’s office complies with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information.

    At issue is a requirement that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. That information is to be provided to the Information Security Oversight Office at The National Archives.

    Cheney’s office, with backing from the White House, argues that the offices of the president and vice president are exempt from the order because they are not executive branch ”agencies.”

    The funding cut came as the appropriations panel approved 5-4 along party lines a measure funding White House operations, the Treasury Department and many smaller agencies.

  • This is very disturbing and powerful writing on Iraq…

    On so many different levels.

    Guaranteed: You won’t be able to put that narative down.
    Guaranteed: It will change you.

  • smiley @ #10 – That “port” is on Lake Springfield and it’s really more like a marina.

    Another CB reader in Missouri?

    I don’t care that my Springfield wasn’t chosen for the Simpsons premiere, but I am wondering why one of the local theatre chains changed their minds about showing SiCKO.

  • Rudy Giuliani: “Look what happens with televisions. At first they are really expensive and they have some flaws, but eventually they come down in price, more people can afford them, and they are of higher quality. That is how markets work.”

    Rudy hasn’t noticed yet, but the market for war is broken. It’s been more than 4 years, but the quality of our Iraq war effort hasn’t exactly improved. Nor has the price come down. , and the quality of our Afghanistan war effort

  • Think Progress is also reporting that Jerrold Nadler has called for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to look into the case that Alberto Gonzales provided false statements to Congress.

    About damn time, but wonder what the chances are that it will happen.

  • libra: Here’s hoping the D’s stick to their guns this time. Looks like it’s also time for another email/phone call to my congressmen to tell them to do so!

  • For the Bush administration, the marketing of the “surge” in Iraq more and more looks like an ad for a Hollywood flop. In this case, the box office numbers are in and the film is a dismal failure. And yet a small but reliable group of friendly critics continues to offer rave reviews for “Iraq: The Surge.”

    For the details, see:
    “Iraq Surge Wins Rave Reviews.”

  • GG, @28

    yes, let’s hope (despite previous experience). Just how difficult can it be to say “no honey, no money”? Alloting money for something may need 66 votes; *stopping* the cash flow doesn’t…

  • Here’s the link to the article libra mentions.

    Popcorn anyone?

    Oh and Taylor and Miers are planting their heels. Now, here’s my question. Does this mean (in theory) that a president could prevent former employees from giving interviews, writing books etc, by throwing the EP blanket over them?

  • Rudy’s right. (Even a monkey throwing darts hits a bullseye once in a while.)

    Open heart surgery, routine today. Unheard of (and utterly unaffordable) when I was growing up.

    CAT scan 1990 (Ka-CHING!)
    Cat Scan today (they’re advertising whole room MRI on radio to plain joes listening to shock jocks.

    Problem is, Americans think we should get wowser state of the art for everybody. Result? Some do at the cost of excluding those who can’t afford insurance or don’t know how to fight their insurance company. The ones most likely to get these cutting edge measures are the ones who think there’s no problem. They get their top flight medicine largely on the back of the taxpayer.

    I’m insured, I can probably figure out how to get that great cutting edge stuff… I still know it’s wrong even though I’m one of the guys who might benefit from this rigged game.

    We need a president who’ll expand Medicare to everyone and leave the cutting edge stuff to private insurance. It’ll cost about half what it does, but cover very little. If our taxes will go up slightly, but no one is spreading antibiotic resistant TB because the wait at the emergency room was eight hours, does any sane person object?

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