Wednesday’s Mini-Report

July 9, 2008

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Oh my: “At least six people were killed Wednesday after gunmen opened fire outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul. Several armed men attacked the police post at the consulate’s entrance at around 11 a.m. local time, Turkish television channels reported. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said that three police officers and three attackers were killed during the 15-minute shootout. At least one suspect was believed to remain at-large.”

* I’m quite certain the war in Iraq isn’t over: “At least 14 people were killed in bomb attacks on Wednesday, including a suicide bombing against an Iraqi general who escaped unharmed, the officer and security officials said. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car against the convoy of General Riyadh Jalal Tauffiq, the head of the security operations in Iraq’s main northern city of Mosul and its surrounding province of Nineveh.”

* In the wake of the FISA vote, the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are already planning to challenge the new legislation in court, presumably after Bush signs it into law.

* In dramatic fashion, Sen. Ted Kennedy returned to the Senate floor this afternoon, helped break a Republican filibuster, and helped pass long-stalled Medicare legislation. I needed a little good news today….

* Today’s message in Iraq doesn’t sound like yesterday’s message: “A deadline should be set for the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Iraq, and the pullout could be done by 2011, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday. Ali al-Dabbagh said any timetable would depend on “conditions and the circumstances that the country would be undergoing.” But he said a pullout within “three, four or five” years was possible. ‘It can be 2011 or 2012,’ al-Dabbagh said. (thanks to R.K. for the tip)

* In the latest example of the AP going out of its way to help John McCain’s presidential campaign, the wire service got the story about McCain’s “joke” on killing Iranians wildly wrong. Note to the AP: the interesting angle here had nothing to do with McCain’s wife.

* On a related note, it’s not just the AP. All kinds of media personalities came forward today to, of course, defend McCain and explain that his “joke” about killing Iranians shouldn’t be taken seriously. McCain’s “base,” in other words, remains very much intact.

* The White House nearly created an international incident by plagiarizing from a site called Encyclopedia of World Biography, and then neglecting to read the text it stole. Ugh.

* Congress is unpopular, but it’s not that unpopular.

* True: “Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) cannot win the presidency if the election becomes a referendum on President Bush, a prominent Republican lawmaker, Rep. Tom Davis (Va.), declared Wednesday. ‘If this is a referendum on Bush, then this race is over,’ Davis said on a conference call with reporters.”

* The McCain campaign is lying about Obama’s position on Iran. It must be a day that ends in “y.”

* Some necessary pushback against Fox News’ attacks against Michelle Obama.

* I enjoy all of the episodes of Bloggingheads.tv, but the latest, featuring Matt Yglesias and TNR’s Jamie Kirchik, was especially entertaining (especially when Matt pushed back against Kirchik’s talk about Obama “flip-flopping” on Iraq, which, of course, never happened).

* You may have noticed the odd, news-free New York Times Magazine cover story this week on Rush Limbaugh. What readers probably didn’t realize, though, is that the NYT inexplicably gave the assignment to Zev Chafets, a conservative who wants to defend the right-wing blowhard from the “liberal media.” (Call me crazy, but the fact that Chafets even wrote the piece for the NYT magazine helps prove that there is no liberal media.)

* Note to Pat Buchanan: If you don’t want people to think you’re a racist, don’t advertise your new book on a neo-Nazi talk show. Just a helpful hint.

* And speaking of racism, some Republicans in New Jersey are promoting a message that reads, “Obama loves America like OJ loved Nicole.”

* According to CBS News foreign correspondent Kimberly Dozier, Gen. David Petraeus “won’t let folks use words like ‘triumph’ or ‘victory’ or say ‘we’re winning.'” I wonder if McCain will get that message.

* Good for him: “L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he’d ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley. When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms.”

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

In the wake of the FISA vote, the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are already planning to challenge the new legislation in court, presumably after Bush signs it into law.

Good. They’ll be getting my donation money now.

As I said in the other thread, we have to rely on the RATS block (Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia) for sanity on this issue, which normally would seem crazy, but honestly, this bill is about limiting the power of a courts over the executive branch and I don’t really see that happening.

Of course it is far more likely they may be too idealogical to realize that or care.

  • Given the RATS minority opinion on Habeus rights, which also would have limited the power of the courts had they prevailed, don’t hold your breath on SCOTUS pulling us out of the fire on this one.

  • OK, When Kerry makes a joke about education and the military, he is nailed to a tree. When John “100 years” McSame makes a ‘joke’ about frying Iranians, or singing about ‘bombing Iran’, it’s all in good fun. Just kidding. Can’t you take a joke?! The biggest joke is the corporo-fascist media. What a crock! More and more people are simply tuning them out, and tuning into blogs, the BBC and Independent media that doesn’t have to worship the crap coming out of likes of people like Turdblossom and Stupert Murdock. Liberal media? Liberal-hating media is the actual term. Or RepubliCorp media, but Liberal? Please. The Orwellian labeling that goes on in this ReThugliCon controlled environment is just amazing. Stop watching channels that support this garbage. And shop blue!
    All they can see is money. All they care about is money. Let’s Stop giving it to them!

    from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/12/22/notes122204.DTL

    Do you care much that greasy ol’ Pizza Hut gave tens of thousands in PAC money to the GOP last year? How about the fact that Taco Bell stopped pumping out their happily toxic semirancid meatlike substances just long enough to write a fat check to the conservative Right? Isn’t that weirdly fascinating, in a depressing and indigestible sort of way?

    Does it matter a whit that, say, Fruit of the Loom underwear gave nearly 100 percent of its corporate donations to tighty-whitey-wearing Republicans, nearly every one of whom I’m guessing wouldn’t know appetizing undergarments from a flap of burlap and some string?

    Do you think maybe it should? Matter, that is?

    This is what happened: there was this list, see, a long and rather surprising list of major consumer corporations in America, and it detailed just how much money each company forked over to the respective political parties last year in political-action-committee (PAC) donations.

    Stop yawning. It gets better.

    And the list was a bit revelatory and interesting, as such lists are often wont to be, and the companies’ fiscal behavior might even surprise you a little, might even take you aback and make you reconsider your consumerist options, especially the part about how Amazon.com gave 60 percent of their donations to the GOP and except maybe for the part about how Coors Brewing gave almost every penny of their donations to Republicans in a concerted effort to, presumably, stop them icky Colorado gays from getting married and keep women in their place, all while furthering the cause of skanky undrinkable pisswater beer made for red-blooded Americans who lack taste buds and hope.

  • If I’ve learned anything in law school, it’s not to rely on the sound judgment of Anthony “Chickenshit” Kennedy.

  • Note to Pat Buchanan: If you don’t want people to think you’re a racist, don’t advertise your new book on a neo-Nazi talk show. Just a helpful hint.

    His new book is based on the idea that England was responsible for WWII because they didn’t appease Hitler enough. It seems like a natural venue to me, but then I don’t see any way that Buchanan isn’t a racist. I have no clue why MSNBC keeps him around either.

  • McCain? I liked the NPR report today that puts Florida a whole lot closer to the Democrats. Compare the two guys with the white hair, Kennedy and McCain. It was Kennedy who got hero treatment today. Hard to take McCain seriously. He’s looking more and more like a crumpled paper bag with a tuft or two of limp white stuff peeking out the top. Ick.

  • from driftglass:…”…The inhabitants of Stephanopoulos’ world will never come within a million miles of even forming their mouths to say the words “Jesse Helms was a despicable, racist motherfucker who stayed in power for as long as he did because his supporters and admirers were and are despicable, racist motherfuckers, one and all.”

    Instead, the inhabitants of Stephanopoulos’ world believe that on the occasion of the death of this evil man we should toddle down to the Piggly Wiggly and buy some brand of Kiwi shoe polish powerful enough, to buff this turd of a human being to a shine high enough, so that he can be buried under a gooey, compromise word like “Controversial” or “Provocative”….”

    Yet all the major conservatives praised his service…one after another…the bigots celebrate their bigotry.

  • I guess now we know why Senators don’t usually become Presidents. Now we’re going to have a member of possibly the worst Democratic-controlled congress, the 2006, or The Fighting One Ten if you prefer, be the President. Obama has some soul-searching to do.

  • They can challenge fisa all they want – it will be essentially the same cabal in the SCOTUS that create the coup detat in 2000 that decides the case. If you think they are going to overrule this, you are nuts (and don’t fool yourself for a moment that the habeus corpus ruling somehow indicates otherwise).

    Even worse, that lying scum obama isn’t gonna put anyone on the court that will change that – HE VOTED YES (despite promises to filibuster immunity last year, when he was a “nobody” running for president).

    It is time for meaningful action – that means not supporting obama or the corpocracy that he answers to – course after flaming and slandering Hillary for months here at CBR, this won’t be were we will see any meaningful action.

    obama has lost the support of millions – he has shown his true character – or more accurately, lack thereof.

    He is not about “change” or “yes we can.” He is a slick talkin’ panderin’ politician that is positioning himself to reap the financial rewards of being bush’s third term.

    Hold on to your wallet if he wins – vote for anybody but obama.

    Can Hillary somehow contest and defeat him at the convention?

  • So—how ’bout those “liberal-media” networks, arguing that they can’t afford the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” it’ll cost to cover Obama’s stadium speech in Denver? At what they get for advertising airtime, they can’t find someone who’ll take out a lousy 5 second’s-worth of PSA?

  • All kinds of media personalities came forward today to, of course, defend McCain and explain that his “joke” about killing Iranians shouldn’t be taken seriously.

    That’s nice in a sprinkly donutty kind of way…

    Any word from these media personalities on why McCain couldn’t be bothered to show up for the FISA bill vote? A bill which the terrorist-hating republicans and the terrorist-hating media considers essential in the war on terrorism?

    Does McCain care about protecting America? At all? A little?
    Or is he too busy eating donuts with sprinkles on top?
    WTF?

    I will take my answer off the air…
    Waiting…
    Waiting…
    Waiting…
    Waiting…

    Drumming my fingers…

  • steve – there is no reason for obama to do his nomination speech in a football stadium – it is an irresponsible waste of money. Even worse, he essentially “stole” the nominee by misrepresenting his candidacy as about “change” and “yes we can” when he is really just another corporate shill.

    I hope he gets pounded mercilessly on the stadium speech – though it would be even better to see a fight on the convention floor to prevent him from getting the nominee because he lied to win it – just another sold-out politician.

    Hope he gets pounded until november on it – also hope millions of Americans will vote for anyone but obama!

  • art, it’s “the nomination”, not “the nominee”, which would be the person.

    Millions of Americans will vote for someone other than Obama, so you get your wish there. Unfortunately for you, more millions will vote for him. 🙁

  • Art, did your hero McCain vote “No” on FISA? -LB

    I got the impression Hillary was art’s hero, and in that case, she did vote nay.

  • So we are back to a 1 issue election?
    Obama has disappointed us, so we let the Bush cabal have another 4 years & how many more Supremes?
    No, I don’t think so.
    Voting is both for and against. I’m voting against Bush-Cheney-McCain.
    Obama’s just another politician, too bad, he’s better than the rancid shit-boils that have been in carge since 2000.

  • Mmmm, art, you sound soooooo familiar. Haven’t we met before when you had a different name?

  • One of our big national problems is what we settle for in the way of drama, e.g.:
    “* In dramatic fashion, Sen. Ted Kennedy returned to the Senate floor this afternoon, helped break a Republican filibuster, and helped pass long-stalled Medicare legislation. I needed a little good news today….”

    Me? As far as ‘drama’ goes, that’s pretty weak gruel.

    Drama? Here’s “Drama”

    * In dramatic fashion, Sen. Ted Kennedy returned to the Senate floor this afternoon, and decapitated Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell with one blow of his scimitar and waving the still-pumping head above his head, rallied his partisans to pass long-stalled Medicare legislation. I needed a little good news today….

  • obama is worse than the rancid sh#t-boils – but don’t take my word for it – talk to people in chicago about Obama’s Shameful Housing Record

    Must-see video for those that think obama is anything other than a corporate shill. Keep pretending that he stands for something now, you will regret it later.

    Dr. King, who was mercilessly hounded and spied on by the federal government must be rolling in his grave.

    The first African American presidential nominee agrees with richard nixon, “if the president says it’s legal, then it is legal.”

    Shameful – when it comes to action, obama stands for nothing bush or mccain – bought and paid for by the same interests.

  • LOL maria – you mean anyone that isn’t a parroting the same lines, marching lockstep, and participating in the echo chamber doesn’t belong here? Hey, you are gonna love the facism! I can see obama won’t disappoint you and you can pretend that its all because of YOU!

  • No, art, that’s not what I mean. But since you mention it, you and this other person misspell all the same words and make all the same punctuation errors. Do keep talking.

  • I hope he gets pounded mercilessly on the stadium speech

    Gosh the masses are getting nervous :))

  • LOL – so maria is a grammar cop, a little nobody that has nothing to do but pick on other people because they don’t have anal fixations on spelling and little rules of punctuation that you make up (hey moron, read an english text – a great deal of latitude exists, much punctuation is actually at the discretion of the writer).

    Little minds think alike (barely thinking at all) – you have found your home here maria!

    Say, who did appoint you little miss grammar for the day?

  • Say what you want about helm, but he couldn’t get away with this:

    So what do ya know – obama ACTUALLY IS a lying liar. Maybe Larry Sinclair was right?

    Certainly obama’s integrity took a big hit today – his campaign staff has lied about his position (and effect) of his support for telecom immunity for more than 2 weeks now.

    WHAT ELSE ARE THEY LYING ABOUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

  • No more money for Democrats. ACLU gets my money now. Hell with them. Right now, voting for Dems is pretty much the same as voting for Republicans. I see no difference.

  • Grrrreat job there gttim. The ACLU will be smashed like a blind gnat when McCain gets in but please feel free to fund their demise as you see fit.

    Will you also promise to move to France when he wins? Maybe we could actually get a winner when all you lame ass losers move the fuck out.

  • who did appoint you little miss grammar for the day?

    Honey, I don’t care how atrociously you write; the point (snapping fingers in front of your eyes–focus! Focus!) is that you do it so exactly like your doppelganger. Mmmmmmmyeah.

    WHAT ELSE ARE THEY LYING ABOUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

    You mean you haven’t figured it out yet? They’re not really going to get a dog in the White House.

  • Hullabaloo has quantified it:

    But that has come with a price worth noting. Not surprising is the drop in intense positives among liberals, liberal Democrats and white young voters, as we can see in the graph below. More worrisome is the broader drop in intense responses on key attributes –”on your side” (describes “very well” dropped from 27 to 21 percent), “strong leader” (dropped from 31 to 26 percent), and “will bring the right kind of change” (dropped from 28 to 24 percent). Overall, only 51 percent say Obama is “on your side” (down 4 points) and only 52 percent say he will “will bring the right kind of change” (unchanged). Obama seems to have lost some definition in this transition, and he has only just begun to articulate the change in ways that engage voters.

  • Glenzilla once talked about what was different about 2006 DemCongs than earlier Republican congresses. Now I guess we know. Even Republicans wouldn’t give Bush this deal. It took cowardly Democratic leaders.

  • How about the fact that Taco Bell stopped pumping out their happily toxic semirancid meatlike substances just long enough to write a fat check to the conservative Right? Isn’t that weirdly fascinating, in a depressing and indigestible sort of way?

    Not to mention that Taco Bell, like Kentucky Fried Chicen (both owned by Yum Foods) are the only two fast-food companies that will not sign an ethical treatment of animals in the food chain agreement (as Mickey Ds, Wendys, Carls Jr and Burger King all have).

    So be sure to go enjoy a nice meal at a Yum Foods restaurant, where the chickens are killed by having their heads stomped on. Hey, it’s “Republican food.”

  • rt (#10) said: Can Hillary somehow contest and defeat him at the convention?

    Nice to see another Hillarybot who slept through American Government in high school.

    Can you somehow get a brain, art????

  • “Harvey Rabbit” – a large fantastic being that doesn’t actually exist.

    Nice to see the Hillarybots still have their heads planted firmly up their ass.

    Better Hillarybots, please! It’s too easy to see the lack of frontal lobes and opposable thumbs on this bunch.

  • Our little ms grammar has just proven to the world how ignorant she is of fundamental writing conventions by sitting on the sidelines taking snipes at those that don’t meet her ego-driven (and largely imagined) for “standards” bloggin’.

    What a joke – as an english teacher, I can share with you that there are different styles of writing. Each has a purpose and is intended for a given audience.

    Damn – would hate to even think about what you would have to say about text messaging and other ways people express themselves with the written word. I imagine you hate all poets too, because they invariably bend grammar rules to fit their purpose and prose.

    Of course, my experience is that pseudo-intellectuals like maria can rattle off any number of authors of various genres to “prove” that they really are part of an elite clique. Only the great get to bend your rigid standards and expectations, right?

    Perhaps it stokes the out-of-control self-importance of some here to imagine that a political comment board is somehow a formal essay or published technical work and only those that take the time to follow carefully follow prescribed conventions are worthy of posting their thoughts.

    Get a life, idiot, and quit showing the world how ignorant you are of living English and the different ways it is used to communicate across different and often diverse audiences.

  • But george bush said the constitution was just a “god-damn piece of paper.”

    That is what I taught my students at University of Chicago Law School and that when the charmin is gone, the parchment the founding fathers left us provides adequate @sswipe.

    Now that I have the nomination wrapped up – you damn liberals and progressives can just shut up.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    I sure had you fooled! EEEEEEDIOOOOOOOOOOOTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

    Now I can rake in the big corporate bucks and you can’t touch me cuz we just passed a law that says, “IF THE PRESIDENT SAYS IT IS NOT AGAINST THE LAW, THEN IT IS LEGAL!”

    BWAH HA HA HA BWAH HA HA HA BWAH HA HA HA BWAH HA HA HA BWAH HA HA HA BWAH HA HA HA BWAH HA HA HA BWAH HA HA HA

    And you fools believed all that crap you saw on youtube?

    HARDEE HAR HAR HAR – Your killin’ me – stop it and just SHUT UP AND VOTE FOR ME!

  • “site promotion” = “insidiously poor spelling” = “spam” = “failed miserably at Troll School.”

  • I don’t see why people have a problem with the Obama-as-OJ sign. I mean, OJ and Nicole were married for years, had a couple great kids, and then when she was murdered he devoted his every waking moment to finding the real killers.

    It’s not like he killed her. I mean, he was found not guilty, people.

  • Wilco, did you see that Obama’s doing a fundraiser with Tweedy in Chicago tomorrow night?

  • My goodness English Teacher! Grammar may be your strong suit, but reading comprehension certainly is not. The point of the “typos” and “punctuation” comment was not a critique of the writing style, but a bit of evidence pointing to the fact that the two posters may actually be one-in-the-same. I didn’t read any words in there that called the posters idiots or stupid, only that the writing styles were very similar.

    Its best just to let anger go. Take a deep breath, comprehend the point of the post and move on.

  • methinks “english teacher” doth protest too much. Maria, I think your detective work has turned up another identity for the same commenter!

  • I can’t stand Pat Buchanon as a politician or any of his positions, but I do think he is a great comentator for MSNBC. He gives great insight to what republicans are thinking and why they do what they do and how they will act or react in different situations. And he tells you the reasons without pure spin, which is how I want to hear it. He definitely has his place there.

  • Doh! I get it now.

    The Trolling Award du jour goes to “little bear”, now back with a vengeance.

    LB it was the “lying liar” part that gave you away. Oh, and that hideous cap-lock screeching. Change your name all you wish – you’re still a jerk in five languages.

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