Mini-report

September 27, 2006

Readers seem to like these quick hits, so, time permitting, I think I’ll keep this new daily feature. As with the last two editions, these are items that definitely deserve attention, but which I just didn’t get to today.

* MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann was the victim of a fake anthrax mailing to his home yesterday. The envelope, with a California postmark, included white powder and a note telling Olbermann that this was in response to his criticisms of the president. Breathtaking.

* On a related note, the fake anthrax mailing was apparently amusing to Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, which treated the terrorist incident as if it were little more than a joke. Also breathtaking.

* I’ve always loved Michael Kinsley, but his blog-bashing is sadly misplaced.

* I’m sorry, but MyTwinn.com is incredibly creepy.

* Sen. George Allen’s (R-Va.) racism problems — this time about shoving a severed deer head into a mailbox during an early-’70s hunting trip — seem to be metastasizing.

* If David Ignatius is going to argue, in print, at the Washington Post, that some war critics “are so angry at Bush they seem almost eager for America to lose, to prove a political point,” he should be prepared to back that up.

* I’m cautiously optimistic that Congress won’t pass a warrantless-search bill before wrapping up for the year. I wish I could say the same about the torture bill.

* Ken Starr spent $10 million a year on his Whitewater investigation. Patrick Fitzgerald has spent $1.4 million — spread out over three years.

* Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick is usually pretty mild-mannered. When it comes to the torture debate, she isn’t.

* Via email, reader L.M. is right, questions about air quality at Ground Zero after 9/11 deserve more attention.

* I love it when Dan Froomkin tears apart Bush’s straw-men arguments.

* Rumor has it that the Republicans will hold their national convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2008. Dems have reportedly narrowed their choices down to New York, Denver, and the Twin Cities.

* Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-Okla.) stupidity about global warming never ceases to amaze me.

If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Great feature, CB. Thanks.

I’m not sure I’m going to have time each evening to agonize over all these things though. 🙂

  • Sen. George Allen’s (R-Va.) racism problems — this time about shoving a severed deer head into a mailbox during an early-’70s hunting trip — seem to be metastasizing.

    The Poorman has one of the funniest lines ever on this subject. Noting some of the stupid excuses right-wingers have brought forth to clear Allen’s name, The Editors dropped this gem:

    maybe he took a part-time job delivering mail-order venison to minorities.

    Just when I think I’m funny, I realize I’m really not worthy.

  • I don’t think Kinsley’s bashing bloggers per se. I’d say he’s employing some crude imagery on page 1 to make a valid point on page 2: Newspapers can thrive on the internet (no dead trees to buy!), but they need to revisit their approaches to advertising and they shouldn’t be afraid of mixing fact, analysis, and commentary, like the British broadsheets.

  • About mytwinn.com: It reminds me of the cover of the first Blood, Sweat, and Tears album– Child Is Father to the Man. Great album, creepy-as-all-getout cover.

  • I’m only surprised that the ‘anthrax’ sent to Olbermann was fake. Considering how far the rethugs will go to silence their critics, I expect at the very least he’s going to wake up with a horse’s head next to him. The fact that I haven’t heard him slimed is eerie.

  • If David Ignatius is going to argue, in print, at the Washington Post, that some war critics “are so angry at Bush they seem almost eager for America to lose, to prove a political point,”

    Gaahh! My anger at Bush is because we’re losing! Who gave a crap about the guy until he decided to wreck the country.

    Whoa. I assumed that Ignatius was being intellectually honest and that he was merely ignorant. I forgot for a moment that there’s a reason commentators are okay saying X one day and not-X the next: they are paid members of the GOP ministry of propaganda. No point trying to make sense of them.

  • What a convenient argument: Hatred toward Pres. Bush is the motivating factor behind dissent. Never mind the disasterous results of his policies, never mind the loss of liberties we’ve witnessed under his Administration, never mind the poison he has allowed to seep upon our bodypolitik through Rovean Swiftboating excursions, and never mind the 16 intelligent agencies’ NIE that sheds light on the effects of Mr. Bush’s Iraq debacle. I for one do not hate Mr. Bush, but I do conclude that his efforts to do well for America have been assbackwards in their effects. As such, I have already decided to vote Democratic this November – not because I see the Democrats as anything special. It’s just that the Republicans have had since 1994 to make things better in this nation, and at this juncture it is plain to see they have missed their opportunity, and have now worn out their welcome as political leaders.
    I hope other Republicans than just myself are coming to the same conclusions.

    Vote the Rascals Out in ’06 and ’08! -Kevo

  • oh, and p.s. With the news that KO got a fake anthrax letter, it sure puts a whole in the mantra of fighting the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them here. As long as Mr. Bush monopolizes the imagery of Arabic terrorists as the only menace to our way of life, our home-grown terrorists will continue to get a kitchen pass from any kind of scrutiny. By the way, whatever became of the original anthrax investigation? -Kevo

  • I also like the mini reports. Just be sure they don’t simply become minis with no reports like Instapundit. Why is it exactly that people like that guy. There is no there there.

    As to Blogs, it is easy to understand why Kinsley is annoyed by people who contribute no (or very little) content and yet are always carping. It would piss me off.

    My answer is if he doesn’t like the heat, stay out of the kitchen. After all, newspapers, TV, radio and magazines still control the dialogue. Bloggers and the commentors simply critique it.

  • It was only a matter of time before Bush supporters turned to terrorist tactics (by that I mean Olbermann’s letter – and the fact that it was fake makes it no less of an act of terrorism) they are in many ways identical to the terrorists they say they are fighting. The list of examples is exhaustive.

    What’s with the interest in the Twin Cities for national conventions all of a sudden?

  • My guess is even the tourism board in the Twin Cities wouldn’t want both conventions there back-to-back. We got beat to that punch. So I say lets turn the R’s strategy back on them: Dems to Denver 2008.

  • ‘Want America to lose’? NO,

    • We’d like OUR LAWS to be followed.

    • We’d like War Crimes Trials for the Shitehouse Iraq Group.

    • We’d like our IMPEACHMENT rights back.

    • We’d like MASSIVE CIVILIAN REPARATIONS, paid in great part through a tax on windfall OIL PROFITS.

    • We’d like the renewal and expansion of Veteran Care to include the ELIMINATION of Veterans sleeping on the street, nationwide.

    • We’d like the United States to stop manufacturing and selling cluster bombs and half-strength Uranium (“DU”) munitions, switching to non-toxic Tungsten tips.

    • We’d like to see a FULL INVESTIGATION into Bush Administration dispersement of US funds.

    • We’d like to see a REAFFIRMATION of international war treaties and the UN Charter.

    • We’d like to see Henry Kissinger, and others who are known war criminals, put on trial over their crimes.

    We do NOT want America to lose wars. We want America to fight just wars. There is a huge difference between us and those who want America to win ILLEGAL wars or use ILLEGAL methods of war.M

  • I’m cautiously optimistic that Congress won’t pass a warrantless-search bill before wrapping up for the year. I wish I could say the same about the torture bill.

    It’s funny. Of the two egregious abuses of human rights and the Constitution, I’d almost prefer an invasion of privacy over torture and indiscriminate jailings.

    Hope Dems know when they accept the torture bill they’re giving Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, et al. a “Get out of Jail Free” card. The same bill has a provision that offers retroactive immunity to intelligence agents and elected officials accused of war crimes (like torture) committed during the “War on Terror.”

  • Ah…where to begin?

    It was only a matter of time before one of the rabid squirrels pulled something like the anthrax stunt on KO. After all—in a land where some dolt can open a “camp” for raising little martyrs for the Reich (Jesus Camp), packing off an envelope of white powder is simplistic. Speaking of that camp—has anyone taken into consideration that this is possibly a “terrorist camp?” I mean, if these kids were praying to a cardboard cutout of Ted Kennedy, the fundies would be screaming from on high for a terror alert!

    But, I digress. I’m certain that “Rude Rupert” wouldn’t mind getting an envelope of white powder. He’d find it hilarious—right?

    AAHHHHHHHHHHHH! Sorry—those mytwinn things made me think “Stepford siblings….”

    And, Inhofe needs to get another job. He’d be a perfect bad-guy in a Disney film. Come to think of it, he’d be a good pile of moose increment for “Brother Bear 3….”

  • Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-Okla.) stupidity about global warming never ceases to amaze me

    why “stupidity”? The guy is bought and paid for and is carrying the water and fighting the good fight for the petroleum industry which is huge in Oklahoma. So blame it on being greedy, or dishonest or intellectually dishonest, or callous, or short-sidedness or basically just being a whore – but doesn’t it do a disservice to routinely dismiss the forces of darkness as just plain stupid? I doubt that the guy is stupid. Evil maybe, but not stupid.

  • Dems to Denver 2008.

    Agreed. The West is the future of the Dem party. The sooner we claim it the better off we are in our current electoral system.

  • At least the Dems know when to filibuster something and when not to. Geneva Convention? Bah. Torture? Big Deal. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) knows what’s important. She’s going to filibuster this judge so that he doesn’t sit on the 9th Circuit because he’s…..not from California.

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1705958/posts

    Way to pick the big issues Babs.

  • Senator Boxer just introduced the bill to reimburse the printing costs of actual paper ballots to any state that offers them to voters who don’t trust the electronic machines. Prosaic as it may sound, it’s crucial legislation.

    It’s ‘free republic’ that has its readers focused on bs and propaganda for illegal wars.

    LOVE how you pretend to care about torture. Why don’t you FR eaks oppose YOUR OWN SENATORS, eh?

    They’re the ones facillitating the man who is destroying the republic and its freedoms.

  • On June 19, 2006, Senator Leahy said:

    “While I am pleased that the Senate will today confirm Ms. Ikuta to the Ninth Circuit, I note that President Bush has yet to nominate a single Asian-Pacific American candidate to any of the dozens of vacancies that have arisen on our federal circuit courts. Indeed, President Bush has nominated only one Asian-American candidate out of the hundreds of federal judicial nominees he has named overall. There are many, many qualified Asian-American attorneys and judges. There is no quota or requirement that the federal bench be diverse, but it is surprising that given the nominations he has had the opportunity to make, which are approaching 300, I can remember only a single Asian-Pacific American judicial nominee, and not one Asian-Pacific American appellate nominee. This lack of diversity in nominees is quite a contrast with the record of President Clinton, who appointed several Asian-Pacific nominees to the district and appellate courts. President Clinton appointed Judge Denny Chinn, Judge George H. King, Judge Anthony W. Ishii, and Judge Susan Oki Mollway to federal district courts in New York, California and Hawaii, and who elevated Judge A. Wallace Tashima to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The current President is more interested in naming White House insiders and ideologues. In fact, he has nominated more people associated with the Federalist Society than African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-Pacific American nominees combined.

    “With the retirement of Judge Tashima from the Ninth Circuit, there are no Asian-American circuit court judges.”

    http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200606/061906.html

    (bolding added)

  • If the Olberman anthrax letter had a return address from a cave in Pakistan with the initals OBL above it, would it constitute a new terror threat or would it still be consdered a joke? Today in Bailey, Colorado, a gunman took all the girls in a rural high school hostage, releasing most, save two, one of which is now dead. Sounds pretty terrifying to me. Where do we draw the line between terrorism and other lesser criminal actions?

    Gee, if only the MyTwinn could generate stem cells for the owner …

    CB – like the mini posts! I found out more in 1 minute than reading any other blog.

  • I’m cautiously optimistic that Congress won’t pass a warrantless-search bill before wrapping up for the year. I wish I could say the same about the torture bill. — CB

    The House voted 253-168 to approve legislation on military commissions that authorizes torture and strips detainees of the right to challenge their detention. Also voted down was a measure by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) which called for an expedited judicial review of the constitutionality of the commissions, and required the bill to be reauthorized in three years — Think Progress

    So there you have it… It’s a “done deal”; Torture With Abandon has passed and Bush and his like can now do as they please with *everyone*, including thee and me

    Now… could someone with ‘puter savvy point me to a place where I can check — by name and party affiliation — who had voted how? I’m compiling a Santa-like book (to check it twice) on this particularly repugnant subject

  • Considering the ever-more extreme tilt of right-wing rhetoric over the last 15 years, I’m surprised it took this long for some fascist fruitcake to go after an outspoken progressive like Olbermann. And I’m also surprised–and relieved–that it was evidently a hoax.

    Limbaugh, Coulter and the rest of the Bundists have been sowing this field for a long time. We’re in a sort of Cold Civil War in this country, and probably will be for a long time to come. I don’t know how we either marginalize those people or bring them back to sanity; I desperately wish I did.

  • Marginalize? A few ounces of JUSTICE will marginalize these people in two weeks.

    Sunlight will marginalize them.

    A new Fairness Doctrine will marginalize them.

    Anyhow, they ARE the marginal figures. They don’t have large audiences.

    As for the anthrax, educate yourself. We get SIX white supremacist terrorist plots A YEAR, going back decades. White supremacist and other hate groups have increased by 25% since the ‘terra-forming’ rightwingers got loose.

    All of that takes POLICE and FBI ACTION under a legal government restored to justice.

  • According to the NIE, Olbermann must have been attacked by “Anonymous” “Leftist” “Internet”-using terrorists.

    Time to confess, CB. Was it you?

  • Hey folks I have to stand up for my hometown here! The Twin Cities are in fact two cities and we have double the facilities. The reason the GOP is going to St. Paul is Norm Coleman. He was Mayor of St. Paul. They also need to keep his Senate Seat in 2008. I wouldn’t count our young governer Tim Paw-lenty out as a national figure in 2008 either.

    I for one would love to see the Dems pick Minneapolis and hold their convention right afterward. The funny thing is that St. Paul is not nearly as vibrant as Minneapolis. It does not have nearly enough hotels downtown near the Xcel Center. There are a bazillion hotels near the airport (about 10 minutes from downtown) in Bloomington. Only the GOP could hold a national convention in a major metropolitan area and select a venue that required nearly all of them to commute to the suburbs each night.

    I’m going to start filling paper bags up with dog poo now so I have enough by 2008.

    Oh, I like theMini-Report!

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