Tuesday’s mini-report

October 10, 2006

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* James Steinberg, Bill Clinton’s deputy national security adviser and now dean of the Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, was spot-on arguing that the North Korea crisis should prompt people to repeat Ronald Reagan’s most famous 1980 campaign line — “With respect to the axis of evil,” Steinberg said, “are you better off today than you were four years ago? . . . It’s clear that the answer is we’re worse off with respect to the nuclear proliferation problem in both North Korea and Iran than four to six years ago, and I would argue we’re worse off in our overall security because of the situation in Iraq.”

* Did Reuters really fire an editor for writing a book critical of Ann Coulter? It sure looks like it.

* Remember Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham? The disgraced lawmaker who was exposed as a corrupt and greedy criminal? He apparently has written a very angry letter to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the paper which helped send him to jail.

* Bush whined today that Dems will raise everyone’s taxes. The comments drew widespread yawns.

* Right-wing lunatic Michael Savage has declared that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is a “traitor” who “should be tried for treason, and when she’s found guilty, she should be hung.” Because this is fairly routine rhetoric for conservative talk-show hosts, there will be no consequences.

* Speaking of conservative talk-show hosts, Bill O’Reilly thinks the Foley scandal is much ado about nothing. He thinks, however, that it’s better to start talking about celebrity abortions.

* If you haven’t seen Sherrod Brown’s new campaign ad in Ohio, you should definitely take a look.

* Rick Santorum believes that anything that happens, anywhere, is proof of how we need to go to war against Iran. (thanks to Rege for the heads-up on this one)

* Former House clerk Jeff Trandahl will spill the beans tomorrow, telling the House Ethics Committee what he knows about the Foley scandal. He will not, however, be sharing his insights with the media.

* Rupert Murdoch, closet liberal?

* Good idea: let Lieberman make the case against Lieberman.

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

“__________ is not my fault, because I didn’t do anything.” GWB

a) North Korea
b) Katrina
c) Global Warming
d) Osama bin Laden
e) Abu Gihrab

  • As reportedover at Washington Monthly/Political Animal, Marine Col. Pete Devlin, the intelligence officer who declared last month that Anbar province was lost politically has written home and on his list of various things he has this:

    Bill O’Reilly – biggest buffoon ever

    That’s really the right term for that halfwitted blowhard. I just love how O’Reilly, Bill Donohue, and all the other Professional Irish Morons are living proof that the English slurs against the Irish do have some basis in reality.

  • So what would you call an admin that did the following?
    1) Out a covert agent working in nuclear proliferation because they have a hardon for her husband?
    2) Get into a war that drains the treasury causing them to own major bucks to one of their economic rivals.
    3) Lie to get into a war
    4) Divert military resources away from getting the man who lit the powder keg to attack the wrong country.
    5) Lie at the mention of every disaster
    6) Hire political flunkies who screw up everything they touch
    7) Allow poltiical buddies to loot the treasury.

  • Rick Santorum believes that anything that happens, anywhere, is proof of how we need to go to war against Iran.

    OK Ricky, you suit up and head on out there. We’ll wait here and plan the funeral. Dan Savage will give your eulogy. Right-minded people from all walks of life will queue up to empty their bladders on your grave, which will be marked with the biggest rainbow flag we can find. We’ll use your spinning corpse to light Pittsburgh for a year. No offense to the fine people of the lovely state of Pennsylvania, but what the fuck were you thinking?

    Rupert Murdoch, closet liberal?

    Well, he did send his daughter to that hot bed of free thinking in Poughkeepsie. I think he’s just another rich manipulative bastard who likes to say he’s having lunch with this or that famous person. I hope both Clintons washed thoroughly after touching the man.

  • Lesson number one: never, ever, leave the source of info (‘puter) for more than 24 hrs during a political campaign…

    My last contact with the civilized world of blogging was on Thursday night. I come back on Tuesday afternoon and not only am I knee-deep in backlog, but I find that everyone has taken their gloves off; even CB… What a discovery (suitable for the Columbus Day weekend?)! Oy, vey…

    PS. Drove all the way from Ithaca (NY) to Lexington (VA) on 79 and I-81, noticing signs and recognizing the names on them (impressed my car-mate no end ). Nothing much in NY state — seemed like they decided “pox on both your houses” and are staying home, or, at least, not advertsing their preferences.

    PA is *very* involved; signs all over the place, and Dems seem to be creaming Repubs at least 2:1. One — semi-detached — house merited special notice (unfortunately, I was driving, and the camera was in the trunk of the car); one half of the garden was thickly “planted” with the Repub signs and the other with the Dem ones. One can’t help but wonder how the neighbors get along. And — something to pass on to DH — it saves on lawn-mowing/raking; there was no room for a lawn-mower to enter on either half.

    Couldn’t see anything on the short bits of I-81 which took me thru MD (10 miles) and WVA (ca 20 miles) but, on the VA stretch, the few signs that were visible were all devoted to Allen; rather dispiriting.

    PPS Overnighted in Carlisle (PA), having started from Ithaca fairly late in the day (3PM) and, as breakfast this morning, got Fox News with my stale bagel and (decent) orange juice. So now I know what everyone has been complaining about. Y’all have not been complaining enough! IMO. And that was just news, not a commentary…

  • “are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

    This question always cuts against incumbents when you’re dealing with subjects like the economy, crime, or foreign enemies, over which politicians have little direct influence. That doesn’t stop them from getting blamed, though. They can only cross their fingers and hope for the best, come election year (though Al Gore can tell you “the best” ain’t enough).

    Right-wing lunatic Michael Savage has declared that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is a “traitor” who “should be tried for treason, and when she’s found guilty, she should be hung.”

    What a retard. First, it’s “hanged,” not “hung,” when referring to executions. Second, federal prisoners are executed by lethal injection, not hanging. Honestly, who would allow such irresponsible comments on the airwaves??

  • Open thread?

    Otay…

    One Good Move has a 10.5 minute interview with Richard Dawkins that is simply brilliant.

    Here is one transcirption:

    “Faith means believing something without evidence.
    And if you believe something without evidence and you’ve been brought up to think that belief without evidence is somehow supremely virtuous, and you don’t have to justify your belief you just have to say “that’s my faith don’t question it,” that’s a recipe for danger.”

    Dawkins is in this enviable position:

    He is smart, fair, and human.
    Every fundamentalist of every ilk on Earth wants to bury a dagger in his back.

  • From the beginning:

    First, it’s an evil omen for the GOP when Dems can invoke the Great ReaganGod as a weapon with which to smite those dastardly philistine-neocons. I can see ol’ Ronnie now, looking down upon Herr Bush and his minions, muttering “there you go again,” and siccing Bonzo on ’em….

    Next, I’ll do my bit for Joe M. I’ll put a copy of that book in every public library and high school library in this county—and I’ll get two copies for Kent State’s Ashtabula campus library. Take that, Coultergeist!

    Mike “the piker” Savage? That spewmeister’s worth a bullet [*wadcutter*]—no trial; no “jury of his peers” [*roadkill*]; just a bullet [*incendiary*]—but only if the coroner gives it [*dipped-in-poison*] back to “whoever” after the autopsy. Those things [*suspicious-white-powder*] cost money, y’know; and it [*radioactive-isotope*] could always be “recycled,” since the subject of “other uberschweinen whacko-zoids” [*fascist-neocon-enemies-of-the-republic*] is being mentioned….

  • Bush said with a straight face: “The Democrats’ approach to cutting the deficit is taking more of your money to pay for their spending,” he said. “The Republican approach is to restrain spending.”

    Who’s the leader in creating the largest federal budget deficits–ever? Between tax cuts for the rich and pork barrel spending for all of those back-water red states, Ol’ Georgie is full of shit.

    If you’re looking for a unique real estate investment, Alaska will soon have a bridge to nowhere. (snark)

  • Rupert Murdoch, closet liberal?

    No. Rupert Murdoch believes in one and only one principle : “Rupert Murdoch”.

  • * If you haven’t seen Sherrod Brown’s new campaign ad in Ohio, you should definitely take a look.

    Brilliant. Hard hitting. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. More of this for Dem candidates, please. Yo, Ford team, you see this? Hey Lamont, love the promises, ad–keep it up!

    Weber team…hey! You there?! You seen any of Tester’s ads? Good stuff.

    Keep it up, Dems. We’re in the home stretch now. Keep the pressure on.

  • Now that McCain is blaming North Korea’s entrance into the nuclear club on the Clinton Administration, I’m hoping Bill will counter this crap with another Chris Wallace moment: “I tried to stop North Korea, George Bush did not try.”

  • For eddiejoe

    To call Cleaver a buffoon is a slap in the face to buffoons worldwide. To call him a village idiot is a slap in the face to village idiots worldwide. You have no idea as to the depths of insanity, depravity, paranoia and megalomanania that is Cleaver’s life. I have known this cretin for years and have been on the receiving end of countless numbers of his vulgar, profane and vitriolic emails. He talks tough and spews venom from behind his keyboard but is in reality the biggest coward I have ever known.

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