Friday’s Mini-Report

January 12, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The good news is the House passed a measure today to let Medicare negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors. The bad news is, it passed 255 to 170, which is short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto (which is likely).

* Olbermann. Special Comment. Go. (Favorite line: This is “a presidency of Cliff Notes.”)

* Remember when the White House used to pretend that U.S. troops were part of a broad “coalition of the willing” in Iraq? We don’t hear the Bush gang saying that much anymore. There’s a good reason: “The Italians have left, and the Slovaks are about to. Britons want to start getting out, and so do Danes and South Koreans. President Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq has not inspired America’s coalition partners to follow suit. Washington’s top war partners — London and Seoul — are looking to draw down their forces, and they are not alone.”

* When the typical American says “I’m no expert on Iraq,” and adds that they’re also not an “expert on military matters,” I completely understand. When the Secretary of Defense says it, I appreciate his candor, but it’s kind of disconcerting.

* The burdens on our national guard and reserves are already painful and are getting worse: “The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq. The day after President Bush announced his plan for a deeper U.S. military commitment in Iraq, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the change in reserve policy would have been made anyway because active-duty troops already were getting too little time between their combat tours.”

* A whopping 75% of Americans believe the president should have to get congressional approval before he escalates the war in Iraq. Sounds like a good idea.

* Joe Lieberman has decided to give Bush a pass on Katrina — and some lawmakers from Louisiana are not at all pleased with Lieberman’s cowardice.

* Following up on an item from yesterday, the Senate voted today to make it impossible for felon ex-lawmakers to receive their congressional pensions. Good move.

* Ari Berman has a good item about Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) offering “a preview of how he plans to rein in the Bush Administration, from the perch of his chairmanship of the Defense Subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee,” during a hearing convened by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

* Scooter Libby’s criminal trial begins next week. It’s the first high-profile legal case for which bloggers have received media credentials, and it should be a fascinating trial to keep an eye on.

* Jay Leno: “It was nothing but reruns on TV last night. But enough about President Bush’s speech…. Actually, the good news last night, President Bush finally admitted he made some mistakes in Iraq. The bad news, he’s planning on making the same mistakes again.”

* For reasons that no one understands, the White House “broke with tradition Wednesday night and refused to let photojournalists shoot still pictures of the president at the podium after his prime-time address on the Iraq war.” Photo-journalists are livid. Dennis Brack, president of the White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA), calls the limited access “unacceptable” and says it is very unusual for a presidential address to be closed to photographers. “It’s not the first time I’m sure, but it’s very infrequent, and I’ve been around since LBJ’s time,” Brack says. “The speech was a very historic speech of news value, and they elected to manage it as a public relations function.”

* And finally, newly elected Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) was the subject of a series of Rove-orchestrated smears during the campaign, in which Republicans labeled him “Dr. Multimillionaire.” The story sounds entirely apocryphal, but Kagan claims to have cornered Rove at a recent White House reception, telling him, “You recognize me? My name’s Dr. Multimillionaire and I kicked your ass.”

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

I’d prefer a veto-proof Medicare bill (and a stem-cell one, too), but I’ll settle for George Walker Bush demonstrating to the nation what an asshole he is.

  • Koufax Awards
    Update 1-12-07 Best Consonant Level Blog – The Carpetbagger Report nominated.

    I think of TCR as A-list but I thought I’d put the nomination in anyway.

  • …refused to let photojournalists shoot still pictures of the president at the podium….

    I heard a rumor earlier today that the whole speech was pre-taped, not live. That would explain a lot. And also raise some serious questions as to our president’s sanity these days.

  • Amazing. News of good, honest legislation coming out of Congress. I didn’t realize how much scorn I had for the previous Congress until seeing them do things right for a change. Like the Grinch, my heart has grown three sizes bigger.

    – Olberman, Leno, and especially Rep. Kagan, well said!
    – Was Bush’s deer in the highlights gaze still going on after the speech? Another sign of the fear Bush has of having his bluff called.
    – The army’s recruiting slogan used be “an army of one.” Now it’s a coalition of one.
    -Jack Kennedy said during the Berlin Wall crisis that “Ich bin ein Berliner.” After Katrina, we’re all Lousianans. Nail Lieberman’s ass to the wall guys!

  • – The army’s recruiting slogan used be “an army of one.” Now it’s a coalition of one.
    Comment by petorado

    LOL. And with all the countries leaving Iraq it’s a Coaltion of the Wilting.

  • …but Kagan claims to have cornered Rove at a recent White House reception, telling him, “You recognize me? My name’s Dr. Multimillionaire and I kicked your ass.”

    I really hope that actually happened; it is awesome!

  • Bush’s ship of fools is sinking. We cannot afford to carry him for two more years. He and Cheney have to go, and they can take Lieberman with them..

  • “Joe Lieberman has decided to give Bush a pass on Katrina — and some lawmakers from Louisiana are not at all pleased with Lieberman’s cowardice.”

    This isn’t an act of cowardice. Joe Lieberman is a White House tool and is only doing his job as another of Bush’s office wives.

    Are you ashamed of what you’ve done yet, Connecticut?

  • This is the post that I should’ve made about the drama surrounding the deletion of Spocko’s Brain’s blog at the hands of Melanie Morgan and her flying monkeys at KSFO.

    If you don’t know about this despicable act of right wing censorship, get in on the ground floor, apprise yourself of what’s going on and spread the word. Blogger caving in to ABC’s pressure and deleting Spocko’s blog is beyond simply wrong.

  • I heard a rumor earlier today that the whole speech was pre-taped, not live. That would explain a lot. And also raise some serious questions as to our president’s sanity these days.

    Comment by Ed Stephan

    Interesting that you would say that, Ed. I listened to His Shrubness’s utterances on the radio and thus had no visuals. I thought at the time that the whole thing sounded canned. It was hard to separate that feeling from my general feeling that every aspect of Shruby’s existence is a lie, but something about the overall sound or the cadence of his blather made me think it had a sense of enhanced falseness. Whatever, in Shrubworld, B.S. by any delivery is still B.S regardless of it’s provenance.

    Re: the photo issue at the White House, Shruby’s not looking all that great. He’s looking small, wan and less arrogantly confident. I’ll be happy to see more of all those, but already, he’s not as photogenic as he was. Even so, Shrubwit is still the best facade that CheneyCo has for it’s dastardliness, they’ve got to protect the image Shruby projects as much as possible. Video stills aren’t as sharp and facial nuances are harder to scrutinize.

  • Robert Reich points out the big flaw in the drug bill: “The bill does not authorize Medicare to drop from its approved list drugs on which manufacturers fail to offer good deals. This is like Wal-Mart telling its suppliers ‘we’re going to use our bargaining clout to get from you the lowest prices for our customers — but regardless of what price you offer we’ll still carry your product in our stores.'”

    But this still doesn’t address the problem of one-of-a-kind drugs, the expensive ones with no generics, no substitutes, and no generics planned because collusion between Pharma and the FDA extends the patents virtually indefinitely.

  • “With all the countries leaving Iraq it’s a Coalition of the Wilting.” – Dale

    As Borat would say, “Nice!”

    The innumerable foibles of BushCo make it sooo easy for even armchair humorists to sound like Jon Stewart.

  • Maureen Dowd: “I feel good about the new war with Iran.

    How can you not have confidence in the crackerjack team that brought you Operation Iraqi Freedom…?

    I say, bring it on. If a pre-emptive war in Iraq doesn’t work, why not try a pre-emptive war on Iran in Iraq?”

  • “This is a common tactic of leftist liberal crackpots: Using unedited audio clips of your own voices uttering your own words with just a little context to smear their perceived enemies. The Nancy Pelosi comment, obviously, was blown way out of proportion. Everyone knows that bullseyes are the center of a target and are perceived as such colloquially as well as literally. Does that mean that you want to shoot the Speaker of the House in the eye with a gun? Of course not! Bows and arrows can do the job just as effectively in the hands of an experienced yeoman and are quieter, besides…” — Open Letter to Melanie Morgan.

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