Friday’s Mini-Report

December 21, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Somehow, the MLK story manages to get worse for a certain former Massachusetts governor: “Mitt Romney went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald. Talking about the Mormon Church and racial discrimination, he said: ‘My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit.'” Oh my.

* This is certainly a disappointing development: “A federal judge appeared reluctant Friday to investigate the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes while the Justice Department is conducting its own inquiry. U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy is considering whether to delve into the matter and, if so, how deeply. The Bush administration is urging him to back off while it investigates. ‘Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that?’ Kennedy asked at a court hearing.”

* The State Department’s Blackwater problem gets worse: “A report prepared for the State Department’s inspector general in January 2005, and obtained by TPMmuckraker, shows Blackwater’s accounting system for its no-bid, multimillion dollar Iraq contract was ‘not considered adequate for accumulating costs on government contracts.’ … Yet despite its own internal watchdog’s finding of fraudulence in Blackwater’s Iraq contract, months later, the State Department re-signed a deal with the company to provide security for U.S. diplomats.”

* When the Bush administration balked at California’s request to impose greenhouse-gas regulations beyond federal requirements, it ignored the evidence completely: “‘California met every criteria … on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers,’ said an EPA staffer. ‘We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts.'” Better yet, Bush’s EPA leaders made their decision on California’s application after cutting off consultation with their technical staff and before a justification for the rejection could even be written.

* On a related note, before EPA administrator Stephen Johnson rejected California’s application, auto executives appealed directly to Dick Cheney, and Johnson delayed his decision until after the VP had talked to the execs: “On multiple occasions in October and November, Cheney and White House staff members met with industry executives, including the CEOs of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler. At the meetings, the executives objected to California’s proposed fuel economy standards.”

* NYT: “The House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine service on Thursday to testify about his role in the destruction of videotapes documenting the interrogation of two suspected operatives of Al Qaeda. The subpoena for the official, Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who current and former officials say ordered the destruction of the tapes in 2005, came after the committee’s staff spent hours at C.I.A. headquarters poring over classified documents related to the matter.”

* Mike Huckabee and Condoleezza Rice appear to be at odds: “Today in a press briefing, a reporter asked Rice to respond to [Huckabee’s] criticisms. Rice initially refused, dismissing them as unimportant. But she nevertheless proceeded into a vigorous defense of the administration’s policies, eventually calling the statements ‘ludicrous.'”

* Huckabee had a response of his own, saying that while he has “great respect” for Rice, he thinks she’s criticizing an article she hasn’t read: “I’m not sure if she’s actually read the article, or maybe she’s reacting to the headlines, because I think some of the people who have spoken about it when asked have admitted they have not actually read the article and what I was specifically referencing.”

* Payback for truth-telling? “A lot of people want to talk to John Kiriakou. After the leader of the team that interrogated senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah in 2002 — one of the detainees whose interrogation was secretly recorded — went public, a lot of confusion remained. Did Abu Zubaydah really break after 35 seconds of waterboarding, as Kiriakou said? Or, as the FBI’s Dan Coleman and others have said, did Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation yield the best information through non-coercive techniques? Very few people are sure of the answer. Many want to ask Kiriakou more questions. Not least of whom: the Justice Department.”

* And finally, yesterday afternoon, Comedy Central announced that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert would return to the network’s airwaves on Jan. 7. Neither show has aired new episodes since the Writers Guild of America went on strike Nov. 5. If the strike is unresolved, both Stewart and Colbert will do their shows without writers, which should make things a little tricky. (On a related note, I found this cartoon about Stewart’s absence from the airwaves quite amusing.)

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

“A federal judge appeared reluctant Friday to investigate the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes while the Justice Department is conducting its own inquiry…

Hey, we said we’re investigating ourselves already. What more do you people want?

  • “Hey, we said we’re investigating ourselves already. What more do you people want?”

    Heh…good one, RacerX.

    Regarding the latest news about Mitt, apparently the man has no shame. Claiming to march with MLK, when he didn’t, is just deplorable.

  • Somehow, the MLK story manages to get worse for a certain former Massachusetts governor: “Mitt Romney went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald. Talking about the Mormon Church and racial discrimination, he said: ‘My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit.’” Oh my.

    This guy seems a little, uh, dishonest.

  • ‘Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that?’ Kennedy asked at a court hearing.

    Uhm, maybe because they have had seven years and dozens of opportunities to investigate administration crimes and haven’t done it even once that I can recall?

  • Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert can probably do their show without writers. The Republicans have been a constant source of great material for them, and there’s at least a month of follies for them to catch up with. What writer could make that stuff up?

    I hope that they have tape of Mitt Romney saying “I’m an English literature major. When we say I saw the Patriots win the World Series, it doesn’t necessarily mean you were there.”

  • I wish Dick Cheney would wrap his mouth around an exhaust pipe for a few hours and then make a decision on improved standards for auto exhaust.

  • FWIW… Tonight, Keith Olbermann is running replays of selected special comments from the past year. It’s worth watching as a reminder of where we were a year or so ago. Particularly noteworthy is the sense of outrage that was then so palpable — particularly leading up to announcement of the “surge” — now reduced to quiet resignation, meaningless posturing or pointless muttering beneath our breath.

  • I wish Dick Cheney would wrap his mouth around an exhaust pipe for a few hours and then make a decision on improved standards for auto exhaust.

    Heh – good one, jen…the mental picture alone is priceless…

    *****

    My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit

    Translation:

    Now, when I say “my father,” I am talking about my actual father.

    When I say “my father and I,” I am talking about him and about me, but not necessarily actually together, in the sense that both of us were in the same place at the same time.

    When I say “my father and I marched” I mean that he marched here in the US, and I marched in France, where I was serving a Mormon mission.

    When I say “with Martin Luther King, Jr.,” I am talking about the spirit, the essence, the aura of Dr. King, not necessarily his physical presence.

    When I say “through the streets of Detroit,” I am talking about the figurative streets – the streets that live in our minds.

    So, while the marching may have taken place in at least three locations, my father, Dr. King and I were inextricably linked by our desire to end racial inequity.

    Really – wouldn’t it have been easier to just say, “Gosh, you know, I guess I was in France then – I’d forgotten about that. It was so long ago that I must have mixed things up a bit – the important thing is the commitment my father had to equal rights, and the lessons I learned from his example.”

    On the other hand, Romney scandals might be among the most entertaining ever.

  • “If the strike is unresolved, both Stewart and Colbert will do their shows without writers, which should make things a little tricky”

    I suggested at Liberal Values that if he is left without anyone to write the fake news Stewart just might have to resort to reporting the real news.

  • KindaSleezy Lice talks out of both ends of her ass, and labels Huckabee’s statements as ‘ludicrous”, implying, of course, that Huckabee is an idiot for uttering such ‘nonsense’. How dare he criticise anything that this flawless administration has done? She needs to pull her head out of g.b.’s arse once in a while and breath some fresh air. Dr. BrownNose, I presume?

  • Hurrah for Stewart and Coplbert and Leno and all the others who are going to get up in public and demonstrate why the world needs writers. I applaud their support of the strike, extending even to the point of letting themselves appear ridiculous.

  • It would be great if Stewart, Colbert and Leno each delivered a half hour diatribe on corporate greed and supplied viewers with websites for demanding a fair settlement with the writers.

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