Monday’s Mini-Report

April 23, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* AP: “Former President Boris Yeltsin, who hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union by scrambling atop a tank to rally opposition against a hard-line coup and later pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, died Monday at age 76.”

* The GOP Machine continues to go after Harry Reid, and Harry Reid continues to go right back at the GOP Machine: “General Petreaus has said the war cannot be won militarily, he’s said that,” Reid told CNN. “And President Bush is doing nothing economically, he’s doing nothing diplomatically, he’s not doing anything even the minimal requested by the Iraq Study Group, so I stick with General Petreaus. I have no doubt the war cannot be won militarily and that’s what I said last Thursday and I stick with that…. I don’t back off that at all. So if you say something that is untrue to me and in the right circumstances, I will call you a liar. I have no regret having called him a liar, because he lied.”

* Former President George Bush told CNN Monday that the electorate may be experiencing “Bush fatigue,” which may be why Jeb isn’t running next year. “There’s something to that — there might be a little Bush fatigue now,” Bush 41 told Larry King.

* I’m a little fuzzy on all the details, but apparently Karl Rove, Sheryl Crow, and Laurie David had quite a spat at the White House Correspondents Dinner the other night. By all indications, it got rather ugly, and Dana Perino reiterated with White House’s criticism of Crow and David this afternoon.

* Speaking of the Correspondents Dinner, David Letterman finally contributed a Top 10 list to the evening’s festivities. (thanks to J.B. for the tip)

* Exactly 90 days ago today, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, “I think it will be rather clear in the next 60 to 90 days as to whether this plan [escalation in Iraq] is going to work.” We can now expect Boehner to join with war critics, right?

* Chris Matthews thinks two-thirds of Americans wants Congress to “leave [Alberto Gonzales] alone”? Why do pundits make stuff up so frequently?

* Army Sgt. Jim Wilt wrote a fascinating item, “commending the President’s honoring of the Virginia Tech students, but wondering why he — and the American public — don’t pay as much attention to the U.S. troops who die in Iraq every day.” It’s not an unreasonable question.

* New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) will reportedly “introduce a bill in the coming weeks to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, his spokeswoman said Friday, a move that would propel New York to the forefront of one of the most contentious issues in politics.” From what I hear, the legislation may struggle in the state legislature, but kudos to Spitzer anyway for showing some leadership.

* General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan is the next Bushie whose resignation is no longer open to debate.

* MSNBC guest Karen Hanratty, a “Republican strategist,” on Al Gore needing to lose weight: “Presidents who win are usually very athletic. Bush runs like a seven minute mile! And Clinton liked hamburgers but he worked out. Those are the little things that actually matter.” This is yet another example of a) why I don’t watch television news; and b) why it’s hard to take “Republican strategists” seriously.

* WSJ: “Despite President Bush’s vow that all Americans would have access to high-speed Internet service by 2007, a new study suggests the U.S. is continuing to fall behind other developed countries in broadband subscriptions. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development today released its annual broadband Internet statistics, which shows the U.S. now ranks 15th among the group’s 30 member countries for broadband subscriptions. Last year, the U.S. ranked 12th.”

* With so many Republicans getting indicted last year, and several more facing scrutiny (and having their homes raided by the FBI) this year, the GOP caucus is wondering when it’ll end. “Everybody’s kind of a little bit numb,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). “There’s this, ‘What else can happen now?’ feeling going around here.”

* On a related note, the AP ran a rundown of Bush appointees who resigned under a cloud or have faced conflict-of-interest allegations.

* O’Reilly really doesn’t like Media Matters. Neither does KSFO’s Melanie Morgan. Congrats to my MM friends for annoying all the right people.

* And finally, congratulations to Matthew Yglesias, who announced today that he will be blogging full time for The Atlantic Monthly. He joins an illustrious list of writers whose blogs have been picked up by major magazines — Drum, Sullivan, Greenwald, Wolcott — and I wish him the best in his new location.

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

Former President George Bush told CNN Monday that the electorate may be experiencing “Bush fatigue,”

I suggest he contact Bob Dole and ask to borrow his little blue pill.

  • “Chris Matthews thinks two-thirds of Americans wants Congress to “leave [Alberto Gonzales] alone”? ”

    Further evidence, as if it were needed, that Tweety is an idiot.

  • If there is any justice in the blogosphere, Benen will also be on that illustrious list soon!

  • Regarding broadband subscriptions; the unfortunate reality is that the industry has chosen to try to turn broadband service into a cash cow for corporations—to hell with public need. While dial-up is admittedly slow it costs substantially less than broadband service which usually costs a minimum of 30 dollars. For those struggling to pay for gas, medicine, and food, it’s a luxury.

  • Yglesias, Drum, Sullivan, Greenwald, Wolcott, …., and Benen would have a nice ring to it!

  • Bush fatigue is not the problem. Atrocious governance is the problem.

    W has his hands over his ears making loud noises with his mouth in order to block out dissent. We need an adult in the White House.

  • “There’s this, ‘What else can happen now?’ feeling going around here.” — Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.)

    Depends upon what else you all did.

  • “I don’t back off that at all. So if you say something that is untrue to me and in the right circumstances, I will call you a liar. I have no regret having called him a liar, because he lied.”

    Aw yeah

    Check out my comment at 1:07 on the post re: Paul Krugman.

  • Further evidence, as if it were needed, that Tweety is an idiot.

    Anyone who watches his show even once has all the evidence they will ever need. Matthews spent several minutes today gushing about McCain because of his “seriousness” and foreign policy experience (“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” is apparently a distant memory already). And that was the only several minutes I watched, I have no idea what he did to embarrass himself throughout the rest of the show. Tweety lives in bizarro world.

  • Congratulations to Sheryl Crow and Laurie David for giving Karl Rove indigestion. His comment as reported was “she came over to insult me and she did.” Insulting the biggest insult to the American Republic to ever walk upright on two legs makes me like Sheryl Crow a whole lot more than I did before. You go, girls!!

    I just want to read (soon) about Rove being found face down in a dark alley, bleeding out from multiple large-caliber exit wounds. If there’s anybody who proves that the only “good Republicans” are dead, that scummy sonofabitch is the one.

  • O’Reilly really doesn’t like Media Matters.

    O’Reilly bashed Media Matters because he was taken to task on Irish TV for remarks collected by them.

    It’s sad that Irish Americans are known as racists often in this country. The Irish are always cracking down on the right people when it comes to modern politics. And an Irishman in Chicago, New York City, Boston, the south, it’s not the same thing. There are different types all over and you have to look at individuals. My personal experience with Irish is not as bigots and I think of them as something different entirely, as the people who ere criticizing and organizing in Ireland against African slavery, kind hearted people, before the man convinced a lot of regular Irish people in America to be racist.

  • Harry Reid has got the cojones of a bull, and he’s quickly becoming my favorite senator. Yay, Harry!

    And in other news:

    “There’s this, ‘What else can happen now?’ feeling going around here.”

    Translation: “How many more of us are going to get caught?”

  • Chris Matthews seems to have lost touch with reality. Pity his fantasies.
    At least MSNBC has Keith Olbermann and, perhaps, Joe Scarborough to counterbalance Chris’s fantasies.

  • Here’s a question for someone to ask Chris Matthews: If you’re so hot on McCain and the war he and Bush are foisting on the American public, then why isn’t your son in Iraq?

    Or, why don’t you shut the fuck up and take your boy-crush somewhere nice and private?

  • “Chris Matthews thinks two-thirds of Americans wants Congress to “leave [Alberto Gonzales] alone”? Why do pundits make stuff up so frequently?”

    Maybe because about the only person on TV who would be likely to call him on this one works for the same network? Wouldn’t it be fun if Tweety made Olbermann’s WPITW list? Bet they’d love that upstairs.

  • congratulations to Matthew Yglesias

    Hey CB, what about Greg Sargent’s recent change of address?

  • Damn! I can’t believe Ygles beat me out for the AtMo spot. I had it from a highup source that the choice was down to him and me, and with my offensive language, goofball name, and relative anonymity even within the blogworld, I thought I was a shoo-in. I guess it really is who you sleep with, huh.

  • Poor George. He works so hard at finding a yes-man who’ll agree with him on the war—and Petraeus up and says that the war cannot be won militarily. About the only thing left for Chimp-Ah to do is pin some stars on Karl Rove, or maybe Rich LIttle….

  • News just in – hard to believe.

    SAN FRANCISCO – David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who chronicled the Washington press corps, the Vietnam War generation and baseball, was killed in a car crash early Monday, a coroner said. He was 73.

    Halberstam, a New Yorker, was a passenger in a car that was broadsided by another vehicle in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said.

    The accident occurred around 10:30 a.m., and the driver of the car carrying Halberstam identified him as the victim, Foucrault said. A call to Menlo Park police wasn’t immediately returned.

    “Looking at the accident and examining him at the scene indicated it’s most likely internal injuries,” Foucrault said.

    The driver of the car carrying Halberstam is a student at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and was taken to Stanford Medical Center. Two others were injured.

    Halberstam spoke Saturday at a UC Berkeley-sponsored event on the craft of journalism and what it means to turn reporting into a work of history.

    He was born April 10, 1934, in New York City, the son of a surgeon father and teacher mother.

    After attending Harvard University, Halberstam launched his career in 1955 at the Daily Times Leader, a small daily newspaper in Mississippi. By age 30 he had won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Vietnam War for the New York Times.

    He quit daily journalism in 1967 and wrote 21 books covering such diverse topics as the Vietnam War, civil rights, the auto industry and a baseball pennant race. His 2002 best-seller, “War in a Time of Peace,” was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

  • as the people who were criticizing and organizing in Ireland against African slavery, kind hearted people, before the man convinced a lot of regular Irish people in America to be racist.

    Shorter me: O’Reilly thinks he’s big-shit because he was on TV in Ireland, but the Irish were actually cracking down on him on the show, and mostly they go after our own conservatives better than most people do over here.

  • * The GOP Machine continues to go after Harry Reid, and Harry Reid continues to go right back at the GOP Machine — CB

    And *how*… 🙂

    Throughout the time the House and the Senate were getting their bills reconciled and Bush was threatening to veto anything with any suggestion of timelines, even nonbinding, several of you have been saying: “every time he vetoes, send him a tougher one”

    Well, it looks like Pelosi and Reid have been listening and they must have decided they had nothing to lose and cut one stage out. So the reconciled bill is *binding*, not the wimpier version.

    http://tinyurl.com/28e9ml

  • re Kingston – In this particular horror movie the characters: all rich, egotistical, obnoxious frat boys and sorority girls, broke into that great big house on the hill and threw a wild party, even though their parents warned them not to do it.

    At first it was all beer and boobies, but something started to pick them off one by one. Tommy went first. The found him feeding the cockroaches in the basement. Then Mark, Bobby, Randy even Scooter! At first they were able to fight back. But now they’re outnumbered and tired and weak from watching for the next attack and the attacks keep coming. They run, they scream, they cower in corners, they come up with stupid plans to escape, they really wish they’d listened to mom and dad.

    And the audience laughs each time someone gets his or her head yanked off because no one likes those snotty little brats anyway.

    Mwahaha. Ha. HA!

    MSNBC guest Karen Hanratty, a “Republican strategist,”

    Gee. I did not know “strategist” was another way of saying “Vapid jackass with a brain that could fit in a thimble.” Is Gore running for President? If so, why haven’t I heard anything? If not, why the flaming hell is this twit talking about his weight? I know, I should be glad that the best the GOP can do is make comments about the weight of a man who is no longer in office and does not intend to run for office but, sheeesh. Get a life or STFU.

    Also: Go Spritzer!!

  • Note to Chris Mathews- 2/3rd of the American public want you to shut up with all your nonsence.

  • “General Petreaus has said the war cannot be won militarily, he’s said that,” Reid told CNN. “And President Bush is doing nothing economically, he’s doing nothing diplomatically, he’s not doing anything even the minimal requested by the Iraq Study Group, so I stick with General Petreaus. I have no doubt the war cannot be won militarily and that’s what I said last Thursday and I stick with that…. I don’t back off that at all. So if you say something that is untrue to me and in the right circumstances, I will call you a liar. I have no regret having called him a liar, because he lied.”

    Holy smokes….
    I never thought we’d ever have a chance to say it again, but here it is in bold:

    Give ’em hell Harry!

  • RE: Bush fatigue….

    The only thing good that has come out of the last 6 years is this: The Bush Crime Family is ruined.

    It ain’t fatigue stupid.
    It’s disgust.
    Your family name is soaked in night soil.
    You are loathed both globally and locally.

    It’s over 41.
    Get over it.

    Suggestion:
    Why don’t you punks move to Saudi Arabia?
    They play golf over there don’t they?

  • Note to Sheryl Crow: the average is 44 squares. Plus or minus 17, sure. But that’s a lot more than 1.
    (According to this report.)

    Maybe that’s why Rove shrieked “Don’t touch me!” when she grabbed his arm. He must have read that article in the BBC. Check it out, and see if you don’t think Crow is vying to knock Britney Spears out of the Ditz of the Year competition. Sheesh, Lance, what were you thinking?

  • Top 10 Signs Of A Facist State
    1 Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
    It is not that global Islamist terrorism is not a severe danger; of course it is. Spanish citizens know that they face a grave security threat; what American citizens believe is that we are potentially threatened with the end of civilisation as we know it. Of course, this makes us more willing to accept restrictions on our freedoms.

    2 Create a gulag
    How about Guantanamo in Cuba, where detainees are abused, and kept indefinitely without trial and without access to the due process of the law. America certainly has its gulag now.

    3 Develop a thug caste
    Blackwater and other security operations in places like New Orleans

    4 Set up an internal surveillance system
    A secret state programme to wiretap citizens’ phones, read their emails and follow international financial transactions. See here

    5 Harass citizens’ groups
    Thousands of ordinary American anti-war, environmental and other groups have been infiltrated by agents: a secret Pentagon database includes more than four dozen peaceful anti-war meetings, rallies or marches by American citizens in its category of 1,500 “suspicious incidents”.

    6 Engage in arbitrary detention and release
    In a closing or closed society there is a “list” of dissidents and opposition leaders: you are targeted in this way once you are on the list, and it is hard to get off the list. A bit like the ‘no fly’ watch list.

    7 Target key individuals
    Bush supporters in state legislatures in several states put pressure on regents at state universities to penalise or fire academics who have been critical of the administration. Oh, and 8 US attorneys purged for not showing enough loyalty.

    8 Control the press
    The Committee to Protect Journalists says arrests of US journalists are at an all-time high.
    You won’t have a shutdown of news in modern America – it is not possible. But you can have a steady stream of lies polluting the news well.

    9 Dissent equals treason
    When Bill Keller, the publisher of the New York Times, ran the Lichtblau/Risen stories, Bush called the Times’ leaking of classified information “disgraceful”, while Republicans in Congress called for Keller to be charged with treason, and rightwing commentators and news outlets kept up the “treason” drumbeat. Some commentators reminded readers smugly that one penalty for violating the Espionage Act is execution.

    10 Suspend the rule of law
    A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any ‘other condition’.”
    Critics see this as a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act – which was meant to restrain the federal government from using the military for domestic law enforcement.
    Read

  • Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Sandbagged Novation LLC Prosecution

    Kansas City, MO 04/16/07 – Novation LLC a hospital supplier in Irving, Texas admitted in a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals filing dated April 9th, 2007 that it was identified as a co-conspirator in a 2002 scheme to use US Bancorp’s trust division to prevent Medical Supply Chain from entering the market for hospital supplies by withholding escrow accounts and misusing the USA PATRIOT act as a pretext….

  • On broadband, I tried to get 15 dollar DSL from Verizon but since they installed faster but expensive fios service, they REFUSED to sell me slow DSL.

    Cavalier telephone SOMEHOW managed to provide the same DSL service even though they use the same phone wires. America is behind because of corporate greed. Not everyone has 40 bucks a month to spare.

    http://www.cavtel.com for any washington dc area folks stonewalled by Verizon.

  • Perino Snaps At Crow And David, Demands They Show More ‘Respect’ For President Bush

    I’m really sick of this Republican bullshit about having to respect the Idiot-in- Chief Bush. Everytime somebody tells me I HAVE to respect this fucking moron my reply is “Fuck That, I didn’t vote for him, I don’t condone anything he does and I DON’T have to show him any respect”. BTW these are the same people who pounded Clinton at every turn back in the good old days.

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