Monday’s Mini-Report

August 20, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Interesting timing: “The White House revealed today that General David Petraeus’ testimony before Congress on progress in Iraq has now been scheduled — and the chosen date just happens to be September 11, the sixth anniversary of the attacks. Why the timing? The White House said today that it’s based on the fact that Congress is now out of session and reconvenes in September. And in fairness, as Think Progress notes, the Petraeus briefing is mandated to occur before Sept. 15.”

* This ought to shake things up a little: “The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is calling for a new government in Iraq, saying his trip there last week convinced him that Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki is too sectarian and cannot create a stable Iraq. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, was blunt in a Monday conference call with reporters. ‘I hope the Iraqi Assembly, when it reconvenes in two weeks will vote the Maliki government out of office,’ he said.” Levin added, “The Maliki government is non-functional and cannot produce a political settlement because it is too beholden to religious and sectarian leaders.”

* An interesting multi-part report will begin tonight on CNN called “God’s Warriors.” Take a look.

* Even Fred Hiatt has seen enough of Alberto Gonzales: “Trying to take advantage of a hospitalized man is despicable. That the behavior was exhibited by the future attorney general in an effort to circumvent the chain of command to get approval for a surveillance program the administration’s top lawyers had already said was unacceptable is nothing less than disgraceful.”

* Yet another federal corruption investigation for an Alaskan Republican: “It looks like Rep. Don Young’s (R-AK) $10 million Coconut Road earmark has roped him into another FBI investigation, McClatchy reports. Young slipped the money into a 2005 transportation bill just days after a real estate developer, Daniel Aronoff held a fundraiser in Florida that fetched Young $40,000 in campaign contributions.” Last week, local officials in Florida turned down the money.

* This isn’t good: “Rep. Bob Filner didn’t just lose his luggage on Sunday night, he allegedly lost his temper, too. The California Democrat is being charged with assault and battery following an incident at Dulles International Airport in which Filner allegedly pushed an airline worker and refused to leave an employees-only area, according to a statement given to HOH by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.”

* TV Newser: “Countdown with Keith Olbermann is getting a tryout on NBC. The NYTimes reports, Countdown will air before NBC’s broadcast of this Sunday’s pre-season game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers. Says NBC SVP Phil Griffin, ‘The world has changed, and I think people have come in line with the smart, focused approach [Keith] has on the show.'”

* TP: “With skyrocketing casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a higher death rate for veterans of World War II and the Korean War, demand for burial plots at Arlington National Cemetery is increasing. According to the Pentagon, ‘nearly 2,000 veterans died each day’ last year, and wait times for funerals can be as long as two months.”

* Exactly two months ago today, Bill O’Reilly told his national radio audience, “I’m giving [the war in Iraq] two more months.”

* My friend Brian Beutler has a new (online) home.

* Liberty University, the far-right college started by TV preacher Jerry Falwell, had amassed quite a bit of debt, which was promptly paid off thanks to Falwell’s life-insurance policy.

* The war is really popular with those who don’t want to fight in it. (thanks SKNM)

* Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes the threat of global warming should preclude the construction of new coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world. Good for him.

* And finally, starting tonight, The Daily Show will be getting actual reports from Iraq from correspondent Rob Riggle, who has combat experience as a major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, and who spent five days in the country last week with Daily Show writer Kevin Bleyer and field producer Glenn Clements. Riggle told MSNBC that they were primarily there to entertain the troops, many of whom reportedly enjoy the show.

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

I gotta wonder if the WH is shooting themselves in the foot with a 9/11 date for Petraeus’ report. No doubt they’re playing the 9/11terrorterror9/11 card. But to what end? As much as that anniversary marks a national tragedy, it also marks another yet year with bin Laden still on the loose and another year mired in a foreign civil war brought on by the reckless lies of the Bush regime. And that’s before you consider the naked political calculation of using that date for a perceived advantage.

I’m not sure this isn’t going to backfire on them.

  • Please. You can’t convince me that the choice of September The Eleventh was just a scheduling convenience for the Petraeus hearing. How many times will September The Eleventh be mentioned, and the fact that the hearing is being held on that sacred date, by administration officials (including military) or republican senators. I say 35 times. Over or under 35?

  • Since the “report” is being written by the Bush White House, what difference does it make? Nothing will change until the American people get up the guts to start screaming. So far, all I hear are whimpers.
    September 11th, September 11th, September 11th….. What would have happened if our leaders had acted like these idiots on December 7,1941? Instead of becoming a world leader, we would have been at one with Nazi Germany. These people are mindless, greedy, and lower than dirt, the congress and the bushies.
    Congress just gave the bushies the right to spy on us with military equipment that can look right into our houses. This was stuff for the enemy, wasn’t it? Our civil rights are gone, now the government has received congressional approval to look into our bedrooms and lives? Where the fuck does it end?
    Wake up and throw the bastards out! All of them. If not, our republic (like Rome’s) will be dead for good.

  • I meant during the hearing. 35 is reasonable for the actual hearing . As far as the media goes, I’ll take way over 35 before and after the actual hearing.

  • *[…] General David Petraeus’ testimony before Congress on progress in Iraq has now been scheduled — and the chosen date just happens to be September 11 […]

    And instead of the customary minute of silence to commemorate it, we’ll get full 8 hours of it.

    *Rep. Bob Filner didn’t just lose his luggage on Sunday night, he allegedly lost his temper,[…]

    And they say that Dems are wimps… This is the second unarmed Dem Rep who had the courage to take on uniformed authority. I almost wrote “who had the balls”, but the other one was a woman (from the South somewhere, last year, I think it was)

  • So, Al-Maliki’s not up to the task and needs to be replaced, huh. I wonder if Ngo Dinh Diem is busy these days. That guy did wonders for us in Vietnam.

    Democracy’s for suckers. We need the benevolent dictator puppet.

  • The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is calling for a new government in Iraq, saying his trip there last week convinced him that Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki is too sectarian and cannot create a stable Iraq.

    About damn time. I’ve been worried Bush would arrange for Maliki to have an “accident” that could be blamed on AQI.

    When are the Iraqi’s supposed to have another election? Why do I suspect it isn’t scheduled until after Nov. 2008?

    Rep. Bob Filner didn’t just lose his luggage on Sunday night, he allegedly lost his temper, too.

    Cue the fRighties: OMG! THE DEMONCRATS R OUT OF CONTROL!! And pay no attention to all of those sex scandals!! This isn’t to say it wasn’t a dickhead thing to do, but the Dems still have a long way to go to catch up the ReThugs when it comes to criminal acts.

    And I’m surprised the guy on CHTV didn’t cry or wet his pants. (BTW, I still think ‘Old guys who cruise for young guys’ when I hear the term chicken hawk.) Cheney as a chicken hawk. Yech.

  • Yeah Olbermann. Just what we need on regular TV. Worth watching NBC again.
    If a man is walking in the ocean looking for the ocean and all there is is ocean…he can walk forever and never find the ocean for he is searching for what he already is. Yet he walks with the expectation that the ocean must be different than what it is.

    All that is, just is. And all that is, is _ _ _.

    Petraus…we already knew then what we know now and we already know now what we will know then…so what did we expect you to say?
    Someone is finally saying Maliki’s government is too sectarian, after we’ve armed all the Shiites? Is that why we went back and armed the Sunnis also (under the guise of fighting al qaeda)? I guess we couldn’t very well have set up a Sunni led government huh?

    We are a foreign Occupying Force meddling in the affairs of Iraq under the guise of maintaining stability and security while we referee a civil war all under the heading of fighting terrorism. No one but a group of American neocons is buying into this crap any longer. No matter if they mention Iraq and 9/11 29 times(under 35).
    Hiatt…If all were known about this power mad little creep his Hospital visit to goad a sick man is probably the least of offensive actions Gonzales has committed. But glad you’re finally looking closely at him.

    Kucinich/Edwards ‘08, yeah, that’s the ticket.

  • Still No Answers About Cause of NYC Fire

    NEW YORK (AP) – Fire marshals investigating a blaze that killed two firefighters in an abandoned ground zero building focused Monday on a failed water network. Recently issued permits had required the system to be working, but the city could not say the last time it was tested.

    Several citations for unsafe conditions had been issued for the former Deutsche Bank office building, which has been a toxic wasteland since it was damaged in the World Trade Center attack. The once-41-story building was being dismantled floor by floor; demolition crews had whittled it to 26 floors by Saturday, when the fire erupted.

    Still no answers on the collapse of World Trade Center 7 either. Fortunately, no one was killed in that catastrophe. The Deutsche Bank building burned for 7 hours on August 18, 2007 and it did not collapse –but two brave firefighters lost their lives.

    Too bad WTC7 was omitted from the 9/11 Commission Report –perhaps we could have learned something that might have helped those firefighters. After all, WTC7 burned for some 7 hours.

  • The White House revealed today that General David Petraeus’ testimony before Congress on progress in Iraq has now been scheduled — and the chosen date just happens to be September 11, the sixth anniversary of the attacks. Why the timing? The White House said today that it’s based on the fact that Congress is now out of session and reconvenes in September. And in fairness, as Think Progress notes, the Petraeus briefing is mandated to occur before Sept. 15.”

    Who cares what “General” Betrayus – who has long ago betrayed his oath as a West Point cadet “to neither lie, cheat, nor steal, nor tolerate among us those who do” on his way to coronation as one of the Perfumed Princes of Versailles-on-the-Potomac, and who violates his oath “to protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” with each breath he takes – has to say? He’s nothing more than Dick Cheney’s other sock puppet.

  • ABC News is now playing shenanigans on Dennis Kucinich. What a goddamned farce.

    First, Kucinich wins their little online poll, but apparently ABC News did not like the results, so they posted a new poll.

    Also, if you look at the first link above, you will notice a funny thing –one of the eight candidates who participated in the debate is apparently cropped from the group photo. You guessed it –Dennis Kucinich is excluded from the photo.

  • Reuters item: ” Bush aims to strengthen bonds with Canada, Mexico.”

    Isn’t that the diplomatic equivalent of kissing your sister?

  • JKap, You think those 7 hours of a burning structure — which was already weakened by the collapse of the North Tower hours earlier — could have had anything to due with the collapse of WTC 7? I don’t know, seems kind of plausible to me.

  • Shouldn’t be a problem for your government to answer then huh, JRS Jr? Do you have a rational explanation why WTC7 was omitted from the 9/11 Commission Report?

  • JKap

    No surprise here. Kucinich has never been taken seriously by the media as a strong voice, even though he has been a strong, principled leader for his entire career. As mayor of Cleveland, he refused to sell off the municipal electric power company and it cost him his job as mayor at the time as the monied powers rallied against him. Years later, he was proved right on this and he received many accolades and awards from grateful Clevelanders for standing his ground.

    Two things that are guaranteed to happen as (if) they receive continued greater exposure to the genneral voting public – 1. Dennis Kucinich will rise in the polls and close in on John Edwards as people see that he is a straight-talking individualist with well-thought-out and serious populist programs, and 2. if she wins the primary, Hillary’s negatives will steadily fall as people see for themselves that she is not a cold, calculating, shrill harpie, but, like Dennis (although not to his extent), has a lifetime of fighting to advance many progressive causes.

    Dennis Kucinich has my support in this year’s Democratic primary if he sticks it out.

  • Perhaps Mr. Levin should spend more time worrying about the government here and less time giving advice to the Iraqis. No government on earth is more non-functioning and beholden to sectarian strife than ours.

    The beltway bandits can continue pointing their fingers any which way. I, for one, will continue to point my finger directly at them.

    God, this is sickening…it reminds me or Col. Kurtz describing his dream: “I dreamt of a snail crawling along the edge of a straight razor…this is my dream, this is my nightmare…the horror, the horror.”

    “Drop the bomb, exterminate the all!”

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