Monday’s Mini-Report

February 11, 2008

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* We’re going to be hearing a lot more about this: “The Pentagon announced today that it has charged six detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison with conspiring to carry out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that military prosecutors will seek the death penalty for each.”

* Bloodshed in Baghdad: “Twin car bombs targeted a meeting of Sunni tribal leaders Monday, killing as many as 22 people in the latest attack against U.S. allies who have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq. The attackers managed to penetrate heavy security to leave bomb-rigged cars near a Baghdad compound hosting chieftains from the western Anbar province, where the so-called Awakening Council movement against al-Qaida emerged last year. The blasts were also near the offices of one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite politicians, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.”

* Tom Lantos dies at age 80: “Rep. Tom Lantos, 80, a California Democrat whose experience as the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress shaped his concern for human rights and his staunch view in favor of U.S. military intervention abroad, died today at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He had esophageal cancer. Lantos, born in Budapest to Hungarian Jews, served 14 terms in the House of Representatives. He is the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress.”

* Josh Marshall went back and checked the TPM notes from Saturday night regarding the Washington GOP primary: “[H]ere’s basically how this works. We start out with McCain ahead. Huckabee jumps ahead with a 3% margin with almost 40% of the vote counted. Then everything slows waaaaay down. And we don’t see anything else until about 40% more of the votes been counted and McCain is back in the lead. Things then proceed a glacial pace with Huckabee a little less than 2 percentage points back until 9% more of the vote is counted. And then they decide to declare McCain the winner. Not quite as cut and dry as the conclusion of a Scooby-Doo episode. But pretty close. Sound fishy to you?”

* On a related note, the controversy has sparked some additional scrutiny of Washington GOP Chair Luke Esser — and that’s not a good thing. He has, after all, apparently made some pretty ugly jokes about disenfranchisement.

* I hope you’re sitting down: “In a speech to Missouri Republicans yesterday, former attorney general John Ashcroft defended President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program and his record on civil liberties, declaring that Bush is ‘among the most respectful of all leaders ever’ when it comes to ‘respecting the civil liberties and rights of individuals.’ Bush ‘respects liberty so profoundly that he has protected it and has safeguarded civil liberties more than any other president in wartime that I know of,’ Ashcroft said.”

* CNN: “A U.S. Defense Department analyst has been arrested and charged with espionage, accused of passing American military secrets to the Chinese government.”

* TPMM: “John Durham, the prosecutor tapped by Attorney General Michael Mukasey to probe the destruction of the CIA’s videotapes of interrogations, finally laid out in detail the purview of his investigation last week. And it’s clear that his focus is on the tapes themselves – not what they might show.”

* We’ve reached the point at which CNN personalities credit John McCain for “straight talk,” even when they’re not talking about John McCain.

* Karl Rove is apparently feeling a little camera shy. How odd.

* I’ve been thinking about pulling together the data to see which pollsters have been doing the best in predicting primary and caucus results. Now, I don’t have to; it looks like SurveyUSA already put together a chart. (It puts itself at #1, though SUSA didn’t poll any of the early contests.)

* The Clinton campaign has a new youth-outreach video out today, and while it’s been slammed in a few corners, I think it’s actually quite good.

* I have a hunch that National Journal liberal-conservative ranking is going to be a lingering annoyance for quite some time.

* And finally, I suspect everyone has already seen the “Yes, We Can” video put together by Will.i.am. from the Black Eyed Peas. But have you seen the parodies targeted at McCain? There are not one but two great take-offs of the video online today, one from the always-brilliant Lee Stranahan, and another put together with by friends of AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis. Take a look at both; you’ll be glad you did.

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

We’re going to be hearing a lot more about this: “The Pentagon announced today that it has charged six detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison with conspiring to carry out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that military prosecutors will seek the death penalty for each.”

None of whom were ever connected to 9/11 other than through the coerced testimony of an individual known to be insane.

As they say, “Military justice is to justice as military music is to music.” Hooray for the Imperial Wehrmacht, which is to what used to be the American military as the army of a dictatorship is to the army of a free nation.

  • “The Pentagon announced today that it has charged six detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison with conspiring to carry out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that military prosecutors will seek the death penalty for each.”

    What, they couldn’t stage show trials in time for the 2004 re-election effort so they had to hold the prisoners for 4 more years without charges so they could hold the show trials in time for the McCain coronation?

  • Someone should write a pithy clarification of or rebuttal to the National Journal’s ranking. Somehow they end up with the forerunner as the most liberal and the second front runner in the top 10. They must be ranking democrats by their popularity 🙂

  • I think Military commission and their role is going to come under increased scrutiny. But if FISA is any indication everyone will buckle to the pressure of being accused of standing up for principles.


    –ahaha

  • If you think the Clinton youth outreach video is good then you’re either old or hopelessly out of touch. Or both. Sorry, but that’s the honest truth.

  • I guess Ashcroft has forgotten the part where he threatened to quit because of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping?

  • Tom Cleaver – If you can tell us, what do you know of the contract with the Hollywood writers?
    Your earlier post on the the strike was great, can you share more insight on the current proposal?

  • “Now, I don’t have to; it looks like SurveyUSA already put together a chart. (It puts itself at #1, though SUSA didn’t poll any of the early contests.)”

    SUSA did, however, do the Washington State polls. They predicted McCain 54% to Huckabee 25%. I guess they consider that half perfect.

  • Wow. I don’t know if I just missed this earlier, or if maybe this is all bogus or whatever, but I just found a link to a site that shows every difference between Hillary and Barack’s voting records in the Senate. And I don’t see how it looks good for Hillary. Granted, there’s often a lot more to these things than “Yea” or “Nay” votes, and perhaps there is more to it than this, but I’d really like to get some explanation from a Hillary supporter on this stuff.

    As always, I promise to listen to you; though I make no promises on agreement. I’ve always assumed there wasn’t much policy difference between them, so I’d like to hear why this shouldn’t count against her (though not all these votes are bad for her).

    http://politicalmaelstrom.blogspot.com/2008/01/actual-differences-between-barack-and.html

  • As a fervent Obama supporter, I feel that I owe my apologies to the Clinton supporters out there. Too often, Obama supporters get an embarrassing level of belief in him and are necessarily going to be disappointed. He is, after all, human, subject to human frailties, subject to the realities of politics, and all the rest.

    Despite my visceral disgust towards some of the things that the Clintons (or their surrogates) have tried to do during the campaign, I can’t help but admire that Mrs. Clinton is an extremely accomplished politician and deserving of true praise. Was Obama not a true phenomenon on a number of different levels, this would have been over long ago – a testemant to both candidates’ abilities.

    I am sorry to all of you Clinton supporters out there that are getting essentially yelled at for having a different preference. Whoever wins, we need to all calm down and agree that both Dems are MUCH better than McCain.

  • I just watched that Hillary “outreach” video and think it’s silly. It reminds me slightly of the Huckabee Chuck Norris video which used old Chuck Norris jokes to sell Huckabee. And while I guess it might have worked as it got him attention, I still contend that while it was funny, the joke was at Huckabee’s expense and made him look silly. I think the Hillary one does too.

    In the end, it generally doesn’t work to make fun of your candidate’s lameness to make them look cooler. At least Huck needed some attention, but pointing out how unhip Hillary is won’t win her votes. Or so my experience has shown me. I see what marketing people are going for when they create these kind of ads, but it’s really a tight rope you’ve got to walk to point out how lame your product is without reinforcing that people think it’s lame. Marketing rhetoric aside, funny ads aren’t enough. The humor still has to sell the product and if the product doesn’t relate to the joke, people don’t buy.

  • The Washington State Republican caucuses don’t get much weirder than this:

    http://soundpolitics.com/archives/010126.html

    “The first thing to understand is that people do not always vote by presidential preference. In my caucus, and in many others in my pooled caucus, presidential preference never even came up. Only two people wanted the two delegate spots, so we nominated them and elected them.

    “At the precinct caucus next to ours, there were far more participants than delegates, but a similar story: they all knew each other and just said, “well, who wants to go?,” and they picked two to nominate and that was it. Presidential preference never even entered into the equation.

    “Other caucuses were different: a few active Republicans at a precinct caucus a few tables away didn’t get elected, because they were outnumbered by Huckabee supporters.”

    Huh? Presidential preference never came up? In other words, the reason they stopped after 87% was that some of the delegates elected hadn’t given the candidates much thought yet! Aren’t you glad you’re not a republican.

  • “Der Amerikanische WaffenSchutzstaffel” has no other choice but to kill these guys. Gods forbid that they’re kept around to permit the Bushylvanians’ being brought before the courts. After all, they can hang a war criminal—and having his broken-necked corpse photographed on the cold, concrete floor of an execution chamber—and broadcast the world ’round via everybody’s cell phones—is probably not the “legacy” KG43 had in mind.

  • Hilary should play to her strengths, and this add is more representative of her weaknesses. Nobody achieves success in humor or being cool when it’s obvious they’re trying so hard.

  • To be a Republican you need to believe:

    1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton

    2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush’s Daddy made war on him , a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a “we can’t find Bin Laden” diversion.

    3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Viet Nam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

    4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq .

    5. A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational drug corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

    6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans’ benefits and combat pay.

    7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won’t have sex.

    8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

    9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMO’s and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

    10. Global warming and tobacco’s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

    11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

    12. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet

    13. The public has a right to know about Hillary’s cattle trades, but George Bush’s driving record and military record are none of our business.

    14. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

    15. Supporting “Executive Privilege” for every Republican ever born, who will be born or who might be born (in perpetuity.)

    16. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960’s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the ’80’s is irrelevant.

    17. Support for hunters who shoot their friends and blame them for wearing orange vests similar to those worn by the quail.

  • Buzz Mon (#7) – your question is hereby answered.

    I’m going to start by saying that I was not a supporter of the strike in the months leading up to it, having been through the Great Writers Strike of 1988. Over the years since, I have come to see what some call the “bourgeois bolsheviks” in the Guild as not being as physically adept as they have been rhetorically adept (a writerly way of saying many of them have no clue), and I have watched things that should have been accomplished blow up because of overheated rhetoric from my side of the conference table, coupled with a lack of understanding of the word “negotiate.” (Writers, by the very experience of becoming Writers, are usually socially inept.) I didn’t vote for Patric Verrone when he ran for Guild President because he reeked of all of that.

    That said, I will now say that Patric pulled the rabbit out of the hat, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, did the deed, lived up to his lack of hype, and in general won the war. Congratulations Mr. Verrone.

    We got a better deal than the Directors did (which has to be a historic first). After three years, our internet residuals will be based on a percentage of the distributor’s profits, rather than the permanent flat fee the DGA settled for, (which is the way it’s always been and has been one of the causes of this strike). This means that – if the future lives up to its projected hype – our boats will be floating on the rising tide of increased revenue – revenue that can be easily calculated without an army of lawyers, accountants and private detectives looking for where the profits were hidden – rather than we sit in a local bar named “Residuals” (it really does exist) and complain about how we got screwed yet again. No more “producer’s net profits” (which Eddie Murphy once quite accurately described as “monkey points”). Basically, we got a “percentage of the gross,” like the stars do.

    I’d like to personally thank all those “flaky actors” over the Screen Actors Guild, and particularly the A-list talent who could have survived quite nicely regardless of their ignoring us had they so chosen, for standing fast with us and torpedoing the Golden Globes. Had that not happened, the two most powerful studio heads in Hollywood would not have personally come to the negotiating table and worked things out as they did.

    Some of the more “bolshevik” among our bourgeoisie wanted to stay out till June (likely because they were already among the long-term unemployed and had little to lose) and hold things up for “matters of principle” like unionizing reality-TV and animation, and securing the right to not cross another union’s picket line, but most everyone else sees that Patric was entirely correct when he said yesterday that “this is the best contract the Writers Guild of America has ever gotten.” It does rank right up there with the 1941 contract that recognized the Guild’s existence, and it does establish the kind of precedents that will mean writers 100 years from now, telling their stories in ways I can’t begin to imagine (other than they will continue to have beginnings, middles and ends), will be able to live on the fruits of their creative endeavor.

    And so I say that if Patric Verrone was insane enough to take on a second term of herding a swarm of bees through a blizzard with a switch – which is the closest metaphor I can give you for what it’s like leading writers around – I’d vote for him this time.

    The shorter version of the above: YIPPEE!! YAHOO!!! YAY!!! HURRAH!!!!!!!!!!

  • Shorter John Ashcroft: Nothing to see here. Move along. No need to examine the record of Bush and the Justice Department to examine complicity in unlawful activities. Please don’t put me in jail.

    I fear Steve at #15 is right. Time to start tying-up loose ends for the Bushies and getting rid of the evidence. No need to have potential litigants on human rights violations alive after the administration gets turned out of Washington to screw-up all their tee times when they’re out of office. In a related note, maybe North Vietnam could put McCain back on trial for murder in his bombing raids. With a little water boarding McCain would probably confess to a lot of things.

  • I thought that ad was pretty darn silly, cringeworthy, even.

    But, since I’m 43, I thought maybe there was something I was missing. So I gathered the almost 14 and almost 17 yo to the screen and showed it to them.

    “That’s lame.”
    “Wait, that’s for real, a real ad? I thought it was a parody.”

    Maybe I’m too old and they’re too young?

  • That Clinton ad is awful. Why not just have her sing “Who Let the Dogs Out?” with the Mittmeister?

  • “…“A U.S. Defense Department analyst has been arrested and charged with espionage, accused of passing American military secrets to the Chinese government.”

    Must not have been part of the Sibel Edmonds’ States Secrets group.

    Ashcroft has had himself anointed in oil once too often…his vision has become blurred by it. I had hoped Missouri Republicans could see through his hypocrisy by now. Remember, the voters in Missouri voted for a dead guy over Ashcroft. He thinks himself too pure for the human race yet has been responsible for the torture and suffering of many innocents. How is it the contemptible pass themselves off as glorious and feel themselves so righteous they are beyond reproach. How easily he forgets the hospital scene with Gonzales sent by his glorious dictator. Why has he gagged Sibel Edmonds if he believed this. The man’s history is one of denying civil liberties and granting executive power above the law. He redefines the term ‘hypocrisy’ by these statements. Missouri Republicans used to be a contradiction in terms.

    YES I’M SHOUTING…DONE BY TORTURE TO MAKE LIES BELIEVABLE INFORMATION…”…The Pentagon announced today that it has charged six detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison …” They wanted confessions and tortured people to get them to say exactly what they wanted them to say. So how do they expect to validate their claims after using torture to obtain them? Does the Pentagon really expect us to believe anything coming from this torture capitol?

  • Thank you Mr Cleaver.
    I was hoping that it was as good as it sounded from NPR (which did describe the permanent flat fee that you mentioned).
    I appreciate the view from the inside.
    I love good news.

  • I’m just wondering. How are you Obama supporters going to feel when Court TV broadcast the trial of MR Rezco in the next week or so?

  • Jim, @27,

    Trying to break TCBR truce already? Tell us something good about Clinton, not something bad about Obama. Or else we’ll think you’re a potted plant. Or a planted pot-head.

  • I’m just wondering. How are you Obama supporters going to feel when Court TV broadcast the trial of MR Rezco in the next week or so?

    Well, we’re not going to care unless somehow Obama is tied to it. Thanks for asking.

    Say hi to Marc Rich for me. (Joking!)

  • Hey Jim (#27):

    Why don’t you go read the NYT article on how Bill Clinton gets $31 million “donated” to his “foundation” after he intervenes with a Canadian con artist to get a contract to mine uranium in Kazakhstan? Interestingly enough, he was actually working at cross-purposes to US policy supported by his wife when he did it.

    Oh, and what is your native language? It sure isn’t English.

  • Now, now, Tom. Play nice. It’s one thing to let the Hillary people have fun with their invented Obama scandal, but the Clintons are really sensitive to this stuff after all the gruff they took. After all, it’s not just any president who gets impeached. It’s like making a “bend over to pick up the soap” joke to someone who recently got out of prison. Something’s just aren’t as funny to people who were traumatized by them.

    A gentle rebuke is acceptable, but we should save the big guns for the upcoming general election.

  • All the differences between their voting records?

    Like how Clinton voted more than twenty times more this last year than Obama?

    Yeah, way to stand for something. You guys are losing any support I had for him. He seems to sit squarely in the middle of the mealy-mouthed DINOs, from what I can see.

  • Yeah, way to stand for something. You guys are losing any support I had for him. He seems to sit squarely in the middle of the mealy-mouthed DINOs, from what I can see.

    First off, the website I posted below only shows ten votes missed last year, not twenty; and five of those were symbolic “Sense of the Senate” votes and not actual bills. He co-sponsored one of them (also with Hillary) regarding the no-confidence vote on Alberto Gonzalez, so it’s hard to say he was just wimping out. There was also a non-binding agreement on budget spending, so that puts six of these ten votes as not being actual bills.

    But as for your DINO allegation, Obama was one of 25 Senators who voted against the rotton bankruptcy bill that’s helping to screw everything up now. Hillary didn’t vote. And of the symbolic “Sense of the Senate” votes, one was her vote to keep Gitmo inmates from joining American society (whew!), and two others were sabre-rattling against Iran so that Cheney could have his next war. Damn Obama for missing those! I guess I would have preferred that he voted against them, but they were only symbolic and it’s still better than Hillary’s conservative votes.

    And then there was this strong Democratic bill she voted Yes on:
    Vote to pass an amendment to reaffirm support for all men and women of the United States Armed Forces, to strongly condemn any attacks on General David Petraeus and all members of the US Armed Forces and to specifically condemn Moveon.org’s advertisement about General David Petraeus.

    Yes, if only Barack had attacked MoveOn too, he really could have proven his Democratic bonafides like Hillary. If you guys can’t come up with real problems with Obama, you really shouldn’t bother. The truth is that Hillary’s a fine candidate, but people prefer Barack more. Sorry.

    http://politicalmaelstrom.blogspot.com/2008/01/actual-differences-between-barack-and.html

  • Um, Doc B., regarding the MoveOn issue:

    Hillary voted “No” on the GOP’s Petraeus amendment that condemned Moveon.org.

    She voted “Yes” on Barbara Boxer’s version that supported Petraeus without attacking Moveon.

    Her actions would seem to be a little more supportive of MoveOn than, say, skipping the votes altogether, no?

  • ***I’m just wondering. How are you Obama supporters going to feel when Court TV broadcast the trial of MR Rezco in the next week or so?***

    “how are…”—present tense.

    “when Court TV broadcast…”—past tense.

    “next week…”—future tense.

    Congratulations, Jim—you are a WINNER! Tell our contestant what he’s won, Don!

    (a familiar voice filters in from Arizona)

    Well, Steve, Jim’s ability to use all three tenses in a single sentence has earned him thirty lashes with a slightly-overcooked piece of off-brand linguine, the rusted-out rear bumper from a 1967 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon, and a front-row seat at Rudi Giuliani’s 2009 presidential coronation!

  • Hillary voted “No” on the GOP’s Petraeus amendment that condemned Moveon.org.

    Oops, Dwight. You’re totally right. The website I got that from had it posted as a “Y” but I checked it out and she did vote against it. I’ve now written them a comment telling them to fix it as I had dumbly trusted them. I still fail to see how his non-vote makes him a DINO, however. It’s one thing to find flaws in the other candidate, but it’s a bit hyperbolic to say that missing a symbolic vote means he’s not really a Democrat. But all the same, I feel stupid for getting that wrong.

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