Thursday’s Mini-Report

February 15, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* With the House GOP caucus having announced that they will not whip tomorrow’s vote on the anti-escalation resolution, some sources indicate that as many as 60 House Republicans may break ranks and vote with Democrats in support of the measure.

* MSNBC has signed Keith Olbermann to a contract extension through 2011. In addition to his nightly newscast, Olbermann will now also contribute occasional “essays” to the “Nightly News with Brian Williams” and host two “Countdown” specials a year on NBC. Asked about his show’s surging popularity, Olbermann said, “There was just a sense, last year I think, that stuff needed to be said in this country and the first 95 people who probably should have done it didn’t. I just looked around and went, ‘I guess I’m the one who has to jump into the water and try to help the guy out.’ And the response to this was just phenomenal.”

* Following up on the prosecutor’s-purge controversy we’ve been watching, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), speaking on the Senate floor this afternoon, vowed to “get to the bottom” of the administration’s firings. Schumer added that if the fired U.S. Attorneys had all received positive job evaluations from the Justice Department before being sacked, “there will be real trouble.”

* Confirming rumored reports from earlier this month, Al Gore announced today a series of world-wide concerts to focus attention on the threat of global climate change. The 24-hour event on July 7 is part of a campaign, Save Our Selves — The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis, that promoters hope will trigger a broad movement. More than 100 performers are scheduled to appear at the July concerts, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, Bon Jovi, Melissa Etheridge, the Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Duran Duran, Korn, Pharrell, the Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.

* Surviving war in the 21st century: “Iraqis are using GoogleEarth, which provides real satellite imagery of the entire world (and which can zoom in close enough for you to see your house), to plan their travel routes in hopes of avoiding insurgents, car bombs, and other surprise attacks. Necessity is the mother of invention.”

* Given the awful response to the first episode of Fox News’ The 1/2-Hour News Hour, the right-wing network is apparently not confident in the show’s future. Fox News ordered a grand total of two episodes today. (Four would have been an insult. But two?)

* As a sign of how little Bush wanted to work with congressional Democrats this year, Bush nominated Andrew Biggs to be deputy director of the Social Security Administration, despite the fact that Biggs has been an advocate of privatization. Yesterday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), apparently offended by the nomination, said his panel would neither consider nor hold hearings on the nominee.

* Dinesh D’Souza’s anti-American book went from being #19 on the NYT best-seller list, to out of the top 35, to #15 in three weeks. “Something seems fishy.”

* Following up on last year’s GOP culture of corruption, federal prosecutors are investigating whether Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R), who was a Republican congressman up until last year, accepted unreported gifts or payments from a company that was awarded secret military contracts when Gibbons served in Congress.

* Considering how much I enjoy Shakespeare’s Sister, and the work I did at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, I have to assume that I definitely qualify as Spartacus.

* Bill Clinton is the nation’s most popular political figure. Sorry, conservatives.

* I think Glenn’s right; today’s NYT article about FireDogLake and the Libby trial is a watershed moment for the netroots.

* Demonstrating the kind of stupidity that’s made him famous, Rush Limbaugh suggested yesterday that Barack Obama could “renounce” being black.

* And following up on an item from yesterday, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) vowed to keep smoking cigars in his office, no matter how much smoke it produces, how badly it smells, or who it bothers. “We already have the biggest air-purifying unit you can get, and I would be happy to try to make sure that it’s even less odiferous around here, but I’m not going to stop because we still have the right to do so.” (And to clarify, Rep. Keith Ellison did not call the cops on Tancredo.)

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

On the topic of the NYT best-sellers list — IT’S A SHAM.

The list does not indicate sales, nor popularity, nor even how good a book really is.

It’s bought and paid for by publishers who choose books they want to get promoted.

  • Highly recommend the documentary DVD called Wobblies. It’s about the IWW Union and the way the corporations and government combined to use war powers to crush it. They were labeled German sympathizers and “terrorists”. The International Workers of the World was integrated, gender-open, ethnicity-inclusive. It quite a story.

  • “* Dinesh D’Souza’s anti-American book went from being #19 on the NYT best-seller list, to out of the top 35, to #15 in three weeks. “Something seems fishy.””

    If it can work for L. Ron Hubbard…

  • I just watched that clip from the Fox “comedy” news program. The laughter had that same involuntary and forced quality of applause at Soviet Central Committee meetings… though, aside from being held at gunpoint, I can’t imagine what other reason there could be for laughing at that crap.

    Let’s hope Fox keeps this fragrant offering before the public, and perhaps even scripts promo text for the unhinged loonies of their nightly lineup to push it. BillO or Hannity pimping that poop factory really could be the gift that keeps on giving.

  • “Iraqis are using GoogleEarth, which provides real satellite imagery of the entire world (and which can zoom in close enough for you to see your house), to plan their travel routes in hopes of avoiding insurgents, car bombs, and other surprise attacks. Necessity is the mother of invention.”

    I’m not sure how true this is. 1) Iraqis have what? 2 hours of electricity/day? 2) And on top of that, how many have computers or mobile devices with Internet access? I don’t doubt their sophistication but their access to the technology that allows the claim to be true for a lot of Iraqis. And last of all is 3) Most images on Google Earth around a few years old. I don’t know how it could be the least bit useful to avoiding the locations of recent insurgent attacks. But I could just be promoting FUD and be totally wrong. Check the Wikipedia page for what is probably a balanced presentation of Google Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_earth

  • Yeah Rian, I couldn’t really get anything worthwhile of Iraq on Googlemaps. And what in the world would you look for anyway? A parked car?

  • “Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), apparently offended by the nomination, said his panel would neither consider nor hold hearings on the nominee.”

    Way to go, Senator Baucus! Let the children at the White House have it right between the eyes and put them on notice that playtime is over now.
    There’s a new marshal in town and he’s not going to take any crap from anybody. Right on!

  • I used think Flush Limpbag could serve some purpose on this Earth. For example, he could be converted to a huge pile of fertilizer.

    Now I realize I’m wrong and I’d be willing to add to the amount of plastic in the landfills by cutting up his big bloated useless arse and stowing the bits in contractor type garbage bags. I think I’d need at least one box. Maybe two. I don’t care.

  • Demonstrating the kind of stupidity that’s made him famous, Rush Limbaugh suggested yesterday that Barack Obama could “renounce” being black.

    Limpdick the Drug-Addled Looney just keeps getting crazier and crazier on the subject of race. Remember how he got fired as a football analyst for claiming the Pittsburg quarterback (who was black) only got the position because he was black? And most recently that the failed Bears quarterback is being ragged on for being white?

    I love watching white supremacists prove that lemurs are a higher form of life than the homo sap white bipeds of the Confederate Traitor Party, er, the Republican Looney Party, er, the American Taliban Party.

  • D’Souza’s book is #32 according to the list on the site.

    Any resemblence between the New York Times bestseller list and reality is at best coincidental. Their methodology is utterly suspect and Republican in its secrecy. I emailed a friend who has access to Bookscan data–Bookscan adds up actual sales, not all, but maybe 3/4–and 10,681 copies have been sold so far, so we could estimate that at 14,000 total. Last week it sold 3,250, perhaps 4,300 total.

    For comparison’s sake, “Letters to a Christian Nation” and Bill Bryson’s new book are right above D’Souza’s. Bookscan says they sold 2,093 and 1,713 last week, respectively. So really D’Souza should be higher.

  • Just to clarify: Fox didn’t order two episodes TODAY; that’s mistaken. They had always had this as a two-episode order, with a pickup if it showed promise.

    In other words, they ALWAYS had no faith that this would work. And they were proven right.

  • Remember how he got fired as a football analyst for claiming the Pittsburg quarterback (who was black) only got the position because he was black? And most recently that the failed Bears quarterback is being ragged on for being white?

    As a Philadelphia Eagles diehard and devoted fan of the great Donovan McNabb, I must correct the record here.

    The fat racist jackass didn’t argue that McNabb got the job (for the Eagles, not the Steelers) because he was black; his “point” was that McNabb wasn’t being criticized enough for his subpar play at the time because the media was “desirous” of seeing a black QB succeed.

    This was bullshit on its face, as Doug Williams had guided the Redskins to a Super Bowl win about 15 years earlier and Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham (also an Eagle) were getting toward the end of their superb careers. The whole “black QB” issue long had been put to rest. McNabb himself had led the Eagles to something like 34 wins in the three previous seasons, plus a few more in the playoffs. At the time Limpy spewed his bile at D-Mac, the quarterback had a bruised thumb–not a good injury for a guy who has to throw the football for a living–and the team was playing like crap around him.

    In an all-time case of just deserts, McNabb tore Limp apart in a very restrained, courteous and devastating series of remarks; Rushhole was fired from ESPN; and McNabb and the Eagles won 12 games again that year.

    As for Rex Grossman, the guy just isn’t that good. Perhaps the fat sack of crap was somewhat cheered, however, by the fact that the winning QB in the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning, is by any objective standard whiter than Rex.

  • And who can forget the time last year when Limbaugh claimed that the Democrats only wanted to nominate Sherrod Brown for the senate seat in Ohio because he’s black . . .

    Apparenly, Rush didn’t realize that Sherrod Brown is white.

    Ha ha.

  • Weren’t both coaches in the Super Bowl black?

    Deliver Us From Evil is coming out on DVD. Previews make it look like a pretty good indictment of that wonderful Catholic Church Insitution.

  • You mention the US attorney purge (which included Daniel Bogden of Nevada) and you mention the Gibbons investigation.

    Is it unfair to to at least suggest these two dots might be joined?

  • When TPM reported that Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) used the bogus Lincoln quote in his speech against the surge resolution, I sent an e-mail to Young’s office asking if he knew it was phony. This was the reply I got.

    “It came from an article in Tuesday’s Washington Times, and we had no reason to believe it was not legit. The Washington Times never ran a retraction on the story. Now that he’s been informed that these are not the actual words of Lincoln, he will discontinue attributing the words to Lincoln. However, he continues to totally agree with the message of the statement. Americans, especially our elected leaders, should not be issuing statements and making actions that damage the morale of our troops and our military during a time of war.”

    A) Young agrees “totally” with the idea that his colleagues should be arrested, exiled, or HANGED.
    B) Young uncritically quotes material from the Washington Times — while maintaining maximum skepticism about anything published in his state’s largest newspaper, which he invariably calls the “Daily Worker.”

  • The Google Earth thing is stupid. It’s real images, but they aren’t updated every day. I can still look at the construction of Reliant Stadium in Houston and that has been completed for at least 4 years.

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