Thursday’s Mini-Report

December 7, 2006

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The House failed to pass its so-called “fetal pain” bill yesterday, though it won surprisingly strong support. In fact, a 250 to 162 majority backed the legislation, though it was short of the two-thirds majority required under rules in place at the time. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said it knows of no legitimate scientific evidence that shows that fetuses are capable of feeling pain at 20 weeks, as the bill states. (See how your lawmaker voted)

* Professional blowhard Bill Bennett lashed out at the Iraq Study Group yesterday, writing in the National Review that, “In all my time in Washington I’ve never seen such smugness, arrogance, or such insufferable moral superiority. Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible.” One wonders if he appreciates the irony of Bill Bennett using these words to describe others.

* We may be witnessing amazing technological advances in American society, and the military may spend billions creating the most sophisticated weaponry imaginable, but in the end, sometimes it’s Silly String that ends up saving U.S. troops’ lives. Seriously.

* Thanks to Keith Olbermann, we may not refer to MSNBC as the “perennial third place” finisher much longer.

* Robert Gates was confirmed by the Senate yesterday as the new Secretary of Defense, following a 98 to 2 vote. And who were the two? Radical left-wing senators who can’t stomach anyone Bush nominates to head the Pentagon? Not exactly — the two were Sens. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), both of whom believed Gates isn’t nearly right-wing enough.

* The Council on American-Islamic Relations has a very reasonable argument that Dennis Prager should be removed from his government post on the taxpayer-funded United States Holocaust Memorial Council. White House press secretary Tony Snow called the matter “an issue that the president does not need to adjudicate and, therefore, will not.”

* CNN’s Dana Bash’s report on Democratic responses to the Iraq Study Group report really didn’t make any sense.

* Howard Dean is still trying to raise awareness about the voting problems in Florida’s 13th. Good for him; this is a story that still needs attention.

* Arguing that Americans need oil to live, Bill O’Reilly argued yesterday that the United States “may have to … level cities like Tehran, kill hundreds of thousands of people” if Iran takes over Iraq and then fosters a revolution inside Saudi Arabia. Wow.

* Harold Meyerson: “[T]he Southern problem, it turns out, is really the Republicans’. They’ve become too Southern — too suffused with the knee-jerk militaristic, anti-scientific, dogmatically religious, and culturally, sexually and racially phobic attitudes of Dixie — to win friends and influence elections outside the South.” (thanks to SKNM for the tip)

* No more Friedmans for Friedman.

* Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) apparently raised a few eyebrows yesterday when he said that the Democratic plan to actually work five-day weeks in Congress means that “Democrats could care less about families.” Today, on Fox News, Kingston defended his comments, saying, “With BlackBerrys, cell phones, you can stay in touch with what’s going on in Washington.” Too bad that hasn’t worked.

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

I’m with Bill O’Reilly. If they won’t sell us our own oil (that somehow got under their sand) then we’ll just have to nuke them. Because we just can’t live without gasoline.

I can’t figure out how we’re going to get the gasoline we need to live if we nuke the middle east, but Bill must have a really good plan for that, too.

(banging head on padded wall)

  • You know, it’s hard enough being a liberal Southerner without having other liberals bash my region as if it were as monolithic as the Communists were supposed to be. If you look at the demographics, you’ll find that the Republicans do well in rural areas. Period. The cities of the south vote blue just as the cities of the mid west do.

  • “In all my time in Washington I’ve never seen such smugness, arrogance, or such insufferable moral superiority. Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible.”

    Could he have been talking about Bush?

  • You know, I already have low expectations of morons like Jack Kingston, but can he – and the rest of the illiterate right – get it right: It’s COULDN’T care less. Not could care less – that infers that you care. Jeez.

  • Note that Santorum opposed Gates largely because Gates favors pursuing diplomatic relations with Iran and Syria. Remember this if the “Santorum for U.N. Ambassador” nonsense goes any further.

  • I was hoping that if a McCain Unit (20,000 troops) were sent to Iraq within a Friedman Unit of 4 months then the problems might be solved. In other words if a McCain came in a Friedman there would be one of CB’s pregnant pauses in the hostilities. (Is it illegal to torture a joke?)

    I resent the implication that Republicans didn’t spend enough time in Congress. They spent 3 days in US Congress and 2 days in Sexual Congress with hookers every week. What more can we ask.

    I dislike Rick Santorum as much anyone, but in spite of the source he made a point (however hypocritical for him) that there is a long term issue with Islam that the West is going to have to manage. Joshn Marshall was suggesting that we are seeing the beginnings of a reformation for Islam, but it usually take 150 violent years for a reformation to complete. We might want to come up with an intelligent farsighted plan to deal with the clash of civilizations that seems almost certain to worsen. Not ALL the problems are caused by ignorant rightwing Republicans.

    Olbermann is an uber-mensch.

    Isn’t Silly String what you string up a silly wingnut with? That’s an innovative use of the stuff, finding tripwires. That beats my idea of using Slinkys to clear tunnels in Vietnam.

    I think Gates may be a Trojan Horse.

    Bill Bennett must have mirrors on the inside of his eyelids. Calling Dr. Jung.

    Fetal pain? Probably. So what? It’s not conscious pain obviously.

  • ” Arguing that Americans need oil to live, Bill O’Reilly argued yesterday that the United States “may have to … level cities like Tehran, kill hundreds of thousands of people” if Iran takes over Iraq and then fosters a revolution inside Saudi Arabia. Wow.”

    Wow, indeed, CB. I strongly suggest that O’Reilly show us instead of shooting off his mouth by riding on a bomb dropped out of a B-52 ala Major Kong from Dr Strangelove if he so strongly believes what he sez. He could get the ride of his life (sans loofa and sexual harrassment lawsuit.) Then he could be the man he plays on TV.

  • Beating off the rescue party
    By Sidney Blumenthal

    Did anyone else find that this was an unfortunate phrase for Blumental to use?

  • Olbermann…my hero. But we should also give mad props to David Gregory, who has been sticking it to Tony Snow at the White House Press meetings for the last month. The man has balls.

  • Today, on Fox News, Kingston defended his comments, saying, “With BlackBerrys, cell phones, you can stay in touch with what’s going on in Washington.” — CB

    Well, Foley managed to stay in touch via those, didn’t he?

  • Sorry, ml (#2) – it’s true that in the War of Southern Treason there were 150,000 Southern patriots who fought for their country against the traitors. There has indeed always been a real strain of southern progressivism.

    Unfortunately, ever since your ancestors let the Barbadian pirates drop anchor in Charleson Harbor in 1715, that strain of Southern humanism has been overshadowed by the pirates and their descendants.

    Please continue to vote liberal in the cities, and work with the African-American community to send progressives to Congress, where they can ally with the non-Southern majority and overwhelm your traditional traitor class.

    But don’t complain when the rest of us read this by Harold Meyerson:

    The Southern problem, it turns out, is really the Republicans’. They’ve become too Southern — too suffused with the knee-jerk militaristic, anti-scientific, dogmatically religious, and culturally, sexually and racially phobic attitudes of Dixie — to win friends and influence elections outside the South. Worse yet, they became more Southern still on Election Day last month, when the Democrats decimated the GOP in the North and West.
    (snip)
    So: A Southern low-wage labor system is cruising along until it seeks to expand outside its region and meets fierce opposition from higher-paid workers in the North. Does that suggest any earlier episode in American history? The past, as William Faulkner once wrote of the South, isn’t even past. And now the persistence of Southern identity has become a bigger problem for Republicans than it is for Democrats.

    And agree with him. We agree with him because it’s true. The American Nightmare speaks with a Southern accent, and has since 1715.

  • Like rascism, nothing in history or politics tells you a single thing about a particular person no matter where they live. Just as there are no blue or red states. It’s all much more granular than that.

  • Thanks, Dale (@14)
    I’m not even a native Virginian but I sure as hell get tired of others telling me — constantly — that I’m the lowest of low racist, moron, bigot and who knows whatever else, just because I’m white (well… pink ) and live in rural “Down South”. All that does is make me dig my heels in and be contrary (just like I used to defend the States — something I never thought I would do — when I was in UK and was told that we all spoke “wrong” and had no literature or history)

  • CNN’s Dana Bash’s husband works for Rep. Jane Harman… Dana will “bash” Pelosi every chance she gets…

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