Thursday’s Mini-Report

March 13, 2008

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Bloodshed in Baghdad: “An explosion killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens on Thursday after a car bomb detonated in a commercial district of central Baghdad, adding to a recent upsurge in Iraq’s violence. Explosives in the parked car went off just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone. It’s the latest in a string of attacks after several months of relative calm linked to last year’s U.S. security buildup. Also on Thursday, Iraqi police and a morgue official said that the body of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop kidnapped last month was found just outside the northern city where he was abducted.”

* Well, this ought to be interesting: “The House will go into a rare closed session Thursday night to debate a controversial electronic surveillance legislation. It is the first closed session in the House since 1983 and only the fifth in congressional history. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) plans to offer a motion on the issue as soon as the House finishes work on the budget. During the session, the chamber will discuss an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that has been stalled in Congress for months over the issue of granting immunity to telecom companies who aided the government in the wake of the Sept. 11. Following the closed session, the House will debate their version of the FISA bill, which does not include immunity.”

* On a related note, Bush launched into a spectacularly misleading harangue this morning about FISA and telecom immunity. Shortly thereafter, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came just short of telling people that Bush is lying: “The president is wrong and he knows it.” (I think she’s right, but we shouldn’t rule out the possibility that the president is wrong and has no idea what he’s talking about.)

* Another one for the list: “The FBI continued to improperly obtain private telephone, e-mail and financial records five years after it was granted expanded powers under the USA Patriot Act, according to a report issued today.”

* Buckle up: “The U.S. has finally slid into recession, according to the majority of economists in the latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey, a view that was reinforced by new data showing a sharp drop in retail sales last month. ‘The evidence is now beyond a reasonable doubt,’ said Scott Anderson of Wells Fargo & Co., who was among the 71% of 51 respondents to say that the economy is now in a recession.”

* Metzenbaum was a first-class mensch: “Howard M. Metzenbaum, the populist Democratic multimillionaire who represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate for 19 years, died yesterday at his home in Florida. No cause was given. He was 90.”

* Are lobbyists for Washington newspapers trying to screw over bloggers? It sure looks like it.

* There was quite a bit of talk this afternoon that a plan for a re-vote in Florida was making progress, but it hit some pretty serious snags as the day progressed.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/florida_revote_plan_in_trouble.php

* I can’t wait for the explanation on this one: “When Justice Department lawyers proposed adding a new rule that would require U.S. contractors to report waste, fraud or abuse they encounter while doing work for the government, they intended it to apply to all of the $350 billion in government contracts each year. But in a twist that has evolved into a Capitol Hill mystery, the proposed rule that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget published late last year includes language that would exempt from such reporting all U.S. contractors who do work overseas. There have been more than $100 billion in such contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past five years.”

* The three most widely read political bloggers among the “liberal” media are Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Reynolds, and Mickey Kaus. Hmm.

* Amusing: “Lou Dobbs claimed on his radio show that ‘illegal immigration’ is among ‘the top three issues for American voters in both political parties.'” That isn’t even close to being true.

* Have I mentioned lately how much I love pro-forma sessions?

* Bush, yesterday: “I think when people take a look back at this moment in our economic history, they’ll recognize tax cuts work.” He sure is a funny one.

* Speaking of comedy, Karl Rove said he learned a lot from Bush, including lessons about “trust and honesty and straightforwardness.” There’s something deeply wrong with these people.

* And finally, New York Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will take over for Eliot Spitzer on Monday, held a press conference today, reassuring the public about the smooth transition. One gutsy reporter asked, “Just so we don’t have to go through this whole resignation thing again, have you ever patronized a prostitute?” Paterson thought for a minute and said, “Only the lobbyists.”

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

“Only the lobbyists.”

LOL.

Now that’s comedy. I like this guy already.

  • There’s something deeply wrong with these people.

    And their enablers. I’m looking at YOU, media morons.

  • Clearly Mr. Rove meant that he learned those traits were entirely unnecessary in a president.

  • The President may not know he’s lying,
    but Mike McConnell surely does, (because Rand Beers, Richard Clarke, Don Kerrick, and Suzanne Spaulding sent McConnell a letter to tell him that his statements on this issue do not accord with the reality).

  • “…adding to a recent upsurge in Iraq’s violence.”

    See, the surge IS working. Who knew how catchy the whole surge thing would become over there?

    On the most read bloggers by the media, I noticed they broke it down into the categories of “media” and “elite media.” I’d really like to see this list of just who are “elite” in the media world anymore. I doubt I’d concur. This poll also points out how self-pollinating the “liberal” media are. And they call the blogosphere the echo chamber?

  • Headline: “Clinton strategist says Obama ‘can’t win the general election’”

    Of course, this is false. However, Hillary is doing everything possible to make sure it’s true by November (thank you, uncommitted supers).

  • In response to Bill O’Reilly’s late habit (and rather nasty, @ that) of essentially trivialising Nazi propaganda techniques towards demonising real or imagined enemies, Your Correspondent felt compelled to post this Open Letter online to call attention to the folly of his ways in this respect.

    Read it and share.

  • I’d really like to see this list of just who are “elite” in the media world anymore.

    Well, the link that Steve gave to Atrios’s site pretty much spells out what the poll takers considered “elite”:

    Respondents were coded as “elite” based on their employer. They included prominent newspapers (The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor), news networks (ABC, CBS, CNN), wire services (Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters), and prominent opinion magazines (The New Republic, Weekly Standard, National Review, Time, Newsweek, Foreign Affairs). Of the 140 respondents, 33 were from elite outlets

    Pretty broad definition of “elite” yet also fairly narrow. I’d need to read the paper to see what the meaning behind it is, but basically for the purposes of looking for evidence of “liberal media” or “conservative media” bias these numbers don’t tell us much – the fact that they included “prominent opinion magazines” in their mix means that reporters are being compared to people being paid to be opinionated jackasses. I’d expect opinionated jackasses to browse through all of those blogs – liberal or conservative – to find the talking points from both sides to comment on them. If they aren’t, then they probably aren’t doing their jobs.

    The thing that makes me suspicious of the study is that Drudge isn’t on the list. Given the way the opinionated jackasses slobber all over him most of the time, the fact that he isn’t on the list makes me wonder what’s going on.

  • NonyNony, I recognized that list of the “usual suspects,” but who among the staff fulfilled the qualifications of “elite” to answer to the poll? Some of the NYT’s reporters are first rate, but not all members of their staff (harumph, Bill Kristol) would be considered true reporters. Noticeably absent was anyone from McClatchy, who, by all regards, have been among the most aggressive news bureaus around. To understand this list, it’s important to reveal the list of respondents, not just their employers. Otherwise, your point is very valid. But where is the Politco in the list of favored blogs? Only for Drudge?

  • 8. NonyNony said: The thing that makes me suspicious of the study is that Drudge isn’t on the list. Given the way the opinionated jackasses slobber all over him most of the time, the fact that he isn’t on the list makes me wonder what’s going on.

    You’re assuming that Drudge would be considered a blog, whereas I think he would qualify more as the equivalent of an online wire service with no original content (caveat: I haven’t been on Drudge’s site in years so I might be wrong about that). I’m actually more surprised Drudge isn’t on the list of elite media since you know that is the first place most of them go for “news”, probably before even their own publications’ websites.

  • http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88165077

    Senator Clinton interviewed with Steve Inskeep on NPR yesterday. I couldn’t help but wonder if, like President Dubya, she’s forgotten that we *record* stuff. She is now on the record denying she said pretty much everything she said over the past month, or else rationalizing it into meaning something other than what it obviously meant. For example, that oft-repeated bit about McCain being more qualified than Obama. Nope, never said that. You can hear Inskeep getting quite incredulous at some points.

    And, of course, she’s still arguing that Florida and Michigan should be seated at the convention despite their rules-breaking, but that’s old news to me. I find these denials of thing we all know she said more interesting, in a macabre sort of way. I’ve defended Clinton from Obama supporters often, but this just might be the smoking gun for me. Over the past few years, I’ve only ever heard double-speak (the more blunt might call them lies) more blatant than this when listening to President Dubya’s water carriers.

  • Here’s a somewhat positive update on an item CB posted yesterday.

    Gay Iranian Refugee Allowed Temporary Asylum

    A gay Iranian teenager who was refused a safe haven in the United Kingdom has now been granted temporary asylum by British home secretary Jacqui Smith, following rising concern that he would be executed if forced to return to Iran, according to the Press Association.

    It’s only a temporary reprieve, but it’s a start.

  • I can’t wait for the explanation on this one

    It makes me nostalgic for those pre-9/11 days when the Department of Defense could not “track $2.3 trillion in transactions” on the day before 9/11 (September 10th, 2001). Never really got an explanation on that one.

    On the next day a physical and, more importantly, psychological attack was perpetrated upon the good people of the United States (and the world). Today 9/11 is routinely exploited as an instrument of tyranny–but there is little, if any, discussion in the quote-mainstream media that appropriately addresses 9/11 as the psychological attack that it was. The psychological trauma that was visited upon the American People on 9/11 is largely perpetuated by those who purport to protect us from the threat of the nefarious tactics of a small faction in the world-at-large who allegedly evade the capture of western intelligence services and a global military empire.

    But what’s $2.3 trillion? What’s $350 billion? What’s $1 trillion for the 2008 “defense” budget? We are engaged in a Global War On a Psychological State (or Nefarious Tactic, if you prefer) on the great battlefield of the mind here in the last days of the Weimar Republic.

  • “The U.S. has finally slid into recession, according to the majority of economists in the latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey, a view that was reinforced by new data showing a sharp drop in retail sales last month. ‘The evidence is now beyond a reasonable doubt,’ said Scott Anderson of Wells Fargo & Co., who was among the 71% of 51 respondents to say that the economy is now in a recession.”

    How bad is it? Here’s how bad:

    http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/paulson-prescribes-tough-medicine-wall/story.aspx?guid=%7B23E12299%2D1C33%2D40F1%2DA253%2D272029A8710B%7D

    In remarks this morning, Paulson called for several steps to strengthen federal oversight of the mortgage and credit markets — the most comprehensive federal regulatory response aimed at the roots of the financial-market turmoil that has roiled Wall Street for the last seven months.

    Paulson called for a complete overhaul of the market for mortgage derivatives, decrying the complexity of the products. He also said mortgage lenders should face new tough licensing requirements and standards.

    “Excessive complexity is the enemy on transparency and market efficiency … and now markets are punishing not only complex, but noncomplex products as well,” Paulson said.

    Credit-rating agencies must differentiate between ratings for derivatives and corporate bonds, Paulson said, adding that investors should not give too much weight to those ratings. Paulson also called for a thorough review of new global capital standards for banks.

    Regulators and investors became complacent, he said.

    Most of the new rules can be implemented without legislation, Paulson said. If regulators find they don’t have authority, they will not be shy in asking Congress for new powers, he added.

  • 1. People read Sully to laugh at him.
    2. Nit-pick: “Patriot” should be ALL CAPS, it’s an acronym.
    3. Can we please drop the “Maybe the pResident is just stupid” meme? I’ve known a few stupid people and none of them are as consistently wrong as that cretin. Now if you want to say he’s a liar and an idiot…
    4. That missing provision for oversight of contractors doing work overseas? Check Cheney’s pockets.

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