Thursday’s Mini-Report

May 22, 2008

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* I’ll have a much more detailed report on this first thing in the morning: “In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has decided to reject his endorsement.”

* The news out of China continues to get worse: “China said the toll of dead and missing from last week’s powerful earthquake jumped to more than 80,000, while the government appealed Thursday for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.”

* Keep an eye on this: “At the same time that the House Judiciary Committee voted to issue a subpoena to former presidential adviser Karl Rove today, it released a May 5 letter from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility to committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) disclosing that the OPR is investigating ‘allegations of selective prosecution relating to the prosecutions of Don Siegelman, Georgia Thompson, and Oliver Diaz and Paul Minor.'”

* In light of John McCain’s decision to oppose the bipartisan GI Bill, and his decision not to even show up to vote on troop benefits, Barack Obama took a hard line against McCain while speaking on the Senate floor. McCain, in response, went kind of berserk.

* I feel like I’ve heard this one before: “Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in the war in Iraq, said that he expects this fall to recommend additional cuts in U.S. troop levels there…. He said he didn’t know how large those cuts might be.”

* On a related note, Petraeus isn’t sticking to the Bush script on the greatest threats in the Middle East.

* Uh oh: “Oil prices leaped above $135 a barrel in overnight trading on Thursday, a new record that underscored the growing pressures that runaway energy prices are placing on some of the biggest names in global industry…. Some investors reacted to a report on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal that the International Energy Agency, an Paris-based policy advisory group for industrialized countries, was concerned about a reduction in the long-term world supply of crude oil.”

* All of a sudden, Arnold Schwarzenegger is warming up to the idea of gay marriages in California — because it’s likely to be a boon for the state’s economy.

* I still can’t imagine how Susan Orr got the job to oversee federal family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services in the first place.

* Oh dear: “The U.S. Postal Service purchased more than 30,000 ethanol-capable trucks and minivans from 1999 to 2005, making it the biggest American buyer of alternative-fuel vehicles. Gasoline consumption jumped by more than 1.5 million gallons as a result…. A Postal Service study found the new vehicles got as much as 29 percent fewer miles to the gallon…. ‘You’re getting fewer miles per gallon, and it’s costing us more,’ Walt O’Tormey, the Postal Service’s Washington-based vice president of engineering, said in an interview. The agency may buy electric vehicles instead, he said.” (thanks to libra for the tip)

* More litigation in Florida: “Three of Florida’s Democratic delegates filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in an attempt to force the Democratic National Committee to seat Florida’s delegation at the convention.”

* Sounds to me like the wrong broadcaster got canned: “Boston-area TV journalist Barry Nolan made some news last month by calling out Bill O’Reilly, who was being honored with a local Emmy, and even invited Keith Olbermann to the ceremony as his date. Well, it didn’t work out so well for Nolan, who placed anti-O’Reilly fliers on tables during the dinner. He just got fired.”

* If you don’t want to get frustrated about bigotry and ignorance in West Virginia, be sure to steer clear of this report from the West Virginia NPR affiliate.

* It’s only the Federal Election Commission in an election year. Who needs it?

* And finally, even loyal Bushies realize that the president’s “appeasement” talk is nonsense, and they’re ignoring it while shaping administration policy. Many State Department officials “concede that the United States does not hew to one policy on engaging its enemies. ‘I’d rather be right than consistent,’ a senior Bush administration official said.”

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

Susan Orr got her job because she was appointed by the worst president in US history. It’s as if Bush was the modern version of the Manchurian Candidate. “What will hurt America? That’s what we’ll do.”

For decades, we have been going in the wrong direction on alternative fuels. Using corn for ethanol production drives up the price of food, and the energy output from corn ethanol is barely as much as the energy input. Some say it’s less. It’s an agribusiness boondoggle.

I ignored your advice and read some of the NPR West Virginia affiliate’s interviews. Frustrating is the mildest possible description of how it affects me.

  • We need to eliminate our tariffs on sugar. That step alone will allow us to produce ethanol-capable fuel efficiently without driving up the price of corn in the process. The result would be a serious decrease in carbon emissions from automobiles in a relatively short period of time.

  • allegations of selective prosecution relating to the prosecutions of Don Siegelman, Georgia Thompson, and Oliver Diaz and Paul Minor

    I didn’t realize the Siegelman case had any connection to Abramoff’s Indian casinos. But then, I don’t think I had ever heard of Diaz or Minor.

    http://rawstory.com/news/2008/How_Bush_US_attorney_riddled_with_0401.html

    29 percent fewer miles to the gallon

    My brother, who lives in Delaware, had told me this. I think they require 10% ethanol blend there. there.

  • “If you don’t want to get frustrated about bigotry and ignorance in West Virginia, be sure to steer clear of this report from the West Virginia NPR affiliate.”

    I don’t have much to add on this topic that I didn’t say in the previous thread about it, but I would note that Logan County is very close to my hometown in WV, and the quotes reported in this interview don’t surprise me in the slightest. The combination of ignorance and animosity toward outsiders is more toxic in that part of the country than anywhere else I’ve heard of, excluding perhaps Jena, LA. Dr. Khan’s surprise at the anti-Muslim sentiment prevalent in the state is due largely to the fact that Charleston, the state capital, is one of the few small islands of relative affluence and (quasi-)cosmopolitanism in the state; I’m sure that if the doctor ventured into the rural areas he’d quickly encounter a very different attitude.

  • In light of John McCain’s decision to oppose the bipartisan GI Bill, and his decision not to even show up to vote on troop benefits, Barack Obama took a hard line against McCain while speaking on the Senate floor. McCain, in response, went kind of berserk.

    Too bad McCain wasn’t there in person. We would’ve seen a more earthy version of the famous McCain temper. No matter; the written statement is ample manifestation that, to use his own words, McCain is an effing jerk.

  • In light of John McCain’s decision to oppose the bipartisan GI Bill, and his decision not to even show up to vote on troop benefits, Barack Obama took a hard line against McCain while speaking on the Senate floor. McCain, in response, went kind of berserk.

    Wow, he did go berserk. He bragged about more relatives than Cleaver.:-)

  • Regent university & Susan Orr…that’s how. More religious politics.

    Some republican profiteering Bush crony laughing all the way to the bank with our tax dollars from a postal contract. How could they know it got such bad gas mileage and they would have to scrap the vehicles…that would require objective reasoning rather than pocketbook reasoning. Golf carts are sufficient for huge city areas and electric cars should have been the first choice.

    Sooner or later it would come out that Hagee is insane and has said some of the vilest things possible about all but the “chosen few” (his donors). There is no comparison between Wright and Hagee at all. So now that it’s coming out how insane Hagee actually is, McCain is rejecting the endorsement he so desperately sought from this billionaire bigot.

    Everything about McCain is phony. Screaming that you are a “big supporter of the troops, everyone knows that”, while rejecting a GI benefits bill because it’s too generous is hypocrisy at its finest. Once again McCain tries to bully his opponents into rejecting reality for McCain’s word with the old gasping “outrage”. Millionaire soldier, headlines hero, born to Admirals wouldn’t know the first thing about supporting actual soldiers struggling to make a living. He’s outraged that others don’t have enough sense to deny benefits to these soldiers when they could be too generous…the nerve to question his authority on the matter.

    West Virginia…where evolution is still in the early stages and where scientists are hopeful to find the “missing link”. The last place where anyone would look for anything that might be indicative of something.

  • “We need to eliminate our tariffs on sugar” Sorry Joe, the tariffs will not come off sugar. ADM needs those tariffs so high fructose corn syrup can be cheaper than sugar. Mexico asked for a reprieve on the tariff and what they got was a one for one swap, they give us sugar, we give them hfcs. If you do some research, you will find that the high price of corn has been caused more by investment companies especially hedge funds jumping into the market. They bailed out of mortgages and moved their money into commodities. Corn and gasoline.

  • Logan County WV – Isn’t that Hatfield and McCoy country?

    NY Governor and Hillary supporter David Paterson now says she is showing “a little desperation.” Ouch. “I don’t think anyone in their right mind would do that” (make the argument Hillary makes about Michigan), he said.

  • ‘I’d rather be right than consistent,’ a senior Bush administration official said.” Shouldn’t that be “right-wing” than consistent?

  • It sure seems like McCain believes that, if you didn’t serve in the military, you’ve should just sit down, shut up and let the real men run things.

  • I once heard an explanation as to why we’ve never found that “missing link….”

    One fine day, Missing Link was strolling through the mountains of Appalachia when he came face to face with the original ancestor of all future West Virginians. This was about 2 billion years ago, and Missing Link realized that by being in the same time as the original ancestor of all future West Virginians, he had shown up in the evolutionary chain of events about 3 billion or so years too early.

    So he left….

  • Funny how McCain bitches about Obama impugning his motives while he repeatedly impugned Obama’s motives. But that’s really a pretty standard GOP tactic, as the only argument they really have is that their opponent is evil. They can dish out it, but they sure hate taking it.

    And yet again, McCain’s found himself on the wrong side of an issue and can’t do anything but bluster and whine. This is going to be a good election year.

  • jinchi said:

    It sure seems like McCain believes that, if you didn’t serve in the military, you’ve should just sit down, shut up and let the real men run things.

    well, that would explain why he endorsed John Kerry over Dubya in 2004.

    oh wait. . .

  • In light of John McCain’s decision to oppose the bipartisan GI Bill, and his decision not to even show up to vote on troop benefits, Barack Obama took a hard line against McCain while speaking on the Senate floor. McCain, in response, went kind of berserk.

    So, who was it who started the Forrestfire, Grampy, and did more damage to the U.S. Navy in 5 minutes than the North Vietnamese did in 10 years?????

    Bring that one up and watch Grampy disappear in a thermonuclear explosion.

  • mccain dumping 2 preachers is a “heads up” that we are going to see 24/7 slime about wright again. It didn’t seem to work last time – but that isn’t the point.

    The media will need to create and “catapult” the talking points to justify the election and derail any real dialog about election fraud – another stolen election.

    Shillary is creating the lie that he can’t win with white voters, doesn’t have the support of dem rank and file, might be a Muslim, and is unelectable.

    Now all they need to do is build on what she has started.

  • Ethanol does have issues, but your postal vehicle snippet yet another example of the quick sound bite missing lots of important issues, leading to incorrect conclusions. From what you wrote, one might conclude that ethanol vehicles are universally less efficient than gasoline fleets. In fact, the article says they bought 30,000 bigger vehicles that happened to be flex-fuel and only ran ethanol in 1,000 of them.

    The story has nothing to do with ethanol, but it’s written like the 1000 vehicles out of the fleet that actually ran ethanol caused the 1.5 million gallons of extra gasoline usage.

    Of course, given their driving pattern, it’s ridiculous that the the Postal Service doesn’t use hybrid vehicles, but using this report to argue against ethanol cars is a really bad misuse of the data.

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