Tuesday’s Mini-Report

January 23, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Remember way back in July 2005 when Plame-related speculation began to shift to Ari Fleischer? There was a good reason — he told “multiple reporters” about Joseph Wilson’s wife. In exchange for his testimony, Fleischer received immunity from prosecution.

* The latest BBC poll on global opinions of the United States is not at all encouraging. “Nearly three-quarters of those polled in 25 countries disapprove of U.S. policies toward Iraq, and more than two-thirds said the U.S. military presence in the Middle East does more harm than good. Nearly half of those polled in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East said the United States is now playing a mainly negative role in the world.” What was that Liz Cheney was saying about combating terrorism without allies?

* I’m not sure which bothers me more — the right-wing language Glenn Beck uses on the air, or the fact that Glenn Beck keeps getting promoted, despite the right-wing language he uses on the air.

* Things may be looking up for Air America Radio. AAR’s parent company, Piquant LLC, is reportedly on the verge of being bought by the same family that owns New York City-area television station WRNN. There appears to be a small catch: “If the acquisition does go through, it could lead to several programming changes at the liberal talk-radio network. Richard French, son of WRNN owner Dick French, will likely get his own show in prime time on Air America.”

* VoteVets.org’s Jon Soltz wishes the Senate were a bit more like fantasy football, so he could trade Joe Lieberman to the GOP in exchange for Chuck Hagel. I’m not altogether sure that’s a good idea — Hagel is conservative on just about everything except the war — but I understand the sentiment.

* The good news: senators appear to be concerned about the ICE raids from December called “Operation Wagon Train.” The bad news: lawmakers appear to be chiefly concerned with the impact the raids had on businesses, not the affected families.

* It would invariably fail again anyway, but Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), the two leading champions of the anti-gay constitutional amendment, have decided to give up. “If we thought there was a decent chance to bring it to the floor for debate, I would, but with the new Congress, I’m not sure we will ever have that opportunity,” Allard says.

* I’m not entirely sure why there’s such a fuss about Hillary Clinton opting out of the public financing system for her presidential campaign. Didn’t Bush do the exact same thing in 2000?

* I suspect no amount of evidence will ever matter to guys like Jim Inhofe, but “signals that humans are the main factor behind recent global warming are stronger than ever, an authoritative global scientific report will warn when it is released next week. A draft of the United Nations report by 600 scientists says it is ‘very likely’ that human activities are the main cause of warming in the past 50 years, strengthening a conclusion in their last study in 2001 that the human link was ‘likely.'”

* The incomparable Barbara Ehrenreich visited Washington state, which has the highest minimum wage in the country, and not only found a booming economy, but also none of the problems Big Business has been warning us about.

* And congrats to Al Gore, whose “An Inconvenient Truth” was nominated for two Academy Awards today.

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

I’m not entirely sure why there’s such a fuss about Hillary Clinton opting out of the public financing system for her presidential campaign. Didn’t Bush do the exact same thing in 2000?

Because, as has been observed many times before, the right has one standard for Republicans, another standard for Democrats, and another still for Clintons.

The incomparable Barbara Ehrenreich visited Washington state, which has the highest minimum wage in the country, and not only found a booming economy, but also none of the problems Big Business has been warning us about.

It always bears repeating that raising the minimum wage never, ever has the predicted negative impacts. Restauranteurs don’t go under because of it, it doesn’t cause the economy doesn’t take a dive, or employment to drop.

  • Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), the two leading champions of the anti-gay constitutional amendment, have decided to give up. “If we thought there was a decent chance to bring it to the floor for debate, I would, but with the new Congress, I’m not sure we will ever have that opportunity,” Allard says

  • Musicians make an artful cacophony with their instruments while warming up for the main event. Bloggers make preparatory posts before the State of the Empire Address.

    This is mine.

    Don’t forget, I’ll be live-blogging it tonight and will even take one for the team by watching it on Fox.

  • Hey – that wasn’t fair! Try again…

    Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), the two leading champions of the anti-gay constitutional amendment, have decided to give up. “If we thought there was a decent chance to bring it to the floor for debate, I would, but with the new Congress, I’m not sure we will ever have that opportunity,” Allard says

  • hmmm… third times the charm….

    Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), the two leading champions of the anti-gay constitutional amendment, have decided to give up. “If we thought there was a decent chance to bring it to the floor for debate, I would, but with the new Congress, I’m not sure we will ever have that opportunity,” Allard says .

    Wasn’t this considered the most important issue facing Americans just a few short years ago?? How long do you think it will be before the meme starts about the evil Democrats preventing this from being considered? Just like far-right judicial appointees, I think this deserves an “up or down” vote – because we know it would surely be “down”.

  • The good news: senators appear to be concerned about the ICE raids from December called “Operation Wagon Train.” The bad news: lawmakers appear to be chiefly concerned with the impact the raids had on businesses, not the affected families.

    I just don’t understand the outrage over this one. One needn’t be a Minuteman to lack a great deal of sympathy for undocumented aliens caught living and working in the United States. Families are almost always “affected” when criminals are caught and punished; why should we be more upset about that fact in this instance than in any other?

  • …Richard French, son of WRNN owner Dick French, will likely get his own show in prime time on Air America.”

    this seems a small price to pay to keep all the other liberal commentators on the air. Having said that, the only thing I know about Richard French is that he’s the son of Dick French. Is he some raving right wingnut?

  • George W. Bush didn’t opt out of public financing for the general election. He and John Kerry both opted out for the primary only and took 75 million each for the fall campaign. Hillary Clinton has decided to opt out of both.

  • Bush opted out of financing for the primary election and accepted for the general.

    HRC has opted out for both.

  • #6 James, you seem to be laboring under the false assumption that all those rounded up were illegal. This was not the case. Suppose you had been caught up in it. Suppose you had your children taken away, and were then shipped off to an undisclosed location. You’re OK with that?

  • #7 Edo “Richard French Sr., a Westchester County businessman who is active in the state Democratic party.” from Wikipedia so it’s unlikely Jr is a wingnut. Hopefully.

  • James Dillon,

    What about the companies that hired the illegal aliens? they broke the law too. Why no outrage at their collective “get out of jail free” cards? Presumably you are a law and order guy…

  • Joe,

    My understanding is that all of the Hispanic workers at the plant were detained long enough for ICE to determine their legal status (i.e., a couple of hours), at which point those who were legal residents or citizens were released and the illegal workers detained. If that is an inaccurate understanding of what happened, please direct me to some article discussing the operation so that I might revise my opinion.

  • Mallard & Muskrat need to crawl back into their slime covered pond. However, I like to think the fact that some “Family Focused” nutjobs were clamouring for more restrictive divorce laws in order to “protect marriage” had something to do with their retreat. But then, I just like to think of Das Base turning on their leaders.

    Rrrrr. Red. Meat. Must have…

  • Edo,

    I’m not overly familiar with immigration law, but if a company violated the law by employing illegal workers, then I think they should suffer whatever consequences the law prescribes for that. I don’t see how that’s inconsistent with my initial comment.

  • thanks Dale. (note to self: use wikipedia. d’oh!)

    James Dillon,

    but if a company violated the law by employing illegal workers, then I think they should suffer whatever consequences the law prescribes for that. I don’t see how that’s inconsistent with my initial comment.

    Ahhh…but no actions were taken against the company. so, if there were illegal workers, then action should have been taken against the company. But instead of focusing on the fact that the companies are being codled you focused on the treatment of the families presuming them to be illegal.

  • Edo,

    The “focus” of my comment was determined by the content of CB’s post, to which I was responding. His post, quite obviously, addressed the treatment of the arrestees in the Operation Wagon Train raid, not the treatment of the company for which they worked. I don’t see what significance my failure to comment on that irrelevant point carries. To reiterate: yes, the company should be subject to whatever penalties the law prescribes for its actions. I don’t see how that has any relevance to our discussion of the propriety of the treatment the arrestees received.

    I’m also curious about your comment that I “presum[ed] [the families] to be illegal.” Is there any question about whether the people arrested (not detained for a couple of hours, but arrested) in the Operation Wagon Train raids were not, in fact, illegal aliens? If my reliance on the unchallenged reporting of various media outlets that they were illegal constitutes a “presumption,” I don’t see how it’s an unreasonable one.

  • Too bad we can’t bring back Lincoln Chafee in exchange for Lieberman or any of the nutjob Repubs!

  • “I’m not sure which bothers me more — the right-wing language Glenn Beck uses on the air, or the fact that Glenn Beck keeps getting promoted, despite the right-wing language he uses on the air.”

    Nepotism, mabye? Is he related to any bigwigs at ABC?

    Either that, or he has some pretty damning photos of executives in compromising positions.

    Considering I know drunks at the local bar who sound more intelligent and reasonable at happy hour then Beck does cold sober in the morning, those are the only reasons I can think of for his continual rise.

    Or, considering this is the same network that gave the green-light to “Path to 9/11” and lets John Stossel spew his libertarian/conservative bullshit every week, maybe ABC is shifting into Fox News territory.

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