Tuesday’s Mini-Report

April 24, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits. (This one’s a little longer than usual. Sorry; busy day.)

* AP: “An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when the former football star died by friendly fire said Tuesday he was told by a higher-up to conceal that information from Tillman’s brother. ‘I was ordered not to tell him,’ U.S. Army Spc. Bryan O’Neal told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.” More tomorrow.

* Dick Cheney lashed out at Harry Reid and other Senate Dems today, with a series of misleading and baseless attacks. In other words, it’s Tuesday.

* Harry Reid, responding to Cheney’s suggestion that he’s changed his position on the war, told reporters, “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating.”

* Boston Globe: “The first federal minimum wage hike in a decade will boost starting pay for hourly workers from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour under an agreement between congressional Democrats, a deal that couples the increase with nearly $5 billion in business tax cuts to draw political support from Republicans.” The compromise measure will probably come up for a vote before the end of the week.

* Politico: “Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty will be interviewed behind closed doors by the Senate Judiciary Committee this Friday, a week after his boss, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was publicly grilled by the panel. McNulty will be questioned about what he knew and when he knew it regarding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) just told reporters.” (Remember, Gonzales has hoped to make McNulty the scapegoat from the outset.)

* Questions about what led former U.S. Attorney Debra Yang to retire last October continue to surface. Yang was leading an investigation into lucrative ties between Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and a lobbying firm, and then took a job with a law firm representing Lewis. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) smells smoke: White House Counsel Harriet Miers talked about replacing Yang before the purge.

* Paul Wolfowitz’s lawyer compared the embattled World Bank chief’s predicament to the Duke lacrosse case. Can we get a moratorium on this analogy, please?

* Many alert readers emailed me about a curious problem in Ohio — the state’s 2004 election results were kept on the Republican National Committee’s servers? Some reporters in Ohio really need to get to the bottom of this and get an explanation.

* Just what Republicans needed, another criminal investigation: “The FBI has asked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney for information about his dealings with Jack Abramoff as part of its ongoing investigation into the lobbyist convicted of defrauding clients…. Federal agents also have asked the St. Petersburg Times for an email sent to the newspaper by Feeney’s office describing a golfing trip the congressman took with Abramoff to Scotland in 2003.”

* Cliff Schecter notes the tragedy behind the Navy Medical Center now needing its first full-time prosthetist, because so many troops have lost arms and legs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

* Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) is beneath contempt.

* Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) opposes a minimum-wage increase, and lied to the Washington Post about why.

* CNN’s Lou Dobbs compared his opponents in the immigration debate to Nazis, on the air. Classy.

* Apparently, Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio) traveled to Syria with Speaker Pelosi and never heard a complaint from his colleagues upon his return. “Nobody ever called me to say, ‘Why are you going to Syria with those people?'” You don’t suppose the attacks on Pelosi were just about scoring cheap political points, do you?

* Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) blasted the idea of a withdrawal timeline today, claiming it was “the first time I know of — in the middle of a war — that a country just announces that on a specific date it’s walking off the battlefield.” Kyl twice voted for withdrawal timelines when Clinton was president.

* The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s multimedia page exclusively features clips from Fox News. You’d think the network was the media organ of the Republican Party or something.

* And finally, a fond farewell for David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, who died in a car accident last night at age 73. I’ve enjoyed David Halberstam’s work for years. Few could write as well or as effortlessly on topics as broad as Bosnia to baseball. He will be missed.

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

I wanted to post this yesterday but I never got around to it – and was surprised it never really got any traction today:

Pentagon may be shorting troop benefits

WASHINGTON — An injured soldier’s disability should be determined by Veterans Affairs officials — and not the Pentagon — because the Army might be shortchanging troops, a presidential commission was told on Monday.
…..

Under the current system, each of the armed services assign ratings to service members when they become injured. The ratings determine whether the service member is discharged from active service and if so, the amount of disability benefits to which he or she is entitled. The VA operates a separate system to determine benefits for retired veterans.

Critics say the Army rates its injured soldiers at a lower level of disability compared with the other armed services and the VA so it can save on the costs of disability payments.

Under the current system, each of the armed services assign ratings to service members when they become injured. The ratings determine whether the service member is discharged from active service and if so, the amount of disability benefits to which he or she is entitled. The VA operates a separate system to determine benefits for retired veterans.

Critics say the Army rates its injured soldiers at a lower level of disability compared with the other armed services and the VA so it can save on the costs of disability payments.

Veterans groups urged the commission to make a change so injured soldiers aren’t underpaid disability benefits.

Such a proposal would be a major shift in how disability benefits are administered, with both critics and supporters acknowledging it would likely add significantly to costs since the VA takes into account all the disabilities a soldier has — not just one.

“We want to add our voice to others deeply disturbed by concerns of lowballing in Army disability ratings,” said Robert Norton, deputy director for the Military Officers Association of America. “The ratings gaps are unacceptable.”

In recent weeks, a separate review group found consistently lower disability ratings by the Army and suggested it might be because officials didn’t want to pay benefits.

Unbelievable

  • I fear that short of a constitutional amendment, we won’t be able to get any relief from the Duke lacrosse team analogy. Sebastian Telfair’s attorney is now using it to complain about the impending dismissal of his client from the Boston Celtics, after Telfair’s umpteenth arrest for possessing a loaded gun. Allegedly. We can expect to hear this from almost every public figure charged with a crime for many months to come.

  • I’m really getting tired of Republican’ts referring to our situation in Iraq as a “war”.
    Attention Republican’ts: The war is over! We won! Saddam, the leader of Iraq (the bad guy) was captured. The USA (the good guy) has set up a new government within the captured country. This IS NOT a war.

    It’s an occupation. Much like the US occupation of Germany after WWII or the continued occupation of South Korea after the Korean Conflict, we are now occupying Iraq.

    The only way there could possibly STILL be a war in Iraq is if the country has fallen into civil war. And as every Republican’t in this administration is wont to tell us…Iraq is not in a civil war.

    So…let’s stop occupying Iraq and set a withdrawal timetable.

  • I’m beginning to think Duck! Cheney has some sort of humiliation fetish. Every time he opens his gob about a Democrat, he gets smacked. “Hurts so goood…”

    If Dana “Waaah! I’m scared!” Roarbarker isn’t Keith Olbermann’s WPitW, KO is asleep at the switch. It isn’t just that Dana’s a big fucking idiot, he sounds like a big fucking idiotic four-year old.

  • (This one’s a little longer than usual. Sorry; busy day.)

    Don’t be sorry; longer is better! There’s more material to enjoy this way. Keep them coming.

  • It’s starting to wear thin.

    The Republicans have thin skins.
    Pop a few dozen of ’em for bribery and obstruction and suddenly it’s “Nazi this” and “Hitler that.”

    Do these people have an idea what nazis actually DID? Or do they pick up history books about as often as they’re beloved leader in the Oval Office?

    It’s starting to get troublesome and not because it personally hurts anyone the charges are directed at or me. It’s disturbing when ordinary people with differing opinions are equated with genocidal butchers. The scope reflects ignorance and a lack of respect for the gravity of history. One might warn that equating such monsters with the common man makes such barbarism seem unworthy of any special note.

    Once Hitler is compared with Harry Reid, can denial of the horror of the holocaust be so surprising? Do these men not realize the consequences of their flippant, careless hyperbole?

  • You have to give Dana Rohrabacher a break – have you ever seen those pictures of a surfer falling off their board and it comes up and bashes them in the head? Well, that happened to him many many times. You get enough blows to the skull, and even if it’s three times as thick as normal (like his) with a much smaller contents (like his), there’s eventually serious damage.

    What can you expecf? His constituents are white people in Orangutang County!

  • How times have changed:

    David Halberstam, Speech to the Columbia School of Journalism, May 18, 2005:

    One of the things I learned, the easiest of lessons, was that the better you do your job, often going against conventional mores, the less popular you are likely to be. (So, if you seek popularity, this is probably not the profession for you.) . . . .

    There are a few things I would like to pass on to you as I come near to the end of my career.

    One: It’s not about fame. By and large, the more famous you are, the less of a journalist you are. Besides, fame does not last. At its best, it is about being paid to learn. For fifty years, I have been paid to go out and ask questions. What a great privilege to be a free reporter in a free society, to be someone whose job is a search for knowledge. What a rare chance to grow as a person. . . .

    I want to leave you today with one bit of advice: never, never, never, let them intimidate you. People are always going to try in all kinds of ways. Sheriffs, generals, presidents of universities, presidents of countries, secretaries of defense. Don’t let them do it. . . .

    Probably the moment I am proudest of in my career is this: By the fall of 1963, I was one of a small group of reporters in Saigon — we had enraged Washington and Saigon by filing pessimistic dispatches on the war. In particular, my young colleague, Neil Sheehan, and I were considered the enemy. The president of the United States, JFK, had already asked the publisher to pull me.

    On day that fall, there was a major battle in the Delta (the Americans were not yet in a full combat role; they were in an advising and support role). MACV — the American military command — tried to keep out all reporters so they could control the information. Neil and I spent the day pushing hard to get there — calling everyone, including Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and General Paul Harkins. With no luck, of course.

    In those days, the military had a daily late afternoon briefing given by a major or a Captain, called the Five O’clock Follies, because of the generally low value of the information.

    On this particular day, the briefing was different, given not by a Major but by a Major General, Dick Stilwell, the smoothest young general in Saigon. It was in a different room and every general and every bird Colonel in the country was there. Picture if you will rather small room, about the size of a classroom, with about 10 or 12 reporters there in the center of the room. And in the back, and outside, some 40 military officers, all of them big time brass. It was clearly an attempt to intimidate us.

    General Stilwell tried to take the intimidation a step further. He began by saying that Neil and I had bothered General Harkins and Ambassador Lodge and other VIPs, and we were not to do it again. Period.

    And I stood up, my heart beating wildly — and told him that we were not his corporals or privates, that we worked for The New York Times and UP and AP and Newsweek, not for the Department of Defense.

    I said that we knew that 30 American helicopters and perhaps 150 American soldiers had gone into battle, and the American people had a right to know what happened. I went on to say that we would continue to press to go on missions and call Ambassador Lodge and General Harkins, but he could, if he chose, write to our editors telling them that we were being too aggressive, and were pushing much too hard to go into battle. That was certainly his right.

    So: Never let them intimidate you. Never. If someone tries, do me a favor and work just a little harder on your story. Do two or three more interviews. Make your story a little better.

  • Questions about what led former U.S. Attorney Debra Yang to retire last October continue to surface. Yang was leading an investigation into lucrative ties between Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and a lobbying firm, and then took a job with a law firm representing Lewis. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) smells smoke: White House Counsel Harriet Miers talked about replacing Yang before the purge
    I worked for that law firm for a couple of years, though only briefly in the L.A. office. Does this make Yang look better or worse? If she left because she was about to be fired, then it looks less like she was bought off to interfere with the Lewis investigation, right?

  • Why is Bush so bent out of shape about “artificial” time lines”?

    They seem like a logical response to our artificially elected president and his artificial war on terror.

  • Headline currently running on the Cretin News Network:

    “Cheney attacks defeatist Dem plan”

    This is how Americans end up being ignoramuses. It’s not just Faux.

  • Paul Wolfowitz’s lawyer compared the embattled World Bank chief’s predicament to the Duke lacrosse case.

    Really? I hadn’t heard that the lacrosse players admitted doing what they were accused of and simply disputed the significance of it.

  • Oy vey. Off topic(s), but I’m watching John McCain on TDS & I can’t believe a man who has spent so much time in politics can be so tone-deaf. So far he’s been petty, condescending, peevishly defensive & said he wanted to kick a TDS security dog (as in an actual dog).

    Congrats John, you’ve just given a graphic representation of exactly why no-one should vote for you. Please take every opportunity afforded you to speak in a very public forum… you’d be doing your nation a service.

  • http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mcgovern24apr24,0,4084076.story

    It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over. George S. McGovern

  • When I turned on the tv “news” yesterday, MSGOP had a crawl with a quote from Tom Delay (yeah, who cares!) saying “Democrats very very close to treason on opposing war in Iraq.” That’s what I kept seeing go by,
    “Democrats very very close to treason….”

    As Tom Cleaver says above, it’s not just Faux.

  • Note to Dems.

    Keep attacking Cheney. Smoke him out the bunker. A handful of closeted deadenders orgasm when they see him on teevee, most of the country just recognize him for the war-profiteering a**hole he is.

  • Tom–Wonderful stuff at #8.

    When I was studying journalism in college (my school didn’t offer an actual degree, so I just took every class they offered and got the minor), I had a teacher who probably operated one of the pamphlet presses during the Revolutionary War.

    He suggested that anyone interested in what it meant to be a reporter could just read any old paper (this was pre-Internet days) and get an idea of what it took.

    But if one wanted to learn what it meant to be a journalist, one should go the library and read the work of David Halberstam.

    I did, and the thing that always amazed me was the absolute thoroughness of his work. For him truth was number one, informing readers of that truth was number two and … well, not sure there was a number three.

    Unfortunately, today’s reporters are more interested in becoming brand names (see: Blitzer, Wolf), winning Pulitzers and getting 6-to-7 figure book deals than actually doing good, solid, reliable journalism.

    The world lost a great journalist Monday … I just hope he wasn’t the last one.

  • Dobbs needs to bone up on history. The Nazis were the ones interested in racial purity and protecting the motherland from all of the deviants and outsiders.

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