Tuesday’s Mini-Report

July 24, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* I’ll have an analysis in the morning on Alberto Gonzales’ latest humiliation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but in the meantime, go take a look at Paul Kiel’s last nine or so posts. As you might have expected, the Attorney General was in a hole before the day started, and just kept on digging all afternoon.

* The NYT’s David Brooks wrote an unusually bad column today, filled with statistics that purportedly show the strength of the economy for low- and middle-income families. “[T]he main point is that the Democratic campaign rhetoric is taking on a life of its own, and drifting further away from reality,” Brooks said. “Feeding off pessimism about the war and anger at Washington, candidates now compete to tell dark, angry and conspiratorial stories about the economy.” Dean Baker and Brendan Nyhan set the record straight.

* Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) asked the White House for information on a recently devised plan for maintaining governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic event. Despite the fact that DeFazio has the necessary security clearances, and jurisdiction on the Homeland Security Committee, the White House refuses to cooperate, insisting the information is “highly sensitive.” There is no more certain way to feed conspiracy theorists than this kind of secrecy. As DeFazio himself put it, “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right.”

* Yglesias: “Dave Weigel has the goods on the relaunch of the Victory Caucus website. Rather than haranguing Republicans out of expressing doubts about the war, the ‘new’ idea is to become ‘a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in learning about what’s really going on in the war.’ What’s really going on, of course, is that US forces are winning a brilliant victory against the combined forces of Ahmadenijad, al-Qaeda, Fidel Castro, and the Cobra Commander but the liberal media is covering it all up.” I knew it.

* “Despite official Iraqi and U.S. statements to the contrary, the reports indicate that the number of unidentified bodies in the capital has risen again to pre-surge levels over the last two months.” Ugh.

* If Gen. David Petraeus will spend time chatting with Hugh Hewitt, will he also take the time to answer questions from Glenn Greenwald?

* Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) grudgingly conceded today that the White House’s political briefings for diplomats, ambassadors, and State Department officials were “probably inappropriate.”

* As of today, the minimum wage increases 70 cents to $5.85 an hour. “It ends the longest period without an increase since the federal minimum wage was enacted in 1938.”

* Joel Brinkley explained this week that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to get an op-ed published on administration policy towards Lebanon. No one would publish it — editors said it was too political. “I kept hearing the same thing: ‘There’s no news in this,'” Price Floyd, who was the State Department’s director of media affairs until recently, said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to Bush’s wise leadership. “It read like a campaign document.”

* O’Reilly isn’t done trying to smear Kos. Last night, he told his suckers viewers that DailyKos recommends the violent overthrow of the government.

* On a related note, Hillary Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson will be on “The Factor” tonight to debate the FNC blowhard about YearlyKos. (Peter Daou’s apparent strategy of having the Clinton campaign stand up for the netroots is absolutely brilliant.)

* Eric Boehlert has a great item today, emphasizing an important point: “[T]he press, once again, is letting the lying Swift Boat Vets off easy…. For the Beltway press, Swift Boat has simply become a catch-all phrase to describe coordinated, negative campaign attacks that try to take a candidate’s perceived strength and turn it into a weakness.”

* The Chicago Tribune’s Red Eye is hosting a competition for readers’ favorite Simpsons character. The final four: Homer vs Ralph Wiggum, Moe Szyslak vs. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. I can’t believe Ralphie beat Mr. Burns to make the finals.

* And finally, Dick Cheney talked to Stephen Hayes about the 2004 incident in which he told Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) to go “f*ck himself.” Leahy, Cheney said, got too “close” to him: “Leahy came over and put his arm around me. And he didn’t kiss me but it was close to it. So I flashed and I told him — I dropped the F-bomb on him…. It was heartfelt.” Multiple witnesses said Leahy was not “close” to kissing Cheney; all he did was try to shake his hand.

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

A scary little item on the mind-set of Republicans

N.H. Republican fundraiser to feature machine guns

  • About the debate last night. From the quotes about meeting with world leaders, Obama and Clinton could have meant the exact same thing. On the surface though, Clinton’s answer was more old-school establishment sounding. I really hate all this treating the President like some hot house flower whose every slight movement has great meaning. It’s like the Royal Court where everyone reads the tea leaves of what level of access people have as to their position in the hierarchy.

    The President should roll up his/her sleeves and do the work. Hell get an office at the UN and have meetings with everybody. Try to get first hand information exchanged between world leaders without all the courtiers filtering it through their warped sense of hierarchy. Forget the kabuki theater bullshit and get the job done. If something is urgent deal with it directly until it’s fixed.

    You can’t tell me that a clown like Bush is just so busy that he can’t act on some sense of urgency. I mean hell, he should have moved down to New Orleans and sorted things out day to day personally. Skip some of the ceremonial stuff and do the work.

    If Bush had spent 1 day working witht the army to make sure our soldiers had body armor the friggin’ problem would have been solved. We need a worker. I like Obama’s more open attitude, but Clinton will probaly fit in better and be more effective with things as they are.

    Bush has dumbed down the Presidency. I’d like to see a Democrat smarten it

  • Whoops, html mishap. My comment was in reference to this:

    “[T]he main point is that the Democratic campaign rhetoric is taking on a life of its own, and drifting further away from reality,” Brooks said. “Feeding off pessimism about the war and anger at Washington, candidates now compete to tell dark, angry and conspiratorial stories about the economy.”

    I’m just saying I think you can tell that people were a little better off a few years ago to about a decade ago.

  • The bush administration, like Adolph Hitler, believes if you say anything long and loudly enough, people will believe it, no matter how false. Until recently, that may have been true, but people are waking up. The bushie’s refusal to cooperate with congress, the wishes of the American people, and the laws of this country is taking it’s toll. The administration’s marked contempt for our constitution, the suspension of all our civil rights and their secretive behavior is too reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s Watergate. The drive for impeachment is growing; we are up to 50% of registered voters wanting Bush/Cheney impeached.
    Arlen Spector wants to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the firings of the federal attorneys. Finally, even established Republicans recognize they won’t survive if they continue to back the bush administration. He asked Gonzo to resign (again), but gonzo won’t do it. The entire administration appears to be daring us to try impeachement.
    Let’s give it to them. A good website on the subject of impeachment is:
    http://www.afterdowningstreet.org

  • * “Despite official Iraqi and U.S. statements to the contrary, the reports indicate that the number of unidentified bodies in the capital has risen again to pre-surge levels over the last two months.” Ugh.

    Simple fix: they need national id cards. It’s disgraceful that so many people go around unidentifiable. It will also help with their immigration problems.


  • I, like, notice how much money people don’t have now…
    Comment by Swan

    ??? What was this in reference two?

  • I wonder how long it will take RedState to run a piece about Leahy’s attempted sexual assault of Cheney.

    You know that’s why he said that shit.

  • Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) asked the White House for information on a recently devised plan for maintaining governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic event. Despite the fact that DeFazio has the necessary security clearances, and jurisdiction on the Homeland Security Committee, the White House refuses to cooperate, insisting the information is “highly sensitive.” There is no more certain way to feed conspiracy theorists than this kind of secrecy. As DeFazio himself put it, “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right.”

    Welcome to the 9/11 Truth Movement, Congressman DeFazio. Please submit your statement to Patriots Question 9/11.

  • Swan, Swan, Swan, people are MUCH better off than a decade ago. Look at all the multi million dollar trophy homes that are being purchased, all the development going on—just as long as the riff-raff like Leahy or Cheryl Crow don’t touch the demigods, things should be okay for people who matter. 😉

  • * Yglesias: “Dave Weigel has the goods on the relaunch of the Victory Caucus website. Rather than haranguing Republicans out of expressing doubts about the war, the ‘new’ idea is to become ‘a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in learning about what’s really going on in the war.’ What’s really going on, of course, is that US forces are winning a brilliant victory against the combined forces of Ahmadenijad, al-Qaeda, Fidel Castro, and the Cobra Commander but the liberal media is covering it all up.” I knew it.

    I knew it! Cobra Commander really is behind it all!

    http://cobrastopstheworld.ytmnd.com/

  • David Brooks is nothing less than a shill for the criminally rich. Being rich is not a crime. But, refusing to accept some responsibility for creating greater good in society–by avoiding and resisting the ability to paid taxes–is a crime for the dementedly anal-retentive.

  • As of today, the minimum wage increases 70 cents to $5.85 an hour.

    I’ve worked for minimum wage as a teenager, and had a lot of jobs in the service industry, in that wage-range, but I haven’t really been acquainted with people doing that in a while. It’s hard to tell whether the reaction will be more a sarcastic “Thanks, a lot” or a take-what-we-can-get sigh of relief. I guess it depends on the person and their situation.

    O’Reilly isn’t done trying to smear Kos. Last night, he told his suckers viewers that DailyKos recommends the violent overthrow of the government.

    The banner art on the Kos website really does evoke Marxist or commie prop-art, though. I always was kind of annoyed by it and thought it was a stupid idea. I know it’s not really pro-communist and it’s just kind of a style, and you have to have the familiarity to read it into that, to get that it evokes that- that is, it’s not making people communist by having that piece of art there, that’s for sure (and I know that Kos’ banner art doesn’t have anything to do with promoting the violent overthrow of government)- but still, it’s just opening yourself up for attack / provoking people.

    On a related note, Hillary Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson will be on “The Factor” tonight to debate the FNC blowhard about YearlyKos. (Peter Daou’s apparent strategy of having the Clinton campaign stand up for the netroots is absolutely brilliant.)

    Bon chance.

    were a little better off a few years ago

    For those who don’t make a lot of money, the more expensive gas is a heavy blow. But then, this is New Jersey, where having a car is de rigeur, so, maybe elsewhere I’d notice it less. But then again, people have cars everywhere…

    People certainly seem to have less babies now than they did a few years ago. I wonder if that’s the case or if that’s just my luck for not going out when there happen to be any babies around.

    It does seem like I see a lot more nicer cars around now than I used to, but I think that’s just reflecting fashion, not money: the people who can afford it are more likely to get something flashy-looking than unassuming than they were a little while ago.

  • Speaking of conspiracies, a BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based upon the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.

    Looks like ‘Lil Bush is going to “get the job done” for his Old Grand-Dad. Yawohl!

  • I think people don’t have babies when they don’t feel safe. What Bush has done to the country has made people disturbed and frightened. It’s that, and the less money too.

  • That Brooks acts as a fax machine for conservative think tanks has been obvious since he and their libertarian columnist (I forgot his name) both floated the Cato/American Enterprise Institute meme about obesity not being bad for you the same week. Eat all the McDonald’s you want! My check, please, Sugar Producers of America!

  • Damn JKap @10 @15 taken together that’s some scary shite. After watching Gonzo’s testimony today, his smirk made me think that there was a man secure in the knowledge that he would never be punished for anything. And I told my mother they must be planning a coup. I should say, another coup, the first one was the SC in 2000.

  • Multiple witnesses said Leahy was not “close” to kissing Cheney; all he did was try to shake his hand. — CB

    Leahy’s mistake: he should have tried to *kiss* that benevolent hand, *not* shake it… Cheney’s f-bomb came from disappointment, as he realised he wasn’t about to be accorded proper reverence.

  • That news about them keeping DeFazio from seeing plans he has a right to see is pretty frightening. I’d chalk it up to typical administration arrogance, if it weren’t for the fact that they’ve already got a long record of doing things I would have previously considered unthinkable for an American government. So I gotta wonder, what’s in those plans?

    When I need to calm down, I try to convince myself that it’s really just that they don’t actually have any plans, and didn’t want to admit it. But then I start thinking about internment camps, and suspended elections, martial law, and absolute rule from the Oval Office.

  • Multiple witnesses said Leahy was not “close” to kissing Cheney; all he did was try to shake his hand. — CB

    They just have to say stuff like Cheney said because the guys on their side really do commit male-on-male sexual harassment, and cheat on their wives w/ prostitutes, and stuff like that all the time. So Luntz or some similar scum told Cheney to call Leahy a f**. It’s either that or Cheney thought Jesus Camp was going to come get him for saying the f-word, so he had to give them a homophobic rationale for it.

    Note to Jesus Fundies: There is no way, if God really cares about anything, that He cares about whether anyone says the f-word or not. There is no way God considers something like that worthy of His scorn when there is real shit going on in the world. Saying the f-word, or not saying the f-word, is just a matter of politeness among people.

    In the same vein, did anyone else get the sense that Ann Coulter started calling Edwards a f** because she thinks he’s hot and knows she can’t have him…

  • … what’s really going on in the war.’ What’s really going on, of course, is that US forces are winning a brilliant victory against the combined forces of Ahmadenijad, al-Qaeda, Fidel Castro, and the Cobra Commander but the liberal media is covering it all up.” I knew it.

    I don’t get no respect…

  • Dick Cheney talked to Stephen Hayes about the 2004 incident in which he told Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) to go “f*ck himself.” Leahy, Cheney said, got too “close” to him: “Leahy came over and put his arm around me. And he didn’t kiss me but it was close to it. So I flashed and I told him — I dropped the F-bomb on him…. It was heartfelt.”

    Sort of makes you wonder what Mary Cheney would do if Leahy tried to shake her hand…
    Anybody know if she carries a machine gun around?

  • The Gang of Eight in March of 2004

    Jane Harmon
    Nancy Pelosi
    Jay Rockefeller
    Tom Daschle
    Porter Goss
    Denny Hastert
    Pat Roberts
    Bill Frist
    From TPMM

    Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader who received briefings on the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance programs, says Alberto Gonzales isn’t telling the truth about what Senate and House leaders were told in March 2004 about the program’s utility and legality.

    From the NYTimes

    Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, who attended the 2004 meeting as the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Mr. Gonzales’s account “untruthful.” Mr. Rockefeller said he believed Mr. Gonzales was deliberately misleading Congress about the showdown over the N.S.A. program inside the Bush administration.

    Other lawmakers who were not at the hearing but who attended the meeting on March 10, 2004 at the White House, also challenged Mr. Gonzales’s account. Mr. Rockefeller and Representative Jane Harman of California, who in 2004 was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, insisted that there was only one N.S.A. program, making Mr. Gonzales’s assertions inaccurate.

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who attended the 2004 White House meeting as House Democratic minority leader, said through a spokesman that … she dissented and supported Mr. Comey’s objections at the meeting, said the spokesman, Brendan Daly.

    All of the Democrats in the Gang of Eight say, on the record, they didn’t support the program. And of the Republicans we have, again from the NYTimes,

    But another member of the Gang of Eight …supported Mr. Gonzales’s version. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he confirmed the attorney general’s testimony that the group reached a “consensus” that the disputed intelligence activity should continue and that passing emergency legislation would risk revealing secrets.

    Brave Republican there wouldn’t you say? We can now see Gonzales’ out on the perjury rap. As Pelosi herself said through a spokesperson to the Times, “she did not dispute that the majority of those present supported continuing the intelligence activity.” Basically, all of the Republicans in the Gang of Eight plus the administration officials present, which made up the majority, thought the program was fine and dandy. That is what passes for a consensus in George Bush’s America. It is also what Gonzales will hang his hat on when defending against perjury.

  • There is no more certain way to feed conspiracy theorists than this kind of secrecy. As DeFazio himself put it, “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right.”

    Well it’s no conspiracy that Bush is trashing the US Constitution, and that Bush is all lie all the time now but somehow there are still Dems out there peaching that impeachment would be bad, or damaging BUT impeachment isn’t more damaging than Bush lying all the time and the fourth estate simply letting Bush do it.

    AND Republicans are doing it too. Lying about everything, from with the pages of NRO, to Brooks saying that Libby’s communte was right, and non-news BS from all the cable TV news shows. It’s all Republicans have left I guess, nothing redeeming to get behind, no ethical behavior, not an ounce of truth to be found anywhere in today’s GOP, We could just they Grand Old Lying Party. It’s all 24/7 bullshit. Whatever Bush says, just make it so… the GOP has nothing left by lies. It’s has become a bad habit or vice to even be a member of the party now. Why would conservative voters even want try and reform it, as the GOP are mostly so corrupt, it isn’t really worth tryng to save the party.

  • I don’t get it … why on earth doesn’t Markos sue OReilly (and Fox) for defamation of character and slander? there’s a point at which this surely becomes actionable.

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