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Tuesday’s Mini-Report

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Today’s edition of quick hits.

* I hope all of our friends in Southern California are safe and sound: “A magnitude-5.4 earthquake has struck just east of Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake’s epicenter was about 2 miles southwest of Chino Hills and about 5 miles southeast of Diamond Bar, the USGS said. Chino Hills is about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The center was about 7.6 miles deep. In general, earthquakes centered closer to the Earth’s surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground.”

* Less than encouraging economic news: “Home prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever in May, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday, as the housing slump deepened nationwide. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index dropped by 15.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, a record decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 16.9 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history. No city in the Case-Shiller 20-city index saw price gains in May, the second straight month that’s happened. The monthly indices have not recorded an overall home price increase in any month since August 2006.”

* Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), now under indictment, had to start dropping his committee assignments this afternoon: “Consistent with GOP bylaws that require Members who are under felony indictment to relinquish their ranking posts on committees, Stevens, the longest-serving Republican Senator, has officially stepped down as ranking member of both the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.”

* Speaking of Stevens, I found this take from a local journalist fascinating: “In Alaska, the presence of so-called Stevens money is as prevalent as the winter snow. Everywhere you look, Stevens has left his mark. … Stevens’ ability to deliver–and his invulnerability to electoral challenge because he could deliver–transformed him from an elected official into something of a frontier fertility god–worshiped, propitiated, feared. Stevens answered to no one.”

* Imagine that: “[W]hen you increase the number of teenagers eligible to receive family planning services through Medicaid you get fewer teen pregnancies.”

* My friend Jed calls the new AFL-CIO mailing the “most effective anti-smear message of the campaign,” and makes a compelling case as to why that is.

* TPMM: “Among our coverage yesterday of the OIG report, was the specific case of an ‘experienced terrorism prosecutor’ who was denied a DOJ promotion because Monica Goodling discovered that his wife was a longtime Democrat. That man has now been identified by The Buffalo News as William J. Hochul Jr., a career federal prosecutor from Western New York, whose wife, Kathleen Hochul, was a longtime Democrat.”

* The lead political story on Time magazine’s The Page this afternoon told readers, with a red siren, “****McCain Veep Pick Might Not Be on Media Lists.****” I have no idea why this is important. McCain’s running mate may be one of the names we’ve heard bandied about, or maybe not. So?

* Remember that enormous budget deficit we talked about yesterday? It’d be closer to $600 billion were it not for “creative accounting” by the White House.

* Glenn Greenwald explains today why “pushing conservative Democrats out of Congress could help the party stand up to the GOP.”

* Ed Kilgore offers a competing thesis, urging Dems to wait until Bush is gone.

* Chart of the Day: Annual rates of employment growth, by president.

* McClatchy: “President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army soldier who terrorized Fayetteville, N.C., for months in the late 1980s and was eventually convicted of raping and killing four women, and raping and attempting to kill another…. Bush’s action was the first time in more than half a century that a president has approved the execution of a member of the Armed Services.”

* The madman who killed two people this week in a Unitarian church in Tennessee was consumed with hatred for “liberals and gays.” Police found books by Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly in his home.

* The McCain campaign had previously referred to the politicization scandal at the Justice Department as “mostly a combination of nonsense and politics and provides us no concern at all.” Great judgment there, guys.

* And on a related note: “Despite yesterday’s explosive report confirming that top Justice Department officials, including Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson, had violated federal law, the White House press corps has not asked White House press secretary Dana Perino a single question about it. Both yesterday’s and today’s press briefings included no discussion of the report, nor a question on whether Attorney General Mukasey would follow through on a criminal perjury referral from Congress.”

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

Comments

  • Ohioan

    says:

    “President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army soldier “

    So in addition to sending good soldiers to their deaths for no reason, he sends bad ones to their deaths too. Big deal.

  • Sprinkle Media

    says:

    “Despite yesterday’s explosive report confirming that top Justice Department officials, including Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson, had violated federal law, the White House press corps has not asked White House press secretary Dana Perino a single question about it. Both yesterday’s and today’s press briefings included no discussion of the report, nor a question on whether Attorney General Mukasey would follow through on a criminal perjury referral from Congress.”

    You misspelled the word “corpse”, CB. And on the Mukasey thing, I’ll bet they didn’t ask if pigs could fly, either.

  • Kropotkin

    says:

    The quote from the Alaskan journalist sums up nicely why the republicans cannot replace Stevens. Stevens got his power from bribing the electorate with gifts from Washington DC. Anyone coming into replace Stevens will be starting from scratch and will face an electorate tired of republican scandals.

  • Dale

    says:

    * I hope all of our friends in Southern California are safe and sound: “A magnitude-5.4 earthquake has struck just east of Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

    Thanks I’m just glad that now I have beachfront property. 🙂 I felt the bump, but I had to have the news tell me I’d been in a quake. Not like Northridge.

  • thorin-1

    says:

    Greenwald is just NOW getting on board with replacing conservative dems? Wow.

    Greenwald has actually been pushing this for a long time. At least since I started reading his blog 2 years ago. His current effort goes back to early FISA votes in the fall of last year.

  • IludiumPhosdex

    says:

    Jim Adkisson: How do we know the Pseudoreligious Right won’t be using him to raise funds for his “legal defence,” only to divert the monies to improper use @ the last minute?

    Methinks it was time that His Fraudulency’s Great Within acknowledged what they hath wrought socioeconomically; hiding behind scripted patsies and platitudes won’t work, bucko.

    And One Thing More: If there’s one thing Americans really need, it’s a vacation. (Seriously.)

  • thorin-1

    says:

    Corruptoin is part and parcel of Alaska politics on both sides of the aisle. It was largely overlooked through much of the 80s because the oil industry pumped so much money into the state literally everybody got a piece whether they wanted one or not.

  • Steve

    says:

    Savage, O’Reilly, and Hannity = “The Three Osamas.” Besides—they’re nothing more than a d!ckless nation of whiners….

  • neilt

    says:

    * Glenn Greenwald explains today why “pushing conservative Democrats out of Congress could help the party stand up to the GOP.”

    and then, true to form, he publishes a follow-up article wherein he mocks and derides those who have the temerity to disagree with him.

    God, for some reason he really chaps my ass.

  • angry young man

    says:

    it’s been a few hours since the earthquake. how many more must we wait before it’s blamed on gay marriage?

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    The Buffalo News as William J. Hochul Jr., a career federal prosecutor from Western New York, whose wife, Kathleen Hochul, was a longtime Democrat.”

    Yep. Remember when Sam Brownback (Mountain) blocked the confirmation of several Bush appointed federal judges because one of the judges is friends with (GASP, SHOCK, HORROR) a lesbian?

    Turns out he was just the tip of a very ugly iceberg.

  • jhm

    says:

    In re the loose screw in TN. Didn’t someone successfully sue Black Sabbath for writing lyrics which lead to a suicide? How is this different (besides being more deadly, and inspiring hate instead of self loathing)?

  • CJ

    says:

    The madman who killed two people this week in a Unitarian church in Tennessee was consumed with hatred for “liberals and gays.” Police found books by Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly in his home.

    Actually, the surprise isn’t that this liberal-hater took such action. The surprise it that something like hasn’t happened before.

    In fact, the hate speech coming from right-wing radio that casts political opponents as traitors deserving of the death penalty encourages the sort of mindset that could (and now has) lead to this sort of behavior.

  • TCG

    says:

    Talk about miserable jobs

    The GOP is inviting you to submit videos describing planks in the GOP platform. I almost feel sorry for the guy that screens the videos to weed out the crazier ones.

    I don’t know which job is worse, the video screener or the guy who gets assigned to keeping Republicans from getting into too much trouble at the St Paul airport during the GOP convention.

  • hark

    says:

    “Annual rates of employment growth, by president.” Wow, that’s some graph.

    Most, if not all economists believe that in a market based/capitalistic economy like ours presidents don’t have much influence over the business cycle, but this result is simply stunning, and begs for an explanation. I don’t think you can counter this with a sound bite.

    Great ammunition for our war chests, even if doesn’t mean what it implies (hell, they do it all the time. Why can’t we just once?)

  • ROTFLMLiberalAO

    says:

    Sen. Ted Stevens, now under indictment, had to start dropping his committee assignments this afternoon.

    Going down the tubes…

  • paul

    says:

    this socal CBR reader is fine as well. Definitely felt the shakes, my first California earthquake. Likely a result of hell freezing over as McCain’s numbers allegedly rise.

  • William

    says:

    Once again, the McCain energized young Republican-American voter:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

    I had a guy go pseudo road rage on me today when he saw my McCain: Bush’s third term bumper sticker. I laughed at him in my side view mirror, he was as visually offended and inaudibly vocal as I’ve been restrained to be for the past 8 years. Suck it down, beeotch!

  • Dale

    says:

    I noticed that Alexander James Wolcott has The Carpetbagger Report on his blogroll now. Good.

    He has a funny line: *Alas, K’Lo does her heroine no favors hailing Ingraham’s cool aplomb in a post titled “Laura, the Cucumber Queen.” In today’s climate of innuendo, ‘Cucumber Queen’ is the sort of honorific that could be easily misconstrued.

  • SF

    says:

    As I am on the west coast, I always get here late, but: Watching the news tonight, re: McCain’s spokesman saying that McCain does not speak for the McCain campaign when the subject of his recent flip flops on “no new taxes” arose, it dawned on me that he has improbably become the presumptive Republican nominee precisely BECAUSE he is so empty headed. It’s what Republican [puppet]masters want — it’s worked out so well for them the last 8 years. This explains otherwise bizarre choice of the man — not his policies, which blow in the wind, but the fact he has none. He is EXACTLY what they want and need so that Cheney and his like (bathtub Norquist, et al.) can continue destroying the government and with it this democracy. Hey, even Plastic Man Mitt might be too coherent for them. OK, good night and good luck.

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    Ok, I do not want to hear again about how the press goes so easy on Obama after this hit piece.

    To give you just a little taste, here is how it starts:

    Barack Obama has long been his party’s presumptive nominee. Now he’s becoming its presumptuous nominee.

    And in a mobius strip of irony that defies words, Milbank goes on to say

    Another reason for Obama’s confidence — the press — is also an unfaithful partner. The Project for Excellence in Journalism reported yesterday that Obama dominated the news media’s attention for the seventh straight week. But there are signs that the Obama campaign’s arrogance has begun to anger reporters.

    The press a capricious partner with mood swings? you don’t say!

    Here’s the lede on the story I’d write for the Post:

    Dana Milbank has long been his newspaper’s biggest dweeb, but now he’s showing himself to be its most envy-addled hack as well.

  • Steve

    says:

    Dana Milbank is not the type of person I could throw under the bus. The bus might miss him; he’d simply get up and walk away. Chaining him to the front of the bus and driving head-on into a bridge abutment at high speed? That, I could do….

  • libra

    says:

    * Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), now under indictment, had to start dropping his committee assignments this afternoon: — CB

    While Stevens is shedding his assignments, GOP Senators are shedding his money. Apparently Stevens’ PAC sent $10K to every “embattled” one… TPM (Election Central) is keeping a list and checking it twice; so far, Dole and Sununu have drawn their (metaphorical) skirts and parted with the tainted loot. Good, clean, fun.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    “Despite yesterday’s explosive report confirming that top Justice Department officials, including Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson, had violated federal law, the White House press corps has not asked White House press secretary Dana Perino a single question about it. — Think Progress, via CB

    Excellent tactics! Yesterday and today, Perino was expecting such questions and, doubtless, had some tasty spin-ach all ready. But the canny journos out-Foxed her… By Friday, she’ll have been lulled into feelings of false security, at which point they will POUNCE!

    You don’t think so? Neither do I, really, but it was fun to dream for a moment… When I woke up, I figured that gosling Goodling would not have the appeal of the femme fatale Lewinsky, despite sharing the first name.

  • beep52

    says:

    Food Industry Changes Its Tracking Tune

    The recent outbreak of salmonella in the United States has cost the Food industry over 250 million dollars. It now turns out that cost may have been entirely their own fault.

    In 2002 the FDA had issued a series of recommendations that would have required the Food industry to tighten their record keeping methods and introduce electronic tracking.

    The Food industry immediately began to lobby President Bush that the FDA proposals were too much of a burden, to expensive and could hinder consumers from getting their favorite foods.

    Millions of dollars were spent on the lobbying effort including 2.6 million by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and 1.7 million by the Food Marketing Institute, and there were many others, Kraft Foods, the Kroger Company, Safeway, Procter and Gamble and more.

    The 250 million dollar lose now has the Food Industry changing their attitude about more effective produce tracking systems.

  • Michael Savage

    says:

    The madman who killed two people this week in a Unitarian church in Tennessee was consumed with hatred for “liberals and gays.” Police found books by Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly in his home.

    It’s about time. Doesn’t anybody read my books? I’m not just blowing smoke, here.

  • Dale

    says:

    beep52 said:
    Food Industry Changes Its Tracking Tune
    The 250 million dollar lose now has the Food Industry changing their attitude about more effective produce tracking systems.

    Good item. And this is exactly why you don’t give corporations immunity.

  • libra

    says:

    Christmas in July for the charities continues: Susan Collins (ME) and Gordon Smith (Oregon) joined Elizabeth Dole (NC) and John Sununu (NH) in divesting themselves of Stevens’ money…

  • Dale

    says:

    I was just curious about what kind of play CB’s Flip-Flop list is getting.
    The McCain Flip Flop List

    John McCain — 61 Flip -Flops and Counting

    Barack Obama is hardly insulated from criticism

    Stu’s Views: The Other Flip -Flop Drops

    Friday Talking Points [38] — Whiners And Cheeseheads

    7/15: The Politics Of The Surge

    7/16: On Iraq And Gorillas

    McCain’s New Plan — Attack Obama’s Character. Will it Work?

    6/30: Wesley Snipes

    7/8: It Just Doesn’t Add Up!

  • joey

    says:

    MsJoanne…you obviously are not up on Greenwald…he is one of the strongest most accurate and perceptive progressive liberal voices of the day. And Neilt…you must have a large ass if Greenwald chaps it…if he’s deriding those that disagree with him its usually because they are full of shit and trying to lie or spin total bullshit. Greenwald is extremely gracious to those who have a point and you obviously didn’t have one…it’s like jumping on CB for deriding McCain…he wouldn’t do it just for fun. Greenwald backs up everything he says and his educated insights rival Jonathan Turley on constitutional law. He’s one of the most reliable sources on the net. His posts are always…without exception…superior articulations for the progressive liberal viewpoint and he works tirelessly to promote good government and good media coverage coordinating efforts of groups like ACLU, move on and pac blue with libertarian money bombs so there are consequences for dems and other leaders who’ve been bribed or bought by our corporate state. I wish there were 50 of him. Hell, he even got Olbermann to open his eyes and really see what was happening with FISA. Most of our pundits aren’t intelligent enough to take on “law professor spokesmen” when they talk bullshit but Glenn can and does.

    He has the results of the attack ads and the coordinated links that began that effort. He doesn’t make unqualified arguments or give unwarranted criticism and is one of the most concise writers I’ve ever run across. This site and Glenn’s are my favorites and with good reason.

  • Tom Cleaver

    says:

    I hope all of our friends in Southern California are safe and sound: “A magnitude-5.4 earthquake has struck just east of Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake’s epicenter was about 2 miles southwest of Chino Hills and about 5 miles southeast of Diamond Bar, the USGS said. Chino Hills is about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The center was about 7.6 miles deep. In general, earthquakes centered closer to the Earth’s surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground.”

    Was funny at work – the quake came just as we were about to start Dialing for Obama Dollars. First 10 seconds, everyone stands there, notices it’s continuing, everyone dives under desks. When it’s over, the “newcomers” are all agog about their first “big one” while the rest of us are commenting as connoisseurs of earthquakes: “Seemed much closer to the one in ’87 than the Big One in ’94, didn’t you think?”

    Phone were out for 30 minutes.

    My good friend was in the elevator alone, coming up from the second sub-basement parking lot to the office on the 3rd floor. It was his considered opinion it was the scariest earthquake he’d ever been in.

  • Redshift

    says:

    Good item. And this is exactly why you don’t give corporations immunity.

    Conservatives give corporations what they want; liberals give corporations what they need.

  • terryf

    says:

    Glenn Greenwald explains today why “pushing conservative Democrats out of Congress could help the party stand up to the GOP.”

    Enforcing ideological purity is a great idea. Let’s not worry ourselves with inconvenient niceties like the quaint notion that these Congressmen were elected by “voters”. By golly, there is an entire nation to reshape and we certainly can’t let these “moderates” stand in the way of re-creating society in our own image. Why things will be wonderful once we can eliminate those bothersome “differing opinions.”

    Why, this is such a great idea, I am surprised that the Republican’s didn’t think of it first.

    Oh, wait………

  • Fast Eddie

    says:

    McCain was for positive, respectful campaigning before he was against positive respectful campaigning?

    Does this count as a flip-flop?

  • melior

    says:

    the White House press corps has not asked White House press secretary Dana Perino a single question about it

    TPMM has now has video and a transcript up of Perino dodging questions about Bushco illegally whoring career jobs to RNC sycophants.

    You’ll want your antacid with you.