Wednesday’s Mini-Report

August 6, 2008

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* NYT: “A panel of six military officers convicted a former driver for Osama bin Laden of one war crime Wednesday but acquitted him of another, completing the first military commission trial here and the first conducted by the United States since the end of World War II. In a stinging setback for the military prosecutors, the commission acquitted the former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, of a conspiracy charge, arguably the more serious of two charges he faced. Mr. Hamdan’s conviction came on a separate charge of providing material support for terrorism.”

* Officials sound like they’re done with the probe: “Bruce Ivins, a suspect in the 2001 anthrax killings, was the custodian of a flask of a highly purified anthrax spores that had “certain genetic mutations identical to the anthrax used in the attacks,” according to court documents that were unsealed Wednesday.”

* This sounds encouraging: “A federal grand jury has subpoenaed several former senior Justice Department attorneys for an investigation into the politicization of the Department’s own Civil Rights Division, according to sources close to the investigation. The extraordinary step by the Justice Department of subpoenaing attorneys once from within its own ranks was taken because several of them refused to voluntarily give interviews to the Department Inspector General, which has been conducting its own probe of the politicization of the Civil Rights Division, the same sources said.”

* House Republicans are already starting to triangulate against Bush: “A House Republican leader is lambasting President Bush on his decision not to call Congress back into session to deal with the energy crisis. In a legislative update sent to GOP members and staff on Tuesday, Republican House Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) accused “Beijing George” Bush of throwing House Republicans “under the bone-dry bus” on his way to the Olympics in China.”

* Mitt Romney was asked to name a single bill John McCain has produced in 26 years on energy independence. Romney responded, “I’m not a historian.”

* The White House may be livid, but Ron Suskind stands by his work.

* So long, Phill Kline. Please stop seeking public office.

* Sounds like the appropriate response: “Pelosi released a ‘top 10 questions for the House GOP on energy,’ which includes slams like this: ‘When House Republicans were in the majority for 12 years, our dependence on foreign oil escalated. Why didn’t House Republicans do something about America’s energy independence to ensure we wouldn’t reach the energy crisis we’re in now?'”

* So tiresome: “The latest is Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, who according to the Politico claimed that Cuba ‘has given a lease to the Chinese’ to drill in the Gulf of Mexico.”

* The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins is the latest to get in on the China’s-drilling-Cuba myth.

* I can’t believe the AP actually ran this mistaken report: “Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He announced late last month he has a brain.”

* The Auto Alliance — which represents BMW, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Mazda, Mercedez Benz, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota, and Volkswagen — seems to think Obama is right about routine auto maintenance.

* All the major outlets will have someone moderating a debate this year except ABC News. Organizers swear it has nothing to do with the Gibson/Stephanopoulos debacle from a few months ago.

* Note to Jerome Corsi: when you fall in a ditch, stop digging.

* Sorry, Zeitgeist, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) continues to solidify her reputation as Congress’ looniest member.

* I agree, John Kerry has been very, very good as an Obama surrogate.

* “#dontgo” is many things, but I wouldn’t call it a “movement.” (thanks to Dale for the tip)

* I’ll never really understand why anyone considers Newt Gingrich an intellectual.

* And exactly seven years ago today, Bush received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”

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

Too bad the liberals made such a fuss over shoving a banana up that guy’s ass in Abu Ghraib. We were one bushel away from nabbing Bin Laden’s caddy.

  • Does anyone have any evidence to contradict Bachmann? I mean, Comrade Oberstar, who is truly the looniest mamber of either house, has diverted gas tax money to mass transit boondoggles for years (why do suburbanites in MN have to pay for a choo-choo in San Diego? Is it possible that mass transit is not viable as a business plan?) And we keep hearing harpings on the “evils” of commuting, and how bad we polluting the earth with CO2 (necessary for photosynthesis, and the #1 reason for bumper crops in arable areas for the past decade). The fact is that Dems maufacture crises in order to further their agenda. First there was the War on Poverty. Then Global Warming. Now making a crisis out of a perfectly natural, unavoidable, and necessary economic slowdown. What is next?

  • “A House Republican leader is lambasting President Bush on his decision not to call Congress back into session to deal with the energy crisis.

    I always knew whatever made the Republicans break from Bush would be a matter of principle.

  • CB and Zeitm personally, I think they’re both as looney as it gets, but the running competition for World’s Craziest is one of the highlights of my day.

    Carry on, gents. Carry on!

  • Sounds like the appropriate response: “Pelosi released a ‘top 10 questions for the House GOP on energy,’ which includes slams like this: ‘When House Republicans were in the majority for 12 years, our dependence on foreign oil escalated. Why didn’t House Republicans do something about America’s energy independence to ensure we wouldn’t reach the energy crisis we’re in now?’”

    Great. But can we repeat this as many times as the Plutocrats and their media enablers are repeat the lie that drilling will solve our problems?

    One press release isn’t going to cut it. All prominent national Dems (Obama, Clinton(s), Pelosi, Reid, Gore, Biden, Dodd, Webb, …) need to be singing from same Hymn Book at the same time…over and over and over again…just as the Republicans do with their lies.

  • Suskind has stones, that’s for sure. And he’s right when he says “We need to have people under oath, with threat of perjury. That’s the way we’re going to get to the bottom of something this contentious and portentous.”

    If BushCo did what the agents told Suskind (and they told him on the record), then BushCo needs to be sent to the Hague. If they’re right, then the Iraq war was launched on false pretense, deliberately. Congress should be all over this.

  • Over at TPM today they pointed out that a talking head asked Carly Fiorino about Mittens inability and she also couldn’t name anything in his 26 years in Congress. So, Obama is not the only one with lousy attack dogs. I mean his are great at attcking but horrible at factual statements, Obama’s are great on the facts but can’t attack any better than a jar of Marshmellow cream. Sheesh.

  • “Sorry, Zeitgeist, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) continues to solidify her reputation as Congress’ looniest member.”

    Until Steve King opens his mouth.

  • * And exactly seven years ago today, Bush received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”

    But Bush didn’t cover his. Or maybe he did. Maybe he just covered his tracks.

    * I’ll never really understand why anyone considers Newt Gingrich an intellectual.

    I think he taught high school history and you remember how intelligent your high school history teachers was. He usually doubled as football coach.

    * “#dontgo” is many things, but I wouldn’t call it a “movement.” (thanks to Dale for the tip)

    Hey that’s me. They call twitter microblogging, but all I see on there is people mentioning what they had for lunch.

    The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins is the latest to get in on the China’s-drilling-Cuba myth.

    Perkins goes to Cuba to get “drilled”.

  • 3. On August 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pm, Aaron said:
    Is it possible that mass transit is not viable as a business plan?

    Do you have any clue how much money we spend subsidizing automobiles? They’re called roads, and government spends trillions on them every decade. All so you can drive a fast car and pretend your dick is bigger than a crayon.

  • AP: “Obama had noted that keeping tires inflated and cars tuned was endorsed by both NASCAR and AAA and should be part of any comprehensive plan to reduce reliance on imported oil.”

    No, Obama did not say (or imply) that keeping tires inflated and cars tuned “should be part of any comprehensive plan to reduce reliance on imported oil.” Once again, the AP is acting as John McCain’s PR department.

  • Republigoons starting to triangulate against Bush?

    C’mon, at this point, Dubya is looking for any claim to future-historical legitimacy. Why would that not exclude striking a tiny anti-Republican pose, so he can leave a message in a time capsule that he planned it from the start to preserve his legacy?

  • * “#dontgo” is many things, but I wouldn’t call it a “movement.”

    I respectfully disagree. It is a movement. a “bowel” movement. Another reason to flush the Repooblicans down the toilet in three months’ time.

    and another reminder: In an America where the fringe-right wackos complain about terrorism, Today marks the anniversary of America becoming a terrorist superpower. 63 years ago today, we dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing over 140,000—the vast majority of whom were civilians.

    Our illustrious leaders celebrated this by convicting a guy for the horrific war crime of driving someone around in a car….

  • Dale, this cracked me up: when you go to Twitted it performs a search – and I quote “q=%23#dontgo” 23%er’s, eh? How apropos!!

  • Noah said:
    Somebody funny stuck an Obama bumper sticker on the Straight Talk Express!
    http://novemberblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/john-mccain-endorses-barack-obama-for.html

    This ought to become a new national pastime.
    And not just on McCain’s crooked bus. Clearly, it is going to be hard to get a second one stuck there. But how about one on Newt’s car? Can someone post a pic of one stuck to Novak’s black vette?

    Hey here’s an idea… New College sport:
    Instead flipping off hummers, how about Obama-pasting them?

  • Racer X said:
    Suskind has stones, that’s for sure. And he’s right when he says “We need to have people under oath, with threat of perjury. That’s the way we’re going to get to the bottom of something this contentious and portentous.”

    I have a simple test to verify the truth of Suskind’s allegations — ask Dick Cheney.

    If he denies it, we’ll know they’re true.

  • […] you remember how intelligent your high school history teachers was. He usually doubled as football coach. — Dale, @12

    Geez, Dale… Did you go to school with my son? Rockbridge County High School, 1990-1994? I went to a single parent-teacher meeting with the guy and was left speechless. I had had some dim-witted teacher myself but this guy was Olympic material. Of course, history being an elective — not compulsory — subject, it would not be economical to have someone who actually specialized in it. Much better to have a beefy lout, good at sports, who can read well enough to scope the textbook 15mins before a class…

  • Shalimar – you make a point, except that the users of the roads pay for them with gas taxes and in many states tolls. Basically no general fund money is spent on roads. If mass transit can be paid for by the users on an ongoing basis, I say let’s subsidize the initial construction costs. Unfortunately all mass transit systems in existence in this country are subsidized in perpetuity because there is not enough support to cover the operating costs. So in truth, the people who drive on the roads pay for both the roads AND the buses, AND the trains.

  • “I’ll never really understand why anyone considers Newt Gingrich an intellectual.”

    He has a real big head.

  • Aaron
    The idea of public transportation is not about having it pay for itself. It is about keeping it cheap and attractive enough so that everybody can at least afford it, AND entice car drivers to park it once in a while because it is cheaper to take public transportation.

    Just think of it in another way. If there was no public transportation, there would be that many more cars on the road, resulting in more grid lock and pollution. (Have you been to China, or Mexico City, or Cairo? – I have and it’s pretty bad)

    Would you rather pay a little bit for public transportation, and therefor have less people on the road, so that you have more of the road to yourself? If anything else , pay for public transportation out of selfish reasons.

    Either way: it is worth the investment and subsidy.

  • I can’t believe the AP actually ran this mistaken report: “Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He announced late last month he has a brain.”

    Wow, Ron Fournier gets it right! You know what they say about broken clocks – I wonder what the next one will be.

    Coulda been a “freudian slip” though. “Never ascribe to evil what can be explained by stupidity.”

  • TCG @#17 Keith Olberman named Nikki Tinker, she of the dem on dem violence you linked to, as “Worst Person in the World” tonight. I live in Memphis and adore Steve Cohen, but he’s not my Congressman, I have the dubious distinction to be represented by the 5th most stupid and odious congresscritter, Marsha Blackburn.She’s being primaried from the right and so I will be voting in tomorrow’s primary on the Republican ballot, just hoping to get rid of her, or weaken her so the Dem in the general can get her. Nikki Tinker is a corporatist DLC type Dem ; she’ll represent that district even less well than Harold Ford,Jr. did, and he voted FOR the war and the bankruptcy bill. I hope Cohen can pull this out. And I’m irked with Emily’s list, yes I know getting women elected is their raission d’etre, but can’t they start in the conservative and Republican districts and work up to the liberal Dem men in their plan?

    Anyway, I know this is much more info than you needed and I’ll hush now But Zeitgeist and others need to know that Marsha Blackburn is still in the running for one of the top four cedes in the stupid congress brackets!

  • Two things before I sign off for the night — probably.

    First, I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned it — though I’m sure CB will have the video tomorrow — but Obama used one of the lines we’ve been begging him to use, about ‘looking forward to the debate between John McCain and’ (pause) ‘John McCain.’

    Second, all of you who have been talking about your conservative friends, co-workers, neighbors, or relatives, will you please start talking to them about the Buffalo Chip Festival. You can go as light or as heavy as is needed, ‘bunch of boozing, fornicating bikers,’ ‘opening act for Kid Rock’ to Cindy as “Miss uffalo Chip, with as much graphic detail as they can stand. Send them the videos, either the mild one or the more graphic, ‘not safe for workplace’ ones — I’m sure you’ll find them on YouTube.

    Believe me, this will keep building. THIS was the blunder, the disastrous gaffe we were afraid Obama would make. It might not convince them to vote for him, but it damn well will convince a lot of them not to vote for McCain.

  • Mass transit is a far cheaper way to travel than automobiles. Switching over to mass transit wherever possible would save the USA huge amounts of money in the long-run. Not that Republicans, for all their supposed patriotism, ever seem to give a damn about what’s best for the country.

  • Oh dear, and I thought that Aaron was conducting satire when he wrote: “The fact is that Dems maufacture crises in order to further their agenda….Now making a crisis out of a perfectly natural, unavoidable, and necessary economic slowdown. What is next?”

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