Wednesday’s Mini-Report

August 20, 2008

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* What a shame: “Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, a Democratic superdelegate and one of Hillary Clinton’s most ardent supporters, was hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday after suffering an aneurysm, the hospital said.” There were reports earlier that she had died, but they were mistaken.

* New pact: “The United States will deploy anti-missile interceptors, upgrade Poland’s air defenses and modernize its military under two agreements signed Wednesday. The agreements, signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, are almost certain to increase the already high tensions between Russia and the West over the Russian invasion of Georgia.”

* Russia is really unhappy: “Norway’s Defense Ministry said Russia has informed it that it plans to cut all military ties with NATO. Ministry spokeswoman Heidi Langvik-Hansen said the country’s embassy received a telephone call from Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday, saying Moscow plans ‘to freeze all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries.'”

* Nice try, Ted: “A jury in Washington, D.C., will determine whether Sen. Ted Stevens is guilty of failing to report gifts and home renovations he allegedly accepted from an oil services company and its owner. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan decided Wednesday that the trial will stay in the nation’s capital and continue on its accelerated schedule. However

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, there’ll be no sessions on Fridays so that Stevens can travel to Alaska to campaign. Jury selection is set to begin Sept. 22 and the trial will start two days later.”

* Speaking of right-wing senators with legal trouble: “Lawyers for the Federal Election Commission do not believe that Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) should be allowed to use campaign funds to cover all the legal costs he incurred while trying to avoid testifying in the Deborah Jeane Palfrey prostitution case. In a draft advisory opinion released by the FEC on Wednesday

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, the agency concluded that Viitter will have to personally pay more than $160,000 in lawyers’ fees stemming from Vitter’s effort to quash suppoenas from Palfrey, dubbed by the media as the ‘D.C. Madam.'”

* And speaking of the FEC: “The Democratic National Committee is asking the Federal Election Commission to postpone a decision — scheduled for its public meeting on Thursday — on the issue of Senator John McCain’s withdrawal from the public financing system for his primary bid.”

* I generally avoid sports news, but the Henry Cejudo story is just beautiful. Go read it.

* The far-right’s tendency to attack veterans who disagree with the conservative line never ceases to amaze me.

* Scott McClellan hopes that Barack Obama

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, if elected, doesn’t go back and investigate the Bush White House’s criminal conduct. Hmm.

* A very sound prediction from Atrios: “Republicans will inevitably throw some sort of hissy fit over something real or imagined that happens at the Democratic convention in order to try to prevent any kind of convention bounce for Obama. Be prepared.”

* Rumor has it that Harry Reid’s patience for Joe Lieberman has run out. Good.

* If you missed Rachel Maddow talking about her new show on “Countdown” last night, it’s definitely worth watching.

* I’m glad kids are getting into rock music via “Guitar Hero,” but I wonder, how many of them make the transition from the game to actually playing a real guitar?

* The task of debunking the anti-Obama emails is daunting and never ending.

* Wait, there might be a “Veronica Mars” movie? Sounds good to me.

* And finally, note to political reporters: if you ask an unexpected question on a McCain campaign conference call, be prepared to be inexplicably cut off.

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

* I’m glad kids are getting into rock music via “Guitar Hero,” but I wonder, how many of them make the transition from the game to actually playing a real guitar?

Haha, I went the other way, from real guitar to fake plastic guitars. I like Rock Band better, though, because it gives you a chance to play drums without the neighbors calling the cops.

Wait, there might be a “Veronica Mars” movie? Sounds good to me.

Sweet. That was an awesome show that needed a better resolution.

Oh, and on your advice I started watching Mad Men, which is also really good.

One question…how in the world do you find time to watch any entertainment television at all?

  • : “The Democratic National Committee is asking the Federal Election Commission to postpone a decision — scheduled for its public meeting on Thursday — on the issue of Senator John McCain’s withdrawal from the public financing system for his primary bid.”

    How come?

  • BELLAVIA: Sen. Hagel has never been shot at in Iraq, he’s never seen what an IED looks like or been detonated on.

    Wow. I guess landmines are for pussies.

    So the new argument is if you haven’t fought in Iraq, you can’t make judgments about the war in Iraq. So everyone in bAdmin and John McCain should just SHUT UP.

    I will take that specialist who’s 20 years old from Decorah, Iowa, who served three tours in combat, over anything any member of the House or Senate has to say.

    What if the specialist tells you to go fuck yourself?

    Wow. That is some serious unhinged stuff. Glad he got some air time.

  • If I were calling the shots in Russia, I’d cut the oil/natural gas line to Germany. For starters.

  • I heard the news re Stephanie Tubbs Jones on the radio this morning. Unfortunately, it was on Fox news. The way the story was reported on Fox radio it carried an implication that Tubbs Jones may have been impaired by drugs or alcohol. My partner had the same impression.

    Nice.

    Hope she recovers.

  • How soon will Republicans start saying that Stubbs’s life wouldn’t have been saved if she’d gotten the care under Obama’s healthcare plan?

  • Oh, and it’s worth pointing out this line from the Cejudo story to John McCain:

    “For winning the gold medal, he will be awarded bonuses and donations equaling $65,000.

    “‘I’m rich!'” he screamed.”

    Now that’s America.

  • “…Moscow plans ‘to freeze all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries”

    Call it the Republican “August Surprise.”

  • The teenage son of one of my old jammin buddies was showing me Guitar Hero a while back, and this kid was amazing. He was flying — and precise — whew. So we dug out an old Les Paul and the poor kid just withered. “I could never do this, this is hard!” Great kid, but no guitar player.

  • How to get the MSM to cover the McCains’ “distortions” of the truth intended to polish their images – from only-child-Cindy to a girl with TWO half-sisters that were treated like dirt and swept under the rug, a “Mother Teresa begged us to adopt” story that’s now had Mother Teresa subtracted from it, plagiarizing recipes for a campaign stunt, plagiarizing Wikipedia to claim nonexistent knowledge of Georgia…

    John Edwards, the non-candidate, violated his family, but no laws and he’s hounded out of the public square- and his wife too!

    Cindy McCain illegally took drugs and literally took them from a charity, has a criminal conviction – yet she’s out there standing two steps behind McCain with her vapid stare at every campaign event.

    I’m gonna barf.

  • Scott McClellan hopes that Barack Obama, if elected, doesn’t go back and investigate the Bush White House’s criminal conduct. Hmm.

    I think the light just went on for Scott McClellan: He’s the only one who won’t be getting a pardon in January, so he will be the only one left to investigate. He probably should have thought of that before the book.

  • The Cejudo story is inspiring! My parents came to the US to give my brother and I the chance to live a life that we would not have been able to live in our native Argentina.

    And the wingnutswill start complaining about Henry
    desicrating” the flag in…wait for it…

  • I think a good tag line for anti-McCain commercials would be “What’s he trying to pull now?” And I would quit giving McCain a ten second endorsement preceding every statement et al make, that is “We respect John McCain’s service…” It undercuts their criticisms and suggests that they’re defensive about doing that.

    My favorite line so far from Obama is “Those guys are proud of being ignorant.” Just the right tone.

  • (4:35 PDT) Rachel Maddow now reporting that Rep. Tubbs-Jones has, in fact, died. My sympathy to her family, friends, and constituents.

  • McCains just caught in another whopper, it has been revealed that she did not meet Mother Theresa (who she said implored her to bring two children to America) I guess if you forget you have a sister, that you did not write a recipe, or steal drugs you forget anything.

  • Tubbs Jones has passed away as of 6:12pm edt. She wasn’t my rep (Kucinich) but she was a tireless advocate for her constituents. May she rest in peace.

  • The task of debunking the anti-Obama emails is daunting and never ending.

    I’m beginning to believe the republican solution to the nation’s economic woes lies wholly within the ability of Snopes and FactCheck researchers to spend their overtime checks.

  • Russia is really unhappy

    Am I being paranoid when I think that reigniting the Cold War would be the perfect October Surprise? Even if it doesn’t exactly happen in October.

  • big brother doesn’t watch you
    you watch it
    how would you know
    if you’ve seen the truth
    if you never got dragged up
    from that cave
    images cast on the far wall
    in time with the play
    in front of your eyes
    tied down
    fettered
    in this state i stay

  • * I generally avoid sports news, but the Henry Cejudo story is just beautiful. Go read it. — CB

    I figure deportation procedures against his mother (an illegal immigrant) will proceed apace now that they know where she is living.
    ________________________________
    * Rumor has it that Harry Reid’s patience for Joe Lieberman has run out. Good. — CB

    From the article:
    “[Majority Leader Harry] Reid has indicated that he will take another look at things after the election specifically regarding committee assignments,” said a well-connected Hill aide.

    Didn’t you notice the “after the election” bit? This is the same level of “news-iness” as “Obama will pick his VP soon”. Reid’s patience with LIEberman is endless. What this quote represents is the admission of reality — after the elections, Reid’s patience with LIEberman may not have to be tested any longer, since it’s quite likely that Dem’s patience with *Reid* is, possibly, about to expire. Hopefully, the next Majority Leader (Dodd?) will apply the boot to the backside with some — long overdue — force.
    _______________________________

    Sorry to hear about Tubbs-Jones; lousy breaks all around. What is it with Dems, that they seem to be having those particular — brain and circulation — problems? Tim Johnson, Ted Kennedy, now Tubbs-Jones bursting a vessel. Must be true we’re thinking too much.

  • Such a shame re Tubbs Jones. She did one of Colbert’s “Better Know a District” spots, and she was very witty and funny. She was the chief Representative who stood up to protest Ohio’s 2004 electoral votes going to Bush when there were so many voters disenfranchised and Republican monkey business that happened in that state.

    She will be missed. Rest in peace.

  • Regarding why the Democratic National Committee is asking the FEC to postpone their decision on McCain’s use of the public financing system for his primary…read the link! They have good reason to do so.

  • Scott McClellan hopes that Barack Obama, if elected, doesn’t go back and investigate the Bush White House’s criminal conduct.

    Well, it’s not like they did something shady with their Christmas card list or anything.

  • Something that needs to be said:

    — THANK YOU, STEVE BENEN

    For 16626+ posts that could be edited into a history of American politics over the past few years;

    For providing the most visually attractive political blog;

    For providing an atmosphere that made us all feel like family as soon as we showed up;

    For giving the opportunity for such great satirists as Mary, Mother of Odd, and The McCain Blog Outreach CoOrdinator;

    For having such a high standard that even most of our trolls were pleasant — if annoying — companions;

    For being relentlessly fair, even to people you disliked;

    For knowing — and caring about — your regulars, and (in my case, at least) remembering them when they disappeared for months;

    For attracting a collection of talented,individual characters that could disagree like crazy and remain friends;

    For your ability to produce so many high quality posts every day — and still have time for family, cat, friends, and — wonder to behold — even being able to write elsewhere;

    For THE CARPETBAGGER REPORT — a major accomplishment standing out among many great political blogs.

    And for teaching us what color an orange is

    — THANK YOU, STEVE BENEN

  • From TP:

    Yesterday on his radio show, right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh said it’s “striking how unqualified Obama is and how this whole thing came about within the Democrat Party. I think it really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.” Limbaugh continued:

    “I think this is a classic illustration here where affirmative action has reared its ugly head against them. It’s the reverse of it. They’ve, they’ve ended up nominating and placing at the top of their ticket somebody who’s not qualified, who has not earned it. […]

    “It’s perfect affirmative action. And because of all this guilt and the historic nature of things, nobody had the guts to say, well, wait a minute, do we really want to do this?”

    Actually, Rush, we liked him because he talked to us like intelligent adults, which also explains why you didn’t get it. Cretin.

  • This is late, I know, but if anyone sees it: there was a classic example of slanted reporting by Felicity Barringer in the NYT today, on the overturn of the Bush-driven attempt to circumvent established EPA clean air legislatio in 2006, by forcing states NOT to monitor air pollution and which pollutants do what. The suit was brought by Sierra Club and is a considerable victory for environomentalists and the enivroroment. Barringer, an inside Beltway regular, reported it as the defeat of a Bush “initiative” to “reform” EPA regulation, devoted four thin grafs to the winning lawyer’s comments toward the end. Based on the headline and initial 2/3 of story, as well as refer on page 1 of national edition (the one I get), it sounded like another complaint re: those “activist” judges, again blocking the government for “initiating” “needed reform.” Also, the story, which is significant, was buried deep on the inside. NB: What the court really decided was that it was unlawful for the Bush EPA to undermine the Congressional plan for clean air regulation. Hello?? Is anyone home at the NYT? Or are they all reading Darnton’s comic expose of its idiocies?

  • Yep, At&T sucks a big donkey Cheney :

    “Now — after a series of acquisitions and re-acquisitions so tangled it would take Herodotus to adequately chronicle them — AT&T is back, it’s big, and according to consumer advocates and some of the nation’s largest technology companies, AT&T wants to take over the Internet.

    The critics — including Apple, Amazon, eBay, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo — point out that AT&T, along with Verizon and Comcast, its main rivals in the telecom business, will dominate the U.S. market for residential high-speed Internet service for the foreseeable future. Currently, that market is worth $20 billion, and according to the Federal Communications Commission, the major “incumbent” phone and cable companies — such as AT&T — control 98 percent of the business. Telecom industry critics say that these giants gained their power through years of deregulation and lax government oversight. Now many fear that the phone and cable firms, with their enormous market power, will hold enormous sway over what Americans do online.

    Specifically, AT&T has hinted that it plans to charge Web companies a kind of toll to send data at the highest speeds down DSL lines into its subscribers’ homes. The plan would make AT&T a gatekeeper of media in your home. Under the proposal, the tens of millions of people who get their Internet service from AT&T might only be able to access heavy-bandwidth applications — such as audio, video and Internet phone service — from the companies that have paid AT&T a fee. Meanwhile, firms that don’t pay — perhaps Google, Yahoo, Skype, YouTube, Salon, or anyone else — would be forced to use a smaller and slower section of the AT&T network, what Internet pioneer Vint Cerf calls a “dirt road” on the Internet. AT&T’s idea, its critics say, would shrink the vast playground of the Internet into something resembling the corporate strip mall of cable TV….”
    ————————-
    Gotta love deregulation, Thanks Repigs! And of course, AT&T has no trouble violating our right to privacy and illegally spying on you for the bu$$hies…as long as they are paid a premium, and on time.

  • Think Progress had this little tidbit about Romney’s position vis-a-vis Russia hosting the Olympic Games in 2014:
    http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/20/romney-russians-sovereign-nations/
    I couldn’t believe my eyes; I actually clicked on the audio (which, as beep52 astutely noticed is not something I like) to make sure it wasn’t a glitch in the transcript. But, no. Romney actually *did* say:
    ROMNEY: Well, Hugh, my own view is as the Caucuses are a hot spot, […]

    Caucuses????? Is this some sort of a Freudian slip?

    Maybe Romney *would* be the best VP prick for McCain, after all. The two could spend their time together remapping the world:
    “See here, Mittens; we’ll put Czechoslovakia right next to the Democrat Caucus, and the Afghanistan/Iraq border next to the Republican one.” “But, John, what shall we do with the left over Iran?”. “Oh, we’ll give it to Joe; he’s the Independent Caucus isn’t he? I’m sure he’d love to have it all to himself, to bomb at will”

  • Hoax or not hoax?

    1) A dead fossil-rubberized Bigfoot was preserved in ice by two intrepid leprechaun hunters.

    2) A majority of Americans now believe that the Bush-McCain tax cuts for the wealthy are better for them than Barack Obama’s plan (whatever the fug it is).

    3) A quarter of a million schoolchildren got paddled in 2007 — and blacks, American Indians and kids with disabilities get a disproportionate share of the whacks.

  • You’ll be glad to know that ABCNews blog has been censoring and deleting posts that don’t exactly jive with the message they want to deliver, while allowing filth, lies and smears about Obama to remain on their blogs.

    What a wonderful world

  • Man, those Vets For Freedom are quite an intelligent bunch:

    BELLAVIA: “Sen. Hagel has never been shot at in Iraq, he’s never seen what an IED looks like or been detonated on.”

    Because he served during the VIETNAM WAR, not the Iraq war.

    I’m sure he was shot at and saw plenty of explosions while he was there.

    “Now, again, with Sen. Hagel — my problem with Sen. Hagel is, again, his experienced is based on what? The Mekong Delta. It’s based to Vietnam, a totally different fight, a totally different enemy, and by the way, it was 30 years ago.”

    Mekong Delta versus 5 years in a Hanoi POW camp. Well, that’s a tough one.

    “Republicans will inevitably throw some sort of hissy fit over something real or imagined that happens at the Democratic convention in order to try to prevent any kind of convention bounce for Obama. Be prepared.”

    Or do something stupid, like listen to Limbaugh and try to disrupt the convention with protests and riots.

    As for Guitar Hero, my eight-year-old daughter couldn’t wait to get a new acoustic guitar this summer, and she’s taking lessons from one of my friends.
    So there is hope for the next generation.

  • It seems it’s impossible to come up with a comparison of Russia’s situation that Americans will understand. Sources have questioned how America would feel if Russia started arming and training Mexico’s forces, and egging them on to give America grief. Yawn. Others have proposed the quite likely scenario of renewed Russian interest in Cuba, just so it can make America look over her shoulder. Big deal, right?

    In reality, Russia has been Charlie Brown holding the football to America being Lucy kicking it, over and over. I don’t blame them for being furious at the notion of a long-range ballistic-missile radar being set up in their back yard – how would America like it if Russia did the same thing in Hull, right across the river from Detroit? Similarly, the founding principles of NATO have been hijacked by a more or less exclusively American interest in surrounding Russia with new NATO members.

    Typical short-sighted foreign policy by the Bush administration – let’s piss off the biggest nation in the world in favour of a pipsqueak loudmouth like Georgia. And Condoleezza Rice (God, but I’ll be glad to see her on her way out of her current appointment, has there ever been a more useless SecState?) rubs it in by characterizing Russia’s anger as “pathetic rhetoric”.

    Lest you forget, the same people who believe Russia’s military is so run-down that it’s no longer much of a threat to the Great United States are the same people who brought you the debacle in Iraq. And it needn’t even come to a military confrontation; if I were a nation that relied on oil imports, I’d think twice about getting lippy with a net oil exporter, even if I weren’t in their direct supply chain. Europe knows this, because they ARE in Russia’s direct supply chain.

  • MsJ:
    Sorry it took so long to reply. Saw the ad — hated it. Doesn’t focus in on McCain properly, too harsh, too easily deflectible.

    If we want a series of ads against McCain, keep them standardized, and steal the old Jerry Della Femina line:
    “From those wonderful folks who brought you…” (Tag line across the top) Split screen below, showing — depending on the topic — “The Hug” or him voting for Gonzalez, or “Brownie” or against Veteran’s benefits or standing next to Gramm on the left side, newspaper headlines or suitable pictures on the right, Iraq, or Gonzalez scandals, or Katrina, or VA Hospitals or headlines about Penn Square, Capital Funding, Enron and other deregulation-caused scandals, etc.

    Verbal tag line “I’m Barack Obama and I approved this commercial — because we can’t take four more years like the last eight years.”

    Short ads, and lots of them — making maybe a third of the ad buys — all tied to issues and using the “Geico techniques” of lots of ads. Mix in 50% positive ads, and few deliberately funny ones.

    And as for Steve ‘not moving very far’ no, and I will be reading him completely every day, but seeing the quality of the comments there, doubt if I’ll be commenting as much. The people I condemn as hysterical alarmists and name callers here will be among the quieter and saner ones there. (I hope I’m wrong after steve’s been there a while, but it’s hard to turn around the culture of a specific blog.)

  • As Michael astutely pointed out above, the region in which Ossetia lies is often referred to as “The Caucasus”. It sounds the same as the political term “Caucuses”, but Romney was quite correct in his terminology. Although geography is not often a strong point for Republicans, this was not a mistake.

  • So Scott McClellan and, perhaps, all his fellow Bush administration wrongdoers (?), are afraid that they will face war criminal conduct prosecution–and conviction since they are admitting their unconstitutional wrongdoing–if Barack Obama is actually elected president of the United States?

    Do they really think they should not be held accountable nor face maximum criminal penalties for their unconstitutional–hmm, shall we say, treasonous–criminalities while in office? Or, would they rather face criminal prosecution–and maximum sentencing after their conviction–under the auspices of the UN at the Hague–as war criminals, just as the long-gone Nazis were after the end of World War Two? My, oh my, wouldn’t that be appropriate?

    • Comments are closed.