Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* I’ve been reading tons of great items from all over about fascinating events at YearlyKos today, but in light of the conference, the Republican National Committee, which can level as ugly a smear as anyone in the business, has decided to turn its guns on DailyKos with a new video<\/a>. It’s surprisingly sad, even by the RNC’s rock-bottom standards.<\/p>\n * Regrettably, Valerie Plame suffered another court setback<\/a> today: “The ex-spy whose unmasking led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide cannot disclose the dates she worked for the CIA because the details were never declassified, a federal judge has ruled. The decision, made public on Friday by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones, was a victory for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, which sought to block former agent Valerie Plame Wilson from including the dates in her upcoming memoir, ‘Fair Game.'”<\/p>\n * The House GOP and its allies are in a major<\/i> uproar after some vote shenanigans on the House floor last night. As it turns out, they may have a point<\/a>. I know Republicans pulled some offensive, over-the-top stunts during their reign of error, but I want Dems to set a much higher standard.<\/p>\n * Tom Tancredo recently asserted that he, if elected, would let the Muslim world know he would consider attacking Muslim holy sites such as Mecca. Today, Tancredo adviser Bay Buchanan defended the comments<\/a>, telling CNN that the candidate’s threat would show the Middle East “that we mean business,” A spokesperson for Bush’s State Department told CNN that Tancredo’s comments were “reprehensible” and “absolutely crazy.”<\/p>\n * Chris Dodd defended<\/a> YearlyKos on Bill O’Reilly’s FNC program last night and did an excellent job. It’s worth checking out.<\/p>\n * Speaking of clips to check out, reader AYM alerted me to a very clever short film<\/a> about how World War II would have turned out if Roosevelt acted like Bush. Great stuff.<\/p>\n * Last night, there was an announcement at YearlyKos that Hillary would not conduct a breakout session after the Presidential Leadership Forum, which was not well received. Today, the Clinton campaign announced that she would appear<\/a> at a breakout session after all. (Love her or hate her, Clinton takes the netroots seriously. You have to give her that.) * Leslie Southwick’s judicial nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee because Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) sold out the party<\/a> and the party’s interests. Harry Reid and others still hope to defeat the nomination on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n * As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the Senate passed<\/a> the major S-CHIP expansion bill last night, by a veto-proof 68-31 margin. The Senate bill needs to be reconciled with a more generous House version, though Bush opposes both.<\/p>\n * The Campaign for America’s Future put together a new web video<\/a> to highlight the Senate GOP’s obstructionism. It stars Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander.<\/p>\n * I haven’t forgotten about Friday Cat Blogging, and Smithers is fine, I’ve just fallen a little behind on taking pictures and getting them ready to be published. I’ll get back to it soon.<\/p>\n * E&P<\/a>: “This spring, it looked like Ann Coulter’s alleged voting-fraud troubles might be over after a high-level FBI agent made unsolicited phone calls to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in Florida to vouch for the conservative columnist. But the Palm Beach Post’s Jose Lambiet now reports that the Universal Press Syndicate pundit may not be completely off the hook.”<\/p>\n * For crying out loud<\/a>: “On the August 1 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, discussing an August 1 speech in which Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) proposed a comprehensive strategy to fight global terrorism, WashingtonPost.com staff writer Chris Cillizza said: ‘Democrats still know they need to prove to the American public that they can keep them just as safe as Republicans can.'”<\/p>\n * At a book-release party for Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) joked with the largely Democratic crowd, telling them<\/a>, “Hell, I don’t know what party I belong to any more.”<\/p>\n
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\n* Kevin explains<\/a> the netroots to reporters who seem surprised at how normal we all are: “What’s happening now isn’t a youth revolt, and it’s not powered by free love, free acid, or fear of being drafted. It’s powered by a lot of bog ordinary moderate liberals who have been radicalized by George Bush and the Newt Gingrichized Republican Party. I think a lot of journalists … don’t quite get this because they haven’t internalized just how far off the rails the modern Republican Party has gone. Until they do, they’re going to continue to misunderstand what’s happening.”<\/p>\n