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February 7, 2006

06:27
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Top Ten Surprising Facts About Osama Bin Laden:

10.  Plans to release next threatening videotape in high-definition

9.  In the seventies, had a gay fling with the blind sheikh

8.  Secretly likes Kosher pickles

7.  Middle name: Duane

6.  Stole "Death to America" catchphrase from Fran Tarkenton

5.  Got cave hooked up with Sirius so he can listen to Howard Stern

4.  Knows all the words to the Black Eyed Peas song "My Humps"

3.  After Colts loss to Steelers, declared jihad on Mike Vanderjagt

2.  Has a bumper sticker that reads, "Don't blame me, I voted for Kerry"

1.  The son-of-a-bitch is still alive

---Late Show with David Letterman

And whose fault is that, I wonder.  Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!]  RIGHTNOW!  [Gong!!]

Categories: Blogs
04:12
We are a nation conceived in crises, forged under the looming threat of imminent destruction, by Constitutional Craftsmen who put their heads on the chopping block for a piece of paper. Since our fiery red, white, and blue birth, we have been recast many times in that same unforgiving furnace of burning hostility and unending global warfare; Redcoats; Napoleon; the Blue and the Gray; Mustard Gas; Kamikaze; Duck & Cover; Chosen Reservoir; JFK; My Lai; Apocalypse Now; Oklahoma City; Mutual Assured Destruction.

It's scary stuff, made all the more frightening because it really happened. But we survived and freedom spread.

In the Revolutionary War the world's greatest superpower landed large forces on American shores and marched into battle against a poorly trained collection of farmers and tradesmiths armed with muskets. After being beaten, at great cost to ourselves in both blood and treasure, the same nation did it again in the War of 1812; this time they succeeded in capturing Washington, DC., and burned much of it to the ground. Yet freedom spread.

In World War One, German forces attacked allied lines with poison gas killing thousands, some soldiers and civilians died quickly, some took years to succumb. But freedom spread.

In World War Two, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, attacked the free world and communist states alike. In the Pacific, Pearl Harbor was decimated, and hundreds of suicide bombers in explosive laden planes gleefully smashed their human guided missiles into military and civilian targets for years. In Europe, the death camps opened, millions of Jews and other minorities were turned into slave labor to run the gas chambers and ovens, or to manufacture the weapons of war; and they were arguably lucky ones. That conflicted ended with the US and our allies victorious. And freedom spread.

Thus began the Cold War. The USSR and the US building ever more sophisticated methods of incinerating one another. Within just a few decades, each side could utterly destroy their opponent and much of the civilized world with the push of a button. But we prevailed, and freedom spread.

In that bloody light of conflicts past and won, as a son of parents who grew up in a Depression and the ensuing World War, and as a child of the Cold War, let me make this crystal clear: If you think you're going to scare me or my nation into reversing two hundred years of history, becoming a Police State, and subjecting ourselves to a tyrannical Overlord in the form of the President of the United States, then you damn well better come up with a significantly greater threat than that posed by a handful of religious maniacs armed with explosive belts and boxcutters.

Categories: Blogs

February 6, 2006

22:39
Ohio's filing deadline is just 10 days away (Feb. 16th). Unfortunately, we appear to have several holes in our lineup. Barry Welsh's Congressional race tracker site is a terrific resource. However, in some cases, it's over-inclusive, listing candidates whose names have been floated but who aren't necessarily running. Here are the problem districts:

OH-07: Sharen Neuhardt is not running. I am unsure of the status of Tony Bourne, another listed potential candidate, but his website appears to be down. Fortunately, a knowledgeable e-mailer tells me that a fellow named Dan Saks is planning on getting into the race. Hopefully this candidacy will in fact pan out.

OH-08: I haven't heard a peep about this CD, the home of the new GOP Majority Leader John Boehner. We need someone to run here so that we can keep pressure up on Boehner and make sure he stays linked to the GOP's corruption scandals. Yes, this is a super-red district, but simply running against the GOP's top guy ensures you'll get at least some media coverage.

OH-16: This is the district I'm most concerned about, particularly because it's the most viable of the three. The 16th CD has actually gotten a bit more Democratic recently: It went to Bush in 2000 by 11 points, but in 2004 by just 8 points. You may recall that this seat is held by Republican Ralph Regula, who demolished one-time blogosphere darling Jeff Seemann the last time out. (Regula won 67-33.)

Welsh's site lists Seemann as our candidate for this district once again, but this is very problematic:

  • Seemann's website isn't working.
  • His Blogspot blog hasn't been updated since 2004.
  • His TypePad blog hasn't been updated in over two months.
  • He never filed his final FEC report in 2004. An apparent proxy posting under Seemann's account claimed that he raised $130K in 2004. However, the reports he did file only cover some $60K in expenditures. If the $130K raised claim is true, that leaves $70,000 unaccounted for.
  • He has received a whopping six notices for his failure to file from the FEC, on 10/22/04, 12/17/04, 2/16/05, 5/2/05, 8/2/05 and 11/01/05.
  • He was fined $9,075 by the FEC in October of 2005 for his failure to file.
  • According to the DCCC's site, he has not yet filed to run.
  • In short, this is not the portrait of a responsible candidate. There is simply no way anyone will take you seriously if you're in arrears to the FEC and haven't even completed all your legally mandatory filings. Moreover, Seemann (with his $130K and broad netroots support) did only two points better than the Dem who ran in 2002 - and that guy didn't raise any money. The bottom line is that we need someone else to run in this district.

    Again I say, Ohio's filing deadline is right around the corner, and we're three candidates short. Given the toll that scandal has taken on the OH GOP, and the seemingly resurgent fortunes of the Ohio Democratic Party, it would be a tragedy if we let three Republican seats go uncontested. Hopefully we'll see some last-minute filings, because 2006 is the year to be a Dem in Ohio.

Categories: Blogs
20:24
Senator McCain is putting together a bipartisan task force to address lobbyingcorruption reform in Congress. Of course, when any Republican mentions the word "bipartisan" they really mean Republican and Joe Lieberman, which, in essence, isn't really bipartisan at all. True to form, ol' Joe has signed aboard McCain's task force, as has the reliable Democrat Ben Nelson. Today, an angry and vitriolic McCain express outrage that Senator Obama has refused to play in his bipartisan sandbox.

First, Obama's reasoned and articulate explanation for why he is declining to join the task force:

I know you have expressed an interest in creating a task force to further study and discuss these matters, but I and others in the Democratic Caucus believe the more effective and timely course is to allow the committees of jurisdiction to roll up their sleeves and get to work on writing ethics and lobbying reform legislation that a majority of the Senate can support.  Committee consideration of these matters through the normal course will ensure that these  issues are discussed in a public forum and that those within Congress, as well as those on the outside, can express their views, ensuring a thorough review of this matter.

And now, McCain's response, which reads like the wail of a screaming banshee:

Dear Senator Obama:

I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership's preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter to me dated February 2, 2006, which explained your decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussions. I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won't make the same mistake again.

While I go off to wash my eyes (which certainly need a good bleaching after reading that trash), please reflect upon the real purpose of McCain's "bipartisan" task force, which is to whitewash a purely Republican scandal. Maverick McCain is just pissy that Obama's not stupid enough to meekly follow along while McCain carries out Bush's promise at the SOTU (about the only Bush promise that has survived the 24-hour retraction deadline he's imposed on almost every SOTU proposal).

McCain continues by calling Obama a political opportunist (projection, anyone?) and claiming Obama isn't acting in the public interest:

As I noted, I initially believed you shared that goal. But I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party's effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman Senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. Again, I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics the public interest isn't always a priority for every one of us. Good luck to you, Senator.

Obama, bless the man's restraint, sets the record straight in more gentlemanly terms than McCain afforded him:

[I] am puzzled by your response to my recent letter.  Last Wednesday morning, you called to invite me to your meeting that afternoon.  I changed my schedule so I could attend the meeting.  Afterwards, you thanked me several times for attending the meeting, and we left pledging to work together.

As you will recall, I told everyone present at the meeting that my caucus insisted that the consideration of any ethics reform proposal go through the regular committee process.  You didn't indicate any opposition to this position at the time, and I wrote the letter to reiterate this point, as well as the fact that I thought S. 2180 should be the basis for a bipartisan solution.

I confess that I have no idea what has prompted your response.  But let me assure you that I am not interested in typical partisan rhetoric or posturing.  The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

A freshman Democrat shows class, a senior Republican acts likes an ass.

Categories: Blogs
19:34
Groan.

BIDEN: Thank you very much.
General, how has this revelation damaged the program?

I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls.

I mean, I'm a little confused. How did it damage this?

GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer.

And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.

But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.

(LAUGHTER)

Al Qaida isn't that stupid. This is called "grasping at straws".

(From the Stakeholder.)

Update: Digby explains how it all shakes out. Very plausible, actually.

Categories: Blogs
16:04
In the immediate days and weeks after 9/11 - we heard the dates repeated today in the Senate hearings: September 14, September 18, early October of 2001 - this nation was in fear of immediate, continuous, coordinated attacks. As a people we were reeling in shock, fear, rage and grief. We were understandably reacting from our place in the midst of a severe national emergency, like a nation with its house on fire.

And when your house is on fire, you grant privileges to the rescue personnel you would never allow under any other circumstances: permission for total strangers to enter your house, whisk your baby out of sight to safety, toss your belongings out the window, hose down your Reniors, hustle you off to the nearest Red Cross center. We granted intrusions into our lives in those shaky days right after 9/11 (appropriately so, in light of possible other follow-up attacks) that we would never allow under any other circumstances.

But we are now in a preventive phase and have been for several years. The questions we're grappling with as a country now are not about putting out a current fire; rather, they focus on any and all ways to avert another one. To carry out the fire metaphor: We know there is an arsonist in the neighborhood who wishes us ill. The powers we granted to the rescue workers during the fire are no longer appropriate, and at any rate would not yield the results we need. After all, four years after a home fire, we don't allow firefighters to roust us from our beds at 3 AM, to kick down our doors, to destroy our property in the name of "rescuing" us when there are only rumors of planned flames some vague time in the future.

What struck me today listening to Gonzales was that he is relying on us - and emphatically trying to rouse in us - a regression to that "Oh, my God! The house is on fire! Again!" mentality. Leahy did a nice job of cutting the attorney general short when Gonzales started his warm-up to panic pitch, beginning to evoke the dreaded day in verbal sketches clearly designed to make us see those planes flying into the towers over and over and over again. Leahy deserves a great deal of credit for shutting down that attempt to once again reduce us to a primitive, quivering state with his brusque You don't need to recap for me. I was there. We all were there. The American people were there. He couldn't have signaled sanity more clearly: That was then, this is now, and we're having a very serious constitutional discussion here, so knock off the scare tactics.

Taking the most extreme powers granted under emergency conditions - and interpreting even those powers as extremely as possible - the current administration has undertaken a vast backfill operation. On 9/11, they jumped to the very bottom of the civil liberties-limitation ravine and have systematically shored up, over the past four-and-a-half years what I'm now thinking of as Operation Backfill. For example, in the past few days I've run across repeated accounts of how they considered shooting down Flight 93 on the fateful day. Well, if we were willing to do that, the reasoning seems to go, what's wrong with torture, surveillance, killing without trial an individual suspected of plotting terror? Isn't granting the administration the right to shoot down a plane with a majority of innocent civilians aboard evidence enough that we can undertake namby-pamby warrantless surveillance? In other words, we already turned over, in our panic after 9/11, the right to do anything - anything - to protect us. Any objections we make now to lesser violations than loss of life (which we implicitly agreed to), the administration intimates, are silly.

Aside from continuing actions that are appropriate during an emergency - an attack happening this very minute - there's been a dilution and spreading of definitional terms on the proverbial slippery slope as well, making the slope not only steeper, but wider. Consider how we've gone from discussing a foreign terrorist piloting a plane to foreigners suspected of actively planning to pilot a plane to foreigners vaguely wishing they could pilot a plane into a landmark. And notice too the smudge between foreign and domestic, as well as the intentional blur from known terrorist to suspected terrorist to anyone who aids a terrorist to anyone who is "affiliated" with a terrorist (with "affiliation" totally defined by the executive branch), and from Al Qaeda to Al Qaeda enablers to Al Queda affiliates to people who mighta sorta kinda agree with Al Qaeda to American citizens who don't agree that the proper response to Al Qaeda's attack was invading Iraq (like Quakers).

What we are faced with is, as numerous observers have pointed out, is a perpetual, never-ending war, kind of a general war declared on "bad stuff" - bad people who think bad thoughts about America. This is declared to be an emergency situation, and one that will obviously never end because people will always resent and have bad feelings about the most powerful nation on earth, and thus the crisis is deemed - conveniently for the executive branch - eternal.

In short, this administration wants to argue that we will never, ever, ever be in a rational, analytical prevention phase, but more of one in which an arson unit is trying to come up with detection and preventive standards while the roof is raging on fire above their heads.

I'm not buying it.

Someone's got to tell Mr. Bush the fire's out and that what this country needs more than boogeyman visuals from its attorney general are firm, well-reasoned, coordinated, legal policies to ensure we don't catch fire again. Don't like the surveillance restrictions in FISA, Mr. Attorney General? Well, now's as good a time as any to offer calm rationalizations in front of the cameras of this country, using old, verifiable, truthful instances (the Brooklyn Bridge plot doesn't fly, Mr. Gonzales) or clear-cut, specfic hypotheticals in which these "backfilled" rights violations should be legalized to spare us an attack. Then we can have a national conversation about what rights we're willing to give up in the trade-off for personal security. Simply relying on crisis-granted powers - and even those considered by most legal scholars as illegal - is not selling me.

Categories: Blogs
14:51
While Gonzales takes his break, caption this Reuters photo.

"How much of what I'm saying is true? About this much. Mebee less. Mebee much less."

Categories: Blogs
13:45
More questions. Let's cut to the chase.

  1.  Yes or no, is the President using this program to spy on his political enemies?

  2.  Yes or no, is the President using this program to spy on the communications of groups critical of White House policy?

  3.  Evidence has emerged that the FBI and government Joint Terrorism Task Forces have kept files on peaceful citizen groups like the Quakers, Greenpeace, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, PETA, and the American Civil Liberties Union.  If the Joint Terrorism Task Force, as evidence has shown, has kept files on such peaceful domestic groups, does that constitute a "link" to terrorism which would bring these peaceful groups under the umbrella of the domestic spying program?

  4. Yes or no, is the program used to spy on members of Congress, either in their domestic or international communications?

  5. In Katz, the Supreme Court stated "The Fourth Amendment does not contemplate the executive officers of Government as neutral and disinterested magistrates...[] those charged with this investigative and prosecutorial duty should not be the sole judges of when to utilize constitutionally sensitive means in pursuing their tasks."  Why then, does the executive branch believe that NSA staff can act as neutral and disinterested magistrates? Also, what makes you believe the Supreme Court would approve of the Executive Branch being the sole judge of the constitutionality of its own actions?

  6.  You hid this program from Congress. You hid it from the Intelligence Committees, save eight members of Congress who could not take notes at your "briefings" and could not speak of the program to anyone, including attorneys. You hid it from the super-secret FISA court. The key question, Mr. Gonzales, is what do you have to hide?

By the way, Feingold is doing a great job.

Categories: Blogs
12:53
Some questions for Gonzales:

  1.  The Washington Post, citing current and former government officials, and private sector individuals recruited by the government to aid in the domestic spying program, reports that that the program as implemented is indeed a data-mining program, one which spies on thousands of Americans and sorts through hundreds of thousands of American communications. Is this an accurate representation of the program or are current government officials, former government officials, and private sector individuals lying?

  2.  After September 11th, the Bush administration began a program called 'Total Information Awareness' or, alternatively, the "Terrorism Awareness Program." The program used highly sophisticated and far-reaching data collection technologies.  Out of constitutional concerns about the privacy of American citizens, Congress explicitly banned the Terrorist Information Awareness Program on Sept. 23, 2003, and also banned any similar program.   The software technologies used in the banned program were transferred to the NSA.  If this is the same or similar program that was explicitly banned by Congress(and you may not be able to answer that, that may be something for the Intelligence Committee to resolve) but if it is such a program, does the President's repeated renewal of the program break the law?

  3.  The General Accounting Office reported in 2004 that the government is using or will be using 199 data-mining programs, of which 122 collect personal information. With the disclosure of this domestic spying program, that number reached 200.  Yes or no, without disclosing the nature of such programs, are there other data-mining or surveillance programs which have not been reported to Congress, which are not included in the GAO report, and which the President implemented as a response to 9/11?

  4.  You state that "we are at war" and the President is exercising his wartime powers. Do you interpret the AUMF to be a formal declaration of war by Congress?  If not, do you believe the President has the authority to unilaterally declare us to be at war?

  5.  The chief of the FISA court, both Judge Lamberth in 2002 and current chief Judge Kollar-Kotelly, were briefed on the program and expressed grave reservations about its legality. Why did you not inform the remaining members of the FISA court?

  6.  The Washington Post reports that in 2002, when then Chief Judge Lamberth first learned of the program, "he agreed to a system in which prosecutors may apply for a domestic warrant after warrantless eavesdropping on the same person's overseas communications. The annual number of such applications, a source said, has been in the single digits."  Can you explain what system Judge Lamberth established to accomodate you needs, and why you decided to use his accomodation only a handful of times per year?

Categories: Blogs
12:17
(Bumped -- kos)

To catch up a bit on where we're at in the hearings, we've heard Gonzales say, essentially "We're not spying on al Qaeda, we're spying on Americans." Interestingly, he says that the outcry against such surveillance would be worse that what is going on now. Huh?

I think Gonzales has it backwards. Democrats have criticized Bush for NOT going after Al Qaida. At Tora Bora. By diverting for the Iraq Debacle. For not finishing the job in Afghanistan. For not protecting the "homeland."

For getting an F from the 9/11 Commission.

The Bush Administration is failing us in the fight against Al Qaida AND demolishing the Constitution at the same time.

As for Gonzales' justifications thus far, as SusanG says, "I'm detecting NOT a slippery slope, but a backfill operation."

Feingold up now. Reiterates Bush's "Pre-1776 view of the world."

Update [2006-2-6 14:10:24 by Armando]:This is what Feingold is referring to:

Does the president, in your opinion, have the authority, acting as commander in chief, to authorize warrantless searches of Americans' homes and wiretaps of their conversations in violation of the criminal and foreign intelligence surveillance statutes of this country?

GONZALES: Senator, the August 30th memo has been withdrawn. It has been rejected, including that section regarding the commander in chief authority to ignore the criminal statutes.

. . . And so what we're really discussing is a hypothetical situation that...

FEINGOLD: Judge Gonzales, I've asked a broader question. I'm asking whether, in general, the president has constitutional authority -- does he at least in theory have the authority to authorize violations of the criminal law when there are duly enacted statutes, simply because he's commander in chief?

FEINGOLD: Does he have that power?

GONZALES: Senator, in my judgment, you phrase it as sort of a hypothetical situation. I would have to know what is the national interest that the president may have to consider.

What I'm saying is, it is impossible to me, based upon the question as you've presented it to me, to answer that question.

I can say is that there is a presumption of constitutionality with respect to any statute passed by Congress. I will take an oath to defend the statutes.

And to the extent that there is a decision made to ignore a statute, I consider that a very significant decision and one that I would personally be involved with, I commit to you on that, and one we would take with a great deal of care and seriousness.

FEINGOLD: Well, that sounds to me like the president still remains above the law.

GONZALES: No, sir.

Gonzales NOW says the President's power as King as Commander in Chief trumps the law.

He is, and always has been, a liar in service of BushCo.

He is, and always was, unfit to be Attorney General.

Categories: Blogs
11:48
Warner
Forward Together PAC
2005 total: $3.3 million
COH on 12/31/05: $2.4 million

Vilsack
Heartland PAC (not a federal PAC)
2005 total: $1.6 million
COH on 12/31/05: $1 million

Bayh
All America PAC
2005 total: $379K
COH on 12/31/05: $819K

Kerry
Keeping America's Promise PAC
2005 total: $1.4 million
COH on 12/31/05: $488K

Feingold
Progressive Patriots PAC
2005 total: $595K
COH on 12/31/05: $289K

Biden
Unite Our States PAC
2005 total: $539K
COH on 12/31/05: $240K

Clinton
HillPAC
2005 total: $113K
COH on 12/31/05: $71K

Clark
WesPAC
2005 total: $383K
COH on 12/31/05: $48K

Edwards
One America Committee
2005 total: $625K
COH on 12/31/05: $23K

This is money that these candidates will theoretically spread around contested races this year, building goodwill and loyalty as they gear up their presidential bids.

Categories: Blogs

February 3, 2006

11:50
  • Ahem: Give Ciro Rodriguez a hand. There's the generic netroots ActBlue page, but if you'd prefer, you can go through the Atrios page or the Firedoglake page. At the end of the day, the money all goes to the same place -- Ciro HQ. Oh, and people ask about the $0.01. Really, that's no longer necessary -- the important thing is that campaigns realize where their money is coming from -- special and corporate interests or regular people. And only regular people give $25, or $50, or $100 contributions.

  • Fighting Dem Vet Chris Carney on the Band of Brothers event in DC next Wednesday.

  • The Department of Homeland Security prepares kids, and King George, for the next disaster.

  • Sallie Mae and John Boehner, sitting in a tree...

  • The iPod accessory market is now a $1 billion industry. That's a lot of muscle vested in keeping the iPod the premier digital music in the world. Meanwhile, USA Today gives us some obvious iPod workplace etiquette tips.

  • Reddhedd updates us on today's Libby hearing.

  • New Yorkers in the house can check out Laughing Liberally tomorrow night, from the folks who brought us Drinking Liberally. The long-term plan is to get a traveling political comedy troupe. Maybe even get them to do YearlyKos?

Categories: Blogs
11:20
A series of cartoons, depicting the Prophet Mohammed, has sparked an uproar of protest from Muslims around the world. Today, Iraq's top Shiite cleric joined in condeming the cartoons.  The cartoons were initially published in September, but were recently republished in a Danish paper. Other papers in turn printed the cartoons. The publication caused such an uproar in the Muslim world, that numerous editors who chose to publish the cartoons in their respective publications have been fired.

Some context for the printing of the cartoons is needed. Danish writer Kare Bluitgen wrote a children's book about Mohammed, but was unable to find any artists willing to illustrate his children's book.  Clerics have interpreted the Quran as forbidding depictions of the Prophet Muhammad and other major religious figures to prevent idolatry.

More below...

Categories: Blogs
10:50
The Onion:

In his State of the Union address to the nation last night, President Bush announced a new cabinet-level position to coordinate all current and future scandals facing his party.

President Bush announces his plan to manage the numerous scandals of his administration.

"Tonight, by executive order, I am creating a permanent department with a vital mission: to ensure that the political scandals, underhanded dealings, and outright criminal activities of this administration are handled in a professional and orderly fashion," Bush said.

The centerpiece of Bush's plan is the Department Of Corruption, Bribery, And Incompetence, which will centralize duties now dispersed throughout the entire D.C.-area political establishment.

The Scandal Secretary will log all wiretaps and complaints of prisoner abuse, coordinate paid-propaganda efforts, eliminate redundant payoffs and bribes, oversee the appointment of unqualified political donors to head watchdog agencies, control all leaks and other high-level security breaches, and oversee the disappearance of Iraq reconstruction funds. He will also be responsible for issuing all official denials that laws have been broken.

Categories: Blogs
10:46
So, does Bush think money grows on trees?

The Bush administration said Thursday that it would seek about $120 billion in additional financing to pay for continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2006.

The request shows that the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has remained at virtually the same level for several years, despite hopes that a large number of the American troops may leave Iraq by the end of the year.

He likes to talk about the government not taking "your money". But whose money does he think is financing his incompetent foreign adventures?

Categories: Blogs
10:26
We've been talking a lot about that Republican in sheep's clothing Henry Cuellar, and we'll do so again moving forward.

But for now, let's talk about Ciro Rodriguez.

Aravosis dug up some info on Ciro:

  • Voted against a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
  • Voted against legislation prohibiting courts from reviewing provisions of the DOMA (HR 3313), i.e., he voted against an amendment that was meant to help keep DOMA alive.
  • Voted against banning adoptions by gay parents in DC.
  • Voted against ending preferential treatment by race in college admissions.
  • Voted for funding and stricter sentencing for hate crimes (including those based on sexual orientation)
  • Sponsored a constitutional amendment for equal rights by gender.
  • Rated 79% by the ACLU, indicating a pro-civil rights voting record.

    Down the list, he is solid on choice, got only a 23% rating from the Christian Coalition in 2003, voted against drilling in ANWR and yes on Kyoto, he got a 100% rating from the Alliance for Retired Americans, voted no on school prayer, got a 100% rating from the AFL-CIO, and so on. Here's a list of Ciro on the issues. Not perfect (who is), but pretty darn solid.

    Ciro is a good guy, a good Democrat. In the 107th Congress, Ciro was ranked 122 out of 213 in the party's left-right scale, right in the middle. He scored more liberal than such party stalwarths as Patrick Kennedy and Joe Hoeffel, and just behind Zoe Lofgren, John Dingell, and Corrine Brown.

    This is a guy who showed Henry Cuellar the ropes, introduced him to donors, to other Democratic congresspersons including the entire Hispanic caucus, mentored him, until DeLay redistricted them into the same district and Cuellar decided his personal ambitions were more important than the help and friendship Rodriguez provided.

    It's been about 23 hours since I started posting on this race, and in that time the netroots, Atrios, and Firedoglage ActBlue pages have collectively raised nearly $30K. The Cuellar people dismissed our efforts yesterday as a "one-day story". Too bad for them it won't be.

    The best thing you can do is find a way to get to the district and volunteer. But, most of us live far away or life is in the way. So in that case, the second best thing we can do is even the financial playing field for Ciro.

Categories: Blogs
07:22
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Art class is open!!

Kids, you'll love today's activity.  Before you start you'll need: a pair of scissors; crayons, fingerpaint, chalk or whatever you prefer to color with (I use yogurt); and a Xerox CopyCentreTMC3545 (payment plans available).

The rest is easy. Print out the box below---featuring a FunQuote from the President of the United States---and color it any way you want (I chose gray).  And, in the true Bushian spirit, you don't have to stay within the lines if you don't feel like it:


"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires---a wiretap requires a court order.

Nothing has changed, by the way.

When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so.

It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."

---President George W. Bush
April 20, 2004

Now make thousands of copies and pass them out to all your friends (and maybe even the corporate-owned media so they can put it on their break room refrigerators and use it from time to time).

Optional: To add a final flourish, caption the egregious betrayal of public trust above with: Lawbreakers go to jail.  But I'll settle for Crawford.

Have fun!  An all-cheers Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!]  RIGHTNOW!  [Gong!!]

Categories: Blogs
06:32
See excellent post by DarkSyde, interviewing Dr. Tara Smith. This Science Friday follow-up expands on some of her points about H5N1.

Did you know that flu experts met in Washington this week and took stock of the situation? The conclusion, after evaluating what's going on here and abroad, is that we're not ready if it should ever get here.

U.S. experts expect to be overwhelmed by bird flu

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - U.S. flu experts are resigned to being
overwhelmed by an avian flu pandemic, saying hospitals, schools,
businesses and the general public are nowhere near ready to cope.
Money, equipment and staff are lacking and few states have even the
most basic plans in place for dealing with an epidemic of any disease,
let alone the possibly imminent pandemic of H5N1 avian influenza, they
told a meeting on Thursday. While a federal plan has been out
for several weeks, it lacks essential details such as guidance on when
hospitals should start to turn away all but the sickest patients and
when schools should close, the experts complained.

The Feds agree. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt is touring the country (he was in CT yesterday), explaining about the disastous 1918 flu and warning that if (and when) a pandemic strikes the US, and you're not prepared, there's no cavalry coming from DC.

Rell and Leavitt signed a resolution at Thursday's event to affirm the
state and federal governments' commitment to work together on pandemic
planning. Local officials who attended the conference also were
directed use its lessons as they create or revamp their own
municipalities' preparedness plans.

But the details include a $1 million grant to prepare all of CT. That works out to be around $32,000 per CT's acute care hospital, and  if you think that's enough to solve this problem (if nothing else, that'll buy enough tamiflu to treat 10,000 of CT's 3.5 million citizens), I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. The Feds know this, and that's why they're warning citizens to consider stockpiling food and water in the event services are disrupted.

Categories: Blogs
05:33
We tend to think ourselves as the pinnacles of Creation, high above the other creatures of this planet on the Tree of Life. But if the metric of success is persistence and sheer numbers, the most successful organisms are microbes, some so primitive they aren't even considered alive. Living or not, from the molecular perspective of these tiny denizens, multicellular new comers like human beings represent only one thing: Fresh meat. Of course, in the aftermath of 9/11 and with the grim spectre of WMDs held over our heads at every opportunity by White House speech writers, we can count on our War President to be on top of a National Disease Emergency, right?

[DR Tara Smith] Despite the lip service paid to making this country "safer" in the aftermath of 9/11, the measures put in place show that protection of our health has become almost exclusively a political issue, and the science is again being ignored.

Tara Smith is one of the frontline warriors in research fighting the ancient scourge of disease in all its forms, from manmade bioterrorism to natural pandemic. I had a chance to ask Tara her expert opinion on the status of that age old threat or how our Federal Government might perform under fire. Her answers are not reassuring ...

Categories: Blogs
01:29
Aravosis' one-man effort to get DC pols to act against companies who would sell anyone's phone records online is finally bearing fruit. (Damn does that guy get results!)

And the pols are looking beyond just the selling of sensitive data to those online brokers, to preventing phone companies from selling any consumer information to anyone at all -- including affiliates, joint partners, and agents. Good.

But as Aravosis notes, why did Dems punt on the issue? Aren't we supposed to be the party of privacy? We sure didn't act that way.

Now, after a good 3 weeks, do you finally get that this is an issue that isn't going away? That this is an issue that is SO up our ally in terms of privacy rights affecting so many issues we care about? That even Republicans are scrambling to get on board? That this is an issue that is STILL going on in the local media? Why in God's name aren't the Democrats the ones holding press conferences and public meetings on this issue? Are they actually that afraid of taking credit for something when it's handed to them? I gave this to the Dems before I even wrote about it - they weren't interested. And we wonder why we don't ever win.

Some DC consultant must've told them this made Democrats look weak on national security.

Categories: Blogs