In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
remembers his mother's "incorrigible, sweet-natured romanticism," saying
she tried intellectually to understand the 1960s radicals, but "the anger,
the oppositional spirit, just wasn't in her."
"Emotionally her liberalism would always remain of a decidely pre-1967
vintage, her heart a time capsule filled with images of the space program,
the Peace Corps and Freedom Rides, Mahalia Jackson, and Joan Baez."
11:16 PM
Walking down the street today, I saw a black grade school-aged kid wearing
a Barack Obama t-shirt. It said...
"The time for change is now."
5:43 PM
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no
account be allowed to do the job."
-- Douglas Adams
11:21 PM
"But if the word 'reject' Senator Clinton feels is
stronger than the word 'denounce,' then I'm happy to concede the point and
I would reject and denounce."
Barack Obama shows
that he understands
politics.
8:48 PM
Jack Nicholson just called me.
He wanted to tell me that Hillary Clinton was "battle tested." Okay, it
was a recorded message, but it was still fun getting a call from the star
of Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Jack thinks Hillary would make a
"strong" commander in chief, and has "the experience to deal with the
economic challenges we face as a nation today."
"I'm casting my vote for Hillary Clinton," says Jack Nicholson. And he
hopes you'll join him.
6:34 PM
Rural Votes is doing a
very good job of covering this primary.
12:04 PM
Josh Marshall
points out...
Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby.
4:19 PM
He'd won a Pulitzer Prize, 43 years ago. Before his death in April, David
Halberstam wrote one last article about George Bush -- and Vanity Fair
just put
it up on their web site.
The 74-year-old's final verdict?
We have lately been getting so many history lessons from the White House
that I have come to think of Bush, Cheney, Rice, and the late, unlamented
Rumsfeld as the History Boys. They are people groping for rationales
for
their failed policy, and as the criticism becomes ever harsher, they cling
to the idea that a true judgment will come only in the future, and history
will save them.
3:06 PM
A lively song by the Asylum Street Spankers, parodying the song "Tie a
Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree."
It's called:
"Stick another ribbon
on the SUV."
10:13 PM
A very interesting article about
Michael Crook
9:04 AM
Joe Lieberman is no longer a Democrat. He's running against the Democrat,
in his own self-created party.
Lieberman's mind-set is deconstructed at a parody web site,
Connecticut
for Lieberman.
"If you hate the democratic process, and agree that people who vote in
primaries are just troublemaking radicals, then please support Connecticut
for Lieberman.
"It's my party, and I'll run if I want to."
8:08 PM
Pre-Watergate, there was little or no public knowledge of the vast
pushing, shoving and outright acrimony between the Nixon White House and
Hoover's FBI...
[Deep Throat] had nothing but contempt for the Nixon White House and their
efforts to manipulate the bureau for political reasons.
34 years later,
Bob
Woodward tells all about how he met his powerful and secretive source.
I love how the picture captures the different styles of their generation -
and how the expressions on their faces hint at the roles they'll play.
Every time Woodward asked about his motivations, the FBI chief gave
him
the same
answer.
"I have
to do this my way."
8:35 PM
A sweet moment.
A Ned Lamont supporter reaches over to a Joe Lieberman support, and
hands
him a Sno-Cone.
6:55 PM
I didn't know Norman Mailer had contributed to the
Huffington Post.
"In the wake of all the fluvial funereal obsequies that the media attached
to Ronald Reagan's earthly departure, I felt obliged to remark that he had
been the most overrated president in American history and the second most
ignorant.
Then I added -- how could I not? -- guess who is the most ignorant? Half
the audience applauded; the other half were outraged and groaned in true
patriotic pain."
There's only one other. Mailer wonders if Michael Isikoff's erroneous
story about the desecrated Koran could have been a classic case of
planting
false information.
"Obviously, I can offer no proof of any of the
above. There still resides, however, under my aging novelist's pate a
volunteer intelligence agent, sadly manque... At the age of eighty-two I
do not wish to revive old paranoia, but Lenin did leave us one valuable
notion, one, at any rate. It was 'Whom?' When you cannot understand a
curious matter, ask yourself, 'Whom? Whom does this benefit?'"
This is my favorite part...
"George W. is not only a horse's ass, but vain and platitudinous to
boot..."
1:42 AM
"The only crisis with Iran is the crisis with the
president's public approval ratings. Period. End of
story."
Josh Marshall thinks the Bush administration wants to
bamboozle the public.
"The Iranians are years, probably as long as a decade away, and possibly
even longer from creating even a limited yield nuclear weapon. Ergo, the
only reason to ramp up a confrontation now is to help the president's poll
numbers...."
Josh backs up his statement with a key point from a recent Time
magazine
article, which uncovered a five-point plan aimed at
shoring up the President's support before the November elections.
The fourth
point was to "reclaim security credibility." And Time even cites a
"Republican frequently consulted by the White House" who believes
that "In the face of the Iranian menace, the Democrats will lose."
Is an international crisis being manufactured? Josh calls for a strong
response.
"Enough of the lies. Enough of the incompetence and failure.
No buying into another of the president's phony crises...
To the president the Democrats should be saying, Double or Nothing is Not
a Foreign Policy."
3:50 PM
Friday
Jessica Cutler blogged
about her sex life in Washington D.C. When the blog
was discovered, she was fired from her internship with Republican
Senator Mike
Dewine.
The 26-year-old intern then posed for Playboy and wrote a "novel" -- about
a
26-year-old
who gets fired for blogging about her sex life. But now one of her
blogged-about lovers is suing her for "invasion of privacy."
Robert Steinbuch - described by Cutler as "this crazy hair-pulling,
ass-smacking dude who wants to use handcuffs on me" - filed his lawsuit
last
year complaining of "humiliation and anguish beyond that which any
reasonable person should be expected to bear in a decent and civilized society."
Steinbuch may have gotten the
last laugh, according to Wonkette. His lawyer filed a motion arguing
that Cutler's attorney was also described in her web-log.
(He was W - "a sugar daddy who wants nothing but anal.")
If the tipster is to believed, Cutler's former attorney - William Bode -
then filed an "oh-so-meek notice of withdrawal."
In other news, HBO is
producing
a sitcom based on Cutler's book.
And Senator
Dewine
is still incredibly short
.
11:43 PM
As for weapons of mass destruction, there were none, but Saddam could
not bring himself to admit it, because he feared a loss of prestige
and, in particular, that Iran might take advantage of his weakness...
The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" visits
new information about the days before the Iraq war.
[Saddam] did not tell even his most senior generals that he had no
WMD until just before the invasion. They were appalled, and some
thought he might be lying, because, they later told their
interrogators, the American government insisted that Iraq did have
such weapons.
The New Yorker
describes the ultimate outcome with
careful understatement...
Saddam "found it impossible to abandon the illusion of
having W.M.D.," the study says. The Bush war cabinet, of course, clung
to the same illusion, and a kind of mutually reinforcing trance took
hold between the two leaderships as the invasion neared.
Via Talking
Points Memo
7:43 PM
Saturday
The Chicago Tribune's blog tells the
story of Claude Allen.
When the news was first broken here...that Claude Allen, the
president's former domestic policy adviser, had submitted his resignation
in early February, the White House said Allen wanted to spend more time
with his family.
It appears now that he may have been seeking more time with his defense
attorney.
Allen is accused of 25 counts of retail fraud. Josh Marshall notes Bush
had nominated him to be a
federal
judge.
He was also
in charge of the White House's reponse to
hurricane Katrina.
10:34 AM
Saturday
What would happen if Rush Limbaugh had an audience?
Magically, this footage
from 16 years ago answers the question.
Young Rush Limbaugh - guest-hosting on the Pat Sajak talk-show -
lasts about one minute before the crowd suddenly turns on him.
"We are gonna be wherever you are, and we're going to
denounce and expose you."
The audience shouts, jeers, and rises in mocking ovations
when Rush inadvertently admits his prejudices.
"As you can see," Rush stammers at the end, "we've had to clear the
studio of the audience
in order to be able to conclude the final segment of the program......"
And ever since - for 16 years - Rush has recorded every one of his
programs
without a studio audience.
10:42 AM
Sunday
1999 - Amazingly, the outgoing message on Mark Felt's answering
machine
was: "If you'd like to leave a message for Joan, Rob, Nick, or Deep
Throat, you may do so after the beep." This 1999 article recounts an
interview with Felt about the message, and gives Felt's denials to a
series of questions about his historic role in the Watergate
investigation.
1980 - Nixon testifies at Deep Throat's trial. A case (unrelated
to
Watergate) involved anti-war activists suing Felt for wiretaps. Felt's
lawyers thought Nixon's unpopularity might hurt their clients, but Nixon
insisted on testifying anyways. Nixon also believed that Mark Felt was
Deep Throat. So the same article wonders if Nixon's testimony was a
calculated form of revenge
1976 - Deep Throat's identity is guessed
correctly by an assistant U.S. Attorney General.
1:46 PM
Saturday
I heard an amazing holiday song today on an L.A. radio station.
"The holidays are here
(and we're still at war)."
I thought it was Tracy Chapman, because it's sad and biting. But
apparently it's a newcomer named Brett Dennen. Although it's
not the cheeriest Christmas song I ever heard...
Smoggy skies and fixed elections
Injustice strikes from all directions
People with their backs against the floor
Looking for someone to set us free
A king with fists like Mohammad Ali
The holidays are here
and we're still at war.
7:43 PM
Saturday
In The Final Days (1976) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein told the
story of
Richard Nixon's fall and ultimate resignation in the all-knowing third
person.
"...the President walked through the Rose Garden
portico to the
residence."
"Kissinger stayed behind when the meeting broke up, and
spoke
briefly to the President..."
It assured them access to
all
the
administration officials they needed to tell the story - because each one
was granted anonymity.
Today the L.A. Times re-visits the issue of anonymity in a
brilliant and sweeping essay.
It's a way of doing journalism that still serves its
practitioners' career interests, but less and less often their readers or
viewers because it's a game the powerful and well-connected have learned
to play to their own advantage... The Washington press corps doesn't
want
to talk about this because it
basically puts some of its most admired members in a line of venal
patsies.
The piece walks through the history of using the press,
from
Lincoln through Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. But then it circles back
to today's reporters, and hits hard.
...the administration has adroitly availed itself of the cultural
complicity
that prevails in a fin de siècle Washington press corps living out
the
decadence of an increasingly discredited reporting style...
It still may call itself investigative journalism - and so it once was -
but now it's really just a glittering and carefully choreographed waltz in
which all the dancers share the unspoken agreement that the one
unpardonable faux pas is to ask who's calling the tune.
Poignantly, they gave their piece the headline:
"Woodward Joins a Decadent Dance."
Link via Washington
Monthly
2:53 PM
Saturday
Bush impeached?
Kos makes a
good point
to liberals clamoring for a dramatic reckoning. "Impeachment would, at
best, saddle us with Cheney
or Hastert in the Oval Office, at worst, give Republicans an opportunity
to clean house and
redeem themselves. Screw that. Now's not the time to give them a
lifeline."
In a post titled "Realignment, Not Impeachment," he links to an essay
at
MyDD.com arguing that liberals could create dramatic and long-lasting
gains in the way power is distributed.
"This is it. This is our chance--our once in a generation window...
"We probably won't get another chance like this for at least another
decade, so we have to make it count." A later post cites
a Newsweek poll showing 53% of respondents saying they'd vote for
a Democrat in the next Congressional elections, versus
just 36% who say they'd vote for a Republican. "This is the largest
lead held by one party over another in the generic ballot in a decade."
4:11 PM
Tuesday
Fun with Scott McClellan, part II.
REPORTER: Back in 2003, the Vice President said publicly that he
didn't know who
sent Joe Wilson on the Niger mission... There now
seems to be contradictory evidence that, in fact, he did know. Do you
know, did he know, did he not know?
McCLELLAN: This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation,
and we're not having any further comment on the investigation while it's
ongoing. That is on all questions relating to the investigation.
QUESTION: But that isn't really a question about the investigation.
McCLELLAN: It relates to the whole issue that the special
prosecutor
is investigating, or looking into.
QUESTION: Well, it relates to the truthfulness of the Vice
President
with
the American public, too, doesn't it?
10:55 PM
Thursday
White House press secretary Scott McClellan got tripped
up when reporters
asked him about a damning newspaper article on the Patrick Fitzgerald's
investigation.
MCLELLAN: One, we're not commenting on an ongoing investigation;
two, I would
challenge the overall accuracy of that news account.
REPORTER: That's a comment.
REPORTER #2: Yes, that is....
REPORTER: So what facts are you challenging?
McCLELLAN: Again, I'm not going to comment on an ongoing
investigation.
QUESTION: You can't say you're challenging the facts and then not
say
which ones you're challenging...
12:01 AM
Wednesday
Tom Delay was indicted today. But some see a larger
point.
"...even if he evades
imprisonment on the Texas charges, let's remember that the object of the
fundraising effort in question was The Hammer's obsessive campaign to
launch a re-redistricting of U.S. House seats to buttress his power in the
Capitol. And that broader determination to ruthlessly hold and use power
by the GOP is what has given us a vast array of ethical lapses and bad
policies, from Jack Abramoff's enormous roulette wheel of shakedowns and
wirepullings, to a long series of fiscally ruinous special-interest raids
on the U.S. Treasury, and even down to the staffing of FEMA with
Republican campaign operatives."
That's from the DLC,
via TPMCafe -
where a reader cites
prosecutor Ronnie Earl's clear record of being
non-partisan.
...his quote, "We are a moral people, and the first lesson of democracy is
not to hold the public in contempt," ought to be engraved in brass and
hung on the office door of every elected official in the united states...
Talking Points Memo brings it back into perspective.
See the list of seven Texas congressmen who are sitting in Congress today
because of what the Travis County grand jury calls a criminal conspiracy.
6:59 PM
Sunday
And now, a Density-land exclusive.
"Arianna Huffington is two feet from my finger."
She was one of 25 people who showed up in L.A.'s Farmer's Market in
response to a post on Kevin
Drum's blog (Washington Monthly).
Also present were
Bob Harris
Another blogger from This
Modern World
RJ Scal from Skippy the Bush
Kangaroo and the Huffington
Post
And of course, Kevin
Drum
The gathering broke into little conversations - I talked to a political
consultant named Renee Nahum, and the blogger behind Abnormal
Interests.
A splendid time was had by all...
11:36 PM
Saturday
"The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was
fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows."
-- The
Boston Herald
10:19 AM
Friday
The Associated Press's Ron Fournier
calls
George Bush a liar.
7:09 PM
Thursday
Thousands could die in New Orleans, FEMA's director told CNN tonight.
But then he added
that unfortunately, "that's going to be attributable a lot to people
who did not heed the advance warnings."
CNN pointed out that those people were often frail and without
transportation. But FEMA's director responded only that this was not the
time to be blaming those people, "whether they chose to evacuate or
not to evacuate."
10:34 PM
Saturday
In the latest
Zogby poll, 42% of voters say they'd support
impeaching President Bush
if he misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.
"President Bush’s televised address to the nation produced no noticeable
bounce in his approval numbers, with his job approval rating slipping a
point from a week ago, to 43%...."
9:29 AM
Thursday
Tuesday night something amazing happened. More people
(between the ages of 18 and 49) watched the cable network BET than watched
any of the major networks.It was partly because BET was broadcasting
the annual BET awards - but more because the networks decided at the last
minute to cancel all their programming, and broadcast President
Bush.
ABC's mini-series "Empire" utimately drew just a 5.1
rating and an 8 share - a paltry 6.4 million viewers.
NBC's Average Joe scored a 4.4 rating and a 7 share, slightly better than
"I Want to Be a Hilton," which got a 4.2 and a 7 share.
11:05 PM
Wednesday
The soldiers in the audience for Bush's speech last night were "at
attention,"
and thus, not supposed to interrupt with applause.
The Washington Post reports that the media took
note of the lack of any sounds of support.
The sole supportive interruption followed a sequence in which Bush built
to the line, "We will stay in the fight until the fight is won." NBC's
Kelly O'Connell, reporting from Fort Bragg, told Williams afterward that
the applause appeared to have been "triggered by members of the
president's advance team" and that once they began clapping, the soldiers
joined in.
8:35 AM
Sunday
The "Downing
Street Memo" is finally get some
press attention. Representative Conyers staged an informal hearing,
which apparently "legitimized" the story enough for the Associated
Press...
Amid new questions about President Bush's drive to topple Saddam Hussein,
several House Democrats urged lawmakers on Thursday to conduct an official
inquiry to determine whether the president intentionally misled Congress.
At a public forum where the word "impeachment" loomed large, Exhibit A was
the so-called Downing Street memo, a prewar document leaked from inside
the British government to The Sunday Times of London a month and a half
ago...
6:45 PM
Monday
Blogger Kos is in the
middle of a controversy over - of all things - "The Real Gilligan
Island," TBS's new "original comedic reality series".
He accepted an ad promoting the TV show in which the new Ginger and
Mary-Anne have a
sexy pie fight. When some readers complained about the implicit
sexism, he
dismissed them as the "women's studies" set.
"Kos has made it quite plain that women are second-class citizens," a
reader
complained,
"and I find his attitude on this issue condescending and insulting."
"I also find
it quite disturbing that he refuses to take responsibility for what is
advertised on his own website. It's not as if he lacks for blogad
revenue; is it too much to ask a 'liberal' website to display the barest
modicum of sensitivity towards women and men who object to the blatant
sexism of the 'pie fight' ad? Of course it is, silly! It's not as if Kos
can control what's on his site--and he's made it quite plain that he
realises the ad is sexist and doesn't give a damn."
9:37 PM
Monday
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is said to have been using the
filibuster issue to
ensure support from radical conservative groups when he ran for President
in 2008.
But a compromise has apparently been reached. I like how blogger Kos
described
its ramifications...
"On top of everything, Frist looks weak. He's failed his crazies. He's
finished."
7:41 PM
U.S. Representative Walter Jones led the fight to rename french fries and
french toast in the House cafeteria - to "freedom fries" and "freedom
toast."
"I wish it had never happened," he says now.
He believes the U.S. want to war in Iraq "
with no justification."
Via Atrios
who says "The real story is that he was playing to the locals then and
he's playing to them now..."
6:18 AM
Friday
So ToyPresident.com makes
"Talking President Dolls and Political Action Figures".
If you click on Bush's lapel pin on their web site, he
demonstrates his unique brand of leadership.
"I'm heading to Crawford after tonight!"
And eloquence? The doll also illustrates the
President's ability to speak in run-on sentences.
"And our country is unified, and we are strong, and we are resolved,
and
that makes this
president -- feel really good."
Yes, but does it pander? DOES IT PANDER? One more click will tell...
"Glad to be in the midst of patriots."
Over on DailyKos.com, they're
voting on
what they'd like to hear the Bush doll say.
So far the front-runner is
"He forgot Poland!"
5:45 PM
A group of Daily Kos posters has put together a web site to publicize
Bush
adminstration double-speak prior to the invasion of Iraq.
Since it's based on an internal British document that was just recently
released, the site is called:
The Downing Street Memo.
5:21 PM
Sunday
"According the Social Security Trustees' rather pessimistic estimates, in
2041 or 2042, the Trust Fund will run out and benefits will have to be cut
by just over 25%. President Bush calls that bankruptcy.
On the other hand, President Bush's 'plan' cuts benefits by about the same
amount. And he calls that solvency....
Josh Marshall calls
out President Bush on what he calls "word games."
[F]or President Bush there's only one solution -- big middle class benefit
cuts...
For most folks, that's the problem. For President Bush, it’s the solution.
11:31 AM
Friday
"A highly classified British memo, leaked
in
the midst of Britain's
just-concluded election campaign, indicates that President Bush decided to
overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by summer 2002 and was determined
to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policy...
"The visit took place while the Bush administration was still declaring
to the American public that no decision had been made to go to war."
More from
Salon. Via Washington
Monthly.
6:25 AM
Wednesday
The music industry is trying to stop people from sharing mp3 music files
with their friends.
The most-recent example of someone downloading their friends' music
is:
President
Bush.
4:36 PM
Tuesday
What
about Poland?
Oh - Never
mind.
During the first Presidential debate, John Kerry argued there was no
"grand coalition" liberating Iraq with the United States.
"When we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain,
Australia and
the United States. That's not a grand coalition."
And Bush's retort?
"He forgot Poland!"
Well, Poland's out, now, too.But even at the time Bush said
that, the
President of Poland had declared publicly that the United States
"deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction... We were taken
for a ride."
10:38 PM
Saturday
The Terry Schiavo case would be "a great political issue," according to a
Republican Senator's legal counsel.
Before Congress intervened, he
gloated that "this is a tough issue for Democrats,"
whereas the
Republicans could reap political gains
in upcoming elections because "the pro-life base will be
excited."
Who wrote the memo? Right-wing bloggers were sure - it was Democrats! A
plot by the Democrats! Their theory
burbled onto
cable news talk
shows
- though Thursday it was discovered that the memo's
author was, in fact, the legal counsel for Florida's Republican Senator
Martinez.
So now it's time for the left-wing bloggers to laugh at the
right-wing bloggers who promulgated their Democrat-baiting theories...
"...has
there ever been a bigger bunch of vainglorious nobodies in the history of
the world?" [Digby]
"It's not just that they have no shame, it's that they once met shame on a
street, beat the shit out of him, rolled him up in a carpet, and threw him
off a bridge." [Ezra Klein]
12:59 PM
Friday
If you make less than $40,000 a year, you pay an extra $16 a month,
your employer pays an extra $16 a month...
...and social security
becomes
solvent for the next 75 years.
4:40 PM
Thursday
If you use the Firefox browser, you can install "extensions" which give
your browser special capabilities. (Weather forecasts in the task bar,
title of the mp3 currently playing, etc.)
This one does one thing. It tells you whether Terry Schavio
is alive or dead.
10:29 PM
Monday
Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was edited and re-released this
weekend.
According to the Studio Briefing at IMDB.com, the film appeared in
"about 1,000 virtually empty theaters [earning] just
$239,850. That works out to an
average of 10 tickets sold per theater per day."
4:50 PM
Sunday
Local newscasts are actually written
by the Bush administration, according
to The New York Times.
At least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the
Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news
segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were
subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any
acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.
Our tax dollars - about $63
million a year - paid for the fake news.
9:28 AM
Friday
Senator Russ Feingold writes his first blog
post, dramatizing his position that "[T]he Federal Elections Commision
should provide adequate
protection for legitimate online journalists."
"I am enjoying reading many blogs, and am fascinated by their immediate
reporting that is covering the important issues of the day."
He also argues that campaign finance reform and blogs both had a positive
impact on the 2004 election by empowering ordinary citizens.
Kos at DailyKos thinks
"This looks good, except for the part where the Senator
talks about
'legitimate' bloggers and online journalists. How, and by whom, that is
defined, ultimately, is crucial to whether such regulations truly protect
bloggers."
4:35 PM
Saturday
Eminem's Mosh video has
a new ending. He still assembles an
army
of hooded followers,
but instead of voting, they storm Congress.
Carrying signs that read "War won't make us safe," "Bring home the
troops," and "Count every vote."
And as we proceed
to Mosh through this desert storm,
in these closing statements, if they should argue
Let us beg to differ.
As we set aside our differences
and assemble our own army
to disarm this Weapon of Mass Destruction
that we call our President, for the present,
and Mosh for the future of our next generation.
To speak and be heard.
"Can you guys hear us?"
3:53 PM
Friday
Today Paul Krugman
quoted the book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" It attempts to
explain why poor rural voters election politicians who will make deep cuts
in the capital gains tax.
The right "mobilizes voters with explosive social issues, summoning public
outrage ... which it then marries to pro-business economic policies.
Krugman believes the right is deploying the same weapons to radically
restructure our futures.
...this week we saw [the book]'s thesis acted out so crudely that it was
as
if someone had deliberately staged it. The right wants to dismantle Social
Security, a successful program that is a pillar of stability for working
Americans. AARP stands in the way. So without a moment's hesitation,
the usual suspects declared that this organization of staid seniors is
actually an anti-soldier, pro-gay-marriage leftist front.
8:17 PM
As long as individuals can stand up outside of the tribe and claim
Americanism as their own, the right is revealed as weak, because it is
their own lies about themselves that they cannot stand. Proof in the form
of our existence is enough to make them angry. This is why, as Digby
wonders, they keep getting madder as they keep gaining power. They are not
really after a conservative agenda in terms of policy; they are not even
after power, really. They are after a complete and utter subjugation of
the American consciousness to their tribal mentality.
Blogger Digby starts
by quoting blogger Matt
Stoller.
Then he digs up a long, thoughtful response by... Abraham Lincoln.
Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the
Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution
as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule
or ruin in all events.
4:18 PM
Friday
Enron robbed Bambi. Walt Disney's Bambi used the voice of Donnie
Duggan. The young Depression-era child star is now 63 years old, and,
ironically, lost
much of his savings in the Enron debacle.
5:49 PM
Thurday
The conservative reporter-prostitute writing under the pseudonym Jeff
Gannon
appeared in the White House briefing room before his known media
outlet was even created, progressive bloggers have found.
This contradicts the White House's press secretary, who
claimed
that the Bush-friendly reporter was embedded in press conferences
only after they'd confirmed he wrote for a news outlet that published
regularly.
Heh. "Conservative
reporter-prostitute..."
7:20 PM
The young Nevada man designated to chair the upcoming 2005 Young
Republican National Convention in Las Vegas has been accused of embezzling
registration fees from around the country to pay off bar tabs, personal
loans and credit card debts.
Some news stories speak
for themselves...
6:20 AM
Monday
"Valid questions are being raised regarding the Bush White House's
relationship with James Guckert, also known as 'Jeff Gannon,' and his
access to documents that revealed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative
Valerie Plame....
"This most recent revelation is only the latest in the growing list of
ways that Republicans in Washington are attempting to manipulate the
American people through the media and avoid accountability.
-- From the
Democratic Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives
6:40 PM
Wednesday
So Wonkette's site breaks
the news that Jeff Gannon
"has retired from... whatever it is that he did."
"Sad. We miss him already.
Also, we won't remember his name in about 9 hours."
6:25 AM
Great moments in internet journalism.
Jeff Gannon
A Voice of the New Media
The voice goes silent.
Because of the attention being paid to me I find it is no longer possible
to effectively be a reporter for Talon News. In consideration of the
welfare of me and my family I have decided to return to private life.
Thank you to all those who supported me.
Talon news posts its final
edition.
6:20 AM
Tuesday
Mild-manner reporter Jeff Gannon has
a secret
identity which may have been revealed!
His personal web sites were registered to stately Bedrock Corporation,
which resides at a (very stately) P.O. box in Delaware. An alternate
address turned up for the Bedrock Corporation, however, for a
single-family
home in Delaware which
belonged to...
Jim Guckert.
The home was sold in
September.
6:17 AM
Sunday
A funny photo cartoon called
"Rock, Paper, Saddam!"
"TIGER HAND! RAWR!!!!! RAWRR...! You don't know Tiger Hand?
Tiger Hand beats paper. Like totally beats paper. Always...'
12:31 PM
Tuesday
QUESTION: Is Jeff Gannon your real name or just
your reporter's name?
GANNON: It's definitely my reporter's name, and beyond
that, I don't see how relevant anything else is," he replied after a
moment's hesitation. There, see, that settles that? It's none of your
business...
Media Bistro assesses
the controversial White House reporter's journalistic credentials.
My reporter name is going to be "Lex Luthor."
6:15 AM
Sunday
Wednesday George Bush gave a press conference, and reporter "Jeff Gannon"
asked him
about the Democrats.
"[H]ow are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced
themselves from reality?"
But is Gannon a real
reporter?
"He is listed as 'White House Correspondent and Washington DC Bureau
Chief' - of a news agency that
exists only as a website and one guy who goes to White House press
conferences," complains
one observer.
Posting in a comments thread on the DailyKos site, they joined a
remarkable collaboration among the site's readership to unravel the
mystery: Who
is Jeff Gannon?
Is the minister leading a double life as conservative White House
correspondent Jeff Gannon?
His biography
page - created in December of 2003 - says he will be married
that month.
Four
months later,
in a White House press conference, reporter "Jeff Gannon"
asks Scott McClellan:
"I hope the grand jury didn't force you to turn over
the
wedding card I
sent to you and your wife..."
Yes, it could be just a coincidence... Other sightings of the name
"James
McFarland"...
-
In 1997 there was a conservative James McFarland - apparently living in Seattle - who
posted to newsgroups like alt.fan.rush-limbaugh and
alt.fan.dan-quayle.
- The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call
reported in September of 2003 on a James McFarland who
"came to D.C. as an intern for one month and left as the
Honorary Hill Historian. Except he didn't know it until Roll Call rang
him up at his university dorm."
- Other Kos posters note one related web site is registered to a "J.
Daniels" - and suspect instead a Jason T. Daniels whose
address
history shows time in Texas and the military.
But in any case, Gannon's new notoriety is
already
starting to be felt.
Another commenter on DailyKos notes
that Gannon's question was played on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
"Jon Stewart identified the speaker as 'Chip Rightwingenstein of the
Bush Agenda Gazette'."
*Bill Turnley shouldn't be confused with GOPUSA contributor Sean Turner.
12:44 AM
Thursday
Fox News: We were noticing all the snow in Washington, boy
it's
really coming down! I hope that doesn't put a crimp in anybody's plans.
Look at that gorgeous shot of the White House...
JUDY: Well I, I have a feeling that maybe it should put a
crimp, or at least something should put a crimp in the plans of the White
House to have such a very lavish inaugural at a time of war.
Fox News: Really?
JUDY: Yes
Fox News anchor Brigitte Quinn invited Vanity
Fair's Judy
Bachrach to
comment on the
inauguration. It didn't go the way she expected...
JUDY: What I've noticed is the worse a war is going, the more
lavish the inaugural festivities.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President, during a time of war, of
course as you know,
he had a very modest inauguration and a very tiny party where he served
chicken salad, or where chicken salad was served. And that was when we
were winning a war.
Fox News: Right, but, well, no, I, look, I mean, the President
has, has addressed
this, hasn't he, he said that this is a, I believe the quote was that
we're
celebrating, we're celebrating
democracy, we're celebrating a peaceful transfer of democracy. What's
wrong with doing that?
JUDY: Have you noticed any peace or any transfer of democracy
in Iraq? If you have, you're the first person to have seen it.
Fox News: Well, I've noticed the elections coming up, and, to
be honest...
JUDY: They don't seem very peaceful.
Fox News: ....I didn't want to argue politics with you this
morning.
JUDY: Oh really? I thought I was allowed to talk about what I
wanted to talk about.
Fox News: You certainly, you certainly have that right. Let me
ask, let me ask you this: what, I mean, what -- what should they have cut
back on? I mean we...
JUDY: How about $40 million.
Fox News: All right, well...
JUDY: May I say something? May I say something?
Fox News: Sure.
JUDY: We have soldiers who are incapable of protecting
themselves in their humvees in Iraq.
They have to use bits of scrap metal in order to make their humvees
secure.
Their humvees are
sitting ducks for bombs. And we have a president who's using $40 million
to have a party.
Fox News: What would you suggest for the inauguration? How would
you do it?
JUDY: How about a modest party? Just like FDR. I'm sure
you'll agree he was a pretty good President with a fine sense of what's
appropriate and what's not. And during a time of war, 10 parties are not
appropriate when your own soldiers are sitting ducks in very, very bad
vehicles.
Fox News: Well, don't you think that the President has,
has given
his
proper respect to our troops? I mean yesterday, as far as I can tell,
the festivities opened with a military gala, they ended with a prayer
service. There does seem to have certainly
been a tremendous effort over the past couple of days and more
than that to honor our troops!
JUDY: Well, gee, that prayer should sure keep them safe and
warm in their
flimsy vehicles in Iraq.
I'd rather see that money going to them, rather than to a guy who already
is President, for the second time.
Fox News: All right, well, Judy Bachrach, I think we've given
you more than your time to give us your point of view this morning.
JUDY: Thanks for having me on.
12:18 AM
GANGSTER: Here's some advice for you, friend: Don't press your
luck. Lay
off me. Don't print that story!
BOGART: What's that supposed to be -- an order?
GANGSTER: Listen to me! Print that story and
you're a dead man.
BOGART: It's not just me anymore. You'd have to stop every
newspaper in the country, and you're not big enough for that job. People like you have
tried it before -- with bullets, prison, censorship. But as long as even
one newspaper will print the truth, you're finished.
(Bogart holds the phone out toward the presses.)
GANGSTER: Hey, that noise! What's that racket?
BOGART: That's the press, baby, the press. And there's nothing you
can do about it. Nothing.
(Bogart hangs up, the papers roll off the presses, "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic" sounds in the background, the movie ends.)
From the 1952 movie
Deadline
U.S.A.
5:36 PM
Wednesday
Monday
John Kerry won Ohio! And thus the electoral college! It turns out
that John Kerry is the next President of the United States!
If you're still clinging to hopes that an Ohio recount will put Kerry in
the White House after all, read Keith Olberman's blog.
The host of MSNBC's "Countdown" has been following
odd voting statistics in Florida and the speculation that Ohio's Secretary
of State is stalling the re-count...
Kerry win not confirmed
8:12 PM
Friday
CNN's Crossfire booked an even stranger guest -- Triumph,
the Insult Comic Dog.
The talking puppet revived a sore memory for the show's hosts...
"No, come on. Get over it. Jon Stewart made you his bitch."
6:02 AM
Wednesday
"Sorry, world. We tried. -- Half of America."
Voters hold
signs in pictures on a new web site capturing their collective
angst at the re-election of George Bush. It's called Sorry Everybody.com This
tongue-in-cheek project showcases the webmaster's sense of humor - for
instance, in his answer to this frequently-asked question.
Q: Why don't you just accept
that Bush won and get on with your lives? A:We have. That's
why
we're so sorry.
10:08 PM
Monday
After a three-month silence, Selena Thorn returns to her forgotten
web-log, "Diary of a Mad Woman," and offers up this paragraph.
We surround ourselves
with like-minded people. It is easy to forget that the vast majority of
this country is less educated, has less access to information, and is far
more religious. When everyone around us shares similar views, it's easy to
forget that those views might not be shared by all.
Her current mood? "Contemplative."
4:37 PM
Tuesday
CBS's election coverage includes
Dan Rather winging clever metaphors.
It's 10:33 p.m. Tuesday night, and "8 states are hanging like ripe fruit."
So what's the state of the tight
contest in Iowa?
"This race is hot enough to peel the paint off houses!"
10:33 PM
Saturday
14% of registered voters had already voted by Wednesday, according
to a recent poll.*
"The term 'election day' is becoming a misnomer..." says data analyst
Kate Kenski. "Election Day is more accurately described as the last
day when Americans can vote."
* Poll conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public
Policy Center.
Available as
a
PDF file.
By comparison, in 2000, only 11% of voters had cast their ballots at
this point in the election.
7:01 PM
Tuesday
Eminem's new video "Mosh" ends with the words: "Vote Tuesday November 2."
But the
animated rap song is thoughtful, angry --
and amazing.
In these closing statements,
if they should argue,
let us beg to differ,
as we set aside our differences,
and assemble our own army,
to disarm this weapon of mass destruction
that we call our president,
for the present,
and mosh for the future
of our next generation,
to speak and be heard,
Mr. President, Mr. Senator.
9:25 PM
On the Daily Kos blog, they're
swapping
stories about experiences helping the Kerry campaign
"Get out the Vote."
One shares a memorable encounter from Las Vegas...
An elderly chinese man that was quite wary, until he understood why I
was there. Then he smiled and said, "We need to beat up on Bush. Good
Thing!"
9:20 AM
Sunday
There are times when a man has campaigned so much that he
is
running on hollow.
Norman Mailer is a fun read. In The New York Review of
Books he offers his blunt assessment of the campaign's dyanmics.
Bush's appeal is, after all, to the stupid. They, too, are inflexible
- they
also know that maintaining one's stupidity can become a kind of strength,
provided you never change your mind.
The same article also has a piece by Garry Wills, writing with his usual
lucidity.
What will be done in Iraq remains unclear for both parties; but a sane
policy must begin from a grasp of the mistake that was made, an
understanding of which the Republicans seem incapable
11:02 AM
Friday
David Letterman joked tonight about how Florida has started their early
voting.
"This gives them an extra two weeks to...rig the results."
Letterman also quipped that those results were surprising.
"Bush now has a slight lead over Al Gore."
11:38 PM
I hear there's rumors on the Internets...
I hear there's rumors on the Internets...
I hear there's rumors on the Internets...
I hear there's rumors on the
Internets...
rumorsontheinternets.com used to point to a funny animation, but now it's
just a parked domain.
4:52 PM
Monday
John Kerry contributers just received an inspiring email from
Michael Whouley, Kerry's General Election Strategist.
Towards the end of every presidential campaign, strategists like me crowd
into small conference rooms and huddle around spreadsheets with polling
data and financial reports. We argue about the best course of action in
key battleground states and then we argue with the finance guy about if
we can afford it. These meetings usually involve a series of tough
decisions guided as much by cash shortages as they are by strategy.
The meeting we had this weekend was different. Time and time again when
we decided on the best strategy to win a state and turned to the finance
guy his answer was "go for it." It was "go for it" because of the
contributions you made just last week.
4:40 PM
Sunday
The New York Times Magazine
analyzes
the roots of George W. Bush's "faith-based Presidency."
In 1989 an investment firm spun off a division of Marriott. A former
Nixon aide approached
David Rubenstein, the firm's co-founder, and said
"There is a guy who
would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on
his luck a bit. Needs a job... Needs some board positions."
Though Rubenstein didn't think George W. Bush, then in his mid-40's,
"added much value," he put him on the...board. "Came to all the
meetings... Told a lot of jokes.
Not
that many clean ones.
"And after a while I kind of said to him, after about
three years: 'You know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you
should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much
value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.' "He
said:
'Well, I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really
like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.' And I
said thanks.
"Didn't think I'd ever see him again.''
8:31 PM
In 1971, Richard Nixon talked to his counsel Charles Colson - later a
Watergate co-conspirator. They were concerned about a rising star
in the anti-war movement - a young John Kerry.
In a memo Colson described his mission in words that ring
with irony today. Colson's mission?
"Destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader."
7:37 PM
Friday
Ken Layne thinks the President is just wearing
a girdle.
"Why won't the campaign or the White House give a simple explanation?
Because the first instinct of anyone involved in the Bush campaign
or Administration is to Lie."
7:38 PM
New theories emerge about that mysterious
rectangular bulge under the
back of President Bush's suit.
Here's my contribution. The bulge is clearly visible in this
August
2002 photo on the White House's official web site, in which Bush is
wearing a t-shirt. So it's obviously not a seam in his suit.
At the same time, my first thought was that this cast doubt on the
"earpiece"
theory - since Bush wouldn't be
addressing the press that day.
Or would he? On that very day he gave
a
brief comment to the Associated Press.
On the Corrente blog there's a
more interesting theory. Bush skips his physical, his facial
expression is off, he's taking long vacations, his family has a history with
atrial fibrillation. Corrente wonders if Bush is a long-term stroke
survivor, and
the bulge under Bush's
suit...
...is a portable defibrillator.
One of the guys at work theorizes that it's the box containing
the nuclear codes that's never
more than 20 feet from the President.
4:49 PM
Thursday
The blog-o-sphere is energized and motivated. Here's Kevin Drum in
top form.
Kerry had accused George Bush
of opposing minimum wage
increases,
and Bush claimed that "Mitch McConnell had a minimum-wage plan
that I supported that
would have increased the minimum wage."
...there was no such plan and no such bill. In April, led by McConnell,
Republicans were said to be "crafting" a minimum wage proposal. In June
McConnell was "rumored to be backing" a minimum wage bill. In September,
"published reports" had McConnell "preparing legislation."
But apparently raising the minimum wage is more complex than you might
think. Senators "straggled out of town" today and no McConnell bill ever
saw the light of day.
9:25 PM
Blogger Digby swoons after Kerry's debate
win...
I think it's time for Democrats to start giving our man Kerry a little bit
of credit. He's a very impressive politician and a very impressive man.
Cool under fire, smart as a whip and hard as nails...
4:34 PM
Wed
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