The Green[e]house Effect: a Weblog

My Condolences …

… to Matthew Yglesias, who lost his mother today. She was 53 — much too young, much too soon. G-d bless her soul.

GMail for a Good Cause

I feel about three months behind the times with this post, but I have three shining new GMail invitations in my hot little hands, and I want to rake in some filthy lucre in return for them. Not for myself, mind you — nothing so self serving or gross — but for someone who could use an infusion of resources right about now.

That’s right; I want to auction GMail accounts for Cathy Woolard, my boss and technology lobbying partner in crime.

It makes sense, when you think of it. Cathy has worked hard for tech consumers, so why not honor that relationship by treating her geek supporters to GMail? Sounds solid to me — so in tribute to her tech-head friends, the first three people to mail me with proof of having made a contribution of $50.77 or more to Cathy’s campaign will get a GMail invitation from yours truly.

Chop-chop — offer only good while supplies last! Oh, and to those who have already contributed, thanks; we truly appreciate your support.

Catching Up

So much to write about, so little time …

• This URL does a good job of summing up my views on the election — and the site makes an engaging read, too.
• I welcome Jessica Harbour to the anybody but Bush fold, but I got a big chuckle out of how terrible a prediction she made about my reaction. When it comes to elections, I get totally utilitarian; I’ll take anyone or anything, as long as they’re down for the cause.
• Big congratulations to the man, the legend, the way of life, Charles Kuffner, who has the privilege today of celebrating his first Father’s Day as a father. I also owe mad plaudits to other good friends: Jordan Silvergleid, Tim Fox, Dave Luce, Hanson Slaughter, William Perry, Rob Krupicka, Dave Kaefer, and more that I probably forgot but nonetheless wish well.

Severed Heads, Raging Hearts

I hate to single somebody out, but it annoys to see this sort of hackneyed balderdash coming from a man with as much obvious intelligence as Michael Demmons.

For some reason, a bevy of conservatives — truthfully, not just conservatives — have this illusion that progressive Americans respond to these beheadings in the Middle East by nipping at soy lattés and fretting at the poor aesthetics on the videotape. Where that myth took shape, I have no idea — but it insults me on so many levels that I hardly know where to begin. So to spell out my true sentiments on al Qaeda, now and for all time:

I want those motherf––––rs dead. End sentence, end paragraph.

Look, Democrats and Republicans have disagreements about how to wage the war on terror. But note the word I chose: how, not whether. The debate centers, or ought to, on the need to admit that there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it — and maybe, just maybe, running star-spangled torture chambers in the midst of a battle against the wrong enemy slightly hurts the cause.

I think we can have an honest debate on that, and I, for one, am willing to try. When it comes to canards about not wanting to deal with terror, though … well, that crap needs to stop.

Seeing Johnson beheaded riled just about every American with a pulse. I want to have a discussion about how we proceed from there to eliminate al Qaeda as a problem. If people across the aisle prefer to blur the issue by pretending to a monopoly on outrage over terror, though — well, you can’t have a conversation when only one side feels serious about wanting to talk.

A Born Diplomat

Ahhh, President Bush — a man with about as much of a knack for statecraft as I have for synchronized swimming. The payoff?

Reagan’s support for right-wing dictators and guerrillas in Central America and for the apartheid government in South Africa, not to mention his determination to put more missiles in Europe, made him wildly unpopular in the land of his forebears. Still, the Irish welcomed him to Ballyporeen, and cheered him when he took a sip from a pint of Guinness at a pub renamed in his honor. … But things change, even in a country where it used to be said there was no future, just the past happening over and over again. The Ronald Reagan Pub in Ballyporeen is for sale. And next Friday, when George W. Bush touches down at Shannon Airport for a United States-European Union summit, many Irish people are expected to give him their equivalent of a Bronx cheer instead of the traditional cead mile failte, or a hundred thousand welcomes. There were about 10,000 demonstrators when Reagan visited Ireland; Irish police say they are preparing for at least 10 times that number next week.

Determined to keep an expected crush of protesters away from Bush, the Irish police are mounting the biggest security operation in the country’s history — which, on an island that endured a fierce 30-year Irish Republican Army insurgency, says something.

Register! To! Vote!

Hey there — it’s your friendly neighborhood politico, here to remind you that tomorrow marks the deadline for registering to vote in the Democratic primary here in Georgia on July 20. If you have questions about whether you have your registration squared away — or if you know you need to update your information — go to the Georgia secretary of state voter registration page and follow the instructions.

Remember: if you don’t vote, you can’t complain. Get on over there and get qualified, so you can carp with the rest of us.

To Tell the Truth …

… is still a foreign concept in the Bush administration:

It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine.

Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry “has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all” and said the senator from Massachusetts “promised to repeal most of the Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office.”

On Tuesday, President Bush’s campaign began airing an ad saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt terrorists.

The same day, the Bush campaign charged in a memo sent to reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents.

On Wednesday and Thursday, as Kerry campaigned in Seattle, he was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes education changes that he supported in 2001.

The charges were all tough, serious — and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.

Wait, there’s more:

Vice President Dick Cheney’s office denied Sunday that he was involved in a coordinated effort to secure a multibillion dollar Iraq oil deal for Halliburton, his former employer.

A reference to such an arrangement was made in an internal Pentagon e-mail from an Army Corps of Engineers official to another Pentagon employee, Time magazine reports in its June 7 edition, which is due on newsstands Monday.

The existence of the e-mail was confirmed to CNN by a senior administration official familiar with it.

The e-mail — dated March 5, 2003 — says Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, approved the arrangement to award the contract to the oil-services company, the administration official said.

According to an e-mail excerpt in Time, the contract was “contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w[ith] VP’s office.”

The Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton the contract three days later without seeking other bids, Time reports.

By the Way …

… you didn’t believe I would let the entire month of May go by without posting, did you?

Who Put Gollum In Charge of the Traffic Information System?

Seen on an information board on the Atlanta Perimeter road [Interstate 285] a couple of weeks back:

CAR ACCIDENT AHEAD
2 MI N OF LAVISTA RD
THREE LEFT LANESS CLOSED

If I hear a traffic reporter calling the Downtown Connector “my preciousssss,” I’ll know we’re screwed.

Color Me Surprised …

… at this starling revelation from Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:

A recent poll in Alabama by Capital Survey Research shows Sen. John Kerry trailing President Bush 37% to 56%, with 8% undecided …

World o’ Greg

Seeing as how I’ve hardly pretended to hold up my end of the bargain here at the Green[e]house for the last few weeks, I thought I might make it up to you by giving you a glimpse into the lives of a few other people named Greg. If I can’t serve up the original, after all, I might as well let you have the next best thing — right?

So, to dispense with further ado …

• Greg Allen of Greg.org stumbled into a bit of wink-an-a-nod wisecracking about Kevin Spacey that — when I read it — just about made me do a spit-take;
• Greg Valiga turns up a stranger-than-fiction of discrimination based on sexual orientation [emphasis added]:

  I think someone needs to slap the manager of Big Ruby’s, a hotel that caters to gays in the downtown area of Key West, FL. According to this story, three straight couples who’d been vacationing with a gay couple were asked to hit the road just because of their sexual orientation. And this despite the fact that Key West has a city ordinance banning housing discrimination.

  I have just one word: wha?!!
• At The Talent Show — which sports a spiffy new design these days — Greg Storey Saunders [my apologies] points to a critique of the president that comes from from an unlikely source;
• Gregg Easterbrook continues his up-is-down take on the Bush administration’s attitude toward the environment. His take this time? Republicans love nature — they just don’t want you to know it. Convincing stuff, eh?
• At Airbag, Greg Storey — aside from musing about how he misses A Life Uncommon, an old favorite weblog of mine — opens his heart to our buds at the White House by ginning up a redesign of the infamous Aug. 6, 2001, national intelligence estimate. Ah, the thrill of good graphic design …

Christmas in April

Guess what I just bought?

Shameless Shilling

Let me completely wreck my reputation for consistent blogging by continuing to pimp for my candidate, Cathy Woolard. No hard sale here, though — this time, I just want you to come to the grand opening of the headquarters this weekend, on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Interested? Meet us at 120 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. in downtown Decatur, right between Quizno’s Subs and the Crescent Moon Diner. Those who need a landmark can look for us just a stone’s throw down the hill from the old courthouse.

Hope I see all of you there. Bring lots of money. [Only kidding!]

A Man, No Plan

The Failed M.C. nails it:

George Bush had a secret war plan for Iraq drawn up in about November of 2001.

I’m shocked by this news. Not because he wanted to invade Iraq, but because we had no evidence until now that he had a plan of any sort at all.

Naked, Shameless Begging! …

… but hey — give me credit for saying so up front. =)

As you know, my sometime and current boss has decided to run for Congress. I signed up earlier this month as her press secretary and research director. Between now and then, though, is the small matter of a campaign. We feel good about our odds — but running a campaign these days, it goes without saying, takes a healthy chunk of change. The primary comes in July, which means we only have a little bit of time to get this bus fueled up.

So make Greg Greene a happy man. Chip in to the Send Greg to Washington Fund™.

Alright, alright, we don’t really call it that. =, But go ahead and give to the Friends of Cathy Woolard fund. To give you the rundown about her, she’s Atlanta city council president, a fiscal moderate, social progressive, years of experience — I vouch for her, and not just because she signs my paycheck. =, She’s good people. Learn more about her @ cathywoolard.com/.

If you like what you see — heck, if you just like me — make your way to the contribution page and give what you can. You can tack on $0.07 to help the campaign track contributions that come through the blogosphere. Those who give will have my eternal gratitude — and dibs on a return favor of their choice. [Or a tall, cold beer. Whichever strikes your fancy.]

Muchos gracias. Holler at me if you want to hook into the campaign — we start canvassing this weekend.