NetTrends’08 at Night:
NetTrends’08 at Night:
YouTube announced today that it will create a user-friendly hub for the 2008 presidential candidates to post their web videos. Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) was asked about the impact of YouTube on the ‘08 race (and about this notorious video of Edwards fixing his hair) by WNYC Radio’s Brian Lehrer.
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Gen. Petreaus is in
Gen. Petreaus is in
for a Friedman. “An elite team of officers advising US commander General David Petraeus in Baghdad has concluded the US has six months to win the war in Iraq – or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat.”
House and Senate call on purged attorneys to testify.
House and Senate call on purged attorneys to testify.
“Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate vowed to hold a new round of hearings to determine if partisan politics played a role in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys across the country. … The controversy flared up early Wednesday afternoon after David Iglesias, the departing U.S. attorney from New Mexico, told McClatchy Newspapers that he believes he was forced out because he refused to speed up an indictment of local Democrats a month before November’s congressional elections.” TPM is covering the story closely, and has fingered Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) as the likely member of Congress who requested the rushed indictment. Carpetbagger has a wrap-up.
Bush was right.
Bush was right.
Yesterday, ThinkProgress highlighted a quote on military readiness from candidate George W. Bush in 2000:
So let’s get something straight right now. To point out that our military has been overextended, taken for granted and neglected, that’s no criticism of the military. That is criticism of a president and vice president and their record of neglect.
Hours later, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) reminded Bush again on the House floor:
So when the right talks about “slow bleed,” or tries to cover up their neglect of the military by citing the stellar performance of our soldiers, remember who’s really at fault.
First Soldier Injured In Iraq Speaks Out Against ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
First Soldier Injured In Iraq Speaks Out Against ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
Since the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy went into effect, the Pentagon has dismissed more than 11,000 servicemembers, many of whom have key specialty skills such as training in medicine and language. At a time when the military faces a readiness crisis, the Pentagon cannot afford to dismiss two service members a day as it is doing under the current policy.
Today, Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA) reintroduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill that would allow gays to serve openly in the military. Joining Meehan at a press conference today was retired Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, the first American soldier to be seriously wounded in Iraq. A gay man, Alva did not admit his sexual orientation until he retired from the military, but Alva has since become a strong advocate for repealing the policy. Good Morning America told his story this morning.
Watch it:
In an interview not included in the televised report, Alva told ABC News about how his old Marine buddies took the news that he was gay:
“I told tons of people,” he said, with a laugh. “A lot of my friends, my buddies, my closest Marines, people I had served in combat with. Straight guys, married, with children and everything, three of them which I have become their sons’ godfather now. Everybody was just respectful and was just like ordinary. ‘That’s it? That’s your big news?’”
Alva says that while anti-gay language wasn’t exactly unheard of in the Marines, generally he thinks troops are ready for gays and lesbians to serve openly.
“Being on the front lines and serving with the people who even actually knew that I was gay, you know, that was never a factor. We were there to do a job. We were [there] to do a mission. I don’t think people would have a hard time with it because they know that the person right next to them is going to be there to protect them, in our terms, ‘have their back.’”
Learn more about the effort to lift the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy here.
Rep. Gohmert: Murtha Caused Market Plunge
Rep. Gohmert: Murtha Caused Market Plunge
Today on the House floor, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) blamed yesterday’s market drop — the largest since the September 11 terrorist attacks — on members of Congress supposedly “talking about…more regulation” and “undermin[ing] the President’s national security policy.”
Gohmert said, “In two months of talking about raising taxes and more regulation and [referring to Murtha] one committee chairman talking about how he’s going to undermine the President’s national security policy — two months! — we have this terrible damage to the stock market, to the economy. Unbelievable.” He added: “I just encourage my friends across the aisle, be careful. We built a great economy. Don’t blow it quite so quickly.”
Watch it:
Gohmert is out to lunch. Analysts say that yesterday’s market drop was due in varying degrees to China’s market meltdown on Monday, Alan Greenspan’s recession remarks this week, and rising oil prices.
UPDATE: Fox News uses the stock plummet to call for more you-know-whats:
Transcript: More »
Ney’s got friends in low places.
Ney’s got friends in low places.
“Former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, expresses remorse and quotes singer/songwriter Garth Brooks in an e-mail sent to friends Wednesday, a day before he is to enter federal prison after pleading guilty to corruption charges.” Ney’s letter quotes lyrics from Brooks’ song “The Dance.”
and now i’m glad i didn’t know
the way it all would end, the way it all would go
our lives are better left to chance,
i could have missed the pain,
but i’d have had to miss, the dance
Gen. Clark And Jon Soltz Launch StopIranWar.com
Gen. Clark And Jon Soltz Launch StopIranWar.com
VoteVets.org has teamed up with Gen. Wesley Clark to promote a new campaign warning against a military strike on Iran. StopIranWar.com is calling on Americans to build political pressure on U.S. policymakers to work with our allies and use every diplomatic, political, and economic option at our disposal to deal with Iran.
In a web-ad released today, Clark warns, “We’re approaching the last moments in which the administration can change its policy and head off a looming confrontation with Iran.” Watch it:
Take action here.
Also today, the Center for American Progress released a progressive strategy to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem: “Contain and Engage.”
Rather than pursue the faint hope that coercive measures will force Iran’s capitulation, our contain-and-engage strategy couples the pressures created by sanctions, diplomatic isolation and investment freezes with practical compromises and realizable security assurances to encourage Iran onto a verifiable, non-nuclear weapons path.
Read the full report HERE.
Transcript: More »
‘Guilt is the new black.’
‘Guilt is the new black.’
Diesel launches a “tongue-in-cheek” ad campaign promoting its spring/summer collection as “Global Warming Ready.” Its ads depicts “landscapes that have been transformed by environmental disaster” and models that “are dressed fashionably if barely (to accommodate the weather) and they lounge amid this hip dystopia in glamorous unconcern, fanning themselves or applying suntan lotion to one another’s tawny backs.” Watch the ad HERE. Find out the facts on global warming at ClimateCrisis.net.
(HT: MoJo Blog)
Fox Pundit Claims Walter Reed Investigation Was ‘Going After The Administration From The Right’
Fox Pundit Claims Walter Reed Investigation Was ‘Going After The Administration From The Right’
Media Matters has repeatedly documented how major media outlets reflexively characterize conservative views as “pro-military,” and how concern for our armed forces is a conservative issue. The latest example:
During the February 24 edition of Fox News Watch, Newsday columnist James P. Pinkerton claimed that the reason it took the media so long to report on deteriorating conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was because “the media typically come at the Bush administration from the left” by criticizing the Iraq war. “The idea of going after the administration from the right as it were,” Pinkerton continued, “that we’re not supporting the troops enough, not [providing] body armor enough, not [protecting] Humvees enough, not helping at Walter Reed enough — that is an angle that most reporters don’t naturally think of when they’re waking up” because “they come from a different ideological perspective.”
Pinkerton’s falsehood is perhaps most evident in the blogosphere. Last week, we reported that Walter Reed had refused to let talk show host Don Imus (a frequent advocate for servicemembers and veterans) tour the hospital and investigate conditions there.
In our post, we linked to the unofficial Imus Blog, whose author Big Roy acknowledges that he “routinely slam[s] liberal politicians and media.” Yet, on Friday, Roy wrote a post titled, “Why Don’t Conservatives Support The Troops?”
During the past week I’ve gotten several links from some of the biggest liberal blogs/websites on the internet, Crooks & Liars, Think Progress, and Daily Kos. These are not sites that would normally link to this blog. As anyone who reads my blog knows I routinely slam liberal politicians and media.
But these guys rose above politics to try and bring awareness to the problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Some might say they’re doing it as an opportunity to slam the Bush Administration. I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s a genuine concern for active duty soldiers and veterans.
I wondered why I hadn’t received a single link from a conservative blog or website. I thought well they just didn’t like any of my posts. So I went and checked the right wing blogs I normally read when I get time, Redstate, Pajama Media, Hot Air, and Michelle Malkin. Except for Ms. Malkin, not one of these sites even mentioned the Washington Post Story or anything about Walter Reed that I could find. When Malkin talks about it. She was not able to rise above politics and used it as an opportunity to slam the liberal media and democrats.
UPDATE: Crooks & Liars has more, including an email campaign on Pinkerton.
Senators Vow To Block White House Effort To Defund Office Of Women’s Health
Senators Vow To Block White House Effort To Defund Office Of Women’s Health
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health “just had more than one-quarter of this year’s $4 million operating budget quietly removed.” The office had stood up for scientific research that ultimately led to the approval of Plan B. Because the remaining $2.8 million has already been spent or allocated, the funding cut will “effectively halt further operations for the rest of the year.”
Today, Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach demanding a halt to the agency’s efforts to de-fund the office. The letter stated:
We are deeply concerned by reports that the Food and Drug Administration intends to withhold $1.2 million of funding allocated by Congress for the Office of Women’s Health (OWH). If news of this reallocation is accurate, we urge you to provide any guidance and an explanation for this action. We strongly oppose any efforts to downgrade the OWH at FDA.
For the past sixteen years, the OWH has performed vital work to improve the health and well-being of women across the United States. The OWH looks out for the day to day needs of women and promotes and monitors the progress of women’s health initiatives at the FDA. Slashing funding for the OWH would pull the rug out from under these efforts and shortchange promising efforts to improve women’s health.
We urge you to ensure that the full amount of funding that was appropriated by Congress for the OWH is set aside for that purpose, and request an immediate explanation as to how the reallocation can be averted. Congress has made its intention clear. As Congress moves forward with the budget and appropriations process, we will pursue every course to make certain that this funding is restored. We intend to use every tool at our disposal to make sure that the OWH has the resources it needs to safeguard women’s health.
The Bush administration has done little to promote — and a great deal to impede — the functions of the Office of Women’s Health. Susan Wood, former director of the OWH, resigned in 2005 over the politically-motivated delay surrounding the approval of Plan B. The administration then moved to appoint an “FDA veteran trained in animal husbandry who spent much of his career in the agency’s Center for Veterinary Medicine” to oversee the office. Fierce opposition caused the administration to reconsider that appointment.
Women’s health advocates believe the reported funding cuts are “payback” for OWH’s stance on Plan B and is the beginning of an effort to shut the office down completely.
Government FOIA performance at new low.
Government FOIA performance at new low.
The backlog of unfulfilled Freedom of Information requests “hit a record 31% in 2005, a whopping 138% above the 1998 level. The 13 agencies that have so far reported 2006 data show a slightly higher backlog that the year before.” (More on FOIA HERE.)
Three dead at veterans home after errors.
Three dead at veterans home after errors.
“State inspectors said Tuesday that three men died at the Minneapolis Veterans Home after neglect or medication errors last month, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty promptly ordered the Minnesota Department of Health to begin monitoring day-to-day operations of the state-owned nursing home. … Two of the men who died were in hospice care; one was given penicillin and the other morphine sulfate when they were allergic to the drugs. … The third man was a diabetic who died after five nurses improperly monitored his plunging blood sugar. One nurse gave him a medication that lowered his blood sugar further.”
VIDEO COMPILATION: Matthews Obsessed With Clinton Sex Speculation
VIDEO COMPILATION: Matthews Obsessed With Clinton Sex Speculation
MSNBC host Chris Matthews is obsessed with Bill Clinton’s sex life. Over the last four weeks, Matthews has incessantly raised baseless speculation that President Clinton may have an extramarital affair or engage in inappropriate behavior that would impact Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).
He has called Clinton’s sex life the “800-pound gorilla stalking behind” Hillary Clinton, and suggested it would sink her presidential campaign. Earlier this month, Matthews asked about Bill Clinton’s “personal behavior” 10 separate times in a single interview.
Watch a video compilation:
Matthews’ baseless speculation has the effect of turning President Clinton into a liability for progressives, and Matthews isn’t alone. In December, the Washington Post questioned whether Bill Clinton will be the “biggest issue” in Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.
But as Media Matters documented, “nowhere does the article offer any concrete evidence that Bill Clinton is anything but an asset to his wife or that the public sees in him the ‘massive and messy distraction’ the article suggests the ‘media-industrial complex’ sees.” A Feb. 15 Gallup report found that Bill Clinton’s approval rating, “more than six years after leaving office, is near an all-time high.”
Quotes: More »
‘Surge’ running behind schedule.
‘Surge’ running behind schedule.
Top U.S. intelligence officials yesterday disclosed to the Senate “that the deployment of Iraqi forces into Baghdad under President Bush’s new plan to stabilize Iraq is running behind schedule and that all of the units sent so far have arrived under strength, some by more than half. “
The state of the economy is…sluggish.
The state of the economy is…sluggish.
“The economy grew at a sluggish 2.2 percent pace in the final quarter of last year, much slower than initially estimated, the government reported Wednesday in the sort of unusually large revision that has happened only seven times in the last 30 years.” Last month, President Bush touted the initial growth rate estimate — 3.5 percent — as a sign of a “strong” economy.
Former Army Specialist: U.S. Troops ‘Turn To TV And Movies’ For Torture Techniques
Former Army Specialist: U.S. Troops ‘Turn To TV And Movies’ For Torture Techniques
The television show 24 has become a foreign policy guide for the right wing. Numerous conservative pundits have cited 24 as a sanction for harsh interrogation practices. In September, Laura Ingraham stated, “The average American out there loves the show 24. … In my mind that’s close to a national referendum that it’s OK to use tough tactics against high-level Al Qaeda operatives as we’re going to get.”
Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan recently told the 24 producers that he was concerned that the show’s promotion of illegal torture “was having a damaging effect on young troops.” In a new interview with Newsweek, former U.S. Army specialist Tony Lagouranis, who left the military with an honorable discharge in 2005, confirms Finnegans fears — that U.S. soldiers did take cues from 24 to torture prisoners:
Interrogators didn’t have guidance from the military on what to do because we were told that the Geneva Conventions didn’t apply any more. So our training was obsolete, and we were encouraged to be creative. We turned to television and movies to look for ways of interrogating. I can say that I saw that with myself, also. I would adopt the posture of the television or movie interrogator, thinking that establishing that simple power arrangement, establishing absolute power over the detainee, would force him to break. …
[We adopted mock] executions and mock electrocution, stress positions, isolation, hypothermia. Threatening to execute family members or rape detainees’ wives and things like that.
Lagouranis has teamed up with Human Rights First to advocate against torture, noting that what is seen on 24 “is not an effective technique for gaining intelligence.” Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who stars as Jack Bauer, has also said that the torture techniques employed in the show are not effective ways to get information in real life. He recently agreed to speak with cadets at the West Point military academy to teach them that torture is wrong.
Nicholson Downplays High Numbers Of Injured Vets: ‘A Lot Of Them Come In For Dental Problems’
Nicholson Downplays High Numbers Of Injured Vets: ‘A Lot Of Them Come In For Dental Problems’
Through the lens of his own personal recovery from a traumatic brain injury suffered in Iraq, ABC’s Bob Woodruff last night examined the plight of military families dealing with injuries to their loved ones.
While the Department of Defense reports that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff reported — through an internal VA document — that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments.
When Woodruff confronted VA Secretary Jim Nicholson about the disparity in the administration’s figures, Nicholson responded that Americans are probably “surprised to know that 200,000 come to the VA for some kind of medical treatment. That’s probably more than they think.” But Nicholson quickly downplayed the high numbers, claiming a lot of veterans simply “come in for dental problems.” Watch it:
Nicholson’s attempts to diminish the seriousness of the issue are insulting. According to the VA internal report, the injuries afflicting veterans are quite serious in nature:
Mental disorders: 73,000
Diseases of nervous system: 61,000
Signs of ill-defined conditions: 7,000
Diseases of musculoskeletal system: 87,000.
Despite the increasing numbers of wounded and injured veterans seeking care, the Bush administration has laid out plans to cut funding for veterans’ health care two years from now.
Transcript: More »
Courthouse ‘abuzz’ over Libby jurors’ ‘mystery note.’
Courthouse ‘abuzz’ over Libby jurors’ ‘mystery note.’
“The federal courthouse near the U.S. Capitol is abuzz this morning, with everyone speculating about the contents of a mystery note jurors in the Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby trial sent to Judge Reggie Walton as they suspended deliberations yesterday afternoon. In a note to lawyers for both sides, Walton said the jurors had a ‘question’ that he would address in court at 9:30 a.m. today. Willing says speculation is rampant, with observers wondering whether the question is about the law, the testimony or the evidence. As one U.S. marshal suggested, the question could also be along the lines of ‘What do we do if we can’t come to a verdict?‘”
ThinkFast: February 28, 2007
ThinkFast: February 28, 2007
“Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media,” the Army Times reports. Soldiers said an official told them “they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.”
“In the most definitive statement in years,” Mike McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said yesterday that “Osama bin laden is in Pakistan actively re-establishing al Qaeda training camps.” He also admitted to the Senate that the “term ‘civil war’ accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict.”
The United States yesterday agreed to “join high-level talks” at a pair of regional conferences on the future of the Iraq, at which Syria and Iran will also be present. Analyst Steve Clemons noted, “Time will tell whether this is meaningless flirtation” or “a carefully crafted ‘confidence building measure’ that could lead to more meaningful engagement.”
The Politico editor John Harris acknowledged “with pride and remorse” that he is the author of the “slow-bleed” phrase that the right wing is using to attack Rep. John Murtha’s (D-PA) Iraq plan. “As happens all the time in journalism, this was a decision — made on the fly and under deadline — that I would have taken back in the morning.”
“House Democrats and federal prosecutors have struck what seems like a historic deal to turn over congressional documents related to the Duke Cunningham investigation.” More »
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