Consumer confidence drops - MA housing sales hit 10 year low

Lots of mixed signals in the economy at the moment. There is plenty of information that suggests an improving economy in the short term but with the deficit and high oil prices sticking around for a while it is still very delicate. Add to that the tanking real estate market and it's no surprise that there is some concern out there, rightly so.

One of the hottest real estate markets in recent years is now falling off of a cliff, hitting a ten year low. I always thought that Greenspan's rubbish about frothy markets and not a national bubble was one of his lowest and most ridiculous moments. If the bubble bursts in the middle of Wyoming, sure, who cares? But when it bursts in a major state and is followed by another major market, what the hell do you think will happen? Well for starters, consumer confidence drops. Read More......

Open thread

Anything interesting before bed? Read More......

"Assassination Ann" cancels GOP speaking gig after complaints from Republicans

Someone's getting a little toxic. Read More......

AP: "Civil war looms" in Iraq

Absolute utter disaster.

Headline: Civil War Looms With 68 Killed in Baghdad

Text: Iraq began to tilt seriously toward outright civil war after the Feb. 22 bombing of the important Shiite Askariya shrine in the mainly Sunni city of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Read More......

Bush is still lying about Katrina

Bush tells ABC News, in an interview to be broadcast on World News Tonight, Nightline and Good Morning America, that the problem with Hurricane Katrina was that the White House didn't have enough "situational awareness" of what was happening on the ground in New Orleans:

BUSH: Listen, here's the problem that happened in Katrina. There was no situational awareness, and that means that we weren't getting good, solid information from people who were on the ground, and we need to do a better job. One reason we weren't is because communications systems got wiped out, and in many cases we were relying upon the media, who happened to have better situational awareness than the government.

That's a lie. The White House new the levies were breaking and did nothing about it. We now know that for a fact. In addition, Bush was on vacation and didn't get any substantial updates about the situation on the ground until Thursday and Friday of the week (the hurricane hit Monday morning). Bush CHOSE not to get updates about Katrina, he was ON VACATION and chose to STAY on vacation.

And he wonders why he's at 34% in the polls. Because he's a liar who refuses to ever take responsibility for anything.

Then we get this little tidbit about 9/11:

I thought, for example, the reaction to the 9/11 attack was a remarkable reaction, positively. When the terrorists attacked and destroy two buildings, there were rescue teams rushing in to save lives. There was a response by the city that was a coordinated response.

Yes, the response from the city of New York was incredible, especially since you were in hiding the entire day up until 6:15PM that evening when you finally returned to the White House. And New York City's brave and effective response is a reflection on you how?

More about Katrina. The big problem, according to Bush, is that the government didn't "comfort people." Comfort people? What, you mean like give em a hug?

VARGAS: When you look back on those days immediately following when Katrina struck, what moment do you think was the moment that you realized that the government was failing, especially the people of New Orleans?

BUSH: When I saw TV reporters interviewing people who were screaming for help. It looked Â? the scenes looked chaotic and desperate. And I realized that our government was Â? could have done a better job of comforting people.

The people of New Orleans didn't need comfort. They needed a helicopter to get them out of trapped buildings that had no food and water. Comfort them?

Then Bush starts lying about Iraq:

And as you know, we've reduced troop levels this year, and that's because our commanders on the ground have said that the security situation in Iraq is improving because the Iraqis are more capable of taking the fight.

That's another outright lie. US troops levels just went down to the levels they were at right before the elections two months ago, when we sent in additional troops to help keep the peace. We didn't reduce troop levels because things are going better, we simply withdrew the troops associated with the election. Read More......

Homophobic, anti-Semitic 'Christian' activists who promote hate literature are now trying to get Desperate Housewives thrown off the air

The radical religious right group, the American Family Association, has become the book burners of the new century. They don't simply have a gripe with a few things in our culture, a few companies, a few TV shows. They want America to be forced to live under their warped, minority view of an extremist Biblical lifestyle that doesn't even comport with the majority of mainstream American Christianity.

And now they're trying to kill the hit show "Desperate Housewives."

You'll recall that this is the same group that "boycotted" Ford, then lost, after we exposed the organization as gay-hating, having a terrible record of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim writings, AND the fact that the AFA actually promotes the "Nazi Germany era" science of known hate groups on their Web site.

It's hard to believe that any American company, or politician, would want to be associated with such fringe haters.

Let me share with you, and the folks who run Desperate Housewives, the exact message the American Family Association is promoting:

Does a "Jewish upbringing" lead to a life of crime?

In the March issue of American Family Association Journal, a publication of Donald E. Wildmon's right-wing evangelical activist group, the American Family Association (AFA), author Randall Murphree suggested that a Jewish upbringing leads to hatred of Christians, and by extension, a criminal lifestyle.

Were gays the real evil behind the Holocaust?

Scott Lively, California chapter director of the AFA, is co-author of a book titled, The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality and the Nazi Party, in which he claims that “homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities.” Lively makes explicit links between his claims about the Nazi party and the modern gay equal rights movement, claiming that “From the ashes of Nazi Germany, the homo-fascist phoenix has arisen again, this time in the United States.”

Is Europe "infested" with Muslims who breed "faster than we do"?

"The problem we have with Europe is that [it] is infested with the Muslim population. The reason why is because they multiply at a much faster rate than we do," she says. "When we Christians get married, we have two, three, maybe four children -- after they're born, we start thinking about what college we're going to send them to, what education we're going to give them. The Muslims, on the other hand, are allowed to marry up to four wives at a time," she says, noting that terrorist Osama bin Laden had 27 children.

Is AIDS a "gay plague"?

Some time ago, you see, Thacker called AIDS "the gay plague," which everyone knows but no one will admit, particularly homosexuals and their friends in the Bush Administration.

Are gays responsible for the "end of times"?

The president of one pro-family group feels the battle in Massachusetts over legalizing homosexual marriage is a clear example of the struggle between good and evil as the end times approach.

Are Muslim-Americans trying to "take over our cities"?

Muslim newcomers are engaging in what area realtors call "block busting." In other words, he says, "They came in, paid outrageously high prices for some of our homes that you wouldn't give $20,000 for, paying 60 and 70 thousand, which then entrenched a number of [Muslim families] on every block." Golen believes this is part of a "concerted effort" on the part of Muslims to use their financial power take over the city, and he says, "they're doing a heck of a job because nobody's standing up to them."

Are gays "deviants"?

"...an immoral, deviant lifestyle."

Are gays a "public health" threat?

As a family physician, I’ve seen first-hand the devastation that homosexuality brings into the lives of patients that have chosen to live this way.... To promote homosexuality and even consider the sanctioning of it through “marriage” is irresponsible and is a danger to the public health of the entire country, spiritually and physically.

Do Jews control Hollywood?

The AFA Journal has long served as a platform for anti-Semitic theories and innuendo. For instance, Wildmon warned of Jewish control over popular culture, an old anti-Semitic canard, in a January 1989 article, "What Hollywood Believes and Wants." "The television elite are highly secular," Wildmon wrote. "The majority (59 percent) in the Jewish faith." In a separate article in the same issue, titled "Anti-Semitism Called a Serious Problem," Wildmon, a longtime opponent of gay rights, pointedly remarked that "Jews favor homosexual rights more than other Americans."

Are gays diseased perverts who die early? - I'm not even going to quote this crap from AFA, read it for yourself and then tell me how any American company or politician would ever want to listen to these people.

I'm starting to think we may need a new word for these religious right groups: Christian supremacists.

(PS You can find more American Family Association homophobia here.) Read More......

GOP thinks exposing their ethical violations is unethical

Speaking of GOP corruption which we seem to do an awful lot of these days....we've finally learned what the GOP thinks is unethical: reporting on the GOP ethics violations. From The Hill:

The House Republicans’ campaign operation is charging that a recently released Democratic report on Republican corruption violated ethics rules.

The 103-page report, “America for Sale: The Cost of Republican Corruption,” was compiled by the Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee and released by the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), last week.

The report reiterates repeats many of Democrats’ long-held concerns about Republicans’ actions on healthcare, energy, the environment, homeland security and Hurricane Katrina.

Congresswoman Slaughter did a post on the report over at DailyKos when she released the report last week. The full report is available in a pdf version here. Read More......

Open thread

Have at it. Read More......

Is it true you're that either an activist or a journalist?

I've been "accused" over the years of being an "activist" and not a "journalist." What I think my accusers meant by that was that activists are biased and not necessarily truthful, while journalists were objective and tell the truth.

A few problems with this argument. First, I've talked to more than my share of journalists and they all have political beliefs, most as strong as mine, so how does that make me biased and them objective simply because I let my political leanings hang out and they keep theirs to themselves?

Second, why are being an activist and a journalist mutually exclusive? This came up in the context of CNN's Lou Dobbs going after the Dubai Ports. CBS News' blog quoted a media observer making the following point:

"To me, you're either an advocate or a journalist. You shouldn't pretend to be both."

Now, I don't pretend to be an expert on the history of journalism, but I did watch the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck" yesterday. It's about CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow taking on red-scare-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy. Now, I don't pretend to be as great as Edward R. Murrow, though I can certainly aspire. But much of what he had to say to and about McCarthy reminded me of a lot of what we do on the blogs, and in our activism work, every day.

And to take this off of myself, how did Murrow's public criticism of McCarthy differ in any way from Lou Dobbs' criticism of the Dubai deal? I can't find any difference.

What's unfortunate, and what I think is really going on here, is that FOX News and other Republican surrogates have so prostituted what it means to be a journalist - including using real prostitutes as journalists - that any journalist with an opinion is now suspect. The GOP sycophants have so crossed the line into pro-government propaganda that anyone who tries to criticize government is considered equally, if not more, suspect. Read More......

Religious right wants Christians in Israeli parliament

It's an interesting question. But troublesome, to me, because I think the religious right is looking far beyond "equal representation" here. This is part of a larger long-term scheme to involve themselves in Israel's affairs since, after all, they think Israeli is theirs come Rapture time. Read More......

72% of US troops in Iraq want us to withdraw in a year

That's the Murtha plan, a Democratic plan, that our troops are supporting. Remember that, oh Democrats who were afraid to support Congressman Murtha (Mr. Hoyer, uh hum). Democrats represent mainstream American values now. Believe it, and trumpet it. You don't get credit for coming to the party late - embrace these policies now.

From the NYT via E&P;:

A poll of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq—reportedly the first of its kind—shows that 72% advocate a U.S. pullout within a year, with only 23% for staying as long ”as necessary,” reports Nicholas Kristof in his New York Times column today. Some 29% urge withdrawal “immediately.”

Kristof recently came out for setting a deadline for withdrawal at the end of next year.

The poll of 944 service members was conducted by Zogby International and LeMoyne College. Recent Gallup and CBS News polls have shown that most Americans at home also advocate the beginning of a pullout.

And one more thing, our troops think Bush has short-changed them:

Asked what it would take to “control the insurgency,” those surveyed strongly suggest that it would take doubling the number of ground troops and bombing missions.

Democrats need to abandon this failed war NOW, or just like Tom Daschle endorsing the $1.3 bn tax cuts, you can't criticize the other guy later on for a policy you too supported. Read More......

Top Bush aides have ties to Dubai port company

Is that why a deal that poses questionable risks to national security was allowed to sail through, even against the objections of the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard? Read More......

Dubai port company boycotts Israel

Yes, Dubai Ports World is part of the Arab boycott of Israel. Ah, such a developed and civil democracy they are.

And last time we checked, it was illegal for the US to help anyone facilitate that boycott. Will Dubai Ports World be stopping Israeli ships from coming to US ports? Read More......

John Thune adds another angle to GOP ethics sleaze

South Dakota's Senator John Thune, who was elected with the aid of male prostitute Jeff Gannon, has provided yet another example of just how ethically bankrupt the GOPers on the hill can be. It sures seems like he has a lot in common with his infamous campaign operative:

It might be said that Senator John Thune went through the revolving door — backward.

Former Lives of Members of Congress As a lobbyist in 2003 and 2004, Mr. Thune earned $220,000 from the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad, a small but ambitious company in South Dakota. The railroad hopes to rebuild and rehabilitate 1,300 miles of track, the nation's largest proposed railroad expansion in more than a century.

Now, as a junior senator from South Dakota, Mr. Thune is working to make that happen, raising questions about whether there should be curbs on lobbyists-turned-lawmakers in the same way that there are on those who take the more traditional route of leaving Capitol Hill for K Street.

Last year, his first in the Senate, Mr. Thune wrote language into a transportation bill expanding the pot of federal loan money for small railroads, enabling his former client to apply for $2.5 billion in government financing for its project. The loan has yet to be approved; Mr. Thune said he was trying to promote economic development in his home state.

Their callous disregard for impropriety really shows no bounds. Read More......

Sectarian violence claims 1,300 lives in Iraq

Bush keeps talking about freedom and democracy but once again, the realities on the ground in Iraq escape him. How many people have to die in Iraq before Bush recognizes his mistake? With renewed allegations against al-Sadr and his supporters, what is the plan for addressing him or are we going to continue to hear about bloody fighting over and over and over? Well, it must be time to blame the media again for their self-created mess.

But at the morgue, where the floor was crusted with dried blood, the evidence of the damage already done was clear. Iraqis arrived throughout the day, seeking family members and neighbors among the contorted bodies.

"And they say there is no sectarian war?" demanded one man. "What do you call this?"

Morgue officials said they had logged more than 1,300 dead since Wednesday -- the day the Shiites' gold-domed Askariya shrine was bombed -- photographing, numbering and tagging the bodies as they came in over the nights and days of retaliatory raids.

The Statistics Department of the Iraqi police put the nationwide toll at 1,020 since Wednesday, but that figure was based on paperwork that is sometimes delayed before reaching police headquarters.

The disclosure of the death tolls followed accusations by the U.S. military and later Iraqi officials that the news media had exaggerated the violence between Shiites and Sunnis over the past few days.

Read More......

Open Thread

Here we go again. Read More......

Poor planning the reason for problems in Iraq

Just because Bush and the GOP repeat their story a million times doesn't mean that they are correct. A new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says what the Democrats have been saying all along. The planning was poorly organized, leading to chaos in Iraq.

Thanks to inadequate planning, the report said, early occupation officials lacked enough reconstruction staffers who knew what they were doing.

While reconstruction has cost American taxpayers about $30 billion three years after the overthrown of Saddam Hussein, the country still lacks reliable electricity, water and other services. Monday's report Â? covering the time the country was under control of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority Â? said early efforts were greatly affected by personnel problems.

"Pre-war reconstruction planning assumed that Iraq's bureaucracy would go back to work when the fighting stopped," it said. "When it became clear that the Iraqi bureaucracy was in widespread disarray," occupation authorities "had to find coalition personnel to perform these tasks."

"The U.S. government workforce planning for Iraq's reconstruction suffered from a poorly structured, ad-hoc personnel management processes," the report said, calling hiring practices "haphazard."

Read More......

Going up or down?

Where is the under-45 generation going economically? I don't know how often people in the US discuss this issue but I find that here in France, this subject can really set off a fire storm of debate. (I should note that in general the French love to debate just about anything and everything with strong emotion, but this is really a hot one with my friends.) Older generations had a growing economy, purchasing power and relative stability with work, not to mention benefits (retirement, health care) that have changed radically more recently for workers. With the baby boomers starting to join the ranks of retirees, the economic impact has now arrived.

So is this just a case of "things were better in the old days" or is it the reality of the under-45 generation that we will have to make do with less? Read on and debate. Read More......

Questions the press still needs to ask about 9/11 and intelligence

From NeimanWatchdog:

Paul R. Pillar, the former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year, writes that the press was insufficiently questioning both in the run-up to war and in its coverage of the 9/11 Commission. He proposes questions reporters should ask -- retrospectively and prospectively -- about the use and abuse of intelligence by policymakers.

Read More......

Dubai is now trying to censor CNN's Lou Dobbs

I'm not kidding.

The Dubai state-owned company that wants to get control of 6 key US ports is now trying to silence CNN's Lou Dobbs. Apparently Dobbs' coverage of the port deal struck too close to home, so now Dubai is trying to force CNN to shut him up.

Well, here's a little advice for Dubai: In developed democracies the government doesn't get to tell the media to shut up or else. Sure, your good buddy George Bush has tried to censor the US media for years, but he's a failed president and an idiot and as a result is now at 34% in the polls. You've picked the wrong role model.

Dubai just proved once and for all how undemocratic and not-ready-for-prime-time it is. Scratch just a little bit and you uncover just another two-bit despot. But in this case, the two-bit despot has a checkered past with terrorism and wants to control the port of New York City.

You're doing a heck of a job, Dubie. Read More......

More and more and more on Dubai

It's still heating up, and the Republicans are fleeing like rats. This is what happens when a failed presidency is at 34% in the polls. Incumbents run away from the president, and fast. Read More......

Open thread

(Sigh.)

My new buddy BicycleMark helped me do my first podcast this weekend in Amsterdam. Mark is a Portuguese-American blogger, a very cool blogger, and very cute, and very single (and very straight - just adding that for any single liberal women out there, since he's available and quite eligible).

Anyway, Mark has been living in Amsterdam for a while now and was one of our two den mothers who adopted us this week in Amsterdam. Mark runs his own blog and podcast which you can find here, and you can find his podcast with me here. He was just great, showing me and the other bloggers around all week, took me to my first squat-bar, and more. Just a great new friend, the kind of new friends you meet when you travel (and then leave). Sigh.

Anyway, check out his podcast, he's really good.

And here's Mark in all his glory (see, told you he was cute).

Read More......

Bush approval at all-time low 34%, Cheney at 18%

Will be interesting to see if the public starts demanding that Bush step down as president. I'm serious. Three more years of this? The potential devastation the Republicans may face in the November elections, this could be quite serious.

34%. Jesus. Read More......

Under Bush Budget Veterans May Face Health Care Cuts in 2008

Tell me again how much Republicans love our troops? Hey, if you guys like being sent to war with no plan and no exit strategy, then have your veteran services cut, you go right ahead and vote Republican and knock your socks off.

At least tens of thousands of veterans with non-critical medical issues could suffer delayed or even denied care in coming years to enable President Bush to meet his promise of cutting the deficit in half — if the White House is serious about its proposed budget.

After an increase for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing by leaps and bounds, White House budget documents assume a cutback in 2008 and further cuts thereafter.

And one more thing. This is what happens when you have a president who launches wars of convenience on the wrong enemy without a plan for victory. You spend $300 billion the country doesn't have, then have to cut necessary services for patriotic Americans in order to pay for the failed war. Bush's mistakes come at a price. Read More......

The media, politicians, and academics do NOT understand who bloggers, and what blogs, are

Markos goes off, rightly on, on an article that talks about bloggers being "extreme" and "activists." The idea that liberal bloggers are mostly far-left blood-throwing loons has been a common misconception that's been repeated by the media, politicians, and pundits.

First problem, you're mixing up the conservative blogs with the liberal blogs, and lumping them all together, when in fact both sides are quite different.

The top conservative blogs are very conservative, and do represent the far-right of the Republican party.

But on the liberal side of the blogosphere, things are completely different. On average, I'd say, the top liberal blogs are not far-left, nor are they conservative Democrats. The top bloggers tend to be middle of the road Democrats (or liberals) who occasionally veer left and right of Democratic center depending on the issue (I for example am very pro gay rights, but I also tend to be more hawkish on foreign and defense policy - though I don't appreciate being lied to and tricked into unnecessary wars costing $300 billion and thousands of American lives).

The problem the media, politicians and pundits make when calling the left side of the blogosphere "extreme" or "far left" is that they confuse anger and activism with a particular wing of politics. They're not the same thing. And in today's Democratic party, or rather, in today's America, to be angry at the way the country is heading, to think President Bush is a failure as a president, is not the same thing as having a particular political affiliation, let alone one to the "extreme."

Those who would call us "extreme" confuse our extreme anger with extreme politics. And they're two entirely different things.

Markos, for example, was a Ronald Reagan Republican as a kid. So was I. Markos is former military, and I even worked for a Republican Senator. Sure, we've both strayed from our political upbringing, but still, it's a bit difficult to pigeonhole us as per se "extreme" far lefties. I'm sure if you go through the bona fides of other "top" bloggers on the left, you'll run the gamut of those with far-left, center left, and perhaps even "right" left (i.e., conservative dems).

And in fact, if you look at many of the top folks on the online left nowadays - Markos, me, David Brock, and Arianna, for example - the one thing many of us share in common isn't our far left politics, but rather our being former Republicans who grew fed up with far-right politics. And that fed-up-ness, I think, we share with a growing segment of America, left and center.

Once upon a time, to be a liberal activist was, perhaps, to be per se a VERY liberal activist. That just isn't the case any more. Certainly there are many VERY liberal activists, and more power to them, and many of them are bloggers. But today's Democratic/liberal/independent activist is, I believe, less motivated by a particular ideology as he/she is by a growing horror as to the direction our country is heading. If anything, rather than being "extreme" ourselves, we have become activists and bloggers as a RESULT of the extreme turn that Republican politics has taken over the past few decades, and the extreme direction it has taken our country.

I'm jet lagging massively, so I may not be enunciating this as clearly as I'd like, but journalists, politicians and pundits are naive and old-thinking if they believe that liberal bloggers are per se "liberal," meaning to the far-left extreme of the Democratic party. I do believe that only a few of us, if any, are to the far right of the Democratic party, and thank God for that - but only because conservative Democrats aren't Democrats at all. Conservative Democrats are pretty much akin to far-right Republicans. The mainstream of Democratic activists is (are?) politically mainstream and lefty Democrats (i.e, a mix). Whereas the mainstream of Republican party activists are far-right and Christian-right (no mix at all).

Thus, please don't confuse the current make-up of the Republican party and its activists, and its polarization of power to the far-right extreme, with the current make-up of the Democratic and Independent parties and its activists, with its polarization to the very very very angry of all political stripes.

And somewhere down the line, I'm going to write a second piece about how "angry" does not equal "crazy." Read More......

Open thread - I'm back

Just got back from Amsterdam, got in from the airport a bit ago.

Really amazing trip. It truly is a gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous city, fun, and filled with surprisingly nice people (since they often get a bad rap - but do watch them on the streets, they have a nasty habit of bumping right into you when walking towards you on the sidewalk).

The food was good (again, it gets a bad rap), and they had really good ethnic food - we had Italian, Indonesian, and Moroccan, all really good. The town seemed incredibly safe - you can walk around at night, seemingly without much worry - we even walked through a park at 2am, without a problem (local friends said it was totally safe). Folks working in stores, the hotels, etc., all speak English and were terribly nice to us little ole tourists, which also made the trip really nice.

And finally, there's a ton to do. Yes, yes, you can get high etc., but that's only a small part of the town. It's a quite walkable, beautiful city, practically every street is on a canal, the buildings are each a bit different and equally beautiful and strange, and the nights are made for walking - everything has a soft glow, beautiful for a romantic stroll or some great night photography.

My hotel was amazing, the Amsterdam Centre Hotel, I highly recommend it - it's near the Leidespleine (or however you write it), which to me at least is much preferable to Dam square and all the tourists. My hotel in particular, the people working there could NOT have been nicer, and the beds were the most comfortable thing you'd ever slept on.

The Amsterdam taxis, however, are the biggest rip-off on the planet - seriously, I haven't seen a taxi system this corrupt since I lived in Buenos Aires, or perhaps NYC circa the 1980s. Several of us got seriously ripped off by cabs, and I won't even tell you how much a cab charged me to go from the main train station to my hotel - let just say, 5 times the normal price would be about right. And not having a clue as to cab fares, I paid it. I know several others that also got screwed. Had it happened to one or two of us, it could written off as bad luck - but when several people I meet get screwed within a period of days, that is one corrupt taxi system. It just bugs me because apparently it's the big joke in town, how corrupt the cabs are - we went to a comedy show and it was all funny funny funny how the cabs rip off tourists - well, it really wasn't funny after they took me for a ton of money. Amsterdam needs to take the problem seriously, and I get the sense it doesn't, and it really left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Then there's KLM. Incredibly nice folks working there, the food was fine, the service was great, but the coach seats rank up there with one of the most painful flying experiences of my life (and I'm told we had coach plus, or whatever it's called). The seat in front of you is RIGHT in your face, and that's before they recline. Then some brainiac got the bright idea of taking up half of the under-the-seat space of the seat in front of you to deal with the in-flight movie apparatus. I fly a lot, and this was one of the most uncomfortable pain flights of my life, it was literally painful how bad the seats were. I hate to say it, because they seem an awfully nice airline, but I honestly wouldn't fly KLM again, the seats were that bad - literally painfully cramped. Someone is trying to eek out a bit more cash out of that airline, and they're ruining it just like the US carriers have become second rate boxcars that I also won't touch (if you fly a lot, you know what I'm talking about, our flight was almost nine hours from Amsterdam to DC, that's a long time to be in pain). Let's hope the merger with Air France doesn't poison that airline as well, since so far the seats on Air France have been great, but I hear they're shrinking as well.

But aside from the thieving taxis and the unfortunate KLM, I really loved Amsterdam. Had a ton of really interesting political conversations as well with folks, I'll get to those later. But suffice it to say that the Netherlands have a conservative government that is doing some things even further to the right of George Bush, in terms of "homeland security." I'll get to that later.

Anyway, good to be back. Kind of :-)

JOHN Read More......

Coast Guard had serious concerns about Bush's UAE port deal

This scandal just keeps growing. A report released today showed that the Coast Guard had serious concerns about the UAE deal. This issue gets worse for Bush every day. The entity charged with port security was ignored when they raised questions about the deal:

Citing broad gaps in U.S. intelligence, the Coast Guard cautioned the Bush administration that it was unable to determine whether a United Arab Emirates-owned company might support terrorist operations, a Senate panel said Monday.

The surprise disclosure came during a hearing on Dubai-owned DP World's plans to take over significant operations at six leading U.S. ports. The port operations are now handled by London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

"There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O; assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment of the potential" merger," an undated Coast Guard intelligence assessment says.

The Coast Guard actually raised terror concerns -- and it got them no where. Read More......

Hillary: Karl is obsessing about me

Hillary hit the nail on the head. The GOPers are obsessing about her. And, Karl Rove does have a creepy feel to him. Seems like the kind of guy you'd see lurking:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me."

The former first lady and potential presidential contender was reacting during a radio interview to a new book quoting Karl Rove as saying she will be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president,

"He spends more time thinking about my political future than I do," Clinton said, noting that Rove and other White House aides have met regularly with her possible opponents in November's 2006 Senate race.

The junior Senator from New York said she believed Rove, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and other Republicans are focusing on her to divert attention from Republican problems as the 2006 congressional elections approach.

Somehow, it's just seems creepier to know that Ken Mehlman is obsessing about you. Read More......

Bush still has a pre-9/11 mindset on port security

For all the talk Bush has done about national security, he's really failed when it comes to port security. For the Bush Administration, the issue with the ports is first and foremost economics, not security. Isn't that what Bush and Cheney would call a "pre-9/11 mindset"?: Bush thinks it makes economic sense and that's all that matters:

Bush has pledged to veto any measure blocking the deal. "The president's position remains the same," McClellan said. After the review, it will be up to Bush to decide whether the deal takes effect.

Schumer said Monday he is skeptical of the review panel's ability to evaluate the deal, saying the panel has been more focused on economic development rather than national security.

Let's be real. Bush has already made up his mind about the deal with the UAE company. The delay "requested" by the company -- which is ostensibly to review security matters -- is really a farce. Read More......

No traction for Bush -- and the bad news keeps coming

AP has an article out today that states Bush:

just can't seem to find traction for his second-term agenda.

There should be no traction for his agenda. Given the Bush record, there's nothing in it that could be good for America anyway. In lieu of an agenda, AP points out the hallmarks of Bush's second-term:

The bad news has been coming in waves, from furors over Hurricane Katrina and warrantless wiretapping to the error-plagued rollout of the new Medicare prescription drug program, Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident, growing civil strife in Iraq, and now the Republican revolt over the administration's Dubai port decision.

The controversies have rocked the White House and caused alarm among Republican strategists. Their party's electoral hopes in November may depend on whether Bush is able to right his troubled presidency.

The Democrats have to do everything they can to make sure Bush's presidency stays troubled...although, he seems to be doing a good job of that himself. Read More......

DeLay used IRS against political opponent

How Nixonian:

The Internal Revenue Service recently audited the books of a Texas nonprofit group that was critical of campaign spending by former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) after receiving a request for the audit from one of DeLay's political allies in the House.

The lawmaker, House Ways and Means Committee member Sam Johnson (R-Tex.), was in turn responding to a complaint about the group, Texans for Public Justice, from Barnaby W. Zall, a Washington lawyer close to DeLay and his fundraising apparatus, according to IRS documents.

Read More......

William F. Buckey: Our mission in Iraq has failed

"[the] mission has failed....different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat." - William F. Buckley, Jr., The National Review

It's over, folks. Cong. Murtha's "extreme" position of only some three months ago is now mainstream conservative conventional wisdown. Only time will tell if the rest of the Dems join in, or whether the conservatives will get credit for "saving us" from Iraq. And only time will tell if the Dems are smart enough and crafty enough to label the Republicans as abject failures.

If Iraq was key to the war on terror, as Bush has said so many times, then his failure there has put our country at even more risk. Just like the Dubai ports deal, George Bush is making life in America and this world more dangerous by the day. It's not clear America can afford three more years of a failed presidency.

Finally, as E&P; notes, now that Buckley recognizes we've failed, when will the New York Times (and the Washington Post) admit the same? Read More......

Bush and GOPers on the Hill aren't feeling the love right now

If Bush and the GOPers in Congress are having issues, now is the time to exploit them. Keep up the pressure. They might fight among themselves, but it won't last long. They deserve each other -- and those weak-kneed Republicans on the Hill will never stray too far from Bush. Bottom line is their failures are mutual failures:

Though the tensions were somewhat defused Sunday when the company agreed to a 45-day national security review, the problem continues to exact a steep political price from Mr. Bush, exposing divisions between the White House and Congressional Republicans in a critical election year and further weakening a president already reeling from a series of setbacks, from Hurricane Katrina to the war in Iraq.

"We've defended them on wiretaps, we've defended them on Iraq, we've defended them on so many things he's tried to accomplish, that to be left out here supporting this thing in a vacuum is kind of offensive," Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, said Sunday in an interview after the company's agreement to the review was announced. He added, "If it's just about saving face and letting us humor ourselves, we won't be satisfied."

Sunday's agreement is likely to forestall, at least for the time being, a confrontation between Congress and the president over legislation, which Mr. Bush threatened to veto, blocking the Dubai contract. But with Republicans worried about their own re-election prospects, relations are clearly strained.

Thanks to Bush's failures in Iraq, with Katrina and now on port security, the GOP has lost their edge on national security. The Republicans on the Hill know they've got nothing else for the election year. Nothing. But, they'll stick with Bush in the long run. They always do. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

It's 18 degrees in DC right now. Yikes.

Anything happening yet? Read More......

Halliburton gets slap on wrist for $250M in questionable charges

One might think that when the Pentagon puts its top auditors on a case involving $250M in excessive or unjustified costs, someone is going to be in trouble and have some answering to do. If the target is Halliburton, all bets are off and this is just a little speed bump on the road to riches. It sure does pay to have friends in the right places.

The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had identified more than $250 million in charges as potentially excessive or unjustified.

Later that year auditors began focusing on the fuel deliveries under the contract, finding that the fuel transportation costs that the company was charging the Army were in some cases nearly triple what others were charging to do the same job.

That means the Army is withholding payment on just 3.8 percent of the charges questioned by the Pentagon audit agency, which is far below the rate at which the agency's recommendation is usually followed or sustained by the military Â? the so-called "sustention rate."

Figures provided by the Pentagon audit agency on thousands of military contracts over the past three years show how far the Halliburton decision lies outside the norm.

In 2003, the agency's figures show, the military withheld an average of 66.4 percent of what the auditors had recommended, while in 2004 the figure was 75.2 percent and in 2005 it was 56.4 percent.

Read More......

New plan to revive democracy in the UK

You may recall the outrage in the last UK election when Blair's Labour Party won a significant number of seats despite only winning 37% of the vote. Britain's "first past the post" election system, not to mention the public concern with the concentrated power of the PM as opposed to Parliament has chiseled away at democracy in recent years. Now, a new report is coming out that will review new programs to re-introduce democracy in the UK. Maybe it's about time the Democrats think of something like this for the US.

The independent Power commission calls for sweeping changes to prevent a dangerous gulf between politicians and the people becoming even wider. Its ideas include allowing the public to initiate legislation and a shift of power back from the Government to Parliament, following criticism that Tony Blair has neutered it.

Power to the People, the commission's 311-page report, demands a new electoral system "to ensure that all votes count by having some influence on the final outcome of an election."

However, the inquiry concludes that electoral reform is only "one part of a wider 'jigsaw' of change required to re-engage the British people with their political system".

Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws said: "Politics and government are increasingly in the hands of privileged elites as if democracy has run out of steam. Too often citizens are being evicted from decision-making - rarely asked to get involved and rarely listened to. As a result, they see no point in voting, joining a party or engaging with formal politics.

Read More......

Flying back to DC in a few hours...

A final Amsterdam photo for the evening. I took this one yesterday (Sunday). I like the sense of unity and power and confidence, and style. Very "new Europe." Encapsulates a lot of how I feel about this place.

Oh yeah, and their coffee rocks too. Read More......

Late Night Open Thread

Let's thread through the night. There's so much to discuss. Read More......

Bush is weakening National Guard say the Governors

George Bush may claim that he is making America safer -- that's just not true. Here's another example courtesy of the nation's Governors -- both Republicans and Democrats:

Governors of both parties said Sunday that Bush administration policies were stripping the National Guard of equipment and personnel needed to respond to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires and other emergencies.

Tens of thousands of National Guard members have been sent to Iraq, along with much of the equipment needed to deal with natural disasters and terrorist threats in the United States, the governors said here at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association.

Bush is a national security disaster. Read More......

Will Bush wait for a smoking mushroom cloud over the Port of New York City before taking the Dubai issue seriously?

The Los Angeles Times:

President Bush may not like the arguments that critics are raising against the Dubai company attempting to take over cargo and cruise operations at ports in six U.S. cities. But he should recognize them. The arguments marshaled against Bush closely echoed the ones he deployed to defend the Iraq war.

The president, in other words, is stewing in a pot he brought to boil....

"Facing clear peril," Bush declared in his starkest expression of this argument, "we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

....By Bush's own logic in Iraq, the Dubai port deal is suspect. But Congress needs to think carefully about whether the deal's potential risk justifies the clear and present danger of twisting that spiral a notch higher.

Read More......

Open Thread

Things really got stirred up today. Let's keep it going. Read More......

United Arab Emirates actually taking over 21 U.S. ports, not 6 as Bush has claimed

Bush is toast. Read More......

Dubai admits that Bush didn't do thorough review of the national security implications of proposed ports deal

This is an outrageous admission by the government of Dubai/United Arab Emirates.

According to the article Joe quotes below, the government of Dubai is offering to let the Bush administration conduct a "broader review of security issues in its deal to take over major operations at six U.S. ports." Which begs the very large question as to why such a review, if necessary, didn't happen BEFORE Bush decided to give the go ahead to this deal?

Rather than a "gift," as the Associated Press so naively puts it (not to mention, this "gift" was likely arranged by the Bush administration itself as a public relations move, and AP knows it), what this "gift" really says is that Bush did not conduct the appropriate security review before selling off control to some of our most important ports to a country that has ties to the September 11 attacks.

Or, if Bush tries to say he DID conduct the national security analysis, then this "new" analysis is simply a CYA publicity trick that means nothing.

So which is it? Did our president not conduct the extensive security analysis he should have before selling off control of our ports to people having ties to Osama, or is this "new" review just a whitewash typical of the Bush administration?

Either way, no American should take comfort in a gift that's beginning to look a lot like a Trojan Horse. Read More......

UAE has "asked" their friend, George Bush, to follow US law and review their agreement

This is too much. AP, and clearly the White House, are viewing the fact that the UAE owned company is "asking" for a review to be a positive step for Bush. A gift? We're talking national security here, folks. The Bush team is trying to be clever here, but they make their guy look emasculated:

The White House got a gift in the ports security debate, a chance for the president to sidestep a battle with members of his own party and to tone down bipartisan criticism of the deal.

The offer by Dubai-owned DP World to submit to a broader review of security issues in its deal to take over major operations at six U.S. ports also could salvage a business deal critically important to its economic future.

This episode should once and for all put an end to the idea that Bush is a leader who can deal with keeping his country safe. He ignored the warnings that Al Qaeda was going to attack in the U.S. He has completely screwed up in Iraq. The response to Katrina was a catastrophic disaster. Now, Bush is letting a foreign country "save" him from a major political scandal because his administration put economic concerns before national security.

We'll have to see if the wimpy traditional media buys this one. They're used to being spoon fed story lines from Karl Rove.

And, it will be interesting to watch all those GOPers on the Hill, starting with Bill Frist, parrot the White House lines -- even though they know this is a political loser. Every step the Bush team takes on this makes them all look worse. But, hey, they're the ones who wanted to make national security a big political issue this year. And, the GOP has basically ignored port security. Karl Rove and the GOP wanted a political debate. Have at it. Read More......

Hyatt Hotels embraces racist white supremacist group

UPDATE: Correct link to article.

Hyatt says it doesn't "discriminate" against guests.

Cool.

I hope we'll be seeing the Klan holding its annual conference at the Hyatt next.

More importantly, this is a theme far-right religious extremists have grabbed on to, and it's been repeated by different factions on the right: You must tolerate our intolerance.

The way it goes is this: If you have a problem with the Klan, then YOU'RE the one who's intolerant. If you find the American Family Association's history of anti-Semitism unsavory, then YOU'RE intolerant of their intolerance. And if the homophobes at the Concerned (wo)Men of America and the Family Research Council make you sick, then you're intolerant of their homophobia.

You see, the way to show your civil rights stripes in George Bush's America is to embrace hate and show how diverse you really are.

Seig Hyatt! Read More......

GOP Congress sells off America's national security to the United Arab Emirates

As Joe notes below, it only took Republican Senate Leader Bill Frist a matter of days to retract his criticism of Bush's plan to sell control over several key US ports to the United Arab Emirates. Frist was one of the most scathing in opposition to the plan to sell off US security to a middle eastern country with sketchy ties to terror. And now Frist is the first to cave to White House pressure.

And before I begin my tirade, let's not forget that Bush cut these guys a deal on security - they're NOT even having to provide the same standard guarantees that OTHER port operators in the US have to provide. Apparently, enabling the finances of the September 11 hijackers gets you special bennies with the Bush administration. Kind of like a coupon.

Not only do Republicans in Washington have no backbone whatsoever, they clearly have a pre September 11 mentality that simply does not enable them to understand the threats America faces in the new age. The Republican leadership in Washington, that controls the US Senate, the US House and the White House, believes that money comes before safety, that helping corporate interests is more important than keeping America safe.

Just look at Iraq. It's been one big corporate feeding frenzy from the beginning, and who has benefitted the most, Dick Cheney's energy company. And now that it's a choice between protecting America's ports from terrorists trying to sneak in nuclear bombs, a deal that even the US Department of Homeland Security objected to, George Bush steps in with his Republican congressional enablers and says there's suddenly no problem handing over the safety of our families, our children, our nation to a middle eastern country that had ties to, and financially enabled, the September 11 attacks.

Initially, it looked like the Republicans in Congress had finally found their spine. Rather than genuflect to the Bush White House as they've been doing the past five years, the Republicans who control the US House and the US Senate finally started acting like real Senators and real House members. They spoke up in opposition to the deal. They started to exercise a mind of their own, started to finally conduct oversight over the White House and the executive branch, started to question yet another of Bush's bizarre policies that undercut rather than enhance national security in an age of terror.

But with just a few days of White House pressure, the Republicans have now caved.

GOP Senator Bill Frist, who thinks he's going to be president after Bush's term is over, is now caving to big money, big oil, and big special Middle Eastern special interests. He'd rather line the pockets of the Emirates than protect the security of American citizens in the face of ongoing threats from Osama bin Laden.

If ever there was an issue that finally exposed the current Republican leadership for the shills they are, people who are simply out to funnel money to their friends, even when their friends have uncomfortably ties to the terrorists who attacked our country on September 11, George Bush and Bill Frist say to hell with our country, this is the issue that finally exposes how little the Republican leadership cares about Americans' safety and well-being.

Every American - Democrat, Republican and Independent - should be outraged at this betrayal of our national security during wartime. Our president, with the collusion of the Republican congressional leadership, is selling us out. If anything shows how badly the Republicans do not understand the lessons of September 11, this is it.

If you like what you're seeing. If you like that America is now selling control of its ports in New York, New Jersey, and beyond to a country that enabled the 9/11 terrorists, then vote this fall to continue the Republican control of Congress (and yes, the Republicans have the majority in the US Senate and the US House). But if you're an American who actually cares about your country, who is tired of the lies and the empty promises and the lectures about how you're just too stupid to understand that President Bush knows what's best, even when he seems to be getting worse by the day, then throw the bums out this November and vote Democratic.

It's time to stop these un-American traitors before their negligence, incompetence, and pandering to foreign interests leads to another September 11. If George Bush and Bill Frist aren't man enough to defend our country against the next 9/11, then we're going to need to force them to do their job by stopping this sale in its tracks, before we pay the ultimate price. Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

What's the news from the talk shows?

Saw McCain on This Week. After Stephanopolous showed a clip of Hillary Clinton saying port security needed to be treated more like airport security -- meaning, among other things, no foreign ownership -- McCain led with an economic defense of the existing situation. Sounded like money trumped national security from the way he answered.

Think Progress has outspoken Iraq War supporter/defender Bill Kristol now saying we haven't had a serious effort there for three years. Huh? Then why do we have almost 2,300 dead soldiers?

What other outrages? Read More......

US Chamber of Commerce gives DeLay award, endorses his re-election

Because the US Chamber of Commerce truly has no scruples whatsoever. Read More......

Frist now backs Bush deal to let UAE guard ports

You knew that the GOPers would bow to White House pressure and start supporting Bush on the UAE deal. It didn't take long for Frist to be one of the first to fall in line with the White House. It's what usually happens to that spineless, gutless GOP leader of the Senate:

Frist said Republicans trust the Bush administration and think its determination that the port deal doesn't threaten American security is "in all likelihood absolutely the right one."

This is one of those times that it's fun to see the GOPers in Congress cave to the White House. Let's hope that Republicans keep trusting Bush on this one. Bush cut a deal to let a country with ties to terror guard American ports. If the GOP thinks that's a winning issue, so be it. Read More......

Open thread

Joe tells me the news has been slow. Read More......