O'Reilly surprised that black restaurants are just like white restaurants

From Media Matters:

Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, Bill O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "

Then again, I understand the customers were surprised that O'Reilly wasn't screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more loofahs.' Read More......

Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) slams Cheney's favorite interviewer, Limbaugh, for dissing troops

Is Dick Cheney going to continue doing interviews with this hateful drug addict who dishonors our troops? Or was all the "outrage" from the Republicans about the MoveOn ad phony? Read More......

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chair of Dem. House Campaign Committee, blasts Limbaugh for attacking troops

This is what we're talking about:

Rush Limbaugh's personal attack on our men and women in uniform is reprehensible. It minimizes the sacrifice our troops in Iraq and their families are making and has no place in the public discourse. Rush Limbaugh owes our military and their families an apology for his hurtful comments that minimize their service to our country.

Where is the rest of Congress on this outrageous, callous attack on the troops from the big, fat drug addicted chickenhawk, Limbaugh, the hero of the GOP? Read More......

Mychal Bell finally released from jail

Mychal Bell from the Jena 6 was released from prison today on $45,000 bail. He'll now face trial as a juvenile for the schoolyard fight -- instead of attempted murder as an adult. Read More......

The relationship between security and reconciliation

I have a lot of respect for thinkers/bloggers/pundits who have educated themselves about Iraq despite starting out with a completely different area of expertise or focus. I mean, four and a half years into war, one would think that everybody could learn the basics -- but many, including plenty of people who comment authoritatively (or "authoritatively"), still haven't made the effort to understand the situation, so those who have deserve credit.

Ezra Klein, whose blog I imagine many AMERICAblog readers frequent, is a health care wonk. He can talk capitation and cost control and coverage -- and even all the topics that don't start with "c"! -- with the best of 'em; in fact, he *is* one of the best of 'em when it comes to that stuff. He also, however, has managed to educate himself about the broad realities of the war in Iraq. This summer, I decided I didn't know nearly enough about what I thought was the most important domestic political issue, health care, so I bought a bunch of books and started reading. But even just getting the basics was hard! So I'm correspondingly impressed when a health wonk recognizes something like this:

The surge sort of dramatized this effect [the damaging and misguided US focus on military focus rather than political efforts] by coinciding with a complete loss of faith in the Maliki government's ability to pursue consolidation: The security situation and the political situation really aren't linked, at least not in that direction. The idea that stability would accelerate reconciliation was always backwards. There's a lack of stability because there's an absence of reconciliation -- and the relationship there is causal.

Right. The idea that you can stop attacks primarily instigated by 1) Sunnis who feel politically marginalized and 2) Shia groups fighting each other for dominance by capturing or killing the fighters is, when you think about it for more than five seconds, absolutely crazy! Terrorists, yes: kill and capture. We don't want to be negotiating with al Qaeda; there's no room for compromise there. But much of the violence in Iraq -- and especially the environment that enables it -- results from the political situation. Which is why the dual idiocy of pretending that violence in Iraq is all about al Qaeda AND trying to "create room for compromise" by escalating our troop presence is so disheartening and wrongheaded. In particular, as Ezra memorably observes,

The surge was like trying to stop someone with a cold from sneezing by pinching their nose really hard. It didn't cure the cold, and it sort of created a mess.

Right now, we have 168,000 US troops enabling corrupt and intransigent governance in a foreign nation that most people still have no conception of nearly five years into war. Read More......

My thoughts on Rush

Hi Folks,

Sorry to once again "preach to the choir." But just moments ago it was brought to my attention that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh once again issued an unforgivable insult to those who disagree with his neoconservative philosophy of blind loyalty to George W. Bush's needless war in Iraq.

Limbaugh boldly stated that any troops who call for a withdrawal of troops in Iraq are "phony soldiers."

Not that long ago he made a similar comment about Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran, who has been a long time critic of George W. Bush's reckless Iraq policy. Limbaugh called Hagel "Senator Betray Us."

Surprise, Surprise - there was no outburst in Congress over that remark.

Back to the point -

As an Iraq war veteran who is strongly opposed to this war I am beyond words with this Bush administration mouthpiece Limbaugh who has no clue as to what he is talking about.

People like Limbaugh, who never wore the uniform, never seen combat, and who would never have the courage or the intestinal fortitude to put their own body where their rhetoric is have no right whatsoever to criticize combat veterans who express dissent toward a war that they actually had the courage to fight.

In my perfect world, Limbaugh would be out there right now in Baghdad, in the 120 degree heat, in full "battle rattle" with a an infantry unit getting a dose of what he is advocating for - and I would bet the farm that once he returned he would have a whole different perspective on what war really is. However, I'm not that lucky.

All in all, Limbaugh has absolutely no respect for veterans as far as I'm concerned. He loves to regurgitate Bush's main talking point for Iraq of "where fighting for freedom."

Well with this latest stunt by Limbaugh he obviously has no regard for freedom or those who fight for it. Unless of course you agree with his methodology of total lunacy.

LIMBAUGH IS A DISGRACE.

John Bruhns
Iraq War Veteran
Legislative Representative
Americans Against Escalation In Iraq
www.IraqCampaign.org Read More......

Gen. Pace says gays are immoral, again

Good to know the general is worrying about the important things. Not how to win a war and stop his men and women from dying needlessly. No. General Pace is more concerned about whether his gay troops are immoral. And we wonder why we're losing (lost) in Iraq. Here's a video of Sen. Harkin taking God's general on.

Read More......

Update from MTV/MySpace forum

It's going okay. Edwards is his usual informed, casual self. He's doing well, but still hasn't done anything, said anything, that's going to knock Hillary out of first place int he polls. As for unique format of the event, I'm not convinced that they're using the online real-time feedback as well as they could (people can vote online about how well they think Edwards is answering the questions). It's a neat idea, but it still feels like a regular old town meeting, with the occasional interjection of the updated polls or an IM question from a viewer. Whereas the CNN/YouTube debate, at least watching it on TV, felt original and novel to me (and I honestly didn't expect it to) - they somehow made the electronic, Internet part of the event the KEY part of the event, an interesting part of the event, rather than simply ancillary. Not surprisingly, the college aged audience is asking a lot of questions that youth would be interested in (education funding, etc.), which is good for them, but kind of boring for the rest of us, but this is the audience they're shooting for. It's a fine event, overall, but it just isn't as unique and cutting edge as I'd have hoped.

And, as usual, we're getting the "blogger" treatment from some quarters - meaning, some of the powers that be seem to be deathly afraid of us. We were told we couldn't blog from the event itself - if we wanted to WATCH the event in the room where it's taking place, we could watch, but we couldn't blog live or bring our laptops with us. If we wanted to blog, we could do it in the media room next door, where we could only follow the event on a TV screen. Well, not surprisingly, we all dutifully obeyed and left our laptops in the other room, while the MSM reporters are watching live, in the room with Edwards, with their laptops wide open and no one is saying a word. But God forbid that one woman powered up her Blackberry and someone immediately ran up to her and told her "you'd better not be blogging." (MySpace says this was an MTV person.) When I pointed out the numerous non-blogger reporter laptops open behind her, in violation of the "don't report live from the set" and "don't you dare have a laptop" rule, no one cared. Whatever the logic or rationale, they also told the kids not to take cell phone pics of the event during the event, not to send pics to friends via their phones during the event, etc. Knowing kids... good luck with that. And while they said it was motivated out of a fear that the kids' phones might interfere with the mics (and apparently, Blackberrys DO interfere with mics), I have a sense that the larger concern was control of message on the set, they don't want folks on the set doing any kind of reportage, especially (only?) bloggers. And I don't get why. Anyway, it's a bit annoying. And I do get a kick out of how we're the only ones who are actually obeying the rules. I'm thinking we won't make that mistake again.

Anyway, here are some pics of the event going on now.



The hosts, Gideon Yago and SuChin Pak.



Edwards, in front of a screen showing the viewer live feedback.



MTV's Sway.



The audience is all college kids, which is great. We were told that last night, at the NBC Democratic debate held at Dartmouth, college kids were specifically banned from the event. They let a few in, like the head of respectable college organizations, but otherwise, they wanted "older" people only. Nice.



Finally, I got to have a good chat last night with MySpace founder Chris de Wolfe. Very interesting guy. He was really interested in the blogs, how we function, etc., and had some good advice for how we can move forward as businesses (and we are businesses, news and advocacy businesses). Read More......

Senate approves expansion of hate crimes legislation

The big hurdle facing hate crimes legislation in the Senate as been overcome. In a 60-39 vote to proceed to adoption, the Senate approved the Kennedy amendment which adds sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the existing hate crimes legislation.

Among the Republicans that crossed the aisle to move the legislation forward. (Roll Call here):

John Warner
Richard Lugar
Susan Collins
Olympia Snowe
George Voinovich
Arlen Specter
Norm Coleman
Judd Gregg
Gordon Smith (co-sponsor)

Kennedy then asked for a voice vote on the amendment and that subsequently passed.

The measure is part of the defense reauthorization bill, which is slated to go up for a vote in the near future.

As you might imagine, Diaper Dave Vitter voted no, as did Toe Tapping Larry Craig. Read More......

MTV, MySpace and John Edwards

This is the venue for the chat. Check here to find out more how you can join in the voting.



I'm in New Hampshire, courtesy of MySpace (they flew and lodged several bloggers from the left and right up here, attending the first of a series of presidential candidate Q&A;'s they're doing. It's actually quite interesting. (At left are Jen from Feministing.com (l) and Georgia10 from DKos (r).) The candidates will be questioned by some MTV and Washington Post folks and then you can vote on how well you like the responses. Then the questioners can incorporate your responses into the next questions. Georgia has a great post on this over at DKos. I can't link via my phone, but you can go to DKos and check it out. Read More......

Another $190 billion for the endless war

Let's review George Bush's week: 1) Bush won't spend a couple billion on health care for kids; 2) Bush now wants another $190 billion for his endless war; and 3) We seen more evidence that Bush's endless war is destroying our military capacity.

This war is getting more costly in both human lives and financially every year. The $190 billion is the largest request so far:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress yesterday to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration's 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion -- the largest single-year total for the wars so far.

The move came as Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff and former top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned lawmakers that the Army is stretched dangerously thin because of current war operations and would probably have trouble responding to a major conflict elsewhere. "The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply," Casey said yesterday. "We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies."

The administration's funding request -- which came on the same day that the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for the split of Iraq into three semiautonomous regions -- would boost war spending this year by nearly 15 percent and would bring the total cost of both conflicts to more than $800 billion since Sept. 11, 2001, according to the Congressional Research Service. The request comes two weeks after President Bush announced a limited troop drawdown from Iraq starting in December and the continuation of the "surge" troop increase through next summer. In the days since, Democrats have failed to force a shift in policy on troop rotations or the adoption of withdrawal timelines, but the debate over war funding offers them another chance to push for a change in course.

We need a change in course, desperately. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Begin. Read More......

70,000 protesters in Yangon, junta continues violent crackdown

Plenty of reports coming in on the protests in Myanmar including reports of even more violence by the government security forces, attempts by the government to provoke violence between Buddhists and Muslims, searches for members of the international press and massive arrests. The Guardian has excellent coverage with links to multiple blogs that are providing regular updates. The junta has been attempting to shut down bloggers, unsuccessfully so far, who are still managing to distribute photos, video and regular updates. Read More......

More lead tainted toys being recalled

It's almost as though the effort in the 1970s to remove lead from paint had never happened. Industry, always looking for a way to cut corners and make an extra few pennies, is either absolutely stupid or they are just are simply despicable. If they didn't know they were buying lead-tainted products that would be sold to children, they should have known or else this calls into question their ability to properly run a business. It also raises yet another example of industry failing to self regulate and begging Congress to step in and provide guidance.

When businesses outsource production to the cheapest provider, what do they think they are receiving? Just because China doesn't care about safety regulations, that's an issue for China that will have to be addressed within their own country. We should expect a lot more from our own country, both in terms of regulation as well as minimum quality standards. The recall of 600,000 toys is not the first and will not be the last such recall and it's clear that the US is going to have to step up the regulation of what is being sold. Just because the GOP wants to live in another era where anything goes doesn't mean we have to accept it. Read More......

Focus on the Family lays off 30, moves 15 more to new jobs

Oh my goodness! Flogging the gay boogeyman isn't filling the coffers these days. Time for a happy dance...MSNBC:

Focus on the Family announced Monday that it is laying off 30 employees and reassigning 15 others. It also announced that founder James Dobson had been cleared of accusations that he jeopardized the group's nonprofit status by endorsing Republican candidates.

Most of the layoffs are in the organization's Constituent Response Services department that answers mail and telephone requests.

A drop in projected revenue played a part in the layoffs, and the growth of e-mail and Internet-based communications is behind the reassignments, said Gary Schneeberger, vice president of communications.

It's only 3% of the workforce, but Daddy D has been announcing on his radio show that donations are off. May the trend continue. How about this spin?

"Organizational change, while healthy and positive, is always difficult when it involves a staff reduction," [Focus president and CEO Jim] Daly said in a news release. "Building flexibility into our internal operations is vital to staying engaged with and relevant to our constituents. The adjustments we're making this week, though difficult, will allow us to better serve the families that rely on Focus on the Family in the future."

Read More......