The NYT hearts John Edwards

There goes that liberal media again. Read More......

The Aravosis take on the on-going Larry Craig saga

Larry Craig did a media blitz today. John was on CNN to dissect the current state of affairs surrounding the Senator who has become Mitch McConnell's biggest nightmare:
Read More......

Open Thread

So John will be on CNN soon...it's Larry Craig Day all over the TV. NOTE FROM JOHN: Still waiting to go on, estimate is 8:45 Eastern or so. Read More......

Your thoughts on how to make a "Larry Craig" Halloween costume

UPDATE: Well speak of the devil. CNN just called and they want me to on during the 8 o'clock hour (Eastern) tonight to talk about yet another mea culpa interview that Larry Craig is doing with the Mrs. this evening. We're going to be responding live to Craig's interview - a bit of live-blogging, as it were, from CNN. This is going to be fun. Any and all Larry-Craig-puns that I can use during the interview are most welcome (things like "Larry Craig has put Republicans between a rock and a hard place").

Just curious what ideas you guys could come up with... Read More......

More Blackwater details emerge

This story just keeps getting worse and worse:

All Haythem and the family know about the final moments of their loved ones is what two Iraqi police officers who witnessed the shootings have told them -- that Ahmed was shot as he was driving his car in Nusoor Square and his mother clutched him tight as he was bleeding.

"Those who witnessed the incident say that my son's head was scattered and my wife held him and hugged him," Haythem said. "She was screaming, 'My son, my son! Help me! Help me!'"

The car slowly rolled forward until Blackwater guards unleashed more shots that turned the vehicle into a fireball, according to the witnesses.

"They understood the call for help. They sprayed her with bullets," he said.

It's that much more frustrating for those of us who follow Iraq closely because so many of these aspects of private security contractors have been known for years. The reputation of military contractors within the military and intelligence communities is *terrible* and there were plenty of awful stories floating around when I was in Iraq. I mean, there was a damn documentary made about contractor abuses over a year ago. From financial issues to indiscriminate killings, the mercenary situation is out of control. One can only imagine that this incident is the tip of the iceberg, rather than an outlying exception. Read More......

If you've ever emailed me, the government has the right to your email records

TPMmuckraker asks the following question today: "Quick, has anyone you know emailed anyone who's called Pakistan lately?"

The question reflects the Bush administration's new standard for permitting the federal government to illegally spy on your phone records. If you have been in contact with Party X, and Party X has been in contact with Party Y, and Party Y has contacted anyone in Pakistan, then any conversations, email or phone or otherwise, that you've had with Party X can be turned over to the government by our friendly phone companies in violation of federal law.

Let me put this in simpler terms. Anyone of you who have ever emailed me, or chatted with me by phone, may very well have had your name included in the government's domestic spying sweep.

Why? Because a good friend of mine is Pakistani-American, and she regularly chats with folks in Pakistan. And under our government's new standard, if you chat with me, and I chat with someone who chats with someone in Pakistan, then the government has the right to look at the details of your communication with me.

Let's see, whose specific phone and email records that would cover in just the past couple of days? My emails and phone calls with folks at...

- CNN, ABC, NBC (including the folks at Hardball), TIME, Newsweek, National Journal, Salon, Newsmax
- Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post
- Harry Reid's office
- Nancy Pelosi's office
- The House Committee on Homeland Security
- John Edwards', Hillary's, and Obama's campaigns
- The DCCC and DSCC
- Folks at both HRC and NGLTF, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, Media Matters
- A number of big PR firms in town, including Fleishman-Hillard and Edelman
- The good folks at MTV, MySpace, Amazon.com, YouTube, Google, Macworld
- My friends and family around the country and abroad
- Our friends at DailyKos, ThinkProgress, TPM and lots of other blogs
- Every single one of you who has ever emailed me

Are you starting to get the picture as to what exactly the Senate Democrats are about to approve by law? Read More......

3,828 Troops Killed

I was logging onto my email account when I saw on my screen the news that the number of troop fatalities in Iraq has reached 3,828.

I flashed back to conversation I had with a fellow soldier while patrolling a street in Baghdad back in 2004. We speculated on what Iraq would become following our departure. We thought if we ever had to come back it would be for a meager 6 month stay because in time the level of violence would drop significantly.

Oh how wrong we were.

We never would have imagined that 3 years later the number of troop deaths would have more than tripled and a broken U.S. Army would be conducting 15 month deployments in a totally war torn Iraq.

Even more disturbing is that there is no end in sight.

I watched Thomas Ricks last night on Hardball as he predicted that the US military would remain in Iraq for at least another decade in some capacity despite the recent progress report.

Speaker Pelosi has made it abundantly clear that Congress can't end the war without Bush's approval. At the same time she states that Congress will hold this administration accountable for it's failures in Iraq. Needless to say I'm very interested to see how that accountability process works.

I still support Speaker Pelosi, but I'm terribly disappointed with how Congress has been dealing with Bush. US Troops and innocent Iraqis die on a daily basis while Congress continues to pursue negotiations with this petulant, unreasonable, and sorry excuse for a President.

For me there is no defending it because I have been sticking my neck out for quite a while - along with hundreds of thousands of others. I can't count the number of chickenhawks who questioned my patriotism and issued personal attacks against me just for telling the truth about my experience in Iraq. I realize it comes with the territory and I'm fine with it. I know that I'm right and 20 years from now I won't have to look back and wonder whether or not I tried to make a difference when our country was faced with this tragic presidency of George W. Bush. Those of us who took a stand will be vindicated by history.

If only Congress were able to conceive that reality maybe they would fulfill the mandate given to them by the American people in November of 2006.

Given the Bush Administration's demonstrated intentions to continue operating with lies, arrogance, and incompetence I think the time is long overdue for some micromanagement by Congress.

I know that to force the hand of Bush is easier said than done, but this is a life and death situation and time is not on our side.

In closing, I would like to spread the word about an oped written in today's Washington Post.

I served in Iraq side by side with two of the authors of this unimpeachable and sobering assessment of the situation there. We spoke by phone this morning in regard to their oped and I thanked them for their courage to speak out. The most compelling part for me is that these men have no agenda or political ambition. They recognize how unshared the sacrifice is and I believe that is a significant motivating factor for their willingness to write this powerful essay. This is just patriotism in it's purest form - and it's a breath of fresh air at a time when I needed a massive whirlwind.

John Bruhns
Iraq Veteran Read More......

Verizon, like AT&T;, illegally gave the government YOUR phone records

Surprise!

Verizon spied on your phone records too! Without a court order! Simply because the government said "give em to us."

Why didn't Verizon go to court and demand a court order to release your private phone records, like the law says they need? Oh, let's have a look at how the Washington Post characterized what Verizon told them:

The company said it does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.... Verizon and AT&T; said it was not their role to second-guess the legitimacy of emergency government requests.

Yes, it's not Verizon's and AT&T;'s role to follow the law - the law that was set up specifically because of fears of government spying - and require the government to show up with the court orders that are required under the law. No, not Verizon's and AT&Ts; job at all, that one. (Funny, but if a woman is being stalked by some pervert who's threatening to rape or kill her, and she calls Verizon or AT&T;, they're not going to give HER the perv's phone records or identity because that would be wrong. Interesting that their overriding interest in saving lives only applies to some lives, apparently.)

So basically, what Verizon and AT&T; have just said, is that they will turn over any of your private phone records to the government any time the government wants, with no court order whatsoever, in violation of the law, provided that the government say it's really really really important.

What country do we live in?

A country where we have no privacy.

To quote Frank Rich, we're all "good Germans" now. We're all to blame. Well, not all of us, but certainly the Democrats in the Senate who can't find a testicle between them to stand up to this ongoing outrage. The Senate Intelligence Committee is getting ready to pass legislation tomorrow or Thursday granting AT&T; and Verizon immunity for illegally spying on you. Why? Because George Bush, Mr. 28% in the polls, threatened them that they'd better.

In particular, the problem in the Intell committee is most likely Feinstein, Bayh, Mikulski and Nelson - Democrats who don't have a very big backbone, and then wonder why we we're mean to them. But what about on the Senate floor? Why doesn't a Democratic Senator object to the legislation, put a hold on it? Sure, they'd have to have a filibuster vote, and we might lose, since so many other Dems are wimps too, but let's put it on the record, who supports domestic spying in violation of the law, let's at least get a vote count so we know who the enemy is. (And would it kill the Senate leadership to finally require some kind of legislative loyalty from the Democratic caucus? Any at all?) Now is one of those times when Senator Feingold's acts of courage would be most welcome.

The House, fortunately, isn't planning on passing the immunity provision. But, if the Senate does, then the decision goes to a House-Senate committee (called a conference) where they iron out the differences between the House and Senate bills. If the House holds firm, these bastards aren't given immunity. If the House caves, they are.

Folks, you have no privacy any more. And worst yet, your government doesn't care, your politicians don't care. And far too few Democrats care either. Every week we see stories about millions of records being let go to the public in such-and-such computer database. And what do we hear from the Democrats in Congress, from our Democratic leaders in Congress? Nothing. Well, at least from the Senate side.

Let's revisit Verizon's absurd defense again:

"Public officials, not private businessmen, must ultimately be responsible for whether the legal judgments underlying authorized surveillance activities turn out to be right or wrong -- legally or politically," wrote Wayne Watts, AT&T;'s senior executive vice president and general counsel. "Telecommunications carriers have a part to play in guarding against official abuses, but it is necessarily a modest one."

Yeah, um, a few points here. First, if private businessmen want to assume the responsibility as caretakers for our most private information, because they want to make a few trillion bucks, then those private businessmen had better learn the law and actually take care of our personal information. For Verizon to say that it's just too blond and dumb to understand complicated things like throw weights "legal judgments" (you can almost hear them titter in their letter as they flip their hair) is beyond bizarre. First off, you're freaking lawyers - you're getting paid half a million a year to make those complicated legal judgments. Second of all, and more importantly, there wasn't really a legal judgment here to be made. You weren't given a court order, that little document you're required to have before releasing your customers' most personal information. So the legal judgment necessary was this:

Did the government give us the court order required for us to release this information? No.

Pretty complicated legal judgment there.

Oh yeah, and don't forget what we've been learning the past few days. It looks like Bush's domestic spying on your phone records and your phone calls started BEFORE September 11. In fact, it started his first week on the job (AT&T; was asked to spy on its customers seven months BEFORE September 11). That means it had nothing to do with September 11, even though that's what he's always said. That would also mean that Verizon and AT&T; wouldn't have a leg to stand on in the court of public opinion if in fact they were approached before September 11 to turn over your private phone records to the government like you were some kind of common criminal, or East German citizen.

But let's not let the Republicans off the hook. The gun nuts ought to be going ballistic right about now. But they're not. The government can violate any privacy law it wants, provided it says it's really really really important. Would that include compiling databases of gun owners? Uh yeah. I'm certain such lists must exist after September 11. But the gun lobby that normally goes nuts over such things hasn't said boo. The right wing is just as complicit in accepting the diminution - the repeal - of our freedoms. And nobody, outside of you guys, even cares.

They're all good Germans now.

(More on AT&T;'s illegal spying here.) Read More......

In fundraising, Democrats thumping GOP candidates: Clinton and Obama each have more available money than combined total for top four Republicans

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both have more available campaign cash on hand than the top GOP candidates, Giuliani, Romney, Thompson and McCain, combined. That trio has $32 million among them -- Rudy has $16 million; Mitt has $9 million, Fred has just over $7 million and McCain's campaign is technically in debt. A lot of Mitt's money came from his vast fortune, not contributors. The Democratic base is fired up and ready for change. The GOPers are moribund.

The Washington Post has the numbers:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), the front-runners for their parties' presidential nominations, entered the final months of the primary season with another crucial advantage: more money to spend than their rivals.

Clinton topped the Democratic field, reporting $35 million available to spend on the primaries, edging out Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who had roughly $32 million in reserve for the battle for the nomination, the campaigns reported. Both Democrats continued to enjoy a huge advantage over their Republican counterparts. Giuliani ended September with $16 million in his campaign account, while his closest competitor, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, had $9 million in available cash.

Obama, Giuliani and Romney all spent more than they raised in the past three months, with Romney spending $21 million -- more than twice what his campaign brought in.

Here's the scoop on Fred and McCain:

The latest entrant to the GOP field, former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) reported $7.1 million in cash on hand. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) finished September with $3.5 million in the bank, but after factoring in $1.7 million in debts and $1.8 million in funds he can use only if he becomes the GOP nominee, McCain finished the third quarter $94,000 in the red.

Yep, McCain is in the red. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

It's apparently "Larry Craig Day" on NBC. Excerpts of the big interview with Matt Lauer were shown this morning. The full thing airs tonight at 8 PM EST. This media blitz has got to be driving Mitch McConnell crazy.

Start threading the news. Read More......

Bush administration intervenes to delay Wall Street bust

Despite telling the world about the free market and hands off approach to business, which of course is a completely false argument by the GOP, Treasury Secretary Paulson has jumped into the middle of the Wall Street meltdown. According to Paulson, he simply was facilitating discussions that were already under way, though many financial experts are scratching their heads and wondering why. This super-fund is estimated to be between $80-$100 billion and financed through the Wall Street players that have been scorched in recent months due to their business model of selling securities related to the now imploding high risk mortgages.

Wall Street is patting itself on the back despite the fact that the plan has yet to be formalized. A few questions remain such as whether Treasury is propping this up with US taxpayer money as well as the equally important question of whether this will only help delay the inevitable. If Wall Street wants to spend their own money and keep taxpayers out of this ridiculous show, fine. Spend away and let them explain to shareholders and clients why they are sinking billions into propping up otherwise worthless junk.

Others see the department's role as setting a risky precedent. "This is a bailout," said Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. "Treasury has insisted it made no financial commitment, but I would like a statement from [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson that if the banks lose a ton of money on this that the government won't come to the rescue."

This show only proves again that the Bush administration is full of free market hypocrites who love to intervene when it is beneficial to their special interests. This move by Paulson at Treasury is highly unusual since the Fed tends to be the organization that would typically be involved in such matters. Putting the issue of ownership aside, if Wall Street is going to dig a hole for themselves, let them get out on their own since they are so fond of the free market. Read More......

Oil prices continue to rise

The question now is whether we have hit a critical cost or not. Some suggest consumers won't significantly change their habits until it crosses $100, followed by $120 per barrel but time will tell. What this ought to be doing is pushing Washington to step up plans to develop alternative energies because we will not figure this out over night and need to be serious about this before the problems become more painful.

Biofuels may or may not be the answer though in their current form, they are triggering too many problems such as the high cost of corn and threaten the food source for too many poor around the world. There is no reason to be forced into one solution or another because there are many options to explore, but we need to help entrepreneurs explore those options now.

UPDATE: Overseas trading has oil approaching $88 per barrel today. Read More......

GOP Senator Larry "Wide Stance" Craig to appeal gay bathroom sex conviction

You go girl. Read More......