Wash. Post Covers "Tex" Sensenbrenner's Meltdown

The Post's Mike Allen wrote a piece, "Panel Chairman Leaves Hearing, " about Sensenbrenner's meltdown during the Patriot Act hearing today. Allen noted that Sensenbrenner "showed his pique." That's an understatement. He had a hissy fit.

Also included in the piece were the remarks of James Zogby:

One of the witnesses then began giving impromptu testimony. James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said he thought the turn of events was "totally inappropriate -- no mike on, and no record being kept."

"But I think as we are lecturing foreign governments about the conduct of their behavior with regard to opposition," Zogby said, "I'm really troubled about what kind of message this is going to teach to other countries in the world about how they ought to conduct an open society that allows for an opposition with rights."

Yeah, the House GOP can really teach the world about an open society. They should throw in a course on ethics taught by Tom DeLay, too.

The Post noted that Sensenbrenner is "the heir to a paper fortune." It's a little more interesting than that. Sensenbrenner's family money comes from Kotex per Legal Times:

His family fortune derived from his great-grandfather, Frank J. Sensenbrenner, who invented the Kotex feminine hygiene product shortly after World War I, then used the money from that venture to become Kimberly Clark's largest single shareholder and eventually its CEO.

Word on the Hill is that if you really want to piss off Sensenbrenner, call him "Tex." So, henceforth on Americablog, he is "Tex." Read the rest of this post...

Sensenbrenner - the totalitarian House dictator who shut down the Patriot Act hearing - lectures DEAN about civility!

Oh that's rich. Here's my favorite line:

"These attacks are contrary to the passionate - but respectful - political debate the public deserves."

The man runs his committee meetings like a Soviet gulag and he has the nerve to lecture us about the role of respectful debate and civility in America?

Not to mention, your party, Mr. Sensebrenner, launched a personal attack against MY PEOPLE, trying to amend the bloody US Constitution to shut me out, and you have the NERVE to talk about personal attacks and civility? I think someone ought to take this bloated whiny blowhard up on his challenge, and let's have a debate as to which party has been more hateful and personal. Read the rest of this post...

The Secret Paul Lynde Agenda

And, as the author notes, I want to know more about the Secret Bea Arthur agenda.

(Via Atrios (kind of sounds like an old cobblestone alleyway in Rome...)) Read the rest of this post...

Late Friday open thread

Because, as Atrios says, you can never have enough thread. Read the rest of this post...

Republicans abruptly shut down Patriot Act hearing - amazing

Absolutely astounding.

The House Republicans just shut down the Patriot Act hearings while the Democrats were still talking. It was absolutely amazing. Then they shut the mics off on the Dems. Even more amazing is that the House Republicans have the nerve to do this during a hearing on, what?, the Patriot Act! A hearing about our concerns about shutting down free speech and civil rights and the Constitution. So what do they do, they simply shut down open debate in the US Congress. Horrifying.

I've been so busy today I didn't have time to watch this video until now. Now I have. It's downright chilling. But also inspiring. The Democrats just kept going, the witnesses just kept going. It really was quite wonderful that even after the Republicans tried to literally shut down our democracy, the Democrats and the witnesses - in the best Grinch tradition - showed the Republicans that, Republicans present or not, microphone shut down or not, even House Judiciary Chairman "Tex" Sensenbrenner can't stop democracy from coming.

This story is 100 times as important as anything Howard Dean did or didn't say. We need to take what happened today and run with it. I can only imagine the protests - members of the House with gags on. Imagine all the Dems walking around for one day next week with gags on, on the House floor, in hearings. Come on guys, let's do it :-)

Make sure you watch both videos on this page.

AP has picked up on the story now too. Read the rest of this post...

AMERICAblog t-shirts

We're going to start offering t-shirts soon, via CafePress. Wonder if folks have any suggestions for what they should say?

BIG OLD LEGAL CAVEAT
I've got to throw this in, since I don't plan on getting sued, if you suggest it, you are agreeing to cede all rights to the idea. I don't want anyone suing AMERICAblog, since then all of the little AMERICAbloggers would have to go live on the street and fight for their food (those would be my orchids). Seriously, by suggesting any t-shirt ideas, you are agreeing to relinquish any and all current and future rights to the idea. Got it? Good. Now suggest away, if you still want to, after all of that :-) Obviously, snark goes a long way with me. I'm thinking something with "Peppered with obscenity" might be required. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Orchid Blogging

Phragmipedium caudatum

Again, not one of mine, but a pic I took at the NY show a few months ago. I've not tried to grow this one, it's a species, i.e., not a commercial hybrid, meaning it's probably a bit harder to grow (or it just grows to be so damn big I don't have room for it!) I love phrags, as these are called, but I'm finding that I'm having some problems with them rotting - a problem you always face orchids, but something I'm having more of with this variety of late, which is too bad, because I think they're fantastic.

Here's a picture of the entire plant, that was an award at the show. Check out those petals!

Read the rest of this post...

Senator Ben Nelson, Democratic bigot

If these people are going to cater to bigots, then let them leave until we run a Democrat who has the balls to stand up to the religious right hate groups. I have no time for bigots and wimps like Senator Ben Nelson. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Bush meets his first Asian. Read the rest of this post...

Bush caves even further to tobacco industry

Absolutely, mind-blowing. This is from the last two days of the Wash Post... Bush's hubris for extremism knows no bounds.

Tobacco Lawyers: Gov't Case Is in Disarray (washingtonpost.com)
By HILARY ROXE, June 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Tobacco industry lawyers seized on federal prosecutors' downsized penalty in a racketeering trial against major cigarette makers,......

Government Defends Slashed Tobacco Penalty (washingtonpost.com)
By HILARY ROXE, June 09, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors on Thursday defended their decision to downsize dramatically a proposed penalty against Big Tobacco, saying they......

Tobacco Witnesses Were Told To Ease Up (The Washington Post)
By Carol D. Leonnig, Page A04, June 09, 2005
Government lawyers asked two of their own witnesses to soften recommendations about sanctions that should be imposed on the tobacco industry if it......

Feds Slash Amount Sought in Tobacco Trial (washingtonpost.com)
By HILARY ROXE, June 08, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors, wrapping up a drawn-out lawsuit against the tobacco industry, are demanding only a fraction of the $130 billion......

Tobacco Sellout (The Washington Post)
Page A22, June 10, 2005
SINCE TAKING office, the Bush administration has spent more than $100 million suing the tobacco industry. This week it scuttled its own case just......

Tobacco Escapes Huge Penalty (The Washington Post)
By Carol D. Leonnig, Page A01, June 08, 2005
Justice Dept. lawyers abruptly upset landmark case against the industry by asking for $10 billion, instead of the expected $130 billion, in...... Read the rest of this post...

Kudos to the Columbia Journalism Review for, uh, giving us kudos

Hey, so they didn't believe us about the FOX News outburst yesterday at the Dean-Reid meeting, but they fact-checked, and found out we were right, and they reported that fact. And good for them (and us). Interesting that the Post left out the juicy bit about themselves, as CJR rightfully points out.

...thanks to the magic of blogs, we also get a bit of the backstory to share. Wonkette, The Huffington Post and AMERICAblog report that, when Leibovich asked Wilson who he was, Wilson screamed back, "Who the fuck are YOU?" According to AMERICAblog and Wonkette, Leibovich asked the question because "Wilson was apparently wearing no credential of any kind ... and behaving 'bizarrely angry.'" Those blogs also claim Leibovich said later that he asked Wilson who he was "because of his incredibly pointed questions"; Leibovich, say the blogs, "wondered whether or not [Wilson] was a rogue Republican staffer." All three blogs wrote that Wilson later stormed down Senate halls, screaming obscenities.

Skeptical of such accounts, we cornered Leibovich today. "Yeah, I can confirm it," he said. "It involved Brian Wilson of Fox News -- not of the Beach Boys. And he was not giving out good vibrations." He said Wilson wasn't holding a notebook, and, "for all I knew he was Jeff Gannon, based on the tone and insistence of his questions."

We asked Leibovich why his story -- which, after all, was about reporters behaving badly -- didn't include his own exchange with Wilson. He referred us to his editor, Steve Reiss, who told us, "I think the story was properly focused on the scene with Dean and Reid and Durbin."

Read the rest of this post...

Blogs become an issue in White House correspondents race

Though with an odd twist.

The blogs have become an issue, and access to the White House an issue more generally, in the race for the White House Correspondents Association upcoming elections.

In one corner, is Ann Compton, of ABC News, ABC radio, and ABCNews.com. Here's what she had to say in a statement she issued regarding her race for an at-large seat and the presidency:

Credentialing is still in White House control as it should be. But our voice should be heard. I support a broad definition of White House journalist, including bloggers and columnists.

Then there's this statement from Dick Keil of Bloomberg, who is only running for an at-large seat, and who is more suspicious of blogs and new media:

In the interest of full disclosure, I also firmly believe that we need to have tougher standards for admission. To the briefing room in order to avoid another Jeff Gannon situation. I know that the board’s position has been one that grants more access not less. But I think that we do no one an injustice – not our readers, not our colleagues, not the public at large – if we adhere to the same standards employed by the standing committee on correspondents on Capitol Hill: if you can’t prove that you write for a regularly published independent media outlet, you cannot gain access to the briefing or the gaggle.

I might add another requirement, Dick. If you can't prove you can write a sentence that isn't a run-on... Just kidding, I feel your pain, my bane is typos. :-)

Anyway, what's interesting about all of this is that Compton is pro-blogger, ostensibly because of the Gannon affair, and Keil is anti-blogger BECAUSE of the Gannon affair. The thing is, Gannon wasn't a blogger. And in fact, it was bloggers (uh hum) who, along with Media Matters, exposed the Gannon story. It would be incredibly ironic if Keil wanted to classify bloggers as non-journalists because of Gannon, which was a story he knows about only because bloggers broke it when most traditional media refused to cover it.

Anyway, still good, I guess, that they're thinking of us. Read the rest of this post...

Now the religious right hate groups are attacking unions who support gays

NOTE TO UNIONS: They're messing with you and they won't stop unless you punch them back even harder. You've got my email, feel free to give a holler. More than happy to help make your response a doozy :-)

The religious right is now threatening the unions with their hate literature.

And, big surprise, it's just as packed full of lies as their now-failed boycott of Ford (the one that lasted, oh, like a week). They accuse the unions, just like they accused Ford, of supporting gay marriage simply because they oppose anti-gay hate. Amazing connection the fundamentalist Christian hate groups make, trying to tie anything pro-gay to an all-out endorsement and push for gay marriage. Of course, nothing gets their knuckle-dragging grassroots energized like bringing out the gay marriage boogey-man.

Note to Convio, Capitol Advantage, and any other vendor who works with relgious right hate groups. Do you NOW understand why we simply cannot and will not tolerate working with those vendors who work with our enemies, who work with HATE GROUPS? This has gone way beyond a disagreement about policy and politics. These bigots are out to destroy us, and we are going to respond just as forcefully to defend ourselves, our families, and everything this country used to stand for.

Please contact the AFL-CIO and thank them for their past support for civil rights for ALL Americans, and let them know that you stand with them and are here to support them in their battle against anti-civil rights hate groups.

Ken, how do you like your allies now?

Read the rest of this post...

Citigroup settles Enron lawsuit for $2 Billion

But of course, they are not admitting any guilt in the Enron catastrophe. No connection at all to misleading investors. Nope, none at all.

Isn't it great that the administration is waging war against class-action lawsuits? Clearly these greedy investors had no business taking action against Citigroup and corporate American can always govern itself. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

And while you're at it, please Free Katie. Read the rest of this post...

UK Law To Fight Hate Speech Against Muslims Is Deemed Dangerous...By The Left

In the US, the far right would be freaking out over a law that "protected Satanists" by banning hate speech directed towards people of faith -- political correctness, they'd call it. The UK law, intended to provide coverage for Muslims that Jews and Sikhs enjoy because of race-based laws against inciting hatred, would also provide new protection for Satanists, pagans and even atheists. (Republicans would defeat it in a minute by calling this the Devil Worshipping Act.)

But in Great Britain, the law is being criticized by the left, which thinks it goes too far in making ideas illegal. Many also make the point that mocking someone's religion is not the same as mocking their race. Many major comedians and thinkers on the left see it as a dangerous encroachment on free speech. Well-intentioned measure or a law trying to ban blasphemy?

The actor and writer Stephen Fry told Radio 4's PM programme that the Bill was "rather shaming" and "an embarrassment to the statute book".

"It just suggests it's not a thought-through or needed piece of legislation," he said. "It is something to please communities."

The author Salman Rushdie has complained that the measure would "sacrifice freedom of speech in order to placate Muslim voters".

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "This offence is capable of catching attacks on ideas as well as people. "At best this is an empty sop to a community sorely let down by government. At worst it is a dangerous new blasphemy law out of step with our best traditions."

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said the law would be "massively counter-productive" and "seriously undermine freedom of speech". He said: "Religion, unlike race, is a matter of personal choice and therefore appropriate for open debate."

Read the rest of this post...

Good Question

The Independent in the UK asks about the year 2004, "Why did the world spend $1 trillion on arms but only $80 billion on aid?" Read the rest of this post...

All the black Republicans in Congress

Read the rest of this post...

Dear Carol Darr,

You're messing with the wrong Internets.

I stand with Markos. Read the rest of this post...

Latest on the $25m lawsuit against USA Next, homophobic pro- "Social Security privatization" organization

In later-April, the defendants filed motions seeking to dismiss the case, claiming that there are no grounds for a lawsuit despite the fact that the Court already has viewed the case favorably by issue an early injunction. Raymen and Hansen filed a strong opposition to the motion, showing the Court how completely meritless the motions are. The motions now are ripe for a ruling from the Judge, who may dteermine to have oral argument or who may proceed to rule on the papers. Copies of the pleadings can be found here. Read the rest of this post...

Oops. The GOP really is all white, study proves it

Seems that big tent looks more like a big white hood.

And, why does Howard Dean insist on telling the truth?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jessica Smith or Brendan McCarthy,
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 Fenton Communications

BEHIND TODAY'S FACADE OF DIVERSITY LIES
A NEARLY ALL-WHITE REPUBLICAN PARTY

One Percent of Republican Legislators in the States And Washington are African-American or Hispanic

Newspaper Ads Point to Retro Republican Reality

The uninformed viewer watching TV coverage of this week's Republican national convention in New York might come away thinking that the President's party is built upon a solid commitment to inclusion of racial minorities. Once again, as it does every four years, the Republican Party is trying to portray itself as a 'big tent,' with room for every American.

But a new book about America's political divisions notes that the 99 percent of all Republican legislators across the country and in Congress are white. The national Republican Party, whose base is in the South, the Plains and the Mountain states, looks to white men as its power base and source of leadership. Even when Republican states have significant minority populations, the elected Republican representatives rarely are drawn from those communities.

The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, a new look at political divisions in America by educator-entrepreneur Dr. John Sperling, calls those states 'Retro America,' and notes: 'Its whiteness and maleness are mirrored in the Republican Party.'

Of 3,643 Republicans serving in the state legislatures, only 44 are minorities, or 1.2 percent. In the Congress, with 274 of the 535 elected senators and representatives Republican, only five are minorities - three Cuban Americans from Florida, a Mexican American from Texas and a Native American senator originally elected as a Democrat. [NOTE FROM JOHN: That means the GOP has elected ZERO blacks to Congress.]

'President Bush's home state leads the way. Texas, with a minority population of 47 percent, has 106 Republicans in the state legislature, but there are 0 blacks and 0 Hispanics among them,' Sperling writes. 'No major corporation doing business with the government could be so white without being subject to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) action!'

An advertisement appearing in the New York Times and Washington Post this week describes this 'Retro Republican Reality.' For more information and to download chapters of the Sperling book, go to www.retrovsmetro.org. Print editions of The Great Divide are on sale exclusively at amazon.com/greatdivide.

Read the rest of this post...

Our blogging panel will be on CNN International this weekend

Unfortunately, it's CNN International and not the US CNN, not sure why. This is the panel I was on at CNN headquarters in Atlanta last week, Blogging: The Fifth Estate, with all the top CNN brass - was quite fun, and I think interesting. Anyway, for you folks out of the US, if you get CNN International, here are the times it's showing (obviously EU is Europe, LA is Latin America, and AS is Asia):

June 11, SAT
*6am (ALL REGS) 2:30 News Upd/ Blogging: The Fifth Estate, pre-empts World News, Next@CNN (EU/LA) / International Correspondents (AS/SA/NA)
*130pm (EU/LA/NA) 2:30 News Upd/ Inside the Middle East pre-empts World Business This Week $ MASTER
*4pm (EU) 2:30 News Upd/ Global Challenges MAKE-GOOD pre-empts World News $
*5pm (EU/LA) 2:30 News Upd/ Blogging: The Fifth Estate, pre-empts World News, International Correspondents


June 12, SUN
*12am (AS/SA) 2:30 News Upd/ Blogging: The Fifth Estate, pre-empts World News, World Report B
*6am (AS/SA/NA) 2:30 News Upd/ Blogging: The Fifth Estate, pre-empts World News, Talk Asia
*8am (EU/LA/NA) 2:30 News Upd/ Blogging: The Fifth Estate, pre-empts World News, World Report B
*1030am (EU/LA/NA) 2:30 News Upd/ Design 360 MAKE-GOOD pre-empts International Correspondents $
*1130am (EU/LA/NA) 2:30 News Upd/ Inside the Middle East pre-empts Diplomatic License
*1pm (EU/LA/NA) (NO NEWS UPD) Blogging: The Fifth Estate, pre-empts Late Edition 2nd hour
*330pm (EU/NA) 2:30 News Upd/ Business Traveller pre-empts International Correspondents $
*7pm (LA) (NO NEWS UPD) Blogging: The Fifth Estate, pre-empts CNN Today
*830pm (LA) (NO NEWS UPD) Business Traveller pre-empts CNN Today Read the rest of this post...

Great pic from the Bush Protest in Ohio

This picture appeared in today's Toledo Blade with the caption:

Greg Schults of Columbus protests Ohio Republicans Ken Blackwell, Jim Petro, and Betty Montgomery over the Tom Noe coin scandal. The politicians plan to run for governor next year.(THE BLADE/ALLAN DETRICH )

Ken Blackwell is Ohio's Secretary of State, Petro is the Attorney General and Montgomery is the State Auditor. All three are vying for the GOP nomination for Governor next year. And, all three are beneficiaries of Tom Noe's financial contributions which they had to return. All three were also initially strong defenders of Noe and reluctant to investigate "Coin-gate." These are the people -- especially Blackwell -- who helped deliver Ohio for Bush last year. Read the rest of this post...

Hey, Good Job Dems, by attacking Dean, you've helped obscure the real news

From NBC's First Read:

Nearly lost in this week’s intense scrutiny of Howard Dean was this piece of political news: Per the latest Washington Post/ABC poll, just 50% approve of Bush’s job in the US campaign against terrorism -- equaling his lowest mark on an issue that’s considered by many to be his greatest strength. It was a drop of six points since April, and 11 points since the beginning of the year. Moreover, there’s today’s front-page news of the Justice Department IG report suggesting failures and missteps by the FBI to detect the 9/11 plot.

Yep, Bush is tanking. But leading Democrats on the Hill, like Joe Biden, started the week worrying about Howard Dean. That set off the media frenzy....and of course, that meant the media missed the big story.

Attack the GOP, Howard. They deserve it. They want to create a theocracy in America...and they hate gays. For that alone, the GOP deserves to be kicked around.

And, in case Biden et. al. haven't realized it....they played right in to the GOP strategy AGAIN. So, the news was about Democratic in-fighting instead of Bush's failures. Good job. That is just another example of why they are in the minority. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Almost the weekend Read the rest of this post...

Mugabe defends recent attacks on poor

What Mugabe refers to as a "cleanup campaign to restore sanity" others might refer to as tyranny, murder and starvation. The Mugabe thugs are fearful of a wide scale revolt and are telling locals to leave the cities and go back to the country. Hmm, now that might be tricky since they have no money, no food and the buses have no fuel but why let reason get in the way?

Thankfully China has been selling new military equipment such as troop deployment helicopters and military jets to Zimbabwe which makes it easier for Mugabe to send his troops around the country at minutes notice. Maybe it's time that somebody sticks a fork in the "quiet diplomacy" strategy and gets serious about saving the general population and not the corrupt leadership.

This crackdown has creepy links to Pol Pot and Year Zero though the people have not yet been forced by gun to the country, yet. Read the rest of this post...

Hail To The Chief

President Bush did something good: he reached an agreement with the UK to offer significant debt relief to 18 countries, with more likely to follow. Bush's usual hedges during the recent Bush-Blair press conference led me to believe he was gonna keep studying the issue, the way he's been studying global warming for the past five years. (Bush will keep on studying global warming until the flood waters have submerged the Lincoln Bedroom.)

But in fact it masked serious negotiations where Bush insisted on the manner of debt relief (countries cancel the debt, with the US agreeing to recompense them) and no sell-off of gold reserves by the IMF. This will wipe out $16.7 billion in debt for these countries, most of which are in Africa. It seems at first blush to be a wholly positive step.

Now how about taking more positive steps on that little case of genocide in Darfur, the wholesale raping of a country in Zimbabwe and the starvation and AIDS pandemic (a fight in which Bush has done more harm than good)? Read the rest of this post...

Late night open thread

I'm playing with some video. Stay tuned. Maybe. Read the rest of this post...