Open Thread

Not a political ad tonight, a political song:
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DNC securing loan to help DSCC fight the GOP firewall

Okay, this is good. Hotline reports that Howard Dean is borrowing money so the DSCC can fully fund its operations. Money well spent. Do the same thing for the DCCC if necessary.

And Josh Marshall makes a good point about the Presidential candidates who better be giving til it hurts, too. Others have made the same point. It's critical.

The field of races in play continues to expand for the Democrats. Republicans are spending their money on usually reliable seats like ID-01 as mcjoan (our favorite Idahoan) points out at DailyKos. The Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee Senate seats are toss ups. Ohio is "hostile terrain" for the GOP. Amazing. So, the Democrats aren't borrowing because they're in trouble. Just the opposite.

So, right about now, we know everyone's tapped out. But since Howard Dean and the DNC are taking a loan, help them out. This year, it's money well spent. Read the rest of this post...

Ken Mehlman still hasn't been honest about his relationship with Jack Abramoff

Media Matters documents "the inconsistent tale" of Mehlman and Abramoff. We'd go further and say Ken has just plain lying:

As the scandal surrounding Abramoff has inched closer to the White House, Mehlman has gone from claiming Abramoff was "someone we don't know a lot about" in January, to knowing him "in various capacities" in April and conceding that he had known Abramoff since the mid-1990s in October.

The Chair of the RNC has a major ethics issue involving the most notorious, disgraced lobbyist in recent history. Yet, Ken's flitting around the country campaigning against Democrats. How can any reporter let Mehlman get away with bashing Democrats when he has Jack Abramoff draped around his neck?

Because Mehlman was taking care of Abramoff's issue, Tony Rudy, a convicted felon/former top aide to both Abramoff and DeLay, called Mehlman a "rock star." Sure sounds like Ken delivered for them.

When will Ken tell the real story? Or will he lawyer up and shut up? Either way, Ken needs to be asked about Abramoff everywhere he goes. Everywhere.

UPDATE: Exhibit A of the media's failure to question Mehlman on the Abramoff scandal is Newsweek's Howard Fineman who wrote one of his "I'm so inside" columns about having dinner with Ken. This is as close as Fineman got to mentioning the major scandal brewing around Mehlman:

Mehlman is a tough, unsentimental guy — a stickler for detail who is also eager to deal in big ideas and big issues. Not yet 40, a graduate of Harvard Law School, he got his political training in Texas as a protégé of Karl Rove.

Mehlman has been “Karl Rove’s Karl Rove” for nearly a decade: tinged, though not singed, by controversy — and yet was voted “Campaign Manager of the Year” by fellow political consultants for his handling of Bush-Cheney in ’04.

That's it. Abramoff's name never appeared in the column. From what I can tell, they had dinner last night -- after the LA Times article appeared.

Note to Howard: Ethics, corruption and cover-ups are a major theme in the elections this year. Read the rest of this post...

Former congressman's death leaves his husband without a pension because federal law says gays don't count

Republican bigotry comes at a cost. Read the rest of this post...

Bush honors DV Awareness month by campaign event with Congressman Choker

Bush proclaimed October as National Domestic Violence Awarenss Month:

Domestic violence has no place in our society, and we have a moral obligation to help prevent it. The terrible tragedies that result from it destroy lives and insult the dignity of women, men, and children. National Domestic Violence Awareness Month is an opportunity to underscore our commitment to bringing an end to violence in the home.

A home should be a place of stability, comfort, and love. Domestic violence shatters this important foundation. My Administration is strongly committed to addressing domestic violence and helping those who have been victimized.

On October 19th, Bush will certainly raise awareness of domestic violence by headlining an event for the most renowned abuser in the Congress: Don Sherwood. Bush should bring a copy of his proclamation to Sherwood. He can address the issue directly with the Congressman.

What does a Republican candidate have to do for Bush to avoid them? Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senator Mike Dewine's (R-OH) empty chair

Visit his Democratic opponent, the next Senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown. Read the rest of this post...

Dick Cheney: Did I tell you the one about the black guy, the Jew, and the fag?

From today's New York Times:

He offers his standard homage to tax cuts, a warning about how terrorists are still trying desperately “to cause mass death here in the United States” and a derisive cataloging of the various “Dean Democrats,” congressmen including Charles B. Rangel of New York, Henry A. Waxman of California and Barney Frank of Massachusetts, whose influence would grow if the apocalypse came and Democrats took over Congress.

The crowd boos.

“Don’t hold back,” Mr. Cheney urges.

Yes, I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Read the rest of this post...

Vice Presidential daughter Mary Cheney takes on anti-gay amendment in Virginia

Okay, I'm impressed. Mary still has years of therapy left before she gets a clean bill of gay health, but at least she's starting to try to make a difference, and that's a good start.

Former Gov. Mark Warner and Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter, Mary, both have written checks to help opponents of a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, according to campaign reports filed Monday.... Cheney, daughter of the Republican vice president, gave $1,000 to the group.

To help defeat the amendment in Virginia, support the Commonwealth Coalition here. Read the rest of this post...

Come to my panel discussion today in SF at 5:30pm Pacific

Taped in front of a live audience at the Koret Auditorium for exclusive broadcast on SIRIUS Satellite Radio

San Francisco Public Library
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 @ 5:30 pm PT
Doors open at 5:00pm; limited seating: first come, first served; admission free

CONFIRMED PANELISTS:

* Assemblyman Mark Leno, 13th District, San Francisco
* John Aravosis: Founder and Editor, AmericaBlog.com
* Shannon Price Minter, Esq: Legal Director National Center for Lesbian Rights
* Jasmyne Cannick: member, National Association of Black Journalists; board member of the National Black Justice Coalition
* Haven Herrin: Co-Director of the Soulforce Equality Ride 2006 Read the rest of this post...

AP: House Page Board is investigating Kolbe's camping trip with pages

Confirmation (from an anonymous source) that Kolbe's camping trip with pages is on the minds of the House Page Board:

Overseers of the House page program this week discussed a camping trip that Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. took with two former pages and others in 1996 - an outing now under review by the Justice Department, a congressional source said Tuesday.

The House Page Board, consisting of three lawmakers and two senior House officials, did not have any new information beyond recent news stories on the Kolbe trip. The source is familiar with the discussions but is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The conference call Monday involving the Kolbe trip shows that the people responsible for the teenage page program are casting a wider net following revelations that ex-Rep. Mark Foley was sending overly friendly e-mails and sexually explicit instant messages to former male pages.

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AP's John Solomon is obsessed with Harry Reid

Been wondering why John Solomon of AP just keeps writing articles about Harry Reid. None of his stuff sticks. He tries very hard to make controversy where there really is none. And, Harry Reid is two-steps ahead of Solomon every time. Josh Marshall offers an explanation for Solomon's obsession:

Here's what one former colleague of Solomon's said last week: "I worked [X] years in the same office as Solomon, sometimes with him. The consensus: he's lazy, and takes hit jobs handed him on a platter by opps research teams (and anyone will do.) And doesn't do much to clean it up. I also know one of his fave and frequent sources is Barbara Comstock, former DOJ spxwoman and GOP attack dog."

I've heard the same from numerous oppo researchers and journalists. (Here are some thoughts on legitimate and illegitimate ways journalists use material from oppo researchers.)

If you're interested in finding out more about this, you might also look at this 2004 article in The Atlantic Monthly about how oppo researchers get their goods into articles. Look at the articles referenced and then go back and see the bylines.

On Reid, I think it's a combination of two things. One, as I said, he's an easy mark for oppo researchers peddling stuff that other journos didn't think met the laugh test. And two, he hasn't really landed a punch yet and Reid's fought back. So now it's a bit personal.

Now correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't it the job of editors to make sure the work of their reporters is to report, not to have vendettas against public officials? Solomon's reporting on Reid is bordering on the absurd....actually, it has become absurd. Reporters are used to dealing with unethical Republicans who hide their behavior and blame others. On the other hand, Harry Reid goes beyond the ethical requirements. So Solomon is foiled again. Read the rest of this post...

Mark Foley was reportedly a Bush family friend from the early 1980s

I'm just saying... Read the rest of this post...

Allen's campaign smacks of desperation

George Allen has been in public office for decades. Last night, Allen's campaign ran a second two minute ad, this time with John Warner as a prop:

Meanwhile, Allen stood side by side last night with Sen. John Warner (R) in a two-minute commercial broadcast on television stations statewide. Warner, the state's senior senator, is almost as popular as the former governor, according to the Post poll, which listed Warner's favorability at 66 percent.

A couple weeks ago, Allen did the two-minute ad ploy, he used his wife as a prop. Literally, she just stood in the background. Now, Allen is actually running ads featuring only his wife.

To me, buying those long ads and having one's spouse doing all the talking in an ad smacks of desperation.

Allen has never been on the defensive in a campaign. When he ran for Governor he wasn't. When he ran against Chuck Robb in 2000 he wasn't. But he is now. And, he can't handle it.

Looks like Ken Mehlman's going to ride in to Virginia to try to save Allen's butt. But, Allen's campaign is showing all the signs of collapsing. This will get really, really ugly before it's over. Really ugly.

Check out Jim Webb's website where you can contribute or sign up to volunteer. Read the rest of this post...

George Bush [hearts] Islam

First we had Condi and Laura embracing gays and now we have George embracing Muslims. Good God, what's next? The Bushes dining with Latinos?

The religious right hate groups are going to flip, especially when they find out what Bush had to say about Islam:

"[Bush] praised Islam for bringing 'hope and comfort to more than a billion people around the world.' "

The bigots hate it when Bush is nice to dark people. Read the rest of this post...

GOP is pulling out of Ohio; DeWine is tanking

Despite Ken Mehlman's claims to the contrary, the GOP is pulling out of Ohio. The DSCC has tracked the numbers. The RNC is scaling back big time. And no wonder, the latest Quinnipiac poll has Sherrod Brown with a 12 point lead over Mike DeWine:

U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown has pulled significantly ahead in what has been a tight race for the seat of Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, a poll released today shows.

Brown, a Democrat, was favored by 53 percent of voters surveyed in The Quinnipiac University Poll conducted Oct. 10-15, compared to 41 percent who favored DeWine. The same poll found a statistical tie in the race in September.

But yesterday, according to Hotline On Call, Mehlman made a very strong commitment to Ohio:

Mehlman: “Ohio is and remains an incredibly top priority for us. It’s one I’m very confident Mike DeWine can and will win. The evidence of our commitment is that we’re putting our money where our mouth is. No state will receive more resources from the Republican National Committee than Ohio. From this point forward, we will spend millions more on turnout and millions more on message. We have a huge staff. And intend and have right now a very aggressive program.”

But the numbers tell a different story. Just because Mehlman says something, doesn't make it true. He's either lying or he's out of the loop. Which is worse? Begs the question of who really is in charge of the GOP campaign apparatus. Read the rest of this post...

North Korea test was plutonium: produced under Bush I or Bush II, not Clinton

The official word on North Korea's nuclear test is that the detonation was a nuclear event with a sub-kilo explosion, which matches what you've been reading on this site since the day after the test. Atmospheric sampling detected radiological emissions, confirming that the test was not an elaborate fake, but rather a semi-failed nuclear explosion.

The tests also showed that the bomb was made with plutonium and not uranium. For everybody unfamiliar with the arcane details of nuclear weapons, this is another nail in the coffin of the "Clinton's fault!" meme.

The New York Times explains:

The intelligence agencies' finding that the weapon was based on plutonium strongly suggested that the country's second path to a nuclear bomb — one using uranium — was not yet ready. [...] As president, Mr. Clinton negotiated a deal that froze the production and weaponization of North Korea's plutonium, but intelligence agencies later determined that North Korea began its secret uranium program under his watch. The plutonium that North Korea exploded was produced, according to intelligence estimates, either during the administration of the first President Bush or after 2003, when the North Koreans threw out international inspectors and began reprocessing spent nuclear fuel the inspectors had kept under seal.

I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that the bomb's nuclear fuel was created not under Clinton, as hyperventilating conservatives alleged, but either before or, more likely, after his term.

Also keep in mind that in 1994 the Clinton administration threatened to destroy North Korea's fuel and nuclear reprocessing facilities if it tried to make weapons with any plutonium it might have had. President Bush took no such stand, and three years after the administration's inept diplomacy caused North Korea to resume work with plutonium, we have another nuclear-armed state. This is oversimplifying things, but basically, back in 2003, the administration so insisted on Being Tough, and was ostensibly so concerned about a uranium bomb, that . . . it allowed North Korea to restart work with plutonium, work that had ceased under the Agreed Framework negotiated under Clinton/Carter/Albright.

From Fred Kaplan:

On Jan. 10, 2003, they [North Korea] withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. However, they also said they would reverse their actions and retract their declarations if the United States resumed its obligations under the Agreed Framework and signed a non-aggression pledge.

The Bush administration refused to negotiate, then made a bunch of empty threats, and then failed to respond when North Korea called the bluff. Why such atrocious foreign policy? Wait for it . . .

What explains Bush's inaction before North Korea crossed the red line--and its weak response afterward? Historians will surely debate that question for decades. Part of the answer probably lies in the administration's all-consuming focus on Iraq. [...] In January, a senior administration official told The New York Times, "President Bush does not want to distract international attention from Iraq."

The short version of the news? North Korea has a nuclear bomb because . . . President Bush was more worried about Iraq than competent foreign policy. Perhaps we need to add another very, very big strategic debacle to the list of harmful Iraq effects. Read the rest of this post...

So is this good torture or bad torture? I'm so confused.

Since Tony Snow can't seem to figure out what "are we winning?" means, maybe someone can ask if 91 tortured and killed plus an additional 60 elsewhere in Iraq is a good sign or a bad sign?

It's all so confusing now that the US has joined the ranks of the pro-torture world. So is this a good kind of torture or a bad kind of torture? Is the WH supporting that torture or would they prefer waterboarding torture or some other kind of torture so the various sides can all be on the same side of torture as the US. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Three weeks. Only three weeks left.

Bush and his people are so smug. I can't wait to see Rumsfeld, Condi, Karen Hughes...all of them...testifying under oath about their disastrous policies. They're not going to know what to do when Congress actually does oversight.

Just three weeks. Read the rest of this post...

So what do you do when a general criticizes your Iraq failure?

You attack him, of course. Blair uses another classic play out of the Bush/Rove game book. Those that smear together, stay together. Read the rest of this post...

Bush to finally sign pro-torture law - no details yet on how many signing statements

Remember that pro-torture law that he had to have or else he would hold his breath and turn blue because everyone was going to die immediately if he didn't have it? Well, weeks later, Bush is finally signing. I can't wait to hear how many signing statements have been tacked on to this dog with fleas. This legislation is yet another important step in dragging down the good name of the US and taking America into a mud bath along with other great pro-torture nations. What a proud moment it must be for the GOP. Read the rest of this post...

A wee bit more of San Francisco

Each photo is clickable in order to see a larger version. Enjoy,









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Open Thread

Been quite a day...did we miss anything? Read the rest of this post...