GOP economics continue to pay dividends

Unfortunately, unless you have lost tens of billions of dollars, you're pretty well screwed. See, if you are at the top of Wall Street and have your friends pay you over $460 million despite one of the most ridiculous business models in modern history (the dot com bomb has nothing on the real estate bubble), that's OK. For everyone else, this translates into personal debt, a weakening paycheck and another 63,000 jobs being chopped.

Let's ask McCain how the Bush economic adviser he hired will somehow do better this time. And then his economic brain Phil Gramm can tell us about the banking laws he engineered that brought us to this state. Go ahead and tell us how great it might be in the future with the same bogus system.

Even the Bush team is finally recognizing that the economy they built is collapsing. And people want more of this? Read the rest of this post...

Olbermann speaks.

It's worth watching. Be good if everyone over at Clinton HQ in Arlington watched, too.

Read the rest of this post...

The NY Times found "Kristen" -- And She Sings Too

The NYT found "Kristen" whose real-but-changed-name is Ashley Alexandra Dupre, and a profile of the high-profile call girl is now online:

Kristen, described in a federal affidavit as having a Feb. 13 rendezvous with Mr. Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington,has spent the last few days in her ninth-floor rental in an upscale apartment building in the Flatiron district. On Monday, she made a brief appearance in federal court as a witness in the case against four people charged with operating the prostitution ring, Emperor’s Club V.I.P. In a series of telephone interviews on Tuesday night, she said she had slept very little over the past week due to the stress from the case.

“I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” the woman said as she told the tiniest tidbits of her story. Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, she spoke softly and with good humor as she added with significant understatement: “This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated.”

She has not been charged. The lawyer appointed to represent her, Don D. Buchwald, told a magistrate judge in court on Monday that she had been subpoenaed to testify in a grand jury investigation. Asked to swear that she had accurately filled out and signed a court financial affidavit, she responded affirmatively.

A lot of the Times' info comes from Dupre's MySpace profile which may or may not still be accessible once word gets out she's got one. In the About Ashley Alexandra Dupré section, she writes:

I am here, in NY because of my music. It started when I moved in with a musician during my odyssey to New York. One day, I was in the shower singing “respect.” He and his lead guitarist burst in, had me repeat it and it started. We wrote, rehearsed and toured. After recording a bit with them, I decided to move to Manhattan to pursue my music career. I spent the first two years getting to know the music scene, networking in clubs and connecting with the industry. Now, it’s all about my music. It’s all about expressing me.

I grabbed some pics just in case you're curious. I was.





Read the rest of this post...

Having done the dirty work, Ferraro is "stepping down" from Clinton campaign

You know how the traditional media took awhile to fully grasp that Bush lied about going to war? I think many Democrats have had the same problem trying to grasp the reality of the Clinton's race-baiting campaign. We've seen example after example -- starting with Billy Shaheen in New Hampshire, Bill Clinton in South Carolina, even Hillary's weird answers on "60 Minutes" to name a few. People kept thinking, these are the Clintons, it can't be true. Anyone who broached it was slapped down. In December, even after the Shaheen incident and comments by Mark Penn, pundit (and former Clinton staffer) David Gergen said on CNN "I think it is unfair to say that they're playing the race card." Still unfair? Because it's true. And, it's sickening.

The Ferraro episode is just the latest and clearest evidence. Ferraro has been in the game for a long time. She gets it. She knows how the media operates. She knows the impact of her words. She is, after all, a Fox News consultant with her own Fox News bio. The Clinton campaign also knew exactly what was happening. They didn't stop it. And, it's hard to imagine Howard Wolfson and his crew couldn't rein in Ferraro.

This afternoon, Ferraro told Clinton she is "stepping down" from the campaign.

Markos explains the reality:

This is what the Clinton campaign is reduced to. Taking a candidate who has inspired hope and passion, and working overtime to turn him into the "black candidate" even though she has no hope of winning the nomination absent a coup by super delegate. Now there's a legacy for Clinton. Congrats to her on pulling that one off.

And it's clear as day, given their refusal to ask for Ferraro's resignation, that the Clinton campaign is as complicit and pleased with Ferraro's words as they are with her media strategy.

He's right. And, it's so disturbing, I'm sure many Democrats still can't comprehend it.

Before the announcement that Ferraro quit, Cafferty weighed in, too. He also noted the complicity of the Clinton campaign:

Clinton won't win the most pledged delegates and she won't have the most votes cast. Every day, the nomination slips further out of her grasp, which makes the Clinton campaign act more desperate. The race-baiting is beyond desperate.

What Clinton is doing now is shaping her legacy -- and it's shaping up to be an ugly legacy. Her supporters need to step in and save Hillary from her campaign. Read the rest of this post...

For Bush's Pentagon, it's "too politically sensitive" to tell Americans there was no direct connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda

The Bush administration has never been honest with the American people when it came to the Iraq war, why start now? From ABC:

The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.

The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.

Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."

Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."

An excerpt of the Executive Summary that the Bush administration doesn't want you to see is after the break.

Click to see larger image:

Read the rest of this post...

Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction took "inappropriate" trip to Maine for Susan Collins. Did he tell the truth to the Senate about that visit?

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee under GOP control. She had oversight authority over the government and ignored the massive failures of the Bush administration from the Iraq war to Katrina.

So, it was odd that Collins brought the Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, to Maine to campaign for her. Given the mess that is Iraq, you'd think the Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction would have better things to do than campaign in Maine for Susan Collins. But, Susan puts politics first -- for herself, George Bush and John McCain.

Now it looks like the IG wasn't completely honest with the Senate about that trip:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., on Tuesday called a government watchdog's visit to Maine in January "inappropriate."

Lautenberg questioned Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Iraq reconstruction projects, about his visit to Maine from Jan. 2 through Jan. 4.

To view his testimony, click here. [YouTube link here.]

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, accompanied Bowen to Maine. He delivered a speech at Husson College and participated in an editorial board meeting with this newspaper.

During the editorial board meeting, Bowen praised Collins' record of government oversight as chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

His comments were noticed by a State Department official, who subsequently told The Washington Post that, "This is the kind of thing we're taught not to do."

Lautenberg asked Bowen if he had consulted State Department lawyers about his visit to Maine.

Bowen said he did not, adding that he often travels to discuss his work and that he was invited by Husson College and the Portland Press Herald to appear for an editorial board meeting.

But John Porter, the newspaper's opinion editor, said Jen Burita, Collins' spokeswoman, informed him that Collins and Bowen would be in Portland and asked if the newspaper would like to meet with them.

Porter accepted the invitation.

"That's how these things always happen," Porter said, adding that Maine's congressional delegation has standing invitation to appear at an editorial board meeting.

And, the way things always happen with Susan Collins is that she will do anything to win. She has a history of playing dirty and negative campaigning.

What a coincidence that Bowen was invited to speak at Husson College, too. A quick check of the website of Senator Collins might explain why:

In December 1994, Senator Collins became the founding executive director of the Center for Family Business at Husson College in Bangor, Maine. She resigned in 1996 to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Cohen.

Yes, what a coincidence.

This scandal over the Stuart Bowen campaign visit has legs. Collins didn't do any oversight of Iraq -- but she's willing to politicize Iraq reconstruction anyway. It's appalling. Read the rest of this post...

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to do "special comment" tonight about Hillary, and it's not expected to be pretty

Speculation is that it will be about Ferraro's racist eruption against Obama, and the larger issue of the Clintons' race-baiting in this campaign. Find out tonight on MSNBC. More from Huff Post:

"Countdown," Keith Olbermann announced that tonight he'd be delivering another of his "Special Comments" — his impassioned, angry monologues fueled by outrage and usually addressed to President Bush and the Bush administration. Tonight, his special comment will be directed at Hillary Clinton — and, for the first time, his special comment will be directed exclusively at a Democrat....

It's a significant moment, because it marks the first time a full-throated special comment will have been directed exclusively at a Democrat. Not just the Democrats, whom Olbermann accused along with the Republicans last May for failing to do anything to get the country out of Iraq, but one particular Democrat — a Democrat whom, incidentally, he did a special comment defending in July after the Defense Dept. sent her a letter accusing her of facilitating anti-U.S. propaganda by demanding to know whether the administration had conceived of an exit strategy from Iraq. He also defended her husband, Bill Clinton, in Sept. 2006 after his controversial interview with FNC's Chris Wallace. I wouldn't expect either of them to get much defending this time around — though something tells me this one will get a lot more than 100,000 views.

Read the rest of this post...

Implications of Fallon resignation

Combining foreign policy analysis with Kelly Clarkson analysis is, let's be honest, basically catnip for me. There's no way I'm not linking to it, but it certainly helps that Spencer Ackerman's analysis of the resignation of CENTCOM head Adm. William Fallon is right on. Spencer explains,

Gates said in a press conference just now that no one should think the move reflects any substantive change in policy. That sure won’t be how Teheran sees it. The Iranians will consider Fallon’s resignation to indicate that the bombing begins in the next five minutes.

Fallon was widely believed to be a (lone?) voice of sanity in terms of administration policy regarding Iran. It may not be especially bad news, but it's certainly not good.

NOTE FROM JOHN: I think Gates is telling the truth. The policy always was to force a war with Iran, and pushing Fallon out helps to eliminate the greatest risk to that policy. So Gates is technically correct: With Fallon's departure there will be no substantive change in the Bush administration policy of seeking a military conflict with Iran. Feeling reassured? Read the rest of this post...

NoJohn.com - Former McCain supporter lets him have it

This is quite interesting. A former John McCain supporter, and 40-year Republican media consultant, is now running a campaign - NoJohn.com - to educate the public as to how radical and how shifty John McCain has become.

For nearly 40 years I have been a campaign media consultant working exclusively for Republicans. My first spot was created for Governor Ronald Reagan in 1970 when I founded Spencer-Roberts Advertising for Reagan's two top political gurus, Stu Spencer and Bill Roberts. I was 23 at the time and went on to documentary filmmaking, television news, and ultimately, back to politics, working for moderate Republicans for the U.S. Senate, House, governors, mayors, and on one of the several Dole for President campaigns.

I have always taken a low, or no, profile in campaigns, as I learned long ago not to become an issue myself. But as I approach 62, the impact of another Republican in the White House on my 9-year old daughter, my 39-year old son, and 1-year old grandson, drives me ever deeper to the radical center.

I admired and supported the John McCain of 2000, less so the John McCain of 2004. And, now I barely know the man, who he is or what he really stands for, and against.

As my medium is visual and my message, visceral, I have produced this brief video to take you to the www.NoJohn.com website.

NoJohn.com -- where anyone and everyone can be a "political consultant."

Read the rest of this post...

Spitzer to resign today

As Joe noted below, a day devoted to talking about the adultery of a Clinton superdelegate isn't what the Clinton campaign needs right now. More from ABC. Why? Because it reminds people of big, public, political adultery scandals, like Monica, and makes people potentially less likely to want to go there again in terms of putting the Clintons back in the White House. It doesn't matter if YOU think Ken Starr was a witch hunt. A lot of Americans were kind of fed up with all sides during that business, and any talk of adultery may remind them that Camelot wasn't all fun and games, or rather, too much of it was. Jacki Schechner, who is now blogging with us, delved into the Monica-thing a few days ago on her blog here.

As an aside, one of our readers mentioned that it doesn't help Obama that the news is now not about his Mississippi win. That's true. But I think this hurts Hillary more, and here's why. The media would most likely downplay Mississippi anyway - it's a majority black state, not many delegates, Obama was expected to win anyway, doesn't really advance his delegate lead over Hillary that much, blah blah blah. But, I think Spitzer hurts Hillary, the challenger, more than the front-runner. Why? Because the news cycle is about Spitzer rather than her. Hillary needs to shake things up, to change the dynamic somehow, if she's going to get the superdelegates to switch away from the current front runner, the guy with the most elected delegates. You can't do that when the news is focused elsewhere. And worse, when it's focused on adultery, an issue that just invites the media, and 3rd parties, to ridicule you. Imagine Jay Leno and Jon Stewart. There aren't a lot of jokes you can make about Obama and adultery, but the Clintons? This doesn't help her.

UPDATE: Joe just pointed out to me that the Washington Post article includes Clinton-oriented Spitzer jokes that are already coming out of Leno and Letterman, as I suspected would happen:

Jay Leno joked Monday night that Spitzer's scandal "means Hillary Clinton is now only the second angriest woman in the state of New York." David Letterman offered a Top 10 List of excuses Spitzer might cite, including the No. 1 excuse: "I thought Bill Clinton legalized this years ago."

This is why this scandal will hurt Hillary more than Obama. Read the rest of this post...

Washington Post: Spitzer a "bad-luck charm for Hillary Clinton"

From Peter Baker at the Washington Post, an examination of the impact of Eliot Spitzer has had on the Clinton campaign -- and another way to look at 3 a.m. phone calls:

This certainly is not the way Clinton's strategists would have mapped out this week on the campaign trail. They want voters to be thinking about that 3 a.m. phone call in terms of who is ready to handle a crisis in the White House, not in terms of where an unfaithful husband might be catting around town.

Ouch. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Big win for Obama. I guess Mississippi doesn't count now. Actually, the argument that states don't matter is absurd and needs to stop. More importantly, Geraldine Ferraro and all the racist talk needs to stop. It's appalling. Beyond appalling. Yet, it keeps happening. It is insidious.

On the other side, we know the traditional media types all want to be best friends with McCain so they can ride on the bus and go to barbecues at his ranch. It's just like they all wanted nicknames from George Bush. With Bush, they couldn't believe he would lie about a war. He was a nice guy. With McCain, they can't believe he's breaking the campaign finance laws. McCain is the champion of campaign finance. They keep writing articles about McCain's fundraising blitz. But, McCain is in the campaign finance system right now -- and he's probably busted the legal spending cap. That's a crime. That seems like a big story, but it might keep someone off the bus.

Okay. Start the thread. Read the rest of this post...

EPA to rule on acceptable pollution levels

Industry is of course whining about the costs involved if they are forced to clean up the air. Don't these people breath? Don't they pay for health care? Surely the EPA and White House are not blind to the health care costs involved with polluted air. It's hard to imagine such a small slice of society holding so much power over others but for the Republicans, they consistently only care about what industry wants without consideration for everyone else. The ruling is expected on Thursday so we will find out soon enough. Read the rest of this post...

Is Fairtrade worth it?

A nice article about farmers who participate in the Fairtrade program and what it means to them. When it's possible I try to buy Fairtrade products. A few years back I visited some coffee plantations around the old US base at Khe Sanh and heard that coffee workers there made roughly $1/day, which at the time was the mandated minimum wage in Vietnam. Not long after I visited a coffee plantation along the Guatemala-Honduras border where workers received about $2/day but they were unable to compete so jobs were bleeding. The business was struggling to survive due to competition from Vietnam. The Honduran coffee workers had such a limited future and of course, other possible jobs such as garment factories were also disappearing due to overseas competition as well. Once the hotspot for US factories, that too had been abandoned for riches in China.

When local opportunity disappears in places like this, these workers head north to America or Europe, just as many of our forefathers did in the past. Many of these workers would not be leaving their home countries where they have friends and family if they had opportunities. Fairtrade is about helping build opportunity for people to live. If the people who complain the most about illegal workers did something to help people earn a decent wage (we are not talking about striking gold, but just a livable wage) we would have much less of a problem. Read on and hear from a few Fairtrade participants. Read the rest of this post...