ExxonMobil playing the global warming game

I'm glad to see that ExxonMobil is again being a good global citizen. What would the world do without such a great company? Heck, we ought to give them another tax cut so they can fund even more studies.

ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday.

I guess you have to pay for $500M CEO retirement plans somehow. Read the rest of this post...

Cliff's Corner

This week I decided to use this space a bit differently. Many of us involved in progressive politics lost an ally this week, a woman named Maria Leavey, who was quick to help out anyone and hesitant to take credit for doing so. In my case, I also lost a close friend.

Maria was simply one of the most fantastic people you could ever meet. She worked tirelessly to get people together working in progressive politics, trying to forward individual careers and the movement as a whole. I think I may have added to my social circle by 50% just because of her lunches, dinners and other get togethers.

She will be sorely missed, by those of us who knew her, but also by progressives who didn't everywhere. I would just like to say God Speed Maria. We'll do our best to keep fighting for the principles you found to be so important. Read the rest of this post...

Bush White House changes rules to hide criminal visitors from the public

From CREW's new blog:

In a shocking disclosure, it was revealed today that the Bush Administration cut a deal with the Secret Service to prevent disclosure of White House visitor logs. The action came after CREW sued the Secret Service for records relating to White House visits by Jack Abramoff:

The five-page document dated May 17 declares that all entry and exit data on White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, the agreement states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the past, Secret Service logs have revealed the comings and goings of various White House visitors, including Monica Lewinsky and Clinton campaign donor Denise Rich, the wife of fugitive financier Marc Rich, who received a pardon in the closing hours of the Clinton administration.

The memo last spring was signed by the White House and Secret Service the day after a Washington-based group asked a federal judge to impose sanctions on the Secret Service in a dispute over White House visitor logs for Abramoff.

Our lawyer, Ann Weismann, blasted this move:

The chief counsel to another Washington-based group suing to get Secret Service logs calls the creation of the memo "a political maneuver couched as a legal one."

"It appears the White House is actually manufacturing evidence to further its own agenda," Ann Weismann, a Justice Department lawyer for 19 years and now chief counsel to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Friday.

The White House and the Secret Service declined to comment.

Of course the White House and the Secret Service declined to comment. This action is appalling. And, it begs the question: What is the White House hiding? Clearly, something big. The Bush Administration has gone to extreme lengths to prevent the public from seeing any information about Jack Abramoff's visits to the White House.

More from ABC News. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Orchid Blogging

Today's orchid is from our guest orchid blogger, AMERICAblog reader Van who, along with his wife, visited the Biltmore House near Asheville, NC, yesterday. Van reports that there is a "conservatory" there with some room dedicated to orchids. So he snapped a few shots, and said it would be okay for me to share some. I figured what a better symbol to represent the week we liberated America's capital than a snow white orchid.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this post...

Another sorry jobs creation month, but at least it's positive growth

How anyone can get excited about posting 167,000 new jobs in December is beyond me, since that is only about 12,000 above the average new entrants into the market. When the administration fails miserably for six years to generate new jobs, especially of any significance, I guess 12,000 is something to celebrate. Something tells me the Clinton team would have been embarrassed with such results. We better see a heck of a lot more growth soon because there are so many signs out there that are pointing towards a very soft economy in 2007. Read the rest of this post...

Reid and Pelosi write to Bush on Iraq: Reject the surge, it's already been tried and failed

Here's the text of the letter that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent to Bush today. It's tough and to the point -- No escalation of the war:

January 5, 2007

President George W. Bush

The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The start of the new Congress brings us opportunities to work together on the critical issues confronting our country. No issue is more important than finding an end to the war in Iraq. December was the deadliest month of the war in over two years, pushing U.S. fatality figures over the 3,000 mark.

The American people demonstrated in the November elections that they don’t believe your current Iraq policy will lead to success and that we need a change in direction for the sake of our troops and the Iraqi people. We understand that you are completing your post-election consultations on Iraq and are preparing to make a major address on your Iraq strategy to the American people next week.

Clearly this address presents you with another opportunity to make a long overdue course correction. Despite the fact that our troops have been pushed to the breaking point and, in many cases, have already served multiple tours in Iraq, news reports suggest that you believe the solution to the civil war in Iraq is to require additional sacrifices from our troops and are therefore prepared to proceed with a substantial U.S. troop increase.

Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed. Like many current and former military leaders, we believe that trying again would be a serious mistake. They, like us, believe there is no purely military solution in Iraq. There is only a political solution. Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain. And it would undermine our efforts to get the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. We are well past the point of more troops for Iraq.

In a recent appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General John Abizaid, our top commander for Iraq and the region, said the following when asked about whether he thought more troops would contribute to our chances for success in Iraq:

"I met with every divisional commander, General Casey, the Corps commander, General Dempsey. We all talked together. And I said, in your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all said no. And the reason is, because we want the Iraqis to do more. It's easy for the Iraqis to rely upon to us do this work. I believe that more American forces prevent the Iraqis from doing more, from taking more responsibility for their own future."

Rather than deploy additional forces to Iraq, we believe the way forward is to begin the phased redeployment of our forces in the next four to six months, while shifting the principal mission of our forces there from combat to training, logistics, force protection and counter-terror. A renewed diplomatic strategy, both within the region and beyond, is also required to help the Iraqis agree to a sustainable political settlement . . In short, it is time to begin to move our forces out of Iraq and make the Iraqi political leadership aware that our commitment is not open ended, that we cannot resolve their sectarian problems, and that only they can find the political resolution required to stabilize Iraq.

Our troops and the American people have already sacrificed a great deal for the future of Iraq. After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, and over $300 billion dollars, it is time to bring the war to a close. We, therefore, strongly encourage you to reject any plans that call for our getting our troops any deeper into Iraq. We want to do everything we can to help Iraq succeed in the future but, like many of our senior military leaders, we do not believe that adding more U.S. combat troops contributes to success.

We appreciate you taking these views into consideration.


Sincerely,


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

The American people would appreciate it if Bush would take these views into consideration, too. But what are the chances? Read the rest of this post...

Now Hosni Mubarak of Egypt hates us too

As Chris just said to me, Bush is a one-man wrecking ball. He has destroyed most, if not all, of our key relationships around the world. The man is a one-man Al Qaeda recruiting machine. More from Reuters:

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East, joined the growing chorus of criticism, saying pictures of the execution were "revolting and barbaric."

....In an interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Mubarak said the timing was "unreasonable" and that he had written to Bush asking him to postpone the execution. The Iraqi government has said the U.S. envoy asked for a two-week delay.

"Then the pictures of the execution were revolting and barbaric, and I am not discussing here whether he deserved it or not. As for the trial, all experts in international law said it was an illegal trial because it was under occupation.

"Also, there was a conspiracy to carry out the execution before the end of the year," Mubarak said.

These are the folks we give billions to every year, and even they hate us now. Read the rest of this post...

Getting fed up

Often people feel detached from an ability to affect politics and even the political discourse, even among highly informed political junkies and blog readers. It's hard to get a big megaphone, and it's especially hard to see your work have any effect. But it can be done, and increasingly "regular" people are moved to attempt to have an impact.

I recently came across a group called "American Respect," and I highly encourage you to check out their site. It's a non-profit -- not a 527 or PAC or political group -- that was formed because of the shared view of a group of private citizens that the Iraq war is "the most urgent and consequential event in our lifetime" and that current U.S. policies increase terrorism.

Pretty sensible conclusions, and the group is extremely unique in that it doesn't accept contributions, isn't soliciting "membership", and simply asks that people be informed on these issues and engaged in debate and discourse. Virtually everyone who reads blogs does these things, of course, but this group also apparently has the resources to reach "mainstream" (and "low-information") audiences: they've placed full-page ads in the New York Times, Roll Call, and The Hill, again just asking people to read their materials and be educated and engaged.

The kicker: the group was way ahead of the curve on this, and published their first NYTimes ad in 2004. Their essays are here and here. As the current administration continues to ignore -- flout, really -- the will of the American public, I suspect more and more people will want to be active in the conversation, and this is certainly an interesting way to do it. Read the rest of this post...

Bush to sack generals - must be all their fault that we are losing

Another classic by Bush...shoot the messenger. Yes, the problem is the military and not the US political leadership who orchestrated the fiasco in Iraq. The only new start for the US in that region would be ditching Bush, but he still thinks that he is right and that the American public just doesn't get it. We do though, which is why the GOP was routed in November. American wants real change and not more window dressing and games with the safety of the US troops in Iraq.

Let's stick a fork in yet another Bush myth, that he allows the military decide what they need to succeed in Iraq. The guy has some bizarre secret world up in his head where he thinks he is doing the US, Iraq and the Middle East a big favor and only he has the master plan. The more he tinkers with this the worse it gets and adding another 20,000 US troops will not solve the problem. Someone needs to tell Junior to quit playing with matches. Read the rest of this post...

Barney Frank is very smart, very tough -- and he has a key role in the new Congress

While not a new face, Barney Frank (D - Massachusetts 4th), returns to Washington as Chair of the Financial Services Committee. Yesterday, Congressman Frank stopped by blogger row to outline his agenda for the next Congress. Listen below to Congressman Frank's priorities for the next session. (Video courtesy of PoliticsTV)



While speaking with the bloggers Frank brought up the government's response to hurricane Katrina: "a year plus later, when nothing has been done to provide adequate housing, we're now talking about a moral failure." The Republican Party has never had the monopoly on morals that the mainstream media seemed so willing to assign to them - with the shift in the control of Congress, we'll now have more and more opportunity to prove it. Read the rest of this post...

Washington Post headlines we like to see

In just a few hours, already accomplishing more than the Republicans did in years. More from the Post. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Two different views of downtown Bayeux, France.

We were walking around Bayeux, in northern France, this weekend, and I shot two panoramic photos of the downtown along the river. Both were shot within seconds of each other, but I changed the exposure for each one. Just curious which you like better. I think I prefer the darker one. Click each photo to see a larger version.



Read the rest of this post...

And who doesn't love the sudden interest in fair play and cutting pork?

I can't wait to see how the GOP works itself into a frenzy when Hillary or another Democrat is in power with all of the excessive Bush signing statements in hand. I'm sure we will hear a lot of crying then, just as they are crying today. Boo hoo. Read the rest of this post...