Washington Post reports on Washington Post's reporting on PlameGate

Ow. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Well that ended up being a rather busy Monday. Time for some down-time. Watching 24 on TiVo, then off to bed.

Say goodnight, Ken.

Read the rest of this post...

BicycleMark does Portugal

Mark is my new American buddy who lives in Amsterdam. He's a video blogger, among other things, and has opened my eyes to the art of vlogging, as it's called.

I've been trying for a while now to fully appreciate the value of originally-produced online video - well, not to appreciate it, but rather to figure out the key to it, to understand exactly what niche online video can play in the future.

Yes, Crooks and Liars has its obviously successful niche of broadcasting great I-gotcha video, but what about original broadcasts, what role is there for those? And yes, we've done a good job with DemsTV, and have even more in store for you with PoliticsTV (including today's edition, Monday Morning Blogger), but in spite of those successes I'm still trying to figure out in my head what precise role online video can and should play? What is missing out there and how can video fill that niche?

Anyway, Mark interviewed me for his show a few weeks back (before the Great Flu of 2006) and showed how he edits his videos etc. I really hadn't paid much attention to video blogs before, other than Rocketboom, which I just don't get (but I think you have to be a straight guy to get Rocketboom). So I just happened back on Mark's vlog today and saw his latest installment, a bit of video blogging on his drive to his grandma's house in Portugal.

Between the music and Mark's commentary, it's simple and magical. It's a fascinating quick look at what video blogging is about, and it's kind of a fun 3 minutes to boot.

And it includes one of the best lines ever. Or at least recently.

Watch Mark's drive to grandma's here. Read the rest of this post...

Rapists for Lieberman

Senator Lieberman tells Connecticut rape victims "fuck you," quite literally. Read the rest of this post...

Associated Press updates style guide references to gays, lesbians and transgendered

Excellent job by the Associated Press.

One interesting point: the use of the word "homosexual." As I've noted before, the word "homosexual" has a pejorative connotation and should only be used in a clinical sense, if at all. I wouldn't even use it there as the word is still pejorative in that it is clinical, it makes being gay sound like a disease or a disorder, which it was once considered, thus the connotation. But now that it no longer is, we should lose the word that comes from that clinical origin.

Anyway, great job by AP. I can't wait to watch the religious right's collective head explode. Read the rest of this post...

Bush says IEDs (those improvised roadside bombs) are the #1 threat to Iraq's future

Right, according to George Bush, the problem with the war in Iraq is NOT:

1. It was based on a lie.
2. It was unwise to begin with.
3. It was unnecessary.
4. We didn't send enough troops.
5. The majority of Iraqis now want us out.
6. We had no plan for victory after the fall of Baghdad.
7. We have no plan for exit.
8. The only reason Bush is keeping us there is his ego.

No, the number one threat to Iraq's future isn't everything Bush has done wrong conducting this war. The number one threat to Iraq's future are IEDs, "improvised explosive devices," those handmade explosive devices the opposition are putting alongside the roads to blow up our troops.

Now, sure, those devices are doing their damage. But we're to believe that if we found the "cure" for the IEDs the opposition wouldn't find some other way of fomenting civil war (oh, I don't know, how about blowing up mosques?).

Then again, I have my own theory as to why Bush is now calling IEDs the number one threat to Iraq's future.

He meant to say IUDs. Read the rest of this post...

Brits reducing troops in Iraq

Even Tony Blair is cluing in to the disaster that is Iraq. Our top ally is making a significant reduction in the number of soldiers in Iraq:

Britain is to pull 800 troops out of Iraq as local security forces begin to take on more law enforcement responsibilities, the Defence Secretary has announced.

The Army contingent will fall to 7,000 In Iraq, with security sector reforms intended to help Iraqis train their own security forces and guard their own institutions having been completed.

John Reid made it clear that mushrooming sectarian violence was not a factor in the decision, and said that the Government would continue to support the Iraqi people.

The reduction constitutes a 10 per cent decrease in numbers and marks a reduction from the high point of 10,000 British troops in Iraq in October 2003.

Bush can give all the speeches he wants. No one believes him anymore. And, despite the spin from the British government, actions speak louder than words. Read the rest of this post...

Yet another new low for Bush: 36

This time it's CNN/USA Today/Gallup:

Public opinion of President Bush hit a new low, with concerns about the war in Iraq driving his approval rating down to 36 percent, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll out Monday.

Only 38 percent said they believe the nearly 3-year-old war was going well for the United States, down from 46 percent in January, while 60 percent said they believed the war was going poorly. And 57 percent said they believe the March 2003 invasion of Iraq was a mistake, near September's record high of 59 percent in the same poll.

This explains the new p.r. offensive by the White House on Iraq. But, the guy still has no plan and the American people get it:

Only 32 percent polled over the weekend said they thought Bush had a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq, while 67 percent said he did not.

Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

The Senate is currently debating Feingold's resolution to censure President Bush. Read the rest of this post...

Mad cow disease appears in the US, again

This doesn't sound good:

A cow in Alabama has tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department confirmed Monday, the third case in the U.S.

The animal was a beef cow but hadn't entered the food supply for people or animals, said the department's chief veterinarian, John Clifford.

Read the rest of this post...

Just confirmed it, that's Bill Frist's $7.7 million mansion in DC

From the Washingtonian:

Woodland Drive is the main drag in Massachusetts Avenue Heights, DC’s land of estates behind gates. BET’s Debra Lee, car magnate Mandell Ourisman, Democratic insider James Johnson, playwright Larry L. King, Senate majority leader Bill Frist, and Smithsonian chief Lawrence Small are among the millionaires here.

Assessed at $7.7 million. Not bad for a humble man from Tennessee. Read the rest of this post...

Jerry Falwell issues correction, Jews ARE all going to hell

Glad he cleared that up.

Earlier today, reports began circulating across the globe that I have recently stated that Jews can go to heaven without being converted to Jesus Christ. This is categorically untrue....

Like the Apostle Paul, I pray daily for the salvation of everyone, including the Jewish people.

That's nice. Read the rest of this post...

Does Bill Frist have a $7.7 million home in DC?

UPDATE: The answer is "yes."


According to the DC property tax database, a William H. Frist owns two parcels of land in DC on Woodland Drive, with total value exceeding $8.7 million. Not bad for a boy from Tennessee. The one lot, alone, is valued at $7.7 million.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with DC, it's hard - REAL hard - to find a house worth $7 million in the city itself. Sure, you can find great McMansions in northern Virginia, but in DC? And $7.7 million? That's relatively unheard of.

So the question remains, does the Republican majority leader of the US Senate really live in an almost $8 million house? Such a fancy man. Read the rest of this post...

Censure vs. Impeachment

Senator Feingold is introducing a Senate resolution today censuring the president.

Firedoglake is asking folks to call their Senators to see where they stand on censure. I'm wondering what you all think of the relative merits of censure vs. impeachment vs. doing nothing at all.

There's no question that Bush should no longer be president. He's not capable of doing the job, and that never acceptable especially during wartime.

The question remains, how best to deal with him?

While I think censure is more attainable than impeachment - well, a majority isn't going to vote for impeachment while the Republicans control the congress - censure at first feels like the wimpy option. A legislative slap on the wrist. But then it got me thinking. These are the kind of symbolic votes the Republicans and the religious right excel at. What better in an election year than to make the Republicans defend George Bush's failed presidency on live TV in front of millions of Americans?

But that still begs the question of whether we force the Republicans to defend Bush against censure or against impeachment? Well, while I think Bush deserves impeachment, and should resign from office regardless, I think the legacy of the Clinton impeachment has left a lot of Americans not quite ready for another round of impeachment hearings. Regardless of the merits, I'm not sure the American people are there yet - but that doesn't necessarily mean we don't start educating them to get them "there."

Now, in order for this to work, be it impeachment or censure, the Democrats would have to get their messaging straight, otherwise the Republicans would simply Murtha the Dems, painting them as un-American wimps attaching the commander in chief during wartime, blah blah blah. Do the Dems have what it takes to launch an effective censure or impeachment campaign? (And remember, "effective" isn't measured by whether censure or impeachment passes, it's measured by the impact this debate has on the public, on Bush's presidency, and on the coming November elections.)

Lots of questions. Your thoughts? Read the rest of this post...

Moussaoui trial halted as Bush team majorly screws up

AP

"In all the years I've been on the bench, I have never seen such an egregious violation of a rule on witnesses," she said.

No one could have imagined that Bush would violate someone's constitutional rights... Read the rest of this post...

Good God, now Bush is warning us to stockpile tuna and powdered milk under our beds

Yes, bird flu is real. But after the infamous duct tape fiasco, we're to take this as anything more than an effort to get attention away from Bush's falling poll numbers?

Planning for a possible flu pandemic shouldn't be just a government task but should be a priority for all households and businesses, officials said at a statewide summit Friday.

"When you go to the store and buy three cans of tuna fish, buy a fourth and put it under the bed," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "When you go to the store to buy some milk, pick up a box of powdered milk, put it under the bed. When you do that for a period of four to six months, you are going to have a couple of weeks of food. And that's what we're talking about."

If the bird flu now spreading around the world ever mutates into a flu pandemic strain that spreads easily from human to human, no state or community would be immune, Leavitt said.

But there's something much more troubling about this. Bush is spending the lion's share of the government's resources on continuing the failed war in Iraq, preparing to launch a third war in Iran, and fighting unnecessary culture wars for the far-right at home, while supposedly we're all about to die a bird flu epidemic?

WTF?

If bird flu is real, then treat it as real. If the country joins the world in facing a threat that could kill tens of millions of people, then wouldn't the Bush administration's time be better spent focusing on real threats to America's well-being, rather than keeping us safe from contraceptive pills, gay marriage, and naughty nipples on TV? Read the rest of this post...

James Dobson's ties to Abramoff criticized

Naughty naughty.

A new group is running TV and print ads criticizing religious right leaders Ralph Reed, Lou Sheldon and James Dobson for their ties to Jack Abramoff and gambling. And Dobson is pissed. He's got the American Family Association running around defending him now in emails, but interestingly, the emails say nothing about defending Sheldon or Reed.

Go here to see the print and tv ads and the new Web site focusing on these hypocrites. Read the rest of this post...

One more time: McCain IS NOT a moderate

Now that the Republicans have started their presidential campaign, it's time to disabuse Americans of the notion that McCain is somehow a moderate. Paul Krugman today gives all the info. you'll ever need to prove that McCain is your run-of-the-mill hard-core right winger. I know, I know, the column is blocked to public access by "Times Select" but this passage is key:

So here's what you need to know about John McCain.

He isn't a straight talker. His flip-flopping on tax cuts, his call to send troops we don't have to Iraq and his endorsement of the South Dakota anti-abortion legislation even while claiming that he would find a way around that legislation's central provision show that he's a politician as slippery and evasive as, well, George W. Bush.

He isn't a moderate. Mr. McCain's policy positions and Senate votes don't just place him at the right end of America's political spectrum; they place him in the right wing of the Republican Party.

And he isn't a maverick, at least not when it counts. When the cameras are rolling, Mr. McCain can sometimes be seen striking a brave pose of opposition to the White House. But when it matters, when the Bush administration's ability to do whatever it wants is at stake, Mr. McCain always toes the party line.

Krugman also directs his readers to www.voteview.com which ranks McCain "as the Senate's third most conservative member." He's behind only Sununu and Kyl which means he's ahead of Brownback and Santorum. Think about that for a second. Read the rest of this post...

WaPo examines the Bush obsession with Iran

Love the theocrats in the US. Hate the theocrats in Iran. That's the motto of the Bush administration.

Clearly, the Bush team is developing a new obsession with Iraq's next door neighbor:

As the dispute over its nuclear program arrives at the U.N. Security Council today, Iran has vaulted to the front of the U.S. national security agenda amid Bush administration plans for a sustained campaign against the ayatollahs of Tehran.

President Bush and his team have been huddling in closed-door meetings on Iran, summoning scholars for advice, investing in opposition activities, creating an Iran office in Washington and opening listening posts abroad dedicated to the efforts against Tehran.

Same script for Iraq. Scary. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

The war in Iraq started three years ago this week. So, Bush is in full spin mode. He seems to have two talking points: 1) it's not a "civil war", it's "sectarian violence." 2) IEDs are bad. Real bad.

That's what we'll hear from Bush. We won't hear a plan to succeed in Iraq. There's still no plan for that. This week's agenda is to get Bush's approval numbers up. No policy, just politics. Read the rest of this post...

Sure the White House is a making huge mistakes, but don't pick on them. They're tired.

The White House staff is pathetic. The country is falling apart. They've screwed up a war. They screwed up Katrina. They keep making major mistakes. But, don't pick on them because they're tired:

The succession of crisis after crisis has taken its toll. Some in the White House sound frazzled. While there are few stories of aides nodding off in meetings, some duck outside during the day so the fresh air will wake them up. "We're all burned out," said one White House official who did not want to be named for fear of angering superiors. "People are just tired."

Seriously, the fact that the Washington Post gives credence to this "they're tired" story line is actually almost unbelievable. Apparently, we've entrusted the country to a bunch of sleep deprived whiners. Now, doesn't that help you sleep at night? Read the rest of this post...