On Notice

Begala surprised me today:

BEGALA: ... a senator and very popular. We'll have lots of conversations about Hillary, I suspect, in the days to come.

A new poll for the Associated Press shows that a solid majority, indeed 55 percent of Americans, oppose President Bush's plan to privatize part of Social Security, despite Mr. Bush's relentless stumping for it. The GOP chairman in Hawaii says -- quote -- "I think Social Security as it is has served its purpose" -- unquote. That is the Bush Republican view.

It is not, however, the American view. Most Americans do not want Mr. Bush to borrow $2 trillion to cut Social Security benefits and replace guaranteed benefits for seniors with guaranteed fees for stockbrokers. That's why, in a recent NPR poll, just 31 percent of Americans, only 31 percent, support Mr. Bush's privatization plan.

And yet rumors abound that Democrats, perhaps even former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, will find a compromise that allows Mr. Bush to succeed in privatizing part of Social Security. Look, any Democrat who rescue Mr. Bush's assault on Social Security ought to be defeated in a primary and allowed to begin their own retirement early.

Take the hint, Senator.

Nofacts

So, Bob Novak totally lied about what Howard Dean said. And, to prove he didn't just misspeak, he lied about it again today.

NOVAK: Since he was elected Democratic national chairman, he has been -- they've been keeping him out of the national spotlight. No major television interviews on national networks are scheduled for the next couple weeks, I'm told, and maybe the reason is that they've got to really get Howard under control.

He spoke at Cornell University last week, and the only paper that covered this was "The Cornell Daily" student paper, and he said, yes, Social Security has a big problem. Over the years it's going to lose about 80 percent of the benefits. That, Judy, is not the Democratic line. The Democratic line is there is no problem.

So Howard Dean says what he thinks is the truth. Often it is the truth. He's going to be a lot of fun as national chairman.

Shouldn't we, you know, have a conference on journalistic ethics or something?

email Novak and ask him to stop lying about what Howard Dean is saying: novakevans@aol.com

Call CNN and demand they run a retraction and apology:
Atlanta:
404-827-1500
Washington:
202-898-7900

This Just In

Senior administration officials have informed Fox News that according to the latest intelligence, Osama bin Laden opposes Bush's plans for Social Security privatization.

Developing...

Good News

Some of you may remember the case of Lauren Rainey. It appears there's been a good outcome:

MOBILE, Ala.) February 26 -- It looks like a severely handicapped Mobile girl will maintain her at home nursing care. For months NBC-15 has reported on Lauren Rainey’s battle with Alabama Medicaid. The state agency indicated last fall that it was drastically reducing nursing for Lauren.

Lauren is 13- years-old. She is a dwarf, is deaf, has an artificial airway, a weak immune system, and severe bone abnormalities. After NBC-15's Bruce Mildwurf profiled Lauren's story, Medicaid was flooded with e-mails and phone calls from around the world.

Medicaid then held a 90-day investigation period and has now decided to change its regulations so that Lauren and dozens like her will continue to receive adequate help. The new policies will go into effect in May. NBC-15 will continue to follow the story.

Bobo's World

Bobo edition.

Afternoon Thread

Enjoy.

Egypt

Yglesias notices that conservatives are surprisingly quiet on Egypt making a bit of noise about making baby steps towards Democracy. I know liberals are rather quiet because these things have a habit of not actually happening. It's not exactly the same, but I remember the good old days when babies were being ripped from incubators in Kuwait by Iraqi soldiers when we were promised that women in Kuwait would get to vote real soon now. And, then we were promised that again in 1999. And, hey, again in 2004. Well, at least they're still talking about it. They sure do keep talking about it, even proposing bills and whatnot. But, amazingly it doesn't happen.


But, the more interesting question is why conservatives aren't jumping up and down about this. I think it's pretty obvious -- most aren't particularly concerned with spreading Democracy around the world. George Bush might actually be sincere in his new mission, though I don't think he has a deep grasp of what "democracy" is, but most of the rest of them aren't.

Republicans have never stopped being isolationist and anti-nation building (true of most of the US population, actually). They don't think tyranny leads to terrorism (nor am I claiming there's necessarily a strong connection), and don't really want to expend any treasure helping out "the other." What they do like is killing bad guys, and when George Bush says "spreading freedom and democracy" what they hear is "killing bad guys." They like killing "bad guys," and they're a bit lost without an enemy, so the actual spreading of democracy just doesn't excite them that much.

Though, yes, they rarely fail to grasp the latest bit of news to beat up on those freedom-hating democrats, so it's a bit puzzling why they haven't at least done that.

SSA Politicization

Ah, I remember when the media spent months discussing the all-important issue of which telephone Al Gore made fundraising calls from. Good times, those.

Shameless.

Kill Them All

Rep. Sam Johnson has made a lovely suggestion for our Syrian policy (sub.req.):

Now we know where Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) thinks the weapons of mass destruction are buried: in Syria, which he said he’d like to nuke to smithereens.

Speaking at a veterans’ celebration at Suncreek United Methodist Church in Allen, Texas, on Feb. 19, Johnson told the crowd that he explained his theory to President Bush and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) on the porch of the White House one night.

Johnson said he told the president that night, “Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on ‘em and I’ll make one pass. We won’t have to worry about Syria anymore.”

The population of Syria is about 17 million. And, for those who are on board with any "only good Muslim is a dead Muslim" religious war policy, about 10 percent are Christian.

(via the Carpetbagger report)

Morning Thread

Have fun.

Open Thread

And, steveeboy, if you're out there, send me an email...

Afternoon Thread

Make your Oscar predictions.

Iraq

Okay, have we had enough distance between now and the Iraqi elections that the patriotically correct police won't freak out if I suggest that the violence in Iraq isn't exacty getting any better?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A major oil fire raged Saturday after insurgents blew up a pipeline in the north of the country. The family of an anchorwoman for a U.S.-funded state television station -- a mother of four who was repeatedly shot in the head -- found her body dumped on a street in the northern city of Mosul.
Insurgents, meanwhile, killed two civilians in a roadside bombing west of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed an Iraqi national guardsman and injured seven people southwest of the capital and the U.S. military announced the death Friday of an American soldier killed in a massive security sweep in the Sunni Triangle.

As part of the offensive, residents in Ramadi, the Sunni-dominated city 70 miles west of Baghdad, reported clashes between insurgents and American forces, but the military provided no details. U.S. troops have been conducting an offensive in the region for nearly a week.

The U.S. military said an insurgent was killed and another was injured trying to build a bomb in an abandoned house in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and the site of a Thursday suicide bombing that killed 15 Iraqi police.

The body of Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan, the 35-year-old news presenter for the U.S.-funded Nineveh TV, was found dumped along a Mosul street six days after she was kidnapped by masked gunmen, according to her husband.

Dumber Than Dirt

Doug Schmitz writes:

Recall the hissy fit the media leftists threw about Fox News White House Correspondent Carl Cameron when he was traveling with the Kerry campaign: Cameron, who’s one of the best White House correspondents in Washington, referred to John Kerry as a “metrosexual” in a private e-mail about Kerry’s over-the-top grooming habits. But it was inadvertently posted on Foxnews.com and, subsequently, the pro-Kerry media pounced.

But these same leftist reporters never said a word when New York Times reporter and Bush-hater Adam Nagourney posted, in his “personal diary” on his Web site, false allegations about Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present for for your viewing pleasure "Ad Nags - The Private Diary of Adam Nagourney."

Sunday Bobbleheads

Document the atrocities.

Deal Cutters

All the Democratic Senators looking to cut a Social Security deal need to read this from Big Media Matt:

DEALING WITH THE DEVIL. Josh Marshall hints that some dastardly Democrat is contemplating a deal with Lindsey Graham wherein "current payroll tax revenues are left in place for now and private accounts are funded in whole or in part from new payroll tax revenues generated by raising or even lifting the payroll tax cap." This is a moderately bad idea on policy terms, and a simply terrible political idea.
Most crucially, the House Republican leadership has already ruled it out. Thus, the only possible effect of brokering a compromise of this sort with moderate Senate Republicans would be to create a conference committee in which whatever concessions the GOP makes to turncoat Democrats will be purged from the bill. Then, having already conceded the high ground on the need to "do something" and on the point that the "something" ought to involve private accounts, turncoat Democrats will be forced to argue that the only problem with the conference report on the phase-out is that it doesn't raise taxes. This will, at best, transform a political winner for the Democrats into a political loser and, at worst, lead to the passage of a bad phase-out bill.

Democrats are winning this fight, and should accept nothing less than surrender. Once the GOP has given up on phasing out the plan, we can either start a serious conversation about finding a balanced approach to Social Security reform, or else move on to addressing more pressing fiscal issues. Until then, trying to compromise with a party that knows no procedural or ethical restraints on its conduct and that's led by a president who's apparently hell-bent on destroying Social Security is a losing deal.

and then this from Josh Marshall:

The real bottom line in this article, however, is the crew of Dems eager to toss a life-line to the president just as the American people are turning hard against phase-out. Take Rep. Shaw's possible compromise deal, as described in the Post: Republicans give Dems some of their add-on accounts and in return the president agrees to phase-out less of Social Security than he initially wanted -- 2 percent of payroll rather than 4 percent.

Such a deal! Republicans at their town halls are getting treated like off-pitch singers on the Gong Show and the Democrats should cut a phase-out deal that gives the president what until a couple months ago was supposed to be all that he wanted (i.e., 2 percent of payroll)?

Whoever these Fainthearted Dems might be, please pass a law barring them from negotiating the price of their next automobile, right? I mean, maybe they think Enron stock is undervalued too and primed for a comeback.

and then, just shut the hell up.

Bobo's World

BTK:

WICHITA, Kan. — He called himself a monster, but in 31 years of hunting the serial killer known as BTK, Wichita police made it clear they were searching for a man who appeared in every way ordinary. On Saturday, they announced they finally had caught him.

Dennis Rader, 59, a church-going family man, a Cub Scout leader, a dog-catcher for the trim suburb of Park City, is in custody on suspicion of torturing and killing seven women, one man and two children from 1974 to 1991 — including two victims linked only this week to BTK.

Late Night

Have fun.

Open Thread

Saturday night.

Cousin Oliver Joins Bamboozelpalooza

David Johnson explains.

.net

(no, I don't know how this post got here)

Poor Guckert

The Editors on Guckert.

Open Thread

Have fun.

Bobo's World

Link:

The would-be teen mother arrived by ambulance last May, her womb empty, belly bruised and lips tightly sealed.

The twin fetuses that 16-year-old Erica Basoria carried for five months had slipped into the bathroom toilet while her boyfriend and his family slept. They awoke to her cries and called 911.

Basoria had bruises on her eye, arm and wrist, so authorities assumed she had been beaten. Her boyfriend, 18-year-old Gerardo "Jerry" Flores, was charged with murder under the state's new law protecting the unborn.

But it wasn't that simple. Basoria eventually told authorities she had been trying to kill her unborn sons for weeks and finally asked Flores to step on her stomach.

"When I was four months pregnant, I began to show, and at that time I decided that I should have gotten an abortion," Basoria wrote in an affidavit.

The Texas law, like many others across the nation, bans prosecution of mothers because they have a legal right to end pregnancies. So Basoria can't be charged. That fact has attorneys on both sides questioning the fairness of a statute that considers one person's crime another person's constitutional right.

7 Years

Josh Marshall addresses the latest hooey being peddled by Republican liars and their media enablers. Check your facts, journalists. This isn't rocket science.

I addressed the same issue at Media Matters here and here (and, no, I don't mean that in a "I was there first!" sense, just adding to the discussion).

Morning Thread

Have fun.

Creature Double Feature

yeargh!

Friday Night

Play nice.

Friday Cat Blogging

Problems for DeLay?

Pass the popcorn...

Viguerific

Long history of scamming old people (May 15, 1992, St. Petersburg Times)

Direct mail companies are using official-looking letters and false claims about threats to Social Security to scare senior citizens into sending them money, a congressional committee was told Thursday.

Though the Social Security Administration has stopped about 50 direct-mail organizations from sending misleading advertisements, other mass mailers and deceptive advertisers continue operating on the fringe of the law, witnesses told the committee.

Indiana Rep. Andy Jacobs, chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, summed up the situation by paraphrasing a country and western song: "They say "send your money to God,' but they give you their address."

Gwendolyn King, commissioner of Social Security, knows of the problem firsthand. Shortly after her father-in-law died, her mother-in-law received a letter offering her a $ 10,000 death benefit because Social Security wasn't offering enough. "It's just a cruel charade placed on Americans who don't need or deserve it," King told the committee.

Like much of the misleading mail, the letter to King's mother-in-law had an eagle on it to make it look official. Congress prohibited the companies from creating a false impression that they are affiliated with the Social Security Administration, but witnesses said Thursday that the law's $ 5,000 fine needs to be increased.

Letters from a group calling itself "Seniors Coalition" and another calling itself "United Seniors Association" that claim Congress has spent the Social Security Trust Fund.

"The politicians in Washington have stolen the Social Security Trust Fund. That's right. Every penny is gone " United Seniors wrote in a letter over the signature of former Sen. George L. Murphy. Murphy died recently.

Both letters ask recipients to send money.

Congressional investigators believe the two groups are tied to conservative fund-raiser Richard Viguerie. A tax return obtain by the investigators says one of the groups received more than $ 9-million in 1990.

Who Is a Part of USA Next?

Here's one of the delightful little scamps:

J. Curtis Herge, Corporate Counsel. Herge is an attorney with the McLean law firm Herge Sparks & Christopher. He incorporated the "New York Institute for Law and Justice" for Donald Trump to surreptitiously lobby against Indian gaming interests. He incorporated "The Committee For Justice For Holocaust Victims" to attack Florida Senator Bill Nelson "as weak on the rights of Holocaust survivors" on behalf of an Italian insurance company "then under attack by Nelson and others who charged it owed Holocaust victims'
families as much as $ 1 billion in unpaid claims." Herge has a long record of creating benign sounding non-profits to level vicious attacks at Democrats. Herge was also a bit player in Iran Contra, representing one of Carl "Spitz" Channell's front groups, an Oliver North intermediary with the contras, and eventually serving as trustee for North's legal defense fund after the scandal broke.

Get hired to attack a senator for being "weak on the rights of Holocaust survivors" by an insurance company that is desperately trying to... deny claims to Holocaust survivors.

Lovely folks.

They Write Letters

skippy writes to the LA Times.

WTF?

Sorry to link to Josh again, but one of the SS Trustees has become advisor and spokesman for a pro-privatization group?

They don't even pretend to pretend anymore.

Easy Money

Josh Marshall writes:

I talk to various of Sen. Lieberman's political friends and we wonder between ourselves: What is it exactly? Is he just a man out of time now? Too stung by how the 2004 primaries went and just doesn't care what Dems think? Or maybe he thinks he's legislating for history here. A lot of folks who are generally in line with Lieberman, and like him, ended up not supporting him in the primaries because they worried not about his political views but about his political judgment. So the irony here is that he's displaying the same political tin ear and questionable judgment that kept many like-minded Dems from supporting him. And their very lack of support stung him so badly that it has accentuated those tendencies that kept them off the Joe team to begin with.

And remember, I'm not talking about John Sweeney or Andy Stern here. I'm talking about card-carrying New Dems.

Just this morning I was talking with some political players involved in the Social Security fight and they were wondering how quickly a few hundred thousand dollars of seed money could be raised to fund a decent primary opponent to run against Lieberman next year. And I have say, I think they could raise it pretty quickly.

Indeed. If there were credible people behind the effort, $250K could be raised online in a day.

USA Next

Read the Blogpac intelligence report.

Subpoena This

One thing that seems to be missing in the reporting about the Kansas AG's attempt to get the medical records of women and girls who have had abortions is why is he only focused on the sexual activities of teen girls? The laws in Kansas are gender neutral on this subject.

He claims he needs the evidence to prosecute potential child rape and illegal late term abortion cases, despite the fact that the subpoena has no age range and it isn't restricted by the existence or absence of abuse reports. He's claiming that "the children are not under any legal scrutiny" - but Kansas law criminalizes sexual contact with anyone who is under 16 even if the people are of similar ages. Note that this rather odd statute makes all such people who engage in sexual activity criminals, there is no predator/victim distinction - two 15 year olds screw, they're felons.


An abortion isn't the only potential evidence of illegal sexual activity. Getting pregnant at 15 is a crime even if you carry the child to term, if your partner is under 16. Why aren't they subpoenaing maternity ward records?

And, of course, what about the boys? As Kansas's STD reporting shows, there are lots of people under the age of 16, many presumably male, who have contracted these diseases. In 2003, the last year for which there's full data, for people 14 and under there were 121 cases of chlamydia, and 38 reported cases of Gonorrhea. 15 year olds are lumped in with the 15-19 group, so presumably that would add a few more cases. Why no subpoenas there?


(post edited a bit in substantial ways, major blogger headaches...)

Morning Thread

Have fun.

Get Your Dialing Fingers Ready

Tomorrow we'll have a fun "call an elected official!" event. I expect everyone to participate...

Late Night

Geddy Lee of Rush vs. Tom Baker of Doctor Who.


discuss.

Wankers of the Day

Powerline.


See:

here (wanker of the year!)

here

here

here

here

here

Background Briefers

I wouldn't claim that there's never a place for background briefings, but there's no place for most of them and shame on the journalists who let it happen. Froomkin says:

Having waited a long time for the press corps to overtly revolt against this vile tradition, allow me to suggest another possibilty: What if White House reporters just started anonymously outing the anonymous briefers to bloggers? Just an idea.

Well, of course it's an excellent idea. And, it's happened at least once. And, Jack Shafer's been beating this drum for awhile.

Generally, there should be no anonymous sources in cases where those sources are simply pushing the official administration line. Period.

Evening Thread

Enjoy.

Senator Anti-Choice

Yglesias muses on the subject of running anti-choice senatorial candidates. Let me play against type here and regarding the two examples -- PA and RI -- they're probably special cases.

In PA, the question isn't whether running an anti-choice Democrat in general is a good idea (it isn't - keep trying it, keep failing). The question is whether running an anti-choice Democrat named Casey is a good idea (by good idea we mean maximizing chance of beating Santorum, not any other considerations which are of course important). Casey's a popular politician with high statewide name recognition (in a state which lacks many politicians with such recognition), and his popularity or electability don't have all that much to do with his positions on abortion.

In RI, the situation is much the same. Jim Langevin is popular, and would probably clobber Chafee, who isn't.

The fact that they're anti-choice will probably get both of them crossover votes. But, on the other hand lots of RI Democrats would likely vote for Chafee and in PA lots of pro-choice people probably just would not vote.

I don't think running anti-choice candidates in PA and RI is a smart thing to do generally, but that's a separate question from whether its a smart thing to run anti-choice candidates named Casey and Langevin. It's the people, not the policies.


...to be clear, I'm not making the argument that we need to run these people. I'm simply saying the reason consider running them is their personal popularity, not because of some need to embrace anti-choice politicians and policies. If the Dems are desperately hunting for anti-choice candidates to run in these places because they believe being anti-choice is a political winner, they're idiots. In these two states, however, I highly doubt that's the reason. Whether or not these two people are the ones who would be most likely to beat their opponents (IMHO: Langevin yes, but others could beat Chafee too, and Casey quite possibly not) is debatable, and of course other considerations apply


...obviously, I wasn't clear. Abigail writes "Atrios implies that it’s okay for the Democrats to support anti-choice candidates in the elections in RI and PA, because the more important fight is to defeat the Republicans." That's not what I meant to write or imply or anything else. All I'm saying is if the Dems are recruiting Casey and Langevin for Senate runs, it isn't because of some grander strategy to become the anti-choice party, it's because they can win. Whether or not that's "okay" is an entirely separate issue.

Just Curious

Does Slate actually pay people to write this stuff?

Stop Dancing

If they want to correct me they can contact me at atrios@comcast.net and do so, but it appears that the good Senator from Connecticut and his staff are... how can I say this politely... completely full of shit.

Raw Story has this:

Lieberman’s spokeswoman Casey Aden Wansbury was careful to reflect the nuance in the senator’s position.

“He doesn’t support privatization as a carve-out plan that would jeopardize the benefits that people that people currently receive or add to the debt,” Aden Wansbury said.

She would not, however, rule out Lieberman’s support for private accounts if the plan would not jeopardize benefits of add to the national debt.

Lieberman “has said is he will consider reform that strengthens Social Security,” Aden Wansbury added. “He believes that if the obligation is to strengthen it. We have an obligation to look into options that will strengthen the program.”

“He is open to reforms,” she added. “He hasn’t closed his mind to all reforms.”

In other words, if Holy Joe adopts the up-is-down free lunch fake economics of the Bush administration, he can support the Bush plan. All Holy Joe needs to do is buy into the "we're not adding to the debt in the long run, we're just prepaying!" bullshit that's being peddled by Bush's con men and he's on board.

Wrong Guy

Apparently conservatives voted for the wrong guy.

BoBo's World

Link:

WICHITA, Kan. The attorney general of Kansas wants to know the detailed history of the sex lives of nearly 90 women who received late-term abortions.

Court documents show that Phill Kline wants to search the documents for evidence of crimes under laws that limit late-term abortions and require mandatory reporting of suspected child sexual abuse.

Under the order signed by a judge, the attorney general would get records that would include each patient's name, medical history, details of her sex life, birth control practices and psychological profile.

The Wichita Eagle says two medical clinics have asked the Kansas Supreme Court to intercede.

Santorum (R-VA)

People, it's a joke. Santorum doesn't really have a legit resident in PA - he lives in Virginia.

Props

Continuing from yesterday's amusing email, there seems to be some amount of general disgruntlement throughout parts of the blogosphere about people receiving appropriate credit and recognition, some green-eyed monster sniping at the "big bloggers," some kvetching about the Koufax awards (the most transparent and open awards process in the universe - it's an excuse for community, people, not the Pulitzers), along with the usual mutterings that your Pet Issue isn't the #1 topic in the blogosphere, etc...

While fully acknowledging that nothing and no one is beyond criticism, that people have perfectly valid complaints about things, that with great power comes great responsibility, and that the world is not the perfect meritocracy we all imagine it to be, at some point I have to say - get the fuck over yourselves and ask yourselves why you're doing this.

I ran this blog a long time before I made a cent off of it. I never expected to make a cent off of it. I hoped to have an impact - but I've always been more than happy for people to steal my stuff. In the past I've happily encouraged writers/reporters/editors to take stuff without crediting me. There's still no better way to deligitimize a story in the mainstream press than to credit it to "some guy on the internet you've never heard of." Practically every time that happens it becomes a story about bloggers, rather than a story about the story - whatever it is. It's the collective small impacts I perceive this blog - and Left Blogistan generally - that I'm happy about, not for the most part the "scalps" or the "big stories bloggers unearth." My tendency is almost always to pull back on a story once it's "out there" rather than to jump all over it and try to make it my own. The satisfaction is in seeing the impact, not in getting credit.

I quite enjoy doing this and the interesting detour my life has taken, but being a "blog celebrity" isn't actually the glamorous thing some seem to imagine it to be. Aside from the fact that I spend an inordinate amount of time at my computer, not a glamorous way to spend one's time, my life is fairly normal. I haven't yet been invited to go to Vegas with Ben Affleck, and have rarely been seen hanging out with the "cool kids" of any stripe. Increasingly, even people who come to the weekly Drinking Liberally - ones who have found out about it through some source other than this blog - don't even know "who I am," and if told don't particularly care and aren't impressed.

The point is that this has never been about self-promotion, and while I'm extraordinarily grateful for all of the ways I've been compensated for doing this (financial and otherwise), it's never really been the motivation.



And, let me add to that the occasional advice to newer bloggers:

1) Don't send me an email saying "read my blog." I won't. If you want to get my interest, send me something interesting. If you have something interesting, it'll get noticed and linked. Have enough interesting things, people will start coming back on their own to look for it, and you'll have a larger regular readership.

2) What's interesting? Your opinion on stuff by itself isn't really interesting to anyone except your friends. If you're funny, or you write well, or you actually know something, or can make a good argument, or are good at unearthing interesting and relevant tidbits, that's interesting.

3) One things blogs do is act as news aggregators/filters and places for discussion. You may be an excellent news aggregator/filter, but that's a pretty crowded market. That's one place where being an early entrant helps. If you want to distinguish your blog, you need to have some additional interesting original content.

4) Don't create a spam list and send out every blog post to the list. We all get too much email. Send me something you think that I would be interested in. It's personal. I don't cover every issue under the sun. Nobody else does either.

5) Don't just focus on trying to get a link from me, or Kos, or Instapundit, or whatever. If you have something good, send it to blogs with somewhat less, but still decent traffic. They probably get less email than we do. s

6) Establishing a large regular readership takes a lot of time, no matter how brilliant and persistent you are. And, persistence is key. While some fairly popular bloggers post inconsistently, most people with a large regular readership post at least daily. People will click on your site more often if they think there's a good chance there will be something new to look at.

Stuff

It's time for this site to offer even more exciting fun merchandise. You know, stuff that wasn't designed by the worst designer in the history of commercial design (me).

If anyone wants to submit some designs to go on mugs and t-shirts and whatnot I'd appreciate it. Don't be offended if I don't pick your design, and I think I have to say I'd technically "own" anything that I use. Though, I don't do the merchandise to make money -- I add a buck or two on top of cafe press's base price.

My preferences are for fairly simple -- if anyone comes up with a super cool logo that'd be great...

Morning Thread

Have fun.

Weiners

Congrats to all the Koufax winners. I failed to win a single award this year, but nonetheless this is a happy time for me. The secret I've withheld from all of you is that I am actually the partner of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and will therefore soon take my rightful place as The Queen of All Iraq. Screw you Judy Miller!


And, since I'm not a big enough person to let the winners bask in the warm glow of the spotlight, I must take this opportunity to remind people of the thousands and thousands of Koufax awards I've won previously. Well, okay, I think it was 3. But, the award I'm most proud of is the one I received for creating the most hilarious post in the history of blog posts. Even funnier than Jesse's parody of La Nooner. Even funnier than Poker with Dick Cheney. And, I might even claim, even funnier than Neal Pollack's A Man Wronged or his seminal Ow!


The bestest most funniest blog post ever was, of course, this:

Split

I'm amused by the fact that Washington State GOPers want to split the state in two, but I'm curious about this assertion:

"I believe from my heart, mind and soul that Eastern Washington could survive beautifully without Western Washington," he said. "And I hope Western Washington feels just as I do, that we'd love to be on our own."

One Democrat from Western Washington does, and he's the lone member of his party listed as a sponsor on the measure.

Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, said he believes Western Washington would benefit from a split in the state.

"I feel east and west have common cause here," he said.

While recognizing the political divide that angers the east side, Kline said financially, Western Washington would be better off without them because he said that side of the state gets more than its share of tax revenue.

"I would like as much as possible for revenue generated in Western Washington to stay in Western Washington," he said.

Is this true? Suburban and rural counties are always claiming that the cities are sucking them dry, but those claims generally aren't actually true. I know nothing about Washington, so I can't judge, but it's an assertion the reporter should've checked and put a number on.

Never mind. Suffering from coastal inversion syndrome. WEST is the decadent coastal enclaves. EAST is the rural inlands...

but, discuss the joys of splitting Washington nonetheless. East Washington and West Washington don't really sound right, and I assume neither would willingly give up the name. Maybe they can compromise on "Washington" for the coastal bit and "Eymania" for the rest.

Late Night

Have fun.

This Can't Be Real

And if it's real, it can't be legal...


...original post removed.

Open Thread

Have fun.

We Get Letters

Blobbidy blob blob blobbidy blob blob blob.


Since writing emails to you is obviously a waste of
time...I might as well write to you in gobbledy-gook.


Ron Brynaert (ron not fucking roy)
www.whyareweback.blogspot.com


PS - I love the fucking way A.S. attributed my work
exposing Talon News as plagiarists of real news
organizations to the raw story...without mentioning
me....at media matters


i might still like your writing...but i am fucking
going to continue to attack you fuckers for the
unethical way you choose to operate...


you won't fucking link to me...no matter what...will
you?


and daily kos and media matters read an article by
John Byrne at Raw Story which CLEARLY fucking states
that I fucking discovered the plagiarism but received
SCANT ATTENTION because of fuckers like you...and I
still don't get deserved credit...


A lot of people are reading me now, Duncan (for the
first time I'm using your name). You have one last
fucking chance to realize that you are making a
mistake by being a fucking elitist douchebag...and
start giving links to smaller blogs like me...and
responding to your emails...or I am going to blog
about this.


I am not only going to blog about this...I am going to
circulate this e-mail through the blogosphere.
Including at your blog...so maybe you might want to
take down your haloscan for a couple of days
AGAIN...or ban my ip from doing so.


YOU ELITIST BLOGGERS ARE HURTING OUR CAUSE BY BEING
PETTY CIRCLE JERKERS!!!!!!!


Ron Brynaert (ron not fucking roy)
www.whyareweback.blogspot.com


ps...you have 24 hours to respond to this in any way
you like...if you just fucking respond to a goddamned
email for once that I took the time to sent you...then
maybe we can not waste any more time on this...i can't
force you to link to me...even though my work has
resulted in congressional action....but I deserve a
response.


You fuckers play a nice little game...you ignore
criticism because you don't want to give the people
who criticize you any attention...


That makes you worse than the right-leaning bloggers.
When I (or other smaller bloggers like tas at
loadedmouth.com ) blog about the biggest of the right
wingers they at least have the balls to defend
themselves.


This is such a waste of my time...but it's just as
important as everything I'm working on. You big-time
bloggers from the left are not going to continue to
get away with this. A lot of people are seeing what
you are doing...you go on the radio and claim to speak
for the community...like kos last night on air america
who didn't even mention susan g.......when you really
speak for yourselves.

Funny Stuff

Chuck Pennachio has the video of Rick Santorum supporters chanting "hey hey ho ho social security has got to go.

Ole Miss

Looks like Haley Barbour is doing his best to drive that state into the ground.

The Horror

Warning, you may not want to read this.

CREW Files Complaint AGAINST SSA

Link:

CREW FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FOR WITHHOLDING DOCUMENTS REGARDING PR CONTRACTS



SSA Paid Fleischman-Hillard $1.8 million



Washington, DC, February 23, 2005 -- Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint against the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the District Court for the District of Columbia for failing to produce documents pursuant to Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA). CREW had asked SSA to produce any records relating to contracts SSA may have entered into with any public relations firms.



CREW filed a FOIA with SSA on January 11, 2005 after learning that the Department of Education had paid pundit Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to respond to FOIA requests within 20 days, but in violation of the law, SSA failed to respond to CREW’s request.



The SSA has been promoting the idea that Social Security is facing a crisis. Callers to the SSA listen to a taped message highlighting the crisis and notices of benefits now include the following language:



“....the Social Security system is facing serious future financial problems, and action is needed soon to make sure that the system is sound when today’s younger workers are ready for retirement...Unless action is taken soon to strengthen Social Security, in just 14 years we will begin paying more benefits than we collect in taxes...We need to resolve these issues soon to make sure Social Security continues to provide a foundation of protections for future generations as it has done in the past.”



Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said “although we know that the Social Security Administration has been actively promoting the idea that Social Security is facing a crisis and we know that SSA has paid Fleischman-Hillard nearly $1.8 million since September 2003, we don’t know what role, if any, Fleischman-Hillard has played in manufacturing that crisis. This is what we first tried to learn by filing the FOIA request and what we are now trying to learn by filing a lawsuit.”



“This Administration has a demonstrated pattern of misrepresenting important information to the public. The Social Security Administration must abide by the law and divulge any contracts that were intended to unduly influence the American people,” Sloan added.

CREW has filed FOIAs with 22 agencies requesting copies of all contracts with public relation firms, including Fleischman-Hillard.

A copy of CREW’s complaint can be found on the web at www.citizensforethics.org or by contacting Naomi Seligman by phone at 202.588.5565 or press@citizensforethics.org.

It's one thing to spend money to promote existing law - there's a bit of a grey area in which you can pretend you're simply informing the public rather than promoting an agenda. But, to use government money to explicitly promote a political agenda...

Wanker of the Day

Tom Maguire.

Day Pass

Boehlert finally nails down the issue of the WH "day passes." It is truly a good thing that it's pretty easy for reporters who don't normally cover the white house beat to be able to do it on occasion. But, Gannon had a perpetual day pass - he was there constantly for 2 years.

Boehlert and Lockhart mention the Kinsolving issue. I watched Kinsolving all through the Clinton years -- I never had any respect for him, but it never occurred to me to suggest that the Clinton administration should boot him. As much of a clown as he was, he was the opposition. There's a difference between letting a partisan hack who opposes the administration and a partisan hack who provides cover for the administration in to these things.

If You're In A Hole, Keep Digging

Josh asks whether increased central bank diversification out of dollar holdings is "as worrisome as it looks."

It's hard to say, really. The fact that quite a few central banks intend to perhaps slowly increase the proportion of other currencies in their pile of reserves isn't necessarily that big of a deal. At the very least we're probably beginning a period in which an advantage that the US has held for quite some time begins to unravel. Our position as the world's reserve currency gives us a little bonus.

But, the fact is that China and Japan in particular have a real interest in propping up the dollar and treasury prices. A slow move a way from dollar dominance in central bank reserves on the whole isn't such a big deal -- but a decision by China and Japan to stop digging would be.

"hey-hey, ho-ho, Social Security has got to go"

The conservatives in training are a bit more honest than their elders. Well, I have to say it does the heart good to see a bunch of fine young men and women who look forward to having their elderly parents move in with them.

Fresh Thread

Savor that new thread smell.

Cutting a Deal

Josh Marshall wonders about possible deal-cutting Democrats on Social Security.

What's the point? Let's imagine that Lindsey Graham and, say, Senator Snoe Snieberman manage to hammer out some sort of compromise bill that even I would find almost reasonable. If there's anything reasonable in it, those reasonable parts won't actually appear in the House version of the bill. So, it'll go to conference, where the White House and DeLay's goons will just turn it into the bill they want.

There's no reason for any Democrat to take this course for strategic political purposes. They can win this issue in all 50 states if they have any sense. And, there's no way anything approach sensible will emerge from conference, no matter what lovely deal they manage to strike with Graham in the Senate.


...or, just read Yglesias, who wrote bascially the same thing.

Coming Soon - the Trustee's Report!

Within a month or so, the SSA Trustees will release their latest annual report on the health and wealth of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds. Journalists who will be given the unenviable task of sifting through it need to understand that the important question is not actually going to be what the updated report says about the solvency date, but preicsely what inputs into the model changed between 2004 and 2005.

Let's imagine that the report offers no change on the solvency date - currently 2042. The important question will be why is there no change?

For example, a rather important number is assumed productivity growth. Last year they assumed productivity growth in 2004 would be 2.7%. It was, in fact, 4.1%. All else equal, that would presumably push the solvency date out a bit. With such a number, probably all of the "new information" - that is the actual numbers from 2004 - will also push in the direction of a later solvency date, though not necessarily.

So, if the solvency date is either not pushed out farther, or if it remains the same, there's going to be a pretty good chance that the reason is that they've tweaked some of their assumptions. That's the story...

Lieberman on Social Security

His statement on Social Security from his website was forwarded to me:

Senator Lieberman believes that, unless we make some changes soon, future generations will not be able to count on Social Security as past generations of Americans have. Reforms must reinforce the program and the values it embodies, not undermine them. All options that address Social Security's long-term solvency and preserve the guaranteed minimum retirement benefit should be on the table.

Senator Lieberman is unconvinced by the President’s proposal to privatize Social Security through the establishment of private savings accounts carved-out of the current system. Based on what he knows of the plan, the private savings accounts would not preserve the essential guaranteed Social Security benefit and would add trillions of dollars of debt.

That's a fairly explicit position. So, why is he playing footsie with Bush on this?

As Josh writes:

Lieberman fans -- a group in which I have sometimes classed myself -- might tell you that Joe's just dancing now. And at the end of the day, he'll do the right thing, though to me that seems in doubt. But even if it's true, quite frankly, it doesn't matter. The damage he is doing, perhaps irreparable, is now.

Stop dancing, Senator.

Anti-AARP

The real purpose of "USA Next" is for the moment at least to ensure equal time press coverage. As Sam Rosenfeld writes:

They can be as nasty as they want to be, and as brazenly cynical, given that their sole job in this fight is to carry out a White House-deputized hit operation by exploiting the he-said, she-said strictures of the mainstream press.

The AARP will now become the "liberal AARP," and it will be fair-and-balanced by "USA Next." It won't matter, of course, that the organization claimed precisely no income from actual members in its most recent tax return.

Afternoon Thread

Have fun.

Call Joe Lieberman Day!

Spend the day calling the offices of Joe Lieberman. Ask his staff, nicely, if the Senator:
a) Opposes diverting payroll taxes out of the Trust Fund and into private accounts, making the program less solvent
b) Opposes cuts in promised benefits


And, if a) and b) are true, ask him why he is currently "is undecided about the concept of using payroll taxes to fund private Social Security accounts." And, if a) and b) are not true, why is that in 2002 he said:

We understand Social Security's economic value and appreciate its moral value, and that we won't let it be diluted, dismantled or dissolved ... Simply put, Social Security privatization would take away the safety from the safety net, and turn the idea of a rainy day fund into a sink or swim proposition. If you don't choose wisely, you lose badly. And the government's response to bad luck would be to say, "tough luck."

706 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4041 Voice
(202) 224-9750 Fax



One Constitution Plaza
7th Floor
Hartford, CT 06103
(860) 549-8463 Voice
(800) 225-5605 In CT
(860) 549-8478 Fax
(860) 522-8443 TDD

Chalabi's Out

Wow, for awhile it looked like he was actually going to pull it off:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Interim Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari was chosen Tuesday to be his Shiite ticket's candidate for prime minister after Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid, senior alliance officials said.

Pressure from within the ranks of the winning United Iraqi Alliance forced the withdrawal of Chalabi, a one-time Pentagon (news - web sites) favorite, said Hussein al-Moussai from the Shiite Political Council, an umbrella group for 38 Shiite parties.

"They wanted him to withdraw. They didn't want to push the vote to a secret ballot," al-Moussawi said.

The 140 members were to put the decision between Chalabi and al-Jaafari to a secret ballot by Tuesday's end.

Wanker of the Day

The Powerline.

Morning Thread

Have fun.

Murder

I hope our new "minutemen" - and the appropriate local law enforcement agents - understand that illegal aliens are still people, and laws regarding the prohibition of murder still apply.

Wacky Business News

"one hour ago" (according to google news):

Dollar May Gain on Expectations of Faster U.S. Economic Growth
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded near a one-week high versus the yen and may rise against the euro in Asia on expectations U.S. economic growth is picking up.

"12 minutes ago" (according to google news):

Yen Advances; Report May Feed Speculation Economy Will Rebound
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The yen had its biggest gain in a week against the dollar in Asia on optimism a report tomorrow will show growth in exports, feeding expectations Japan's economy will recover from a recession.

That Liberal Media

So, I'm watching the local WB's 10pm newscast. Things I learn about the latest Choicepoint identity theft scandal (paraphrasing, of course):

"Some crooks stole people's personal and credit information."

Well, yes, but they were crooks who happened to successfully pose as legitimate clients of Choicepoint.

"Originally, only people in a very small number of states were thought to have been affected."

No, originally, Choicepoint thought they could get away with only notifying California residents of what happened, as Cali happens to have specific consumer protection laws which mandate it. "Eff the rest!" was the original plan.

oy.

Late Night

Enjoy.

The Real Bush Agenda

Uncovered.

Excellent

NEW YORK (AP) - Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker won his fifth George Polk Award for his accounts of prisoner abuse in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, making him the most-honored individual in the history of the awards. Reporters from The New York Times took three of the 2004 awards, and The Associated Press was a double winner.

More

AARHP

Apparently this is going to be how they'll privatize social security.






No, this isn't a joke...

Afternoon Thread

Have fun.

Useful Gadget Ideas

I was reading about Bérubé's computer problems (and, yes, the solution to this and every other computer problem is, of course, to buy a mac instead) and thinking about what would be helpful in the Eschaton household. And, it occurred to me that a nice big hard drive which could be plugged into your wireless router with good automatic backup software would be just the thing. And, what do you know, such things do exist! (not an endorsement of that particular brand and product - there are others -- just the concept)

Kelo v. New London

Let's hope the Supremes take the opportunity to actually issue a broad reasonable ruling on "eminent domain" abuse, rather than a "Sandy Says!" type of ruling.
Not much to add, other than to say that I've spent a reasonable amount of time in New London, and the area in question is definitely not "blighted."

Dance With the Devil

AARP is getting its payback for supporting Bush's Medicare drug plan.

Morning Thread

Chat away.

Holy Crap

RIP:

ASPEN, Colo. - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counter-culture author of books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a personal friend of Thompson, confirmed the death to the News. Sheriff's officials did not return calls to The Associated Press late Sunday.

"Tabloid Rings Up Another Hot Scoop"

Howard Kurtz, on the Dick Morris toe sucking affair, 8/30/1996.

The timing was devastating: the day of President Clinton's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention.

The delivery route was familiar: from the Star supermarket tabloid to the front page of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, the same scandalous path that launched the Gennifer Flowers saga into the mainstream media 4 1/2 years ago.

Yesterday's bombshell about presidential adviser Dick Morris's alleged relationship with a $ 200-an-hour prostitute, who dished her dirt in graphic detail to the Star, did more than force the resignation of Clinton's longtime political guru. It exploded into the headlines, leading the news last night on CBS, NBC and ABC just as the president was about to bask in the televised limelight of accepting his party's renomination.

The Star, whose "White House Call Girl Scandal" edition officially hits the streets Monday, would not disclose how much it paid the prostitute, Sherry Rowlands, for the story, but Star reporter Richard Gooding told ABC's "Nightline" last night it was less than $ 50,000.

Dick Belsky, the Star's news editor, said yesterday: "We ran the story the minute we had it. The timing is purely coincidental." He said the tabloid gave an advance copy to the New York Post, where he and several other top executives once worked, because it was certain to leak out as copies of the Star were mailed out this week.

...

In early 1992, the Star paid Flowers a reported $ 100,000 for her allegations about a 12-year affair with then-candidate Clinton, who denied any romantic relationship with the former Arkansas state employee. Flowers released selective excerpts of what she said were taped phone conservations with Clinton.

The Morris article appears more amply documented. And the story went beyond sex, with Rowlands alleging that Morris let her eavesdrop on phone calls with Clinton, told her administration secrets and showed her drafts of convention speeches by Vice President Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The story's author, Gooding, was once a metro editor at the New York Post who later held the same post at the New York Daily News.

Missing, of course, is the handwringing about private lives, concern about whether "tabloids are going too far," etc... despite the fact that someone cavorting with a hooker has a somewhat understandable naive expectation of privacy, while someone soliciting for johns on the internet, complete with pictures, doesn't...


...let me just add that at the time this was considered to be a completely acceptable and normal story. Read the treatment it got at the Newshour, and further Howie coverage here. Reporters were camped outside the Morris house.

It wasn't until Hyde/Livingston that the press suddenly got squeamish about this stuff. Odd, that.

And, of course, the Gannon story isn't really a "sex scandal," but amazing how things have changed nonetheless.


...and, consider how Time covered it:

The right brain spins the story this way: it is poetic justice. A highly paid political prostitute, Dick Morris, comes to grief in the arms of an expensive hooker in Washington--a perfect moral fit. The case almost accidentally opens a door upon a disturbing side of American politics--not Dick Morris' character (who cares?) so much as the larger drama of American political manipulation in 1996, and a general atmosphere of sleaze that even the canned floral scents of " family values" cannot perfume. The left brain responds with counterspin: both personal charity and political experience argue for rolling...

Late Night

Have fun.

"blog of the year"

lovely chaps.

Mandate

Americans want the Democrats to stand up to Bush.


The people have spoken.

Fox News Doctors Clinton Quote

No standards, and the worst thing is that they're behind on their official Bush Speak Style Guide. He calls them "suiciders," not "homicide bombers."

Clinton said insurgents had also failed to disrupt Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 elections, won by the Shiite clergy-backed ticket. The United Iraqi Alliance won 140 seats in the 275-seat National Assembly.

"Not one polling place was shut down or overrun and the fact that you have these homicide bombers now, wreaking such hatred and violence while people pray, is to me, an indication of their failure," she said.

As the original AP shows, she calls them "suicide bombers."

Open Thread

Have fun

Uh, Reporters?

When people tell you that they're planning to sue, I think the obvious follow up is "for what?"

Learn English or Lose Kids

Just consider the equivalent being applied to American expats around the world.

Better Questions, Please

Digby's right that Gannon has been very careful in his answers about the secret Plame memo.

Morning Thread

Sunday bobblehead addition. Document the atrocities.

Wanker of the Day

John Fund.

Late Night

Have fun.

CPAC Kids

On the train back from DC today there were a bunch of people returning home from the CPAC conference. All the guys either looked like Jonah Goldberg or Ben Shapiro or some sort of weird Jonah Golberg/Ben Shapiro hybrid monster.

Evening Thread

Enjoy.

Open Thread

Light posting today. On the road...

Fun at CPAC

You know, even I still get astounded when this stuff gets said, not by the mouth-breathing peanut gallery, but by a sitting Congressman of the United States;

"America's Operation Iraqi Freedom is still producing shock and awe, this time among the blame-America-first crowd," he crowed. Then he said, "We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq." Apparently, most of the hundreds of people in attendance already knew about these remarkable, hitherto-unreported discoveries, because no one gasped at this startling revelation.

That would be Chris Cox.

Morning Thread

Have fun.

Late Night

Have fun

Open thread.

Olbermann is good, too.

JimmyJeff on Anderson Cooper

At 7.


E&P interviews here...

Friday Cat Blogging

Summers

Haven't had the time to comment on this, but I will say that Summers actual remarks were far far worse than they were portrayed in most of the press coverage. I think professor b makes a pretty good start...


and, no, trolls, this is not about a liberal unwillingness to accept even the possibility that there are any genetic causes of differences in male/female outcomes. But, that won't stop you from pretending that it is...

One more thing, as someone who has spent a decent amount of time in academia, I'd like to say that anyone who can't see that there is substantial discrimination that adversely affects women at all levels - how they're treated in the classroom, to their treatment by graduate school advisors, hiring, evaluation, promotion, etc... is just blind. And, no, I'm not saying it's because there are a million extreme male misogynists running around - a lot of it is subtle and some of it even comes from other women - but, added all up it amounts to a pretty big additional hurdle for women.

That Liberal Media

How liberal is CBS? Not at all.

CBS & Gannon

One of Gannon's "scoops" was that CBS producer Mary Mapes was the person who had originally received the documents.

One wonders how JimmyJeff knew that.

Fascinating...

Social Insecurity

Given what Josh Marshall has been covering, it's pretty clear that the plan of a lot of Republicans is to essentially lie about their opposition to Bush's privatization plan and then turn around and vote for it.

I Get Letters

Dear Bob,

Come visit with Senator Santorum! Please join your neighbors, local community leaders, and Senator Santorum for a town hall meeting on February 22, and bring along your family and friends. This is an exciting opportunity for you to hear directly from Senator Santorum on Social Security and find out how you can help.

What: Senator Santorum's Town Hall Meeting


When: Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM


Where: Widener University
University Center - Webb Room
One University Place
14th Street, between Walnut and Melrose
Chester, PA 19013

Take Action Now!

Prepare for Senator Santorum's visit by signing the Social Security petition, by sending a letter to your local paper about Senator Santorum's discussion on Social Security and by making calls to local talk radio stations. Also, recruit more of your peers to join the GOP Team to build support for President Bush and our Party. The time is now to work together as the President and Republicans in Congress work to build a better America.

Yo Mama

Fafblog provides expert legal analysis of what constitutes treason.

(via Crooked Timber)

Tidbits

It appears Gannon had access to a lot of insider information, and liked to blab.

Wanker of the Day

Stephen Minarik.

33

Happy birthday to me.

Open Thread

Have fun.

Tomorrow we'll talk about Howie Kurtz's coverage of the Dick Morris hooker scandal...

Gannon's "hard pass"

The Raw Story talks about whether the pass that Gannon is wearing in video stills is a the famed "hard pass." His sources say they don't think it is. I've been told that some of his "colleagues" think that he made a fake hard pass - not one to fool security, but one which looked enough like one so that he could appear to be one of the "in" crowd.

Whack a Mole

Years later, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are still making the claim that "Al Gore brought up Willie Horton." It isn't true. At this point they have to know it isn't true. They Don't Care.

Lies and the Lying Liars

Josh Marshall should get a comments section. Well, not really, but if he did he'd have more exposure to the ability of those on the right to continue to claim something even after it has been proven to be demonstrably false.

They're just liars. And, no one bothers to hold them accountable, and no one holds them to any standard.


...to be fair, the person in question, Roger Simon, has corrected his post and can thus be taken off the liars list. But, here's a sampling of people who have pushed this idea about Reid supporting social security privatization (not all the links are for such people, but a lot are).

Maybe they're all just honest idiots. Or, maybe they're just taking their orders from Dear Leader Glenn.

All the Gannon News That's Fit to Print

The full Daily Show Clip.


Frank Rich:

"Jeff Gannon" had decided to give an exclusive TV interview to a sober practitioner of by-the-book real news, Wolf Blitzer. Given this journalistic opportunity, the anchor asked questions almost as soft as those "Jeff" himself had asked in the White House. Mr. Blitzer didn't question Mr. Guckert's outrageous assertion that he adopted a fake name because "Jeff Gannon is easier to pronounce and easier to remember." (Is "Jeff" easier to pronounce than his real first name, Jim?). Mr. Blitzer never questioned Gannon/Guckert's assertion that Talon News "is a separate, independent news division" of GOPUSA. Only in a brief follow-up interview a day later did he ask Gannon/Guckert to explain why he was questioned by the F.B.I. in the case that may send legitimate reporters to jail: Mr. Guckert has at times implied that he either saw or possessed a classified memo identifying Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative. Might that memo have come from the same officials who looked after "Jeff Gannon's" press credentials? Did Mr. Guckert have any connection with CNN's own Robert Novak, whose publication of Ms. Plame's name started this investigation in the first place? The anchor didn't go there.

The "real" news from CNN was no news at all, but it's not as if any of its competitors did much better. The "Jeff Gannon" story got less attention than another media frenzy - that set off by the veteran news executive Eason Jordan, who resigned from CNN after speaking recklessly at a panel discussion at Davos, where he apparently implied, at least in passing, that American troops deliberately targeted reporters. Is the banishment of a real newsman for behaving foolishly at a bloviation conference in Switzerland a more pressing story than that of a fake newsman gaining years of access to the White House (and network TV cameras) under mysterious circumstances? With real news this timid, the appointment of Jon Stewart to take over Dan Rather's chair at CBS News could be just the jolt television journalism needs. As Mr. Olbermann demonstrated when he borrowed a sharp "Daily Show" tool to puncture the "Jeff Gannon" case, the only road back to reality may be to fight fake with fake.

Sid Blumenthal:

Thus a phony journalist planted by a Republican operation, used by the White House press secretary to interrupt questions from the press corps, called on by the president for a safe question, protected from FBI vetting by the press office, disseminating innuendo and smears about critics and opponents of the administration, some of them gay-baiting, was unmasked not only as a hireling and fraud but as a gay prostitute, with enormous potential for blackmail....

Lifting the heavy Puritan curtain draping Bush's Washington reveals enlightening scenes of its decadent anthropology. Even as Guckert's true colors were revealed, the administration issued orders that the words "gay," "lesbian," "bisexual" and "transgender" be removed from the program of a federally funded conference on suicide prevention. But the transparent hypocrisy of conservative "values" hardly deters a ruthless government.

Boehlert:

Thanks to the continued digging by online sleuths, there's now documented evidence that Guckert attended White House briefings as early as February 2003. Guckert, using his alias "Jeff Gannon," once boasted online about asking then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer a question at the Feb. 28, 2003, briefing. The date is significant because in order to receive a White House press pass, Guckert would have needed to prove that he worked for a news organization that, in the words of White House press secretary Scott McClellan, "published regularly," in itself an extraordinarily low threshold. Critics have charged that while Talon News may publish regularly, it boasts a nearly all-volunteer news team which includes not a single person with actual journalism experience. (The team does, though, have quite a bit of experience working on Republican campaigns.) In other words, the outfit is not legitimate nor independent, two criteria often used in Washington, D.C., to receive press credentials.
Click here

But what's significant about the February 2003 date is that Talon did not even exist then. The organization was created in late March 2003, and began publishing online in early April 2003. Gannon, a jack of all trades who spent time in the military as well as working at an auto repair shop (not to mention escorting), has already stated publicly that Talon News was his first job in journalism. That means he wasn't working for any other news outlet in February 2003 when he was spotted by C-Span cameras inside the White House briefing room. And that means Guckert was ushered into the White House press room in February 2003 for a briefing despite the fact he was not a journalist.

How Are We Doing

Ken Auletta wrote this in December, 2001. I highlight it just to remind us of all the talk after September 11 by the media that they were going to get serious (Aulettta was appropriately pessimistic).

Like so much else, television news changed on the morning of September 11th. Six weeks later, as Aaron Brown, CNN's new anchorman, shifted from a Pentagon briefing to the ruins of the World Trade Center and then to a dissection of the latest anthrax scare, a familiar figure appeared in a box in the right half of the screen: O. J. Simpson on the witness stand. He was testifying in a Florida court, accused of road rage. Brown peered earnestly into the camera and said of the latest Simpson travail, "It is inconceivable to me that seven weeks ago, or six weeks ago, this would not have been carried live." It wasn't now, he said, because "it doesn't matter a whole lot. And here's why it doesn't." The screen filled with rescue workers pulling a body from the rubble of the World Trade towers.

Before September 11th, the evening news, to say nothing of the morning programs and the magazine shows, paid scant attention to foreign news. Instead, the networks filled the air with "weather events," Viagra breakthroughs, reports on various ailments, the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey, the trials of O.J., the death of Princess Diana, the sagas of Monica and Chandra. The networks delivered the headlines of the day, and the dismissive characterization once applied to local television news--"If it bleeds, it leads"--increasingly applied to network news as well. Stories that once might have been noted in passing, if at all, on the half-hour nightly newscasts were now reported endlessly on the nine-o'clock and ten-o'clock magazine shows, which long ago displaced documentaries.

After September 11th, journalists who had grown accustomed to feeling slightly embarrassed by what they did for a living began to look at their jobs with a renewed sense of pride. Even their bosses, who had slashed budgets and trivialized the news in the name of higher ratings and sound business practice, seemed like earnest preachers spreading the gospel of serious journalism. "Over the past ten weeks, we've been reminded why we do what we do," Mel Karmazin, who is the president and C.O.O. of Viacom, the parent company of CBS, said a few weeks ago. Karmazin was speaking at a lunch given in his honor by the Center for Communication, at the Plaza Hotel. He has a fearsome reputation, based in no small part on the demands he makes of his employees. When an executive on the sales force is exhausted and claims that, in the midst of a recession, he cannot sell more ads, Karmazin has been known to reply, "I haven't heard of anyone having a heart attack yet!" But now, at the Plaza, Karmazin aligned himself with a different set of standards. He invoked Edward R. Murrow and quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., on character. Karmazin said, "We want it said of us that when it mattered most we measured up." His peers at NBC, ABC, Fox, and CNN in the audience rose and applauded--both for Karmazin and, it seemed, themselves.

That didn't last long.

Morning Thread

MoDo

Heh.

Daily Show Video

Available here.

and, no, it's not great because I'm mentioned -- it's just a great segment.

Stephen Colbert (nee Ted Hitler) -- Colombian Drug Mule!

Developing...

The Queen of All Iraq Speaks

Holy crap. I'm speechless.

Miller said she didn't feel she and Cooper were being targeted unfairly, but she found it curious why the prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, had chosen to go after only them and not other journalists who had received subpoenas.

"He was a very aggressive prosecutor against Al Qaeda, and I was an admirer of the zeal with which he went after Al Qaeda," said Miller. "I wish he would continue to do that instead of targeting journalists."

Gannon Subpoenaed?

Gannon claimed to Howie Editor and Publisher that he was never subpoenaed by Fitzgerald's grand jury, but he told his freeper pals that he had ben.

Kudos Where Kudos Are Due

It's nice to see Ramesh Ponnuru being sensible.

For Your Amusement

Here's the full list of complaints to Crazy Davey's place.

Open Thread

have fun.

The White House/Gannon Connection

Dina Powell heads the White House personnel office. Her husband is Richard Powell, who is on the board of GOPUSA, or at least was until all of the information was scrubbed.


(info via Liberal Patriots)

...or maybe not.

Minarik

What a wanker:

ALBANY, N.Y. Feb 16, 2005 — Howard Dean, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called on the head of New York's Republican Party to apologize or resign Wednesday over remarks linking the Democrats to a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists.

Dean called Stephen Minarik's comments offensive, and said, "The American people deserve better than this type of political character assassination."

On Monday, Minarik said that Dean's election shows that "the Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean."

Stewart is a New York City lawyer convicted last week of helping terrorists by smuggling messages from one of her imprisoned clients, a radical Egyptian sheik, to his terrorist disciples on the outside. Boxer is a liberal senator from California.

Minarik has said he would not aplogize.

Republican Gov. George Pataki scolded Minarik on Tuesday, saying his remark was not "within the realm of appropriate political discourse."

What makes him even more of a wanker is his AOL profile:

Name: STEPHEN MINARIK
Location: Webster NY
Gender: Male
Marital Status: I'm there again
Hobbies & Interests: Golf, Hockey, Sex
Favorite Gadgets: IBM Compatible
Occupation: Electoral Guru
Personal Quote: There's winning, and then there's misery

More Gannon Mystery

A reader sends in this tip. According to E&P, Gannon claims to have attended his first WH press conference in April 2003, "just weeks after starting with Talon News."

But, the Intelligence Squad (don't know who they are) points us to a "Jeff Gannon" posting in the comments of Winds of Change on March 5, 2003, referring to a February 28, 2003 press conference:

This is a question I asked Ari Fleischer at a White House press briefing on Friday:

Q There have been reports out of Maine that the children of deployed
service personnel are being harassed as a result of their elementary school
teacher's expression of anti-war views in the classroom. Could you comment on
that?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not familiar with any specific report, but I can assure
you that the President, in all instances, believes that it's important for all
to honor and respect the first amendment.

Not the answer I was looking for, but at least I was able to get the issue in front of the mainstream press.

So, if this was before he was working for "Talon News," under what organization was he credentialed?

...yep, there's our Jeff on Feb. 28, before Talon even existed.

More Hilarity

Take a look at a sample of student complaints that Crazy Davey's "Students for Academic Freedom" is getting. Almost as funny as Freepi vs. Hannity, or would be if wingnuts in government weren't taking him seriously.


...or go read them all here. Warning, you may piss yourself laughing... or, maybe not -- looks like the server can't handle the traffic. oops.

Scooped

What are federal agents doing going through Scoop Jackson's archives and taking things?

Scalps

If Dan Rather had grossly and deliberately misrepresented something that Ronald Reagan had said, here's what would have happened:

It would be all over AM radio.

Howard Kurtz would write several columns in the Post and discuss it frequently on CNN.

The New York Post would headline "Rather Kicks Reagan's Corpse!!"

The New York Times would run a prominent feature about it,

Editorial boards from around the country would weigh in on this travesty.

Every columnist - conservative and liberal - would be falling all over themselves to condemn Dan Rather.

It would for years to follow become the reference point for "bad journalism."


Now we have Brit Hume clearly deliberately distorting something FDR said, and several other Foxmonkeys following suit. Will any of the above happen? No. Brit Hume has no standards. Fox News has no standards. And, none of the usual suspects even tries to hold them to any standard.

So, when people ask why the "left" can't collect any scalps, that's why. You can't shame people who have no shame.

Hannity vs. the Freepi

Hilarious.

Conason

Heh

Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White House. Imagine that he was paid by an outfit owned by Arkansas Democrats and had been trained in journalism by James Carville. Imagine that this gentleman had been cultivated and called upon by Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart--or by President Clinton himself. Imagine that this "journalist" had smeared a Republican Presidential candidate and had previously claimed access to classified documents in a national-security scandal.

Then imagine the constant screaming on radio, on television, on Capitol Hill, in the Washington press corps--and listen to the placid mumbling of the "liberal" media now.

Indeed.

Has Brit Hume Resigned Yet?

James Roosevelt Jr. says that maybe he should.

Afternoon Thread

Have fun.

"On the Other Side"

The Power Line blog says:

Jimmy Carter isn't just misguided or ill-informed. He's on the other side.

And Yglesias writes:

I don't think it's at all unreasonable to say that Hindrocket owes Carter a serious apology. Flinging this sort of totally unsubstantiated allegation is disgusting and utterly destructive of any effort to have serious debate about anything. Is Jimmy Carter really in league with the jihadist forces responsible for the murder of thousands of Americas? Is this what Power Line's fans and those who link to them believe? That a jihadist agent managed to get himself elected president? That an ex-president turned traitor?

These guys really are unbelievable.

Friedmanism

Kevin Drum is writing about The Economist magazine and Social Security, but I think it's a good description of the general phenomenon of "Friedmanism."

In other words, there's no real crisis, the details of Bush's plan are all wrong, and it does nothing to rescue Social Security anyway. But we support it for the same reason George Bush does: because it's one of our ideological hobbyhorses.

And if it eventually becomes law as one of his usual bloated, policy-free, crony friendly monstrosities, they'll be able to point back to this editorial and piously say, We'd never have supported doing it that way. We endorsed the proper version of privatization.

And then they'll move on to enthusiastic support of his next plan.

Messopersia

Link:

TEHRAN, Iran - An unknown aircraft fired a missile on Wednesday in a deserted area near the southern city of Dailam in the province of Bushehr where Iran has a nuclear power plant, Iranian state television said.

"A powerful explosion was heard this morning on the outskirts of Dailam in the Bushehr province. Witnesses said that the missile was fired from an unknown plane 12 miles from the city," Iran's Arabic language Al-Alam said.

...appears to have been a dropped fuel tank.

Morning Thread

Chat away.

Save the Koufax Awards

Bandwidth cost problems. Chip in a little bit through this link.

Strawberry Days

Every time you order a copy, Michelle Malkin cries.




Joking aside, Neiwert's a great writer and his previous two books -- In God's Country and Death on the Fourth of July should be read by all of us.

And, if he moves a lot of books he can get on TV and be the anti-Malkin for a bit.

Scalp Moonves

Go to Drudgey-poo for the story. CBS journos might sue. Good for them.

North Koriran

Government funded website labels picture of Iranian nuke plant as being in North Korea...or vice versa. Hard to keep straight.

Idiots

Obviously what does and doesn't constitute Fair Use under copyright law is somewhat fuzzy, but any company/organization that tries to forbid "deep linking" without making any attempt to put technical roadblocks up are just idiots.

It's called the internets. Look it up...

Republican Senator Praises Filibuster

Link (video).

Wonder what he'll do when Cheney pulls the nuclear option.

I actually kinda hope Cheney does do it. There are several fun ways to slow down Senate business.

Those Damned Dirty Immigrants

Bringing that sickle cell anemia into our clean country.

Afternoon Thread

Have fun.

Please Stop

I don't know why "tax by mile" proposals appeal to so many people. It'd be costly to implement and a likely heavy invasion of privacy, and for what?

We tax gas consumption for two main reasons: 1) to raise revenues and 2) because there are external costs to driving - pollution, congestion, and road wear and tear.

If states are worried about falling revenues due to better mileage, then they can just raise the gas tax.

If you tax by mile instead of by gallon, you reduce the incentives to buy cars with better mileage. Pollution would tend to increase. Cars with worse mileage tend to be bigger so they contribute to congestion more. And, bigger cars do more damage to the roads.

The gas tax isn't a perfect tax -- to reduce inefficient congestion peak period pricing is necessary. But, that can be implemented using EZ-pass type systems on certain roadways on top of the gas tax.

Cute

The wingnutosphere has taken to posting up fake personal ads with my picture, as if I'd care... Wahhh! They're trying to convince people I'm (horrors!) gay!

who cares.

Slandered in the Globe

Since the Boston Globe is unwilling to give Alterman enough space to react to charges that he's anti-Semitic, I'll help out by providing some additional space here. You can read about the entire saga from beginning to end here:

To the editor:
It is quite painful for a proud, practicing pro-Zionist Jew who was Bar Mitvah, educated in Israel, lights candles on Shabbat, attend shul regularly, contributes to the Forward, and educates his own child into the religious tradition, to be accused publicly of anti-Semitism. It has happened to me on occasion in extremely obscure, right-wing websites, but only twice in the mainstream media. Both times it has been done by Cathy Young on the editorial page of The Boston Globe. The last time I was denied the courtesy of a response. I hope that will not be the case today.


As most people are aware, the accusation of anti-Semitism, like that of anti-Americanism, can be employed by people to stifle debate and stigmatize points of view with which they disagree. In this case Cathy Young seeks to silence anyone who recognizes the reality of Jewish responsibility for Palestinian suffering. This is unfortunate, for many reasons—one cannot hope for peace in the Middle East without a mutual recognition of the pain the conflict has caused—but more to the point, phony accusations of anti-Semitism have the effect of weakening societal strictures against the real thing. By employing this slander against me, now twice, Cathy Young is actually aiding and abetting the anti-Semites by robbing the term of any coherent meaning.

Here, for the record, is the entire text of the blog text that has led Young to call me these horrid names. .

“I’m a Jew, but I don’t expect Arabs to pay tribute to my people’s suffering while Jews, in the form of Israel an its supporters—and in this I include myself—are causing much of theirs. Would Andrew [Sullivan] want to go to a service in honor of the suffering of gay bashing bigots? (Wait, don’t answer that. Would a gay person who didn’t regularly offer his political support to gay bashing bigots want to go?) Anyway, I’m sure what I’m saying will be twisted beyond recognition, and so I suppose that makes it stupid to do, but I’m sorry. The Palestinians have also suffered because of the Holocaust. They lost their homeland as the world—in the form of the United Nations—reacted to European crimes by awarding half of Palestine to the Zionists. They call this the “Nakba” or the “Catastrophe.” To ask Arabs to participate in a ceremony that does not recognize their own suffering but implicitly endorses the view that caused their catastrophe is morally idiotic—which is why, I guess, I’m not surprised Andrew’s doing it. Also via Little Roy, here’s another conservative Jew joining David Horowitz in endorsing Mel Gibson's anti-Semitism and even William Donahue’s disgusting anal-sex-obsessed anti-Jewish attack, which was broadcast on MSNBC and implicitly endorsed by Pat Buchanan. “

You can see from the above while the item does recognize the political folly of demanding that Arabs who have suffered their own catastrophe at the hands of Jews, be demanded to pay fealty to Jews without any recognition of their own suffering, the item also contains an attack on the genuine anti-Semitism of both the Passion of the Christ and the Catholic League’s William Donahue blaming America’s moral ills on “Hollywood’s secular Jews,” whom he informed MSNBC’s Buchanan, “like anal sex.” Nowhere do I, as Young accuses, hold “Jews responsible for ‘much’ of the suffering of Muslims everywhere,” as I was clearly talking about Palestine, and nor, for the same reasons can I be accused of arguing that “every Muslim is justified in viewing every Jew as the enemy.” As for her accusation that I actually blaming “long-dead Holocaust victims,” well, it boggles the mind that your editors would allow this hateful poison into your newspaper, whatever Young’s motives may be for spreading it.

That a newspaper with the reputation of the Boston Globe would allow itself to be used for Young’s vicious vendetta against me, now twice, is both shameful and shocking. I would appreciate a retraction and apology.
Sincerely,
Eric Alterman
New York, New York

The Corporate State

What is there to even say about a deal between Wal Mart and the DOL which gives Wal Mart notice of any complaints about their labor practices?

And, apparently they now have creative control of DOL's press operations.

Miller to the Grand Jury

Interesting.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that two journalists must testify before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources in an investigation into a leak that exposed the identity of a covert CIA operative.
The three-judge panel ruled that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine must comply with a subpoena from a grand jury investigating whether the Bush administration illegally leaked the officer's name to the news media.