Media Nuts and the Pelosi Plane

Shortly after the November election, Republicans promised to spend the next two years swiftboating Nancy Pelosi as an out-of-touch pampered princess -- as a regular Marie Antoinette.

"Come January, we'll take her head off every day," said a top GOP aide involved in the planning. "It will be a pure war of ideas over the next two years."

How fortunate for the morality-challenged GOP to have a willing accomplice in the U.S. media.

In an amazing find, Roger Ailes points out that what the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz cites as a "typical blog reaction" to the Pelosi plane story, is in actual fact a rightwing reaction from some very atypical blogs.

Roger Ailes:

Political Retch is a blog with one -- that's one -- post. The one Kurtz quotes. The blog apparently didn't exist until yesterday morning at 8:38 a.m. If you do a Google search with "Politcal Retch" in quotes, it doesn't even show up. Yet Howie the Putz somehow managed to find the blog and promote it with no trouble whatsoever. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

The other blogger, Radiant Times, is "a choral director specializing in working with singers with changing voices" who began blogging on February 1, 2007 and currently has a total of 93 pages visits, 30 of which are from today.

So, according to the Putz, "typical blogger reaction" to the Pelosi slander is uniformly negative, and comes from bloggers who have blogged a total of 9 days. For Kurtz, the typical bloggers -- and the only bloggers worth quoting -- are ones who spout uninformed right-wing opinion, not ones that actually searched for the facts and challenged the fabrications of the Moonie Times.

Is this totally weird?

How do you even find two brand new rightwing blogs?

Unless you got a tip from the RNC because you are a disgusting Republican shill.

Maybe Howard Kurtz is smoking something a whole lot better than anything I can get my hands on . . . or maybe the Media Notes guy has signed a contract with the Devil Rove himself.

Politics News Media Pelosi Howard Kurtz Plane Republican Shill Swift-boating

Rove Explains Bush's Immigration Policy

"I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."

Karl Rove

The White House explained that Karl Rove wasn't really insulting the people who pick tomatoes and make beds.

And Rove is so "disappointed" to discover that he was misunderstood when he "explained the Bush Administration's guest worker program and immigration policy" at a Republican women's luncheon Thursday.

And see, Karl Rove's Son Won't Be Doing Mexican Work.

Graphic via The Heretik

Politics News Rove Bush Immigration Elitist Republicans

Heels Over Hemingway

Chick Lit
By Maureen Dowd

I was cruising through Borders, looking for a copy of “Nostromo.”

Suddenly I was swimming in pink. I turned frantically from display table to display table, but I couldn’t find a novel without a pink cover. I was accosted by a sisterhood of cartoon women, sexy string beans in minis and stilettos, fashionably dashing about book covers with the requisite urban props — lattes, books, purses, shopping bags, guns and, most critically, a diamond ring.

Was it a Valentine’s Day special?

No, I realized with growing alarm, chick lit was no longer a niche. It had staged a coup of the literature shelves. Hot babes had shimmied into the grizzled old boys’ club, the land of Conrad, Faulkner and Maugham. The store was possessed with the devil spawn of “The Devil Wears Prada.” The blood-red high heel ending in a devil’s pitchfork on the cover of the Lauren Weisberger best seller might as well be driving a stake through the heart of the classics.

I even found Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” with chick-lit pretty-in-pink lettering.

“Penis lit versus Venus lit,” said my friend Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, who was with me. “An unacceptable choice.”

“Looking for Mr. Goodbunny” by Kathleen O’Reilly sits atop George Orwell’s “1984.” “Mine Are Spectacular!” by Janice Kaplan and Lynn Schnurnberger hovers over “Ulysses.” Sophie Kinsella’s “Shopaholic” series cuddles up to Rudyard Kipling.

Read the whole thing . .

Politics News Maureen Dowd

Quote of the Day

"I worry that our cable networks lack sufficient resources to cover both the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the diaper-wearing astronaut story at the same time."

-- Roger Ailes

Politics News Media CNN MSNBC Fox News

Pelosi's Plane is Bigger than Hastert's, Wah! Wah!

In the following video, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) patiently explains to GOPers why second-in-line to the presidency Speaker Pelosi needs a plane that is capable of traveling swiftly across the country. Nancy Pelosi explains the plane controversy. Apparently, right-wingers view the security of the Speaker as not a big deal when she is a Democrat. [via TPM -- sorry, C-SPAN pulled the Bart Gordon video] Update: Crooks and Liars has the pulled video.

The leaders of this GOP-generated controversy are Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida. Their lies have been all over Fox News, CNN, rightwing talk radio and blogs.

Somehow Republicans are free to while away their time making stuff up instead of talking about how Americans are dying in the ugly GOP-generated reality of Iraq.

From the Statement from the House Sergeant at Arms:

As the Sergeant at Arms, I have the responsibility to ensure the security of the members of the House of Representatives, to include the Speaker of the House. The Speaker requires additional precautions due to her responsibilities as the leader of the House and her Constitutional position as second in the line of succession to the presidency.

In a post 9/11 threat environment, it is reasonable and prudent to provide military aircraft to the Speaker for official travel between Washington and her district. The practice began with Speaker Hastert and I have recommended that it continue with Speaker Pelosi. The fact that Speaker Pelosi lives in California compelled me to request an aircraft that is capable of making non-stop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable. This will ensure communications capabilities and also enhance security. I made the recommendation to use military aircraft based upon the need to provide necessary levels of security for ranking national leaders, such as the Speaker. I regret that an issue that is exclusively considered and decided in a security context has evolved into a political issue.

And from Think Progress: CNN Champions Pelosi Smear, Covers False Washington Times Story Six Days Straight

Pelosi Plane Bush Bart Gordon Politics News Republican Lies Video Tennessee

Edwards Gets It Right

Health Care
By PAUL KRUGMAN

What a difference two years makes! At this point in 2005, the only question seemed to be how much of America’s social insurance system — the triumvirate of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — the Bush administration would manage to dismantle. Now almost all prominent Democrats and quite a few Republicans pay at least lip service to calls for a major expansion of social insurance, in the form of universal health care.

But fine words, by themselves, mean nothing. Remember “compassionate conservatism?” I won’t trust presidential candidates on health care unless they provide enough specifics to show both that they understand the issues, and that they’re willing to face up to hard choices when necessary.

And former Senator John Edwards has just set a fine example.

At first glance, the Edwards health care plan looks similar to several other proposals out there, including one recently unveiled by Arnold Schwarzenegger in California. But a closer look reveals extra features in the Edwards plan that take it a lot closer to what the country really needs.

Like Mr. Schwarzenegger, Mr. Edwards sets out to cover the uninsured with a combination of regulation and financial aid. Right now, many people are uninsured because, as the Edwards press release puts it, insurance companies “game the system to cover only healthy people.” So the Edwards plan, like Schwarzenegger’s, imposes “community rating” on insurers, basically requiring them to sell insurance to everyone at the same price.

Many other people are uninsured because they simply can’t afford the cost. So the Edwards plan, again like other proposals, offers financial aid to help lower-income families buy insurance. To pay for this aid, he proposes rolling back tax cuts for households with incomes over $200,000 a year.

Finally, some people try to save money by going without coverage, so if they get sick they end up in emergency rooms at public expense. Like other plans, the Edwards plan would “require all American residents to get insurance,” and would require that all employers either provide insurance to their workers or pay a percentage of their payrolls into a government fund used to buy insurance.

But Mr. Edwards goes two steps further.

People who don’t get insurance from their employers wouldn’t have to deal individually with insurance companies: they’d purchase insurance through “Health Markets”: government-run bodies negotiating with insurance companies on the public’s behalf. People would, in effect, be buying insurance from the government, with only the business of paying medical bills — not the function of granting insurance in the first place — outsourced to private insurers.

Why is this such a good idea? As the Edwards press release points out, marketing and underwriting — the process of screening out high-risk clients — are responsible for two-thirds of insurance companies’ overhead. With insurers selling to government-run Health Markets, not directly to individuals, most of these expenses should go away, making insurance considerably cheaper.

Better still, “Health Markets,” the press release says, “will offer a choice between private insurers and a public insurance plan modeled after Medicare.” This would offer a crucial degree of competition. The public insurance plan would almost certainly be cheaper than anything the private sector offers right now — after all, Medicare has very low overhead. Private insurers would either have to match the public plan’s low premiums, or lose the competition.

And Mr. Edwards is O.K. with that. “Over time,” the press release says, “the system may evolve toward a single-payer approach if individuals and businesses prefer the public plan.” So this is a smart, serious proposal. It addresses both the problem of the uninsured and the waste and inefficiency of our fragmented insurance system. And every candidate should be pressed to come up with something comparable.

Yes, that includes Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. So far, all we have from Mr. Obama is inspiring rhetoric about universal care — that’s great, but how do we get there? And how do we know whether Mrs. Clinton, who says that she’s “not ready to be specific,” and that she wants to “build the consensus first,” will really be willing to take on this issue again? To be fair, these are still early days. But America’s crumbling health care system is our most important domestic issue, and I think we have a right to know what those who would be president propose to do about it.

Via

Paul Krugman John Edwards Schwarzenegger Universal Health Care Pro-Family Democrats 2008 Politics

Bush Most Disliked Person in Arab World

It sounds like Arabs may actually like reptiles better than Bush.

"An annual poll of six Arab countries puts President George W. Bush at the top of the world's 'most disliked' for the first time in the history of the poll, CNN International reported today" -- reports Raw Story.

"In the past few years, the President of the United States has become number two. In the most recent survey, the striking thing is for the very first time in the Arab world the most disliked person is the President of the United States of America, and superceded the combined numbers for both the Prime Minister of Israel and his hated predecessor Ariel Sharon, who's in a coma," said the poll's author, Shibley Telhami.

Arab Poll Bush Approval Rating Politics News Miserable Failure

Edwards Bloggers So NOT Fired!

John Edwards is a Democrat with a spine!

Statement on Campaign Bloggers
by John Edwards

The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word. We're beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can't let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.

More at the Washington Post, Crooks and Liars and TPM Cafe.

Previously:
Edwards Reconsiders Hire of Feminist Bloggers
Edwards Hires Feminist Bloggers, Right-wing Rage Ensues

Politics News 2008 Feminist Bloggers John Edwards Swiftboating Pandagon Shakespeare’s Sister Feminist Politics Democrats Netroots Amanda Marcotte

Nashville's Monolingual Act

Nashville is for English Speakers, says Metro Council

Music City USA is set to become Officially English Music City USA -- unless the mayor of Nashville does something unprecedented and vetoes a bill. The Metro Council passed the divisive ordinance by a vote of 23-14.

If you want to thank someone, thank Councilman Eric Crafton, whose previous accomplishments include spending taxpayer money to make it the city's business to proclaim that "Jesus was an actual man." [eric.crafton@nashville.gov]

Crafton tried to make Nashville English Only, but that proved to be illegal, so he settled for Almost English Only. Never mind that making Nashville Officially English may cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. Never mind that the Chamber of Commerce opposes the measure. Never mind that there is already talk of a legal challenge.

What counts is that Metro Council members have been overheard to say that something must be done about the terrible inconvenience of having to press that number one button on the telephone. And then there's this:

In Crafton's view, "No nation can withstand the antagonism, tension and conflict brought about by multilingualism and multiculturalism."

So can we expect the Monocultural Act to follow Crafton's Monolingual Act? Probably. Obviously, Crafton doesn't travel North much. Toward the education of Councilman Crafton, we hereby dedicate the following video clip:


There is still hope that Mayor Purcell will surprise us all and do the right thing. [via vv]

Encourage him:

Mayor: Bill Purcell --(615) 862-6000
FAX line (615) 862-6040

Monolingual Politics News Officially English Nashville Eric Crafton Canada Tennessee Immigrants Nashville Metro Council Anti-Multicultural Bill Purcell

Edwards Reconsiders Hire of Feminist Bloggers

Unbelievably today's New York Times reports that the Edwards campaign is reconsidering the hire of feminist bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. The question is: Does John Edwards have the same kind of spine that Kerry displayed in 2004? If so, we don't want him. [Email Edwards]

Rightwingers have gone into to full anti-feminist swift-boating mode -- the rightwing blogosphere has moved this story to the mainstream media. As one rightwing blogger puts it: Patriarchy nearly done crushing Edwards blogger’s dissent.

The leader of an ultra conservative religious group has "demanded" that Edwards fire feminist bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

What's next? A demand that Hillary Clinton withdraw from the presidential race?

The Washington Post reports that "Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called the feminist bloggers "anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots." (See some of the dirt on Donahue at Shakespeare's Sister.)

Cause defending reproductive rights is anti-catholic, and doing it in Cheney-speak is just so damn fucking vulgar.

We think Edwards should hear from some folks who might actually vote for him.

Please send him your letters, and, like Richard at the All Spin Zone says, tell Edwards that we are looking for a Democrat with a spine!

The Crimes of Feminist Bloggers:

"Among the McEwan posts that Donohue listed was one she posted on Feb. 21, 2006, on her site, Shakespeare's Sister. She questioned what religious conservatives don't understand about 'keeping your noses out of our britches, our beds and our families?'"

"Ms. Marcotte wrote in December that the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to the use of contraception forced women 'to bear more tithing Catholics.' In another posting last year, she used vulgar language to describe the church doctrine of the Immaculate Conception."

"She has also written sarcastically about the news media coverage of the three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexual assault, saying: 'Can’t a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up about it? So unfair.'"

"Ms. McEwan referred in her blog to President Bush’s 'wingnut Christofascist base' and repeatedly used profanity in demanding that religious conservatives stop meddling with women’s reproductive and sexual rights. Multiple postings use explicit and inflammatory language on a variety of issues."

UPDATE: FIRE CHRIS MATTHEWS [AND CHENEY]: MSNBC's Chris Matthews says the "F" word on television: "I want a guy to run for President who doesn’t have a fucking — I’m sorry, a ranch." (via Think Progress)

What other bloggers are saying:

Tiny Cat Pants: John Edwards, Listen Here, If you can't stand up to a bunch of whiny-ass conservatives who will never in a million years vote for you anyway, you will lose my vote.
Feministe: This is Really Getting Out of Hand
Feminist Law Professors; In Support of Amanda Marcotte
Culture Kitchen: The swiftboating of John Edwards Political Courage
The Mahablog: Intimidation
The Carpetbagger Report: Targeting John Edwards’ bloggers
MyDD: More Instability
Correntewire: Courage vs Popularity
Media Matters: NY Times, AP reported Donohue's criticism of Edwards campaign bloggers -- but ignored Donohue's own controversial comments and inconsistent outrage.
Rising Hegemon: Don't Do It!
The Heretik: A Polite Update
Ezra Klein: Edwards, Marcotte, and McEwan
The Caucus (NY Times blog): Edwards’s Blogger Blooper
via memeorandum

Politics News 2008 Feminist Bloggers John Edwards Rightwing Rage Pandagon Shakespeare’s Sister Feminist Politics Democrats

Congress Moves to Restore Workers’ Freedom to Form Unions

Why Does Rep. John Tanner (D-TN) Hate Workers' Rights?

As Speaker Pelosi promised, the Democratic Congress is moving to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800). The bill would restore the right of American workers to form or join unions. This is an extremely important piece of workers' rights legislation!

"Every day, corporations deny workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. They routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being."

See if your representative is one of the 230 co-sponsors.

In Tennessee, Rep. John Tanner (pictured here with Michael Moore) is the only Democrat who is not sponsoring the workers' rights bill!

John Tanner (TN - 8)
1226 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4714

Here's a list of the other Democrats who are Not on board with the Employee Free Choice Act.

They need to hear from you.

Find out lots more at the Afl-Cio blog.

And in the 'know your enemy' file, check out the Anti-Union Network.

John Tanner Workers Rights Politics News AFL-CIO Employee Free Choice Act Tennessee Union Rights Democrats

Survey Sez: Bush is as Unpopular as a Reptile

Yes folks, it's true. There are indeed some things as unpopular as G.W. Bush, but getting kicked in the balls is not one of them, nor is a trip to the dentist.

Americans actually like having their teeth yanked out and getting kicked in the balls better than they like pResident George W. Bush. Duh. And more duh.

Reptiles?

Yeah, the pResident of the United States of America is every bit as popular as a reptile, reports Radar Magazine.

Radar reminds us that Bush's approval rating is now at 28 percent, according to the latest CBS News poll. What else has a 28 percent approval rating?

Drumroll please. . . . .

Reptiles

Body Hair on Guys

And what has an approval rating higher than G. W. Bush?

Getting Kicked in the Balls (41%)

Stepping in Dog Shit (35%)

Legalizing Prostitution (58%)

Fruit Cake (40%)

Small Breasts (50%)

The Dentist (45%)

And Radar has even more awful and horrid things that people like better than George W. Bush.

Graphic via A Study of Reptilians

Unpopular President Poll Bush Approval Rating Politics News Miserable Failure Reptiles

Video: Condilicious Rice

"I love my shoes so much I give them names like they were children. . . Condilicious!"

Nice!

A hat tip to Jack and Jill Politics

Condi Rice Neocons Video Politics News Spoof Bush

Edwards Hires Feminist Bloggers, Right-wing Rage Ensues

The right-wingers are crazed because Pandagon’s talented Amanda Marcotte has been hired as blogmistress of the John Edwards for President campaign.

Malevolent Michelle thinks Amanda is radical. Heh.

Edwards was also lucky enough to hire Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare’s Sister, but the radical right seems to be confining its frothing surreal outrage to the subject of Amanda, for now.

How dare Edwards hire a feminist! How dare he hire a liberal! Is Amanda Marcotte good-looking enough for the job? And doesn't she have a foul mouth?

Do right-wingers even have lives? Or penises? For the answer to these compelling questions and a kick-ass defense of Amanda, go on over to Feministing.

via

Feminist Bloggers John Edwards Rightwing Rage Pandagon Shakespeare’s Sister

Mr. Cheney, Tear Down This Wall

Cheney’s Secrets
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

At the Republican National Convention in 2000 that nominated him for vice president, Dick Cheney told a rapturous crowd that Democrats “will offer more lectures, and legalisms, and carefully worded denials. We offer another way, a better way, and a stiff dose of truth.”

So, Mr. Cheney, now that the Scooter Libby trial is raising doubts about your own integrity, you owe the nation an explanation. . . .

I’m not accusing you of committing a crime. But there are serious questions here, and you owe the nation not legalisms, but that “stiff dose of truth.” If you continue to stonewall, then you don’t belong in office and you should resign.

Read the whole thing..

Nicholas Kristof Dick Cheney Plamegate Scooter Libby CIA Leak Case Politics News

Video: Arab Singer Ridicules Bush

A well-known Kuwaiti singer, Shams has fun with Bush the laughingstock in an MTV-style video called Ahlan! Ezayek?

"When I hear Bush and Cheney keep talking about "getting the job done" in Iraq, the thing that most amazes me is that they don't know they are laughingstocks in the region. It isn't just that they are widely hated, or distrusted, or viewed as failures. It is that people are laughing at them. No surge can fix that." -- Juan Cole

And check out the dancin' Statue of Liberty!

Via Cup O' Joe

Shams Video Bush Iraq Gender Politics News War Miserable Failure Surge

Lamar Alexander Supports Bush's Troop Surge

Some things are more important than winning elections, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has apparently concluded. Some things, like being a rubber stamp for Bush, and supporting an escalation of the War on Iraq.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) joined with Bob Corker, Joe Lieberman, and other misguided Republican Senators to vote against a senate debate on Bush’s Iraq War Surge/Escalation. [See how your senators voted.]

Nevermind that the American people do not support an escalation.

"'We are witnessing the spectacle of a White House and Republican senators unwilling even to engage in a debate on a war that claims at least one American life every day and at least $2.5 billion dollars a week,' said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat."

The vote was 49-47 — “11 short of the 60 needed to go ahead with debate.”

Alexander is up for re-election in 2008. As a story in the Washington Post notes, Sen. Alexander will likely face some serious consequences on election day in 2008. The first-term Senator from Tennessee "could draw a formidable opponent in 2008 as his state drifts increasingly Democratic."

Lamar Alexander also supports pay raises for Congress, but Not pay raises for minimum wage workers!

As Tennessee and the nation 'drift increasingly Democratic,' voters will soon repay Republicans like Alexander who place party loyalty above their country by rubber-stamping every deadly delusion that emerges from the madman in the oval office.

In the meantime:

"Next week, the Democratic-led House is expected to move forward with its version of the nonbinding resolutions stuck in the Senate."

"You can run, but you can't hide," Reid said. "We are going to debate Iraq."

via

Bush Lamar Alexander Iraq Troop Surge Senate Politics News War Non Binding Resolution Miserable Failure Bob Corker 2008

Nader May Run in 2008

The controversial Ralph Nader, called spoiler by some, narcissistic asshole by others, and hero by the unrepentent, suggests, or threatens, that he will be especially encouraged to run if Hillary is the Democratic candidate.

If the Democrats had a clue, they would have brought Nader into the fold a long time ago by offering him a cabinet-level position. With all the very hard feelings about 2000, it may well be too late for that.

Reuters:

Ralph Nader on Sunday left the door open for another possible White House bid in 2008 and criticized Democratic front-runner. Asked on CNN's Late Edition news program if he would run in 2008, the lawyer and consumer activist said, "It's really too early to say. ... I'll consider it later in the year."

Nader, 72, said he did not plan to vote for Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York and former first lady.

"I don't think she has the fortitude. Actually she's really a panderer and a flatterer. As she goes around the country, you'll see more of that," Nader said.

On whether he would be encouraged to run if Clinton gets the Democratic nomination, Nader said, "It would make it more important that that be the case."

via memeorandum

Ralph Nader Hillary Clinton 2008 Politics News

The Green-Zoning of America

By PAUL KRUGMAN

One of the best of the many recent books about the Iraq debacle is Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s “Imperial Life in the Emerald City.” The book tells a tale of hopes squandered in the name of politicization and privatization: key jobs in Baghdad’s Green Zone were assigned on the basis of loyalty rather than know-how, while key functions were outsourced to private contractors.

Two recent reports in The New York Times serve as a reminder that the Bush administration has brought the same corruption of governance to the home front. Call it the Green-Zoning of America.

In the first article, The Times reported that a new executive order requires that each agency contain a “regulatory policy office run by a political appointee,” a change that “strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts.” Yesterday, The Times turned to the rapid growth of federal contracting, fed “by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does.”

These are two different pieces of the same story: under the guise of promoting a conservative agenda, the Bush administration has created a supersized version of the 19th-century spoils system.

The blueprint for Bush-era governance was laid out in a January 2001 manifesto from the Heritage Foundation, titled “Taking Charge of Federal Personnel.” The manifesto’s message, in brief, was that the professional civil service should be regarded as the enemy of the new administration’s conservative agenda. And there’s no question that Heritage’s thinking reflected that of many people on the Bush team.

How should the civil service be defeated? First and foremost, Heritage demanded that politics take precedence over know-how: the new administration “must make appointment decisions based on loyalty first and expertise second.”

Second, Heritage called for a big increase in outsourcing — “contracting out as a management strategy.” This would supposedly reduce costs, but it would also have the desirable effect of reducing the total number of civil servants.

The Bush administration energetically put these recommendations into effect. Political loyalists were installed throughout the government, regardless of qualifications. And the administration outsourced many government functions previously considered too sensitive to privatize: yesterday’s Times article begins with the case of CACI International, a private contractor hired, in spite of the obvious conflict of interest, to process cases of incompetence and fraud by private contractors. A few years earlier, CACI provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib.

The ostensible reason for politicizing and privatizing was to promote the conservative ideal of smaller, more efficient government. But the small-government rhetoric was never sincere: from Day 1, the administration set out to create a vast new patronage machine.

Those political appointees chosen for their loyalty, not their expertise, aren’t very good at doing their proper jobs — as all the world learned after Hurricane Katrina struck. But they have been very good at rewarding campaign contributors, from energy companies that benefit from lax regulation of pollution to pharmaceutical companies that got a Medicare program systematically designed to protect their profits.

And the executive order described by The Times will make it even easier for political appointees to overrule the professionals, tailoring government regulations to suit the interests of companies that support the G.O.P. — or to give lucrative contracts to people with the right connections.

Meanwhile, never mind the idea that outsourcing of government functions should be used to promote competition and save money. The Times reports that “fewer than half of all ‘contract actions’ — new contracts and payments against existing contracts — are now subject to full and open competition,” down from 79 percent in 2001. And many contractors are paid far more than it would cost to do the job with government employees: those CACI workers processing claims against other contractors cost the government $104 an hour.

What’s truly amazing is how far back we’ve slid in such a short time. The modern civil service system dates back more than a century; in just six years the Bush administration has managed to undo many of that system’s achievements. And the administration still has two years to go.

via

Paul Krugman Bush Cronyism Politics News Heritage Foundation Miserable Failure United States Government

Why Dick Cheney Cracked Up

By FRANK RICH

IN the days since Dick Cheney lost it on CNN, our nation’s armchair shrinks have had a blast. The vice president who boasted of “enormous successes” in Iraq and barked “hogwash” at the congenitally mild Wolf Blitzer has been roundly judged delusional, pathologically dishonest or just plain nuts. But what else is new? We identified those diagnoses long ago. The more intriguing question is what ignited this particularly violent public flare-up. . . .

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of Colin Powell’s notorious W.M.D. pantomime before the United Nations Security Council, a fair amount of it a Cheney-Libby production. To mark this milestone, the White House is reviving the same script to rev up the war’s escalation, this time hyping Iran-Iraq connections instead of Al Qaeda-Iraq connections. In his Jan. 10 prime-time speech on Iraq, Mr. Bush said that Iran was supplying “advanced weaponry and training to our enemies,” even though the evidence suggests that Iran is actually in bed with our “friends” in Iraq, the Maliki government. The administration promised a dossier to back up its claims, but that too has been delayed twice amid reports of what The Times calls “a continuing debate about how well the information proved the Bush administration’s case.”

Read the whole thing . .

Also see Rich's Selling the War Timeline. . .

Frank Rich Dick Cheney Bush Colin Powell Iraq Politics News War Iran Miserable Failure

Video: We Have To Impeach The President

The Dance Version . . .

We Have To Impeach The President, the Dance Version is sung by Rex Alpha and the Paranoids (c) 2007

And on a less lively note, in the current issue of The Progressive, Howard Zinn is urging 'we the people' to make it happen. Zinn is citing a radical extremist document. Read it at your peril, cause Zinn is definitely on your Government's Watch List.

Impeachment by the People

Courage is in short supply in Washington, D.C. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos. But all we hear in the nation’s capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and nattering about “unity” and “bipartisanship,” in a situation that calls for bold action to immediately reverse the present course. . .

The Declaration of Independence, revered as a document but ignored as a guide to action, needs to be read from pulpits and podiums, on street corners and community radio stations throughout the nation. Its words, forgotten for over two centuries, need to become a call to action for the first time since it was read aloud to crowds in the early excited days of the American Revolution: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government.” [via Real Clear Politics]

Howard Zinn Impeach Bush Iraq Politics News War Video Miserable Failure

Video: Molly Ivins Woman of Words

Molly Ivins - PBS Newshour Tribute Essay


via DU

Molly Ivins Liberal Heroes Politics News Video Texas

NY Times Still Censoring Molly

Funny, we were just discussing the question of whether or not the discomforting shock tactics of PETA are necessary.

And here Molly Ivins still can't get a little two-word social commentary on the routine slaughter of some of us animals into the allegedly liberal New York Times. Not even in her obituary!

Words fail.

Editor & Publisher:

When Molly Ivins passed away this week, many obits and loving tributes recalled one of her most famous lines – not because it was her greatest or funniest, but because it helped spark her departure from The New York Times.

. . Surely, in swinging 2007, with some of the greyness drained out of the Grey Lady by now, the paper would finally print the phrase in its Ivins obituary? Uh, think again. Didn’t happen. Censored again. The phrase was, still, just too offensive for the Times, which described it this week as “sexually suggestive.”

First, here’s how the Los Angeles Times told the story this week – later published in the Times’ sister publication, The Boston Globe: “She chronicled the mistakes and misdeeds of Texas lawmakers for five years until she was hired away by The New York Times in 1976. She covered New York politics, then became the paper's Rocky Mountain bureau chief, but the match of Ms. Ivins and the Grey Lady of journalism was misbegotten from the get-go. The paper flattened and defoliated her colorful prose….

“The line that ended her New York Times career came in a story about a community chicken-killing festival. Ms. Ivins called the event a ‘gang pluck,’ a choice of words that caused her to be ‘sort of abruptly recalled like a defective automobile and replaced,’ she told Salon.com in 2000.”

Sexually suggestive? Yeah, cuz New York Times readers are such prudes. Overly-sensitive meat-eating prudes.

Regardless of what's on your plate, surely we can talk about it?

Damn. What else has Molly said that I never got to hear? I need to dig out my unread copy of Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? (Not to brag, but it's autographed.)

"My situation is a solemn one. Life is offered to me on condition of eating beefsteaks. But death is better than cannibalism. My will contains directions for my funeral, which will be followed not by mourning coaches, but by oxen, sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small traveling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarfs in honor of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures." ~George Bernard Shaw

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Most Americans Support Gays in Military

Americans just keep on getting saner and saner, or, uhm, more liberal:

"A new poll from Harris Interactive found that 55% of Americans think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military."

"By comparison, 19% of the 2,337 Americans polled said gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve 'only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret,' and 18% said they should 'not be allowed to serve in the military at all.'"

via the Wall Street Journal, no less.

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Poll: Vanishing Republicans, Multiplying Democrats

Republicans are disappearing and Democrats have effectively gone forth and multiplied, according to Gallup Poll. And that's true even in Tennessee.

Given the train-wreck that calls itself the Republican Party, color us so not surprised.

In the nation, Gallup finds:

34% of Americans identify as Democrats
30% as Republican
34% as Independents

It gets better.

Fifty percent of Americans identify as Democratic, or as Independents who lean Democratic, while only 40% identify as Republican, or as Independents who lean Republican.

A 10 point difference.

Moreover, in the 48 continental states plus D.C. polled by Gallup, Democrats have a clear advantage in 33 states. In 6 states, people actually favor Republicans. Tennessee is NOT one of those wacky 6 states.

In Tennessee, Republicans, or leaning-Republican people are at 44 percent. Democrats, or leaning-Democratic people are at 47 percent. (Only 9 percent are noncommittal Independents.)

Who Will Tell the DINOs?

Tennessee, like the nation, has had enough. Now all we have to do is help all of those Democratic and Democratic-leaning Tennesseans deliver the message to DINOs like the Judas from Clarksville.

via kos

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No Way Out

By Maureen Dowd

“Everything you’ve heard and read is true. And I am deeply sorry about that.” Who said it?

(a) George Bush, about the chilling new intelligence report on Iraq.

(b) Joe Biden, about his self-imploding prolixity.

(c) Condi Rice, on her ability to understand Peyton Manning’s vulnerabilities better than Nuri Kamal al-Malaki’s.

(d) Silvio Berlusconi, on his wife’s Junoesque lightning bolt after his public flirting.

(e) Jacques Chirac, after giving a Gallic shrug at the prospect of Iran getting un or deux nuclear weapons.

(f) Hillary Clinton, on enabling the president to invade Iraq.

(g) Barack Obama, for the ultimate sin of not being black enough or white enough.

(h) Mary Cheney, on her decision to work on her terrifying dad’s homophobic campaign because the thought of John Kerry was “terrifying.”

(i) Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, about his affair with his campaign manager’s wife.

The answer is Gavin Newsom.

It’s rare to get a simple apology when a complex obfuscation will do.

Even after releasing parts of an intelligence report so pessimistic that it may as well have been titled “Iraq: We’re Cooked,” Bush officials clung to their alternate reality, using nonsensical logic and cherry-picking whatever phrases they could find in the report that they could use to sell the Surge.

In the 2004 National Intelligence Estimate, civil war was a worst-case scenario. In the 2007 one, Iraq has zoomed past civil war to hell: “The Intelligence Community judges that the term ‘civil war’ does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq, which includes extensive Shia-on-Shia violence, Al Qaeda and Sunni insurgent attacks on coalition forces, and widespread criminally motivated violence.”

As John McLaughlin, the former acting director of central intelligence, told The Times’s Mark Mazzetti: “Civil war is checkers. This is chess.”

Far from Dick Cheney’s claim of “enormous successes” and Gen. William Casey’s claim of “slow progress,” the report shows that any path the U.S. takes in Iraq could lead to a river of blood. It says that in the absence of any strong Sunni and Shiite leaders who can control their groups, prospects are dim for a cohesive government, much less a democracy.

If the violence gets worse, the report concludes, three sulfurous possibilities loom: chaos leading to partition, the emergence of a Shiite strongman or anarchy “mixing extreme ethnosectarian violence with debilitating intragroup clashes.”

So after four years of war, we get to choose between chaos, another Saddam or anarchy. Good work, W. And at such bargain prices; the administration is breaking the record for the military budget, asking for $100 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan this year and $145 billion more for 2008.

The White House thinks it can somehow spin the Iraq apocalypse so it sounds as if multiple wars are better than one civil war.

At a Pentagon briefing yesterday, Bob Gates rebuffed the idea of a civil war, saying: “I think that the words ‘civil war’ oversimplify a very complex situation in Iraq. I believe that there are essentially four wars going on in Iraq. One is Shia on Shia, principally in the south. The second is sectarian conflict, principally in Baghdad but not solely. Third is the insurgency, and fourth is Al Qaeda.”

That’s a relief, all right — we’re in four wars in Iraq and threatening another with Iran.

Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, agreed that the term civil war is unacceptable: “We need to get across the complexities of the situation we face in Iraq ... and simple labels don’t do that.”

When General Casey testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, he sounded as if he was talking about a completely different Iraq than the one limned in the intelligence report. “Today,” he said, “Iraqis are poised to assume responsibility for their own security by the end of 2007, still with some level of support from us.”

Compare that with the bleak tone of the report, which states that “the Iraqi Security Forces — particularly the Iraqi police — will be hard-pressed in the next 12 to 18 months to execute significantly increased security responsibilities, and particularly to operate independently against Shia militias with success.”

It’s official. We’re in a cycle of violence so complex and awful that withdrawing American troops will make it worse and keeping American troops there may also make it worse.

We can try or we can leave, but either way, it seems, we’re cooked.

via

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Selling Jesus and Sex in the Bible Belt

Is this another LAMAR billboard?



Reportedly this joke of a billboard is on I-65 north just south of the TN-AL border.

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Missing Molly Ivins

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday. I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours crossed. She was, as she wrote, “a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly of Our Leader’s record.”

I can’t claim to have known her well. But I spent enough time with her, and paid enough attention to her work, to know that obituaries that mostly stressed her satirical gifts missed the main point. Yes, she liked to poke fun at the powerful, and was very good at it. But her satire was only the means to an end: holding the powerful accountable.

She explained her philosophy in a stinging 1995 article in Mother Jones magazine about Rush Limbaugh. “Satire … has historically been the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful,” she wrote. “When you use satire against powerless people … it is like kicking a cripple.”

Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the times when it’s most important to do just that. And the fact that she remembered these truths explains something I haven’t seen pointed out in any of the tributes: her extraordinary prescience on the central political issue of our time.

I’ve been going through Molly’s columns from 2002 and 2003, the period when most of the wise men of the press cheered as Our Leader took us to war on false pretenses, then dismissed as “Bush haters” anyone who complained about the absence of W.M.D. or warned that the victory celebrations were premature. Here are a few selections:

Nov. 19, 2002: “The greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is probably not war itself, so much as: What happens after we win? … There is a batty degree of triumphalism loose in this country right now.”

Jan. 16, 2003: “I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, ‘Horrible three-way civil war?’ ”

July 14, 2003: “I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would lead to the peace from hell, but I’d rather not see my prediction come true and I don’t think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. … We don’t need people with credentials as right-wing ideologues and corporate privatizers — we need people who know how to fix water and power plants.”

Oct. 7, 2003: “Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure looks like a quagmire. …

“I’ve got an even-money bet out that says more Americans will be killed in the peace than in the war, and more Iraqis will be killed by Americans in the peace than in the war. Not the first time I’ve had a bet out that I hoped I’d lose.”

So Molly Ivins — who didn’t mingle with the great and famous, didn’t have sources high in the administration, and never claimed special expertise on national security or the Middle East — got almost everything right. Meanwhile, how did those who did have all those credentials do?

With very few exceptions, they got everything wrong. They bought the obviously cooked case for war — or found their own reasons to endorse the invasion. They didn’t see the folly of the venture, which was almost as obvious in prospect as it is with the benefit of hindsight. And they took years to realize that everything we were being told about progress in Iraq was a lie.

Was Molly smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver. The administration’s exploitation of 9/11 created an environment in which it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.

Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.

And it’s not over. Many of those who failed the big test in 2002 and 2003 are now making excuses for the “surge.” Meanwhile, the same techniques of allegation and innuendo that were used to promote war with Iraq are being used to ratchet up tensions with Iran.

Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the follies and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed.

[via ]

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Anti-Choice Billboard in Downtown Nashville

The anti-choice billboard pictured here is on display in downtown Nashville, compliments of the rightwing LAMAR Advertising Co. and ProLife America.

Southern Beale over at MRDTALK documents the political bias of LAMAR with photos of some of the billboards LAMAR has refused to display.

When the company turned down an ad for Emergency Contraception from Planned Parenthood, the general manager said it was because he didn't want to receive a lot of phone calls from folks who object to Planned Parenthood.

Below is the contact info for LAMAR's Nashville office and the national toll-free number. You know what to do.

LAMAR Advertising
Phone: 1-800-23-LAMAR
Fax: (225) 928-1034

Nashville Office
Contact: Scott Furcolow
sfurcolow@lamar.com
1993 Southerland Dr.
Nashville, TN 37207
Phone: 615-228-5500
Fax: 615-228-5997
Toll Free: 800-647-1578

You can see the billboard at 8th Avenue South at Lafayette St.

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Al Gore Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

While pResident Bush threatens world peace and strikes fear in our hearts with his bullish threats and brute force directed at Iran, the man who should be in the White House is a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Raw Story reports: "Former US vice president Al Gore is seen as a possible winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to save the planet from global warming, the head of the Oslo Peace Research Institute has said.

Two Norwegian members of parliament have nominated Al Gore jointly with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian who represents more than 150,000 fellow Inuits in the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and who has campaigned to draw attention to climate change in the Arctic.

The former US vice president is currently criss-crossing the globe with his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", a hard-hitting rallying cry against global environmental catastrophe."

Al Gore Nobel Peace Prize Liberal Heroes Politics News 2008

Molly Ivins

The legendary Molly Ivins will be sorely missed. She died on Jan. 31, 2007, at the age of 62, after a long battle with breast cancer.

AUSTIN — Molly Ivins, whose biting columns mixed liberal populism with an irreverent Texas wit, died at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at her home in Austin after an up-and-down struggle with breast cancer she had waged for seven years. She was 62.

Now we have yet another reason to do all in our power to stop the war and bring the Shrub down. Do it for Molly.

Molly's last column:

Enough is Enough

Stop It Now . . .

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush’s proposed surge. . . We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'"

Photo and lots more about Molly at the Texas Observer. [ via]

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