Thursday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Greg Sargent spoke with several bloggers who were on the Harry Reid conference call in which he allegedly called Gen. Peter Pace “incompetent.” None of them recall the senator describing the general that way.
* Massachusetts state lawmakers considered a measure today to put a constitutional gay-marriage ban on the statewide ballot next year. A joint session of the legislature defeated the measure by a vote of 45 to 151. That’s quite a margin.
* At a press briefing yesterday, Tony Snow, responding to the attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, said the violence was a good sign: “It does fit a pattern that we see throughout the region, which is that when you see things moving towards success, or when you see signs of success, that there are acts of violence.” I can’t help but be impressed, once again, with the White House’s willingness to see every development as encouraging. If there’s less violence, it’s good news and proof that the surge is working. If there’s more violence, it’s good news and proof that the surge is working.
* Arlen Specter is open to a deal whereby Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will testify on the U.S Attorney scandal, in private, with a transcript, but not under oath. No word yet on whether the White House and/or Senate Dems are amenable to the idea.
* Congressional Republicans are threatening to shut down Congress over earmarks, but their arguments don’t stand up to much scrutiny. As Nico explained, “The new-found conservative outrage over earmarks is a sham. Desperate to stop spending bills that they can’t defeat in a straight vote, they are using earmarks as an excuse to throw a wrench into the system.”
* In the latest WSJ/NBC poll, Bush’s approval rating is down to 29%, his lowest yet. More importantly, just 19% of Americans believe the country is on the right track and, by 52% to 31%, Americans say they want Democrats to win the presidency next year.
* Speaking of polls, Speaker Pelosi thinks the war is responsible for a drag on congressional Dems’ approval rating. She’s probably right.
* Joe Lieberman told the Weekly Standard, “If Kristol says what I’m doing is right, it must be right.” I don’t think any more needs to be said about Joe Lieberman.
* A newspaper reporter who was evicted from a press box during an NCAA baseball game for live-blogging is spurring an interesting debate about First Amendment rights, intellectual property rights, and contract law.
* Jonathan Chait explains why comparisons between Iraq and Bosnia don’t make a lot of sense.
* Chris Matthews thinks Fred Thompson smells good. I wish I were kidding.
* Danger Room: “A 2003’s ‘Soldier’s Guide to the Republic of Iraq,’ issued by the Army on the eve of the U.S. invasion, tells troops that Arabs see ‘little virtue in a frank exchange’ and are ‘by American standards… reluctant to accept responsibility.'” Ugh.
* Interesting scandal that’s been big in the UK, but less so here: “The US department of justice is preparing to open a corruption investigation into the arms company BAE, the Guardian has learned. It would cover the alleged £1bn arms deal payments to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia. Washington sources familiar with the thinking of senior officials at the justice department said yesterday it was ‘99% certain’ that a criminal inquiry would be opened under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Such an investigation would have potentially seismic consequences for BAE, which is trying to take over US arms companies and make the Pentagon its biggest customer.”
* A 39-page pamphlet written by the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee for 2008 candidates encourages them to utilize bogs and online videos. Said Matthew Miller, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, “I’m glad the NRSC discovered the Internet in 2007.”
* It looks as if Bush’s watch wasn’t stolen in Albania.
* And finally, though I generally avoid celebrity news like the plague, I found this fairly interesting: Angelina Jolie tried to ban Fox News from covering the premier of her new movie. What’s more, she reportedly told Paramount publicists to ban the Republican network from covering the “Mighty Heart” premiere on the red carpet. (The ban fell through — a Paramount staffer eventually allowed a FNC camera to be present.)
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.
Hey, Specter, you dumbfuck, we *KNOW* you want to help Rove lie to the Senate Judiciary Committee. You’re *NOT* being subtle here!
(of course, that’s *no* guarantee that the Senate Dems will have the balls necessary to tell Specter to stop being such a fucking weasel)
“Arlen Specter is open to a deal…”
So what. Someone needs to smack Arlen and let him know he no longer is majority leader. I suggest the following compromise: a non-public interrogation of Rove, Miers and the other executive branch folk, with transcripts and under oaths, but only if there is a provision where if probable cause exists or arises at a later date that any of them lied or mislead Congress, then Congress can recall that person for a public hearing/questioning.
State lawmakers considered a measure today to put a constitutional gay-marriage ban on the statewide ballot next year. A joint session of the legislature defeated the measure by a vote of 45 to 151. That’s quite a margin.
Whoa, shouldn’t you say what state it was?
Incidentally, passing anti-gay marriage constitutional amendments was one of the things I meant to disrespect republican red staters for in my comment on yesterday’s mini-report, but I forgot to include it, I think. Anyway, I’m sorry if I offended anyone from a red state who is ok, but I think red staters have to remember that someone from outside your state can say something bad about it without it being meant to apply to everyone or everything in the state. Red staters seem to say lots of bad things about other states, but if you have any criticism of their state or part of the country, they automatically interpret it as prejudice against anything having to do with their state or area, even if your comment was something specific. I think people like that have to grow up and if you can’t realize you have areas that could use improvement their’s no way you can improve in life.
Also I’m sorry if my comments earlier yesterday about karate-obsessed people offended anybody who is obsessed with karate. As an homage to you, I practice kung fu all day in my living room today.
* A 39-page pamphlet written by the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee for 2008 candidates encourages them to utilize bogs and online videos. — CB
A Freudian slip, CB? Suggesting that republicancers are full of s**t and should start toilet training instead of fouling up the air anywhere they happen to be?
* It looks as if Bush’s watch wasn’t stolen in Albania.
He removed it himself? Was he worried that it *would* be stolen? Albanians should demand apology.
Here’s my recommended deal: rendition and waterboarding for Rove and Miers, in private and without a transcript, until we get to the truth of the matter, or testimony under oath, before a judge in open court, plus options on Bush & Cheney. Even those probably won’t get the truth out of the current White House, but that’s likely the best we can do.
Massachussets is going to see a huge influx of people who are sick of Talevangicals if it doesn’t watch out.
Arlen “Spooky Little Girl Like You” Spectre: StFu.
Joe “I-Con” LIEberman: Put down the crack pipe and StFu.
Tony Snowjob: GFY and then StFu.
by American standards… reluctant to accept responsibility.
I guess there isn’t a single American in the Executive Branch of the Government. Who printed this PoS? KKK Publishing House?
Chris Matthews thinks Fred Thompson smells good. I wish I were kidding.
Matthews was speaking to a woman, asking her if she thought FT made them horny or whatever. I take it as more prattle used to distract viewers from the fact that the GOP is in flames and going down fast.
There’s a pun in there somewhere but I’m not going to go there.
However, that doesn’t detract from G.G.’s larger point: The ReThugs are Masculinity Obsessed and it reminds me a lot of closeted people who try way too hard to convince everyone they’re straight. Painful? Funny? Painfully Funny? I can’t decide.
Actually, Bubba, if Rove and/or Miers lie to Congress at first, they *shouldn’t* get dragged in a *second* time to ‘splain themselves, they get busted for, well, lying to Congress. I’d really rather not see Rove/Miers get the full support of the Ollie North adulation machine, while senators of all sorts decide that they love the sound of their own voices.
If they lie to Congress, they pay.
Period.
Pronto.
While the case of Brian Bennett being ejected from the Louisville vs. OK State baseball game may be complicated, given that it’s being framed in terms of First Amendment rights versus copyright, I suspect Bennett’s blogging will ultimately be held to be fair use, on the same reasoning that book reviewer’s use of copyright material is fair use.
Unless you can type as fast as you can speak (try it), bloggers can’t even rival radio commentary for information about the state of a baseball game. Obviously, this is doubly true of television.
What a blogger can do, though, is communicate to marginally interested spectators that a game is getting exciting and it’s time to turn on the TV or radio. This is, except for the time frame, exactly the same thing a book reviewer does.
Obviously, the circumstances matter for this kind of fair use argument — a cricket game might legitimately ban the blog — but baseball? Please…
*… 52% to 31%, Americans say they want Democrats to win the presidency next year.” WSJ/NBC poll
Can anyone recall seeing that kind of a spread in head-to-head polls among top-tier candidates? I can’t.
According to Tony Snow, an increase in violence is a good thing. Using his theory, more violence would be even better. Based on Snowflake’s thinking, I’ve just got to ask: “If someone shoves a nuclear weapon up Tony Snow’s rectum and detonates it, would that constitute a form of perfect ecstacy?”
I agree with Chris @ #7. Dems should take the deal if agreed to, and then make it perfectly clear that they will not hesitate to prosecute the crime of Lying before Congress. No mulligans, No revisions. No clarifications. Tell the flat out truth or face criminal proceedings.
Greg Sargent spoke with several bloggers who were on the Harry Reid conference call in which he allegedly called Gen. Peter Pace “incompetent.” None of them recall the senator describing the general that way.
Actually, turns out Bob Geiger does.
* Joe Lieberman told the Weekly Standard, “If Kristol says what I’m doing is right, it must be right.” I don’t think any more needs to be said about Joe Lieberman.
Please, please tell me he didn’t say that!
Whoa, shouldn’t you say what state it was?
Oops. It was Massachusetts. I fixed the error.
Please, please tell me he didn’t say that!
I wish I could, Homer, I really do….
Re.
The last number I saw was that there are over 10,000 earmarks in the current spending bill. Anyone know how many traditional individual appropriations (i.e. not counting earmarks) are typically included in a spending bill of this sort? A number like 10K makes me wonder whether the number of earmarks exceeds the number of traditional appropriations. Is it just me, or does that seem like a rather haphazard way to manage one’s budget?
Angelina Jolie tried to ban Fox News from covering the premier of her new movie.
Wow!
Now that really makes Kookynich look like a elf without balls…
the vote in Massachusett was closer than you think.
It only took 50 votes to get it on the ballot. They got 45 so it was only 5 votes short of passage.
Interesting that the vote could have been 50-135 and it would have passed.
Not only was the Republican-controlled Do-Nothing congress working for a record-few number of days, but when they were there, they got as little done as possible. And when they were working, what did they give us? Investigations of steroid use in professional baseball. Not as if a lot of other important things are going on, or anything.
Republican voters are so conned that they’re prepared to vote for these people again, and to cast a vote for a Republican presidential candidate. So now that the Dems control congress, I wonder, what can the Republicans who are still there do to show their constituents it’s worth it?
So I just got it: push for congressional investigations into why Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagall have not decided to make an anti-Islamo-terrorist karate movie.
* Chris Matthews thinks Fred Thompson smells good. I wish I were kidding.
I read the transcript and it really does sound like Matthews doesn’t even know his own private parts. It’s not called “hardBALL” (even if you do have only one. Which, BTW, is nothing to brag about in public. Of either sex); it’s called hardON. At least… Down South Heah it is…
I’ve been hearing about the Harry Reid conference call all day and I’ve got just one question. Why the HELL isn’t this kind of stuff recorded (duh)? It would give everyone concerned the ability to SHOOT DOWN THE CRAP and lies that come out about these discussions because you have no record of what was said.
Come on wake the hell up and use your 1950 technology. Don’t give the RIGHT WING the tools to raise doubt about what was said.
Ok I’m done.
No way, Jose!
Let us have Taylor, Meiers, and Rove, testifying under oath, publicly, and with a transcript. After all, since we — the taxpayers — are footing the bill, we are entitled to set our own rules in pursuit of truth and justice.
mickh:
I’ve been hearing about the Harry Reid conference call all day … Come on wake the hell up … Don’t give the RIGHT WING the tools to raise doubt about what was said.
It is even worse than that.
What really matter is what kind of a pure-bred prick Pete Pace really is. Crikey. He a punk who smells bad!
Read Steve Clemons brilliant post on Pace and you will be scratching your head wondering why “Dimocrats” are on the defensive rather than the offensive on this matter.
It is embarrassing.
It is yet another example of why I am SO damn glad not to be classified as a Dim any more. They’ve got a knack for allowing the repugs to frame every issue.
Crikey!
It really makes one wonder:
Who is more repugnant: A timorous dim or a pugnacious repug?
I didn’t think it was possible, but I think Agelina Jolie just got hotter 😉
Top story e-Wash. Post: Hamas takeover shows failure of Bush’s vision
From the article:
My money’s on: “Today we see that the forces of radical Islam require us to take strong action against those who would steal our liberties. Therefore the following people will report to the J. Edgar Hoover Re-education & Tracking Device Attachment Camp…”
Quack. Thump. Quack. Thump…
If you have a second…
Look at the way TPM’s Greg Sargent throws in the towel on the Harry Reid he-said-she-said thing:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/014630.php
Dims man…
Dims.
Having allowed the republicans to totally frame this issue Greg’s light goes dim here with a whimper and a pout.
Sad man.
Sad.
Speaker Pelosi thinks the war is responsible for a drag on congressional Dems’ approval rating. She’s probably right.
No, she’s wrong: It’s not the war that’s dragging Congressional poll numbers down; it’s the refusal of a Democratic-controlled Congress to shut the damn war down. And if it’s not a “refusal,” it’s the lack of spine.
Nanuq
The conference call should have been recorded. If it wasn’t, Reid’s denial should have been stronger. For those who say he was probably right if he said it: “probably” is weak, and how correct the statement is is immaterial anyway. The military serves at the pleasure of the president. It’s the civilian leadership who is incompetent. The civilian leadership.