Fitz Me baby!@

Morning Christy………first Fitz in a long time.

Go get ‘em Christy!

thankee fer the warnin. we will be lisnin in!

I trust that your and Atrios’ will be thoroughly vetted by Wing Commander Kos.

too bad its radio coz Atrios wears cool shirts …

Well, Atrios’ might be, but I’m bucking the system today. *g* (And for anyone who has ever met Duncan, that is SUCH a ludicrous thought…lololol)

should read “your and Atrios’ responses.” Dang it.

Preview is my friend.

We’ve been having an enormous storm this morning — I was afraid this wasn’t going to get up. Huge rain and lightning here today. It’s good for my newly planted perennials out front, but our dachshund is NOT so happy this morning. *g*

Tommy Yum — I hear you have a hangover this morning, so typos are understandable… *G*

buddy don at 4 — great to see ya!

Alas, too true, Christy.

Now how do I excuse all my other typos?

Christy,

How are you going to frame the Lieberman stuff? Seems like such a golden opportunity to hang all sorts of albatrosses around his neck, besides the war.

Also, can he or can he not continue to call himself a Democrat (regardless of qualifiers) if he loses in the primary?

Christy –

You go! Also, I might be prepared on the Iraqi rape issue. One framing I tested on my 75 year old Republican Mom was, “When you occupy a country with no door to get out, these terrible things always happen.” She replied, “We never should have been there in the first place.”

Good for you! I’ve listened to him for going on 12 or 13 years and have to say Lehrer is one of the best hosts/interviewers in the business. I doubt there’s a host better versed in issues (particularly as they impact NYC) than he. Plus, he keeps it calm and respectful, and has no fear of calling bullsh*t when anyone belches talking points. For a long time, he had a series called “Dialogue, not diatribe” – that’s what his show is about. I’ll be listening.

immanentize: 1
Aged Republican Mom: 0

May the power of the poodle be with you Christy.

just poking my nose in for a minute, but if there’s a chance to highlight the 1) Murray Waas piece and 2) Coulter’s plagiarism, that would be cool. Too little MSM, both affect Dems.

good on ya, Christy, go get ‘em.

I wonder how Diebold likes the senator from Connecticut?

May the dash of the dachshund be with you, Christy !

Tommy Yum — my understanding of the Connecticut regs is that he cannot use any established political party name as an identifier for himself if he runs as an “independent” candidate. (He can’t even use independent, I don’t think, because it’s also a political party in some areas…) But, as I’m not a CT election law specialist, that’s just my reading — there may be loopholes out there that I’ve missed.

The bottom line for me is that you have political primaries for a reason. Either Lieberman is a member of the Democratic party or he is not — but if he’s going to claim to be a Democrat and then wholly reject the will of the primary voters and, even if he loses, still runs again…that’s just trying to cheat the will of the voters. It’s beyond that “take my ball and go home if you don’t play my way” sort of whining — it’s taking a ball that belongs to the public, that isn’t even his. Pathetic.

You either play by the rules that everyone else has to follow, or you are a cheater. And Joe is trying to cheat his way to a Senate seat. Whether it is allowable under some election loophole or not, you vote in a primary for a reason — and he’s trying to game the primary system. It’s just plain cheating.

scribe at 15 — he’s fantastic — and always very well prepared for interviews, which is a huge bonus when you don’t have to worry about explaining basics to the person who is asking you questions. And I tend to not be a diatribe kind of person, so his interview style suits my personality perfectly. I think it will be a great conversation between he, Duncan and I, and I’m really looking forward to it. :)

In Indiana we dealt with the Lieberman situation with what’s called “The Sore Loser Law” — if you lose in a primary, you cannot run for that same office on another ticket or as an independent. Lieberman could run for President or Dogcatcher but not for Senator under the Hoosier law…

*ilson — I don’t think we’ve had to put it in writing here in WV — the offending person would just be heckled mercilessly for being a cheat and a whiner. No one likes a sore loser.

Christy, I couldn’t agree more.

The worry, as you know, is that there are implications beyond a big WATB pathetically clinging to power. It’s the combination of very strange bedfellows: the Incumbocrat wing of the Democratic Party (who want to protect their own to the extent that they, too, might ignore the will of the electorate), and the GOP, who love this particular DINO like no other.

I’ve only heard Feingold and Clinton say they would support the winner of the CT Democratic primary. Have there been others?

Tommy Yum at 25 — I don’t think there have been many other public statements on it. But I have gotten the feeling that a lot of Dems were waiting to see how Lieberman was going to handle this, and that there has been some grumbling behind closed doors about the “not being a good sport” aspect of his behavior the last few weeks. Will be interesting to see what happens after yesterday’s announcement — methinks that Lieberman may have fashioned a political hook for himself with a lot of the party bigwigs, because I have heard a LOT of grumbling from the rank and file. This is the sort of thing that can replicate itself around the country if it’s not checked — and that would threaten the entire party structure. I feel a “nip it in the bud” onslought if things keep going the way they are — and, frankly, Lieberman deserves it. He’s trying to have his cake and eat it, too.

One of the fun things about reading election laws is to realize what is prohibited has previously been used successfully or almost-successfully. Afterwards, the Legislature tries to keep it from ever happening again …

most of the Democratic Senators are not in DC — this is the 4th of July vacation. Next week after they get back and confer, more statements about Sore Loserman will be issued…

Meant to also say, it’s one thing if he is only causing a problem in CT, they’ll let party people in the state deal with it. But when his behavior threatens party structure and tradition nationwide — because you could have people all over the place think that it’s now okay to cheat your way around the primary — THEN the folks in power have a problem.

And that is the point that I have tried to make repeatedly to DSCC folks. When it starts to threaten them personally, that self-interest kicks in and suddenly the issue takes on a new importance. Getting Dem Party power folks to that point is important — because what Lieberman is doing cannot become the norm, otherwise why should be bother having primaries or political parties at all? I mean, honestly, if you can just ignore the will of the voters and get a do-over, what’s the point?

It fascinating to watch for me. It’s a lesson in how people do have power to influence politics.

I hope the DSCC people get the message. The Repubs are not beyond “trojan horse” candidates. Perhaps I should say “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” We had that very thing happen in a commissioner’s race in Chatham, where a Repub lost one election, then ran (and won) as a Dem. We just booted his ass out, but are still cleaning up that mess.

That sword cuts two ways, though. As a result, the Chatham County Republican Party, although never really viable, is in total disarray and can’t field decent candidates.

yesterday I chatted with our progressive Congresswoman about the Lieberman kerfuffle. with Evan Bayh as a Senator, we can understand some of the dynamics there …

Congrats and have a good time with it. If it works in, it would be nice to raise/address the “hard left” “angry left” etc. connotataions of blogging. Molly Ivins had a piece a few month ago (I thin of it is a the German Shepard/Dauchsand piece) about Dems not taking stands on issues they were viewing as beltway labelled left — and yet were over and over again the mainstream majority position. I’ll see if I can find link bc it would be a quick summary.

Voting machine as mentioned would be nice. You probably will get questions as Imman mentioned on Iraq and anything controversial – but you handle all that kind of thing well.

As a lawyer, the might ask you about Hamdan. Your call, but part of what I have been sayig in response to the “why should our terrorists get the same protections as our soldiers” theme is the obvious one – applying the rule of law protects the truth, not the individual. A brief review of every wrong decision made shows how much better we would have been served as a society by efforts to expose the truth.

Also – disbanding (and coverup, since it happened awhile back) of the Bin Laden unit – boggles my mind, so you might get something on that.

I updated above with a link to a net neutrality article that I found. Interesting stuff — wondering if anyone has experience or thoughts on an anti-trust assault on content control if an anti-net neutrality bill goes through…

Jane # 5

The way I read the polls in blue Connecticut, a Holy Joe third party run cuts both ways for Dems and the GOP and could, as the campaign unfolds, hurt the GOP equally.

To skeptical Democrats and deaf pundits, Ned Lamont can fairly argue that when he wins the Democratic primary, Lieberman’s continued presence in the race as an independent will ultimately split the GOP vote more than the Democratic vote since the overwhelming Democratic majority vote is moving inexorably toward the Lamont campaign.

Lieberman’s high poll numbers in a general election, at this early stage, only reflect name recognition. Remember, Lieberman was at 50% in California in 2003 leading up to the 2004 presidential campaign based only on name recognition. The same phenomena are in play in Connecticut right now.

The GOP candidate in the general election will have to seriously worry about being marginalized by Lieberman as the GOP voters worry about losing their reliable Lieberman vote and someone who is generally popular, albeit a lapdog, among moderate CT Republicans.

The Democratics in the House races, in contrast, can count on a Lamont campaign exciting the electorate & Democratic base to get out and vote for them, which is something Lieberman CANNOT offer them.

The polling and vote splitting dynamics are and will continue trending toward Ned Lamont.

Slainte,
cl

OT, but it’s so nice to see you, Mary. If you start blogging I’ll start reading!

Good Morning Everyone,

Have fun Christy – hope someone can ‘tivo’ your radio gig, I will be away at that hour.

Mary,

I rarely pay attention to TV, let alone O’Reilly – but last night actually got a former USAF JAG now working for Human Rights Watch take him on for about 10 minutes – assume the “why do you side with the terrorist schtick” is a standing O Reilly MO, but it was like watching you, lhp, or imm just take him on right and left, she conceded nothing and continued to make beautifully plain spoken point after point – including yours about ‘protecting the truth’. my redneck neighbor said it was very unusual for anyone in her position to get a word in

and I concur with you about the CIA OBL unit, fully expected to see Michael Scheuer all over the place, but all I heard was a single dismissive quote – the silence in an election year, on the one issue they’ve had success with is beyond unbelievable

#35 — Refreshed wrong page, oops!

Meant to respond to prior TREX post at:

http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..-of-lords/

Will try again.
cl

cbl at 37 — I was shocked on that as well yesterday. I hit Murray’s piece yesterday morning, and plan to get something up on Alec Station today, but I was hoping that Scheuer would have been on yesterday or some of the other former CIA/DIA/counter-terrorism folks who have left in digust, to get some more context beyond the sketchy news reports on it thus far. Am hoping it was because yesterday was a holiday and they had only partial staffing to do bookings or something…but it’s certainly something that I am working on for today, regardless of the sketchy nature of the coverage at this point.

It’s nice to see you too tommy. I have that same feeling about a huge chunk of the people who comment here-nice people who know a lot about thing that I don’t or who are interesting to talk to about thing I do. Thanks for being one of them. I think FDL is like being an Aunt – all the fun, none of the responsibility. *g*

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Christy – I went and looked up the Ivins piece I was talking about – while it had good info (and the numbers on the war are even more dramatic now), it just so happens that it’s in an op piece called, “Why I Won’t Bac Hillary in 2008″

I swear I didn’t remember that part LOL

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITI…..s.hillary/

So probably not a piece to bring up on it’s own, unless you are in a very red-headed mode. I guess you might get calls on Hillary and a possible run though, as a prep matter.

One aspect of the Lieberman/Lamont race that you might bring up – in response to a question about the role of blogs – is the communications gap between the national offices of groups like NARAL and their state chapters. Not only is Lieberman out of touch, but so are many of the lobbying groups who won’t hold him accountable for things like his comments about a rape victim strolling to the next hospital down the road to get emergency contraception if the first one won’t provide it.

CT NARAL bucked their national office’s position, in part (as I understand it) because of the attention given to the issue by blogs like FDL.

Blogs are a check on not just candidates, but lobbyists as well.

I want to talk about net neutrality and really how the subject needs to be brouached

this is about cororations giving bandwidth to whatever content they want and choking anything they don’t want.

you got an idea or a website people want to visit and companies want pay money to advertise?

the provider will copy the idea and choke your site so it gets no traffic

that’s what this is about.

you got a favorite search engine?

they’ll choke that engine and force you to use theirs, their engine will give you the results that they want you to get instead of the accurate results.

this is really one of the most bizzare mareketing schemes by big bussiness I have ever seen, they are actually convincing people to give them their stuff so the corporation can charge them to get it back

let me drive the point home

America is one of the largest producers of petroleum and that product BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE, NOT to oil companies

oil companies are SUPPOSED to pay residuals for that oil back to us, and they are SUPPOSED to provide that resource to Americans

INSTEAD, they consolidated their forces and charge WHAT EVER THEY WANT, then they sell YOUR STUFF to CHINA and whoever gives THEM the most money…they POCKET my money and your money becuase they are selling our stuff, your money and our kids money and this is where we are today

Then they take YOUR money and your kids money, they buy more law with that money, they get law makers to give them more of your stuff so they can sell it back to you

these corporations took YOUR MONEY and gave it to a few politicans and you are left without your sruff

the law makers are so happy with your money that the corporation provides to them, they WRITE INTO LAW TAX GIFTS UNHEARD OF to these companies THAT ARE MAKING THE LARGEST PROFIT IN THE HISTORY OF PLANET EARTH.

so forget that rediculous GARBAGE corporations TRY to promote that markets take care of themselves

THEY DO NOT

I am SO disapointed these marketing scams work and people vote against themselves and their children

SO dissapointed

there is no doubt what so ever, only the priviledged and wealthy will get access to certain information, and even the wealthy will only get the content the provider wants them to get

and then they will be charging you for your own stuff, which is the internet

I really can’t believe the corporate marketing scam has worked on anyone at all

ugg

nobody said it;

FITZ!

Good morning, all-

Go get ‘em, Christy-I’ll be listening.

Interesting net neutrality article but I didn’t see any mention of the “tubes”.

*g*

A huge thanks to everyone for throwing out messaging ideas for me this morning. Am catching up on news and drinking coffee this morning, and having you guys point things out as well is incredibly helpful. :)

OT…but important
Brian Keeler, needs our help again…even if ya only got a fiver…please give….If he wins, thay can get a majority and do some redistricting in NY which could lead to 4 more Dem seats in the congress…Why just let the ReTHUGS do this,let’s take back our country fellow lake dwellers.
Here is the link;
http://keeler2006.com/contribute

DYN-O-MITE, Christy — can’t wait for 11:30!
Ooo, yummy. Wherever the conversation heads, you’ll be loaded for bear.

Big day for radio all around … if you haven’t heard, this afternoon’s Fresh Air will have Terry interviewing Jane Mayer on her Addington piece.

Go get ‘em, Christy! Ned was on Lehrer’s show not too long ago, so it’s a good guess that CT will come up. And Lehrer is indeed very sharp and very well prepared, but sometimes he bends so far to be “neutral,” in the MSM sense, that he drives me up the wall. Some years ago he viewed an antiwar rally in DC and came back saying “But why weren’t they carrying signs saying ‘Saddam Hussein Is a Moral Monster’?” Which leads me to think the “angry laft blogofascists” issue might come up too.

where is this radio station on the dial?

cbl- the Bin Laden desk being sold off at the great DOD sponsered CIA Yard Sale seems on the face of it so stupid. If there are some kinds of good explanations other than the “al-Qaeda isn’t so heirarchal anymore” it will be interesting to hear them. You mean after a few hundred billion here and there, it’s too expensive to be manning two separate fronts against al-Qaeda, on that deals with it spreading nature (fueled by Bush decisions) and one to further deal with specificaly the figurehead and key 9/11 planner?

I just don’t follow.

O’Reilly is something I just cannot watch, but I’m glad you did. Thanks for putting me in the litigator – Christy/lhp category – but I’m not. Talented litigators do that ‘give no quarter’ thing very well. Business hacks like me tend to have too much horse trading in us – let’s compromise this, say what I want here but with your words, etc. Generallly it works bc the best interests of everyone are in getting the deal done and you only draw lines in the sand here and there.

IOW- it’s a like Dem reaching for a deal v. a Repub going for the jugular to put us poor innocent business lawyers in the cage with the unleashed litigators. *g*

Me to me at 49 — probably should have put that in my post. Ooops.

Airs weekdays at 10AM on 93.9 FM and AM 820 and Tuesdays through Saturdays at 1AM on AM 820

WNYC info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNYC

re *ilson46201 @27: Legislatures are good at locking barn doors after horses escape.

So … is this live at 11:30 or to-be-taped-for-10am-tomorrow?

lotus at 54 — Nope — it will be live. Just heard from the radio station who called to do a land-line check for my phone that our segment will start between 11:35 am ET and 11:40 am ET.

Roger dat, Christy. Thanks.

I’ve been anticipating a comment from Google regarding net neutrality, but I expect that for them litigation is only plan A. They have been buying up networking talent and dark fiber (fiber that’s in the ground but not yet in use) for some time now in anticipation of the need to set up their own parallel parts of the network in competition with any provider who isn’t willing to “be reasonable.” God bless ‘em.

Holy shit — Ken Lay just croaked.

What does it mean to lose a primary election? In my mind, it means that voters have rejected candidate A in favor of candidate B, whom a majority of voters deemed better able to represent them in the general election.

As I understand it, though, the majority of voters are registered in Connecticut as Independent, which I believe is the equivalent of “unaffiliated.” I guess Joe is thinking that a fair amount of his support over the years has come from that segment of the voting population, and therefore, running as a petitioning candidate if he loses the primary just gives those voters the opportunity to continue to show their support for him.

That being said, however, there is an air of desperation about the campaign that I believe is going to feed on itself, and rather than buttressing support for him, is going to weaken it. Some are going to view this as an arrogant and selfish act, that makes Lieberman look like this is all about him, and not about the voters of Connecticut. Some will see it as poor sportsmanship, especially in light of Ned’s promise to support whoever wins the primary. Some will see this move as jeopardizing the other Democratic races in Connecticut, a result that should be avoided at all costs. In any event, these negative views of Joe’s maneuvering are not, in my opinion, going to result in more votes for him.

The debate tomorrow night should be very interesting, liklely to further highlight just how closely aligned Joe’s and Bush’s views are. I hope whoever is asking the questions raises the whole “petitioning candidate” issues. How Joe answers them, and how Ned responds, as well, will probably be the headline on Friday, and I expect Joe’s numbers to decline in the aftermath.

Christy – I’m streaming WNYC now, so will be all ears at 11:30 am! I know you will do your usual stellar job and look forward to an interesting interview/discussion!

Christy @ 34: Probably not enough time to read it before you go on air later this morning, but one of the seminal papers on the matter from a technical/business model perspective was David Isenberg’s “The Rise Of The Stupid Network”. You can find it at http://tinyurl.com/ltmr6. Isenberg, a former executive at Bell Labs and now a “Prosultant” (as opposed to a “consultant”), wrote it as he was becoming an apostate in the Church of AT&T.

whew, lotus– just goes to show, you never know.

wonder if there will be an autopsy…

sorry for his wife and 5 kids.

breaking on CNN

Ken Lay dead in Aspen. no details yet

angie, the autopsy will probably showed he died of fright.

if the war is brought up in the discussion, one of my pet peeves is that people will say “flawed intelligence”

the inteligence was not flawed, it was precise, the president knew in no uncertain terms that saddam was no threat

also, I would love to see a little more venom in the critisism

things like;

“the president was advised NOT to initiate the unprovoked attack in Iraq by our military generals, the finest military minds on the planet

that advise was overuled by draft dodgers like cheney, who had no military experience, training or clue.

the only people that thought diverting our resources from the fight agianst terrorism to initiate the unprovoked attack in Iraq were the sick members of the maniacle fraternity who have been trying to destabalize the middle east for a generation”

I know that’s verbose, I know the venom is not your style, but I’m just in a ranting mood.

I would avoid suffering the points with memorized data, I would hit with the comment that opens eyes like “why people vote for the party of draft dodgers” and wait for the challenge on the data.

then punish the challenge with the facts, and suffer those that have been misguided into believing the republican party stands for anything they claime

man I want to go on radio

/fantasiizing is what I’m doing

Remember:

Just don’t refer to Brian as “Lenny.”

RevDeb says:
July 5th, 2006 at 7:07 am

According to MSNBC, it was a heart attack.

Jerry Springer reporting news that Ken Lay has died.

Christy–

Go get em! We’ll be rooting for you!!

Help freep this poll! Rethugs are saying honoring soldiers by lowering the flag to half mast is making a “political statement”

http://info.detnews.com/poll/r…..ff&end

We’re close — I’d love to push this over the top, if you’ve got just a moment, it takes just 2 clicks.

From ABC News: FORMER ENRON CHAIRMAN AND CEO KEN LAY DIED TUESDAY NIGHT AFTER SUFFERING A MASSIVE HEART ATTACK (no other details available yet)

CNN International reporting Ken Lay’s closeness to the entire Bush family (père et fils) and how Lay was a top fundraiser for GWB and how the Preznit used to call him “Kenny Boy” …

You’re probably right, lotus. I’d have thought he would have died during the trial from the stress. But he surely never believed he would go to jail. wow.

And they finally brought up his relationship to W.

Guess it’s ok now for the compassion factor.

The bad guys always escape.

Give ‘em hell, Christy!

In the inspired words, slightly modified, of Bea “Maude” Arthur re the 4th of July death of Ken Lay: God got ‘im for that….

Me to me, great points you’re making this morning. ND Senator Byron Dorgan has a book upcoming about corporate greed and its ruination of America…may be a good topic for a Sunday afternoon FDL book club.

Kenny Boy died in Aspen. Doesn’t that say something about the connected roots of that entire world. Oil empires and political butt-buddies all.

GG at 69

Recommend folks go on over to this poll. Small number of people, your voice helps.

76

I viced my opoinon but there is no button to click

I finally figured out where the second click is — over to the left, the CyberSurveys button.

Taylor 65–you almost made me spew over my laptop. But should we explain who Lenny is, for the WNYC-challenged?

I wonder if we will see our supreme leader attending the funeral of I barely know the guy kenny boy.

Dang, I was really looking forward to Chimpy’s having to comment on Kenny Boy’s sentencing.

it’ll be difficult for Daddy Bush (and Babs!) to avoid going to a fellow Houstinite’s funeral. Of course, the Establishment Media wont cover it since that’d be politicizing it …

Christy,

I think it would be great if you could get Brian Lehrer to spell out the names of the FDL website and Eschaton (and if Lehrer doesn’t do it, you might want to work it into the conversation somehow).

There will be a lot of listeners to WNYC who may be unfamiliar with the progressive blogosphere. After listening to you and Duncan speak on Lehrer’s show, listeners may be curious enough to go online and check out the website. Many of them may become regulars too.

This is another phenomenal opportunity to open up your website to an even broader audience!

Good luck and have fun!!!

here’s the direct link to the poll page

http://info.detnews.com/poll/index.cfm

The bad guys always escape.

CIA Director William J. Casey leaps to mind. I still don’t believe it is his body in that grave….

also I think it should be made clear that we are now the only component of the fourth estate that is providing oversite

Also, lots of CT listeners for WNYC, I would think. It wouldn’t hurt to go beyond the “meta” analysis of the role of bloggers and dig into the specifics of why Lieberman has got to go and why Lamont is such a strong progressive candidate. The factual background of this particular race is a relevant part of the story that you will be telling Lehrer about the blogosphere. Also, at the same time, it will be helpful for CT voters to hear more background on the deep differences between Lamont and Lieberman.

GG 69
on the poll, the 3rd option should be

Yes, it makes a political statement that needs to be made.

a great point I heard sam cedar make…avtually his partner gerapolo made te point

if the president lies and 10 papers report the lie, one does not, as far as republicans are concerned that means there are 10 “liberal papers” and one ballanced..

which is of course flawed, but that is what they think, any critisism of any republican, no matter how accurate that critisism makes that source “liberal”, any crutisism of any democrat, no matter how inaccurate, makes that source “ballaned”

Christy,

Also, if you get a chance, mention the Rootz project and the NY group’s CTG action. Brings it local which the audience would appreciate.

Well it looks like The Decider doesn’t have to worry about Kenny-Boy singing any songs…you don’t think that?…nah.

More advice for Christy to consider –

You might want to give a shout out to Hillary for stepping up and saying that she will support the Democratic nominee in CT. Brian’s show reaches a large audience and I’m sure that word would get back to Hillary that her decision is appreciated. You could also note that we are still waiting to hear from Schumer – he needs to prove to us that he doesn’t value incumbents over true Democrats. If you mentioned Schumer on your show, Schumer would hear about it – and more pressure on this matter is definitely good thing.

Ditto Gilliard:

Remember, this is the man who stole the retirement of thousands of hardworking people and got to have fancy vacation homes, while people who laid pipe for 30 years in all weather have to get help from their kids.

Damn, I so wanted to see him in jail.

The orange jumpsuit would have so suited him.

Yes, it will be interesting to see who all attends the funeral & what establishment media covers it.
I wonder how that life review at the pearly gates is going for the “christian”.

don’t discard the possibility someone else already mentioned.

that this is a set up to avoid jail and the man might not be dead

ken lay:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13715925/

me to me 95

You mean that those deeply rooted Aspens have tunnels running through them? Interesting notion.

One other heads up topic – homelessness and ptsd with troops. There was a widely circulated wire service story on homelessness and vets, which is particulary an issue in NYC (mostly costs related). Nationwide they said we have over 200,000 homeless vets, 40% of those Vietnam vets. It’s disgraceful, and now we are adding to the ranks.

OT – Italy is going to be a big headache for someone. They are actually serious about digging in and stirring the pot over the kidnap of Abu Omar (”Nasr”) that ruined their investigations.
http://tinyurl.com/l59u8

They have ARRESTED two SISMI (that’s their military intel) Officers, including Marco Mancini, the director of a division.

Also 4 US warrants (they did 22 US warrants earlier and I don’t know if the 4 are completely new, or overlap that 22 with new charges?). And it sounds like on the political front there is a lot of pressure to investigate Berlusconi for his possible involvement.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth a repeat – the European press is consistently and persistently saying that the populace in these countries is not willing to let rendition go away and be swept under a rug. This seems to indicate that they may be right. With the things that have been going on, it’s not just a matter of how OUR courts interpret the laws. We need to have people who can travel internationally to address a lot of these issues. Once they start having warrants outstanding – that’s not really a good thing.

This President has been recklessly willing to put the lives of others on the line to protect his “Executive power.”

tunnels big enough to drive Lamborghinis and Ferraris through !

Lots of things cause heart attacks.

whistling to myself…

just sayin’.

Speaking of Aspen, Reed Hundt reports from there the growing possibility of McCain/Jeb in ‘08:

http://tpmcafe.com/blog/coffee…..ntimations

Oy.

Go Christy! Look forward to picking up the feed. Maybe someone can live blog it for us also?

Looks like Joe has taken lessons from the BushCo playbook. Mess around with the election process to get your way. Unable to face defeat. Insist on keeping yourself in the circuit long after anyone wants you there. He just continues to humiliate himself every day. Team Loser. This election will be a referendum on those old school dems who have taken up precious space without representing the will of the people.

Perhaps Ken Lay died of shame.

immanentize 7:33 am – okay, NOW I’m worried. When that useless piece of crap WaPo sends me a news alert about Ken Lay, it sure looks like folks had their PR plan in place well in advance. Just got this one: “Former Enron CEO Kenneth L. Lay, 64, Dies…The recently convicted co-founder and former CEO of Enron Corp. died of an apparent heart attack in Aspen, Colo.”

But NOTHING from WaPo yesterday by alert about the shuttle launch OR the North Korean missiles. You know, I think either of those are really much bigger news stories than a convicted criminal’s demise.

Go, Christy!!

Morning firepups and rabid lambshers of the left.

First, I owe someone a thank you. Couple days back, I posted a comment with a quote — but it wasn’t a link, just me retyping what someone else said. The “quote” contained more than my usual quota of typos — i.e., a lot. What can I say; I wear gloves!

The next day, looking back for something, I ran across my same post/quote, and the typos had been fixed. There was a note from someone calling themselves the “typo fairy,” or something like that. Anyway, there are some really nice people in the world who do really nice things just because that’s what they do, and I’d just like to wish them all a happy, fairy day.

McCain/Jeb? considering McCains age and health that could be a prescription for calamity …

1.202 DAYS AND THE KILLIN’ GOES ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Christy:

Go girl…but Come on, Lieberman has been a right-wing stoog (Republican) since Bill Buckly and the Nixon/McCarthy mob got ‘im elected in the first place. He’s the posterboy fer corporate, DLC neofascist politics.

KEEP THE FAITH AND DON’T TAKE ANY SHIT THIS MORNIN’!!!

calvin would like to remind Redd that cats pay particular attention to detail lest they lose a morsel. Thus, it was noted that a grammatical error was contained in the posting. Third paragraph, second sentence should have used the proper noun form. Should have been “…Atrios and me….”.

But, calvin says forgive and forget because, as a cat, he was sleeping, while you, as a human, were up at 5:30am. This is a time that only appears once on calvin’s clock. And then only sporadically.

Hmmm.
I wonder if Rove and Libby will attend Lay’s funeral?
Oh well, I’m sure they will be there in mind if not in body.

~

if libby is found guilty I wonder if he’ll have the same “heart attack” as ken…then the pres nit won’t have to pardon him

they’ll both wind up in the same mountain waiting for the armageddon the dispensationalists are trying to deliver to get done with already

McCain-Bush ‘08? My God, if even Goopers haven’t had their fill of Bushes by ‘08, they’re entirely welcome to Jeb — ’cause the other two-thirds of us surely will have.

me2me and Rayne.

It’s tin-foily, but I am reminded of the film, “Charade.” I would want to stick a pin in the guy in his open coffin.

*ilson46201 says: “considering McCains age and health that could be a prescription for calamity %u2026″
July 5th, 2006 at 7:57 am

I agree. Now think of the prognosis for Dick Cheney, given what has been discussed here in recent months about his health problems.

Christy, still catching up, so my apologies if you saw this already, but there is a very disturbing story this a.m. over at C&L, with links to JC Christion. It’s about a Jewish family essentially so ostracized in a town/school district whose local govenment had been taken over by so-called Christian extremists, that they had to move. Their personal information was published because the locals resented having the incidents challenged in court. This is in the US, Delaware. If true, this is a very disturbing story and I hope we’ll call attention to it.

Seems to me there is a link here to the kind of politics and political discourse that are becoming far too “acceptable” and tolerated by both parties.

I don’t want to stick a pin in the dead guy, I want a chromosome match to be performed by the people that own stock in enron

Scarecrow — I saw that this morning as well, and it’s appalling and so heartbreaking for the kids involved. This is not the best of who we can be — and the fact that one of the people who had been taunting the Jewish family was a local Christian minister…well, words fail me as to how disgusted I am. Jesus General did a fantastic job of tracking down information on it, and I’ll likely link it up later today when I can get time. It is absolutely appalling.

me to me,

If they come out and say it was suicide, it will be more plausible…. Let’s look for the details — where did he die? At home? No ambulance? Autopsy performed by….

I think it is reasonable to requie details. I mean, where is Whitey Bulger?

Oho–they’re following Brazile, Major Owens, oh and Eli Parisher.

Sigh. I would so have loved to hear Donna Brazile dissasembled by Christy. Though Major Owens (my congressman before I moved to Canada) is off to an okay start.

Hmmm…so apparently Ken Lay did have a heart after all…who’d a thunk it?

Yep, and dang if it didn’t rise up and smite him, Anne.

new thread

immanentize — oh, tinfoily nothing.

There’s a LOT of folks in Aspen this very week.

For an Apsen Institute conference, of all things, sold out, too. Convenient, n’est-ce pas?

And angie, I did think that about the cause of death…convenient, too, that the only guy most likely to squeal about the Energy Task Force meetings that Cheney convened inside the first 90 days of the administration is now dead of a heart attack, before he even had to serve a day in the klink for his crimes.

Wonder how Lay’s peeps in the energy industry are feeling today — the ones who also attended the same Energy Task Force meetings.

Choked up?

Al-Scooter at 101 Speaking of Aspen, Reed Hundt reports from there the growing possibility of McCain/Jeb in ‘08:

Then I would start worrying about McCain’s “heart attack” untimely death. I don’t think they could do the assassination thing again, three times in 50 years would get people connecting too many dots.

People are more involved. Why would our wonderful media report such a thing. They shouldn’t even be called media

Lehrer is great. I did his show a couple of years ago and he was engaging and had actually read my book. Radio is a wonderful way to reach people (not just for the rightwing blowhards).

Very interesting. The first segment took one call. Christie’s and Duncan’s segment took about a half dozen. Now there were four panelists in the first segment, but the second segment was more blog-like.

Well, here’s my first post (after a long residence in lurkdom):
Great job, Christie (and Duncan).
[hope to more creative next time]

jes herd the show. ye dun good, real good. tiz so grate to hear reasonabull voices on the radio, witch whut ye generly git is them rubberstamplicans in sted.

i caint hardly wait fer november, witch thays a heap of wurk yet to be dun ere then …

… witch thats jes whut yer all a’doin.

kudos!

Welcome lynx46! Come on in, the water’s fine.

Loved hearing you and Atrios and damn shame your time was so short. Lehrer wasted to much time with Donna Brazille

What klyde said–great work, Christy, but way too short.

I did not like what atrios said about taxes and I need to write a blog on “reducing taxes”

there is no such thing as “reducing taxes” there are only loans taken against future return

it is PERFECTLY FINE to TARGET a TAX INCENTIVE.

THIS IS NOT A TAX REDUVTION

tax incentives are not gifts, they are economic strategy to inspire growth in a particular ecomonic segment

THOSE ARE LOANS, AND THE LOAN HAS TO BE RETURNED FROM THE SEGMENT IT TARGETS

THAT’S the way we have to present our position on lowering taxes

we have to make it CLEAR we are FOR tax incentives and we have to make it CLEAR those insentives will be goinng to the economic segments NEED to be promoted

like ALTERNATIVE FUELS.

and we make it CLEAR the money gets RETURNED by the segment that the tax strategy targets

hmmm

I like it so far, will work on more at another time

Christy,
I was out running errands this a.m., and heard most of the Democrats converation, then sat in the driveway to hear you and Atrios. Brian Lehrer always manages thoughtful civic discourse, asks tough questions that cut to the heart of an issue, and is respectful of his guests and the folks who call in. You and Duncan were terrific, but I thought the emailed question was the best–that most people want it simple and distrust complexity, and others see shades of grey and distrust soundbites, and that fact favors ideologues over thinkers, and Republicans over Democrats.

sorry about the double post, it seems the refresh comments button didn’t show the post and I rewrote it

sorry, please delete one of those posts

Hi, this is about the Net Neutrality argument and anti-trust arguments.

I covered the AOL/Time-Warner merger back in the day for a major research advisory firm, although I don’t have specific legal background in anti-trust.

The arguments that were used for imposing the restrictions that they did centered around using subscriber information to tip technology in a certain direction, which would lead to a de facto market dominance by AOL. At the time, this concern was aimed at instant-messaging technology, specifically the idea of “presence”. Network awareness of subscribers’ presence online is central to a wide range of business models. At the time, Instant Messaging and future enhancements were the main technologies in question. AOL/TW was required to make their IM technology inter-operable if they made substantial improvements to it, such as video-conferencing.

I’m not familiar with the vertical-integration in the broadband industry any more, but that’s the other major avenue for FTC and FCC regulation. The concern is that companies that own both content production and content distribution avenues should be regulated such that these branches are mostly decoupled. This goes back to when movie studios owned movie theaters, so you could only see movies from one studio unless you had a competing studio’s theater in your town.

Thus, an anti-trust challenge to net-neutrality could take one of several forms:

On the telco side, it could be on the basis of using infrastructure designated as “essential facilities” to deliver discriminatory services. I purposely avoided this discussion because it’s very arcane, and deregulation may have changed the circumstances as I understood them. Basically, the idea is that telecommunications is viewed as a technology that is essential to society, and that it makes no sense to have competing standards, so there are regulations involving interoperability, and subsidies for rural coverage (ie, “universal service”). Essential Facilities are, pretty much by definition, content-neutral. They’re regulated on a statewide basis, and companies offering services have to file tariffs with the state regulatory authority, and the telco has to deliver a certain level of service to any company using the ‘essential facilities’.

So, an anti-trust challenge might be on the basis of misuse of ‘essential facilities’ to restrict access to certain websites.

It could also take the form of market dominance in a particular area, so that if cable modems were only available from one company, and that company restricted access to websites based on proprietary technology standards (as in the AOL-IM restrictions), that would be grounds for an anti-trust challenge.

Finally, the vertical-integration issue is a time-honored regulatory avenue in the media industry. Any time a company controls both the content production and content distribution over a geographic area, the circumstances are ripe for federal regulation on anti-trust grounds. If Comcast is the sole provider of cable-modem Internet access in an area, than regulators could look closely at websites where Comcst has an investment vs. websites where Comcast doesn’t have an investment, just as they look at TV networks in which Comcast has an investment.