Agreed about Friedman(!) We know lotsa people quite impressed with him, but I could never understand why, to put it mildly.

Our local newspaper, which used to be terrific, was taken over when Knight-Ridder was split up.
It used to, and still does carry Friedman occasionally fwiw, but has steadily been dropping down to less and less real progressive op-ed material.

Earlier this week, they slammed us with a blatant neocon op-ed screed covering almost half a page. (entitled, “Election, schmelection. Neocons rule,” by our local paper – maybe showing a bit of life remaining in the old editorial staff after all, heh) by Joshua Muravchik (”resident scholar” at AEI). Supposedly 1st published in the WPost under different title.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01474.html

Main gist of the piece-a-trash was to claim the midterm elections will merely necessitate a few mid-course corrections (one being rummy’s departure). “But neocon ideas are unlikely to be jettisoned – either by Bush or his successor – until a viable replacement is found. So far, there is none.”

Surely Newt’s pie-in-the-sky-talk and that article are linked. no? Disgusting! Just down right loony! (and that’s being unfair to real loons)

Keep up the good fight, fellow progressives. The thing’s still squirming. Whack it again for good measure. Then pass the shovels and we’ll try to clean up the mess they’ve left. Where to start?! sigh.

Sorry, but us locals know the real Sylvestre (spelled with a Y) a bit better than the beltway types. His love for the Border Patrol dates back to the days when his grandparents farmed in west El Paso County. They were infamous for treating their undocumented workers as if they were less than human, and from time to time siccing the BP on them if they got too rambunctious.

whew. Thanks for the information. ;(

Fox commits copyright fraud

Wow, now there’s an example of an authoritarian system attempting to influence the autonomous nature of the Internet if I’ve ever seen one! Great find, thanks.

Holt Statement On Appointment of Rep. Silvestre Reyes as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
(West Windsor, N.J.) – Rep. Rush Holt D-NJ) today issued the following statement on Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi’s selection of Rep. Silvestre Reyes to serve as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence:

“I’m delighted Speaker-elect Pelosi has selected my friend and colleague, Silvestre Reyes, to be the new chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. As a Vietnam combat veteran and senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, Silvestre has a clear understanding of the costs of war and the sacrifices our troops are making daily in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. His 26 years of experience in the Border Patrol give us a chairman who understands the challenges we face in securing our borders. I have admired his work on the Intelligence Committee, and I look forward to working with him to do what we must to protect America and its people.”

selise @ 32

twolf1 @ 25

CNN – Pelosi chooses Reyes as House Intel Leader

thanks… wow, that’s news. any background on reyes?

Silvestre Reyes

Reyes has (0.00 / 0)
absolutely no meaningful experience in intelligence matters. There is considerable evidence that he is basically an opportunistic shit with a republican lite philosophy.

A poor choice, and one calculated to show the country that we not only grow pendejos unabashadly, but export them as well.
by: Jesus B. Ochoa @ Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 23:59:07 PM CST

The two (0.00 / 0)
truly ugly votes (there were others) were for the credit card bill and Cheney’s energy bill. Beyond this, he’s made a family business of his position, helping his daughter secure a multi million dollar contract for border devices (lights, among others) that would help trap immigrants – but the things never worked. She was under investigation, but don’t know what the results were. He installed his brother as head of a local water district at better than 100 grand per year, whose only qualifications were that he was a former deputy sheriff.

He was widely despised as a hard-nosed border patrol sector chief when he first ran. Jose Sanchez, former Rep. Ron Coleman’s chief of staff, ran when his boss fell victim to the congressional bank mini-scandal. Ron had been a hugely effective congress critter. Jose suffered from name recognition, and lost to
Reyes by only 975 or so votes.

On the Sunday before the election, Reyes, his family and paid pals stuck flyers attacking Sanchez as being pro abortion under the windshield wipers of cars at Mexican-American Catholic churches. Jose, of course, was pro-choice. The whole Reyes family are something else. Reyes is our local Bonilla or Cuellar, take your choice.

Whoops – actually, Bonilla represents a tiny slice of El Paso County, the northeast side, widely regarded as the home of our resident yahoos.

by: Jesus B. Ochoa @ Wed Nov 29, 2006 at 13:15:56 PM CST

The above are two posts of mine on Burnt Orange Report, a political site run by U of Texas kids.

Reyes is an opportunistic, amoral pile of crap who has made a family business of his seat in Congress.

He is popular only with rednecks and conservative Mexican-Americans and Blacks in his district.

Pelosi caved to the “Hispanic” caucus, and she should be ashamed.

Weirdly, it doesn’t seem to be working out so well for them, does it?

Never underestimate the power of the Darkside.

Anybody see Mona Charen on Washington Journal this morning?

From the administration to conservative journalists, the right wing in America is so clueless as to American principles, they come right out and say the press should be a propaganda tool and that any criticism of the president or policies found in the media is anti-American and aiding the enemy.

Such is the mentality of people who think reality is a pliable, relative state to be manipulated to fit one’s agenda or outright dismissed and discredited if it doesn’t.

Lest we forget, the quote that told us all we needed to know;

“The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Weirdly, it doesn’t seem to be working out so well for them, does it?