Squeeze, Black Coffee In Bed…
Lots going on in the news and on the blogs this morning.
– Please make your calls on SCHIP.
– Ted Olson and Patrick Fitzgerald (yes, that Fitz) are having a lively disagreement on the Reporter’s Shield Law that is up for debate today in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both WaPo op-eds make for interesting reads. I can certainly see the agrument for rigorous press protections on first amendment grounds, while at the same time fully understand the Fitz position that allowing reporters to shield lawbreakers — in a sense becoming a component of the lawbreaking itself — is not acceptable. There is no clear line answer on this, which is why the debate is fascinating. Good reads, both of them.
– Oh look, the DOJ under Alberto Gonzales and George Bush has been issuing “bait and switch” memoranda, publicly saying one thing while secretly ordering something altogether different. This one is about torture and interrogations. But how many more of those are lingering out there on a broad range of subjects? Dick Cheney and David Addington and their ilk are leaving a legacy of cruelty, paranoia and falsehoods. Heckuva job.
– Good for Sen. Byrd, who has introduced amendments on Iran that require express Congressional approval for any action going forward. No Quarter has the details.
– Taylor has the final vote count on the Feingold amendment.
And that’s just for starters. What’s catching your eye in the news and on the blogs this morning? Pardon me while I pour another cuppa…
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Good morning!
SCHIP. That’s what has my eye. Right now my eye isn’t on anything else, really. Not much anyway. It’s gonna be tough. But gotta try.
Senator Byrd and Representive Murtha should teach classes on how to get a Spine.
Whenever they get in the news even if its only to comment on a Democratic loss its good news because its good to see that some Democrats still got some fight in them.
Any congressman who votes against SCHIP should have his/her own coverage terminated.
Mornin’ CHS. hope all is well with you and yours this AM
From the Feingold vote article
WTF the teeny pri** from CT is not a Dem. damnit
Anybody wants to know about SCHIP here’s a pretty good primer devoid of partisan rhetoric.
It’s a little long. But worth a download.
http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7675.pdf
I am SO OUTRAGED by the intentional torture rendered officially by the government of this country, I just don’t know what to say any more. I keep going back to the post by Scott Horton written a year ago “When Lawyers are War Criminals.”
I say do unto them what they did unto others.
To Brigten Your Day
Morning, Christy, FDLers.
They need to hang that emergency room comment around Bush’s neck like the mutha of all albatrosses. I know, he’s done worse, but this one should resonate.
But gotta go send some props to Byrd. Listened to Seymore Hersh on Fresh Air two nights ago. I’m still scared spitless about Iran. Hersh is saying much bigger role for the Navy in this – and I’ve got two boys in the Navy. My son just got back from the Gulf (on board the Stennis) in August, and he said they were flying missions over Iraq every day. Easy to go to Iran.
Other son, home last spring, is on board the Howard, and their primary job was guarding an oil platform. Yeah, it’s all about the democracy and the dictator. Anyway, he tells stories of Iranian vessels playing chicken. Then I hear this stuff from Hersh.
tristero has an excellent takedown of roger cohen this morning.
This is not political, but after the last thread with Celebu-harridan Ann Coulter, it certainly rang a bell with ME:
“Many women struggle with the impact of aging and pregnancy on their bodies. But the marketing of the “mommy makeover” seeks to pathologize the postpartum body, characterizing pregnancy and childbirth as maladies with disfiguring aftereffects that can be repaired with the help of scalpels and cannulae.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10…..ref=slogin
This sort of junk is another distraction for women from the realities of their lives and how threatened they are by the Bush/Cheney Administration and the Roberts Supreme Court.
RevDeb @ 7
wow. and i thought i was pissed!
I didn’t say good morning. That’s how focused I am on SCHIP. Actually, it was just rude. Sorry.
‘mornin everybody.
Things Come Undone @ 3
I think Robert Byrd is a national treasure and should be given his own personal med tech and EMT to be with him at all times. Sen. Byrd is going to be 90 — we need his strong and intelligent voice in the Senate now more than ever.
Just a quick comment, then it’s off to work for this firepup—-
Iran is on my mind. I
thinkhope the House can overturn the veto on S-CHIP, but stopping the administration on ginning up a war with Iran is my gravest concern. Good for Byrd with the amendment, but I’m skeptical that this administration would let something like an amendment stop them from starting another war.Work for peace, every day.
I know this has been mentioned before, but this sums up the administration’s hypocrisy.
I truly fear that I will wake up to the news one morning that the US has attacked Iran.
So, is the new Health Care Plan going to the emergency room and saying “Bush sent me”.
Screw Darrell Issa and the pig he road in on!
AZ Matt @ 20
Keith had this on last night. It seems that the FBI has arranged for a different security detail—not BW. Good for them.
Gonzo, the gift that keeps on giving.
‘Morning, Christy, FirePups.
What’s caught my eye — and then lit a molotov cocktail of anger and fury in my chest — is that the NCLB-mandated testing has been a freaking joke.
Texas is one of the very worst states of those tested. Digustingly, my home state has done a magnificent job of trying to test to standards idolized as part of Texas’ TAKS, the so-called “Texas miracle” upon which one moronic governor ran for president.
Rev. Deb,
As the widow of a torture survivor, I completely agree with your outrage.
It’s always been about redefining torture so that they could say “No, the US doesn’t torture.” In the real world, people are being tortured as we speak in YOUR name and in the name of EVERY American. The question is: What will every American who disagrees with torture DO about it?
Torture is ALWAYS wrong, no matter who is doing it to whom.
For Dan,
Heather
There is a NYTimes article on the cal electoral initiative smacked down by the Democrats. This is a big victory and indicative of what the goopers 2007-8 electoral seasons. While the goopers think they can divide people by hammering around the edges with Big Pharma etc..and getting media attention for their fake support of the military. They are having their asses handed to them on playing fields they previously dominated
“The effort to kill the initiative — executed with a swift fierceness almost unheard of for an initiative in such an early stage — has been led by a bevy of Clinton supporters, including a former Clinton White House official, prominent elected Democratic supporters and one of Mrs. Clinton’s most prolific fund-raisers.
“Clinton’s people have taken the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military strikes against hostile nations and applied it to domestic campaigns,” said Bruce E. Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “As for Giuliani, he was trying to fight under the radar, and it must be clear to him now that that will not work with Hillary.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10…..mp;hp& oref=slogin
AZ Matt @ 20
They have no decency, no morals, no scruples and because they have none they are the most dangerous. I echo RevDem #7
This is what caught my eye this morning:
So, who on the Hill knew and when? Any reporters out there?
I was at a Security Convention in New Orleans a couple of years ago and Blackwater was set up a couple of booths away from us.Their booth was busy all day long. They had a very very large screen set up and it was a virtual reality game in which you are given a gun and on the screen are situations in which you have to try to get the bad guys without killing hostages. The situations were so intense. I stepped in and did one where there was a hostage situation in a school. It was so real. I did good and got a Blackwater t-shirt.
Oct 17- SHUT IT DOWN. Stay home.
A true non-violent method of redress!
Good morning from L.A. Just read the NY Times’ interrogation expose. This graph caught my eye-
“Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.”
We feel the shame. Those who didn’t resign in disgust seem to be beyond feeling anything on this, except maybe pride of accomplishment.
When I consider what has been & is being done in our names, I don’t know…words fail.
Chacounne,
My heart goes out to you.
The opening quote in the Horton piece:
Mornin’ Christy!
Just starting to go through the morning papers online and such but have to admit that the thing that has caught my eye this AM is how well Jane pushed the right’s buttons about Rush and the Fat Lady singing for the boil on the body politic.
ccmask @ 28
Gotta ask the question – do you use the Blackwater t-shirt to go undercover? They’d never guess you were a DFH with one of those on…..
FishGuyDave at 27 — That caught my eye as well. Am wondering if this was what Feingold may have been digging at a bit with Goldsmith the other day in their “gang of eight” colloquy? And I’m wondering how many more of those locked away, handwritten letters from Jay Rockefeller to Dick Cheney there may be? It sucks to start thinking down that path, but there you go…
Thanks for the updates Christy.
As a citizen I want to be protected from
Journalist like Judy Miller who was clearly willing to use unsubstantiated intelligence (terribly immoral) to promote an illegal and unnecessary war. Robert Novak took part in outing a CIA undercover agent whose job was deeply involved with US National Security. Bob Woodward actively undermined Fitz’s Federal investigation of the outing of Plame, while knowing he was the first reporter contacted by a Bush administration official. Far too many examples of Journalist abusing their positions, undermining National Security and seriously ABUSING their journalistic priviliges. (clearly American soldiers and the Iraqi people needed protection from Judy Millers WMD lies)
After reading a great deal (indictments and other documents) about the Franklin Rosen Weismann espionage case, and finding out that as Rosen was being handed classified intelligence having to do with Iran Rosen was taped saying “I am sure glad the US does not have an OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT”. Rosen knew that if the US had an OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT (which the U.K has and has only used it sparingly) he could more easily be held accountable for receiving classified intelligence from US officials and journalist.
Our nation and the American people need more protection from journalist like Judy Miller, Woodward , and Novak NOT LESS. (so do the Iraqi people and others around the world)
Journalist have basically shut down the discussion on the possibility of an Official Secrets Act here in the states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Secrets_Act
Go Fitz! Go Senator Byrd!
gotta go to work. Back later
leinie @ 33
Actually, I’ve never worn the shirt. They also had one of their hummers there which, if you can imagine, came equipped with a whole lot of extras. They must be good–or something–because it is hard as hell to get on the governments bid list. :))
RevDeb @ 31 –
i’m outraged too. in my dreams they are all tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity…. and the guilty are locked up for the rest of their lives to contemplate what they have done.
CHS Senator Feingold’s name is spelled incorrectly upstairs
RevDeb. at 31
Thank you.
You are absolutely right about the World War II parallel. We said never forget, but too many have.
Sadly,
For Dan,
Heather
Myanmar junta tightens screw on dissenters
“They’re looking for the people who led the demonstrations. The people clapping will only get a minimal punishment — maybe two to five years,” said Win Min, who fled to Thailand during a crackdown on a student-led uprising in 1988.
Leaders could be looking at up to 20 years behind bars, he said…”
selise @ 37
Like your dreams…dreams of justice
Good morning, firepups!
The SCHIP votes by those dimwits who think young children should be cannon fodder for their war on “socialism” just make me furious. We need to hang that around the neck of each and every one of them and particularly target their seats. Fah!
I’ve been wondering about the fact that Debra Cagan seems to have some involvement in the non-proliferation system, and isn’t it an amazing coincidence that she makes such a perfect opposite to Valerie Plame who’s career, before it was trashed, was also stopping the spread of WMD.
It makes me wonder whether Ms. Cagan knew Ms. Wilson and, well you can see the possibiities just go on and on right?
Christy Hardin Smith @ 34
Unfortunately, we’re at the point where almost nothing is seemingly beyond this crew. If that’s where Feingold was going, he needs to remember that the majority of the public (and the press, for that matter) doesn’t do subtlety.
Kathleen @ 35 -
i don’t want an official secrets act. that’s the kind of thing that prevents the pentagon papers from being printed (and would have sent daniel ellsberg to prison for 100 years). i want reporters like risen and priest to be protected.
somehow we’ve got to figure out how to differentiate between whistle blowers and propagandists. but so long as we can’t, i say protect them both and leave it to civil society (and not the legal system) to out the propagandists.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/….._1003.html
Leahy asks AG nominee: Will you block contempt charges?
The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked President Bush’s attorney general nominee whether he would block criminal contempt proceedings against current and former
administration officials
Go Leahy!
kathleen — thanks — will fix it. Was operating on too little coffee this morning. Reading about Burma now and feeling miserable. What a mess the world is in…and what an awful muddle trying to find any solutions. SIGH…
the San Franciso papers are carrying the story that the rightwing is once again suggesting the Bay area fall into the ocean although the fault is one of charter company incomptency not a political statement
Some of the 200 Marines on board wanted to meet and greet family and friends at the Oakland passenger terminal before continuing on to their base in Hawaii, but that request wasn’t made in advance by the military’s charter airline, North American Airlines, or its ground handler, Hilltop Aviation, said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..USILJ6.DTL
also 2007 elections are coming up –let state and local goopers know how you really feel
Hi Christy! Got my coffee here…. I love these morning chats!
I wanted to bring to your attention something interesting re: former federal judge Mukasey.
As I was reading thru the AP yesterday seeing the letter writing between Leahy and Fielding and scratching my head per usual…I did a little research. Lo and behold I found a case the judge had ruled on that was very compelling….really, I was so surprised. Don’t know if you remember the case of “Symbol Susan”. Her real name was Susan Lindauer….
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.or…..63614/4095
I am now heartened…this man has a code. Hopefully he’ll pass that on to the rest of the
Bush administration.
ccmask @ 27
I’m amazed they did not follow up and try to recruit you.
Chacounne @ 23
Candidates for president should be asked: “If elected, will you, as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer, investigate war crimes committed by U.S. personnel, including governmental officials?” Nobody will receive my vote unless he/she provides an unambiguous affirmative answer.
Watt4Bob @ 43
Ah, we are back to the mysterious Ms Debra “I only look like this because my ponytail is too tight” Cagan…jeeze, I wish I could find out what hole she crawled out of. All I can find out is that she seems to have an extensive background in Russian/Eastern Europe/former Soviet States stuff. And, that she’s been around State and Defense for a loooong time. Can’t find a thing about where she went to school, etc.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 47
I am certainly not a person who should be pointing out such a thing , but knew you would want to know.
The death and brutality can be terribly depressing. I have come to realize via many relationships with people older than me (I am 55) who have been committed to peace and justice issues for 50,60,70 years ,that my being aware of these issues is a dot on the screen. Many of these older folks, Art and Peggy Gish, Pete Hill, Prof Whealey, Prof Gifford Doxsee and many more have taught me through example that peace and justice are lifetime commitments.
CHS
In the grand scheme of things this might not rank up in the top tier, but it is relevant. From ThinkProgress:
“Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog group, is arguing that U.S. troops are being force-fed Christianity. MRFF is planning to file a series of lawsuits “to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense.”
Two words: Peter Pace
Kathleen @ 34
If the U.S. had an Official Secrets Act, we’d probably still not know about the FISA violations.
selise @ 45
Journalist in this country have been successful at shutting down the dialogue or scaring the bee jeebers out of people (the few who are even aware of such an act) in the states about an OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT. If you read more about the Act it has only been used in the most extreme cases of abuse. (Millers abusive reporting would probably qualify and it was extreme) Novaks abuse was also extreme.
ccmask @ 27
I wonder if they set one up for Bush somewhere so that he can feel like he’s a real tough guy and not just a pretend cowboy who’s scared of horses.
Don’t know if this has already been posted, but it definitely caught my eye this morning. From alternet.org (includes some graphic images):
What a War on Iran Might Look Like [Photo Essay]
Morning Outrage:
These despicable liars, who’ve tortured both people and language, are going to drive up everybody’s blood pressure. Not a good thing in a nation that lacks universal healthcare.
I’m trying to figure out how to balance outrage and peace of mind. But it’s not easy in a nation unhinged from laws and logic.
Kathleen @ 57
Kaathleen,
Aftr the abuses of the last seven years, are you still so trusting as to think that this admin or any like it would use an “Official Secrets Act” as discreetly and sparingly as the British?
With an Official Secrets Act, Valerie Plame’s identity would still have been leaked with no more repercussions than we have already seen. But there would have been even more aggressive prosecution of the Abu Ghraib, warrantless wiretapping and all the other whistle blower leaks that have given us the info that we DO have.
Official Secrets Act is anathema to the First Amendment.
Kathleen @ 57
I still believe that both Novak and Miller clearly knew they were supporting a crime — in Miller’s case, in spite of the fact that she did not write about it. Novak knew he was writing about an “operative”, and Miller knew it would be awfully unusual for someone of Libby’s stature to simply take a couple hours of time out for breakfast with her, without some specific agenda.
There is no First Amendment protection for allowing one’s self to become an accessory to a crime, and failing to report it.
Kathleen @ 56
no, kathleen. i look at how it IS USED TODAY in the u.k., which does have an official secrets act. i want NOTHING to do with that. we are very lucky not to have such an oppressive law on the books and i want to keep it that way.
seriously – look at how it has been used in the UK and then tell me you still think it’s a good idea…. would write more, but gotta get my car to it’s appointment at the dealer.
From the Boston Herald:
The Quincy soldier mysteriously slain by a bullet to the head on a secure Afghanistan airbase feared something might happen to her after discovering “something she didn’t like,” her devastated family revealed.
Massachusetts National Guard Spc. Ciara Durkin, 30, was found with a single gunshot wound to her head behind a building at Bagram Airbase on Sept. 27.
Rayne @ 61
and if the “crime” is protecting whistleblowers who tell about fisa violations and torture and secret prisons and rendition and lying a country into war?
no thanks.
shoot… hate to leave in the middle of a good conversation but i’m gonna be late, catch you-all later.
Jobless claims jump by 16,000
The Labor Department reported a total of 317,000 applications for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week. It was the biggest gain since jobless claims rose by 18,000 during the week of May 9.
The rise was bigger than analysts had been expecting and could be a further sign that the labor market is slowing under the impact of the worst slump in housing in 16 years and a severe credit crunch that roiled global markets in August.
ccmask @ 63
The culling continues…
Wigwam read more about the ACT and how it has been used. Maybe you have, but through my reading and understanding it has only been used in the most extreme cases.
So do you think Journalist who abuse their priviliges should not be held accountable? How has Judy Miller really suffered any serious consequences for her “deadly” reporting. How has Robert Novak really been held accountable for seriously undermining US National Security by being willing to go along with the “Take Plame out” Bush administration team?
We will probably never know how seriously her outing effected our national security. Will we ever have access to the Official Damage Assessment report? The word goes that it will take 10 years for the intelligence community to recover from her outing, and that other undercover agents and some that some people around the world associated with those agents have also been killed .
All of those who participated in her outing should be held accountable with far more serious consequences.
Hell Ari Fleisher is back out on the streets pushing for another war, instead of being in jail where he belongs.
dakine01 @ 60
That is not my understanding of the Act
kdh22 @ 54
and as I recall, this also connects to the whole Air Force Academy religious freedom case as well.
twolf1 @ 65
And just last week the gov’t was claiming there was a slight decrease in jobless claims. I suppose that could be true, but there is a lag (6 wks, I think) between the time one is laid off and the time he can file for unemployment. I suspect the number of jobless will continue to climb over the next several weeks. Many housing industry employees and financial services employees are being laid off as we speak. Gonna get ugly…1929 part deux.
For the dial-up challenged (like moi) or if you missed it for whatever reason, e&p has a most excellent verbal description of how Jon Stewart sawed tweety off at the knees:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp…..1003650576
Note to tweety:
What goes ’round *does* occasionally come ’round. a.k.a. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
*G*
ccmask, did you see that John Dean is speaking in Escondido Sunday? Performing Arts Center at 2:30. $50.
Waccamaw @ 71
Some refuse to accept these facts of life, to their demise. Tweety will commence kissing ass at levels to which we’ve never seen. I didn’t think it was possible, but I’ll be proven wrong. *g*
So if through reading and becoming better informed about the “Official Secrets Act” the public was completely against such and act due to the possibility that the first amendment would be eroded.
How can the American people, our National Security and others around the world be protected Journalist who seriously abuse their journalistic privileges which have caused serious harm to lives and National Security?
How can Journalist who knowingly participate in such abuses suffer more serious consequences?
Waccamaw @ 71
Oh. Ouch. Poor Chris – there must not be a single square inch of his pudgy hide that doesn’t have a sting mark on it. Love Jon Stewart.
Waccamaw @ 71
I think they were both hitting below the belt and Stewart started the sword fight. I thought Stewart looked like a chicken shit when he would not agree to coming on Hardball. Proved that he can dish it out but turned into a coward when he was challenged.
Round three, commie airport spits on vets:
Oakland Trib
Loo Hoo. @ 73
He’s on a conference call tonight with the SoCal ACLU.
selise @ 65
selise, there is the Whistleblower Protection Act to rely upon; we do need beef up the WPA, but whistleblowing clearly has a different intent than criminal behavior.
What were Novak’s and Miller’s intentions, based on their actions? What were the motivations of the people they supported in their chosen behaviors?
This was in no way whistleblowing.
Kathleen @ 76
Keep in mind Jon Stewart is on Comedy Central (emphasis on ‘comedy’). Stewart did agree to go on Tweety’s show. Maybe he will call Tweety a ‘dickhead’ like he did Sucker Carlson.
raven @ 77
Some of the 200 Marines on board wanted to meet and greet family and friends at the Oakland passenger terminal before continuing on to their base in Hawaii, but that request wasn’t made in advance by the military’s charter airline, North American Airlines, or its ground handler, Hilltop Aviation, said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..USILJ6.DTL
Fire the charter company. It was their error and had nothing to do with anything else
Kathleen @ 76
I respectfully disagree with you Kathleen. I thought he stuck to his premise that Life Is Not A Campaign. Where’s the soul?
He doesn’t have to go on Matthew’s show. He’s not on a Book Tour.
Many people here and elsewhere have wondered why Chris seems to flip flop and I think the interview showed what his motivation is. Just tell people what you think they want to hear.
Kathleen @ 77
A common failing among theoretical liberals
Last night Stewart was great
Tweey and Blackwater
“I think they were both hitting below the belt and Stewart started the sword fight. I thought Stewart looked like a chicken shit when he would not agree to coming on Hardball. Proved that he can dish it out but turned into a coward when he was challenged.”
lmao you did mean that to be funny….right?
be sure and see the Specularium from the same show where Stewart insults the entire Nerfball Lineup it’s hardly hardball if you don’t keep score
Kathleen @ 6:35 -
Since I didn’t actually see the interview, I can’t evaluate the nuances so, with that caveat, have to respectfully disagree with you. Tweety came on to flog his new book and got asked some tough (not gotcha) questions. Quel dommage! Ain’t no reason why Stewart has to agree to go stick *his* head in a noose he knows will be preprepped.
jmho.
Kathleen @ 77
I don’t blame Stewart a bit for not wanting to go on Hardball. Remember his appearance on CNN’s now-defunct pundit program Crossfire where he was forced to tell them he wasn’t going to be used as their monkey? You know Tweety would do just that, and Stewart has no obligation to make himself Tweety’s pet monkey for the day.
Why Tweety would go on Stewart’s show is very telling; couldn’t he see that he’d be Stewart’s monkey, of sorts? If we had any doubts before that Tweety was stupid, his appearance on TDS should have clinched it.
If it wasn’t stupidity that drove Tweety, it was surely a combination of vanity and hubris — a toxic combination, as Crossfire’s demise showed.
Waccamaw @ 86
Tweety couldn’t touch Stewart on his best day.
Why Tweety would go on Stewart’s show is very telling; couldn’t he see that he’d be Stewart’s monkey, of sorts? If we had any doubts before that Tweety was stupid, his appearance on TDS should have clinched it.
Pure and simple, he’s shilling his bullshit book and it’s publicity. Most people think he’s a moron anyway.
Res. SCHIP
Is there a list of the most likely votes to switch in the House? My two congressers both voted the correct way.
raven @ 90
Last night after the DFA Meetup at the local bookstore, we turned copies of the Coulter-geist’s book upside down and backwards.
We just laughed at Tweety’s. What a waste of trees, labor and fuel to print and ship.
raven -
Tweety couldn’t touch Stewart on his best day.
True, dat! Score one for the light side.
The KC Star has short comments from various KC area reps and MO/KS senators, reacting to Bush’s SCHIP veto. The best reaction IMHO comes from Claire McCaskill (D-MO): “Why would the president veto the Children’s Health Insurance Program but support Medicare Part D (the prescription drug benefit)? Simple . . . the insurance corporations and drug companies got a cut. . . . When big corporations stood to profit, the president had no problem expanding insurance coverage even for multimillionaires.”
She takes Bush’s jab about expanding government, and deftly turns it back on him, twisting the knife as she goes.
Pivot and attack. That’s how it’s done.
Kathleen @ 76
I thought Stewart’s refusal to go on Hardball was humourous and part of the act. It’s not to be taken seriously.
Morning gang. Up early writing exams and trolling for articles about reactions to Alaska political corruption. The latter being far easier, that comes first!
More local election results from around the state – Tuesday was an election day – with progressives and mavericks tired of corruption winning:
The former city manager of Seward, fired last year after he raised questions about a land deal involving Sen. Ted Stevens and the Alaska SeaLife Center, was overwhelmingly elected mayor of the town Tuesday.
Where I live, Tuesday’s election saw losses by wingnut incumbents to progressives or moderates in borough elections, for the second year in a row, and the overwhelming defeat of a wingnut initiative to tie the hands of government in land use decisions.
Got down to about 26 degrees overnight, but we pulled all the vulnerable stuff from the garden yesterday.
Waccamaw @ 92
I am the Wax Man
coo coo coo choob
Story I would like to see
Since Coulter supports Romney shouldn’t someone ask him about his position on repealing the 19th amendment
Peterr @ 93
You know, if it weren’t for Roy Blunt and his ilk, Missouri wouldn’t be a bad place. :)
katherine Graham Cracker @ 98
Romney, the flip flopper, would no doubt support some of his wives voting but not others
Re: Shield law.
If Ted Olson is for it, it is bad. He is part of the BushCo Gang that Hates America.
Toby Wollin @ 14
And, in addition, Byrd is one of the rare testimonies to how humans can redeem themselves.
Ed*ard Teller @ 96
Very good news, ET. Very.
Will have to do some homework on the land use initiatives; there is a lot of money being pumped into that by far-right elements, and I believe they are trying to do just that, keep government from getting involved in land use.
Rayne @ 91
On Coulter’s book, the best retort I’ve been able to think of is the if you rescinded the white male vote there’d never be another war. (She argues that women’s votes should be rescinded to destroy the Dparty.)
Loo Hoo. @ 72
Is that California? I’m in Florida.
Another oversight hearing on Iraq chaired by my guy Henry Waxman starting shortly on CSPAN3.
Rayne -
I’m shocked, shocked! I say……. to think that you would stoop to such dark side tactics. ;-) Keep up the good work. *g*
Fresh thread, up and running for everyone.
Kathleen @ 67
We already have the espinage act, and the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. I don’t understand why nobody has been prosecuted under those laws, except that both require that the government prove knowledge and intent, and both are difficult to prove.
eCAHNomics @ 101
I’ve always thought that one of the true measures of an intelligent life form is the ability to recognize mistakes and make changes. Byrd is a great example of that. he’s not my senator, but damn, I’d love to claim him for my own.
albert fall @ 100
You can say that again. Judy Miller has also been pushing the Shield law. Lordie we do not need to give the Judy Millers any more protection to do serious harm to other people or to our National Security
This caught my eye
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories…..8739.shtml
Clara Durking, a finance specialist in the National Guard, found dead from a single gunshot to the head after telling her family to be suspicious if ‘anything happened’ to her.
Not the usual words of comfort from a war zone.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 97
Why do you say that Mitt wants to repeal the 19th amendment?
Glad to see some Coulter update. I was repulsed that the TOday Show gave her a big chunk of its lead-in first hour. I tuned out, so I do not know what she said. But why is she an authority on anything? I think she is still be investigated for the voter fraud charge. Shame on TODAY; Meredith should know better than to share air time with skinny, liar slime.
mack @ 111
mack,
see me @66. I truly believe that it is goin’ down like that.
I want SCHIP to pass but I still wonder why in the hell the Congress is basing the funding of the program on a tax on cigarettes while at the same time the government is discouraging smoking. Doesn’t anyone else think this is strange?
Kathleen @ 110
The shield laws are designed to protect whistleblowers who leak Government misdeeds, but in Plame’s case BushCo turned the tables and leaked to punish a whistleblower. Because we don’t have a shield law, Judge Tatel was able to go against precedent and his own standard policies and jail Judy Miller in this unusual case.
Had there been an official secrets Act, Fitzgerald might have been able to prosecute more of the participants, but they’d surely have received a presidential pardon.
IMHO, the case of Mordechai Vananu is the sort of thing that would happen here under Republican administrations if we had an official-secrets act.
ccmask @ 18
I love it!!!!!!!!
aquarius at 115 — Only a portion of the funding — for an increase in children covered — comes from an increased tobacco tax. The other funding comes from other governmental income streams and existing revenue. It’s not solely funded that way — by design — because the income is unpredictable. Because the Iraq mess is costing so much, to add more children into the program, there had to be income pulled in from a variety of sources, and a tobacco tax is only a part of that.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 118
Thanks for clearing this up. Most articles would have you believe the cigarette tax is the sole funding. I still think it odd that any of this program comes from a tax on something the government wants to stop, but if the children receive health then I guess it is well worth it. And by the way, no one has still mentioned the fact that in addition to Bush’s veto, he authorized a bill which reduces child support payments. The National Defense Bill he signed in 2005 duns anyone receiving over $500 “to help reduce the deficit”. So in addition to not having insurance for your child, if you are receiving child support you also have a reduced income. Bush is one compassionate guy. (not)
Hi all,
Not a regular chatter here but I always had a nose for where the kool kids hung out.
The original question was what’s catching your eye today, and I must say, since I saw this last night I’ve been kinda stuck on it and thought it could use a bump. Credit eBaum’s World, whatreallyhappened and TV42:
Texas legislators caught at voter fraud on video. http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/39986/
Rock on.
ChuckD
I thought that was a young Tucker Carlson!
Dude doesn’t really look like him if you watch the video, but he does in that still image.
selise @ 45
Patrick Fitzgerald also wants nothing to do with an Official Secrets Act. He went out of his way to avoid using the Espionage Act to prosecute the leaks of Valerie Plame’s classified CIA affiliation. [wigwam @ 108 - prosecution under the Espionage Act would have been far easier than under the IIPA - but there is a long-standing ‘understanding’ (by those of good faith) in DOJ that it will not be used as a de facto Official Secrets Act in the way that it technically (and inadvertently) does permit.]
What is so crucial for the Senate Judiciary Committee to internalize and factor in to this “Reporter Shield” debate is that we now have a corporate-profit-targeted (to the exclusion of the greater public good where that good conflicts with profits) news media.
The Judy Millers won’t be the ones getting “shielded” – the parent corporations of the employers of reporters will be the ones shielded. And those parent corporations have deep pockets. Rupert Murdoch now owns Dow Jones – the deep-pocketed entity that has been doing the heavy lifting in defending “first amendment press freedom” in court for years now. [Dow Jones filed successfully with an Appeals Court to have some more of the formerly-sealed government affidavits in the Plame reporter subpoena cases released this year, in the name of ‘the public’s right to know’ - and then promptly failed to publicly release the information it had paid attorneys to get unsealed. Instead, blogger Marcy Wheeler at TNH - at her own expense - did the leg work in D.C. to actually get the two newly-unredacted affidavits into the public domain, after Dow Jones (and all other for-profit members of the media) failed to do so.]
Many or most of these “first amendment” arguments are basically corporate bottom-line-protecting arguments and not in the least concerned with better informing the citizenry, in this day and age of FOX “News” and widespread propaganda. It is absolutely vital that our Members of Congress recognize and appreciate how corrupted the ‘public common’ of information exchange has become, at least where the vast majority of nationally-prominent “reporters” are concerned, because of the preeminent corporate profit concerns of the outfits that employ those reporters.
What gets missed in this debate is that a “Reporter Shield” law is (or should be) fundamentally about protecting honest, good faith whistleblowers from prosecution (thereby keeping their important leaks flowing to the media and thus to the public). It’s not about helping your partisan pals inside government get their preferred ’spin’ on selected classified information into the public domain. Right? So, in my opinion and in line with what Rayne indicates @ 79, it is the good faith whistleblowers who need and deserve this protection and exemption from prosecution – directly, not indirectly through a Reporter Shield Law that would exempt reporters from testifying to federal grand juries. It is “national security” (i.e., federal classified information leak) whistleblowing that must be focused on, and the protections for good faith exposure of wrongdoing are what must be strengthened dramatically – in tandem with a thorough review and overhaul of the extremely excessive amount of classification of information that’s being done by our federal government.
It is the over-broad classification of information that diminishes the import of classification in the most sensitive and necessarily-secret situations of government activity. If “national security secrets” were classified only when they actually needed to be – such classified information would be treated with much more respect and sensitivity when more rarely encountered, than is the case now, in the current ‘classified by default’ environment.
So, Congress: Protect the real heroes here – the honest whistleblowers in our federal bureaucracy – not the unaccountable corporations who want to exempt their reporter employees from testifying – as all citizens must now do, equally before the law – to federal grand juries who are investigating potential criminal activity about which those reporters may have pertinent information.
Badwater @ 57
That raises a very nasty question: is Bush also afraid of Hummers?
Peterr @ 93
Bravo! Bravo!
Keep in mind Jon Stewart is on Comedy Central (emphasis on ‘comedy’). Stewart did agree to go on Tweety’s show. Maybe he will call Tweety a ‘dickhead’ like he did Sucker Carlson. twolf1
Amy Goodman on Democracy Now this a.m. ran a clip from the Daily Show last night. Stewart apologized to Jeremy Scahill for his interview of the “Blackwater” author, and invited Scahill back on the show.