Caw, caw! Good morning, Scarecrow.

The Dems, hoping to garner some of that oil industry money, will cave on off-shore and ANWR drilling. The list of prospective pink slip recipients among the greedy Dems grows longer with each day.

Mornin’, Scarecrow.

Mornin’, egregious

Am glad to see NPR covering the story this morning… so the rest of the country knows about this.

Mornin’ Scarcrow..where’s the Raven…been a sighting lately?

Has Johnny McTeleprompter found an oil refinery to stand in front of for a photo-op that isn’t spewing oil all over the hahbah (’harbor’ for those who aren’t used to the Maine accent)? Bah hahahahahahaha!

Good morning everyone.

I have not seen Raven in a while, and I’m sorry for that.

Okay, going to work. Have yourselves a great day and don’t stop pointing out how Johnny McTeleprompter is the “Sen. Ted Stevens” candidate on the republican ticket! If you want the ‘culture of corruption’ to continue, vote for Johnny.

Which story were they hitting on NPR?

I suppose yesterday’s news takes Ted Stevens off the McCain campaign’s short list for VP.

That’s a pity for poor John, because standing next to Stevens, McCain looks spry, young, and honorable.

With such images coming from the McCain campaign, Barack Obama may not need to campaign much.

It’s all about race and that’s going to be a near thing. If things collapse between now and November, perhaps even the most devoted bigot will vote his self interest ahead of his prejudice. It’s too early for Obama to rent tails.

Stroke or infarct, here I [McCain] come; rage is hollowing my already hollow self still further.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap.

Say, Pups, do you think McC might be on his way to giving the Mark of Cain new meaning?

Top O’ the mornin’ to early rising Firepups!

AP: Associated Press Assorted Pastries

Liz “Sprinkles” Sidoti, and all the other D’oh-nuts that work there.

OT –

10 am Senate Judiciary Committee – Politicized Hiring at the Department of Justice”

10 am House Armed Services – Implications of SCOTUS Boumediene Decision for Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

10:15 am House Judiciary Committee – “A resolution and report finding Karl Rove in contempt for failure to appear pursuant to subpoena and recommending to the House of Representatives that Mr. Rove becited for contempt of Congress”

I hereby put you in charge of McCain’s search committee. I was thinking of Richard Perle, given his foreign policy and business experience.

Dana Milbank has a hit piece on the “presumptuous nominee” in WaPo this morning.

Thanks much Selise, as always. Is the Rove contempt hearing on CSPAN?

Morning all.
KBR electrical malfeasance under the spotlight at congress today
We sure have been getting a bang for our buck under these yahoos

Dana Milbank has a hit piece on the “presumptuous nominee” in WaPo this morning.

My wet suit has sprung a leak, so I cannot wade in WP shit this morning. Why ruin what is looking to be a pleasant day? :-(

Good Morning Scarecrow

caw-CAW indeed!

Obama, on the other hand, is running for the Presidency by preparing to govern the country, run its foreign policy and deal with Bush’s economic mess. He’s mostly ignoring McCain’s insults, except to have his campaign issue statements setting the record straight — and finally getting some help when the media does it’s job.

I suppose yesterday’s news takes Ted Stevens off the McCain campaign’s short list for VP.

That’s a pity for poor John, because standing next to Stevens, McCain looks spry, young, and honorable.

lmao!

another great piece scarecrow!

a comment, (as usual) from me;

Obama, meanwhile, avoided overt campaigning and instead spent his day getting ready to deal with the staggering economic, budget and financial calamities created by 8 years of Republican corruption, neglect and mismanagement.

I don’t think the correct word here is “mismanagement” since they achieved exactly what they wanted

they wanted to re distribute middle class assets and wealth to the upper class, that was their goal

they also wanted to undermine successful programs to make them look like failures, that was their goal

they also wanted to shrink the middle class and get closer to private only schools where only the wealthy will be educated

they also wanted to challenge our knowledge by trying to teach magic in science class where a wizard is responsible for everything they don’t want to explain

given that these were in fact their goals, it’s really hard to call it “mismanagement”

obama needs to start talking in these terms;

“we are going to return the assets which have been stolen from the middle class, we are going to rebuild our infrastructure WITH THE FUNDS THAT WERE TAKEN FROM OUR INVESTMENT

we will NOT be “raising taxes” not on the middle class and not on the wealthy

we will be recovering those assets which were misapropriated by this administration, these middle class investments were inexplicably placed in the bank accounts of robber barons and we are going to get those middle class assets back”

anyway, off to work, have a good day all

thanks for the heads up selise

Great points but one other function of these clowns has been to get women to making more babies

where’s my silver cross

Notice that in addition to the “some say” device, Dana quotes other presumptious beltway reporters — Nagourney, TNR — and the quotes from Obama himself are:

1. The need to avoid becoming a diletante was not advice to Gordon Brown; Obama was talking about his own rule;

2. The comment about not being prideful was from . . . a private prayer.

Our media seem to have difficulty with politicians shrewder than they are.

Damn. What a piece of childish crap that was. Next time anyone tries to argue around here that Milbank isn’t so bad, just gotta remember that shit.

Gotta admit, it’s been fun watching the Conglomerate Media cocktail weenie-ists get all huffy with Obama since he doesn’t play by their rules. There’s a new sheriff in town, boyz!

Politicized Hiring at the Department of Justice”

I hate that word, it is far too benign, it doesn’t even sound illegal

“illegally hiring political puppets to prosecute personal oponents who won’t contribute to the campaign, and leave criminals who happen to contribute to go free”

there, I fixed it, now ALL democrats need to get with this ticket, that “politicize” word is just not good enough

As is so often the case with your commenting, this one is cogent, spot on, and furthers this discussion so well.

I’m supposedly retired, but have a lot of library work to do today: in the midst of writing.

Have fun at work ;-)

as usual, republican election strategy is counting on the ignorance of a large portion of the American electorate. In this case, they are depending on many Americans not understanding:

* that additional drilling will not lower the price of gas for at least a decade
* that additional drilling would only affect the price of gas by pennies
* that oil companies currently have millions of acres available for drilling that they are not using.

Past and recent experience teaches us that the republican strategy of dependence on American voter ignorance is a sound one.

“John McCain was having his picture taken in front of an oil pump while reminding voters he wants to allow the oil companies to drill where they want.”

A recent poll shows that 76% of the American public want to open up off-shore drilling, even though many economists do not believe that will change the price of oil. McCain is winning over the hearts and, well nevermind, the hearts of people who don’t know any better. They want their politicians to do “something.”

We need more and better education. McCain, as you know, touted Bush’s speech as THE reason oil prices dropped, and it looks like a lot of people are buying it. No wonder Reid is busy trying to divide the Democrats on the issue.

Two stories on Stevens.

I agree the Repubs succeeded in tanking government in every area — I see folks are now calling on EPA’s Johnson to shoot himself, and they could ask the same of Mukasey — but remember Rove’s long-run goal was a permanent majority — and he/they blew that big time.

You’re not supposed to engineer a serious recession and a home foreclosure crisis and high gas prices and the loss of student loans during an election year in which you want to pass the baton to the next Repub. That’s the gross mismanagement part.

just not good enough

can be said about so much.

G’morning, Scarecrow. G’morning, everyone. G’morning, John Boy.

Is it just me, or is Obama looking mighty presidential?

Raven comments on occasion at my small blog, but I too miss his voice here at fdl.

Did you catch McC’s comments yesterday, to the effect that his sources [read: industry bigwig daddies warbucks] aver that the US will begin reaping benefits of increased oil exploration and immediate drilling in a few months!

Brazen shithead.

eg @ 37 -

Please tell him hello for me…….and to come home to the Lake. :-)

I am so sick of that garbage! Hello? The man is preparing himself for the probability possibility of becoming president of the United States of America. What part of being ready on day one (h/t Hillary) is hard to grasp? Oh, wait. There’s the GWB model. Day One: twirl around in Oval Office desk chair, smirk, heh heh heh, fly paper airplane across the room, punch buttons on phones, eat a pretzel.

I thought we tried that. These guys never go away. Earlier this year, Obama said he wanted not only to “end the war but end the mindset that led to war,” but he never followed up on that; it could have been a helpful discussion to take on the neocon view of the world and explain what a disaster it has been for us and our victims — and it would have been a good way to counter McCain’s “experience.”

I heard that Dick Durbin had something to say yesterday about the drilling — pointing out that the big oil companies wanted to take over all the oil fields and then not drill. I will go google and see what I can find.

You’re not supposed to engineer a serious recession and a home foreclosure crisis, and the loss of student loans during an election year in which you want to pass the baton to the next Repub. That’s the gross mismanagement part.

that might be true if we had a genuine opposition party and obama was offering something beyond more competent rule. but i think the real conflict is between the political/media/corporate establishment and the rest of us.

chris floyd has a recent post that touches on this:

…I don’t believe that the American financial system is about to collapse — certainly not to the extent that it will actually harm the power and privilege of those on the very top, whether these be the “Old American Establishment” or new-style war-profiteers, etc. Of course we have already seen vast ruin and great suffering caused by the economic turmoil generated to a large degree by the endless Terror War. But who is suffering from it? Not the managers and operators of the great financial houses, who get bailed out by the government or escape the collapse of their institutions in golden parachutes. They live on in comfort and safety to gouge and exploit another day.

And not the bribed and greased politicians whose policies create such a fertile environment for economic predators. Every now and then some bottom-feeding goober like Curt Weldon gets caught up in the net for being too obviously greedy — but what of the bipartisan legislative leadership that over the past several decades have cultivated this toxic, predatory environment, with perfectly legal, finely-crafted laws written for them by corporate lobbyists? They go on to fat-cat careers as lobbyists and consultants, or they run for president, or they sit on corporate boards, or they go home and play golf. When they are in office, they (and their successors) protect the system they have nurtured and tendered; they won’t let it “collapse.”

Again, this is not to deny that millions — perhaps even tens of millions – of people will end up in very dire straits, losing houses, losing jobs, losing insurance, going hungry. This is not to deny that businesses will fold, whole industries could be rolled up like a carpet, and communities will languish and fade or die. But we have seen all this before, and the wealth and privilege of our monied elites didn’t disappear; neither did their means of acquiring more wealth and power.

You ask why the old American Establishment would acquiesce in policies that “weaken the United States.” But I think the underlying assumption of this question is unsound. It implies that the common good – the welfare and well-being of individual, non-elite American citizens – is somehow synonymous with the strength or success of the United States in the eyes of our elites. But this is not true, and never has been. They identify “American interests” solely with what benefits their own kind. They equate American “strength” with the ability to kill large numbers of people at short notice whenever they desire, and to bully and humiliate those they don’t kill into submission, in some form or other.

they are the undead, that’s for sure.

Yet I truly fear Obama will come in and say “let’s move forward” when what we need is to eradicate that batch of racketeers for once and for all.

NYT editorial this a.m. on McCain’s Rovian campaign strategy.

Good morning all;

I too, wish to add my thoughts to those who are missing Raven.

I especially miss his sensitive B.S. meter, these days.

Thanks for that snippet. Truth doesn’t have to be long winded.

Dare I ask why Raven is gone? I miss him, too.

second that comment.

We held FISA for 18 mths etc. We got spot lights on Gitmo Trials/Torture/Detainees etc. We got parts of the ‘Patriot Act’ overturned etc. We got Libby and are working on the rest etc.
We have power, we are learning to use it.
Holding Bush and Co responsible for their actions before/after the election is up to us. We’ll do fine….

‘Yet I truly fear Obama will come in and say “let’s move forward” when what we need is to eradicate that batch of racketeers for once and for all.’

The dilemma is that as much as the beneficiaries of the current pyramid of wealth deserve to be upended, the last time that happened was the great depression, and the results were even worse for everyone else.

Ian has suggested we return to 90% marginal tax rates on those making above some obscene amount, but I don’t see anyone doing more than rolling back Bush’s tax cuts.

But the rich, who are as Floyd observes, protecting their own, may also be whistling in the dark. When Paulson proposed, and Congress agreed, to raise the debt ceiling by $800 billions to rescue Fannie/Freddie if needed, it was because everyone quietly believed the financial sector really could collapse and very quickly.

I found something about Durbin and drilling but, be warned, it’s in a R. Novak column:
http://www.townhall.com/column…..ins_senate

Is the Rove contempt hearing on CSPAN?

sorry for the delay, i missed your comment earlier…..

sadly, i don’t see it on the list of events to be covered by cspan today. might be on the direct hjc webcast feed though.

Via egregious, you’d think from this Roll Call report that Senator Stevens had been run over in a hit/run by Robert Novak.

Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat, said there was a
“somber reaction” to the Justice Department’s findings when it was
discussed in the Democrats’ luncheon Tuesday. Durbin said that while
Senators “fight like cats and dogs over the issues,” the Senate is
akin to a family, and he could not “wish ill to Sen. Stevens or his
family.”

“My heart goes out to his family,” Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said.

When asked if he believes Stevens is innocent, longtime friend Sen.
Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said, “I do.”

i agree with you that the financial system could collapse very quickly.

Poor John McCain — now his wife’s business connections may be a problem, too.

Does John McCain have a Cuba embargo problem?
By Lesley Clark | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The pending merger of American beer giant Anheuser-Busch and a Belgian company that brews and sells beer in Cuba is thrusting John McCain into the middle of thorny Cuba-U.S. relations.

McCain’s wife, Cindy, owns the third largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the country — which means she would stand to profit by partnering with a company that is in business with the Cuban government.

McCain is a staunch advocate of the embargo, which bars most American companies from doing business in Cuba. Among the yet-to-be-resolved issues in the $52 billion deal is whether Belgian giant InBev — expected to operate under the name Anheuser-Busch-InBev — will continue to market its Cuban line of beer, and what that may mean for U.S. distributors.

And it only gets worse from there:

A Cuban exile family with a long tradition of brewing beer in pre-Castro Cuba claims that InBev has illegally been using the trademark beer name Cristal, which the family created in Cuba before its company was seized by Fidel Castro’s government in 1960.

I suppose they’ll have to scrap the idea to use the Clydesdales to bring McCain up the aisle during the GOP convention to give his acceptance speech. Back to the drawing board . . .

I think our economy could collapse but the elite have been operating in a global economy. Many of their assets have been globalized and modernized.
Here we have aging plants, infrastructure and etc.

durbin on drilling – in his own words on the senate floor.

mostly wanted to share this cool c-span search feature.

ack, good point about it ending up the worst for the rest of us.

Still wish there were a way to redistribute the wealth that was distributed so unfairly lo these last eight years. We could start with the obscene war profiteering that has gone on unchecked. I want reparations

Maybe the maverick can wear black leather and ride up the aisle on a Harley?
It’s just so testosterone surging.

that IS cool

Not Townhall or Novak – wildly coincidental this particular, um, compromisecave started the day after FISA

Good Morning All

Thank you Selise. I’d heard about that feature too, but didn’t use it for my search. I’m living. I’m learning.
It’s a great feature, yes? Ha We have tools!

Are you suggesting Peterr, that Cindy’s the kinda lady you’d like to have a beer with in Havana?

The ‘elites’ are a minority and the planet and all who inhabit it, including human beings, CANNOT tolerate nor survive the continuation of current patterns.

The sociopaths who are the pit-bulls of the elites can no longer be permitted power …

If we cannot, now, achieve justice, politically (when ‘political’ berhavior is criminal, it must be treated as such) and reason in the economic sphere, then we merely put off the inevitable, which will become worse the longer we delay.

The future is going to be depressing for the elites, bascially because their ‘philosophy’ has no genuine role in or legitimacy for the future.

They shall simply have to find other outlets for their fear and arrogance.
And those ‘outlets’ must not destroy society or the ability of the planet to sustain human life.

But who will consume whatever they are selling?

me, too. Miss the Raven.

Offshore oil drilling is all about givin’ Big Oil the opportunity to drill into our wallets and sell our oil to the rising markets in China and Asia.

Why does Big Oil hate America?

oh and f*** everyone’s favorite beltway dandy Milbank

IMHO, the most effective message that could be sent to the Dem “Leadership”
is to toss Nancy Pelosi out on her ass in November. If we made that our goal, could it be accomplished?

A “sudden” loss of her seat would certainly set pundits a-twittering.

Except that the elites will be in ownership. Where is the money they stole and that we owe – Cayman, UBS ? Is it in textile plants in the third world or Hewlett Packard plants in the Phillipines. When we say now we need to pay this off what is prevent them from saying what is with this we stuff?

Via Atrios, Greenwald notes Brownback upset about Chinese govt spying on Olympic visitors’ internet use. link.

If they have nothing to hide, what’s the problem?

China, India, the elites of the world. What are we going to be able to consume if the bottom falls out?

A clear pattern has emerged since Obama began his foreign tour, leaving McCain fuming at home. McCain is running an increasingly dishonest and angry campaign, and personally attacking Obama, Rovian style [NYT editorial].

Obama, on the other hand, is running for the Presidency by preparing to govern the country, run its foreign policy and deal with Bush’s economic mess. He’s mostly ignoring McCain’s insults, except to have his campaign issue statements setting the record straight — and finally getting some help when the media does it’s job.

It’s a smart strategy that will benefit the country if Obama wins, but it’s probably irritating McCain to no end.

Obama ‘08: The REAL Grown-Ups Will Now Be In Charge.

what republicans say can usually be construed as true if you appropriately characterize the audience they speak to: they NEVER speak to/of the median and lower income American. When they say “American People”, they speak only of their small circle of very rich Americans, the Captains of industry, and assorted plutocratic co-conspirators and white collar criminals. When you see this as the audience they speak to and as their definition of “Average American” or “American People”, then everything they say makes sense. Likewise, under the traditional and common sense definition of “average” nothing they say makes sense – its ALL lies.

i’d love to be spending the rest of the summer and the fall canvassing for sheehan. i’m on the wrong coast though.

No.

This has been another edition . . .

As well John Sidney McCain III talked about building some forty-odd new nuclear power plants in the next several years. I don’t know too many people anxious to jump on that bandwagon at this point.

How about utility companies jumping on that bandwagon. Be interesting to see Gallup poll them and see how many would be willing to follow that financial model.

But China and India can’t consume at the rate we have and still serve as a cheap labor supply.

As well John Sidney McCain III talked about building some forty-odd new nuclear power plants in the next several years. I don’t know too many people anxious to jump on that bandwagon at this point.

Wall Street sure doesn’t. Nuclear power scares the crap out of them. Coal’s starting to do the same. The big money’s going into wind right now.

Economic reason must deal with this notion of ‘ownership’ for what ii historically has been, extortion, war-profiting and the ‘law’ which has been usurpated for the benefit of the elites.

It is complex and will not be easy, but real, fundamental change will come, by design or through ‘excess’, I prefer that it come about before we are all desperate or on our knees.

This ‘reality’ we face has to do with the substance of human imagination and the breadth and depth of our vision, courage, commitment and understanding.

Manipulation and force cannot sustain us.

That is the stark reality.

Time, not money is all we human beings really ever have to ’spend’, If we do not change our ways then our time will be finished.

Whatever happens, the Earth will abibe.

Milbank’s piece is pretty stupid, but the other front pager, “McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence,” gets it right:

“The essence of McCain’s allegation is that Obama planned to take a media entourage, including television cameras, to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his week-long foreign trip, and that he canceled the visit when he learned he could not do so. “I know that, according to reports, that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers,” McCain said Monday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..id=topnews

Krusty goes on national TeeVee and lies. And he’s called on it. Good on Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz.

irritating McCain

Ah….the prime directive….

“Earth Abides”

I read that in grad school-interesting to see that reference pop up here.

Well said, again, Bartoo; but I disagree with your last bit. I do not believe that the earth will abide no matter what. At least not as a viable place for human life.

Leahy had the SJC up and running at 10:00 on the dot.

(hint) Senator Leahy is not pleased).

Selise has the link @15, above.

I wondered if anyone might remember that book, puravida.

;~D

I think you and I can agree. However we live in a democracy in which a very large percentage of the electorate have surrendered their cognitive abilities to the MSM and receive their info in buzz words. THat mindlessset are not going to change their minds through reason.

Thanks scarecrow.

Which indeed, human survival, is the point, and should that not happen we’ve only ourselves to blame.

The earth can survive, and will, without people.

People, notwithstanding the dream of boldly colonizing ’space’ which is prohibitively expensive and not a real option, cannot survive without the earth, which, for our purposes, is paradise …

Christy’s up
Real Leadership Is Needed, From All Of Us

It’s a classic for us enviro dfh types.

*g*

yes, thank you Scarecrow.

Well considering the truth of what you say, most haven’t much mind to change.

Most will go along with what causes them the least discomfort, unless their masters wish to ‘break’ them, in which case, the more discomfort the better.

At some point, regardless of the diversions, ‘reality’, in all its dis-comfort will very unpleasantly intrude itself upon those who ignore its presence.

Interesting times ahead, no doubt, mike.

I often think, DW, how the other lifeforms on earth will celebrate when mankind is no more.

Do you, perchance, recall that very touching scene in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows where one of the riverbank denizens leads the other animals on a tour of a formerly great city now in abandoned ruins. He declares that “people come and go; We abide.” Alas, even that is no longer probable. I would like to see a trial of humanity put on by earth’s other creatures.

A species which has come, presciently, to despise its own is not viable, and more and more, humans are not viable.