Jefferson Digs In

I've been pretty hard on Nancy Pelosi for not taking a harder line on William Jefferson. It appears she has been getting quite a bit of internal fire for trying to do just that. From The Hill:

Pelosi move triggers revolt

Furious black lawmakers, rallying behind Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), were pulled back from the brink of open revolt against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an emergency meeting with her Wednesday evening.

[...] Earlier this week, Pelosi approached Jefferson and told him that she thought he should resign, according to a Democratic aide. Later, at the Democratic caucus meeting yesterday morning, she took him into a side room and told him that she had prepared a letter calling on him to resign the committee seat and that she would allow him one hour to withdraw gracefully before she sent it, according to the aide. In both instances, Jefferson remained defiant.

Pelosi’s one-sentence missive to Jefferson called on him to vacate his committee seat “in the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus.”

Jefferson promptly refused, calling her request “discriminatory” and “unprecedented,” and suggested that she was employing a double standard by failing to ask other lawmakers facing ethics questions to relinquish their committee assignments. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) has come under fire for earmarks he secured through his seat on the Appropriations Committee.

“I will not give up a committee assignment that is so vital to New Orleans at this crucial time for any uncertain political strategy,” Jefferson said.

If Jefferson really wanted to helped the people of New Orleans, he would have used his tremendous balls to shield the city from Katrina.

Oh, and no word yet on whether Mollohan was caught on video accepting $100,000 in marked bills that were later found in his freezer...

I won't be surprised one bit if its discovered that Jefferson rode an Army convoy through the post-hurricane flood to get to his house in an attempt to retrieve/destroy evidence.

Jefferson is fucking dirty. Period. The CBC had better get used to that idea. I can understand some conciliatory remarks from them looking out for one of their own such as "we're witholding comment until charges are filed." Even, "Rep. Jefferson is innocent until proven otherwise." But they sould not be going after the knees of Pelosi for doing what she has to to defend the Party.

UPDATE: It should be noted that Mollohan no longer sits on the Appropriations Committee either. Jefferson should follow suit.

Hang Him Out to Dry. Now.

There were a few threads floating around a couple weeks ago about Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA). At the time he had not yet been named in the investigation, but the people who bribed "Congressman A" had...

Here was my comment at the time:

From commenter Paul at Balloon Juice:

The smart move by the Democrats would be to call a heavily televised public gathering. At said gathering, they would drag out William Jefferson and publicly demand his resignation from a) the Democratic Party and b) the congressional seat he’s in. Conclude with an open statement that the Democratic Party will not tolerate such corruption and that the Republican Party should learn by example. Once you see the popularity polls for the Democratic Party shoot up 5 points watch the GOP sweat.

[I added]: Don’t sweep dirt under the rug, take it out in the front yard and shake it out. Or even beat it with a stick. Let the Repubs try and Febreze out the stench and see where that gets them.

The Republican party is steeping in corruption right now, but people still have the old “they’re all dirty” soundtrack running in their minds. If the Dems publicly toss the dirty members of the own party to the curb now, it is not only the right thing to do, it looks good for them in the fall too.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did a fairly reasonable job of calling Jefferson out. Reminding folks that there was a due process to occur, but if Jefferson had done anything wrong he should resign. She then called for a House Ethics investigation of a member of her own party.

Another (apparently psychic) commenter added this in response to Pelosi:

Pelosi is right. We're a nation of laws, and even if there are videotapes of Jefferson accepting bags of money with "BRIBE" written on them, he's still entitled to due process.

Well get ready for the due process to start. From an affidavit released yesterday

[Rep. William] Jefferson was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire [...] A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2005*, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers.

No mention as to whether the bags were labelled or not. Presumably that affidavit was part of the process of obtaining a warrant to raid Jefferson's Congressional office over the weekend.

An unusual FBI raid of a Democratic congressman's office over the weekend prompted complaints yesterday from leaders in both parties, who said the tactic was unduly aggressive and may have breached the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.

Interestingly, Congressional members of both parties are up at arms over this raid, the first one ever of a sitting Congressman.

It seems this poses serious questions about separation of powers (the FBI works for the Executive Branch).

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), in an e-mail to colleagues with the subject line "on the edge of a constitutional confrontation," called the Saturday night raid "the most blatant violation of the Constitutional Separation of Powers in my lifetime." He urged President Bush to discipline or fire "whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation."

I guess ole Newt hasn't been payin' attention. Bush has never had any regard for any supposed "Separation of Powers", nor does he ever fire anyone...

As for Jefferson? He insists he's being railroaded. I say bullshit. The party needs to cut his ass loose and do it loudly. Zero tolerance for this nonsense.

* You might have heard of this guy before. He's the same clown that shanghai'd an Army convoy to take him to his house in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. He apparently had some evidence to destroy or "frozen food" to retrieve.

Freedom Fries 2: Electric Boogaloo

An increasingly desperate Republican Congress has decided to rejuvenate its fortunes by buckling down and tackling the country's biggest problem—national healthcare, a potentially illegal surveillance program, an out of contol deficit...No, our lack of an official language...

Yes, hot on the heels of the War on Christmas and the gay assault on the sancticty of marriage, is the very real and terrifying threat to the English language in America.

"After an emotional debate fraught with symbolism, the Senate yesterday voted to make English the "national language" of the United States, declaring that no one has a right to federal communications or services in a language other than English except for those already guaranteed by law.

The measure, approved 63 to 34, directs the government to "preserve and enhance" the role of English, without altering current laws that require some government documents and services be provided in other languages. Opponents, however, said it could negate executive orders, regulations, civil service guidances and other multilingual ordinances not officially sanctioned by acts of Congress."

Apparently, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who pushed this idea yesterday, wanted to make English the "official" language, but couldn't muster enough votes to pass it. Instead, English has been designated the "national" language as a powerful symbolic statement of America's … English-speaking ways. Or something. It's not entirely clear.

The Inhofe proposal was a hit with Republicans, who seem anxious to prove to their conservative base that they may not be able to pass an immigration bill, but they can show how unilingual they are. Of the 34 opposing votes, there were 32 Dems, one independent who votes with the Dems (Jeffords), and one Republican who represents a state with a large Hispanic population (New Mexico's Pete Domenici). I guess the GOP didn't want to compete for Hispanic votes in the future anyway.

That's from the always excellent Carpetbagger

This is such a craven appeal to the mouthbreathing, jingo-paranoid base I'm not even sure this is a net gain for Republicans, never mind supposedly big-tent Democrats! Why any Dem would support this defies logic.

Republicans had made headway with the Latino base under Bush, and he had made appeals to that bloc with his nominees. They were even supposed to be aggressively courting the Latino vote, using pro-life and religious rhetoric to help, hoping to peel the fastest growing segment of the population away from Democrats. I even think Bush set out to propose a immigration policy palatable to Latinos...but this immigration thing is off its axis now, and the Republicans are careening out of control with it.

The wedge has been turned around on them and their own party is split. This kind of thing comes from the portion of the party that is stuck in the past and fears anything new and not white. This will cost them way more Latino votes than Alberto gonzales will gain them, and hopefully peels off embarrassed moderates as well, all to placate the 30% that they already, and will always, have locked up.

While I think it is a sad display, and I do not want to see such paranoid and basically racist stuff debated on the floor of the Senate, if it hastens the demise of this Republican majority, it's a setback I can live with.

What I can't live with is this:
Baucus (D-MT)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Johnson (D-SD)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)

Those are the Dems that voted "Yea."

Even if you are of the opinion that English should be the official or national language, at this point it serves no purpose to lend these Republican antics any legitimacy. These dumb symbolic votes should be reflexive "no" votes for Dems, so when they are pointed out for the bullshit that they are, there is no veil of "bipartisan."

In my opinion, for a Dem to go along with this is even worse than a Republican proposing it. Nice job, you fucking clowns.

Snow's Sticky Situation

New White House mouthpiece Tony Snow had his first briefing yesterday. He was rolling along fine with the usual spin (ie: good polls matter, bad ones don't) when Snow stepped in it...

A reporter asked Snow about why the White House was reluctant to talk about the NSA's phone-record database program. Snow said:

SNOW: Having said that, I don’t want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program, the alleged program, the existence of which I can neither confirm nor deny.

Um, excuse me, Tony?

We all know what Snow meant, and there was no racist intent or context going on there. But, you would think any seasoned journalist and TV personality would, in effect, have scrubbed that phrase from their vocabulary…

Maybe Tony should consider having this play in the background during his briefings from now on if he's going to be busting out the folklore...

It might just be because I first heard the phrase tarbaby in its derogatory context, but I always find it jarring when I hear it used like this.

It also makes me question the mindset of a person who would use the phrase. Clearly Snow is technically correct in his usage, but when experienced speakers like Snow choose to use a touchy phrase like that, there is a reason—even if subconscious—in my opinion. Especially when you consider he's fresh from FOX.

This usage strikes me as a deliberate use of a politically incorrect phrase in a situation where the speaker can then defend himself for being correct, innocent, and beyond reproach, while accusing his attackers of being "overly politically correct." It's not really about race, it's about scoring points on "sensitive" liberals and others that will be tweaked by this. Limbaugh has made a nice living doing exactly this.

Unless you are telling the story of Brer Rabbit, one should avoid "hugging the tar baby" of hugging the tar baby, but no tough FOX manly-man is going to follow those rules... Can't you just picture Hannity or O'Reilly getting all indignant and try to project over something like this? "I used the term correctly. Maybe you have a problem and that's why you heard it a different way..."

Problem is, Snow doesn't work at FOX anymore.

Good. His blood is already in the water as far as I'm concerned…

[h/t The Carpetbagger Report]

UPDATE: It hasn't been that long since a much less-public figure than the White House Spokesman used this phrase and had to apologize for it [link]. How 'bout it Brer Tony?

Hmm. I like that. From now on, I think I'll refer to Snow as Brer Tony, and maybe throw that old timey fiddle in as a hotlink too...

Link(s): People make fun of '70s clothing, but that's only because they blocked out the food...

The best thing about the internet is that it serves as a forum to make fun of the most random shit imaginable. Like those 70s recipe cards. You remember, they came with their own attractive file box...

Then there's James Lileks' site.

[The Comics Curmudgeon got this started]

Bush Screws Up Everyone's Night, and His Presidency

I think this speech is going to go down as a watershed moment for this Presidency...

The moment when even his casual base* looked at him and said:

"What is he talking about?"

"Is he serious? National Guard to defend against Mexico?"

"Anything about WMD from Tijuana?"

"Come on, you are really messing up the TiVo for my season finales."

He took a bad plan, and took it public in a big way. And I don't think it fooled anyone.

--

* By "casual base" I mean those who reflexively support the President, put magnets on the cars, etc, but don't pay close attention to everything. He unmasked himself to those people last night, and I think he is going to pay. Hopefully the Congressional Republicans pay right along with him.

2006 Word of the Year: Kakistocracy

Every year a few of the big dictionaries and dialect experts determine the "Word of the Year." A couple years back it was "blogs." Somehow, inexplicably, last year Merriam-Webster tapped "Integrity" over runners-up "Tsunami" and "Hurricane" among others—I suppose picking a word meant chopping off the "lack of" to be official...

Anyway, I want to kick off the campaign for this year's word right now.

kakistocracy (kak·is·toc·ra·cy) n.
Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

I wonder if you can guess my inspiration?...

Housing Sec. Canceled Contract Because Contractor Criticized Bush, Apparently Violating Law
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson publicly admitted that he canceled a government contract with a business because the CEO was critical of President Bush. From the Dallas Business Journal:

“He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years,” Jackson said of the prospective contractor. “He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something … he said, ‘I have a problem with your president.’

“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I don’t like President Bush.’ I thought to myself, ‘Brother, you have a disconnect — the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn’t be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don’t tell the secretary.’

“He didn’t get the contract,” Jackson continued. “Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president? [...]”

Jackson’s conduct appears to be in violation of federal law. From the Federal Acquisition Regulations, 48 CFR 3.101-1:

Government business shall be conducted in a manner above reproach and, except as authorized by statute or regulation, with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none. Transactions relating to the expenditure of public funds require the highest degree of public trust and an impeccable standard of conduct.

Jackson has admitted that this particular contract was not awarded with “impartiality.” The business that would have been awarded the contract was excluded because of the contractor’s political views.

The Competition in Contracting Act (41 U.S.C. 253(b)(1)) details the six circumstances in which a particular contractor can be excluded. Needless to say, political views are not on the list.

It is also highly unusual for a cabinet secretary to be involved in the awarding or cancellation of a particular contract. More on this story soon.

Now I am certainly not naive enough to believe that contracts are awarded with "complete impartiality." What gets me is not the cronyism and favoritism—it's the brazen manner in which this Administration conducts it. I mean, the Cabinet Secretary went out and bragged about cancelling a contract—a contract that had already been awarded—because the guy didn't like President Bush. By that standard, I guess that means the government will only be soliciting contacts from 30% of the country from now on...

Seriously though, this was completely wrong and appears to be a violation of the law, as well as this business owner's First Amendment rights. Jackson should be removed. Now.

So it starts here and now. Let's spread it like a dialectic pandemic. Far and wide across the country. I want it on the Daily Show (God, that would be great) Kakistocracy. What makes this even more fun, is that this word is pretty obscure, let's make it known and make it synonymous with the Bush Administration.

[h/t: Otto Man for the story, and IRod (in the comments) for the word.]

UPDATE: The official defense of Jackson has been released — he was lying. Yes. That's really what they are serving up as the cover story, "He made it up."

UPDATE 2: From a commenter at Kos:

Kakistocracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kakistocracy is derived from the Greek kakistos, the superlative of kakos (κακός) meaning bad. The word literally means "government by the worst elements of society." It can refer to any system of management controlled by the least competent, least qualified, most unreliable, or the most evil members of a society.
Kakistocracy is not used to describe governments run by persons whose primary motivation is graft---the word for that is kleptocracy. However, the two are not entirely mutually exclusive, as it is possible to be both bad and greedy.

You bet. George W. bush works hard to prove it every day!

UPDATE 3--06/06/07: Last week during the Scripps National Spelling Bee, there was a young girl from Madison, WIwhose profile revealed that her favorite word was "kakistocracy." Needless to say, from that point on, she was the one I wanted to win—even though there was a kid from the town I grew up in (Avon, CT) still in contention!

Twelve year old, already politically aware, badass rebel girl vs. a bunch of über-nerd boys? No contest. My girls are going to follow in her footsteps...

Welcome to anybone else who clicks over from a Google "kakistocracy" search. Look around a bit, there's a few years worth of me ranting about all sorts of stuff.

The 9/11 Movie

United 93 opens in theaters this weekend and I have my thoughts about the fact that this movie is coming out, but I need to spend a bit more time sorting them out before I can put them down in a coherent post.

In short, I don't think this movie right now is a good thing. I don't particularly want to see it (certainly not in a theater). And I don't think we as a country are ready for it.

There's a short "Look Inside" video here, and it's compelling. I don't doubt the sincerity of many of the people involved in making this film. I also don't question the desire of many of the families to have the story told. They might be ready for it. they might need it, but that doesn't mean the rest of the country is ready or needs it.

It may have been five years since the events took place, but they are still much to enwined in the politics of today. We are still reminded daily of "the lessons of 9/11" by those who exploit it. I fear that this film will do more towards those ends than actually offering a healing experience. That dishonors those people and their families far more than this film could possibly honor them.

There's a good thread on this over at The Oh Really Factor. Check it out.

More to come from me later.

Desert Island—Circuit City Edition

From Otto, who got it from Shakes, who picked it up somewhere else I'm sure...

You know you are about to get dumped on a desert island. There will be a complete home entertainment center—solar-powered? Made of coconuts ala the Professor? 5:1 surround?—Doesn't matter. It works, and you have to select the following things to keep you going the rest of your days.

Album
Book
Film
Complete television series

What'll it be?

Friday Random Ten

They opened a new library branch here in Ann Arbor, and outfitted it with all new stuff. New books, new DVDs, and best of all, new CDs. I have been burning a hole in my library card and ripping discs like a madman over the last couple weeks. It's like they tasked a college radio DJ wih stocking the shelves...MC5, Big Star, Killers, Modest Mouse, Fallout Boy...the list goes on and on.

Unfortunately, those tunes still reside on my hard drive and haven't made it into the Pod yet. Here goes...

1. "She Gave Me Love" - Getaway People
2. "Rose Colored Glasses" - School of Fish
3. "My Doorbell" - The White Stripes
4. "Silverfuck" - Smashing Pumpkins
5. "Monkey Man" - Rolling Stones
6. "Deaf, Dumb, Blind'" - NRBQ
7. "Louder Than A Bomb" - Public Enemy
8. "Oddfellows Local 151" - REM
9. "Girl From a Pawnshop (live)" - Black Crowes
10. "Colorful Revolution" - Red Walls

Proceed to the comments for the director's cut...

Master and Commander. Of the Titanic.

In a brief column well worth reading, Greg Mitchell tries to prod the press into acknowledging the impending crisis that is three more years of Bush...

Our president, in a time of war, terrorism and nuclear intrigue, will likely remain in office for another 33 months, with crushingly low approval ratings that are still inching lower. Facing a similar problem, voters had a chance to quickly toss Jimmy Carter out of office, and did so. With a similar lengthy period left on his White House lease, Richard Nixon quit, facing impeachment. Neither outcome is at hand this time...

That is indeed a problem. And since Bush's primary motivation over the remainder of his tenure will likely be split between dodging scandals, gutting regulations and enriching himself and his cronies, there is little hope for any good to come of President Dubya regardless of the midterms. Mitchell then directs us to his canary in the media coalmine:

So let’s assume, as Nixon might put it, that we do have George Bush to kick around for another almost-three-years. How worried should we be about the possible damage he might inflict -- and what can the press do about it?

Consider Thomas Friedman’s column in The New York Times today, and its implications.

Friedman, who still supports the Iraq war, opens by declaring that given a choice between a nuclear Iran and an attack on that country engineered by the White House, he would choose the former. That’s how little he trusts the diplomatic and military chops of Bush, Rumsfeld, Condi and Co. He cites “the level of incompetence that the Bush team has displayed in Iraq, and its refusal to acknowledge any mistakes or remove those who made them.”

But then he goes on: “I look at the Bush national security officials much the way I look at drunken drivers. I just want to take away their foreign policy driver's licenses for the next three years. Sorry, boys and girls, you have to stay home now -- or take a taxi. ... You will not be driving alone. Not with my car.”

The problem -- the crisis -- is that Bush and Co. likely WILL be driving the “car” for 33 more months.

The fact that Friedman is right doesn't stop me from wanting to throw him around an alley filled with garbage cans like a renegade cop (or Easter Bunny) for coming up with this conclusion four years too late.

Bush's (and Rumsfeld & Cheney's) unique blend of stubborn incompetence and arrogance was readily apparent before we went into Iraq, and Friedman was among the biggest War cheerleaders. Just because a few pages of your "Flat Earth" book were interchangable with some PNAC binder does not mean these guys ever gave a shit about the greater good of the Middle East like you purport to.

So, Tom, nicely-made points taken, but your "told you so moment" never materialized—you were as wrong as Bush himself for believing in him. Now sit down and shut the fuck up. Okay?

Stopping McCain

There's been a bit of a debate over the last week or so between some on our side about John McCain and what he truly represents. There's a lot to digest on McCain, but the more I see him, the more it is apparent he is an orthodox Conservative in Progressive Maverick clothing. In many, many ways a McCain Presidency would be nothing more than a slightly improved extension of the Bush Administration. We all know we cannot afford that. A commenter responding to Ezra's post at The American Prospect pretty much nails it:

If bloggers on the same liberal site can't agree on whether or not McCain's a conservative, then it's clear that a Democratic nominee wouldn't be able to effectively portray him as out of the mainstream--which is all the more reason why we need to hope he loses in the primary. The good news is that despite his fondling of Falwell the fundies still don't trust him.

Yup. We cannot really hope to beat McCain in the general election. Unless the Republican Party becomes completely radioactive by 2008 (unlikely), I can see McCain mowing down anyone the Dems send up to bat against him. He needs to be derailed in the primaries or he will be the next President.

More Reading: Greg at The Talent Show, Kevin Drum and the Chait TNR story that advances the notion McCain is a closet liberal...

Ezra on Malkin. And McCain. And Lots of Other Stuff...

Ezra puts together one of the best, and most thoughtful, posts about the whole Malkin v. college protesters dust-up, here. He also takes on the topic of John McCain this week, continues his string of good posts on U.S. healthcare, and some other stuff too. Just go to the top of the page and scroll...

Easter's Over . . . Watch Your Ass!

[h/t Otto Man]

With [Same] Sex You Get Egg Roll

This is excellent.

Gay, lesbian parents to line up for Easter Egg Roll tickets
The White House Easter Egg Roll has been a Washington tradition since the mid-19th century.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of gay and lesbian parents hoping to take their families to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll plan to start lining up Friday evening to make sure they get tickets for the Monday event.

Thousands of tickets -- an estimated 16,000 last year -- are given away on a first-come-first-served basis beginning at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

National Park Service officials said Wednesday that children of all ages may attend as long as there is at least one child 7 years old or younger, and no more than two adults per group.


First lady Laura Bush's office issued a statement saying all families are welcome to attend.

Really, Mrs. First Lady? All families?

[...] Some say the gay and lesbian parents are playing politics.

"I think it's inappropriate to use a children's event to make a political statement," said Mark D. Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

[...] The egg roll has been a Washington tradition since the mid-19th century. Children use spoons to push colored eggs through the grass in a race. Past events have included petting zoos and White House staff members in bunny costumes.

The president sometimes makes a brief appearance, and the first lady often reads a story. The White House has not announced plans for this year.

Something tells me that if the lawn is populated with gay families, George and Laura will find themselves otherwise occupied. Afraid of the gays or afraid of their base—it's all the same—they are chickenshits.

But good for the families making a statement. If coming out into broad daylight and enjoying something everyone else can do should be considered making a statement...

UPDATE: Well I was prepared to offer Bush some credit for showing up with Laura to kick off the Egg Roll, even posing for pictures, but it might be premature to do so. It seems the Bushes were long gone before the gay and lesbian families were allowed in. Despite getting the first tickets and waiting the longest, those families were given tickets for admission 11:00 a.m. — hours after the opening ceremony the Bushes attended. I'll find out more and get some links later...

->POP!<- Bubble Bursts

Bush has been venturing outside the protection of his invite-only, ass-kiss events and taking some unscripted questions at events open to anyone lately. I'll give him credit for that. At a time when he is truly embattled and hampered by the lowest numbers of his Presidency (yet--they're about to get lower), it is to his credit that he is facing the public. I'd honestly have expected him and Rove to retreat to full protection and propaganda mode.

There's a risk for Bush doing this, someone might actually call him out. And it happened to him yesterday...

Q: [from audience to Bush] You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are –

THE PRESIDENT: I’m not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what’s your question?

Q Okay, I don’t have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I — in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and –

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec — let him speak.

Q And I would hope — I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I’m saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.

THE PRESIDENT: It is, yes. (Applause.)

That was a North Carolina man named Harry Taylor. You should watch the video. He got off a pretty good shot at Bush, and managed to get quite a few topics in as well.

An how did Bush handle it? With some awkward bady language and one of his chuckling-at-himself jokes. Bush's joke was rude and completely innappropriate given the seriousness of this guy's comments, but it masterfully lightened the mood and impact of anything this guy was going to say for his supporters in the Hall and watching the video. He also squints and shields his eyes while listening to the comments—I think an attempt to diminish this guy's stature, making him seem small, insignificant and distant. In Bush's full response (transcript at the link) he further diminshes the guy, implying that his comments were unwelcome to most people... All in all, I'd say Bush weathers it fairly well, and goes into his stock rhetoric to "answer" the guy's "question", when it was really not a question but an indictment. It's unfortunate that Taylor looks like a wussy liberal straight from Central Casting, but he's got some stones behind those baggy pleats.

Anyway. Go watch the video and raise your glass to Harry Taylor tonite. He got his chance to say something to the President and he did. For all of us, and all of us to see.

Quick Opening Day Thoughts

I know it's officially been spring for a couple weeks, and we just passed the screw-job that is turning the clocks ahead, but I don't feel like it's really spring until I do some work in the yard, and I get to listen to the game while I do it.

I did the yard-work part this weekend, I look forward to the accompaniment of an AM broadcast next time out...

I really like the Sox this year. I know lots of people are boo-hooing over the departure of Johnny Damon, but I think Coco Crisp will be much better over the next four years than Damon will be.

Wily Mo Pena is just what Trot Nixon needs, a bashing right-handed platoon partner, and Keith Foulke looks like he's back to his old not-quite-dominating, yet somehow successful self.

It's hip to pick the Yanks this year, especially after signing Damon, but if you look at it, it's really just another past-the-prime free agent signing—the kind that has never worked for them yet...

Go Sox!

NOTE: Schilling will lose (hard) today in Texas, and the Sox bandwagon will get some more elbow room as people jump ship. That's fine by me. I know Schilling will be fine, and the Sox will prevail over thhe long haul. As an aside, knowing that Schilling is such a Republican, Bush-loving jackass, really makes it hard for me to like him.

--

This is crap. Jimmy Rollins might be a nice guy, and normally, I'd be happy to root for any Yankee-held record to fall, but I'm sorry, picking late August to start your hitting streak is just bad timing. As far as I am concerned, that streak ended when the 2005 season did.

Part of what makes the 56-game hitting streak an impressive and as yet unattainable record is the grind of having to get a hit every day for two months. Joe Dimaggio didn't get a 180-day break in the middle of his hitting streak. Tony Gwynn never got credit for hitting .400 even though he did it over a 162 game period (more than once, I believe). He had to hit .400 for the season, not just a hot second-half rolling over to a hot first half.

I cannot even believe that people are going to count this streak.

--

My new go-to baseball/Sox guy Chad Finn has a good season preview up.

Always Low Wages and Regulation. Always!

[straight from Kevin Drum]:

FOX, MEET HENHOUSE... Hey, guess who President Bush has nominated to head up the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division? That's right: the guy who represented Wal-Mart in trying to prevent a class of 1.5 million women from suing the company for discrimination in pay and promotions! He also appears to oppose pretty much every regulation related to wages and hours ever passed.

What a perfect nominee. If he didn't exist, the Republican Party would have to have invented him.

FRT: Laziest. Post. Ever.

Pressed for time, so here's what my iTunes just played...

[Click to enlarge so you can see it]

New CAFE Standards Just Nibble at Edges

After scrolling through my last couple posts, it's obvious what I need more than anything is an editor to chop the shit out of my writing... So, here's a link without further rambling commentary from me [via Kung Fu monkey]:

Leave it to the Brazilians
MyDD has a nice thing up about the CAFE standards finally being nudged up in the US (no one is more surprised than I) but the leavens it with the news that Brazil, the entire frikkin' nation, is about to go all-ethanol.

Ahh, the US marches bravely into the mid-1970's as Brazil gets its jetpacks on.

Kaloogian Unwittingly Reveals His Own Fraud

When confronted with a mistake (best case) or lie (likely) GOP Congressional candidate Howard Kaloogian did what Republicans do best: He first denies any wrongdoing without knowing better, then when confronted with the evidence, he throws a staffer (his webmaster) under the bus. Kaloogian claims they took so many pictures on the trip to Iraq that no one could keep them straight, and they'll post he correct one (more on this below) and then turns on the one person who really had nothing to do with this whole flap—his opponent. Here is his statement:

"My campaign mistakenly mislabeled a photograph as being from Baghdad, Iraq when it is in fact from Istanbul, Turkey. Immediately after I realized this error I had the photograph replaced with one we took from Baghdad.

I made a mistake in posting the wrong picture, and I accept full responsibility for it.

However, the anti-war activists who are supporting Democrat Francine Busby are trying to use this clerical mistake as justification for opposing the war. How silly.

I will not apologize for supporting the missions our troops are serving in Iraq.

I will not apologize for traveling to Iraq to afford our troops the opportunity to report back home the progress being made that is not being reported by the mainstream news media.

I will not back down from supporting the mission our troops are serving in Iraq to defeat the terrorist threat. By bringing stability, democracy and freedom to the people who were long terrorized by the brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein, and eliminating safe havens for terrorists, we are ensuring American security at home.

And, most importantly, I will not allow Francine Busby, her "Blame America First" friends, and the anti-military contingent to undermine America’s support for our military men and women and their mission in Iraq."

As if any of that is what happened. Nobody I read yesterday even got into the pros and cons of the War, we were all too busy with the fact that Kaloogian was full of shit. You and your staff tried to foist a picture of Istanbul on your constituents as evidence of a calm, placid Iraq and you got caught. For someone who was trying to convey that the media refuses to accurately portray the situation in Iraq, it might behoove you to be sure you accurately portray it yourself.

This was not just "a clerical error," and there is no excuse for what happened. It was either purely malevolent intent to deceive or astonishing incompetence—neither of which reflects well on you or your staff—and more importantly, has absolutely nothing to do with supporting the troops, the War, Francine Busby, or Blaming America First.

The fact that the picture looked straight out of a Fodor's book should have raised an eyebrow on your staff if it was truly accidental. It didn't.

Of course, if you go to Kaloogian's website it is as if none of this ever happened. The pictures from Iraq are now reduced to two shots of him standing next to generals in a Green Zone tent, and there is no statement, acknowledgement or reference to any of what occurred yesterday.

For a brief period, presumably before just yanking everything down, Kaloogian posted this picture to replace the Istanbul tourism postcard:



The file is actually called "safebaghad.jpg." As you can see, apparently the only way to get a "safe" photo of Baghdad is from a rooftop in the heavily-fortified Green Zone. Also, it should be noted, that this new photo is almost a year old, and the police station shown has since been blown up. At this point, I guess it was smart to go ahead and dismantle the site, because somehow I think the original point is now lost.

Here's how Kaloogian screwed up and essentially reveals the fraud: This "new" picture really shows that the original misleading photo was deliberate. Once he was caught and forced to actually come up with a picture of Baghdad to match the caption, this was the best Kaloogian could do? His statements imply they had "dozens" of man-on-the-street photos laying around (Baghdad and elsewhere), and the web guy just accidentally grabbed the wrong one. As if Kaloogian and his cohorts were backpacking across the Middle East and when they dropped the film off, Wal-Mart mixed up the rolls...

Here's what I think happened: Kaloogian or someone in the campaign decided to jump onto the "blame the media" bandwagon started last week by Bush and Cheney, and take their own shot at the "media's negative coverage." They directed the web guy to post a pleasant street scene and add the caption that the media is lying about the situation in Iraq.

That shows this whole thing was a fraud from the start...It's now obvious that pictures showing a safe Iraq street DO NOT EXIST IN THE "VAST" KALOOGIAN ARCHIVE AND NEVER DID! If they had any, they could simply have put one up after the Istanbul "mistake." But they couldn't.

They had no pictures of safe Iraqi neighborhoods, because they never saw any! Not that they don't exist—but that they didn't see them. But that didn't stop them. None of the details (like truth or accuracy) mattered—they never do. The only thing that mattered was finding the evidence to fit the talking point.

It seems likely to me that Kaloogian's "fact-finding mission" never even left the Green Zone. Even most seasoned correspondents stationed there don't, and I trust that a soft, rich San Diego businessman and a cadre of right-wing radio loudmouths on a junket aren't exactly put-their-necks-on-the-line-types. Even if they did tour the area, they never saw any safe, quiet streets like they claim or they would have documented it, and had the photos.

Kaloogian should have just pulled this thing when he got busted. Instead, like a defendant who insists on taking the stand against his lawyer's advice, he was stubborn and dug in deeper. Like Bush, he stuck to his guns when he shouldn't have. By posting the rooftop shot he exposed the fact that they never went out on the street, and never had an honest claim to make.

Liar.

UPDATE: Of course the implication by Kaloogian that a photo refutes the media's claims that Iraq is a dangerous place is ridiculous. I'm sure Europeans took plenty of photos during the 40s that didn't include Nazis.

The irony is that this new photo looks exactly like the backdrop behind ninety percent of the reports from Baghdad. According to the logic Kaloogian applies, every "lying" report from Baghdad (see right) disproves itself...

You should go watch this report from Lara Logan at Crooks and Liars. She does a great job shooting down the accusations from Bush, Cheney, and hangers-on like Kalooogian that the media are misconstruing the events and situation in Iraq. The best part? When she dismantles the ridiculous 'Today Show' claim by Laura Ingrahm that the media simply "report from hotel balconies."

It now seems apparent that's all Kaloogian did.

"It's got a cop motor...cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks..."

Indulge me.

I've long had a fascination with police cruisers. Always wanted to own a decommissioned cop car. I don't really know why—blame the Blues Brothers, I suppose. I almost bought an old 1980 LTD II police car when I was in college. Should've done it. It was green... had a spotlight, a 140 mph speedo (back in the days of mandatory 85 mph speedos), switches for the lights and stuff (which were all obviously removed)... [sigh]

Over the years, I've kind of kept an eye on the stylings of the police car market. Passing judgement on different cities and departments for the cars they choose, graphics, light set-ups, etc. Here in Michigan, they astoundingly still opt for the single "bubble gum" light on the roof. Ugh. I've always been a fan of the "flying wedge" used by the NYPD and others. Always go red and blue too.

I'm a fucking nerd, alright?

Anyway, Chevy long ago transitioned from the bloated Caprice to the new front-wheel drive pansy Impala, so Ford has been the only "real" option for a traditional rear-wheel drive V8 cop car (only 250 HP, Ford? My wife's minivan has that!).

Since Dodge came out with the Charger, I began thinking, "How badass would a Charger cop car be? It's cool looking, and ballsy..."

This morning I saw one. A totally blacked out Charger with twin spotlights on the A-pillars and black steel five spoke rims. It was tuff. I actually went a couple blocks out of the way just to jockey with it in traffic for a good look.

After C.H.I.P.s, the Dukes of Hazzard and the Blues Brothers movie hunted the entire country's fleet of Dodge/Chrysler police cars into extinction by 1984, the Charger is back. Here's a peek (the all-black Vadermobile I saw this morning was even more badass...):



Coming soon to a speed trap near you. Starting in NYC.

Oh, and here are detailed instructions for re-creating your own version of the Bluesmobile. Seriously.

Latest from the 82nd ChAirborne

Un-fucking-believable

"Greetings From Sunny Baghdad Istanbul!"

Howard Kaloogian is GOP candidate running to replace Duke Cunningham in San Diego. He has a post up on his campaign website chiding the US media for over-portraying the violence in Iraq. As proof, he offers a photo he took of a calm, peaceful Baghdad street...


Caption from website: "We took this photo of dowtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq. Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."

The only problem is that appears NOT to be Baghdad, but a city in Turkey.

Roman- not Arabic-based alphabet...Turkish ice cream chain (edo)... Western wear on the woman... a freaking UPS delivery van(!)... The folks at Kos are all over this one.

That UPS van is the clincher for me. I am pretty certain that in a city where Westerners of any identifiable stripe are at risk of kidnapping, and Iraqis that work for US or Western companies are murdered, there are no guys driving around in UPS vans wearing brown uniforms and casually delivering packages.

Of course the real issue here should be that a snapshot of any moment in time is not any more proof that Baghdad is a Shangri-la, any more than a carbomb photo means it is a constant warzone (which it hapens to be). That this clown would try to make this point even with a genuine photo of Baghdad is ridiculous enough, but when he uses a photo from another country and references it as proof of his point, he's not just disingenuous, he's a fucking liar.

If there is any justice, this will finish his political career.

UPDATE: Adding to the preponderance of evidence... Check out the taxi in the foreground and the booth at the parking lot entrance here.




And compare the planters in this photo of Istanbul with the ones in the "Baghdad" photo.








---
UPDATE AGAIN: Case closed. From an intrepid commenter at Kos:

FOUND IT.
It is indeed a street in the bustling Istanbul suburb of Bakirkoy:


Wow. That only took half a day. I imagine Kaloogian will attempt to explain this by throwing the web designer or a staffer under the bus. "So-and-so accidentally posted the wrong photo from the trip..." It's bullshit. It may very well be a photo from the same trip when they went to Iraq (and stopped over in Turkey?). Kaloogian seems to be very active on matters related to Armenia, and may go to the Middle East often, resulting in countless photos. I don't know, and I don't care. This is inexcusable. If you are going to offer a photograph as damning evidence that the media is lying about Iraq, it behooves you to make sure the photo you are using is what you say it is. There is no "honest" mistake here. It is either a deliberate lie, or rank incompetence. Either way, this guy deserves to be the laughingstock on tonite's late night talk shows and finished in serious politics.

[h/t to The Other Steve who brought this to my attention in an unrelated thread at John Cole's.]

THE "SHOCKING" CONCLUSION UPDATE: As expected...

Kaloogian Blames Iraq Photo Error on Staffer
By Justin Rood - March 29, 2006, 1:06 PM

Oops.

Howard Kaloogian, a leading GOP candidate for Randy "Duke" Cunningham's seat in Congress, posted a photo on his Web site of a quiet Turkish suburb. No problem there -- but his site said it was of Baghdad, taken during his trip there. He called it proof that Iraq was calmer than the media was reporting.

Josh tells the story at TPM of how the blogosphere rounded up a posse and proved the pic was a fake -- or rather, the pic was real, but the caption was hooey.

We reached Kaloogian by phone moments ago. Here's what he had to say:

[O]n the way back from Baghdad some of the crew stopped in Istanbul as a layover. We turned all the photographs [from the trip] over to the webmaster, and it appears he took one from the stopover and not from Baghdad. If a mistake happened, we'll correct it.

Kaloogian noted that he brought back "hundreds and hundreds" of photographs from the trip. He declined to identify his webmaster's name, saying only that he was "a member of my staff."

Yeah, well it's your campaign website, and you were probably still the idiot that thought it was a good idea to post a Baghdad photo to start with. Whether or not somebody posted the wrong photo shouldn't obscure the fact that the whole thing displayed poor judgement and an attempt at misleading propaganda.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE UPDATE: It seems salon.com's "Daou Report" is linking here (thanks CB), and that is generating some traffic. That's exciting, and I hope people look around at some other stuff while they're here. But I want to point out that all I did here was compile the info from an 800-comment thread over at Kos and add my opinion. The real "Where in the World is Carmen (Would-be Representative from-) San Diego" detective work was done by the folks in that thread. Especially Jem6x. Josh Marshall has also been on this, and it seems Will Bunch was one of the firsts.

"...a firm grounding in math and science"

In President Bush's recent State of the Union address, Bush insisted that American students need "a firm grounding in math and science" or the nation will lose its competitive "edge." Well, consider that "edge" officially dull. This is from an investigative article in the Arkansas Times:

...“Bob” is a geologist and a teacher at a science education institution that serves several Arkansas public school districts.

Timeout. Okay, remember, this is at the science institution, not just a random podunk school in 'Footloose'-town run by a crazy board or superintendant.

[...] Teachers at his facility are forbidden to use the “e-word” (evolution) with the kids. They are permitted to use the word “adaptation” but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary change via natural selection. They cannot even use the term “natural selection.” Bob feared that not being able to use evolutionary terms and ideas to answer his students’ questions would lead to reinforcement of their misconceptions.

Okay. That's bad enough. No "evolution." It gets better/worse...

But Bob’s personal issue was more specific, and the prohibition more insidious. In his words, “I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old.”

If the Geology teacher at the regional Science Center is supposed to "pretend" or "wink" that the Earth might only be 6,000 years old (or whatever the bullshit story in the Bible is) then there is no point in bringing students over there. They can go out in the backyard, fondle some rocks, and guess for themselves that those rocks are "very old."

Older, at least, than the rocks being formed in their heads by the State of Arkansas.

A couple weeks ago, I took my daughter to the local science center run by the City of Ann Arbor. It was an event all about reptiles and we went on little hike, carefully rolling over logs looking for salamanders (we found one), and then a discussion and handling some animals back in the classroom. There was a moment when our guide/instructor (likely a U-M grad student) was showing the kid's a particular snake, and refered to it's two vestigal "legs." For a brief moment, I could sense her hesitation, almost as if taking a deep breath or making a mental scan of the room, before she introduced the word "evolution."

I'm telling you, I don't believe it was my imagination. She actually paused for a moment. This is at a science center Ann Arbor, Michigan—home of a leading research University—not a one-classroom parochial school in Backwater, Arkansas. If this is any indication where the nation's educational discourse is headed, we are fucking screwed.

Later in the article it refers to the self-censorship going on at this Arkansas science center and similar local institutions:

Their program depends upon public support and continued patronage of the region’s school districts, which they felt could be threatened by any political blowback from an unwanted evolution controversy.

With regard to Bob’s geologic time scale issue, the program director likened it to a game of Russian roulette. He admitted that probably very few students would have a real problem with a discussion about time on the order of millions of years, but that it might only take one child’s parents to cause major problems. He spun a scenario of a student’s returning home with stories beginning with “Millions of years ago …” that could set a fundamentalist parent on a veritable witch hunt, first gathering support of like-minded parents and then showing up at school board meetings until the district pulled out of the science program to avoid conflict. He added that this might cause a ripple effect, other districts following suit, leading to the demise of the program.

[...]

[at] a privately run science museum for kids [...] I looked around the museum and found a few biological exhibits, but nothing dealing with evolution. I introduced myself to one of the museum’s employees as a science educator (I am indeed a science educator) and asked her if they had any exhibits on evolution. She said that they used to, but several parents — some of whom home-schooled their children, some of whom are associated with Christian schools — had been offended by the exhibit and complained. They had said either that they would not be back until it was removed or that they would not be using that part of the museum if they returned. “It was right over there,” she said, pointing to an area that was being used at that time for a kind of holiday display.

Go read the whole article, there's much more, including public school A.P. biology classes balancing evolution with creationism.

I really am starting to get worried that this mentality is spreading throughout the country. It's bad enough that it's all over Kansas or wherever, but it's working it way in everywhere. Right now the vocal minority is affecting the curriculum for the rest of the country, and people are unwilling to tell the people to shut the fuck up. The scariest part, to me, is that I'm not sure how long they will be the minority. The population shift in this country is all to the South, and the religious-types are far out-producing liberals in terms of offspring. There may very well (soon) be a time when these maniacs will be able to democratically instill these values even more easily by simply outnumbering the rest of us.

I gotta go have some more kids...

[via Carpetbagger]