Monday, January 23, 2006
Potty Mouth Howell
Atrios was given an interview of Deborah Howell. How very interesting and candid and indecent. The WP originally removed hundreds of posts they claimed were obscene or indecent about her but researchers found very few indecent posts. A new batch of the deleted posts was reposted except they again kept back a non-obscene six.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Iraqi Invasion: A Text Mis-Adventure
Deborah Howell's Mea Culpa
While blasting liberal bloggers for playing a game of semantics she retracts both offensive statements.
I wrote that he gave campaign money to both parties and their members of Congress. He didn't. I should have said he directed his client Indian tribes to make campaign contributions to members of Congress from both parties.No problem there and that is OK. She should have also included that his client victims reduced their previous giving to Democrats but we have to start with getting rid of the obvious lies.
My mistake set off a firestorm. I heard that I was lying, that Democrats never got a penny of Abramoff-tainted money, that I was trying to say it was a bipartisan scandal, as some Republicans claim. I didn't say that. It's not a bipartisan scandal; it's a Republican scandal, and that's why the Republicans are scurrying around trying to enact lobbying reforms.She admits it is a Republican scandal. Earlier she had written "stay tuned" as so far only Republicans have been indicted.
I would say the bloggers won one.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
The 42 blog posts WaPo wants to hide from you
They called it an obscene outpouring of hate. A preliminary investigation doesn't show that. While some of the language is intemperate hardly any is out of bounds.
An analysis of one time period indicates abouts 20% were removed and not for indecent language. Some others not captured may have been removed but there is little evidence of that. The WP just didn't like being called incompetent and fools. The Washington Post is now believed to have an ombudsman who is incompetent and a liar by thousands. Is this what they want?
top ten reasons why nobody reads your blog
1. You're not a good-looking female who likes posting naked pictures of herself. - From Tonga with no clothes and love - Now this is a popular blog - not work safe at all.
2. There's nothing in it for them.
Yeah, people really want to spend the short time they've been given on this Earth to find out what an unemployed managing consultant dork has to say. Dream on.
3. "Passion & Authority" are just buzzwords to you.
Yeah, I've read the Cluetrain as well. So has my pet canary. Get back in line.
Would YOU like to take over the Texas Democratic Party?
Vote March 7th and stay at the voting place afterwards to take over the party.
Got an idea how the government can do better? Are you libertarian, populist, green, moderate, progressive, or liberal? How about atheist, agnostic, Christian, Budhist, Muslim, or Hindoo? This party is wide open and you can take it where you want. Bring a couple friends and a few resolutions and work your way into control.
Polluted Airwaves
I thought it was very strange that I saw not one media report on Scaife's NewsMax repackage of The Swift Boat Liars report. This ran as a 30 minute infomercial on PAX ABC/Family Network stations right before the Presidential election.
What a thing to show on TV. Especially on family channels. 30 minutes of unrestrained Republican hatemongers, often wearing their old military uniforms, calling John Kerry a traitor who lengthened the war and promoted the torture of American POWs.
I suppose it is that none of the liberal media normally watch this network with its strong rural family Christian viewership that prevented this from being noticed or commented on.
The infomercial appeared to be a condensed version of the program Sinclair Network was going to air distilled to 30 minutes of hate speech. Every 5-10 minutes a written pitch superimposed to buy the video for $5 made it an infomercial. Is this the way around campaign watchdogs, disguise 30 minutes of propaganda as an infomercial? Can liberals start buying up infomercial time and attack GOP public officials claiming it is to sell videos?
Scaife has always been a pioneer in vicious attacks. He spent tens of millions of dollars investigating Clinton and promoting wild charges hoping something would shake loose. Eventually something did.
Maybe this time he took a clue from the Perot's campaign 30 minute ad blocks.
Running infomercials directly at a target audience on a media the metropolitan press doesn't see - brilliant. No wonder there was the massive rural voter rejection of Kerry. Kerry was branded a traitor and no one in the media or his campaign noticed. Rural people and families and Christian noticed. Kerry had a record low percentage of the rural county vote.
This was right before the 2004 election, over a year ago, but it still bugs me.
Texas Guv Perry hired Abramoff Connected Lobbyist with your tax dollars
The crooked GOP crony lobby contracts will cost Texas taxpayers $1.1 million by the time they expire in 2007.
Most of Texas' Democratic congressmen Friday told Gov. Rick Perry he should cancel the $1.1 million contracts of the state's outside lobbyists because they've never contacted any of them.
Another Baptist Minister Child Abuse Sex Offender
Monterey County Herald | 01/20/2006 | Pastor admits molesting 2 girls
The daughter came under Domelle's custody when she was 3 years old and was adopted six years later. Between the ages of 10 and 19, Thelander said, Domelle repeatedly had sex with her.
"She never told law enforcement. She told people in the community and nobody believed her," Thelander said. "(Domelle and his wife) then sent her off to Christian school in Texas."
Did ABC-Disney kill pro-tolerance reality show to appease Christian Right?
Texas show giving minorities, including a gay couple, a chance to own a small mansion in all white neighborhood killed after filming. Producers blame Disney's Christian Narnia campaign.
Abramoff directed client Indian tribes money away from Democrats
Bloomberg News reports that after Abramoff began represented them Indian tribes reduced their giving to Democrats.
Abramoff's tribal clients continued to give money to Democrats even after he began representing them, although in smaller percentages than in the past.
The Saginaw Chippewas gave $500,500 to Republicans between 2001 and 2004 and $277,210 to Democrats, according to a review of data compiled by Dwight L. Morris & Associates, a Bristow, Virginia-based company that tracks campaign-finance reports. Between 1997 and 2000, the tribe gave just $158,000 to Republicans and $279,000 to Democrats.
...The numbers show that "Abramoff's big connections were with the Republicans," said Larry Noble, the former top lawyer for the Federal Election Commission, who directs the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.
"It is somewhat unusual in that most lobbyists try to work with both Republicans and Democrats, but we're already seeing that Jack Abramoff doesn't seem to be a usual lobbyist," Noble said.
It might be well to start calling the Indian tribes victims instead of clients. They were ripped off by a GOP operative who also induced them to give less to their long time Democratic friends. Now the GOP is claiming because they continued to give lower amounts to Democrats it proves this is a bipartisan scandal.
This controversy and reporting on it is shaking the media.
The Washington Post has shut down their blog about their paper to comments after Democrats and liberals became outraged by the hundreds after their ombudsman, in an otherwise excellent article on the paper's reporting on Abramoff, stated incorrectly that Abramoff gave money to Democrats. She then ended by hinting that while Republicans would soon face indictments Democrats might face indictments too.
Many respondents were furious and intemperate in their language. Imagine that. Think about the last time you really lashed out at someone. Could it have been when someone who claimed to be truthful and responsible lied? When someone in a position of trust to you, like an ombudsman is supposed to be to the readers, lied and showed they could not be trusted? Could you have gotten intemperate in your language?
The other editors of the paper have not been much better. They have been busy defending her while admitting she was wrong in related articles. The editor of the WP online edition only appeared on a conservative talk show, which regularly blasts the paper for being "liberal," to discuss the controversy. Brady is apparently is unaware of liberal talk show alternatives.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Ret. Army General William Odom: U.S. Should "Cut and Run"
A quick review Former NSA head said "The invasion of Iraq I believe will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history." He recently gave another talk which David Corn attended and said it again. He also says stablizing Iraq would take 700,000 - 900,000 troops. We don't have that many.
I have said this repeatedly - We should declare victory and bring our troops home this year.
U.S. Holds Going-Out-Of-Business Sale
The Onion - America's Finest News Source"The U.S. government, America's place for law and order since 1776, has lost its lease, and everything must go, go, go," Bush said. "But our loss is your gain, and make no mistake: You, the people, would be crazy to miss out on these amazing closeout bargains."
The Washington-based government, which hasn't shown a profit in five years and carries the highest debt in its history, was ultimately driven out of business by costly overhead and cheap foreign competitors.
The WP had a blistering attack on Bush so where did they put it?
In the Style Section
An interview with Powell's former chief of staff is treated as a personality and entertainment article.
Wilkerson, a once-loyal Republican with 31 years of Army service, has emerged in recent months as a merciless critic of President Bush and his top people, accusing them of carrying out a reckless foreign policy and imperiling the future of the U.S. military.That headlined Thursday's Style section. Today their Style section has two movie reviews and a discussion of the Winchester rifle.
"My wife would probably shoot me if I headed to the ballot box with a Republican vote again," he says. "This is not a Republican administration, not in my view. This is a radical administration."
Wilkerson calls Bush an unsophisticated leader who has been easily swayed by "messianic" neoconservatives and power-hungry, secretive schemers in the administration. In a landmark speech in October, Wilkerson said: "What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made."
He is particularly appalled by U.S. treatment of enemy detainees, counting at least 100 deaths in custody during the course of the war on terrorism -- 27 of them ruled homicides. "Murder is torture," he says. "It's not torture lite."
As for the invasion of Iraq? A blunder of historic proportions, he believes.
"This is really a very inept administration," says Wilkerson, who has credentials not only as an insider in the Bush I, Clinton and Bush II presidencies but also as a former professor at two of the nation's war colleges. "As a teacher who's studied every administration since 1945, I think this is probably the worst ineptitude in governance, decision-making and leadership I've seen in 50-plus years. You've got to go back and think about that. That includes the Bay of Pigs, that includes -- oh my God, Vietnam. That includes Iran-contra, Watergate."
This is where I would normally say write the ombusdman who is supposed to represent the readers but in their case she is a GOP flack who doesn't reply to criticism.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
A look back at 2000 and predicting presidential elections
Al Gore's big mistake was picking Lieberman as his running mate.
He thought it would bring moralists who disliked Clinton to the party and carry Florida's Jewish vote. In reality, only a minuscule percentage of voters pay attention to Senators or politicians outside of their home state. While it may have helped marginally in Florida it reinforced an image of the Democratic Party as a collection of liberal special interests.
Instead of an East Coast wealthy Jewish Senator who is liberal on domestic policy but conservative on moral and foreign issues a Gore pick of moderate conservative Senator Graham of Florida would have helped in Florida, the entire South, and the overall vote.
Why? Sen. Graham is from Florida, he is from the South, and his pick nudges the party more toward the perceptual right/left center sweet spot. All of these are factors in the presidential election electoral college game.
American presidential elections are over 90% predictable based on the last few presidential elections party votes by state, the state of the economy, the home state of the president and VP candidates, candidates from the South, and the perceptual left/right centrality of the tickets. Some models use slightly different but similar factors but only a small part of the electorate are really swayed by the campaign.
The South, includes Texas and Oklahoma, is the only region that adds a few points to the tickets with regional candidate selection. Bush had already negated much of the Democratic Southern strategy by being from the South but adding another Southerner gives a nudge.
There was an early computer game that came out based on this voting pattern. It actually had on the cover of the box the states that each side won later that year. (The game itself made small adjustments for campaign stops and advertising and positions on the issues or style in simulated debates.) It appears to be an earlier version or an Apple version of 'President Elect 88' by Strategic Simulations Inc.
You can download that game free here This wasn't the version I played which I don't remember being so 1988 issues specific. (Lot's of pop-ups and spam at site.)
ADDED - Found the game I played on Virtual Apple. Play it online. It was using a slightly different model than I remember.
Baby names and politics
What's in a name? And how is that connected to politics?
My first name reached its height of popularity in 1954 and is fairly rapidly becoming obscure again. I found this information for free courtesy of our tax dollars.
You can find the popularity of birth names in a service provided by the Social Security Administration.
There is an important note at the bottom that they "do not conduct research on baby name popularity or naming trends." That was for those wondering how they answered people objecting to tax dollars spent on this.
Should the Social Security Administration provide this information or should they sell the data to someone else that could offer this service?
Let's ignore the question that it is simpler for the SSA to do this. They have the huge databases of records they need for other purposes anyway. Let us also ignore the possible identity theft and privacy abuses that would occur trying to give all the records to a private company. They could spend as much time scrubbing data as simply making it available free. Focus - Should this service and information be privatized?
Which leads me to politics and my current observation.
Privatization doesn't lead to corruption - it is corruption.
It is almost impossible to remove corruption when people make money off of services the government provides.
As you get more involved in politics you become aware that everyone contributing money to politicians wants something. Most people want something pretty specific. Most big contributors seem to be getting their money back in pretty specific ways. Even in our local little governments the big contributors are the one getting the local contracts.
Privatizing services just provides more opportunity for more money to flow back to the politicians. Any money supposedly saved comes out of wages and benefits to the workers. But for profit corporations must pay their investors and must pay taxes that public service don't. A government may save money but the more they save the more they are having a third party pay employees wages and benefits at low scales they are unwilling to directly pay.
As more governmental services are privatized more sources of political donations are created. Any politician advocating privatization wants to lower wages and benefits, to increase compensation to owners and managers, and to collect payola from the contractors.
How can a service be more efficient if it has higher costs due to the necessity of making a profit for its investors, the additional taxes it must pay? Only by cutting something out of the picture - the workers who actually do the jobs.
The New Democrats, the DFC libertarians and the DLC "free market" privatization advocates need to explain why they want lower wages and benefits for workers and more corruption in politics.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Texas Tuesdays - Roll Everywhere - Meet Dot Nelson-Turnier, Democrat for SH-150
Every Tuesday I will highlight a Texas Democrat or progressive running for office, usually from Texas Tuesdays.
The Elite don't get it - Frey lied
USATODAY.com - When fiction masquerades as truth
This is an issue that is beyond conservative and liberal. If you publish a memoir it should be substantially correct. If you change names and details you explain why. In no case do you consistently remake yourself as a fictional character incredibly more evil and more victimized and more depraved than you are to make a more dramatic story. There is an old adage that Americans love a redemption story and the more evil and unlikely to survive the better the uplifting and transformative redemption. James Frey exploited that.
I had posted other reactions to a Million Little Lies last week on another of my blogs but this is starting to illuminate a larger issue. To what extent is the truth an important virtue in religion and politics? To what extant is a disregard for the truth an important part of the strategy of what I call the conservative elite? I know many on the right who feel it is part of the strategy of what they call the liberal elite. The Frey case helps them.
I think lies, large and small, are a big part of the strategy of the conservative leaders in both politics and religion. I find many conservatives feel that serving a "larger truth" is more important. What I call true conservatives do not feel that they need to compromise.
The fact that this fictional memoir is championed by Oprah and the East Coast book publishing industry would lead some to be believe that a disregard for the truth is a liberal failing. I think it is a human failing of both sides.
I have ranted against the hypocrisy and lies from the neo-cons and the religious right. Can I do less than also criticize Oprah and some in the book industry?
Oprah and the publisher should relabel the book as fiction based on a true story.
Read the investigation by the Smoking Gun looking for a mugshot that started this.
This Google will allow you to keep up with the scandal and see what others have to say.
Added - in this case The New York Times gets it.
Richard Cohen has an accurate account of Oprah's Grand Delusion.
What she needs is a session with Dr. Phil... Here is where Dr. Phil steps in. He might tell his friend and mentor that there is no redemption without honesty. Treatment, as one expert told me, begins with "owning your life" and not embellishing it for the sake of others or yourself. It was one thing when Frey's tale was believed to be 100 percent true. Now that the lie has been exposed, the message can no longer be about redemption but about concoction -- the lies that addicts tell others, the ones they tell themselves.
As for Doubleday, the liar's publisher, it uttered all sorts of nonsense about different rules for memoirs but had no real explanation of how an hour or so in jail could be recollected as three months. In this vast corporation, there seemed to be no one who knew the difference between fact and fiction, truth and a lie. (Fiction packaged as fact is a lie.) Doubleday did not seem even a tad embarrassed that it had been snookered, that it had lent its considerable name and reputation -- built on the hard work of many an honest writer -- to a sham. What's more, it did not acknowledge that it must have suspected for some time that Frey had cooked his book. Back in 2003, for instance, the Minneapolis Star Tribune had questioned the book's factualness. (Some of "A Million Little Pieces" takes place in Minneapolis.) In effect, the story was dismissed -- go away, silly newspaper, there's too much money at stake.
Supreme Court backs Oregon's assisted suicide 6 - 3
New Chief Justice Roberts shows his stance against individual liberties in favor of big government.
Under the Death with Dignity Act, a patient must have less than six months to live, must be deemed by two doctors as mentally fit to make the decision, and must present one written and two oral demands over a certain period.
He can then obtain lethal medication from his doctor but must administer it himself.
Monday, January 16, 2006
SCLM WP - Spot the errors
In a story about the Washington Post's investigation of Abramoff Deborah Howell shows she has no business being ombudsman. Either reporter Susan Schmidt lied to her and she didn't fact check or she inserted on her own Abramoff "made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties." In addition, she tries to buy off GOP criticism at the end by repeating the claim and then saying Democrats may yet be investigated. She does not support that claim. If you ignore the factual errors and the Dem slamming to score GOP points it should have been a good article.
Ask the Washington Post to remove Deborah Howell from the position of ombudsmen. There are many WP blogs you could post that on or they provide several ways of contacting them or posting on their site.
How the GOP works - attacking the press
Knight-Ridder produced a factual analysis of all of Alito's written opinions and, no surprise, documented he was very conservative. Then the GOP went to work. Knight-Ridder has been the most important news media chain in the US as it doesn't simply parrot the official government line but does investigative work. For this it has gotten a reputation as liberal. I guess the facts are liberal.
Henderson and Mintz cataloged the cases by category - employment discrimination, criminal justice, immigration and so on - and analyzed each one with help from attorneys who participated on both sides of the cases and experts in those fields of law. They interviewed legal scholars and other judges, many of them admirers of Alito.
They concluded that, "although Alito's opinions are rarely written with obvious ideology, he's seldom sided with a criminal defendant, a foreign national facing deportation, an employee alleging discrimination or consumers...
The Republican National Committee circulated a blistering personal attack on Henderson to some reporters, taking quotes out of context in an attempt to portray him as biased.
The RNC said Henderson "admitted he was previously an editorial writer," as though that very public part of a distinguished reporter's career was a secret that he'd been trying to hide. The RNC statement then linked Henderson to editorials he didn't write.
This hysteria over a carefully researched article that documents the obvious - that Samuel Alito is a judicial conservative - is the latest example of a disturbing trend of attacking the messenger instead of debating difficult issues....
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Lampson leads DeLay in House Race
Only about half of likely GOP Primary voters now rate DeLay favorably, and only 39 percent are committed to voting for him in March.
If the general election where held today, DeLay would get 22 percent of the vote, Lampson 30 percent, and Stockman 11 percent. The remainder are undecided or support other candidates. The ballot also will include a Libertarian Party nominee and possibly another independent.
It worked on Kerry...
These right wing nut crazies are nothing if not predictable. The Right Wing Noise Machine, with assistance from the White House, has decided to take down Rep. John Murtha with a smear campaign.
The White House is trying to find current military officers to denounce him, so far without much sucess. A general in Iraq did call his statements demoralizing.
The partisan and conservative (and tax-free) CNS news network, known for its factual inaccuracies, is trying to cast doubts on his war medals. Extreme right calls Murtha's War Hero Status Called Into Question. Here is one site set up to document CNS distortions,
Later - Daily Kos also saw this Swift-Boating of Murtha.
More - Crooks and Liars quickly googles this smear and finds it directed by people highly connected to the Republican National Committee. The main spokesperson is a bitter GOP rival of Murtha's whose damaging statements supposedly come from someone who died 30 years ago..
Friday, January 13, 2006
TIKKUN's Spiritual Dimension of Politics
Core Vision of an Interfaith Movement
In short, the political must have a spiritual dimension. This is a dimension of life which is rarely given attention in social change movements, but it is a central concern of the TIKKUN Community.Among the central building blocks of such a spiritual dimension:
the development of a personal spiritual practice such as meditation or prayerThe Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP)
the practice of generosity and sharing what we have with others, compassion toward others and toward oneself, including the open-hearted acceptance of one's own and other's flaws
developing the habit of affirming the being of others even when we may disagree with some of their beliefs or practices
careful attention to one's speech so as to not say hurtful things towards others
joyfulness and the affirmation of pleasure
treasuring our bodies through conscious eating and exercising (but without politically correct guilt trips)
the practice of forgiveness and repentance
giving to give and not to get
letting go of fantasies that we can control everything,
and recognizing that there is enough and that we are enough.
1) Advocates a New Bottom Line in America. This bottom takes into consideration not only how well institutions and the economy maximize money and power, but how well they maximizes love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity and behavior, kindness and generosity, non-violence and peace, and the extent to which they enhance our capacities to respond to other human beings in a way that honors them as embodiments of the sacred, and enhance our capacities to respond to the earth and the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement.As long as I am posting about the spiritual dimension of politics I should not forget Houston's First UU Church - newsletter (pdf) and mp3s of sermons.
2) Challenges the misuse of religion, God and spirit by the Religious Right and
3) Challenging the anti-religious and anti-spiritual assumptions and behaviors that have increasingly become part of the liberal culture
4) Challenges the extreme individualism and "me-firstism" that permeate all parts of the global market culture.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Why Liberal Bloggers are alone in the Wilderness
Peter Daou documents the DC Democrats lack of media savvy. Before the hearings Democrats needed to lay the groundwork for a PR campaign like the GOP. Now the Alito hearings are following the GOP media storyboard. The charges of right-wing media bias should be loudly trumpeted, instead the right is charging left-wing bias and playing the media like a bad weak umpire.
The Hero of My Lai dies
Consortiumnews.com - American Hero
Circling over the village, Thompson was at first uncertain what he was witnessing. A bloodied unit of the Americal Division, furious over its own casualties, had stormed into a hamlet known as My Lai 4.I will be occasionally ending my no digest mode for important stories where I have little to add to the story.
Revenge-seeking American soldiers rousted Vietnamese civilians – mostly old men, women and children – from their thatched huts and herded them into the village's irrigation ditches.
As the round-up continued, some Americans raped the girls. Then, under orders from junior officers on the ground, soldiers began emptying their M-16s into the terrified peasants. Some parents used their bodies futilely to shield their children from the bullets. Soldiers stepped among the corpses to finish off the wounded.
But there also were American heroes that day in My Lai, including helicopter pilot Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. from Stone Mountain, Georgia. After concluding that he was witnessing a massacre, he landed his helicopter between one group of fleeing civilians and American soldiers in pursuit.
US army in Iraq institutionally racist, claims British officer
A senior British officer has criticised the US army for its conduct in Iraq, accusing it of institutional racism, moral righteousness, misplaced optimism, and of being ill-suited to engage in counter-insurgency operations. The brigadier was deputy commander of the office of security transition for training and organising Iraq's armed forces in 2004. What is startling is the severity of his comments - and the decision by Military Review, a US army magazine, to publish them.
George Bush's rough justice
The career of the Alito has been marked by his hatred of liberalism.
On every important and unimportant issue he seeks to push back laws in support of authoritarianism.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
"Hot Tub and Champagne Campaigns" - DeLay Family Values
Thanks to Jeremy for reminding me of the hot tub propensities of Tom and his daughter.
DeLay Thanks Lobbyists With Vegas Trip - 02-04-21 - (washingtonpost.com)The Houston Press passed along a snippet:
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), legendary on Capitol Hill for his aggressive efforts to cultivate corporate interests, hit on a new way of rewarding his friends last weekend, flying more than 30 lobbyists to Las Vegas for a golf tournament and a round of partying....
The weekend included a late-night party Saturday in DeLay's suite at the Rio Hotel and Casino, which featured a living room, bar and hot tub on the balcony. DeLay was not present, aides said; the event was hosted by his daughter, Dani Ferro [age 27], the campaign manager for DeLay's reelection campaign. After the party, Ferro told associates that a lobbyist poured champagne on her while she was in the hot tub.
the Capitol Hill weekly Roll Call broke the story last fall, quoting a witness as saying Ferro was "among the revelers" at a late-night party and "there were a lot of lobbyists in the hot tub, pouring champagne on each other." And no doubt discussing those sybaritic Democrats.Of course, the daughter was just taking after her father who
"As a Texas state legislator from 1978 to 1984, DeLay had a reputation in Austin less as a lawmaker than as a partyer and playboy known as "Hot Tub Tom." DeLay was kicked out of Baylor in 1967 for his "extracurricular activities" and "too vigorous a social life." He roomed with other fun-loving male legislators at a condo they dubbed "Macho Manor." When DeLay first got to Congress, he says, "I would stay out all night drinking till the bars closed... I just did it, and then I got up sober and went to work."Let's round this out with some specifics of how DeLay is using his power to direct money to his family. From The New York Times last April:
The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and daughter in his political career...
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that "questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the payroll."
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
NSA Source Alleges Illegal Spying on "Millions"
ABCNews - Breaking - NYT Source says all calls monitored for key words
Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers, such as one in New York, and to search for key words or phrases that a terrorist might use.
"If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing."
According to Tice, intelligence analysts use the information to develop graphs that resemble spiderwebs linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or even thousands more.
Daddy’s Little Accomplice Pens Fundraising Letter
Think Progress:
Dani DeLay has received hundreds of thousands of dollars as a paid consultant to DeLay’s political action committees, ARMPAC and TRMPAC, over the last four years. No details were provided in tax statements about what Dani did to earn her salary, and the payments were described by analysts as “unusually generous.”Links and her fundraising letter for her Dad who is facing multiple corruption scandals at Think Progress.
But we do have some idea of what Dani was up to. In 2002, she helped organize the DeLay fundraiser for energy executives (held just before a vote on major energy legislation) that earned DeLay a censure from the House ethics committee.
She also organized a 2004 fundraiser for DeLay’s charity “Celebrations for Children,” advertised as a benefit for “abused and neglected children.” DeLay aides later admitted that “part of the money would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush’s speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises.”
Even Dani’s 2002 baby shower was investigated: it was held at the Washington offices of Texas-based Reliant Energy, and attended by Jack Abramoff.
National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Quaker peace group
Aerial surveillance, round-the-clock communications net, agent provocateur, bomb-sniffing dogs, and Homeland Security WMD team all called out for peace activists.
An entry made at 1300 hours on July 4. reads, "The Soc. was advised the protestors were proceeding to the airplane memorial with three helium balloons attached to a banner that stated, 'Those Who Exchange Freedom for Security Deserve Neither, Will Ultimately Lose Both.'"
Extensive plans are described for the day of the Oct. 4, 2004 demonstration. The letter shows that the NSA planned to have their Weapons of Mass Destruction Rapid Response Team on site, an officer with a shotgun, an increase in the number of officers, mobile units monitoring the highway and parking lot, roving patrols on bicycles in various areas, four K9 handlers, agents to provide counter-surveillance, aerial observations by the Anne Arundel, Maryland police and photography/video surveillance of the activities.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Why don't we have better government?
Matthew Yglesias - Because the GOP is run by lobbyists.
....Why is the Medicare bill so crappy? Because the GOP is run by lobbyists. Why can't we make student loans cheaper? Because the GOP is run by lobbyists. Why can't we secure chemical plants against terrorist attacks? Because the GOP is run by lobbyists. Why is the tax code so full of loopholes? Because the GOP is run by lobbyists. And so on down the line.
Or, again, why don't we have a serious energy policy? Because the GOP is run by lobbyists. Why is our broadband internet so slow and crappy? Because the GOP is run by lobbyists. This analysis works for about 90 percent of possible topics.
Sen. John Cornyn knifes Ralph Reed
Glenn Greenwald: Using Christian conservatives for fun and profit. Our own screwball Senator accused Ralph Reed, who built the Christian Coalition and is now both a GOP politician and lobbyist, of lying and "bilking" his clients on national TV Sunday. An example of why contrary to all the conservative pundits on TV this past month this Abramoff scandal is huge and will influence the elections against the GOP.
Shiny Heinies for Alito
Wished I had thought of that phrase when I read that story. The Nattering Nabob did and also I'll use Iggy's other post to draw attention to Howard Dean's great performance again.
Tags: Dean, oily fat asses
Alito may be the worst choice
Alito would solidify Bush control of all three branches of government.
Robert Kuttner - AT THIS moment in American history, it would be hard to find a worse Supreme Court nominee than Samuel A. Alito Jr
Alito's apologists insist that his views from the mid-1980s, when he worked at the Reagan White House, do not reflect his current conception of the law. But in a speech to the Federalist Society in November 2000, while a sitting appellate judge, Alito claimed almost limitless powers for the presidency and criticized other courts for limiting executive power. ''The president has not just some executive power," he declared, ''but the executive power -- the whole thing."
Oddly, while Alito favors an almost monarchic executive, he believes the federal government has limited powers to protect the health and safety of Americans or safeguard the environment. Alito and and his compatriots in the Federalist Society are critical of the Supreme Court's holding since 1937 that Congress, under the Constitution's commerce clause, may regulate to assure everything from a safe and healthy workplace to honest financial markets. According to University of Chicago professor Cass Sunstein and the watchdog group People for the American Way, Alito has written the largest number of dissents of any judge sitting on the conservative Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and over 90 percent of his dissents were more conservative than those of his colleagues.
With the Bush administration running roughshod over individual rights, Alito has tended to support prosecutors and corporations over individual citizens and employees, in cases involving civil liberties, civil rights, workplace rights, and reproductive freedom. In 1985, he wrote that he thought the Constitution ''does not protect the right to an abortion," flatly contradicting Roe v. Wade. And with corruption scandals festering in Washington, Alito conveniently forgot his pledge to recuse himself from cases in which he had a personal financial interest.
Digby is back
And Hullabaloo points out Pat Robinson's influence is growing, not shrinking.
The 700 Club's average daily audience, according to AC Nielsen's November sweeps, is up 26% over last year. At a time when most daily shows are struggling The 700 Club is experiencing tremendous increases.
Attack on Iran: A Looming Folly
ADDED in addition to the above analysis, but with some skepticism M3 and the Approaching Attack on Iran.
Harry Reid - Integrity, Conservativism, can't be bought
I find it interesting that two of the most admired new Democratic leaders, Harry Reid and Dr. Howard Dean, are by most measures very conservative. Check out this bio on Harry Reid from the New Yorker. Find out what Harry did when someone tried to bribe him.
MINORITY RETORT
How a pro-gun, anti-abortion Nevadan leads the Senate’s Democrats.
Tags: Reid
The Next Abramoff Shoe To Drop - The White House Ties
Arianna is beginning to lobby for the media to start this next step.
Why doesn't some of the so-called liberal media start reporting how the White House blocked an investigation into Abramoff over his and Tom DeLay's Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands corruption?
Foreign companies were sending foreigners to work in sweat shops as indentured servants in locked compounds. Rape, brutality, forced sexual workers, abuse, imprisonment for people paid less than half of minimum wage. Abramoff was the representative of the companies. Tom DeLay was the big recipient of the money. Tom DeLay delivered protection to the factories and they continue to this day to have MADE IN USA stickers on the merchandise. The White House blocked federal investigation of Abramoff bribery as Tom DeLay blocked investigations and laws in the House to regulate the companies. What do the GOP Christians think of the forced abortions the factories mandated there?
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Broken promises and business as usual
Doug Thompson should be syndicated.
In this article he skewers and exposes the GOP hypocrites who rode a "reform" campaign into office.
Highly recommended.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
States Intervening After Drug Plan Hits Snags
Medicare Part D and the new drug program for Medicaid is another GOP disaster. I can't resist posting just because this was totally foreseeable based on the past examples of political hacks and corporate cronies being put in charge of ill-planned Bush programs.
Democrats introduce plan to improve House ethics
I bring this up because a Democratic plan to improve ethics has been ignored for over a month. We are starting to hear again that Democrats do the same things, are just as corrupt, and offer no solutions. The 14-point plan was strong enough that as Broder writes "even a watered-down version" would greatly improve ethics in the House.
Seeing the Forest on Not Seeing the Forest
The Abramoff Indictment Justice Investigation Hides Connection to RWNM
Dave Johnson is agreeing with me about the non-profit foundation links in the Abramoff scandal not being pursued by the Justice Department when the lack of oversight of the tax-free foundations is the heart of the scandal. He provides links to the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy which reports that the indictment reveals "the debilitated condition of government oversight of nonprofits and foundations."
You see, the entire "conservative movement" operation depends on tax-free donations to so-called "charitable" organizations like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and hundreds of other national and state organizations that are supposed to be non-partisan but in reality operate almost entirely to the benefit of the Republican Party. So any kind of crackdown on the misuse of tax-free charitable donations would threaten the continued existence of the right-wing noise machine itself.
Abramoff's connection to and abuse of a "clearly phony" non-profit organization is a lead the Bush Administration's Justice Department doesn't want to follow, because it is this network of organizations that pays - and pays well - for the army of right-wingers who write op-eds, articles and books supporting the Republican agenda, who make appearances on so many radio and TV shows and who offer "informed opinions" for news articles and programs. These are the PR and marketing organizations that send out the repeated pro-conservative messaging and strategic narratives that move American ever more rightward. An honest investigation of their funding and operation would threaten the underpinnings of the conservative movement's "Right Wing Noise Machine."
The Boys and Their Project
Mary at Pacific Views has a real good article about how Abramoff, DeLay, Reed, Ney and Norquist founded the K-Street project and tied business donations and lobbyists directly to the GOP. DeLay even "kept a little black book noting which lobbyists were good and which were bad, who deserved favors and who punishment. One reporter, believing that the story about the black book was apocryphal, asked DeLay, who proudly showed it to him."
The dirtiest people in the GOP got their start in the Young Republicans and College Republicans which have turned into schools for corruption and dirty tricks. In addition to the above add Rove and Atwater to those who got their start learning dirty tricks in the rich kid's schools for corruption.
Arianna Huffington: Spotlight on the Charitable Foundation Dodge
Arianna: Here's a line you won't see very often: I couldn't agree more with Tom DeLay.
Tom DeLay was speaking of full and complete disclosure of campaign contributions. But the GOP for the past decade has been associated with more and more contributions flowing through tax-free charities. These are almost nothing but political scams to provide funding and jobs for friends and relatives and supporters while engaging in political related activities.
These "charities" have the advantage of minimal federal oversight. Donations to them are unlimited, tax deductible and not reported. A complete win-win-win for dirty money flowing into politics. This is also related to the tax-free foundations that have been fueling the Right-Wing Media Noise Machine which now spends tens of millions of dollars (tax-free) each year distributing right wing opinions and studies to every branch of media.
The most immediate need is for all the spending of foundations and contributions to charities to be reported. The next priority is an overhaul of the tax code - the more money that flows through non-taxed channels the more the tax-payers have to pick up the bill.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Glenn Greenwald -- is inspired lately
What are Democrats so afraid of?
Over at Digby - What happened to conservative legal theories?
And others - here and here. Way to go.
Attack on Iran?
There is a lot of Internet Buzz being generated about a possible attack on Iran by Israel and the United States. Russia is strongly opposed to this attack and has many citizens working at an Iranian nuclear reactor that would be a target. China also receives much of its foreign oil from Iran.
Here is just one of the reports : Intelligence indications and warnings abound as Bush admin finalizes military attack on Iran from the Wayne Madsen Report.
Judge Hirsh has been noting for months that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have been pushing a new doctrine that calls for first strike tactical nuclear weapons use and it is all clearly aimed at Iran. His latest was December 28th where he lays out the comprehensive case. Plans for an attack on Iran come at a time of growing dissatisfaction within the military rank and file against the GOP civilian leadership at the Pentagon. The reports suggest that the attacks would take place in early 2006 as early as tomorrow.
ABC News - Iran won't back down on atomic research.
An Iranian delegation was expected to meet officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Thursday to explain what activities the resumption of nuclear research and development would encompass.Much more stuff leaking today.
Ahmadinejad also defended his proposal that Israel be moved to Europe on the ground that the Palestinians should not suffer as a result of Europeans' killing of Jews during World War II.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
How Bush Spent New Year's Eve?
Bush showed up to visit Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio looking puffy, flushed, hung over and with yet another scratch on his head. My link here to eight photos with snarky dialogue inserted doesn't seem widely posted - The Hollywood Liberal.
Doug Thompson, who gets many insiders feeding him stories in DC, is calling for an investigation of Bush's boozing which has become blatant for someone who claims to have quit "cold turkey" on his own years ago. In Mongolia he openly sampled their fermented national drink and a photo during a meeting in Europe showed a goblet of wine at his place setting.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Easter Lemming Liberal News No Longer a Digest
There are several reasons this will no longer be a digest.
One is it takes too much time to keep up with all the news and provide links to the major stories and commentary of interest. There are also numerous internet sites that do that now unlike when I started.
I also want to avoid signifying my approval by linking to most of the So-Called Liberal Media. While there has been improvement in the last year The New York Times disclosure that it withheld evidence before the last election that the President was not upholding the Constitution was a "last straw" type of thing.
But during this past week I also had to question - Which American Mainstream Mass Media could I trust to report the story?
My post on the most trafficked blog on the web, the liberal Daily Kos drew minimal attention although strong approval for my refusing to link.
See my posts on Daily Kos for more - Boycott the Times? and Who Can You Trust?
Yeah, I know I have announced fewer posts before. As Billmon found out this blogging gives a jones that won't quit. But I mean it this time - no more digest. I'll only post when I have something to say.
I'll repeat the Firestarter question from Kos - So, what media with the largest circulation and a reputation for non-biased honesty would you trust now?
FYI - Even the ombudsman is upset with the Times.
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