This

must


be


my


lucky


day.

What Foser Says

Check out this long, infuriating, and excellent column by Jamison Foser of Media Matters (via Atrios). It's all about the media's persistent Republican bias, and how they fit the two parties into consitently pro-Republican/anti-Democratic storylines. Democrats are calculating and phony while Republicans are bold and authentic; Democratic scandals are sexy and easy to understand while Republican ones are boring and complicated; Democratic personal lives are fair game, Republican personal lives are sacrosanct.

Foser basically says that this is the single most important thing in our country right now, and he's absolutely right. None of the many Republican disasters we have had (and the lack of consequences for same) would have been possible without the media consistently pushing the Republican narrative.

I believe that Foser did, however, miss a few opportunities:

1) While he debunked the idea that not all Clinton/Democratic scandals are sex-related, he neglected to mention that some Bush/Republican ones are, i.e., the Jeff Gannon and "Hookergate" stories. The collective media shrug over a male prostitute being waved into the White House press corps was what convinced me beyond all doubt that the media is actively complicit, rather than merely buffeted by Republican pressure and the quest for ratings and profits.

2) This one is nitpicky, but Foser didn't speculate on motive, didn't say anything about how most media outlets are owned by corporate conglomerates and/or right-wing lunatics. He might have just been taking that as a given, and focusing more on the methodology.

3) I would have liked to see Foser talk about the media's significance a little more. Because most people get all their news from them, the mainstream media effectively define and control reality itself. And the fact that Bush's approval ratings ever go up, and that he has gotten away with such baldfaced lies as denying that he ever said he didn't care about bin Laden, suggest to me that far too many people rely on the media more than their own memories to tell them what happened in the past. The media have far more power than people realize, and they abuse it mercilessly.

4) This is really out of the scope of Foser's article, but it's something I'm desperate to hear: How do we fix the media? Can it be fixed directly (i.e., Fairness Doctrine - which I think can be easily gamed) or indirectly (i.e., ownership rules - which I think would just nibble at the edges of the problem)? My personal belief if that it can only happen through a media crisis/scandal that both forces them to clean up their act, and exposes their true bias for all to see. Media control over reality is not as effective if everyone knows that they're being fed pure right-wing propaganda, and adjusts accordingly.

Why I Love The Weekly World News

The Weekly World News reports on President Bush's cunning plan to solve the homeless problem:

The Bush Administration has a daring new plan to house the growing number of homeless people in the country -- clown cars!

"Did you ever go to the circus and see how many clowns come out of a single car?" Bush asked his Cabinet at a meeting last month. "There's like, tons! From one little car! What if we got a bunch of these cars and let homeless people live in them. Wouldn't that be great?"

According to a Cabinet official, Bush went to the circus last month and was impressed with how the clowns looked when they emerged from the cars.

"The President said, 'They're healthy. Energetic. So it must be pretty comfortable in there. And what's more, they can all drive around together and look for jobs! Talk about car pooling!'

"When the President gets really excited about an idea like this, there's no point telling him that the clowns don't really live in the car, and that it has a false bottom," the official said.

It's very, very difficult to parody the Bush administration, but I think they've done a fine job here.

P(O)SA

The Sci-Fi Channel is hosting a Memorial Day Movie Marathon of their usual exquisitely cheesy low-budget (mostly) monster movies.

In particular, be sure to catch Mansquito at 9PM on Sunday night. It's... mosquisite.

Friday Quote & Spider Blogging

This weeks quote is from Prisoner Of The Mountains, a Russian film about a soldier captured by the Chechen rebels, and the efforts by his mother to get him freed.

"I'm dead, but I like it."


And, of course, there'll be other people's spiders...


I was taking some pictures of the lightgrapes on my way back from Wednesday night softball, and I decided to see if I could get a closer shot of the spiderweb. Imagine my surprise...
(Click on the pic for a larger view)

I might have to go back after this one with a tripod some night.

Words Fail Me.

Uncle Smokes posted a link to this, and I tried to resist, but... I am not strong.

Um, something about Otto The Stephen Hawking Kitty and the Perfect Strangers theme...

Konstitutional Karma

4/28/06:

Two senior Republicans want to set up an independent watchdog over the federal judiciary to police judges' acceptance of free trips or their possible financial interests with groups that could appear before them in court.

(snip)

Dick Carelli, a spokesman for the federal courts, said Friday that the judiciary already is subject to congressional oversight and has internal mechanisms for policing itself.

Establishing an inspector general responsible to any entity outside the judicial branch, such as Congress, "would be a serious incursion into judicial independence," Carelli said.

The policy-making Judicial Conference of the United States, a 27-judge body whose presiding officer is the chief justice, went on the record in 1996 as "strongly opposing the creation of an IG in the judicial branch."

5/23/06:

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.

(snip)

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed alarm at the raid. "The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important Constitutional issues that go well beyond the specifics of this case," he said in a lengthy statement released last night.

"Insofar as I am aware, since the founding of our Republic 219 years ago, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to do what it did Saturday night, crossing this Separation of Powers line, in order to successfully prosecute corruption by Members of Congress," he said. "Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years."

Sucks, don't it.

Wednesday Softball Blogging

Tonight was the first week (for me) of Wednesday Night Softball. The game had just started when I showed up, and it was somehow my turn at bat, with the bases loaded. So pretty much right off the street, I hit a two-run single back up the middle. Next at-bat, bases loaded again, two-run double. Five subsequent at-bats, mostly with the bases empty... 1-for-5 with a run and no RBI. Net result, an unusually productive 3-7, with a double, a run, and 4 RBI.

Fielding was... erratic. Not sure if it's something about the field or the lateness of the hour, or if I just can't get a good read if I'm too far towards centerfield. I caught a few and lost a few, but I did make some strong throws which my arm is now paying for.

Wednesday players don't keep score, so I can't tell you who won...


Current Stats: 6 games, .517 BA (15-29), 3 2B, 2 HR, 9 runs, 12 RBI.

Career Stats: 33 games, .567 BA (127-224), 21 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 70 runs, 52 RBI.


From the knees! I can't remember if he got the out or not...


Attempting to salvage a bobble and drop.


Something tells me she's gonna be taking another base...

Trustiness

Desi at Mia Culpa linked to a very intriguing Zogby study on trustworthiness. Some highlights:

o 59% of respondents have a negative view of the current state of honesty in the US.

o 75% say they have less trust in their government than they did five years ago, and only 8% say more. (Interesting choice of timeframe there)

o 24% give the President a favorable rating for trustworthiness. The courts get 29%, the media 11%, and Congress... 3%. Ouch.

o This one is mystifying. Favorable ratings for various types of media, in ascending order:

Internet: 19%

Newspapers: 25%

Broadcast TV: 25%

Cable TV: 65%


SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT????

What. The. Bloody. Hell. I was starting to feel, well, kind of optimistic up to that point.

Random Clouds And B&W Blogging

No real theme, just some recent pics that I kinda liked.


Very dramatically lit clouds. Pretty much blind luck on my part...


More dramatic clouds. Maybe a little blown out by the sun, but still pretty cool.


This was really more about the spiderweb than the clouds. Who knew spiders liked grapes?


...And a Mysterious Bucket Of Peril, for no apparent reason.

Bikini Briefs

1) "Democratization" : Hate & Fear :: Lipstick : Pig


2) Donation without Representation = __________?


3) Will Bob Casey Jr. be better or worse than Joe Lieberman?

Ohgodpleaseyes.

So I was reading WaPo's The Fix inside-baseball political blog, a post about Kerry's new political advisor (some guy), and this happy little tidbit jumped out at me at the end:

One consultant who will not be back if Kerry runs again is Bob Shrum, who served as the lead strategist during the '04 race. Shrum says he has retired from American politics and currently serves as a senior fellow at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service.

Oh God, I hope this is true. I'm sure the Republicans will do everything they can to entice this professional albatross to hang himself around the Democrats' necks once again. I'm thinking maybe something like: "Prominent Republican spokesmen expressed confidence in their party's ability to retain control of the White House with wily master tactician Bob Shrum out of the picture. 'It will be a tough fight, but we will prevail as long as Shrum stays on the sidelines. Quite frankly, we're all scared to death of him. The man's a beast,' said chief Republican strategist Karl Rove, unable to suppress a smirk of sheer animal terror."

Pay No Attention To The Elephant Behind The Curtain.

One of the most simultaneously comforting and frustrating notions held by us liberals is that if those salt-of-the-earth, heartland Middle America voters really knew what Democrats and Republicans stood for, or if they really knew what our Republican politicians and their supporters were getting up to, the GOP would end up like a right-wing version of the Green Party. And while I think this is true, I don't think it goes far enough. American voters also need to understand the game that the Republicans and their corporate media are running on them: Campaigns that rely on smears, fears, homophobia and xenophobia; news and opinion that consistently advance Republican narratives.

Right now, Bush and the Republican party are wallowing in approval ratings in the 20s and 30s, based entirely on their actions and inactions, such as Iraq, Katrina, Plame, and all manner of illegal spying. But come election time, they will attempt to sweep it all away with "Ohmigod! Gays/immigrants/terrorists/abortions/activist judges/liberals are coming to take your bibles away!" And Democrats will dutifully engage them on that ground, and attempt to explain how they really are tough on terror Christians, and really not such a big threat to the American way of life after all, and oh-by-the-way, the war in Iraq was rather ill-considered, was it not?

This was pretty much the Democratic gameplan in 2004 (well, except for the part about Iraq being a bad idea), and it didn't work. All the burgeoning dissastisfaction with Iraq was trumped by the ridiculous fear that Democrats would let terrorists and gay marriage destroy America unless they were stopped, and by bogus accusations that Kerry's military honors were phony. I see no reason not to expect the same scenario to play out in November and 2008, although the dissatisfaction will be harder to overcome this time around. The Democrats will make gains, but not nearly as much as they should.

What I want to see the Democrats do this time is refuse to play the Republicans' game, but call them on it instead. Rather than simply saying, "We do too hate terrorists and gay people just as much as the Republicans! More, even!", call the Republicans on what they're doing. Say, "The Republicans have failed and dishonored this country in every way imaginable, and all they can do is campaign on hate and fear. Do they think you're that easy to distract? Is this all they think you care about?" Americans love to congratulate themselves on their bullshit-detecting abilities, and therefore hate being played. Unfortunately, they hate admitting that they've been played even more, which is why so many still cling to the idea that the Republicans actually want what's best for America, and why the Democrats have to make it very explicit and impossible to dismiss or ignore.

Ultimately, what I want to see is the Republicans' distraction-and-boogeyman strategy blow up in their faces. I believe that the day that Americans see it for the sham that it is and reject it, is the day that we finally start to get our country back.

Sunday Softball Blogging - I AM MIGHTY!!!

Awesome! I had a multi-home run game! (Technically they only count as doubles, but I still hit two out) Plus a double! 4-6, 2 runs, 3 RBI overall, and was pretty solid in the field as well, with one nice catch and a couple of strong throws. I also scored one of my runs on a weird play where I was at third and the runner behind me was too aggressive, so I figured I would give myself up at home rather than letting us both get tagged out. But the catcher couldn't handle the throw, so I was safe. Cool. And we won.

Current Stats: 5 games, .545 BA (12-22), 2 2B, 2 HR, 8 runs, 8 RBI.

Career Stats: 32 games, .571 BA (124-217), 20 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 69 runs, 48 RBI.


Sadly, I don't think Out-Of-Focus Redhead makes it.


Just about to tag the batter out...


Here, bally bally ball...

Oh, Lordi.

REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis

YES!!!!

Finland was the surprise winner of the 51st Eurovision song contest on Saturday with the monster-themed hard rock band Lordi beating 23 other competitors.

Lordi scored 292 points from telephone voters in 38 countries with its song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" in a performance in Greece that both shocked and amused viewers.

(snip)

In Finland, young people on the streets of the capital Helsinki welcomed the news of their country's Eurovision triumph enthusiastically, although no big celebration was being planned.

"It's amazing that Finland has finally won something. Though I don't like Lordi myself, it's great! We don't win anything," said Mari Pelli, an 18-year-old childminder.

(snip)

"I don't like the band but I'm very happy that they won. Eurovision is a show for entertainment, not for music," said Mikko Mattila, a 30-year-old student.

"It's not Sibelius, but they have their own way. Lordi is the best," said Satu Puolakka, a 19-year-old student.

This is, like, the most awesome thing ever.

Saturday Leaf Blogging

Yes, more pictures of leaves. Just local Pittsburgh ones this time, though. None of those exotic South Carolina leaves or anything like that.


My attempt to read the tree leaves was woefully unsuccessful.


Mutant Leaf #1: Bit early in the year for this, innit?


Mutant Leaf #2: Looks a bit like a clownfish, actually...


Randy Williams, 2000

...Like so.

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week's quote is from Smoke Signals, a sort of American Indian mismatched-buddy/road movie based on the writings of Sherman Alexie:

"Some days it's a good day to die, some days it's a good day to have breakfast."


And, of course, there'll be other people's cats...


Graveyard Kitty still doesn't like me.

SNLdipity

When NBC made YouTube take down all its videos of President Gore's State Of The Union address, I went to NBC.com to see if they were hosting it on their Videos page. It wasn't, but they had a link (now gone) on their main page. When I followed it, lo and behold, I found a veritable cornucopia of SNL Video Goodness. I had to sit through a commercial to watch the Al Gore video, but I watched several more videos without any more ads.

The selection is a bit erratic and the clips appear to have been edited by poorly trained monkeys with egg timers, but there's still a lot of good stuff on there, some of which I had never seen before. I find myself curiously amused by the Robot Repair sketch from '88-89...

Oh Well.

I knew it was too good to be true...

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter is backing off tongue-in-cheek comments that he plans to tell President Bush next month that he dislikes how the country is being run.

(snip)

The Pro Bowl linebacker issued a statement Wednesday saying he regrets making comments that some apparently construed as serious.

"I regret that my quotes about our team's upcoming visit to the White House were taken out of context," Porter said in a statement issued by the team. "I am very excited to have an opportunity to visit the White House and meet the president of the United States."

Porter also said his comments were not meant to suggest he disapproves of Bush or the job he is doing.

Sigh...

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Today's NYT has an editorial about a Republican-sponsored bill to establish an inspector general for the federal judiciary. Said judiciary is a bit worried, needless to say, since investigations could potentially be used as a club against "activist judges" (liberal ones only, of course).

On the other hand, if the inspector were truly nonpartisan, he'd be looking at Scalia's junkets and hunting trips (wherein he miraculously managed to avoid getting shot in the face despite his striking resemblance to a wild boar), and Alito's refusal to recuse himself from cases involving his own stockholdings.

For precisely this reason, I assume that this bill gives Congress a very limited role in confirmation and oversight, or else its authors (Sensenbrenner and Grassley) are awfully confident that they will hold on to their majorities this fall.

Even so, what would happen if the Democrats retook the White House? This is potentially an even bigger weapon to hand to President Gore/Feingold/Clinton than the "nuclear option." After all, the filibuster can only be invoked against new nominees, but an inspector general can investigate anybody. In fact, if his powers go far enough for him to remove judges, an inspector general would be an excellent mechanism for negating lifetime appointments (intended to eliminate political pressures on judges, remember).

Of course, a Republican president is probably much more likely to stoop to using an inspector general as a political hitman than a Democratic one, so maybe that's why they're not worried...

Risk-Reward With Re-Gore

As some of you may know, I am one of those left-wing crazies who really wants to see Al Gore run for president again in 2008. Of course, I'm only rooting for "Angry Gore" - the fierce straight-talker that Al Gore has become as he has grown more comfortable as a political outsider. My biggest fear about a second (okay, third) Gore campaign is that once he starts to feel the pressure of the public eye upon him, he will revert to being Cautious Focus-Group Gore (HRRN!! Angry Gore hate puny Focus-Group Gore!). But for the sake of argument, let's say that he snaps Bob Shrum's neck like a rotten twig the first time he tells Big Angry Al to tone it down for Heartland America, and just lets it all hang out.

For us Angry Gore fans, it goes without saying that a bracing jolt of straight talk about the magnitude of the Republicans' crimes would have a galvanizing effect on the Democratic and Dissatisfied Independent electorate, but I'm hoping that Angry Gore would actually go beyond merely trashing the Republicans. What I am fervently wishing for is that Gore hires some liberal media critics like Peter Daou or Atrios or the Media Matters folks to staff a "media war room." It is high time that the Democrats acknowledge that the mainstream media is every bit as much their enemy as the Republicans are, and start alerting the American people to it as well.

Why Gore, and why 2008? Gore, because I think he has the best understanding of the media out of all the presumptive candidates (I'm assuming that Dean stays put as DNC Chair). And 2008, because I believe that the only way a Democrat can get significant media coverage of media factchecking or anything else is if they're the Democratic candidate for president, or if they kill someone (Note to Gore: Not that Angry).

Of course, the risk here is that the media would spin any such criticisms into a "Gore's a whiny crybaby who can't bear the intense scrutiny of a presidential campaign" narrative. Certainly it would behoove them to do everything in their vast reality-controlling power to discredit anyone who shines an unflattering light on them. I believe that the key would be the focus and talent in Gore's media war room. They shouldn't cry foul every time the media says anything merely unflattering about Gore, but instead limit themselves to conclusively debunking blatant falsehoods, i.e., "Al Gore claims he invented the internet," or pointing out any occasions where a media outlet contradicts itself or demonstrates a clear IOKIYAR (It's Okay If You're A Republican) double standard. The practical difficulty here lies in presenting the case in a way that is both definitive and sound-bite compact, as well as the risk that every time they let an unflattering-but-not-flagrantly-inaccurate story pass unchallenged, it would be spun as a plea of no-contest. They would also need to work out where to draw the line between major, Swift-Boat-level lies that Gore should address personally, vs. smaller fibs that could be handled by a spokesperson ("Al Gore said he and Tipper were the inspiration for Love Story!").

I understand that the risk in confronting the media head-on is enormous, but they have so much control over our perception of reality and history, that it is suicidal to allow them to continue infusing that reality with Republican narratives and outright lies. Ultimately, the media must be forced to choose between either taking their journalistic, watchdog responsibilities seriously, or else become a Pravda-esque laughingstock that everyone knows is just right-wing propaganda. My preference is for the former, as more Republican crimes would be exposed that way. I will also observe that the media crisis could also be brought about by some form of media scandal, wherein it is discovered that the media conspired to cover up some sort of major Republican wrongdoing. (But who would report it?) Finally, note that there may be no other way to reform the media - I believe that the Fairness Doctrine could be easily gamed and used as a figleaf, and reform of ownership rules would just kind of nibble around the edges. Any serious media reform would have to come from within, and would require some pretty intense motivation.

What about the bloggers? some of you may ask. I don't want to sell my more-talented bloggy brethren short, but I think the sad truth is that there just aren't enough people reading them to make much of a difference, and most of the people who are reading them are already convinced. It's possible that this could change, or that the left builds a noise machine of its own by the time 2008 rolls around, in which case Nominee Angry Gore probably wouldn't need a dedicated anti-media strikeforce (no elite motorcycle commandos, please), but I'm not counting on it. As my Cliche-A-Day calendar says, Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Liz, Meet Gail. Gail, Meet Liz.

In case anyone doubted that there is an impermeable wall between News and Opinion...

Liz Bumiller's "news analysis" of Bush's address on immigration:

The headline news from President Bush's immigration speech on Monday was troops to the border, but in substance and tone the address reflected the more subtle approach of a man shaped by Texas border-state politics and longtime personal views.

(Oh yeah, Bush is Mr. Nuance.)

What was remarkable to people who knew Mr. Bush in Texas was how much he still believes in the power of immigration to invigorate the nation.

"He's always had a more welcoming attitude," said Bruce Buchanan, a presidential scholar at the University of Texas. "He always spoke well of Mexican nationals and regarded them as hard-working people. So his grace notes on this subject are high."

(snip)

"He understands this community in the way you do when you live in a border state," said Israel Hernandez, an assistant secretary at the Commerce Department who traveled with Mr. Bush as a personal aide when he first ran for governor. "Philosophically, he understands why people want to come to the U.S. And he doesn't consider them a threat."

Today's NYT lead editorial:

President Bush's speech from the Oval Office last night was not a blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform. It was a victory for the fear-stricken fringe of the debate.

These are the people who say illegal border crossings must be stopped immediately, with military boots in the desert sand. Never mind the overwhelming burdens of Iraq and Afghanistan, the absence of a coherent and balanced immigration policy, and the broad public support for a comprehensive solution. America must send its overtaxed troops to the border right now, they say, so a swarm of ruthless, visa-less workers cannot bury our way of life under a relentless onslaught of hard work.

Rather than standing up for truth, Mr. Bush swiveled last night in the direction of those who see immigration, with delusional clarity, as entirely a problem of barricades and bad guys. His plan to deploy "up to 6,000" National Guard troops to free the Border Patrol to hunt illegal immigrants is a model of stark simplicity, one sure to hearten the Minuteman vigilantes, frightened conspiracy theorists, English-only Latinophobes, right-wing radio and TV personalities, and members of Congress who have no patience for sorting out the various and mixed blessings that surging immigration has given this country.

Suddenly, I'm hearing the "fight theme" from Star Trek (Brrr-AH!)...

Tackling The President

Please, please don't wuss out:

Joey Porter has a gripe to pick with his head coach and the president of the United States and, as usual, he isn't bashful to speak his mind.

First, the Steelers' linebacker wants to talk with George Bush when the team visits the White House June 2.

"Yeah, I got something to say to Bush, I'm going to have a swagger when I walk in there, too," Porter said, laughing loudly. "I'm looking forward to it. I have something to tell him, too. I don't like the way things are running right now. I feel like he has to give me some of my money back, so I got something to tell Bush."

This is pretty much how Joey Porter plays football as well - lots of energy and lots of trash-talk. I would love to see the expression on Bush's face with Porter up in it.

Random Semi-Abstract Photoblogging

Some more recent photos, all of which are, well, kinda abnormal.


"Dirty Tape" is just one of the many quality filters available in the latest release of Adobe Hoboshop.


Upsign-down shadow.


Neighbor's patio furniture.


Truck nostril.

El Presidente Schwarzenegger Is Doing A Great Job.

For those who missed it, Al Gore made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live last night, giving a State Of The Union address from Parallel Earth, and it was Genius (via Atrios):

Update: NBC forced YouTube to pull it, but you should still be able to get it here at Crooks & Liars.

Happy Mother's Day

A heartwarming Mother's Day video from Barats and Bereta.

Let Them Eat Prozac

And I thought "Special Forces" meant something entirely different...

U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness, a newspaper reported in its Sunday editions.

(snip)

Twenty-two U.S. troops committed suicide in Iraq last year. That number accounts for nearly one in five of all noncombat deaths and was the highest suicide rate since the war started, the newspaper said.

The paper reported that some service members who committed suicide in 2004 or 2005 were kept on duty despite clear signs of mental distress, sometimes after being prescribed antidepressants with little or no mental health counseling or monitoring. Those findings conflict with regulations adopted last year by the Army that caution against the use of antidepressants for "extended deployments."

(snip)

Ritchie acknowledged that some deployment practices, such as sending service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome back into combat, have been driven in part by a troop shortage.

(snip)

Maj. Andrew Efaw, a judge advocate general officer in the Army Reserves who handled trial defenses for soldiers in northern Iraq last year, said commanders don't want to send mentally ill soldiers into combat.

"But on the other hand, [the commander] doesn't want to send a message to his troops that if you act up, he's willing to send you home," Efaw said.

So, basically, the only thing that can disqualify you from military service is The Gay. Age, intelligence, aptitude, mental stability, none of that matters. Come on, stop worrying about whether the gay troop is staring at your back - at least he's watching it.

Limp Ninja Time!

One of my coworkers tipped me off to the fine work of Barats and Bereta, who appear to be a pair of humorous Gonzaga students. I think the Ninja Rap is my favorite so far.

Random Pittsburgh Photoblogging

Just some recent photos with no particular theme, other than recentness.


It's just tired and shagged out after a long stalk.


I put a lot of thought into this post.


Black & white clouds are always a nice change of pace.


Look! Nature!

Ohpleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease...

Please, please, please let this be true:

Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.

Thanks to watertiger and Attaturk for the heads-up.


If true, the immediate resignation might just be the last time he covers Bush's ass, as I can easily picture Dubya choking on his own rhetorical pretzels trying to rationalize Rove's continued employment otherwise.

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week's quote is from the Charles Bronson classic Death Wish, I shit you not:

"Why haven't you found my dog? He's vital to my income! He paints such marvelous pictures with his paws!"


And, of course, there'll be other people's cats...


More shadowy and mysterious Codename F. nostalgia.

<30

That's gonna leave a mark:

Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January.

(hat tip to Atrios)


That big red W's lookin' a little dinged. But hey, that sky sure is blue...

Did Broder Have A Stroke?

Today's WaPo chat:

Charles Town, W. Va.: Mr. Broder,

You are my favorite columnist, and I thank you for answering questions today.

I'm an independent voter completely fed up with both parties. Do you foresee any possibility of a qualified independent candidate running for president?

Thanks again!

David S. Broder: As O saod a ,p,emt agp. tje emvorpm,emt [p;otocs;;u wpi;d be veru rece[tove tp am omde[emdemt camdodacu. bit fomdomg sicj a camdodate wo;; mpt be easu/

Today's column:

That is also the theme sounded by one of the current generation's best political reporters, Joe Klein, in his new book, "Politics Lost."

Can someone please check on Mr. Broder? I'm worried about him.

Whoa.

Go. Read. (via Elmo)

I'd excerpt, but I don't know where to begin. It's a chilling and articulate description of the "ordinary" effects of war on a soldier. Not obvious stuff like injuries or sickness or PSTD, but the psychological effects of being subjected to such an intense and horrific experience, and then being shut down and expected to function in and relate to the "real world" on its own terms. As the saying goes, You can't go home again.

I Am Tinfoilio!

Okay, so maybe I'm just being paranoid...

Appeals court judge J. Michael Luttig, a leading conservative jurist and a short-list Bush administration candidate for the Supreme Court, announced today that he is resigning from the bench to serve as senior vice president and general counsel of The Boeing Co.

(snip)

...[H]e had a significant falling-out with the Bush Justice Department earlier this year when he protested, in a follow-up opinion, what he suggested was the administration's inappropriate manipulation of the legal system in order to avoid a further Supreme Court test of the president's wartime authority.

His public thrashing of the Justice Department was known to have been deeply upsetting to political appointees in the department.

(I just love that last paragraph.)

Death and voluntary resignation/retirement are pretty much the only ways to get rid of an appeals judge in the absence of gross misconduct, so is it possible that this was arranged, either with or without Luttig's knowledge, to get him out of the way? I'll bet money that whoever replaces Luttig will be a lot more amenable to the idea of absolute executive power.

Naive York Times

Maybe they just didn't want to sound too paranoid...

It's hard to disagree with Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of Russia on Thursday. Vladimir Putin has indeed reversed the democratizing course set, however clumsily and incompletely, by Boris Yeltsin, and he is using Russia's vast reserves of oil and gas as tools of intimidation and blackmail. Still, however much we agree with the content of Mr. Cheney's remarks, the unavoidable reaction is to question their motives and usefulness. There was a time when a strong statement from Washington in support of human rights and democratic behavior carried real authority. But of late the human-rights record of this administration has eroded its moral authority, and Mr. Cheney is closely associated with some of its most offensive policies.

(snip)

The Bush administration has been working hard for weeks to line up Mr. Putin's support for a United Nations resolution aimed at halting Iran's nuclear enrichment activities. Without Russian backing, that effort cannot succeed. In that light, the timing of Mr. Cheney's remarks, which were vetted by the White House, seems rather odd.

So... Cheney's criticisms may have sabotaged the chances of a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear aspirations? Wow, what could possibly explain a mysterious gaffe like that...

More Creepy Cemetery Photoblogging

I found a few more photos from the creepy gothic cemetery which (hopefully) don't totally suck...


Nobody dies it like Sarah Lee...

Yes, I'm going to Hell.


Lines between the Reid.


Civil War era, I think. And not in good shape.


It looks like a statue of some kind of caped and hooded person, but it's actually an urn draped with a blanket.

Why Joe Must Go

Chris Bowers at MyDD (by way of Atrios) says it much better than I can:

As I talked to people in the [Lamont] campaign, who were a healthy mix of political professionals and newly energized activists, one theme kept coming up in my head. This campaign is an accountability moment. For all of the Democrats over the past fifteen years and more who have helped facilitate negative narratives about our party, this is their moment of accountability. For all of the Democrats over the past six years who have helped facilitate the Bush agenda, this is their moment of accountability. For all of the party leaders over the past couple of decades who have told activists that they need to temper their desires, support a politics of triangulation, and fall in line behind candidates, policies and strategies that do not exactly fulfill the hopes and dreams of the activist base, then this is their moment of accountability. The Ned Lamont campaign is the moment where those Democrats and those leaders are forced to be accountable for those actions. Now, they will have to answer to the voters and to the activists who make their positions possible.

I have been saying this, albeit less well, for the past month or so. The Democratic establishment has taken it for granted that they can safely ignore the progressive base and netroots, except to hit us up for money or GOTV. In their comfortable little minds, they have never paid any price for this neglect; they actually believe that they lost the last three congressional elections because they paid too much attention to Those Crazy MoveOn/Michael Moore Hippies, and scared off the Real Americans whose approval they so desperately crave.

The reality is that the Democrats don't lose because they're too shrill and confrontational, but because they're not shrill and confrontational enough. They caved on the Iraq war, they caved on the bankruptcy bill, they caved on Schiavo, they caved on Roberts, they caved on Alito. Sure, they might have lost anyway, but they never even made the attempt. There are far too many Democrats who choose Republican approval and corporate donors over the progressive principles of their party. We need to send them the message that the netroots are a force to be reckoned with, and that they can no longer win without us. We need to get rid of Joe so that the Democrats realize that we matter more than the corporations do.

The New McCarthyism

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

I'd like to see if he can speak while El Presidente drinks a glass of water.

Rebel Without A Clue

From The New Republic, by way of Howie Kurtz (who knew either of them could be useful?):

It's hard to make out, because the video is fuzzy.... But, once you know what it is, it makes sense. It sits folded on a bookcase of trophies and bric-a-brac behind George Allen, who is seated at a desk in his home office. It's right there next to the fax machine. You can see the red field. You can make out the diagonal blue bar. And you can see what looks like a white star. It is the Confederate flag, and it appears in the very first ad that Allen broadcast in 1993, when he ran for governor . . .

Images of Allen are like a Civil War version of Where's Waldo, with the Confederate flag replacing the bespectacled cartoon character. First, as The New Republic reported last week, there's the senior class photo from Palos Verdes High School with Allen wearing a Confederate flag pin. Now we learn that the Confederate flag appears as a decoration in Allen's first statewide ad, even though he has long maintained that the flag did not adorn his home after 1992.

Some conservatives have recently argued that the revelations about Allen's high school photo are irrelevant because the picture is so old. "[I]f we're going to scrutinize people's high school records as we vet them for public office, nobody gets to run," columnist Kathleen Parker wrote last week. But, as revealed by the 1993 campaign ad--as well as the accounts of Allen associates now stepping forward--his embrace of the Confederate flag is even more extensive than tnr previously reported. According to his colleagues, classmates, and published reports, Allen has either displayed the flag--on himself, his car, inside his home--or expressed his enthusiastic approval of the emblem from approximately 1967 to 2000.

He's just kicking the Southern Strategy up a notch, is all.

A New Scare Tactic

NYT has an interesting article about the latest use of fear to motivate the Republican base to turn out; only this time it's not fear of terrorists... it's fear of accountability:

Heading into the election, many conservatives are disheartened by the war in Iraq, upset at what they see as a White House tolerance for bigger government and escalating federal spending, and divided over issues like immigration. The abrupt resignation on Friday of the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Porter J. Goss, promised to feed the impression of an administration that is off balance.

But White House and Republican officials, trying to turn vulnerability to advantage, say conservatives could be united and re-energized by the possibility that Democrats could put Mr. Bush and his policies on political trial by winning control of even one chamber of Congress.

I would love to see this backfire on the Republicans bigtime, but my biggest fear is that every single one of the 32% dead-enders who still think Bush is a beleaguered colossus will turn out to vote for his enablers. Given America's typically low voter turnout, especially for midterms, this could easily save the Republicans' pasty, corrupt asses.

Oh, and did I mention fear of terrorists?

Senate Republicans sent out a fund-raising letter this week seeking to use that possibility to fire up the base, warning that a Democratic majority would put fighting terrorism "on the back burner" and that "our worst fears" could be realized.

I told you so. The Democrats need to counter with something along the lines of, "You mean like voting against port security? Or chemical or nuclear plant security? Or foot-dragging on securing Russian nukes? That kind of back burner?"

Sunday Softball Blogging

All right! I took some practice swings on Saturday and took some BP before the game, and I seem to have recovered my batting mojo. Didn't do too great in terms of average (4-9 and hit into a double play), but at least I made contact, and really smoked the ball my last two at-bats (one right at the shortstop for an out, and one right over him all the way to the wall for a double). Very productive, too: 4 runs and 4 RBI, even though my team lost both ends of the doubleheader.

Outfield defense was erratic again (pretty normal for the beginning of the season... and the middle... and the end...), but I did have a nice running catch and double play and made some nice throws. I forgot to mention that I found a four-leaf clover in leftfield last week - oddly enough, this week I found a five-leaf clover in rightfield (which I had to hold between my lips through a very looooong defensive half-inning). Not entirely sure what that bodes...

Current Stats: 4 games, .500 BA (8-16), 1 2B, 6 runs, 5 RBI.

Career Stats: 31 games, .569 BA (120-211), 19 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 67 runs, 45 RBI.


Force at third.


Eye on the ball.


Total chaos!

Anniversary Question

In all the calculations and handicapping of the November midterm elections, one thing I have not heard mentioned is the upcoming 5th anniversary of 9/11. I expect that this is going to be a pretty huge deal, full of maudlin, overwrought propaganda.

My question is, will this help or hurt the Republicans in November? Will they be able to successfully spin the anniversary as A Reminder Of What's At Stake, Of What We're Fighting For, and how Only The Republicans Can Keep Us Safe? Or will the Democrats be able to use it as a reminder of just how little Bush and the Republicans have accomplished in those five years?

I don't think this is going to be a minor thing. One of the reasons Bush beat Kerry in 2004 was that he managed to convince just enough people that his total incompetence somehow did not extend to Keeping Us Safe, and that Osama bin Laden would nuke us into the stone age if we elected a Democrat. The Republicans will aggressively court the bedwetter vote again this fall, and the Democrats need to be ready to counter that with some harsh reality. F'rinstance, the Dems might want to point out that they are the party pushing for port and chemical/nuclear plant security, and the Republicans are the ones against. The Republicans are the ones leaving the doors and windows unlocked, and the Democrats should not be too polite to say it.

Gossing Over

I Goss, er, guess Bush must have finally found someone less qualified...

CIA Director Porter J. Goss resigned today after less than two years on the job, President Bush announced at the White House.

Bush said Goss offered his resignation this morning and that "I've accepted it."

"Ah'm the accepter, see..."

Neither the president nor Goss, who sat to Bush's right as he made the announcement in the Oval Office, gave a reason for the resignation.

The Republicans truly must be the Family Values party, judging by how much time they all want to spend with theirs.

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week's quote is from the classic assassination thriller The Day Of The Jackal:

"I'm enthralled by combine harvesters. In fact, I yearn to have one... as a pet."


And, of course, there'll be other people's cats:


The shadowy and mysterious Codename F, enveloped in an ethereal glow.

I Know Why The Lapworm Turns.

I didn't have a chance to read The All-Seeing Eye Of Froomkin today, but Atrios did:

The way I see it, the Washington press corps is still appropriately embarrassed that they screwed up in the run-up to war. Now, as Bush's approval ratings fester, they are getting bolder in challenging the official White House line on any number of issues. They're justifiably proud of a handful of great investigative pieces.

But they still haven't addressed the central issue Colbert was raising: Bush's credibility. As it happens, the public is way ahead of them on this one: For more than a year, the polls have consistently been showing that a majority of Americans don't find Bush honest and trustworthy.

And yet, as I've chronicled time and again in this column, (see, for instance, my Feb. 3 column, It's the Credibility, Stupid ) the mainstream press -- the very folks in that ballroom on Saturday night, the ones who actually have access to the president and his aides -- have allowed that fundamental issue to go unexplored.

Here's my impression of what's going on: The media aren't emboldened by Bush's falling approval ratings. They aren't angry about five years of being marginalized and lied to. No, I believe that if it was entirely up to their owners, they wouldn't cover any of this, or would cover it as lightly as possible.

I believe that only reason that the media (or right-wing pundits, for that matter) have been presenting anti-Bush, anti-GOP stories is that they need to preserve their own credibility. They have to walk a very fine line; if they advance their pro-corporate/pro-Republican narrative too obviously, they become like Pravda. Everyone would simply accept it as a given that they're full of shit, and read between the lines accordingly. Kind of like a rapacious parasite that kills its host. Or the Republican party - but I repeat myself...

Beauty Botanical Photoblogging

Okay, one last attempts at some beauty shots from the botanical gardens.

Please bear in mind that I have no idea what I'm talking about.


Just so we're clear on this, I have no idea what any flowers are called. Tulips, maybe? Idunno. I'll just call them "Purple Flower Thingies."


I think someone may have said these are forget-me-nots, but I... well...


Baby ferns! I think.


Some kind of, um, white flowers...

Are ya feelin' educated yet?


"...And when they grab you with those metal beaks, you can't break free. Because they're made of metal. And robot birds are strong."

Chemical VP

The Cheneys share a private moment.

Vanity Fair has the latest update on how totally not-paranoid Mr. Undisclosed Location is (by way of The All-Seeing Eye Of Froomkin):

When [Cheney] gave his friend Robin West and his twin children a ride to the White House a couple of years ago, West commented on the fact that Cheney's motorcade varied its daily path. "And he said, 'Yeah, we take different routes so that "The Jackal" can't get me,' West tells Purdum. "And then there was this big duffel bag in the middle of the backseat, and I said, 'What's that? It's not very roomy in here.' And [Cheney] said, 'No, because it's a chemical-biological suit,' and he looked at it and said, 'Robin, there's only one. You lose.' "

Alrighty then. That seems... normal. My first thought was that he should wear it all the time to protect the rest of us from contamination. My second thought was a flashback to this story:

January's hearings will be the second and final session of the [citizen's tribunal on war crimes]. Indictments from the first session were formally delivered to George W. Bush at the White House on January 10. Bush's staff would not receive the indictments at the gate, saying that the president "will not accept any materials from the public." As TV cameras rolled, a hazmat squad was called in by White House personnel to remove the envelope.

Bush & Cheney are to WMDs as Captain Hook is to clockodiles.

I Pity The Phil!

Mr. T is finally getting his due... I think.

There's just something about Mr. T that makes one smile.... The man is a bona fide cultural treasure.

And finally someone in a position to do something about it has offered T a ticket back to the small screen -- and not in a demeaning "Surreal Life" second act. T will be the star of his very own weekly advice show. That's right, advice show.

From the official TV Land press release:

TV Land has picked up six episodes of this Dr. Phil-meets-Tony-Robbins reality show in which Mr. T stars in the unlikely role of social scientist traveling across the country to dispense his own classic Mr. T style advice.

Said T when asked by the Associated Press about his new show:

"My show ain't no `Dr. Phil,' with people sitting around crying," he said. "You're a fool - that's what's wrong with you. You're a fool if you don't take my advice."

Brilliant. I wonder how long before he starts referring to his show as "The No-Jibber-Jabber Zone"...

Be sure to follow that WaPo link for several useful and entertaining Mr. T-related websites.

My New Hero

I mean, yeah, Stephen Colbert is pretty cool and everything, but this here is pretty hard to top:

After performing his hit "Gold Digger," with its old Ray Charles sample, [Kanye West] played old-school D.J., giving the crowd a snippet of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," then Michael Jackson's "Rock With You."

"I'm going to play you one of my favorite songs," he then said. "I swear it's not a joke." It was "Take on Me," by Ah-Ha, one of the most fey radio hits of the 80's. Mr. West did a New Wave dance around the stage, looking as serious as he said he was, and the crowd... appreciated the perfection of the counterintuitive cheesiness.

Awesome. I don't get real excited about live shows, but I wish I could've seen that one...

Serendipity

I've had an interesting mixed bag of unexpected pleasant (or at least peculiar) surprises over the past couple of days, and have decided to pass the savings on to you, as follows:


Serendip 1) Normally, I don't bother with special effects or gimmicks, because I want my photos to stand on their own. But when I saw this during an unsuccessful attempt to do some contrast masking, I... kinda liked it.

Serendip 2) I was looking for something entirely different (if someone can find me a bizarre filmstrip-style short film called "Das Clown," please let me know), and I found this. The only explanation I can offer is... it's Crispin Glover.

Serendip 3) I just happened to notice this on MSN.com when I signed out of Hotmail (I couldn't get the MSN/iFilm video to work, but Youtube came through once again): Meet The Worst Weatherman In The World.

Enjoy!

Eine Kleine Wankmusik

Well, all things considered, Joe Klein's online WaPo chat wasn't nearly as awful as I expected. Fact is, I actually agree with his basic premise that politicians' increased reliance on amoral focus-group hacks has turned Americans off of politics. I just don't agree that this is primarily a Democratic problem and that the Republicans are the party of authenticity. Their consultants have simply done a far better job of crafting an aura of authenticity, even to the extent of transforming a drunken silver-spoon Connecticut preppie cheerleader/draft-dodger into a straight-talkin', brush-clearin', rootin'-tootin' Texas cowboy.

There were, however, some... interesting moments. This is simply spectacular:

I never said that the left hates America. I said the Left sometimes indulges in "hate America" rhetoric, especially when it comes to foreign policy. I've said that some on the left have the knee-jerk assumption that America is always wrong when it uses force--and that others on the left seem to assume that America is a malignant force in the world. I respect your patriotism and your right to criticize the government--I do it myself just about every week in my column. But I have no time for those who assume our country is somehow evil.

Shorter Joe Klein: "I never said the left hates America... but they do."

And then there's this:

I do believe George w., Bush is a politician who doesn't always follow the polls. He's been willing to go up against the base of his party on immigration, against popular opinion on social security reform...and if he were a creature of the polls, he'd be skedaddling out of Iraq right now. I disagree with most of his policies, but he does have the courage of his convictions.

This is complete bullshit. Bush has never done anything that he did not think would A) Shore up his base, B) Hoodwink everyone else into thinking he's an indispensable tough guy, or C) Reward his wealthy and corporate sugar daddies. He isn't staying the course in Iraq because of the courage of his alleged convictions; he's staying the course because he is pathologically incapable of admitting error. It's not even perversely admirable - it's just perverse.

Yo, Joe!

Hey, everyone!

Joe Klein's going to have a WaPo online chat today at 3:00 EST to promote his new Big Book Of Wanking or whatever it's called.

Be sure to drop by and tell him what a great job he's doing.

Iran's So Far Away... I Hope.

This would have been good to know before the 2004 election (by way of Atrios):

Reports [MSNBC correspondent David] Shuster [via his cellphone, apparently] in this rush transcript: "INTELLIGENCE SOURCES SAY VALERIE WILSON WAS PART OF AN OPERATION THREE YEARS AGO TRACKING THE PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS MATERIAL INTO IRAN. AND THE SOURCES ALLEGE THAT WHEN MRS. WILSON'S COVER WAS BLOWN, THE ADMINISTRATION'S ABILITY TO TRACK IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS WAS DAMAGED AS WELL."

Not that this is really a huge surprise. We already knew her focus was nuclear proliferation, so there was a pretty good chance that her beat would be one of the "Axis Of Evil" countries. And, of course, as multiple people have pointed out, taking her and Brewster Jennings out of action is kinda of a nice two-fer if you want to increase uncertainty about Iran's nuclear capabilities. Especially if you happen know that they're nowhere near having any.

But imagine if this little nugget had come out in late 2004. Anyone who wasn't mainlining Republican Kool-Aid had to know that Bush was at the very least indirectly responsible for leaking Plame's name. Any doubts about this truth were laid to rest when Bush made no effort to personally find the leaker, and even backpedaled on his criteria for fireage: from mere involvement, to criminal wrongdoing (presumably conviction or at least indictment). And if memory serves, there was already quite a bit of rumbling and chest-thumping about Iran's nuclear aspirations and involvement in Iraq. In any kind of sane, rational world, the revelation that the president blew up an entire CIA operation monitoring Nukular Enemy #2, just to settle a political score would be pretty damaging. It would have completely undermined Candidate Bush's meticulous and fact-free packaging as The Only Man Who Can Keep Us Safe From Nuclear Terror.

Since we missed the opportunity in 2004, maybe we can take advantage this year. If Bush and the Republicans decide to re-use the 2002 force-the-Democrats-to-go-along-with-a-phony-war-and-then-
call-them-weak-anyway playbook, the Democrats should ask why, if Iran is such a threat, the president would be so cavalier about burning Brewster-Jennings. And while they're at it, they should be asking voters how they feel about $4 or $5 gasoline...