April 2007 Archives

Josh Marshall observes the decline of the man formerly known as the Dean of the Washington press corps: David Broder.

Tom Tomorrow provides a national service here.

Can someone explain to me how the people who made these optimistic pronouncements about the Iraq War four years ago still have any credibility left at all?

Really? On the most important issue of the decade, these people were profoundly wrong. How are they allowed to sit in judgment of others as prominent members of the pundit class?

Via ThinkProgress, a new Associated Press report:

As of Sunday, April 15, 2007, at least 3,300 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,674 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

One of the reasons I largely gave up on the NBA a few years ago is the officiating. It was horrible -- with little regard to some bedrock rules of the game. (Traveling? What's traveling?)

Based on what San Antonio Spur great Tim Duncan had to say after his last game, it appears that things have only gotten worse after this altercation with "referee" Joey Crawford:

Crawford hit Duncan with two technical fouls just 1:16 apart late in the third quarter of San Antonio's 91-86 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday. The second came while he was laughing on the bench and meant an automatic ejection, just the second of his nine-year career.

"He looked at me and said, 'Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?"' Duncan said. "If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don't have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, 'Do you want to fight?"'

Gee, I don't remember this being part of the referee training I received many years ago. I guess the NBA still is not worth my time.

The Talking Points Memo team are connecting some dots and uncovering evidence that makes asking President Bush whether he personally decided to fire former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias a necessity.

The TPM websites are going to be must reads today and this week: that is, even more than they already are.

Here's a great analysis by Atrios.

Does the media keep putting Rev. Al Sharpton out in front of racially charged situations in order to give those who want to defend bigotry an easy out by leaving an opening to make Sharpton, and not the bigotry, the story?

I'd like to see some producers and editors explain why their rolodexes have not expanded to other liberal, moderate, and conservative African American commentators out there.

Think Progress examines the White House's argument about the spending included in the Iraq emergency supplemental spending bill and notes:

CLAIM: Bush opposes spending in the emergency supplemental that is “unrelated to the war.”

FACT: Bush’s own supplemental request to Congress contained millions in non-war related funds.

This may be a useful thing for some enterprising reporters to notice. The Center for American Progress' Scott Lilly, a former Appropriations Committee staff director, has authored a full report on the Bush Administration's nonsensical and hypocritical arguments, and you can find it here.

In the aftermath of the dismissal of the Duke Rape Case, Charles Pierce at Altercation explains why concerns about the presumption of innocence and due process need to expend beyond affluent white college students.

One of the accused, Reade Seligmann, pronounced himself astonished at how easily the presumption of innocence could be cast aside by the media and, worse, by law-enforcement. Instead of asking him to call Gary Condit on that score, or asking him whether he's on his way to law school and thence onto the ACLU's legal team, I would ask him to look around in the light of what happened to him. What Mike Nifong did to him is exactly what an awful lot of people in this country -- and whole ton of people on the radio and on cable television -- ask prosecutors to do. (Hell, it's what an appeals court said Nancy Grace actually did, back when she was a prosecutor and not the avenging angel of legal TV.) Where's the presumption of innocence at Gitmo or in the black prisons in Europe? Where was it when people debated the Patriot Act, or wrote books -- Hello, Michelle. Nice to have your reasoned input on the Imus case. Now go back under your rock -- about how internment isn't necessarily a bad idea? Where was it when Rudy Giuliani encouraged the worst impulses of the New York Police Department? Where was it for Patrick Dorismond or Amadou Diallo? Where was it when Antonin Scalia said actual innocence was no bar to upholding a criminal conviction? Where was it during the increasingly ridiculous "war on drugs"? Where is it when my kids lose their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights as soon as they walk through the schoolhouse door? We are a country that begs -- in reality and in its popular entertainment, like 24 or the Law and Orders -- for prosecutors to shred the Bill of Rights to keep us safe from scary powders and scary brown people. Not long before Seligmann and his teammates were cleared, a man named James Giles walked out of a prison in Texas after serving 10 years for a rape he didn't commit because a DNA test proved he hadn't committed it. Nobody knew his name when he went off to prison. People probably cheered. I hope Reade Seligmann realizes, once his justifiable anger clears, that every time we hand over our civil liberties to some charlatan who trafficks in empty promises to protect us, we make a Mike Nifong not merely possible, but inevitable. (emphasis added)

And that fact really should bother you.

Update: Speaking of Nancy Grace, you can see The Daily Show's compilation of some of her lowlight commentary about the Duke case by clicking here.

Sidney Blumenthal picks apart former Bush pollster Matthew Dowd's story about becoming disillusioned from the current White House's policies.

As the pollster who helped bring Bush to power and sustained him there, Dowd is expert in framing stories, and he has framed his own as a classic conversion narrative. But the political consultant cleanses his story of politics, so it is hardly surprising that there are gaps in the telling and characters missing. Dowd does not offer any explanation of why Bush has changed, only how he, Dowd, perceives the changes. Bush has become remote and untouchable, but he is not the hidden God, Deus Absconditus. Who has seduced Bush into his seclusion? Who has absconded with him? His Satanic Majesty, almost always present in conversion stories, is absent here. Dowd says nothing about Karl Rove, for to bring Rove into the narrative would alter it. Dowd attempts to blot out the politics with the personal, his soul-searching obscuring his poll taking. Yet he provided the diagrams for Rove's machinations, the bright signs for Rove's dark wonders.

And this is why more explanation is necessary if we are to accept Dowd's story. As Blumenthal explains, Dowd is at the center of this presidency. He is one of the main reasons why a man who promised to govern as "a uniter, not a divider" because one of the most polarizing presidents in our history. Dowd was in on the selling of the Iraq War, and in the attacks on gay people during the 2004 campaign.

As Blumenthal notes, Dowd's conversion so far lacks a confession. Given what is at stake, the confession is actually an important part of this process. Not just for Dowd, but for the nation.

ThinkProgress outlines the growing evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney was behind the smear campaign against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during her recent Syria trip.

The evidence of White House involvement behind the Israeli Prime Minister’s statement has been growing this past week. Middle East analysts have suggested Bush deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams — a close ally of Dick Cheney — may have been coordinating the attempts to undermine Pelosi’s trip. “‘It’s obvious the White House is desperate to find some phony criticism of the speaker’s trip, even though it was a bipartisan trip,’ said Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), a Holocaust survivor who is considered the Democrat closest to the pro-Israel lobby. ‘I have nothing but contempt and disdain for the attempt to undermine this trip.’”

Me too.

I think Air America Radio has made a huge mistake in ending Sam Seder's daily radio show. Bill Scher pays tribute.

In turning to me and other bloggers as regular guests, Sam was the first to recognize how blogs and radio can work together. How an army of bloggers function as volunteer researchers, digging up stories, making connections, offering fresh perspectives that aren't being provided in traditional media. How a show's own blog can give listeners the ability to communicate with the hosts in real time, and build community.

Sam also picked the difficult lock of combining sharp humor with substantive news analysis, which liberal talk radio needs both of to be profitable and meaningful.

Pardon me for a moment, but I am about to defend a person I find truly loathsome: GOP presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani.

As Taegan Goodard notes, Guiliani yesterday failed the "do you know the price of a gallon of milk" test.

So what?

Seriously, what does this prove? It's just a stupid game of journalistic gotcha. The worst thing this says is that Guiliani is unprepared. Every candidate should be ready to answer this question, after all, because it is a favorite shortcut for reporters and a cheap headline for the media to write.

My kids drink a lot of milk -- so I can give you the price I pay for it. But, frankly, we don't eat a lot of bread -- and the bread we eat comes from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's because of my oldest son's need to avoid artificial colors and flavors.

There is so much in Guiliani's background that deserves this kind of scrutiny. A close examination of what he actually did on September 11, for example, could prove quite enlightening. After all, the man who tried to put Bernard Kerik at the head of this nation's Department of Homeland Security told the reporter that:

On terrorism, you are not going to find anyone who is stronger and understands it better.

Now that's a debate we should be having. But the price of a gallon of milk? It is hard to me to see how this is relevant from a policy perspective.

But, um, I do hope each of the other campaigns had a staffer head to the local supermarket last night so their candidate is ready to answer this question from the political silly season.

One graph can sure explain a lot. As the Consumerist's Ben Popken explains:

It looks like while CEO pay rose 298.2% by 2005, and corporate profits by 106.7%, the average worker pay has only risen by 4.3%.

(Hat Tip: Ezra Klein at TAPPED).

Eric Alterman reports on what happens when a member of our elite punditry (Joe Klein) gets defensive and proves that he cannot take even a small percentage of what he dishes out.

Atrios does a nice and helpful job of reminding all of us how our "elite" pundits handle the subject of political compromise these days. (Only Democratic policymakers need bother with such a move.)

Oh, speaking of the Iraq debate and the President's decision to offer a meeting to the Congressional leadership on the grounds that they just accept everything Mr. 30 Percent has to say: just how much more of a petulant jerk can this man prove to be?

Mr. President: Congress represents a co-equal branch of our Constitutional Republic. You are not a king. You are a president. So your little tirade today about your proposed meeting...

"At this meeting, the leaders in Congress can report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk," Bush said.

...is more than a little inappropriate. Mr. President, the leaders in Congress do not report to you. They do not necessarily do your bidding (at least after the November elections). In fact, under our system, the Congress should not do your bidding. It's a checks-and-balances thing. Get a history textbook and read up on it.

Mr. President, you need to work with Congress. That is our system of government. I am really not sorry it is finally beginning to work it way it should.

As Greg Sargent notes, the president's message basically is:

Shorter Bush to Congress: Please come to the White House so you can all take a long, hard look at my middle finger.

The Speaker and Senate Majority Leader rightly are not taking the president up on his not-so-generous offer.

My Alpha Delta Phi Society sibling Kim links to a blog I now desperately wish I had thought to create: Regret the Error, a blog compiling some of the top/oddest/humorous corrections made by news outlets around the country.

This one is quite a doozy.

In Altercation's correspondence corner, Ben Miller asks an important question: just what did Rudy Guiliani do to earn the title of "America's Mayor?"

You know, Mr. President, it sure is easy to appear successful when one gets to redefine what success is based on what the statistics show.

Josh Marshall has some fun with a horrific headline typo on CNN.com.

Talking Points Memo's David Kurtz points us to a stunning Washington Post article about an experiment tried in a Washington, D.C. metro station in January.

What would happen if one of the world's premiere violinists, Joshua Bell, performed without notice as if he were a street musician? Would people notice? Would they see the special performance for what it was?

The answer, alas, is no. Nearly 1,100 people passed by during the 43-minute performance. Only one person, who had recently seen Bell in a free Library of Congress concert, recognized him. Only a few others paused to listen. As the Post's Gene Weingarten writes:

Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?

On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

As it turns out, only one demographic group seemed to take special notice of Bell: children.

The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too.

There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.

The wisdom of children shines through again.

The entire story is well worth reading. As I read it, I was amazed by what people were missing, and the stories they told about passing through the station that morning.

Yet, I must admit that I most likely would have been one of those who rushed past, or only paused for a moment. That realization made me quite sad.

Something to consider as another all-too-busy week begins.

Firedoglake's Siun highlights New Yorker writer George Packer's latest must-read article on Iraq: Betrayed: The Iraqis who trusted America.

This war has highlighted the Bush Administration's incompetence and dishonor. Packer examines our betrayal of those Iraqis who had the courage to work with us, to fight for us, and yes, to risk their lives for the dream our national leaders claimed they shared. As Siun explains:

Betrayed is based on lengthy interviews Packer conducted in Baghdad with Iraqi translaters who have been working for the American occupation since the start of the war. These are men who welcomed the invasion, hoped for a brighter future for their country and risked everything to help the American forces. Their reasons are varied but their experiences are tragically uniform. Take the story of Ali, an Iraqi who grew up in Pennsylvania until his family was trapped in Iraq on a visit to their extended family during the Iran-Iraq war. Ali was recruited by American troops during the initial invasion to help with translations:

Ali initially worked the night shift at a base in his neighborhood and walked home by himself after midnight. In June, 2003, the Americans mounted a huge floodlight at the front gate of the base, and when Ali left for home the light projected his shadow hundreds of feet down the street. “It’s dangerous,” he told the soldiers at the gate. “Can’t you turn it off when we go out?”

“Don’t be scared,” the soldiers told him. “There’s a sniper protecting you all the way.”

A couple of weeks later, one of Ali’s Iraqi friends was hanging out with the snipers in the tower, and he thanked them. “For what?” the snipers asked. For looking out for us, Ali’s friend said. The snipers didn’t know what he was talking about, and when he told them they started laughing.

“We got freaked out,” Ali said. The message was clear: You Iraqis are on your own.

This is truly shameful. Dear Mr. President, these are real people in Iraq. They were our allies. Why aren't we there for them?

Over at Altercation, Charles Pierce was not impressed with Joe Klein's realization that President George W. Bush has managed an incompetent administration.

After noting that Klein is likely expecting all of us to bow down to his wisdom and courage at taking on a president with an approval rating hovering around 30 percent, Pierce writes about Klein's realization:

Jeebus Christmas, what was your first clue, Sherlock? The Social Security whipping? The Schiavo circus? The Katrina debacle? The 2006 elections? It plainly wasn't the monumental disaster in Iraq, because you were hoping for the best there up until 30 seconds before you hit "Send" on your very brave column, as best I can tell. There are several things that are important to remember about Joe before his fellow Beltway buffet-grazers start fitting him for a toga. First is that, both online and in the mainstream media, smarter people than Joe Klein have been saying everything that Joe is now bravely saying almost from jump. For their troubles, they got insults, condescension and worse from, among other people, Joe Klein. Well, bollocks.

Taegan Goodard highlights a fun fact Associated Press is passing along:

President Bush has spent part or all of 409 days of his presidency on the 1,600-acre ranch, according to CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller, who keeps meticulous records of Bush's travel.

Gee, President George W. Bush's attempt to criticize Democrats for taking a recess for this past week sure seems even more idiotic and hypocritical than usual.

Rudy Guiliani really has no clue, especially when asked to explain his talking points recitation. From the New York Times:

As for Iran, Mr. Giuliani said that “in the long term,” it might be “more dangerous than Iraq.”

He then casually lumped Iran with Al Qaeda. “Their movement has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he said.

Mr. Giuliani was asked in an interview to clarify that, inasmuch as Iran had no connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. Further, most of its people are Shiites, whereas Al Qaeda is an organization of Sunnis.

“They have a similar objective,” he replied, “in their anger at the modern world.”

As Greg Sargent notes:

We've said this before and we'll say it again:. It would really stink if the media cedes Rudy the aura of foreign policy experience, based on nothing more than the fact that he happened to be Mayor of New York on that clear day more than five years ago, rather than aggressively reporting on his lack of actual such experience. Anyone wanna take bets on which way it'll go?

After the torture memo, Guantanamo, renditions of captives to torture-friendly countries, and calling the Geneva Conventions quaint (among other abuses of international law), our White House has the gall to issue a statement about the Iranians treatment of the British sailors while they were in captivity. Digby has the story:

The White House on Friday denounced Iran's treatment of 15 British sailors after the former captives said they were threatened with prison if they did not admit to straying into Iranian waters.

The British sailors told a news conference in Britain on Friday that they were blindfolded, bound, kept in isolation and warned that they faced up to seven years in prison.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters near President George W. Bush's Texas ranch the Iranians did not seem to engage in appropriate behavior in dealing with the sailors who were seized in the Gulf two weeks ago.

"It's unfortunate that the Iranians ever detained the sailors to begin with, considering they were operating under a UN mandate in Iraqi waters. So what the sailors said this morning - it's unfortunate and extremely disappointing they were treated inappropriately in any way," Johndroe said.

Yes, it is unfortunate. It's even more unfortunate that thanks to the Bush Administration, our nation no longer has the standing in the world to credibly complain.

While the former speaker attacks current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her trip to Syria, Greg Sargent reminds us that Newt interfered with President Bill Clinton's foreign policy -- going so far as to call then Secretary of State Albright an "agent for the Palestinians."

Just another example of Newt's seemingly endless supply of hypocritical acts and statements.

Now that I have become such a weather wuss after a few years living in the Bay Area, I get a jolt when I hear about the weather in places where I used to live.

Take, for example, this e-mail update I just received from my alma mater:

BRUNSWICK, Maine - Due to the foot of snow that blanketed Maine late Wednesday into Thursday, the Bowdoin College baseball team has been forced to make significant changes to its upcoming schedule.

The Polar Bears have postponed Friday's scheduled home date against Colby College and have moved their twinbill with the Mules for Saturday.

Bowdoin and Colby will now play a doubleheader beginning at noon at Falmouth (Mass.) High School on Saturday. The third and final game of the series has yet to be rescheduled.

In addition, the twice-postponed Maine-Farmington contest has been moved yet again, this time to Friday, April 20 at 3:00 p.m. For the latest scheduling changes and the updated season schedule, visit the Bowdoin College Athletics homepage.

Ah, spring baseball in New England! Mother nature often has fun with that schedule.

And, fellow Bay Area residents, I don't think Cal and Stanford have had to deal with this problem very often.

Our current Vice President is a liar, once again trying to promote the long discredited idea that Saddam Hussein was an Al Qaeda ally.

It is hard to imagine how someone could prove more damaging to our Republic than Vice President Cheney has been the past six years.

Sen. Orrin Hatch defamed purged U.S. Attorney Carol Lam on last week's Meet the Press, saying:

“She was a former law professor, no prosecutorial experience, and the former campaign manager in Southern California for Clinton...”

Except, alas, nothing in that sentence is true. Nothing.

Air America Radio's Rachel Maddow has been trying all week to get Sen. Hatch to return her call about this issue -- to see if the Senator is willing to clear up this lie.

Unsurprisingly, Senator Hatch has been unwilling to do so.

Good catch by Media Matters for America: "CNN's Malveaux parroted White House criticism of Pelosi's Syria visit, but ignored GOP-led trip."

Not surprisingly, normal Iraqis were not impressed with Sen. John McCain's little campaign stunt stroll through Baghdad (one possible only with 100 American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead).

Does anyone really believe moderate Republicans are going to bail on President Bush's Iraq tragedy in August of the escalation has not worked?

We have had years of "in six more months, we'll know..." promises. The six month period (appropriately known as a Friedman Unit) never arrives, but instead gets pushed out again by the supposedly wise pundits who claim to know what is going on in the world.

Here's my real question, one which Greg Sargent rightly alludes: if Andrea Mitchell's report is true, don't the Republicans who voted for the escalation even while believing it is destined to fail rank among the worst cowards ever produced by our system of government?

I say yes, and near the top.

Eric Alterman links to an insightful review of the new Ralph Nader documentary:

I'll say it again -- this movie is a fraud. It allows its subject to run wild and seems terrified to call him on anything. The second half of the film, centering around Nader's presidential campaigns, should be the most dramatic and provocative aspect of the film, but Mantel and Skrovan go out of their way to make excuses for their subject. They bob and weave their way around holding Nader's feet to the flames, even for a little bit. Nader himself never takes the opportunity to show any contrition to his supporters.

"To be fair, the movie offers token (if well-reasoned) opposition from the likes of The Nation's Eric Alterman and Columbia University's Todd Gitlin, which ends up being the most challenging and heartfelt part of the movie. But this analysis seems to have been watered down in the editing room (notice how both men seem to frequently get cut off mid-sentence), and it is disingenuously juxtaposed with rambling and contradictory excuses from Nader allies about why the events of the last seven years are everybody's fault but Ralph's. This is not a fair fight.

Senator John McCain (R-B.S. Talk) toured an outdoor market in Baghdad today. Unfortuately for him, reporters noticed he was accompanied by:

100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.

What? Doesn't every Iraqi shopper have such a detail?

Over at the Language Log, Mark Liberman posts a Ted Rall cartoon updating the "number of words Eskimos have for snow" urban legend.