NYT: McCain, Giuliani, Romney condemn Coulter's Remarks

Adam Nagourney reports that three of the Republican candidates for the presidential nomination have put some distance between themselves and the remarks made by Coulter at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The Edwards campaign is asking supporters to sending him "Coulter Cash." Their goal: raising $100,000.

McCain (through a spokesperson): "... wildly inappropriate..."
Giuiliani: "... "completely inappropriate... "
Romney (through a spokesperson): "... an offensive remark..."

Even more encouraging, many conservative voices at redstate.com are chiming in to condemn the remarks. Most of them are pragmatic condemnations ("this isn't helping the cause") rather than moral outrage. But it's a start.

Mickeleh's Take: Coulter has been skating on thin ice for years. It's time she fell through.

Coulter Pulls Yucks from CPAC by Calling Edwards a "http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifFaggot"

It's called finding the level of the room. A weak comic working bluer and bluer until finally the laughs start coming. Ann Coulter found the level of the Conservative Political Action Conference with this line:

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”

Before Coulter took the podium Mitt Romney, whose strongest qualification is a square chin that makes Chris Matthews weak in the knees, said this:

“I am happy to hear that after you hear from me, you will hear from Ann Coulter. That is a good thing. Oh yeah!”

Video of both is up on Think Progress.

That Coulter makes a living from unholy hate speech, is an overplayed dog-bites-man bit of non news. What's essential to take from this event is that she makes said living from a depraved audience that applauds, approves, and draws energy from her antics.

Mickeleh's Take: That Coulter would extend her string of hate-speech for laughs is to be expected. That the conservative base eats it up is to be remembered. That Romney is pandering to this crowd is to no avail. That C-SPAN broadcast this and that Memeorandumis abuzz with it is to flip on the kitchen lights see see the cockroach infestation in our home.

Dick Cheney Brings Us "An Inadvertent Truth"

Here in the last throes of the Cheney vice presidency we're getting some unexpected treats:

First, a game of good-cop-bad-cop where Cheney plays good cop and casts the Democrats as bad cop. Yes, the Democrats, relentlessly ridiculed as softies by Cheney, Rove, and the Wurlitzer, are now cast as the tough cops.

"Cheney's message to military ruler Pervez Musharraf: Bush and I may still love you guys, but those uptight Democrats in Congress are going to kick your ass unless you get serious about stopping Al Qaeda."

Second, an official White House news release in which an unnamed "senior administration official" pierces his own veil of secrecy by speaking in the first person:

"I've seen some press reporting says, 'Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.' That's not the way I work."

And now, a new wrinkle on justifying the war in Iraq. A defense of the war crowned with a nugget of actual, if inadvertent, truth. Tim Grieve plucked this gem out of Cheney's address to CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee):

"In these circumstances, it's worth reminding ourselves that, like it or not, the enemy we face in the war on terror has made Iraq the primary front in that war. To use a popular phrase, this is an 'inconvenient truth.'"

Droll as ever, that Cheney. Cheney new line is a twist on an old favorite: We're fighting them in Iraq so we don't have to fight them in Afghanistan. But the inadvertant truth of Cheney's remark is this: The enemy of our success in the war on terror is an ideologically blinded administration that has poured resources into making Iraq a distracting front in that war, while allowing the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup, train, and prepare their surge in Afghanistan.

Before the towers fell, Bush was handed the famed daily brief, "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." He ignored it. Fast forward to now: I wonder what bin Laden is determined to do these days. According Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA bin Laden unit (1993-1996), "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US with Nuclear Weapon." Alternet has video of Schuer's interview with Keith Olbermann.

Mickeleh's Take: The direct cost of the Iraq war in lives, dollars, and honor is enormous. The opportunity cost may be even higher.

Robert Greenwald: The Fox News Campaign Against Obama

Here's another fine example of the ongoing YouTubification of political discourse.

Robert Greenwald's Fox Attacks: Obama

Robert Greenwald, is extending his feature-length Fox News expose, Outfoxed with a series of short updates. This one focuses on a Fox smear campaigns against Sen. Obama (He smokes; his middle name is Hussein; he's not really black; he's madrassa educated.)

Fox is not a news organization, but is a propaganda organ of the White House and right wing. So far that hasn't dissuaded, the Nevada Democratic from working with Fox News to broadcast a presidential candidates debate. Moveon.org is petitioning the party to drop those plans.
More on Memeorandum.

Mickeleh's Take: Is there any downside to urging all Democrats to freeze out Fox and refuse invitations to appear on their shows?

Iraq: The New Strategy Is Different, says Newsweek

Atrios calls it "Iraq4Ever." According to Newsweek, strategy of Gen. Petraeus is not simply more of the same. It's definitely more. But it's different. And it isn't yet another version of "we'll fix it in six months." Says Newsweek:

To a degree little understood by the U.S. public, Petraeus is engaged in a giant “do-over.” It is a near-reversal of the approach taken by Petraeus’s predecessor as commander of multinational forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, until the latter was relieved in early February, and most other top U.S. commanders going back to Rick Sanchez and Tommy Franks. Casey sought to accelerate both the training of Iraqi forces and American withdrawal. By 2008, the remaining 60,000 or so U.S. troops were supposed to be hunkering down in four giant “superbases,” where they would be relatively safe. Under Petraeus’s plan, a U.S. military force of 160,000 or more is setting up hundreds of “mini-forts” all over Baghdad and the rest of the country, right in the middle of the action.

Mickeleh's Take: The word on Petraeus is that he's the top guy on counter-insurgency and that he's put together a "best and brightest" team of warrior-PhDs. Maybe he knows what he's doing. If so, why did it take so long before they gave him the assignment?

GQ Has Indictment Prepared for Cheney Impeachment

Yes, that GQ. Well, why not? I've been watching the same clip of fat, fat, Cheney in an ill-fitting wrinkled suit plonkity plonking down the stairway from his jet on Olbermann everytime they cover the Libby trial. It's been running for weeks.

You could get Cheney on fashion offences alone. But the article by Wil S. Hylton is a serious six-count indictment. And you don't even need to go to G.Q to read it. Truthout has it.

Mickeleh's Take: Add this to the "Cloud over the Vice President" that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald described in his summation on the Libby case (see Froomkin) and the third of Ari Emanuel's Three Predictions may be a good bet.

Tools for Totalitarians? A Machine that Remembers Everything

[This article spans technology and politics, I've cross posted it in Mickeleh's Take.]

The Scooter Libby case goes to the jury today. It hinges on this question: did he lie to the FBI about how and when he learned about Mrs. Wilson, or was he innocently mis-remembering?

Apparently, we will soon have the technology to expedite trials like this. Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell, in Scientific American, describe research they are doing at Microsoft on harnessing the technology to record everything.

Scientific American: A Digital Life [ INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ]
New systems may allow people to record everything they see and hear--and even things they cannot sense--and to store all these data in a personal digital archive

Storage is getting cheap. Processors continue to obey Moore's law. Network access is getting ubiquitous. Sensors of various types being embedded everywhere. (Carry a cell phone? Then you're carrying a microphone and a camera that know where you are. hmmm.)

Mickeleh's Take: Feds Using Cell Phones to Eavesdrop
...feds can download software to many kinds of cell phone and then have the ability to turn on the microphone and listen in. Even when the cell phone is turned "off."

Bell has amassed 150 gigabytes of data in six years, and his descriptions of what he can do with it make it sound really cool. Without a good overlay of intelligence and analysis, however, an archive of everything in our lives might turn all of us into clones of the Borges character Funes, the Memorious, who remembered everything but understood nothing.
Bell and Gemmell acknowledge that "the prospect that identity thieves, gossipmongers or authoritarian states could gain access to such records is frightening." And, with the optimism of every scientist in a fifties sci-fi movie, they seem assured that technologies can be tamed so as to minimize potential dangers. I wonder if Admiral (Total Information Awareness) Poindexter would agree.

Mickeleh's Take: "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." [EVIL LAUGH]

Jane Smiley on the Martial Law Provisions

Over on HuffPost, Jane Smiley expands on the martial law business urging support of the Leahy/Bond bill for repeal of the stealth-provisions.

To Engineer a Totalitarian Takeover, First Appoint a Clown to Be President

Coincidence or not, the NY Times editorializes, today, on language that was slipped without debate into a defense budget bill to make it easier to declare Martial law and, at the same time, Salon publishes an excerpt from Joe Conason's book, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush. The context is being carefully cultivated; perpetual war, recurring fears of attack ("over here"), erosion of Consitutional and legal rights, accusations that political opponents are "aiding," "comforting," or "emboldening" our enemies.

And the front man for all this, a goofy galoot who can't string two sentences together without creating a bit for Letterman, Maher, or Stewart. Our flavor of totalitarianism will feature not a dictator, but a decider.

Mickeleh's Take: I'd love to see an expose on how this language-slipping business actually occurs. Who is the cadre of bill-writers who sneak these bits of proto-totalitarianism into our body of law? Who pays them? Who commands them? And will it stop now that the Democrats are in charge?

Woid Asks: Where is the Actual Filibuster The Senate Can't Muster 60 Votes to End?

With visions of Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith talking to the point of collapse, Woid, over at DownWithTyranny! wonders how the Senate took a vote that failed to stop a filibuster that didn't seem to get started in the first place.

This past Saturday, the Republicans killed the pathetic non-binding resolution that would have told Bush that the Senate "disapproves" of his current escalation. Tut, tut, such language! The resolution was killed when Democrats were unable to muster the 60 votes to get cloture, and so stop debate.

Here’s my question: WHAT debate?

Where’s that juicy filibuster? Why didn’t we get to see Republicans standing up in opposition to the overwhelming will of the people to stop this war? (Not that the toothless resolution would have done anything like that...)

Mickeleh's Take: It's a juicy post about the lack of a juicy filibuster. Go ahead, click.

Juan Cole Gives Senate Iraq Vote a Glass-Half-Full Headline: "Senate Comes Close"

Once again, the Senate has voted not to debate a non-binding resolution that disapproves of the latest Bush escalation. Typical stress the negative: Debate Ends in Deadlock... Republicans block... GOP foils... Democrats fail... Republicans Succeed... etc. Bless Juan Cole for looking at the bright side:

The US Senate came very close to passing a resolution condemning Bush's escalation of the Iraq War. It needed 60 to pass and got 56. Several Republicans voted for the resolution. In fact, if only 4 more had, it would have passed. This vote is very bad news for Bush's Iraq policy, because it seems pretty likely that over the next few months, at least another 4 Republican senators will join the anti-war chorus.

Mickeleh's Take: The Bush and GOP strategy in the debate over ending the Iraq war is not to have it. By announcing a "surge," they've moved the perimeter and blocked the debate about "shall we end the war?" with a new debate, "shall we escalate?" And then, they work on blocking that one. They're already setting up the next debate, "shall we have a military strike against Iran?" They're being very clever. But the public is catching on. And the Democrats have not only found their voice, but they're setting the agenda in the House and Senate. The gravitational pull of the 2008 Senate elections will pull some Republicans out of the Bush orbit--or the public will pull some Republicans out of the Senate. Or both. The pull of the 2008 Democratic primaries will keep Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and all the rest focused on Iraq. (Clinton, taking heat for not denouncing her original vote to authorize the President to use force in Iraq, is trying to overcome it by proposing that withdrawal begin within 90 days.)

Meanwhile, the killing and maiming goes on.

(Tags: Iraq, Senate, War, Iraq War)

Bush still giggling and chuckling about war

This isn't new or newsworthy. But it's cringeworthy and shameful every time. Our president, leader of the "free" world continues add a few heh-hehs to his answers about life, death, war, and surge. Happened again, yesterday during his press conference.

It's a perverse confirmation of Mel Brooks' famed definition of the difference between comedy and tragedy. "Tragedy is if I cut my finger. Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die."

Mickeleh's Take: I'm waiting for Bush to do something really funny and give us all a laugh.

And a tip of the Mickeleh Yarmulkeh to Woid who sent me scurrying to correct the Mel Brooks quote. (Google is no good for these things, because there are as many sources who get it wrong as get it right. Above is from Kenneth Tynan in his New Yorker Profile of Brooks, Oct. 30, 1978, page 94.)

(Tags: Bush, Comedy, Tragedy, Mel Brooks)

Questions from Molly Ivins

What happened to the nation that never tortured? The nation that wasn't supposed to start wars of choice? The nation that respected human rights and life? A nation that from the beginning was against tyranny?

Where have we gone? How did we let these people take us there? How did we let them fool us?

--Molly Ivins (from her last column)

Molly Ivins was among the first to warn us about George W. Bush. While he was still the death-warrant happy Governor of Texas, she co-authored (with Lou Dubose) Shrub: the Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, and then, as we went to war, Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America.

Throughout the Bush presidency she reported plainly and with sharp humor on the true and sorry state of our union. One of her themes was the Bush regime's systematic support of the powerful against the powerless. The week of her passing, Robert Pear in The Times carried forth on her mission by reporting that Bush has signed an executive order to insert political operatives into federal regulatory agencies for the purpose of hampering their ability to regulate.

Mickeleh's Take: I'll miss her voice, her humor, and her record of seeing and saying what so many journalists were unable or unwilling to report about Bush. That more and more people now see Bush for what he is and what he does is due in no small measure to Molly Ivins.

Kaplan Sketches The Dimensions of Our Current Long National Nighmare

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Technorati Found Poetry

I looked at the top tags on the Technorati home page this morning and they made more sense than usual.

Bush celebrates China
Comedy Democrats
Flickr gaming Iran
Mac money
Open-source opinion
SEO shopping Vista war
Windows, Windows, Vista
Women fashion foto

Mickeleh's Take: We may have a new doorway into the wisdom of crowds here.

(Tags: Technorati, Poetry, Tags)

Edwards Takes A Smart, Subtle Jab at Obama

John Edwards says he may have been too inexperienced to run in 2004. Hmm. Can anyone think of a prominent candidate who has even less experience in national politics today than Edwards had in 2004?

Mickeleh's Take: Watch out for the boomerang on this one. Yes, Edwards just reminded me that Obama has even less experience on the national stage, but he also reminded me that Hillary has more.

(Tags: John Edwards, Edwards, Barak Obama, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Democrats, Politics, 2008)

Preview: Linda Stone Hips HBR Readers to Continuous Partial Attention

Linda Stone, who is wise and savvy enough to have managed successful careers at both Apple and Microsoft, examines how our many channels of communication and our fear of missing out on something important messes with our minds. People who attend meetings while surfing and blogging on their laptops and answering email on their Blackberry's may be beyond parody, but they're all around us. They are us. Linda says too many of us live in a state of Continuous Partial Attention, that it's driving us to distraction. Literally. She advises that there are important opportunities in offering relief to a population drowning in its own split focus. Linda offers a concise overview of Continuous Partial Attention in the upcoming Harvard Business Review. HBR ranks CPA as #7 in its breakthrough ideas of 2007.

Mickeleh's Take: The article is short enough to take in even if you're drowning in CPA yourself, but it will reward giving it some focused time to digest and ponder. Linda suggests folks seek immersion in iPod as a refuge from CPA. Hmmm. If email, cell phones, and IMs are enticements to CPA, and the iPod is a relief, where does that put the iPhone? It's got 'em all. It may be an entire ecosystem of disease and cure. No wonder we're going crazy for it.

(Tags: Linda Stone, CPA, Continuous Partial Attention, Trends, Business, Living, iPhone)

Wingnutters Gearing Up to Swiftboat Hillary; Backed by Gil Amelio and an All-Star Cast

Bob Novak's new column brings news of some new hires at TheVanguard.org, a right-wing answer to moveon.org. Sharpening their knives for the '08 race, The Vanguard is bringing on Jerome Corsi (co-author of Unfit for Command, the anti-Kerry screed that led to the coinage of the verb "to swiftboat.") and Richard Poe, a Freeper who is already hard at work at swiftboating Hillary, having fired numerous salvos in print and online.

Backing this adventure in the politics of smear and fear is none other than former Apple CEO, Gil Amelio. Joining Amelio as an advisor to the TheVanguard.org is Jane Russell. Yes, that Jane Russell. Also advising are Dr. Jack Wheeler, whose modest bio begins, "The debt which America and the entire world owes Dr. Jack Wheeler is virtually immeasurable," Grover Norquist, whose goal is to get government "down to the size where we an drown it in the bathtub," and Dr. Marvin Olasky founder of "compassionate conservatism," the fraudulant mask that Bush wore to his first election.

Mickeleh's Take: The new venture is quite open about aping the success of moveon.org and staffing it with character assassins of proven effectiveness. Nothing like starting in the sewer and moving down from there.

More on DailyKos.

(Tags: Gil Amelio, swiftboat, politics, Hillary, Hillary Clinton, moveon.org)

And Then Nancy Said...

Kos reports on an exchange between Speaker Pelosi and President Bush, in which Pelosi reminds him that he's tried a troop surge twice before, and it didn't work. She asks why he thinks it will work this time. John Aravosis on Americablog has a better version, which is the one I'll quote here.

PELOSI: He's tried this two times — it's failed twice. I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?'

BUSH: Because I told them it had to.

PELOSI: Why didn't you tell them that the other two times?

Mickeleh's Take: Rimshot. Classic joke structure. Did it really happen that way? Hope so. Even if it didn't, it's a good joke. Except that it's joke on a horrible deadly mess whose only merits live in the dark, deluded minds of Cheney, McCain, and Lieberman. As for the Decider himself, a Groucho line from Duck Soup keeps popping into my head:

RUFUS T. FIREFLY:

Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot.

Top Ten Best Things about Sen. Webb's Reply to SOTU

Here are ten reasons why the choice of Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) to reply to the State of the Union speech was inspired. (Here are the transcript and the video in case you missed it last night.)

1. Webb is a netroots candidate. He was backed by the people not the machine (as Kos fairly gloats this morning.)

2. He listed four areas where the Democrats were eager to cooperate with the administration, even though only three of them had actually shown up in Bush's address: The four: education, healthcare, energy independence and restoring New Orleans. That last one was the kicker. Bush, who told us from Jackson Square, "We will do what it takes," neglected to mention New Orleans last night.

2. He gave us two clear points of disagreement to focus on, not a laundry list.

3. The first of these points was the growing wealth gap between the very rich and the rest of us. The Republicans have not only been waging class warfare, but the Democrats have been reticent to point that out. Webb made it clear: "It takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day."

4. By stressing economic inequality he's clearly aligned with outspoken progressive candidates for president such as Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards. (Chris Matthews, always a bit slow on the uptake, continued to pigeon-hole Webb as a centrist, as does most of the punditry.)

5. The second major point was Iraq. And here, he blew past the current Bush revisionist history (we were making progress until 2006 when the bad guys blew up the Golden Mosque). Webb went back to the beginning and reminded us that the war was opposed by a long list of people with strong security credentials.

"...the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs."

6. He reminded us of his family's military service, establishing his authority to speak. His father flew in the Berlin Airlift, he and his brother both served in Viet Nam, and his son is currently in Iraq. His character established his ability to speak authoritatively.

7. He was unflinching in saying what needed to be done, in sharp contrast to the careful hedging and triangulation that is a hallmark of brand Hillary.

8. He invoked two Republican presidents to reinforce his main points: Eisenhower on ending the war, and Teddy Roosevelt on balancing the needs of Main Street against the greeds of Wall Street.

9. He asked for the order—from the President, not the viewers. Referring back to Eisenhower and Roosevelt, he said:

"These presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this president to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way."

10. He didn't fidget.

Mickeleh's Take: President Bush will not take the kind of action that Webb asks him to take. So, Democrats, show him the way.

More: Taylor Marsh, Matt Stoller,

(Tags: Bush, SOTU, State of the Union, Democratic Reply, Jim Webb, Sen. Webb)

State of the Union: Credibility Shot, Bush to Speak from a Deep, Deep Hole

Here's the most important thing you can know about tonight's State of The Union Speech: Bush speaks tonight from an even deeper hole than the one from which we dragged Saddam's sorry self.

Bush approval ratings are the lowest yet; they haven't found a floor. His reputation is so shattered that anything he says, regardless of merit (and experience indicates there will be precious little of that), will immediately be discounted, derided, and dismissed--and not just by left loonies like me, but by a majority of listeners. Even a many Republicans in and out of Congress.

When the speaker isn't credible, neither is the speech. We learn this from Aristotle. (And who knows where he got it?) Aristotle, in Rhetorix, said there are three pillars for a persuasive speech: ethos (the character of the speaker), logos (rational appeal), and pathos (emotional appeal). Rational appeal has never been a strong suit for Bush. And the emotional appeal of all-fear-all-the-time has pretty much evaporated. Which brings us back to character.

Here's what Aristotle says about ethos (It's in the third paragraph of part 2):

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided. This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses. (emphasis mine)

It wasn't that long ago that Chris Matthews was driving the left blogosphere to distraction with repeated assertions that ""Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left." And, of course, we all remember this old chestnut, "Bush is the guy you'd rather have a beer with."

By the way, How come nobody ever thought it was odd to benchmark the appeal of a reformed alcoholic by asking him to have beers with everyone? Maybe nobody ever really liked him.

This time out the gate, even the main stream media acknowledges that Bush is not well liked, not well-respected, and is pretty much tapped out of that "political capital" he imagined the voters gave him after he beat Kerry in a squeaker.

Mickeleh's Take: This speech will be fun to watch. Don't miss the Democratic response from Sen. Jim Webb. Think Progress promises real-time fact checking throughout the speech.

(Tags: Bush, SOTU, State of the Union, Rhetoric, Speechwriting)

John Edwards Campaigned for Lamont in Connecticut, Clinton and Obama Had Other Priorities

Sen. Cantwell sent her supporters a mass email today thanking some of the folks who came to Washington to help her win re-election to the Senate. On her list: Sen. Obama, Sen. Reid, and Sen. Kerry. They helped keep her in the club, and I'm glad they did.

Lest we forget: All but Boxer offered endorsements to Ned Lamont, but couldn't find time to appear with him in Connecticut, helping to keep Lieberman in the club as well. Sen. Clinton sent Lamont a check, and met with him in New York, but didn't quite find her way over the border that separates New York and Connecticut. Her husband, Bill, on Larry King, said that whether Lamont or Lieberman won, "My view is Connecticut is an unmitigated blessing for the Democrats because Lieberman has said if he wins he's going to vote with us to organize the Senate."

But John Edwards had more than lip service to give Lamont. He showed up.



Mickeleh's Take: Contrary to Bill Clinton's expectation, the blessing turned out to be plenty mitigated: Lieberman continues to support Bush on Iraq.

I will remember that John Edwards, stood with Ned Lamont in opposition to the Bush-McCain-Lieberman strategy of endless war. Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton weren't ready to be so unambiguous. They're still not.

A Flag Down on Hillary's Entry into The Race

Hillary's in. Terry McAuliffe, her campaign manager summarized her assets for The Sunday Times: "She has the name recognition, the money, the glitz, she’s got it all."

I don't trust her.

Friday I was having lunch with a friend. We were talking about the leaders in the field for the Democratic nominatin for president. When Hilary's name popped up, we both went to the flag issue. (In 2005, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) joined with Sen. Robert Benton (R-UT) to proposed a bill that would outlaw burning the United States Flag.)

One of the reasons that I love my flag is that it stands for free speech. It's flag that stands for my right to burn it. How cool is that?

I get that burning the flag is shocking, disturbing, and repellent. That's why it's a weapon of protest. It's free speech.

But a lot of people would like to see it outlawed. And Hillary wants their votes.

I don't know how many of them she got with her flag bill pandering. But she lost mine. And she lost my friend's.

Mickeleh's Take: Hillary may have the name recognition, the money, and the glitz. But she doesn't have it all. She doesn't have my respect.

(Tags: Hillary, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Campaign, Nomination, Democratic Party)

WH Correspondents Wimp Out, Proving Moyers Correct

For the first time in memory, last year's White House Correspondent's dinner had some relevance to our national dialog thanks to the merciless skewering that Steven Colbert gave the press and the president. Video (Colbert starts about 51 minutes in) Transcript.

As if to prove Bill Moyers correct about the plantation mentality that has seized the press corps, this year the White House Correspondents Association has invited Rich Little to lay a little pablum on us.

Mickeleh's Take: The press continues to pretend that it's not the story. But in fact, it's inability or unwillingness to actually tell the story is chapter one of the story. I salute WHCA for making that clearer than ever.

More at Memeorandum.com

(Tags: WHCA, Rich Little, Media, Press, White House, Steven Colbert, Colbert)

Leahy Says Gonzales Testimony is "Alice in Wonderland"

Which is a terrible insult to Lewis Carroll.

Challenged in the Senate about the Administration's readiness to ignore the constitutional guarantee of habeas corpus, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales answered this way:

Gonzales: I meant by that comment that the Constitution doesn't say that every individual in the United States or every citizen has or is assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn't say that. It simply says that the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.

Get it. All the constitution says is that the right can't be suspended. It never said who, if anybody, actually has that right.

Mickeleh's Take: Alberto (it's not torture if the president says it's not) Gonzales is a weaselly wiseguy of the highest order. (I'll refrain from saying, "in other words, he's a lawyer." I'll just say, "in other words, he's working for the Bush White House.")

More at Memeorandum

(Tags: Alberto Gonzales, Habeas Corpus)

Bill Moyers: On the Consolidation of Media and How We Can Fight It

Rich Binell emailed a Kos Diary by Delicate Monster that includes excerpts from last week's Bill Moyers address to the National Conference of Media Reform.

I've embedded the Moyers speech in this post. It's well-researched, well-reasoned, well-written, and inspiring.

Please, play it. It's worth an hour of your time.

Moyers talks about how media consolidation has fostered a plantation mentality that has turned mainstream reporting into a docile stenography pool content to parrot the propaganda of the establishment without question.

Moyers tells it straight. No pablum. He scares us. He challenges us to fight back. And he shows us the way.

I think you should hear what he has to say.

Nevertheless, it's a hopeful, inspiring speech, pointing to a future where the internet empowers us all of us become story-tellers.

"We've got to get alternative content out or this country's going to die of too many lies."

Bill Moyers at NCMR 2007 -- Part 1


Bill Moyers at NCMR 2007 -- Part 2

Mickeleh's Take: What is hopeful is that despite the drumbeat of propaganda, the public sees through the White House spin. What is terrifying is that for years following the 9-11 attacks neither the public nor the media bothered to. What happened in November was that some Republicans were defeated and some Democrats were elected. But Bush is still in the White House. The cominant media companies are still fighting to kill the badly named "net neutrality" principle. The main stream media shows signs of stirring, but it is not yet awake. There's work to do.

(Tags: Bill Moyers, Media, Net Neutrality, TV, Internet, News)

PleaseSend Money to Firedoglake If You Can

I haven't been posting here for a while, so I don't know who will see this. But I want to pass it along just in case. Jane Hamsher and the gang and firedoglake.com have proven to be the go-to resource for understanding the arcana of the Scooter Libby case. Now that the trial has started we need them more than ever.

Turns out they need us more than ever, too. If you can spare a bit, please do so.

Jack Bauer's Job Is To Keep Us Terrorized. Boycott 24

If it weren't for the blood and the stabbings, and the screaming and the killing people by biting their throats out and the children in jeopardy and the suicide bombers detonating all over the country and the killing your best friend and nuking L.A., this would be a pretty funny show.

As it is, it's just an audio-video fear extravaganza, a pumped-up version of the terror alert color-charts that used to be trotted out to keep us scared and the Bush poll numbers up.

I've watched my last four hours of this Fox propaganda fest. Bad Muslims everywhere. Even the good-guy hero Muslim is a mass murderer.

If that's your idea of a good time, you're welcome to it.

Mickeleh's Take: Bauer may work for CTU, but Kiefer works for Rupert. And I say the hell with them both. They are doing evil. Include me out.

In New York. I smell the smell. My friend Jack smells a rat

Jack emails me to ask:

Who else entertained the idea that the suspicious odor in New York air and the dead birds on the streets of Austin were just a little something--courtesy of Uncle Sam--to provide us with a jolt of fear? After all, Bush speaks of his build up tomorrow and we will all be reminded that it's better to fight them over there than over here.

Mickeleh's Take: Where I'm working today in mid-town Manhattan, people are still more worried about their email disappearing because of computer viruses. New Yorkers are hardy folks. But what the hell have we been breathing all day?

For Jefferson and Liberty. And The Koran

This one is too delicious times two. When Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress announced that he wanted to take his oath of office holding a Koran, he was pounced on as un-American by some folks whose understanding of the the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom is tenuous at best—including Rep. Virgil Goode. First, it turns out that the Library of Congress will make available a copy of the Koran that was once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Second, it turns out that the Jefferson estate, Monticello, is in Rep. Goode's district.

We go out on that? No. We do reprise of song. That help.

Song? Yes.

In 1880, Thomas Jefferson ran against John Adams, one of Bush's predecessors in assaulting the Constitution and American ideals. In Adams's case it was the Alien and Sedition Acts.

This was, it goes without saying, pre-netroots, pre-TV, and even pre-radio. But it was not pre-jingle.

Jefferson and Liberty is, perhaps, America's first true campaign song. The Lyrics are by Robert Treat Paine Jr. In reading the opening stanza, it's hard to imagine that Paine had no knowledge of the excesses of the Bush regime and such Bush apologists as Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter.

The gloomy night before us flies; The reign of terror now is o'er
No gags, inquisitors, and spies; The herds of harpies are no more

The song rejects the "fiery bigot's holy laws," and promises

Here, free as air's expanded space, To every soul and sect shall be;
That sacred privilege of our race, The worship of the Deity.

Chorus:

Rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoicel To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart, and soul and voicel For Jefferson and Liberty.

The song is included in Oscar Brand's Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789–1996. You can hear a snip of it at Amazon.


Mickeleh's Take: Even in at the turn of the 19th century, consultants recycled limited their ideas and worked for anyone who paid them. Four years earlier, Paine had penned "Adams and Liberty" on a commission from the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society. Well, maybe it was an honest conversion. I guess you could say that Paine was for Adams before he was against him. As for me, I look forward to singing a rousing verse or two of Jefferson and Liberty to cheer the current White House incumbent on his way. I will sing even louder when "the herds of harpies are no more."

(Tags: Jefferson, Jefferson's Koran, Keith Ellison, Virgil Goode)

BBC: Bush to send more troops; talk sacrifice

A "senior official" is doing the prep-work for the long-postponed Bush plan for the next phase of our Iraq fiasco. Justin Webb of the BBC confirms that Bush plans to escalate in Iraq. Central theme of the speech is one that Bush has strenuously avoided since the beginning of the War: sacrifice. Now that U.S. service deaths have hit the 3000 mark, the White House if finally willing to acknowledge that some sacrifice is going on. And while the public has clearly concluded that it's time to curtail the sacrifice, the White House is ready to ask for more.

Webb reports "The exact mission of the extra troops in Iraq is still under discussion, according to officials."

Mickeleh's Take: The strategy may be under discussion, but the mission is clear: they're being sacrificed in order to allow Bush to continue evading the reality of the awful fiasco he has created in the name of the United States of America. For Bush, leaving equals losing, and that he will not do. And please, it's not a "surge" or a "boost." It's an escalation. It's the McCain-Lieberman strategy.
Here are some folks who will discourse on this at greater length and with more citations:

Devilstower on Kos
Jane Hamsher on Firedoglake
David E. Sanger, Michael R. Gordon and John F. Burns in The New York Times

(Tags: Iraq, Bush, War)

WaPo: A Long List of No-Shows for Ford Rites

On Wednesday, I wondered, (along with Dave Winer) whether not attending the Ford lying-in-state would make John Edwards look bad. Nah. According to the Washington Post skipping the Ford service was a very popular choice among the Washington elite. The current President skipped it. Only three of the Supremes showed, and about ten senators and thirty-five Congress members. Rumsfeld and Baker didn't make it either. The Post said Tom Foley was there. But it also identified him as "former speaker."

As for the public:

Capitol police erected barriers to contain thousands, but by mid-afternoon yesterday, only 20 people were in line -- providing a luxurious person-to-portable-toilet ratio of 1:1.

Mickeleh's Take: This was just the prelims. The big service will be on Tuesday. With no football games competing.

(Tags: Ford, Gerald Ford)

Who's Mickeleh?

I've been getting some new visitors based on a post and some comments I made about John Edwards announcement and Scoble's coverage thereof. Thanks for dropping by, and welcome.

If you came here with more interest in technology than, you might find my other blog, Mickeleh's Take more to your taste.

This is my news and politics blog. I cross-posted the John Edwards /Robert Scoble in both blogs because it was both a tech and a political story.

Shel Israel, noted the lack of profile information here, inspiring my one and only New Year's resolution: I resolve to work on my profile. If I get very ambitious, I may get around to telling the story of how James Bond got me my job at Apple, how Groucho got me on the radio, how Robin Williams got me a gig at Paramount writing sitcoms--unbeknownst to any of them.

But for now, here's a sketch:

I'm Michael Markman. Not the only Michael Markman, so I'm blogging as Mickeleh, which is a Yiddish-style diminutive for Michael (accent on the first syllable, as in Michelob or piccolo).

Went to Bronx Science--before Dave Winer, to Columbia--with Bill Campbell.

Ran Apple creative services and worldwide corporate advertising sometime during the Jobs interregnum. (best campaign: "What's on your Powerbook")

Spent the first bubble consulting (mostly for clients that ended the century in acquisitions, in chapter 11 or under indictment.) Many of those gigs were with Michael Witlin Associates.

Was creative director at Digeo for development of the Moxi U-I. (we won two Emmy awards so far. Nominated for a third.) Though I have left the company, I contract with them to post on behalf of Moxi under the name MoxiGuy.

I've had an ongoing sideline with Peter Hirshberg doing serio-comic presentations on tech marketing, social media, which we've given at TED, AlwaysOn, The WSJ D-Conference, and the Computer Science Museum. The Long Tail video, inspired by Chris Anderson's book, is one of the artifacts of that collaboration. (Thanks to Robert Scoble for persuading me to post it to YouTube. It's now approaching 400,000 views.)

But enough about me. Let's talk about you. Happiest of New Years to you all. More peace in the world, more love in our lives, and may we grasp all the liquidity events we seek.

Larisa Alexandrovna: The Saddam Hanging in Strategic Context

Juan Cole has posted a Guest Op-Ed from Larisa Alexandrovna that puts the Saddam execution into a context of a grand strategy that's setting up our next military fiasco with Iran.

Mickeleh's Take: I hope Alexandrovna is completely cuckoo about this, but it certainly is of a piece with the strangely grim affect of the war cabinet yesterday, our detaining Iranian diplomats visiting Iraq, Lieberman's belicose op-ed in this morning's Washington Post, which mentions Iran seven times, and Sy Hersh's reporting on the Bush Iran plans in the New Yorker.

(Tags: execution, Saddam, Saddam Hussein)

TPM on the Hanging: "It's a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion."

Joshua Micah Marshall finds the hanging of a piece with all of the other staged events that mark the Bush war.

This whole endeavor, from the very start, has been about taking tawdry, cheap acts and dressing them up in a papier-mache grandeur -- phony victory celebrations, ersatz democratization, reconstruction headed up by toadies, con artists and grifters. And this is no different. Hanging Saddam is easy. It's a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion. So this execution, ironically and pathetically, becomes a stand-in for the failures, incompetence and general betrayal of country on every other front that President Bush has brought us.

(Tags: execution, Saddam, Saddam Hussein)

Is Bush Just Waiting For The Hanging?

You have to wonder why Bush, after all this time, is still fumbling for, er, working on a strategy for Iraq. The pre-Christmas policy announcement has been postponed. Could it be that Bush is waiting for the hanging so he can point to yet another corner turned? Does he expect that stretching Saddam's neck will give him a long-sought uptick in public approval? Not likely. We're at a point where any news from Iraq is just another reminder of the magnitude of the Bush fiasco.

Bush and advisers meet the press yesterday at Crawford. Said Bush, "I'm making good progress toward coming up with a plan that we think will help us achieve our objective." Said the advisers, nothing.

The most eloquent expressions in yesterday's press meet and photo op were the grim faces, downcast eyes, and pursed lips of the War President's War Cabinet. Bush himself, if you saw any of the TV coverage, was in his head-lowered, sighing, shruggy mode. Did not inspire confidence.

(Tags: Bush, Iraq)

The Bush Line on Iraq Morphs

Did you notice how the Bush line has shifted from "We're making progress on Iraq" to "We're making progress on a plan"?

(Tags: Bush, Iraq)

Herblock Bears Witness to Ford

THE LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE GOES ON

September 11, 1974

The best documentation we have of the unravelling of the Nixon presidency is Herblock's compendium of his Watergate cartoons, Herblock, Special Report.

Big thanks to poputonian for resurrecting what Herblock said at the time about Ford's pardoning Nixon. Rather than ending our "long national nightmare," the pardon ensured that "the idea of some divine right of Presidents went on." We are all suffering from the Bush administration's embrace of that notion.

Amazon has links to about fifty used copies of the long out-of-print Herblock masterpiece. And they're dirt cheap. How little we value our prophets.

The Washington Post has a gallery of Herblock online.

Mickeleh's Take: There are details which have all but evaporated from the collective memory of mainstream media. It's worth our time to read them and remember.


(Tags: Ford, Herblock, Nixon)

John Edwards, The Demo

Edwards insight into high-tech marketing is much deeper than just reaching out to Scoble and popping up on YouTube and Rocketboom. Every candidate this cycle is will be wooing bloggers and throwing campaign videos up onto the net.

Here's the brilliant innovation of the Edwards campaign: he's conducting an open, public, empirical test of his own leadership abilities. He's giving us a demo. That's a high wire act. No net. If it works, it evolves into a public beta of the John Edwards presidency.

The operational definition of a leader is someone with followers. So here's Edwards saying, hey let's get busy and start getting things done now instead of waiting until the election. If people get busy, Edwards is a leader. Kennedy famously challenged the country to, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." But that was in the inaugural address, not the campaign.

Edwards isn't asking for the order on election day. He's asking for it today. And the ask isn't just, "send me money." It's start making things better. If people respond, Edwards will have delivered an irrefutable demonstration of his leadership.

Unless, of course, the only actions he proposes are like the first one: "holding your own local 'Citizens' Launch' event."

(Tags: John Edwards, Edwards, Campaign 2008, PoliticsNews and Politics)

More: Memeorandum, Techmeme

John Edwards Falls into a Time Trap

Dave Winer astutely notes that John Edwards timing for his presidential bid (expected tomorrow) has run smack up against Geral Ford lying in state. Edward will be sounding his hollow "One Nation" theme on a day when there will clearly be two nations: the one paying respects to a genial former president and the other listening to a guy say, "elect me!"

The two early leaders in the run for the Democratic nomination, Senators Clinton and Obama will gain gravitas points by "not" campaigning (Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.)

Edwards may have hoped that announcing during a slow news week would gain him an uncontested spotlight. But his timing would have been sub-optimal even without the Ford's passing. There's a reason people avoid making announcements during the week between Christmas and New Years: nobody's paying attention.

Power is back... Cable (including Broadband) is out

Downtown Kirkland is swimming in free Wi-Fi. I'm currently online at Kahili Coffee. At the table behind me is a guy who may have been completely traumatized by the blackout. He's typing on a manual portable typewriter (Smith-Corona). Clack-clack. Clack-clack-clack. To hell with electricity.

My internet connection is wireless. But I'm getting wired. Da-da-bum.

Holding good thoughts for Sen. Johnson

The latest bulletin on Sen. Tim Johnson comes from Adm. John Eisold, the Capitol attending physicisan: "No further surgical intervention has been required."

This could either be very good news or very bad news.

I'm holding good and prayerful thoughts for the Senator, his family, and the future of the Supreme Court.

This is Our President

I'm sure you don't need yet another anecdote to help you define the character of our President. So, take this as a reinforcement. if you didn't see it on TPM or The Hill, here it is. If you did, then, with apologies, here it is again:

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.

Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.

“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.

Mickeleh's Take: It's gonna be a long two years.

(Tags: Bush, George Bush, Jim Webb, Iraq, News and Politics)

Bush: Half a Billion for Brain Whores to Whitewash His Fiasco

Why does the worst president ever need the most expensive presidential library ever? At least half the money will be funding brain whores (more politely known as tank thinkers) who will work at spinning up a silk purse or two out of the mountain of pig's ears that are Bush's unvarnished legacy. Thomas DeFrank, who broke the story in the New York Daily News writes:

Bush's institute will hire conservative scholars and "give them money to write papers and books favorable to the President's policies," one Bush insider said.... "It's a stretch," said another source briefed on the plans. "It's so much bigger than anything that's been tried before. But the more you have, the more influence [on history] you can exert.

Half a billion is a lot of money. More than it took run his losing campaign in the first place and to elect the summabitch in the second place. Who gives that much of a sh*t about his legacy? DeFrank says, "Bush loyalists have already identified wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry as potential 'mega' donors." And, of course, proud Texans.

Megadonations are $20 million dollars each. Anonymously. You gotta wonder what a $20 million piece of baksheesh gets you from a lame duck White House. We'll only find out if we press to make the donors public.

Keith Olbermann and Arianna Huffington kicked it around on Countdown yesterday. (video)

Shakespeare's Take: Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh! (Macbeth Act V, Scene 1)

(Tags: Bush, Library, Bush Library, Arianna, Arianna Huffington, Olbermann, Keith Olbermann)

R.J. Eskow Offers Michael Richards Career Advice: Stop Apologizing

Reviewing the record for Glenn Beck (CNN Headline) and Michael Wiener "Savage" (MSNBC), R. J. Eskow makes the case that hate-speech is a job-qualification for working in cable news.

Mickeleh's Take: MSNBC cleaned house of "Savage," though he still has many radio outlets. Time for CNN to show Beck the door.

Much Ado About Pelosi's Forehead

Is the press focusing too much on whether Nancy Pelosi's forehead has been chemically immobilized? Is there a double standard that forces women to hold back time while men can remain both sexy and powerful as they age naturally? And if there is such a double-standard, is it strictly a guy thing or are women complicit in perpetuating it.

Melinda Henneberg on Huffington Post picks up on a recent Maureen Dowd column that reports Ted Olson (whose Clinton-bashing wife was spared futher aging by dying in a hijacked plane on 9/11) was making jokes about the state of the faces of Speaker-elect Pelosi and Senator Clinton.

The new Congress could amuse itself, he said, by “searching for any sign of movement in Speaker Pelosi's forehead.” The Senate, he added, would be entertained by “the expressionless, Pelosi-like forehead of Sen. Clinton.”

Henneberg calls Dowd on playing the same sexist card. Later in the same column, Dowd says Pelosi throws like a girl.

Mickeleh's Take: It ain't just women who are dinged on superficial appearance and vanity issues. Try these Google searches: Kerry Botox, Giuliani comb-over, John Edwards hair, Al Gore wardrobe.

An Even Better Take: Liberal Comment points out why we should be thankful that they're going after the Botox. They can't attack Pelosi on the issues because the public backs her on the issues. (We won and they lost, remember.) All they have left are the superficial smears.


(Tags: Dowd, Maureen Dowd, Hillary, Hillary Clinton, Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi, Botox Sexism, Politics)

Here's One They've Stopped Asking

The ghastly news from Iraq yesterday—more than 200 dead in Shiite Sadr City folowed by revenge killings and burning alive of Sunni's—brings to mind a question I haven't heard from the war apologists lately: "Do you think Iraq would be better off with Saddam still in power?"

Mickeleh's Take: Well, do ya, punk? Some "last throes," eh, Cheney? Still not a civil war? Are there no penalties that apply to the neo-con cabal that dreamed up the groundless fantasy that toppling Saddam would engender a peaceful democratic middle-east and sold that line to Bush? Please answer if you know.

(Tags: Iraq, Saddam, Iraq War)

Tom Hayden: Some Hope on Iraq

Tom Hayden in Huffington Post offers the first peek into what the admininistration's post-Rummy Iraq strategy might be.

Mickeleh's Take: Maybe the grownups are really in charge. But to believe that, you have to disregard everything that President Bush has ever said on Iraq.

(Tag: Iraq)

Fake News Channel Preps Fake News "comedy"

Here's the key market insight that Roger Ailes (not the good one), used to build the Fox News Channel: there's a right-wing audience for a "news" presentation that confirms their world-view, one that's slanted even more to the right than CNN.

He's now applying that insight to comedy: there's an audience unserved by the fake news and truthy comedy stylings of Stewart and Colbert.

And where does he turn for talent to meet the comic yearnings of the Fox News audience? Yes, to the producers of Laura Ingraham's favorite pop torturer, Jack Bauer. The Hollywood Reporter says Joel Surnow and Manny Coto of 24, originally pitched the show to Fox (If I Did It) Broadcasting, who passed.

The still-untitled show is created by Ned Rice, whose writing credits include Politically Incorrect and Late Late Show with Craig Fergusen.

Mickeleh's Take: Fox News demos are old (and fading). A hep new comedy is just what they need, you know, for kids!

(Tags: Fox News, Fox, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, 24, Jack Bauer)

"Hoyer beats Murtha" Hits the Spin Cycle

Fox News:
Hoyer Wins House Majority Leader Race, Giving Pelosi First Setback

Huffington Post:
Murtha Loses... But It's Still a Victory for Pelosi

Arianna Huffington points out that Murtha still remains the moral leader for Dems on Iraq policy. She dismisses the notion that this is a setback for Speaker Pelosi, who backed Murtha.

Even though her guy lost, this was still a big win for her. A victory for taking a stand -- and for her leadership. Because that's what real leaders do, they take stands. They listen to their hearts and follow their gut. If you only jump into the fights you're sure you can win -- notches in the W column that will look good on your political resume -- you're a hack, not someone who can move the party and the country forward. It's not about trying to have a spotless record; it's about knowing which battles are worth fighting, whatever the outcome.

It bodes well for Pelosi that was willing to spend her political capital right off the bat -- especially on the issue that will define her time at the helm. Far too many modern politicians save their political capital until it's lost all its value.

Mickeleh's Take: What she said.

(Tags: Murtha, John Murtha, Hoyer, Steny Hoyer, Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi, House, Democrats)

Guardian: Bush wants a big push for Victory in Iraq

From Robert Bolt's Academy Award winning screenplay for Lawrence of Arabia:

Lawrence has been tortured (raped?) by the Turkish Bey in Deraa. Back in Jerusalem he tells General Allenby that he want to stop fighting, but Allenby has other plans for Lawrence.

ALLENBY
You're an important part of the Big Push!

LAWRENCE
I don't want to be part of your big push!!

ALLENBY
What in hell do you want, Lawrence?

LAWRENCE
I've told you -- I just want my ration of common humanity.

The American voters have just demanded our ration of common humanity, but Bush wants us to be part of his Big Push. David Kurtz on TPM quotes extensively from a Guardian report on the Bush plan. (This, apparently, has been developed in parallel with the famed Baker Iraq Study Group).

According to the Guardian, the four pillars of the strategy are

• Increase US troop levels by up to 20,000 to secure Baghdad and allow redeployments elsewhere in Iraq


• Focus on regional cooperation with international conference and/or direct diplomatic involvement of countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia


• Revive reconciliation process between Sunni, Shia and others


• Increased resources from Congress to fund training and equipment of Iraqi security forces

For more on this, see Memeorandum.com

Update (8:53 am): Dave Winer reminds us, "When you watch Baker in motion, don't think he's working for you. He's working for the Bush family, and more broadly, the Republican Party, Corporate America and the defense industry."

Mickeleh's Take: I used to work with a client who asked, at the start of every project, "How will we know if we've won?" Bush still thinks he can snatch victory from the jaws of fiasco. But he's never been able to the that question. "How will we know if we've won?"

(Tags: Bush, George W. Bush, War, Iraq, Elections, Elections 2006)

WA-08: Burner Concedes; Reichert Takes One Last Swipe

Last night, the AP called the WA-08 Congressional Race for freshman GOP incumbent Dave Reichert. Democratic candidate Darcy Burner called Reichert last night to concede, and then followed up with a public meeting with her supporters this morning.

Reichert's reaction, according to the Seattle Times, : "I am a little surprised it was as tough as it was, because of the inexperience of my opponent. The national environment played a significantly higher role, and had more of an impact, than I expected it to play." (During the campaign, Reichert had stressed Burner's inexperience as a key reason not to vote for her.)

Meanwhile, the bloggers who supported Burner weighed in with strong expressions of gratitude for her run--and pointed to her strong showing despite starting from near-zero name recognition.

Kos hopes Burner will run again. NPI reminds us how hard it is to take down an incumbent. David Kurtz at TPM points out that Darcy's impressive race caught the attention of national Dems. Daniel Kirkdorffer says Reichert claimed much greater independence from Bush than the warrants, essentially pulling a fast one on the voters. Darryl Holman reminds us that Burner's strong showing forced the GOP to spend heavily to defend Reichert's seat, pulling resources away from other races where Democrats prevailed.

Mickeleh's Take: I wish Darcy had won. I'm proud of the showing she made. But, frankly, both sides in this race spent -- including the DCCC and RCCC--way too much money on obnoxious TV advertising. There has to be a better way to run elections.

(Tags: WA-o8, Elections, Democrats, Darcy Burner, Dave Reichert)

Glenn Greenwald: The Military Commissions Act in Action

Glenn Greenwald outlines the actions of the Bush administration against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri. Arrested in 2001, declared an "enemy combattant" in 2003 just before his trial began, al-Marri is still being held. He has no ability to communicate to the outside world, not even to his lawyers. He's not charged with a crime. He has no recourse. His detainment is indefinite. The Justice Department now claims that this is justified by the Military Commissions Act.

Jack Balkin (Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School) argues:

The government's argument is a fairly straightforward application of one of the worst features of the Military Commissions Act of 2006-- the elimination of habeas corpus rights for non-citizens within the United States when the government chooses to brand them enemy combatants. I've argued that this provision is unconstitutional, but no court has yet ruled on the question

See also, Jayne Lyn Stahl, "What Part of Outrage Don't They Understand?"

Mickeleh's Take: Now that the president's approval rating is down to 33%, and now that they control a majority of both House and Senate, the Democrats should find the courage and honor to change the law and restore our commitment to Habeas Corpus. Do we have to wait for the Supreme Court to recognize its unconstitutionality?

(Tags: Habeas Corpus, Military Commissions Act, George Bush)

Let's not let the Robo-calls slide

After the cheering fades, let's remember the nasty dirty tricks. The fliers and bumper-stickers where Steele mascaraded as a Democrat. The districts where harrassing, repeat robo-calls pissed off voters. And then there were calls that threatened voters with arrest if they showed up to vote.

Overall, the Democratic tide was strong enough to win despite the crap that Republicans threw at the voters. But TPM Muckraker notes that in seven close races Dems lost. And it's reasonable to investigate whether the Republicrap prevailed.

Mickeleh's Take: What will it take to get the Republicans to play fair? More prosecutions? New laws? So much for the "values" party. Is cheating permitted in the Bible?

Molly Ivins: Press has no standing to preach "etiquette" to Democrats

Molly Ivins has been on to George W. Bush longer than most of us. So it's worth paying attention when she warns Democrats on falling too easily for media calls that they have to play nice with Bush and the Republicans.

"... after 12 years of tolerating lying, cheating and corruption, the press is prepared to lecture Democrats on how to behave with bipartisan manners. Given Bush's record with the truth, this bipartisanship sounds like a bad idea on its face... "

All well and good for Pelosi to start with the low-hanging fruit of the first 100 hours. That's what all the Democratic talking heads have been pounding home on the talk shows. (Minimum wage, negotiated prices for prescription drugs, implementing 9/11 Commission recommendations, cutting subsidies to oil companies, and reducing student loans.) But Ivins urges the Democrats not to roll over on the main event: the war.

"Then we get to the real meat of this election. There are all manner of shuffle steps and politically shrewd thing for the D's to do. But now is not the time to be clever. The Democrats won this election because we are involved in a disastrous war"

Mickeleh's Take: Bush showed how eager he is to reciprocate Democratic offers of cooperation by putting the Bolton nomination and the warrantless wiretap legislation on the agenda for the current lame-duck Congress. Bolton looks to be DOA (Thank you, Sen Chafee). Warrantless wiretaps deserves an early death. Bush has enormous power, but he's lost the power to set the agenda for Congress--unless the Democrats foolishly give it back to him.

(Tags: Bush George W. Bush, Democrats, Congress, Election, Pelosi, Ivins, Molly Ivins)

Cheney's New Job Desciption: Pitcher of Warm Piss*

We'll get some glimpses of the backstage saga of Rummy's canning in the weeklies, with a detailed story in books that are published six months to a year from now. But we're already hearing that Cheney opposed it and yet it happened anyway.

How is that possible? Pick one:

1. W. stood up to his shadow-president and took the reins of government.
2. The real shadow government (Bush Sr? Wall Street? Scowcroft? Consigliere Baker?) stepped in and said enough is enough.

I favor 2. (see Maureen Dowd, which you can today because Times Select is free this week).

Mickeleh's Take: Either way, the Cheney-Rumsfeld axis of evil is smashed. I'm not going all Mission Accomplished here, but surely the world is be better off with Cheney demoted from shadow president to vice president. which, as John Nance Garner famously said,"isn't worth a pitehcr of warm piss." The thrall is gone. No guarantees that we'll find a good way out of this mess, but at least we've voided the guarantee that we won't.

*Update (1:58 PM) I had originally listed this as "bucket of warm spit." But I learned in woids comment that spit was but a euphemism. A little more Googling finds a split between "bucket" and "pitcher."

(Tags: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, Vice President, Maureen Dowd, Axis of Evil, Elections)

Official Unofficial Virginia Vote Talley

You can watch this cliff-hanger here. You'll notice that there are more than 26,000 votes sitting in the talley of some idiot Green Party puke.

Mickeleh's Take: I, for one, am completely fed up with the Green Party. I try not to call names. But I make exceptions for the pukes who run on the Green Party ticket.

Update: (from the AP)

The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.

An adviser to Allen, speaking on condition of anonymity because his boss had not formally decided to end the campaign, said the senator wanted to wait until most of canvassing was completed before announcing his decision, possibly as early as Thursday evening.

When you're ready to sober up from your victory celebrations, read this.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Tristero explains.

Bush will start testing the new Congress as soon as he can. He will claim the power to do something beyond the normal range of the Executive, and it will be nothing anyone should make a constitutional crisis over. Congress will let him get away with it.

Mickeleh's Take: Bush took a conciliatory tone today, but there is a huge body of "singular executive" doctrine floating around his presidency. Congressional Democrats--and all of us--should hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Darryl: Three announcements that might have helped the GOP

Darryl, over at Hominid Views points to three post-election announcements that might have helped the GOP had they come earlier: Rummy, Denny, and Britney.

Josh: Bush was for Rumsfeld before he was against him

Good quip from Joshua Micah Marshall.

Bye-bye Rummy

AP reports that Rumsfeld is stepping down. Thank you America. Thank you Ned. Thank you Cindy.

Mickeleh's Take: But what if Bush taps Lieberman to replace him?... and the Republican governor of Conncecticut replaces Joe with a Republican? Nah. Not gonna happen. The President nominates Bob Gates.

Did Harold Ford Just Call the Republicans Devils?

Harold Ford closed his concession speech by reminding his supporters not to be bitter and angry. He quoted and repeated something that Paul wrote to the Ephesians.

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers...

Hmm. That verse goes on to conclude:

"...against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." —Ephesians 6:12

Principalities and powers in this context are fallen angels, followers of Satan.

Mickeleh's Take: It's gonna be fun to see Dems master the dog-whistle language of scripture.