Digby: Liberal Flacks

In all the hoopla last week about TNR writer Elspeth Reeve's tribute to Ann Coulter, I missed this very interesting debate among Ezra, Shakespeare's Sister and Echidne about why there aren't any firebreathing liberal female hacks. It's an interesting topic and I urge you to check out all the arguments. (Echidne's title alone is worth it.)

I'm not going to delve into all the socio-political implications of the Coulter argument. These fine writers cover the topic better than I can. I will just say that my view is that the right chooses certain figures for two very particular reasons --- the first is camera friendliness and the second is counter-intuitiveness.

Digby: A Case Study In Rightwing Delirium

From Tbogg:

In an attempt to mirror the disproportionate response exhibited by Israel in the Lebanon invasion, the rightwing is now whipping itself into a rich creamy head of outrage froth over leftwingers! attacking Zionist entertainers!

I didn't know Bernie Mac, Don Johnson, Serena Williams and Vivica Fox were Zionists?

Digby: How Many More?

Wow. Here's an interesting new way of framing the national security debate:

A Pew Research Center poll released Thursday found "no evidence that terrorism is weighing heavily on voters -- just 2 percent cite that as the issue they most want to hear candidates discuss, far fewer than the number mentioning education, gas prices, or health care." The center continued: "And while roughly a third of Americans (35 percent) say they are very concerned that if Democrats gain control of Congress, they will weaken terrorist defenses, even more (46 percent) express great concern that Republicans will involve the U.S. in too many overseas military missions if the GOP keeps its congressional majorities."

Digby: Jungle Drums

I wrote a little teaser in my last post about the Republicans' "cunning plan" to deal with the inevitable reminders of their disasterous handling of Katrina. It's actually not very cunning and certainly not original.

One word: macaca.

Digby: Duelling Pageants

It occurs to me that this election season is going to be characterized by two competing September pageants and whoever handles them most skillfully will have the edge in November.

We already know the Republicans are running on 9/11. They are undoubtedly gearing up for a five year anniversary commemoration in which the subtext, as always, will be portrayal of Republicans as being strong enough and tough enough to keep the country safe compared to the vacuous and naive Democratic ninnies.

Digby: Rotten Apple Strudel

The Haditha atrocity investigation is looking more and more like a funhouse mirror every day. TBOGG notices that the fine fellow who is suing John Murtha turns out to be suspiciously involved in the possible destruction of evidence in the case. And then there is this from ABB1, which is almost unbelievable:

August 18, Reuters:

Probe suggests Marines hid Haditha evidence: NYT
...
The defense officials were quoted as saying the report also found commanders had created a climate that minimized the importance of Iraqi lives, particularly in Haditha, where insurgent attacks were rampant, The New York Times said.

Digby: Whatever

I know everyone will be shocked to find out that the woman who was detained yesterday for having explosive make-up in her purse wasn't actually a terrorist and her make-up wasn't actually explosive:

CEREDO, W. Va. -- A West Virginia airport terminal was evacuated yesterday after two bottles of liquid found in a woman's carry-on luggage twice tested positive for explosives residue, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said.

Digby: Uppity Judge

"The President of the United States, a creature of the same Constitution which gave us these Amendments, has undisputedly violated the Fourth [Amendment] in failing to procure judicial orders as required by FISA, and accordingly has violated the First Amendment Rights of these Plaintiffs as well."

And here I thought he was ordained by God and annointed by Rush. What is this constitution she speaks of?

Digby: Glorified Firecrackers

I was thinking about all this talk of zero tolerance for gel-filled bras on airplanes and the like when I turned on Rhandi Rhodes today and she was talking about this. I'd forgotten all about it:

August 12th, 2005, OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A University of Oklahoma student was released on $10,000 bail Thursday after appearing in federal court to be formally accused of a felony for allegedly bringing a small explosive device into Will Rogers World Airport.

Digby: Ungrateful Wretches

Bush is now caught in a trap of his own making:

“I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally — that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget,” said one person who attended the meeting. “The president wants the people in Iraq to get more on board to bring success.”

[...]

More generally, the participants said, the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd. “I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States,” said another person who attended.

Damn Iraqis, sapping our budget and costing our lives like that.

Digby: Am Not!

Overheard on The Corner this week --- Andy McCarthy to J-Pod:

There is something disturbingly Leftist about your penchant for shrill, uninformed criticism that scorns the interlocutor rather than dealing in a mature way with the substance of his arguments. I am not mocking the President. I believe he is wrong, that the mistake he is making has tragic implications for our security, and I am saying so.

Digby: Terro-Hippies

I think we may have underestimated Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney. All this scary dirty hippie talk isn't just rhetorical:

Last February the Department of Homeland Security oversaw a large-scale international cyber terror simulation involving 115 public and private organizations in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, all testing their ability to coordinate with one another and respond to computer-driven attacks. It was called Cyber Storm.

Nobody's said much about the results, or the details of the exercise scenario. But a newly-published DHS PowerPoint presentation on the exercise reveals that the real terrorist threat in cyber space isn't from obvious suspects like al Qaida types or Connecticut voters; it's from anti-globalization radicals and peace activists.

This is for real, apparently.

Digby: Superiority Theory

An allegedly liberal writer at the New Republican has made her bones as a beltway contrarian today with a stirring defense of Ann Coulter. She writes about how she used to work on an assembly line in a red state and had to engage in rude polemics to win political arguments --- at which point stupid men would invariably be flummoxed by her brilliance and start talking about her ass. Now, darn it all, she finds that all the ever-so-smart DC types are just the same way --- when you "bitch slap" them out of their "robotic-pundit" routines with what I assume must be Coulteresque dialog, they go all assembly line on her and start talking about her looks.

Friends And Allies

Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. George W. Bush, September 20, 2001

U.S. and European officials described Pakistan yesterday as the hub of a plot to down transatlantic flights, saying the young British men allegedly behind the planned attacks drew financial and logistical support from sponsors operating in Karachi and Lahore.

Intelligence officials doubt Iran uranium claims, say Cheney receiving suspect briefings

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Friday August 18, 2006

The Bush administration continues to bypass standard intelligence channels and use what some believe to be propaganda tactics to create a compelling case for war with Iran, US foreign policy experts and former US intelligence officials tell RAW STORY.

One former senior intelligence official is particularly concerned by private briefings that Vice President Dick Cheney is getting from former Office of Special Plans (OSP) Director, Abram Shulsky.

Peter Schweitzer, Al Gore, and hypocrisy

About a week ago, USA Today published a piece by Peter Schweitzer, who's a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. It accused Al Gore of hypocrisy, for asking viewers of An Inconvenient Truth to scale back their lifestyles and carbon emissions while ... well, there were a number of charges. According to Schweitzer, Gore owns three homes and stock in Occidental Petroleum, still receives royalties from a zinc mine on his property, does not participate in the green-power option his utility offers in Nashville, and lets Paramount pay for his carbon offsets....

Paul Krugman: On Inequality

Dr. Krugman reports on the latest developments of the ongoing American Class War that the GOP wants to frame as no cause for concern.

--The New York Times, August 18, 2006

Recently, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, acknowledged that economic inequality is rising in America. In a break with previous administration pronouncements, he also conceded that this might be cause for concern.

But he quickly reverted to form, falsely implying that rising inequality is mainly a story about rising wages for the highly educated. And he argued that nothing can be done about this trend, that “it is simply an economic reality, and it is neither fair nor useful to blame any political party.”

FOIA at forty: Public service or potential threat?

The Bush administration awards $1 million for study aimed at limiting information available to the public via the Freedom of Information Act

Although the Air Force Research Laboratory million dollar grant given to Jeffrey Addicott, a professor at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, to devise new ways to limit making information available to the public via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is not likely to destroy the act completely, if adopted it could further weaken the forty year-old act.

According to an early-July report in USA Today, Addicott said he will use the research grant "to produce a national 'model statute' that state legislatures and Congress could adopt to ensure that potentially dangerous information 'stays out of the hands of the bad guys.'"

The CIA-Contra-Crack Connection, 10 Years Later

Reporter Gary Webb was the victim of his own hyperbole, but he never got credit for what he got right.

By Nick Schou, NICK SCHOU is an editor for OC Weekly. His book, "Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb," will be published in October.

August 18, 2006

TEN YEARS AGO today, one of the most controversial news articles of the 1990s quietly appeared on the front page of the San Jose Mercury News. Titled "Dark Alliance," the headline ran beneath the provocative image of a man smoking crack — superimposed on the official seal of the CIA.

The three-part series by reporter Gary Webb linked the CIA and Nicaragua's Contras to the crack cocaine epidemic that ripped through South Los Angeles in the 1980s.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/17/06

A federal district court orders an immediate halt to the "unconstitutional" warrantless wiretap program, but a new poll is said to show majority support for increased terror surveillance -- albeit with Congressional authorization.

British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has reportedly denied "summing up George Bush's administration in a single word," but 80 percent of Britons say the U.K. should 'Ditch U.S. in terror war.'

With an Iraq insurgency growing "worse by almost all measures" reportedly prompting U.S. officials to consider "alternatives other than democracy," AlterNet's Rick Gell weighs the implications of an "exit strategy, Bush style."

A report by McClatchy's Jonathan Landay on a new U.S. strategy to "defuse the insurrection" in Pakistan -- after the old plan "backfired badly" -- is seen as indicating that, "contrary to official White House statements on the matter, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front in the War on Terror, not Iraq."

A New York Times profile of a 'British Arms Merchant With Passport to the Pentagon' -- said to be "the only foreign Pentagon supplier to crack the top 10" -- neglects to mention previous reports of the firm's alleged Saudi slush fund, and its payments to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

A summary by Paul Craig Roberts of 'What we know and don't know about 9/11' attracts a host of comments.

CNN's Jack Cafferty observes that "since the Israel-Hezbollah fighting began ... the media have drastically cut back their coverage of the war in Iraq," but the focus may perhaps be shifting.

Administration’s temporary insanity continues

Gene Lyons

Posted on Wednesday, August 16, 2006

In politics, it’s crucial not to be overwhelmed by irony.

Nobody knows what will happen in the Middle East. But if the U. S. and France, working through the U. N. Security Council, have succeeded in negotiating a lasting cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, the temptation will be to make jokes. How long ago was it that a (pardon my French ) rapprochement with France would have been deemed suspect by all hairy-chested, God-fearing Americans ? Diplomacy may fail. Powerful forces inside the Bush administration are trying to circumvent it. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, like her predecessor Colin Powell, is ridiculed as an incompetent weakling by the same geniuses who predicted a “cakewalk” in Iraq. True, Rice may not be the second coming of George Marshall, but they liked her fine when she was emitting warlike noises and “end times” gibberish.

Abolish the TSA, Save Lives

By Becky Akers, AlterNet. Posted August 17, 2006.

The Transportation Security Administration exists not to prevent terrorists from bringing down planes but to prevent passengers from realizing the government is powerless over such catastrophes.

The reports from London of a plot to smuggle explosives aboard planes and then combine them to murderous effect must have caused collective deja vu at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) last week. Only eight months ago, its screeners failed to detect the same scenario here in the United States.

Fortunately for passengers, it wasn't terrorists but government investigators who successfully smuggled bomb components through the TSA's checkpoints. Unfortunately, no screener has waved a magic wand since then to turn the TSA competent.

Judge finds NSA program unconstitutional

AP - 1 hour, 51 minutes ago

DETROIT - A federal judge on Thursday struck down President Bush's warrantless surveillance program, saying it violated the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named?

By ADAM COHEN

Published: August 15, 2006

At a law school Supreme Court conference that I attended last fall, there was a panel on “The Rehnquist Court.” No one mentioned Bush v. Gore, the most historic case of William Rehnquist’s time as chief justice, and during the Q. and A. no one asked about it. When I asked a prominent law professor about this strange omission, he told me he had been invited to participate in another Rehnquist retrospective, and was told in advance that Bush v. Gore would not be discussed.

The ruling that stopped the Florida recount and handed the presidency to George W. Bush is disappearing down the legal world’s version of the memory hole, the slot where, in George Orwell’s “1984,” government workers disposed of politically inconvenient records. The Supreme Court has not cited it once since it was decided, and when Justice Antonin Scalia, who loves to hold forth on court precedents, was asked about it at a forum earlier this year, he snapped, “Come on, get over it.”

A Few Bad Men

Ten years after a scandal over neo-Nazis in the armed forces, extremists are once again worming their way into a recruit-starved military.

by David Holthouse

Before the U.S. military made Matt Buschbacher a Navy SEAL, he made himself a soldier of the Fourth Reich.

Before Forrest Fogarty attended Military Police counter-insurgency training school, he attended Nazi skinhead festivals as lead singer for the hate rock band Attack.

And before Army engineer Jon Fain joined the invasion of Iraq to fight the War on Terror, the neo-Nazi National Alliance member fantasized about fighting a war on Jews.

Digby: French Code Words

There is some debate as to whether George Felix Allen was making a deliberate slur or whether he was just repeating his French mother's phrase for "dirty arab" without fully realizing what he was saying (or thinking nobody would know what he was saying.)

I don't think so. I think this is racist code of the worst sort. Allen isn't just another southern good old boy who can't tell the difference between his family heritage and racism. He chose to become a neoconfederate long after it was out of fashion, in defiance of accepted norms of his time and he has built his good old boy reputation partially because of it. He didn't inherit his brand of racism --- he chose it.

Digby: Chutzpah

How does he get away with this?

Lieberman aides said that Mr. Lamont’s association with Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson — both of whom campaigned vigorously for Mr. Lamont — was a political albatross that helped explain why Mr. Lieberman believed he could win over a majority of voters.

“Primary night was the first time that many Connecticut voters saw Lamont on TV, and he’s surrounding himself with two of the more divisive and problematic figures in the Democratic Party,” said Dan Gerstein, a veteran Lieberman aide who was appointed communications director for the campaign last week.

Paul Krugman: Nonsense and Sensibility

The New York Times
Friday 11 August 2006

After Ned Lamont's victory in Connecticut, I saw a number of commentaries describing Joe Lieberman not just as a "centrist" - a word that has come to mean "someone who makes excuses for the Bush administration" - but as "sensible." But on what planet would Mr. Lieberman be considered sensible?

Take a look at Thomas Ricks's "Fiasco," the best account yet of how the U.S. occupation of Iraq was mismanaged. The prime villain in that book is Donald Rumsfeld, whose delusional thinking and penchant for power games undermined whatever chances for success the United States might have had. Then read Mr. Lieberman's May 2004 op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, "Let Us Have Faith," in which he urged Mr. Rumsfeld not to resign over the Abu Ghraib scandal, because his removal "would delight foreign and domestic opponents of America's presence in Iraq."

AP Exposes ‘Reverse Robin Hood’ Degenerates

Posted on Aug 14, 2006

AP:

WASHINGTON—The federal program that provides legal help to poor Americans turns away half of its applicants for lack of resources. But that hasn’t stopped its executives from lavishing expensive meals, chauffeur-driven cars and foreign trips on themselves.

Agency documents obtained by The Associated Press detail the luxuries that executives of the Legal Services Corp. have given themselves with federal money — from $14 “Death by Chocolate” desserts to $400 chauffeured rides to locations within cab distance of their offices.

Marilyn Manson Out-Debates O’Reilly

Those of you who only know him from his shock-rock act (or have only seen pictures) may not know that Marilyn Manson is extremely well-spoken and intelligent; and it’s all on display in this clip as he out-spars Bill O’Reilly on issues of sex and violence.

Marie Cocco: The Hippie Factor

Posted on Aug 14, 2006

By Marie Cocco

Tempting though it may be to lump them together, Baghdad is not Saigon, and Cindy Sheehan is not Jane Fonda.

WASHINGTON—Iraq is not Vietnam.

This may disappoint those repulsed by George W. Bush’s Nixonian penchant for deception and his ruthless political cynicism. But it does not alter the essential fact. The catastrophic American invasion of Iraq and the catastrophic American entanglement in Southeast Asia have never been one and the same.

Judging Needle Exchange

Roseanne Scotti

August 15, 2006

Roseanne Scotti is the director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey.

“Give them all dirty needles and let them die.” So said TV’s Judge Judy (Judy Sheindlin) on a trip to Australia in 1999 when she was asked about allowing people who inject drugs to have access to sterile syringes to prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases.

This obscene comment might be taken as the ranting of a single public crank if it were not such a disturbing reflection of our federal government’s attitude.

Web searches create an intimate portrait of anonymous users

RAW STORY
Published: Monday August 14, 2006

The New York Times is set to report Tuesday on how search engines are increasingly using complex systems to analyze records of what users do at their sites, RAW STORY has learned.

The search companies say users have nothing to fear because personal information like names and addresses is not collected. However, it became clear last week, when a list of search queries from AOL customers began circulating online, just how complete a personal portrait even anonymous information can provide.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/15/06

As President Bush declares that 'Israel Defeated Hezbollah,' Glenn Greenwald finds conservatives "attacking the Commander-in-Chief during a time of war" and "declaring American defeat."

As the New York Times strikes a reference to doubts in the Bush administration over Israel's ability to "win an outright military victory," the Independent's Andrew Gumbel characterizes 'America's one-eyed view of war" as 'Stars, stripes, and the Star of David.'

Although Democrats vow not to be Swift boated on security this fall, Stephen Zunes argues that "the Democrats' support for Israeli attacks against Lebanon is quite consistent with their support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq."

Editor & Publisher praises the latest dispatch from veteran Baghdad reporter Tom Lasseter, which suggests that the administration's 'rosy assessments on Iraq' are 'not related to reality.'

Some military families are not OK with reports of 'Just-returned troops sent back to Iraq,' where it's "115 to 120 in the shade and 135 to 150 in the sun."

Military recruiters have been increasingly resorting to "overly aggressive tactics and even criminal activity," including "sexual harassment or falsifying medical records," according to a study by the Government Accountability Office. Earlier: Pentagon reports 40,000 desertions.

Although both Republicans and Democrats are said to be "praying that Castro survives -- at least until November 8th," Eric Umansky is glad to find the Bush administration "putting exiles in decision-making positions on Cuba. Because that turned out so well elsewhere."

Arrogance, ignorance invite disaster

August 11, 2006

BY ANDREW GREELEY

In a war, as Secretary Rumsfeld says, stuff happens. Things go wrong, sometimes a lot goes wrong, on occasion everything goes wrong. Then you have a fiasco (the title of the best book about Iraq, written by Thomas E. Ricks).

Military history is filled with fiasco stories -- the French army at Agincourt or the Union army at Fredericksburg. A more recent fiasco was Operation Market Garden in the autumn of 1944, a scheme cooked up by British Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. The Germans, driven out of France, were falling back behind the Siegfried line. Montgomery desperately wanted to win the war by himself. The plan was for his British 2nd Army to run around the end of the line and go on to Berlin. Three airborne divisions (two American, one British) would secure bridges over the Rhine at Nijmegen, Enthoven and Arnheim. An armored corps of the 2d Army would drive up the road, cross the Rhine and strike into Germany.

A Gap In Their Armor

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Page A13

The Democratic Party has a self-image problem.

Talk to Democrats at every level about the strong position the party is in for this fall's elections and the conversation inevitably ends with a variation of: "Yeah, if we don't blow it." Karl Rove's greatest victory is how much he has spooked Democrats about themselves.

Public Stoning: Not Just for the Taliban Anymore

By John Sugg, Church and State. Posted August 15, 2006.

Christian reconstructionists believe democracy is heresy and public school is satanic -- and they've got more influence than you think.

Two really devilish guys materialized in Toccoa, Ga., last month to harangue 600 true believers on the gospel of a thoroughly theocratic America. Along with lesser lights of the religious far right who spoke at American Vision's "Worldview Super Conference 2006," Herb Titus and Gary North called for nothing short of the overthrow of the United States of America.

Titus and North aren't household names. But Titus, former dean of TV preacher Pat Robertson's Regent University law school, has led the legal battle to plant the Ten Commandants in county courthouses across the nation. North, an apostle of the creed called Christian Reconstructionism, is one of the most influential elders of American fundamentalism.

Hoping for Fear

By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
Published: August 14, 2006

Just two days after 9/11, I learned from Congressional staffers that Republicans on Capitol Hill were already exploiting the atrocity, trying to use it to push through tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. I wrote about the subject the next day, warning that "politicians who wrap themselves in the flag while relentlessly pursuing their usual partisan agenda are not true patriots."

The response from readers was furious — fury not at the politicians but at me, for suggesting that such an outrage was even possible. "How can I say that to my young son?" demanded one angry correspondent.

I wonder what he says to his son these days.

Did Cheney Go Too Far?

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, August 14, 2006; 1:36 PM

By insinuating that the sizeable majority of American voters who oppose the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy, Vice President Cheney on Wednesday may have crossed the line that separates legitimate political discourse from hysteria.

Cheney's comments came in a highly unusual conference call with reporters, part of an extensively orchestrated and largely successful Republican effort to spin the obviously anti-Bush message of Ned Lamont's victory over presidential enabler Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary.

Embedded Reporting influences war coverage, study shows

A Penn State study shows that the use of embedded reporters by major newspapers did affect the number and the type of stories published, resulting in more articles about the U.S. soldiers' personal lives and fewer articles about the impact of the war on Iraqi civilians.

"The majority of war coverage in the study heavily emphasized the soldier's experiences, of the war while downplaying the effects of the invasion on the Iraqi people," said Andrew M. Lindner, a graduate student in sociology at Penn State.

Mrs. Robinson for David Neiwert: Cracks In The Wall

Dave's Not Here
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
By Mrs. Robinson

For the four years Orcinus has been in existence, Dave's been known to take off for a week or three now and again. Always before, he'd just put out the "gone fishing" sign, lock the place up, and paddle off into the Pacific sunset, leaving an open thread and a six-pack on the porch for any friends who dropped by.

This time, for the first time, he's decided to leave the keys with a housesitter -- someone who can keep the conversation going while he's off communing with whales.

Cracks In The Wall, Part I: Defining the Authoritarian Personality
Thursday, August 10, 2006
by Sara Robinson

We need to stop this. We have gone on too long assuming that our right-wing opponents are, in all times and places, unchangeable and unchanging. Yes, their arguments are confoundingly short on evidence and fact. Yes, their logic loops are closed up so tight as to be frustratingly impervious to reason. Yes, they absolutely do mean to do us -- and our democracy -- grievous harm.

Cracks In The Wall, Part II: Listening to the Leavers

Saturday, August 12, 2006
by Sara Robinson

Who Follows? Everyone, Sometimes
After all these decades of research and inquiry, it can be said fairly that we're starting to get a decent handle on what makes people gravitate toward authoritarianism.

Blast From The Past
Monday, August 14, 2006
by Sara Robinson

I'm hard at work this evening putting together the third installment. But, while following up on some of the links provided by commenters, I came across a comment I dropped over two years ago at Billmon's Whiskey Bar. (The Web never forgets...even when you do.) Given how often we touch back on the role of the South in creating our modern authoritarian America, I thought I'd resurrect it....

Digby: Take It To The Wingnuts

Most of you have probably already read the fascinating polling data from MYDD that challenges the conventional wisdom about the Busby race in CA-50 (if you haven't, be sure to do it.) If you don't want to slog through all the numbers, here's an interesting article from the LA CityBeat that gives the basic overview.

Busby’s campaign turns out to have been far less effective than the media suggested. While she certainly galvanized Democrats in the 50th Congressional District, and while Republican turnout was markedly lower than usual because of disenchantment with the status quo, she failed to capture the one constituency she desperately needed to put her over the top, which was independent voters.

Digby: Send Her Back To Normal

The President of the most powerful nation on why Hezbollah isn't the real winner in this war:

The world got to see -- got to see what it means to confront terrorism. I mean, it's a -- it's the challenge of the 21st century, the fight against terror.

A group of ideologues, by the way, who use terror to achieve an objective -- this is the challenge.

Digby: Craven Hawk

Atrios flags this piece by Spencer Ackerman which I also thinks is worth reading. Ackerman points out that Lieberman's reputation for sophisticated foreign policy smarts is nothing more than knee jerk me-too-ism:

Lieberman's judgment on defense questions is like that of a stopped clock: the hawkish position, applied consistently, has to be right sooner or later. What Lieberman is asking Connecticut -- and the Democratic Party, and the country -- to accept is that the only secure America is a bellicose America. And that position is a guarantee of future Iraqs.

Digby: Unity '06

George W. Bush is not committing to support the Republican nominee for Senate in Connecticut:

Q Does the President support the Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut?

MR. SNOW: The President supports the democratic process in the state of Connecticut, and wishes them a successful election in November.

Digby: Blowing Off Steam

It's probably overkill for me to post about this hour long Pamela Atlas Shrugs "interview" with John Bolton since so many others have already commented. But I thought it was worthwhile to emphasize something about it that Glenn Greenwald mentioned in passing. This interview was done last Saturday. Does everyone remember what was going on last Saturday?

Digby: One Toe In The Water

A lot of people are going to take issue with Joe Klein for this week's column about the Connecticut race, and with good reason. (Armando does so, here.)

But I am not going to join that party. I have been very hard on Klein for years for his anachronistic political analysis, but I am sensing that something has changed and I think it's worth recognizing.

Setting aside his weak defense of triangulation as a governing strategy and his misplaced hope that after all the excitement of these last few years the political system will settle down into a nice bipartisan era of good feelings if the Democrats don't go off the deep end (tell it to Dobson, Limbaugh and Kristol, Joe), I think his piece is actually amazingly right-on in some important respects. He seems to have had an epiphany recently and finally figured out how we got to where we are, if not how to get out of it. Since Klein is a major voice of the insider conventional wisdom, I think we are making progress.

Digby: Bad Move Rising

This is unbelievable. Rahm Emmanuel had better be behind the scenes twisting arms so hard he's given himself carpal tunnel system because his public stance is ridiculous:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the party’s congressional campaign committee, thought Lieberman’s presence could help Democrats, because the senator "will be talking about raising the minimum wage, energy policy - echoing the Democratic candidates’ message."

Uhm no. The Senator will be talking about how the Democrats are weak on security and that the party is on the brink of being taken over by uppity negroes and dirty hippies.

Digby: Friends And Allies

Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. George W. Bush, September 20, 2001

U.S. and European officials described Pakistan yesterday as the hub of a plot to down transatlantic flights, saying the young British men allegedly behind the planned attacks drew financial and logistical support from sponsors operating in Karachi and Lahore.

At least 17 suspects in British custody for the aviation plot have family ties to Pakistan, and several had traveled there in recent months to seek instructions and confer with unknown conspirators, intelligence officials said yesterday, discussing several elements of the investigation on the condition of anonymity.

Digby: The Fall Line

NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.

A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner.

Digby: Elvis Has Left The Blogosphere

This one covers just about every piece of braindead conventional wisdom, smug dismissive elitism and shallow political insights it's possible to hit in one short cable TV segment. And it's done with a blatant rightwing slant that obviously feels so natural and comfortable to these bobble heads they aren't even aware of what they're saying. From CNN's "money" show:

SERWER: The blogosphere is always an interesting place to go for a wacky and sometimes wise commentary on major stories. CNNMONEY.com managing editor Allen Wastler joins us now with a closer look on what the bloggers are saying about this new terror threat.

Allen lay it on us.

ALLEN WASTLER, CNNMONEY.COM: This is the blogosphere you just got to love it. People shoot from the hip and go at it. Politics we were talking about earlier in the show, it just boils right in this. It's like distilled for you. And of course the right wing is making the most noise. Check out one of the guess bloggers. Check out this comment. "If you want to believe that George W. Bush and the Patriot Act are the greatest threats to our way of life, you won't have much trouble finding a professor on a nearby college campus to buttress your theory. But its past time we face the facts and realize this is our new normal." That was the position taken by a lot of the right wing siders.

Digby: Bonanza!

Speaking of Karl Rove being back in the saddle, this has been the most popular story on AOL news for the last 24 hours:

Bush Makes Promise to Dead Soldier's Mom

Says He'll Get Her Reports on How Son Died

CLINTONVILLE, Wis. (Aug. 12) - Nearly three years ago, Beth Karlson's son died in Iraq. Barely a day after meeting with President Bush, the mother said Friday that she's much closer to getting some answers about the incident that killed her son.

"We just got off the phone with the White House. It is in the process," she said Friday. "I am not bashful. When you got his ear, you might as well do something."

Digby: Upisdownism Makes A Comeback

It appears that virtually the entire right side of the political spectrum has chosen to disseminate an abject lie. It's everywhere and it's permeated the media to such an extent that until I signed on this morning and got around to reading the Washington Post even I didn't know it was a lie --- and I tend to pay attention to this stuff. (Imagine how this has slipped into the conventional wisdom among people who only casually tune in.)

Digby: Conspiracy Theory

Kevin Drum makes an interesting observation that I haven't heard anyone else voice:

British and American counterterrorism agencies have been tracking 50 al-Qaeda (or al-Qaeda-ish) terrorists for over a year. They were under intensive surveillance the entire time and never had any chance of pulling off their plans. What's more, the investigation has probably provided us with hundreds or thousands of additional leads to keep tabs on.

Digby: Reality Check

Jonathan Schwarz takes a look at reality:

Apparently there's some kind of batsignal for the U.S. punditocracy that tells them all what to write each week. This week their orders are to inform us that the Democrats had better watch out for those far-left elitists like Ned Lamont, who will with their extreme anti-war positions lead them to defeat just like George McGovern did.

[...]

This might make you wonder certain things—like, was opposition to Vietnam the "wealthy, educated" position?

Digby: Frozen Blogofascists

Regular readers of this blog know that I used to live in Alaska back in the day. In fact, I worked on the Alaska pipeline --- the one that's drizzling oil all over the tundra right now. And I'm sad to report that Alaskans are in the process of one of those horrible leftist purges we've been hearing so much about. The state's Republican Governor, ex-Senator Frank Murkowski, looks like he's going to lose the Republican primary.

Daily Kos: The NY Times: Helping The White House Spin

by BarbinMD
Sat Aug 12, 2006 at 08:16:03 AM PDT

Iraq is in the midst of a Civil War. I know it, you know and the 6000 Iraqi civilians who have been shot, tortured or blown up in the past couple of months probably knew it too. It seems that the only people in denial over this obvious truth is the Bush administration and their acolytes. And today the New York Times decided, in the guise of a news story, to aid and abet the administration fantasy that all of the chaos and violence in Iraq is being orchestrated from Iran. The article begins:

Iran is pressing Shiite militias here to step up attacks against the American-led forces...The Iranian incitement has led to a surge in mortar and rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone...The splinter groups have ties to Iran...There is evidence that Iran is pushing for more attacks...

It's not until the sixth paragraph that we are given the evidence backing up these claims:

...he acknowledged that there was no proof that Iran was directing any particular operations by militias here.

Pretty damning, eh?

Daily Kos: Debunking the Fair Tax Myth

by CrellMoset
Sun Aug 13, 2006 at 01:10:05 PM PDT

I've never really posted a real diary here before, but after being confronted by a waiter the other night at Outback Steakhouse - literally, in the middle of my dinner - about how America's tax code is broken and the Fair Tax is the only solution, I figured I finally had something to write about. I live in GA-07 and am unfortunately represented in Congress by John Linder, the man who's been pimping H.R. 25 (also known as the FairTax Act) on the floor of the House since 1999, so this is not the first time I've encountered an ardent supporter of the FairTax. When confronted by this garrulous garçon, however, I felt woefully ill-prepared to counter his fantastical claims that the FairTax Bill was a taxation panacea. I knew on some level that he was probably being misled, but it took a great deal of research for me to discover just how misled, and just how full of crap those pushing this bill on the floor of Congress truly are.

CrellMoset's diary :: ::

Billmon: Rootless Cosmopolitans

The Connecticut primary reveals that the center of gravity in the Democratic Party has moved . . . to the secular transnational professional class that was the dominant constituency in the 2004 presidential cycle.

Michael Barone
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
August 10, 2006

Consisting in part of cringing before foreign things and servility before bourgeois culture, rootless cosmopolitanism produces special dangers, because cosmopolitanism is the ideological banner of militant international reaction, the ideal weapon in its hands for the struggle against socialism and democracy.

F. Chernov
Bolshevik Magazine Op-Ed
March 1949

Through most of the 20th century, American exceptionalism has been the creed of both of our major parties . . . Among voters, transnational attitudes were espoused by only a very few, in the odd corners of university faculty clubs, investment-banking firm dining rooms and the councils of shop floor socialist intellectuals.

Michael Barone
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
August 10, 2006

National nihilism with its attitude towards the Great Russian people and the other peoples of our nation, time and again was linked in the minds of rootless cosmopolitans with bourgeois nationalism, which today is inseparably tied with the cosmopolitan ideology of the imperialist bourgeoisie.

F. Chernov
Bolshevik Magazine Op-Ed
March 1949

Billmon: Listening to Sy

There's much to digest in Sy Hersh's new piece on the Lebanon war, but the crux of it seems to be right here:

The surprising strength of Hezbollah’s resistance, and its continuing ability to fire rockets into northern Israel in the face of the constant Israeli bombing, the Middle East expert told me, "is a massive setback for those in the White House who want to use force in Iran. And those who argue that the bombing will create internal dissent and revolt in Iran are also set back."

Mercury Rising: Making Hay Out Of Failure

During World War II, Winston Churchill sent a delegation of British intelligence professionals, including Ian Fleming (who would later turn his hand to writing spy novels), to visit the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover and to see if they could trust him to hold up his end of the deal in a transatlantic anti-Nazi intelligence network. They found him wanting and ended up going behind his back to work out a relationship with William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan, who they assisted in his running of the OSS.

Fast-forward six decades. Just as J. Edgar Hoover was in the habit of driving the UK's intel community nuts by making photo-op arrests of German spies the second they were uncovered on American soil, as opposed to listening into their transmissions and feeding them bogus information (a technique Fleming details in his James Bond short story "The Property of a Lady"), we now find out that Bush and his people have forced the British -- over the strong objections of the UK's intel community -- to spring the liquid-bomber trap far too early, thus allowing over half of the terrorists to escape.

Glenn Greenwald: The Bush administration's chosen journalists -- Sean Hannity and Pam "Atlas"

The Bush administration has adopted an array of tactics to control the news, from threatening journalists with criminal prosecution to paying pundits and manufacturing and distributing propaganda videos disguised as taped news segments. One such tactic, used with increasing frequency and obviousness, is that when Bush officials need to do an interview in order to address some brewing crisis, they will sit with only the most sycophantic and Bush-loving "journalists" who will shower them with praise and adoration in lieu of scrutiny and real questions.

Criminal, Immunize Thyself

The Bush administration's get out of jail card for torturers.

By John Sifton
Posted Friday, Aug. 11, 2006, at 4:46 PM ET

If the Bush administration is still good at anything, it's this: distracting its opponents and seizing little victories from what might have been big defeats.

Take the administration's recent efforts to respond to the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Hamdan arose from a challenge to the president's authority to create novel military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees. In June, the court found these commissions were unlawful: Among other problems, their procedures were inconsistent with existing statutes and fell short of "fair trial" guarantees in the 1949 Geneva Conventions. (Defendants could, for instance, be convicted based on evidence they would never see.)

Hot Dogs May Cause Genetic Mutations

By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 14 August 2006
01:51 am ET

Everyone knows hot dogs aren't exactly healthy for you, but in a new study chemists find they may contain DNA-mutating compounds that might boost one's risk for cancer.

Scientists note there is an up to 240-fold variation in levels of these chemicals across different brands.

"One could try and find out what the difference in manufacturing techniques are between the brands, and if it's decided these things are a hazard, one could change the manufacturing methods," researcher Sidney Mirvish, a chemist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told LiveScience.

Murtha libel suit appears dead on arrival

08/14/2006 @ 9:15 am

Filed by RAW STORY

A lawsuit brought against prominent war critic Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) accusing him of libel and invasion of privacy will likely be shelved due to a Federal act protecting lawmakers from being sued, RAW STORY has learned.

According to Roll Call, the lawsuit, brought by Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich after Murtha made comments regarding an alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by Marines last year, can be dismissed under the 1946 Federal Tort Claims act. The FCTA protects government employees, officials, lawmakers and judges from certain liability claims, as long as those in questions are acting "within the scope of their official duties."

NYT Editorial: The Pension Piñata

Published: August 13, 2006

There are a lot of goodies in the pension reform bill that Congress recently sent to the White House for President Bush’s signature. But it is important not to confuse something-for-everyone with balance. The bill is an almost perfect example of Congress’s inability to do anything good without tacking on some bad accommodation for special interests.

"Swift Boat" Veterans Set Sights on Rep. Murtha

The Iraq war looms over another race, as the group that helped defeat John Kerry targets the antiwar lawmaker.

By Noam N. Levey, Times Staff Writer
August 13, 2006

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Two years after a cadre of veterans helped sink the presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), they have found a new target in the old steel country of southwestern Pennsylvania: Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha.

In a fight that organizers say will feature rallies, TV ads and an aggressive Internet campaign, these activists are promising to make Murtha pay for his criticism of the Iraq war.

Watching Lebanon

Washington’s interests in Israel’s war.

by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

Issue of 2006-08-21
Posted 2006-08-14

In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. “It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why we don’t have peace in the Middle East.” He described the relationship between Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the “root causes of instability,” and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end the crisis. Two days later, despite calls from several governments for the United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until “the conditions are conducive.”

Sirotablog: Temper tantrums at Big Money’s Democratic Party embassy

It's been a rough few weeks for the folks at Big Money's Democratic Party Embassy, otherwise known as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). First, Rolling Stone cut through the DLC's seemingly friendly, subtly caustic, vaguely cultish rhetoric and exposed its rather odious agenda for all to see (an agenda I also try to detail in my new book Hostile Takeover). Then, DLC posterboy Joe Lieberman lost to a previously little-known reformist challenger named Ned Lamont, despite Lieberman grossly outspending Lamont with corporate dollars flowing to him from many of the same industries that fund the DLC. Then, populist Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D) dropped the hammer on the DLC in a speech at the Milwaukee Press Club - the first time in recent memory a Senator has publicly told the truth about the destructive influence the DLC has had on the Democratic Party. So, all in all, DLC staffers Al From, Bruce Reed, Will Marshall, Ed Kilgore, Marshall Wittman and the Big Money interests they rely on for their DLC paychecks are probably not so happy.

Family albums highlight climate change

Experts turn to old notebooks and photos to press home global warming message.

Michael Hopkin

Climate researchers and ecologists are usually known for using complex computer simulations to study environmental change. But Boston University researchers are using more humble sources to determine the effects of climate change on local flora and fauna.

For the past three years, Richard Primack and Abraham Miller-Rushing have asked Massachusetts residents with long memories and a record-keeping habit to show how rising temperatures over the decades have changed the nature around them.

The data they have collected from amateur naturalists, farmers, landscape gardeners and photographers show that trees are sprouting leaves earlier in spring, birds are changing their migratory habits, and the patterns of flowers' blooming is changing.

Nightly Nativism

by DAPHNE EVIATAR

[from the August 28, 2006 issue]

On May 1 the nationwide boycott billed as "A Day Without Immigrants" was all over the evening news. ABC's World News Tonight reported that "more than a million people took to the streets in thirty cities," part of "a new wave of protests against legislation that would increase the penalties for being in the US illegally." On CBS, "they left their jobs and took to the streets to show us what America would be like without millions of immigrant workers." On Fox, "illegal immigrants and their allies took to streets across America...in an effort to show their economic importance to the country."

But on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, it was a different story. "Hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and their supporters today failed in their attempt to shut down most of our cities to support amnesty for all illegal aliens," the network's 6 pm news anchor reported that evening. Dobbs elaborated in his online column: "It is no accident that they chose May 1 as their day of demonstration and boycott. It is the worldwide day of commemorative demonstrations by various socialist, communist and even anarchic organizations.... No matter which flag demonstrators and protesters carry today, their leadership is showing its true colors to all who will see."

This Week in Blogging the Religious Right

By Frederick Clarkson
08/11/2006 01:13:25 AM EST

There is dynamite material in this blog round-up that points to themes that have never been adequately exploited by those affected by the religious right. If these themes were further developed, they could almost serve as a briefinb book on how to bust the religious right. Three examples:

1) Routine lies and distortions by religious right organizations and leaders

2) The bizarre role of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the GOP

3) Forced abortion and prostitution in the free market paradise of the Mariannas promoted and protected by Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.

Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests

British wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says

By Aram Roston, Lisa Myers, and the NBC News Investigative Unit

NBC News

Updated: 8:13 p.m. ET Aug. 12, 2006

LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.

A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.