Sick and Tired of Half-Truths

From soundpolitics.com in Seattle:

Sick and tired of getting half-truths
National News
by Stefan Sharkansky, 03:51 PM

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy is "sick and tired of getting half-truths" about the fired U.S. Attorneys. Tell me about it.

Meanwhile, I'm told (fired AUSA - Gonz ed.) John McKay said this on the Mike Siegel Show, May 26, 2005:

The Federal Government has an important historic role in elections ... if there's a Federal crime in the election - if there's bribery, if there's extortion, if there is ballot stuffing - then, if it involves a Federal election, the Federal Government's involved. So that's the basic outline of where we are. But the bottom line is if there is a crime, somebody goes to jail.

That's certainly the right sentiment.

Is it "ballot stuffing" when election officials toss hundreds of ineligible votes into the do-count pile, and then cover it up and prevent that information from being presented in court during a trial about the election? I'm just asking.

Quotes from the Past

Garrett got me started on this, researching historical wartime presidential quotes because some Kos dipshit wanted to compare Bush's speeches with wartime casualties.

What Garrett fails to realize or wishes to overlook is that war is a traumatic event that requires strength and resolve to be radiated from the CinC and that need is irrespective of whether or not one believes or supports the war itself.

If we lived in the same town I dunno whether I'd frog march you into a civics class or beat you over the head with a tome from American Heritage. Because, obviously, you and a number of the Kos overgrown children have a lot to remember in both areas.

So here we go:

Woodrow Wilson, US entry into WWI:

"It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts -- for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. "

Woodrow Wilson, 1918, "Peace Without Victory"

"The present war must first be ended; but we owe it to candor and to a just regard for the opinion of mankind to say that, so far as our participation in guarantees of future peace is concerned, it makes a great deal of difference in what way and upon what terms it is ended. The treaties and agreements which bring it to an end must embody terms which will create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and preserving, a peace that will win the approval of mankind, not merely a peace that will serve the several interests and immediate aims of the nations engaged."

Abe Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address

"Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether'"

Fitzgerald had "not distinguished himself".

Oh, this is priceless.

The ranking placed Fitzgerald below "strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty" to the administration but above "weak U.S. Attorneys who . . . chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.," according to Justice documents.

The chart was the first step in an effort to identify U.S. attorneys who should be removed. Two prosecutors who received the same ranking as Fitzgerald were later fired, documents show....

The March 2005 chart ranking Fitzgerald and other prosecutors was drawn up by Gonzales aide D. Kyle Sampson and sent to then-White House counsel Harriet Miers. The reference to Fitzgerald is in a portion of the memo that Justice has refused to turn over to Congress, officials told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Fitzgerald's ranking has not been made public....

Fitzgerald has been widely recognized for his pursuit of criminal cases against al-Qaeda's terrorist network before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he drew up the official U.S. indictment against Osama bin Laden. He was named as special counsel in the CIA leak case in December 2003 after then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft recused himself.

Fitzgerald also won the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 2002 under Ashcroft.

DBD Hits It

Heh.

Love them Hybrids

Whenever the subject of hybrid or electric cars comes up, I've always said that there are hidden environmental factors that don't make them very clean at all. Well, someone finally broke it down better than I have:

The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.

Read the rest here.

The Secret of Freemasonry

Yeah, yeah, it has nothing to do with politics. So impeach me. :-)

Ouch.

BarbinMD over at Kos gives a brilliant breakdown of White House quotes over the past four years, coupled with the casualtyfatality figures at the time.

Edit: Casualty figures are much higher. Fatality figures are the ones listed here.

Mickey Kaus on NYT News Spinning

From Mickey Kaus, who I normally have no use for:

U.S. military deaths in Iraq have apparently declined by about 20% since the "surge" began. It would be a caricature of MSM behavior if the New York Times, instead of simply reporting this potentially good news, first constructed some bad news to swaddle it in, right? From today's Times:

The heightened American street presence may already have contributed to an increase in the percentage of American deaths that occur in Baghdad.
Over all, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq from hostilities since Feb. 14, the start of the new Baghdad security plan, fell to 66, from 87 in the previous four weeks.

But with more soldiers in the capital on patrol and in the neighborhood garrisons, a higher proportion of the American deaths have occurred in Baghdad — 36 percent after Feb. 14 compared with 24 percent in the previous four weeks. Also over the past four weeks, a higher proportion of military deaths from roadside bombs have occurred in Baghdad — 45 percent compared with 39 percent. [E.A.]

Soldiers presumably get attacked where they are, not where they aren't. If we deploy more soldiers in Baghdad more soldiers will presumably be attacked, and killed, in Baghdad. I don't see why that in itself is bad news, or even news news, if the overall casualty level is declining. ... There will probably be genuine bad military news to report from Baghdad soon enough. Does the NYT have to make some up before then?

New Republic and Cheney

Michelle Cottle of the New Republic thinks Cheney is demented. Charles Krauthammer, the former chief resident of psychiatric consultation for a major hospital, takes her behind the woodshed.

Wilson hearing

Ok, are there any remaining questions about whether she was covert or not? That statement from the director of the CIA was pretty clear.

Hannity, thy name is Hypocrisy

commentary on some stuff Hannity said the other day. Comments?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/i-finally-agree-with-hann_b_43471.html

(Edit by Garrett - linkified)

Departures of US Attorneys, 1981-2006

The Congressional Research Service did a report on when and why U.S. Attorneys who served less than 4 years left. Interesting results.

Not politics, exactly, but...

...still pretty disgusting. (h/t BoingBoing)

At online pharmacy walgreens.com, for instance, the price for 30 tablets of a 20-milligram dose of Merck & Co.'s Zocor is $149.99, compared with $89.99 for simvastatin, the generic version. And last week, the same dose of simvastatin cost $108.99 at CVS's Web site, compared with $154.99 for Zocor. After a call from a reporter, CVS said it would drop its simvastatin price to $79.99, as part of an "ongoing price analysis."...

To be sure, even for the uninsured, generics still typically cost less than their branded counterparts. And at big clubs such as Costco Wholesale and Sam's Club, out-of-pocket prices for generics do generally plummet. Simvastatin costs $6.97 for 30 pills of the 20-milligram dose at a Sam's Club for which the company provided price information....

Charles Burnett, senior vice president of pharmacy at Costco, says the company can acquire the 30-tablet, 20-milligram dose of simvastatin for $2.71.

Biden asks where the plan for a political solution is

Why resignation is not enough

KagroX@Kos lays out the reasoning.

...You may rest assured that apologists for Gonzales, Bush and Rove (whose involvement also seems obvious) will insist that there is no "crime" here, because the hiring and firing of U.S. Attorneys is within the president's prerogative. True, as far as it goes. But what clearly ought not to be is the political manipulation of federal investigations to bolster the electoral prospects of Republicans, and damage those of Democrats and other rivals. This is the sort of activity that's so obviously and fundamentally wrong that nobody has yet taken the time to devise a statute to address it. Instead, it occupies the space of a general crime against the Constitution, a subversion of our very system of government, and precisely the sort of crime for which the founders gave us the remedy of impeachment. That's what "high crimes and misdemeanors" are all about. It's not about lawbreaking at altitude.

Dovetailing Into the "Sunday" Post

From The Hill:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman, has told new Democratic members of Congress to steer clear of Stephen Colbert, or at least his satirical Comedy Central program, “The Colbert Report.”“He said don’t do it … it’s a risk and it’s probably safer not to do it,” said Rep. Steve Cohen. But the freshman lawmaker from Tennessee taped a segment that last week was featured in the 32nd installment of the “Better Know a District” series. Colbert asked Cohen whether he was a black woman. He isn’t.

WTF?? Doesn't Emanuel realize that Colbert actually makes fun of conservative hosts? Also, since when is hiding from a national audience a good thing for elected officials?

Settings change

I just switched it from 7 posts to 7 days on the front page. If you don't like it that way, fix it, or comment here and I will.

In Tallahassee, They Love The Governor

To paraphrase Lynyrd Skynyrd. One thing this State has been blessed with for many years is good governors who were very popular. Bob Graham (D), Lawton Chiles (D), Jeb Bush (R), and now Charlie Crist (R).

Here are the astoundingly high poll numbers for Crist from Quinnipac poll:


30. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Charlie Crist is handling his job as Governor?

Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom
Approve 69% 77% 65% 70% 72% 67%
Disapprove 6 4 7 5 4 8
DK/NA 25 19 28 25 24 25

This is a true "get 'er done" type of guy. Don't be surprised if you see him in national office within the next 10 years.

Sunday Talk Shows Slant Conservative

I'm really suprised Susie didn't bring up this. It's a suprisingly methodical report by Media Matters about conservatives being more prevalent on Sunday TV talk shows. I was VERY surprised that they allude to the fact that some leading Democrats won't ever go on Fox so that may skew the numbers a bit - MM is not known for being terribly self-critical.

Of course, they have to go ruin it by trying to get Congress involved to enforce balance. Socialism at it's best.

There is a theory I have that plays into the equation: Progressives simply aren't that interesting to watch or listen to unless you're a dyed-in-the-wool progressive to begin with. And if you are trying to sell a TV show, you want to maximize your audience. Plus, some progressive/liberal politicians seem to avoid any confrontational or panel show like the plague. Hillary Clinton comes to mind - she rarely does unscripted interviews and I can't imagine her going toe-to-toe with Bill O'Reilly, for example.

A lot of time, money, and effort has gone into promoting left-leaning TV and radio shows and it either falls flat or grabs a niche audience.

On TV, O'Reilly destroys Olbermann in the ratings. Wipes the floor with him. You libs don't like bad news and won't believe it so here's the latest ratings from Neilsen by way of Mediabistro. Aside: Can anyone tell me why Greta Vansusteren is so popular? Me neither.

On radio, the top five syndicated shows are Limbaugh, Hannity, Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, and Savage. All are conservative with Beck being more humorous and Savage being errr.. insane.

Also, if Sunday morning slants conservative, what about all those daytime talk shows the rest of the week? Certainly no one can claim that Oprah and The View are conservative.

But I digress.

My main point is that progressively slanted talk shows have been given ample oppoertunity to succeed and failed. So why would ostensibly neutral shows want to slant in that direction?

Documentation is a good thing...

Jay Carney in January:

It's all very suspicious-sounding. The provision smacks of a power-grab, an attempt to put a leash on federal prosecutors in the name of efficiency. It looks even worse when it turns out one of the "interim" US attorneys appointed by Alberto Gonzales is Tim Griffin, a veteran GOP operative who worked in Karl Rove's shop at the White House and as director of research (i.e., chief dirt digger) at the Republican National Committee. Not only that, but Griffin was appointed to be the USA in his home state of Arkansas, which can only mean he's being sent by Rove, armed with subpoena power, to dig up fresh dirt on the Clintons in time for the 2008 presidential campaign cycle.

Of course! It all makes perfect conspiratorial sense!

Except for one thing: in this case some liberals are seeing broad partisan conspiracies where none likely exist.

Jay Carney in March:

Twelve days ago, after David Iglesias went public, I said that if there turned out to be a broad conspiracy behind the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, "I will take my hat off to Marshall and others in the blogosphere and congratulate them for having been right in their suspicions about this story from the beginning."

My hat is off. Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and everyone else out there whose instincts told them there was something deeply wrong and even sinister about the firings, and who dug around and kept writing about them while Iglesias decided whether to talk to the press or go quietly on to his next job, deserve tremendous credit.

When this story first surfaced, I thought the Bush White House and Justice Department were guilty of poorly executed acts of crass political patronage. I called some Democrats on the Hill; they were "concerned", but this was not a priority. The blogosphere was the engine on this story, pulling the Hill and the MSM along. As the document dump proves, what happened was much worse than I'd first thought. I was wrong. Very nice work, and thanks for holding my feet to the fire.