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Posted by D. Cupples | House Republicans uploaded a video to their web site that seems intended to frighten us Americans senseless while managing to be untainted by facts, logic and analysis. The video has the feel of a TV preview of a horror flick, aimed at the most simple minded of viewers. It's interesting that the Bush Administration is so afraid of losing terrorist-related intelligence since FISA expired -- though Mr. Bush threatened to veto any FISA bill that didn't include Telecom Amnesty (more about that here and here).
The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin has interesting comments about the Bush Administration's fear mongering:
Posted by D. Cupples | CBS's website states that it plans to air a story on the possibly selective prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman on 60 Minutes this Sunday (February 24) at 7 pm.
About 10 days ago, numerous bloggers reported that CBS had produced a story about Don Seigelman but that network executives had caved into political pressure and decided to postpone (possibly kill) the story. Apparently, many blogosphere dwellers sent CBS emails of protest (yours truly included). Here's part of CBS's teaser:
Posted by D. Cupples| The Bush Administration is still trying to convince America: 1) that our nation faces gigantic terrorist threats simply because the FISA (wiretapping) bill expired; and 2) that FISA expired because House Democrats made it so.
In fact, the Senate is partly responsible: if it had not insisted on using the FISA bill to grant law-breaking telecom companies retroactive legal immunity, both houses of Congress would have passed a FISA renewal. It didn't help that President Bush threatened to veto any FISA bill that didn't contain Telecom Amnesty -- which suggests that Mr. Bush is more interested in protecting telecoms than our nation's security. Glenn Greenwald reports:
by D. Cupples | Given that pre-election polls haven't always been right (e.g., New Hampshire and California), I take them with a grain of salt -- or sugar, depending on my mood. For whatever they're worth, below are some recent polling numbers re: the Democratic presidential primaries in Ohio and Texas (followed by info re: dates of surveys and number of participants).
The poll by Decision Analyst lists only a 90% level of confidence, which seems low because 95% level of confidence is the standard among most public pollsters. I included this polling data only because it differs so much from that of the other polls.
Posted by D. Cupples | (photo from U.S. House) The Associated Press reports that Republican Congressman Rick Renzi (AZ) has been indicted for extortion, wire
fraud, money laundering and other charges. CNN describes the charges as stemming from Renzi's alleged promise to support legislation in exchange for a land deal through which he earned $700,00.
You may remember Renzi's name in connection to the fired U.S. Attorney scandal.
"A federal judge on Thursday acquitted former Republican Party official James Tobin in the 2002 Election Day phone-jamming case in New Hampshire but said the case will return to an appeals court for further review."
Posted by D. Cupples | At the end of last night's CNN debate in Austin, Texas, Sen. Hillary Clinton was interrupted by applause and finished with a standing ovation. Check out the several-minute YouTube video below (from Taylor Marsh). Oddly, the same clip at CNN's site fades out before the viewer sees the standing ovation, which was actually pretty impressive.
Posted by D. Cupples (photo from Senate) | About Telecom Amnesty (a.k.a., "retroactive immunity"), there is no "compromise." Either the telecom companies that broke the law -- in exchange for big money -- will be accountable to us taxpayers in court, or they won't.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) seems averse to holding them accountable, or so she said last week on Bill Maher. McCaskill made the following highly questionable statement:
by D. Cupples| Wednesday, the Washington Post reported:
"Brent R. Wilkes, a California defense contractor and prominent GOP campaign contributor, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison yesterday for lavishing a Republican congressman with money, prostitutes and other bribes in exchange for nearly $90 million in work from the Pentagon...."
Crooks & Liars says that this is the lowest presidential approval rating ever, which seems to mean the lowest approval rating of any U.S. President since public-opinion polling began.
Posted by D. Cupples(photo, Bush & Justice Alito, from White House) | By refusing to hear a case, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially made it easier for President Bush to ignore the laws generated by our legislative branch of government. To anyone who is so trusting of the Bush Administration that this does not matter, I must ask: how would you feel about letting the Obama or Clinton Administration go unchecked by Congress? Reuters reports:
Posted by D. Cupples (photo from Senate.gov) | Yesterday, I posted about Barack Obama's so-called "plagiarism" (a strong word given the context). One thing I mentioned was that Obama's failure to credit Gov.
Deval Patrick during the speech in question (e.g., by saying, "As a good friend once said...") would make Obama appear comfortable with snatching undeserved credit -- and leave him vulnerable to other lines of questioning.
The questions are already coming and not just from small blogs. At Huffington Post, clinical psychologist Sylvia Welsh is asking such questions while arguing why the so-called "plagiarism" matters:
Posted by D. Cupples(photo from White House) | Those who consider "activist" judges and courts an anathema should remember that even a court's refusal to hear a case (i.e., lack of activity) can have a big impact on people and politics. The Hartford Courant reports:
"The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Tuesday two appeals from New Orleans
property owners seeking to collect insurance payments for floodwater
damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."
Posted by D. Cupples (photo from Senate.gov) | A few days ago, Sen. Barack Obama gave an inspirational speech that turned out to be heavily borrowed from another politician's speech. "Plagiarism" seems an extreme term in this case, and Obama did admit that he should have credited Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, the man from whom Obama had borrowed. (See videos).
Most politicians borrow phrases from others -- including Hillary Clinton. So, why is Obama's
verbal borrowing worthy of the spotlight's glare? Context makes it so, and it's largely the media's fault.
Posted by D. Cupples| Iraqis who have worked with U.S. forces against insurgents in Iraq are upset, because civilians have been questionably killed. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Posted by D. Cupples| The U.S. and major Eurpoean powers -- including France, Germany and Britain -- officially recognized Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia on Sunday. (NYT) Russian leader Vladimir Putin said that Russia would view international backing of Kosovo's declaration as evidence of "double standards and dangerous disregard
for international law." (BN-Politics)
"A suicide car bomber killed 38 Afghans at a crowded market Monday,
pushing the death toll from two days of militant bombings to about 140. The
marketplace blast, which targeted a Canadian army convoy, came a day
after the country's deadliest insurgent attack since a U.S. invasion
defeated the Taliban regime in late 2001. The toll from that bombing in a crowd watching a dog fight rose to more than 100.
"The
back-to-back blasts in the southern province of Kandahar could be a
sign insurgents are now willing to risk high civilian casualties while
attacking security forces. ...Militants in Afghanistan have generally sought to avoid
targeting civilians, unlike insurgents in Iraq's war...."
Posted by D. Cupples| Via Memeorandum: Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama paid what some media has called a "secret" visit to John Edwards, which some speculate involved a plea for Edwards' endorsement. Hillary Clinton had a similar meeting with Edwards last week.
Given that an ABC local affiliate's news helicopter managed to get video of Obama leaving Edwards' North Carolina house, how "secret" was the meeting was supposed to be? Secrecy was not impossible: the local ABC station noted that Hillary managed to get in and out of her meeting at Edwards house "undetected by news crews."
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