Gregarius » Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars (19 unread)

Open Thread

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 11:30pm EDT by SilentPatriot

UPDATE: (Nicole) We have a new bookmark for you from our friends at Media Matters: County Fair, which will feature progressive blog links, news and media criticism.

Consider it open.
C&L’s Late Nite Music Club with The Spinners; RIP Pervis Jackson

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 11:00pm EDT by Nicole Belle

Enclosure: [download]

A medley of Games People Play, Then Came You and Mighty Love from the television special, “Back to the 70s” with guest Taylor Dayne.

Pervis Jackson, 1938 - 2008. Rest In Peace

And because it’s my favorite Spinners song of all time, Rubberband Man
Bush proposes new abortion rules

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 10:00pm EDT by SilentPatriot

AP:

The Bush administration on Thursday proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said that health care professionals should not face retaliation from employers or from medical societies because they object to abortion.

Abortion foes called it a victory for the First Amendment, but abortion rights supporters said they feared the rule could stretch the definition of abortion to include birth control, and served notice that they intend to challenge the administration.

The ACLU released this statement:

“It’s deeply troubling and unfortunate that President Bush should fire this parting shot at women’s access to basic health care in the waning days of his administration,” said Vania Leveille, ACLU Legislative Counsel. “Time and time again, he has put political and ideological concerns above the best interests of the American people, and this is yet another example.

“We continue to be very concerned about the scope and impact of this proposed rule. It leaves open the possibility that institutions and individuals can deny access to birth control and permits individuals to refuse to provide even counseling about basic heath care services.”

I’m sure the timing of this has nothing whatsoever to do with the upcoming election. It’s surely just a coincidence that this wedge issue rears its ugly head just in time to fire up the right-wing lunatics who otherwise would have no reason to come out and vote. It’s not like Republicans use the issue of abortion for political gain every four years or anything.
“Fox & Friends” agree McCain’s housing gaffe a big deal, still try to cover for him

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

John McCain should realize he’s in serious trouble when even the dupes at “Fox & Friends” are willing to admit that he messed up big time with his housing gaffe. Although Gretchen Carlson and the rest of the crew do their best to cover for McCain by saying, “You need to have gazillions to become president” and “You have to be an elitist to some extent to become president of our country,” the overall consensus is that this will come back to haunt McCain.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t David Edwards)

The Obama campaign could not have played this better. By injecting into the mainstream dialogue the idea that McCain is really the one out of touch with average Americans, he not only deflects that false characterization off of him, but he also gives the media a reason to make the connection and push the meme every time McCain acts “elitist” (e.g. $520 Ferragamo loafers, Cindy’s private planes). The fact that the McCain campaign responded with the Ayers/Rezko/Wright/POW kitchen sink says a lot about how damaging they perceive this attack to be. Brilliant.
Houses The Same As Ties In Republican Eyes

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 8:10pm EDT by Jamie

Enclosure: [download]

You have to love the line “Celebrities don’t have to worry about family budgets, but we sure do.” Oh really, Mr. $100 Million Man? Most family budgets don’t include $273,000 for servants. In fact, the average American house is only worth $218,000, significantly less than you pay for butlers.

Just when you thought the wingnut spin on McCain’s home ownership amnesia couldn’t get any worse, we are presented with this from Powerline:

The latest campaign kerfuffle is Obama’s effort to make hay out of John McCain’s inability to tell a reporter how many houses he owns. McCain mumbled something about condos and said the reporter should talk to his wife. Predictably, Obama is trying to spin this exchange as showing that McCain is “out of touch.” (emphasis added)

First let’s refresh everyone’s memory with a little audio from McCain’s now infamous comments of yesterday. The audio is still here, in which McCain clearly states (the opposite of mumbling) that he would have to have his staff get back to the reporter. No wife and no mumbling.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg from wingnut spintopia. The second paragraph is even more telling:

I can relate, though. For example, if a reporter asked me how many ties I own, there’s no way I could answer. Just like McCain, I’d tell him he has to ask my wife. Likewise if someone wants to know how many Wii games my kids have.

Let’s overlook the sexist overtone given in that statement; I don’t think many wives out there would consider themselves the keeper of inventory for their husbands. Instead let’s look at this very poor comparison being made. I couldn’t tell you how many socks I own, yet I can sure answer how many houses I own. I believe this is something a vast majority of Americans could claim. Instead, for the Republicans, ties are now the equivalent of homes, which begs the most important question - how many ties are in foreclosure?
Do The Shuffle - The Oil Shuffle!

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 7:20pm EDT by Cernig

Oil exports from the U.S. are currently running at 1.8 million barrels a day - exports that enrich Big Oil but don’t do a thing to reduce prices at the pumps. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is asking Bush to “keep our oil”.

…..at the current export rate, by the time the first barrel of oil could be produced from increased offshore drilling, America would have already exported the equivalent of nearly 40 percent of the oil that is projected to lie beneath protected areas offshore.

And that’s the Oil Shuffle, as brought to you by George Bush, John McCain and oil company campaign donations.
FOX News “mistakenly” airs potentially illegal anti-Obama ad

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 6:30pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

Wow. After reading at HuffPo yesterday that a right wing smear group produced an ad so atrocious (and potentially illegal) that even FOX News wouldn’t touch it, I knew it had to be bad. Boy, was I right. While discussing McCain’s “housing problem” on Studio B Friday afternoon, FOX producers “accidentally” aired a William Ayers ad produced by a group called the America Issues Project. Putting the ad aside, notice how loaded (and laughable) the report is to begin with.

Download | Play Download | Play

Henneberg: The McCain campaign is more than happy to inject Tony Rezko back into this election cycle, as they did in an new ad this morning. Rekzo, as you may remember, is a guy who was convicted in June on corruption charges, separate from this housing deal with Obama. But Rezko, or his wife, helped buy the empty lot next to Obama’s million dollar house in Chicago and then sold part of it back to him, and the McCain campaign put that in a new ad. Take a listen.

[Cue 30 seconds of the wrong ad]

Henneberg: This is not the right ad.

Smith: It’s not the right ad, huh?

Henneberg: Well that wasn’t exactly the right ad.

Smith: Well, it was an ad. C’mon, give us a break…it’s busy back here today.

Henneberg: It was an ad! [Laughter]

HuffPo:

“This negative campaign ad is clearly express advocacy, and under a federal law passed in 2003, the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (known colloquially as McCain-Feingold), it cannot legally be paid for with corporate money, including those of a non-profit,” said Laura MacCleery, deputy director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The ad indisputably concerns an election, takes a position on the character and fitness for office of a candidate, and raises no legislative issue. Even this highly skeptical Supreme Court would turn up its noses at the foul odor emitted by this clear abuse of federal election law.”

If the experts HuffPo spoke to are correct and the ad is indeed illegal, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I’ve never worked in television before so excuse me if I’m way off base here….but don’t these clips have to be cued up from some sort of storage system? If FOX agreed not to touch it, why would they still have it on file. let alone within reach to “accidentally” air it? Somethings fishy here. Then again, we’re talking about FOX News.

I wonder if the other networks are irresponsible enough to pick up on FOX’s “mistake” and use it as an excuse to run the ad. I wonder if that was the idea all along.
Git Yer Veepstakes Rumor-Mongering Here

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 5:40pm EDT by Nicole Belle

Mark Halperin does it again:

Two Republicans close to the situation say McCain has apparently settled on Mitt Romney as his running mate. [..]

Developing…

Nice Drudgian touch at the end, Mark. Of course, Halperin pulled down the page saying that the Veep was going to be Dick Lugar just a little bit before, which appeared to be based on nothing more Lugar endorsing McCain. Brilliant. Obviously, still wishing to not blow his “MSM Maker of Conventional Wisdom” title, Halperin updated with this weasel:

And/but:

NY Times: “People close to the [McCain] campaign also floated a wild-card choice, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq.”

Give me a break. Either report the news as it happens or start calling yourself Miss Cleo. This wild guessing is insulting to our intelligence.
FOX News’ Obama documentary… in one minute

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 4:50pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

(via the funny folks over at 236.com)
Whoops! There Goes McCain’s Iraq Strategy

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 4:00pm EDT by Cernig

The WSJ says Maliki and Bush are about to agree a timetable that agrees with Obama’s timetable.

Even “Saint Pet” Petraeus says the Sunni Awakening is at least as responsible as any other cause for the reduction of violence in Iraq -now Maliki’s people say they’re ready to throw the Awakening under the reconcilliation bus and declare it illegal - perhaps as early as November 1st. You can bet the Awakening folks won’t be thrilled about it and the received wisdom is that they’ll express their displeasure by returning to violent insurgency.

McCain’s beloved Surge won’t have accomplished a lasting reduction and Bush will have already committed the US to substantial withdrawal. Could McCain’s Iraq policy get any more tattered? Will the establishment media notice as Republicans do another 180 and claim that the prospect of renewed violence means the US must stay in Iraq, just as the (almost certainly temporary) reduction in violence meant the US must stay in Iraq?
Obama: “It’s time to succeed in Iraq”

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 3:50pm EDT by Cernig

Despite Condi Rice’s prevarications, it’s now looking certain that the US will be forced to accept Iraqi demands that any new “status of forces” deal be for only 3 years and to stipulate all US troops out of Iraqi urban areas by 2009. A draft of the agreement is being circulated to Iraqi political leaders for their approval and it says that while there will be no firm schedule for a U.S. withdrawal, they want U.S. combat troops to go home by the end of 2011.

Obama already has his statement out, and it’s a doozy. (H/T Spencer Ackerman):

“I am glad that the Administration has finally shifted to accepting a timetable for the removal of our combat troops from Iraq. Success in Iraq depends on an Iraqi government that is reconciling its differences and taking responsibility for its future, and a timetable is the best way to press the Iraqis to do just that. I welcome the growing convergence around this pragmatic and responsible position.

“This agreement is still draft and vital pieces of it must be finalized, so I will reserve final judgment on the agreement until it is complete. The agreement needs to be carefully reviewed, and must include immunity for U.S. troops and Defense Department personnel from Iraqi jurisdiction. I continue to believe that in consultation with our commanders and the Iraqi government, we can safely redeploy at a pace that removes our combat brigades in 16 months, with a residual force to target remnants of al Qaeda; to protect our service members and diplomats; and to train Iraq’s Security Forces if the Iraqis make political progress.

“Senator McCain has stubbornly focused on maintaining an indefinite U.S presence in Iraq, but events have made his bluster and record increasingly out of touch with reality. While Senator McCain continues to offer unconditional military and economic support for Iraq, I strongly believe that we need to use our leverage with the Iraqi government to ensure a political settlement. In addition to a timetable, we should only train Iraqi Security Forces if Iraq’s leaders reconcile their differences, and we must insist that Iraq invests its $79 billion surplus on rebuilding its own country. It’s time to succeed in Iraq and to honor the sacrifice of our servicemen and women by leaving Iraq to a sovereign Iraqi government.

“Ending the war in Iraq responsibly is in the broader strategic interests of the United States. It’s long past time to drawdown our troop presence and to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq so that we can increase resources for the mission in Afghanistan, rebuild our military, and invest in our struggling economy at home,” said Senator Obama.

Spencer’s bang on when he says this hits all the right notes.

First, it makes the point that the administration came around to the wisdom of Obama’s position after exhausting the alternatives. Second, it portrays Obama’s position as the consensus view. Third, it puts McCain on the horns of a dilemma: Either endorse Obama’s consensus position — and thereby flip-flop and concede his opponent’s judgment is superior — or be out of the responsible mainstream. Third-and-a-half, if McCain stays consistent, the Obama line draws a wedge between Bush and McCain.

But there’s a fourth reason, and it’s the most crucial of all. Did you notice how Obama is talking about “success in Iraq”? He’s taking that concept and giving it a common-sense meaning: getting out responsibly — that is, leveraging withdrawal into a diplomatic strategy with the Iraqi government and the region – is what success means.

A definition of success that actually works and a plan that even the Bush administration has come around to, albeit very reluctantly. That shows both leadership and judgement.
Verdict: GOP Flack: McCain’s POW past excuses every gaffe

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 3:10pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

Apparently Republican strategist Joe Watkins got the email about how to deal with McCain’s “housing crisis,” because last night on “Verdict” the always reliable GOP shill stayed right on message, dismissing McCain’s gaffe by pointing out how heroic, patriotic and POW-rific he is. Remind me again what being a former POW has to do with forgetting how rich, privileged and out of touch you are?

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather)

Abrams: “Joe, I want to ask you if it’s fair to call this ‘playing the POW card. I want to ask you if that’s an unfair characterization.’”

Watkins: “Everybody knows John McCain is a patriot. There’s nothing wrong with having investment properties. Lots of Americans do. If I was Barack Obama, I wouldn’t get into this argument with John McCain, who is an American hero.”

Everyone respects John McCain’s Vietnam service, but it’s pretty sickening to hear the McCain campaign exploit that difficult chapter in his life every time he sticks his foot in his mouth. I mean, c’mon; In three short sentences, Watkins mentions twice that McCain is a “patriot” and “an American hero.” That has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand, which is that despite all the GOP talking points to the contrary, John McCain is the one candidate in this race who cannot empathize with the struggles of average Americans.
FBI wants power to investigate citizens “without any basis for suspicion”

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 2:20pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Because everyone knows the terrorists win if we don’t forfeit our Fourth Amendment rights…

New York Times:

A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.

The senators said the new guidelines would allow the F.B.I. to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps “without any basis for suspicion.” The plan “might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the letter said. It was signed by Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Does the word “Duh!” mean anything to you?

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 1:30pm EDT by Cernig

Even some of the denizens of the far Right are beginning to work out that the Russians aren’t afraid of their bark and may just bite back in return. Witness manly man Mark Hemingway writing at The Corner on NRO:

(T)his should be a big story:

Russia has informed Norway that it plans to suspend all military ties with NATO, Norway’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the military alliance urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia.

… the NATO-Russia Council which has been active and productive for a number of years now. Russia severing ties with NATO is a significant step, and not necessarily for the better.

No, really? Could you explain it to the White House, where Bush is still trying to bluff on a busted flush? Today he told Russia they must leave Georgia “now” and the Russians basically replied “Gonna make us? You and which army?” And then there’s this:

It was unclear if there would be any impact on a crucial aspect of NATO-Russian cooperation: the deal under which Moscow allows aircraft supplying the NATO-led force in Afghanistan to fly through Russian airspace.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was “not going to shut the doors” on cooperation with NATO, but he pointedly raised the issue of Afghanistan transit.

“After the famous NATO meeting (when the alliance froze contacts with Russia), some leading alliance officials were whispering in my ears: ‘You are not going to halt the Afghanistan transit, are you?,”‘ he said.

As I say, busted flush.
Susan Eisenhower Leaving GOP For Good, Cites McCain’s “Rove-Style” Politics

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 12:50pm EDT by Logan Murphy

National Interest:

I have decided I can no longer be a registered Republican. For the first time in my life I announced my support for a Democratic candidate for the presidency, in February of this year. This was not an endorsement of the Democratic platform, nor was it a slap in the face to the Republican Party. It was an expression of support specifically for Senator Barack Obama. I had always intended to go back to party ranks after the election and work with my many dedicated friends and colleagues to help reshape the GOP, especially in the foreign-policy arena. But I now know I will be more effective focusing on our national and international problems than I will be in trying to reinvigorate a political organization that has already consumed nearly all of its moderate “seed corn.” And now, as the party threatens to trivialize what promised to be a serious debate on our future direction, it will alienate many young people who might have come into party ranks.

My decision came at the end of last week when it was demonstrated to the nation that McCain and this Bush White House have learned little in the last five years. They mishandled what became a crisis in the Caucusus, and this has undermined U.S. national security. At the same time, the McCain camp appears to be comfortable with running an unworthy Karl Rove–style political campaign. Will the McCain operation, and its sponsors, do anything to win? Read on…

Eisenhower obliterates the media narrative that John McCain is strong on national security and foreign policy and shows the growing distaste within the GOP for the destructive Rove/Bush, scorched earth politics the McCain camp has unfortunately chosen to adopt. Susan believes the GOP has lost its way and has finally awakened to the destructive nature of the Bush regime - the one her grandfather warned us about all those years ago.
A Rare Glimpse at the Real McCain

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 12:00pm EDT by Bill W.

Enclosure: [download]

Ever since John McCain apparently ran out of ‘get out of gaffe free’ cards and was actually held to account for having more homes than he could keep track of, it has this blogger wondering if the traditional media might finally be ready to fairly report the facts and not the myths about our candidates. If so, CNN’s dual “Revealed” episodes on both candidates the other night was a fair start in that direction. Besides actually asking McCain about his role in the Keating 5 scandal, they also confronted him about his multiple extramarital affairs. Watch it:

Download | Play Download | Play

John Cole ties the affair, McCain’s housing crisis, and what has been the media’s Orwellian framing of elitism in this campaign all together and sums it up neatly:

Just so we are clear- visiting your grandmother while vacationing in Hawaii, the state where you were you were born- elitist.

Meeting the millionaire heiress daughter (who you will soon begin an affair with and divorce your first wife and then go on and buy a ton of houses) in Hawaii and then going on and honeymooning in Hawaii – not elitist.

Yes, McCain’s affairs and charges of corruption in the Keating affair are old news to the villagers, but it’s been so ignored and glossed over for so long by McCain’s media that many voters today across the country have no idea about any of it. All we’ve been told for years now about McCain is that he’s a maverick and a war hero, and yet we’ve been inundated with every scrap of negative reporting on Obama that could be dug up, no matter how tangential or untrue. Given the fact that the McCain campaign is now claiming that everything is “fair game” and vowing to rehash all of the tired old dirt on Obama brought up over and over for months during the primaries, it’s past time the voters this cycle get a full accounting of both candidates’ good, bad and ugly, so long as it’s the truth.

Which brings me back to the affairs. A few months ago, when Mike Stark asked John McCain point blank if he had ever cheated on his current wife Cindy, McCain refused to answer. If McCain has never cheated on Cindy (say, with Vicki Iseman, for example), as he most certainly did with his first wife, Carol, why wouldn’t he just answer with some straight talk? As Stark pointed out, “McCain surrogates furiously denounced the story, but oddly, John McCain never brought it up,” and the traditional media collectively gave McCain a pass. Given his history, is a little follow up on that really too much to ask?

And since the McCain camp is calling everything fair game, Jed has a few more questions, in the interest of fairness, that likewise deserve reporting on:

If McCain wants to play this game, he should explain why he asked convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy — who has advocated killing federal agents and said Adolf Hitler gave him strength — to host a fundraiser for him in 1998.

McCain should also explain why he repeatedly voted against federal legislation banning domestic terrorism against patients, doctors, and staff of abortion and women’s health clinics.

What else should we know more about McCain that we already would if it were about Obama?
Mike’s Blog Roundup

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 11:00am EDT by bluegal

Guest hosted by Blue Gal (I’ll be here all week, send me tips, but don’t try the veal.)

Susie Bright (nsfw): The most expensive birth control in the world, and why is it so cheap in Houston?

The Aristocrats: Signs you have too many houses.

CJSD: First Veep Possibility to answer the phone at 3am wins!

Eh? The Canadians are making fun of our turning small Iowa towns into open air prisons. (h/t Existentialist
Cowboy)

There is a conference this weekend in New Orleans on The Future of New Orleans including a blogger meet up tonight. No word on whether you’ll be able to receive text messages at the conference. (On the Obama text msg. topic, Sef leaves the best. comment. ever.)
Howard Fineman: McCain “in danger of trivializing” POW past

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 9:45am EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

Someone had to say it.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather)

“I think they are going to it way too many times. It’s the original story that defined John McCain, that still when you read it in his book ‘Faith of my Fathers,’ when you read about it in ‘The Nightingale’s Song,’ you can’t help but have admiration and respect for the guy. And I think he wisely for many years stayed away from it as a political tool, he really did. But now it not only defines him, it’s become a crutch in the campaign. And I think he is in danger of trivializing it. By the time they get to the convention in St. Paul, there might not be much of it left to use.“

This is just another sad chapter in the tragic descent of John McCain. Sure McCain has used his powerful biography to help him throughout his political career, but I highly doubt he’s comfortable with the depths he’s now forced to sink to in order to compete for the presidency. Again….tragic.

Brandon Friedman at VetVoice has more…
Methinks the blogger doth protest too much

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 8:30am EDT by Steve Benen

(Site Note: With this post, we say good bye to Steve Benen as a contributor to C&L. Steve has accepted a position with The Washington Monthly. While we’ll miss his posts here greatly, we wish him great luck in his new position~ Nicole)

When the McCain campaign unveiled its now-infamous Spears/Hilton ad, the NYT’s editorial board, like every other sensible political observer, criticized it. Michael Goldfarb, McCain’s official in-house blogger, responded by comparing the Times’ editors to “the average Daily Kos diarist sitting at home in his mother’s basement and ranting into the ether between games of Dungeons & Dragons.”

This week, after questions arose about the veracity of a McCain anecdote from his days as a prisoner of war, Goldfarb went back to the well, blasting ”the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd.”

After the first insulting comment, Goldfarb backed away, while sticking to the vernacular: “If my comments caused any harm or hurt to the hard working Americans who play Dungeons & Dragons, I apologize. This campaign is committed to increasing the strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores of every American.”

This led my friend Adam Serwer to raise an excellent point.

That’s the kind of deep, personal animosity that you associate with experience, which clearly Goldfarb has. It’s not hard to imagine that some basement somewhere holds the abandoned d20s, dusty rulebooks, and broken heart of a young Michael Goldfarb who never got to be Dungeon Master because he wouldn’t stop yelling. In fact, it’s hard not to wonder if, when Michael Goldfarb is berating the D&D players of the world, he’s really just berating Michael Goldfarb.

Ta-Nehisi Coates added, “[W]e often are what we hate. Goldfarb remark smacks of a geek trying to get down by slamming other geeks.”

The good news is, the “Pro-Obama Dungeons and Dragons crowd” is apparently getting organized. I can’t help but wonder if the McCain campaign has inadvertently woken an angry nerd army….