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Sunday, December 11, 2005
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Not kidding. The White House's team working on Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court are now threatening Senators, including Kennedy and Biden.
From MyDD:The GOP team working with the White House to win confirmation of conservative Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is putting out a warning to Alito's Democratic critics: Question his ethics and character at your own peril. In their sights:
(Via AMERICAblog.)
10:23:04 PM 
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Commentator Sara Fishko has a problem with the way music recordings are manipulated into perfection. She finds herself drawn more and more to recordings of live performances. Fishko is a cultural producer-at-large for member station WNYC.
(Via NPR Programs: All Things Considered.)
I know that most of what I listen to is bootleg concert recordings. Music should be made by humans, not machines, or not human sounds manipulated into sounding as if they were machines.
10:17:14 PM
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On September 15, President Bush stood in Jackson Square in New Orleans and made a promise:
And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.
It hasn’t worked out that way. Here’s Washington Post reporter Mike Allen today on Meet the Press:
I’m going to tell you something to amaze you; it amazed me yesterday. The last time the president was in the hurricane region was October 11, two months ago. The president stood in New Orleans and said it was going to be one of the largest reconstruction efforts in the history of the world. You go to the White house home page, there’s Barney camp, there’s Social Security, there’s Renewing Iraq. Where’s renewing New Orleans? A presidential advisor told me that issue has fallen so far off the radar screen, you can’t find it.
The New York Times says the neglect is threatening the future of the city:
We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.
Why does this president seem more interested in rebuilding Iraq than rebuilding America?
(Via Think Progress.)
5:29:56 PM
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A bleak picture from Free Press' Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman:
A law that will make democracy all but moot in Ohio is about to pass the state legislature and to be signed by its Republican governor. Despite massive corruption scandals besieging the Ohio GOP, any hope that the Democratic party could win this most crucial swing state in future presidential elections, or carry its pivotal US Senate seat in 2006, are about to end.
House Bill 3 has already passed the Ohio House of Representatives and is about to be approved by the Republican-dominated Senate, probably before the holiday recess. Republicans dominate the Ohio legislature thanks to a heavily gerrymandered crazy quilt of rigged districts, and to a moribund Ohio Democratic party. The GOP-drafted HB3 is designed to all but obliterate any possible future Democratic revival. Opposition from the Ohio Democratic Party, where it exists at all, is diffuse and ineffectual.
HB3's most publicized provision will require positive identification before casting a vote. But it also opens voter registration activists to partisan prosecution, exempts electronic voting machines from public scrutiny, quintuples the cost of citizen-requested statewide recounts and makes it illegal to challenge a presidential vote count or, indeed, any federal election result in Ohio. When added to the recently passed HB1, which allows campaign financing to be dominated by the wealthy and by corporations, and along with a Rovian wish list of GOP attacks on the ballot box, democracy in Ohio could be all but over.
[...]
In traditional terms, the scandal-ridden Ohio GOP would appear to be more vulnerable than ever. Governor Robert Taft has become the only Ohio governor to be convicted of a crime while in office. With an astonishing 7% approval rating, he has been compared to Homer Simpson by the state's leading Republican newspaper. Republican US Senator Mike DeWine appears highly vulnerable. The GOP has never won the White House without winning the Buckeye State.
But HB3 will solidify the GOP's iron grip on the electronic voting process and all that surrounds it. Unless they break that grip, Democrats who believe they can carry any part of Ohio in 2006 or 2008 are kidding themselves. Just when you think they can't sink any lower, they do. Ohio is about to become a GOP dictatorship. It'll be like communist Russia. You can vote in the election, but it doesn't mean anything.
Remember, it's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes. Republicans are attempting to ensure that democracy is stamped out in Ohio. It's beyond outrageous. What they are trying to do goes against everything that America stands for and has ever stood for.
To them, the Constitution is a scrap of paper. The flag is an assortment of colors. Freedom, liberty, equality, opportunity - Republicans don't care about those values. They are hungry for power. And in Ohio, their sheer lust for pure, raw power is on display. They will try to hide it. But they must be exposed.
If they can destroy democracy in Ohio, they can destroy it here. We've got to do everything we can to stop them.
(Via Northwest Progressive Institute.)
2:20:53 PM
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Interesting trailer for Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette biopic. Evidently the film will feature Kirsten Dunst, Rip Torn, Asia Argento, Molly Shannon, Jason Schwartzman as cat-munching alien Alf, and what we think is pretty great casting: Marianne Faithfull as Marie Antoinette's mother Empress Maria Theresa.
Marie Antoinette Trailer [moviefone]
(Via Screenhead.)
11:19:07 AM
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From Kevin Drum
John Gilmore is suing the government because he doesn't think he should be required to show ID before boarding a commercial flight. I think this is stupid and he deserves to be thrown out of court.
At least, that's what I'd think if it weren't for this:
The Bush administration...claims that the ID requirement is necessary for security but has refused to identify any actual regulation requiring it.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seemed skeptical of the Bush administration's defense of secret laws and regulations but stopped short of suggesting that such a rule would be necessarily unconstitutional.
"How do we know there's an order?" Judge Thomas Nelson asked. "Because you said there was?"
....The Justice Department has said it could identify the secret law under seal, which would be available to the 9th Circuit but not necessarily Gilmore's lawyers. But any public description would not be permitted, the department said.
WTF? Call me naive, but I've never heard of a secret law. I've heard of secret courts and secret evidence — which are bad enough already — but not secret laws. When did this happen?
And another thing. How could it possibly harm national security to identify the text of the law that requires passengers to show ID before boarding a plane? Maybe someone with a more vivid imagination than me can come up with something, but I can't.
POSTSCRIPT: Seriously, is this true? I'm just gobsmacked. Congress is passing laws that the American public isn't allowed to know about? Any of us might be prosecuted under one of these laws that we don't know exists? Courts are being asked to interpret laws they've never seen?
This gives Kafakesque a very chilling and newly concrete meaning.
My reaction is similar to what Drum noted in another post: What was it that Teresa Nielsen Hayden said a couple of years ago? Oh yes, here it is: "I deeply resent the way this administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist." Seriously what harm can come from publishing the text of a law requiring people to show identification to board an airplane? It's like they go through with the Orwellian schlock just for the fun of it.
(Via Pandagon.)
9:54:25 AM
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Bill O'Reilly argues against himself This is the hostility that O'Reilly's "Wwar on Chritsams" has started. Just because a waitress told this guy, "Happy Holidays," the guy wanted to punch her in the face. (Like O'Reilly we don't know if the guy was serious) Caller: I wanted to punch her in the face... O'Reilly: I think you're out of line.----if somebody says "Happy Holiday," there's no reason to get offended. Brad has the audio. Emailer Joe: "So then Bill O'Reilly ripped into the guy and said he was a jerk for not tipping her. O'Reilly said "What if you had been Jewish or Muslim" she didn't know what your religion was. She was just trying to be respectful. Then O'Reilly discovered he had contradicted himself and tried to back pedal and explain the difference."
(Via Crooks and Liars.)
Man, you better say Merry Christmas to every "Christian" you meet, or worry about getting punched in the face.
9:54:18 AM
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On Wednesday, Sen. Joe Lieberman argued that anyone who questions President Bush’s credibility while the country is at war puts the nation in danger. Lieberman, 12/7/05:
It’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation’s peril.
But when he was running for President, Lieberman directly questioned Bush’s credibility on the war. In fact, he argued that doing so was an essential part of our democracy. Lieberman, 7/28/03:
In our democracy, a president does not rule, he governs. He remains always answerable to us, the people. And right now, the president’s conduct of our foreign policy is giving the country too many reasons to question his leadership. It’s not just about 16 words in a speech, it is about distorting intelligence and diminishing credibility. It’s not about searching for scapegoats; it’s about seeing, as President Kennedy did after the Bay of Pigs, that presidents stand tall when they willingly accept responsibility for mistakes made while they are in charge. [Press Conference with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) Re: War in Iraq, 7/28/03]
When he was running for President, Lieberman questioned Bush’s credibility on the war because that’s what he needed to do to get votes. Now, after his campaign flopped, he is attacking people who question Bush’s credibility on the war because that’s what he needs to do to get attention.
For Lieberman, this is about political opportunism, not principle.
UPDATE: Atrios finds another example of Joe’s hypocrisy.
(Via Think Progress.)
9:47:53 AM
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Our distinguished colleague John Aravosis at AmericaBlog informs us that the Bush administration, in a characteristic show of respect for the troops, has taken to shipping dead servicepeople home . . . as freight:
Dead heroes are supposed to come home with their coffins draped with the American flag -- greeted by a color guard.
But in reality, many are arriving as freight on commercial airliners -- stuffed in the belly of a plane with suitcases and other cargo.
John Holley and his wife, Stacey, were stunned when they found out the body of their only child, Matthew, who died in Iraq last month, would be arriving at Lindbergh Field as freight.
"When someone dies in combat, they need to give them due respect they deserve for (the) sacrifice they made," said John Holley.
John and Stacey Holley, who were both in the Army, made some calls, and with the help of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, Matthew was greeted with honor and respect.
"Our familiarity with military protocol and things of that sort allowed us to kind of put our foot down -- we're not sure other parents have that same knowledge," said Stacey Holley . . . .
Reporters from 10News called the Defense Department for an explanation. A representative said she did not know why this is happening.
(Via King of Zembla.)
9:37:59 AM
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Comedian Richard Pryor, who died Saturday at 65, was one of the most influential and popular performers in recent American history. He was known for his ability to find humor in taboo subjects.
(Via NPR Programs: All Things Considered.)
9:28:18 AM
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Integrity and courage, both rare commodities.
The good McCarthy.
(Via Rising Hegemon.)
9:25:10 AM
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Great Egoyan-on-Hitchcock (VV-shortish w/popup)
For all his status as the "master of suspense," Hitchcock was first and foremost the master of self-consciousness. He was, in the best sense of the word, all about show. He showed us how his characters wanted to present themselves, how he wanted to show them showing us who they were, and—if he could show himself off in the process, then that became part of the project. These are the sequences and moments that define Hitchcock's brilliance.
(Via robot wisdom weblog.)
9:24:18 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 1/1/2006; 11:08:55 AM.
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