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dailykos.com rss archive / October-01-2007
Open Thread and Diary Rescue
(Tonight's selections are brought to you courtesy of the Rescue Rangers. SusanG) This evening's Rescue Rangers are ybruti, nyc in exile, fatbyjhnsn, grog, Cordelia Lear, smokeymonkey and joyful with hhex65 as editor. Tonight's diaries cover a variety of interesting issues with perspective and analysis not offered by the Traditional Media: Garet43details the impact of pollution and government inaction on a community in The True Cost of Superfund. (nyc in exile) In Erik Prince Wins Captain Morgan Look-alike Contest, which compares Blackwater's captain and a famous 17th century privateer, davidfry explains that without a Letter of Marque a privateer was merely a pirate. He also notes that the Constitution gives Congress, not the Executive Branch, the power to issue such letters. (ybruti) Tomorrow is a Blackwater Day for Congressional testimony. Jupiter2005 hopes we'll get details on the September 16 shooting and learn why we pay $1,200 a day for each "protective security specialist"...
Thompson goes for the "La la la! I'm not listening!" vote
Fred Thompson is one of the whatever percentage of idiots we're down to now who still believes that Iraq was hiding WMD right up until the invasion. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said Monday he was certain former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a point of contention in the 41/2years since the war began. "We can’t forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had had WMD. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program," Thompson told an audience of about 60 at a Newton cafe. About the best interpretation that can be given to this impossibly stupid statement is that "sometime prior" could mean 20 years prior. And apparently, pressed for details, that's exactly the spin he leaned on: Thompson later said he was referring Saddam’s attack on Kurdish northern Iraq with banned weapons in the 1980s. "He acknowledged,...
Presidential Public Financing Primer
Markos asked me if I could review just how this will work for the Edwards campaign and anyone else who chooses to opt in to public financing for the primaries. As most of you know, I've picked my candidate for this race, so I've tried to focus on just the application of the law here and not what I think of the decision. I believe I've got this all correct, but if not, let me know or ask questions. To qualify for public funding, Presidential candidates must first meet various eligibility requirements, such as agreeing to limit campaign spending to a specified amount, and showing broad-based public support by raising in excess of $5,000 in each of at least 20 states (i.e., over $100,000). Only a maximum of $250 per individual applies toward the $5,000 threshold in each state, but Edwards shouldn't have any trouble meeting this requirement. Once you do that, you can receive matching funds for each contributor of up to $250. (Contributor,...
Public Prefers Democrats On SCHIP (And Iraq)
New WaPo poll: Most Americans oppose fully funding President Bush's $190 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a sizable majority supports an expansion of a children's health insurance bill the president has promised to veto, putting Bush and many congressional Republicans on the wrong side of public opinion on upcoming foreign and domestic policy battles. The new Washington Post-ABC News poll also shows deep dissatisfaction with the president and Congress. Bush's approval rating stands at 33 percent, equal to his career low in Post-ABC polls. Congressional approval is even lower: Just 29 percent approve of the job the Congress is doing. That is Congress's lowest approval rating in this poll since November 1995, when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate, and represents a 14-point drop since Democrats took control last January. Still, the public rates congressional Republicans (29 percent approve) lower than congressional Democrats (38 percent...
TX-Sen: Noriega raises big money -- $570K
Okay, so we got that concern out of the way. From a campaign press release: Rick Noriega announced today contributions of $570,000 for the October 15th FEC financial disclosure report. The report, the first for the State Representative and Lt. Colonel’s exploratory campaign, shows growing momentum for his campaign to unseat incumbent Republican John Cornyn. “Rick Noriega’s strength is his story,” noted his campaign manager Sue Schechter, referring to his long history of service, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan, playing a leading role in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Houston, commanding troops and serving five terms as a State Representative. “As our very first FEC report makes clear, Rick has the fundraising appeal and a growing network of supporters to ensure we’ll have the resources to communicate his story to the voters.” Noriega’s fundraising totals put...
Dana Perino on Sy Hersh & Consulting Congress
From today's White House press briefing: Q This weekend the New Yorker magazine came out with an article claiming that this summer the President, or at least the White House in general, asked the Joint Chiefs to redraw plans to attack Iran. Is that true? MS. PERINO: Look, you know, I'm glad you brought it up. Every two months or so, Sy Hersh writes an article in The New Yorker magazine, and CNN provides him a forum in which to talk about his article and all the anonymous sources that are quoted in it. Damn that Sy Hersh and his librul media enablers. Thank God Ms. Perino was able to deny that leftist rumormongering, right? Q But what's the -- can you answer actually on the substance of whether or not the White House asked -- I mean, if it's not true, then you can say Sy Hersh is wrong and CNN was wrong to air it. You could say that, but -- MS. PERINO: We don't discuss such things, Ed. And would the President consult Congress before attacking...
Midday open thrad
Pollster Rasmussen: Hillary his not inevitable. There's been a long-running debate in the wingnutosphere about whether they should be "pundits" (like their heroes Rush and Hannity), or "activists" like the more effective progressive blogosphere. Here's Patrick Ruffini's latest on that theme, and it's a fascinating debate. (See this as well). The one thing the conservative blogosphere doesn't seem to grasp is that progressive bloggers have grown the way we have because we filled a market need -- strong progressive voices in the media. They have plenty -- in talk radio, on Fox News, even on CNN and MSNBC. We had no such regular voices on the radio until Air America came around, and none on TV until Keith Olbermann. So for a while, us bloggers were it. UN Daily Security Updates from Iraq: September 28 and September 30 (PDFs). Lots of progress and turned corners and last throes, as usual. Rudy ditches the GOP African American debate in order to accept an endorsement from Latino-ha...
Super Secret Confidential Programming Note
I've been meaning to pipe up with this for a while, and now seems as good a time as any. You may notice that one post down from this one is one which very subtly bashes Hillary Clinton. Sortof. You will notice that three posts down from this one is a post that explicitly praises Clinton. This is called "being a political website". Praising or bashing individual actions by individual candidates is called "having political opinions." The incongruities from day to day or between posts may be off-putting to some. This site may, in any given post, praise or bash Obama, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson, or AndTheRest. This is known as "politics", and any given post or series of posts about a given candidate is not a sign (1) that this site is hopelessly biased against So and So, (2) that this site has been bought off by Such and Such, or (3) that rampaging bands of Space Monkeys have infiltrated the site and are using mindrays to secretly steel opinions against your candidate. Given that...
SUSA's CA, OR, WA and NY 2008 matchups
CALIFORNIA 55 Electoral Votes; 2004 results: Bush 44, Kerry 54 Obama 48 Obama 53 Obama 51 Giuliani 44 Thompson 37 Romney 36 Clinton 57 Clinton 60 Clinton 63 Giuliani 37 Thompson 34 Romney 30 Edwards 46 Edwards 53 Edwards 58 Giuliani 44 Thompson 32 Romney 27 OREGON 20 Electoral Votes; 2004 results: Bush 47, Kerry 51 Obama 46 Obama 48 Obama 53 Giuliani 46 Thompson 43 Romney 35 Clinton 46 Clinton 49 Clinton 51 Giuliani 44 Thompson 42 Romney...
Bombing Iran? Please, Don't Be Ridiculous.
I really think Sy Hersh has gone over the top on this one. It's completely implausible: Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker’s Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist, writes in a new article entitled “Shifting Targets” that there has been “a significant increase in the tempo of attack planning” for war with Iran inside the Bush administration. Most significantly, Hersh — who has been warning for months that the administration is seriously plotting for war with Iran — reports the administration has switched its rationale for war. The focus has shifted from a broad bombing attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities to “surgical” strikes again Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran and elsewhere. A shift from emphasis on nuclear facilities to attacks on the Revolutionary Guard itself? The White House has even prepared a “Clinton did it too” defense...
Tying one arm behind our back
If there's one thing we've learned from Republicans, it's that they always bring a howitzer to a gunfight, while Democrats don't even bother bringing a knife -- they bring a spork. We're seeing that dynamic at play once again in the presidential battle, where Edwards is already risking a broke summer in order to get public financing for their battle in the first (officially sanctioned states) states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. The other candidates non named Obama and Clinton are probably going to follow suit -- Dodd, Richardson, and the rest of the ones that don't matter. While all of their campaigns are dead in the water if they don't win one of those early states (and public financing limits what they can spend in each of those early states), they have consultants that wouldn't mind getting paid for a while longer. Or something. Fact is, whoever wins the nomination would experience an unprecedented flood of small dollar donations, yet these candidates...
What Good is Polling?
An interesting question... and the answer is it tells you stuff you didn't know, it reinforces stuff you did, and provides data on who thinks what about which. In 2004, I described the difference between 'oh my God' (I don't believe it, it must be wrong) polls and 'aha!' (see, I told you) polls. So, let's see if you know what Frank Newport (from Gallup) knows (Ten Ten things you may not know). I especially like #10: A majority of Americans – somewhat paradoxically -- say that being able to bring about change in Washington and having a lot of experience in Washington are desirable traits for the next president and I also appreciate living in a reality-based community: Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to have a great deal/fair amount of trust in the news media to report news accurately and fairly. To be specific, only 33% of Republicans trust the news media, compared to 66% of Democrats OTOH, what polls don't do is predict winners, especially...
Just a reminder
Andgarden notes Rahm Emanuel's appearance on Real Time this weekend, wherein he's called upon to address the question of "defunding" the "war" in "Iraq." I note this: MAHER: Now, President Bush has asked for another, I think, around $200 billion to keep the war going. Okay, and I hear all the time- EMANUEL: This would be - make it $680 billion. MAHER: Okay. Reports are that the supplemental may be put off for a while, which is sort of good news. Of course, it might be getting backed up so that it's not on the record of any presidential candidates before the first flurry of primaries, which at this point in the ever-quickening schedule, may have decided the whole mess before anyone has to stake out a position on the Iraq money, which is not such good news if you're scoring accountability at home rather than political expediency. But hey, the world's political. Meanwhile, back to our show: EMANUEL: This would be - make it $680 billion. Just for the record, this next...