Quote of the Day

(Thanks to Tim Grieve)

"I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I've ever seen or ever read about. They have failed the country." -- Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, speaking Wednesday before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

We Looking for Somone Like William Holden Only Not So Pretty...

Last night's GOP debate (at least from the transcripts) looked like a casting call for the Perfect Republican... circa 1984. All the candidates were trying to show what immigrant hatin' straight people lovin' tax detesting sons of bitches they were. It was a sad spectacle. They all want to be the President of a "Country that No Longer Exists". Two moments of sanity prevailed:

Rep. Duncan Hunter refused to sign a no new taxes pledge -- a Republican staple -- because he thought a national emergency might require a tax increase. Duncan, you will not get far in the GOP with that kind of measured and reasonable thinking.

John McCain got into it with Romney about torture. On the issue of waterboarding, McCain said: “How in the world anybody could think that that kind of thing could be inflicted by Americans on people who are held in our custody is absolutely beyond me." Romney let it be known that he doesn't much mind torture because he is so darn rugged and patriotic.

Our Humble Contribution

The Republicans have a debate this week in Iowa and the Democrats have another coming up. With every conceivable soft ball question having already been asked by our sycophantic press corp, TWN proposes the following questions to the candidates:

Rudy Giuliani: You have been campaigning as America's Mayor based on your actions in NYC on 9/11. Can you identify one thing you did that any other mayor of a major city would not have done when confronted with such a crisis? Follow up: Is there a campaign memo called "Pimping 9/11" or is that just the short hand your people use?

Hillary Clinton: Is there any possible question that I can ask which would elicit an answer from you that may alienate our upset some voting demographic?

Fred Thompson: Aren't you just a little embarrassed about the absolute non factor your candidacy has become?

Dennis Kucinich: How did you meet your wife? Does she have any sisters?

Mitt Romney: Do you find your changing positions on major ethical and moral issues to be just a little source of embarrassment? Is it hard to run as a "values" candidate when you so obviously substituted ambition for integrity?

Joe Biden: You have been a major player in Democratic politics and the Senate for a long time. You are pretty smart and a good communicator. You have bona fides on a number of bipartisan issues. Why does your candidacy lack legs?

Chris Dodd: Did you declare your candidacy because you lost a bet or are you actaully going to say something that may convince someone to vote for you?

Ron Paul: You are a man with a consistent and principled world view. While many (such as me) disagree with you, you get kudos for being thoughtful and honest. What type of masochistic impulse has led you to put yourself in front of an electorate that twice elected George W. Bush?

Mike Huckabee: Given that we have now suffered through six years of the goddiest President ever, can you explain why we should not disdain any candidate who harps on his Christianity?


Barack Obama: Does it ever occur to you that both you and your wife spend a lot of time talking about yourselves? Follow up: Do you ever want to compare Hillary Clinton to that annoying girl who always ran for Student Council?

John McCain: In 2004 you almost beat George W. Bush in the Republican primaries with a grass roots insurgency that captured people's imaginations. Since than you have been playing public kissy face with the Christian Right, whom you used to denounce. Your candidacy is in the toilet because many of your former supporters think you have sold out. Your home state voters are mad at you because you are not sufficiently bigoted against Mexican immigrants. You will likely be beaten by someone who is half the man and half the intellect you are. Will you be committing suicide with your service pistol or is there some more exotic method you prefer?

Bill Richardson: You are a smart guy, with a little charisma and a good track record. Non the less, your candidacy is stalled because you are viewed as a bit of a bumbler with a little stoner/slacker attitude thrown in. Do you think this perception is the result racial bias, or are you, in fact a fellow who likes to chill with your peeps and a fatty while the suits get all anxious? Keep in mind that if the latter is true, its all good.

NBC News Brian Williams

I prviously published a transcript of Chris Matthews fellating the President as he strutted like a boy king on an aircraft carrier proclaiming Mission Accomplished. For Matthews, this was a "tremendous leadership moment" (or a sad and childish spectatcle depending on your persepective). In all fairness, Matthews was not alone in his absolute lack of anything we could call journalistic credebility. Here is NBC's Brian Williams. Thanks to Glenn Greenwald for digging this up:

And two immutable truths about the president that the Democrats can't change: He's a youthful guy. He looked terrific and full of energy in a flight suit. He is a former pilot, so it's not a foreign art form -- art form to him. Not all presidents could have pulled this scene off today.

We just invaded a country with no provocation, and Williams sounds like a 13 year old at the premiere of Top Gun. He is right, not all Presidents could pull this off. Some were possessed of humility and foresight, others too burdened with dignity.

McClellan Fingers Rove, Cheney

Even loyal boot polishers can get a little testy when you lie to their face. This is an excerpt from Scott McClellan's book, What Happened. He was White House Press Secretary after Ari Fleischer and before that guy from Fox News. Here he is talking about the press conference in which he denied anyone in the Administration had anything to do with leaking valerie Plame's name to the press:

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

There was one problem. It was not true.

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff, and the president himself.

Chickens and Roosting

A lot of people, myself included, were surprised when Rudy G got the endoresement of the holier-than-the Pope-Pat Roberston. But Rudy seems emboldened -- or perhaps he is under new orders. He told the Federalist Society that the US has, "a divinely inspired role in the world.”

I guess he found out God polls well, particulalrly when she is endorsing our foreign policy.

This Week In The News

This week, House Republicans were busy trying to scuttle a report authored by the House's Joint Economic Committee which indicates that the cost of the Iraq War exceeds $1 trillion, or double the amount the Bush Administration has actually asked Congress for, and four times the amount the Administration originally predicted. According to the report, the war in Iraq has cost each American taxpayer about $20,000 thus far. The White House immediately characterized the report as "partisan" and "flawed." Asked for further elaboration, White House flak Dana Perino stated, "This is just more Defeatocrat nonsense. If we applied a cost benefit analysis to war, the US would have pulled out of Vietnam in about 1965. Aren't you glad that did not happen?"

This week, GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani pulled ahead of Mitt Romney in Michigan polls. While Romney was expected to win his home state, many credit Rudy's laser like focus on 9-11 for his recent success. Commenting on the phenomena, a Giuliani spokesperson stated, "I give all the credit to the Mayor for the way he handles the 9-11 issue. A lot of people would shy away from turning a national tragedy in which many bravely lost their lives into their own personal comic book with themselves as the hero. But not Rudy. He wears it like a sandwich board. Let me tell you, one ounce of humility and Romney is kicking our ass."

This week, the Economic Policy Institute issued a report concluding that the workers most vulnerable to off shoring are those who hold four year degrees and that, according to BusinessWeek real wages for the young and college educated have declined 8% over the past three years. This analysis undercuts the popular bromide that more education is a solution to everyone's economic woes. Contacted for comment, Department of Labor Spokeswoman Elaine Cho noted, "Not good news. We always liked to say that if you were not successful, you were just lazy and stupid. Now we might have to look at the economy as a collective problem. Not really our specialty. We are more a 'every man for himself' type of party."

This week, the Catholic Church announced it was publishing a voting guide for Catholic voters. While the guide pays lip service to issues like poverty and war, it states that abortion is the preeminent defining political issue of our time. Asked why the Church puts so much emphasis on theoretical human life as opposed to actual human life, Archbishop P.D Restus commented, "We decided to get back to basics and put our focus on the single issue Jesus focused on in the gospels. A lot people think he talked about war or violence or the importance of compassion. Heck no. Read 'em. They are really all about abortion. Look at some one of the most famous quotes, 'Blessed be the aborted for they shall always be among us;' 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a woman who has an abortion;' 'Let he who is without abortion cast the first stone.;' Abort unto others as they have aborted unto you." Plain as the nose on your face...."

This week, Howard "Cookie" Krongard, The State Department's Inspector General, testified in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee regarding the reasons he was blocking a Department of Justice probe into the mercenary firm, Blackwater. Confronted with documentary evidence that his brother Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard (the former number three man at the CIA) sat on the board of Blackwater, Cookie repeatedly denied any such relationship existed. Only after calling his brother (who was at a Blackwater board meeting) during a break in the proceedings did Cookie `admit that Buzzy was in fact affilliated with Blackwater. Cookie than recused himself from overseeing the probe. Just another run of the mill story about corruption, but at least we got to use the words "Cookie" and "Buzzy." Who knew our government was so much like the Sopranos.

Let Me Explain It To You

Today the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial decrying what it sees as irrational "Bush hatred." This line is not new. Ever since about 2002, a large swath of pundits, talk radio jocks, and others have decried anyone critical of the President as vaguely delusional. As though they cannot comprehend how anyone could dislike this man. Let me explain why this President makes me very angry:

He birthed the idea of preemptive war, which essentially says one country can invade another even in the absence of an imminent threat. This flew in the face of longstanding religious and philosophical constraints on the use of force as well as te post war movement to minimize armed conflict. He then declared a preemptive war against a country which did not threaten us. The President and his administration knew Iraq posed no threat before they invaded yet systematically repeated falsehoods to the UN and the American people. As a result, at least 300,000 Iraqis are dead, 4500 US soldiers are dead and an entire generation of Middle Easterners will have to live their lives in chaos. The President is either very reckless or a liar.

When the coffins of our dead soldiers began to arrive home from Iraq, the President refused to publicly honor them . He did not want to be associated with coffins. He is a coward.

The President realizes his war is increasingly unpopular and expensive. He believes that if he were to ask the American people to pay for it outright, they would balk. So instead he has put somewhere between $800 billion and $1 trillion on the national credit card. The President is irresponsible.

While presiding over a US sponsored bloodbath in Iraq, refusing to expand health insurance to children and systematically gutting the social safety net the President has consistently blathered on about the "culture of life." He supports the death penalty and as Governor of Texas killed more inmates than all other governors combined. The President has gone to extremes in defense of the right to torture. This President's actions indicate that he does not care about the dignity of any one's life. He is poseur and a hypocrite.

This President has made being a Christian his personal calling card. He uses his supposed faith to divide us into believers and non believers. He implies that his supposed faith justifies his actions. I do not see anything even vaguely Christian about the President's disregard for the poor and disregard for human life. He is not a Christian and I do not understand how any one who calls themselves a Christian can support him. The President is a faker who either lacks the courage of his convictions or simply ignores those parts of Christian doctrine that do not fit his ambitions. The President is a man of false faith.

At a time when the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing, the President has put forth tax cuts that benefit only the top 1% of taxpayers and has proposed other positions -- such as the elimination of the Estate Tax - that benefit only the rich. The President is a class warrior for the privileged.

The President has consistently used his appointment powers to promote his allies even if they are incompetent and unqualified. "Brownie," "Fredo" and Harriet "Chief Justice" Miers are but the tip of the iceberg of people low in integrity but high on loyalty. The President has also allowed politically connected companies such as Blackwater and Halliburton to fatten their pockets off war and natural disaster. The President has used his power to reward his friends and has failed to safeguard our interests.

In the face of a challenge from radical Islam, the President has done everything in his power to turn us into the bullying, paranoid, and unprincipled country our enemies say that we are. The President has championed preemptive war, condoned torture, suspended habeuas corpus and conducted illegal wire taps. The message to the world has been that we are not who we say we are. The message to us is that the freedoms and principles this country hold dear are just trappings we can ignore when they are inconvenient. The President does not understand what makes America special. He will do what is easy instead of what is right.

From the Iraq war to global warming, people within the President's party and even within his Administration have given him counsel inconsistent with his policies. The President has either disregarded them, demoted them or fired them. The President is arrogant.

The President said he was a "uniter not a divider" yet he consistently uses hot button issues like gay marriage, abortion, and stem cell research to divide the country into red and blue. The President is divisive.

This President has claimed an unprecedented amount of Executive power and has openly shown his disdain for Congress, his co-equal branch of government, by stating that he is is not obligated to follow any law he thinks will interfere with his defense of the country. This country fought a long war to get out from under the idea of a unitary and supreme ruler. The President hoards power in defiance of our Constitution.

Please do not tell me about Bill Clinton. He had an assignation with an intern and lied about it. His crime was as pedestrian as it was dishonorable. I suspect all those involved have gotten over it. In contrast, this President's sundry misdeeds are international and deadly in scope. Their effects are marked in body bags not embarrassment.

And please do not tell me the President was misled by people close to him. There is simply no truth to that assertion. Too many people and too many documents have shown tha the President was informed that his case for war was, at best, flawed and at worst, a fabrication. Even if there were, he is, after all, the President of the United States. A man with his power and resources has little excuse for getting it wrong.

Kids These Days...

Last night, "60 Minutes" ran a piece about the new crop of college graduates entering the workforce. Dubbed the "Millenium Generation" Morely Safer would have us believe they are a spoiled, self indulgent, immature and irresponsible lot. According to the segment, the Millenials hop from job to job throughout their twenties, live with their parents for inordinate amounts of time, prioritize friends and family over work (gasp) and are just generally insufferable.

Listen, I am as guilty as anyone of condescending to the generations below me, but this was a little silly. 60 Minutes failed to examine the material conditions of our society and instead simply assumed the moralistic tone that usually accompanies Abraham Simpson's discussions of his childhood. Had 60 Minutes bothered to get over its Greatest Generation self for just a minute they might have noted the following:

Job hopping is not really a personal choice anymore. Our "independent contractor" economy offers very few positions like the entry level jobs that previous generations enjoyed. Those jobs have been outsourced or placed in the hands of temps. Careers just don't work like they used to. We all get downsized, defunded, or made redundant on a regular basis.

Still living with mom and dad? That could be related to your own internal psychological issues, it could be because you are not as rough and tumble as Morely Safer and his generation, or it could be that the cost of housing has outpaced inflation for a decade, rents have skyrocketed and college graduates today enter the working world already saddled with significant student debt. Combine that with the economic factors I just discussed and I think you can see why it takes the Millenials longer to get on their feet.

Morely's last criticism of the Millenials is that they expect the world without having to pay their dues and they need all sorts of touch feely motivation. Please. As someone who lives and works among Baby Boomers -- the folks who institutionalized the motivational speaker and who invented the New Age and Self Esteem -- this is just the pot calling the kettle black. As to the work life balance the Millenials seek, we all saw the tragic consequences of the Boomers' unbridled ambition. They made Gordon Gekko cool, brought us the 60 hour work week, replaced parents with nannies, and added a level of ossifying ambition to corporate America that makes the previous generation blanch. I cannot blame the Millenials for not wanting any part of that and, frankly, I think America would be better if we were all a little less careerist. Moreover, we also saw what happened to the Company Man of the 50s and 60s. He was downsized, offered a package, or just outright walked Spanish out the door with a little bankers box of his belongings to mark his career. The Millenials have detected that the loyalty most employers want is pretty much one way.

There is no doubt that the Millenial Generation will suffer a longer adolescence than its predecessors. This is not because they lack character, it is because we have made conscious choices over the last twenty years to eliminate many of the handholds people used to climb into the adult world of the middle class.

This Week In The News

This week, congressional Democrats called for the resignation of Nancy Nord, the head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Nord, (who came from the US Chamber of Commerce) has consistently advocated for less regualtion of consumer goods, "voluntary" standards for industry, and a smaller manadate for her own agency. Recently the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have broken news of the lavish junkets Nord partipated in, all funded by the industries she supposedly oversees. This adds the CPSC to the long list of governmental agencies tainted by pro industry corruption or simply spreading misinformation: The Department of the Interior (oil leases, censoring information on global warming), State (Blackwater, Halliburton, torture), NASA (censoring information on global warming) Health and Human Servies (pro abstinence propanada) FEMA (Halliburton, making up its own press conference, New Orleans generally), the CIA (getting Iraq intelligence wrong or falsifying that intelligence). Asked if she felt the Administration had remained true to its goal of restoring "honor" to the Oval Office, Press Secretary Dana Perino responded, " Oh god yes. I mean first, people in the West Wing pray a lot. Ask anybody. Second, our files clearly indicate that not one employee of the Executive has had sex in the White House. Not one. Not ever. There was one incident involving Dick Cheney, but it turns out he was just recreating a scene from Hostel II...."


This week, Sen Hillary Clinton rolled out a comprehensive energy plan that included setting a mileage standard of 55 mpg to be met in the next twenty years and incentives for the production of hybrid vehicles. Immediately, the domestic auto industry attacked the plan stating that it would be far "too costly." According to Richard Wagoneer, President of GM, "Forcing our compnay to keep pace with its foreign rivals puts us at a tremendous disadvantage." Clintons plan was also attacked by the Republican National Commitee as an "unwarranted intrusion of the federal government into all areas of our lives" (real quote). According to RNC Chair Duncan Hunter, "The next thing you know, she will want the government monitoring the water we drink and the food we eat..."

This week, Rudi Giuliani went on the offensive against the various healthcare reforms proposed by his Democratic opponents. Rudi fired off that the survival rate for prostate cancer in Great Britain is half that of the United States. Seems Rudi was wrong and relying on some old statistics from a right wing think tank. His claim elicited a bit of press and a letter from the British National Health Service. Undeterred in his quest to smear anything even vaguely resembling socialized medicine, Giuliani continued his campaign and offered the following tidbits of information, "What they don't tell you about socialized medicine is that there are no doctors. Most exams and procedures are performed by people that failed out of technical schools and prison inmates. They also don't sterilize instruments, they just wipe them on their pants on pray for the best. Also, if socialized medicine is so good, how come Europeans weigh so much less than us and have bad teeth? Is that what the Democrats want? Pasty toothless citizens that have to limp through life and lisp when they talk? I think it is. That is what the Democrats and Osama Bin Laden both want. 9/11 and out."

This week the House Foreign Affairs Commitee questioned Yahoo's Chief Executive Jeffery Yang. In 2004 Yahoo cooperated with the Chinese government's investigation of a Chinese journalist who it later imprisoned for spreading a pro democracy message. Yahoo turned over evidence from the journalist's e-mail account and then later falsely testified to Congress about the matter. Asked why Yahoo cooperated with the repressive tactics of the Chinese government, Yang first conferred with his General Counsel and then said, "I'm guessing that a craven quest for maximum profits is not the answer you are looking for...."

This week, the House will vote on the so called Peru Free Trade Agreement which extends NAFTA style free trade to Latin America. The bill has been roundly criticized as lacking in labor protections, consumer safety provisions, and continuing the "race to the bottom" begun by similar free trade pacts. Despite these shortcomings, the bill is exepected to sail through the Democratic House and Senate. Asked why a party that claims the working class as its constituency would support a bill that only benefits foreign investors, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated, "You are forgetting someone. Consumers. And we are the party of consumers. Bills like these clear the way for $5 t -shirts at the Gap, $4.99 towels at Target and hi definition TV for less than $1000. I mean people carp about low wages and health care and outsourcing, but give them some toys and they they are happy. Buying is the new caring. "

Quote of the Week:

"You appear to have consistent principled integrity. Americans don't usually go for that." (Jon Stewart interviewing GOP Presidential candidate Rep.Ron Paul (R. Tex))

Giuliani Is a Big Fat Liar

On the campaign trail, Rudy Giuliani is letting go a whopper. He is stating that the survival rate in Britain for prostate cancer (which he had) is only 44%, or half what it is here. Seems that this is simply not true. Giuliani got his figures from the right wing Manhattan Institute, which offes no basis for them. The actual figures from the British government show almost identical survival rates.

Rudy is just playing the scare tactic regarding any reform of the health system. The GOP has been doing this for years which is why we have the worst health care system in the developed world. (Remember that sweet elderly couple that scared out us out of reform in 1995?) How many times will we fall for the trope that any humane reform of the health care system will turn us into Kruschev era Russia?

Also, why is Rudy's big fat lie not a bigger story? Why hasn't this been another $400 haircut? Credit to Paul Krugman for breaking the whole story in the NYT, but where the hell is the rest of the media?

This Week In The News

This weekend, newspapers around the country ran stories about the looming water shortage in teh United States. According to a widely circulated article, 38 states will confront severe water shortages in the next fifteen years. The article noted that many states are enacting new conservation programs, investing in desalinization, controlling sprawl, and funding "deep well drilling." TWN ventured to the White House to see how they would confront this imminent crisis. For his part, the President stated"severe drought is natural and not man made. Why one thousand years ago people had to live on their own saliva and the urine of farm animals. Besides, before we get all panicky, there may be a water shortage, but I don't notice any shortage of soda pop or bottled tea. I think we will be fine." Dana Perino, the Administration's Communications Director noted, "The so called water shortage is just another liberal myth. It is part of the left's radical water-for-everyone-strategy. These are the people who would sacrifice our sprawling subdivisions just so everyone can drink from a tap." Dick Cheney, speaking from an undisclosed location added, "Obviously the solution is to transfer all our water rights to Halliburton and allow them to sell the water back to us. There is nothing here a no bid contract can't solve."

This week, the Washington Post got hold of a numerous confidential memos that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumseld sent to his staff during the early years of the Iraq war. Termed "snowflakes" the memos would often fly out of Rumsfeld's office a the rate of several a day. One urges the Department of Defense to "Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists," Another suggests that aides test the term "global insurgency" as a moniker for the War on Terror and "keep elevating the threat" in the face of media criticism. (real quotes). Asked if the memos did not portray a paranoid view of the world and a desire to instill public panic, a retired Rumsfeld responded, "Sweet saints and the harps they play ... no!. Was Rumsfeld aware that he was one of the few men willing to defend this country against an overwhelming force? Yes. Did Rumsfeld have to shake the public's confidence in so called facts that proved Rumsfeld wrong? Yes. Does Rumsfeld sleep in a quilt of testosterone replacement patches which may affect his cognitive abilities? Of course."

This week, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) released a report concluding that federal employees who publicly expose wrongdoing in the federal government have very litte legal protection. According to the study of 3600 whistleblower cases, most whistleblowers were left to the mercy of presidential appointees who either terminated or demoted them. Lawsuits filed by whistleblowers were successful in only 3% of cases. While Congress has attempted to expand the legal protections for whistleblowers, the President has promised to veto any such legislation in the name of national security. Speaking on behalf of the President, Dana Perino stated, "Whether it was no bid contracts or global warming, this Administration has been stung time and time again when our misdeeds, I mean actions, have been revealed to the outside world by some civil service schmuck with a triple digit pay grade. The American people should not have the will of their elected officials hampered by these smarmy do gooders."

This week, venerable picker Bruce Springsteen kicked off a tour supporting his latest album "Magic." Among the tracks on the disc is one titled "Who Will Be the Last to Die For a Mistake" (an homage to John Kerry's 1973 Senate testimony). Concerned that this obvious swipe at the Iraq War would gain traction, the Pentagon quickly answered New Jersey's favorite son: "While we cannot give you the name of the last soldier to die in Iraq, we can provide some pretty good demographic information. "He -- and it will likely be a he -- will be a white male aged 19. He will hail from the South and likely come from a home at or below the median income for the county in which he lived. He will have a high school education with slightly above average grades. While he will have no definable political persuasion, he will identify with patriotic themes and want to make his parents proud. He will have a girlfriend who likes him much more than she lets on as well as a family who love him very much and remember when he got his first baseball mitt. His friends will report that he could do great impressions of their teachers. He will die by contact with an improvised explosive device or by beings shot by one of our so called allies. Our research indicates he was likely thinking of the lake near his home when it happened. Out of respect for his sacrifice, the President will not attend his funeral, nor will he allow pictures to be taken of his coffin."