Can't....Reprogram....Old....Brain....

President Makes It Clear: Phrase Is 'War on Terror'

GRAPEVINE, Tex., Aug. 3 - President Bush publicly overruled some of his top advisers on Wednesday in a debate about what to call the conflict with Islamic extremists, saying, "Make no mistake about it, we are at war."

In a speech here, Mr. Bush used the phrase "war on terror" no less than five times. Not once did he refer to the "global struggle against violent extremism," the wording consciously adopted by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other officials in recent weeks after internal deliberations about the best way to communicate how the United States views the challenge it is facing.

In recent public appearances, Mr. Rumsfeld and senior military officers have avoided formulations using the word "war," and some of Mr. Bush's top advisers have suggested that the administration wanted to jettison what had been its semiofficial wording of choice, "the global war on terror."

The Times characterizes this as Commander Codpiece overrulling his underlings, but I doubt that. I think Bush gets an phrase that covers a topic in his head, and repeats it every time the topic is raised. Repeat after me: freedom, lessons of 9/11, after 9/11, we had to look at the world differently, I believe in a culture of life, Saddam Hussein was a grave threat, the world is better off without him in power, I recognize that taking Saddam Hussein out was unpopular, I made the decision because I thought it was in the right interests of our security, if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist, we've got a great country, I love our values, the best way to defend America is to stay on the offense, we got to be right 100 percent of the time here at home, and they got to be right once, I am not going to shortchange our troops in harm's way, I'm not going to run up taxes, which will cost this economy jobs.

The Chimp knows his lines, and he's sticking to 'em! (Most of these phrases are taken from the second Presidential Debate last October.)

Hackett Loses, to County with a "Technical Malfunction"

I will always be suspicious of close races in Ohio and Florida. Billmon has the inside scoop on Schmidt's late win:

Too Close for Comfort

If you followed the returns last night, you may have noticed that one county in the district -- Clermont -- was extremely late in reporting part of its returns. Clermont is the second largest pool of votes in the district and provided roughly a quarter of all ballots cast yesterday. It's also a GOP stronghold (in a GOP stronghold district) and Jean Schmidt's home turf.

That being the case, it's not a big surprise Schmidt did well there, carrying the county with 58% of the two-party vote -- less than what a GOP candidate can usually expect, but enough to give her nearly a 5,000 vote margin in Clermont, and thus the election.

At about 9:00 PM ET last night, however, things didn't look nearly as good for Ms. Schmidt. In fact, her name looked more like Schmud. With 88% of the district's precincts reporting, including more than half of Clermont's, the count was almost evenly split -- with Schmidt holding a lead of less than 900 votes.

At that point, though, the Clermont election bureau experienced a "technical malfunction" with its optical scan readers:

The Board of Elections in Clermont County, east of Cincinnati, says it's optical scanners haven't counted all the ballots yet because it was so hot -- and humid -- Tuesday.

Board member Tim Rudd says the ballots pick up moisture when it gets hot, making it tougher for the optical scan machines to sort and count.

According to some reports I've seen -- but haven't been able to confirm -- at least part of the count in Clermont's final 91 precincts ended up being done by hand.

In any case, when the humidity had cleared, so to speak, Schmidt had picked up another 9,451 votes, compared to just 6,300 or so for Hackett -- an edge which, interestingly enough, almost equaled her winning margin for the district as a whole.

Very convenient, no? Or, as one local reporter put it:

Schmidt led by less than 1 percent with 88 percent of the precincts in. But she must have felt secure in knowing that the only uncounted precincts were in Clermont County, her home.

Indeed. But was there anything, well, Floridian, about this particular source of comfort? Beats me. Hackett apparently doesn't think so. He conceded before midnight. But some others who watched the count much more closely than I did found it all a bit odd:

Out if 91 precincts [in Clermont], about 12% of the [district] total, the margin went from 0.89% to 3.49%. In other words it almost quadrupled . .

I was projecting that, extrapolating from the first 100 precincts, the last 91 would have about 10,000 votes. In fact, the final tally has them giving out 50% more than that...over 15,000 votes.

Also, while Schmidt's margin in the first 100 [precincts] was about 56% to 44%, the margin is much, much wider in the last 91 -- 60% to 40%.

Also, this puts the overall total well out of range of any recount margin.

Curioser and curiouser. I wouldn't dwell on it so much, if not for the fact that Clermont has already shown a impressive knack for pulling Republican electoral bacon out of the fire, as I noted last week:

The ability of the Rovians to pull fresh GOP votes out of [Warren and Clermont] counties certainly challenged plausibility, and, in Clermont's case, almost defied mathematics. Consider the fact that according to the Census Bureau, Clermont's population rose only 4.4% (about 7,800 souls) between 2000 and 2003, while reported GOP turnout increased by roughly 31% (about 14,600 votes) from 2000 to 2004. This in a county that only had about 122,000 registered voters last year, according to the Cincinatti Enquirer.

Others have highlighted some equally interesting data points from last year's election in Clermont:

Three counties in southwestern Ohio – Butler, Clermont and Warren – provided Bush with a combined plurality greater than his statewide margin of victory. These results, when examined at the precinct level, are almost impossible to explain . . . In Clermont County there were 24 such precincts where Kerry received fewer votes than Gore. In Warren County there were six entire townships where voter registration increased by 28% to 79%. In all three counties, Kerry received fewer votes than Ellen Connally, a little-known, underfunded African-American municipal judge from Cleveland, running for Chief Justice. There must have been at least 13,500 voters who supported both Connally and Bush, or else the certified results are fraudulent. In these three counties, and in Delaware County as well, Bush received more votes than Issue One, the constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. There must have been at least 10,500 supporters of gay marriage who voted for Bush, or else the certified results are fraudulent.

Of course, none of this proves, or even makes a circumstantial case, that yesterday's election was stolen. Maybe the inhabitants of Clerrmont County really are just unusually witless in their devotion to the GOP cause. I live in a Republican machine county myself, so I know how that goes.

But it's still rather remarkable how often the lightning seems to strike in Clermont -- and at the just the right time, producing just the right amount of votes for an otherwise endangered GOP candidate. Like I said, I'd feel a lot better about it if the party stalwarts who run the county's elections were describing the inner workings of the system to a grand jury -- under oath.

History Lesson from Professor Juan Cole

Fisking the "War on Terror"

Which begins:

Once upon a time, a dangerous radical gained control of the US Republican Party.

Hint: He is not George W. Bush, but I cried when he was elected and re-elected, too.

Prof. Cole traces the history of Al Qaida and radical Muslims, the demon spawn created by the Republican Party. A must read.


What is "Fisking", you ask? I didn't know either, so I went to the Wikipedia:

Fisking

Fisking, or to Fisk, refers to the act of critiquing, often in minute detail, an article, essay, argument, etc. with the intent of challenging its conclusion or theses by highlighting logical fallacies and incorrect facts.

Noontime Update: This post formerly contained an amusing typo, "radical Muslins", which has been corrected. Quilters beware.

Ban Rafi

He used the same steroid Ben Johnson used in 1988, and we're supposed to believe it was an accident? Ban the cheater and all his cheating friends.

Popular Steroid Is at the Center of Palmeiro's Case

The positive drug test that has left Rafael Palmeiro's legacy in doubt involved the potent anabolic steroid stanozolol, a person in baseball with direct knowledge of the sport's drug-testing program said yesterday.

Stanozolol, known by its brand name, Winstrol, was most notably linked to the Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson of Canada, who was stripped of a gold medal in 1988 after testing positive for that steroid.

Stupidity and Steroids Come in Many Forms

Listening to Palmeiro, one could have got the impression that he had unwittingly used something, maybe given to him by another player, that turned out to be laced with a steroid. But yesterday two people in baseball with knowledge of the testing program questioned that impression.

The steroid Palmeiro was found to have in his system was, one of them said, a heavy-duty steroid, a substance often injected, not ingested. It has one of those strange steroid names: stanozolol. It is No. 24 on the list of anabolic androgenic steroids, covered by Schedule III of the Code of Federal Regulations, that appears on Page 160 of the collective bargaining agreement.

George Vecsey:
Orioles' Palmeiro Has Thrown Away His Credibility. Period.

WITH his Wayne Newton mustache and his expensive suit, Rafael Palmeiro oozed sincerity, under oath. He claimed he wanted to distance himself from the accusations of Jose Canseco, sitting right there, who had written that Palmeiro had used steroids when they were teammates in Texas in 1992 and '93.

"I have never used steroids. Period," Palmeiro testified March 17, in front of Congress. "I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never."

Now a new word has crept, and I do mean crept, into Palmeiro's vocabulary. The word is "intentionally." Because Rafael Palmeiro, with his 3,018 hits and 569 home runs, has tested positive for steroids and must sit out a 10-day suspension that sounds more like lifetime suspicion.

**********

Good grief. Given the current suspension, the brazen Canseco now comes off as the most forthright of that sorry lot.

Palmeiro wants us to believe he has no idea how the foreign substance got into his system. But something good will come out of this, he insisted yesterday. From this shameful day onward, Rafael Palmeiro is volunteering to be an object lesson to children.

"You have to be careful what you're taking," he said, adding that children had to be careful about accepting "supplements" and "vitamins."

Of course they must. Children must also be careful not to stuff beans up their noses or stick their tongues against frozen playground poles in winter. But they probably already know that. Only a ballplayer with 20 years in the major leagues is dumb enough to swallow a bunch of stuff without getting it cleared by a doctor or a pharmacist.

Tom Boswell: A Big Star Plays A Bad Hand

[I]n one of the most unexpected announcements ever made in baseball, Palmeiro has been caught, suspended and has actually admitted to using steroids this season. Palmeiro simply claims that he has no idea how they got in his body.

Abducted by aliens? Sat too close to Canseco at the hearing? Got a package in the mail that was intended for Jason Giambi?

**********

Palmeiro and his agent, as well as the Orioles, repeated many times that they could not go into details about Palmeiro's steroid blunder because of some "confidentiality" issues. "I would love to tell what happened to me so that everyone would understand," said Palmeiro, "but under this confidentiality agreement, I cannot get specific."

Unfortunately, what we may have here is a Stupidity Test. As in: How stupid are we? Whose "confidentiality" is being protected? Palmeiro's, of course. If he wanted to explain more, who could stop him from defending his good name? The union and baseball have a confidentiality agreement that prevents them from releasing information. But that doesn't put masking tape over the player's mouth. If Palmeiro had a compelling story, who could force him to stay silent?

Frogmarch Update

Frogmarching continues, albeit slowly.

Rove Very Much Still the Focus of Fitzgerald

From ABC’s The Note this morning:

Based on ABC News sources (and our own video camera) it appears that at least two witnesses testified before the grand jury last Friday, both close associates of Karl Rove.

ABC News has learned that one was Susan Ralston, Rove’s long-time right hand. The other, per ABC News’ Jake Tapper, was Israel “Izzy” Hernandez, Rove’s former left hand (and now a top Commerce Department official). It isn’t clear if either had been asked to testify before last week.

This seems to call for some Chinese restaurant fortune cookie fortune: When the left and the right hand are called, the body will soon be frogmarched.

Frank Robinson: "It's Like (Steroid Cheaters) Didn't Play"

Palmeiro Is Twisting Slowly in the Wind

In an interview on July 8 for "Costas Now" on HBO, Bob Costas asked Washington Manager Frank Robinson, who hit 586 home runs, how he feels about being passed on the career list.

Sammy Sosa passed Robinson last Wednesday. The only active player close to Robinson is Palmeiro, who is 17 home runs from tying him.

If they eclipsed him by cheating with steroids, Costas asked, should they be kept out of the Hall of Fame. "Wipe it out," Robinson said. "That's the way I feel about it. No numbers. It's like they didn't play."

Cheating is cheating. Throw 'em and their records out, like Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. How can it be a record if you got it by cheating?

N.b., I originally entitled this post "Frank Robinson on Steroids" but changed it when the libelous aspect of that statement occurred to me! Frank Robinson, MVP in both leagues, is a class act.

Paul Hackett

Today Ohio is holding a special election to fill the congressional seat of Rob Portman, Republican who was named U.S. trade representative by President Bush. Hackett, the Democrat, is an Iraq war veteran who is against the war and has criticized President Bush. Schmidt, the Republican, is president of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati and while she reputedly has a steel trap memory for names and faces, can't seem to remember testifying before Tom Noe, the guy at the center of Ohio's Coingate scandal.

Swing State Project has been organizing the netroots. This is a heavily Republican district (Portman won his last election with 70% of the vote) so a win by Hackett would be big.

The race will be close, so hope that Diebold doesn't throw it to Schmidt.

Rafi Was Lying, Too

Today MLB suspended Rafael Palmeiro, the newest member of the 3000 hit club, for violating the league's steroid policy.

You may remember that Palmeiro testified before Congress in March. He pointed his finger at the Congressional subcommittee and said he NEVER did steroids.

Liar.

I believe I called this at the time:

Jose Canseco is an idiot, but he's the only honest player on this panel.

Oh, and President Dumbass believes him: Bush on Palmeiro: 'I believe him'

If baseball had any cojones, all these juicers would be banned from the Hall of Fame, and Roger Maris would be inducted. Pete Rose too.

Dave Rossi is Right On

When I was a kid we got the Binghamton Press thrown on our porch by the newspaper boy every afternoon. It was a crappy newspaper, usually only 8 full pages long plus grocery inserts. But it had one redeeming value: Dave Rossi, a liberal columnist with a pointed wit.

He's still at it! I got my daily email from commondreams.org today, and lo and behold, there was an article by David Rossi:


Published on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 by the Press & Sun-Bulletin (NY)
Court Nominee Lets Rove Hide in Back Pages

Barring disclosure that he is a closet transvestite with a penchant for setting fire to nursing homes, John Roberts appears certain to be confirmed as an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. But even if he should fail, he will still have performed yeoman service for the Cheney/Bush administration.

By agreeing to have his name put forward to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the high court, Roberts enabled the embattled Karl Rove to escape from our television news programs and the front pages -- and inside pages for that matter -- of our daily newspapers.

**********

Bush could no more fire the loathsome Rove than a blind man could fire his seeing eye dog.

**********

Last Friday, The New York Times, which has addressed this issue with all the enthusiasm of a man attempting to defuse a bomb, returned to its coverage, which has consisted mainly of rambling interviews with anonymous sources bent on portraying Rove and his accomplices as sympathetically as possible. The Times' reporters appear to have access to several leakers of grand jury information, all of them, not surprisingly, eager to portray Rove as favorably as possible. And in what may be a late addition to The Times' stylebook, any sentence that contains a reference to Wilson, his wife and Rove must contain the notation that Rove didn't mention Wilson's wife by name in outing her.

Of course, Wilson had only one wife working at the CIA as far as we know, but every little bit helps when you're trying to stay on the good side of this administration, as The Times has labored mightily, not to mention slavishly, to do.

A closet transvestite with a penchant for setting fire to nursing homes. I'll never be able to think of Roberts any other way.

Scotland Yard Lies

Brazilian Did Not Wear Bulky Jacket
Relatives Say Met Admits That, Contrary to Reports, Electrician Did Not Leap Tube Station Barrier

Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, Vivien Figueiredo, 22, said that the first reports of how her 27-year-old cousin had come to be killed in mistake for a suicide bomber on Friday at Stockwell tube station were wrong.

"He used a travel card," she said. "He had no bulky jacket, he was wearing a jeans jacket. But even if he was wearing a bulky jacket that wouldn't be an excuse to kill him."

Flanked by the de Menezes family's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, and by Bianca Jagger, the anti-Iraq war campaigner, she condemned the shoot-to-kill policy which had led to her cousin's death and vowed that what she called the "crime" would not go unpunished.

**********

Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder at 10am last Friday after being followed from Tulse Hill. Scotland Yard initially claimed he wore a bulky jacket and jumped the barrier when police identified themselves and ordered him to stop. The same day the Met commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, said the shooting was "directly linked" to the unprecedented anti-terror operation on London's streets.

This is sad. "Shoot to Kill" cannot be the rule of engagement in a civilized society, or we are no longer free.

SCOTUS Nomination is Payback for Florida 2000

Roberts had larger 2000 recount role
The role of U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in the 2000 election aftermath in Florida was larger than has been reported. Roberts helped prepare the Supreme Court case.

TALLAHASSEE - U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts played a broader behind-the-scenes role for the Republican camp in the aftermath of the 2000 election than previously reported -- as legal consultant, lawsuit editor and prep coach for arguments before the nation's highest court, according to the man who drafted him for the job.

Ted Cruz, a domestic policy advisor for President Bush and who is now Texas' solicitor general, said Roberts was one of the first names he thought of while he and another attorney drafted the Republican legal dream team of litigation ''lions'' and ''800-pound gorillas,'' which ultimately consisted of 400 attorneys in Florida.

Until now, Gov. Jeb Bush and others involved in the election dispute could recall almost nothing of Roberts' role, except for a half-hour meeting the governor had with Roberts. Cruz said Roberts was in Tallahassee helping the Bush camp for ''a week to 10 days,'' and that his help was important, though Cruz said it is difficult to remember specifics five years after the sleep-depriving frenetic pace of the 2000 recount.

Steal me the Presidency, win a prize! I still will give anyone who can produce a picture of John Bolton & John Roberts together in Florida a handsome reward. Except for the poor grooming and bad mustache, they're the same guy. Right Wing Nutjobs 'R Us.

Even Howie Kurtz sez: SCOTUS Nominee is Hard Right

A great post on dailykos.

The Failure of the Media

The Media's failure in the runup to the Iraq Debacle is well documented. DSM, "mushroom clouds," Plame, et al. make this abundantly clear.

History repeats itself, now on the Roberts nomination, as Howard Kurtz observes:

As you plow through the blizzard of memos he wrote as a government lawyer, you get the sense of a man who is more conservative, more combative and more sarcastic than he has been portrayed in these walk-on-water profiles. It's no surprise that this Harvard man clerked and lawyered his way to a Supreme Court nomination.

You will, by the way, hear almost none of this on TV. Understanding the memos requires walking through the background and legal context of each controversy at the time, and television has no inclination to do that unless there's an inflammatory phrase that the pundits can argue about. (TV people keep talking about the battle over the documents while saying very little about what's in them.) It is, in short, a classic newspaper story.

Roberts is quite familiar with bureaucratic dodges and the art of Washington insincerity, the documents suggest.

Kurtz misses something though, the utter failure of the New York Times, AGAIN. The Administration line is repeated practically verbatim in their Roberts coverage. A classic newspaper story this may be, but the New York Times has proven it is no longer a classic newspaper.

Maybe SCOTUS Nominee has a Nanny Problem?

White House To Withhold Nominee's Tax Returns
Document Release Excludes First Bush Administration

The Bush administration will not give Senate investigators access to the federal tax returns of Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., White House and congressional officials said yesterday, a break with precedent that could exacerbate a growing conflict over document disclosure in the confirmation process.

Although nominees to the high court in recent decades were required to provide their three most recent annual tax forms, the administration will neither collect such documents from Roberts nor share them with the Senate Judiciary Committee, the officials said. Instead, the Internal Revenue Service will produce a one-page summary.

The White House yesterday began releasing the first of 75,000 pages of documents stemming from Roberts's service as a lawyer in President Ronald Reagan's administration two decades ago but refused to release papers from his time as deputy solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993. These papers, Bush aides said, concern internal executive branch deliberations that remain privileged.

Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups immediately assailed the decision to withhold the more recent files, sharpening a dispute over the nominee's record.

Many a rich person has faltered at the Senate confirmation door for failing to pay Social Security taxes. I remember my public schoolteacher parents struggling with the SSA and IRS paperwork for the neighbor who cleaned our house once a week during the school year. They felt it was important that she get credit with the Social Security Administration for her work, so she would get the largest social security benefit possible. Now that's a family value. Caring about your neighbors and the people who work for you.

I have no idea why they're not releasing Roberts tax returns. Maybe they're thinking about their next nominee (Gonzales?) and some issue on his tax return. Just sounds fishy to me.

You heard it here first: It's a nanny.

SCOTUS Nominee Has "Cloaked His Views" for Decades

A good analysis from the Boston Globe. Perhaps the New York Times read this analysis, as their piece, earlier titled

"Roberts an early ally of judicial restraint"
and
"In early 1980s, Roberts urged judicial restraint"

is now entitled

Files From 80's Lay Out Stances of Bush Nominee

You'd be better off reading the Globe for analysis:

Roberts showed way to shift the debate
Nominee advised using broad terms

WASHINGTON -- As a young aide in the Reagan administration's Justice Department, John G. Roberts Jr., now a Supreme Court nominee, advised his conservative colleagues to cloak their views behind broadly acceptable terms such as ''judicial restraint," according to memos released yesterday.

In 1981, for example, when the Justice Department was prepping Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O'Connor for the same Senate confirmation questioning that Roberts will soon face, Roberts counseled her to avoid giving direct answers on legal issues facing the court.

''The approach was to avoid giving specific responses to any direct questions on legal issues likely to come before the Court, but demonstrating in the response a firm command of the subject area and awareness of the relevant precedents and arguments," Roberts wrote in one memo describing the mock questioning sessions he held with her.

In a February 1982 memo, Roberts urged Attorney General William French Smith to adopt a similar tactic in a speech before ''new right" conservative groups. The groups had criticized Smith's record for allegedly failing to appoint top officials and federal judges who were ''ideologically committed to the President's policies . . . with particular emphasis on the social agenda."

Although such attacks were sometimes ''completely unfounded," Roberts wrote, Smith should not defend the conservative credentials of Reagan's appointees because ''such an approach would open us up to criticism from the left and even the center."

Instead, Roberts wrote, Smith should focus on how Reagan's judicial nominees shared a philosophy of judicial restraint.

''I do not think we should respond with a 'yes they are [conservative]'; rather we should shift the debate," Roberts wrote. ''Judges do not implement policy in the true conservative view of things, and the hot issues of today will not be those of ten or fifteen years hence, when our judges will be confronted with new social issues. Our appointments process therefore looks beyond a laundry list of personal views to ascertain if the candidate has a proper appreciation of the judicial role."

Gonzales: Right Turn to SCOTUS?

When I saw this article, I thought "Is Gonzales trying to tell the wingnuts he would overturn Roe if they give him a SCOTUS seat?" Or is he just trying to keep the focus off Karl Rove, Traitor?

AG: High Court Not Bound by Roe V. Wade

WASHINGTON - The legal right to abortion is settled for lower courts, but the Supreme Court "is not obliged to follow" the Roe v. Wade precedent, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday as the Senate prepared to consider John Roberts' appointment that would put a new vote on the high court.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gonzales said a justice does not have to follow a previous ruling "if you believe it's wrong," a comment suggesting Roberts would not be bound by his past statement that the 1973 decision settled the issue.

SCOTUS Writes

Documents Show Roberts Influence In Reagan Era

Roberts presented a defense of bills in Congress that would have stripped the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over abortion, busing and school prayer cases; he argued for a narrow interpretation of Title IX, the landmark law that bars sex discrimination in intercollegiate athletic programs; and he even counseled his boss on how to tell the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow that the administration was cutting off federal funding for the Atlanta center that bears his name.

No wonder James Dobson likes him so much.

Will Judiciary Committee Democrats Make SCOTUS Nominee Answer the Question?

Roberts, Choice and Unity

A great post on dailykos.

Among the many questions that we have for any nominee that George Bush might put before us, there is one question, given the balance of the Supreme Court, and this President's stated positions on abortion, that is central:

Do you support the substantive consequence of Roe, upheld in Casey, guaranteeing that abortion be safe and legal in all fifty states?

Justice Ginsburg, in her nomination hearings was unequivocal on this:

[The right to an abortion] is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity. It's a decision that she must make for herself. And when government controls that decision for her, she's being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.

We should expect no less an affirmation from any nominee. Our question is not about Judge Roberts's technical views on Roe, or on Casey. Our question is not asking him to state how he might rule in any future case. In this, we need to be clear. We intend to ask Judge Roberts to state before the nation his support for the pragmatic consequence of Roe.

Mrs. SCOTUS Nominee Works for "Feminists for Life"

Anti-Abortion Advocacy of Wife of Court Nominee Draws Interest

WASHINGTON, July 22 - Judge John G. Roberts has left little hard evidence of his views on abortion in recent years and is widely expected to try to avoid the issue in his coming confirmation hearings.

But there is little mystery about the views of his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, a Roman Catholic lawyer from the Bronx whose pro bono work for Feminists for Life is drawing intense interest in the ideologically charged environment of a Supreme Court confirmation debate.

Some abortion opponents view her activities as a clear signal that the Robertses are committed to their cause; supporters of abortion rights fear the same thing. Others say that drawing a direct line from her activities to how her husband might rule on the Supreme Court - assuming that he not only shares her views, but would also act on them to overturn 32 years of legal precedents - is both politically risky and in bad form.

No less a Democratic stalwart than Senator Edward M. Kennedy said, at a breakfast meeting with reporters on Friday, that Mrs. Roberts's work "ought to be out of bounds."

Ah, my blustering old senator. This is foolish on Uncle Ted's part. Democrats should rule out no line of questioning until they find out where it leads. We can't afford to ignore the evidence that exists, paltry as it is, that points to Roberts' real views on Roe v. Wade.

Do you think they could let a real trial lawyer question Roberts? I could clear my calendar.

Spare the Big Fat Idiot

John Tierney is at it again, constructing the wingnut defense for when Rush Limbaugh goes to court for his drug crimes:

Handcuffs and Stethoscopes

Why are those mean police after poor Rush? After all, he needed the Oxycontin for his back pain/pilonidal cysts/football knee from high school. Hey, he probably needed it just to squeeze himself into the same house with his ego!

Another candidate for frogmarching.

Bush Taps White Man

So it's John Roberts for the SCOTUS job. James Dobson of Focus on the Family is happy, so we know he's baaaaaaaad. (Steve Gilliard calls Dobson "Focus on the Fuhrer", hehehe)

One Partisan Hack for Another tells us that Roberts worked for the RNC on the 2000 Florida recount (makes him a friend of John Bolton), was one of Ken Starr's deputies under HWBush, and was one of Reagan's White House counsels.

The New York Times, Scrutinizing John Roberts, says we don't know enough about the guy & the Senate must question him closely. Hah, good joke, as that's snowball in hell unlikely. Who on the Judiciary Committee will do the questioning? Those jamokes couldn't cross-examine a mynah bird that could only say yes.


And, obviously, the timing of the nomination is meant to take the heat off Traitor Karl Rove. Looks like Karl could be looking at his own Camp Cupcake as it appears he lied to FBI investigators when he was first interviewed:

An Unlikely Story
Karl Rove's alibi would be easier to believe if he hadn't hidden it from FBI investigators in 2003.

White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove’s first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.

Also leading to the early skepticism of Rove's accounts was the claim that although he first heard that Plame worked for the CIA from a journalist, he said could not recall the name of the journalist. Later, the sources said, Rove wavered even further, saying he was not sure at all where he first heard the information.

How many crimes does Traitor Karl have to commit for Commander Codpiece to fire him? Let's see, treason and lying to federal investigators seem serious enough to me.

Rove must go.

Too Hot To Blog

So I'll just offer some interesting links:

Wingnuttia predictions on SCOTUS nominee: The Hedgehog Report Supreme Court Nomination Challenge

The stupidest article ever written on Title IX: Women Athletes Don't Need Big Brother's Help

Chelsea has signed English wunderkind Shaun Wright Phillips for a 21 million euro transfer fee from Manchester City. He'll make his debut on US soil during Chelsea's US tour next week. Hopefully he'll play at Foxboro on Sunday!

The US's best field player, Damarcus Beasley, has begun to get his due: Beasley is a big-time performer: He's not held back by small stature

Iraq is even worse now for women: Iraq’s war on women

John Tierney writes a column in the NYTimes today supporting people in jail for prescription drug abuse: Punishing Pain Obviously, this is the opening salvo in the right wing war to defend Rush Limbaugh.

Stay cool.

Double Super Secret Background

Matt Cooper says "double super secret background" is his own private joking reference to what other journalists would call deep background.

For a real laugh, read Charlie Pierce:

Rove to the Rescue
He's from the government, and he's here to help.

Corporate Media Gets a Clue

Why the Leak Probe Matters

[Bush's]....leadership on Iraq has been a fiasco. He didn't plan for it: the early decisions that allowed the insurgency to get going were breathtakingly incompetent. He didn't pay for it: Bush is the first president in history to cut taxes during a war, this one now costing nearly $1 billion a week. And most important of all, he didn't tell the American people the truth about it: taking a nation to war is the most solemn duty of a president, and he'd better make certain there's no alternative and no doubt about the evidence.

**********

The GOP's spinners are making it seem that because Plame had a desk job in Langley at the time she was outed, she wasn't truly undercover. As Mahle says, that reflects a total ignorance about the way the CIA works. Being outed doesn't just waste millions of taxpayer dollars; it compromises hundreds of other people in the field you may have worked with in the past.

If Bush isn't a hypocrite on national security, he needs, at a minimum, to yank Rove's security clearance. "Whether you do it [discuss the identity of CIA operatives] intentionally or unintentionally, you have not met the requirements of that security clearance," Mahle told me.

The bigger question is what this scandal does to the CIA's ability to develop essential "humint" (human intelligence). Here's where the Iraq war comes in again. The sooner we beef up our intelligence, the sooner we crack the insurgency and get to bring our troops home. What does it say to the people doing the painstaking work of building those spy networks when the identity of one of their own becomes just another weapon in the partisan wars of Washington? For a smart guy, Karl Rove was awfully stupid.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Karl To Jail

From the left: Karl Rove's America (Paul Krugman, New York Times)

A summary of media coverage, yesterday:

Getting Worried at the White House (Dan Froomkin, Washington Post)

Someone leaked this story. Who do you think "the person who has been briefed on the story" is? Rove Reportedly Held Phone Talk on C.I.A. Officer

And, finally, what may be the worst news of all for Karl Rove: Toothy Norm Coleman of Minnesota has been assigned by the Republican National Committee to lead his defense. Coleman may lead defense of Rove

US, Costa Rica 0-0 tie

Went to the CONCACAF Gold Cup matches at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA last night with Coach Mom. We arrived early wearing our DaMarcus Beasley shirts & camped out in the parking lot for an hour of fanwatching. The sun was hot but it was not humid and only about 80 degrees. Thank heavens the game wasn't on Monday, when temps were in the high 90s. The salsa music was blasting and the smells of propane and grilling smoke wafted through the air. Definitely going to be a Costa-Rica dominated crowd. Ticos! Ticos! Ticos!

Our next-door car was from New Jersey. The chatty fan told us that neither Donovan nor Beasley would play (he was wrong on both counts). He was going to the World Cup qualifier v. Mexico in Columbus on September 3rd and we encouraged him to go the Soccer Hall of Fame on August 29th, when John Harkes, Tab Ramos and Marcelo Balboa will be inducted. We are going to all the Gold Cup games on the east coast except for the finals, which are on the same day as AC Milan-Chelsea at Foxboro. Our neighbor informed us that the Gold Cup game would be a much better game. Hah. Better than John Terry, Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Cafu, Paulo Maldini, Kaka, Christian Vieri? I don't think so.

The gates opened at 6:00 p.m. Security was a joke. I walked through the line for searching people with bags. A young security officer (female) looked into my binocular case and glanced at my unzipped purse, not touching either. I could have had a gun or a knife or just about anything. Surprising given this is just days after the London bomb attacks. The stadium had blocked off the stands behind the benches so the 15,000 or so fans were concentrated on one side. We walked up the ramp with a man carrying a heavy marching band style snare drum with metal posts to stand it up. We couldn't bring an umbrella, but this somewhat inebriated fan could have a drum. He sideswiped Coach Mom as we turned the corner & apologized. We watched another drunk fan, running backwards to take a picture of her friends, trip and fall, her digital camera breaking into pieces on the concrete.

Our seats were great, 25 rows up on the 18 yard line. Foxboro also has the silly "take away their soda bottle caps" rule, but at least Gillette, a modern stadium, has cupholders attached to the seat in front of each seat. (And I still have two caps in my purse from our last trip to Giants Stadium!)

The game was a lackluster affair. Keller was a rock in goal, and the defense was OK. Hedjuk played well until he got a silly yellow card late for diving, which means he will miss the quarterfinal game on Saturday. Jimmy Conrad, making his 3rd national team appearance, played very well at the back. He looked a little shaky on his first touch, but after that he made no major errors and won some nice balls in air. Sadly, Tony Sanneh has lost a step & I will be surprised to see him on the World Cup roster. Cherundolo is also a marginal player on the world stage. I see our World Cup back line as Hedjuk, Conrad, Gooch (Oguchi Onyewu), and Bocanegra. Here's my projected World Cup starting 11:

--------------------Keller-------------------

Conrad-----Gooch-----Bocanegra---------Hedjuk

----------------------Lewis-----------------

Donovan-------------------------------Beasley

-------------------O'Brien-------------------

---------------Johnson------McBride-----------

I'd give Spector a chance to crack the back line, but Arena doesn't seem to be giving him the chance to do so. Arena will probably play Reyna over Lewis, but I think Claudio's lack of pace will make him a liability. (Coach Mom would switch Donovan and O'Brien, but otherwise she is OK with my lineup.)

The offense couldn't finish. Not only couldn't we finish, no one wanted to shoot. Too many good offensive sequences ended with a pass that should have been a shot, a dribble into the corner, or just a giveaway. Our best offensive chance happened in the 2nd minute when John O'Brien backheeled the ball to Pat Noonan who smartly crossed the ball which Dempsey slotted in. Unfortunately Noonan was offsides and the US had little more offense until Arena put in Beasley, Donovan, and Wolff for the final 20 minutes.

The Costa Rica crowd was loud and boisterous. We cheered each US effort and apparently annoyed some CR's behind us, who began shouting "Beasley sucks" and "puta" (do you speak Spanish?). However, the CR fan sitting next to Mom was a nice man & they agreed on a few blown offsides calls by the line judge. We shook hands after the game.

U.S. Draws Costa Rica 0-0, Wins Gold Cup Group

Tie with Costa Rica goes to the U.S.
The United States wins Group B based on its plus-5 goal-differential and now moves to Saturday's quarterfinals.

CONCACAF Gold Cup Notebook: Dempsey continues to impress coach


The temps quickly dropped between games, and we were happy to have brought beach towels in case of rain. Perhaps 4000 fans stayed for the second game. A group of 12 Cubans stood at the rail below us, and about 8 Canadians were over in the Sam's Army seats. I joked about Cuba needing to win or this would be their last day to defect, then read this today:

Cuban soccer player hopes to defect to U.S.

Canada won 2-1 so both teams are likely eliminated. The US will play one of the third place teams. Which team they play will be decided when the hurricane-postponed final group games are played in Miami tonight. Saturday's games are Honduras-Panama at 1:00, US - TBA at 4:00, and the Revs v. FC Dallas at 7:00. If it's 95 degrees as predicted we may only go to the last two games. Have to save our energy for the semis!

Truth to Karl: Resign Now, Traitor

Digby sez:

He Should Resign

John Conyers sez:

Karl Rove Should Resign

The Democrats say:

Democrats Call for Rove to Come Clean or Resign

Karl Rove, you are a lying traitor. And this time you got caught with your mouth open and your pants down. Leaking the identity of a CIA agent who specialized in WMD for cheap political gain disqualifies you for access to the White House.

If I had a plane I'd be skywriting "Surrender Karl" over Rove's house, except he lives in Washington & the FAA would probably have me shot down.

Cell Phones

Cellphone Numbers Overtake Land Lines

This makes me feel old.

When I was a kid, we had one black rotary phone. We were on a party line, and I remember my parents talking about the neighbor who eavesdropped. You could tell if someone else was on the phone when you picked it up, and the polite thing to do was to hang up & try again. It was a big deal when we got regular phone service. At my grandma's house, she had one of those phone numbers like "BUtterfield 8" (BU is capitalized because it stood for the numbers 2 & 8). I can't remember what it was, though. Maybe this is a bit of family history I should research before it is lost in the mists of time.

Karl Rove (Surprise!) Was Matt Cooper's Source

Matt Cooper's Source
What Karl Rove told Time magazine's reporter

From page 2 of the online article:

NEWSWEEK obtained a copy of the e-mail that Cooper sent his bureau chief after speaking to Rove. (The e-mail was authenticated by a source intimately familiar with Time's editorial handling of the Wilson story, but who has asked not to be identified because of the magazine's corporate decision not to disclose its contents.) Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip." Wilson's wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA's Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger... "

So Rove both (1) outed Plame AND (2) flogged the administration's lie about Saddam Hussein looking for uranium from Niger.

Let the frogmarching begin.

Journalism is Dead, White House Presser Edition

Day 6: White House Press Corps Silent on Rove

The White House just released the transcript of today’s Gaggle.

For the fourth straight time since his lawyer admitted that Rove was one of Matt Cooper’s sources, no member of the White House press corps asked a question about Rove’s role. (And there are plenty of questions to ask.)

A major figure in the White House is deeply entangled in a major scandal. Why is the White House press corps ignoring the story?

Let's give the bought-and-paid-for corporate media a shout-out from blogtopia. Below is a list of White House correspondents compiled by the Washington Post, with links to their emails. Why aren't they doing their jobs and asking about Karl Rove, the traitor?

List of White House Correspondents

Monitoring the Left

Looks like Nixon's enemies list is back:

Be On Guard for Raging Grannies

...[A] California National Guard unit [] spent last Mother's Day keeping a spy-eye on protesters at the state Capitol — Raging Grannies, CodePink and a group whose members had relatives killed in Iraq. The San Jose Mercury News quoted an e-mail exchange between Guard officers three days before the protest:

"Sir, Information you wanted on Sunday's demonstration at the Capitol."

"Thanks. Forwarding same to our Intell. folks who continue to monitor."

**********

For the sake of argument, let's accept that the Guard was just monitoring the event via news coverage. That would mean two unlikely things: that the Guard — unlike a lot of people in government, starting with Arnold Schwarzenegger — believes what it reads in the paper or sees on TV. And two, that there's real information in video of old ladies waving peace placards. Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Stan Zezotarski told the Mercury News, "Who knows who could infiltrate that type of group and try to stir something up? After all, we live in the age of terrorism…." I must have missed the shot of the septuagenarian wearing the "I Am Really an Al Qaeda Grandma" button.

Another Guard spokesman, Lt. Col. Doug Hart, told me it's all a mix-up and that "intel" is just a gussied-up word meaning any information "We do not spy on people. We don't collect information on people or groups." The Guard was merely keeping a "scrapbook" of news events about itself doing duty at brush fires or Rep. Bob Matsui's funeral. Schwarzenegger's office had alerted the Guard because of protesters' demands that the Guard come home from Iraq. Now, Hart said, people are confusing the Guard's clipping service with its real terrorism intelligence unit at the California Justice Department.

**********

...I'd hate to think that the Guard — already spread thin on multiple tours in Iraq — would still muster manpower for a granny-watch.

Here's why we're twitchy. Federal agencies, from the early Cold War into the 1970s, collected dossiers on thousands of blameless Americans. I have the FBI files of a really suspicious character: former LAPD cop and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

Old Folks At Home

This program is so sensible I can't believe the government is involved:

Program pays families to house seniors

Massachusetts has begun paying family members to house and care for their frail older relatives in an effort to keep them out of nursing homes and save the state money.

The program pays $1,500 a month to caregivers to make it more feasible for family members to provide round-the-clock care to a senior who needs extensive help with everyday tasks, such as eating, bathing, dressing, and using the toilet. It has enrolled 21 seniors since beginning on a trial basis in March, and will expand this fall to as many as 80 low-income seniors or disabled people, funded by $2 million in the state budget signed into law last week.

The state's goal is to provide the housing and home care that seniors want while reducing admissions to expensive nursing homes. The state expects to spend $1.6 billion for nursing home care this year.

''It's offering people a more compassionate level of care provided by people they know they're comfortable with . . . at a cost about half that of a nursing home," said Representative Barbara L'Italien, an Andover Democrat who pressed for inclusion of the money in the budget. She and other officials expect the program will be expanded to serve many more in future years. Advocates say as many as 8,000 people could be eligible, depending on the criteria ultimately set by the state.

Malpractice Facts

Study Says Malpractice Payouts Aren't Rising

A study to be released today by the Center for Justice and Democracy, a consumer advocacy group in New York, may add fuel to that debate. The study, compiled from regulatory filings by insurers to state regulators, finds that net claims for medical malpractice paid by 15 leading insurance companies have remained flat over the last five years, while net premiums have surged 120 percent.

From 2000 to 2004, the increase in premiums collected by the leading 15 medical malpractice insurance companies was 21 times the increase in the claims they paid, according to the study. (The net totals in the study are calculated after accounting for reinsurance.)

Of the 15 companies examined, 9 are mutual insurers owned by their policyholders, 3 have publicly traded stock but are part of larger conglomerates and 3 are publicly traded and focus primarily on medical malpractice. The stock prices of those three companies have each risen more than 100 percent since May 2002.

"In recent years, medical malpractice hasn't been unprofitable but it's been phenomenally profitable," said Jay Angoff, the former state insurance commissioner of Missouri and a consultant on the study.

Dont' believe the hype. Trial lawyers aren't the problem. Juries aren't the problem.

INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE THE PROBLEM.

The Times They Are A Changin'

HOF honors girl, 11, who threw perfect game

COOPERSTOWN — An 11-year-old girl who pitched a perfect Little League baseball game in May was honored Thursday afternoon at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Katie Brownell of Oakfield, a town between Buffalo and Rochester, is the only girl in her town’s Little League.

She struck out every batter she faced in a six-inning game May 14.

**********

After Katie donated her jersey, the Hall presented a forum and introduced Maria Pepe, a groundbreaking Little League player, and Lance Van Auken, a spokesman for Little League, to the audience.

Pepe said that when she 11 in 1971, she signed up to play Little League baseball in Hoboken, N.J.

"I played three games, but there was a lot of controversy" because she was a girl, she said.

She was asked to turn in her uniform and did so reluctantly. Members of the National Organization for Women heard of her situation and called her parents, she said.

Eventually, NOW worked to bring her case before New Jersey’s Division of Civil Rights, and a state court ruled in her favor in 1974, opening the door for girls to play in Little League, she said.

By then, she was too old to play, "but my father told me to think of all the girls who would come after me," she said.

Van Auken said Little League now has about 400,000 girls playing and about 2.3 million boys.

My younger sister was the first girl in my town to play Little League baseball. I think it was 1973. She was really good. There were fans (parents of other players) who heckled her!

USA 4, Cuba 1

Watched the US's opening match of the CONCACAF Gold Cup last night. Damarcus Beasley & Landon Donovan pulled the US's chestnuts out of the fire after the US let itself go down 1-0 in the 18th minute.

I talked to Mom the Coach & described the US line up (lots of new guys, and a 3-5-2 formation). Coach sez: I like Bruce Arena but sometimes I don't understand his tactics. I never understood this starting out a season or a tournament with anything less than your best team on the field. You can take your foot off the gas once you have the season or the tournament in hand, but why not play your best players at the beginning? And why would you put a defensive formation with new guys who haven't played together too much and haven't played 3 at the back too often in a 3-5-2? Bruce, Bruce.

U.S. Soccer's report: U.S. MEN DOWN CUBA 4-1 IN OPENING MATCH OF 2005 CONCACAF GOLD CUP AT QWEST FIELD IN SEATTLE

Damarcus Beasley scored once & set up two and Landon Donovan who only played the final 25 minutes scored twice. Clint Dempsey (of the Revs) started out the scoring but missed several open shots. The game was remarkable for the return of John O'Brien, who hasn't played for the national team in over two years.

Can't wait to see 'em at Foxboro next week. Please, please, Bruce, give us the "A" lineup!

She Can't Drive A Car Yet

But she can sure drive a golf ball!

At 15, Wie Is in Line to Make Men's Cut

The 15-year-old Wie fired a one-under-par 70 in the first round of the John Deere Classic and put herself in a good position to become the first woman to make a PGA Tour cut since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945, at the Tucson Open.

Do you think Michelle Wie knows who Babe Didrickson Zaharias was? Sports Illustrated named her the #2 Female Athlete of all time, and much as I love Jackie Joyner Kersee I would have put "The Babe" #1. Think if she had been around today: An Olympic gold medalist (javelin, hurdles, high jump); a softball player who hit so well they called her "Babe", after Babe Ruth; then a Hall of Famer on the LPGA.

Michelle Wie may break the Babe's golf records, but Babe's all-sport prowess will remain unchallenged.

A Steaming Pile of Crap

Iraq, London & America's Homeland Insecurity

A good analysis from Sirotablog. Connecting the dots: An illegal war based on a lie(WMD) is now supposedly the war that will keep us safe on our streets at home, taking the fight to foreign soil rather than ours. This latest lie (1) insults our troops, who are apparently decoys for the war on terror in Iraq, and (2) makes us less safe, since to pay for the based-on-lies-war we SHORTCHANGE SPENDING ON ACTUAL SECURITY WITHIN our borders.

Before reading this piece I did not realize that our brilliant Congress recently voted to gut funding for transit security, reducing it by 1/3, from $150 million to $100 million. Like, terrorists would never think of bombing subways or buses in the United States.

His concluding grafs:

And that's why today's tragic bombing frighteningly highlights just how misguided our entire national security strategy really is. First our government lied to us about why we were going to war in the first place. Then, when that dishonesty was exposed, we got fed another steaming pile of crap about how the war in Iraq was protecting us from terrorists because it was diverting terrorists' attention.

It is now painfully clear that those rationales were not designed to level with the American people – they were designed with one thing in mind: scaring us into supporting what should have been an unsupportable war, at the very time when we should have been focused on and scared about a far more serious challenge: securing the homeland after the worst terrorist attack in American history.

Judy, Judy, Judy

Why this journalist thinks that Judy Miller should go to jail

[] Judy Miller's actions in recent years -- a pattern that includes this case -- have been the very antithesis of what we think journalism is and should be all about. Ultimately, the heart and soul of real journalism is not so much protecting "sources" at any cost. It is, rather, living up to the 19th Century maxim set forth by Peter Finley Dunne, that journalists should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

That is why the ability of reporters to keep the identity of their true sources confidential is protected by shield laws in 31 states and the District of Columbia (although not in federal courts). Without such protections, the government official would not be able to report the wrongdoing of a president (remember "Deep Throat," the ultimate confidential source?), nor would the corporate executive feel free to rat out a crooked CEO. The comfortable and corrupt could not be afflicted.

But the Times' Judy Miller has not been afflicting the comfortable. She has been protecting them, advancing their objectives, and helping them to mislead a now very afflicted American public. In fact, thinking again about Watergate and Deep Throat is a good way to understand why Judy Miller should not be protected today. Because in Watergate, a reporter acting like Miller would not be meeting the FBI's Mark Felt in an underground parking garage. She would be obsessively on the phone with H.R. Haldeman or John Dean, listening to malicious gossip about Carl Bernstein or their plans to make Judge Sirica look bad.

London Transit Blasts

Blair: A Barbaric Attack (The Mirror)

London rocked by terror attacks (BBC)

Explosions reported on three buses (This is London)

6 Blasts Rock London, Killing at Least Two (The Guardian)

Explosions hit London as G8 leaders meet (Reuters UK)

Bombs strike terror in London (ITV.com UK)

Eyewitness accounts:

GerryInLondon (on dailykos)

A livejournal community has been set up to share information and follow the story.

UK Blog Aggregator

Title IX Book From Unlikely Source

Title IX's next hurdle

By a writer for the Wall Street Journal!

Here's an excerpt, read the whole article:

Despite the challenges, the benefits of Title IX have never been more apparent. Passed when many universities restricted admissions for women, the law initially was intended to end discrimination such as quotas that limited females to 10 percent or less of medical schools, law schools and other professional programs. Today, about half the law-school and medical-school students and roughly 57 percent of all college students are women.

Since the law was passed, the number of girls participating in high-school varsity sports has also increased, growing tenfold, to nearly three million, while the number of women in collegiate sports has grown more than fivefold, to about 160,000.

While the debate has focused on athletics, Title IX originally wasn't about sports at all. In a new book for young people, "Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX," Wall Street Journal editor Karen Blumenthal details how one of the nation's most controversial civil-rights laws came about and the enormous impact it has had. An adaptation:

Lesser Frogmarch

New York Times Reporter Is Jailed for Keeping Source Secret

Hard to feel great sympathy for Judith Miller. She should have been frogmarched off the premises of the New York Times once they realized how biased her reporting was leading up to the war in Iraq. Instead they published a wimpy 'ooh, we were wrong, sorry' piece without even mentioning that the majority of their 'we were wrong' articles were written by Miller. (for a dissection of the Times non-mea culpa mea culpa, read Alexander Coburn's "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a Little")

Will her good friend Ahmed Chalabi come to visit her in jail? Bob Novak-ula? (When I was a kid, he was "No Facts", of "Errors and No Facts", but since his old partner Rowland Evans retired he's become even more sinister.)

Now those are a couple of guys who should be in jail.

A girl can dream, can't she?

Chickenhawk Alert

Ship Young Pataki Straight to Iraq

[G]overnor [Pataki], who proudly announced last week that his son has been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines, also noted that Teddy Pataki hopes to defer his military service for three years until he finishes law school.

**********

At the Republican National Convention last year, Gov. Pataki praised President George W. Bush for having the courage to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. And just as Bush did in his speech Tuesday night, the governor strove mightily to link Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But with the daily war toll mounting, why wouldn't his son want to put off serving for a while?

Because George Pataki is a hypocrite. Praising the war on one hand, shielding his own family with the other. Sending poor New Yorkers in his son's place.

Hey Teddy Pataki: You signed up for the Marine Officer Training program. The Marines need you. It's time for you to perform your side of the contract.

You don't need to go law school to figure this one out.

From United States Navy and the Naval Reserve to Iraq Detainee

The New York Times got the headline on this story wrong.

From Filmmaker in Los Angeles to Iraq Detainee

LOS ANGELES, July 5 - Like a lot of aspiring filmmakers in Los Angeles, Cyrus Kar was obsessed with his project, a documentary about an ancient Persian king who championed tolerance and human rights even as he built an empire that stretched across the Near East.

But Mr. Kar, 44, a naturalized American born in Iran, followed his dream where few others might have gone. In mid-May, he traveled to Iraq with an Iranian cameraman to film archaeological sites around Babylon. After a taxi they were in was stopped in Baghdad, the two men were arrested by Iraqi security forces, who found what they suspected might be bomb parts in the vehicle.

Since then, Mr. Kar has been held in what his relatives and their lawyers describe as a frightening netherworld of American military detention in Iraq - charged with no crime but nonetheless unable to gain his freedom or even tell his family where he is being held.

He is one of four men with dual American citizenship who have been detained in Iraq beginning in April, a Defense Department official said. But none of the others - all Iraqi-Americans suspected of ties to the insurgency - nor an accused Jordanian-American terrorist operative captured in a raid last year appear to have had anything like Mr. Kar's ties to the United States.

Mr. Kar, the son of an Iranian physician, came to the United States when he was 2 and was raised partly in Utah and Washington State, where he played high school football. He attended college in California, received a master's degree in technology management from Pepperdine University, worked for years in Silicon Valley and served in the United States Navy and the Naval Reserve.

The question must be asked, would this be happening to him if he was white?

GWB: A President Totally 'Detached from Humanity'

Mom, Who Lost Son In Iraq, Talks About 'Disgusting' White House Private Meeting With Bush

So when Sheehan received an invitation to meet privately with President Bush at the White House two months after her son died, the least she could have expected was a bit of compassion or a kind word coming from the heart.

But what she encountered was an arrogant man with eyes lacking the slightest bit of compassion, a President totally "detached from humanity" and a man who didn’t even bother to remember her son’s name when they were first introduced.

Instead of a kind gesture or a warm handshake, Sheehan said she immediately got a taste of Bush arrogance when he entered the room and "in a condescending tone and with a disgusting loud Texas accent," said: "Who we’all honorin’ here today?"

"His mouth kept moving, but there was nothing in his eyes or anything else about him that showed me he really cared or had any real compassion at all. This is a human being totally disconnected from humanity and reality. His eyes were empty, hollow shells and he was acting like I should be proud to just be in his presence when it was my son who died for his illegal war! It was one of the most disgusting experiences I ever had and it took me almost a year to even talk about it," said Sheehan in a telephone conversation from Washington D.C. where she was attending a July 4th anti-war rally.

Sheehan said the June 2004 private meeting with the President went from bad to worse to a nightmare when Bush acted like he didn’t even want to know her name. She said Bush kept referring to her as ‘Ma’ or ‘Mom’ while he "put on a phony act," saying things like ‘Mom, I can’t even imagine losing a loved one, a mother or a father or a sister or a brother.’

"The whole meeting was simply bizarre and disgusting, designed to intimidate instead of providing compassion. He didn’t even know our names," said Sheehan. "Finally I got so upset I just looked him in the eye, saying ‘I think you can imagine losing someone. You have two daughters. Imagine losing them?’ After I said that he just looked at me, looked at me with no feeling or caring in his eyes at all."

George W. Bush, Flag Desecrater

From patridiotwatch:

Flag Desecration Bill, Redux

George Bush signed American Flags on July 24, 2003, a desecration according to American standards. Now he and his party want a Constitutional Amendment against desecrating flags. Hypocrites.

Click on the link: There's a picture of C+ Augustus laying pen to flag.

Dumb & dumber.

The evolution of national concern about the flag has always amused me. When I was a kid, hippies wore the American flag on the pockets of their jeans & got put in jail. In the 80s, Tommy Hilfiger outfitted the country in t-shirts & jeans with flags on the pockets & made millions. The same people who want to make flagburning a crime sit their fat a**es in American flag chairs. Burning, I believe, is still the only proper way to dispose of an American flag. George W. Bush who is salivating over a no flag-desecration bill writes on flags. Does no one see the ironies here?

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th everyone. I'm heading to the Hudson Valley of New York for my annual family picnic.

Hope to be writing the word "frogmarch" a lot when I get back.

Karl Rove, I hope you're not sleeping well tonight.

Unlikely I'll blog again before Tuesday.

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave

when first we practice to deceive. {always thought this was Shakespeare, but the internets reveal it to be Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)}


Who Told Rove?

One of Digby's commenters points the finger at John Bolton:

As long as we're enjoying ourselves speculating about frog marching and the like, here's an interesting theory from super-smart commenter Sara:

Has anyone here carefully read Joe Wilson's Book?

He provides plenty of carefully crafted information -- for example see p. 443-445.

Wilson indicates that the work up on him beginning March, 2003, turned up the information on Valerie -- which was then shared with Karl Rove who then circulated it through Administration and neo-Conservative circles. He cites conservative journalists who claimed to have had the information before the Novak column.

So the question is -- in the work-up process beginning about March 2003, who had the information re: Plame?

I think it was John Bolton. At the time he was State Department Deputy Secretary with the portfolio in WMD and Nuclear Proliferation. Assuming that Valerie Plame's identity was that of a NOC (No Official Cover) the information about her would have been highly classified, compartmentalized, and only those with a need to know would know. Bolton's Job probably gave him that status. However to receive it he would have to sign off on the classification -- that is he would have to agree to retain the security the CIA had established.

At the time, Bolton had two assistants who also worked in the White House in Cheney's office, David Wurmser and John Hannah. Their names have been around as the potential leakers -- Hannah if you remember is the guy who kept putting the Yellow Cake back in Bush's speeches even though Tenet had demanded it be removed.

So -- I think we have a game of catch going on here -- or maybe some version of baseball, and the scoring is Bolton to Wurmser and Hannah, to Cheney (and/or Libby) to Rove.

I suspect getting Rove on Perjury is more or less step one in walking back the path of the ball.

Lest there be any doubt about Bolton's true calling, remember, he was king of the Florida Recount.

Stay tuned, folks, it's going to be quite the ride.

Does Derek Jeter Know About This?

Forget Fame and Fortune, Trade Talk Is Personal

Sheffield has been the heart of the Yankees for the past two seasons.

No wonder the Yankees are on life support. They've got a bad ticker.

Rove Crime: Perjury?

Via Atrios, TalkLeft has a good discussion of what Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may be trying to get with those reporter's notes:

What Does the Government Really Want from Miller and Cooper?

Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald has stated in court pleadings that he already knows the identity of Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper's sources regarding the senior white house official who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to Robert Novak.

Miller did some reporting for a story but never wrote an article. She has maintained she intends to go to jail rather than reveal her source -- though Fitzgerald has indicated in court filings that he already knows that official's identity.

So, why is it so necessary for them to provide the information?

As the Wapo article suggests, the investigation has moved from one involving the identity of the White House official to one involving perjury - i.e., a cover-up. The source may have been questioned in front of the grand jury and lied.

Knowing the identity of the source is not enough for a perjury conviction. There must be two witnesses to the perjurious statement. Telephone records would not be enough, because they only provide the number dialed, not the identity of the person speaking. Matthew Cooper's and Judith Miller's e-mails and notes may provide that corroboration.

Two witnesses to get Rove for perjury. Because he said this:

I don't know who the White House official is, but the higher up he is, the more likely the prosecutor would want two live witnesses, not just documents, to support a perjury charge. What do you think of this possibility, from American Prospect in 2004?

Rove also adamantly insisted to the FBI that he was not the administration official who leaked the information that Plame was a covert CIA operative to conservative columnist Robert Novak last July. Rather, Rove insisted, he had only circulated information about Plame after it had appeared in Novak's column. He also told the FBI, the same sources said, that circulating the information was a legitimate means to counter what he claimed was politically motivated criticism of the Bush administration by Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

President Clinton was suspended from the practice of law by the State of Arkansas for five years for perjury, and disbarred by the Supreme Court. And his perjury had nothing to do with the workings of government, or intelligence, or national security.

As Joe Wilson has been hoping, “[W]e can get Karl Rove frogmarched out of the White House in handcuffs." Would there be a perp walk more sweet for Democrats?

Thou Shalt Not Kill

In Mississippi, Soaring Costs Force Deep Medicaid Cuts

HAZLEHURST, Miss., July 1 - Starting Friday, most Medicaid recipients in Mississippi will be limited to five prescription drugs at a time, with no process for appeal. The cap appears to be the most restrictive in the nation, but is just one of many measures being taken by states seeking to rein in soaring Medicaid costs.

It will hit hard for people like Erainna Johnson, 42, left legally blind by a stroke in 1997. She takes 19 medications - already more than the previous Medicaid limit of seven - relying on family members, her church and free samples from doctors to make up the difference. "Sometimes I just crack my pills in half, honestly," she said, sitting in the living room of her trailer here.

Mississippi is among many states moving aggressively to contain Medicaid costs, saying severe measures are necessary if the program is to continue. In Missouri, new cuts also took effect Friday in an effort to reduce the rolls; for example, a single mother of three in Missouri is now ineligible if she makes more than $350 a month. About a dozen states limit the number of prescriptions offered to adult patients, but almost all provide for an appeal process or allow doctors to override the limit.

**********

Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican who backed steeper cuts to Medicaid than those enacted, said the Legislature had come up with the limit on prescription drugs on its own. But, he added, "states are limited in their options as far as cost control."

Haley Barbour (former chairman of the Republican Party) is a "fervent supporter" of Mississippi's law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public buildings.

A model of the Ten Commandments on gray tablets sits in a corner of the governor's office at the Capitol.

So, did they change his copy to "Thou Shalt Not Kill Rich People"?

Where are those "culture of life" politicians now? George? Bill?

Hey, Hey, Haley Bay-Bay, How many old folks did you kill today?

Traitor: It Takes One to Know One

MSNBC Analyst Says Cooper Documents Reveal Karl Rove as Source in Plame Case

Well, well, well.

The political hack who impugned the patriotism of liberals is about to be outed as the Benedict Arnold for our age.

Hang him high, I say. Make an example. Hard time. Crack cocaine kind of time. Guantanimo would be appropriate given the crime.

See how he likes Duncan Hunter's orange glazed chicken now.

WWJDD?

No, this isn't a fundamentalist post. WWJDD stands for "What Would Johnny Damon Do". I just bought a WWJDD shirt on ebay, which shows our Caveman standing in the classic Jesus pose, one hand raised palm up, the bleeding heart in his chest.

So, WWJDD? Go to the All-Star game, apparently. The gang on NESN are reporting that a late surge of votes -- probably helped by the local TV guys all going on at 6 & 11 last night encouraging Sox fans to to vote for him -- has put Johnny Damon on the American League All-Star team.

OK, I admit it, I voted my 25 times between 11:25 and 11:40 last night. The guy is having an all-star year. And the World Champion Boston Red Sox deserve as many All-Stars as possible.

This Is Terrible

Just so we don't forget, "This is terrible!" were Sandra Day O'Connor's words upon hearing that the networks had called the 2000 race for Al Gore (remember him, the guy who won by 500,000 votes or more?)

(Click on the link, above, to see pics of the five Bush voters from Bush v. Gore in clown makeup.)

So, she picked the guy who will replace her despite the fact that he didn't win the race.

That's the legacy of Sandra Day O'Connor. Like a butcher with his finger on the scale, she tilted the scale in favor of the side she favored. She was in the seat of justice, but she didn't wear the traditional blindfold.

And unbelievably, we can (and probably will) do worse.

David Sirota prophesies that

With Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation today, I have a prediction: O'Connor and Chief Justice William Rehnquist will both retire...Karl Rove will have Bush put up one crazy, wild-eyed conservative lunatic in the John Ashcroft mold, and one hard-right winger who seems "moderate" compared to the crazy...the lunatic goes down to defeat, but the hard-right winger gets through, and Bush replaces the lunatic with another hard-right winger as a "compromise."

If just O'Connor retires, it will be much the same strategy - first nominate a wild-eyed lunatic. It's a win-win for Bush - either the lunatic gets appointed, or the lunatic loses, and then Bush puts up someone a shade less crazy - but equally as conservative - as the "compromise." The media will play along with this storyline, billing the second nominee as "moderate."

The entire effort will be backed up with a huge amount of corporate money. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Big Business has already announced its intention to push hard for an ultraconservative nominee, as the Court has increasingly weighed in on corporate issues. For instance, as the newspaper notes, "now for the first time, the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents big corporations, is creating a committee of executives to screen the business rulings of prospective nominees."

All of this will put massive pressure on the Senate to ultimately confirm a right-winger. Let's hope Democrats are ready for this two-step.

Update: Head over to Hullabaloo for a more complete recitation of O'Connor's comments on the Bush-Gore election results.

O'Connor Takes Riggins Advice*

O'Connor to Retire From Supreme Court

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday she is retiring.

O'Connor, 75, said she expects to leave before the start of the court's next term in October, or whenever the Senate confirms her successor. There was no immediate word from the White House on who might be nominated to replace O'Connor.

Since a woman is retiring from the Supremes, and not Injustice Rehnquist, will Bush replace her with another woman? Can you say Edith Jones (subject of an earlier post)? Or will Torture Guy get the nod?

I hope Harry Reid's gambit of naming the Senators he would agree to put on the Court works.

Reid later offered four names of people he said would be good for the court: GOP Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Mike Crapo of Idaho and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

It would be nice to get a justice who isn't to the right of Attila the Hun for once. I could live with Lindsey Graham. Not my first choice, but no Clarence Thomas, either.



*The infamous John Riggins, Washington Redskin Hall of Fame running back, met Sandra Day O'Connor at a party, and, having imbibed too much, greeted her thusly: "C'mon, Sandy baby, loosen up. You're too tight."

Chimpeachment

I learned this new word today, from the Rain Storm Gazette:

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Talkin' them Chimpeachment Blues

Duncan notes a Zogby poll that says 42% of Americans want impeachment if it is found that Bush misled the the nation about the reasons for going to war in Iraq.

Ahead of the curve, Veterans for Peace has drawn up Declaration of Impeachment and a petition to support it (as of this posting, it looks like the on line petition is still under construction).

Get some.

Chimpeach the Smirking Chimp. Limpeach Dick Cheney. This would make me so very, very happy.

Venus is Back!

Venus ends Sharapova's reign to reach final

One of the best women's matches I've seen in a long time. Both players playing from the baseline, but with huge aggressive strokes. Shriek! Shriek! Shriek! from both of them. Venus completely disguised her poor second serve with a high percentage of first serves. She hit so many winners that Sharapova was knocked completely off her game.

Nice to see Venus focused on her tennis. She is still a great talent. During the match, the commentators talked about her sister being killed two years ago and it made me think, how would I have reacted if one of my siblings had been killed when I was in my 20s? I'd have been devastated. So I'll stop complaining about the Williams sisters spending too much time on non-tennis-related pursuits. I just hope they do what Venus did today & come back to championship level tennis. We miss them.

Small Town NY Views Iraq

Bush evokes mixed emotions
Families of local troops approve, criticize speech

One girl's story:

Army Spc. Isaac Nieves, 20, of Unadilla was one of more than 1,740 Americans who died in Iraq. He was killed by a roadside bomb April 8, 2004.

His 15-year-old sister Kimberly said it didn’t matter what the president had to say.

"We don’t support the war," Nieves said. "We lost our brother in it."

Nieves said the Iraqis have not attacked people here in America and she couldn’t understand why the United States had to attack Iraq.

"I think the war is ridiculous, and there is no point in it," Nieves said. "A lot of families are going through a lot of pain.

"I think about Isaac every single day," Nieves said. "He made such a big difference in this town. He never got to meet his son. He died a month after his son was born."

And as for the president: "I don’t like him very much. He made me lose my brother," Nieves said. "He doesn’t know what it’s like to lose family in a war."

Brian Schweitzer In The News

From the American Prospect:

True West

a sample:

Schweitzer is emblematic of a new kind of western politician who is both progressive and entrepreneurial. He inherited a failing family farm and turned it around by planting, of all things, mint. By researching and then efficiently serving an untapped market, he became a millionaire, and was able to enter politics as a farmer and small-business man as well as a progressive Democrat. He shrewdly allied himself with sportsmen, not just as a gun owner but as one determined to protect the fishing and hunting environment. He was one of the first politicians to lead prescription-drug bus trips to Canada. Campaigning statewide, Schweitzer lost a cliff-hanger election to Senator Conrad Burns in 2000, then prevailed by 18 percent in the 2004 governor’s race. Two progressive Montana Democrats, Senate President John Tester and State Auditor John Morrison, are jockeying to take on Burns, who is probably the Senate’s most vulnerable Republican in 2006.

Conrad Burns is the Republican moron who is currently pushing that pesticides be tested on poor people & children.

Keep your eyes on Schweitzer -- he's going places.

Brazil Beats Argentina -- Preview of World Cup Final???

Brazil trounced Argentina yesterday, 4-1, in the Confederations Cup final. Argentina wasn't at full strength (no Crespo, for example) but neither was Brazil, as they played without Ronaldo, (who is now worried about his starting place on the World Cup squad), Roberto Carlos, and others. Ronaldo should be worried, as Adriano scored twice and played well for Brazil throughout the tournament.

Readabet.com, a gambling site, now puts Brazil as the putative World Cup favorites at 9 to 2, Argentina close behind at 13 to 2, both England and Germany at 8 to 1, and Italy and Holland at 12 to 1. I think putting England at 8 to 1 is a bit of a stretch, very optimistic, but probably is based on all the devoted England fans willing to put their money where their mouths are (I'm England 'til I die, and all that). Translated, this site would lose a lot of money if they had to pay out the real odds were England to win -- I would put them more like 25 to 1.

Journalism is Dead.

The writer of my favorite baseball blog, Joy of Sox, the best website covering the World Champion Boston Red Sox, also has a political blog, In Cold Blog. He picked up these stats from the new Ariana Huffington blog:

Number of news segments that mentioned these stories over seven weeks (May 1, 2005 to June 20, 2005):

ABC CBS NBC CNN FOX MSNBC

Downing Street Memo 0 0 6 30 10 10

Natalee Holloway 42 70 62 294 148 30

Michael Jackson 121 235 109 633 286 106

Sorry if my columns don't add up. Should have taken that HTML course.

Bush Gives the Same Ol' Speech

from thinkprogress:

Bush Iraq Speech: By The Numbers

References to “September 11″: 5

References to “weapons of mass destruction”: 0

References to “freedom”: 21

References to “exit strategy”: 0

References to “Saddam Hussein”: 2

References to “Osama Bin Laden”: 2

References to “a mistake”: 1 (setting a timetable for withdrawal)

References to “mission”: 11

References to “mission accomplished”: 0