Prescient Heston
Soylent Green is people!
-Atrios 23:34
Comment
Is it Irresponsible to Speculate?
It is irresponsible not to, thus sayeth the Magic Dolphin Lady.
And while I will not speculate, I will encourage others to do so by
linking to this.
And then to this.
And then to this.
(thanks to bill for the inspiration)
-Atrios 23:03
Comment
Dr. Who Hates America
Well well well, the latest Doctor Who episode is an allegory about the
Iraq war and includes an attack on the media for covering up the real
story...
bad Auntie Beeb.
-Atrios 23:00
Comment
Crossroads
Our media is at another pivotal moment - report the truth or cave?
Today, Frist said:
Now if Senator Reid continues to obstruct the process, we will
consider what opponents call the "nuclear option." Only in the
United States Senate could it be considered a devastating
option to allow a vote. Most places call that democracy.
On November 14, 2004, there was the following exchange on Fox News:
WALLACE: Well, let me ask you about one of them, because some
Republicans are talking about what they call the nuclear
option, and that would be a ruling that the filibuster of
executive nominees is unconstitutional, which would require not
60 or 67 votes but only a simple majority of 51.
FRIST: Yes. That's right.
WALLACE: Are you prepared to do that?
FRIST: Oh, it's clearly one of the options. I've always said
it's one of the options.
What it basically -- it's called the nuclear option. It's
really a constitutional option. And what that means is that the
Constitution says you, as a Senate, give advice and consent,
and that is a majority vote. And then you vote on that, and
that takes 50 votes to pass.
On November 16 he said to NPR:
Sen. FRIST: If we continue to see obstruction where one out of
three of the president's nominees to fill vacancies in the
circuit court are being obstructed, then action would be taken.
One of those is the nuclear option. The Constitution says
advice and consent is the Senate's responsibility; the
president's responsibility to it is to a point, and therefore,
if the Constitution says `advice and consent,' by 50 votes you
can decide to give advice and consent. Will we have to do that?
I can't tell you, but I can tell you if obstructions are to
continue like they have in the past, that clearly is an option
that we have on the table.
-Atrios 21:23
Comment
JimmyJeff A Frequent White House Visitor
Wellwellwell...this is indeedy, and I mean heh-indeedy, kinda news.
Perhaps more notable than the frequency of his attendance,
however, is several distinct anomalies about his visits.
Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House
when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days,
the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One--which
raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White
House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities.
On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show
either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing
entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most
of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was
never processed out.
In March, 2003, Guckert left the White House twice on days he
had never checked in with the Secret Service. Over the next 22
months, Guckert failed to check out with the Service on
fourteen days. On several of these visits, Guckert either
entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his
usual one. On one of these days, no briefing was held; on
another, he checked in twice but failed to check out.
(item replaced with corrected raw story text)
-Atrios 20:56
Comment
The Whoopi Standard
Joe in DC is absolutely correct about this.
-Atrios 18:23
Comment
Open Thread
Have fun.
-Atrios 16:01
Comment
Morons
Josh Marshall writes this, but it's stunning that he even has to
bother.
Broder's reference to the power of the president's bully pulpit
as the lever that will shift public opinion against the
Democrats is just another example of his inability to grasp
that the public turn against the Republicans in late 1995 and
early 1996 was a reaction, on the merits, to Republican
excesses, not the result of some inscrutable black magic Bill
Clinton managed to pull off with a few press availabilities.
The more obvious flaw in Broder's reasoning stems from another
bit of Washington myopia. What killed the Republicans on the
government shutdown, in addition to the pure recklessness of
the stunt, was that the government did shut down. National
parks closed. Various government services and functions stopped
operating. It had an immediate and direct effect on people's
lives.
Most people really don't give a shit if the Senate is operating
smoothly or not. They won't notice, they don't care. Shutting down
business in the Senate is not shutting down the operation of the
federal government. The fact that Broder and the Note's mystical "gang
of 500" are unable to comprehend this (plus, as Marshall points out,
their cheerleading of Newt's bold action back in the day) does mean
it's time for them to put down their pens and go into a line of work
which is less damaging to the rest of us.
-Atrios 11:02
Comment
Lovely
Link:
Pope Benedict XVI faced claims last night he had 'obstructed
justice' after it emerged he issued an order ensuring the
church's investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried
out in secret.
The order was made in a confidential letter, obtained by The
Observer, which was sent to every Catholic bishop in May 2001.
It asserted the church's right to hold its inquiries behind
closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10
years after the victims reached adulthood. The letter was
signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as John
Paul II's successor last week.
Lawyers acting for abuse victims claim it was designed to
prevent the allegations from becoming public knowledge or being
investigated by the police. They accuse Ratzinger of committing
a 'clear obstruction of justice'.
-Atrios 10:44
Comment
If Clinton Had Done This...
Yes, it's a tired refrain, but I'm just getting sick of all these
things which would've blown up into a 7 week orgy of hate on Hardball
with "constitutional scholar" Ann Coulter bloviating about the
immediate need for impeachment:
New York The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets
three times a year in various cities across the Americas to
discuss such dry-but-important issues as telecommunications
standards and spectrum regulations. But for this week's meeting
in Guatemala City, politics has barged onto the agenda, TIME's
Viveca Novak and John Dickerson report.
At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected
for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the
White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign.
The State Department has traditionally put together a list of
industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the
U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and
wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants,
TIME reports.
Only since the start of Bush's second term did a political
litmus test emerge, industry sources say. The White House
admits as much: "We wanted people who would represent the
Administration positively, and--call us nutty--it seemed like
those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last
November would have some difficulty doing that," says White
House spokesman Trent Duffy. Those barred from the trip include
employees of Qualcomm and Nokia, two of the largest telecom
firms operating in the U.S., as well as Ibiquity, a
digital-radio-technology company in Columbia, MD, TIME reports.
One nixed participant, who has been to many of these telecom
meetings and who wants to remain anonymous, gave just $250 to a
Democratic account supporting Kerry. Says Nokia vice president
Bill Plummer: "We do not view sending experts to international
meetings on telecom issues to be a partisan matter. We would
welcome clarification from the White House."
-Atrios 10:38
Comment
Bobo on Bobo
Bobo confronts himself in the mirror:
The shallowest people end up blissfully happy and they are so
vapid they don't even realize how vapid they are because
vapidity is the only trait that comes with its own impermeable
obliviousness system.
-Atrios 10:31
Comment
Morning Thread
enjoy.
-Atrios 10:23
Comment
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