Blithering Idiocy at CNN

Joe Klein a fool? His recent hire removes all doubt.

CNN signs Bill Bennett as an analyst.

Bill Bennett's main fall from grace is his stunningly voracious gambling --his quasi-racist recent comment is just icing on the cake.

The Abramoff scandal, repeatedly called the largest corruption case in DC in decades, involves to a great extent Indian tribes and casinos.

One thing that Dems should point out is the hypocrisy of Christtian conservatives like Ralph Reed supporting gambling by lobbying for these groups. I'm sure there are other aspects of casino gambling that will be important too.

Of course, personal relations among those on the panel with Bennett will likely mute those comments.

So CNN will cripple itself in covering one of the great corruption scandals in history.

Idiots.

Daily Kos: Scared

Daily Kos: Scared:

If we are relying on George W. Bush to protect the US, then God help us.

I won't rely on him to protect the United States.

Protecting his poll numbers? He'll try to do that.

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: More High-Quality Thought From National Review's Electronic Archives

Did you know that in the pages of National Review Martin Luther King was a really lousy public speaker?

True, dat.

And they haven't improved by picking up Jonah Goldberg.

Carrying on the distinguished history.

Public Domain Movie Torrents

http://www.publicdomaintorrents.com/ has scores of movies for download via Bit Torrent. For those so inclined, they offer alternate rendering formatted for Ipod or other handhelds, as well as standard renderings (Mainly Divx).

I can't vouch that every movie there is public domain, but the ones I checked apparently are. A few movies not from the early part of the century are included, and I'm sure many of them have interesting reasons for being Public Domain (like Plan 9 from Outer Space or Night of the Living Dead).

Archive.org has quite a few movies no longer under copyright control, too -- including many of these. But the highly seeded torrents here can give you a pretty impressive download speed.

To give you an idea of the selection, here are the ten top seeded films at PublicDomainTorrents.com:

Metropolis.avi
Plan_9_From_Outer_Space.avi
Night_of_the_Living_Dead.avi
Nosferatu.avi
Buster_Keaton1.avi
The_Little_Shop_of_Horrors.avi
Buster_Keaton2.avi
Superman_Festival.avi
Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians.avi
flash_gordon_ep01.avi
The_Memphis_Belle.avi
Betty_Boop_My_Friend_the_Monkey.avi
Prehistoric_Women.avi
Tom_and_Jerry_Festival.avi
Sherlock_Holmes_A_Study_in_Scarlet350.avi
Metropolis700.avi
Keystone_Cops_Festival.avi
Betty_Boop_Rhythm_on_the_Reservation.avi
Voyage_to_the_Planet_of_Prehistoric_Women.avi
Buster_Keaton1.mp4

The site holds many more movies, too. There are many good movies there, a lot of schlocky kitch, and a few great movies,too--such as Metropolis and some of the Keaton movies.

For those who don't know about BitTorrent technology, find out about it here. You're realling missing something if you don't have it, particularly if you're on broadband. My current preferred client, for what it's worth, is Azureus.

Does This Thing Still Work?

"Hey, Ahmad, maybe you could get the United States to invade Iraq to restore democracy."

Seen Here

War on Jews?

Wow, this seems pretty blatant to me:

During the debate, Democratic members asked the Republican author of the resolution, Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), if she would permit the symbols of Chanukah and other holidays to be included in the protection of the resolution -- and she refused.

Protect Christmas, which is not actually under attack, and refuse to protect Chanukah.

You Jews are on your own. Watch your crystal.

Scissors, pocket knives, clippers -- OK by me

Since republicans seem to paint Democrats as crazy inhuman idiots, I figure I should occasionally point out that the caricature they paint of us is idiotic.

I have no problem with small scissors, pocket knives, and clippers being allowed on planes. I have lost at least a couple well-loved pocket knives to TSA screening at airports.

Plan to Allow Scissors on Planes Opposed

Not by me! I don't oppose these things being brought on board, and I'm about as strong a Democrat as can be imagined.

I'd prefer they were scanning checked baggage more thoroughly, if all things were equal. But the pilot door is strengthened now, so a Swiss Army Knife isn't about to break through it and kill the plane's captain.

Bullshit, Rinse, Repeat

Bush Speaks:

Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.
.....
The Battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on.
.....
The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of al-Qaida, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.

Yeah, those excerpts are from the disastrous "Mission Accomplished" speech of May 2, 2003. The whole tawdry text is worth rereading, particularly in light of his horseshit speech today.

Update: Uggabugga takes a closer look at the nothingness in the heart of Bush's "victory" document. Nothingness is being kind: Horseshit is more like it.

Marc Maron and Morning Sedition are Ending It

I hoped this would not happen, but Air America Radio is ending Morning Sedition. Marc Maron just announced that Dec 15 will be his last day.

Air America Radio has offered him an evening slot "in Los Angeles" (they're still negotiating so questions like "would that be national but broadcasting from LA?" are unanswerable: Marc did say such a show may be syndicated elsewhere later in the evening or perhaps on weekends). Mark Reilly stays -- his show will be from 5-7 a.m. eastern time, and Rachel Maddow will take over from 7-9 a.m.

That's really too bad. Maron, who I liked pretty well as a standup, really came alive as a radio voice . The scripted bits were hilarious and his unscripted patter was striking, thoughtful and often guffaw-inducing. Funny but not idiotic stuff for early mornings.

I have to largely agree with the WFMU blog (they did two good posts: one, and two about Air America's schedule). AAR is changing to all-earnest and mostly boring all the time. I can't stomach Randi Rhodes' mainly mindless screeds. Jerry Springer sounds lke he's lecturing second graders--and putting them to sleep. Al Franken more and more drifts into civics lessons and dull-as-dust Goo-goo features. I like Sam Seder fine but Janeane Garofalo (who spends lots of time making useless blanket pseudo-psychiatric pronouncements about conservatives) makes me hit the off button. (I often like her in other contexts but not in political commentary and especially not on her radio show).

Ok, Franken has a big name, and all the others have their followings I'm sure. But to keep all those people who either make me snore or wretch, yet get rid of what I find a really funny and insightful stretch of radio indicates I'm not the listener they're looking for--and I'm a firm Democcrat and pretty liberal. If they are losing me then, well ... I just hope their current market research is better than their startup business plan.

There's really no reason for me to listen to AAR anymore. Virtually all the news and commentary on AAR I get days or hours earlier from the bigtime media or blogs. There are few moments when anyone there is saying something new to me or in a compelling or original manner.

Preaching to the choir is fine but don't all use the exact same friggin arrangements and please vary the tempo a little bit.

I wish AAR well. I'll probably sample them now and then but I hope to God they get their act together. If they think they're gonna take on rightwing clowns like Limbaugh with a snoozefest, they're insane. When I was in radio wasteland recently I actually tuned in to Limbaugh a little (he was on at least four separate radio stations I could receive at the same location in central Pennsylvania!) and while I didn't enjoy him, I listened for a bit and didn't reflexively turn off the radio like I do when I hear Springer, Rhodes, or Janeane. The guy's a radio entertainer, even though he's full of shit. AAR should at least have learned the lesson by this time that radio needs to entertain -- and started by canning Springer.

(Yes I did write AAR about this, as did many others. Didn't work. )

Bullshitting Us Into a War of Choice

Jacob Weisberg

Powell's old colleagues now defend themselves by saying they didn't know their claims about Iraq weren't true. But the truth is most of them didn't care whether their assertions were true or not, and they still don't.

Mark Schmitt:

The President could have been given every bit of intelligence information available, and he and/or Cheney would have reached the same decision because they would have discarded, discounted, or disregarded most of it. Information that was Useful to that goal was put in one box, Not Useful put in another. Entire categories of information were assigned to the Not Useful box because their source was deemed an opponent of U.S. military action, or assumed to have some other motive.

Harry Frankfurt on Bullshit:

It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.

The Bush Adminstration:

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Well, not quite all of us. The thousands of Americans and tens of thousand of Iraqis who have died won't get a chance to study anything.

Finally, Juan Cole:

Let me finish with a word to W. As for your legacy two decades from now, George, let me clue you in on something--as a historian. In 20 years no Iraqis will have you on their minds one way or another. Do you think anyone in Egypt or Israel is still grateful to Jimmy Carter for helping bring to an end the cycle of Egyptian-Israeli wars? Jimmy Carter powerfully affected the destinies of all Egyptians and Israelis in that key way. Most people in both countries have probably never heard of him, and certainly no one talks about the first Camp David Accords anymore except as a dry historical subject. The US pro-Israel lobby is so ungrateful that they curse Carter roundly for all the help he gave Israel. Human beings don't have good memories for these things, which is why we have to have professional historians, a handful of people who are obsessed with the subject. And I guarantee you, George, that historians are going to be unkind to you. You went into a major war over a non-existent nuclear weapons program. Presidents' reputations don't survive things like that. Historians are creatures of documents and precision. A wild exaggeration with serious consequences is against everything they stand for as a profession. So forget about history and destiny and the divine will. You are at the helm of the Exxon Valdez and it is headed for the shoals. You can't afford to daydream about future decades.

Worst President ever? It's very likely.

Titles of Bob Shrum's Book

Oliver Willis » Contest: Guess The Title Of Bob Shrum’s Book

I wrote a few.

Disobeying the President's Orders

Digby has been on a great tear today responding to the perfidy of Woodward. He's really nailed it -- the DC faux-journalist class is a set of courtiers to the Bush administration.

One thing I haven't seen noted by anyone (though I'd say someone has indeed pointed it out) is that this Senior Adminstration Official or White House Official who implicated Woodward did so just recently-- in the past couple weeks.

This official came forward after two years of investigation, after the grand jury had closed, after indictments were handed down. In fact, they weren't fully forthcoming with the investigation despite Bush's orders.

"The president has always said that leaking classified information is a serious matter, and certainly no one wants to get to the bottom of this more than he does, so that we can find out the truth,'' McClellan said. "The president has said from early on that if anybody has information, they should come forward and share it with those who are leading this investigation.

Whoever this official was, they are at least subordinates who are insubordinate. They didn't do what Bush ordered them to do.

Who does that sound like?

Scary!

He looks animatronic, she looks undead.

That is the picture as presented on Yahoo news. Link to the photo in context of the page is here.

The Secrets of Jay Sekulow

Many of us are familiar with Jay Sekulow. He's a lawyer who goes on air to defend -- whether defensible or not -- the far reaches of the fringiest Christian legal faux-theory.

Law.com has an interesting profile of Sekulow. Good quote:

"Some of us truly believed God told us to serve Jay," says one former employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. "But not to help him live like Louis XIV. We are coming forward because we need to believe there is fairness in this world."

Man, these fundies are strange. And they pick strange bedfellows.

Bush's Endzone Dancing

USATODAY.com - Bush sets out to salvage 2nd term: "'This president doesn't dance in the end zone when things are good, doesn't throw in the towel when things are bad,' says Mark McKinnon, media director in Bush's presidential campaigns."

Bwahahah, that's really funny, McKinnon. Remember the ridiculous "mission accomplished" premature celebration that Bush did?

Bush waylaid an aircraft carrier, then waylaid a jet, was flown in the jet to the carrier where he had the seamen line up behind him for a photo op, and stood in front of a huge banner saying "Mission Accomplished."

That may be the largest "Dance in the end zone" in American political history.

And, of course, Iraq has really gone horribly since then, and Bush's reasons for invading Iraq have all proven false.

Libby's Bad Bets

Why do Libby's lies seem so stupid in retrospect?

I can guess at two reasons:

1) When he concocted his scheme he thought that Ashcroft would dispatch the Plame inquiry quickly.
2) He thought that reporters would hold firm and not reveal him as a source.

1) The Ashcroft Angle: Libby's initial lies to the FBI that led to the false statement charges were in October and November, 2003. From the press release accompanying the indictment:

The false statement charge in Count Two of the indictment alleges that Libby lied to FBI agents on October 14 and November 26, 2003, regarding the conversation with Russert on July 10, 2003. Count Three charges Libby with making false statements to FBI agents during the same FBI interviews in October and November 2003 relating to his July 12, 2003 conversation with Cooper.

Ashcroft's recusal came after those initial Libby lies, in late December 2003. I bet Libby wasn't happy when he found out that Ashcroft had recused himself.

2) The Journalist Backstop: Kevin Drum puts it well in this post. "Apparently Libby figured he'd never be caught out because the reporters would stay mum and go to jail on his behalf. He lost that bet."

So long Scooter. Let's hope "Official A" joins you soon.

Merry Fitzmas: It Speaks to All of us

Merry Fitzmas

I hate the commercialization of Fitzmas.

Years ago, Fitzmas didn't used to be about the money.

Miller, the Opposite of a Reporter

Jay Rosen has a good quick take on the Judith Miller Lie-A-Culpa:

"Miller cannot recall where the name at the center of the case came from? Wowzer. Sure to be the center of controversy over the next week. Claiming memory loss about the most important fact in the story is weak. Very.

Miller actually subtracts from public knowledge in this part, a feat. She introduces into the narrative a new “source” who must have been around to plant the name on her, and then promptly tells us she cannot remember anything about him. So we know less if we believe her." [emph. added]

"So we know less if we believe her." That's sterling work by a faux reporter!

I'm sure Rosen's more in depth followups will be worth reading.

Some Things You Can't Take Back

Let's hope Howard Fineman is right about the Conservative Crackup.

Everyone keep your eyes peeled and your recorders running: People will definitely say things they will regret later.

Whee!

Serious As A Federal Indictment

Atrios wrote:

A few people wrote in to say that a little while ago on Hardball, Tweety and the gang were suddenly taking the whole Fitzgerald investigation very seriously. Anyone see it?

I think this segment of Hardball is repeated at 7 PM eastern. Guests in the opening segment about the Plame crimes were Howard Fineman of Newsweek, Michael wolff of Vanity Fair, and one of the authors of Bush's Brain (I believe).

They were certainly taking it seriously. Matthews, even. (Tweety had his usual adoration of the republicans by going out of his way to indicate that probably no crime had been committed (huh?). Recently he asked a guest if Fitzgerald understood how hardball politics is played, indicating that any crime involving national security is ok by Matthews so long as a republican is doing it. Matthews really is a horrible creature, and none to bright or detail-oriented.)

My favorite aspect of the show were several archival footage montages of Rove in different settings (walking with Bush, talking to the camera, in an office, etc.).

These are precisely the type of montages used on live news coverage when a public figure dies. This time, let's hope, it's a political death. Of course, Republicans resuscitate criminals to be either pundits (Oliver North, Gordon Liddy, Lawrence Kudlow, et al.) or within the administration (Eliot Abrams, anyone?).

I was pleased to see Rove in these "bye-bye" montages. Let's hope he is indicted.

Update: I thought of another aspect of Hardball that made it far better than the usual Tweety-fest. Matthews and David Shuster both pointed out how the White House slapback against Wilson (which dragged in Plame) was over the lies about Iraq's nukes. Matthews essentially held that the fear-mongering about Iraq's nonexistent nuclear capability was what pushed American public opinion over to support the invasion of Iraq.

If there were no fake story about Hussein with nukes, there would have been no Iraq war. That's why they started sliming Wilson-- to ensure their war. And that's a very strong case that the war was waged on knowingly false pretenses, not just "mistaken intel."

That point should be rammed home over and over. It is the moral abcess at the center of the Bush administration. And Americans have died due to this lie.

Matthews colored in a bit of that story in his Hardball show on Monday.

Firedoglake is a great stop for Plame-crime-related writing. They pointed out to me that Crooks and Liars has some of Monday's Hardball up for viewing online.

Well worth watching.