I would like to state, for the record, that although I supported Matt Gonzalez in the recent San Francisco mayoral election, Gavin Newsom has definitely made me proud to live in this city.
The most powerful arguments for gay marriage are images of two people embracing, looking into each other's eyes, and pledging to stay with each other forever. We've gotten plenty of those images in the last few days.
Thanks, Gavin. This took some courage and you deserve credit.
Friday, February 13, 2004
REMEMBERING BILL HICKS
I've just listened to a few of his records for the first time and he was really, really something.
Dead of pancreatic cancer at age 32. And he couldn't stop performing:
On January 5, 1994 - against McGarr's wishes - Hicks did the eight o'clock show at Caroline's Comedy Club in New York. In her attempt to prevent Hicks from doing the gig, McGarr rang Donovan. "Colleen, Bill is ready to die. He just won't lie down," Donovan told her. She hung up on him. Hicks was about 30 minutes into his set when he looked up over the microphone and scanned the crowd. "Colleen, are you out there?" he said.
A future Tory government would look seriously at ending the "chronic injustice" of forcing less well-off people to pay income tax, as part of a concerted attempt to revive the party's tax-cutting tradition, the Conservative co-chairman, Lord Saatchi, said yesterday.
In an interview with the Guardian, to mark Michael Howard's 100 days as Tory leader, Lord Saatchi declared that it was "not right" to tax people living below the poverty line and then force them to go "cap in hand" to the state for benefits.
Ah, the good old days.
BARB BUSH'S BELLY BASH
Here at Salto, we pride ourselves at being the firs--um, well, the second, or maybe third, to bring you news of the lascivious antics of Bush daughters:
FRISKY First Daughter Barbara Bush put on a belly-dancing show at Chelsea hot spot Viscaya early yesterday while imitating the undulating tummy of a sword-twirling Japanese dancer named Yoko. Bush jumped up and joined Yoko at the socialite-studded after-party for Jennifer Nicholson's fashion show, prompting partygoers to throw flowers and hundreds of dollars in cash at the feet of Bush and Yoko. Commenting on the trays of margaritas and Veuve Clicquot champagne delivered to Bush's table before her gutsy performance, one wag quipped, "I hope the Secret Service is driving her home."
Just to remind you: Babs 2.0 is the hip one and, um, Jenna is the hot one.
The polls show that for every "life-long" Democrat who teaches at a liberal arts college and thinks they are insulated enough from the economic and political shocks sure to result from massive deficits and pre-emptive wars to vote for Bush, there are more Republicans who have realized that their fiscal conservativism and reticence to get embroiled in foreign wars has been comprehensively and arrogantly repudiated by the person they thought was their standard-bearer.
Condi was on Larry King last night. And I had really high hopes she would take home the big prize since with these two you pretty much know it's going to be a train wreck. Sort of like Barney Fife interviewing Dr. Evil.
Two members of the Air National Guard unit that President George W. Bush allegedly served with as a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told to expect him and were on the lookout for him. He never showed, however; of that both Bob Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain.
The question of Bush's presence in 1972 at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Alabama - or the lack of it - has become an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign.
Recalls Memphian Mintz, now 63: "I remember that I heard someone was coming to drill with us from Texas. And it was implied that it was somebody with political influence. I was a young bachelor then. I was looking for somebody to prowl around with." But, says Mintz, that "somebody" -- better known to the world now as the president of the United States -- never showed up at Dannelly in 1972. Nor in 1973, nor at any time that Mintz, a FedEx pilot now and an Eastern Airlines pilot then, when he was a reserve first lieutenant at Dannelly, can remember.
"And I was looking for him," repeated Mintz, who said that he assumed that Bush "changed his mind and went somewhere else" to do his substitute drill. It was not "somewhere else," however, but the 187th Air National Guard Tactical squadron at Dannelly to which the young Texas flyer had requested transfer from his regular Texas unit - the reason being Bush's wish to work in Alabama on the ultimately unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of family friend Winton "Red" Blount.
"Listen, Pennsylvanians are great entrepreneurs and farmers," Mr. Bush told his audience, which applauded occasionally. "We ought to be opening up markets for Pennsylvania products. In other words, there's a lot of things we can do. But I'm confident about the future of this economy because I've seen what we've been through. I know the spirit of America. I know the entrepreneurial spirit; I know the fact we've got the best workers in the world."
...link seems to have vanished from nytimes.com. Interesting.
BIMBO ERUPTION?
I have lots of problems with the Drudge thing. The most problematic is with the timing. Smells like Rove to me, not a Dem -- were they to use something like this, they would use it earlier. And who's pushing this? Recent dropout Clark? Highly unlikely, especially with the news that he's endorsing Kerry.
Too many questions.
Bush is totally reeling and has had too many consecutive negative news cycles. But if it's the Republicans, would they really want to K.O. Kerry in favor of someone else?
Tea leaves and tarot cards. This is going to move rapidly. Stay tuned.
The general chewed out the buck private yesterday.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, a retired four-star general known for his even temperament, paused yesterday during a congressional hearing to berate a Hill staffer for shaking his head as Powell offered a defense of his prewar statements on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
The public scolding came after Powell had already endured a number of attacks by Democrats on the administration's Iraq policy during an appearance before the House International Relations Committee. He had just snapped at a member of Congress who had casually declared President Bush "AWOL" from the Vietnam War.
Powell was recalling for the panel his review of the prewar intelligence. "I went and lived at the CIA for about four days to make sure that nothing was," he began, when he paused and glared at a staffer seated behind the members of Congress.
"Are you shaking your head for something, young man, back there?" Powell asked. "Are you part of these proceedings?"
Powell's unusual remarks threatened to derail the hearing. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a 12-year veteran of the House, objected, "Mr. Chairman, I've never heard a witness reprimand a staff person in the middle of a question."
Powell shot back, "I seldom come to a meeting where I am talking to a congressman and I have people aligned behind you giving editorial comment by head shakes."
You can't blame him. He has watched his reputation dissolve like an alka-seltzer in a glass of water, and he's gotta be pissed.
And for what?
THE COKE CHARGE BOOK I
Okay. I've heard about this before. One of the books that makes this allegation is "Fortunate Son" by the late J.H. Hatfield. Amy Goodman from Democracy Now interviewed him before his death:
J. H. HATFIELD: Well he was also in the National Guard with George W. back in the 70's which is interesting too because in 1972 in August, my publisher was able not too long ago to get hold of Bush's national guard records. And in 1972, at the same time we alleged he was doing community service for cocaine arrest James Bath who was in the unit with him. Both of them were grounded for failing to show up for medical exam.
AMY GOODMAN: Wait, what did you say about drugs?
J. H. HATFIELD: Oh the drug question. Well that's the $64 question that we raise in the afterword of the book. We say that George W. Bush was arrested in 1972 for possession of cocaine and his father got it fixed and he did community service at Project Pool a minority mentoring program, tough area in Houston for 1 year.
AMY GOODMAN: Now how do you know he got arrested for cocaine?
J. H. HATFIELD: Because we have three sources in the book. Three confidential sources but nevertheless they're close friends of Bush, they've been close friends for many years, all the way back to when he was a boy. And there were also sources that I used consistently through the book and other stuff that they've told me about was corroborated by secondary and third sources.
-snip-
AMY GOODMAN: And what's the story that they told you?
J. H. HATFIELD: That he was picked up. That he was taken to jail. He called his father of course. His father at the time was UN ambassador. There is some conflicting stories I have on whether he was actually in town in Houston at time or whether he was in New York. But the truth is, what they all say is that he contacted the judge that was gonna handle the case and he said look "I'm a benefactor of Project Pool, I support them. I'll make sure George W does his time there in community service," and the judge let him out of there. And that's where he spent the next year.
-snip-
AMY GOODMAN: Now explain the story exactly as you understand it. What was he picked up for?
J. H. HATFIELD: Possession of cocaine. I believe, although my source denied it, one of them, I believe that one of them might have been there when it happened.
AMY GOODMAN: Where did they say it happened?
J. H. HATFIELD: Harris County, Houston.
There's obviously a lot to evaluate here, the most important being the credibility of Hatfield and his sources. Someone told me that this piece, by the publisher of Fortunate Sun, discloses that Hatfield's primary source was Karl Rove. I'm not sure it says that. In fact, I'm not at all sure what it does say. It may be an (sloppy) excerpt from a longer piece.
Could be total bullshit. ...
...Easter Lemming has a handy roundup of recent events.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
COKESPOON
I'm not sure what to think about this. I think "skeptical" might be the best word.
Two books now contain the charge that Bush was arrested for possession of cocaine in 1972 in Texas, most likely in late November or December after his stint in Alabama. Bush was allowed to perform community service in 1973 by working for a minority children's program in Houston, Professionals United for Leadership League (PULL), chaired by his father. The record of that arrest was expunged, meaning he apparently received the equivalent of Youthful Offender status at the age of 26.
It would be awfully helpful if the Progressive Southerner or Mike Odom would indicate which books contain the charge. Without cites, this looks as loony as my late Uncle Tom's charge that Clinton was involved in trafficking cocaine through the "Arkansas mafia."
...whereas this, on the other hand, looks far less fishy:
In a new development Wednesday, a retired Texas National Guard officer said he overheard a conversation in 1997 between then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, and then-Adjutant Gen. Daniel James of the Texas Air National Guard in which he contends those two men spoke about getting rid of any military records that would "embarrass the governor."
Former Lt. Col. Bill Burkett told the AP that he saw documents from Bush's file discarded in a trash can a few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas. Burkett described them as performance and pay documents. He said the documents bore the header: "Bush, George W. 1lt." _ meaning first lieutenant.
And if that is interesting to you, my friend, go over to Calpundit, because Kevin just talked to Burkett for a long time and will soon report about the conversation.
A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said.
-- Gay weddings in Mass. coming in May
-- Kay: "We we're all wrong"
-- Press Corps to Scott McLennan: "It was a straightforward question; How about a straight answer?"
-- Plame indictments coming
-- Frist staffer gets caught stealing memos
-- O'Reilly eats shit on WMDs
-- Sullivan nearly implodes over Meet the Press Interview
-- Michael Moore vindicated over "deserter" charge
-- Ben Chandler may pick up GOP seat in "referendum on Bush"
-- New Dennis Miller show sucks; has ratings similar to Scarborough
Springlike. Seriously.
To this wonderful list I would add the new Stereolab record; Pixies reunite; Coachella; and Bill Murray nominated for an Oscar. Add your own.
In the early 1970s, after the exposure of COINTELPRO, a program of widespread FBI surveillance and sabotage of political dissidents, reforms were put in place to prevent the government from spying on political groups when there was no suspicion of criminal activity. But once again, protesters throughout America are being watched, often by police who are supposed to be investigating terrorism. Civil disobedience, seen during peaceful times as the honorable legacy of heroes like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., is being treated as terrorism's cousin, and the government claims to be justified in infiltrating any meeting where it's even discussed. It's too early to tell if America is entering a repeat of the COINTELPRO era. But Jeffrey Fogel, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Law in Manhattan, says, "There are certainly enough warning signs out there that we may be."
"It did not involve a lawsuit against Dick Cheney as a private individual," Scalia said in response to a question from the audience of about 600 people. "This was a government issue. It's acceptable practice to socialize with executive branch officials when there are not personal claims against them. That's all I'm going to say for now. Quack, quack."
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
SCRUM AT CALPUNDIT
Kevin Drum at Calpundit has been at the forefront of doing real reporting on the AWOL stuff.
The traffic at his site has increased tenfold, with an authentic no-holds-barred rugby scrum in the comments to this post. The reason? Drum is asking Alabama Calpundit readers to go and do some research. Commenters have been airlifted in from the Free Republic or somewhere to dissuade him from continuing.
Check it out.
IOWA SUBPOENA UPDATE
Kos has an update. Looks like the FBI is backing off.
I've received word from Iowa that the federal subpoenas against Drake University and Catholic Peace Ministries have been withdrawn.
Read the whole thing.
KERRY TALKING POINTS
Okay, Praz (and David Brooks). You're a war president, huh? We can do that.
"In a time of war, America needs a president who can tell the difference between good intelligence and bad intelligence ...
In a time of war, America cannot afford a president who needs a committee of outsiders to explain to him the mistakes he's made ...
In a time of war, America cannot afford a president who makes bad situations worse by refusing to admit he's made a mistake ...
In a time of war, America needs a president who will ask all Americans, including his own political allies, to make financial sacrifices for the good of the country ... "
And Calpundit is just, well, perturbed by the whole thing:
Who the hell does George Bush think he is, anyway? We haven't had a "wartime president" since FDR, and there's a good reason for that: you're only a wartime president if you act like you're at war. That means placing the country on a wartime footing, putting aside petty politics to forge a bipartisan wartime consensus, and telling the nation in no uncertain terms that sacrifices need to be made. George Bush has done none of those things. In fact, he's done exactly the opposite, sending the message loud and clear that this war is as trivial and inconsequential as it's possible to be, all the time treating it as little more than a partisan club with which to beat his enemies.
In a withering critique of the Bush administration, former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday accused the president of betraying the country by using the Sept. 11 attacks as a justification for the invasion of Iraq.
"He betrayed this country!" Mr. Gore shouted into the microphone at a rally of Tennessee Democrats here in a stuffy hotel ballroom. "He played on our fears. He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure dangerous to our troops, an adventure preordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place."
Feels to me like spring is coming.
But then the war in Iraq came, and he felt betrayed. "It is not a minor matter to take the loyalty and deep patriotic feelings of the American people and trifle with them," he declared, adding with a shout: "The truth shall rise again."
...audio is available here, at least for now. It's really worth a listen.
THE RAPTURE IS COMING
So I guess you might as well just take the day off.
"It could happen at any moment. It could happen, as we like to say, during this interview. Like that. Bang," says Thomas Ice, who might be called a professor emeritus of the Rapture. He runs the Pre-Tribulation Research Center out of his garage in a Dallas suburb. It's a one-man think-tank funded by LaHaye and dedicated to preparation for the last days on earth.
"There is a lot of debate over where ... artificial body parts, and contact lenses, and clothes would be "Left Behind" or not. But the body would definitely be taken," adds Ice.
That's what happens to believers. But the rest of humanity is condemned to suffering.
"That's what the Bible teaches. There are gonna be many Southern Baptists, for example, or many Presbyterians, or many Catholics, or people who are a part of Christendom," says Ice. "But if they haven't personally trusted Jesus Christ as their savior, even if they ... a lifelong member of a church, you know, then they will be damned."
________
WHERE'S GRANDPA? A SHORT PIECE OF SPECULATIVE FICTION
"Um. Where's Grandpa?"
"He was there a second ago. That's weird." Your sister walks over to the recliner.
"What's this?"
She's holding up a small silver disk. A short wire seems to be attached.
"Let me see."
The disk is imperfectly circular and warm to the touch. The word "Medtronic" is inscribed on one side.
"I think it's his pacemaker," your sister says, and giggles nervously.
Silence.
________
But no, really, it's scary, isn't it? That these people are allowed to vote?
1) The Russert interviews. In the summer of 2002, John Edwards looked like the rising star of the Democratic Party. Then he went on Meet the Press and looked completely unprepared for the grilling. It took Edwards about a year to win back his credibility with Washington insiders and in the mean time, he lost his position as co-frontrunner.
In the summer of 2003, Howard Dean was riding a wave of anti-war sentiment and generally favorable media coverage. While his Russert moment did nothing to dissuade his true believers, it was a turning point for media coverage of Dean ... and that would turn out to be his achilles heel.
Finally, this weekend George W. Bush went on MTP to sure up his lagging poll numbers. Anyone still unconvinced of Bush's electoral vulnerability was soon aware that Bush can be beaten -- giving Kerry the final boost he needed pre Virginia and Tennessee to basically wrap up the nomination.
I don't think most people following this story figured it would have nearly so dramatic an effect as the Annenberg study indicates. I certainly didn't. Indeed, I focused on the parts of Kay's comments and testimony which struck me as attempting to exonerate the administration.
As did I. Big time.
But this may be a case in which close attention to the news helped create a real blind spot. As we've noted here many times the White House has gone to great lengths to avoid publicly acknowledging the reality that we were totally wrong about the weapons.
The implication of this is that the American public is finally tiring of all of the head-fakes. I'd love it if it were true.
...according to Billmon, the Russert interview didn't help the perception of Bush as either a liar or, well, just an incompetent:
If, as the polls suggest, people (particularly the independents) are already having doubts about Bush's judgement calls -- especially on Iraq -- then I don't see how this kind of dialogue is going to help him:
RUSSERT: Let me turn to Iraq. And this is the whole idea of what you based your decision to go to war on.
BUSH: Sure, sure.
RUSSERT: The night you took the country to war, March 17th, you said this: Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.
BUSH: Right.
RUSSERT: That, apparently, is not the case.
BUSH: Correct.
AWOL UPDATE
Kevin Drum moves from intelligent punditry to actual journalism with his update on AWOL and the mysterious ripped page from his military records. Big ups.
To make a long story short, Bush apparently blew off drills beginning in May 1972, failed to show up for his physical, and was then grounded and transferred to ARF as a disciplinary measure. He didn't return to his original Texas Guard unit and cram in 36 days of active duty in 1973 -- as Time magazine and others continue to assert based on a mistaken interpretation of Bush's 1973-74 ARF record -- but rather accumulated only ARF points during that period.
Funny how this one just won't go away.
...Jesse Taylor at Pandagon is not sure that the transfer was disciplinary.
From : Teen Vampire Meetup Sent : Sunday, February 8, 2004 3:07 AM
To : xxxxxxxx@xxxx
Subject : Teen Vampire Meetup: Time to Vote for a Venue
*Please Do Not Reply to This Message -- For Help, See Below*
Your next San Francisco, CA "Teen Vampire" Meetup is Saturday,
Feb 28 @ 7PM. The exact location is open for a vote. Vote for
your preferred venue now:
http://teenvampire.meetup.com/
Want a Meetup in your town or neighborhood? MeetupPlus members
can add a preferred local venue, and any venue(s) receiving
enough votes will have a Meetup. Add your venue directly to the
ballot here:
http://teenvampire.meetup.com/nominate/
A full report will follow. I am, I'll admit, tingly with excitement.
AWOL ON RUSSERT
Looks like I can't add anything to what's already out there.
On the budget, this president is frighteningly unaware of the reality of his own legacy and policies. That's the only conlclusion you can draw from his answers on Tim Russert. Either that, or he really is lying.
Brad DeLong finds another lie (with numbers to prove it).
Josh Marshall writes about Bush's apparent unconditional willingness to disclose all of his military records.
Bush: Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year. The terrorist threat -- [tentative applause from Democratic side grows to healthy applause]
[Bush looks confused and then seriously annoyed]
Bush: The terrorist threat... [Bush tosses head in snarky, mocking way]
Bush: ...will not expire on that schedule. [Loud applause from Repug side]
Seems to me the clip shows the Repugs applauding the terrorist threat, but we know that simply can't be true!
What the clip really shows is the reemergence of the Democrats as a true opposition party.
[Perhaps you should seriously consider throwing Atrios a few nickles for bandwidth. Hm?]
IOWA SUBPOENAS UPDATE
Via Kos, an update and explanation from one of the subpoenaed parties in Iowa:
Yesterday, February 3, Detective Jeff Warford of the Polk County Sheriff's Office-FBI-Joint Terrorism Task Force came to Catholic Peace Ministry's office here in Des Moines with a subpoena for me to testify before a Federal Grand Jury next Tuesday, February 10. Mr. Warford also served papers on Elton Davis at the Catholic Worker House and Patti McKee, who was coordinator of Iowa Peace Network until last month. The Grand Jury process is shrouded in secrecy. We do not know who or what the object of this investigation may be, beyond "possible violations of federal criminal law in the Southern District of Iowa."
The proceeding will be behind closed doors. We may not have an attorney present. We have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment, refusing the answer questions that might incriminate us. The government, then, can offer us immunity from prosecution, in which case we will obliged to answer under threat of contempt of court and could be imprisoned for the length of the Grand Jury session, 18 months, should we continue to refuse to answer. This immunity would be limited to our own testimony and anything any of us say could be used against the others.
Whatever is going on, this is definitely an escalation on the part of the government's war on dissent and clamp down on civil liberties. The fact that anything that we three and the peacemaking communities we represent could possibly attract the notice of a "Terrorism Task Force" is reprehensible. Please spread the word, express concerns you have with Federal and Polk County authorities. Keep us in mind and prayer.
Brian Terrell
Executive Director
Catholic Peace Ministry
Go to that Kos link above for a few more update links.
