Jesse Taylor is leaving political blogging to work in politics. Pandagon now in the able hands of Amanda Marcotte.
Plamegate – The Latest
Lot of buzz and reaction to Judy Miller and the fact that the name "Valerie Flame" appears in her handwritten notes for a date in which she had a conversation with Scooter Libby.
Most of the invective against Miller is centered around the inescapable fact that she was merely a White House secretary, rather than being an independent reporter. Well, no duh.
But I’m not going to dwell on this. Kevin Drum has three interesting posts on the subject.
In one post he reminds of John Bolton’s man Fred Fleitz as a very probable background player in the drama. And he rightly points to the significance of Miller’s having been told by someone — just who is almost a secondary matter — the name ‘Plame’ rather than simply told that Joe Wilson’s wife worked as a clandestine operative at CIA.
In the second he doubts the now-popular notion that Miller’s attorney Bob Bennett hoodwinked Fitzgerald by getting him to agree to limit his questions to her conversations with Libby.
This last one explains why Miller’s claim not to remember who identified Wilson’s wife as "Plame" is obviously false.
So you can read him, or many others. I’m staying clear for the time. Especially since the scuttlebutt is that indictments may be handed down as early as Wednesday. So speculation about who will be indicted (Rove and Libby?) will finally end.
Miers 2.0
The Bush White House wants a do-over on Miers:
Get ready for a whole new Harriet. After a disastrous two weeks, White House officials say they hope to relaunch the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court by moving from what they call a "biographical phase" to an "accomplishment phase." In other words, stop debating her religion and personality and start focusing on her résumé as a pioneering female lawyer of the Southwest. "We got a little wrapped around the axle," an exhausted White House official said. "As the focus becomes less on who she’s not and more on who she is, that’s a better place to be."
So, as the White House counsel begins her formal prep sessions this week for a confirmation hearing that’s likely to start in early November, President Bush will hold a photo op with former chief justices of the Texas Supreme Court who will testify to Miers’ qualifications and legal mind. The White House’s 20-person "confirmation team" will line up news conferences, opinion pieces and letters to the editor by professors and former colleagues who can talk about Miers’ experience dealing with such real-world issues as the Voting Rights Act when she was a Dallas city council member and Native American tribal sovereignty when she was chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission.
Personally, I think it is all too late. The horse has left the barn, and not only is the barn door open, but the entire structure has burned to the ground.
UPDATE: John Fund asks: "Did Christian conservatives receive assurances that Miers would oppose Roe v. Wade?
Democratic Ideas – No. 7
Democracy Begins at Home. Equal opportunity in this country is based upon equal representation and fair voting. Democrats are determined to reforming the voting system in this country to create Federal standards for our elections. The bill adds verification, accountability and accuracy to the system. It increases access to the polls with Election Day registration, shorter lines and early voting. The bill also aims to modernize our election equipment and increase impartiality and provides the resources to our states to implement the bill.
Previous:
Democratic Idea No. 1: Standing With Our Troops
Democratic Idea No. 2: Targeting The Terrorists More Effectively
Democratic Idea No. 3: Fulfilling Our Duty to America’s Veterans
Democratic Idea No. 4: Expanding Economic Opportunity
Democratic Idea No. 5: Quality Education For All
Democratic Idea No. 6: Making Health Care More Affordable
Democratic Ideas – No. 6
Making Health Care More Affordable. Spiraling health care costs are putting the opportunity of America at risk, making it harder for families to buy health insurance and placing a difficult burden on small businesses and manufacturers. Democrats will address these concerns by making prescription drugs more affordable through the legalization of prescription drug reimportation and more safe by ensuring drugs are monitored after they are approved for use. Democrats will ensure that all children and pregnant women will have health care and protect Medicaid. We will reduce the growing cost of health care to small businesses by offering tax credits while also modernizing health care to cut costs for patients and businesses.
Previous:
Democratic Idea No. 1: Standing With Our Troops
Democratic Idea No. 2: Targeting The Terrorists More Effectively
Democratic Idea No. 3: Fulfilling Our Duty to America’s Veterans
Democratic Idea No. 4: Expanding Economic Opportunity
Democratic Idea No. 5: Quality Education For All
Democratic Ideas – No. 5
Quality Education for All Democrats are committed to providing a quality education to all Americans because we recognize that education has always been the cornerstone of equal opportunity. Democrats will keep our promise to our children by increasing support for pre-school education, fully funding No Child Left Behind and improving its implementation. We are committed to providing safe and reliable transportation for our rural school children and meeting the Federal commitment to children with disabilities. Democrats will also address the shortfall of math, science and special education teachers by creating tuition incentives for college students to major in those fields. We will help expand educational opportunities for college by providing relief from skyrocketing college tuition, increasing the size and access to Pell Grants and supporting proven programs that encourage more young people to attend and succeed in college.\
Previous:
Democratic Idea No. 1: Standing With Our Troops
Democratic Idea No. 2: Targeting The Terrorists More Effectively
Democratic Idea No. 3: Fulfilling Our Duty to America’s Veterans
Democratic Idea No. 4: Expanding Economic Opportunity
The Second Question Of The Day
In the same vein as this, the new question of the day is:
Which movie scene always makes you laugh?
Frankly, I’m too tired to play. But two answers quickly come to mind:
From Dr. Strangelove: "Well, one of our generals went and… well, he went a little funny in the head. You know…just… funny." Also, "Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!!!"
From The Life Of Brian: Michael Palin as the sympathetic and helpful Roman with a clipboard in his hand, asking prisoners in line: "Crucifixion? Yes. To the right, please".
There are several scenes in The Birdcage which make me laugh, too.
RELATED: Speaking of movies, can you believe this?
His last bout was with his protègèturned-rival Tommy Gunn in Rocky V.
Now, more than 15 years on – and 30 years since first putting on his boxing gloves – Rocky Balboa is making another comeback.
Hollywood sources confirmed last night that Sylvester Stallone has agreed to star in the sixth installment of the Rocky saga.
In Rocky VI, a lonely, poverty-stricken Balboa comes out of retirement and looks to keep his hand in with a few low-profile fights.
But his return to the ring causes a media frenzy and a promoter comes up with the idea that he should fight the heavyweight champion, Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon.
Stallone, by the way, is 60 years old. So, you know, even I could beat him up at this point.
People I’m Glad I Don’t Know
A passenger woke up from a nap, raised his fist and punched out the interior pane of an airplane window on a flight from Las Vegas to Florida, authorities said.
Ryan J. Marchione, 24, shattered the inner plastic shield covering the glass window and disconnected its frame about 90 minutes into the America West flight, according to an FBI affidavit.
The outer window was not damaged and the plane did not depressurize, the airline said.
***
Marchione "woke abruptly from his sleep and turned to the passenger seated in 7B" about 90 minutes into the flight, an FBI affidavit said. He then "raised a clenched fist to his shoulder as if he was going to strike the passenger in 7B, then suddenly turned and struck the exterior window," the affidavit said.
"It appears to have come out of nowhere," said Marchione’s attorney, Thomas Ostrander. "Perhaps it was some sort of a psychotic episode as a result of drug abuse."
A third-grade teacher accused of performing oral sex on a 9-year-old boy, allowing students to peek down her blouse and slashing her wrists with glass in front of her students pleaded not guilty to the 24 criminal charges she faces.
Georgianne Harrell, 24, was indicted last month on two counts of aggravated child molestation, 21 counts of child molestation and one count of reckless conduct stemming from incidents alleged to have taken place in her classroom at Sylvester’s Holley Elementary School between August 2004 and May.
She was to have been arraigned Tuesday, but her attorney filed documents waiving her right to an arraignment. He also entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf.
Harrell was arrested May 17, after cutting her wrists with broken glass in her classroom, officials say.
Eleven of the 24 charges against her involve a boy who was 9 at the time of the alleged attacks.
Miers Can’t Write Worth A Shit
David Brooks of the New York Times took Harriet Miers to town for her crappy, vapid writing skills. (I won’t link to Brooks, because the NYT now has an annoying subscription wall).
Here’s an example of Miers’ "scholarly" writing from an early-90’s Texas Bar Journal article:
"An organization must also implement programs to fulfill strategies established through its goals and mission. Methods for evaluation of these strategies are a necessity. With the framework of mission, goals, strategies, programs, and methods for evaluation in place, a meaningful budgeting process can begin."
Brooks says that the article "doesn’t even rise to the level of pedestrian", and, boy is he right. It reads like a book report about a book that was never read ("The name of the book about which this book report is about is ‘Peter Rabbit’, which is about this . . . rabbit").
Meanwhile, on Harriet Miers’ blog, she notes that everyone keeps asking her "What’s your philosophy?" Over and over again she hears that question, so she responds:
Well I think this has gone on long enough!! Here’s my philosophy, its simple really.
FOLLOW YOUR HEART!!!Thats all there is to it!! OK that’s all for now folks!!
The Bush Photo-Op
The MSM is covering it, so I won’t. Of course, that’s the real story: that the MSM is finally (and openly) exposing the Bush Administration for their silly staged events.
But you can see good NBC/MSNBC reports about it here and here (both Windows Media Player files)
And then there’s the AP story:
I’m going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," [White House handler Allison] Barber said.
A brief rehearsal ensued.
"OK, so let’s just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"
"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.
"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.
"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.
And so it went.
"If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?" Barber asked.
"That’s going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.
"And then if we’re going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit — the hometown — and how they’re handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.
Yet ANOTHER Bush Administration Scandal
Investigators at the Education Department have contacted the U.S. attorney’s office regarding the Bush administration’s hiring of commentator Armstrong Williams to promote its agenda.
The action was disclosed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who has pressed for a criminal fraud investigation focused on questions about whether Williams actually performed the work cited in his monthly reports to the Education Department.
Last month, congressional auditors concluded that the Education Department had engaged in illegal "covert propaganda" by hiring Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act without requiring him to disclose that he was being paid.
And while we’re Bush-bashing (okay, when are we not), here’s an interesting graph:
Vivian Malone Jones – R.I.P
Classy lady. A real looker, too.
Vivian Malone Jones, one of two black students whose effort to enroll at the University of Alabama led to George Wallace’s infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" in 1963, died Thursday. She was 63.
Jones, who went on to become the first black to graduate from the school, died at Atlanta Medical Center, where she was admitted Tuesday after suffering a stroke, said her sister, Sharon Malone.
"She was absolutely fine Monday," Malone said.
Jones, a retired federal worker who lived in Atlanta, grew up in Mobile, Ala. She had enrolled at historically black Alabama A&M University in Huntsville when she transferred to the University of Alabama in 1963. The move led to then-Gov. Wallace’s infamous stand in defiance of orders to admit black students. Jones and James Hood, accompanied by then-Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, enrolled after Wallace finished his statement and left.
At an appearance last year in Mobile, she recalled that she and Hood waited in a car until Wallace read his proclamation. "I was never afraid. I did have some apprehensions in my mind, though, especially having gone to segregated, ‘separate, but equal’ schools."
Jones said her religious beliefs gave her confidence to persist. She graduated in 1965.
"God was with me," she said.
Best Obit Ever
From the Chicago Tribune published on 10/10/05 (hat tip: AmericaBlog):
Theodore Roosevelt Heller, 88, loving father of Charles (Joann) Heller; dear brother of the late Sonya (the late Jack) Steinberg. Ted was discharged from the U.S. Army during WWII due to service related injuries, and then forced his way back into the Illinois National Guard insisting no one tells him when to serve his country. Graveside services Tuesday 11 a.m. at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery (Ziditshover section), 1700 S. Harlem Ave., Chicago. In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans.
Strange Metrics
Gen. Abizaid, on Meet the Press, was explaining why he believes that the readiness of the Iraqi army is pretty good:
"[T]here’s more people in the field fighting and participating in operations than at any time in the past and their casualty rate is double, if not triple that of which ours is, which means they’re out there fighting."
So the Iraqi Army is in a good state of readiness because their casualty rates are abnormally high.
That makes General Custer a military genius.