Quote of the Day
"Rove joked about being way "off message" in talking about the economy just hours before his president was to address the nation on immigration. Rove needn't worry. The problem is not that Rove was off message but that the country has gone off Bush's message, and shows no sign of coming back." - EJ Dionne, Washington Post columnist
3041 - Coalition dead in Afghanistan & Iraq.
979 - Days remaining in the Bush presidency.
3 - Days 'til my daughters 1st birthday.
Posted by snark at May 16, 2006 05:56 AMsnark,
Yay, a baby! That's nice, I hope you all have fun and take lotsa "cake on the kisser" pictures.
How long do you think until we find out that the administration has been actively spying on its political opponents? One week? One month? Six months? Today?
Posted by Joseph at May 16, 2006 06:20 AMSo who else heard more of Rove on Sunday at the AEI?
I heard some great quotes (sic):
"We stand for fiscal restraint."
"Our oppponents stand for litte of nothing more than mere obstructionism . ."
"America is a center-right country, presented with a center-right party with center-right candidates, and will vote center-right."
"The Administration issued 39 veto threats, and the Congress responded by reducing spending to levels proposed by the President. To put it mildly, the impact of the president's veto messages have been an unreported success."
"The polls that I belive are the polls that get run through the RNC . . . The American people like this President, his personal apporval ratings are in the 60's. His job approval ratings are lower. What that says to me is that the American people like this President, they respect him, he's somebody they feel a connection with, but they're just sour on the war. That's the way it's going to be."
Two observations...
1. "Expanded detnetion capacity." So are we going to see KBR putting up internal displacement camps soon?
2. "Don't hate." The wingnuts are in a serious froth today. Expect the kool-aid drinkers to push back with "we are ending catch and release." I love the misappropriation of that phrase...
And for Joseph... we already know that the administration is spying on political opponents, vis a vis CIFA, the Counter Intelligence Field Activity run by DIA. These most recent disclosures simply expand the scope of their domestic espionage program, to my mind...
mojo sends
Posted by vanmojo at May 16, 2006 06:30 AMso the government is only collecting info on the 20 million terrorists in this country. and reporters:
A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.
happy birthday, snarkbaby!
I've written twice on secret police as a tool for suppression of domestic dissent.
This one is a historical essay about Czarist Russia:
Surveillance vs Civil Liberty
And this one is about how the current NSA phone record program is not designed to catch "terrorists", but works quite well at monitoring politically active groups.
Just today their is an op-ed in the NY Times from a mathematician explain why the NSA program won't work well. The NSA is not stupid, they know this, that's the proof that that stated purpose is not the real purpose.
To complete the picture of secret police spying we now have reports of the FBI getting phone records of reporters (without a warrant, they use a National Security Letter instead) to figure out who in the government has been "leaking" these stories about illegal spying.
Whether this story is true or not, it will have the effect of making whistleblowers much less willing to talk to reporters. This will have an effect not only on political leaks, but those revealing corporate mismangement and even gossip about celebrities. It's part of a program of intimidating news sources and making the press less effective.
3 - Days 'til my daughters 1st birthday.
Snark, may this be the first of many, many happy birthdays for your daughter! I wish her the best!
Posted by tempus at May 16, 2006 07:47 AMGreg wrote a book and Amy interviewed him.
Posted by Sharon at May 16, 2006 07:50 AMCNN has an online poll about supporting bu$h's immigration proposal, go freep it.
Posted by Blue in Texas at May 16, 2006 07:51 AMBeautiful snarkbaby - Happy B-day! This is the best age, up until the next year, anyhow.
Posted by iamcoyote at May 16, 2006 08:05 AMI love them at any age. She is a bit more mischeavous than her older sister but she is without a doubt the cutest baby in the world.
Posted by snark at May 16, 2006 08:14 AMLittle girls can also get some vocalizations going that would give a rain forest bird a run for its money. And where they get their energy I'll never know. Cosmic prana or something. Enjoy snark.
Posted by jondee at May 16, 2006 08:22 AMHappy Birthday little snarkbaby. The next five years are the cutest.
Joseph, of course they have been spying on political enemies, and probably before the election of 2000. That is why I can't figure out the complacency of the Democrats as well as the Republicans. Surely they understand they too are at risk for prying ears. Perhaps blackmailing politicians is not as crazy as one might think.
Posted by Judith at May 16, 2006 08:32 AMBush is such a wonderful president. Just like that, the conservatives are celebrating his speech and lame, toothless proposals on immigration. Problem solved. Another one of the administrations problems eleminated. Like gay marriage. And flag burning. And keeping us safe from terrorists while spreading freedom in the world.
Now can we quickly move on to something else before the November elections?
Posted by Hank at May 16, 2006 09:26 AMhttp://www.plutocraticagenda.blogspot.com
Three Little Pigs:
1. Big Squeeze: "Fool-me-once" was tax cuts for the rich.
Immediate goal: create an artifical budget crisis, spiking deficit spending to put the squeeze on social programs.
Ultimate goal: This Pig wants to eat Social Security.
2. Big Scare: "Fool-me-twice" was Iraq.
Immediate goals: fork half a trillion in war pork to military contractors. Jack non-Iraq military spending to Cold-War levels for the foreseeable future. And abet the Big Game.
Ultimate goal: This pig wants to stay at the trough--assisting the Big Squeeze.
3. Big Game: the third little pig that went under the radar. "Fool-me-three-times" was the top-secret energy policy the Admin cooked up with oil and gas lobbyists back in 2001. That policy included planting the Big Scare.
Immediate goal: create dream conditions for the Big Game. A game that makes the rooking of the California electricity market in 2001--and the political assassination of the governor of the most populous state of the union--look like Old Maid. A form of economic vampirism so extreme, that next to it, Enron's a mosquito.
Ultimate goal: suck as much cash out of the middle class as possible--and build retirement villas.
One thing we're sure of: these three little pigs don't build those villas with bricks--they build 'em with fat tax cuts, no-bid contracts, and $400 million retirement deals from Exxon.
Howard Dean, howdy.
You know we need more than huffing and puffing to be the Big Bad Wolf.
You knew it in 2004.
These pigs are big. They have tough hide.
It isn't enough that the GOP has handed us an elephant gun. We need to make our own ammo. Concrete legislation. So we can offer real value at the polls.
Positive value, not just "throw the bums out".
Stop by Doc Twain's for a spell--and get HIP.
That's the National Health Insurance Program, for all you old ladies out there.
http://www.plutocraticagenda.blogspot.com
Big blow to all the 9/11 conspiracy theorists today.
Government releases video of AA flight 77 flying into the Pentagon to JudicialWatch.
So much for the 'It was a cruise missile theory'.
Posted by snark at May 16, 2006 11:50 AMNow can we quickly move on to something else before the November elections
Listening to rove yesterday at AEI and intermittently watching bush last night (at the gym), I get the visual image of a tire hopelessly stuck in the mud - spinning faster and faster while going nowhere.
As each day passes, I'm filled with an increasing sense of dread that the 'something else' Hank mentioned is attacking Iran. They've got nothing else. Creating complete chaos is the only way they can maintain power. And that's what it's all about with this fucking, malignant cancer that has spread throughout our government and our society.
I watched 'Judgement at Nuremburg' last night on TCM and wonder how we've come to our present cultural state. Watching this slow-motion train wreck is depressing.
Posted by Jim Faith at May 16, 2006 11:52 AMOh god, I love president Bush. He is so wise, so compassionate, so good looking, and he uses deodorant. I drool every time I see his photo in print. I have given up dating just to devote my time to licking his toes. Jim Baker has nothing on this man....
Posted by tempus at May 16, 2006 12:49 PM