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Tea-Parties so Diverse, They Had to Use the Same Black Guy in 5 Different Scenes of Tea-Bagger Movie
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on November 20, 2009 at 5:26 PM.

So there’s this ludicrous trailer for a ridiculous movie about the Tea Party people that came out today, and when I watched it I noticed that it kept showing the same black guy. Now, I knew the Teabaggers weren’t the most diverse crowd, but it’s kind of hilarious that they used the same dude in five shots in their trailer.

00:42

00:59

1:03

1:09

1:14

We Can Fix a Broken Immigration System... Here's How
Posted by Rachel LaBruyere, Standing Firm on November 20, 2009 at 5:00 PM.

On Wednesday night, 60,000 people joined what was an incredible call to action on overhauling our nation’s broken immigration laws.

Today, we’re releasing a new video that features Congressman Luis Gutierrez unveiling his principles for reform in October, and which calls on all of us to help build the movement for real immigration reform:

We all know our immigration system needs fixing.

Immigration has been used as a wedge to obstruct progress on everything from the Stimulus to health care reform— even the 2010 Census. There are many skeptics out there who believe Congress doesn’t have what it takes to pass reform in 2010 – or that even if they have what it takes, they don’t have the nerve to do it.

But just last week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano reinforced the administration’s commitment to reform, laying out the details for why this push is different, and why we need to get it done.

What’s more, the national movement for real immigration reform is growing—and we are only getting bigger.

On Wednesday night, there were over 1,000 house parties in 45 states, with supporters gathered together anxiously to hear what they could do to help make reform a reality. All across the country, people are primed and ready to do whatever it takes to win this battle, and if you are not one of those people, now is the time to join the fight.

Watch our new video, sign up for the text message network, and help spread the word today.

In 2007, opponents of immigration reform took credit for stopping legislation in its tracks, overwhelming Congressional offices with a flood of angry phone calls and faxes. They took control of the debate and scared the pants off of vulnerable members of Congress.

This time around will be different, but it will take all of us to make real immigration reform a reality.

Americans Lack Economic Literacy; Some Hold "Insane" Views on Stimulus Spending
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on November 20, 2009 at 3:37 PM.

OK, so most Americans have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to the deficit. How are they when it comes to understanding stimulus efforts? Arguably, on this, they're even worse.

Rasmussen has a new poll showing a 51% majority believes canceling the economic recovery efforts would "create more jobs." Derek Thompson, flabbergasted, characterized these beliefs as "insane."

It's one thing to say that canceling the rest of the stimulus money would help our deficit. That's arguable, even if I think it's dead wrong, since the best way to help our deficit is to put people back to work when demand is nonexistent so that they (1) receive taxable income and (2) spend that taxable income on products to help other people's taxable income. [...]

The idea that canceling the stimulus would create more jobs implies that passing the stimulus has actually killed more jobs than it's created, which is bonkers. Let's say you don't want to consider infrastructure spending or green technology spending or a single job that might have been created in the private sector. If nothing else, the tens of billions we've sent to state budgets have, without question, saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, like teachers, that are supported by state taxes. It's just a very basic fact.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/31stimulus.html

So this is a crazy statistic, but I think it's important to ask why Americans think the stimulus is actually hurting job-creation.

It's a good question, and your guess is as good as mine. Chances are, it's not just one thing. Part of the confusion is likely the result of an electorate that doesn't quite understand the basics, and is therefore easily misled by the same people who got us in this mess. Part of it comes from a media that hasn't made much of an effort to explain the basics. And part of the problem has to be politicians -- one party believes Hoover was right about the Great Depression, and the other party is afraid to talk about how government spending and intervention prevented a wholesale economic collapse.

Regardless of the cause, the consequences of widespread confusion and ignorance can be, and may turn out to be, devastating. If most Americans believe government spending undermines job creation, and are convinced that short-term deficit reduction is more important than economic growth, they're more likely to vote for arsonists to put out the fire.

The surest way to make things even worse is to reward those who created the problem in the first place.

Utah Lawmaker: I Don't Mind "the Gays," but "I Don’t Want ‘Em Stuffing it Down My Throat all the Time"
Posted by Zaid Jilani, Think Progress on November 20, 2009 at 2:32 PM.

Earlier this month, the Church of Latter Day Saints made headlines when it threw its support behind a measure in Salt Lake City that barred “landlords and employers from discriminating based on sexuality,” making it the first city in Utah to adopt the gay rights measure. Now, the Mormon Church is backing a similar statewide bill, enlisting the help of a variety of lawmakers to help get it passed. One such lawmaker is Sen. Chris Buttars (R), who, despite his adamant support for an earlier proposition that banned same-sex marriage, does believe that sexual orientation deserves protection from employer and landlord abuse. However, while explaining his opposition to allowing same-sex couples to adopt children, he told the press that while he doesn’t “mind” gays, he doesn’t want them “stuffing it down [his] throat all the time“:

BUTTARS: I meet with the gays here and there. They were in my house two weeks ago. I don’t mind gays. But I don’t want ‘em stuffing it down my throat all the time. Certainly not in my kid’s face.

Watch it:

In the past, Buttars has said that gay men and women are “the greatest threat to America going down.” “I believe they will destroy the foundation of the American society,” he said in February. “In my mind, it’s the beginning of the end. … Sodom and Gomorrah was localized. This is worldwide.” Last year, the NAACP called for his resignation because of his comments about a controversial bill: “This baby is black, I’ll tell you,” said Buttars. “This is a dark and ugly thing.”

Krauthammer Commits Terrorist Act on the Opinion Pages of the Washington Post
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet on November 20, 2009 at 1:41 PM.

Perhaps we should be concerned about Charles Krauthammer. He's been awfully stressed-out since the last election, and this week's decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York has him in a bit of a state ...

For late-19th-century anarchists, terrorism was the "propaganda of the deed." And the most successful propaganda-by-deed in history was 9/11 -- not just the most destructive, but the most spectacular and telegenic.

And now its self-proclaimed architect, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, has been given by the Obama administration a civilian trial in New York. Just as the memory fades, 9/11 has been granted a second life -- and KSM, a second act: "9/11, The Director's Cut," narration by KSM.

Smell a bit of jealousy here? Krauthammer and Mohammed share a similar interest: instilling a profound dread of Islamic fundamentalism in the hearts of the American public -- the world public. Krauthammer's owned 9/11 for 8 years, and he'll have the final cut, not the damn director!

September 11, 2001 had to speak for itself ...

Right, the Bush bunch and all those right-wing bloggers never spoke on that day's behalf.

A decade later, the deed will be given voice. KSM has gratuitously been presented with the greatest propaganda platform imaginable -- a civilian trial in the media capital of the world -- from which to proclaim the glory of jihad and the criminality of infidel America.

We've seen terror trials. Judges have been pretty about not allowing the defendants to use them as a megaphone to promote their worldviews.

But setting aside reality for a moment -- and you have to in order to really soak in a good Krauthammer column -- I'm going to ask you to forget about politics and consider just what in the world might KSM say at that trial that has right-wingers cowering under their beds? Do you think he could -- gasp! -- accuse the U.S. of being craven imperialists? Of supporting Israeli "genocide" against the Palestinians? Might he dare suggest that we're waging a war on Islam? That we're trying to impose our decadent values on the rest of the world? My God, do you think he could accuse us of having some sort of interest in Middle East oil?!?

If KSM were permitted to utter these shocking allegations, would they come as a surprise to anyone? Is the danger here that nobody in the Muslim world has ever heard of such outlandish ideas before? Will ordinary Muslim men and women, hearing Mohammed's suggestion that America might be the Great Satan for the first time on some Al Jazeera broadcast suddenly drop whatever they're doing and strike out against the infidels?

I mean, seriously? If you're not already predisposed to al Qaeda's message (which one assumes is widely available), would you really give what Mohammed says during testimony a lot of credence (again, in the unlikely case they let him ramble)? Is he that articulate? Are we trying the scruffy dude who says he chopped off Daniel Pearl's head or Noam Chomsky here?

Whatever the risk, for Krauthammer it's just not worth it...

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Will the Tea-Baggers Come After McCain? Will Palin Ride to His Rescue?!?
Posted by Steve M., No More Mister Nice Blog on November 20, 2009 at 12:08 PM.

I don't put much stock in the wingnut-skewed Rasmussen polls, but there's one out now that says John McCain might be at risk of a teabag purge -- according to the poll, McCain is barely ahead of talk-radio host and ex-congressman J.D. Hayworth, 45%-43%, in a potential primary matchup. (Hayworth isn't a declared candidate.)

In response to this, Bill Kristol writes:

Still, who could help McCain beat back a populist conservative challenger? Sarah Palin. I predict that Palin will come to Arizona next summer to campaign for McCain, will make an impassioned case for him, and will help him win. She will thereby repay McCain for his confidence in picking her last year, help keep McCain as a crucial voice in the Senate for a strong foreign policy, and get credit for being a different kind of populist conservative -- a Reaganite, not a Buchananite, populist -- than the immigration-obsessed, voter-alienating (he was ousted in 2006 in a Republican district) Hayworth.

Really? And risk damaging Brand Palin, which stands for the rescue of America from both Marxist Kenyan fascism and the RINOism of which all teabaggers believe John McCain to be the living embodiment?

Nahhh -- there's no way she's going to endorse someone against a candidate who is (or might be) identified with the teabag Cause. And as we can tell from her memoir, she's certainly not going to do anything for McCain out of gratitude for his decision to make her a star. So no, Bill -- you're wrong again.

Video: Progressive Change Campaign Committee Robocalls For the Public Option
Posted by AlterNet Staff, AlterNet on November 20, 2009 at 11:00 AM.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Last month, as Majority Leader Harry Reid considered whether to include a public health-insurance plan in the bill he would put before the Senate, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee ran as him hard, pressuring the leader with television ads in his home state of Nevada, where Reid is expected to face a difficult re-election campaign for his Senate seat.

Now, having won that battle -- Reid indeed included a public option in the Senate bill -- PCCC is marshaling support for Reid as he shepherds the bill though the legislative process, making robocalls recorded by Lee Slaughter, the Nevada nurse who appeared in the ad that was used to pressure Reid. People receiving the call are given a keypad option that allows them to sign up for PCCC's public option campaign. (The online sign-up page is here.)

Below find a video that features Slaughter's robocall as its audio.

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

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More Republicans Think Obama Stole an Election than Democrats Believe Bush Did
Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left on November 20, 2009 at 9:53 AM.

A new survey from PPP (PDF) shows that 26% of Americans, most of whom are Republicans, think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama.

For the sake of comparison, a Gallup poll immediately following Gore's concession in the 2000 election showed that 18% of the county, a significant percentage of whom were African-American, believed that Bush stole the election.

In 2004, the numbers for Bush were even lower.  Back then, in the wake of Kerry's concession, a Gallup poll showed only 13% of the country believed that Bush stole the election.  (FWIW, I was among the 5% or so that shifted from 2000 to 2004.)

This is simultaneously a demonstration that hard-core conservatives live in an entirely different reality than the rest of the country, and that the hardcore conservative base is as much as twice as large as the hardcore progressive base. 

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Out-of-Control Rick Perry Overrides Rare Clemency Vote, Executes Man Who Killed No One
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on November 20, 2009 at 8:37 AM.

This post originally appeared in PEEK.

Rick Perry is out of control.

Even as the controversy over his execution of an innocent man goes unresolved, last night the Texas Governor rejected a rare clemency recommendation from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles for a man facing execution for a murder he did not commit.

Robert Lee Thompson was an accomplice in a violent convenience store robbery in Houston in 1996, when his co-conspirator fatally shot the sales clerk, a man named Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed. Thompson himself fired shots that wounded Mohammed, but it was his partner, Sammy Butler, who pulled the trigger that would leave him dead. Butler was tried and sentenced to life. A different jury found Thompson guilty and sentenced him to death.

Thompson was sentenced under Texas's Law of Parties, a cynical legal statute that allows multiple parties to be found guilty of the same crime, even if they did not directly participate in it. Similar to other felony murder statutes, Texas's law states that "if, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it."

Under the Law of Parties, defendants can be held responsible for "failing to anticipate" that the "conspiracy" would lead to a murder.

Numerous defendants who did not kill anyone have been executed under the Law of Parties; that Perry wouldn't hesitate to sign off on Thompson's execution should comes as no surprise. But yesterday Thompson was granted a recommendation for clemency by the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles -- an extremely rare move. The Board, whose members are political appointments, has only recommended clemency two other times in recent memory.

One of these was two years ago in the case of Kenneth Foster, Jr., who also faced execution under the Law of Parties. In his case, the murder took place while he was in a car, 18 feet away. A grassroots campaign rose up to stop Foster's execution and in August 2007, Perry took the Board's recommendation and spared his life.

Yesterday, the Board voted 5 to 2 to spare Robert Lee Thompson, a "highly unusual" move in the words of the Houston Chronicle, and one described by Thompson's lawyer, as "hugely significant."

"I'm thrilled," he said, upon hearing news of the Board vote.

But in Texas, the Governor has the final say in clemency decisions. Despite the rare recommendation, Perry, who faces a close primary election next year against Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, was unmoved. Hours after the Board's vote, he released a statement saying that he saw "no reason" to spare Thompson's life.

Thompson was executed on schedule, at 6pm Texas time. According to AP reporter Michael Graczyk, "his mother cried uncontrollably, stomped her feet and finally demanded to be taken from the witness area before her son was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m."

Statements were released by the Texas Moratorium Network on behalf of family members of death row prisoners also sentenced under the Law of Parties, including one from Terri Been, whose brother, Jeff Wood, came close to being executed in August 2008 for a murder he did not commit.

"I must say that I was surprised to hear that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles grew a conscious and voted in favor of clemency for Robert Thompson, since they unanimously voted for the execution of my brother, Jeff Wood, who was also convicted under the law of parties despite the fact that he is factually innocent of murder," said Been. "However, I was not surprised to hear Perry didn't jump on board the clemency train as the man has no sense of true justice."  

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Mom Lets Cops Taze 10 Year-Old Daughter Who Refused to Take a Shower
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise on November 20, 2009 at 7:50 AM.

This story should put the annoying "bad mommy" confessional genre out of its misery. Nothing can top this. Bad mommies have officially jumped the shark:

An Arkansas mom allegedly allowed a police office to taze (link fixed) her 10-year-old daughter because the girl was having a tantrum. The girl will face disorderly conduct charges. The head of the Arkansas State Police says he isn't sure if the officer made a mistake when he shocked an unarmed child who wouldn't take a shower.

Any Afghan 'Surge' Is a Snare and a Delusion
Posted by Meteor Blades, Daily Kos on November 20, 2009 at 5:00 AM.

Given the record of Goldman Sachs (as detailed in McClatchy's five-part series), AIG, Halliburton and other supposedly upright U.S. corporations, it's a tad arrogant to complain about the corruption of other countries. Endemic or not, the wink-wink, nod-nod deals of much of the Third World amount to peanuts when compared with the rip-offs visited on taxpayers, investors and consumers here at home. So, while the U.S. ranks 19th on the Transparency Index's corruption scale, and Afghanistan ranks 179th, one step off the bottom, there's a little more to the picture than can be addressed by such metrics.

Be that as it may, corruption is viewed as one of the key obstacles in dealing with the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. That corruption, as the "leaked cables" sent to the White House by U.S. Ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry pointed out, may make the sending of more troops foolish if President Karzai, newly sworn in after a tainted election, cannot be made to root it out. As Tom Engelhardt explains, however, rooting it out is like asking Karzai either to commit suicide or "drink the sea":

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

New Right-Wing Craze Prays That Obama's 'Days Be Few'
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress on November 20, 2009 at 4:00 AM.

The newest far-right craze is an anti-Obama slogan that is making its way onto t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, and even teddy bears: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8,” which reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” The meme is also taking off on Twitter, with conservatives calling it “hilarious.” Commentators have noted that it’s unclear whether the intent is to hope for an end to Obama’s time in office — or an end to his life. But a look at the lines in the rest of the psalm hint at the latter:

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

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See (Literally) Why Al Franken is Gaining Votes
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on November 20, 2008 at 5:14 PM.

The reason Minnesota's Democratic senatorial candidate, Al Franken, is poised to catch up with and possibly beat the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman, is vividly demonstrated on the Minnesota Public Radio website.

This report shows varieties of sloppy writing by voters who used pens to mark their paper ballots -- marks that could not be read by optical-scan computer counters. You literally can see examples of ballots that were not counted in the tally on Election Night and decide how you would count them: for Franken or Coleman.

Apparently, Franken is benefiting from what appears to be sloppier writing by Democrats than Republicans. As of late Wednesday, he was trailing by 168 votes and gaining on Coleman.

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Why Would Obama Stick With Gates as Defense Secretary?
Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left on November 20, 2008 at 4:03 PM.

Remember who the last Secretary of Defense was under a Democratic President? It was a Republican:

On December 5, 1996, President Clinton announced his selection of Cohen as secretary of defense. Cohen, a Republican about to retire from the United States Senate, was the "right person," Clinton said, to build on the achievements of William Perry, "to secure the bipartisan support America's armed forces must have and clearly deserve." In responding to his nomination, Cohen said that during his congressional career he had supported a nonpartisan national security policy and commended the president for appointing a Republican to his cabinet.

Who will be the next Secretary of Defense under a Democratic administration? Seems like a Republican appointee:

Barack Obama and Robert Gates are negotiating policy issues with a view toward Gates remaining Defense secretary, the Financial Times reports, a move that would make the Bush appointee a key member of a bipartisan cabinet that resembles Abraham Lincoln's "team of rivals."

Kind of remarkable that every time Democrats seek elite media and political credibility for having a "bi-partisan" cabinet, they turn to Republicans to manage the Pentagon. Kind of makes you think that Democrats believe Republicans are better at managing both national security, and what is by far the largest department of the federal government. There have been no Democratic Defense Secretaries since 1996, and only eight years of Democratic Defense Secretaries since 1968.

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Econ-ocalypse: Dow Drops Below 7,600, No Deal Reached on Auto Bailout
Posted by Ian Welsh, Firedoglake on November 20, 2008 at 2:52 PM.

Well, the Dow has broken 8,000.  As Jane noted there is no technical support below 8K, so where it ends now is not known.  A historical low for a bear market, as I've written in the past is 6K, which is about 7 times earnings. 

The issue isn't just technical trading, it's the spiral of margin calls, where the lower the market goes, the more investors who have borrowed funds to invest have to sell in order to keep enough value in their accounts to cover the loans they've taken out.  The term for this is an Ohmstead break, and if one occurs, the drop will become uncontrollable.

In the meantime, I am amused that the same White House and Senate who supposedly passed the bailout bill to save the market wasn't willing to push cough 25 billion to stop this meltdown from occuring.  When the White House and Congress failed to pass a restructuring bill, investors got scared, because even if politicians are stupid enough to be stampeded by Paulson, then too stupid to understand what 3 million job losses will do the US economy, investors know that it would devastate the economy.

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Franken Camp: We're Doing Even Better Than Reported
Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on November 20, 2008 at 2:04 PM.

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Karl Rove the Hypocrite Doles Out Advice for Obama
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on November 20, 2008 at 1:37 PM.

I'm trying to pick my favorite part of Karl Rove's latest column in the Wall Street Journal. There are so many gems to choose from.

There are ... plans to use the Obama campaign's email list to lobby for Mr. Obama's policies. The Chicago Tribune, reporting comments from Obama spokesman Steve Hildebrand, summed up the plan this way: the email list could be used "to challenge Democratic lawmakers if they don't hew to the Obama agenda."

Just one problem. It's illegal. There are statutory prohibitions on the White House from using tax dollars to directly lobby Congress by unleashing emails, calls and visits. That's up to outside groups to do.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons, both of which Yglesias tackled nicely. First, Rove is confused about the law. Second, it's ironic to hear Rove encouraging Obama to steer clear of White House legal transgressions, given Rove's role in helping Bush ignore legal restrictions they found inconvenient.

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Obama Taps AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano to Head Homeland Security
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 20, 2008 at 12:22 PM.

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has been tapped by President-Elect Obama to head the Department of Homeland Security, pending vetting.

I guess it's too much for which to hope that her first order of business will be to defang and rename the creepily fascistic DHS.

Because I don't really like this department or its (over)reach (I'm way more conservative than most conservatives on this one; leave it to them to love the federal bureau with the most Nazified name), I have what I'll call "not a good reaction" when I read stuff like:

She was the first governor to call for National Guard troops to secure the U.S.-Mexico border

as if that's a good thing.

The entire department is also a dysfunctional mess; as Steve notes: "Since its creation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration's management of the newest cabinet agency has been a terrible mess. (A few years ago, House Democrats released a report noting that DHS set 33 clear goals for itself—and failed to meet all of them.)"

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Senate Gives Convicted Felon a Standing Ovation
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress on November 20, 2008 at 11:32 AM.

Today, Ted Stevens -- Alaska's defeated Republican senator and a convicted felon -- was granted time on the Senate floor to deliver his farewell speech. Steven's said that he still can’t believe that he’s "privileged to speak on the floor of the United States Senate." He also added that he "doesn’t have a rear-view mirror. I look only forward, and I still see the day when I can remove the cloud that currently surrounds me."

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) then took the floor and said farewell to his "distinguished colleague." Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had previously called for Stevens’s resignation, recalled the longest-serving Republican's "extraordinary accomplishments." Watch it:

Matt Yglesias writes: "I cannot believe that (a) Ted Stevens got a standing ovation from his fellow senators, and (b) Harry Reid is now delivering an ode to him. I mean, the man’s a criminal. Senatorial courtesy is a really bizarre institution."

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Huge Win for the Environment: Waxman Defeats Dingell
Posted by Dr. Joseph Romm, Climate Progress on November 20, 2008 at 10:42 AM.

Ding Dong the Dingell is gone! Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) will take the gavel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January.

This is huge for those who’ll want strong action on both climate change and clean energy and energy independence (and health care). Heck, it’s the second best piece of news on global warming this month!

I’m told the vote was 137-122. I will post updates as they come.

UPDATE 1: The NYT piece is now up: “Longtime Head of House Energy Panel Is Ousted.”

UPDATE 2: The E&E Daily piece (subs. req’d) is below:

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Waxman ousted longtime Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), 137-122, in a secret ballot vote of the entire House Democratic Caucus today.

With Waxman’s victory, many expect the Beverly Hills Democrat to bring a liberal voice to the podium as he crafts energy and environmental legislation for the incoming Obama administration.

Waxman has not given many details of his proposed agenda, but a clear look at his record suggests he will pursue aggressive pollution cleanup for all industrial sectors, as well as some of the most aggressive limits for U.S. business as it embarks on a first-ever mandatory program to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.

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The Coming Econ-ocalypse: Job Markets Tank
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on November 20, 2008 at 9:47 AM.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but the job market appears to be in pretty horrendous shape.

New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year.

The government said new applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 from a downwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week. That's much higher than Wall Street economists' expectations of 505,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

That is also the highest level of claims since July 1992, the department said, when the U.S. economy was coming out of a recession.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, was even worse: it rose to 506,500, the highest in more than 25 years.

In addition, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment insurance rose sharply for the third straight week to more than 4 million, the highest since December 1982, when the economy was in a painful recession.

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Al Franken Is Making Gains in Minnesota Recount
Posted by Staff, Huffington Post on November 20, 2008 at 9:10 AM.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:

The Great Minnesota Recount kicked off Wednesday with masses of volunteers for Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken moving into a fresh phase of the struggle: eyeballing the first of 2.9 million ballots, ready to pounce on anything that looked questionable.

By day's end, with about 18 percent of the vote recounted, Coleman continued to lead Franken -- but by only 174 votes, notably narrower than the unofficial gap of 215 votes at which the recount had begun. Franken's gain owed much to a swing of 23 votes in the Democratic stronghold of St. Louis County -- the result of faintly marked ballots and older optical scanners that failed to read the marks.

The figures represent a Star Tribune compilation of recount data reported to the secretary of state and gathered by the Star Tribune.

Read the whole story.

Update on H8: Supreme Court to Hear Challenges
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 20, 2008 at 7:02 AM.

 State Supreme Court to hear challenges to Prop. 8:

The state Supreme Court plunged back into the same-sex marriage wars today, agreeing to decide the legality of a ballot measure that repealed the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed in California. 

At the urging of both sponsors and opponents of Proposition 8, the justices voted 6-1 to grant review of lawsuits challenging the Nov. 4 initiative, with Justice Joyce Kennard dissenting.

Same-sex marriage will remain on hold while the court considers Prop 8's constitutionality; the court will also determine whether the 18,000 marriages between same-sex couples will be rendered null by Prop 8.

How Prop 8 is contested will largely depend on those decisions. For example, if it's declared constitutional, but the 18,000 marriage are grandfathered in, that's going to create a very different set of legal circumstances than if Prop 8 is declared constitutional and the marriages are nullified.

Stay tuned ...

George W. Bush and the Presidential Pardons
Posted by Tom Degan, The Rant on November 20, 2008 at 6:03 AM.

One of the latest Washington parlor Games seems to be spectating as to whether or not Bush will grant a full pardon to convicted felon Scooter Libby before his administration mercifully comes to an end two months from tomorrow. I say "seems to be" because, trust me, I am not nor have I ever been a member of the Washington Beltway, cocktail party circuit - in good standing or otherwise. All of the info you read in this site I receive second or third hand. Truth be told, I have not even set foot in the District of Columbia since April of 2000. 

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Retired Military Brass Call for Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
Posted by Christian Ehret, Jurist Legal News and Research on November 20, 2008 at 5:45 AM.

Over 100 retired admirals and generals of the United States military called Monday for a repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding homosexuals in the armed forces. The controversial policy requires the dismissal of openly gay or lesbian service members. The statement was released by Admiral Charles Larson and was distributed by The Palm Center, a University of California Santa Barbara public policy think tank. The statement concludes that:

[R]epealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy would not harm and would indeed help our armed forces. As is the case with Great Britain, Israel, and other nations that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly, our service members are professionals who are able to work together effectively despite differences in race, gender, religion, and sexuality. Such collaboration reflects the strength and the best traditions of our democracy.

The statement supported prior comments in support of such an appeal by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili. The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was one of several gay rights issues in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. President-elect Barack Obama supported the repeal of the policy while GOP candidate John McCain did not. Obama has since said that he would prefer to build a consensus of military leaders to support the issue. In June, the U.S. DC Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a challenge to the policy brought by twelve formerly dismissed service members. In May, the Ninth Circuit upheld a challenge to the policy, holding that the military must demonstrate that the specific dismissal was necessary to further an important government interest.

Lavender Flu Strikes: 'I Can’t Come Into Work Today, I Feel Really Gay …'
Posted by Lisa Derrick, Firedoglake on November 20, 2008 at 4:07 AM.

National Day Without A Gay has been called for December 10, International Human Rights Day, and organizers are encouraging people to "call in gay" and spend the day being of service as volunteers in the community:

Day Without A Gay seeks to shift our strong feelings about injustice toward service! Let's fight for equality by out-loving those who would deny us rights. Call in "gay" on December 10th (International Human Rights Day) and volunteer for your local LGBT and/or human rights organizations.

This site allows the LGBT community and our allies to be active in the search for service by posting and searching volunteer opportunities. We will not sit at home on December 10, 2008. We will offer love and support to those who need it most, the way only the gay community can!...

If you live in one of the 30 states where individuals can still be fired simply for being gay or lesbian, (yes, unbelievably, there are still 30), there are plenty of ways that you can lend a hand and a voice in our fight for gay equality--without missing work.

In Southern California, gay-out participants are readying themselves to help fire victims along with helping out other service groups, and Day Without A Gay has a a state-by-state listing of volunteer opportunities.

McCain Barely Wins in Missouri: The Presidential Election Is Finally Over
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on November 20, 2008 at 3:56 AM.

It took a little longer than expected, but we now know the results of the presidential race from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Missouri, the lone holdout, was called for McCain.

With all jurisdictions reporting complete but unofficial results, McCain led Obama by 3,632 votes Wednesday out of more than 2.9 million cast -- a margin of 0.12 percentage points.

Both men spent considerable resources trying to win Missouri, a state that Obama ultimately did not need for his national victory.

Obama won 365 electoral votes. Missouri's 11 electoral votes will give McCain 173.

McCain's win breaks Missouri's long-standing streak -- in every election since 1956, the winner of Missouri's electoral votes won the presidency. (Before 1956, Missouri had backed the eventual winner in every race dating back to 1904.) So much for that "bellwether" talk.

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Obama's Call to Service Faces Off Against the Economic Meltdown
Posted by Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post on November 20, 2008 at 3:49 AM.

On Monday afternoon I got a blast email from the Obama campaign. I immediately wondered what I was going to be asked to do: Donate to the Franken campaign? Make calls for Jim Martin down in Georgia?

It turned out to be neither. The campaign was letting me know that barackobama.com was directing visitors to volunteer for -- or donate to -- relief efforts to aid the victims of the Southern California fires.

"Throughout the campaign," said the email, "we saw time and again that when ordinary people act together, they can make a huge difference."

Obama's high-tech outreach has been instrumental in getting people across the country to donate millions of dollars and contribute millions of hours working on the campaign. Will it now become a hub for civic action?

Obama has always said that a call to service would be "a central cause" of his presidency. "We will ask Americans to serve," he said in a signature speech in July. "We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we will direct that service to our most pressing challenges."

Clearly, those challenges have never been more pressing in our lifetime. As unemployment hits a 14 year high -- and heading higher -- layoffs mount, foreclosures stack up, and local governments throughout America gird themselves for a coming wave of service cutbacks and hospital closures, we have metaphorical fires burning all across the country. Fires that threaten to turn into a social conflagration.

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Why Do Republicans Hate Cancer Survivors?
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on November 20, 2007 at 2:00 PM.

This post, written by Matt Corley, originally appeared on Think Progress

Last month, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani began running radio ads in which he used his experience as a survivor of prostate cancer to bash government provided universal health care plans. Using misleading statistics, Giuliani claimed that if he had gotten the disease in a country with government-based health care, "chances of surviving" would have been much slimmer:

I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United States: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44 percent under socialized medicine.

But under the plans all three have put forward, cancer survivors such as themselves could not be sure of getting coverage -- especially if they were not already covered by a government or job-related plan and had to seek insurance as individuals.

"Unless it's in a state that has very strong consumer protections, they would likely be denied coverage," said economist Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, who has reviewed the candidates' proposals. "People with preexisting conditions would not be able to get coverage or would not be able to afford it."

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US Military Asks Wounded Soldiers to Return Signing Bonuses
Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report on November 20, 2007 at 1:00 PM.

This post, written by Steve Benen, originally appeared on The Carpetbagger Report

When Jordan Fox was serving in Iraq, his mother helped organize Operation Pittsburgh Pride, which sends thousands of care packages to U.S. troops from his hometown, which prompted a personal "thank you" from the White House. When Fox was seriously injured in Iraq, the president sent what appeared to be personal note, expressing his concerns to the Fox family.

But more recently, Fox received a different piece of correspondence from the Bush administration.

The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.

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Scott McClellan: I Passed Along “False Information” For Bush
Posted by Jason Linkins, Huffington Post on November 20, 2007 at 12:00 PM.

This post, written by Jason Linkins, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

Long before the White House Press Corps became saddled with Dana "The Gift That Keeps On Giving" Perino, they got to receive their briefings from Scott "The Gift That Gave As Well As He Could Given The Relative Lack Of Confidence He Had In Just About Everything He Was Ever Asked To Say" McClellan. McClellan stepped down from the position in May of 2006, and has since penned a book that will finally allow him to do what he never could as press secretary: tell all.

Public Affairs, who will be publishing the book, has posted this excerpt, which gives one a helping of insight into how McClellan views his years of service:

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

There was one problem. It was not true.

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Unilever Ditches Self Esteem as a Marketing Concept, Embraces Misogyny
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on November 20, 2007 at 11:00 AM.

This post, written by Lucinda Marshall, originally appeared on Feminist Peace Network

Remember Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty which got so many kudos for talking about self-esteem and positive body image at any age? Turns out that Unilever, the company that makes Dove, actually has no qualms about objectifying women to make a sale. Many thanks to Ben Atherton-Zeman for pointing us to Unilever's Sunsilk Color Showdown where you can fill out a really enlightening survey that asks:

* Who is better in bed-blondes or brunettes?

* Should the first female president be blonde or brunette?

* How do you rate your general awesomeness-answers range from a work in progress to so awesome that the Grand Canyon is jealous.

* Other questions include can you change a tire, how fabulous is your wardrobe, and what kind of mother will you be.

"When offered "FREE!! GIRLY PICS!!!" men preferred to peep at brunettes."

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Bill O'Reilly Runs Ads for the Same Anti-War Movie He Claims "Hurts Our Troops"
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on November 20, 2007 at 7:08 AM.

This post, written by Matt Corley, originally appeared on Think Progress

For two months now, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has been using his various media perches to criticize and attack Brian De Palma's controversial new film, Redacted, which was financed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. The film centers around a fictionalized portrayal of "the true story of a group of U.S. soldiers who raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered members of her family."

O'Reilly kicked off his campaign against the film with a column in September, saying the filmmakers "should be ashamed" because "they are hurting their own country." He sharpened his attacks last week, calling for a boycott of the "vile," "anti-American" film during multiple segments on his show. In a second column, O'Reilly compared Cuban and DePalma to Charles Manson:

There is no excuse for "Redacted." The incident is based on a true story, but those who committed the crimes are in prison for life. You don't celebrate this kind of aberration with a movie-you don't brand the U.S. military with this stigma.

Charles Manson is an American too, but does he represent this country in any way? Of course not. And I believe even the odious Manson would not make a movie like "Redacted."

I had someone call FoxNews and tell them specifically, unequivocally that we wanted to run an ad for the movie Redacted. The same movie Bill OReilly was so upset about.

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It's a Real Race in Iowa: Obama Takes the Lead for the First Time
Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report on November 20, 2007 at 6:51 AM.

This post, written by Steve Benen, originally appeared on The Carpetbagger Report

All the usual caveats apply -- it's just one poll, there are still six weeks until the caucuses, anything can happen, the margin of error is important, and Iowa is a notoriously difficult place to conduct reliable polls, in part because it's hard to know exactly who is going to caucus.

But having said that, there haven't been too many polls this year showing anyone but Hillary Clinton leading in a key Democratic contest. It's why the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll has raised quite a few eyebrows.

The top three Democratic presidential contenders remain locked in a close battle in Iowa, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) seeing her advantages diminish on key issues, including the questions of experience and which candidate is best prepared to handle the war in Iraq, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) draws support from 30 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, compared with 26 percent for Clinton and 22 percent for former senator John Edwards (N.C.). New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson received 11 percent.

[Clinton] appears more vulnerable on questions of character. Thirty-one percent found Obama to be the most honest and trustworthy, about double the percentage who said the same of Clinton. While about three-quarters credited both Obama and Edwards with speaking their mind on issues, only 50 percent said Clinton is willing enough to say what she really thinks. Forty-five percent said she is not sufficiently candid.

Iraq and health care dominate as the campaign's top issues. A third of likely voters described the war as the biggest issue in their choice for the nominee, while 26 percent said it is health care. Ten percent highlighted the economy and jobs, and all other issues were in the single digits.

The race at the local level only somewhat resembles the national campaign. While Clinton held a 51-point lead on the question of which Democrat would best handle the issue of health care in a national Post-ABC poll in late September, she now has a narrow nine-point advantage on that question in Iowa.

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Megachurch Archbishop Impregnates His Brother's Wife
Posted by Paddy , Brave New Films on November 20, 2007 at 6:43 AM.

This post, written by Paddy, originally appeared on Cliff Schecter's Brave New Films Blog

I knew we'd gone too long without a good fundie sex scandal! No dive suits. Bummer.

Sex Scandal Hits Atlanta-Area Megachurch

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) -- The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her.

Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test.

In truth, this is not the first - or even the second - sex scandal to engulf Paulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair.

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Worst Tom Friedman Column Ever?
Posted by Jill Filipovic, Feministe on November 20, 2007 at 5:47 AM.

This post, written by Jill Filipovic, originally appeared on Feministe

Considering the bile he's published over the past few years, that's a pretty bold statement -- but I think he may have out-done himself.

I have no idea who is going to win the Democratic presidential nomination, but lately I've been wondering whether, if it is Barack Obama, he might want to consider keeping Dick Cheney on as his vice president.

In sum, Mr. Obama's instinct is right -- but he needs to dial down his inner Jimmy Carter a bit when it comes to talking to Iran, and dial up a bit more inner Dick Cheney. If Democrats want to win this election, they have to get these two in balance -- they have to learn how to criticize the Bush record from the right and the left, to show they can be better at engagement and coercion. Successful diplomacy requires both. Americans will want to know that Democrats can do both. My guess is that many still aren't sure.

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Fox cancels O.J. Simpson murder porn [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on November 20, 2006 at 2:38 PM.

After the mountains of bad press (including its own Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo), after a dozen Fox affiliates just flat-out refused to run the OJ interview, and after book sales weren't as impressive as expected, NewsCorp cancelled its OJ multimedia murder-porn carnival (first vid is Fox's promo... er, coverage of its own interview from last week and second is my local public access star doing on-the-street interviews with Brooklynites re: OJ, did it or didn't...).

According to the AP:

The industry trade publication Broadcasting & Cable editorialized against the show Monday, saying "Fox should cancel this evil sweeps stunt."

UPDATE: Striking janitors trampled in Houston [VIDEO]
Posted by Evan Derkacz on November 20, 2006 at 12:20 PM.

UPDATE at bottom of full post.

In Houston on Friday a group of janitors, peacefully protesting their paltry $5/hour wages, were brutally trampled by police horses (video, right).

The protesters were subsequently arrested and bail was set at $888,888. No, the cat didn't get hold of the "8" key -- you read that correctly. It was later reduced to $1,000, but the message was sent.

According to an SEIU press release: "People arraigned on murder charges have had bail set as low as $30,000."

A snippet from the testimony of Anna Denise Solis, an organizer arrested at the protest. Read the whole thing after the jump:

We sat down in the intersection and the horses came immediately. It was really violent. They arrested us, and when we got to jail, we were pretty beat up. Not all of us got the medical attention we needed. The worst was a protester named Julia, who is severely diabetic. We kept telling the guards about her condition but they only gave her a piece of candy. During roll call, she started to complain about light-headedness. Finally she just collapsed unconscious on the floor. It was like she just dropped dead. The guard saw it but just kept going through the roll. Susan ran over there and took her pulse while the other inmates were yelling for help, saying we need to call somebody. The medical team strolled over, taking their own sweet time. She was unconscious for like 4 or 5 minutes.

If I were Chevron, Exxon, and Shell Oil - all of whom make billions and any of whom could end the strike - I would be nervous that Henry Waxman is asking you to intervene. A few million dollars in extra salary and health care benefits for the people cleaning your offices is a really small price to pay to prevent Waxman from really scrutinizing your business practices. He plays hardball, he dislikes corruption, and he's pushing global warming legislation.

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Kill Bill - Neutering Bush's torture law
Posted by Bob Geiger on November 20, 2006 at 11:00 AM.

Of the many good things we are beginning to see before the newly-constituted Democratic Congress even assumes power, one of the most gratifying is the move by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) to neuter the hideous Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), passed by the Republicans, and signed by George W. Bush in October.

On Friday, Dodd introduced legislation to amend Bush's "torture bill," remove the almost-dictatorial powers it has given the White House and neutralize the bastardizing effect it's had on the United States Constitution.

"I strongly believe that terrorists who seek to destroy America must be punished for any wrongs they commit against this country," said Dodd, in introducing this important measure. "But in my view, in order to sustain America’s moral authority and win a lasting victory against our enemies, such punishment must be meted out only in accordance with the rule of law."

The text of the MCA may fill almost 40 pages, but it only takes a few paragraphs of Dodd's 10-page Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act (S.4060) to render its most onerous aspects moot.

I analyzed Dodd's bill over the weekend and am writing this piece to give you the basics of how it fixes the Constitutional ruin imposed by the MCA and puts the power of the executive branch of government back in its rightful place.

This should tell you all you need to know about both the disease and the cure.

Restoring Habeas Corpus Protections

No area of the MCA has drawn more justifiable fire than the section suspending Habeas Corpus -- the rights of people deemed by the White House to be "enemy combatants" to challenge the legality of their arrest and detention.

Section 7 of the MCA says that "No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."

In other words, don’t bother calling a lawyer, because you have no rights.

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Israel's new Minister of Charm calls for wholesale slaughter of Palestinian leadership
Posted by Joshua Holland on November 20, 2006 at 10:43 AM.

The hardliners within the Hamas leadership who refuse to consider peace talks with Israel -- suspended for the last five years -- are a major problem. The commercial media focuses quite a bit on them.

But, as I've written before, there are powerful minorities on both sides who refuse to consider a negotiated end to the decades-old conflict.

To illustrate the point, meet Avigdor Lieberman:

Israel 's deputy prime minister on Saturday said Israel should assassinate Hamas' leadership, ignore the moderate Palestinian president and walk away from international peace efforts, the latest in a string of hard-line positions voiced by the newest member of the Cabinet.

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Support the troops: leave Iraq
Posted by Evan Derkacz on November 20, 2006 at 10:15 AM.

A Zogby poll from February, showed that the troops wanted out.

Marines, Reservists, whatever; all thought the US should pull out within a year: "72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four [29%] say the troops should leave immediately..."

Here's the thing that blows the mind. The USA Today post notes that "58% of the soldiers said the mission is clear to them," but it misses the forest for the trees: The number of troops who believe we should remove ourselves from Iraq, militarily, is this high and MOST ARE COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT WHY THEY'RE THERE.

85% said the U.S. mission is mainly "to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks..."

Fox is right: Iraqi insurgents are "thrilled" Dems won
Posted by Joshua Holland on November 20, 2006 at 8:24 AM.

It's not that Fox "News" was wrong in suggesting that the Iraqi insurgents "must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress." It's that their spin is only part of the story.

Iraqi insurgents must indeed be thrilled that a political party that led the invasion of their country that resulted in the deaths of a half million of its citizens took a pummeling back home. As are, no doubt, the rest of the 90 percent of Iraqis who consider the U.S. occupiers and not liberators. As are, I'm sure, the vast majority of citizens in just about every other country in the world, friends and foes alike.

The people who are unhappy with the Republicans' defeat, it's safe to assume, are the 10 percent of Iraqis who consider us liberators, the Israeli right, various European neo-fascist parties who are loving the Clash of Civilizations -- not the mainstream conservatives, who are multilateralists -- and, of course, that minority of the insurgency calling itself al-Qaeda in Iraq -- also known as terrorists.

Last week, CIA director Michael Hayden said that there were only 1300 foreign al-Qaeda volunteers fighting in Iraq, whereas the Sunni guerrillas numbered "in the low tens of thousands." While the latter are thrilled, the former must be miserable.

As are what remains of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group. As Robert Parry noted last month, American intelligence knows from intercepted internal al-Qaeda communications that "one of the group's biggest worries has been that a prompt U.S. military withdrawal might expose how fragile al-Qaeda's position is in Iraq and cause many young jihadists to lay down their guns and go home."

One al-Qaeda communiqué said quite forthrightly: "Prolonging the war is in our interest."

The Dems aren't going to magically get us out of Iraq, but they change the political dynamic and make it much more likely that we will leave, and that must have extremist groups around the world miserable, worried about losing what the National Intelligence Estimate called a cause celebré for terrorist organizations' recruiting efforts.

So let's review. Those "thrilled" about the Dems' win are the Iraqi insurgents, the "good people of Iraq" for whom George Bush says we're fighting, majorities among most of our allies and almost two-thirds of the American people.

The miserable include Europe's frothy right-wing parties, Likudniks, a small number of Republican dead-enders and war-bloggers here at home, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups and, of course, Fox News.

Now if only we had a cable new station to report that.

Seymour Hersh: The Admin's war to bomb Iran
Posted by Evan Derkacz on November 20, 2006 at 7:23 AM.

Seymour Hersh's latest article is the very definition of required reading.

The New Yorker's surliest investigative reporter traces the administration's and intelligence agencies' internal debate on the alleged status and ambitions of Iran's nuclear program. But, just as important as these more technical issues, Hersh also records the words of those souls more familiar with the Middle East -- and Iran in particular -- who warn that Iran may well benefit from an attack, and American security receive a severe blow, as it has the potential to unite the Islamic world against a common enemy. Us.

I've pulled choice quotes but the whole thing is worth the read.

For more on Iran, watch the Ritter VIDEO and read today's top story, an excerpt from Scott Ritter's new book, Target Iran.

The C.I.A.'s analysis, which has been circulated to other agencies for comment, was based on technical intelligence collected by overhead satellites, and on other empirical evidence, such as measurements of the radioactivity of water samples and smoke plumes from factories and power plants. Additional data have been gathered, intelligence sources told me, by high-tech (and highly classified) radioactivity-detection devices that clandestine American and Israeli agents placed near suspected nuclear-weapons facilities inside Iran in the past year or so. No significant amounts of radioactivity were found.

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