Trouble for John Edwards Perhaps It's Time to
Read Hamilton

post from The Washington Note on 11 October 2007 04:04:00 PM. © The Washington Note

This is either true -- or it's a lie. If part of a dirty tricks operation, it's odd that John Edwards would be the target. I like and respect Huffington Post's Sam Stein who wrote the first thoughtful inquiry...

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Are you right brained or left brained

post from Daily Kos on 11 October 2007 04:01:57 PM. © Daily Kos

Freaky.

THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

I'm right-brained, which was never in doubt. I'm so right-brained I walk crooked, with strong musical, design, and artistic skills as well as a need to take risks and little respect for authority (all right-brain functions), coupled with math illiteracy, a lack of attention to detail (see my spelling in posts), and non-existent short- and long-term memory (left-brain functions). But I didn't realize that most people were left-brained.

Incidentally, I changed the direction of the dancer's spin by focusing on the shadow of the grounded foot.

Update: The dancer on the front page was obnoxious. I moved the image below the fold.

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Would Al Gore Make A Great President

post from Ezra Klein on 11 October 2007 04:01:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

Chris Bowers is bothered by the "creepy cult of personality around [Al Gore], and the constant, deep hermeneutical readings of anything that Gore does or says to be an indication that he is running." I don't know that I'd go...[...]

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Nacchio: Did U.S. Retaliate Because Qwest
Refused to Comply With NSA Surveillance

post from TalkLeft on 11 October 2007 03:54:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Looks like it's time for a trip to the courthouse tomorrow. The Judge in the insider trading trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio has unsealed documents related to his classified information defense which he was not allowed to present at trial. This is coming up now because yesterday Joe Nacchio filed his appeal brief and one of the grounds alleges the Judge erred in refusing him to raise his classfied secrets defense.

The Rocky Mountain News reports:

The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.

The documents indicate that likely would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe Nacchio's so-called "classified information" defense at his insider trading trial, had he been allowed to present it.

More...

As to specifics:

The partially redacted documents were filed under seal before, during and after Nacchio's trial. They were released Wednesday.

Nacchio planned to demonstrate at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to discuss a $100 million project. According to the documents, another topic also was discussed at that meeting, one with which Nacchio refused to comply.

The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it. The NSA contract was awarded in July 2001 to companies other than Qwest.

It's been previously widely reported that Qwest refused to comply with the Government's demands, believing them to be illegal, unlike AT&T, Verizon and Bell South. (More here.) As I wrote at the time, "Three cheers for Denver-based U.S. Qwest." If Nacchio was behind the refusal, and I were the Judge, I think I would have departed downward from the sentencing guidelines for that act alone.

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Baron Hill: Override SCHIP Veto

post from Open Left - Front Page on 11 October 2007 03:53:09 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Have you hugged your representative today?Baron Hill (IN-09), who originally voted against the[...]

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Bawk, bawk, bawk

post from Crooks and Liars on 11 October 2007 03:48:47 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Malkin says debating Ezra would be a waste of time… Anyone surprised?

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‘Three people’ in Cheney’s
office tried to silence Matthews.

post from Think Progress on 11 October 2007 03:48:00 PM. © Think Progress

Last week, Chris Matthews revealed that officials in Vice President Cheney’s office have repeatedly called MSNBC in an effort to influence his editorial content. In a new interview with TV Guide, Matthews gives more details on the suppression campaign:

I thought on the 10th anniversary it would be good to celebrate the First Amendment, which gives us all our living. We reviewed in brief the remarkable experience of covering the Clinton [scandal] and the defense of the war with Iraq. And the difference in these two cases was that although I was extremely tough on Clinton, there was never any attempt to silence me — whereas there was a concerted effort by [Vice President Cheney’s office] to silence me. It came in the form of three different people calling trying to quiet me.

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Dan Bartlett, rat who fled Bush's sinking ship

post from Daily Kos on 11 October 2007 03:45:06 PM. © Daily Kos

Former White House Councellor Dan Bartlett on why he quite the Bush Administration:

Having previously said he was leaving the White House to spend more time with his young children, Bartlett offered a more candid assessment of the reasons for his exit.

"President Bush has a 34 percent approval rating," he said. "Our party's been rocked by another sexual scandal. Americans believe, about 69 percent of them believe that we're on the wrong track. We've got this housing market cratering on us, it's threatening the entire economy. So I had a choice to make. Do I stick by my old man, President Bush and weather out the storm, or do I join the private sector and re-acquaint myself with my family, maybe give a speech or two?"

The former White House aide, who earlier this year called his decision to leave the president a "struggle," admitted to the crowd that "I thought that was a pretty easy decision."

About as candid admission of the comprehensive failure of the Bush presidency as you'll hear from his inner circle. He didn't even need to throw Iraq into the list to paint a picture of that abject failure.

Meanwhile, his children were just a handy excuse at the time. The real reason was to flee the sinking ship and bank some coin. He is a Republican, after all...

Meanwhile, his assessment of the 2008 GOP field isn't much better.

"The biggest dud, Fred Thompson," Bartlett said in a speech to the Chamber of Commerce posted on the Web site of the speakers' bureau, Leading Authorities. "I think he peaked last spring when he said he was thinking about running."

"I think the Mormon issue is a real problem in the South, it's a real problem in other parts of the country, but people are not going to say it," he said of Romney. "People are not going to step out and say, 'I have a problem with Romney because he's Mormon.' What they're going to say is he is a flip flopper."

Of former Bush nemesis Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Bartlett said a narrative was developing in the media that he may be "somebody that is too much trying to position himself, trying to hedge himself" and is "almost too mechanical about the issues. Authenticity is going to be very important principle in this campaign, and right now it's their biggest danger."

[W]hile Bartlett called former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee visionary and articulate, he also said Huckabee's name and the fat that he's from the same town as Bill Clinton would be issues.

"Politics can be fickle like that. I mean, you're trying to get peoples attention for the first time -- they're turned off: 'President Huckabee? You got to be kidding. Hope, Arkansas? Here we go again,'" Bartlett joked.

He did like Rudy, though.

"Best message: Rudy," Bartlett said. "He has been able to keep the focus on the Democrats." Bartlett said "there is a very practical aspect" for this Giuliani tactic in that it allows the former Mayor to avoid discussing social issues on which he has a more liberal history.

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Hardballin'

I'll be on Hardball round 5:40 Eastern talking about the Republicans, Iraq, etc.[...]

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Cheney

Are Carter's comments on Cheney really supposed to be controversial? Calling Cheney "militaristic" is like calling him the Vice President of the United State of America. Not only is it unambiguously true, but it's supposed to be one of his...[...]

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