Joe The Plumber...er, War Correspondent Says
Journalists Shouldn't Be Allowed Near Warzones

post from Crooks and Liars on 12 January 2009 12:00:54 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Must... Resist... Hitting... Head... Against... Keyboard.

Pajama Media TV's idea of a war correspondent, Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, goes to Israel and laments...war correspondents in a warzone. That's a curious way to kiss up to the boss: admit that your assignment is a bad idea.

Here's direct quote from Joe--who's currently reporting from just outside Gaza:
"I'll be honest with you. I don't think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what's happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I-I think it's asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you'd go to the theater and you'd see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for'em. Now everyone's got an opinion and wants to downer--and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers. I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you're gonna sit there and say, 'Well look at this atrocity,' well you don't know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it."

Thanks to Brandon at Vet Voice for transcribing something that even makes my cast iron stomach wretch.

Leave it to a bunch of rightwing boneheads to hire someone who doesn't even understand the function of a free press. Maybe the PJ bunch should consider renaming themselves Pravda. Of course, considering that Israel is preventing actual journalists (not the fake kind like Joe here) into Gaza to report what's actually happening, maybe it's unnecessary to be that overt.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/joe-plumberer-war-correspondent-says-

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Gay Bishop to Deliver Opening Ceremony Prayer

post from Firedoglake on 12 January 2009 12:00:41 PM. © Firedoglake

Holy Divine! New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson--the worldwide congregation's first openly gay bishop--will be delivering the prayer at one of President-elect Barack Obama's first inauguration events at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2009/01/12/gay-bishop-to-deliver-opening-ceremony-p
rayer/

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The "50 Most Loathsome People In America"

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 12 January 2009 11:57:43 AM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

From "The Beast," via Pharyngula (naturally). Glorious, brilliant, vicious, post-partisan invective, for true fans of the art. Among the choices, at # 50, is Mr. O.:

50. Barack Obama
Charges: Beyond a few token acts of bipartisan marketing, Barry's major duty in the Senate was to avoid legislating, so he could pretend Washington-outsider status and nullify attacks on his non-existent policy positions. That's the thing about Obama and his candidacy: He was a blank slate, the pinnacle of vapid public relations-onto which the benighted masses may project their sincerest, yet unfounded, hopes in the wake of the worst administration in history. Couldn't disown Rev. Wright, until he suddenly could, and then marred his first moments as president ahead of time by inviting a pastor whose advice to gays is just to refrain from sex for life. Promised not to run for president, then did; vowed to take public election funds, then didn't; backed telecom immunity, then accepted the nomination at the AT&T sponsored convention; expressed displeasure with Clinton's hawkish foreign policy and vote for war in Iraq, then named her as Secretary of State. And despite all that, he's plenty affable. There's nothing more loathsome than a likable politician.(Emphasis supplied.)
Exhibit A: "Yes we can" is the "Just do it" of politics.
Sentence: Presiding over the decline of an exhausted empire

(On the Jump) Here's # 1:

1. Sarah Palin
Charges: If you want to know why the rest of the world is scared of Americans, consider the fact that after two terms of disastrous rule by a small-minded ignoramus, 46% of us apparently thought the problem was that he wasn't quite stupid enough. Palin's unending emissions of baffling, evasive incoherence should have disqualified her for any position that involved a desk, let alone placing her one erratic heartbeat from the presidency. The press strained mightily to feign respect for her, praising a debate performance that involved no debate, calling her a "great speaker" when her only speech was primarily a litany of insults to city-dwellers, echoing bogus sexism charges when a male Palin would have been boiled alive for the Couric interview alone, and lionizing her as she used her baby as a Pro-life stage prop before crowds who cooed when they should have been hurling polonium-tipped javelins. In the end, Palin had the beneficial effect of splitting her party between her admirers and people who can read.
Exhibit A: Waving her embryo-loving credentials, in the form of her Down syndrome baby, at "But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."
Sentence: Hand-to-hand combat with Vladimir Putin and a pack of wolves.

The intervening 48 will come as no surprise to anyone, and includes Joe Lieberman (with an apt illustration), Sean Hannity, Ben Stein Peggy Noonan, Keith Olberman, Michelle Malkin, Bernie Madoff, John Edwards, and all Clintons...Bush and Cheney reprise their appearances from previous years, naturally.

(Written by Allan Uthman & Ian Murphy with contributions from John Dolan, Eileen Jones, Alexander Zaitchik, & IOZ.
Illustrations by Ian Murphy.)

Read The Full Article:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=24085

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The 50 "Most Loathesome" People In The World

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 12 January 2009 11:57:43 AM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

From "The Beast," via Pharyngula (naturally). Glorious, brilliant, vicious, post-partisan invective, for true fans of the art. Among the choices, at # 50, is Mr. O.:

50. Barack Obama
Charges: Beyond a few token acts of bipartisan marketing, Barry's major duty in the Senate was to avoid legislating, so he could pretend Washington-outsider status and nullify attacks on his non-existent policy positions. That's the thing about Obama and his candidacy: He was a blank slate, the pinnacle of vapid public relations-onto which the benighted masses may project their sincerest, yet unfounded, hopes in the wake of the worst administration in history. Couldn't disown Rev. Wright, until he suddenly could, and then marred his first moments as president ahead of time by inviting a pastor whose advice to gays is just to refrain from sex for life. Promised not to run for president, then did; vowed to take public election funds, then didn't; backed telecom immunity, then accepted the nomination at the AT&T sponsored convention; expressed displeasure with Clinton's hawkish foreign policy and vote for war in Iraq, then named her as Secretary of State. And despite all that, he's plenty affable. There's nothing more loathsome than a likable politician.(Emphasis supplied.)
Exhibit A: "Yes we can" is the "Just do it" of politics.
Sentence: Presiding over the decline of an exhausted empire

(On the Jump) Here's # 1:

1. Sarah Palin
Charges: If you want to know why the rest of the world is scared of Americans, consider the fact that after two terms of disastrous rule by a small-minded ignoramus, 46% of us apparently thought the problem was that he wasn't quite stupid enough. Palin's unending emissions of baffling, evasive incoherence should have disqualified her for any position that involved a desk, let alone placing her one erratic heartbeat from the presidency. The press strained mightily to feign respect for her, praising a debate performance that involved no debate, calling her a "great speaker" when her only speech was primarily a litany of insults to city-dwellers, echoing bogus sexism charges when a male Palin would have been boiled alive for the Couric interview alone, and lionizing her as she used her baby as a Pro-life stage prop before crowds who cooed when they should have been hurling polonium-tipped javelins. In the end, Palin had the beneficial effect of splitting her party between her admirers and people who can read.
Exhibit A: Waving her embryo-loving credentials, in the form of her Down syndrome baby, at "But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."
Sentence: Hand-to-hand combat with Vladimir Putin and a pack of wolves.

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From the White House Briefing Room, a Swan Song
(John Cushman/The Caucus)

post from memeorandum on 12 January 2009 11:55:01 AM. © memeorandum

John Cushman / The Caucus:
From the White House Briefing Room, a Swan Song — President Bush's last press conference opened with cordial words for the reporters who have covered his remarkable eight years in office. — Acknowledging that relations have been strained at times - that some had “misunderestimated me …

Read The Full Article:
http://www.memeorandum.com/090112/p30#a090112p30

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A Money Request, and a Swan Song (John
Cushman/The Caucus)

post from memeorandum on 12 January 2009 11:55:01 AM. © memeorandum

John Cushman / The Caucus:
A Money Request, and a Swan Song — Obama Requests Money | 11:28 a.m. President-elect Barack Obama asked President Bush to request the $350 billion remaining in the financial rescue package, the White House said Monday, shortly after Mr. Bush finished a news conference.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.memeorandum.com/090112/p30#a090112p30

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Bush On Katrina: ‘Don’t Tell Me The
Federal Response Was Slow’

post from Think Progress on 12 January 2009 11:47:00 AM. © Think Progress

During his final press conference this morning, Bush defended his response to Katrina. He said he has “thought long and hard about Katrina” and admitted that “things [could] have been done better” but denied any problem with the federal response to the disaster, insisting, “Don’t tell me the federal response was slow!”:

BUSH: You know, people said that the federal response was slow. Don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. … 30,000 people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. That’s a pretty quick response. Could things have been done better? Absolutely, absolutely. But when I hear people say the federal response was slow, then what are they gonna say to those chopper drivers? Or to the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?

Watch it:
video details and more

The federal response to Katrina was nothing short of a disaster. A 2006 report compiled by House Republicans slammed what it called “a failure of leadership,” saying that the federal government’s “blinding lack of situational awareness and disjointed decision making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina’s horror.” The report specifically blamed Bush, noting that “earlier presidential involvement could have speeded the response” because the president alone could have cut through bureaucratic resistance.

There is no question that the federal response was slow — deadly slow. Katrina made landfall on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, and the New Orleans levees were breached that morning. Despite the numerous warnings he had received about the storm’s severity, Bush spent that Monday traveling to Arizona and California to promote his Medicare drug bill. It was characteristic of the entire federal response:

– National Guard troops did not arrive in the area until two full days after the levees were breached.
– Bush did not leave his vacation home or assemble a task force until Wednesday, two days after the hurricane made landfall and the levees were breached.
– By Thursday, three days after landfall, FEMA had yet to set up a command and control center.
– FEMA Director Michael Brown said he had not heard about the more than 3,000 evacuees stranded in the convention center until Thursday. Many evacuees had been there since Tuesday morning.
– On Friday morning, Bush praised Brown: “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” He also said he was “satisfied with the response.”
– FEMA did not finalize its request for evacuation buses until Sunday, six days after Katrina hit. The buses “trickled into New Orleans, with only a dozen or so arriving the first day,? noted the Wall Street Journal.
– The Superdome was finally evacuated on Sunday, a full seven days after 30,000 evacuees had arrived there.

“Despite a FEMA official’s eyewitness accounts of breaches starting at 7 p.m. on Aug. 29,” the Bush administration “did not consider them confirmed” until 11 hours later. In fact, FEMA did not order the evacuation of New Orleans until 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 31, two full days after Katrina made landfall.

In one area, however, the Bush administration did move quickly: pinning the blame for Katrina on its political opponents.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/12/bush-defends-katrina-response/

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OH-Sen: Voinovich Officially Retires

post from Daily Kos on 12 January 2009 11:45:04 AM. © Daily Kos

Christmas is coming a little late for DSCC Chairman Robert Menendez:

Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio will not seek re-election in 2010.

Voinovich said in a statement Monday that the challenges facing the state and country will require him to devote all of his energy to serving out his current term and that campaigning and fundraising would take time away from his work as a senator.

Voinovich, 72, also said he wants to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren.

Voinovich is the fourth Republican Senator to officially announce retirement this cycle, joining Senators Sam Brownback of Kansas, Christopher "Kit" Bond of Missouri, and Mel Martinez of Florida.

A fifth Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, is also expected to resign from the Senate prior to 2010, with an eye on her state's Governorship.

The deluge of Republican retirements may not yet be over; such announcements may yet come from Sens. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Jim Bunning of Kentucky.

With potentially competitive races in Louisiana and North Carolina as well, the map is looking exceptionally good for Democrats, who need only one seat (pending the seating of Senator-elect Al Franken of Minnesota) to gain a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats. The oldest Democratic Senator up for reelection in 2010, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, has announced his intention to run for reelection, leaving only Barbara Mikulski of Maryland as a serious retirement possibility.

Between the raft of retirements so far, the number of potentially vulnerable Republican incumbents, and the limited number of vulnerable Democratic seats, NRSC chairman John Cornyn has an extremely difficult road ahead of him, even accounting for a potentially favorable political climate in 2010.

As far as the Ohio seat goes, most of the speculation within the state has revolved around Representative Tim Ryan (who was heavily recruited for a Senate run in 2006), Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman (who also considered such a run), Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, Representative Zack Space (who has won two elections in a solidly Republican district), and Representative Betty Sutton (a Cleveland-area liberal who would be the state's first female Senator).

The two biggest Republican names in the batch are former Representative, OMB Director, and US Trade Representative Rob Portman, and former Representative (and 2000 Presidential candidate) John Kasich. It's rumored Kasich is considering a run for Governor rather than the Senate, against incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland.
Roll Call also mentions former Senator Mike DeWine, who lost quite badly to Sherrod Brown in 2006, 56-44. If Republicans really want to rebrand the party and stamp a new face on today's GOP, running an old Gingrich/DeLay era retread wouldn't seem to be the best choice.

Democrats have an exceptionally strong field of political talent in Ohio, and it's only gotten stronger of late (with the recent election of Reps. Steve Driehaus, Mary Jo Kilroy and John Boccieri). The Senate race looks like a tossup at the moment, and Ohio Democrats should be awfully optimistic about a Senate pickup in the Buckeye State.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/PtX4rRLavro/683088

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Monday Crime: That Bond Thing Again...

As of 1 January, Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) customers were handed a 5.2% rise in their charges to heat their homes and use their stoves. Even though there has been a drop in gas prices. Still, these innocent customers must pony up $60 million to pay for misuse of funds by PGW.

Remember the bond deal? Here you have the intersection of bond collusion between the government, investment banks (in this case JPMorgan-chase), certain individuals, and that whole pay-to-play mentality.

PGW may pay as much as $30 million of the $60 million to escape a complicated transaction called an interest-rate swap. The deal was arranged in part by CDR Financial Products, the company at the center of the federal pay-to-play investigation of Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
CDR, headquartered in Beverly Hills, became known to Philadelphians in 2004 when its name surfaced in a City Hall corruption scandal involving lawyer Ronald A. White and Corey Kemp, the city's treasurer at the time. Kemp is serving a 10-year prison term for his involvement; White died before he could be tried. CDR was never charged in the case and continued to do work for the city.
PGW will use the rest of the $60 million to shore up its finances and prove it can pay its bills.
The state Public Utility Commission approved the emergency rate hike last month. The temporary rate cut that had brought the 9.4 percent relief to customers may expire this spring; the 5.2 percent increase is permanent, said Philip Bertocci, the city's gas consumer advocate.

You can read the financial report on PGW here. Know that PGW is not a private utility, it's part of the City of Philadelphia. And Philadelphia is not the only place affected by dealings with CDR bond swaps. Not by a long shot. And you might have wondered why Ed Rendell wasn't going to run for the Senate when his term-limited governorship expires in 2010.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.Demconwatchblog.com/diary/453/monday-crime-that-bond-thing-again

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A Defiant Blogojevich Again Quotes A Famous Poet
To Close A Press Conference -- Verse-Case Scenario by Tony Peyser

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 12 January 2009 11:43:24 AM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

First it was "If" -- this time "Ulysses"
In each case he hit the wrong chords
Maybe Rod is just a shill for the Kipling
And the Tennyson Advisory Boards.

VERSE CASE SCENARIO

Tony Peyser provides daily poems and weekly cartoons for BuzzFlash and also writes the BuzzFlash column, "Blue State Jukebox." He was a daily cartoonist for the L.A. Times from 1994 to 1997. You can e-mail Tony at tonypeyser@yahoo.com.

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