Cheers and Jeers: Thursday

post from Daily Kos on 28 June 2007 09:21:15 AM. © Daily Kos

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

You would think that Portland, Maine's talk radio market would be pretty liberal, and indeed it is. If you consider this liberal:

WGAN: Starts each weekday with a morning show featuring a conservative and a liberal. (The liberal, of course, is the one with the whiny voice who lets himself get mowed down by the loudmouth conservative). Followed by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Howie Carr, Bill O'Reilly, and Neil Boortz. On weekends they toss in Monica Crowley, Matt Drudge, and a replay of the audio from right-leaning Meet the Press.

WLOB: Fox "News" radio. Starts with a morning show where you can hear the co-host call Barbara Boxer a "communist." Followed by Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Mike Gallagher, Michael Savage and Rusty Humphries. A popular station among bitter people.

WZON: "Radio for Men." i.e. crude misogynist talk and manly sports.

WLVP: Ahhh...finally. All Air America, all the time. Whoops! Sorry, they just switched to ESPN.

As for our one newspaper and three major TV stations: all are owned by out-of-state companies, including right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns WGME-TV.

With all this rampant liberalism blanketing southern Maine, it would seem appropriate that Portland is one of six communities in the country that is hosting an open forum with all five FCC commissioners. It starts at 4 O'clock today in Portland High School, with the goal of determining what kind of content We The People expect from our media outlets. I expect the commissioners will get an earful.

Last Sunday Democratic FCC commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein wrote an op-ed for the Maine Sunday Telegram, which says, in part:

American citizens own the airwaves, not TV and radio executives. We give broadcasters the right to use these airwaves for free. They earn profits (usually very healthy profits) using this public resource in exchange for agreeing to broadcast in the public interest. We need to know whether Portlanders are well-served by the media served up to them. Are they getting the diversity of viewpoints they want? [...]

Seventy years ago, Gertrude Stein returned to her hometown to find she could not locate her childhood home. She famously stated, "there is no there there." When our children look one day at the media system we have left them---and take up the reins of self-government---we hope they never have to share Stein's chilling conclusion.

So we urge you to attend the FCC hearing. We need your input. We believe we have the best chance in our generation to settle this issue of who will control our media and for what purposes, and to resolve it in favor of airwaves of, by and for the people of this great country. But it will take a lot of us, working together, to make it happen.

It'll be an interesting day, to say the least. Any suggestions on what I should say when I drag my bullhorn up to the lectern? I'm thinking a combination of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Al Pacino in Scarface.

Meanwhile Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/128650192/7205

Digg this

Weather Watching

post from The Newshoggers on 28 June 2007 09:17:00 AM. © The Newshoggers

By Cernig

Down here in SW Texas we're looking at some major storms already in the area and a whole bunch more brewing for the rest of the week and into next. This morning, the TV weather folks are starting to talk about the possibility that the situation may get "catastrophic", as it did in '98 when widespread flooding led to a disaster area declaration.

Let's hope not.

However, the San Antonio power-grid is held together with boogers and string and is extremely prone to surges as well as outages. I usually just shut down the computer during a thunderstorm because of surges. The phone and cable connections get dodgy when there's too much water in the ground too.

All this means that my posting may be light for the next four or five days, but I'll do my best to be here. The rest of The Newshoggers team will, I'm sure, be here to opinionate and entertain even if I wash away into the Gulf.

Read The Full Article:
http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/06/weather-watching.html

Digg this

Losers

post from Eschaton on 28 June 2007 09:10:00 AM. © Eschaton

As this Coulter madness continues, it occurs to me that a tremendous problem is that most of our media folks are, in fact, the most clueless losers in the world, wearing 15-year-old fashions and imagining they're cutting edge hipsters.

All of these people essentially came of age during the Clinton years, when Matt Drudge first started to Rule Their World. They've operated in an era of Republican dominance and Ann Coulter journalism for that entire time.

The country wasn't ever really there to begin with, but to the extent it was it's long past moved on.

Read The Full Article:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_06_24_archive.html#268242412222012178

Digg this

Distractions abound . . . . .A Big Fat Slob

post from A Big Fat Slob on 28 June 2007 09:01:27 AM. © A Big Fat Slob

but I'll be back with regularity soon . . . . .[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.abigfatslob.com/2007/06/distractions-abound.html

Digg this

ThinkFast: June 28, 2007

post from Think Progress on 28 June 2007 09:00:00 AM. © Think Progress

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and 36 of his House colleagues called for a hearing into the role Dick Cheney played in the 2002 die-off of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border. The letter wrote, “Did in fact the vice president of the United States put pressure on midlevel bureaucrats to alter the science and [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/28/thinkfast-june-28-2007/

Digg this

How Loyal Will Loyal Bushies Be Not Very!

post from Ratbang Diary on 28 June 2007 08:53:00 AM. © Ratbang Diary

Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas to the White House, to Vice President Dick Cheney?s office and to the Justice Department in a last-ditch effort to investigate the National Security Agency?s policy of wiretapping without warrants.

As the New York Times observed this morning, ?The Democrats have largely focused on objections to the Iraq war in their first months in power.? However, the NYT said, former deputy attorney general James Comey opened the door for Democrats to argue on the legal issues of wiretapping rather than on the merits of monitoring phone calls. (Comey told about a hospital bedside confrontation between Justice Department officials and White House aides over the legality of the wiretapping program. ) As Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, ?it was Comey?s testimony that moved this (the legality of wiretapping) front and center.? Schumer said alarm bells went off because it became clear the Justice Department had tried to circumvent the law.

So add the wiretapping debacle to the Bush administration?s mounting legal problems.
The Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas two weeks ago to Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor regarding the dismissals of federal prosecutors dismissals. The NYT said, ?If the White House fails to produce the material, the House and Senate could begin a process leading to contempt resolutions to force compliance.?

And what does that mean?

CSpan?s website ?Capital Questions? says, ?Contempt of Congress is initiated by a resolution reported from the affected congressional committee which can cite any individual for contempt. The resolution must then be adopted by the House or Senate. If the relevant chamber adopts the contempt resolution recommended by one of its committees, the matter is referred to a U.S. Attorney for prosecution. The U.S. Attorney may call in a grand jury to decide whether or not to indict and prosecute. If prosecuted by the courts and found guilty of contempt, the punishment is presently set at up to one year in prison and/or up to $1,000 in fines.?

CSpan goes on to say, ?Contempt resolutions have most often been issued in two categories: (1) for reasons of refusing to testify or failing to provide Congress with requested documents or answers, and (2) bribing or libeling a Member of Congress. Contempt citations are limited to matters which relate to legislative purposes and which fall within the affected committee's established jurisdiction.?

The last contempt resolution was in 1982 against Anne Gorsuch, an administrator of the EPA. She was held in contempt for refusing to provide documents about the Superfund to the Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by Representative John Dingell (D-MI). The Reagan White House negotiated an agreement that allowed access to the documents.

The idea of throwing Miers and Taylor in the pokey is brilliant. Going after Bush administration underlings will be more effective than going after Dick Cheney. Cheney may be able to stonewall Congress and the National Archives on the executive order regarding handling of classified documents. But underlings don?t have Cheney?s clout. Threatening people under Bush and Cheney with jail will make those canaries sing loudly and under oath on the malfeasance of higherups in the White House. James Comey was just the first in a very long line of people who enthusiastically will unburden themselves of every unsavory scrap of information they possess.

Read The Full Article:
http://ratbangdiary.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-loyal-will-loyal-bushies-be-not.html

Digg this

Wanker of the Day

post from Eschaton on 28 June 2007 08:42:00 AM. © Eschaton

Andy Sullivan.

Read The Full Article:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_06_24_archive.html#8372400845744586451

Digg this

Jena

So nice that racism has been wiped out in this country.

Read The Full Article:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_06_24_archive.html#2370955312797952534

Digg this

Executive Privilege and Bush's Private Law

By Cernig

priv·i·lege - a) A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste.
b) Such an advantage, immunity, or right held as a prerogative of status or rank, and exercised to the exclusion or detriment of others.

The big news today, the one thing everyone in Blogtopia (except the 26%-ers) wants to talk about is Bush's refusal to answer to congressional subpoenas for documents in the AttorneyGate investigations. The White House "also made clear that Miers and Taylor would not testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas" even though neither is actually in the administration any more. They are going to invoke the entirely non-constitutional legal precedent of "executive privilege" and stonewall.

Which is utterly reprehensible. It's probably criminal. It certainly demands that Congress begin impeachment proceedings after charging everyone involved in the decision from Bush on down with congressional contempt.

And then what?

Here's my read on it. The Supreme Court are going to make the decisions on this one, but that's going to take time - plenty of it. There's no chance whatsoever that impeachment proceedings can now be concluded before Bush's time in office is up and he disappears to his new ranch in South America to clear brush forevah. There's probably no chance that congressional contempt charges can clear SCOTUS before Bush's exile begins either. In any case, the way in which Bush has stacked the court means he has to be pretty confident he can get the decision he wants.

And - here's the important bit - this has been Bush's plan all along. His administration have known, since the 2004 election, that the clock was in their favor. There was no chance of a Republican-led Congress doing anything with spine so they were safe until 2006. They figured a Dem-led Congress would take several months to be goaded past the point of their own fear of the GOP's PR boogy-man. So they decided to turn the administration up to 11, knowing they could run the clock out.

The window of opportunity was fleeting, they figured they had it covered, they were right.

Read The Full Article:
http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/06/executive-privilege-and-bushs-private.
html

Digg this

Alexandria Bans Smoking, Will Arlington Follow
Suit

From the Washington Post:

After a heated and raucous public meeting, the Alexandria City Council voted unanimously to use its zoning powers to ban smoking in restaurants, an unusual tactic opponents said would lead to costly lawsuits.

Many states and cities, including Maryland and the District, have banned smoking in public places, but the Virginia legislature severely limits local authority in such issues. Alexandria has opted to use the power it does have -- in this case, control over land-use regulation -- to force restaurant owners to go smoke-free or lose their operating permits. It is the first jurisdiction in Virginia to
take such action.

Should the Arlington County Board take a similar approach to ban smoking here in Arlington? After all, President Bush's own surgeon general has declared, "The debate is over. [Secondhand smoke] causes disease and kills people."
While many Arlington restaurants have gone smoke-free -- the Arlington Civic Federation maintains a great list -- few popular bars are smoke-free. Arlington's most popular happy hour spots -- Rock Bottom, Carpool, Whitlow's, Front Page, Dr. Dremo's, Mister Days -- all allow smoking.
Should Arlington use its zoning powers to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, even at the risk of a lawsuit?

Read The Full Article:
http://thegreenmiles.blogspot.com/2007/06/alexandria-bans-smoking-will-arlington.
html

Digg this