2
POPSFeinstein's Useless Criticism A very good point by John Cole. Feinstein's judgment on security issues is extremely suspect, since -- as he points out --- she voted for "Porter Goss, George Tenet, and Michael Hayden, as well as Mike Mukasey, Robert Mueller, and Donald Rumsfeld" without complaint. Looking at that track record, her opinion isn't worth a whole lot. Shut up and get with the program, Diane.
2
POPSBurris Turned Away From Senate Chamber The problem, of course, is that the Illinois Secretary of State has refused to sign off on Burris's appointment. This actually brings up an interesting question; is it required? Some argue that the signature is just a formality and an "extra-constitutional requirement." On the other hand, constitutionally speaking, the handling of elections is left up to the states. You could argue that this puts Illinois law above the Constitution in this case. But, to grow a third hand, Burris wasn't elected -- does this create a loophole? We live in interesting times.
2
POPSFranken is the Official Winner -- Unofficially The problem is that, according to Minnesota law, nothing can be certified while legal challenges are still in the works. It's hard to find fault with that -- it seems like a pretty common sense provision to me. But it's frustrating as all hell that the 2008 elections still aren't over. Coleman's suit to bring in some 650 challenged ballots was turned down by the Minnesota Supreme Court, but is almost certain to be appealed to the federal level. So, officially, we can start saying Senator Franken. But we can't say incumbent Senator Franken. Confusing? You bet.
3
POPSRichardson Withdraws as Commerce Nom This is pretty disappointing news. I thought Richardson was great and I would actually have liked to see him take State, instead of Hillary Clinton. Here's hoping this doesn't pan out as a fullblown scandal or crime. That would be a big surprise -- at least, to me.
7
POPSIsraeli Ground Invasion of Gaza "The goal is to try and take over some of the those launching areas that were responsible for the many launches, thousands of launches in fact, toward Israeli civilians," Leibovich said. "The civilians are not our target. We are looking only after militants. Hamas militants." Of course, it's almost certain that one helluva lot of civilians will die here -- Gaza is a very densely populated area. For more -- and better -- background and analysis than I could possibly give you here, check out Juan Cole's Informed Comment .
1
POPSBurris Contacts Reid This is no surprise and really exactly what you'd expect from Team Burris. The only real news here is in the Certificate of Appointment (page 4 of the PDF ), which is signed by Governor Blagojevich, but not by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. White has refused to sign off on the appointment, which may give Reid some legal leverage when it comes to rejecting Burris.
3
POPSHow Wall Street's Loss May be Labor's Gain From economic media critic Dean Baker, who's blog I really need to check more often. Baker goes on to explain how a loss of demand from Wall St. types could be made up. "Eventually weakness in the labor market will put more downward pressure on real wages," he writes. "However, if the loss of demand from stockholders is effectively replaced by demand from the government or foreign sector, then the vast majority of the country will be made better off by this plunge in stock prices." Yet another argument in favor of a second New Deal.
1
POPSBlago Appointee Burris Once Pushed to Execute Innocent Man This is pretty ugly. The piece goes on: "Anybody who understood this case wouldn’t have voted for Burris," Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, told ProPublica. Indeed, Burris lost that race, and two other attempts to become governor. Burris’ role in the Cruz case was "indefensible and in defiance of common sense and common decency," Warden said. "There was obvious evidence that was innocent." Putting ambition over justice. I guess we shouldn't be surprised.
2
POPSGlobal Warming a Huge Expense in 2008 Recent events have proved that companies and nations aren't made out of money and can run out. Still, let's keep pretending that GW isn't happening and it's all some nutty idea like alien abductions. Really, what's the worst that can happen? Besides, the economy's freakin' awesome and we can totally afford to pay ten of billions a year.
1
POPSBlago to Announce Obama Replacement Appt. Burris, 71, may find he has no cause to celebrate. The Chicago Tribune reports: The action comes despite warnings by Democratic Senate leaders that they would not seat anyone appointed by the disgraced governor who faces criminal charges of trying to sell the post, sources familiar with the decision said. So Gov. Blagojevich's announcement won't be nearly as important as Harry Reid's reaction to it.
6
POPSVirginity Pledges Fail to Stop Teen Sex There's a big surprise, huh? Like so many things that the Bush administration does, this is both ineffective and expensive. The study found that five years after taking a pledge, 82% denied ever pledging. Pledging kids were virtually indistinguishable from non-pledgers in terms of sexual behavior -- including rates of anal and oral sex. The only real difference is that they're less likely to use protection. The next time someone brings up "faith-based solutions," suggest reality-based solutions. This faith-based crap doesn't seem to ever work.
1
POPSHamas Calls for 'Third Infitada' I hate writing about Israeli/anybody conflicts because it's really hard to get people to realize that the Israeli government as a much a bunch of assholes as whatever bunch of assholes they're fighting with at any given time. Israel's response in this situation is as disproportionate as it always is. There are no good guys in this fight, no one we should really be rooting for. The best we can do is hope that both sides will someday realize that they're going about this all wrong. Israel's system of apartheid guarantees terrorism and terrorism guarantees the continuation of apartheid.
6
POPSBiden Noncommittal on Torture Prosecutions Fine Joe. Let's look forward. In fact, let's look forward to prosecuting people for torture. It would be a tremendous injustice if people who were responsible for this monstrous stain on our national record went unpunished. While I'm willing to give Team Obama the benefit of the doubt and wait until they take the wheel to start worrying about what they aren't doing, this isn't the most heartening thing I've heard so far. We may have to pile on congress to get them to take up the slack here. We shouldn't have to, but we may.
2
POPSObama: Science Not to be Skewed by Ideology This will be a nice change from the Bush administration, whose interference in -- and spinning of -- science is well documented . Putting a muzzle on scientists is putting a muzzle on truth. The Bush admin. haven't been the biggest fans of truth.
2
POPSMark Felt - AKA 'Deep Throat' - Dies The right called him a traitor and the left thought he should talked to the feds, instead of exposing Nixon to the Washington Post . Whatever you think of his methods, they worked. We didn't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore.
4
POPSMy Paul Weyrich Obit Weyrich, who died this morning , was a founding member of the religious right. Keeping a lower profile than similar minds like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Weyrich managed to continue his career of professional hatred, bigotry, and lies until the day he died. Good riddance. For those of you reading this who are appalled that I'd be so callous on the occasion of a death of a fellow human being, I counter that Paul Weyrich wasn't a human being. He was hate and ignorance and antidemocratic philosophy incarnate. Paul Weyrich, bigot, idiot, and great big fan of voter suppression, dead at 66. The world is no poorer for the loss.
6
POPSCheney: 'It Would Have Been Unethical or Immoral' Not to Torture It's always easy -- not to mention safe -- to assume that Dick Cheney's lying. But just this once, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume he's stupid. His oath of office does not call on him to "to protect and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic." What Dick and George actually swore to do is this: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I think we can all agree that Dick and George have done a really shitty job of that. Maybe they weren't paying attention when they pledged. Dick's practically been daring Obama to prosecute him lately. Here's hoping he does.
16
POPSIn TV Interview, Cheney Confessed to War Crime "What occurred in the last eight years was an assault on who we are," Turley said. "I think that President-elect Obama's going to have to decide whether he wants power without principle or whether he wants to start with a true change, to say that no matter where an investigation will take us, if there are crimes to be found they will be prosecuted." Personally, I vote for the latter. The neocons came up with a lot of creative legal arguments to excuse torture and we ought to make them test those arguments in a criminal court. I think they'd find that their arguments were BS and that they are, quite literally, criminals. I also think that we ought to make it 100% clear that working in the White House isn't a free pass to commit war crimes. We're a nation of laws, not men, and those who break the law should have to answer to the law -- no matter who they are. That's what you call "justice."
9
POPSShoe-Thrower was Reacting to US Aerial Bombings In related news, al-Zaidi has apparently been abused by Iraqi forces while under arrest, suffering "a broken arm and ribs," along with internal bleeding. Yeah, George. Iraq's a real goddam paradise now. You must be so proud.
7
POPSClock Ticking on Global Warming Call this a companion to my morning post . The piece tells us: here are powerful political and economic realities that must be quickly overcome for Obama to succeed. Despite the urgency he expresses, it's not at all clear that he and Congress will agree on an approach during a worldwide financial crisis in time to meet some of the more crucial deadlines. Repeat this as often as you can; "the environment and financial crises have the same solution."
1
POPSNo Blago-Effect on Obama Polling So Obama's ratings are up after the scandal. I think that in our post-Bush era, Republicans are going to have a little problem -- Americans trust this guy and are more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Attempts to link Obama and Blagojevich are likely to fail. Republicans are going to have to stop relying on their opponent to screw up and are going to have to do something crazy -- be competent.
3
POPSBush Ducks Shoes in Iraq Wow. What do you call an Iraqi journalist walking around Baghdad in his socks? Pissed. I doubt this guy's walking around Baghdad, though. I'd imagine he's in jail. You can imagine Bush telling people later that he's so beloved in Iraq that a grateful reporter gave him a free pair of shoes to represent the "solid footing" the US and Iraq are on. Video at the link .
0
POPSUN Sec.-Gen. Ban Calls for 'Green New Deal' “In short, our response to the economic crisis must advance climate goals, and our response to the climate crisis will advance economic and social goals,” said Mr. Ban. You know, a lot of influential people seem to be on the same page about this. Then again, it's an obvious solution to two problems.
3
POPSReport: Iraq Reconstruction '$100 Billion Failure' "Powell's contention was supported by both the former ground troops commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and L. Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator before the Iraqi government takeover in June 2004," the report tells us. We're also told that "the U.S. government still does not have the policies, technical capacity or organizational structure needed for a project even approaching this one's scale." Partisan politics played a part. "To delay getting our funds would be a political disaster for the President," a lobbyist wrote to the Office of Management and Budget in 2003. "His election will hang for a large part on show of progress in Iraq and without the funding this year, progress will grind to a halt." Remember, if you're a neocon, every problem is a public relations problem. They're solved with PR, propaganda, and Potemkin villages.
2
POPSFood Stamp Use Nears Record High Speaking of unemployment figures, there were 573,000 new unemployment claims last week. But, by all means, let's let the automakers fail. It'd be so much cheaper to pay out in food stamps, welfare, public health, aid to cities, etc. -- none of which we'll never get back -- than to give a loan to car companies.
4
POPSPelosi Wants Bigger, Greener Econ. Stimulus Expect the GOP to suddenly become deficit hawks, after years of spending money like a drunk in a strip club. Their economic theory has been bass-ackward for years; govt. should spend money when times are bad and grow surpluses when times are good. Huffington Post has Obama thinking even bigger: President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is considering an economic-stimulus program that will be far larger than the two-year, half-trillion-dollar plan under consideration two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the team's thinking. And, no, that's not socialism.
3
POPSBush Aid to Automakers Angers Senate GOP Of course, they're right -- Bush just kicked them in the teeth. If the TARP funding is big enough, they should be able to keep going until next year when more solid aid from the Obama admin. and a dem congress is a dead certainty. The Senate GOP may be willing to throw the economy down the toilet just to break a union, but Bush doesn't want to be remembered as the president who's action led to an unprecedented wave of unemployment. Throw a ticking clock, a lame duck session, competing interests, and a president who stopped giving a damn about Republicans some time in November in a pot, mix well, and you've got a party eating itself.
7
POPSQ: Do Auto Workers Really Make More Than $70/hr? A: No A lot of people who really should know better have been repeating this BS and the lazy media who'd rather pull talking points off a fax than pick up a phone are guilty as well. As always, we're supposed to believe the problem is the workers, not the executives -- since executives are perfect and angelic beings sent by the Almighty shower we poor slobs with their largess and wisdom. All the while, of course, getting paid completely insane amounts of money to do so.
3
POPSPinup Icon Bettie Page Dies at 85 At her website , Page's lawyer Mark Roesler released this short statement: With deep personal sadness I must announce that my dear friend and client Bettie Page passed away at 6:41pm PST this evening in a Los Angeles hospital. She died peacefully but had never regained consciousness after suffering a heart attack nine days ago. She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality. She is the embodiment of beauty. As I said before, it's all temporary. Luckily for us, the photos are not. Page most recently (re)gained attention for the 2005 bio-pic, The Notorious Bettie Page , with Gretchen Mol.
4
POPSBailout Bucks in Their Pocket, Citigroup Keeps Lobbying “We are significant investors in Citigroup and are also holding a significant amount of risk if some of these assets fail,“ Stephen Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense said. “The same guys who’ve got their hand out are also badgering and lobbying members of Congress to get other perks and sweetheart deals for themselves…Are we paying them to lobby ourselves?“ And we're supposed to be all freaked out about the automakers and the unions.
2
POPSRepublic Workers Sit-In Ends in a Win The piece goes on: The resolution came after six days of negotiations among the bank, company owners and union leaders. The workers voted to end their sit-in on Wednesday evening, emerging from their factory chanting, “Yes we did!” “The occupation is over,” said Armando Robles, a factory worker and president of Local 1110, of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, which represented the workers. “We have achieved a victory.” Of course, they're still out of work in this job market , but a win's a win.
8
POPSReport: Bush, Rumsfeld Responsible for Detainee Abuse The article tells us: The Bush administration, which has not yet commented on the report, has repeatedly said detainees in U.S. custody are treated humanely, and that because they are enemy combatants, and not prisoners-of-war, they are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions. That never made any sense to me; the Bush argument was always "We can abuse detainess because Geneva doesn't apply, but we're not." Why make the argument that the Geneva Conventions don't apply if you're not planning to violate them? Why even bring it up? We now have proof of the freakin' obvious...
0
POPSGOP to Filibuster Automaker Deal Of course, the GOP has no alternative, because they're all about being against things, not for things. When you approach every problem asking "how can I be a hardass about this?" you're not really very likely to come up with anything constructive. So they're going to filibuster. Meanwhile, the Treasury's giving money hand over fist to banks and not paying any attention at all to how it's being spent. If you ever needed proof that the GOP is the party of wealth, there you go.
2
POPSObama to Nominate Nobel Winner for Energy Secretary To give you an idea of how drastic a change this would be, Bush's Energy Sec. is Samuel Bodman , a veteran of both the investment banking and chemical industries -- i.e., someone who's never even worked in the energy sector before. Chu's nomination will be what's known as "getting it right."
2
POPSHow are Banks Spending Bailout $? Treasury Doesn't Care The piece tells us: Today, Neel Kashkari, the Treasury official supervising the TARP, testified before Congress. And as before , he rejected the idea of tracking the money. “Each financial institution’s circumstances are different, making comparisons challenging at best, and it is difficult to track where individual dollars flow through an organization,“ he explained in his opening statement . Let me go ahead and translate that from bullshit to English; "Keeping track of money's a lot of work. We can't expect banks -- whose business is dealing with money -- to do that." It begs the question; what does anyone actually do at the Treasury Dept.? Is it anything like work?
3
POPSObama Calls on Blago to Resign Durbin's special election idea seems to me to be the ideal solution to filling Obama's seat, given the circumstances. The more democracy, the better. See also A Reader’s Guide to the Blagojevich Complaint .
8
POPSUN: Nearly 1 Billion Live with Hunger The lion's share of the problem is food prices. While prices have dropped recently, the report tells us "they still remain high compared to previous years." "FAO’s Food Price Index is still nearly 30 per cent higher as of October 2008 than it was two years before," according to the UN. "Meanwhile, the prices of seeds, fertilizers and other inputs have more than doubled since 2006, leaving poor farmers unable to produce food." Over two-thirds of the world's hungry live in just seven nations: India, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Ethiopia.
0
POPSBlackwater Guards Charged With Manslaughter There was some speculation as to whether they'd also be charged with a gun crime enhancer and it seems that they were. According to the report, "The accused face up to 10 years in jail if convicted on the manslaughter charge, seven if found guilty of attempted manslaughter, and 30 for the weapons violations charge, said Jeff Taylor, Attorney for the District of Columbia." A possible 47 years for firing a grenade into a girls' school? Seems like a cheap price to pay. If this would've happened in the US, they'd be lucky if they didn't fry.
8
POPSSCOTUS: No Review of Obama's Prez Eligibility Score one for the sane. Don't expect this conspiracy theory to die here, though. Conspiracy theories never die . No amount of proof will satisfy these nuts, because conspiracy theories become like religious beliefs to people. This "Obama isn't eligible thing" will be bouncing around the wingnut blogospere for decades. Get used to it.
2
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update