NEWS ROUNDUP 01/26/09
FEINGOLD SEZ: NO MORE CLUSTERFUCK SENATE APPOINTMENTS
CAT STEVENS RECORDS CHARITY SONG FOR GAZA
U.S. FORCES RAID, KILL IRAQI COUPLE IN BED
U.S. ENVOY PREDICTS “DIRECT DIPLOMACY” WITH IRAN
WITH GAZA, JOURNALISTS FAIL AGAIN
GONZALES: I DON’T THINK ANYONE IS GOING TO PROSECUTE ME (I don’t either)
Yah, but he got paid. From Riptide:
Karl Rove used to have this gig scaring people into voting Republican and running whatever parts of the government Dick Cheney didn’t. Now he’s reduced to Twittering and arguing with college students. Sad, really.
Rove stopped by the University of Miami last Thursday and got a taste of what life will be like for anyone connected to the Bush administration who dares address a mixed political audience. Basically, there will always be someone in the crowd ready to match wits with you.
According the the Miami Hurricane, Rove met his foe in Corey Ciorciari, a UM senior and Obama campaign intern. Ciorciari brought up Rove’s “fear and deception” tactics, and Rove called him “cynical and callous.” To be fair, though, about 99 percent of political operatives have no problem using fear and deception, and most college kids are cynical and callous, so the argument amounted to the grass calling the sky blue, and the sky coming back with, “Oh yeah, well, you’re green.”
Rove also spent time bashing Obama’s decision to close Gitmo, opining on how 9/11 changed Bush forever, and apparently found a fan in a UM junior who told the Hurricane: “To see him in the flesh was great.” Rove in the flesh — gag.
60 Minutes 01/25/09: Scott Pelly reports on a U.S. town facing economic ruin; Bob Simon investigates the dwindling vision of peace between Israel and Palestine; Morley Safer toasts the idea of red wine increasing our longevity; And, Andy Rooney jumps on the Obama train.
Waaah sniff waaah Norm Coleman waaah cry mine. Waaah sniff cry waaah me waaah, sniff cry. Me me mine! Waaah waaah cry sniff boo-hoo cry waaah:
Coleman to argue Franken won by bogus recount
Norm Coleman, determined to win at all costs.MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) — A three-judge panel will begin hearing testimony Monday in Republican Norm Coleman’s post-election legal challenge for the U.S. Senate seat. [...]
To aid in his battle, Coleman has retained Ben Ginsberg, the lawyer who led the Florida recount efforts for the Republican side during the disputed presidential election in 2000.
Coleman’s attorneys plan to argue three points:
• That nearly 12,000 absentee ballots rejected on Election Day should be recounted because at least 4,500 of them were discarded in error. If those ballots are allowed, they could flip the race back in Coleman’s favor.
• That the canvassing board did not use a uniform standard when it counted 933 ballots from the discarded pile of absentee ballots. Those 933 gave Franken the edge.
• That some votes were counted twice, which also worked in Franken’s favor.
Give it to him already! Like Bush, he’s going to take it one way or another anyway.
Silly me. My thinking was that, after having been through eight years of extremely shitty republican rule, putting democrats in charge would be a breath of fresh air. I want to thank Mr. Blagojevich for holding us down and helping keep balance between the parties. I certainly wouldn’t want to be a part of a party that kept it’s nose clean or anything like that. Heavens!
Blagojevich makes TV rounds as impeachment trial set to begin
(CNN) — Impeachment proceedings against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are scheduled to begin Monday in the state Senate, but the embattled governor is expected to skip the trial and instead appear on several television programs.
Blagojevich is facing federal corruption allegations, including trying to trade or sell the Senate seat that became vacant after Barack Obama was elected president.
On “Good Morning America,” Blagojevich said he considered appointing Oprah Winfrey as Obama’s Senate replacement.
“She seemed to be someone who had helped Barack Obama in a significant way become president,” he said. “She was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators.”
The governor said Winfrey was one of several candidates he had considered for the position.
More dour economic news. It’s doubtful anyone will be able to turn things around at this point.
Economic forecasters see more job cuts ahead
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s shaping up to be another lousy year for workers, with more companies expecting to cut payrolls in the months ahead.
That’s part of the latest outlook from forecasters in a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics that depicts the worst business conditions in the U.S. since the report’s inception in 1982.
Thirty-nine percent predicted job reductions through attrition or “significant” layoffs over the next six months, up from 32 percent in the previous survey in October. Around 45 percent in the current survey anticipated no change in hiring plans, while roughly 17 percent thought hiring would increase.
The recession, which started in December 2007, and is expected to stretch into this year, has been a job killer. The economy lost 2.6 million jobs last year, the most since 1945. The unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent in December, the highest in 16 years, and is expected to keep climbing.
UPDATE:
Professor Paul Krugman on This Week – shuts down Sam Donaldson’s nonsense
To quote “Spinal Tap”….”a bit fuckin’ much perspective” ~Cicher~
From Think Progress, some reactions to Obama’s stimulus package from his dinner partners at George Will’s house:
Charles Krauthammer: “Look, this is one of the worst bills in galactic history. … FDR left behind the Hoover dam and Eisenhower left behind the interstate highway system. We will leave behind, after spending $1 trillion, a dog run in East Potomac Park.” [Fox News, 1/24/09]
David Brooks: “It is an unholy marriage that manages to combine the worst of each approach — rushed short-term planning with expensive long-term fiscal impact.” [New York Times, 1/23/09]
Bill Kristol: “The stimulus has so much bad stuff in it. … They let the House Democrats get out of control in sort of writing a pork-laden bill. Politically, I think the Republicans have more room too argue for changes and ultimately vote against it.” [Fox News Sunday, 1/25/09]
Guess that one didn’t quite work out for him.
