Yesterday on Fox News, Neil Cavuto brought on exercise guru Richard Simmons and boxing promoter Don King to talk about the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. One viewer’s reaction to the hard-hitting segments:
Charm City
Huh. Apparently there’s a Baltimore City Paper. Who knew? Said paper contains an article about The Wire, thus indicating that it’s a superior publication to the tawdry Washington City Paper. I’ve been avoiding the temptation to watch the review copy of the entire season that the producers sent to the Prospect offices since I’d like to take it all in at the proper pace, but the City Paper guy watched ‘em all and says “it’s the most gripping, ambitious season the show has produced to date.”
Kemp: Clinton and Kerry Are ‘Hypocritical, Sad and Pathetic’ For Supporting Lamont
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) announced yesterday that he has invited former congressman and conservative activist Jack Kemp to campaign with him in Connecticut. “He called me after the primary, he’s a good friend, and I’m grateful,” Lieberman said.
Kemp is off to a rousing start. Yesterday on Fox, Kemp smeared Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), John Kerry (D-MA) and others who are backing Lamont as “hypocritical, sad and pathetic.” He also falsely attacked Lieberman’s opponent Ned Lamont, baselessly claiming that Lamont wants to pull out of Iraq “tomorrow.” (Get the facts on Lamont’s position HERE.) Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/08/kempfox.320.240.flv]
Transcript below: Read more
Stevens confirms he placed secret hold on bill.
A spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has “confirmed his boss was the man behind the secret hold on the Coburn/Obama spending database bill,” according to TPMmuckraker. Background on the story HERE.
From Hype To Hysteria: Fox News Selling Preemptive War Against Iran
Tomorrow marks the deadline for Iran to comply with U.N. demands to suspend portions of its nuclear program. Fox is using the opportunity to sell another preemptive war.
Today Fox has aired multiple segments featuring pundits who claim that a U.S. military attack on Iran is both essential and imminent. Fox anchors repeatedly parrot these arguments. Watch a compilation of clips culled from the last several hours:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/08/foxiran.320.240.flv]
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) said recently that a military strike on Iran would be “disastrous, catastrophic,” and “would inflame the Middle East in ways we can’t imagine today.” A bipartisan group of national security experts agrees there are no good military options in Iran.
Full transcript: Read more
Goodbye to all That
It’s the last week in town for my friends Genevieve and Emily capping off the traditional late-summer exodus and consequent need to try and make some new friends somewhere. This got me thinking; I always tend to assume that DC is unusually transient in this particular way — lots of people leaving town every summer and lots of new people coming in every fall — but do I have any reason to think that’s the case? In retrospect, I do not. Certainly, there’s a lot of transience. But DC also just happens to be the only place I’ve lived during my time in the peak-transience age bracket. For all I know, LA or New York has even more churn.
Apocalypse not now.
“If you hadn’t heard,” writes Aditya Dasgupta at Foreign Policy’s blog, “Bernard Lewis – an eminent Princeton academic who is an extremely influential voice in the White House – actually predicted that Iran might try to wipe out Israel on August 22, 2006. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to see this kind of blind speculation gracing the op-ed pages of the WSJ. And one week after August 22, the prediction seems even more ridiculous.”
The photo Sen. George Allen (R-VA)
Caught Red-Handed: Stevens Blocked Creation of Federal Spending Database
Last week, an “unidentified senator” placed a hold on legislation introduced by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would create a easily-accessible Google-like database of all federal spending, which totaled $2.5 trillion last year.
The bill appeared to be headed for passage after being approved unanimously in committee. However, the anonymous senator’s hold on the bill prevented it from coming to a vote.
In response, liberals and conservatives worked together to ask every Senate office whether they had placed a hold on the bill. Of all 100 senators, only Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) would not deny placing the hold. In addition, one of the bill’s leading sponsors, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), said of Stevens, “he’s the only senator blocking it.” Stevens’s opposition to such a bill is not surprising; he is one of the most prolific earmarkers in the Senate:
– In 2005, Stevens helped slip in legislation to begin construction on the “Bridge to Nowhere,” earmarking over $200 million for a bridge to an island home to 50 people. When an amendment jeopardized funding for the project, Stevens threatened to resign.
– Later that year, Stevens tried to insert an amendment into the national defense bill allowing oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. When the Senate struck the provision, Stevens called it “the saddest day of my life” and has “written off” Senate friends who opposed drilling.
– This year, Stevens earmarked $450,000 to research baby food made from salmon and over $1 million for “alternative salmon product research.” This is the third year in a row he has appropriated money to research salmon products.
More at TPMmuckraker.
– Scott Keyes
Hybrids bound for Formula 1.
Car makers have signed a deal to create a 250 horse-power hybrid Formula 1 car for 2007. Gizmodo writes, “The fact that hybrid engine technology is even being considered by world-class Formula One designers serves as an ad hoc endorsement for the idea.”
