Yesterday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) attacked the nine “liberal Democrat” “naysayers” who voted against his resolution on the “importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.” Today, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) responded, explaining his vote:
While the Republicans are passing a resolution celebrating Christmas, the president was vetoing health care for children. There’s a little bit of irony going on around here.
King was one of the lawmakers who voted against expanding SCHIP.
The reason I haven’t blogged much today is that I was asked to test drive an innovative clean car — and I had to fly to another state (and back).
I can’t give any more details at this point since I was acting in my former mundane role as someone who supposedly knows something about alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), rather than my current exciting role as a serious journalist blogger. Also, an exclusive was given to someone from the MSM traditional media.
I will give a full report after the car is introduced at the Detroit auto show in January, since I think it represents a potential major step forward in AFVs.
Celebrating Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) House resolution on the “importance of Christmas and the Christian faith,” Fox News host Bill O’Reilly declared victory in the “war on Christmas” last night. He called his show’s reporting on the issue “one of the most important things we’ve done,” and bragged, “We won” and secular progressives “lost.” Watch it:
Guess it’s tough to lose a war that you made up.
(HT: Huffington Post and Gawker)
Since the Iran NIE was released, conservatives have desperately tried to discredit it. Former Vice President Cheney aide David Wurmser questioned “how much it can really be banked on.” John Bolton called for congressional investigations into the “politicized” intelligence community.
Some conservatives in Congress are following these calls, proposing a “second look” into the NIE in the form of a commission “based on similar review panels convened in the mid-1970s to reconsider the intelligence agencies’ analysis of the Soviet Union.” “We just see politics injected into this,” claimed Sen. John Ensign’s (R-NV) office.
Today, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino rejected the partisan witch-hunt into the intelligence community. “They assessed all of the intelligence,” she declared. “I think that they should be supported”:
PERINO: The bottom line for the president on the NIE was that the 16 intelligence communities — community — came together. They assessed all of the intelligence. … And I just don’t know if there’s need to have a second look at it. [...]
QUESTION: So is it safe, then, to draw from that that the president is fully confident in the information contained in the NIE?
PERINO: The NIE — the president accepted the results of the NIE.
Watch it:
Similarly, Cheney recently said, “I don’t have any reason to question the — what the community has produced, with respect to the NIE on Iran.”
In doubting the NIE, these hawks in Congress are ignoring the fact that the intelligence was heavily vetted and well-sourced. The process was overseen by DNI Mike McConnell, who was hand-picked by Bush for the job.
Transcript: Read more
Deranged conservative radio host Michael Savage:
“You know, the Gore-leone crime family is now the number one crime family in the world, when you think about it. He’s about to pull off the biggest scam in the history of the world. It’s bigger than any bank heist, bigger than any drug deal. It’s bigger than any counterfeiting scheme, and he’s doing it all nice and natural with a little help from the socialist perverts in Norway, who gave him a Nobel Prize. Why do I call them socialist perverts? Answer: because they are. By and large, 90 percent of the people on the Nobel Committee are into child pornography and molestation, according to the latest scientific studies.”
And, yes, he’s nationally syndicated. That’s via Dave Roberts.
She observes that he has some character issues:
The stories that have come out about Huckabee paint a portrait of him not just as somebody not ready for prime-time–a fault he can overcome with his I-never-said-I-was-perfect bit on the stump–but as a real narcissist. The idea that one’s past policies (the AIDS position) or actions (the R.J. Reynolds deal) could turn out to have been bad ideas, and require apologies or explanations, doesn’t appear to touch him. And the idea that gathering more information on issues (like the NIE, criminals’ records, immigration details, or tax policy) could improve his leadership doesn’t seem to register, either. The Huckabee credo appears to be this: Feeling moved, Huckabee creates, and God sees that it is good.
Well said.
Last week, the CIA revealed that it had destroyed videotapes of interrogations of two al Qaeda detainees, including logistics chief Abu Zubaydah. Newsweek reports today that methods used in the interrogation of Zubaydah “sparked an internal battle within the U.S. intelligence community” to such an extent that one FBI agent “threatened to arrest the CIA interrogators“:
The videotapes, made in 2002, showed the questioning of two high-level Qaeda detainees, including logistics chief Abu Zubaydah, whose interrogation at a secret cell in Thailand sparked an internal battle within the U.S. intelligence community after FBI agents angrily protested the aggressive methods that were used. In addition to waterboarding, Zubaydah was subjected to sleep deprivation and bombarded with blaring rock music by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. One agent was so offended he threatened to arrest the CIA interrogators, according to two former government officials directly familiar with the dispute.
CNN’s Mary Snow reported after the debate: “Twenty-three registered Democrats came in here undecided. We asked them who they felt performed the best in this debate and they concluded they felt that John Edwards performed the best, with Senator Clinton right behind him. Now of course, this is unscientific, but also the other question posed to them. If the election were held today, who would you vote for? And in that question, John Edwards came in first, Senator Barack Obama second, and Senator Clinton came in third.” The Fox News focus group felt the same way. That’s not how I felt watching the debate. For me, the best cure for developing pro-Edwards leanings is always to actually watch him in action: I find his persona self-righteous and a bit annoying, but the evidence has consistently been that most people don’t feel that way, and this afternoon’s focus groups are no exception.
Incidentally, I wonder about the mid-afternoon debate. This is very convenient for professional political journalists, since it allows us to discharge a work obligation during regular business hours, but it seems awfully inconvenient for the average people who are nominally the audience for these things. I wonder if the scheduling is just a slight post-modern nod at the reality that the chattering class is, in fact, the real audience for these things.
On his radio show yesterday, right-wing talker Michael Savage attacked former Vice President Al Gore’s recent Nobel Peace Prize, saying that it was awarded to him by “the socialist perverts in Norway.” “90 percent of the people on the Nobel Committee are into child pornography and molestation,” proclaimed Savage. Listen to it:
What good is a road map when your navigator isn’t paying attention?
There is one day, Friday, left in the climate negotiations in Bali (because of the time difference, attendees are already sleeping off Thursday). The EU is calling for language that specifies a target – emissions cuts of 25-40 percent by 2020. Countries participating in Bali are making desperate pleas for some sort of road map or direction before leaving. But despite international, domestic and scientific pressure, the Bush administration still refuses to cooperate and the EU, in turn, as threatened to boycott Bush’s second major emitters meeting.
Even Al Gore has called the U.S. an obstacle to negotiations, and non-profit observers are getting visibly peeved. Environment & Energy Daily reports (subs. req’d):
“This is probably the most explicitly irresponsible act that any American administration has taken in any of our lifetimes,” Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, declared. “They should not be forgiven for they know full well what they do.”
Jennifer Morgan of London-based climate think tank E3G added, “There is a wrecking crew in Bali, led by the Bush administration and its minions.”
And so, the EU is keen to give Bush a taste of his own medicine. At the end of January, he has scheduled a second summit to discuss voluntary emissions (in Hawaii, of all places…). Should his policy not budge, senior officials from the European Union, France and Germany have threatened to boycott his effort PR-stunt.
The EU is the most rational voice of a negotiating partner right now, and their absence at any global warming summit would be unfortunate. But I do wonder how it would phase Bush, if any bitterness would show through other issues, or if Bush would just work on his sun and surf.
Perhaps that’s why Avaaz has this petition going: US to World: Bush Doesn’t Represent Us.
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