TPMDC Saturday Roundup
Former President George W. Bush has withdrawn from current political debates to work on the historical legacy of his own administration -- but Karl Rove and other old hands are soldiering on. That and other political news in today's TPMDC Saturday Roundup.
--Eric Kleefeld
The Week That Was
We were Josh-less this week, but our small staff managed to crank out some pretty cool stuff in his absence.
--David Kurtz
Greed
[W]hatever one [thinks] should be done with large financial institutions as a policy matter, surely we [can] agree that the executives at these institutions are primarily bad people. ... These are people primarily motivated in life by greed. Not just by a desire to make some scratch, mind you. ... They're multi-millionaires who want to earn millions more. ...[I]t's a sign, I think, of a kind of sickness running through American society that we've lost the willingness to just say clearly that ceteris paribus greedy behavior is not virtuous behavior. In the spirit of decency, of course, we recognize that none of us are without sin. It would be crazy to try to condemn everyone who's ever done anything greedy to the gallows. But the fact still remains that greedy behavior is not admirable behavior and that, as Krugman says, it's very unlikely that the "best" young people were going into finance. And to say that they're not necessarily good people need not entail that they're criminals. Simply the fact that the best people are people who aren't primarily driven by greed.
--David Kurtz
Habeas
From the NYT:
The Obama administration said Friday that it would appeal a district court ruling that granted some military prisoners in Afghanistan the right to file lawsuits seeking their release. The decision signaled that the administration was not backing down in its effort to maintain the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight.
--David Kurtz
Got Chemicals?
The commercial fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide industry is not so happy about Michelle Obama's organic White House garden -- and took the trouble to write her a letter about it:
"Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical," the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) wrote the first lady last month a few days after she and fifth-graders from a local elementary school planted the White House Kitchen Garden.
"CropLife" and "MACA" -- neither of those things sound wholesome or flavorful. But since they mentioned it, I think I'll make a special trip to the farmers' market tomorrow morning.
Late Update: TPM Reader BW does me one better:
How weird is it that "conventional" farming is the sort that involves synthetic chemicals, massive amounts of water and petroleum, and technology only available in the last 100 years.
--David Kurtz
More Troubling Signs
A lawyer representing detainees at Gitmo tells TPMmuckraker that the foot-dragging and stonewalling that marked the Bush Administration's handling of detainee cases continues unabated under President Obama:
It did not surprise me in the slightest that the Bush administration would do everything in its power to subvert the Supreme Court's ruling. I expected that. What I did not expect is that there would be absolutely zero change in the stonewall strategy when the [new] administration came in.
Zack Roth has more.
--David Kurtz
Gettin' It Right
Not everyone in the media fell for the GOP's "up is down-ism" this week on the new Obama Pentagon budget:
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But even as we were putting together the above montage, along came this from the always reliable Fox News:
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--David Kurtz
If Government Never Created a Job ...
... then why are anti-stimulus Republicans suddenly clamoring about the stimulative effect of military spending?
--David Kurtz
Dem Murphy Leads GOP's Tedisco By 49 46 Votes -- For The Moment
Eric Kleefeld has the latest from the NY-20.
--David Kurtz
O'Donnell 1, Buchanan 0
It's not Rome v. Avignon, but Pat Buchanan and Lawrence O'Donnell had an epic row last night on Hardball over the bizarre (and apparently very limited) opposition to Notre Dame University inviting President Obama to speak:
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--David Kurtz
TPMDC Morning Roundup
Obama wants a fast-tracked $83.4 billion from Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
--David Kurtz
Battle Lines Being Drawn
We've been hitting repeatedly this week on the flawed meta-narrative that Republicans immediately deployed -- and that some in the media lapped right up -- to counter Bob Gates' new budget proposal for the Pentagon. But there's a lot going on here beyond the canard that Obama is "gutting" defense spending when in fact he's proposing an overall increase in the Pentagon's budget (a fact, by the way, that makes it easier to debunk the meme, but which really shouldn't be dispositive either way -- would a four percent decrease in spending be "gutting" the military?).
As I've said, this is just the most recent iteration of a 20-year debate over what the military should look like after the collapse of the Soviet Union, or to use a more apt analogy, the latest battle in a long war. Proponents of new, coherent defense spending priorities have won a few skirmishes here and there, but by and large, the entrenched defense contractor interests have prevailed in every major battle.
It's been a messy war, in which it has not always been easy to distinguish the good guys from the bad. Donald Rumsfeld, for instance, as flawed as he was, was a leading advocate of "transforming" the military. (In fact, some have argued that Rumsfeld would not have lasted much longer as secretary of defense, so poorly were his efforts at transformation being received in the Pentagon, had the 9/11 attacks not intervened.) The fighting has rarely broken down cleanly along party lines, either, except in the broadest sense. Democrats with defense industries in their districts have historically been among the most tenacious opponents of reform, even as Republicans lob charges that Democrats are soft on defense.
All of which is to say that there is a lot of history here and a lot of nuance, most of which will be lost in the debate that's already started. There's also no one right way to restructure the military, and serious disagreements exist even among those who agree that major restructuring is necessary. (And, in fact, there's substantial disagreement over whether the Gates plan equals real reform.) We'll be trying to sort the noise from the substance as this debate proceeds.
So here's some substance. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), a former rear admiral, was on MSNBC this morning, and he gave a broad summary of the Gates proposal, which he supports. If you haven't been following events this week closely, this is a good primer:
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Brian Beutler has more on Sestak, and the important role he may play in this debate, at TPMDC.
--David Kurtz
CIA Black Sites To Go Dark
The CIA says it is shutting down its system of secret prisons where torture was carried out, but Director Leon Panetta said that CIA officers who participated in Bush-era abuses "should not be investigated, let alone punished."
I guess that means Mark Swanner is off the hook.
--David Kurtz
The Purity Myth
This week at book club, we've been discussing Jessica Valenti's latest, The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession With Virginity Is Hurting Young Women.
Wanna know where the Purity Myth lives? Valenti suggests: Start With TPM Readers...
Join the discussion here.
--Lila Shapiro
The Stevens Six
Who are the prosecutors that bungled the Ted Stevens prosecution -- and how could they have screwed it up so badly? Zack Roth takes a look.
--David Kurtz
Gettin' Almost Comical Now
You can lead a reporter to water, but you can't make him call it a spending increase.
--David Kurtz
Nautical Menace
The scourge of Somalian pirates has finally hit the front page this week with the attack on a U.S. flagged and crewed ship. But these types of attacks have been going on for months in the Gulf of Aden and nearby waters. Check out the slideshow we've put together documenting the last year's worth of piracy.
--David Kurtz
Evolution
U.S. Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) is decrying the vitriol he's been greeted with for introducing a bill to require presidential candidates to submit birth certificates to the federal government (part of the whole fringe Birther movement that thinks Obama isn't a natural born U.S. citizen): "Just a bunch of name-calling and personal denigration ... There is no reason to say that I'm the illegitimate grandson of an alligator."
Late Update: I feel so lame for not knowing the whole backstory here. I didn't realize until a few devoted readers pointed it out that the "illegitimate son of an alligator" charge came from none other than Mr. Stephen Colbert:
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(ed.note: This post originally incorrectly referred to Posey as a state rep. Alas, he is a congressman.)
--David Kurtz
More on Steele and the Census
Some reader reaction to the RNC fundraising letter claiming Obama and ACORN want to rig the 2010 census.
TPM Reader HL:
Michael Steele is playing a dangerous game with that fund-raising letter, and people are going to die because of it.Nine years ago, my wife worked for the Census, knocking on people's doors and gathering information. There's no way she'll do it again next year. Steele is making it too dangerous.
Census takers put themselves in vulnerable positions. They don't know who or what is on the other side of the door. The door might be opened by a sexual predator, or someone who's not in control of a vicious dog. Or the door could be opened by someone with a gun in one hand and Steele's letter in the other, seething with hatred for liberals and ACORN.
Remember that gunman who attacked a Unitarian church last year, and left behind a letter urging people to kill liberals? I'm convinced that there are plenty of unbalanced people who won't leave their houses to seek liberals to kill, but will kill a "radical leftist" (Steele's words) who knocks on their door in a mission to "falsify the U.S. Census and manipulate elections in their favor" (again, Steele's words).
There's been an astonishing number of gun rampages in this country in the last month, and at least one (in Pittsburgh) was politically motivated, by a man who had been convinced that the liberals wanted to take away his guns. For Steele to choose this time to use inflammatory language to politicize the Census ... well, this is a very frightening development. The comments accompanying TPM's article make it seem like most readers are bemused by Steele's letter. But it's not a laughing matter.
Let's describe Steele's actions for what they are: The chairman of the Republican Party is raising money by politicizing the decennial Census and inciting violence against Census takers. I'm sure Steele would deny that he's trying to incite people, but this letter is being mailed during a time of rampant violence, some of it targeting liberals. It must be viewed in this context.
TPM Reader JG:
I was a census taker in the year 2000 in Atlanta, which meant I followed up on forms that hadn't been turned in.I remember having a hard time getting any information at all from hard core right wing radio listeners --- in this case, fans of Neal Boortz, Mr. Fair Tax, who is based in Atlanta. I had to beg and plead with them, citing the constitution's call for a census, before they would even tell me how many people lived in the house. Never would give me their names.
Don't be surprised if tax protesters turn into census protesters, which will screw things up. Who knows? Maybe the right wing will disappear completely after the 2010 census.
--David Kurtz
Crunching the Numbers
All you need to know -- and more -- about the latest results from the NY-20 and what they might mean for the final outcome.
--David Kurtz
Can't Quit the Meme
Rep. Tom Price (R-Lockheed Martin): "It seems the only place the President is willing to cut spending is on the armed forces."
--David Kurtz
Desperate Times
This is purely anecdotal, but I suspect it mirrors what's happening around the country. Today Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is holding a grant-writing workshop here in Missouri to give small businesses, local governments and not for profits tips on applying for federal funds. With the stimulus package getting ready to pump tons of government cash into the economy I knew this was a hot topic. But I had no idea just how hot. My wife, who works in the nonprofit realm, tried to go, but ended up bailing on it because it was too crowded. I'm told nearly 500 people showed up for this thing. For a grant-writing workshop, no less.
Late Update: Not just Missouri. TPM Reader JH drops us a line from Vermont:
Up here in Vermont, the Governor and Patrick Leahy did the same thing about three weeks ago. 700 showed up. In Vermont! Had to schedule another one, the first was over booked. In Vermont!
--David Kurtz
GOP Approach to Voter ID
Republican state rep in Texas: Can't you Asians just adopt new names "that's easier for Americans to deal with?"
--David Kurtz
Money Doesn't Grow on Trees -- But ACORNS Do
Michael Steele, in a new RNC fundraising letter: ACORN is gonna team up with Obama and rig the census to keep the GOP on the outs for an entire decade!
Late Update: The GOP is so eager to keep ACORN around as a left-wing boogeyman that Steele hasn't returned courtesy phone calls from the head of ACORN.
--David Kurtz
TPMDC Morning Roundup
The Obamas will host the first White House Seder tonight. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
--David Kurtz
Booyah!
Jon Stewart: "On what planet is a four percent spending increase a huge cut?!?"
--David Kurtz
Service With a (White) Smile
Does your banker smuggle your loose diamonds into the country for you in his toothpaste tube? I didn't think so.
--David Kurtz
Cold War Mindset Has to Change 'Sooner' or Later
TPM Reader JH:
One interesting trend in your tracking of the unfolding budget narrative is that of Oklahoma. Yes, Oklahoma. Rep. Boren has joined Rep. Cole and Sen. Inhofe making the delegation bipartisan in its categorical and overheated denunciations of the proposed DOD budget.This may be dismissed as simply delegates from a conservative state showing their support for the DOD, but I think there is something more to it than that: it's local politics at its best. All three politicians are engaging in a game of who can be the biggest champion for Oklahoma's military bases. ...
Oklahoma is home to the Army's Ft. Sill as well as Tinker, Vance, and Altus Air Force Bases. Bases are not only sources of pro-military voters, and jobs created by businesses supporting military families. As importantly, many DoD contractors proliferate in the shadows of many bases--witness the Tinker Industrial Park, "Oklahoma's Intellectual Property" and home to 35 of the largest defense contractors.
The DOD budget will slash the Army's Future Combat Systems and overall Air Force numbers -- moves that could affect each of these bases and Oklahoma's defense contractors.
No budget is perfect, but it will be important to distinguish principled critics from those protecting more parochial interests. In the coming days, we will see more defenders of the status quo coming forward to attack this budget. It won't just be Oklahoma's politicians who are protecting their jobs and bases.
That said, it will be possible to separate those raising policy concerns from those protecting narrow interests. By their hyperbole and their district's defense contractors will ye know the critics of real reform. Count these three Oklahomans among the defenders of a seemingly intractable Cold War mindset to DoD funding. ...
--David Kurtz
Whirlwind Tour
The White House has released photos of the President's quick stopover yesterday in Iraq.
--David Kurtz
What Would Inflammatory Look Like?
All that crazy stuff Michele Bachmann has been saying? Don't worry. She says: "I haven't purposely been trying to be inflammatory."
--David Kurtz
The Disaster Stage of Financialization
Kevin Phillips is blogging this week at TPMCafe's Table for One. In this post, he addresses a topic we've touched on many times in recent weeks: the financialization of the U.S. economy:
This is a much grander-scale disaster than anything that happened in 1929-33. Worse, it dwarfs the abuses of debt, finance and financialization that brought down previous leading world economic powers like Britain and Holland (back when New York was New Amsterdam). I will return to these little-mentioned precedents in another post this week.But for the moment, let me underscore: the average American knows little of the dimensions of the financial sector aggrandizement and misbehavior involved. Until this is remedied, there probably will not be enough informed, focused indignation to achieve far-reaching reform in the teeth of financial sector money and influence. Equivocation will triumph. This will not displease politicians and regulators leery of offending their contributors and backers.
Worth your time to read.
--David Kurtz
Contessa?!?
A few minutes ago, Contessa Brewer had on former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, one of that vanishing breed of moderate New England Republicans, and asked him "about this cut in defense spending." To his credit, Cohen corrected her: "By the way, it's not a cut. It's a four percent increase."
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Note the chyron, too:
--David Kurtz
Counterpoint
TPM Reader EK:
There's a lot of discussion about how the Republicans are framing the 'defense cut' meme, but I'm also concerned about your response. It seems like your reaction is, "don't say Obama is cutting Defense when he isn't and shouldn't." My reaction is, "don't give Obama credit for cutting the Defense budget when he isn't and should."
Late Update: TPM Reader JC responds:
EK's comment -- that Obama's not cutting the Pentagon budget, and he should -- is helpful, but it goes beyond that. There's a curious silence in the left/center blogosphere about the merits of the policy that's driving this latest budget.The shift from top dollar, fancy-pants weapons systems to a COIN-centric Defense budget contains a host of issues worth considering. We're betting heavily on a defense policy that that requires a) lots of troops on the ground, b) boatloads of money, & c) a willingness to insert ourselves in failed states & global hotspots where there are insurgencies to counter in the first place. In addition, it takes years (if not decades) for counterinsurgency to succeed -- with, of course, absolutely no guarantee that it will. They don't call this the Long War for nothing. Have Afghanistan & Iraq been so much fun that we were prepared to commit to this?
Clearly, none of this is an argument for continuing to spend on massively over budget Cold War-era programs. My point is that it would be useful to consider the implications of the policy behind the budget. Regrettably, not enough folks seem to be doing this. ...
--David Kurtz
Reader Alert
We want your help in finding examples of the emerging meme that Obama's proposed defense budget amounts to an old-style, lefty, dovish, weak-on-defense capitulation. Keep an eye especially on local media in your area. Oftentimes, comments made back home by senators and representatives fly under the national media radar.
Bonus points for finding examples of (1) Democrats (like Rep. Dan Boren of Oklahoma) saying it; (2) the media repeating and perpetuating it uncritically; and (3) Republicans who blame the phantom defense "cuts" on Obama's out-of-control, budget-busting domestic spending, to use their terminology.
Email your examples, with links so we can confirm them, to the "Send Comments & News Tips" address at the top of the page. And, as always, thanks.
--David Kurtz
What's the Matter with Minnesota?
Michele Bachmann (R-MN): I, too, know more about MIT scientist's study on costs of emissions caps than he does.
Late Update: TPM Reader AV responds and tries to explain:
As a Minnesotan who lives in the 5th District but has worked in the 6th, I will say that perhaps the best question is "What is wrong with the 6th District in Minnesota that they would re-elect this beastly hellspawn who appears to represent that state?"Minnesota does churn out some nutty characters, this is true: Jesse Ventura, Michele Bachmann, Prince and Norm Coleman come to mind (for various but not always common reasons). But you must also keep in mind that we unleashed unto the world the likes of Paul Wellstone, Eugene McCarthy and the Coen Brothers. We're not terribly lame.
Oh, and we're real nice, too.
--David Kurtz
Patriot Games
We started tracking yesterday the emerging meme that Obama's restructuring of the defense budget amounts to being weak on defense. It's an important early framing of the debate, driven by Republicans, and all too often adopted by media who should know better.
The meme is in full bloom this morning, with a chorus of Republicans equating the elimination of wasteful and obsolete weapons programs with being dovish -- even as the money is reallocated to other defense priorities and the total defense budget increases.
But I don't think anyone has gone quite as far as Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK):
While President Obama's short changing of America's Armed Forces is deeply disappointing, it is - unfortunately - not a surprise. Throughout his campaign and during his short tenure as President, he has made it clear that he believes his charm and eloquence are adequate substitutes for a strong military. That will not work. Whether President Obama knows it or not, President Bush's foreign enemies were also America's enemies. He cannot charm them out of their opposition to our country. The cuts announced today, however, take that naivete to a dangerous new level. I intend to do everything I can to make sure they do not actually occur.
Cole perfectly captures the strident, reactionary, and ultimately stale and unoriginal talking points coming from the GOP. We've been hearing this for so long, it's almost a caricature of the right wing, still reading Tom Clancy and fighting the Soviets.
--David Kurtz
Extra!
If you're not in the business, the steady drip of newspaper deaths and near-deaths over the last few months may not register as the sweeping upheaval that it is. We've put together a slideshow of some of the most significant recent developments. It's pretty staggering, so take a look.
--David Kurtz
TPMDC Morning Roundup
Biden: Cheney is "dead wrong." That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
--David Kurtz
How Does Colbert Do It?
In the latest installment of his "Better Know a District" series, Colbert manages to get freshman Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY) to don a fake goatee and mustache and declare his love of cocaine, among other absurdities:
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--David Kurtz
Wall Street v. Main Street
Don Van Natta, Jr., on the risky bond deals that small municipalities got suckered into making before the bottom fell out -- and the carnage it's leaving behind.
--David Kurtz
Invoking Florida
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) who, in his role as chairman of the NRSC, is fixated on keeping Al Franken from being seated for as long as possible:
"It's blatant hypocrisy that many of the same Democrats who so loudly complained about voter disenfranchisement during the 2000 Florida recount are now willing to compromise this fundamental principle of our democracy when it no longer fits their political agenda."
--David Kurtz
Hard to Keep Track
The special election in the NY-20 was a week ago today, and if you haven't been following the election aftermath closely, you may have missed the roller coaster ride the two candidates -- Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco -- have been on since the polls closed, as counties checked and re-checked their tallies.
So I just wanted to take you over the reporting Eric Kleefeld has been doing for us over the last week, as the results have seesawed back and forth. Now is a good time to review where things stand because tomorrow will be an important day. A big chunk of the almost 7,000 absentee ballots (all but the military and overseas absentee ballots that have yet to arrive in the mail) will be counted for the first time, more than enough votes to potentially swing a race where the candidates are separated at most by a few dozen votes.
Tue, Mar 31: Murphy leads on Election Night by 65 votes.
Wed, Apr 1: Murphy's lead is whittled down to 25 votes.
Thu, Apr 2: Confusion reigns over which set of numbers is most up-to-date: Tedisco leads by as many as 12 votes, or Murphy leads by no more than 6 votes.
Fri, Apr 3: The state's official numbers show an exact tie. But more recent numbers from one county show Murphy up by 198 votes, while the Tedisco camp claims it's actually him ahead by 30 thanks to another county -- where officials weren't talking to reporters.
Mon, Apr 6: Officially, Tedisco leads by 97 votes, but newer numbers from one county show Murphy is the real leader, by 83 votes.
Tue, Apr 7: Tedisco is officially ahead for now, by 17 votes.
All this back and forth in the totals is pretty common in every jurisdiction and usually affects the final tally only marginally. The difference here is those marginal changes have been enough to change the provisional leader, pending the results of the absentee ballot count tomorrow.
--David Kurtz
Not Gonna Take It No More
The Washington Post's own enviro reporters take on the paper's George Will over his misleading (to the point of being false) global warming columns.
--David Kurtz
Full Disclosure
So the New York Times runs an op-ed piece that makes the novel argument that Bernie Madoff's victims weren't really victims because "no one was holding a gun to anyone's head." But it turns out that the author, writer Daphne Merkin, is the sister of Ezra Merkin, who was accused in a civil fraud complaint yesterday by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of steering billions of dollars of his client's money to Madoff -- without telling them.
By way of disclosure, Daphne Merkin merely wrote in the March 21 op-ed: I "have a sibling who did business with [Madoff]."
So we called up the Times to find out more about this. Public editor Clark Hoyt tells us he's planning to address the issue in a column this weekend. As for Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal, he declined to discuss the matter, telling our Zack Roth: "I answered this call against my better judgment. I thought you had something more substantive you wanted to talk about."
Zack has the rest here.
--David Kurtz
A Landslide by Minnesota Standards
Al Franken's lead has swelled from 225 votes to 312 votes, after the last of the previously uncounted ballots are tallied in the Minnesota Senate recount trial.
--David Kurtz
What is Scarborough Talking About?
In falsely claiming that Obama has never earned a paycheck "from a profit-making business in his entire life," MSNBC's Joe Scarborough seems to dismiss Obama's book sales out of hand (I guess Joe is giving all of his royalties to charity), but what about Obama's years in the private practice of law, or even his year at Business International Corporation?
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If your rallying cry is that Obama is trying to take over the private sector in some quiet socialist revolution, I guess it's a minor exaggeration by comparison to say Obama has no private sector experience at all.
--David Kurtz
Framing the Debate
You can lose a debate before it even starts if it's framed badly for your side. When it comes to protecting their hallowed weapons programs, defense contractors and home state congressmen have a vested interest in framing the debate as much to their advantage as they can get away with. But that doesn't mean the media has to be complicit in the framing.
As Brian Beutler points out, too much of the coverage of Defense Secretary Bob Gates' proposal -- trimming some major weapons programs and reallocating the money elsewhere in the Pentagon while increasing the overall defense budget -- casts the debate as between those who would cut defense spending (Obama/Gates) and those who want a strong muscular defense (GOP and hawkish Democrats).
We've been grappling with this question for going on 20 years now: How should the U.S. restructure its military in a post-Cold War world? It's time we stopped using a 20-year-old framing of the debate.
--David Kurtz
Stevens Officially Off the Hook
The judge presiding over former Sen. Ted Stevens' case formally dismissed the charges against Stevens this morning, but not before taking another bite out of the hide of DOJ prosecutors.
Late Update: The judge did more than just rip on prosecutors, as initial reports suggested. He launched criminal contempt proceedings against the Justice Department lawyers who were originally on the case (and who were eventually yanked off the case by Attorney General Eric Holder).
--David Kurtz
And Now Vermont ...
This morning Vermont became the first state to legislatively enact a gay marriage law when both chambers voted to override a gubernatorial veto.
--David Kurtz
TPMDC Morning Roundup
Obama is winging it back to the States this morning after the conclusion of his European trip. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Late Update: Not so fast. Reports just in that Obama made a surprise detour to Baghdad.
--David Kurtz
Suicide by Cop Fighter Pilot?
To update the strange story of the stolen Cessna that flew into U.S. airspace from Canada yesterday afternoon and wandered over the Midwest, trailed by U.S. fighters, until it landed in the Missouri Ozarks last night and the pilot fled on foot: The pilot was apprehended not long after he landed by local law enforcement in a convenience store, drinking a Gatorade, and according to ABC News, is a Turkish man with Canadian citizenship who has a history of mental health issues and was hoping the fighters would shoot him down.
--David Kurtz
Picking Up the Pieces
The death toll in Italy from last night's earthquake now exceeds 150, with many historic structures in ruin: Pictures from the first day of rescue and recovery.
--David Kurtz
Back Down to Earth
With his assets, including his private planes, frozen by the SEC, Sir Allen Stanford discovers to his horror that TSA makes you take your shoes off to go through security when flying commercial. Oh, the indignity.
Zack Roth has more from ABC's on-camera interview with Stanford.
--David Kurtz
Friend or Foe?
From ABC News:
Over the skies of the Midwest, two F-16 fighter jets are escorting a private Cessna 172 aircraft stolen from a flight school in Ontario, Canada, whose pilot has been unresponsive to multiple requests that he establish communications with ground controllers. ...The plane entered American airspace over Michigan's Upper Peninsula at 3:25 p.m. today and has been trailed by the military aircraft since 4:43 p.m. as it has flown over Minnesota, south through Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri.
The aircraft went past St. Louis and is now flying south about 30 miles east of Salem, Mo. At one point, the Wisconsin state capitol building in Madison was evacuated as a precaution as the plane flew over the city. ...
Late Update: NORAD tells Canada's CTV that the Cessna will soon run out of fuel.
Later Update: This one is getting weirder. The plane has landed near U.S. Hwy. 60 in the vicinity of the southern Missouri Ozarks town of Ellsinore, and the pilot has fled on foot, according to CNN.
--David Kurtz
Dover
In addition to allowing media coverage of the return of fallen soldiers to Dover AFB, the Pentagon is releasing its own photographs of the ceremonies (when families consent).
--David Kurtz
Showdown at the OLC Corral
If Senate Republicans follow through on threats to filibuster Dawn Johnsen's nomination as head of DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, one liberal advocacy group will be ready, TPMDC reports.
--David Kurtz
Left Hand, Meet Right Hand
David Axelrod and Tim Geithner had decidedly different answers when pressed yesterday in separate interviews on whether the Obama Administration really was working to circumvent the executive pay limits imposed by Congress, as the Washington Post reported over the weekend. Let's go to the video.
--David Kurtz
Terremoto
We've compiled some of the most compelling of the initial photographs of the devastating earthquake that struck central Italy overnight.
--David Kurtz
Ballad of a Thin Man
Bob Dylan, on Obama:
He's like a fictional character, but he's real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage - cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it's just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you're into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.
--David Kurtz
Lock and Load
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) replaces naked call for violent revolution with metaphorical violence: "I want [my constituents] to be armed with knowledge, so they can be dangerous to the policies of the left."
Late Update: Speaking of which, David Weigel attended the annual Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot near Louisville, Ky., over the weekend -- and took pictures.
Later Update: Oh, my. Just in case you thought Bachmann was toning things down, she's now comparing Ted's Kennedy's "Serve America Act," a community service program for young people, with "re-education camps":
And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums."
--David Kurtz
Spitzer Rehab Tour Continues
The former New York governor faced off with Matt Lauer this morning on Today, about his call girl dalliances:
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Spitzer is so good on financial issues that I alternate between sadness and anger for his stupidity.
--David Kurtz
Order in the Court
The judge in the Ted Stevens case may let the Justice Department drop all the charges against Stevens, but he's not ready to let DOJ lawyers off the hook quite yet.
--David Kurtz
TPMtv: Sunday Show Roundup: Ballistics, Bankruptcy, and Barbs
Newt Gingrich's "fantasy foreign policy" charge, GM's prospects of bankruptcy, and David Axelrod's prickly response to Dick Cheney's recent criticisms. All that and more in today's Sunday Show Roundup ...
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--Ben Craw
Off With Their Heads?
Robert Reich: How serious is Tim Geithner really about dumping Wall Street CEOs?
--David Kurtz
TPMDC Morning Roundup
Obama just wrapped up his speech to the Turkish parliament. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
--David Kurtz
A True TPM Addict
TPM Reader FF writes in with a mild (and probably justified) complaint, but that's not why I'm publishing this email:
I think you need a better weekend strategy; a guest blogger, a regular weekend feature (you could have Eric prepare it mid-week) something to satisfy the fix of your regular readers and advertisers ... This weekend I was hanging from a harness on Yosemite's Half Dome, but I had a fair bit of free time belaying and a strong 3G signal (coverage is very good in the valley, the RV/diesel generator crowd would stand for no less) ... it's a new and ugly world.
Amazing. The only thing that gives me pause is the thought of my belay partner surfing the web somewhere down below me, with my life in their hands. My own rock climbing experience (such as it was -- you'd never have seen me anywhere near Half Dome) mostly pre-dated cell phones.
--David Kurtz
Sweeney At It Again
It seems like every time former Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) is about to recede off the front pages and settle into the obscure life typical of a former congressman defeated for re-election he goes and does something to focus attention on himself all over again. It's like he misses being kicked around by the likes of TPM. This time, it's another DUI arrest. It happened last night, but in Sweeney's defense, there was no pretty young thing sitting on his lap when he got pulled over, like there was last time. Progress?
(Thanks to TPM Reader MT for the link.)
Late Update: TPM Reader BD sends along more about the arrest from the Albany Times-Union.
Funny how things work out. Sweeney's drinking and alleged wife beating while in office doomed him against Kristen Gillibrand in the 2006 election. Then when Sen. Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State, Rep. Gillibrand was appointed to fill Hillary's empty Senate seat. (If you really want to connect the dots to political misdeeds and carnality, Gillibrand was appointed by David Paterson, who would not be governor if not for Eliot Spitzer's call girl flameout. But I digress.) The special election for Gillibrand's seat, the NY-20, was last week and ended in a virtual tie, with both national parties now preparing to battle it out in court over the still-to-be-counted absentee ballots.
So in a way, you could say the men of the Union College chapter of Alpha Delta Phi helped make history. Here they are partying with Sweeney back in '06, in one of the pics that derailed his political career (if it isn't terribly obvious, Sweeney is the one wearing a tie):
--David Kurtz
Wine and Sunsets
Obama's town-hall style meeting in Strasbourg on Friday may have been the most memorable event of the trip. We gathered some of the key moments:
--David Kurtz
TPMDC Sunday Roundup
The Obama administration reacts to the news about North Korea's rocket launch. That and other political news in today's TPMDC Sunday Roundup.
--Eric Kleefeld
