Weekend Roundup

[Again with the stealing of an entire post from WTWC...]

I'm posting the roundup early today, with the caveat that Pale Rider might update the post, and is indeed encouraged to do so if something else comes up on our collective radar. But mostly, I wanted to get the post up in time to remind you to Make sure to tune in to 60 Minutes tonight. They are airing the long awaited piece on the trial of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. There will certainly be a quiz, and homework will likely be assigned...

This made my skin crawl...and not just because I hate snakes on a visceral level. This is a potential ecosystem nightmare. Because of climate change, large constrictor snakes have established self-sustaining colonies in the Florida everglades. Scientists predict that the creatures could migrate as far north as Missouri as climate changes makes the areas habitable. The snakes would be considered an invasive species that could undermine entire ecosystems. Ecosystems are delicate things and any unbalance can lead to devastating consequences. The largest snakes native to North America are puny in comparison, growing to a maximum length of about nine feet, and subsisting on a diet of mostly rodents. The large constrictors can grow as long 20 feet in length, have no natural predators on this continent, and eat deer, wild hogs, even alligators. Besides all that, nothing good has EVER come from an ecosystem collapse or the introduction of an invasive species. Adding an unchecked top predator to any ecosystem would most likely signal the advent of an unmitigated ecological disaster.

Thugs. Islamist militants in Pakistan have warned incoming parliamentarians of increased brutality and violence if the new government persists with Musharref's anti-terrorist activities in the tribal areas. To underscore the threat, militants on Sunday attacked a security post, killing a policeman and two paramilitary service members and wounding six others.

The return of sectarian violence? Let's hope we aren't returning to the bad old days of 2005 and 2006, when every day we heard a horror story of entire wedding parties and funeral processions attacked and murdered for the unforgivable sin of being a follower of the wrong sect of Islam. Those dark days of sectarian murder and mayhem was where my mind went immediately when I heard the news of the suicide bomber that struck pilgrims on the way to a Shiite shrine in Karbala. Forty were killed and sixty were injured, and the approximately 12' x 65' tent where they had stopped to rest and eat was completely destroyed by the bomber, who turned himself into a human claymore with an explosives belt packed with ball bearings and metal shards.

Energy is easy to generate, but not so easy to store. Batteries haven't come that far, really, and carry their own environmental baggage. I have been called a wet blanket for bringing up the challenge of storage when renewables are the topic because it isn't sexy and the science is dull. This hasn't really shut me up, of course, since I am right. The reality is we have to solve the storage problem before we advance much beyond where we are right now. Fossil fuels store their energy in chemical bonds, and when those bonds are broken, most frequently by combustion, energy is released, no batteries required. That convenience factor is hard to overcome.

Germany continues to bear left. Local elections in Hamburg confirmed the shift to the left that has occurred all across Germany when the party that emerged from the old East German communists secured legislative representation in elections on Sunday. Even though it is a tiny part of the political landscape, Hamburg has taken on the mantle of a bellwether in the wake of state elections in January that signaled the leftward shift by Germans who are tired of belt tightening and economic restructuring.

Perennial political pedant Ralph Nader announced on "Press the Meat" this morning that he was launching yet another spoiler campaign. I'm sure he'll just garner tons of support, what with the way he saved us from the horrors of a Gore administration in 2000. Ralph...please...Go. The. Fuck. Away. Thank you.

Bush has gone past fearmongering and threatening inuendo to schoolyard taunts. Now he is flapping his wings and clucking that on the intelligence bill and telecom immunity, Democrats are siding with trial lawyers. To which I want to add an observation...the trial lawyers seem to be the only ones who are sticking up for American citizens and defending our civil liberties on Constitutional grounds in the judicial and political arenas, so...Good on 'em! (Damn. That's three times in a week that I've stuck up for lawyers...What's happening to me?)

Digby sure can cut through the crap and point out the forest other people can't see for all the damned trees. I am certainly glad she's on our side.

Jane at FireDogLake thinks McCain and Lieberman are two Wild and Crazy Guys out on the shag circuit like in one of those manly "buddy movies." My question (and I was kind of proud of it) is which one is Butch and which one is Scumdance?

And in Cuba, the National Assembly has sent the island reeling with the news that they have, in a stunning upset, settled on Fidel's kid brother Raul as the next president. [/snark]

And that's the weekend. What new developments will the coming week bring? I tingle at the prospects... And hey! One thing is for sure - no matter what blows our hair back in the week ahead, you can read about it, and a whole bunch of other stuff, too, right here!

Now, I am going to cook. Which means that there is about a 50% chance that later tonight there will be kitchenblogging...

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

Fearmongering: get some.

Kristol: ‘I Recommend The Politics Of Fear’
This morning on Fox News Sunday, New York Times columnist Bill Kristol recommended that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) employ the “politics of fear” to attack Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL):

KRISTOL: [Obama’s] riding a wave of euphoria. She [Clinton] needs to puncture it. The way you puncture euphoria is reality, or to be more blunt, fear. I recommend to Senator Clinton the politics of fear.

Kristol explained that his fear-mongering political strategy would focus on Iran. He recommended that Clinton say the following about Obama: “He wants to negotiate on January 21st with Ahmadinejad. Here’s what Ahmadinejad has said about blowing up Israel.”

I don't think we need any more fearmongering. Fear is not exactly a great emotion to stir up in voters. The definition of leadership is to have someone who alleviates fear and puts people in the right frame of mind to face adversity. We haven't had that in a good long while. I guess if you're a pampered elitist who knows nothing bad is going to happen, your best "political" advice is to tell someone to use "fear" to motivate, stir, or agitate the larger electorate in this country.

The problem is, fear leads to revolutions. Fear leads to wanton killings and riotings. Fear leads to people suspecting their neighbors--hence, you have that whole secret police thing working for you without so much as a warrant because there's no shortage of busybodies who will turn in their neighbors.

Fear? Nah, don't need any, thanks.

We matter! We really, really matter!

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you,
then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi

Bloggers are finally gaining a bit of recognition from the old media. Turns out that all that harping they did about us lowering the tone was misplaced - yeah, we can be a foul-mouthed and impatient lot - but haven't you been paying attention the last seven fucking years??? Those words we've been tossing around evolved in the language for a god-damned reason, and they are appropriate at this point in time.

If you can't use profanity to describe an obscenity, when the fuck can you use it?

Well, while we were "coarsening the tone," it turns out we were raising the bar. No we are not a particularly congenial crowd. But there is a reason for that...we are fed up. A whole bunch of us who grew up with Uncle Walter have never seen one minute of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. I am one of them. (Here's a bit of irony for you - I actively boycott their nightly news, but they have linked my analysis and my original reporting on white papers.)

Anyway - there are a lot of us doing some serious work and research. At least once a month I write something that pulls together multiple sources on a topic - not just the media reports but the documents the media reports are based on. I frequently write posts based on GAO reports or white papers. And gee - what blog was it that waded into the Libby case and got those pre-sentencing letters supporting that traitor released?

Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake (the blog that, by the way, did a kick-ass job of live-blogging the Libby trial and countering the two-minutes of spin it got on the evening news) summed it up nicely:

How about going out there and doing the jobs that the Fourth Estate used to do well — digging into the substance, the facts, the original sources on speeches and actions and legislation and such and doing some down and dirty real world comparisons on actions speaking louder than words? Now THAT would be something worth paying attention to — and it would be useful for all of us, wouldn’t it?

I could not agree more!

Check it out!

Watching Those We Chose just stepped up our game a bit!

One of the folks I roped into contributing over there is a real, live, professional video guy - and in an email conversation a few days ago, I mentioned that a photo montage of the hapless Abu G, shuffled in with the Republicans that refuse to stick up for him - while that classic '70's power-ballad All By Myself played in the background - would be funny.

Well guess what! DocLarry made it happen, and WTWC has posted our very first original video production, and I am cross-posting it here!

So...without further ado, I proudly present...

Gonzo's Lament.

Subpoenas Flying!

Diane Silver at Watching Those We Chose has just posted a breaking news item. The White House, the vice president, the DoJ and the NSC have all been subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee:

BREAKING: Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenas White House, Cheney, DOJ & NSA on wiretapping

Posted by Diane Silver

[updated 1:30 p.m.]

AP is reporting that the Senate Judiciary Committee has just subpoenaed the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney, the Justice Department and the National Security Council on the warrantless eavesdropping program.

The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal squabbles within the administration over the legality of the program, said a congressional official speaking on condition of anonymity because the subpoenas had not been made public.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's testimony about the hospital-room pressure put on then AG John Ashcroft may well have been the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, AP says.

[update]

John at AMERICAblog makes the interesting point that this subpoena will probably force Cheney to claim executive privilege. This will force him to drop his silly argument that the vice president is the 4th branch of government. Of course, Cheney is already shifting his stand on that goofiness.

Get your butts over to WTWC for updates on this issue. Aren't I always telling you that you should be reading that blog anyway? This is why!

Okay, here's the deal...

Your humble bloghostess is in pain, and posting may not be as regular for a couple of days.

Yesterday evening, I made delicious, delectable, succulent pheasant breast for dinner...and I missed a pellet. I bit down and cracked a molar all the way to the gumline.

So now, I am taking Vicodin and hoping that I can get in to see a dentist tomorrow. Even if I do, I'm sure a root canal will be necessary, and possibly a crown. I am looking at late Wednesday at the earliest before I am back to prolific.

For the next couple of days I am going to concentrate on trying to do a couple of quality posts a day. In the interim, you can get a lot of fresh content in thought provoking posts from a whole cadre of contributors at Watching Those We Chose. Sometimes the comment threads are hoppin' over there. Go check it out if you haven't yet, and I'll be back to ranting soon.

It's just not that freakin' easy to get irate when you are opiated.

Are we journalists? We strive to be.

Crossposted unedited from WTWC

While everyone frets over whether or not bloggers are journalists, I know that my Republican Senator’s staff regards our enterprise here as such.

Today Senator Kit Bond’s office sent a letter to his colleagues asking them to add their signatures to another letter, this one to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, demanding that the issue of the 5-13 discharge be investigated and obvious abuses set right. (apologies to the senators office. I had problems with the .pdf and the google docs are not nearly as pretty.)

The abuse of the 5-13 Discharge is an issue because bloggers made it such (examples here and here) after a piece in The Nation, How Specialist Towne Lost His Benefits. We seized on the issue, as we had the larger mental health issues for returning GI’s and the understaffing of Vet Centers. (See here, here, here, here, here, and here). We kept bringing it up until it gained traction, even though the mainstream media largely ignored the issue, and continues to do so.

“Bloggers have helped bring the necessary scrutiny to this important issue.” Said Shana Marchio, Communications Director for Senator Kit Bond (R-MO). “Bloggers offer folks a new medium to get their information and news. Their importance in the debating and sharing of ideas should not be discounted. At the same time, the relationship between bloggers and members of Congress and their spokespeople is an evolving one. Both sides are learning who to trust and how to interact. As a part of the Fourth Estate, it is essential that professional bloggers adhere to the ethics and professional conduct standards that traditional members of the media follow as their role in information sharing continues to grow. Also, I do believe that bloggers will only be come more important in coming elections and it’s important to start a dialogue.”

This is all new territory for everyone. But I think I know why the best source I have in Washington is the Communications Director for my Republican Senator. She is 30 years old. Where blogs and the internet are concerned, she instinctively “gets” it because she grew up with technology. I may have policy disagreements with my Republican Senator – but credit where credit is due. He was smart enough to hire a young person with that innate sense for press second six years ago, and promote to communications director from within.

On the trust issue, everyone has to be prepared to get burned once or twice. But getting burned is part of the bargain when you blaze a trail. So we move forward cautiously. The importance of the free exchange of information is only going to gain in importance. As it does, the issues will work themselves out.

Bloggers do not have the immediate access that reporters working the Washington bureaus have, nor do we have the resources to do a lot of original reporting. All we really have are our wits and our words...and our word. Because that is the irrefutable dynamic, the blogs represent a truly new, and meretricious, form of media, and we will earn exactly the amount of credibility and respect that we deserve.

WTWC takes a stand for all bloggers in the Scooter Libby criminal case

[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose, unaltered. For those who don't know, WTWC is where I practice journalism, and I was one of the two bloggers who brought the petition before the court.]

Just a few minutes ago, an amicus brief was filed in Federal District Court in Washington D.C. petitioning for the public release of the pre-sentencing letters that were submitted to the court for consideration in the sentencing of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. For once, the blogs are pushing back after being singled out by Libby's attorney for scorn and ridicule. Two of the principals from right here at Watching Those We Chose are proud and honored to be the named parties in this formal legal brief filed with the court, not just on behalf of ourselves, but more importantly, for all of the blogosphere.

Bloggers across the spectrum did an incredible job covering and analyzing the Libby trial. Led by the groundbreaking work of FireDogLake, with Marcy Wheeler and Jane Hamsher live blogging the trial in real time from the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, bloggers provided a level of coverage, opinion commentary and legal analysis that simply was not available anywhere else in the media, mainstream or otherwise.

Bloggers clearly provided something the public craved as well, because the traffic at sites working the Libby trial was off the charts during the trial. The efforts of bloggers were widely praised nearly everywhere, but are still clearly feared by the power brokers like Libby and his enablers. It was important to fight back against the slurs of Libby and his ilk, and we have.

Bloggers are here to stay, and we here at Watching Those We Chose are excited to be a part of this important effort.

Always knew I would be a party to a Federal Case before I shuffled off this mortal coil – but I was thoroughly convinced I would be a defendant…

Update: Here is a link to the brief as it was filed, h/t to No Quarter for posting that link as part of their post. I have had Adobe difficulty all day.

Watching Those We Chose...Does it again!!!

Fellow founding member of Watching Those We Chose and practicing attorney Corpus Juris earned some well-deserved big-time recognition today when multiple posts on the Georgia Thompson miscarriage of Justice were highlighted in a post by professional blogger Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal.

The Political Prisoner post by Yours Truly which was cross-posted here was also linked.

You know, when the history of blogs is written, WTWC is going to be cited as second only to TPM in importance when discussing the role of bloggers in unmasking the DoJ scandal; and with real lawyers offering the analysis. Thanks to the support of Kevin Drum and Steve Benen, and the hard work of some very fine people I was fortunate enough to convince to throw in their lot with the likes of me...light has been shining in some very dark corners.

Hearty thanks to all of them! Words truly can not express just how grateful I am to each and every one.

UPDATE: The Senate Judiciary Committee has requested documents regarding the Thompson case from Alberto Gonzalez. In a letter sent Tuesday, committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and five other Democratic senators said they were "concerned whether or not politics may have played a role'' in the case against Georgia Thompson.

Sacrificial Lam

First off, let me say, if you aren't clicking over to Watching Those We Chose and getting the analysis of the Justice Department scandals from Corpus Juris, you are missing out on the best analysis of the Justice Department scandals out there. He knows the material and he makes it all understandable and readable. If you haven't checked it out yet, do so now.

Here is what it all boils down to...

Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney for San Diego, who took down Duke Cunningham and sent a powerful Republican congressman to prison was on the verge of taking down another (Jerry Lewis). Indications are that either Brett Wilkes or Kyle "Dusty" Foggo was about to flip.

She was going after corruption wherever she found it, and this displeased movers and shakers in the Republican ranks.

Uppity woman, anyway. Who the hell did she think she was?

Not to confuse TV with real life or anything, but I've watched a lot of procedurals, and when a crowd gets mowed down, there are always a lot of innocent victims, and one targeted individual.

In this crowd, the targeted individual was Carol Lam.