Tuesday, April 04, 2006

DeBug crawls away



Isaiah's "A Bug's Lie" is always funny but on this hump day, it's fitting as well. Going straight to Democracy Now!


Former GOP Majority Leader Tom Delay to Resign
Republican Congressman Tom Delay has announced he is resigning and will give up his House seat within the next few months. The former House Majority Leader has been one of the most powerful -- and controversial -- Republicans on Capitol Hill. DeLay announced his resignation just days after a former top aide, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty in connection to a lobbying scandal involving Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Last November, Delay's former press secretary Michael Scanlon also plead guilty to related charges. Delay was up for his re-election but polls showed he would likely lose. Last year Delay was forced to give up his position as House Majority Leader after he was indicted on criminal charges of conspiracy to violate Texas election laws. Federal investigators have also probed Delay's personal dealings with Abramoff. DeLay's wife worked for the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group which had close ties to the Republican lobbyist.

A former top aide pled guilty, a former press secretary pled guilty. But we're supposed to believe that DeLay's hands are clean? My favorite story of what a jerk Tom DeLay is was when he was smoking inside in DC and a guy who was working at the place asks him to put out his cigar because smoking's illegal there and DeLay responds that he is the federal government.
When you can make a statement like that, it's obvious that you are out of control. Brought down by his own ego because he thought he could get away with everything.

Always check out Like Maria Said Paz but especially tonight because Elaine's got some stuff to talk about here. Me? I just want to focus on the fact that even the biggest bullies get brought down to earth sometimes. Today it was Tom DeLay. Maybe soon it will be the Bully Boy?

People like that think no one can touch them. They go from bully in a small pond to bully in a big pond. And they scare people who end up going along with them just for peace. The thing to do with a Tom DeLay is to stand up to him right away. Let him know he can't push you around.

I was really disappointed by Sheila Jackson Lee's remarks on Democracy Now! today. She wanted to talk about people getting along and ending the partisanship.

We're in an election year and if this were a Democrat, they'd be going crazy on the Republican side. They'd be hammering it home. In fact, they're trying to do that with Cynthia McKinney right now. I'm on her side and think it was a case of racism based on what's come out. But Republicans aren't saying, "Let's make peace."

This is why Democrats lose. They always want to make peace. Here they have a huge scandal that's only going to get bigger because Abramoff is talking to the feds and instead of doing anything to demonstrate that what Tom DeLay has done in his position is digusting and vile, Sheila Jackson Lee doesn't want to talk about it. Not about today, not about Weststar, not about redistricting, money laundering, not about any of it.

I like her, I think she's smart. But I think her remarks were dead wrong.

Nine U.S. Troops Die in Deadliest Day of Year
In Iraq, the deaths of nine U.S. troops were announced on Monday making it the deadliest day of the year for the United States. 13 U.S. troops have already died this month, nearly half the number who died in all of March.

On this, I think C.I. said it all in "NYT: Operation Happy Talk explodes in Kirk Semple's face."

That's what happened for Kirk Semple. Sunday, he and Edward Wong has happy talk about an apparent corner turned -- one that required underestimating casualities -- and turns out that corner was actually a loop and things are right back where they were before.
He really hasn't learned a great deal since Monday. You'd think after he did what he did in the room, in front of everyone, without so much as an "excuse me," he'd have learned but then "turned corner" and "learning curve" are both apparent dead ends in the coverage of Iraq.
So Semple wants to tell you about nine American military deaths in Iraq Monday. (Total for April is currently 14.) And he wants to act as though he hadn't just penned (in print Sunday) happy talk about a decline ("have steadily declined"). He also wants to continue to use "casualty" when the more precise term ("fatality") is available. Anything to confuse the issue, apparently.

Sunday, you couldn't turn on the TV without hearing some gasbag saying that we had "turned a corner." Deaths were down. Blah-blah-blah.

How many times is the press going to push that nonsense before the remember it always blows up in their face?

I want to highlight an article now and I think it's an interesting one but here's why it stood out to me. Ruth does her reports and talks about different shows. One Saturday, I'm reading her report and she's going in details about what an author said on WBAI the day before ("Nonfiction hosted by Harry Allen"). And then, my sister shows me something in the entertainment section of the Saturday New York Times. And I look at what she wants and then go to the section where they do quick news summaries. And there's this thing "by" a New York Times writer and it's like he just listened to WBAI and took the information and remarks broadcast. Now maybe he interviewed the author and the author just repeats the same thing everytime he gives an interview but it didn't seem like that to me. And I can't imagine that the paper would have a reporter interview someone just to write a paragraph. So what I thought then and think now is that they used information broadcast on WBAI without giving WBAI credit.

So here's Gary Corseri's "Osama's Favorite Writer?" or a part of it:

Q. In his January 19, '06 audio tape message to the world, Osama bin Laden stated: "If Bush carries on with his lies and oppression, it would be useful for you to read the book, ROGUE STATE." Then, he quoted the line in which you write that you would end US interference in the nations of the world as soon as you become president Now, I've read ROGUE STATE, and I know that your projected first 4-days in office would actually be even more interesting than that. How do you conceive the first 4 days of a Blum Administration?
A. The first day, I'll apologize-publicly and sincerely-to all the widows and orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, to all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. I would announce to the world that America's global military interventions have come to an end The second day, I would tell Israel that it is no longer the 51st state, but, oddly enough, a foreign country ... On the third day I would reduce the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American bombings, invasions and sanctions. There would be more than enough money. One year's US military budget is equal to more than $20,000 per hour for every hour since Jesus was born. On the fourth day, I'b be assassinated."
Q. Soon after bin Laden's endorsement, ROGUE STATE leapt from below 200,000 on Amazon's book list of sales, to number 21. Some media people asked if you had any regrets about OBL's recommendation-if you wanted to renounce it--and you stated that you did not. You've called the public attention your fifteen minutes of fame. It's now 10 weeks since the bin Laden tape. How are things going? Are you still enjoying your 15 minutes?
A. It probably lasted about a month, a month and a half It was very nice while it lasted. When I think about it, the fact that I had the ear and the eyes of tens of millions of Americans who normally would never hear anything from me, or about me, and I could say things they normally are never exposed to at all by the mass media. So it really was marvelous. On a personal level it was very time-consuming; I had to put aside all kinds of things. But on a political level, it was excellent.

So that's it for tonight and it's not my fault that there's a delay in posting tonight. Blogger was down so I had to wait for it to come back up before I could even start blogging.












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