Officially Shut Down

As many of you have already figured out and may have heard from me, I have stopped contributing to Blue Dawn. It's an issue of time- I will only allocate X amount of minutes per day to blogging, and I have decided to exclusively focus my blogging time on my DailyKos daily diary, the US Attorney Daily Update. Please check in at DailyKos at around 5:30 PM EDT every weekday for the latest info on the US Attorney Purge...

Taibbi Hit- Campaign Journalism

Matt Taibbi, good as usual.

More About Imus

I really don't want to talk too much about him, because it seems like everytime I get in the car and flip between Air America and ESPN Radio, Imus is all those guys can talk about. It's as if all the famous rich white guys in radio suddenly are shocked that one of their own got s--tcanned for some naughty talk. But I digress.

This diary on Daily Kos is long, but worth it, and it does a pretty good job of summing up how I feel about Imus. Also, here's a quote that relates to a conversation I had with my wife about Imus a few nights ago:

Similarly, from that period to this, I half wonder whether there is a storm over the utterly enfranchised Imus now where there wasn't before in large part because of the underlying anger and skepticism at the media in general that is pervading many, many of these discussions -- the feeling, once again, that we've all been duped, and that these figures that appear on our television sets not only aren't as smart as they keep telling us they are, but that in actual fact they're pretty damn hollow, and pretty damn narcissistic, and pretty damn mean, and pretty damn dumb. Except this time, the media figures that America is angry at aren't some low-class televised hangers on, it is the uppermost rungs of our discourse, the people who decide life and death and taxes and war. And Imus, we have been told, is one of their rulers? No, seriously -- are we fucking kidding?

You can tell, viscerally, when the American public is collectively in a foul mood and looking for a little payback -- it happened to the Republicans last November, an election of intended retribution pure and simple, but the anger at the media itself for many of the same faults has not been sated. It's a broad-based anger that we've been taken advantage of, snookered by hollow people who have been leading America into directions that have been empty at best, and intentionally destructive at worst, and worst of all filling the airwaves with narcissistic self-promotion over how great they've been to do it.

Under this broader premise, Imus certainly isn't the only gopher in this hole, he's just the dumb bastard that happened to stuck his head out first?

I'd say that's about right. Americans are fed up, with a lot, and they've had enough, and no, they're NOT going to forgive and forget this incident, thank you very much.

Seriously, though, take 5 minutes to read the post, it's worth it. Then stop talking about Imus and move on.

US Attorney Daily Update: April 12, 2007

NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL ATTORNEYS

(As far as I can see, NO NEWS...)

1. Fired San Diego USA Carol Lam: From April 11, Josh Marshall gives a rundown on why Carol Lam's firing is highly, highly suspicious. Look, eventually Congress will have to stop asking why she was fired, because the Administration will either lie or simply not answer the question. It's time to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate obstruction of justice charges here.
2. Fired New Mexico USA David Iglesias: From April 4, do not forget that Republicans Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson are still in deep trouble for their role in Iglesias' firing. As Muckraker reminds us, Sampson's testimony merely served to confirm our worst suspicions about his firing- that they got Iglesias fired because he refused to indict Dems on the eve of an election. Domenici and Wilson will eventually have to fess up about what they did and who they talked to at the White House and the DoJ. And now the Office of Special Counsel is investigating the firing of Iglesias (h/t TPMMuckraker). Go read it.
3. Former Los Angeles USA Debra Wong Yang:
4. Fired Seattle USA John McKay: From March 29, In early testimony, Sampson doesn't specifically recall any Republican dissatisfaction over John McKay's refusal to investigate "voter fraud" in the 2004 gubernatorial election. But as noted above, he does sort of remember complaints coming in from Karl Rove to the Attorney General about not pursuing "voter fraud" cases.
5. Fired Arizona USA Paul Charlton: From March 29, Sampson was only aware of Charlton's investigation of Republican Rick Renzi through news accounts. Under questioning, Sampson states that Charlton's firing was due to "policy disputes," not performance issues. So now we've got two US Attorneys that even the DoJ admits were not let go for "performance" reasons.
6. Fired Nevada USA Daniel Bogden: From April 10, kind of unrelated, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Republican Jim Gibbons, under investigation for defense contracting shenanigans, sees enemies everywhere. Idiot.
7. Fired Arkansas USA Bud Cummins: From April 2, Cummins speaks out.
8. Reassigned Guam USA Frederick Black:
9. New Hampshire USA Tom Colantuono:
10. New Jersey USA Chris Christie:
11. Minnesota USA Rachel Paulose: From April 11, Republican Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman is "deeply disappointed" that Paulose has alienated her staff. That's according to this post (h/t eartha for her comment here) and this article, but I'm looking around for a link that has the official text of his letter. For her part, Paulose apologized to her staff. What exactly she apologized for, we still don't know, because she's not making any public statements.
12. Fired Western Michigan USA Margaret Chiara:
13. Former Western North Carolina USA Robert J. Conrad, Jr.:
14. Kentucky USA David Huber:
15. Southern Mississippi USA Dunn Lampton:
16. Middle North Carolina USA Anna Mills Wagoner: From March 29, from Sampson's testimony, this USA was on an early list, but was taken off on advice from Monica Goodling. Why was she on an early list?
17. Milwaukee USA Steven Biskupic: From April 11, was he about to be purged? Why wasn't he? What stopped Sampson and Goodling and Rove and Gonzales from firing him?
18. Connecticut USA Kevin O'Connor: From April 10, does this mean Mr. O'Connor is a "loyal Bushie?" And why must we insist on absentee US Attorneys?

CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

- Dems are pissed about the RNC's "lost" emails, and are probably going to investigate this.

- Specifically, Senator Leahy is very pissed, saying on the Senate floor that the White House is lying about the emails.



I'm glad to see he's not afraid to use the 'L' word, and not giving up yet.

- Subpoenas have been authorized for everything. Documents, emails, officials testifying, etc. Now, when will they fracking issue the damn subpoenas, and seize those documents, hard drives, etc.? The more they wait, the more things will get "lost" or "mishandled."

- Dear Alberto: don't delete your emails. Oh, and your friend Karl might be breaking the law. Sincerely, Henry Waxman. Text of the letter here.

WHITE HOUSE AND DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ACTIVITIES

- About the RNC's "lost emails." Yeah, oops.

- Dan Froomkin writes about the conference call held last night by the White House about the missing emails. A lot of questions went unanswered, according to Froomkin. Read his piece, it's worth it.

- CREW reports that there could be 5 million emails "lost" between 2003 and 2005. I haven't read the report yet, because it seems that CREW's server is crashing, but...5 million?!? And this is not the RNC's "lost" emails, this is within the Executive Office of the President, as clear a violation of the Presidential Records Act as we're ever going to get. I think I'm going to throw up.

- Conflict of Interest, defined. DoJ lawyers beat up on Dems with investigations of "corruption" and "voter fraud," all the while also working for the Republican Party in an official capacity.

- Kyle Sampson liked testifying so much the first time around, he's going back to Congress for a second time, although this time it will be a "follow-up interview."

- Save the date. Alberto testifies and makes a bigger ass/liar of himself next Tuesday.

PERSPECTIVE

- Behold those evil "vote fraud" criminals, as the New York Times shines a light on all those "voter fraud" investigations.

- Karl Rove loves "voter fraud", because according to this piece, it handed him a victory when his candidate lost the popular vote. The fun never stops.

- Jesselyn Radack writes that emails are forever, and IT guy jpadgett explains why it's really implausible that those emails are "lost."

- Kagro X, again, reminds us why Congress should not dick around on this and be ready to (wait for it) impeach. Quote:

The last time around, the word was that the most important thing about winning back the majority in Congress was subpoena power.

Well, either Congress has that power or it doesn't. Right now, for all the outrage the Bush White House is producing, Congress still doesn't have the e-mails.

Before we're asked again to "focus our energy" on the elections, let's hear a little bit from Congress about how they'll be focusing their energy right now.

To wait for the judicial branch to do the legislative branch's work is only to ensure the eventual Iran-Contrafication of the current spate of scandals.

As Kagro X says, either Congress has its own powers (e.g. subpoena power), or it doesn't. And if Congress is not willing to fight for its own powers, then, well, I guess we know how important it is to elect Democrats, don't we?

- Glenn Greenwald finds a pattern of behavior (h/t Kagro X).

- RandomSequence writes about something that's been on my mind with these alternate email addresses: communications security. One of the purposes of the Presidential Records Act, which White House staffers seemed to openly flaunt, is to secure and protect the sensitive communications of our highest level government officers. This alternate emailing is not only a problem with legal compliance, but of national security as well. It needs to stop.

- From me, as you can see from yesterday's diary, I was pretty upset about the lost emails, for multiple reasons. My main frustration with the "lost" emails stems from my instinctive (or defeatist, pessimistic) belief that this represents another criminal scandal for which the Bush Administration will avoid responsibility. Where is everybody else on this? Is this the end, or just the beginning?

Good Riddance

Imus is gone. Good. He was an a--hole.

Clearing the Air on Pelosi's Syria Trip

Thank you, Richard Holbrooke, for neatly summarizing how much bulls--t this story is (BTW, loooved your singing on "The Colbert Report"). And I almost want to thank David Gregory for not interrupting Holbrooke and letting him say his peace, but no- I really just want to smack Gregory for suggesting Speaker Pelosi is running a "shadow foreign policy" in the first place. Christ almighty, David, you suck.

Amtrak and High Speed Rail

While perusing a blog post about government spending, the author dropped this link in to an old report that defends the continued funding of Amtrak.

For the record, I have not read the report, because it doesn't appear to be available anymore. I did read the Executive Summary of and introduction to the report, which I presume to be the gist of the entire report. Here's the key passage that seems to be the foundation for the whole defense of Amtrak:

The unexamined underlying assumption such attacks [on Amtrak] is that passenger rail service is a private good. In other words, the service ought to be able to defray its expenses and show a profit by charging customers. This assumption makes an adverse judgment on Amtrak automatic. Amtrak is "failing" only because it is assumed it ought to pay for itself.

The fact is that no transportation mode in the United States pays for itself. All modes have been subsidized. Highways do not pay for themselves; they are financed by excise taxes on motor fuels, taxes not necessarily related to the use of highways. Air travel is subsidized as well. Hence the decision to reject subsidies for intercity passenger trains is arbitrary and inconsistent with public policy.

Notice the logical leap taken there. We "mistakenly" punish Amtrak for not being profitable, while subsidizing all other modes of transport. But I do not view Amtrak as a transportation "mode"- I view Amtrak as a transportation service, no different than United Airlines, Yellow Trucking, or Maersk Shipping. Do we really consider those private and profitable companies to be "modes" of transportation? Should we stop expecting those companies to be profitable, simply because as "modes" they represent a public good? Of course not, and we shouldn't do it with Amtrak either.

I know there's a lot of fear among the left that privatizing Amtrak will essentially kill rail traffic throughout most of America. My response to that is, Amtrak has already done that. For those of us who don't live in the DC-New York-Boston megalopolis corridor, we don't see the benefits of Amtrak. We only know that we can't get a reasonable train trip from our moderately-sized hometown to our destination (or even to a hub airport).

In short, Amtrak does not serve most of America, so why should most of America care about "saving" Amtrak?

There's a better way to reintroduce and reinvigorate passenger rail service in America- instead of government funding for a failing and abysmal passenger rail service, have the government fund passenger rail infrastructure (which is the real definition of a transportation mode). Government has never been good at providing a service, so government should just stay out of the service business altogether, and look to simply support private service entities.

BruceMcF's diaries on Daily Kos outline how we could start developing High Speed Rail (HSR) here (Part 1), here (Part 2), and here (integrating HSR), along with a diary here on developing "express" and intercity rail (you might want to skim this one). The point that he repeatedly makes is that the government does not have to go all out on funding HSR, or funding regular passenger rail (i.e. Amtrak). The government can simply set up a few ground rules that will enable smart, sensible infrastructure investments, which will in turn enable HSR to flourish. Right now, with the government maintaining Amtrak's monopoly (and constantly funding Amtrak's shortfalls every few years), that will not happen.

It's time to let Amtrak die.

Mainstream Media and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux- Lying B-tches, All of Them (UPDATED)

After seeing CNN's Suzanne Malveaux say this:



I give a hat tip to Atrios for putting up this:



Which reminds me that I should finally and at long last see "Network" end to end. BTW, if you want to figure out what the problem is here, go here, here, and here to see a factcheck of the ridiculous bulls--t being spewed by media outlets, and also go to TalkingPointsMemo here and here to understand why this is so disappointing and tiresome. (sigh) I hate the MSM, I really do- we've seen this so many times before, and until we stop watching, we'll see it again and again and again. I'm mad as hell and I just can't take it anymore.

UPDATE: CNN has been the worst on this story. Take action here.

Apparently Danny Ocean Works at ABC News

Glenn Greenwald absolutely depantsed ABC News after their horrendous report on Iran's nuclear "capabilities." First, read his piece here (be sure to scroll through the updates), then come back here and read this exchange from "Ocean's 11"--

Danny Ocean: All right. I know a guy. We were in the joint together. Anybody pulls any job in the Western U.S., he knows about it. Give me 24 hours, I'll find out who took your money.

Terry Benedict: (dismissive, incredulous) You know a guy. (To security) Contact the police. I'm sure he's in violation of his parole.

Anyone who's seen the movie will understand the irony of trusting somebody who "knows a guy."

Dick Cheney is Creepy. Just Look at Him.

Gee Dick, was there something you wanted to add (from behind that bush)? Maybe a "Go F--k Yourself!" or a shotgun blast to somebody's face?

More on the Tainted Wheat Gluten

The FDA finally decided to identify the importer of the tainted wheat gluten. That's the good news. The bad news is that the FDA had received warning of the tainted gluten, and sat on it for three weeks before issuing a recall. Heartless.

An Inside Look at the Democratic Party

Tom Tomorrow shows us how the Democratic Party really works. As it turns out, I'm just a mindless borg following the orders of Michael Moore and George Soros. Quite a snarkalicious little cartoon.