Remember Project for a New American Century (PNAC)?  You know, the out of work gang of neocons plotting a military takeover of certain oil rich countries in the Gulf Region? We all know the names - Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Steve Forbes, Donald Kagan, I. Lewis Libby, Dan Quayle, Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, Paul Wolfowitz.

Remember the letter PNAC sent to President Clinton in 1998 that called for...

"...removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy."

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Have you been following the saga of Larry Craig, the soon-to-be-ex-senator from Idaho who was arrested for disorderly conduct in a men’s room at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport? I’m trying to figure out exactly what it was he did that was illegal.

OK, stay with me...

Sorry if this is brief but it seems too good not to share.

This morning, I awoke from a dream where I was watching the evening news. I knew there had been some hot breaking news about the fired US Attorneys scandal. But, the network wasn't covering it. So I called up the network and said "please cover the US Attorneys story" and something along the lines of "how about that Monica Goodling?".

Only in my wildest dreams would a network be so responsive to a phone call from a viewer. As I continued to watch, Monica Goodling appeared on screen, in a hot tub, with her hair up so as not to get it wet. She was a guest on "the View", being interview by Barbara Walters. It was a friendly interview. She was dishing all kinds of dirt on Karl Rove and the Bush Crime Family. I was in GOP Scandal Heaven!

The program went, momentarily, to a shot to Barbara Walters back in the studio. And then back to the hot tub where Ms. Goodling had just climbed out, still naked, and still wet.  It was a butt shot (not frontal). Nice tan - no lines. She suddenly realized she was still on camera and scampered off.

Then I woke up.

As I was driving to work this morning, between the Young Turks segments, I switched my XM Radio over to CNN's American Morning and heard the following exchange between anchor Kiren Chetry and CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena...

(cross posted at steviemo.com)

I will get to Lou Dobbs and Archie Bunker after the intro. But first, there have been many discussions about "framing" – the context or premise one uses to frame a given issue in order to support their own argument. The classic example, of course, would be the GOP use of the term "death tax" to make the case for abolishing the inheritance tax. Or the fighting the "War on Terror" to characterize the US occupation of Iraq.

This is another such discussion.

Dear Lou Dobbs,

One out of four ain't bad...

(crossposted at Steviemo, Heideho and Friends)

This is about who is funding our candidates and what they could expect in return for their support.

On Wednesday night's installment of Hardball, Mike Barnicle (subbing for Tweety), Howard Fineman and Eamon Javers were discussing the Clinton and Obama campaings and their fund raising capabilaties. This little exchange caught my attention as I was preparing dinner for me and the missus...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

(more...)

This one (several days old) appears to have gotten by us.  So we all have our opinions on the Democratic ticket for 2008, and Joe Trippi - arguably one of the founding fathers of the netroots - is no exception.  In this Washington Post piece, Trippi handicaps the contenders (announced or otherwise)...

On Feingold (see?  several days old):

Perhaps the most authentic candidate, the senator from Wisconsin has a deep connection to the grass roots and is a favorite of the party's progressive wing. If President Bush stays stubborn on Iraq and the rest of the field plays it safe, Feingold could get very hot.

On Al Gore:

...In a party that tends to treat its past nominees like lepers, Gore has done an amazing job of reemerging as an important thought leader on issues such as the Iraq war and global warming. If he throws his hat into the ring, he will immediately suck all the oxygen out of the room for most of the other candidates.

I ran across two Air America Radio stories this morning...

You may be aware that Rachel Maddow is moving to 6pm eastern. The Young Turks will be the new morning drive show. It appears Jerry Springer is gone. Not sure what how this impacts Randi. I assume Al stays put.

The Young Turks are the New Morning Show for Air America

It's a new day in America, Air America. The Young Turks are proud to join the Air America Radio network as their morning drive program all across the country.

We will not be targeting conservative talk shows. That's way too easy. They're ancient, decrepit dinosaurs that would fall of their own weight with or without us.

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From A Liberal Walks Into a Bar by georga10...

Georgia quoting a dude who said Bush was the best fucking president ever because he was fighting the Muslim terrorists in Iraq...

 "Because Iraq attacked us on 9/11."

Georgia implors each of us to respond to these wingnuts when we encounter them in our own lives. One time during the runup to the Iraq war, when there was the whole French bashing craze, someone sent me and a hundred other people an e-mail with a list of suggestions for sticking it to the French.  I hit "Reply All" and suggested the French were on the right track and that, thankfully, the whole world does not worship at the alter of George W. Bush (a rather unpopular point of view at the time).

But, so often I find myself trying to explain PNAC and Halliburton to people with short attention spans.  It's too complex and it takes too long.  Need something simple.  Join me on the flip...

All of us can send a strong message to the media if we pony up some spare change to DNC, Ned Lamont, DFA, MoveOn, your favorate local Democrat, etc. Timing is everything. Doing it today ties it to the people-powerd victory in Connecticut.

Howard Dean weighs in on victory...

http://www.democrats.org/...

...In Connecticut, Democratic voters exercised their most fundamental right as Americans, choosing Ned Lamont as the Democratic nominee. We congratulate Mr. Lamont and look forward to working with him both to ensure his victory in November and as a United States Senator. Senator Joe Lieberman has served the people of Connecticut admirably for the last 18 years and always stood up for what he believed in. It was a hard fought campaign, and the Democratic voters of Connecticut have made their choice...

(emphasis mine)

And like Dean always says, the first thing we have to do is "show up".

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I confess - I'm a huge Olbermann fan. In the first quarter of 2006, his market share increased at the expense of Ted Baxter and Paula Zahn.  But, would the trend continue?

from mediabistro.com

The trend is continuing. MSNBC beat CNN at 8pm in the second quarter of 2006, as well, according to numbers out today. Olbermann averaged 156,000 demo viewers, narrowly beating Zahn's 153,000. MSNBC was up 32 percent from the same quarter last year, while CNN was down 20 percent. Bill O'Reilly averaged 401,000 demo viewers in the quarter, down from 450,000 last quarter and down 14 percent from the same quarter last year.

Anyway, we should all continue to support Kieth and spread the word.  Pretty much the only shred of truth anywhere on TV.

Anyway, with Dan Abrams taking over as general manager at MSNBC, what advice would you give him?  To "build on the success" of Olbermann (and Tweety), what other potential hosts are out there?

I thought Brian Unger was good filling in for Kieth.  Greg Palast would be great as a host or a commentator.

If you had your own network, who would you put on?

Am I the only one who thinks Lou Dobbs is spending too much time talking about illegal aliens and "amnesty"?

Night after night after night.  Enough already!  There is other news.  What is a news junkie to do?  Dan Abrams?  Puleeze!

I mean, I happen to agree with Mr. Dobbs about the need for tighter border security.  And while I understand he doesn't support "amnesty", I don't believe I have heard him say exactly what he thinks the status of the 11 million undocumented aliens should be.  I think he just likes to hear himself say "amnesty"!  Or maybe, like Randi Rhodes says, he just doesn't like brown people.

If Mr. Dobbs can't keep his obvious obsession over this one single issue in check, perhaps CNN should put someone else in that time slot.  Brian Unger, in my opinion, would be a good choice.

It's been three days and I'm still furious about your Michael Moore equals Osama remark. Here's what you don't get. Those of us who knew that going to Iraq was a horrible idea, those of us who were paying attention and who saw through the lies, those of us who are not in love with George W. Bush, those of us you call "whack jobs" happen to make up the better part of your viewing audience!

When you participate in the GOP smearing and marginalization of Michael Moore, Howard Dean, MoveOn and others who want nothing more than a better country for everyone, or when you echo the Republican spin that the Abramoff matter is a b-partisan scandal, is it any wonder why people think you're on Karl Rove's payroll?

Mr. Matthews, we deserve better. You are clearly out of touch. We are regular people. Don't dismiss us as whack jobs. It only makes you look like an idiot.

The Bush friendly mainstream media is once again trying to distract Americans from news that is less than favorable towards the White House. While this administration continues to engage in criminal activity by ordering illegal wiretaps on Americans, the media tries to frame the issue as a debate on national security vs. civil liberties. That really pisses me off! For one thing, balancing civil liberties against the need for national security is a false choice. The government's duty is to provide security without breaking the law, thereby protecting everyone's constitutional rights at the same time.

The president claims he is only wiretapping terrorists. But how do we know he's telling the truth? Did he tell the truth about why we went to war in Iraq? Why should anyone believe anything the White House says? By bypassing the FISA court, we have no way of knowing whether they were just wiretapping terrorists or if they were also spying on environmentalists, peace groups, animal rights activists or political enemies.

Conclusion (and poll!) below...

The spinners on the right are fond of invoking their favorite boogieman, Howard Dean, whenever they want to score points against the Democrats. While this tactic has been effective in scaring the less courageous Democratic leaders into distancing themselves from his remarks, it falls short when such remarks are compared with actual reality. For example, when Dean praised American troops for capturing Saddam Hussein, he added that Saddam's capture did not make Americans any safer. Given what we now know that no WMD were found in Iraq and no connection has been found between Iraq and 9/11, it's obvious that Saddam was never a threat to Americans in the first place.

But wait!  There's more...

I don't know why it makes sense for the Pentagon to be investigating to role of Neocons in prewar intelligence.  Seeing how Rummy is one of them it would seem like a conflict of interest.  If you have an angle on this, please share.

From Reuters...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's inspector general has agreed to review the prewar intelligence activities of former U.S. defense undersecretary Douglas Feith, a main architect of the Iraq war, congressional officials said on Thursday.

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Who is I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby?  Yes, we know he is Cheney's Chief of Staff.  And those of us who follow this stuff know his neocon background.  But what about the rest of America?  As I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby becomes a househole name, aren't Americans entitled to know exactly who this person is?

Who is I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby?  What is the "neo-conservative" movement?  What is Project for a New American Century?  Americans need to know!

And the Mainstream Media needs to tell them.

Who will make them do that?  That would be us. - as in you and me!

Will you help?  Will you turn up the heat?  While you're reminding these people that these indictments are really about how we got into this mess in Iraq, also tell them we want the full scoop on Libby, the neocons and the Project for a New American Century.

The media should have done this during the run up to the war.  They didn't.

But they can now.  And they will if all of us give them a little push.