Deputy Piece of Crap

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 04, 2005 · 11:48 PM PDT

2005/09/04 · 23:48

There's one person who, up to now, has largely been spared the scrutiny of their actions during the Fed's response to the Katrina disaster: Karl Rove. In case we need some reminding, Rove was promoted shortly after Bush's 2nd Inauguration

Rove, the political mastermind behind two presidential elections, yesterday was named White House deputy chief of staff in charge of coordinating domestic policy, economic policy, national security and homeland security.

Clearly the people directly in charge of the Federal response are Chertoff and Brown, but let's assume for the moment that job titles are not mere window dressing in this administration (foolish of me, I know). What would be the responsibilities of such a Deputy Chief of Staff?
Read More

1 Dem talking point: Put up or Shut up

pvjeff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 13, 2005 · 12:47 PM PDT

2005/07/13 · 12:47

Put up or shut up is a power play, like "all in" during a no-limit poker game. Rove's outing of Valerie Plame is just the hand that calls for an "all in" bet.

Currently the GOP talking points, being torn apart around here, are being spewed from the vocal periphery: Fox, Gingrich, Mehlman. As far as I can tell, GOP elected officials are being more cautious, staying on the `it's a partisan attack on Rove and we can't comment on a ongoing investigation' themes. However, as Josh Marshall points out, there are now 2 Senators and 1 Representative identified as go-to people for GOP spin. Should they begin repeating some of these attacks on Wilson to defend Rove, there is one very simple response: "You have the power to verify your claims via a full Congressional investigation and its subpoena power. Put up or Shut Up!"
Read More

john prine returns, unfiltered

pvjeff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday July 03, 2005 · 10:07 PM PDT

2005/07/03 · 22:07

A few weeks ago I did something I haven't done in a long time: browse through the stock and my local record store. I was happily stunned to find that John Prine had released a new CD, Fair & Square, his first with all new, original material in 10 years. For me this was one of those precious moments with no decisions to make, just buy it. I wasn't disappointed, though it appears some of his conservative fans might be.

I became a John Prine fan back in high school (mid-70s) after a friend turned me on to his Common Sense album and have been hooked ever since. For those not familiar John Prine, he's a bit hard to pigeon-hole. Bonnie Raitt once introduced him as an American Treasure which seemed about right to me. His songs are both simple and cutting with phrasings that twist the common place back onto itself with a surreal sense of humor and often with lasting effect. You've heard of Cowboy poets? With John Prine, think Postman poet.
Read More

the fine art of the flimflam man

pvjeff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 23, 2005 · 9:51 PM PDT

2005/06/23 · 21:51

Since the 2nd wave of DSM docs were released, an idea has spread that the docs show the British, and by extension the Bush Administration, really believed Saddam Hussein had WMD and WMD production capabilities. They just didn't have the evidence for it. I first saw this idea put forth in an article by Fred Kaplan.

They just knew Saddam had WMD, and if the facts didn't quite prove he did, they would underscore and embellish the tidbits that came close. The problem was, their man wasn't guilty, at least on the charges of indictment.

More discussion of this is given by Kevin Drum. This type of argument puts the best possible light on Bush's actions and plays into the right's theme that it was an intelligence failure instead of a failure driven by policy. But as Henry and Atrios pointed out, even if this is true, in no way does it mitigate their malfeasance. This is important and worth encapsulating. Read More

Mother of all smoke screens

pvjeff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday June 13, 2005 · 12:04 AM PDT

2005/06/13 · 00:04

Or MO'ASS for short.

I saw this NYTimes article about the Congressional commission on reforming the UN. What caught my attention was the online teaser,

A Congressionally mandated panel will report that the U.N. suffers from poor management, and a lack of accountability and professional ethics.

leaving me to chuckle ... Pot & Kettle stuff ya know. But the panel is a bi-partisan one headed by the Newt and George Mitchell so it's not likely to be, in and of itself, a partisan attack on the UN. The coming week's spin will be a different story and the Times article alludes to this (more below) without, unfortunately, setting up the context or contrast. I guess tonight that's my job. Read More

The Dem SS pivot: Bush's budget mess

pvjeff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday March 16, 2005 · 11:28 AM PST

2005/03/16 · 11:28

The unfolding of the SS debate has rested on the combination of a united Dem opposition and the sour reality of Bush's reform proposal: a formula worth repeating. Without the cover of `classified intelligence', the Administration's tactics are on clear display and the public isn't buying. Bush is now committed to another 6 weeks out `negotiating with himself' on SS, so it's a good time to highlight the folly in his priorities and his 2006-2010 budget projection seems the appropriate vehicle.

Senator Kent Conrad's Senate floor speech on Monday hit just the right notes. It included a slew of charts to hammer home how disconnected Bush's statements are from his actual budget. For me, the money plot was the one showing the real budget deficit over the next 5 years.

Bush was smoke'n mirrors when he said last August that "...the budget deficit will be cut in half over the next five years...". Update [2005-3-23 21:49:13 by pvjeff]: changed to gif files for smaller (faster) loading (on my diary page) Read More

Leadership: calling FDR in off the bench

pvjeff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 25, 2005 · 11:14 PM PST

2005/02/25 · 23:14

As we know, Brit Hume mangled an FDR message to claim FDR would support privatization of Social Security. The blog reaction was swift, exposing the lie for what it was, a partisan hack-job (see for example Kevin Drum's post). Last weekend I had a brief email exchange with a conservative commentator who had written that while Hume's remarks were perhaps careless, Bush's proposal on SS was consistent with that same FDR message. Initially I posed counter arguments to his position but ended up focusing on a bigger message in FDR's address. A message that points to the leadership legacy of FDR that is in direct contrast to GWB's bait and switch approach to enacting policy.

This isn't new, nor will it sway a Bush worshiper, but it may resonate with moderate Bush voters who have been sold on his "leadership qualities"; particularly the next time allusions are made to FDR. Read More

Recount anomaly? Miami Herald results revisited

pvjeff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday December 06, 2004 · 8:45 AM PST

2004/12/06 · 08:45

Greetings from a first time (diary) caller. I've been skeptical about the idea that this election was fraudulently stolen. Not because Bush, Rove, and Co wouldn't stoop that low, but rather because the amount of fraud needed to produce these election results seems too large and widespread. Crooked yes, but stupid? Getting caught stealing the election by manipulating hundreds of thousands of votes would be political suicide for the GOP with lasting effects. Better to lose than to face such recriminations.

But systematic "fraud" did occur. The FL felons list, the Sproul Assoc. shenanigans, the Ohio vote machine deployment, are all examples of election "fraud" in my opinion, perhaps with the tacit knowledge by the national party. This sets the scale for fraud: a few thousand votes here and there, enough to swing a razor thin election or make a small lead insurmountable (Ohio?), but still be under the radar. If exposed, be deniable: attributed to a few bad apples - easy in our media climate.

With that `scale' in mind, the results of the Miami Herald Recount might just suggest that something is amiss. Read More

RSS