It’s FISA Day in your Senate – amazing how this was scheduled for Potomac Primary Day, huh? – and Matt Browner Hamlin has the agenda up at Holdfast. My big issue is item #4: retroactive immunity for telecoms. Verizon and AT&T have done all they can to pretend that they had no idea that their participation in warrantless wiretapping might
Read moreEarlier today I posted an extended analysis of the reporting, good and bad, surrounding the recent California Department of Public Health study on thimerosal and autism rates. But then I got to wondering. What would a cynical, bought-up corporatist whore of an environmental holocaust denier who’d sell his own mother for a nickel’s profit think about the study? I know
Read moreWelcome to the fifth and final installment of the Scholars & Rogues year-end wrap-up. Today we tackle the dirty, but oddly riveting world of politics. We’ll take a couple shots at the even dirtier world of media that makes it all possible. Let’s start at the top, shall we? George Walker Bush: I’ve been telling my Republican friends for five
Read moreThe following is a dramatization, brought to you by the Mighty Scholar All-Star Rogue Players. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental. The scene: a kitchen. Man reading paper. Wife preparing breakfast. Narrator: What to do, what to do? Imagine that you’re a former executive with one of the nation’s largest coal producers and that the company
Read moreAs Martin noted earlier, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) is filibustering ill-conceived legislation that would give telecommunications companies a pass for engaging in illegal spying activities on behalf of the Bush administration. Those of you who were hopeful in the wake of last year’s sweep of both houses of Congress by the alleged opposition party, and those who are hopeful that
Read moreFrom this morning’s Meet the Press: Tim Russert: Would it be appropriate for a president to provide Secret Service protection for his mistress? Rudy Giuliani: It would not be appropriate to do it for that reason, Tim … The reason it’s done is because somebody threatens to do harm and the people who assess it come to the conclusion that
Read moreFirst, congratulations, Tim Tebow. You had a great year. Now, a little context. The Heisman Trophy is allegedly awarded each year to the nation’s “most outstanding college football player.” The Heisman has been awarded 73 times. 27 of the recipients have been quarterbacks. 41 times the winner was a running back. On four occasions the winner was an end/receiver. Only
Read moreA new US intelligence report sheds significant light on the Bush administration’s duplicity regarding Iran’s alleged nuclear threat. Iran Halted Nuclear Bomb Program in 2003, U.S. Spy Agencies Say By Jeff Bliss and Ken Fireman Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and probably hadn’t restarted it as of mid-2007, according to a new report
Read moreSun rises in east. Dog bites man. Mike Tyson gets arrested. Bowl Championship Series fucked again. Any other stunning, never-saw-that-coming headlines I need to include here? Once again the BS BCS, the NCAA’s laughable insult to the very concepts of competition and moral decency, has failed, and this time they’ve simply outdone themselves. They finally managed to get LSU, a
Read moreIn describing the Democratic response to Bush’s sabre-rattling toward Iran, Power of Narrative’s Arthur Silber summed things up neatly: They don’t object because — they don’t object. The only thing wrong with Silber’s assessment is that it was limited to Iran. In truth, you could just as easily use those seven succinct words to characterize the Democratic Party in general.
Read moreI’m not a political poet. Not for the most part, anyway. I certainly never wanted to be one, and I had been writing for a number of years before this finally happened: I don’t want to say too much for fear of being misconstrued or maybe for fear of being understood all too clearly so here’s your warning – flowers
Read moreSay you’re running for President. And say that it’s a couple days before before a major primary season straw poll. In someplace semi-important, like, say, Iowa. Ask yourself, what kinds of headlines would you really, really just not want to see in places like, oh, I don’t know, the AP and Forbes.com? How about something like this: Major Romney Fundraiser
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