Mmmm.....Fristy...

The entire media establishment has talked about Bill Frist's supposed split from Bush on the stem cell debate. Much is being made about this, as well as rampant speculation on his motives. He's received a lot of credit for going against his president on this issue. But think for a moment of what other possibilities there are: he is doing this not to have his own McCain moment, being independent, yadda yadda; he's doing it so he can gut the stem cell bill that was passed by the House, and has, as most people know, significant support in the Senate. So, he's either positioning himself to be a good guy to the average swing voter, or he's out to save face for Bush by altering dramatically the current bill so that Bush won't have to veto it. Given what a charmer Frist is, right now I'm going with door #2.

Is Dennis Hastert Still Alive?

As addicted to CSPAN as I am, I can't really remember the last time I saw Dennis Hastert doing his day job, Speaker of the House. Maybe I'm not as addicted as I thought. Has anyone else seen him actually performing his job duties?

My Love Letter to James Wolcott

If you have never read James Wolcott, you need to change that. There is no one alive who enjoys the language more than he. Reading him is such a joy. His imagery, whether it is about pissed off women or the miserable main stream media, is unparalleled. He was a limited joy for awhile, coming to my door every month in Vanity Fair, but now he has a blog, too. In Vanity Fair, he writes alongside a liberal (he calls himself that, anyway) named Michael Wolff who I really can't stand to read. The two side-by-side are obvious contrasts, if only because Wolcott's use of the language is so pronounced. If he wasn't married, and well, a he, I might be inclined...never mind. Suffice it to say his writing is such a pleasure.

Bird Flu Killing Mice?

Wow, the hits just keep on comin'. And comin'. From China. I'm starting to feel like a republican, screaming about the Red Menace. But seriously, come on. The news from there just keeps deteriorating. Each story is scarier than the last. Now, this. I'll be watching to see if the Chinese follow through on the request for the samples. Damn. Between mad cow that the government knew was a positive test for seven months before it was announced (makes me wonder how many others they're hiding?), to pigs and birds getting bird flu, I'm thinking about expanding my garden. Leave me my fantasies that at least that will be okay.

A Great Bird Flu Find

Nightline last evening did a piece on the bird flu. I was joyous at this, because readers of this site know I don't think this issue is discussed enough in mainstream media. Anyway, a housekeeping issue first. Several posts ago, I mentioned that if the NSA was discussing this, we should be. Silly me to confuse the NSA with the Council on Foreign Relations. Ha ha, have your laugh at my expense, because I'm laughing with you as to how I could be so stupid.
Anyway, browsing today at the CFR's website, I found this transcript of a discussion on the Threat of a Global Pandemic. In part:

"One of the things we're very worried about in today's situation versus 1918 is that, in fact, we have so many new hosts available, that virus can transmit between those billions and billions of chickens in one year more so today than it used to be able to do in a whole century."

Scared yet? No? Okay, how about:

"The difference with this situation is, unlike 1957 and '68 where, yes, we had thousands and thousands of deaths, even in a place like the United States, this virus has the characteristics of killing like 1918 did, or 1830, where it actually turns your immune system on its head, and it causes that part to be the thing that kills you.
In 1830--or excuse me, in 1918, the vast majority of deaths were healthy people between 20 and 40 years of age whose own immune system killed them. And it wasn't the very young and the very old. Today we don't have much better tools to handle that situation than we did in 1918. As I noted in my article, in this country today we have 105,000 mechanical ventilators. On any one given day, 70-80,000 are in use, just with routine medical care, and during just a mild flu season we get right up to the 105,000, and we're moving ventilators around like we do donated organs, to make sure that they're there. We have no capacity. So what we're worried about is that this virus is due to spin out again of this bird population, as Laurie pointed out. This time, if it is the H5, it has all the bad characteristics of causing this kind of severe problem."

Read the whole thing. Then tell me we should trust China with
anything until they become transparent about this issue.

The World Is On Its Ass

I think we're hurling out into space, and not really in the same world we were in yesterday. Only we don't know it. Let's start at the 5 pm EST hour, and CNNMSNBC are trying not to freak out that a journalismist has to go to the big house. Judith "I was proved fucking right" Miller is going to prison. Matt Cooper's source gave him the green light to testify, but not Judith. Makes you wonder how much different those two sources are. Anyway, over at Fox at this hour, they're showing overandoveradnauseum the Shasta Groene story, telling everyone with direly serious faces that the poor 8 year old was raped repeatedly by the monster who kidnapped her. Can someone explain to me why, just starting with the fact that she's a minor, they show her face all fucking day long? Let alone as an alleged rape victim. Her face should be covered. Fox isn't alone in this. And yes, I get the part about pulling the horse back after it's left the barn, whatever. How come journalismists aren't required to follow the flipping LAWS in this country anymore? But they whine when they get called on the carpet about those laws. I am all for reporter shield laws, if they allow reporters to be shielded when something, I dunno, important happens, like the poor schmo that has to be in witness protection for producing evidence of Abu Graib. That's the sort of thing I would expect any court, even one in DC, to protect a reporter from having to divulge. But what none of the talking heads can explain, is how come this is so gawdawful when a treasonous crime was committed? Remember Weapons of Mass Destruction? That was Valerie Plame's job. Revealing her, no matter what the wingnuts say, and increasingly, they seem to agree with this point, was an act of treason. And Judith "I was proved fucking right" Miller seems to think she's exempt from this discussion. Wrong. Bye, Judy. Maybe you'll get lucky and Ahmed Chalabi will send you a cake with a file in it. Some of us won't miss your stenography.

Gaylord Nelson, RIP

We have lost a true patriot:

MILWAUKEE - Gaylord Nelson, the folksy Democratic senator from Wisconsin who helped start the modern environmental movement with the creation of Earth Day 35 years ago, died Sunday. He was 89.

Compare this to what happens now:

For the first Earth Day in 1970, tens of thousands of people filled New York's Fifth Avenue, Congress adjourned so members could speak across the nation, and at least 2,000 colleges marked the occasion."I wanted a demonstration by so many people that politicians would say, 'Holy cow, people care about this,'" Nelson once said. "That's just what Earth Day did."

Tick Tock, How Long Until the American Press Pays Attention To This...

From the United Kingdom, something that their leaders share with ours: the desire to have no meaningful discussion on the abuse of detainees in Iraq. However, this is also about money, which has no partisanship. Perhaps now the discussion will begin.

British and American aid intended for Iraq's hard-pressed police service is being diverted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings, The Observer can reveal.The investigation revealed:
· A 'ghost' network of secret detention centres across the country, inaccessible to human rights organisations, where torture is taking place.
· Compelling evidence of widespread use of violent interrogation methods including hanging by the arms, burnings, beatings, the use of electric shocks and sexual abuse.
· Claims that serious abuse has taken place within the walls of the Iraqi government's own Ministry of the Interior.
· Apparent co-operation between unofficial and official detention facilities, and evidence of extra-judicial executions by the police.

Read the whole article. Via Laura Rozen.

"I Want to See Karl Rove Frog-Marched Out of the White House"

So sayeth Joe Wilson, back in 2003 when his wife's name was first leaked as a CIA agent by Robert Novak. Reading Josh Marshall this evening, I came across this juicy tidbit:

And one last question: Cooper and Miller are very different kinds of journalists, swim in very different waters. Are they really in this jam for the same reasons?

Keep the drool cups coming.

Don't Play With My Emotions Like This

From Editor and Publisher, we see (and the blogosphere has been ablaze with) Lawrence O'Donnell's appearance last night on McLaughlin Group. O'Donnell says that when the dust settles on the Plame case, the leaker will turn out to be Karl Rove, architect of won elections and now the man through which every piece of information, political or not, goes. I've read that the prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, already knows who leaked, but this story is now about lying to a grand jury. Perjury. Remember the Rule of Law? Heh. Don't let them get away with skirting the rule of law. If Clinton had to follow it, so do they, no matter how highly placed the official leaker/perjurer is, and no matter how they try to spin that Valerie Plame was No Big Deal as a spy.
Josh Marshall has the blog to watch on the story behind the story, which is, where did those Niger documents come from in the first place? Someone get me a drool cup.
Also via Atrios.

The Man Who Would Be King

I am scratching my head, wondering how it is possible that the man who was to be king, has effectively become the king. The world hates this country because of him. More than half of his own people think he sucks at his job. How is it possible that he will be allowed to appoint two supreme court justices?
Reading Josh Marshall, I agree that the most immediate part of O'Connor's resignation may very well be the loss of choice for women. But the even scarier part is what lies beyond that. The economy, the loss of worker's rights, the loss of our very humanity, at the expense of the marketplace. What a truly dismal picture.

The Mother of All Political Fights

...is about to begin. Actually, it has already begun. Everything comes down to this. Election hyperbole, hearings, yadda yadda, it is only about the Supreme Court. It's bigger than if Chief Justice Rehnquist retired. It's bigger than all of us. And the republicans have set up how they're going to use the media for this. Democrats need to be more than ready.
From Kos, here are some things that everyone can do right now:
Go to Save the Court, sign up yourself and your friends and family.
Write to the President, and urge a consensus candidate (via People for the American Way, who are all over this).
Write to your Senator to say the same thing.
Get involved in the media process, and by all means, watch the magic on CSPAN.