Sunday’s shows were a stunning full-court press by the Cheney administration to push the “surge is working” storyline, and attacks on Democratic front-runners. The stenographers played along.
Meat the Press
Bob Gates acknowledges how fundamentally wrong this administration has been in every aspect of the Iraq War so far, but NOW we should trust General Petraeus. Yikes. I guess you go on the Sunday shows with the storyline you have. Bob repeats the oft-claimed notion that Diyala and Al-Anbar “successes” prove that the “surge” is working, ignoring the worst July since the war began, and the claim by the Iraqi government that the power grid is about to completely fail.
Bob backs Cheney on the Edelman letter to Senator Clinton, ignoring his own prior denunciation. What a tool. He amusingly claims that if we have actionable intelligence that OBL is in Pakistan that Mushy would move on him. He says we wouldn’t move without permission, which I believe is true, but claims we would get permission which we know is false.
Panel Time
Carl Bernstein (Clinton biographer), Doris Kearns Goodwin (Lincoln biographer), David Mendell (Obama biographer), and David Boddy (CBN – WTF is he doing here?!?!?)
They spend their time bashing Clinton and Obama. Fun. Ambition and Arrogance seem to be the big flaws for both. Iowa poll says Clinton is comparatively strong and experienced, Obama is likewise honest and likable. Bernstein calls the voters “pretty smart” as a way of insulting Clinton’s honesty and likability, and Obama’s strength and experience. I really hate this panel.
The panel coalesces around the idea that the press hasn’t scrutinized presidential candidates enough, so it’s time to dig for flaws. That means more of what they did to Gore and Kerry on the Dem side, more of what they did to W on the GOOP side. Thanks, assholes!
More Dem bashing, and a national poll showing Dems up double digits on all issues except 5 points on morals, R’s with a slim lead on “strong military”, GWOT, and “homeland security”. Boddy claims that the only three issues that will matter are taxes, economy and GWOT, giving Rudy a big edge – calls him “authentic”. Heh. They really don’t like Mormons on CBN
Fred will apparently announce Sept 5. I’m starting to think of him as this cycle’s Wesley Clark – good on paper, no real chance. To clarify – I would never, ever compare the two men, only their much anticipated entrances into already crowded fields.
More Dem bashing, with Boddy calling them pussies for rolling over for wiretapping. Wait. That would be an *excellent* band name. Rolling Over for Wiretapping.
Bernstein says Hillary’s problem will be honety and candor, especially after the W presidency. It comes off as equating them. Ugh. On that note, they end the bashing. For now. I sense an anger growing in me as they do this for another year.
Fawkes News
TERROR IN THE BIBLE BELT!!!1!
posted by TheDon
TGIF – Headed for the beach
posted by TheDon
Blastoff Tang
fill a double old-fashioned glass halfway with ice
3 oz orange flavored vodka
1 oz orange liquer (triple sec, etc)
top off with orange juice
Answer the Clue Phone, Speaker Pelosi
posted by TheDon
The Nation is reporting on a breakfast with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and it’s not pretty.
If she were not in the House–and not Speaker of the House–Nancy Pelosi says she “would probably advocate” impeaching President Bush. But given her current role as party leader, at a breakfast with progressive journalists today (named after our great friend Maria Leavey) Pelosi sketched her case against impeachment.
“The question of impeachment is something that would divide the country,” Pelosi said this morning during a wide-ranging discussion in the ornate Speaker’s office. Her top priorities are ending the war in Iraq, expanding health care, creating jobs and preserving the environment. “I know what our success can be on those issues. I don’t know what our success can be on impeaching the president.”
And Democrats could be judged harshly for partisan gridlock, just as the American people turned on Congressional Republicans in the 90s for pursuing the impeachment of President Clinton.
She is greatly disturbed by the lawlessness of this Administration and its contempt for checks and balances. “I take an oath to defend and protect the Constitution, so it is a top priority for me and my colleagues to uphold that.” She notes the vigorous oversight hearings held by committee chairman like John Conyers and Henry Waxman.
Ted Rall: Live in New York!
Comedian and ex-Air America Radio personality Lizz Winstead will have me as her on-stage guest for her show “Shoot the Messenger.” Act I will be “a bunch of satirical sketches” and Act II is the guest segment (me). Here’s the scoop:
Date: Monday, August 6
Time: 8:30 pm
Where: Ace of Clubs (it’s the cabaret room between Acme Restaurant on Great Jones St. between Lafayette and Broadway)
More info: www.aceofclubsnyc.com
Thank you Steve Jobs
posted by TheDon
This Week’s Column
Here’s this week’s column, should you choose to comment:
SPEED KILLS (YOUR WALLET)
The Sneaky War on American Motorists
NEW YORK–It was a beautiful afternoon in early autumn, and for an instant I mistook the brightly colored lights flashing in my rearview mirror for streaks of sunlight filtering through gently turning leaves. But only for an instant. Just past a curve on a steady downgrade a sign announced the end of the 55 mile-per-hour state speed limit and the beginning of the town 40. I hit the brakes but it was too late. That’s the purpose of a speed trap. Sixty-two in a 40, the policeman said.
Speeding tickets have always been a pain in the butt. You pay about $150, and if your insurance company chooses to be mean it uses the three fresh points on your license to justify a rate hike. In a recent legal transformation that has quietly gathered steam across the United States, however, getting caught speeding has become far more traumatic.
A year before the incident related above, a state trooper had plucked me out of a cluster of vehicles on the Long Island Expressway, dinging me for 72 in a 55(heavy volume had slowed traffic from its typical average of 80) That earned me a $185 fine plus six points–a point hike up from the long-standing three. A few months later the Department of Motor Vehicles sent me a letter notifying me that I owed an additional $300–bringing the total fine to $485–for a “driver responsibility assessment.” The 2004 law establishing the additional fees was passed in greater secrecy than the USA Patriot Act; even this devourer of three newspapers a day hadn’t heard of it.
My second ticket brought another letter billing me a second $300 driver responsibility assessment. But if I had plead guilty, New York would suspend my license for hitting the 12-point limit. I hired an attorney.
I spent eight months and more than $2000 fighting the ticket in municipal court. My lawyers–I needed two–kept filing motions to delay my trial date until my cop would be away on vacation. Finally, the judge asked my attorneys what it would take to get my case off her docket. A deal was cut. I paid $850 in fines, plus the state assessment, and performed 25 hours of community service. I was allowed to pick between sorting trash at the recycling center and filing at the zoning board. You can guess which one I chose.
Final tally for two speeding tickets: $3,935. No wonder so many people drive around with suspended licenses! They can’t afford the fines.
It helps to be a drug addict. When the 24-year-old son of President Gore got pulled over doing over 100 mph south of Los Angeles on July 4, cops found pot and controlled pharmaceuticals–Vicodin, Xanax, Valium, Adderall and Soma–aboard his Prius. “He didn’t have a prescription for any of those drugs,” said Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino. Sentence: 90 days at a Malibu rehab clinic. If Al Gore III finishes the program, his arrest record will vanish–even though he has previous arrests for drugs and a DUI. “He had recently smoked marijuana, but it did not impair him enough that he was driving under the influence,” said Amormino. Gore’s fine: zero.
Michigan charges $1,000 over the fine amount for driving 20 mph over the legal limit. New Jersey raises $130 million a year through supplemental state fines. Texas cashes in to the tune of $300 million. Other states, including Florida, are considering similar laws. The War on Speederists has reached its fastest boil in Virginia, where the extra fines can run over $2,500. Exceeding the posted speed limit by 20 mph, for example, earns motorists a $200 fine plus a $1,050 “civil remedial fee.” In addition, reports the Washington Post, “drivers with points on their licenses–a speeding ticket usually earns four points–will be hit for $75 for every point above eight and $100 for having that many points in the first place.”
State legislators who sponsored Virginia’s stiff new penalties say they’re out to make the roads safer, but admit that their main objective is funding highway repairs. “My job as a delegate is to make people slow down and build some roads,” said David Albo, a Republican state representative.
It isn’t just budget-mad Americans. Even the land of Mad Max and the Tasmanian Devil is getting tough on speeders.
“Many people seem to believe that driving five, 10 or even 15 kilometers per hour [three, six or nine mph] over the limit is acceptable,” says Jim Cox, Infrastructure Minister for the Australian province of Tasmania. “For a pedestrian hit by a car, an additional [three mph] can literally mean the difference between life and death.” Fines for speeding will be raised by 300 percent.
OK, so speed kills. But when zealots like Cox say things like this–“research shows that even a one km/hr [six-tenths of one mile per hour] reduction in speed can result in a three per cent reduction in crashes”–you’ve got to wonder whether he’s been smoking too much eucalyptus.
Virginia courts are bracing for an onslaught of angry drivers forced to fight their tickets. “For someone who’s living near the poverty line, or even making $30,000,” said Fairfax attorney Todd G. Petit, draconian fees of over $1,000 have “a significant impact” that could lead to them losing their license and job. “It’s basically the Lawyer Full Employment Act,” chortled another happy member of the bar.
My friends have learned from my experience. Since every violation brings you a single ticket away from license revocation, challenging them in court is the smart way to go.
No one marches to demand a healthcare system as good as Mexico’s, but sky-high speeding fines have awakened America’s long-dormant spirit of rebellion. Virginia legislators say their offices have been “deluged by angry calls and e-mail from constituents threatening to vote them out of office.” Robert Marshall, a Republican delegate says: “You have no idea how angry people are.” Who knows? Maybe people will begin protesting the Iraq War.
Though the correlation between speeding and highway fatality rates is well established, fining speeders more than drugged drivers is disproportionate to the social impact of the offense. On the other hand, there’s no denying the deterrent effect. I pay a lot more attention to speed limit signs.
Homeland Security Boat Ride
Posted by Susan Stark
The ferry that runs from Staten Island to Manhattan and back is undeniably one the greatest free boat rides in the world, if not THE greatest. It provides a stunning view of the New York Harbor, from the Verrazano Bridge connecting Staten Island with Brooklyn and defining the border between the harbor and the ocean, to the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan. Tourists from all over the world experience this ride, as well as locals looking for a cheap, fun activity. But the ferry is also an absolute necessity for the 70,000 Staten Islanders who commute to Manhattan to work each day.
And ever since that fateful day six years ago on the 11th of September, the ferry experience has suffered.
For Staten Islanders like myself, we have a painful reminder of the missing Twin Towers, because they used to be the first thing we saw of Manhattan when coming down to the ferry terminal. Now we only see the absence of them.
After the attacks, the ferry was suspended for ordinary traffic, and only “essential personnel” where allowed into Manhattan (rescue workers, policemen, firemen, etc.). It wasn’t until the following Monday, on the 17th, that the ferry was open to foot traffic again.
But, in a certain way, the Staten Island Ferry is still suspended. The carefree boat ride isn’t what it used to be.
It started with the unfortunate but necessary suspension of car-ferry service, in which Islanders and other New Yorkers could drive their vehicles onto the ferry and across the water. Fear of car bombs put a stop to that. Car-ferry service has not resumed.
Worse, as far as I’m concerned, is the banning of musicians on the ferry. We used to have performers come on the ferry, much in the same way the subway still does today. Now they’re not allowed, allegedly because passengers wouldn’t be able to hear announcements over the PA system. However, I don’t ever remember the music being so loud that we couldn’t hear the loudspeaker. That enjoyment is a casualty of September 11th.
Another troublesome difference was the installation of security cameras on the boat. Apologists would say that, like the car-ferry and musician ban, this protects us. But I feel like I’m in a department store rather than on a free ferry ride, with roving little cameras fixing their beady little black eyes on me. In any case, the cameras aren’t much use against a terrorist, except for maybe identifying what happened after the act of terror occured, assuming the cameras weren’t disabled either before or after.
And if the musician ban and department-store cameras weren’t bad enough, there is the Coast Guard. I shouldn’t ever regret the presence of the Coast Guard, because of their search-and-rescue training. But on the little Coast Guard boat that escorts the ferry occasionally, there’s a wicked-looking semi-automatic perched up right were it can swivel and shoot a ferry passenger at will. Ostensibly, any shot-down ferry passenger will be a terrorist, but mistakes can be made, and innocent bystanders can be hit instead.
And, to top it all off, just last week I was on the ferry listening to my radio, when an NYPD helicopter decided to trail the boat, loud enough to drown out what I was listening to. I was outside on the top deck, so I got a pretty good view of the helicopter circling around the boat. Finally it “faced” me and started moving sideways, like some weird, flying crab. Presumably there might have been a reason for it’s presence, but if anything was happening on the boat, I don’t see what good a helicopter could’ve done.
I always believe that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and sensible precautions such as banning cars and using dogs to inspect bags and packages are necessary. The rest of it, unfortunately, is just a lessening of enjoyment and a waste of the taxpayers’ money.
Dawg Picnic
posted by TheDon
