Uppity Wisconsin

I've got a deal to propose. Here it is: Debate moderators agree to stop asking moronic questions and presidential candidates agree to actually answer the questions they do ask. Wouldn't that be great? And now, back to reality.....

Should be fun David Iglesias goes on Real Time with Bill Maher.

"Tax Freedom Day"---the day on which Americans have earned enough to pay off their tax obligations for the year---is today. How odd that, under President George "Tax Cuts R Us" Bush, the day keeps arriving later and later. I’m starting to suspect he’s not on the up and up. Increase in worker productivity between 2000 and 2006: 18%
Increase in adjusted weekly wages between 2000 and 2006: 1%
(Source: Parade magazine) War heroes in print. Paul Rieckhoff---the head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America---wrote one of the definitive books on what it’s like to be "boots on the ground" in Iraq. If you haven’t read Chasing Ghosts," it’s coming out in paperback on Tuesday. One suggestion: steer clear of the special Limited Edition Scratch ‘n Sniff Edition. (Somebody's boots be needin' the Dr. Scholl's...) Today's Must Read: Moi? Politicize? Never! The Justice Department's lawyerly denial.

Terrorism watch This year's report on global terrorism will show a 25% increase in terror attacks between 2005 and 2006, "almost all of it due to incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan" according to McClatchy. Then there's this:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides had considered postponing or downplaying the release of this year's edition, due to the extreme political sensitivities, several officials said. But ultimately, they decided to issue the report on or about the congressionally mandated deadline of Tuesday, the officials said.

Say what? They considered postponing a congressionally mandated report because it might be inconvenient for the president's war policy? Is there some kind of "political sensitivities" exemption in the law?

You'll never believe it: Exxon-Mobil is still swimmin' in profits. Smelling salts are available in the lobby. Sex scandal swells The Post profiles the DC Madam, and ABC's Brian Ross has the goods:

More revelations are in the offing. Ross said the list includes the names of some "very prominent people," as well as a number of women with "important and serious jobs" who had worked as escorts for the firm.

Some people are downright giddy that the Bush Administration is about to be ensnared in another scandal. But I would remind them that nothing is more bipartisan than sexual indiscretion. You can see the complete video of Brian Ross' report from Saturday night here.

If you missed the Bill Moyers' segment on the U.S. attorney purge, including his extended interview with Josh, you can watch it now online.

The irony thickens I couldn't help but notice that one of the recipients of last year's Attorney General Award for Fraud Prevention was Robert E. Coughlin, II. Coughlin was the chief of staff to the head of DOJ's criminal division until his quiet resignation earlier this month, first reported yesterday, allegedly because he is facing scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff investigation. The award "recognizes exceptional dedication and effort to prevent, investigate, and prosecute fraud and white collar crimes." Coughlin was part of a team honored for its work on post-Hurricane Katrina fraud. In September, Coughlin was honored for his work on fraud and white collar crime. By the following April, he was out because of his alleged connections to the one of the largest white collar crime investigations in DOJ's history. Only in the Gonzales Justice Department.

Daddy Justice Ellen Goodman takes on the paternalism of the Supreme Court's recent horrendous abortion decision.

George Tenet's "60 Minutes" interview with Scott Pelley was as combative as it was blockbuster. The CBS website does a good job of summing it all up:

Three years after he left the CIA, George Tenet lets loose with criticism of his former Bush Administration colleagues. He tells Scott Pelley about leading the war in Afghanistan, the CIA's policy on torture and the failure to find WMD in Iraq.

Part 1: Download (442) | Play (402) Download (217) | Play (296)

Part 2: Download (279) | Play (163) Download (91) | Play (127)

Make sure you watch the entire thing.

Glass houses, throwing stones, etc. Aravosis similarly owns Rudy Giuliani in a take on the hypocrisy of a major adulterer claiming to be a protector of marriage.

from the Department of Hopeless Security:
Days the color-coded federal terror alert system has been in place: 1,869
Days spent at terror alert level Blue or Green: 0

dogging the wag. Researchers have discovered that the way dogs swish their tails reflects their emotional state:

When the dogs saw their owners, their tails all wagged vigorously with a bias to the right side of their bodies, Dr. Vallortigara said. Their tails wagged moderately, again more to the right, when faced with an unfamiliar human. Looking at the cat, a four-year-old male whose owners volunteered him for the experiment, the dogs' tails again wagged more to the right but in a lower amplitude. When the dogs looked at an aggressive, unfamiliar dog...their tails all wagged with a bias to the left side of their bodies.

C&J spent weeks crunching the data. Translated, here's what the dogs were communicating as they wagged to the various stimuli:

Owner: "Do you have food??!!"
Unfamiliar human: "Do you have food??!!"
Cat: "Do you have food??!!"
Other dog: "Do you have food??!!"

I'll just assume my honorary Ph.D. is in the mail.

Oops! Our bad! A U.S.-led raid Sunday on a suspected insurgent cell in Afghanistan left as many as six Afghans dead, including a woman and a teenage girl, and sparked protests by hundreds of angry Afghans chanting, “Death to Bush!” One resident said, “We are not the enemy. We are not al-Qaeda. Why are they attacking us?”

Exporting Democracy Bush style.

Maliki's Office Is Seen Behind Purge in Forces
Some Commanders Had Pursued Militias

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 30, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD, April 29 -- A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.

Can these people do anything right?! New York Times:

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections — were no longer working properly. Read more…

So let me get this straight: We've spent over $300 billion in Iraq and all we have to show for it is 3,346 American deaths and 26,188 casualties, tens of thousands dead Iraqis, increased terrorism and a deeply fractured Iraqi country? At least the oil companies are raking in record profits, right?

Driving while not white update “Black, Hispanic and white drivers are equally likely to be pulled over by police, but blacks and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched and arrested,” and police were “much more likely to threaten or use force against blacks and Hispanics than against whites in any encounter, whether at a traffic stop or elsewhere,” a federal study shows.

Do as much damage as you can before leaving office? Bush to announce massive new drilling plan. “The Interior Department will announce a proposal Monday to allow oil and gas drilling in federal waters near Virginia that are currently off-limits and permit new exploration in Alaska’s Bristol Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. … The Virginia shore is dotted with barrier islands and lagoons, most of them largely unspoiled. The Virginia coast has been designated a World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations, and a National Natural Landmark by the Interior Department.”

American Injustice MPP:

Two police officers pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid last fall. A third officer still faces charges... The charges followed a Nov. 21 "no-knock" drug raid on the home of Kathryn Johnston, 92. An informant had described buying drugs from a dealer there, police said. When the officers burst in without warning, Johnston fired at them, and they fired back, killing her.

Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson said that the officers involved in Johnston's death fired 39 shots, striking her five or six times, including a fatal blow to the chest.

He said Johnston fired only once through her door and didn't hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues, he said.... Assistant U.S. Attorney Yonette Sam-Buchanan said Thursday that although the officers found no drugs in Johnston's home, Smith planted three bags of marijuana in the home as part of a cover story.

The case raised serious questions about no-knock warrants and whether the officers followed proper procedures.

Condi: We were supposed to fight terrorism before 9/11? With George Tenet's new book coming out tomorrow, Condoleezza Rice was in full damage-control mode today, appearing on three Sunday talk shows to explain away the former DCI's claim that Rice didn't take seriously his urgent warnings about the al-Qaeda threat in the months before 9/11. When confronted with a clip from tonight's "60 Minutes" where Tenet claims he suggested taking offensive action against UBL in Afghanistan before the attacks, Condi seems surprised by the notion that the Bush administration should have done something about terrorism before 9/11.

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TENET: We need to consider immediate action inside Afghanistan now. We need to move to the offensive.

PELLEY (voice-over): In his book, Tenet says that even though he told Rice an attack on Americans was imminent, she took his request to launch preemptive action in Afghanistan and delegated it to third tier officials.

SCHIEFFER: So, what he is saying is that you just sort of brushed him off. […] Well, why would he say something like that?

RICE: Well, I don’t know. I don’t know what we were supposed to preemptively strike in Afghanistan. Perhaps somebody can ask that.

Apparently responding to the Cole bombing — after it was traced back to bin Laden — wasn't on the Bush administration's radar. Then again, it seems the Bushies didn't take seriously Tenet's Aug 6 PDB that warned about imminent al-Qaeda attacks either. But can you really blame them? The PDB only warned of potential attacks in the United States (possibly NYC) using hijacked airplanes. That kind of vague intelligence is hard to work with. (A plea bargain for the Bushies and transcript below the fold…) (Read the rest of this story…)

Working folks take on Big Pharma In a country where millions go without health insurance because of venal public servants, and poor pharmaceutical company executives struggling to pay for that fifth mortgage in Belize or scraping by to purchase that second corporate jet, thankfully we have Working America fighting the good fight. Working America, the 1.5 million-member community affiliate of the the AFL-CIO, provides a voice for those who've been denied the right to union membership on the job. Individuals are allowed to join this community, which is comprised of those of us who don't have stock options in Haliburton or stay up nights excited about the next day's bank merger. So when they asked me to join their fight against Big Pharma, in the latter's attempt to make the cost of prescriptions unbearable for working Americans, I simply said where do I sign up? (Read the rest of this story…)

Go away Michael Finnegan writes in the LA Times that the current political landscape for Republicans is so toxic that the party is having trouble finding good candidates to contest even winnable House seats in 2008. That's not really all that surprising. But here's the best part of Finnegan's piece:

And in New Hampshire, nonpartisan pollster Dick Bennett said the atmosphere is so sour that he is having a tough time getting Republicans to participate in surveys. The war, high gas prices and unhappiness with the Bush administration all have dampened their interest sharing opinions, he said.

Republicans are too depressed to even answer poll questions? That's toxic.

Cafeteria bishops Link Excerpt: Archbishop Raymond Burke denounced a Catholic charity Wednesday for scheduling a benefit-concert appearance by Sheryl Crow, who supports abortion rights. Burke (R-Moron) submitted his resignation as chairman of the board for a children's foundation, saying the decision to let Crow sing on Saturday left him no other choice. "It's very painful for me," Burke said during a news conference Wednesday. "But I have to answer to God for the responsibility I have as archbishop. "A Catholic institution featuring a performer who promotes moral evil gives the impression that the church is somehow inconsistent in its teaching," Burke said. Crow is set to appear at the 19th annual benefit for the Bob Costas Cancer Center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. Costas will host the event. Crow's publicist didn't return a message seeking comment Wednesday.

Don't you just love these "cafeteria bishops?" They chose to feign outrage at being sorta, semi-associated with someone who might be pro-choice, but this same ass would love to have dinner with Bush, a crazy bastard who has hilled 100,00 people just to steal some oil. Remember 2004? They declared war on Kerry while fellating the war-mongering Bush's unethical ass. They want to pick and chose which commandments outrage them. They want to play politics and screw what their almighty God stands for. This Burke character doesn't give a flying fug about those kids, either. He wants to play politics and if the dying kids and his precious God lose out, well that's just tough for them.

The Penn factor Anne Kornblut offers up a profile of Mark Penn for The Washington Post that everyone ought to read. To make a long story short, though, if you think the problem with the Democratic Party is that it's insufficiently inclined to support wars, you'll like Mark Penn. If you think the Party is insufficiently friendly to the interests of major corporations and wealthy individuals, you'll like Mark Penn. If you think Menachim Begin was a great man and that the world needs more Dick Morris acolytes, you'll like Mark Penn. And if you like Mark Penn, you'll love Hillary Clinton since he "controls the main elements of her campaign . . . has consolidated his power, according to advisers close to the campaign, taking increasing control of the operation . . . has become involved in virtually every move Clinton makes, with the result that the campaign reflects the chief strategist as much as the candidate."

The one thing I'd really have to quibble with is the notion that Penn has "undisputed brilliance." I would dispute the idea that he's brilliant and I'm fairly sure I'm not alone. He's a clever businessman who's made a good deal of money for himself, but so have lots of other consultants. The view that the correct general election strategy on every issue is for the Democratic candidate to move to the right doesn't seem like really innovative thinking to me.

Iraq; same o' same o' Bad news for folks who thought the appointment of David Petraeus to command in Iraq was going to single-handedly undo centuries worth of the American way of war -- we're back to launching artillery barrages against neighborhoods in southern Iraq. Read the new Counterinsurgency Field Manual (PDF) that Petraeus wrote if you want to know why that's a bad idea. Or read Jeffrey Record on how it is the US never seems to get this right no matter how many times we resolve to do things differently.

The lies we live by: college degree required I hadn't heard this story about MIT firing its Dean of Admissions not for any shortcomings in her job performance but for having lied 28 years ago and said she had a college degree when she first applied for a low-level position at MIT. I think Kevin Carey says most of what needs to be said about the irrationality of this and the broader social and cultural obsession with the potentially meaningless bachelor's degree.

There's this current well-intentioned mania for producing policies that will get more people to go to college, and to some extent to get more people to graduate from college, but it's clear that the first step in anything along these lines is that we need to know something about why a college degree is valuable. Insofar as it's a pure screening mechanism (and there's considerable evidence that this is at least what it mostly is) then expanding access to college is only going to devalue the credential. Presumably there are some actually useful skills being imparted to some college students (my appreciation of the flaws of semantic internalism has, for example, much application to my role as a professional political pundit who must occassionally offer views about "originalism" as an approach to jurisprudence -- and, yes, this is irony in case any Atlantic readers out there aren't used to it) but it's really crucial that we figure out what these are and find ways to spread the skills themselves rather than the credential. Meanwhile, the habit of disqualifying perfectly competent people from jobs based on a lack of degrees has become yet another brick in the American wall of inegalitarianism.

Inquiring minds want to know House energy committee chairman John Dingell (D-MI) has written the Environmental Protection Agency demanding to know why Bill Roderick, the acting attorney general, “launched a plan back in June to cut 60 of his 360 employees — especially auditors, criminal investigators and the like — via buyouts or resignations.” Around the same time, Roderick received a raise exceeding $15,000.

One opts out of neocon media “Tucked inside Frank Rich’s Sunday column in the New York Times is indication that the newspaper will no longer play ball with the annual White House Correspondents Association dinners in Washington, which he calls ‘a crystallization of the press’s failures in the post-9/11 era.’ He writes that the event ‘illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows.’”

Hillary “turned some heads” last week at a briefing when she wore “dark, oversized shades, even though the classified meeting took place very much indoors.” Clinton’s spokesman said that she didn’t have her regular prescription glasses with her, so she used the sunglasses. “Which is a lot better than the rose-colored glasses the Bush administration puts on whenever they look at their failed policy in Iraq,” he added.

Experts: Iraq will be worse for U.S. than Vietnam. “As fighting in Iraq enters its fifth year, an increasing number of experts in foreign policy and national strategy are arguing that the biggest difference may be that the Iraq war will inflict greater damage to U.S. interests than Vietnam did.”

“It makes Vietnam look like a cakewalk,” said retired Air Force Gen. Charles F. Wald, a veteran of the Vietnam War. The domino theory that nations across Southeast Asia would go communist was not fulfilled, he noted, but with Iraq, “worst-case scenarios are the most likely thing to happen.”

Iraq is worse than Vietnam “in so many ways,” agreed Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., a retired Army officer and author of one of the most respected studies of the U.S. military’s failure in Vietnam. “We knew what we were getting into in Vietnam. We didn’t here.”

Also, President Richard M. Nixon used diplomacy with China and the Soviet Union to exploit the split between them and so minimize the fallout of Vietnam. By contrast, Krepinevich said, the Bush administration has “magnified” the problems of Iraq by neglecting public diplomacy in the Muslim world and by not developing an energy policy to reduce the significance of Middle Eastern oil.

An open letter to George Tenet, written by group of former CIA and other intelligence officials, urges the former CIA Director “to dedicate a significant portion of his royalties to soldiers and families of those killed or wounded in Iraq.” They write:

Mr. Tenet, you cannot undo what has been done. It is doubly sad that you seem still to lack an adequate appreciation of the enormous amount of death and carnage you have facilitated. If reflection on these matters serves to prick your conscience we encourage you to donate at least half of the royalties from your book sales to the veterans and their families, who have paid and are paying the price for your failure to speak up when you could have made a difference. That would be the decent and honorable thing to do.