Friday, July 23 Issue #36

Quick Note from Island Dave
I received a question from a reader who wanted to know why I use so many WaPo sources, especially in the two Articles sections. The reason is three-fold:

1. I'm publishing each issue around 1AM, and the WaPo print edition is available by then. Because I'm just farming a few last minute or authoritative stories, it is the easiest and most valuable use of my time.

2. WaPo is the most likely paper to cover late-breaking Congressional/Senate activity. An amazing amount of story-breaking goes on in the evening and late night in Washington, especially with this White House's habit of releasing damaging information late Friday nights.

3. The Post sets the tone of the day for political discussion throughout other media and in the blogsphere. The NYTimes is another trendsetter, but I hate the popups on the site.

TODAY'S ACTION ALERTS
Sign the Americans Coming Together petition demanding open government from our elected officials.

Sign a petition in favor of the McCain Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act (S.139/H.R.4067). The petition has already been signed by over 320,000 people, add your name to it soon!

FEATURED ARTICLES
SNAP! Post acknowledges Berger failures, but smacks down the Republican leak machine. NYTimes not willing to "out" the leak-masters.

Paul Krugman asks the questions we all need answered. Friday morning's column sees him ask when someone will be held accountable for Iraq.

House passes law eliminating judicial branch powers to acknowledge same-sex marriages, bill will likely die in the Senate.

Newsweek's Richard Wolffe takes a moment to freeze-frame John Kerry's campaign in the days leading up to the convention.

The Nation's David Corn takes a look at the Capital Games being played over Joseph Wilson.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES
The NYTimes joins the demands for verifiable elections.

Here's an article from April from former Clinton official Robert Reich on what a second Bush term would look like. (Thanks to the fulcrum)

Mark Green refocuses us on what progressive politics should look like.

At Salon, James Galbraith looks at a Bush campaign which is dangerous and on the run.

Senate Democrats were able to block 3 additional judicial nominees in a strategy that I completely endorse. Dem's have finally gotten wise to the power of the judiciary, a lesson hard-learned after Bush v Gore.

Michael Moore makes a lot of people nervous. Few people make the GOP nervous. Michael Moore makes the GOP nervous. Hmm...

QUOTE OF THE DAY
"We are so vain as to set the highest value upon those things to which nature has assigned the lowest place. What can be more coarse and rude in the mind than the precious metals, or more slavish and dirty than the people that dig and work them? And yet they defile our minds more than our bodies, and make the possessor fouler than the artificer of them. Rich men, in fine, are only the greater slaves."
-Seneca

TODAY'S BUSHISM
"You see, if you can't raise enough by taxing the rich, guess who gets to pay next? Yes, the not rich. That's all of us. "
-July 20, 2004

BLOG OF THE DAY
Folkbum's Rants and Rambles is of one my daily reads, and a source for some of the best blogging around. Folkbum's proprietor Jay Bullock is the current Iron Blog Democrat (2-0!) at the pop culture meets Plato site, and former CEM Blog of the Day, Iron Blog.

BLOGWORTHY
The hypocritical fiscal actions of conservatives have been long documented and covered in numerous ways. After this week's delay of a spending bill in Congress, Paperwight's Fair Shot looks at the GOP failure to live up to conservative standards of fiscal responsibility.

Helena Cobban at Just World News tackles the reintroduction of the bureaucratic neo-con factory Committee on the Present Danger.

Mick at From the Trenches talks to corporate side-stepping maneuvers, as well as giving everyone the real story behind the McDonalds "Hot Coffee" case.

Can the Dems pull an upset retaking of the House this year? Attaturk at Rising Hegemon has a suggestion to make just such a thing happen, and borrows one of the strongest plays out of the GOP playbook to boot.

Are you confused about Dubya's support for the 9-11 commission? Tim Dunlop at The Road To Surfdom provides a chronological list of Dubya's support or opposition in a way even Shrub could understand.

Anonymous, senior intelligence officer and author of "Imperial Hubris" was interviewed on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, and bubba from Southpaw breaks down the highlights.

DRUG WAR UPDATE
A measure to expand medical marijuana laws in Oregon gathers enough signatures to qualify for voting on the November ballot.

Detroit will vote on August 3 on measure to exempt medical marijuana users from possession laws.

LINK OF THE DAY
Anyone who listens to Al Franken knows about Bill O'Reilly using a false source to back up a point he was making. Well, in fact, there appears to be a Paris Business Review. Proof is in the linking ;)

SITE OF THE DAY
Greg Palast has been one of the most aggressive liberal journalists of the past decade. He was one of the few who actively covered the election fraud in Florida during the 2000 election, and his book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" has opened more than a few eyebrows. GregPalast.com maintains many of his articles and resources, including newly published pieces.

COOL SITE OF THE DAY
A Picture's Worth is one of the most interesting sites I have ever discovered. It is a photoblog which accepts reader submissions of a photograph and an associated back-story which gives more information about the photo or the circumstances it documents.

ONLINE VIDEO OF THE DAY
MoveOn PAC has developed a stylish new ad comparing John Kerry to Dubya. It is the best I have seen this year from a pro-Kerry camp.

CLAPS, SLAPS, AND THE MIDDLE FINGER
Claps to the House of Representatives for unanimously passing a measure labeling the situation in Sudan "genocide." Though largely for posterity, the vote puts pressure on the Bush administration which has thus far been unwilling to label the tragedy what it clearly is. Colin Powell has been the sole member of the Bush team to show active interest in the Sudanese crisis, but has also failed to label the situation genocide. This vote, the last taken prior to the summer Congressional adjournment, shows a rare unity in Congress, and one not likely repeated when the body reconvenes in six weeks. If you want to get a personal meeting with your congressman, now is the time to do so, as many will be spending time campaigning in home districts over the summer.

Slaps to GOP "statesman" John Pappageorge, a Michigan lawmaker, for uttering what we all knew the Republicans really thought. His simple but clear sentence, given to the Detroit Free Press, consisted of "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election." Pappageorge's statement clearly reflected the GOP's desire to find ways to hinder voter turnout in the largely black Democratic city of Detroit. While the statement is more innocent than it is being made out to be, it nonetheless represents the opinions white conservatives have for the "lesser" races. If this statement was one which shocked the CEM, it would have received the Middle Finger. Slaps go instead because the GOP is displaying its public incompetence as well as its racist priorities, and while the latter is well-established, the former has been a bit too scarce over the past ten years.

My Middle Finger goes to the 9-11 commission, and specifically commission chairman Thomas Kean, for telling the American people that we are more stupid and less imaginative than the terrorists who executed 9/11. Kean's quote, "This was a failure of policy, management, capability and, above all, a failure of imagination," has sparked outrage in the blogsphere for insulting the intelligence of our citizens. The report, light on substantial finger-pointing, spread blame so thin that none is enough to condemn anyone other than the GOP-maligned CIA. As other bloggers have pointed out, contrary to the report's findings and Rice's testimony, many of us imagined that this could happen. The problem occurred when policymakers failed to act on sufficient intelligence in any constructive, protectionistic manner, and instead, twiddled thumbs until the attacks occurred. For all it's months of intense and difficult work, and the continual stonewalling put up by the Bush administration, you would think the commission might have come back with a few more of the facts on Saudi Arabia and Executive Branch failures, and less of the non-partisan vanilla pasteurization of the events in the now-officially sterilized version.

ANIMAL RIGHTS WATCH
Sick bastards pay big bucks to shoot big penned bucks. (Thanks to commenter. I lost the comment, and your handle, when I switched comment coding; drop me a comment and I'll edit to include proper credit :)

Why couldn't there have been a food fight?

Pack of wolves in Idaho exterminated after killing sheep.

U.S. delegation backs a return to whaling.

Drug smugglers use dogs as suitcases to transport cocaine.

CANDIDATE OF THE DAY
Bill Gluba has a solid chance of winning a Congressional seat in Iowa's 1st district. One of the candidates receiving strong support from Kerry and Edwards, Gluba also has the backing of popular Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. His opponent Jim Nussle has been criticized for casting votes which benefited rich taxpayers over the more common Iowa citizen. Gluba may be able to ride a Kerry tide to victory this year, a common goal for many Democratic candidates.

DAILY PHOTO
Justice, this would be...

(Thanks to Joe @ American Leftist)

TODAY'S POLITICAL CARTOON



HISTORY LESSON
Anyone wanting to understand the mindset behind the neo-con aggressionism needs to read one document if no other. The Project for a New American Century established extensive policy desires for pre-emptive war, offensive national defense, and the expansion of American influence throughout the world. In particular, read the group's manifesto "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century". Its a long read, complex, and ideologically naive, but nonetheless is important to comprehend the direction these people are trying to go.

STRANGE HAPPENINGS
We already have a "fake" military operating in Iraq (contractors, not our soldiers), so why not allow GIs to get fake breasts