Actually Lame

Over at the Prospect, they are beginning to see that the term Lame Duck is starting to mean more and more...

THE LAME DUCKS. I can't help but notice that more and more administration officials are having problems with lameness that are more than metaphorical. Since having surgery to remove aneurysms behind his knees, Vice President Dick Cheney has been photographed on crutches. His former aide Scooter Libby is currently on crutches, on account of what appears to be an injured foot. And the president himself gave up running some time ago on account of having quite literally gone weak in the knees. Three's a trend, right? What's going on here? Paging Robin Givhan...

Schwarzenegger Street

Take a look at this parody of Arnold. It is like the Jibjab cartoons from the 2004 election.

Arnold's Neighborhood

Pretty funny.

Quote of the Day

"This certainly seems like an attempt to pin this whole thing on Libby." - Josh Marshall.

I couldn't agree more. There are way too many unanswered questions and his resignation came a bit too easily. They really want the low-profile guy to take the hit so that others might be able to wrangle themselves out of it. Karl Rove escaped for now, but an indictment may still come his way.

The Question

Frist Comes Clean

Or rather he comes clean Republican-style,

Didn't they teach Sen. Dr. Bill Frist in right-wing boot camp that you never admit you were wrong?

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist acknowledged yesterday that he could have been "more precise" two years ago when he told the public in a televised interview that he wasn't sure if he still owned any HCA stock because his holdings had been placed in a blind trust.

Frist claimed in 2002 and on television in 2003 that he didn't know how much HCA stock he owned, and might not have owned any. But in fact, since 2001, Frist received notification 15 times of sales or deposits into his trust accounts of various stocks, including HCA shares.

I guess "could have been more precise" is GOP-speak for "I could have told the truth, but chose not to." It's like 1972 all over again, except "could have been more precise" sounds a little better than "those statements are no longer operative."

In Sen. Dr. Bill Frist's defense, however, he hasn't really done much to help the family business. The GOP's Medicaid cuts certainly aren't good for business in states where HCA has big provider contracts. On the other hand, he hasn't done much to threaten the family business, either, such as open up the floor for debate on a single-payer national health insurance program.

Meanwhile, in his (and HCA's) home state of Tennessee more than 120,000 people just lost their health insurance when Tennessee's TennCare/Medicaid program was gutted. Haven't heard a peep from Sen. Dr. Frist on how he proposes to help these people.

I think that is as close as we will ever get to him admitting that he lied. So, pop open the corks.

Saw John Edwards Tonight

Senator John Edwards made an appearance at UC Berkeley today as part of his Opportunity Rocks tour across the nation, designed at engaging young people in the fight against poverty. It is a tour sponsored by the Center for Promise and Opportunity, whose director is Senator Edwards.

The event was attended by somewhere around five hundred people, as all of the seats were taken and people were standing all around the room. Edwards came on at about 6:20 and spoke until about 6:45.

His main theme was that poverty is bad and that we should do something about it. He detailed it by talking about Katrina and talking about how we have 37 million people that are under the poverty line and how they live on a razor's edge, etc, etc. All of that was good and all, but he failed to take it a step further and really challenge any of us students to get involved. Instead, he sort of just kept saying a lot of the same things over and over. Repetition is certainly a key to learning, but this is Berkeley, we understand that poverty is bad.

Also, he made it seem like no politician could really be trusted to get anything done on this matter. Now, if this was some outsider or some ordinary citizen, I might take him seriously, but this was a former Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator who was saying this. Although I agree to an extent that there will have to be a movement behind this, there will have to be cooperative politicians who are at hand as well.

He also kept getting back to the theme of college students being the harbingers of change, as it has been that way with a number of movements in the past. I think that this is becoming a bit of a broken record to be honest. We are certainly very active and quite organizable, but we are also a bit overrated when it comes to change, as we haven't really been doing that much lately. Perhaps we are more apathetic on the whole or possibly just less idealistic as we used to be, but I think that we have become more of the default player when it comes to social change, the recurring character.

But for what is it worth, it is absolutely essential that we start talking about poverty again in this country. Edwards talked about the War on Poverty and how it really wasn't a complete failure, but is often construed to be. And he talked a little bit about some Democratic standard policy proposals, like increasing the minimum wage and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit. This was certainly better than nothing, but it still left me wanting.

Lastly, it was no surprise to me that Edwards mentioned Iraq only once. And it was in passing. And it still elicited enormous applause, although I am sure quite a few people were unimpressed by his bandwagoning. If you are going to mention Iraq, you can't just say (I'm paraphrasing), "And what is going on in Iraq is terrible", and be done with it. But Senator Edwards can. And then he can avoid confrontation on that issue by not allowing Q+A at the end.

Overall, he was a good speaker, not the great speaker some make him out to be. But, I could really tell that this mattered to him and that he believed it should matter to us. However, he just couldn't sell it all the way.

UPDATE: Wow, apparently there were about 1500 people there. I am pretty bad at estimating crowds, but that is just embarassing how off I was.

Wal-Mart Digging Its Own Grave

Over at the Labor Blog,

Wal-Mart: Discriminate to Save Health Care Costs

The day after Wal-Mart's fake PR offensive to portray themselves as concerned about their employees health care and wages, Stephen Greenhouse -- who proves the NY Times still has some decent reporters -- reveals this internal memo from Wal-Mart. The memo calls for Wal-Mart saving money by forcing more employees into part-time work without benefits and discriminating against the unhealthy and disabled:

To discourage unhealthy job applicants, [the memo] suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."...

"It will be far easier to attract and retain a healthier work force than it will be to change behavior in an existing one," the memo said. "These moves would also dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart."

Wal-Mart has hopefully bought itself a nice Americans with Disabilities Act class action lawsuit. Or better, the publicity will force them to avoid any of the nasty proposals outlined in the memo, since any lawyer now has documented intent to discriminate in hand if they do.

Can somebody hand these guys a shovel? Man, this isn't just illegal, it's really really unethical as well. Too bad this won't change many people's minds who already shop there.

Interesting Take on Retired Judges

This is from a Prop. 77 debate, courtesy of the SF Chronicle's Special Election Blog,

Dan Lowenstein is a professor at the UCLA School of Law, but he's probably not going to be getting many invitations to speak to retired judges anytime soon.

In a debate Thursday with Ted Costa, the man behind the Prop. 77 redistricting measure, Lowenstein suggested to a classroom of public administration students at the University of San Francisco that the only retired judges willing to serve on a redistricting panel will be those so inept that they can't find other work or so venal they'll be in it for the bribes.

Why would any retired judge volunteer for something "as onerous, arcane and incredibly boring" as the redistricting panel provided by Prop. 77, especially when it pays so little, Lowenstein asked.

As the students and their teacher, former Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, looked on, Lowenstein then suggested that only three types of retired judges would be interested in that type of public service.

First, there are the judges "so incompetent they can't get a job with a law firm or as a private judge," he said. Then there are those "who have an ax to grind" and will use the panel and the redistricting power for their own partisan purposes. Finally, there are those who believe that there will be "something in it for him," judges who will be willing to sell their vote to whoever makes the best offer.

Of course, hyperbole isn't limited to one side of any political argument. Costa likened Prop. 77 to the women's suffrage movement in the way it will sweep the country and change the face of the nation if it passes on Nov. 8.

Rosa Parks Dead

A sad day.

Rosa Parks, a seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama, who would not give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955, died Monday at the age of 92. Historians mark the date of her quiet-but-revolutionary act as the start of the modern civil rights movement in the United States.

She just sat there and started it all. Thank God for that woman. Hopefully we will never forget how important she was and always will be to the rights that all of us have.

Governor's Town Hall Meeting Tonight

A lot of interesting things have been said, not the least of which was, "We need to build more teachers".

But what really struck me was when the Governor said that if there was a proposition that forced corporations to get an okay from stockholders before donating to politicians, he would endorse it. And he didn't dance around it either, he just said it. Thus far, I've been pretty impressed by his performance - honest, well-spoken, and comedic.

And none of this has been pre-planned.

Hopefully there will be a full transcript later.

Preserving the Past...

Amazing that stuff like this is still going on,

Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans.

They may remind you another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate.

I hope that some of the wingnuts will condemn this.

3 Executions Scheduled for California

Stanley Tookie Williams

Michael Morales

Clarence Ray Allen

It will likely be one each month: December, January, and February... unprecedented for California.

More later.

Schroeder Disses Bush

Ouch.

"I can think of a recent disaster that shows what happens when a country neglects its duties of state towards its people. My post as chancellor, which I still hold, does not allow me to name that country, but you all know that I am talking about America."

-- Outgoing German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, quoted by the Washington Times, ripping President Bush.

Hopefully their next Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will carry that torch.

Right Wing Already Smearing

This guy isn't your usual politician, he a district attorney. And he has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans. But they are very scared...

Protecting their own. According to Roll Call (sub.req.): The Free Enterprise Fund is set to start running "saturation" anti-Ronnie Earle TV ads in Austin before taking the ads nationwide.

Admittedly he has had some issues in the past, but its clear that they wouldn't be doing any of the smearing unless they are scared - and they are terrified at the laundry list of people that could go down with Delay.

First Lady Okays Miers

In that case...

Joining her husband in defense of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, Laura Bush today called her a "role model for young women around the country" and suggested that sexism was a "possible" reason for the heavy criticism of the nomination.

"I know Harriet well," the first lady said. "I know how accomplished she is. I know how many times she's broken the glass ceiling. . . . She's very deliberate and thoughtful and will bring dignity to wherever she goes, certainly the Supreme Court."

Well, if strict-scrutiny-Laura okays the nomination, then who could say no?! After all, she is a trustworthy and neutral observer of the process. I am sure that many senators will be persuaded by her fine reasoning...

Full Article at Washington Post.

Shame, Shame, Shame

Got this from Think Progress, via Josh:

Emotions erupted on the floor of the House of Representatives this afternoon as the right-wing-led Congress held open yet another vote to twist arms and pass a bill that would line the pockets of energy company executives. The House leadership held the five-minute vote open for almost 50 minutes until they could convince three lawmakers — Reps. Wayne Gilcrest (R-MD), C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) and Jim Gerlach (R-PA) — to change their minds. The bill passed 212-210. As the vote concluded, opponents of the bill chanted in unity: “Shame, Shame, Shame!”

This isn't the first time they have left the vote open for so long, but I am a bit surprised that the vote was this close. Luckily, the Democrats held firm. Unfortunately, few will probably ever hear about the Republicans' dirty tactics, but they will see how dreadfully fiscally irresponsible the GOP really is, with their belief in handouts for every CEO. Or as Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) called it, the "leave-no-oilman-behind bill."

Also, video here.

Bush Gets Senate Democratic Leadership Approval for Miers

I saw this at Huffington Post,

President Bush today nominated a Texas lawyer who serves as White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court – a pick that apparently was pre-approved by Senate Democratic leadership.

The wingnuts must be going crazy.