GOP's Strategy for Blocking Bailout Revealed

On today's Countdown guest host David Schuester revealed a new memo that explains the GOP's strategy for blocking a bridge loan to the auto industry:

Countdown has obtained a memo entitled "Action Alert - Auto Bailout," and sent Wednesday at 9:12am, to Senate Republicans. The names of the sender(s) and recipient(s) have been redacted in the copy Countdown obtained.

The Los Angeles Times reported that it was circulated among Senate Republicans. The brief memo outlines internal political strategy on the bailout, including the view that defeating the bailout represents a "first shot against organized labor." Senate Republicans blocked passage of the bailout late Thursday night, over its insistence on an immediate union pay cut.

From: Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:12 AM To: Subject: Action Alert -- Auto Bailout

Today at noon, Senators Ensign, Shelby, Coburn and DeMint will hold a press conference in the Senate Radio/TV Gallery. They would appreciate our support through messaging and attending the press conference, if possible. The message they want us to deliver is:

1. This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.

2. This rush to judgment is the same thing that happened with the TARP. Members did not have an opportunity to read or digest the legislation and therefore could not understand the consequences of it. We should not rush to pass this because Detroit says the sky is falling.

The sooner you can have press releases and documents like this in the hands of members and the press, the better. Please contact me if you need additional information. Again, the hardest thing for the democrats to do is get 60 votes. If we can hold the Republicans, we can beat this.

Watch David fill in for Keith Olbermann here:


The GOP is showing their true colors, and letting everyone know they will not work with the Obama administration to fix the problems of this nation. They killed the auto rescue plan Thursday night for purely partisan reasons. It never was about trying to help the automakers or the economy, but an effort to crush the working class and punish unions. There are many more people in line to suffer if the Big 3 go out of business, but Shelby and his band of brothers couldn't care less.

"Union Busting" is a high priority for these Conservatives fools that have allowed our country to be run into the ground. Can you name anything good that has come out of the eight years of Bush and Conservative dominance? So what is their solution? To take it out on the blue collars of America.

If anything this memo should be used as a reminder that the Employee Free Choice Act should be one of Obama's "high priorities" just after he takes office. Check out this video that explains a few things about it.

Update: Think Progress obtained the 20 senators who bailed out Wall Street but refused to rescue auto workers.»

Last night, the Senate failed to approve the auto rescue package, voting 52-35 in favor of the bill – just eight short of the 60 votes that were needed. Over on the Wonk Room, Dan Weiss takes a look at the 20 senators who voted for the Wall Street bailout but voted against the auto rescue last night (as well as the 10 others who skipped the vote last night, but voted for the financial bailout):

Yes to TARP, No to auto
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Sen. Kay Hutchison (R-TX)
Sen. John Isakson (R-GA)
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL)
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

Yes to TARP, Absent for auto
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Sen.Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH)

Senator Biden was tending to transition duties, while John Kerry was in Poznan, Poland, participating in U.N. climate change talks. Alexander was home recovering from surgery.

Why did these other Senators feel auto workers weren’t as deserving as Wall Street? We’d like to know.

New Rescue for Auto Industry?

With Republicans being assholes, the economy floundering, the Bush administration has declared that it will step in to prevent the "precipitous collapse" of the U.S. auto industry which would have been disastrous for the economy, with the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs that was sure to follow.

A day after the Republicans killed the rescue legislation in Congress, George W. Bush realized he was about to be George Herbert Hoover Bush, and so changed his mind about using money from the TARP bailout. The TARP is the $700 billion Troubled Assets Recovery Program, the financial industry bailout plan enacted in October. The White House warned of the severe impact on a weakened US economy if the auto makers collapsed. President Bush had originally refused to use the bailout fund to help the auto makers, insisting that aid come from Congress. But the White House said it must reconsider after the Senate failed to agree on a $14 billion rescue plan late Thursday night.

In a letter to Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the president to demand "the same tough accountability" and taxpayer protections from the automakers as was contained in legislation that cleared the House at midweek.

President-elect Obama has also contacted President Bush and urged him to give the U.S. Auto industry the band aid that would get them trough the end of the year, so he and the Democrats can address the problem early next year. Obama, who will inherit the problem next month said,

"My hope is that the administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required."

Here is video from earlier this morning:

LibertyAid Blog

Franken Campaign Gains Big Win

Today was a big day in Minnesota regarding the Franken-Coleman senate race. I have to admit that I had begun to fear that Coleman was going to pull this race out. That Minnesota was going to have a senator who in the next year would be facing Federal indictments for corruption. I have met Norm Coleman, and he is as oily as he appears. Minnesota really does not want this corrupt little man as a senator. That is why today's news is so good. Al Franken's chances of winning the Minnesota recount may have just gone up astronomically. The state canvassing board in Minnesota got together this morning to determine whether to count improperly rejected absentee ballots. For Al Franken, obviously, the goal was to have the ballots included.

The canvassing board members agreed, making the Democrat's chances of victory that much more likely. Eric Kleefeld explained that Franken's chances of winning "may have just gone up astronomically."

The state canvassing board just voted unanimously that absentee ballots that were initially rejected because of clerical errors -- and the current estimate from the hearing is that there could be nearly 1,600 of them, based on some extrapolation -- should be counted, probably the single biggest issue that the Franken campaign has been hammering ever since this recount began.

The board can't directly order the county officials to do the counting, only making a formal request to go back and count the votes and then submit amended totals. But many counties have already begun or finished the process of sorting the rejected absentees at the board's request, and board members did castigate any election officials who wouldn't do so, with some of them even leaving open the option of seeking a court order if necessary.

Because of all that, it seems very likely that the vast majority of these ballots will be counted before this is over -- and it could possibly seal the deal for Franken. Pre-election polling showed him winning the overall pool of absentee ballots by a solid margin, so it seems pretty reasonable to assume that the newly-counted votes will break for Al. If that proves to be correct, Franken will probably pull ahead of Norm Coleman and win the election.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has more on this morning's meeting. They report that the Coleman campaign is asking the state Supreme Court that the counting of rejected absentee ballots be halted until a standard procedure is established. It looks like 13 percent of the rejected absentee ballots were tossed improperly, which would mean that nearly 1,600 absentee ballots were wrongfully set aside. Consideing the margin between Coleman and Franken, that number could be huge. No wonder the Coleman campaign is working its ass off to keep these votes from being counted, even though they were tossed improperly.

At the same time the two campaigns are now challenging a combined total of 4,472 Election Day ballots that have been reviewed during the statewide recount.

Also the issue of the 133 mystery ballots was brought before the board. Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert, who reviewed the futile search for 133 missing ballots that disappeared from the Minneapolis voting office. Franken's campaign had lodged a protest over the 133 votes, while the Coleman campaign argued there was no proof the votes actually exsisted. Reichert reported to the board, "We determined definitively the ballots were missing." She said the idea that the ballots may have been fed in twice -- creating an inflated overall vote total -- is not a viable theory.

Reichert recommended that the board accept the number of votes in the precinct counted on Election Night: 2,028. Good news for the Franken campaign was that the board accepted Reichert's request. However, board member Magnuson, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, said the matter would "no doubt" be headed to court.

Now that last bit is a bit sobering. This race is nowhere near over, but after a week of bad news, Al Franken got some much needed good news today.

Colin Powell On The GOP and Rush Limbaugh

Years ago the Republican party embraced anger, hatred, and divisiveness, which is why I stopped supporting them. They turned to leaders like Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay. They hired men like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove who ran on scare tactics, and dividing the electorate. The Conservatives built a message machine with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Glenn Beck; people who preach anger, hatred, and divisiveness, which became the overall tone of conservative talk radio, and Faux News.

Now finally a prominent Republican is speaking out against this. Read about Powell's interview here.

The Republican party must stop "shouting at the world" and start listening to
minority groups if it is to win elections in the 21st century, former Secretary
of State Colin Powell said Thursday.

In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria for Sunday's "GPS" program, President Bush's former secretary of state said his party's attempt "to use polarization for political advantage" backfired last month....

"I think the party has to stop shouting at the world and at the country,"Powell said.

"I think that the party has to take a hard look at itself, and I've talked to a number of leaders in recent weeks and they understand that." Powell, who says he still considers himself a Republican, said his party should also stop listening to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

"Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?" Powell asked. "Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"

Bush Administration At Fault For Torture

A bipartisan Senate report released today says that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials are directly responsible for abuses of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and charges that decisions by those officials led to serious offenses against prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere." Read more about it here.:

More on the Bailout

If you have been reading this blog, you know I have supported the idea of this bailout. Even though the management of the three companies has been bad, and I would have demanded change at the top, I would have supported this bailout. I also know that I would not have supported a bailout if these were normal times, but that's the thing these are not normal times. The dirty fact is that the three companies would not be in this much trouble if not for the financial crisis on Wall Street, and the credit crisis. This is why when that idiot Mitch McConnell comes on the air and says that the U.S. auto industry have only themselves to blame, her is either lying or an idiot. Actually they are not mutually exclusive.

Under the circumstances of today it is an extraordinarily irresponsible thing to do. The Senate Republicans were not, let me make this clear, WERE NOT trying to do things responsibly. They did not ever seem to consider extending the kind of financing that would allow GM and Chrysler to go through Chapter 11 bankruptcy rather than liquidation. That financing would have involved loans, not gifts. It would have allowed an orderly reorganization that they kept claiming they wanted. Instead Republicans are willing to let a million jobs to go down because they wanted to break the UAW.

We are in a recession. We already have millions losing their jobs. We already have an economy on the brink. We have a party of idiots in congress, what is worse the other party is one of weaklings.

In the middle of the worst downturn in half a century the idiots who make up the leadership of the Republican party decide to prove that they care about fiscal responsibility. This after years of being willing to spend money on whatever George W. Bush wanted. This after years of being willing to spend money on whatever lobbyists have written into laws for them. This after years of being willing to spend money like there was no tomorrow, putting this nation so far in debt we may never see it paid off.

The consequences to our economy sound delightful:

"With Congress failing to agree on a bailout for Detroit, the odds that General Motors and Chrysler will be insolvent by year's end are growing rapidly.

The companies have been warning that they would run out of money for some time, but crushing bills from their suppliers are coming due. It appeared unlikely that they could hold on until President-elect Barack Obama takes office next month, when he and a new Congress might be able to provide a lifeline, as a Congressional rescue this year looked increasingly unlikely. (...)

General Motors and Chrysler, for example, owe their suppliers a total of roughly $10
billion for parts that have been delivered. G.M. has held off paying them for weeks, and Chrysler is paying in small increments. But the cash shortages at G.M. and Chrysler are getting more severe, according to their top executives and other officials. (...)

Many of their suppliers are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy themselves, and do not have the luxury of extending credit much longer. (...)

When suppliers big and small start failing, the flow of parts to every automaker in the country will be disrupted because as suppliers typically sell their products to both American and foreign brands with plants in the United States."

"There's no question it will hit Toyota, Honda and Nissan too," said John Casesa, principal in the auto consulting firm Casesa Shapiro Group.

"Many of the small suppliers will simply liquidate because they don't have the resources to go reorganize in Chapter 11 bankruptcy," Mr. Casesa said.

"They'll just go away."

Here was what Rachel Maddow reported on this story before the Republicans fully sank the deal:

LibertyAir Blog

Krugman is terrified again

Paul Krugman is worried. This makes me worried..

Another day, another terrifying economic report, this time on unemployment claims.

So are we now losing jobs at the rate of 600,000 a month? 700,000? If fiscal expansion takes, say, 8 months to kick in (and that’s optimistic), where will that leave us?

Why Do I Think Republicans Are Idiots

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell joined other Republican lawmakers in opposition to the White House-backed rescue bill passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
He and other Republicans said wages and benefits for employees of Detroit's Big Three should be renegotiated to bring them in line with those paid by Japanese carmakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan in the United States.

This is a stupid argument, and dishonest. Hourly wages for UAW workers at GM factories are actually less than those paid by Toyota Motor Corp at its older U.S. factories. GM says the average union laborer makes $29.78 per hour, while Toyota says it pays about $30 per hour. But the unionized factories have far higher benefit costs. So the Republicans are asking UAW workers to take wage cuts that put them even further behind. Could this be because they want more workers to migrate south? There are plans for 18 more state subsidized factories to be built in the south, could they be trying to build their pool of workers?

GM says its total hourly labor costs are now $69, including wages, pensions and health care for active workers, plus the pension and health care costs of more than 432,000 retirees and spouses. Toyota says its total costs are around $48. The Japanese automaker has far fewer retirees and its pension and health care benefits are not as rich as those paid to UAW workers. In fact the only country that Toyota has to pay health care benefits is the United States, so they are working at great advantage over GM. Toyota's plants in the U.S. are so new they have few pensions to deal with.

So when you see those sanctimonious windbags of the right on the cable shows, know they are lying assholes who are threatening the economy of the country to break an ally of the Democratic party.

Here is what Katrina Vanden Heuvel of the Nation Magazine had to say about it on MSNBC's Morning Joe:


LibertyAir Blog

Get Ready

It is going to be a bad day on Wall Street. This is what we can expect now that the $14-billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate. The deal to help the auto industry fell a part last night as Republicans tried to break the UAW. Don't believe those lying Repuglicans, this had nothing to do with some principle, it is all about breaking the union. The collapse came after bipartisan talks broke down over union wage cuts, the Repugs wanted the union to basically handover the farm.

Markets oversea's are already falling hard on the news. U.S. Markets are expected to fall. Harry Reid has said he hopes Bush will tap the $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund for emergency aid to the automakers. General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have said they could be weeks from collapse. Ford Motor Co. says it does not need federal help now, but its survival is far from certain, and if GM and Chrysler fall it will need help.

The implosion followed an unprecedented marathon negotiations in Washington among labor, the auto industry and lawmakers who bargained into the night in efforts to salvage the auto bailout at a time of soaring job losses and widespread economic turmoil.

The group came close to agreement, but it stalled over the union's refusal to agree to wage cuts before their current contract expires in 2011. Republicans, in turn, balked at giving the automakers federal aid.

Leave it to the Repuglicans to put ideology above country.

Obama's Energy and Environment Team

The president-elect has unveiled his energy and environmental team, and it is good.

President-elect Barack Obama has selected his top energy and environmental advisers, including a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, presidential transition officials said Wednesday.

Collectively, they will have the task of carrying out Mr. Obama's stated intent to curb global warming emissions drastically while fashioning a more efficient national energy system. And they will be able to work with strong allies in Congress who are interested in developing climate-change legislation, despite fierce economic headwinds that will amplify objections from manufacturers and energy producers.

The officials said Mr. Obama would name Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, and Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor of Los Angeles for energy and environment, as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Mr. Obama also appears ready to name Carol M. Browner, the E.P.A. administrator
under President Bill Clinton, as the top White House official on climate and energy policy and Lisa P. Jackson, New Jersey's commissioner of environmental protection, as the head of the E.P.A.

This is a good liberal/progressive team. And you would be hard pressed to find better prepared individuals for these jobs. Here's information on Chu; here's information on Sutley; and here's information on Jackson.

Obama Takes Questions on Blagojevich

In a press conference designed to focus on the appointment of Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Barack Obama was besieged almost entirely with questions about the role he and his staff played (or didn't play) in the Rod Blagojevich corruption scandal.

The President-elect gamely fielded three questions on the issue and addressed it in his opening remarks, saying (twice) that he was appalled and disappointed "by the revelations earlier this week." He declared that he "had no contact with the governor's office" and "did not speak to the governor" about the process of who should replace him as Senator. "That I know for certain," Obama said.

Pressed on several occasions to reveal the extent, if any, of his staff's contact with the Illinois Governor -- contact that likely took place, considering Obama's seat was under discussion -- the President-elect urged a bit of patience.

"I have asked my team to gather the facts of any contacts with the governor about his vacancy so that we can share them with you over the next few days. What I'm absolutely certain about is that our office had no involvement in any deal-making about my Senate seat ... That would be a violation of everything this campaign was about and that is not how we do business."

Watch it here:

LibertyAir Blog

Marriage, Bible-style

This week Jon Stewart had Mike Huckabee on his show this week. The two men devoted an entire segment of a two-part interview to a debate over gay marriage. Huckabee's key point during the debate was that people should have "the right to live any way they want to" but that marriage is about men and women, basically making babies. Huckabee argued:

"Anatomically, let's face it, the only way we can create the next generation is with male-female relationships."

I have never understood why straight couples are going to stop having babies if we allow Gay and Lesbians to enter a legally recognized relationship. You can watch the debate here:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Next time you hear somebody bring up the Marriage as defined by the bible I would like you to remember this. Huckabee tried to claim that 5000 years of marriage has been man and woman. Stewart points out that this is a crap argument.

Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos passes along a comment about what the law would say if we had traditional Biblical marriages like the Mormons and their buddies on the far-right are demanding:

A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5)

B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)

C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut 22:13-21)

D. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30)

E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)

F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he
refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)G. In lieu of marriage, if there are no acceptable men in your town, it is required that you get your dad drunk and have sex with him (even if he had previously offered you up as a sex toy to men young and old), tag-teaming with any sisters you may have. Of course, this rule applies only if you are female. (Gen 19:31-36)

This was a comment from an excellent post by jem6x on Newsweek's great cover story on the Bible and gay marriage. Go check it out.

Senate Republicans Threaten to Throw Nation into another Great Depression

Republicans are idiots.

Its that simple.

Only these idiots could think that this is a wise course for the nation. If I have to listen to one more sanctimonious windbag from the right come onto the radio or TV and say that the auto companies should just file for bankruptcy, I am going to scream. Do any of these idiots even know the laws that govern bankruptcy? To file for Chapter 11 you have to be able to get banks to offer lines of credit to back up the company. If these companies could get lines of credit, they would not be asking for the bailout.

Now the idiots in the Republican party are ready to force this nation to lose another 2 million jobs, while in the throes of a massive recession, so they can break the unions. And that's what this is about folks, this is a play to break the unions. Remeber these are the same Republican idiots who were happy to throw the stock market into a tail spin because they didn't want to bail out the banks, which lead to the credit crisis that is now bringing down the auto industry. Now they don't want to bail out the car industry.

Yesterday the House passed a bill to speed $14 billion in loans to Detroit's automakers. But it does not look like it will get past the Senate because Republican opposition could derail the emergency aid in the Senate. The Republicans still hold 49 seats, and it looks like they plan to use this number to challenging lame-duck President George W. Bush on the package. They are lamely arguing that any support for the domestic auto industry should carry significant concessions from autoworkers and creditors and reject tougher environmental rules imposed by House Democrats.

See this has nothing to do about the economy, or basic values, it's all about destroying the unions and the environment.

Newspapers & the Clusterf#@k to the Poor House

Jon Stewart dedicated his "Clusterf#@k to the Poor House" segment yesterday to newspapers.
He joked:

"What's black and white and completely over?"
"Give up? It's newspapers."

Stewart dramatically declared that major newspapers companies are in turmoil because of,

"THE INTERNET!"

Specifically Craigslist which has brought about the industry's demise.
"Online ads are cheaper, they receive wider distribution, and, perhaps most importantly, many newspapers still stubbornly refuse to post classified ads like, '57 Year Old Man looking for No-Strings-Attached Shemale Scat Gang Bang."

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=213347&title=clusterf#@k-to-the-poor-house

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

LibertyAir Blog

It has been a bad year for newspapers in what has been a long line of bad years for the newspaper industry. Just recently the nation's leading newspaper publisher, Gannet, predicted its full-year sales would fall about 8 percent, but its forecast was largely in line with analyst expectations. At the same time the Tribune Co. Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Sun of Baltimore, along with other dailies has the distinction of being the first major newspaper publisher to seek bankruptcy protection.

Advertising revenue has been falling across the board. Losses from the shift of readers to the Internet were exacerbated this year as consumers and advertisers alike pulled back spending in a deepening recession. Although most papers have remained profitable, they have counted on generous cash flows to pay interest and principal on loans.

Though some large papers are missing their payments. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis skipped a $9 million quarterly debt payment in September to conserve cash. Around the same time, the investor group that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News skipped an unspecified interest payment in an apparent bid to force lenders to renegotiate.

Other publishers have begun talks with lenders to win flexibility on required financial targets that are more difficult to meet as revenue shrinks, even if debt itself does not increase and a company continues to make basic payments.Those chains include Freedom Communications Inc., which owns The Orange County Register in Southern California, and Media General Inc., which publishes the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. Failure to win new terms could prompt companies to miss required targets, leading to technical default.

The Tribune bankruptcy could have ripple effects in the industry, by making new financing more difficult or more expensive for the Times and other publishers. That's because default on loans is seen as more likely and creditors could get nothing as part of Tribune's reorganization.

Countdown: Bush's Real Legacy

Keith Olbermann took a look yesterday at the legacy of George W. Bush.

The Bush administration is attempting spin away his actual legacy. Luckily the LA Times was able to get their hands talking points memo that was handed out to staff:

A two-page memo that has been sent to Cabinet members and other high-ranking officials offers a guide for discussing Bush's eight-year tenure during their public speeches.

Titled "Speech Topper on the Bush Record," the talking points state that Bush "kept the American people safe" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lifted the economy after 2001 through tax cuts, curbed AIDS in Africa and maintained "the honor and the dignity of his office."

The document presents the Bush record as an unalloyed success.

Check out Keith Olbermann's take here:

LibertyAir Blog

Who Will Be The Next Junior Senator from Illinois?

This question is very much up in the air.

According to the Illinois constitution, the Lt. Governor is first in line to take over as Governor, "[i]f the Governor is unable to serve because of death, conviction on impeachment, failure to qualify, resignation or other disability." Should Blagojevich be subject to any of these conditions in the near future, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn would assume power and be responsible for appointing Obama’s successor. Lt. Gov. Quinn has said Blagojevich should step down.

Illinois Rep. Tim Hare (D) says the allegations are serious enough that Blagojevich should resign if they are true:

Today is a sad day for the state of Illinois. It is important that we let the justice system run its course and remember that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. But if these allegations are even remotely true, they would represent a shameful breach of the public trust and be cause for the Governor’s immediate resignation.

This is very important because Blagojevich could name himself, and cause all types of issues.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois has called for a special election: "The General Assembly should enact a law as quickly as possible calling for a special election to fill the Senate vacancy of Barack Obama. No appointment by this Governor could produce a credible replacement," he said.

Illinois Governor Taken Into Federal Custody

I know I am late to the game on this story, but it has been a very busy day. If you have not heard the news, here is a quick update:

Federal authorities took Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and his chief of staff John Harris into custody this morning on federal corruption charges. Before the arrest, the Chicago Tribune had reported that a “three-year federal corruption investigation of pay-to-play politics in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has expanded to include his impending selection of a new U.S. senator to succeed President-elect Barack Obama.” According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office:

A 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife. At various times, in exchange for the Senate appointment, Blagojevich discussed obtaining:

– a substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an
organization affiliated with labor unions;

– placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year;

– promises of campaign funds – including cash up front; and

– a cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

Fitzgerald, who successfully prosecuted Scooter Libby, said in a statement that “the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering.” “I want to make money,” the affidavit quotes Blagojevich as saying in one conversation. The full 76-page two-count criminal complaint can be found here. FireDogLake has more.

What is ironic is that Blagojevich told reporters yesterday, "I don't believe there's any cloud that hangs over me. I think there's nothing but sunshine hanging over me."

The federal criminal complaint reports that Governor Blagojevich corruptly solicited and demanded "the firing of certain Chicago Tribune editorial members responsible for widely-circulated editorials critical" of him.

How does this affect Barack Obama?

Good Question, there will be those conservative wing-nuts who will try to tie Obama to Blagojevich. However news coming out is that there was a pretty big rift between the Obama campaign and Blagojevich. In a conversation with Harris on November 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew that President-elect Obama wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them.” The complaint does not mention her name, but the description makes clear that Blagojevich is referring to Valerie Jarrett.

You can download a copy of the indictment HERE.

Saturday Night Live: A message from the Secretary of State-designate

Courtesy of Saturday Night Live:

LibertyAir Blog

Shinseki To Head the VA

Today, President-elect Barack Obama announced that Gen. Eric Shinseki will become his Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary. The nomination of the first Asian-American to the post — Shinseki, a Japanese-American, grew up in Hawaii — carries extra poignancy, coming on the 67th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks.

President-elect Obama confirmed that General Shinseki was his choice in an exclusive interview with NBC News, taped for broadcast on "Meet the Press." President-elect Obama called General Shinseki "exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home."

Watch President-elect Obama's official announcement here:


You may recognize the name General Shinseki. His name is forever tied in the minds of liberal progressives with the rush to war by the Bush administration. For General Shinseki is most famous for publicly contradicting Bush administration officials’ overly optimistic predictions about the war in Iraq. In 2003 he was serving as the Army’s chief of staff, and he told Congress that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to secure Iraq.

The Bush administration’s failure to heed General Shinseki’s warnings have truly been a disaster for the military.

Shinseki served two combat tours in Vietnam, receiving two Purple Hearts and four Bronze Stars. Shinseki has frequently worked with wounded veterans and visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center, referring to it as a “members-only section” since he too is an amputee. Some veterans organizations, such as IAVA, have already come out with high praise for Obama’s choice, saying that Shinseki is a man the military community holds in “high regard” but also note that he faces enormous challenges.

Watch President-elect Obama discuss his choice on Meet the Press:




Spencer Ackerman writes about this choice:

"To say this is an inspired choice underscores its magnitude. Shinseki's personal courage and virtue are close to unparalleled in the current generation of general officers. He knows the sacrifices of war personally, as he left part of his right foot in Vietnam. The new generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans -- already underserved by the country that sent them to war -- can know that he has their backs. After all, before the war began, he all but ended his career (Rumsfeld had announced his successor months before after they feuded over the Crusader artillery system) by telling Congress that the indefinite occupation of Iraq would require hundreds of thousands of troops to keep the peace, far beyond the antiseptic and now-discredited estimates of the Bush administration. At his retirement ceremony, Shinseki gave a prescient and impassioned speech imploring the Pentagon to "beware a 12-division strategy for a 10-division Army."

Last year, an exemplary soldier named Paul Yingling wrote a scathing essay indicting the generals who acquiesced to the Bush administration's inadequate plans for the occupation. It was titled "A Failure in Generalship." Yingling accused the current generation of generals of cowardice, egotism, careerism and dereliction of duty, putting self-interested deference to the administration before integrity, intellectual honesty and service to both the frontline soldier, sailor, airman and marine and the country itself. Ric Shinseki was the man who stood against this unfortunate trend, and he paid for his integrity with his career. To see him vindicated is to witness a
proud moment in American history."

DailyKos Launches Blog to Press Congress

Prominent writers for the country's top liberal blog, DailyKos, are not satisfied with just winning the election. They know that those we have elected to Washington are still just politicians, and that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosis have a history of being weak on liberal progressive issues. To that end they are launching a new site to scrutinize and pressure the Democratic Congress.

As most politicos are currently focusing on appointments in the incoming Obama administration, DailyKos bloggers begun a "soft launch" for Congress Matters, which promises a "community-based political watch party" for Democrats on Capitol Hill.

"It'll be a place where we'll try to explain Congressional rules and procedure so that the netroots community gets a better handle on it and can become more effective advocates for their priorities," said David Waldman, an attorney and former Congressional aide who blogs on the front page of DailyKos under the name Kagro X.

Barack Obama's Radio Address: "Aggressive Growth Measures"

In his weekly radio address today, President-elect Barack Obama unveiled some of the specific ideas in his plan. Reuters calls the proposals "aggressive growth measures."

In today's address the President-elect discusses the job losses that our nation continues to endure and offers his solutions to the challenges we face. The plan he outlines is to create at least 2.5 million new jobs as part of the largest infrastructure investment since the the Eisenhower Administration. A huge part of this effort is to reduce U.S. government energy use and to expand access to high-speed Internet and modernize school buildings across the country.

As the President-elect says, "We need action -- and action now."

For more information, visit http://change.gov/.

Watch his address here:

LibertyAir Blog

Alberto Gonzales is in a bit of Trouble.

Flying under the media's radar is the investigation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Now it's looking more and more like prosecutor Nora Dannehy's investigation into the US Attorney firings has Alberto Gonzales in its crosshairs. Earlier this week TPM Muckraker reported that prosecutor Nora Dannehy's investigation contacted the ex-Attorney General in connection with the probe.

Now TPM Muckraker is reporting that recent legal filings show that Gonzales' lawyer, George Terwilliger Jr. of White & Case, is no longer representing him in a separate case, a civil suit alleging that law students were denied DOJ jobs thanks to illegal politicization at the department under Gonzales.

Speculation is that Terwilliger has withdrawn from the civil suit so he is able to devote additional time to Dannehy's more serious investigation into criminal wrong-doing.

Countdown covers it as part of the nightly run down of the 50 Bush scandals "BUSHED:

LibertyAir Blog

Obama-haters Rally to Oust Obama

Those who question Barack Obama's eligibility for the White House due to his birth status reached their collective apogee this morning in front of the Supreme Court.

The justices are considering whether to put on the docket a New Jersey case that alleges Barack Obama does not meet the "natural-born citizen" standard demanded of presidents by Article II of the Constitution.

Legal experts doubt that the case will move forward, but still some 20 people gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court building to wave flags, pray, say the pledge of allegiance, and generate as much media attention as they could.

Personally I would like the Supreme Court to review Barack Obama's birth certificate, rule it valid, and shut this story down. Lets crush once and forall this stupid conspiracy theory perpetuated by Rush Limbaugh.

Mother Jones has a video on the story here:

LibertyAir Blog

Wall Street Ends on a High Note

Wall Street ended the week on a high note, with the Dow closing up about 3%. The other indexes did even better, with the S&P finishing 3.6% higher, and the Nasdaq closing up 4.4%. This market upswing happened despite dismal employment numbers, and a new report that U.S. retailers posted the worst November sales in more than three decades. Stocks reversed early losses and closed sharply higher as the data raised hopes that Washington will again step in to help the economy. The market's advance left Wall Street with only moderate losses for the week, the result of a nearly 680-point slide in on Monday.

While the deluge of bad economic readings have weighed on the markets in the past three months, investors are growing somewhat accustomed to the news, and so hopefully the roller coaster will start to flatten out. The stock market, which generally looks ahead, tends to recover six to nine months before economic reports show a recession is abating. At some point, investors likely will determine that a recession has been fully built into the market's expectations and will begin placing bets on a recovery. I think we have not reached this point yet, but we could be drawing closer.

Prop 8 - The Musical

Prop 8 - The Musical is a hilarious video from the site Funny of Die conceived and written by Marc Shaiman. It stars Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Margaret Cho, Andy Richter, Neil Patrick Harris, Maya Rudolph, Marc Shaiman and many more...

Jack Black as Jesus is funny in of itself, but the whole thing is great. The comedic song-and-dance diatribe about the California ballot initiative to define marriage as existing only between a man and a woman is also a huge hit. In just one day of online existence, the Funny Or Die video “Prop 8­ — The Musical” has received more than 1.2 million hits.

Marc Shaiman is a composer of both film and stage musicals came up with this just after Prop 8 passed back in November, and he learned that the musical director of Sacramento’s California Musical Theater, had donated money to a Yes-on-Prop 8 campaign.

Watch it here:

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Funny of Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company. This site has both original and user generated content. Funny or Die also contains a good deal of exclusive material from a number of famous contributors, as is seen in "Prop 8 - The Musical"

Should Obama Be More Involved NOW?

Are some Democrats growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama's refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country?

I have been hearing more and more of this lately. To be honest I would love to have Obama take over now, but I am not sure if Obama can or should.

Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time. For some this is not good enough.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has been dealing with both the bailout of the financial industry and a proposed rescue of Detroit automakers is reported to have said that President-elect Obama needs to play a more significant role on economic issues. Frank is reported to have said:

"He's going to have to be more assertive than he's been."

Obama has maintained one of the most public images of any president-elect. He has held half a dozen press conferences, where he has entertained question after question about the economy, the mortgage crisis, and the flailing auto industry. Frank though makes the argument that this may not be enough. He was quite serious as he stated that President-elect Obama needs to play a more significant role on economic issues.

"At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time."

"I'm afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."

Is Barney Frank is right?

He may be. There is a compelling argument. Yes we don't have two presidents. But do we even have one president now? Currently Bush is doing nothing, but that actually is okay because when Bush does come out and speak the markets plummet. But can we wait for Obama. Is treading water enough? Are we treading, or are we slowly sinking?

Two Democratic senators involved in trying to salvage the auto companies are reported to have said President-elect Obama could help move the process along and should become more engaged in this debate. Senator Chris Dodd is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the lead negotiators of the auto industry bailout. He has recently said:

"The Obama team has to step up. In the minds of the people, this is the Obama
administration. I don't think we can wait until January 20."

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who obviously is a point man in helping his state's main industry to get this bailout has, called on President-elect Obama to help resolve the dispute over money for the auto loan package. He has said:

"It would be very helpful if the president-elect would become more involved in resolving the issue over the source of the funds. I want him to offer his assistance. He is a person who can really bring people together."

It might be appropriate for Obama to be even more outspoken about what he wants and the direction this nation is going to take with him as president.

More Bad News on Jobs

The Labor Department reported this morning that 533,000 jobs were lost last month, and unemployment surged to 6.7%. The job losses are much higher than the 300,000 losses that analysts predicted. This is the 11th straight month of job losses and the largest monthly decline since 1974. Nearly 2 million jobs have been lost this year.

Good For Bank of America

Today, Bank of America announced it would begin phasing out financing of mountaintop removal operations in Appalachia. The bank is making the change after activists from Natural Resources Defense Council flew executives over coal mine sites and personally introduced them to local residents affected by mountaintop removal.

From Bank of America’s release:

Bank of America is particularly concerned about surface mining conducted through mountain top removal in locations such as central Appalachia. We therefore will phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal. While we acknowledge that surface mining is economically efficient and creates jobs, it can be conducted in a way that minimizes environmental impacts in certain geographies.

Froomkin on Transparency and Obama

Dan Froomkin who Blogs on the President and the Executive Branch for the Washington Post, wrote an interesting post recently for NiemanWatchdog.org about ways a reconceived whitehouse.gov Web site could revolutionize the relationship between the public and the presidency, bring the policymaking process into the open, welcome opposing views and encourage accountability.

Barack Obama’s campaign promise to use the Internet to “create a transparent and connected democracy” will be put to the test when he launches a new White House Web site on January 20.

On that day, the Bush administration’s stodgy, wheezing version of whitehouse.gov will be carted off to the National Archives in its entirety, leaving precisely no legacy – and no limits.

Obama is already being touted as the first Internet president, but the Internet is about more than e-mail blasts and rallying the likeminded. If he and his team truly embrace the paradigms of the modern Internet – as defined by blogs and YouTube, Facebook and Google, instant messaging and crowdsourcing, wikis and reader comments -- Obama’s whitehouse.gov will bring unprecedented accountability to the White House. It will offer a vastly better way for the American people to relate to their government – and maybe even learn to trust it again.

Imagine a White House Web site where the home page isn’t just a static collection of transcripts and press releases, but a window into the roiling intellectual foment of the West Wing. Imagine a White House Web site where staffers maintain blogs in which they write about who they are and what they are working on; where some meetings are streamed in live video; where the president’s daily calendar is posted online; where major policy proposals have public collaborative workspaces, or wikis; where progress towards campaign promises is tracked on a daily basis; and where anyone can sign up for customized updates by e-mail, text message, RSS feed, Twitter, or the social network of their choice.

Read more here.

Currently we have a president who has overt contempt for public opinion, who shields himself from opposing views and whose idea of White House Web site interactivity is a video of his dog.

Barack Obama has a chance to take governing to a whole new height. Currently the Obama transition team is actually soliciting public comments on its Web site, reading them and responding to them.

The Obama transition team set-up the website Change.gov as part of this transistion, and last week they used this site to asked members of the public:

What worries you most about the healthcare system in our country?

They recieved 3,700 comments.

On Tuesday, former Senator Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's point person on health care, posted a video response. "I spent a lot of the weekend actually reading the comments," he said. "And I have to tell you I'm extremely moved by a lot of the stories that you shared with us. We want to keep this a very open process. We want to make sure that you understand how important those comments and your contributions are. We really want to hear from you, and already have begun to follow through with some of the ideas." Daschle's video has now generated an additional 3,800 comments and counting.

And as of last night, there's a new question on the site:

How is the current economic crisis affecting you?

It's early and it's entirely possible that a Barack Obama administration will simply use the Internet as a glorified marketing device. But what's happening on Change.gov could be the beginning of a true national conversation.

Krugman on Hardball

Chris Matthews had Paul Krugman on yesterday's Hardball, and asked straight up "Are we going into a new Great Depression?"

While Professor Krugman said it was probably not a Great Depression, the rest of his answer was not very reassuring.

Basically Professor Krugman said the only actor who can inject money into the economy is the government.

Watch it here:

LibertyAir Blog

Two points that Paul Krugman had in his blog Conscience of a Liberal that worry me:

1. The economy is falling fast. We’ll see what tomorrow’s employment report says, but we could well be losing jobs at a rate of 450,000 or 500,000 a month.

2. Infrastructure spending will take time to get going — a new Goldman Sachs report suggests that projects that are “shovel-ready” are probably only a few tens of billions worth, and that a larger effort would take much of a year to get going. Meanwhile, it’s very questionable how much effect tax rebates will have on consumer demand. So it may be hard for stimulus to get much traction until late 2009 — and that’s even if Congress goes along, which may be a problem given all the bad analysis and disinformation out there.

So here’s what I’m wondering: will it, in fact, even be possible to pull the economy out of its nosedive before unemployment goes into double digits? I’m starting to wonder.

Health Care Reform: Good for the Economy.

Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at MIT, explains in the New York Times "Health care reform is good for our economy."

As the country slips into what is possibly the worst downturn since the Depression, nearly all experts agree that Washington should stimulate demand with new spending. And one of the most effective ways to spend would be to give states money to enroll more people in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Plan. This would free up state money for rebuilding roads and bridges and other public works projects -- spending that could create jobs.

Health care reform can be an engine of job growth in other ways, too. Most proposals
call for investments in health information technology, including the computerization of patient medical records. During the campaign, for example, Mr. Obama proposed spending $50 billion on such technology. The hope is that computerized recordkeeping, and the improved sharing of information among doctors that it would enable, would improve the quality of patient care and perhaps also lower medical costs. More immediately, it would create jobs in the technology sector. After all, somebody would need to develop the computer systems and operate them for thousands of American health care providers.

Expanded insurance coverage would also drive demand for high-paying, rewarding jobs in health services. Most reform proposals emphasize primary care, much of which can be provided by nurse practitioners, registered nurses and physician's assistants. These jobs could provide a landing spot for workers who have lost jobs in other sectors of the economy.

Fundamental health care reform would also stimulate more consumer spending, as previously uninsured families would no longer need to save every extra penny to cover a medical emergency. When the federal government expanded Medicaid in the 1990s, my own research has shown, the newly insured significantly increased their spending on consumer goods.

Universal health insurance coverage would also address economic problems that existed before this downturn began -- and that are likely to linger after growth resumes. In our current system, people who leave or lose their jobs often must go without insurance for months or years, and this discourages people from moving to positions where they could be more productive. Most reform proposals call for the creation of pools of insurance coverage that would guarantee access to high-quality, affordable care for people who are self-employed or out of work, increasing their mobility.

The financial crisis isn't an excuse to not fix a major drain on the economy, and a major hole in this country's social contract.

White House Finally Admits U.S. Economy in a Recession.»

Despite all evidence happening in the country, and the National Bureau of Economic Research's determination earlier this week that the U.S. was actually in a recession, the White House still couldn’t bring itself to use the word.

Today, however, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino appeared to finally recognize that relying on strained euphemisms is not an effective way to hold an informed discussion about the nation’s struggling economy. Instead, Perino acknowledged reality and finally used the word “recession.”

Automakers Ask for $34 billion in Aid

As I am sure you remember two weeks ago the CEOs from the Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler -- all came to Washington, D.C. to ask Congress for a $25 billion loan to help their struggling companies stay afloat and avoid a complete collapse of the U.S. auto industry.

As you also probably remember the whole thing turned into a fiasco. First there was the revelation that each of the companies' chief executives traveled to the nation's capital on private jets. Second, this request came just a month after Congress approved $25 billion in low-interest loans for the automobile manufacturers and suppliers to retool their plants to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Now the Big Three executives did learn at least one thing as they made the trip from Detroit in new-model hybrid autos made by their respective companies.

Still the auto industry representatives met with fresh skepticism on the Hill.

Chrysler is the weakest of the Big Three, CEO Bob Nardelli promised that his company, who was a recipient of a previous government-subsidized rescue loan in the 1970s that it repaid fully, would repay taxpayers by 2012. The Chrysler plan says it would devote itself to manufacturing “fuel-efficient cars and trucks that people want to buy.”

GM’s survival plan envisions an administration-led restructuring overseen by a government oversight board.

Ford seems to be in the strongest position right now, and it only requested a $9 billion “standby line of credit” in case one of its Detroit competitors fails.

United Auto Workers union president Ron Gettelfinger told the committee, “We are prepared to do our part.” But he also said workers for the auto companies shouldn’t have to make disproportionate sacrifices.

Democrats have urged the administration to tap into an already enacted $700 billion financial bailout program to help the auto industry. Bush and the Republicans have resisted and used this opportunity to bash unions, and are placing blame for the plight of the Big 3 on the blue-collar workers. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) claimed that "some auto manufacturers are struggling because of a bad business structure with high unionized labor costs," while Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) said on Sunday that the auto industry has "been sick" for years because of a "bad business model" with "contracts negotiated with the United Auto Workers that impose huge costs."

This of course ignores the fact that unions have repeatedly made concessions to auto companies over recent years. The trouble with the Big 3 is that they have had really bad executive leadership for years.

As to the bailout, I fall in line with the side that there should be a bailout. To be honest I think there should be a radical buyout that takes over the companies, builds up their assets, and then sells off the pieces. I think GM is too big, and so it is too slow to meet the changing markets. I think factories should be purchased, converted to facilities that can build a new economy, and then sold off. Does it not make sense to take a car factory that is failing, and building cars that are not needed, and rebuild the factory to produce wind turbines, or bullet trains, or solar collectors?

The bailout remains unpopular with the public, but I do think a lot of that is short sighted by some, and a real worry that billions will be given to the auto industry, and then six months later they will be asking for a bailout again. Therefore oversight of the auto bailout must be much stronger than the bank bailout, where billions is being wasted. Here is an opportunity to put the money into something real, something solid, and something that makes future money for the economy.

Treasury Weighs Possible Mortgage Rate Reduction

The Treasury is strongly considering taking action on mortgage rates. The Treasury Department will probably intervene directly in the mortgage industry to radically force down rates and stimulate the declining housing market. What is being speculated is that the Treasury would offer to buy securities that finance newly issued loans for home purchases. The caveat is that to participate in the Treasury's program, mortgage lenders would have to set extraordinarily low interest rates, for instance, no more than 4.5 percent for traditional, 30-year fixed-rate loans.

These securities would be purchased mainly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the financing giants that buy most mortgages from U.S. lenders. The price tag for this ambitious plan and the source of funding is up in the air. One option would be for the Treasury to raise money by issuing bonds to the public at 3 percent interest. This would allow the government to turn a profit because it would be buying securities that pay 4.5 percent.

The plan has not been finalized, but I think there is a good chance it will go forward. Democratic lawmakers who will soon have sizable majorities in the House and Senate, as well as the White House have been advocating for a similar plan.

Recovery in the housing market is key to solving the financial crisis.

Attacks in Iraq in November Down

There is continued good news out of Iraq. Despite a number of high-profile bombings in the past few days, the US military reports that the number of attacks per day in Iraq in November was less than at any time since 2003.

In November, 2003, it was an average of 17 attacks a day and the Sunni Arab guerrilla war was in full swing. You're still getting 300-400 civilians killed a month, which is about 4,000 a year. It is not the apocalypse it was in 2006, but this level of violence is still not reassuring. Things are better, but it is not the success that idiots like Bill Kristol would like you to believe.

Iraq is a nation that will be picking up the pieces of Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush for a long, long time.

Al Franken is Reportedly Ahead by 22 Votes

Democratic senatorial candidate Al Franken has “unexpectedly picked up 37 votes due to a combined machine malfunction and human error on Election Day.” Today, Franken’s counsel Marc Elias said Franken is now up 22 votes, with “approximately 138,000 ballots left to count.” “This would be the first time that Franken has claimed a lead in this drawn-out process,” notes TPM.

However the Franken campaign has also faced a setback, they are now voicing concern about missing ballots. Yesterday the Franken campaign put out a press release alleging that 133 ballots are missing from a single precinct -- which just so happens to be a solidly-Dem precinct right in Minneapolis -- and calling upon the city's elections director to keep the recount officially open until this matter is resolved.

The county's initial election returns showed that Franken had a lead of 495 votes over Coleman, a nearly two-to-one-lead in this single precinct (Ward 3, Precinct 1). If these missing ballots are not recovered, it is quite possible that Franken could sustain a net loss in the vote count that would be enough to undo the campaign's claim of a 22-vote lead from this morning. The Star Tribune has some more info on this -- including the key number that Franken stands to lose a net 46 votes if these apparently misplaced ballots are not recovered.

The 1993 New York Landmarks Plot

Back in July of 1993, U.S. counterterrorism agents arrested and later convicted eight individuals of plotting an elaborate, multistage attack on key sites in Manhattan. I had forgotten about this bust, it took place just four months after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and New York City was on high alert.

At the time, U.S. counterterrorism officials deemed that the attack would have had a 90% success rate. This disaster was averted because federal agents captured the plotters planning the Landmarks attack thanks to an informant who had infiltrated the group. The United States was very lucky.

The reason I bring up the 1993 New York Landmarks Plot is because of the details of the plot.

The planned attack called for several teams to raid sites such as the Waldorf-Astoria, St. Regis and U.N. Plaza hotels, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and a midtown Manhattan waterfront heliport servicing business executives and VIPs traveling from lower Manhattan to various New York-area airports.

Authorities showed that the militants had carried out extensive surveillance both inside and outside the target hotels using human probes, hand-drawn maps and video surveillance. Detailed had been notes taken on the layout and design of the buildings, with stairwells, ballrooms, security cameras and personnel all reconnoitered.

The attackers intended to infiltrate the hotels and disguise themselves as kitchen employees. On the day of the attack, one attack team planned to use stolen delivery vans to get close to the hotels, at which point heavily armed, small-cell commando teams would deploy from the rear of the van. Stationary operatives would use hand grenades to create diversions while attack teams would rake hotel guests with automatic weapons. The attackers planned to carry gas masks and use tear gas in hotel ballrooms to gain an advantage over any security they might come up against. They planned to attack at night, when the level of protection would be lower.
The targeted hotels host some of the most prestigious guests in Manhattan. These could have included diplomats like the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who traditionally keeps an apartment in the Waldorf-Astoria, or even the U.S. secretary of state, who is known to stay at the Waldorf during U.N. sessions. They also host various business leaders. If successful, the attackers doubtless would have killed many high-profile individuals key to New York’s stature as a center for financial and diplomatic dealings.

Meanwhile, the plots to detonate explosives in the Lincoln and Holland tunnels would have blocked critical transportation infrastructure, sowing chaos in the city as key escape routes were closed off. And VIPs seeking to escape the city via the midtown heliport would have been thwarted by the attack planned for that location. In fact, the heliport attack was planned to be carried out using watercraft, which also could have been used to target transport ferries, further disrupting transportation in and out of Manhattan. The New York City Police Department could plausibly even have quarantined Manhattan to prevent the attackers from fleeing the city.

With the city shut down and gunmen running amok, the financial center of the United States would have been thrown into chaos and confusion until the attackers were detained or killed. The attacks thus would have undermined the security and effectiveness of New York as a center for financial and diplomatic dealings.

Now a little more than fifteen years later, the Nov. 26 attacks in Mumbai closely followed the script of the New York plot. Militants armed with AK-47s, grenades and military-grade explosives carried out a very logistically sophisticated and coordinated attack on the financial capital of India.

The Mumbai attack involved extensive preoperational surveillance. Attackers had maps of the targeted hotels, and according to the Indian Marine Commandos who raided the Taj Mahal hotel, the militants moved around as if they knew the hotel’s layout by heart. Advance members of the attack teams had already taken up positions in the hotels, stockpiling firearms, ammunition, grenades and food that were quickly accessed and used to maintain the attackers’ positions in the hotels. One of the attackers reportedly also had taken a job as an intern chef in the Taj Mahal hotel kitchen, so his movements raised less suspicion and he had a detailed knowledge of the entry points and corridors. For such attacks, preparedness is key, and escaping alive is a long shot. The attackers therefore must have been highly motivated and willing to die — a rare combination that requires immense amounts of training and ideological zeal.

The similarities between the Landmarks plot and the Nov. 26 Mumbai attack are quite obvious. The similarities between the Landmarks plot and the Mumbai attack exist at several levels.

The first relates to the target set. Both New York and Mumbai are the respective financial centers of their countries and home to their nations’ major stock exchanges.

The second similarity involves how both plans included peripheral targets to cause confusion and chaos and thus create a diversion from the main targets.

A third similarity exists in the geography of the two cities. In both plots, the use of watercraft is a distinctive tactical similarity.

A fourth similarity lies in transportation. In addition to using watercraft, both plots involved the use of deceptive vehicles to maneuver around the city undetected. The Landmark plotters used taxis to conduct surveillance and planned on using a delivery van to approach the hotels.

Gauging by the success of the Mumbai incident, we can expect similar strategies and tactics in future attacks.

How is that War on Terror going, President Bush.

Daily Show: Battle of the Ideological Cable News Networks

Jon Stewart takes on MSNBC and FOX.
Watch it here:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

MSNBC Replaces Fox News

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

LibertyAir Blog

Headzup: The "Quaint" Posse Comitatus Act

If you have never checked out Headzup, you really should; they are hilarious. In this video President Bush is asked about the deployment of 20,000 troops on U.S. soil in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Read more about this story below.



LibertyAir Blog

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terroristattack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Political scientist Dr. Steven Taylor writes about his concern on this subject:

There are two key problems here. The first is that the function of the military isn’t domestic security and second, the military is already rather busy at the moment (and for the foreseeable future).

First, the military isn’t designed or trained for domestic responses. Training for a nuclear attack or an invasion is one thing, assigning an active-duty combat brigade to a specifically domestic task is yet another.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.

Domestic emergency deployment may be “just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,” or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU’s National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security.

“There’s a notion that whenever there’s an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green,” Healy said, “and that’s at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace.”

OPEC TO CUT AGAIN

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is ready to cut production by a significant amount when it meets later this month.

Oil fell below $49 a barrel on Tuesday, after reversing early losses in response to a rally in U.S. and European shares.

It had earlier fallen to a new 3-1/2-year low below $48, weighed down by gloom over the ailing world economy and its impact on fuel demand.

U.S. light crude for January delivery was down 54 cents at $48.74 a barrel by 11:06 a.m. EST. It earlier touched a new 3-1/2 year low of $47.36, its lowest since May 2005.
Prices had dropped nearly 10 percent on Monday.

London Brent crude was down 69 cents at $47.28 a barrel after touching a low of $46.02, its lowest since February 2005.

OPEC has already cut supply by about 2 million barrels per day, but this has so far failed to bolster prices, which have fallen nearly $100 a barrel from a peak of more than $147 in July.

Top exporter Saudi Arabia has highlighted $75 a barrel as a "fair price" for oil.

Minnesota: Still Up In the Air

The recount in Minnesota is still going, and it can still go either way. This is again proof that every vote matters. Today it was discovered that 171 ballots that were missed in the initial count were discovered today -- and Al Franken benefited to the tune of a not insignificant total of 37 votes:

The final day of recounting in Ramsey County in the U.S. Senate race kicked up controversy today when 171 uncounted ballots from Maplewood turned up. The
ballots apparently had been uncounted because of a ballot-counting-machine malfunction on Election Day.

Democrat Al Franken made a net gain of 37 votes from the ballots, as he got 91 of the total, to 54 for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and 26 for other candidates, including Dean Barkley of the Independence Party.

At a press conference earlier today, Franken's lawyer Marc Elias said the margin, by their count, was down to 50 votes:

Minnesota Democrat Al Franken’s lead attorney said Tuesday that his count shows the comedian trailing Sen. Norm Coleman by just 50 votes with more than 200,000
left to be counted.

Attorney Marc Elias held his press conference in Washington just hours after elections officials found nearly 200 ballots that had not been counted on election night.

We won't know who won this race for awhile. It will come down to the ballots challenged during the recount process. As of last night, Coleman had challenged 3067 ballots while Franken had challenged 2876. The five-member canvassing board will review those challenges beginning December 16th. Franken's lawyer also said today that most of the challenges wouldn't hold:

“I’m here to tell you that the vast majority of these challenges are going to be thrown out,” Elias said. “We’re confident that we’re going to gain votes when the challenges are resolved.”

The 50-vote lead of which Franken's lawyer spoke did not include the 37 new votes. That would mean the margin is down to 13 votes. We may yet see Senator Al Franken.

Bush strips collective bargaining rights from federal employees

It has been learned that President Bush has issued an executive order “that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for national security.”

At least 900 of the employees affected were already represented by collective bargaining units.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that employees “had their collective bargaining rights stripped away for no justifiable reason.” For more on Bush’s last-minute regulations, orders, and proposed rule changes, head over to ThinkProgress and check out their report: “Bush’s Backward Sprint To The Finish.”

Gates: Obama ‘framed’ withdrawal from Iraq ‘just right.’

Yesterday, President-elect Obama said that “16 months is the right time frame” for withdrawing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, noting that he would “listen to the recommendations” his commanders on the ground.

Asked today if he considered himself “at odds” with Obama on the timetable, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he “would subscribe to what the President-elect said yesterday in Chicago.” Pressed by reporters on the length of the time frame,” Gates said that Obama “framed it just right yesterday.”

Watch it here:

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