Well, the listserv Pam set up turned into a free-for-all, and we got lots of complains about too many emails, so it has now been turned off.
From now on, instead of sending important information by email, I will be posting to the Big Brass Alliance Forum set up by Pam, to whom we owe a great deal of thanks.
There is a read-only thread in the Forum called "Alliance News," to which Pam and I will be posting information of interest to all alliance members. The other threads will be open for an exchange of ideas, but if all you want is the latest updates, just check the "Alliance News" thread.
Many, many thanks to Pam. My sincerest apologies to those who were deluged with email. It's unfortunate that we will no longer be able to communicate quite as directly, but hopefully the forum will serve to facilitate effective communication which can be accessed at each member's convenience.
Important Note About BBA Communications
From the “Friday Night Newshole” Files
I’m sure that the administration will be issuing an apology to Newsweek for accusing them of erroneous reporting:
American jailers at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects splashed a Koran with urine, kicked and stepped on the Islamic holy book and soaked it with water, the U.S. military said on Friday.My first thought when I saw the headline is reflected in the title of this post. Another superb burying job by releasing the information at a time when nobody’s paying attention. Then I got to the very last line of the story (issued by Reuters, by the way), and I felt that shiver go down my spine once again…the shiver that makes me think maybe, just maybe, the tide is starting to turn, just a little:
U.S. Southern Command, responsible for the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, described for the first time five cases of "mishandling" of a Koran by U.S. personnel confirmed by a newly completed military inquiry, officials said in a statement.
[…]
In the fifth "confirmed incident" of mishandling a Koran, Southern Command said a prisoner in August 2003 complained that "a two-word obscenity" had been written in English in his Koran. Southern Command said it was "possible" a guard had written the words but "equally possible" the prisoner himself had done it.
Southern Command released its findings on a Friday night.That’s it. No additional commentary. Just a statement of fact. Nine words that seem, at least to this veteran newsreader, to be weighted with all kinds of meaning.
Come on, media. I know you’re tired of the lies, the bullshit, the disassembling. You had balls once. You can find them again. I’m sure of it.
Rush Limbaugh: Still a Big Fat Idiot
Media Matters reports:
Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh declared that the Democratic Party's plan to make Election Day a national holiday, outlined by Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean at the June 2 "Take Back America" conference, won't "help them that much" because "[m]ost of their voters don't work anyway."Fuck you, turdbucket.
From the June 2 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: The two to three big opportunities so far mentioned by Howard Dean -- pension portability and changes to election laws. ... So portability of pensions. What's the second one? Oh, yeah, Election Day a holiday. And well, you know -- I don't know why they need to do that. Most of their voters don't work anyway, so I don't know how that's going to help them that much. At least in a percentage basis.
(The Green Knight has a slightly more eloquent commentary here.)
Interest in Downing Street Memo Continues
Congressman Conyers reports tonight on his blog:
We are well over 110,000 Signatures on the Downing Street Letter. I cannot begin to thank you enough. Let's press on until we hit 250,000. I have enlisted some new allies to help us and I am confident we will reach our goal in no time.
In the coming days, I will be moving ahead on this letter and other efforts surrounding this issue. Also, keep an eye on the Sunday London Times this weekend, I hear they will continue their string of breaking news about this.
Sunday London Times. Got it.
At least there's one media outlet we don't have to email en masse to beg them to cover this story. Too bad they're not in this country.
Friday Blogrollin'
This Friday, I added the Big Brass Alliance to my blogroll, in its own category. You'll find the link to drop it down in the lefthand sidebar.
I did mine manually, because I'm too unsophisticated a programmer to do it any other way than my own quirky routine, but the Newswriter has graciously put together a BBA blogroll powered by Blogrolling, about which I believe you'll be receiving an email with instructions on how to add it to your site. And you can always nick my code, too, if you like.
Happy Friday, everyone. Long week, but I think we've put together a great thing here. Onward and upward.
Friday Sonnet
(I thought an ode to the Big Brass Alliance deserved more than a limerick.)
Sometimes a shadow falls across our days,
Its vastness spawning thoughts all light is gone.
We brace ourselves for battle in the haze,
Though gripped with fear that this war can’t be won.
Oppressive darkness creeps, intimidates,
Reduces once-strong voice to timid tone,
Infectiously distracts and isolates,
Until each feels he faces war alone.
Yet in the shadow we each stand our ground;
Then whispers penetrate the silent pall.
The echo’s edges glow; we look around,
To find that we are not alone at all.
And suddenly with hope we start to fight;
It is collective strength that saves the light.
Downing Street on C-SPAN
AfterDowningStreet.org co-founded Steve Cobble is going to be on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal tomorrow from 7:45-8:30am EST. Phone in to have your say!
Somebody’s Reading Too Much Ann Coulter
The Year: 2005
The Issue: Women’s Suffrage
The Position: Against
The Candidate: Kansas State Senator Kay O’Connor
If only I were joking. Get a load of this:
A state senator who once said that giving women the vote was a symptom of weakness in the American family now wants to be Kansas' top elections official.Honestly. Part of me wants to go off on a rant about this, but the other part of me just wants to give O’Connor the finger and tell her to fuck off. The latter part wins.
Sen. Kay O'Connor announced Wednesday that she is seeking the GOP nomination for secretary of state next year. O'Connor, 63, has served in the Legislature since 1993.
In 2001, O'Connor received national attention for her remarks about the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.
"I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of," she said at the time. "The 19th Amendment is around because men weren't doing their jobs, and I think that's sad. I believe the man should be the head of the family. The woman should be the heart of the family."
Idiot.
Dems in Bed with Abramoff
Dear Dems,
Part of the reason so many Americans don't pay attention to politics is because they are disillusioned, thoroughly convinced that both parties are equally corrupt. You tell them it's not true. But here's the thing: It actually has to be not true for people to believe you.
Okay, so you're not as bad as the GOP, but is that really something you can brag about? Is that really something that makes a difference to the average American? - pretty corrupt verses really corrupt? That's the reason people vote for the guy who seems like the one with whom they'd most like to have a beer, instead of on real issues. Please get it together. You're not helping by being "the party that's less objectionable than the GOP."
Love,
Shakespeare's Sister
It seems I’m always saying, Wow, it sure would be nice if the Dems hadn’t gone along with the GOP on that one. What if the Dems hadn’t voted for the Iraq War? What if they had collectively and unanimously voted against the bankruptcy bill? What if they hadn’t capitulated to the GOP regarding the nuclear option? What if what if what if…
So it is with great dismay, if little surprise, that I read in today’s Washington Post that some Dems also went along with the notion that DeLay pal and lobbyist Jack Abramoff was a swell guy with whom to do business...or at least the team lobbyists he oversaw at the law firm Greenberg Traurig.
Among the biggest beneficiaries were Capitol Hill's most powerful Democrats, including Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) and Harry M. Reid (Nev.), the top two Senate Democrats at the time, Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), then-leader of the House Democrats, and the two lawmakers in charge of raising funds for their Democratic colleagues in both chambers, according to a Washington Post study. Reid succeeded Daschle as Democratic leader after Daschle lost his Senate seat last November.Et cetera.
Democrats are hoping to gain political advantage from federal and Senate investigations of Abramoff's activities and from the embattled lobbyist's former ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). Yet, many Democratic lawmakers also benefited from Abramoff's political operation, a fact that could hinder the Democrats' efforts to turn the lobbyist's troubles into a winning partisan issue.
"It wouldn't surprise me to see the Abramoff controversy impact both parties," said Tony Raymond, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine.com, which gathers lobbying and campaign finance information.
Democratic lawmakers who responded to inquiries for this article said that any money they received from the tribes had nothing to do with Abramoff. They were quick to say they did not know the man.
[…]
James Patrick Manley, Reid's spokesman, also asserted that Reid's connection to tribes was remote from Abramoff. He said that Reid does not know Abramoff. But Abramoff did hire as one of his lobbyists Edward P. Ayoob, a veteran Reid legislative aide. Manley acknowledged that Ayoob helped raise campaign money for his former boss. Lawyers close to the Abramoff operation said that Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at Greenberg Traurig's offices here.
"There's nothing sinister here," Manley said. Reid is a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee with strong relations with Indian tribes, he explained.
Daschle was familiar with another of Abramoff's Democratic lobbyists, Michael Smith. According to Steve Hildebrand, who was Daschle's campaign manager last year, Smith "helped with a lot of Democratic campaigns." In addition, Daschle was a favorite of Indian tribes and received donations from 64, including five Abramoff clients. "We took about $150,000 in this last election cycle from Indian tribes around the country," Hildebrand said. "Tom is viewed as a champion of Indian issues. We have nine tribes in South Dakota, and they worked hard for him."
It may well be true that none of the Dems who received tribal donations were up to anything fishy (or it might not be), but even if it is true, it sure puts them in a pretty difficult position to harp on DeLay’s genuinely unethical interactions with Abramoff. Way to go, Dems. Again.
(And lest you think I’m picking on them unfairly, here’s the description of how Abramoff’s lobbyists worked: “According to documents and tribal officials familiar with the Abramoff team's methods, the lobbyists devised lengthy lists of lawmakers to whom the tribes should donate and then delivered the lists to the tribes. The tribes, in turn, wrote checks to the recommended campaign committees and in the amounts the lobbyists prescribed.” Tell me that the beneficiaries of those donations had no idea what was going on. They were engaged in full-on pay-for-play.)
It would be nice if the Dems stopped building the moral high ground on quicksand for a change.
“Grow Your Own”
Nancy Goldstein’s newest column in PageOneQ (formerly RawStoryQ) is fantastic. She talks about feeling betrayed by the nuclear option compromise, the GOP’s intricate network of back-patting that elevates people like Priscilla Owen to her current position, and what the Dems can learn from them. It really highlights why grassroots building is important, and even though there’s the old joke about how organizing the Left is as easy as herding cats, the Big Brass Alliance shows that we are quite capable of coming together. What the Left lacks is not willingness to work hard, but balls. Go read it, and with the following, from Salon’s War Room, in mind:
We've been saying that the first big test of the nuclear option-averting agreement by John McCain's "Gang of 14" would come as soon as Chief Justice William Rehnquist announces his resignation and George W. Bush nominates a replacement. But now it seems that it could come even sooner than that.Seriously—it’s time to stop capitulating to the GOP. Enough.
According to this morning's Washington Post, the White House is preparing to send several dozen new lower court nominees up to the Senate any day now. Officials "familiar with the process" tell the Post that the judges Bush will nominate soon are a lot like the ones he's nominated before.
And although the "Gang of 14" agreement called on Bush to consult with senators on both sides of the aisle before making future nominations, Senate Democrats tell the Post that they haven't heard anything from the White House about the new nominees. As we noted earlier this week, they probably shouldn't bother waiting by their phones.
Begging
Okay, one last post about this, I promise.
As Pam says, setting up activism channels like BBA, and maintaining an individual blog and a group blog (and doing a FT day job) are a lot to juggle. Building community is totally worth it, and I’m passionately dedicated to Shakespeare’s Sister, Big Brass Blog, and the Big Brass Alliance.
Even though I don’t have tons of costs associated with Shakespeare’s Sister, there are some more significant costs associated with Big Brass Blog. Forming this alliance has taken up my every waking moment for the last week, and if I’m going to be able to stick with a job that gives me lots of opportunity to continue down this road, I need some help at the moment. I don’t look at this as a profit-making enterprise; I’m just down to a choice between the time to continue this effort and enough money to survive.
So the tip jar’s to the left. If you can spare it, I’d appreciate it.
Our Media Sucks Ass
Can someone please explain to me why our media feels it’s important for everyone in the country to be well-informed about some video of football players acting like jackasses, but the Downing Street Memo isn’t even given the most cursory of mentions? (Rhetorical.)
It’s no wonder this country’s going down the toilet.
[Update: The Minneapolis Star Tribune has printed the Downing Street Memo. Good for them.]
Downing Street Update
* Today’s media contacts are:
(A) ABC Nightline. email: nightline@abcnews.com
(B) NBC News. email: nightly@nbc.com phone: 212-664-4971 fax: 212-664-4426
(C) Wall Street Journal. email: wsjcontact@dowjones.com phone: 212-416-2000 fax: 212-416-2658
* If you post on the topic today, make sure you contact Joe at The Heretik and Charles at Freiheit und Wissen, who are doing Big Brass Blogswaming aggregation.
* The Big Brass Alliance made Wikipedia, which is pretty cool.
* And this is my favorite item of the day:
The Backbone Campaign (which seems an appropriate match for the Big Brass Alliance), a a grassroots effort to embolden citizens and elected officials to stand up for progressive values, says:
Please join us in sending Spine postcards to your Senators and members of Congress to let them know they should join the Inquiry into the Downing Street Minutes/Memo. You can click here to download a pdf file that can be printed on cardstock or other paper and sent to you members of Congress. This version of the pdf file refers directly to the Downing Street Minutes/Memo issue.I love it. Very cool.
Keep it up, everyone!
Downing Street Update
Congressman Conyers is on fire. (Yes, it’s relative, population percentage-wise, but small things don’t always stay that way—just ask Richard Nixon.) He’s now got 86,000 signatures on his letter to President Bush, asking for answers to five questions raised by the Downing Street Memo, and he’s upped his target to 250,000 signatures.
Perhaps even more importantly, the number of Congress Critters signing onto the letter has also increased:
He also updates on the original letter signed by 89 members of Congress and sent to Bush -- which has so far failed to receive even the courtesy of a reply. There are now a total of 94 members signed on to that letter, and Conyers is recirculating it at the request of still more who have expressed an interest in signing on.This is what we must remember: members of Congress are moved by pressure. They will act if we keep the pressure on them. Similarly, members of the media are responsive to their constituency’s demands. The way to keep this momentum moving in the direction we’d like is to continue to contact our elected representatives and members of the media. Email your Senator and Representatives. Email the media. Tell them you care about this story.
Conyers also reiterates why this is so important:
The most serious matter for the Congress and the President is the decision to go to war. It is the sole constitutional responsibility of Congress to decide whether to declare war. The President has a constitutional responsibility to be straightforward and candid with the Congress in providing it with the information it needs to evaluate the case for war. If that decision is skewed or corrupted by false or misleading information, it raises the most serious Constitutional questions and substantial issues about abuse of power…President Bush has forgotten, if he ever acknowledged it in the first place, that he is an employee of the American people. We need to remind him. This is the time to call him onto the carpet. He’s shirked his responsibilities to us long enough.
If, as the Downing Street Minutes appear to clearly indicate, the falsehoods that led us into war were deliberate manipulations of the public and Congress, we deserve to know and we deserve answers. More importantly, we need to hold this President accountable for a very grave abuse of power.
Snowflakes
There’s so much wrong with this article in the New York Times, I hardly know where to begin.
Here’s the summary: There’s this program called Snowflakes, which essentially allows couples to “adopt” leftover IVF embryos that would otherwise go unused, and it appeals primarily to Christian conservatives, who believe that every embryo should be given the opportunity to be gestated and born, as opposed to frozen, discarded, or donated for research.
Okay, now let’s take a look at the problems with this article, starting with the headline, “From Stem Cell Opponents, an Embryo Crusade.” First of all, it obfuscates the clear delineation between stem cells and embryos once again. Not all stem cell research is done on embryos; stem cells are found in people of all ages, as well as in umbilical cord blood, which is why cord blood banking is becoming a booming business—though it won’t do much good if stem cell research never goes anywhere. Secondly, can we please fucking can it with the word “crusade” already? The crusades were, like, not really all that nice a thing; in fact, lots and lots of people lost their lives at the hands of the crusaders, which also makes the choice of the word for this purpose (no doubt unintentionally) ironic and indicative of the ever-lowering literacy of the Times editors.
Mr. McClure, though, disliked the fertility business, which he felt created extra embryos that were often destroyed or aborted. He feared that paying fees to receive the embryos would be helping an industry "that I have real problems with."Eh? Come again? When was the last time you invoked a “slave trader” in everyday conversation? Yet such references always seem to be at the tip of the Dominionists’ minds. Disturbing. I won’t even go into my feelings about how the name of the program, which was ostensibly named “to reflect the frozen uniqueness of each embryo,” seems to me to be a not-so-subtle homage to the color of the vast majority of the embryos involved.
He consulted a Southern Baptist church elder, who advised him, " 'If you want to free the slaves, sometimes you have to deal with the slave trader,' " Mr. McClure said.
With that, the McClures, who are in their 40's and live in Bellevue, Wash., decided to take 13 embryos from a fertility clinic in Austin, Tex. They had a son 10 months ago and became part of an unexpected alliance that conservative Christians have been forming with the world of test-tube babies.Aside from the fact that, since the majority of Americans and the majority of Congress supporting stem cell research, Bush ought to spend his time on more pressing issues like the tanking economy or the war in Iraq, instead of hanging out with babies for photo ops, I’d like to note that any human being could have donned one of those idiotic t-shirts. Unless you’re from Ork and are currently in the process of reverse aging, you were at some point a non-discarded former embryo.
That alliance was on prominent display last week when, to protest a bill supporting the use of embryos for stem cell research, President Bush appeared with the McClures and 20 other Snowflakes families, kissing the babies, some of whom wore T-shirts that said "former embryo," or "this embryo was not discarded." Federal and state lawmakers have held similar appearances.
"I think appearing with Snowflakes kids is a potent symbol, and I think it illustrates the truth, which is that the embryo is just that child at an earlier stage of development," said Bill Saunders, director of the Family Research Council's Center for Human Life and Bioethics.Yes, the stage of development where it has no brain, no recognizable human traits, and no ability to exist outside of a freezer or a womb.
Couples adopting or donating Snowflakes embryos are mostly Christian, and most embryo donors are white, Ms. Maze said. … Couples must agree to adoption-like procedures: receiving families are screened and must undergo counseling, and Snowflakes allows donating and receiving families to designate criteria for each other, meet and maintain contact after birth. Adopting couples must agree not to abort any embryos.In response to that quote, Justin Cognito noted on The Evil Petting Zoo, “I don't know what's more outrageous: that Bush is pushing a program that allows people to enforce bigotry against others, or that the New York Times is reporting it like it's nothing special.” Exactly my thought.
Those conditions were fine with Bob and Angie Deacon of Virginia Beach, Va., who donated their 13 embryos after having twins and being discouraged from another pregnancy by a doctor. "With another program, to be honest with you, they could have been adopted by lesbian parents, and I'm totally against that," said Mr. Deacon, 35.
But here’s the problem with trying to enforce bigotry. So you guarantee your donated embryo isn’t going to be raised by dykes, but what happens if little Johnny Embryo turns out to be a fag? I guess from his perspective, it would suck either way—biological parents who are resolute homobigots, or adoptive parents who are resolute homobigots. Tomato, tomahto. Is there a difference in how those parents would treat him? Maybe not. Maybe he’d be equally screwed either way. Maybe either way he’d grow up to be a closeted Republican fuckwit who uses Boy Scout camping trips to get a gander at prepube tushy.
I suppose Mr. Deacon doesn’t believe his very heterosexual sperm and Mrs. Deacon’s very heterosexual egg would ever produce a homosexual child, so it’s not of concern to them. It’s of concern to me, though. It has to be. It’s the kids who have parents like the Deacons who end up the most likely to kill themselves simply because they’re gay…and had the misfortune of being born in a house where death is preferable.
Ultimately, I don’t think this is so much different from many adoptions where the birth mothers chose the parents. She looks at binders full of pictures of smiling, perhaps slightly desperate, couples, attached to résumés that list their jobs, their incomes, their family health histories, their religious beliefs, maybe even their political persuasions, why they would make the perfect parents for someone else’s unwanted child. Recently, a gay couple I know met with an adoption agency where they were told gay couples were usually selected quite quickly, for no readily discernible reason. So maybe it all comes out in the adoption wash, so to speak. That many of the conservative Christians involved in this are bigots is nothing by which one should be surprised.
The only lingering problem I have (besides the increasingly typical idiocy of the Times) is the president’s endorsement of the program, the politicization of embryonic donation as juxtaposed against stem cell research, when the two aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s a red herring, more of the disingenuous posturing we’ve come to know so well and, resignedly, expect from this administration.
I Couldn’t Resist…
…sharing this delicious little bit of snark from Me4President2008:
Bush Anxious to Learn More of Deep Throat.I’ve got to hand it to someone who works Bush’s ignorance, Pickles Stepford’s seeming frigidity, gay prostitute cum White House press corps reporter Jeff Gannon, a slam on the economy, an allusion to Bush’s fondness for all things black gold, and a nice double entendre into three short sentences. Well done, my friend.
If Laura won't help you out, maybe Jeff Gannon will. If you play your cards right, someone might even let you enjoy their Hummer too. Take it easy though, oil is expensive.
Lessons of Deep Throat
Elise at After School Snack has the goods on Bush’s reaction to Deep Throat’s unmasking:
Heh heh heh. (Is it any wonder Elise and I get along so well?)Scene: Press Conference, Oval Office
Topic: Deep Throat. Mood: Shifty.
"Q: Is he a hero?
PRESIDENT BUSH: He was -- it's hard for me to judge. I'm learning more about the situation. All I can tell you is, is that it's -- it was a revelation that caught me by surprise, and I thought it very interesting. I'm looking forward to reading about it, reading about his relationship with the news media."
Yeah, I'll fucking bet you are, you absolute toad of a man. The existence of people like Mark Felt must give you nightmares. Let's hope Bob Herbert is right, and this little excursion into history reminds people that corruption can be taken down by things that seem unimportant at first glance.
Meanwhile, over at Congressman Conyers’ blog…
The lessons of Watergate are so telling and important today that it is eery [sic], not to mention depressing:(Emphasis mine.)
– Back than we had an aggressive press corps – at least parts of it – willing to take a story and run with it, notwithstanding blowback from the White House. Today we have a paid government propoganda machine and a largely compliant press, although we do have a blogosphere attempting to lead – or shame – the MSM into doing the right thing.
– Back than we had men of courage, such as Mark Felt, John Dean, Leon Jaworski and Archibald Cox, who were willing to challenge authority and abuses of power. Today, when individuals such as Richard Clarke or Paul O'Neil step forward, they are subject to shame and ridicule by the White House.
– Back than we had a Justice Department that was willing to take an investigation wherever it would lead. Even before the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre," the FBI and DOJ were aggressively pursuing leads. Today we have a Justice Department that sees or hears no evil when it comes to the Administration, and has operated as a willing accomplice to torture and rendition.
– Back than we had a Congress that was willing to hold real hearings and conduct real oversight of official misconduct – see Sam Ervin and the recently deceased Peter Rodino. Today, we have one party rule, and all too many in Congress simply take their marching orders from the White House, rather than stand up for what’s right.
That’s my opinion at least.
I think it’s probably safe to say that’s an opinion shared by many in the blogosphere who are trying to convince the media that there was a time when they wouldn’t have needed convincing to do their jobs.
There was a time when people like us would have sat back in awe as we learned that the dogged determination of two tenacious young journalists were the undoing of a scoundrel president and his crooked administration. Now, we organize coordinated efforts to beg the media to report on a memo that suggests a greater betrayal of the American people, a more astonishing willful deceit, than anything to which Woodward or Bernstein ever became privy through secret rendezvous with cloaked informants. The allegation that our country was taken to war on constructed pretenses by undeterrable warmongers was published in a major international newspaper—laid across our media’s desks like a sandwich from Al’s diner delivered at lunchtime by an office lackey—they didn’t have to lift a finger to get it. It needs to be investigated; the truth needs to be found. Yet they ignore it. And so the American people are betrayed again.
Teevee
I don't know if anyone's posted this in comments yet, so I'll just sling this up quick; Crooks & Liars has video of Jimmy/Jeff/Gannon/Guckert (I shall now refer to him as JJGG) sleazing his way through the "lie detector test" here.
It's not working for me, so I haven't watched it yet...did anyone see it live?
