Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Jim & David Show






Bloggingheads.tv is back. Actually, it never went anywhere. But due to my schedule and travels, I have not done a show (yes, let's call it a show) in over a month. I know how much anxiety this causes Bloggingheads.tv devotees. But today the Pinkerton & Corn show returns. Once again, my interlocutor is quirky conservative James Pinkerton. We discuss the Libby trial (and why informed citizens are not allowed to serve on the trial) and the so-called surge (Pinkerton asks, What would Nixon do?). Pinkerton reports that he found one prominent Republican--no names, please--who supports the surge, and he defends Senator Sam Brownback, a GOP critic of the war, as a "thoughtful" guy. (Is he signing up with the Brownback for PRez campaign?) We also review Obama-mania and preview George W. Bush's upcoming Stateof the Union speech. I ask, will W. drive to Capitol Hill in a Prius? And in a cliff-hanger ending, Pinkerton predicts that the Bush adminsitration will raise taxes. Read his lips here.


Posted by David Corn at January 18, 2007 10:23 AM

14 comments:

kathleen said...

Davids prior post on the selection of the Libby jury is well worth reading.

DAvid thanks for the thorough update,you bring up great points. Although the way you describe the process it sounds as if it is a done deal for the Libby team! As my grandfather used to say "oy vey"!

How in the hell could the majority of Americans not admit that the Bush administration has "a strike against" them. That is unless the only news you listen or watch is Limbaugh and Fox. They must be trying to select from the 30% of Americans who are still with the Bush administration.

The question should be can you allow new facts into your equation? I would be afraid that new facts would actually form a "shadow of doubt" in my mind about Libby's guilt. Although it reads from so many, many sources that Fitzgerald has a solid case.


What ever happenned to the investigation that was to measure the harm done to U.S. National Secruity by Plame's cover being blown?

The Libby Defense Fund has raised 3 million bucks...(could they qualify as a terroist organization?) You know donating to an organization that supports an individual or individuals who have committed serious harm to U.S. National Security!

kathleen said...

FEELING SAFER YET?
THESE ARTICLES ARE AT INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE!

Is The U.S. Planning A Horrific Global Nuclear War?

By Michel Chossudovsky

At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East. Continue



"Doomsday Clock" Moves Two Minutes Closer To Midnight

By Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

It is now 5 minutes to midnight. Reflecting global failures to solve the problems posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis, the decision by the BAS Board of Directors was made in consultation with the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors, which includes 18 Nobel Laureates. Continue



5 Minutes to Midnight

Board Statement - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. Continue



Attacking Iran: What’s In It For Bush?

By Paul Craig Roberts

Suddenly the media is full of Bush Regime propagandistic assertions designed to make the American public believe that Iran is the enemy that is fighting against our troops in Iraq. To facilitate this deception, the Bush Regime staged a propaganda event by invading an Iranian government liaison office in Northern Iraq, kidnapping the Iranian officials and declaring them to be involved in plans to kill US troops. Continue

kathleen said...

The Diane Rehms show is trying to cover their asses today for not doing a show on Dr. Martin Luther King Day on Monday (not even an old recorded show). Diane is at the very white Sundance Film Festival and somehow just somehow Diane and her producers forgot to cover Dr. Martin Luther King on a holiday set aside to celebrate his life and issues. They are doing a show about the media and its power and influence during the civil rights era.

That same day Talk of the Nation covered integration for 15 minutes during their two hour show. Think about it this was the coverage by so called "liberal" media on a day set aside to celebrate and bring attention to issues of racism, poverty,classism etc. I guess Diane Rehms and her producers and Neil Conan and his producers think our nation has solved the problems that King was so devoted to.

I posted these very serious mistakes all over the web and called and e-mailed NAACP and Jessie Jacksons RAINBOW PUSH. Maybe they are feeling some heat, maybe they will apologize to the public for this mistake.

If the media was doing their job in the aftermath of Katrina..NEW ORLEANS WOULD BE IN FULL RECOVERY.

I will never forget just after Katrina when MSNBC's Chris Matthews said that "Katrina had ripped off the scab of racism in our country" In regard to Matthews coverage of what is taking place in New Orleans and along the gulf coast the scab was ripped off for about a month.

We very seldom see any coverage on his program about what is taking place there. "yeah Chris the scab came off for about a month on your program"

kathleen said...

Saladin take a read of this oneArab’s delayed Cabinet appointment
stirs accusations of racism, politicking
By Dan Baron
January 15, 2007


JERUSALEM, Jan. 15 (JTA) — The naming of the first Arab minister to the Israeli Cabinet was billed as an event underscoring hope of securing racial harmony in the Jewish state, though it may long remain mired in regional conflict.
But the nomination of Raleb Majadele instead has merely served to uncover Israel’s often messy personality politics and the latent racism of some of its citizens.

RELATED ARTICLES
Israeli Arabs: No to Zionist state
Majadele, a veteran Laborite, was chosen last week by the party’s leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, for the science, culture and sport portfolio. He is to replace Ophir Pines-Paz, who bolted in November to protest Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s inclusion of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party alongside Labor in the governing coalition.

Peretz was quoted as telling Majadele that in government, he would “help improve relations between the various sectors of Israeli society” — a reference to Jewish-Arab ties strained by the Palestinian intifada and allegations of institutional discrimination.


@ JTA

kathleen said...

Scott Ritter Book: Israel and Lobby Pushing Iran War: Jewish Daily Forward
A former United Nations weapons inspector and leading Iraq War opponent has written a new book alleging that Jerusalem is pushing the Bush administration into war with Iran, and accusing the pro-Israel lobby of dual loyalty and “outright espionage.”

In the new book, called “Target Iran,” Scott Ritter, who served as a senior U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 and later became one of the war’s staunchest critics, argues that the United States is readying for military action against Iran, using its nuclear program as a pretext for pursuing regime change in Tehran.

“The Bush administration, with the able help of the Israeli government and the pro-Israel Lobby, has succeeded,” Ritter writes, “in exploiting the ignorance of the American people about nuclear technology and nuclear weapons so as to engender enough fear that the American public has more or less been pre-programmed to accept the notion of the need to militarily confront a nuclear armed Iran.”

Later in the book, Ritter adds: “Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel and nowhere else.”

kathleen said...

Remember when Cheney and Bush were moving the definition of what they can and can not declassify. Is this the excuse that will be used for why Cheney was able to legally slip Plames identity to Libby to Cooper to Miller to...

kathleen said...

Bloggingheads is great! David's comment about "lies about blowjobs" = IMPEACHMENT...but lies about WMD's =

I also liked "there are about 6 people who support President Bush right now and they all work at Weekly Standard, and after that that leaves the dog and Laura".

FIREDOGLAKE BLOGGING FROM THE TRIAL

kathleen said...

Dear Mr. President,

Thanks for your address to the nation. It's good to know you still want to
talk to us after how we behaved in November.

Listen, can I be frank? Sending in 20,000 more troops just ain't gonna do
the job. That will only bring the troop level back up to what it was last
year. And we were losing the war last year! We've already had over a million
troops serve some time in Iraq since 2003. Another few thousand is simply
not enough to find those weapons of mass destruction! Er, I mean... bringing
those responsible for 9/11 to justice! Um, scratch that. Try this -- BRING
DEMOCRACY TO THE MIDDLE EAST! YES!!!

You've got to show some courage, dude! You've got to win this one! C'mon,
you got Saddam! You hung 'im high! I loved watching the video of that --
just like the old wild west! The bad guy wore black! The hangmen were as
crazy as the hangee! Lynch mobs rule!!!

Look, I have to admit I feel very sorry for the predicament you're in. As
Ricky Bobby said, "If you're not first, you're last." And you being
humiliated in front of the whole world does NONE of us Americans any good.

Sir, listen to me. You have to send in MILLIONS of troops to Iraq, not
thousands! The only way to lick this thing now is to flood Iraq with
millions of us! I know that you're out of combat-ready soldiers -- so you
have to look elsewhere! The only way you are going to beat a nation of 27
million -- Iraq -- is to send in at least 28 million! Here's how it would
work:

The first 27 million Americans go in and kill one Iraqi each. That will
quickly take care of any insurgency. The other one million of us will stay
and rebuild the country. Simple.

Now, I know you're saying, where will I find 28 million Americans to go to
Iraq? Here are some suggestions:

1. More than 62,000,000 Americans voted for you in the last election (the
one that took place a year and half into a war we already knew we were
losing). I am confident that at least a third of them would want to put
their body where their vote was and sign up to volunteer. I know many of
these people and, while we may disagree politically, I know that they don't
believe someone else should have to go and fight their fight for them --
while they hide here in America.

2. Start a "Kill an Iraqi" Meet-Up group in cities across the country. I
know this idea is so early-21st century, but I once went to a Lou Dobbs
Meet-Up and, I swear, some of the best ideas happen after the third mojito.
I'm sure you'll get another five million or so enlistees from this effort.

3. Send over all members of the mainstream media. After all, they were your
collaborators in bringing us this war -- and many of them are already
trained from having been "embedded!" If that doesn't bring the total to 28
million, then draft all viewers of the FOX News channel.

Mr. Bush, do not give up! Now is not the time to pull your punch! Don't be a
weenie by sending in a few over-tired troops. Get your people behind you and
YOU lead them in like a true commander in chief! Leave no conservative
behind! Full speed ahead!

We promise to write. Go get 'em W!

Yours,

Michael Moore

kathleen said...

“An Iranian offer to help the United States stabilize Iraq and end its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas was turned down by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003,” Lawrence Wilkerson, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, told BBC last night. “We thought it was a very propitious moment to (strike the deal),” Wilkerson said, “But as soon as it got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the vice president’s office, the old mantra of ‘We don’t talk to evil’…reasserted itself.”

kathleen said...

Odd that Talk of the Nation is spending so much time on topics like abduction of children, and autism. Not that these issues are not important. But one would think as the Bush administration they might think about covering topics like is there any "hard evidence" to back up the claims being repeated about Irans "allged' nuclear weapons program.

You could have guest like Scott Ritter, or David Kay, or Col Sam Gardiner.

Talk of the Nation missed Dr. Martin Luther King's holiday they seem to be missing the mark on quite a few things.

kathleen said...

The right wing control in Israel is cracking!

Israel to release Palestinian money

Hamas has relied on donations from around the Middle East to ease the financial crisis [AP]

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, will transfer $100 million in frozen funds to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president "within the next 24 hours".

A senior Palestinian official in the West Bank confirmed on Thursday the imminent release, saying the money would be "transferred... into the account of the Palestinian Authority."

The money is part of about $660 million in customs duties that Israel has withheld from the Palestinians for almost a year.

Israel stopped transferring the funds when Hamas movement took over the PA after winning a landslide election victory in January 2005.

"This is supposed to be spent according to Palestinian priorities. It is not for Israel to determine where it goes"

Samir Abu Aishah, Acting Hamas Finance Minister

An Israeli official said the money would be turned over to Abbas by Friday.

The transfer, which will help to ease the serious cash-flow crisis suffered by the Palestinian Authority, was promised by Olmert when he met with Abbas on December 23.

But it will not be used for salaries of government workers, who have not been fully paid since Hamas took office.

Hamas angrily criticised the Israeli restrictions on the money, after Israeli officials said they needed assurances the money would not reach the movement.

Taxation
Israel collects about $50 million in taxes from the Palestinians each month, which has contributed to a financial crisis for the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Samir Abu Aishah of Hamas, the acting finance minister for Hamas, said that the government should decide how the money is spent.

"This is supposed to be spent according to Palestinian priorities. It is not for Israel to determine where it goes," he said.

"We have no problem if that money goes through the president's office, but it must be spent in the areas in which they are needed, according to our priorities."

Abbas has been pushing Hamas to join his party in a moderate coalition government, hoping to end the international boycott against the Palestinian government.

On Saturday, he is scheduled to travel to Syria for talks with Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader, in hopes of working out a deal.

kathleen said...

poll broadcast on national television reinforced the feeling that Halutz could be just the first senior figure to go.

The results of the survey shown on Wednesday evening on Channel 10 showed that 69 per cent of people wanted Olmert to resign.

capt said...

New thread

Gerald said...

kathleen, Cheney does not talk to evil. He needs to look in the mirror and see total evil. A chickenshit draft dodger prefers killing people rather than talking to people. Americans need to wake up and understand that our soldiers are only cannon fodder to be killed and maimed protecting the evil, such as Cheney. Why has Wilkerson kept his mouth shout until now? Silence on his part has given tacit approval for Cheney's actions.

Iran is not the enemy. Hitler Bush and his Nazi cabal are the evil ones.