Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Something of a surprise, but whatever. For some info on John Roberts, have a look at the front page of the dKosopedia. I think the entry was thrown together very quickly, so take a grain or two of salt with you. More information on the nominee is available on the Wikipedia, which usually provides decent biographies of contemporary figures.

Just judging from the coverage I saw and read this evening, I would expect that Roberts is going to be confirmed fairly easily. Obviously, he’s a Conservative and a Republican, but I don’t think any of us were expecting Dennis Kucinich to get the nod. I expect some contention over his record in the Reagan and Bush administrations, but a mild shitstorm is probably the worst he’s going to face.

Not that I would ever encourage a free ride, the questions need to be tough and probing to the extreme. This is, after all, a life time appointment, so a gentle pat on the back and soothing words of understanding are not going to cut it. The confirmation process offers the opposition party the rare opportunity to get national, hyper-media coverage, and they must use it both wisely and forcefully. In a perfect world, I would expect to see some tough questioning from the party in power, but that’s probably not in the cards, though I would love to be surprised. Roberts is not nearly the blank slate that Clement would have been, but he’ll still be given the benefit of many doubts as he has a very short record as a judge and most, if not all, of his controversial briefs were filed on behalf of others.

As a side note, the timing of this announcement is a perfect salve for a reeling Bush administration. Roberts will push Rove below the fold, if not off the front page altogether. This is to be expected, so don’t get too disappointed.

I’m reserving judgement for a bit. Some of what I see I do not like, but I think this could have been worse. That said, it could have been a whole hell of a lot better. No matter what, let’s start thinking about winning some elections. Now wouldn’t that be nice?

Kos offers up some decent questions about whether or not Roberts was rushed up to the podium, mid shitstorm, simply because he was geographically close to the podium and an easy confirmation. I have some gut level doubts on that, but it’s not a totally unreasonable question to ask the President, though not the nominee. Doubtful that it’s sustainable, but a few “was this really your first choice” type of questions would be good for a giggle.

Something everybody ought to be prepared to hear sometime in August or September is the phrase “my client asked me to argue for a certain interpretation of the constitution, and I did so to the best of my ability.” Since Roberts is a Harvard guy, and I’m most certainly not, I would expect his answers to be far more eloquent than the imagined quote I’ve provided, but I think the gist will be about the same.

Is this a legitimate answer for any lawyer to give to any number of questions? Yes, absolutely. Is it potential political hell? Yes, absolutely. All I’m saying is that if we want to raise a little hell, free of charge, that we shouldn’t get dragged in by the seemingly easy targets. They are not as easy as they look and the preformed rebuttal is often quite simple.

Rick Santorum, throwing his feces at civilization:

“In this case, what we’re talking about, basically, is priests who were having sexual relations with post-pubescent men. We’re not talking about priests with 3-year-olds, or 5-year-olds. We’re talking about a basic homosexual relationship. Which, again, according to the world view sense is a perfectly fine relationship as long as it’s consensual between people. If you view the world that way, and you say that’s fine, you would assume that you would see more of it.â€?

This is from the famous man-on-dog interview published by USA Today, and yes he is talking about 12, 13 and 14 year old kids (Via Santorum Exposed). I realize this has gotten a lot of play today, but it’s so disgusting it bears repeating in as many places as possible.

While pondering the response he got to his post The Great Rovian Sit ‘N Spin, Matt asks a number of questions about the viability of cross-party debate. Here’s the paragraph that really got me thinking this morning.

The question I have is this: when was the last time you visited a blog (or watched a television show) and left convinced of a political viewpoint with which you had previously disagreed? Do we visit political blogs only to confirm our own prejudices? Even if the answer to that question is “yes,� is there anything wrong with that?

For me the answer is almost certainly yes to the first and no to the second. While I do try to keep up on Conservative and Republican blogs, I don’t generally come away with a different viewpoint. More to the point, I usually come away even more convinced of my own pre-conceived notions on a particular matter. Not that I don’t ever change my mind, I do it all the time, but that is usually associated with a new set of facts rather than a passionate argument one way or another.

So what is the point of all of this? Why even bother? The short answer is that I really don’t know. When I first started reading blogs, it was all about catharsis. I found it refreshing to find so many people out there with whom I could agree, or at least tended to agree with, dissecting the news and writing about their political beliefs. Reading a well timed “Fuck You” aimed squarely at those in power, both in government and in the press, coming from a Liberal was a revelation to me.

Not that I’m usually much of a bomb thrower myself, and I don’t spend much, or any, time lashing out at conservative bloggers. Matt did an excellent job with his post, in sticking to the facts and laying off personalities, but that often seems not to be the case. When arguments denigrate into name calling and hyper-partisan hyperbole, they may be fun to read or take part in, but they’re probably not very productive. I doubt that anybody walks away better informed or with a new perspective.

Not that calling an elected official or pundit an asshole is something I haven’t done, or won’t continue to do. It just doesn’t sit as well with me, personally, to use the same language about somebody who’s just writing a blog. There are exceptions of course, as when a blogger’s profile has gotten so large that they have become a well known public figure, it’s probably not out of line to go after them with some veracity.

Again, what’s the point of doing this? It’s probably a little about preaching to the choir, as well as trying to promote issues or candidates with people who share your particular ideology. The thing I’m proudest of doing on this site was to advocate repeatedly for Seth Williams in his primary loss to Lynne Abraham. I don’t know that the concerted effort really did anything to raise his profile, or helped him get a single vote, but it certainly felt like it. The biggest effect was that it gave the local newspapers a new angle to cover a race that they were otherwise ignoring. Is that good enough? No, but it’s a start.

End navel gaze.

Albert was kind enough to let me know about a new ACLU blog dedicated solely to information on the Patriot Act. In addition, the ACLU has also set up a page to provide tools for bloggers who want to write about the doings and undoings surrounding the act. Since everybody has blog or four, this probably includes you, so go have a peak.

My wife and I heard the NPR interview with Ann Compton on our way to work this morning. My wife is none too political, but even she gasped when she heard what Compton thought were the darkest months in her 30 years of covering the White House. Richard Cranium has transcribed the response. Go gaze in awe.

(Via nearly all of humanity)

(Post deleted because it was stupid)

I was looking over the site’s archives and came across a link I have not plugged in ages. Go have a peak at The Daily Delay for updates on that fine soul, Tom Delay. Such fun and such mayhem.

I’m going to be really bi-partisan here, so forgive me please. I think it’s just about time that Vince Fumo and my cousin (or so says my dad), John Perzel, had blogs dedicated entirely to their doings and undoings. I’d love to see it happen, but I just don’t have the time myself. If anyone does, they should shoot me an email as I can be useful if called upon.

Alan Sandals anounced his candidacy for United States Senator from Pennsylvania on Thursday. Have a look at Sandals’ campaign website here. You can read his press release on his website and I’ve also placed it in the extended entry.

For the record, I’m supporting Chuck Pennacchio in the Democratic primary, but I will always support contested primaries. The more contest, the better the democracy.

(Via PoliticsPhilly)

Read the rest of this entry »

Please go have a look at this post by Matt on The Tattered Coat, where he systematically destroys a great many of the falsehoods regarding the Plame/Rove affair that have been flowing of the Republican spin machine. Incredible stuff, and everybody should get over there and take part.

As a side note, I’m pretty friendly with Matt, we’ve had a few nice conversations, a few laughs over a few decent beers, and he’s been a great friend to this site during its fall onto hard times - Great guy all around. That said, I don’t think I’d ever want to be in the batters box if Matt was the guy serving up the fastballs. Brutal, precise, dastardly, but oh-so-polite. Damn.

Why are you still here? Go read!

By popular demand, I’ve created a goo/warp image of the Bush and Rove picture I posted in the previous entry. It’s not perfect because President Bush is out of focus (Really?), and the image takes a while to load. Oh, well. Enjoy.

By popular demand, I mean one person, but that’s really besides the point, now isn’t it? I recomend switching the Goo tool from the default big Goo, to the smaller one as it’s more fun.

…post a stupid picture.

From the Finacial Times:

“So it has been strange this week to watch Mr Bush avoid even the slightest expression of public support for Karl Rove, his political right hand and the man most responsible for the president being president. . . .

“Mr Bush’s silence is a sign he could be facing a serious threat to his presidency.”

Picture from Reuters. (All via Froomkin)

Samantha is taking a good hard look at everybody’s favorite dog loving drama queen, Rick Santorum, and documenting the atrocities. Go have a look. Young Philly Politics also has a nice Santorum run down, as well as a new address and look. Be sure to have peak.

Santorum Hatred™ - Always a smart choice!

Apparently, Santorum can’t be blamed for saying that acts of pedophilia commited by preists are the result of the liberal culture in Boston. As it turns out, he was just distressed by the Phillies recent perfomance against the Red Sox. Well, that clears up everything. At least he didn’t take it out on his dog.

Santorum Hatred™ - Always a smart choice!

Nothing too surprising here, which makes it all the more disheartening.

Interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forced a stubborn detainee to wear women’s underwear on his head, confronted him with snarling military working dogs and attached a leash to his chains, according to a newly released military investigation that shows the tactics were employed there months before military police used them on detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The techniques, approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use in interrogating Mohamed Qahtani — the alleged “20th hijacker” in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — were used at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 as part of a special interrogation plan aimed at breaking down the silent detainee.

Military investigators who briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday on the three-month probe, called the tactics “creative” and “aggressive” but said they did not cross the line into torture.

The report’s findings are the strongest indication yet that the abusive practices seen in photographs at Abu Ghraib were not the invention of a small group of thrill-seeking military police officers. The report shows that they were used on Qahtani several months before the United States invaded Iraq.

The investigation also supports the idea that soldiers believed that placing hoods on detainees, forcing them to appear nude in front of women and sexually humiliating them were approved interrogation techniques for use on detainees.

Creative use of the word “creative” if you ask me.

Well, not really. My server did have a really super fabulous crash this evening, so if you were wondering what the hell happened, now you know, and knowing is half the battle. The stuff I was planning to write tonight was completely earth shattering, which is the real disappointment in all of this. It was blow a hole it your brain with a pile of technicolor koala crap, moving at light speed, super fabulous political hoo ha. Fuck it, what can I say? You missed out. Poor bastards, one and all. Damn computers.

According to Rick Santorum, it was living amongst liberals and academia that turned priests into pedophiles in Boston. My question would be what demographic has Rick Santorum been living amongst which has turned him into a dangerous psychopath? Was it the Virginians or the home schoolers who led poor little Rick astray? My other question would be, does living in a commonwealth represented by Rick Santorum, make me an asshole?

WASHINGTON — Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston’s ”liberalism” with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city’s ‘’sexual license” and ‘’sexual freedom” nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.

”The basic liberal attitude in that area . . . has an impact on people’s behavior,” Santorum said in an interview yesterday at the Capitol.

”If you have a world view that I’m describing [about Boston] . . . that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way,” Santorum said.

Santorum, a leader among Christian conservatives, was responding to questions about remarks he made three years ago on a website called Catholic Online. In those comments, Santorum said, ”It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm” of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

The junior senator is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and is considered a possible candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2008, if he wins reelection to a third Senate term next year.

”I was just saying that there’s an attitude that is very open to sexual freedom that is more predominant” in Boston, Santorum said yesterday. Reminded that the sexual abuse occurred across the country, Santorum said that ”at the time [in 2002], there was an indication that there was more of a problem there” in Boston.

Santorum Hatred™ - Always a smart choice!

The Raw Story has gotten hold of a copy of the GOP’s Rove talking points. As you may have guessed, right is wrong, up is down, and whatever you do, don’t believe your lying eyes. Good stuff, I wish I had some time. Ah, well. (Via Susie)

Busy, busy day, but I did want to announce my pride in learning that RHL is both the number two and three result for the search string “Rick Santorum Hatred” on Google.

Update: Just one sentence, but I’ve had to reword it 15 or 16 times, and it’s probably still all wrong. Just because this is the number two and three source for Santorum Hatred^(TM) on the internets, doesn’t mean I can actually write. Ah, well.

Update Update: Damn, we’ve dropped down to four and five overnight. I feel like I’ve really let you guys down. Sorry.

Update Update Update: Good lord.

Since I seem to have really rubbed some people the wrong way by writing about my thoughts on some of the previous tunes I’ve put on the site for download, I won’t bother with analysis this time, other than to say the tune is really super swell and I like it. Fair enough?

The tune is Hat and Beard by Eric Dolphy, from his album Out to Lunch. It was recorded on February 25, 1964 and features Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Bobby Hutherson on vibes, Richard Davis on bass and Tony Williams on drums. There are any number of really interesting things to listen for, but you’ll have to find them for yourself. Click here to download or play. As always, if you like what you hear, go out and buy the whole album.

On August 29, 1996, President Bill Clinton’s top political advisor, Dick Morris, resigned amidst a press uproar after it was revealed that he was having an adulterous, toe sucking affair with a prostitute. In addition to the toe sucking, he had allowed the prostitute in question to listen in on a conversation with the President and read one of the President’s speeches before it was delivered.

On July 11, 2003, President George W. Bush’s top political advisor, Karl Rove, revealed, in a conversation with Time Inc. reporter Matthew Cooper, that the wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson was a covert CIA operative. While he may or may not have mentioned the name Valerie Plame, her husband Ambassador Wilson is a well known figure and deriving her identity from that information would be a simple task for even a junior reporter. At the time, Plame’s specialty at the CIA was tracking weapons of mass destruction. While it is not known, at this time, whether or not Rove also revealed Plame’s identity to Judith Miller, Robert Novak and others, the revelation of his conversation with Cooper raises serious, as yet, unanswered questions. At this time Karl Rove remains in his position.

I have little respect for toe sucking, adulterous political hacks who try to prove their manliness to prostitutes by showing off their connections to the president. Morris is a tool, and the outrage surrounding his actions was just fine with me, as was his resignation. I say good riddance (if only he were really gone). I do, however, tend to find the revelation of classified information for political gain to be exponentially more appalling. Given that Plame worked on tracking weapon’s of mass destruction, her outing at a time when our country was engaged in a war whose primary justification was another nation’s alleged possession of WMD. We should all be curious to see whether or not the outrage meter in the press will ramp up in the coming days, leading to Rove’s resignation, or if this will be nothing more than a blip on the media radar. I don’t have much hope.

Update: The Rove story wound up being the third segment on ABC News this evening, right after Dennis and London, and was prior to the first commercial break. My pessimism may be unwarranted for a change. Mind you, this isn’t an entirely partisan thing for me, though it certainly does have that component. The degree to which stonewalling has worked for this administration is stunning. It certainly would be nice to see them held accountable for a serious lapse every now and again. Certain things do indeed need to go punished, and this is one of them. There is a great deal more, of course, but a shitstorm over this would be most welcome.