Monthly Archives: June 2008

Monday Blogging – 6/30/08

by Chris   –   June 30, 2008

Steel yourself for the greatest blogging ever. Today. Starting now.
9:15am
Gas prices at an all time high. Seriously, does this make any sense? Are we driving a lot more all of the sudden? Are the Chinese driving a lot more? Supply is increasing if you believe the reports that Saudi Arabia is bumping up production, so [...]

Olbermann shills for Obama?

by Chris   –   June 27, 2008

(Three Updates below)
In a scathing post yesterday, Glenn Greenwald accused MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann of carrying water for the Obama campaign. Greenwald says Olbermann abandoned his rhetoric on telecom immunity / warrantless domestic spying now that Obama supports it.
Here was Olbermann addressing Bush in January:
There is not a choice of protecting the telecoms from prosecution or [...]

CBS: Iraq isn't important

by Chris   –   June 26, 2008

This news from the NY Times just blew my mind when I read it:
CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed.
Paul Friedman, a senior vice president at CBS News, said the news division does not get reports from Iraq on television “with enough frequency [...]

VD-Day

by Chris   –   June 25, 2008

This weekend my girlfriend gave me Herpes:

*******
Freeblogging
10:00am
What’s up with Shaq?

10:50am
Damozel at TMV keeps us informed about the telecom immunity / FISA fight in the Senate.
11:20am
Chris Dodd’s speech on FISA from yesterday:

2:20pm
CNN says, “the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that child rapists cannot be executed, concluding capital punishment can be applied only against murderers.”
Child rapists [...]

Reality in Iraq

by Chris   –   June 24, 2008

Juan Cole compiles the numbers for us:
By now, summer of 2008, excess deaths from violence in Iraq since March of 2003 must be at least a million. This conclusion can be reached more than one way. There is not much controversy about it in the scientific community. Some 310,000 of those were [...]

We gave up privacy years ago

by Chris   –   June 23, 2008

Killing the Fourth Amendment

by Chris   –   June 20, 2008

Updated Below
From page 5 of the The FISA Amendment Act of 2008:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a civil action may not lie or be maintained in a Federal or State court against any person for providing assistance to an element of the intelligence community, and shall be promptly dismissed, if the Attorney General certifies [...]

Preserving equal treatment under the law

by Chris   –   June 19, 2008

I noted Monday that Congressional Democrats were planning to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications corporations (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) who aided the Bush administration in illegally spying on us. (Read my explanation of the telecom immunity issue here and/or check out this scathing NY Times editorial)
The Hill and Dow Jones are reporting that this is indeed [...]

Honesty vs ratings at MSNBC

by Chris   –   June 17, 2008

A recent New Yorker profile of MSNBC star Keith Olbermann has revealed some startling information about the inner-workings of major American news outlets.
Shaping the news and commentary for ratings or for some other form of personal greed is just about the worst thing a journalist can do. But apparently that’s not out of the ordinary at [...]

Democrats still just the lesser evil

by Chris   –   June 16, 2008

In the last decade the Republican party has methodically tacked further and further to the fringe. I’m reluctant to say they’ve moved more to the ‘right’ because I still associate the ‘right’ with conservatism. However, I don’t think there is anything remotely conservative about the prevailing Republican ideology.
Republicans are now the party of endless war, [...]