Tuesday, December 30, 2003 by s.z.

Hmmm?
The A.P. story:

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft removed himself Tuesday from the investigation into whether the Bush administration leaked a CIA operative's name to a newspaper columnist, and a career federal prosecutor from Chicago was named as special counsel to take over.

In a move cheered by Democrats, Deputy Attorney General James Comey announced that Ashcroft had stepped aside to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest after reviewing evidence recently developed in the inquiry. He would not specify the nature of that evidence.

[snip]

Comey would not say what prompted Ashcroft's decision, which the administration previously had resisted. But he said "it is not one of actual conflict of interest that arises normally when someone has a financial interest or something. The issue that he was concerned about was one of appearance. And I can't go beyond that."

Yeah, it's the kind of conflict of interest that arises when you were appointed Attorney General by your friend George Bush, and one of George's other bestest buddies is busted. (Try to say THAT 5 times fast!)

So, who do you think the leaker is? My guess is still Scooter in the Vice President's Office with a telephone, but I eagerly await seeing what cards others might hold.

7:35:59 PM
comment []



News of the Blogosphere!

1. Suburban Guerrilla (see link in "Favorite Stuff" column) is now an advice columnist too! Go to The Bitching Post for some suggestions on how to cope with snowphobia, despairing bloggers, and the out-of-work. You can also submit your own problems ("Dear Bitch, I am an elderly woman at a small, midwestern college who never thought something like this would happen to me!") But our session time is over for today.

2. Per Roger Ailes, we see that USA Today has learned about this new phenomenon called "blogging." And while it's not as popular as print outlets such as, oh, USA Today, it does have its own insidious power:

Their audience tends to be an elite crowd of political junkies who have almost non-stop access to a computer and large amounts of time to surf the Internet for breaking news. In short: political consultants and journalists. That's what makes political bloggers so powerful, says Jeff Jarvis, an executive with Advance.net, the online branch of Newhouse newspapers and the blogger behind Buzzmachine.com. ''It's influencing influencers.''

So, a shout out to all of you elite political consultants and journalists who might be reading this, and please allow me to influence you for good, and not for evil.

Anyway, USA Today gets lots of quotes from Andrew Sullivan, the guy who pretty much invented blogging -- or at least invented a way to ensure the viability of paid blogging for Andrew Sullivan.

Veteran bloggers say the most expensive sites -- blogs so heavily trafficked that they require their own Web servers -- can be operated for less than $500 a month.

Bloggers have found they can make their soapboxes pay.

Moulitsas says he got $4,000 in less than 12 hours when he asked fans of DailyKos.com to help him pay for a new server.

Sullivan last year hosted a Public Broadcasting Service-style pledge drive on his blog. He says he got almost $100,000.

Taking Andrew at his word (which, as Sadly, No!, has pointed out, is a gamble), Andrew's actual blogging expenses would have came to less than $6000 last year, leaving him a salary of almost $94,000! So, why is be begging again this year? And why are people giving him anything? And if they are, are his donors all political consultants who think that Andrew is actually influencing people to like Bush??? If somebody pays me, I will do further research on this topic.

3. And speaking of Sadly, No!, he is apparently running off to Pisa to not use drugs with Amber Pawlik.

4. If you're one of those bloggers The Bitching Post was consulted about, so oversome by the evils of the world that you can barely get out of bed these days, I suggest a trip to the Thrilling Days of Yesteryear. Celebrate the New Year with the The Great Gildersleeve and the Jolly Boys, 1947 style, and pretend that Bush, along with Meghan, were never born, thanks to abstinence programs that actually work. You'll feel a lot better, I guarantee.

UPDATE: Oh, and we welcome to the ranks of blogging, Jim's Mom, at Rittenhouse Review, who shares some charming and fascinating reminiscences about knitting, homefront life during W.W.II and attending Catholic school. We hope she considers doing this on a regular basis. Oh, and we want to thank her for the butter cookie recipes from a couple of weeks ago. We bought real butter and a cookie press this week, so we can make some of the pressed ones, since Jim made them sound so good. We like the whole Rittenhouse family, and wish them a very happy New Year.

3:59:29 PM
comment []

What if She Were Never Born?

(Would Paris Then Be Part of Another Family With a Competent Mother?)



As you probably know, TBOGG is quite taken with (in that he finds it quite irritatingly stupid) the family comedy of Meghan Cox Gurdon, as recounted in her weekly NRO sit-column, "Swamp of Pestilence and Despair." It's the story of Meghan, a formerly "liberated" woman, who is now a horribly inept stay-at home Mom to four pwecious widdle children, called (I think) Cordelia, Goneril, Reagan, and Paris. Paris, who is a boy, is not best known for his sex tape. (At least, not yet.)

But did you know that Meghan has been mentioned in the Congressional Record? And not in a plea for disaster relief either! No, she was cited in January by "the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence)" (I guess they have only one gentleman, so a first name wasn't necessary), who was given 60 minutes (probably in the middle of the night) to "make the arguments, philosophical, intellectual, moral and historical, on this blue and gold carpet, on a regular basis, for the sanctity of human life." In that he's against Roe v. Wade.

Anyway, he quotes from an essay which Meghan wrote for the Wall Street Journal "a number of years ago". Here's an interesting chunk of it:

For all 17 of us, all descended from two unwanted pregnancies - two pregnancies that produced hasty marriages, some unhappiness, rather more sadness, and even actually two divorces. And I have to say, boy, am I glad that those pregnancies, dismaying and unexpected as they were, entailing the compromises that they did for those involved, were not tidied up in a clinic so that the young mothers in question could `get on with their lives.´ You, gentle reader, would have been deprived of nothing more than my editorial voice. I and 16 kinsfolk would have been robbed of everything."

I'll leave it to TBOGG to express how grateful we are that we weren't so deprived.

3:08:07 AM
comment []

The Least Important Lists of 2003



It's the end of the year (as we know it...and I feel fine), and so everyone is coming out with their lists. Best movies of the year. Worst movies of the year. Best CDs of the year. Most important news stories of the year. Most underreported news stories of the year (most of these lists are from far-right outlets who are indignant that NOBODY CARES that the guy working the night shift at the 7-11 in Snowflake, AZ has a document PROVING that Fidel Castro is the real mastermind behind al Qaeda). Best celebrity criminals of the year. Stuff like that.

And I read the lists, and realize I've seen maybe one of the movies on all of the lists (I've gone to very few movies this year); have listened to none of the CDs (I've purchased no music this year -- poverty, you know); and can't rate the newsworthiness of events until either enough time has based to give us true perspective, or until I'm able to recall what happened a couple of months ago.

So, I'm doing my own lists, as they occur to me. Sure, they will be arbitrary, capricious, and idiosyncratic. But are those other lists any better? (Don't answer yet! You also get the ginsu steak knives!)

Anyway, here are my first ones -- I'm sure you'll them nostalgic, informative, and full of pop-culturey goodness.



Best TV Shows I've Seen In the Past Couple of Weeks

1. Arrested Development -- The ep where Tobias (David Cross) the wannabe actor, and his wife Portia go to marriage counseling; Tobias and the counselor, another wannabe actor, "role play" a conflict in the marriage through to passionage make-up sex.

There's going to be an "Arrested Development" marathon Wednesday night -- as the promo for it says, "Here's a chance to spend New Year's Eve with a truly dysfunctional family -- other than your own." So, check it out if you haven't already, and if you don't have anything better to do.

2. The Simpsons -- The musical ep with Lisa as Evita Peron.

Runner-up: the rerun about the Stonecutters, which was on last night. ("Who holds back the electric car? Who made Steve Gutenberg a star?")

3. Law and Order -- the TNT rerun from several years ago which starts with a mystery about skeleton found at the construction site, and then turns into a ripped-from-the-headlines Billionare Boys Club story. Excellent story telling, great interplay between Ben Stone and the not-as-smart-as-he-thinks-he-is criminal mastermind who later became the D.A. on Homicide: Life on the Streets (which shows how prison really can reform people).

Most Important Blog of the Year

1. Eschaton. Because Atrios, who links to things even BEFORE they happen, and covers a wide variety of beats (political, social, war, waterfront, etc.) has become essential reading for everybody, everywhere. And because getting linked to Eschaton will give you more hits in a day than you'd get in a month on your own.

Most Unlikely-Sounding Pizza That Actually Tastes Good

1. The Dominos Philly Cheese Steak pizza.

Perennial favorite: Ham and Pineapple (I like it -- so sue me)

Person Who Has Done the Most For Fox News This Month

1. Michael Jackson (they really should send him a muffin basket, or some elephant man remains, or something)

Worst Movie of the Year

1. Gigli

Person Who Has to Watch it for Some Movie Book

1. Not Me!

Well, those are the lists for today. Expect more, as more milestones come to mind.

2:33:17 AM
comment []



Tonight's "Hardball" with Christopher Hitchens: Wacky Fun for the Whole Family



[Correction: I have been informed that Matthews turned over his show to one Mike Barnicle last night. So, please mentally change all the "Matthews" to "Barnicle"s as you read this piece. Thank you. And as punishment for having been fooled by this Matthews impersonator, I promise to someday watch "Hardball" when the actual Matthews appears on it. Sure, that seems a harsh penalty, but I have to learn somehow.]

Okay, I was sorta watching Chris Matthew's "Hardball" while reading the paper and eating dinner. When Christopher Hitchens showed up, I put down the paper because it looked like it might get interesting. And it did, in a surreal kind of way.

First, Matthews wanted Hitchens say that the Democratic candidates were using mad cow disease to take shots at Bush, but Hitchens instead talked about how the meat industry exploits workers, consumers, and animals. So, Matthews had to say it himself ("The voters are being exploited by the Democrats").

Then Matthews moved on to Howard Dean bashing, saying that Dean is "better at stoking the Democrats anger" than the other candidates (which is why he they are losing ground to him), but that the media needs to hold him to account for all the unconscionable stuff he is saying. Matthews exclaimed indignantly that Dean is running for President and yet he "buys into the conspiracy theory" that Bush was forewarned of 9/11 -- a crazy, ludicrous, paranoid theory -- and yet the media doesn't lay into him for three days!

[Note: in the previous segment, a Dean supporter who got too excited and tended to rant (but who still made some very good points) became really angry when his fellow guest made the same accusation. The wild-eyed guy pointed out that immediately after bringing up the conspiracy theory, Dean had said he didn't believe it -- but that people don't mention that part of the interview when they want to demonize Dean. So . . .I guess Matthews was counting on his audience to have forgotten that exchange during the commercial break. Or else figured that since he was the host, he could say whatever the hell he wanted and people would accept it.]

Anyway, Hitchens said that they would have to hold Dean accountable, and then went into his own rant about how Dean smirked after he made his comments, and was "flippantly, frivolously" wrong on important, LIFE OR DEATH issues. If Hitchens was wrong about stuff, at least he was SERIOUSLY wrong about them, but Dean was FLIPPANTLY wrong, and Dean was worthless as a person, and as a human being.

[Disclaimer: Matthews was trying to cut off Hitchens because he was ranting and they were out of time, but he kept talking over Matthews. So, it's possible I misheard a couple of words at the end. But I'm pretty sure that's what he said -- that Dean was worthless as a human being.]

So, I hope we see more of Hitchens on future shows, and pray that he gives us more insights into the worth of the various candidates as human beings -- because you just don't get that kind of thing from other political commentators. At least, not from commentators who have announced that they felt "exhilaration" after watching the events of 9/11.

12:41:21 AM
comment []