Prairie Weather

Ooooo! Yes! Yes! Don't stop!

So what [would] happen if the Democrats took back the House next year? It's something of a long shot, and the Senate is an even longer shot (although not completely impossible), but stay with me here. What should the Democrats say to the corporate establishment that has been so tight with the Republican leaders?

My suggestion is this: Show them no mercy. Tell them, we'll make you a deal. Fire every Republican you hired in the last ten years, and max out to the DNC and every Democratic candidate in creation, and then we'll consider not killing every last provision in every bill that might benefit you. And while you're at it, you might consider adopting some new positions - let's say, in favor of single-payer health care, which would save you a lot of money anyway - as offerings to your new masters. You have two choices: you can accept half a loaf - well, OK, not half a loaf, maybe a tenth of a loaf - meaning whatever scraps we decide to throw your way, or we can make your life hell as long as we control one of the houses of Congress. Bow down and lick our feet, you maggots, and get busy atoning for your sins.... here...

In its "Readings" section, the latest Harper's quotes from the summer issue of Maledicta the "requests submitted over the last two years aby ABC's Broadcast Standards & Practices board to the producers of the cartoon  'Bump in the Night.'"

Here are some of Board's objections:

Please ensure that the action in which the character's limbs are tied into knots does not appear painful.

Caution on the appearance of "snot."  As agreed at script stage, we expect this to look clear and shiny rather than thick, green, and disgusting.  As you know, any depiction of nasal mucus brings with it problems for our sales division.

We are evaluating the line "Get bent" to determine if the expression has a hidden slang meaning.

We are researching the term "Hour of the Antelope" and will get back to you.

Please delete the phrase "You're so stupid!"  We wish to avoid negative IQ references.

Please substitute for the cynical remark about Christmas being indestructible because "It's too big, too marketable."

As agreed, the sarcastic "That was the moral, kids, in case you didn't catch it" wlil be replaced with "Darn."

Billmon has some good thoughts on Larry Franklin's plea bargain and what it means. 

My take is that the relationship between US government and AIPAC runs far and deep.  I'll betcha it includes as much Democratic as Republican collusion.  There isn't much, uh, danger of our ever getting to the truth of the corruption inherent in the relationship of the US and Israel.  Or that we'll ever modify that corrupt relationship...

Readings

Do you have enough white matter to work in Bush's White House?

Are you aware of what's going on in Guantanamo?  Now?  More torture?  With full approval of the Administration?  Are you able to read the details? 

Did the anti-war protests do any good last weekend?  Where were the Democrats?

And here's an odd mystery.  Why did the New York Times sit on the story of Judith Miller's release while other media grabbed it?

Will the right wing, not exactly in the best of political shape these days,  get away with this partisan temper tantrum? Or will they be defeated once again by the dogged, relentless center and left who will continue to defend Public Broadcasting?

Grand jury. Corruption.

During the past 24 hours, when there's been plenty of news, I've heard a few minutes from two radio talk shows but couldn't, for one reason or another hear more than a suggestion of what they were talking about.  In both cases what I heard has kept me wondering.

This morning, driving into Austin with KLBJ (that's the old Austin radio station started over 50 years ago by Lady Bird Johnson's family -- formerly a liberal station but now dominated by Rush Limbaugh and Co) I heard some interesting insights into the workings of the Grand Jury which just indicted Tom DeLay.  The early morning show has two hosts, both white male, one far right, one less so.  They were interviewing by phone one of the members of the Grand Jury which brought down the DeLay indictment.  He was saying (and they had apparently been convinced by him that he was being completely truthful) that Ronnie Earle didn't in any way manipulate the Grand Jury into a decision.  Rather, the shoe was on the other foot.  Members of the Grand Jury were very demanding of evidence and testimony and kept Earle and his assistants busy. 

That's my construction based on what this Jury member said after hearing the last couple of minutes of the interview and the hosts' responses to it.  The description of Earle's approach bears out other things I've heard about Earle's work on this case, but of course the right wing media (with the exception of these two KLBJ hosts) will dismiss any suggestions that Earle is on the up and up and that the process was fair.

The other brief excerpt I heard was from Al Franken's show, yesterday, on Air America.  Franken was talking with Tom Oliphant about not just the corruption in the Republican Party (and lobbyists and other friends) but the deeply systemic corruption. He was saying that Plame and Franklin and Safavian and Frist and DeLay are not separate matters but rather they are interconnected, and unless investigators work together in making those connections, a most of the corruption will not be found and prosecuted.  Again, others have been saying the same thing. 

Unfortunately, Earle and Patrick Fitzgerald-- and particular offices and task forces within the Justice Department -- cannot be expected to cooperate.  Or can they?

Update: The Washington Post has just posted some not-so-good news.  Swifty lawyer, Dick de Guerin, will be acting for DeLay, has defeated Ronnie Earle in the past and intends to do so again.  De Guerin doesn't lose much.  Except Waco...

Judith Miller will testify

She's out.

After nearly three months behind bars, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released from a federal prison Thursday after agreeing to testify in the investigation into the disclosure of a covert CIA officer's identity, two people familiar with the case said. Miller left the federal detention center in Alexandria, Va., after reaching an agreement with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Legal sources said she would appear before a grand jury investigation the case Friday morning.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury proceedings. The sources said Miller agreed to testify after securing an unconditional release from Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, to testify about any discussions they had involving CIA officer Valerie Plame.

New York Times report here.