RNC Logo

As City Pages said, "Worst. Logo. Ever." Say it with me, everyone: "Wide stance."

Surely this is a comment on how the party will give it to the country elephant-style if they're put back in power in 2008.

Good Money Afer Bad

Last month, I read William Gibson's excellent new novel, Spook Country, the plot of which centers on the MacGuffin of a shipping container full of cash, making its way back from Iraq to the United States. It's a great book; read it.

First, though, read "Billions over Baghdad," an appalling piece by Donald L. Barlet and James B. Steele which describes how, with incredible naiveté and incompetence, the United States government transferred nearly $12 billion (with a B, as they say) to the non-government in Iraq in the months after we toppled Saddam. 12 billion bucks, entirely in cash.

By all accounts, the New York Fed and the Treasury Department exercised strict surveillance and control over all of this money while it was on American soil. But after the money was delivered to Iraq, oversight and control evaporated. Of the $12 billion in U.S. banknotes delivered to Iraq in 2003 and 2004, at least $9 billion cannot be accounted for. A portion of that money may have been spent wisely and honestly; much of it probably wasn't. Some of it was stolen.

There are too many fantastic, nauseating details in the piece to really do it justice, from the extra-legal existence of the CPA to the sheer physical dimensions of this much money. Viz.:

During the [Coalition Provisional Authority]'s little more than a year of life, the New York Federal Reserve Bank made 21 shipments of currency to Iraq totaling $11,981,531,000. All told, the Fed would ship 281 million individual banknotes, in bricks weighing a total of 363 tons.

726,000 pounds of cash, all belonging by law to the Iraqi people, now mostly gone into the hands of crooked American contractors, regular Iraqi crooks, insurgents and terrorists, and who knows whom else. Sick, and sicker for being just one example of the towering incompetence of the Bush administration.

Craig's List

Another day, another Republican gay-sex scandal - this one originating in the men’s room at the Northstar Crossing in MSP's Lindbergh Terminal. From Newser:

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig was arrested after allegedly soliciting sex from a male plainclothes police officer in a men's room at Minneapolis airport June 11. August 8th, Craig appeared in the Hennepin County District Court and pled guilty to disorderly conduct . • He was given a suspended 10-day jail sentence and a year's probation. He denied wrongdoing today, and said he regrets his guilty plea. “I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter,” he said. "In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.” Craig, 62, resigned as Senate co-chair of the Romney campaign.

Read the Roll Call story. it's a doozy, full of interesting details from the police report about how Craig solicited the officer. It sounds like he's an old pro at cruising - though not at coming up with excuses for the behavior that got him arrested. "Craig stated 'that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,' the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.' It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper,' the arresting officer said in the report."

Barbara Ehrenreich dissects the ongoing financial crises:

Somewhere in the Hamptons a high-roller is cursing his cleaning lady and shaking his fists at the lawn guys. The American poor, who are usually tactful enough to remain invisible to the multi-millionaire class, suddenly leaped onto the scene and started smashing the global financial system. Incredibly enough, this may be the first case in history in which the downtrodden manage to bring down an unfair economic system without going to the trouble of a revolution.

First they stopped paying their mortgages, a move in which they were joined by many financially stretched middle class folks, though the poor definitely led the way. All right, these were trick mortgages, many of them designed to be unaffordable within two years of signing the contract. There were “NINJA” loans, for example, awarded to people with “no income, no job or assets.” Conservative columnist Niall Fergusen laments the low levels of “economic literacy” that allowed people to be exploited by sub-prime loans. Why didn’t these low-income folks get lawyers to go over the fine print? And don’t they have personal financial advisors anyway?

More.

This Just In: Some Republicans Are Hypocrites

I can't find anything to cut out of this post on the City Pages' "Blotter" blog, so I'll just quote it all:

Back in June, Vita.mn ran a story about where people have sex outdoors in Minnesota. The article made it on the Strib's main web page, prompting reader complaints. Kate Parry, the paper's ombudsman, wrote an article about the brouhaha, quoting Tim Droogsma, former press secretary for both then-senator Rudy Boschwitz and then-governor Arne Carlson.

Droogsma's reaction to the article: "I don't think I'm too prudish (which, I realize, is what prudes always say), but do we really want this sentence: 'She hopped on my lap, facing forward. I pulled up her skirt in the back, slid her panties out of the way, and unzipped'?"

Fast forward a couple months:

On Tuesday, Droogsma was arrested by St. Paul cops for allegedly trying to pay for sex. The deal was brokered on Craiglist, the St. Paul PD says, and the would-be prostitute was an undercover cop.

In an email to the Strib, Droogsma, 50, denies being a dirty late-middle-aged man, calling the whole escapade "a severe misunderstanding."

I love hypocrisy!

Tour de France

The 2007 Tour de France starts on Saturday, July 7, in London. Which isn't part of France, but so what. The race is as messy and convoluted as ever. Last year's race still doesn't have an official winner, with American Floyd Landis, who finished in the yellow jersey last July, still being investigated for doping. Multiple overlapping "scandals du dopage" have driven many of the would-be favorites away from the race or even out of cycling altogether. (And the race has the dubious quality of being held forty years after the death of British rider Tom Simpson, who collapsed and died during a hard mountain stage in 1967 and was found to have been doped to the gills.)

Still and all, I think it'll still be a great race. According to VeloNews' excellent overview of the race (available through VeloNews' Tour site, where you can find a positively ridiculous amount of coverage) the course is one of the most difficult in recent years, with relatively few long, flat "sprinter's stages;" two long individual time trials; and six mountain stages, all ending at or just after a big climb. In other words, no one-shot wonders will be able to capture a key stage and take the whole thing. On the other hand, the increasing difficulty of the Tour is itself one of the reasons riders dope in the first place: it's just too hard to do without chemical help.

That aside, American Levi Leipheimer has a shot a winning, or at least finishing on the podium, and a couple other Americans might win a stage or two. Besides Leipheimer, possible winners come from all over: Russia (Denis Menchov), Kazakhstan (Alexander Vinokourov), Germany (Andreas Kloeden), Spain (Alejandro Valverde), and Australia (Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers). Maybe the most interesting situation is that of Oscar Pereiro, the Spaniard who finished second last year but might still win that race if Landis is disqualified. Indeed, with a ruling in Landis' doping case due any day, Pereiro could be in the strange and unprecedented position of assuming the defense of last year's title midway through this year's race. Yellow jersey on the road, indeed.

CT on the Radio

A month or so ago, I was interviewed by a Minnesota Public Radio reporter for a story about Capella University, a former employe of mine (and the other two After School Snack bloggers, as it happens). I had volunteered my perspective on Capella's addiction to student loans when MPR sought information from its listeners after the recent student-loan scandal erupted. A scrap of my interview survived in the final story, which is, as they say, "fair and balanced."

Unlike my eyeballs, which seem to have relocated to one o'clock on the dial.

Hilton Jail

I gotta think her dad slaps his forehead whenever things like this happen - thankfully, only on days ending in Y. From the Superficial:

The Los Angeles City Attorney filed a motion yesterday demanding a hearing before Judge Michael Sauer to determine why the Sheriff's Department allowed Paris Hilton to get out of jail when the judge had expressly ordered her to serve out her entire sentence. Paris was scheduled to appear in court today at 9 AM, but, of course, has been allowed to appear via phone instead. TMZ reports that at this moment there's a war going on in the courtroom between Paris' lawyer, the City Attorney, and the Sheriff's Dept.

And in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like outside Paris Hilton's home right now. There's at least five news choppers circling and an armada of paparazzi on the street. Because, really, this is the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of time. George Washington could come back from the dead and he'd just end up getting trampled to death by all the news people trying to get to Paris' house.

UPDATE: Judge Michael T. Sauer has ordered that Paris Hilton appear in person for the hearing and has sent a Los Angeles County Sheriff's vehicle to pick her up.

LATER UPDATE, also from the Superficial:

Paris Hilton has been ordered back to jail in Lynwood and will serve out her 23 day sentence with a credit for the 5 days she's already served. Reporters say she was crying through the entire process and, when Judge Michael Sauer gave his decision, she let out a huge cry and said, "This isn't right." She was then physically dragged out of the courtroom by a female deputy, in tears, screaming, "Mom, Mom, Mom." Some witnesses say they saw a rainbow above the courtroom. And others say they saw a giant man in the clouds with a white beard nodding his head approvingly. And me? Well I saw Judge Michael Sauer grow to be twelve feet tall, with muscles the size of tree trunks. And when he smiled, little cartoon hearts appeared above my head and there was a strange tingling sensation in my pants. NOTE: I officially nominate Judge Michael Sauer for President of the Entire Universe.

I am ashamed to have spent so much time tracking this story today.

Popup Crackups

It's like a walk down memory lane, Slate's new interactive guide to the numerous past and present scandals of the Bush Administration. I'd pay cash money for a guide to future scandals. What do you think will finally bring Rove down - a dead hooker, or a live boy?

National Security, Part II

The sniping between Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and the White House over National Guard assistance to Greensburg - destroyed last Friday by a giant tornado - has been nauseating and, you gotta think, totally predictable.

It's largely the administration that's ratcheted up the rhetoric, with Tony Snow using the press secretary's lectern to channel The Secret by saying, "If you don’t request it, you’re not going to get it." Down in the trenches, the wingers think the Democrat Sebelius is a lefty loon out to make the preznit look bad (who wouldn't want that?), exploit others' suffering for her own political gain (see "9/11, responses by Bush to"), and generally fumble her duties.

The Times, sticking to the facts, ma'am, reports that

In Kansas, the National Guard is operating with 40 percent to 50 percent of its vehicles and heavy machinery, local Guard officials said. Ordinarily, the Guard would have about 660 Humvees and more than 30 large trucks to traverse difficult terrain and transport heavy equipment. When the tornado struck, the Guard had about 350 Humvees and 15 large trucks, said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state’s adjutant general. The Guard would also usually have 170 medium-scale tactical vehicles used to transport people and supplies — but now it has fewer than 30, he said.

And it's not the shortages per se that matter, but the fact that apparently much of this kind of equipment was "pre-positioned" in places that made it harder and slower to get it to Greensburg.

And yes, so while it's terrible that the citizens of that ruined town had to wait and suffer while the rain destroyed what the wind hadn't, I'm worried more about what might happen if there was a major terrorist attack in the U.S. right now. With so many National Guard troops, and so much of their equipment, off fightin' terra in Iraq, who would keep the peace, hunt for survivors, bag the corpses, and move the rubble if, god forbid, we something even a fraction as big as 9/11 occurred now?

If al-Qaeda believes in "hitting them when they're down," they must be cocking a fist right now. Who'd have thought that Bush's policies would become their best force multiplier?

Call Me On the Line

I finally had the chance over the weekend to catch up on the call-girls scandal that's now enveloping Washington. I suppose that, since this imbroglio has the least political-ideological content, it's the one that will bring down an administration that has been remarkably impervious to the much more serious scandals around WMD intelligence, Plamegate, the attorneys purge, the Tillman/Lynch coverups, no-bid contracts, et cetera. On the plus side, the ironies are, as usual, wonderful:

On Friday, Randall L. Tobias resigned as deputy secretary of state one day after confirming to Brian Ross of ABC that he had patronized the Pamela Martin firm. Speaking yesterday on "Good Morning America," Ross said Tobias told him Tobias's number was on Palfrey's phone records because he had called "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." There had been "no sex," Ross quoted Tobias as saying, and that recently he has used another service, "with Central American gals," for massages.

Tobias, who is 65 and married, was director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He previously held a top job in the Bush administration overseeing AIDS relief, in which he promoted abstinence and a policy requiring grant recipients to swear they oppose prostitution.

That last bit is the one that made me crack up over my cereal yesterday morning, prompting my toddler to ask, "What you yaffing at, Daddy?" I had to just say that I heard something funny on the radio.

Who's up for a little pool on the highest-ranking official to go down (so to speak) in this affaire? I predict that at least two senators will be implicated, and more GOP representatives than you can shake a massage table at.

Rudolph, the Red-State Candidate?

For me, it's far too early in the cycle to be really paying attention to the 2008 elections, but on the other hand high-quality summary articles like this piece by Mike Tomasky at the American Prospect on Rudy Giuliani are invaluable looks at the scene, and, in this case, at Giuliani's deplorable personal life. The guy's a creep. But

as a general-election candidate? Let's not kid ourselves: Giuliani would be formidable. McCain has spent the past year trying, in increasingly desperate fashion, to hold on to his appeal among independent voters while assuaging the right. He has flopped. But there is evidence that Giuliani could pull this off.

We know from many a poll that he's won conservatives over in the early stages. As to independents, a March 7 survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute shows the potential of his appeal. The survey matched the presidential heavyweights against one another in various permutations in the three crucial states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In other words, nine possible matchups pitted Giuliani against the three leading Democrats -- Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards -- in all three states. Among independents, Giuliani won all nine of those matchups, seven of them by double digits. By contrast, McCain led in just six of those matchups, all by feeble single digits, and Romney trailed in all nine, many by 20 points or more. Yes, it's just a snapshot, but as snapshots go, it's an ominous one.

Department of Injustice (Reprise)

Krugman’s recent op-ed piece regarding the politicization of the Justice Department as a key component of the Bush administration’s attempt to create a permanent Republican lock on power sites the Cragan and Shields study -- I posted an earlier version of the research in November of 2004. However, as of March 9th’s reference, the blogosphere is taking note. Here’s an example from Kos. Another from E Pluribus Media. Senator Leahy is also citing the research.

The heart of the study, according to Krugman, is

Donald Shields and John Cragan, two professors of communication, have compiled a database of investigations and/or indictments of candidates and elected officials by U.S. attorneys since the Bush administration came to power. Of the 375 cases they identified, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats. The main source of this partisan tilt was a huge disparity in investigations of local politicians, in which Democrats were seven times as likely as Republicans to face Justice Department scrutiny.

Here's Sen. Leahy's summary of the research:

The study by Dr. Donald C. Shields, Professor Emeritus from the Department of Communication, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Dr. John F. Cragan, Professor Emeritus from the Department of Communication, Illinois State University, found that between 2001 and 2006, 79 percent of the elected officials and candidates who have faced a federal investigation were Democrats and only 18 percent Republicans. The Administration’s track record is not good and it again appears caught with its hand in the cookie jar.

Maybe Krugman will want the latest version of the card deck for a future article (here's a version of an early draft).