Those Crazee Librulz (Primetime Edition)

The nerve of those librulz!

No Room for Progressives on Primetime in Inauguration Coverage Either

Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during primetime inauguration coverage on January 20, just as they had done earlier in the day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, as Media Matters for America documented. Appearances made by Republicans and conservatives outnumbered appearances made by Democrats and progressives 25 to 4 on FOX, 7 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 9 to 5 on MSNBC.

Bush By The Numbers

Personally, where The Prez is concerned, the only number that matters to me is "one" (as in, "boy, you sure are one sucky president.") However, the Numeralist has come up with their own set of numbers, and it's as compelling as it is disturbing.

Poverty Rate
2000: 11.3% or 31.6 million Americans
2003: 12.5% or 35.9 million Americans

STOCK MARKET

Dow Jones Industrial Average
1/19/01: 10,587.59
1/19/05: 10,539.97

NASDAQ
1/19/01: 2,770.38
1/19/05: 2,073.59

S&P 500
1/19/01: 1,342.54
1/19/05: 1,184.63

Value of the Dollar
1/19/01: 1 Dollar = 1.06 Euros
1/19/05: 1 Dollar = 0.77 Euros

Budget
2000 budget surplus $236.4 billion
2004 budget deficit $412.6 billion
(That's a shift of $649 billion and doesn't include the cost of the Iraq war.)

Cost of the war in Iraq
$150.8 billion

American Casualties in Iraq
Deaths: 1,369
Wounded: 10,252

The Debt
End of 2000: $5.7 trillion
Today: $7.6 trillion
(That's a 4 year increase of 33%)

Liberal Media

Those gosh durn libruls are at it again.

Media Matters for America inventoried all guests who appeared on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels' January 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives 17 to 6 on FOX, 10 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives.

Best.War.Ever.

The hits just keep coming.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi militants said on Thursday they would fight for "months and years" to free their country from U.S.-led occupation as their nemesis President Bush was inaugurated in Washington for a second term.

Hours before Bush was sworn, a group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released an audio tape urging Islamist militants to prepare for a lengthy holy war.

The group, which has staged most of the deadliest suicide attacks in Iraq in the run-up to elections on Jan. 30, said it was crushing the morale of "tyrant" America.

Another Iraqi insurgent group, Ansar al-Sunna, said it had killed a Briton and a Swede although the authenticity of the group's claim, posted on the Internet, could not be verified.

Protests

I was considering heading into the Capitol to protest tommorrow, however, while I'm sure said protests will exist, I have no idea where and no one seems to have set up a special website. I was kind of under the impression I'd be able to hop onto Kos and find something in a heartbeat.

Stunning

What if the retiring Deputy Secretary of State offered a damning critique of the administration and no one cared? This, for God's sake, had to come all the way from Austrailia.

And [Richard] Armitage's disappointments? Not a lugubrious person, Armitage doesn't nominate disappointments spontaneously. But he'll answer a question honestly: "I'm disappointed that Iraq hasn't turned out better. And that we weren't able to move forward more meaningfully in the Middle East peace process."

Then, after a minute's pause, he adds a third regret: "The biggest regret is that we didn't stop 9/11. And then in the wake of 9/11, instead of redoubling what is our traditional export of hope and optimism we exported our fear and our anger. And presented a very intense and angry face to the world. I regret that a lot."

*Via Atrios/Road To Surfdom

Brilliant!

Bill O'Reilly is awesome. Period. We're a month past Christmas and he's still in the holiday spirit.

O'REILLY: Dr. King would be appalled by the secular culture, the attacks on Christmas, the demonizing of Christianity. By the way, where's the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and other pinheads when Martin Luther King's picture is displayed on public property? He openly advocated the philosophy of Jesus and proudly declared himself a Christian. What say you, ACLU? Dr. King yes, the creche no? Think about it.

O'Reilly sounds a lot like a certain other stalwart defender of the holidays.

Kevin McCallister: You can mess with a lot of things, but you can't mess with kids on Christmas.

Bush's Greatest Hits Vol.'s 1 & 2

Salon has compiled 34 of the Prez's most classic tracks, all deemed to be "worse than Whitewater."

This one was new to me, so I'm thinking it must have been a B-side.

27. Intel Inside ... The White House

The scandal: In early 2001, chief White House political strategist Karl Rove held meetings with numerous companies while maintaining six-figure holdings of their stock -- including Intel, whose executives were seeking government approval of a merger. "Washington hadn't seen a clearer example of a conflict of interest in years," wrote Paul Glastris in the Washington Monthly.

The problem: The Code of Federal Regulations says government employees should not participate in matters in which they have a personal financial interest.

The outcome: Then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, spurning precedent, did not refer the case to the Justice Department.

Blogger

Unlike the guys at AMERICAblog, I haven't been having problems since Friday, but things are going kind of batshit here with Blogger. I know most of your lives revolve around this blog, but don't panic if stuff disappears for a moment or two.

MLK

Here We Go Again On Our Own

Were the vast majority of our resources not already deployed in the sinkhole known as Iraq, and had this administration not already proved itself inept at executing anything resembling sound military strategy, this might be a smart idea.

WASHINGTON - The United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.

The article, by award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, said the secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites.

Hersh quotes one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon as saying, “The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible.”

One former high-level intelligence official told The New Yorker, “This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign.”

Tom Brady Is A Jerk

Overheard at last night's EA Sports Championship Weekend Gala, where both Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were present.

Peyton Manning: Everything was going along fine until dickless Brady here started heating up.

Tom Brady: Hey, watch it! I've been compared to Joe Montana!

Stuart Scott: Is that true?

Peyton Manning: Yes it's true. [pause] Tom Brady has no dick.



"Hi, I'm Matt Damon's retarded brother Tom."

Mullah Clarence

Via Atrios comes this story -- from Ignatz -- in which an Alabama Supreme Court Justice claims that Clarence Thomas once told him:

"A judge should be evaluated by whether he faithfully upholds his oath to God, not to the people, to the state or to the Constitution."

Everyday these people are in power represents another step toward theocracy.