Author: KcM

What would Strom do?

Found via TNR‘s Etc., Trent Lott tells us what he really thinks of helping poor children: “Although almost every Senate Republican voted for the [child tax credit], some clearly were unhappy at having to do so under what they considered public pressure from liberal groups and Democrats. Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi voted for the bill, but as he did so he stuck his tongue out, put his finger in his mouth and made a gagging sound, indicating his apparent distaste for the bill.” I wonder if C-SPAN caught this – it’d make for a great campaign ad to show the families of Mississippi.

The Ministry of Information at Work.

In related news, how are your federal anti-terrorist tax dollars being spent? Thanks to Ashcroft and Tom DeLay, to interdict Texas Democrats, not terrorists. Apparently, DeLay and his Texas cronies brought the Feds in to spy on their political enemies (during their redistricting sojourn to Oklahoma), and then engaged in a shredding-fest the day federal involvement came to light. I suppose with Ashcroft at the helm it was only a matter of time before our terrorist defense shield started operating this way.

The Writing on the Wall.

Apparently, the forthcoming independent panel report on the loss of Columbia contains some harsh indictments of NASA’s current culture. I haven’t been covering this story as well as I’d have liked in this space, but, as I’ve said before, I do hope NASA takes this opportunity to rebuild from the ground up and to return to the big goals and lofty dreams that characterized the agency in the years before Challenger.

What did the President not know, and when did he not know it?

Whether or not WMDs are ever found in Iraq at this point, it has become increasingly clear that the Bushies were contradicting their own intelligence last September and overstating the WMD capabilities of Iraq to the UN, the international community, and the American people. Lying to America? Falsifying intelligence? As John Dean points out for CNN, we’re now entering Nixon territory. (Second two links via Pigs and Fishes and Medley.)

When the Sun Never Sets.

“The Rove-Bush goal is to return government to its size before the New Deal, leaving the individual more exposed to corporate power than at any other time since the 1920s.” Jack Beatty of The Atlantic Monthly examines Rove’s long-term strategy for the Dubya tax cut, and how it’s cleverly designed to help the GOP in 2004 and 2008. Grim stuff. In a related story, Michael Kinsley offers his take on the dividend debacle: “The recently enacted tax bill is such a shocking and brazen gift for the wealthy that it is hard to describe in anything short of…cartoon-Marxist terms.”

Send in the Clone.

The first goofy Episode 3 rumor making the rounds (Remember when Christopher Walken, Gabriel Byrne, and Jimmy Smits were all supposed to be in Attack of the Clones? Ok, the last one actually happened.) has Scott Glenn boarding the Death Star for the final installment. I’ll believe it when I see it. In other Ep. 3 news, is this drawing of a staff-wielding warrior Chewbacca what we can expect in 2005? All I gotta say is Lucas will have to knock this movie out of the park to erase the bad taste of the past two prequels and Yoda’s speech last night, which was as stilted and embarrassing as Gollum’s was funny.

The Left Strike Back.

The Democratic candidates find out there’s more to the party than the DLC at the Take Back America conference. Good to see an uprising against the Lieberman Republicrats, and that the rest of the Dem field now – thanks in part to Howard Dean – has to take progressive discontent seriously.