I try not to spend too much time thinking about George Bush these days, but he’s really outdone himself today:
The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock
I’m going to have to wait a couple of days to write about what epic failures some congressional Democrats have managed to become. Greenwald notes:
when the Congress was controlled by the GOP — when the Senate was run by Bill Frist and the House by Denny Hastert — the Bush administration attempted to have a bill passed very similar to the one that just passed today. But they were unable to do so. The administration had to wait until Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats took over Congress before being able to put a corrupt end to the scandal that began when, in December of 2005, the New York Times revealed that the President had been breaking the law for years by spying on Americans without the warrants required by law.
For a short (and well done) spoon fed summary of what it was the Democrats accomplished today, here’s Rachel Maddow and GW law professor Jonathan Turley:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmot0aZy4MM[/youtube]
For a more detailed analysis of what went down today, just go read Greenwald. I’ll be busy here sorting through the epithets. It may take a while.
Speaking of immunity, the Dodd/Feingold amendment to strip the telecom immunity provisions from the FISA bill just failed in the Senate, 32-66. Obama voted for this amendment, but didn’t make good on his filibuster promise. Shocker.
Note that Jim Webb, once again, sells us out. I’m sure it won’t put much of a dent in the near-hero worship that goes on with Webb around here, but this certainly reinforces my happiness with his not being in the running for Vice President anymore. The man has many fine qualities, but reliable judgment and respect for the Constitution isn’t among them.
Update: Here’s the roll call for the vote.
Congress is holding hearings on the toxic FEMA trailer issue today. A quick review: the travel trailers that FEMA provided to Hurricane Katrina victims contained high levels of formaldahyde, which can cause respiratory problems and is a known carcinogen.  Congress (and by this, I mean the Democrats in Congress) has asked the heads of the companies that manufactured these trailers to come and explain why they were manufactured like this.
The GOP – party of responsibility, remember – wants to make sure that no one holds these manufactures responsible for their dangerous products. To wit:
Companies that make recreational vehicles should not be blamed for high levels of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers, according to a report by House Republicans.
The partisan analysis instead points the finger at the federal government for not having standards for safe levels of formaldehyde before Hurricane Katrina victims lived in the trailers.
That’s right. The party that continuously proclaims that the government should keep its hands off of industry is now saying that the government should have regulated this industry, and since it didn’t, the industry couldn’t possibly be expected to ensure that its products were safe.
That’s remarkable only in that it’s the least common tine of the GOP’s three-pronged approach to responsibility in business. Most often you hear that government has no business setting any kind of safety standards – “let the market sort it out!” Of course, this means that you end up with things like trailers made with carcinogens.  In this case, the market has clearly decided that it’s okay, but only because trailer residents generally can’t afford to hold the builders responsible for resultant breathing problems or cancer. And if, by chance, those residents somehow figure out how to do that – say, by trying to hold the builders responsible for their actions in court – the builders can count on the usual GOP mock-outrage over “trial lawyers!” They’re the Party of Responsibility, but only until it actually comes time to be responsible.
The third approach – which they use when they’ve been unable to shimmy out of responsibility in courts, or have been laughed out of the “the government should have made us!” defense – is resorting to using the machinery of government to provide industries with immunity. Want to hold an employer responsible for screwing you out of equal pay over your 20 year career? Immunity. A gun company responsible for turning a blind eye to the distribution of its products? Immunity. Telecom companies for breaking the law that keeps them from sharing your information with anyone without a warrant? Immunity.
The GOP reliably hits on the theme of responsibility, and it’s the reason a decent number of voters identify as Republicans. But it’s just a marketing them. Nothing more. Too bad its supporters can never seem to figure that out.
The New York Times has an interesting story today, tracking the spending of the presidential campaigns. I wish stories like this would get more play, so people really understood where their contributions were going. Well worth a quick look.
I’m not exactly a “give now!” cheerleader. In fact, I think that it would serve the entire system well if we were all more skeptical about whether we were getting good value for our money, forcing the campaigns to be a bit more thoughtful in their spending.   Check out the NYT story’s interactive graphic, which breaks the spending down.  You can see, for example, that Obama’s spent almost $15 million on direct mail. Whether that’s reasonable or not, I don’t really know. But I suspect it is, as direct mail is a terribly competitive business. What’s not a competitive business? Political media consulting. And Obama’s spent $84.9 million for that with GMMB. And we’ve just barely arrived in the general election.
I’m not trying to pick on Obama, here. For the real bottom of the barrel, check out the ongoing TPM story on BMW Direct, which seems to specializing in fleecing unknowing people out of their money under cover of various no-hope Republican candidates’ names. In one instance, the firm raised $400k on behalf of a candidate, but she only ended up with $30k to actually spend, after BMW Direct’s “costs.” And then it sent that candidate’s previous donors another letter asking to help retire her “debt.”
Pigs at the trough, people, and your hard earned dollars are helping fill it with swill. Or maybe we’ll let one of the beneficiaries of this spending use his own analogy:
Justin Hemminger, [the political director of the company Obama uses for bumper stickers/t-shirts/etc.], toldHannah Fairfield of The Times, who compiled the chart: “It’s like having a whale wash up on the beach. You want to shovel food into the whale as fast as possible before the tide turns. We’re all out there with shovels. â€
Jesse Helms’ death – and the almost obscene post-mortem spinning of his life, from some corners (including the White House) – gave rise to many conversations over the appropriateness of describing Helms as he was. Generally predictable in their course, I don’t think me rehashing those conversations here will do any good. One thing I *did* get out of it was being pointed to this obituary for Richard Nixon by Hunter S. Thompson. I have no idea how I ever missed that, but I did. If you’re one who doesn’t get the vapors over refusing to depart from reality just because someone is dead, check it out. And if you are? Definitely check it out.
Oh my. I think McCain will come to regret taking on Jim Webb in this arena.
Obama should take notes from this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybBb2tUQtvI[/youtube]
Who do you think has to suffer more for their work? The Log Cabin Republicans trying to make a case for John McCain as a friend or the National Black Republican Association attacking Obama’s racist party?
Senators Larry “Wide Stance” Craig and David “Dollars for Diapers” Vitter, that’s who!
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