C-Span or White House video. (Thanks for the tip, Anomalous.) Update [2006-1-3 14:43:21 by susanhu]: The White House video of the complete press briefing is now available for viewing. (This is an OPEN THREAD too.)
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“The Democrats are beholden to the ACLU…have engaged in obstructionist tactics re the Patriot Act b/c of special interests..”
That’s so tacky.
anytime a repug trots out the big bad aclu garbage I’m reminded of Michael Douglas in “The American President” who delivers a most beautiful smackdown of that argument… (paraphrasing)… Here is an organization who is dedicated to upholding the First Ammendment and Constitution of the US… yes, I’m a member, and the only real question is “why aren’t you Bob”.
Not because of the Michael Douglas/Annette Benning thing. Not because Richard Dreyfus does such a great job of channeling Dick Cheney (watch it again and see if you don’t agree). Not because of the ACLU speech (to which I could only reply “Yeah!”). In my opinion it’s because Nichael Douglas’ character, after carefully staying on the fence about hot button issues, comes out and takes a stand for a hot-button issue he believes in.
A lesson certain real-life Democratic politicians could do well to adopt, by the way.
don’t the Dems instantly respond with “I guess he means tactics like defending Rush Limbaugh against illegal searches relating to his drug bust.”?
The GOP obsession with attacking the ACLU reveals much about their complete lack of principles. They love to pose as the only defenders of the Constitution, yet can’t miss any chance to attack its primary defenders, even outfits that spend a lot of resources standing up for the rights of their own kind. If this were a nation with logic-based voters and media, statements like this would go into the history books as “most contemptibly laughable spin attempt ever”.
One has to wonder whether they’d go running to the ACLU if they got involved in a First Amendment case. My guess is they wouldn’t because of principle, but if they did, the ACLU would take them. And it would be so deliciously ironic.
We’re pleased Iraq is moving forward building democracy…
(Is he speaking with weird breaks between words or what?)
Maybe those were planned applause pauses. I think the production would be more fun with a laugh track like the sitcoms have.
Sorry if I’m being tacky, but I just posted this on your last article, and I’m x-posting it here, FWIW.
Scottie’s press conference in a nutshell (I have no idea how much I missed in the beginning, but it’s laughable to think that it might have been of any significance)
-The president will be talking more about social security and the priorities he cares most about in early 2006 and during his SOTU address.
-An agreement was reached on a set of principles, the talks have been very clear with North Korea that they need to get rid of nukes. We’re going to continue to take action to stop illicit activities. (Drugs, counterfeiting U.S. dollars, and blah, blah, blah, long list of talking points with North Korea)
Will U.S. be asking for more funds? “We’re committed to democracy in Iraq . . .blah, blah, blah.”
Navy chaplain has gone without food for two weeks, how in the world can a devout Christian president allow (something or other) like this to happen? Blah, blah, blah . . .
Patriot Act is vital to saving lives. We need to set aside politics for out nation’s security. Do you think ACLU is irresponsible? Scottie: Blah blah blah
Scottie: Most economists would predict continued strong growth, blah, blah, unemployment down to 5%, home ownership at record levels, consumer confidence is up, but we must continue to act on policies that will keep our economy strong.
President participating in briefing on terrorism and work in 2006 – much progress was made in 2005 – blah, blah, blah so proud of all that progress, progress, progress, progress. We’ll be able to focus on counter-terrorism, blah, blah. President made it clear that decisions will be made by commanders on the ground.
What are the president’s limits of power? Scottie: We’re connecting the dots and the president has continued to save countless lives and we’re stopping the terrorists from additional actions. Intelligence activities are talked about openly and publicly (HUH?!)
Warrantless surveillance questions . . .Scottie says people are just engaging in politics – there is nothing to substantiate any abuse, and everything’s been addressed – and he rejects the reporter’s characterization. HIS words, not Scotties – beholden to special interests – abusing tools in Patriot Act. 4 major concerns receiving bipartisan support. 44 Democrats supported something, but they’re engaged in obstructionist tactics.
Is Chalabi right person for job? It’s up to the voters to make that decision. We’re building foundations for peace in Iraq for generations to come.
Elections in Bolivia – Congratulations!! We’ll see how the relationships move forward based on their feelings toward democracy.
Immigration funding – need to help San Diego stop flow of illegal immigrants – comprehensive reform.
Someone yelled something to him about his neutrality as he quickly exited the room, but I didn’t catch the comment.
I can’t stand to watch these events so I very much appreciate summaries like yours.
Thank you, sj! I force myself to watch those shameful displays so I can draw my own conclusions. (And now you too can draw your own conclusions from my sharing of “blah, blah, blah” ;^) Unfortunately, as so many reporters have noted – press conferences aren’t even worth attending any more.
Hey – I started to respond to one of your comments on another thread but I got sidetracked along the way. Which is kind of ironic, because my comment to you was a sidetrack from another task, and it makes me wonder if my whole life is just one big sidetrack. (Including that last sentence :^) Anyway . . .
Please be assured that fraud does include activities such as money laundering and slush funds. (Allow me to clarify – fraud includes those activities when the cases involve someone other than a powerful political figure.) In fact, under the provisions of the PATRIOT Act, such activities are subject to far greater scrutiny and consequences. But, as we’ve seen, the Act has been known to have latitude for interpretation, (depending on the needs of those doing the interpreting, of course).
I tossed up a post a little more than a week ago about that fraud Chaplain here:
I seem to recall there were a few Googlemail invitations around a while back. Sorry to be panhandling, but I have a nephew going to intern at an AIDS research clinic in Africa for a couple months and he needs some kind of giant-capacity web-based email setup for all the papers, photos, and graphics that will be coming in and not necessarily being accessible every day. I thought Gmail might be the ideal solution. If anybody has leads, a heads up to chicagodave at myway.com would be most appreciated.
I have about 60 or so. . .you and anyone else that wants a gmail account just email me at
shirlstars@gmail.com
and I will send you the invite.
Same here, I’ve got almost 100 invitations left.
You can email me either at the account listed next to my username here, or : ejmwitham at gmail dot com.
of Gmail invitations. It used to be you’d get six that you had to spend parsimoniously, and maybe they’d give you six more; now they practically package them free in breakfast cereal boxes.
And yes, I have a bunch I can donate to The Cause as well.
I took up Shirlstars’s offer, since she was first. The Booman crowd is amazing. I thank you and Nephew thanks you.
I don’t have a Gmail email account and I like it that way. Just creeps me out.
Pax
That’s fine. There are plenty of people who have concerns about Gmail, especially if they’ve had bad experiences with Hotmail, Yahoo mail, or similar web-based mail providers.
After having used it for over a year for a lot of unimportant stuff, I have no problem with Gmail. Of course if something is important or I want to organize something better than Gmail lets me (keeping my mailing lists straight, for instance) I have several other mail accounts I can use. And if something is really important, I know how to use GPG to encrypt my email, which is still perfectly legal. (All unencrypted email is pretty much the electronic equivalent of writing something on the back of a postcard, no matter what anyone tells you.)
.
Scott, it’s great your mom is wise and will be running as an Independent for the Governor’s seat in Texas this fall. Is it the intention more family members to take such a decisive step away from the GOP?
Carole Keeton Rylander & McClellans at UT Law School
UT DEAN KEETON FOUNDATION
Surprise UT Law linked to :: Womble & “buckhead” who were key in SBVT
(GOPWEB Search ¶ University of Texas Law School)
Comment added to diary —
Will Run As An Independent ◊ by XicanoPwr
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I had a friend when I lived in Austin who was in a mothers of twins support group and said offhandedly one time that Carole Keaton Rylander was in the group. I don’t know whether she added the McClellan or not; presumably she was McClellan by then, but back in 1986 or so she was still widely known as Rylander from her days as mayor of Austin. I guess she’s been married a couple more times since then.
That couple was my connection to the near-famous. At one time her husband was an assistant to Willie Nelson’s veterinarian.
(Yeah, this is irrelevant, but it’s an open thread, right?)
to the family* is that I was in a cell biology class with Mark. It was a killer class – I think there were two A’s given in a class of 65 students. I heard he threw a “how can you do this, don’t you know my mother’s the MAYOR!” whiny snit about not getting one of the A’s (I wasn’t one of the two either). Unfortunately, he managed to get into med school in spite of the non-A trauma.
*(Besides having to endure her as mayor and listen to her give a boring, rambling, self-aggrandizing, and generally incoherent graduation speech one time – I really can’t stand her. We used to call her Miss Piggy when she was mayor – but that’s an insult to those of the porcine persuasion.)
FBI spokesperson just speaking on CSPAN 2 said the investigation is active, ongoing, sensitive and significant. They’ll expend resources wherever necessary to thwart corruption.
Tonight and Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, CSPAN will be airing two different shows about the Abramoff case.