Day: July 11, 2005

The White House press – especially the three network guys – went after Scott McClellan today over statements he made two years ago that essentially exonerated Karl Rove from involvement in the Plame leak.

It’s not exactly news to these way overpaid folks that Rove leaks like a sieve. Maybe this explains why it took nine days after the rest of us learned about this story for the boys and girls standing at the last bastion of democracy to ask McClellan about it.

Here’s a link to the video. You have to see this! It’s almost like the days when the DC Kool Kids went after Bill Clinton’s press secretaries – only now it’s Scotty who’s on the griddle! Watch him squirm and cry and act like he’s going to upchuck:

Crooks and Liars has the video.

Transcript below.

[…]

Some thing called the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA) issued a press release today commending George W. Bush for “his leadership in steering the G-8 nations onto the right track in addressing climate change.”

Well, that’s a bit overstated. If Bush steered anything, he steered the G8 toward agreeing on a toothless, actionless, goalless agreement that sounds good, but means little, and away from real progress.

Claude Mandil, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, told Reuters that given the refusal of the United States to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on curbing air pollution, the G8 “plan” was the best that could be achieved: “Nobody could seriously expect the Kyoto Protocol would be ratified by those who had not ratified Kyoto. No one could seriously expect targets would be set,” Mandil said.

But do the Repugs see it that way? According to the press release, nope:

“President Bush has shown real leadership in steering the G-8 nations onto a path that will protect the environment while boosting the global economy,” said CREA President Italia Federici. “Development of new technologies and new energy sources will create jobs while potentially slowing and eventually reversing global climate trends,” continued Federici.

It has become increasingly apparent that many nations that signed onto the Kyoto Protocol will miss their emission target deadlines. Most, including France, Canada, and Japan, experienced emission increases after adopting the treaty. Some nations, such as Germany, have only been able to reduce emissions by shuttering power plants. While closing facilities may be a way to reduce emissions, it is not good for a nation’s economy.

Yeah, well ALL of the nations that didn’t sign Kyoto missed their non-targets.

All the G8 leaders agreed to last week at their summit in Gleneagles in Scotland was that they recognize climate change requires urgent action, but they set no targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that cause it.

Not content with such an empty agreement, the wingnuts seized the opportunity to take their rhetoric over the top:

In recent months, more and more scientists have cast doubts on whether or not climate change is man-made. Russian scientists have called the Kyoto Protocol ‘scientifically-ungrounded,’ while the British House of Lords questioned whether scientific reports supporting the Kyoto Protocol were politically motivated.

Decide for yourself here.

According to a survey released today, U.S. workers say they squander over two hours a day at the workplace — twice as much as employers had estimated. Among the top time-wasting activities were surfing the Web, socializing with co-workers and “spacing out.”

All that wasted time comes at a cost of $759 billion in annual salary paid for nothing, found the on-line survey conducted by America Online and Salary.com. (Of course, since it was AOL, half of the wasted time could be attributed to logging on and waiting for AOL to access Web pages, etc.)

Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com, said some time-wasting activities — such as personal use of the Internet — can be positive, resulting in new business ideas or a happier work environment. “There is such a thing as creative waste,” said Coleman. “Not all wasted time is bad.”

Which brings us to Pensito Review. Time spent on PR — especially time taken out of your busy work day — is good time, not wasted time. Here are some reasons why you should spend more of your “wasted” time on the job on Pensito Review:

10. Gain insights into complex political issues through PR’s oversimplified and distorted articles.
9. Experience cool graphic effects and doctored news photos.
8. Post your own comments on articles, thereby making the editors appear more intelligent by comparison.
7. Read enlightening quotations, complete with expletives.
6. Expand your vocabulary with rad neologisms like “wingnut” and “Repug.”
5. See the most unflattering photos of politicians available on the Internet.
4. Follow the whacky antics of George, Dick, Jeb, Arnold and all the other wingnut Repugs as they send our great nation to hell in a handbasket.
3. Respond viscerally to incendiary headlines that make your blood boil, which improves circulation and can prevent stroke, heart attacks and the heartbreak of psoriasis.
2. PR is easier to read with fewer typographical errors than other, less erudite blogs.

And the number-one reason to read Pensito Review while you’re on the clock:

1. It’s the next best thing to “spacing out.”

In the wake of the London bombings, it’s interesting to note that, according to a subscription-only article in “National Journal,” both houses of Congress have refused to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security’s operations center as President Bush has requested. The center, which runs 24/7, links federal, state and local officials during emergencies.

According to the House Appropriations Committee report on Homeland Security spending for fiscal 2006, the center is the “primary national-level hub for operational communications, information sharing and situational awareness for all information pertaining to domestic incident management.”

Gee, sounds pretty important.

Maybe, but Congress so far has declined to increase the center’s funding from $35 million in fiscal 2005 to $61 million in fiscal 2006, as the administration requested. Of the additional $26 million, $13.4 million would go to expand the homeland security information network and $12.9 million to enhance systems and operations.

The House bill would provide $56 million, and the Senate version would allocate $40 million.

The House passed its measure in May; the Senate is to consider its bill this month. Both chambers must agree on an allocation before sending a bill to the president.

The administration’s budget proposal aimed to include one-third of the nation’s counties on the department’s homeland security information network. Last year the department added every state and major urban area to the network.

The House deducted $5 million from Bush’s request because the department has not provided a five-year implementation plan for the center as required by the 2005 spending measure. The Senate did not explain its reduction.

Senators also rejected the administration’s proposal for a new information-sharing and collaboration program, which would enhance information-sharing processes among federal, state and local officials, as well as the private sector. The House provided $5.5 million for that initiative.

House and Senate appropriators fully funded the administration’s request for $143 million for an emergency-preparedness telecommunications program, including a national communications system and an initiative to wirelessly link key personnel and government officials during a national crisis. That allocation still represents $1.9 million less than Congress provided last year.

Maybe the bombs of London will loosen the purse strings of Capitol Hill.

Newsweek has seen the email sent by Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper to his editor recapping the phone call he had with Karl Rove in which Rove tried to spin him on the White House contretemps with former ambassador Joe Wilson over Saddam Hussein’s nuclear capabilities.

What is critical here is that in Cooper’s raw notes from his “double super secret” conversation with Rove, he wrote that Rove told him that Wilson’s wife was involved in the search for WMD. He knew, but he simply did not care. Going after a political enemy was more important to him than United States national security:

It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. “Subject: Rove/P&C,” (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. “Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation …”

…In [his] brief conversation with Rove, Cooper asked what to make of the flap over Wilson’s criticisms… [He] wrote that Rove offered him a “big warning” not to “get too far out on Wilson.” Rove told Cooper that Wilson’s trip had not been authorized by “DCIA”—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, “it was, KR said, wilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip.” Wilson’s wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: “not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there’s still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger … “