Action Point with Cynthia Black 12-16-2007: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• THE DOJ FILE (was THE MUKASAY FILE): Now that Mukasey rules the DOJ roost, it seems like Bush Business as usual: deflect, dodge, delay. Newsweek asks: How will the new attorney general respond to the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes? Myself, I think I've already posited the answer. As my evidence I submit: CIA's Rodriguez Lawyers Up.

• KARL %#@$*&! ROVE FILE: Lawmakers vote to hold Bush aides in contempt: Yea, like I'm holding my breath on this.

• CAMPAIGN 2008: Predicting Iowa: This week Jeffrey Feldman predicts the Iowa winner. Do you agree?

  And then there's this: Arizona Is Split Over Hard Line on Immigrants: As a wedge issue Mexican immigration will split voters in 2008 like guns and gays have in the past. The article above lays out the arguments and territory most likely to be replayed throughout the election season ad nauseum so you might as well learn all about it now.

• ELECTION INTEGRITY: If you're interested in ongoing election integrity coverage the “Daily Voting News” report posted on BradBlog is a great resource. Here's an example from December 13.

• CHENEY WATCH: Reps. Wexler, Gutierrez, and Baldwin Call for Cheney Impeachment Hearings: Since the Main Stream Media thinks it too dangerous to report, these congress people have taken their fight to impeach the Vice-Troll to the last outpost of free speech, the Internets.

• MUST READ: When Barbarians Take Hostages: another excellent piece from David Sirota:

“As a central villain in the famous book “Barbarians at the Gate, Henry Kravis has become one of the world’s richest mavens of private equity—the Wall Street sector that buys up companies, breaks them apart and sells their assets. In 2006, Kravis made $450 million, or more per hour ($51,000) than the average American household makes in a year. Incredibly, his wealth puts him right within the average for executives in this largely unregulated industry that oversees about $400 billion in annual business.”

• ENVIRONMENT: Amory Lovins: We must win the oil endgame: from TED, an amazing website of 21^st century thinkers: “Energy guru Amory Lovins lays out his plan for weaning the US off oil and revitalizing the economy in the process. It's the subject of his book Winning the Oil Endgame, and he makes it sound fairly simple: On one hand, the deadly risks of continued dependency, and on the other, some win-win solutions.” Be sitting when you listen.

Action Point with Cynthia Black 11-11-2007: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• From the Mukasey File: The religious right hated him but he was Giuliani's BFF. Senators clashed with him on torture, but still he was confirmed. I tried to spread the truth. Oh well.

• MUST READ: In Iowa Speech, Edwards Demands Answers From Clinton On NAFTA Expansion and Taking On the Right's Local Machine & Fighting Against the Class War: another excellent piece from David Sirota:

This week, I participated in a televised debate against the ColoradoHouse Republican Whip, moderated by the president of the Independence Institute (Colorado's local version of the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation). The debate was aired statewide on PBS here, and it shows how our states and local communities - not just Washington, D.C. - are often the most important frontlines in both the Great American Class War and the battle against the extreme right.

• Framing the Debate: Media Derelict On Damning Giuliani Scoop: from Jeffrey Feldman, considers how to get past Giuliani's 'Strong on Terrorism' frame.

• Update to The Andrew Meyers File: Police over-reactions supported in a post 911 World: ACCIDENTAL HANGING: Medical Examiner Ann Bucholtz's autopsy of Carol Anne Gotbaum finally released.

• Speaking of Torture: This NY Times piece was forwarded to me via email (note the date): Liberties; President Frat Boy? By MAUREEN DOWD

We've all been exhausted by the faux culture wars of the Clinton era.

--SNIP

The leader of the frat pack is Mr. Bush, who made his debut in The New York Times in 1967 in a story about ''frat-branding'' at Delta Kappa Epsilon, the Yale fraternity of which he was once president.

SNIP--

Frat prankster George told Mr. Weisman that he was amazed that anyone was making a fuss about the branding, that at colleges in Texas they used cattle prods on pledges. There's something that doesn't compute about branding irons and Yale. If there did have to be branding, shouldn't it have been less Animal House and something more discreetly WASPy, like the logos for J. Press or Topsiders?

Later, in a newspaper interview, W. explained away the incident, saying, ''There's no scarring mark physically or mentally.''

SNIP--

At the 30th reunion of the Yale class of '68 last year, there was disappointment that Mr. Bush did not show up and excitement about his plans to run for President. But his buddies were quick to assure everyone, ''George has really changed a lot since Yale.''

Presumably, if frat-branding becomes an issue in his campaign, Mr. Bush will be able to spin the incident by saying that it proves, even better than pork rinds, that he is a true Texan.

Oh, had we known then what we know now...