In my capacity of spokesperson, I hereby...

Let's follow the progression of Rev. Hagee's foolishness - as a tool for understanding the ritual of modern political damage control.

Hagee is sought out by the McCain campaign for an endorsement, receives it, and announces he is proud to have gotten it.


At some point, word gets out that Hagee has said some incredibly stupid things about Hurricane Katrina and Catholicism.

The Catholic League denounces his remarks, repeatedly.

Rev. Hagee issues an expression of regret to the Catholic League's president who loudly declares an end to the Rev. Hagee controversy.

Wow, the most visible Catholic critic of Hagee says the matter is done. It must be so. After all, Bill Donohue is pretty much the mouthpiece of Rome.
--

Enter Hagee's latest blunder: his statements about Hitler being one of many hunters sent by God to drive the Jews into Israel.

Suddenly, the Washington Times is quoting Jews who are defending Rev. Hagee:

And who might be among his defenders - Why it's Dennis Prager! (Who fawned all over Hagee while he was saying his incredibly stupid statements about Katrina).

A Rabbi has come out to defend Hagee as well, so that pretty much makes it official.

But wait! They throw in a gentile - Bill Donohue of the Catholic League again! He sees nothing wrong with Hagee's remarks either.

Well, that tears it - no more controversy. These guys must speak for all Jews everywhere, so it's pretty much a moot issue.

---

So in the interests of closing the circle for the good reverend, I would like to take this opportunity (in my capacity as spokesperson for all those affected by Hurricane Katrina) to declare an Official End to the Controversy over Rev. Hagee Katrina remarks.

It's a done deal. You can take it from me. The Rev. Hagee and the McCain campaign would want it that way.

Never say never

(H/t LA Times blog Top of the Ticket)

I guess when Cindy McCain said she'd never release her tax records, she meant she would release them. The first two pages of them. On a Friday night. Before a three day weekend.

Here they are: Page 1 | Page 2

I like line 73 best:

296,119

Not surprisingly, that'd be dollars.

Here's the label for line 73 (emphasis in original):

If line 72 is more than line 63, subtract line 63 from line 72. This is the amount you overpaid.

Now, I don't begrudge the McCains their success. You do well, you do well. This is America. But the next time anyone in the McCain campaign uses the word "elitist," somebody ought to hold up a copy of that page with line 73 circled.

As in: "Senator, last year your wife's was entitled to a tax refund that was six times more than the median income of American households. Wouldn't you agree that puts you in a rather elite financial category?"

Calling a spade a spade...

So last week's Daily Show showed how reluctant the media was to saying race might have been a factor in Obama's poor showing in West Virginia:



And today I see on Sivacracy that finally, a media outlet dares to bring up race as a factor. Which network? ABC, Fox?

Please...

Too stupid for words...

...but words are all we have.

(H/t to Emptywheel)

Minneapolis' Joint Terrorist Task Force is recruiting people to infiltrate vegan potlucks to look for potential--what?--tahini enthusiasts?--in advance of the RNC convention this fall.

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force

Don't forget to pack the Beano, sport.

Staircase envy

(Via Lifehacker)

Okay, so this isn't the most practical staircase in the world (certainly not for people with small kids) - but what a great use of space:

It's from a London apartment and was designed by an architect, so not like your average mortal is going to rush out and make one - but still - Neat!

Owch

(Via CJR again)

60 Minutes really dropped the ball this time: after airing PR-disguised-as-journalism about a poor, victimized corporation named Biovail Corp.-

Well, turns out they weren't poor, and they sure as hell aren't victims.

CJR has the goods:

Last week, Biovail, a Toronto drugmaker, disclosed that it has pleaded guilty—forget SEC civil charges—to federal criminal charges brought by the U.S. attorney in Boston. The company, as Fortune outlines, admitted that a Bridgewater, N.J., unit had paid doctors to prescribe the heart drug Cardizem. Biovail agreed to pay $24.6 million to settle the matter, including a $22 million criminal fine.

Oops.

Shield laws

(H/t CJR)

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Cameron McWhirter relates a personal run-in with prosecutors and Ohio's journalistic shield law.

I vaguely recall the Chiquita scandal, the Enquirer came out looking pretty bad on account of a rogue reporter.

The reporter's name was Mike Gallagher:

Gallagher had lied to [the Enquirer] about having a source within Chiquita who had provided him information. Instead, he had illegally accessed Chiquita’s voicemail system himself, hundreds of times, despite being warned repeatedly not to do so by editors and lawyers. ... Under intense pressure from Chiquita, Gannett fired Gallagher, paid $14 million to Chiquita, and published a disturbing front-page apology that implied that Gallagher’s misdeeds had negated the entire series. The Enquirer and the rest of the Cincinnati media abandoned the substantive truth of the series. I was ordered not to write about Chiquita. The ban lasted five years.

It got worse. County officials set up a special prosecutor to investigate the newspaper and individuals who worked on the project. Gallagher, facing criminal prosecution, abandoned his carefully constructed self-image as an intrepid reporter and quickly cut a deal. He waived Ohio’s shield law and agreed to reveal sources....

I found myself sitting in a shabby, windowless conference room in a low-rent section of Cincinnati’s modest downtown. My lawyer and I sat on one side of a scuffed table. The special prosecutor and his associates sat on the other side...

The special prosecutor wanted me to do something simple: sign a piece of paper agreeing to waive Ohio’s shield law. Doing so would require me to disclose confidential sources with whom I had spoken during the yearlong investigation. He made clear that the risks of not cooperating were great, and threatened to indict me on unspecified charges. I could lose my job; I could go to jail, he said. I must fully cooperate and waive the shield law or he would come after me. His threats, for a while delivered hourly in telephone calls to my lawyer, ranged wildly. He claimed he was going to prosecute me for being a co-conspirator of some kind.

Now, this is what happens when there IS a shield law. Imagine what kind of retribution the well-financed would have at their disposal if there weren't a shield law?

Read the full story.

Damn fine idea, if you ask me

Heard this on NPR this morning, sort of a smack your head kind of realization:

[Chairman of Recycled Energy Development, LLC Tom] Casten surveys a picture of the fictional nuclear power plant where Homer Simpson works in his cartoon hometown of Springfield. "What you see is two giant structures, they're cooling towers. … Giant amounts of steam coming out of the cooling towers basically reflecting that two out of three units of energy are basically being thrown into the air as waste heat."

For every three units of fuel — like coal, natural gas or oil — that are burned to make electricity, two are lost in the process, most of it as waste heat that just drifts away, says Casten, who is chairman of Recycled Energy Development, a company that works with industrial clients to capture waste heat to produce clean electricity.

[snip]

"There are many industrial processes that emit high-temperature exhaust," he explains. "You can use that high-temperature energy to boil water, make steam, and drive an electric generator."

The story goes on to illustrate how a steel mill used the tremendous heat from their smelting fires to cut their monthly energy bill in half.

Geez, what a great freaking idea. Why aren't we doing this more?

His judgment cometh, and that right soon

...on the other hand, Sen. McCain's judgment tends to take awhile.

Rev. Hagee's mouth continues to runneth over - and the McCain campaign has finally had enough:

McCain rejects Hagee endorsement

In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from the Rev. John Hagee, CNN has learned that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain decided Thursday to reject his endorsement.

McCain told CNN's Brian Todd that he rejected the endorsement after Todd brought to his attention Hagee's comments that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God's will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy.

[snip]

Shortly after McCain's announcement Thursday afternoon, Hagee withdrew his endorsement, citing critics who had been "grossly misrepresenting" his positions.

"I am tired of these baseless attacks and fear that they have become a distraction in what should be a national debate about important issues. I have therefore decided to withdraw my endorsement of Sen. McCain for president effective today, and to remove myself from any active role in the 2008 campaign," he said in a statement.

"I hope that the Sen. McCain will accept this withdrawal so that he may focus on the issues that are most important to America and the world."

You can almost hear the resentful tone from Rev. Hagee - Shame on you for shaming me, he says, All I did was imply that Hitler was sent by God...

Took you long enough, Senator.

Seems he's more afraid of AIPAC than gays or Catholics.

Meh.

Who does he remind you of?

Who is in charge of Iranian foreign policy? I didn't know - but then again, neither did this guy:



So, the reporter asks why McCain has never mentioned Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - who actually is in charge of Iranian foreign policy.

McCain's answer is to change the subject:

Oh I thin-Again, I respectfully disagree. When he's the person that comes to the United Nations and declares his country's policy is the extermination of the state of Israel, quote, in his words, wipe them off of the map, then I know that he is speaking for the Iranian government and articulating their policy and he was elected and is running for reelection as the leader of that country. Yes sir, go ahead.

Got that?

Here would the distilled version of the exchange:

Q: You claim that Obama would talk to Ahmadinejad, who you denounce - while Khamenei is the real power in that country. Don't you think you should be talking about Khamenei?

A: Ahmadinejad said he wanted to destroy Israel. Average Americans think he's the leader. Well-versed people think he is. So there.

This guy is just a piece of work.

(H/t to Glenn Greenwald and HuffPost)

Would you give your medical records to a search engine?

Google thinks you will..

(LA Times)

Google Inc. opened a free website that manages patients' medical records online, part of a plan to make users more loyal by adding services.

Patients can upload medical records from other organizations, enter their own data and search for information on health conditions, said Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president.

Not sure how keen I'd be on that. I'm sure they have a privacy policy - but it likely contains language that says it can be changed at any time.

Updated: Having looked at their privacy policy, they have the right assurances in there:

(Google Privacy Center)
Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Policy without your explicit consent, and we expect most such changes will be minor. Regardless, we will post any Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Policy changes).

(Google Health)

You are in control of your information

1. You control who can access your personal health information. By default, you are the only user who can view and edit your information. If you choose to, you can share your information with others.
2. Google will not sell, rent, or share your information (identified or de-identified) without your explicit consent, except in the limited situations described in the Google Privacy Policy, such as when Google believes it is required to do so by law.
3. You can completely delete your information at any time. Such deletions will take immediate effect in your account, and backup copies of deleted information may persist for a short time. Since deleted data will not be restored, you may want to print information before deleting it.

Still - that's a bit of data I'd like to see encrypted up to the ying yang before I post it online.

Once again, the hype comes first...

...the facts show up after the guests have gone home.

(H/t to CJR) The LA Times pokes holes in the current "Homeowners are defaulting! Homeowners are defaulting!" myth:

But there's a major problem with all this talk about the phenomenon of solvent homeowners "walking away": There doesn't appear to be any hard evidence that it's actually happening.

When pressed for the number of borrowers who could afford their mortgage payments, major banks and lender groups could not produce numbers figures.

eh?

So what's all this crap we've been reading? You mean to tell me that major media affiliates are just going along with the flow and not checking their data?

Bankers... do you have an explanation for this? Uh, that'd be no.

Nor could the Mortgage Bankers Assn., the leading trade group for housing lenders. Spokesman John Mechem said he believed that walkaways by homeowners who could afford their payments were "becoming more prevalent." But he said that was based on "anecdotes we're hearing from our members and what we're reading in the newspapers."

Cripes, are there any reporters in our media outlets? or all you just a bunch of spoon fed parrots?

Emptywheel quote of the day

From her post referring to Rep. Tom Davis' (R-VA) frank assessment of damage to the GOP brand:

...transparency kills Republicans in the same way sunlight kills vampires.

Har!

Yes, I know there are perfectly reasonable conservatives out there, some of whom self identify as republicans - they just never seem to be holding the levers of power, now do they? No, I think some sunlight would do the republic good - even if all it did was drive the vampires into hiding.

Jump

Okay, so E and I were two weeks behind on BSG.

We finally caught up tonight.

All I got to say is

Damn.

Next eppy can't come fast enough.

Rev. Hagee: still faking it

A good amount of press attention went to Sen. McCain's unfortunate supporter, Rev. Hagee's recent expression of regre for calling Catholocism the "great whore."

A good amount of press attention went to Sen. McCain's unfortunate supporter, Rev. Hagee's recent apology for calling Catholocism the "great whore."

Televangelist John Hagee apologizes to Catholics
- Yahoo News

Catholic League accepts Hagee apology
- Boston.com

Hagee apology good enough for Catholics, not DNC
- The Hill

and on and on...

But it's the same damn thing as before. Another Fallwell. "Sorry if you took offense." Nowhere does the word apology appear in his statement. [Full text of Rev. Hagee's letter to William Donohue PDF (via Very Important Stuff)]

I don't have skin in the game, but Catholic America does, and Anthony Stevens-Arroyo thinks it's a load.

...Hagee’s two-page apology used the mealy-mouthed expression of regret for "any comments that Catholics have found hurtful,” rather than the complete recantation called for?

Stevens-Arroyo also takes issue with Wm. Donohue asserting the mantle of Catholocism and claiming that the Hagee remarks "case closed" -

The Catholic League is not the “All Catholic" League. It is not official Catholicism: still less does it speak for each and every one of the nation’s 60 million Catholics. As someone who once endeavored to work with the League, I was disappointed to learn that it is run out of a single office by a single ego. So, while I find newsworthy the recent exchanges between the League’s president, Bill Donahue and Evangelical pastor, John Hagee, they don’t amount to dogma.

So there. Hmmph.