The Latest on Air America

Jon Elliott: "Who designed this?!"

Scott Egelberg — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:37:17 -0400

Jon Elliott: Cows

Scott Egelberg — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:34:05 -0400

Jon Elliott: "South Carolina...This is YOUR governor!"

Scott Egelberg — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:18:10 -0400

Unity, Evolution Gotta Come

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:44:31 -0400

Ben Branzel, Elizabeth Jacobs, and my friends Chris Hayes and Ezra Klein are teaching us about social democracy. Join them, won't you?

Elizabeth Jacobs: The New Deal in popular memory was a time of greater solidarity. But was it the case, actually? Public opinion was a messy business back then, so it's hard to say. But. People seemed just as socially schismatic and individualistic in the 1930s as today. "Many of the poor and lazy class do not want work," said some Ohio housewife in 1936. So how did we end up with the New Deal? Because FDL "had an idea of what he wanted to do and worked hard to get it done" and through wily and ruthless coalition politics. Political leadership is what matters.

Ben Branzell: Barack Obama is cool and all, but the important thing is to build a movement and now I will explicate that through a convoluted booster-rocket outer-space metaphor that I probably shouldn't have bothered with. "We'd be kidding ourselves if the candidate Obama who talked about bringing ... everyone together, when he becomes president of the country" won't have a seat at the table, and that includes the assholes. There's this thing called "Oh No You Don'" organizing that helps activists tap into opposition-politics over impeachment/the war/FISA gutting; won't be sufficient in an era of progressive governance.

All The Beating Drums, The Celebration Guns

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:00:28 -0400

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 617-08
July 18, 2008
DoD Identifies Navy Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Aviation Boatswain Mate Third Class Petty officer Daniel R. Verbeke, 25, of Exton, Penn., died July 14 in Paoli, Penn. of complications from injuries he suffered in a flight deck accident in December 2005 while serving aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, CVN-71.

For further information related to this release the media can contact Navy public affairs office at (703) 697-5342.

When There’s Nothing On The Horizon You’ve Got Nothing Left To Prove

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:15:33 -0400

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 616-08
July 18, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Willington M. Rhoads, 23, of Las Vegas, Nev., died July 16 in Bagram, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion (Airborne), Vicenza, Italy.

The incident is under investigation.

For more information, media may contact the Southern European Task Force public affairs office at 011-49-162-297-6685, or after hours at 011-49-(0) 6221-57-4906.

Embrace

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:36:27 -0400

Statement from Susan Rice about Maliki endorsing Barack Obama's 16-month-withdrawal plan:

"Senator Obama welcomes Prime Minister Maliki's support for a 16 month timeline for the redeployment of U.S combat brigades. This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan."

I have a feeling what comes next from the campaign will be far more emphatic.

War With No Mercy

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:31:20 -0400

AUSTIN, Tx. -- Superpanel begins on "war pundits" with Greg Mitchell, Mark Danner, McJoan and Samantha Power, hosted by The Nation's Ari Melber.

Mark Danner: coverage of the war "is drying up. ... What is happening is that the war itself has been transmogrified almost completely now from a story that was a reported story -- that is, argued about the facts -- to a story that is about opinion -- to a debate... and we're getting very little reporting."

Ring of Fire's Weekly News

Ring of Fire — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:05:13 -0400

When the mainstream media fails to report on the stories that actually matter, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mike Papantonio step up each week to bring you the buried stories of the week. Air America's David Bender (Politcally Direct) sits in for Pap this week.

When There’s Nothing On The Horizon You’ve Got Nothing Left To Prove

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:40:47 -0400

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 615-08
July 18, 2008
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

1st Lt. Jason D. Mann, 29, of Woodlynne, N.J., died July 17 from a non-hostile incident in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

For additional background information on this Marine, news media representatives may contact II MEF public affairs office at (910) 451-7200.

Al Gore For President*

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:23:52 -0400

AUSTIN, Tx. -- Al Gore is here. "There used to be a remedy for hangovers called hair of the dog that bit you," he says. "Oh we have a fossil fuel crisis? Let's [drill] for more." Mixed feelings: I am very very pro-Gore but also pro-hair of the dog.

It's always bittersweet seeing Gore. We could have had a true futurist as president. He ties the climate crisis to national security and demands an end an end to Hydrocarbon Man. "Am I the only who finds it odd that our country is so often fooled into picking a remedy [consonant with what] led to the problem anyway?" Drilling our way out of the climate crisis "makes as much sense as responding to an attack from Afghanistan by invading another country."

Al Gore, President Ex Officio of Blue America, wants you to go to this website.

(*OutKast said it on Letterman in October 2000 while playing "B.O.B.," so I say it counts as a lyric for a headline)

Update: Al Gore gives a qualified defense of meat-eating. In Texas! If he wanted to pander he would have eaten a brisket breakfast taco on stage. Running through my head is my anthem as a 17-year-old vegan: You cannot deny/ that/ meat is still murder/ dairy still rape/ and I'm/ still as stupid as anyone/ but I know my mistakes...

Also -- and here I'm out of my lane -- "Mountaintop mining is an atrocity. It is an outrage."

Got Her Toes Done Up And Her Fingernails Matching

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:20:32 -0400

AUSTIN, Tx. -- Beauty amidst chaos. The act of beautification is itself an act of resistance and rejection of the bleakest future of war. JESUS am I in a weird mood this morning. Via the Institute for War & Peace Reporting:

In the heart of al-Salihiya, the most stable neighbourhood in Baghdad, a large sign reads, “Rasha’s Salon for Women”.

The salon is just four months old, a symbol of a new, more secure Baghdad. Business is buzzing, particularly after the owner, Rasha Amin, 28, advertised her salon with flyers and got neighbouring shop owners to help drum up trade.

“My dream was to open a famous hairdressing salon,” said Amin, a college graduate who used to style her younger sisters’ hair for fun. “Now, I am fulfilling my dream.”

I rode along with the 57th MPs as they patrolled the streets of Saliyah last year. To see this reported is glorious.

Saturday July 19, 2008

Logan Nakyanzi — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:07:55 -0400

On this weekend’s show: Why is the patriotism of African Americans questioned? Tune in for the feisty conversation on this topic with:

22-year veteran of the military, Mustapha Rahim; he served in Iraq and Bosnia and he’s a Republican.

Dr. David Campt, who’s joined us before, his expertise: those testy social questions that make you want to duck out of the room.... he’s known as the RACE DOCTOR, and he’s the author of “The Little Book of Dialogue For Difficult Subjects” with co-author Dr. Lisa Schirch. www.davidcampt.com

Commentator and author, Janus Adams, who was one of four children selected to end de facto segregation in New York in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. Today she is a frequent lecturer and on-air guest, and her commentaries are heard on NPR. www.janusadams.com

Why You Gotta Lie, Tell Me Why

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:43:56 -0400

Carl Levin on "time horizons":

“President Bush is now apparently willing to accept what he repeatedly has told a majority in both houses of Congress was unacceptable regarding Iraq: a commitment to transition U.S. forces from combat to a limited ‘overwatch’ role, focused on training and counterterrorism operations, and a ‘time horizon’ for completing this transition. Today’s statement contrasts with the administration’s previous absolute rejection of Congressional efforts to adopt even a non-binding goal for transition of most of our troops from Iraq, accompanied by a shift of mission, to the same missions identified by the President today.

“The President’s effort to distinguish between a ‘time horizon’ and a ‘time table’ to accomplish that goal falls flat.”

Maliki agrees with Obama's 16 month withdrawal plan

Spencer Ackerman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:38:34 -0400

AUSTIN, Tx. -- When considering Bush's announcement that he'll accept a "time horizon" for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, it's necessary to back up a year. Only by taking something of a panoramic view can we appreciate how massive a blunder the permanent-occupation deal has proven for him.

Last fall was really the high-water mark for the surge in terms of public opinion. Yglesias has shown that polling data -- too lazy to Google that now -- never actually reflected a shift in favor of the war again, but the surge did a good-enough convincing elite opinion to consider the surge a success outside the context of the larger war. Nevertheless, the electoral picture still clearly favored a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress, both of whom would be elected on a platform of ending the war if they were to be elected at all. Bush's answer was to declare that he and Maliki had agreed on an enduring U.S. troop presence, something we'd engage in at the invitation of a sovereign Iraqi government. The surge had worked so well, in other words, that its just reward was the ownership of Iraq, all in the spirit of what the White House called "Friendship and Cooperation."