A Progressive on the Prairie

Of course, you probably won't read or hear about this in the US media but, if true, this story in The Independent borders on damning. A former FBI translator claims she told the 9-11 Commission there are documents showing the administration knew in the spring and summer of 2001 that there were plans to attack the US with airplanes. What I find most interesting is this part of the article, which, unfortunately, provides no documentation or references: "The Bush administration, meanwhile, has . . . obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used 'state secrets privilege.'" (Via The War In Context).

I really haven't been one of those after the Bushies for what did they know and when did they know it. It was their post 9-11 actions that offended me. Yet they're putting up such a fight and fuss now that you can't help but wonder if there's some real vulnerability on this point. In that regard, I finished Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud last night. Without going into detail, the latter pages of the book seem to confirm what Richard Clarke has been saying about how Bush's people didn't care about terrorism or al Queda. I know these books were published the same month and both on Simon and Schuster imprints but it seems odd Unger would be prescient enough to know what a splash Clarke would make in the media and thereby craft his book in such a fashion to support Clarke (although it is clear Clarke was a source for Unger's book).
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First, it's Dylan in a Victoria's Secret ad. Now there's this.

Net has given a eight-to-10-episode production commitment to the tentatively titled "The Partner," an hourlong skein in which a group of newly minted lawyers will battle each other to win a job as a partner in a major law firm.

* * *

Contestants will be divided into two teams -- one made up of Ivy League grads, the other consisting of players who attended less prestigious schools. Each week, teams will compete by serving as prosecutors or defenders in mock trials inspired by actual cases. A jury of real people -- selected by the lawyers/contestants -- will determine the winner of each trial.

I am pleased first of all to say that I have not seen five minutes of any "reality" TV show. Second, when I was in law school, we called in moot court. Finally, if that's the way you're picking partners in your law firm, I don't want anything to do with you.


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I don't watch much TV but tonight it brought me true pain and a sign Armageddon is approaching. Not only is Bob Dylan's song "Love Sick" being used in a Victoria's Secret ad, Bob himself makes an appearance. The CEO of Victoria's Secret offers the only explanation that makes any sense: "We asked him to be in the commercials and he said yes, he would gladly go off to Venice with the supermodels."
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This is a classic. Some Bushie left Donald Rumsfeld's talking points for the Sunday morning news shows -- plus a map to Rumsfeld's home -- sitting on a table at Starbucks. They're now in the hands of the Center for American Progress. You can download them in PDF format here. They include the Center's suggested answers to questions Rumsfeld was being prepped for. (The Center quite appropriately redacted the map to Rumsfeld's home "in the interest of national security.")

My guess is "Eric," who evidently lost the papers, will be standing in the unemployment line, not the Starbucks line.
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Tim Giago now claims that instead of running against Tom Daschle in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, he's going to run in the general election as an independent. Of course, the "pundits" are talking about a Nader effect because the Indian reservations in South Dakota are heavily Democratic. The most recent voter registration figures show that while Democrats are outnumbered by the GOP by nearly 45,000 out of a total of 462,000 voters, in Shannon and Todd counties (home of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations, respectively) Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly 7 to 1. Moreover, when Tim Johnson was re-elected two years ago, he beat John Thune by 524 votes. In Shannon and Todd counties, Johnson won 4,883 to 712.

In that regard, Giago arguably poses a risk. With his focus on Native American issues, the reservations will be his prime source of votes. What is unclear at this point is whether Daschle is stronger than Johnson head-to-head against Thune so he can afford to lose some of the reservation vote and whether the role they played two years ago will convince Native Americans that a vote for Giago is practically a vote for Thune. Yet I think there's another issue: none of this makes sense.

Giago's formal announcement that he was running in the primary just came last week. Why this mercurial change? Giago already has enough signatures to get on the primary ballot but needs to start over to get on the general election ballot. Entirely speculation on my part but my guess is Giago sought something from Daschle or the Dems, didn't get it and now hopes to play some sort of spoiler role. At the same time, there's no doubt at all that Tim simply loves the publicity and there's no explaining ego.
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