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Posted by leboheme at 11:02 AM

We want to hear from you today about a new Pragmatic Progressive wrinkle in the abortion debate. Check out this Op-Ed by Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid who are comming together on the abortion debate,

"Abortion debate shuns prevention" (Albany Times Union)

Posted by leboheme at 09:08 AM

Posted by leboheme at 04:40 PM

BL Blogger is strangely preoccupied with the magazine biz today, in particular with the peculiar resemblance of this week's New Yorker to this month's Vanity Fair:

Who's the white chicken: Roberts or Clooney?

What's your obsession? Email us!

Posted by leboheme at 03:19 PM

In case you were wondering why he always asks to have all his TVs on Fox (thanks, Smokinggun), this email from the White House press office is illuminating:

Posted by leboheme at 03:16 PM

For the first time in years, WH press corps senior prefect Helen Thomas got to ask the Prez a question in his Q & A today. Thomas then tried valiantly to get in a follow up on Rumsfeld, but W won round II.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

Helen. After that brilliant performance at the Grid Iron, I am -- (laughter.)

Q You're going to be sorry. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, let me take it back. (Laughter.)

Q I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet -- your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth -- what was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil -- quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it?

THE PRESIDENT: I think your premise -- in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- is that -- I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect --

Q Everything --

THE PRESIDENT: Hold on for a second, please.

Q -- everything I've heard --

THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me, excuse me. No President wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true. My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We -- when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I'm never going to forget it. And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.

Part of that meant to make sure that we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that's why I went into Iraq -- hold on for a second --

Q They didn't do anything to you, or to our country.

THE PRESIDENT: Look -- excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That's where al Qaeda trained --

Q I'm talking about Iraq --

THE PRESIDENT: Helen, excuse me. That's where -- Afghanistan provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That's where they trained. That's where they plotted. That's where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans.

I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this problem diplomatically. That's why I went to the Security Council; that's why it was important to pass 1441, which was unanimously passed. And the world said, disarm, disclose, or face serious consequences --

Q -- go to war --

THE PRESIDENT: -- and therefore, we worked with the world, we worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world. And when he chose to deny inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did, and the world is safer for it.

Q Thank you, sir. Secretary Rumsfeld -- (laughter.)

Q Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: You're welcome. (Laughter.) I didn't really regret it. I kind of semi-regretted it. (Laughter.)

Q -- have a debate.

THE PRESIDENT: That's right. Anyway, your performance at the Grid Iron was just brilliant -- unlike Holland's, was a little weak, but -- (laughter.)

Sorry.

Posted by leboheme at 01:58 PM

This morning Brian speaks with David Grandeau, the head of the New York Temporary Lobbying Commission, who's recently reinterpreted the rules to dramatically limit gifts to Albany legislators.

In the meantime, check out these stats on the top lobbyists and lobby-ers of 2005, courtesy of the State Lobbying Commission:

Posted by leboheme at 10:26 AM

Look what came in the mail today!

A final 2005 mayoral race vote tally....OK, so Anthony got almost eight times as many votes as Brian...but he also spent, like thousands of dollars. You're a "thousandaire", right, Anthony?

Posted by leboheme at 05:49 PM

With apologies to Gawker, BL blogger spotten this late last night on nytimes.com:

Posted by leboheme at 04:09 PM

The LL Show's Sarah English contributes this cartoon accounting of her hike from central Brooklyn to lower Manhattan:

Posted by leboheme at 04:46 PM

A new opinion poll for Time, ABC News, the BBC, NHK and Der Spiegel suggests Iraqis are not only optimistic about their future, but strongly favor a democratic system of government. We'll talk more about it this morning.

Got some tidbit to share? Email us!

Posted by leboheme at 09:05 AM

We couldn't help but notice, listening to the President's speech today, that some W's words sounded awfully familiar. So we checked the transcripts, and its true! The early section of the president's address today in D.C. closely followed his 11/30/05 speech at the US Naval Academy, in many places using the exact same words. Everything below in bold appeared in today's second speech exactly as it did in the first one.

Two more to go...

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE WAR ON TERROR TO THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

Omni Shoreham Hotel

Washington, D.C.

10:44 A.M. EST

Last week at the Naval Academy, I gave the first in a series of speeches outlining our strategy for victory in Iraq. I explained that our strategy begins with a clear understanding of the enemy we face. The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists and Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who miss the privileged status they had under the regime of Saddam Hussein -- they reject an Iraq in which they are no longer the dominant group. We believe that, over time, most of this group will be persuaded to support a democratic Iraq led by a federal government that is strong enough to protect minority rights.

The Saddamists are former regime loyalists who harbor dreams of returning to power -- and they're trying to foment anti-democratic sentiment among the larger Sunni community. Yet they lack popular support -- and over time, they can be marginalized and defeated by security forces of a free Iraq.
The terrorists affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda are the smallest but most lethal group. Many are foreigners coming to fight freedom's progress in Iraq. They are led by a brutal terrorist named Zarqawi -- al Qaeda's chief of operations in Iraq -- who has pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The terrorists' stated objective is to drive U.S. and coalition forces out of Iraq and to gain control of the country. They would then use Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks against America, overthrow moderate governments in the Middle East, and try to establish a totalitarian Islamic empire that reaches from Indonesia to Spain.

The terrorists in Iraq share the same ideology as the terrorists who struck the United States on September the 11th, blew up commuters in London and Madrid, and murdered tourists in Bali, killed workers in Riyadh, and slaughtered guests at a wedding in Amman, Jordan. This is an enemy without conscience -- they cannot be appeased. If we're not fighting and destroying the enemy in Iraq, they would not be leading the quiet lives of good citizens. They would be plotting and killing our citizens -- By fighting the terrorists in Iraq,across the world and within our own borders. we are confronting a direct threat to the American people -- and we will accept nothing less than complete victory.

We're pursuing a comprehensive strategy in Iraq. Last week, my administration released a document called the "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq." Our goal is victory -- and victory will be achieved when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens, and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot new attacks against our nation.
Our strategy to achieve that victory has three elements. On the political side, we're helping the Iraqis build inclusive democratic institutions that will protect the interests of all Iraqis. We're working with the Iraqis to help them engage those who can be persuaded to join the new Iraq, and to marginalize those who never will. In two-and-a-half years, the Iraqi people have made amazing progress. They've gone from living under the boot of a brutal tyrant, to liberation, to free elections, to a democratic constitution. A week from tomorrow, they will go to the polls to elect a fully constitutional government that will lead them for the next four years. By helping Iraqis continue to build their democracy, we will gain an ally in the war on terror; by helping them build a democracy, we will inspire reformers from Damascus to Tehran; and by helping them build a democracy, we'll make the American people more secure.

On the security side, coalition and Iraqi security forces are on the offense against the enemy. We're clearing out areas controlled by the terrorists and Saddam loyalists, leaving Iraqi forces to hold territory taken from the enemy, and following up with targeted reconstruction to help Iraqis rebuild their lives. And as we fight the terrorists, we're working to build capable and effective Iraqi security forces, so they can take the lead in the fight -- and eventually take responsibility for the safety and security of their citizens without major foreign assistance. As Iraqi forces become more capable, they're taking responsibility for more and more Iraqi territory; we're transferring bases for their control, to take the fight to the enemy. That means American and coalition forces can concentrate on training Iraqis and hunting down high-value targets like Zarqawi.
On the economic side, we're helping the Iraqis rebuild their infrastructure, and reform their economy, and build the prosperity that will give all Iraqis a stake in a free and peaceful Iraq. In doing this, we have involved the United Nations, other international organizations, our coalition partners, and supportive regional states.

Posted by leboheme at 03:08 PM

Here is the White House fact sheet on Iraq reconstruction, released a few minutes after the President's speech began.

Posted by leboheme at 10:54 AM

Ragin' Cajun Congressman Charlie Melancon somehow got his hands on former FEMA Director Michael Brown's emails written during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. And he's making them available on his website here, complete with the congressman's analysis.

While not exactly damning, they are a cautionary tale for anyone who's ever used company email to gripe about a tough assignment or look for a dog-sitter.

Posted by leboheme at 09:46 AM

Thesmokinggun has Harriet Miers' now-infamous birthday card to the President. The lady clearly gets W's love of dogs.

Posted by leboheme at 03:53 PM

Today we received this bizarre fax for WNYC's President, Laura Walker.

DO NOT PANIC! No one is shopping WNYC around.

Posted by leboheme at 03:25 PM