It seems there was one in every thread last night: a 20-something bemoaning the fact that Clinton won in Nevada because of all the "Boomers" or "seniles" or "gray hairs" who showed up and voted for her.

All those hoary old people in our party are blocking the kind of swift, revolutionary progress we need right now! Those ancient crones and doddering 50-somethings are craven, ignorant "CENTRISTS" -- horrifying, I know -- and they're all willfully or stupidly knuckling under to corporate hegemony and "destroying the party from within."

In a way, I sympathize. I've been there.

I don't think I'm alone in having been irritated more than once by trying to understand/communicate with one of the  foreign nationals various businesses have hired to answer their customer service calls. Several times I've simply had to excuse myself and hang up on these "offshore" voices because I was so confused...or they were.

(More)

Here's the original story from yesterday:

They've arrested two Egyptian students on the road to Goose Creek down here in the Charleston, SC area, which is where some "enemy combatants" are being held in the nearby Navy Brig, and is also near the Naval Weapons Station which is rumored to be a storage depot for nukes--which is, of course, "neither confirmed nor denied"...)

More of the orginal and an UPDATE below.

They've arrested two young Egyptian students on the road to Goose Creek down here in the Charleston, SC area, which is where some "enemy combatants" are being held in the nearby Navy Brig, and is also near the Naval Weapons Station which is rumored to be a storage depot for nukes--which is, of course, "neither confirmed nor denied"...)

More below.

(Remembering that an explanation is not an excuse.)

Joe fanatically supports Bush's war because he believes that "victory" in Iraq would create an Iraqi puppet state under American control, and such a state would never threaten Israel.

Remember that Israel's fear of Iraq and its leader caused them to bomb the almost-completed Osirik nuclear reactor in 1981, and Hussein lobbed possibly chemical-tipped missiles into Israeli cities during the first Gulf War in 1991. Israel has had real and immediate reason to fear the lifting of sanctions on Saddam.

(more)

Congressional Program Ahead, Week of July 25 through July 30, 2005

Excerpted from the Congressional Record Daily Digest for July 22, 2005

There's too much Senate chamber material for this box, please join me below the fold.

From the Congressional Record Daily Digest for July 15, 2005

Week of July 18 through July 23, 2005

Senate Chamber

On Monday, at 2:30 p.m., Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 3057, Foreign Operations Appropriations.
On Tuesday, at 10 a.m., Senate will meet with the House of  Representatives in the House Chamber to receive an address from Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India.

During the balance of the week, Senate expects to complete consideration of H.R. 3057, Foreign Operations Appropriations and will consider any other cleared legislative and executive business,  including any other appropriation bills, when available.  

Committee Meetings of Interest below the fold.

From the Congressional Record for Monday, July 11, 2005

Congressional Program Ahead

Week of July 12 through July 16, 2005

Senate Chamber

  On Tuesday, Senate will continue consideration of H.R. 2360, Homeland Security Appropriations.
  During the balance of the week, Senate will continue consideration of H.R. 2360, Homeland Security Appropriations, and consider any other cleared legislative and executive business, including any other appropriation bills, when available.

Committee Meetings of interest below the fold.

From the Congressional Record for Friday, July 1, 2005:

Mr. MCCONNELL. Now, in closing, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, the Senate stand in adjournment until 1 p.m. on Monday, July 11. I further ask consent that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and the Senate then begin a period of morning business until 2 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; provided further that at 2 p.m. the Senate begin consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill as under the previous order.

CONGRESSIONAL WEEK AHEAD

[ Abstracted from the Congressional Record Daily Digest, June 24, 2005]

Week of June 27 through July 2, 2005

Senate Chamber

On Monday, at 3 p.m., Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2361, Interior Appropriations.

On Tuesday, Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 6, Energy Policy Act, with a vote on final passage of the bill to occur at 9:45 a.m. Also, Senate will continue consideration of H.R. 2361, Interior Appropriations.

  During the balance of the week, Senate expects to complete action on H.R. 2361, Interior Appropriations, and begin consideration of H.R. 2360, Homeland Security Appropriations, and will consider any other cleared legislative and executive business, including any other appropriation bills, when available.

[Committee Meetings of interest below the fold]

(abstracted from the Congressional Record Daily Digest, June 11, 2005)

CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM AHEAD

Week of June 13 through June 18, 2005

Senate Chamber

On Monday, at 2:30 p.m., Senate will begin consideration of Thomas B. Griffith, of Utah, to be United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. At 6:30 p.m., Senate will consider S. Res. 39, apologizing to the victims of lynching and the descendants of those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation, with 3 hours for debate, followed by a vote on adoption of the resolution.

On Tuesday, Senate will continue consideration of the nomination of Thomas B. Griffith, of Utah, to be United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, with a vote on confirmation of the nomination to occur at 10 a.m.; following which, Senate will begin consideration of H.R. 6, to ensure jobs for our future with secure, affordable, and reliable energy.

(more below the fold)

(from the Congressional Record Daily Digest May 20, 2005)

CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM AHEAD

Week of May 23 through May 28, 2005

Senate Chamber

On Monday, at 11:30 a.m., Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Priscilla Richman Owen, of Texas, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit. Also, at 5:30 p.m., Senate will vote on a motion to instruct the Sergeant at Arms to request the attendance of absent Senators.

On Tuesday, Senate will continue consideration of the nomination of Priscilla Richman Owen, of Texas, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, with a vote on the motion to invoke cloture to occur thereon.

(Next week's interesting committee meetings below the fold)

Just saw on the evening news here that there was a bogus letter sent out on official-looking NAACP letterhead that tells recipients that they might be arrested at the polls if they have outstanding parking tickets, owe back child support, or have not submitted a credit report (!) to the election commission.

The letter also said that a voter needs 2 forms of picture ID and a Social Security card and has to have provided a handwriting sample ahead of time.

Standard procedure for the Republican vote suppression corps, of course, but my question is, why are they doing this in SOUTH CAROLINA? It's been a "lock" for Bush from the beginning.

It is said that only Nixon could go to China. I believe that the most important reason to elect Clark next year is that he is the only guy who can "go to the Pentagon."

In the DOD-driven foreign policy and military-worshipping cultural environment that the Bush administration has created since 9/11, we need Presidential leadership that can credibly take on the Pentagon as we have never needed it before.

Clark will not be unassailable, but he will have tons more political cover than any civilian, especially any other Democrat, to work the following issues:

1. The Pentagon budget (he has famously said that the military is "a want machine" and that an ideal place to look for the money we'll need for health care needs is there). He knows where the budgetary bodies are likely to be buried and can more effectively stare down The Boys on whether certain things are REALLY military necessities. He won't cut what's really needed, either.
2. Gays in the military. He knows reforms to policy have to come from the military itself, but he also knows how to cajole and pressure the right people the right way.
3. The downshifting of Rumsfeld's militarization of foreign policy, a turning away from the early resort to force. But Clark's credentials at the same time will help to reassure people that he isn't "weakening" us.

In terms of the election, I'd also like to note that the Bush administration has hitched their political star to all-militarism-all-the-time, so they have blunted some of their own ability to attack Clark with the same viciousness that they will be able to deploy against other Democrats. Although Clark will of course not be immune from the Republican lies-'n'-hysteria machine, they will have to be much, much more careful. They only succeeded in smearing Max Cleland because Max was low profile and didn't fight back. We already know Clark will -- in fact he's already smacking Turkey Boy around with STYLE.

There is also simply less basic ammunition to throw at Clark. I think he poses much, much more of a political problem for Rove and company.

But, ultimately, the main reason I support him is because of what I think he'll be able to do by virtue of his unique history, image, skills and qualities when he gets into the White House. The political value of having a guy who can lead this nation to the to the left from his personal national security fortress is an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Democratic party.

I believe the advertisement that just started playing down here in South Carolina this week: he'll make an EXTRAORDINARY President.

A lot of times I have to restate my premise when it becomes clear to me that my audience is not understanding what I was trying to say.

I was taking a new antibiotic last night that apparently has a peculiar side effect similar to prednisone: it lights up the brainpan, making you  wakeful and aggressive and sleepless. I was buzzin'!

So anyway, to restate my thoughts regarding Dean's Confederate flag error:

The way to regain poor white Southerners for the Democratic party is not by telling they are stupid dupes of the Republican party's racialist tactics, but the same way you induce a wild cat to come up on the porch so you can take him to the vet to get his shots.

You put out a saucer of milk (health care). You sweet-talk him, in a soothing voice, about all the nice things you can give him if he'll just come up and take little drink (show him how his kid will benefit educationally). You sympathize with him about how cold it is out there in the barren yard all by himself (job losses). You reassure him that those mean, fat junkyard dogs (CEOs and Wall Street predators) won't be able to get him if he comes inside the warm little nest you've made here in this box with the piece of hamburger at the back. You pet him and tell him he's a pretty cat, a clever cat, and that he has nothing to fear from you.

What you DO NOT do before you've got him penned up and purring over his nice meaty Democratic meal is show him the syringe or in any way remind him that there is a guy in a white coat who is waiting behind the kitchen door.

You DO NOT grab his whiskers and get into his face and scream, "I know what you're doing out there in the yard with those dogs, and you're wrong and you're a bad, stupid cat to believe what those rotten canines say. Okay, I know you can't help yourself because you're too stupid to figure out your own best interests. You don't know that you have to get these shots because you're just an ignorant cat and you've allowed those bad dogs to fool you. But I'm a smart human and I know what's good for you, so I'm going to tell you what your interests are and what you should be doing. Now GET UP HERE ON THIS PORCH!!"

That, whether he meant it or not, was the subtext of Dean's "brave" and "upfront" message to the Democratic party. Dean was, unfortunately, speaking to several different groups with those remarks:

1) liberal Dems who, like him, seem to believe that the Confederate Flag folk (using that as shorthand, of course) dislike black people only socially, "just because," and that they are somehow too stupid to see that they have common economic issues with blacks. These Dems think that all the Democratic party has to do is point out the common cause and the poor whites will come flocking back.

and

2) Confederate Flag folk who think it is insanely arrogant for the Democratic party, of all people, to say that black people are on an equal economic footing with poor whites when, in their minds, affirmative action and other Democratic-induced "perks" have given blacks an unfair advantage these days.

and

3) Southern politicians who have in fact been desperately, quietly trying to DELINK the race and economic issues so that they can lure poor white cats back up onto the Democratic porch. Dean's explicit recharging of the race + economics issue kicked that effort right in the teeth. Mr. Nothern White Man has presumed to "begin talking about race again," and decided all by himself to reset the agenda in a direction they had been trying to move AWAY from for the last 15 years. That's what the really passionate "don't come down here and tell us what to do" thing from Edwards was really about, I think.

The only people pleased with Dean's bulling into the Southern china shop this way are the folks who, as I said last night, like what he said because it confirms their own moral arrogance. "We know what's right, and we're not going to be delicate or persuasive or gentle in how we go about convincing you. We're going to MAKE you see it our way!"

Over in the "Dean On Hardball Now!" Diary, someone wrote:

I will never understand why impoverished southern whites would rather vote for a person who will continue to deny civil rights to 10% of American society than a person who could provide away out of their poor economic situation.

The reason you don't get this is the same reason Howard Dean is ALSO totally tone deaf on this issue in the South. It's what Edwards and Sharpton couldn't say out loud, but every Southerner knows: the guys who put Confederate flags on their pickup trucks do it in large part because they believe that black people are being UNFAIRLY given "their" jobs by the Democratic party, who are, they believe, dictating the elevation of race over every other consideration in hiring.

ECONOMIC racism has been an underlying fact of life down here since Reconstruction. The only thing any white man ever felt confident of in the days before Civil Rights was that he was going to get a job before any black man did. Since the 60s that automatic assurance was taken away from a certain socioeconomic class of white people, and they simply WILL NOT forget it.

As long as the Democratic party remains, as it should, the party that takes racial concerns seriously, it is a freakin' PIPE DREAM to believe that Confederate flag types will ever see their economic interests coinciding with those of blacks of the same class. Economic racism, the resentment of a perceived unfairness in favor of blacks these days, is practically what the Flag thing is all ABOUT.

So Dean's idea that those CF guys could somehow come together in common cause with blacks under the Democratic banner was sheerest fantasy. It showed all too clearly that he Does. Not. Get. It. And that is what Edwards was saying, in code, when he spoke of us not liking to see Northerners coming down here telling us what to do.

Dean's mistake with this is also typical of the way he approaches a lot of issues. They're a series of bloodless logical problems to him, not breathing cultural complexities with histories and social boobytraps that he might possibly be unaware of.

So, for example, he says, "Budget problem? Repeal the whole tax cut!" without thinking through the emotional consequences to the middle class. He sweeps out his big smartass sword and instantly cuts the Gordian Knot, without for a moment considering that it might be tying his whole election contraption together.

He doesn't consider it because it is beyond his consideration. The intellectual arrogance of that attitude is what makes Nascar/Rodeo people think: "Pointy-Headed Liberal Snot."

On Wolf Blitzer, moments ago. He will not accept Dean VP slot.

Sorry.