Darkseid

Time reports what is essentially the only possible explanation for the sudden concern on the part of the as-yet-briefed:

[...] two former ranking CIA officials have told TIME that there's another equally plausible possibility: The program could have required the Agency to spy on Americans. Domestic surveillance is outside the CIA's purview -– it's usually the FBI's job – and it's easy to see why Cheney would have wanted to keep it from Congress. Both officials say they were never told what was in the program, and that they're only making calculated guesses. But their theory gibes with other reports, quoting ex-CIA officials, that say the program had to do with intelligence collection, not assassinations.

Let's face it, were it just some legally questionable assassination orders for high ranking al Qaeda folks operating, say, inside an ostensibly friendly country (er, Pakistan?) and carrying out said orders would be a violation of various treaties and maybe even a few international laws...there'd be no significant dust-up whatsoever over this. Instead, even GOPers apprised of the situation are well off their normal "partisan witch hunt!" game and actually showing some sober adult sides to themselves that Our Staff never knew existed. And, in fact, that sort of program would hold no real reason to order the CIA to keep it off the books.
The only possible explanation that rises to the occasion (and explains the barely concealed outrage at its outing) is that they were planning to engage in plainly illegal acts, which probably includes but is not limited to: wide scale surveillance of US citizens as well as clearance to execute same without prior authorization. There is no doubt in my mind that the details, should they ever emerge, will fall loosely along these lines. No other reason to conceal at this level. Even for Cheney, whose first impulse is always: conceal.

For far too long now, the CIA has been the go-to agency when illegal acts are called for. Time to shut that agency down. We have far, far too many agencies competing in the spying and secrets arena as it is. Clear the slate and start over with a single, well regulated, and clearly delineated agency. And, just to make this move politically realistic: put John McCain in charge of the panel that lays it all out.

Joy Behar, meet Campbell Brown

Credit where due department: CNN's Campbell Brown has been dramatically more engaged and more insightful recently than at any time in my memory. True, she's getting more to do recently than report on plucky cats that could, but she's also doing something with that occsional opportunity for real journalism (sorry, no link to the full transcript):

Tonight the scape-goating of Sarah Palin. Whatever you may have thought about John McCain’s running mate… about whether she was qualified, prepared or experienced enough for the job… try if you can to put all of that aside for just a moment. Because Sarah Palin is who she is. She did not become measurably more intelligent or measurably less intelligent during this campaign. Remember, she was only part of the campaign for a matter of nine weeks. Sarah Palin is who she is.

Which is why I find it so stunning that the very people who introduced us to Sarah Palin… who told us she would make a great Vice President… have now turned on her with a vengeance. They are the top advisors to John McCain’s failed campaign and they are desperate right now to find someone to blame for their long long list of mistakes. They have been launching grenades at Palin and her supporters… some of their allegations we at CNN have found to be patently false. You will hear people say “this is what always happens with a losing campaign”… and hopefully, this is the last time we will be talking about these people. But what they have done just in the last few days to save their own skins is worth a final comment.

To those top McCain advisors who leaked the little story about seeing Sarah Palin in a towel. To those who called her and her family “Wasilla Hillbillies” while using her to stoke class warfare with redmeat speeches and an anti-elitist message. To those who claim she didn’t know Africa was a continent. To those McCain aides who say she is the reason they lost this election… can I please remind you of one thing: you picked her.

You are the ones who supposedly vetted her, and then told the American people she was qualified for the job. You are the ones who after meeting her a couple of times, told us she was ready to be just one heartbeat away from the Presidency. If even half of what you say NOW is true, then boy, did you try to sell the American people a bill of goods. If Sarah Palin is the reason some voters chose Barack Obama, that is no one’s fault but your own. John McCain, as he so graciously said himself the other night, lost this election. He lost it with your help, your advice, your guidance, and yes, your running mate recommendations. And that is crystal clear to everyone, no matter how hard you try to blame Sarah Palin or anyone else.

As Atrios notes, it's no Special Comment from Keith Olberman; I'd say it's better. Olberman serves up the red meat, to be sure, but a force such as Brown on CNN gives you something else entirely: a thoughtful, questioning agent that isn't immediately identifiable as in the bag for any given ideology. Much, much more effective, if somewhat less enjoyable for the partisan. Good on you, Campbell.

Joy Behar, meet David Letterman

More from the Questions the "Serious" Media Will Not Ask file:

Letterman questioned him about Palin's claim that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama "palled around with terrorists," and McCain backed her up, saying his opponent need to better explain his relationship with former Weather Underground activist William Ayers.

"Did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?" Letterman asked about Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy.

McCain said he knew him. Then, after a commercial break, McCain said, "I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt, he went to prison ... I'm not in any was embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy."

"You understand the same case could be made of your relationship with him as is being made with William Ayers?" Letterman said.

McCain said he has been completely open about his relationship with Liddy.

Letterman appeared to ridicule McCain about the implication that Obama and Ayers had a relationship.

"Are they double-dating, are they going to dinner, what are they doing?" Letterman asked. "Are they driving across country?"

"Maybe going to Denny's," McCain said.

I doubt it, John. Denny's doesn't usually cotton to the African Americans. But, in other news, does anyone give a shit that we're so reliant on our "entertainers" to ask serious questions?

I say "Let 'em crash!"

Shorter GOP house membership:

They Bought Their Tickets, They Knew What They Were Getting Into. I Say--Let 'Em Crash!

Seriously, this bunch of idiots prefer decades of economic destruction to sacrificing their (fake) small guvmint "credentials" at the altar of actual necessity? We can argue and re-tune deals until the cows come home, but I think any responsible person realizes "I don't know what it is, but something's got to be did."

Naturally, this all just kabuki nonsense such that Saint John McCain can either:

a) Create distance between himself and everybody else (the Democrat menace has gotten to W! He never was a "real" conservative no-how!) when they pass the current bill over his cold, dead (voting-against-it) hand.
2) Claim victory when some other version of the bill passes that includes his beloved Blue Ribbon Commission. (Did they just say "Blue Ribbon?!?"; then it must be good.)

All of which can hopefully cause the cancellation of the VP debate, because 'Merica's in too much danger to allow a lot of this talkin'.

But Joy Behar knew better

Sometime, in the far future, when they are writing the definitive history of that mysterious entity known as the United States of America, you know, the one that went through this odd, transformative period that no one can really explain, still, even here in the far future; when they are writing that history, they'll come to the point where they write "But Joy Behar knew better." Joy Behar, defender of (whatever's left of) The Republic. She'll be right there by Cicero.

Richard Cohen, of all people, lays it out for us in the WaPo. Check this out:

Last week, one of the co-hosts [of The View], Joy Behar, took McCain to task for some of the ads his campaign has been running. One deliberately mischaracterized what Barack Obama had said about putting lipstick on a pig -- an Americanism that McCain himself has used. The other asserted that Obama supported teaching sex education to kindergarteners.

"We know that those two ads are untrue," Behar said. "They are lies."

[...]

"Actually, they are not lies," he said.

Actually, they are.

Sweet Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Read that last line again. And then read it again. And then rub your eyes (but not too hard). And then double check the link above isn't some sort of Russian redirect intended to cleverly sap your accounts and steal the time-share you've got way out in Bermooda. "Actually, they are." See, that wasn't too hard. But our man Cohen ins't going to leave it there and start in with the hacktackular James Carville™ excuses. No sir:

[Continuing directly] McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most.

[...]

[McCain's] opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.

[...]

McCain was [...] going to look the American people in the eyes and say, not me. I will not lie to you. I am John McCain, son and grandson of admirals. I tell the truth.

But Joy Behar knew better. And so McCain lied about his lying and maybe thinks that if he wins the election, he can -- as he did in South Carolina -- renounce who he was and what he did and resume his old persona. It won't work.

God save Joy Behar. She was The One who could get through to Our Media Elite, the Serious People who run things around here. Too late for the Republic, and all that, but at least we may be spared the final indignity of going down in a blaze of "glory" under a McCain/Palin administration.

The Lies of Sarah Palin

I told the Congress to take their bridge and shove it!
This one is a flat out lie and lately even conservative stalwarts such as the Wall Street Journal are willing to soft-pedal around to tell you that:

"She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere."

For it before she was against it, perhaps?


I got rid of the governor’s chef! Boy, do my kids ever miss her!
But Palin actually just reassigned the chef, and only because her kids left the scene for the summer. Still unclear is whether or not Palin brought the chef back to the governors mansion post-summer vacation.
What she did do is take a per diem for living at home. Michael Luo of the New York Times tells us:

The $60-a-day allowance is available for state employees when traveling on official state business to cover meals and other sundry expenses [...] Ms. Palin’s per diems, which included some charges for partial days, totaled $17,059, from Dec. 4, 2006, when she took office, through June 30, 2008, the most recent data available, according to Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office. Ms. Palin’s salary is $125,000 a year.

I sold (former Alaska governor) Frank Murkowski's jet on eBay!
This one is by far the closest to the truth, and yet still manages to bend the facts. The plane was indeed listed on eBay at her behest (having been a major issue in the campaign for governor, dispatching the plane was one of her first actions in office):

"But the jet's eBay listing did not prove effective, and the state never got its asking price. Instead, in 2007, the state turned to an aircraft broker, Turbo North Aviation. The jet was purchased that year by businessman Larry Reynolds, the owner of a sporting goods store and marine supply store in Valdez. Reynolds paid $2.1-million."

So it's at least true that Palin (or, more accurately, the state of Alaska) put the plane up for sale on eBay, but it didn't sell on eBay. But McCain still likes to take this minor fabrication and turn it into a full-on lie by taking it an extra mile:

"You know what I enjoyed the most, she took the luxury jet bought by her predecessor and sold it on eBay," he said. "And made a profit."

Except that none of that happened. As we know, the plane, valued at ~2.7 million dollars in fact sold for $2.1M and didn't sell on eBay.

How is it that Al Gore can be savaged over the Love Canal based entirely on an immediately corrected misquotation while McCain, Palin, and any other member of the GOP can spew patent fabrications, repeatedly, in public, and raise nary an eyebrow? Must be that liberal media acting up again.

In Aid of A,B,C

The lipstick on a pig thing is indeed the greatest issue facing the country since John McCain spent several years as a guest of The Red Menace.

But it's worth noting that there's another scandal of phenomenal proportions out there, just waiting to give us its money:

Palin's [gubernatorial] office requested $2 million in federal monies to study crab mating habits; $494,900 for the recreational halibut harvest and $3.2 million for seal genetics research.

Those requests for the study of wildlife genetics and mating habits seems pretty antithetical to the long-standig views of Palin's running mate, John McCain.

"We're not going to spend $3 million of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana," McCain said earlier this year, referring to a request from Montana for federal money to study the endangered grizzly bear. "I don't know if it was a paternity issue or criminal, but it was a waste of money."

My stars, she wanted to study crab fucking? How old were those crabs? Were they instructed on how to use crab condoms? Were there any crab abortions planned as part of the research? And, won't somebody please think of the seal DNA!?! This is before we get to her tacit approval of dread science and knowledge. Jesus, shouldn't she be in some kind of jail cell right now awaiting verdict?

Of course, we'll hear about none of this. Why? Well, fortunately Joe Scarborough told us why in this little moment in which the truth slipped out:

MATTHEWS: Now, [the lipstick on a pig flap will] die, as we said, it'll jump the shark. Two days ago, no, we're all talking about -- you're waving the tabloids around, come on. Two days from now -- I want to ask you, what will we talk about two days from now?

SCARBOROUGH: Whatever the McCain campaign wants us to talk about, because the McCain campaign is assertive.

To quote Steve Benen:

As far as I can tell, the story has to a) have video; b) be exceedingly simple and easy to summarize in a few seconds; and c) be good for John McCain.

Millions of dollars for seal DNA and crab fucking clearly have A and B, but not enough C. Back to porcine cosmetics, then.

Why not try this on for size: John McCain must hate Israel since he wants to de-fund our support to it. Sarah Palin quotes an anti-Semite in her speeches; she must hate Israel even more (and that's rather charitably assuming she's aware of its existence). AIPAC much? They were never that into politics anyway. But they probably just realize that this one only has A and lacks B or C. Lets face it, Israel's just too boring and complicated for the media. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the McCain campaign decides to talk about.