Discover GOP Opprobrium

[teapeebubbles]

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* This is pretty huge: “The top military and civilian leaders of the U.S. Air Force will be fired Thursday after a critical report regarding the mistaken transport of nuclear-tipped missiles, military sources said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will ask Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael W. Wynne to resign after a report on the August flight in which a B-52 bomber crew mistakenly flew across the country with nuclear weapons, sources said.”

* Some very good advice: “Barack Obama said Thursday he’s in no rush to pick a vice presidential candidate, telling CNN ‘everybody needs to settle down’ and let the vetting process run its course.”

* McCain’s trip to Florida was marked by some very effective criticisms from the Obama campaign over his opposition to a National Catastrophic Insurance Fund (a big issue in the hurricane-targeted Sunshine State).

* I know Bristol, Va., is on the southern end of Appalachia, and Appalachia is Obama’s worst-performing region, but locals seemed pretty excited about seeing him this morning.

* Senate Republicans would rather “make political points” than debate how best to combat global warming. How do we know? Because they admit it in private memos.

* Typical: “As Bush’s health chief, Tommy Thompson was criticized for not doing enough to help workers exposed to toxic debris from the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center. Now, a company he leads has won a $11 million contract to treat some of those workers who responded to New York’s ground zero.”

* Might Patrick Fitzgerald talk to Congress?

* Major Clinton backers are, not surprisingly, rallying behind Obama (including Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who’s bound to get some serious VP consideration).

* Looks like Sen. Robert Byrd is headed home from the hospital.

* I suspect veterans of the war in Iraq with PTSD would find recovery easier if they weren’t in barracks across the street from an Army infantry firing range.

* VoteBoth really hasn’t formulated an effective strategy if Lanny Davis is joining the team.

* To add a coda to a story we’ve been following: “Two protesters who were inappropriately strip searched after protesting at a George W. Bush campaign rally in 2004 have been awarded $750,000. Alice McCabe and Christine Nelson had brought a civil suit related to their arrest and later strip search at the jail. An eight-member jury found Wednesday that the Secret Service took lawful action, but that a strip search at the Linn County Jail was not warranted because the women were being charged with a simple misdemeanor. McCabe was awarded $250,000 and Nelson $500,000. Charges against the women had already been dropped.”

* Wyden’s right; Rumsfeld should be held accountable.

* It’s a great logo, and some terrific branding, but for McCain to steal Obama’s stuff is just kind of cheap for a Republican presidential campaign.

* On a related note, I think the McCain campaign is taking “golf gear” a little too seriously.

* Why am I cautiously optimistic about Dems’ chances this year? Because: “Nobody under 40 really remembers it, but the recession around the middle of Reagan’s first term was really, really, really bad. It licked inflation, but at the cost of sky-high unemployment and the worst recession since the Great Depression. And even then the public’s view of their personal finances was rosier than it is now.”






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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle