Getting past the smarmy pretension exhibited by Matt Yglesias and Dan Drezner in this discussion, at the 8:20 mark Matt makes an important point about brands in the political discourse. Not just for the Media, but for the entire chain, from the Times to the blogosphere. Discussing Mickey Kaus, Matt says:

It is not a political position that [Mickey Kaus]is espousing, [it is] a media product. . . . Mickey has created this persona for hmself, it is not . . . dishonest persona . . . but he is playing the Mickey Kaus character for Slate. And that is the same for columnists and stuff [I read "stuff" as all of the players in the political discussion] . . . . That is just the reality of it.

This is absolutely true. Everyone in the Media food chain is playing to persona. From figurative top to bottom. And that brings me back to what I always want to talk about, Iraq.

Just now on MSNBC, Condessa Brewer permitted GOP talking head Ron Christie to repeat the falsehood that Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet.

Supposedly Christie and James Boyce, the Democratic talking head, were to discuss the prospect of Gore runnning in 2008. But, as is usual on cable news, falsehoods were presented as opinion. By now, EVERYONE knows that Al Gore did NOT say he invented the Internet. In fact, I was a little shocked to hear Christie not only repeat the falsehood, but to get indignant when Boyce called him on it.

MSNBC has done some good things of late and I know that Jeralyn has great respect for Dan Abrams, who manages the cable network now. But please stop folks from appearing on your shows and spewing obvious falsehoods, whether they are Democrats or Republicans. The Al Gore Internet falsehood has been so thoroughly debunked that Condessa Brewer should have stopped Christie. Either she did not know it is false or she was too timid to do it. She needs to learn from Chris Matthews.

This is entirely predictable:

Democratic congressional leaders on Friday offered the first concessions in a fight with President Bush over a spending bill for Iraq, but the White House turned them down.

In a closed-door meeting with Bush's top aides on Capitol Hill, Democrats said they'd strip billions of dollars in domestic spending out of a war spending that Bush opposed if the president would accept a timetable to pull combat troops out of Iraq. As part of the deal, Democrats said they would allow the president to waive compliance with a deadline for troop withdrawals. But no deal was struck.

. . . White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten, who rejected the deal, said any timetable on the war would undermine the nation's efforts in Iraq. "We consider that to be not a significant distinction," he said. "Whether waivable or not, timelines send the wrong signal."

And so it goes. The choice for the Democratic Congress is binary. Continue to fund the Iraq Debacle on Bush's terms or end the Debacle by announcing a date certain when the Debacle will not be funded. Yes, the Reid-Feingold framework.

Rudy Giuliani disclosed on his federal tax returns that he considers his wife an employee and paid her $125k a year for speechwriting help, an arrangement that pre-dated their marriage. The money was included as income on their joint tax return and they paid taxes on it.

Rudy Giuliani's haul for the 126 speeches he gave from January 2006 to March 2007 was $11.4 million, records filed this week show, which means he kicked back something less than 2% to his wife over that period.

That's a pretty insignificant figure given his entire speech income. Because she was an employee, I assume he also got to deduct her airline and other individual travel expenses that the paying company may not have picked up. Their suite would be covered since they shared it, but what about the meals and other related items?

My take: I don't believe for a second the pay was for her speechwriting help. It sounds like a clothing, hair and makeup allowance, and the only way to deduct it was to make her an employee.

This discussion between Glenn Greenwald and Ben Smith of the Politico regarding the Politico and the Media in general is interesting and I think provides lessons both for the Media and media critics.

Glenn Greenwald is, I think by general consensus, among the very best bloggers. His detail, research, piercing arguments and eye for an interesting story is virtually unmatched. And yet, Glenn's work on the Politico story did suffer from a weakness and Ben Smith picked up on it - the conflation of the politics of certain persons in the Politico management as a strong influence on the coverage. I don't think that is true and the charge took away from Glenn's powerful case. And it allowed Ben Smith to push away some of Glenn's powerful points.

In honor of John Ashcroft's moment of honor, as described by James Comey:

And it was only a matter of minutes that the door opened and in walked Mr. Gonzales, carrying an envelope, and Mr. Card. . . . And Attorney General Ashcroft then stunned me. He lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter . . . and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, But that doesn’t matter, because I’m not the attorney general. . . . Mr. Ashcroft’s chief of staff asked me something that meant a great deal to him, and that is that I not resign until Mr. Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me. SCHUMER: And it was his view that Mr. Ashcroft was likely to resign as well? COMEY: Yes.

Let the Eagle Soar

Great photos accompany this video of Crosby Stills and Nash's "Immigration Man."

Let me in, Immigration Man.

No Human is Illegal.

[This is a repeat of a post from Dec. 2006]

Berkeley, CA, which has a reputation for being politically correct, is now engaging in the ridiculous.

It passed an ordinance criminalizing smoking on city streets. Why? To be able to arrest the homeless. They figure the homeless are most likely smokers, just like drug addicts and prostitutes.

As Mayor Tom Bates sees it, the alcoholics, meth addicts and the like who make up a good portion of the homeless population on Shattuck Avenue downtown and Telegraph Avenue on the south side of the UC Berkeley campus "almost always smoke." And because smoking bans are the hot ticket these days for California cities, why not meld the two as part of a "comprehensive package" for dealing with the street problem that Bates says "has gone over the top"?

In this case, vagrants could be cited for taking a drag on the town's main drags.

To finance the effort, the city will raise parking rates $.50 an hour.

A Chicago jury today returned a verdict recommending life without parole for Juan Luna, whom it convicted last week of murdering seven people at a restaurant.

The sentencing deliberations took only two hours. Luna was 18 at the time of the killings. The defense argument:

Today, during closing arguments in the defense portion of the death penalty phase, Luna's lawyer Burch asked jurors to disregard prosecutors' portrayal of Luna as a cold-blooded monster.

"The state portrayed Juan Luna as an evil individual who has no heart. … They are trying to dehumanize him, make him less than a person and then step on him,'' Burch said as he stomped his foot in the courtroom. "He's a human being. The same blood flowing through his heart and veins is flowing through ours."

"I'm asking you to lean toward life, lean toward life because justice has been served,'' Burch said." Death is not the answer, taking life for a life. … Temper justice with mercy. I'm pleading with you to express mercy."

Eric Zorn in the Chicago Tribune says the case is a signal it's time to end the death penalty.

More...

Update: Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are skeptical. They say the bill needs to be improved in the Senate. I agree, particularly with respect to the family separation issues, the need to go back to the home country and wait, possibly for years, to return and the onerous path to permanent residency and citizenship.

********

The 300 page immigration reform bill won't be publicly available until tomorrow. Here is a summary of key provisions:

— Undocumented immigrants who came to the United States before Jan. 1, 2007 — an estimated 12 million — would get immediate, but probationary, legal status and ability to work and travel if they pass background checks.

— Undocumented immigrants and their families could get new “Z'’ visas good for four years, but renewable indefinitely, by paying a $5,000 fee per head of household. After eight years, holders of Z visas could apply for permanent legal residence — a green card — by returning to their home countries and paying another $4,000 penalty.

— Between 400,000 and 600,000 foreigners would be able to come every year to work. They could stay for two years on new “Y-1′’ visas then return home for one year and could renew the visas for a total of six years in the country. They could bring their families with them for one two-year period.

More...

The number of Republicans calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rose to 5 today....and Democrats are calling for a "no confidence" vote.

Democrats proposed two versions of a nonbinding resolution expressing what senators of both parties have said for weeks: that Gonzales has become too weakened to run the Justice Department.

White House response:

"A 'no-confidence' vote is nothing more than a meaningless political act, not that that's stopped them before," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "The attorney general has the full confidence of the president."

Kelly O'Donnell asked Bush at a press conference today if he sent Gonzales to Ashcroft's hospital room to sign off on the extension of the warrantless NSA wiretapping program. Bush refused to answer. Instead, he said the program was and is necessary.

Update: New York Times article on the resolution here.

CNN reports. I'll look for a story with more details.

NYTimes says:

Breaking News 6:12 PM ET: Paul Wolfowitz to Resign as President of the World Bank as of June 30, Bank Official Says.

Update (TL): ABC News has more.

An internal panel tasked with investigating the lucrative pay and promotion package Wolfowitz arranged in 2005 for girlfriend Shaha Riza found him guilty of breaking bank rules.

The committee also found that he tried to hide the salary and promotion package from top ethics and legal officials within the bank. The report added that there is a "crisis in the leadership" at the World Bank. Wolfowitz is the first World Bank president to ever leave the bank under a cloud of scandal.

Wolfowitz is said to be angry and upset.