Happy Independence Day! I mean that with all sincerity. A quick scroll of the posts I missed over the last week or so tells me a little hope is in order. Be forewarned: This post will not tell you how miserable our government is, or how awful our lives are, or how corporations own us all. If you were looking for that, skip over this one and look around. You'll find plenty here and elsewhere to reinforce that belief.

I am by nature an optimist. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the snark and snipe games as much as the next guy, but my natural inclination is to see the good rather than the bad. Despite popular themes, far more good has come out of the past 18 months of the Obama administration than bad. And that good is only now beginning to hatch. Is it as good as it gets? No. Can it be better? Sure, just ask any of the folks who lost their unemployment benefits (thanks to Republicans) or have exhausted them. Even so, what I see is a half-full glass that needs to be filled more, but still offers a refreshing break.

How many of you can count the number of accomplishments this administration has actually delivered over the past 18 months? Some friends of mine are working on a detailed list now, and the number of substantial, documented, quantifiable accomplishments of this President is well over 300. So far.

300 substantial positive changes in 18 months. That's a remarkable number, certainly far more than we'd have seen if Almost-President McCain and Quitter Palin had been elected. Accomplishments that invest in present and future. Some correct past mistakes. Others seek to establish a strong foundation to build a future for us all. Still others affirm a commitment to opportunity for all of us.

Here are a few easily-forgotten examples.

• Offshore tax haven closure, which benefited rich investors, outsourcers and corporate tax dodgers. [Reference]
• Reformed Credit Card laws, adding consumer protections against predatory credit card lenders [Reference]
• Doubled federal funding for clean fuel research [Reference]
• Expanded Pell grants, enabling more low-income students to go to college. [Reference]
• Established climate change as a policy priority and set benchmarks for efficient energy standards. [Reference]

These accomplishments stand next to the ones most obvious: Turning the economy around, restoring our international standing, initiating a call for an end to nuclear proliferation worldwide, and getting universal health care passed, to name a few.

For those of you who are already sputtering "but, but, but...." and pointing out how each of the initiatives I listed or mentioned are impure, or somehow flawed from the original vision, I offer this: Legislation is an act of Congress. The health care bill, for example, teetered on the very, very edge of what was legislatively possible given the players in the House and in the Senate. One look at the vote counts should be all it takes to understand what that means. Changing one small provision could have killed the entire effort. Instead, we have a future which includes coverage for all, and subsidized coverage for those who cannot afford any health care, covered or otherwise.

All of this -- all 300 separate accomplishments -- are a down payment on future progress. This is what change looks like. It looks incremental, not immediate, and moves slower than any of us want. Some say it wears the tarnish of compromised promises. I say it wears the patina of unrivaled effort.

It is July 4, 2010. In 4 months, there will be an election. What is said today matters to that election of tomorrow. Ignoring what has been done in this short time will not win those elections. Using what has been done in 18 months to build upon a better, more progressive Congress will not only win elections, it will lay the foundation for more progress and more opportunity to rebuild what conservatives have spent the past 40 years tearing down.

Blue America is already working toward that future. If hope is kept at the forefront -- yes, HOPE -- we will make opportunities to perfect and refine the work in progress.

Hope pushed our founding fathers to sign their names to a Declaration of Independence. This country was founded on hope and optimism, not despair and criticism.

Digby is right:

I don't cut President Obama much slack --- the job is too important for that and he doesn't need patronizing sycophants --- but on Independence Day it pays to remember that the election of the first black president is still, as the Veep would say, a Big F$@#ing Deal:

I wonder too about whether President McCain would really care enough to do this for the baby turtles in the Gulf.

Know hope.

Cross-posted to odd time signatures

Today I was downtown, driving through the historic area so many Philadelphians take for granted. As always, I was deeply moved by the sight of the visitors who come all over the world to spend Independence Day in my home town.

Think about that. They could have gone somewhere else, or stayed home for a backyard barbecue. Instead, they came to Philadelphia for July 4th because they're drawn by the idea of liberty, and the ideals expressed in our Declaration of Independence.

It seems our elected officials forget about those ideals. But we haven't! Sure, there are many reasons to be depressed, but don't give up. Get mad, get organized! Remember, it's our country. It doesn't belong to the corporations.

It belongs to us.

Adams:
It's a masterpiece, I say!
They will cheer every word, every letter

Jefferson:
I wish I felt that way

Franklin:
I believe I can put it better
Now then attend, as friend to friend
Our Declaration Committee
For us I see immortality

All:
In Philadelphia City

Franklin:
A farmer, a lawyer, and a sage
A bit gouty in the leg
You know it's quite bizarre
To think that here we are
Playing midwives to an egg

All:
We're waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp
Of an eaglet being born
We're waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Franklin:
God knows the temperature's hot enough
To hatch a stone, let alone an egg

All:
We're waiting for the scratch, scratch, scratch
Of that tiny little fellow
Waiting for the egg to hatch
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Adams:
God knows the temperature's hot enough
To hatch a stone

Jefferson:
But will it hatch an egg?

Adams:
The eagle's going to crack the shell
Of the egg that England laid

All:
Yes, so we can tell, tell, tell
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Franklin:
And as just as Tom here has written
Though the egg may belong to Great Britain,
The eagle inside belongs to us!

All:
And as just as Tom here has written
We say to hell with Great Britain!
The eagle inside belongs to us!

Court Nominee Gave False Data, Text Shows

Law License Was Suspended Despite Early Denial

Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, appeared to provide inaccurate information to Utah bar officials about his legal work and lapses in obtaining law licenses over the past year, according to documents released yesterday at his nomination hearing...

Here's a funny statement by someone who supposedly knows the law.

Griffith added that because his license was suspended for administrative reasons, he never considered it a true suspension or disciplinary matter, and did not report it to Utah officials. "The thought never crossed my mind that it was related," he said.

Okay, I'm lost there. What does the word suspension mean?

1) A temporary abrogation or cessation, as of a law or rule.

2) A temporary debarment, as from school or a privilege, especially as a punishment.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a longtime friend of Griffith's pledged to "do everything in my power" to help him win confirmation.

I guess lying about being suspended is OK with Orrin.

Happy Chanukah (Hanukkah) everybody! And if you can this season, drop five bucks via the paypal button below, rather than under the Crooks and Liars' Hanukkah Bush.**

Every little contribution makes a huge difference in our monthly server bill. Thank you for making this blog possible.

**(If you think that's bad, you haven't heard Orrin Hatch's Eight Days of Hanukkah song.)

Open Thread below...

Hooboy. Did you hear about the neocon stenographers...er, national paper of record that printed an op-ed that might have as well been written by Dick Cheney himself? In a jingoistic and highly questionably-sourced article, WaPo's Fred Hiatt basically insisted that torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammad worked, damnit! And of course, the big Dick himself, Darth Cheney will be on Fox News to reinforce what a smart and wonderful thing torture is. And Princess Darth, Liz Cheney, will be on This Week's roundtable to reinforce it. Meanwhile, the legacy of Ted Kennedy will be still on everyone's mind too. Meet the Press, This Week and State of the Union will immerse themselves in the life and life's work of Kennedy. Any bets on how fast some GOPer (Orrin Hatch, I'm looking at you) will bemoan EMK's death as the end of the hope of bipartisanship on health care reform?

ABC's "This Week" - Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and John Kerry, D-Mass.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Hatch; Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Michael Eric Dyson, sociology professor at Georgetown University.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Kerry; Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Maria Shriver, nieces of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian; former Kennedy adviser Bob Shrum.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Howard Fineman, Michele Norris, Andrea Mitchell, Bill Plante. Topics: Has television forever altered American politics and changed history? Chris Matthews's special personal reflections on Senator Edward Kennedy. Meter Questions: Will outspoken fringe players dominate GOP for the rest of Obama's term? YES: 9 NO: 3; If unemployment is still high next year, will Obama revise his tax proposals? YES: 11 No: 1.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Hatch; Dodd; Red Sox president Larry Lucchino; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III; environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of Sen. Kennedy; Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, once a Kennedy aide; Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Mary Landrieu, D-La.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - An encore presentation of Fareed's Emmy nominated interview with China's Premier Wen Jiabao.

"Fox News Sunday" - Former Vice President Dick Cheney.

So, what's catching your eye this morning.

Here's a recap in video of Judge Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation hearing from Monday just in case you missed it. Don't forget to check C&L's Video Cafe on a daily basis because the team is posting a ton of videos there that we don't front page.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor Introduces Her Family Members

Senator Hatch Opening Statements Judge Sonia Sotomayor Hearing

Senator Feinstein Interrupted By Protester Judge Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing

Senator Sessions Opening Statements Judge Sonia Sotomayor Hearing

Judge Sotomayor No Republican Would Have Picked You! Senator Lindsey Graham

Senator Russ Feingold Defines "Judicial Activist" Judge Sonia Sotomayor Hearing

Jeff Sessions oblivious to the irony of calling Sotomayor 'prejudiced'

Judge Sotomayor's Opening Statement

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PLAYS: (8010)

Embed

Stephen Colbert noticed last night that, when President Obama said he would look for someone with "empathy" to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, the meme on the lips of all the Villagers (including Orrin Hatch) was that "empathy" was "code" for something -- most often "activist judges."

Wait -- isn't "activist judges" itself just code for "judges who don't rule the way wingnuts want"? Oh well.

In any event, Colbert manages to decode -- via a detour into the Star Trek universe -- the TRUE meaning of that invidious and insidious code word, "Empathy", which produces the anagrams "Meth Pay," "Ape Myth," and "Ham Type":

Which clearly means Obama plans to appoint a drug-addled evolutionist with swine flu.

Sounds as reasonable as anything we've heard from the Village.

DownWithTyranny:

GSA head Lurita Doan was a suspicious appointee to begin with. Her qualifications to head the nation's main federal contracting agency, the General Services Administration (GSA), seemed to have been primarily that she and her husband had given hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions to Bush and other right wing politicians. Yesterday Bush's Office of Special Counsel recommended she be fired for engaging in "the most pernicious of political activity" banned by the 1939 Hatch Act and for refusing to cooperate with the investigation. ""Doan solicited the political activity of over 30 of her subordinate employees when she asked 'How can we help our [Republican] candidates?'" The recommendation points out that "Doan has shown no remorse and lacks an appreciation for the seriousness of her violation." Read more...

For those of you who missed the testimony of the "totally paranoid" Lurita Doan, you can see portions of it here. She has another date with Henry Waxman tomorrow...

When the Bush White House was confronted with questions about an unprecedented purge of eight U.S. Attorneys, one of the key responses was, “Clinton did it, too.” It was false, Bush aides knew it was false, but they used it anyway.

Now the same officials are confronted with questions about an unprecedented initiative from Karl Rove’s office to give blatantly partisan campaign briefings to 15 federal agencies, on government property, shortly before the 2006 elections, despite a federal law prohibiting these kinds of activities. What’s the new excuse? Take a wild guess.

When one reporter asked Perino whether the briefings were a “White House idea, initially, or was it the agencies,” Perino dodged the question and replied that “the Clinton administration had similar briefings.”

Perino’s “Clinton did it too” is wrong. Bush White House officials went to federal agencies on at least 20 occasions and conducted private briefings for large groups of political appointees. They gave presentations focusing on “Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election.” The Hatch Act explicitly prohibits the use of federal property for partisan political purposes.

ThinkProgress contacted Doug Sosnik, Clinton’s Director of Political Affairs, directly. Sosnik explained, “We never went to agencies and briefed political appointees.” In fact, no one in the Clinton administration — from Sosnik’s office or anywhere else — ever conducted similar briefings for federal employees.

It appears that, for the second time in as many weeks, Perino simply made it up, fabricating a story to get herself out of a jam. It's called "lying" -- and Perino has been doing it quite often lately.

Hatch loses it

I just received this little snippet of Hatch (thanks Mike) getting a little unhinged today and ended up insulting the institution of the Senate, and then correcting himself.

Hatch: ...I listened to you and I'd be happy to take a question, but let, let me finish my remarks. didn't come here to talk about this. It's just that I got a little bit upset of listening to this type of what I consider to be political talk-- which we have all too much of this on to stinking floor -- this wonderful floor, I guess I better say...

(I'm working on getting the video shortly)