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Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Four months till election day. We're all going to need Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies (better known as tinfoil hats)....
Testing... One, Two, Three... This guy has more faith in the current Supreme Court than I do: Though it is against the law to threaten the president in real life, a work of fiction is usually protected by the First Amendment.Wait wait, don't tell me: 9/11 changed everything.
Pope says sorry for crusaders' rampage in 1204: The Pope delivered an emotional apology to Orthodox Christians yesterday for the Catholic plundering of Constantinople eight centuries ago, saying it caused him 'pain and disgust'.Wait, wait... I have a prediction. The year is 2863, and Jeb Bush XIV is issuing an apology for the First Crusade of the Modern Era, way back in 2003 and 2004... If it's good enough for the Holy Father, surely it's good enough for the new First Family.
From Tomburka.com, an excellent list of proposed new rules for the Senate, based on Cheney's outburst last week: [I]n the event of a tie, the Vice-President will break the tie by voting in the affirmative and saying "Aye", or, when voting in the negative, saying "Go fuck yourselves."Well, fuck us!
Voting Official Seeks Terrorism Guidelines: The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.So, if we vote, the terrorists have won? (via Atrios)
Un-frickin'-believable: As attorneys for detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, began preparing the first of hundreds of expected lawsuits demanding that the government justify the detentions, administration officials acknowledged that they were unprepared for a rebuke in two landmark Supreme Court decisions that rejected the military's treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism.They had pages of talking points, but no actual plans. Don't ya just love these guys?
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
You've read a lot of this sort of thing over the past year. But this one is qualitatively different. David Neiwert, whose judgment and skills as an investigative reporter are first-rate, vouches for Paul Lukasiak as a top-notch researcher whose judgment he's learned to implicitly trust. And after a careful examination of Bush's military records, Lukasiak prepared this meticulously documented report (in draft form). I've bold-faced the key portions: HOW BUSH FAILED TO FULFILL HIS DUTY:Now, in one sense, this is meaningless. No one is going to indict Bush for desertion, and the whole controversy has been tarred with the "it's just politics" brush. But in my mind this sorry episode is the linchpin in the argument that George W. Bush is a child of privilege who has been handed opportunity throughout his adult life, who has shirked responsibility whenever possible, and who has had other people clean up his messes for him. Can someone point to a single responsible action that GWB has taken as an adult that has turned out well? In fact, this reliance on other people to clean up after him may be what gives this scandal some life. may Neiwert says: "[This report] makes clear, irrevocably, that Bush's military record should be a scandal not merely for what it contains (or rather, doesn't) but because of the extent to which it has been tampered with and lied about in the past eight years or so." And who was doing that tampering?
The Poor Man thinks that is the only possible explanation for the Hitler ad. He just might be right.
Clear Channel (those delightful people) sent me an e-mail this morning offering me a chance to buy a ticket on the Rock 'N' Roll Holiday Escape. A week cruising the Caribbean with Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Styx? What a frightening thought. I'm going to crawl back under the covers now.
Monday, June 28, 2004
Juan Cole notes and speculates: Paul Bremer suddenly left Iraq on Monday, having "transferred sovereignty" to the caretaker Iraqi government two days early.This is still more evidence of the complete collapse of all pretense that the Bush Administration actually has a plan other than "hasta la vista, baby." Remember the "series of six weekly speeches" in the runup to June 30? That was dropped after two miserable episodes, cancelled faster than a summer sitcom on the WB network. And it certainly wouldn't do to have hundreds of TV cameras trained on a ceremony where most of the participants are just hoping they don't get blown to Kingdom Come. Mission accomplished, baby!
Liz Cox Barrett at CJR Campaign Desk offers up an amusing piece on how the press has turned on John Kerry in four short years. In 2000, when Kerry was being considered as a potential veep for Gore, he was showered with praise for his energy, enthusiasm, and charisma. And now? Well, you read the papers, don't you? The "handsome," "charismatic" candidate who four years ago had an "easy manner," "charm," and a record impregnable to Republican attack has undergone a hideous transmogrification, as described by reporters.Imagine that. The article offers a good thesis and lots of current Kerry-bashing quotes, but it's missing a tremendously important bit of evidence. Where are the links (or at least sources) for those stories from four years ago? CJR has well documented the current crop of "Kerry is ugly, uncharismatic, and aloof" quotes. But the story doesn't really get any oomph until they provide specific examples of reporters, analysts, and publications that said one thing in 2000 and another in 2004. As it stands, when I read the story I don't know whether it was one set of people and publications that wrote that nonsense in 2000 and a completely different group that is writing the current blather. I suspect there are lots of great examples of hypocritical analysts and reporters on this issue. But if CJR wants to lecture bloggers on how to be a journalist, they'd better practice what they preach. [Cross-posted at Daily Kos]
The Supreme Court overruled the Bush Administration in Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul. (Thanks to Phil Carter for the links.) Although they agreed that the Executive branch has a right to hold enemy combatants, the Court made it very clear that Bush overstepped his bounds: We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens.In Jose Padilla's case, the most eagerly watched, the Court punted, throwing it back to the lower court on the tecnicality that Padilla's lawyers incorrectly named Donald Rumsfeld instead of the commandant of the naval brig where Padilla is being held. So, the Constitution hangs on by a thread.
Are there any bloggers who want to join forces with me? If you're interested in combining the content from this site with the content on your blog, or if you'd like to be a guest contributor here, drop me a line. (Click my name at the bottom of any post to send me an e-mail.)
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Apologies for the long, long post, but this one's just chock-full of good stuff. Read all the way to the end. Irish commentator Tom McGurk wraps up Bush's ugly visit to Ireland in the Sunday Business Post. I've excerpted big chunks of it here, but the entire essay is brilliant and sad and so, so true: Kennedy came in glory, Bush came in guilt. Has anyone spotted the ironic significance of yesterday's date, June 26?As everything, and I mean everything, unravels around him, George W. Bush seems to be retreating into a defiant shell that might have shocked even Richard Nixon. His interview on Irish television was breathtaking in its arrogance. (Read the transcript, or better yet, watch the video to get a full sense of his imperiousness.) Digby, as usual, has the best summary on the episode: If anyone hasn't seen this utterly humiliating interview between the spoiled little Brat King and Carole Coleman of RTE, here it is. You might want to have a nice soothing glass of fine Irish Whiskey in your hand (I know it's early -- haven't you ever heard of an Irish Coffee?) for the moments when you need a stiff belt to calm yourself when you realize that this major league fuckhead represents you around the world -- and also to toast Ms Coleman for trying to get Bubbleboy to actually answer a question instead of ramble on with some nonsensical blather about freedom and compassion. His Highness doesn't like his incomprehensible gibberish questioned. (And for every time she pisses off the prickly little moron for absolutely no reason, have another.)His administration is feuding with itself. His campaign has already officially played the Hitler card, with more than four months to go before Election Day. How much uglier can it get? I shudder to think.
The Anchorage Daily News busted Rush Limbaugh for yet another incorrect and self-aggrandizing statement: Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who has made light of Iraqi prisoner abuse reports, last week told his listeners this: A U.S. senator authored an amendment aimed at censoring him, but Limbaugh talked to Sen. Ted Stevens, and Stevens had it "watered down" for him.If he keeps this up, Rush might turn this red state blue!
Oh, what a lovely war: Rumsfeld said Washington would have hoped for a better security situation in Iraq after the war but he said he expected the Iraqi people would be able to recapture their country from radical militants he linked to al Qaeda.After 15 months and more than $120 billion, with more than 800 dead soldiers, this is what we have to show for it? How do these people sleep at night?
Reuters: President Bush declared an end on Saturday to Western rifts over Iraq but won little in his search for European military help and took heat over prisoner abuse.They needed 6,000 armed military and police officers to keep the people away from the President of the United States? Wow. Can we please please please hold the elections tomorrow so we can throw these clowns out?
Saturday, June 26, 2004
January 5, 2004, Republican National Committee Web site: Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie today made the following statement regarding a second ad posted on the MoveOn.org Web site comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler and calls from Jewish leaders for MoveOn.org to apologize for posting the ads.January 13, 2004, Altercation: MoveOn moved quickly to limit the damage, noting that claims that it had sponsored the spots were "deliberately and maliciously misleading," while simultaneously repudiating the ads and pulling them off its site.June 25, 2004, JohnKerry.com blog: Kerry campaign spokesperson Phil Singer has called on the Bush campaign to remove a disgusting web ad laced with images of Adolph Hitler from the Bush website:June 26, 2004, GeorgeWBush.com Official Blog: The Kerry campaign says, "The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong." We agree.So to summarize. A left-wing organization not affiliated with any campaign, politician, or party has a contest. Two entries out of several hundred posted on the Web site (not a wise move) compare Bush to Hitler. The RNC complains, MoveOn repudiates the ads and pulls them from its site immediately. The official Web site of the Bush campaign compares Al Gore, Howard Dean, Michael Moore, and all of John Kerry's supporters to Hitler. The Kerry campaign complains, and the Bush campaign says, in the words of Dick Cheney, "Go fuck yourself." Classy.
The New York Times has in interview with Ken Lay: [O]n the eve of what may be the government's final decision on whether to charge him with a crime, Mr. Lay is talking for the first time about the company's collapse in 2001 and the scandal that enveloped it. In more than six hours of interviews with The New York Times, Mr. Lay remained steadfast in his expressions of innocence, even as he acknowledged, as head of the company, accountability for the debacle rests rightfully with him. "I take full responsibility for what happened at Enron," said Mr. Lay, 62. "But saying that, I know in my mind that I did nothing criminal."Yep, just a few bad apples. The guy at the top knew nothing about it. Why would you expect the
Chris Bowen at MyDD says it's official, Peter Cobb is the Green Party nominee for President. And that means Ralph Nader's best shot at mounting a legitimate third-party campaign has failed. The Nader threat to Kerry is over, as Nader will be on the ballot in less than 15 states now. The Green party itself will be weakened, but a 'no nominee' or Nader endorsement would have destroyed it.This is a genuine repudiation of Nader's bankrupt candidacy. I hope he'll take the hint and quit, but I suspect we'll get more spin and bullshit instead. It's sad to see a one-time hero reduced to this. And this update from Chris (who is doing a superb job of covering this story, by the way): It is over for Nader. I will personally be stunned if he makes the ballot in twelve states. He does not have the money for a limited national advertising drive like he had in 2000. There will be no Nader "super-rallies" like in 2000, where he regularly drew crowds exceeding 10,000 people. He has no party support. He has nothing.Works for me. Ralph who?
February 23, 2004 Remarks by the President to the Republican Governors Association: "[W]e stand for a culture of responsibility in America. We're changing the culture of America from one that said, 'if it feels good, do it,' and 'if you've got a problem, blame someone else,' to a culture in which each of us understands we're responsible for the decisions we make."June 26, 2004 Neil Cavuto Interview With Dick Cheney: CAVUTO: Did you curse at him?Well, glad we cleared that up.
Terry Jones: For some time now, I've been trying to find out where my son goes after choir practice. He simply refuses to tell me. He says it's no business of mine where he goes after choir practice and it's a free country.Keep reading. Honestly, are comedians the only people who are actually allowed to speak the complete, unvarnished truth these days?
Friday, June 25, 2004
I would rather bang my head against a wall for four hours then listen to even 10 minutes of this. Do you think any of this crap is available on Kazaa?
Digby has a wonderful set of ruminations on why Dick "Big Time" Cheney might be losing it. My $.02 tossed in: Factions within this Administration seem to be at war with one another. But if Big Time is forced out -- or worse, indicted -- there isn't enough money in all the secret bunkers in Iraq to keep him from taking the rest of the crew with him.
Kevin Drum says: This is one of Bush's problems: he honestly thinks that the mere act of making 'strong decisions' makes him a leader. It doesn't even occur to him that a leader is someone who makes good decisions and then persuades other people to support them.And that's when it dawns on me. Bush thinks if he can just get the facial expression and the tone of voice right, the people will rally behind him. Derek Zoolander had "Blue Steel" and "Le Tigre," which of course were all the same look. Ironically, Zoolander the movie was released two weeks after 9/11. Coincidence? I think not.
Priceless. I especially like the reaction from Sen. Hatch, (R-Hypocrisy): Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), while pointing out that he was unaware of the incident, described Cheney as "very honest" and said: "I don't blame anyone for standing up for his integrity."Oh, and I extra specially liked that the Washington Post didn't bleep the Veep. All four letters are there for your viewing pleasure.
Kevin Drum captures a bon mot from Joe Biden: "About six months ago, the president said to me, 'Well, at least I make strong decisions, I lead.' I said, 'Mr. President, look behind you. Leaders have followers. No one's following. Nobody.'"
Roger speaks: "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a compelling, persuasive film, at odds with the White House effort to present Bush as a strong leader. He comes across as a shallow, inarticulate man, simplistic in speech and inauthentic in manner. If the film is not quite as electrifying as Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," that may be because Moore has toned down his usual exuberance and was sobered by attacks on the factual accuracy of elements of "Columbine"; playing with larger stakes, he is more cautious here, and we get an op-ed piece, not a stand-up routine. But he remains one of the most valuable figures on the political landscape, a populist rabble-rouser, humorous and effective; the outrage and incredulity in his film are an exhilarating response to Bush's determined repetition of the same stubborn sound bites.C'mon, everybody, it's Take a Republican to the Movies Week!
1st-Quarter Growth Slashed, Inflation Up: The U.S. economy grew much more slowly than previously thought in the first quarter while inflation was higher, a government report showed on Friday.Let's see. Terrorism is down. No, wait, it's up. Inflation is down. No wait, it's up. But the economy is growing strongly. No? God, I hope the Republican internal polls say George W. Bush is ahead. Since they can't measure anything right, that would be the surest indicator of a Kerry landslide yet.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Switching sides: I never actively campaigned for anybody, except in 1980 and 1984 for Ronald Reagan and in 2000 for George W. Bush. I was deeply involved in the Bush campaign, stumping for him in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where I spent most of my life. I hate to tell you this now, I even appeared in a couple of Bush campaign ads.
Atrios points to this tale of class in the Vice President's office, courtesy of the incomparable Wonkette: CNN is reporting that on the floor of the Senate yesterday, Dick Cheney told Sen. Pat Leahy, "Go fuck yourself."Of course, I've always considered Cheney a major league asshole. Yeah, big time.
Gore Says Bush Lied About Iraq to Push for War: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Thursday accused President Bush of telling "an artful and important lie" soon after the Sept. 11 attacks to set the stage for war on Iraq.Don't you wish he was President? Say, maybe Kerry could pick Gore as his Veep candidate?
Bush Is Interviewed in Inquiry on Leak of Operative's Name: President Bush was interviewed by federal prosecutors today in connection with their attempts to discover who leaked the identity of an undercover officer for the Central Intelligence Agency last summer.I've lost count of the number of scandals in the current White House. Every single one, though, involves criminal activities that are directly related to the functioning of the Government and the public trust, unlike the President who was in the White House for most of the 1990s. The press continually called Clinton's Administration "scandal plagued." When will they apply the same label to this one? When "senior Administration officials" are giving background briefings in a Federal prison? Sheesh.
Kevin Drum reports: The Supreme Court has ruled that Dick Cheney doesn't have to turn over the records of his energy task force meetings. Bummer. For an unvarnished look at what Republican administrations care about and what they don't, this probably would have been unbeatable.Why does this remind me of a classic Monty Python sketch? With a few alterations, it works just fine... Landlady: Come on in, Mr and Mrs Johnson and meet Mr and Mrs Phillips.Uncanny, don't you think?
Compassionate conservatism, my ass: A senior Agriculture Department official's comment that people who eat at food banks are "taking the easy way out" was taken out of context, an agency spokeswoman said Wednesday, after several members of Congress called for his resignation.(Via Suburban Guerrilla)
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
It's an allegory, sort of.
Ruy Teixeira rounds up some interesting economic facts from a study by CIBC World Markets: ...U.S. job creation since late 2001 has been concentrated in low-paying industries such as hospitality, education and personal services, while job losses have hit higher-wage sectors such as transportation, manufacturing, utilities and natural resources.....The message is clear: The vast majority of the jobs that evaporated during the job-loss recovery were high-quality jobs.Not to mention that average weekly earnings are dropping, health care costs are soaring, and gas prices are rising. The Bush Administration wants you to be grateful because, after three years of horrible economic news, we finally had three OK months. Maybe W needs to ask his Daddy about the perils and pitfalls of not understanding how the economy affects everyday people.
David Neiwert says: I'm starting a new Hall of Shame for the World's Dumbest Men. My list so far:Lyle Lovett was a candidate for the list a while back, but seems to have acquitted himself recently.
The astute Brad DeLong explicates Levels and Rates of Change: That the labor market is finally improving--that it is no longer becoming harder and harder month by month to find jobs--does not mean that the labor market is good. A few months of employment gains are good news: they mean that it is a little less bad out there in the labor market than it used to be. But don't confuse rates of change with levels: there are still perhaps 4 million people either unemployed or out of the labor force who would have jobs if we had a labor market in equilibrium. (And there are 6 million who would have jobs if we were in a boom like the late 1990s.) It's still unusually hard for Americans to find work--just not as unusually hard as it was six months ago.It's still closer to midnight than morning in America. [1] Headline courtesy of The Firesign Theatre
The Poor Man takes a well-deserved shot at Stephen F. Hayes: Stephen Hayes says whatever Doug Feith tells him to say, and Doug Feith is an incompetent, dishonest, rigidly ideological fool. Nonetheless, expect his book on how Osama and Saddam were basically the same person to be treated with implicit credulity by all the usual suspects.I love it when the blogosphere rallies around a good cause.
AP Sues for Access to Bush Guard Records: "The Associated Press sued the Pentagon and the Air Force on Tuesday, seeking access to all records of George W. Bush's military service during the Vietnam War." According to the lawsuit, the White House has ignored a written request submitted in April, even though Bush, in his Meet the Press interview, gave an "oral waiver" of his right to keep those records confidential. For those that have followed this story, the crucial missing piece of the puzzle, which has never been released, is the DD214. As Thomas H. Lipscomb noted in the Chicago Sun-Times earlier this year: An Air National Guard officer such as George Bush left an extensive paper trail of service. The vital summary sheet of a military record is a simple form called the DD214 or NGB 22. It covers all the basic questions being asked about Bush today. Every military veteran has one.Well, I recall quite a few bloggers asking for this document, most notably Kos. But that form and one other were mysteriously missing from the "complete" personnel file released in February. Let's see how far the story goes this time.
Via Cursor.org comes this pointer to some excellent Knight-Ridder reportage: Stung by the perception that the Bush administration may have endorsed torture as an interrogation technique, White House officials declassified documents Tuesday that show President Bush ordered in early 2002 that al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners be treated "humanely" even though he said they weren't protected by the Geneva Conventions.In other words, "Hey, count your blessings. We could have eaily made this an even bigger clusterfuck. And we still might, if you keep pushing."
Tim Dunlop traces the history of propaganda all the way to Frank Luntz, current "communications advisor" and pollster for the Republican Party. Here's a generous excerpt from his memo explaining how to sell Iraq to a skeptical public: The overwhelming amount of language in this document is intended to create a lexicon for explaining the policy of "preemption" and the "War in Iraq."It's very rare to find this sort of naked explanation of how the lies and deceit of the right wing are constructed, block by block. It's mind-boggling to think that there truly is an army of people who read this stuff and actually follow its orders to the letter. A 2003 Mother Jones article has some more good stuff on Luntz and his single-minded assault on the truth.
First we get an enlightening lesson on how Arab names are constructed. Then we get a blisteringly thorough trashing of the laughable claim that a member of Saddam's Fedayeen was an al-Qaeda operative. Finally, we get this conclusion: Mr. Carney, Mr. Lehman, journalist Stephen Hayes, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and all the other persons who gave a moment's thought to the idea that these two are the same person, based on these names, have wasted precious moments of their lives and have helped kill over 800 US servicemen, over an elementary error deriving from complete ignorance of Arabic and Arab culture.My wife thought John Stewart was being mean. I think Hayes willingly signed on to play the role of patsy for the Bush Administration, and he deserves whatever he gets. (He suffered a similar humiliation when he was the junior member of a panel at the AEI last month.) Isn't it telling, by the way, that Bushco had to use a third-rate hack writer for a second-rate publication to flog this story? Maybe the press corps is finally getting wise after all.
And thank you, TiVo. Last night I watched Monday's episode of the Daily Show, in which "author" Stephen F. Hayes (Connection) was neatly sliced, diced, filleted, and packaged in shrink-wrap by Mr. Stewart. Normally, an author goes on TV to sell his book. After watching Hayes stammer, stutter, giggle, and basically disavow the entire premise of his book under Stewart's relentless questioning, I can only imagine that people were lined up at bookstores the next day demanding their money back. Amazingly, Comedy Central is turning out some of the most honest, accurate, on-the-money reporting around these days. Do you think CNN is watching?
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Billmon sums up the pending perjury case against the Attorney General: "Ashcroft forgot the first rule of a cover up: Don't flatly deny something under oath if there are witnesses who you can't control." Two eyewitnesses directly contradict what Ashcroft swore to under oath. Does anyone have the guts to file charges?
Winston Smith takes down the myth of the wimpification of the Western male. Hilarious. Hope Kim du Toit doesn't shoot him.
On second thought, that headline is probably unfair to slime. Read this analysis by Media Matters of Novak's appearance on Meet the Press last weekend, and then ask yourself why this guy is allowed to use a keyboard.
Kevin says, Please, dear god, make it stop. (via Digby)
John Kerry in Aspen: "Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly. How does this sound? Vice President Hunter Thompson." I'd vote for it!
This is gutless. Update: The New York Times notes: "Two Republicans, Senators Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and John McCain of Arizona, voted in favor of permitting news photographers to have access to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where coffins containing the war dead from Iraq arrive." The times said they were the only Republicans to break ranks, but they missed the courageous Sen. Fitzgerald (R-IL). The Times also said seven Democrats voted against the amendment, but I counted 10. Take a bow, Senators Bayh, Biden, Breaux, Carper, Landrieu, Levin, Lincoln, Miller, Nelson, and Pryor. And whoever reported this for the Times needs to go back to school.
Oops: The CIA concluded 'a long time ago' that an al-Qaida associate who met with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Malaysia was not an officer in Saddam Hussein's army, as alleged Sunday by a Republican member of the 9/11 commission.Meanwhile, Stephen Hayes gets to go on the Daily Show. There is no justice.
Monday, June 21, 2004
Unbelievable. Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau reporter Jonathan S. Landay files this story: Intelligence experts cast doubt on ties between Iraq, al-Qaida Defenders of President Bush's charges that Saddam Hussein worked with al-Qaida have been citing what they say is new evidence that could help substantiate one of the administration's main justifications for invading Iraq.Folks, you read it here first. This story is not new. It made the rounds last year, long before the 9-11 Commission began taking testimony, when the Bush White House was still refusing to hand over any documents. The whole shaky story is based on one piece of paper filled with statements of extraordinarily dubious veracity. Dick Cheney's office leaked it to Steven Hayes, who stretched it into a book, about which the Wall Street Journal wrote an editorial. There's nothing to this story. Nothing. But the public who looks at the story casually comes away with the belief that the Bush Administration has a smoking gun and the commission is just playing politics. Like I said, unbelievable.
A new WaPo poll says W is losing his mojo when it comes to the Great War on Terra: Public anxiety over mounting casualties in Iraq and the doubts about long-term consequences of the war continue to rise and have helped to erase President Bush's once-formidable advantage over Sen. John F. Kerry on who is best able to deal with terrorist threats, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.Holding the GOP convention in NYC is looking more and more like a dumb idea. But why should that surprise anyone?
This is eye-opening: A prominent federal judge has told a conference of liberal lawyers that President Bush's rise to power was similar to the accession of dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler.(via Max)
Christopher Hitchens continues his long, ugly descent into the quicksand of intellectual depravity with his latest contribution to Slate: Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore: To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.Well. One could substitute "this column" for "this film" and have a pretty good summary of how depraved Hitchens is in this piece. But really, that would be dignifying the man too much. It's much easier and more productive to report that Christopher Hitchens has become my reverse oracle. If he says something, I can be confident the opposite is true. If he believes something, I can look deep into my soul and know that I believe the exact opposite. If he hates a film, I'll be right there in the front of the line. Chris, even Fox News thinks Fahrenheit 911 is "a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail."
I was hoping this stuff would just resolve itself while I was away having fun. But no. [A]s the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legal status of the 595 men imprisoned here, an examination by The New York Times has found that government and military officials have repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and the intelligence they have provided.That bold-faced part in the center? That means, "They lied." It's an epic piece of journalism, with gems like these: In September 2002, eight months after the detainees began to arrive in Cuba, a top-secret study by the Central Intelligence Agency raised questions about their significance, suggesting that many of the accused terrorists appeared to be low-level recruits who went to Afghanistan to support the Taliban or even innocent men swept up in the chaos of the war, current and former officials who read the assessment said.Mission accomplished!
Thursday, June 17, 2004
We interrupt this vacation to ask you to sign the petition!
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Reagan's still dead, right? I'm gonna take advantage of this opportunity to slip away for 10 days. Back in a while. Still looking for guest bloggers/collaborators/partners.
President Bush is playing the sort of word games that drove Republicans into fits when Clinton did it. Let's see what kind of reaction he gets to this: President Bush said Thursday he ordered U.S. officials to follow the law while interrogating suspected terrorists, but he sidestepped an opportunity to flatly denounce the use of torture.He refuses to make a simple statement that the United States government rejects torture and stands behind the conventions we've agreed to over the years. Instead, he uses the weasel words "stay within U.S. law" and "adhere to law." Of course, his Attorney General was telling him that the Justice Department's expert legal opinions allowed a great many types of interrogation activities that stopped just short of violent death and would not be considered torture under their tortured interpretation of the law. Of course, he doesn't recall seeing that memo. Can you imagine George W. Bush reading a 56-page legal memo? Puh-leeze. Ashcroft told him he had a firm legal basis (the divine right of kings, essentially) for the interrogation techniques they were using, and Bush relied on that advice. Ashcroft said, in essence, if you tell people to stay within these lines, this will all be within U.S. law. "Do you want to see the memo, Mr. President?" No, thanks. I'll take your word, John. Bush is now being very, very careful about what he says on this subject. Why? Because he knows if he gets it wrong, it could blow up in his face, with impeachment and criminal charges both as real possibilities. And no, I'm not comforted.
Digby nails it in his analysis of what makes the torture memo really shocking: What was the process by which they came to these dry legalistic definition of when, how and where on is allowed to inflict terrible pain as long as it doesn't reach the level of intensity that would accompany serious physical injury or organ failure? Did they discuss this around a conference table over a take-out Chinese dinner? Did they all nod their heads and take notes and write memos and have conference calls and send e-mails on the subject of what exactly the definition of 'severe pain' is? Did they take their kid to school on the way to the meeting in which they finalized a report that says the president of the United States has the unlimited authority to order the torture of anyone he wants? Did they tell jokes on the way out?Read the rest for yourself. It's well worth it My wife thinks our culture is failing and that we as a people passed the tipping point some time ago. She thinks that evil has already won. In my many optimistic moments I disagree and I plead the case for goodness to triumph at the last minute. But then I see shit like this, and, well...
Our new best friend in the War on Terror has been cheating: While the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was renouncing terrorism and negotiating the lifting of sanctions last year, his intelligence chiefs ordered a covert operation to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia and destabilize the oil-rich kingdom, according to statements by two participants in the conspiracy.Obviously, Fearless Leader did not get a chance to do his patented "I have looked into his soul" routine with the Colonel before forming this partnership.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
From the comments at Whiskey Bar: I thought that "Bush-Cheney 04" bumpersticker on Reagan's hearse was too much.
Goddamnit, they just keep lying. And then someone realizes that they'll get caught, or that it's just plain wrong to peddle a pack of pure unadulterated bullshit. And so you get this: The New York Times Army Now Says G.I. Was Beaten in Role: Reversing itself, the Army said Tuesday that a G.I. was discharged partly because of a head injury he suffered while posing as an uncooperative detainee during a training exercise at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.I'm running out of tinfoil. They were rehearsing this stuff. They had long documents answering the questions they had about how far they could go. This was not a few bad apples.
Put Reagan on the $100,000 bill? I like this idea!
Jerry Bowles: [T]he evidence continues to mount that the good ship America has been hijacked by the biggest and most dangerous gang of pirates and thugs to occupy the world stage since Hitler and Stalin and their associates had their billets punched.I want to see the seismographs after they finally put Reagan in the ground. I'm willing to bet that scientists will be able to detect noticeable motion.
I don't know what to make of this: Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation's air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left.I remember reading about this long ago and being puzzled over the denials. Now it seems this really was a story after all. Hundreds of innocent Middle Easterners were rounded up in the days after 9/11. Some were kept in jail on no charges for months. Meanwhile, wealthy Saudis were allowed to leave, no questions asked. House of Bush, House of Saud. (via Talking Points Memo)
This is appalling. Laura Bush, whose father died from Alzheimer's, said on Wednesday she admired Nancy Reagan's devotion to former President Ronald Reagan until his death but could not back her call for relaxation of stem cell research restrictions.Compassionate conservatives, my ass.
I've written previously about Stephen F. Hayes, the hack Weekly Standard writer who turned a one-page collection of raw intelligence information into a magazine article and then stretched it into a book. Its premise is that there is strong evidence of a connection between Saddam and Osama. Over at American Prospect Online, Matthew Yglesias sums up the argument in one sentence: "This is, simply put, nonsense."
The New York Times closes its story on the relationship between the Bush and Reagan families with this whopper: "I think the name is Bush, but he is a true Reaganite," said Kenneth M. Duberstein, Mr. Reagan's last chief of staff, speaking of the current president. "It's bold strokes and primary colors, not pastels."You mean, like this?
So, what should we do with someone who has planted bombs and sabotaged government facilities in Baghdad? They're terrorists, right? They need to be put down, locked up, even killed if necessary to preserve order. Or we could make that "terrorist" the new prime minister of Iraq: Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organization intent on deposing Saddam Hussein that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A., several former intelligence officials say.My vote for best unintentional irony in the article is when Allawi's chief bomb maker complains that the CIA stiffed him on one of the payments. "Mr. Khadami said that 'we blew up a car, and we were supposed to get $2,000' but got only $1,000..." If you can't trust the CIA, who can you trust?
Al Giordano can't spell too good, but he sure does know how to think: "This document would bring down a regime in any civilized country. "At this point, I accept the correlary of Bush's 'if you are not with us you are against us' doctrine. There is no way to sugarcoat it: If you are with him, you are complicit in the war crimes. And as the pendelum starts moving the other way it is coming like a wrecking ball, because big atrocities require big justice."
Professor Michael Froomkin has read the memo and is is horrified: The discussion of Presidential powers begins (page 20) with the observation that in the exercise of the commander-in-chief function, and in particular in the conduct of operations against hostile forces, the President enjoys complete discretion". That the Presidents powers are at their greatest in these circumstances cannot be disputed. But while the discretion is indeed very great, I do not see how it could possibly be read to include the authority to commit war crimes, even pre-Nuremburg. And today it clearly cannot include that authority, at least without explicit Congressional authorization. Thus, the entire discussion of Presidential power is based on a premise so false that any student who has taken introductory International Law should be able to recognize its error. And as any logician will tell you, when you begin with an erroneous premise, you are in trouble.By comparison, Nixon was a man of great honor.
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