Saturday Palate Cleanser
There goes a NARWHAL!
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June 30, 2007
June 29, 2007
I Hope You'll Excuse My Language
I don't give a fuck about the iPhone.
There, I've said it.
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Hilary Duff
I don't know what a "Hilary Duff" is. I've never heard of a "Hilary Duff" before today.
But NBC's David Gregory has:
During a live performance of Hilary Duff's new song "Stranger" on the Today Show Friday morning, admitted Duff fan David Gregory was pictured bopping along to the 19-year-old tween queen's music. If Gregory's unique dance moves seemed familiar to audiences, it's because they should be. Producers spliced in an old clip of the NBC newsman busting a move (from 2005!) to the new song. Also seen in the audience? Senior Vice President of NBC News and executive-in-charge of "Today," Phil Griffin.
When last we heard from NBC's Mr. Gregory (tall guy; George calls him "Stretch") he was dancing with Karl Rove:
So, NBC, which is owned by General Electric (which, in turn, is owned by Sheinbaum's Wigs (somebody will get that)) feels fit to take one of it's star reporters and splice him into a "Hilary Duff" video.
David Gregory: Dancing machine and whore.
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More Willard!
(And let me say I like Ana Marie much more than now than she was going on about assfucking.)
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Ahhhh...
Maine coast a relaxed setting for Bush, Putin talks
One of the most peaceful times of my life was sitting on a rock on the coast of Maine.
Of course, the tide was out so the ocean smelled bad and I didn't - repeat, didn't - have a zillion nukes to keep me warm.
Maybe President Cheney Bush and Vlad will skip rocks.
That would be nice.
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Noted In Passing
For some reason Wordpress has banned me from commenting on Wordpress blogs.
If you're on Wordpress don't think I don't read you; it's just that Wordpress...well, y'know (see above).
By the way, anybody at Wordpress: What's your problem???
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Remember Iraq?
Five US soldiers were killed on Thursday in a roadside bomb attack on their patrol in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Friday, bringing the monthly death toll for US forces in Iraq close to 100.In a statement, the military said seven other soldiers were wounded in the apparent coordinated ambush, which included small arms fire and rocket propelled grenade attacks.
Well, at least the wounded get to go to Walter Reed.
Eh...
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Hello, Mr. Brown
Car bomb found in central London:
Officers carried out a controlled explosion on the device left in the busy Haymarket area of the capital."International elements" are believed to be involved, Whitehall sources told the BBC.
Okay, under Blair "Whitehall" wasn't all that reliable.
But still...
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June 28, 2007
Supreme Court Civil War
Jeffrey Toobin on CNN:
TOOBIN: Boy, Tony, 15 minutes ago the Supreme Court was at war with itself in a drama that is rarely seen inside that room. You had two justices basically shouting out, not literally, but talking about the very premises of what it means to be an American. That was what was at stake in the court today. And the drama and the anger and the passion was something that's rarely seen in that courtroom.[...]
HARRIS: Do you predict the majority view of this is a decision that is going to be a setback for affirmative action in this country?
TOOBIN: Absolutely, absolutely. This is a decision that says school districts cannot use any racially -- racial factors to decide how to assign kids. This is a victory for conservatives. Justice Breyer used a phrase, "Never in the history of the court have so few done so much so quickly." And he was talking about Chief Justice Roberts and Justice [Samuel] Alito making this court a far more conservative institution in just one year. And at that phrase, "And never have so few done so much so quickly," both Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts looked over at Breyer and went, whoa, that's pretty personal by the standards of the Supreme Court. [Emphasis added.]
From AMERICAblog:
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All The President's Thugs
Haldeman and Ehrlichman had nothing on this bunch:
WPRI-TV, Channel 12 reporter Jarrod Holbrook had his White House press pass snatched today after he shouted “Mr. President” twice as President Bush greeted Air and Army National Guardsmen gathered on the tarmac at Quonset airport in North Kingstown.A member of the president’s entourage pointed at Holbrook after he first tried to get Bush’s attention. The man then ripped the pass from Holbrook’s belt after he shouted to the president, who was less then 10 feet away, again.
Holbrook said afterward that he just wanted to ask Bush how he enjoyed his visit to Rhode Island. Members of the media were not told they could not ask the president questions.
[Via Think Progress.]
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The Things You Learn On The Internets
This Is Not America
This is ten year old news but it's new to me. Did you know, thanks to the Supreme Court, you can be sentenced to prison time for criminal charges that you've been acquitted of?
Unbelievable.
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Oh Jumping Jesus Christ
George today:
"Our success in Iraq must not be measured by the enemy's ability to get a car bombing in the evening news," he said. "No matter how good the security, terrorists will always be able to explode a bomb on a crowded street."He suggested Israel as a model.
The article goes on to suggest that this idea might not be received well in Arab countries. Gee, do ya think?
Isn't there one person in this administration that isn't a complete idiot?
[Via Aravosis.]
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Nixonian Stonewalling
"This is a further shift by the Bush Administration into Nixonian stonewalling and more evidence of their disdain for our system of checks and balances. This White House cannot have it both ways. They cannot stonewall congressional investigations by refusing to provide documents and witnesses, while claiming nothing improper occurred."Increasingly, the President and Vice President feel they are above the law --- in America no one is above law."
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Remember Iraq?
A car bomb killed 25 people on Thursday at a busy intersection in Baghdad where minibuses pick up and drop off passengers, while 20 beheaded bodies were found on a river bank south of the capital, Iraqi police said.Another car bomb in Baghdad targeting motorists queuing for petrol killed five people, police said. Mortar bombs also killed four people in two separate neighborhoods in the city.
In the southern city of Basra, a roadside bomb killed three British soldiers and seriously wounded another in the early hours of Thursday, the British military said.
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June 27, 2007
Sick Puppy
Honestly, people like Romney ought to be locked up for life. Willard could share a cell with Radical Cleric James Dobson.
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UPDATE: Ana Marie has more.
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Subpoenas Are A-Flyin'
The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush's warrant-free eavesdropping program.Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council.
[...]
Leahy's committee authorized the subpoenas previously as part of its sweeping investigation into how much influence the White House exerts over the Justice Department and its chief, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
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Idiocy In Action
Via Atrios, I see that the title of Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg's long- but little-awaited book has had a change of title. It's now called Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Hegel to Whole Foods.
Whole Foods? Fascist?
Off his rocker, that boy is.
The irony is that the founder of the chain, John Mackey, is a self-styled libertarian just like Jonah and his ilk claim to be. Then again, Mackey is famous for treating employees well which is probably what upsets Goldberg. Then again (again), Mackey really hates unions which is something Jonah would applaud.
Yes, off his rocker.
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Never-Ending Dick
John Aravosis has a question.
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June 26, 2007
Brutal Finality
I ordinarily enjoy apocalyptic literature. Under the auspices of the Society of Jesus, I even took a couple courses in it. I generally tend to avoid it in my own writing, in large part because the apostle John did it better than anyone else ever will. However, in this case, I will make an exception. The public careers of Cheney, Gonzales, David Addington, and anyone else involved in this perversion of democracy must be ended with all the brutality -- and more important, all the finality -- that the rule of law allows. They, and the philosophy they represent, must be crushed, utterly, so that it never rises again. In the future, executives must look at what happened to these people and be afraid of pulling this nonsense again. The WaPo series is a brief for impeachment, as clear a roadmap as we're likely to get, considering everything that must already have gone into the shredder. This is renegade authoritarianism at the very heart of the government and it must be stopped. This is no longer about politics. This is about what kind of country we are. If we allow this kind of unconstitutional brigandry to go on unchecked then we consent by our silence to the end of self-government. Period. If the Congress fails to check it, and if the Judiciary fails to recognize it for what it is, then they have consented to rule by the Executive. Period. Either Dick Cheney goes on trial, or we are found guilty of assisting in the suicide of our country. On this, there is no third way. Not any more.
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Dick Week
Because there's so much Dick in the news here's a roundup:
Part III of the WaPo's impressive series on Cheney can be found here. Meanwhile, on the op-ed page, the Queen of the Georgetown Cocktail Weenie Set, Sally Quinn, implies (without naming names or even sourcing) that Republicans want to dump Dick. Quinn's preferred replacement? Fred Thompson, who she claims, "everybody loves." Delusional much? Below Quinn (on the page, not in intellect) Eugene Robinson most likely gets it right by arguing that Dick isn't going anywhere.
Over at the LATimes, Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg, while professing admiration for Dick, argues that his style is frustrating and counterproductive.
Finally, over at Crooks and Liars, video of KO discussing Dick with Newsweek's Richard Wolffe.
I hope you've enjoyed this Dick update.
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Profile In Courage
Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior Republican and a reliable vote for President Bush on the war, said that Bush's Iraq strategy was not working and that the U.S. should downsize the military's role.[...]
"In my judgment, the costs and risks of continuing down the current path outweigh the potential benefits that might be achieved," Lugar, R-Ind., said in a Senate floor speech. "Persisting indefinitely with the surge strategy will delay policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting our vital interests over the long term."
Hmmm...I wonder if there's any fine print. Oh:
However, [Lugar spokesman Andy] Fisher said the speech does not mean Lugar would switch his vote on the war or embrace Democratic measures setting a deadline for troop withdrawals.
Shorter Dick Lugar: "I have no spine."
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June 25, 2007
Defunding Dick
Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel has come up with the right response to Dick Cheney's attempt to suggest that the Office of the Vice President is not part of the executive branch.The House Democratic Caucus chairman wants to take the Cheney at his word. Cheney says his office is "not an entity within the executive branch," so Emanuel wants to take away the tens of millions of dollars that are allocated to the White House to maintain it.
[...]
"This amendment will ensure that the vice president's funding is consistent with his legal arguments," say Emanuel, a former aide to President Clinton who, like Cheney, has served in both the legislative and executive branches.
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Telling
They get letters (or not):
Days and days go by until, finally, one suddenly appears, like a glimmering gold nugget in a clear Sierra stream: a letter praising the president.Eureka!
It brings a smile to Bill Moore's face, not to mention a sense of relief.
Moore is the paper's letters editor. He has the task of selecting the eight to 10 readers' letters published on the editorial pages most days.
[...]
Last August and September, he noticed what he calls a "sea change," a significant drop in letters supporting the president.
And it has remained that way ever since.
Meanwhile, there has been a corresponding increase in letters critical of Bush, including a growing number from readers who identify themselves as Republicans.
[...]
"We'd love to put pro-Bush letters in," he said. "If a letter like that comes in, it goes to the top of the list. I make a big deal about it.
[Via Romanesko.]
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41%...
...the percentage of Americans that still believe that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for the 11 September attacks, according to a new Newsweek poll.
In fairness, so many in the administration make that connection, and so few in the "news" media bother to correct them, that this number really isn't that surprising.
There are also some damned strange questions in this poll such as:
[Via The War Room.]
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The Supreme Court Matters
Thanks to the Senators that didn't even try to block Roberts and Alito.
Marty Lederman adds details.
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June 24, 2007
A Bit Of Claude Monet
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June 23, 2007
Saturday Palate Cleanser
Our electoral system, explained:
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Remember Iraq?
Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaida militants in Diyala province.
When is enough *enough*?
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Gee, Officer Trosky
Cmdr. Trosky will do a fine job for the cityI am not one to condone his personal past, but Pittsburgh police Cmdr. George T. Trosky has proved his professional ability "to protect and serve," thus leading to his promotion ("New Police Commander Says He's Buried His Past," June 19; "Shaky Command: The Trosky Appointment Begs a Few Questions," June 16 editorial).
I have witnessed Mr. Trosky's work off-duty in the past. A veteran of 30 years on the force working as an officer, sergeant, member of the organized crime/narcotics task force and homicide detective for the city of Pittsburgh, he has approached his job with loyalty and passion.
He will never be mistaken for Fred Rogers or win the NHL's Lady Byng Trophy, but our city will be well protected and our streets more respected with Mr. Trosky on the job.
DAN MILLER
Penn Hills
You know in trouble when you reference "Lady Byng."
June 22, 2007
We're So Lucky
Yay us:
Next week is Republican presidential week in Pittsburgh as each of the top three announced GOP contenders stops by to raise money before the end of the Federal Election Commission's second quarter reporting period.Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be in Peters Wednesday for a fund-raising lunch at a private home before heading Downtown for an evening reception at the Duquesne Club.
The next morning, GOP partisans will be asked to donate to the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at a breakfast at the Marriott City Center, Downtown. Later Thursday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will appear Downtown for a reception at the Duquesne Club.
If you don't know the Duquesne Club is where the local big money hangs out.
They don't like negroes much.
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Disappointment
I got all excited when I saw this headline:
Attorney General to leave office
Then I saw it referred to the UK.
A boy can dream...
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Pet Peeve
"England" is not a nation. There is no Prime Minister of "England."
Would that people understand that.
Got it, Glenn?
(Yes, this has been percolating for a couple of days.)
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Oh My
Fun (if it happens):
The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency's worst illegal abuses -- the so-called "family jewels" documenting a quarter-century of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday.The documents, to be publicly released next week, also include accounts of break-ins and theft, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, wiretaps and surveillance of journalists, and a series of "unwitting" tests on U.S. civilians, including the use of drugs.
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June 21, 2007
More Dick
Given that DeFib Dick has declared himself to not be a part of the executive branch the question becomes, to which branch of the government does the Vice President belong? Rahm Emanuel asks Dick to move out of his Naval Observatory mansion and more:
"Today, we discovered that everything we learned in U.S. government class was wrong. Evidently, the Vice President does not consider himself a part of the executive branch, and therefore believes he can obstruct meaningful oversight and avoid being held accountable. If the Vice President truly believes he is not a part of the executive branch, he should return the salary the American taxpayers have been paying him since January 2001, and move out of the home for which they are footing the bill."
That seems right.
Emanuel also provided a handy chart:
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Freefall
Not so much falling as plummeting:
The new numbers—a 2 point drop from the last NEWSWEEK Poll at the beginning of May—are statistically unchanged, given the poll’s 4 point margin of error. But the 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.[...]
But the White House cannot pin his rating on the war alone. Bush scores record or near record lows on every major issue: from the economy (34 percent approve, 60 percent disapprove) to health care (28 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove) to immigration (23 percent approve, 63 percent disapprove). And—in the worst news, perhaps, for the crowded field of Republicans hoping to succeed Bush in 2008—50 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of terrorism and homeland security. Only 43 percent approve, on an issue that has been the GOP’s trump card in national elections since 9/11.
Our fellow citizens don't care for Congress either.
Can't imagine why.
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Beyond Dangerous
If there wasn't already abundant evidence that Dick Cheney needs to be removed from office there is now:
Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted his office is not a part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information by government agencies, according to a new letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to Cheney.
The self-evident wrongness of this is so overwhelming that I can't think of a single rational response.
Bill Leonard, head of the government's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), told Waxman's staff that Cheney's office has refused to provide his staff with details regarding classified documents or submit to a routine inspection as required by presidential order, according to Waxman.In pointed letters released today by Waxman, ISOO's Leonard twice questioned Cheney's office on its assertion it was exempt from the rules. He received no reply, but the vice president later tried to get rid of Leonard's office entirely, according to Waxman.
Benjamin Franklin is alleged to have said we have "a Republic, if you can keep it." With each passing day it's becoming clearer that we're failing Dr. Franklin.
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Remember Iraq?
Twelve U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the past 48 hours, the U.S. military said on Thursday.In the single worst incident, five soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and an Iraqi interpreter were killed on Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in a northeastern district of the capital, the U.S. military said.
A six soldier was killed and three wounded on Thursday when a rocket propelled grenade hit their vehicle in northern Baghdad.
Four U.S. soldiers were killed when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Wednesday, the military said.
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UPDATE: Make that 14.
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Judicial Activism!
The LATimes fronts a story about how what the Republicans can't get through legislation they're getting through the Supreme Court:
The Bush administration and corporate lobbyists long have sought sweeping "tort reform" to limit lawsuits and massive jury awards — without much success. But in the last year, they quietly have been winning much of what they've wanted on a case-by-case basis in the Supreme Court.With a week to go in their term, the justices have handed down a dozen rulings that sharply limit the damages that can be won in lawsuits or make it harder to sue corporations.
I'm shocked - shocked, I tell you! - that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner aren't screaming about "legislating from the bench!" Why, they've not been able to pass legislation and here are some damned activist judges swanning in and making laws! And the justices aren't even elected!
None of these pro-business decisions came as a huge surprise. But lawyers who practice regularly before the high court say it is noteworthy that business has been winning so consistently.It is "a very business-friendly court," said Beth S. Brinkmann, a Washington lawyer who served in the Clinton administration. The justices have made it harder to sue business on many fronts, she said.
Welcome to the new feudalism. Enjoy your stay.
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June 20, 2007
What's Tony Blathering On About Now?
Earlier today George vetoed the second stem cell research bill sent to him by Congress. During today's gaggle a reporter made an obvious point:
QUESTION: This is just one example of how the president puts ideology before science…
So how does Tony respond?
SNOW: OK, stop right there. This actually is the president putting science before ideology.
No comment necessary.
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[bangs head on desk] II
Art Brodsky gives us the latest reason we shouldn't like Net Neutrality: It would hurt the nation's farmers.
No, really:
If that relationship between the farmers and the Internet seems seems a bit obscure here’s NBC's reasoning. In a filing [.pdf - ed.] with the Federal Communications Commission calling for far more regulation of the Internet than even the most vociferous advocate of Net Neutrality, NBC Universal (the combo network and studio) painted a picture of an Internet overflowing with evil peer-to-peer traffic carrying pirated movies that lead to losses of money and jobs in the movie industry.Now the money shot: “Because of our nation’s interlocking economy, two-thirds of the lost earnings and lost jobs are in industries other than motion picture production. For example, in the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment.”
To protect the farmers, NBC wants the FCC to “make unmistakably clear, as part of its regulations governing broadband industry practices, that broadband service providers have an obligation to use readily available means to prevent the use of their broadband capacity to transfer pirated content, especially when such use represents huge percentages of their capacity and reduces the quality of service to other subscribers.”
And this argument will be taken seriously.
If I've learned only one thing over my many years it's that no matter how absurd things are they can always become more absurd. I thank NBC Universal for reminding me of that.
Learn more about Net Neutrality here or click the orange banner at the top right.
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[bangs head on desk]
Could he be any more offensive?
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Li'l Ricky In The News!
When last we heard from America's favorite dog-lovin' former Senator he was vowing to become a filmmaker. Well, you have to hand it to the bestiality afficianado because he's, erm, plugging away:
Rick Santorum is in early talks on a movie project with Hollywood producer Stephen McEveety.Rumors have been buzzing throughout Harrisburg that Santorum was connecting with McEveety, who produced Mel Gibson blockbusters such as "Braveheart," "The Passion of the Christ" and "We Were Soldiers," on a project.
"I am not doing anything with Mel Gibson," said Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Penn Hills who now is a senior fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative Washington think tank.
"I am doing something with a movie project, but it is in the very, very early stages of the project," he said. "The only Gibson connection is that the guy that I am doing this with used to work for Gibson, but he does not now.
[...]
The story follows three Iranian brothers who take disparate paths in their lives, including one who becomes a terrorist.
At this point, Santorum's project doesn't have a title, and no decision has been made on where it will be filmed and whether it could end up giving the Pittsburgh area's film industry a boost.
Unfortunately, the title "A Boy and his Dog" is already taken.
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As If There Weren't Enough...
...problems at Walter Reed we now have this:
A security guard at Walter Reed Army Medical Center opened fire at another guard Wednesday outside a busy entrance to the hospital, police said. No one was injured.[...]
The other guard, who was not hit, ran to a nearby house to call police, Riley said. The guard who fired the shots was taken into custody.
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Dueling Thinkers
In an excerpt from his upcoming book, Glenn Greenwald argues that George's Manichean views have done tremendous harm to the US. BooMan disagrees with Glenn's use of the word "Manichean" and insists that BushCo™ is motivated by Straussian cynicism.
This is all much more interesting than I've made it sound.
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June 19, 2007
Facts Are Stupid Things
The LATimes this morning discovers Conservapedia:
Andy Schlafly was appalled. He was teaching a history class to home-schooled teens and one student had just turned in an assignment that dated events as "BCE," before the common era — rather than "BC," before Christ."Where did that come from?" he demanded.
Her answer: "Wikipedia."
At that, Schlafly knew he had to act. In his mind, the popular online encyclopedia — written and edited by self-appointed experts worldwide — was riddled with liberal bias. Dating events without referring to the New Testament was just one example. How about Wikipedia's entry on golfer Zach Johnson, winner of the 2007 Masters? Not a single word about how Johnson gave credit for his win to Jesus Christ.
Because, as we all know, everyone must submit to the terms "BC" and "AD" or Christianity will be meaningless.
Take the Pleistocene Epoch. Most scientists know it as the ice age and date it back at least 1.6 million years. But Conservapedia calls it "a theorized period of time" — a theory contradicted, according to the entry, by "multiple lines of evidence" indicating that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, as described in the Book of Genesis."We have certain principles that we adhere to, and we are up-front about them," Schlafly writes in his mission statement. "Beyond that we welcome the facts."
Reread that last bit. It means, if facts get in the way of our ideology the facts lose. Thus the very word and meaning of "facts" becomes meaningless.
Let's take another look at Conservapedia's now infamous entry on kangaroos:
According to the origins theory model used by creation scientists, modern kangaroos are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah's Ark prior to the Great Flood. It has not yet been determined by baraminologists whether kangaroos form a holobaramin with the wallaby, tree-kangaroo, wallaroo, pademelon and quokka, or if all these species are in fact apobaraminic or polybaraminic. There is, however, no evidence of a genetic bottleneck in the kangaroo species which would be expected if all kangaroos were descended from two individuals.After the Flood, these kangaroos bred from the Ark passengers migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land[5] with lower sea levels during the post-flood ice age, or before the supercontinent of Pangea broke apart[6], or if they rafted on mats of vegetation torn up by the receding flood waters.[5] The idea that God simply generated kangaroos into existence there is considered by most creation researchers to be contra-Biblical.
If you can find a fact there then you're batshit insane.
In fairness, the entry does add:
A majority of biologists regard evolution as the most likely explanation for the origin of species including the kangaroo.
But since biology is the work of Satan this caveat can be disregarded.
Anyhoo, the last word from the LATimes article:
Such aggression has reinforced the view among some Conservapedia writers that left-wingers are out to suppress their free speech."I had heard it spoken of, but it had never really hit home before just how hostile they are," said a 15-year-old in New Jersey whose mother asked that her name not be used.
The girl, who is home-schooled, wrote an article for Conservapedia on Irish dancing and uses the site to research papers. But the biggest lesson she's taken away as a young conservative is: "There are people who want to destroy us."
I tremble for the future of my country.
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Shooting Fish In A Barrel
According to the WaPo's alleged liberal Richard Cohen Patrick Fitzgerald is a modern-day Stalin:
As Fitzgerald worked his wonders, threatening jail and going after government gossips with splendid pluck, many opponents of the Iraq war cheered. They thought -- if "thought" can be used in this context -- that if the thread was pulled on who had leaked the identity of Valerie Plame to Robert D. Novak, the effort to snooker an entire nation into war would unravel and this would show . . . who knows? Something. For some odd reason, the same people who were so appalled about government snooping, the USA Patriot Act and other such threats to civil liberties cheered as the special prosecutor weed-whacked the press, jailed a reporter and now will send a previously obscure government official to prison for 30 months.This is precisely the sort of investigation that Jackson was warning about. It would not have been conducted if, say, the Iraq war had ended with 300 deaths and the mission had really been accomplished. An unpopular war produced the popular cry for scalps and, in Libby's case, the additional demand that he express contrition -- a vestigial Stalinist-era yearning for abasement. No one has yet explained, though, how Libby can express contrition and still appeal his conviction. No matter. Antiwar sanctimony excuses the inexplicable.
[...]
I don't expect George Bush to appreciate this. He is the privileged son of a privileged son, and he fears nothing except, probably, doubt. But the rest of us ought to consider what Fitzgerald has wrought and whether we are better off for his efforts. I have come to hate the war and I cannot approve of lying under oath -- not by Scooter, not by Bill Clinton, not by anybody. But the underlying crime is absent, the sentence is excessive and the investigation should not have been conducted in the first place. This is a mess. Should Libby be pardoned? Maybe. Should his sentence be commuted? Definitely.
I swear, the cocktail weenies in Georgetown must be drugged.
Anyway, this might very well be a new low for Cohen. Then again, he also wrote this:
On the contrary, I thought. We are a good country, attempting to do a good thing. In a post-Sept. 11 world, I thought the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic. The United States had the power to change things for the better, and those who would do the changing -- the fighting -- were, after all, volunteers. This mattered to me.
So regardless of the condition of Georgetown cocktail weenies this much is clear: Richard Cohen is seriously disturbed. I'd suggest he retire and take up woodworking as a hobby. Then again, he might accuse the drill-press of harboring Hitlerian fantiasies.
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ADDED: Glenn Greenwald's take.
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Speaking Of Iraq...
Iraq now ranks as the world's second most unstable country, ahead of war-ravaged or poverty-stricken nations such as Somalia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Congo, Afghanistan, Haiti and North Korea, according to the 2007 Failed States Index, issued yesterday by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine.Despite billions of dollars in foreign aid and the presence of more than 150,000 U.S. troops, Iraq has declined steadily over the past three years, according to the index. It ranked fourth last year, but its score dropped in almost all of the 12 political, economic, security and social indicators on which the index is based.
Both Iraq and Afghanistan. Heck of a job, Bushie!
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Don't Call Him Betty
Trouble in paradise Iraq:
Ryan C. Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, bluntly told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a cable dated May 31 that the embassy in Baghdad -- the largest and most expensive U.S. embassy -- lacks enough well-qualified staff members and that its security rules are too restrictive for Foreign Service officers to do their jobs."Simply put, we cannot do the nation's most important work if we do not have the Department's best people," Crocker said in the memo.
Looks like someone didn't get the memo: The best people are not wanted. The most loyal people however....
"In essence, the issue is whether we are a Department and a Service at war," Crocker wrote. "If we are, we need to organize and prioritize in a way that reflects this, something we have not done thus far." In the memo, Crocker drew upon the recommendations of a management review he requested for the embassy shortly after arriving in Baghdad two months ago.
How to explain this?
"He's panicking," said one government official who recently returned from Baghdad, adding that Crocker is carrying a heavy workload as the United States presses the Iraqi government to meet political benchmarks."You could use a well-managed political section of 50 people" who know what they are doing, the official said, but Crocker does not have it because many staffers assigned to the embassy are "too young for the job," or are not qualified and are "trying to save their careers" by taking an urgent assignment in Iraq.
"Too young" and "trying to save their careers." Sounds like they've been hiring from the Heritage Foundation again. Has anybody seen Simone Ledeen lately?
Crocker, in an interview, confirmed the authenticity of the cable. He insisted it was not intended as criticism of Rice or of the staff. He said the cable reflected the urgent nature of the tasks he has faced since becoming ambassador."The big issue for me, in my estimation, was simply not having enough people," Crocker said. "The people here are heroic. I need more people, and that's the thing, not that the people who are here shouldn't be here or couldn't do it." Crocker said he does not know why the changes he is pressing for had not taken place sooner. The embassy was established three years ago, when the Coalition Provisional Authority was dissolved.
Ambassador Crocker, you may be a fine enough fellow so I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this: Your bosses are idiots. No, it's true. My advice? Ignore them as much as is possible. They'll only hurt you.
So the upshot of all of this is that the most important issue facing us, Iraq, is not being taken seriously in the White House or in the BushCheney State Department.
That's no longer surprising but it is nonetheless telling.
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The Wail Of The Base
Talk about your cognitive dissonance:
Aggressive strategyOne key reason the Iraq war is so long, frustrating and indeterminate is lack of border security.
Al-Qaida insurgents and transports of contraband cross at will into Iraq from Iran and Syria. Why not carpet bomb both those border regions and use special forces to launch regular incursions across into Syria and Iran in hot pursuit of terrorists and materiel? Make "interdict and destroy," along with the troop surge, part of an aggressive new grand strategy, and let the United Nations, congressional Democrats and the elite media howl. And howl they will, because they'll be scared to death that America will win.
Trouble is, George W. Bush is allergic to border enforcement, whether it's America's southern border or the eastern and western borders of Iraq.
A "borderline case" our president unquestionably is.
BOB G. WYETH
Homestead
Soon they'll be lashing out aimlessly. Oh, wait...
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June 18, 2007
Errrr...no
Willard "Mitt" Romney this morning:
Asked on CNN this morning whether the fact that none of his five sons has served in the U.S. military might be a political issue for him, Iraq surge supporter and GOP