by Inrock
It appears the Grand "Old" Party see 2007 as a year for "old" white Republicans standing their ground and preparing an old fashioned dish of classic old school race politics for black folks to eat.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
The president's A.G. pick: Bush BlinksIn selecting Michael Mukasey, Bush dodges a fight with Senate Democrats.
by Tim Grieve
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Citizen GoreBy Michael Tomasky
For a significant number of impatient citizens, there is one possible candidate who is, they would argue, the most electable of all. First, he's already won a presidential election; he was merely denied his rightful victory by an ethically compromised Supreme Court majority. Second, to the extent that foreign policy and terrorism remain potential Democratic weaknesses, he has extensive experience and expertise in dealing with both. Third, he was right on Iraq. And fourth and most importantly, he has reemerged in the Bush era as a completely different man from the cautious candidate, surrounded by too many consultants, we saw in the 2000 campaign.
By Ronald Dworkin
The revolution that many commentators predicted when President Bush appointed two ultra-right-wing Supreme Court justices is proceeding with breathtaking impatience, and it is a revolution Jacobin in its disdain for tradition and precedent. Bush's choices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, have joined the two previously most right-wing justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, in an unbreakable phalanx bent on remaking constitutional law by overruling, most often by stealth, the central constitutional doctrines that generations of past justices, conservative as well as liberal, had constructed.
The Nightmare Is Hereby Bob Herbert
We’ve heard from General Petraeus, from Ambassador Crocker, and on Thursday night from President Bush. What we haven’t heard this week is anything about the tragic reality on the ground for the ordinary citizens of Iraq, which is in the throes of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Still Waiting For ThompsonBy Ruth Marcus
Go to a Fred Thompson rally and for $5 you can buy an "I'm a Fred-Head" button. But you might not be able, at any price, to learn what exactly is in Fred's head.
Michael Mukasey's role in the Jose Padilla case
The apparent nominee for Attorney General has displayed some impressive qualities of independence and a willingness to defy the President
by Glenn Greenwald
The apparent nominee for Attorney General has displayed some impressive qualities of independence and a willingness to defy the President
by Glenn Greenwald
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Randy Bean & Condi Rice. Red beans and rice?
posted by Wally
Turns out Dubya is NOT Condi's hubby. This is Condi's hubby . . .
It appears that our suspicions were true. Condi DOES love bush.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman, according to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, who reveals the information in his new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.According to the book, Rice owns a home together with Randy Bean, a documentary filmmaker who once worked with Bill Moyers. Kessler made the discovery by looking through real estate records. The home is located in Palo Alto, California.
Bean explains the joint ownership and line of credit in the book by saying she had medical bills which left her financially drained and Rice helped her by co-purchasing the house along with a third person, Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor. Blacker is openly gay.
Frankly, we don't give a rat's ass if she's gay, straight, curly, whatever. What pisses us off again and again about these people is the hypocrisy.
"Condi Rice works for an administration that uses attacks on gay rights to win votes. She has stood by silently while the President has proposed writing anti-gay discrimination into the Constitution of the United States. Whenever she is given the opportunity to distance herself from their anti-gay polices she punts."
If you don't have the backbone to stand up for what you believe and who you are, what does that make you? In this case, as the old saying goes, Condi is what she eats. Pussy
******************************************************************************************
Yes, Condi, it is Relevant
by Michael Rogers
posted by Wally
Turns out Dubya is NOT Condi's hubby. This is Condi's hubby . . .
It appears that our suspicions were true. Condi DOES love bush.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman, according to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, who reveals the information in his new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.According to the book, Rice owns a home together with Randy Bean, a documentary filmmaker who once worked with Bill Moyers. Kessler made the discovery by looking through real estate records. The home is located in Palo Alto, California.
Bean explains the joint ownership and line of credit in the book by saying she had medical bills which left her financially drained and Rice helped her by co-purchasing the house along with a third person, Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor. Blacker is openly gay.
Frankly, we don't give a rat's ass if she's gay, straight, curly, whatever. What pisses us off again and again about these people is the hypocrisy.
"Condi Rice works for an administration that uses attacks on gay rights to win votes. She has stood by silently while the President has proposed writing anti-gay discrimination into the Constitution of the United States. Whenever she is given the opportunity to distance herself from their anti-gay polices she punts."
If you don't have the backbone to stand up for what you believe and who you are, what does that make you? In this case, as the old saying goes, Condi is what she eats. Pussy
******************************************************************************************
Yes, Condi, it is Relevant
by Michael Rogers
Friday, September 14, 2007
By Joe Conason
Following two days of carefully staged theatrics on Capitol Hill and cable television, the essential facts about Iraq remain unchanged. Despite the big charts and the blustering fanfare highlighted by Fox News, neither Gen. David H. Petraeus nor Ambassador Ryan Crocker could convincingly claim that the American military escalation in Iraq is achieving its original goals.
Bush says his troop drawdown is due to the success of the surge, but his own advisors -- including Gen. Petraeus -- have given a very different explanation.
By Alex Koppelman
************************************************************
The president announces his "new" new way forward in Iraq.
by Tim Grieve
Thursday, September 13, 2007
24-Hour Republican Party Peopleby Bill Maher
New Rule: Republicans changed their party before -- from the party that freed the slaves to the party that freed Scooter Libby -- and they survived. Now it's time for them to stop pretending they're still the party of Reagan and take up a new banner: The Party of Superfreaky Superfreaks.
This week, the chairman of the St. Petersburg, Florida, City Council was accused of having sex with his two adopted daughters and their nanny. And he could have been in real trouble, too, if it turned out the nanny was an illegal. But he got ahead of the story when he killed himself by sitting in the garage with the doors closed and the riding lawn mower on.
Two guesses which party he was a member of. And the first guess doesn't count.
And that's not fair. You knew he was a Republican, because even in death, he was still wasting gas.
Republicans sex scandals are getting to be like Iraqi car bombings. By the time you hear about one, there's been another. Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, Bob Allen, Vitter, Craig... It's like "Clue" only the answer is always "A Republican... in the washroom... with his cock."
The Republicans should run on that. "America: You're 230 But We'll Still Fuck You." Especially if you're a dude.
It's not really inspiring, but it's better than "Mitt Romney: He Has Hair."
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
by Thom Hartmann
The eerie juxtaposition of General Betrayus testifying today before Congress, and it being 9/11 (which helped Bush bring us disasters ranging from the PATRIOT Act to the Iraq War and Occupation) brings an opportunity to re-understand what’s been happening here and in Iraq these past six years, and offers an insight into a way forward.
***************************************************************
by Robert Scheer
Of course, Gen. David Petraeus predicts success in the Iraq war. What wonders couldn’t generals achieve with more troops and more time? The battle is always going well until it is lost, and then they blame defeat on the politicians and the public.
Warriors and Idiots
By Christopher Platt
Only warriors and idiots – No! Only SOME warriors and only SOME idiots – can love war. Most warriors are not idiots. Damned few idiots are ever warriors. There are a lot more idiots in this world than there are warriors. And, more often than not, the warriors go to war because their leaders, most-often the idiots, tell them to do so.
Having some limited experience at being both of these, I can tell you that when a warrior loves war, it’s not for the same reasons that an idiot does. A warrior is suffused with “the mission.” With the cause. With the honor of serving one’s country and serving proudly with other warriors, doing a dangerous, dirty job. For some, there is also, make no mistake about it, the exhilaration of combat. Fighting for an idea, for survival, or to save the life of a comrade, is about as life-affirming as you can get, even though the outcome often means someone is going to die. War can give a life meaning, purpose. In the olden days, being a warrior was also a path to fame and, even, immortality: “Spartans! Prepare for glory!”
An idiot loves war because it’s a power trip. Having no experience as a warrior, the idiot is often fascinated with the hardware – the weapons, uniforms, the devices that convey the weapons and the warriors to and from battle – the trappings. And the special effects: bangs and booms, flashes of light and fire. That’s often all an idiot sees of war. The human element, the blood and guts, the screaming, crying, broken bodies lying in the dust, the smells of urine, excrement or burning flesh, is of significantly less interest to them. Why? Because they are idiots! Duhhh!
War is always war. But, when warriors send other warriors into battle, they at least know the human consequences. They know that pain and death will be the outcome. When they forget that, they can become idiots. Then, well, there’s natural selection on the battlefield, too. Today, listening to Congress trying to impale Gen. Petraus for his association with this morally bankrupt administration, I heard one sympathetic Senator relate a story about the architect of the postwar Marshall Plan. There’s a version in an article posted on the National Review Online, by Jim Lacey: “… During World War II, General George Marshall, the first chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]… sent the casualty list to the White House to remind the president that real people died as a result of every order given. General Marshall continued this despite a White House request that the practice be discontinued.”
Lacey’s article talks about Richard B. Myers, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, “General Myers starts each workday with a full briefing on the circumstances of every American casualty in the previous 24 hours. I can think of no more emotionally searing way to begin what are often long, arduous days. This is not something he has to do and I imagine he continues it only because it is a daily reminder that any decision he makes can have a dire consequence for the men and women who make it happen.” That’s what a real warrior does. For the rest of Lacey’s thoughtful article, “The Commanders,” go to http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/lacey200505270805.asp.
Conversely, when idiots send warriors into battle, it’s more about making their weenies look more like bigger, stronger woodies. Bigger to their enemies, for sure. But also to their allies and girlfriends – and themselves. C’mon, don’t pretend you’ve never heard this before. Long before Freud, it was understood that the long, tubular shapes of modern weaponry stand in for the rampant male organ: cannons… rifles… bullets… rockets… airplanes. Ooooh! It’s enough to make any idiot swoon. To pretend they still cling to a shred of humanity, idiots may make brave, seemingly heartfelt, statements of concern for the casualties, but frankly, Scarlet …
It’s also true that, while idiots will happily send warriors off to fight their battles for them, no warrior wants to send idiots off to war. Warriors know that sending idiots into harm’s way isn’t going to make their manhood appear any bigger, especially to other warriors, who are only interested in whether or not you won the battle you were tasked with. So they don’t do so if they can avoid it -- unless or until an idiot leader orders them to do otherwise. Truth is, savvy warriors will always shrink from making such a decision. That’s why politicians were invented. That’s why we have… The Decider.
Politics, too, is all about making your wanker look bigger. Yeah, I know, that’s hot news, too. We have a situation in this country, where the idiots have sent a new generation of warriors off to improve the perception of their genitals. Think I’m offbase? Start with the fact that one’s a Dick, and another’s a Bush. Then proceed to the fact that virtually none of these bozos in leadership positions has ever been a warrior. “Bring it on!” “Mission Accomplished!” Jeez, people, have you ever seen so many phalluses being waved more aggressively? Say what you will about Bill Clinton… at least when HE unzipped, nobody died.
So, how do we get out of this mess we’re in? Take Iraq. Please! I have a quandary that I’ll bet also troubles some other Blue Shirts out there: On the one hand, I’d love to bring all of our warriors home, alive and in one piece, tomorrow. On the other hand, our idiots have so screwed up that miserable country that – as bad as things are for the Iraqis now, odds are that it would get much worse if Johnny came marching home too soon. I’m not, at least about this matter, an idiot. I’m certain there’s no way for us to win, even on the continuously shrinking punchlist of benchmarks our idiot leaders are using to define success. There will be no victory. But tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have also died, and millions more have been displaced, because our idiots – our leaders – couldn’t keep it in their pants. I feel a terrible, helpless anger and pain whenever another of our young warriors is killed in Iraq. But I also feel anger and pain when another bunch of Iraqi citizens is blown up on a bus or in a market – or at a funeral, because there’s no way to protect them. I am ashamed for what my country has done. I am ashamed for what my country has become. Isn’t there a great big “Undo” button somewhere?
This is probably going to make those Red Shirts smile because it almost sounds supportive of their position. It’s not. But do I feel that, as a nation, having so thoroughly destroyed Iraq, we owe the Iraqi people something. We can’t bring back the lives that have been sacrificed, but perhaps there is something we can do to “make it right.” I abhor the bloodshed, and bemoan the wasted lives, but there’s that “cut-and-run” thing, which would likely bring down even more shame upon us. Yes, somehow, we should find a way to make amends for the crimes and sins our idiots have perpetrated there. I dread the prospect of walking away and leaving such a hopeless mess behind, but I don’t want to sacrifice any more of our warriors. However, maybe, there’s a solution. There IS a sufficiently bloodthirsty cohort we could employ in their stead.
Warriors don’t send idiots into battle. But OTHER idiots might. We have a whole contingent of newly elected idiots waiting in the wings of the halls of power. So far, they’ve been singularly unsuccessful at getting an anguished citizenry to notice their impressive genitalia -- a few even lack the requisite equipment altogether. So, let’s have them create a Legion of our best, most-aggressive idiots – oh, name it “The First Neocon Division” – and send this rough beast slouching off towards Baghdad. I say we prevail upon our new idiots to pressgang the creaky, cranky warmongers themselves, stalwarts such as Dick Cheney, George W. Bush (but not his father, who was a warrior) Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Richard Perle, R. James Woolsey, Ken Adelman, Norman Podhoretz, Douglas Feith, Karl Rove, David Addington, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer. These folks are so enamored of war, let’s be supportive and give them their day in the hot, Iraqi sun. Outfit them all in sexy, black leather uniforms from Fredericks of Hollywood’s Men’s Division, with big sturdy codpieces behind the zippers of their trousers. Put Podhoretz, one of the original, founding Neocons, at the head of the column, riding Point in the lead black Hummer. That way, if – by chance they should prevail, their victory would be known ever after as The Norman Conquest.
Only warriors and idiots – No! Only SOME warriors and only SOME idiots – can love war. Most warriors are not idiots. Damned few idiots are ever warriors. There are a lot more idiots in this world than there are warriors. And, more often than not, the warriors go to war because their leaders, most-often the idiots, tell them to do so.
Having some limited experience at being both of these, I can tell you that when a warrior loves war, it’s not for the same reasons that an idiot does. A warrior is suffused with “the mission.” With the cause. With the honor of serving one’s country and serving proudly with other warriors, doing a dangerous, dirty job. For some, there is also, make no mistake about it, the exhilaration of combat. Fighting for an idea, for survival, or to save the life of a comrade, is about as life-affirming as you can get, even though the outcome often means someone is going to die. War can give a life meaning, purpose. In the olden days, being a warrior was also a path to fame and, even, immortality: “Spartans! Prepare for glory!”
An idiot loves war because it’s a power trip. Having no experience as a warrior, the idiot is often fascinated with the hardware – the weapons, uniforms, the devices that convey the weapons and the warriors to and from battle – the trappings. And the special effects: bangs and booms, flashes of light and fire. That’s often all an idiot sees of war. The human element, the blood and guts, the screaming, crying, broken bodies lying in the dust, the smells of urine, excrement or burning flesh, is of significantly less interest to them. Why? Because they are idiots! Duhhh!
War is always war. But, when warriors send other warriors into battle, they at least know the human consequences. They know that pain and death will be the outcome. When they forget that, they can become idiots. Then, well, there’s natural selection on the battlefield, too. Today, listening to Congress trying to impale Gen. Petraus for his association with this morally bankrupt administration, I heard one sympathetic Senator relate a story about the architect of the postwar Marshall Plan. There’s a version in an article posted on the National Review Online, by Jim Lacey: “… During World War II, General George Marshall, the first chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]… sent the casualty list to the White House to remind the president that real people died as a result of every order given. General Marshall continued this despite a White House request that the practice be discontinued.”
Lacey’s article talks about Richard B. Myers, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, “General Myers starts each workday with a full briefing on the circumstances of every American casualty in the previous 24 hours. I can think of no more emotionally searing way to begin what are often long, arduous days. This is not something he has to do and I imagine he continues it only because it is a daily reminder that any decision he makes can have a dire consequence for the men and women who make it happen.” That’s what a real warrior does. For the rest of Lacey’s thoughtful article, “The Commanders,” go to http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/lacey200505270805.asp.
Conversely, when idiots send warriors into battle, it’s more about making their weenies look more like bigger, stronger woodies. Bigger to their enemies, for sure. But also to their allies and girlfriends – and themselves. C’mon, don’t pretend you’ve never heard this before. Long before Freud, it was understood that the long, tubular shapes of modern weaponry stand in for the rampant male organ: cannons… rifles… bullets… rockets… airplanes. Ooooh! It’s enough to make any idiot swoon. To pretend they still cling to a shred of humanity, idiots may make brave, seemingly heartfelt, statements of concern for the casualties, but frankly, Scarlet …
It’s also true that, while idiots will happily send warriors off to fight their battles for them, no warrior wants to send idiots off to war. Warriors know that sending idiots into harm’s way isn’t going to make their manhood appear any bigger, especially to other warriors, who are only interested in whether or not you won the battle you were tasked with. So they don’t do so if they can avoid it -- unless or until an idiot leader orders them to do otherwise. Truth is, savvy warriors will always shrink from making such a decision. That’s why politicians were invented. That’s why we have… The Decider.
Politics, too, is all about making your wanker look bigger. Yeah, I know, that’s hot news, too. We have a situation in this country, where the idiots have sent a new generation of warriors off to improve the perception of their genitals. Think I’m offbase? Start with the fact that one’s a Dick, and another’s a Bush. Then proceed to the fact that virtually none of these bozos in leadership positions has ever been a warrior. “Bring it on!” “Mission Accomplished!” Jeez, people, have you ever seen so many phalluses being waved more aggressively? Say what you will about Bill Clinton… at least when HE unzipped, nobody died.
So, how do we get out of this mess we’re in? Take Iraq. Please! I have a quandary that I’ll bet also troubles some other Blue Shirts out there: On the one hand, I’d love to bring all of our warriors home, alive and in one piece, tomorrow. On the other hand, our idiots have so screwed up that miserable country that – as bad as things are for the Iraqis now, odds are that it would get much worse if Johnny came marching home too soon. I’m not, at least about this matter, an idiot. I’m certain there’s no way for us to win, even on the continuously shrinking punchlist of benchmarks our idiot leaders are using to define success. There will be no victory. But tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have also died, and millions more have been displaced, because our idiots – our leaders – couldn’t keep it in their pants. I feel a terrible, helpless anger and pain whenever another of our young warriors is killed in Iraq. But I also feel anger and pain when another bunch of Iraqi citizens is blown up on a bus or in a market – or at a funeral, because there’s no way to protect them. I am ashamed for what my country has done. I am ashamed for what my country has become. Isn’t there a great big “Undo” button somewhere?
This is probably going to make those Red Shirts smile because it almost sounds supportive of their position. It’s not. But do I feel that, as a nation, having so thoroughly destroyed Iraq, we owe the Iraqi people something. We can’t bring back the lives that have been sacrificed, but perhaps there is something we can do to “make it right.” I abhor the bloodshed, and bemoan the wasted lives, but there’s that “cut-and-run” thing, which would likely bring down even more shame upon us. Yes, somehow, we should find a way to make amends for the crimes and sins our idiots have perpetrated there. I dread the prospect of walking away and leaving such a hopeless mess behind, but I don’t want to sacrifice any more of our warriors. However, maybe, there’s a solution. There IS a sufficiently bloodthirsty cohort we could employ in their stead.
Warriors don’t send idiots into battle. But OTHER idiots might. We have a whole contingent of newly elected idiots waiting in the wings of the halls of power. So far, they’ve been singularly unsuccessful at getting an anguished citizenry to notice their impressive genitalia -- a few even lack the requisite equipment altogether. So, let’s have them create a Legion of our best, most-aggressive idiots – oh, name it “The First Neocon Division” – and send this rough beast slouching off towards Baghdad. I say we prevail upon our new idiots to pressgang the creaky, cranky warmongers themselves, stalwarts such as Dick Cheney, George W. Bush (but not his father, who was a warrior) Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Richard Perle, R. James Woolsey, Ken Adelman, Norman Podhoretz, Douglas Feith, Karl Rove, David Addington, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer. These folks are so enamored of war, let’s be supportive and give them their day in the hot, Iraqi sun. Outfit them all in sexy, black leather uniforms from Fredericks of Hollywood’s Men’s Division, with big sturdy codpieces behind the zippers of their trousers. Put Podhoretz, one of the original, founding Neocons, at the head of the column, riding Point in the lead black Hummer. That way, if – by chance they should prevail, their victory would be known ever after as The Norman Conquest.
# # #
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Ambassador's Testimony At Odds With Recent CommentsRecently Told Reporters: "What’s Happened Over The Last Couple Of YearsIs Stunning...The Violence, The Population Shifts, The Displacement, The Tens Of Thousands Of Iraqis That Have Been Killed."
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Democrats Blast Petraeus Recommendations
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Arianna Huffington: Denying the Truth: Petraeus, Iraq, and Our Pontius Pilate Press
Monday, September 10, 2007
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Saturday, September 08, 2007
50 years later: remembering the courage of Little Rock Nine By Brian Gilmore
As school began in Little Rock, Ark., 50 years ago, the bravery of nine young African-American students changed U.S. history.
Dodd: End Cuba Embargoby DavidNYC
Chris Dodd, in Miami today:
Presidential hopeful Chris Dodd would end a decades-old trade embargo with Cuba and lift travel restrictions to the island if elected, he said Saturday.
The Democratic senator from Connecticut also said he would open an embassy in Havana and shut down TV Marti, a U.S. government-run television station that broadcasts to Cuba.
"Other than the war in Iraq, no other American policy is more broadly unpopular internationally," Dodd said of the United States' policy toward Cuba.
Dodd said as president he would seek a repeal of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which strengthened the U.S. embargo against Cuba. He also announced he would shut down the 17-year-old TV Marti, and reform its companion, Radio Marti, saying taxpayers should not spend money on a station virtually no one in Cuba sees.
Our Cuba policies are not just unpopular but wrong, for a whole host of reasons. And Dodd doesn't want to just lift travel restrictions - he wants to scrap the trade embargo. (You can watch the press conference here.) Once again, I'm glad to see Dodd take a leadership role on an important issue, as he has with Iraq.
And I should add that Dodd is in Florida right now because tomorrow night, Univision and the University of Miami will be hosting the first-ever Spanish-language presidential debate, at 7pm Eastern. (Questions and answers will be translated.) As with the YouTube debate, the Republicans have spurned the offer of a Spanish debate, but the Democrats have embraced the opportunity. I'm looking forward to it.
Friday, September 07, 2007
When Generals Lie
by Marty Kaplan
It took 30 years for Americans' confidence in the military to climb out of the pit it had fallen into during the Vietnam War. Will Petraeus' testimony be the tipping point that sends it back toward the cellar?
Fmr Emergency Director On Giuliani's 9/11 Record: He's Telling A "Flat Out Lie"
A filmmaker who was behind documentaries that bashed Rupert Murdoch and Wal-Mart is now focusing on Rudy Giuliani, creating an "online viral video campaign" about the presidential candidate timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack.
Robert Greenwald on Thursday launched the first of four short videos about Sept. 11 and the Republican former mayor. The others are planned to launch throughout the month.
Read more here.
Watch the video below.
A filmmaker who was behind documentaries that bashed Rupert Murdoch and Wal-Mart is now focusing on Rudy Giuliani, creating an "online viral video campaign" about the presidential candidate timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack.
Robert Greenwald on Thursday launched the first of four short videos about Sept. 11 and the Republican former mayor. The others are planned to launch throughout the month.
Read more here.
Watch the video below.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Bush knew Saddamm had no weapons of mass destruction
Salon exclusive: Two former CIA officers say the president squelched top-secret intelligence, and a briefing by George Tenet, months before invading Iraq.
By Sidney Blumenthal
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
The Escalation Didn't Work
by Sen. John Kerry
Only Iraqis can end this civil war, and they aren't -- and won't be -- making any progress with an open-ended, massive presence by our military in their country.
by Sen. John Kerry
Only Iraqis can end this civil war, and they aren't -- and won't be -- making any progress with an open-ended, massive presence by our military in their country.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Bush Makes "Surprise" Visit To Iraq. Again.
by georgia10
For all the bloated talk of "progress" in Iraq, President Bush's "surprise" visit to Iraq today reveals much about the stale security situation in Iraq.
After all, it's been over four years since the fall of Baghdad and "Mission Accomplished," and yet the President is still forced to make "surprise" visits to the war-torn country in order to protect himself and his fellow Americans.
Recall that Bush made another "surprise" visit to Iraq last year, in June of 2006. Then, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had a five-minute heads-up on the six-hour visit. And back then, President Bush had this to say:
Seated beside Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, in a meeting that included American officials and 17 members of the Iraqi cabinet, Mr. Bush told the prime minister that he had come "to look you in the eye." He repeated the phrase later at the palace, when he told troops and other Americans he had come "to look at Prime Minister Maliki in the eyes and determine whether or not he is as dedicated to a free Iraq as you are."
Mr. Bush added, "And I believe he is."
Last year's visit came on the heels of the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the appointment of several key Iraqi government ministers. There was, we were told, "a rare mood of optimism in the White House about events in Iraq."
Fast forward a year or so and here we are, with the President making another "surprise" visit. Some may say that this visit is under different circumstances--Maliki's government has been shown to be incompetent, ineffective, and essentially non-existent. Unfathomable violence continues unabated. But the circumstances are now, as they have always been, the same, and no sense of false optimism or promises of progress from this President or his party will chance that.
We are here, a year later, with the President's "New Way Forward" demonstrating a predictably backwards approach to the problem --- the worse it gets, the more we dig our heels in the sand. We are here, again, with the President demanding almost $200 billion to fund the war. We are here, again, looking forward to another year of blood and billions, with the President and his party refusing to change course.
We are here, grounded in the reality that every year is likely to be just as bloody and fruitless as the last. And the President is over there, smiling for the cameras, touting a "remarkable turnaround" in the Anbar province (just don't look at the rest of Iraq, ok?), and otherwise using everything within his power--PR stunts included--to solidify Republican support for his war and his funding requests.
Surprise, surprise.
Bill Scher at LiberalOasis nails this one:
It is unbelievable that for four years, the White House has been able to spin secret visits to Iraq as happy happy fun fun "surprise" visits, when in fact, they have secret trips because Iraq is too dangerous for normal visits.
Smell the progress.
Why Did Bush DO NOTHING to Reverse Disbanding of Iraqi Military?by Steve Clemons
It is stunning to hear Bush himself admit his surprise that a policy this consequential to the Iraq effort had been reversed by his people -- and that he knew little about it.
Monday, September 03, 2007
The Next Quagmire
Truthdig
Iranian female paramilitary militias (Basiji) hold their guns during a rally of paramilitary forces to support Iran’s nuclear program in Tehran, Iran.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070903_the_next_quagmire/
Posted on Sep 3, 2007
By Chris Hedges
The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and more able to find ways of resolving conflicts through diplomacy—they are less prone to blunders.
But we live in an age where dialogue is dismissed and empathy is suspect. We prefer the illusion that we can dictate events through force. It hasn’t worked well in Iraq. It hasn’t worked well in Afghanistan. And it won’t work in Iran. But those who once tried to reach out and understand, who developed expertise to explain the world to us and ourselves to the world, no longer have a voice in the new imperial project. We are instead governed and informed by moral and intellectual trolls.
To make rational decisions in international relations we must perceive how others see us. We must grasp how they think about us and be sensitive to their fears and insecurities. But this is becoming hard to accomplish. Our embassies are packed with analysts whose main attribute is long service in the armed forces and who frequently report to intelligence agencies rather than the State Department. Our area specialists in the State Department are ignored by the ideologues driving foreign policy. Their complex view of the world is an inconvenience. And foreign correspondents are an endangered species, along with foreign coverage.
We speak to the rest of the globe in the language of violence. The proposed multibillion-dollar arms supply package for the Persian Gulf countries is the newest form of weapons-systems-as-message. U.S. Undersecretary of State
R. Nicholas Burns was rather blunt about the deal. He told the International Herald Tribune that the arms package “says to the Iranians and Syrians that the United States is the major power in the Middle East and will continue to be and is not going away.”
The arrogant call for U.S. hegemony over the rest of the globe is making enemies of a lot of people who might be predisposed to support us, even in the Middle East. And it is terrifying those, such as the Iraqis, Iranians and Syrians, whom we have demonized. Empathy and knowledge, the qualities that make real communication possible, have been discarded. We use tough talk and big weapons deals to communicate. We spread fear, distrust and violence. And we expect missile systems to protect us.
"Imagine an Iranian government that was powerful, radical, and in possession of nuclear weapons; imagine the threat that would pose to Israel and to the American-led balance of power, which has been so important in the Middle East since the close of the Second World War,” Burns said in a speech at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston last April 11. “That is our first challenge.”
"Our second challenge is that Iran continues to be the central banker of Middle East terrorism,” he went on. “It is the leading funder and director of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine general command. Third, Iran is in our judgment a major violator of the human rights of its own people; it denies religious, political, and press rights to the people of a very great country representing a very great civilization. And so we see a problem that is going to be with us for a long time, and we are trying to fashion a strategy that will work for the long term.”
George W. Bush’s latest salvo, on Aug. 28, was more of the same.
"Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust,” he said. Bush warned that the United States and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late.”
These kinds of words, pouring out of the administration, send a clear message to any Iranian: You are in trouble. Bend to our will or we destroy you. These were the same words, with a few minor changes, that the Bush administration delivered to Saddam Hussein, who, despite numerous compromises, including letting the U.N. inspectors back into his country, was overthrown and put to death during a U.S. occupation.
And the Iranians know that without the bomb, which no intelligence agency thinks they can produce for a few years, they are now probably going to be attacked.
The Pentagon has reportedly drawn up plans for a series of airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran. The air attacks are designed to cripple the Iranians’ military capability in three days. The Bushehr nuclear power plant, along with targets in Saghand and Yazd, the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, a heavy-water plant and radioisotope facility in Arak, the Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit, and the uranium conversion facility and nuclear technology center in Isfahan, will all probably be struck by the United States and perhaps even Israeli warplanes. The Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the Tehran molybdenum, iodine and xenon radioisotope production facility, the Tehran Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories, and the Kalaye Electric Co. in the Tehran suburbs will also most likely come under attack.
But then what? We don’t have the troops to invade. And we don’t have anyone minding the helm who knows the slightest thing about Persian culture or the Middle East. There is no one in power in Washington with the empathy to get it. We will lurch blindly into a catastrophe of our own creation.
It is not hard to imagine what will happen. Iranian Shabab-3 and Shabab-4 missiles, which cannot reach the United States, will be launched at Israel, as well as American military bases and the Green Zone in Baghdad. Expect massive American casualties, especially in Iraq, where Iranian agents and their Iraqi allies will be able to call in precise coordinates. The Strait of Hormuz, which is the corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, will be shut down. Chinese-supplied C-801 and C-802 anti-shipping missiles, mines and coastal artillery will target U.S. shipping, along with Saudi oil production and oil export centers. Oil prices will skyrocket to well over $4 a gallon. The dollar will tumble against the euro. Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, interpreting the war as an attack on all Shiites, will fire rockets into northern Israel. Israel, already struck by missiles from Tehran, will begin retaliatory raids on Lebanon and Iran. Pakistan, with a huge Shiite minority, will reach greater levels of instability. The unrest could result in the overthrow of the weakened American ally President Pervez Musharraf and usher into power Islamic radicals. Pakistan could become the first radical Islamic state to possess a nuclear weapon. The neat little war with Iran, which few Democrats oppose, has the potential to ignite a regional inferno.
We have rendered the nation deaf and dumb. We no longer have the capacity for empathy. We prefer to amuse ourselves with trivia and gossip that pass for news rather than understand. We are blinded by our military prowess. We believe that huge explosions and death are an effective form of communication. And the rest of the world is learning to speak our language.
Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. He spent seven years in the Middle East and reported frequently from Iran. His latest book is “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.”
Armed Iranian women
AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian
A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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Sunday, September 02, 2007
Sen. Larry Craig, Free Speech Poster Boy?
Should Senator Larry Craig turn to the First Amendment to defend his toe-tapping rights?
Should Senator Larry Craig turn to the First Amendment to defend his toe-tapping rights?
by Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Just in time for Labor Day, a new report on the gap between the boss and the average worker is a gleefully malicious attack on the richest CEOs, whose inflated salaries, extravagant lifestyles and lack of accountability put them in a class all their own.
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by Robert B. Reich
Our infatuation with low-priced goods has blinded us to their effect on labor.
begreen’s Craig's True Crimes: A legacy of crimes against nature looks at the shameful environmental legacy Larry Craig is leaving behind.
Why Gonzales Bailed
Newsweek
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told friends he resigned last week at the urging of his wife following a summer vacation. But he had plenty of reasons to leave the capital. Just days earlier, congressional leaders had signaled they intended to keep the attorney general in their crosshairs this fall, forcing him to testify at length about the administration's warrantless surveillance efforts before they would consider passing new legislation on the subject.
That prospect, combined with hints that an internal Justice Department probe was expanding to include allegations that Gonzales had lied to Congress, created mounting anxiety at the White House, according to officials who asked not to be identified talking about internal deliberations. A former colleague urged Gonzales to step down months ago, but the A.G. hung on—believing the president wanted him to stay, the official said. By last week, that no longer seemed to be the case. One big reason: an internal review by chief of staff Josh Bolten concluded that Gonzales was so politically weak he had become an obstacle to Bush's agenda, especially on the passage of an updated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance law.
The White House is looking for a new A.G. who can work with Congress. Aides called around, asking about four candidates: former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson (who would be the first African-American A.G.), former solicitor general Ted Olson, former deputy A.G. George Terwilliger, and current Solicitor General Paul Clement (the acting A.G. once Gonzales leaves). Aides say the final selection likely won't come until Bush returns from this week's trip to Australia for an economic summit.
—Michael Isikoff and Richard Wolffe
Newsweek
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told friends he resigned last week at the urging of his wife following a summer vacation. But he had plenty of reasons to leave the capital. Just days earlier, congressional leaders had signaled they intended to keep the attorney general in their crosshairs this fall, forcing him to testify at length about the administration's warrantless surveillance efforts before they would consider passing new legislation on the subject.
That prospect, combined with hints that an internal Justice Department probe was expanding to include allegations that Gonzales had lied to Congress, created mounting anxiety at the White House, according to officials who asked not to be identified talking about internal deliberations. A former colleague urged Gonzales to step down months ago, but the A.G. hung on—believing the president wanted him to stay, the official said. By last week, that no longer seemed to be the case. One big reason: an internal review by chief of staff Josh Bolten concluded that Gonzales was so politically weak he had become an obstacle to Bush's agenda, especially on the passage of an updated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance law.
The White House is looking for a new A.G. who can work with Congress. Aides called around, asking about four candidates: former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson (who would be the first African-American A.G.), former solicitor general Ted Olson, former deputy A.G. George Terwilliger, and current Solicitor General Paul Clement (the acting A.G. once Gonzales leaves). Aides say the final selection likely won't come until Bush returns from this week's trip to Australia for an economic summit.
—Michael Isikoff and Richard Wolffe
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Open Science Thread
by DarkSyde
This amazing Katrina video was captured by real life storm chasers and WeatherUnderground bloggers Mike Theiss and Jim Reed in August 2005. Mike and Jim are solely supported by their photography and writing. That work ranks among some of the finest, extreme weather reporting I’ve ever seen. It includes everything mother-nature can throw at them; water-spouts, tornadoes, lightning, you name it. You can order many of their most dramatic adventures on DVD here
by DarkSyde
This amazing Katrina video was captured by real life storm chasers and WeatherUnderground bloggers Mike Theiss and Jim Reed in August 2005. Mike and Jim are solely supported by their photography and writing. That work ranks among some of the finest, extreme weather reporting I’ve ever seen. It includes everything mother-nature can throw at them; water-spouts, tornadoes, lightning, you name it. You can order many of their most dramatic adventures on DVD here
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