Straight from Crooks and Liars: This has to be seen to be believed. The Republicans are staring down the barrel of a major ethics scandal involving Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) who resigned last Friday. As Nancy Pelosi asks for an investigation the Majority Leader of the House blocks her and then she’s booed for asking for the vote to be recorded!
Clinton may have had “sexual relations with that woman” but at least she was an adult. If the Republicans would only go after this guy with half the vigor they went after Clinton they might not look like such scumbags.
President Bush used his weekly radio address as damage control against the recent reports that the war in Iraq is increasing terrorism worldwide. Bush said the reports had created “a lot of misimpressions about the document’s conclusions” amongst the American people. Of course Bush only declassified 3 and a half pages of the 30 page report. I’m sure the administration feels that the remain 27 odd mystery pages will leave enough doubt that the any damage can be minimized.
Bush also pointed out that the British PM, Tony Blair, said, “This terrorism isn’t our fault. We didn’t cause it. It’s not the consequence of foreign policy.” This is true if you’re talking about the pre-9/11 terrorism which Bush pointed out: the ’93 bombing of the WTC, the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the USS Cole and the 2001 WTC attack. The problem is that our invasion of Iraq has created more terrorists around the world. It’s bred a whole generation, and probably generations to come, of Muslims that view the West as an enemey that must be defeated at all costs. This assertion is support by the NIE from April.
Typical of this administration (and quite amusing) is the way they will contradict themselves in the same speech. At one point Bush said, “Some in Washington have selectively quoted from this document to make the case that by fighting the terrorists in Iraq, we are making our people less secure here at home.” Later in the same address he pointed out parts of the report (quite selectively, I might add), “The National Intelligence Estimate declares ‘perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.’ It also says that ‘Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.’”
This is assuming that this war is winnable and can be won in a timeframe that doesn’t fatique an already worn American psyche.
Bob Woodward’s new book, “State of Denial”, is creating some grief for the White House. According to the New York Times, they are scrambling to get advanced copies of the book and are already attempting damage control. Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, is dancing like like a cat on a hot tin roof and administration officials both past and present are working to put a good spin on items from the book that they can’t deny happening or being said.
“A couple of weeks ago, the president was being accused of trying to scare people,†Mr. Snow told reporters. “Now, all of a sudden, he’s accused of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Neither one is true.â€
Of course this is typical White House double-speak – the two aren’t mutually exclusive. The president is clearly trying to scare the American public for his own political purposes with the threat of the “terror boogeymen” and at the same time he’s trying to put the best possible spin on the war in Iraq. The White House likes to trot out the “We’re at war!” defense when critics start to get some attention but what they fail to seem to realize is that we are at war because THEY started the war. In that situation, I think they bear the responsibility to honestly answer those critics.
12 Democrats went with the Republicans in passing Bush’s torture bill. I believe that this is due to the fact that these Congressmen, who are up for re-election this year, are afraid that the Republicans will try to capitalize on a “nay” vote as weak on terror (who the hell knows what Joe Lieberman was thinking??). I’m happy to say that none of the 33 Dems from the State of California voted in favor of this referendum on torture.
Why is it that the only time things really get done in Washington is in an election year? And then it’s done for all the wrong reasons.
Jon Stewart saying that Bush, “put the electrodes of freedom to the testicles of terrorism”. Genius, really.
Here’s 2 funny jokes (old but funny): 1 political, 1 not.
Donald Rumsfeld is giving the President his daily briefing on Iraq. He concludes by saying: “Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed.”
“OH NO!” the President exclaims. “That’s terrible!” His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands. Finally, President looks up and asks, “How many is a brazillion?”
Why doesn’t Smokey the Bear have any children?
Everytime his wife gets hot he hits her with a shovel.
Damn, I need a laugh.
“A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled President Bush has the authority to designate U.S. citizens as ‘enemy combatants’ and detain them in military custody if they are deemed a threat to national security.”
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The upside of this is that the court didn’t rule on U.S. citizens deemed a threat that are captured on American soil; only foreign soil as was the case with John Walker Lindh. The downside, and it’s a HUGE downside, is that this is probably the greatest erosions to date of one of the democratic rights we hold so dear (some of us, anyway) – the right to due process of law. And for what? So that the Republicans, as well as many weak-willed Democrats, can look “tough on terror”?
This reminds me of the famous poem First They Came…. Here it is if you’ve forgotten:
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Who will be left to speak up?
Just found this on David Corn’s website. These photos were taken in Phnom Penh at a prison museum. This waterboard was used by the Khymer Rouge to elicit “confessions” from prisoners.
I know that a lot of people probably think, “Those bastards are trying to kill us. They deserve anything they get if it can help protect U.S. citizens”. But what would you think if U.S. soldiers were captured in a foreign country and subjected to this “technique”? Or your family member/friend/neighbor who’s just been declared an “enemy combatant”? I think it’s a lot harder to get behind it when you look at it that way.
Steve Wozniak will appear on tonight’s Colbert Report to plug his new book, iWoz! I will definitely be TiVo’ing this since Woz is a friend of mine and I can’t wait to see how he and Colbert click.
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Update: Just watched the interview and thought Woz did well. Not sure Colbert knew quite what to make of him but Woz looked like he was having fun.
Geneva Conventions sidestepped; basic habeas right to challenge imprisonment cancelled; coerced evidence allowed; torture allowed; secret evidence allowed; judicial review blocked; U.S. residents could be detained indefinitely with no hope of appeal. Nearly all Senate Republicans voted Yes.
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This is at the very least an attack on some of the basic tenants that the U.S. was built on and opens the door for this president or some other president down the road to bring our democracy to its knees.