The Cheese Sandwich

October Surprise

2008-10-10T19:22:00.009-04:00

"I'm not quite dead."

Road to Nowhere

2008-04-08T17:55:00.015-04:00

Here's some more stuff we should probably ignore.

A new assessment of U.S. policy in Iraq by the same
experts who advised the original Iraq Study Group
concludes that political progress is "so slow,
halting and superficial" and political fragmentation
"so pronounced" that the United States is no closer
to being able to leave Iraq than it was a year ago.

And how many US soldiers have died in Iraq since a year ago?
Answer: 755

But why listen to experts when we've got Joe Lieberman?

This is not happening.

2008-03-27T17:24:00.014-04:00

CNN:

Forty-two people were killed Thursday in Kut,
southeast of Baghdad, Iraq's Interior Ministry
said, the latest casualties in three days of
clashes between militias and Iraqi security
forces.

[...]

Since Tuesday, clashes in Basra and throughout
Iraq's Shiite heartland have left more than 100
dead and many wounded in Basra, Baghdad, Hilla,
Kut, Karbala and Diwaniya.

Jeesh, what's with these Iraqis?

Don't they know that the civil war is sooo over?

It's Official

2008-03-11T17:36:00.014-04:00

According to the Pentagon: Sky is blue. 2+2=4. And there was
no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda before U.S. invasion.

An exhaustive review of more than 600,000
Iraqi documents that were captured after the
2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that
Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational
links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist
network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for
release later this week, did confirm that
Saddam's regime provided some support to other
terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle
East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However,
his security services were directed primarily
against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds
and others he considered enemies of his regime.

The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives
found no documents indicating a "direct
operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and
al Qaida before the invasion, according to a
U.S. official familiar with the report.

Why does the Pentagon hate America?

President Facebook

2008-03-02T23:33:00.019-05:00

George W. Bush thinks we are all really, really stupid.

Sitting down at the table, having your picture
taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for
example, lends the status of the office and the
status of our country to him. He gains a lot from
it by saying, look at me, I’m now recognized by
the President of the United States.

Click here for big, juicy pictures of Dubya lending out some
of that precious status to abusive tyrants and petty dictators
from all over the world... except Cuba.

Googling Goeglein

2008-02-29T13:29:00.014-05:00

Tim Goeglein, plagiarist

It amazes me that any high-profile writer (even one that
works in the Bush Administration) could be stupid enough
to commit plagiarism in the modern age of Google.

How embarrassing.

[h/t Atrios]

The Times, They Are A-Suckin'

2008-02-22T21:39:00.030-05:00

Leave it to the pinheads at the NY Times to print an article
that is so poorly sourced and edited, it makes them look
like even bigger tools than usual -- while simultaneously
rallying conservatives around McCain.

But the real kicker is they actually expected to get
high-fives from Democrats.

Q. I must say that the McCain article left
me embarrassed for your paper. So little
substance, but trumpeted prominently as
though you somehow had the goods on him
or were raising burning questions. It
makes it look like your reporters or
editors had an ax to grind. I hope they
didn't. Question: Do you read the coverage
of your coverage? Did you see the piece
at slate.com ridiculing your paper for this?
Doesn't it smart?

— Brian Mullaney

A. I think we all expected the reaction
to be intense. We knew from our experience
last year, when word leaked out we were
pursuing this story, that Senator McCain's
operatives would set out to change the
subject by making the story about The
New York Times rather than about their
candidate.That's a time-honored tactic for
dealing with potentially damaging news
stories. We knew some readers would
disagree with our decision to publish this
information. After all, we wrestled with
our own doubts on that score. We anticipated
that it would provoke at least a brief media
firestorm — and that our efforts to put
Mr. McCain's relationship with a lobbyist
in a bigger context would probably get lost
in the retelling.

Personally, I was surprised by the volume
of the reaction (including more than 2,400
reader comments posted on our Web site).
I was surprised by how lopsided the opinion
was against our decision, with readers who
described themselves as independents and
Democrats joining Republicans in defending
Mr. McCain from what they saw as a cheap
shot.

Whitewater... Wen Ho Lee... Jason Blair... Judith Miller...
And an op-ed page that is truly an intellectual sewer.

Yet the Times editors are surprised that no one from the
left is standing up to defend their shoddy journalism
against a livid Rush Limbaugh.

Hilarious.

Less Jobs, More Wars

2008-02-06T17:52:00.000-05:00

The Republican Party has spoken, and they want John McCain
for their president. I'll admit the logic behind that decision
is a bit hard for a dirty, liberal hippie like me to understand.
But luckily, we have conservatives like Pat Buchanan and
Joe Scarborough to explain his unique appeal to GOP voters.

BUCHANAN: Here’s a guy, basically, what
does he say? The jobs are never coming back,
the illegals are never going home, but we’re
gonna have a lot more wars.

SCARBOROUGH: We’re gonna start a lot of
wars! He has promised, for the record Keith,
John McCain’s platform — and it certainly
looks inviting for the fall — he has promised
less jobs and more wars. Now that’s something
we can all rally behind.

"Less jobs, more wars." It's got a nice ring to it, no?

Sock It To Me!

2008-01-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

Thank the Lord, our prayers have been answered!

That's right. Sprezzatura is back -- and he's pissed.

So watch out, all you latte-drinking, baseball cap-wearing,
iPod-listening punks. This sock puppet is holding a big ol'
can of whoop-ass and he ain't afraid (or ashamed) to use it.

Busted!

2008-01-09T20:26:00.000-05:00

Chris Matthews, the biggest loser of last night's primary, shares some
face time with Hillary.

Honestly, I still haven't decided on a candidate yet (though I'd
be happy with just about any of the Democrats). But any election
that highlights the sheer stupidity and foolishness of the media
whores who call themselves "pundits" is a victory in my book.

Thank you, New Hampshire.

Men In Black

2007-12-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

ABOVE: Actual photo from recent meeting of College Democrats (Princeton, NJ)

Sure, it's easy to dismiss most College Republicans
as a bunch of slack-jawed, bed-wetting, chickenhawk
cowards who prefer to let others fight their dirty
little wars for them while they empty another keg
and jerk-off to old Chuck Norris movies.

But that wouldn't be fair.

Especially once you learn about guys like Francisco
Nava, who do so much to advance the cause of American
Conservatism by exposing dangerous, new enemies that
are poisoning our institutions of higher learning:

Imaginary Hippie Ninjas!

Clueless Joe

2007-12-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

For anyone who hasn’t been following the latest rounds of
Joe Klein’s increasingly desperate War Against Journalism
(or if you just can’t get enough), check out this excellent
analysis by John Cook at Radar.

Klein's reactions on Swampland to his FISA critics
are precious goldmines of self-aggrandizing pretense
that must be savored at length to appreciate their
rich subtleties and overtones. His first response
acknowledged--in an insufferably cloying way--that
although partisan murk clouded the issue, he "may"
have made a mistake, before going on to claim that
if he indeed had made a mistake, "we are talking
about relatively obscure and unimportant technical
details." In other words, Klein sat down to write
a column about obscure and unimportant technical
details.

Klein's next weigh-in on the blog, two days later,
was headlined "FISA: More Than You Want to Know,"
as though his responsibility to assess the veracity
or lack thereof of the claims he made in his columns
involved some kind of burdensome slog through
legislative thickets beyond the comprehension of
mere mortals. Why are you making me do this? This
is hard! His post artfully shifted the issue from
whether the bill says what he said it says to whether
his Republican sources or Democratic sources were
correct in their interpretations (who knows? This
law stuff is complicated) before actually committing
to pixels the following words, which will live on as
one of the finest specimens of sheer journalistic
hubris ever issued from one of the genre's most
accomplished practitioners: "I have neither the time
nor legal background to figure out who's right."
I don't have time find out if what I write is true,
people! I'm too busy claiming that other things are
true. And even if I did have time, I'm not qualified
to say whether the things I write are true anyway!

Of course, it’s not news that Joe Klein is an incompetant
stooge who can never admit when he is wrong. The real
headline here is that Time continues to employ this hack
while denying its readers a chance to learn the truth from
others who actually do understand what the hell they’re
writing about. Glenn Greenwald covers it all, here.

Scary Shit

2007-12-04T17:56:00.000-05:00

Cheesy Question: Which is most frightening?

- The fact that the warmongers in Washington brought us
thisclose to starting another war with a country that
gave up trying to develop nukes years ago.

- The fact that Congressional Democrats were so easily
duped into supporting this reckless policy.

- The fact that President Bush claims he did not know
this information until the story broke this week.

- The fact that the Beltway Media still does not recognize
its essential role in creating this horror show.

Choose carefully. Write your answer on a 3x5 postcard,
and mail it to 7 years ago, where there might still be
someone in a position of power who hasn’t completely
lost his fucking mind.

Democracy, Pakistani Style

2007-11-21T15:54:00.000-05:00

As you sit around the table tomorrow with friends and
loved ones, be thankful that we (like our pals in Pakistan)
are blessed with a president who is so deeply committed
to the ideals of democracy.

President Bush yesterday offered his
strongest support of embattled Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf, saying the
general "hasn't crossed the line" and "truly
is somebody who believes in democracy."

But as is often the case with Bush and his BFFs, actions
speak louder than words.

Bush spoke nearly three weeks after
Musharraf declared emergency rule, sacked
members of the Supreme Court and began a
roundup of journalists, lawyers and human
rights activists. Musharraf's government
yesterday released about 3,000 political
prisoners, although 2,000 remain in custody,
according to the Interior Ministry.

The comments, delivered in an interview
with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson,
contrasted with previous administration
statements -- including by Bush himself --
expressing grave concern over Musharraf's
actions. In his first public comments on
the crisis two weeks ago, Bush said his
aides bluntly warned Musharraf that his
emergency measures "would undermine
democracy."

But hey, what's wrong with a little Constitution-breaking
among friends?

Bush was asked in the interview if there
is any line Musharraf should not cross.
"He hasn't crossed the line. As a matter
of fact, I don't think that he will cross
any lines," Bush replied, according to an
ABC transcript. "...We didn't necessarily
agree with his decision to impose emergency
rule, and... hopefully he'll get... rid of
the rule. Today, I thought, was a pretty
good signal, that he released thousands of
people from jail."

Tom Malinowski, Washington director of
Human Rights Watch, said that "it's hard to
imagine how the administration will be able
to achieve anything in Pakistan if the
president is so disconnected from reality."

"Almost everyone in Pakistan who believes
in George Bush's vision of democracy is in
prison today," Malinowski said. "Calling
the man who put them in prison a great
democrat will only discredit America among
moderate Pakistanis and give Musharraf
confidence that he can continue to defy
the United States because Bush will forgive
anything he does."

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Carlin on Countdown

2007-10-25T04:22:00.000-04:00

A master comic tackles the absurd -- from Governor Bush,
to cellphones that make pancakes.

Colbert '08

2007-10-21T15:08:00.000-04:00

You'd think that after a performance like this, the news
media would get the hint that the joke is on them.

But of course, you'd be wrong.

Stark Contrast

2007-10-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) exposes the mean-spirited lunacy
of President Bush's veto of legislation that would expand
the SCHIP program:

First of all, I'm just amazed that they can't
figure out-- the Republicans are worried that
we can't pay for insuring an additional ten
million children. They sure don't care about
finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war
in Iraq. Where are you gonna get that money?
You gonna tell us lies, like you're telling us
today? Is that how you're going to fund the
war? You don't have the money to fund the war
or children, but you're going to spend it to
blow up innocent people, if we could get enough
kids to grow old enough for you to send to
Iraq to get their heads blown off for the
President's amusement.

Sadly, Stark's speech couldn't convince Republicans to do
the right thing and override President 24%. I guess they
were afraid it might make him feel irrelevant.

Pot meets Kettle

2007-10-17T21:11:00.000-04:00

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning!

The guy who directed Jack, Captain EO, and a Dracula
movie starring Keanu Reeves is disappointed with the
career choices some of his peers have made recently.

I met both Pacino and DeNiro when they were
really on the come," Coppola tells GQ's
Nate Penn. "They were young and insecure.
Now Pacino is very rich, maybe because he
never spends any money; he just puts it in
his mattress. DeNiro was deeply inspired by
(Coppola's studio American) Zoetrope and
created an empire and is wealthy and powerful.

Nicholson was -- when I met him and worked
with him -- he was always kind of a joker.
He's got a little bit of a mean streak. He's
intelligent, always wired in with the big
guys and the big bosses of the studios.

I don't know what any of them want anymore.
I don't know that they want the same things.
Pacino always wanted to do theater... (He)
will say, 'Oh, I was raised next to a furnace
in New York, and I'm never going to go to
L.A.,' but they all live off the fat of the land.

[...]

I think if there was a role that DeNiro was
hungry for, he would come after it. I don't
think Jack would. Jack has money and influence
and girls, and I think he's a little bit like
(Marlon) Brando, except Brando went through
some tough times. I guess they don't want to
do it anymore.

The horror... the horror.

I Will Survive

2007-10-04T20:16:00.000-04:00

Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig decides, on second thought,
he won't resign.

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig lost a bid Thursday
to withdraw his guilty plea in a men's
room sex sting but defiantly vowed to
finish his Senate term, prolonging a
headache for Republican leaders already
facing a tough political climate.

Craig had announced plans to resign his
seat by Sept. 30, but wavered when he went
to court in hopes of withdrawing his plea.
He issued a statement Thursday on staying
in the Senate shortly after Idaho Gov. C.L.
"Butch" Otter, R, relayed word that he had
selected a replacement for Craig in the
event of a vacancy.

This should prove interesting. But for now, I have to
agree with Josh Marshall that Craig has done a
masterful job at containing and defusing a scandal that
should have ended his career in politics the moment it
hit the front page.

Let's review, news breaks that Craig, a
social conservative and strong opponent
of gay rights, got nabbed for propositioning
a man for sex in a public restroom -- a
misdemeanor to which he later pleaded guilty.
That's just a bad news day.

So Craig's fellow Republicans basically do
everything short of physically forcing him
to resign. He "resigns". Only it's not a
resignation. Rather, it's a rather ingenious
ploy to let the temperature ease off on the
story, a post-dated resignation. Then it's
not a resignation. He's going to fight the
guilty plea -- something of a novelty in the
annals of jurisprudence. He'll stay in office
if he can get his plea withdrawn. And now he
can't get his guilty plea withdrawn so, well,
too bad. He's staying anyway.

Hmm... a resignation that isn't really a resignation.
Kind of like torture that isn't really torture. It may
sound crazy to the rest of us, but it all makes perfect
sense to the beautiful minds of the GOP.

Amazin'

2007-10-01T21:33:00.000-04:00

You really got to hand it to the Mets -- always finding new
and interesting ways to lose when it counts the most.

Yesterday, the Mets completed one of the
most stunning collapses in baseball history
with an embarrassing 8-1 loss to Florida.
The season-ending nightmare began almost
immediately, as sugarplum dreams of a
weekend revival quickly dissolved. The “Let’s
Go Mets” chants that rocked the stadium
15 minutes before the game quickly gave
way to cries of despair.

On Sept. 12, the Mets had a seven-game
lead over Philadelphia with 17 games to play.
A confident David Wright said: “You couldn’t
have picked a better time to peak. This is the
best baseball we’ve played all season.”

But then came the tailspin, and no amount
of huffing and puffing, no amount of bravado,
could pull the Mets out of it. On Saturday,
they appeared to keep hope alive with a 13-0
victory. As it turned out, that victory was
simply a last-gasp thank you to Mets fans for
hanging in. Yesterday, there was nothing left
from a team that has now humiliated itself and
its fans.

And with that, the horrible memories of 2004 are washed
away from the minds of Yankees fans throughout the city.
New York has a new definition for the word choke, and it
looks a lot like Tom Glavine and José Reyes.

As the Phillies closed in this month, the Mets
forgot the brand of baseball that had brought
them to the cusp of another division title. If the
biggest culprit was the poor showing by the
pitching staff, which posted a 5.96 earned run
average over the final 17 games, then Reyes’s
noticeable descent ranked second. Over the last
two months, he batted .240 and committed the
sort of mental mistakes that come with a gap in
maturity. The fans, who so often chanted “José,
José, José,” are left wondering what has become
of their favorite player.

“They wanted me to do good, so that’s why they
booed me,” Reyes said.

And all summer long, Eric Alterman has complained about
the lack of Mets coverage in the NY Times compared to
their pinstriped rivals in the Bronx -- despite holding the
division lead for nearly the entire season. Well, with a story
like this one, I think that ratio is due to change -- at least
until the playoffs. Be careful what you wish for, bub.

Treehugger

2007-09-25T03:37:00.000-04:00

Whoever said Dick Cheney doesn't care about the environment
was obviously unaware of his deep commitment to preserving
our nation's trees.

Speaking last week at the Gerald R. Ford
Presidential Library and Museum in Grand
Rapids, Mich., Ford's one-time White House
chief of staff said: "Researchers like to
come and dig through my files, to see if
anything interesting turns up."

"I want to wish them luck," the vice president
said to a laughing audience. "But the files
are pretty thin. I learned early on that if
you don't want your memos to get you in
trouble someday, just don't write any."

Even Stevens

2007-09-20T19:53:00.001-04:00

Will Sen. Ted Stevens be the latest member of the GOP
to lose his day-job over an embarrassing corruption
scandal? It's never a good sign when the FBI is recording
your phonecalls.

I'll bet they tapped his tubes too.

Bedtime for Gonzo

2007-08-27T21:07:00.000-04:00

Well it sure did take a while, but at long last, it
appears we won't have Fredo to kick around anymore.
All I can say to the man who designed the Patriot Act,
legalized torture, and supervised warrantless
surveillance on American citizens is good riddance.

Considering how his partners in crime like Libby &
Rummy have managed to walk away unscathed from
the twisted, burning wreak that was once our American
democracy, I have little hope that Abu Gonzales will
ever be brought to justice. But though this incompetent
stooge, like some horrible disease, cannot be
eradicated, he can at least be contained within an
environment where he can do less harm to fewer
people. A place already familiar with this deadly strand
of compassionate conservatism. A place like… Texas.

But of course, no resignation by a disgraced White
House official is complete without the standard Lewis
Carroll-esque commentary by President Bush. And once
again, he does not disappoint.

"After months of unfair treatment that has
created ... a harmful distraction at the Justice
Department, Judge Gonzales has decided to
resign his position, and I accept his decision,"
Bush told reporters as he prepared to board
Marine One. "It's sad that we live in a time
when a talented and honorable person like
Alberto Gonzales is impeding (sic) from doing
important work because his good name was
dragged through the mud for political
reasons."

I actually had to stop typing for a moment to wipe the
tears off my keyboard.

Not surprisingly, Jon Stewart figured out the Gonzales
playbook a long time ago and spelled it out perfectly in an
interview with Bill Moyers.

JON STEWART: For instance, Alberto Gonzales,
and you've been watching the hearings. He is
either a perjurer, or a low-functioning pinhead.
And he allowed himself to be portrayed in those
hearings as a low-functioning pinhead, rather
than give the Congressional Committee charged
with oversight, any information as to his
decision-making process at the Department of
Justice.

And I used to think, "They're doing this based on
a certain arrogance." And now, I realize that it's
because they believe there is one accountability
moment for a President, and that is the four year
election. And once you get that election, you're
done.

BILL MOYERS: They're right, are they not?

JON STEWART: They're completely not right. The
election moment is merely the American public
saying, "We'd rather you be President than that
guy." That's it. The next four years, though, you
still have to abide by the oversight process that is
there to prevent this kind of bizarre sort of cult-
like atmosphere that falls along. I mean, I accept
that kind of veil of secrecy around Tom Cruise and
Katie Holmes, but I don't accept that around our
government.

BILL MOYERS: Tens of thousands, hundreds of
thousands of words were written about Gonzales'
testimony last week in Congress. And I still don't
think a lot of people get it. And all of the sudden,
there on THE DAILY SHOW that evening, you
distilled the essence of it.

[…]

JON STEWART: And by the way, that was all just
-- that was a game, and he knew it, and the guys
on the committee knew it. And for the President
to come out after that and say, "Everything I saw
there gave me more confidence in him," that
solidified my notion that, "Oh, it's because what
he expected of Gonzalez was" it's sort of like, do
you remember in GOODFELLAS? When Henry Hill got
arrested for the first time and Robert DeNiro met
him at the courthouse and Henry Hill was really
upset, 'cause he thought Robert DeNiro would be
really mad at him. And DeNiro comes up to him and
he gives him a $100 and he goes, "You got pinched.
We all get pinched, but you did it right, you
didn't say nothing."

BILL MOYERS: Gonzales said nothing.

JON STEWART: Right. And "you went up there and
said nothing. You gave them no legal recourse
against you, and you made yourself a smart man,
a self-made man look like an utter pinhead on
national television, and you did it for me."

That's what friends are for.

Finally, for those of you keeping score, Paul Kiel has a nifty
rundown of the numerous Justice Department resignations
that have occurred in the wake of the U.S. attorney firing
scandal. It’s a ridiculously long list. In fact, it might have
been easier to just announce who’s left.

Dude, Where's My Government?

2007-08-25T21:08:00.000-04:00

Uniters, not dividers: Bush & Maliki

Awesome.

Escalating a political crisis that has paralyzed
the Iraqi government, three secular cabinet
members will formally resign Saturday,
according to a senior member of the group.

The Iraqi National List, an umbrella group of
several political parties composed of secular
Sunnis and Shiites, had boycotted cabinet
meetings since Aug. 7 because of frustrations
with what they saw as Prime Minister Nouri al-
Maliki's divisive leadership style. The party,
headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi,
will now submit the official resignations,
National List member Iyad Jamal al-Deen said.

* * *

The largest Sunni political bloc has already
formally withdrawn from the cabinet, while the
party loyal to powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-
Sadr continues to boycott government meetings.
All told, nearly half the cabinet members are not
attending meetings.

And let’s not forget that Iraq’s parliament has been
out-to-lunch all month. Could someone please remind
me what the surge was supposed to accomplish?

756*

2007-08-08T00:42:00.000-04:00

Well Barry, you got your record.

I hope it was worth it -- because now it’s pretty much all
you've got. And if A-Rod stays healthy and productive,
you won’t even have that for very long.

Spineless

2007-08-04T20:33:00.000-04:00

Our intensely unpopular president says, “Jump!” and
once again, Congressional Democrats ask, “How high?”

Washington Post:

The Senate bowed to White House pressure
last night and passed a Republican plan for
overhauling the federal government's
terrorist surveillance laws, approving
changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy
agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on
foreign suspects without a court order.

The 60 to 28 vote, which was quickly
denounced by civil rights and privacy
advocates, came after Democrats in the
House failed to win support for more modest
changes that would have required closer
court supervision of government surveillance.
Earlier in the day, President Bush threatened
to hold Congress in session into its scheduled
summer recess if it did not approve the
changes he wanted.

As Glenn Greenwald notes, this is only the latest in
a series of pathetic compromises by a Democratic
Congress that can’t seem to find its backbone, even
when they have the support of the American public.

Examine virtually every Bush scandal and it
increasingly bears the mark not merely of
Democratic capitulation, but Democratic
participation. In August of 2006, the
Supreme Court finally asserted the first real
limit on Bush's radical executive power
theories in Hamdan, only for Congress,
months later, to completely eviscerate those
minimal limits -- and then go far beyond -- by
enacting the grotesque Military Commissions
Act with the support of substantial numbers
of Democrats. What began as a covert and
illegal Bush interrogation and detention
program became the officially sanctioned,
bipartisan policy of the United States.

Grave dangers are posed to our basic
constitutional safeguards by the replacement
of Sandra Day O'Connor with Sam Alito,
whose elevation to the Supreme Court
Congressional Democrats chose to permit.
Vast abuses and criminality in surveillance
remain undisclosed, uninvestigated and
unimpeded because Congressional Democrats
have stood meekly by while the
administration refuses to disclose what it has
been doing in how it spies on us. And we
remain in Iraq, in direct defiance of the will
of the vast majority of the country, because
the Democratic Beltway establishment lacks
both the courage and the desire to compel an
end to that war.

And now Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, with
revealing symbolism, cancel their scheduled
appearances this morning at Yearly Kos
because George Bush ordered them to remain
in Washington in order to re-write and
expand FISA -- a law which he has
repeatedly refused to allow to be revised for
years and which he has openly and proudly
violated. Congressional Democrats know
virtually nothing about how the Bush
administration has been eavesdropping on
our conversations because the administration
refused to tell them and they passively
accepted this state of affairs.

And what’s their excuse? The same old bullshit. If we
don’t give give George W. Bush unlimited power, the
terrorists will get us.

"We're at war. The enemy wants to attack
us," Lieberman said during the Senate
debate. "This is not the time to strive for
legislative perfection."

How convenient. I do hope you’ll let us know when all of
America’s enemies have been destroyed and Congress
can go back to doing its job of upholding the
Constitution and keeping overzealous executive power
in check. But no rush... it’s only democracy.

A Correction

2007-08-03T01:09:00.000-04:00

Dick Cheney: Keepin' it real

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney acknowledged on Tuesday he
was wrong in 2005 when he insisted the
insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes."

It was Cheney's most direct public
admission of how badly the administration
had underestimated the strength of
America's enemies in the increasingly
unpopular war in Iraq.

[...]

"My estimate at the time -- and it was
wrong, it turned out to be incorrect -- was
the fact that we were in the midst of holding
three elections in Iraq, elected an interim
government, then ratifying a constitution,
then electing a permanent government, that
they had had significant success, we'd
rounded up Saddam Hussein.

"I thought there were a series of these
milestones that would in fact undermine the
insurgency and make it less than it was at
that point. That clearly didn't happen. I think
the insurgency turned out to be more
robust."

Thanks for clearing that up, Dick. But before you head
back to the bunker, maybe you could set the record
straight on some other statements you’ve made that
never quite survived the difficult transition from insane,
neo-con fever-dream to demonstrative reality.

Generation Chickenhawk

2007-07-18T14:49:00.000-04:00

Max Blumenthal visits the College Republicans National
Convention in DC. Check out the must-see video, here.

* * *

UPDATE: Compare the the above acts of brazen cowardice
and hypocrisy with this heartbreaking story in today’s
NY Times metro section.

A little more than a year ago, Le Ron A. Wilson,
not yet 18, walked into the military recruiting
center on Jamaica Avenue in Queens and signed
up to serve in the Army. He had the kind of
brains and drive that make a good soldier, the
persistence that wears down parents. His
mother, Simona Francis, gave her permission.

Yesterday, not far from the recruiting center, the
short, happy life of Le Ron Wilson was recalled
at a funeral Mass in Christ the King Church.
Twice named soldier of the month in his platoon,
a specialist in the repair of weapons, a
correspondent with scores of friends on his
MySpace page, Private First Class Wilson and
another soldier were killed on July 6 by a
roadside bomb.

Many of those in the church yesterday wore
buttons with his image. The pictures that show
him fresh-faced do not lie. He was born on Nov.
16, 1988. He was not yet 13 during the attacks
of Sept. 11 and never voted for a president.
He barely had to shave.

Read the rest of this article for free, here.

Long Live Lefsetz

2007-07-18T00:50:00.000-04:00

This blog goes to eleven!

The Cheese Sandwich is proud to add The Lefsetz Letter
to its ever-expanding cheesy blogroll. Bob Lefsetz, the
undisputed, heavyweight champion of music geeks has
been preaching his unique brand of Rock 'n' Roll gospel
for decades. (I only recently discovered him via his
enthusiastic commentaries that appear regularly in the
Rhinocast podcast series.) Now, with the magic of the
internets, discerning music fans everywhere can get the
full-on Lefsetz experience in convenient blog form.

His latest post is a tour-de-force rant that connects the
dots between the alleged popularity of talentless wastes
of space like Victoria Beckham and a failed, dysfunctional
news media that has completely lost the plot.

Who said Posh Spice was important? A woman
with baseball-sized boobs glued to her chest,
who looks like she hasn’t eaten during this
century, she’s the new role model for young
American girls? Why isn’t NOW or maybe even
Rosie O’Donnell out there protesting this
travesty of hype?

Probably because nobody’s really paying
attention. Only the media that needs a story to
sell to its advertisers. The public doesn’t care.

Do me a favor L.A. "Times". Next time, just print
a picture of a hanger, that’s all Posh Spice is.
She’s even dumber than most models.

Uneducated, created by the knife and sporting
an unending desire to be famous, she trumps
everybody with an education, everybody who
believes you make the best of what you’re born
with, who believes that who you are is more
important than what you look like?

The media is so out of touch with the American
public it isn’t funny. It’s no different than their
support of the Administration in the run-up to
the war. They want to be in bed with the rich,
they want to go to parties with Posh Spice, or
her handlers/sponsors. They want some of the
overflow of fame, just like Judith Miller
cherished her White House access.

The media used to be independent. Forging its
own stories. Coming up with its own stars.
Maybe they’re complicit in this Posh Spice hype
because no one’s working at the papers
anymore. Or most of the media. They’ve laid off
most of the worker bees in the hunt for profits,
to satiate Wall Street, and all that remain are
out of touch millionaires, who think what their
brethren fat cats tell them is happening truly is.

But it’s not.

Amen, brother. But lest you be fooled into thinking it’s all
fire and brimstone at the House of Lefsetz, check out his
review of a recent “surprise” concert by Paul McCartney
at Amoeba Records. I challenge any Beatles fan to read it
without smiling.

With friends like these...

2007-07-16T00:01:00.000-04:00

President Bush and his BFF, Prince Bandar.

Saudi Arabia: the oil-rich Sunni nation ruled by a repressive
monarchy with close ties to the Bush family, the original
home of Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 9/11 hijackers,
and now according to the LA Times, the source of most
of the foreign fighters killing our soldiers in Iraq.

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S.
troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are
from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and
Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa,
according to official U.S. military figures made
available to The Times by the senior officer.
Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S.
detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have
carried out more suicide bombings than those of
any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer,
who spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first
time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown
on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's
Sunni Arab insurgency.

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come
here as suicide bombers. In the last six months,
such bombings have killed or injured 4,000
Iraqis.

Did I mention that Saudi Arabia is the top Middle-Eastern
ally in the Bush Administration’s War on Terror?

The situation has left the U.S. military in the
awkward position of battling an enemy whose
top source of foreign fighters is a key ally that at
best has not been able to prevent its citizens
from undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at
worst shares complicity in sending extremists to
commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians
and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The problem casts a spotlight on the tangled web
of alliances and enmities that underlie the
political relations between Muslim nations and
the U.S.

Great. Next you’ll be telling me that our good friends in
Pakistan support Al-Qaeda too.

D'oh!

Freefall

2007-07-13T15:55:00.000-04:00

photo: Reuters

“For my part, I would rather lose a campaign than
a war.”
- John McCain / April 2007

It seems the former front-runner has already completed
the first half of the equation.

"We've made mistakes," the Arizona senator
said during an interview with New Hampshire
Public Radio. "The responsibility is mine. I'm
the candidate."

Four days after accepting the resignations of
his two top campaign aides, McCain said he
didn't do what was necessary to run a
productive campaign and spent just as much
as he brought in when he should have been
saving up to pay for costly television
advertisements for the heat of race.

"We didn't use the money in the most effective
way," he said.

McCain made the comments in the first-in-the-
nation primary state as finger-pointing among
his loyalists intensified in Washington over
who was to blame for the one-time GOP front-
runner's six-month slide and financially fragile
condition.

The campaign raised $25 million in the first half
of the year, but blew through nearly all of it
during the same period. By Sunday, the
campaign will report to the Federal Election
Commission that it has $2 million cash on hand
but more than $1 million in outstanding debt,
according to officials. They say McCain could
end up having as little as a couple hundred
thousand dollars to spend as he tries to
revitalize his campaign.

Tough luck, Johnny. I hope you saved those receipts.

Maybe your war-mongering pal in the Senate can lend
you some Joementum to get that Straight-Talk Express
rollin’ again.

Or you could follow Rudy’s lead and just hire drug-dealers
and prostitute-payers to manage your campaign.

Or you could risk it all on the Double Hail Mary.
(aka "The World’s Biggest Flip-Flop")

Or you could just STFU and go away.

* * *

UPDATE: It looks like he picked door number two.

McCain got more bad news yesterday. A Florida
co-chair for his campaign was arrested on
Wednesday after offering to perform oral sex
on an undercover officer, the Associated Press
reported.

Sounds like entrapment to me. Was the cop wearing
a gay sweater ?

Bring Them Home

2007-07-08T18:34:00.000-04:00

With a backdrop of over 200 deaths in the last 48 hours,
the NY Times finally catches up to the American public and
says it's time to leave Iraq.

While Mr. Bush scorns deadlines, he kept
promising breakthroughs — after elections, after
a constitution, after sending in thousands more
troops. But those milestones came and went
without any progress toward a stable, democratic
Iraq or a path for withdrawal. It is frighteningly
clear that Mr. Bush’s plan is to stay the course as
long as he is president and dump the mess on his
successor. Whatever his cause was, it is lost.

The political leaders Washington has backed are
incapable of putting national interests ahead of
sectarian score settling. The security forces
Washington has trained behave more like
partisan militias. Additional military forces
poured into the Baghdad region have failed to
change anything.

Continuing to sacrifice the lives and limbs of
American soldiers is wrong. The war is sapping
the strength of the nation’s alliances and its
military forces. It is a dangerous diversion from
the life-and-death struggle against terrorists. It
is an increasing burden on American taxpayers,
and it is a betrayal of a world that needs the wise
application of American power and principles.

A majority of Americans reached these
conclusions months ago. Even in politically
polarized Washington, positions on the war no
longer divide entirely on party lines. When
Congress returns this week, extricating American
troops from the war should be at the top of its
agenda.

Endgame

2007-07-04T00:19:00.000-04:00

Olbermann:

Even Richard Nixon knew it was time to resign.
Would that you could say that, Mr. Bush. And that
you could say it for Mr. Cheney. You both crossed
the Rubicon yesterday. Which one of you chose the
route no longer matters. Which is the ventriloquist,
and which the dummy, is irrelevant. But that you
have twisted the machinery of government into
nothing more than a tawdry machine of politics is
the only fact that remains relevant.

It is nearly July Fourth, Mr. Bush, the
commemoration of the moment we Americans
decided that rather than live under a king who
made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored
them -- or commuted the sentences of those
rightly convicted under them -- we would force
our independence and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time -- and our leaders in Congress, of
both parties -- must now live up to those
standards which echo through our history.
Pressure, negotiate, impeach: get you, Mr. Bush,
and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to
our democracy, away from its helm.

And for you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is
a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low
threshold indeed. Display just that iota of
patriotism which Richard Nixon showed on August
9th, 1974.

Resign.

No Jail for Scooter

2007-07-02T18:39:00.000-04:00

On the very day that a federal appeals court ruled that
Libby could not delay his prison term while seeking appeal,
our president speaks:

Both critics and defenders of this investigation
have made important points. I have made my
own evaluation. In preparing for the decision I
am announcing today, I have carefully weighed
these arguments and the circumstances
surrounding this case.

Mr. Libby was sentenced to 30 months of prison,
two years of probation and a $250,000 fine. In
making the sentencing decision, the district court
rejected the advice of the probation office, which
recommended a lesser sentence and the
consideration of factors that could have led to a
sentence of home confinement or probation.

I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded
that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is
excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the
portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him
to spend 30 months in prison.

My decision to commute his prison sentence
leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby.
The reputation he gained through his years of
public service and professional work in the legal
community is forever damaged. His wife and
young children have also suffered immensely. He
will remain on probation. The significant fines
imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The
consequences of his felony conviction on his
former life as a lawyer, public servant and
private citizen will be long-lasting.

The Constitution gives the president the power of
clemency to be used when he deems it to be
warranted. It is my judgment that a commutation
of the prison term in Mr. Libby's case is an
appropriate exercise of this power.

And so it goes. Libby gets his reward for keeping his
mouth shut -- no jail time and a slap on the wrist. Bush
and Cheney get to sweep their crimes under the rug and
obstruct justice. And the press goes back to reporting
important stuff like missing pregnant women and inept
Scottish terrorists.

Party on!

UPDATE: TPMmuckraker has reaction from Joe Wilson.

The Kids Are Alright

2007-06-26T01:13:00.000-04:00

Our brightest students pass a note to The Decider.

The students had been invited to the East Room
to hear the president speak about his effort to
win congressional reauthorization of his
education law known as No Child Left Behind.

The handwritten letter said the students "believe
we have a responsibility to voice our convictions."

"We do not want America to represent torture.
We urge you to do all in your power to stop
violations of the human rights of detainees, to
cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva
Convention to all detainees, including those
designated enemy combatants," the letter said.

The designation as a Presidential Scholar is one
of the nation's highest honors for graduating high
school students. Each year the program selects
one male and one female student from each
state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,
Americans living abroad, 15 at-large students,
and up to 20 students in the arts on the basis of
outstanding scholarship, service, leadership and
creativity.

Cheesy Summer Reading

2007-06-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

Some highly recommended picks...

AUTHOR: SEYMOUR HERSH
GENRE: HORROR

In the meeting, the officials professed ignorance
about Abu Ghraib. “Could you tell us what
happened?” Wolfowitz asked. Someone else
asked, “Is it abuse or torture?” At that point,
Taguba recalled, “I described a naked detainee
lying on the wet floor, handcuffed, with an
interrogator shoving things up his rectum, and
said, ‘That’s not abuse. That’s torture.’ There was
quiet.”

AUTHORS: BARTON GELLMAN & JO BECKER
GENRE: SCI-FI / FANTASY

Across the board, the vice president's office goes
to unusual lengths to avoid transparency. Cheney
declines to disclose the names or even the size of
his staff, generally releases no public calendar
and ordered the Secret Service to destroy his
visitor logs. His general counsel has asserted that
"the vice presidency is a unique office that is
neither a part of the executive branch nor a part
of the legislative branch," and is therefore exempt
from rules governing either. Cheney is refusing to
observe an executive order on the handling of
national security secrets, and he proposed to
abolish a federal office that insisted on auditing
his compliance.

AUTHOR: SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL
GENRE: TRUE CRIME

Few, if any, presidents have ever been the subject
of such a devastating legal decision. While
presidential actions have been ruled illegal or
unconstitutional in the past, they were individual
acts. But in the case of Bush, the al-Marri decision
not only discredits Bush's position but denies his
idea of his presidential legitimacy in the American
tradition. The decision also declares that Bush's
idea is a mortal threat to the Constitution. And this
ruling was issued by the most conservative court
in the land.

Take the Money and Run

2007-06-20T16:16:00.000-04:00

Last week, Little Caesar explained to the press why
there was no mention of Iraq in his recently outlined
“12 Commitments to the American People.”

“What I was trying to do was to look at the
things, as best as you can predict it now, that are
going to be there a year and a half from now,” he
said. “Iraq may get better; Iraq may get worse.
We may be successful in Iraq; we may not be. I
don’t know the answer to that. That’s in the
hands of other people. But what we do know for
sure is the terrorists are going to be at war with
us a year, a year and a half from now.”

Ahhh... America’s Mayor. Smell the leadership!

WASHINGTON -- Rudolph Giuliani's membership
on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt
end last spring after he failed to show up for a
single official meeting of the group, causing the
panel's top Republican to give him a stark choice:
either attend the meetings or quit, several
sources said.

Giuliani left the Iraq Study Group last May after
just two months, walking away from a chance to
make up for his lack of foreign policy credentials
on the top issue in the 2008 race, the Iraq war.

He cited "previous time commitments" in a letter
explaining his decision to quit, and a look at his
schedule suggests why -- the sessions at times
conflicted with Giuliani's lucrative speaking tour
that garnered him $11.4 million in 14 months.

Aluminum Falcon

2007-06-17T22:36:00.000-04:00

I wish I could get back the time I wasted on those shitty
prequels and just watch that clip 300 times instead.

Inasmuch as Lucas has often seemed humorless
about "Star Wars'" creative shortcomings under
his stewardship, it's also nice to see the
filmmaker/mogul join in the fun. Yet even in this
lightweight diversion resides a lesson highlighted
by Cartoon Network's animated "Clone Wars"
shorts -- namely, that Lucas' fantasy has
frequently sailed the smoothest when he takes a
back seat and leaves the starship piloting to
someone else.

Check out more from Robot Chicken, here.

Pants On Fire!

2007-06-15T18:15:00.000-04:00

Someone call Wolf Blitzer.

Tell him he’s been scooped again by a comedian with an
internet connection.

Maybe someday CNN will equip The Situation Room with
the kind of cutting-edge technology that only Comedy
Central seems to possess.

It might come in handy the next time someone predicts
what will happen six months from now.

War Pigs

2007-06-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

Glenn Greenwald:

The very idea of starting a new war with Iran is
so obscenely irrational -- to say nothing of its
morality -- that it is difficult to put into words. A
vast consensus of military experts across the
ideological spectrum have all been warning for
several years that no viable option exists for the
military glory which the great and serious
Churchillian warrior, Joe Lieberman, seeks. Just
fathom how quickly and how completely
whatever lingering shreds of moral credibility
America has left would disappear if we
commenced a military attack on that country.

Joe Lieberman cares about none of that -- issues
of American credibility and American security
could not be any less important to Lieberman --
and the same is true for his fellow band of
warmongering ideologues who have long been
hungry for war with Iran as the next step in their
grand vision that brought us the invasion of Iraq.
Over the last year, they have been gradually
increasing the explicitness with which they urge
a war with Iran, and yet they are treated with as
great a respect as ever.

In the American political framework, one can
never lose credibility by urging on new wars.
That is an inherently respectable position. Only
opposing new wars, or the continuation of old
ones, can result in a loss of credibility. Yet both
the views and the underlying motives of
warmongers like Lieberman are as radical -- and
as deceitful and corrupt -- as can be.

Time to get a new nickname

2007-06-05T17:05:00.000-04:00

Scooter gets sentenced to 30 months in the big house, and
the PPW (Presidential Pardon Watch) officially begins.

President Bush, traveling in Europe, said through
a spokesman that he "felt terrible for the family,"
especially Libby's wife and children.

But he doesn't feel the least bit "terrible" for Valerie Plame,
the CIA agent whose life was put in danger when Cheney, Rove,
Libby and the rest of the White House gang leaked her identity
to reporters in a clumsy attempt to hurt her husband for telling
the truth about Bush's bogus claims that Saddam had acquired
nuclear materials from Niger. Of course not. That would require
some degree of intelligence and decency.

And speaking of intelligence and decency, check out all the
"love letters" sent to the court by Libby's buddies (including
James Carvile?!) now on file at The Smoking Gun.

Wish You Were Here

2007-06-03T20:13:00.001-04:00

I was very sad learn that one of my favorite bloggers,
Steve Gilliard at The News Blog has passed away.
He was only 42 years old.

Covering a unique blend of topics ranging from military
history to local New York politics to killer BBQ recipes,
Steve’s passionate, intelligent (and often hilarious) posts
were always essential reading.

Jane Hamsher met the man behind the blog and has
written a lovely tribute.

So long, Steve. It won’t be the same without you.

Favorable Auspices?

2007-05-24T20:58:00.001-04:00

"Come then," Tarquin said angrily, "Deduce, if your augury
can, whether what I have in my mind right now is possible."

As President Bush took a question Thursday in
the White House Rose Garden about scandals
involving his Attorney General, he remarked,
"I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job."

Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and
left a splash on the President's sleeve, which Bush
tried several times to wipe off.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino
promptly put the incident through the proper
spin cycle, telling ABC News, "It was his lucky
day…everyone knows that's a sign of good luck."

Gimme A Break

2007-05-20T19:43:00.000-04:00

In case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted lately, I thought
I’d borrow a page out of the Iraqi parliament playbook.

I figure, if those folks can find the time (and nerve) to schedule
a two-month vacation while militias and suicide bombers continue
to terrorize the country, surely a cheesy blogger like myself can
go a couple weeks without an update.

Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience. I hope we can still count
on your future support.

Happy Anniversary

2007-05-01T18:41:00.000-04:00

Four years ago today.

MATTHEWS: We're proud of our president. Americans
love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little
swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy
like [former President Bill] Clinton or even like [former
Democratic presidential candidates Michael] Dukakis
or [Walter] Mondale, all those guys, [George] McGovern.
They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy
who's president. Check it out. The women like this war.
I think we like having a hero as our president. It's
simple. We're not like the Brits. We don't want an
indoor prime minister type, or the Danes or the Dutch
or the Italians, or a [Russian Federation President
Vladimir] Putin. Can you imagine Putin getting elected
here? We want a guy as president.

Cheesy Journalism

2007-04-28T19:50:00.000-04:00

Bill Moyers gets it.

If you haven't seen it, watch it.

Virginia is for (Gun) Lovers

2007-04-17T17:24:00.000-04:00

Michael Daly writes in the NY Daily News:

Still love those guns, Virginia?

Ready to admit that it's madness for any psycho
to be able to saunter into a gun shop and acquire
firepower capable of killing 32 innocents?
Feel different now that the blood is the blood of
so many of your most promising young people?

You've been shrugging for decades as illegal guns
from your state plague our city, killing and
maiming and terrorizing New Yorkers by the
thousands, at one point comprising 47% of the
guns our cops recovered.

You even yukked it up with a "Bloomberg Gun
GiveAway" raffle at a gun shop that sold at least
22 guns used in crimes in New York.

You went into a tizzy when Mayor Bloomberg
sued some of your gun shops after undercover
agents made fraudulent "straw purchases."

Your idea of gun control has been to pass a law
making it illegal for undercover agents like those
Bloomberg sent South to make such buys.

You seemed to think it was no big deal when an
aide to your junior U.S. senator got caught
carrying an automatic pistol into the Capitol, you
having voted Sen. James Webb into office as an
avowed opponent of gun control.

You had a big debate this year about whether
Virginia Tech was wrong to discipline a student
who was caught carrying a licensed pistol to
class.

Never mind that a Virginia gun license is not half
as hard to get as a driving license.

Never mind that there are so many guns lying
around that an escaped jailbird managed to get
hold of one and kill a cop and a security guard at
the edge of the Virginia Tech campus at the start
of the school year.

Yesterday, the shooting was in the heart of the
campus, which suddenly felt like the the bleeding
heart of the whole nation.

(h/t James Wolcott)

So it goes.

2007-04-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

"Self-portrait" by Kurt Vonnegut

If the names Killgore Trout, Billy Pilgrim and Bokononism
mean anything to you, then you probably already know
that America has just lost one of its greatest authors.

Like most fans, I was introduced to Kurt Vonnegut’s work
in high school. Indeed, Cat’s Cradle was the first reading
assignment I ever truly enjoyed (and finished!) The style,
the humor, the ideas contained within that book hit me like
a bolt of lightning on a clear day. Back then, it was the
playful language (delivered in the bite-size, staccato
rhythms of a great stand-up comic) and the absurdly silly
plots (which often involved aliens, time-travellers and used
car salesmen) that made me an instant fan.

As an adult, I can appreciate the deeper aspects of
Vonnegut’s books. I came to realize, for instance, that
Slaughterhouse-Five isn’t really about a man who travels in
time and is held captive by the Tralfamadorians on a
distant planet. It is, in fact, about a man desperately trying
to maintain his sanity and faith in humanity after
witnessing the terrible costs of modern warfare. Vonnegut,
who witnessed these horrors firsthand as a POW in
Dresden during World War II, didn’t need a lot of words to
get the message across.

A guard would go to the head of the stairs every
so often to see what it was like outside, then he
would come down and whisper to the other
guards. There was a fire-storm out there.
Dresden was one big flame. The flame ate
everything organic, everything that would burn.

It wasn’t safe to come out of the shelter until
noon the next day. When the Americans and
their guards did come out, the sky was black
with smoke. The sun was an angry little pinhead.
Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but
minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in
the neighborhood was dead.

So it goes.

Kurt Vonnegut was notoriously difficult to pigeonhole. Equal
parts Mark Twain, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury, his work
defied conventional genres and labels.

But Tom Shippey, an Oxford scholar and author of J.R.R. Tolkien:
Author of the Century, coined a term that describes not only
The Lord of the Rings creator but also Vonnegut and many of
his peers. He calls them traumatic authors -- writers who are
forced to use elements of fantasy to express the profound (and
unspeakably horrible) truths they’ve experienced in life.

Shippey writes:

The authors are trying to explain something at
once deeply felt and rationally inexplicable,
something furthermore felt to be entirely novel
and not adequately answered by the moralities
of earlier ages...

...this ‘something’ is connected with the
distinctively twentieth-century experience of
industrial war and impersonal, industrialized
massacre; and it is probably no coincidence that
most of the authors concerned (Tolkien, Orwell,
Vonnegut, but also Golding and Tolkien’s close
colleague C.S. Lewis) were combat veterans of
one war or another. The life experiences of many
men and women in the twentieth century have
left them with an unshakable conviction of
something wrong, something irreductibly evil in
the nature of humanity, but without any very
satisfactory explanation for it. Nor can they find
such an explanation in the literature of previous
eras: Billy Pilgrim’s friend Rosewater in
Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five agrees that,
‘everything there was to know about life was in
The Brothers Karamazov, by Feodor
Dostoyevsky. ‘But that isn’t enough anymore’.
Twentieth-century fantasy can be seen as above
all a response to this gap, this inadequacy.

So it goes.

I had the good fortune of seeing Kurt Vonnegut at a book-
signing event for Timequake in 1997. I was sad, though a
bit skeptical, when he announced it would be his last
novel. Though he stayed true to his word, Mr. Vonnegut
continued to live, speak and write for another decade. The
essays he wrote and appearances he made in those last
years were always bittersweet affairs. His weariness with
the world and pessimistic view of human nature could no
longer be obscured or diluted with ironic punchlines.

His final book, A Man Without a Country is a collection of
those late essays. It is vintage Vonnegut, stripped of all
sugar-coating.

Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can
be, to protect yourself. Finally, you get just too
tired, and the news is too awful, and humor
doesn’t work anymore. Somebody like Mark
Twain thought life was quite awful but held the
awfulness at bay with jokes and so forth, but
finally he couldn’t do it anymore. His wife, his
best friend, and two of his daughters had died. If
you live long enough, a lot of people close to you
are going to die.

It may be that I am no longer able to joke -- that
it is no longer a satisfactory defense mechanism.
Some people are funny, and some not. I used to be
funny, and perhaps I’m not anymore. There may
have been so many shocks and disappointments
that the defense of humor no longer works. It
may be that I have become rather grumpy
because I’ve seen so many things that have
offended me that I cannot deal with in terms of
laughter.

This may have happened already. I really don’t
know what I’m going to become from now on.
I’m simply along for the ride to see what happens
to this body and brain of mine. I’m startled that I
became a writer. I don’t think I can control my
life or my writing. Every other writer I know
feels he is steering himself, and I don’t have that
feeling. I don’t have that sort of control. I’m
simply becoming.

All I really wanted to do was give people the
relief of laughing. Humor can be a relief, like an
aspirin tablet. If a hundred years from now
people are still laughing, I’d certainly be pleased.

Refreshing Honesty

2007-04-01T22:36:00.000-04:00

In today’s New York Times, a former Bush campaign
strategist quits drinking Kool-Aid for Lent.

He said his decision to step forward had not
come easily. But, he said, his disappointment in
Mr. Bush’s presidency is so great that he feels a
sense of duty to go public given his role in
helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power.

Mr. Dowd, a crucial part of a team that cast
Senator John Kerry as a flip-flopper who could
not be trusted with national security during
wartime, said he had even written but never
submitted an op-ed article titled “Kerry Was
Right,” arguing that Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts
Democrat and 2004 presidential candidate, was
correct in calling last year for a withdrawal from
Iraq.

Impressive. Maybe someday Matthew Dowd will let me
publish his essay along with my never-before-seen article
from 2003, “How the Red Sox will win the World Series.”

In the last several years, as he has gradually
broken his ties with the Bush camp, one of
Mr. Dowd’s premature twin daughters died, he
was divorced, and he watched his oldest son
prepare for deployment to Iraq as an Army
intelligence specialist fluent in Arabic. Mr. Dowd
said he had become so disillusioned with the war
that he had considered joining street
demonstrations against it, but that his continued
personal affection for the president had kept him
from joining protests whose anti-Bush fervor is
so central.

But it’s the thought that counts, right? Just like all those
right-wing warmongers who considered enlisting to fight in
Iraq, but didn’t out of continued personal affection for
attacking other people’s patriotism and protecting their own
ass.

He said that he still believed campaigns must do
what it takes to win, but that he was never
comfortable with the most hard-charging tactics.
He is now calling for “gentleness” in politics. He
said that while he tried to keep his own conduct
respectful during political combat, he wanted to
“do my part in fixing fissures that I may have
been part of.”

[...]

Mr. Dowd does not seem prepared to put his
views to work in 2008. The only candidate who
appeals to him, he said, is Senator Barack
Obama, Democrat of Illinois, because of what
Mr. Dowd called his message of unity. But, he
said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t walking
around in Africa or South America doing
something that was like mission work.”

He added, “I do feel a calling of trying to re-
establish a level of gentleness in the world.”

Have you noticed that as President Pissypants’ approval
ratings continue to fall into the abyss, more and more cynical
shitheads like this guy suddenly decide that it’s time for
everyone in Washington to break out the peace-pipe and
sing kumbayah?

Now that Iraq is officially a clusterfuck, the Constitution is in
tatters, and the Republican party is on the ropes, those of
us who have been right about this stuff for the past six
years (and attacked for it) are supposed to play nice with
these idiots?

If I may borrow a phrase once used by our current vice-
president while speaking to a colleague in the U.S. Senate...

Go fuck yourself.

Entertainment Tonight

2007-03-23T02:13:00.000-04:00

Here’s a clip you won’t find in the final cut of I Heart
Huckabees, the "existential comedy" directed by the former
Buddhist monk who once tried to beat up George Clooney.

And speaking of obsessive autuers who can’t play nicely
with others...

Mr. Roth, a former Disney studio chief who
proclaimed his ’60’s-influenced, artist-friendly
ethos in 2000 by naming his new company
Revolution Studios, is himself a director, of films
like “Christmas With the Kranks,” “Revenge of
the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise” and
“Freedomland.”

He said that Ms. Taymor was overreacting to a
normal Hollywood process of testing different
versions of a movie, something he has done
many times before, including with Michael
Mann’s “Last of the Mohicans.” He called his
version of “Across the Universe” “an
experiment.”

“She’s a brilliant director,” he said. “She’s made
a brilliant movie. This process is not anything
out of the ordinary. Her reaction through her
representatives might be. But her orientation is
stage. It’s different if you’re making a $12-
million film, or a $45-million film. No one is
uncomfortable in this process, other than Julie.”

Although she never directed a Revenge of the Nerds movie,
the NY Times article does mention that Julie Taymor was
given a MacArthur “genius” grant in 1991. It also compares her
current situation with the creative battles that consumed the
career of Orson Welles.

But the LA Weekly’s Nikki Finke has a very different take
on the subject.

I'm told everyone began the movie with
Taymor expecting trouble. And there
was. By some accounts, the film was even
flawed from the very start. "She went into
production on the movie without a good
script. Instead, she went into production on
just a great idea." As one insider described
the process: "You try to help her, but it's
only ever a one-way street. She has a
narcissistic disorder."

But her behavior reportedly grew worse
after she delivered a cut of the film last
October at 2 hours, 32 minutes,and started
receiving criticism about the film. Without
giving details, Roth himself made reference
to Taymor's "hysteria" to the NYT. "I gave
her a note to cut two supporting characters,
one white and one black," a source told me.
"And she starts screaming, 'I'm not cutting
all the black people.'"

Unlike the NYT portrayal, I've been assured
that problems with Taymor's version went
way beyond length to the point where the
pic simply doesn't work. "It is visually a
really interesting and arresting
movie," says one insider, "but as usual with
her it veers off into the absurd." Says
another source: "Her cut is indulgent and
pretentious." Explains an insider: "The
visuals get in the way of the narrative,
which makes no sense. And the pacing is all
wrong. They have a scene with Bono that's
psychedelic, and goes on and on, and has to
be cut down." Still another source
chides: "By the time the dancing puppet
heads come out, you're just like no, no,
NO."

Dancing puppet heads?!

Never-ending scenes with Bono?!

Where do I get tickets?

But if you need further proof of just how hard it is to spend
$45 million in Hollywood, check out the trailer.

Jai Guru Deva Om

Gonzo Justice

2007-03-14T19:28:00.000-04:00

Call me crazy, but I think Alberto “Abu” Gonzales is about
to lose his parking space at the Department of Justice.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rejected
growing calls for his resignation Tuesday as
scores of newly released documents detailed a
two-year campaign by the Justice Department
and White House to purge federal prosecutors.

Gonzales acknowledged his department
mishandled the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys
and misled Congress about how they were fired.
He said he was ultimately to blame for those
"mistakes" but stood by the firings.

"I acknowledge that mistakes were made here,"
Gonzales told reporters at a news briefing after
he canceled an out-of-town trip. "I accept that
responsibility." He promised changes "so that
the mistakes that occurred in this instance do not
occur again in the future."

Fortunately for Gonzales, the only song they play in the
White House is Stand By Your Man.

Asked about the issue for the first time, Bush
said, "I do have confidence in Attorney General
Al Gonzales" but that his long-time aide needed
to go to Capitol Hill and straighten out the
controversy.

"I've talked to him this morning. And we talked
about his need to go up to Capitol Hill and make
it very clear to members in both political parties
why the Justice Department made the decisions
it made; make it very clear about the facts,"
Bush said.

Bush said he had a right to remove U.S.
attorneys, and had heard complaints about some
of them that he had passed along to Gonzales.
But he said he did not tell Gonzales who should
be fired, although he believed the reasons for
the sackings were justified.

"I believe the reasons why were entirely
appropriate. And yet this issue was mishandled
to the point, now, where you're asking me
questions about it in Mexico," Bush said.

And he was so looking forward to hitting the bike paths and
playing some golf. But no, you guys in the press just ruined
the whole trip by asking some stupid questions about federal
prosecutors and congressional testimony.

Being president sucks!

Meanwhile, it’s not just Democrats who want to see Gonzales
do the Rumsfeld Shuffle.

"I think the president should replace him," [Sen.
John] Sununu said in an interview with The
Associated Press. "I think the attorney general
should be fired."

[...]

On Tuesday, he said firings of the prosecutors,
together with a report last Friday by the Justice
Department's inspector general criticizing the
administration's use of secret national security
letters to obtain personal records in terrorism
probes, shattered his confidence in Gonzales.

"We need to have a strong, credible attorney
general that has the confidence of Congress and
the American people," said Sununu, who faces a
tough re-election campaign next year. "Alberto
Gonzales can't fill that role."

For a succinct summary of the “falsehoods” peddled to Congress
and how Karl Rove and Harriet (could have been a contender)
Miers fit into this growing scandal, check out this morning’s
press conference with Sen. Chuck Schumer at TPM Muckraker.

A Big Suprise

2007-03-09T18:09:00.000-05:00

If I may borrow a pearl of wisdom from that great political
sage, Condoleeza Rice: No one could have possibly predicted
this would happen.

WASHINGTON, March 9 — The F.B.I. has
improperly used provisions of the USA
Patriot Act to obtain thousands of
telephone, business and financial records
without prior judicial approval, the
Justice Department’s inspector general
said today in a report that embarrassed
the F.B.I. and ignited outrage on Capitol
Hill.

The report found that the bureau lacked
sufficient controls to make sure that its
agents were acting properly when they
obtained records using administrative
subpoenas, which do not require a judge’s
prior approval. And the report found that
the bureau does not follow some of the
rules it does have on the matter.

Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, called
a news conference today to accept
responsibility for the lapses, and to
pledge his best efforts to see that they
are not repeated.

“How could this happen?” Mr. Mueller
asked rhetorically. “Who is to be held
accountable? And the answer to that is,
I am to be held accountable.”

Which means he'll probably be given the Medal of Freedom
from President Bush before the year is over.

Guilty

2007-03-06T17:12:00.001-05:00

Scooter convicted of obstruction, lying to the FBI and two
counts of perjury.

"The results are actually sad," Fitzgerald said.
"It's sad that we had a situation where a high-
level official person who worked in the office of
the vice president obstructed justice and lied
under oath. We wish that it had not happened,
but it did."

Merry Fitzmas

Why I love YouTube

2007-03-02T04:19:00.001-05:00

Sure beats wasting my time watching the four most tedious
hours on television. Congratulations Mr. Scorsese.

I won't even attempt to comment on the comedy stylings of
George Lucas & Co. But what's up with Jack Nicholson? Did
he finally get the green light to make that long-awaited
Paul Shaffer bio-pic?

Mr. Fantastic

2007-02-22T01:35:00.000-05:00

Wolffe: It’s those damn, dirty bloggers’ fault!

Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe on the Washington Press:

"…the press here does a fantastic job of adhering to
journalistic standards and covering politics in general."

Glenn Greenwald responds:

Truly, the spectacle of watching our country's leading
White House journalists sitting there next to Tony Snow
-- all of them oozing pomposity and self-satisfaction --
while Snow engineers the entire discussion and treats
them like the friendly puppets that they are (Snow:
"What do you think, Richard?" Richard: "Yeah, uh, well .
. . I totally agree."), is quite difficult to endure, but is
nonetheless truly revealing. How can someone who
authored the above-excerpted articles, in which they
disseminated to the world patent falsehoods that helped
to unleash a grotesquely unnecessary and grotesquely
brutal war, all on false pretenses, now parade around in
public touting what a great job they have done and
attack bloggers for criticizing them?

With rare exception, could our national press corps be
any more self-regarding, empty, corrupt and worthless?
Given that our national media is composed of
"journalists" like Richard Wolffe (and Michael Gordon) –
- who look at their behavior and conclude that they are
doing a "fantastic job" and that the real problem lies
with the ignorant, dirty barbarians who dare to criticize
them -- is it really any wonder that our political
discourse and our political institutions are as
fundamentally degraded and as broken as they are?

Amen.

"Relative Peace"

2007-02-18T19:31:00.000-05:00

NYT: Car Bombs Kill 60 at Market in Baghdad

... Abdul Hussein Ameer, 41, ran when he heard
the first blast shortly after 3 p.m. local time; he
is so familiar with the pattern of the bombers
that he knew another explosion was likely. But
before he could get out of his shop, where he
sells plastic containers and dishes, the second
bomb exploded.

“I hold the American forces responsible for
this,” he said, black soot on his face and clothes.
He said American troops were on the scene only
minutes before the blast and yet were unable to
stop it.

Fifteen minutes before the attack, a joint patrol
of American soldiers and Iraqi police had
stopped on the corner where the second bomb
exploded, posing for pictures, according to a
Reuters photographer who was embedded with
the American unit.

President Bush has acknowledged that such
attacks would be nearly impossible to eliminate.
He said during a news conference last week that
the immediate goal of the security plan was to
establish “relative peace.”

Mythbusters

2007-02-11T18:27:00.000-05:00

Retired Lt. General William E. Odom was head of Army
intelligence and director of the National Security Agency
under President Reagan. In yesterday’s Washington Post, he
exposed the big myths that drive our current Iraq policy.

1) We must continue the war to prevent the
terrible aftermath that will occur if our forces
are withdrawn soon. Reflect on the double-think
of this formulation. We are now fighting to
prevent what our invasion made inevitable!
Undoubtedly we will leave a mess -- the mess
we created, which has become worse each year
we have remained. Lawmakers gravely proclaim
their opposition to the war, but in the next
breath express fear that quitting it will leave a
blood bath, a civil war, a terrorist haven, a
"failed state," or some other horror. But this
"aftermath" is already upon us; a prolonged U.S.
occupation cannot prevent what already exists.

2) We must continue the war to prevent Iran's
influence from growing in Iraq. This is another
absurd notion. One of the president's initial war
aims, the creation of a democracy in Iraq,
ensured increased Iranian influence, both in Iraq
and the region. Electoral democracy, predictably,
would put Shiite groups in power -- groups
supported by Iran since Saddam Hussein
repressed them in 1991. Why are so many
members of Congress swallowing the claim that
prolonging the war is now supposed to prevent
precisely what starting the war inexorably and
predictably caused? Fear that Congress will
confront this contradiction helps explain the
administration and neocon drumbeat we now
hear for expanding the war to Iran.

Here we see shades of the Nixon-Kissinger
strategy in Vietnam: widen the war into
Cambodia and Laos. Only this time, the adverse
consequences would be far greater. Iran's
ability to hurt U.S. forces in Iraq are not trivial.
And the anti-American backlash in the region
would be larger, and have more lasting
consequences.

3) We must prevent the emergence of a new
haven for al-Qaeda in Iraq. But it was the U.S.
invasion that opened Iraq's doors to al-Qaeda.
The longer U.S. forces have remained there, the
stronger al-Qaeda has become. Yet its strength
within the Kurdish and Shiite areas is trivial.
After a U.S. withdrawal, it will probably play a
continuing role in helping the Sunni groups
against the Shiites and the Kurds. Whether such
foreign elements could remain or thrive in Iraq
after the resolution of civil war is open to
question. Meanwhile, continuing the war will not
push al-Qaeda outside Iraq. On the contrary, the
American presence is the glue that holds al-
Qaeda there now.

4) We must continue to fight in order to
"support the troops." This argument effectively
paralyzes almost all members of Congress.
Lawmakers proclaim in grave tones a litany of
problems in Iraq sufficient to justify a rapid
pullout. Then they reject that logical conclusion,
insisting we cannot do so because we must
support the troops. Has anybody asked the
troops?

During their first tours, most may well have
favored "staying the course" -- whatever that
meant to them -- but now in their second, third
and fourth tours, many are changing their minds.
We see evidence of that in the many news
stories about unhappy troops being sent back to
Iraq. Veterans groups are beginning to make
public the case for bringing them home. Soldiers
and officers in Iraq are speaking out critically to
reporters on the ground.

But the strangest aspect of this rationale for
continuing the war is the implication that the
troops are somehow responsible for deciding to
continue the president's course. That political
and moral responsibility belongs to the
president, not the troops. Did not President
Harry S. Truman make it clear that "the buck
stops" in the Oval Office? If the president keeps
dodging it, where does it stop? With Congress?

Embracing the four myths gives Congress
excuses not to exercise its power of the purse to
end the war and open the way for a strategy
that might actually bear fruit.

The entire piece is worth reading. Check it out, here.

Missing Molly

2007-02-03T02:27:00.000-05:00

I’ve been a fan of Molly Ivins ever since I started reading
her work shortly after the 2000 election. Her syndicated
column – always filled to the brim with the common-sense
wisdom lacking in so much of our contemporary
“journalism” – has been a source of comfort and inspiration
for many during this dark chapter in our political history.
Her death is a painful blow to all Americans who seek
justice and accountability from our leaders.

And unlike nearly every talking-head on cable news or
columnist in the Washington press, Molly’s analysis of
“Shrub” and his Iraq Adventure was spot-on from day one.

Some highlights, courtesy of Paul Krugman and Atrios:

Nov. 19, 2002: “The greatest risk for us in
invading Iraq is probably not war itself, so
much as: What happens after we win? ... There
is a batty degree of triumphalism loose in this
country right now.”

Jan. 16, 2003: “I assume we can defeat Hussein
without great cost to our side (God forgive me if
that is hubris). The problem is what happens after
we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20
percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you
say, ‘Horrible three-way civil war?’ ”

July 14, 2003: “I opposed the war in Iraq
because I thought it would lead to the peace
from hell, but I’d rather not see my prediction
come true and I don’t think we have much time
left to avert it. That the occupation is not going
well is apparent to everyone but Donald
Rumsfeld. ... We don’t need people with
credentials as right-wing ideologues and
corporate privatizers — we need people who
know how to fix water and power plants.”

Oct. 7, 2003: “Good thing we won the war,
because the peace sure looks like a quagmire. ...

“I’ve got an even-money bet out that says more
Americans will be killed in the peace than in the
war, and more Iraqis will be killed by Americans
in the peace than in the war. Not the first time
I’ve had a bet out that I hoped I’d lose.”

It is nice to see so many people paying their respects to
this great writer from Texas. The best tributes I’ve read
can be found here, here and here.

Farewell Molly. You will be sorely missed.

Let the record show...

2007-01-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Like most Americans, I do my best to avoid jury duty.
But I would have paid good money to sit on this case.

No one served up spicier morsels than
Cathie Martin, Vice President Dick
Cheney's former top press assistant .
Martin described the craft of media
manipulation -- under oath and in
blunter terms than politicians like to
hear in public.

Most of the techniques were candidly
described: the uses of leaks and
exclusives, when to hide in anonymity,
which news medium was seen as more
susceptible to control, and what timing
was most propitious.

Even the rating of certain journalists as
friends to favor and critics to shun -- a
faint echo of the enemies list drawn up
in Richard Nixon's White House more
than 30 years ago.

And guess who made the top of Dick Cheney’s roster of
softball journalists?

Flashed on the courtroom computer
screens were her notes from 2004
about how Cheney could respond to
allegations that the Bush administration
had played fast and loose with evidence
of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1:
"MTP-VP," she wrote, then listed the
pros and cons of a vice presidential
appearance on the Sunday show. Under
"pro," she wrote: "control message."

"I suggested we put the vice president
on 'Meet the Press,' which was a tactic
we often used," Martin testified. "It's
our best format."

Heck of a job, Timmy. Fox News must be pissed.

And we’re only just getting started. Things should really
heat up this week when Ari “No-time” Fleischer takes
the stand.

4:46 p.m.: The jury—and Martin—has
been dismissed for the day. It's time
for a highly entertaining lawyer slap
fight. It turns out Ari Fleischer will be
the next witness, once court resumes
Monday. (Damn, just missed him!) The
defense team wants to note—for the
jury's benefit—that Fleischer
demanded immunity before he would
agree to testify, because this might
cast Fleischer's testimony in a
different light.

And here Fitzgerald makes a nice little
chess move: Fine, he says, we can
acknowledge that Fleischer sought
immunity. As long as we explain why.
Turns out Fleischer saw a story in the
Washington Post suggesting that
anyone who revealed Valerie Plame's
identity might be subject to the death
penalty. And he freaked.

It’s gonna make a helluva movie when it’s all over.

Until then, you can get a great summary of all the
action, here.

Thanks Joe!

2007-01-14T23:28:00.000-05:00

Lieberman to Katrina victims: Drop dead, suckers!

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the only Democrat to
endorse President Bush’s new plan for Iraq,
has quietly backed away from his pre-
election demands that the White House turn
over potentially embarrassing documents
relating to its handling of the Hurricane
Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

. . .

Last year, when he was running for re-
election in Connecticut, Lieberman was a
vocal critic of the administration’s handling
of Katrina. He was especially dismayed by
its failure to turn over key records that
could have shed light on internal White
House deliberations about the hurricane,
including those involving President Bush.

Asserting that there were “too many
important questions that cannot be
answered,” Lieberman and other committee
Democrats complained in a statement last
year that the panel “did not receive
information or documents showing what
actually was going on in the White House.”

Among the missing material: the record of a
videoconference in the White House
Situation Room in which former Federal
Emergency Management Agency chief
Michael Brown said he warned senior
officials about the dire situation in New
Orleans, but was greeted with “deafening
silence.” Also missing: records believed to
include messages and conversations
involving the president, Vice President Dick
Cheney and their top aides during the days
in late August and early September 2005
when the Katrina disaster was unfolding and
thousands of city residents were flocking to
overcrowded shelters and hanging onto
rooftops awaiting rescue.

But now that he chairs the homeland
panel—and is in a position to subpoena the
records—Lieberman has decided not to
pursue the material, according to Leslie
Phillips, the senator’s chief committee
spokeswoman. “The senator now intends to
focus his attention on the future security of
the American people and other matters and
does not expect to revisit the White House’s
role in Katrina,” she told NEWSWEEK.

Note to Newsweek: Joe Lieberman ain’t a Democrat.
He lost the primary, remember?

Does this mean we win?

2006-12-31T17:55:00.000-05:00

Saddam’s dead. Let the healing begin.

Within hours of the execution, at least 75 people
were killed in nine bombing attacks of the kind
that Sunni insurgents commonly carry out
against Shiites. In the mainly Shiite districts of
Hurriyah and Sayidah in Baghdad, separate
sequences in which car bombs detonated in
close succession caused at least 39 deaths. Two
other car bombings hit Baghdad before nightfall,
one outside a children’s hospital in the Iskan
neighborhood, and another that killed two
people outside a mosque in the mainly Sunni
district of Adhamiya, the Interior Ministry said.

Another vehicle bomb detonated in a popular fish
market in the Shiite holy town of Kufa, 100
miles south of Baghdad, killing 34 people and
wounding 38 others, the ministry said. In the
Kufa attack, an angry mob set on the suspected
bomber and beat him to death, the police said.
Five more victims died in a suicide bombing in
the northern city of Tal Afar, another center of
violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

The United States military command announced
six more combat deaths, bringing the number of
American troops killed in December to 109, the
deadliest month for American deaths since
November 2004, according to Reuters.

The road to martyrdom ain’t a pretty sight. While I’m
certainly not sad to see this asshole gone, I can’t help
thinking that once again the US has handed its enemies a
powerful weapon while compromising our own democratic
ideals in order to sweep some inconvenient truths under
the rug. Not to mention the fact that this grim affair was
carried out with all the dignity and professionalism of an
amateur bank heist.

Josh Marshall cuts through the crap.

This whole endeavor, from the very start, has
been about taking tawdry, cheap acts and
dressing them up in a papier-mache grandeur --
phony victory celebrations, ersatz
democratization, reconstruction headed up by
toadies, con artists and grifters. And this is no
different. Hanging Saddam is easy. It's a job, for
once, that these folks can actually see through to
completion. So this execution, ironically and
pathetically, becomes a stand-in for the failures,
incompetence and general betrayal of country on
every other front that President Bush has
brought us.

Try to dress this up as an Iraqi trial and it
doesn't come close to cutting it -- the Iraqis only
take possession of him for the final act, sort of
like the Church always left execution itself to the
'secular arm'. Try pretending it's a war crimes
trial but it's just more of the pretend
mumbojumbo that makes this out to be World
War IX or whatever number it is they're up to
now.

The Iraq War has been many things, but for its
prime promoters and cheerleaders and now-
dwindling body of defenders, the war and all its
ideological and literary trappings have always
been an exercise in moral-historical dress-up for
a crew of folks whose times aren't grand enough
to live up to their own self-regard and whose
imaginations are great enough to make up the
difference. This is just more play-acting.

Send In The Clowns

2006-12-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

The Wise Men of Washington call for more troops.

[McCain] said conditions in some areas of Iraq
have improved since his last visit in March, but
"I believe there is still a compelling reason to
have an increase in troops here in Baghdad and
in Anbar province in order to bring the sectarian
violence under control" and to "allow the
political process to proceed."

Two other senators in the delegation, Joseph
Lieberman, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,
said they agreed.

"We need more, not less, U.S. troops here,"
Lieberman said.

After nearly four years and 3,000 dead American soldiers,
President Bush is ready to hear suggestions about how to
deal with Iraq.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said
Thursday that Bush will seek more information
from a variety of sources, including members of
the Iraqi government, Pentagon and the National
Security Council, which is coordinating the
administration's review of its war policy.

The result could make or break the United States'
push for democracy in Iraq, according to those
who have participated in the review.

"We've basically got about one more chance to
get this right," said Stephen Biddle, a senior
fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations who
attended a White House meeting with Bush on
Monday.

Said Snow: "The endpoint of what's going on
right now is not a speech, it's policy. It is a way
forward where the president will be instructing
those involved to do things differently than they
are doing now."

Keep in mind, this is all happening after firing “the finest
Secretary of Defense this nation has ever had.”

Meanwhile, the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group Report
spells out quite clearly that the only hope for any sort of
success in the region rests upon diplomacy, not military
strength. Joe Conason offered a helpful reminder in his
latest column.

What deserved far greater attention, however,
was the most important of the Baker-Hamilton
committee's conclusions: namely, that there is
no military solution to the American dilemma in
Iraq, and that the only way out is negotiation. In
the study group's report, most references to this
reality appear under the euphemistic category
known as "national reconciliation."

The section of recommendations for security and
military forces, for example, begins with a clear
admonition: "There is no action the American
military can take that, by itself, can bring about
success in Iraq." Which is obvious enough,
except to a few politicians and commentators
urging an impossible escalation of tens of
thousands of additional troops. Then the same
section goes on to urge the Iraqi government --
as the report repeatedly does throughout its 100
pages -- to "accelerate the urgently needed
national reconciliation program to which it has
already committed." In other words, any
changes in military policy are ancillary to
negotiations among the warring factions (and
their foreign sponsors). Actually, the report is
quite explicit in demanding that the authorities in
Baghdad and Washington sit down with their
armed opponents to talk about every relevant
issue -- including the date for the withdrawal of
American troops.

But that’s not going to happen. And most Americans, like
Atrios, understand why.

I know I'm just a dirty fucking hippie with the
stupidest blog on the internets, but I've known
for a long time that Iraq is not going to magically
get better and that George Bush isn't going to
leave because he equates leaving with losing.
One of the biggest disappointments with our
broader political class is due to the failure of
them to understand this rather obvious point.
George Bush is stubborn and incompetent,
wishes are not ponies, and hope is not a plan.

Green Peace

2006-11-29T12:35:00.000-05:00

Satanic deviants, Bill Trimarco & Lisa Jensen

A Christmas miracle! The Loma Linda Homeowners Association
decide to give peace a chance.

DENVER -- A subdivision has withdrawn its threat
of $25 daily fines against a homeowner who put a
Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the
front of her home.

Homeowner Lisa Jensen told The Associated Press
on Monday that the board of directors of the Loma
Linda Homeowners Association had apologized,
called the incident a misunderstanding and had
withdrawn its request for the wreath's removal.

Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when
some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw
it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president
of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of
Satan.

$25 a day for a satanic Christmas wreath? And I thought my
neighbors were assholes. I can just imagine the fun they must
have in Loma Linda when Halloween rolls around. I'm sure it's
standing room only for the Harry Potter book-burning fiesta.
Borat could probably film a entire sequel in this neighborhood
alone.

But it's nice to know there are still some fans of peace and free
speech in this country.

Jensen, a past association president, said she was
overwhelmed with hundreds of calls of support and
offers to help her pay the $1,000 fine that would be
due if she kept the wreath up until after Christmas.

"We would like to thank everyone who has contacted
us with moral support and offers of financial support.
We are grateful to hundreds of complete strangers
who felt so moved by this story they contacted us,"
she said.

"It seems whenever someone tries to say 'Peace on
Earth' it is met with so much resistance," she said.
"The incredible amount of support we have received
over the last couple of days really is proof to us of how
many people believe in peace and in our right to say it."

Civil War

2006-11-27T18:41:00.000-05:00

It's official.

In a bombshell, however, Matt Lauer on the Today
show this morning revealed that NBC had studied
and perhaps debated the issue anew, and then
decided that it will now use "civil war" freely. "For
months the White House rejected claims that the
situation in Iraq has deteriorated into civil war," he
said. "For the most part news organizations like
NBC hesitated to characterize it as such. After
careful consideration, NBC News has decided the
change in terminology is warranted and what is
going on in Iraq can now be characterized as civil
war."

The Big Losers

2006-11-14T22:03:00.000-05:00

I can’t figure out which is worse...

To believe in the Genius of Rove.

Finally, after the "thumpin' " Republicans took,
Rove's tactics have come under closer press
scrutiny, particularly his late campaign predictions
that proved to be embarrassingly naïve. But even
there, the coverage has been artificially restrained
with the starting point for many of the media
post-mortems being, how could a strategist as
brilliant as Karl Rove misread the looming election
returns?

The press also continues to look away from Rove's
string of colossal miscues that led to the Republican
losses. For instance, Republicans themselves are
furious that Bush waited until the day after the
elections to fire beleaguered Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld. "I think the timing was exactly
backwards," complained Newt Gingrich, who said
Bush's clumsy maneuver likely cost Republican
candidates between 10 and 15 seats in the House.
For now Bush is getting the blame. But does
anybody really think that Rove did not play a
significant role in the misguided decision to keep
Rummy on through the elections? After all, it was
Rove who insisted all year that Iraq could be a
winning issue for Republicans and that candidates
would get credit for sticking close to the president.
That turned out to be a costly blunder, and so did
Bush's refusal to can Rumsfeld.

Or to believe in nothing.

They have no passion about anything. And they
thus assume that everyone else suffers from the
same emptiness of character and ossified cynicism
that plague them. And all of their punditry and
analysis and political strategizing flows from this
corrupt root.

Not only do they believe in nothing, they think
that a belief in nothing is a mark of sophistication
and wisdom. Those who believe in things too
much -- who display intense political passion or
who take their convictions and ideals seriously
(i.e., Feingold, Howard Dean) -- either are naive
or, worse, are crazy, irrational, loudmouthed
masses and radicals who disrupt the elevated,
measured world of the high-level, dispassionate
Beltway sophisticates (i.e., Joe Klein, David
Broder). They are interested in, even obsessed
with, every aspect of the political process except
for deeply held political beliefs, which is the only
part that actually matters or has any real worth.

Goodbye Rummy

2006-11-08T20:56:00.002-05:00

When I think about the conversation President Bush and
Donald Rumsfeld must of had right after the election, I’m
reminded of what legendary Yankees manager Casey Stengel
told his outfielder, Bob Cerv, one summer day in 1956.

“Nobody knows this yet, but one of us has just been traded
to Kansas City.”

Victory!

2006-11-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

America's next Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-California)

Democrats spanked the GOP all across the country, taking
control of the House. And with a few Senate races still
too close to call (TPM has a comprehensive scoreboard, here)
there might be more good news to come.

Overall, it was a great night. I can't remember the last time
I had so much fun watching Fox News -- Brit Hume looked
like he had landed in his anchor chair after seeing a ghost
and falling down a few flights of stairs. The best spin he
could muster all night was that the Dems victory is no big
deal because it wasn't "a surprise."

Maybe he'll change his tune when congress starts passing
out subpoenas.

Weapons of Mass Disintegration

2006-11-06T20:54:00.000-05:00

As Homer often says, "It's funny cause it's true."

We're In Good Hands

2006-11-05T22:11:00.000-05:00

Neo-Comedy Legends: (l. to r.) Richard Perle, David Frum,
Ken Adelman & Dick Cheney.

How could things have ended up so shitty with such
great minds advising our fearless leader?

Richard Perle: "Huge mistakes were made, and I
want to be very clear on this: They were not made
by neoconservatives, who had almost no voice in
what happened, and certainly almost no voice in
what happened after the downfall of the regime in
Baghdad. I'm getting damn tired of being described
as an architect of the war. I was in favor of bringing
down Saddam. Nobody said, 'Go design the
campaign to do that.' I had no responsibility for
that."

David Frum: "I always believed as a speechwriter
that if you could persuade the president to commit
himself to certain words, he would feel himself
committed to the ideas that underlay those words.
And the big shock to me has been that although the
president said the words, he just did not absorb the
ideas. And that is the root of, maybe, everything."

Kenneth Adelman: "The problem here is not a
selling job. The problem is a performance job.…
Rumsfeld has said that the war could never be lost
in Iraq, it could only be lost in Washington. I don't
think that's true at all. We're losing in Iraq."

Dick Cheney: “QUACK-QUACK!”

And don't miss the sequel, when those wacky neo-cons
put several unidentified Iraqi government documents
online for everyone to see -- including detailed
instructions for building a nuclear bomb!

Hail, Hail Freedonia!

Measuring Chaos

2006-11-01T16:20:00.000-05:00

New York Times

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — A classified briefing
prepared two weeks ago by the United States
Central Command portrays Iraq as edging
toward chaos, in a chart that the military is
using as a barometer of civil conflict.

A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18
briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the
military command that oversees the war is
trying to track its trajectory, particularly in
terms of sectarian fighting.

The slide includes a color-coded bar chart
that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil
Conflict.” It shows a sharp escalation in
sectarian violence since the bombing of a
Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, and
tracks a further worsening this month
despite a concerted American push to tamp
down the violence in Baghdad.

[...]

One significant factor in the military’s
decision to move the scale toward “chaos”
was the expanding activity by militias.

Another reason was the limitations of Iraqi
government security forces, which despite
years of training and equipping by the
United States, are either ineffective or, in
some cases, infiltrated by the very militias
they are supposed to be combating. The
slide notes that “ineffectual” Iraqi police
forces have been a significant problem,
and cites as a concern sectarian conflicts
between Iraqi security forces.

Other significant factors are in the political
realm. The slide notes that Iraq’s political
and religious leaders have lost some of their
moderating influence over their constituents
or adherents.

Notably, the slide also cites difficulties that
the new Iraqi administration has experienced
in “governance.” That appears to be shorthand
for the frustration felt by American military
officers about the Iraqi government’s delays in
bringing about a genuine political reconciliation
between Shiites and Sunnis. It also appears to
apply to the lack of reconstruction programs to
restore essential services and the dearth of job
creation efforts to give young Iraqis an
alternative to joining militias, as well as the
absence of firm action against militias.

Meanwhile, over 100 American troops were killed in Iraq
last month -- trapped in the middle of this nightmare as
the country rips itself apart from all ends.

No WMD. No democracy. No security.

Just chaos.

Had Enough?

Gentlemen, start your shredders.

2006-10-31T10:30:00.000-05:00

Dick Cheney starts planning for November 8th.

16 Days Away

2006-10-22T19:46:00.000-04:00

Ken Catalino

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush gently
admonished his father for saying he hates to think
what life would be like for his son if the Democrats
win control of Congress in the November 7 election.

It was the latest sign of possible strain in the
relationship between the two men.

"He shouldn't be speculating like this, because -- he
should have called me ahead of time and I'd tell him
they're not going to (win)," a smiling Bush told ABC
"This Week" in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2006-10-12T10:49:00.000-04:00

Monty Python's Terry Jones congratulates the Torturer-In-Chief.

Dear President Bush,

I write to you in my capacity as secretary of the
World League of Despots.

It is with great pleasure that I am finally able to
extend an official invitation to you to join our
ranks. For many years, we have watched your
efforts to fulfil the requirements necessary to
join our number. From the start, we were greatly
impressed by your disdain for democratic
principles - the way you wrested power from the
democratically elected candidate in the 2000
election, and again in 2005 when you managed
to swing what was clearly going to be a victory
for your opponent.

Contempt for human life has always been a
priority requirement for membership of the
league, and I and my fellow adjudicators were
well aware of your record as governor of Texas
when you quadrupled the number of state
executions. But your record since seizing power
has surpassed even our expectations. The
thousands of innocent people in Iraq, who have
died so that you could fulfil your declared
political objective of establishing "an American
force presence in the Middle East", attest to your
eligibility to join our ranks. I cannot, however,
disguise the fact that we adjudicators were
extremely anxious when you announced your
intention to remove from office one of our most
stalwart members, Mr Saddam Hussein. However,
we need not have worried. According to a recent
UN report, you have ensured that there are now
even more human rights abuses in Iraq than there
were under Saddam. No less than 10% of those
in custody are being physically or psychologically
abused. Well done!

Axis of Failure

2006-10-10T16:11:00.000-04:00

The foreign policy fiascos just keep multiplying for
President 34%.

Washington Post:

Nearly five years after President Bush
introduced the concept of an "axis of
evil" comprising Iraq, Iran and North
Korea, the administration has reached
a crisis point with each nation: North
Korea has claimed it conducted its first
nuclear test, Iran refuses to halt its
uranium-enrichment program, and Iraq
appears to be tipping into a civil war
3 1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Each problem appears to feed on the
others, making the stakes higher and
requiring Bush and his advisers to make
difficult calculations, analysts and U.S.
officials said. The deteriorating situation
in Iraq has undermined U.S. diplomatic
credibility and limited the administration's
military options, making rogue countries
increasingly confident that they can act
without serious consequences. Iran,
meanwhile, will be watching closely the
diplomatic fallout from North Korea's
apparent test as a clue to how far it might
go with its own nuclear program.

[...]

Political strategists debated the domestic
implications of the North Korean test with
midterm elections four weeks away. Some
Republicans predicted it would take the
focus off the Mark Foley congressional
page scandal and remind voters that it is
a dangerous world best confronted by
tough-minded leaders. Some Democrats
argued it would be seen as another failure
of Bush's foreign policy and moved quickly
to try to pin blame on the Republicans. "Is
this going to help Republicans?" asked Jim
Manley, spokesman for Senate Minority
Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). "The answer
to that is absolutely not. This is another
significant foreign policy failure for the
administration."

New World Order

2006-10-09T13:43:00.000-04:00

"Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows,
is honored by posterity because he was the last
to discover America."

Shhh... Don't mention the WAR!

2006-09-28T14:41:00.000-04:00

No, not that war.

According to Eric Boehlert at Media Matters, the big three
network newscasts will end the month having spent a grand
total of 40 minutes covering the Iraq War.

It's inevitable -- and understandable -- that
over the 43-month span of the conflict in Iraq,
media interest would ebb and flow, as well as
be dictated by events on the ground. And in
2005, as well as into early 2006, there was a
legitimate argument to be made that Iraq
fatigue had set in among reporters, editors,
and producers, as well as news consumers,
with both sides growing tired, or at least
somewhat immune, to the almost daily
dispatches of the latest IED explosion and
the steady drip, drip, drip of U.S. casualties.

But the civil war currently raging inside
Iraq -- it has claimed nearly 7,000 civilian
casualties in the last two months -- is a
different story altogether; one that begs for
sustained, detailed coverage. After all, the
country that the United States invaded, the
country it has spent tens of billions of dollars
trying to rebuild, where nearly 3,000
Americans have been killed, and the country
Bush promised was going to stand as a
beacon of stability in the region is teetering
on collapse, with sectarian violence tearing
sections of Baghdad apart.

Yet, instead of racing towards that important
story, the press appears to be turning away
from it just as nervous Republicans nationwide
are also turning away from it. To quote
Matthews, "It [the war] has been taken off
television, and Bush must love it."

And crap like this doesn't help either.

Pathetic

2006-09-22T12:47:00.000-04:00

While the Democrats were out to lunch, President Bush and
Republican senators have come to an agreement on how to
make torture legal.

Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?

NY Times:

The deal does next to nothing to stop the president
from reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions. While
the White House agreed to a list of “grave breaches”
of the conventions that could be prosecuted as war
crimes, it stipulated that the president could decide
on his own what actions might be a lesser breach of
the Geneva Conventions and what interrogation
techniques he considered permissible. It’s not clear
how much the public will ultimately learn about those
decisions. They will be contained in an executive order
that is supposed to be made public, but Mr. Hadley
reiterated that specific interrogation techniques will
remain secret.

Even before the compromises began to emerge, the
overall bill prepared by the three senators had fatal
flaws. It allows the president to declare any foreigner,
anywhere, an “illegal enemy combatant” using a
dangerously broad definition, and detain him without
any trial. It not only fails to deal with the fact that many
of the Guantánamo detainees are not terrorists and
will never be charged, but it also chokes off any
judicial review.

Charles Pierce:

And the Democratic Party was nowhere in this debate.
It contributed nothing. On the question of whether or
not the United States will reconfigure itself as a nation
which tortures its purported enemies and then grants
itself absolution through adjectives -- "Aggressive
interrogation techniques" -- the Democratic Party had…
no opinion. On the issue of allowing a demonstrably
incompetent president as many of the de facto powers
of a despot that you could wedge into a bill without
having the Constitution spontaneously combust in the
Archives, well, the Democratic Party was more pissed
off at Hugo Chavez.

This was as tactically idiotic as it was morally blind. On
the subject of what kind of a nation we are, and to what
extent we will live up to the best of our ideals, the
Democratic Party was as mute and neutral as a stone.
Human rights no longer have a viable political
constituency in the United States of America. Be enough
of a coward, though, and cable news will fit you for a
toga.

Note to Democrats: If you don't have the guts to stand up to these
bullies and scoundrels and fight for the cause of basic human
decency, don't bother showing up on election day -- because I
sure won't.

Trick or Treat?

2006-09-19T15:59:00.000-04:00

Earlier this month, President Bush shared his thoughts on the
upcoming midterm elections.

President Bush says he believes Republicans will
retain control of the Congress after the November
elections, even as members of his own party predict
a loss of some seats.

Dismissing the possibility the top House Democrat,
Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, could rise to House
speaker if the GOP lost its majority, the president
said, "That's not going to happen."

Democrats need to gain six seats in the Senate and
15 in the House to gain control.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal's
editorial page editor, Bush was commenting on how
he planned to resurrect his push to change Social
Security next year when he was reminded that some
polls show Democrats were likely to win control of
at least the House.

"I just don't believe it," the president told Paul Gigot,
according to an account published Saturday.

"I believe the Republicans will end up being _
running the House and the Senate," the president
was quoted as saying in the interview Thursday
aboard Air Force One.

Certainly no one could ever accuse this president of lacking
confidence. But given the many "errors" and "irregularities"
that have plagued our recent elections, (*cough*... DIEBOLD)
one can't help but wonder what sort of tricks Karl & the Gang
have planned this time around.

Tristero gets the ball rolling with a list of potential
October Surprises.

Buh-Bye Bob

2006-09-15T12:55:00.000-04:00

Looks like another member of the Abramoff crime family
will be spending some time behind bars.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Bob Ney agreed
Friday to plead guilty to two criminal charges
in the congressional corruption probe
spawned by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Papers in the case said the Ohio Republican
had accepted trips worth more than $170,000.

Justice Department officials said prosecutors
would recommend the 52-year-old congressman
serve 27 months in prison. A formal admission
of guilt would make Ney the first lawmaker to
confess to crimes in a Republican-heavy scandal
that erupted at the dawn of the election year.

For more on this story, check out TPM Muckraker's invaluable
reference page and their touching tribute to the man formerly
known as "Legislator #1" to federal prosecutors.

Foreign Relations

2006-09-14T09:57:00.000-04:00

Lots of exciting new developments in Kazakhstan.
Apparently, a sense of humor is not one of them.

Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev
is to fly to the US to meet President Bush in
the coming weeks and on the agenda will
be his country's image.

President Nazarbayev has confirmed his
government will buy "educational" TV spots
and print advertisements about the "real
Kazakhstan" in a bid to save the country's
reputation before the film is released in the
US in November.

President Nazarbayev will visit the White
House and the Bush family compound in
Maine when he flies in for talks that will
include the fictional character Borat.

But a spokesman for the Kazakhstan
Embassy says it is unlikely that President
Nazarbayev will find the film funny.

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-09-10T14:22:00.000-04:00

There is a must-read article in today’s LA Times about the
just-released Senate Intelligence report that once and for
all destroys the myth that Saddam Hussein was an ally of
Al Qaeda -- a myth the Bush Administration continues to
sell to the American public as fact.

In one of its main conclusions, the report said
that "postwar findings indicate that Saddam
Hussein was distrustful of Al Qaeda and viewed
Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime,
refusing all requests from Al Qaeda to provide
material or operational support."

According to the report, Hussein has told U.S.
interrogators that "if he wanted to cooperate
with the enemies of the U.S., he would have
allied with North Korea or China." His former
deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, told U.S.
interrogators that "Saddam only expressed
negative sentiments about Bin Laden."

The report's disclosures include a classified
assessment by the CIA last year that Hussein's
regime "did not have a relationship, harbor or
turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his
associates."

The committee, made up of eight Republicans
and seven Democrats, said U.S. intelligence
agencies before Sept. 11 "accurately
characterized" Bin Laden's intermittent interest
in pursuing assistance from Iraq, but were
largely wrong about Hussein's attitudes.

The Iraqi leader, according to the report, was so
wary of the terrorist network that he "issued a
general order that Iraq should not deal with Al
Qaeda."

* * *

The CIA and other intelligence agencies were
generally skeptical that Hussein had significant
links to the terrorist group. But Vice President
Dick Cheney and other senior administration
officials have persistently highlighted isolated
intelligence reports suggesting a relationship
between Hussein and Bin Laden. The Senate
report contradicts many of those assertions.

The report concludes, for instance, that it is true
that Zarqawi was in Baghdad for about seven
months in 2002. But Hussein was initially
unaware of his presence in the country and later
ordered his intelligence services to capture
Zarqawi, according to the report.

The attempt was unsuccessful, and Zarqawi
escaped to Iran. He also hid in areas of northern
Iraq beyond Hussein's reach. After Hussein was
overthrown, Zarqawi led the deadly insurgency
against U.S. forces before he was killed by a
U.S. airstrike in June.

Even as administration officials insisted on a
Hussein-Al Qaeda link, they steered clear of
alleging a direct role by the Iraqi strongman in
the Sept. 11 attacks.

And at a news conference last month, Bush said
flatly that Hussein had "nothing" to do with the
assaults. Still, a CNN poll released this week
found that 43% of U.S. residents said they
believed Hussein was personally involved in the
attacks; 52% said he was not.

Supporting the Troops

2006-09-09T12:14:00.000-04:00

For U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the Superbowl is a BYOT event.
(Bring your own tacos.)

So far, the U.S. Government have spent over 300 billion
taxpayer dollars to finance the war in Iraq.

Where does it all go?

Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root
charged millions to the government for
recreational services never provided to U.S.
troops in Iraq, including giant tubs of chicken
wings and tacos, a widescreen TV, and cheese
sticks meant for a military Super Bowl party,
according to a federal whistle-blower suit
unsealed Friday.

Instead, the suit alleges, KBR used the
military's supplies for its own football party.

Filed last year in U.S. District Court in
Washington, D.C., by former KBR employee
Julie McBride, the lawsuit claims the giant
defense contractor billed the government for
thousands of meals it never served, inflated
the number of soldiers using its fitness and
Internet centers, and regularly siphoned off
great quantities of supplies destined for
American soldiers.

McBride was hired by KBR in 2004 as a "morale,
welfare and recreation" coordinator at Camp
Fallujah, a Marine installation about 35 miles
west of Baghdad. She was fired the next year
after making several complaints about KBR's
accounting practices, the suit says, and was
kept under guard until she was escorted to an
airplane and flown out of the country.

* * *

McBride is not the first Halliburton employee
to allege fraudulent billing practices. The
company has steadfastly denied wrongdoing.

Rory Mayberry, who worked for KBR in 2004,
testified from Iraq via videotape to a group of
Democratic members of Congress
investigating contractor fraud.

As food manager at another military camp in
Iraq, Mayberry said he witnessed KBR
employees serving spoiled food to American
troops, including food from trucks that had
been bombed and shot at. Workers were told
to pick out the shrapnel, and then serve the
food, Mayberry testified.

He also claimed KBR charged the government
for meals it never served.

In July 2004, former KBR planner Marie
DeYoung testified before the House Committee
on Government Reform. She said she witnessed
"significant waste and overpricing" while
working for the contractor in Kuwait, including
paying a subcontractor $100 per 15 pounds of
laundry, costs which were passed on to the
government.

Halliburton, which holds more than 50 percent
of rebuilding contracts in Iraq, was headed by
Dick Cheney before he took office as vice
president. He has denied any government
favoritism toward his former company.

Sprezzatura

2006-09-04T18:41:00.000-04:00

The art of sock puppetry by Baldassare Castiglione:

It is an art which does not seem to be an art. One
must avoid affectation and practice in all things a
certain sprezzatura, disdain or carelessness, so as
to conceal art, and make whatever is done or said
appear to be without effort and almost without any
thought about it ... obvious effort is the antithesis
of grace.

- The Book of the Courtier

* * *

An Apology to Our Readers

After an investigation, The New Republic has
determined that the comments in our Talkback section
defending Lee Siegel's articles and blog under the
username "sprezzatura" were produced with Siegel's
participation. We deeply regret misleading our readers.
Lee Siegel's blog will no longer be published by TNR,
and he has been suspended from writing for the
magazine.

Franklin Foer
Editor, The New Republic

* * *

posted by sprezzatura on 2006-08-27 17:33:02 [respond]

I'm a huge fan of Siegel, been reading him since he
started writing for TNR almost ten years ago. (Full
disclosure: I'm an editor at a magazine in NYC and he's
written for me too.) I watch the goings-on and have to
scratch my head. The people who hate him the most are
all in their twenties and early thirties. There's this awful
suck-up named Ezra Klein--his "writing" is sweaty with
panting obsequious ambition--who keeps distorting
everything Siegel writes--the only way this no-talent can
get him. And I ask myself: why is it the young guys who
go after Siegel? Must be because he writes the way
young guys should be writing: angry, independent, not
afraid of offending powerful people. They on the other
hand write like aging careerists: timid, ingratiating,
careful not to offend people who are powerful. They
hate him because they want to write like him but can't.
Maybe if they'd let themselves go and write truthfully,
they'd get Leon Wieseltier to notice them too.

* * *

Robert Farley at LGM:

It seemed to me, reading Siegel's rants about the
blogosphere and popular culture, that he was raging
more than anything else at the loss of his own
status as an authoritative voice. In denouncing Kos,
or Kincaid, or people who wear baseball caps, what
seemed to come through more than anything else
was a frustrated "Listen to me!!!! Why aren't you
listening to me!?!?" Indeed we did; Siegel was able
to capture a bit of notoriety through making the
most ridiculous and absurd arguments conceivable,
but even that notoriety was dependent on his
position at TNR, which now seems to be at an end.

* * *

Sucks to be Seigel.

Fortunately, his sock puppet has bravely chosen to carry on
with a solo career.

On Appeasement

2006-09-04T04:44:00.000-04:00

Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein (Dec. 1983)

LA Times, 8/30/06:

By likening today's U.S. foreign policy to that
during World War II and the Cold War,
Rumsfeld sought to portray skeptics of the Bush
administration as being on the wrong side of
history. He ridiculed American officials who had
hoped to negotiate with Adolf Hitler.

"Once again, we face similar challenges in
efforts to confront the rising threat of a new
type of fascism," Rumsfeld said. "But some
seem not to have learned history's lessons."

He continued, "Can we truly afford to believe that,
somehow or someway, vicious extremists could
be appeased?"

Another history lesson from Frank Rich:

Mr. Rumsfeld didn’t go to Baghdad in 1983 to
tour the museum. Then a private citizen, he had
been dispatched as an emissary by the Reagan
administration, which sought to align itself with
Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam was already
a notorious thug. Well before Mr. Rumsfeld’s
trip, Amnesty International had reported the
dictator’s use of torture — “beating, burning,
sexual abuse and the infliction of electric
shocks” — on hundreds of political prisoners.
Dozens more had been summarily executed or
had “disappeared.” American intelligence
agencies knew that Saddam had used chemical
weapons to gas both Iraqi Kurds and Iranians.

According to declassified State Department
memos detailing Mr. Rumsfeld’s Baghdad
meetings, the American visitor never raised the
subject of these crimes with his host. (Mr.
Rumsfeld has since claimed otherwise, but that
is not supported by the documents, which can
be viewed online at George Washington
University’s National Security Archive.) Within
a year of his visit, the American mission was
accomplished: Iraq and the United States
resumed diplomatic relations for the first time
since Iraq had severed them in 1967 in protest
of American backing of Israel in the Six-Day
War.

In his speech last week, Mr. Rumsfeld
paraphrased Winston Churchill: Appeasing
tyrants is “a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping
it would eat you last.” He can quote Churchill all
he wants, but if he wants to self-righteously use
that argument to smear others, the record
shows that Mr. Rumsfeld cozied up to the
crocodile of Baghdad as smarmily as anyone. To
borrow the defense secretary’s own
formulation, he suffers from moral confusion
about Saddam.

Finale Episode

2006-09-04T03:07:00.000-04:00

Don’t try this at home. I’m a professional TV personality.

Alas, the Crocodile Hunter has joined the Grizzly Man.

BRISBANE, Australia - Steve Irwin, the hugely
popular Australian television personality and
environmentalist known as the "Crocodile
Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray during
a diving expedition, police said. He was 44.

Irwin was filming an underwater documentary
on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern
Queensland state when the accident occurred,
Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper
reported on its Web site.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said Irwin
was diving near Low Isles Reef near the resort
town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north
of the state capital of Brisbane.

Requiem for a Former Planet

2006-08-26T19:01:00.000-04:00

If there’s anyone in the world truly happy about the
recent decision by the International Astronomical Union
to remove Pluto’s planetary status it must be Gustav Holst.

Or at least it would be, if he wasn’t busy being dead for
the past 72 years.

A popular favorite since its premiere in 1920, The Planets
is perhaps the best-known orchestral work of the 20th
Century. Along with Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and
Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, it has
become a classic work for children and a great
introduction to “serious” music. A recording by Leonard
Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic was one of the
first albums I ever owned and even sounded pretty
decent on my plastic Fisher Price turntable. These days
I’m more partial to the version by Holst’s friend and fellow
countryman, Sir Adrian Boult.

But as a kid, I was always disappointed that Pluto was
nowhere to be found in The Planets suite. The work ends
with the icy, siren voices of Neptune fading away into
the dark, silent void of outer space.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt like something
was missing.

Although Pluto was discovered during Holst's
lifetime, in 1930, Holst expressed no interest in
writing a movement for it. In 2000, The Hallé
Orchestra commissioned composer Colin
Matthews, a Holst specialist, to write a new
eighth movement, which Matthews entitled
Pluto, the Renewer. Dedicated to Imogen Holst,
Gustav Holst's daughter, it was first performed
in Manchester on May 11, 2000, with Kent
Nagano conducting the Hallé Orchestra.
Matthews changed the ending of Neptune into a
transition to "Pluto". In August 2006 Pluto's
status was changed from a planet to a dwarf
planet by The International Astronomical Union
(IAU), a worldwide society of astronomers from
75 countries.

That’s what you get for tinkering with the classics.

Blitzed!

2006-08-24T17:35:00.000-04:00

Further proof that you have to wake up pretty early in the afternoon
to pull a fast one over ol' Wolfie.

"CNN... the most trusted name in news."

That Sinking Feeling

2006-08-21T01:36:00.000-04:00

In October 2004, Ron Suskind wrote the following in the
NY Times Magazine:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an
article in Esquire that the White House didn't
like about Bush's former communications
director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a
senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the
White House's displeasure, and then he told
me something that at the time I didn't fully
comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to
the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what
we call the reality-based community,'' which
he defined as people who ''believe that
solutions emerge from your judicious study of
discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured
something about enlightenment principles and
empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way
the world really works anymore,'' he
continued. ''We're an empire now, and when
we act, we create our own reality. And while
you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as
you will -- we'll act again, creating other new
realities, which you can study too, and that's
how things will sort out. We're history's actors
. . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study
what we do.''

Charming, no? And no doubt historians will indeed study
what they’ve done for many years to come -- and it
won’t be pretty. After more than two years of
unrelenting tragedy and incompetence, it is quite clear
that reality cannot simply be extinguished because a
bunch of pencil-necked, chickenhawk neo-cons in the
White House say so.

Which is why their whole Middle East adventure has
turned into a world-class crapfest.

But you don’t have to take my word for it -- or the rest of
the 60% of Americans who agree that the Iraq War is a
fuck-up of monumental proportions. To really see just
how far the reality-based insurgency has penetrated the
Land of Oz, check out this article from Peter Baker in the
Washington Post.

"Conservatives for a long time were in
protective mode, wanting to emphasize the
progress in Iraq to contrast what they felt was
an unfair attack on the war by the Democrats
and media and other sources," Rich Lowry,
editor of the National Review, said in an
interview. "But there's more of a sense now that
things are on a downward trajectory, and more
of a willingness to acknowledge it and pressure
the administration to react to it."

Lowry's magazine offers a powerful example. "It
is time to say it unequivocally: We are winning in
Iraq," Lowry wrote in April 2005, chastising
those who disagreed. This month, he published
an editorial that concluded that "success in Iraq
seems more out of reach than it has at any time
since the initial invasion three years ago" and
assailed "the administration's on-again-off-again
approach to Iraq."

"It is time for the Bush administration to
acknowledge that its approach of assuring
people that progress is being made and
operating on that optimistic basis in Iraq isn't
working," the editorial said. Lowry followed up
days later in his own column, suggesting that the
United States is "losing, or at least not obviously
winning, a major war" and asking whether Iraq
is "Bush's Vietnam."

Reality sure is a bitch, ain't it? Better hurry, guys.
Those lifeboats are filling up pretty fast.

Unconstitutional

2006-08-17T17:19:00.000-04:00

The law strikes back...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A federal judge in
Detroit ruled today that the Bush administration’s
eavesdropping program is illegal and
unconstitutional, and she ordered that it cease at
once.

District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor found that
President Bush exceeded his proper authority
and that the eavesdropping without warrants
violated the First and Fourth Amendment
protections of free speech and privacy.

[...]

“It’s another nail in the coffin of executive
unilateralism,” said Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer for
the plaintiffs with the A.C.L.U. And Anthony
Romero, executive director of the A.C.L.U., said
Judge Taylor’s ruling “confirms that the
government has been acting illegally, in
contravention of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment.’’

The surveillance act was passed by Congress in
1978 in response to disclosures of previous
government improprieties in eavesdropping. The
act established a secret court to handle
applications for surveillance operations, and set
up procedures for them to take place while
applications for warrants are pending in some
limited circumstances and for limited times.

Judge Taylor said “the president has acted,
undisputedly, as F.I.S.A. forbids,” thus defying
the express will of Congress, and she was
unpersuaded by the government’s stance that it
could not defend itself in the lawsuit without
doing the country harm.

“Consequently, the court finds defendants’
arguments that they cannot defend this case
without the use of classified information to be
disingenuous and without merit,” she wrote.

This Doesn't Work

2006-08-15T16:58:00.000-04:00

Even George Will understands that the Bush
Administration’s approach to fighting terrorism (invading
countries that pose no serious threat to our security,
destroying their entire infrastructure, torturing and killing
their civilians, and pissing off the entire world community)
doesn’t work.

As the latest foiled terrorist plot in London shows, the key
to beating terrorists is better, smarter law enforcement.

Cooperation between Pakistani and British law
enforcement (the British draw upon useful
experience combating IRA terrorism) has
validated John Kerry's belief (as paraphrased
by the New York Times Magazine of Oct. 10,
2004) that "many of the interdiction tactics that
cripple drug lords, including governments
working jointly to share intelligence, patrol
borders and force banks to identify suspicious
customers, can also be some of the most useful
tools in the war on terror." In a candidates'
debate in South Carolina (Jan. 29, 2004), Kerry
said that although the war on terror will be
"occasionally military," it is "primarily an
intelligence and law enforcement operation that
requires cooperation around the world."

Immediately after the London plot was
disrupted, a "senior administration official,"
insisting on anonymity for his or her splenetic
words, denied the obvious, that Kerry had a
point. The official told The Weekly Standard:

"The idea that the jihadists would all be
peaceful, warm, lovable, God-fearing people if it
weren't for U.S. policies strikes me as not a
valid idea. [Democrats] do not have the
understanding or the commitment to take on
these forces. It's like John Kerry. The law
enforcement approach doesn't work."

This farrago of caricature and non sequitur
makes the administration seem eager to repel
all but the delusional. But perhaps such rhetoric
reflects the intellectual contortions required to
sustain the illusion that the war in Iraq is central
to the war on terrorism, and that the war, unlike
"the law enforcement approach," does "work."

The official is correct that it is wrong "to think
that somehow we are responsible -- that the
actions of the jihadists are justified by U.S.
policies." But few outside the fog of paranoia
that is the blogosphere think like that. It is more
dismaying that someone at the center of
government considers it clever to talk like that.
It is the language of foreign policy -- and
domestic politics -- unrealism.

Also, Glenn Greenwald sets the record straight with this
must-read post about the surveillance techniques used to
bring down this latest batch of alleged terrorists.
Contrary to to the shrill cries of the Bush Administration
and its supporters, authorities were able to stop the bad
guys without having to resort to illegal, warrantless
wiretapping.

And yet, here was a major plot foiled because
the terrorist plotters were using telephones to
communicate about their plans -- and using
banking systems to wire money -- all of which
law enforcement could track within the law.
This whole episode potently illustrates just how
inane are the claims that the Times' NSA story
(and its SWIFT disclosures) would endanger
national security. Terrorists already knew full
well that we monitor their telephone
conversations and banking transactions, and
they knew that before the New York Times
"told" them so. But in order to plan terrorist
attacks, terrorists must communicate with one
another and send money to each other.
Somehow, the Times' story did not prevent us
from eavesdropping on all of these
conversations. That's because the Times stories
-- as has been evident from the beginning -- told
terrorists nothing which they could use to avoid
detection.

Only Bush followers could point to a successful
law enforcement operation which, by all
appearances, complied with the law, and try to
use it to argue how necessary it is that the law
be broken. That is the central myth at the heart
of the Bush desire for increased authoritarian
measures -- that there is a forced choice
between protection from terrorist threats and
the rule of law.

That is a false choice. We can be a country
which lives under the rule of law and which
effectively battles terrorism -- just as we were
a country which lived under the rule of law
(including FISA) as we battled communism and
a whole array of other external threats. Despite
the bizarre effort by Bush followers to use this
U.K. plot to argue for the need for the President
to break the law, it actually demonstrates
precisely the opposite.

Liquids!

2006-08-11T02:00:00.000-04:00

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration posted
an unprecedented code-red alert for passenger
flights from Britain to the United States and
banned liquids from all carry-on bags Thursday,
clamping down quickly after British authorities
disrupted a frightening terror plot.

But seriously, what about ice cream?

Technically, ice cream is not a liquid unless it melts
or you make a milkshake. (mmmm... milkshake.)

If I showed up with a few pints of Häagen-Dazs and a
carry-on bag that could keep it cold, would they let me
through the gate?

Could someone please ask Chertoff? I really need to
know this shit.

Thanks.

The Cheese Stands Alone

2006-08-09T17:14:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Ned Lamont and all the passionate
supporters that helped him knock Holy Joe off the
Democratic ticket in Connecticut. It was a well run
campaign and hopefully a sign of better days to come
for the Democratic party.

But now is when it really gets interesting.

Mr. Lieberman conceded defeat in the primary
in a phone call to Mr. Lamont shortly before 11
p.m. Tuesday. But then, in a combative speech
to supporters in Hartford that was carried live
on television news broadcasts, the senator
declared that he was not dropping out of the
race.

“As I see it, in this campaign, we’ve just
finished the first half, and the Lamont team is
ahead, but in the second half, our team, Team
Connecticut, is going to surge forward to victory
in November,” Mr. Lieberman told cheering
supporters last night.

This morning, Mr. Lieberman said on NBC’s
“Today” program that no one could persuade
him to drop his bid, saying his mind was “made
up.”

A survey of Democratic primary voters leaving
polling places in Connecticut, conducted by The
New York Times and CBS News, found little
support for the idea. Sixty-one percent of
respondents said Mr. Lieberman should not run
as an independent in November, including 21
percent of Mr. Lieberman’s supporters, while 39
percent of all respondents said he should.

Of course numbers like those don’t matter at all to a
self-righteous egomaniac like Joe Lieberman, who actually
has the nerve to say this with a straight face:

For the sake of our state, our country and my
party, I cannot and will not let that result stand.

See folks, what appears to be a weasel-like attempt to
maintain a position of power and prestige at all costs, is
actually a selfless act of sacrifice -- a bit of tough love
for the poor, deluded voters of Connecticut who were
somehow fooled into voting for the guy who wasn’t
Joe Lieberman.

Now that’s what I call leadership.

You say you want some evolution?

2006-08-02T15:26:00.000-04:00

Another crucial victory for Team Darwin.

TOPEKA, Kan. - Conservative Republicans who
pushed anti-evolution standards back into
Kansas schools last year have lost control of the
state Board of Education once again.

The most closely watched race was in western
Kansas, where incumbent conservative Connie
Morris lost her GOP primary Tuesday. The
former teacher had described evolution as "an
age-old fairy tale" and "a nice bedtime story"
unsupported by science.

As a result of Tuesday's vote, board members
and candidates who believe evolution is well-
supported by evidence will have a 6-4 majority.
Evolution skeptics had entered the election with
a 6-4 majority.

I suppose if one believes the Earth was created 6,000
years ago then a book published in 1859 probably does
seem like an “age-old fairy tale.” At any rate, on behalf
of the reality-based world community I’d like to welcome
the great state of Kansas back to the Age of Reason.
We hope you’ll stay a while.

Kiss-Off

2006-07-30T17:35:00.000-04:00

New York Times:

On the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Lieberman
has left it to Republicans like Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina to investigate the administration’s
actions. In 2004, Mr. Lieberman praised Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for expressing regret
about Abu Ghraib, then added: “I cannot help but
say, however, that those who were responsible
for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th,
2001, never apologized.” To suggest even
rhetorically that the American military could be held
to the same standard of behavior as terrorists is
outrageous, and a good example of how avidly the
senator has adopted the Bush spin and helped
the administration avoid accounting for Abu Ghraib.

Mr. Lieberman prides himself on being a legal
thinker and a champion of civil liberties. But he
appointed himself defender of Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales and the administration’s policy of
holding hundreds of foreign citizens in prison
without any due process. He seconded Mr. Gonzales’s
sneering reference to the “quaint” provisions of the
Geneva Conventions. He has shown no interest in
prodding his Republican friends into investigating
how the administration misled the nation about
Iraq’s weapons. There is no use having a senator
famous for getting along with Republicans if he
never challenges them on issues of profound
importance.

If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the
lead in saying that there were some places a
president had no right to take his country even
during a time of war, neither he nor this page
would be where we are today. But by suggesting
that there is no principled space for that kind of
opposition, he has forfeited his role as a
conscience of his party, and has forfeited our
support.

Mr. Lamont, a wealthy businessman from
Greenwich, seems smart and moderate, and he
showed spine in challenging the senator while
other Democrats groused privately. He does not
have his opponent’s grasp of policy yet. But this
primary is not about Mr. Lieberman’s legislative
record. Instead it has become a referendum on his
warped version of bipartisanship, in which the
never-ending war on terror becomes an excuse for
silence and inaction. We endorse Ned Lamont in
the Democratic primary for Senate in Connecticut.

Make Friends - The Mel Gibson Way

2006-07-29T19:16:00.000-04:00

TMZ.com reports:

Once inside the car, a source directly connected
with the case says Gibson began banging himself
against the seat. The report says Gibson told the
deputy, "You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you."
The report also says "Gibson almost continually
[sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and
will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage
of anti-Semitic statements: "F*****g Jews... The Jews
are responsible for all the wars in the world."
Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

Let the damage control begin!

UPDATE: LA Weekly confirms the story.

Fiasco

2006-07-26T00:37:00.000-04:00

AP: A man looks after two young Iraqi boys wounded from a
suicide car bomb blast, Monday, July 24, 2006, in Samarra,
95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq.

BBC News:

Neither man talked about failure, nor were
they likely to, but that was the subtext to the
meeting between US President George W Bush
and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

The security operation in Baghdad, which the
Iraqi leader launched six weeks ago - and which
Mr Bush had endorsed during his unannounced
visit to the Iraqi capital last month - has not
produced results.

Or, more accurately, it has produced the wrong
ones.

The upsurge in sectarian violence which has
coincided with the crackdown, has seen the
Iraqi civilian death toll rise to about 100 per
day.

It’s a good thing we’re blessed with a president who is
so very concerned with protecting innocent human life.

And yet, I tend to agree with Wolcott’s belief that when
the dust finally clears -- if anyone’s still alive -- history
will not be kind to President Bush, or to us for that matter.

The war crimes of the United States compound
by the minute, the hour, the day. I predict that
George Bush, upon leaving office, will be the
most despised president in American history. He
will have his core support, the clotted, stunted
brains that collect at sites like Lucianne.com and
Powerline, but he will enjoy no Reaganesque
orange sunset afterglow (or Nixonian self-
rehabilitation), so deep, lasting, and tragic is the
damage he's done, a damage abetted by a
craven, corrupt political class and a press that
even now, as the full dimensions of the disaster
unfold before us, is unable to sound alarm, so
accustomed as they've become to their role as
sponges and clever snots. History will not
forgive Bush or the United States, nor should it,
for raising and destroying the hopes of the Iraqi
people, and presiding over the dissolution of
their nation into a failed state.

But as the great American philosopher Yogi Berra once
said, “It gets late early around here.” Perhaps we won’t
have to wait so long for history's judgment after all.

Tubes!

2006-07-15T04:59:00.000-04:00

Senator Ted Stevens explains the internet:

"The Internet is not something you just dump
something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of
tubes," Stevens said during a June 28
committee session.

"And if you don't understand, those tubes can
be filled. And if they are filled, when you put
your message in, it gets in line and it's going to
be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube
enormous amounts of material, enormous
amounts of material."

At another point in his 11-minute discourse, he
said he'd seen these delays firsthand: "I just the
other day got - an Internet was sent by my staff
at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just
got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up
with all these things going on the Internet
commercially."

Round 2

2006-07-13T17:41:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON - The CIA officer whose
identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice
President Dick Cheney, his former top aide
and presidential adviser Karl Rove on
Thursday, accusing them and other White
House officials of conspiring to destroy her
career.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie
Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a
former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney,
Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of
revealing Plame's CIA identity in seeking
revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush
administration's motives in Iraq.

Several news organizations wrote about
Plame after syndicated columnist Robert
Novak named her in a column on July 14,
2003. Novak's column appeared eight days
after Wilson alleged in an opinion piece in The
New York Times that the administration had
twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq to justify
going to war.

The CIA had sent Wilson to Niger in early
2002 to determine whether there was any
truth to reports that Saddam Hussein's
government had tried to buy yellowcake
uranium from Niger to make a nuclear
weapon. Wilson discounted the reports, but
the allegation nevertheless wound up in
President Bush's 2003 State of the Union
address.

The lawsuit accuses Cheney, Libby, Rove and
10 unnamed administration officials or
political operatives of putting the Wilsons and
their children's lives at risk by exposing
Plame.

"This lawsuit concerns the intentional and
malicious exposure by senior officials of the
federal government of ... (Plame), whose job
it was to gather intelligence to make the
nation safer and who risked her life for her
country," the Wilsons' lawyers said in the
lawsuit.

You can read the filed documents, here.

Firedoglake has more from Joe Wilson, here.

Plus, Eric Alterman provides a helpful reminder of why
Robert Novak -- who has now publicly admitted that Karl
Rove confirmed Plame’s identity for his article -- is (still)
a scumbag.

Wish You Were Here

2006-07-11T16:33:00.000-04:00

A statement issued on behalf of Pink Floyd said:
"The band are naturally very upset and sad to learn
of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of
the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which
continues to inspire."

Piper at the Gates of Dawn is a 60's classic and
easily one of Pink Floyd's best albums. If you've only
heard their 70's stuff, pick up a copy and treat yourself
to the genius of Syd Barrett in all its absurd glory.

Shine on.

Progress!

2006-07-10T17:50:00.000-04:00

BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than 30 people were
killed in attacks across Iraq as sectarian
bloodletting raged on in Baghdad, raising new
fears that the country is sliding towards civil
war.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appealed to the
country's Shiites and Sunnis to unite to "defeat
terrorists and all those who insist on opposing
the political process".

Ten people were killed and 51 wounded in a
car bombing and mortar attack in the capital's
Shiite-dominated slum district of Sadr City,
police said, a day after 61 people were killed
in apparent tit-for-tat attacks.

The attack in Sadr City, a bastion of fighters
loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-
Sadr, came after 42 Sunni Arabs were gunned
down Sunday in a deadly rampage in a Sunni
district of Baghdad blamed on Shiite
militiamen.

In an apparent revenge attack soon
afterwards, 19 people were killed and 59
wounded when twin car bombs went off
outside a Shiite mosque in a largely Sunni
district of the capital.

Baghdad has been swept by a wave of
sectarian violence, much of it targeting
mosques, since Sunni militants in February
blew up a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra,
north of the capital.

Another 23 people were killed across the
country on Monday, including seven Iraqis who
were executed by gunmen after their bus was
ambushed in Baghdad's mainly Sunni
neighbourhood of Ameriyah, security officials
said.

Iraqi and US troops also sealed off the
capital's Sunni neighbourhood of Dura and
state media announced a daytime curfew there
from 2:00 pm (1000 GMT) until 8:00 am
(0400 GMT).

The whole capital is already under a dusk-to-
dawn curfew.

A curfew was imposed after Dura residents
reported hearing gunfire and said large
numbers of armed men were out on the
streets. The neighborhood has been the scene
of repeated fighting and attacks on security
forces.

Sunday's violence was the deadliest since a
July 1 truck bombing in Sadr City that killed 66
people, overwhelmingly Shiites, triggering a
new wave of communal attacks.

Take it away, Condi...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said Monday she is certain
Iraq's new leaders can prevail over
"determined killers'' like those that killed 41
people over the weekend.

"No one could have expected that just within
weeks of coming to power that the Iraqi
government would have been able to stop the
violence and to completely address a difficult
security situation,'' Rice said. She spoke
before a meeting at the State Department with
Pakistani Foreign Minister Kursheed Kasuri.

It’s interesting how over the years, Condoleezza Rice
has become something of an expert on judging what no
one could have expected. Many will remember the
infamous (and irrefutably false) claim she made in
May 2002 regarding the 9/11 hijackers:

"I don't think anybody could have predicted
that ... they would try to use an airplane as a
missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile."

And while it’s true that no reasonable person thought
the violence would suddenly stop once this new
government was formed, the current picture in Iraq is
certainly a stark contrast to the “cakewalk and rose
pedals” scenarios painted by the architects of this war
prior to the invasion. And we now know (thanks to the
Downing Street memos) that back in January 2003, Bush
and Blair didn’t expect any sectarian violence at all.

NY Times [3/27/06]:

The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned
a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi
government that would be complicated, but
manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was
"unlikely there would be internecine warfare
between the different religious and ethnic
groups." Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.

I guess no one could have expected that the public
would ever learn the contents of that memo -- or that
anyone involved would ever be held accountable for
their incredibly poor judgment.