More reasons why Giuliani isn't going to be president

several lifetimes ago, i scheduled major speakers for management development events at a large corporation... that was my first, and, unfortunately, not my last, exposure to prima donnas...

The former New York mayor has been banking a whopping $100,000 per speech to corporations, trade groups, and university audiences, according to his standard appearance contract. The document, a copy of which you'll find below, notes that Giuliani, 62, requires private air transportation to his gigs. But, the contract states, any old plane won't do: "Please note that the private aircraft MUST BE a Gulfstream IV or bigger." Such a jet sells for about $30 million, in case you're wondering. Giuliani's speech contract also requires him to be lodged in a two-bedroom hotel suite, which is to be flanked by rooms occupied by his security team. Rudy's suite must be registered in the name of a representative of the Washington Speakers Bureau, which arranges Giuliani appearances. And Giuliani is very picky about how he is to be photographed at gigs, apparently concerned that "direct, on-camera flash bulbs" result in none-too-flattering images. He also imposes restrictions on press coverage of his appearances, during which he speaks for 45 minutes and answers audience questions for 15 minutes. A copy of Giuliani's contract was released by Oklahoma State University, where he spoke last March for $100,000 (and cost the school an additional $47,000 in jet expenses).

i'm sorry, but i have zero tolerance for this kind of shit... i don't give a royal goddam HOW famous or important the person is, i refuse to pander to someone's ridiculously inflated ego... i have no time for anyone who takes the attitude that he doesn't put his pants on one leg at a time or his shit doesn't stink just like everybody else's...

(thanks to the smoking gun via crooks and liars...)

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Iraq escalation a "fabulous success"

george's ventriloquism has gotten so good that you can't even see his lips moving when al-maliki's talking...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki assured President Bush that the three-day-old plan "has achieved fabulous success," according to an account of the conversation released by the prime minister's office.

Nouri and George

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Breaking: George has two weasels removed

in this blog, i don't often indulge what i and many others consider to be my exceptionally twisted sense of humor, but after reading the following story, my mind immediately went to one of the most delightfully twisted album covers i have ever seen, a product of the irretrievably twisted 70s group, the mothers of invention... i hadn't thought of it in many years, so, when i did the mandatory google and it turned right up, i was pleased to see that it had stood the test of time...

US President George W. Bush had two moles weasels removed from his left temple at the White House, a spokesman said, noting that the moles weasels were believed to be harmless.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel described the procedure as "routine" and said doctors "expect that both lesions weasels are benign."

told ya it was twisted...

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Aw, c'mon, WaPo, who's kidding who...?

before going any further, go back and read my post from earlier today... once you've done that, feel free to proceed...

After enjoying great deference in the conduct of national security for his first six years in office, President Bush now faces an assertive opposition Congress that has left him on the defensive. The nonbinding resolution passed by the House yesterday on a largely party-line vote seems certain to be the first of a series of actions that will challenge Bush for the remainder of his presidency.

At stake is not just Bush's decision to send an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq, the plan specifically renounced by the resolution. By extension, the 246 to 182 vote passed judgment on Bush's overall stewardship of the war in Iraq and, more broadly, on his leadership in the world. At a time when the president is confronting Iran over its nuclear enrichment program, the House vote demonstrates that he has far less latitude to take aggressive action than he might have had in the past.

"This is an important moment," said Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser and is now a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And it's an important moment not only about what's in the past, or even in the present, but also what might be happening in the future."

The resolution, he said, "tells the president that the country's increasingly tired of the war and the country's reaction to his provoking a new war would be even worse."

i'll accept the assertion that congress will be "challenging" bush for the rest of his term, but i ain't buyin' that "he has far less latitude to take aggressive action than he might have had in the past..." to date, absolutely NOTHING supports that statement... supreme court decisions, polls, national elections, congressional actions, media attention, rebukes from allies, a disaster in iraq, a botched "war" on terrorism, gaping holes in national security, and a foreign policy in shambles, have not deterred this administration one iota, and none of them will, unless and until bush and his criminals are turned out of office... so very few people grasp the fact that we are dealing with extremely dark forces here, so dark, in fact, that any attempt we make to apply traditional frameworks of reason and good sense, are bound to fail... i do agree, however, with zbig... it IS an important moment...

Both sides recognized that the House vote, along with a Senate vote scheduled for today, represents the opening salvo in a more protracted struggle. "To me, this is kind of a baby step. It doesn't have teeth," said David J. Rothkopf, author of "Running the World," a book on the making of modern foreign policy. "The real question is going to be whether the Democratic leadership goes further and challenges funding, because that's where Congress historically has been able to show its influence."

if it is indeed a "baby step," the "real" question is whether bush's hold on his office can be challenged, because removing him is the ONLY way the bleeding can be stopped...

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More Saturday funnies

hey, it's a gray, and, after the heat of the last week, almost chilly morning here in buenos aires, threatening rain, so bucking up with a smile and a hot cup of coffee seems just the ticket...

The Anti-Defamation League is calling on state [Georgia] Rep. Ben Bridges to apologize for a memo distributed under his name that says the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools because it is a religious deception stemming from an ancient Jewish sect.

[...]

“Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” the memo says. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

The memo calls on lawmakers to introduce legislation that would end the teaching of evolution in public schools because it is “a deception that is causing incalculable harm to every student and every truth-loving citizen.”

It also directs readers to a Web site www.fixedearth.com, which includes model legislation that calls the Kabbala “a mystic, anti-Christ ‘holy book’ of the Pharisee Sect of Judaism.” The Web site also declares “the earth is not rotating … nor is it going around the sun.”

imho, this is just another example of what the bush administration and its unholy alliance with the fundamentalist, extremist christian right has unleashed... i'm sure i've been prone to and probably remain prone to accepting a wacko theory or two, but i'm fairly certain i wouldn't go waving them around quite so publicly... needless to say, bridges denies writing the memo...

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Saturday funnies

< shakes head in amazement >

California Rep. Duncan Hunter is asking constituents to support his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, in the first television commercial aired by a candidate for the 2008 presidential race.

this can only mean one thing - that we will have similar announcements very soon from jack abramoff, duke cunningham, tom delay, dusty foggo, and brent wilkes...

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George continues to piss on the Constitution

you simply can't tell me this wasn't intentional...

On the same day that the House of Representatives expressed its disapproval of President Bush's US troop increase in Iraq, the Pentagon announced it is accelerating the deployment of a division headquarters there by about three months, which would add another 1,000 troops to the "surge."

The 3rd Infantry Division headquarters based in Fort Stewart, Ga., will deploy next month instead of June, a Pentagon statement said.

with the exception of the occasional general or employee within an executive branch department or agency who chooses not to follow the mandated talking points, you can safely assume that any move anywhere in the executive branch is scripted, timed, and carefully choreographed... the white house knew the resolution would pass, and in fact, publicly granted "amnesty" to those r's who chose to vote in its favor, a meaningless gesture for an administration that's made it perfectly clear it will do as it damn well pleases regardless... the accelerated deployment announcement, coinciding with the house resolution vote, is hardly a coincidence... it's a coldly calculated move, clearly designed to show that the bush administration will accept no constraints on its power... it is also a chilling demonstration that the separate but equal division of powers as spelled out in the constitution, is, de facto, no longer functioning...

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Iraq resolution PASSES in Congress 246-182

SUPER...!

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With 5 minutes to go, Iraq resolution passing 142-137

yay...!

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Yet another reason why the team at the White House needs to be immediately replaced

they've made it abundantly clear they will do what they want, when they want, and how they want, constitution and the bill of rights be damned...

Quietly implemented in December, the special "Communications Management Unit" (CMU) at [Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institution in Indiana] targeting Muslim and Middle-Eastern inmates was not implemented through the process required by federal law, which stipulates the public be notified of any new changes to prison programs and be given opportunity to voice objection. Instead, the program appears to have been ordered and implemented by a senior official at the Department of Justice.

note the timing, little more than a month after the november elections...

[T]he CMU program, instituted Dec. 11, 2006 -- shortly after the mid-term elections in which Democrats won both chambers of Congress -- is being implemented at Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institution in Indiana.

it looks like a hoosier-state guantánamo, and i'm sure that must be precisely what's intended...

Under the CMU program, telephone communications must be conducted using monitored phone lines, be live-monitored by staff, are subject to recording and must be in English only. All letters must be reviewed by staff prior to delivery or sending, and visits may be non-contact only, live-monitored, and subject to recording, in English.

so, what's "different...?" read on...

[Attorney Peter Goldberger, a Philadelphia-area specialist in criminal appeals and former law professor who has 30 years experience dealing with federal prisons and inmates] notes that "What's different" about the program, "is limitation of contact with friends, family and outsiders -- instead of 300 minutes of telephone time per month, it's one 15 minute call per week, which can be reduced in the Warden's discretion to a mere three minutes once a month."

"Instead of all-day visiting every week or every other week, it's only two hours at a time, twice a month, with no physical contact, presumably sitting on opposite sides of a plexiglas window," Goldberger continued.

"And all letters, except to lawyers, courts, and Congress, will be read and copied, with weeks of delay, instead of cursorily inspected and sent right on," he adds. "It's a totally new and different program."

and why should this be a concern...?

Director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, D.C. Kate Martin told RAW STORY that restrictions of inmate communications must be narrowly tailored to serve a specific identifiable need of the government. Martin said that there was a clear rationale for restricting communications of those who had previously handled classified information -- for example a former CIA agent who had passed secrets to a foreign government. But with individuals who never possessed classified information, she said, that rationale doesn't exist.

oh, and never mind the fact that it's very likely both illegal and unconstitutional...

[Executive Director of Federal Defense Associates Howard Kieffer, a legal group based in California] believes that the program not only violates federal law but the Constitution as well, saying it abridges their right to freedom of expression and association.

These inmates are "not able to communicate like other inmates," he said.

James Landrith, Jr., who heads "The Multiracial Activist," an on-line journal that covers social and civil liberties issues relating multi-racialism, says the new program set a "very, very bad precedent."

and, par for bushco, it was all done under the table...

It's "interesting that this administration is trying to push these things through covertly" -- things he said he views as unconstitutional restrictions -- "while you have a sitting Vice President who could be charged in the short-term future with having been involved in outing a CIA agent."

He added that the program "makes it very very hard for someone to mount a real defense or appeal when they can't talk to anyone on the outside."

if it wasn't for the serious investigative journalism being conducted by sites such as raw story, this wouldn't be coming to light at all... the part that i find most chilling is how much more DON'T we know...? it has to be one hell of a lot...

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Nancy's taking the high ground...! Hurray...!

she must be totally confident of the pending vote tally...

In remarks to be delivered later today, Rep. Nancy Pelosi will say that the non-binding resolution disapproving of the escalation in Iraq now being debated in the House of Representatives signals bringing the troops home.

House Concurrent Resolution 63, which expresses support for America's military and disapproves of the president's stated plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq, is expected to pass by a wide margin today. A significant number of Republicans are likely to vote for the non-binding measure.

In prepared remarks received by RAW STORY, the Democratic Speaker of the House says that "The passage of this legislation will signal a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home."

she's jumping out in FRONT of the train, not something the dems have done much of, if at all, over the past six years... she's also exercising that most elusive and rarely seen talent called LEADERSHIP... if she and her team have done their work and gotten the requisite ducks in a row, including doing republican arm-twisting, AND she feels confident enough of the upcoming vote outcome, then saying what that vote portends, namely that we will see troops coming home from iraq, is inspired leadership... and, if she's wrong, she will take a fall like none have ever seen... either way, i salute her, and, for those who follow this blog, my salutes are as rarely seen as leadership in government...

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CIA agents go to trial in Italy on June 8

this ought to be interesting...

An Italian judge ordered 26 suspected CIA agents and 5 Italians to stand trial for kidnapping. The case is based on the alleged abduction of an Egyptian Muslim preacher in 2003, which may have been part of the US extraordinary rendition program.

BBC correspondent, Christian Fraser, reports that there is no expectation the CIA agents would return to Italy but, he says, "They are not needed. The prosecution doesn't need to have them on the stand according to Italian laws so the trial will go forward on June the 8th, regardless."

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Troop deaths in Iraq hit blended families hard

particularly since, by every available statistic, blended and non-traditional families are today's rule, not the exception...

[T]he $100,000 "death gratuity" ... goes first to a spouse or a child.

when you stop and think of how many single parents there are and how many grandparents end up raising their children's kids, even WITHOUT losing a child to an illegal war, you can imagine that there are a lot of folks struggling just to meet expenses...

The death gratuity, more than many other benefits, adheres to a strict next-of-kin rule, which Pentagon officials say makes it possible to pay out the $100,000 within a few days. They say that, in the "vast majority of cases," spo, uses are most in need when paychecks stop.

But there have been thousands of single parents deployed into combat zones since 2001. How many have died at war is unclear, but the Jaenke case shows that, in those cases, the benefit may be at odds with its original intent: to help the grieving family stay afloat when a service member's income suddenly stops.

the rules that govern these things, particularly in a time of war when young men and women, many of them parents, are dying, should be subject to continuous review to insure they are meeting the purpose for which they are intended... but, like so much else in our twisted governmental priorities, if it doesn't help business and the defense industry or foster the conditions for endless war, it might as well not exist...

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"The chorus of liars is gone"

the title of robert dreyfuss' alternet post is...

No One's Drinking Bush's Kool-Aid on Iran

It was, President Bush must have been thinking, a heck of a lot easier five years ago. Back in 2002, the president had a smoothly running lie factory humming along in the Pentagon, producing reams of fake intelligence about Iraq, led by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith and his Office of Special Plans. Back then, he had a tightly knit cabal of neoconservatives, led by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, based in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, to carry out a coordinated effort to distribute the lies to the media. And he had a chorus of yes-men in the Republican-controlled Congress ready to echo the party line.

In 2007, Bush stands nearly alone, and he never looked lonelier than during a bumbling, awkward news conference on the Iraq-Iran tangle Wednesday.

[...]

Those prone to believe, along with the president, that Iran is fomenting the violence in Iraq have already drunk deep of the neocon Kool-Aid. The rest of us can only shake our heads in wonder that the president thinks he can get away with this.

i wouldn't go so far as to say he's standing alone or that no one's drinking his kool-aid... not when you've got michael gordon in the nyt to shill for you...

Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says

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The Iraq debate and lawn care

mitch mcconnell, hypocrite extraordinaire...

"We could have had a civilized, well-structured debate," McConnell lamented, "but that appears to be not possible at the moment."

you also "could have had" a v-8...



what mcconnell wants is NOT a "civilized, well-structured debate..." what he wants is what he got after the first go-round...

McConnell responded by mounting a Republican filibuster Democrats couldn't overcome. And the Senate was prevented from proceeding with its planned week of debate on the Iraq war.

That Republicans won this encounter should have been clear to everyone. A poisonous debate on Iraq, attracting massive press coverage that was bound to be unfavorable to Bush and his war plans, was averted.

precisely... what he wanted was to avoid "a poisonous debate on iraq," the biggest foreign policy disaster in u.s., and possibly world, history... so, what's a poor senate majority leader to do...?

After four years of fighting in Iraq, and two weeks of trying to force senators to debate the conflict, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday wheeled out the ultimate weapon. He ordered his colleagues to work on Saturday. To the average American, this would be an inconvenience. To a senator, a Saturday vote is a hardship reserved for national crises such as impeachment or Terri Schiavo. Votes have been held on Saturday only five times in the past 10 years.

and the vaunted filibuster tool, so reviled by the r's when the dems threatened to use it to derail bush's extreme right supreme court nominees, has been neutralized...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.): "We're calling their bluff. We're staying here. Now vote yes or no."

cue the whining...

Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)...

"I don't think that is a fair or appropriate process for this body to follow," he said. Particularly because he had plans to attend the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Florida on Saturday.

Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (Ky.)...

[H]e was asked how his colleagues felt about surrendering their Saturday. "You'll have to ask all of them," he said tightly.

Hillary Clinton (D-NY)...

The candidate's "Conversation with Granite Staters," which was to have been held at 2:30 Saturday in the Dover High School cafeteria, had been scrapped.

and the idiocy...

Ric Keller (R-Fla.)...

"Imagine your next-door neighbor refuses to mow his lawn and the weeds are all the way up to his waist. You decide you are going to mow his lawn for him every single week. The neighbor never says thank you, he hates you, and sometimes he takes out a gun and shoots at you. Under these circumstances, do you keep mowing his lawn forever?"

< rolls eyes >

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Our leaders are a clear and present danger

i've been saying this all along... they need to go, the sooner the better...

It’s time to start talking seriously about the imminent and immediate danger that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other prominent members of this administration pose to the future of this country, as well as the already-disastrous Middle East. Yes, we talk about it here, and yes we all wish that they would just up and leave. But the fact is, not only is that not gonna happen, but every new day brings another example of how delusional, unhinged, aggressive and detached from reality these people are.

Now, I’m not going to try and debate the merits or feasibility of impeaching Cheney (yes, it should be done) or removing Bush either via impeachment or via the 25th Amendment (which won’t be done but his ability to perform his duties as President and Commander in Chief is eroding on a daily basis). However, a serious discussion as to the relative fitness that these people have for the offices they hold – at a time in history where we need strong, honest, bold, decisive (and not in a "Decider" kind of way) and forward looking leaders - needs to be initiated and make its way into public consciousness.

These people have already shown that they will lie, cheat, steal, and threaten national security – even under oath. They have repeatedly shown a horrific lack of judgment, morals, compassion for their fellow Americans and for other countries whose citizens have sacrificed lives and dollars for a cause that was falsely billed as "just and right".

they are criminals... they don't belong in positions of power and responsibility...

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"You can’t make a mistake in supporting this resolution"

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) on the Iraq resolution...

This great country and this great constitution has given you the right, right in your hand, to determine who lives and who dies. You can’t make a mistake in supporting this resolution. It’s not going to hurt our beloved warriors. It is going to help our country. It is going to help them and it is going make us proud one day to be able to say when asked, what did you do when this was going on in the world and your Congress was asked, and you would be able to say, there was a resolution — it may not have been a profile in courage — but I supported it and I’m proud that I did.

it needs to stop... now... bush and his criminals need to leave... now...

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Skepticism over Iran...? Well, duh, WaPo...

check out the phrase between the dashes...

Skepticism Over Iraq Haunts U.S. Iran Policy

The specter of the war in Iraq -- a war the Bush administration denied it was planning, supported by evidence that turned out to be false -- looms large over administration policy toward Iran.

they denied they were planning a war in iraq and then turned around and supported it with false evidence... now, the exact same scenario is playing out, and we are supposed to pretend the previous one didn't happen...?

The administration, conscious of its low credibility, believes it has gone out of its way to convince doubters that Iran is not Iraq all over again.

"No, no, no, no," White House spokesman Tony Snow said Monday in response to questions about whether the administration embellished evidence against Iran in a U.S. military briefing in Baghdad the previous day. "I'm almost ready to hit my head on the microphone."

oh, tony, please... be my guest... bang your head to bloody bits on the microphone... it's not going to change a thing... the fact is, nobody believes a single thing this administration says, particularly THIS guy...

Challenged on the accuracy of U.S. intelligence, President Bush said Wednesday there is no doubt the Iranian government is providing armor-piercing weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq. But he backed away from claims the top echelon of Iran's government was responsible.

so, you believe him...? i sure as hell don't...

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"Disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth"

this should be pasted on billboards in every city and town in the country...

"The Bush administration," Bernstein continues, "is a far different matter in which disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth -- a willingness to lie both in the Oval Office, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the office of the vice president, the vice president himself -- is something that I have never witnessed before on this scale."

[...]

"This president has a record of dishonesty and obfuscation that is Nixonian in character in its willingness to manipulate the press, to manipulate the truth," he adds. "We have gone to war on the basis of misinformation, disinformation and knowing lies from top to bottom."

too bad bernstein's buddy, woodward, doesn't get it...

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Poopin' on Putin

i predicted this in my post the other day...

you can be sure that, given the source, even liberals and progressives will be tempted to dismiss such criticism as merely global political posturing...

'course, not like anyone with two brain cells to rub together COULDN'T have predicted it...

Since the speech, Putin has been excoriated in the U.S. press. As usual, such intense vitriol is reserved for people who bring up inconvenient truths about U.S. policy. Of course, Putin didn’t say anything that was untrue, and that’s the reason for the intense anger in the United States.

Americans have never been very good at looking at their government in the mirror. They see the cogent and pithy words of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison about our system of government and reach the conclusion that the United States can do no wrong in the international arena because it has one of the world’s best systems at home. Yet the two have nothing to do with each other.

This unquestioning attitude when dealing with other countries I label the “Tarzan foreign policy,” which assumes “we good, you bad.” In other words, in this distorted mental framework, aggressive U.S. actions would not be tolerated if another country did them.

i have repeatedly maintained that this is one of the reasons bush and his criminal cronies have continued to perpetrate the most outrageous deeds, shredding the constitution, and other such nefarious hi-jinks, and still manage to remain in office... we, the american people, are so brainwashed into believing that our country can do no wrong, we simply can't bring ourselves to believe that crooks are calling the shots...

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"I hope she continues to get grilled on it. She deserves nothing less."

i've already posted my thoughts on this, and especially on that loathsome hillary apologist, james carville... now i see that markos has taken his own stand on hillary's "iraq problem..."

I have no interest in giving a pass to those Democrats who aided and abetted Bush's mistakes, and I especially have no interest in giving a pass to those who demonstrate Bushian inability to offer self-reflection and admit that mistake. It's not a question of offering an "apology". I want acknowledgment of past mistakes.

These Democrats didn't just enable Bush's war, they sat by and let the Right Wing smear machine attack those of us who waged our lonely battles to prevent this disaster from happening. And while most of the candidates in the field have come around, Hillary remains the notable exception.

Those who have admitted their mistakes are now free to train their sights on the GOP. It doesn't absolve them from their terrible judgment, but it mitigates it. While it's best to not make a mistake in the first place, it's even worse to compound that mistake by refusing to come to terms with it.

Clinton doesn't have that. And what's worse, she has pretty much lost the window of opportunity to do so. After resisting for so long, she finds herself in the thick of the presidential primary (yes, even a year out) with no room to maneuver. If she suddenly reverses course and decides that yes, she'll take personal responsibility for her vote, it'll feed into the strongest anti-Hillary narrative -- that she's a panderer and will say what is most politically expedient at the moment.

It's a sad state of affairs, but Hillary has made her bed. And while her advisors may cringe that voters demand she account for Iraq at every campaign stop, I hope she continues to get grilled on it. She deserves nothing less.

what can i say but, yeah, you bet...

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U.S. and Britain last in affluent nation rating of children's well-being

even tho' this isn't good news, i actually am glad to see it because it confirms many of my own less-than-expert observations...

Issuing ratings on the well-being of children in affluent nations, UNICEF faulted the United States and Britain Wednesday, ranking them bottom among 21 industrialized countries. Typical of poor scorers were children who did not trust their friends, rarely spent time with parents and over-ate. Poverty among minorities and a lack of books in homes also dragged down scores.

The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark topped the overall UNICEF league table, based on surveys among children and other data.

[...]

The report flunks the US and Britain, which are respectively in 20th and 21st position.

The two countries score particularly badly in the "Family and Peer Relationships" and the "Behaviours and Risks" categories.

For the first of these categories, 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds were asked questions such as if their friends were "kind and helpful" and how often they ate the main meal of the day with parents. Living in single-parent families and stepfamilies lowered the score.

To evaluate risks, pollsters checked on how many children avoided alcohol, hazardous sex and pregnancy as well as boosted their health eating fruit and vegetables every day.

Another category checked books in the home or how many children had these eight educational items at home: a desk for study, a quiet place to work, a computer for schoolwork, educational software, an internet connection, a calculator, a dictionary and school textbooks.

The United States ranked last when it came to child health and safety.

i notice a distinct difference in kids' attitudes as i travel around, and, i have to say, the negativity i observe among kids in the u.s. is a marked contrast from what i observe in other countries... here in argentina, it's very common to see family groups doing things together, from shopping and taking bike rides to having picnics or just walking around... even teenagers are surprisingly polite, giving up seats on trains and buses for their elders, holding doors open, and shaking hands and giving the customary kiss on the cheek when being introduced to an adult... don't get me wrong... there are annoying punks here just like everywhere, but, overall, kids just feel a lot more integrated into the daily functioning of society, and i think that's a very good thing...

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Presidential election polls with over 20 months to go

yeah, well, whatever...

Among Democratic candidates, Clinton and Obama top the list with John Edwards third at 28 percent and former Vice President Al Gore--who has not yet announced his intention to run--at 26 percent.

i do like THIS paragraph, however...

The survey also indicates that 45 percent of respondents would first choose a Democratic for president, compared to 31 percent who would first choose a Republican.

anybody considering voting for a republican simply isn't firing on all cylinders...

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Gore - free radical in the body chemistry of the 2008 election

yes, yes, yes, i KNOW it's only february '07, and, yes, i am ALREADY sick of the 2008 presidential campaign... i'm especially sick as i look at the emerging list of democratic candidates who seem intent on proving that they don't have what it takes to provide leadership to the u.s. at perhaps the most critical point in its history... even more, i'm positively bilious as i look at the pathetic and potentially dangerous candidates on the r side of the fence... however, with all that said, i found myself reluctantly captivated by buddydharma's daily kos diary pushing a gore-obama ticket... then there's this...

[T]here are multiple reasons for Gore to hold off on entering the race.

First, he can bank on his name reputation getting stronger in the intervening months as he continues to promote his message on controlling global warming. Meanwhile, Kornacki writes, he can "steer clear of any early skirmishes between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, instead allowing the three front-runners to drive each other’s negatives up."

The moment Gore is looking for, he adds, is one in which the race becomes about Senator Hillary Clinton. The likely scenario for Gore to become a candidate is one in which he is "convinced that he could quickly and bloodlessly push [Obama and Edwards] aside, setting up a Hillary-versus-Al contest for the nomination."

But there are also reasons Gore might not choose to enter the race. If Obama or Edwards make gains against Clinton, Kornacki writes that he may not want to further crowd the fray. He also must fear "the risk of being branded, for all of history, as a two-time loser."

what's a body to do...? at some point, probably late this year, i want to go to work for somebody and i will have to make a choice... i can think of lots of things much worse than a gore-obama ticket...

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1,245 CIA-operated flights flew over European airspace or stopped over at airports in Europe after 9/11

i posted the other day on marie brenner's vanity fair article about charles swift in which he said that the purpose of guantánamo is torture... i think it's abundantly clear that is also the purpose of extraordinary rendition...

European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved a final report which slams EU governments for tolerating or assisting the United States' practice of secret detentions of terrorist suspects.

More than 10 European states, including Britain, Poland, Italy and Germany aided or knew about the US secret service CIA's clandestine programme of taking terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation, Euro MPs said in their report.

At least 1,245 CIA-operated flights flew over European airspace or stopped over at airports in Europe after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US, Euro MPs concluded.

i'm not surprised about the uk or poland... and, even tho' we've know about it for a while, i'm still surprised about germany and italy...

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Flexibility...? In the Bush administration...?

a headline i didn't ever expect to see...

U.S. Flexibility Credited in Nuclear Deal With N. Korea

The six-nation deal to shut down North Korea's nuclear facility, four months after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test, was reached yesterday largely because President Bush was willing to give U.S. negotiators new flexibility to reach an agreement, U.S. officials and Asian diplomats said yesterday.

but, no surprise, the hard-ass neocons think bush wussed out, and the dems reflexively oppose it...

[T]he agreement came under attack yesterday, with conservatives labeling it a betrayal and Democrats charging that Bush allowed North Korea to become a nuclear-weapon state without gaining much improvement over a Clinton-era deal that collapsed during Bush's first term.

no surprise either that condi, barely treading water after being increasingly (and accurately, imho) labeled as worthless, wants to grab the credit...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a prime architect of the accord, said it is just the beginning of a long process. "This is not the end of the story," she said, calling it the result of "patient, creative and tough diplomacy."

if you believe steve clemons - and i do - it's this guy that did the yeoman's work...

I have written about Asst. Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Christopher Hill before and surmised that if he was given some running room to construct a deal with North Korea, he could walk the situation back from the brink.

[...]

[S]omehow Hill has been able to successfully sideline and silence naysayers in Cheney's wing of the national security establishment and keep them from undermining his work.

but, steve concludes with this sober caveat...

One hopes today that Chris Hill has not succeeded in securing a positive arrangement in North Korea in some sort of quid pro quo that State will acquiesce to Cheney's desire for military action against Iran.

it's about friggin' time that "patient, creative, and tough diplomacy," supposedly the first and best tool of honest and sincere governments, was given a shot, and, even better, that it carried the day... why, then, i would like to know, is it not being given a chance with iran, syria, and palestine...?

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Let Hillary dig her own grave, it's fine with me

hillary clinton...

As a senator from New York, I lived through 9/11 and am still dealing with the aftereffects.

arianna huffington...

Clinton voted for the war, even though other senators who had been given the same faulty intel she had, voted against it.

james carville...

"But they weren't from New York," he said. "Their state wasn't hit. They didn't have to deal with the grief of these 3,000 people."

john aravosis...

Invoking September 11 when asked about Iraq is unconscionable. It is pure Dick Cheney, and an outright lie. It is not what a Democrat says, and hell, it isn't even what a sane moderate Republican says.

profmarcus...

both hillary and carville can go directly to hell...

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Real - not John McCain - straight talk

congressman patrick murphy...

The President's current course is not resolute, it is reckless.

That is why I will vote to send a message to our President that staying the course is no longer an option.

[...]

You know, a few blocks away from this great chamber, when you walk in the snow, is the Vietnam Memorial, where half of the soldiers listed on that wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work.

It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion.

congressman jerry nadler...

Enough with the lies, and the deceit and the evasions! Enough with the useless bloodshed.

[...]

Yes, the blindness of the Administration is largely to blame for starting the civil war in Iraq, but we cannot end it. Only the Iraqis can settle their civil war. We can only make it worse, and waste our blood and treasure pointlessly.

now, if they will only be listened to...

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Awwwww... No Darth... No Scooter either...

darn... i guess it's back to watching dr. house and re-runs of law and order...

Defense attorney Theodore Wells said he advised Cheney's lawyer over lunch that his testimony would not be needed. Wells also said he planned to rest his case without calling Libby.

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I don't believe Tony Snow, and I CERTAINLY don't believe YOU!

tony snow from yesterday...

"I think that there have been attempts, with all due respect, in the press to try to whip this up -- 'is the administration going after Iran?'"

"I'm glad you raised it again, because we're not," said Snow.

george bush from today...

US President George W. Bush has warned of the danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran but dismissed talk of a likely US attack on Iran as "noise" from his critics.

The comments came after the Pentagon said a US military buildup in the Gulf represented a message to "potential adversaries" in the region, and Bush himself has vowed to crush any Iranian networks fueling violence that claims the lives of US soldiers in Iraq.

"I guess my reaction to all the noise about, you know, 'he wants to go to war,' is -- first of all I don't understand the tactics, and I guess I would say it's political," Bush told CSPAN television in an interview Tuesday.

"On the other hand, I hope that the members of Congress, particularly in the opposition party, understand the great danger of Iran having a nuclear weapon," the US president said.

Referring to the nuclear dispute, Bush said he had "a comprehensive policy aimed to solve this peacefully" and vowed to "press hard" for Iran to freeze sensitive nuclear work that could be a key step towards an atomic arsenal.

george, there is absolutely NOTHING you can say any more that i will believe... it makes no difference what it is, positive or negative, or, indeed, whether it proves to be truth or yet another lie... words coming out of your mouth have about as much meaning to me as hot air issuing from a hand dryer...

in fact, you'd be a lot better off if you just kept your mouth closed for the rest of your term... it would save your speech and talking points writers a lot of needless work, would save tons of printers ink, untold amounts of bandwidth, and probably keep millions of pixels in monitors, tv sets, and cameras from prematurely wearing out... whaddaya say...?

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"What new assault on common Americans will be the straw that breaks the camel's back¨"

this is where we must go, and the longer we wait, the more damage will be done...

The audacity of this man is incredible, and his utter disregard for the will of the people or the legal processes of the government are a danger not only to the welfare of Americans, but to the Constitution he has sworn to uphold.

How much further does he have to go before you heed the call of the American majority to begin impeachment proceedings? What new assault on common Americans will be the straw that breaks the camel's back?

One hopes that the historically unprecedented madman in the White House would not be emboldened enough to continue these assaults on democracy and the citizens of the United States if impeachment was underway. One thing is certain, though--if the president were removed from office, he would no longer have the power to commit such acts.

The world is waiting for you and your fellow Democrats to wake up. Will today be the day?

Tomorrow we'll have another reason for you, as we will every day, until you accept responsibility for the public mandate that swept you into your historically unprecedented position of power and end the war, and impeach The President.

there is no greater priority in the united states today than removing george, dick, and their criminal cronies from office, whether by impeachment or other means... they are destroying the very fabric of our country and will not stop until they are marched out the door... even the initiation of impeachment proceedings will not stop them... we cannot draw a relaxed breath until they are gone... everything - and i mean EVERYTHING - must take a back seat to this...

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Are we gonna get to know why Porter Goss resigned...? Huh, huh, are we...?

maybe we'll also get to find out what REALLY happened at those poker parties in the watergate hotel... now, if the federal prosecutors handling the case can just hang on long enough to follow it through without being axed by george for poor performance...

Federal prosecutors in San Diego are expected today to announce indictments in a case that involves the former No. 3 official at the CIA, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, officials tell ABC News.

Foggo, who served as the CIA's executive director, was accused last year by fellow CIA employees of steering contracts for the CIA station in Iraq to longtime friend Brent Wilkes, a defense contractor whose activities also led to the indictment of former Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham.

Officials said today's expected indictments will also include Wilkes.

At his home in suburban Washington, D.C., this morning, Foggo declined to comment to ABC News.

Wilkes' lawyer, Mark Geragos, also declined to comment.

ooooooooo... brent wilkes has lawyered up with geragos, the attorney for michael jackson and scott peterson... SOMEBODY'S got deep pockets...!

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Georgie, Georgie, your mother wears combat boots

neener, neener, neener...

The latest taped statement from al Qaeda is an unusually personal attack on President Bush, in which al Qaeda's No. 2 in command, Ayman al Zawahiri, denounces Bush as "an alcoholic, liar and gambler with an addictive personality."

c'mon, ayman... you don't really think a long-distance intervention via the internet is gonna work, now do you...? i mean, his dad tried with jim baker and george just flipped it off... what makes you think you can do any better...?

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"Sen. Graham… I consider you as cowardly as Rumsfeld"

give that good ol' boy a swift kick to the family jewels, would you, janis, please...?

“Sen. Graham… I consider you as cowardly as Rumsfeld, as Sanchez, and Miller and all of them,” she said, referring to her superiors in the military and Defense Department. Karpinski claims she took the blame for a situation they created at Abu Ghraib.

golly, THAT had to feel GOOD... you go, girl...

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The WaPo mistakenly writes an editorial about Putin that was intended for Bush

don't you wish they could be half as impassioned about george's performance and the gutter into which he's dragged the foreign policy of the united states...?

Before considering the significance of Vladimir Putin's address to an international security conference in Munich on Saturday, it's worth pausing to admire the astonishing nerve of the Russian president. Mr. Putin claimed the United States had "overstepped its national borders in every way . . . in the economic, political and cultural policies it imposes on other nations." This from a leader who has imposed an economic boycott on Georgia and Moldova and who interrupted energy supplies during winter to Ukraine and Belarus; who supports separatist regions in Georgia and Moldova with money and troops; and who overtly intervened in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election in an attempt to impose a favored candidate through fraud.

until one major newspaper can stand up and recognize the horrible record of the united states, the dreadful crimes it has committed, and the millions of needless deaths it has caused, the press will have zero credibility with me...

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Privacy...? We don't need no st-e-e-e-enking privacy...!

let's stop fooling around... if we're moving toward a police state, let's pass measures like this and get it the hell over with... the incremental approach is driving me crazy...

A House Republican is pushing a measure that echoes a long-sought Bush administration goal: to require all Internet service providers to keep records on their subscribers.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) last week as part of the larger SAFETY Act, would give the attorney general broad discretion to write the rules on what information companies have to retain and for how long.

[...]

The provision would require Internet service companies to provide at a minimum the Internet subscriber's name and address, which can be linked to an Internet protocol address -- an identification number associated with a particular computer at a given time. Law enforcement officials would have to obtain a subpoena to have access to the records and could not use the tool to track law-abiding citizens on the Internet, Smith said.

nothing can go wrong -- go wrong -- g-g-g-go w-w-w-w-wro-o-o-ong -- g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g -- g-g-g-g-a-a-a-a...

In Arlington County last summer, detectives thought they had tracked an Internet child predator to an apartment, only to find that their target was an innocent elderly woman whose computer's wireless router sent a signal throughout her 10-story building that could be easily hijacked.

Last fall, a child-porn squad in central Virginia led by sheriffs armed with semiautomatic pistols scared a farmer who was mistakenly targeted when his Internet provider gave authorities the incorrect IP address.

but, according to the wapo, it ISN'T the blatant violation of privacy or the targeting of innocent people that's the concern here... oh, no... it's this...

What concerns both privacy advocates and industry is the bill's open-endedness.

"open-endedness" AIN'T the problem, dipshits... it's the fact that such a bill could even be written, introduced, and given serious consideration in either congress or your newspaper...

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Disguising radical extremists as conservatives

you don't have to read further than the first paragraph to see what i mean... it's been proven time and again that there is a difference, often a gapingly-wide difference, between "conservatives" and (take your pick of the following) evangelical christians/social conservatives...

McCain, Romney Vying for Support Of Conservatives

By Alan Cooperman and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 13, 2007; Page A01

As a former Iowa state Republican chairman, head of Iowa Right to Life and political director of Rep. Jim Nussle's losing gubernatorial campaign, Marlys Popma is an experienced political operative as well as an evangelical Christian.

So when the phone calls started from Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidates eager for her help in the crucial Iowa caucuses next year, she knew this was not an election she could sit out. "You're never going to find the perfect candidate," she said.

cutting to the chase, pompa chose mccain... but, back to the point... scan your eyes over the names that appear in the following paragraphs, and then tell me if you can spot one that hints even remotely of less than extremism, if not of outright looney-tunes...

"Winability is a bigger issue in this campaign because of the Darth Vader-like specter of a Hillary Clinton presidency," according to the Rev. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's policy arm. Evangelicals "want the most socially conservative candidate they can find, who can win," he added.

Romney, who is expected to formally enter the presidential race today in Dearborn, Mich., has been particularly aggressive. In October he held a casual gathering at his Boston home for a who's who of social conservative leaders. Falwell and evangelist Franklin Graham munched on sandwiches and sipped soup alongside former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and pastor Richard Lee of First Redeemer Church in Atlanta.

Romney will also host a private reception for Christian radio and television hosts during the National Religious Broadcasters' annual meeting next week in Orlando, and he is expected to be the commencement speaker at the Rev. Pat Robertson's Regent University in May.

• Jerry Falwell
• Franklin Graham
• Gary Bauer
• Pat Robertson

i can't speak to the two richards, land and lee, but the other four represent some of the most hate-filled, intolerant, dangerous rhetoric that's ever been spewed in this country, and here we have not ONE, but TWO major republican party presidential candidates vying for their favor... disgusting...

i can deal with conservatives, but i have no tolerance for radical extremists, nor do i have any tolerance for major news outlets who would deceive us by characterizing radical extremists as mere conservatives...

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Please, Mr. Snow, could you tell us why we should believe you?

on the one hand...

A former top Bush administration official for Persian Gulf affairs has said in an interview this morning on CNN that the US may be trying to spark a conflict with Iran.

Hillary Mann is the former National Security Council Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Affairs. She warned in the interview that the recent flare up between Iran and the US over the former's alleged assistance to Shi'a militias results from a US desire to provoke conflict with the Iranians.

"They're trying to push a provocative, accidental conflict," Mann said.

and on the other hand...

The White House, its credibility damaged in invading Iraq, vouched for charges that Iran has been arming insurgents there, but denied ramping up such rhetoric as a prelude to military action.

Asked whether Washington was confident in the accusations, spokesman Tony Snow replied "Yes."

Asked whether the United States was confident that the weaponry was coming into Iraq with Tehran's approval, Snow replied: "Yes."

But he said that the allegations made by US defense officials in Baghdad Sunday that Iran is supplying potent munitions to Iraqi fighters is not a shift in US rhetoric.

"I don't think there's a change of tone on our part," he said. "I think that there have been attempts, with all due respect, in the press to try to whip this up -- 'is the administration going after Iran?'"

"I'm glad you raised it again, because we're not," said Snow.

and the white house believability quotient...?

-0-

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Monday afternoon photoblogging

i didn't post any photos on saturday as i sometimes do, so i figured i would today instead, as a kind of antidote to the ration of gloomy news i subject myself to on a daily basis, particularly toxic it seems on mondays...



i have a new bike, courtesy of a friend who gave it to me as a thank-you gift for letting him stay at my place while i was in the states over the holidays... i am still breaking it in (or is that vice-versa?), and the past two mornings i have been up and out the door shortly after 6... this morning, i took myself over to the paseo de la costera, a park bordering the rio de la plata in the municipality of vicente lopez, to catch the sunrise, and catch it i did...!

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The whole purpose of setting up Guantánamo Bay is for torture

in a lengthy, blockbuster article, vanity fair provides a detailed examination of guantánamo in the context of former military attorney charles swift and the case of hamdan vs. rumsfeld...

The whole purpose of setting up Guantánamo Bay is for torture. Why do this? Because you want to escape the rule of law. There is only one thing that you want to escape the rule of law to do, and that is to question people coercively—what some people call torture. Guantánamo and the military commissions are implements for breaking the law. Why build a prison here when there are plenty of prisons in Nebraska? Why is it, when we see photos of Abu Ghraib, we think that it is "exporting Guantánamo"? That it is the "Guantánamo method"?

[...]

[W]hy a military commission? Because if you torture someone, it is the only way you can get their statements in and not have to admit it in public.

—Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, January 2007, to the author, Marie Brenner, in the article, Taking on Guantánamo, Vanity Fair, March 2007.

escaping the rule of law... the motto of and, hopefully, the epitaph of the bush administration...

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Wrong, Hillary, m'dear

they don't FEAR your candidacy... they are TURNING HANDSPRINGS at the thought of you as the democratic presidential candidate... you are the stuff of their wet dreams... they can't wait to tear you limb from limb, and drag your bludgeoned body through the streets of every city and town in the united states... if you believe that they're saying they FEAR your candidacy because they actually DO, you are dumber than advertised...

Karl Rove fears the presidential candidacy of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a report at the website The Politico. The news was based on a statement by the candidate herself in a New Hampshire campaign trail appearance.

Carrie Burdoff writes that Senator Clinton observed the fear of many in the Republican establishment of her candidacy for president.

"I know what Gingrich tells people privately, I know what DeLay tells people privately, I know what Karl Rove tells people privately," Burdoff quotes Clinton stating. The remark was paired with her assurance that she and her husband had defeated the Republican establishment twice for the nation's highest office, and that she would be able to do so again.

we don't need you, hillary... stick with your day job...

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U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration's claims

there's two extraordinarily telling lines in the following ap article written by steven hurst... the first is the one i used as the post title... see if you can spot the second one...

U.S. military officials on Sunday accused the highest levels of the Iranian leadership of arming Shiite militants in Iraq with sophisticated armor-piercing roadside bombs that have killed more than 170 troops from the American-led coalition.

[...]

The presentation was the result of weeks of preparation and revisions as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration's claims of Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American forces.

Senior U.S. military officials in Baghdad said the display was prompted by the military's concern for "force protection," which, they said, was guaranteed under the United Nations resolution that authorizes American soldiers to be in Iraq.

Three senior military officials who explained the display said the "machining process" used in the construction of the deadly bombs had been traced to Iran.

The experts, who spoke to a large gathering of reporters on condition that they not be further identified, said the supply trail began with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which also is accused of arming the Hezbollah guerrilla army in Lebanon. The officials said the EFP weapon was first tested there.

so, didja spot it...? wasn't too hard was it...? now, please tell me why the "experts" would only speak on the condition that they "not be further identified...?" after reading juan cole last night, i simply can't read something like this without experiencing a gag reflex... they are trying to lead us down the garden path - again! - and our sad, pathetic, traditional media are falling for it - again...!

[UPDATE]

from the wapo...

The officials said they would speak only on the condition of anonymity, so the explosives expert and the analyst, who would normally not speak to the news media, could provide information directly. The analyst's exact title and full name were not revealed to reporters. The officials released a PowerPoint presentation including photographs of the weaponry, but did not allow media representatives to record, photograph or videotape the briefing or the materials on display.

ain't. buyin'. it.

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What matters is what Iraqis think

noam chomsky...

As to the consequences of a US withdrawal, we are entitled to have our personal judgements, all of them as uninformed and dubious as those of US intelligence. But they do not matter. What matters is what Iraqis think. Or rather, that is what should matter, and we learn a lot about the character and moral level of the reigning intellectual culture from the fact that the question of what the victims want barely even arises.

clarity of thought... what a concept...

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A prolonged U.S. occupation cannot prevent what already exists

this is heavy shit from a military heavyweight... how much of this is it going to take to get those criminals out of office...?

Victory Is Not an Option
The Mission Can't Be Accomplished -- It's Time for a New Strategy

By William E. Odom
Sunday, February 11, 2007; Page B01

William E. Odom, a retired Army lieutenant general, was head of Army intelligence and director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan.

[...]

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.

[...]

Getting out of Iraq is the pre-condition for creating new strategic options. Withdrawal will take away the conditions that allow our enemies in the region to enjoy our pain.

seriously... how much...?

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Darth to personally go to bat for Scooter

ooooo... < rubs hands together > now, THIS will be v-e-r-r-r-ry interesting...

Now, as the defense phase of the perjury trial begins, Cheney is expected to make an historic appearance on the witness stand...

ain't it curious how darth has stonewalled goddam near everything but this...?

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Jaafari: Occupying forces should leave Iraq

more juan cole...

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari of the Islamic Call (Da'wa) Party, is visiting Iran. IRNA reports,

'Concerning occupying forces in Iraq, Jafari said the best way for them is leaving Iraq adding even public opinion in their own countries supports their departure from Iraq.'

Jafari was the first elected Iraqi prime minister since 1954, and all that enthusiasm in the US in January, 2005, about the purple fingers was in essence enthusiasm for the government that he formed (April 2005-March 2006). His call, in Tehran, for US troops to go, now, should be front page news and lead the cable news cycle on Sunday. It will not be.

yes... it SHOULD be front page news IF the u.s. was indeed serious about having a democracy in iraq, which, of course, it isn't...

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One hundred percent wrong - US troops are being killed with bullets and weapons supplied by Washington

thank god for juan cole and may he/she/it save us from a war with iran that seems to be just around the corner...

NYT Falls for Bogus Iran Weapons Charges
Completely Implausible Numbers are Thrown Around
Repeat of Judy Miller Scandal

This NYT article depends on unnamed USG sources who alleged that 25 percent of US military deaths and woundings in Iraq in October-December of 2006 were from explosively formed penetrator bombs fashioned in Iran and given to Shiite militias.

This claim is one hundred percent wrong. Because 25 percent of US troops were not killed fighting Shiites in those three months. Day after day, the casualty reports specify al-Anbar Province or Diyala or Salahuddin or Babil, or Baghdad districts such as al-Dura, Ghaziliyah, Amiriyah, etc.--and the enemy fighting is clearly Sunni Arab guerrillas. And, Iran is not giving high tech weapons to Baathists and Salafi Shiite-killers.

[...]

Some large proportion of US troops being killed in Iraq are being killed with bullets and weapons supplied by Washington to the Iraqi army, which are then sold by desperate or greedy Iraqi soldiers on the black market. This problem of US/Iraqi government arms getting into the hands of the Sunni Arab guerrillas is far more significant and pressing than whatever arms smugglers bring in from Iran.

what do you think the chances are of avoiding a war with iran by relentlessly publishing the truth...? now, if we could just get traditional media to agree...

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teacherken weighs in

altho' he says he's not yet ready to call for impeachment, he's still pretty forceful in the case he makes...

I believe that we now have a very narrow period of time in which the Congress can reassert its rightful role as a coequal branch of government. It has been clear for several years that this administration does not believe that it should be subject to any constraints it is not willing to impose on itself. From observing its behavior as far back as the 2000 campaign, it is clear that it is willing to go to any lengths it deems warranted (which means to any lengths necessary) in order that it can claim that its power has not been restricted.

[...]

This Congress was elected to restrain this administration, especially but not exclusively in its military adventurism. It cannot fulfill its responsibility to the American people until it is willing to act much more directly.

here's what i think needs to happen... a bipartisan group of congressional leaders, the joint chiefs of staff, at least one supreme court justice, and two or three prominent and respected members of the private sector community both d and r, demand a visit with george and dick, and recommend that they both resign, along with their cabinet heads, for the good of the country... we are way, way beyond this being a dem or a repub issue, and we do not have the luxury of waiting for an impeachment process to grind its way forward... pelosi could take over and run what would essentially be a caretaker government until the 2008 election... this needs to be done soon, preferably yesterday...

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Dumping Darth

the latest revelations about the shootist's dark deeds prompt major danby to become somewhat (in his measured fashion) shrill...

What politicians think about impeachment:

I think that the questions that politicians ask in a situation such as this are:

1. Is what we're doing right? That is, is it constitutionally justified? Is it necessary, which means that the precedent we set cannot be easily abused in the future, but can instead be applied to relatively narrow circumsances?

2. Will this play well with the voters? Will they understand what we are doing and ascibe righteous motivations to our actions?

3. Will this action been judged to be righteous by history, like the Democrats in 1974, or will we end up looking as bad as the GOP in 1998/99 or as self-serving as Benjamin Wade in 1865?

4. How likely is it that we will succeed? Politicians may require more than I do on this point. I don't require a guarantee of success, but merely that the answers to the first three questions are "yes" and that those who disagree with us will therefore suffer.

Why Cheney is now impeachable:

If these reports are accurate, Cheney has asserted a legal theory that, if accepted, would put him beyond legal control. Congress can't control him (he's partly in the Executive), the President can't control him (he's partly in the Legislative), and the courts won't control him (see the Supreme Court case over his records of meeting with oil executives.) In other words, there is no remedy for his wrongful political actions.

Now I'm confident that he's wrong about his theory. But that almost doesn't matter. Even if he's right, we have the right to demand of our Vice Presidents that they don't exercise this enormous power.

[...]

What Cheney has done here is to force members of Congress to decide whether they are men and women or mice. Hearings won't take long; the facts are not in dispute. Cheney's lawyers should be able to make their case before both the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate; 363 tons of Constitutional Law experts and former Vice Presidents (another moment in the sun for Walter Mondale! And would Dan Quayle like some revenge? And hello, Al Gore!) will rebut the argument until everyone can see how disgusting and wrong it is. And it doesn't matter if Cheney abandons the argument now; if he acted on it for five years, that's the only "high crime or misdemeanor" we need. If he is not impeached and removed, he could reassert this right again later. There's only one way to stop him and discredit his offensive theory. Remove him.

god knows, i support it... whatever can put a stopper on continuing constitutional dismemberment gets my vote...

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Well, duh, Vladimir

vlado isn't my favorite world political figure, but that doesn't mean he can't occasionally hit the nail on the head...

- QUOTATION OF THE DAY -

"Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations - military force."

- VLADIMIR V. PUTIN, President of Russia, on the U.S.

here's the details...

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia accused the United States on Saturday of provoking a new nuclear arms race by developing ballistic missile defenses, undermining international institutions and making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war.

In an address to an international security conference, Mr. Putin dropped all diplomatic gloss to recite a long list of complaints about American domination of global affairs, including many of the themes that have strained relations between the Kremlin and the United States during his seven-year administration.

Among them were the expansion of NATO into the Baltics and the perception in Russia that the West has supported groups that have toppled other governments in Moscow’s former sphere of influence.

“The process of NATO expansion has nothing to do with modernization of the alliance,” Mr. Putin said. “We have the right to ask, ‘Against whom is this expansion directed?’ ”

He said the United States had turned the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which sends monitors to elections in the former Soviet sphere, “into a vulgar instrument of ensuring the foreign policy interests of one country.”

you can be sure that, given the source, even liberals and progressives will be tempted to dismiss such criticism as merely global political posturing... however, it's worth looking at the nuggets of truth in putin's statements... while all of the above ring true in many ways, the most disturbing one is this...

He expressed alarm that an effective antimissile shield over the United States would upset a system of mutual fear that kept the nuclear peace throughout the cold war. “That means the balance will be upset, completely upset,” he said.

with the u.s. resuming nuclear weapons research and development and considering the resumption of underground nuclear testing, the prospect of re-igniting a nuclear arms race is a chilling prospect, particularly given our sharing of nuclear technology with india, pakistan's instability, iran's bid to join the nuclear club, israel's nuclear stockpile, and the ticking middle east time bomb...

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