I think E.J. Dionne is being too tough on Dick Cheney. No, I mean it. Really.
Dionne claims there are two Cheneys — one which called it right by criticising Putin’s record on human rights in Russia, and the other Cheney which missed the boat entirely by publicly praising the leader of Khazakstan.
I think Dionne misses the point entirely. Peter Baker sums things up:
A day after scolding Russia for retreating on democracy, Vice President Cheney flew to oil-rich Kazakhstan yesterday and lavished praise on the autocratic leader of a former Soviet republic where opposition parties have been banned, newspapers shut down and advocacy groups intimidated. (emphasis mine)
Cheney wasn’t being hypocritical, he was just stopping to smell the roses and admire the stately pleasure dome. I mean, honestly, read Baker’s description again and tell me you don’t think Cheney’s just a little jealous of the sweet little dictatorship set-up that Nursultan Nazarbayev has going for him.
(H/T to Froomkin, whose column is fantastic today. If you have a question you’d like to see the media ask Tony Snow in his first briefing next Monday, Froomkin would love to share it with everyone. Please take a peek at his column and send in your questions according to his guidelines.)
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Fitz
Condi admits that the administration responded to the Iran letter before getting it properly translated
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0509.html
Oh my oh my….Fitztastic!
I saw that, xyz. SIGH
EPU’d – Did I miss this tidbit somewhere? Melanie Sloan from CREW is saying she is (almost) positive that Rove has recieved a target letter.
fitz-a-liscious!
I dunno, I’m thinking it might also be teensy bit hypocritical, too. A fun-loving guy like Cheney certainly knows how to mix business with pleasure.
mommybrain
What is CREW? Link please?
xyz: war drums are banging loudly. Scary that woman is!
OT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01323.html
Digital Lynch Mob
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, May 9, 2006; A23
(snippets)
…………………”Then I wrote about Stephen Colbert and his unfunny performance at the White House correspondents’ dinner.”
Kapow! Within a day, I got more than 2,000 e-mails. A day later, I got 1,000 more. By the fourth day, the number had reached 3,499 — a figure that does not include the usual offers of nubile Russian women or loot from African dictators. The Colbert messages began with Patrick Manley (”You wouldn’t know funny if it slapped you in the face”) and ended with Ron (”Colbert ROCKS, you MURDER”) who was so proud of his thought that he copied countless others. Ron, you’re a genius.
When I guilelessly clicked on the name, I would get a bucket of raw, untreated and disease-laden verbal sewage right in the face.
………………………
It seemed that most of my correspondents had been egged on to write me by various blogs. In response, they smartly assembled into a digital lynch mob and went roaring after me. If I did not like Colbert, I must like Bush. If I write for The Post, I must be a mainstream media warmonger. If I was over a certain age — which I am — I am simply out of it, wherever “it” may be. All in all, I was — I am, and I guess I remain — the worthy object of ignorant, false and downright idiotic vituperation.
………………..
The hatred is back. I know it’s only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America — the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that’s going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice — once because they couldn’t stop it and once more at the polls.
cohenr@washpost.com
heee Cujo — well, I do think it’s hypocritical. But then, Cheney talking about human rights issues is pretty much a farce all by itself, now isn’t it? *g* And now to purge the Olivia Newton John Xanadu soundtrack from my brain with a little Debussy.
Three years into conflict – Iraq gets a less favorable response than Vietnam did at the same point.
But yeah, Evan, let’s run away from “ideology” for the 2006 elections bc invading a nation and destroying its infrastructure gets such resounding ideologic support.
Two Scooby snacks it is.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…..p;refer=us
xyz – no linky, she was just on Al Franken. CREW=Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
ceci @ 11:27 am (#10) – Apparently, all those obscenity filters on the WaPo’s e-mail system aren’t working for Cohen.
thanks mommybrain
you’re welcome xyz
‘Words that do not match deeds are unimportant’
;>)
Reddhead gets a shoutout from WarandPiece http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004137.html
Christy,
Keep all your dreams alive…….
-GSD
Mary @ 11:28 am (#12) – Mmmm. Love those biscuits.
As for the Iraq War being less popular than Vietnam at this point, look at the bright side – maybe some of us did learn something from Vietnam.
From: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publica…..os/kz.html
“Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves”
Cheney would woo the farmer’s pig if the farmer had oil under his land.
I went to the CREW website and noticed that they have a tip line – is that how this person knows about a target letter? Or does she have another source? Sorry for all the questions, but that is exciting news, if true.
Also, can anyone tell me the typical time period that elapses between the point where Fitz gives a target letter and Fitz indicts?
Thanks very much.
hey kids . . .
CREW:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/
sloan is great —- way ahead of the pack!
xyz – I have no answers about that. She threw this in while discussing Ney’s troubles and all the rethug stool pigeons willing to coo in order to get lighter sentences.
Richard Cohen’s brilliant prognostication from the past.
November 2000:
“Given the present bitterness, given the angry irresponsible charges being hurled by both camps, the nation will be in dire need of a conciliator, a likable guy who will make things better and not worse. That man is not Al Gore. That man is George W. Bush.”
-GSD
I read the Baker article and was stunned (I really don’t know why) at the hypocrisy of Cheney’s visit to Khazakstan after the remarks he made about Russia. Could it be any more obvious why he sucked up to K-stan? Oil. perhaps? I mean, that is why we tread so lightly with the Saudis, isn’t it? What’s a little repression and human rights abuse when there’s oil to be had?
Grrrr…
I also read the Todd Purdum Vanity Fair article on Cheney – I’m sorry, but the man simply cannot be humanized, which probably explains the attraction to Lynne Cheney.
Wrote an e-mail to Richard Cohen, but since he admits that he only tends to read those from people he thinks he knows, he won’t read mine. Told him that he not only had missed the boat, he wasn’t even at the dock. Told him that I thought it was entirely appropriate for people to be angry about what this administration has done and I thought the poll numbers backed me up on that. Pointed him to a few right-wing blogs where he could experience out-of-control anger and rage. Explained that when the poll numbers are what they are, it isn’t just Democrats who are angry.
Really, really have to get some work done.
Jane,
FOR US OREGONIANS ONLY!
I just read Willy Week’s ‘No-Sweat Voting’ for our primary May 16th. The comment section there is rather contentious. I’m wondering if you’ve done a State, Federal and Judiciary endorsement yet that you may want to share with us Beavers and Ducks. Is there any net-roots support activity? What’s the behind-the-scenes dirt? You can write me direct if you think this is too narrow for the blog.
curve666, Beaverton–RepDist 28, SenDist 14Jane,
Cheney doesn’t even care whether he appears human. He has gotten almost everything he wants by being a bastard; why change now?
I noticed Cheney did an interview with Kelly O’Donnell and his trademark “Cheney sneer” was nowhere to be seen. I am really curious if he is either now consciuously avoiding that face or if he indeed had some cosmetic surgery to remove the telltale sneer from his pug.
-GSD
GSD:
A touch of botox on the sneer wrinkle does wonders.
xyz at 2 – so we’ll nuke iran without even reading the letter – great foreign policy and continues the illiteracy of this entire war build-up – like the completely wrong translation of “wiping Israel off the map” – see Juan Cole for a full translation of the Iranian letter:
http://www.juancole.com/
Anyone else streaming the Kavenaugh hearing on C-Span 3?
He looks like a 20 something. Now being asked about signing statements.
Gene Kelly was in Xanadu?
Sheesh.
Now that is hypocritical….. or is it hippocratical…. just plain hippocrap?
Which reminds me – do they boil the hippos in their tanks in K’Stan, or is that only happening one of the other of BigTime’s favorite Stans, the one that starts with the ‘U’ that Xanadu ends with?
.
Motherlawn,
He just doesn’t seem like Our Dick without all the wrinkles.
-GSD
Condi on CNN banging the war drum live now– she is grotesque.
Christy Hardin Smith says: “…a little Debussy.”
May 9th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Debussy is a fine choice. I’m thinking now of composers who were Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s contemporaries – Chopin and Mendelssohn (early in their careers), Beethoven, and so on…
GSD– do you think our Dick might have had a facial circumcision rather than botox? Cause I think it would take an enormous and dangerous amount of botox to get rid of that sneer for even a 1 hour period.
Albatross #22: Russia has oil too. But Cheney knows he can’t get control of any of it. I think the out-of-the-blue diatribe against Russia was another part of the plan to work up a fake Iran crisis for the election. If anyone has more info and context, I would like to see FDL post a longer analysis of Cheney’s inconsistent talk and walk over last few days. Anyone have any info on current stance and role of Russia in multilateral negotiations with Iran? Anything particular going on the Cheney wanted to sour, or was it just an attempt to put a little chill in the air?
Condi is demanding Hamas “renounce violence” — but will Condi do the same? Inquiring minds in Tehran and Indianapolis want to know…
guys I am taking a tv vacation today . . . and it’s everything I hoped it would be -
Seriously, does Fitz have to sleep like normal humans?
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/l…..43817.html
Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 12:00 pm (#37) – Christy Hardin Smith says: “…a little Debussy.â€
You guys are too intellectual. Just put on an AC-DC album and you’ll have forgotten all about Olivia Whatsername in about fifteen seconds.
*ilson46201– Jimmy Carter did an editorial about the Palestinian people on Sunday:
>>>>>>>
Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime. Because they voted for candidates who are members of Hamas, the United States government has become the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of depriving the general public of income, access to the outside world and the necessities of life.
Overwhelmingly, these are school teachers, nurses, social workers, police officers, farm families, shopkeepers, and their employees and families who are just hoping for a better life. Public opinion polls conducted after the January parliamentary election show that 80 percent of Palestinians still want a peace agreement with Israel based on the international road map premises. Although Fatah party members refused to join Hamas in a coalition government, nearly 70 percent of Palestinians continue to support Fatah’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas, as their president.
It is almost a miracle that the Palestinians have been able to orchestrate three elections during the past 10 years, all of which have been honest, fair, strongly contested, without violence and with the results accepted by winners and losers. Among the 62 elections that have been monitored by us at the Carter Center, these are among the best in portraying the will of the people.
http://www.iht.com/articles/20…..carter.php
cbl at 41 — saving up for tomorrow? *g*
Cheney’s consistency is all about one thing: restoring the power of the executive, especially the presidency, that was eroded by the Watergate-era reforms. To that end, the decision to mouth platitudes about democracy (or not) in foreign countries has little to do with those other countries and everything to do with how to bolster a Bush presidency.
Mudslides out here in Northern California often occur after weeks of rain that saturate the hillsides. Once all that rain seeps through the soil to the bedrock, it can form a slippery mat between the two that lets the whole hillside separate and begin to slide.
That’s what’s happening to Dubya. It’s been raining on his presidency for quite a while (Libby, Goss and the Gosslings, Miers, Katrina, Brownie, . . .) , and with the saturation point having been reached in more than a few places, things are starting to cut loose from their moorings and slide.
All Cheney is trying to do is stand in the way of the slide and will it to stop. I don’t suppose his words will have any more impact on Russia or Khazakhstan than they do here in the US.
Christy at 45 – Gawd I hope you’re right.
GSD – chokespluttercough
Cujo – I’d sure like to believe that. Siun saw some of what I did on the Dem’s “national security” stategerizing, and part of it included this glossy “young Dems want to stay the course cuz they are patriots” spiel that made me so sad. Of course they are a patriotic bunch – but they are the same patriotic bunch that has been affirmed, time and time again, to have a dearth of critical analytic listening skills when it comes to interpreting news stories (although Jon’s crew does better than others) and who linked arms with the Fox-ers on thinking that the 9/11 hijackers were FROM Iraq and SUPPORTED by Iraq and that’s why we were invading (add on the young soldiers in Iraq who poll in overwhelming numbers as thinking that the “mission” was to punish/respond to Iraq’s involvement in 9/11. No wonder you have such disconnects – if the Dems feel it is too “boatrocky” to head on meet, defeat and dispel outright lies and misconceptions how will there ever be a clear the path for an actual discussion of resolution and any differentiation and delineation between the candidates?
There SHOULD be ideologic outrage that our soldiers are being told they are there because of Sadaam Hussein’s role in 9/11 – that is telling LIES to kids who may die and it sets up a very different occupation than you get with a “we’re here to liberate you” mindset – doesn’t it? Or is it harder to tell soldiers to bomb a city to rubble, dehumanizee and torture as consistent with a “here to help you” approach?
It’s not wonder it is a complete mess. IF there had been a game plan, those mixed signals would have made a mess out of the best laid plans.
If all Bayh et al want to do is mollycoddle the Administration, make peace with lies and abrogate their responsbility to make sure our soldiers have a definable mission and are TOLD THE TRUTH and start acting like IDEAS and ANALYSIS and COURAGE don’t put you “12 points behind Republicans” I’m just about equally disgusted.
And look someone in the eye when you tell them why their kids have to go die so that you aren’t perceived as “lashing out” at the administration.
Dionne’s thought isn’t original. He is adopting Hunter Thompson’s take on Ed Muskee (paraphrasing “You didn’t know if you were going to get Captain Queeg, Bozo the Clown, or Abe Lincoln).
If there is more than one Cheney, none of them are Lincoln, which leaves you only with Bozo the Clown or Captain Queeg or Darth Vader or ….
Christy 45 – from your keyboard to God’s monitor. *g*
poor Tony Snow! his first week in the job and he will have to explain away the Rove arrest…
Peterr 46, nice analogy. The flood plain here is finally starting to dry out, but not so for W.
EPU 49 – Captain Bozo . . . or maybe Darth Queeg.
A list of oil and gas projects in Kazhakistan. Take careful note of the Project Partners in the second column. Might shed a little sunshine on Deadeye’s motives.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/kazaproj.html
On the other hand, it would take a huge circumcision to eliminate the debilitating’ loose epidermal features on Dick’s head…
…and shame on you for the posole spray I now have to wipe off my monitor…
BBC reporting
“Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia are among states to be elected to the new UN Human Rights Council.”
add us to the mix and up is down and down is up. Orwell territory.
RevDeb 34 – I’ve seen him b4 and it is too depressing to watch those hearings.
LIFETIME CIRCUIT COURT appointment.
To about the most important Circuit going.
Thank GOD Evan Bayh straightened me out about letting the Republicans have all the ideology.
GSD – that is rich!
Remember this meme from 2000? “The grown-ups are in charge.”
And how about these quotes from 2000:
so sowwy, klevenstein! that’s gonna leave a mark…
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s abrupt dismissal of a letter from Iran’s president might only strengthen hardline attitudes and mistrust of America, some Iranians warned Tuesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin…..an-US.html
don’t take anything Evan Bayh says seriously … us Hoosiers learned that years ago !
Darth Queeg – Sounds like a keeper to me.
Check out FDL on the last graph at this link:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/9/135753/5360
You go girls!
Mary,
not only lifetime, but DC circuit! Second most powerful court in the country.
I have to admit that watching the suckasse republicrooks on the committee makes me want to barf. I would but I don’t want to ruin my laptop. How those know-nothings got appointed to this committee is stunning! Jeff Sessions? Coburn? I know that Cornyn was supposedly a judge in TX, but really . . . words fail me.
I have to admit that I was listening to Olivia Newton John’s classic “Totally Hot” just a few hours ago. My favorite male singer is Nick Cave.
Alas, if only the Bush administration was merely capricious in their musical choices and not dangerously malicious and self-serving in every possible way.
Dick Cheney’s Hu(ge)-Bris
Mary @ 12:13 pm (#48) – Don’t know what strategerizing you’re referring to, but I suspect you’re right about its basic direction. There was an article in the local paper this weekend about Sen. Cantwell meeting with some anti-war folks after a local political pep rally. They were people who had family members in the service. They didn’t sway her. Cantwell still says she’s supporting the war, or maybe not. It’s supposed to be “a year of transition”, whatever the hell that means. With her skills at contortion, I wonder if Maria was ever in the Cirqe de Soleil.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c…..e=20060507
Apparently, it has been too long since young people were endangered en masse by the mistakes of the government. They seem to be able to focus just fine on video games. I remember Bruce Springsteen saying at a concert many years ago “blind faith in your government can get you killed”. But he lived through Vietnam, and saw people he grew up with go there and not come back. I bet most young people nowadays don’t know anyone personally who’s been to Iraq, and Vietnam is just something they were forced to study in history class.
Critical thinking skills have always been in short supply. That’s why there are so many conspiracy theorists, “alien abductees”, and bigots out there. When I was in my teens and twenties alien astronauts, the Bermuda Triangle, fear of Trilateralism, and crystal science were all the rage. Now, it’s 911 conspiracies and fear of devil worship and Islam. It would be nice if they could be improved in the general population, but I don’t see a massive decrease in those skills over the previous generations. Just maybe more need for them.
now we have Greek-English-Hebrew punnerie going on …
Sure hope Condi’s raced that letter over to Andrew and Christopher’s place for a bang-up to the minute translation!
Actually it’s amazing they are answering mail these days. Previous letters from good friendly folks like Mossedeq and Ho Chi Minh used to get tossed didn’t they.
Evan Bayh is like mashed potatos without butter, salt or cream. Dry, bland, and without any vigor.
He’s another unfortunate legacy senator like the 2 here in NH– Sununu and Gregg.
Okay, let’s see now…
We’ve got a Preznit whose favorite moment during his Preznitzery has been catching a “7 pound perch” (uh… yeah.)
And then a guy who doesn’t want to run for president, but whose favorite memory so far as a senator has been hanging out with Neil Young…
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Ne…..69080.html
SOOOOO much is wrong with this picture, my friends… we got this whole dadgummed machine plugged in the wrong way round!
GSD #57
Where did you get those priceless quotes?
better punnery than connerie
(darn – broke my FDL abstinence for a day pledge. now crawling back under rock.)
angie @ 12:09 pm (#44) – Gaza is the closest thing to a successful democracy in the Arab world, and yet we seem to miss no opportunity to piddle on it lately.
OT – streaming the Kavanaugh hearing… God, that Cornyn (cornhole) is smarmy. Yeeesh.
Evan Blah
The thoughts, words, actions, and policy decisions of this administration are ALL those of a group of people who are drunk with power and know there is no one out there to get in their way. They don’t care about lying, being hypocritical, being evil, trampling on the Constitution and what’s left of our democracy—you name it. Why should they? The Republicans aren’t going to do anything about it. The Democrats aren’t going to do anything about it (even if they could, apparently). They don’t have to worry about poll numbers. They’re quietly enacting their right-wing agenda and nothing is stopping them.
That’s what happens when all the checks & balances are gone, folks.
Evan Bayh’s great strength is that he is so bland even rabid Republicans can’t get upset at him…
Perhaps we should nominate Big Dick for Keith O’s Worst Person in the World today?
Cujo359– we are strangling it– how can a young democracy succeed without basic services, money, food or any hope at all?
punaise– don’t leave… we need levity in these trying times. your 65 was oh-so-clever.
Pssst. Buddy. Your money laundering is showing…
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/…..-contract/
Evan Bayh always reminds me of Eric Idle’s bit in the old “Interesting People” sketch on Monty Python… where he’s so dulllll and borinnnnng and teeeeedious and nooooobody ever listens to a worrrrrrrd he says although he keeps tallllllking and they never cast a glannnnnce in his direction… that he eventually becomes invisible.
EPU, Leslie In CA:
“Ah, but the E and P’s!“
;>)
angie – I could continue in that vein with a crude remark based on “some egg, ma”, but I won’t go there.
Re: #62: Way to go, FDL! You definitely deserve to be on the blog map! Keep kicking that Republican b*tt!! :)
OT-
Group to release new Katrina emails; Day Katrina
struck, Michael Brown wrote of moussing his hair…
http://tinyurl.com/khebs
The NYT is reporting that jury selection for Fitz’s Chicago hiring trial will begin tomorrow. Does that mean Fitz won’t be in DC meeting with the grand jury?
K-street project includes political favoritism in government contracts and grants:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c…..008404.php
[Bush HUD secty’s shows his] understanding of how government contracting works: political supporters get contracts so they can pump a percentage of the profits back into the political party. Standard machine politics, at best. Organized bribery, at worst. And whatever you want to call it, the guiding principle of all contracting and government spending in the second Bush administration.
Said [HUD secty] Jackson: “He didn’t get the contract. Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don’t get the contract. That’s the way I believe.”
Minnestotachuck 71,
Link to priceless Bush quotes. Debate with Al Gore in 2000 campaign.
I think they should be resurrected. I have also been trying to find the exact language of a quote I remember him making about even the “appearance” of corruption being unacceptable in his admin. In reference to Clinton, of course.
#71.
Chuck, that was someone else. I have been doing my level best to bring the level of discourse down into the gutter to better prep for a Glenn Beck style job.
Look at this exchange on his new show with his co-worker Erica Hill:
(Snip)
Beck: You are looking hot in leather..
Hill: Well thank you Beck, I’ll be on your show everynight just for that.
Beck: Oh yea, I’m wearing leather pants right now.
Hill, (grabled) Oh, that’s…
Beck, Oh, no! I’m not wearing pants.
Hill: That’s definitely’ more information than I needed…
(End-o-snip)
I had to jump out of the fever swamp to send a nasty-gram to CNN for hiring this fascist knave.
CNN is brilliantly looking to scoffing up the remaining 31% of the Bush Zombie market that is not dedicated to Fox News. Nice target market fudge-heads.
-GSD
Link on 88 didn’t work so here it is!
Ryan(R) down, Daley(D) up next.
Shredding docs and patronage – glad Bayh is so sure that ideology is off the table, and that it works for Dems to adopt that Republican ideology. *s*
http://tinyurl.com/k3pxa
86 -I have no idea what Fitzgerald will do or not do with Rove & Co, but scheduling in the Daley case shouldn’t have a huge impact, at this stage.
CNN hiring Beck to go head to head with Loofah boy… ick.
OT CNN reporting the Rethugs plan to flood the judicial nominees and blast the faithful with requests for LTEs and calls to talk radio… their desperate strategy to rally the base. So isn’t it about time we come up with a counter-move.
Like, while the Republicans sit at their poker games coming up with new ways to give middle class and poor tax money to the rich and mega-corps, while Wall Street dances on your outsourced jobs and underfunded pensions, the Democrats promise to restore the middle class and our middle class values that hard work and taking care of our families are never out of date…and should never be made into political games.
Darkblack 82 – Very funny :) “Soneone stole the quail….and….”
My Tony Snow question…
Dear Dan,
The story line has devolved to the 4th anmendment flap, but there was another question that’s in the C-SPAN video archives. It’s the central question of this whole story :
The press needs to follow-up on this:
Gen. Michael Hayden refused to answer question about spying on political enemies at National Press Club. At a public appearance, Bush’s pointman in the Office of National Intelligence was asked if the NSA was wiretapping Bush’s political enemies. When Hayden dodged the question, the questioner repeated, “No, I asked, are you targeting us and people who politically oppose the Bush government, the Bush administration? Not a fishing net, but are you targeting specifically political opponents of the Bush administration?” Hayden looked at the questioner, and after a silence called on a different questioner. (Hayden National Press Club remarks, 1/23/06)
I want Tony Snow on the record with that one. There’s plenty of examples from the past of just this happening…from Elenore Roosevelt to Dan Shorr.
Sincerely.
Mary – the little that I heard of the Democratic strategy “progressive” blah blah was so infuriating … buy into all the worst thinking of the last 30 years on the Middle East and then present that as progressive! I wanted to give that young lady a good talking to – she slandered my generation and then reported that young people today are so much wiser – I noticed that her “data” was based on white youth … hmmmm
still steaming – until someone leads foreign policy who actually has some minimal knowledge of the world and a little understanding of blowback … we are doomed to continuing the nonstop war
Cujo – Cirque, eh? Cartwheels? *g*
*ilson – I AM (at least, from time to time) a Hooiser (granted, I claim South of the Ohio River more frequently and live there now, but I’ve lived and worked more years in Evansville)
Feingold and Conyers should just start a thrid party and to heck with it. It will be tough slogging at first, but worth it in the end.
Mary @ 1:15 pm (#91) – If anyone needs to be reminded that stupid, corrupt government is exclusively the province of Republicans, this paragraph from that link should do it:
[emphasis mine]
Makes you wonder how long they’d been doing this if they were that blase’ about it.
op99 @ 62,
thanks for the Dkos link, their snark alone was worth it -
1 in 5 reading the web visit DKos – thatis incredible
Re: my (#98) that should say “corrupt government isn’t exclusively”
Dang, punaise (#65)!
I got the posole all wiped off got into a work-related discussion, and now I’ve got posole on my screen again!
I haven’t read all the posts here, and I only caught the tail end of Abrams report, but I thought I heard Shuster say indictment within a couple of hours?
Did I miss anything, or get it wrong?
Cujo – sadly stupid, corrupt government is not solely a republican achievement … hence the despair.
Take a look at the lack of sanity on foreign policy.
new thread
Is it true that if you put Bayh, Feinstein, Lieberman, Obama, Clinton, Shumer, and Biden together in a single room their blather would quickly consume all the oxygen and they would expire? Inquiring minds want to know.
More priceless Bush quotes from 2000:
“it’s time to clean up the toxic environment in Washington, D.C.”
And the $$$ quote:
“My administration will ask not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves.”
EPU @ 94:
‘Soon, proof (using geometric logic) will be offered that a duplicate Cheney exists, a sinister sort not at all like the hail-fellow-well-met chap that we all know, and he’d have been produced if they (they, of course, being the howling froth-flecked liberal mobs Hell-bent on a torchlit necktie party) hadn’t pulled the OVP out of action.’
‘Of course, they’re only trying to protect their fellow treasonators’
;>)
klevenstein 101:
sorry, may I console you about the posole on your console? or would you rather stew in your own juices? :~)
Cheney’s hearting of the corrupt and autocratic Khazakstan regime is no doubt intended to harness their rich oil and gas resources to serve the energy addiction of the US economy and, at the same time, to reap rewards for Halliburton and other cronies in the energy and infrastructure business.
But one should note, also, the typically clumsy and ham-fisted “diplomacy†involved in the way he dealt with Putin versus Nazarbayev.
It’s one thing to play off dictatorial Khazakstan against human rights violations in Russia, which is a self-evident contradiction. But this approach is also counterproductive in terms of the current objective of Bushco to win support of Putin in the Security Council for their strategy of dealing with Iran.
siun @ 1:32 pm (#103) – Did you miss my correction before posting, or are you affirming what I was really trying to say?
Condi is demanding Hamas “renounce violenceâ€
How come she never asks Israel to “renounce violence”? Hamas has been following a unilateral truce for the past year, during which time it has renounced violence, in that it hasn’t committed any, while Israel has been bombing Gaza and the West Bank with happy abandon, and at the same time is “violently” stealing Palestinian land through the construction of its illegal wall and the seeding of its colonies with more and more extremely violent settlers. Yet it’s Hamas that must “renounce violence”?
I think I’ve gone through the Looking Glass.
Punaise 65 – Hu(ge)-bris (snip snip oops)= dickless cheney
almonty says:
May 9th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
The NYT is reporting that jury selection for Fitz’s Chicago hiring trial will begin tomorrow. Does that mean Fitz won’t be in DC meeting with the grand jury?
Fitz has plenty of superstars in the Chicago office, including Patrick Collins who tried the George Ryan case. Deep bench there.
This is the question I submitted to Mr. Froomkin (one of my heroes for truth, integrity and the American way):
This is the question I would like answered by the Bush administration:
“Tony, exactly how much crude oil was President Bush depositing daily into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? And did he actually suspend the program temporarily or did President Bush just decrease the amount being pumped daily into the reserve?”
You see, Dan, this information must be classified since Bush didn’t say specifically how much was being deposited, which led to a lot of people apparently guessing at the amount.
In the day that followed Bush’s announcement, I heard three different figures mentioned: 7,000 barrels a day, 30,000 barrels a day and 70,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Strange. Or at least, it sounded strange to me because I seem to be one of only a few people who realize that Bush must come up with 250 MILLION barrels of crude oil if he is to top off our nation’s strategic “gas tank.”
250 MILLION barrels? Well, you see, Congress has authorized (on Bush/Cheney’s orders?) an increase in the SPR’s storage capacity from about 750 million barrels of crude to 1 billion barrels of crude. Ergo, Bush needs 250 million barrels of crude oil (import oil mainly?) to fulfill his order.
This must be the program Bush has supposedly temporarily suspended…until after the November elections. However, in a news article I read last week, a reporter mentioned that Bush had only decreased how much he was depositing…not suspended it.
But, what does this all mean?
If the lower amounts that people were apparently guessing at are close to what Bush was depositing, then it would take anywhere from 10 to 80 years to fill up the reserve…based on the 250 MILLION barrel requirement.
But, what if Bush/Cheney had secretly decided to top off the reserve by year’s end? Maybe in preparation for going to war with Iran?
This deadline would necessitate 1 to 3 MILLION barrels of crude oil being deposited each day into the reserve.
Aaaaah. And this would definitely have had a major impact on our nation’s oil supplies, and how much was making it to the oil refineries to be processed into gasoline. Therefore, gasoline prices at the pump, starting a couple of months ago after this program began, would have skyrocketed.
Now, I must admit, Dan, that I am just guessing that this is what caused much of the recent spike in gas prices. I may be wrong. And I am aware that other factors contributed to the gasoline price hikes. But, isn’t anyone suspicious that Bush mentioned this program’s cessation at a news conference where he was addressing what steps could be taken to lower gas prices?
And yet, based on the subsequent guesses I heard, the amount being deposited apparently would have had a negligible effect on gasoline prices, as per what the guessers were saying. Unless, of course, the amount Bush was having pumped daily into the increased-capacity Petroleum Reserve was actually a very substantial amount of crude oil, probably over 1 million barrels a day…which would have significantly impacted gasoline prices.
Dan, I smell a cover-up. So, this is the question I would ask Tony Snow. And how he answered the question would say a lot concerning whether my suspicion is warranted or not. Of course, my guess is that he would duck it by saying he’d check into it and get back later with the information…which I doubt would actually happen.