Robert Greenwald, who can be seen in the above YouTube of his interview on CNBC’s Power Lunch, has a fantastic documentary coming out on war profiteering: Iraq for Sale – The War Profiteers. Readers in the DC area will be interested to know that a press conference will be held for the film on Monday, September 18th, hosted with Sen. Byron Dorgan in the Dirkson Office Building at 11:00 am ET. This is an issue that deserves a whole lot more sunshine and needs much, much more accountability. (If you would like to attend a screening — or host one yourself — you can find information here onhow to do just that.)
We’ve been trying to spotlight the issue here at FDL with Matt O.’s great posts on the subject and beyond, but this film really brings the issue home in so many very important ways — through a visual medium that really brings the day to day story right in your face. It is very well done, and we’ll be bringing you much more information on the film in the days to come.
Oh, and speaking of a need for accountability, it’s all well and good until someone mentions the practical implications of the Bush Administration policies for real people in the real world. Digby has the analysis, and is spot on (as usual).
Bob Geiger has a sampling of the week in cartoons — and man, are some of them painful and hilarious at the same time. (Thanks, Bob! I needed that this morning.)
Some days, you just have to read yourself some Billmon and say, "Damn! I wish I’d written that." See here and here.
Gilliard finds a few choice words for Mayor Bloomberg and the DLC…and their impending alleged nuptuals. (The Muck is linking up a Forbes article that says the DLC may lose its tax exempt status.)
Michael Powell has been a bad boy. (Crooks and Liars has the scoop — when will they learn that it is the cover up that bites you in the ass every time?)
Josh has some info on the IRS digging into a church in LA that preaches tolerance and peace. (Because, you know, Jesus was all about the bias, the bling and the warmaking at all costs. Ahem.) I’m wondering when the Dobson gang can expect the same treatment from the IRS for preaching GOP-based values? Yeah, I know, keep waiting in this Administration.
Funniest headline I’ve seen this week: "Ney: I’m Guilty, I’m Sorry, I Drink." (Apparently you also play go-between to Jack Abramoff and Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), while he was still a member of the Bush Cabinet. Ooops.)
Oh, and first they pressure the CIA to change their analysis to suit the desired end on Iraq. And now there are concerns that the Bush Administration is pressuring JAG attorneys to change their values and interpretation of the law to suit the Administration’s desire for CYA. Are there any ethical issues they are not willing to try and end run?
What caught your eye this morning in the news or in the blogs? Discuss…
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Manet!
Go Blue!
also, over at skippy, we’re still bitching about how they’re treating poor pluto.
adding insult to injury, scientists have assigned the former ninth planet the asteroid number 134340.
that’s right, they’ve given him a number and taken way his name.
.
EPU’d last thread. Important to repeat IMO.
Got a lovely screed in the mail from the NRCC re: Bachmann (R-Hades) vs. hometown hero Patty Wetterling (D-MN06).
Michelle Bachmann is bad news. Look for Patty Wetterling here:
http://www.actblue.com/page/patty06
What caught my eye was a silly and entirely uneccessary internecine flame war.
Not to beat this dead horse back to life, but what has the establishment (left AND right) terrified of the blogs is that we are community. A medusa that can’t be killed from the neck up.
They tried that “Wing Commander Kos” bullshit with little success. It’s the only way they can frame it; it’s familiar. If blogs become a cult of personality, it’s over. I love Billmon, and read him every day, but he’s ultimately only a theorist. He has attracted a legion of fans, but engendered no community.
That’s what this blog has done, to its credit. Jane and Christy are going to attract attention and flak. That’s a sign of progress! But the really great shit about this blog, apart from some beautiful writing, is its organizational abilities.
Gotta go pick up the girl from art class. Wish I could wrap this up Billmon stylee.
G’mornin’ Firepups…
I just been reading the exact “clarity in law” bill submitted by Bush, the one he had such a tirade over yesterday during his Pissy Presser throwdown with David Gregory. Excerpts:
_____
_____
Really all we need to know out of the 86 pages. A major CYA for all the torture he’s authorized thus far and wants to continue.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/Bus…..s.Bill.pdf
_
Balrog @
4
More here. http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/
There is a serious opposition group going after Frau Bachmann. Give them your love (please).
This might be more appropriate for “pull up a chair”, but does anyone want any tomatos?
After a slow start, our plants are putting out ripe fruit at an amazing pace. We have over 70 plants, and I’m tomato’d out.
Boy do I wish I lived somewhere warm, so I could have a bounty like this all year long.
Actually, he did — but as the community grew beyond the confines of the Whiskey Bar, it became less managable. Billmon pulled the plug on comments two years ago, and FDL has been the best thing that’s happened since then.
skippy @ 3
That’s just WRONG. I love pluto – even if he’s a little, um, different.
Hillary Clinton’s support for Bush in his quest to prove, I know not what, in Iraq, is a non-starter for her ambitious plans to be president. To say the least.
There needs to be a tidal wave of dissatisfaction with the Senator on this by progressives. I don’t want my new president in 2008 to continue the Bush-Cheney-Rove horror of world confrontation and keeping us on the brink, or worse, of WW III 24/7. Period!
With the constant threat of atomic annihilation, nothing else matters.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 11
no 2008 Dem candidate who voted “yes” on the Iraq War Resolution will get the nomination.
That includes Biden, Clinton, Edwards, Kerry, Bayh, etc.
That leaves Feingold, Clark, Warner, etc.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 11
Good point, but right now I can’t be bothered taking potshots at my “side”.
First things first, and we need to split and demotivate the pugs, while not allowing it to happen to our “side”.
-ck- @ 9
I agree, up to a point. I don’t think he started anything like Pach’s grassroots efforts.
Not dumping on the man. He’s one of the originators and still a powerhouse, if occasionally a bummer!
The Iraqi Govt plans to dig a trench around Bagdad to secure the city! Who are they kidding? They can’t even pick up the garbage or make the sewers work. If they do get lucky and succeed it will just end up being the largest circular graveyard in the world! What a bunch of rubes.
This one caught my eye
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..00483.html
If I am reading this correctly, this is a confession they are working outside the law and they KNOW they are…
But… but…. but…. ya got to remember he is just trying to do his job protecting the American people… of course I want to see that job description where it states Bush’s job is to break the law and violate the Constitution to “protect” me….
from….. who….. ?
Ed Beckmann @ 15
Our tax dollars at work! Maybe they’ll fill it with water and put alligators in it.
Ed Beckmann @ 15
But if they fill the ditch with water and add some sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads…
lina @ 17
Great minds think alike. (I don’t know what’s going on here, though.)
skippy @
3
Secret Agent Planet?
Er, *ex*-planet. (”Who is Number 1?” “You are Number 134340.”)
Ed Beckmann @ 15
Rubes is far too kind for what they are.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 10
There already is. The problem WRT her senate primary was that she had a no-name-recognition opponent who didn’t have the money or charisma (a la Lamont) to make a dent. Why don’t we shelve the anti-Hillary campaign for now, and expend our energy on re-taking Congress in 2006? We did our best on raising awareness of the Tasini primary challenge, and we will have higher profile competition to work with when the 2008 presidential race begins in earnest. Hil’s ass is already grass with progressives. The problem is to extend that to Democratic primary voters in general, and now is not the time. Let’s focus on the immediate task at hand.
Morning, all. Met Ambassador Wilson last night, at a reception for Charlie Brown. Wonderfully down-to-earth men, both of them, and Charlie’s wife, Jan, is terrific as well. And Charlie has a very good chance indeed of sending Abramoff’s BFF, John Do-nothing, packing in November.
So if anyone has some extra cash just burning a hole in their pocket this morning, consider showing some love to Charlie’s Blue America page. I’m tellin’ ya, I have a good feeling about this one.
(And this post has so many links in it, I just know it’s going straight into moderation!)
Blackwater Engineers? What that corporate whore meant was mercenaries. Well armed highly paid former special forces Soldiers who left military service to make the big bucks working for war profiteers
Ed Beckmann @
15
Two words:
Sharks.
Frickin’ lasers.
Oops – never mind…
I like this from Balkinization’s
Marty Lederman:
…..’In the hands of the Administration, then, the McCain Amendment would be “a ‘flexible’ standard,’” which would, according to officials, “allow interrogators to weigh how urgently they felt they needed to extract information against the harshness of their techniques, instead of following rigid guidelines.”
In other words, the Administration’s mantra that its bill would bring “clarity” is exactly backwards. Under the current law — Common Article 3’s categorical prohibition on “cruel treatment and torture” — the CIA techniques are plainly unlawful: That’s why the “program” has been stopped.’……
***
Eli @ 24
This is getting damned scary.
EvilDrPuma @ 26
Well, when the government is run by more sinister and mean-spirited (and dumber) versions of Dr. Evil, such associations are to be expected.
boy-o-boy This Florida boy sure hope Senor Mel gets his due. Please to have done something really stupid and dirty Mel. Any bad news there is gotta help Jim Davis, who made the wise choice of Daryl Jones for Lt Gov. See the Buzz blog at St Pete Times for FL political news – unless anyone else knows of any other good daily FL blogs.
If Colin Powell shows up on any of the Sunday shows Bush’s head will explode! C’mon Colin, do it!
Oh, and BTW: I would *love* to see Michael Powell get in some serious trouble, *and* have media consolidation regulation restored.
Eli @ 30
AY-men to that.
Moderator alert: I submitted a link-laden comment, which I fully expected to go into moderation – but I don’t see the comment here in the thread, with the little “awaiting moderation” tag on it. Can anyone take a peek and let me know if my comment actually made to moderation, or whether the system just ate it? Thanks much.
actually made it to moderation
Grrrr,so many things to be well and truly pissed off about.I’ll start with these two: (with apologies in advance for the ant-addled spacebar)
When I go to church,I go to All Saints.
George Regas, the former pastor at All Saints Church that JM writes about, is one of the most compassionate, passionate, Christian people intheentireworld. I am confidentthat my hyperbole will beborne out by anyone who knows him. He was aguestspeaker on the day the “IRS” is “concerned” about (oh, yeah, can’t you just hear the cries of outrage in the IRSoffice building?How can we possibly do our jobs
when we just blew $100 mil on a useless computer systemwe can only go after poor people nowthis guy in Pasadena made a guest appearance at a librul church and talked politics just before an election and we’re sure he was the only one in the country to do that?)George Regas was pastor at the church for maybe 20 years and never lost an opportunity to speak out about social injustice or political wankery. And this Christopath president is after him, just him. This is JUST WRONG.
And hi BobbyG! I see you’ve brought us the answerto why Bush and his apologists are so red hot to re-write the Geneva Convention. That’s quite the Get Out of Jail Free card.
Somedays, I wish I were an ostrich.
Great article in the Washington Post. How policital cronies were sent to staff the CPA in Bagdad in 2003, instead of people with expertise, expertise and language skills. And guess who was in charge of screwing up the post war CPA staffing in Iraq? Conservative commentator Kate O’Beirne’s husband Jim. No wonder those bastards at the National Review are in a panic. They not only cheerled this disaster, they actively helped screw it up …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..93_pf.html
I commented on the downsizing at Ford and its human costs yesterday but couldn’t resist repeating this quote:
Can you imagine a big time college football coach saying this, “OK, we’re down 28-14 but it doesn’t matter. Having more points than the other team is vastly overrated.”
Repeat Kate O’Beirne’s husband helped screw up Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..93_pf.html
Hugh @ 36
Points are largely cosmetic, and have very little effect on the actual outcome of the game.
anon @ 37
Well, consider, he had a choice between screwing Iraq and screwing Ol’ 60 Grit.
Which would *you* choose?
Eli @ 40
Gozer: Choose! Choose the form of the Destructor!
Thought the FireDogs would be interested in knowing that Big Dog gave the eulogy for Ann Richards this morning.
Yesterday the local PBS station, KUT, aired excerpts from Ann’s speech to a media group, in which she told this story:
When Ma Ferguson was governor of Texas in the 1920s, the state leg was having a debate similar to one that’s going on now. Should children be allowed to speak Spanish in school? When someone asked Ma her opinion, she said, “If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for the school children of Texas.”
EvilDrPuma @ 40
Are you the Gritkeeper?
The point is: Senator Clinton’s stand on the Bush Iraq War does NOT place her on the progressive side. Rather, it places her on the regressive side of this MOST important issue. Feingold, Clark, Gore, Murtha ARE in tune with common sense (progressive sense) when it comes to Iraq.
Since the 2008 election for a new president is a mere 26 months away, I don’t think it’s too early to start talking about the Democratic “front runner’s” record on the Iraq, conflagration. Or for that matter, on Clinton’s views and solutions for the whole Middle East Bush mess. What, for example, are Hillary’s ideas for solving the Palestinian/Israeli situation? Naturally, I am just speaking for myself.
I will vote for Senator Clinton for president in 2008. If I’m forced to. And the thought occurs, she just might be counting on that for a good many of us Democrats. If so, I resent it.
Not so much what I note in the news/blogs this morning as what I note in the Greenwald clip.
Glasses-wearers among us: If you’re going to be speaking before a crowd or on camera, please don’t prop your glasses on top of your head. You’ll look a tad goofy and lessen your cred before you even get a word out.
Good point Eli – ‘cept he screwed us too. **Shudder**
Here is part of the article …
“To recruit the people he wanted, O’Beirne sought rsums from the offices of Republican congressmen, conservative think tanks and GOP activists. He discarded applications from those his staff deemed ideologically suspect, even if the applicants possessed Arabic language skills or postwar rebuilding experience.
Smith said O’Beirne once pointed to a young man’s rsum and pronounced him “an ideal candidate.” His chief qualification was that he had worked for the Republican Party in Florida during the presidential election recount in 2000.”
These people truly are … insane.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 43
I fear that this is pretty much the Democratic strategy in a nutshell. Pander to the middle (who barely turn out), and assume that the base (who can turn out in droves IF MOTIVATED) will vote for you because of the awfulness of the alternative.
It hasn’t worked yet.
Leslie at 32 — I don’t see anything in moderation from you at the moment — just a lot of porn spam. SIGH But that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t gotten to it before me. Try refreshing your whole screen and see if your comment is there — if not, there may have been a server hiccup somewhere that ate it — sorry, it happens every once in a while (I lost a whole post the other day and had to re-type it. Blergh.)
Leslie at 32 — I don’t see anything in moderation from you at the moment — just a lot of porn spam.
Sorry.
tommy yum @
5
What does not kill us makes us strong. At least that’s what MY folks told me.
BobbyG @
6
”Ten years from now, when we have the whole story, we are going to be ashamed,” he said. ”This is not us. This is not the way we do business. I don’t think in our history we’ve ever had a presidential involvement, a secretarial involvement, a vice-presidential involvement, an attorney-general’s involvement in telling our troops essentially, Carte blanche is the way you should feel. You should not have any qualms because this is a different kind of conflict.”
~ Lawrence Wilkerson, in his “cabal” speech
If congress does indeed “legalize” torture — [”If congress doesn’t legalize this illegal Program, it will end.” ~ the Preznit] — would it get past the Supremes? And if congress does not legalize torture, will this “Program” — ala presidential signing statements — truly end?
Presidentally authorized horror shops — Abu Ghraib just one example of this entire obsenity.
Recall that the Pentagon is “investigating” more than (admittedly) 100 detainee deaths — “Oops! Must have shoved the baton a little too far up Ahmed’s backside!”
Note, too, that “Worried CIA Officers Buy Legal Insurance.”
Staggeringly stunning that this even remains “debatable” — that Bush & Co’s advocacy of torture is buttressed by a significant measure of popular, political support!
[”At first, we denied our culpability in the abominations of Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. But it polled well among a certain segment of voters! So now we’re openly pitching our blood lust in prime time speeches to the nation, and viciously castigating those who ‘don’t have the stomach for it!’”]
Utterly obscene.
On a McCain, Warner, Graham alternative to Bush’s torture and kangaroo courts legislation passed by the House. It would be best if it were not acted on until after the election and preferably when the new Congress with a Democratic controlled House meets in January. If it does pass the Senate before the break, then the next best hope is that the conference committee can’t agree (like what happened with immigration) and action is deferred again until January. The worst scenario is that the bill goes into conference, gets gutted, and comes out looking like the House version.
anon #46,
While this is blantant incompetence, it was facilitated by the neocon view that knowledge and expertise were impediments in the new world order they were seeking to create. Familiarity with the Middle East was seen as bias and an unwillingness to buy into the larger strategic picture.
Hugh @ 52
In short, they felt that blatant incompetence was their best bet. So crazy it just doesn’t work.
Hugh @ 51
If all your policies are based on fantasies and desire for political advantage, then expertise/competence/integrity and loyalty are naturally contradictory for you.
Scottfree @ 29
HEY, homie! Where you be? The Flowah of New Smyrna Beach salutes you and robustly amens your wishes for Me-el!
Daryl Jones is Davis’s Lt. Gov. pick, is he? Hm, been so busy on FDL, I’ve gotten a bit behind on local/state news these last couple of days. Well, that may end up more interesting than we’d like. Daryl Jones has much to offer — but also some laundry capable of being dirtied by the (Charlie) Cristopaths.
Politics as usual in the Sunshine State, comin’ right up. Carl Hiaasen is salivating . . .
Rove and Armitage, sitting in a tree — telling lies to trick you and me?
Sure is beginning to sound that way, according to Robert Parry:
And it’s not just Parry’s source that’s undermining Armitage’s story, but Bob Novak himself:
Kudos to Robert Parry for connecting the dots. He deserves a few shekels, don’t you think?
Hugh at 52 — your worst scenario is what I have been fearing for a week or more (since the transfer of the fourteen).
Mommybrain
As I read the story about All Saints in the LA Times, I wondered about the liturgy there. In the prayers of the people from the Book of Common Prayer, there are various options. Most, however, include a prayer that runs something like this:
Leader: For our President, for the leaders of the nations, and for all in authority, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
I hope that if All Saints decides to comply with the IRS request, they include such prayers as this.
I’ve known some IRS investigators, and generally speaking, they are good folks doing a job that people like when it’s aimed at someone they don’t like and that people hate when it’s aimed at themselves or their friends. Someone, somewhere at the IRS, though, has stepped over the line. I’d love to know whose name is on the IRS request that was delivered to All Saints, and which superiors signed off on it.
It reminds me too much of the behavior at the Pentagon to get around Mora, and other similar practices of the Bush Administration.
And don’t get me started on outsourcing debt collection efforts at the IRS . . .
Be strong, Mommybrain!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 44
Agreed. My point is, look at any straw poll of progressives for Pres ‘08 – Hil can’t crack 10%. Hence the Pete Daou hire. So you’re kinda preachin’ to the choir, when Nov. 2006 is right around the corner. I think most progressives will be able to see any purely cosmetic “repairs” to her Iraq position for what they are. I think the challenge will be getting the broader “anti-Hillary” vote to coalesce around one candidate early enough so that the nomination of Ms. Moneybags is not a foregone conclusion. I just hope the “anti-Hillary” does not turn out to be, say, Mark Warner. I suspect that Al Gore may be the only potential candidate with the built in stature to challenge her early lead.
But I gotta get my boy Eric Massa elected first. (Brother, can you spare a dime?)
imm -
I saw an earlier comment by you about the torturers bringing their tricks to urban police in the U.S. and I was dumbstruck because just yesterday I was musing about the fate of Richard Jewell if the Olympic bombing happened today. He would be horribly tortured, I have no doubt.
Jenny from the Blog @ 59
I dunno about that. He’s not Arab, Muslim, or (I think) liberal.
And Jewell would have confessed to a crime he didn’t commit, or given names of others, under torture, who had nothing to do with the bombing. Torture works so well, you know…
Eli -
What if Jewell was a person with brown skin? All I’m saying is we’re very close to torturing suspects in this country. We do it in prisons now, but it is more stealth and not state sanctioned.
Jftb That way of looking at it, I think, makes it clear that these guys are simply pro-torture for “bad guys.” The question of human dignity and the limits of state action never enters into their analysis.
Jenny from the Blog @ 62
Oh, sure, that would work.
Urban Pirate @ 10
yes, up, i feel the same. i’m waging a quixotic campaign to keep pluto a planet. so far, nobody’s really excited about it. the dkos community pretty much dressed me down for daring to reprint a story about a bunch of school kids who voted in their classroom to keep pluto a planet.
the dkossacks insisted that “scientists” knew more than kids, even tho my point was simply that pluto, more than any other celestial body, evokes anthropomorphism in us humans.
also, for the record, less than 475 of the 10,000 members of the international astronomers union were involved in the original vote to declassify pluto as a planet.
imm/Eli -
Jose Padilla has had his fair share of pain, no doubt.
immanentize @ 63
Torture is very much a one-way proposition. Because we are the good guys, we are allowed to torture because it’s in the name of Good.
And, of course, if anyone else should torture Americans with exactly the same methods, that would be unacceptable because they are Evil. And we are Good.
There is a famous 1936 case, Brown v. Mississippi, in which the Supreme Court held that whipping a confession out of a (black of course) suspect was a violation of the due process clause because it “shocked the conscience.”
I wonder what would happen today? Consciences just aren’t what they used to be….
I noticed that Glenn Greenwald has another barn burner up:
“In order to manipulate enactment of his FISA bill this week, Specter is lying again about his own bill. I have a high threshold for using the word “lie”; I try to avoid it whenever possible and use it only when there is no other accurate description for someone’s conduct. That is the case here.”
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/
immanentize @ 64
The constant use of acronymns (UBL/OBL, KSM, etc.), nicknames (for the press corps), and euphemisms are three ways that Bush shows that he doesn’t view others who disagree with him as human beings, but more as objects to rename and move around as he wishes. After watching the press conference yesterday, it seems that more of the press corps is less willing to be treated as less than human.
Bush tried hard to put David Gregory off his game, but it obviously didn’t work.
immanentize @ 68
They have also always been rather selective. The “shocking the conscience” criterion should be elaborated to “shocking the conscience if it were applied to one of your own tribe”.
Wolcott linked over to a Dreyfuss opinion piece. Robert defined an “establishment political class”. Others have coined “Weenie cocktail circuit”, “the beltway” and others…
Many members had to show thier colors when thier own Joe(dick head)Lieberman was exposed. I realize that this not news to readers here but. My point uhh I guess is that the EPC phrase has a good ring to it.
Christy at 48 – thanks, I was afraid of that. I will try to reconstruct.
Bush tried hard to put David Gregory off his game, but it obviously didn’t work.
Gregory was impressive. He doesn’t look like a guy with balls of steel, but he is. He didn’t waver — and even though he got no answer for his trouble, his question stands alone as a real indictment of BushCo. I’m so glad his statement was there for all to see.
ceo — I think that your EPC is good, but I would substitue “entrenched” for “establishment.”
Let the people, not the bosses, rule
Whether they’ve been assigned to torture rooms or to combat or to who-knows-what in Iraq or Afghanistan, I deeply worry about all the damaged psyches (military and non-) returning to all our neighborhoods now and in the future. It’s hard to imagine that any of them will get the help they need to control their demons, and who knows how that’s all going to play out.
I saw what Vietnam did to many guys my age. This cohort is bound to have it (if possible) even worse.
Heaven help them and us.
The fact that MushCo really didn’t answer David Gregory’s question was I believe a real sign of defeat. It really threw him off his own game. But David persisted, even after being waved off by him, and David was playing the aggression card for all it was worth, allowing us to watch MushCo twist in the wind steeped in his own scary anger. MushCo came unglued and showed how vulnerable he really is on this, and how silly he looked resorting to childish threats.
You know the guy who shot all those people at Dawson College? Well, on CNN several pundits, including a SWAT instructor called him a terrorist as the news was breaking for hours.
Then they found out he was a disaffected youth with a fascination for Goths and guns and an increasingly deteriorating state of mind.
http://www.canada.com/montreal…..538b7900e4
No word on the quick rush to judgement. I bring this up because there is a seismic shift taking place in the western world wrt language/labeling and it is dangerous, imho.
Eugene Robinson and George Lakoff have both written about it very recently.
Jenny from the Blog @ 76
I sometimes wonder if that time in France where Bush cruelly mocked Gregory for being an effete French-spouting sissy played any part in the firming of his testicles.
The constant use of acronymns (UBL/OBL, KSM, etc.), nicknames (for the press corps)
That originates from the Intel community. It’s just quicker to say it, write it. It’s also how it’s presented To Bush in his briefings probably. I wouldn’t read too much into that.
Cozumel @ 82
Does that explain “Paks” as well? :~)
meta (or anybody), do you have a link to a tape or transcript of the Gregory questioning? I just won’t watch or listen to Chimpy in real-time anymore, so I miss goodies once in a while.
lotus -
It’s on crooks & liars. Oh, and belated happy b-day!
immanentize @ 83
LOL No idea on that one ; )
lotus @ 84
Lotus, I’m afraid a transcript would be utterly unintelligible. He was for the most part stammering and repeating ridiculous phrases that were void of content. I’ve seen snippets of quotes here and there, but I haven’t seen a transcript.
It’s curious to watch such a large group of people sit still for all that nonense for one hour and then have to act like they just sat through something worth repeating.
Double thanks, Jenny!
katymine @ 16
When I was watching the presser yesterday (yes I know, I’ve got to stop abusing my eyes, ears and mind), I heard Junya make this statement and I thought “WTF did he just say”?
Junya is “threatening” to “stop” torturing folks if they pass this law. WTF?
Now let me see if I understand this: Junya is threatening to be a good boy unless they allow him to continue to torture folks?
How does this dumb shit think these things up? He can’t even make a threat right.
Junya, when you threaten folks, you’re supposed to threaten them with “bad” stuff.
Hint…hint…threatening folks with “good stuff” generally means they’ll laugh at you and say “Bring it on”!
So bring it on Junya, I dare ya! *giggle*
This has probably already been covered, but have you heard about the wapo article discussing the disastrous personnel decisions made in the Iraq reconstruction? It is beyond infuriating, and there is a katie o’beirne connection. Here’s the link:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..13177/2324
op99 -
I recall vaguely that Gregory was starting to agitate Bush a little before that *french* episode. Bush tried to intimate him into shutting up but it just made him a fiercer antagonist. Funny how things work out.
jeffreyw #71,
Arlen Specter seems obsessed with torching whatever reputation he ever had.
Mad Dogs, that’s exactly what I was doing. I couldn’t figure out how this amounted to a threat. I guess what we’re supposed to think is that there will be no interrogation at all, which means that we won’t get any phony intel. Which ain’t bad either. I guess. I don’t know!
In any case, we bad, Chimp good.
Actually, antagonist is the wrong word. Gregory’s just doing his job.
Cozumel @ 82
I agree as to the source of the acronymns – and it’s not just the Intel community. That’s just part of the “in-house” language of any large institution – microsoft, the church, any institution – that has its own shorthand. I’ve got no problem with that. But when you’re speaking beyond or outside the institution, like at a nationally televised speech or press conference, and you can’t shift gears and leave that stuff in the briefing room, that’s when Bush is showing his disdain for others.
i agree
meta @ 91
“If you pass this law, I won’t be able to stop future terrorist attacks. If al Qaeda hits us again, it’s *your* fault, not mine.”
Congress cannot remove the rights of detainees, POW’s, or Martians without subjecting themselves to violations of international war crimes laws.
Think about Bush’s proposal a little harder congress.
-GSD
The Big Dog escorts Ann Richards to the Texas State House dome.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..richards_1
Christy Hardin Smith @ 48
Uhm…must be hard work. I sure wouldn’t want that job. *g*
This was my favorite part of the Bush press conference yesterday.
-GSD
lotus @
84
Here you go, courtesy of the WaPo . . . they’re usually pretty good about posting these kinds of things.
Bush should be pissed at all those Republicans like McCain and Powell. They don’t understand what’s at stake. They don’t understand the military like Bush does. He served, somewhat, in the Texas Air National Guard. Did any of them?
1,265 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
op99 and oklahoma kiddo:
You both are to be commended for keepin Hilary DLC Clinton on our radar. Hilary is a socially acceptable Joe Lieberman who is the real power behind the Republicrat, corporatist fascist enabelers within the Democratic Party. Do not devote too much energy to her, however, because she doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in a hot place to become the Democratic nominee in ‘08 unless she can politically assasinate Al Gore. Her only hope is to advance herself as a “unity” candidate if the rest of the party factionalizes and can’t coalesce around another…but only if Al Gore is taken out.
My worry about Hilary is that she is positioning herself to leapfrog over Schumer and Reid into the Senate majority leader position and place Schumer and a couple a real weaklings like Bayh and Fienstein in the tactical positions of power. If the Dems take the Senate I look for Fiengold (with Kennedy, Dorgan and the current party whip workin the trenches for ‘im) to make an assault on party leadership. Hilary will then come outta the closet and lead a DLC assault against the progressive wing of the party…THAT is what I fear more than a Hilary presidential candidacy.
Hilary remains the center of power for elected corporatists and to the degree that she has a leash and a shock-collar on the Big Dwag she is the biggest threat to a new progressive elected political majority.
Let’s not lose sight of Hilary but let’s not let her divert us from the task of building a progressive Democratic Party that can contain her in upstate New York.
KEEP THE FAITH AND YOUR EYES OPEN, NOT ALL THE BAD GUYS WEAR BOXERS!!!
Do not devote too much energy to her, however, because she doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in a hot place to become the Democratic nominee in ‘08 unless she can politically assasinate Al Gore.
And that would surely never happen…
Jenny from the Blog @ 10:42 am(#94)
Adversary, then? I think that’s a relationship that should exist between all politicians and the press. Their job isn’t to support anyone. Their job is to find out what the government’s doing and report it accurately. Since governments want to keep secrets and are usually reluctant to explain their actions when they’re not doing what they’re supposed to, that’s going to be a confrontational relationship at times.
Cujo359 @ 104
Helen Thomas would qualify as a nemesis, right?
Badwater @ 103
He probably spent his time pulling the wings off flies, which is about as close as i’d let him get to anything related to aviation.
lotus on FL — I’m Tallahassee state worker – yikes, a dying breed for sure. So the local CBS was showing vid on Charlie Crisp’s Lt Gov, except it was a reporter. Don’t think they would make that mistake with Jones. Anyway – I don’t think Crisp is going to excite the base and do much for R-GOTV – for the same reason that I think he will move to the center if elected. Think Jeb but more moderate, more reasonable, not as flaky, not as partisan – well not at all like Jeb.
Mad Dogs (89), if we could just figure out when to cuss Chimpy and when to laugh at him, life in dese Newninety States would be somewhat easier, I’m thinking.
Last night, Ambassador Joe Wilson appeared at a reception for Charlie Brown, who’s running against the odious John Doolittle in CA-04. I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie, his wife Jan, and Joe, all of whom are delightfully down-to-earth and approachable people. LindaR was there, and we also happened to meet another Kosian, HiddenGnostic.
It was both refreshing and inspiring to hear Jan, Joe, and Charlie talk about real government, providing real answers to real problems. Charlie talked about fact-based decision-making, that you have to acknowledge it when you’ve made a mistake and need to try something new. (This, not surprisingly, earned cheers and applause from the room, one of many comments throughout the evening that got an enthusiastic response.) He stressed the importance of affordable healthcare, alternative energies, and real national security.
The response to the reception invitation was so great, the campaign had to keep moving it to larger rooms; the one we were in was packed to overflowing. (The campaign also made sure to hold the event in a union hotel.)
Charlie’s been doing some very well-received radio ads in the area, and said there would be some new ones next week, as well as their first TV spots.
Charlie knows that Doolittle is going to go negative, and is already prepared to fight back whenever it happens. You probably saw the recent poll results showing Charlie Brown in a dead heat with John Doolittle – with only 33% name recognition for Charlie, and before voters hear about their stances on the issues – at which point Charlie takes the lead. I talked to one person at the reception who canvassed for Charlie up in Truckee last weekend – a very Republican area. He said the disgust with Do-nothing is palpable, and the news that Charlie is running against him was all many of them needed to hear.
I gotta tell ya, folks, I have a good feeling about this one. So, if anyone’s got some extra cash just burning a hole in their pocket and would like to give it to a worthy candidate, here’s Charlie’s Blue America page. It’ll be money well spent.
Blue America time!
“What caught your eye this morning in the news or in the blogs?”
This bitingly good blog via TBogg;
http://hammeroftheblogs.blogspot.com/
lotus @ 110
I’m thinkin’ we should laugh at him all the time. Probably won’t make him any crazier than he already is. *g*
The DLC is contemptible. It is, as John dean once remarked to Nixon about Watergate, a cancer on the Democratic Party.
Jenny from the Blog @ 94
Jenny, I’m trying to remember my schooling on these terms from ancient Greek drama, but if I’ve still got it right . . .
Antagonist is the character or force in conflict with Protagonist. Protagonist is the character (whether white-hat or black-) who grows, changes, or learns an important lesson as a result of the conflict.
Ergo, here David Gregory is our protagonist, stoneskull Chimpy only his antagonist.
I want torture to stop, remain illegal as long as possible and accountability for those who ordered it! No exceptions.
Just found the so called final version of McCain, Warner, Graham.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/
2006/09/final-version-of-warner-mccain-graham.html
Thanks to Hugh and others who also mentioned the Bush Military Commissions bill is also there.
Both in full pdf.
Both have complete CYA for all inhumane and unconstitutional acts retroactive for everyone from 9-11-01.
President bill pg. 86 see retroactive
Warner McCain Graham bill pg 75 see effective date
Lurking and gardening so I am behind. Just noticed Norske and his excellent flame throw mention Lieberman with this
Joe Lieberman who is the real power behind the Republicrat, corporatist fascist enabelers within the Democratic Party.
May this Arkansan mention Senator Mark (Lieberlovin’) Pryor. He was on cspan yesterday ready to divide the internet into 3 (or what the heck) even 4 parts.
NorskeFlamethrower @ 104
I fear her road to nomination will proceed like GWB’s did for the 2000 Repub nomination: very early backing by the money in the party and early endorsements produced an insurmountable barrier to the rest of the field. Hil has the money, and has been dispensing it generously lo these many years, thus obligating hoards who must endorse her. She correctly sees a Lamont-style progressive insurgency to be the only possible fly in the ointment. That’s why she hired Daou, and one may speculate that may be at least a component of the rationale for Big Dog’s blogger meet-up. Thank god we can trust our ladies and the other smart progressives on the guest list not to be co-opted. If she changed her Iraq stance and showed leadership on it, that would make a difference to me, but so far I’m not seeing that.
Thank you, Peterr (102)!
hey lotus– here’s a link to the dubya and dave show.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..d-gregory/
Ver’ cool, angie — goin’ right there, then I catch up wid ya on BlueAmerica!
The Nefarious Leslie @ 75
The Nefarious Leslie @ 23
Is that the one you’re talking about? (The full comment appears; I ellipsis’ed the links just to make sure it would appear.)
*xyz @ 90
I skimmed through it to look for one fact that I thought I remembered, about how they refused to accept any doctors to work there who weren’t anti-abortion. I ended up reading about how for the person in charge if the health ministry for the CPA, they replaced a multi-degreed doctor from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who specialized in disaster response with a party hack anti-abortion social worker who ran the Health Ministry like an HMO administrator. It practically had me in tears — it’s unbelievable how many people must have died because of this man’s actions, and how badly he hurt any effort to “win the peace.”
I’m not surprised a lot of Iraqis think the way our people screwed things up was deliberate — if I didn’t have experience with the American health insurance system, I would have been hard pressed to believe this guy could have produced such horrible results without intending to.
lotus @ 84
lotus, it was also on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown last night.
Lotus@84
The entire CNN transcript of the presser can be found at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA…..nr.02.html
It seems pretty coherent. I’m suprised – someone must have interpreted/interpolated the conversation.
manonfyre @51
Staggeringly stunning that this even remains “debatable” — that Bush & Co’s advocacy of torture is buttressed by a significant measure of popular, political support!
I think the only reason there’s any popular, political support for BushCo’s arguments is they’re only being framed one way.
I tried to make this point in another thread but didn’t articulateit very well. The problem as I see it is the Repubs throw out a position and the Dems offer their rebuttal. What they should be doing is reframing and reclaiming the debate.
If I were a member of Congress right now, here’s what I’d say:
After 9/11, President Bush took on the mantle of War President. Now he wants to be the Torture President. So I say, then let him go be the Torture President of another country. We’re the United States of America and we don’t torture. We haven’t had a Torture president for 220 years. And we don’t need to start now.
I just think it’s time for Dems to stop arguing about THEIR issues on THEIR terms. Call it like we see it and put them on the defensive.
Thanks again, y’all. Man, all ya gotta do is make one little request in this community and ya got help coming from all sides. What friends to have!
To clarify what I just wrote, when I say THEIR issues, I mean Repug issues.
Redshift @
122
Hi, Redshift – yes, that’s it, though it didn’t appear when I refreshed the page. So the longer, improved version of the comment is now awaiting moderation up at #111. *g* Thanks!
“Your account registration cannot be completed. To complete this transaction please register at http://www.paypal.com”
You know, I’d really like to not see this message when I’m trying to use the ‘donate with plastic’ button.
In that Greenwald interview, about two-thirds of the way through, the caption reads: ‘Using movies to sway votes.’
Is the story about corruption among military contractors, or is it about the political motives of Robert Greenwald?
op99 @
Me either! 117
o-TAY, NefLes at 111 — great report and well worth waiting for. Thank you, and I’m proud y’all had such a good time!
I think saying TORTURE IS TERRORISM IS A
SIMPLE WAY TO DISMISS BUSHCO’s reasoning.
I could be wrong, but wasn’t Gephart the man to beat about this time in the last cycle?
EPU’d again. O/T sorta, did anyone pick up on the report from one of the kids who was in the class Joonya was visiting on 9/11? Child said Bush turned red when the aide whispered in his ear. Turned red? Not pale? Wouldn’t a normal reaction be for the blood to leave his face? Red for anger? Red for embarrassment? Just askin’.
jhmay, Gephart was at least looking very likely at this point four years ago. Many a slip twixt … etc., etc.
Hypatia!
Wow, that’s interesting. Where’d you find it? And yes, though no physiologist here, my impression certainly agrees with yours . . .
I read the headline in Rawstory I think, and also St. Pete Times (can’t find the story), but here’s the ABC link: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/stor…..amp;page=1
((((((asteroid 134340))))))
formerly the planet Pluto