Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, says that the CW about the Baker Group and Robert Gates being the adults who will discipline Junior, buck his war plans and save the Presidency just might be, well, crap:
Other sources close to the Bush family said that the machinations behind Rumsfeld’s resignation and the Gates nomination were complex, and the seeming triumph of the Old Guard may be illusory. The former senior intelligence official, who once worked closely with Gates and with the President’s father, said that Bush and his immediate advisers in the White House understood by mid-October that Rumsfeld would have to resign if the result of the midterm election was a resounding defeat. Rumsfeld was involved in conversations about the timing of his departure with Cheney, Gates, and the President before the election, the former senior intelligence official said. Critics who asked why Rumsfeld wasn’t fired earlier, a move that might have given the Republicans a boost, were missing the point. “A week before the election, the Republicans were saying that a Democratic victory was the seed of American retreat, and now Bush and Cheney are going to change their national-security policies?” the former senior intelligence official said. “Cheney knew this was coming. Dropping Rummy after the election looked like a conciliatory move—‘You’re right, Democrats. We got a new guy and we’re looking at all the options. Nothing is ruled out.’ ” But the conciliatory gesture would not be accompanied by a significant change in policy; instead, the White House saw Gates as someone who would have the credibility to help it stay the course on Iran and Iraq. Gates would also be an asset before Congress. If the Administration needed to make the case that Iran’s weapons program posed an imminent threat, Gates would be a better advocate than someone who had been associated with the flawed intelligence about Iraq. The former official said, “He’s not the guy who told us there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and he’ll be taken seriously by Congress.”
Same strategy, new salesman.
Related posts:
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Bradley Graham, By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld
- Too Little, Too Late from Powell, Ashcroft and Ridge
- Cheney Led Torture Briefings, Democrats Objected, Post Reveals; CIA, Republicans Mum on Veep’s Role
- Thomas Fingar on the Politics of NIE/NIAs
- Why Did Tenet Create a False Record on the Day After He “Quit”?
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Jane! FDL!
People are always saying the term, “The Lesser of Two Evils”.
This is one of the many cases we’re offered in politics of a choice between “The Evil of Two Lessers!“
Quick answer to a quick question:
NO!
ROOTZ!
I wouldn’t purchase anything from this individual. He’s another Bush dynasty crony. Oh, and there is Iran-Contra.
KOBE !!
Slightly longer answer… As I recall, this chap was up to his armpits in Iran/Contra, and also had some interesting ideas about bombing Nicaragua. I realize I’m asking and answering my own question, but are they (you know who I’m talking about… THEM, 41’s fixers) so completely intellectually and strategically petrified (as in dinosaur, not fear) that this is the best they can come up with?
Key-shaped cakes, a Bible and crates of stingers for Iran.
I am so sick of hearing alla these dopes saying Gates and the Baker boyz are good.
they are corporate warwongers.
yuck.
Scarborough and Buchanan are yelling at each other, at the top of their lungs. Oh my. We may have to invite them over here just to get them to calm down.
Looks like they couldn’t quite hold this one for the Friday PM news dump.
Hey W said we would leave when they asked us…
Bush has been unable to deal with complexity since he dried out (or before, for that matter), and he is both unwilling and unable to admit error or change course.
Fine. I’m counting on Dems to make him out to be an ass on a regular basis for the next two years – it’s shooting fish in a barrel.
Then maybe we can add to our 2006 gains and get this country turned around.
Iraq? Either Bush remains obdurate, Dems defund the war or we’re still there in 08.
Rumsfeld: “Hey Bob, can you hold this for a second?”
Gates: “Sure. Hey, wait, where are you going?”
kemo @ 10
at least it’s Friday a.m. in Iraq right now
Lets see now. We got James Baker, George Bush Jr. and Senior, Robert Gates and the twins. What else is there?
Boy and Girl. Can I ever sleep tight tonight.
scarecrow @ 9
This does relax me.
This man had a hard-on for bombing Nicaragua, when Congress gave an explicit hands off vote. War is in his heart, that much is clear.
according to this report, every single thing we’ve been told concerning rumsfeld was a lie and we were played
i don’t think so
rumsfled was surpirsed and cheney was demoralized
I don’t give this story any weiht at all
The papers are saying that Gates will be a shoo-in, and if he is well that is that. But I sure as hell hope someone on the committee has the brass ones to ask him some damn embarrassing questions about his role with the CIA and Nicaragua under oath. At least we can remind the country what complete criminals Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were.
Jim Montague formerly known as “brainfaht”
ot, sorry – anyone know what channel the NFL game is on?
I’m not sure I’d buy a used car from Sey Hersh actually ; )
Jim Montague @
18
Thanks for giving us your new identity, and yeah some questions on Iran Contra would be most welcome.
Meet the new boss, same as … well, you know.
More window-dressing. Maybe Rumsfeld was being truthful when he said that he had offered his resignation to Bush multiple times and was rebuffed. Rumsfeld was just doing what Bush (and all of the neocons) wanted.
Jim Montague @ 18
I’m pretty sure the papers told us Saddam’s WMD were a shoo-in. Turned out to be a shoe in the pants.
Sure I’d buy a used car from Gates -
As soon as he and the defense megacorps he shilled for at CIA with his Plan B subterfuge – the one intended to falsely inflate the estimate of Soviet armaments production – as soon as they refund to the taxpayers the trillions they stole from the poor, the sick, the needy, the schools, and our future.
Then I’ll buy the car from Gates.
As long as he promises to let me drag him behind it to the nearest homeless shelter, where his victims can provide whatever care they may find appropriate.
I suggest rock salt.
Gates made war on America. Only a Bush could choose him for Secretary of Defense.
With his record of faithfully lying for corporate thieves conspiring against America, Gates will be ideally placed to help stovepipe this year’s Plan B – all the phony reports planted to start war with Iran.
no and here are a few reasons why
T, the game is on the NFL Channel. Half-time, Bengals 6-0
I hate to be so out of the loop on this, but when do the confirmation hearings start? If they start before January, is there any chance they can be dragged into the New Year, or does it not work that way?
A panelist on Scarborough tonight opined that the WH deliberately leaked the Hadley memo to embarass al-Maliki and let him know what the Administration thought of him before the meeting with Bush, so that the two leaders could then have a successful and amicable meeting. No one else on the panel even raised an eyebrow at that explanation.
It’s obvious I don’t understand these subtleties.
The papers are saying that Gates will be a shoo-in
I wouldn’t buy a used Schwinn from Gates
Thanks BaltimoreBabe. I was going nuts trying to find it. Guess I don’t get the NFL channel.
The baker boys can’t do crap about iraq. No one can, only time and distance will help the situation.
The democratic party will probably never again have the chance to step on the neck of the gop and gouge their eyeballs out. They damn sure better do it now or I know some folks around here who are going to be mighty pissed off and looking for more change.
My vote: they delay this confirmation until after the new congress is seated, after all they’re the ones who will have to deal with this pimp.
If the Armed Services committee gets the royal run–around from the 1600 Crew, they ought to just start dragging out the old Iran-Contra crib notes and start asking questions. That would give the WH two choices, (1) hand over the relevant material being requested or (2) let the entire Iran-Contra mess and all the players now back in the good graces of Beloved Leader (and getting a gov’t paycheck) be dragged up to talk about the Robert Gates they knew. I’m thinking that would include (but not limited to) Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, various career CIA goobers … Poindexter. It might be a circus and-a-half.
Or maybe they’d just answer the questions (nahh).
The other thing, now that Preznit Incredibly Ineffectual has already repudiated the Baker/ISG II report in advance, it might be interesting to see how Gates will be any less of a rubber-stamp than the others who are allowed in The Bubble.
scarecrow @ 28
What that says to me is if that was the message, they weren’t confident in Bush to deliver it
Mrs. K8 @ 27
I think I heard that the hearings start the 11th of Dec. but I’m not sure about that. They do plan to do them with this Senate.
Marion in Savannah @ 6
QATQQ: Yes.
(quick answers to quick questions)
Cozumel @ 20
Cozumel, do you have specific information to share on this topic?
As written, the comment seems to question Hersh (yep, without actually doing so) and his honesty.
If that is not the meaning, could you please help me to undertand better?
Conversely, if you possess no information impeaching Hersh’s journalist integrity, could you clearly state that fact?
angie @ 8
But they are NOT friends of Gwen Ifill!!
Why in the name of reason and experience would any Democrat in congress take anyone from the Bush administration seriously? That would be much more than naive, it would be profoundly stupid.
Gotta pull the NE Mich. Chippewas through, I’m giving 3.5. Time for a tall 12 year old (scotch that is).
Can I pour anyone else a johnny black or dewars?
“There’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq. We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done, so long as the government wants us there,” said Bush.
Emphasis mine: The disclaimer, the out ; )
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20…..1130232817
Cozumel @ 32
Well, I agree that Bush’s handlers must be holding their breath every time the President says anything to anyone these days. I mean, who in their right minds would ever send George Bush to negotiate anything important?
Now that I think of it, there wasn’t a peep out of any Democrat about the Hadley memo — either it’s contents or the fact that it was delivered/leaked to the NYT and published in full. In fact, there were Dems like Durkin and Reid (??) being interviewed at the time making the same point about how al-Maliki wasn’t doing what he needed to do — as though the whole DC establishment was in on the takedown to send the Iraqi leader a message.
Anyone else like to volunteer to be our “friend”?
Same shit—different asshole. Gates is a recycled Raygun era fraud and lied his way out of trouble during Iran/Contra. He is a devious criminal so he will fit right in with this mis-administration. Garbage out (Rummy) Garbage in, Gates smells rotten.
osage @ 37
OH oH OH! I’ll answer that one.
There are some (too many, in fact) Democrats in Congress who have spent their entire political careers zigging right with the Republicans for every disastrous right wing zig this country has performed in the last decade.
Just waiting for that one leftward zag that would give them the keys to K-street (and nothing more). For these folks, we are the enemy.
PM Maliki:
Dead Man Walking.
Jim Montague @ 18
Constituents of Senator Dianne Feinstein, who at her 11/8 frontyard presser had some rather penetrating questions for Mr. Gates, may recommend to her other areas of inquiry here.
kirk murphy @ 35
Kirk,
Nothing specific but he’s written a lot of stuff that doesn’t pass the smell test with me. Sure, he’s hit two home runs, no doubt about it with My Lai and Abu Ghraib. Other things he’s written are bizarro world to me. JMO ; )
Makes sense to me. The problem for Baker/Gates and Company is that the game is now out of their hands. The United States no longer holds the strategic initiative in Iraq. We are like the Germans after Kursk. Our forces are extended to their limit; the ability of the enemy to resupply exceeds ours, and we are operating far from our home base.
Early on in this conflict someone with prescience posted Mao Tse-Tung’s analysis of his own guerrilla victory. It’s not rocket science. It goes in stages. I seem to recall four stages, and though I can’t recall the exact content, I have the distinct impression that we are moving from the third to the last. The last stage involves organized combat. I read yesterday that there is some chance that the Stryker next to the one Webb’s son was riding in might have been destroyed by a wire-guided rocket. If so, we are truly in the end game. A jet went down yesterday. There is a lot of ordinance out there that can checkmate our military. We do not have the choice whether to stay or not. That choice is now in someone else’s hands.
Hey scarecrow, you brilliantly cut through the fog of the issues relative to the “late nite FDL: language” post and pointed our compass towards true north. For those that are interested, check this out.
If this is not the right time and place mods, please delete it.
[Mod note; this is a perfectly fine place to compliment a mighty fine commenter. Would you do us a favor and also post your thoughtful comment at the end of the Language thread? Thanks.]
BobbyG @
43
sy hersh told me: MALIKI means BROWNIE in arabic!!! heck’ov’a’job’malika . . .
Pretty interesting article up at Huffington by
Tom Haydn..He says that there is about to be a coup in Iraq with Sadr combining his forces with Sunni factions for a new govt. which will demand that the americans leave…
Sounds reasonable- worth a read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..35290.html
Gstes helped pappy. The fact that he is in, if only with the support of Laura and the mutt, means pappy is control now.
Expect Jr. to confront pappy on his “faith”.
Odd question though… what do you think would have happened in ‘06 without the clarion horn of FDL and its likes? Thought about this on the way home tonight. It kind of comes down to 1) do you think without the vocal left we would slide into fascism?, or if not, 2) what is the advantage/cost on a social ROI of these “lefty” blogs?
I doubt that Iran Contra history will affect the Gates nomination. The Hersh article reinforces the notion that Gates replacing Rumsfeld is a proxy for Bush 41-Scowcroft-Baker replacing Cheney:
The Dems may not be crazy about the new team, but I suspect they see it as a vast improvement over Cheney/Rumsfeld. Under this view, however, our neo-friend Joe Lieberman might be against Gates, hoping for a Cheney loyalist. What has he said?
Kirk,
Here’s one from Hersh I remember specifically…
“The story about the Delta Force raid in Afghanistan, asserting that it met heavy resistance and produced many casualties, was flatly denied by the Pentagon”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011231/massing
Okay, a bunch of US casualties that were covered up, not reported? Nah, no sale
The obsession with saving Bush’s ass and ego is so sociopathic in and of itself it’s sick.
The Bush family line has been proven to be defective, even more so with the outlandish attempts to make G.W. Bush appear competent let alone human.�� He is NOT competent nor human by any reasonable means of judgment.
The GOP needs to eat the garbage they’ve presented because they have been found to be too unskilled and inept in selecting people for leadership positions.
All the Kabuki dancing to make f*ck ups not look like the f*ck ups they are is totally insane.
Let Bush die by his own political and personal ineptness. He should certainly take is jackals with him. We have plenty to replace them that are of better quality.
As for the Gates hearings, this is an interesting take from Winslow Wheeler at Neiman Watchdog.
Hi Cozumel -
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question!
Although my opinion of Hersh diverges from the opinion yuo describe (I trust him), I appreciate the chance to better understand your concerns.
T- — thank you, but I was trying to atone for an earlier comment that I regretted. It’s a life pattern.
As a result of the CIA’s failure, Hersh wrote, its director, George Tenet, was likely on the way out: “Even one of Tenet’s close friends told me, ‘He’s history.’”
Two months later, Tenet is still on the job. He could yet lose it, of course (one of Hersh’s sources said he would go in three to six months), but one has to wonder whether Hersh’s sources were trying to use him to force Tenet out.
(from the Nation article linked above.)
scarecrow @
56
You and me both buddy..but that was some pretty impressive atonement.
kirk murphy @ 55
Hi back at ya!
Nice smack on Southern Lady the other day by the way! Yowsa! Bullseye ; )
RBG — size of mistakes => size of atonement
A balanced life.
scarecrow, a life pattern that results in wisdom, evidently.
I’m going to reference your comment in tonight’s late nite, if you don’t mind.
rwcole @ 57
So, here is probably what happens, right? There is such a thing as a bureaucratic professional. We actually need those… if we are to be assured that the government is under control of the elected officials. The problem is that it requires a personal decision to go beyond that functioning template. And the rub is that we also expect those in government to be able to select those top people.
Cozumel @ 52
Why would that be unusual for this administration? At the time, there was little official notice of casualties, restrictions on pictures of coffins coming home, and, perhaps, most importantly, Delta Force activities are rarely mentioned, since they operate through the intelligence departments of the Pentagon.
Let’s not forget that this was the same Pentagon that said Pat Tillman died a hero when he actually had the top of his head blown off by friendly forces.
rwcole @
49
Apropos of that, Bush today:
“We’re gonna stay in Iraq to get the job done, as long as the government wants us there.”
Well, we may soon be told to leave by the locals. Once they kill Maliki and fully establish an anti-U.S. / pro-Iranian shia government.
_
I dunno- but someone doin the kind of work Hersh does is likely to get some of it wrong..that doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t pay close attention when he says something.
Marion in Savannah @
6
seems to me that every last one of them was up to the armpits in Iran-Contra… all of them in the ISG are connected to it in some way (and not in a good way) – even the Dems on the panel are connected… apparently found to be compliant to repugs demands…
Impeach them all. Start with Bush. Maybe we can send this guy to jail this time. Or better yet not confirm him so he does not have another chance to break the law.
BobbyG @ 64
Would that be, like, their OWN gummint? Are they allowed to do that???
Well, Iran-Contra would be problem wouldn’t it? Not because of a rehash of the players – they are all here, right? – but because of why is it they are all here now? Was there something left unsaid…
montag @ 63
Those were the first troops on the ground in Afghanistan. I can’t buy that the alleged casualties families weren’t notified, buddies said nothing, etc etc ? No sale ; )
Done.
ISG/ISA… whats the difference? Whatever happened to those ISAs?
And the dems will agree to whatever the Baker boys and Gate decide will be the plan. Even Carter agreed that Gates would be good for CIA and he fully expected him to be confirmed.
The dems will all be footdragging on Iraq. At least there will be investigations and hearings. Right????? It is going to take some real political skill to glide past all the obstructions Bush and Rove and putting up.
ISA = Intelligence Support Activies
BobbyG @ 64
One wonders how Hayden has access to information that others do not. A few days back, after Tom also posted a story at HuffPo based on his own intelligence sources, Amy Goodman interviewed him and Nir Rosen, who tended to downplay the story. The interview was posted here a couple days ago and is worth the read:
Nir Rosen interview by Amy Goodman
I found this more intelligent/informative than anything I’ve seen on the trad media.
Cozumel @ 59
Thanks!
Although I’ve been reflecting that my fdl avatar uses invective in ways that don’t reflect the carbon me. As a literary (phosphoric?) device, that’s OK for me from time to time, but I think I’m not altogether pleased by my silicon me here at fdl.
I’m planning on retracting my claws a bit, but I’ll make certain they’ll be available if our pal sl drips through the door.
Be well!
I think Dubya has decided to maintain his swagger until the New Year, and who knows how long after. The problem is that he doesn’t realize that no one is impressed. Or care. No one that matters has told him that he is buck-assed naked on the first day of 10th grade.
Problem: There isn’t one person on Earth that could get through to him. Not Pickles. Not Cheney (as if). Not no way. Not no how.
Any ideas who he would listen to? Class?
Balrog @ 77
Answer me! Goddammit, no one ever answers me!
Balrog @ 78
Fine then. Fuck off, all of you.
Balrog @ 77
He listens to God. Where’s George Allen when we need him?
scarecrow @ 80
At the Otis Day and the Knights show.
Balrog @ 78
You funny! And we’re glad you’re back.
I was thinking of “Oh, God,” with George, husband of Gracie Allen. He did a nice God.
Balrog – there were rumours (which IIRC you started) you’d retired. Glad you’re back from Middle Earth
Balrog @ 79
Only if you’ll join us, our firey friend!
scarecrow @ 82
George Burns
petedownunder @ 86
Yeah, that George Allen.
Balrog @ 77
God or Dog, Dog and God. Dear Mummy, perhaps. Yoda? Mom looks like Yoda, too bad she doesn’t act like Yoda.
EPU’d from the great (and now closed) thread – all 24 hour and ten minutes!
JoyB @
631
Thanks, JoyB.
Even appearing to publicly slap a diagnosis on someone* really creeps me out, and I was just appalled that my comment appeared to be dignosing you.
I appreciate your understanding.
(*save for everyone’s parlor game of “diagnose the officeholder”)
uh – mods – I epu’d without thinking. If the mega-thread shouldn’t be EPU’d (even omnipotent universes have their limits, after all), I’ll understand. if so, my bad in advance.
Well, I’m fading fast. Please try to play nicely with TRex… You know how easily his feelings get hurt… I’ll be back at Zero Dark Thirty in the morning…
petedownunder @ 86
I still smile when I think of the last 2 repig senators to go down for the count a few weeks back :-)
petedownunder @
84
I know, it all seems like a juvenile plot. If it was, it was a success.
I had retired. I got better. I’m so glad.
RevDeb @ 91
Me too.
Balrog @ 92
Welcome back.
kirk murphy @
85
You, I kill last. Murphy’s law is wise and kind.
RevDeb — yes, a toast (burnt) to Allen, Santorum, Pombo and Burns et al. That’s a whole lotta dumb and mean to get rid of. You can almost feel a shift in the cosmos.
Balrog @ 95
and coined by a fine son o’ Eire wrangling with an accelerometer on a (manned) rocket sled in the early space flight days.
or so ’tis said by the leprechauns at JPL…
scarecrow @
87
I liked Alanis Morissette in that Kevin Smith classic, Dogma. What I particularly liked was the idea that if she opened her mouth, it would hurt everyone’s ears. Forgive me, but I feel like that when I hear most of her music.
But, surely, this is the best of all possible gods: The Flying Spaghetti Monster
My feeling has been that it’s all kind of like Indonesian shadow opera:– a show staged for our benefit, and in such a way that not only the puppeteers but the puppets themselves are out of sight. All we see are the shadows of the puppets, whose apparent form (as well as the actions of) can be manipulated at will by the unseen actors.
Most likely, between B43 and the Old Men of B41 (who still think and act like they rule the Empire.. an Iranian polisci scholar friend of mine likens them to the clerics/supreme leader-types of her own country.. ‘cept instead of a musholla somewhere, they all came out of Groton, Andover and a the Great Camps), they had a number of moves in reserve, all designed to preserve for themselves the potential of preserving the status quo, in a game where everybody in the ruling klepto-oligarchy (or is it kakisto-oligarchy?) is expendable because everybody shares the same revolving door. In any event, for their families, and for the Old Men, the theater of the state (and its capacity for war) is retained as a personal playpen and, more importantly, a personal mint. Noblesse oblige as institutionalized thievery.
Cozumel @ 69
Well, I doubt anything I might say will alter your opinion, but I did not emphasize the secrecy surrounding DF activities for drill. When you add military discipline to an organization doing what the CIA paramilitary ops people once did, you get a fanatical obedience to the principle of secrecy. If friends, wives, family were told to say nothing, they would not.
Beyond that, what motive might Hersh have to fabricate information? He’s one of the few reporters in Washington to whom the military and disgruntled spooks go to in order to get out information that otherwise would remain buried. Destroying his credibility ruins that conduit for information those sources believe is in the public’s interest to know.
Beyond that, his articles don’t exist in a vacuum–his sources are scrupulously fact-checked by The New Yorker’s staff. Before an article goes to print, Hersh provides them the contact information he has, and they’re queried–”did you say this to Seymour Hersh about such-and-such?”
Does this necessarily mean that Hersh could not be suckered by a source for the source’s own purposes? No. But, I think he’s savvy enough about the way Washington works after writing there for almost forty years, and would have had multiple sources for the events you describe as impossible.
Why don’t you write him and ask him about it?
scarecrow @ 96
It was the poetry of Burns and Allen that got to me, right here (points to heart, and then to derriere.)
Quite the team, they.
Balrog @ 77, 78 and 79
Barney. I think its Barney. He definitely listens to Barney.
If you think about it, its the only answer that makes any sense.
Balrog @ 77
Well, like you say, nobody can get a new thought into Bush’s thick skull. His narcissism and his bully-boy swagger are all he has. They’re all he ever had. He doesn’t know how to change, and he doesn’t want to.
Deb- ???You are too young to remember them, no? I was just a kid. But even then, I loved the dialogue on the porch at the end of the show. I loved that he never cracked a smile.
TRex is upstairs with a little Tori Amos
T- @
102
All Barney ever says is ‘Always after me Lucky Charms’.
‘Blah blah blah Ginger’ comes to mind, in sort of a weird Evil Parallel Universe sort of way.
Jane, please ask Kobe about Gary Larsen’s view of what dogs hear.
Blub — My feeling has been that it’s all kind of like Indonesian shadow opera Yeah, nothing is as it seems.
I remember seeing a play [Noises Off!??]- a comedy that consists of a play inside a play, in three acts. Each act, we see the inside play from a different angle. The first act is what they want you to see; the second reveals that there may be strange things going on behind the scenes; and the third act shows us what’s actually happening behind the scenes — and it’s total chaos. Only that was hilarious, while this is horrifying.
Blub @ 99
I love a good conspiracy theory (I am, in fact, wearing a tin funnel — but that’s more in homage to Buddy Ebsen); but you’re perspective on the situation is fecund with real probability. It’s easy to say it’s the big Oil guys; or, it’s the military industrial complex guys…or whomever. More and more I am convinced there’s definitely *some* guys. What worries me most is not that they are a greedy, self serving secret aristocracy; rather that they are the inbreed, hemophiliac, stupid last throws of a dynasty that should have been buried long ago.
montag @ 100
Single source fact checked IRRC.
I’m suspicious but that’s me. I like provable facts. Or absent that, two or more sources. Preferably named ; )
My inclination is that this is less of a conspiracy theory and more theater of the absurd, with a good dose of a tragicomedy of errors, thrown in… like you said, antiquated dinosaurs playing at supreme power (concealing supreme avarice) using moves that were already quaint in 1947… unfortunately, you’re right, and the bodies that pile up around their incompetence and indifference are very real.
johnSwifty @ 108
I don’t buy used cars
BobbyG @
43
agreed. if he isn’t suicidal he should just hand over the keys to the car to moqtada and hike it to tehran.
fahrender @ 112
This is desparation time for Bush. I can’t recall, outside his covert Thanksgiving nonsense trip, him ever being in the ME. The coalition demand for US troops out is the beginning of the end.
kemo (at 9:12):
he doesn’t even like to be in New York, or Washington for that matter. i think that there are a lot more bends in the road ahead. if his handlers start playing their cards right fuckwad could end his eight years at least ten points higher in the polls. i’m not predicting that to happen but strangeer things have….
time for work. i’ll be back (in eight hours or so) ……
If there is any doubt to the possibility of a global consortium running the show behind the scenes, take a quick look at the ind/mil/fin/ (and now with private military/security/intelligence contractors) connections to everybody in the Iraq Study Group.
or this
The Carlyle White House
What did W do when Maliki broke their date? Just fly Air Force 1 around in big circles until somebody decided they could stomach the sight of him?
Awkward.