One person's plea for sanity and the continuation of the human race in an insane world.
‘They’re Siamese twins joined at the frontal lobe.’ A forthcoming biography of Condoleezza Rice, excerpted by Newsweek, examines the ties between President Bush and Condoleezza Rice
posted by rich at 7:34 PM
Time hires The Note creator Mark Halperin. Via Atrios, ABC’s former news director Mark Halperin — who calls Matt Drudge the “Walter Cronkite of his era” and believes the media is too liberal and that “we’ve got to fix that” by “prov[ing] to conservatives that we understand their grievances” — has been hired by Time magazine as an editor-at-large and senior political analyst. (He joins the magazine’s new columnist William Kristol.) Some of Halperin’s greatest hits HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
posted by rich at 7:32 PM
‘Imminent.’(Think Progress)Defined by most as “likely to occur at any moment; impending.” Condoleezza Rice’s definition: An “imminent threat” is not “if somebody is going to strike tomorrow,” but rather, “it’s whether you believe you’re in a stronger position today to deal with the threat, or whether you’re going to be in a stronger position tomorrow.” FireDogLake and Raw Story have more.
UPDATE: She repeated the line on CNN:
RICE: The question with imminence is, are you in a situation whether you’re better to act now, or are you going to be in a worse situation later? That’s the question that you have to ask in policy.
posted by rich at 7:28 PM
U.S. rebuilt Iraq projects are crumbling. “In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.”
posted by rich at 7:23 PM
U.S. rebuilt Iraq projects are crumbling. “In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.”
posted by rich at 7:23 PM
Terrorism stats were inconvenient for Rice. The State Department is set to release its annual report showing a nearly 30 percent increase in terror attacks worldwide in 2006. “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides had considered postponing or downplaying the release of this year’s edition, due to the extreme political sensitivities, several officials said.”
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Bush to announce massive new drilling plan. “The Interior Department will announce a proposal Monday to allow oil and gas drilling in federal waters near Virginia that are currently off-limits and permit new exploration in Alaska’s Bristol Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. … The Virginia shore is dotted with barrier islands and lagoons, most of them largely unspoiled. The Virginia coast has been designated a World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations, and a National Natural Landmark by the Interior Department.”
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Bush to receive Iraq bill on ‘Mission Accomplished’ day.CNN has confirmed that Congress’ Iraq withdrawal legislation will be delivered to President Bush on Tuesday, making it highly likely that Bush will veto the bill on the four year anniversary of his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech:
DANA BASH: They now plan to send this bill to the White House on Tuesday. Not only that, they are considering, Democrats are considering holding a ceremony to send this bill off. The idea there: shining the spotlight one more time on Democrats before that veto, to make the case, just like they did today, that from Democrats’ perspective, the President is ignoring public opinion against his Iraq strategy.
(Think Progress)
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Terrorism attacks rose nearly 30%. McClatchy reports that a State Department terrorism report due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terror attacks worldwide in 2006. “Based on data compiled by the U.S. intelligence community’s National Counterterrorism Center, the reports says there were 14,338 terror attacks last year, up 29 percent from 11,111 attacks in 2005. Forty-five percent of the attacks took place in Iraq.”
posted by rich at 7:11 PM
“I’m just envisioning what it would be like to be a young soldier in the middle of Iraq and realizing that politicians have all of the sudden made military determinations. And in my judgment, that would put a kid in harm’s way, more so than he or she already is.” — President Bush, today, on how withdrawing a soldier from Iraq will place him in greater danger
posted by rich at 7:10 PM
Spitzer introduces gay marriage bill. Today, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, making him “the first governor in the nation to introduce a gay marriage bill.” Read Spitzer’s statement HERE.
posted by rich at 7:06 PM
Bomb found at Texas abortion clinic. “A package left at a clinic that performs abortions contained an explosive device that investigators said Thursday could have been deadly. The incident came just days after a national abortion group alerted providers around the country to an increased risk of violence.”
posted by rich at 7:02 PM
RICHMOND, Va. - The governor said Monday he has closed the loophole that allowed a mentally disturbed Virginia Tech student to acquire the guns he used to kill 32 students and faculty members.Gov. Timothy M. Kaine issued an executive order requiring that a database of people who are prohibited from buying guns include anyone found to be dangerous and ordered to undergo involuntary mental health treatment.Seung-Hui Cho had been ordered by a court to undergo psychiatric counseling after a judge ruled that he was a danger to himself.But because Cho was treated as an outpatient and never committed to a mental health hospital, the court finding never made it into the database that gun dealers must check before selling a firearm. The law prohibits selling firearms to people judged to have mental disabilities.
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CONCORD, N.H. - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani released his latest slate of New Hampshire supporters last week. One problem: Not all of them back the former New York City mayor.
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Pro-tolerance article gets teacher fired from school
What kind of country do we live in where teachers let high school kids write articles about tolerance in the school papers? Next thing you know, we're going to be teaching children about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Yes, better our high school kids be writing essays about velvet dogs playing poker.
posted by rich at 3:41 PM
Early 2007 economic growth worst in four years. “Economic growth slowed to a near crawl of 1.3 percent in the first three months of 2007, the worst performance in four years. … The new figures underscored just how much momentum the economy has been losing as it copes with the strain of the troubled housing market, which has made some businesses more cautious in their spending.”
posted by rich at 3:35 PM
Senators debunk Broder. Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted David Broder’s baseless claim that, thanks largely to his views on Iraq, a “long list of senators of both parties…are ready” for Sen. Harry Reid’s tenure as majority leader “to end.” Today, the Post publishes a letter to the editor signed by all 50 members of Reid’s caucus, praising him for his “extraordinary leadership.”
posted by rich at 3:33 PM
A highly-commended active-duty Army officer has published “a blistering attack on U.S. generals, saying they have botched the war in Iraq and misled Congress about the situation there.”
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Hundreds protest Cheney at BYU. Roughly 300 demonstrators gathered today in conservative Provo, Utah, to protest a commencement speech by Vice President Cheney at Brigham Young University.
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Attacks spark fears of Taliban defeating NATO. NPR reports, “In Afghanistan, the Taliban insurgency is spreading, even reaching some provinces in the north that had never been its strongholds. Last week, Taliban fighters attacked a district only 45 miles from the capital, Kabul. Afghans increasingly fear that NATO and Afghan forces will lose the war.”
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White House excludes bomb deaths in casualty counts. “Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn’t include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.”
posted by rich at 6:19 PM
Fox News’ John Gibson: The U.S. invasion “unmasked” Iraqis “as knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century.”
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WASHINGTON - The White House acknowledged Thursday it has conducted about 20 briefings recently for federal agency employees on the election prospects of Republican candidates — the sort of meetings that sparked an investigation into whether Bush aides engaged in illegal political activity.
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CONCORD, N.H. - New Hampshire lawmakers voted Thursday to authorize civil unions for gay couples and sent the bill to Gov. John Lynch, who announced last week that he would sign it.Three other states already offer civil unions: New Jersey, Connecticut and neighboring Vermont. Massachusetts in 2004 became the only state to allow gay marriage.The New Hampshire measure would start allowing civil unions Jan. 1.
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“No one suffers more than their President and I do.” — Laura Bush on Iraq UPDATE: Of course, by “suffer,” she means the “peace of mind” that Americans “sacrifice…when they see the terrible image of violence on TV every night.”
posted by rich at 6:10 PM
Iraq is failing on human rights. In the two months since the Baghdad security plan was launched, approximately 3,000 people have been arrested in security sweeps. According to a new U.N. report, Iraqi authorities “failed to guarantee the basic rights” to these people, and “four million Iraqis were at risk because of lack of food.”
posted by rich at 6:09 PM
Profiles in courage.A U.S. Senator talks to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius:
What’s truly pitiful and embarrassing is that this Senator understands these truths but hides behind a veil of anonymity, protecting his/her own political fortunes while the nation suffers.“This is the most incompetent White House I’ve seen since I came to Washington,” said one GOP senator. “The White House legislative liaison team is incompetent, pitiful, embarrassing. My colleagues can’t even tell you who the White House Senate liaison is. There is rank incompetence throughout the government. It’s the weakest Cabinet I’ve seen.” And remember, this is a Republican talking.
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Giuliani warns of ‘new 9/11.’ In a stunning politicization of national security, Rudy Giuliani said today that “if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001. But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.” (Via Atrios)
posted by rich at 6:05 PM
Rove investigator acts a lot like Rove.Scott J. Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, “who says he is investigating Karl Rove for allegations he influenced government activity for partisan purposes is himself facing allegations of similar behavior.” In April 2005, government watchdogs and others complained that “the White House appointee had allowed his office to ’sit on’ a complaint that then-White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice used government funds to travel in support of President Bush’s re-election bid.”
UPDATE: CREW adds: “The fact that OSC has been charged with handling these matters suggests the possibility that the White House is orchestrating a cover-up of its illegal and improper activities.”
(Think Progress)
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MEXICO CITY - Mexico City lawmakers voted to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, a landmark decision likely to heighten church-state tensions in the Roman Catholic nation and lead to a bitter court battle.
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WASHINGTON - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it's worth noting that scientists' requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth's with temperatures that would permit liquid water. However, this is the first outside our solar system that meets those standards."It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the planet. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."The results of the discovery have not been published but have been submitted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.Alan Boss, who works at the Carnegie Institution of Washington where a U.S. team of astronomers competed in the hunt for an Earth-like planet, called it "a major milestone in this business."The planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, which has a special instrument that splits light to find wobbles in different wave lengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.The discovery of the new planet, named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs.The new planet is about five times heavier than Earth. Its discoverers aren't certain if it is rocky like Earth or if its a frozen ice ball with liquid water on the surface. If it is rocky like Earth, which is what the prevailing theory proposes, it has a diameter about 1 1/2 times bigger than our planet. If it is an iceball, as Mayor suggests, it would be even bigger.Based on theory, 581 c should have an atmosphere, but what's in that atmosphere is still a mystery and if it's too thick that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot, Mayor said.However, the research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees and that set off celebrations among astronomers.Until now, all 220 planets astronomers have found outside our solar system have had the "Goldilocks problem." They've been too hot, too cold or just plain too big and gaseous, like uninhabitable Jupiter.The new planet seems just right — or at least that's what scientists think."This could be very important," said NASA astrobiology expert Chris McKay, who was not part of the discovery team. "It doesn't mean there is life, but it means it's an Earth-like planet in terms of potential habitability."Eventually astronomers will rack up discoveries of dozens, maybe even hundreds of planets considered habitable, the astronomers said. But this one — simply called "c" by its discoverers when they talk among themselves — will go down in cosmic history as No. 1.Besides having the right temperature, the new planet is probably full of liquid water, hypothesizes Stephane Udry, the discovery team's lead author and another Geneva astronomer. But that is based on theory about how planets form, not on any evidence, he said."Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," co-author Xavier Delfosse of Grenoble University in France, said in a statement. "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X." Other astronomers cautioned it's too early to tell whether there is water.
"You need more work to say it's got water or it doesn't have water," said retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran, press officer for the American Astronomical Society. "You wouldn't send a crew there assuming that when you get there, they'll have enough water to get back."
The new planet's star system is a mere 20.5 light years away, making Gliese 581 one of the 100 closest stars to Earth. It's so dim, you can't see it without a telescope, but it's somewhere in the constellation Libra, which is low in the southeastern sky during the midevening in the Northern Hemisphere.
"I expect there will be planets like Earth, but whether they have life is another question," said renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in an interview with The Associated Press in Orlando. "We haven't been visited by little green men yet." Before you book your extrastellar flight to 581 c, a few caveats about how alien that world probably is: Anyone sitting on the planet would get heavier quickly, and birthdays would add up fast since it orbits its star every 13 days. Gravity is 1.6 times as strong as Earth's so a 150-pound person would feel like 240 pounds. But oh, the view. The planet is 14 times closer to the star it orbits. Udry figures the red dwarf star would hang in the sky at a size 20 times larger than our moon. And it's likely, but still not known, that the planet doesn't rotate, so one side would always be sunlit and the other dark. Distance is another problem.
"We don't know how to get to those places in a human lifetime," Maran said. Two teams of astronomers, one in Europe and one in the United States, have been racing to be the first to find a planet like 581 c outside the solar system. The European team looked at 100 different stars using a tool called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher) to find this one planet, said Xavier Bonfils of the Lisbon Observatory, one of the co-discoverers. Much of the effort to find Earth-like planets has focused on stars like our sun with the challenge being to find a planet the right distance from the star it orbits. About 90 percent of the time, the European telescope focused its search more on sun-like stars, Udry said.
A few weeks before the European discovery earlier this month, a scientific paper in the journal Astrobiology theorized a few days that red dwarf stars were good candidates."Now we have the possibility to find many more," Bonfils said.
posted by rich at 5:33 PM
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government withheld recent casualty figures from the United Nations, fearing they would be used to present a grim picture of Iraq that would undermine the coalition's security efforts, U.N. officials said Wednesday.Working with its own figures, the U.N. released a new human rights report Wednesday saying that sectarian violence continued to claim the lives of a large number of Iraqi civilians in Sunni Arab and Shiite neighborhoods of Iraq's capital, despite the coalition's new Baghdad security plan. Begun Feb. 14, it has increased U.S. and Iraqi troops levels in the capital.
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Doctors angered at Supreme Court ruling.Medical experts speak out about the court’s ruling upholding what the right wing terms “partial birth” abortion:
UPDATE: Ilene Jaroslaw writes in Newsweek: “I needed that now-banned procedure known as ‘partial-birth’ abortion. Why the Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw it was a dark day for American women.”At Bellevue’s Reproductive Choice Unit, for example, unnerved residents circulated stories about the hospital’s sordid past, when floors were once full of women who attempted termination on their own. “I don’t think many of us know what partial birth is — it’s not a medical term at all,” said Kiran Chawal, a third-year resident there. “We’ve all looked it up to figure out what they’re talking about. It’s difficult to understand or interpret.”
The legislation of medicine is what angers doctors most, regardless of their political leanings. “It’s not a pro-choice issue as much as it is a medical issue,” says Chawal. “You’re telling doctors how to perform a procedure. Are they going to tell me next week that I can’t use a speculum to do a Pap smear?” Jessica Salas, one of the chief OB residents at Bellevue, doesn’t perform abortions because of her own moral concerns, but she is nevertheless opposed to the ban. … “It’s a sad day for practitioners in general. They’re telling us how to do our jobs and to do something that’s not safe for the patient.”
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Don’t forget Romania. “Romanian Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said on Monday he was likely to propose the withdrawal of Romanian troops from Iraq at the next meeting of the country’s defense council. … ‘It will be just about announcing a political decision that will eventually materialize in a withdrawal calendar agreed with our partners and allies.’”
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House, Senate agree on binding Iraq withdrawal.“House and Senate negotiators reached agreement today on final war-funding legislation that would begin bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq as early as this July, setting a goal of ending U.S. combat operations no later than March of next year. The deal, which will come to final votes in the House and Senate Wednesday and Thursday, sets up a veto clash with President Bush by week’s end.” More details on the agreement HERE.
UPDATE: A statement from Reid and Pelosi is HERE.
UPDATE II: Thoughts from McJoan.
posted by rich at 4:58 PM
Former aide to Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Mark Zachares, looks “set to plead guilty to corruption charges” over his relationship with criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
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FBI Questions Rep. Feeney (R-FL) Over Abramoff Ties
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Reid: Bush in “state of denial.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today: “[T]he President on Friday used the word ‘progress’ no fewer than ten times when he gave his Iraq update. He said that while there were still horrific attacks in Baghdad - and I quote - ‘The direction of the fight is beginning to shift.’ In describing his escalation of American troops - what he calls a surge - he said, ’so far the operation is meeting expectations.’ The White House transcript says the President made those remarks in the State of Michigan. I believe he made them in the state of denial.”
Reid defends Iraq, ‘liar’ statements.
In a CNN interview today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) defended calling the war in Iraq “lost.”Reid also defended some of his other controversial past statements:
“I do what I think is right, and I think this war is headed in the wrong direction,” Reid said. “And I’m going to speak out as often and as regularly as I can.”
Reid has been an outspoken critic of the president, calling him a loser and a liar in the past.
“I don’t back off that at all,” he said. “So if you say something that is untrue to me and in the right circumstances, I will call you a liar. I have no regret having called him a liar, because he lied.”
(Think Progress)
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CHICAGO - A Harvard study released Monday supports earlier findings by a panel of experts that having an abortion doesn't increase a woman's risk of getting breast cancer.However, this latest analysis isn't likely to convince all those opposed to abortion. Three states — Texas, Minnesota and Mississippi — require doctors to warn women seeking abortions of the purported link to breast cancer "when medically accurate," letting doctors make that determination based on current scientific evidence.
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BAGHDAD - Students in Baghdad, where universities have been hard-hit by violence, said they were saddened by last week's massacre at Virginia Tech and hung up a banner to express their solidarity with "our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge.""We want to let the whole world know that we do not support terrorism anywhere," said Yassir Nazar, head of the student union at Baghdad Technology University, who organized the hanging of the banner near the campus gate.It reads, "We, the students of Technology University, denounce the attack at Virginia Tech. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims who faced a situation as bad as Iraq's universities do. The sanctity of campuses must be protected around the world.""We have lost many friends and professors," Nazar said Monday. "But in spite of our wounds, we want to show our solidarity with the students of Virginia Tech who are our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge."
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The nine U.S. soldiers killed and 20 wounded when a truck bomb exploded next to their patrol base in Iraq were paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, the division said Tuesday.Maj. Tom Earnhardt, a spokesman for the division at Fort Bragg, said it was the deadliest attack the division had faced since the Iraq war began.It also was the single deadliest attack on ground forces since Dec. 1, 2005, when a roadside bomb killed 10 Marines and wounded 11 on a foot patrol near Fallujah. An insurgent group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility, according to an Internet-posted statement Tuesday.
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Bush muses on marriage, chicken-plucking factories
WASHINGTON — Strange things sometimes come out of President Bush's mouth. "Polls just go poof." "Remember the rug?"When Bush went to Ohio on Thursday to talk about terrorism, he ended up musing about marriage and chicken-plucking plants, the agony of death and his Oval Office rug, which resembles a sunburst.
About his legacy, Bush said historians are still assessing George Washington, the nation's first leader. "My attitude is, if they're still writing about (number) one, 43 doesn't need to worry about it."
On being married: "A good marriage is really good after serving together in Washington, D.C."
Maybe the president just felt like jabbering at the town hall-style event in Tipp City, Ohio. He began talking about terrorism and ended 90 minutes later after chattering about everything from life after the White House to Vietnam War and the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
Some highlights:
_"Politics comes and goes, but your principles don't. And everybody wants to be loved _ not everybody. ... You never heard anybody say, `I want to be despised, I'm running for office.'"
_"The best thing about my family is my wife. She is a great first lady. I know that sounds not very objective, but that's how I feel. And she's also patient. Putting up with me requires a lot of patience."
_"There are jobs Americans aren't doing. ... If you've got a chicken factory, a chicken-plucking factory, or whatever you call them, you know what I'm talking about."
_"There are some similarities, of course" between Iraq and Vietnam. "Death is terrible."
_"I've been in politics long enough to know that polls just go poof at times."
As he has before, Bush told the story about how his first presidential decision was to pick a rug for the Oval Office, a task he quickly cast to his wife. He told her to make sure the rug reflected optimism "because you can't make decisions unless you're optimistic that the decisions you make will lead to a better tomorrow."
Later, when he talked about his hope for succeeding in Iraq, Bush said, "Remember the rug?"
(Huffington Post)
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I think the job has gotten to him - he sounds certifiably insane here - even more so than he did before he was elected! This is some of the more bizarre nonsense that he's ever spouted.
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Bush tells Pelosi Syria attacks were State Dept.’s fault. “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told colleagues yesterday that she was incredulous after President Bush pulled her aside at the end of a meeting Wednesday and told her he did not criticize her recent trip to Syria. After all, Bush and other senior administration officials and top Republicans had slammed the speaker publicly for meeting in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But in a private meeting with Democratic lawmakers yesterday, Pelosi said Bush told her in an unsolicited comment that it was actually the State Department that criticized her.”
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Reid: Iraq war is lost…if we follow Bush’s course.The AP reports:
UPDATE: The AP changes its headline. It now reads “Reid: U.S. Can’t Win Iraq Military Fight.” Sen. Reid issued the following statement, “And as long as we follow the President’s path in Iraq, the war is lost. But there is still a chance to change course — and we must change course.”The war in Iraq “is lost” and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday.
“I believe … that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week,” Reid told journalists.
Reid said he had delivered the same message to US President George W. Bush on Wednesday, when the US president met with senior lawmakers to discuss how to end a standoff over an emergency war funding bill.
“I know I was the odd guy out at the White House, but I told him at least what he needed to hear … I believe the war at this stage can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically.”
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‘Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.’ Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in South Carolina: “Another man — wondering if an attack on Iran is in the works — wanted to know when America is going to ’send an air mail message to Tehran.’ McCain began his answer by changing the words to a popular Beach Boys song. ‘Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,’ he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann. … He stopped short of answering the actual question.”---
Serious man addressing a serious issue in a serious way. Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan on Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) last week (i.e., pre-”bomb, bomb Iran“)---
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Breaking: FBI Raids Rep. Doolittle’s Home---
Roll Call reports, “The FBI has raided the Northern Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), according to Congressional sources. No details are publicly available yet about the circumstances of the raid, but Doolittle and his wife, Julie, have been under federal investigation for their ties to the scandal surrounding imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.”
Doolittle resigns from Appropriations Committee. “Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., has decided to give up his seat on the House Appropriations Committee after FBI agents searched his house as part of a congressional influence-peddling investigation. Doolittle’s decision, to be announced Thursday, was confirmed by a Republican congressional staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news was not yet public.” But we thought the FBI was only concerned with Doolittle’s wife!---
A marriage made in corruption. “Two Bush administration officials who have been linked in scandal are now linked in wedlock.” Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and former Justice Department lawyer Sue Ellen Wooldridge “were married March 26, three days after Griles pleaded guilty to lying to Congress” about his relationship with Jack Abramoff. “Legal experts note that people can refuse to testify against their spouses, and that in some cases, people can prevent their spouse from testifying against them.”---
Breaking: FBI Raids Rep. Renzi’s Family Business
Roll Call reports:In a second blow to House Republicans this week, the FBI raided a business tied to the family of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) Thursday afternoon as part of an ongoing investigation into the three-term lawmaker.
Details of the raid on Patriot Insurance Agency in Sonoita, Ariz., were not immediately available. Renzi’s most recent financial disclosure form lists the business as an asset belonging to his wife, Roberta, and valued at $1 million to $5 million.
Little is known about the inquiries into Renzi’s activities, but according to media reports the Justice Department has been running a two-track investigation into Renzi regarding a land deal, as well as a piece of legislation he helped steer that may have improperly benefited a major campaign contributor. It was not immediately clear which investigation the raid pertained to, and neither his attorney nor his spokesman could be immediately reached for comment.
As a result of the raid, Renzi is stepping down from his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, according to a statement from his office obtained Thursday evening by Roll Call.
“Today, the FBI came to my family’s business to obtain documents related to their investigation,” Renzi said. “I view these actions as the first step in bringing out the truth. Until this matter is resolved, I will take a leave of absence from the House Intelligence Committee. I intend to fully cooperate with this investigation.”
UPDATE: CREW has background on the two investigations into Renzi. There are also suspicions that Paul Charlton, the former U.S. Attorney in Arizona, was purged in part because of his probe into Renzi’s activities. (Gonzales was asked about Charlton today.)
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(All from Think Progress)
Really - what is it about this party these days? This is almost to the point of parody!
posted by rich at 5:20 PM
McCain’s latest bold stand: Opposing legislation to prevent hate crimes against gays and lesbians.
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10 out of 15 countries believe that the United States cannot be trusted to “act responsibly in the world.” The new PIPA poll also finds that majorities in 13 out of 15 publics polled say the United States is “playing the role of world policeman more than it should be,” and majorities in all 15 of the countries polled reject the idea that “the US should continue to be the preeminent world leader in solving international problems.”
(Think Progress)
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Every day under this joke of an administration makes me sick with sadness at what this country has become and what it should be...I wonder if we will ever recover...
posted by rich at 7:24 PM
Gates Contradicts Bush, Cheney On Timelines
Via Kevin Drum, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that Congress’ debate over a withdrawal timeline is having a positive impact:Gates, on a Middle East tour, called for a range of efforts from inside and outside Iraq to speed up the formation of a broad-based government of Iraq’s majority Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.
….”The debate in Congress…has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited,” Gates told Pentagon reporters traveling with him in Jordan. “The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact…in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment.”
Gate’s argument contradicts President Bush’s claim that timelines “send the wrong message to the Iraqis,” and prove al Qaeda’s accusations that America is “weak,” “corrupt,” and “can’t stand it.”
Artificial timetable for withdrawal send the wrong message to the Iraqis, they’re seeing it’s not worth it. There’s a lot of Iraqis over there determined — trying to make up their mind whether they want to be a part of democracy, or whether or not they’re going to take to the hills and see what happens. Artificial timetable for withdrawal, an early withdrawal before this finishes sends the message to the enemy, we were right about America. That’s what they said. Al Qaeda has said it’s just a matter of time before America withdraws. They’re weak, they’re corrupt, they can’t stand it, and they’ll withdraw. And all that would do is confirm what the enemy thinks.
Likewise, Vice President Cheney said last week:
It is impossible to argue that an unconditional timetable for retreat could serve the security interests of the United States or our friends in the region. Instead, it sends a message to our enemies that the calendar is their friend, that all they have to do is wait us out — wait for the date certain, and then claim victory the day after.
Such hypocrisy isn’t confined to the Bush administration. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who regularly maligns timelines as a “date certain for surrender,” admitted he used those very calls for redeployment to “motivate the Maliki government” during a dinner last month with Prime Minister Maliki.
(Think Progress)
posted by rich at 7:20 PM
Oregon House approves two gay rights bills. The Oregon House voted today to approve a domestic partnership bill which offers same-sex couples a broad range of new rights, as well as legislation that bans discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people in employment, housing and access to public accommodations. Towleroad notes one ironic moment: “House pages tried to block Aimee Wilson, the partner of Rep. Tina Kotek (D-Portland), from being on the floor during the debate because she wasn’t a family member. Wilson eventually made it on the floor.”
posted by rich at 7:19 PM
WH claims executive privilege over RNC emails. In a letter to the RNC, Emmet Flood, a special counsel to President Bush, “today again raised the possibility of an executive-privilege claim on e-mails and other documents from private e-mail accounts used by senior White House officials” but controlled by the RNC. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) called the request “extreme and unnecessary” and said it was “a clear attempt, on the Administration’s part, to delay this process and keep the wheels of Justice turning slowly.”
posted by rich at 7:18 PM
FRC: We need more failed abstinence programs.The latest federal report on abstinence-only programs shows that they have had “no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence.” Nevertheless, the conservative Family Reseach Council responds that “one logical conclusion is that to achieve the greatest effectiveness, programs must be intensive and long-term, so that the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to reject sex before marriage are constantly reinforced–particularly in the pivotal high school years.”
UPDATE: “The Baptist Press is reporting that True Love Waits — a Christian group promoting abstinence-only education — is planning to expand its operations in six African countries, thanks to a recent surge in donations. Evidently, they’re unfazed by that recent U.S. report showing that these programs are basically useless. A trifling concern, really.”
posted by rich at 7:16 PM
posted by rich at 7:13 PM
WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked legislation on Wednesday that would let the government negotiate Medicare drug prices. Democrats couldn't muster the 60 votes needed to bring the bill up for a vote.
posted by rich at 7:12 PM
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.
posted by rich at 7:11 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday that President Bush still had "full confidence" in World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who faces a storm of criticism for helping arrange a high-paying promotion for his girlfriend.
posted by rich at 6:37 PM
BAGHDAD - Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 160 people and wounding scores as violence climbed toward levels seen before the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital began two months ago.In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in central Baghdad, killing at least 112 people and wounding 115, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.
posted by rich at 6:35 PM
