First Draft

Saturday Blogwhoring Thread

But post them anyway.

A.

I Met A Young Woman Whose Body Was Burning: Galactica Thread

I'm on the road this weekend, so I'll update this post when I get a chance to see the ep. For now, Jacob's brilliance breaks through TWOP's nauseatingly stupid and complicated redesign:

"I want to believe her," Bill admits. "But the President's right, it's exactly what the Cylons would be counting on."

And they keep saying it, and it keeps being heartbreaking. Because in what kind of a fracked-up universe does Occam's Razor work out that way? "It's what I want most, so it must be poisoned." How can that be the smartest call? "It's the only joy I can imagine, so it must be a trick or a trap." What have we done to these kids? When will it get better? How can you know when you know?

Spoilers may abound in the comments. Click at your own risk.

Updated with recap below:

Somebody Owes Me A Pony

Gallup:

PRINCETON, NJ -- President George W. Bush's job approval rating has dropped to 28%, the lowest of his administration. Bush's approval is lower than that of any president since World War II, with the exceptions of Jimmy Carter (who had a low point of 28% in 1979), and Richard Nixon and Harry Truman, who suffered ratings in the low- to mid-20% range in the last years of their administrations.

Mississippi diverts Katrina funds to patch state budget

From the Clarion Ledger:

House and Senate leaders have agreed on a budget that again relies on one-time money, including funding received from the federal government after Hurricane Katrina hit the state.

Money from the state's "hurricane relief" fund will be used to fill the "rainy day" fund and help pay for Medicaid services in the next fiscal year that begins July 1.

Mostly general fund money will be used to pay for a $99 million shortfall Medicaid faces this fiscal year.

House Medicaid Committee Chairman Dirk Dedeaux said he's "very disappointed" in the use of Katrina money. Dedeaux, D-Perkinston, and several other Gulf Coast lawmakers have said too much recovery work remains to be done to shift the money to other sources.

Heckuva

Job, Chimpy!

U.S. consumer confidence fell to its lowest in more than a quarter century in early April, diving deeper into recessionary territory on heightened worries over inflation and jobs, a survey showed on Friday.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary index of confidence fell to 63.2 in April from 69.5 in March, well below economists' median expectation of a slight fall to 69.0, according to a Reuters poll.

The April result is the lowest since March 1982's level of 62.0, when the "stagflationary" period of low growth and high inflation was still fresh in the memory of many Americans.

Near-term inflation expectations measured by the survey jumped to the highest since the turmoil following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in late 1990, which caused oil prices to rise sharply.

Friday Ferretblogging: Mom's Gone Edition

I'll be on the road for the next three days (don't worry, there will be a Galactica open thread posted tonight after the show so you can chat before I get home Sunday and get my recap up) and so in my absence you'll have the guestblogging stylings of Riot:

His posts may contain high-minded foreign policy criticism, or just requests for treats and increasingly drunk renditions of Freebird. Depends on his mood.

A.

"He is Iraq's Katrina itself"

From Juan Cole:

So Congress abdicated to Bush.  Bush has abdicated to the generals in the field. 

That is not a Republic.  That is a military dictatorship achieved not by coup but by moral laziness.

Ironically, what officers like Petraeus need from Bush is not deference but vigorous leadership in the political realm. Bush needs to intervene to work for political reconciliation in Iraq if Petraeus's military achievements are to bear fruit. But Bush seems incapable of actually conducting policy, as opposed to starting wars. Bush happened to Iraq just as he happened to New Orleans. He cannot do the hard work of patiently addressing disasters and ameliorating them. He just wants to set people to fighting. Crush the Sadr Movement, perhaps the most popular political movement in Iraq? He's all for it. Risk provoking a wider conflagration in the Middle East by worsening relations with Iran? Sounds like a great idea to him. Bush campaigned on being a 'uniter not a divider' in 2000. In fact, he is the ultimate Divider, and leaves burning buildings, millions of refugees, and hundreds of thousands of cadavers in his wake. He is not Iraq's Brownie. He is Iraq's Katrina itself.

Just as New Orleans's Ninth War will still be a moonscape when Bush goes out of office, so will Iraq. 

So well said from Mr. Cole. And as I noted with photos about a year ago--Bush's legacy will be the tale of these 2 cities:

Baghdad:

New Orleans:

Baghdad:

New Orleans:

Welfare Queens

Boy, am I glad we bailed out the fuckin' airlines:

American Airlines canceled more than 900 flights Thursday to fix faulty wiring in hundreds of jets, marking the third straight day of mass groundings as company executives offered profuse apologies and travel vouchers to calm angry customers.

Other carriers operating similar aircraft also left passengers scrambling for alternatives as they too canceled flights to inspect the wire bundles at the heart of a renewed safety crackdown by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Flashback:

AMR Corp.'s American Airlines

Airline analyst Glenn Engel of Goldman Sachs says he sees the largest U.S. commercial carrier getting about $900 million in cash. American has reduced its flight schedule by 20 percent and has slashed 20,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its staff. On Monday, the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline said it would cancel three routes: San Jose/Taipei, Chicago/Stockholm and Chicago/Birmingham, U.K. on a seasonal basis.

That worked out GREAT.

Maybe next time we should just tell them to sell some bling.

A.

McCain Annoints China As "The World's Super Power"

Why does John McCain hate America?

He appeared on The View.

Mr. McCain later added: “You can’t have a nation that’s the world’s super power in many respects behave like this, that – an oppressive and brutal fashion. So I think a message needs to be sent to the Chinese, and a pretty strong one. But I would say, ‘Look, I can decide the day before the opening ceremonies,’ but I would certainly keep that option open if I were president.”

[snip]

While Mr. Obama was lauded as “sexy” by Barbara Walters, the veteran journalist, the best Mr. McCain got from her was “brave” for continuing to support the Iraq war in the face of widespread public opposition.

Baba Wawa is, of course, an idiot.  John McCain is not serving in Iraq, and neither are any of his children.  I don't see what's so "brave" about his stance.

TP: "Ashley Morris, tireless proponent of N.O."

A nice obit in the Times Picayune for Ashley.

And if you can please donate to RememberAshleyMorris.com.

Also a great T-Shirt will be going on sale soon with proceeds going to the Morris family.....

More info HERE

No one could have predicted

Damn hard to believe no one saw this coming...

Credit crunch threatens N.O. housing plans

Although demolition of the sturdy brick buildings at Lafitte is scheduled to begin this week, developers still have not secured all of the financing to replace the "big four" public housing complexes with mixed-income communities.

The rapid decline in financial markets has upset plans developers made last year to remake the public housing developments with a mix of public and private money. Since the City Council voted to demolish the complexes late last year, a spiraling credit crisis has made banks uneasy about making new loans. Meanwhile, the value of low-income housing tax credits that will be used to finance the projects has declined.

In recent weeks, the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, the state entity handling the award of tax credits, has said that any affordable housing developers who have not yet closed on their financing plans may find themselves unable to do so.

Much more on who saw what coming at We Could Be Famous blog.

Dear Wingnuts: Cheese Curds and Chee-tos Are NOT the Same Thing

≠
Not the same.  Got it?

I'm not sure why, but lately a whole passel of wingnuts has come through Madison, WI.  A little while ago, David Horowitz was here to tell us all why he's such an asshole.  Within the last week, both Michelle "I hate brown people so keep that goddamn mirror away from me" Malkin AND Jonah "Behold my Chee-to eating prowess" Goldberg came to town.  Tonight, Jenna Bush is here.  I realize that Jenna Bush isn't a columnist for the illustrious Pajamas Media, but she is related to the miserable failure formerly known as the Savior of the Republican Party.

Come to think of it, Jenna's probably not here for the cheese.  I forgot to mention how amazingly cheap it is to drink in this town.  That's gotta be the selling point for her.

As for the others, will you please stay the fuck out of my town?  It's usually pretty nice here, and spring is finally coming.  Let us enjoy it in peace.

Goblety Gook

What the fuck does this mean?

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration had abandoned the benchmarks [Congress set for Iraq] as a strict standard of progress because establishing a secure Iraq would also depend on factors other than political and military progress.

[snip]

Asked for elaboration, the senior administration official said, “It’s a very hard concept to explain publicly because it doesn’t feature a sort of setting of the dial. It features what we call a running assessment.”

Pony Up!

Chimpy ties his all-time low job approval rating in the new Harris poll.

Three-quarters (75%) of Americans currently think things in the country are on the wrong track while just 15 percent say things are going in the right direction.

[snip]

Just one-quarter (26%) of Americans give President Bush positive ratings on his job while just under three-quarters (72%) give him negative ratings. This is down from February when 28 percent gave him positive marks and 69 percent have him negative ones. This current rating also ties his lowest ever positive rating which was first reached in July of 2007.

Heckuva Job, Chimpy!

US Trade Deficit Sets Record For 12th Consecutive Month

The U.S. trade deficit widened unexpectedly in February as imports of consumer and other goods set a record and grew faster than exports, which hit a record for the 12th consecutive month, a U.S. government report showed on Thursday.

The monthly deficit widened 5.7 percent to $62.3 billion, from an upwardly revised estimate of $59.0 billion for January. Wall Street analysts had expected the gap to narrow to $57.5 billion.

Circling Like Sparrows

War is a crime:

Old hands in the intelligence community remembered vividly how past covert operations, from the Vietnam War-era "Phoenix Program" of assassinations of Viet Cong to the Iran-Contra arms sales of the 1980s were painted as the work of a "rogue agency" out of control.

But even after the "Golden Shield" was in place, briefings and meetings in the White House to discuss individual interrogations continued, sources said. Tenet, seeking to protect his agents, regularly sought confirmation from the NSC principals that specific interrogation plans were legal.

According to a former CIA official involved in the process, CIA headquarters would receive cables from operatives in the field asking for authorization for specific techniques. Agents, worried about overstepping their boundaries, would await guidance in particularly complicated cases dealing with high-value detainees, two CIA sources said.

Highly placed sources said CIA directors Tenet and later Porter Goss along with agency lawyers briefed senior advisers, including Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Powell, about detainees in CIA custody overseas.

"It kept coming up. CIA wanted us to sign off on each one every time," said one high-ranking official who asked not to be identified. "They'd say, 'We've got so and so. This is the plan.'"

Sources said that at each discussion, all the Principals present approved.

Of course they approved. Of course they knew. Did anyone sincerely believe otherwise? Did anyone sincerely believe they were kept in the dark? The CIA knows better. The CIA wasn't going down for this alone. Jesus Christ, of course they approved.

For years, they've been governing on the principle that the lies they tell are so gigantic, the crimes they commit so outrageous, that we're too utterly freaked to call them on it. For years, they've been governing like public opinion and the rule of law don't matter because honestly, who's there to convince them it does matter? Chris Dodd had to fucking threaten to filibuster his own party's bill to convince people the Constitution was still worth giving a fuck about, for fucking fuck's sake. Jesus tits, what on earth would make them scared? What have we ever done to make them think there'd be consequences to their actions?

And now? Now what?

A.

Today on Athenae's Obsession with the Freepi: They Don't Like Feith Either

Doug Feith doesn't understand war. I do!

Enough with the hindsight. The fact that thing like this are being published now is further proof that what we are doing now is being successful.

---

Three weeks to overrun and topple a country the size of Iraq isn’t good enough for him?

Perhaps he could point to an invasion ever in the history of warfare that has gone better...? Really... even one.

---

War is a series of catastrophes that result in a victory.

---

At least at Agincourt, the French stood and fought. They fought in the wrong place, with the wrong troops, but they fought. The Iraqis didn’t even do that.

---

Put me on the side of those who feel that the US has handled the Iraq invasion and occupation very very well from a history of warfare standpoint.

A.

Today On Holden's Obsession With The Gaggle

Dana Peroxide Does Not Know That Republikkkan Senators Questioned Patreus' "Success"

Q Dana, picking back up on the speech again tomorrow, will the President be addressing sort of the bigger-picture questions that were talked a little bit about in the hearings yesterday? Senator Warner raised a question: Are we safer? Is America safer because of this? And Senator Hagel raised some questions about where is the diplomatic surge. Will the President address the nation and those kinds of questions tomorrow?

MS. PERINO: Sure, those are issues, when the President talks about Iraq, that he addresses every time he has a chance to talk about it.

[snip]

Q But those two Republican Senators really seem to be at a loss for understanding progress in Iraq.

MS. PERINO: With all the testimony -- I didn't see the questioning in between those two Senators, but I do think that Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus have done a very good job of providing their very candid and frank assessment about the progress that has been made because of the surge, and the challenges that lie ahead.

Dana Peroxide Is Helenized -- Again

Q You said earlier today that it was not possible for the President to pull out of Iraq before he leaves office. And it was so easy for him to go in five years ago; why can't he pull out now?

MS. PERINO: I don't think any of that was easy -- not the decision and not -- and certainly none of the logistics, and especially everything that weighs heavy on him and obviously the families of the loved ones -- their loved ones who have died in this fight. But what I was saying, Helen, is that it is, one, the President thinks that it's way premature to pull out troops now. One, it's dangerous for our own national security, but also for the innocent Iraqis who are there --

Q Why is it dangerous for our national security? Are the Iraqis a threat to us?

MS. PERINO: Helen, in case you missed it, Osama bin Laden has said that he would like to establish al Qaeda's roots in the Arab world.

[snip]

Q I understand you do not intend to submit the agreement to Congress -- the agreement with the Iraqis.

MS. PERINO: We have said that we will continue to work with Congress, brief them on it fully -- that's what Ambassador Crocker said he would do. It's not --

Q But not to let --

MS. PERINO: -- an executive agreement like this isn't something that is subject to a yes or no vote by the United States Senate. Other countries, under their constitutions, may have that type of rule, but we don't. But that doesn't mean we're not going to work very closely with Congress.

Q -- to make an end run around the authorization --

MS. PERINO: No it's not, Helen.

Q -- that expired, didn't it?

MS. PERINO: No it's not, Helen. No.

Q Well, why can't you submit it to Congress?

MS. PERINO: I just explained why.

Go ahead.

Your President... Wait For It... SPEAKS!

Today, at the White House, after meeting Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore.

The Trade Agreement Was Kicked In

And I also am so pleased that the trade agreement that we negotiated during our respective times was kicked in.

Listen To The People Voices!

We spent time on Burma and the need for the military regime there to understand that they shouldn't fear the voices of people.

A Man Who Is Anti-Violence

They'll find -- if they ever were to reach out to the Dalai Lama, they'd find him to be a really fine man, a peaceful man, a man who is anti-violence, a man who is not for independence but for the cultural identity of the Tibetans being maintained.

What Goh Chok Tong Got

You got good knowledge and you've had a lot of experience, and you're kind to share it with me.

Column: Just Say You're Sorry, Doug

Link:

The key to being really, really, really bad at your job, apparently, is to be so brazenly bad about it that people are too astonished to call you on it.

The above sentence is the first entry in a long list of things I learned about life from watching the Bush administration. I'd call it "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," but I understand that title's taken.

Watching former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith on "60 Minutes" Sunday night and reading his new book, I'm struck more than ever by the truth of it.

A.

John Morton Nails It Like A Thing That Has Been Nailed

Dear Jesus yes:

Newspaper executives point to the Internet as the future of newspapers, arguing that a combination of online and print products will assure newspapers of a profitable future. Yet last year newspaper Internet revenue amounted to only 7 percent or so of total advertising. Moreover, growth in Internet revenue, which in earlier years had been 30 to 40 percent a year, has dropped to about 20 percent.

What this portends is that a successful Internet-print future will be a long time coming. And if newspapers embark on this future with lesser journalistic products, less circulation, less standing in their markets, the profits of the future likely will be much less than newspapers are accustomed to.

I will point out that despite weak advertising and all the other woes newspapers endured last year, the average operating profit margin of the publicly owned companies' newspaper operations was 17 percent. Most non-media businesses couldn't hope to achieve even half that in the best of times.

Via Romenesko.

You want to keep talking about the Internet, fine, but the money's going out the door, and until you start asking why and wherefore, you're going to keep losing.

A.

Your President Speaks! AGAIN!

Today, at the White House.

No Thanks

I can't thank the folks who care enough about a fellow citizen to offer their love and compassion.

Obama's Support Increases With Education Level

Interesting.  From Gallup:

Democratic Candidate Preferences By Education Level

All Surveyed
Clinton:  43%
Obama:  50%

High School Education or Less
Clinton:  53%
Obama:  40%

Some College Education
Clinton:  40%
Obama:  53%

College Graduate
Clinton:  35%
Obama:  59%

Postgraduate Education
Clinton:  30%
Obama:  64%

Your President Speaks!

Yesterday, at the White House, after meeting the provincial governors of Afghanistan.

There Is Concerns

Secondly, there's concerns about unemployment, about economic development.

People....  People Who Remember People....  Are The Luckiest People... In The World

Some provinces are quiet, and the governor wondered whether or not, because it's quiet, people remember the people in the province exist.

What Other Provinces Have Got

Other provinces have got some difficult security problems.

That The People Are Being Able

And I shared with them our desire to help them succeed, because one of the things that really matters in democracy is that local governance is strong and good and honest, that the people are being able to see the benefits of democracy.

What The Provincial Governors Of Afghanistan Have Got

They've got a very busy schedule.

Shriners

I'm now going to show them the Oval Office -- a shrine to democracy.

Branding

Via an unholy daisy chain of links from about 80 people, we find this:

Watching Obamamania unfold over the last few days, I have gradually come to the realization that we are living through the first Presidential campaign that is being marketed like a high-end consumer brand.

The logo itself is a good jumping off point. The typical Presidential campaign logo usually features some variant of the stars and stripes. Beyond patriotism, they have no message. They are pretty much interchangeable between Republicans and Democrats.

Obama’s logo rearranges these patriotic elements into an emblem that distills his message to the core: the hope of the sun rising [or, Republicans, is it setting?] over amber waves of grain, with the novelty of the candidate’s unusual last name reinforced in an “O”. Unlike virtually every political logo in history, this one doesn’t shy away from the glows and gradients meant to give modern corporate logos realism and depth. And like good corporate logos, this logomark can be disaggregated from the candidate’s name, in the same way that the swoosh instantly screams “Nike” or the circular logos of BMW and Mercedes spark instant associations with affluence and prestige.

Emphasis mine, because, the first? Really?

Branding:

Branding:

Branding:

"Flip-Flops or Boots?" asks one.

"Remember: It's Your Money."

"One Nation Under God."

On a cadet blue background, bright as the October sky, a single sentence shares space with the "Bush/Cheney" icon – names silhouetted in a red, white and blue shooting star – or laser-guided bomb, depending on your point of view.

Ruffini's point about a "high-end" brand being Obama's claim to fame may be true. Between those signs and that Toby Keith song and all the Purple Heart band-aids, Brand Bush certainly wasn't anything you'd want to put out on the table for company.

A.

Reviewing Feith, or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Give Irony A Funeral

First of all, the look on the bookstore clerk's face was priceless: "Um," she said, and put it in the bag as though handling a diseased porcupine. Yeah, I have a copy on hold at the library but theirs isn't there yet and I didn't want to wait. My masochism: Let me show you it.

Second, oh, dear Jesus, I don't know how you write an "insider's account" of the Pentagon machinations leading up to the war and make it this dull. Bob Woodward, on whom Feith snarks pathetically in talking about "people who write long pages of dialogue from only their notes," is entertaining, however annoying his mancrush on Bush might be. Woodward puts you in the room. Feith tells you what the room is called, lists who was in it, paraphrases what they said, and then is on to the next room. If you were playing Where's Post 9/11 Waldo, it would be useful, but a good read it is not.

The book proceeds as a list, which I'll paraphrase here:

Today On Holden's Obsession With The Gaggle

Dana Peroxide Claims Chimpy Will Consult With Congress Before Entering Into A Status Of Forces Agreement With Iraq

Q Dana, there have been a number of questions about the status of forces agreement. And I know you talked about it before, but can you say, if the Iraqi government is going to bring this agreement to the Iraqi parliament, why the administration wouldn't want to bring and consent with our Congress about this agreement, with a legal framework of setting up the way forward in Iraq?

MS. PERINO: As Ambassador Crocker just said, that the -- there are briefings already set up for our members of Congress to hear specifically about the strategic forces agreement. Negotiations are currently underway with the Iraqis. This is to establish a basic framework so that our coalition forces can continue to operate there with a legal framework after the U.N. mandate expires in December.

We're going to continue to work with Congress. We've said that -- we've been very clear as to what this agreement is and what it is not. And so they're going to continue to have that. What we have said is that if it reaches the level where it would need Senate ratification as a treaty, then that is the path we would go down. We don't anticipate that right now.

Q So the Democrats, who are very concerned about this, you believe are mistaken?

MS. PERINO: I do believe they are mistaken, and I think that many of them are playing politics with this issue. And it's at the expense of our forces. I would assume that they would like our forces to have a legal framework to work under, since all of them have conceded that there are going to be -- our troops are going to be in Iraq after this President leaves office. So that is what our aim is.

Dana To Dead American Soldiers:  Suck It

Q What effect will the deaths of 11 Americans in Iraq just since this past Sunday have on the immediate future of the U.S. strategy, the President's thinking about --

MS. PERINO: I don't know if it would have a change in terms of the overall strategy.

Best Photo/Caption Combination EVAH!

Oh, my.

Check out this photo/caption combination from those scamps at AFP.

First the caption:

The White House did not rule out Tuesday President George W. Bush, seen here on April 07, 2008, missing the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, noting that it had never said he would attend the event.

And now the photo:

AFP/File/Saul Loeb

Maverick!

Damn, he's so Mavericky!

Since the late 1990s, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has served on the board of the Montana-based Project Vote Smart (PVS), which presses candidates to fill out a survey on where they stand on key issues. Despite the fact that he he has filled out the survey since 1992, McCain now refuses to do so (”after nine months, 17 phone calls, and 8 emails” from PVS). The PVS board has voted to remove McCain by April 9 unless he fills out the test.

Remember This During Gen. Betrayus' Testimony

America wants out.  Gallup:

Which do you think is better for the US:  to keep a significant number of troops in Iraq until the situation there gets better, even if that takes many years, or to set a timetable for removing troops from Iraq and to stick to that timetable regardless of what is going on in Iraq?

All Americans
Set a timetable for withdrawl:  60%
Keep troops in Iraq until the situation gets better:  35%

Democrats
Set a timetable for withdrawl:  81%
Keep troops in Iraq until the situation gets better:  15%

Independents
Set a timetable for withdrawl:  61%
Keep troops in Iraq until the situation gets better:  32%

Republicans
Set a timetable for withdrawl:  32%
Keep troops in Iraq until the situation gets better:  65%

Tee Hee

Yeah, I know Charlton Heston just died.

But this is fucking hilarious.  The Ten Commandments may be the very worst movie ever made.  Not even Yul Brynner could save it.

MOAR FEITH

Further Feith thoughts and information at Firedoglake. Thanks to Jane, Dave Neiwert, Thers, Atta and the whole crew over there for making me welcome. You can also check out this Kos diary, which was my first one over there, at least in recent memory.

Thanks to everybody who's linked to this. Leftward blogs need all the help we can get reminding people that long before it was convenient, we were actually right.

A.

New Adventures

Michael at 2millionth web log rounds up all the Vitter junk....sort of like a soft white diaper would round up...aw forget it.

Check it out...including how Vitter's  driver hit a sign today whilst trying to get the Senator away from reporters.

Your President... Wait For It... SPEAKS!

Today, at the White House.

Who Are Jeff Gannon, Margaret Spellings, Condoleezza Rice, Jeff Gannon (again), and Rod Paige, Alex?

We got a meat packer, an apple processor, we've got a grinder, a large equipment manufacturer, education man.

The Global War On Plurals Continues

And that's important, because in times of economic uncertainty, we want people making investment, so when a person buys an apple press, somebody is going to have to manufacture that press.

Gasoline Is Both Toxic And Flammable

People have to make a living, and they're driving their cars and their trucks -- and fuel is hurting people.

Why We Got To

And so I fully understand that not only are people worried about their homes, they're worried about the cost of fuel -- and one of the reasons why we got to keep taxes low.

Synaptic Stutter

And thirdly, I, you know, I think we ought to, in terms of pro-growth packages, I think we ought to, again I repeat, give this one a chance to kick in.

Today On Holden's Obsession With The Gaggle

Tony Farto Is Throwing Out The Rose-Colored Glasses

Q Also, how does this latest violence in Iraq and the latest uncertainty about what's going on color the Petraeus-Crocker testimony this time around? It obviously has changed the equation. I mean, weeks ago it looked like the surge was -- you know, had this pretty rosy cast, and now with all this renewed violence, I think it has changed the dynamics. So how has this changed the equation?

MR. FRATTO: Well, I think we've thrown out all of the rose-colored glasses in how we look at Iraq, and try to look at it through clear lenses as to what is actually going on in the country. And what is happening there, I think what we are all seeing is that the Iraqi political leadership is trying to take hold of the security for their country. They took a very bold, aggressive action in Basra. It wasn't a overall success, but it -- but we learned a lot about what the capabilities of the Iraqi army are, and we learned a lot -- and maybe this is even the most important thing -- of what the capabilities and intentions of the Iraqi leadership are to go after criminal elements and illegal militias in their country, and to evenly enforce the rule of law across the country.

Ah, The Two Most Beautiful Words In The English Language:  "Yes, Helen"

MR. FRATTO: Yes, Helen.

Q You acted like the President wouldn't know what Petraeus and Crocker are going to testify. Do you mean he's going to be surprised tomorrow --

MR. FRATTO: No, I hope I didn't leave --

Q -- when they say the surge is working and all?

MR. FRATTO: No, I hope I didn't leave that impression.

[snip]

Q But he's the President, isn't he calling the policy? I mean, we don't have President Petraeus, do we? We have President --

MR. FRATTO: No, we don't. We have commander Petraeus, who is running the operations on the ground in Iraq and he's closest to the military operations. He knows the capabilities of his forces, the coalition forces, and what the Iraqi security forces can do, and has a good sense of what's needed to complete his mission. And it's a mission that he designed. So we want to look forward to his testimony and hear how he thinks it's going and what the requirements are to complete that mission for the remainder of the year.

Q What is the mission?

MR. FRATTO: Well, it's pretty clear, says to bring -- is to bring --

Q Are you asking -- to continue the occupation of Iraq?

MR. FRATTO: -- security in Iraq, sufficient security, so that the political leadership can continue to make gains.

[snip]

Now, we know that it's a -- the reduction of violence is fragile and it's reversible, but we like the trend and we like what the Iraqi political leadership has shown about their ability to take action.

Q And paying off 90,000 Iraqis not to fight?

MR. FRATTO: Kathleen.

Please Donate to RememberAshleyMorris.com

We wanted to bump this up top again as a reminder. Donations can be made to Ashley's family at: RememberAshleyMorris.com

Remember as Ray informs us:

Ashley was the sole breadwinner in the house and leaves behind three children ages 5 and under, and they have very little in the way of extended family, so those of us who count ourselves as friends and fans must step up as surrogate aunts and uncles for Katerina, Annabel, and Rey d'Orleans. Funeral and living expenses are an immediate pressing need.

Please donate if you can.

Your President Speaks! AGAIN!

Today, at the White House.

I Didn't Agree By That!

These provisions were negotiated with -- and agreed by -- by the leadership of Congress -- like the Democratic leadership in Congress.

The Global War On Present Participles Continues

Level [sic] the playing field for American exporters is especially important during this time of economic uncertainty.

More Doug Feith

From the glorious Culture of Truth:

Kroft: you're an idiot - what are you doing now?

Feith: teaching at Georgetown

Feith: if Bush had listened to me and put Chalabi in charge things would have been fine

Kroft: General Franks says you're the dumbest mother fucker on the planet

Feith: ah - but not Venus or Mars, right

Kroft: people seem to hate you

Feith: they are just pissed because i faked intelligence to trick america in to war

Kroft: oh so just whining

A.

Puppet Trouble

Huh-Oh.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blasted the U.S. State Department for renewing its contract with the Blackwater security firm, saying the company has yet to answer for what he called a "massacre" last year.

The Iraqi government was not consulted on the State Department decision, he said.

"No judicial action has been taken and no compensation has been made," al-Maliki said Sunday. "Therefore, this extension requires the approval of the Iraqi government, and the government would want to resolve the outstanding issues with this company."

[snip]

... al-Maliki said Sunday that the renewal of Blackwater's contract isn't final "because they committed a massacre against Iraqis and until now this matter has not been resolved."

Your President Speaks!

Ysterday, in Sochi, Russia.

Dancing The Do

I'm only happy that our press corps didn't try -- see me trying to dance the -- dance the dance that I was asked to do.

Also -- yesterday, also - in Sochi, Russia.

Ensuring Russia's Concerns

Yet Russia appreciates the confidence-building and transparency measures that we have proposed, and declared that if agreed and implemented, such measures will be important and useful in ensuring [sic] Russia concerns.

What Putin Has Got

He's got doubts about whether or not these systems are aimed at him.

We're Talk

We're talk -- we're working together to stop the spread of dangerous weapons, and I appreciate the fact that we're implementing the Bratislava Nuclear Security Initiative, which is an important initiative.

Including Through

We continue to work together to meet the threat of nuclear terrorism, including through the global initiative to combat nuclear terrorism.

Oy

A lot of times in politics you have people look you in the eye and tell you what's not on their mind.

A Lotta Way To Go

Look, there's a lot -- we got a lot of way to go.

Dual-Single

I have no problem sharing technologies and information to make sure that all people understand this system is designed to deal with multiple -- I mean, single or dual-single launch regimes that could try to hold us hostage.

What We Got

Now, we got work to do, but we've come a long way since our first discussions.

Cannot Pronounce "Medvedev"

And secondly, I spent -- I told President-elect that I would see him in Japan at the G8, and that's the only scheduling matters that we discussed.

What to Do?

Throwing these fucksticks in federal prison would be a good start.

Seriously--now what? 

Hopefully, come January, we can start to fix some of the damage from the Bush years. That set of tasks makes the labors of Heracles look like a fucking Sunday school picnic.  Basically, we need an entire overhaul of foreign and domestic policy.  (Sounds kind of simple when you put it like that, doesn't it?)  Despite the vital nature of fixing things, however, we face an even more important job:  How do we keep this shit from ever happening again?

Reading Athenae's description of and reaction to Steve Kroft's interview with Douglas "Stupidest Fucking Guy on the Planet" Feith, I'm at a loss for answers.   So here's me trying to work something out.

I'm thinking that, even if the press hadn't totally abandoned skepticism in 2002-2007, this war would still have gone on.  Can you imagine Feith (or Wolfowitz, or Perle, or smartass Rumsfeld, or snarling Cheney, or dumbfuck Bush) acting any differently if they'd been confronted with their lies before the war?

Honestly, the only way to stop this entire fuck-up would've been a huge victory for Gore in 2000.  Once these rotten Republican cocksuckers had power, it was over.  They had to be stopped before they had control of the government.

So how do we do that?  Well, it seems that this whole "blogging" thing might actually be important to that.  Not what I do, mind you.  I just find funny pictures and swear a lot.  But words matter.  They do.  It's something Steve Gilliard (rest his world champion of writing soul) reminded us about from time to time.  Words matter.  The right wing crazies have controlled the debate in this country, and controlled the narratives, for far too long.  The list of acceptable ideas to mention in public ranges from center-right to bomb-the-fuck-out-of-everyone-and-eat-the-poor-for-Jeebus.   There just wasn't any place to discuss liberal/progressive/non-batshit-insane-and-horridly-cruel ideas.  I know that many of us started shouting into the void following the 2000 election.  It's what got me into blogs, first as a commenter at Eschaton, then at my own little place, and finally here.  We knew there was something dreadfully wrong about that entire contest.  It was like watching a heavyweight boxer lose a fight to a hamster.  How the fuck did that happen? 

The right wing nutjobs have spent years honing their rhetoric and studying how to exploit the weaknesses of our press.  And they did a great job.  As Athenae points out, reporters are often lazy and ignorant, as opposed to biased.  I'd throw in "shallow," as well, especially as pertains to the press who cover campaigns.  I'd also add "thin-skinned."  Because, when we started calling them on their laziness, ignorance, and shallowness, they responded by throwing hissy fits.  I guess that is a lot easier than self-reflection and evaluation.

But words matter.  If they didn't, the rich motherfuckers who benefit from having the GOP in power wouldn't subsidize shit like the National Review or the Weekly Standard.  They wouldn't pay skanky-ass, tranny-chic, Taliban wannabe Ann Coulter scads of money to spew her bile if words didn't matter.  And don't even get me started on that dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks piece of shit Jonah Goldberg.  (Liberal Fascism?  I'll have what you're smoking, please).  Rich people don't like losing money, and they wouldn't shell out millions of dollars to keep these fourth-rate hacks sitting at keyboards if there was no return. 

How do we fight that?  How do we beat people who get paid good money to lie, proudly and publicly, about everything? 

It would be nice, I suppose, to have some rich-ass liberals underwrite progressive voices.  We have far, far better writers than the fucksockets on the right.  And most of us do this shit for free, in between day jobs and personal lives, while dealing with bills and spouses and friends and children and pets.  Can you imagine what it would be like if Athenae had all day to load her rhetorical bazooka and take aim?  (Provided she could stay off the sauce for five minutes, of course.  Kidding!)  There are lots of other great options, too: the wicked-smart Juan Cole, the tough and funny GNB people, the amazing snark of TBogg and Sadly, No!

We need to support these people.  Because words matter.  So, all you rich liberals who regularly read this site (*cough cough* donate to us *cough cough*)--if your ideals are important, start writing checks. 

You can just mail me cash, though. 

Fundraising for the Morris Family

Information here.

Give if you can.

A.

'A Combination of Ideology and Incompetence'

Philippe Sands, author of the Vanity Fair piece on the torture memo, talks about Doug Feith's role in it:

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about Douglas Feith, who he was, his significance, your extended interview with him in Washington?

PHILIPPE SANDS: I can talk to him. He—it’s one of the great things about America—my own country is not so open—but you can just get in touch with people, call them up, email them, find their spouses and partners, and say, “Can I come and talk to you?” And Mr. Feith said yes. And I’m very grateful to him for that.

He’s a rather flamboyant character. Someone described him to me as a sort of an Energizer bunny. He likes to speak. He’s got a rather big opinion of himself and the role that he played. He talked rather frankly, I think probably too frankly, about his role in all of this. And in particular, he had an absolutely crucial role in being the person who drafted the memo for President Bush, which caused the Geneva Conventions to be, if you like, suspended from application at Guantanamo.

On the 7th of February, 2002, President Bush adopted the decision that none of the detainees at Guantanamo would be able to rely on any protections under the Geneva Conventions, including the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or torture. And Doug Feith described to me how he and General Myers worked together, and that he, in particular, took the steps to ensure that none of these detainees could rely on Geneva. And I put it to him, “Isn’t the consequence of getting rid of Geneva that there’s essentially a blank page? All the constraints on abusive interrogation are gone.” And his response was, “That was precisely the point.” And I thought that was rather telling, because the administration has never owned up to the fact that the reason they dis-applied Geneva was precisely to open the door to aggressive interrogation.

AMY GOODMAN: He was Under Secretary of Defense. Now, he—

PHILIPPE SANDS: Well, he was Under Secretary of Defense in charge of policy. So here I am talking to the guy who’s responsible for US policy on treatment of detainees. And I put it to him, “Did it never occur to you that by opening the door to this type of interrogation, you would expose American soldiers or Americans to the same sort of treatment?” And he really just didn’t—he basically said, “We never really thought through all of these issues.” It was rather shocking.

Shocking's one word for it. Your outrage meter just gets worn out from slapping the needle into the red zone every time some wingnut says something insane like that, and really, that's what this is, and why our media were caught so flat-footed by the Bush administration's operations.

We're used to our politicians bending the truth. We're used to a lie, even a big lie. We're not used to thousands of them, repeated, over and over, loudly, and evidence to the contrary being so completely dismissed, like it isn't there. We're used to people whom, when pointed out in a mistake or a lie or a deception and shamed, to admit it, sack up, step down, and deal. We're not used to this, or at least, we weren't (you can argue we should have been and I'd agree with you). You should all watch Feith's face when Steve Kroft confronts him with video proving his statements false, it's total incomprehension, like, "So?" And then he just launches right back into the lie again, only slightly louder, and Kroft is ... shocked? Disgusted? More like confused. I've just proved this guy's a liar and a fraud ... why is he continuing the lie?

They find the most outrageous thing they can and they do it and then they yell, top of their lungs, that they're proud of it and by the way, screw you if you don't agree. You could argue it out, of course, but you have to get over the brazenness of it first. That's taken a good long time, for a lot of people, to get past the point where you're staring, openmouthed, going, "Did he just SAY that? Out LOUD?"

From Sands' piece in Vanity Fair:

Feith’s argument prevailed. On February 7, 2002, President Bush signed a memorandum that turned Guantánamo into a Geneva-free zone. As a matter of policy, the detainees would be handled humanely, but only to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity. “The president said ‘humane treatment,’ ” Feith told me, inflecting the term sourly, “and I thought that was O.K. Perfectly fine phrase that needs to be fleshed out, but it’s a fine phrase—‘humane treatment.’ ” The Common Article 3 restrictions on torture or “outrages upon personal dignity” were gone.

“This year I was really a player,” Feith said, thinking back on 2002 and relishing the memory. I asked him whether, in the end, he was at all concerned that the Geneva decision might have diminished America’s moral authority. He was not. “The problem with moral authority,” he said, was “people who should know better, like yourself, siding with the assholes, to put it crudely.”

He was really a player. I could argue it out, but I need a minute, to get over my hair standing on end that he just said that, right out loud.

A.

Debunking Douglas Feith: 60 Minutes Liveblogging

First of all, the tags on his book are priceless:

dumbest f_cking guy on the planet (34) idiot (16) wingnut welfare (15) treason (12) high crimes (11) hubris (8) corruption (7) fiasco (7) immoral (7) benedict arnold (4) ignorance (4)

Me: So how strong a drink should I watch Feith on 60 Minutes with?

Mr. A: Not very strong.

Me: Quoi?

Mr. A: If you want to throw things, you'll need to be able to aim.

Story produced by L. Franklin Devine and Michael Rosenbaum. It would have killed you both to have dirty hippies on this show talking about how Feith was, you know, wrong, guys? Your opposition voices are quotes from other ex-admin officials' books? I'm glad the piece was as harsh as it was, don't get me wrong, but it might have been nice to hear a little more from the people who were onto this story long before George Tenet decided he'd had enough of being Bush's buttboy and was looking for someone to make him look good.

Here we go:

Steve Kroft: His boss Donald Rumsfeld called Feith "one of the most brilliant individuals in government." There's a dude you want giving you a ringing endorsement these days. Yay.

Kroft's not giving him too much ground here: "If he doesn't sound like a warrior, it's because he isn't." CHICKENHAWK. You can say it.

Feith gives Bush's war rationale as "we're going to attack you because sooner or later you're going to attack us and we want to pick when we want to fight you." He talks about Saddam in the context of a broader "group of people who wanted to do us harm" sense, which fits in almost exactly with what Dave Neiwert wrote about in Special Plans, the ideology of the Bush Doctrine.

"Our main goal was preventing the next attack." Well, did a bang-up job on that one, unless you're rather narrowly defining attack, in which case, well, that's just depressing and sad.

Kroft gets a NICE one in here: "So you're saying you didn't think it was important to go after the people who were responsible for it [9/11], it was more important to go after the people who weren't responsible for it?" Well done. That, for any journalists reading, is what calling them on it looks like.

"Anticipatory self-defense," is apparently with Feith is calling "sticking our national dick in the bees' nest" these days, btw.

DAMN, journalism. Feith just flat-out lied that nobody said Iraq was an imminent threat, and Kroft counters with the video of Rumsfeld, who was quoted before praising Feith's brilliance, saying just that, and Bush, Cheney and Powell. Let's see how he weasels out of this:

WEASEL: "It is true that there was a serious error for the CIA to say that there were stockpiles ..." blah blah blah, cover, passive voice, "it was a terrible mistake for the administration to have made." Doug, you know, it's a mistake when you spell someone's name wrong. That's a mistake. This isn't a mistake. This is something else.

Mr. A: See why you wanted a weaker drink?

Me: Damn it. Here, you throw the damn shoe.

Feith hauls out the "WMD program related abilities and stuff" defense. He's being rather humorless about this, saying there was a memo laying out all the "horribles" as in possibilities of things that could go wrong. And let me just ask, because I've been turning it over in my head since this afternoon when I read the CBS story again, it doesn't make it better that you considered all the ways this might go wrong and then didn't fix them, it makes it WORSE, because it goes from "nobody could have anticipated" to "we anticipated and then just decided ah, fuck it, who gives a shit?"

JESUS. The gentlest thing I can say about him is that he needs to go back to grown-up school.

Kroft's reading the memo now. It lays out basically everything that's happened. Feith's totally deadpan. Butter wouldn't melt, as my mother would say. This clearly hasn't upset him in the slightest. Worse, he thinks this exonerates him, I mean, Jesus H. Franklin Delano Roosevelt CHRIST, he thinks this makes it okay. They KNEW all this could happen and they did nothing. Not a thing.

Feith's talking blithely about "the downsides of war." I don't have the words for this part. I simply don't. I'm used to writing about humans.

He says they didn't anticipate the insurgency. My editor on Special Plans once asked did I know if this guy had ever read Shakespeare, because, really.

Kroft is really earning my respect here. He's reading Feith's own book at him to disprove something that just fell out of Feith's mouth.

Disbanding the Iraqi Army. Feith says it was Bremer's idea, and didn't sign off it. He disavows all responsibility for sending, in Kroft's words, "4,000 unemployed armed men" into the streets. Kroft's trying to get him to say yes or no. Feith: "The army was dissolved." Passive voice again. "The decision was whether to reconstitute it." Kroft can't pin him down.

Feith says if Chalabi had been handed Iraq, we'd all be smoking freedom weed right now.

Hee, Kroft just asked him about the Tommy Franks quote: "Stupidest ... guy on the face of the planet." Feith says it was very bad of General Franks to swear. NO REALLY: "Some people, when they deal with political controversy, use harsh language."

Feith calls the Congressional report calling him out an "unfounded rebuke."

Kroft ends the segment noting that Feith is donating all the proceeds (note that he said all the PROCEEDS, not profits, there's a very big difference and I wonder if Harper Collins knows it) from the book to a Foundation he's created to benefit veterans. Wouldn't it have been easier not to write the book in the first place, cease your whining about how you made a nice war and then Bush fucked it up, and donating your Pentagon salary during the time you were working really hard at ruining hundreds of thousands of lives? I'm asking, because it seems excessive.

If you'll excuse me, I need to go scrub my brain with a brillo pad now. You know, one of the weirder experiences working on Special Plans was that I spent three months essentially reading everything Feith and his colleagues had ever written, and the more time you spend inside their heads the more Stockholmed you get, until you start thinking, "Yeah, why the fuck SHOULDN'T we go kick around the Middle East beating the shit out of countries that don't like our friends or us? America! Fuck YEAH!" Watching this interview reminded me of how utterly fucking creepy it was being immersed in the worldview of somebody who has utterly no conception of the possibility he might be totally wrong.

A.

Smokin'

Did Obama have a smoke? Did he lie about having a smoke? Did he treat Jake Tapper with the blistering contempt Tapper deserves for writing this narcissistic bullshit?

Oh, my god.

Let me throw this out there, see if the cat licks it up. The presidency is a pretty damn difficult job. I want the guy who has his finger on the button to have pretty much whatever he needs in order to do that job without going fucking nuts.

I want Obama to have a smoke, because do you want someone in the throes of a nic-fit on the phone with the Russkies? Seriously, the guy probably will have enough to worry about without doing what a friend of mine did in college during exam week, which was to try to light up a ballpoint pen. Messy. Smelly. Stupid. Would spoil that pretty desk in the Oval Office. Let him have a damn cigarette, good God. The stress will kill him long before the tobacco will.

Frankly, so long as it isn't illegal drugs or little kids, I want the president to be able to indulge his or her vices on occasion without the purity trolls of the press freaking out that he wasn't telling the truth about bumming a cig from somebody. Jesus.

A.

Feith: I'd Do It Again

Pretty much:

The risks of war, says Feith, were well known and documented in a memo from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Feith refers to as "the parade of horribles" in his upcoming Harper Collins book, War and Decision. They included ruining the reputation of America overseas, strengthening Muslim militant resolve and triggering the ethnic strife occurring in Iraq now. What they didn’t anticipate? "That the Bathist regime, even after it was overthrown, would be in a position to organize and recruit for and to finance and command an insurgency," says Feith. His book also addresses the fact that the smaller and more mobile American force conducting the attack saved U.S. lives, but was too small to control the country after the initial fighting, allowing widespread looting.

Feith acknowledges that few people are pleased about the war, but he believes it was and still is the right thing to do for America. "I think the president made the right decision given what he knew. … And to tell you the truth, even given what we’ve learned since," he tells Kroft.

First of all, "few people are pleased about the war?" Lots of people are DEAD ABOUT THE WAR, is the more pressing problem, I would think. That I in my office with my keyboard am upset is not so much paramount in the face of all the COFFINS. Stay classy, Dougie.

Second, does he think he deserves some kind of cookie for acknowledging what everybody watching TV knew in August 2003 or thereabouts? I seem to recall his boss jollying it up with the press about how messy freedom is and whatnot, and lots of sicko math about eggs and omelettes, and ain't nobody said nothing back then. But now that Bush and his war kind of suck, here comes Doug, acknowledging some problems with it.

Is there a gene for self-awareness that these guys were just born without?

A.

Friendship

A beautiful tribute from Ray in New Orleans to Ashley:

I knew Ashley by reputation in the months after the storm.  The first words I ever saw by him were:

You do not want to fuck with pissed off New Orleanians. We're the murder capital, bitches. We will rain that shit down on you.

and I thought this might be a man I need to get to know better.

Read the rest