Wednesday, May 03, 2006
So in the news today...
So in the news today…
You really can’t miss the news today that I wanted to discuss. Front page New York Times article (even above the fold, no less): “Taliban Threat is Said to Grow in Afghan South.”
I’ve written about it before but few people in this country seem willing to discuss this issue. I understand that most people in this country would prefer not to look at the mess we made of another country, but I’ve always expected at least the administration critics and foreign policy wonks to be more attuned to the lawlessness of Afghanistan.
Some choice tidbits from the article: “The Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men…’The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere,’ a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told the commander of American forces in Afghanistan…Uruzgan…is now, four years later, in the thrall of the Islamic militants once more, and the provincial capital is increasingly surrounded by areas in Taliban control, local and American officials acknowledge…Uruzgan is not the only province teetering out of control. Halmand and Kandahar to the south have been increasingly overrun…Insurgents also have the run of parts of Zabul, Ghazni and Paktika Provinces in the southeast, and have increased ambushes on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway.”
But I suppose none of this should alarm us, as the president is just doing a bang-up job in the War on Terror. We diverted our resources and troops from securing Afghanistan to invading a country that had as much to do with terrorism as Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan is now a battleground and a safe haven for terrorists and “islamofascists.”
But, oh, yes, we can’t blame the president because he was just mislead by those evil CIA people.
Doesn’t anyone get tired of presidents “not knowing?” Is global warming happening? The president, at various times, either denied its existence or claimed that we can’t know how much of it is caused by human, despite the consensus of the worldwide scientific community on the subject and the reports of our own scientists. It’s amusing to me how his administration doctored the reports of the experts when they were released to the public, an event that would repeat itself later. WMDs in Iraq? The president just didn’t know about all those contrary reports, despite the fact that they were all sent up the pipe to his office, despite the fact that CIA expert after CIA analyst has come out and maintained that they reported their findings to the highest levels of the CIA, despite the fact that State Department and DIA people submitted their reports which were included, and then heavily edited, in the intelligence estimates the president released to congress and the American people. Valerie Plame? The president just didn’t know who in his administration leaked her identity, and even though he “wanted” to get to the bottom of it he just figured that he would let the investigation takes its course…and then stonewall the investigation and refuse to release documents pertinent to the investigation.
The “Duh…I donno” defense has been played before, and I tire of it. Apparently no one in the Reagan Administration knew about the Iran-Contra situation outside of Oliver North and a few others. Apparently, the CIA decided on its own initiative to fund a rebel army of 20,000 or so in a third world country in direct contravention of U.S. and international law. No need to tell the president about that. Funding a small army in a third world country? Don’t bother to tell the president. Not that important.
Ridiculous. A veritable Theater of the Absurd. Do we honestly need to have a videotape of someone handing Bush an intelligence report filled with contrary intelligence to know that he actually read it? Do we need to virtually look over his shoulder to verify that he actually read the intelligence report?
If the United States were a company the investors would have already fired the president. When a company screws up and posts losses year after year the investors aren’t particular about whether the president in really responsible or whether he just hired a bunch of incompetent VPs and then went on an extended golfing trip.
But even more than that we know the president doctored intelligence: it’s a matter of public record! He redacted and altered the October NIE extensively, and always in the same direction: he removed qualifications, erased doubts, “disappeared” contrary opinions.
And please don’t tell me that “editing” doesn’t constitute “doctoring.” If I had edited an encyclopedia as ridiculously as the Bush administration edited the NIE I could have turned it into a manuscript of Romeo and Juliet.
I’m tired of rehashing old arguments, and I’ve covered all of this more extensively in previous posts. If countless accounts of Pulitzer-Prize winning journalists and high-ranking intelligence officials don’t convince you, I don’t know what will. If the story of “Curveball” doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will. If the story of the aluminum tubes and uranium from Niger doesn’t convince you then I don’t know what will.
But on to other news…by three votes House republicans have passed their “ethics” reform bill. I suppose I don’t need to tell you much about what this republican congress considers “ethics,” or “reform.” Check out the Washington Post article. In a word: a “sham.”
Lush has escaped a jail sentence by agreeing to do therapy, pay a $30,000 fine, and submit to random drug testing.
“Not guilty,” Limbaugh crowed.
Indeed, Lush, indeed. “The end result will be as if I had gone to court and won," he blatantly lied.
The last time I checked people who really do get a “not guilty” verdict in court don’t have to pay a fine, go to counseling, and submit to random drug testing.
Capt. Mark Chamberlain begged to differ. "But it's definitely going to count in our booking statistics as an arrest."
Nevertheless, Chamberlain handled Lush gently. Lush was ushered through the booking process in half an hour, a process that usually takes all day.
"We wanted him in and out as expediently as possible," Chamberlain said. "No different than any other celebrity booking."
I was actually hoping Lush would go to jail for a little while, if for no other reason than to shut him up. Few radio people lie as blatantly as Lush, though his lies have always been so ridiculous as to make him, in the words of John McCain, a “clown.”
And in other news, W’s approval rating is down to 34% in the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll (no hyperlink. Google it yourself). The latest Pew Poll shows that W is down to a fifty-five percent approval rating among white evangelicals, proof positive that white evangelicals are a disgusting blight upon this nation that must be eradicated. At this point in history, for the love of your everlasting God, how lost are you that a majority of you still think W is doing a good job?
I mean, Jesus Christ! Where are you getting your news from?
I suppose it should come as no surprise that a group of people who believe in literal creationism and the rapture believe that W is doing a good job. At a time like this, I need Driftglass to express for me why I hate fundies.
You really can’t miss the news today that I wanted to discuss. Front page New York Times article (even above the fold, no less): “Taliban Threat is Said to Grow in Afghan South.”
I’ve written about it before but few people in this country seem willing to discuss this issue. I understand that most people in this country would prefer not to look at the mess we made of another country, but I’ve always expected at least the administration critics and foreign policy wonks to be more attuned to the lawlessness of Afghanistan.
Some choice tidbits from the article: “The Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men…’The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere,’ a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told the commander of American forces in Afghanistan…Uruzgan…is now, four years later, in the thrall of the Islamic militants once more, and the provincial capital is increasingly surrounded by areas in Taliban control, local and American officials acknowledge…Uruzgan is not the only province teetering out of control. Halmand and Kandahar to the south have been increasingly overrun…Insurgents also have the run of parts of Zabul, Ghazni and Paktika Provinces in the southeast, and have increased ambushes on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway.”
But I suppose none of this should alarm us, as the president is just doing a bang-up job in the War on Terror. We diverted our resources and troops from securing Afghanistan to invading a country that had as much to do with terrorism as Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan is now a battleground and a safe haven for terrorists and “islamofascists.”
But, oh, yes, we can’t blame the president because he was just mislead by those evil CIA people.
Doesn’t anyone get tired of presidents “not knowing?” Is global warming happening? The president, at various times, either denied its existence or claimed that we can’t know how much of it is caused by human, despite the consensus of the worldwide scientific community on the subject and the reports of our own scientists. It’s amusing to me how his administration doctored the reports of the experts when they were released to the public, an event that would repeat itself later. WMDs in Iraq? The president just didn’t know about all those contrary reports, despite the fact that they were all sent up the pipe to his office, despite the fact that CIA expert after CIA analyst has come out and maintained that they reported their findings to the highest levels of the CIA, despite the fact that State Department and DIA people submitted their reports which were included, and then heavily edited, in the intelligence estimates the president released to congress and the American people. Valerie Plame? The president just didn’t know who in his administration leaked her identity, and even though he “wanted” to get to the bottom of it he just figured that he would let the investigation takes its course…and then stonewall the investigation and refuse to release documents pertinent to the investigation.
The “Duh…I donno” defense has been played before, and I tire of it. Apparently no one in the Reagan Administration knew about the Iran-Contra situation outside of Oliver North and a few others. Apparently, the CIA decided on its own initiative to fund a rebel army of 20,000 or so in a third world country in direct contravention of U.S. and international law. No need to tell the president about that. Funding a small army in a third world country? Don’t bother to tell the president. Not that important.
Ridiculous. A veritable Theater of the Absurd. Do we honestly need to have a videotape of someone handing Bush an intelligence report filled with contrary intelligence to know that he actually read it? Do we need to virtually look over his shoulder to verify that he actually read the intelligence report?
If the United States were a company the investors would have already fired the president. When a company screws up and posts losses year after year the investors aren’t particular about whether the president in really responsible or whether he just hired a bunch of incompetent VPs and then went on an extended golfing trip.
But even more than that we know the president doctored intelligence: it’s a matter of public record! He redacted and altered the October NIE extensively, and always in the same direction: he removed qualifications, erased doubts, “disappeared” contrary opinions.
And please don’t tell me that “editing” doesn’t constitute “doctoring.” If I had edited an encyclopedia as ridiculously as the Bush administration edited the NIE I could have turned it into a manuscript of Romeo and Juliet.
I’m tired of rehashing old arguments, and I’ve covered all of this more extensively in previous posts. If countless accounts of Pulitzer-Prize winning journalists and high-ranking intelligence officials don’t convince you, I don’t know what will. If the story of “Curveball” doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will. If the story of the aluminum tubes and uranium from Niger doesn’t convince you then I don’t know what will.
But on to other news…by three votes House republicans have passed their “ethics” reform bill. I suppose I don’t need to tell you much about what this republican congress considers “ethics,” or “reform.” Check out the Washington Post article. In a word: a “sham.”
Lush has escaped a jail sentence by agreeing to do therapy, pay a $30,000 fine, and submit to random drug testing.
“Not guilty,” Limbaugh crowed.
Indeed, Lush, indeed. “The end result will be as if I had gone to court and won," he blatantly lied.
The last time I checked people who really do get a “not guilty” verdict in court don’t have to pay a fine, go to counseling, and submit to random drug testing.
Capt. Mark Chamberlain begged to differ. "But it's definitely going to count in our booking statistics as an arrest."
Nevertheless, Chamberlain handled Lush gently. Lush was ushered through the booking process in half an hour, a process that usually takes all day.
"We wanted him in and out as expediently as possible," Chamberlain said. "No different than any other celebrity booking."
I was actually hoping Lush would go to jail for a little while, if for no other reason than to shut him up. Few radio people lie as blatantly as Lush, though his lies have always been so ridiculous as to make him, in the words of John McCain, a “clown.”
And in other news, W’s approval rating is down to 34% in the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll (no hyperlink. Google it yourself). The latest Pew Poll shows that W is down to a fifty-five percent approval rating among white evangelicals, proof positive that white evangelicals are a disgusting blight upon this nation that must be eradicated. At this point in history, for the love of your everlasting God, how lost are you that a majority of you still think W is doing a good job?
I mean, Jesus Christ! Where are you getting your news from?
I suppose it should come as no surprise that a group of people who believe in literal creationism and the rapture believe that W is doing a good job. At a time like this, I need Driftglass to express for me why I hate fundies.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 6:05 PM 
