The Washington Post reports about an interesting memo from Republican pollster Frank Luntz. Knowing that how you frame the issues is more important than the issues themselves, Luntz offers Republicans some talking points on phraseology. With voter anxieties about Iraq shadowing this year’s campaign, pollster Frank Luntz has some advice for fellow Republicans: Mind your language. Luntz, according to a … Read More
Cheney Makes Me Sick
Why do many people think that Iraq may have had something to do with 9/11? Cheney provided the answer today. It’s the media’s fault! That’s right. According to Cheney, the anti-Bush liberal media has been making an argument for war against Iraq that the White House never made. THEN, in the same press conference, Cheney goes on to suggest that, … Read More
Gingko Trees?
Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online shows what a total imbecile he is in this article. The nut says, in a nutshell, that the Geneva Convention is like a contract. And since al Qaeda didn’t sign the contract, the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to them. Which means, he says, we should be able to torture AQ. Goldberg’s words: If you … Read More
Bush’s Cheat Sheet
An alert reader of Atrios saw this picture of Bush from yesterday’s cabinet meeting. He captured and blew up Bush’s notes from the meeting (heh heh). Here they are: As best as I can tell, the left hand page says: "Saddam was a threat . . . sworn enemy of U.S. . . . destabilizing force in volatile part of … Read More
Clinton Haters v Bush Haters
Chicago Sun-Times reviewer (and Roger Ebert compadre) Richard Roeper loved "Fahrenheit 9/11" (as did some folks at Fox News, by the way). The response was hundreds of vitriolic e-mails. Richard Roeper responds here, making several astute observations about anti-Bush people vs. anti-Clinton people. The money quote: Folks, do you not see the hypocrisy at work here? This makes about as … Read More
Monty Python . . . and the Holy Torture Memos
Python Terry Jones is no stranger to the absurd. I guess that why he is able to provide an excellent legal explanation (in layman’s terms) of what the torture memos say, and in doing so, pointing out how silly they are. "Silly" if they weren’t so serious, that is. Terry Jones.
9/11 Commision — “No Credible Evidence” of Iraq-al Qaeda Link
“You can’t distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror”. – George Bush, September 2002 (from here) Speak for yourself, George. The rest of us — those with a brain, intellectual curiosity, and a desire to be scrupulously accurate — can see some pretty important distinctions.
Fox News Loves “Fahrenheit 9/11”
Yup. It did. Some excerpts: It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail. As much as some might try to marginalize this film as a screed against President George Bush, "F9/11" — as we saw last night — is a tribute to patriotism, to … Read More
Today’s WH Press Gaggle
Q Can I ask about Vice President Cheney, because yesterday he repeated what is a very controversial claim. He said that Saddam Hussein had long-established ties with al Qaeda. Does the President believe that Saddam Hussein had long-established ties with al Qaeda? MR. McCLELLAN: We certainly talked about the ties with terrorism between the — between the regime that was … Read More
President Obama
Sounds like the leader of some distant "third-world" country, no? Nope. We might be talking about "U.S. President Barack Obama" 20 years from now (or less). The bright new wunderkind of the Democratic Party is getting all kinds of good press, and deservedly so. Starting in November, and until he decides to move onward and upward, you’ll be hearing much … Read More
Hold On To Your Hats . . .
The Telegraph understands that four confidential Red Cross documents implicating senior Pentagon civilians in the Abu Ghraib scandal have been passed to an American television network, which is preparing to make them public shortly. . . . "There are some extremely damaging documents around, which link senior figures to the abuses," said Scott Horton, the former chairman of the New … Read More
Shock & Awe Report Card
Yes, the "Shock and Awe" campaign that opened the Iraqi War was shocking and awesome. But according to this, it was also not very successful. Not only did ALL the airstrikes miss their mark, but they resulted in "significant civilian casualties". What’s to blame? Bad intel. What else?
High Praise Indeed
Question: Who was Bush talking about when he expressed these words today? "As a candidate for any office, . . . he showed incredible energy and great personal appeal. As chief executive, he showed a deep and far-ranging knowledge of public policy, a great compassion for people in need, and the forward-looking spirit that Americans like in a president." "[He] … Read More
SCOTUS Punts The Pledge Issue
Court dismisses Pledge of Allegiance suitJustices sidestep church-state issue in tossing atheist’s case Read more here. The opinion is not available yet, but it will be interesting to see what, if anything, the justices said about the merits of Newdow’s case. Apparently, Rehnquist wrote about it, but his views were already pretty well-known.
Torture Memos
More on the torture memos. On this blog, I have been focussing on the Draft Walker Group Memo, but of course, there are others. Discourse.net has a good analysis of the Bybee Memo. It also has a good analysis of the Draft Walker Group Memo. Although, really, all you need to know is that both memos consider torture to be … Read More