I think that in a few years’ time, we’ll look back on today’s Golden Dome bombing and recognize it as the spark that ignited the Iraqi Civil War (all capital letters). This was not some equivalent of a church bombing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. To Iraqi Shiites, this is the equivalent of bombing St. Paul’s in New York, or the National … Read More
Bob Dole – UAE Spokesman
CNN is apparently reporting that Bob Dole has been hired by the Dubai company to lobby for the company’s interest and hopefully do some PR damage control. Let the jokes begin. We’re too busy to make up our own jokes, but we offer the following punchline: "Port?!? I thought you said ‘pork’!"
Whose Government?: The Politics of “Portgate”
Bluememe, via Glenn Greenwald, deconstructs Bush’s language: Bush took the rare step of calling reporters to his conference room on Air Force One after returning from a speech in Colorado. He also stopped to talk before television cameras after he returned to the White House."I can understand why some in Congress have raised questions about whether or not our country … Read More
Bush Digs In
Incredible. He’s never vetoed anything in his 6 years, and now he’s threatening to veto Congress if it blocks the UAE deal, even though it has less support than Harriet Miers. Libertarian Glenn Reynolds: Either this deal is somehow a lot more important than it seems (a quid pro quo for, well, something . . . ) or Bush is … Read More
Rummy Unaware Of “Rigorous Review”
Scotty McLellan, 2/16/05: "Well, my understanding, Les, is that this went through the national security review process under CFIUS, at the Department of Treasury. That is the agency that is responsible for overseeing such matters. And this includes a number of national security agencies — the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Justice, among others, and there … Read More
Can We Call It A “-Gate” Yet?
The Carpetbagger Report has noticed the slow upward tick in conservative interest about the UAE-port story, and calls it "the biggest GOP revolt since Harriet Miers". Kevin Drum adds: What it shows is that Bush still doesn’t understand how much influence he’s recently lost with his conservative base. In the brave new post-Harriet, post-Katrina world, outrage over the port deal … Read More
Un-declassified
The Bush Administration’s penchant for secrecy goes into hyperdrive: In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians. The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 … Read More
Outsourcing Our Security
I was a few days ahead of the curve (for a change) when I blogged last week about a UAE company is going to handle homeland security at American ports. But the blogosphere and politicians are on top of it now and it seems that everyone, from the right to the left, is asking the same "What The Fuck?" question. … Read More
After Neoconservatism
Poltical types are abuzz about the editorial in yesterday’s NYT Magazine by Francis Fukuyama, spelling the death of — or at least the flaws revealed in — the neoconservative movement. It’s a heavy read, but interesting. Ex-neoconservative Andrew Sullivan weighs in: I have no doubt that Frank Fukuyama’s essay in the New York Times Magazine will prompt a lot of … Read More
We Know
Bush today: I knew we were at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was down here in Florida. It didn’t take long to figure out what was going on. Well, according to reports, Chief of Staff Andrew Card walked up to Bush and whispered in his ear "America is under attack". So, Mr. President, I … Read More
Bush vs. Rumsfeld
Bush at Mission Accomplished: We are helping to rebuild Iraq where the dictator built palaces for himself instead of hospitals and schools. Rumsfeld, today: We’re not there to do nation-building. Glad we’re all on the same page.
The Abu Ghraib Files
Think Abu Ghraib was just a handful of photographs and a couple of isolated incidents? Think again: Salon has obtained files and other electronic documents from an internal Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal. The material, which includes more than 1,000 photographs, videos and supporting documents from the Army’s probe, may represent all of the photographic and video … Read More
United Arab Emerates To Handle American Ports
This seems like a really bad idea: A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism. The Bush administration considers the UAE an important … Read More
Waas’s New Scoop
Pretty big news: Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public … Read More
Many GITMO Detainees Are NOT “Enemy Combatants”
Another right wing meme shot to hell. About 500 detainees at Gitmo are not "enemy combatants". They were not captured on the battlefield. In fact, any of them are not affiliated with al Qaeda or the Taliban. They just happened to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Rude Pundit has a few words.