Dudes, when the Coast Guard conducts a training exercise on 9/11, and no shots are fired, and it causes a major freakout in the right-wing blogs, that just shows that the terrorists won. Because the piss-in-the-pants rightwing bloggers are clearly terrorized. One gets the sense that they walk around in fear all day, especially on 9/11 anniversaries.
The Chris Wallace-Dick Cheney Interview
"Tell me, Mr. Cheney. Are you and everyone in the Bush Administration totally awesome, or just somewhat awesome?" That's the kind of interview it was. Or, as Sully quips, it was not unlike a teenage girl interfiewing the Jonas Brothers. I'm talking, of course, about the hour-long interview of Dick Cheney by Chris Wallace on (where else?) Fox News this … Read More
Thomas Paine Weighs In On Torture
GOP Congressman Peter King — the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee — had said this today regarding Eric Holder's decision to investigate whether laws were broken by the Bush administration's torture: "It’s bulls***. It’s disgraceful. You wonder which side they’re on. [It's' a] declaration of war against the CIA, and against common sense…" Yeah. Well, one can be "not … Read More
The Torture
I don't have much to say about this… WASHINGTON – With just two weeks of training, or about half the time it takes to become a truck driver, the CIA certified its spies as interrogation experts after 9/11 and handed them the keys to the most coercive tactics in the agency's arsenal. It was a haphazard process, cobbled together in … Read More
Remembering 9/11 In The Obama Years
It amazes me what conservatives decide to get in a tizzy about. The latest? Obama signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service. OMG!!! Here's how a conservative wrote about this in The American Spectator. This is an actual quote, not — I repeat, not — a parody: The plan is … Read More
Terror Politics
I've largely refrained from posting about the Bush White House ever since Obama became president, but sometimes my self-imposed ban is hard to maintain. Now that Bush is out of office, we're finding that the actual illegalities are just as bad, if not worse, than imagined. The firings of the U.S. attorneys, for example, were politically motivated and were orchestrated … Read More
CIA Admits It Lied To Congress For Years
Dog Bites Man story: WASHINGTON — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said. In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency … Read More
Keeping Secrets
It's kind of amazing that nobody knew that New York Times reporter David Rohde had been kidnapped by the Taliban on November 10, and remained in their custody for several months. Well, the New York Times and the government knew of course, but they (rightly) decided to keep the information quiet. They figured that publicity would add to Rohde's value … Read More
Who Do Americans Trust To Handle Terrorism?
For decades, the American people believed that the Republican Party, despite whatever else they may lack, was the go-to party on issues involving national security and terrorism. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll from 2002 said that 57% of Americans felt Republicans were better on handling terrorism (only 22% favored Democrats). An NBC/WSJ poll from 2002 said that 49% of registered voters preferred Republicans to deal with terrorism (compared to 13% … Read More
More Right Wing Terrorism
Shawna Forde is part of the rightwing anti-immigration crusade. Via Crook and Liars, we can see her in this local TV panel show discussing her views on illegal immigration: The clip concludes with this: Forde: I'd like to see two things on there. Not just about the people who came here legally, and are here legally, but how about the … Read More
Surrendermonkeys
Glenn Beck, via Salon, via Steve Benen: On his show Wednesday, Beck tried to puzzle out the political meaning of the attack on the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Alleged shooter James Von Brunn, Beck said, is "a lone gunman nutjob." Fair enough. "You're going to see a lot of nutjobs coming out of the woodwork now." Uh-oh. Scarier still, all of … Read More
The Dumbest Thing Written (So Far) About The Holocaust Museum Shooting
From Debbie Schlussel, in a post entitled "So What If The Holocaust Museum Shooter Is A White Christian…..?": Make no mistake. Muslims created this atmosphere where hatred of the Jews is okay and must be "tolerated" as a legitimate point of view. The shooting today is just yet another manifestation emanating from that viewpoint–another manifestation of the welcome mat that … Read More
Holocaust Museum Shooting
It's all unfolding now. Two people (perhaps 3) shot by a gunman in the Holocaust Musuem in D.C.. The gunman was also apparently shot and is in custody. Too early, of course, to determine the motive, but since it was at the Holocaust Museum, one can surmise that the shooter was anti-Jew. From there, it's not a far leap to suppose … Read More
Anti-Abortion Terrorist Cell
He could be crazy, but it's hard not to think that the murderer of Dr. George Tiller was not acting as a lone wolf, especially when he says things like this: "I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal," Roeder said. When asked by the AP what he meant and … Read More
Dick Cheney Blames Richard Clarke For Failing To Warn Of 9/11
Former Bush National Security Council’s counter-terrorism director wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post this past weekend, saying that "trauma of 9/11" was a piss-poor excuse for the response of Cheney and the Bush Administration in the weeks and months that followed (Iraq invasion, Gitmo detention, illegal wiretapping, etc.): Yes, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice may have been surprised by … Read More