THIS IS WHAT FAILURE LOOKS LIKE

As they did with the NIE, the Defense Dept rewrites a critical GAO report to soften its harsh assessments of “progress” in Iraq

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/pentagon_disputes_parts_of_ira.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12717.html

Cooking the books: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011972.php

ANOTHER one

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/washington/31policy.html
An independent commission established by Congress to assess Iraq’s security forces will recommend remaking the 26,000-member national police force to purge it of corrupt officers and Shiite militants suspected of complicity in sectarian killings . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011973.php
[Kevin Drum] This is becoming a comedy of the absurd. Scrap the Iraqi police force? Start over from scratch? Is this a joke? Even if we could do it, it means (a) putting 26,000 armed and pissed off Iraqis back on the street, (b) running the country without a police force until a new one is recruited and trained, and (c) spending two or three years building a replacement. And that's the good news. The bad news is that there's no reason to think the shiny new police force would be any better than the old one. . . [read on!]

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12722.html

And ANOTHER one

http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/nation-corruption-norm-in-iraqi-govt.html
[Juan Cole] The Nation has gotten hold of a secret USG report that says that profound corruption is the norm in the Iraqi government . . .

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004045.php

More: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=228339

And it’s not just corruption in the Iraqi govt

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/washington/31contract.html
An American-owned company operating from Kuwait paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to American contracting officers in efforts to win more than $11 million in contracts [in Iraq]

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/world/middleeast/28military.html

“What failure looks like”

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12710.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/30/84759/6890

http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/arguments-over-night-of-living-dead-in.html

Which is it?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12721.html
[Steve Benen] Gen. David Petraeus said he, not the president’s team, will be writing his report to Congress in a couple of weeks. That’s not what the White House said 10 days ago. . .

As noted here and elsewhere, the “Petraeus” (White House) Report is already all but written – and it contains no surprises beyond the predictable Bushian talking points

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/as-expected-petraeus-sees-progress-just.html
"We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress and we believe al Qaeda is off balance at the very least," General David Petraeus told the Australian in an interview after briefing Australia's defense minister, Brendan Nelson, in Baghdad. . .

Will the Democrats let themselves get rolled again on this issue? Sure looks like it

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/washington/30policy.html
The White House is growing more confident that it can beat back efforts by Congressional Democrats to shift course in Iraq, a significant turnabout from two months ago, when a string of Republican defections had administration officials worried that President Bush’s troop buildup was in serious danger on Capitol Hill. . . .

More: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/new_york_times_3.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12713.html

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1074

http://sideshow.me.uk/saug07.htm#08301319

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/30/121157/426

What WILL the Democrats do?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083002117.html
Saying the coming weeks will be "one of the last opportunities" to alter the course of the war, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he is now willing to compromise with Republicans to find ways to limit troop deployments in Iraq.

Reid acknowledged that his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle for a small but growing number of Republicans who have said they want to end the war but have been unwilling to set a timeline. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/31/0435/53025
[BarbinMD] It sounds like the Democratic leadership isn't bothering to wait for the White House report on all that so-called progress in Iraq before caving to George Bush . . . [read on]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12718.html

How much is the Bush gang doing to encourage the Allawi effort to unseat Maliki?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/kabuki-on-skates-by-digby-please-no.html

Pressure from fellow Republicans builds for Larry Craig to resign

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/08/_five_more_gop_lawmakers_demand_craig_step_down.php

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/ap_on_go_co/craig_arrest
Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who chairs the GOP's senatorial campaign committee, stopped short of calling on Craig to resign but suggested strongly that he should.

His bizarre police interview

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051987.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051989.php

Listen: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/larry_craig_police_interrogati.php

Read it all: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004044.php

Funny. Usually it’s the majority party that gets complacent, lazy, and mired in scandal. The minority party gets that “lean and hungry look” and points out the inherent corruptions of incumbency. But in this case, says Josh Marshall, it’s the minority party that is acting as if no one can hold them to account

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051973.php

Will the Inspector General investigation into Dept of Justice lies and corruption bear any results?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004038.php

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/30/ig-gonzales/

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/the-inspector-g.html

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083000995.html

Oh, and by the way: Gonzales was a lousy manager too

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/31/2747/23025

Here is a handy list of the WORST conceivable nominees to replace Gonzales – at last one of whom (Ted Olson) we might actually see

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4725

Hey, friends, this Republican twenty electoral vote grab in California is serious business – it could not only snatch defeat out of an otherwise easy Democratic win in 2008, it could make a Democratic win at the national level much more difficult for a very long time to come. Let’s be clear – if we decide nationally to assign electoral votes within each state by wins within each electoral district, we can do that (though it basically makes the Electoral College irrelevant and turns the national vote into a popular vote decision). That might even be the right thing to do. But what is completely wrong is for the Republicans to maintain “winner take all” in the states they dominate, but lobby for a different set of rules in the states they want to split with the Democrats

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/30/13468/3610

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/13161

Bonus item: Tony Snow gets cranky

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083001941.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:10 AM

 
PASS/FAIL

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902434.html
Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011966.php
[Kevin Drum] One more interesting thing: the Post actually explains why someone leaked a draft copy of the report to them: the leaker was afraid it would get watered down before final publication and wanted to make sure that someone knew what the GAO really thinks. Considering what happens to most reports that go through the DoD wringer, I'd say that shows considerable foresight.

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/mmmfraud.php
[Matt Yglesias] So how about that political progress in Iraq? Well, Time says it's actually a fraud. . . . Basically, the Iraqi cabinet seems to have cobbled something meaningless together so that Ryan Crocker can go before congress and say that just when it looked like the administration was going to need to report (fake) security progress but no political progress -- bam! -- in the nick of time along comes some (fake) political progress. . . [read on]

You broke it, you own it

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/19356.html
In a sign that top commanders are divided over what course to pursue in Iraq, the Pentagon said Wednesday that it won't make a single, unified recommendation to President Bush during next month's strategy assessment, but instead will allow top commanders to make individual presentations.

"Consensus is not the goal of the process," Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. "If there are differences, the president will hear them."

Military analysts called the move unusual for an institution that ordinarily does not air its differences in public, especially while its troops are deployed in combat.

"The professional military guys are going to the non-professional military guys and saying 'Resolve this,'" said Jeffrey White, a military analyst for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "That's what it sounds like."

White said it suggests that the military commanders want to be able to distance themselves from Iraq strategy by making it clear that whatever course is followed is the president's decision, not what commanders agreed on. . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/30/01221/5753
[The Angry Rakkasan] Mark it down. August 29, 2007. That’s the day the Pentagon announced it was done being responsible for Mr. Bush’s waste of lives, time, and money in Iraq. Tonight, the Defense Department has essentially told the President, "Thanks for the war, George, but it’s all you from here on out, buddy." . . . .

Bush’s request for an additional $50 billion for the war is an opportunity for the Democrats – if they decide to do something about it

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/29/83531/6579

The National Guard and US troops: stretched to the breaking point

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070827-1441-nationalguardatwar.html

http://www.slate.com/id/2173031/fr/rss/
[Fred Kaplan] President George W. Bush's behavior gets more baffling every day. Most leaders in his predicament would be recalibrating their rhetoric, seeking to alter expectations, so that the inevitable drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq won't appear to be a defeat.

Instead, Bush is doing the opposite. Twice this past week, he has appeared before his most bedrock base (the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars), promised to give his commanders whatever they need for victory, and lambasted Congress for so much as contemplating withdrawal, a step, he warned, that would imperil civilization and free peoples everywhere.

He is willfully ignoring two facts. First, almost nobody in a position of power or much influence is advocating a complete withdrawal from Iraq. Second, a partial withdrawal is certain to take place in the next nine months, and this has nothing to do with Congress.

This has been noted time and time again, but apparently it bears repeating: The U.S. Army and Marines are simply running out of combat troops. . . .

As dependable as sunrise, the news once again grasps at straws to imagine that Bush is headed for an upsurge of popularity. Where does this desperate need come from?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051833.php
[David Kurtz] Nearly seven years into his Presidency, don't we have a pretty good idea of the character and abilities of this man? There is a long track record now of truly unparalleled incompetence, corruption, and politicization. What more do we need to know? Bush's legacy is firmly entrenched, and barring any seismic historical events between now and January 2009, any changes to that sorry legacy will be at the margins. . . .

More: http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_26_archive.html#4960946032770610029

Iran attack coming in September?

http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/cheney-iran-here-we-go-again.html

It’s as if it never happened. . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/abu_ghraib_verdict_irks_rights.php
[AP] An Army officer's acquittal on charges of failing to control soldiers who abused Abu Ghraib prisoners cuts short a trail of accountability that could lead much higher, human rights groups say. . . .

Bush returns to the scene of the crime

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070829-5.html
[Bush] And so it's -- my attitude is this: New Orleans, better days are ahead. It's sometimes hard for people to see progress when you live in a community all the time. Laura and I get to come -- we don't live here, we come on occasion. And it's easy to think about what it was like when we first came here after the hurricane, and what it's like today. And this town is coming back. This town is better today than it was yesterday, and it's going to be better tomorrow than it was today. . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/29/54938/0134
[AP] It's an emotional time. You re-live what happened and you remember how scattered everyone is now. There are relationships now that are completely over," said Robert Smallwood, a New Orleans writer. "The city has been dying this slow death. In New Orleans, you can't escape it. It's bad news everyday." . . .

The crime: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-me-worry-by-digby-august-29-2005.html

Who they are

http://sideshow.me.uk/saug07.htm#08291447
[Avedon Carol] Republicans have shown no sign of believing in "the right to keep your own money" or in limited government or in a "strong defense". Allowing rich people and corporations to make use of (and often ruin) public services without paying for them is not giving you "the right to keep your own money"; in fact, it's making you pay for the things they get more use from. Limiting the power of government to protect your Constitutional rights is not "limited government"; neither is allowing a president the power to summarily deprive individuals of those rights "limited government". Bankrupting the Treasury in order to give the DoD money it doesn't need (and doesn't spend wisely) while you go blow up other countries that posed no threat to the US is not "a strong defense".

Conservatives have always supported intrusive government. . . [read on!]

Hmmm. . . . maybe Chertoff isn’t such a shoo-in at Justice after all

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004029.php
[Spencer Ackerman] Long before he was internationally infamous as the Homeland Security secretary who dithered while New Orleans drowned, Michael Chertoff helmed the Justice Department's Criminal Division, placing him at the top of all federal criminal prosecutions. He left the position in 2003 to take a federal judgeship -- but not before severely misconstruing, under oath, a chain of events in the 2001 interrogation of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh. As it turns out, a sworn statement, made by an attorney in the division's Terrorism and Violent Crime Section, John De Pue, contradicts Chertoff's testimony to Congress, something that can't bode well for his rumored nomination for attorney general. . . .

The other candidates: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/the-replacement.html

We’ll have more on this, down the road, but confirmation for Bush’s DOJ nominee is going to be very tough. Think about the questions they will have to answer

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/29/133536/828

New documents reveal more trouble to come for the DOJ

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/the-iglesias-co.html
[Newsweek] The investigation (headed by the department’s respected inspector general, Glenn Fine) has already turned up new documents and e-mails about the purge that have not been made public and that are inconsistent with previous Justice Department statements . . . [read on]

FISA hearing, Sept 5

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/29/185010/537

The amazing string of Republican corruption and scandal stories

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004025.php

Bye-bye Larry – and take Moe and Curly with you

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070829/ap_on_go_co/craig_arrest;_ylt=AuREw.O0OCqaq4PFIa2lcpOs0NUE
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's political support eroded by the hour on Wednesday as fellow Republicans in Congress called for him to resign and party leaders pushed him unceremoniously from senior committee posts.

The White House expressed disappointment, too — and nary a word of support for the 62-year-old lawmaker, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge stemming from an undercover police operation in an airport men's room.

Craig "represents the Republican Party," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the first in a steadily lengthening list of GOP members of Congress to urge a resignation. . . .

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051888.php

Hypocrisies galore

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051890.php

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/moral-relativis.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/30/053/73799

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/desperate-defense-of-values-crowd.html

Advice to Republicans: stay outta those bathrooms!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051899.php

Bizarre story: Speaking of bathrooms, Tucker Carlson brags about beating up a gay guy who made an unwanted advance toward him. The story starts as a story of spontaneous male rage – then devolves into undeniable gay-bashing

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/08/tuckers-traumat.html
[Steve Clemons] Tucker Carlson brought this home in an interview he did yesterday in which he got "bothered" in a public restroom when he was a high school student and then got a buddy and went back to beat up the guy before he was arrested. To be fair to Carlson, we haven't yet heard whether the "botherer" grabbed Tucker's crotch or just tapped his foot under the stall.

But Carlson's comment that he chose to beat up the trespasser "after the fact" in a vigilante action says much. . . .

Read the full transcript (or watch the video clip) which is pretty disgusting, not just because Tucker Carlson, self-described as "the least anti-gay right-winger you'll ever meet", admits to beating up someone trolling for sex in a public bathroom -- but because Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough just laugh.

Then Tucker backpedals from his own account

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_26_archive.html#3241504106824248555
[What he said] CARLSON: I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and -- and --

ABRAMS: And did what?

CARLSON: Hit him against the stall with his head, actually!
[laughter]

CARLSON: And then the cops came and arrested him. But let me say that I'm the least anti-gay right-winger you'll ever meet --

[The revised version, later] Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.

Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/tucker-carlson-he-man-by-digby-if-you.html

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12707.html

Another Republican retirement – another winnable GOP seat

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/08/29/warner_showing_signs_of_impending_retirement.html

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/29/15744/6006
[Evans-Novak] Republican Senators are now talking about losing four seats in 2008 . . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:22 AM

 
THE LONG GOODBYES

Larry Craig (R-ID) goes full-out in his defense: "I am not gay!!!!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801196.html
Craig said that he "over-reacted" and pleaded guilty August 8 because his hometown newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, had been conducting an eight-month investigation into his sexual orientation. He said he hoped to avoid fueling what he described as the newspaper's "witch hunt" by quietly resolving the matter by pleading guilty -- without telling any of his family, friends, staff or colleagues. . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12696.html
[Steve Benen] I know this is going to sound silly, but as political strategies go, this isn’t a ridiculous idea. Now that he’s had time to think about it, Craig realizes that the criminal charges against him are pretty thin, and he wasn’t actually caught propositioning anyone. Sure, it looks like Craig was trying to make sexual advances on the stranger in the next stall, but as long as he can argue, with a straight face, that this is the result of a misunderstanding, there’s no irrefutable proof that he’s lying. . . . [read on]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051791.php
[David Kurtz] Craig says he is not and never has been gay, and blames the Idaho Statesman for what he called vicious attacks against him, referring to the long investigation by the paper of rumors that Craig was gay, for his decision to plead guilty. Of course the paper didn't publish the results of that investigation until today--after news of Craig's June arrest and August guilty plea broke.

The REAL reason why he pled guilty: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051759.php

More to the story?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051807.php

An excellent question

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12697.html
[Steve Benen] E&P asks a good question: how is it that a senator can get arrested on sex charges, and no one noticed for a couple of months? Roll Call noted it found out based on a tip, but newspaper editors agreed that it was a combination of factors, most notably that Craig was arrested outside his home district in an area where few national outlets have a desk.

Clinical

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/craig-its-idaho-statesmans-fault-and.html
[Joe Sudbay] Note the vitriol with which he utters the words that he's not gay. It is very, very disturbing. It's as if being gay is the very worst thing in the world ever. Ever. . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/better-to-be-thought-fool.html
[BC] Craig hates himself, and that is sad, no matter how you slice it. His explanations for the events in Minnesota are so ridiculous, they defy logic and credibility . . .

Smelling a loser, the GOP wants Craig out before the next campaign

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051803.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/28/16464/7073

Craig might fight on: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/28/hes-not-gay/

The God squad isn’t listening to any excuses

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12690.html

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/28/craig/index.html

Double standards? http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/double_standards_1.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011958.php

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_26_archive.html#6299964568911809838

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12688.html
[Steve Benen] I don’t want the right to feel dispirited because of these scandals; I want them to give up. Give up on using gays as a wedge issue. Give up on abstinence-only policies that don’t work. Give up on constitutional amendments regarding personal behavior. Give up on holding up the GOP up as the authority on what should and shouldn’t be allowed in bedrooms.

Or don’t. Go ahead and continue to embrace hypocrisy. Keep hiding your head in your hands every time a Larry Craig gets caught. Continue to argue that it’s not at all odd that your presidential front-runner is a thrice-married adulterer.

It’s up to you, my conservative friends. . .

Ha!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051810.php
[Scott Reed, GOP consultant] “The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness,” said Mr. Reed, sounding exasperated in an interview on Tuesday morning. “You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country.”

Welcome back Jeff: perfect timing!

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12694.html
[Steve Benen] Remember Jeff Gannon (James Guckert), the alleged gay prostitute who inexplicably was invited to the White House 200 times? Who got a daily press pass using a pseudonym? Sure you do — he’s the one who would ask ridiculously-slanted, groan-inducing softball questions for the White House, and would then publish “news” items that lifted Republican press releases word for word.

Gannon went away for a while, but now he’s anxious to make a comeback . . . [read on]

Gonzo’s replacement: maybe not Chertoff after all?

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/28/former-hw-bush-justice-appointee-looking-very-good/
NBC reports the latest speculation on Gonzales’ successor: “Per a source close to the White House, ex-Deputy Attorney General George J. Terwilliger III is ‘looking very good’ to replace Alberto Gonzales. Former Solicitor General Ted Olson and former appellate judge Laurence Silberman are ‘also in the running.’ And Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson ‘are unlikely.’”

What’s wrong with them? http://sideshow.me.uk/saug07.htm#08281758

Picking a fight: http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/replacing_gonzales.php
[Matt Yglesias] This is stereotypically shrill blogger of me, but I think Brian Beutler's right that there's no sense in writing about how Bush "should" appoint a widely respected Attorney-General who'll restore the nation's confidence in the neutral administration of justice. At this stage in the game, one knows that the leopard doesn't change its stripes. Besides which, I'm still fairly convinced that the White House is going to be looking for a fight over its nominee's confirmation . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801670.html
A half-dozen or so lawyers are being discussed among administration officials as possible candidates to replace Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, but no clear favorite has emerged, and President Bush is willing to fight for the right candidate . . .

No, the investigations of criminal wrongdoing by the Justice Dept (what a strange thing to type) are not over

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/schlozmans-not-.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/washington/29gonzales.html

Hmmmm. . . . coming attractions?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051777.php
Jack Goldsmith, the former head of Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, will testify before Congress after the summer recess about the NSA's warrantless surveillance program. This could get interesting.

More: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004018.php#more

Gen. Petraeus forced changes to the NIE report

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12691.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011956.php
[Kevin Drum] [U]ntil recently my guess was that Petraeus's September report to Congress would be pretty sober. My thinking was that he's a smart guy, and realizes that trying to paint too pretty a picture would ruin his credibility. So instead he'd present a basically realistic assessment, but stud it with just enough signs of progress to convince everyone that he deserved more time to make the surge work.

Now I'm not so sure. . .

Pleased don’t be shocked. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801984.html
President Bush plans to ask Congress next month for up to $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, a White House official said yesterday, a move that appears to reflect increasing administration confidence that it can fend off congressional calls for a rapid drawdown of U.S. forces.

The request -- which would come on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- is expected to be announced after congressional hearings scheduled for mid-September featuring the two top U.S. officials in Iraq . . .

The request is being prepared now in the belief that Congress will be unlikely to balk so soon after hearing the two officials argue that there are promising developments in Iraq but that they need more time to solidify the progress they have made . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011961.php
[Kevin Drum] So that's that, I guess. The White House already knows what Petraeus and Crocker are going to say and they figure it's going to be $50 billion of good news. And with that, the Kabuki show continues. . . .

http://www.slate.com/id/2173017
[Daniel Politi] The additional request is a sign the administration sees the "surge" lasting "into the spring of 2008." Near the end of the story an unnamed officer at the Joint Chiefs of Staff continues the campaign to reduce expectations for the Petraeus-Crocker hearings, saying he doesn't expect "any surprises." . . .

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_26_archive.html#2687109631124319168
[Atrios] And the response of the Democrats will be... predictable.

Bush gives a speech!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801159.html
President Bush played down the failure of the Iraqi government to meet political benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress. . .

The last refuge of scoundrels

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12695.html
[Steve Benen] By the way, in his speech to the American Legion conference, Bush added:

“I appreciate your efforts to honor the American flag. There are those who say the flag is just a piece of cloth. That’s not the view of those who bled for it and saw it drape the caskets of some of our finest men and women. It was the American flag that we planted proudly on Iwo Jima, that first graced the silver surface of the moon. The country is careful to protect many things because of what they symbolize. Surely we can find a way to show equal respect for the symbol that our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines and Coast Guard’s men and women have risked their lives for — the flag of our nation. So today I join the Legion in calling on the United States Congress to make protection of the flag the law of our land.”

Really? Just 15 months left in office and the president is suddenly going to start taking a flag amendment seriously?

The boomlet over Iyad Allawi as the New Savior of Iraq captures everything that has been wrong with this enterprise from the beginning. There is NO REASON to believe that he would be effective as the new strongman leader of Iraq, and much reason to think not. But he would be a change from a policy that isn’t working and he would buy more time. That’s all Bush cares about any more

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/ayad-allawi-broder-candidate-of-iraq.html

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/28/from-the-department-of-bad-ideas/

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/the_trouble_with_allawi.php

The kind of people they REALLY are

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12692.html
[Steve Benen] When it comes to fundraising pitches, the rhetoric is supposed to be accurate but exaggerated. Reasoned, sensible requests tend not to raise money; donors have to be shocked into reaching for their checkbook.

The Republican National Committee tends to take this idea to the extreme with pretty loathsome fundraising appeals. Indeed, the RNC has developed a well-deserved reputation for making accusations that turn right at accurate and head straight for loonyville. Consider the party’s latest pitch . . .

This is the man “Meet the Press” has put on twice as representative of the “blogging community” – CBN’s David Brody

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708280012

Bonus item: Alberto Gonzales, a trip down memory lane. . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051778.php

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:18 AM

 
DRAGGED THROUGH THE MUD

A kind of tragedy. Here’s a man who was widely expected to become a Supreme Court Justice, but when Bush and Cheney got through with him he was a national travesty. It was all with his full knowledge and participation, so it’s impossible to feel sorry for him, but his providing legal cover for torture policies abroad, and for illegal surveillance at home; his allowing Karl Rove to hire and fire his own US Attorneys; his suppression of civil rights, politicizing the prosecution (or non-prosecution) of voting and electoral cases all across the country; and his absurdly untruthful and devious performances before Congress – all served to make him an object of scorn even within the Republican party. Bush is damn mad to have to let his old Texas pal go, but the person he should be most angry with is himself, because he badly used his friend, over and over again

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082700703.html
[Bush] “Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle, and I have reluctantly accepted his resignation with great appreciation for the service that he has provided for our country. . .

After months of unfair treatment, that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision.

It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding (sic) from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.”

It’s Bush’s own damn fault

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051647.php
[David Kurtz] We saw the sour, petulant Bush on display in his public statement from Waco this morning . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12678.html

A reminder of why this became necessary

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12682.html
[Andrew Cohen] When historians look back upon the disastrous tenure of Alberto R. Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States they will ask not only why he merited the job in the first place but why he lasted in it as long as he did. . . [read on]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12674.html
Worst. AG. Ever. . . . [read on]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/opinion/28tue1.html
[NYT] Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has finally done something important to advance the cause of justice. He has resigned. . .

More: http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/great-shame-of-it-all-is-that-alberto.html

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4685

Whoosh!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051628.php
[David Kurtz] Well, that was as unceremonial and abrupt a resignation announcement from a cabinet official as we are likely to see for some time. . .

Here's the video. Don't blink. You might miss it.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/28/gonzales/index.html
[Tim Grieve] Did Alberto Gonzales jump or was he pushed? . . [read on]

Of course, they couldn't even handle his resignation without lying about it

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051656.php
[David Kurtz] I must say that it strikes me as an especially carefully crafted and stage-managed departure . . .

Lying to subordinates and the press is par for the course for these guys (and for much of official Washington in similar circumstances, truth be told). So nothing out of the ordinary there. But this elaborate choreograph, as related to The Times by administration officials, of Bush initially rebuffing the resignation, seems designed to emphasize that the timing and circumstances of Gonzales' departure was of his own choosing and that the President's hand was not being forced by Democrats on the Hill.

In short, I don't buy that tick-tock as being an accurate reflection of events, not with an attorney general who became a bipartisan laughingstock perhaps unparalleled among cabinet officers in U.S. history. The man was run out of town. The White House effort seems designed to minimize the appearance of that fact.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701316.html

The bloodbath they’ve created at DOJ: nine major resignations

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004012.php

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/random-thoughts.html

The investigations won’t stop

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/27/11548/8420

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5530.html

Don’t laugh

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051689.php
"The resignation of Alberto Gonzales had become inevitable. His situation was a distraction to the Department of Justice and its attempt to carry out its important duties."

--Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), who urged Gonzales to replace New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias after Iglesias failed to indict New Mexico Democrats before the 2006 elections. The politically motivated purge of Iglesias and other U.S. attorneys triggered the series of events which ultimately led to Gonzales' resignation

Who will replace Gonzales?

Chertoff? http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/27/201633/713

http://politicalinsider.com/2007/08/replacing_gonzales.html

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708280002

NOT Chertoff? http://www.slate.com/id/2172859/fr/rss/

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_26_archive.html#1136632866985238291

Will there be a confirmation fight; or will Bush use a recess appointment?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/27/gonzales/index.html

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051637.php

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/27/14225/0822

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/4266

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006554.html

And who will replace Chertoff?

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/27/clay-johnson-dhs/
[T]hese sources say Chertoff will be replaced at Homeland Security by Clay Johnson III, the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget. . . .

Johnson, who has no homeland security experience, is a professional Bush loyalist. While Johnson may have familiarity with some aspects of DHS’s budget, he appears to have no experience in the many responsibilities of the department, including immigration, air travel security, disaster response, and other aspects of our nation’s homeland defense.

He is one of Bush’s oldest friends, having attended both prep school and college with the President. Johnson served as Bush’s gubernatorial chief of staff in Texas before heading up the Bush-Cheney transition team. . .

The resignation list for the Bush gang as a whole, all following the 2006 elections

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1017

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/27/154846/969
[Miss Laura] Look over that list closely, and ask yourself a simple question: Had we not won in 2006, would any of these people resigned?

Whoa – suddenly, the Bush gang says they want to play NICE?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/28/71417/4139

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011953.php
[Kevin Drum] Uh huh. I'm sure he's so looking forward to mending relationships with Democrats in Congress. Because, you know, he's a uniter, not a divider. . .

There was another big story yesterday, what was it? Uh, a Republican somewhere – oh yeah, uber-right wing Larry Craig (R-ID), homophobe, family values and sanctity of marriage hypocrite – pleads guilty to a homosexual assignation in a men’s room. What IS IT with these people?

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/19763-1.html

Previous hints: http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=14006

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/27/212555/072

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051712.php

Uh huh

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/larry-craig-issues-statement.html
“At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions,” Craig said in a statement released Monday evening. “I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

The arresting officer’s statement

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/craig-arrest-doc/

Bigger trouble to come?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051696.php
[Roll Call] At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?” . . .

More: http://www.samefacts.com/archives/the_wayward_press_/2007/08/whats_news_about_sen_craigs_arrest.php

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/watching_conservatives_/2007/08/theres_more_news_than_that.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051701.php
[David Kurtz] Would Senate rules require Craig to report this misdemeanor conviction to the Senate Ethics Committee?

The right wing struggles to make sense of it all (actual quotes, dug up by Pam Spaulding)

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/freepers-bleat-about-larry-craig.html
I'm getting to the point where I just don't care about that—my rage at the betrayals overshadows all. Haggard, Foley, this kook. It seems that NO one speaks for us and acts for us. . . .

OK, here is my latest conspiracy theory... enjoy! Homosexuals are deliberately infiltrating the GOP so they can say either (1) See, we're gay and we're Republicans, too! or (2) They can claim to be anti-homosexual agenda politicians, and then when they are caught, it makes the GOP look like the party of hypocrites. Either way it advances the homosexual agenda. . . .

I thought Republicans were Anti-Gay? Am I missing something here? The GOP apparently has Gays in High Places. And the Main Stream media rather than saying, The Republicans are not the narrow minded Cretins we make them out to be. Instead say another "Fag Republican" was caught. What gives? The Demorats love Gays until they are members of the GOP. Then they are dirty scoundrels? Two faced liars and hypocrits. That's what the Demorats are today. They hurl the Gay Insult when a GOP member is outed. If they out themselves as Demorats they are courageous. Otherwise they are Sexual Deviants. . .

The GOP needs to clean it's house of perverts and sodomites. . .

I think this is another Democrat setup. Anyone who says anything against gays nowadays is persecuted.

Nah, I think more likely the GOP bigwigs eventually knew about it and figured it will come out any way, dump it today under the flash of the Gonzales stories.

Whoosh! Part two – Mitt Romney tries to erase all signs of buddy Craig’s endorsement and support

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051710.php

http://rightsfield.com/2007/08/27/did-romney-scrub-youtube-of-larry-craig/

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051711.php

In other news:

How does Allawi think that having a high-powered DC lobbying firm backing him will go down with the people back in Iraq?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601261.html

Mr. Six-gun: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/back-to-square-one-by-digby-id.html
[July 17, 2004] Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings. . . [read on!]

Will Gen. Petraeus be held to account for this massive loss of US weapons, many of which have now ended up in the hands of Iraqi insurgents?

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/28/morning-cuppa-stories/

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/world/middleeast/28military.html

More attempts by the Bush gang to erase history (they seem to have forgotten how the Internet works)

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29961

Competitive Senate seats in 2008: a huge pick-up is possible

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/27/17225/3094

The most viable new Republican Senate candidate in 2008 is a turncoat Democrat (named, no kidding, John Kennedy)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/27/12467/1481

Debunking the myths of Rudy Giuliani’s 9/11 performance

http://billsrants.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/08/preparedness-ne.html

Fred Thompson’s campaign hasn’t even officially started yet – and he’s still losing key staffers

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/another-one-bites-dust-by-digby.html

Bonus item: Gonzo’s resignation letter: the redacted version

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/4267

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:01 AM

 
BREAKING NEWS: GONZALES RESIGNS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082700356.html

PURPLE FINGERS

Echoes of Chalabi: Allawi plans a triumphal return to Iraq, starting the process of challenging Maliki. When will these folks figure out that ANYONE perceived as a US puppet will have trouble gaining legitimacy?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/26/allawi.returns/index.html
Iraq's former interim prime minister accused Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of fomenting the sectarian violence plaguing the war-ravaged nation and said Sunday he will return to Baghdad soon to "reverse the course in Iraq."

However, Ayad Allawi's ties to a powerful Washington-based GOP lobbying firm is raising eyebrows as President Bush has adamantly expressed his support for al-Maliki.

Speaking from Amman, Jordan, Allawi told "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that he will push for "a less sectarian, nonsectarian course" when he goes back to Baghdad next week -- and al-Maliki's ouster may be part of the solution. . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051596.php
[Josh Marshall] Finally, unexpectedly, out of the blue even, we appear to have arrived at a grand cross-party consensus on Iraq: it's Nuri al Maliki's fault and he should be fired. Faced with the tough task of biting the bullet one way or another, pols across the partisan divide seem to have arrived at this as the one position . . .

Which, of course, puts into a rather sharp relief the simple but less and less often spoken fact that Iraq is a country under foreign military occupation.

But watching the Sunday shows today -- both in what would-be-premier Allawi said as well as the comments of various US political leaders -- you see what's behind the dump Maliki movement: a crystallizing belief that democracy just hasn't panned out in Iraq and that it's time to install a strongman government that can get the country in its grip and calm things down. . . .

It won’t work: http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006551.html
[Nibraz Kazimi] "These are the usual amateurish stunts that US diplomats and spooks resort to when trying to arm-twist a Middle Eastern ‘flunky’; Washington is panicked by the Sunni withdrawal from the government whilst their current policy can be summed up with “Give the Sunnis everything they want”—including arms and protection to former insurgents who’ve been killing Americans and Iraqis for the last five years. By spreading this rumor, the Americans would like to spook Maliki into giving the Sunnis all that they want too—their current demands being the Presidency, and the Oil, Defense and Finance ministries and the Intelligence Service, in addition to their current portfolios—and fall into line with policy. Here’s a series of reality checks ...." . . . [read on!]

The Petraeus plan: ten more years in Iraq

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12671.html

Who are we fighting in Iraq? (hint: it’s mostly NOT “Al Qaeda”)

http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/who-is-us-fighting-in-iraq.html

Great

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20430170/site/newsweek/page/0/
The overarching question is whether Al Qaeda has the ability to strike the United States with another "spectacular" along the lines of 9/11, or possibly something worse. When the Qaeda leadership was driven into the hills in 2001, and many of their top operators were killed or captured, the jihadist movement was sustained by local wannabes. They set off bombs and blew up subways and discos from Indonesia to Britain. But they were not very high-tech, and some were klutzes, like the two mokes who last June failed to set off a pair of car bombs in London and then tried, unsuccessfully, to become suicide bombers at the Glasgow airport. (One eventually did die of his burns, but no civilians were injured when their car caught fire but failed to explode.)

When the United States struck Afghanistan in 2001, "there were probably 3,000 core Al Qaeda operatives," says Arquilla of the Naval Postgraduate School. "We killed or captured about 1,000; about 1,000 more ended up in distant parts of the world. And about 1,000 ended up in Waziristan. But the great terror university in Afghanistan is gone; they've relied on the Web since. They haven't had the hands-on instruction and the bonding of the camps. That's resulted in low-skill levels. Their tradecraft is really much poorer."

The danger now, says Arquilla, is that the longer the Iraq War goes on, the more skilled the new generations of jihadists will become. "They're getting re-educated," he says. "The first generation of Al Qaeda came through the [Afghan] camps. The second generation are those who've logged on [to Islamist Web sites]. The next generation will be those who have come through the crucible of Iraq. Eventually, their level of skill is going to be greater than the skill of the original generation." . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011948.php
[Kevin Drum] Even the optimists don't seem to think that we have more than about a 10 or 20 percent chance of winning in Iraq — for whatever definition of "winning" is currently in vogue. But it's not a 20% chance of winning versus a downside of zero. There's pretty much a 100% chance that the longer we stay in Iraq, the stronger al-Qaeda will get. Anyone who isn't taking that into account isn't taking the war seriously.

Frank assessments on Iraq from three reporters on Meet the Press (excerpts)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20449612/page/3/
MR. RUSSERT: Tom Ricks, your paperback edition of “Fiasco” is out. You wrote a postscript for this book in April, and I want to use it to frame our discussion. It’s astonished—“It astonishes me that in early 2007 it appears” “the two most likely outcomes of the current turmoil in Iraq are either that the country will break up, or that Sadr—an anti-American ally of Hezbollah—will become the country’s ruler. However, neither of those events is likely to end the violence, but rather simply to open a new and even more dangerous phase.” You still stand by that?

MR. THOMAS RICKS: Yeah. What strikes me is that all of the options carry bigger downsides than benefits, and things that look like solutions in the short term carry the prospect of long-term violence. I think that’s true of every single policy option out there, and so I think the beginning of wisdom is to understand that we—there are no good options. All we have to now think about is what is the least bad option. . .

MR. RUSSERT: Michael Gordon, since you wrote “Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion And Occupation of Iraq,” what’s your current thinking about how it’s going to end? . . . If we, in fact, are arming the Sunnis and we’ve already armed the Shiites, are we arming both factions in a civil war?

MR. GORDON: . . . They’re not being given arms by the Americans, but you’re pointing to one of the very real risks. I mean, the potential here is by organizing these Sunni groups in Baquba and ... (unintelligible) ... and ... (unintelligible) ... and all sorts of places in Iraq, we do have a mechanism to provide local security and really to drive out al-Qaeda of Iraq. The downside is unless this becomes institutionalized and these people become either Iraqi police or somehow approved by the Iraqi government, we might be setting the stage for more intensified civil war.

MR. RUSSERT: Richard Engel . . . Joe Klein in Time magazine wrote this, that “US Ambassador Ryan Crocker” said, “‘The fall of the Maliki government, when it happens, might be a good thing.’” And then Klein asks, “But replace it with what?” Half of Maliki’s Cabinet has abandoned his government. Are his days numbered?

MR. ENGEL: His days are certainly numbered. This government is going to collapse. The problem is, it’s going to take several months to form a new government. And there’s a very likely and real possibility that you could have a series of unstable governments that come and then collapse . . .

I think you need to accept that they—the blue finger day was a disaster, and you need to have new elections. Probably a good idea to have new elections in Iraq right now while the troop surge is still in place. Then, after that happens, you would have a new leader emerge, hopefully with some enhanced powers, and then really change the rules of the game. . .

MR. RUSSERT: Tom Ricks and Michael Gordon, you cover the Pentagon, both in an extraordinary way. You’ve heard all the testimony, all the reports that the military is being strained terribly by the war in Iraq. Do you expect that there will be significant troop withdrawals recommended by the leadership in the Pentagon for 2008?

MR. RICKS: Yes. If things go beautifully, better than expected, you’ll see troop drawdowns beginning by April of next year. If things go horribly, you know, much worse than they are now, you’re going to see troop drawdowns beginning in April of next year. They’re going to come down by about one brigade, say about 5,000 troops a month, from April to October of next year. The question is, after October, how far—how much further do you go below 130,000? And then what becomes the mission of the troops that remain?

MR. RUSSERT: Michael:

MR. GORDON: Well, the natural life of the surge, if you were to do nothing and just let it run its course, would be around March or April. Because at that point the troop levels in Iraq need to—will decrease unless they extend the tours further, which they’re—have already ruled out doing, going beyond 15 months. . .

MR. RUSSERT: Richard Engel, is an all-out civil war inevitable in Iraq?

MR. ENGEL: Absolutely. It is going on right now, but it’s just contained. You have so many American forces that are keeping the lid on this civil war, but Iraqis are, are fighting. And you pull them back, it’s just going to come right up to the forefront.

And going back to, to their points, if you pull back the troops, the troops themselves are going to be furious. They have done so much and worked so hard and sacrificed so much that if you start pulling them back because of political debates and domestic pressure in the United States, they’re going to be livid. They’re not going to thank the Americans, and they’re probably going to end up blaming Democrats, who said, “We never got a chance to complete the mission and all of our hard work hasn’t been accomplished.” So I think there’s a real risk if you draw them—draw the troops down and don’t give them a new mission that they’re going to feel that they were just used and, and, and manipulated. . . .

But: http://mediamatters.org/items/200708260004
[Matthew Gertz] Neither Russert nor the other members of the panel -- Washington Post military correspondent Thomas Ricks and New York Times chief military correspondent Michael Gordon -- mentioned recent reports indicating that some members of the military would not be opposed to drawing down the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. . . Further, on August 25, the Los Angeles Times reported that many soldiers are "becoming vocal about their frustration over longer deployments and a taxing mission that keeps many living in dangerous and uncomfortably austere conditions. Some say two wars are being fought here: the one the enlisted men see, and the one that senior officers and politicians want the world to see."

How the war is being fought: must-see video

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/26/losing-afghanistan/
[The Guardian] A nine-minute clip on YouTube offers a terrifying glimpse of the way the war is being won and lost in southern Afghanistan. The video, filmed from the belly of a Spectre AC-130 gunship, shows an attack on an alleged insurgent camp, rendered through a quivering black and white screen and the pilot’s mechanical monotone.

The crosshairs wander across a cluster of buildings, seeking out targets and shredding them to pieces. The bombs blitz mud dwellings, turn vehicles into fireballs, and mow down dozens of small white figures - people - as they sprint hopeless for their lives. “You are clear to level the building,” says the voice. The only sop to local sensitivities is that the Americans avoid hitting a mosque. . . .

Progress!

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/27/kids/index.html
[Tim Grieve] The Los Angeles Times reports this morning that "child fighters" -- some as young as 11 -- are now playing "a significant and growing role in kidnappings, killings and roadside bombings" in Iraq.

The U.S. military says it's a sign that the "surge" is working. Here's Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the U.S. commander of detainee operations in Iraq: "As our operations have increased, al-Qaida [in Iraq] and others have used more minors in the fight against us, and in the process we have detained more and more juveniles."

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/27/61225/9929

But WE’RE not desperate, huh-uh

http://www.slate.com/id/2172853/fr/rss/
[Daniel Politi] The Post says some worry the increased focus on filling this year's recruiting goals will leave the Army scrambling next year as it will have to start basically from scratch. And, of course, there are the concerns that those who sign up are doing it for the wrong reasons and that all this further illustrates how the Army has lowered its standards. "My sense is that right now, they're willing to take anybody who is willing to walk in the door and ship by Sept. 30," an expert tells the Post.

More on the Pentagon “spin room” – and the man behind it

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/cover-band-by-digby-you-can-tell-its.html
[Harper’s] Dorrance Smith, a former ABC News producer, has been close to Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld since the Ford Administration. Which probably explains why the Bush Administration picked him to be assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

In November 2005, shortly after President Bush nominated him for the post, Smith wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal claiming American television networks—including Fox News—had an “ongoing relationship” with the pan-Arab news network Al-Jazeera. . . . [read on!]

Visions of the future: what happened in Basra when the British withdrew?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/26/114323/640

Setting up an “inevitable” conflict with Iran (thanks to Dick W. for the link)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18235.htm

How Bush blew the search for Bin Laden

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20430170/site/newsweek/page/0/

It’s what they do . . .

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/08/25/military_cites_risk_of_abuse_by_cia/
Top military lawyers have told senators that President Bush's new rules for CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists could allow abuses that violate the Geneva Conventions, according to Senate and military officials. . . .

The kind of people they are: of course conservatives will rush to distance themselves from gun-toting Ted Nugent’s vicious and disgusting threats against Obama, Clinton, etc. . . . right?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/civility-by-digby-im-sure-most-of-you.html

The current state of the Republican field for President

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1008

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:49 AM

 
BEST-CASE SCENARIOS

Just a rumor, but. . . .

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2007/8/24/maybe-trading-up-soon-at-justice.html
The buzz among top Bushies is that beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales finally plans to depart and will be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Why Chertoff? Officials say he's got fans on Capitol Hill, is untouched by the Justice prosecutor scandal, and has more experience than Gonzales did, having served as a federal judge and assistant attorney general. . . .

Bush’s propaganda “surge” – doesn’t it just tell you everything about how these people have run the war?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/pentagon_setting_up_war_inform.php
[AP] For the Pentagon, getting out Iraq information will now include a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Iraq Communications Desk that will pump out data from Baghdad _ serving as what could be considered a campaign war room. . . .

The Pentagon dismissed suggestions that the communications desk will be a message machine or propaganda tool, and instead said it is being set up to gather and distribute information from eight time zones away in a more efficient and timely manner.

"I would not characterize it as a war room," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Friday. "It's far less sinister than that. It's more like a library."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051580.php
[Steve Benen] Fine. Here's a fairly straightforward test: will the "Iraq Communications Desk" be just as diligent in publicizing discouraging news as it is putting a positive spin on developments on the ground? Will it back up assertions with data that is open to public scrutiny? Will it steer clear of White House-approved political rhetoric?

If the answer is "yes," it's a helpful public resource. If "no," it's a propaganda tool. Time well tell.

The check is in the mail

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2437053420070825
President George W. Bush, faced with growing calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, pleaded with Americans on Saturday for patience . . .

Is the “overall reduction in violence” real? It’s hard to know

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003631296
[AP] This year's U.S. troop buildup has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, but the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago. . . .

Brig. Gen. Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said violence in Iraq “has continued to decline and is at the lowest level since June 2006.''

He offered no statistics to back his claim. . .

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/25/late-night-and-then-the-time-will-come-when-you-add-up-the-numbers/
[Ilan Goldenberg] O’Hanlon’s piece in the Wapo today points to a significant reduction in sectarian violence. But as Matt points out the U.S. military won’t actually verify those numbers or show any proof.

In fact getting access to any kind of civilian casualty number has grown much more difficult in the past year. The most reliable source for civilian casualty estimates, the UN, has not been allowed access to the data since the start of 2007. The Iraqi government was mad because it thought the UN’s numbers were too high so it stopped sharing the data.

There are also numerous reports of underreporting of civilian casualties inside Iraq.

Even more damning is the fact that just last August the military and the Bush Administration specifically underreported civilian deaths in an attempt to tout the success of the original Baghdad security operation. An accusation that was confirmed by the Iraq Study Group.

A drop in civilian casualties would be great news. I just wish someone who doesn’t have a vested interest in reporting that news could actually verify those numbers. . . [read on!]

Best-case scenarios

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003852550_bushiraq25.html
[McClatchy] One way to look at the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq released this week is to review what it describes as the best-case scenario.

In that scenario, Iraq's security will improve modestly over the next six to 12 months, but violence will remain high. The U.S.-backed government will grow more fragile and remain unable to govern. Shiite and Sunni Muslims will continue to feud. All sides will position themselves for an eventual American departure.

In Iraq, best-case scenarios rarely, if ever, have come to pass. . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011944.php
[Matt Yglesias] It really is striking how un-optimistic the more optimistic views of Iraq are when you get down to it. . . . [read on!]

Support the troops: bring them home!

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12663.html

John Warner (R-VA), who had the temerity to suggest a troop reduction BEFORE the Bush gang was ready to suggest a troop reduction, gets the usual treatment

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12661.html

Gen. Peter Pace now denies his recommendation to Bush about cutting troop levels in half

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/do-wild-kabuki-by-digby-oh-how.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/listening-to-th.html
[Mimi Katz] One of Bush's standard lines is that Iraq policy shouldn't be made by politicians in Washington (other than him) and that he will "listen to the Generals." Of course this isn't true . . .

Blogs are imperfect news sources, to be sure – but every now and then we are reminded why they serve as an important corrective to the mainstream media

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/25/133411/233

Traitors. TRAITORS!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20430153/
[AP] One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to report corruption in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been vilified, fired and demoted.

Or worse. . . . [read on!]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051579.php
[Steve Benen] Why has waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption flourished over the last several years in Iraq? This might have something to do with it.

Of particular interest, the AP noted that whistleblowers are offered an avenue under the federal False Claims Act to file what's called a "qui tam" lawsuit, which allows private citizens to sue on the government's behalf. (The policy was developed under Lincoln to help root out corrupt contractors selling defective products to the Union Army.)

The Justice Department has the option of signing onto these lawsuits, 12 of which have been filed dealing with alleged Iraq reconstruction abuse since 2004. To date, how many qui tam suits have the Bush administration endorsed? Zero.

Opium sales way up, profits go the Taliban

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26heroin.html
“I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy,” said William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan . . .

At what price?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402256.html
The government's terrorist screening database flagged Americans and foreigners as suspected terrorists almost 20,000 times last year. But only a small fraction of those questioned were arrested or denied entry into the United States, raising concerns among critics about privacy and the list's effectiveness. . .

Few specifics are known about how the system operates, how many people are detained or turned back from borders, or the criteria used to identify suspects. The government will not discuss cases, nor will it confirm whether an individual's name is on its list. . .

How they talk when nobody else is around

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12662.html
[The Guardian] The speech was aimed primarily at what White House officials privately describe as the “defeatocrats”, the Democratic Congressmen trying to push Mr Bush into an early withdrawal.

[Steve Benen] In private, presidential aides walk around the White House referring to “defeatocrats”? Seriously?

West Wing conversations now resemble Free Republic threads? I vaguely recall a time in which the political establishment perceived Bush’s election as the return of the “grown ups.” It’s rather amusing, in retrospect.

OK, moral equivalence time:

Exhibit A: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/25/because-democrats-are-like-serial-killers/
[Jane Hamsher] Since Friday, Blue America candidate Darcy Burner [D-WA] has raised over $57,000 toward her $100,000 goal to offset George Bush’s fundraising visit for her opponent, Dave Reichert.

Natasha over at Pacific Views catches Reichert in the YouTube above flashing his Republican charm and “civility”:

“And, oh yeah, did you catch that at the end? He compares Democrats to Gary Ridgway. A serial killer who pled guilty to the murders of nearly 50 women over two decades. . . .

Reichert says, “And in America, how hard is it for me to put my arm around a Democrat, if I could put my arm around Gary Ridgway? . . .

[NB: Yeah, Democrats are almost as bad as serial killers. Meanwhile. . . .]

Exhibit B: http://sideshow.me.uk/saug07.htm#08251705
[Avdeon Carol] [I]s Ted Nugent threatening the lives of Obama and Clinton? Maybe not, but I'm sure liberal bloggers are much nastier (because I read it in a "respectable" newspaper). . . .

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/In_obscenitylaced_tirade_Ted_Nugent_jokes_0824.html
"Obama, he's a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun," Nugent said in front of a screaming crowd as he brandishes what appear to be two large assault rifles. . .

"Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch," Nugent said, brandishing his weapons.

He also went after Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), suggesting she, too, might like to "suck on my machine gun." Nugent's tirade against California's other Democratic Senator, Diane Feinstein, is too garbled to transcribe, but one can hear Nugent call her a "whore."

Why I like John Edwards

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/08/26/quote_of_the_day.html
"I don’t have a Karl Rove. I don’t want a Karl Rove."

In the 2000 campaign, the national media caught the meme that Gore was a “serial exaggerator.” Once it took root, even innocent comments were pumped up as proof that Gore was a braggart and a windbag. Why has Rudy Giuliani been sheltered from the same characterization?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12664.html

More: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/rudys-frontrunn.html

Bill Kristol dives off the deep end

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/045195.php
[A]ll honor to George W. Bush for following in Reagan's footsteps, grasping the nettle, and confronting the real lessons and consequences of Vietnam. The liberal media and the PC academics are horrified. All the better.

As the left shudders, Bush leads. . . . [read on]

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_26_archive.html#1880162970613774807
NBC’s “Meet the Press,” — Guests: Sen. John Warner, Virginia Republican; Lance Armstrong, cyclist and activist.

“Fox News Sunday,” — Guests: Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican; Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat; former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican.

ABC’s “This Week,” — Guests: Sen. Jim Webb, Virginia Democrat; Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican; former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers.

CBS’ “Face the Nation,” — Guests: Former senator John Edwards, North Carolina Democrat, and his wife, Elizabeth Edwards.

CNN’s “Late Edition,” Former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat; Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican; Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, No. 2 U.S. military commander in Iraq; former senator Max Cleland, Georgia Democrat.

Bonus item: Rate your blog!

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/blogging_/2007/08/adults_only.php

PBD’s ranking: "Restricted"

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:09 AM

 
COURSE CORRECTION?

Let’s see, John Warner (R-VA) recommends a piddly little troop reduction of 5000. The reaction?

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/23/warner_calls_for_withdrawal_of_only_5000_troops_and_wont_do_anything
GOP Senator John Warner of Virginia gave a press conference today that is getting lots of attention . . .

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
The U.S. military commander in one of the more troubled areas of Iraq said Friday that embracing Sen. John Warner's call to begin troop withdrawals before the end of the year would be "a giant step backward." . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/warners_iraq_proposal_roils_wh.php
[AP] Sen. John Warner's suggestion that some troops leave Iraq by the end of the year has roiled the White House, with administration officials saying they've asked the influential Republican to clarify that he has not broken politically with President Bush.

But Warner said Friday he stands by his remarks and that he took no issue with how his views have been characterized. . . .

General Peter Pace, on the other hand, outgoing Joint Chiefs head, says we need to cut troops in HALF. So, is he now a cut-and-run defeatist too – or will his proposal be treated differently?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pace24aug24,0,43964.story?coll=la-home-center
Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns by the Joint Chiefs that keeping well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 will severely strain the military. This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, calling for the U.S. to maintain higher troop levels for 2008 and beyond. . . .

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003987.php
[Spencer Ackerman] The debate now inside the Pentagon is over what to do after the spring, when, as Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, the ground forces commander in Iraq, acknowledged last week, a troop reduction is inevitable for readiness reasons. Odierno and others in Iraq believe only the nearly-30,000 surge forces should be withdrawn. Pace will tell President Bush -- apparently reflecting the beliefs of the chiefs of the military services -- that vastly more troops need to leave Iraq if the U.S. is to be prepared for other military threats. . .

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/pace-and-joint-chiefs-will-tell-bush-to.html
[Joe Sudbay] Bush claims to take advice from the military, but that's never been true. His hand-picked guy on the ground, Petraeus, will do exactly what Bush wants next month. And, don't think for a minute that Bush staffers aren't writing the September report. It's just another political document for them.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12648.html
[Steve Benen] Now, James Joyner argues, accurately, that this talk is, in general, not entirely new. Indeed, Defense Secretary Bob Gates talked this week about the “possibility” of a troop drawdown.

But I think Pace’s comments are more significant than James makes them out to be.

For one thing, the entire Bush administration-led establishment is rallying right now behind the notion that the status quo is not only effective, but practically sacrosanct. Freedom’s Watch’s ads, for example, characterize troop withdrawal — any troop withdrawal — as practically inviting another 9/11. We’re this close to seeing our dreams come true in Iraq, they say, so there’s no reason to change anything. . . .

As a practical matter, I don’t doubt that Bush would be willing to ignore the generals; he’s already done so before. For that matter, Petraeus may not have any qualms at all at distancing himself from the Joint Chiefs.

But as far as the politics is concerned, Pace’s perspective is not at all what the White House wanted to hear. . .

The WH response?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/24/pace/index.html
[Tim Grieve] Will the president take either proposal seriously? Don't count on it. Asked about the Warner proposal Thursday, White House deputy press secretary Gordon Johndroe chided reporters for jumping the gun. "There is a clear process that has been laid out -- President Bush has talked about it numerous times -- and that is, we are to hear from the commanders on the ground and the ambassador. We'll hear from ambassador Crocker. We will hear from Gen. Petraeus. They will make the recommendations. They will testify in front of Congress. And then the president will make a report to Congress."

Johndroe said that it would be "inappropriate" for him to say what options the president might consider once "the process" is over. . .

Just in case you were wondering. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402039.html
Despite political pressure for a change of course in Iraq, the White House hopes to keep in place its existing military strategy and troop levels there after the mid-September report from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, administration officials said. . . .

The ducks appear to be lining up to replace Maliki with our old friend (and CIA pal) Iyad Allawi

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4611
[Sam Boyd] Over at TPMMuckraker Spencer Ackerman has the goods on the $300,000 lobbying contract Iyad Allawi gave to a prominent DC firm in return for its help in building support for installing him, once again, as prime minister of Iraq (because it went so well the first time). . . .

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003989.php
[Spencer Ackerman] Christina Davidson at IraqSlogger, who broke the story that influential GOP lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers are promoting Iraqi parliamentarian Ayad Allawi to be the new prime minister, has another scoop. On Monday, BGR president Robert Blackwill -- President Bush's former Iraq coordinator at the White House -- signed a contract with Allawi worth $300,000 over six months to provide "strategic counsel" for the would-be-premier "before the US Government, Congress, media and others." . . . [read on]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003990.php
[Spencer Ackerman] How does Allawi pay for his lucrative contract with GOP lobbying powerhouse Barbour Griffith & Rogers? The obvious guess is that his old buddies at the CIA pay for him. But he may not need the agency's cash. One member of his coterie is suspected of participating in what an Iraqi public-corruption judge calls "possibly the largest robbery in the world" -- the theft of approximately $1 billion from the Iraqi treasury. . . . [read on]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003991.php
[Spencer Ackerman] Alleged billion dollar thief Hazem Shaalan isn't Ayad Allawi's only infamous friend. Allawi is also a close ally of the head of Iraq's largest intelligence service -- a man who takes his billions from Washington, not Baghdad.

On the ground in Baghdad is a sprawling intelligence operation called the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, or INIS. Only INIS isn't really "National" at all. To the great chagrin of the Maliki government, it's financed and controlled by the CIA. And its boss is a longtime Allawi friend and CIA asset, Muhammed Shahwani.

Who's Muhammed Shahwani? He's a former Iraqi military officer who, along with Allawi, helped plot a botched coup against Saddam Hussein in 1996. . . . [read on]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/24/zelikow/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] How our seedy, corrupt Washington establishment operates . . .

Allawi hires the most powerful GOP firm in the country, with former top Bush officials as partners, and almost immediately, the key Op-Ed pages of our nation's newspapers open up to him and all of official Washington, beginning with the President, changes course. Suddenly, key figures in both parties begin calling for Maliki to be replaced.

Most extraordinary of all is how deceitful this whole process is. As CNN reports: "The lobbying firm boasts the services of two onetime foreign policy hands of President Bush: Ambassador Robert Blackwill, the former Deputy National Security Adviser, and Philip Zelikow, former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

But currently, Zelikow in particular runs around Washington holding himself out -- and being held out -- as an Expert on the Future of Iraq while concealing that his firm is being paid by Allawi to undermine Maliki. As but one example, Zelikow was a featured Iraq Expert on ABC News with Charles Gibson three nights ago, on Monday. . . . [read on!]

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/040935.php

It begins. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401449.html
Escalating a political crisis that has paralyzed the Iraqi government, three secular cabinet members will formally resign Saturday, according to a senior member of the group.

The Iraqi National List, an umbrella group of several political parties composed of secular Sunnis and Shiites, had boycotted cabinet meetings since Aug. 7 because of frustrations with what they saw as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's divisive leadership style. The party, headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, will now submit the official resignations . . .

More: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/24/late-nite-fdl-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/

Who is Allawi? Some background

http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/wakeup000.html
[NYT, July 6, 2004] Why did the U.S. choose Iyad Al Alawi as the Prime minister of the Iraqi interim government? A question that is surely raised in everybody's mind. . . .

Al Alawi, 59 years old, who was trained as a neurologist, is a Shia Muslim who was a member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party in Iraq and in Britain, where he was a student leader with links to Iraqi intelligence. Later on he moved into opposition to the Iraqi leader and reportedly established a connection with the British security services. . . . He was charming, intelligent and talented in impressing Western intelligence agencies. After the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraq National Accord (INA) party, which he helped to establish, became one of the building blocks for the Iraqi opposition in exile. . . . In the mid-1990s the INA claimed to have extensive contacts in the Iraqi officer corps. Iyad Al Alawi started moving from the orbit of MI6 to the CIA. He persuaded his new masters that he was in a position to organize a military coup in Baghdad. . . .

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A61979-2003May15

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070813/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqpoliticsallawi;_ylt=AiNU5VTqpw5R9xv9S.u_bfME1vAI

Charles Krauthammer – not only consistently wrong, but one of the most intellectually dishonest conservative pundits (and that’s pretty steep competition!)

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12649.html
[Steve Benen] Krauthammer believes he has stumbled upon an elusive consensus that everyone can embrace: surge good, Maliki bad. Or, as Josh Marshall summarized, “[T]he stars are now aligned for a grand bargain, in which war critics confess to the military success of the surge and warmongers blame everything that has gone wrong on Mr. Maliki.”

Even by Krauthammer standards, this is pretty silly.

What’s more, it appears to be an attempt to buy more time for a policy that hasn’t worked, doesn’t work, and stands no chance of ever working. . . .

Once the Bush administration is finished “replacing” Maliki, we can expect the White House (and the Weekly Standard, and Joe Lieberman’s office) to argue, “Well, we have to give the new Prime Minister time to make a difference.” Come January, they’ll say, “He’s barely started!” Come June, it’ll be, “Our Founding Fathers weren’t expected to establish the United States in less than a year; why are the defeatists so impatient?”

In one sense, Krauthammer’s piece is helpful in telegraphing the next punch. The discussion for the next few weeks is going to go like this:

Bush ally: The surge is working; there have been some military successes.

War critic: The point of the surge was political progress, of which there is none.

Bush ally: Exactly. That’s why we need to replace Maliki. . . .

Maliki is the symptom, not the disease. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/25/world/middleeast/25assess.html
The National Intelligence Estimate released Thursday illustrated convincingly that, despite the troop buildup, Iraq has failed to forge the political reconciliation that could lead to long-term security and economic growth.

What it did not explain, though, is why reconciliation has been so hard to attain. . . .

We knew the day the “surge” was announced that it would be trumpeted as a “success.” We knew that insurgents would scramble away from US-focused hot spots, temporarily reducing the violence in those areas. We knew that the surge would produce some greater stability and security in Baghdad (where most of the reporters are). And we knew (or should have known) that once rebel groups in Iraq thought there was a chance of US withdrawal they would start to plan for the real struggle that will start once we leave. The Sunni militias have turned against Al Qaeda in Iraq not as a result of any US policies or interests, but for their own reasons. And so it has come to pass. . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011937.php
[Kevin Drum] The Anbar Awakening is genuinely good news, but (a) it had nothing to do with the surge, (b) it's happening only in homogeneous Sunni areas, and (c) it involves arming and training Sunni forces who are almost certain to turn against both us and the Shiite central government as soon as they've finished off AQI. Pretending otherwise is simply fraudulent.

More: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/24/withdrawal-responsible-for-success/

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12655.html

What has the surge really accomplished?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/24/BL2007082401038.html
[Dan Froomkin] [I]t appears that the only thing the surge has bought him is time -- nine months or maybe a year, during which he was able to postpone the inevitable.

What has that year cost America -- and Iraq? For starters, a year in Iraq translates to over 1,000 more dead American soldiers; over $100 billion more in direct appropriations; over 15,000 more dead Iraqi civilians; and countless grievous wounds and shattered families both here and there.

In light of the costs, having bought a year of time may not seem like much of an accomplishment. But if Bush can drag things out another year or so, he can wash his hands of the whole mess and leave it for his successor to deal with.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011940.php
[Kevin Drum] The civil war has to end eventually, and George Bush's plan seems to be to hold on and hope that maybe it burns itself out on his watch. You never know, after all. . . [B]ut in any case the final resolution hardly depends on the U.S. presence. The Iraqis are going to do whatever the Iraqis are going to do.

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/040927.php

Moving the goalposts (again)

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/24/bush-surge-goal-posts/
When President Bush announced the escalation on January 10, 2007, he claimed the purpose of adding more troops into Iraq’s civil war was to enable political reconciliation. . .

In a press briefing today, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe disingenuously claimed that the purpose of the surge was simply “to help bring security to Iraq”:

QUESTION: Is it still administration policy that the U.S. commitment in Iraq is not open-ended?

JOHNDROE: I think the president has made it clear that he would eventually like to see the United States in a different configuration in Iraq. There’s no doubt about that. The surge was designed, as we have said repeatedly, to help bring security to Iraq. . . [read on]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/24/134440/405

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12656.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/24/221041/913

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/24/surge/index.html

Meanwhile, on the ground. . . .

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-morale25aug25,0,3144924.story
As military and political leaders prepare to deliver a progress report on the conflict to Congress next month, many soldiers are increasingly disdainful of the happy talk that they say commanders on the ground and White House officials are using in their discussions about the war.

And they're becoming vocal about their frustration over longer deployments and a taxing mission that keeps many living in dangerous and uncomfortably austere conditions. Some say two wars are being fought here: the one the enlisted men see, and the one that senior officers and politicians want the world to see. . . .

Bush’s Vietnam analogy – even the historians he cites don’t agree with him

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12652.html

More: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118792232818807567.html

No, capitalism won’t solve Iraq’s problems

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/4262
[WP] More than a year after the Pentagon launched an ambitious effort to reopen Iraqi factories and persuade U.S. firms to purchase their goods, defense officials acknowledge that the initiative has largely failed because American retailers have shown little interest in buying products made in Iraq. . . [read on]

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402307.html

The Bush gang’s suppression of dissent

http://www.slate.com/id/2172500/?GT1=10346

Hillary’s first really big gaffe?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08242007/news/nationalnews/hill__terror_would_be_gop_boos.htm
"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?' But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world," Clinton told supporters in Concord.

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/policy_failure_good_for_the_go.php
[Matt Yglesias] This is, I think, a disaster . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/040911.php
[Josh Marshall] I agree with Matt on this one. It is extremely important for the Democrats to nominate someone who doesn't think like a loser. And assuming that any failure of the president's anti-terrorism policies will automatically be a political boon for the Republican party means thinking like a loser. . .

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/24/13558/7882
[Big Tent Democrat] For the first time in quite some time, Hillary sounds like the DLC and Mark Penn. This is a huge gaffe. Obama, Edwards and all the rest will pounce on this. . .

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/24/173152/948
[Todd Beeton] With this comment, Clinton is taking her case that she is the candidate most able to counter the right-wing attack machine to its logical conclusion and in so doing reinforces the idea that Republicans ARE better at dealing with terrorism. Democrats, including Clinton herself, have been successful at re-framing people's ideas of the Democratic Party, and as a result Democrats have closed the advantage Republicans typically have on national security (see here and here.) So why she would even go there is beyond me, especially considering the extent to which she's clearly made the case that she's credible both as commander in chief AND as right wing foil.

http://bluehampshire.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1696
[Chris Dodd, D-CT] "Frankly, I find it tasteless to discuss political implications when talking about a potential terrorist attack on the United States."

More: http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/24/happy_hour_roundup

Another reason to respect Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/calif_gov_wary_of_electoralvot.php
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a chilly reception Thursday to a GOP-backed plan to change the way California awards electoral votes in presidential elections _ a proposal critics say could tilt the outcome in favor of Republicans.

"In principle, I don't like to change the rules in the middle of the game," the Republican governor told reporters. . . .

Theocracy watch: ohh, the Christian Right is angry about being classified alongside Muslim and Jewish extremists on CNN’s series “God’s Warriors.” Hey, if the sandal fits. . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/last-nights-gods-warriors-on-cnn.html

Longtime readers know this is a thing for me: Many right-to-lifers are also against birth control – and too many conservative pols who say “life begins at conception” have been playing cute by hinting at sympathies with that group. It’s time to call them on it and force them on record, both because it isn’t unthinkable that one of them might actually try to do something about it – but also because politically this is a perfect wedge issue between radical pro-life theocrats and bourgeois Republicans who would no sooner give up contraception than they would give up lattes. . . especially younger Republicans

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.contraception21aug21,0,7842827.story
The quiet campaign against birth control . . .

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4672
[Ann Friedman] [W]hen the Republican presidential hopefuls speak to a roomful of forced-pregnancy advocates, they are doing everything but declaring their desire for a birth-control ban. These are things they're not saying in interviews with national media, or during the debates. . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12654.html

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/gop-womb-control-patrol.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/24/11429/0449

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011936.php

Bonus item: Tell me why we have national outrage over Don Imus’s racist comments, while Rush Limbaugh says stuff like this every stinkin’ day?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/follow-your-instincts-by-digby.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:07 AM

 
QUAGMIRE

The latest National Intelligence Estimate paints a terrible picture of the state of affairs in Iraq, but refuses to draw the obvious conclusion

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/washington/23cnd-policy.html
The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki will become “more precarious” over the next six months to a year, and while its security forces have improved they are not strong enough to operate without outside help, American intelligence officials said today in a grim new assessment of the situation in Iraq.

“Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively,” a report concluded as it expressed deep doubts that Mr. Maliki’s government can overcome sectarian differences. Implicitly, at least, the report questioned whether Mr. Maliki is willing or able to help the new Iraq become a fully functioning country. . . .

[T]he report said that changing the mission of American and allied troops from going after insurgents to providing combat support for Iraqi forces, “would erode security gains achieved thus far.” . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12640.html
[Steve Benen] In other words, for all the talk about “progress” and “turning the corner,” the reality is just as we’ve feared: Iraq isn’t getting better and there’s no reason to believe it will improve. . . .

This tidbit from the AP report is a real gem:

The estimate says that Iraqi Security Forces, working alongside the United States, have performed “adequately.” However, it says they haven’t shown enough improvement to conduct operations without U.S. and coalition forces and are still reliant on others for key support.

The findings could provide support for the Bush administration’s argument that coalition forces need to stay in Iraq in order to avoid letting security lapse, should they withdraw from certain areas.

Iraqi security forces still can’t operate, which means we should stay to help them. Except, if they could operate, we should still stay because two effective armies are better than one. And if they could kinda sorta operate, well, you get the picture. . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011928.php
[Kevin Drum] Needless to say, this will be used as evidence that we need to stick around. Can't leave while the country is unraveling! If things were getting better, of course, that too would be used as evidence that we need to stick around. Can't leave when we're right on the verge of victory! And what if things weren't getting better or worse? Do I need to tell you?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12634.html
[Steve Benen] So, according to the intelligence, we can stay indefinitely, and get stuck in the middle as Iraq slides deeper into a bloody civil war, or we can leave, and watch Iraq slide deeper into a bloody civil war. . . Sometimes, it’s like living in the Twilight Zone.

The NIE Report: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/nie-iraq-stability/

Maliki’s future?

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/23/analysis_how_bad_is_the_nie_for_maliki

Another Vietnam analogy

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006537.html
[The Pentagon Papers] "The U.S., for its part, was asking Diem to forego independence by accepting the wisdom of the American recommendations for reform. The central question was whether he would--or could--do so. Among those who responded to this question in the negative, J. Kenneth Gaibraith was most trenchant:

'In my completely considered view . . . Diem will not reform administratively or politically in any effective way. That is because he cannot. It is politically naive to expect it. He senses that he cannot let power go because he would be thrown out.'" . . .

The Bush gang’s bizarre (Rovean) decision to seize the Vietnam analogy, and to try to turn it from a synonym for quagmire and failure into an argument for the need for greater determination and sacrifice

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12646.html
[NY Daily News] The White House is effectively telling the reality-based community, “You can’t talk about Vietnam anymore; we’ve claimed it as our own.” . . . [read on!]

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

What doesn’t get said: Bush’s new formulation of “bottom-up reconciliation” (with a crumbling national government) is a formula for partition in Iraq – which, as discussed here and elsewhere, has been the most likely (if not inevitable) outcome all along. And that’s the GOOD news – the alternative is expanded civil war

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/the-nie-iraq-to.html

The conventional wisdom has taken root: Whatever else, at least ‘the surge” has been working to reduce the level of violence and suffering. But guess what? It hasn’t!

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011931.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/world/middleeast/24displaced.html

Why the Joint Chiefs want a troop withdrawal

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011933.php

How many mercenaries are we using in Iraq?

http://ablognamedsue.typepad.com/a_blog_named_sue/2007/08/but-theres-no-d.html

Why we should trust the NIE over the upcoming WH-crafted report in September

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/23/145352/757

Nancy Pelosi wants to change the date of Petraeus’s Sept 11 testimony

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/23/23011/0556

Bush’s straw man

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024840.php
[Josh Marshall] To get a grasp on an argument, to support it or take it apart, requires that it have some grounding in reality or actual fact. But like so much else that comes out of the White House (and has in recent years) what we have here are arguments which either completely disregard most of the relevant facts or just as often build points on the basis of ridiculous strawman arguments.

Like for instance, all those war critics who think that if only US troops would leave Iraq, all the killing would stop.

Have you met these people? You can find people who think the Earth is flat. Heck, you can even find people who don't believe in evolution. Most of them seem to be running for president as Republicans. But I don't think I know anyone who thinks all would be swell in Iraq if only US troops would leave. Indeed, the premise of most current criticism of the war is that we're occupying a country that is in the midst of a slow-motion civil war and that there's nothing we can do to stop it and that we should stop trying.

All that aside though what I find most telling about the current round of arguments is the president's increasingly explicit use of 'stab in the back' rhetoric as the new basis of his policy. . . .

I think the real parallel Bush wants to draw with Vietnam is that a Democratic Congress voted to withdraw troops and, later, cut off funding for the South Vietnamese govt – and so, Bush claims, were responsible for the mass slaughter that followed. Expect to hear this one repeatedly

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/23/13280/7591
[Jeralyn Merritt] June 22, 1971, the United States Senate passed a non-binding resolution urging the withdrawal of all American troops from Vietnam by the end of the year. . . .

June 19, 1973, Congress passes the Case-Church Amendment which "specifically forbade any further US military activity in Southeast Asia, beginning August 15, 1973.". . . .

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051101faessay84604/melvin-r-laird/iraq-learning-the-lessons-of-vietnam.html
[Melvin Laird] During Richard Nixon's first term, when I served as secretary of defense, we withdrew most U.S. forces from Vietnam while building up the South's ability to defend itself. The result was a success -- until Congress snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by cutting off funding for our ally in 1975 . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011927.php

Bush’s reasons for the war keep changing – and now we’re left with the worst of all: we have to stay, no matter how bad it gets, because the alternative is worse

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/19149.html
[Joe Galloway] Year-by-year, month-by-month, now even day-to-day, we're treated to a different rationale for the Iraq war from a different President George W. Bush. . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/040894.php
[Josh Marshall] We are bigger than Iraq.

By that I do not mean we, as America, are bigger or better than Iraq as a country. I mean that that sum of our national existence is not bound up in what happens there. The country will go on. Whatever happens, we'll recover from it. And whatever might happen, there are things that matter much more to this country's future -- like whether we have a functioning military any more, whether our economy is wrecked, whether this country tears itself apart over this catastrophe. But we'll go on and look back at this and judge what happened.

Not so for the president. For him, this is it. He's not bigger than this. His entire legacy as president is bound up in Iraq. Which is another way of saying that his legacy is pretty clearly an irrecoverable shambles. That is why, as the folly of the enterprise becomes more clear, he must continually puff it up into more and more melodramatic and world-historical dimensions. A century long ideological struggle and the like. For the president a one in a thousand shot at some better outcome is well worth it, no matter what the cost. Because at least that's a one in a thousand shot at not ending his presidency with the crushing verdict history now has in store. It's also worth just letting things keep on going as they are forever because, like Micawber, something better might turn up. Going double or nothing by expanding the war into Iran might be worth it too for the same reason. For him, how can it get worse?

And when you boil all this down what it comes down to is that the president now has very different interests than the country he purports to lead.

The Dems respond

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/reid-and-pelosi-on-nie-bushs-surge.html
[Harry Reid] Today's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq confirms what most Americans already know . . .

Joe Lieberman makes himself into a joke

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/lieberman_attac.php
Lieberman Attacks Democrats For Criticizing Maliki -- On Same Day That Report From U.S. Intelligence Services Criticizes Maliki . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/23/17841/4953

“Freedom Watch” wants people to call their congressional reps about the war – but filters who can get through

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/23/142210/205

[NB: “Freedom”?]

Enemies of democracy – and I’m not exaggerating

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4658#017719
[Philip Atkinson] “By elevating popular fancy over truth, Democracy is clearly an enemy of not just truth, but duty and justice, which makes it the worst form of government. President Bush must overcome not just the situation in Iraq, but democratic government. . . .”

How DNI Mike McConnell blackmailed the Democrats

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/retroactive-blackmail-by-digby-glenn.html
[Digby] McConnell seems to be somewhat obsessed with the fact that the private companies must, at all costs, be given immunity for their past cooperation by the government.

It turns out that while McConnell was in the private sector he worked with all these companies. Indeed, he may have been the point man on the outside of the government for the program for all we know. In any case, there's a serious conflict of interest.

This is another example of this government using "you can believe me or you can believe your lyin' eyes" logic. In the Hepting v. AT&T class action case, they have argued over and over again that the existence or non-existence of such programs is a state secret so they cannot confirm or deny anything. The Judge in the case didn't buy it and allowed it to proceed but when it was presented to the 9th Circuit, they again refused to acknowledge even the existence of the program, much less whether any private sector companies were involved and whether the FISA law was followed.

Meanwhile, McConnell made a huge point that private companies should receive retroactive immunity . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/washington/23cnd-nsa.html
The Bush administration has confirmed for the first time that American telecommunications companies played a key role in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after asserting for nearly two years that any role played by the companies was a “state secret.”

The acknowledgment came in an unusual interview that Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, conducted with The El Paso Times in Texas last week in which he discussed a number of sensitive issues that the administration has long insisted were classified and has refused to discuss publicly. . . .

Mr. McConnell’s office refused to say whether the topics he disclosed, including the role of the telecommunication companies and the number of Americans intercepted through court-approved warrants, had been declassified prior to the interview. . . .

More: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/index.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/minimization.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/dont-bother-tel.html

Sound familiar?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12633.html
[McConnell] Q: Even if it’s perception, how do you deal with that? You have to do public relations, I assume.

A: Well, one of the things you do is you talk to reporters. And you give them the facts the best you can. Now part of this is a classified world. The fact we’re doing it this way means that some Americans are going to die, because we do this mission unknown to the bad guys because they’re using a process that we can exploit and the more we talk about it, the more they will go with an alternative means . . . .

Q. So you’re saying that the reporting and the debate in Congress means that some Americans are going to die?

A. That’s what I mean. . . .

http://www.whysanity.net/monos/fewgood.html
[A Few Good Men] Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I think I'm entitled to them.

Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I want the truth!

Jessep: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men . . . I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. . . And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives . . . You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. . . .

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. . . .

Will the Bush gang use this as another “wedge issue” in the fall?

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/23/11165/

Bad, bad news: most people are perfectly happy with expanded govt surveillance

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/learning-to-stop-worrying-and-love-surveillance/index.html

Investigating Rove’s use of govt depts as an arm of the RNC campaign operation: a video montage

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/senate_plans_hearing_on_mine_c.php

Prediction: NO ONE will pick up this story

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070823/1a_lede23_dom.art.htm
At a time when Congress has moved to ban most lobbyist-funded travel, executive-branch officials are routinely accepting trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies' decisions. . .

Ha

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/23/top-gop-leader-bush-empl_n_61535.html
[Washington Times] If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee. . . .

The Bush gang’s lies are so convoluted, they can’t even keep their own web pages consistent

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/time-to-fire-th.html

Hearings to come on mine safety

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/senate_plans_hearing_on_mine_c.php

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/corruption_in_washington_/2007/08/blood_money_in_politics.php

You don’t think the GOP is salivating over the California referendum on changing its electoral formula? Watch their mouthpiece, Fox News

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/23/fox_news_covers_the_california_electoral_vote_initiative_oh_boy

More: http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/13096#comment-234118

I suppose there are conservatives as eager to run against Hillary Clinton as I am to run against Rudy Giuliani – this will be like ducks in a barrel

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12638.html
[Time] The evidence also shows great, gaping weaknesses. Giuliani’s penchant for secrecy, his tendency to value loyalty over merit and his hyperbolic rhetoric are exactly the kinds of instincts that counterterrorism experts say the U.S. can least afford right now. . . .

The New Rudy: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/24/1650/50065

John McCain boldly comes out in favor of off-shore tax havens

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/032862.php

Another Republican to “retire” from Congress, under the cloud of scandal

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/23/goper_rick_renzi_to_retire

The Democratic-controlled House won’t let police investigators access Mark Foley’s (R-FL) computers to look into his “chats” with teenage boys

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/23/fox_news_covers_the_california_electoral_vote_initiative_oh_boy


Bonus item: What’s the difference between Vietnam and Iraq?

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/23/late-nite-fdl-dont-go-there-girl/

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:46 AM

 
THOSE WHO IGNORE HISTORY. . .

[NB: Hello all. This is my annual effort to build the size of PBD’s audience. Please take a moment, if you will, to forward this on to a few people you think might be interested. After a quick rise to a goodly number, the number of readers has plateaued somewhat, and I would like this news to reach more people. Thanks for your help.]

Yesterday’s speech has to go down as one of the low points of the Bush presidency. The man actually has the audacity to compare Iraq to Vietnam, which is ridiculous and misleading on so many points – then actually says that he thinks we should have kept troops in Vietnam EVEN LONGER.

Since he conveniently ducked out of that war himself, it is easy for him to say now that keeping troops there would have eventually won the war. On his view every war can be won if you are willing to kill enough people, spend enough money, and squander enough American lives in the balance. Where to begin in this morass of deception?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003972.php
“U.S. forces have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January” [LIE, read on]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/22/125311/793
One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of Americas withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like "boat people," "re-education camps," and "killing fields." [LIE, read on]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/pol-pot-r-us-by-digby-and-here-i.html
"Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens," Mr Bush said, mentioning reprisals against US allies in Vietnam, the displacement of Vietnamese refugees and the massacres in Cambodia under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge.

[Digby] This is truly amazing. The president of the United States is actually blaming his own country for the Cambodian genocide. Even Normon Podhoretz and his creature Rudy Giuliani haven't had the nerve to make that argument. Old Norm was adamant that the Vietnam Syndrome had helped turn the US into a bunch of wimps, but he didn't actually blame the US for Pol Pot.

For the record, as I'm sure everyone knows, Pol Pot's rise was enabled by the US's war policies not by its withdrawal and it was the newly minted commies who ended the genocide so Bush is, as usual, talking gibberish. . .

“The lesson of Vietnam”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/22/134636/703
[Bush] A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear and the victory must be overwhelming. [Bush address to RNC convention, 8/4/00]

The Republican presidential front-runner also says he learned "the lesson of Vietnam." "Our nation should be slow to engage troops. But when we do so, we must do so with ferocity. We must not go into a conflict unless we go in committed to win. We can never again ask the military to fight a political war," Bush wrote. [AP, 11/15/99, reporting on Bush’s biography A Charge To Keep]

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/bush-was-against-vietnam-before-he-was.html
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, April is turning into the deadliest month in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad, and some people are comparing Iraq to Vietnam and talking about a quagmire. Polls show that support for your policy is declining and that fewer than half Americans now support it. What does that say to you and how do you answer the Vietnam comparison?

THE PRESIDENT: I think the analogy is false. I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy. Look, this is hard work. It's hard to advance freedom in a country that has been strangled by tyranny. And, yet, we must stay the course, because the end result is in our nation's interest. [Press Conference by the President, 4/13/04]

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/08/22/chickenhawk-bush-has-the-gall-to-lecture-americans-on-vietnam/
[Jon Ponder] When you hear the sound bites from George W. Bush’s speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars today in which he compares his botched war in Iraq to the Vietnam war, think about what he was doing while thousands of U.S. soldiers were wounded and killed in the jungles of Southeast Asia. . . .

Bush is saying that Vietnam would have turned out better if only we’d stayed longer. How much longer, George? Over 50,000 U.S. troops were killed there, as many as half of them died during the years you were hung over and driving fighter jets into the ditch. How many more lives — other than your own, of course — were worth sacrificing for a lost cause?

Most stunningly, Bush takes no responsibility for the fact that it was his decision, and his alone, to put us in this quagmire, and that the options we face in exiting, ranging from awful to horrendous, are his fault too. The reality is, the innocent lives that will be lost when we leave Iraq were lost from the outset, from the moment he decided to go in.

Just when you think there is nowhere lower Bush can go to try to scare people into supporting his illegal and misbegotten war, he finds a way to make us even more disgusted with him . . .

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/23/bush-buys-the-neocons-favorite-vietnam-myth/
David Gergen put his finger on the greater blunder of drawing the Vietnam parallel: “If you learned so much from history, Mr. President, how did you get us involved in another quagmire?” Vietnam reminds Americans of the quagmire, a lost war and 58,000 dead Americans. . .

[Scarecrow] [M]ost Americans believe the Vietnam war was a huge mistake, one not worth the terrible costs in lives and treasure, just as they’ve come to believe the same thing about Iraq. But Bush is arguing that America should have continued to waste lives and treasure in Vietnam indefinitely, and he’s making that argument about Vietnam because he wants to make the same argument about Iraq. I think the White House has badly miscalculated on this; the America people have largely made up their minds.

So let the President make the argument — with a little framing help from Democrats — that we should remain bogged down in the Iraq quagmire, indefinitely, with no plan for leaving, ever. Let the voters think about that prospect in the context of the fact that whatever General Petraeus has accomplished in fighting whoever he now claims is the “enemy,” there hasn’t been the slightest progress towards political accommodation at the national level, so America will continue to break its army and lose 100 or so US soldiers every month forever, with no expectation the political situation will ever improve. And remind them our troops are no longer fighting for democracy, just as we gave up on democracy for the Vietnamese. The President cannot “win the war” with this approach, and he certainly can’t win over the American voters. It is a losing strategy in every way. . . .

Has Bush ever READ “The Quiet American”?

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/08/bushs_quiet_american_reference.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/d-in-10th-grade-lit-by-digby-holy-shit.html

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006528.html

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_19_archive.html#3185739437038378462
"Bush is the ultimate Alden Pyle."

General reactions

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/22/BL2007082201461.html
[Dan Froomkin] President Bush boldly entered risky rhetorical territory this morning, likening the war in Iraq to Vietnam.

It's an analogy Bush typically avoids, given how strongly Vietnam is associated in the national consciousness with the concept of quagmire -- and with its lesson about the limits of American military power.

But Bush today tried to turn the Vietnam analogy on its head, arguing that the U.S. withdrawal led to disaster there and emboldened American enemies around the globe. He even went so far as to argue that present-day terrorists like Osama bin Laden are inspired by the turning of American public opinion against the war in Vietnam. . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12627.html
[Steve Benen] The president’s speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ national convention was a real piece of work, with the deception-per-sentence ratio running pretty close to 1:1 . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12621.html
[Steve Benen] Supporters of the war in Vietnam said a withdrawal would lead to Communists dominating Southeast Asia., just as supporters of the war in Iraq argue that a withdrawal now would lead to some kind of al Qaeda caliphate.

That, of course, is probably one of the least persuasive arguments the White House could offer. Predictions predicated on an Asian “domino theory” turned out to be wrong. As Josh Marshall explained, “Going 40 years on, it is not too much to say that virtually none of the predicted negative repercussions of our departure from Vietnam ever came to pass. Asia didn’t go Communist. Our Asian allies didn’t abandon us. Rather, the Vietnamese began to fall out with her Communist allies…. If anything, the clearest lesson of Vietnam would seem to be that there can be a vast hue and cry about the catastrophic effects of disengagement from a failed policy and it can turn out that none of them are true.”

But as it turns out, that’s not even the dumbest part of the president’s new argument.

This is.

The president will also make the argument that withdrawing from Vietnam emboldened today’s terrorists by compromising U.S. credibility, citing a quote from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that the American people would rise against the Iraq war the same way they rose against the war in Vietnam, according to the excerpts. “Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price to American credibility, but the terrorists see things differently,” Bush will say.

Now, this is just silly. Several U.S. administrations pursued a failed strategy in Vietnam, we withdrew U.S. troops, and Osama bin Laden, several decades later, said, “A ha! Now we can attack with impunity”? I don’t think so. It’s an argument that reeks of desperation. This nonsense doesn’t bolster the White House line; it undermines the president’s credibility (even more so).

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/deaths_in_vietnam.php
[Matt Yglesias] Bush is going to give a speech blaming Vietnam War opponents for the fact that lots of Vietnamese people died and/or became refugees. Jim Henley points out the minor fact that "Millions of people died while we were there. A fair proportion of them were people we ourselves killed. In any reckoning of the costs of intervening and withdrawing from Indochina, those people count too. It’s a bizarre, narcissistic blind spot to imagine otherwise."

Indeed, the 1.7 million or so people reckoned to have died during the main American phase of the Vietnam War (1965-1973) outpaces the Cambodian genocide (among other things) by a healthy margin. It's hard to imagine that leaving Vietnam sooner wouldn't have saved lives, whereas staying in Vietnam longer would have gotten even more people killed before ending in the same result. Tons and tons of Iraqi civilians are getting killed or fleeing the country right now; continuing the war indefinitely won't help them.

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024787.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12630.html

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/22/212612/413

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/22/bush_speech/index.html

From the historians

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/22/BL2007082201461.html
[LAT] "Historian Robert Dallek, who has written about the comparisons of Iraq to Vietnam, accused Bush of twisting history. 'It just boggles my mind, the distortions I feel are perpetrated here by the president,' he said in a telephone interview.

"'We were in Vietnam for 10 years. We dropped more bombs on Vietnam than we did in all of World War II in every theater. We lost 58,700 American lives, the second-greatest loss of lives in a foreign conflict. And we couldn't work our will,' he said.

"'What is Bush suggesting? That we didn't fight hard enough, stay long enough? That's nonsense. It's a distortion,' he continued. 'We've been in Iraq longer than we fought in World War II. It's a disaster, and this is a political attempt to lay the blame for the disaster on his opponents. But the disaster is the consequence of going in, not getting out.'" . . .

David Jackson and Matt Kelley write in USA Today: "Vietnam historian Stanley Karnow said Bush is reaching for historical analogies that don't track. 'Vietnam was not a bunch of sectarian groups fighting each other,' as in Iraq, Karnow said. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge toppled a U.S.-backed government.

"'Does he think we should have stayed in Vietnam?' Karnow asked."

From the Democrats

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/22/BL2007082201461_2.html
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . . "criticized Bush's speech, saying the president 'continues to play the American people for fools.'

"'The only relevant analogy of Vietnam to Iraq is this: In Iraq, just as we did in Vietnam, we are clinging to a central government that does not and will not enjoy the support of the people,' he said."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a statement: "President Bush's attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two. Our nation was misled by the Bush Administration in an effort to gain support for the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our history. While the President continues to stay-the-course with his failed strategy in Iraq, paid for by the taxpayers, American lives are being lost and there is still no political solution within the Iraqi government. It is time to change direction in Iraq, and Congress will again work to do so in the fall." . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/washington/22cnd-policy.html
“The president is drawing the wrong lesson from history,” said Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, whose brother John F. Kennedy oversaw some of the early American troop escalations in Vietnam as president. “America lost the war in Vietnam,” Senator Kennedy said, “because our troops were trapped in a distant country we did not understand, supporting a government that lacked sufficient legitimacy with its people.”

More: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002284.php

Bush’s Korea analogy doesn’t work either

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024795.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12629.html

Nor does his Japan analogy

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-bush_tackettaug23,1,2250533.story
"If in fact he is drawing analogies between Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, one wonders what in the world Iraq has to do with it," said Robert Hathaway, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. "The Iraq who we attacked in 2003 had no connection to 9/11." . . .

"This was history written by speechwriters without regard to history," said military analyst Anthony Cordesman. "And I think most military historians will find it painful ... because in basic historical terms the president misstated what happened in Vietnam."

Somewhere Maliki is pulling petals off a flower: “he loves me, he loves me not. . .”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/white_house_refines_take_on_al.php
[AP] The White House on Wednesday sought to dispel the impression left by President Bush that he was distancing himself from embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082200323.html
"Prime Minister Maliki is a good guy, a good man with a difficult job, and I support him," Bush said. . . .

Don’t think! (It just makes your head hurt)

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_19_archive.html#5133525900619333125
[Atrios] As far as I can tell, this is the conventional wisdom of the Iraq debate right now (leaving aside what is true):

1) The surge is "working," and by that we mean that increased military presence has reduced the level of violence in the areas where there is an increased military presence.

2) The surge did not succeed in achieving its actual stated goal of any sort of political success.

3) The surge will start to wind down soon no matter what because the army is incapable of sustaining it.

Progress!

http://www.slate.com/id/2172687
[Daniel Politi] In other Iraq news, the NYT fronts word that militants have taken over control over much of Iraq's electricity. Iraq's electricity minister acknowledged this reality during a news conference that was at least partly meant to tout the reconstruction efforts. When militants take hold of power plants they "can cause the entire system to collapse and bring nationwide blackouts," the NYT explains. The minister said militants sometimes want to cut electricity from Baghdad in order to weaken the government. But they also often refuse to share power simply because they want to keep it for their regions, which is seen as payback for the many years under Saddam Hussein when Baghdad always had power and provinces were left in the dark. . . .

The upcoming NIE

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011926.php
[NYT] "The report says that there's been little political progress to date, and it's very gloomy on the chances for political progress in the future," said one Congressional official with knowledge of its contents. . .

The report, which was intended to help anticipate events over the next 6 to 12 months, is "more dire in its assessments" than the administration has been in its own internal discussions, according to one senior official who has read it. But the report also warns, as Mr. Bush did on Wednesday, that an early withdrawal would lead to more chaos.

"It doesn't take a policy position," one official said. "But it leaves you with the sense that what we've been doing hasn't been working, but we can't let up, or it'll get worse."

[Kevin Drum] So we can't stay and we can't leave. Terrific. What's worse, we now have a president who's officially decided to take history lessons from Rambo. Turns out we were this close to winning in Vietnam when the Defeatocrats decided to pull the plug. And with that, yet another longtime conservative fantasy makes its way out of the fever swamps and into the public discourse, where we'll all be expected to stroke our chins and pretend to take it seriously for the next week or so.

I need a drink.

http://www.slate.com/id/2172687
[Daniel Politi] This new report, along with the recent criticism of Maliki, seems to be part of an effort by the White House to reduce expectations before the much-awaited progress report in September. "We are entering a period of passing the blame," an expert tells the LAT. . . .

Great article: How Karl Rove lost Iraq

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2007/08/karl-roves-resi.html
[George Packer] Karl Rove’s resignation brought to mind a conversation I had a few weeks ago with an Administration official who genuinely wanted to hear my account of why the Iraq war has gone so badly. In a word, I said, “politics.” At every turn, the White House has tried to use the war, and the larger war on terror, to consolidate power, to reward ideological and political loyalists, to win electoral advantage, to push the Democrats into a corner, to divide the country into patriots and defeatists. President Bush insisted on pursuing a highly partisan domestic agenda rather than unite the country around the war . . .

A contrary view: http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/did_karl_rove_lose_iraq.php

Theocracy watch: whatever you think about the war, this is INSANE

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12628.html
Bush’s Defense Department recently agreed to distribute “freedom packages” to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, as prepared by a fundamentalist Christian ministry called Operation Straight Up (OSU). At this point, sticking the word “freedom” in front of something has become a right-wing cliche, but it’s particularly egregious in this case. . .

OSU’s packages included “Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and the apocalyptic computer game ‘Left Behind: Eternal Forces’ (derived from the series of post-Rapture novels), in which ’soldiers for Christ’ hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers.” By agreeing to distribute these “freedom packages,” the Pentagon seemed to be endorsing the idea that the U.S. military presence in Iraq should include more fundamentalist Christian evangelism. . . [read on]

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/speaking-their-language-by-digby-la.html
[LAT] American military and political officials must, at the very least, have the foresight not to promote crusade rhetoric in the midst of an already religion-tinged war. Many of our enemies in the Mideast already believe that the world is locked in a contest between Christianity and Islam. . . [read on]

“Support the troops!”

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/chimpy-forgot-t.html
[AP] The Pentagon will fall far short of its goal of sending 3,500 lifesaving armored vehicles to Iraq by the end of the year. Instead, officials expect to send about 1,500. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/23/04458/6590

A big “thank you” to Ari Fleischer and the funders of the “Freedom Watch” campaign, designed to browbeat Republicans into supporting Bush’s war

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/open-thank-you-letter-to-ari-fleischer.html

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/22/cya/

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/22/late-nite-fdl-unknown-soldiers/

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006529.html

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/22/214954/741

Bush official: an Iran attack is coming

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C1654188%2C00.html
Strengthening the Administration's case for a strike on Iran, there's a belief among neo-cons that the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] is the one obstacle to a democratic and friendly Iran. They believe that if we were to get rid of the IRGC, the clerics would fall, and our thirty-years war with Iran over. It's another neo-con delusion, but still it informs White House thinking.

And what do we do if just the opposite happens — a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it's not even a consideration. "IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this Administration. There will be an attack on Iran." . . .

More: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-eyuFBrWHs&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffoxattacks%2Ecom%2Firan

One of the things readers chide me for most often is not trashing the Democrats when they deserve it. They often DO deserve it – but that’s not my main purpose in this blog. Still, every now and then, it’s impossible to resist

http://sideshow.me.uk/saug07.htm#08221854
[Avedon Carol] Congress' low approval ratings are a direct result of the fact that the Democratic leadership has pretty much betrayed all those people who went to the polls for them last November by continuing to enable Bush's stunning power-grab and war-mongering. . . [read on]

More: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/21/congress/index.html

Apparently I spoke too soon in giving the American Psychological Association credit for passing a resolution preventing their membership from being involved with torture – apparently the resolution that passed was much weaker than the one they started with (thanks to Matt D. for the link)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070821_psychologists_in_denial_about_torture/

How Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell threatened the Dems into supporting unprecedented new surveillance policies

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/chasing-boogeyman-by-digby-in-case.html
Q. So you're saying that the reporting and the debate in Congress means that some Americans are going to die?

A. That's what I mean. . . .

[NB: So, democracy itself is the problem.]

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/mcconnell-kills.html
“Now there's a sense that we're doing massive data mining. In fact, what we're doing is surgical. A telephone number is surgical. So, if you know what number, you can select it out” . . . [another lie: read on]

The Bush Justice Dept rules that another WH dept is suddenly exempt from Freedom of Information Act obligations – even though it HAS BEEN responding to them all along

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003969.php

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/22/164548/921

VP’s office asks for an extension on a subpoena it has no intention of obeying anyway

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/mochila.php?articleId=6387050&channelId=73
"We continue our efforts to identify further documents that may be responsive to the subpoena and renew the request made in our letter of Aug. 10, 2007 for an extension of time," Coffin wrote.

Cheney's counsel, however, did not indicate whether the vice president's office was willing to hand the documents without a struggle. The letter did indicate that Cheney would follow the lead of the president if Bush decided to assert executive privilege in refusing to turn over documents.

[NB: But I thought the VP, according to them, WASN’T a part of the Executive?]

Big news: former House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL) won’t run again, and may retire early, opening a possible Democratic pick-up

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/22/182211/024

Mitt Romney, flailing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202863.html
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide.

In an interview with a Nevada television station on Tuesday, Romney said Roe. v. Wade should be abolished and vowed to "let states make their own decision in this regard." On Aug. 6, he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he supports a human life amendment to the Constitution that would protect the unborn.

"I do support the Republican platform, and I do support that being part of the Republican platform, and I'm pro-life," Romney said in the ABC interview, broadcast days before his victory among conservative Iowa voters in the Ames straw poll. . . .

The kind of man he is: Roger Stone, longtime GOP operative

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/nyregion/22cnd-spitzer.html
A prominent political consultant who was accused this week of leaving a threatening, profanity-laced phone message for Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s 83-year-old father announced today that he would resign from his job and no longer work with State Senate Republicans . . .

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024810.php
[Josh Marshall] So what of Stone's accusation that the owner of his apartment building, who is also a Spitzer contributor, arranged for Spitzer operatives to break into Stone's New York City apartment, use his phone and impersonate his voice, in order to set him up to look like he made the call? . . .

Another low point for Fox “News”

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708220006
On Special Report, Brit Hume reported that "[t]he Senate Judiciary Committee's latest deadline for the White House to comply with its subpoena for documents relating to warrantless -- allegedly warrantless wiretaps has come and gone."

[NB: “Allegedly”?!? Even the Bush gang itself has admitted THAT]

Fox seems to have thrown in its lot with Rudy G. – ergo, everyone else must be destroyed

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/22/17513/3349

Bonus item: I hope you can still laugh – this deserves a hearty laugh (thanks to Steve Benen)

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12631.html
[Mark Noonan] It is said — endlessly — on the left that “Bush Lied, People Died!!!!”. Of course, those of us who live in the real world understand that in President Bush we have a nearly uniquely honest President - so honest that it has cost him dear in terms of political power and support. The common refrain of how we just need an honest man in the White House has been answered - and never, I think, has a man been more slandered than President Bush; honesty is hated in large areas of the world. The relentless campaign of lies and half-truths directed against President Bush has taken its toll….

Our saving grace is that this world — this universe, really — was designed for truth to come out. The lies are thick and strong these days, but the truth remains just as a rock, temporarily submerged by a tidal wave…the wave will recede [sic], and the rock will still be there. . . . [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com). I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:52 AM

 
WHO’S ACCOUNTABLE?




The Bush gang finally admits that 9-11 was their fault. Well, that is, uh, not exactly THEIR fault . . .

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007
Former CIA director George Tenet "bears ultimate responsibility" for failing to create a strategic plan to stop al Qaeda prior to 9/ll, according to a review by the CIA's inspector general that was made public today, more than two years after it was written. . .



Bush’s kiss-off

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082100863.html
President Bush acknowledged frustration with the troubled government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday but said it's up to the Iraqi people to decide whether to continue supporting him.

Stopping short of offering an endorsement, Bush said it was not up to the United States to give a verdict on al-Maliki's government. . . .

More: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/21/bush_maliki/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/21/BL2007082100853.html

Maliki returns the favor

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/middleEast/view.bg?articleid=1018445
Iraq’s prime minister lashed out at American criticism, saying Wednesday that no one has a right to put timetables on his elected government.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the U.S. presidential campaign for the recent tough words from the Bush administration and from other American politicians.

"No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people," he said . . . "Those who make such statements are bothered by our visit to Syria. We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere," al-Maliki said.

The Maliki govt is falling apart, but let’s not dwell on the negatives

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_bush_administrations_latest_iraq_dodge
[Spencer Ackerman] Iyad Allawi picked a bad time to make a public plea for the United States to re-anoint him Iraq's prime minister. On Saturday, the Washington Post published an unusual op-ed by Allawi, whom the U.S. tapped in 2004 to be the first post-Coalition Provisional Authority premier, in which he proclaimed that without "change at the top of the Iraqi government" any U.S. withdrawal would end in disaster.

He didn't need to elaborate on who needs to rule Iraq in place of current Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki . . . who's proven to be even more sectarian and incompetent than his predecessor, Ibrahim al Jaafari.

Too bad for Allawi, then, that the Bush administration has a different palliative in mind for Iraq's collapsed (and U.S.-designed) political scene. . . . The new fashion is what's called "bottom-up reconciliation" -- that is, political advances in Iraq's 18 provinces meant to reveal a new spirit of Iraqi brotherhood. Expect to hear a lot about bottom-up reconciliation in next month's congressional testimony from General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. And expect it to be as disingenuous as every other portrayal of political progress in Iraq. . . .

I’m with Big Tent Democrat here – we are no longer calling it the Petraeus Report here, even in “scare quotes.” It’s the Bush Report on Iraq

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/21/151026/355

The surge IS working (domestically and politically)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/21/121652/379

Watch for a deluge of ads to pressure members of Congress (especially Republican members of Congress) to keep backing the war

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/bush-white-house-is-launching-negative.html

Fred Thompson blames Bill Clinton for the fact that the US military is cracking under the demands put upon it by Bush’s wars

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/thompson_us_must_rebuild_milit.php
[AP] The U.S. must rebuild its military to fight global terrorism because leaders "took a holiday" in the 1990s after the end of the Cold War, undeclared presidential candidate Fred Thompson told war veterans Tuesday. . . . "Now we're stretched too thin, and our equipment is wearing out," said Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who is expected to announce a decision soon on whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination. . .

The real cause: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070819/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_out_of_troops;_ylt=AolsR6OFxRSxVJnQK0UMSKeyFz4D
Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring.

The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home or already tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no fresh troops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdad this year, according to interviews and military documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

That presents the Pentagon with several painful choices if the U.S. wants to maintain higher troop levels beyond the spring of 2008:

- Using National Guard units on an accelerated schedule.

- Breaking the military's pledge to keep soldiers in Iraq for no longer than 15 months.

- Breaching a commitment to give soldiers a full year at home before sending them back to war.

For a war-fatigued nation and a Congress bent on bringing troops home, none of those is desirable. . . .

243, and counting. . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12620.html
[Steve Benen] According to data from Brookings, 113 Americans were killed in Iraq in the summer of 2003, 162 in 2004, 217 in 2005, 169 in 2006, and 229 in 2007 (and there are, alas, 9 days left before the end of August).

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html
A helicopter went down in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005. . .

Atrios is right: Why isn’t there ANY coverage of the Iraq war on television?

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_19_archive.html#2302115195353187576

The pressure builds on Bush to attack Iran

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002281.php

Bush’s wider failure in the Middle East

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024755.php

How hard it must be to be George Bush these days

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024722.php
[Josh Marshall] [I]n a conversation with Egyptian democracy activist Saad Ibrahim, the president said, "You're not the only dissident. I too am a dissident in Washington." . . . [read on!]

LONG overdue

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901513.html
The American Psychological Association ruled Sunday that psychologists can no longer be associated with several interrogation techniques that have been used against terrorism detainees at U.S. facilities because the methods are immoral, psychologically damaging and counterproductive in eliciting useful information. . . .

The Defense Dept announces that it is shutting down the infamous “TALON” data base. . . . but, not really

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12617.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/talon-guardian-.html

Cheney’s remarkable list of reasons why he doesn’t have to turn over subpoenaed documents to Congress

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/08/parsing-vice-presidents-letter.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/they-cant-legis.html

So, what IS Pat Leahy going to do about it?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/21/10427/9700

What Stephen Hayes’s kiss-kiss bio of Cheney tells us by omission

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/what-stephen-ha.html

More: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/stephen-hayes-t.html

Can we start talking about the Bush policy failures that helped lead to the Utah mining disaster?

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/21/105357/859

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/connect-the-dots-karl-ro_b_61175.html

Hey, there’s still a lot of coal left down there!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/us/22mine.html
An official at the mine, the Crandall Canyon, said it could be back in business under a new name, after blocking off the area that collapsed on Aug. 6. . . .

Henry Waxman (D-CA) doggedly pursues the latest WH outrage: “Asset Deployment”

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/waxman-demands-answers-on-roves-asset-deployment-teams-2007-08-21.html
Waxman set a deadline of Sept. 7 for the delivery of all documents relating to asset deployment activities, as well as any communication from the White House suggesting scheduling travel, policy announcements or agency grants. Waxman has also requested a list of all events outside Washington in which an agency head appeared with a federal official or candidate from 2003 to 2006.

Democrats are trying to determine whether the administration violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials to use federal resources for campaign purposes. . . .

We had this story a couple of days ago, but now it hits the mainstream press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101662.html
Not that they're worried or anything. But the White House evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any.

A White House manual that came to light recently gives presidential advance staffers extensive instructions in the art of "deterring potential protestors" from President Bush's public appearances around the country. . .

Theocracy watch: look who’s running for governor of Louisiana

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/21/16478/6735

Speaking of Louisiana . . .

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/21/election_central_morning_roundup
[Eric Kleefeld] A new poll of Louisiana by Baton Rouge-based firm Southern Media & Opinion Research finds that Senator David Vitter (R), who was revealed to have patronized prostitutes in the D.C. Madam scandal, has a 66.7% approval rating, and only 22.5% disapproval.

Like any good Republican, Fred Thompson gets his campaign off to an auspicious start by playing cute with the rules, and ending up on the wrong side of the law

http://www.nysun.com/article/60925
[Ryan Sager] Fred Thompson, as you may have heard, is currently not a candidate for president. The former Tennessee senator is technically just "testing the waters" and, as he's wont to say, the waters are pretty warm. However, his coyness could end up costing him — possibly in the neighborhood of seven figures.

A liberal blogger by the comic book-ready name of Lane Hudson has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission pointing out the obvious: While Mr. Thompson claims to be evaluating the prospect of running for president, in reality he's already running. This wouldn't matter terribly, except that it's against the law. By perpetrating this sham, he's abusing a legal status that allows him to conduct certain activities (hiring staff, conducting polling, doing limited fund raising) without the hassle of declaring that he's a candidate or filing regular reports to the FEC. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/21/115112/226

Rudy’s immigration flip-flop

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024734.php

Don’t assume that access to birth control is a right that can’t be taken away – especially if some of the current Republican candidates have their way. As discussed here before, the point is to make this a public issue and force these guys on the record now

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.contraception21aug21,0,7842827.story
At National Right to Life's conference this year, Mitt Romney set out to convince anti-abortion leaders he was their candidate. At the podium, he rattled off his qualifications. To a layman's ears, it sounded pretty standard for abortion politics. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. He supports teaching only abstinence to teens.

But for those trained to hear the subtleties, Mr. Romney was acknowledging something more. He implied an opposition to the birth control pill and a willingness to join in their efforts to scale back access to contraception. There are code phrases to listen for - and for those keeping score, Mr. Romney nailed each one. . . .

Fox News on “The power and influence of the left-wing blogosphere”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpht4sXDhx0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffoxattacks%2Ecom%2Firan

Bonus item: Why you can’t get into Rove’s game – is he attacking Hillary because the Republicans are really afraid of her, or because they WANT the Democrats to nominate her?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708210006
[Fox News] WALLACE: And we're back now with White House strategist Karl Rove.

Looking ahead to the 2008 campaign, you said this week that the Democrats are likely to name a, quote, "tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate, Hillary Clinton." As you said in the first segment -- that no front-runner has ever gone into the primary season with such high negatives.

Here was Clinton's response this week.

CLINTON [video clip]: Today, Karl Rove attacked me again. I feel so lucky that I now am giving them such heartburn.

WALLACE: Her campaign says the more you attack her, the more the Democrats love her. So, why are you helping Hillary Clinton?

ROVE: Didn't know that I was. Don't think that I am.

WALLACE: What does that mean?

ROVE: Exactly that.

WALLACE: In fact, I mean, is there a certain amount of -- don't throw me into the briar patch here -- that you'd actually like to see her as the Democratic candidate?

ROVE: Look, it is going to be what it's going to be. . . .

http://www.thisisawar.com/LaughterPB.htm
[The Princess Bride] VIZZINI -- I'm afraid so. I can't compete with you physically, and you're no match for my brains.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- You're that smart?

VIZZINI -- Let me put it this way: have you ever heard or Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?

THE MAN IN BLACK -- Yes.

VIZZINI -- Morons!

THE MAN IN BLACK -- Really! In that case, I challenge you to a battle of wits.

VIZZINI -- For the princess? To the death? I accept!

THE MAN IN BLACK -- Good, then pour the wine. Inhale this, but do not touch.

VIZZINI -- [Taking the vial from the man in black.] I smell nothing.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- What you do not smell is Iocaine powder. It is odorless, tasteless, and dissolves instantly in liquid and is among the more deadly poisons known to man.

VIZZINI -- Hmmmmmn.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- [Turning his back, and adding the poison to one of the goblets.] All right, where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink - and find out who is right, and who is dead.

VIZZINI -- But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine it from what I know of you. Are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet or his enemies? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you ... But you must have known I was not a great fool; you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- You've made your decision then?

VIZZINI -- [Happily] Not remotely! Because Iocaine comes from Australia. As everyone knows, Australia is entirely peopled with criminals. And criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me. So, I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

VIZZINI -- Wait 'til I get going!! ... Where was I?

THE MAN IN BLACK -- Australia.

VIZZINI -- Yes! Australia! And you must have suspected I would have known the powder's origin, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- You're just stalling now.

VIZZINI -- You'd like to think that, wouldn't you! You've beaten my giant, which means you're exceptionally strong ... so you could have put the poison in your own goblet trusting on your strength to save you, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But, you've also bested my Spaniard, which means you must have studied ... and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal so you would have put the poison as far from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me!

THE MAN IN BLACK -- You're trying to trick me into giving away something. It won't work.

VIZZINI -- It has worked! You've given everything away! I know where the poison is!

THE MAN IN BLACK -- Then make your choice.

VIZZINI -- I will, and I choose ... [pointing behind THE MAN IN BLACK] What in the world can that be?

THE MAN IN BLACK -- [Turning around while VIZZINI switches goblets.] What?! Where?! I don't see anything.

VIZZINI -- Oh, well, I ... I could have sworn I saw something. No matter.

Vizzini laughs.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- What's so funny?

VIZZINI -- I ... I'll tell you in a minute. First, let's drink, me from my glass and you from yours.

They both drink.

THE MAN IN BLACK -- You guessed wrong.

VIZZINI -- You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! YOU FOOL! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is: Never get involved in a land war in Asia!, and only slightly less well known is this: Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

VIZZINI continues to laugh hysterically. Suddenly, he stops and falls right over.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:33 AM

 
PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Of course Gen. Petraeus is going to do everything possible to avoid the appearance that his report is a politicized spin event, right?

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/20/petraeus_to_give_testimony_to_congress_on_iraq_on_sept_11
The White House revealed today that General David Petraeus' testimony before Congress on progress in Iraq has now been scheduled -- and the chosen date just happens to be September 11, the sixth anniversary of the attacks. . .

Here is the test case that tells you how the media and the WH are going to spin the upcoming reports in September – two leading Senators, one Republican, one Democrat, come back from Iraq, saying that while the surge is having some benefits the political situation is hopeless. Predictably, “Bipartisan Support for Bush’s Plan” seems to be the predominant coverage

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/20/warner_and_levin_surge_producing_tangible_results_but_we_are_not_optimistic
[Levin and Warner] While we believe that the "surge" is having measurable results, and has provided a degree of "breathing space" for Iraqi politicians to make the political compromises which are essential for a political solution in Iraq, we are not optimistic about the prospects for those compromises. . . .

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/20/senator_levin_calls_on_iraqi_parliament_to_boot_maliki
[Eric Kleefeld] As we reported earlier today, Senators John Warner and Carl Levin just returned from Iraq. . . This afternoon Levin held a conference call with reporters, and he went even further, making news by calling on the Iraqi parliament to boot Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. . . .

Levin was very harsh towards the Maliki government, calling it "non-functional" and saying it has failed to use the time he's been given by the surge to forge important important political agreements.

"Even those who support the surge would be the first to acknowledge that the purpose of the surge was to give those leaders that opportunity," Levin said. "They have not grasped that opportunity, they have frittered it away."

Although Levin said he would not presume to dictate to the Iraqis how to run their own government, he did take the extraordinary step of saying what he hopes the Iraqis will do about the problem: "So I hope that the Iraqi Assembly, when it reconvenes in a few weeks, will vote the Maliki government out of office, and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and a more unifying prime minister and government." . . .

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/catapulting-puppies-and-horsies-by.html
[CNN] BLITZER: Two influential U.S. senators are home from Iraq, and they're throwing themselves back into the red-hot debate over the war and when to bring the troops home. They're the current and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committees. That would be Democrat Carl Levin and Republican John Warner. Their progress report today is both mixed and provocative to a certain degree.

Let's go to our congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.

What are Levin and Warner saying, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, what they're saying is actually pretty surprising, considering the fact that these are two men who oppose sending more troops to go to Iraq.

What they are saying coming back from this trip to Iraq is that on the military side, the president's strategy is actually having some progress. . . .

[Digby] Today, Carl Levin made some news by calling for the "removal" of Maliki. But that wasn't what led the news on CNN -- it was that he and Warner, "war critics," said the surge was working. . .

More of the same: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/big_news_orgs_i.php
[Greg Sargent] By now you've all almost certainly read yesterday's riveting New York Times Op-ed piece by U.S. troops in Iraq arguing that the belief that the American occupation can win this counterinsurgency is "far fetched."

By any reasonable standard, this should have been big news. A group of soldiers with a first-hand view of the situation stepped forward and publicly proclaimed not just that the prospects for success are "far fetched," but also that the press has been basically misinforming the American people about the situation there. . . .

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/actual-experts.html
[Reuters] More than half of top U.S. foreign policy experts oppose President George W. Bush's troop increase as a strategy for stabilizing Baghdad, saying the plan has harmed U.S. national security . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/20/142152/679

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011907.php

A new NIE on Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21cong.html

Is a coup coming in Iraq?

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/coup_who.php

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/i_wanna_be_your_nguyen_khan.php

91%

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12604.html
[Steve Benen] The Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy, an influential journal published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, launched an interesting project a year ago. CAP and FP asked 100 leading American foreign-policy analysts, from both sides of the aisle, for their perspectives on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, Iraq, and counter-terrorism.

The participants included some serious heavy-hitters, including a former secretary of state, former heads of the CIA and NSA, and prominent members of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment, most of whom served in previous presidential administrations, senior military positions, or both. The result is called “The Terrorism Index.” . . .

The world these experts see today is one that continues to grow more threatening. Fully 91 percent say the world is becoming more dangerous for Americans and the United States. . .

Joe Lieberman, having backed the war in Iraq and shilled for a new war against Iran, now goes for the trifecta

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12600.
The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq — but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda’s road to Iraq through Damascus. . .

Brilliant!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Abu-Ghraib-Jordan.html
A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against the only officer charged with abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison after an investigator acknowledged he failed to read the defendant his rights. . .

Pat Leahy tells the White House, “a deadline is a deadline” on his committee’s subpoena. The WH whines, “gee, we need more time to find a friendly accommodation” (yeah, right)

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003953.php
The original compliance deadline was July 18, but the committee and the White House agreed to an extension after Fielding and chief of staff Josh Bolten called Leahy to say that "thorough collection and review of responsive documents" would take until around August 1. After another week lapsed beyond that, on August 8, Leahy told the White House that August 20 -- today -- is the final deadline. . .

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003957.php
During a press conference this afternoon, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced that the White House had still not responded to the committee's subpoena for documents relating to the legal basis for the warrantless surveillance program. "Time is up," Leahy said, "we've waited long enough." . . .

Asked by a reporter about noise from the White House that it would need certain "accommodations" in turning over documents relating to the surveillance program, Leahy said "the only accommodations we tend to get from the White House are 'do it our way and we'll be happy with you.'"

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/today-on-hold-5.html
MR. JOHNDROE: Mr. Fielding sent a letter to, I believe, Senator Leahy last week outlining why additional time was necessary, I think in part because we didn't -- an August 20th deadline was not in the original request. But I think Mr. Fielding's letter lays out specifically how we're going to work with them and hopefully come to some sort of accommodation. . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12607.html
[Steve Benen] Keep in mind, the White House isn’t claiming executive privilege; it’s not claiming anything. The Senate Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena, the White House has the materials, but they’re having trouble cooperating. . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/20/17138/0252

CHENEY has the subpoenaed documents (but won’t give them up)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001622.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/details-on-chen.html

Cheney has Arlen Specter on a short leash – and is still peddling his “I am not part of the Executive Branch” nonsense

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/20/cheney-leahy-subpoena/
[Pat Leahy] "In fact, we were about to issue subpoenas then and one of the senators came to our meeting and said that the vice president had met with the Republican senators and told them they were not allowed to issue subpoenas.

Not quite sure that’s my understanding of the separation of powers, but it seemed to work at that time. . ."

Leahy also said that while he didn’t receive the requested documents, he did receive “a letter this morning from the Office of the Vice President identifying some documents that would be responsive to the committee’s subpoena.” In the letter, the administration claims the Office of the Vice President is not part of the Executive Office of the President.

Leahy responds, “Well, that’s wrong. … [O]h, incidentally, at least this morning, as I left Vermont, I checked the White House Web site. And even their own Web site, this morning, at least, says that the Executive Office — that the vice president is part of the Executive Office of the President.”

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/documents-from-.html
[Emptywheel] [T]he Senate Judiciary Committee was about to issue subpoenas on the warrantless wiretapping program. And then Cheney told Specter no. And Specter did what Cheney told him to do. Lesson number 383,947 in why Specter is the most pathetic piece of haggis in the Senate. . . [read on]

More: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/documents-from-.html

Do they REALLY think they can turn this issue into a winner?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024701.php
[Josh Marshall] When you're stuck down at 30% approval and down to your last 18 months in office, an administration really has to pick and choose its battles. Only real matters of principle are worth a fight. And the Bush administration has found one -- resisting state efforts to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program to more middle income families.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/11474.html
[Steve Benen] Lawmakers are moving towards passing a bi-partisan measure to extend coverage for about 4 million U.S. children, and late last week, the White House made it crystal clear: Bush will veto the bill because it conflicts with the president’s philosophy. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082002159.html
The Bush administration, engaged in a battle with Congress over whether a popular children's health insurance program should be expanded, has announced new policies that will make it harder for states to insure all but the lowest-income children. . . .

More: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/guests/s_522824.html

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12609.html

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/21/bush-to-kids-no-more-public-health-care/

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/20/21132/7207

Even the Bush-friendly WP editorial page has seen enough of Alberto Gonzales’s “despicable” and “disgraceful” performance

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901300_pf.html
HOW MANY more times will Alberto R. Gonzales's credibility have to be shredded before his own sense of decency compels him to step down?

If Mr. Gonzales were merely the victim of partisan sniping, the damage to his credibility wouldn't be as substantial, his effectiveness not as diminished -- and we wouldn't be calling for his ouster. But his word and his judgment have been questioned countless times by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and, perhaps more damning, by Republican appointees who worked with him in the Bush administration.

Now comes more information to contradict Mr. Gonzales. The source: none other than Robert S. Mueller III, director of the FBI. . .

In July, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Gonzales defended the visit by saying that he did not "intend to get any approval from General Ashcroft if in fact he wasn't fully competent to make that decision." He described Mr. Ashcroft as "lucid" during the visit.

What do Mr. Mueller's notes show about Mr. Ashcroft's condition that evening? "Saw AG. Janet Ashcroft in the room. AG in chair; is feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed."

Trying to take advantage of a hospitalized man is despicable. That the behavior was exhibited by the future attorney general in an effort to circumvent the chain of command to get approval for a surveillance program the administration's top lawyers had already said was unacceptable is nothing less than disgraceful.

One less really, really bad guy at the DOJ

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003959.php
Bradley Schlozman, a former Justice Department official who was at the center of the U.S. attorneys scandal and is under investigation by the Departments inspector general for his alleged efforts to politicize the Civil Rights Division, has finally left his post at the Department. . .

Was Karl Rove’s resignation one step ahead of Scott Bloch’s (Office of Special Counsel) investigation?

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=what_really_brought_rove_down

How Rove turned Bush into a President

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081807B.shtml

More: http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/bushs-brain.html

Good Karl, keep talking about Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security – it makes you look SO smart

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12605.html

Why is Rove attacking Hillary Clinton? Does he actually want her to be the nominee, or not?

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/08/20/roves_reverse_psychology.html

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12602.html

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4622

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/20/BL2007082000872.html

Rove, protector of the Constitution

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4621

Rove’s role in the poisoning of US politics

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12596.html

Rove: so wrong, so often

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/20/tell-us-oh-wise-one/

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/nostalgia-act-by-digby-one-of-things.html

The questions Rove wasn’t asked during his Sunday interviews

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708200002

Gee, you mean you CAN’T rewrite legislation after it's already been voted on to add money for your pet projects? Why didn’t someone tell me?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003951.php
[Laura McGann] It looks like Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) $10 million Coconut Road earmark has roped him into another FBI investigation, McClatchy reports.

Young slipped the money into a 2005 transportation bill just days after a real estate developer, Daniel Aronoff held a fundraiser in Florida that fetched Young $40,000 in campaign contributions. . .

Fred Thompson, not ready for prime time

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12606.html

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/20/i-guess-we-wont-call-him-the-decider/

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/20/184823/880

THAT’S for sure

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024662.php
Fox News spokesman justifies Sean Hannity's fundraiser for Rudy Giuliani as follows: "Sean is not a journalist." . . .

Michael Skube, the journalism prof who published an attack on blogs, while admitting that he didn’t actually read some of the blogs referred to in his article, has been making a habit of this sort of sloppy writing (thanks to Atrios for the link)

http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2005/12/this_is_how_a_p.html

More: http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_19_archive.html#6630180436040950482

Bonus item: Personal space

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/calderon-gets-t.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:59 AM

 
NICE TRY

Rove visits the Sunday talk shows, and performs with all the bluster, arrogance, b.s., and condescending refusal to answer questions that we have come to expect

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/19/rove-nice-try/
WALLACE: Why did you push to fire some U.S. attorneys in the president’s second term?

ROVE: Nice try. . .

WALLACE: What do you think of Joe Wilson?

ROVE: I’m not going to comment. Nice try. . .

WALLACE: When was the first time you told the president [about leaking Plame’s identity]?

ROVE: I’m not going to — again, nice try. . . [read on]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024642.php
[Karl Rove] "What I did say to one reporter was, I've heard that, too. And what I said to another reporter, off the record, was, in essence, I don't think you ought to be writing about this."

[Matt Cooper] "I think [Rove] was dissembling to put it charitably. To imply that he didn't know about [Plame's identity], or that he heard it in some rumor out in the hallways, is nonsense."

More: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/19/rove-cooper-contradict/

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/20/rove/index.html

Oh yeah, and a big dose of whiny self-pity thrown in as well – such a lovely combination

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/poor-watb-by-digby-poor-karl.html

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/08/20/rove/index.html

The generally lousy performance by the network interviewers

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/19/another-turdblossom-smear/

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/why-you-dont-ha.html

Rove’s role in the 2008 race

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/19/143916/579

More: http://bocaguy.blogspot.com/2007/08/he-got-out-while-getting-was-good.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901418.html

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/sunday-sampler-platter-rove-farewell-tour/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901398.html

The early excuse for the “political briefings” Rove and his staff gave govt depts was to provide a general background on the political landscape, blah blah blah. Now we know that there was DIRECT planning and coordination over the allocation of govt resources to electorally crucial races

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/19/112127/425

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024646.php

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/why-rove-resign.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/tom-davis-on-th.html

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/20/miscalculations/

Moving closer to an attack on Iran

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/19049.html
For the first time, the U.S. military said on Sunday that Iranian soldiers are in Iraq training insurgents to attack American forces. . .

More: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IH18Ak04.html

The failure of Bush’s push for “democracy” around the world – what this analysis misses, of course, is that Bush never really WANTED democracy around the world (or in the U.S. itself, for that matter)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901720.html

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006513.html

It won’t get the play that the O’Hanlon/Pollack piece received, of course, but here’s an important piece by returning troops from the 82nd Airborne

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html
The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. What soldiers call the “battle space” remains the same, with changes only at the margins. It is crowded with actors who do not fit neatly into boxes: Sunni extremists, Al Qaeda terrorists, Shiite militiamen, criminals and armed tribes. This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers’ expense.

A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.

As many grunts will tell you, this is a near-routine event. Reports that a majority of Iraqi Army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric. . . [read on!]

More: http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/al-hashimis-party-will-no-rejoin.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/19/20110/0110

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/_/2007/08/surreal_and_farfetched.php

More on this, please

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901314.html
When years from now historians and government officials reexamine precedents set by the U.S. experience in Iraq, many "firsts" are likely to pop up.

One still playing out is the extraordinarily wide use of private contractors. A Congressional Research Service report published last month titled "Private Security Contractors in Iraq: Background, Legal Status, and Other Issues," puts it this way: "Iraq appears to be the first case where the U.S. government has used private contractors extensively for protecting persons and property in potentially hostile or hostile situations where host country security forces are absent or deficient." . . . [read on]

Jeralyn Merritt gets taken in. Hugh Hewitt, conservative pundit, recommends a “town hall” discussion around the upcoming “Petraeus report,” with a range of participants across the political spectrum (including Merritt, by the way). First of all, Hewitt’s “political spectrum” is overwhelmingly tilted toward the right, but that’s no surprise. The deeper issue is that the reception to the report, already being signaled by Bush and others, is going to be represented as the “Rashomon Effect” – you see what you want to see. Hence critics of the report aren’t going to be painted as evidence-driven skeptics, but as viewers bringing their own biases to the interpretation, counterbalanced by others who trumpet the report as Great News. In such a he said/she said environment (which will undoubtedly be reinforced by the media) there won’t be any leverage for a real critique of the report – which the Bush gang will then represent as broad support for it (why change policy just when things seem to be working?). Hewitt’s proposed “town hall” methodology is precisely designed to reinforce the perception of a Rashomon Effect, and he knows that

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/19/121145/892

The new line is that the Bush gang never asked for expanded powers under the revised FISA laws, but that the Dems were so oblivious and sloppy in rushing to get something passed that they didn’t attend to the implications of the new legislative language

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/19/more-dublicity-in-the-fisa-stampede/

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/19/135233/431

What IS it with these people?

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/gop-moral-values-parade-continues.html
[Pam Spaulding] Case #1: Minnesota State Rep Mark Olsen. The co-sponsor of a (failed) state marriage amendment to ban gays and lesbians from marrying was convicted by a jury for domestic assault. Olsen cried before news cameras last year when he was charged . . .

Case #2: Angelo Cappelli. In St. Petersburg, Florida, he was hailed as a rising GOP star, with an uncanny ability to raise funds, a hot banking job, lots of friends in the local Republican party and he made it a close race for a seat in House District 52. Unfortunately, Angelo's got a little problem. . . .

Case #3: Lewis County (Washington State) prosecutor Liam Michael Golden. As reader Paul Barwick noted, "another Republican can't keep it in his pants." . . .

This is smart: start using birth control as a wedge issue against the Republicans. It’s there for the taking

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/better_questions.php

We all know that Fox News is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, but you’d think they would at least try to pretend otherwise

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12594.html
[NY Daily News] It’s no secret that Sean Hannity, the conservative Fox News commentator, has helped to raise Rudy Giuliani’s profile - but now he’s helped the former mayor raise money, too. . .

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_19_archive.html#8817800179055182789
Hannity's Giuiliani fundraiser isn't the first. He also did so for Rick Santorum. . .

Another stupid analysis and dismissal of the importance of blogs as a source of news and opinion

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-skube19aug19,0,1667466.story
[Michael Skube] Bloggers now are everywhere among us, and no one asks if we don't need more full-throated advocacy on the Internet. The blogosphere is the loudest corner of the Internet, noisy with disputation, manifesto-like postings and an unbecoming hatred of enemies real and imagined. . . .

Responses: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/19/153811/546
[Kagro X] Here's the trouble: "when the Internet was not yet a part of everyday life and bloggers did not exist."

Michael, there never was a time when bloggers did not exist.

There was a time, of course, when blogs did not exist. Because blogs are a specific kind of tool, an application of technology that once did not exist.

There was a time when the blogosphere did not exist. Because its existence, naturally, is dependent on the existence of blogs.

But there never was a time when bloggers did not exist. Because -- again -- bloggers are not an alien race who fell from the heavens on a meteorite. They are people. And in fact, they are the very people for whom journalists have always been writing, and for whom they always will write. We have always been here, and we have always been a vital part -- perhaps the most vital part -- of the journalistic equation. You just didn't count us because you couldn't hear us.

Can you hear us now?

Good.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011898.php

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/better_get_a_new_job.php

Bonus item: And here’s the kicker, c/o Josh Marshall. After trumpeting the virtues of “serious” journalism over “amateur” bloggers, Skube admits this

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/024644.php
I sent Skube an email telling him that I found it hard to believe he was very familiar with TPM if he was including us as examples in a column about the dearth of original reporting in the blogosphere.

Now, I get criticized plenty. And that's fair since I do plenty of criticizing. And I wouldn't raise any of this here if it weren't for what came up in Skube's response.

Not long after I wrote I got a reply: "I didn't put your name into the piece and haven't spent any time on your site. So to that extent I'm happy to give you benefit of the doubt ..."

This seemed more than a little odd since, as I said, he certainly does use me as an example -- along with Sullivan, Matt Yglesias and Kos. So I followed up noting my surprise that he didn't seem to remember what he'd written in his own opinion column on the very day it appeared and that in any case it cut against his credibility somewhat that he wrote about sites he admits he'd never read.

To which I got this response: "I said I did not refer to you in the original. Your name was inserted late by an editor who perhaps thought I needed to cite more examples ... "

And this is from someone who teaches journalism?

Perhaps I'm naive. But it surprises me a great deal that a professor of journalism freely admits that he allows to appear under his own name claims about a publication he concedes he's never read.

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/20/11630/4110

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:59 AM

 
“KREMLIN-LIKE”

The Bush people assured us again and again that the changes to the FISA law were minor little technical fixes, just tweaking the language to be sure that surveillance the govt was doing didn’t run afoul of some niggling little technicality. Of course, that was a lie

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/washington/19fisa.html
Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.

Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns from Democrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate over the meaning of the legislative language. But they said the Democrats were simply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of the legislation. . . .

Yet Bush administration officials have already signaled that, in their view, the president retains his constitutional authority to do whatever it takes to protect the country, regardless of any action Congress takes. At a tense meeting last week with lawyers from a range of private groups active in the wiretapping issue, senior Justice Department officials refused to commit the administration to adhering to the limits laid out in the new legislation and left open the possibility that the president could once again use what they have said in other instances is his constitutional authority to act outside the regulations set by Congress. . . .

More: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/electronic-surv.html

The bad news is that the Iraqi national government has failed to deliver on almost all the benchmarks we expected of them. The good news is. . . . well, the good news is. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081800537.html
[Bush] "As reconciliation occurs in local communities across Iraq," he said, "it will help create the conditions for reconciliation in Baghdad as well." . . .

[NB: Pssst. . . . . NO ONE believes that. And besides, that wasn’t what you promised us when you asked for the “surge” in the first place.]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/18/141920/519
[Bush, Jan. 10, 2007] “The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad...So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them -- five brigades -- will be deployed to Baghdad.

I've made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended...Now is the time to act...To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country's economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis...To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation's political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws, and establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq's constitution.”

The blogs are kicking butt and taking names of the liberals, like Tom Friedman, who enabled Bush’s war back when there was actually still a chance of preventing it

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/tripping-on-crazy-by-digby-atrios-has.html

Why those “fact-finding” missions to Iraq never really find many facts

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12588.html

“A billion bullets a year”

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12584.html

It’s not a good idea to outsource public, governmental responsibilities to private agencies, ESPECIALLY in the defense area, and ESPECIALLY in the intelligence area – but that’s just what they’re doing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081800992.html

The Bush gang’s plan to suppress protest and free speech: they got caught this time

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/feds-pay-80000-over-anti-bush-t-shirts.html

Read it: http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/freespeech/presidential_advance_manual.pdf

More evidence that the political briefings Rove organized for govt depts, on how they could serve the Bush re-election campaign, ran afoul of the law

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081801182.html
The staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush's reelection agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him, according to documents and some of those involved in the effort. . . [read on!]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12582.html
[Steve Benen] It all ties into the Bush gang’s Kremlin-like abuses — using the power of the state as a tool of the ruling party.

In this case, Rove’s office effectively blurred the lines between the RNC and the executive branch of government. Our tax dollars and public agencies were little more than campaign resources for Republicans. . . [read on]

Karl Rove may have succeeded in creating a lasting political realignment in this country: the only problem is, it might favor the Democrats

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701713.html

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/18/23020/9463

Not that you can EVER expect Rove to admit any errors

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/us/19rove.html
[I]n an interview at an IHOP restaurant here, days after he announced his resignation as Mr. Bush’s top political adviser, Mr. Rove defiantly dismissed the rash of fresh critiques that have come his way in the last several days, blaming the Democrats for the divisive tone that has dominated Mr. Bush’s tenure and for which he has frequently taken the blame.

He said he had no regrets over what some even some allies have called his greatest missteps, like his trying and failing to pass a sweeping overhaul of the Social Security system at the start of Mr. Bush’s second term, and the degree to which he seemed to meld partisan politics and official White House policy in his dual duties as a deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush’s top political strategist. . .

Another pointless exercise: Congressman utters explicit, intentional, and unambiguous religious slander; gets caught; says he was misunderstood; and then finally “apologizes.” WHAT is the point of an apology under such circumstances? He didn’t mean that he said? He didn’t say it, in a speech, without realizing what he was saying?

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/why-cant-republicans-ever-truly.html
"He said that he wanted to make sure that Congressman Ellison understood that he meant no harm or disrespect" . . . [read on]

Bush to New Orleans and other flood and hurricane victims: next time YOU pay (thanks to Buzzflash for the link)

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/08/fema_insurance_rules_change_su.html

You have to get deep into the Cunningham/Wilkes case to care about this – but it is pretty fascinating

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006510.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/its-a-small-wor.html

Sunday talk show line-ups (one word: Rove)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081801023.html
FOX NEWS SUNDAY: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Democratic presidential debate in Iowa.

NEWSMAKER0S (C-SPAN): Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.).

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Rove.

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Rove.

LATE EDITION (CNN): Sens. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), Cato Institute senior fellow Stephen Moore and Iraqi parliament member Mahmoud Othman.

Bonus item: The kind of people they are

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12589.html
Naomi Wolf: It gets back to what I was saying earlier about the nature of lying. Let’s not forget that they got us into this war on the basis of a series of lies…. This weaving out of lies was a pretext for an invasion that served their own political purposes. In the wake of the invasion, they were able to terrify the American people, subjugate the American people, drive through a series of laws that dismantled key checks and balances, allowed overreaching executive power, and completely eviscerated what the founders set in place, thus weakening America.

Melanie Morgan: Keep attacking, keep attacking Naomi, because you’re going to look great in a burka. You’re going to look super in a burka. . . [read on]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/18/194942/341

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/023430.php

Watch it: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/17/melanie-morgan-youre-going-to-look-super-in-a-burka/

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:32 AM

 
THOSE STUBBORN FACTS

Now we know that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft wasn’t being told the whole story about the Bush gang’s illegal surveillance program, which he was being asked to approve. This is a huge revelation and sheds new light on the evasive testimony of Alberto Gonzales

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003942.php

http://www.anonymousliberal.com/2007/08/was-doj-kept-in-dark-about-key-aspects.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/activities-and-.html

Heh

http://www.thebluestate.com/2007/08/ashcroft-ordere.html
[Blue State] Notes written by FBI Director Robert Mueller, recently turned over to Congressional investigators, indicate that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was pressured from his hospital bed by Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card to authorize the warrantless eavesdropping program. That part we have known for quite sometime, even though last month Gonzales lied to Congress about it ever happening.

What is particularly interesting about these notes is they show that after the sneaky hospital visit took place, Attorney General Ashcroft ordered his security detail to not let anyone, except family, into his hospital room. . . . [read on]

A new list of Gonzales lies

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003920.php

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/gonzales-perjured-himself-again-to.html

Obstruction: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/17/122518/086

The Bush gang’s response to the blockbuster release of Mueller’s notes?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/17/133736/703
MR. JOHNDROE: I think this issue and this time period and this event have been gone over many, many times, and I just don't have anything to add to it.

Bush’s “Unitary Executive” has largely declared itself unaccountable to the legislative branch of government. Fortunately, they haven’t found a way yet to declare themselves independent of the judiciary

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/31356prs20070817.html
In an unprecedented order, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has required the U.S. government to respond to a request it received last week by the American Civil Liberties Union for orders and legal papers discussing the scope of the government's authority to engage in the secret wiretapping of Americans. According to the FISC's order, the ACLU's request "warrants further briefing," and the government must respond to it by August 31. The court has said that any reply by the ACLU must be filed by September 14. . .

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701923.html

NSA surveillance of internationals may have been used for domestic investigations too

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003947.php

The spin, and the truth

The spin: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070816.html
Q Gordon, is the White House trying to restrict the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker when they come here in mid-September with their latest report on the situation in Iraq?

MR. JOHNDROE: General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will testify to the Congress in both open as well as closed sessions prior to the September 15th report. That has always been our intention. . . . And I think it's unfortunate that anyone would suggest that they would not do that; trying to start a fight where there really isn't one, because this has always been the plan

The truth: http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/17/confirmed_white_house_pushed_for_private_briefings_for_petraeus_dems_say
"Administration officials told senior Congressional staff in early July that they preferred to have Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus testify in closed session before the entire House of Representatives, rather than in open hearings," Weille said in the statement, which constitutes the first on-the-record assertion by Dems that this happened.

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/17/44935/1707

Here’s another “benefit” of the surge – pump up troops to record levels, then grandly announce a “reduction” that really only leaves the numbers about where they were

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003942.php
[AP] The number of U.S. troops in Iraq could jump to 171,000 this fall . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/washington/18military.html
The White House plans to use a report next month assessing progress in Iraq to outline a plan for gradual troop reductions beginning next year . . . Many Republicans have urged Mr. Bush to unveil a new strategy, and even to propose a gradual reduction of American troops to the levels before this year’s troop increase — about 130,000 — or even lower to head off Democratic-led efforts to force the withdrawal of all combat forces by early next year.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html#1982719425397868293
[Atrios] 20 months or so after Iraq Study Group Day, there will be as many troops in Iraq as there were when the report was released. . . [read on]

Dick Cheney tries to spin his own 1994 prediction that an invasion of Iraq would be a catastrophe (as it has in fact turned out to be)

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/cheney-tries-unsuccessfully-to-shrug.html
"He was not Vice President at the time, it was after he was Secretary of Defense," a spokesperson told CBS 5 San Francisco. "I don't have any comment." . . . [read on!]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/it-didnt-change-things-enough-by-digby.html

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12576.html

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/08/the_untold_story_of_the_cheney.html

No joke: US running out of Purple Hearts

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/17/14422/5893

Half the story is the total hash the Bush gang has made of Iraq and the Middle East. The other half of the story is their serious neglect of everything else

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016735.php
[Josh Marshall] CNN is running as a breaking news headline that President Putin says that Russia will resume regular long-range flights of its 'strategic' bombers. . . . [read on!]

Karl Rove and the Hatch Act: this story has only just started . . .

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/hatching-plot-by-digby-when-karl.html
[McClatchy] Top Commerce and Treasury Departments officials appeared with Republican candidates and doled out millions in federal money in battleground congressional districts and states after receiving White House political briefings detailing GOP election strategy. . . [read on!]

On the Utah mine catastrophe. Things the media obsessed over for days, giving mine owner Bob Murray hours of air time to tell us. . . .

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0708/06/sitroom.01.html
[August 6] MURRAY: My name is Robert E. Murray. Bob Murray. I'm a director of Utah American Energy, Inc., which is owned by Murray Energy Corporation. I'm the president and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation and the founder, which owns Utah American. . .

QUESTION: And how can you be sure they are where you think they?

MURRAY: Well, they have to be. They can't be anywhere else. We know that. That's where they were when the earthquake happened. We know they're there. And they couldn't have gone out by there because of the materials back here. We're absolutely certain they're there. . . We know from our mining experience that's where they are. But, of course, the miners know, have said that is where they are, too. But those miners were out by this area when it happened. So, we know where they are, there is absolutely....

[W]e’re going to use more than one drill. That's for sure, if we can get up there. Because I want to punch through there as fast as we can. And it will be a matter of hours, just a few hours we'll get through there.

QUESTION: Do you know what kind of rock it is?

MURRAY: It's coal. We're going to drill through coal. It's going to be very easy. . .

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0708/07/cnr.02.html
[August 7] ROBERT MURRAY, PRES. & CEO, MURRAY ENERGY: We will be here on our feet until we get these men out, one way or the other. But I've got to tell you, it could be two or three days. . .

And this was caused by an earthquake, not something that Murray Energy or Utah American did or our employees did or our management did. Or that the Mine Safety and Health Administration did. It was a natural disaster. An earthquake. And I'm going to prove it to you . . .

If the miners survived the concussion of the earthquake and the shocks in the mine and the damage to the mine, we'll rescue them alive. Because there is plenty of air in there for them to survive for weeks and there's water, but we don't know. We'll know in three days. . . .

Now, it's been stated and been reported by some of you, that the natural disaster that occurred had something to do with something called retreat mining. This statement is totally false. And the damage in the mine was totally unrelated to any retreat mining.

As -- and I want to emphasize -- the area where these men are is entirely surrounded by solid, firm, strong pillars of coal. There was no retreat mining in the immediate vicinity of these miners. . .

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/17/utah.mine/index.html
[August 17] Underground efforts to rescue six trapped Utah miners were halted indefinitely . . .

Things the media didn’t bother to ask about. . .

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/17/yet-another-heckuva-job/
[Arianna Huffington] What if, instead of giving endless airtime to Bob Murray, they had brought on some of the experts we saw last night and asked them questions about the chances of another collapse occurring? What if they had given us Professor Larry Grayson, who was interviewed last night by Dan Abrams on MSNBC, and other experts who could have contradicted once and for all Murray’s assertion that the company had not been doing retreat mining where the original collapse had occurred? What if they had gotten Stickler on the record on this, and had him definitely say whether or not Murray was lying when he repeatedly denied the dangerous technique was being used in the Crandall Canyon Mine?

What if they gave as much airtime to the seismologists denying that the collapse was the result of an earthquake as they gave to Murray who kept repeating the bogus (and responsibility-avoiding) claim that it was an earthquake, a natural disaster, an act of god?

Might things have turned out differently? We’ll never know. But we do know that a number of miners — perhaps as many as a dozen — had asked to be moved to a different part of the rescue operation out of fear for their safety. And that Murray had abruptly pulled Bodee Allred, the Crandall mine’s safety director (and the cousin of one of the missing miners), away from the microphones when the questions Allred was being asked veered too close to the bone for Murray’s comfort. . . [read on]

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/17/so-it-has-come-to-this/
[Phoenix Woman] Three rescue workers have died, and six have been injured, at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah. They were caught in the further collapse of a mine whose owner, Robert Murray, has been trying to say and do anything he can — including inventing mythical “earthquakes” — to excuse himself from any sort of responsibility for their fates.

The scary thing is, as this NPR article notes, this is by no means the first time Murray’s been in trouble over safety issues. But somehow, he manages to escape any serious consequences for his actions. . . .

One possible reason is hinted at by the presence of Mexican immigrant workers at the mine. No information seems to be available on their status, whether documented or not. . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/17/161510/064
[MischaDC] The story with the trapped miners in Utah gets worse and worse. While one hesitates to bring up politics at the moment, there's overwhelming evidence that this disaster is a microcosm of how government works under the Republican worldview . . .

So, we’ve all heard about Rudy Giuliani’s boast that he was at the 9-11 site as often as anyone – even the recovery workers. The fact is. . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/17/113818/376
“I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. ... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them.”

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/breaking_rudy_s.php
[Greg Sargent] Twenty-nine hours. . . . That's the total amount of time Rudy Giuliani actually spent at Ground Zero in three months. . . [read on]

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/17/flashback_rudy_said_he_was_at_site_five_six_times_a_day_for_four_months
[WCBS, in 2006] "I spent as much time here as anyone...I was here five, six times a day for four months. I kind of thought of it as living here."

More: http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html#3594173321360944020

Serial lying and exaggeration: why does he get away with it?

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/17/142230/418

Giuliani: more and more Bushlike with each passing day

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12578.html

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016759.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016761.php

GOP troubles for 2008 continue

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12573.html
[Steve Benen] The GOP congressional leadership realizes that if they’re going to have any kind of success in 2008, they’ll have to keep incumbent retirements to a minimum. Fourteen months out, the strategy isn’t working out well: Reps. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.), Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), and Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) have all announced their retirements over the last 24 hours. The Politico added: “The retirements come at a time when the National Republican Congressional Committee is lagging well behind the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in cash on hand and can ill-afford too many retirements in competitive congressional districts.”

Pete Domenici (R-NM) to retire too? http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/domenici-and-ro.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/or-maybe-its-th.html

I haven’t posted on this yet, but it’s turning into a big story with national implications: California is considering a change in the apportionment of their Electoral College votes, which would produce a windfall of 20 or so votes to the next Republican running for President

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/17/california-split/

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/17/152731/634

Bonus item: Who’s editing Wikipedia entries?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/17/BL2007081701172.html

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2007/08/14/fox-news-changes-wikipedia-to-smear-rivals-olbermann-and-franken-comprehensive-list-of-changes

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:06 AM

 
FEEBLE

FBI Director Robert Mueller’s notes of the meeting in then-Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital room, heavily redacted as they are, still reveal volumes about the kind of people running our government

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/washington/16cnd-inquiries.html
John Ashcroft was “barely articulate,” “feeble” and “clearly stressed” as he sat in a hospital room chair in March 2004 when top White House aides unsuccessfully tried to persuade him, as the Attorney General, to sign an extension for warrantless domestic eavesdropping on Americans . . .

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/16/191215/085
[Alberto Gonzales] "We would not have sought, nor did we intend to get any approval from General Ashcroft if, in fact, he wasn't fully competent to make that decision."

[NB: Yep, another lie. . . .]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003940.php
[Spencer Ackerman] Mueller reveals something intriguing. According to the FBI director, Ashcroft tells Card and Gonzales that "he was barred from obtaining the advice he needed on the program" -- again, note program, singular -- "by the strict compartmentalization rules of the [White House.]" Now that's cronyism! For the first time, there's the suggestion that even John Ashcroft -- the attorney general of the United States and by all accounts a loyal Bushie -- didn't know all there was to know about the warrantless surveillance efforts. Apparently, Ashcroft wasn't considered trustworthy enough to be kept in the loop on the most legally controversial program of them all -- though his counterpart at the White House, and eventual successor, clearly was. . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12566.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/security-clea-1.html

Cheney’s dark shadow

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/washington/17inquire.html
The notes also reveal a series of meetings before and after March 10 between Mr. Mueller and other high-level administration officials. Some of those meetings were attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, suggesting that Mr. Cheney had played a central role in the controversy. . .

John Conyers will fight to get the unredacted version . . .

http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=678

. . . until then, Emptywheel does her usual brilliant tea-leaf reading of the redacted dates and snippets

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/muellers-chrono.html

Further investigation into Gonzales’s perjury

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003937.php

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/leahys-keeping-.html

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200708/081607.html
[Patrick Leahy] Potential misleading statements that you may wish to examine include, but are not limited to the following instances:

1. Attorney General Gonzales testified on July 24, 2007, that the “Gang of Eight,” consisting of members of Congress, told him that “despite the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney General,” who as Acting Attorney General had found a warrantless surveillance program to be without legal basis, the government should “go forward with these very important intelligence activities.” According to press accounts, at least three members of Congress who were present for the described meeting dispute the testimony that they recommended proceeding with the program over the Acting Attorney General’s objections.

2. Attorney General Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 6, 2006, that neither former Deputy Attorney General James Comey nor other officials had concerns about the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) that was confirmed by the President. In a June 5, 2007, press conference, Attorney General Gonzales stated that a dispute with Mr. Comey concerned this very program, though he later retracted that statement. At his July 24 hearing, Attorney General Gonzales said that there was no dissent about the TSP, and that the disagreement concerned “other intelligence activities.” Numerous officials, including members of the “Gang of Eight” and FBI Director Robert Mueller have indicated that the disputes did concern the TSP, and that there was only one program. Attorney General Gonzales in an August 1, 2007, letter to me set out a legalistic explanation stating that the disputed activities and the TSP were separate components of a single program.

3. Attorney General Gonzales said in April 27, 2005, testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence with regard to National Security Letters (NSLs) and other information-gathering techniques that statutory civil liberties safeguards had been effective and that “[t]here has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse.” Similarly, his responses to written questions following his April 19, 2007, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing indicated that he had not learned of problems with NSLs prior to your March 2007 report on the issue. Documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit indicated that the Attorney General had in fact received numerous reports in 2005 and 2006 of violations in connection with NSLs and other surveillance tools. The Attorney General in his July 24 testimony suggested that his prior testimony and answers were premised on the fact that he was not aware of any “intentional” violations. The Washington Post has reported that at least one intentional violation was reported in the relevant time period.

4. In March press appearances, Attorney General Gonzales said that he had not been involved in deliberations as to which United States Attorneys should be fired. Documents and testimony obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee showed that the Attorney General attended a November 27, 2006, meeting at which the firings were approved. In subsequent testimony, Attorney General Gonzales has taken responsibility for the firings and said that he attended this meeting, but he has maintained that he does not know who was responsible for selecting the names of U.S. Attorneys to be fired and does not remember what was said at the November 27 meeting. He has at times placed primary responsibility for which U.S. Attorneys were selected to be fired on his former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson and former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, each of whom denies making the determinations.

5. In his April 19, 2007, testimony, Attorney General Gonzales said, “I haven’t talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven’t wanted to interfere with this investigation.” In May 23, 2007, testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, former White House liaison Monica Goodling testified that the Attorney General had a discussion with her that made her “uncomfortable” in which he set out his version of events regarding the process of firing U.S. Attorneys and asked for her reaction. In his July 24 testimony, Attorney General Gonzales said he had a conversation with Goodling “to console and reassure an emotionally distraught woman” and to “reassure her that as far as I knew, no one had done anything intentionally wrong here.”

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006509.html
[Laura Rozen] Congress needs to come back and pass legislation to make perjury no longer a crime. If Gonzales is the example of how you are allowed to lie to Congress, just take it off the books as a crime. Did anyone ever think of that? The Judge Alberto Gonzales Lying is a Sometimes Necessary Form of Protected Free Speech Act of 2007. . . .

Nope, nothing to be suspicious about here

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/08/fired-us-attorn.html
[Justin Rood] Could the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal be bigger than Americans know?

For months, the Bush administration has declined to directly answer a key question posed by Congress: were more top federal prosecutors targeted for dismissal beyond the nine that have been publicly identified? . . .

Damn courts – what a nuisance

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003933.php
[Spencer Ackerman] The Justice Department argued yesterday before a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that two class-action lawsuits involving warrantless surveillance needed to be thrown out of court for potentially exposing state secrets. And it practically got laughed out of court. . .

How big a tool is Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/wapos_fred_hiat.php
[Greg Sargent] Yesterday I wondered whether the big news orgs would continue describing the imminent September Iraq progress report as representing solely the word of General Petraeus -- as the Gospel According To Petraeus -- now that we know that the report is being written by the White House. As Atrios put it, "a major test of our media right now is whether this bait and switch enters the basic narrative or not."

Well, we now have our first major failure of that test . . .

More: http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html#6395364187494298494

Harry Reid, Majority Leader

http://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=280908&
“The White House’s effort to prevent General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker from testifying openly and candidly before Congress about the situation in Iraq is unacceptable. Not only does it contradict the law President Bush himself signed in May, but it appears to be yet another politically driven attempt to avoid giving Congress and the American people an honest and open assessment of a war we can all see is headed in the wrong direction. . .

“If the President is going to continue to ask American soldiers to fight in this civil war, ask taxpayers to spend $10 billion each month to fund this war and ask the American people for patience as he conducts this war, then those closest to the situation on the ground must give Congress and the American people a frank and honest account of this war free of White House political spin.”

Kabuki?

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006505.html
[Laura Rozen] Is the reported "clash" between the White House and the Iraq commander Petraeus a ruse? After all, by many accounts, Petraeus and the White House want the same thing: to go big for as long as possible. It's hard not to wonder if this is a "clash" that will be "resolved" with the White House not really giving up anything at all. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that the White House is seeking to control the optics with Congressional Republican leaders anxious about how basically continuing a maximal US presence in Iraq will affect their '08 reelection prospects.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/17/early-morning-cuppa-how-to-lose-your-credibility/
[Scarecrow] By day’s end, even the White House realized they were destroying the reputation of the last remaining defender with any aura of independence and integrity. A White House spokesman was trotted out to declare that of course General Petraeus would give the Congress his unvarnished views, and of course he would appear in open public sessions, and of course he would answer all questions with candor and independence. Why would anyone ever think otherwise?

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011882.php

Well, whether Petraeus is the author of the “Petraeus Report” or not, the people have spoken

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/poll.iraq.report/index.html
A majority of Americans don't trust the upcoming report by the Army's top commander in Iraq on the progress of the war and even if they did, it wouldn't change their mind, according to a new poll. . .

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/16/BL2007081601003.html

No more national unity government in Iraq

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=As6_ZJ3r0Kjst4NNIr0P4iGs0NUE
Iraq's political leaders emerged Thursday from three days of crisis talks with a new alliance that seeks to save the crumbling U.S.-backed government. But the reshaped power bloc included no Sunnis and immediately raised questions about its legitimacy as a unifying force. . .

http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/4-party-coalition-for-al-maliki-basra.html
[Juan Cole] Four parties have formed a coalition in parliament to support Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. They are the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the Islamic Call (Da`wa) Party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The parties are led respectively by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Nuri al-Maliki, Massoud Barzani, and Jalal Talabani.

The coalition failed to attract the Sunni fundamentalist bloc, the Iraqi Accord Front, which has 44 seats and which has withdrawn from the al-Maliki government. It apparently also does not include about 30 self-described independents who had earlier been inside the Shiite fundamentalist United Iraqi Alliance.

The coalition is designed to exclude two Shiite parties, the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila) (15 seats), which is strong in Basra, and the Sadr Movement (32 seats) of Muqtada al-Sadr. While both parties have been problematic in the behavior in parliament and on the streets, I'm not sure that, in a consensual political system like Iraq's, it is wise to exclude major groups.

One problem with the new coalition, according to Al-Hayat writing in Arabic is that it probably has no more than 110 seats in parliament, 20 less than a simple majority, and so does not protect al-Maliki from losing a vote of no confidence should one be called. While that difficulty would be resolved if they could attract the Iraqi Accord Front to join them, this development seems unlikely at the moment.

I think one hope of the American authorities that encouraged this coalition was that if they could dissociated al-Maliki from Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army, that would make him more palatable to the Sunni Arabs. This calculation may have been incorrect.

If al-Maliki moves away from Muqtada, he is more dependent on the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), which the Sunni Arabs code as an Iranian organization, and on its Badr Corps paramilitary, which the Sunni Arabs accuse of engaging in death squad activity and ethnic cleansing of Sunnis.

Moreover, SIIC is dedicated to two political principles that are anathema to the Sunni Arabs. One is that US troops should remain in Iraq for as long as they are needed and the second is that a Shiite super-province should be formed in the south, on analogy to the Kurdistan Regional Government. . . .

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2007/08/iraqs-emergency.html
[Marc Lynch] Lost in the reporting of the unbelievable horrific terrorist attack in northern Iraq is a bit of a political bombshell. Al-Arabiya is reporting that the emergency political summit of Iraq's leaders has failed to produce even nominal political reconciliation. This is a devastating outcome for the Maliki government and for those Americans who hoped to have some political progress to show in the upcoming Crocker/Petraeus report. There's no other way to spin this: this summit was billed as the last chance, and it has failed. . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011884.php
[Kevin Drum] On a related subject, more here on the Shia takeover of the Iraqi army. It's not exactly news or anything, just further confirmation of the obvious: the eventual fate of Iraq (outside the Kurdish north) is the establishment of a Shia theocracy closely aligned with Iran. . . .

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/08/5193_iraqi_governmen.html
[Laura Rozen] A cynical observer might predict: a rush of legislation being passed by the reengineered Iraqi parliament just in time before the September non-Petraeus Petraeus report, fulfilling several of the Congressionally-mandated benchmarks.

Good news!

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08162007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/killing_for_congress_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm
[Ralph Peters] TWO days ago, al Qaeda detonated four massive truck bombs in three Iraqi villages, killing at least 250 civilians (perhaps as many as 500) and wounding many more. The bombings were a sign of al Qaeda's frustration, desperation and fear. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502320.html
The 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division calls itself the "Send Me" brigade, and on Saturday, its soldiers were quick to send themselves to find the man who shot Pfc. William L. Edwards, a wide-eyed 23-year-old from Houston. They quickly identified the house where they believed the assailant was hiding and moved in, just as the sniper knew they would.

Inside the house, one soldier stepped on a pressure plate, detonating an estimated 30 pounds of explosives hidden under a stairwell. In an instant, four troops were killed; four others were injured. Edwards died later in the hospital. The sniper escaped. . .

The growing use of house bombs is part of a larger pattern of more complex and coordinated attacks against U.S. forces . . . Officials attribute the increasingly sophisticated attacks to desperation on the insurgents' part after troops became too successful at finding roadside bombs and other explosives.

"It's a clear sign that they could not get to us by other means, and that's a good sign," said Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a spokesman for the American operation in northern Iraq . . .

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html#5623660894421788157
[Atrios] More death is good news. Less death is good news. It's all DoublePlusGood. . .

Jose Padilla found guilty, Bush gang cheers – but expect an appeal over his treatment while in custody

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12565.html
[Steve Benen] The jury, which was not aware of Padilla’s torture, was obviously persuaded by the prosecution and deliberated very quickly. . . .

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/16/padilla/index.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/minimizing-external-influences-by-digby.html

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/16/224645/872

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12565.html

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/16/padilla-jury-has-a-verdict/
[Jonathan] Turley is suggesting that the conviction leads now to “a very robust” set of appeals to discuss the conditions under which Padilla was held. . .

The kind of people they are (Bush's "diplomats")

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016721.php
"The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab. . . You wicked evil Hezbollah-supporting Arabs should burn in the fires of hell for eternity and beyond. The United States would be safer without you." . . .

38 cents, well-spent (thanks to Buzzflash for the link)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070816/pl_bloomberg/ajkoyhuchw0m;_ylt=Ar5HETPfEWqBVOpxSMhA7V9h24cA
A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas base, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina -- twin sisters -- exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority'' were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator. . .

The Utah mine collapse is another reminder of the sad state of industry regulation under the Bush gang

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016720.php
[Josh Marshall] It turns out that the guy in charge of mine safety for the federal government, Assistant Secretary of Labor Richard Stickler, couldn't even get approved by the Senate back when it was under Republican control because his own record on safety issues was so questionable. President Bush had to put him in with a recess appointment.

Perhaps it's not time to assign fault while active rescue operations are underway. But once that's over, maybe it would be worth the networks taking a tenth of the time they use milking ratings from these mine sagas and cast a little light on how a lot of this is preventable if the mine owners would stop breaking the rules and the federal government stopped looking the other way. . . .

More: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/17/how-many-more-mining-deaths/
[Salt Lake Tribune] A catastrophic failure Thursday in a Crandall Canyon mine tunnel killed three men, injured six others and cast grave doubt on whether a rescue mission to find six missing miners could ever resume. Those killed and injured were part of a perilous operation to find the missing miners, who were caught in a similar failure on Aug. 6. . . Among those injured were Crandall Camine employees and two MSHA managers who were involved in the rescue effort in the mine, which has been unstable for months. . .

Another theory on Rove’s resignation?

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4595
[Adele Stan] As I reported earlier this week, among the many fingers pointing at Rove is one belonging to Scott J. Bloch, director of the Office of Special Counsel, which administers the provisions of the Hatch Act, a 1939 law that regulates the role of government employees in electoral politics. Detailed here by CQ's Shawn Zeller, Bloch's investigation has come as close as any to really nailing Rove, having turned Rove's special e-mail account with the Republican National Committee (RNC), which he apparently used to communicate with government employees at their "dot-gov" e-mail addresses.

But that, even when leveraged by investigations by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (led by the indefatigable Henry Waxman of California), may amount to little more than a hill of beans in Rove's case for this simple reason: the Hatch Act carries no criminal penalties. The strongest, most dire corrective it offers is removal of the offender from his or her government post. . .

Tony Snow will follow Rove out the door – with more to come

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/16/more-resignations-to-come/

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12564.html

Ha ha

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016691.php
[Josh Marshall] You know that Mitt Romney is a huge phony. . . . [read on]

Rudy Giuliani, foreign policy moron

http://www.slate.com/id/2172285/
[Fred Kaplan] Rudy Giuliani's essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, laying out his ideas for a new U.S. foreign policy, is one of the shallowest articles of its kind I've ever read. Had it been written for a freshman course on international relations, it would deserve at best a C-minus (with a concerned note to come see the professor as soon as possible). That it was written by a man who wants to be president—and who recently said that he understands the terrorist threat "better than anyone else running"—is either the stuff of high satire or cause to consider moving to, or out of, the country. . . [read on]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/norm-by-digby-i-read-this-piece-by-rudy.html
[Digby] I read this piece by Rudy Giuliani in Foreign Affairs yesterday and was struck by the fact that the Republicans really are prepared to nominate someone who is just as ignorant, incompetent and bloodthirsty as George W. Bush. . .

Foreign Affairs: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070901faessay86501/rudolph-giuliani/toward-a-realistic-peace.html
[Giuliani] America must remember one of the lessons of the Vietnam War. Then, as now, we fought a war with the wrong strategy for several years. And then, as now, we corrected course and began to show real progress. Many historians today believe that by about 1972 we and our South Vietnamese partners had succeeded in defeating the Vietcong insurgency and in setting South Vietnam on a path to political self-sufficiency. But America then withdrew its support, allowing the communist North to conquer the South. The consequences were dire, and not only in Vietnam: numerous deaths in places such as the killing fields of Cambodia, a newly energized and expansionist Soviet Union, and a weaker America. . .

Let me save everyone a lot of trouble: the answer is “Yes”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/us/17cnd-stevens.html
The F.B.I. is investigating whether Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska had a role in arranging a 1999 government contract worth as much as $70 million for a company that oversaw renovations of his house months later, officials said Thursday.

Bonus item: IS THERE NO LIMIT TO THIS MAN’S POWERS?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/jenna.bush/index.html
Jenna Bush, President and Laura Bush's daughter . . . is marrying Henry Hager, 28, a former White House aide who used to work with Karl Rove. . . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:07 AM

 
BAIT AND SWITCH

They just can’t play with a straight deck, can they? I never expected anything from the much-vaunted Petraeus Report. But if there was ANY point to the exercise, it was the credibility of a professional military man providing an unvarnished assessment of the state of things in Iraq (though it was apparent that Petraeus had his thumb on the scales). It seems that even that level of independence was too much for them

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12556.html
[Rahm Emanuel] “After years of slogans and soundbites Americans deserve an even-handed assessment of conditions in Iraq. Sadly, we will only receive a snapshot from the same people who told us the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last throes. We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives in Iraq. An honest report from our generals and diplomats about the status of the war isn’t too much to ask.”

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/again_and_again.php
[Greg Sargent] In light of this news, we thought it would be interesting to go back and look at just how comprehensive, thorough, and coordinated the White House effort to convince the American people that this report will represent Petraeus' exclusive word has been until now.

So TPM's Eric Kleefeld and I went back to see just how many times White House officials said the report would be the work of Petraeus, or of Petraeus and Crocker. It wasn't hard to find examples. In fact, we stopped at ten. If you look at them all together, it really becomes clear just how premeditated -- and how audacious -- the White House's deception campaign here really has been. . . .

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html#6857632862778934874
[Atrios] A major test of our media right now is whether this bait and switch enters the basic narrative or not. . .

More: http://www.samefacts.com/archives/the_war_in_iraq_/2007/08/the_petraeuscrocker_report_.php

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/4247

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011875.php

As discussed here before, it’s the REPUBLICANS who are really screwed by this, the ones who stuck by Bush on the war funding vote because they were promised a full and fair assessment in September. Think they feel a bit. . . used?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/16/2555/02733
[BarbinMD] For the past few months, "We must wait for the September report from General Petraeus," has been the mantra from the White House whenever questions about Iraq were asked. Until yesterday that is, when we learned that that much ballyhooed report would be written by the White House rather than George Bush's top man in Iraq. . . .

Really? That's not how I remember it. And unless a virulent case of Alberto Gonzales-itis has stricken Senate Republicans, that's not how they remember it either. Because, from the Congressional Record, here is what they had to say when they filibustered the Defense Authorization Bill last month . . . [read on!]

They don’t even want Petraeus giving testimony before Congress

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016663.php
[Josh Marshall] This weekend we learned that Gen. Petraeus' Report will actually be written by the White House. Now it turns out that the White House is pushing to have the general's increasingly nominal report delivered by Condi Rice and Bob Gates, with Petraeus relegated to a "private congressional briefing." . . . [read on]

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081501281_pf.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011880.php

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/16/report/index.html

[NB: I'm going to speculate here that it isn't Petraeus they're worried about, but Crocker, a career diplomat who has the tougher assignment -- defending the indefensible lack of progress on the political side of the equation.]

“Army suicides at an all-time high”

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/15/23825/2130

There’s a major crisis in Pakistan right now – and we have heard almost nothing about it

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/washington/16policy.html

A story with a local angle, not being covered much around the country. BP is dumping poisonous chemicals into Lake Michigan (which provides drinking water to Chicago and surrounding areas). The so-called “Environmental Protection Agency” (as it has devolved under Bush) now says, “What do you expect us to do about it?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bpaug15,1,4265476.story
Insisting that they cannot stop BP from dumping more toxic waste into Lake Michigan, federal officials will instead try to persuade the oil company on Wednesday to finance other projects that would help clean up the lake. . . .

Why?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016636.php
[Josh Marshall] We've known for a while that the administration briefed the so-called Gang of Eight on the warrantless wiretap program back in 2004. That Gang is composed of the both parties' senior leaders in each house as well as both parties' senior leaders in each house's intelligence committee.

But the day after the notorious Ashcroft hospital room showdown, the White House gave a special briefing to then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).

More: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003927.php

Court hearings on the warrantless wiretap program. Watch how government lawyers try to “explain” it

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/its-entirely-po.html
"Was a warrant obtained in this case?" Judge Pregerson asks.

"That gets into matters that were protected by state secrets," Garre replies. . . [read on for more of the same]

More: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/16/jabberwocky/

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/down-rabbit-hole-head-first-by-digby.html
[Digby] It's Alice meets 1984. . . [read on]

Not worried about the increased use of spy satellites for domestic surveillance? It’s just another few degrees of “boiling the frog”. . . .

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003928.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011879.php

Ho ho ho. It was apparent at the time that the timing of the announcement of Rumsfeld’s retirement was being jimmied around the 2006 election. Now it turns out he resigned BEFORE the election, and the Bush gang decided to hold off on announcing it until afterwards. Would it have affected the outcome? The Republicans certainly think so!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502089.html?nav=rss_politics

Well, we know everything is a matter of partisan politics to these people – and the 2008 election is pivotal to their “legacy.” So don’t expect them to sit on the sidelines

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081501069.html
The White House on Tuesday assailed Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton for criticizing President Bush in her latest television ad, calling her statements "outrageous." . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/us/politics/16rove.html
Karl Rove intensified his attack on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday, saying she lacked the vision to be president while saying she was “so weak” on national security and support for the armed forces. . . .

[NB: I expect to hear more and more of this from Rove as he becomes "independent" from the Bush administration.]

Here’s my guess about Rove’s next gig – not another campaign, but heading up a lushly funded think tank, connected with the Bush Library, that will play out Republican strategy and spin for years to come

http://bushinstitute.notlong.com

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/15/BL2007081501064.html

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=what_really_brought_rove_down

Oh, this will be fun. The only thing better than Republicans attacking one another is attacking one another OVER IMMIGRATION

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081500225.html

Rudy: damaged goods

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016650.php
[Josh Marshall] Yesterday in South Carolina, Rudy Giuliani promised he could and would "end illegal immigration." But we got video of him back in 1996 saying that's just not possible and you've just got to accept that. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/16/05154/7711

A simple question: How many US attorneys have been fired? Think you can get a straight answer?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003925.php

Don Young, member of the crooked Alaskan Republican delegation, shows how far the GOP has been willing to go in violating the principles of open, democratic governing

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016643.php
[Josh Marshall] Okay, so here we are. For two centuries or more, once a bill passes Congress, only Congress can change it. The president can veto it or not. The Supreme Court can rule a law unconstitutional. But that's it.

But it turns out that back in 2005, to guarantee an earmark payoff to one of his political contributors, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) actually went in and rewrote the text of a transportation spending bill after the thing had been passed by Congress and it was waiting to be signed by the president. . . [read on]

A combo “Theocracy watch” and “The kind of people they are”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/15/15944/1313
A call from Pastor Wiley Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, CA (via the "Christian Newswire") for supporters to pray for the deaths of staff members of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

A moment of agreement with Laura Ingraham: “governing from the Middle” is a myth

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/15/115931/301

Bonus item: How to argue with a Conservative

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/16/81546/0560

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:58 AM

 
CREDIBILITY GAP

Terrible bombing in Northern Iraq – and according to Juan Cole it was probably our new BFFs the Sunni guerillas who did it. Not according to the Bush gang, though, who prefer to blame the usual suspects – while the pliant media reports their claims as fact

http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/massive-attack-on-yazidis-kills-nearly.html
[Juan Cole] The BBC says that Ninevah Province police are reporting that three car bombs targeted a Yazidi village in northern Iraq near Sinjar not far from the Syria border. One of them was a fuel truck. The bombings destroyed buildings and 175 are now being reported dead, with 200 wounded. The death toll is expected to rise. . . .

This massive bombing is likely to be the work of the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081400249.html
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities said it bore the hallmark of Islamic extremists such as the group, al-Qaeda in Iraq . . .

As predicted, US troop casualties in August will probably outnumber July’s “encouraging” reduction by a significant margin. If July’s numbers were evidence the surge is working, what will that make August’s numbers?

http://icasualties.org/oif/

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/14/7639/86233

Uh, the Petraeus Report? Looks like it will actually be the White House Report (thanks to Laura Rozen for the link)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pullback15aug15,0,4840766.story
Administration and military officials acknowledge that the September report will not show any significant progress on the political benchmarks laid out by Congress. How to deal in the report with the lack of national reconciliation between Iraq's warring sects has created some tension within the White House.

Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report's data. . .

In Iraq: there is no good outcome

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/4241

On Iraq, they were wrong and we were right, time and time again. The consequence?

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html#1335199064634755697
[Atrios] Imagine if the Bush administration had gone into Iraq, found a nuclear arsenal, the ponies had a appeared, happy fun time Democracy spread through the Middle East like wildfire, 6 months and a few billion bucks later we mostly got the hell out of there, having to wade through piles of rose petals on the way out, and a grateful Iraqi population lived happily ever after in their secular pro-Israel, pro-US Democracy.

Just imagine.

Now imagine just how marginalized all of the war opponents would have been? . . . [read on]

One more step toward an attack against Iran. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/world/middleeast/15diplo.html

More on the proposal to give Alberto Gonzales the power to “fast track” executions. Apart from the absurdity of any sentence that begins “Give Alberto Gonzales the power. . . .”, consider this

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/14/1170/67148
[F]ully 68% of death penalty cases are now overturned on appeal. Gonzo will take care of that! . . .

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200307/berlow
[July 2003] On the morning of May 6, 1997, Governor George W. Bush signed his name to a confidential three-page memorandum from his legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, and placed a bold black check mark next to a single word: DENY. It was the twenty-ninth time a death-row inmate's plea for clemency had been denied in the twenty-eight months since Bush had been sworn in. In this case Bush's signature led, shortly after 6:00 P.M. on the very same day, to the execution of Terry Washington, a mentally retarded thirty-three-year-old man with the communication skills of a seven-year-old.

Washington's death was barely noted by the media, and the governor's office issued no statement about it. But the execution and the three-page memo that sealed Washington's fate—along with dozens of similar memoranda prepared for Bush—speak volumes about the way the clemency process was approached both by Bush and by Gonzales, the man most often mentioned as the President's choice for the next available seat on the Supreme Court.

During Bush's six years as governor 150 men and two women were executed in Texas—a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history. Each time a person was sentenced to death, Bush received from his legal counsel a document summarizing the facts of the case, usually on the morning of the day scheduled for the execution, and was then briefed on those facts by his counsel; based on this information Bush allowed the execution to proceed in all cases but one. The first fifty-seven of these summaries were prepared by Gonzales, a Harvard-educated lawyer who went on to become the Texas secretary of state and a justice on the Texas supreme court. . .

Gonzales's summaries were Bush's primary source of information in deciding whether someone would live or die. Each is only three to seven pages long and generally consists of little more than a brief description of the crime, a paragraph or two on the defendant's personal background, and a condensed legal history. Although the summaries rarely make a recommendation for or against execution, many have a clear prosecutorial bias, and all seem to assume that if an appeals court rejected one or another of a defendant's claims, there is no conceivable rationale for the governor to revisit that claim. This assumption ignores one of the most basic reasons for clemency: the fact that the justice system makes mistakes.

A close examination of the Gonzales memoranda suggests that Governor Bush frequently approved executions based on only the most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute. In fact, in these documents Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence. . . .

Gonzales usually presented an execution summary to the governor on the day of an execution and that, as he has acknowledged, his briefings typically lasted no more than thirty minutes—far too little time for a serious discussion of a complex clemency plea. Bush's appointment calendar for the morning of Washington's execution shows a half-hour slot marked "Al G—Execution." . . .

More: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/14/141927/422

On a related note: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/14/please-notice-congress/
[LAT] The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases. . . The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year’s reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. . .

[TeddySanFran] Hello, Judiciary Committee members and Congresspersons in general? Could you please notice provisions that give far-reaching new powers to the Attorney General?

If it wouldn’t be too much to ask.

As Karl Rove knows perfectly well, one key to getting good press is to be a fruitful leaker to a carefully chosen few – they get “scoops” and insights, you get preferential treatment

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/novak-mourns-hi.html
[Bob Novak] The most useless speculation today in Washington is whom White House chief of staff Josh Bolten might choose to replace Karl Rove. He is genuinely irreplaceable. . . . Rove is one of the canniest and most successful managers in American political history. Yet he is viewed within his own party's ranks, especially on Capitol Hill, as part of the problem afflicting the Grand Old Party. . . [read on]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016608.php
[Fred] Barnes on Rove: "Rove is the greatest political mind of his generation and probably of any generation." . . . [read on]

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/savvy-fools-by-digby-jay-rosen-is.html

OK, wash that bad taste out of your mouth with some more tasty Rove-bashing

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016585.php
David Frum, conservative writer and one-time Bush speech writer, has a column the New York Times evaluating the legacy of Rovism. The verdict, which I hinted at in my post last night, is that Rovism was not only a disaster in terms of public policy and governance. It was also a disaster in political terms -- the latter fact just took longer to reveal itself. . . . [read on]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0814roveaug14,0,1001575.story
[David Corn] But leaving is too good for Rove. He was Bush's partner in the Iraq war, yet he (like other Bush aides, including, most recently, Dan Bartlett) are abandoning ship before the fight is done. Rove has argued that the Iraq war is essential for the survival of the United States (that is, for all of our families). So how can he walk away with the war not won?

In a June 2006 speech, Rove blasted Democrats for advocating "cutting and running" in Iraq. He said of the Democrats, "They may be with you for the first shots. But they're not going ... to be with you for the tough battles." But isn't Rove now doing the same on a personal scale? He is departing the White House when the going in Iraq is as tough as it ever was . . . [read on]

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12539.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/14/BL2007081400792.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fbe0b986-4a8d-11dc-95b5-0000779fd2ac.html
[James Carville] The evidence is now pretty conclusive that Mr Rove may have lost more than just an election in 2006. He has lost an entire generation for the Republican party. . .

Heh

http://www.observer.com/2007/cbs-rude-little-liberal
On Monday morning, Karl Rove stood next to President George W. Bush on the South Lawn of the White House and announced that he would be resigning from the administration at the end of the month. In front of the assembled D.C. press corp, he read a statement, and the President spoke. There was no formal opportunity for questions.

Towards the end of the appearance, as the President and his favorite pol were about to head in the direction of an awaiting helicopter, Bill Plante, CBS White House correspondent, broke the embargo.

“If he’s so smart,” said Mr. Plante, “how come you lost Congress?” . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12538.html

Laughable predictions

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4568

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4573

Will the misuse of RNC emails ever be properly investigated? If they were for govt business, they had to be preserved under the Govt Records Act (but weren’t). If they weren’t for govt business you have a massive Hatch Act violation. Which is it?

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/14/16343/4705

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081407A.shtml

The Democrats did manage to put a 6-month expiration date on the new FISA rules – but will they fight any harder when their renewal comes up?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/14/193823/061

The Democrats could still blow it (we know), but look at these polling numbers for 2008

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/trends-by-digby-i-just-though-you-all.html

Expect more and more of this: active intervention by the Bush White House in the 2008 campaign

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/14/white_house_attacks_hillary_campaign

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/14/hatch-ling/

Rudy Giuliani, though he won’t win anyway, would be a disaster as President

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016535.php
[Josh Marshall] With Giuliani you have a man who appears to have very little familiarity with the Middle East but does have a personality which prioritizes gut-instinct, point-scoring and aggression. And like Bush he appears to believe he can make up for his lack of knowledge and experience with attitude and ass-kicking. To round things out, his foreign policy advisory team looks quite like the crowd of neocons who were advising President Bush while he was running for president. If anything they look like a group that was too extreme to gain entry into the original 'vulcans' group. . . . [read on]

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016607.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016611.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011874.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12541.html

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12535.html

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016612.php

Global warming: just a theory?

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/lesson-what-les.html

You knew it was coming. . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016492.php
[Steve Benen] More U.S. cities will soon have more cameras watching more Americans. . . . [read on]

http://www.slate.com/id/2172278
[Daniel Politi] The WSJ notes that the wide use of images from spy satellites inside the United States is "largely unchartered territory." Until recently, the images could only be used by a few agencies and solely for the purpose of scientific studies. A separate branch of Homeland Security will be set up to control who gets access, but "even the architects of the current move are unclear about the legal boundaries." . . .

Catch-23

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/4242

The economic illiteracy of the press – and its consequences

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/the_big_con.php

Theocracy watch: she should thank God she’s not an urban black male. . .

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/14/preacher.slain/index.html
After spending a total of seven months in custody, the Tennessee woman who fatally shot her preacher husband in the back was released on Tuesday, her lawyer told CNN. . . .

Sick, sick, sick (thanks to Atrios for the link)

http://www.mainewebreport.com/2007/08/14/desperately-stalking-susan/
[From the Great State of Maine] Markos Moulitsas’s hate-site The Daily Kos, the foul-mouthed fem-blog FiredogLake, and other ‘netroots’ extremists like MoveOn.org, have become the dominant fundraisers for [Democrat] Tom Allen’s senate campaign. This may be good news for Allen financially, but allowing these fringe fanatics to take over his campaign is creating a political atmosphere that will undoubtedly be rejected by Maine voters come next November. . . .

More: http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/susan-collins-is-freaking-out-already.html
[Joe Sudbay] It's well established that Susan Collins has a very thin skin. It's also well known that she tries to portray herself as a moderate while in Maine, but acts like a Bush-Lott-Santorum Republican back in D.C. So, it's probably no surprise that she's already freaking out. . . .

What does it say when Jon Stewart is the only person left on television who knows how to do an actual news interview?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12542.html

Ha ha! Fox News’s tremendously unfunny “satirical” news show (their lame answer to The Daily Show) finally succeeds in making me laugh

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/half_hour_news_hour_shelved_65085.asp
Joel Surnow and I have mutually decided that we will not continue the Half Hour News Hour beyond its current 15 episode run. The last show will be presented on September 16th.

While HHNH performed admirably in the ratings and Kurt Long and Jennifer Robertson did a wonderful job, we are considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs. There is still a chance you will see the program at some point in the future. . . .

It won’t be missed: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/shocker-by-digby-and-it-was-so-good-too.html

Thin skins over at Fox News: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=784

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:47 AM

 
THE GREAT WHITE WHALE

The battle over Rove’s “legacy” will go on for many years, and be settled by others after us. But that doesn’t stop folks from getting their dibs in now

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/13/because-conservatism-cant-fail-you-can-only-fail-conservatism/
“Yes, Karl Rove was a political genius—he was, after all, the successful architect of Bush’s election in 2000 and reelection in 2004. But as the President’s chief policy advisor, Rove was the architect of George W. Bush’s betrayal of the conservative cause.” — Richard Viguerie

“Rove will be remembered for his political skills, which helped Republicans stage a resurgence in the early 2000s, only to lose a grip on Washington last year. Rove always had his hand in everything, and if I fault him for one thing, it’s straying from conservative principles.” — Robert Bluey . . . [read on]

http://www.slate.com/id/2172207
[Daniel Politi] So, how about that legacy? Ultimately everyone wonders whether, as the LAT puts is in a Page One analysis, "can 'Rovism' survive Rove?" and, as the Post wonders, "what, exactly, did the architect build?" Everyone notes that Rove's strategies have changed the way campaigns are run and organized. But even those who praised him as a genius just a little while ago are now questioning whether he ultimately had a positive long-term effect on the GOP. Everyone points out that many now think his strategy of ignoring the center and focusing on polarizing issues that would mobilize the conservative base cannot be the key for creating a long-lasting Republican majority.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/13/BL2007081300739.html
[Dan Froomkin] Karl Rove's legacy will not be what he wanted it to be. . . [read on]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/08/13/karl_rove/index_np.html
[Sidney Blumenthal] Rove's resignation marks a tacit recognition of the failure of his theory of political realignment, though hardly of its consequences. . . [read on]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12525.html
White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said, “Obviously it’s a big loss to us. He’s a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind.”

[Steve Benen] I’m still hard-pressed to think of evidence of his alleged brilliance. . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011863.php
[Kevin Drum] History will judge Rove a colossal failure, a man who never understood how to govern and, for all his immense knowledge of polls and politics, never really understood the times he lived in. It was 9/11 that both made and broke the Bush presidency, not some kind of mystical McKinley-esque realignment. Rove was blind to that, and blind to the way Bush should have governed after 9/11. His one-track mind, in which every problem is solved by wielding the biggest, nastiest partisan club you can lift, just couldn't adapt. It's fitting that he insisted on making even his final act as calculatedly partisan as he could, announcing his resignation not through the White House press office, but in an interview with the editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Much more: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/roves-august-surprise/index.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/architectural-disaster-by-digby-nobody.html

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/08/rove-exits.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/turdblossem-special-by-digby-theres-ton.html

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/at-56-years-old.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/14/12941/8971

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/13/125726/878

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/13/rove3/index.html

http://www.slate.com/id/2172154

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/watching_conservatives_/2007/08/winners_never_quit_quitters_never_.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/opinion/14tue1.html

Video (thanks to Steve Benen for the link): http://www.politicstv.com/blog/?p=3349

The legal battles, on the other hand, have only just begun

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/13/AR2007081300817.html
Karl Rove is under no illusion that leaving the White House will end the congressional investigations into his activities. "I'm Moby Dick," he said . . .

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200708/081307.html
[Pat Leahy] “Earlier this month, Karl Rove failed to comply with the Judiciary Committee's subpoena to testify about the mass firings of United States Attorneys. Despite evidence that he played a central role in these firings, just as he did in the Libby case involving the outing of an undercover CIA agent and improper political briefings at over 20 government agencies, Mr. Rove acted as if he was above the law. That is wrong. Now that he is leaving the White House while under subpoena, I continue to ask what Mr. Rove and others at the White House are so desperate to hide. Mr. Rove’s apparent attempts to manipulate elections and push out prosecutors citing bogus claims of voter fraud shows corruption of federal law enforcement for partisan political purposes, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its investigation into this serious issue.

“The list of senior White House and Justice Department officials who have resigned during the course of these congressional investigations continues to grow, and today, Mr. Rove added his name to that list. There is a cloud over this White House, and a gathering storm. A similar cloud envelops Mr. Rove, even as he leaves the White House.”

http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=673
[John Conyers] “The need for Karl Rove to explain his role in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys does not diminish when he leaves the White House. Our investigation to date has revealed the White House’s contempt for the rule of law and its interest in the politicization of the Department of Justice.

“While resignations at DoJ and the White House continue to mount, questions raised by this investigation remain. We will continue to seek answers to these questions and expect full cooperation from Mr. Rove and other officials regardless of whether they are employed by the White House.”

Mem - - rees . . . .

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/a-thousand-word.html
[Emptywheel] Remember this photo? . . . it's part of a slideshow they've got up to commemorate the demise of Turdblossom. Go look through the slideshow and tell me whether you think they're emphasizing the centrality of scandal to Rove's tenure . . . In addition to Crowley's, there are a number of other versions of this photo. I've always wondered whether the photo (all versions of it) wasn't intended as a key to the secrets of the Administration, one the insider journalists all know the meaning of but won't share it with us.

Indulge me, for the moment, and pretend that it is such a key. Let's review the status of the people involved. . . [read on]

“Al Qaeda in Iraq” – they’re to blame for everything now, I suppose

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/more-questionable-al-qaeda-in-iraq.html

I know the conservative punditry has complete contempt for their audience and believes they are stupid children who can be frightened by anything. But can we get a rest from their ridiculous assertions that Islamists are threatening to come here and take over our country?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12527.html
[Glenn Greenwald] Every now and then, it is worth noting that substantial portions of the right-wing political movement in the United States — the Pajamas Media/right-wing-blogosphere/Fox News/Michelle Malkin/Rush-Limbaugh-listener strain — actually believe that Islamists are going to take over the U.S. and impose sharia law on all of us. And then we will have to be Muslims and “our women” will be forced into burkas . . . [read on]

The mercenary war (thanks to Walter and Robert for the link)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/13/3138/

FISA – every day brings a new story on the consequences of Democratic capitulation

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/081307.html
[Robert Parry] That means that almost any American engaged in international commerce or dealing with foreign issues – say, a businessman in touch with a foreign subsidiary or a U.S. reporter sending an overseas story back to his newspaper – is vulnerable to warrantless intercepts approved on the say-so of two Bush subordinates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.

Beyond the breathtaking scope of this new authority, the Bush administration also snuck in a clause that grants immunity from lawsuits to communications service providers that comply with spying directives from Gonzales and McConnell. . .

The extent of the Bush gang’s secrecy continues to expand

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/category-two-do.html

In Alberto We Trust

http://www.slate.com/id/2172207
[Daniel Politi] The Los Angeles Times leads with word that the Justice Department is close to implementing a new set of regulations that would ultimately give Attorney General Alberto Gonzales the power to decide whether certain states can speed up death penalty prosecutions. A state would have to specifically request to be included in the "fast track" program that would decrease the time a prisoner has to appeal. Advocates say the change is necessary because it can now take years to execute a prisoner even when there is no question about guilt. But others warned a faster process could lead to more innocent people being executed and pointed out that the country's top law enforcement officer is hardly unbiased. . .

Department of False Equivalencies

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12528.html

Imagine the reaction if someone on the Left wrote the following: "I hope there is another 9-11 attack soon. It would be terrible in the cost of human life, but it would prove that Bush and Cheney had failed to keep us safe. Their policies would be discredited, and there might finally be a movement to change the government." As I say, imagine the reaction among the punditry and Right blogosphere. Then read this. . .

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/watching_conservatives_/2007/08/bykofsky_wheres_the_outrage.php

This helps me understand that the popular rightist excuse that their jaw-dropping statements of stupidity or viciousness are always “taken out of context” really means “If you just spent a lot more time listening to me, you wouldn’t be as bothered by these things that I say.” In other words, it’s turning gaffes into a kind of audience-building promotion

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708130006

This guy’s got a problem (the sort of thing that can get you disciplined or fired from lots of other jobs)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708120002
“Come on in closer. No, come in -- come in further -- come in closer. Really close. . . . You look great! Anyway, thanks. Erin, it's great to -- look at that look. You're great." He went on: "No, you're beautiful. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You're a knockout. . .”

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/piggish-prerogatives-by-digby-there-is.html

Bonus item: Theocracy watch. Why didn't someone think of this sooner?

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/conspicuous-con.html
No kidding: cammo Bible covers. . . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 5:44 AM

 
ROVE RESIGNS

Rule number one of the Rove style of governing is always to resign BEFORE the stuff hits the fan – we’ve seen it again and again with these people. I’m not saying anything is about to break, but given that pattern, wouldn’t you think SOMEONE in the news media would ask the question, rather than take Rove's explanation at face value?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118698747711695773.html?mod=djemalert
"I just think it's time," Mr. Rove said in the interview. "There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of my family." . . .

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/washington/13cnd-rove.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/13/AR2007081300180.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/13/75628/0698
[Georgia10] [O]f course, Karl Rove couldn't help being, well, Karl Rove until the very end . . .

Of course, the blogs DO ask that question

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/13/52657/7954
[Psericks] So what is the real reason for his departure? Legal troubles? . . . Or was it as a result of his demotion in the White House in April '06 away from his involvement in policy-making? Or, just maybe, is this the first step towards joining another presidential campaign? Is there a campaign that would take him on?

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/three-guesses-w.html
[Emptywheel] My Guesses on Why Rove Resigned . . . [read on!]

More: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/13/why-dont-journalists-just-tell-us-what-they-know/

THIS, you think?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080302238.html
Justice Department officials attended at least a dozen political briefings at the White House since 2001, including some meetings led by Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, and others that were focused on election trends prior to the 2006 midterm contest, according to documents released yesterday.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he did not believe that senior Justice Department officials had attended such briefings. But he clarified his testimony yesterday in a letter to Congress, emphasizing that the briefings were not held at the agency's offices. . . .

Rove sits down with the Wall Street Journal for a little friendly press coverage

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118697458949295744.html
"He will move back up in the polls," says Mr. Rove, who interrupts my reference to Mr. Bush's 30% approval rating by saying it's heading close to "40%," and "higher than Congress."

Looking ahead, he adds, "Iraq will be in a better place" as the surge continues. Come the autumn, too, "we'll see in the battle over FISA" -- the wiretapping of foreign terrorists -- "a fissure in the Democratic Party." Also in the fall, "the budget fight will have been fought to our advantage," helping the GOP restore, through a series of presidential vetoes, its brand name on spending restraint and taxes.

As for the Democrats, "They are likely to nominate a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate" by the name of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Holding the White House for a third term is always difficult given the pent-up desire for change, he says, but "I think we've got a very good chance to do so." . . . [read on]

Remembering Uncle Karl . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12519.html

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/035

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/13/rove2/index.html

The O’Hanlon/Pollack piece on Iraq – just another piece of war disinformation

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/12/ohanlon/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] Last Wednesday, I interviewed Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution regarding the trip he recently took to Iraq and the highly publicized Op-Ed in the New York Times about his trip, co-written with his Brookings colleague, Ken Pollack. . . .

O'Hanlon's answers, along with several other facts now known, demonstrate rather conclusively what a fraud this Op-Ed was, and even more so, the deceitfulness of the intense news coverage it generated. . . . [read on!]

Analysis: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12518.html

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/12/182612/966

Dick Cheney video (1994): why it would be a disaster to invade Iraq

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/sunday-night-open-thread.html
“Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it -- eastern Iraq -- the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you've got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.

It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.”

The FISA debacle: even worse than you thought

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226453/site/newsweek/
[Jonathan Alter] I hate to sound melodramatic about it, but while everyone was at the beach or "The Simpsons Movie" on the first weekend in August, the U.S. government shredded the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the one requiring court-approved "probable cause" before Americans can be searched or spied upon. This is not the feverish imagination of left-wing bloggers and the ACLU. It's the plain truth of where we've come as a country, at the behest of a president who has betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution and with the acquiescence of Democratic congressional leaders who know better. Historians will likely see this episode as a classic case of fear—both physical and political—trumping principle amid the ancient tension between personal freedom and national security. . . [read on]

More: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003908.php

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/11/why-the-new-fisa-bill-is-even-worse-than-you-think/

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/tsp-and-fisa.html

Maliki’s “crisis conference”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/08/iraqs_almaliki_plans_crisis_co.php

I know this will shock you, but a large measure of the “improvement” in Iraq is merely the result of changing the way they count casualties

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_12_archive.html#2262534962955153968

I guess US troops murdering Iraqi police officers just isn’t the crime we thought it was

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/12/232123/034

PACs as “family businesses” – what an unbelievable scam

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016500.php

We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again. Mitt Romney is the WORST at damage control

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/mitt-says-he-misspoke-about-his-sons.html
[Pam Spaulding] Mitt Romney was raked over the coals for saying this in Iowa last week when he was asked why his sons did not sign up to serve their country:

"It's remarkable how we can show our support for our nation, and one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected, because they think I'd be a great president. My son, Josh, bought the family Winnebago and has visited 99 counties, most of them with his three kids and his wife. And I respect that and respect all of those in the way they serve this great country"

First his campaign tried to say the remarks were "taken out of context." If you watch the above video, that didn't pass the smell test. So today, he had to clarify those remarks.

"I misspoke,'' the former Massachusetts governor said today . . .

Bonus item: Hard questions with easy answers

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/the_wayward_press_/2007/08/objectivity_in_political_reporting.php
[Mark Kleiman] A news account isn't an editorial. The ideal-type "reporter" is supposed to give "just the facts, ma'am," and not his or her own opinions.

This creates a problem when a reporter has to report false statements, especially by candidates for office. If a candidate says that the Earth is flat (or that tax cuts lead to revenue increases, or that there's still legitimate doubt about anthropogenic global warming, or that soldiers in Iraq are mostly fighting al-Qaeda) should the reporter "objectively" simply report the statement, or should she add the objective fact that the world is actually round? . . . [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 9:29 AM

 
THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

Simple truths: Gen. Petraeus has been penning rosy-glow assessments of the state of affairs in Iraq since 2004. The instant he was tagged to write the suddenly-crucial September assessment of progress, everyone should have seen exactly what was going on. In what areas of life do people get to write the evaluation on the success of THEIR OWN performance?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/11/various_items/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] When Gen. Petraeus comes in September to laud the Great Progress of the Surge, this will be nothing new. Gen. Petraeus has been telling Americans for years -- since at least 2004 -- that we have been making Great Progress in Iraq. . .

There is no drama or anticipation about what Gen. Petraeus will say in September, so it is misleading for the media to build this event up as some sort of Suspenseful Unveiling of the Truth.

We know already what he will say -- the same thing he has been saying about Iraq for years . . [read on]

Blowing it in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/world/asia/12afghan.html
Since the 2001 war, American intelligence agencies had reported that the Taliban were so decimated they no longer posed a threat, according to two senior intelligence officials who reviewed the reports.

The American sense of victory had been so robust that the top C.I.A. specialists and elite Special Forces units who had helped liberate Afghanistan had long since moved on to the next war, in Iraq.

Those sweeping miscalculations were part of a pattern of assessments and decisions that helped send what many in the American military call “the good war” off course. . . [read on]

How bad is the damage done to U.S credibility around the world because of the Bush gang’s policies? It could hardly be worse

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12508.html

Bush on nation-building (he was against it before he was for it)

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/bushwatch-unbui.html

How the Bush gang won the fight over FISA

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/11/AR2007081101349.html

Analyses: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/two-rulings.html
[Emptywheel] If I'm reading this WaPo article correctly, there were actually two rulings that went against the Administration--one in March, and one in May. . . As we've seen, when the law rules against Republicans, they tend to dismiss the law--and the Courts judging it.

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/a-reverse-fu.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011859.php

What next? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/11/AR2007081101349.html
Yet both sides acknowledge that the administration's resurrection of virtually unchecked Cold War-era power to surveil foreign targets without warrants may be only temporary. The law expires in 180 days, and Democrats, smarting from their political defeat, have promised to alter it with new legislation to be prepared next month, when Congress returns from its recess.

"The real train wreck happens in September," said a senior administration official involved in the negotiations with Congress. He was referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's declaration hours after the bill's passage that portions are "unacceptable" and that the public will not want to wait six months "before corrective action is taken."

[NB: All I can say in this instance is “I’ll believe it when I see it”]

Now rehabilitated, Alberto Gonzales embarks on the world stage – this time, to instruct (ha, ha, ha) the Iraqi’s on (ho, ho, sorry) . . . on the . . . (sorry, I can’t). . . on the. . . the Rule of Law

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12512.html

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/11/123910/088

More: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070827/williams

Mark Kleiman, a man with a diabolical imagination

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/immigration_/2007/08/immigration_crackdown_a_political_squeeze_play.php
Is it just possible that Bush hasn't lost hope of pushing comprehensive immigration reform through the Senate, and has unleashed Chertoff to put pressure on the employers of cheap illegal-immigrant labor so that they will in turn put pressure on their tame Republican Senators? . . [read on]

Get angry: the “reprimands” of senior officers over the complete bungling (not to say cover-up) of the Pat Tillman killing are – no – such – thing

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/10/tillman.friendlyfire.ap/index.html
Official reprimands issued to three high-ranking Army officers are only mildly critical of their mistakes after the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman and at times praise the officers.

The Army also said it would not include the reprimands in the officers' military records, . . .

[NB: The cover-up continues.]

Is this the best they can do? First up, Rudy Giuliani

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12509.html
[Steve Benen] Wayne Barrett has done the political world a great service with a devastating piece in the Village Voice on Rudy Giuliani and the “five big lies” surrounding the former mayor’s claim to fame: his performance on 9/11. The entire piece — which, if read, should effectively end Giuliani’s presidential ambitions — is important, but there’s one part of the story that’s particularly worth highlighting. . . [don’t miss this one!]

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/11/rudy-done-in-byrudy/
[Jane Hamsher] Rudy just can not stop antagonizing the firefighters. If 9/11 is the temple upon with all GOP fearmongering is based, the firefighters are the statue of Moroni on the top. You cannot write yourself into that particular myth as a hero if they are running around loudly calling you a candyass at every turn. I know the authoritarian cargo cultists have a seemingly inexhaustable talent for revisionist history to show their would-be iron men in a flattering aspect, but Rudy is asking them to chuck a key tenet, a primary article of wingnut canon as he orders the faithful to scoff at the firefighters as just a bunch of bellyaching grandmas.

You can’t have both, and I really don’t see how Rudy and his brobdingnagian ego wriggle out of this one. . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/11/16360/0636
"Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." . . [read on]

More: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/11/21941/0849

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/can_rudy_fail.php

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/rudy_giuliani_/2007/08/was_7_wtc_rudys_love_shack.php

Is this the best they can do? Next, Mitt Romney

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/10/opinion/main3156300.shtml
[Marc Cooper] The BS factor is heavy in almost every event of any candidate. But Mitt Romney is in some special category of his own. I had trouble believing that anybody in that room could believe anything he said. . . [read on]

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html#7929979243311769287
[Atrios] Mitt thinks religious beliefs are a fair thing to judge political candidates by. And he's being judged. . . [read on]

Is this the best they can do? Sam Brownback

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html#3971441233578258699
"We should be able to say one nation Under God and the flag salute and not be worried about anybody suing us." . . . [read on]

Theocracy watch: “I didn’t mean what I just said” edition

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/10/sali_spokesman_clarifies_remarks_my_boss_is_not_a_bigot
The spokesman clarified [Bill] Sali's remarks, insisting that his boss is not a bigot, and that he does not — emphatically not — think non-Christians should be barred from serving in Congress. Any notion that Sali has any problem with Hindu or Muslim officeholders, Hoffman insisted, is "far from the truth, far from reality." . . .

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/11/AR2007081101085.html
FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) and his wife, Ann.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio).

NEWSMAKERS (C-SPAN): Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Theresa Whalen.

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R).

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former Tennessee congressman Harold E. Ford Jr. (D).

LATE EDITION (CNN): Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) and David Dreier (R-Calif.), Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, Pakistani ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani, former Missouri senator Jim Talent (R) and former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer (R).

Bonus item: Let’s see, when the Left takes failure in Iraq as a reason to pull out the troops, or oppose govt surveillance, etc. it’s because they want the terrorists to win. Then what does it mean when the Right says that they WANT another successful 9-11 attack in the U.S.?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12506.html

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/wake-america-up.html

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/11/104056/699
“What kind of a sick bastard would write such a thing?”

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:02 AM

 
MY CRYSTAL BALL

OK, here is Breaking News. I will now give you the complete substance of the much-awaited Petraeus (on the military side) and Crocker (on the political side) reports, a full month before they are due in September. Let’s just stop pretending there are going to be any surprises, shall we?

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/EDITORIAL/108100013/1013
[Phil Gingrey, R-GA] Just two days ago, I had the opportunity to meet with Gen. Petraeus at his home. Although I cannot reveal the specific military details he shared during our meeting, due to the ongoing risk to our troops, I can share that his September progress report may be far more positive than what the far left expects. . . .

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/NATION/108100073/1002
[Bush] "They have made some progress but not enough," Mr. Bush said during a White House press conference before he left town for most of the month. "We're watching leaders learn how to be leaders. This is a new process for people to be democratic leaders." . . .

"For those of us who believe it’s worth it, we'll see progress, and for those who don't believe it’s worth it, there won’t be progress," he said.

[NB: Now, see, that’s a very revealing formulation. For Bush, committing to the war comes BEFORE the evaluation – then you see what confirms your commitment. The very notion that an objective, frank assessment of “progress” could be carried out doesn’t exist for him.]

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011854.php

Atrios channels my thinking

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html#2265541055366431131
Well, it's depressing to point out the obvious, that when September comes the Republicans will declare the surge a success, the Wise Old Men will nod in agreement, and the Dems won't be able to hold any coalition together to try to stop this war thanks to the hideous cowards known as the "Blue Dogs."

Ten more years

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/decade-more-in-iraq-according-to-bushs.html
[Joe Sudbay] Next month, Petraeus gives his report on the surge. But, he's telling members of Congress that the U.S. will be in Iraq for another decade. So, the way Bush and his general see it, not only will the Iraq war outlast the Bush administration, it would outlast the next presidency. . .

Why Maliki will fall

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/kiss-of-death-by-digby-gosh-this-makes.html
“It’s the kiss of death,” said Turki al-Rasheed, a Saudi reformer who watched last Sunday’s elections [in Lebanon] closely. “The minute you are counted on or backed by the Americans, kiss it goodbye, you will never win.” . . [read on]

The Corporatist State

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/this-time-well-.html
[Emptywheel] [B]y bailing out investors without a Congressional debate, BushCo allows us to avoid any discussion about the practices that got us into this mess--and the implementation of efforts to make sure they don't happen again. . . [read on]

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/08/the-fed-is-buyi.html
I thought the Fed only bought and sold Federal debt. This says it is intervening directly in the mortgage-backed securities market. Is this as unusual as I think it is?

Yes.

More Unitary Executive policies

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/11/23854/0903
[Jeralyn Merritt] Our unitary executive is at it again. Even though Congress refused to pass comprehensive immigration reform, he's taken it upon himself to issue new regulations that will crack down on immigrants, toughen border enforcement and increase the use of felony charges against those in violation. . . .

I don’t normally link to for-fee articles, but this piece in the Atlantic is worth the price of an issue: How Karl Rove (with a big assist from Dick Cheney) ruined the Bush presidency

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200709/karl-rove

More: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/mashek/2007/08/10/the-architects-house-tumbles-down.html

[NB: And, of course, how Bush let them.]

Cheney wants a war against Iran, and won’t rest until he gets it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/10/BL2007081001161.html

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18852.html
It's been the consensus for months among the Democrats who hold the majority that Bush must get congressional authorization before any military strike.

But the authorization would be no easy sell. Two knowledgeable U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because intelligence on Iran is highly classified, said that the administration so far doesn't have "smoking-gun" evidence that could be used publicly to justify an air attack. . .

Pakistan’s nukes

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/way-to-plan-ahe.html

The lie that helped to get the FISA law passed

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/washington/11nsa.html

Feeling a draft?

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/bush.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/11/0343/68798

And these are REPUBLICANS speaking

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/republican-self.html
DAVID BROOKS: Bush…you gotta remember though…a lot of Republicans hate Bush. I mean, we look..we talk about the Democrats, how they hate Bush, in private…

CHRIS MATTHEWS: What do you mean, “hate Bush?”

BROOKS: They think Bush is incompetent and destroying their party. . . [read on]

Need a vacation?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12500.html
The Houston Chronicle added, “The presidential vacation-time record holder is the late Ronald Reagan, who tallied 436 days in his two terms. At 418 days, and with 17 months to go in his presidency, Bush is going to beat that easily.” . . . [read on]

I’m sure the Bush people will express outrage over this and start an immediate investigation

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/08/are-gop-leaders.html
For the second time in as many weeks, a senior House Republican may have divulged classified information in the media. . .

“A little too much diversity” – we’re going to start hearing it more and more

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/excuse-8565-by-digby-problem-with.html

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4538

We already know that being the mayor of New York during and after the 9/11 disaster is Rudy Giuliani’s one and only reason for running to be President. He reminds people of it at every opportunity. But Rudy, Rudy, Rudy – this is going too far

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/NEWS01/708100372
[AP] Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Thursday he had exposed himself to the same health risks as workers at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and spent as much time at the site as those involved in the recovery. . . .

"This is not a mayor or a governor or a president who's sitting in an ivory tower," he said. "I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. ... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them." . . .

Video: http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/10/142127/175

Some well-deserved kicks: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/10/13347/3201
[NY Daily News] His statement rang false to Queens paramedic Marvin Bethea, who said he suffered a stroke, posttraumatic stress disorder and breathing problems after responding to the attacks.

"I personally find that very, very insulting," he said.

"Standing there doing a photo-op and telling the men, 'You're doing a good job,' I don't consider that to be working," said Bethea, 47.

Ironworker Jonathan Sferazo, 52, who said he spent a month at the site and is now disabled, runs a worker advocacy group with Bethea and called Giuliani's comments "severely" out of line.

"He's not one of us. He never has been and he never will be. . . .”

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/10/9_11_workers_rip_rudy_for_saying_he_was_at_ground_zero_as_often_if_not_more
[AP] Battalion Chief John McDonnell, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association in New York, said: "I have a real problem with that statement. I think he's really grasping and trying to justify his previous attempts to portray himself as the hero of 9/11."

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html#3235029575704773393
[ABC] Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives Endowment Association, the union of NYPD detectives, told the Associated Press that the mayor's record can't compare to those who spent 12 months sifting through toxic debris for evidence and human remains. . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016440.php
[Josh Marshall] I think this is going to be a real problem for His Rudiness. And unlike many gaffes, which are just offhanded statements that tell us little about the person in question, I think this one points to an underlying contempt for the folks who ended up sacrificing their health or even their lives during the clean-up process.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12493.html
[Steve Benen] You’ve. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. I noted recently that Giuliani has become something of a serial exaggerator, taking a kernel of truth and pushing it beyond reason to glorify himself, but this is ridiculous. Indeed, if reality had any meaning in this race, these are the kind of comments that should permanently undermine Giuliani’s chances. . . .

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html#5271239979680584980
[Atrios] Republicans often seem to have a problem with the concept. In Rudy!'s case, it's that he confuses his narcissistic appropriation with empathy.

Dude, you don't own what they went through. Obviously you can't even empathize.

More: http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2007/08/rudy-giuliani-utter-fraud.html

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0732,barrett,77463,6.html/full

Giuliani tries to take it back - unsuccessfully

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-love-new-yorkers-by-digby-they-take.html
"I think I could have said it better” . . . [read on]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/10/16557/8523
[AP] Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, a union that fiercely opposes Giuliani, said he doubted Giuliani misspoke.

"I think he was simply showing what his true character is — a self-absorbed, self-deluded promoter who got caught and is now just simply trying to backtrack," Schaitberger said.

“Brain dead” – yes, that sounds about right to me

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016464.php

Ted Stevens (R-AK) has a LITTLE problem. . .

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003898.php

How they play it

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003900.php
What 83 year-old William Sidwell of Queen City, Missouri found in his mailbox last week scared him. It was a letter from the Republican National Committee, but it seemed to bear grave news: "Our records show that you registered as a member of our Party in Schuyler County, MO," the letter said. "But a recent audit of your Party affiliation turned up some irregularities."

Audit? Irregularities? Was he in trouble? Were they threatening him? Sidwell went immediately to his ask his son, Dennis, a licensed public accountant, for advice. . .

The letter, it turns out, is just a misleading pitch for a contribution to the RNC -- one of the "irregularities" cited in the letter is that "I cannot find a record of you taking a single action in support of the Republican Party -- not locally, not nationally!" A contribution, the letter suggests, would help set the record straight. . .

Theocracy watch: you won’t believe this one

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/us/10obscene.html
Tom Rogers, a retired Indianapolis detective, toils away most days in his suburban home office reviewing sexual Web sites and other Internet traffic to see whether they qualify as obscene material whose purveyors should be prosecuted by the Justice Department.

His work is financed by a Justice Department grant initially provided through a Congressional earmark inserted into a spending bill by Representative Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia. . .

The number of prosecutions resulting from those referrals is zero.

That may help explain why no one — not Justice Department officials, not Mr. Wolf, not even the religious antipornography crusader who runs the program — seems eager to call the project a shining success. . .

Morality in Media is a conservative religious group that has worked since 1962 to “rid the world of pornography” and whose headquarters is, improbably, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Morality in Media has received two annual grants from Mr. Wolf’s earmarks and is hoping that Justice Department officials decide on their own to award a third, as Mr. Wolf’s ability to obtain an earmark for the program has apparently waned with the Democrats’ control of Congress.

Department officials, however, seemed less than keen to talk about ObscenityCrimes.org. Spokesmen for the criminal division said officials there had nothing to do with the program, which they had been obliged to start because of the earmark. . . . [read on]

The myth of Michael Gerson, Bush speechwriter extraordinaire. Was he? Apparently not (another installment of “the sharks are eating each other”)

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12497.html
[Steve Benen] Gerson parlayed his White House tenure into a nice gig (columnist for the Washington Post) and enhanced reputation. He even has a new book coming out, “Heroic Conservatism,” which will probably enhance his stature even further.

This, of course, has apparently sent Matthew Scully, Gerson’s speechwriting colleague in the Bush White House, over the edge. Scully not only doesn’t recognize the man Gerson claims to be, he’s written a jaw-dropping piece for The Atlantic in which he seeks to destroy the Myth of Gerson entirely.

It’s hard to excerpt — you’ll really have to read the whole thing — but Scully’s portrait of Gerson points to a shameless self-promoter, who leaked fabricated stories about his exaggerated genius to the media in order to make himself look better. Gerson, Scully said, was a vain, borderline-plagiarist. Bruce Bartlett’s summary is spot on:

Judging by Scully’s account, no bigger phony than Gerson ever walked the corridors of the White House–and that’s saying a lot. Apparently, Gerson spent just about every waking hour trying to figure out how to take credit for anything good that came out of the West Wing and had any number of gullible accomplices in the press corps that were happy to oblige him in his effort … Another reason I’m grateful to Scully is that I could never understand why the Washington Post gave Gerson a column when he clearly has nothing interesting to say about anything. Apparently, it is payback for all the leaks Gerson was spilling to the Post all these years. Unfortunately, the Post erred by not also hiring the speechwriters who did all the work Gerson took credit for as well. . . [read on]

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011851.php

The push-back begins: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/10/AR2007081002403.html

Oh-oh

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12498.html
[LA Times] Listen to Kathryn Lopez, editor of National Review Online, who was blogging live during the AFL-CIO Democratic debate Tuesday in Chicago: “In response to more than a few answers tonight — on Iraq, on China — I’ve said, ‘She sounds reasonable.’” . . .

National Review Editor Rich Lowry, also has had strangely respectful thoughts lately about Clinton. In a July 27 column, he expressed genuine admiration for her political skill, especially in managing to placate the left wing of the Democratic Party on Iraq without repudiating her vote for the war nor making herself patently unacceptable as a potential commander in chief. It was “brilliant politics,” Lowry conceded.

Clinton’s unwillingness to pander to her own party’s base on Iraq has won her grudging respect from another unlikely source as well: William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. . . [read on]

I share Matt’s delight in seeing The New Republic savaged by the very neo-con writers it gave a platform to

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/the_krauthammer_goround.php

“Rethinking Objectivity,” a classic. Here’s why

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/rethinking_objectivity.php

Movie review: “No End in Sight”

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/REVIEWS/708090301
[Roger Ebert] Remember the scene in "A Clockwork Orange" where Alex has his eyes clamped open and is forced to watch a movie? I imagine a similar experience for the architects of our catastrophe in Iraq. I would like them to see "No End in Sight," the story of how we were led into that war, and more than 3,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of other lives were destroyed.

They might find the film of particular interest because they would know so many of the people appearing in it. This is not a documentary filled with anti-war activists or sitting ducks for Michael Moore. Most of the people in the film were important to the Bush administration. They had top government or military jobs, they had responsibility in Iraq or Washington, they implemented policy, they filed reports, they labored faithfully in service of U.S. foreign policy and then they left the government. Some jumped, some were pushed. They all feel disillusioned about the war and the way the White House refused to listen to them about it. . . . [read on]

Women and the progressive blogosphere

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/10/invisible-women/

Bonus item: You watch “The Daily Show,” don’t you? You should

http://rackjite.com/archives/491-Jon-Stewart-Proves-Bush-a-Moron.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:30 AM

 
OUT OF LINE

The trouble with allies: the little buggers keep making up their own minds about things

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Karzai_Iran_has_been_helper_solution_0806.html
CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke on Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. . . [Karzai] went on to defend Iran strongly, saying, "Iran has been a supporter of Afghanistan in the peace process that we have and the fight against terror and the fight against narcotics in Afghanistan. ... We have had very very good, very very close relations. ... Iran has been a helper and a solution."

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070807/NEWS04/708070377/1024/NEWS04
But when the two men greeted reporters here Monday, Bush pointedly disagreed with Karzai's assessment, saying, "I would be very cautious about whether the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force." . . .

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3461739
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Tehran and Baghdad share a "heavy responsibility" in establishing peace and security in the region, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday. . . . Al-Maliki responded that Iran has a "positive and constructive" role in helping the Iraqi government improve security in his wartorn nation, IRNA said. . .

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/09/bush_iraq/index.html
[Tim Grieve] At a press conference at the White House this morning, George W. Bush said he doubted that it happened that way and that he'd need to set Maliki straight if it did. "If the signal is Iran is constructive, I will have to have a heart to heart with the prime minister because I don't think they're constructive," the president explained. . . .

http://www.juancole.com/index.html/2007/08/us-military-strikes-embarrass-al-maliki.html
[Juan Cole] The US military took advantage of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's absence from the country to settle some scores with the Mahdi Army in Sadr City (East Baghad), attacking units there and mounting air strikes on them, killing 32 and wounding about a dozen. Local observers claimed that the attacks killed 9 innocent civilians, but the US military said the casualties were militiamen. When al-Maliki is in Baghdad, he tends to run interference for the Sadr Movement, which elected him to office . . .

http://www.juancole.com/index.html/2007/08/cheney-urges-strike-on-iran-mcclatchy.html
[Juan Cole] Even the famously tongue-tied George W. Bush has never outdone himself in producing diplomatic confusion the way he did on Thursday-- as Farideh Farhi points out at our group blog. First, he faced the difficulty that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki affirmed that Iran is playing a helpful role in Iraq. This statement came on the heels of a similar assertion by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which Bush contradicted. So he contradicted al-Maliki, as well. Somehow, unlike Fox Cable News, US allies in the Middle East don't seem to be able just to parrot White House talking points. But Bush in correcting al-Maliki got off on a flight of rhetoric and seemed to be addressing him personally with a threat. Later on he had to clarify that the threat was directed against Iran, not al-Maliki. Al-Maliki is a longtime activist of the [Shi`ite] Islamic Call Party (Da`wa), which sought refuge in Iran during the 1980s and 1990s from Saddam Hussein's persecution. Da`wa has every reason to be deeply indebted to Iran and can't be expected to badmouth the ayatollahs. Bush seems to be continually surprised to find that he has put Iran's allies in power in Kabul and Baghdad. . . .

Dick Cheney has been urging attacks against Iran

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18834.html
Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.

The debate has been accompanied by a growing drumbeat of allegations about Iranian meddling in Iraq from U.S. military officers, administration officials and administration allies outside government and in the news media. It isn't clear whether the media campaign is intended to build support for limited military action against Iran, to pressure the Iranians to curb their support for Shiite groups in Iraq or both.

Nor is it clear from the evidence the administration has presented whether Iran, which has long-standing ties to several Iraqi Shiite groups, including the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr and the Badr Organization, which is allied with the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, is a major cause of the anti-American and sectarian violence in Iraq or merely one of many. At other times, administration officials have blamed the Sunni Muslim group al Qaida in Iraq for much of the violence.

For now, however, the president appears to have settled on a policy of stepped-up military operations in Iraq aimed at the suspected Iranian networks there, combined with direct American-Iranian talks in Baghdad to try to persuade Tehran to halt its alleged meddling. . . .

You know how it is with the mainstream press – once they get settled on a shared meme, it is hell to get them to let it go, regardless of the facts. The latest: the surge has been such a success that even war critics have to admit that Bush’s policy is (finally) working

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/associated_pres_6.php

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/09/fool-you-how-many-times/

On the same note, you can’t shift the conventional wisdom that Bush “supports the troops” (because he SAYS so). Therefore facts like this must be downplayed, if not ignored entirely

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/further-proof-bush-and-gop-do-not.html
[ABC] The Bush administration opposes a Democratic effort to restore full educational benefits for returning veterans, according to an official's comments last week. . .

Bush: Gonzales “hasn’t done anything wrong.” This demonstrates further erosion of the word “wrong” in public discourse – it no longer means “improper” or “unethical” or “inappropriate”; if it isn’t ILLEGAL and PROVEN to be such, then it isn’t “wrong”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016403.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12485.html

No, this didn’t turn out to be a major illness, but YES we should have heard about it at the time

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html#1718792288112742018

Lyme disease: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/09/cognitive-defects/

The Democrats’ capitulation on FISA – what it tells us about the political moment

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=672

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011849.php

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21872
[Bob Novak] With congressional Republicans' morale in a steady decline, the adjournment for the August recess found the GOP in high spirits thanks to winning the anti-terrorist eavesdropping bill. That trumped Democratic passage of an energy bill in the final House session last Saturday night. The importance is that Democrats still flinch when they come face to face with President George W. Bush on terrorism. . . .

The kind of people they are

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html#4752254463114250043
[Stu Bykofsky] “ONE MONTH from The Anniversary, I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America. . .“

Your daily Digby

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/ezra-and-harpy-by-digby-very-nasty-gop.html
A very nasty GOP operative named Karen Hanratty went after Ezra Klein on Hardball this afternoon with a puerile insult that revealed just about everything you need to know about just how cancerous this Republican movement has become on the body politic. . .

Hope and pray that Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/good-god-mitt-romney-sucks.html

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/how_many_counties_in_massachus.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/09/AR2007080900687.html

[NB: A little word here on “flip-flopping.” Romney isn’t a flip-flopper. That’s someone who changes their mind on a particular issue. It’s a kind of opportunism, at worst. That’s not Romney, who from start to finish has adopted convenient positions to fit the exigencies of the moment. There is no there there, with Romney: he will say ANYTHING.]

Rudy Giuliani’s campaign of lies

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/9/222721/2674

How bad are things for John McCain in Iowa? He is polling below Barack Obama. . . AMONG REPUBLICANS

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12484.html

Every major Republican candidate has state reps with legal problems. What IS it with these people?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/9/171238/1151

The coming Republican debacle in 2008

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/associated_pres_6.php

Fox News felt the sting of losing the Democratic debate: it didn’t serve their purpose of APPEARING to be a “fair and balanced” network. Good. Democrats should continue their boycott. Don’t given them the appearance of legitimacy

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/_/2007/08/fox_news_hit_them_againharder.php

Theocracy watch

http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/08/idaho_congressman_disturbed_by.php
Last month, the U.S. Senate was opened for the first time ever with a Hindu prayer. Although the event generated little outrage on Capitol Hill, Representative Bill Sali (R-Idaho) is one member of Congress who believes the prayer should have never been allowed.

"We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes -- and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers," asserts Sali.

Sali says America was built on Christian principles that were derived from scripture. He also says the only way the United States has been allowed to exist in a world that is so hostile to Christian principles is through "the protective hand of God."

"You know, the Lord can cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike," says the Idaho Republican.

According to Congressman Sali, the only way the U.S. can continue to survive is under that protective hand of God. He states when a Hindu prayer is offered, "that's a different god" and that it "creates problems for the longevity of this country."

Bonus item: Chris Matthews and his bizarre obsession with masculine power

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/09/matthews-bush-monologue/
Immediately following President Bush’s press conference today, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews spent three unbroken minutes fawning over the president’s “powerful rendition” of his “philosophy” without uttering a single critical word. “I thought in listening to the president, I was listening to one of the great neoconservative minds,” gushed Matthews.

Calling Bush “powerful” on three separate occasions, Matthews marveled at the president’s defense of his foreign policy . . .

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708090006
While discussing the Democratic presidential candidates on the August 8 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asserted: "I don't see a big, beefy alternative to [Sen.] Hillary Clinton [D-NY] -- a big guy. You know what I mean? An ... every-way big guy. I don't see one out there. I see a lot of slight, skinny, second- and third-rate candidates." . . .

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- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:14 AM

 
DIGGING DEEPER . . .

Most are you are familiar by now with Atrios’s term “Friedman Units” (or FU’s) – the crucial six-month periods we keep entering when things MUST turn around in Iraq, inevitably followed by ANOTHER crucial six-month period. If you needed any further proof that the Bush gang and its supporters have been reduced to nothing more than temporizing and “kicking the can down the road,” look at this

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/08/timeline.html/

Great, just great

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq7aug07,1,2234332.story
At least five more ministers announced a boycott of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's beleaguered government Monday, deepening the crisis sparked less than a week ago by the withdrawal of six Sunni Muslim Cabinet members. . .

http://www.juancole.com/index.html/2007/08/al-maliki-declines-turkish-treaty-on.html
[Juan Cole] Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Regional Government passed its own petroleum law on Monday, even though the Federal parliament has not yet passed its. The Kurds are claiming extensive autonomy from Baghdad for their petroleum industry. . . [read on]

What role did Mike McConnell (Director of National Intelligence) play in deceiving Congress over the FISA bill?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003883.php
[Spencer Ackerman] That was a short honeymoon for Admiral Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence. His nomination to the top intelligence job was viewed as a rare instance of Bush-administration maturity, as his tenure at the helm of the National Security Agency earned him a great deal of bipartisan respect. . .

But after last week's rapid, controversial revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in which McConnell played chief Congressional negotiator, lawmakers are wondering: Was McConnell set up by the Bush administration? Or is he a willing flunky?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/08/BL2007080801242.html
[Dan Froomkin] As the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell is supposed to be above politics.

But last week, as the White House was successfully bullying spooked congressional Democrats into expanding the government's authority to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant, McConnell was President Bush's most effective enforcer.

And if that weren't controversial enough, some Democrats are charging that McConnell initially expressed his support for a much more restrictive Democratic plan -- then reversed himself under pressure from the White House. . . .

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel8aug08,1,3515190.story
[H]is unusually high-profile role in the negotiations appears to have strained his relationships with key Democrats and has prompted questions about whether the nation's top intelligence official, who is supposed to operate above the political fray, had allowed himself to be used for partisan purposes. . . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-for-our-own-good-by-digby-many.html
[Digby] When it comes to the encroaching police state, the politicians of both parties have shown their true colors and their shirts are a disturbing shade of coffee. . . [read on]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/washington/08intel.html

Cheney: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/mcconnell-and-d.html

Digby catches up to the Jane Mayer piece on “black sites” and torture – and gives it her best treatment

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/banality-of-dick-cheneys-evil-by-digby.html
It's one of the worst things you'll ever read about your government, and that's saying something . . .

Bush’s entire domestic agenda now has been reduced to this: more tax cuts

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011842.php

How sad that this news article strikes folks as so remarkable, simply because it doesn’t take Bush’s claims as fact, but instead juxtaposes them with real information

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12477.html
[AFP] US President George W. Bush charged Monday that Iran has openly declared that it seeks nuclear weapons -- an inaccurate accusation at a time of sharp tensions between Washington and Tehran. . . . [read on]

How do you think George H.W. Bush (“41”) feels about his historic failure of a son?

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/8/235912/7027

Well, this hardly seems news, but here’s a helpful list of media outlets that went ballistic in their coverage of th