That’s the name of the game for the Bush Administration. Especially when the other words being tossed around are “embarrassment” and “disgrace”.
Pentagon Report on Iraq Debacle “Remains Classified”
Earlier this week, I noted an excerpt from the new book by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, where he told how Donald Rumsfeld had ordered a report by the Joint Warfighting Center of the bungled occupation of Iraq, but when Rumsfeld [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · Iraq War
It’s late. You’re all big people. You can handle it.
Terry McAuliffe: Hillary Can Drink John McCain Under The Table!
Looks like Hillary top adviser Terry McAuliffe is really upping the ante when it comes to Hillary’s ability to throw back shots with the best of ‘em. Hillary, of course, famously downed a shot of whiskey in the run-up to [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Clinton · McCain
Everybody was so busy talking about the primary elections tonight, that I saw precious little coverage of this. As usual, the Carpetbagger does a great job of expanding on the basics of the story. Bottom line, we’ve got ourselves another scandal in the Bush Administration. And, it’s the backstory that makes it so fascinating. Go. Read.
FBI raids the Office of Special Counsel
It’s been weeks since a corruption scandal humiliated the Bush administration, so I suppose we were overdue for news like this. “Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the Office of Special Counsel here, seizing computers and documents belonging to the agency chief Scott Bloch and staff. More than a dozen FBI agents served grand jury subpoenas shortly [...]
Categories: Bush Administration
You’re up late, watching the Indiana and North Carolina election returns and analysis, aren’t you. Here’s something to keep you up a bit long, out of fear and anger.
Oil nears $123 on $200 oil prediction, supply concerns
Oil futures blasted to a new record over $122 a barrel Tuesday, gaining momentum as investors bought on a forecast of much higher prices and on any news hinting at supply shortages. Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks. A new Goldman Sachs prediction that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of [...]
Categories: Economy
I guess all politicians do it - have one position one day and another somewhere down the road. I’ll give them that times and events change. Still, on the gas-tax holiday idea, Obama seems to have undergone a radical shift in attitude. He supported it, even introduced legislation for it, in Illinois
Obama… Wrong About the Gas Tax
Barack Obama is wrong about the Gas Tax, his criticism of Hillary Clinton’s Gas Tax proposal and he’s a hypocrite. George Frost explains on Salon: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has repeatedly accused rival Hillary Clinton of “pandering” for advocating a summer gas-tax moratorium, calling it a “classic Washington gimmick” that would do little to help consumers. “That’s typical [...]
Next time John McCain sits down with reporters, somebody really should ask him about this. I, for one, would like to know if he stands by his words of 20-some years ago.
When Reagan nominated Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, he made things pretty easy for his Democratic critics. Before becoming a nominee, Bork had said or written all kinds of bizarre and scary things. Once his hearings began, Bork could have distanced himself from his record, but instead he tried to justify his body of [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · McCain
He is, apparently, more than just a little bit worried.
Gingrich Calls For Emergency Meeting
Newt Gingrich is sending out the call to the Republicans in Congress: ‘You’re about to get decimated.’ Check out his plan to stave off defeat. What do you think? Somehow I don’t think a GPS air traffic control system, attacks on labor unions, and a reform of the way we do the census is going to be of much help. The Gas Tax holiday and selling some of the strategic petroleum reserve have more potential populist power, but are already seen as counterproductive by nearly all economists. I guess a [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Congress
Theoretically, at least. I’m expecting Addington will be a “no-show”, forcing more legal fighting.
House committee votes to compel Cheney’s chief of staff to testify about torture
By a voice vote, the House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday morning to compel Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington to testify about his role in approving harsh interrogation tactics at the US Guantanamo Bay prison. The vote empowers House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) to subpoena Addington at his discretion. It is the next step in [...]
Others, it seems, ARE willing to talk. Maybe Addington will join them:
Yoo, Feith, Ashcroft Agree to Testify
Earlier this morning, the House Judiciary Committee authorized a subpoena for David Addington, Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, to testify about the administration’s torture policy. And now the AP reports that John Yoo, probably the most infamous of the [...]
Categories: Torture
It’s tough to feel optimistic for more than a few minutes, because things like this keep popping up and nothing that’s being tried seems to have any positive impact. Via Newsweek:
Real Estate: Why the Market Will Worsen
Economist David Lereah was once the housing market’s biggest cheerleader. Now he says the bust isn’t near over, and home prices still have a long way to fall [...]
Categories: Economy · Housing Market
I’d say “poor vetting” is not a good trait for a president, nor is it a good trait for his staff.
McCain Aides Say Hagee Endorsement Was The Result Of ‘Poor Vetting’
In addition to having previously referred to Catholicism as “The Great Whore,” controversial pastor John Hagee said on NPR in September 2006 that Hurricane Katrina was the result of God condemning New Orleans because “there was to be a homosexual parade there” the day the hurricane hit — a belief he recently reaffirmed. Despite Hagee’s [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · McCain
You knew it would happen in Indiana. You just KNEW it.
From the AP … About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn’t have state or federal identification bearing a photograph. Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced [...]
Categories: 2008 Election
Talk about math that doesn’t add up! This doesn’t even allow for ANYTHING to deal with Iran! Kevin Drum asks the big question:
Can we put 7,000 more troops in Afghanistan, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates would like? That’s about two brigades, and after going through the current deployments of every combat brigade we have, Fred Kaplan says there’s only one way for [...]
Categories: Military
How does the State Department lose HUNDREDS of laptop computers? Who the heck are they hiring?
Whoops! There go some more state secrets.
…It’s keystone kops all throughout this administration. Yes, human beings are fallible, and we all make mistakes. But the level of incompetence demonstrated by this administration is as mind-boggling as the deliberate malfeseance has been. We can only hope that there weren’t [...]
Categories: National Security
Some people are just plain stupid. There’s no other word to describe them. And, it seems, there were more who fit that category than those who realized what happened today at one Indiana polling place was not just wrong, but illegal! Just click the link to view the video. Make sure you read the comments to see how bloggers worked to get the situation fixed.
Obama Shenanigans: Does This Look Legal to You? Indiana Voters BEWARE!
Categories: 2008 Election · Obama
This is breathtaking, in a very sad way.
Report: Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths
Bloomberg reported this week on yet another devastating and deadly aspect of the war in Iraq: the U.S. troops, burdened with post-traumatic stress, who commit suicide. “The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government’s top psychiatric researcher said. Community [...]
Categories: Iraq War
Guess somebody forgot to turn on the “archive machine”. Too bad there is no “wayback machine” so we could go back in time and fix things. Remember “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show”? Don’t I deserve to be a bit cynical about the timing of this rather large “ooops”?
White House admits pre-war e-mails not archived
The White House does not have archival copies of e-mails exchanged between administration officials during the weeks leading up to President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq nor for the first two months of the war there, according to a just-released filing concerning millions [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · FISA · National Security
And you’re likely getting set to track the returns, as I post this entry around 5:30, Central Time. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly the networks call the races, since there’s a lot riding on these returns. In the meantime, a proposal from Clinton that I failed to notice yesterday. Mighty interesting, I must say. I’m just not sure how much power we/she have to do it.
Clinton targets OPEC, vows to break up ‘monopoly’
I’m going to assume that the focus groups put oil prices at the very top of voters’ priority lists. Energy policy has gone from something of an afterthought — remember when Iraq dominated the Democratic race? — to the singular focus of the Clinton campaign. Clinton’s attacks on oil prices as artificially inflated, Enron-style, keep escalating, [...]
Categories: Economy
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