Friday's NYT editorial slams Bush & Rummy

Watching President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld this week, it was hard to avoid the sinking feeling that they had already moved on from the Abu Ghraib prison mess and were back to their well-established practice of ignoring all bad news and marching blindly ahead as if nothing unusual had happened. That was the impression that emerged from Mr. Bush's disconnected performance on Monday, when he viewed photos and video stills of the atrocious treatment of prisoners by soldiers under his and Mr. Rumsfeld's command, and then announced that the defense secretary was doing a 'superb job.' It was stronger than ever yesterday, during Mr. Rumsfeld's road trip to Iraq, where he drew a curious parallel between himself and Ulysses S. Grant and announced his approach to the prison scandal: 'I've stopped reading newspapers.'

Mr. Rumsfeld told the soldiers that they had broad public support at home despite the Abu Ghraib scandal. That is obviously true. It is also beside the point. The proper way for Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld to show support for the troops is not to use them as a screen from the heat over the mismanagement of the military prisons. It is to fix the problem, now.... - NYT

Read the rest of this post...

Did White House lawyer lie to the Supreme Court?

I'd vaguely remembered reading this somewhere today, and just came upon this article from AP. As I recall, the White House said they were made aware of the abuse allegations this past January or so. If so, I'd love to see what the White House lawyer said exactly to the court last month in his denial that torture ever takes place, and then see if he can be disbarred for lying before a court. I'll say it again, for uber-Christian holier-than-thou Bible-thumpers, these guys lie like a sack of shit.

The cases were argued at the court last month before the publication of graphic images of prisoner abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Those photographs seem to undercut part of the Bush administration's argument that the executive branch should be trusted, with limited court interference, in its decisions about detainees.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had asked a White House lawyer during court arguments what an inmate was to do if he was being tortured as part of interrogation. The lawyer responded that the government does not use torture.

Read the rest of this post...

Rumsfeld compares self to Lincoln, jokes about abuse scandal

This guy simply doesn't get it. According to ABC News, Rumsfeld made a joke today about the criticism he's facing as a result of the prison scandal, then turned around and compared the criticism he's getting to the criticism Abraham Lincoln got for fighting the civil war. Excuse me? So, folks who are critical of the fact that we've been torturing Iraqi civilians are, what, segregationists? These are not the contrite comments of a man who accepts responsiblity and accepts that he's done wrong. You don't testify before Congress one day and say I'm sorry, then the next compare your actions to Abraham Lincoln's. So Rumseld's apology before Congress was a lie. Read the rest of this post...

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld"

Enough said.

The father of Nick Berg, the American beheaded in Iraq, directly blamed President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday for his son's death.

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this," Berg said in an interview with radio station KYW-AM.

In the interview from outside his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a seething Michael Berg also said his 26-year-old son, a civilian contractor, probably would have felt positive, even about his executioners, until the last minute.

"I am sure that he only saw the good in his captors until the last second of his life," Berg said. "They did not know what they were doing. They killed their best friend."

Two days after the publication of a video showing the execution of his son by five masked men, Berg attacked the Bush administration for its invasion of Iraq and its sponsorship of the Patriot Act, which gives sweeping powers of surveillance to the federal government.

Berg described the Patriot Act as a "coup d'etat." He added: "It's not the same America I grew up in." - Reuters

Read the rest of this post...

Soldiers begging for body armor while Rummy wastes money on photo ops

I forgot to include the link to the story, here it is.

This is absolutely outrageous. Rumsfeld is wasting untold numbers of taxpayer dollars on a public relations stunt visit to Baghdad, and our troops are STILL sitting ducks without the armor they need, even though they've asked for it repeatedly. Why does a soldier have to write to beg local police in the US to scrounge together body armor? If the DOD didn't have any on hand, couldn't our own government check out civilian supplies, rather than leaving it to our own servicemembers to beg for it or die? This article absolutely sickens me. Where the hell is Rush Limbaugh's, Senator Inhofe's, Sean Hannity's, and Faux News' outrage now?

Someone ought to start an online blog-athon, across all of our blogs, to raise money to buy vests that we can ship the troops - we can even contact that Sheriff to see if the money would help him track down more vests and/or ship them. Let's show Bush up on this one.

The Ocala-based U.S. Army Reserve unit helping to pacify Iraq has made an urgent request from the folks back home: send body armor, ASAP.

First Sgt. Fred Chisholm, the top enlisted soldier in the 351st Military Police Company, recently asked Sheriff Ed Dean to round up extra bulletproof vests and ship them to the unit, which was last known to be operating south of Baghdad.

Dean responded on Monday by petitioning his counterparts across Florida and U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, for help....

'It's a shame isn't it? It's hard to believe that we sent our people to this part of the world and they feel like they're not being taken care of,' Crowder said. 'That's troubling. But we support our troops and we'll do whatever we can.'

In a recent issue, Newsweek magazine captured some of what U.S. troops face in dealing with the Iraqi insurgents.

'Despite desperate attempts to supply bolt-on armor, many soldiers still ride around in light-skinned Humvees. ... Brig. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, assistant division commander of the 1st Armored Division, conceded in an interview (that they were) 'never designed to do this. ... It was never anticipated that we would have things like roadside bombs in the vast number that we've had here,' ' the magazine reported.

'Meanwhile, soldiers are rushing to jury-rig their Humvees with anything hard they can find: bolt-on armor, sandbags, even plywood panels, creating what one senior officer calls 'Mad Max-mobiles.' But Pentagon sources say many of the retrofitted Humvees cannot take the extra weight, and their suspension or transmission systems fail.' - Ocala Star Banner

Read the rest of this post...

Tony Blair in trouble again

Greetings from Paris! Thanks John, for including an expat perspective here. It has been a tough few years being an American overseas but if nothing else, the Bush administration has brought new life to expats talking about politics. It's almost impossible to go out, whether in France or the UK or anywhere outside of the US and not have the topic of American politics come up. Don't let that deter anyone from international travel though because most people are more curious than anything about how Bush gained so much power, so they enjoy talking to Americans about the lastest status of US politics.

Bush's favorite pet poodle continues to be in trouble and calls for his resignation are circling again in the UK news, this one from an article in The Guardian. Bush certainly has a way with helping his friends, doesn't he? Let’s not forget that more than anyone else outside of the US, it is Blair that provided Bush with the free pass to do as he likes in Iraq.

"...some of the Blairite jitters are attributed to the prime minister's unwill-ingness to accept that he appears to be in worse political trouble than at any time since 1997, chiefly over Iraq.

Loyal allies want him to admit as much and some ministers are privately urging him to put distance between London and Washington over the conduct of the war. Mr Blair tells them he will quit if he decides he is a liability to Labour." Read the rest of this post...

Right wing extremists and science clash at the FDA

For some reason, these guys have to put every decision through the political litmus test to see if it fits their narrow agenda. Aren't we supposed to be fighting against governments that are run by religious jerks like this?

"When a scientific panel votes 23-4 in favor of over-the-counter status but the FDA goes the other way, there has to be something at work other than science" - Washington Post

Read the rest of this post...

Rumsfeld Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

How much did this job-saving stunt cost the taxpayers? Read the rest of this post...

Birds of a feather

Two years ago while traveling in Southeast Asia, my wife and I opted out of visiting the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia when we read about a new state (Terengganu) law forbidding bikinis and insisting that men and women swim in seperate pools. Fortunately, those religious extremists have recently been voted out of office but the same mentality seems to be at work down in Louisiana where politicians are formulating a new law forbidding clothes that show skin. Why is the human body so terrifying to these people?

"House Bill 1626, also known as the “Baggy Pants Bill” states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to appear in public wearing his pants below his waist and thereby exposing his skin or intimate clothing.”

State Representative Derrick Shepherd’s bill would make any violator subject to three eight-hour days of community service and up to a fine of $175." - MSNBC

Read the rest of this post...

Sodomizing himself with a banana

Funny how Limbaugh and all the Faux News shills only have a problem with sodomy when it's consensual.

Among the most shocking images, several said, was a video of a male detainee repeatedly banging into a cell door, until he collapsed. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said it appeared that the man had a rope lashed around his waist and that someone was pulling him toward the door....

Representative Trent Franks, Republican of Arizona and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was particularly offended by a photograph in which 'a prisoner was sodomizing himself,' with a banana. 'My conclusion is that that was probably coerced somehow,' Mr. Franks said. - NYT

Read the rest of this post...