New memo shows Bush planned to invade Iraq anyway, discussed faking evidence to provoke a war

The British press reported on this a few months ago, now the NY Times has the entire memo. It's real.

From the NYT:

In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

Even more fun, Bush was prepared to fake the evidence to provoke a US war with Iraq. Gee, sound familiar?

The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.

Read the rest of this post...

The "good news" from Iraq

I've come to the conclusion that AMERICAblog has been far too critical of the war in Iraq, so we're going to devote an entire post to the good news about Iraq. Happy news. Puppy dog warm and fuzzy kind of news. Please feel free to add your own good news in the comments.

Ten good things about Iraq:

• No Ann Coulter
• Only 69 people died in today's violence
• If the number of dead hits 70, Bush can say that Muslim's read backwards so it's really only 7
• At least they don't put Christians to death
• No more torture
• Flowers
• Electric bills are at an all-time low
• Freedom is on the march

Any more happy news? Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Busy day for a Sunday. Read the rest of this post...

Anti-gay "Defense of Marriage Act" overturns state domestic violence laws

Holy crap. Ohio overturned part of its domestic violence law by passing the anti-gay and anti-gay-marriage Defense of Marriage Act.

Get the word out to every state considering one of these. The religious right's bigotry has just turned around and hurt women. That's what happens when you cave to these bigots.

From the Dayton Daily News:

County prosecutors cannot charge some unmarried people under Ohio's domestic violence law because it conflicts with the state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, this area's state appeals court ruled Friday.

The 2nd District Court of Appeals is the first of the state's 12 appellate courts to rule that the domestic violence law runs afoul of the Defense of Marriage amendment, passed by voters in 2004, and does not apply to "a person living as a spouse."

The appeals court upheld dismissal of a domestic violence charge against Karen S. Ward of Fairborn, charged with assaulting her "live-in boyfriend" in Greene County,

The ruling affects domestic violence cases in Champaign, Clark, Darke, Miami and Montgomery counties as well, Greene County First Assistant Prosecutor Suzanne Schmidt said.

Read the rest of this post...

GREAT appearance by Markos on CNN

Markos did an amazing job today on CNN's Reliable Sources with Howie Kurtz. It's a quite interesting interview, about his book, about the Democratic party, the Washington Post blogger fiasco and more. And note the way Markos carries himself, responds to questions, smiles - the perfect mature, easy-going, likeable way to carry yourself in these kind of interviews. He did a great job, definitely watch this. Read the rest of this post...

She's melting, she's melting

Unlike her GOP compatriot George Allen who doesn't want to be a Senator, Katherine Harris really wants to be a US Senator. But read the post from Josh Marshall about the latest developments in her campaign....she's really losing it. And not kidding here, according to insiders, her campaign has become a "Christian Crusade":

Friends and advisers say Harris has been deeply religious all her life, but religion recently has become a central part of her campaign. Campaign staffers warily describe Harris as leading a "Christian crusade."

"It was always part of the background, but it was never an integral part of the campaign. It never engulfed her," said former campaign manager Jim Dornan, who quit the campaign in November but keeps in touch with staffers. "She's grasping for a pillar she thinks this campaign can be raised on."

Read the rest of this post...

Radio show host fired for mis-speaking about Condi

Yeah, fire his ass. He mis-spoke and garbled his words when speaking about Saint Condi, a member of the BUSH ADMINISTRATION, eeeks! Sounds like a plot to me, fire him, Dixie Chick him, make it so that his mis-speaking ass never works again. After all, in Amerikkka we can't have people unintentionally mixing their words, especially when talking about the revered Bush administration.

And you have to love Condi's response, invoking slavery AND using this to justify the disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She's got some nerve, especially after it's obvious from the transcript that the DJ in question was trying to say "coup" and I think "boon" at the same time - he ended up saying "c--n," then immediately caught what he said and then said oh my God I'm so sorry. You do not fire a guy for that - unless, UNLESS, the audio transcript shows that his tone was only mock serious when he apologized, otherwise it was an obvious confusion of two words.

It reminds of the time several years ago I was on the phone with someone from the gay family support group P-FLAG. In the middle of the phone call I called the group P-FAG. I was mortified, and immediately told the person I was gay so I really wasn't making a fag joke. Obviously I mis-spoke. And no one got me fired. And PFLAG didn't blame my slip of the tongue on the Matthew Shepard murder. In contrast to some opportunistic people who wouldn't know a civil right if it hit them in the face.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Dave Lenihan of KTRS in St. Louis apologized on the air immediately after making what he said was a slip of the tongue during his morning show on Wednesday.

Lenihan had praised Rice, who has frequently said she aspires to run the NFL one day but has ruled out seeking to replace retiring Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who recently announced his retirement.

On his show, Lenihan said: "She's been chancellor of Stanford. She's got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She's African-American, which would kind of be a big c--n. A big c--n. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that."

He said he had meant to say "coup" instead of the slur. KTRS president and general manager Tim Dorsey agreed that the remark was accidental but announced the same day that Lenihan had been fired.

Rice said Sunday that the incident is evidence that the "birth defect" of slavery infuses even mature democracies with racial tensions that take generations to heal.

Rice added that she hopes the episode inspires Americans to "be a little bit more humble" about the progress of emerging democracies such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course, we probably should understand why Condi is so heavy-handed about making slavery comparisons. After all, this is one of her first forays into actually doing a damn thing about the civil rights of anyone, so you can't expect her to be really that adept at it. Read the rest of this post...

Scalia publicly prejudges Guantanamo detainee case, calls for him to recuse himself grow

What Scalia ought to do is step down altogether. He knows a judge has no business publicly stating which way he will decide on a case. The idea is that he's supposed to listen to the arguments and THEN decide, though I know in Republican-land that's considered a bit of an old chestnut, deciding on the facts FIRST then acting.

From ThinkProgress:

This week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the special military commissions created by the Bush administration to try Guantanamo detainees violate national and international law, as human rights groups charge.

But Justice Antonin Scalia doesn’t have to wait for arguments — his mind is already made up. Newsweek reports that in a controversial unpublicized March 8 speech, Scalia “dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions.”

“War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts,” he says on a tape of the talk reviewed by NEWSWEEK.

“Give me a break" - challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don’t have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: “If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I’m not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it’s crazy.” Scalia was apparently referring to his son Matthew, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq.

Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Off to tape more Politics TV. Anything new? Read the rest of this post...

Religious right say masturbation will be the end of Western civilization

I just had to share a little bit of an anti-gay email I just got from a lead religious right group (it's one of the groups that claims you can pray away the gay):

Here is the terrifying fact: If we as a nation and as a Church allow ourselves to be taken in by the scam of monogamous same-sex couples, we will be welcoming to our Communion rails (presuming that we still have Communion rails) not just the statistically insignificant number of same-sex couples who have lived together for more than a few years (most of whom purchased stability by jettisoning monogamy); we will also be legitimizing every kind of sexual taste, from old-fashioned masturbation and adultery to the most outlandish forms of sexual fetishism. We will, in other words, be giving our blessing to the suicide of Western civilization.

Catch that? Masturbation will lead to the suicide of Western civilization. We're talking nutsy cukoo here. Oh, and you'll note they didn't say "homosexual masturbation," they're talking about the need for the state to prohibit ALL masturbation. (Which might explain what I wrote about last night, my post about why conservatives have grown so constantly angry.)

Think that's just one fringe religous right group going nutso? Let me remind you of what Republican Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote only three years ago in his dissent against the Supreme Court ruling that gays should no longer be thrown in jail simply because of who they are:

State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of Bowers' validation of laws based on moral choices. Every single one of these laws is called into question by today's decision; the Court makes no effort to cabin the scope of its decision to exclude them from its holding.

Did you get that?

Scalia, the darling of the Republicans, the kind of judge they want to appoint to every court in the country, is worried that if liberals get their way states will no longer be able to make masturbation a crime.

This is what we're up against folks. These are the people the Republican party proudly calls their base. These are the people George Bush proudly embraces as his own, as people who represent what he thinks about God and state.

They want to make masturbation a crime.

That should give you insight enough into what the Republican party, and conservatism, has become. Read the rest of this post...

ABC News discovers "the Internets"

Read this article, then tell me that ABC isn't being just a tad naive about the Internet.

Call me crazy, but maybe the reason only 31% of the nation thinks the media is making Iraq sound worse than it really is, yet the majority of emails received by ABC on the matter in the past few days say the exact opposite, is because ABC is the victim of an online swarm campaign by conservatives.

Are you people that naive?

They even put the subtitle to the article as "Majority of Viewers Feel Iraq Coverage Is Flawed."

Oh great. So now ABC can hire a Republican blogger to even out their coverage, tell us that Iraq is really going well, that 60 people a day aren't really dying, that they don't really only have electricity for 5 hours a day (just imagine that, 5 hours a day, what happens to business during the rest of the day, fax machines, phones, computers, what happens to your fridge and your freezer, and what happens during the summer when its 130 degrees (for real) and your AC doesn't work 19 hours a day). No, don't report on any of that because ABC got lots of emails telling them they're biased.

And I thought naivete about the Internet was the exclusive realm of the Washington Post.

Oh yeah. And ABC, please tell Bob Woodruff that the majority of your viewers think he didn't really almost die. Read the rest of this post...

Bush tells Latinos, you're screwed

I was just watching ABC's THIS WEEK, and saw Bush say the following about the immigration debate this week:

"When we conduct this debate it must be done in a civil way."

I heard that, and something sounded awfully familiar. So I went back and looked at what Bush had to say about the debate over the effort to bash another minority, gays, but taking away their rights with explicit language in the US Constitution.

"We should also conduct this difficult debate in a manner worthy of our country, without bitterness or anger."

So there you have it. When Bush tells a minority community that he expects a civil debate, it means he's about to screw them. Read the rest of this post...

George Allen doesn't like being a Senator -- so why is he running again?

Poor George Allen, he doesn't like being a Senator. But, he's running for re-election anyway. If Allen is so unhappy in his current job, he should retire. But since he's running anyway, Virginians can make his life better by voting him out of the Senate in November:

George Allen makes little secret that he is bored with life in the Senate.

"I made more decisions in half a day as governor than you can make in a whole week in the Senate," Senator Allen said earlier this month as he dashed into a recent Republican fund-raiser in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Over eggs and hash browns with a Republican crowd in Davenport, he lamented about being in the Senate, "It's too slow for me."

Senator Allen, Republican of Virginia, had traveled to Iowa with designs on the White House in 2008, so his musings on his job's duties may not sound surprising. With his conservative voting record and down-home folksy manner — he wears black lizard-skin cowboy boots and tucks a tin of chewing tobacco in his suit pocket — and his name recognition as the son of a famous football coach, he has been crisscrossing the country, pitching himself as an alternative to Senator John McCain.

Allen isn't even subtle about his disdain for his current job. If the Senate is too slow for George Allen, he should get a new job.

One other thing: Imagine if a Democratic Senator who was thinking about running for President in 2008, who is also facing re-election this year, said he or she was bored and really didn't like being a Senator. The media would have a field day. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday talk shows open thread

It's Condi day on the talk shows. She's making the rounds this morning. I'm sure she'll tell us all the good news from Iraq and continue the drumbeat on Iran. Has any reporter or talk show host ever made her accept any responsibility for the failed Bush foreign policy? Or are they too busy fawning over her and talking football?:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG), 9 a.m.: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.).

THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA), 9 a.m.: Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.); Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.); Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D); Harvey C. Mansfield , Harvard professor; Naomi Wolf , author.

FACE THE NATION (CBS, WUSA), 10:30 a.m.: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.); Stephen J. Hadley , White House national security adviser.

MEET THE PRESS (NBC, WRC), 10:30 a.m.: Rice.

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Rice , Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.); Qubad Talabany , representative to the United States for the Iraqi Kurdistan government; retired Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor ; retired Army Gen. George A. Joulwan .

Read the rest of this post...

"Tex" Sensenbrenner is one nasty, cranky GOPer

Congressman James "Tex" Sensenbrenner, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and the heir to the Kotex fortune, was on the Today Show today defending his anti-immigration bill. He is the voice of the GOP on this issue and it is an ugly voice.

John has a post below with pictures from a massive rally yesterday in Los Angeles. If anyone in the Latino community doubts whether the GOP hates them, they just need to listen to Sensenbrenner. He has made himself the leader of the Republican party on this issue -- and the House passed his punitive, anti-immigration bill. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

So has Mrs. Bush found a way to make some money off of the 2,000+ American dead in Iraq yet? Read the rest of this post...