tdog

WaPo reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee is releasing some details from key pre-Iraq-War intelligence assessments (performed at our taxpayer expense) which demonstrate that the Bush Administration was flat-out warned about a lot of the post-invasion consequences that have come to pass vis a vis an insurgency and post-invasion chaos; indeed, if the reports are glaringly wrong in anything, it was in their somewhat optimistic assessment that Iraq rebuilding could be well underway and hence the insurgency should be subsiding by now. Well, no plan is perfect, as they say. Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo) is not incorrect by pointing out...

Thus sayeth Monica Goodling, during testimony before a House committee yesterday. She was referring to her service as a loyal Christianist soldier-bot, duly vetting out well-qualified applicants to the Department of Justice for such crimes as contributing to Democratic candidates, or not being bat-shit right-wing enough to satisfy her Pat Robertson-honed political (though clearly not legal) skills. She also appears to be trying to throw former Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul McNulty and Gonzales aide Kyle Sampson under the bus, by contending that they attended key meetings (along with Gonzales himself) discussing the U.S. Attorney firing scheme with the White House...

And so, handing the President a more or less complete victory in the inter-branch urinating contest associated with funding the Iraq war, it seems that the Democratic Congressional leaders have removed provisions for troop withdrawal from the new proposed Iraq war supplemental bill, retreating from what had been significant Congressional victories in holding together on a war funding . Well, well. Polling does show that a substantial majority of Americans oppose the Presidents handling of the Iraq war, and indeed, a substantial majority favor a troop reduction. But in practical terms, there really are only two choices with Iraq: (1)...

The Grey Lady gives us this discussion of former Deputy Attorney General (and U.S. Attorney in Manhattan) James Comey, notably Comey’s tendency to do things that bite the Bush Administration on the tushy, including appointing Patrick FitzGerald as special prosecutor, praising a group of fired U.S. Attorneys, and of late, testifying before the Sentate Judiciary Committee as to the extraordinarily poor taste shown by Andy Card and (yes!) Alberto “Abu” Gonzales, who showed up in a hospital intensive care unit to try to cajole then Attorney General John Ashcroft into signing off on a warrantless eavesdropping program that even Ashcroft...

We’ll probably not get to know what, if anything, the after-life will hold for the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who passed away today at 73. Falwell’s legacy will be… conroversial. He was extremely instrumental in helping to forge the [toxic] alliance between right-wing religious extremism and right-wing business extremism that has become “the base” of the modern Republican Party. Extreme… is a pretty good description of him, love him or hate him, whether attacking purple purse-carrying children’s character Tinky Winky of the Teletubbies for being, you know, gay, or for blaming America first (he and his fellow Virginia-based toxic-religio-extremist Pat Robertson...

While the American Constitution doesn’t officially have a “liquidate the enemies of the State” provision, nor does it have a suspension clause when politically expedient… apparently, the “spirit” of the Constitution is such that, Vietnam War style, we must destroy our civil liberties in order to save them. Hence, we give you exhibit A, as the opening statements were given in the “new and improved” trial of former “enemy combatant” and alleged “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla in Miami. You will recall that U.S. citizen Padilla found himself in a Kafkaesque conundrum, held in solitary confinement and psychologically tortured and abused...

That, of course, is retired Army General John Batiste, profiled here by the Grey Lady. Batiste, commander of over 22,000 soldiers in the First Infantry Division in Iraq, left the Army after that experience, and has been quite critical of the Bush Administration’s handling of the war. After previously joining the (thereby safer) near unanimous chorus of calls for the ouster of former SecDef Rumsfeld (a chorus so loud that eventually, even George W. Bush heard it), the former General is now playing with fire, by appearing in an ad by VoteVets.Org that is (heavens) actually critical of Our SaviorTM,...

Although it is still not backing off from efforts to vilify the courageous men and women who have undertaken representation of the so-called “worst of the worst” now held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (around half of whom have already been released, and over 80 of the 380 or so left have been declared completely innocent by the military itself, and only ten of whom have ever been charged with anything)… the Justice Department withdrew its demands to limit attorneys to three visits with their clients. In some sense, I take this as a personal affront, on any number of levels....

Dick Cheney seems to be making up for what some might argue was a lack of personal courage in his younger days when he had “other priorities” than serving in his nation’s war in Vietnam (by obtaining five deferments, some in legendary fashion). Cheney tops his trip to Afghanistan earlier this year (in which Bagram Airbase was attacked while he was there) with a trip to Baghdad (the U.S. Embassy was attacked while he was there). Interestingly, while his second was off in Iraq, risking death either from insurgent attacks or from his own ticker giving out during insurgent attacks,...

Happy birthday to TD Dad, who turns three score and ten today. And happy birthday to TD-Niece IV, who turns two days old today.