tdog

Clearly, as one of the commenters to this Wonkette piece notes, that most important problem facing America today… is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and thank God that two patriots like Hillary Clinton and Bill O’Reilly can find common ground on it. [Despite my pretensions to the contrary, I just don’t have a black-belt in that particular school of snark. We concede that we are not worthy.]

Regular readers know that with the exception of many Sunday mornings when I turn over blog command to the young ‘un, and post pictures of teen and tween celebrities, that this blog is completely out of touch with what actually constitutes matters of actual importance. Hence, I remain perplexed why it was such a major story (and why it was so critically necessary for) Senator Obama to express his dismay and denouncement of an egomaniacal local demagogue. Spiritual advisor to Obama perhaps, but friend, clearly not. Otherwise, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright would have done his congregant a big favor and,...

What Thomas Nephew said.

Wesley Powell is a partner in the New York City office of the law firm of Hunton & Williams, specializing in antitrust law and securities litigation. Mr. Powell represents a number of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as a number who have previously been released. On April 4, 2008, I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Powell by telephone. What follow are my interview notes, corrected as appopriate by Mr. Powell. The Talking Dog: I’ll start with my usual first question, where were you on September 11, 2001? Wesley Powell: I was in the very building I’m...

That’s right: the winner this evening by Hillary Clinton’s likely single-digit margin of victory (now 8 points with 51% of precincts reporting at around 21 00 EDT) is none other than Republican nominee John McCain (who FWIW won the PA Republican primary itself). Why? Because once again, thanks to race-baiting which played well among Whites (some of whom have behaved in a charming manner), and Clinton-favoring demographics (PA being an older and Whiter state than most of the country– the two factors that have consistently favored Sen. Clinton in other states), and some the first big misplays by Team Obama...

Robert sends us this link to a lengthy Vanity Fair piece by Philippe Sands, discussing the genesis, thesis and synthesis of various American torture policies in the aftermath of 9-11, including the role played by GTMO JAG officer Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, to wit, “brainstorming” to come up with clever torture ideas derived from the Fox sitcom 24. (It’s on the tube, right? So it must be real. Beaver also wrote a troublesome memo later lambasted by Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora, as noted by Jane Mayer here.) Of course, in the current Administration, whether it be the-out-of-the-loop-commanding-general at Abu...

In polite liberal circles, just about the closest one can get to defining, well, the antichrist, is Pittsburgh newspaper publisher, financial-empire-scion and right-wing propagandist Richard Mellon Scaife, who has spent decades and untold millions financing various right wing propaganda, and in the process, undermining any semblance of responsible, sane government. Indeed, Scaife famously funded much of the movement that led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Naturally, less than 48 hours before his own state’s potentially make or break Democratic primary… he and his paper (the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) are endorsing Hillary Clinton. I mean, we already have her posing with...

Some of you psychically predicted that I’d get round to putting up a picture of Raven, especially now that she has some movie coming out. Well, good guess everybody! And I didn’t even have to have Sean Hannity suggest it to me (whoever that is… Daddy!) Anyway, Daddy is still amused that his hard-hitting commentary and original interviews on the war on terror get like 1/10 as much traffic as my putting up pictures of teeny-bopper celebrities. That’s the internet for you. Daddy keeps trying to relive those college glory days through that lame debate he didn’t watch this week;...

The Grey Lady treats us to this lengthy report on the Pentagon’s efforts to recruit “independent” analysts to network news (most frequently Fox, but all the broadcast networks are guilty) from the ranks of retired military officers, who turned out to be little more than shills working for contractors or lobbyists seeking to expand their own influence. The coordination efforts described in the Grey Lady piece do make it sound like the retired generals, colonels, et al. were often little more than Administration marionettes. But that seems a little unfair. They were but one piece of a vast public relations...