That, of course, would be the first time in the nation’s history that a woman has risen to the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, in this case, Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who assumes that role as her party finally opened this, the 110th Congress, in the majority. The new Democratic led Senate includes 16 women (and if I’m not mistaken, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada is the first Mormon to serve as Senate Majority Leader). In another first, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison was sworn in as the first Moslem member of Congress, and in...

Digby treats us to the latest sickening details of the sickening saga of American citizen, the Brooklyn born Jose Padilla (who, according to an NPR account I heard this morning, told a Miami court he wishes his name pronounced more in accordance with the usual Spanish pronunciation (rhymes with “tortilla”) as opposed to how his attorney Andrew Patel told me (rhymes with “Godzilla”) in his interview with me here. Needless to say, after asserting the right (a right it still insist it has, and indeed, under which it still holds legal resident Saleh Al-Marri) to just ignore the Constitution on...

In this case, the WaPo gives us this account of FBI reports on detainee abuse at Gitmo, including abuse of the Koran, wrapping detainees in the Israeli flag, the cold rooms, the short-shacklings to the floor… in one case, wrapping a detainee’s head in duct tape after he kept reciting the Koran…in another, a mock Baptism of the Moslem detainee by a mock Catholic priest… All in all… the usual. Nothing you all don’t know already, if you believe some of our interview subjects… you know… the people who were there. Of course… why would you do that?

And so, here we go again… another year shot to hell! For the remaining detainees at Gitmo (the vast majority of whom did nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time), another year of Kangaroo Kourt extensions of their indefinite sentences without any due process, as set forth in this lengthy Grey Lady story. For other pawns of the Bushmen’s machinations, like the families of the nearly 3,000 3,000 American service personnel who have been killed in the Iraq campaign, or the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis… and God knows who else… it won’t even have...

The Grey Lady reports that the President somehow lacked the exuberance he displayed when Saddam Hussein was first captured at the time of the execution. The President issued a statement that the execution would not end the violence in Iraq (and indeed, bombings just today have already killed at least 68). Then, after being told that the execution of Saddam Hussein was imminent… the President quite literally slept through it. After all the years of telling us about what a bogeyman and monster Saddam was (Hitler meets Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Darth Vader and the Grinch)… to then just sleep...

And so it appears, at least according to one Iraqi judge, that Saddam Hussein’s execution will take place around 10 pm EST (0200 Zulu (GMT)) (its now around 1900 EST/2300 Zulu… so maybe 3 hours from when I write this now. Somebody now screwing around with his chainsaw in Crawford, TX wants the diversion of a Saddam execution to get him through until next week when it can be all-Gerald-Ford-all-the-time… worse, the Bushmen may well want an escalation from the Iraqi side which will inevitably be part of the shit-storm they are trying to cause by executing Saddam. (Note that...

Bob Woodward has, evidently, decided to keep them coming… yesterday of course, we learned that Ford didn’t like the Iraq war thing so much… today Woodward tells us of Ford’s lengthy and secret friendship with Nixon. Not that this is a surprise; the two were moderate Republicans, Ford in a leadership position in the House. Nixon a House and Senate member and later Vice-President and President… they certainly knew each other, and could certainly have been friends. Ford struck everyone as a most affable fellow… But, of course, beyond affable, Ford struck everyone (me included) as a decent fellow, who...

It seems that it’s o.k. for Republicans to criticize the President and even the inconceivably unpopular Iraq war if (1) they’re dead, as in the case of the late President Ford, who strongly opposed the President’s handling of the war (including the decision to have it) according to Bob “Head Courtier” Woodward writing in WaPo; or (2) if their party’s been thrown out of the majority, as in the case of Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon, who gave a rousing speech critical of the Iraq war and its escalation (complete with reference to the word “criminal”). Smith, of course,...

The 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, passed away at age 93. He managed to just barely outlive Ronald Reagan (who helped cost him the 1976 election with a primary and convention challenge) as the oldest man ever to serve as President, and Ford was the only man to serve in that office without having been elected to either it or to the vice-presidency, having taken that office after Spiro Agnew resigned, and then assuming the presidency after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. Despite having officials around him that included Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State), George H.W. Bush...

In the most unsurprising affirmance in the history of unsurprising affirmances, the Iraqi appeals court set up to affirm death sentences imposed by Iraqi death sentence courts has affirmed the death sentence of Saddam Hussein by hanging (he said he preferred to be shot). Given that the Vice-President has recently suggested that American forces take sides in the escalating Iraqi civil war on the side of the Shiites, executing the former Sunni President would be a nice way to kick off the festivities. I suggest former New York Jet Mark Gastineau as honorary executioner (or at least, part of the...