Clinton Feud Trumps Global Warming

In an almost unbelievable story, New York magazine reports Bush officials said if Clinton spoke at the U.N. Climate Change Conference it would destroy any chance of them signing on. $Q: “It’s just astounding,” the source told New York Magazine. “It came through loud and clear from the Bush people—they wouldn’t sign the deal if Clinton were allowed to speak.” It's clear they never had any intention of signing and were dangling the prospect to keep President Clinton from speaking. The administration's strong-arm tactics failed miserably: their credibility has dropped even lower with the international community and Clinton appeared anyway to publicly chastise them.

Coalition of the Billing

WaPo reports Poland is negotiating for U.S. military assistance. Sounds like the Washington will have to write a check if they want Poland to stay in Iraq.

70% Say Bush has No Clear Plan

From a New York Times-CBS poll: So far, do you think that George W. Bush has developed a clear plan for getting American troops out of Iraq, or hasn’t he developed one? Has: 25% Has not: 70% Source: The New York Times / CBS News Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,155 American adults, conducted from Dec. 2 to Dec. 6, 2005. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

DOD Directive and Bush Speeches

FoxNews was the first to break the story of how the President's recent partisan references in his speeches are putting military audiences in an uncomfortable position. In brief, it is against the rules for military on duty and in uniform to attend political events. Here is the relevant Department of Defense Directive (note the signature of then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz). It touches on the issue a number of times, the most obvious being: E3.3. EXAMPLES OF PROHIBITED POLITICAL ACTIVITIES in accordance with the statutory restrictions in 10 U.S.C. 973(b) (reference (b)) and references (g) and (h), and the policies established in section 4., above, of this Directive, a member on active duty shall not: ... E3.3.18. Attend partisan political events as an official representative of the Armed Forces. If followed scrupulously, the directive makes it hard for politicians to manipulate the forces. But this is exactly what the President has done and continues to do. It's obvious the President has used these audiences as an alternative to get around uncomfortable questions from a representative sampling of the electorate. By attacking Democrats at these events , it now appears he has caused the military to break its own rules. More from makemefree at Daily Kos.

Allawi Bid Surrounded by Tension and Violence

Pressure is mounting on Iyad Allawi, the favored candidate of the West in the December elections in Iraq: Earlier in the month he was mobbed by an angry crowd of hardline Shiites A report from the Independent revealed the British are trying to stall an investigation into a massive arms swindle that happened on his watch (the idea being to help him get across the December 15 finish line). His offices were stormed and torched by gunmen on Thursday Say what you will about him, he's a brave man for even pursuing the job at all.

Clinton Upstages Bush

In the wake of Kyoto, Canadians crafted a proposal that gave the U.S. a voice at global warming talks in Montreal. But the U.S. has given the proposal the Heisman and they have refused to participate. The negotiations were designed to be non-binding, an attempt by the international community to work out differences in a civilized manner. The administration is blissfully unaware of the effects its 25% of the world's greenhouse gases causes—one more problem they're dumping on the next generation. Update: A showing by President Clinton may have rattled administration delegates. $Q from CTV: "They haven't protested formally, but they're annoyed," a source in the Canadian government told The Associated Press. "They're not infuriated, but they're not thrilled."

Rendition Behind Bogus Intel

The New York Times reports on a failed rendition. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was secretly handed over to Egypt for questioning. There he gave up false information about an Iraq/Al-Qaeda link which was thrown back to the administration to use in their sales pitch for the Iraq invasion. It's bad enough that rendition is a shallow attempt to suborn questioning tactics that are illegal domestically. How do its supporters justify it when it spews out intel that embarrasses the President?

Lieberman Candidate to Replace Rumsfeld?

Apparently that's the latest buzz in Washington. The New York Daily News has the details. Interesting side bit about Rumsfeld wanting to quit a year ago. The President wouldn't let him because of the political optics. No word on how job performance entered the equation.

Ann Coulter at University of Connecticut

Sample of her incisive commentary: "If the Democrats want to stick to the middle of the road, why did they pick Ted Kennedy. Didn't he have some trouble sticking to the middle of the road?" she said. It went pretty much as expected, with UConn essentially yelling "You Con". She never even tries to be educational or thoughtful; all she wants to be is controversial—that's where the money is. UConn played right into her hands.

David Brooks Blasts Conservatives

willisbros has the full NYT article. Central thrust is that true conservativism has been absorbed and mutated by the ruling Republicans. Brooks gives a line item indictment of the issues where the Republicans have failed and the issues they are not even bothering to address. $Q: When conservatism was in its most creative phase, there was a sharp distinction between conservatives and Republicans. Conservatives chased ideas, while Republicans were the corporate hacks who sold out. Now that conservative Republicans are in power, that distinction is obliterated. It's an important read for all Democrats, a trail of breadcrumbs that shows exactly where the Republicans are vulnerable in 2006 and exactly where the Dems should focus their attention. They have to chip away at the notion that conservative=Republican, an idea fostered by unofficial White House spokesmen like Limbaugh and Hannity. If Democrats develop and articulate clear and positive positions on the issues Brooks mentions the thinkers will run from the hacks. They're just waiting for an excuse: Dems can't sit back—they've got to go out and make it happen.

President Cites Pearl Harbor

From an article in the Japan Economic Newswire. After comparing Pearl Harbor to 9/11, this: 'Like generations before us, we're taking the fight to those who attacked us -- and those who share their murderous vision for future attacks,' Bush said. It is simply untrue that the Iraq invasion had anything to do with taking the fight to the 9/11 murderers. Had that been the goal, the vast resources misused in in Iraq would have been thrown into the Pakistan/Afghanistan area. Had that been the goal OBL would not be at large today. It would have been much closer to reality to say: 'Unlike generations before us, we're taking the fight to those who didn't attacked us"

O'Reilly Misses Meaning of Christmas

Another fake War on Christmas rant from marginal pseudo-pundit Bill O'Reilly. He should pop the Grinch in the DVD pay close attention: And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! "It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!" Fox News and the organized religion they shill for would prefer to see the word Christmas screaming from every event and item sold. Used to be the commercialization of the holiday was a bad thing for the allegedly faithful—now it's the ideal. It's shameless and irresponsible of Fox to create a national controversy out of a smattering of isolated tiffs. In doing so they've lost the true message of a holiday that indeed does mean a little bit more . Christmas is not about corporate endorsement, politics or government sanction of faith. It's a personal time of celebration for the devout and a time of warmth, goodwill and cheer for all. Time for Bill O'Reilly to wake up and carve the Roast Beast.

President's Numbers Low but Holding

The latest from Quinnipiac: Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? 40% Approve 54% Disapprove In general how satisfied are you with the way things are going in the nation today? 39% Satisfied 59% Dissatisfied Source: Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,230 registered American voters, conducted from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4, 2005. Margin of error is 3.2 per cent. The downward trend in his numbers has yet to break through the support barrier of the mid 30s. The good news for the President is his base is still with him even though the swing vote has swung in the opposite direction (his numbers were lower in all the polls when the Harriet Miers choice disappointed his core constituency). The bad news is he has a very thin margin of error to work with: if he drops much more across the board it's a signal the die-hards are running, and it could trigger a precipitous collapse.

Sad Story Breaking in Miami

If early reports are correct, a mentally ill man was gunned down by a federal air marshal. It sounds as though the behaviour justified the response, but it's doubtful that's any consolation to the troubled man's family or the marshal involved.

Cheney's Leaky Logic

From a speech the Vice President made at a military base today in New York: "Some have suggested by liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein we simply stirred up a hornet's nest. They overlook a fundamental fact: We were not in Iraq in September 2001 and the terrorists hit us anyway." It's more of a fundamental non sequitur than it is a fact. "We were not in" Luxembourg either, but that wouldn't justify a subsequent invasion. A handful of fanatics attacked on 9/11, not a country. The Vice President and his team mistakenly poured jet fuel on the movement and the nation—more specifically the best and the brightest—is continuing to suffer the appalling consequences of their negligence.

Kansas Creationists Clobber Critic

From the Wichita Eagle. A professor involved in the the ID/Evolution controversy was allegedly beaten by Intelligent Design supporters. There's evidence he previously insulted his detractors: One recent e-mail from Mirecki to members of a student organization referred to religious conservatives as "fundies," and said a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice slap in their big fat face." Mirecki has apologized for those comments. Maybe next time he'll really do damage to the Creationist camp by sticking to the facts in lieu of getting personal.

Condi's Credibility

From a story by the Age reporting on the Secretary of State's European visit: But Rice said "the United States does not transport, and has not transported, detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture". US officials, human rights experts and news reports, however, said that the United States had rendered terror suspects to a number of countries that use torture according to the US State Department's own human rights reports. She's entering Colin Powell territory here—as the administration's highest polling figure her reputation is being put on the block. A report from ABC suggests she might regret her statements as much as her predecessor. $Q: Current and former CIA officers speaking to ABC News on the condition of confidentiality say the United States scrambled to get all the suspects [in two secret CIA prisons] off European soil before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived there today. The officers say 11 top al Qaeda suspects have now been moved to a new CIA facility in the North African desert. The article alleges the suspects were waterboarded, or as it was known 450 years ago, "The Water Torture". The reality behind the scenes is completely at variance with the spirit, if not the letter, of what she's saying. Her international credibility is one of the few bright spots in a gathering political storm. It's hard to believe she's squandering it so recklessly.

Ritter's Rebuke

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter argues convincingly the reason the intelligence failed on Iraq was because the process was heavily politicized. But unlike many, he doesn't stop there; he goes on to suggest concrete steps that can be taken to prevent such a debacle happening again. It's a reminder that the excuse "everyone" got it wrong is disingenuous, because clearly "everyone" is not to blame for drumming up the false sense of imminent danger. The line doesn't work on either the foreign or domestic front. Once the CIA position was clear, it would have been difficult if not impossible for any of the world's intel agencies to counter the larger case for WMD on anything but a piecemeal basis. The CIA's budget and experience, especially regarding Saddam, made them the leaders--much the same way President Bush was the leader in the push for war. Domestically, the "group blame" argument is even weaker. As Howard dean pointed out in his recent San Antonio radio interview, "The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong." John F. Kennedy once said "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan." That rudderless feeling on Iraq won't go away—no matter how many talking points and Victory Brochures are issued—until the President accepts ownership of not only the problem, but the process that created it.

Hillary's Challenge

Anti-war Democrat Jonathan Tasini is taking her on: My opponent voted for the war and supports the idea that there is a "winning" strategy for the war. My positions are consistent with what the majority of New Yorkers believe. My opponent is out-of-step with New Yorkers throughout the state. His motto? Vote for what you believe in.

Erroneous Renditions

Scary reading from Dana Priest at the Washington Post. $Q: Masri was held for five months largely because the head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center's al Qaeda unit "believed he was someone else," one former CIA official said. "She didn't really know. She just had a hunch." This on the eve of the Secretary of State's visit to win European support for CIA tactics.

Frank Rich on Woodward

Tennessee Guerilla Women has Frank Rich's piece on Bob Woodward. $Q: Mr. Woodward mentions in passing the White House Iraq Group, convened to market the war, but ignores the direct correlation between WHIG’s inception and the accelerating hysteria in the Bush-Cheney-Rice warnings about Saddam’s impending mushroom clouds in the late summer and fall of 2002. This story was broken by Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus in Mr. Woodward’s own paper eight months before “Plan of Attack” was published. At Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference the Special Prosecutor said "The truth is the engine of our judicial system, and if you compromise the truth, the whole process is lost". Bob Woodward, appearing on Larry King Live after his involvement in the case was revealed, said the statement applied to journalism as well as the judicial system. But the truth was right there in front of him when he was writing "Plan of Attack". Unfortunately for all he willfully disregarded connecting the dots and chose fidelity to his anonymous sources as his highest ideal.

Hillary Clinton in Kentucky

From WaPo. Sen. Clinton continues to finesse her way around her support for the war. $Q: "The time has come for the administration to stop serving up platitudes and present a plan for finishing this war with success and honor," she said. "I reject a rigid timetable that the terrorists can exploit, and I reject an open timetable that has no ending attached to it. "Instead, I think we need a plan for winning and concluding this war, and the president can begin by taking responsibilities for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of this war." "I reject...I reject...I think"—bit of a twist on Descartes, and a good illustration of the difficulties she's facing in trying to have it both ways. Before calling on the administration to concede their mistakes, it would be honorable for her to lead by example and admit that her judgement on the issue has been dead wrong from the beginning.

Weird Bush News

Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that Pakistan's education ministry is going to remove an English poem titled "The Leader" from 11th grade school textbooks. Reason? The first letter from every stanza spells out "President George W Bush".

More Maureen Dowd - W.'s Head in the Sand

She's not in a festive mood. $Q: It's not a military strategy - classified or unclassified. It's political talking points - and not even good ones. Are we really supposed to believe that anybody, even the most deeply delusional Bush sycophant, believes the phrase "Our strategy is working"?