Wednesday’s Mini-Report

May 9, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said today that when Congress returns in September, “there will be a reassessment” on how well the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq is working, and whether it’s time to consider “Plan B.” He didn’t say what “Plan B” might include.

* Dick Cheney seemed to be encouraged by what he saw in Iraq today, but let’s not forget what the honesty-challenged VP said after his last trip to Baghdad in December 2005: “Well, Iraq’s looking good. It’s hard sometimes, if you look at just the news, to have the good stories burn through. Part of it is that what we’re doing here, obviously, takes time. From our perspective, looking back, as I say, to a year and a half ago, I think it’s remarkable progress. I think we’ve turned the corner, if you will. I think when we look back from 10 years hence, we’ll see that the year ’05 was in fact a watershed year here in Iraq.”

* I have a new article in The American Prospect today. For regular readers, the subject may seem familiar. The headline is “Wish upon a czar.” Take a look. (And while you’re there, notice how cool the newly redesigned Prospect page looks.)

* TP: “Yesterday, the National Security Archive (NSA) released a 3 page pre-war Pentagon memo and an accompanying slideshow presentation that revealed the Bush administration’s desire to create a ‘Rapid Reaction Media Team’ (RRMT) to control major Iraqi media while providing an Iraqi ‘face’ for its efforts. Both the memo and the slide presentation were prepared by two Pentagon offices: 1) The Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, which specializes in psychological warfare, and 2) The Office of Special Plans under then undersecretary of defense for policy, Douglas Feith.”

* Tom DeLay is apparently annoyed that he’s still facing an FBI investigation. He told reporters yesterday: “They’re going after other people and they’re questioning the other people about whether they know anything I may have done. And we’ve given them all the records and that’s the problem they’re having…. [My wife] did her work and she was underpaid for the work she did and they can’t make the case. It’s a Justice Department that is running amok. Fish or cut bait. Do something.” Keep on whining, Tom.

* No one’s buying the rhetoric about Iraqis following us home: “Most Americans don’t believe that the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is the key to preventing a full-scale civil war there or protecting the United States from new terrorist attacks, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.”

* I haven’t had a chance to write as much as I’d like about the federal student loan scandal, but yesterday, the Education Department announced that the chief official responsible for overseeing the loan program is resigning. Tim F. had a great post on the subject.

* There’s an AP article making the rounds accusing Pelosi of including some kind of corrupt provision in a big water redevelopment bill passed by the House in April. The story is bogus; Greg Sargent debunked it with one phone call. (Next question: why couldn’t the AP have made that phone call and skipped the bogus story?)

* CNN’s Lou Dobbs may be wrong about a number of things, but he’s right about church-state separation.

* Thomas Friedman devoted his column today to explaining that Hezbollah is bad. We, um, knew that, Tom.

* It’s probably an inconvenient reality for the White House, but a majority of Iraqi parliament members have signed a petition calling for a U.S. withdrawal. Shouldn’t this be bigger news?

* Number of magnetic “Support Our Troops” ribbons sold by the leading manufacturer in 2004: 4,000,000. Number sold last year: 48,000

* With Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory in France this week, Bill O’Reilly has decided to lift his entirely meaningless boycott of France and all French products. (Yes, apparently, it was still ongoing through last week.) O’Reilly told his minions yesterday, however, that “‘Boycott France’ bumper stickers do remain available on BillOReilly.com for nostalgia purposes, and you never know… we may have to re-impose it.”

* And finally, when I worked at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, I noticed that my boss, the Rev. Barry Lynn, was always delighted when right-wing critics would criticize him. (Pat Robertson once called Barry “lower than a child molester.”) I never fully understood why he enjoyed getting slammed by far-right. And yet, today one of my favorite unhinged right-wing blogs slammed me personally for being a “completely clueless idiot whose ongoing disgust of America is obvious.” I have to admit, considering the source, it made my day.

Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Number of magnetic “Support Our Troops” ribbons sold by the leading manufacturer in 2004: 4,000,000. Number sold last year: 48,000

Price in the clearance aisle at the Wal-Mart where I buy groceries – $0.75

  • Number of magnetic “Support Our Troops” ribbons sold by the leading manufacturer in 2004: 4,000,000. Number sold last year: 48,000

    This is an old story isn’t it, CB??

    However, These ribbons sales are picking up or so I hear.

  • But who makes the ribbons? And how much of their money actually goes to supporting those troops? I’m a couple of years late on this I know but I bet none.

  • dr sanity again?

    I read the article and it seems that she’s projecting herself onto us or visa versa.

    She must really hate this blog to mention it. Perhaps we should goof on her some more to test how strong her grasp on “sanity” really is.

    Judging by what I read. It shouldn’t be hard.

  • Nice piece in the American Prospect, CB. I’m guessing that as the End of Bush approaches (god willing) his czar appointments will fail to score even PR points. People willing to sign on to short term appointments — much less sinking ships — are hard to find.

    As for the slam, I’m curious. If you allowed yourself to be more cynical, would you still be a “clueless idiot” or would your “ongoing disgust of America” become less obvious?

    Some people’s kids…

  • I think Dr. Sanity is firmly in Bush’s remaining 28%.
    He’s obviously delusional enough…

  • He, she, whoever, sadly doesn’t seem to realize the irony of a tirade like that coming from someone claiming to have anything to do with “sanity.”

  • * It’s probably an inconvenient reality for the White House, but a majority of Iraqi parliament members have signed a petition calling for a U.S. withdrawal. Shouldn’t this be bigger news?

    Ask me this again the day after the Iraqis throw several hundred cases of MREs overboard into the harbor at Basra. think of it as their version of “the Boston Tea Party.”

    Every time I look at the mess that’s going on in Iraq, the underlying current that the administration is presenting—that the insurrection is anti-democracy—just doesn’t ad up. Sunnis are going after pro-American Shia, and Shiites are going after pro-American Sunni. I keep thinking that, once upon a time, Colonists went after “Tories” in a less violent, yet similar way. What’s going on in Iraq may just be another versiopn of colonial America’s struggle with itself, as part of the greater issue of fighting thier War of Independence.

    An Independence, by the way, that is based upon their free and unfettered liberty from ‘us….”

  • Someone should tell Boehner that, by the reckoning of Philip Carter in the piece he wrote for Slate, “Plan B” was:

    “…the transition of security tasks to a new and smaller headquarters led by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and the transition of reconstruction to the nascent Coalition Provisional Authority, led by American proconsul L. Paul Bremer.”

    And it was over by around July 2003, and the insurgency started to get organized.

    http://www.slate.com/id/2164509/

  • And yet, today one of my favorite unhinged right-wing blogs slammed me personally for being a “completely clueless idiot whose ongoing disgust of America is obvious.”

    She also, in all seriousness, used the phrase “bet your bippie.”

  • And yet, today one of my favorite unhinged right-wing blogs slammed me personally…

    Wow…unhinged is right. There is so much projection in that screed that I thought my monitor was going to burn out. I couldn’t even stomach leaving a comment or reading any other of the “Dr.’s” posts. that person is seriously deranged.

  • slammed me personally

    Good for you, CB- although I’ll point out for any less informed people out there that the criticism is entirely unwarranted.

  • And finally, when I worked at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, I noticed that my boss, the Rev. Barry Lynn, was always delighted when right-wing critics would criticize him. (Pat Robertson once called Barry “lower than a child molester.”) I never fully understood why he enjoyed getting slammed by far-right. And yet, today one of my favorite unhinged right-wing blogs slammed me personally for being a “completely clueless idiot whose ongoing disgust of America is obvious.” I have to admit, considering the source, it made my day.

    That’s due to the fact there is balance and harmony in the universe, Steve, as my old writing mentor the late Wendell Mayes never tired of pointing out. In literature and drama, it is shown by the fact that the Hero is only as heroic as the Villain is villainous. To misquote The Deciderer, “in other words, what that means is, you’ve got to have really bad enemies if you’re going to be the really good guy.”

    Unfrotunately, yesterday I was only excoriated by southern-fried morons on the KKK thread, who only proved their stupidity, which is usually about the best one can get from the righties, considering they don’t have IQs that equal room temperature – so be happy to have found some really evil and unhinged ones, Spidey. 🙂

  • So when the Pentagon manipulates media in iraq it’s called psychological warfare. When the Pentagon, and Dick Cheney as well, manipulate the US media about a war and during a time of war, can we construe they are waging psychological warfare on the American populace as well?

  • On the subject of where the money from those magnet ribbons, that FAQ doesn’t actually say how much of the money you spend on the magnets goes to “supporting troops” (whatever that means). It just says that they think warm and fuzzy thoughts when they cash your check, and occasionally donate money to buy webcams for soldiers and support cancer runs. The answer to the “does money support troops” question is written to make it sound like some fraction of your money goes to support, but if you read more carefully it’s entirely possible that they gave a couple thousand dollars away once and now their conscience is clear.

    The main method that buying the ribbon magnet “supports troops” seems to be in this sentence:

    We promoted the Yellow “Support Our Troops” magnet for the very purpose of providing a fundraiser for military support groups to be able to raise funds to be used for donations and care packages for service men and women.

    I read that as saying “people who want to send care packages to soldiers should raise money by reselling our ribbon magnets.” It’s like band candy.

  • Dick “Dick” Cheney Parsing Time.

    It’s hard sometimes, if you look at just the news, to have the good stories burn through.

    Burn through? Is this some sort of hip “business speak” or is Dickles referring to the amount of time it takes Papa Satan to put a story about painted schools on the front page?

    Perhaps it is just further evidence that one of the stents has worked its way into that curdled mass of evil Dick-Dick Goose Step calls a brain.

    And yet, today one of my favorite unhinged right-wing blogs…

    Congratulations, you’ve arrived!
    Next stop: Freeperville!

    “the Bush administration’s desire to create a ‘Rapid Reaction Media Team’

    Uh. I thought this was common knowledge from way back in the early days of this disaster.

    And:

    I see Mr. DeLay is back on the insecticide.

  • CB, back in the good ol college years, there was a right-wing rag called Campus Review around here that was fond of doing things like running graphic anti-gay “cartoons” on the back cover, and generally excoriating anything they could label “liberal.” In each issue, on page 1, they would have a sidebar with their weekly hit list – sort of an enemies of the week column. When they finally listed me, I couldn’t have been more pleased: I’d made enough progress that they had felt it, they had noticed, and they were scared enough to need to hit back.

    The blogosphere of 2007 is a scale beyond anything us campus kids could have imagined 20 years ago, and yet it appears you’ve scared the right so badly by telling the truth and spreading the real news that they can’t ignore the damage you do to their cause – they have to lash out, no matter how childishly and, well, nuttily. Congrats on a job well started, and many happy, right-wing irritating returns!

  • Number of magnetic “Support Our Troops” ribbons sold by the leading manufacturer in 2004: 4,000,000. Number sold last year: 48,000

    Perhaps ribbons that proclaim:
    Support our Iraqi war debt.
    might do a little better…

    By the way, next time you hear some pundit say Bush doesn’t ask Americans to sacrifice anything in this war…

    Shut them up with this:

    The cost of the Iraq war to date we could have funded Social Security indefinitely and provided Health Care insurance for everyone.

    It’s the money stupid!

  • “Well, Iraq’s looking good. It’s hard sometimes, if you look at just the news, to have the good stories burn through. Part of it is that what we’re doing here, obviously, takes time. From our perspective, looking back, as I say, to a year and a half ago, I think it’s remarkable progress. I think we’ve turned the corner, if you will. I think when we look back from 10 years hence, we’ll see that the year ‘05 was in fact a watershed year here in Iraq.”

    Repeat after me: “The insurgency is in its last throes.” Repeat as necessary.

  • [Boehner] didn’t say what “Plan B” might include…

    I think I know what it includes. It includes blaming Bush for the Iraq debacle and then throwing him under the bus in a desperate attempt to stave off the extinction of the Repiblicrook party.

  • Congratulations on getting slammed! You know you’re doing good work when you anger those sorts of people…

  • #23 marcus alrealius alrightus :

    Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation

    Not that it’s any surprise but the Iraqi’s want us to set a timetable for getting out of their country. Somehow I don’t think Shooter is going to vacate the premises without his oil.

    Dead brilliant spot on. Truth in a nutshell.

  • Tom Cleaver, “Unfrotunately” is my new favorite word, and I will joyously spend the rest of the day working it into all the sentences I can. Thank you, because I really needed that.

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