Thursday’s Mini-Report

August 23, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The White House is already downplaying Sen. John Warner’s (R-Va.) suggestion of a small drawdown by Christmas. Asked whether Bush would leave the door open to setting a timetable, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, “I don’t think the president feels any differently about setting a specific timetable for withdrawal. I just think it’s important that we wait right now to hear from our commanders on the ground about the way ahead.”

* AP: “Florida’s top police agency said Wednesday its investigation into former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s lurid Internet communications with teenage boys has been hindered because neither Foley nor the House will let investigators examine his congressional computers…. Smith said that the House claims the computers are considered congressional work papers, and that only Foley can release them for review.” Lurid IM chats are considered constitutionally protected? Really?

* Bob Somerby scrutinizes the media’s coverage of the Michelle Obama’s harmless, innocuous comment about family as only Bob Somerby can. (Here’s a hint, the media embarrassed itself — again — with coverage that can only be described as pathetic.)

* Remember the absurd Freedom’s Watch commercials that debuted yesterday? Americans United for Change has already put together a quick response video.

* Speaking of good videos, VoteVets.org has put together a new clip of its own, this one helping emphasize opposition to Bush’s policies among the troops. The new ad features Iraq Veteran John Bruhns, who says, using various Senators’ names, “When I went to Iraq I put my country first. Now we’re stuck in a religious civil war and the troops say it’s only getting worse. Susan Collins thinks protecting George Bush is more important than protecting America. But, George Bush is obsessed with Iraq — instead of defeating Al Qaeda. And Susan Collins won’t stop him. Senator Collins, when will you put your country before politics?”

* NYU’s Jay Rosen responds to Michael Skube’s recent LAT op-ed questioning the journalistic value of blogs, by highlighting some fine journalism Skube would have found if he knew what he was talking about.

* Several conservative blogs are excited today about a Newsweek item that suggests Bill Clinton didn’t do enough to go after Osama bin Laden. Dave Johnson takes a closer look at the report.

* Support the troops: “The Pentagon will fall far short of its goal of sending 3,500 lifesaving armored vehicles to Iraq by the end of the year. Instead, officials expect to send about 1,500.” Blue Girl has some excellent background info on this.

* Rush Limbaugh apparently believes white people don’t care about Darfur, arguing that Democratic presidential candidates talk about the crisis only to secure support from African-American voters. (In other words, he doesn’t care…)

* I’ve been wondering for years why we don’t have rayguns. It’s 2007, for crying out loud. We can go to space, but we can’t have rayguns? Apparently, our wait is nearly over.

* It just gets so tiresome: “During the August 21 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, Washington Post staff writer Anne E. Kornblut asserted that, in contrast with Democratic crowds who applaud Democratic candidates when they say, ‘I’m going to start ending this war in Iraq,’ ‘Republican crowds are a little different. They still want to be supporting the troops.'”

* More evidence of “progress” in Iraq: “Armed groups increasingly control the antiquated switching stations that channel electricity around Iraq, the electricity minister said Wednesday.”

* Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee, believes the Bush administration employs thousands of illegal immigrants. He did not, however, wave a list saying, “I have here in my hand, a list of names of immigrants…”

* And finally, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) returned from a visit to Iraq saying that “the surge is working very, very well,” and adding that it was “very, very helpful to see things on the ground.” Vitter was in Iraq for all of 10 hours. I realize that the senator is anxious to rebuild his credibility after being humiliated in a prostitution scandal, but this is not a way to gain credibility; it is a way to look even more foolish.

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

Vitter was in Iraq for all of 10 hours.

Then he discovered there were no prostitutes, so he left.

the House claims the computers are considered congressional work papers, and that only Foley can release them for review.” Lurid IM chats are considered constitutionally protected? Really?

It’s not the content, it’s where the equipment is located. An appeals court recently ruled that the Feeb shouldn’t have raided Wm. Jefferson’s office. I really hope this doesn’t get turned into “Dems. are Protecting Perverts.” Especially since Faux will trot out their Foley (D-Florida) shit again. The message needs to be: “Foley is stonewalling.*”

tAiO

* Absolutely no pun intended. Seriously, I couldn’t think of another term.

  • Vitter is still quite popular in Louisiana. Their water supply must have some serious koolaid content.

    And Skube’s “journalistic malpractice” exposes the root of what’s really, really wrong with America right now. If we had a real media, all our other problems would fade away significantly.

    But Noooooo….

  • The “quick response” video by Americans United for Change is outstanding. Don’t miss it.

  • Awesome. The military will shell out huge bucks through the DARPA program to try to kill people with giant freakin’ laser beams (hello Austin Powers) while our troops are having a hard time getting up-armored vehicles and are getting hammered with cheapo technology IEDs and EFPs. With Iraq’s electrical grid in such dissaray, I doubt they’d find a great place to plug in a 300kw laser to bag insurgents. I know ray guns are cool but I wish these guys would put down their copies of Maxim and start looking at the wars we really will be fighting in the future.

  • petorado,

    If they did that then where will the CEOs of the Military Industrial Complex get their next massive bonuses? It’s been the way of war in the industrial age. When in doubt, add a gizmo as it is better than thinking things thru.

    As for Vitter, well. 10 hours is probably all he could take before he needed to change his diaper.

  • Skube is just a shrill cuckoo. No one should take him seriously.

    He should join the Peace Corps or something– find something to do where he can speak with his actions, instead of his words. And preferably far, far away.

  • Our policy should be formed by the real general and soldiers on the ground, not the politicians…

    I think that is what’s called a military dictatorship there, Tender Vitter.

  • McClatchy has some breaking news out of Iraq.

    Iranian soldiers crossed into Iraq on Thursday and attacked several small villages in the northeastern Kurdish region, local officials said.

    U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said he couldn’t confirm the attacks, but five Kurdish officials said that troops had infiltrated Iraqi territory and fired on villages.

    The Iranian military regularly exchanges artillery and rocket fire with Kurdish rebels who’ve taken refuge across the border, but Iraqi Kurdish officials worried that Iran’s willingness to cross the border raises the possibility of a broader confrontation that would draw the Iraqi government and U.S. forces into an unwanted showdown.

    One Kurdish legislator said that if reports of the attacks were true, then Iraq must “stand firmly” against future Iranian encroachments.

    Details of the incursion were sparse. Abdul Wahid Gwany, the mayor of Choman, a village 250 miles north of Baghdad, said Iranian troops crossed the border in 10 places and traveled approximately three miles into the mountainous Iraqi region, bombing rural villages in the process. He didn’t say how many Iranian troops were involved.

    Jamal Ahmed, the police chief of Benjawin, a village a little more than 200 miles north of Baghdad, said the attacks killed some residents.

    “We don’t know the amount of casualties as the bombing was continuous and so severe,” Ahmed said. Gwany said the attacks also killed many cattle and left villages and farms burned to the ground.

    Gen. Jabbar Yawr, a spokesman for the Kurdish militia, said Iranian troops have been lobbing artillery at Iraq from across the border since Aug. 16, though Thursday was the first time that Iranian troops crossed the border.

    He said that a statement issued by the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, a branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which is also known as the PKK, claimed credit for the recent assassination of an Iranian intelligence official. Yawr said the Iranian raid was in retaliation.

    The United States has declared the PKK to be an international terrorist group.

    Like the reported Turkish invasion of Kurdistan earlier this summer this report may turn out to be false. However, there is something else to be considered about who is making the report. This is from Seymour Hersh.

    In the past six months, Israel and the United States have also been working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan. The group has been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon civilian leadership, as “part of an effort to explore alternative means of applying pressure on Iran.” (The Pentagon has established covert relationships with Kurdish, Azeri, and Baluchi tribesmen, and has encouraged their efforts to undermine the regime’s authority in northern and southeastern Iran.) The government consultant said that Israel is giving the Kurdish group “equipment and training.” The group has also been given “a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the U.S.” (An Israeli government spokesman denied that Israel was involved.)

    Such activities, if they are considered military rather than intelligence operations, do not require congressional briefings. For a similar C.I.A. operation, the President would, by law, have to issue a formal finding that the mission was necessary, and the Administration would have to brief the senior leadership of the House and the Senate. The lack of such consultation annoyed some Democrats in Congress. “

    Even if the report prove to be false, it may be part of a CIA campaign to provoke a confrontation with Iran.

  • I propose that all future blog entries about David Vitter put the word “whoremonger” in front of his name. So today’s entry would read, “…whoremonger Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) returned from a visit to Iraq…”

  • The flame is turned up a bit higher on Iran.

    A draft intelligence report on Iran suggests a change in the Tehran regime appears unlikely any time soon despite growing public anger over the country’s economic woes, U.S. officials said Thursday.

    The report also anticipates little progress in getting Iran to halt its nuclear program or stop supporting militant groups in the region, officials familiar with the draft said on condition of anonymity because the report has not been released.

  • There is something else to consider about the PKK. This is from Novakula on 7/30/07.

    Turkey has a well-trained, well-equipped army of 250,000 near the border, facing some 4,000 PKK fighters hiding in the mountains of northern Iraq. But significant cross-border operations surely would bring to the PKK’s side the military forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the best U.S. ally in Iraq. What is Washington to do in the dilemma of two friends battling each other on an unwanted new front in Iraq?

    The surprising answer was given in secret briefings on Capitol Hill last week by Eric S. Edelman, a former aide to Vice President Cheney who is now undersecretary of defense for policy. Edelman, a Foreign Service officer who once was U.S. ambassador to Turkey, revealed to lawmakers plans for a covert operation of U.S. Special Forces to help the Turks neutralize the PKK. They would behead the guerrilla organization by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years.

    What are we to make of this in light of the Hersh story? Hersh has actual journalistic credibility and Novak is a hack. My guess is that the Special Forces story was leaked to Novak to distance BushCo from the PKK in the public eye. While the operation was likely intended to appease Turkey without actually damaging the PKK. In fact, Turkey and Iran have been cooperating in fighting the PKK.

    Turkey and Iran have quietly worked out a reciprocal security arrangement, whereby Iran’s military will engage Kurdish separatists whenever encountered, in exchange for Turkey’s cooperation against the Iranian Mujahideen-e-Khalq movement (MEK), a well-armed and cult-like opposition group that previously found refuge in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

    Having our ally Turkey also allied with our Iran is not something that BushCo would like to see happen. By at least pretending to lend a hand to Turkey in its fight with the PKK, it may hope to short circuit the Turkey-Iran alliance.

  • * AP: “Florida’s top police agency said Wednesday its investigation into former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s lurid Internet communications with teenage boys has been hindered because neither Foley nor the House will let investigators examine his congressional computers…. Smith said that the House claims the computers are considered congressional work papers, and that only Foley can release them for review.” Lurid IM chats are considered constitutionally protected? Really?

    I found this comment shocking since I normally agree with most of what gets written in the way of opinion on this site. The whole affaire Foley was troubling from many points of view. Among them was the obvious fact that the “lurid IM chats” were with teenagers OVER THE AGE OF CONSENT. As such they may have been inappropriate (Foley did rightfully resign), but they were not illegal.

    Had these “lurid IM chats” occurred between a 50ish politician and teenage females OVER THE AGE OF CONSENT would there be any concern about consitutional protections? The whole point of exposing Foley was to stoke homophobic passions by reinforcing gay stereotypes. Attempts to reveal more of these essentially inconsequental conversations are nothing short of prurient and stupid. What needs to be investigated is why the Republican hierarchy protected Foley for so long, and did not remove him from his oversight position of the pages.

    American immaturity in sexual matters knows no bounds.

  • Rich,

    Actually, many of the pages were under the age of consent at the time Foley began pursuing them. As long as both people are of consenting age, I really couldn’t care less about the gender of either party involved. The Wikipedia link has some pretty in-depth info with plenty of citations, including offers of a place to stay for a 17 year old in exchange for oral sex and a request for a naked pictures of an underage kid.

    It’s not about homophobia, it’s about abuse of authority. If a high school teacher spends a few years on a student grooming them to become sexual partners, is it any less shameful if he waits until the day of their 18th birthday to actually sleep with them, even if they’re still in school and still his student? Same deal here.

  • Dear L Boom,

    According to my information the age of consent in Washington is 16, not 18. The minimum age for Congressional pages is 16. Age of consent, by definition, means the person is capable of deciding for him/herself whether or not to have sex with someone else, presumably also over the age of consent. There’s nothing shameful about legal intergenerational sex, Stupid maybe, but not shameful. Spare me the moralizing. Not homophobia? Don’t make me laugh. Middle-aged men scoring a teenage female is considered good luck, and will get you high-fives in the locker room. Middle-aged men scoring a teenage male is shameful. Hum. What’s wrong with this picture?

    Foley is a predatory bum. He’s guilty of abuse of authority for sure.

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