Long time readers may recall that I sometimes like to put together Friday round-ups to take stock of what we’ve learned about the president over the last seven days. I haven’t done one since December, but this week lent itself well to just such a post. Indeed, my friend Peter Daou, riffing off a post […]
Former FEMA Director Mike Brown’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is even more entertaining than expected. Brownie has been the administration’s scapegoat for months — and today he seems determined to turn the tables and place the blame for the Katrina fiasco on his former colleagues. (The WaPo is running […]
Nearly three years after the start of the war in Iraq, the notion that the White House cherry-picked intelligence and made up their minds about an invasion regardless of what the facts warranted is no longer new. It’s not even controversial. And yet, there’s still something uniquely powerful about the top CIA official in charge […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * A new Keystone Poll, conducted by Franklin & Marshall University, was published this morning, and shows Dems leading in both of this year’s major statewide races. In Pennsylvania’s Senate race, Bob Casey […]
CIA Director Porter Goss has a passionate, well-written op-ed in the New York Times today, emphasizing the significance of keeping classified information secret. Poor Porter; his timing couldn’t be worse. After all, on the same day the Director of Central Intelligence wrote this… At the Central Intelligence Agency, we are more than holding our own […]
Opposing stem-cell research is odd, and comparing stem-cell research to Nazi experiments is ridiculous, but it takes a special kind of stupid for a statewide political candidate to compare stem-cell research to Nazi experiments in front of a group of Jewish leaders. Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele infuriated some participants at a Baltimore Jewish […]
Before the president delivered remarks on the war on terror in the National Guard Building in DC, Bush received a nice bronze gift. Presidents are often memorialized in their most famous moments — George Washington crossing the Delaware, Theodore Roosevelt at San Juan Hill. Now President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard has […]
Yesterday, Mike Brown, the former head of FEMA, indicated that he is ready to reveal his correspondence with President Bush and other officials during Hurricane Katrina unless the White House forbids it and offers legal support. The White House said no and now good ol’ Brownie appears ready to dish some dirt. And, apparently, there […]
Yesterday, the White House made major headlines and received blanket coverage on the news networks by repeating a four-month-old claim about a “serious al Qaeda terrorist plot” that his administration helped thwart. Today, it’s worth taking a moment to consider just how “serious” the threat was — and whether it qualifies as an “al Qaeda […]
It seemed like we’d heard the last of former NASA public affairs officer George Deutsch earlier this week, after he tendered his resignation. Apparently, however, the guy wants to expound on his 15 minutes of infamy. Given the circumstances, Deutsch seems like the type who’d want to quietly go away for a while, avoiding public […]