Monday’s Mini-Report

April 30, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Former CIA Director George Tenet’s revelations about the Bush administration are interesting, but I was also struck by his near-admission on 60 Minutes that the United States has engaged in torture. After insisting several times that “we don’t torture people,” Tenet added, “Now, listen to me. Now, listen to me. I want you to listen to me. The context is it’s post-9/11. I’ve got reports of nuclear weapons in New York City, apartment buildings that are gonna be blown up, planes that are gonna fly into airports all over again…. And I’m struggling to find out where the next disaster is going to occur.” Tenet acknowledged “enhanced interrogation” techniques, and asked if that was a euphemism for torture, said, “I’m not having a semantic debate with you.”

* David Broder is standing by his hit job on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, which slammed Reid for having described the war in Iraq as “lost.” Broder has not, however, explained what he finds offensive about Reid’s remarks.

* Why can’t the media report the good news in Iraq? Because even the good news is bad: “In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.” Those, of course, are only eight projects. What about some of the others? Inspectors don’t know — Iraq is too dangerous to inspect the other building projects.

* Tenet tackled the infamous Downing Street Memo in his book, explaining that the British spy who said “intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy” was misquoted. Instead, the British official said Cheney’s office was “playing fast and loose with the evidence.” That’s much better.

* AP: “The governor on Monday closed the loophole in state law that allowed the Virginia Tech gunman to buy weapons despite a court ruling that he was a threat and needed psychiatric counseling. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine issued an executive order requiring that a database of people banned from buying guns include the name of anyone who is found to be dangerous and ordered to get involuntary mental health treatment.”

* Tony Snow insisted that there has been no attempt on the part of the White House “to try to link Saddam to September 11.” That’s true, except for all the times the White House tried to link Saddam to September 11.

* New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) left the hospital today, 18 days after a serious car accident. “I hope the state will forgive me,” he said in an apparent acknowledgment that he was not wearing a seatbelt on April 12 when the SUV being driven at about 90 mph by a state trooper hit a guard rail.

* In other political health news, the AP noted that Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) returned home today, more than four months after he suffered a brain hemorrhage. “It is wonderful to take this next step with family and friends,” Johnson’s office quoted the South Dakota Democrat as saying. “As I continue with my therapy, I also get more and more work from the office.”

* John McCain isn’t the only senator running for president, but he is the only senator running for president who doesn’t show up for work anymore.

* “Unconventional” presidential candidate Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) supports replacing the income tax with a national sales tax. (Isn’t that a far-right idea?)

* All charges against Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-Va.) executive assistant, who inadvertently attempted to carry a pistol into a Senate office building last month, were dropped Friday.

* Kudos to the NYT for ending its participation in the overly-chummy White House Correspondents Association dinners in Washington.

* Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington discovered that the Bush administration received international commitments of $854 million for Hurricane Katrina relief aid, but neglected to collect most of it.

* Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and former House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) led a panel discussion today discussing “options for restoring civility in American politics.” Lieberman blamed blogs for adding “another dimension of vituperation toxicity” to the discourse. Boehner agreed, saying he has worked to “find ways of disagreeing without being disagreeable.” Boehner, of course, recently insisted Democrats want to provide “a road map for terrorists.”

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

I can easily get toxically vituperative at the mention of Joe Lieberman and John Boehner – two goddamned traitors, both of them. Assholes.

  • * Tony Snow insisted that there has been no attempt on the part of the White House “to try to link Saddam to September 11.

    If we had legitimate MSM in this country, Snow would be out of a job within the week. The contempt this administration has for the truth is boundless.

  • Hey, CB – when are you going to point out that the Clintonista Scumball Brigade is back in action? I know you worked for these people, but I don’t think you really agree with them, do you?

    Here’s a good piece on Mark Penn – even Karl Rove gave up his side job when he became Bush’s advisor. Of course, all the Clintonistas have the same level of morality as Bill and Hillary do (don’t) so it’s unsurprising he continues to bend over and spread for corporate America while pretending to be a Democrat.

    Further proof of why I only was ever dumb enough to vote for a Clinton once. Watching those two blow it on health care and commit economic treason with NAFTA was enough.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901661.html

  • On Tuesday May 1st, the United States will mark the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s declaration of “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq. But as the carnage continues and the war funding debate rages, President Bush and allies in the conservative amen corners can only offer the American people recycled talking points to sell his catastrophically ill-conceived war without end.

    For a look back at four years of wartime marketing gone bad, see:
    “Mission Accomplished: 4 Years of GOP Iraq Talking Points.”

  • Mike Gravel (D-Alaska)

    While Gravel represented Alaska in the US Senate, he has resided in Virginia since leaving office in 1981.

  • Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)

    You have one too many Ns in Con.

    Lieberman blamed blogs for adding “another dimension of vituperation toxicity” to the discourse.

    Shorter Joey & Johnny: Waaaah! People keep calling us ankle grabbing shit house rats!

    And of course one wonders what LIEberman thinks we do ought to do about the mean ol’ blogs. This is why I think the idea of “standards,” for blogs is a steaming pile of crap being shoveled by your friendly neighborhood control freak.

    re McCainiac via TP:

    Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has risen to a new rank within the Senate: he has missed the most votes of any active Senator in the 110th Congress — second only to Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), who suffered a brain hemorrhage in December.

    And Johnson was sharper than Mr. Ramp Strike Express even when he was in surgery.

  • Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) led a panel discussion today. . .

    Isn’t that former House Majority Leader?

  • Isn’t that former House Majority Leader?

    Damn straight. Thanks for catching that; it’s fixed.

  • Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington discovered that the Bush administration received international commitments of $854 million for Hurricane Katrina relief aid, but neglected to collect most of it.

    Readers may remember my writing about Bush’s racism in the contexts both of his trips to Asia and of Katrina. Speaking of racism. . . Despite all the talk about helping people, you have a lot of people who really don’t want to help people.

    despite a court ruling that he was a threat and needed psychiatric counseling.

    Whoa, there was a court ruling? Those right-wingers are pretty crass in the aftermath. So this thing just happened because gun laws weren’t good enough (they were stupid) and we get a bunch of bullshit from them.

    “I hope the state will forgive me,” he said in an apparent acknowledgment that he was not wearing a seatbelt on April 12 when the SUV being driven at about 90 mph by a state trooper hit a guard rail.

    Yeah, that is disappointing. I’ve worn my seatbelt all the time for a while now. It’s a thing that’s way too easy and helpful to do- I hope he just forgot one time, and usually uses the seatbelt, like we all should.

  • ***On Tuesday May 1st, the United States will mark the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s declaration of “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq.***
    ——————–Angry One

    And today,—Monday, April 30, 2007, I marked a prestigious milestone—by convincing “promising high school graduate number 100” to not enlist in Mr. Bush’s War Machine. Like I said—I’ll end this damned thing myself—one boot at a time, if need be….

  • “To sum it all up: Nations poorer than us are offering help that we should’ve and could’ve been able to provide and were rebuffed. A nation led by, among other people, a man who’d helped take 52 of our people hostage in Tehran in 1979 wanted to open up diplomatic relations that could’ve saved countless people in Iraq, including our own, was ignored and even threatened. A nation like France offered to train Iraqi security forces and clowns like Curt Weldon responded by changing the name of French fries in the congressional cafeteria to Freedom fries.” – The Deadliest Sin.

  • re: #7 and 8…
    did i miss something? was bohner ever majority leader? i thought he became minority leader at the beginning of this congress when hastert decided it was beneath him. (and god knows, you’d never want to be beneath fat denny!)

  • Re Corzine: He needs to take responsibility for his car going 90 miles an hour, not just for the unused seatbelt. It’s a miracle that he didn’t kill someone else.

  • It’s a miracle that he didn’t kill someone else.

    Well, I agree except for that part. Driving 90 mph is too dangerous if you don’t have to get somewhere to save a life, but many, many people drive around that fast w/o having and remember, the accident was partially caused by someone else’s recklessness, not just his and his driver’s.

  • Tenet added, “Now, listen to me. Now, listen to me. I want you to listen to me. The context is it’s post-9/11. I’ve got reports of nuclear weapons in New York City, apartment buildings that are gonna be blown up, planes that are gonna fly into airports all over again …”

    Did he really say that?

  • Nothing personal, No. 13, but have you ever driven in NJ on the Turnpike or Parkway? It’s basically a mobile insane asylum. Doing 90 mph in the left lane is liable to get you a big fat explosion of highbeams in your mirror, and that’s if you are dealing with a courteous driver. Most others will just weave around you at 100mph and think nothing of it.

    Now, as for the not wearing a seat belt, well, that just makes him look like an idiot, and there’s no good way to spin that.

  • Ha, (as a Jersey guy) I don’t know if it’s 90 mph out there on the Parkway or the Turnpike. It’s a lot closer to the speed limit. But I’d say around the 70s is a realistic average for some parts.

    It’s really more the drunk drivers or the weather that causes accidents, ut the speed definitely makes them more dangerous.

  • Then again, there was this street racing thing that got broken up in Newark a little while ago. That’s no big deal, though.

  • “… but I was also struck by his near-admission on 60 Minutes that the United States has engaged in torture. “

    Agreed.
    And if you listen closely you will hear him being asked if anybody was tortured to death in the program.

    Tenet’s response:

    No one was killed in this program.

    Emphasis added… but only barely.

    Listen again and you will clearly hear “this” as the “actionable” word.

    I took it to mean quite clearly that the US has tortured some people to death in other programs.

  • “Lieberman blamed blogs for adding “another dimension of vituperation toxicity” to the discourse”.

    Holy Joe forgot to mention that the VPOTUS appears regularly on the Rush Limbaugh show, and that POTUS himself gave an interview on the show.

    Now, why would the VPOTUS and the POTUS be associated with that vulgar, immoral, revolting, scumbag? It denotes not only a total lack of class, but also a total ignorance of decorum. The POTUS and the VPOTUS cheapen the presidency every time they consort with that low-life.

  • “No one was killed in this program”. That is good to know.

    I suggest that Tenet be subjected to waterboarding. We can then interview him afterwards and get his opinion on whether this technique qualifies as torture or not.

  • I caught Scott j. Bloch in one and maybe two or more fibs in his bio that he submitted to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. I wrote about them at the TPM Cafe (link below).

  • If, as Press Secretary Tony Snow states, the George W. Bush administration never tried to link Iraq with the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, why the heck did this administration have us attack Iraq–and kept us there for over four years and going? Do they think the American public will buy such nonsense? When Tony Snow stated this, did any of the White House press corps bother to ask that obvious question? Utterly unbelievable!!!

  • Gravel’s sales tax differs in a major way from the conservative cause.

    The fair tax taxes NEW items.
    Who buys NEW cars, folks?

    Who’s buying the second hand stuff?
    If new things cost more, would tradesmen able to repair stuff come back? Would it be so bad to lose the throwaway society we’ve become?

    There’s also a feature called a “prebate” which is supposed to offset even more of the perceived regressive nature of a sales tax.

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