Monday’s Mini-Report

June 4, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Bush’s G8 meetings didn’t get off to a good start today: “President Bush’s European trip was jarred as it began Monday by deteriorating relations with Russia and threatening words from President Vladimir Putin.” Administration officials conceded that the rhetoric, particularly about Russia pointing missiles at Europe, is getting a little too heated.

* Important court ruling: “A military judge on Monday dismissed terrorism-related charges against a prisoner charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, in a stunning reversal for the Bush administration’s attempts to try Guantanamo detainees in military court. The chief of military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, said the ruling could spell the end of the war-crimes trial system set up last year by Congress and President Bush after the Supreme Court threw out the previous system. The ruling immediately raised questions about whether the U.S. will have to further revise procedures for prosecuting prisoners, leading to major delays.” The case deals with Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured after a deadly firefight in Afghanistan five years ago.

* Conservative critics of the White House’s immigration policy were none-too-pleased when Bush questioned their motives. I don’t imagine they’ll be any happier now that McCain has done the same thing: “I would hope they wouldn’t play politics for their own interests if the cost of their ambition was to make this problem even harder to solve. To want the office so badly that you would intentionally make our country’s problems worse might prove you can read a poll or take a cheap shot, but it hardly demonstrates presidential leadership.”

* Speaking of McCain, the senator suggested today Americans will tolerate a Korean model for U.S. presence in Iraq, just so long as American casualties decline. The polls show otherwise.

* Rudy Giuliani in South Florida over the weekend: “I’ve had the most experience dealing with terrorism.” The man is clearly trying to drive me batty.

* Glenn had an excellent piece today on the “great right-wing fraud to repudiate” Bush: “The great fraud being perpetrated in our political discourse is the concerted attempt by movement conservatives, now that the Bush presidency lay irreversibly in ruins, to repudiate George Bush by claiming that he is not, and never has been, a ‘real conservative.'”

* On a slightly personal note, reader Z.N. watched PBS’s “Bill Moyers Journal” the other night and noticed that Moyers, during an interview with former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), quoted me at length. As a Moyers fan, I thought this was pretty darn cool. You can watch it online; my “appearance” starts at the 17-minute mark.

* Dick Cheney, speaking to high school students yesterday in Wyoming: “Yes, over here. How is my relationship with Harry Reid? Well, it’s better than my relationship with Pat Leahy. (Laughter.) But I won’t go into that.” Ha ha. Hilarious.

* The president has gone from being for sale to being on sale: “Bush headlined a fundraiser for the New Jersey state GOP, where donors could pay $5,000 to pose for a photo with the Commander in Chief. Expensive photo op, right? Well, that’s actually cheaper that what donors paid just a year ago for a grip and grin with Bush. Last summer, GOP officials around the country charged at least $10,000 a pop for presidential photo op, a bargain compared to the $25,000-a-flash Bush commanded during some Republican National Committee fund-raisers back in 2000 and 2004.”

* I suppose it’s possible that Fox News’ John Gibson could be a bigger embarrassment to himself, but I don’t see how.

* Didn’t Bush promise to restore the nation’s moral climate? “Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll finds Americans very concerned about the current state of moral values in the United States. Only about one in six Americans describe the state of moral values in the country in positive terms, and perceptions that moral values are ‘poor’ in the country are at their highest point ever, edging close to the 50% mark. Exactly 1% rate the state of moral values as ‘excellent,’ with just 16% choosing ‘good,’ and 44% poor.”

* TP: “Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez commanded U.S. forces during the first year of the Iraq war. In ‘his first interview since he retired last year,’ Sanchez has said that the war in Iraq is lost, and the best outcome America can hope for is to ‘stave off defeat.'”

* Eric Alterman had a bit of an altercation at the Dems’ debate last night.

* And finally, do you have sexual dirt to dish about politicians in DC? Larry Flynt wants to talk to you.

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

* Important court ruling: “A military judge on Monday dismissed terrorism-related charges against a prisoner charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, in a stunning reversal for the Bush administration’s attempts to try Guantanamo detainees in military court. The chief of military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, said the ruling could spell the end of the war-crimes trial system set up last year by Congress and President Bush after the Supreme Court threw out the previous system. The ruling immediately raised questions about whether the U.S. will have to further revise procedures for prosecuting prisoners, leading to major delays.” The case deals with Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured after a deadly firefight in Afghanistan five years ago.

Wait, what? So instead of exonerating and releasing the poor kid the government is going to revise the system yet again to get the results the government wants? I should probably RTFA but am I missing something?

  • One last note on the military judge’s ruling today that the military commissions set up by the republicans in October does not have jurisdiction over the guantanamo detainees because they have not been found to be “unlawful” enemy combatants, only “enemy combatants”… there is an important distinction between the two and the order itself reads like a hot stick in the eye to the bushies….

    The government has indicated its intention to appeal this ruling–it has 72 hours in which to file a notice of appeal–but the Court of Military Commission Appeals has not been established. So, the government will be filing its appeal with a non-existent court.

  • “And finally, do you have sexual dirt to dish about politicians in DC? Larry Flynt wants to talk to you.”

    Larry Flynt needs to talk to Wayne Madsen.

  • “The great fraud being perpetrated in our political discourse is the concerted attempt by movement conservatives, now that the Bush presidency lay irreversibly in ruins, to repudiate George Bush by claiming that he is not, and never has been, a ‘real conservative.’”

    If the rightwingnuts were willing to show their separation from George Bush by impeaching him and Cheney, I’d be willing to pretend that there really is a meaningful difference between them.

  • Rian Mueller @ 1

    Yup. The ruling is based on the kid’s status as an (unlawful) enemy combatant. If they can prove he is, the trial can go forward.

    Yeah. W.T.F.? is the appropriate response.

    Regarding the non-existent court. Looks like someone done been caught with his pants down. Why the hell doesn’t the CMCA,* exist? Did they think they wouldn’t need it? I’m hoping the judge did it just to make a lot of people look fucking stupid. If so, Mission Accomplished!

    tAiO

    * Former Dan? We await your song-smithing skills

  • On G8, Russia, and Putin:

    See what happens when you can’t fit the bubble on Air Force One? Bush suddenly find out that there’s someone on the block who doesn’t give a rat’s backside about his being “Commander Deciderer Guy”—and they’re really too big to ignore. I want to see SnowFlake try to outspin the Big Red Bullhorn Machine. That ought to be like the First Little Pig going up against the Big Bad Wolf.

    Welcome to Cold War rhetoric, oh foxnoise child….

  • George Bush can pay me $5000 and the scumbag can shake my hand. I need the money. (I might kick him though.)

    It amazes me that after going to the bother of cobbling together this ridiculous kangaroo court system for Gitmo, they didn’t have someone capable of noticing that the cockamamie label they’d pasted on the inmates at Gitmo didn’t actually match the cockamamie label required to try them. Oops. Maybe they should have ‘reverse-engineered’ some old Soviet trial procedures, the way they did with interrogation methods. The Soviets knew how to do show trials.

    You know, this is the kind of problem that doesn’t happen when you use a real legal system that’s been debugged for a couple hundred years, rather than making up some BS crap on the fly.

  • never has been, a ‘real conservative.’”
    “Real conservative” is an oxymoron.

    A ” real conservative” is a fictional state of mind in which proclaims that one supports frugal spending, integrity based upon high moral principles, and unflinching sacrifice for the country, to hide the actual practice of raw corruption, exploitation of the military, international and domestic aggression against the weak, and abuse of government for personal gain.

  • I like McCain’s remark. He is clearly referring to Romney.

    Does anyone believe that Romney has really changed his views on so many issues?

    I don’t have to have a President who agrees with me on every issue, but I think that he should base his ideas on principles, not polls.

  • Exactly 1% rate the state of moral values as ‘excellent,’

    I want to live wherever those people are. Probably Princeton, or some place in Bergen County in New Jersey.

  • In the “open thread” vein, a couple of items from Poland.

    Remember an item mentioned here recently, about the children’s rights representative/spokesman, asking for “research” into the matter of Teletubbies and whether the program promotes “homosexual lifestyle”? She has withdrawn the request since, but there had been consequences, nevertheless. From Donosy, an e- news bulletin I subscribe to, in rough translation:

    “After spokesman Ewa Sowinska voiced the suspicion that Teletubbies promote homosexualsism, there followed an unexpected resonance in the toy stores. The Teletubbies dolls are not selling any more in the provinces, especially the purple one, with the handbag. In Warsaw, it’s the opposite: the sales of Teletubbies dolls grew quite definitely.”

    And, from the same source:
    “In the new plan for the required reading (in Poland, the same books are used in all public schools), the following authors have been removed: Gombrowicz, Witkacy (both early 20thc period, both rather “naughty” in places), Kafka, Dostoyevski, Goethe and Joseph Conrad. They have been replaced by (names even I barely recognise). The Ministry (Department?) of Education explains that the change is not a matter of ideology, but of trying to fulfill teachers’ requests. The added texts are “of great patriotic weight and are characterised by deep humanitarian and Christian values” ”

    Just thought y’all might be interested. In Poland, the “red regime” (communist) has been replaced by the “black regime” (Catholic), so the *flavour* of the crap has changed, but the crap itself keeps flowing…

  • And finally, do you have sexual dirt to dish about politicians in DC? Larry Flynt wants to talk to you.

    Is he going to find out what W’s shade of lipstick is? My guesses are Buttercream and Hot Pink.

  • Oh yes: Congratulations on your “appearance” CB!

    Before you know it you’ll be able to charge admirers $10,000 to have their picture taken with you. I’m saving up my pennies now.

  • Judging from the cut in price for a photo-op with Shrub from $25000 to $5000, can he now be considered “damaged goods”. I read that his spawn, Jenna, has written a book that, oddly enough, covers condoms. I wonder if Jenna’s book discusses her favorite brand or the failed condom that became George, the Presidunce. Maybe Barbara “Ma Barker” Bush can write a foreword for Jenna’s next book and let us know which birth control method failed and ultimately saddled us with the dumbest president to ever darken the halls of the White House.

    I am anxiously awaiting Shrub’s open mic moments at this year’s G8 to see further reductions in Shrub’s asking price for photo-ops assuming he doesn’t start a war with Putin while he is there. If that is the case, I have no doubt that many more Republicancers will gladly fall in line behind our head lemming once again.

  • Glenn had an excellent piece today on the “great right-wing fraud to repudiate” Bush…

    Oh he finally got there did he?
    I had a comment on this “trend” posted to Drum’s site about 2 years ago.
    Brilliant stuff Glen.
    You is a pundit.
    Hey did you hear the one about the Iraq war being a waste of money?

    And in keeping with that theme…

    The best thing I read by far today was a comment by nonesuch on a morning thread:

    “I was somewhat annoyed that CNN decided to place Hillary right in the center. She thus takes away oxygen from the other candidates. She’s not the heir presumptive at this point although the MSM would love to anoint her already and then spend the rest of her doomed candidacy tearing her down. We need to get out of that cycle ASAP.”

    That is it exatcly folks.
    And yes, it deserves repeating…

  • And in keeping with the other theme:

    As a Moyers fan, I thought this was pretty darn cool.

    You derserve it homeboy.
    Nicely earned.

  • Ohhh, Mr. CB. My head is spinning. I had to see your shout out by Bill Moyers so I watched the whole interview and I am bum fuddled by the bamboozlement. Kerrey sat back at the end like he’d gotten Moyers car running after it had been under water for two weeks. He stated the obvious profoundly and repeatedly. He restated the situation over and over and acted like he was revealing great insights. Edgar Bergen must be pole axed in the afterlife after seeing a true master talk out of both sides of his mouth with such effortless ease.

    Moyers tried, (and you helped), but there was no pinning down that weasel Kerrey. That was a half hour of something very lame and obtuse masquerading as something wise and rational.

    Iraq isn’t a county. It’s a f’n pickling solution that people can put their brains in to preserve their stupidity for future generations to see.

  • Holy crap! Bush is not only doing his best to come to losing ends in Iraq and Afghanistan, he’s trying to lose the great Republican victory from the heroic Reagan years — he’s trying to prove the US can still lose the Cold War. If Bush stays in ofice any longer, I fear we may yet lose WW II under his charge. I’m not sure how, but he’ll figure out a way.

  • I just read McCain’s comment about how Americans wouldn’t mind a 50 year military presence in Iraq. As Richard Jeni used to say, “I couldn’t fucking believe it.” McCain always seems to be at the center or more accurately the “point of origin” of the deaths of many Americans. I would like to hear his version of the events of the fire on the USS Forrestal, the carrier the US almost lost during the Vietnam war. McCain was at the center of where the fire started when a pilot fired a missile from a parked plane hitting an external fuel tank on another parked plane. Many Americans died and the ship was almost lost when the bombs on the planes exploded in the fire. I used to have some respect for him because at least he showed up and didn’t go AWOL like Shrub did because he had a drug test looming over his head with a required pilot’s physical examination. I have never heard anyone say that either one was a competent pilot. Essentially, McCain’s claim to fame is that he was a POW for six years and was tortured. Yet, when it came to confronting Shrub about torture, McCain caved like Arlen Spector always does. McCain has become like Shrub in that everything he touches turns to shit. Now he wants to run the country. If McCain gets elected, it’s time to start calling contractors about putting a survival shelter in the back yard.

  • Off-topic, Sen Craig Thomas (R-WY) has died.

    Obviously the attention right now should be on his life, loved ones, accomplishments, assiduous represention of the people of Wyoming, sometimes even including one or two who aren’t in the mining industry, etc.

    But of course everyone’s really interested in the politics. And, remarkably, even though the governor is a Democrat, he’s apparently legally bound to choose a Republican: “under state law, [Gov] Freudenthal is required to pick a new senator from a list of three candidates submitted by the GOP state central committee.”

    As far as I know, Democrats have never instituted a rule like that in any of the states that have Democratic senators (willing to be corrected on this). Certainly not the case in South Dakota, where Tim Johnson is improving but still quite ill. Again raising the eternal (and largely rhetorical) question: why don’t Democrats ever play to win?

  • regarding the gitmo case – here’s a thought.

    why not conduct the trials in our regular legal system like grown men instead of trying to hide in the shadows like kids?

    could it be that there is nothing there?

  • Following up to my #21, maybe there’s no chance SD would have passed a no-change-in-senator’s party rule. But consider these examples:

    – Massachusetts had Republican governors for 16 years until this past January, two Democratic senators, and (AFAIK) a Dem legislature the whole time. But (again AFAIK) no requirement that the governor picks a Democrat if one of the senators (one of whom ran for president in 04) leaves office.

    – NY had a Republican governor for 12 years until this past January, and two Democratic senators since 98. The state legislature is split, but I can well imagine Republicans, in a red state in a similar situation, pressuring Democrats hanging on in one house of the state leg to enact a no-change-in-the-Senator’s-party rule in the interest of “fairness”.

    – California has had a Republican governor for four years now, two Democratic senators, and an overwhelmingly Dem legislature. But no rule on Senatorial selection AFAIK.

    See my point?

  • Maybe Barbara “Ma Barker” Bush can write a foreword for Jenna’s next book and let us know which birth control method failed and ultimately saddled us with the dumbest president to ever darken the halls of the White House.

    [tko @15]

    Bush Senior promised to withdraw but before he knew it the surge was on. Three Friedman’s later ….

    I don’t think I’ll finish that thought.

  • Permanent bases in Iraq were always part of the grand design of the neo-con momma’s boys who dreamed up this war. The Korean Model re-branding is just their latest sales pitch. But I would argue that anyone who allows themselves to get drawn into the argument of whether Americans want or will support that kind of long-term commitment is playing to their strength. Every time someone mentions the word Korea in conjunction with Iraq they need to be smacked in the head, HARD!

    Some of the better arguments are that unlike Iraq:

    * We just show up one day and occupy South Korea. (NK and the Chineese did)
    * The US isn’t occupying South Korea now, any more than we’re occupying Germany.
    * 70-80% of South Koreans and a majority of their parliament have not made it clear that they want us to pack our bags and get the hell out of their country.
    * Our troops aren’t in South Korea to keep South Koreans from killing each other.
    * South Koreans have not put US troops in the middle of a civil war

    It may also be helpful to point out that we’re talking about South Korea (i.e., the good Koreans) but I need to think about that one a little more.

  • “A military judge on Monday dismissed terrorism-related charges against a prisoner charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan”

    This is good; what’s missing is what it does to Bush’s claim that Gitmo is only for the “worst of the worst.” This is a kid who, when 15 years old, might have pitched a grenade at a U.S. force attacking his home. If that’s the scariest terraist out there, why haven’t we won?

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