The AP reports: Flinching in the face of a veto threat, Democratic congressional leaders neared agreement with the Bush administration Tuesday on legislation to pay for the Iraq war without setting a timeline for troop withdrawal. Several officials said the emerging compromise bill would cost about $120 billion, including as much as $8 billion for […]
Biggest. Embassy. Ever.
About a month ago, the NYT reported that reconstruction programs in Iraq were an abject disaster. 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 […]
‘Where’s the barnstorming?’
It’s usually pretty easy to tell when the president really cares about an issue. Bush, when he feels like it’s worth his effort, will devote a lot of time to something important to him, he’ll hold sycophant-only public events to talk up his policy, he’ll even come up with little smears and taunts for those […]
Bob Kerrey — still backwards on Iraq
Former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, who’s always been something of a Liebermanite when it comes to foreign policy, published a fairly long op-ed for the Wall Street Journal today, defending the Bush administration’s approach to the war in Iraq. Most of it is pretty boilerplate — Saddam Hussein was a “threat” after 9/11, Iraq is […]
‘Is there no adult supervision?’
Great, now the Bush administration is broadcasting terrorist messages in the Middle East as part of our diplomatic outreach. On the incompetence-o-meter, this one might bury the needle. Al Hurra television, the U.S. government’s $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, […]
When global warming and a chilling effect meet
When it comes to global warming, the Bush administration is not beneath muzzling scientists. For example, James Hansen, the longtime director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has spoken out repeatedly, explaining to anyone who will listen that administration officials have tried to censor scientific information about climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric […]
Tuesday’s political round-up
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: * Florida always seems to figure out a way to be provocative: “Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida’s 2008 presidential primary up to Jan. 29, leapfrogging several other states in […]
Meet the new plan, same as the old…
A month ago, we learned that military planners in the Bush administration have given up on the whole they-stand-up, we-stand-down idea. Officials grudgingly came to realize that the strategy hasn’t worked — about more than four years of fighting, there are only 6,000 Iraqi troops who can operate independently — and that U.S. forces would […]
Bush is beyond redemption
Jonah Goldberg devoted the first 700 words of his 800-word column this week to marveling at the rehabilitation of John Ashcroft’s public image in light of James Comey’s recent testimony. (For what it’s worth, I think much of the Ashcroft praise is misplaced for reasons that I explained over the weekend.) The column basically just […]
‘It was just the dishonesty of it’
By now, everyone has heard all about the 2004 showdown in John Ashcroft’s hospital room. What we haven’t heard much of, however, is any kind of explanation from the Bush gang as to what transpired that night. Press Secretary Tony Snow brushed it off last week, suggesting that Ashcroft really wasn’t that sick, and that […]