5.31.2004 "Brahimi Has Failed the Iraqi People" Linda S. Heard, Arab News Pointer from Google News

5.31.2004 "U.S. is lost in Afghanistan" BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Pointer from Atrios who says

5.31.2004 "Why Hawks Should Be Angry" By Fred Hiatt - Washington Post
"But by now you'd have to have your own head in a bag to believe that a few badly trained reservists are at the core of this scandal." ... "Bush could have responded differently. He could have embraced the heroes such as Spec. Joseph Darby, who sounded the alarm; William J. Kimbro, the Navy dog handler who refused to sic his dogs on prisoners; Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who wrote an honest report. He could have apologized to the people of Iraq, appointed an investigator from outside the chain of command, pledged to abide by the Geneva Conventions. Instead, he opted for a Nixonian strategy of damage containment, and a summer of piecemeal disclosure.
Who pays the price for the president's dishonesty? Soldiers such as Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli and his troops, who, as The Post's Scott Wilson reported last week, are out in Baghdad's slums, fighting insurgents one hour and fixing sewers the next. The prison scandal and the administration's failed response haven't doomed those efforts, but they've lengthened the odds. They've given aid and comfort to the enemy. " Pointer from Atrios

5.31.2004 "The False Controversy of Stem Cells" ... "Are you picketing around fertility clinics, which kill hundreds of thousands of unborn children - if that's what you believe a 5-day-old embryo to be - just like abortion clinics do? If so, you are entitled to oppose stem-cell research. If not, please get out of the way." By MICHAEL KINSLEY Time.com Pointer from Atrios

5.31.2004 "A Worn Road for U.N. Aide" By DEXTER FILKINS - New York Times
"While American officials maintain that Dr. Alawi was Mr. Brahimi's choice, people close to Mr. Brahimi say he reluctantly endorsed him only after American officials aggressively recommended him.
One person conversant with the negotiations said Mr. Brahimi was presented with "a fait accompli" after President Bush's envoy to Iraq, Robert D. Blackwill, "railroaded" the Governing Council into coalescing around him.
Mr. Brahimi, a former foreign minister of Algeria, was said to be deeply troubled by Dr. Alawi's ties to the C.I.A. and to the likelihood that Iraqis would regard him as too close to the United States." Pointer from Josh Marshall

5.30.2004 "Bush Ignores Sick 9/11 Firefighters & Cops" The Daily Mis-lead Pointer from liberalmediaconspiracy

5.30.2004 George Will, per Kos "When there is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate. Leave aside the question of who or what failed before Sept. 11, 2001. But who lost his or her job because the president's 2003 State of the Union address gave currency to a fraud -- the story of Iraq's attempting to buy uranium in Niger? Or because the primary and only sufficient reason for waging preemptive war -- weapons of mass destruction -- was largely spurious? Or because postwar planning, from failure to anticipate the initial looting to today's insufficient force levels, has been botched? Failures are multiplying because of choices for which no one seems accountable."

5.30.2004 Ouch! "The president's actions, if not his words, concede that Iraq has become the geopolitical equivalent of a botched surgery -- botched through some mix of the misdiagnosis of the original malady and the incompetence of the surgeon. Achieving the original goal of the surgery is now close to an afterthought. The effort is confined to closing up as quickly as possible and preventing the patient from dying on the table. And now the 'doctor', pressed for time and desperate for insight, stands over the patient with a scalpal in one hand and the other hurriedly leafing through a first year anatomy text book." Josh Marshall

5.30.2004 "Several U.S. guards allege they witnessed military intelligence operatives encouraging the abuse of Iraqi prison inmates at four prisons other than Abu Ghraib, investigative documents show." AP By MATT KELLEY per Yahoo Pointer from Steve @ No More Mister Nice Blog

5.30.2004 "The Oil Crunch" - By PAUL KRUGMAN The New York Times per From The Wilderness

5.30.2004 Cheney and Halliburton: "The Paper Trail - Did Cheney Okay a Deal?" By TIMOTHY J. BURGER AND ADAM ZAGORIN Time.com Pointer from Atrios.

5.30.2004 " Terrorists Have No Geneva Rights - Don't blur the lines between Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib." BY JOHN YOO "The treatment of those detained at Abu Ghraib is governed by the Geneva Conventions, which have been signed by both the U.S. and Iraq." WSJ Opinion Journal
.22.2004 "U.S. Disputed Protected Status of Iraq Inmates" "Presented last fall with a detailed catalog of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, the American military responded on Dec. 24 with a confidential letter asserting that many Iraqi prisoners were not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva Conventions." By DOUGLAS JEHL and NEIL A. LEWIS New York Times. Pointer from memeorandum

5.30.2004 "A new book on the Bush dynasty is set for release just six weeks before November's knife-edge presidential election. The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty by Kitty Kelley will have an initial print run of 500,000, and the main source is believed to be Sharon Bush, the ex-wife of Neil, President George W Bush's wayward brother." Independant.co.uk Pointer from Drudge

5.30.2004 Allawi: "Some Find Ties to CIA, Baath Party Worrisome" By Mary Curtius, LA Times Staff Writer

Pointer from memeorandum

5.29.2004 "THE MANIPULATOR" by JANE MAYER - The New Yorker "Ahmad Chalabi pushed a tainted case for war. Can he survive the occupation?" . . ."In May, 1991, President George H. W. Bush signed a covert "lethal finding" that authorized the C.I.A. to spend a hundred million dollars to "create the conditions for removal of Saddam Hussein from power." ... "By 1993, with the C.I.A.'s support, Chalabi had solidified his role as the leader of the Iraqi National Congress. Before long, however, financial questions arose. A former I.N.C. associate said, "The agency didn't know how he spent his money. All transactions were cash." ... "Hundreds of thousands of dollars were flowing each month "to this shadowy operator-in cars, salaries-and it was just a Potemkin village," Baer said. "He was reporting no intel; it was total trash."... "President Bush was informed of the C.I.A.'s view of Chalabi soon after taking office, but he ultimately sided with Vice-President Cheney and the neocons." ... "In addition, Qanbar wrote, the I.N.C. provided its raw information directly to U.S. government recipients, including William Luti, at the Pentagon, and John Hannah, the special assistant for national security in the Office of the Vice-President." ... "One of his I.N.C. confidants told me that Chalabi might spend the summer repositioning himself as a fierce critic of Brahimi's interim government, with an eye toward the coming election." Looks like Brahimi has been taken out of his way.

5.29.2004 Perle and associates confront Rice about "smears" against Chalabi. New York Times

5.29.2004 "The Bush administration appeared to be caught off guard and somewhat confused yesterday after the Iraqi Governing Council nominated a physician with longtime CIA ties as the post-occupation prime minister. Officials in Washington scrambled to respond after the Iraqis took the public lead in a process that was supposed to be run by a U.N. envoy." ... "Allawi is among those with close U.S. ties, including to the U.S. intelligence community." By Mike Allen and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers

5.29.2004 "Because for whatever reasons al Jazeera is playing up the fact that this was the IGC outmaneuvering Brahimi and Bremer -- and not mentioning any CIA ties at all. Cori Dauber

Pointers from memeorandum

5.29.2004 "WASHINGTON, May 28 - Interrogation experts from the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were sent to Iraq last fall and played a major role in training American military intelligence teams at Abu Ghraib prison there, senior military officials said Friday." ... "In interviews, two military intelligence soldiers who served at Abu Ghraib as part of the 205th Brigade described the unit from Guantánamo as having played a notable role in setting up the interrogation unit in Iraq, which they said was modeled closely after the one that General Miller put in place in Cuba. By DOUGLAS JEHL and ANDREA ELLIOTT, The New York Times Pointer from memeorandum

5.29.2004 "ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: THE IMPOSSIBLE UNION" by Amir Taheri -The Sunday TImes per EB Benador Associates Pointer from David D.

5.29.2004 "I've come to this conclusion reluctantly - too reluctantly, perhaps - but I suspect that "adequate security," which everyone agrees is essential to democratization, is simply not possible for us to attain in Iraq for both practical and systemic reasons. It might be possible if we were willing to conduct a mass mobilization of American troops, but that's not in the cards and everyone knows it. So if security is impossible, and democratization via military occupation depends on security, it means - Well, it means that democratization via military occupation is impossible in Iraq. I'd like to be talked out of this gloomy view, but it's going to take some mighty good arguments. Any takers?" Kevin Drum The Washington Monthly.

5.29.2004 "2006 Cuts In Domestic Spending On Table" By Jonathan Weisman - Washington Post
Pointer from Carpetbagger who says: "The Post item noted, for example, that the administration plans to cut nearly $1 billion from Department of Veterans Affairs in 2006, which would ultimately make its budget lower than it is now, even as the number of veterans who will rely on the VA increases." ... "It makes for an excellent talking point for the whole weekend (and, for that matter, the whole campaign). The Center for American Progress has more on this today, including a rundown of the Bush administration sending troops into combat without adequate protection, cutting troop pay, cutting troop health care, cutting troop housing, and bullying troops when they've dared to criticize their government. Be sure to bring the info with you to your local Memorial Day gathering.

5.27.2004 "Cardinal Law Reassigned To Rome - Vatican Issues Statement On Law's New Assignment " M.R.F. Buckley , "BOSTON -- The former head of the Boston Archdiocese, forced to resign because of clergy sex abuse that took place under his watch, has been promoted to a job overseeing a church in Rome." ... "Sources say St. Mary's is one of the biggest churches in Rome" Pointer from Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog Check that site for a description of the cardinal's new digs.

5.26.2004 "WHITE HOUSE INACTION ON AIDS DRUG CRISIS: Consumer groups are demanding action from the Bush administration after Abbott Laboratories announced a massive increase in the price of a key AIDS drug developed, in part, at U.S. taxpayer expense. " The Progressive Report

5.26.2004 "U.S. military arrests war's 'bargaining chips" ... "Rights groups say practice (of) holding people to pressure wanted relatives to surrender violates laws" - BY MOHAMAD BAZZI Newsday.com Pointer from No more mister nice blog

5.26.2004 "Start with conclusion. Reason backwards" IsThatLegal.com - Memorandum of John Yoo

5.26.2004 "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. Appeals Court on Wednesday ruled that a Bush administration directive seeking to stop Oregon doctors from helping terminally ill patients commit suicide was unlawful and unenforceable" ... ""The attorney general's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority under federal law," the court said in a 2-1 opinion." By Michael Kahn Pointer from Drudge

5.26.2004 "The sham handover." WSJ per Kos per Atrios.

5.26.2004 Al Gore says it all Pointer from Atrios

5.26.2004 "Tom Clancy new book criticises Iraq war" smh.com.au Pointer from memeorandum

5.26.2004 "Bush can't learn from the past if he can't see it." By William Saletan Slate.Pointer from memeorandum

5.26.2004 "WASHINGTON - Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist has ordered a study of federal judicial ethics, a move that follows intense criticism of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for taking a hunting trip with his friend, Vice President Dick Cheney. " By GINA HOLLAND - The Associated Press Wasington Post Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.26.2004 "From foreign to economic to social policy, Bush's record is a lesson in the limits and perils of conviction. He's too confident to consult a map. He's too strong to heed warnings and too steady to turn the wheel when the road bends. He's too certain to admit error, even after plowing through ditches and telephone poles. He's too preoccupied with principle to understand that principle isn't enough. Watching the stars instead of the road, he has wrecked the budget and the war on terror. Now he's heading for the Constitution. It's time to pull him over and take away the keys."

5.26.2004 "We're not in the Middle East to bring sweetness and light to the world. We're there to get something we and our friends in Europe depend on. Namely, oil." -- (Midge) Decter on the Warren Olney show, 89.9, Los Angeles, 5/21/04"
As quoted by Atrios

5.25.2004 "Organic: Friend or Faux? By Amanda Griscom, Grist Magazine "The Bush administration is giving Americans new reason to watch what they eat - and it has nothing to do with carbs. Over the course of 10 days in mid-April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued three "guidances" and one directive - all legally binding interpretations of law - that threaten to seriously dilute the meaning of the word "organic" and discredit the department's National Organic Program. " per AlterNet.

5.25.2004 For laughs: "Jon Stewart's ('84) Commencement Address" Pointer from Chris Nelson

5.25.2004 "Industry Lobbyists Now Oversee Their Industry" David Sirota

5.25.2004 Edward Pig puts it together:
"War Profiteering" "Via Atrios , we learn of some pretty egregious examples of war profiteering on the part of Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. It seems that KBR had sent its drivers through a war zone driving empty trucks, so that it could jack up the bill it gave to the U.S. government. And remember who we have to thank for the fact that no anti-profiteering provision was included in the $87 billion supplemental funding package for Iraq."

5.25.2004 "Poll: Kerry Takes Lead Over Bush" Bush approval 41% CBS Pointer from memeorandum

5.25.2004 "No analogies are perfect, certainly. But if there is anything from the late eighteenth century comparable to the current situation in Iraq it is not the American Revolution but the French Revolution, with legitimacy and the sinews of society in a losing battle with a widening gyre of violence." Josh Marshall

5.24.2004 Re Plame investigation: "Subpoenas to the news media are rare, and many courts have acknowledged significant legal protections for the press. But the leading Supreme Court case, decided in 1972, rejected the argument that the First Amendment protected reporters from grand jury subpoenas seeking information about crimes they have witnessed." Carpetbagger quoting the Times.

5.24.2004 HUD Secretary Alphonso "Jackson angered some Democrats on the committee when he said in response to a question: "I do not believe being poor is a condition; it is a state of mind"" Associated Press Pointer from Carpetbagger

5.24.2004 "Giving pretty speeches seems to be about Bush's only job these days - aside from fundraising, of course. In the background of almost everything you read and hear is the unspoken assumption that he's barely even involved in any of the important decisions related to Iraq. Where once we used to worry about an Imperial Presidency, today we have a Praetorian Presidency." Kevin Drum

5.24.2004 "'Time': Report to Congress short pages" - By John Diamond and Laura Parker, USA TODAY "WASHINGTON - The Pentagon sought Sunday to explain why some 2,000 pages were missing from a congressional copy of a classified report detailing the alleged acts of abuse by soldiers against Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison." Pointer from memeorandum

5.24.2004 "Don't give Iraqis self-rule all at once" BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Pointer from memeorandum

5.24.2004 "Bush's Third-Party Threat - While Democrats fret over the possibility of Ralph Nader causing them to lose another election by stealing votes on the left, President Bush may face an even greater third-party threat from the right wing. The Libertarian Party nominee could cost Mr. Bush his job in 2004" CBS Pointer from memeorandum

5.24.2004 "Suspicion of Chalabi Deception Intensifies - Former administration favorite is believed to have fed disinformation on Hussein's weapons to intelligence agencies in at least eight nations." By Bob Drogin LA TimesPointer from memeorandum

5.24.2004 "Afghan Deaths Linked to Unit at Iraq Prison" By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID ROHDE New York Times Pointer from memeorandum

5.23.2004 Perhaps the prison torture was like fraternity hazing after all:
"Many athletes were in DKE, and it was famous for its parties, rowdiness and hazing. Former members say that the new pledges were paddled, battered and then shown a large iron brand glowing red hot in the fireplace. They were told to turn around to be branded, and then a much smaller brand (made of a wire hanger) was substituted to burn a triangle in the small of their backs, as the large brand was dipped into water to make a heart-stopping sizzle.
Leftist disapproval of the fraternities was growing, and The Yale Daily News published an exposé about hazing by DKE. In the ensuing uproar, Mr. Bush appeared in the newspaper for perhaps the only time, defending the branding as "insignificant." "GEORGE W. BUSH'S JOURNEY - Confronting the Counterculture" by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

5.23.2004 House Resolution 3920 "The cure for judical activism? Injudicial deactivation!" From Aaron.

5.23.2004 "Was Iran Behind the Niger Document?" Kautilyan Pointer from Kevin Drum

5.23.2004 "In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime - Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience" By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Pointer from Atrios

5.23.2004 "Douglas Feith - What has the Pentagon's third man done wrong? Everything." By Chris Suellentrop Slate. Pointer from Atrios

3.28.2004 ..."I'm confident in my management style. I'm a delegator because I trust the people I've asked to join the team," he said in a television interview late last year. "I'm willing to delegate. That makes it easier to be president." By Ron Hutcheson - Knight Ridder Newspapers The Seattle Times Pointer from Google News .

And who are the people he asked to join the team?

5.22.2004 THE BUSH MONEY MACHINE | Fundraising's Rewards Pointer from Amnon

5.22.2004 "We intend to seek immunity for a myriad of officers who are unwilling to participate in the search for the truth without protecting themselves," Myers said today. " per Atrios

5.22.2004 "Who let bin Ladens leave U.S.?" By Alexander Bolton The Hill. Pointer from memeorandum

5.22.2004 "Raid on Chalabi Puts 'NYT' Even More on the Spot" - " . . . Judith Miller, who wrote: "I've been covering Chalabi for about 10 years, and have done most of the stories about him for our paper. ... He has provided most of the front page exclusives on WMD to our paper." Editor and Publisher.com Pointer from Drudge

5.22.2004 "U.S. Disputed Protected Status of Iraq Inmates" "Presented last fall with a detailed catalog of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, the American military responded on Dec. 24 with a confidential letter asserting that many Iraqi prisoners were not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva Conventions." By DOUGLAS JEHL and NEIL A. LEWIS New York Times. Pointer from memeorandum

5.22.2004 "THE VIEW FROM CENTCOM....So what do former CENTCOM commanders think about the neocons and their war planning? Let's listen in:" Kevin Drum.

5.22.2004 "JORDAN TIP EXPOSED CHALABI AS IRAN 'SPY' " By NILES LATHEM New York Post.

5.22.2004 "Justice Memos Explained How to Skip Prisoner Rights" By NEIL A. LEWIS New York Times Pointer from memeorandum

5.22.2004 "Reporters Subpoenaed in CIA Leak" - By Susan Schmidt Washington Post Pointer from memeorandum

5.22.2004 Josh Marshall regarding Chalabi and the administration: "But what we're seeing here is less the result of new revelations than the outward signs of deep tectonic shifts within the US government -- the discrediting of some factions and agencies, the attempts of others to reposition themselves in a moment of acute crisis and get ahead of the storm, and the freeing up of others to assert themselves for the first time in years.
It's probably too dramatic to compare this to the bubbles, choppy water and occasional scraps churned up by a Piranha feeding. But the struggles that are giving rise to all these leaks and tergiversations of the state are the real story -- one that it is difficult to see directly, but possible to glimpse in what we can infer from its effects and repercussions.

5.22.2004 "Faulty intelligence continues to plague U.S. efforts in Iraq" By Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott Knight Ridder Newspapers Pointer from Josh Marshall

5.22.2004 "Boxer said she obtained a commitment from Hamilton that the (9/11) commission will state in its final report if the White House refused to answer questions about who authorized the Saudi flights after the 2001 attacks." Atrios

5.22.2004 "Bad news can be dismissed because the media is biased, and you can tell the media is biased because they keep reporting so much bad news!" Matt Yglesias

5.21.2004 "Agency: Chalabi group was front for Iran" - BY (KNUT ROYCE) now by AP nynewsday.com Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

The article by Knut Royce has been replaced by a more innocuous article. His original article is here. Pointer from Atrios

5.21.2004 An oldie but goodie: "Confidence Men - Why the myth of Republican competence persists, despite all the evidence to the contrary." By Joshua Micah Marshall - Washington Monthly September, 2002.

and this: "Vice Grip - Dick Cheney is a man of principles. Disastrous principles. By Joshua Micah Marshall Washington Monthly

5.21.2004 "Accusing top Pentagon officials of "dereliction of duty," retired Marine General Anthony Zinni says staying the course in Iraq isn't a reasonable option. "The course is headed over Niagara Falls." More at Talking Points Memo.

5.21.2004 "Chalabi keeps network, could thwart U.S. goals despite fall from grace - Pals in power give him leverage on U.S. effort to transfer sovereignty" ... "He was given control of the entire archive of the Hussein regime's secret documents, as well as the so-called de-Baathification process. The powers of the De-Baathification Commission, which Chalabi chairs, are so wide-ranging that it is often called a government within the government." By Robert Collier SFGate.com Pointer from Google News

5.21.2004 "OK, the press has now understood that Chalabi was providing US intelligence to the Iranian intelligence service. That's a start. Here are some questions you might want to ask. Where did he get the intelligence to leak? Who gave Chalabi the leaked classified information? Was it lawful to provide Chalabi with classified USG military information that included such things as where our troops were and what they were doing? Who is under investigation ... See more at Talking Points Memo.

5.21.2004 "Whenever a writer replies to an argument with an attack on his opponent's character, calling him "immoral" or "unscrupulous" or "full of pride," you are in the presence of propaganda. The reasoned response to an argument is a counter-argument." Juan Cole, in an article beating up on Andrew Sullivan. Pointer from Atrios

5.21.2004 "Ask not for whom the memory-hole sucks, Ahmed; it sucketh for you ..." Josh Marshall

5.21.2004 Charles Pierce on Altercation "In the course of working on the John Kerry profile for Esquire, I spent a lot of time wading through the various tributaries of the Iran-Contra era. The more I read, the more I realized what a pivotal moment-- and missed opportunity -- that was for anyone who believes in accountable democratic government, which some of you geezers in the audience may recall as having once been an important thing. It's not just that so many of that period's Undead walk again among us, instead of being in pre-release programs at Leavenworth where they belong. It's that Iran-Contra serves now as the template for Getting Away With Stuff that the Avignon Presidency has used ever since Uncle Nino picked the locks to the executive mansion.
Do it in secret. Avoid accountability, all accountability. Leave it to low level incompetents to make the blunders and commit the crimes. ..." MSNBC Per Atrios, who has more here

5.21.2004 "Republican Californian Congressman Duncan Hunter has introduced a bill titled the "Parents' Empowerment Act," which would allow the parent or guardian of a minor to sue (in federal court) anyone who knowingly disseminates any media which contains "material that is harmful to minors." If it passes, this bill would affect the entire supply chain, from publisher/manufacturer, to distributor, to retailer." ... "I hope it passes so we can file 50 million lawsuits against Ken Starr." Atrios - More here.

5.21.2004 Medicare drug cards working? "In the two weeks since the enrollment period for the discount cards began, we have already seen market forces at work to significantly lower drug costs for seniors," Republican Congressman Bill Thomas of California, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said at a press conference last week." By Gary Andres, vice chairman of policy and research at the Dutko Group Companies in Washington D.C. National Review.com

Probably not:

"A look at the prices for Vioxx illustrates the dynamics. The Pharmacy Care Alliance's enrollment booklet offers a 30-day supply of Vioxx (25 milligrams) at $75.33. Drugstore.com was offering the arthritis drug for $77.99 yesterday.
The booklet states that its price list was last updated March 3.
On May 3, the first day Medicare beneficiaries could sign up for the discount cards, Pharmacy Care Alliance's Web site offered to fill that prescription for $85.43, 13.4 percent more than the price in the booklet.
... "Yesterday, that 30-day supply of Vioxx was selling for $80.13, a 10 percent drop in a single week. Even so, the price was $4.80 higher than the one quoted in the booklet and $2.14 more than the price offered yesterday by Drugstore.com."
By Bill Brubaker - Washington Post Pointer from Google News

5.21.2004 "Delta Force subject of investigation; Pentagon official denies abuse" By Campbell Brown MSNBC Pointer from memeorandum

5.20.2004 "SENIOR U.S. COMMANDERS in Iraq insist that they never approved harsh interrogation techniques for Iraqi prisoners. Yet those same commanders now acknowledge that abusive practices were employed against detainees all over Iraq -- not just at Abu Ghraib prison -- and in Afghanistan." The Washington Post.

5.20.2004 "The fall of the House of Saud." By Robert Baer - The Atlantic Monthly Pointer from Amnon.

5.20.2004 "Religious bigotry gets official imprimatur in Texas" . . . "But according to the office of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Denison Unitarian church isn't really a religious organization -- at least for tax purposes. Its reasoning: the organization "does not have one system of belief." The Carpetbagger.

5.20.2004 "The GOP natives are getting very restless" Carpetbagger.

5.20.2004 More chemical worries from Kurt. "In order for the FDA to determine if Monsanto's growth hormones were safe or not, Monsanto was required to submit a scientific report on that topic. Margaret Miller, one of Monsanto's researchers put the report together. Shortly before the report submission, Miller left Monsanto and was hired by the FDA. Her first job for the FDA was to determine whether or not to approve the report she wrote for Monsanto."

5.20.2004 "Material Given to Congress in 2002 Is Now Classified" By ERIC LICHTBLAU New York Times

See earlier post: 5.2.2004 "Lawyers try to gag FBI worker over 9/11" By Andrew Buncombe in Washington - Independent Pointer from American Leftist

And: 4.4.2004 Stone wall: "Whistleblower Coming In Cold From the F.B.I. " by Gail Sheehy New York Observer.

And: 4.2.2004 "A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened." Andrew Buncombe - Independent.co.uk. Pointer from The Daily Kos

5.20.2004"The most important economic statistic in determining who becomes president isn't Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or even jobs, though both can matter quite a lot. What matters most is something called Real Disposable (Personal) Income (RDI)." ... "The overall employment numbers Bush is touting don't reflect that: two jobs are counted as two jobs, even if they are held by the same person and pay minimum wage and offer no benefits." by Sean Aday, Senior Editor The Gadflyer.

5.20.2004 Documents Related to Fair v. Rumsfeld. Law schools attempting to fend off army recruiters. Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.20.2004 "GOP groups outraged by judges deal" ... "One attendee reported that Connie Mackey, vice president of government affairs at the Family Research Council, raked the White House aides over the coals.
"We don't see the point," said Mackey, who declined to discuss the specifics of the meeting. "The strategy all along has been to show the obstructionist tactics of the Democrats. We've lost that tactic." By Alexander Bolton The Hill Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.20.2004 "The following is a transcript of the August 6, 2001, presidential daily briefing entitled Bin Laden determined to strike in US. Parts of the original document were not made public by the White House for security reasons." CNN Saturday, April 10, 2004 Pointer from AlterNet

5.20.2004 The New American Century Letter to Bill Clinton, January 26, 1998 laid out the agenda for Iraq.

By Mike Ward, AlterNet

5.20.2004 "Top 10 Conspiracy Theories of 2003-2004" By Mike Ward, AlterNet "The end of the world is now."

5.20.2004 Big Brother: AP: "Database Measured 'Terrorism Quotient' " By BRIAN BERGSTEIN My Way.com Pointer from Drudge

5.20.2004 "GAO calls Medicare `news' videos an illegal use of funds" - By Mark Sherman Associated Press

5.20.004 "So-called missile defense 'shield' still doesn't work" ... "The bad news for the failed program just keeps getting worse. The nonpartisan General Accounting Office will release a report this afternoon concluding that the government is paying twice as much as advertised for a useless project that doesn't work." Carpetbagger

5.19.2004 "White House Is Trumpeting Programs It Tried to Cut" - By ROBERT PEAR New York Times Pointer from The Carpetbagger Report

5.19.2004 "Issue: Tort Reform - Debunk the myths, slice their arguments to shreds" The Gadflyer. Pointer from The Carpetbagger Report

5.19.2004 "Brutal interrogation in Iraq - Five detainees' deaths probed " By Miles Moffeit - Denver Post Pointer from memeorandum

5.19.2004 "Study finds nothing to link vaccines, autism" "The Institute of Medicine, a highly influential adviser to the government on scientific matters, said Tuesday there is no credible evidence that either the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine or vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal cause autism." ... "The IOM panel said that five observational studies "consistently provided evidence of no association" between thimerosal and autism in Sweden, Denmark, the United States, and Britain. A similar number that do suggest a link are small, uninterpretable, unpublished, or poorly designed, it said." By DAVID BROWN - The Washington Post via The State.com Pointer from Google News

5.19.2004 "Officer Says Army Tried to Curb Red Cross Visits to Prison in Iraq" By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT "New York Times Pointer from memeorandum

5.18.2004 "To talk about things like "Bush hatred" is a way of what scholars call "metacommunicating"-it means communicating about communication. If a liberal says, "Bush lied to get us into war," the conservative comes back with, "This is just irrational Bush hatred-you all hate Bush." Then we can get into a discussion on whether or not people hate Bush or whether it's appropriate to hate Bush or whether hatred is problematic. Suddenly, we're not talking anymore about the lies he told to get us into war. It's a clever rhetorical strategy that shifts attention away from substance. That's a way of getting Bush off the hook yet again." Paul Waldman

5.18.2004 "The Justice Department's choice to set up the prison at Abu Ghraib shows the treatment of prisoners may not have been a top concern. The man John Ashcroft tapped to set up the prison, Lane McCotter, has a checkered past when it comes to running prisons. McCotter "spent 18 months administering the Texas prison system during a period when the state was threatened with as much as $1,000 in daily fines if it did not make court-ordered improvements." His next job was as director of the Utah prison system in 1997; he was forced to resign "after an inmate died" from blood clots that formed in his legs while tied, naked, to a chair for 16 hours. He then became the executive of a private prison company "under investigation by the Justice Department" for unsafe conditions and lack of medical care for inmates." by David Sirota, Christy Harvey and Judd Legum American Progress.org

5.18.2004 "Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in Abuse Scandal" By Brian Ross and Alexandra Salomon ABCNEWS.com Pointer from Drudge

5.18.2004 "Most of all, Kerry needs to pick someone of gravitas, without worrying about being upstaged. "First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people." Mark Kleiman

5.18.2004 "Still More on DOJ: It Gets Worse." Is That Legal.com

5.18.2004 "Could Bush administration officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so" By Michael Isikoff Newsweek

5.18.2004 "Vote on unemployment benefits was a scam from the start" The Carpetbagger Report.

5.18.2004 "M.P.'s Received Orders to Strip Iraqi Detainees" By ERIC SCHMITT and DOUGLAS JEHL The New York Times Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

5.18.2004 Old news with new meaning: "U.S. Pulls Out of International Court Treaty" - By Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, May 6, 2002; 4:21 PM

"United States "Unsigning" Treaty on War Crimes Court - White House Move Is "On the Wrong Side of History" "(New York, May 6, 2002) The Bush Administration's decision to effectively withdraw the U.S. signature from the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court is an empty gesture that will further estrange Washington from its closest allies, Human Rights Watch said today." Human Rights Watch. Pointer from No More Mister Nice Blog

5.18.2004 "Why one of Doug Feith's underlings thinks he might go to jail." By Laura Rozen American Prospect Online

5.18.2004 "Why Don't Those Drug Cards Actually Save Anyone Any Money? David Sirota who refers to the following article:
"Bush?s Insider Connections Preceded Huge Profit On Stock Deal" By Knut Royce - The Center for Public Integrity

5.18.2004 "Clark's point is a simple one: Neither Reagan nor any of the seven Cold War presidents before him ever attacked either the Soviet Union or one of its satellites directly. This wasn't because of insufficient dedication to anticommunism, but because it wouldn't have worked. In the end, they knew that democracy couldn't come at the point of a gun; it had to come from within, from the citizens of the countries themselves.
Is this right? To argue otherwise is to suggest that our Cold War strategy was also wrong. Perhaps we should have rolled our tanks across the Iron Curtain after World War II, when the Soviet Union was exhausted and weary. Or attacked China instead of accepting a truce in the Korean War. Or sent NATO troops into Hungary in 1956.
Of course not. Even if we had "won," we wouldn't have won. In the end, the patient strategy of military containment and cultural engagement was the right call, and it's the right call for the war on terror as well. Too bad George Bush doesn't seem to get this." Kevin Drum - The Washington Monthly.

5.18.2004 ""Cambone is trying to create a firewall around the top chain of command," says Greg Thielmann, who ran military assessments at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research until he retired last October. "If guards were following military intelligence and [ranking M.I. officer] Col. Thomas Pappas, then who was he reporting to? Ultimately you get to Cambone -- and that firewall is not going to hold. One way or another, these guys above the identified culprits [running the prison] are in big trouble."
"I think it will go to Cambone," says retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth. "The original game plan was to fry a few fish: sergeants and corporals. Then they decided [they'd] have to fry some bigger fish: Pappas and Karpinksi. That won't work because they'll blow the whistle [on] Cambone, who's the ultimate boss of intelligence and a micromanager."
For now, the White House finds itself losing allies among Republican senators as the bipartisan calls for further investigations continue. The administration cannot find support inside the military, either. "For military officers, this scandal is outrageously infuriating; it has tarnished everybody," says Ralph Peters, a retired Army intelligence officer and regular contributor to the reliably conservative New York Post editorial page. "The civilian side at the Pentagon, like Cambone -- they were the ones trying to cover this up, not the military. I believe Donald Rumsfeld needs to go because he has lost the trust and respect of the officer corps."
Eric Boehlert, Senior writer at Salon. (Subscription) Pointer from Google News

5.18.2004 Implausible Denial By Jason Vest, "Cambone can't have it both ways. The Armed Services Committee should thoroughly investigate the discrepancies between Cambone's and Alexander's April 7 and May 11 testimonies, and should recall the pair to the Hill for a more precise interrogation (in line with the Geneva Conventions, of course). In the end, the only place for Rumsfeld's "one dog to kick" may not be at his master's feet, but in the doghouse."
via Alternet.

5.18.2004 "Army, CIA want torture truths exposed" By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst. Pointer from Google News

5.18.2004 "M.P.'s Received Orders to Strip Iraqi Detainees" By ERIC SCHMITT and DOUGLAS JEHL - New York Times. Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

5.18.2004 "Two GOP governors submit the FDA to a drug test" by Thomas Schaller, The Gadflyer.

5.17.2004 'Though Cambone has been an exceptionally sub rosa figure in his position as DoD's intelligence chief, on November 21, 2003, he sat down for a rare on-record meeting over breakfast with the Defense Writers Group. Again in contrast to his May 11 comments, in which he cast himself as a benign bureaucrat largely out of the loop, his November comments offer a glimpse into the mechanics of how Cambone's office was assertively taking the lead in coordinating intelligence operations in Iraq." by Jason Vest - The Nation Pointer from Google News

5.17.2004 "The Roots of Torture - The road to Abu Ghraib began after 9/11, when Washington wrote new rules to fight a new kind of war." A NEWSWEEK investigation By John Barry, Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff

5.17.2004 "BUSH LEAGUE: An Ohio manufacturing plant that George W. Bush used last year as a backdrop to show how his economic polciies were working...has shut down Counterspin Central Pointer from Atrios

5.17.2004 "To follow up on this afternoon's post, various news outlets are reporting that the Pentagon steadfastly, firmly, or -- put in your tough-sounding adverb here -- denied the claims Sy Hersh makes in his new piece in The New Yorker.
But read the actual statement by Pentagon Spokesman Larry Di Rita, posted at the Pentagon website. This is not a denial of anything. It's a classic non-denial denial -- a bunch of aggressive phrases strung together to sound like a denial without actually denying anything. Josh Marshall See also Billmon and Froomkin Pointer from Atrios

5.17.2004 Press conference with General Miller 5/4/2004. Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

5.17.2004 "This is a complaint that's common to a remarkably large swathe of the ideological spectrum: if George Bush wanted to invade Iraq, he should at least have been committed to doing it right. Ignoring Army chief-of-staff Eric Shinseki, who estimated we needed "several hundred thousand" troops, was both foolhardy and hubristic.
But it's not that simple, is it? After all, we don't have several hundred thousand troops. I've heard some reasonable sounding suggestions that by mobilizing more reserves and doing a few other things we could dredge up another 50-60,000 troops or so, but nothing that would get us up to the 300,000 that Shinseki wanted. They just aren't there.
So it wasn't really a matter only of Bush and Rumsfeld wanting to wage war on the cheap. Rather, if they had accepted Shinseki's advice, they wouldn't have been able to wage their war at all - at least, not in the timeframe they wanted.
That's right, isn't it? Or am I missing something? Kevin Drum

5.16.2004 "US guards 'filmed beatings' at terror camp - Senator urges action as Briton reveals Guantanamo abuse" By David Rose and Gaby Hinsliff The Observer Pointer from Drudge

5.16.2004 Military wants $25,000,000,000.00 and permission to transfer it without further congressional oversight. The Progress Report
"What assurance do we have that these funds," asked Robert Byrd of West Virginia, "will ... not be diverted into some kind of dual-use activities that could be used to prepare for another war?" By MICHAEL DUFFY, MATTHEW COOPER AND JOHN F. DICKERSON - Time.com

5.16.2004 Meanwhile, lawmakers who last week felt blindsided by the prison abuses are beginning to feel misled as well. Knowledgeable government sources told Time that House Intelligence Committee Democrats asked the Pentagon last January about an internal Army report on dangerous conditions and poor management at the Abu Ghraib prison. The sources said Pentagon aides told the panel that no such report existed-though it had been finished for months. A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate response. By MICHAEL DUFFY, MATTHEW COOPER AND JOHN F. DICKERSON - Time.com

5.16.2004 "Bush's Uncle Is Executive At Bank Fined for Lax Oversight of Saudi Money" David Sirota.

5.16.2004 "The Rule of Law and the Rules of War" By ALBERTO R. GONZALES New York Times Counsel to the president plays devil's advocate. Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.16.2004 "The New York Times has reported that a CIA official was told that Bush had informed the CIA that he did not want to know where [the high value detainees] were [being held.] If this is true, it reflects a breakdown of responsibility. The president should know where detainees are being held and what is being done to them in the name of our country. It is his responsibility to authorize extraordinary means of interrogation if he believes they are necessary to our national security, or forbid them. It is this kind of choice of evils -- pitting our treaty obligations against our security -- that should never be abdicated to low-ranking officials." ALAN DERSHOWITZ -Covering up the coverup The Boston Globe Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.16.2004 "The Springs of Fate" By MAUREEN DOWD "The Bush team, working on divine right, doesn't bother checking human precedent." The New York Times Pointer from Drudge

5.16.2004 "JAG Lawyers Say Political Appointees Ignored Their Warnings on Prisoner Treatment" By Jake Tapper and Clayton Sandell ABCNEWS.com. Pointer from Atrios

5.15.2004 "THE GRAY ZONE - How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib" ... "The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld's decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America's prospects in the war on terror.
According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A." ...
"Early in his tenure, Cambone provoked a bureaucratic battle within the Pentagon by insisting that he be given control of all special-access programs that were relevant to the war on terror. Those programs, which had been viewed by many in the Pentagon as sacrosanct, were monitored by Kenneth deGraffenreid, who had experience in counter-intelligence programs. Cambone got control, and deGraffenreid subsequently left the Pentagon."
"The senior C.I.A. official, asked about Rumsfeld's testimony and that of Stephen Cambone, his Under-Secretary for Intelligence, said, "Some people think you can bullshit anyone."
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH The New Yorker

5.15.2004 "Rumsfeld and Aide Backed Harsh Tactics, Article Says" ... "Mr. Di Rita said Mr. Cambone was not involved in setting detainee policy in Iraq. "Cambone had no involvement in any matter involved in detainee management," Mr. Di Rita said. "That's part of the fevered imagination of conspiracy theorists." By DAVID JOHNSTON - New York Times

5.15.2004 Comic relief:
An open letter regarding Bishop Sheridan from Gen. JC Christian, Patriot
And an EBay sighting from Sylvia. (16.5 million hits)

5.15.2004 "The National Day of Prayer was established by Congress in 1952 and amended in 1988 to designate the day as the first Thursday of May each year." Mormons, Roman Catholics, Unitarians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists are not invited to participate. Pointer from J.C. Christian, Patriot

5.15.2004 "Lessons from Homer" by Ian Brown The Globe and Mail Pointer from Google News

5.14.2004 "WASHINGTON, May 12 - Employees at 28 firms and their parent companies certified by the Bush administration to be national distributors of discount prescription drug cards contributed about $1.8 million to Republican candidates in this year's election, a study by a group that monitors campaign donations has found. The contributions, which included $275,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign, represent about 71 percent of the $2.5 million these companies gave to candidates from both parties, according to the study, done in March by the Center for Responsive Politics. "
... "Officials at the department said there was no connection between contributions and approvals."
"There's no connection here whatsoever," said William A. Pierce, a department spokesman. "This is just a political attack by the Democrats." By GLEN JUSTICE New York Times Pointer from No More Mister Nice Blog.

5.14.2004 "But after four years of hearing about it, I think we're beginning to find a consensus about its meaning. Compassionate conservatism is really about two things: using tax dollars to fund religion and having your picture taken with African Americans." Carpetbagger.

5.14.2004 Permian Extinction, "The Great Dying" may have been caused by a meteor hitting Australia.

5.14.2004 "WHY THE TROOPS DON'T TRUST RUMMY" - By RALPH PETERS The New York Post. Pointer from Atrios

5.14.2004 An interesting article pointed to by David D. "Tortured reasoning" By Jonathan Tobin Jewish World Review
See also Chapter One of Micael Ignatieff's book: The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror" "... a constitution is not a suicide pact ... " Pointer from Howard Bashman

And- To continue our theme of ethics: "The bishop of Colorado's second-largest Roman Catholic diocese has issued a pastoral letter saying Catholics cannot receive Communion if they vote for politicians who support abortion rights, stem-cell research, euthanasia or gay marriage.
Only after citizens reverse their positions and repent for their sins in the confessional would access to the central ritual of the church be restored, Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan instructed 125,000 Catholics in his charge." A full copy of the Bishop's letter From The Denver Post Pointer from Atrios, who expresses his concern for IVF.

4.14.2004 "A real story about a real issue" ... "These are two completely different approaches to a critical issue that affects nearly every American. John Kerry offers a serious, comprehensive proposal that greatly expands access to quality health care for millions of families. Bush offers a shallow, rehashed plan that he considers a low priority compared to tax cuts for the wealthy.
For voters who take this issue seriously, these competing health care proposals offer the most striking difference between these two candidates." From Carpetbagger.

5.14.2004 Google and Judicial Notice - "Search engines take the stand" By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.13.2004 "Why Dick Cheney loves Wal-Mart - even if he doesn't shop there" ... "It was fitting that Cheney came to hail the success of Wal-Mart, because there are few American institutions that so embody the Bush administration's vision of what the American economy should look like." by Paul Waldman, Editor of The Gadflyer.

5.13.2004 "Pentagon Admits Iraq Methods Violated Geneva Rules" By Will Dunham Yahoo News, Reuters Pointer from The Daily Kos

5.13.2004 "ACLU Was Forced to Revise Release on Patriot Act Suit - Justice Dept. Cited Secrecy Rules" ... "When a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the American Civil Liberties Union could finally reveal the existence of a lawsuit challenging the USA Patriot Act, the group issued a news release.
But the next day, according to new documents released yesterday, the ACLU was forced to remove two paragraphs from the release posted on its Web site, after the Justice Department complained that the group had violated court secrecy rules.
One paragraph described the type of information that FBI agents could request under the law, while another merely listed the briefing schedule in the case, according to court documents and the original news release." By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer. Pointer from Aaron. Here is the ACLU report.

5.13.2004 "An analysis by the Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center shows that two-thirds of the Bush tax cuts this year are going to the top fifth of the population, while at the same time, many states have been forced to raise taxes and fees that disproportionately hit the middle class. Under President Bush, states have raised taxes by a total of $14.5 billion, after seven consecutive years of cutting taxes - all while cutting key health care and education services for the middle class." By David Sirota, Christy Harvey and Judd Legum, The Progress Report Pointer from Alternet.com

5.13.2004 "Harsh C.I.A. Methods Cited in Top Qaeda Interrogations" By JAMES RISEN, DAVID JOHNSTON and NEIL A. LEWIS - New York Times Pointer from ISThatLegal.com in an article titled "Did the Justice Department Lie to the Supreme Court?"

5.12.2004 "If we fail to hold our leaders accountable for what happened - if we sacrifice our most cherished American values in the name of national security and simply replace Saddam Hussein's Iraqi torture chambers with our own - we will find one day that the statement best characterizing our current situation comes not from Bush but from Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." By Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks LATimes.com Pointer from Jack Balkin

5.12.2004 "There is no negotiating with such people. There can be no compromise with those who mean to destroy us."
Last March, of course, NBC reported that the Bush administration did, in fact, "compromise" in 2002 and 2003 in the case of Abu Musab Zarqawi, who's now claimed responsibility for the Berg beheading -- and the administration did so because going after Zarqawi would interfere with Priority #1, the campaign against the non-terrorist Saddam: By Steve No More Mister Nice Blog.

5.12.2004 Stephen Cambone and WMD Digby

5.12.2004 "My God Can Torture Your Idol"
"As if the public relations debacle couldn't get any worse, it appears that Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, the deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, may have been involved in the recommendation to use questionable methods to soften up detainees for interrogation. Boykin became controversial for his statements that in the war on terror the United States is a "Christian nation" fighting Satan and for his considered opinion of the religious beliefs of a Muslim Somali warlord: "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol." Jack Balkin Pointer from Atrios

5.12.2004 "THE BUSH administration still seeks to mislead Congress and the public about the policies that contributed to the criminal abuse of prisoners in Iraq." The Washington Post. Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

5.12.2004 "WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he and other top officials kept President Bush "fully informed ... in general terms" about complaints made by the Red Cross and others over ill-treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.
Powell's statement suggests Bush may have known earlier than the White House has acknowledged about complaints raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights groups regarding abuse of detainees in Iraq." By Mark Matthews Baltimore Sun Pointer from The Carpetbagger Report which adds, "The ICRC concerns came to the Bush administration more than a year ago and about Abu Ghraib in particular almost seven months ago. Powell is now saying that Bush was "fully informed" about Red Cross complains as they were made, though Bush has said he was in the dark until fairly recently.
Well, which is it? They certainly can't both be true"

5.12.2004 "Washington - People in Crested Butte were caught by surprise last month when the Bush administration said it sold a multinational mining company 155 mountaintop acres above the town for $875.
Some of the mountain that they hike, picnic and ski on had been sold - perhaps to be closed to the public - for about the price of a pair of nice skis." By Mike Soraghan Denever Post.com Pointer from Tapped

5.11.2004 "The Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal appears to have jeopardized President Bush's nomination of the Pentagon's top lawyer to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. BY PETER HARDIN TIMES-DISPATCH WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.11.2004 Regarding $750,000,000 "Military Spending Raises Questions" ... "To the best of our knowledge, the administration failed to follow the law when it came to keeping the people's representatives fully informed on how they were spending these dollars," Gavin said." By Dan Morgan - Washington Post Pointer from The Carpetbagger Report

5.11.2004 "Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of "harsh" interrogation techniques at Guantánamo Bay, including stripping detainees naked, making them hold "stress" positions and prolonged sleep deprivation, a senior Pentagon official confirmed yesterday. Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defence for intelligence, also said severe interrogation techniques, including the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners, had been approved for use by military commanders in Iraq. " Julian Borger in Washington The Guardian Pointer from Google News

5.10.2004 "Bush said we'd see 5.5 million new jobs by the end of the year. I have a strong hunch we won't meet, or even come close to, his goal." The Carpetbagger Report

5.10.2004 "Killing Off Housing for the Poor" New York Times Pointer from The Carpetbagger Report

5.10.2004 "By requesting that CBS delay its report on prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib by two weeks [news story, May 4], Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, deprived the country of a full and forthright oral argument before the Supreme Court on the rights of U.S. citizens whom the government has detained as "enemy combatants."
Oral argument in those cases, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Padilla v. Rumsfeld, ended about noon April 28. CBS aired the report eight hours later. Had the report aired the previous week, the government's responses to certain questions at oral argument would certainly have been different. Specifically, it would have been clear what abuses could be perpetrated under the government's theory that "enemy combatants" have no rights." By JAMES F. FITZPATRICK The Washington Post Pointer from The Daily Kos.

5.10.2004 "By now, nearly everyone realizes that the Taguba report was widely ignored by people (Rumsfeld, Myers, Bush) who should have taken it seriously. What seems to be overlooked by some is the fact that the report detailing the abuse was classified "Secret," but no one can explain why ..."This may seem trivial, and considering what this scandal is doing to inflame the world, it may be, but this cover-up -- classifying a document to conceal crimes -- is itself a crime The Carpetbagger Report

5.10.2004 "This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential - even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war." From Army Times, Pointer from Atrios

5.10.2004 "The one anti-war argument that, in retrospect, I did not take seriously enough was a simple one. It was that this war was noble and defensible but that this administration was simply too incompetent and arrogant to carry it out effectively. I dismissed this as facile Bush-bashing at the time. I was wrong." Andrew Sullivan Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

5.10.2004 "Details of suit against Black in public domain" . . . "However, none of the company's non-executive directors including Richard Perle, a director who served on the company's executive committee and received some bonuses from Hollinger Digital, are currently named as defendants in the suit." FT.com Pointer from Google News

5.10.2004 "CHAIN OF COMMAND" by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
"Two months earlier, (September, 2003) Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the task force in charge of the prison at Guantánamo, had brought a team of experts to Iraq to review the Army program. His recommendation was radical: that Army prisons be geared, first and foremost, to interrogations and the gathering of information needed for the war effort. "Detention operations must act as an enabler for interrogation ." ...
"General Sanchez agreed, and on November 19th his headquarters issued an order formally giving the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade tactical control over the prison. General Taguba fearlessly took issue with the Sanchez orders, which, he wrote in his report, "effectively made an MI Officer, rather than an MP officer, responsible for the MP units conducting detainee operations at that facility. This is not doctrinally sound due to the different missions and agenda assigned to each of these respective specialties."

5.10.2004 " ... the embrace of lawlessness, systematic deception and an almost boundless incompetence have all made this possible. These guys created the climate in which this could happen. And then they were either too disorganized or too indifferent to stop it when things got out of hand. Josh Marshall

5.9.2004 How the Whitehouse tried to block the 911 commission. "Schlep to Judgment" By Brian Montopoli The Washington Monthly September 2003. Pointer fromTAPPED

5.9.2004 "Soldiers' warnings ignored" ... "Here's my point," one of the soldiers said. "All this that's going on? All these pictures all over the place, the whole world hating even more the United States? If two specialists could see how serious it was, how come nobody else could?" By Todd Richissin Baltimoresun.com Pointer from Atrios

5.9.2004 "General Dyer in Iraq" ... "Imperial Western projects to bring civilisation to the East through a White Man's Burden have a typical unplanned side-effect. The would-be civilisers find that the Easterners resist forced civilisation, and inflict heavy casualties. The civilisers retaliate, and some of them find it expedient to use mass killing, torture and brutality to win the war of civilisation." SWAMINOMICS/SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR The Times of India. Pointer from Amar.

5.9.2004 "The Price of Arrogance" ... "Rumsfeld went on in his testimony to explain that "these terrible acts were perpetrated by a small number." That's correct, except the small number who are truly responsible are not the handful of uniformed personnel currently being charged for the prison abuse scandal. The events at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger breakdown in American policy over the past two years. And it has been perpetrated by a small number of people at the highest levels of government."... "They attacked specifically the Geneva Conventions, which govern behavior during wartime. Donald Rumsfeld explained that the conventions did not apply to today's "set of facts." ..."Leave process aside: the results are plain. On almost every issue involving postwar Iraq-troop strength, international support, the credibility of exiles, de-Baathification, handling Ayatollah Ali Sistani-Washington's assumptions and policies have been wrong. By now most have been reversed, often too late to have much effect. This strange combination of arrogance and incompetence has not only destroyed the hopes for a new Iraq. It has had the much broader effect of turning the United States into an international outlaw in the eyes of much of the world." By Fareed Zakaria -Newsweek

5.9.2004 "Deep divisions are emerging at the top of the U.S. military ..." ... "A senior general at the Pentagon said he believes the United States is already on the road to defeat. "It is doubtful we can go on much longer like this," he said. "The American people may not stand for it -- and they should not."
Asked who was to blame, this general pointed directly at Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz. "I do not believe we had a clearly defined war strategy, end state and exit strategy before we commenced our invasion," he said. "Had someone like Colin Powell been the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], he would not have agreed to send troops without a clear exit strategy. The current OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense] refused to listen or adhere to military advice." ... "The New York Review of Books is not widely read in the U.S. military, but the article, titled "How to Get Out of Iraq," was carried online and began circulating among some military intellectuals. Washington Post Pointer from Atrios

5.8.2004 "Bush Calls Iraq Prisoner Abuse Wrongdoing of a Few" By Caren Bohan Reuters Pointer from Drudge

5.8.2004 "Soldier: Role was to 'make it hell' for prisoners - Reservist (Spec. Sabrina D. Harman) tells of orders from intelligence officers" By Jackie Spinner Washington Post Pointer from Drudge

5.8.2004 "General Told MPs to `soften Up' Prisoners" By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Yahoo Pointer from Drudge

5.8.2004 "Pentagon Approved Tougher Interrogations" Washington Post Pointer from The Daily Kos

5.8.2004 "The thing that Europeans cannot understand is how you can vote for a liar," said Peter Schneider, a German essayist and novelist. "Here is somebody who lies about something that leads to a war where tens of thousands of people's lives are involved." By SARAH LYALL New York Times Pointer from Jack Balkin

5.8.2004 "Halliburton Pulling the Plug on GI Communications" Kathryn Cramer Pointer from Atrios

5.8.2004
"War Crimes Statute -- Title 18, Chapter 118, Section 2441"
"Torture Act" Section 2340. Definitions
"Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act"
per Watching Justice

5.8.2004 "The Justice Department has confirmed that it is examining the involvement of CIA officers and American contract employees in the deaths of three detainees, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan." per Watching Justice

5.8.2004 "Ashcroft Says U.S. Can Prosecute Civilian Contractors for Prison Abuse" ... "In addition, Ashcroft and other Justice Department officials said, the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 1999 allows for prosecution of civilian contractors who commit crimes while working overseas for the military. " By Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus Washington Post How about at Guantanemo? "persons employed by or accompanying the Armed Forces outside the United States"? Pointer from Watching Justice.

5.8.2004 "Prisoner Abuse Probe Widened, Military Intelligence at Center of Investigation " May 2nd article By Sewell Chan and Michael Amon Washington Post Foreign Service Pointer from The American Constitution Society.

5.8.2004 "FDA: Plan B Sales Rejected Against Advice, Official Denies That Politics Blocked Contraceptive's Over-the-Counter Status" By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.8.2004 "WASHINGTON - The international Red Cross documented cases of severe mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners far more numerous and far earlier than previously was known, U.S. and Red Cross officials said Friday." ... "He said the ICRC investigations showed "a pattern, a broad system" rather than "isolated acts of individual members of the coalition forces." ... After each visit, the teams filed confidential reports of their observations and recommendations to prison commanders in Iraq, as well as to Bush administration officials in Washington. ICRC officials held separate meetings in February with L. Paul Bremer III, head of the occupation, and Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq."
"We had regular meetings with the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House to discuss these prison conditions as well as other issues," said Christophe Girod, the chief ICRC in Washington. ... The summary also says the ICRC filed a report to U.S. authorities last July detailing 50 allegations of serious prisoner abuse at the military intelligence section of Camp Cropper at the Baghdad International Airport. " By Bob Drogin LATimes.com Pointer from Jack M. Balkin.

5.8.2004 "The Philadelphia-area native at the center of the Iraq torture scandal (Steve Stefanowicz) has reportedly told friends he wants to get out of there right away and return to Australia, where he claimed three years ago he was joining the CIA." By WILLIAM BUNCH Philly.com Pointer from Atrios

5.8.2004 "Oil prices artificially high" ... ""The current levels of prices is not supported by the fundamentals," Dwarkin says. "They're stuck well above expectations, considering the state of oil stocks." THE STARPHOENIX

5.8.2004 "Pentagon Refused Lawyer As Prison Adviser " ..."WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials rejected an Army plan last year to send an experienced military lawyer - who is also a Republican member of Congress - to help oversee the unit blamed for prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib complex outside Baghdad. " Earthlink

5.8.2004 "Drug-card confusion favors drug companies ... If all elderly Americans had high-powered computers and doctorates in pharmacology, they still could not be sure which of the 40 national drug-discount cards to buy." The Virginian-Pilot

5.8.2004 Rumsfeld: "As I indicated in my remarks, if there's a failure, it's me," he said. ''It's my failure for not understanding and knowing that there were hundreds or however many there are of these things that could eventually end up in the public and do the damage they've done."
Boston Globe: ..."reports have been coming out for two years. If it had been an administration that really cared about these issues, and more to the point, recognized the foreign policy and legal significance, they would have found who was responsible two years ago." Boston.com

5.7.2004 ""The proposition is this: that in a time of war the commander of an armed force . . . has the power . . . to suspend all civil rights and their remedies, and subject citizens . . . to the rule of his will. . . . If true, [our] republican government is a failure, and there is an end of liberty regulated by law." Chief Justice David Davis, 1866. As quoted by by Nat Hentoff in his article "Is Bush the Law?" In the Village Voice. Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.7.2004 "Exactly how does one answer questions over whether American soldiers running prisons in Iraq ought to be put in the dock in The Hague just as we have insisted that Serbia turn over perpetrators of atrocities in former Yugoslavia? Secretary of Defense (at least for today) Rumsfeld's testimony today doesn't give me much confidence that the Bush administration really grasps the importance of this issue." David Lublin The Gadflyer

5.7.2004 "Resign, Rumsfeld" ... "Responsibility for errors and indiscipline needs to be taken at the top" Economist.com

5.7.2004 "Long before Abu Ghraib, senior officers warned that Bush appointees in the Pentagon were undermining prisoner safeguards." By Joe Conason Salon.com Pointer from Seeing The Forest

5.7.2004 Streaming radio of Rumsfeld's testimony is available at The House Armed Services Committee site.

5.7.2004 "Americans remain divided about the war in Iraq. And they remain divided about President Bush. But surely people of goodwill from both sides of the great red-blue, hawk-dove divide can put aside their differences and agree on at least one thing: Donald Rumsfeld needs a new job." by Peter Beinart The New Republic. Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

5.7.2004 From Rumsfeld's Rules Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
" The price of being close to the president is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it. "

5.7.2004 "Got that? See, we invaded Iraq to liberate the Iraqi people. Then when it seemed like they were saying, "Thank you for getting rid of Saddam, now please leave," we promised to hand them back their country on June 30, 2004. But now it's painfully clear that Iraqis are not really ready to handle that kind of responsibility. So we are just going to borrow back their sovereignty - with their permission, of course. Sure, we'll give it back to them, but only when we're damn good and ready (namely, when they stop acting all Islamic and anti-American and stuff). " Christopher Scheer is a staff writer for AlterNet

5.7.2004 "The issues of the Patriot Act and abortion both raise the complex balance between life and liberty. They merit a debate rather than McCarthy-like attempts to label the liberal position as pro-terrorist." By David Lublin

5.7.2004 "Republicans charging Democrats with treason for the crime of criticizing the administration has become so commonplace as to barely merit mention, let alone condemnation. But the truth of the matter is this: if you believe that criticizing the government is a treasonous act, you are an enemy of freedom. It's as simple as that. " Paul Waldman

5.7.2004 "Americans are proud of their devotion to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. But these cannot exist without institutional preconditions: they cannot exist if government officials insist on complete secrecy, mock international covenants, and refuse to allow their actions to be tested and constrained by law." Jack M. Balkin Pointer from Atrios

5.6.2004 "F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers' Statements" By MATTHEW L. WALD New York Times Pointer from Atrios

5.6.2004 "The question is whether Rumsfeld and his generals have learned from past mistakes. Or rather, perhaps, the question is whether George W. Bush has learned from Rumsfeld's past mistakes. After all, at the end of the day, it is up to the president to ensure that the success he demands in Iraq will in fact be accomplished. If his current secretary of defense cannot make the adjustments that are necessary, the president should find one who will." --Robert Kagan and William Kristol Wow! Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall

5.6.2004 "The Wrong Man - How Paul Bremer bungled the occupation of Iraq" by Cliff Schecter, Contributor The Gadflyer.

5.6.2004 "Let's say Rumsfeld resigns on Friday. The election is still six months away. And the nation is at war. So a new Defense Secretary would be needed more or less immediately. That would open up a very uncomfortable prospect for the administration.
Confirmation hearings for a new Sec Def would, I think, inevitably turn into a national forum for discussing the management of the Pentagon, the planning for the war and the lack of planning for the occupation. The new nominee would be drawn into all sorts of uncomfortble public second-guessing of what's happened up until this point. Sure, that's stuff under Rumsfeld. But, really, it's stuff under Bush -- the civilian head of the United States military.
That, I have to imagine, is something the White House would like to avoid at any cost."
-- Josh Marshall

5.6.2004 "The National Day of Prayer"... "At this point in his presidency, Bush has marked 15 days as official days of prayer in the U.S. He's been in office about 39 months, which translates to an official prayer declaration from the White House once every 2.6 months. No president in U.S. history has ever issued so many official prayer edicts in such a short period of time." Here's a quick summary of Bush's prayer declarations:
From Carpetbagger. I know that he and I will be praying for the same thing.

5.5.2004 "Bush aides conceded that Rumsfeld had earlier given Bush a general sense of the investigation of Abu Ghraib during a meeting that included Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. But White House press secretary Scott McClellan said officials have not been able to pin down the exact date, except that it was after Jan. 16, when the Pentagon issued a release announcing the probe." The Washington Post.

5.5.2004 Wall Street Journal plays games with "pull quote." Kevin Drum - The Washington Monthly. Pointer from TAPPED

5.5.2004 "Senate Rebuffs Bush, Blocks New Rules on Overtime Pay" By Helen Dewar Washington Post Pointer from The Gadflyer

5.5.2004 "Bush Diverting Enviro Funds Into Fossil Fuels" Misleader

5.5.2004 "Administration Officials Knew Of Abu Ghraib Report" Misleader Pointer from Maureen.

5.5.2004 "But mostly, what the Bushies call "leadership" is just a confidence game. And over time, that kind of leadership will get its butt kicked by reality every time." Joshua Micah Marshall in 2002.

5.5.2004 I think that I caught Diane Feinstein on CNN this morning saying that she was advised that she is not allowed to download the Taguba Report from the internet. There was no follow up question. I could think of a couple. TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

5.5.2004 Diary of an interrogator at Abu Ghraib. Pointer from Juan Cole.
"The diary is a fascinating read - not least because it documents the fact that as of last Sunday, one of the private contractors identified in the Army's own internal investigation of the torture scandal was still at Abu Ghraib, and may still have been supervising or conducting interrogations." Billmon

5.5.2004 "Inside the Lies" An interview with Joseph Wilson By David Corn, The Nation Pointer from AlterNet

5.5.2004 "A three-judge Appellate Division panel Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision rejecting a petition for R. Edward Forchion to change his name to NJWeedman.com.
The Appellate panel reaffirmed a March ruling by Superior Court Judge John A. Fratto, the presiding civil division judge in Camden, denying Forchion's request to change his legal name top NJWeedman.com because "it would promote what is presently an illegal activity," namely, smoking marijuana." Here Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.5.2004 "So in the wake of September 11 and the US occupation of Iraq, the big media move of the Bush administration was . . . to abolish the Arabic service of the Voice of America! It boggles the mind." Juan Cole.

5.5.2004 "Meet Brett Kavanaugh, Bush's latest nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court" by Clay Risen The New Republic online Pointer from Howard Bashman

5.4.2004 A very interesting essay about our system of government. Pointer from Marcus.

5.4.2004 "Air Quality Experts Decry New Bush Policy - The EPA modelers say science is being altered to suit objectives. U.S. officials reject notion." By Elizabeth Shogren, Times Staff Writer latimes.com

5.4.2004 The mathematics of cicadas. Pointer from Chris Mooney

5.4.2004 Chris Mooney explores creationist science, eg: "At Dinosaur Adventure Land, visitors can make their own Grand Canyon replica with sand and read a sign deriding textbooks for teaching that the Colorado River formed the canyon over millions of years: "This is clearly not possible. The top of the Grand Canyon is 4,000 feet higher than where the river enters the canyon! Rivers do not flow up hill!"

5.4.2004 "The Medicare scandal is about to heat up again in a big way. We already know the administration lied to Congress and the public about the cost of the White House plan and we know that Bush officials are refusing to share cost estimates with lawmakers, despite previous promises to do so.
Now we're learning that federal investigators believe the Bush administration broke the law by silencing those who knew the truth."
The Carpetbagger

5.4.2004 Ahmed Chalabi and the neocons Joshua Micah Marshall "In the popular political imagination we're familiar with the neocons as conniving militarists, masters of intrigue and cabals, graspers for the oil supplies of the world, and all the rest. But here we have them in what I suspect is the truest light: as college kid rubes who head out for a weekend in Vegas, get scammed out of their money by a two-bit hustler on the first night and then get played for fools by a couple hookers who leave them naked and handcuffed to their hotel beds."

5.3.2004 "In the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the nation's largest airlines, including American, United and Northwest, turned over millions of passenger records to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, airline and law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday." By JOHN SCHWARTZ and MICHELINE MAYNARD New York Times.

5.3.2004 "Laying Out the Bait - President Bush knows how to build a straw man - his critics shouldn't bite." by Paul Waldman, Editor-in-Chief The Gadflyer.

5.3.2004 "The mess in Iraq isn't helping Kerry- but there may be an alternative" ... "The American public's approval - and perhaps even tolerance - of George W. Bush's handling of Iraq is falling fast, with a plurality of voters in last week's New York Times/CBS poll saying they thought the decision to get involved in the Iraq War was a mistake. But while Bush's approval rating has been moving downward in most every recent poll, John Kerry has not received a corresponding bounce, which is disquieting both to Democrats and people who believe in Newtonian physics" by Harold Meyerson, Board of Advisors The Gadflyer.

5.3.2004 "Bush said Clinton emphasized North Korea, as if that were a bad thing" ... "According to a report in this week's Time, Bush told the Commission that Clinton's priority list emphasized North Korea, not al Queda." ... "If you believe Clinton's version of the conversation, Bush ignored a very serious threat. If you believe Bush's version, Bush ignored a different very serious threat. I can't help but think that Bush hasn't thought this one through." per Carpetbagger.

5.3.2004 "Right of publicity vs. the First Amendment" Eugene Volokh.

5.3.2004 "Time-tested policies can keep the American middle class strong in the new global economy. " By Robert Kuttner - American Prospect on Line.

5.3.2004 "Who Hacked the Voting System? The Teacher" By JOHN SCHWARTZ - New York Times.

5.2.2004 "Lesser Evils" By MICHAEL IGNATIEFF Civil rights and terrorist wrongs.New York Times.

5.2.2004 "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount." --- Proverb, circa 19th Old West, attributed to Lakota. From Leonard, who also says

5.2.2004 "Lawyers try to gag FBI worker over 9/11" By Andrew Buncombe in Washington - Independent American Leftist

5.1.2004 "George is a uniter not a divider. He is starting to get Pat Buchanan to agree with me. A"
"Fallujah: High Tide of Empire?" - by Pat Buchanan - The American Conservative.

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