? at Orcinus: The useful enemy

Friday, September 15, 2006

It's becoming increasingly clear, I think, why Osama bin Laden is still at large: Because George W. Bush needs him to be.

It's not a pretty thought. But it's the only one that makes sense.

Atrios yesterday pointed out the strange contrast between Bush's incessant waving of the Bloody Bin Laden Shirt as the epitome of the Islamofascist Threat and his alternately peculiar disinterest in hunting him down:

Bin Laden is Hitler:

Mrs. Robinson at Orcinus: My Life as A Futurist

Thursday, September 14, 2006
by Sara Robinson

You will not offend me if you give me That Look when I tell you what business I'm in.

After all, my own mother still gives it to me. "Tell me again....just what is it that you...do?" she queries me now and again, her voice a nuanced blend of confusion, incredulity, and a sincere desire not to hurt my feelings. At least she doesn't smirk or giggle out loud (which has been known to happen with less gentle acquaintances). Not that I would blame her if she did. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to get That Look every time I introduce myself, probably for the rest of my days. It's an occupational burden I'm learning to bear.

Everybody knows this. Futurists are crazy old men with wild white hair and bow ties and pockets full of cool micro-gizmos who go around talking about flying cars. (In fact, the very phrase "flying cars" is a standing joke in the professional futurist trade, the signifier for all the usual and stereotypical things the media wants to talk to us about, even when we're desperate to talk about something far more important or interesting.) Bucky Fuller was a futurist. Ray Kurzweil is a futurist. Here in Vancouver, we have Dr. Tomorrow, a colorful character who's been the town's iconic (and iconoclastic) "futurist" for about 30 years.

Glenn Greenwald: Arlen Specter is lying about his own bill -- again

In June, both the ACLU and The Washington Post's Walter Pincus reported that the FISA bill proposed by Arlen Specter would expressly immunize Bush officials from any legal consequences arising out of their illegal eavesdropping -- giving them what Pincus called "blanket amnesty" -- by retroactively legalizing warrantless eavesdropping going back to 1978. But that weekend, Specter went on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and categorically denied that his bill contained any such provision, stating:

Absolutely not. That was an erroneous report. If anybody has violated the law, they'll be held accountable, both as to criminal conduct and as to civil conduct. And in no way did I promise amnesty or immunity or letting anybody off the hook.

At the time of Specter's denial on national television, there was no copy of his bill available online, so I actually wrote a post aggressively criticizing Pincus for his erroneous claim, because I assumed that Sen. Specter (due to self-interest, if for no other reason) would not go on national television and categorically deny that his bill contained what amounts to a Congressional pardon for the administration if it really did contain such a provision.

Digby: Katrina Queen Of The Desert

Atrios links to another lengthy part of this fascinating article but I think the lede is worth excerpting too. Before there was Katrina, there was the CPA:

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What they needed to be was a member of the Republican Party.

WSJ and Toensing: I Outed Plame (Here We Go Again)

Throughout my years in Washington, I've debated a lot of conservatives and Republicans. There are some for which I have no regard. There are others whom--though I disagree with them on politics and policy--I've considered friendlies: not quite friends, but people who are smart and whose company I enjoy, who are fun to drink and argue with.

Among that group has been GOP lawyer Victoria Toensing. It certainly helped our relationship that years ago I was a friend of her daughter, a wonderful photojournalist. But I considered Toensing an intelligent and engaging lawyer, and we were able to hold civil conversations. I could even call her as a source--not that she ever provided any scoops.

Glenn Greenwald: The increasing extremism of Bush followers

(1) Even after being subjected to a relentless, month-long, 9/11-exploiting fearmongering campaign from the White House, a majority of Americans (50-43), according to the latest Pew poll, still believe that it is not "necessary to give up some civil liberties to curb terrorism." And the trend line demonstrates how solidly entrenched this view is among mainstream Americans:

Digby: "You're Looking Beautiful Today, Dave"

Here is Bush getting pissed off at David Gregory for suggesting that North Korea or other countries might adopt Bush's new way of dealing with the Geneva Conventions --- "interpret" them however it suits them and change them at will. Bush seems to think that would be just great.

Dave? He's back!

QUESTION: Sorry, I've got to get disentangled.

BUSH: Would you like me to go to somebody else, here, till you get...

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Sorry.

BUSH: Well, take your time, please.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: I really apologize for that. Anyway...

BUSH: I must say, having gone through those gyrations, you're looking beautiful today, Dave.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Thank you very much.

Mr. President, critics of your proposed bill on interrogation rules say there's another important test. These critics include John McCain, who you've mentioned several times this morning.

And that test is this: If a CIA officer, paramilitary or special operations soldier from the United States were captured in Iran or North Korea and they were roughed up and those governments said, "Well, they were interrogated in accordance with our interpretation of the Geneva Conventions," and then they were put on trial and they were convicted based on secret evidence that they were not able to see, how would you react to that as commander in chief?

Digby: Saddamites On The Rise

I noticed that after Bush belligerantly defended torture, he went on to describe Iraq as not being in a civil war using the term "Saddamist" to describe the people who are causing the trouble.

He's been listening to Joe Lieberman and The Committee For Present Danger whose primary advice recently was to change the way we talk about the Iraq war to characterize it as a resurgent Saddam fedayeen trying to recapture the government.

Tristero for Digby: Carnegie Endowment On Iran

One of the most remarkable things about that most remarkable of periods in recent American history, 2002/2003, was that the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published paper after paper, sat for interview after interview, held seminar after seminar, about the dangers of pre-emptive unilateralism (PU) in general and conquering Iraq in particular - and nobody listened despite the fact that they got it nearly exactly right.

You think it might be a good idea to listen to them now, given their track record? I mean, sure, Kenneth Pollack is better connected to Big Media, and Bill Kristol has a disarmingly goofy smile, but they were after all wrong, and lots of people died because of their little oops moment. Maybe they're not exactly the brightest bulbs in the firmament when it comes to foreign policy. And maybe, just maybe, one might pay attention to what Carnegie's saying right now about Iran. So....

Billmon: A Tortured Definition

I caught Commander Codpiece on the tube today, explaining to the assembled White House press zombies why the Geneva Convention's Common Article 3 is "vague" and "open to interpretation." By which he meant: "It lets us waterboard anybody we like."

The fact that we have over 50 years of law and precedent based on Article 3, that the U.S. military has issued (and now re-issued) an entire field manual interpreting it, that the U.S. Code contains a specific statute to enforce it -- these apparently haven't resolved those pesky ambiguities that have created so many PR problems for the Children of Light in their eternal war against the Children of Darkness.

Let's Make a Deal

It's time to talk to Syria.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, Sept. 15, 2006, at 1:30 PM ET

It's a golden moment for a diplomatic overture to Syria.

This week's armed assault on the U.S. Embassy in Damascus should have shown Syrian President Bashar Assad that his country isn't as immune to the region's terrorism as he might have thought.

Bradblog: "Diebold's Response to Princeton Report 'Dodges' Issues, Says Computer Scientist Doug Jones"

University of Iowa Professor, E-Voting Expert Calls on Company to Publicly Release Information to Back Up Response

Charges 'No Third Party Security Analyses' Have Ever 'Found Their System to be Secure'

Noted University of Iowa computer scientist and e-voting expert, Douglas W. Jones, posted a reponse via email this morning to Diebold's official reply to Princeton University's recent report, detailing the ease with which Diebold's AccuVote touch-screen voting machine may have a virus inserted into its system.

Such malicious code, the first-of-its-kind report details, could flip votes, steal an election and replicate itself from one voting machine to the next. The dirty deed could be done by a single individual with about a minute's worth of unsupervised access to a single machine or memory card, and could be designed to be undetectable to either voters or elections officials.

DeLayed and confused

Under cloud of illegality "The Hammer" attempts to rehabilitate his image

In early-May, when former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) announced that he would be resigning from Congress the following month, he delivered a letter to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert advising him that he was moving on in order "to pursue new opportunities to engage in the important cultural and political battles of our day from an arena outside of the U.S. House of Representatives."

DeLay who had resigned his post as Majority Leader in September 2005 after a Texas grand jury indicted him on charges of campaign-finance violations tied to Texans for a Republican Majority, appears now to be reduced to sending silly e-mail to rally his troops on behalf of a conservative contestant on an ABC television reality show.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 09/15/06

A Senate committee rejects the president's military tribunal proposal in favor of one of their own, with Democrats "rapt spectators" on the sidelines, as Republicans lead the opposition, and an attempt to strong-arm top military lawyers generates some blowback.

Hezbollah is accused of war crimes during the conflict with Israel for "deliberately targeting Israeli civilians with its rockets," in a report by Amnesty International, but a Hezbollah lawmaker defends the right of reprisal.

Apparently reversing course again, President Bush is reported to have confessed that capturing Osama bin Laden is not "a paramount goal of the war on terror," as he offered his philosophy on how to win the war.

The number of "failed states," identified as "a breeding ground for global terrorism," jumps from 17 to 26 according to a report by the World Bank, as the Bank's president Paul Wolfowitz seeks to downplay a recent controversy over the way conditions are attached to funding poor countries.

John Pilger presents a guide to how "the news value of whole societies was measured by their relationship with 'us' in the West, and Brad DeLong catches CJR Daily practicing what it critiques, by "ignoring genuine expertise" and stubbornly insisting "on splitting the middle and poxing both houses."

PBS puts previews online of three upcoming Bill Moyers investigations that will examine "key issues facing democracy" that Moyers believes should be at the center of debate this fall: political corruption, Christians and the environment, and net neutrality.

Words Without Borders offers a selection of 'literature from the Axis of Evil,' J.G. Ballard explores "the pathology of everyday life" in "Kingdom Come," a new novel set in the "commercial dream space" of a mall, and the Washington Post finds that an extra day at the mall leads the pious into temptation.

ABC, CBS ignored top Marine intelligence officer's assessment that major Iraq province is lost

Summary: NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams was the only evening network news broadcast to report on a classified assessment by the Marine Corps intelligence chief in Iraq that describes that country's Anbar province as "lost."

After a September 11 Washington Post article reported that a classified assessment by the Marine Corps intelligence chief in Iraq had described that country's Anbar province as "lost," NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams was the only evening network news broadcast to report the story. To date, ABC's World News with Charles Gibson and CBS' Evening News with Katie Couric have not mentioned the story.

Paul Krugman: Progress or Regress?

Is the typical American family better off than it was a generation ago? That’s the subject of an intense debate these days, as commentators try to understand the sour mood of the American public.

But it’s the wrong debate. For one thing, there probably isn’t a right answer. Most Americans are better off in some ways, worse off in others, than they were in the early 1970’s. It’s a subjective judgment whether the good outweighs the bad. And as I’ll explain, that ambiguity is actually the real message.

New Clues in the Plame Mystery

By Robert Parry
September 15, 2006

A well-placed conservative source has added an important clue to the mystery of the Bush administration’s “outing” of CIA officer Valerie Plame after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, became one of the first Establishment figures to accuse George W. Bush of having “twisted” intelligence to justify the Iraq War.

The source, who knows both Whiterxdftlj House political adviser Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, told me that the two men are much closer than many Washington insiders understand, that they developed a friendship and a working relationship when Bush was recruiting Colin Powell to be Secretary of State.

Americans in Denial about 9/11

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted September 14, 2006.

Five years after 9/11, the country still hasn't asked what motives the terrorists may have had in their attacks.

So, why did they hate us after all?

We sure blew off that question nicely. As with everything else in this country, our response to 9/11 was a heroic compendium of idiocy, cowardice, callow flag-waving, weepy sentimentality (coupled with an apparently bottomless capacity for self-pity), sloth, laziness, and partisan ignorance.

Media ownership study ordered destroyed

FCC draft suggested fewer owners would hurt local TV coverage

Updated: 3:08 p.m. ET Sept. 14, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says.

The report, written in 2004, came to light during the Senate confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Glenn Greenwald: Libertarians, Conservatives and Warrantless Eavesdropping

I find this so, so interesting and genuinely revealing. Back when he was still a "libertarian" -- a mere 5 years ago -- Glenn Reynolds was vigorously opposed to warrantless surveillance and even shared the view of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor that warrantless surveillance is unconstitutional. Via some excellent research from D-Day, please read and savor what Reynolds said on September 14, 2001 -- 3 days after the 9/11 attacks (emphasis added):

THE SENATE has approved a bill allowing warrantless taps of Internet traffic. This is one of those losses of freedom I was talking about. It may (and should) be ruled unconstitutional. But it shouldn't be passed at all.

Would this have prevented Tuesday's attacks? No, because we didn't know who to tap. Has the FBI wanted this for years anyway, under a variety of excuses (drug dealers, organized crime, kiddie porn, whatever the flavor of the week was)? Yes. Is this bureaucratic opportunism? Yes again.

If the bill can't be stopped, opponents in the House should insist on a sunset provision -- say in two years. If it hasn't proved its usefulness by then, it should be scrapped. But really, it should be scrapped now.

Amazingly, if you follow the link which Reynolds included, you will find that the legislation which so offended his libertarian sensibilities (the "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001") -- and which he said was unconstitutional (presumably on Fourth Amendment grounds) -- provided far, far less surveillance power to the President than the current Specter bill (or the President's NSA program), since all that bill provided was that "prosecutors could authorize surveillance for 48-hour periods without a judge's approval."

Glenn Greenwald: Sen. Reid: The Specter bill will NOT be enacted. Period.

Sen. Harry Reid participated in a conference call with a dozen or so bloggers this afternoon. For the first question, I asked him about the Specter bill -- specifically, what the Democrats' strategy was for preventing its enactment (I wanted to wait until the second question but I couldn't contain myself).

Sen. Reid stated flatly and unequivocally -- and I'm paraphrasing -- that the Specter bill was not going anywhere, that it would not be enacted. I then asked him how he could be so certain about that -- specifically, I asked where the 51 votes against the Specter bill would come from in light of the support it enjoys from both the White House and at least some of the ostensibly "independent" Republicans, exacerbated by the fact that all 10 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted in favor of it yesterday (at least they voted in favor of sending it to the Senate floor).

Digby: Who's Appeasing Now?

This is unbelievable. We are facing a threat that dwarfs the threat of fascism, but Bush doesn't think it's important to remove Hitler. From ThinkProgress:

HOST: Alright Fred, you and a few other journalists were in the Oval Office with the President, right? And he says catching Osama bin Laden is not job number one?

BARNES: Well, he said, look, you can send 100,000 special forces, that’s the figure he used, to the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan and hunt him down, but he just said that’s not a top priority use of American resources. His vision of a war on terror is one that involves intelligence to find out from people, to get tips, to follow them up and break up plots to kill Americans before they occur. That’s what happened recently in that case of the planes that were to be blown up by terrorists, we think coming from England, and that’s the top priority. He says, you know, getting Osama bin Laden is a low priority compared to that.

Digby: Low-Tech Sophisticates

This article by Walter Pincus in the Wapo indicates that the white house is coordinating with the Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee by providing them with selective, unclassified talking points for them to use. This is not surprising, of course, since they have treated the NSA spying as a political campaign and the Eunuch Caucus members on the committee have dutifully followed in lock-step.

Digby: Crusader Codpiece

President Bush said yesterday that he senses a "Third Awakening" of religious devotion in the United States that has coincided with the nation's struggle with international terrorists, a war that he depicted as "a confrontation between good and evil."

Bush told a group of conservative journalists that he notices more open expressions of faith among people he meets during his travels, and he suggested that might signal a broader revival similar to other religious movements in history. Bush noted that some of Abraham Lincoln's strongest supporters were religious people "who saw life in terms of good and evil" and who believed that slavery was evil. Many of his own supporters, he said, see the current conflict in similar terms.

Digby: Cha-cha-cha

I don't know what it means, but every time I play Tucker Carlson's "Dancing With The Stars" Youtube, it crashes my browser at the end. Not that it matters because I'm unable to see through the tears of laughter anyway.

If you dare, take a look. It is truly hilarious.

Update: On the other hand, this snotty little bitch isn't so funny when he's not making a fool of himself on the dance floor. Get a load of this lovely little exchange:

CARLSON: Now clearly, we all agree that there is -- there are things to be afraid of. We disagree about what they may be. Here's one I think we can all agree is, frankly, a terrifying prospect. It comes from our old pal Pat Buchanan [MSNBC political analyst and former presidential candidate]. He says this about Al Gore. He proclaims that if the former vice president ran for the Democratic nomination right now, Pat Buchanan predicts, he would beat Hillary Clinton to win the nomination. Now whatever you think of Pat's politics, he's a pretty, I think, smart prognosticator. The idea of Al Gore, I think both of you -- Mark, we'll start with you -- you agree even the Democrats don't want that.

Digby: Pimping the Greatest Generation

The president seemed a little confused last night. For the last two weeks he's been evoking images of WWII, talking about islamic fascists and the like. Last night he seemed to be adding the Cold War into the mix. Apparently, he wants people to believe that al Qaeda is more threatening than the Nazis and the communists combined:

The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation.

Our nation is being tested in a way that we have not been since the start of the Cold War.

Digby: A Speech Too Far

I am seeing some Bush skepticism today on the news as CNN sends Anderson Cooper (looking fabulous in prada, as always) to Afghanistan under the heading "The Forgotten War." They are talking a lot about the resurgence of The Taliban. Most interestingly, the news today is all about how the president exploited 9/11 politically. I think it's far batter to have the press discussing that than drooling over the Codpiece as they have in the past.

Digby: Won't Get Fooled Again

Kevin Drum explains why Democrats are unwilling to genuflect to Republican posturing on 9/11 anymore.

James Joyner, noting the harsh tone evident in many of the lefty blogosphere's 9/11 posts today, says that "the stridency of these posts, even from bloggers and publications on the moderate side of the lefty blogosphere is surprising."

Digby: 9/11 Symbiosis

I've been getting a few admonistions from readers who are upset that I'm not suspending my anger to observe this day with solemnity and seriousness. But I'm not going to apologize for being angry. I was angry that day five years ago and I'm still angry.

You see, I knew --- I knew --- that bin Laden had just achieved a huge victory, perhaps a decisive one. This was not because of the attacks themselves or even the possibility of more in the future, which as horrible and dramatic as they are do not in themselves represent any kind of existential threat. This was because as an observer of the zeitgeist and the political scene for over 30 years at that point, I knew that our government and media would react to this event in exactly the way bin Laden hoped and that we would do to ourselves what the Islamic extremists could only dream of doing: turn the country into a permanent state of faux crisis --- and enable the authoritarian right wing of this country, which was unfortunately in power at the time, to pursue a doomed military empire, create a powerful imperial presidency and build the American style police state they had longed for for decades. I knew that they would run with this "opportunity" and run with it they did.

Digby: The Catapault Malfunctions

CNN just reported that the ABC event movie, "The Path To 9/11" had 13 million viewers compared with CBS's 10 million for the third repeat of it's 9/11 documentary and football won the time slot with a strapping 20 million viewers.

When they look at the numbers closely, I think they will show an ABC audience that shrank tremendously within the first 15 minutes. This is not because it was politically sensitive but because it is one of the most tedious, incomprehensible pieces of garbage they've ever broadcast. A bunch of advertisers must be breathing a sigh of relief this morning that they hadn't been talked into blowing any money on it.

Digby: The Onslaught

From Andrew Sullivan

Next week, I'm informed via troubled White House sources, will see the full unveiling of Karl Rove's fall election strategy. He's intending to line up 9/11 families to accuse McCain, Warner and Graham of delaying justice for the perpetrators of that atrocity, because they want to uphold the ancient judicial traditions of the U.S. military and abide by the Constitution. He will use the families as an argument for legalizing torture, setting up kangaroo courts for military prisoners, and giving war crime impunity for his own aides and cronies.

Digby: Who Lost Osama Part VII

As we gird our loins for "Fantasia Redux" tonight in which the public will be throroughly brainwashed into believing that Clinton outright refused to kill bin Laden because he was too busy schtupping interns and didn't give a damn about terrorism, it becomes more and more obvious that even after 9/11, the Bush administration didn't take terrorism seriously.

The most galling thing about this entire episode is that aside from the ridiculous rightwing slant toward Clinton, which isn't surprising, the wingnuts have been going on and on about how the problem was "the wall" (which they also misrepresent) and that the bureaucratic Clinton administration wouldn't allow the various agencies to communicate. Fine. If that was a problem, everyone can agree that, in accordance with the law and the consitution, that should be fixed.

Digby: Purity Purge

Last month we all read endless stories about how the leftist blogofascists are trying to purge the Democratic party of its moderates. We read that we not only didn't have any decency, we were naive and self-defeating, just like our hippy heroes, the McGovernites. The national media closely covered our wild antics so that everyone in politics would see how untrustworthy we were and properly shun us.

Now, in a different race, we see this different angle on similar circumstances:

With a barrage of television advertisements and the mobilization of its get-out-the-vote machine, the national Republican Party has lined up in Rhode Island to beat back a conservative primary challenge to the most liberal Republican in the Senate, Lincoln Chafee. The outcome on Tuesday could help determine whether Democrats have a shot at taking back the Senate.

Digby: Naht Guh Happen

Josh Marshall has an interesting post up at TPM cafe in which an extremely confident (one might say delusional) President Bush talks about how he is virtually certain the Republicans will maintain the congress (and will phase out SS in 2007.) It is creepy, I admit.

But if you'd like to see him get really testy and aggressive at the suggestion that the GOP might lose this fall, watch this footage of him and Charles Gibson. (Go to the menu on the right and click on "President Bush on his campaign to reassure Americans about the War on Terror.")

Digby: Blinking Red Lights

Hey, guess what? Marc Platt, the producer of "PT9/11" knew over a year ago that he had hired a rightwing religious cultist to direct his movie:

POSTED ON 30/07/05

Sept. 11 miniseries shrouded in secrecy

Details of the plot are being hushed up to protect the film from copycats, executive producer says

GUY DIXON

The rumour mill is buzzing about an ABC miniseries currently being shot in Toronto about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Hollywood is only now daring to dramatize the 2001 events, and this six-hour miniseries, scheduled to air next spring, is one of a handful of Sept. 11 projects in the works. Yet, this production, which so far is being anonymously called the Untitled History Project, seems so unusually secretive that it is causing some in the industry to wonder if there are serious security concerns on set.

Digby: Blinking Red Lights

Hey, guess what? Marc Platt, the producer of "PT9/11" knew over a year ago that he had hired a rightwing religious cultist to direct his movie:

POSTED ON 30/07/05

Sept. 11 miniseries shrouded in secrecy

Details of the plot are being hushed up to protect the film from copycats, executive producer says

GUY DIXON

The rumour mill is buzzing about an ABC miniseries currently being shot in Toronto about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Hollywood is only now daring to dramatize the 2001 events, and this six-hour miniseries, scheduled to air next spring, is one of a handful of Sept. 11 projects in the works. Yet, this production, which so far is being anonymously called the Untitled History Project, seems so unusually secretive that it is causing some in the industry to wonder if there are serious security concerns on set.

Digby: King Hack

There are many lessons to be learned from this "PT9/11" controversy. I'm sure we will all be discussing them at some length in the days to come.

But if there is one thing I think we can all take away from this right now, it's that Hugh Hewitt is the most unctuous, intellectually craven, partisan shill on the current political scene. Nobody in this entire episode has behaved with less integrity, less dignity or less probity.

Digby: Obsessive Clenis Disorder

All through his presidency, I wondered why the NY Times was so obsessed with Clinton's manly member but I assumed they would get over it once he left office. I was wrong. A couple of months ago they spent untold man hours a large p[iece of ront page real estate figuring out how many nights the Clintons spent together and today they devoted an entire article about Ned Lamont to rehashing the Lewinsky matter.

Ned Lamont met with New York Times writers for dinner this week. I knew this because Anne Kornblut was on Chris Matthews' show and they dished about it together:

MATTHEWS: ... What‘s going on? You had dinner last night with Mr. Ned?

ANNE KORNBLUT, THE “NEW YORK TIMES”: He came in and had dinner with a few of us and yesterday, of course, was back to school day.

Billmon: Be All You Can Be

Last year, despite NASCAR, professional bull-riding, and Arena Football sponsorships; popular video games that doubled as recruiting tools; TV commercials dripping with seductive scenes of military glory; a "joint marketing communications and market research and studies" program actively engaged in measures to target for military service Hispanics, drop outs, and those with criminal records; and at least $16,000 in promotional costs for each soldier it managed to sign up, the U.S. military failed to meet its recruiting goals.

TomDispatch
Dirty Dozen: The Pentagon's 12-Step Program to Create a Military of Misfits
September 2006

In the various states of society armies are recruited from very different motiveds. Barbarians are urged by their love of war; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty . . . but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the service by hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of punishment.

Edward Gibbon
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
1776

Daily Kos: Interview With a Combat Vet

by DarkSyde
Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 04:47:30 AM PDT

The mark of an exceptionally well written book is that the reader is transported into the story. You stand in the shoes of the main character[s] and see through their eyes. Chasing Ghosts: A Soldier's Fight For America From Baghdad To Washington is just such a book. In this epic story, the shoes are combat boots and the eyes you peer through are those of Iraq War vet Lieutenant Paul Rieckhoff, caught in the middle of a burgeoning, violent insurgency that war apologists did not plan for and even denied, as American casualties mounted.

Billmon: The Far Enemy

Our job is not merely to recite our political program to the people . . . (we must) transform the political mobilization for the war into a regular movement. This is a matter of the first magnitude on which the victory primarily depends.

Mao Zedong
Quoted in: The Evolution of War: The Fourth Generation
Marine Corps Gazette
September 1994

As part of its saturation bombardment of the airwaves over the past several weeks, the Cheney Administration has repeatedly taken credit for the fact that no terrorist attack has occurred on American soil since 9/11/2001. This, the propaganda maestros insist, is tangible evidence that the good guys are winning -- although, of course, that certainly doesn't mean the huddled masses can relax and do something rash like vote for a Democrat.

As the catch phrase goes: "While America is safer, we are not yet safe" (and if Karl Rove has anything to say about it, we never will be.)

Raw acquires NSA wiretap talking points

RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday September 13, 2006

The National Security Agency has taken the unusual move of sending members of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee a list of "approved talking points" regarding its warrantless eavesdropping program, RAW STORY has learned.

Some of the talking points urge Senators to imply that they have personal knowledge of plots foiled by the wiretap program, or that the Senators--seven of whom responded by writing the NSA a letter blasting the move--had other personal knowledge that the program was legal or necessary.

With No Ideas, The GOP Seeks to Scare

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; Page A17

Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that Republicans were boasting that they were the party of ideas? They would privatize the commonwealth and globalize democracy, while Democrats clung to the tattered banner of common security in both economics and national defense. The intellectual energy in America, it seemed, was all on the right.

That, as they say, was then. In 2006 the campaigns that the Republicans are waging in their desperate attempt to retain power are so utterly devoid of ideas that it's hard to believe they ever had an idea at all.

The PBS-FEMA Connection

Russ Baker
September 12, 2006

Investigative reporter and essayist Russ Baker is a longtime contributor to TomPaine.com. He is also the founder of the Real News Project , a new not-for-profit investigative journalism outlet. He can be reached at russ@russbaker.com.

Are you staying abreast of developments on the cuckoo crony circuit?

The latest involves our good friend Ken Tomlinson, brought into the federal government to rid public broadcasting of bias in favor of the downtrodden, the poor and the voiceless.

Ken apparently was an excellent choice. We now learn of a new inquiry into Ken’s baronial lifestyle at the public trough. Investigators say that while heading the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the outfit that oversees U.S. foreign broadcasting, including the Voice of America, Tomlinson ran a ''horse racing operation.'' He seems to have been using his office to oversee a stable of horses he named after Afghan leaders who fought the Taliban and the Russians—yet another example of someone who believes that heroism may be appropriated to confer honor on one’s own dubious doings.

Bradblog: Hacked: Virus Implanted, Spread On Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machine!

New, First-of-Its Kind, University Study Reveals Malicious Code Can Be Easily Inserted into Voting Machine, Spread from One System to the Next, Resulting in Flipped Votes, and Stolen Elections…All Without a Trace Being Left Behind
Study Also Confirms that Voter Access Cards Can Be Created At Home to Defeat Security Protocols, Allowing Voters to Vote Multiple Times in a Single Election!

– Brad Friedman, EXCLUSIVE

A vote for George Washington could easily be converted to a vote for Benedict Arnold on an electronic voting machine and neither the voter, nor the election officials administering the election would ever know what happened. It wouldn't require a "conspiracy theory" or a "conspiracy" at all. It could be done by a single person with just a few moments of access to the voting systems.

Arctic ice melting rapidly, study says

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science WriterThu Sep 14, 5:41 AM ET

Arctic sea ice in winter is melting far faster than before, two new NASA studies reported Wednesday, a new and alarming trend that researchers say threatens the ocean's delicate ecosystem.

Scientists point to the sudden and rapid melting as a sure sign of man-made global warming.

"It has never occurred before in the past," said NASA senior research scientist Josefino Comiso in a phone interview. "It is alarming... This winter ice provides the kind of evidence that it is indeed associated with the greenhouse effect."

Scientists have long worried about melting Arcticsea ice in the summer, but they had not seen a big winter drop in sea ice, even though they expected it.

White House picked fight with wrong couple

Gene Lyons

Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Because journalists are almost as prone to flatter their audiences as politicians, the staggering ignorance of the American public about matters crucial to democratic self-governance is discreetly ignored. Get this: According to a Zogby poll conducted early this month, almost half (46 percent ) of respondents agreed that “there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9 / 11 terror attacks.” Among Republicans, fully 65 percent believe that Iraq played a role in al-Qa’ida atrocities. Almost two-thirds ! Sometimes it’s tempting to wonder if contemporary Republicanism hasn’t turned into a cult. The poll was taken days after President Bush, during a televised news conference, peevishly confessed that Saddam had “nothing” to do with the 2001 attack. He then denied that anybody in his administration “ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11 th were ordered by Iraq.” But why pick on deluded Bush cultists ? When it comes to anything touching even remotely on their own prerogatives, there’s scant evidence that the courtiers of the Washington press are capable of consecutive thought. Consider conventional wisdom about the revelation in David Corn and Michael Isikoff’s book, “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War,” that columnist Robert Novak’s initial source in the betrayal of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s covert identity was State Department insider Richard Armitage.

NYT Editorial: Port Security Won’t Bankrupt Us

Published: September 14, 2006

Michael Chertoff, the secretary of Homeland Security, seems determined to outdo his commander in chief in ratcheting up fears of Al Qaeda whenever he wants to score political points. This week, he raised the specter that if the government starts too many expensive antiterrorism programs it could further a plot by Osama bin Laden to “drive us crazy, into bankruptcy” through overspending on homeland defense.

It was particularly ironic that Mr. Chertoff spun this theory while he was fighting off a measure, up for a vote today, that would help protect our ports against the threat that he himself deems most worrisome — a nuclear explosion within our borders — without government spending.

US Iran report branded dishonest

The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a report on Iran's nuclear programme it called "outrageous" and "dishonest".

In a letter, the IAEA said a congressional report suggested Iran's programme was more advanced than had actually been determined.

The agency also took "strong exception" to claims made over the removal of a senior safeguards inspector.

ABC's 'Path' Not Taken

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; Page A17

Does it matter that ABC invented and distorted history in its "warning: this is not a documentary" docudrama, "The Path to 9/11"? After all, the first night of the faux drama was trounced by the brother-against-brother actual drama of "Sunday Night Football."

But consider: The gripping final report of the Sept. 11 commission (budget: $13.5 million) became a surprise bestseller at 1.5 million copies. The not-so-gripping, not-so-accurate ABC production (budget: $40 million) was seen by about 13 million viewers on the first night.

There Is No War On Terror

Robert Dreyfuss
September 13, 2006

Robert Dreyfuss is the author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books, 2005). Dreyfuss is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va., who specializes in politics and national security issues. He is a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone. He can be reached through his website: www.robertdreyfuss.com.

President George W. Bush, Vice President Cheney and the entire Republican election team are scrambling to make their so-called war on terror the focus of the next seven weeks. As in 2002 and 2004, they’re counting on their ability to scare Americans with the al-Qaida bogeyman. And while the trauma of 9/11 has begun to dissipate and American voters seem less susceptible than ever to the scare tactics used by the White House, for the past five years the Democrats have been singularly unable to develop an effective counter to the Bush administration on terrorism. So, for that reason, here are 10 important facts about terrorism that opponents of President Bush should understand.

Limits to Surveillance Bill Blocked

Wednesday September 13, 2006 5:01 PM

By LAURIE KELLMAN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans blocked Democratic attempts to rein in President Bush's domestic wiretapping program Wednesday, endorsing a White House-supported bill that would give the controversial surveillance legal status.

Under pressure from the Bush administration for quick action, the full Senate could take up the measure next week.

Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."

The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.

Democrats Call NSA's Input To Senate Panel Inappropriate

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; A07

Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee are complaining that the National Security Agency has played politics in support of the secret program to intercept phone calls between alleged terrorists in the United States and abroad.

On July 27, shortly after most members of the committee were briefed on the controversial surveillance program, the NSA supplied the panel's chairman, Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), with "a set of administration approved, unclassified talking points for the members to use," as described in the document.

Among the talking points were "subjective statements that appear intended to advance a particular policy view and present certain facts in the best possible light," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) said in a letter to the NSA director.

The Swift Boat Connection of ABC's 9/11 Deception

Under pressure about his institutional ties to the conservative movement (see here), The Path to 9/11 screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh now claims, the film he wrote had no political agenda. "This project was generated at ABC at the highest network levels," and brought together people from "broadly different backgrounds," Nowrasteh told the right-wing evangelical publication WorldNetDaily.

Two ABC flacks, meanwhile, told the New York Times that Nowrasteh's politlcal affiliations had nothing to do with The Path to 9/11's content.

But ABC and Nowrasteh have yet to answer for the admission by Lt Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson that significant portions of his anti-Clinton attack books were incorporated into Nowrasteh's script.

MIT forges greener path to iron production

Technique eliminates greenhouse gases associated with process

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT engineers have demonstrated an eco-friendly way to make iron that eliminates the greenhouse gases usually associated with its production.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced recently that the team, led by Donald R. Sadoway of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has shown the technical viability of producing iron by molten oxide electrolysis (MOE).

The Folly Of Exporting Democracy

Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman
September 12, 2006

Anatol Lieven is a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington author of "America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism" (2004) and a former British journalist specializing in foreign affairs. John Hulsman is a contributing editor at the National Interest and a visiting fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. This essay is drawn from the authors’ book, "Ethical Realism: A Vision for America ’s Role in the World," which is being published this month by Pantheon.

A certain awareness of the limits on American power is growing among the wiser U.S. policy elites as a result of the disasters into which the Bush administration has led the United States. Even in these circles, however, a very widespread belief exists that in the former Soviet Union and in the Muslim world, America can compensate for these weaknesses by encouraging the spread of democracy. The idea that “democracy” will solve all problems is also used as a conscious or unconscious excuse to avoid having to think seriously about negotiating compromise solutions to a range of disputes in the Middle East, and especially, of course, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—since this would require a willingness to show moral courage in facing the inevitable backlash within the U.S.

This faith and attitude is shared not just by neoconservatives and liberal hawks, but by a majority of the leaderships of both parties, by majorities in establishment think tanks like the Carnegie Endowment and the Brookings Institution and by much of the foreign policy bureaucracy. It is also not a fantasy cooked up by the neo-conservatives, but has deep roots in certain strands of the American tradition. It is also often tragically mistaken.[i]

Billmon: The Sixteen Acre Ditch

Five years after 9/11, this is what Ground Zero looks like (or will, once the NYFD removes the jerry-rigged memorial "pool" it created for Shrub's photo op):

Five years after Sept. 11, 2001, ground zero remains a 16-acre, 70-foot-deep hole in the heart of Lower Manhattan. High above it, a scaffolded bank building, contaminated during the attack, hulks like a metal skeleton, waiting endlessly to be razed . . ."The problem," as John C. Whitehead, 84, the former chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, said baldly in an interview last spring, "is the 16-acre ditch."

If you had told me, five years ago, that on the fifth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in history Ground Zero would still be nothing but an enormous hole in the ground, I wouldn't have believed you -- just as I wouldn't have believed that a major American city could be thoroughly trashed by a Category 4 hurricane and then left to moulder in the mud for a year while various federal, state and local bureaucrats and hack politicians tried to make up their minds what to do.

Daily Kos: AA employee, checked in Atta on 911, later commits suicide

by teresahill
Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 04:35:49 PM PDT

One of Oprah's guests today was Michael Tuohey, an employee of US AIR who checked in Mohammed Atta and one of the other hijackers on the morning of Sept. 11.

A 37-year employee of US Air, Touhey said he's recently started to see Atta's face staring at him from cabs that pass by on the street or even at his local mall, that even though he knows it's not him, Atta looks as real to him today as it did on Sept. 11.

Two ticket agents checked in Atta that day, Touhey and a woman with American Airlines in Boston. Touhey said the woman has already committed suicide, and he didn't seem far from it on the show. (No warning by Atta's name at all, BTW, you idiots at ABC. Nothing. ID checked out. Ticket checked out. Nothing to tell this broken man he shouldn't send Atta on his way.)

Where Is Osama Bin Laden?

Five Years After the 9/11 Attacks, There Are Few Explanations About Why He Has Not Been Caught

By GRETCHEN PETERS

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 8, 2006 — On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the resounding question: Where is Osama bin Laden?

Just as urgent is another question: Why has U.S. intelligence failed to find him?

A decade into a manhunt that is surely the most costly and complex in history, senior U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials can only give you "guesstimates" when you ask about bin Laden's location.

Agent Orange cancer findings won't get in report, Air Force says

Study's chairman raises questions about decision to leave data out

Published: Sunday, September 10, 2006 - 6:00 am

By Clark Brooks
STAFF WRITER

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Cancer findings described as potentially significant by the chairman of an advisory committee won't be in the final report of a 25-year government study of the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans.

The $140 million study of airmen who sprayed herbicides in a series of missions called Operation Ranch Hand was designed to be used as a basis for compensation for thousands of veterans. It ends Sept. 30.

Robert Scheer: Gaping Holes in the 9/11 Narrative

A Dig led by Robert Scheer

Five years out from the attacks, why do we still know so little about what really happened that day?

What we still don’t know about 9/11 could kill us. By “we” I mean the public that has been kept in the dark for five years by a president who may know the truth but has chosen to ignore it. Instead of grappling with the thorny origins of that disaster, George Bush willfully turned the nation’s attention and resources to a totally unrelated and disastrous imperial adventure in Iraq.

Just how unrelated was definitively established last Friday with the belated release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s second report, which concluded that there not only was zero connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, but that Iraq was the one country in the region where Osama bin Laden could not operate.

Daily Kos: Why 9/11 happened: Bush curtailed Operation CATCHERS MITT

by leveymg
Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 07:51:17 AM PDT

The Bush Administration cancelled or cut back Operation CATCHERS MITT, the highly classified ongoing CIA and FBI operation that tracked al-Qaeda operatives known to be inside the U.S. during the summer of 2001. This was done without notifying the existing counter-terrorism policy board in Washington, then headed by Richard Clarke, a Clinton holdover.

This fatal decision by Bush's national security staff was part of the planned revamping of the Clinton counter-terrorism program, and ongoing operations were put on hold or cut off entirely while Rice and Hadley worked with CIA Director Tenet on the Administration's new al-Qaeda strategy.

NYT Editorial: President Bush’s Reality

Last night, President Bush once again urged Americans to take terrorism seriously — a warning that hardly seems necessary. One aspect of that terrible day five years ago that seems immune to politicization or trivialization is the dread of another attack. When Mr. Bush warns that Al Qaeda means what it says, that there are Islamist fanatics around the world who wish us harm and that the next assault could be even worse than the last, he does not need to press the argument.

After that, paths diverge. Mr. Bush has been marking the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 with a series of speeches about terrorism that culminated with his televised address last night. He has described a world where Iraq is a young but hopeful democracy with a “unity government” that represents its diverse population. Al Qaeda-trained terrorists who are terrified by “the sight of an old man pulling the election lever” are trying to stop the march of progress. The United States and its friends are holding firm in a battle that will decide whether freedom or terror will rule the 21st century.

Researchers link human activities to rising ocean temperatures in hurricane formation regions

LIVERMORE, Calif. — New research shows that rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in hurricane “breeding grounds” of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are unlikely to be purely natural in origin. These findings complement earlier work that uncovered compelling scientific evidence of a link between warming SSTs and increases in hurricane intensity.

Previous studies to understand the causes of SST changes have focused on temperature changes averaged over very large ocean areas – such as the entire Atlantic or Pacific basins. The new research specifically targets SST changes in much smaller hurricane formation regions.

Bush wants to renew Social Security push after vote

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush hopes to revive his plan to overhaul the U.S. Social Security retirement program if his Republican party keeps control of the Congress in the November midterm elections, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Despite polls suggesting Democrats have their best chance in years to regain control of the House of Representatives, Bush told the newspaper in an interview he was confident a power shift was "not going to happen."

Discover the Secret Right-Wing Network Behind ABC's 9/11 Deception

In fact, "The Path to 9/11" is produced and promoted by a well-honed propaganda operation consisting of a network of little-known right-wingers working from within Hollywood to counter its supposedly liberal bias. This is the network within the ABC network. Its godfather is far right activist David Horowitz, who has worked for more than a decade to establish a right-wing presence in Hollywood and to discredit mainstream film and TV production.

Social Security to be Phased Out in 2007

By Josh Marshall | bio

Still don't believe Social Security is on the ballot this November?

In an interview published today in The Wall Street Journal (sub.req.), President Bush told editorial page editor Paul Gigot that next year he plans on partially phasing out Social Security and replacing it with private accounts, and that he thinks he can do it as long as the Republicans retain control of Congress, which he thinks they will.

Frank Rich: Whatever Happened to the America of 9/12?

--The New York Times, September 10, 2006

'The most famous picture nobody's ever seen' is how the Associated Press photographer Richard Drew has referred to his photo of an unidentified World Trade Center victim hurtling to his death on 9/11. It appeared in some newspapers, including this one, on 9/12 but was soon shelved. 'In the most photographed and videotaped day in the history of the world,' Tom Junod later wrote in Esquire, "the images of people jumping were the only images that became, by consensus, taboo."

Five years later, Mr. Drew's "falling man" remains a horrific artifact of the day that was supposed to change everything and did not. But there's another taboo 9/11 photo, about life rather than death, that is equally shocking in its way, so much so that Thomas Hoepker of Magnum Photos kept it under wraps for four years. Mr. Hoepker's picture can now be found in David Friends compelling new 9/11 book, Watching the World Change, or on the books Web site, watchingtheworldchange.com. It shows five young friends on the waterfront in Brooklyn, taking what seems to be a lunch or bike-riding break, enjoying the radiant late-summer sun and chatting away as cascades of smoke engulf Lower Manhattan in the background

Glenn Greenwald: Government pressure on networks is a tactic pioneered by the GOP

(updated below)

Bush supporters have spent the last several days expressing all sorts of shock and outrage that Democratic Senators would write to Disney to protest Path to 9/11 and insinuate that Disney's decision to allow ABC to be used as a partisan propaganda channel is inconsistent with Disney's obligations which are intrinsic to its right to use the public airways. Hugh Hewitt, for instance, proclaimed that Democrats have "reached a new basement," and solemnly frets that he "didn't think such a reprehensible action was possible in the era of robust First Amendment protections."

Perhaps the Democrats who sent the letter were following the example set by Republican Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia, who wrote a substantively indistinguishable letter (.pdf) on October 23, 2003 to CBS Chairman Les Moonves -- on his official Congressional letterhead -- demanding that the script of The Reagans meet his approval (emphasis added):

Based on initial media reports, I have serious concerns about "The Reagans" . . . I want to be assured that it is not, as the New York Times reported yesterday, "deconstruction of Reagan's presidency shot through a liberal lens, exaggerating his foibles and giving short shrift to his accomplishments" . . .

Situation Called Dire in West Iraq

Anbar Is Lost Politically, Marine Analyst Says

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 11, 2006; Page A01

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country's western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

The officials described Col. Pete Devlin's classified assessment of the dire state of Anbar as the first time that a senior U.S. military officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq.

Paul Krugman: Promises Not Kept

Five years ago, the nation rallied around a president who promised vengeance against those responsible for the atrocity of 9/11. Yet Osama bin Laden is still alive and at large. His trail, The Washington Post reports, has gone “stone cold.” Osama and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are evidently secure enough in their hideaway that they can taunt us with professional-quality videos.

They certainly don’t lack for places to stay. Pakistan’s government has signed a truce with Islamic militants in North Waziristan, the province where bin Laden is presumed to be hiding. Although the Pakistanis say that this doesn’t mean that bin Laden is immune from arrest, their claims aren’t very credible.

When Will Joe Biden Become Fair Game?

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted September 7, 2006.

Senator Joe Biden is the ultimate creep Democrat -- happy to attack Rumsfeld when Iraq is polling badly, and arch defender of the credit industries that have put thousands of US troops abroad in bankruptcy.

"He is an impediment in this effort."
-- Sen. Joe Biden, on Donald Rumsfeld's Iraq war legacy

An impediment. That's kind of a funny way to describe the architect of the Iraq war, isn't it?

Put a mythical six chimpanzees to work on a mythical six typewriters and one of them might eventually type out Hamlet, but I feel fairly confident that a billion years could pass before any healthy primate would make it even halfway through the sentence Donald Rumsfeld impeded the Iraq war effort. Yet there was Joe Biden, saying it on live television last week.