Missile Defense and Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions
Well, well, well. Look at what the New York Times has buried on page 3 of its article about the joint announcement by Pres. Obama and by French and British leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown that Iran is building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel. Read more
David Gregory Does His Job, For Once
This morning, on Meet the Press, he nailed John Boehner on the “Obama is a socialist” canard (emphasis in original):
RNC Chairman Michael Steele recently sent out a fundraising letter saying that President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are attempting a “socialist power grab.” Today on NBC’s Meet the Press, host David Gregory pressed House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on whether such language was appropriate. Boehner tried to dodge the question, insisting that “you can call it whatever you want,” but the fact is that Obama’s the one scaring the American public. Gregory continued to ask whether Boehner believes Obama is a socialist, to which he finally admitted he doesn’t:
GREGORY: Do you really think the President is a socialist?
BOEHNER: Listen, when you begin to look at how much they want to grow government, you can call it whatever you want, but the fact is —
GREGORY: What do you call it though?
BOEHNER: This is unsustainable. We’re broke.
GREGORY: That’s fine. Do you think the President is a socialist?
BOEHNER: No!
GREGORY: Okay. Because the head of the Republican Party is calling it that.
BOEHNER: Listen, I didn’t call it that, and I’m not going to call it that.
Note to Rasmussen: There IS No Health Care Reform Bill
So Rasmussen asks “1,000 likely voters” this question: “Which would be better… passage of the bill working its way through Congress or no health care reform passed by Congress this year?” and gets the following response:
35% Passage of the bill working its way through Congress
54% No healthcare reform passed by Congress this year
11% Not sure
One problem: There IS no health care reform bill currently working its way through Congress.
The Birth of the “Death Panels”
Those noxious lies about “death panels” being part of Democrats’ health care reform legislation proposals — where do they come from?
Why the “Neda Video” Is Important
Because her murder by Iranian government forces would not have sparked the international outrage it has sparked if we had just read about it in the paper.
Obvious?
Maybe.
Pres. Obama’s Press Conference on Iran
WhiteHouse.gov has the transcript of Obama’s opening remarks, in English and in Persian. The accompanying video includes Persian subtitles.
I have not yet read the transcript or listened to Obama’s remarks, but I wanted to get this information up here as soon as possible.
One Theory That Explains Everything
The Corner’s Andy McCarthy has it, only for him it’s a fact, not a theory: Barack Obama is a “power politician” of the “hard Left” who, like all “hard Leftists,” is “more comfortable” with totalitarianism than with freedom — only he cannot always come right out and say that:
Kristol Calls for “Targeted Air Strikes” on North Korea
What other answer would you expect Bill Kristol to give when directly asked what the U.S. should do about North Korea? And Matthew Yglesias wonders why he keeps getting the bully pulpit to say that he’s philosophically opposed to any option but war:
Karl Rove Says That Nancy Pelosi Lied
When you stop rolling on the floor screaming with laughter, you can read this entire post by Ed Morrissey. The howler is at the end.
The Might of Nation-States, The Temperaments of Ten-Year-Olds
The New York Times wowed everyone yesterday with its analysis of foreign policy at a third-grade level:
“In the cabinet room today there was an energy, a feeling that after so long of showing restraint we had finally acted,” said Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking of the weekly government meeting that he attended.
Mark Heller, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that that energy reflected the deep feeling among average Israelis that the country had to regain its deterrent capacity.
“There has been a nagging sense of uncertainty in the last couple years of whether anyone is really afraid of Israel anymore,” he said. “The concern is that in the past — perhaps a mythical past — people didn’t mess with Israel because they were afraid of the consequences. Now the region is filled with provocative rhetoric about Israel the paper tiger. This operation is an attempt to re-establish the perception that if you provoke or attack you are going to pay a disproportionate price.”
So the current Israeli strategy to deal with the constant threat of attacks on its southern flank is to defy international law openly through displays of murderous and wanton machismo and bravado. Or, in layman’s terms, play “I’m bigger than you are!” with Hamas. Great! I have hope for the future of lucrative warmongering and reports of more dead children.
Read more
Saltless In Seattle
Over the last decade this nation has suffered under the thumb of right-wing ideologues who have, at every opportunity, used the levers of federal power to enact their pipe dreams. Well, with the election of a Democratic President and massive gains in Congress many liberals no doubt feel “it’s our turn”. If nothing has been learned from watching the rightwing over-reach these liberals will get their wish and, among other things, we’ll all end up like the beautiful city of Seattle.
Devotion to public schools, bike trails and park access, these are all great things. But even a good thing can be taken too far, and in Seattle that truth has been manifested in the Seattle Department of Transportation.
Almost 100 Nations Sign New Ban on Cluster Munitions
A new treaty banning the production, use, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster munitions was signed by over 100 nations during a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, that took place Wednesday and Thursday. The text of the treaty was adopted on May 30, 2008, in Dublin, Ireland.
Here is how a cluster bomb works.
Pulling Out All the Stops
In organ music terminology, a “stop” is both a set of pipes, all tuned to the same note, that play simultaneously when the organist presses any key on the keyboard, and the knob or handle that activates each set of pipes. When an organist pulls out a stop, she activates the pipes associated with that stop.
The Devil went down to Georgia
I’m not going to pretend to have any insider knowledge of the Georgian/Russian conflict over South Ossetia, which is why I’ve stayed mum about the topic. Balloon Juice has a good rundown of events today, and the Newshoggers have been tracking the story for almost a week now. Between reading them, Wikipedia, and a random Power Line post that was informative though maybe delusional in that “Let’s kick former commie ass!” rightwing kind of way, I’m left with a few questions…
Lawbreaking Is Now the Law
The Senate earlier this afternoon passed the so-called “compromise” FISA bill, 69-28. Obama voted yes; Hillary Clinton voted no. Obama and Clinton also voted yes and no, respectively, on the vote to invoke cloture (which ended debate on the legislation and allowed the Senate to vote on the bill itself). Three separate amendments concerning the telecom immunity provision failed. The first, and strongest, amendment, would have stripped immunity from the bill. The second one would have delayed immunity to allow the Supreme Court to determine whether the NSA spy program is constitutional. The third (and weakest) amendment called for the immunity provision to take effect only upon completion of an audit of the NSA program by the Inspector General.
Obama voted for all three amendments (as did Clinton), but Obama’s yes votes were merely for show. They became meaningless the moment he voted for cloture, and then joined Senate Republicans in approving the underlying legislation.
Glenn Greenwald has two massive posts on the shameful proceedings (the second is linked from the first). There really is no need to go elsewhere, because his pieces have all the details, all the authoritative commentary, and all the links to additional information that you might need.
It is minimally comforting to know that my senator, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, voted for all the amendments, and against the final bill. One source of anger and outrage that I am spared from having to feel.
I also want to say here that Glenn deserves all of our thanks and appreciation for his unending, consistent, and truly fierce efforts to keep this issue front and center, not to mention the work he has done to prevent this disastrous legislation from passing. He, and the folks at Firedoglake — in particular, Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith — have labored tirelessly to inform and advocate on FISA and warrantless surveillance. The fight to hold the betrayers of the Constitution accountable continues; for more on that, you can start here.
John McCain, the Bush Administration, and Iraq
Interesting developments going on over the past few days vis à vis plans and agreements for Iraq’s future. On Monday, Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, announced that he wanted to work out a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops:
Wingnuts Want Addington in the Witness Protection Program After Delahunt Joke
The right’s hypocrisy is on display again in its unhinged reaction to Rep. Delahunt’s attempt at humor on the House floor today:
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