From Holden: Via Froomkin… Bush, who caught no fish on Tuesday, also didn’t tip his fishing guide. Continue reading President Asshole

From Holden: I just heard Rush Bloatedaddict tell a caller that no one had gone AWOL from duty in Iraq or claimed Conscientiuos Objector status because there is currently no draft. When the caller said he was wrong and must be “dazed and confused” Rush admitted he had heard of one soldier who had fled to Canada and been denied sanctuary, but other than that no one had refused to serve. A simple google search proves how wrong the Porcine One is in regards to both soldiers who went AWOL and Conscientiuos Objectors. Continue reading Dazed and Confused

So there’s this book. Here’s a story of espionage, think tanks, power brokers, and Douglas Feith—the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy whose Office of Special Plans oversaw the enormous manipulations and failures of intelligence that led to the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq. The book (see also its predecessor, Untidy) has been in the works since February, a blink in book-time, but an eternity in the lifetime of somebody used to daily deadlines, not annual ones. I’m proud of what’s in it, especially the posts by the bloggers (listed on the cover) who consented to let me compile their … Continue reading Special Plans

From Holden: I haven’t visited The Corner for quite some time. Now I know why: CONSTITUTION UPDATE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Apparently they’ll [sic] be a vote today Posted at 11:22 AM Gloss over the spelling error if you can and note that K-Lo’s post appeared a full hour and twenty minutes after the New York Times posted an alert stating that there would be no vote today, and a full twenty minutes after the Times posted a full-blown article explaining why there would be no vote on the consitution today. Continue reading On The Cutting Edge

From Holden: They started a war for oil that has actually decreased the number of barrels produced by Iraq and they just rammed through Chimpy’s energy bill that does nothing but give tax breaks and kickbacks to the oil industry. The GOP is not the party of responsibility, it’s the party responsible. At a town hall meeting this week, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wanted to talk about Social Security and Medicare, but the session quickly turned to gas prices. When Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) toured a Veterans Affairs clinic Wednesday, the first question put to her was: “What are … Continue reading Republicans Feeling the Heat from High Gas Prices

From Holden: Turn your calendar back to June 15, 2004: Q Mr. President, you’ve referred to Muqtada al-Sadr as a thug, and your administration has promised to bring him to justice. Is it appropriate for the new interim Iraqi government to now welcome him into the political fold? PRESIDENT BUSH: The interim Iraqi government will deal with al-Sadr in the way they see fit. That’s — they’re sovereign. When we say we transfer full sovereignty, we mean we transfer full sovereignty. And they will deal with him appropriately. More empty promises from the man who said he would get Osama … Continue reading al-Sadr Flashback

From Holden: Apparently there will be no agreement on an Iraqi consitution today. Parliament announced it had no plans to meet Thursday night and no date for a future session, signaling Iraqi factions were failing to reach agreement on a new constitution before a self-imposed midnight target. The statement from National Assembly’s top spokesman, Bishro Ibrahim, came as negotiators struggled for consensus on a draft by the close of a 72-hour extension granted Monday night by parliament, after Sunni Arabs blocked a vote on a charter accepted by Shiite and Kurdish negotiators. [snip] Armed attacks against offices of al-Sadr’s movement … Continue reading Muqtada al-Sadr Calls the Shots

From Holden: News alert at the top of the NYTimes main web page as of 10:02 AM EST: Iraqi Parliament Cancels Today’s Vote on Constitution Continue reading Freedom Is Off In A Corner Crying

From Holden: RJ Eskow of the skippy conglomerate reports that Stones fans don’t have much sympathy for Ahnold. Continue reading It’s a Gas-Gas-Gas

This is what it was, for those three of you who want to fanwank about it. For everybody else, just know that we finally got the error to register here, so that Jack Terminal could fix it, and it’s working just fine now. At least, on his computer and my computer it is. If it’s not working on yours, let me know. We only have so many machines in this house, and so many browsers on both of them, and so much time to beta-test in. Every instant of your patience and good humor is appreciated. Please understand we’re doing … Continue reading Firefox Problem

From Holden: Today in Idaho* it was all September 11th all the time. After our nation was attacked on September the 11th, 2001, air crews from the 366th Wing flew more than a thousand combat missions over the skies of Afghanistan. Since September the 11th, 2001, more than 243,000 members of the National Guard have been mobilized for various missions in the war on terror. The war reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001, when terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 of our citizens. Before September the 11th, Osama bin Laden said that an attack could make America run in less … Continue reading Your President Speaks

From Holden: Damn, looks like Iraq has gone from bad to worse. Fighting broke out in Baghdad and the holy city of Najaf on Wednesday between rival Shi’ite militias, raising fears of a renewed uprising by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi army against the U.S.-backed government. At least eight people were killed and dozens wounded, health officials said, in street battles in Najaf involving pro-government Badr Organisation fighters and supporters of Sadr, who has joined Sunni Arabs in denouncing a constitution the Shi’ite-led government is preparing to force through parliament. [snip] A spokesman for Sadr warned of a “general call … Continue reading Civil War?

From Holden: If Bush were in touch with his inner LBJ he might say, “If I’ve lost E. D. Hill I’ve lost Middle America.” You knew it was a bad day for the White House when even Fox News was piling on President Bush’s counselor, Dan Bartlett. E.D. Hill, one of the “Fox & Friends” morning show anchors, said she thought the Iraq war “was a justified one” but now worries “that there’s not a plan to actually win that ground war.” “Well, E.D., I can assure you that’s not the case,” Bartlett assured her. Allowing that it’s been a … Continue reading Tipping Point

From Holden: Oh, no, the US Military would never target journalists. News agency Reuters has called for the release of an Iraqi cameraman who has been held by the US military for two weeks. Reuters said it was “concerned and dismayed” by the detention of 36-year-old freelance Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani and asked for an explanation for his treatment. [snip] “We are very concerned and dismayed by this unexplained and prolonged detention of a journalist working for us and urge the US military either to release him or provide a full account of the accusations against him,” Mr Schlesinger said. “Ali … Continue reading Paging Eason Jordan — Eason Jordan to the White Courtesy Phone Please

From Holden: Today’s WaPo story on the fiteen Chinese Uighurs stranded at the Guantanamo Bay Gulag sadly demonstrates nearly everything that’s wrong with the Bush assministration’s treatment of “enemy combatants”. In late 2003, the Pentagon quietly decided that 15 Chinese Muslims detained at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be released. Five were people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, some of them picked up by Pakistani bounty hunters for U.S. payoffs. The other 10 were deemed low-risk detainees whose enemy was China’s communist government — not the United States, according to senior U.S. … Continue reading A Case Study in How GITMO Demeans Us

From Holden: Durable goods orders experience their biggest decline in seventeen months. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new bookings for “durable” goods _ big-ticket items expected to last at least three years _ declined by 4.9 percent in July from the previous month. It marked the biggest drop since January 2004, when durable-goods orders fell by 5.7 percent. Continue reading My Bush Boom is Not a Durable Good

From Holden: ARG’s 36% job approval rate for president Bush is an outlier. Harris’s 40% is a trend. Continue reading It’s a Trend

From Holden: The Bush assministration demoted the head of the Bureau of Justice Statistics when he refused to hide the results of his department’s study on racial profiling. The Bush administration is replacing the director of a small but critical branch of the Justice Department, months after he complained that senior political officials at the department were seeking to play down newly compiled data on the aggressive police treatment of black and Hispanic drivers. The demotion of the official, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, whom President Bush named in 2001 to lead the Bureau of Justice Statistics, caps more than three years … Continue reading Fixing the Facts to Meet Their Agenda

From Holden: Another nice contribution from MoDo. For political reasons, the president has a history of silence on America’s war dead. But he finally mentioned them on Monday because it became politically useful to use them as a rationale for war – now that all the other rationales have gone up in smoke. “We owe them something,” he told veterans in Salt Lake City (even though his administration tried to shortchange the veterans agency by $1.5 billion). “We will finish the task that they gave their lives for.” What twisted logic: with no W.M.D., no link to 9/11 and no … Continue reading Vicious Circle

I think I’ve finally figured out what bugs me about this whole Volokh situation, or more precisely what bugs him. He goes to great lengths in his original post to couch accusations of gays evangelizing the straights as “Well, gay people obviously like gay sex, and if you like gay sex, why wouldn’t you want others to try what you enjoy and enjoy it also?” In short, why WOULDN’T you convert somebody to something you think is so awesome? And it all sounds very reasonable and normal and really, in comparison to some of the freaks on Volokh’s side of … Continue reading Let’s Think About Sex

From Holden: Get ready for an all-out assault on JAMA. Taking on one of the most highly charged questions in the abortion debate, a team of doctors has concluded that fetuses probably cannot feel pain in the first six months of gestation and therefore do not need anesthesia during abortions. Their report, being published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on a review of several hundred scientific papers, and it says that nerve connections in the brain are unlikely to have developed enough for the fetus to feel pain before 29 weeks. The finding poses … Continue reading Brains Exploding Throughout Wingnuttia

From Holden: How come stories like this get such little press? A former worker for a Halliburton Co. subsidiary faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1.25 million after pleading guilty late last week to taking kickbacks in Iraq in a scheme that defrauded the U.S. government, court records show. It marks the second case this year of a Halliburton worker facing criminal charges in connection with the company’s work in Iraq. Glenn Allen Powell, who pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. District Court in Rock Island, Ill., was employed by Halliburton subsidiary … Continue reading Another Halliburton Conviction

From Holden: ”Regrettably, completing the constitution is not likely to end all the violence in Iraq or solve all of the country’s problems,” he said. Link. Continue reading Clap Louder, Rummy!

From Holden: Just go read Watertiger. Read and cry. Continue reading Have They No Shame?

From Holden: Who’s Afraid of Holden Caulfield? Continue reading Seldom is the Question Asked

In the comments to this post we learn that: Being gay is like having an abortion, in a way. Gays are desperate to “expand their numbers,” just like the ACLU. Gay porn is propaganda for homosexuality! (Seriously.) “You’re a drug addict.” Mainstream gay culture is bitchy. It’s like a giant wankfest over there, which I’m sure is turning quite a few of the commenters on. You know what somebody desperately needs to tell all these guys concerned that somebody out there somewhere is going to make them gay? YOU’RE NOT THAT HOT, OKAY? Honestly. Most of the fundamentalist homophobes and … Continue reading The Secret Life of Eugene Volokh’s Readers

From Holden: I happened to catch Chimpy’s entire Q & A in Idaho today, and on the subject of Iraq’s constitutional deadlock he looked noticably uncomfortable – visibly shaken, you might say. He even looked nervous during his opening remarks when he turned to the topic of Iraq, it was not just the questions that shook him. You should read the entire transcript or better yet, peruse NTodd’s post, if you want to see his answers regarding Cindy Sheehan, as well as biking and fishing. But here are the questions and answers regarding the Iraqi consitutional process. Q Mr. President, … Continue reading Your President Speaks, Uncomfortably

From Holden: “Thirty-six percent? Really?” Jeff Mitchell/Reuters “Is that less than forty?” REUTERS/Jeff Mitchell Continue reading 36%

From Holden: The WaPo’s Terry Neal asks if wealthy Republicans are pulling their own weight in the war. I asked Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins for further explanation on the intent of the [“Influencer”] ads. “Clearly it was to talk to influencers,” she said. She said studies have shown that today’s young people yearn to serve their country in one way or another. The problem is that today the people who influence their decisions “are less likely than they were in past generations to recommend [military service].” Why? “In part because the economy is strong,” said Robbins. “In part because … Continue reading Chickenhawks With Trust Funds

From Holden: A bad day for the wingosphere – the Pentagon pissed all over “Able Danger” and Iran’s nuclear weapons program is less developed than Saddam’s. Continue reading When Winger Fantasies Go Wrong