Wow, what agaggle they had yesterday. The Assministration is desperate to legalize torture by unilaterally redefining Common Article III of the Geneva Conventions. They now realize that, having specifically authorized the torture of detainees held around the globe, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the chain of command below them in both the military and the CIA are criminally liable. Pony tries to lay the groundwork for it before any questions are asked.

It’s vague! Vague, I tells ya’!

Some of the language Holden Common Article II — Common Article III — I’m sorry — is vague.

[snip]

In the case of Common Article III, of course, you have had some of — the “prohibitions against cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment” — that’s important to figure out what that means. As you know, in —

Q It’s vague to you?

MR. SNOW: Yes, it is.

Q Mean, cruel, inhuman, degrading?

MR. SNOW: Yes, because you have to specify exactly what you mean.

Q Keep smiling. (Laughter.)

You may wish toread the entire transcript as it is a sight to see. Otherwise, Obsession continues…

Continue reading “Today On Holden’s Obsession With [Yesterday’s] Gaggle”

New column’s up. A. Continue reading Economic Populism

Bounce?What bounce? [T]here is no evidence that the renewed focus on terrorism has improved Bush’s standing; his job approval rating stands at 37%, unchanged from August. [snip] Voters are expressing strong and consistent anti-Republican attitudes. The GOP lags well behind the Democratic Party on nearly all major issues, including the economy, Iraq, education, health care, the environment and the budget deficit. And the Republicans have lost ground in recent years even on such traditional strengths as terrorism and improving the nation’s morality. As in six previous surveys over the past 12 months, voters by a wide margin say they favor … Continue reading No Movement in Latest Pew Poll

Something tells meSaddam’s trial is not proceding as planned. The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial said Thursday that he does not believe Saddam was a dictator. Judge Abdullah al-Amiri made the remark in a friendly exchange with the deposed leader, a day after the prosecution said the judge should step down because he is biased toward the defense. [snip] Questioning a Kurdish witness Thursday, Saddam said, “I wonder why this man wanted to meet with me, if I am a dictator?” The judge interrupted: “You were not a dictator. People around you made you (look like) a dictator.” … Continue reading That’s Not In The Script

ViaAMERICAblog, it appears thatBolton is toast. President Bush’s nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations appears increasingly endangered in the Senate, prompting the administration to explore other ways to keep him in the job after his temporary appointment expires in January, officials said yesterday. [snip] “It’s dead as far as the Senate is concerned,” said one Republican official at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Chafee holds the decisive vote. “Chafee made it a 9 to 9 vote, and that’s not going to change.” A Senate Republican leadership aide added: “Chafee holds Bolton’s future in his … Continue reading Stick A Fork In Him

Has anyone else noticed that Rhode Island Democratic candidate for Senate Sheldon Whitehouse captured more votes in Tuesday’s primary than both Republican incumbernt Lincoln Chafee and challenger Steve Laffeycombined? It’s True! Sheldon Whitehouse: 69,159 Lincoln Chafee: 34,873 Stephen Laffey: 29,500 Chafee/Laffey Total: 64,373 And you just know that Laffey offended some Democrats to such a degree that they crossed over and voted for Chafee. This seat is a lock for the Dems. Continue reading Sheldon Whitehouse Kicks Ass

Yesterday’s gaggle was chock full of bloggy goodness including this question right out of the gate.

Q Kofi Annan, back from two weeks in the Middle East, says that most of the leaders that he spoke to thought the invasion of Iraq had been a real disaster for them and believe it’s destabilized the region. Do you agree with that?

MR. SNOW: No.

Q Do you think it — why not? I mean, it certainly looks like there’s unrest.

MR. SNOW: Well, I’ll tell you why. If you take a look at what’s gone on in the region, you have attempts to establish democracies in Lebanon [against which the Bush Assministration waged a proxy war], you have an attempt to establish a democracy in the Palestinian areas [by a political party that the Bush Assministration characterizes as “terrorists”]. You have democracies now up and gaining their footing in Afghanistan [Kabul, anyway] and Iraq (Huh-the-what now?] . And those are developments that are positive. Now, I’m not going to engage in a further disputation with the Secretary General of the United Nations, but I disagree with the characterization.

Moving the Goal Posts

Q You said earlier on one of the television networks that the U.S. goal in Iraq is not to subdue every bad guy in Iraq. What does that mean exactly?

MR. SNOW: What it means is that it has always been the strategy of this administration to work with the Iraqis so that their military and police forces are able to provide safety and security within Iraq’s borders. It is not America’s job to settle every dispute or to fight every insurgent. Indeed, what we want to have happen is the United States supporting the Iraqis in such a way — you know the formulations, Steve — stand up, stand down. And that hasn’t changed.

Q Is the U.S. goal also to defeat the insurgency?

MR. SNOW: The U.S. goal is to have the insurgency defeated.

Obsession continues…

Continue reading “Today on Holden’s Obsession with [Yesterday’s] Gaggle”

The Texas Court of Criminal Appealsagrees to consider reinstating conspiracy charges against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.</p. Former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s efforts to get his campaign finance criminal case to trial suffered another setback Wednesday as the state’s highest criminal court agreed to hear arguments on reinstating a conspiracy charge against him. Last year, state District Judge Pat Priest threw out a charge of conspiracy to violate state election laws because the crime of conspiracy was added to the state law a year after DeLay’s alleged activities in 2002. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle appealed Priest’s ruling. … Continue reading Not So Fast, Bugman

The Bush Assministrationallows Taliban leaders to escape. Taliban terror leaders who had gathered for a funeral – and were secretly being watched by an eye-in-the-sky American drone – dodged assassination because U.S. rules of engagement bar attacks in cemeteries, according to a shocking report. U.S. intelligence officers in Afghanistan are still fuming about the recent lost opportunity for an easy kill of Taliban honchos packed in tight formation for the burial, NBC News reported. The unmanned airplane, circling undetected high overhead, fed a continuous satellite feed of the juicy target to officers on the ground. “We were so excited. I … Continue reading Quick, Call ABC!

Rich Lowry iseasily impressed. In person, George W. Bush is extremely forceful. He has a restless energy when he sits in a chair, and nearly leaps out of it when making certain points. Yesterday, in an on-the-record session with a few journalists in the Oval Office, he untwisted (what looked like) a paper clip as he talked, then twisted it around his finger until it was in a little bow, like a reminder of something. I met Bush when he was still the Governor of Texas back in 1996. For the record, I found him to be most unimpressive. Very … Continue reading Able To Bend Paper Clips With His Bare Hands!

According to the right-wingInsight Magazine, Poppy’s fixer is working with the Chimp on a plan to cut-n-run from Iraq after the mid-terms. President Bush has acceded to his father’s urging and has made former Secretary of State James Baker a leading adviser on Iraq. Administration sources said Mr. Baker, head of the congressionally mandated Iraq Study Group, has been discussing with the president recommendations on an exit strategy that could begin after the November elections. They said Mr. Baker’s approach to Iraq differs sharply from that of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Oh, andJonah can’t spell “frijoles”. UPDATE: Jonahfixes his mispelling … Continue reading December Surprise

The Pentagon’s effort at damage controlbackfires. A senior American commander in Iraq said Tuesday that U.S.-led military operations are “stifling” the insurgency in western Anbar province but are not strong enough to defeat it. Marine Maj. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer told reporters in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Fallujah that he has enough U.S. troops — about 30,000 — to accomplish what he called his main mission: training Iraqi security forces. “For what we are trying to achieve out here I think our force levels are about right,” he said. Even so, he said the training of Iraqi … Continue reading We Can Win In Iraq So Long As We Don’t Have To Defeat Anyone

What a frightening, fascist moronAir Force Secretary Michael Wynne is. 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 … Continue reading Can’t Have Americans Exercising Their Rights To Assembly and Free Speech, Can We

Well, I feelsafer already. EAGLE PASS, Texas – Three members of the Texas National Guard were being held in the Maverick County Jail on charges they fired shots in a residential area while drinking alcohol, a sheriff’s official said. The guardsmen face felony charges of deadly conduct for the alleged shooting spree last Wednesday in a neighborhood north of Eagle Pass on the Texas-Mexico border. [snip] “They were riding in their vehicle, shooting out the window. Each one took turns. They had some beer in the vehicle and had been drinking,” said Ruben Cano, chief deputy for the Maverick County … Continue reading Protecting Our Borders

Link: On the 13th day, his government jailers told him at the end of a marathon interrogation that they had found notebooks of interviews with refugees in Chad and maps of Sudan among his belongings. They told the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner that they knew from this evidence that he was a spy, and that he would face charges of espionage, passing information illegally, writing “false news” and entering the country illegally. “At that point, I felt they were setting us up for a show trial to discourage all journalists from crossing into Darfur,” Salopek said. Salopek, 44, was on … Continue reading Salopek

From today’s gaggle: Q Well, one more, Tony, just one more. Do you believe — does the President still believe that Saddam Hussein was connected to Zarqawi or al Qaeda before the invasion? MR. SNOW: The President has never said that there was a direct, operational relationship between the two, and this is important. Zarqawi was in Iraq. Is that so? What aboutthis from June 15, 2004? Q The Vice President, who I see standing over there, said yesterday that Saddam Hussein has long-established ties to al Qaeda. As you know, this is disputed within the U.S. intelligence community. Mr. … Continue reading Pony Blow Sure Can Lie

Goddamn, Pony was in full spin modetoday. Here he is on the relationship between Saddam and Zarqawi, a relationship thatChimpy and and his Assministration touted repeatedly.

Q Well, one moreHolden Tony, just one more. Do you believe — does the President still believe that Saddam Hussein was connected to Zarqawi or al Qaeda before the invasion?

MR. SNOW: The President has never said that there was a direct, operational relationship between the two, and this is important. Zarqawi was in Iraq.

Q There was a link —

MR. SNOW: Well, and there was a relationship — there was a relationship in this sense: Zarqawi was in Iraq; al Qaeda members were in Iraq; they were operating, and in some cases, operating freely from Iraq. Zarqawi, for instance, directed the assassination of an American diplomat in Amman, Jordan. But they did they have a corner office at the Mukhabarat? No. Were they getting a line item in Saddam’s budget? No. There was no direct operational relationship, but there was a relationship. They were in the country, and I think you understand that the Iraqis knew they were there. That’s the relationship.

Q Saddam Hussein knew they were there; that’s it for the relationship?

MR. SNOW: That’s pretty much it.

Q The Senate report said they didn’t turn a blind eye.

MR. SNOW: The Senate report — rather than get — you know what, I don’t want to get into the vagaries of the Senate report, but it is pretty clear, among other things, again, that there were al Qaeda operators inside Iraq, and they included Zarqawi, they included a cleric who had been described as the best friend of bin Laden who was delivering sermons on TV. But we are simply not going to go to the point that the President is — the President has never made the statement that there was an operational relationship, and that’s the important thing, because I think there’s a tendency to say, aha, he said that they were in cahoots and they were planning and doing stuff; there’s no evidence of that.

Obsession continues…

Continue reading “Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle”

Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo loves him some hate groups. For a college football game day, the South Carolina State Museum in downtown Columbia was a busy place on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 9. On the ground floor, a United States Army brass band commemorated the victims of 9/11. One level up, not far from the museum’s permanent Confederate Army exhibit, the state chapter of the League of the South (LOS), a neo-Confederate hate group, hosted a barbeque in honor of Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, head of the House Immigration Reform Caucus and likely contestant in the 2008 GOP presidential … Continue reading Not All Republicans Are Racists

MediaBloodhound shares his 9/11 experiences and opinons, offering a perspective that neither I nor George Bush can provide. Continue reading Let The New Yorkers Speak

There have been hints before that George W. Bush could be liable for war crimes for specifically authorizing the torture of War on Terra detainees. The first such hint wasthis January 25, 2002, memo written by Alberto Gonzales when he was still White House Counsel, in which he warned the president of what the future might hold: It is difficult to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges based on Section 2441 [the War Crimes Act of 1996]. In December 2004 theACLU gained access to a sheaf of FBI … Continue reading War Crimes, Bitch!

ABC, the network that brought us two nights of a GOPumentary they claimed was somehow based on the 9/11 Commission Report, isresisting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Lobbyists for farmers, retailers and television station owners are fighting a wide range of proposed laws to improve security and recommendations from the 9/ll Commission. [snip] The 9/ll Commission recommended a portion of the broadcast frequency used by television stations be turned over to emergency first responders next year. The broadcasters, including ABC, want to stick to a previously planned date of 2009. “Why are we waiting to save lives?” asked McCain … Continue reading Irony Is In The Corner, Coughing Up Blood

Chimpy slips back into the 30s in thelatest Gallup poll. The poll, conducted Sept. 7-10, finds that 39% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president, while 56% disapprove. How about some historical perspective? Bush’s 39% approval rating is among the lowest for a president in September of a midterm election year. It is the same as Bill Clinton’s job approval in 1994, when the Republican landslide allowed the GOP to take majority control from the Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate. Bush’s current rating is also similar to that of Ronald Reagan … Continue reading Pony, Bitches!

I haven’t a clue as to why anyone would take the advice of Bill Kristol and Rich Lowry on how we should proceed in Iraq. Hell, I don’t know why anyone would think either man was worth listening to, much less follow their advice. After all it wasBill Kristol who on April 1, 2003, smugly told an NPR audience: There’s been a certain amount of pop sociology in America that the Shia can’t get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There’s been almost no evidence of that at … Continue reading The Wrong Brothers