And I Thought I Was Busy?!?

Three days in, and let's look at a few of the things Obama's been working on...

• Shuttering Gitmo.

• Halting extraordinary rendition.

• Guaranteeing habeas corpus rights to detainees.

• Revived FOIA.

• Yanked Bush's Executive Privilege.

• Reversed the international "gag rule"

• Halted a buttload of Bush's Executive Orders

• Closed since 9/11, he's re-opening the top of Statue of Liberty to the public.

01.20.09

The best part of all of this is the fact that after the years of waiting for this day, when it finally arrives, it's no longer about George W. Bush in any way.

Nelson Award: Irrelevant Douche

This is awesome.






Can't wait to get back to that fake-ass ranch, eh, asshole?

[h/t Angelos]

Noted Without Comment (for now)

"And there were war profiteers giving three cheers..."

This is pretty funny. Be sure to "flip" through the preview pages...and pay close attention to the stuff in the room. I've spent quite a bit of time with the original book the last few years, and I really appreciate the details...

Special Comment Asskicking

I was going to write a post about Bush's interview, particularly about the "golf sacrifice," but anything I'd come up with would seem penned by Mr Sunny Patch compared with this. I'll just hand it over to the master...

This (No Longer) American Life

I caught part of this episode of "This American Life" a couple weeks ago and was pretty much left deciding whether to drive straight to Canada or to D.C. and crash my car into the West Wing...

I went online and listened to the whole thing. As Ira Glass says in the intro, the abuses of the Bush Adminisration are, by this point, legion. Huge, blatant disregard for laws and the Constitution with massive implications. So TAL decided to focus on two personal, below-the-radar stories of abuse of power that are no less egregious—and in their own way, twice as infuriating.

Listen to The Audacity of Government.

“Deserves Got Nothin to Do With It”

First of all, let me get this out of the way—I am NOT opposed to the death penalty. I'm not a "hang 'em high" guy, but a fairly administered, properly tried and convicted, and humanely executed prisoner convicted of a heinous crime is not a problem for me. Sorry if that's contrary to the rest of my (or your) liberalness, but that's the way I feel. What I am opposed to is the manner in which the death penalty is employed in this country...racial bias, bullshit trial processes (ie: Texas), and horrendously cruel procedures. Death rows are littered with innocent men, and I believe there should be a moratorium on the death penalty nationwide until every one of those problems is addressed. So here's why I bring this up...

US may ask death for 9-11 suspects

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is planning to charge six detainees at Guantanamo Bay for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America and seek the death penalty.

[...] Military prosecutors also will ask for the death penalty for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, according to a second official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.

Among those held at Guantanamo is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attack six years ago in which hijacked planes were flown into buildings in New York and Washington. Five others are expected to be named in sworn charges.

"The department has been working diligently to prepare cases and bring charges against a number of individuals who have been involved in some of the most grievous acts of violence and terror against the United States and our allies..."

[...] The men would be tried in the military tribunal system that was set up by the administration shortly after the start of the counterterror war and has been widely criticized for it rules on legal representation for suspects, hearings behind closed doors and past allegations of inmate abuse at Guantanamo. Original rules allowed the military to exclude the defendant from his own trial, permitted statements made under torture, and forbade appeal to an independent court; but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the system in 2006 and a revised plan has included some additional rights...

This is crap. NONE of these guys should be executed. Period. Bush has made such a mockery of the judicial process in handling every aspect of this that I'm not even sure the words "judicial process" apply. It is a kangaroo court in every sense of the phrase. Coerced confessions, torture, no evidence, secret witnesses, trials without the defendants, no appeals, no review, no disclosure. There is no reason to believe any of the evidence, testimony or verdicts in any of this. None.

There is no doubt in my mind that people involved in the 9/11 attacks deserve the death penalty—if properly and fairly tried and convicted. None of these men were. None of them.

This is a feel-good, red-meat-to-the-base exercise and political move on the part of the Administration to impact the election, give the appearance of progress and closure, and an issue to use as a wedge. There is nothing about justice associated with it.

Thanks for fucking that all up too, Mr President.

Bushonomics

We can't get rid of these clowns fast enough...

[NYT link] The Pentagon on Monday will unveil its proposed 2009 budget of $515.4 billion. If it is approved in full, annual military spending, when adjusted for inflation, will have reached its highest level since World War II.

That new Defense Department budget proposal, which is to pay for the standard operations of the Pentagon and the military but does not include supplemental spending on the war efforts or on nuclear weapons, is an increase in real terms of about 5 percent over this year.

Overall since coming to office, the administration has increased baseline military spending by 30 percent...

[...] Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Admiral Mullen have said military spending should not drop below 4 percent of the national economy. “I really do believe this 4percent floor is important,” Admiral Mullen said. “It’s really important, given the world we’re living in, given the threats that we see out there, the risks that are, in fact, global, not just in the Middle East.”

[...] “The secretary believes that whenever we transition away from war supplementals, the Congress should dedicate 4 percent of our G.D.P. to funding national security,” Mr. Morrell said. “That is what he believes to be a reasonable price to stay free and protect our interests around the world.”

Over half a trillion dollars—not including the war? Fucking absurd. Almost as absurd as the idea of tying the funding of anything to G.D.P. Unless The Decider (or anybody else) is willing to index government tax revenues to G.D.P. as well.

If you want to set a floor percentage of the budget for defense, fine, but this idiotic.

UPDATE: Hilzoy did a much better job on this the other day...including this chart (via Ezra):

Ezra adds: "Our spending is 43 percent of the total. Not the total on that chart. The total of the world."

All of the candidates running for PResident are calling for various increases of some sort (Barack Obama included, apparently) This is unacceptable. You want to shift money from ridiculous weapons programs into human costs? Fine, do it. YOu want to add troops? Great, do it at the expense of whatever fucking nuclear weapons Bush is still buying. There is no reason we should be spending anything close to this much of our money on this. Not while the rest of the country falls apart. Fuck that. Not EVER.

And don't give me any shit about "what about at a time of war?" Remember, this doesn't even include the fucking war!!!

SOTU Live (rebroadcast) Blogging

C-SPAN is re-airing the State of the Union Address, so I'm going to turn it on and have it as background while I finish off some freelance. I will add my thoughts as it goes along. The television is behind me, so I will be primarily reacting to the stupid things that come out of his mouth, rather than the stupid expressions on Bush's face...

02:00 Is there anything more contrived than this ridiculous walk down the aisle? Like Bush is Bono walking up to a concert stage? Are members of Congress really that excited to see the President? Is he really a celebrity to them? Now at the rostrum, Bush is really working the wink...

00:07 "...our charge to keep." Ha, ha...just like the painting, right?

00:08 Just realized...no "the state of the union is ————" I guess he doesn't want to go there, as the state of the union is "swirling in the bowl."

00:09 "...wages are up..." Um, they are? Not sure that's accurate.

00:11 Blah, blah, make horrendous tax cuts permanent...BONUS! Veto threat!

00:12 I'm cutting programs and setting a course to have a surplus by 2012. You know, by the end of the next President's term. Thanks, dick.

00:13 More fun with the veto threat... Blames Congress for everything, claims earmarks are out of control. In the first year of Dems in charge, earmarks WERE halved (Bush is lying) and all are "fully described and its sponsor identified" no sponsors can benefit, and any private entity that does must be disclosed. [link]

00:16 Crap about healthcare... tax relief for self-insured (don't we already have that if you itemize?)... small business associations plans (existed for years)... health savings accounts (because Americans have TONS of money to set aside in "use it or lose it" accounts)... "...ensure that decisions about your medical remain in your doctor's office, not in the halls of Congress..." Unless you are talking to your doctor about an abortion or life support. Or stem cells. Or medical marijuana...

00:19 A new name for private school vouchers.

00:22 Calls for an international agreement on greenhouse gases. Um, like Kyoto? Why didn't anyone else think of that?

00:25 My TiVo is giving me shit. I can pause, but not rewind...

Also, I'm not getting ANY work done!

00:27 Talks up the promise of stem cell research, then hampers that by declaring "all life be treated with the dignity it deserves." Which, for stem cells, is none.

Not bothering with human-animal hybrids this year I guess.

00:28 Something about Katrina. Did I just miss my Chertoff clap?

00:30 Immigration...(yawn)

00:31 Foreign policy time. Again with the inked fingers...

00:33 SEPTEMBER 11 REFERENCE!!!

00:37 Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Throw a bone to the troops. Standing O.

"The surge has given results few of us could have imagined" Actually, I imagined "none of significance" and I was pretty much right.

Oh, wait! "al Qaeda is on the run!" My mistake.

00:48 Apparently the only thing holding Israel and Palestine back all these decades is the attention of retarded chimpanzee. Problem solved by the end of the year. With ponies for one and all.

00:50 Terrerists still want to kill you all. All this Homeland Security and no Chertoff shots? I need warrantless wiretapping by Friday

00:52 Genocide is bad. Thanks for pointing that out.

A few minutes left, I gotta get some shit done.

UPDATE: Obama's response:



Hillary didn't do a video (that I saw). Text is here.

Edwards releases an even shorter statement.

TiVo Alert!

Tonite is President Lame Duck's final State of the Union Address. No, I don't actually suggest recording, or even watching it. But I will savor it. And I'm sure tomorrow, I will make fun of it...



The Democratic response comes from Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (who incidentally, will be endorsing Obama tomorrow). She should save her breath. As soon as Bush finishes his tired act, the Dems should just have somebody ready at all 300 viewers' front doors and hand them a printout of this

UPDATE: Oh! And don't forget to watch for Michael Chertoff's Swedish Chef impersonation. You'll know it when you see it.

'Bout Fucking Time

Carpetbagger:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has decided to keep the chamber in session over the Thanksgiving break to block President Bush from making any unsavory recess appointments while Senators are out of town.

Good. Reid should do this for the rest of Bush's misbegotten term. Too bad the Dems didn't tell Bush to pound sand instead of confriming Mukasey, and then done this.

My Last Post on the War

Go read this story and guess what I'm most annoyed by / sick to death of. Go ahead, it's not long. I'll wait...

What? Too fucking lazy to click? Okay. Here are the choices:

Bush wants another $42 billion for wars
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration on Monday asked for an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the 2008 request for total war funding to $189.3 billion. [blah, blah, blah]

"Congress should not go home for the holidays while our troops are still waiting for the funds they need," he said.

This tired shit again? Jesus. Sure, that's a bunch of crap, but this pisses me off more:

Minutes after Bush spoke, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, warned the president not to expect Congress to "rubber-stamp" the latest request.

"In the coming weeks, we will hold it up to the light of day and fight for the change of strategy and redeployment of troops that is long overdue," Reid said.

Oh, just shut the fuck up already, Harry. Please. I've had i t with this bullshit. Do everybody a favor and just rubber-stamp it. Stop pretending. We all know you're gonna cave. Just be honest about from the start—I'd rather the new Democratic strategy just be "Here. Finish your fucking war, Bush. This is all on you. How much do you need? A twenty? Just take it and stay out all night if you want. Because next year you're out and shit's gonna change.*"

* In theory. I'm not even confident a Democratic President will change anything anymore.

"I grow fatigued..."

The fact that I can hardly get worked up about the War, among other topics, anymore due to Outrage Fatigue won't stop me from letting somebody else point out what crap Bush's "address to the nation" was. Take it away, Hilzoy:

In a move that caught all of Washington by surprise, President Bush announced tonight that he will begin drawing down troops at almost exactly the rate that he must draw them down unless he is prepared to extend troop rotations or institute the draft. In another startling move, he described this drawdown not as forced on him by deployment schedules, but as a "return on success": the tremendous success of the surge. In so doing, once again, our President shows himself to be a true visionary: seeing things invisible to ordinary men and women. Where we see only a country in the process of falling apart, our more discerning President sees success. Where we see millions of people fleeing their homes, he sees 'civil society taking root'. And, somehow, he sees "a young democracy" where we see dead people.

And to top it all off, where we see a President determined to keep our troops in harm's way for as long as possible, hoping that the civil war unleashed by his folly will unfold on someone else's watch, he sees a chance, "for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together." Although why he thinks this is so novel escapes me: it has always been possible for both sides to come together if all those who disagree with George W. Bush simply abandon their positions, and this is not the first time he has suggested that we embrace this sort of bipartisanship.

The President also said this:

"In the life of all free nations, there come moments that decide the direction of a country and reveal the character of its people. We are now at such a moment."

Here, for once, I agree completely. We have had clear evidence that our policy in Iraq is unworkable for some time. We need to decide what to do about it. And we have, essentially, two choices. On the one hand, we can face up to this fact, as unpleasant as it might be, and figure out the most honorable way of extricating ourselves. On the other, we can continue to defer the moment when we have to realize that we have failed, and go on sacrificing good and decent men and women to our unwillingness to face the truth.

This will, as President Bush says, reveal our character as a people. I would much rather it reveal some capacity for maturity and decency than a willingness to ask people to die so that we can pretend we haven't lost.

Following up on the President's quote above...This is actually the only part I saw (after the fact, online) and I had to stop it right there before I hurt my pretty new monitor. What the fuck to you mean "we", white man? Whatever has been happening in Iraq, and what comes next has no reflection on this country or the character of its people. The rest of us left you and your retard-base and your fucking abomination of a war in the dust quite a while ago.

Your "moment of truth" is nothing but a bullshit soundbite in your vast narrative of lies. you are pretending to bring troops home, when all you are really doing (and not even committing any numbers, btw) is going back to the same unacceptable number of troops we had before this stupid surge. 2008 will end with the same amount of troops that 2006 did.

Last night's speech was the same as any of the other ones—you continue to fool all 28% of the people all of the time, cow Congress into supporting you, and punt the ball down the field and expect the next President to deal with your fucking mess.

Nicely done. You are full of shit, but it's working. That is your only success—your brain-dead supporters clap, the morons in the media trumpet your "compromise," the Republicans point to this fake success, and the Democrats roll over for whatever you want.

Fuck you, Mr President. And fuck the rest of you too. In fact, you can all suck down one of these...



Extra points for whoever identifies the title quote. Full quote, "I grow fatigued, Captain."

UPDATE: Sullivan, good NYT Op-Ed, Carpetbagger, Slate.com's Kaplan

Vietnow

The other day at VFW, The Boy King made a speech in which he held up his Iraq Clusterfuck to history and past successes and failures in geopolitical adventuring—so we sheeple could understand His Grand Scheme—or at least be reminded of our place, and to get the hell out of His way or be branded a traitor...

Everyone's talking about his comparisons between Iraq now and to the withdrawal from Viet Nam, but Bush wraps himself in layers of WWII and Korea as well. All of it is equal parts treachery, dishonesty and just outright fucking nerve, especially coming from him.

Any resultant "discussion" should have began with his getting booed off-stage by an audience that should know better, followed by a media that derides him out of office for being either that fucking stupid, or that fucking much of an asshole.

Instead, he's treated like a serious thinker, and any Iraq "withdrawal" must be carefully considered against the lessons Bush learned* about the Far East.

Over at Obsidian Wings Hilzoy has a brutal 18-round takedown of this bullshit-laden treachery from Young Churchill.

No quotes, because you really need to. Read. The. Whole. Thing.

*on Monday. From his speechwriter.

Happy Incompetence Day!

"Sir, here's the Presidential Daily Breifing...there's a CIA agent here insisting you read this part about the attack on our soil—"

"Whatever, Harriet. I got wood to chop. Tell him he covered his ass."

[image courtesy Dependable Renegade]

Impeach

There's been plenty of bluster on the left about impeachment. At various points over the last few years, I've advocated impeaching Bush and/or Cheney plenty of times—just last week I nearly engraved it on my car. I'll pull together some links about the pros and cons of going after the big fish later, but one guy Congress should definitely get in their sights NOW is the Attorney General. It's the most politically doable, publicly supported and actually possible to get a conviction and remove him from office. Congressional GOPers would close ranks around Bush or Cheney, but I'm not so sure they are going to go that far out on a limb to support Gonzo.

Make it happen. Once Gonzalez is removed from his role as Chief Obstructor of Justice and Cover-Up Artist for the Administration, other investigations might pick up some steam. They all deserve their day in front of the klieg lights, but Gonzalez is the logical place to start.

MORE:
NY Times: “He’s Impeachable, You Know”
Kleiman: "Impeach Gonzalez?"
Digby: "Depends On What The Definition Of Program Is" (ie: Gonzo? Bring it on!)
Digby: "The 34 Senator Gambit" (ie: Bush? Not So Fast...)

UPDATE: The ball is rolling...

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) is introducing legislation that would require the House Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives to begin an impeachment investigation into Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in the wake of his damaging testimony last week. The legislation reads:

Resolved: That the Committee on the Judiciary shall investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to impeach Alberto Gonzales for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Think Progress has the story and the video here.

Stamped Steel Statement

Every once in a while I go online to the Michigan Secretary of State (DMV) site and check out personalized license plates. Thought of a good one today...and it's actually available.



If I were still driving the old Rolling Concretemobile of Democracy, this would be a no-brainer. But if stick this on the Volvo, am I just asking for a keyjob? I'm already betting that 26-percenters are too stupid to understand my bumper sticker...should I double-down?

UPDATE: Couldn't resist the Photoshop...

The Executive Torture Order

Op-Ed in today's Washington Post...

War Crimes and the White House
The Dishonor in a Tortured New 'Interpretation' of the Geneva Conventions
By General P.X. Kelley (ret.) and Robert F. Turner

One of us was appointed commandant of the Marine Corps by President Ronald Reagan; the other served as a lawyer in the Reagan White House and has vigorously defended the constitutionality of warrantless National Security Agency wiretaps, presidential signing statements and many other controversial aspects of the war on terrorism. But we cannot in good conscience defend a decision that we believe has compromised our national honor and that may well promote the commission of war crimes by Americans and place at risk the welfare of captured American military forces for generations to come.

[...] This is not just about avoiding "torture." The article expressly prohibits "at any time and in any place whatsoever" any acts of "violence to life and person" or "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment."

Last Friday, the White House issued an executive order attempting to "interpret" Common Article 3 with respect to a controversial CIA interrogation program. The order declares that the CIA program "fully complies with the obligations of the United States under Common Article 3," provided that its interrogation techniques do not violate existing federal statutes (prohibiting such things as torture, mutilation or maiming) and do not constitute "willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual in a manner so serious that any reasonable person, considering the circumstances, would deem the acts to be beyond the bounds of human decency."

In other words, as long as the intent of the abuse is to gather intelligence or to prevent future attacks, and the abuse is not "done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual" -- even if that is an inevitable consequence -- the president has given the CIA carte blanche to engage in "willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse."

[...] To date in the war on terrorism, including the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and all U.S. military personnel killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, America's losses total about 2 percent of the forces we lost in World War II and less than 7 percent of those killed in Vietnam. Yet we did not find it necessary to compromise our honor or abandon our commitment to the rule of law to defeat Nazi Germany or imperial Japan, or to resist communist aggression in Indochina. On the contrary, in Vietnam -- where we both proudly served twice -- America voluntarily extended the protections of the full Geneva Convention on prisoners of war to Viet Cong guerrillas who, like al-Qaeda, did not even arguably qualify for such protections.

[...] In a letter to President James Madison in March 1809, Jefferson observed: "It has a great effect on the opinion of our people and the world to have the moral right on our side." Our leaders must never lose sight of that wisdom.

Don't these Reaganite pussies know 9/11 changed everything?

[h/t Sullivan]

No Apex Tech Lawyers for Bush

Spinning off of the previous post, the lawyers that actually do work for the President got reinforced last week...

Besieged White House Reinforces Counsel's Office
[WaPo] President Bush has authorized another surge -- this time in the White House counsel's office. Facing a blizzard of congressional investigations, hearings and subpoenas, the White House has hired a new crop of lawyers to do battle with the Democratic Congress.

[...] "Obviously, there's been an increase in requests from the Hill, and we want to make sure we have the appropriate level of staff in place," said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore.

Yeah, ya don't say? "Congressional investigators are looking into the dismissal of U.S. attorneys, the disappearance of White House e-mail, internal disputes over warrantless surveillance, partisan activities in federal agencies, various aspects of the Iraq war and other issues."

Do you think George is tapping a fresh crop of Pat Robertson's finest to defend him and his Administration? Not likely. All seven of the added lawyers are from Ivy League law schools. Tom Schaller at TAPPED put it best...

So, when it comes to policy-making over at the so-called Justice Department, a Regent University law degree, like the one held by Monica Goodling and a battalion of other fundies, suffices. But when it comes to protecting the president's backside, apparently a divine legal degree is no substitute for an East Coast elite Ivy School pedigree.

When hiring lawyers to defend the Constitution, the People, the Laws and our system of Justice, Lionel Hutz with a degree from the 700 Club is first in line, but for his own ass? Bush only hires the best.