Monthly Archives: February 2008

Dark Doings at the Pentagon

Posted on February 9, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Scott Horton, Jim Haynes’s Long Twilight Struggle.

I wish we had more journalism like this.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Dark Doings at the Pentagon

NYT Times Waters Its Brand

Posted on February 8, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Shorter David Brooks: I have finally achieved my ambition of writing a column as tactical and mendacious as William Safire.

Scott Horton deconstructs the NYT's spinelessness when criticized by the Administration.

And this is our best newspaper….

Posted in The Media | Comments Off on NYT Times Waters Its Brand

I Like This Video

Posted on February 8, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I like this What is this 'Iraq war' charge on my bill? video from Less Jobs. More Wars. Especially the ending.

Posted in Iraq | Comments Off on I Like This Video

McCain — What’s Fair Criticism?

Posted on February 8, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

The Smirking Chimp, Puffing up John McCain, POW, has some rough stuff about McCain.

I think this part is not only fair criticism, but gets at the heart of one of the main reasons I can't trust the guy and get steamed every time I hear about his 'Straight Talk':

McCain's tragic flaw: He knows the right thing. He often sets out to do the right thing. But he doesn't follow through. We saw McCain's weak character in 2000, when the Bush campaign defeated him in the crucial South Carolina primary by smearing his family. Placing his presidential ambitions first, he swallowed his pride, set aside his honor, and campaigned for Bush against Al Gore. It came up again in 2005, when McCain used his POW experience as a POW to convince Congress to pass, and Bush to sign, a law outlawing torture of detainees at Guantanamo and other camps. But when Bush issued one of his infamous “signing statements” giving himself the right to continue torturing-in effect, negating McCain's law-he remained silent, sucking up to Bush again.

Ditto McCain's off-again on-again kowtows to the theocratic right wing. Or yesterday's cowardly eleventh-hour failure to vote on the stimulus package even though McCain was in DC.

But the main thrust of the Smirking Chimp article is that McCain is to be blamed for cracking after days of very vigorous torture that he suffered as a POW and/or for not correcting people who say he didn't. I don't buy that.

Posted in Politics: McCain, Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

Muppets Endorse Edwards!

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Funny video — Muppets for President — but isn't it a stealth Edwards endorsement?

I jest; everyone likes Kermit, so that's the endorsement.

(spotted via la Bartow)

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

The Senate Is To Blame Too

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Daily Kos reports that Sen. Feingold's on reverse targeting failed 38-57. Here's the summary of the amendment:

Prohibits the government from getting around FISA's court order requirement by wiretapping an individual overseas when it is really interested in a person in the U.S. with whom that supposed foreign target is communicating.

In other words, the amendment would stop spying on you and me in the guise of a foreign terrorism case. Senate doesn't care.

The DINOs voted to undermine the Fourth Amendment: Rockefeller, Feinstein, Johnson, Landrieu and Lincoln.

GWB is the primary reason why the country is in two wars, an economic slump, and a civil liberties disaster. But the Senate bears much of the blame too.

Posted in Law: Privacy | Comments Off on The Senate Is To Blame Too