Ah, there it is. They tried to hide it, but today’s New York Times does mention Amnesty International’s report that the white phosphorus which Israel used to burn Palestinians last month was supplied by the United States. And when I say the NYT “mentions” it, what I mean is that they stuck it ten paragraphs into a story on page A7 entitled “Netanyahu Rebuffed Again in Efforts to Form Coalition,” and then said only
In a separate development, Amnesty International issued a report on Monday accusing Israel and Hamas of misusing foreign-supplied weapons to “attack civilians” during the recent 22-day Gaza war.
Amnesty called on the United Nations to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on both parties, and it urged the Obama administration to suspend American military aid to Israel.
Sort of kinda neglects to mention little details like what sort of weapons we’re talking about and which foreigners supplied them (there are plates with serial numbers and “manufactured in the United States” on the shells).
The WaPo mentions the Amnesty report in paragraph 9 of an AP story about Olmert firing his own negotiator. Here’s what it says: “Also Monday, a statement by the human rights group Amnesty International called on the United States to stop supplying Israel with arms that the group said were used in the killing of civilians in Gaza.” The words “white phosphorus” appear nowhere (and the LAT seems to skip the story altogether). We do get Israel’s response that the report is “unbalanced” (im fact, it does also condemn Hamas attacks on civilians and castigates its foreign suppliers, calling, as the NYT said, for an arms embargo on both sides) and ignores “the basic fact that Hamas is a terror organization”.
Compare this with the Guardian and the London Times, which seem to take chemical warfare (and American complicity) rather more seriously than the American press.
Another human-rights-whadda-ya-gonna-do quote from Hillary Clinton, from just before this week’s trip to China: “When you think about the drastic rise in unemployment in China, many would argue that that’s a human rights issue. There’s going to be a lot of suffering that will come from that.” So that puts those prisoners of conscience firmly in their place. It’s all about perspective, people.
So George Bush visited that hardware store in Dallas that offered him a job as a decider greeter, because he’s so very lonely. He wandered the store for an hour, talking to anybody who couldn’t get away fast enough, and bought, according to the AP, some flashlights, batteries, night lights and some WD-40.
Contest: what is he planning to do with those items?
The Obama administration, like the Bushies, says that prisoners held at Bagram have no rights and cannot appeal to US courts.
Hillary Clinton says that issues like Tibet and human rights “can’t interfere with [engaging China on] the global economic crisis, the global climate-change crisis and the security crises.” I’m sure the political prisoners in Beijing dungeons and provincial re-education-through-slave-labor camps, the parents arrested for asking why the schools that crushed their children were built so shoddily, the Buddhist monks nursing broken bones in Llasa, etc. will be happy to hear that they won’t be interfering with the really important items on Hillary’s agenda – they’re very polite that way.
Anyway, Hillary says, there’s really no point in bothering talking to China about human rights because “we pretty much know what they’re gonna say.” I don’t know if the Chinese authorities know what Hillary is gonna say, but they certainly now know that they won’t have to pay very close attention to it.
So the California Legislature has finally reached a budget agreement, because the Democrats agreed to the demands of Republican State Senator Abel Maldonado to eliminate funding for new furniture in the state controller’s office.
Headline of the Day: “Lost Boy Found in Crocodile.” Did the London Times really use the story of the horrific death of a five-year-old to sneak in a Peter Pan reference? (Headline is on the Times’ world news contents page; the story itself has a different one.)
The NYT did a whole story about Bush’s plans to build a new presidential helicopter, which has become so expensive that Obama may cancel it, talking about its capabilities to deflect missiles, resist EMPs, etc., without mentioning the main selling point for Bush: a higher door, so he wouldn’t have to duck coming out of it – doesn’t look preznidenshul and dignitudinous, you know. Definitely worth $400 million plus per whirlybird. (Obama, two inches taller than Bush, has already bumped his head once.)
First line of a story in the London Times (it’s kind ofdownhill from there, so don’t bother reading it): “A man who found a 20p coin showing the Queen wearing what appears to be a pair of ear muffs thought it must be counterfeit.”
The NYT quotes Republican whip Eric Cantor: “I talk to Newt on a regular basis because he was in the position that we are in: in the extreme minority.” He said it, not me.
The article contained the interesting fact that Cantor is the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives.
The cat just got her head stuck in an empty Kleenex box. Like that time she licked the soap dispenser, I don’t think she’ll be doing it again.
Prince Harry, after being caught on video calling a fellow officer a “Paki,” is to be sent on an equality and diversity course. It must be some course, if it can teach an inbred twit who is third in line to inherit the throne because he happened to be born into a long line of inbed twits the importance of equality and diversity. I’m guessing hand puppets are involved.
Federal judge Gladys Kessler decides not to decide a case about the forcible feeding of hunger strikers (and the use of “restraint chairs” to facilitate such feeding) because the only people really qualified to decide whether it amounts to torture are, you guessed it, the torturers: “Petitioners insist that the use of the chair on a compliant detainee amounts to such unnecessary and painful restriction that it is tantamount to torture. Resolution of this issue requires the exercise of penal and medical discretion by staff with the appropriate expertise and is precisely the type of question that federal courts, lacking that expertise, leave to the discretion of those who possess such expertise.” Discretion – is that what the kids are calling it these days?
An Indian Hindu nationalist group is developing a “healthy” soft drink based on, you guessed it, cow urine. It will have enormous health-giving powers. They will call it Gau Jal (Cow Water). Such a bland name. Surely the WIIIAIverse can do better: names and/or slogans in comments, please.
As Berlusconi raced to get a law through to stop the clinic letting that woman who had been in a coma for 17 years die, she died. Guess she won’t be incubating any of Silvio’s babies. Berlusconi immediately accused President Napolitano, who had refused to sign his decree (on the grounds that they really shouldn’t be overturning court rulings) of murder.
Name of the Day, mentioned by Barack Obama during a town hall meeting in Ft Myers, Florida (the foreclosure capital of America): Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.
Obama was accompanied by Charlie Crist, who talked about the importance of being bi... partisan. Obama added, “And when the town is burning, you don’t check party labels. Everybody needs to grab a hose, and that’s what Charlie Crist is doing right here today.”
HAS HE EVER MET AN AMERICAN?: “I know that all that people are asking for is a chance to work hard.”
REALLY, HAS HE EVER MET AN AMERICAN?: To someone complaining about working at McDonald’s because he can’t find another job: “the fact that you are working as hard as you’re working at a job that I know doesn’t always pay as well as some other jobs, I think that’s a source of pride for you. That shows that -- that you’re doing the right thing.” A crappy job serving unhealthy food which Obama would never eat himself, that’s doing the right thing? Right for whom?
Or else
The town hall meeting still isn’t really Obama’s format. It came across as not much more spontaneous than any of Bush’s town hall meetings (although I’m sure no homeless person was ever allowed into one of those), mostly because Obama insisted on doing almost all of the talking, giving long answers and not really interacting with his questioners.
He talked a great deal about his visit to Elkhart, Indiana, which is for him what Joe the Plumber was for McCain and Palin. Evidently Elkhart, Indiana has lost jobs faster than anywhere else in America, and is the RV capital of America. TV stations “have started running public service announcements to tell people where to find food banks, even as the food banks don’t have enough to meet the demand.” So the tv stations are really just screwing with them. So cruel.
UH OH, THE DUDE’S GETTING DELUSIONS OF BEING AN ECONOMIST: “What I’ve said is what other economists have said...”
WORST DISNEYLAND RIDE EVER: “If you delay acting on an economy of this severity, then you potentially create a negative spiral”.
We don’t want to lose a decade, like Japan. Actually, Japan was just giving us a head start. They’re just very sporting like that.
WE’RE SPECIAL: “So what I’m trying to underscore is what the people in Elkhart already understand, that this is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill recession.” Actually, the people in Elkhart understand that in recessions the mills don’t actually run, that’s kind of the problem.
BUT IT WOULD BE UNACCEPTABLE FOR IRAN TO BE BITTEN BY A RADIOACTIVE SPIDER: Iran should “recognize that, even as it has some rights as a member of the international community, with those rights come responsibilities.”
Puppies! No one is asking about the White House puppy! What sort of reporters are these people, anyway?
Says putting three Republicans in his cabinet “unprecedented.” Actually, I’m pretty sure Bush did that too.
Comes out firmly in favor of weatherization. As a Californian, I have to ask – what is this “weather” of which you speak?
Evidently we have the most inefficient health care system ever in the world. They’re still using paper, for chrissake! Paper!
He regales the press with a story of how he once visited a school in South Carolina built in the 1850s. They all gasp: South Carolina has schools?
Puppy! We were promised a puppy!
He didn’t come into office “ginned up to spend $800 billion.” Oddly reminiscent of Bush saying he hadn’t planned on being a war president. Only with Bush it was tequila and cocaine rather than gin (or beer with Sean Hannity).
HA, HE SAID BANG: With TARP, “we didn’t get as big a bang for the buck as we should have.”
He doesn’t have a crystal ball. George Bush always said he didn’t have a magic wand. Someone give these guys a gift certificate to a magic store.
Puppy puppy puppy!
Will you lift the ban on showing coffins returning from Iraq? O: Well, that’s a very timely question, that I have no intention of answering...
I think he just said that the Afghan elections will be meaningless.
A Fox reporter asks about something or other Biden said last week – so what the hell was he talking about? Obama: Fuck if I know – you think I actually listen when Biden is talking?
Now they’re asking about some baseball player’s use of steroids, but nothing about the puppy? COME ON!
Helen Thomas (and if there’s anyone you’d think would ask about our puppy): Do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons? Obama: “I don’t want to speculate.” But we don’t want an arms race in the Middle East. Although evidently not as much as he doesn’t want to piss off Israel by acknowledging that they are a nuclear power. When Helen tried to follow up on the nuclear question, he talked over her and called on another reporter. Wimp.
Evidently the people of Elkhart, Indiana can’t afford partisanship. Not even off-brand partisanship at Wal-Mart.
WORK A BIT MORE ON THAT JESSE JACKSON RHYMING THING: “I’m not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility.”
YEAH, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: “I think that, over time, people respond to civility and rational argument. I think that’s what the people of Elkhart and the people around America are looking for.”
You know what else the people of Elkhart and the people around America respond to? Puppies!
Obama held a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana today, making a point, for some reason, of saying that audience members had not been screened. One of them told him, “I’m one of those that thinks you need to have a beer with Sean Hannity.” And snort some blow with Bill O’Reilly. And do some meth with Rush Limbaugh.
Nothing else of interest occurred. Though Reuters did get this nice Obama-propeller picture out of the trip.
Italy is having its Terri Schiavo moment, with Silvio Berlusconi intervening to prevent implementation of a court ruling allowing a 38-year-old woman in a vegetative state since 1992 to die (although the president is refusing to sign Berlusconi’s decree). According to Berlusconi, although she is in a coma, she should be kept alive because she is “in the condition to have babies.” So that’s okay then.
In Obama’s weekly address, a sentence in which the word “relief” can be read two different ways, both true: “Let’s be clear: We can’t expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place.”
So Obama’s version of Bush’s “faith-based initiative” will include the goal of abortion-reduction. How does that work? Will the government pay people to tell pregnant women they will go to hell if they have an abortion?
Naturally, I signed up for email at Sarah Palin’s PAC. Today I got a... be still my heart... personal email from Sarah herself. “With your help,” she says, “I’ll be able to speak out.” I’m betting all her support comes from bloggers and late night comedians needing material. She signs off, “With an Alaskan heart, Sarah.” An Alaskan heart? What would that be? Snow? Whale blubber? Meth?
(Later): ah, the Alaskan heart is of course shooting wolves from airplanes, a practice Palin is again defending, against Ashley Judd and the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which she accuses of “twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times.” Did I mention Sarah is asking for contributions (from innocent and hard-pressed Americans) to her PAC? Palin says that wolves need to be shot from airplanes because “Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices which can’t be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations.” By cultural practices, she of course means recreational killing. Wolves hunting for food should be killed because they’re interfering with humans hunting for fun.
That’s what she looks like when she’s outraged
Palin also gave an interview to Esquire magazine in which she claims, mysteriously, “Sweat is my sanity.” And that “Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie annoy me.” Well, speaking on behalf of all the bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie, the feeling is mutual, Sarah.
Alberto Gonzales was interviewed by CNN’s Campbell Brown or, as he called her when she insisted on bringing up the US attorneys scandal, “Campbell, Campbell, Campbell.”
WHAT MANY PEOPLE ARE FOCUSED ON: He expressed a forlorn hope that “history will reflect the fact that during my tenure both at the White House and at the Department of Justice we did a tremendous job in protecting our country,” but complained that “many people are focused on the little negatives that occurred”. Yes, Gonzo, that’s exactly how history will remember you: as one of the little negatives that occurred.
THIS LEVEL = WAY OVER HIS HEAD: What did he learn? “Well, what I learned is that at this level you’re going to make mistakes.”
WHY SOME EMPLOYERS ARE GOING TO BE VERY HESITANT: So why can’t you get a job, Gonzo? “With respect to employment, listen, I can understand in a very tough economy, some employers are going to be very hesitant about bringing someone like me on when you have ongoing investigation.”
WHAT HE STILL HAS: “I feel like I still have a lot to contribute to our community and to our country and I want to do so.”
CONTEST: What exactly does Little Negative still have to contribute to our community and to our country? License plates?
Interviewed by Matt Lauer yesterday, Barack Obama talked about the alleged difficulties of shutting Guantanamo: “No, because we’ve got a couple of hundred of hardcore militants that, unfortunately, because of some problems that we had previously in gathering evidence, we may not be able to try in ordinary courts –- but we don’t want to release.” Sigh. So he’s giving us the same “worst of the worst” line we used to hear from Cheney, as if the “problems in gathering evidence” might not suggest that some of the people the Bushies swept up are not actually guilty of anything.
By the way, Pentagon, how about an update on how many of the Gitmo prisoners are still on hunger strike? The number was up to 45+ on inauguration day.
On “Obama’s War,” Afghanistan, he decided to lower expectations: “We are not going to be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy.” Although women will be kept as slaves and fucked by their owners.
So what are his goals for Afghanistan? Just these two: “make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for al Qaeda.... make sure that it is not destabilizing neighboring Pakistan”. So totally worth it.
Today, Barack Obama spoke about the economic stimulus plan: “We expect that even as the reinvestment and recovery package moves forward -- as I said, that’s only one leg of the stool, and that these other legs of the stool will be rolled out systematically in the coming weeks”. I don’t think I’d care to sit on this stool, with its systematically rolling legs.
SHOVEL-READY: “The American people understand that we’ve got a big hole that we’ve got to dig ourselves out of -- but they don’t like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they’re being asked to fill it up.” So this is the future of the American economy: putting endless numbers of legs on stools and digging and then filling in increasingly large holes. Obamanomics!
He also complained about the “shameful” bonuses executives in firms being bailed out have awarded themselves. “And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility.” Because it’s really quite surprising that the “folks” on Wall Street haven’t displayed their customary restraint, discipline and sense of responsibility.
If you haven’t seen it yet, the jailbreak of the century (Update: original video removed by YouTube. Let's see how long this one lasts):
Ehud Olmert says that the Gaza border crossings will only be opened when captured soldier Gilad Shalit is released. Because if there’s one thing Olmert can’t stand, it’s hostage-taking.
If you spend a good proportion of a movie naked, as I understand Kate Winslet does in “The Reader” (some critics were worried that the Holocaust theme would distract people from Winslet’s nakedness), doesn’t winning something called a SAG award sound less than complimentary?
Obama gave an interview to Al-Arabiya, reaching out to the Muslim world. “My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy.”
PARAMOUNT: For example, he reached out to the Muslim world by saying that “Israel’s security is paramount,” i.e., more important than any consideration involving the Palestinians, and that nothing Israel can do will affect American support for it: “Israel is a strong ally of the United States. They will not stop being a strong ally of the United States.”
Asked whether Israeli settlement-building wasn’t dooming the prospect of a two-state solution, he gave a long answer that failed to address the settlement issue in any way, although he did say that “I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state -- I’m not going to put a time frame on it -- that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life.” Phew, at least he didn’t put a time frame on it.
I WONDER WHO HE HAS IN MIND? “Sending George Mitchell to the Middle East is fulfilling my campaign promise that we’re not going to wait until the end of my administration to deal with Palestinian and Israeli peace”.
THEY SPEAK HIGHLY OF YOU TOO: “Now, the Iranian people are a great people, and Persian civilization is a great civilization.”
(Update: The Whitehouse website blog post which mentions this interview does not have either the complete transcript or a link to one. So far, I’m really, really not impressed with the Obamaite whitehouse.gov.)
Barack Obama has fucked with my blog, and I don’t appreciate it. The redesign of the White House website has broken every single link to the site that I (and, less significantly, everyone else) made during the Bush years. That’s thousands and thousands of dead links, with no help from the Obama whitehouse.gov in finding the archived versions. For the record, the way to find the archived versions is to replace whitehouse.gov in the URL with georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov
Obama’s “pragmatism” is beginning to worry me a bit, coming as it often does accompanied by a swipe at people who refuse to compromise their principles. For example, the statement he made announcing his very welcome revoking of the Reagan-Bush-Bush global gag rule kept talking about the need to end the “politicization” of family planning and abortion, as if these were not inherently political issues. “For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us. I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.” We’re sorry if you find the issue of women’s rights to control their own fertility boring and tedious and fruitless, Barack, really we are. And it is perfectly okay to be “divided” on issues on which we do not agree. I’m happy to find common ground where it exists, but I won’t fetishize the search for it.
Silvio Berlusconi, planning to deploy the military on Italian streets to deal with crime, warns that it won’t be sufficient to stop rape (there have been several high-profile rape cases recently) because “We would need so many soldiers because our women are so beautiful.” Then he reacted to the uproar over his appalling remark by saying that he meant it as a compliment and “People should have a sense of good humor.”
Ana Marie Cox response to that line in the inaugural speech: “he could take my childish things after he pried them from my cold, dead hands.”
A couple of weeks ago, Obama said, “The loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern to me and after January 20, I’m going to have plenty to say about the issue.” And today in a speech at the State Dept, we got that plenty. He said, “we will always support Israel's right to defend itself against legitimate threats.” As opposed to the illegitimate threats, presumably. He went on, “For years, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at innocent Israeli citizens. No democracy can tolerate such danger to its people”. “I was deeply concerned by the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent days and by the substantial suffering and humanitarian needs in Gaza.” So the loss of Israeli life is attributed to Hamas rockets, the loss of Palestinian life and the substantial suffering etc is attributed to... well, I guess he forgot to attribute it to anyone. Funny, that. Giant meteorite? Volcano eruption? Giant robot invaders from Alpha Centauri?
Elsewhere in the speech, he used the phrase we’d been told was no longer operative, “the war on terror.”
In his inaugural speech, Obama said that it is time to put away childish things. In Crawford.
George didn’t have the grace to keep his mouth shut today, giving a speech at a “welcome home” rally in Texas. He declared that he’s “coming home with my head held high and a sense of accomplishment.” One of the things he said he’s accomplished: “we liberated 50 million people from the clutches of terrorism.” That’s the combined populations of Afghanistan and Iraq, who were in the clutches of unpleasant regimes, not of terrorism.
One interesting factoid: he’s the only person ever to leave the presidency with both his parents still living.
Obama’s speech wasn’t hugely interesting (not a single “in other words” and he didn’t remind us of anything!), although he did both quote a Depression-era Astaire-Rogers musical (“we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off...”) (I can’t have been the only one watching the speech who sang the next few lines) and use the phrase “bitter swill of civil war and segregation”.
“With old friends and former foes, we’ll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense.” Because our way of life has nothing at all to do with the nuclear threat or the specter of a warming planet.
Also, it’s not a specter. The planet is actually warming.
But enough of criticism, for on this day, we are united; on this day, we are all secret Muslims.
Will people stop dying already? First Patrick McGoohan, now John Mortimer, Claude Berri and KHAAANNNN!
John Oliver on The Bugle: Bush apologizing for the “Mission Accomplished” banner is like apologizing for spelling someone’s name wrong on a birthday cake you made them out of shit.
Kallyfawnia Governor Schwarzenegger gave the State of the State address yesterday, talking only about the need for a budget deal.
He had an explanation for the failure thus far, and it wasn’t the ridiculous requirement that budgets must be passed by a 2/3 vote of the Legislature. He explained with the aid of a helpful metaphor: “for too long we have been split by ideology. Conan’s sword could not have cleaved our political system in two as cleanly as our own political parties have done.”
The multi-millionaire had a solution to the problem of late budgets: whenever the deadline is missed, the legislators and the governor forfeit their pay and expenses. “I mean, you have to admit this is a brilliant idea, and look at the happy faces I see now. I love that.” He added that he realized that legislators whose only income came from their salaries could be coerced by wealthy politicians, so he offered to give up all his royalties, merchandising and investment income as well.
No, of course he didn’t.
But you have to appreciate how he’s modeling his idea for persuading the Legislature to accede to his will on the methods he used to sexually harass economically vulnerable women. Who says Hollywood isn’t like the real world?
For the last time tonight, a man with nothing to say addressed a nation that doesn’t care what he has to say and a posterity that won’t be looking to his words for inspiration. So it wasn’t Washington’s farewell speech, is what I’m saying.
It was primarily about justifying the past (i.e., praising himself) rather than looking forward to the future, and as such you’ve heard most of it before. He got to his first mention of 9/11 with unseemly speed. He seems to have said that the reason there hasn’t been another terrorist attack is because we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
He didn’t use his old messianic language of generational ideological crusades, and he didn’t bring up The War Against Terror (TWAT), which already seems like a quaint concept of a bygone era, but he did continue to push the view that the US is a benevolent spreader of liberty throughout the world. Evidently, “If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be lead.” He has such a truly impoverished concept of freedom.
He compared “two dramatically different systems.” In one a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology (for those keeping track at home, that’s the other side), while the other is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God. He gave no options for a system not centered on a belief in God and an attribution of ideological preferences to Him. I’ll leave it to someone else to count up the total number of religious references in this speech.
Dick Cheney gave more interviews in his Legacy of Shooting Things in the Face Tour, with doughy wingers Sean Hannity on Monday and Bill Bennett and Fox on Tuesday and McNeil-Lehrer today.
He said that he plans to write a book because “I’ve got a lot of stories to tell, and a few scores to settle.” Charming. He added, “I’m going out with a good heart.” He did not say who it used to belong to.
He scolded members of Congress who were briefed on warrantless wiretapping but who refuse to defend it in public, accepting (“Exactly”) Bennett’s characterization of their stance as “political cowardice.” It’s interesting that George Bush’s pseudo-Wilsonian idealism and Cheney’s Machiavelli-with-extra-douchebaggery pragmatism lead them to an identical denial of the validity of any position than their own. Cheney says that the Obamaites need to “overcome their campaign rhetoric,” and “be objective” about torture and surveillance and the Patriotic Act: “if they’re fair-minded about it, they’ll recognize that it’s important to continue those policies.”
Were the deaths of 4,500 Americans, 100,000+ Iraqis worth it? Yup, totally.
Jim Lehrer asked some basic political theory questions, like, should a government in a democracy implement policies the people disapprove of? Cheney: “That’s what elections are for”. Ah yes, the “accountability moment” theory, otherwise known as elective dictatorship.
Anyway, he says, he doesn’t “buy” that the Bush admin is so unpopular. “I find, when I get out and talk to people, that that’s not the unanimous view as you would have -- the things that count for me in terms of the people I want to make certain are with us are, for example, the American military -- the young men and women who serve, the folks who go out and put their lives on the line to carry out the policies we’ve decided upon.” You’re not unpopular if the people with guns are behind you.
Shame on Cheney for attempting to attribute political opinions to the United States military.
He also denies being highly partisan. After all, “Joe Lieberman is my favorite Democrat.” So that settles that.
IN OTHER WORDS: “I have talked to the President-elect about this subject. And I told him that if he felt that he needed the $350 billion, I would be willing to ask for it. In other words, if he felt it needed to happen on my watch.”
He talked about the lunch he and Obama had with the ex-presidents, and highlighted a, to him, surprising point of commonality: “And one common area, at least the four of us, we all had different circumstances and experiences, but one thing is we’ve all experienced what it means to assume the responsibility of the presidency.”
On peace in the Middle East: “And I know we have advanced the process.” So that’s okay, then.
PASSING ON HIS INHERITANCE INTACT: “In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession.”
THE BUCK STOPS. “When people analyze the situation, there will be -- this problem started before my presidency, it obviously took place during my presidency. The question facing a president is not when the problem started, but what did you do about it when you recognized the problem.” Also possibly significant: how long did it take you to recognize the problem. And you’re saying it took you at least eight years to do so.
WELL AT LEAST HE PREVENTED THERE TO BE A CRISIS: “You know, one of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis”.
Why do people really really hate you? “You know, most people I see, you know, when I’m moving around the country, for example, they’re not angry. And they’re not hostile people. ... I’ve met a lot of people who don’t agree with the decisions I make. But they have been civil in their discourse. And so, I view those who get angry and yell and say bad things and, you know, all that kind of stuff, it’s just a very few people in the country. I don’t know why they get angry. I don’t know why they get hostile.” Yeah, it’s a mystery all right.
Asked if there were any mistakes he wanted to acknowledge now, he mentioned the “Mission Accomplished” banner. “We were trying to say something differently, but nevertheless, it conveyed a different message.”
He thoughtfully added that he has pondered whether he might have made any mistakes over Katrina. But he didn’t. “I’ve thought long and hard about Katrina -- you know, could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. The problem with that and -- is that law enforcement would have been pulled away from the mission.”
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY TO THE CHOPPER DRIVERS?: In fact, people should really stop bitching about Katrina already: “But when I hear people say, the federal response was slow, then what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?”
IN OTHER WORDS: Another possible mistake: pushing his failed Social Security ideas rather than his failed immigration ideas after the 2004 elections. “And the reason why is, is that -- you know, one of the lessons I learned as governor of Texas, by the way, is legislative branches tend to be risk-adverse. In other words, sometimes legislatures have the tendency to ask, why should I take on a hard task when a crisis is not imminent?”
MISTAKES, DISAPPOINTMENTS, OR JUST WACKY HAPPENSTANCES, YOU BE THE JUDGE: “There have been disappointments. Abu Ghraib obviously was a huge disappointment during the presidency. Not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment. I don’t know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but they were -- things didn’t go according to plan, let’s put it that way.”
But he doesn’t think that torture and Gitmo have hurt America’s reputation, except among the elite, and you know how picky those people are: “I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged. It may be damaged amongst some of the elite, but people still understand America stands for freedom, that America is a country that provides such great hope. You go to Africa, you ask Africans about America’s generosity and compassion; go to India, and ask about, you know, America’s -- their view of America. Go to China and ask. Now, no question parts of Europe have said that we shouldn’t have gone to war in Iraq without a mandate, but those are a few countries. ... In certain quarters in Europe, you can be popular by blaming every Middle Eastern problem on Israel. Or you can be popular by joining the International Criminal Court. I guess I could have been popular by accepting Kyoto ... And in terms of the decisions that I had made to protect the homeland, I wouldn’t worry about popularity. What I would worry about is...” wait for it... “the Constitution of the United States”.
A LOT OF EMOTION: “Even in the darkest moments of Iraq, you know, there was -- and every day when I was reading the reports about soldiers losing their lives, no question there was a lot of emotion, but also there was times where we could be light-hearted and support each other.” Like when they watched Rumsfeld’s blooper reels of soldiers losing their lives, with the funny sound effects.
THE GEORGE W. BUSH CENTER FOR REMINDERING: “And that might be a good thing for the Bush center to do at SMU, is to remind people about the benefits of free and fair trade”.
HE’S THE REMINDEDERER: “And when you get a national security briefing, it is a reminder of the responsibilities of the job. It’s just a daily reminder about what may or may not happen.”
PEDALING TO FORGET: “And there’s not a moment where you don’t think about being president -- unless you’re riding mountain bikes as hard as you possibly can, trying to forget for the moment.”
After leaving office, he intends to stay out of the spotlight, unless of course he has something really important to talk about: “And so I wake up in Crawford Tuesday morning -- I mean, Wednesday morning, and I suspect I’ll make Laura coffee and go get it for her. And it’s going to be a different feeling. And I can’t -- it’s kind of like -- I’ll report back after I feel it.” You do that.
An email from RNC chair Mike Duncan to my last cat asks her to sign an electronic thank you card to George Bush, who, after all, “restored honor and integrity to the White House and protected America from another terrorist attack.” A cash gift to the Republican Party would also be nice. The subject line of the email: “Grateful Gratitude to our President.” As opposed to ungrateful gratitude, which would just be ungrateful.
Bush gave an interview to several Texas news organizations as part of his Legacy Tour, Texas-style. He began by calling one of the interviewers ugly.
WHAT HE HAS A GREAT SENSE OF: “I have a great sense of accomplishment and I am going home with my head held high.” Is it wrong of me that I immediately pictured his head being held high on a pike?
JUST LIKE THE ROCKING CHAIR INCIDENT: “Many friends have said, why didn’t you just let them [financial institutions] fail? And the answer was because letting them fail could have caused the average cat a lot of pain and agony.”
WHAT HE’LL MISS: “And I’ll miss ‘Frenchy’ L’Heureux, the colonel with whom I ride my mountain bike.” That probably only sounds like some sort of kinky gay sex thing, right?
Did he ever ask McCain about the sure-fire plan to capture Osama he claimed to have during the election campaign? No. “[B]ut we have - we’re on the hunt and have been on the hunt ever since September the 11th, 2001.” Of course if you’d started a little earlier...
He reiterated his enthusiasm for nuclear power: “but there’s a lot of resistance because there’s still a generation of people concerned about the engineering and the safety of nuclear power plants.” Evidently concern about the engineering and safety of nuclear power plants is purely a generational one and will go away when all the hippies die out.
EVERY SO OFTEN, EVEN GEORGE BUSH SAYS SOMETHING WE CAN ALL AGREE WITH: “And the less I’m on TV the better.”
Today Bush gave what he called “my last policy speech” (yay) at the General Philip Kearny School in Philadelphia, on the subject of No Child Left Behind. Naturally, he wants it to be continued in its current form. He said nothing about maintaining school funding, under threat by budget cuts all across the country (California’s robot governor just announced plans to cut funding by five school days a year. Rich districts will be able to keep their schools open those days, poor ones will not.)
WHAT BUDDY MEANS: “I’m proud to be here with my buddy. I guess it’s okay to call the Secretary of Education here ‘buddy.’ That means friend.”
THE EASIEST CHILDREN FOR WHO TO FORGET ABOUT, GEORGE? “It’s unacceptable to our country that vulnerable children slip through the cracks. And by the way, guess who generally those children are? They happen to be inner-city kids, or children whose parents don’t speak English as a first language. They’re the easiest children to forget about.”
IN OTHER WORDS: “When schools fall short of standards year after year, something has to happen. In other words, there has to be a consequence in order for there to be effective reforms.”
WHAT ACHIEVEMENT GAP IS: “Achievement gap is -- it means this: White students are reading here, and African American students are reading here, and Latino students are reading down here. And that is unacceptable for the United States of America.”
IN OTHER WORDS: “In the classroom, students are learning from highly qualified teachers. In other words, that’s part of the reforms of encouraged -- the focus on highly qualified teachers.”
IN OTHER WORDS: “There’s a new Teacher Incentive Fund in place, as a result of No Child Left Behind reforms, and a city like Philadelphia are rewarding educators for taking jobs in this city’s toughest classrooms, and those who are achieving results. In other words, there’s an incentive to make sure good teachers get in the classrooms all throughout the city.”
Damn, when they said the president was coming, I thought they meant Obama. I got totally screwed.
Sorry about the radio silence. Last week I went to a pot-luck party. I brought apple cider, someone else brought influenza virus...
Finally today, Obama had something to say about Gaza, evidently flushed out by the bombing of a UN school, with dozens of children killed: “The loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern to me and after January 20, I’m going to have plenty to say about the issue.” Well, by then there’ll be a lot more loss of civilian life in Gaza, if not in Israel, for you to say plenty about.
Meanwhile, Bush spokesmodel Dana Peroxide warned us not to jump to conclusions about the school-bombing. You know, conclusions like, it’s a bad thing to bomb a school.
Bush gave this sophisticated analysis of Gaza yesterday: “Instead of caring about the people of Gaza, Hamas decided to use Gaza to launch rockets to kill innocent Israelis.”
“I know people are saying let’s have that cease-fire, and those are noble ambitions. But any cease-fire must have the conditions in it so that Hamas does not use Gaza as a place from which to launch rockets.” No one ever accused Bush of having noble ambitions.
This morning, Dick Cheney continued the Legacy of So What tour with an interview on Face the Nation.
He said that Israel did not ask for permission before attacking Gaza. And he told us that “it’s important to remember who the enemy is here. The enemy is not the Palestinians, from the perspective of the Israelis; it’s Hamas.” So that’s okay, then.
Like other Bushies, he is against a ceasefire in Gaza unless it’s “sustainable” and permanent.
He says that Iraq is better off today than it was before the invasion.
He says of George Bush, “Now you look back on it, he clearly was into self-deception in a major way.” Oh, all right, he said it about Saddam Hussein.
Did we invade Iraq with too few troops? “Well, we could debate that forever, and we may well.” Then he said that more troops probably wouldn’t have helped, but that it was the surge that accomplished all our goals. Huh?
He still claims that congressional leadership approved of warrantless wiretaps and that the letter Jay Rockefeller wrote disapproving of them “was a bit of a CYA letter”.
Asked the Frost/Nixon question again, this time he says, “I can’t say that anything he does is legal.” But he can suggest that it’s irrelevant whether it’s legal or not: he again justified the Bush admin actions by bringing up Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus. When Bob Schieffer pointed out that nobody thinks that was actually, you know, legal, Cheney responded, “Well, no. Well, it certainly was, in the sense he wasn’t impeached.” So it’s not that anything the president does is legal, it’s that anything he isn’t impeached for is legal. Also, “history” says that suspending habeas was a good thing.
He also again compared Bush admin actions to the internment of Japanese-Americans by FDR. It’s hard to know why he thinks that’s a winning argument. He even admits that “Most people now look back and say that was wrong.” Schieffer didn’t think to ask if Cheney thinks that was wrong, and I’d really be interested in the answer to that one.
But here is evidently Cheney’s point in bringing up the internment: “But what we did was modest by those comparisons.” Yes, and you didn’t kill the first born in Afghanistan or bring every Iraqi to America in chains to sell them into slavery. What’s your point?
Obama continues his famous “message discipline” on the subject of Gaza, by not saying a fucking word. Remember, when he attempts to adopt a position of moral superiority in order to lecture, say, China or Zimbabwe about human rights, that his silence at this time demonstrates clearly that his adherence to humanitarianism, like that of Bush and every other president, is purely instrumental.
George Bush, however, has finally made a statement of his own, in the form of tomorrow’s weekly radio address.
He got right to the most important issue in analyzing any event in the Middle East: who started it. “This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas”. They did so with “a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis.” He didn’t get around to mentioning the rather more numerous Israeli rockets or whom they might be targeting. (Also, what mortars?)
He did say that “Regrettably, Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent days.” Somehow, it’s always the passive voice when Palestinians “have been killed,” isn’t it? He put the blame for these deaths on “Hamas terrorists” who, “as part of their strategy” (8 years as commander in chief and he still doesn’t know the difference between strategy and tactics), “often hide within the civilian population, which puts innocent Palestinians at risk.” Some of them were “hiding” within their own homes, the sneaky so and sos.
He claims that “The United States is deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation facing the Palestinian people,” which seems a dubious proposition, and mentions the decline of Gazan living standards, without mentioning the Israeli blockade. Rather, “By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people.” Imagine, if you can, what it would be like to have a government that prioritized rocket launchers over roads and schools.
Bush does offer words of reassurance, words that have never failed to be followed by swift action and positive results: “Secretary Rice is actively engaged in diplomacy.”
Tzipi Livni, rejecting a proposal for a truce to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza: “There is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce.” So that’s okay then.
