“I have never told a lie,” Tony Blair lies

Michael Howard has been on the attack against Blair’s character, which rather awkwardly requires him to say simultaneously that Blair lied about the case for war in Iraq but that he, Howard, supports the war anyway. Here’s the new Tory poster:



Subtle, huh?

Blair responds, “I have never told a lie. No. I don’t intend to go telling lies to people. I did not lie over Iraq.” So that settles that.

I have too many remote controls, with too many buttons. But I don’t think any of them do this:

The BBC this summer will try to persuade viewers to donate a kidney by pressing the red interactive button on their remote controls.

Iraq’s National Security Adviser shows the savvy that won him that position by announcing of the assassination of MP Lameah Abed Khadouri al-Sakri, “We believe it is politically motivated.”

The House voted to make it illegal for anyone to transport a minor across state lines to have an abortion. You’ve probably heard about R’s rewriting the official description of D amendments to exempt grandparents, siblings (or innocent participants like bus drivers) etc from the law to make it look like D’s were trying to protect “sexual predators.” But some of the purpose of this bill is lost in the focus on abortion rights rather than abortion availability. The AP story, for example, describes this bill as intended to “make it illegal to dodge [!] parental-consent laws”. Actually, with fewer and fewer counties in which abortion services are available, and more women farther from abortion providers than before, for many of them this bill would cut off the use of the nearest provider.

Speaking of the culture of life, Florida’s Department of Children & Families decided to make a child have a family, getting a court order to block a 13-year old in a shelter from getting an abortion.

Their capacity is still pretty much what it is

The Putin Youth movement, the Nashis, of whom I have written before, will start drawing up lists of people they consider to be “fascists” and their liberal sympathisizers. It must nearly be time for a purge of the kulaks again. Doesn’t look good.

Here, it was all about numbers yesterday. Gen. Richard Myers (at the press conference I mentioned in my last post, before I had the full transcript) had to admit that the number of attacks in Iraq was about the same as a year ago, adding about the insurgents, “I think their capacity is still pretty much what it is,” which may be the only thing Myers said that I can’t disagree with, but then inexplicably said, “Almost any indicator you look at, the trends are up. So we’re definitely winning.”

Rumsfeld, who tried to intervene to stop reporters nailing Myers down on whether “their capacity is still pretty much what it is” means that we’ve made no progress at all against them in one year, clarified:

what you have is a relatively small number of people who have weapons and who have money and who are determined to try to prevent democracy from going forward. And it does not take a genius to go out and kill innocent men, women and children. That’s a perfectly doable thing in a society.

And “the Zarqawi thing, numerically, is relatively small. It just happens to be the most lethal element.”

Also, it doesn’t necessarily matter if one or more rises to replace every insurgent we kill or capture: “You can have – the insurgency could be actually increasing and our capability to deal with it increasing, in which case the level stays about the same.” So that’s ok, then.

Honestly, I’d make fun of these comments, but it would be so redundant, gilding the lily as it were.

Also, and this should get more critical attention than it will, Rumsfeld insists that Zarqawi is now in Al Qaida. His proof? Well, he says, they are “connected in a variety of different ways.” Asked if he means they are in communication, he sez, “Well, maybe other things. Maybe people. Maybe money. Maybe communications. Maybe an oath of allegiance. Who knows?” Well, I’m convinced. Actually, his ideas of what constitute evidence and logical argument show less engagement with the real world every day. Watch the slippage, answering a question about where Zarqawi’s resources and recruits are coming from, from supposition to absolute conviction:

I’m going to speculate here that a non-trivial portion of his finances and his recruits come from outside the country. And they undoubtedly come through Syria, and they come through Iran, probably, and through other countries

See how that happened? Just by having a thought, he convinced himself that it was true. If he can think it, it must be so.

Rummy, of course, agrees with Myers that we’re winning: “And the more [our folks] scoop them up and the more they visit with them, the more they learn. And the more they learn, they more -- go out and scoop up others.” Visit with them? Has there ever been a blander euphemism for torture?

Meanwhile, the State Department has decided not to release figures showing the number of terrorist attacks in 2004 was way up over 2003. Here’s my favorite part: State’s acting counterterrorism chief, one Karen Aguilar, explained, according to the WaPo, “that the statistics are not relevant to the required report on trends in global terrorism.” In another humorous, “Yes, Minister” touch, Aguilar said that the National Counterterrorism Center would release the figures, but that if it didn’t (and it won’t), State wouldn’t release them either.

Also, less entertainingly and more shamefully, State is low-balling figures on deaths in Sudan.

To conclude this post, the Bushies are doing great damage to political discourse by their cavalier attitude towards facts and evidence, by their belief that they generate reality through their rhetoric, that if they say something often enough it becomes true. They weren’t kidding about deriding the “reality-based community.”

But will a piece of paper protect them from being terrorized by solar panels or the Bee Gees?

Greenpeace members climbed on to the roof of British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, and, in a protest action that Prescott claimed “terrorized” his wife, installed solar panels.

From the Daily Telegraph: “Australians expressed their outrage yesterday at the playing of the Bee Gees song Stayin’ Alive at this week’s anniversary of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign.”

The Syrian occupation troops are out of Lebanon (as are some of Syria’s puppets, like the head of Lebanese military intelligence). According to Robert Fisk, “They even took their statues with them.” You’d think that would have been a bigger news story today.

Secretary of War Rumsfeld says Iraq will be won by “giving the Iraqi people a sense... that they’re going to be protected by a piece of paper called a constitution, for the first time in their lives; and that that paper will protect them”.

That sound you hear is 25 million Iraqis guffawing.

And in yet another of Rummy’s patented pot-calling-the-kettle-black moments, he adds, “The Iraqis will prevail in the insurgency also because over time, it will become clearer and clearer that the insurgents have no plan; they have nothing other than killing people.” Like his boss, Rummy is not over-endowed with self-awareness.

It’s not a shooting war, but it is a war

Janice Rogers Brown, one of the Bush judicial nominees there’s been all the fussin’ and the feudin’ about (my cat just received an email from RNC chair Ken Mehlman about Brown’s general wonderfulness, which mistakenly called her the first African-American on the California Supreme Court, an honor belonging to Jerry Brown appointee Wiley W. Manuel [1977-81]), told a group of Catholic lawyers that “There seems to have been no time since the Civil War that this country was so bitterly divided. It’s not a shooting war, but it is a war.” Wait, it’s not a shooting war? But I was nearly finished sewing my 101st Fighting Secular Humanists uniform (the epaulets are the tricky part).

Evidently considering “bitterly divided” to be a good thing, Brown then enlisted on the side of “people of faith” against the secular humanists and says that, without God, “Freedom... becomes willfulness.” In other words, freedom is only a good thing for Christians. If she winds up on the circuit court after this little performance, something will be seriously wrong with this country.

It’s funny Bush insisting that it’s not good enough that only 95% of his nominees are confirmed. Most of his life, he considered a “gentleman’s C” to be a sufficient rate of success. Now all of a sudden his standards go up.

The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century

The US military has completely exonerated the soldiers who shot at the car of Italian journalist/hostage Giuliana Sgrena, killing the secret service agent. The army says that they were only acting according to the procedures for checkpoints, which evidently involve shooting anything that moves several hundred times. Anyway, this report was conveniently released (but not to the public yet) while Berlusconi was busy putting together a new government.

The last nail in John Bolton’s coffin: last summer the British foreign secretary complained to Colin Powell that Bolton was sabotaging European negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. And Newsweek says that two years ago Britain demanded that Bolton be kept off the team negotiating with Libya over its nuclear program. In both cases (and North Korea) Bolton preferred regime change to nuclear non-proliferation, which was supposed to be his job. Actually, the person I really blame is Colin Powell, who let Cheney & the neo-Cons foist this turd on him, and didn’t insist that he be fired when he proved so wholly incapable of doing his job.

On the front page of the NYT this morning was this headline: “Rice and Cheney Are Said to Push Iraqi Politicians on Stalemate.” Rice and Cheney, not exactly the poster children for compromise themselves, are they? The interesting question is who leaked this and why. If a deal is suddenly made tomorrow, it will look like it was done in response to American pressure, which will just undercut the legitimacy of the government. So now they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. If it was leaked from the American side, possibly the idea was to show that the US still calls the shots, given that any deal will probably leave former American golden boy Iyad Allawi out in the cold.

Putin today called the collapse of the Soviet Union a catastrophe, but doesn’t say what should have been done to keep it together. Possibly the sorts of things he does in Chechnya to keep it within what remains of the Russian Empire.

Cardboard Marines

The NYT reports that severe equipment and manpower shortages continue to plague the US military in Iraq and that a Marine unit “resorted to making dummy marines from cardboard cutouts and camouflage shirts to place in observation posts on the highway when it ran out of men.” Well, as Secretary of War Rummy Rumsfeld would say, you go with the cardboard army you have, not with the cardboard army you’d like.

No, seriously, I’m sure Rummy is working to protect our troops night and day.

The first rule of Safari Club is, do not talk about Safari Club

The Navajo Tribal Council voted unanimously to ban same-sex marriage (as the Cherokee did last year). One delegate abstained, asking the question I think we’re all asking, “Is there now today a long line of Navajos who want same-sex unions?” On the other side, the amusingly named Lorenzo Curley said that they were sending a message to young Navajoovians to “Hold fast to your society, your roots...”

You’re all way ahead of me, aren’t you?

Al Kamen notes that the Humane Society doesn’t appreciate Interior Secretary Gail Norton choosing Matthew Hogan, lobbyist for something called Safari Club International, as acting director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The head of Safari Club International, which I’d never heard of but which I hate already, calls the Humane Society “animal extremists.” Safari Club International’s approach to fish and wildlife involves hunting and eating it.

Yes, this will be on the final

The Japanese foreign minister has hit back against China, saying that Chinese high school history textbooks are even more biased than Japanese high school history textbooks. Suddenly, the casus belli of the War of Jenkin’s Ear seems like the height of reasonableness. Guys, a little perspective: everyone’s high school history texts suck.

More deep thoughts on historiography, from one Adolf Hitler: “After all, who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?”

The US has pressured the UN Commission on Human Rights into firing its investigator in Afghanistan after he reported that the US military holds Afghans in secret prisons without trial, just in case you didn’t know that already.

I didn’t see the “Justice Sunday” telecast, but I have read Bill “Kitty Killer” Frist’s speech, which is clearly toned down from the speech he originally planned to give when he agreed to join the event, before all the backlash. Suddenly, the issue isn’t that D’s are opposing judicial nominees because they’re good Christians, the issue is good manners. They deserve “the courtesy and respect of a vote.” And, he adds, in the biggest climbdown, “the balance of power among all three branches requires respect – not retaliation.” He does not, however, climb down from the threat of “what opponents call the ‘nuclear option,’” so there’s room enough for three branches of government (for now) but not for more than one party.

(Update: Athenae at First Draft live-blogged Justice Sunday, and has a good time with it. I hope to see a transcript at some point, because while Frist dialed it back, no one else did, and when Frist runs for president, it would be helpful to be able to do the guilt-by-association thing to him.)

Genocide, quote-unquote

The LA Times has the ultimate man-bites-dog headline: “Afghan Says He Wasn’t Tortured at Guantanamo.” Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Still, I’m not sure it’s not something I would be pointing out, if I were him. They did question him for three years, but had only one question: “Do you know Osama?” We really must have the least sophisticated interrogators in the world. The not-very-thorough AP story (which, for example, mentions that he was arrested along with his brother but doesn’t say what became of the brother) says that he was released in Afghanistan. As with a lot of these guys, he was dumped in a country other than the one he was arrested/captured in. A few days ago, someone who had been taken in Bulgaria was deposited on a mountain road in Albania. We’re like the world’s worst travel agent.

When I wrote the last post, about unacknowledged past bad behaviour, I can’t believe I forgot to mention the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which is today; I had even spotted a quote in the NYT I meant to use: a rep from the Turkish embassy in the US said, “We don’t see what happened as genocide, quote-unquote.” Quote unquote, indeed.

Hurt feelings, and other atrocities

By the luck of the draw, every item in this post is about the success or failure of a nation or institution to acknowledge and correct problems in its past behaviour.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered Japan to go to its room and “seriously reflect” on what it did in the 1930s and ‘40s. Also, in the future it “should never do anything again that would hurt the feelings of the Chinese people or the people of other Asian countries”. You mean the Nanking Massacre hurt your feelings, Mr. Sensitive?

There’s a steaming turd at the top of the Friday Afternoon Info Dump: the Army, in a no-holds-barred investigation of...itself, has cleared all its high-ranking officers, including Ricardo Sanchez, of any responsibility for Abu Ghraib torture.

Neither the Post nor the AP story the NYT runs use the word torture.

As of next year, Romanian men won’t be allowed to marry unless they take a three-day anti-wife-beating course.

The Observer (London) has a memo issued by Pope Benny in 2001 ordering bishops to keep abuse evidence secret, or to put it another way, to obstruct justice. Asked for a comment, the Vatican press office says, without a hint of irony or shame, “This is not a public document, so we would not talk about it.”

Which is more awkward? Bush celebrating Earth Day, or Passover?

GeeDubya celebrated Earth Day, saying he likes the Earth because “that’s where I keep my stuff.” He added that he wants to pass the Earth on to his children; Jenna wants to make it into a bong.

He was supposed to hold his photo op in a national park, but it was raining, and he can barely tolerate nature when it’s dry (also, he has a Wicked Witch of the West-type problem), so instead he celebrated Earth Day in a Tennessee Air National Guard base, because when you think conservation and environmentalism, you think Tennessee Air National Guard. Naturally, he took energy-efficient public transportation.

Iniquitous

Follow-up: The Vatican responds to Spain’s homosexual marriage bill by calling it “iniquitous.” You say iniquitous, I say Inquisition, let’s call the whole thing off. The word iniquitous means “not equal or just,” and this bill is about nothing if not equality and justice, so I can’t imagine what the guys in the funny hats are on about. The cardinal who is the head of the Pontifical Council on the Family (which I’m gonna make a guess has no women on it and not a lot of married men) said that Spanish Catholics in government should refuse to implement the law, even if they lose their jobs: “A law as profoundly iniquitous as this one is not an obligation, it cannot be an obligation. One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is law.” Four words: Pope Benny, Hitler Youth.

Nobody expects the Spanish... gay marriage

WaPo headline: “State of Hibernation Is Induced in Mice.” Subhead: “Process Would Have Many Medical Uses.” Really, it’s not like we spend our whole working day trying to get mice to sleep for our own amusement you know, say scientists. Although they do look so darling when they’re asleep, and we do dress them up in little costumes.

As a little house-warming gift to Pope Benny, former head of the (Spanish) Inquisition, a bill legalizing gay marriage passed the Spanish National Assembly’s lower or, ahem, “bottom” house, and is expected to pass easily in its Senate, or “top,” house.

Yeah, the bottom/top thing was a little belabored.

John Bolton’s nomination seems to be going down in flames. One thing about him: given his past record of distorting intel on Cuba, he’d have little credibility when trying to use the UN as a blunt instrument to beat Cuba about the head and shoulders, which is just about the only thing the Bushies think the UN is good for.

On the other hand, John Negroponte’s past relationship with Contra terrorists and Honduran death squads evidently didn’t disqualify him from the job of True Tsar of All the Intelligence in the eyes of 98 US senators (Tom Harkin and Ron Wyden being the honorable exceptions). Neither the Senate Intelligence Committee, nor any news sources that I’ve seen, interviewed any Central American victims of his past actions to get their opinions on his nomination.

A new “Get Your War On” (click on image or better yet go to the cartoon’s site to avoid eye strain):

Desperate Insurgents

Molly Ivins on John Bolton: “Good news! If there is a distinct possibility a Bush nominee is a vile-tempered, lying, ineffective bully, the U.S. Senate is willing to hold off on the vote for two weeks.”

As I write, I’m watching Tony Blair being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on the BBC, broadcast here on C-SPAN. The first question is whether Blair wants to apologize for anything. If you want to see what tough questioning of a politician looks like, it repeats at 8:30 pm PT and Sunday night 6 & 9.

Waiting for that to come on, I caught some of a briefing by Pentagon spokesmodel Larry DiRita. He explained that “spectacular” Iraqi insurgent attacks were a sign of “desperation,” in much the same way that Teri Hatcher’s breasts on Desperate Housewives are spectacular. OK, he didn’t say that, but it would have made more sense than what he did say.

Also from that briefing, our Jargon Alert of the Week: Iraqi military and governmental types are “Iraqi elements of progress.”

Burma evidently used chemical weapons against the Karen rebels. Now watch the world spring into action. Really, just watch, it’ll spring into action any... minute... now...

From the AP: “Two Norwegians who thought a rowing boat was the perfect getaway vehicle after robbing an ambulance boat were foiled because they could not row. Police who arrested the men near the town of Askvoll said they were rowing in opposite directions.”

A Japanese company is producing a ghost detector. I want one.

Da means nyet

Scotty McClellan on the Bolton nomination (via Gaggle-obsessed Holden): “I think what you’re seeing is some Democrats on the committee trumping up allegations and making unsubstantiated accusations against someone the President believes will do an outstanding job at the United Nations.” Why are tax dollars paying for this man to call elected representatives liars?

And then a bit later he accused the D’s of “lower[ing] the discourse”.

Hugo Chavez is distributing 1 million copies of Don Quixote free to Venezuelans.

In Russia, Condi Rice gave another of her lectures on democracy, saying that Putin should have less control over the media. Her speech was not covered by any of the national tv networks. So that would be a no. (She spoke in a live radio interview.)

Speaking of “no,” although some media keep calling Rice a Russia expert, when she tried speaking Russian during the interview she several times said Da when she meant Nyet (when asked if she would be running for president).

Her mouth says da, da, but her eyes say nyet, nyet.

Oh, and she also called for regime change in Belarus.

The mystery of Madaen (also spelled Madain, I note for Google purposes) continues. 57 bodies (other reports give other figures) were pulled out of the Tigris. President Talabani insisted they were some of those hostages he still claims were taken by Sunnis — in fact, he claimed to know the names of all the victims and all the kidnappers. So the high standards of veracity and, dare I say it, comicality set by Iyad Allawi will remain intact.

Anyway, here’s a sentence about the bodies from the London Times; it contains three verbs — see if you can spot which verb is missing: “Police identified and photographed them before burying them.” That’s right: they seem to have been buried without being autopsied. There isn’t any mention of a proper forensic investigation in any other report I’ve seen either.

Most unnecessary article of the day, from the Times: “Analysis: Why Iraqis Fear Militias.”

Tom DeLay says scrutiny of his ethical shortcomings “certainly has gotten me closer to God.”

Poor God.

Habemus papam

Isn’t it nice to see the papacy return, if not to Italy, at least to another member of the Axis Powers?

I thought about staying away from this pope thing, not being Catholic. I thought I didn’t have a dog in this fight, and then “God’s rottweiler” won. A member of both the Inquisition and the Hitler Youth. And yes, I know he was a youth (14) when he was in the Hitler Youth, but I’m not willing to write it off as a Hitler Youthful indiscretion, not when he’s supposed to be a spiritual leader of a billion people. The fact that membership was compulsory is neither here nor there. The Catholic church has saints who were boiled or stoned or impaled to death for maintaining their beliefs when they were younger than he was when he joined. Is the position of the church now that no one has to behave morally until they reach at least 14? And as far as I know, he’s never apologized. There were no good choices in Nazi Germany, but he followed the easiest path, the path of — dare we say it? — moral relativism.

And he’s done a lot of unpleasant things — a whole lot — in his clerical career as well, but the Hitler Youth thing alone is disqualifying.

BREAKING NEWS: Condoleezza Rice turns against her master, saying that she was worried by “the centralisation of state power in the presidency.”

Oh, sorry, she meant in Russia.

The Tom DeLay Defense: Their Only Agenda Is the Politics of Personal Destruction

Tom DeLay sends out an email to his dwindling, but fanatical, fan base.

It should come as no surprise that following the 2004 election-year attacks on the President

That’s called an election campaign, moron.

that the Democrats, their syndicate of third party organizations (Common Cause, Public Citizen, Move-On, etc.)

Oo, syndicate, that’s a really scary word, Tom. Very Murder Incorporated. Very machine-guns-in-violin-cases.

and the legion of Democrat-friendly press would turn their attention to trying to retake Congress.

Democrat-friendly. You make it sound so... dirty.

It would be quite easy to write an entire book about how Democrats, and many in the press, have chosen to selectively report and strategically ignore many FACTS about me and my work as Congressman for the 22nd District.

Yeah, go write a book, Tom, that should keep you out of mischief. Although watch how many WORDS you CAPITALIZE, it tends to make you look like a NUT.

Tom DeLay does not stand accused of any violation of any law or rule in any forum and has never been found to have violated any law or rule by anyone.

He prefers to remain seated. If he stands up too quickly, his toupee goes all askew.

Democrats and their Outside Front Groups are Colluding to Target DeLay

Very 1950s. I like how “outside front groups” combines McCarthyite rhetoric about front groups with Southern racist rhetoric about outside agitators.

Democrats have made clear that their only agenda is the politics of personal destruction, and the criminalization of politics.

Oh, and universal health care, some of them want universal health care.

They hate Ronald Reagan conservatives like DeLay and they hate that he is an effective leader who succeeds in passing the Republican agenda.

Bringing in the big guns. Really envy Ronnie’s teflon, don’t ya, Tommie boy?

He follows by listing the various ethics complaints he claims to have been exonerated on, although that “exoneration” tends to take convoluted, legalistic forms such as this (about his attempt to bribe Nick Smith into voting for the Medicare drug bill in exchange for DeLay supporting Smith’s run for Congress):

The issues raised by the conduct of the Majority Leader in this matter are novel in that conduct of this nature and the implications of such conduct have never before been addressed or resolved by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. Indeed, the Majority Leader’s testimony indicates that he did not believe he acted improperly under House rules during his encounter with Representative Nick Smith. In addition, the Investigative Subcommittee believes that the relevant facts related to the Majority Leader’s conduct — described in detail in this Report - already have been fully developed. In the view of the Investigative Subcommittee, these factors mitigate against further investigation and proceedings in this matter.

See, wasn’t that a clear exoneration? Or maybe they called him a douchebag, I’m not fluent in gibberish. And if he didn’t believe he was acting improperly, well, ignorance of the law (or the ethics rules) is always a defense, isn’t it? Anyway, having defined exoneration to his own satisfaction, if no one else’s, he moves on to more Dictionary Fun:

An “Admonishment” is Not a Sanction ... The verb “admonished” was used and is now exploited to mean some sort of sanction.

Writing about this in October, I said that admonishment was “from the Latin word admonere, meaning to moderately chide someone with no sense of shame.”

The Democrats refuse to let the [Ethics] Committee meet because they are still trying to politicize the ethics process and block the Committee from doing its work.

How can they politicize a process they’re preventing from occurring?

Next, DeLay again falsely accuses D.A. Ronnie Earle of partisanship.

Texas has only recently become a Republican state, so Earle’s claim that he prosecuted Democrats too is a red herring.

Read that again; try to follow the logic. Warning: don’t read it a third time, as your head will explode.

The trip DeLay to Russia [sic] in 1997 and the United Kingdom in 2000 were proper.

Here I agree wholeheartedly: it’s the fact that he returned to the United States that I object to.


Tom DeLay, and friend

Unimaginative

In Russia today, Condi Rice says, “One can’t imagine reverting back to Soviet times”.

And Condi, 4/8/04: “No one could have imagined them taking a plane, slamming it into the Pentagon”

Recycling racist propaganda for grins and giggles

This picture of an anti-Japanese protest in Hong Kong appeared in today’s NYT:



The poster is adapted from a 1942 American poster. In the original, the words on the arm read “American labor.” In this version, they read People's Republic of China. A little odd to see Chinese using this poster.