Isikoff: Gonzales Gone But Not Forgotten - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com

Isikoff: Gonzales Gone But Not Forgotten - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com: "But the departure won’t stop an aggressive internal Justice probe into last year’s mass firings of U.S. attorneys that many insiders expect to produce, at a minimum, a damning public report about how Gonzales handled the process. The investigation (headed by the department’s respected inspector general, Glenn Fine) has already turned up new documents and e-mails about the purge that have not been made public and that are inconsistent with previous Justice Department statements, according to a key witness who was recently interviewed by the investigators and was shown the material. (The witness asked not to be publicly identified while the probe is ongoing.)"

This one is for JPO... it is good to see another example of cronyism gone badly... Gonzalez, Brown, and Meiers are all demonstrations of unqualified friend-o-crats' performing poorly in the DC Big Leagues. As it turns out, there are real subject matter experts who dedicate their lives to a particular profession and tend to rise to the occasion when duty calls. The Bush administration largely ignored such professionals when making major bureaucratic selections, and the ridiculous Gonzalez scandal is another result. If the Dems are smart, however, they will drop the endless stream of investigations and get back to real policy work. You know, balancing the budget, reducing federal entitlements, deregulating health care, and preventing diversions of transportation and social security funds are among a few topics needing attention.

The Warrantless Debate Over Wiretapping - New York Times

The Warrantless Debate Over Wiretapping - New York Times: "For this purpose, warrants are utterly beside the point. As Judge Richard Posner has put it, “once you grant the legitimacy of surveillance aimed at detection rather than at gathering evidence of guilt, requiring a warrant to conduct it would be like requiring a warrant to ask people questions or to install surveillance cameras on city streets.” Warrants, which originate in the criminal justice paradigm, provide a useful standard for surveillance designed to prove guilt, not to learn the identity of people who may be planning atrocities."

Thanks to John O'Connor for this submission. We've had some long and interesting discussions on this, and it is satisfying to see more bipartisan unity there.

The War as We Saw It - New York Times

The War as We Saw It: "As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.) The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. What soldiers call the “battle space” remains the same, with changes only at the margins. It is crowded with actors who do not fit neatly into boxes: Sunni extremists, Al Qaeda terrorists, Shiite militiamen, criminals and armed tribes. This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers’ expense.... In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal."

A bitching GI is a happy GI... I can't help wondering if the NY Times would print an article by troops from the 82nd who support our policy (as I am sure make up the majority of the troops)? No. Probably not. They couldn't be "responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers" could they?

Does America Deserve Its Leadership Role?

The debate America needs: "Does the United States deserve to exercise a degree of global leadership after the disaster of Iraq? If so, how should it wield this leadership? These are not surprising questions to anyone who has watched the disaster of Iraq unfold before their eyes. But within the American foreign policy community, this is unsettling stuff. Since the end of the cold war, the assumption of global leadership has been so deeply ingrained in the bipartisan foreign policy consensus that few critics, if any, believed it was possible that one catastrophic error could make things fall apart."


This nonsense reminds me of that famous conversation from Casablanca:


Major Strasser: You give him credit for too much cleverness. My impression was that he's just another blundering American.

Captain Renault: We mustn't underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they blundered into Berlin in 1918.

GOP Revolution: It's a Wrap

GOP Revolution: It's a Wrap | The American Prospect: "The pendulum has swung, the Republican revolution is over, and every day the list of battered and retreating combatants continues to grow. This was a big week: Former House Speaker Denny Hastert and former GOP House Conference Chair Deborah Pryce announced their retirements. And, of course, 'boy genius' and Friend-in-Chief Karl Rove, the general who was to consolidate all the Revolution's gains into a singular enduring triumph, cried uncle and announced that he, too, would leave the White House for the warmth of more time with his family. Rove leaves before Labor Day, before the Petraeus report, before the president's new strategy in Iraq has had a chance to work, and before the Great GOP Realignment. Exeunt Hastert, Pryce, and Rove. The end.... I can look back and pinpoint the beginning of the end. The guesses and gambles with which the administration approached Iraq, and its mind-numbing lethargy and incompetence on Katrina are the depth charges that blew the façade apart. But it was Social Security that started the fire."

Rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated. Mr. Samuel coins the term "Bushism" as he extols its collapse. Unfortunately, Mr. Samuel is incorrect on two counts.

First, "Bushism" is nothing new in the full panoply of American history. His administration blends Jeffersonian, Wilsonian, Hamiltonian, and Jacksonian policy in degrees varied issue by issue. Jefferson sent the US Navy to war against radical Islamic terrorists of the high seas in the Mediterranean. Wilson invaded Russia to support democratic counter-Soviet revolutionaries, and invaded Mexico in an attempt to foster civilization there. Bush also shows elements of Hamiltonian and Jacksonian flare in his view of economic and military instruments of power. No, "Bushism" is not extraordinary, nor is "Bushism" at an end. These ideas will continue to play important roles in future administrations. In fact, much like the Reagan and Truman administrations, history will likely remember President Bush in a much higher regard than the "instant history" of polling. Bush may have lost a pot or two, but he stands to win the tournament.

Second, Mr. Samuel's characterizations of Iraq and Katrina are woefully deficient. Images of a flooded school bus fleet and revelations over time about state and local government folly have largely vindicated the federal government's handling of the Katrina disaster. Likewise, time will reveal the verities of our Iraq activities as Iran's complicity in the unrest is made known coupled with the defeat of Al Queda in the region. Just as few strategic gaffes of WWII come to mind in contemporary memory, so will few remember Iraq's mistakes in the future. 8 decades ago the British created the issue called Iraq, and 8 decades hence this war will be viewed for what it is: a necessary and unavoidable confrontation between the forces of construction and the forces of deconstruction. "Bushism" is no facade, but a construct on firm footing.

Mr. Samuels is correct about one thing, though. Social Security played a major role in garnering opposition for Mr. Bush. When that foolhardy program comes home to roost in 40 years, Bush's failed effort to revamp the system may be remembered favorably as the system goes bankrupt. The 'Greatest Generation' left its great grandchildren quite a mess to deal with, and Bush was one of the few who saw it and tried to clean it up at his own peril.

Padilla Conviction Leaves Unanswered Questions

Padilla Conviction Leaves Unanswered Questions - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com: "Padilla had been arrested at a Chicago airport in May 2002, after returning to the country from Pakistan via Switzerland. One month later, armed with sketchy (and what turned out to be disputed) intelligence that he had been dispatched by Al Qaeda to set off a dirty bomb inside the United States, President Bush in one stroke of the pen essentially declared Padilla an “unperson,” a man with none of the basic constitutional rights that is guaranteed to every other U.S. citizen. As an enemy combatant, who Bush said posed a “continuing, present and grave danger” to the country, Padilla was to be held indefinitely without being charged with a crime or given any right to defend himself while the U.S military interrogated him."

The Left has precious few remaining arguments against the current administration's handling of terrorists, but this is the one you'll probably hear most often. This dubious argument intentionally omits key facts. First of all, the "unperson" claim is an appeal to Habeas Corpus "rights." In fact, Habeas Corpus is not a right but a privilege under the Constitution, and it is subject to revocation. "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." According to this principle, public safety and preservation of society trump individual liberties under certain cases of arrest of dangerous actors. Second, the fact of WWII precedent is omitted. The USA captured German spies in the US during the war, and the FDR administration "in one stroke of the pen" secretly remanded the spies to a trial by a special tribunal of 7 US Generals who sentenced several of them to death, one to life in prison, and others to decades in prison. I'd wager few on the Left would ever remind us of FDR's secret pen-stroke precedents.

KILLING FOR CONGRESS

KILLING FOR CONGRESS By RALPH PETERS: "The bombings were a sign of al Qaeda's frustration, desperation and fear. The victims were ethnic Kurd Yazidis, members of a minor sect with pre-Islamic roots. Muslim extremists condemn them (wrongly) as devil worshippers. The Yazidis live on the fringes of society. That's one of the two reasons al Qaeda targeted those settlements.... the second reason for those dramatic bombings was that al Qaeda needs to portray Iraq as a continuing failure of U.S. policy. Those dead and maimed Yazidis were just props: The intended audience was Congress.... The foreign terrorists slaughtering the innocent recognize that their only remaining hope of pulling off a come-from-way-behind win is to convince your senator and your congressman or -woman that it's politically expedient to hand a default victory to a defeated al Qaeda."

Padilla Convicted of Terrorism Support

Padilla Convicted of Terrorism Support: "U.S. officials said Padilla, while incarcerated in a military brig in South Carolina, admitted exploring the dirty bomb plot. But that evidence could not be used at trial because he was not read his rights and did not immediately have access to an attorney."

Paulson sees more bad news ahead - Aug. 16, 2007

Paulson sees more bad news ahead - Aug. 16, 2007: "WASHINGTON (Fortune) -- Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson predicts that the 'current strained situation' in the markets 'will take time to play out, and more difficult news will come to light. Some investors will take losses, some organizations will fail,' he says in remarks that will appear in the forthcoming issue of Fortune. But, he stresses, global economic fundamentals remain healthy, providing a solid base for financial markets to continue to adjust. 'The overall economy and the market are healthy enough to absorb all this,' he notes."

Breaking news from 1922: 'Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt.'

Inside the Beltway -- The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: "D.C. resident John Lockwood was conducting research at the Library of Congress and came across an intriguing Page 2 headline in the Nov. 2, 1922 edition of The Washington Post: 'Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt.' The 1922 article, obtained by Inside the Beltway, goes on to mention 'great masses of ice have now been replaced by moraines of earth and stones,' and 'at many points well-known glaciers have entirely disappeared.' 'This was one of several such articles I have found at the Library of Congress for the 1920s and 1930s,' says Mr. Lockwood. 'I had read of the just-released NASA estimates, that four of the 10 hottest years in the U.S. were actually in the 1930s, with 1934 the hottest of all.'"

Ames Results

AMES: The Romney Victory

Gov Mitt Romney won the 2007 Ames straw poll, receiving 4516 votes, or 31%.
In a surprise, Gov. Mike Huckabee finished second with 2587 votes at 18.1%
11. John Cox with 41 votes. 

10. John McCain with 101 votes.

9. Duncan Hunter with 174 votes.

8. Rudy Giuliani with 183 votes.

7. Fred Thomson with 203 votes.

6. Tommy Thompson, 1,039 votes, 7.3%

5. Ron Paul with 1305 votes, and 9.1%

4. Tom Tancredo with 1961 votes, 13.7%.

3. Sen. Sam Brownback with 2192 votes and 15.3%

Iowa Dispatch: Instant Analysis

AMES -- The instant analysis would seem to show two very clear winners: Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. The two former governors took 31.5% and 18.1% respectively, and both are spinning the poll as nothing but a complete win.
For Romney, who occupied the same tent space George W. Bush did in 1999 and duplicated his results almost identically, the results were a vindication of the high expectations placed on his campaign. For Huckabee, the second-place win came after having spent little money and organizing much less than Romney, Senator Sam Brownback and others.

Bush, Sarkozy hail strong US-France bond

KENNEBUNKPORT, United States (AFP) - US President George W. Bush and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy affirmed their countries' friendship Saturday ahead of a casual lunch, a "heart-to-heart talk" and a brisk boat ride that could signal a new era of closer ties.

Damaged Brands

"On the eve of the Iowa GOP's straw poll here -- the political event which traditionally kicks off contested Republican presidential races -- Romney's concern about his party’s damaged brand in the wake of the Bush years was on obvious display, along with some hints about his strategy for dealing with it."

The "Brand" could use a little boost in marketing.  Tax cut results, no attacks since 9/11, respect for life, and diplomatic successes in Europe and the world.  Heck, even France elected a leader who wants to be our friend and vacations in the USA.  That's huge, folks, and none of this is coincidental.  It is also not a result of the "Brand X" of politics: the contrary Dems.

Military Shows Gains in Iraq

Analysis: Military Shows Gains in Iraq: "The new U.S. military strategy in Iraq, unveiled six months ago to little acclaim, is working. In two weeks of observing the U.S. military on the ground and interviewing commanders, strategists and intelligence officers, it's apparent that the war has entered a new phase in its fifth year. It is a phase with fresh promise yet the same old worry: Iraq may be too fractured to make whole. No matter how well or how long the U.S. military carries out its counterinsurgency mission, it cannot guarantee victory. Only the Iraqis can. And to do so they probably need many more months of heavy U.S. military involvement. Even then, it is far from certain that they are capable of putting this shattered country together again....

EDITOR'S NOTE—AP Military Writer Robert Burns, on his 18th reporting trip to Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, has written about U.S. military involvement in Iraq and the Middle East since the 1991 Gulf War, mostly from his base in Washington."

The Al Qaeda Reader

"All aggregations of people around an irrational basis have in common, that their ideology in the end consists of a series of objections and rejections. They reject factual reality and the logical systems that describe it. They do not substitute a logical system of their own, because they don't need one, and it would be impossible to construct one anyway. Any attempt to construct a coherent theory would only produce a shambles. Objections against other ideas suffice. That they are 'so heterogeneous, so mind-bogglingly unfocused' does not matter. The motto of the irrationalist is 'Just say No!' The question is, what does Al-Qaida actually reject? Every indication suggests that ultimately, they reject our form of 'modern society'; the type of secularized, liberalized, gender-equal, religion-neutral, human-rights-based society that radiates out from the rich west and finds followers everywhere.... I think it is defensible to say that Al-Qaida hates freedom, in the liberal sense of the word. The modern usage of the term 'liberal' dates back to the early 19th century when political debate raged in the Spanish Cortes in Cadiz, in the part of Spain not occupied by the French, and the political left, those who rejected the feudalism of the old regime, were called liberales. The right-wing groups of the time were dubbed serviles, 'the slavish ones', because their political ideal was the absolutist reign of king Fernando VII. They were traditionalists who wanted to keep royal absolutism, the fiscal privileges of the nobility, the supremacy of the Catholic church, and even the inquisition.

It is probably best to think of Al-Qaidas leaders as serviles. They are traditionalist radicals. Their political dreams hark back to a golden age that never existed -- That is the irrationality of it.

The rank and file, of course, are likely to have their own very diverse motivations, and many recruits would just as likely fight under another banner, if that gave them an opportunity to take revenge for their grievances. Fighting an intellectual battle with Al-Qaida is probably rather pointless."

-- Mutatis Mutandis

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Why the Democrats Caved

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Why the Democrats Caved: "Several members from swing districts -- including Reps. Heath Shuler of North Carolina and Patrick J. Murphy of Pennsylvania -- expressed openness to having Congress stay in town to fight if important constitutional issues were at stake. But the moment passed. Even some very liberal Democrats worried about the political costs of blocking action before the summer recess. That Saturday night, the House sent the president a bill that, as a disgusted Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) put it, with just a touch of exaggeration, 'makes Alberto Gonzalez the sheriff, the judge and the jury.' Most Democrats opposed the bill, but 41 (including Shuler) voted yes, allowing it to pass. (Murphy remained passionately opposed.)"

Demagoguery League is in season...

A Scott Beauchamp Update

A Scott Beauchamp Update: "Part of our integrity as journalists includes standing by a writer who has been accused of wrongdoing and who is not able to defend himself. But we also want to reassure our readers that our obligations to our writer would never trump our commitment to the truth. We once again invite the Army to make public Beauchamp's statements and the details of its investigation--and we ask the Army to let us (or any other media outlet, for that matter) speak to Beauchamp. Unless and until these things happen, we cannot fairly assess any of these reports about Beauchamp--and therefore have no reason to change our own assessment of Beauchamp's work. If the truth ends up reflecting poorly on our judgment, we will accept responsibility for that. But we also refuse to rush to judgment on our writer or ourselves."

Mark Kirk - Bankrolling Iran - washingtonpost.com

Mark Kirk - Bankrolling Iran - washingtonpost.com: "While the World Bank is part of the U.N. family, the bank's board is disconnected from the policies of key U.N. agencies -- especially the Security Council and the IAEA. The United States remains the top investor in the World Bank, contributing $950 million in 2006 and $940 million this year. In June the House of Representatives approved another $950 million. Meanwhile, the bank will disburse $220 million to Iran this year, with more than $870 million in the pipeline for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush all certified that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. The Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence spends considerable effort locating Iranian assets to freeze."

Will Bush Tax Cuts Get Due Credit?

"The Treasury Department reported on Friday that the government produced a deficit of $157.3 billion for the the budget year that began last Oct. 1. That's a substantial improvement from the red ink figure of $239.6 billion produced for the corresponding 10-month period last year. The lower year-to-date deficit was the result of a record of $2.12 trillion in revenues. Spending, however, was higher — $2.27 trillion, which also marked an all-time high. The White House predicts that the deficit this year drop to $205 billion. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts the government will produce even less red ink this year. It recently said the deficit will be 'toward the lower end' of a $150 billion to $200 billion range."

Doubts About the Dems: Can They Govern?

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Doubts About the Dems: Can They Govern?: "The so-called full-time legislature departed for their annual, monthlong, paid vacation with its Democratic leaders crowing about its achievements. But their mediocre midterm record, with all of their political hyperventilating aside, shows they accomplished little and left behind a pile of pork-filled appropriations bills, a mountain of unfinished work on problems ranging from energy to health care and a poisonous political atmosphere. 'The president has signed virtually nothing because virtually nothing has gotten to his desk,' remarked Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, the second-ranking House Republican."