ThinkFast: March 28, 2006
ThinkFast: March 28, 2006
Tal Afar, an Iraqi town singled out last week by President Bush as a success story for American and Iraqi forces, “was last night the scene of a suicide bombing that killed at least 40 people and wounded 20 others.”
In an “apparent effort to mend his relationship with the press,” President Bush has been “holding informal off-the-record sessions with major news organizations over the last several days.” Knight-Ridder’s Ron Hutcheson said they were “likely part of the outreach aimed at improving support for the Iraq War.”
$28 Billion: Possible revenue oil companies stand to gain over the next five years under an obscure provision in last year’s giant energy bill that allows companies to avoid paying royalties on oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico. “The provision received almost no Congressional debate, in part because Congress was lazy and in part because the provision was misleadingly advertised as cost-free.â€
The White House withdrew its nomination of David Sanborn, a former Dubai Ports World executive, to run the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Abdul Rahman, the Afghan man who faced execution for converting to Christianity, was released from prison today and “quickly vanished,” “apparently out of fear for his life.” Italy’s foreign minister “said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman asylum.â€
Reps. Jane Harman (D-CA) and John Conyers (D-MI) — the ranking members of the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees — sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging that Bush withdraw his assertion that he can ignore portions of the USA Patriot Act.
A group of retired U.S. military officers said in a letter to the Supreme Court yesterday that Justice Scalia’s comments on enemy combatants “give rise to the unfortunate appearance that, even before briefing was complete, he had already made up his mind.”
Investigators working undercover for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) “slipped a radioactive substance - enough, they say, to make two dirty bombs - across northern and southern US borders last year in a test of security at American ports of entry.â€
Donald Rumsfeld yesterday visited the site where Flight 93 crashed on September 11. He left a medallion typically given to U.S. troops overseas, a gesture “intended to link [the crash], through the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, to the wars started by the Bush administration in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
And finally: More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally against “the virtue terrorism” of popular culture. “Are you ready to go to battle for your generation?” the lead organizer asked, “and the young people roared ‘yes!’ and some waved triangular red flags flown from long, medieval-looking poles.”
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Tal Afar story confirms what Lara Logan of CBS News said on the CNN’s show Reliable sources with Howard Kurtz. She said as her NY editors asked her for good stories, she looked around and even went to the State Dept. in Iraq and Military folks in Iraq asking for good stories. They told her about the school where they built it and how it is thriving, she asked them for more details and officials said, I tell you and you write about it, then it will be targeted by the militants. Officials gave a previous example of this situation. Now it is confirmed again!
Security, Security, Security!
US should have worried about security as the first thing after Saddam’s statue came down, but they let the porous borders unmaned and the ammunition. Man, this admin made terrorists job lot easy, all they have to do is show up in Iraq and “advance team” has all the “Ten requirements” including TV turned to FOX NEWS.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:23 amJustice Scalia already made up his mind about a case before it was brought before the Supreme Court!?!?! Naw, couldn’t be. (Sarcasm)
Of course he’s already judged the issue in advance of any arguments from either side. He’s a whore for the Republicans.
Considering how badly Pres. Bush has handeled National Security, it’s no surprise that the GAO was able to bring in enough radioactive substance for dirty bombs. Pres. Bush only cares about the war for oil, er, um, the war on “terra”. National security isn’t something he worries about, you know. It’s like how he thinks about Osama bin Laden: Dead or alive, I’m not all that concerned about him, we’ll get him. Flip-Flop-Flip.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:28 amWhat makes a long pole “medieval-looking”?
March 28th, 2006 at 9:39 am#2 dem soldier
March 28th, 2006 at 9:43 amI also noted that Scalia raised the personal metter of his son having served in Iraq and being shot at by these people. He has drunk the Koolaid. His son served in Iraq and the prisoners are from Afghanistan. He has conflated the war in Iarq with 9/11.
BTW, I am of Italian descent (Sicilian, actually) and his rude and inappropriate gesture to the press on Sunday, outside of his church, was an embarrassment; he exemplified the crudeness too many associate with Italians since the days of Capone.
He is an arrogant man and as a judge he has shown a lack of ethics.
The GAO - but the Republicans claim they are better on matters of security aren’t they? BTW, whatever happened to the anthrax investigation by this Republican administration?
March 28th, 2006 at 9:51 amThe oil royalties are at present $7 billion and are projected to reach $28 billion in 5 years. This was an inadvertant “gift” to the oil companies 8 years ago when oil was cheap and we wanted the oil execs to keep their business here. It is entirely out of hand now, and the oil-soaked White House is in no way going to change the status. Since when do public lands (and waters) belong to the oil companies and their profit margins? Drill on public property, and royalties should be paid to the “owners” of the property, the American public.
Rahman’s case unfortunately proves that our efforts to bring democracy to the Middle East are failing…
http://blogdebogs.blogspot.com/ 2006/ 03/ for-this-we-ousted-taliban.html
March 28th, 2006 at 9:59 amFrom the “informal off-the-record sessions”
Why the secrecy? Bush making the newbies lap dogs too?
March 28th, 2006 at 10:10 amGood post Marie, may I add though, if Bush and Pombo get their way there will not be any more public lands, no parks or wilderness. Their plan is to sell off all these lands to the oil companies and large corporations. Think that is part of the sinario in the south as well. Let it flood, then buy out or remove the old to be replaced with more oil rigs and condos. Then ofcourse the levies would be redone to suit the new elite…..All part and parcel’s sold with the use of lies like ” moneys to fund rural schools and roads”, ” To reduce the debt”. More short sighted lies to brain wash the sell out’s…….Blessings
March 28th, 2006 at 10:29 amA small clarification to your tidbit on the request for Scalia’s recusal:
The quote you included is not from the “friend of the court” brief submitted by the retired military commanders; rather, it was in the letter which accompanies the brief and which was written by a lawyer, David H. Remes.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:47 amThe Christian guy that was just released from jail in Afghanistan has gone into hiding out of fear for his life! Religious clerics want him murdered and his head chopped off > way to go Bush ass you have done nothing to bring Afghanistan out of the Dark Ages, in fact most likely made it worse! Resign today Dubya with your Chief of Staff > lol.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:52 amThe insurgents are taking their orders from Bush: Bush singled out Tal Afar last week, watch out for the next one
March 28th, 2006 at 11:09 amWillem van Oranje-
Just curious Willem- Belgian?
March 28th, 2006 at 11:30 amIn an “apparent effort to mend his relationship with the press,†President Bush has been “holding informal off-the-record sessions with major news organizations over the last several days.†Knight-Ridder’s Ron Hutcheson said they were “likely part of the outreach aimed at improving support for the Iraq War.â€
—The questions of the day are: Did it work? WILL it work?
The moral of the story seems to be, if the news isn’t good, make sure your relationships with reporters are better.
I swear, sometimes watching reporters lob softballs at Bush is like watching college freshmen who hate the brothers of the fraternity they want to join, but yet, they still really REALLY want to join. Dudes, if THAT’S who you get to hang out with by being a member, then proudly refuse membership!
March 28th, 2006 at 11:34 amPretty nutz when you have Christianist youth running ready to run around terrorizing others by calling them terrorists. The semiotic half-life of the term terrorist and terrorism is diminishing by the day…. errrrr hour.
March 28th, 2006 at 11:36 amSo, the Afghan man facing death has disappered. Let’s hope that he has been spirited out of the country. The US response to this news however is not encouraging:
We are really letting freedom ring, aren’t we? It is convenient to just turn our backs and not deal with these serious issues instead of just sticking to the talking points of “freedom” and “liberty”.
Here’s my post on how we might be running from this issue.
March 28th, 2006 at 11:45 amThe Senate Judiciary Committe yesterday, in an effort to get into the immigration bill act, voted out a bill.
It is direct opposition to the Senslessbrenner bill, but forgets one thing.
With amnesty and work cards they account for 1.5 million of ILLEGAL aliens in the country.
There was not mention of what to do about the other supposed 9.5 million ILLEGAL aliens.
As you can see the pukes have no idea whatsoever what to do about the problem, neither the house nor the senate.
I dont know what to do about the problem either, but something has to be done. But, we have over 500 reps and senators who cannot figure it out.
Way to go boys.
March 28th, 2006 at 11:46 amthe corporate media bosses are about to pay back their criminal gods in the White House…
…these “informal sessions” are nothing more than…
…strategy sessions on finding better more subtle ways to further “DUMB DOWN” the idiot TREASONOUS Bushites…
…and stop these criminal sombiches’ sliding poll numbers…
…watch for a turn around in the way the media covers Iraq…
…in fact, it’s already started…
…the NYT today broke a story about the Shiite leadership’s suspension of talks to form a new government, and issuance of a directive to their militia members to take to the streets showing force of arms and a willingness to confront American military…
…did the MSM report this?
…NOOOOO!!!!
…all we’ve heard about today is the resignation of one criminal- Card-, and his replacement with another criminal- Bolten…
…Bushiva even had the nerve to assemble all of his criminal cabal together in what used to be the PEOPLE”S WH Rose garden and issue more sunny optimistic bullsh*t on the situation in Iraq…
…with no dissention or critical inquiry from media…
….just silent, tacit consent…
…fu*k the MSM…
March 28th, 2006 at 12:32 pmWhere Are All These Goddamned Moles Coming From?!…
The Australian (via Think Progress):A TOWN singled out by US President George W. Bush as a success story for American and Iraqi forces in the drive to quell the insurgency was last night the scene of a suicide bombing that…
March 28th, 2006 at 1:52 pm“Reps. Jane Harman (D-CA) and John Conyers (D-MI) — the ranking members of the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees — sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging that Bush withdraw his assertion that he can ignore portions of the USA Patriot Act.”
These signing statements are nothing new for this president, nor is his stated position that the legislature lacks standing to restrain the administration from unilaterally excercising any power that it considers necessary and can manage to link, in any fashion, to national security.
If my own Congresswoman, Jane Harman, doesn’t like it, maybe she shouldn’t have voted for the USA Patriot Act in the first place. This letter she’s sending now is too little, too late.
With Jane’s “yes” vote a few weeks ago, she once again betrayed her progressive Southern California constituency, which (by large margins) opposes the Patriot Act. This pitiful letter cannot possibly compensate for that. But, of course, the whole thing is what we’ve come to expect from the woman who describes herself as “the best Republican in the Democratic Party.”
Thanks again, Jane.
Patrick Meighan
March 28th, 2006 at 9:12 pmVenice, CA
[…] ThinkFast: March 28, 2006Think Progress, DC - 22 hours ago… town singled out last week by President Bush as a success story for American and Iraqi forces, was last night the scene of a suicide bombing that killed at … […]
March 29th, 2006 at 7:14 amWith Jane’s “yes†vote a few weeks ago, she once again betrayed her progressive Southern California constituency, which (by large margins) opposes the Patriot Act. This pitiful letter cannot possibly compensate for that. But, of course, the whole thing is what we’ve come to expect from the woman who describes herself as “the best Republican in the Democratic Party.â€
Thanks again, Jane.
Patrick Meighan
Venice, CA
Comment by Patrick Meighan #19
Patrick,
Unfortunately for us Progressives, there are faaar too many “conservative” Democrat TRAITORS in our midst…
Harmon and Lieberman are AIPAC members…
…then you’ve got the red state rednecks: Landrieu, Baucus, Conrad, Dorgan et al.
…unless and until we can purge our party of these DLC’ers, we’re going to suffer…
But whatever you guys in Cali do, send that AIPAC al Cracker wannabe bi*ch packing…
March 29th, 2006 at 1:03 pm