Rove Watch clock: 85 days.
Rove Watch clock: 85 days.
Once again, Karl Rove appeared on Fox News to discuss the Democratic primary, and once again, he and the network failed to identify his ties to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign. It has now been 85 days since Rove first appeared as an analyst without any disclosure.
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WSJ oversight committee informed of editor’s resignation ‘after the fact.’
WSJ oversight committee informed of editor’s resignation ‘after the fact.’
Marcus Brauchli recently stepped down as the Wall Street Journal’s managing editor — just four months after Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought the newspaper. WSJ union members reportedly viewed Brauchli’s resignation as a “loss of ‘a buffer who would maintain editorial independence.’” Editor and Publisher reports that “[t]he special committee formed to oversee editorial independence” at the WSJ “claims it was improperly informed of [Brauchli's] resignation after the fact, according to a report the group released Tuesday”:
The report states that learning about the resignation “after the fact failed to meet the letter and the spirit of the agreement” between Dow Jones and News Corp. over editorial independence.
It went on to add, “Mr. Brauchli expressed ‘regret’ that the committee ‘learned of my resignation late in the process.‘” Brauchli resigned on April 22.
Toby Keith performance interrupted by mortar fire in Afghanistan.
Toby Keith performance interrupted by mortar fire in Afghanistan.
“Country music star Toby Keith had a performance in Afghanistan last week interrupted by mortar fire, according to his booking agent. Curt Motley, the agent, told The Oklahoman in an e-mail that the 46-year-old Keith was playing his song ‘Weed With Willie’ for troops during a USO Tour stop at a base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Thursday when mortar fire sent the singer and most of the about 2,500 soldiers in the crowd scrambling for shelter.”
One Day After Bush Says We’re ‘Winning’ In Afghanistan, State Dept. Says al Qaeda Is ‘Stronger’
One Day After Bush Says We’re ‘Winning’ In Afghanistan, State Dept. Says al Qaeda Is ‘Stronger’
This week, President Hamid Karzai was the subject of an attempted assassination plot, allegedly launched by the Taliban, which narrowly escaped. In a Rose Garden press conference yesterday, ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked Bush to comment on the status of Afghanistan in light of the assassination plot:
RADDATZ: Are we winning in Afghanistan?
BUSH: I think we’re making progress in Afghanistan [...]
Q: But do you think we’re winning? Do you think we’re winning?
BUSH: I do, I think we’re making good progress. I do, yes.
Watch it:
In contrast, today, the State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism. The opening lines of the report are a stark departure from Bush’s blind optimism:
Al-Qa’ida (AQ) and associated networks remained the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners in 2007. It has reconstituted some of its pre-9/11 operational capabilities through the exploitation of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), replacement of captured or killed operational lieutenants, and the restoration of some central control by its top leadership, in particular Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In Afghanistan and surrounding areas, State Department notes, al Qaeda now has “greater mobility” in the region:
Despite the efforts of both Afghan and Pakistani security forces, instability, coupled with the Islamabad brokered cease-fire agreement in effect for the first half of 2007 along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, appeared to have provided AQ leadership greater mobility and ability to conduct training and operational planning, particularly that targeting Western Europe and the United States. … AQ leaders continued to plot attacks and to cultivate stronger operational connections that radiated outward from Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.
The report also notes that terrorist attacks in Afghanistan increased 16 percent last year, which was the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since 2001. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, who commands U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said last week, “This year won’t be different.”
Bush’s ‘magic wand’ and its legacy of low expectations.
Bush’s ‘magic wand’ and its legacy of low expectations.
In his press conference yesterday, a reporter asked President Bush about the rising price of gasoline, now at roughly $3.60 per gallon. In response, Bush was helpless, repeatedly saying he wishes he could just “wave a magic wand” to lower prices:
[Y]ou know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course. I strongly believe it’s in our interest that we reduce gas prices, gasoline prices. … No, I think that if there was a magic wand, and say, okay, drop price, I’d do that. … But there is no magic wand to wave right now.
Watch it:
This is an old line. Bush and his appointees have repeatedly invoked the supernatural to express their frustrations with gas prices, as Dan Froomkin notes. Some lowlights:
– “I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow; I’d do that.” — Bush, 4/20/05
– “I wish I could just wave a magic wand and lower the price at the pump; I’d do that.” — Bush, 5/16/05
– “[L]et me assure you that if the President had a magic wand that could lower prices, he would do it!” — Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, 8/08/05
– “I wish there was a magic wand that I could wave that would lower gas prices. But I can’t.” — Bodman, 4/25/06
FactCheck Buys Into McCain’s Fantasy Of ‘100 Year’ Peaceful Presence In Iraq
FactCheck Buys Into McCain’s Fantasy Of ‘100 Year’ Peaceful Presence In Iraq
At a townhall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire on Jan. 3, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) infamously exclaimed that it “would be fine with” him if the U.S. military stayed in Iraq for “a hundred years.“ McCain clarified his comments, saying “as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That’s fine with me.” Watch it:
This past weekend, the Democratic National Committee released an ad featuring McCain saying, “[M]aybe a hundred. That’d be fine with me,” accompanied by images of the war in Iraq.
Yesterday, FactCheck.org weighed in on the ad, complaining that even though the ad simply uses McCain’s own words, it “doesn’t mention that McCain was speaking specifically about a peacetime presence” and leaves “a clear impression that McCain proposes to allow a century more of war.”
FactCheck.org is claiming that any mention of McCain’s “100 years” cannot be associated with war fighting, but McCain’s peaceful fantasy is necessitated on continuing to fight in Iraq until his unlikely scenario somehow takes shape.
In its rush to defend McCain, FactCheck.org never grapples with the unanswered questions underlying the premise of McCain’s wishful thinking about an essentially permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq that is “peaceful”:
How do we transition out of a wartime presence? How long is McCain willing to wait for that presence to be possible? Is there a point in time that he will consider leaving Iraq if casualties continue?
Here are a few examples of why McCain’s scenario is so impracticable:
- The Iraqi people do not want permanent U.S. bases in Iraq. In Oct. 2007, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak “put the U.S. on notice,” telling Vice President Cheney that “The people of Iraq, the parliament, the council of representatives and the government of Iraq, they all say no, big fat no, N-O for the bases in Iraq.”
- If Iraq were to host U.S. bases, some factions in Iraq will always “resent their mere presence for the blame that they cast upon America,” according to CNN’s Baghdad correspondent, Michael Ware. Ware also says that a long-term presence in Iraq “could actually ferment further resentment” against the U.S.
- In the past, even McCain has said that a peaceful “South Korea” like presence is not feasible because of “the nature of the society in Iraq and the religious aspects.”
As the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg — who was at the townhall in New Hampshire — says, “the context shows…that yanking that sound bite out of context isn’t really all that unfair” because McCain is essentially saying that he is willing to stay in Iraq indefinitely until casualties stop and then he’s willing to stay for 100 more years.
Perino Defends Pentagon’s Propaganda Campaign: ‘It’s Absolutely Appropriate To Provide Information’
Perino Defends Pentagon’s Propaganda Campaign: ‘It’s Absolutely Appropriate To Provide Information’
On April 20, The New York Times published an expose revealing the Pentagon’s secret program using retired military analysts to “generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.” Since that time, the media have been disappointingly silent on the story and their roles in the Pentagon’s program.
Today, a reporter finally asked White House spokeswoman Dana Perino about the Pentagon’s propaganda. In response, Perino attempted to defend the program:
But I would say that one of the things that we try to do in the administration is get information out to a variety of people so that everybody else can call them and ask their opinion about something. And I don’t think that that should be against the law. And I think that it’s absolutely appropriate to provide information to people who are seeking it and are going to be providing their opinions on it.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that all of those military analysts ever agreed with the administration. I think you can go back and look and think that a lot of their analysis was pretty tough on the administration. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk to people.
Watch it:
The Bush administration, however, wasn’t a passive provider simply giving information to analysts who were “seeking it.” As the NYT reported, the Pentagon proactively pulled these retired military officers — many of whom had business with the government — into private briefings, provided with them classified information, and pushed administration talking points.
Even though a reporter finally forced Perino to address this issue today, a questioner in a Washington Post chat today pointed out that the regular White House press corps may still be sleeping on the job:
It also is worth noting that this was asked by someone who appeared not to be a regular in the room (perhaps a blogger) and only got to ask his question because Lester Kinsolving asked Dana why she wouldn’t call on the guy.
Transcript: More »
Perino Rewrites Banner: ‘Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission’
Perino Rewrites Banner: ‘Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission’
Exactly five years ago tomorrow, President Bush landed aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, stood under a banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished,” and declared, “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Since that day, more than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, representing more than 97 percent of total troop deaths there.
Today, reporter Helen Thomas asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino how the president would “commemorate” the date tomorrow. Perino said the White House had “certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner”:
PERINO: President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific, and said, Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission. And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.
Watch it:
This is only the latest tack the White House has taken to defend Bush’s 2003 remarks. Last year, Perino insisted that “we did prevail,” while former press secretary Tony Snow laughably claimed that Bush “said just the opposite” of “mission accomplished.”
In fact, regardless of Perino’s attempts to amend the banner, it’s clear what Bush meant. Just a month after his speech on the U.S.S. Lincoln, he also spoke to troops in Qatar: “America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.”
Cheney delaying protections for endangered whales.
Cheney delaying protections for endangered whales.
Four years ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) “started a rulemaking process to protect the North Atlantic right whale” — there are only about 300 still alive — from collisions with ships. The threat to the species’ population is so serious that the NMFS says that “the death of even a single whale, particularly of a breeding female, “may contribute to the extinction of the species.” But according to a letter sent by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), efforts to protect the whales are being undermined by Vice President Dick Cheney’s office:
[The National Marine Fisheries Service] submitted their plan to an office in OMB at the end of February 2007 for a review that was supposed to take 90 days. Now over a year later the review has not been completed and documents point to White House officials and the office of the Vice President as being a major reason why. Cheney’s office is questioning everything including whether reducing the speed of large ships will help save the whales.
In the four years since the rulemaking process began, “seven more North Atlantic right whales have been killed by “vessel strikes” and five have been injured.” Read Waxman’s full letter here.
O’Reilly: ‘We Didn’t Invade Iraq’
O’Reilly: ‘We Didn’t Invade Iraq’
Yesterday, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly made the incredible claim that the United States never invaded Iraq: “We didn’t invade Iraq.” He added, “It was a declaration of war, it was a declaration to enforce the first Gulf War Treaty.” Watch it:
Despite O’Reilly’s revisionist history, the United States did invade Iraq. The U.S. military forcefully entered the country in order to overthrow that nation’s leader. That’s an invasion. During a 2006 speech, President Bush discussed his administration’s “two major invasions as a part of the war on terror.”
Even O’Reilly himself has, in the past, admitted that the United States invaded Iraq:
– “I’ll submit that most folks still have no idea why the Bush administration invaded Iraq.” [1/28/08]
– “Iraq was invaded to create a friendly country between Iran and Syria, thereby pressuring those nations into a more sensible foreign policy.” [3/6/06]
O’Reilly’s “first Gulf War Treaty” claim is also questionable. During a March 15, 2004 interview, former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix challenged O’Reilly on this exact point:
O’REILLY: [W]e liberate Iraq — liberate Kuwait, all right, and then we have a treaty, and the treaty says U.N. weapons inspectors are allowed to do X, Y, and Z, and 17 times Saddam says — violates those. Now you can understand why the United States government might be a little teed off about that. [...]
O’REILLY: But do you understand that when you have 17 violations of a treaty, a war treaty, that you basically have to take action?
BLIX: Well, you’re talking about a war treaty. It was a cease-fire. It was not a war treaty.
O’REILLY: Oh, come on. Now don’t play semantics here, sir.
BLIX: Second — all right. I’m trying to be precise. You are imprecise.
O’Reilly’s claim is almost as unbelievable as Wolfowitz’s statement earlier this week that the U.S. “occupation [of Iraq] ended in June of 2004.”
Transcript: More »
Press freedom ‘underwent clear decline’ worldwide in 2007.
Press freedom ‘underwent clear decline’ worldwide in 2007.
According to a new Freedom House survey, “[g]lobal press freedom underwent a clear decline in 2007, with journalists struggling to work in increasingly hostile environments in almost every region in the world.” The decline “occurred in authoritarian countries and established democracies alike” and “continues a six-year negative trend.” The survey “indicated that setbacks in press freedom outnumbered advances two to one globally,” but “there was some improvement in the region with the least amount of press freedom: the Middle East and North Africa.”
Former Employee Says KBR Promoted Camp Manager After She Was Caught Stealing
Former Employee Says KBR Promoted Camp Manager After She Was Caught Stealing
On Monday, two former employees of embattled contracting firm KBR testified that they saw coworkers regularly steal from Iraq while working there. One employee, Linda Warren, said “that some of her American colleagues doing construction work in Iraqi palaces and municipal buildings took woodcarvings, tapestries and crystal ‘and even melted down gold to make spurs for cowboy boots.’”
Warren told the Senate panel that her camp manager got “busted by the military” for looting, but still, “she was given a promotion.” Watch it:
KBR continues to enjoy a most-favored contractor relationship with the Pentagon. In fact, just two weeks ago, KBR won a $150 billion, 10-year contract to work with the U.S. Army in Iraq — despite the other widely-publicized and serious scandals surrounding KBR:
– In March, the Boston Globe reported that KBR had avoided paying more than $500 million “in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies” based in the Cayman Islands. These American workers thus cannot get unemployment assistance if they lose their jobs.
– Last month, the AP reported that KBR-run sites provided contaminated water that made dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fall ill. Rather than reevaluate its chummy relationship with KBR, the Pentagon told soldiers to “just drink bottled water.”
– In December, the first of what is now at least a dozen former KBR employees came forward to say she was raped by coworkers while stationed in Iraq. The Pentagon has refused to investigate the issue.
Bunnatine “Bunny” Greenhouse, who oversaw contracts for the Army Corps of Engineers, told the Senate in 2005, “I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career.” Reflecting the Pentagon’s efforts to protect KBR, Greenhouse was demoted almost two months to the day after voicing that critique.
Right-wing organization paying kids for denying global warming.
Right-wing organization paying kids for denying global warming.
The right-wing organization WorldNetDaily (WND) is rewarding children for “debunking” global warming in a new video/essay contest. “The contest was launched early in 2008 and was designed to highlight the absurdities, untruths and downright lies that children are being taught daily about ‘climate change’ in public school,” the site states. “Contest winners will receive a cash prize, a copy of ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ DVD courtesy of junkscience.com, and copies of ‘The Sky’s Not Falling‘ for their local school library and their kids’ science classroom.” Watch one of the submissions:
“Kids across America are being victimized by global warming hysteria,” according to Holly Fretwell, author of The Sky’s Not Falling: Why It’s OK to Chill About Global Warming.
Judge Walton: Bush’s commutation of Libby sentence creates impression of unequal justice.
Judge Walton: Bush’s commutation of Libby sentence creates impression of unequal justice.
U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Scooter Libby to 2.5 years in prison after a jury convicted the former White House staffer of lying to federal prosecutors and impeding an investigation into leak of a former CIA agent’s identity. Walton’s sentence was overturned by President Bush’s commutation order last July. In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Walton said that, while he respected the president’s authority to issue the commutation, Bush’s actions create an impression of unequal justice under the law:
Walton, whom Bush nominated to the District of Columbia bench, acknowledged Tuesday that Bush’s decision was part of the system, but he also said it fed some people’s notion that justice isn’t equal.
“The president has that authority and exercised it, and that has to be respected,” said Walton, who is to speak Thursday in Milwaukee at a literacy event.
“The downside is there are a lot of people in America who think that justice is determined to a large degree by who you are and that what you have plays a large role in what kind of justice you receive. … It is crucial that the American public respect the rule of law, or people won’t follow it.”
“I believe firmly you apply the law and apply it strictly,” Walton said from his chambers in Washington. “I don’t give white-collar criminals a pass.”
Lurita ‘Cookies On The Table’ Doan Forced To Resign As Head Of GSA
Lurita ‘Cookies On The Table’ Doan Forced To Resign As Head Of GSA
For the past couple of years, General Services Administration (GSA) chief Lurita Doan has been dogged by constant criticisms over her unethical politicization of the federal agency. Last May, the White House Office of Special Counsel found that she had violated the Hatch Act. In June, both the Special Counsel and House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) called on Doan to resign.
Belatedly, the White House has decided to take action. Officials summoned Doan to a meeting yesterday afternoon, at which she was asked to resign. From the e-mail she sent to GSA employees yesterday, in which she said she was privileged to serve such a “great President”:
The past twenty-two months have been filled with accomplishments: together, we have regained our clean audit opinion, restored fiscal discipline, re-tooled our ability to respond to emergencies, rekindled entrepreneurial energies, reduced bureaucratic barriers to small companies to get a GSA Schedule, ignited a building boom at our nation’s ports of entries, boldly led the nation in an aggressive telework initiative, and improved employee morale so that we were selected as one of the best places to work in the Federal government.
Thanks to Doan, the past 22 months have been filled with more scandal than “accomplishments.” Doan first gained notoriety for using a January 2007 teleconference to “ask senior GSA officials to help ‘our candidates’ in the next elections.”
Doan tried to make herself into a martyr, telling GovExec yesterday, “I would rather get fired for something I believe in, and a cause I was willing to fight for, rather than to believe in nothing worth being fired for.” It’s unclear what she was fighting for, other than electing Republicans and carrying out questionable battles with GSA’s inspector general (IG), who was cleared of any wrongdoing. (Doan once referred to IG employees as “terrorists.”)
As a final treat, here’s a ThinkProgress video highlighting Doan’s testimony to Congress:
Lurita Doan: truly the wind beneath our wings.
McCain introduced at health care event by health care lobbyist.
McCain introduced at health care event by health care lobbyist.
At his health care policy event yesterday at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Florida, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was introduced by the institute’s chairman, former Republican senator Connie Mack. But, as Hotline reports, Mack is more than just a chairman. He’s also a registered state lobbyist “advocating for health insurance companies“:
According to the official site of the Florida Legislature, Mack is registered in 2008 to lobby for Prestige Health Choice, a Florida company. The co. is “filing to become approved by the state of Florida as a Provider Service Network,” and according to a company release dated Nov. 16, 2007, “Prestige will first provide Medicaid managed care services to Florida residents.”
According to Hotline’s Jennifer Skalka, “the McCain campaign lobbied On Call feverishly to tank” its reporting on Mack’s role as a lobbyist, calling the story “ludicrous, absurd and ridiculous.”
U.S. Prepares ‘New Options’ To Attack Iran, Deploys Second Carrier To Persian Gulf
U.S. Prepares ‘New Options’ To Attack Iran, Deploys Second Carrier To Persian Gulf
The Bush administration deployed a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday to serve as a “reminder” to Iran, in the words of Defense Secretary Robert Gates. When asked whether the Pentagon was preparing military strikes, Gates said, “No.”
But, CBS News reported last night that the Pentagon is developing new “options” for attacking Iran:
A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf today as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. Planning is being driven by what one officer called the “increasingly hostile role” Iran is playing in Iraq — smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.
CBS’s David Martin said that, while “no attacks are imminent and the last thing the Pentagon wants is another war,” the U.S. has identified two key targets inside Iran that it is prepared to strike: 1) the plants where weapons being exported to Iraq are made and 2) the headquarters of the Quds Force.
This week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to confront Iran with with evidence of their meddling and demand a halt. If these talks don’t produce results, Martin reported, “the State Department has begun drafting an ultimatum that would tell the Iranians to knock it off — or else.” Watch it:
Webb: McCain is ’so full of it.’
Webb: McCain is ’so full of it.’
Politico reports today that Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “are locked in an increasingly intense debate over a shared value: education benefits for veterans.” McCain has made “himself a target by refusing to endorse Webb’s new GI education bill and instead signing on to a Republican alternative.” McCain has charged that Webb’s Senate staff “has not been eager to negotiate” on the bill. “He’s so full of it,” Webb replied, adding, “I have personally talked to John three times. I made a personal call to [McCain aide] Mark Salter months ago asking that they look at this.”
ThinkFast: April 30, 2008
ThinkFast: April 30, 2008
Army officials yesterday said that they are “inspecting every barracks building worldwide to see whether plumbing and other problems revealed at Fort Bragg, N.C., last week are widespread.” “We let our soldiers down,” said Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers, who is responsible for maintaining Army barracks. A video shot by the father of a soldier showed problems such as a “bathroom drain plugged with sewage.”
Two U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad today, “taking the American troop death toll in Iraq for April to 46.” April is the “deadliest month since September, when 65 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq, according to figures compiled by icasualties.org.”
A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq predicts today that “Iraq’s oil revenue will top a record $70 billion this year, adding fuel to a congressional push to force the Iraqi government to assume more responsibility for rebuilding the country.” “The cost of a barrel of Iraqi oil has increased by 250% since 2003.”
Yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to “limit CIA interrogators to techniques approved by the military, which would effectively bar them from waterboarding prisoners.” The secret vote was taken on an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), marking “at least the second attempt by intelligence overseers in Congress to regulate CIA questioning of detainees.”
The Interior Department inspector general is investigating “whether federal money was inappropriately used to pay for a celebration” of the Alaska Volcano Observatory “that recognized its chief patron, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).” The event, which was coordinated by a lobbyist for the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, may have received federal funds either directly through an organizer or indirectly from earmarks. More »
Bush hits all-time low on handling of the economy.
Bush hits all-time low on handling of the economy.
In a NBC/WSJ poll to be released tomorrow, “only 21% approve of President Bush’s job in handling the economy — his lowest number ever as president on that question.” Additionally, the poll found that 81% of Americans “believe the US is currently in a recession.”
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