has been subpoenaed in the Jack Abramoff investigation. Court documents have described Ney “as having received gifts, trips and other things of value” from the fallen lobbyist.
ThinkFast PM: July 10, 2006
Will Ann Coulter be dropped from The Shreveport Times? The paper says it’s been “buried alive under an avalanche” of emails over the question, but has “yet to make a decision.” Write the editor with your thoughts.
The National Review’s John Derbyshire explains why he’s uneasy about immigration: “The U.S.A. was born with two race problems: the African Americans and the Native Americans. … Would it be wise to import a new one? Mass immigration from (say) Indonesia or (say) Bangladesh would add a huge visibly identifiable minority to our nation.”
In his book, Ron Suskind writes that President Bush authorized CIA interrogators to threaten the wife and children of Khalid Sheik Muhammed if he did not talk. Andrew Sullivan laments how the President of the United States “became the moral equivalent of a mafia boss.”
Mark Nickolas of The Bluegrass Report has filed suit against Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R). Gov. Fletcher banned the blog from state computers last month, one day after Nickolas was quoted in a New York Times article critical of Fletcher.
A new GAO report finds that Medicare prescription drug plan providers “failed to give accurate or complete answers on costs of the plans more than 70% of the time and ‘often severely underestimated the actual out-of-pocket costs beneficiaries would face.’”
Former Medicare chief Tom Scully agreed to pay the government $9,782 to settle allegations relating to his misuse of federal funds while working at the agency. One example cited in the agreement states Scully used a government-funded trip to Atlanta to spend most of the day interviewing at Alston & Bird — where he now works — and held only a “perfunctory” meeting with local Medicare officials.
And finally: You saw Zidane’s vicious World Cup Finals headbutt to Materazzi — now play the game.
“President Bush will likely cast the first veto
of his presidency if the Senate, as expected, passes legislation to expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, White House aide Karl Rove said today. ‘The president is emphatic about this,’ Rove said in a meeting with the editorial board of The Denver Post.”
Right-Wing Mayor Calls for McDonald’s Boycott Over Spanish-Language Ads
Mayor Steve Lonegan (R) of Bogota, New Jersey is “calling for a McDonald’s boycott if the fast-food chain does not take down a Spanish-language billboard advertising iced coffee.”
Lonegan said the advertisement is “offensive” and “divisive” because it sends a message that Hispanic immigrants do not need to learn English.
“The true things that bind us together as neighbors and community is our belief in the American flag and our common language,” Lonegan said. “And when McDonald’s sends a different message, that we’re going to be different now, that causes resentment.”
Lonegan’s remarks must come as quite a surprise to the U.S. Army, which launched a major Spanish-language ad campaign in 2001. The tagline is “Yo Soy El Army” (I Am The Army):
Here’s the official “Yo Soy El Army” H2 humvee:
You might also be interested in the Spanish-language recruitment sites for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force. So when does Mayor Lonegan launch his boycott against the U.S. military?
White House Accuses Clinton of Sending ‘Flowers and Chocolates’ To Kim Jong-il
Facing increasing criticism of their North Korea policy from the right and left, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow lashed out at the Clinton administration. Snow accused the Clinton administration of going to North Korea with “flowers and chocolates.” He said the Clinton strategy “failed” and President Bush had “learned from that mistake.” Watch it:
Let’s review the progress of North Korea’s nuclear program during the last three administrations:
1. George H. W. Bush: one to two bombs’ worth of plutonium
2. Bill Clinton: zero plutonium
3. George W. Bush: 4-6 nuclear weapons’ worth of plutonium
There are legitimate criticisms of every administration’s approach to North Korea’s nuclear program. But the Clinton administration’s strategy, objectively, has been the most successful.
Transcript: Read more
The horrors of Iraq.
CNN’s Nic Robertson: “One international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog’s head sewn on her body in its place; and of a young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed.” More at The Plank.
Get paid
to recycle your old cell phone. (And do something good for the environment.)
Bush Can Forget About Poland
Poland has been a strong Bush administration ally in the Iraq war. It was one of the original countries to join the 2003 invasion and President Bush has repeatedly pointed out the country’s support, reminding Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in 2004 that he “forgot Poland” and its support for the war.
But the Bush administration’s mishandling of Iraq is alienating even this strong ally. In a recent interview, Poland’s undersecretary of state for defense, Stanislaw Koziej, said that Poland is unlikely to join the United States in a future attack on Iran because of its experience in Iraq:
[The operation in Iraq] wasn’t optimal, wasn’t very effective and quite a lot of mistakes were done there and still we make a lot of mistakes. … I personally believe that military intervention in Iran is improbable. … So we should get used to the fact that we will have to deal with Iran having nuclear armaments.
It appears the Bush administration’s incompetence in Iraq will complicate U.S. foreign policy for years to come.
Newsweek Falsely Claims that Bush has Conceded Global Warming is Caused by Human Activity
The most recent Newsweek has an article called “The President: Shades of Green,” examining the President’s environmental record. Newsweek reports that Bush has conceded human activity is responsible for global warming:
And on global warming, the most controversial part of his green scorecard, Bush acknowledged back in June 2001 that the National Academy of Sciences believed climate change was “due in large part to human activity.” The dispute is what to do about that warming.
Bush did say that in June 2001. (In the next sentence he says “we do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming.”) Since that time, however, he has said there is a “dispute,” not just about the solution, but about whether human activity is responsible. For example, on June 26, 2006 Bush said:
I think — I have said consistently that global warming is a serious problem. There’s a debate over whether it’s manmade or naturally caused.
Bush is describing a debate that doesn’t exist. There is a scientific consensus that global warming is real and the human activity is largely responsible. This is reflected in the most recent report by International Panel on Climate Change, which was vigorously reviewed and accepted by thousands of scientists, and every peer-reviewed journal article since 1993.
Bush is way out of the mainstream on global warming. You just wouldn’t know it by reading Newsweek.
ThinkFast AM: July 10, 2006
Karl Rove was asked about the outing of Valerie Plame last week. He reportedly said that after a “careful, thoughtful, aggressive investigation,” the person responsible for leaking should be fired.
Do-nothing Congress. Lawmakers return today “from a weeklong break [and] will resume work on a long list of unfinished — and possibly insurmountable – tasks.” Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), said: “I’m not sure what this Congress has accomplished.”
Insiders tell U.S. News that President Bush has been working on a memoirs project for a year. “‘He’s doing a memoir,’ one insider says. ‘He’s keenly interested in it.’ But here’s the odd part: Bush hasn’t actually written a word yet.”
In Jan. 2002, State Department lawyers warned the White House against creating a “lawless” universe where detainees had no rights: “Even those terrorists captured in Afghanistan…are entitled to the fundamental humane treatment standards of…the Geneva Conventions.”
“Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq’s police force,” according to confidential Iraqi government documents. Abuses include the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, and participation in insurgent bombings. Read more
