Sure am gonna miss this guy:
President Bush called for a “compassionate” Republican Party and warned against the GOP becoming “anti-immigrant” in one of his last interviews as president, defending his vision of the party, which has become unpopular among some Republicans.
No word yet on how launching unprovoked wars and torturing people fit into the compassion frame.
UPDATE: I forgot about the time Bush showed compassion by vetoing health care for poor children.
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber,” is currently in Israel covering the war for the conservative site PJTV.com. When asked what he has learned from his new experiences as a journalist, Wurzelbacher said that he believes the media shouldn’t be allowed to do “reporting” on wars:
I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for’em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer–and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.
I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, “Well look at this atrocity,” well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.
Watch it:
(HT: VetVoice)
Ana Marie Cox outlines “The New D.C. Status Symbols”:
Other towns may measure status by your address, your alma mater, your income, or your shoes, but in political Washington right now there is only one barometer of anyone’s importance: How close are you to Obama? Here’s how to tell.
One sign:
You have something to do with the Center for American Progress. Founded by John Podesta in 2003, it started out as a kind of home for Clinton administration alumni. As Podesta’s relationship with Obama has grown (he’s now head of the transition), it’s become one of the only local institutions with a direct line to the future residents and staff of the White House.
It’s true. The influence of this blog and it’s humble author cannot be overstated. This is why come spring Obama is actually going to require the death penalty for anyone who spends March watching college basketball players fail to score against slow, inept defenses and praising them for their “teamwork” and mastery of the “fundamentals.”
Jim Henley offers a provocative thought:
The United States government has always engaged in war crimes and human rights violations. What’s different this decade is that, under the leadership of a terrible president, our elites have become vociferous advocates of the goodness and rightness of war crimes and human rights violations.
There’s something to that. According to the perverse rules of our post-9/11 discourse, willingness to verbally endorse the idea of having other people torture strangers counts as a form of courageous “toughness” akin to, you know, actually doing something brave. And the rot has, I’m afraid, spread pretty far.
After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush famously declared that he would capture Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” However, less than a year later — in March 2002 — Bush said that he was “not that concerned” about the al Qaeda leader. Today on CNN’s Late Edition, host Wolf Blitzer asked Vice President Cheney, “How frustrating is this to you personally, knowing he’s [bin Laden] still at large?” Cheney hesitated, then simply replied that he would “obviously…like to solve that problem.” He added that it’s more “important” to “keep…this country safe,” indicating that bin Laden is inconsequential. Watch it:
Because of the Iraq war, the CIA has been unable to devote enough resources to capturing bin Laden, as Newsweek revealed in 2005. Lacking this attention, U.S. News reported in 2007 that senior officials were privately admitting that bin Laden and his network may be “stronger than ever.”
Since I had to read some classes about the Korean War in college, I know what a reference to “unleashing Chiang” means. But I would easily forgive a person for not knowing. It’s slightly obscure, and many people don’t know about the early days of the conservative movement in which they were every bit as crazy as they are today, but it wasn’t considered fashionable to pretend they weren’t crazy. But as Brad DeLong argues it takes a special kind of idiot to be going around making references to “unleashing Chiang” while having absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
And yet here’s Jeb Bush, the less stupid of George H.W. Bush’s sons:
Bush then unsheathed a golden sword and gave it to Rubio as a gift. “I’m going to bestow to you the sword of a great conservative warrior,” he said, as the crowd roared. The crowd, however, could be excused for not understanding Bush’s enigmatic foray into the realm of Eastern mysticism. We’re here to help. In a 1989 Washington Post article on the politics of tennis, former President George Bush was quoted as threatening to “unleash Chang” as a means of intimidating other players. The saying was apparently quite popular with Gov. Bush’s father, and referred to a legendary warrior named Chang who was called upon to settle political disputes in Chinese dynasties of yore. The phrase has evolved, under Gov. Jeb Bush’s use, to mean the need to fix conflicts or disagreements over an issue. Faced with a stalemate, the governor apparently “unleashes Chang” as a rhetorical device, signaling it’s time to stop arguing and start agreeing. No word on if Rubio will unleash Chang, or the sword, as he faces squabbles in the future.
Jeb is badly confused here. His father wasn’t going to “unleash Chang” he was going to “unleash Chiang.” And “Chiang” wasn’t an ancient Chinese warrior, he was a mid-twentieth century would-be dictator of China. Jeb’s dad was making a joke about the wingnuts within his own party, the MacArthur and McCarthy followers who believed that the Truman administration administration was deliberately failing to defeat Chinese Communism by keeping Chiang locked up in Taiwan.
And just remember: Jeb Bush will be President of the United States one day. Most likely in 2016, but possibly in 2012 or 2020 depending on the course of events. The Republicans are bound to win one of these days, and they just can’t quit to Bush family.
The stimulus money coming down the pike is a great opportunity for local governments and transit agencies to try to make the case for funding important priorities. Unfortunately, when WMATA sat down to talk about what kind of projects they had that fit the criteria for economic stimulus, they only came up with $529 million worth of stuff. That’s better than being dishonest and trying to get their hands on billions of dollars worth of money to go waste.
But it also reflects a failure of vision, planning, and leadership. A well-run agency ought not become so cowed by the narrow horizons of conventional political wisdom that it’s left with this little to ask for when the situation changes.
In an interview with Brit Hume that aired today on Fox News Sunday, President Bush admitted that he personally authorized the torture of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He said he personally asked “what tools” were available to use on him, and sought legal approval for waterboarding him:
BUSH: One such person who gave us information was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. … And I’m in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him and they gave me a list of tools, and I said are these tools deemed to be legal? And so we got legal opinions before any decision was made.
Watch it:
Bush staunchly defended the program, saying it saved American lives — despite interrogators’ claims to the contrary. He waved away the debate over torture by saying dismissively, “Look, I understand why people can get carried away on this issue.”
Last year, Bush admitted that he was “aware” that his national security team met to discuss KSM’s interrogation, and that he approved of the meeting. His admission today suggests Bush had a far more direct role in developing the specific torture program, which included waterboarding, a freezing cell, and long periods of standing and stress positions (all of which have long been considered torture).
What’s more, a former Pentagon intelligence analyst told Vanity Fair that “K.S.M. produced no actionable intelligence“; another former CIA official, who read all the reports from KSM’s interrogation, said, “90 percent of it was total f*cking bullsh*t.”
I asserted in Part 1 that economists don’t understand climate science. Exhibit 1 would be Robert Mendelsohn, an economics professor at Yale University, whose “research” has prompted headlines in our neighbor up north like “A warmer climate could hold lots of benefits for Canada” and “The UP side of global warming“:
Leading the charge is Robert Mendelsohn, an economics professor at Yale University, who says the benefits of global warming for Canada — from a longer growing season to the opening up of shipping through the Northwest Passage — will outweigh the negative effects.
“You’re lucky because you’re a northern-latitude country, Mendelsohn says. “If you add it all up, it’s a good thing for Canada.”
This series will have three recurring themes about Voodoo Economists aka Mainstream Economists who Opine on Weather (MEOWs):
For instance, you would never know from this article — or any of Mendelsohn’s comments — that Canada is already suffering widespread and completely unpredicted devastation from climate change, as I’ve written (see “Climate-Driven Pest Devours N. American Forests” and “Nature on stunning new climate feedback: Beetle tree kill releases more carbon than fires“):
Powered by NewsWhip
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
About ThinkProgress | Contact Us | Donate
