The Impolitic

Cheney's mysterious CIA program

2009-07-14T16:20:00.002-04:00

There's a lot of conflicting reports and analyses on CIA program that Cheney ordered to kept secret -- from everyone. The mainstream narrative being pushed is that it was a simple covert assassination program, targeting only leading AQ operatives overseas. I find that hard to buy myself. I'm lining up behind TPM who thinks something is not adding up to the total picture just yet.

So regardless of how you might feel about targeted assassinations, it's not at all clear why this particular program would be so radioactive -- compared to what the U.S. was, and still is, doing more or less openly -- that (1) Cheney would demand the CIA not brief Congress about it for eight years; (2) Panetta would cancel it immediately upon learning of it; and (3) Democrats would howl quite so loudly when finally informed.

Of course, as Steve points out, a secret assassination squad was outed by Sy Hersch back in March. But that doesn't really explain why it's a story now. No one was overly concerned then. I think it's far more likely that they had potential targets in the US. For all we know, they might have eliminated a few designated enemy combatants.

Of course, that's pure speculation on my part. Still, it seems highly unlikely we have the whole story yet.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Hoping Hilzoy fails

2009-07-14T13:33:00.003-04:00

Sad news. Hilzoy says she's going to hang up her keyboard and is off to pursue other adventures. It's a great loss. She's one of the most thoughtful and clear voices we have. But then again, many have tried to leave Blogtopia and ended up coming back -- sooner or later.

So while I, of course, wish her well on her chosen path; I can't help but selfishly hope that she also fails and finds she can't really stay away.

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Lifting Fogg

2009-07-14T13:04:00.003-04:00

I spent some time cleaning up my blogroll this weekend. Half the blogs were sleeping or dead, but gratefully Capt. Fogg is still going full steam ahead, powered on pure eloquence. Smart take on Pat Buchanan's lousy joke.

It used to be easier to dismiss the man as a fringe element kook, but in our new Republican party where yesterday's sludge is today's creme de la creme, Buchanan, the man whose record of anti-Semitism, opposition to every piece of civil rights legislation marks him like Cain and who advocated that Nixon commit felony obstruction of justice, still seems more respectable than his younger brethren in bombast.

Sadly, this is true. Buchanan is still on the air because he dares to say what the others are thinking but are afraid to say out loud. And compared to the screechers, he does look at least polite in his well grounded bigotry.
Meanwhile, at Fogg's own place, you should really just start at the top and scroll, but here's a couple of delicious quotes for your afternoon fare. On the Sotomayor hearings.

Turn on C-Span this morning and you have the same white collar bigotry from the same, expensively dressed, white Anglo-Saxon senators from the same tradition and the same party that fought school segregation, supported restricted real estate markets and hotels and caressed their bibles while telling us it was and should be a felony to marry outside your race.

And home from the sea.

Heading due North, the blue hull cuts through the swells and we're free of the land and its barbarism for a while.

If only it were as easy to escape the smell of religion, the reek of stupidity and the stench of bigotry.

No escape, but at least the sea air masks the misama. Read it in full.

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Wingnuts to CIA - you can call me Al

2009-07-14T11:48:00.003-04:00

A man walks down the street, He says, Why am I short of attention? Got a short little span of attention... ~Paul Simon.

The wingers are in full outrage mode about the Democrats' "war on the CIA." Marc Thiessen today in the National Review (No, I'm not going to link to it.)

These latest attacks on the CIA will only serve to put the agency even further on the defensive when we really need the on the offensive against the terrorists. The men and women of the CIA were vilified after 9/11 for failing to connect the dots and stop the attack. Now they are being vilified for doing what was necessary to connect the dots and stop the next 9/11.

With these actions the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are making another terrorist attack more likely. This is irresponsible, dangerous, and Americans may die as a result.

But remember when Wingnuttians hated the CIA for undermining the war on terra? From a National Review editorial on 5-8-06:

During the Bush presidency, however, the agency has not been content with subtly pushing its own agenda while underperforming its nominal mission. It has run amok. In fact, it worked assiduously—though unsuccessfully—to depose the administration in the 2004 election, and since then has continued brazenly undermining Bush’s foreign policy.

Need a photo-opportunity, want a shot at redemption...

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Really obscene jokes

2009-07-13T20:03:00.002-04:00

They were throwing themselves on the fainting couch over Marcy's dirty word, but everyone laughed at Pat Buchanan's truly obscene joke. To be fair, MSNBC did also apologize for this segment but you'll notice a marked difference in the tenor.

Love those Village rules. Using an common euphemism for a sexual act that spawned a ridiculous multi-million dollar investigation is a horrible breach, but violent ideation is just good, clean fun, as long as one of their own does it. And they wonder why I stopped watching teevee?

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Marcy blows MSNBC away

2009-07-13T19:38:00.002-04:00

Blogger extraordinaire emptywheel, a/k/a Marcy Wheeler, dared to utter the word blowjob on MSNBC during a segment about appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Bush regime war crimes.

As Jane Hamsher later pointed out, it's pretty effin' comical that after weeks of making tea bagger jokes, the hosts felt compelled to apologize for Marcy's "outburst." Screw that. Blowjob is a word in the dictionary. It made perfect sense in context. And it's not on the fabled 7 dirty words list.

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Honduras unspun

2009-07-13T15:55:00.002-04:00

I haven't really been following this story but my friend and journalist Jules Siegel, who has been living in Mexico since 1981, has studied the situtation and has a somewhat contrarian take compared to the know nothing US reporters.

Still not clear to me to me what the US could or should be doing. Historically, we never seem to be on the correct side in the coups.

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Primary Succession

2009-07-13T11:57:00.001-04:00

I'm no fan of Jon Chait but I'm glad to see him take up the idea I've been pushing for years. That being primary challenges to "moderate" Dems, a/k/a pols who sell out to their corporate overlords.

Chait suggests the primary challenge should only be strong enough to scare the recalcitrant Dems into compliance with the big agenda issues. Screw that. Pols like DiFi have sold out so regularly to deep pocket contributors, I want progressive challengers who can win. Even if that means that a newcomer would lose to a Republican.

What difference would it really make as long as the incumbent is voting along the GOP line anyway? At least that way the bad votes aren't tainting the Democratic party brand.

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In the interests of my mental health

2009-07-12T21:48:00.001-04:00

Although the faint rumble about her starting a "true conservative" third party was an entertaining thought, I've temporarily declared myself a no-Palin zone. Ping me when she's does something I don't expect.

The only thing worth reading about her is John McCain's take on her new quit to win strategy as translated at Bobblespeak. CoT bravely watches the bobbleheads every week so he can render the transcripts for those of us who can longer tolerate direct exposure to the Sunday stupid.

Completely unrelated, the novelty of Twitter hasn't worn off yet, so I've been hanging there a bit today and found Greg Mitchell's photo gallery of vacation photos. Some nice shots.

But this is really picture of the day. Cat on a supertrain.

Also, in retrospect, taking an hour long recreational walk when the temperature was 91 degrees, was probably not the best idea I've ever had.

Update: 50 Years of Moon Exploration and a bunch more space related milestones.

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What, me worry?

2009-07-12T11:46:00.002-04:00

Should I be concerned that Karl Rove is now following me on Twitter?

All the news that's fit to leak

2009-07-12T11:39:00.002-04:00

As has become customary, these are attributed to anonymous sources, but very interesting if true. It certainly seems plausible that Cheney was directly involved in deceiving Congress.

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday. [...]

Intelligence and Congressional officials have said the unidentified program did not involve the C.I.A. interrogation program and did not involve domestic intelligence activities. They have said the program was started by the counterterrorism center at the C.I.A. shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year.

Hmmm. Wonder if that has anything to do with Cheney's extended SS protection? Also wondering how many other secret programs they had that we may never find out about. And any bets on whether Fox News will ever ask him about it?

Meanwhile, in a related development, what will Holder do?

Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do.

"I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president's agenda," he says. "But that can't be a part of my decision."

All the smart people are already blogging on this so I'm just going to say, "I'll believe it when I see it." If memory serves, I've heard this rumor before.

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Unprecedented protection for Cheney

2009-07-11T13:23:00.002-04:00

Customarily vice president's don't get to keep their Secret Service detail but in Cheney's case, they made an exception and extended Cheney's protection for the foreseeable future. Probably a good idea that Obama signed off on it. Considering the guy is more universally hated than Castro, Chavez and root canals, he probably needs it. Word has it he's still getting regular death threats.

In un-related neo-con news, Karl Rove is asking for help in naming his memoirs. I'll be happy to pass on any suggestions if you're not on Twitter yourselves.

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They like to watch - part two

2009-07-11T13:14:00.001-04:00

A lot more on Bush's President's Surveillance Program today. The CIA was more actively involved than anyone admitted at the time. It appears they basically functioned as the rubberstamp. "According to the report, CIA would prepare a threat briefing for President Bush justifying the need for such surveillance."

My pal, mikevotes has more links on the political pressure exerted in preparing the so-called threat assessments. Also the reviews show "not enough relevant officials were aware of the size and depth of the program."

"The Bush White House pulled in a great quantity of information far beyond the warrantless wiretapping previously acknowledged..."

"We also learned that George Bush himself was the one who ordered Gonzales to John Ashcroft's post surgery bedside looking for a signature of approval after Comey refused." Apparently it was also Bush who called Ashcroft's room at the time of that ghoulish power play. And as always, much more commentary at Memeorandum.

I have a feeling if we ever find out the full extent of this regime's criminality, it will almost defy human comprehension.

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It would be irresponsible not to speculate

2009-07-10T20:08:00.001-04:00

Ewww! Way TMI. David Brooks must have been mocked for being too prissy after his loss of dignity column because he said he was "trying not to be too dignified and stuffy" when he shared his secret Senatorial flirting story on teevee.

BROOKS: You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and I don’t know about you guys, but in my view, they’re all emotional freaks of one sort or another. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, ehh, get me out of here.

Maybe he could have excused himself to go use the men's room. Oh wait...

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They like to watch

2009-07-10T19:55:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn the President’s Surveillance Program under Bush was pretty much useless as far as "thwarting any terrorist plots" despite the oft repeated claims stating its great value. “[M]ost PSP leads were determined not to have any connection to terrorism,” according to the Justice Department’s inspector general."

In fact, although some of the inside players continue to insist it was a help in fighting terrorism, most defenders couldn't name any specific instance where the domestic surveillance had prevented any kind of attack.

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Where were you when we needed you?

2009-07-10T10:54:00.001-04:00

Don't get me wrong. I think it's great that the House pushed back against Obama's signing statement seeking to hold the World Bank and IMF accountable. Certainly the wording of the statement sounds like something straight out of the Bush White House.

The conditions on World Bank and IMF funding were part of the $106 billion war supplemental bill that was passed last month. Obama, in a statement made as he signed the bill, said that he would ignore the conditions.

They would "interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions," Obama said in the signing statement.

..Senior Democrats and Republicans railed against the notion that the president could ignore a law they had passed and he had signed.

Great. We need this kind of pushback on executive over-reach, not to mention the long overdue checks on IMF and World Bank. But I really wish they could have drummed up some of that outrage during any one of the 800+ times Bush did the same thing. For instance, it would have been really nice if they had used this trick to prevent Bush's declaration of an open license for torture.

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Ba da Bing

2009-07-09T22:30:00.002-04:00

There's a new search engine in town. Bing. The tech guy at NYT says it could be the next big thing. I tried it briefly. It was pretty good. I bookmarked it for further investigation but when I needed to search for something this afternoon, I used google. Force of habit is a strong barrier for Bing to break.

Michael Moore announced the name of his new documentary. Capitalism: A Love Story. I'm betting it has an unhappy ending.

And thanks to Twitter, I discovered some cigar box ukeleles. Really too cool. I happen to have a cigar box. I'm tempted to try making one.

Twitter btw, is turning out to be better than I thought it would be. It makes more sense once you have an account and can read the whole public thread. Gives it more context. I'm still figuring out how it works, but it's more manageable and interesting than I expected. And it gives you the ability to, in effect, IM the legacy media with pithy comments of 140 characters or less. So there's that.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

It's okay if you're a 'serious' journalist

2009-07-09T16:21:00.001-04:00

After all the all the outraged howling about the White House "managing" the media when President Obama "broke protocol" and called on a lowly blogger at that presser, there's a marked absence of complaints about this cozy little gathering at the White House

Reporters from roughly 30 television networks, newspapers, magazines, and web sites celebrated the Fourth of July with Barack Obama at the White House last weekend. Why didn't you know that? Because they were sworn to secrecy.

... Gawker has learned that the White House gave tickets to virtually every major news organization that covers the president—the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, CBS News, and so on, about 30 in all.

The "reporters" were invited on the condition that they not blog, twitter or otherwise mention that they were there. Any coverage was limited to one lonely pool reporter who was apparently kept at bay in some corner until the President made his remarks. Indeed in the coverage the next day, Mike Allen of Politico deleted the reference to his having been sighted at the festivities.

Now you might have thought that the entitled ethics police of the press corp would have refused to attend unless they were free to put it on the record. I seem to recall when that was a major protocol honored in the industry. But I guess some protocols are more important than others. Apparently, only the ones that bruise the egos in the club of unearned privilege count.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Then find a new a line of work

2009-07-09T15:38:00.001-04:00

Dealing a blow to wingnut pharmacists in Washington State, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit lifted a lower court injunction, saying pharmacists had no grounds under freedom of religion to refuse to dispense the 'morning after' contraceptive Plan B.

The right to freely exercise one's religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability," the 9th Circuit panel wrote.

"Any refusal to dispense -- regardless of whether it is motivated by religion, morals, conscience, ethics, discriminatory prejudices, or personal distaste for a patient -- violates the rules," the panel said.

The pharmacists are furious of course. "They said that the new regulations would force them to choose between keeping their jobs and heeding their religious objections to a medication they regard as a form of abortion." Cry me a river. Their job is to dispense legal medications as prescribed by physicians. If they want to drag their religion into their work, they should have gone into the clergy.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Blood lines

2009-07-09T15:00:00.000-04:00

Hmmm. Who else was it that was concerned about the purity of race? Oh yeah. Hitler. No wonder his name falls so easily from the wingnuts' lips. But of course, when it comes to power grabs -- GOPers are the masters.

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Q & A

2009-07-08T19:14:00.002-04:00

Shorter Krugman: Why don't they ever put any dirty effin' hippies on the teevee?

Answer: Because being right about what's wrong is seriously bad for bizness.

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The Mysterious Miss Palin

2009-07-08T11:27:00.002-04:00

I really don't want to talk about Palin, but it's like driving by a wreck on the highway. You don't really want to look, but you can't help yourself. Morbid curiousity wins every time. Besides, this post is really about her fan base. Thers uncovers a gem today. This quote really does deserve to be archived for history.

Her strength in this regard is obscured at the moment because that agenda and message is a mystery at present.

Priceless. And I went to her Facebook fan club page for the first time today. It moves fast but there's a treasure trove of hysterical research for future historians. Two of my favs that have probably disappeared by now:

David Missita: Dear Miss Governor Sarah, please know (as heart knowledge) that there are "more for you" that love you and are rooting for you, no matter what! I know I'm not the only one who loves you for who you are and what you stand for. You've got a way and style that is "UNIQUE" and that, scares the hell out of people! They realize they're messing with dynamite when they mess with you. Why else would anybody in a right mind attack you the way you've been treated? Why? Fear on their part. We stand behind you Sarah! We stand WITH you Sarah! We love and appreciate you GOVERNOR PALIN! Stand strong, you mighty woman.

Valerie Murden: I just had a vision...all of our forefathers who put their lives and families and blood on the line for this country...are standing up from beyond their graves and applauding Sarah.....she is well-backed and loved.....Go Sarah....

Never underestimate the capacity of people to adore complete strangers. It reminds me a debate I had a list serv years ago, about whether it was possible to honestly grieve over John Ritter's death.

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The power of pot

2009-07-08T10:33:00.000-04:00

It says something about the revenue driving power of marijana when LA can support over 600 medical marijuana dispensaries. In contrast, San Francisco has only about 30. But that's because of regulations, not demand.

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Ten second activism

2009-07-07T22:08:00.000-04:00

Haven't done a point and click activism in a while and this one is fun. Sign your name for a TV ad demanding a public option in the reform bill.

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Froomkin and Franken

2009-07-07T15:26:00.003-04:00

Some good news for a change. Dan Froomkin has a new job. Glenzilla has the long form version, along with the context, while Froomkin posts a brief announcement.

I'm delighted to announce that starting later this month, I'll be taking on the duties of Washington Bureau Chief and Blogger for The Huffington Post. [...]

I look forward to working with all my new colleagues to hold the powerful accountable, expose corruption, explain how Washington really works -- and write about politics and government not as if it were just a game, but recognizing that it matters profoundly to every one of us.

Meanwhile, Minnesota's newest Senator, Al Franken was sworn in this afternoon, using former Senator Paul Wellstone's bible. I'm sure I don't need to spell out the symbolism in that. I suspect that somewhere in the cosmos, Wellstone's spirit is smiling as broadly as I am.

Update: Think Progress has video of the swearing in. The applause is just as I had imagined it.

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