The president has consistently portrayed the very fact that the Iraqi elections were held as a form of victory for our policies. The American media have, by and large, been willing to go along with the portrayal, at least during this interim period as we wait for the final vote counts.
Some foreign and independent sources, however, have already analyzed the partial returns and concluded that it's not looking good, if your definition of "good" is a functioning democracy in Iraq which is inclusive, secular, and, most of all, friendly to the US.
That's not too surprising given that we boxed ourselves into that very corner by creating a strong anti-American public sentiment which pretty much guaranteed votes to candidates who bashed us, while denying votes to any candidates we are known to favor.
Check these views out.
I don't believe the AP actually publishes stuff this insane!!!!!!!!
Just a quick reminder: Due to the changes here at WTW, I am now the custodian of the WTW mailbox!
Since posting the piece about Bush's specious justifications for his warrantless wiretap program I've been wondering what the wingers were going to pull to make Bush's warrantless wiretap program sound more palatable to their faithful. Here's a shock--first indications are their going to try to pull the old "Carter & Clinton did it too" trick which...also won't fly.
For example, check out the piece on Free Republic which reproduces Jimmy Carter's Executive Order No. 12139, in full and accurately, then summarizes it inaccurately as saying "[T]he Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section."
On the surface it sure seems to make the fuss over Bush seem silly. But, as you probably guessed by now, Carter's Order is much more limited and very different from Bush's program.
Another sign that America is getting sick & tired of business at the White House being conducted like it was a private business?? The Washington Post Link: reports that one member of the panel of judges that sit on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has resigned in response to the revelations about the president's warrantless wiretap program.
According to two associates of the Judge, James Robertson, he was concerned that the President's program "may have tainted the FISA court's work."
Remember the late Harry Chapin?
"Dance band on the Titanic.."
I can't help it, I keep seeing parallels between the rise of Fascism in Germany in the 1930s and what we're experiencing in America today. That's "parallels," not "an exact replica," but the parallels are strong enough to bother me.
This is all triggered by a 12-18-05 NY Times Book Review piece by Brian Ladd, reviewing the book "The Third Reich in Power," by Richard J. Evans.
Remember the solemn assurances from the military brass and their Pentagon bosses that the pro-American stories planted in the Iraqi press by the Lincoln Group were just a misunderstanding? That, in fact, maybe Lincoln had breached their contract with the military, maybe they would be sued or something?
Don't hold your breath waiting for the military to sue Lincoln, if there's any truth to an LA Times story this past Sunday.
Oh, God, this is so good! Raw Story has a killer piece...
So the president has come out swinging against critics of his plan that allows phone taps and other spying on people in the US without any oversight by a court. No Oversight. Not even by the incredibly accommodating and secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approved all 1,758 applications for secret surveillance in 2004 according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Imagine--not a single applications for secret surveillance was denied in 2004. Now that's a tough sell for intelligence people trying to get approval.
Doesn't matter. The prez today was angry, boy, real angry. Adamant and angry. As he spoke, you could almost hear the behind the scenes handlers explaining that initial public reaction to the revelations of the secret program were "bad, Mr. President, real bad. Your best hope is to not only acknowledge it, but come across as indignant that anyone would deny you such authority in a time of war." And they gave him lots of things to say, too, did a real good job of arming him with defenses, explanations, and justifications. So he proudly declared, with all the conviction he could muster, "I`ve reauthorized this program more than 30 times since September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill our American citizens." It's almost as in-your-face as the old "Yeah? Well, your mamma."
If only they had a few explanations & justifications that could actually fly. All the ones the prez dredged up seem to be wingless creatures, and heavy ones at that. The kind that just might make good anchors as time goes by. They just don't make a bit of sense. Not a bit.
The prez offered up the following main claims:
I'm authorized by Article II of the Constitution.
I'm authorized by the joint congressional resolution that authorized me to use military force against Iraq.
We only spy on bad guys we've already come to suspect are connected to terrorists.
Things in the intelligence field move too quickly for us to always be able to go get a court authorization.
So lets take a closer peek at each.
