As we drift toward the 6th year of a particularly nasty century, much of America's attention remains on Iraq. This is partly because we still have more than 150,000 Americans roaming that country, and partly because we now have so much political, economic, and social capital invested there.
The White House and many in the mainstream media continue to push the idea that we're making "progress" and they point to the recent elections, rebuilding projects to restore the infrastructure of Iraq, and the like. Many others point to the apparently growing dislike of our presence and our policies, and predict that the touted elections will be the first step in a process that ends with an Iraqi government as hostile to the U.S. as Iran is.
Below is a summary of some recent news on the subject. Check out this Media Matters story debunking 12 myths about Bush's warrantless spying program.
If only a few of the mainstream media reporters would check it out. How many times have you seen a news show do a lead-in promising that their reporter really asked Bush, Cheney or another one of "them" the hard questions about the warrantless spying program? How many times has the actual interview clip included a hard question, or a follow-up to the politician's nonanswer? I know this is Hell, so why is it so cold?
The numbers change all the time, but...as of 7:20 pm on 12-23-05, 85% of more than 137,00 respondents to a "live" MSNBC poll thought Bush's actions justified impeachment.
And, World Net Daily, of all places, has a column examining Bush's many abuses of power, and noting that 45% of respondents to a World Net poll thought Bush should be impeached.
A friend sends me this about how the long train of "interventionist" stuff we do is going to "blowback" in our faces. If you want to laugh yourself silly and get so depressed you wish you were laughing, pretty much at the same time, check out America Blog's piece on the former National Security Administration Director's explanation of why they didn't bother to get after-the-fact FISA approval for the secret wiretaps.
A little piece:
"The whole key here is agility," [Gen. Michael Hayden] said at a White House briefing before Bush's news conference. According to Hayden, most warrantless surveillance conducted under Bush's authorization lasts just days or weeks, and requires only the approval of a shift supervisor. Hayden said getting retroactive court approval is inefficient because it "involves marshaling arguments" and "looping paperwork around." 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." |
