Political Bloviation

Ezra Klein: “Time to Talk to Iran”
A salivating ultra-hawk admits that the recent Iran NIE makes the chances of a strike against Iran extremely unlikely. Thank God.

CIA Destroyed Videos Showing Interrogations - washingtonpost.com
I’m sure they’re not reaaaaally hiding anything. Who wants a pesky smoking gun laying around? Obstruction of justice anyone?

Cheney: Iraq to be self-governing by 2009 - Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris - Politico.com
Vice President Cheney today predicted Iraq will be a self-governing democracy by the time he leaves office, calling the current U.S. surge strategy “a remarkable success story” that will be studied for years to come.
A miracle in [...]

BIG STORY: More gay men describe alleged sexual encounters with U.S. Sen. Craig, in detail, on tape - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth
Blowing strangers in bathroom stalls doesn’t make someone gay, right? Right??!?!
Give it up Larry, you’re busted!

US: Iran halted weapons program in 2003 - Yahoo! News
Wow that’s good news. I guess the president will have to back off the bellicose saber rattling directed at Iran, right?
No so much:
President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that Iran remains a danger despite a U.S. intelligence report that Tehran halted its atomic weapons program [...]

Daily Kos: National Review: GOP in Deep Doo-Doo
Wow, top conservatives admit that the GOP is in fact screwed. Rich Lowry must cried until his keyboard shorted out while writing this one.

If the WaPo editorial page say the Tax Fairy ain’t real, then it ain’t real.
Mr. Giuliani and the Tax Fairy - washingtonpost.com
“I KNOW THAT reducing taxes produces more revenues,” Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani declares in a new television ad launched Thursday. “Democrats don’t know that. They don’t believe it.”
There’s a good reason for [...]

Mandates and Mudslinging - New York Times
Krugman takes Obama to task for echoing GOP talking points in defending his health care  plan against attacks by the Clinton and Edwards campaigns. Obama only mandates children have coverage in his plan, not adults.  He sees this as a strength, inveighing against forcing people to buy coverage and [...]

Michelle Malkin » Memo to ABC, NYTimes: Terri Schiavo was not “brain dead”
I have a category for posts related to Terri Schiavo. I have followed the coverage of the case, read most of the court transcripts and the autopsy report. Her autopsy shows that her visual cortex was missing. I makes it a little more [...]

McClellan points finger at Bush, Rove - Mike Allen and Michael Calderone - Politico.com

The only thing notable about this is that Sweaty Scott blames his masters for feeding him lies. I wonder, does he blame his parents for his excessive credulity  and gullibility?

Reid may hold pro forma Senate sessions to block Bush recess appointments - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth
From Roll Call by way of Americablog, senate majority leader Harry Reid is going to block Bush recess appointments by not going into recess. He also calls into question the Chuck Schumer’s contention that he *had* [...]

I’ve been listening to CNN bitch about the accusation that a Clinton campaign staffer planted a question during an event. They never seem the least bit interested in noting that the Bush advance team goes to great lengths to make sure Dubya never gets a question harder than “Why are you so great at keeping [...]

‘Hidden Costs’ Double Price Of Two Wars, Democrats Say - washingtonpost.com
Did $1.5 trillion get us more secure? Buy an awe-inspiring display of American military might? Cheaper oil? A sound dollar? Exactly what did we purchase for so high a price? A generation of hatred? Worldwide disdain? A near total loss of moral authority on the [...]

Talking Points Memo | Inside the Bush Bubble
“By almost all accounts, this Administration has done more to improve government effectiveness than any previous Administration, ever.”
–Clay Johnson, Bush buddy turned deputy director of OMB who also chairs the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which oversees all government inspectors general.
Exactly how does he define “by most [...]

Intelligence deputy to America: Rethink privacy - CNN.com
Anyone who would trust the government on this is a deluded fool

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
As I watched event in Pakistan over the weekend I noted that a huge number of lawyers put their careers, bodies and lives on the line in protest of an obvious usurpation of power. I keep thinking that we’d never see a similar spectacle in the US. Not that [...]

House Democrats Press Bush on Subpoenas - washingtonpost.com
House Democrats threatened Monday to hold President Bush’s key confidants in contempt of Congress unless they comply with subpoenas for information on the Justice Department’s purge of federal prosecutors last winter.
The White House shrugged off the ultimatum, saying the information is off-limits under executive privilege and that the [...]

Keith on the significance of the Daniel Levin story. It was revealed that Levin, an Assistant Attorney General had himself water boarded to determine that it was ethically, legally and morally torture:
The presidency of George W. Bush is a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.
Levin was fired for daring to not [...]

ABC News: White House Blocked Waterboarding Critic
A senior Justice Department official, charged with reworking the administration’s legal position on torture in 2004 became so concerned about the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding that he decided to experience it firsthand, sources told ABC News.
Daniel Levin, then acting assistant attorney general, went to a military base near [...]

Crooks and Liars » Rev. Fred Phelps loses 11 million in lawsuit—cries: “Hogwash!”
I wonder why CNN wanted to give this person airtime? All he did was make an ass out of himself and never even attempted to address any questions in an intelligible way.