Bushists Act As Uniters Not Dividers of US Military Rivals
Wed Aug 08, 2007 at 11:52:59 AM PDT
Bush-Cheney Policies Help Revive Russo-Chinese Military Alliance
The implementation of Bush-Cheney Foreign Policy, 2001-2007, has succeeded in reviving strategic and tactical Russian-Chinese military ties for the first time since the Russo-Chinese Military Alliance split apart over three decades ago. US Foreign Policy from Nixon-Kissinger on tried to help make this split permanent, and to cultivate separate relationships between the US and China, and the US and Russia, on two separate tracks.
Now, thanks largely to Bush’s "Bring ‘em all on" approach to world diplomacy, and to the inept, misguided, and badly informed Bush-Cheney operators in the State Dept. (John Bolton & Co.), this military alliance has been revived. Through a series of strategic and tactical blunders, Bush-Cheney policies have helped revive a long-past Russo-Chinese alliance, now known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which certainly is potentially not good news for the United States, in the short or the long term.
In fact, many analysts regard the new SCO Organization as a potential global challenge to NATO, which is now at least nominally in charge of our own military operations in Afghanistan.
One More Guantanamo Injustice
Sat May 19, 2007 at 04:00:23 AM PDT
A US Navy lawyer was just found guilty of mailing a list of detainees, concealed inside a Valentine's card, to a US legal rights organization in New York, while he was stationed at Guantanamo Bay in 2005. The Lt. Commander USN apologised during his sentencing, for having acted "irrationally".
This trial, reported on by the BBC, which also deserves headline attention in this country, was, to say the least, Kafkaesque. The same information this principled US Navy lawyer felt conscience-bound to make public back in 2005, and was tried for revealing in mid-2007, had already been officially made public as the result of a US court order in 2006.
What he did had already been vindicated by a US Court, in response to a freedom-of-information suit by the AP (hardly a subversive organization). But on the watch of the Commander Guy, no authentically ethical action ever goes unpunished, while Wolfowitz gets a leaving-bonus for his reward--about the same amount as the insurance money for one of our soldiers killed in the Iraq War.
Gonzales Has Lots To Answer For Tuesday
Sat Apr 14, 2007 at 05:29:50 AM PDT
But so do many others, as more truth begins to emerge--
The attorney general's former top aide identified five Bush administration insiders as potential replacements for sitting U.S. attorneys months before those prosecutors were fired, contrary to repeated suggestions from the Justice Department that no such list had been drawn up, according to documents released yesterday.
But the spin seems to focus in on recent Gonzales aide, and longtime personal govt.-paid counsel to the over-righteous Judiciary Committee Member Sen. (R Utah) Orrin B. Hatch, Sampson, more than Gonzales himself.
E-mails sent to the White House in January and May of 2006 by D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, name potential replacements for U.S. attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco, Little Rock and Grand Rapids.
Though Gonzales and Sampson apparently had first tried to pin it all on Rove--
US Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule
Mon Jun 05, 2006 at 08:36:18 AM PDT
We keep hearing about "humane reforms" in the MSM, but news like this tells us that we have many miles to go in the quest to carry out our pledge of "justice for all."
The reported "State Dept. Opposition" may be a hopeful note, and may also confirm that Rumsfeld really is the main man, at the center of the torturers' spider web
The Pentagon's move to omit a ban on prisoner humiliation from the basic guide to soldier conduct faces strong State Dept. opposition.
By Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writer
June 5, 2006
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times today
The Rise of Dick Cheney - An American Success Story?
Sun Jan 08, 2006 at 09:33:23 AM PDT
BETWEEN THE BOOKENDS: A POLITICO-LITERARY REVIEW OF:
The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Most Powerful Vice President in American History, by John Nichols. New York: New Press, 2005. ISBN 1-59558-025-5
Many of us have awaited the book about Vice President Cheney, a book that would finally reveal what motivates this man standing at the right hand of Bush, what his real background is, and what his long-term political agenda has been and will be. This book by John Nichols does all these things very thoroughly. But the real surprise after reading it is that we realize we knew the answers all along. Another surprise is that this really does seem to be the serious book about Cheney. (Dick: The Man Who is President, also by Nichols, turns out be the title of the hardcover version of this book.) The fact that no one has yet published a serious pro-Cheney biography is yet another revelation.
BETWEEN THE BOOKENDS: THE CHRISTMAS WARS
Sun Dec 25, 2005 at 12:01:15 PM PDT
A Review of John Gibson's The War on Christmas (ISBN 1-59523-016-5)
The idea that sinister elements outside the mainstream of the American Heartland are plotting to "take the Christ out of Christmas" is not an original or a new one. It has a clear pedigree, one deeply grounded in old-time prejudices and bigotry.
Bush-Rice Policies in Practice: Failures on Eight Fronts
Tue Dec 13, 2005 at 05:28:01 AM PDT
A war and its fearsome consequences: How the world has changed post-Iraq
By Anne Penketh
The Independent, 13 December 2005
1000 Days of Failure
President Bush said yesterday that 'the year 2005 will be a turning point in the history of freedom'. But since the start of the war the days have been littered with unintended consequences.
The only people who seem unaware of the massive failures of our country's foreign policy, military strategy, and public diplomacy in general are the 42% of our fellow-citizens who blindly support the Bush administration. These blind supporters are partly products of the air-brushed images projected by the US MSM. Our Secretary of State, when asked about unfavorable opinion polls, told us that, as a "social scientist," she doubted the validity of such polls. She has adopted a "mirror mirror on the wall" policy, and we don't seem to have any MSM mirrors that present a true image of events for the American people to see.
Cato Institute Libertarians on Free Trade--in Afghan Opium
Sat Nov 19, 2005 at 08:00:01 AM PDT
Taking Free Market Reforms Far Afield
Arguing that free trade in opium allows "democracy" to grow as well shows how really far "Libertarians" can go wrong when they set their minds to it.
There is apparently a move to "legalize" the opium trade in Afghanistan, at the same time that the medical use of marijuana remains illegal in most of the United States.
From Asia Times
Afghan drug problem solved, praise the laudanum
By Ramtanu Maitra
Asia Times Online, Nov 16 05
Reports indicate the West is now working toward a "solution" to the opium explosion in Afghanistan, namely the licensing of legal opium production for medical purposes.
PATRICK FITZGERALD-- CRUSADING CRIMEFIGHTER DOES IT AGAIN
Fri Nov 18, 2005 at 05:25:51 AM PDT
From
Haaretz Today
U.S. orders arrest of former Jerusalem Post owner Conrad Black
By DPA
14:30 18/11/2005
Prosecutor Fitzgerald is cleaning out the Augean Stable of Right-Wing Corruption. Let's hope that he goes after even bigger sharks soon. Woodward is nothing more than a smelt swimming in this sea of corruption, but Conrad Black is the Moby Dick of right-wing news moguls.
Conrad Black, the conservative media mogul who has headed some of the world's largest papers, was charged Thursday with a $51.8 million fraud.
The 11-count indictment against Black and three fellow former executives were unsealed in Chicago, bringing to a head several years of legal entanglements over his allegedly fraudulent behavior.
Prosecutors issued a warrant for Black's arrest and offered him a chance to turn himself in. U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who is also handling the high-profile CIA leak case involving the White House, said the U.S. would seek extradition if Black does not comply.
THE KOS LITERARY CORNER (THE LIBBY-CHENEY NOVELS)
Sun Oct 30, 2005 at 03:41:38 AM PDT
It seems about time that Daily Kos had a Literary Corner, to show the world just how cultured progressives really are. But since Daily Kos focuses on public affairs, it seems most fitting that the Literary Corner should exclusively deal with oeuvres by figures in the public eye.
Today let's look at two novels, one by Lewis Libby, and the other by Lynne Cheney. Mr. Libby's 2002 creation, The Apprentice, (the title seems somehow familiar), deals with intrigues among men who spy on women and each other, but mostly seem to hang out with each other. Ms. Cheney's 1981 work, Sisters, deals with the more outre aspects of society in old Wyoming, "where women were treated either as decorative figurines or as abject sexual vassals." Like the men in Mr. Libby's work, the women in Ms. Cheney's novel spend most of their time together, since, as she puts it so well, "the relationship between women and men" had become "a kind of guerilla warfare."
The Sheehan Vigils in Today's Press--Fairly Unbalanced Coverage
Thu Aug 18, 2005 at 07:57:41 AM PDT
News as Editorial
A Comparison of the Way the NYT, WSJ and WP News Sections Cover the Vigils That Took Place Last Night
When we studied Political Science at NYU, our professor told us to evaluate bias by paying attention not only to the way newspapers wrote about events, but to the amount of space they gave to opposing views. Sure enough, we found that NY papers, including the NYT, gave twice as much space or more to positions they favored.
This kind of analysis is just as valid and valuable today, applied to coverage of last night's vigils by the NYT, WSJ, and WP.
4 VITAL ISSUES ABOUT TO BE DECIDED--STILL TIME FOR YOUR INPUT
Tue Jul 26, 2005 at 07:43:09 AM PDT
There are
at least 4 important issues that are on the verge of being permanently decided
this week.
1. Attempts to Add Legislation Regulating Proper Treatment of Detainees at Guantanamo
and elsewhere--Sens. McCain and Graham are trying to put this into the Defense Bill, which is under consideration right now.
President Bush threatens to veto the whole bill if this item is put in. VP Cheney is trying to pressure McCain and Graham to drop the issue.
2. The Patriot Act Renewal Bill
This is still in play, but close to final approval by joint agreement of the House and Senate.
3. The Energy Bill
Like the Patriot Act, it's being finalized now. It's good for ethanol producers. There have been attempts by Barton/Delay to protect MTBE pollution, opposed in the Senate, still to be resolved.
4. Sneaking Bolton By You
Just when you thought it was safe to forget about this is just the time when the White House may try to make that recess appointment--after the August Recess starts, a few days from now.
The Dreyfus Affair: Its Lessons for Us Today
Tue Jul 19, 2005 at 07:07:50 AM PDT
Devil's Island, an islet in the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Cuba, part of a French prison camp complex in northern French Guiana, used from 1852 to 1946. Alfred Dreyfus, a completely innocent man, spent four years in solitary confinement in a stockade here, and an additional seven years in France trying to clear his name--until he was finally vindicated, on July 20, 1906.
The Dreyfus Affair contains important lessons for today. 1) It shows the lengths to which officially-sanctioned injustice can go, while actual offenders within the government are officially protected. 2) It reminds us of Devil's Island, the far-off extra-territorial prison camp the French government maintained for 94 years, where prisoners could be held in perpetuity, with no hope of appeal, eventually forgotten. 3) It is a demonstration that many people on the far right can be so pig-headed that they go on believing falsehoods they endorse, years or even generations after the truth has come out. 4) It shows that justice can finally prevail, if people continue to fight for it, for a long time if need be, without ever giving up.
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