Here's the first set of snarky punchposts for the New Year. Oh, and if any of them made it to the main page then welcome, visitors from Crooks and Liars blog (and others). I hope you like what you see and come back again.
Of course the BIG NEWS of the day is that Jack Abramoff has made his much-promised plea deal. Good 'Ole Jack pled guilty today to federal charges of conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion and will now be helping the Fed's with their enquiries into corrupt politicians. Abramoff has admitted that he conspired to "corruptly give, offer and promise things of value, including money, meals, trips and entertainment, to public officials and their relatives with the intent to influence, and in return for agreements to perform official acts benefiting" them and their clients.
No matter how they may try to spin it as a bipartisan scandal - you just know that any and all politicos who take a fall after Jack talks will be in the Republican Party.
You just know that Bush isn't bright enough to have pulled such a clever doublecross himself. This one has Turdblossom's pawmarks all over it - Bush signed McCain's anti-torture amendment but reserved the right to break it whenever he wants to. Balkanisation has all the sordid details.
Captain Ed, a bright guy, just might be deliberately missing the point. He's stuck on the stupid "Clinton used Echelon" defense but seemingly hasn't noticed two things. One, should have been given the boot for that too. Two, it's about the WARRANTS, not the taps - Clinton didn't need 'em because the sneaky s.o.b. was dastardly enough to get the Brits to do his tapping for him. Bush is too paranoid to share with the Brits and so legally he needed them. He didn't get them. He broke the law. Even the NSA website admits what Bush did was unconstitutional. Is it clear now, Ed? Or is your defense a case of reinforcing the "move on, nothing to see here" spin before everyone notices the smelly elephant in the room?
The rush to create a narrative for War with Iran rumbles onward. Forbes.com manages to regurgitate every single neo-con buzzword and talking point in a mere six paragraphs - without once admitting it's all about as real as a Harry Potter movie. Iran is nowhere near having nukes, it's very highly doubtful if they even want nukes, and they have every right to have control over their own civilian fuel cycle by international law. They are only at the research stage on that fuel cycle. For a very lucid counter-narrative, have a look at what the Indian media are reporting - a post by Arash Norouzi for the Dissident Voice website which really gets to grips with the whys and wherefores. Or maybe this ZNet post that points up the dissonance between dealings with the (elected) dickhead in Iran and the already-nuke-armed dicktater who seized power in Pakistan.
Juan Cole does his Cassandra act with ten predictions for the year ahead. Prof. Cole is a man who knows his subject and his predictions, like Cassandra's, often turn out correct. I'm sure he knows enough history to remember what happened to her as a reward for being right all the time and avoid the same fate.
Unsurprisingly, the ongoing debacle that is "staying the course" in Iraq is beginning to erode the military's traditional support for the Republican Party and its leadership. A new poll shows support for Bush and his War substantially reduced among those in service. Here's a prediction for you - none of those people who have seen through the rah-rah crap will ever vote GOP again. And it's going to get worse for the GOP.
Hey, remember that other war? You know...Afghanistan. The one where we actually had real and present dangers to chase? Well, while everyone's been looking at Iraq the Taliban have gotten their act back together and are planning a big offensive. Military intelligence officers have warned that UK soldiers set to deploy to southern Afghanistan this spring could sustain losses on a scale not seen since the Falklands war.
(Two notes on this one. First, the story is by Michael Smith of the Times - the guy who originally broke the Downing Street Memos and who is effectively the official spokesman for the UK intelligence community. Second, note that the Iran narrative appears here too - with an allegation of Iran arming Al Qaida even though a few months ago Jane's was reporting that Iran was at war with Al Qaida insurgents trying to take over that nation. There is no reason whatsoever for Iran to be aiding Al Qaida - the two are natural enemies.)
In Iraq, the news that the main Sunni Arab group made an "unprecedented trip north to see the Kurds and agreed Monday for the first time on broad outlines for a coalition government," doesn't fill me with confidence that the political crisis there will defuse. The Kurds have made it plain they will offer the rest of Iraq to the Devil in return for a seperate state, they cannot be trusted to keep their word on anything to do with keeping Iraq together. The Sunni coalition involved in these talks did so behind the backs of more militant but allied Sunni political groups. That will split the Sunni community - which may make the civil war shorter but won't stop it happening - and the negotiators will lose all credibility when the Kurds backstab them, leaving the militants ascendant.
Down here in Texas there's a lovely mudfight brewing in the Gubernatorial elections. Rick Perry's people are going to do their best to sling mud at Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who turned her back on the Republican Party and announced Monday she will run for governor as an independent. That avoids a primary battle with Perry but the knives will be out nonetheless, with Perry's hitmen already accusing Strayhorn of being an unprincipled political opportunist. Of course, that gives Lefties like me plenty of opportunity to observe that the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree. One of Strayhorn's sons, Scott McClellan, is President Bush's press secretary, and another son, Dr. Mark McClellan, is administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The worse the mud-slinging gets, the worse this will look for the GOP. Its a lose-lose proposition, especially given Perry's status as one of Bush's annointed. Turdblossom must be pissed!
Likewise in Texas, a woman has been unplugged from the ventilator that was keeping her alive because she couldn't afford her bills. Both Perry and Strayhorn will, I believe, be fine with that. In any other Western nation that would simply be considered barbaric. And barbaric is what it is. Welcome to King Perry's feifdom - a true third world nation with first world resources.
P.S. I would just like to say "thanks" to the good folks at Crooks and Liars for this link, their kind words and the resultant huge spike in my site traffic from C&L and from others who linked because they did. THANKS!
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