Finalizing all the summer courses, which start Monday.
In other words, no time.
We can treat this as an open thread/memorial to Tim, who has apparently died.
Archives for May 2007
Wolfowitz Gone
Wolfowitz is resigning effective 30 June.
The White House ‘reluctantly’ accepts the resignation.
Almost every aspect of the GOP is imploding, and I wish I could say I was even slightly upset about that.
Dobson Speaks
Everyones favorite religious right nut speaks up in WingNut Daily:
The jig is up. Rudy Giuliani finally admitted in a speech at Houston Baptist University last week that he is an unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand. That revelation came as no great shock to those of us in the pro-life movement. His public pronouncements as mayor of New York, together with his more recent tap dances on the campaign trail, have told a very clear story.
How could Giuliani say with a straight face that he “hates” abortion,” while also seeking public funding for it? How can he hate abortion and contribute to Planned Parenthood in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999? And how was he able for many years to defend the horrible procedure by which the brains are sucked from the heads of a viable, late-term, un-anesthetized babies? Those beliefs are philosophically and morally incompatible. What kind of man would even try to reconcile them?
***My conclusion from this closer look at the current GOP front-runner comes down to this: Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision. If given a Hobson’s – Dobson’s? – choice between him and Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran – or if worse comes to worst – not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else.
I would just be happy if the religious creeps like Dobson couldn’t vote in the primary. Then we might actually be able to nominate a Republican candidate who wouldn’t appear like a fanatic to 60% of the country. We wouldn’t have to suffer through numerous debates in which important issues are pushed aside while the candidates work themselves into a lather proving they hate abortion the most, and might discuss important policy issues that face the nation.
BTW- With Falwell dead, does this make Dobson the biggest bloviator by default?
Time to Rename Them
It looks like we are going tohave to rename the 28% dead-enders, because after this, they are no longer going to be part of the 28%:
Senators from both parties announced an agreement this afternoon on immigration-reform legislation that would bring illegal immigrants and their families “out of the shadows and into the sunshine of American life,” as Senator Edward M. Kennedy put it.
The bill would provide an opportunity “right away” for millions of illegal aliens to correct their status, said Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. It would emphasize family ties as well as employment skills in weighing how soon immigrants could become legal residents, he said.
But it would also emphasize improved border security and would call for “very strong sanctions” against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, according to Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania.
This ought to push Bush down to around 12%.
They Must Have a Book To Sell
Charles Krulak and James Hoar join the ranks of the terrorist enablers by pointing out thast torture is not only unnecessary, but counterproductive:
The American people are understandably fearful about another attack like the one we sustained on Sept. 11, 2001. But it is the duty of the commander in chief to lead the country away from the grip of fear, not into its grasp. Regrettably, at Tuesday night’s presidential debate in South Carolina, several Republican candidates revealed a stunning failure to understand this most basic obligation. Indeed, among the candidates, only John McCain demonstrated that he understands the close connection between our security and our values as a nation.
Tenet insists that the CIA program disrupted terrorist plots and saved lives. It is difficult to refute this claim — not because it is self-evidently true, but because any evidence that might support it remains classified and unknown to all but those who defend the program.
These assertions that “torture works” may reassure a fearful public, but it is a false security. We don’t know what’s been gained through this fear-driven program. But we do know the consequences.
As has happened with every other nation that has tried to engage in a little bit of torture — only for the toughest cases, only when nothing else works — the abuse spread like wildfire, and every captured prisoner became the key to defusing a potential ticking time bomb. Our soldiers in Iraq confront real “ticking time bomb” situations every day, in the form of improvised explosive devices, and any degree of “flexibility” about torture at the top drops down the chain of command like a stone — the rare exception fast becoming the rule.
To understand the impact this has had on the ground, look at the military’s mental health assessment report released earlier this month. The study shows a disturbing level of tolerance for abuse of prisoners in some situations. This underscores what we know as military professionals: Complex situational ethics cannot be applied during the stress of combat. The rules must be firm and absolute; if torture is broached as a possibility, it will become a reality.
This has had disastrous consequences. Revelations of abuse feed what the Army’s new counterinsurgency manual, which was drafted under the command of Gen. David Petraeus, calls the “recuperative power” of the terrorist enemy.
Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld once wondered aloud whether we were creating more terrorists than we were killing. In counterinsurgency doctrine, that is precisely the right question. Victory in this kind of war comes when the enemy loses legitimacy in the society from which it seeks recruits and thus loses its “recuperative power.”
The torture methods that Tenet defends have nurtured the recuperative power of the enemy. This war will be won or lost not on the battlefield but in the minds of potential supporters who have not yet thrown in their lot with the enemy. If we forfeit our values by signaling that they are negotiable in situations of grave or imminent danger, we drive those undecideds into the arms of the enemy. This way lies defeat, and we are well down the road to it.
This is not just a lesson for history. Right now, White House lawyers are working up new rules that will govern what CIA interrogators can do to prisoners in secret. Those rules will set the standard not only for the CIA but also for what kind of treatment captured American soldiers can expect from their captors, now and in future wars. Before the president once again approves a policy of official cruelty, he should reflect on that.
It is time for us to remember who we are and approach this enemy with energy, judgment and confidence that we will prevail. That is the path to security, and back to ourselves.
They are far to charitable with McCain, who has used his former POW status to enable all sorts of bad behavior by this administration. They essentially do what they want, McCain acts concerned and throws around his alleged moral authority and pretends to impede them, and then, a few weeks later, the administration goes back to their business of doing whatever the hell they want.
At any rate, these military men probably just have a book to sell.
*** Update ***
Belgravia Dispatch. Go.
The Budget
The Democrats have their budget out:
House and Senate Democratic leaders reached agreement on Wednesday on a $2.9 trillion budget for 2008 that envisions a return to budget surpluses by 2012 and assumes that some of President Bush’s tax cuts will be allowed to expire.
The five-year blueprint, which is primarily a declaration of basic principles, represents a broad alternative to President Bush’s agenda. It calls for more money for children’s health care, education and a wide variety of other domestic programs.
While it calls for a two-year extension of Mr. Bush’s tax cuts for middle-class families, which are now set to expire at the end of 2010, it assumes that Mr. Bush’s signature tax cuts on stock dividends, as well as rate cuts for people in top brackets, will be allowed to expire.
The House and Senate are expected to vote on Thursday on the plan, and both are likely to pass it. That in itself would be a significant accomplishment, one that eluded Republicans, torn over spending cuts, when they were in control of Congress last year.
“It moves us in the right direction and to balance in five years,” said Representative John M. Spratt Jr., Democrat of South Carolina, the chairman of the House Budget Committee. “On all the basics, our budget is better than the president’s.”
Republicans denounced the plan, saying it would inevitably lead to huge tax increases that would jeopardize economic growth.
Weren’t budgets just 1.8 trillion a year a few years ago? At any rate, Republicans probably will (and should) pitch a fit about certain aspects of this budget, but the last two administrations and the blind obeisance from the past few Congresses means they really can’t raise much of a fit. Bush and the Republicans never managed to even get a budget done on time, and it is hard to imagine what the RNC commercials denouncing the budget:
“Stop the Democrats. They are spending like… us.”
David Gregory Live
Is remarkably good.
I knew he was quick-witted from his appearances on Imus, but his morning show this week has been really, really good.