He really is running for it:
Via Oliver.
*** Update ***
Reminds me of this.
Archives for 2008
STASI By The Bay
Via Cernig, the latest in “WTF IS GOING ON AT GITMO?”:
Interrogators at Guantánamo Bay were told to destroy their notes to stop them potentially being used to highlight the mistreatment of detainees, according to a US military lawyer.
William Kuebler, a lieutenant commander who is defending Omar Khadr, a Canadian national facing trial for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, said the classified instructions were included in an operations manual that prosecutors allowed him to see last week.
The apparently wilful and officially sanctioned destruction of notes meant he would be unable to challenge supposed confessions given by Khadr, Kuebler said yesterday.
He told reporters the instruction was contained in a US military manual of standard operating procedures, or SOPs, for interrogators that was shown to him during a pre-trial review of possible evidence.
“The mission has legal and political issues that may lead to interrogators being called to testify … Keeping the number of documents with interrogation information to a minimum can minimise certain legal issues,” the document was cited as saying in an affidavit signed by Kuebler.
Over the past few years, we have been repeatedly told that “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you don’t have anything to hide.” I guess you can draw your own conclusions about that.
Maybe it is my inner DFH, but it sure seems to me that the plan is clear- some quick show trials followed by tidy executions, lose a couple more hard drives at the White House, have it all wrapped up by 20 January 2009, and then the current administration goes on vacation. Maybe South America?
And the saddest thing about it all is that KSM and the others most likely are guilty, and the world and the American people and the victims of 9/11 deserve a fair, open, and transparent trial of these folks- that they will not get that is just one last insult from the Bush administration to the rest of the world. And when rumors like this persist in the outer reaches of the intertrons, the Bush administration has no one to blame but themselves.
Credit Laura Bush
For having more integrity than almost every right-wing blogger out there (admittedly, a low bar):
Michelle Obama has a new defender from those who say she isn’t patriotic enough — First Lady Laura Bush. In an interview with ABC News, Bush said that Obama’s February remark that she was proud of the United States “for the first time in my adult life” was misconstrued.
“I think she probably meant ‘I’m more proud.’ That’s what she really meant,” Bush said from Afghanistan.
“You have to be really careful in what you say because everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued,” she said.
Good for her.
McCain Bleg
There aren’t enough hours in the world for me to dig up all the times John McCain has mercilessly shot down a principled stand taken at some other time by John McCain. I’m busy and John doesn’t pay enough. However, I can imagine a pretty amusing compilation post in the works so let’s try a little distributed computing. I would be much obliged if readers could cite whatever examples come to mind – links are mandatory, video of stance #1 and stance #2 (and #3 and #4 as the case may be) would be superb.
One other thing. I’ve noticed with experience that substantive blegs get less traffic than the ‘favorite recipe’ kind, so I’m going to mix it up a bit. In addition to your John McCain tomfoolery, add whether you say ‘soda’ or ‘pop’ (or ‘sodapop’ I guess) and what region you’re from.
Open Thread
Somebody in a thread about Phish suggested that we talk about the worst shows that we ever attended, so here goes.
For me there’s no contest – Damn Yankees at the Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh some time around 1993. Jackyl opened.
Somewhere around the halfway point the show stopped and someone rolled a wooden deer across the back of the stage. Although the memory is hazy I’m pretty sure that Ted Nugent took aim with a flaming arrow in a compound bow from 20 feet, missed the deer, hit the giant confederate flag backdrop and some techies had to put it out. Or something. I was badly in need of crunchy snack food if you know what I mean.
Entertain yourselves while the bloggers get some rest.
Worst. Vacation. Ever.
A team of European divers fell out of a boat among treacherous ocean currents and drifted helplessly, overnight, in an ordeal that would remind people of the frigtening film Open Water if American consumers hadn’t instead spent their money that year on dreck like Matrix Reloaded and Elf. After 12 hours adrift the group swam against currents to reach the last island before the vast Indian Ocean: Rinca, one of two places that still harbors wild Komodo dragons. Komodos are 10-foot, 350 pound ambush predators that hide until a man-sized animal gets close enough and then run balls-out straight at you. Their saliva is famously dangerous because of a weird bacterial brew that can kill a bitten deer from septic shock within a day.
The divers — three from Britain and one each from France and Sweden — came face-to-face with the giant, carnivorous lizard on Rinca’s palm-fringed beach, and fought it off by pelting it with rocks and pieces of wood, Pariman, a port official said Sunday.
[…] The next day, rescuers aboard one of 30 boats searching the waters spotted them waving frantically [I bet. -ed.] on the shore and took them to Flores island for medical treatment.
Next year, Marseilles.
More Straight Talk
McCain, in Louisiana on Tuesday, in front of a lime-green banner:
I commend both Senators Obama and Clinton for the long, hard race they have run. Senator Obama has impressed many Americans with his eloquence and his spirited campaign. Senator Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received.
John McCain, talking to reporters on Friday:
Holly Bailey and Jon Meacham: Want to back up a little bit and talk about press coverage. One of the things that you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans was that you felt that the media hadn’t recognized or had overlooked some of the attributes that Hillary Clinton had brought to the race. And I wondered—
John McCain:I did not [say that]—that was in prepared remarks, and I did not [say it]—I’m not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage … My supporters and friends can comment all they want about the press coverage, and that’s their right. They’re American citizens. I will not because I believe it’s not a profitable enterprise for me to do so. I can’t change any of the coverage that I know of except to just campaign as hard as I can and try to seek the approval of the majority of my fellow citizens.
John McCain. Straight talk you can believe in.
*** Update ***
Should have checked all the links at memeorandum before I posted this, because Jonathon Martin noticed the same thing covered up for McCain.
*** Update #2 ***
Watch for yourself- 45 seconds in:
He is either lying, or he does not remember what he said.