Please Stop Beating The Drums Now (Updated!)

In case you haven't heard, it turns out that Iran halted its nuclear (nucular if you're Republican) program back in 2003. Seems that the GOPs intense rhetoric and insistence that Iran was not only developing a nuclear weapon but according to Bush, had "threatened countries with a nuclear weapon". From a few months ago:



I expect we will hear a lot from the Republican candidates in the coming weeks defending previous statements. John "Bom-bomb Iran" McCain will probabaly feel most compelled to make a statement in defending his position and will probably say something like, "Well, it looks like the pressure we put ion them recently worked.", even though it turns out we were making threats based on faulty intelligence once again.

The big question that pops into my head after all this is, "How do we keep getting it wrong when it comes to these very important intelligence issues?" My guess is that the best people in the intelligence world are being directed by Bush cronies, appointed to positions they are not qualified to hold. The rest of the administration is a mess. My guess is that that the CIA, NSA, and FBI are probably in just as bad shape. Where are all the lessons we were supposed to have learned from 9/11, GW? Fuck.

UPDATE!

Why in the hell would Mike McConnell tell W that he had new information and then not tell him what it was? How the fuck would anyone on his staff let him make speeches about WW III knowing that there was evidence like this out there? And finally, does anyone really believe a word that comes out of his mouth?

Rove Re-Writes History

I have been following this for a number of days. I have actually been waiting to see if anyone would come out and support Rove's assertion that Congress was blood thirsty and pushed for war with their vote. So far that boy is standing out in the cold.

The very idea that the White House had its hand forced in some way to invade Iraq because of the vote to authorize the use of force is absolute nonsense. First of all, whether congress authorizes it or not, it is the role of the Commander in Chief to direct the actions of the armed forces. How he thinks he can escape this fact under the guise of not wanting to divulge the entirety of his book is fairly ridiculous if not just an outright ploy to sell more copies.

I don't have to tell you that there are numerous documented episodes in which the White House made it very clear that they urgently wanted authorization for the war and even used the election as a way to leverage support for pro-authorization votes. We all know that Bush didn't veto shit til the Dems took congress and many spending bills contained huge anounts of pork in order to buy votes for the war both prior to and after authorization. Are you fucking kiddin me Carl? I can't wait to read your book. I will of course be checking out from the library. There's no way I'm gonna pay for it.

Scotty Comes Clean

Here's Scotty a few years back:



In a new book due out in April, Scott claims that he was directed by Rove, Cheney, Libby, Rummy, and even W to dispense information that he now knows to be false. I can't wait to hear the WHite House respond to this latest revelation. I expect Dana Peino to do much what Scott odes in this clip which is to repeatedly claim that it is the policy of the administration not to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Bush Shit

Why is it that each time I watch this guy try and struggle through a press conference I am still somehow surprised how inept he is. You'd think that he might read the paper the morning before he holds a news conference and I'mm not just talking about Garfield.

Let's break this shit down. Bragging about his veto seems like a pretty good place to start. Doesn't he realize that vetoing the SCHIP bill was an extremely unpopular thing to do? What a friggin' numb nuts. How can he claim that the white house "wasn't dialed in"? Gah.

His comments on Putin's visit to Iran seem very uninformed at best. I was aware of Putin's comments yesterday. Shouldn't the fucking president of the United States have a little more knowledge of world events than me?

Of all the losers you could choose to back right now, I think Blackwater is pretty close to being a completely indefensible choice. In his comments you'd think that he was talking about service men and women instead of out of control mercenaries.

Earlier in the conference he mentioned that the resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide was an unnecessary and ill advised move that would hurt our relations with Turkey. Today the president met with the Dalai Lama and totally pissed off the Chinese. What a friggin' joke.

Finally, if he has never before felt more engaged, he must have been a cmoplete absentee landlord for the 6 and a half years.

Osama Bin Leakin'

According to an article in the Washington Post today, the most recent Osama Bin Laden tape was leaked to the press prematurely by someone within the White House. The SITE intelligence group had acquired a copy of the video and released it to the Bush administration on the condition that they not release it prior to Al Qaeda's release expected weeks later. The founder of the company says the disclosure tipped Al Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a surveillance operation the company has used to collect messages, videos and warnings of bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

The fact that the leak occurred so rapidly after the acquisition by White House officials leads me to wonder who and why the decision was made. I have a theory that the rapidly approaching 9/11 anniversary, General Petraeus' speech before congress and images of Osama were all used to try and drum up support for the war effort. Last time I checked, the war is just as unpopular as it was a few weeks ago. I hope that the administration feels it was worth ruining a valuable resource for the real war on terror in order to take the heat off themselves for a few minutes.

In Case You Missed It

I thought this was pretty funny especially when you consider that Petraeus turned out to be such a tool. Also, I can't believe that Crocker is in charge of anything. That guy is such a little mousy bitch that there is no way he can be effective. He complained on The News Hour last night that he has had problems creating a sense of urgency. I wonder why? Maybe because he is giant fucking pussy? Could be.

Exactly What I Was Thinking

Note: I took down the embed from the Washington Post cuz it was making my blog all "clicky". You can dind it on their website if you want.

Senator Obama makes me proud with his remarks. His inference that having these hearings on and around 9/11 was intended to drum up more support for the war is dead on. Why don't more people see through this charade.

I am enjoying these debates more than I should but I just love watching Republicans try to make claims of progress look legitimate when it is total bullshit.

Let's See If We Can Actually Prosecute The Little Worm

His recurring talking points that we'll give them all the information they want when really the White House provides nothing they have asked for and continue to claim they lost things then later that they don't have to turn them over because it is a case of executive privilege. Then they say, "OK you can talk to these folks but only in a sealed hearing with no transcripts and no oaths." And why are they doing it? Not to save their asses but rather to protect the power of the presidency for future administrations. Yeah, right.

Tony Snow said that, "...no one has laid a glove on him.", while referring to Alberto Gonzales. Well, Tony, get your man ready to get in the ring.



Everybody cross your fingers because if the Solicitor General, Paul Clement, does not feel compelled to appoint a special counsel, all will have been for nothing. other cases in which we have seen people perjure themselves will fall to Gonzales and his cronies who will certainly refuse to prosecute. Ultimately, I think we are looking at a conviction near the end of Bush's term followed by an immediate pardon.

Allow Me To Be Fully Candid

From the AP: The Justice Department's former White House liaison denied Wednesday that she played a major role in the firings of U.S. attorneys last year and blamed Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty for misleading Congress about the dismissals.

McNulty's explanation, on Feb. 6, "was incomplete or inaccurate in a number of respects," Monica Goodling told a packed House Judiciary Committee inquiry into the firings.

She added: "I believe the deputy was not fully candid."

Can we stop using terms like "not fully candid", "misleading statements" and "incomplete or inaccurate"? These motherfuckers are lying. McNulrty lied to congress. He committed purjury. Alberto Gonzales also lied to congress. He committed purjury. Why do people lie to congress? Because they probably did something illegal that they cannot recall. What is it? We may never know because they keep lying and for some reason we have yet to call them on it.

I am hoping that Godling dishes with the facts at some point since she has been given some protection from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. I am hoping but I kind of doubt it.

Also, when will Washington learn that having girls named Monica involved in politics is a recipe for disaster?

George Tenet Hates History

So Tenet was on Meet The Press this morning and I thought he came off a lot less convincing than he was on 60 minutes last week. I am wavering on how complicit he was in developing a false case for the war in Iraq. Today, instead of coming off as an indignant man claiming to be scapegoated, he sounded more like he was trying to claim that everyone did their jobs but things just didn't come together the way they would have liked. He even went back to the old GOP stance that Clinton's administration knew about a lot of this stuff too. I worry that when all is said and done, even if he is telling the truth in his book, his credibility is for shit and therefor history will not be served well by it. Poor history.

The Other Stamp

Watching Bush try to justify his veto and blame it all on partisan politics is such bullshit. He says, "It makes no sense to tell your enemy when you plan on withdrawing." We want to tell the Iraqis when we plan on withdrawing so they can get their shit together, asshole.

He says, "Setting a date for withdrawal is setting a date for failure and that would be irresponsible." He set a date for failure the day his administration chose to completely destroy the Iraqi infrastructure and through de-Baathification prevented the people who actually knew how to run shit from running shit. Talk about irresponsible. We didn't even try that shit with Nazi Germany. We understood that people belonged to the party because not to do so would be stupid.

He accused the Dems of putting in a lot of pork in the bill. This fucker has vetoed 2 bills his entire time as president and NOW he decides that he is against pork. Total bullshit!

Then he lied blatantly about the violence (sectarian) dying down and that it is all Al Qaeda doing the killing but not Iraqis who want us to get the fuck out. So even though violence is way up he is making claims that it is way down. I have never heard such utter crap. Bush, we do not believe that Al Qaeda and Iraq had anything to do with each other until you fought to take us to a war under false pretenses and then destroyed the country's ability to manage itself.

I am so fucking sick of this shit. Politically this is gold for my team but politicizing a war is always bad news. The Rs are going down if they stick to their guns on this and they're gonna figure that out real soon. I wish they would come to their senses and start bringing our boys home.

If it was his intention to piss off just about everybody... Mission Accomplished.

Whole Lotta Sheikhin' Goin' On

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed apparently confessed to almost every crime commited in the past 20 years according to reports I read today. It's all a little fishy. Here's why I don't think he really did all these things:

• His nickname was "The Brain. " On the show Pinky and the Brain, The Brain could never accomplish shit.
  
• He looks like Ron Jeremy's derelict older brother.
  
• In order to have done all these things, you'd think he would have been a little better at evading capture. When they caught him, he looked like he had just been taken from his trailer after watching "Arab COPS" in his underwear while eating 2 day old fried chicken. Lil greasy.
  

I think this guy knows he is going down and figures he can only further his cause by admitting to a lot of shit he didn't really do. He can protect other guilty parties and also make himself appear to be the greatest hero that ever lived amongst other extremists. Either that, or we just tortured the shit out of him until he started admitting to everything we put in front of him to make ourselves look like we have everything under control. In any case, I am waiting for this thing to play out before I start celebrating. Also, can we please not pursue the death penalty and make ourselves look less like blood thirsty shitbags for once?