“I went over some of the parameters of it and they were well aware at the White House of what I’m talking about,” Leahy told the Huffington Post. “And we just agreed to talk further.” The dialogue between the Vermont Democrat and the president’s office is a new phase in a delicate process concerning how [...]
Tag Archives | George W. Bush
A.Q. Khan: ‘I don’t care about the rest of the world’
Khan only cares “about his country.” Well, that’s obvious. A.Q. Khan was released from house arrest on Friday. A Pakistani court today freed nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan from unofficial house arrest, capping a rehabilitation that began almost from the moment he confessed in 2004 to providing sensitive nuclear technology to rogue regimes around the world. [...]
Dick Cheney Steamrolls Politico
Reading this article today on Politico, I was suddenly thrown back in time when the late Tim Russert interviewed Dick Cheney right after 9/11. It basically turned into an open forum for the vice president to say any unsubstantiated thing he wanted because everyone who wasn’t stunned into submission at this early point was rendered [...]
Halperin Compares Obama to Bush
This is instructive. After reviewing the media who was very kind to Obama, it’s painfully obvious in Mr. Halperin’s latest appearance that he’s trying to go in the opposite direction to prove he can criticize the popular new president. People who make a living at writing about these things just don’t know what to do [...]
Holder’s Promise
There’s a story today in the Washington Times that Eric Holder promised personally that there would be no prosecutions looking backwards on interrogation. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, Missouri Republican and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview with The Washington Times that he will support Eric H. Holder Jr.’s [...]
Wherein Juan Cole Loses the Thread
–updated– Oh, for criminy sakes! President Obama has been in office less than one week, but a notable Middle East scholar, someone very respected, is asking whether Obama delivering on his campaign rhetoric regarding Pakistan (see drone strike last week), well, could it signal “Obama’s Vietnam?” Talk about your wingnut New Years gift, presented on [...]
Fox News v. Robert Gibbs
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2-Bm7x2QV0 The discussion that broke out between Major Garrett and Robert Gibbs this morning is instructive. Sowing doubt about American safety under an Obama administration begins with the close of Gitmo. At the briefing today, it began with Abu Sufyan al Azdi al Shahri, a detainee released who joined al Qaeda in Iraq: …Two men [...]
Bill Kristol is Done
Perhaps no other notable conservative has had such an inauspicious tenure than William Kristol at the New York Times. How many columns did he get things completely wrong? Today was his swan song. He killed it too, but at least he got his first facts correct, well, almost. All good things must come to an [...]
Obama to Shut Gitmo, End C.I.A. Prisons
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrdZda7kcZc&feature=player_embedded Important as anything Obama could do, beyond Iraq or anything else: President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said. …And the orders would [...]
The Era of Bush Secrecy is Over
Gone but not forgotten. Undoing damage, day one. Let’s start with Bush era policies on Freedom of Information Act requests, as revealed through John Ashcroft: “When you carefully consider FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests and decide to withhold records… you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions.” – Attorney [...]
President Obama: America is ‘Ready to Lead Once More’
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pknUNyc5r0I “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founder fathers faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man. A charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the [...]
Dick Cheney in a Wheelchair
by Paul Szep If anything is a metaphor for the outgoing Bush-Cheney administration, seeing Dick Cheney in a wheelchair is it.
Historic Crowd Waits for An Historic Presidency
“I am making a commitment to you as the next president, that we are going to make government work,” he told volunteers at Coolidge High. “But I can’t do it by myself. Michelle can’t do it by herself. Government can only do so much….If we’re waiting for someone else to do something, it never gets [...]
Obama Should Let Holder Do His Job
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghMeeXxYbho&eurl …and let the truth fall where it may. “We prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam,” Mr. Holder said. “Waterboarding is torture.” (source: NY Times) I’m against a “truth commission” on torture. I’m also against going after people down the chain who followed orders. Torture was deemed legal from the top, with [...]
Operation So Long Dick… and George
Got executive orders? Expect a few, but manifestation will unfold slowly. Then there is Speaker Pelosi on Fox today, which is getting a lot of play. Fox News has quite a headline: Pelosi Open to Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials. “I think that we have to learn from the past and we cannot let the [...]
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