RADIO TIDBITS

A caller to Foamer's (Mark Levin) made a great comment: he told Foamer that he was the male Ann Coulter!

WW complained that we still don't have enough people who can do translations from Arabic more than 5 years after 9-11. Gee, who's been the President over those years???

WW also went to the defense of 2 Border Patrol agents who are in prison for shooting at an illegal alien and trying to cover-up the shooting. The wingnuts want them pardoned and this situation is getting to be a very difficult one for Pres. Fredo (McClatchy Washington Bureau, 2/7/2007):

Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., blasted President Bush for not intervening in the case, with Rohrabacher hinting that he would consider pressing for impeachment if either of the two agents was killed in prison.

"The president has lost my respect because he will not step forward and do what's right," Jones said.

RADIO TIDBITS

WW was going all moist today because it was the anniversary of Raygun's birthday. Hannity began claiming he was a "Raygun" conservative months ago when it was finally sinking in that Fredo was an unpopular President and I think WW is finally getting with the Flight from Fredo program. For those of you who have forgotten or don't know the wonders of Raygun's Reign, David Corn has a nice summary.

WW also tried to play the Fear Card to garner support for the Iraq War but I think normal people just aren't buying "suitcase nuke" scenarios as a justification for this immoral and illegal war. Worse, she seems to think that a purely military solution will work.

Foamer attacked Ari Fleischer for his testimony at Libby the Liar's trial and tried to make the case that both the judge and the prosecutor are "out of control."

Tammy the Shrill is also on board the Global Warming Denialist Bus.

WINGNUTS ON THE RECORD

(Via Atrios --> Nitpicker)

Some little shit attending the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit actually called McCain a traitor:

(Transcript from Lexis-Nexis, audio at NPR)

LIASSON: Like most of the activists at the National Review Summit, Shuman says he wants a candidate who takes a back-to-basics approach to onservatism; someone who can help Republicans return to their roots of smaller government, lower taxes, a tough approach to the war on terror, and of course he wants someone who can win. Shuman says he's open to any of the leading candidates - John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Romney. But Damian Harvey(ph) says he's ruled out one of the early frontrunners already. Harvey, who calls himself a Limbaugh conservative, says he could never vote for John McCain.

Mr. DAMIAN HARVEY: He's a traitor and I can't stand him. And I've watched for the last six years him stick a knife in W's back and then slowly twist it on a lot of different issues.

Although I'm not a fan of McCain, nonetheless I think Mr. Harvey badly needs a "blanket party."

RADIO TIDBITS

The wingnuts are afraid of the UN's recent Global Warming report. Sludge ridiculed the whole notion and Slots Bennett asked his callers to give their local temperatures so he or one of his flunkies could do an "analysis" that refutes scientific fact. I have to give some kudos to Art Bell because when one of his callers asked Art why he didn't have any guests on who would dispute the fact of warming, like Fats and Shammity do, Art replied that they have political agendas!

NEGROPONTE ON IRAN & THE BOMB

There's been a lot of wingnut noise recently about the threat from Iran and I'd like to share this comment from then-DNI director Negroponte from April 20, 2006:

MR. SALANT: How far along is Iran in its nuclear program? Are you troubled about the recent announcements? And has the intelligence community analyzed the impact of military action against Iran's nuclear facilities?

MR. NEGROPONTE: The developments in Iran are -- clearly they're troublesome: the fact that they had an undeclared nuclear program for a number of years until they were discovered; the fact that they have resumed enrichment activities and have now got these 164 centrifuges spinning, with a view to enriching uranium to a level that is -- can be used as fissile material for a nuclear weapon.

I think there's also concern about the new leadership of Iran, particularly President Ahmadinejad and some of the extreme statements that he has made during the course of -- the tenure of his presidency. So there's a whole host of reasons to be concerned about the behavior of Iran at this particular point in time.

But I would say and I would add that by the same token, our assessment at the moment is that even though we believe that Iran is determined to acquire or obtain a nuclear weapon, that we believe that it is still a number of years off before they are likely to have enough fissile material to assemble into or to put into a nuclear weapon, perhaps into the next decade, so that I think it's important that this issue be kept in perspective.

WHAT THE TROOPS THINK, VOL. IM

Mr. Lasseter has been providing outstanding coverge of the Iraq War for several years. Although it appears that his series on Fallujah is no longer online, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a feel for the war in Iraq.

Soldiers in Iraq view troop surge as a lost cause
By Tom Lasseter
McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sat, Feb. 03, 2007


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Army 1st Lt. Antonio Hardy took a slow look around the east Baghdad neighborhood that he and his men were patrolling. He grimaced at the sound of gunshots in the distance. ... "To be honest, it's going to be like this for a long time to come, no matter what we do," said Hardy, 25, of Atlanta. "I think some people in America don't want to know about all this violence, about all the killings. The people back home are shielded from it; they get it sugar-coated."

"What is victory supposed to look like? Every time we turn around and go in a new area there's somebody new waiting to kill us," said Sgt. 1st Class Herbert Gill, 29, of Pulaski, Tenn., as his Humvee rumbled down a dark Baghdad highway one evening last week. "Sunnis and Shiites have been fighting for thousands of years, and we're not going to change that overnight."

"Once more raids start happening, they'll (insurgents) melt away," said Gill, who serves with the 1st Infantry Division in east Baghdad. "And then two or three months later, when we leave and say it was a success, they'll come back."

"We can go get into a firefight and empty out ammo, but it doesn't accomplish much," said Pvt. 1st Class Zach Clouser, 19, of York, Pa. "This isn't our war - we're just in the middle."

Almost every foot soldier interviewed during a week of patrols on the streets and alleys of east Baghdad said that Bush's plan would halt the bloodshed only temporarily. The soldiers cited a variety of reasons, including incompetence or corruption among Iraqi troops, the complexities of Iraq's sectarian violence and the lack of Iraqi public support, a cornerstone of counterinsurgency warfare.

Mahdi Army gains strength through unwitting aid of U.S.
By Tom Lasseter
McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thu, Feb. 01, 2007

U.S. Army commanders and enlisted men who are patrolling east Baghdad, which is home to more than half the city's population and the front line of al-Sadr's campaign to drive rival Sunni Muslims from their homes and neighborhoods, said al-Sadr's militias had heavily infiltrated the Iraqi police and army units that they've trained and armed.

"Half of them are JAM. They'll wave at us during the day and shoot at us during the night," said 1st Lt. Dan Quinn, a platoon leader in the Army's 1st Infantry Division, using the initials of the militia's Arabic name, Jaish al Mahdi. "People (in America) think it's bad, but that we control the city. That's not the way it is. They control it, and they let us drive around. It's hostile territory."

"All the Shiites have to do is tell everyone to lay low, wait for the Americans to leave, then when they leave you have a target list and within a day they'll kill every Sunni leader in the country. It'll be called the `Day of Death' or something like that," said 1st Lt. Alain Etienne, 34, of Brooklyn, N.Y. "They say, `Wait, and we will be victorious.' That's what they preach. And it will be their victory."

Etienne was on patrol one day when he saw Iraqi soldiers eating fresh vegetables and meat. The afternoon before, the same soldiers had complained that they had only scraps of food left. Who'd brought them their meal? It had come courtesy of Muqtada al-Sadr.


"Who's feeding the Iraqi army? Nobody. So JAM will come around and give them food and water," Etienne said. "We try to capture hearts and minds, well, JAM has done that. They're further along than us."

AND YES, THERE IS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

NOTE: THE UNITED STATES HAS NOT SIGNED THIS DECLARATION.

Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations
to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by
General Assembly resolution 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1968
entry into force 11 November 1970, in accordance with article VIII

Article 1

No statutory limitation shall apply to the following crimes, irrespective of the date of their commission:

(a) War crimes as they are defined in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Nurnberg, of 8 August 1945 and confirmed by resolutions 3 (1) of 13 February 1946 and 95 (I) of 11 December 1946 of the General Assembly of the United Nations, particularly the "grave breaches" enumerated in the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of war victims;

DEFINITION OF WAR CRIMES

I've been wondering what international law states about war crimes and how that may apply to the Bush regime. Here's the relevant section from the Nuremberg Trials and I beleive it is still in effect:

The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility:

(a) CRIMES AGAINST PEACE: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing;

(b) WAR CRIMES: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity;

(c) CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.

Certainly (a) covers Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Rice and several others.

A FOUNDING WINGNUT

In The Debate, I found several instances of the belief that climate has a dominant influence on character. Specifically, some who argued against a federal constitution believed that one could not make laws that would suit both the people of Maine and the people of, say, Georgia, because the warmer climate induces sloth and dissipation. (I think Stephen Jay Gould wrote about this essentially racist attitude in some of his essays but I can't recall which ones.) One anti-Federalist, James Winthrop, had a more drastic theory of our species and this can be seen in his objection to allowing the federal government sole control over naturalization (The Debate, Part One, p. 628):

ON THE VIRTUES OF "PURE BLOOD" AND LIMITED FEDERAL POWER
"AGRIPPA" [JAMES WINTHROP] IX
Massachusetts Gazette (Boston)
December 28, 1787

...for though most of the states may be willing for certain reasons to receive foreigners as citizens, yet reasons of equal weight may induce other states, differently circumstanced, the keep their blood pure. Pennsylvania has chosen to receive all that would come there. Let any indifferent person judge whether that state in point of morals, education, energy is equal to any of the eastern states; the small state of Rhode-Island only excepted. Pennsylvania in the course of a century has acquired her present extent and population, at the expense of religion and good morals. The eastern states have, by keeping separate from the foreign mixtures, acquired their present greatness in the course of a century and an half, and have preserved their religion and morals. They have also preserved that manly virtue which is equally fitted for rendering them respectable in war, and industrious in peace.

In Part One's Biographical Notes, we learn that Winthrop was the son of a Harvard mathematician and was graduated from Harvard in 1769. He was also turned down twice for his late father's professorship at Harvard "because of his eccentricities." (p. 1053)

REWARDING FAILURE

Gen. Casey was nominated by Pres. Fredo to be Army Chief of Staff. As Senators Levin and McCain point out, he is one of the people most responsible for our failed military policy in Iraq:

(From Lexis-Nexis)

Copyright 2007 Federal News Service, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Federal News Service
February 1, 2007 Thursday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING

LENGTH: 35300 words

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE;
SUBJECT: THE NOMINATION OF GENERAL GEORGE CASEY TO BE ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF;
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR CARL LEVIN (D-MI);
WITNESS: THE NOMINEE;
LOCATION: 325 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

SEN. LEVIN:General Casey is well-known to members of this committee and to the American people as commanding general, Multinational Forces Iraq, in which capacity he has served for over two and a half years. ... As commander in Iraq, General Casey is, of course, identified with the administration's Iraq strategy. His focus was on training and equipping Iraqi security forces to bring them as quickly as possible to a level where they could relieve American forces from the burden of providing the security that Iraqis should be providing for themselves.

In this strategy, he was joined by his boss, Central Command Commander General Abizaid, and his subordinate, the Corps commander, Lieutenant General Chiarelli.


SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ):... I do question some of the decisions and judgments you've made over the past two and a half years as commander of Multinational Forces in Iraq. During that time, things have gotten markedly and progressively worse, and the situation in Iraq can now best be described as dire and deteriorating. ... The result of these and other missteps have been unprecedented levels of violence in Iraq and a pervasive lack of security that prohibits political and economic activity.

In case you aren't getting the point, here's a bit from Sen. Graham's questioning of Casey:

SEN. GRAHAM: What percentage of the country would it be impossible for an American to walk down the street without being afraid of getting shot at or killed?

GEN. CASEY: Probably about half actually, Senator.

BYE MOLLY AND THANK YOU!

Molly Ivins passed away last Wednesday and NPR has a nice tribute to her, with audio clips.

REMEMBRANCE OF HATE PAST

Many recall Falwell and Robertson blaming the 9-11 attacks on the ACLU, NOW and other liberal groups but I had neglected to post this bit of hatefulness from another "Christian":

Minister Says Gays Should Not Get Aid
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 5, 2001; Page A22

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman and founder of Traditional Values Coalition, said yesterday that public and private relief agencies providing assistance to the survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks should not give aid to surviving members of gay partnerships.

3 YEARS LATER, STILL NO PROGRESS

The latest NIE report on Iraq is glum but what's worse is that the assessment hasn't changed much in 3 years. From the WaPo:

The result, they said, is that the new estimate -- which describes an Iraq engulfed by numerous bloody wars -- is strikingly similar to a still-classified assessment written in late 2004 and widely distributed among President Bush's top advisers.

That assessment predicted that over a period of 12 to 18 months, there would be "at best, tenuous stability, at worst a slide into civil war" in Iraq, said Paul R. Pillar, a Middle East scholar and veteran intelligence officer who was one of the report's principal authors.

"If you could compare the 2004 and 2007 estimates, it would be clear they are two installments of the same story, done the same way. The only difference is that the policy debate has become more intense in the intervening two years because the situation has become worse and worse," said Pillar, who left the intelligence community in 2005 and now teaches at Georgetown University.

RADIO TIDBITS

The wingnuts keep touting the great economy despite much evidence to the contrary. Last night, Rusty Humphries claimed that we are in one of the greatest boom times in our history. In reality, the savings rate is as low as its been since the Great Depression and MetLife recently completed a study that shows the American Dream is getting ever harder to attain:

A new study commissioned by MetLife -- The MetLife Study of the American Dream -- reveals that 60% of working Americans feel they carry more financial burdens than their parents did, and the overwhelming majority feel this burden will continue to grow for future generations.

"While the shifting burdens make chasing the American dream more challenging, as a society we're making it harder with ratcheting expectations fueling a constantly rising bar," Beth Hirschhorn, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, MetLife. "We know that the American dream is practically out of reach for most Americans and that it's running on the fumes of optimism. So, in order to reconcile or rationalize how hard it is to achieve the dream with Americans' desire to hold on to this American ideal, individuals have redefined the dream. It's no longer a destination, it's a never-ending pursuit."

Humphries also repeated a popular wingnut scurrilous lie about Democrats - that they would rather see the jihadists win than have George Bush win in Iraq. In last nights variant of this smear, he claimed that the Democrats would rather have parts of America come under jihadist rule than have Bush's new plan in Iraq work out.


Sadly, one of his callers repeated the smear that Obama is a Muslim and Rusty said nothing to disabuse him of that notion.

ADMIRAL FALLON GETS IT

(From Lexis-Nexis)

Copyright 2007 Federal News Service, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Federal News Service
January 30, 2007 Tuesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING
LENGTH: 26284 words
EADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE; SUBJECT: THE NOMINATION OF ADMIRAL WILLIAM FALLON FOR APPOINTMENT TO THE GRADE OF ADMIRAL AND TO BE COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND; CHAIRED BY: SENATOR CARL LEVIN (D-MI); WITNESS: ADMIRAL WILLIAM FALLON, U.S. NAVY; LOCATION: 106 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

ADM. FALLON:The situation in Iraq is serious and clearly in need of new and different actions.

ADM. FALLON:But it seems pretty obvious to me that what we have been doing has not been working. We have not been getting the results that we desire, and we clearly have to do something different.

ADM. FALLON: What we've been doing is not working and we have got to be doing, it seems to me, something different.

SEN. GRAHAM: Is Iraq winnable militarily?
ADM. FALLON: Not militarily. But could the situation in Iraq be turned around? I firmly believe it can, if we have the engagement of the capabilities that are necessary to help --

SLOTS' HYPOCRISY

I left out one bit of Begala's takedown of Fats Limbaugh: Slots Bennett defended Fats. This week, Slots noted the passing of Molly Ivins by noting that her observations about conservatives were often nasty!

Yup, Fats is A-OK according to the bloviator-in-chief but Molly Ivins is nasty.

RICHARD ENGEL, NBC REPORTER

There's been quite a fuss in wingnut world over William Arkins' (WaPo) response to this story (from Lexis-Nexis):

NBC Nightly News 6:30 PM EST NBC
January 26, 2007 Friday
LENGTH: 416 words
HEADLINE: Troops in Iraq upset Americans not supporting the war
ANCHORS: BRIAN WILLIAMS
REPORTERS: RICHARD ENGEL

BODY:

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:Tonight we get to see American soldiers on the job in Iraq, and more important really, we get to hear from them about all of the talk about the war here at home. We get this view courtesy of our veteran Baghdad base correspondent who is tonight embedded with US forces as they prepare to be joined by a whole lot more US forces. Here with our report, NBC's Richard Engel.

RICHARD ENGEL reporting:When the Stryker Brigade's Apache Company headed out this morning, they had one mission: to find bases for the new US troops coming in. There aren't a lot of safe options in Hurriya.

Unidentified Man #1: (Foreign language spoken)

ENGEL: This Baghdad neighborhood has been overrun by Shiite militias that have forced out nearly all of the Sunnis. The company also checks out an Iraqi army outpost, but it's just a trash-strewn soccer field, exposed to snipers. And there's a bigger problem, the Iraqi soldiers aren't staying on guard duty.

Unidentified Man #2: We came here to find you guys, and we came in here, and no one was here.

ENGEL: It's not just the new mission the soldiers are adjusting to. They have something else on their minds: the growing debate at home about the war. Troops here say they are increasingly frustrated by American criticism of the war. Many take it personally, believing it is also criticism of what they've been fighting for.Twenty-one-year-old Specialist Tyler Johnson is on his first tour in Iraq. He thinks skeptics should come over and see what it's like firsthand before criticizing.

Specialist TYLER JOHNSON: Those people are dying. You know what I'm saying? You may support--`Oh, we support the troops,' but you're not supporting what they do, what they share and sweat for, what they believe for, what we die for. It just don't make sense to me.

ENGEL: Staff Sergeant Manuel Sahagun has served in Afghanistan and is now on his second tour in Iraq. He says people back home can't have it both ways.

Staff Sergeant MANUEL SAHAGUN: One thing I don't like is when people back home say they support the troops but they don't support the war. If they're going to support us, support us all the way.

ENGEL: Specialist Peter Manna thinks people have forgotten the toll the war has taken.

Specialist PETER MANNA: If they don't think we're doing a good job, everything that we've done here is all in vain.

ENGEL: Apache Company has lost two soldiers and now worries their country may be abandoning the mission they died for. Richard Engel, NBC News, Baghdad.

LOAD-DATE: January 27, 2007

Fats Limbaugh mentioned Arkin's post today and Arkin has replied to his critics, here and here.
I have made several posts about soldiers who do feel that Iraq is a fiasco (here, here and here) and they make it clear that many have the same view of Iraq as the majority of the American people.

ANOTHER WINGNUT OPERATION

Yesterday, Foamer Levin had Marlo Lewis, Jr. on to speak against global warming. Lewis is a "senior fellow" at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. According to SourceWatch, CEI is like a little brother of AEI and has been advocating pro-business propaganda since its founding in March, 1984. Marlo Lewis is one of its members who specializes in debunking global warming.

Pretty much all you need to know about Lewis is summarized in this paragraph from his bio on CEI's site:

Marlo has been published in The Washington Times, Investors Business Daily, TechCentralStation, National Review, and Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy. He has appeared on various television and radio programs, and his ideas have been featured in radio commentary by Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy.

AND I THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE!

I blogged earlier about AOL making fun of the crazies at FOX News but I didn't think that FOX really had a segment called "Enemy of the State." In fact, it's a segment on Hannity's America. Crooks & Liars has more on this, including Hannity's decision to rename the segment to "Enemy of the Week."


While I'm on the topic, Crooks & Liars has a great picture of Hannity as he reacts to Col. David Hunt choosing James Webb over George Allen in the Virginia Senate race: