at Crooks & Liars:
LARRY BIRKHEAD IS THE FATHER*
My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Can we please, please move on to more pressing matters now? Like, say, the Attorney General of the United States being subpoenaed in a scandal that very well may result in his resignation? Please?
* I told eveybody it wasn’t me. Now do you believe me?
Take a man who is largely considered to be the best violinist in the world, put him (and his violin) in a DC subway station, and let him play. How much money gets thrown in to his open violin case by busy commuters?
Answer: $32.17 after 43 minutes*
Read the Washington Post story on Joshua Bell.
* Does not include a 20 dollar bill from one commuter who recognized him
As his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee approaches, it looks like Alberto is in deep doo-doo and his cramming sessions are not paying off:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has virtually wiped his public schedule clean to bone up for his long-awaited April 17 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—a session widely seen as a crucial test as to whether he will survive the U.S. attorney mess. But even his own closest advisers are nervous about whether he is up to the task. At a recent "prep" for a prospective Sunday talk-show interview, Gonzales’s performance was so poor that top aides scrapped any live appearances. During the March 23 session in the A.G.’s conference room, Gonzales was grilled by a team of top aides and advisers—including former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie and former White House lawyer Tim Flanigan—about what he knew about the plan to fire seven U.S. attorneys last fall. But Gonzales kept contradicting himself and "getting his timeline confused," said one participant who asked not to be identified talking about a private meeting.
My mother once told me that telling the truth is always the right thing to do, in part because the truth is easiest to remember*. Alberto Gonzales, the highest law enforcement person in the country, should know better.
* Okay, I lied. She didn’t really say that, as far as I can recall, but it’s the kind of thing she would say.
Wow. Even the godmother of modern neo-conservativism disliked Bush’s policies:
It’s stunning criticism from a hawk who for over two decades has been a guiding light for the neocons who cheerleaded the nation to war in Iraq. In her book, she contends that the invasion has so far been counterproductive:
On a personal note, I have dedicated much of my professional life to reconciling what I consider the twin goals of American foreign policy, and that is why President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war has troubled me deeply.
These twin goals of our foreign policy are, first, ensuring our security and, second, promoting democracy and human rights. An appropriate balance between the two must exist, and that balance must be determined within the unique circumstances of any situation. Yet, for democracy to take hold in a given region, it must be preceded by institutions that are receptive and willing to support democracy–because democracy requires security as a prerequisite. That is why, throughout history, if the single force of political stability in a region is removed without critical institutions in place to fill the resulting vacuum of power, the security of societies and their budding institutions will be precarious at best.
Unfortunately, what we face in Iraq today is a vacuum of power, a lack of stable institutions needed to govern, and the problem that the promise of democracy for which our nation stands may be lost in the essential scramble for safety and stability in the streets. This is one of the reasons I am uneasy about the war we have made here–for we have helped to create the chaos that has overtaken the country, and we may have reduced rather than promoted the pace of democratic reform.
There’s more — read it.
The thing I love about reading conservative columnist Kaye Grogan is that you can just tell that’s she’s sitting there with glass of bourbon at her computer-side, as she rambles on about, well — you’re never really sure.
Last week’s column was a diatribe about money raised in presidential elections. We’ll join her somewhere in the middle (her second drink, I’m guessing):
According to insider reports coming over from the Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters, she has broken all records by amassing around $26 million in just a short period of time. Wee doggies! …now that’s impressive!
"Wee doggies"? Okay, she’s probably on her third drink at this point.
Okay, now that we have that out-of-the-way and since Ms. Clinton is not likely to be the next or even the first woman president in our lifetime, who is going to profit from the mega millions?
Is it possible to be the "next" woman president without being the "first", Kaye?
Forget I asked, because if you ever get a straight answer from a Clinton — you deserve a place in the Guinness Book of World Records!
I don’t know what that means either. She’s on her fourth drink now, I’m guessing.
One thing is for sure: Hillary’s back is covered by former Vice-presidential wannabe Geraldine Ferraro. Enough said!
I don’t know what that means either. Are Hillary and Geraldine both on a SWAT team now?
I’ll leave the obvious to your own discretion to interpret what this bold assertion and pledge from Ms. Ferraro means.
What bold assertion? What the hell are you talking about, Kaye? Kaye’s drinking straight from the bottle now.
But I would be amiss if I didn’t mention that Ferraro is going to do battle with every Republican who may have a few "dirty tricks" up their sleeve. Way to go Ferraro! … come out with your boxing gloves on, and give em’ the old one-two punch upside the head!
Riiiiiight.
And while you, Billie Jean King, Madeline Albright, (NOW) National Organization for Women and many others are championing Hillary’s presidential run — sink the Swift Boat cantankerous crew before they can readdress and point out just how incompetent the Clinton administration played out during the eight-year tenure when those two occupied the White House.
I recognize the individual words as English. And I get the gist of phrases. But I still don’t know what it means (and I had to read it several times). Apparently, it is incumbant upon former tennis stars to attack people who attack the Clinton administration. I guess.
I bet the stacks of "dirty laundry" in written form —
My head just exploded. WHAT?!? Stacks of dirty laundry in written form? I’m trying to visualize the metaphor…. stacks of "dirty laundry", I get. "In written form", I get. But laundry in written form? What the fuck does that mean? Maybe if I read the entire sentence in context….
I bet the stacks of "dirty laundry" in written form — would circle around the world and back, several times, Miss Hillary has amassed on her nearest competitors if reports denoting this activity is accurate.
Alcohol poisoning. Kaye’s got alcohol poisoning now.
Let’s call it "Who’s who" in the dirty politics department — minus Bill and Hillary. A tell-all threat if you will — that should narrow the field quite a bit.
Let’s call the stacks of dirty laundry in written form the who’s who in the dirty politics department minus Bill and Hillary.
Oh, yes. Let’s.
Kaye has become the pundit equivalent of the drunk at the end of the bar. I’d love to disagree with her, but I just don’t know what she’s saying.
No matter. Let’s just let her ramble and see if she goes away.
If a candidate or incumbent can’t convince the voters their previous record deserves praise and merit — the next best thing is to encourage dirt-diggers to eliminate the competition by intimidating and threatening complete exposure about all pesky political enemies.
Oh, those old dastardly deeds!
(Hmm . . . speaking of exposure: it’s going to be interesting when the records of the "D. C. Madame" in Washington, is dusted off and becomes public knowledge. According to Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s lawyer, the high-profile records are going to be released soon to a big news organization).
Hopefully, they’ll pass right on by the National Enquirer.
Nope. She’s still rambling.
And not to be outdone in the warfare to amass the most impressive campaign contributions, Senator Barack Obama has surpassed Clinton at least in the primary calculations for political donations. Mitt Romney seeking the Republican nomination nod has raised around $23 million. Again, I’m impressed!
Is this a presidential election or a contentious race to see who can raise the most money?
Now if you add up all of the campaign contributions generated from the populace on both sides of the political spectrum — heck, they should be able to buy whatever they want!
Some has taken her car keys, right?
Isn’t it amazing how many people love to pay taxes up to their ears, and can still find money to give to a good cause?
Ah yes . . . politics is so . . . rewarding.
And that’s just my opinion!
Upon which, Kaye’s head hits the tabletop with a thud, and little specks of vomit drip from the corner of her mouth.
Haven’t blogged for a while. Just a stready stream of hits are keeping me busy these days.
Too bad really. I would have liked to chimed in on Imus (who cares), Schilling’s pitching (yay, it’s back), various machinations going on in our nation’s capital (shorter version: Republicans suck)…
But mostly, I would have liked to have written a timely kudos to Emily and Gray for their simply amazing performances in Beuaty and the Beast, which I saw last Thursday. It was a bit shocking at first to see/hear Gray speaking and singing in a course low register, striding the stage with a gruff gait. Lately, his roles have gravitated to — shall we say — his softer side, i.e., he played Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror, Mrs. Strict in Zombie Prom, and repeated appearances as Brother Boy/Tammy Wynette in various Del Shores plays. So it was great to see this side of him — it’s too easy to forget his versitility. He was fantastic.
Emily was — oh are there proper words? She was spot on. She was Belle. Her powerful voice soared (my only regret was that the orchestra couldn’t match her Broadway belt). Her delivery and coming timing were impeccable. She also looked like a million bucks. When she matriculates (no, that’s not a dirty word) at UNCG this fall, we’re going to miss her. Fortunately, she can be seen in Hair soon, although — sadly — she’s decided to limit how much of her will be seen, if you catch my drift.
I’ve seen Beauty and the Beast three times now (in the past two years) in various local productions, and this was the first time I really enjoyed it. Craig Faircloth was terrifically over-the-top, and the Barnhardt sisters — my God, the Barnhardt sisters. I wish they would bring back vaudeville, because those girls could put together an act!
Anyway, back to work/life, and (hopefully) some light blogging….
….and I said nothing.
Then they told me about contaminated wheat gluten in cat food, and I said nothing.
Then they told me about contaminated wheat gluten in dry dog biscuits, and I said nothing.
Then they told me about contaminated wheat gluten maybe even being in human food, but then I read wikipedia and decided I’m okay, since it only appears in crappy health food like "tofurky" (tofu turkey), and I don’t eat that stuff.
So I’m saying nothing.
One of the humorous side-stories to the U.S. Attorney purge scandal involves the firing of the U.S. Attorney from the state of New Mexico, David Iglesius. As former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson admitted last week, there was no real performance reason to fire Iglesias. In fact, it’s indisputable at this point that Iglesias was actually fired because he didn’t indict enough Democrats.
But they had to come up with a cover story at the time this scandal broke, so the Department of Justice accused him of absentee landlordism” because he had to take 40 days of annual duty in the naval reserve.
If that’s the reason he was fired, then DOJ has a problem: such a dismissal would be a violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), a federal law that prohibits job discrimination against members of the U.S. military. In fact, Gonzales himself was promoting the USERRA last summer in an effort make sure reservists and National Guard members didn’t suffer in the workplace when they are called to serve their country.
And now there is a potential investigation into firing Iglesius for that reason.
This is what happens when it’s more important to get U.S. soldiers in Iraq as opposed to getting appropriately-trained U.S. soldiers in Iraq:
Two soldiers killed in Iraq in February may have died as a result of friendly fire, Army officials said Wednesday, not from enemy fire, as the press reported.
The military suspected friendly fire later in February but did not inform the dead soldiers’ families of these new doubts.
One of the soldiers died just hours after arriving in Iraq — and was one of those troops rushed to the country in the "surge" who did not receive full training.
The Army said it is investigating the deaths of Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont., and Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., who were killed in Ramadi, in western Iraq on Feb. 2. The families of the soldiers at first were told they were killed by enemy fire.
According to Col. Daniel Baggio, unit commanders in Iraq did not initially suspect they were killed by U.S. forces, but an investigation by the unit found they may have been.
A supplemental report filed Feb. 28 suggested that the initial report might be wrong and an investigation was under way. It took another month before the families of the two soldiers were told, on March 31, that friendly fire was suspected.
On February 9, the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News reported: "At least 143 soldiers joined Fort Stewart’s 1st Brigade too late to participate in a final combat exercise before their units deployed to Iraq. Last week, one of those soldiers – Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18 – was the first from the brigade to be killed when he was hit by enemy fire in Ramadi, the stronghold of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency.
"Zeimer arrived at Fort Stewart on Dec. 18 after basic training and deployed to Iraq just a few weeks later. He missed the brigade’s intensive four-week mission rehearsal in October when more than 1,300 trainers and Iraqi role-players came to the post as part of the most realistic training program the Army offers for Iraq operations.
"The fact some of the brigade’s 4,000 soldiers missed that training raises questions about how well the Army is preparing troops for war in the face of accelerated and repeat deployments."
Two days before that, the same newspaper reported that "some Iraq veterans in the 1st Brigade have expressed concerns about their younger counterparts missing the mission rehearsal. ‘The training was good but some guys came in after that. They’re basically going straight from basic training into Iraq,’ said Staff Sgt. Jason Massey last month, before saying goodbye to his family for a third combat tour."
You may have heard the story from Florida about those two 10-year-olds and an older teen who brutally attacked a homeless man.
Nathan Tabor thinks he knows why the kids did it: (1) They weren’t allowed to pray in schools; (2) they thought that killing was okay, because abortion is legal.
Seriously, that what Nathan says.
This seems like a bad idea:
In the years since 9/11, al-Qaeda as a centrally controlled organization has been largely crushed. Its core leadership has been reduced from several thousand to several hundred, its ability to mount large-scale attacks has been seriously degraded, and it has evolved into something closer to a franchise operation than a single coherent group.
According to a number of reports, one of its franchises is a group called Jundullah, an affiliate that emerged around 2004 in the Baluchistan region that straddles the border between Pakistan and Iran. Jundullah carries out terrorist attacks on the leadership of both countries, and ABC News reports today that for the past couple of years the United States has been advising and funding its Iranian branch:
U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.
Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.
….Some former CIA officers say the arrangement is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.
One gets the impression that the Administration saw 9/11 as an excuse to go after Iraq and Iran solely, with almost no concern (other than for rhetoric purposes) of actually combatting terrorist extremism.
Chances are you’ll probably never see the Japanese drama/comedy/action film with absurdist overtones called Zatochi (2003). It’s about a blind nomad — a master swordsman — who saves a small town from ganglords. But at least you can see the last scene — one of the best tap numbers ever filmed (yes, they tap in traditional Japanese garb!)
A smattering of recent Sanajaya related comments from the media and around the blogosphere:
Sanjaya, if you’ve missed the show to date, is the Heather Mills of "American Idol." Instead of dancing without a leg, he’s singing without a vocal cord. A talent amputee.
Outsiders always have an inside edge. Mr. Malakar, who is of Indian descent and has an atavistic teen-idol sweetness, is the ultimate underdog: he can’t sing or dance very well.
The Guilded Moose (liveblogging Tuesday’s show):
HOLY SHIT THEY JUST FLASHED TO SANJAYA! I’m dubbing this the patented "Hair Glimpse." It’s now an important part of the show. His hair is slicked back, pomaded and he looks just like Lenny from Laverne and Shirley.
He looks like the evil minion of the bad guy in a Bollywood film. I just want a heroine in a Sari to run away from him and then start singing about a lily pond.
Sanjaya Malakar lives to sing (if you can call it that) another week. For some reason there are people all over this country who take time out of their lives to pick up the phone and vote for him – multiple times. For the love of Pete you made your point – make it stop already my ears can’t take it anymore.
A commenter at IfSanajaywins.com (buy the totebag!)
If Sanjaya wins, I will tear my ears off and feed them to my cat. When she craps them out, I will burn her poop. I will then piss on the ashes. I will proceed to scoop up the ashes and throw them in my garbage disposal. Only then will I know that I can never hear him singing again. Just to be safe, I’ll perform brain surgery on myself to make sure I’m deaf forever.
And here’s some T-shirts you can buy at Cafepress:
The picture below is causing a bit of a stir, because it shows Karl Rove at a company called Coptix, a Chattanooga computer outfit which — speculation goes — may have something to do with "privatizing" White House emails so that they cannot be discovered through pesky things like subpoena and FOIA requests.
But it is the picture on the wall in the background (which I’ve circled), which caught the attention of the folks at Wonkette.
And they’ve identified it:
Yup, it’s the Sleestak, from the 1970’s children’s sci-fi show Land of The Lost.
Wow. That Rove guy really is sleezy.
UPDATE: Ahhh, this explains it.
No, it’s not all hunky-dorey, Senator McCain:
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched the security offensive in February. In March, violent deaths dropped in Baghdad, according to Iraqi morgue and police statistics. But violence rose elsewhere in Iraq, fueled largely by suicide bombings.
In March, a total of 2,762 Iraqi civilians and policemen were killed, down 4 percent from the previous month, when 2,864 were killed.
The number of Iraqi policemen killed across Iraq nearly doubled from 171 in February to 331 in March, according to Interior Ministry statistics. Meanwhile, the numbers of unidentified bodies found across Baghdad are rising again, suggesting an increase in sectarian-motivated death squad killings.
In the first three weeks of the security plan, from Feb. 14 to March 7, 125 unidentified bodies were reported. But in the next three weeks, ending March 31, they nearly doubled to 230, according to the morgue data.
