Oh Crap

I hope this isn't true:

The Pentagon is looking into claims that two US troops - one a woman - have been captured by Islamic forces in Iraq.

A Lebanese TV station reported that the group, calling itself Fukat al-Madina al-Munawara, or Medina Faction, had captured the pair during a shootout.


LBCI showed what it said was photocopies of the soldiers' military identity cards.

The pair were named as Katherine Rose and Andrew Peters but the claim has not been verified.

At least one accounted for... good news.

...both accounted for.

Flood the Zone Friday

Not geniuses tells us all to send letters to the editor, courtesy of CREEP.

Pop Quiz

Approximately 4.4% of our GDP is spent on...what?


..and the answer is...Health care administration!

Not health care - the health care *paperwork.*

Demetrios Speaks

In comments, reader Demetrios sez:

The Republicans certainly have every right to do it, just as they had every right to impeach Bill Clinton for sex. It's arguable whether they have the "right" to re-redistrict Texas; and they certainly did not have the right to purge the Florida rolls illegally of African-American voters in 2000. They didn't have a right to eavesdrop on Democratic strategy sessions in VA; and they had no right to call the Capitol Hill cops to remove Democrats from a House library. They have varying degrees of rights (or not) to do these things. But the sum total of it indicates a real allergy to democracy, to fair elections, and to the will of the voters. If Democrats displayed the same pattern of contempt for democracy, this would be a national story, and the party would be excoriated daily on the editorial pages of the "liberal" New York Times and Washington Post. As it is, the media refuses to connect the dots and make this a story. It's to their shame; but thank goodness for Joe Conason, Al Franken, Eric Alterman, Sidney Blumenthal and other smart liberals who are writing about what trash the Republican Party has degenerated into. Maybe, if it's just repeated often enough and intelligently enough, the rest of the media may start to catch on.

Indeed.

Post vs. Post

August 10

Thus, Mr. Gore maintains, we were all under the "false impression" that Saddam Hussein was "on the verge of building nuclear bombs," that he was "about to give the terrorists poison gas and deadly germs," that he was partly responsible for the 9/11 attacks. And because of these "false impressions," the nation didn't conduct a proper debate about the war.


What isn't persuasive, or even very smart politically, is to pretend to have been fooled by what Mr. Gore breathlessly calls the Bush "systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic ideology."

Today:

Perhaps even more disturbing than the administration's indifference to the truth or falsity of the various claims it made before the war is the fact that it seemed to believe its own propaganda. President Bush and Vice President Cheney really thought that if they wished it, it would come -- "it" in this case being not only a quick victory in the war but also a rapid rallying of Iraqis to the American standard afterward.

Perhaps even more disturbing than the Post's indifference to the truth or falsity of the various claims it makes about Al Gore is the fact that it seems to believe its own propaganda.

UPDATE: Silly me, for some reason I managed to miss that the latter was an EJ Dionne column. Never Post Before Coffee.

Kleiman Responds

To some extent I guess he thinks it's simply a practical issue - that, say, the Bustamante campaign should be 100% focus on getting Bustamante elected, rather than the "no on recall, yes on Bustamante." It isn't clear to me that this would improve Bustamante's chances of winning the second ballot, though maybe it would and if so Mark has a point here.

But on the point that the recall doesn't have the same standard as impeachment - that's true and I've never questioned the *right* of the Republicans to do this, or argued that they weren't following the letter or spirit of the law her. The point is that it's obviously a *bad law.* The recall process is deeply flawed. I'm not against any recall process, but one in which the sitting governor could be ousted by "losing" 49% to 5% is a bad process. And, if Davis loses and Bustamanate wins, we can look forward to Recall Part 2 by the same cast of characters.

Al's #2!

It isn't actually that hard to get your book up to the top of the charts on Amazon with a burst of buying over a short period, but Al's still hanging in there which is quite impressive. Shipping now...

Don't Get It

Mark Kleiman doesn't understand why many of us Dems think that it's imperative that Gray Davis keep his job. Leaving aside the question of whether he WILL manage to do so or not, I really don't understand Kleiman's attitude. It reminds me of (some of) the lefty-left's response to the Clinton impeachment: Sure, the blowjob wasn't important, but he should be impeached for a) he didn't pardon Mumia, b) Aspirin factory! c) Welfare reform! d) insert pet issue here.

The reason to reject the Clinton impeachment, which was of course legal (aside from some of Starr's and the media's extralegal shenanigans which brought us there), was that there was something wholly repugnant about the people and process behind it all Taking an opportunity to get your revenge on a guy you didn't like much, for reasons even more illegitimate than the stated reasons, by embracing a corrupt and frightening movement is ethically indefensible.

Now, it's possible Mark thinks that Davis has committed some severe ethical transgressions I'm not aware of, but otherwise he's simply accepting the idea that it's reasonable to try and overturn the results of an election simply because you didn't like them. Nothing changed between the time voters pulled the lever for Davis and the beginning of the recall process. While the recall process is legal, it's also extremely bad law and very anti-democratic.

Kleiman's critique of Davis's completely legitimate election strategy also confuses me. Davis didn't make Bill Simon the candidate - Republican primary voters in California did. I've always doubted that Davis's ad campaign had much to do with it - the California Republicans love the circular firing squad more than the national Dems. Even if it did, this wasn't the new and unique campaign tactic the media pretended it was.

Regardless, voting no on the recall is about rejecting a process, not supporting a candidate. Davis may be a stinker, but he's the duly elected stinker of the state of California. If Governor Bill Simon were being recalled right now, I'd (if I were still a CA resident) vote against that too.

One Line

Tomasky responds to some Greenies who didn't like his attack on Nader. Frankly, the entire debate is rendered moot by one line:

Indeed, if the Greens had helped elect Al Gore, he likely would have been the greenest president in U.S. history.

Indeed.

Move On at 48.49%

Keep giving!

...57.47%!

...60.00%!!!

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan...

Crap.

MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida-AP -- An American soldier has been killed in a hostile fire incident in Afghanistan.

The U-S Central Command only identifies the dead soldier as a member of special operations. The name is being withheld pending notification of the family.

Chemical Ali

Well, I hope they've really got him this time. He's only been reported dead three times.

I Hate Susan Estrich

For a variety of reasons, but this screed attacking Arianna for running for governor against the wishes of her poor children is ridiculous.

I think Arianna should drop out - I don't think running is going to do anything either for her or whatever political causes she is aligned with, but the "how dare she do that to her kids" angle is horrible. No one would use it against a man -- no one used it against George Bush who ran against the wishes of his daughters -- and a self-proclaimed feminist like Estrich shouldn't legitimize this kind of attack.

Give More to Move On

They're 43% on the way to their goal. Do it in honor of the late Sally Baron:

When Sally Baron's family wrote her obituary, they described a northern Wisconsin woman who raised six children and took care of her husband after he was crushed in a mining accident.

She had moved to Stoughton seven years ago to be closer to her children and was 71 when she died Monday after struggling to recuperate from heart surgery. Her family had come to the question of what might be a fitting tribute to her.

"My uncle asked if there was a cause," her youngest son, Pete Baron, said.

Almost in unison, what her children decided to include in the obituary was this: "Memorials in her honor can be made to any organization working for the removal of President Bush."

Majority Want New President

NOW can we stop talking about the president's extraordinary popularity?

Yes, yes, I know technically it's a plurality but majority is commonly used in this fashion...It's only when the distinction really counts that it's necessary to make it...

Cowards

Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter run screaming from Joe Conason. Wahh! Wahh!

The Last Time...

The peace process in Israel was derailed it was all blamed on the Clenis.

Blogging in the Bulletin

'tis an Aussie publication. Other than that I know nothing about it.

Creepy

David Kelly:

Mr Broucher added: "As David Kelly was leaving, I said to him 'what do you think will happen if Iraq is invaded?'. "His reply was, which at the time I took to be a throwaway remark, he said 'I will probably be found dead in the woods'."

Six Short Weeks

Then:

NIAGARA, N.Y. -- Thousands attended a parade on Saturday to honor the 914th Airlift Wing, which returned about six weeks ago but could be redeployed in the coming weeks.

"Niagara is prepared," said Col. James B. Roberts. "They are our top unit."

More than 250 reservists celebrated their return from the Middle East at the parade. They also welcomed Roberts as the new Niagara Falls Air Reserve Base Commander. Roberts comes from the Dobbins Air Force Base in Atlanta, Ga.

Now:

Niagara Falls, NY (AP) 08/21/03 -- Members of an Air Force reserve unit who were given a welcome parade have learned they're being shipped out again for the war in Iraq.

Details of the latest redeployment will be released at a news conference Thursday.

The 914th Airlift Wing out of the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station received word of its redeployment on Wednesday.

Several hundred of the reservists were deployed in March and returned to Niagara Falls about six weeks ago.

On Saturday, they were honored with a "Hometown Heroes Parade" that drew hundreds of flag- and sign-waving supporters.

...

The reservists returned to Niagara Falls six weeks ago after being in the Middle East on assignment for about a year.