Life in the Green Zone

Hail the conquerors:

For U.S. civilian members of Baghdad's Coalition Provisional Authority, moving there is definitely hardship duty. But there are a few bennies. Like lobster tail dinners for those living in the protected U.S. Green Zone. And then there's the nightlife. An Army doctor reveals that he can't keep enough condoms in stock.

Ha Ha

"It looks like the Bush administration will be handing over power to the Iraqis by June 30th...and, then they'll be handing over power to the Democrats on Nov 2nd."

-Letterman

(big applause)

Booby

Link:

Feb. 18 - Faced with presidential resistance to turning over highly sensitive intelligence briefs, the commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks tried to learn the details in the documents by obtaining access to White House transcripts of interviews that senior officials gave to a prominent journalist, NEWSWEEK has learned.

The extraordinary access that top Bush administration officials gave Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward more than two years ago for his book, “Bush at War,” became a principal issue in the contentious battle between the September 11 panel and the White House over access to the President’s Daily Briefs or PDBs—the intelligence briefing report that is given to the president every morning.

Threatened with a subpoena for the documents, the White House relented somewhat last week and agreed to allow the full 10-member commission to hear a summary of key PDBs about the Al Qaeda terrorist threat that were given to Bush and before him, to President Clinton. The summary was prepared by a four-member team that was allowed to read under highly restrictive conditions hundreds of PDBs dating back to 1998.

Still, the last-minute deal, sources tell NEWSWEEK, came only after intense negotiations in which members of the federal panel repeatedly brought up the Woodward interviews as evidence of the administration’s hypocritical approach toward secrecy. How, commission officials demanded to know, could the White House deny a federal panel investigating the worst crime in U.S. history access to documents that it had already shared with a journalist?

“Woodward was a point of reference to show the PDBs were not as sacrosanct as they claimed,” said one commission official familiar with the negotiations with the White House. “In his book, Woodward claims he saw the PDBs. That was an argument that these were not the ‘Holy of Holies.’”


...
But there is little doubt that Woodward got details of documents that are central to the commission’s investigation—and more than a little sensitive for the Bush White House. One intelligence document that Woodward described in a May, 2002 Washington Post story , although not in his book, is the Aug. 6, 2001 PDB given to Bush while on vacation at his ranch in Crawford. This is the day that intelligence officials briefed Bush on the prospect of an upcoming Al Qaeda attack and the prospect that terrorists might seek to hijack commercial airliners—a warning that critics have long charged should have triggered a more vigorous response from the White House. The title of the PDB, according to Woodward’s story, was more prophetic than the White House has ever acknowledged: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

Down Down Down

Now can we stop calling him a popular president? Fox News has him at 48/41 approve/disapprove.

Constitution Restoration Act of 2004

Perhaps the lawyers out there can chew on this one over the weekend.

(a) IN GENERAL-

(1) AMENDMENT TO TITLE 28- Chapter 81 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 1260. Matters not reviewable

`Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official personal capacity), by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.'.

etc...

(via the Yurica Report, which I know nothing about.)

Ralph's Gonna Run

And, well, if people are stupid enough to vote for him either because they believe "BUSH=Democrat Nominee" or because they believe voting for him will help build a third party movement even though he's running as an independent or because they believe it will force the Democratic candidate to pretend to move "to the Left" during the campaign in order to get their votes even though they've already decided to vote for Ralph or because they believe Ralph could actually win...

well, go ahead. Nothing I can say is going to change your mind.

Those Wacky Republicans

They have such a sense of humor.

During a Feb. 5 meet-the-candidate night for the newly formed College Republicans U. chapter -- not to be confused with the older and more established College Republicans -- representatives for several candidates revved up the jovial crowd with such statements as "We need to put an end to the liberal Matheson era" and support "the Democrat killers."

As the audience giggled off and on, Mike Clement, representing congressional candidate Tim Bridgewater, spoke excitedly about Republican successes when College Republicans work hard, citing the victory of Norm Coleman in the 2002 U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

As Clement bantered with the audience, one Republican gadfly noted that they defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale in that race, adding: "We had to kill off Wellstone to get it." He was referring to the death in a plane crash of Sen. Paul Wellstone and his family before the election.

Bush Appoints William Pryor to 11th Circuit

Jeebus.

Google Ad Restrictions

Google's content based restrictions on ads are a bit disturbing. Go see what Oceana wasn't allowed to run. In any case, nasty Google wouldn't let me run their ads here.

Onward to New Mexico!

Sounds like it's already legal there. Who knew?

Bernalillo, New Mexico-AP -- A county clerk in New Mexico says it has nothing to do with "politics or morals."

Sandoval County Clerk Victoria Dunlap says the county plans to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

She made the decision after asking for an opinion from the county attorney, who said New Mexico law isn't clear on the issue. He also says refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples could open the county to legal action.

State law defines marriage as a civil contract between contracting parties. It doesn't mention gender.

(thanks to emjaycue)


...looking through New Mexico law that seems to be the case. Not only that, but they have to honor any marriage performed in a different country!

40-1-4. [Lawful marriages without the state recognized.]
Statute text
All marriages celebrated beyond the limits of this state, which are valid according to the laws of the country wherein they were celebrated or contracted, shall be likewise valid in this state, and shall have the same force as if they had been celebrated in accordance with the laws in force in this state.

...and they're off! Congratulations!


...this writer in the NY Daily News also claims that New York's marriage laws are also gender neutral.

Us and Them

And, on the crazy theocratic corrupt Texan front, Tom DeLay doesn't consider homosexuals to be Americans.

"I think it will be central," DeLay, R-Texas, told reporters before addressing the Knox County Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day Dinner at Rothchild's. "Every now and then, an issue that is central to who you are and what your world view is comes along."

Americans "have been tolerant of homosexuality for years, but now it's being stuffed down their throats and they don't like it," DeLay said.

Help take back Texas from DeLay and his minions! Go pay a visit to Morris Meyer's campaign site, who is running in Texas against Joe Barton.

I wonder what the governor of Texas thinks of DeLay's comments. Maybe someone should ask him.


...you can also give to Lloyd Doggett, who DeLay tried to redistrict away.

Around the Bend

Apparently Republicans now think it's somehow unethical or inappropriate for Democrats to criticize something which is a current law. I'm sure they'll all be apologizing for criticizing tax law, circa 2000.

As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

Kristof

Roger Ailes with the definitive takedown.

We've Found Them!

Apparently the White House has found hundreds of thousands of missing manufacturing jobs:

Is cooking a hamburger patty and inserting the meat, lettuce and ketchup inside a bun a manufacturing job, like assembling automobiles?

That question is posed in the new Economic Report of the President, a thick annual compendium of observations and statistics on the health of the United States economy.

The latest edition, sent to Congress last week, questions whether fast-food restaurants should continue to be counted as part of the service sector or should be reclassified as manufacturers. No answers were offered.

In a speech to Washington economists Tuesday, N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, said that properly classifying such workers was "an important consideration" in setting economic policy.

...the blogger formerly known as Emma posted this two weeks ago as a joke.

They Sure Are Funny

What cads:

Hence, candidate -- and media critic -- Howard Dean reacted with humor Tuesday in Milwaukee as journalists presented him with a long-sleeve white T-shirt. It carried the motto "Establishment Media" in front, and a slogan swiped from Dean in the back: "We Have the Power, Dean Press Corps 2004."

What if it Fails?

I've posted about this one way or another a few times, but Digby brings us back to the basic point. Part of the PNAC dream was to go kick some ass to prove we could do it - and do it easy, and do it cheaply, and if we wanted to do it over and over again. Well, we went off and kicked some ass and proved we couldn't. Oh, sure, we toppled a regime - I'm sure we could do that just about anywhere. But now we're stuck there and we basically disproved what they hoped to prove. As Digby says:

Regardless of whether they hyped, sexed up or pimped out the intelligence on Iraq, the fact is that by invading Iraq the way we did and being proved complete asses now that no WMD have been discovered, one of our best defenses has been completely destroyed. It may have always been nothing but a pretense that we had hi-tech, super duper satellites with x-ray vision and all-knowing eavesdropping devices that can hear a pin drop half a world away but it was a very useful pretense. Nobody knew exactly what we were capable of. Now they do. It appears to everyone on the planet that our vaunted intelligence services couldn't find water even if they fell off of a fucking aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

It's this kind of thing that makes really crazy wackos like Kim Jong Il make mistakes. When a hugely powerful country like the United States proves to the entire world that it is not as powerful as everyone thought, petty tyrants and ambitious generals tend to get excited. This is why mighty nations should never fight wars unless they absolutely have to. It is always better to have enemies wonder whether they are as omnipotent as they appear. They should not risk proving otherwise unless they have no choice.

It is, therefore, in the national interest for the Democrats to lay this strategic blunder at the door of this administration as clearly and as forcefully as possible. We can only benefit by the world coming to believe, in no uncertain terms, that this war was fought in spite of what we knew, not because of what we didn't know. Bush and his neocon wet-dreamers need to take a very public fall for what they did, not just for justice but for national security. Nobody should allow the world's dangerous crackpots to believe that our institutions of the military and intelligence services have been tainted by this enormous error in judgment. It's too dangerous.

Oh, and the good news is we've hired former Apartheid goons to help us out.

Wrong on Every Count

He said it. Not me.

WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. military officer said Thursday he could not estimate with confidence how long American forces will have to stay in Iraq.

"I really do believe it's unknowable," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview with a group of reporters. "If I gave a good professional estimate, then that would be a standard that people would point to and, knowing that we can't know it perfectly, we'd get hammered."

...

"Actually, the things we've sat around and talked about before have been wrong on every count," he said with a chuckle. "So that's probably another reason why I don't want to" discuss it. Although he did not mention it, U.S. officials had assumed when Baghdad fell to U.S. forces last April that tens of thousands of troops could be withdrawn within a few months.

Justly Married

A small souvenir to remember a moment in history.

The World According to Karl

Karl sez Bush will support and fight for FMA:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites)'s political director has told a group of prominent conservatives that the president would soon publicly endorse a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Bay Buchanan, sister of former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan (news - web sites), told Reuters she was one of several conservatives who heard the message from political director Karl Rove two weeks ago.

"We were told by Karl Rove that the president would support the constitutional amendment -- not just that he would endorse it but also that he would fight for it," Buchanan said.

Specifically, Rove told an alliance of conservatives known as the Arlington Group in a telephone conversation that Bush would back the amendment being put forward by Colorado Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and that his statement would come "sooner rather than later."

As I say for the hundredth time, this is going to be an issue whether the Democrats want it to be or not. The moment is here - and the thing the Dems can do is take a strong stand on the right side of this issue. Will it doom the Dems? Maybe. I don't know. But taking a weasel stand will hurt them more.

More Lies

Poor Scott McClellan. He just can't keep them all straight.


...just wanted to add that 3 years later I find the desire to pin the recession on the Clenis by backdating its beginning 3 months rather odd. The implication is that if the economy is bad, it's the president's fault. Well, okay...