John McCain, Go F*ck Yourself

It's too bad he's not following his friend, Holy Joe out the door.

UN Ambassador Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration as a nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as the next Secretary of State, after a constant barrage of criticism leveed at her from Republicans following her intelligence community sanctioned statements on the Sunday talk shows a few weeks back, with Senate curmudgeon John McCain leading the charge.

“If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly - to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities,” she wrote in a letter to Obama that was released to the public on Thursday afternoon.

 ...Rice said in November that she “relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community” in delivering her assessment. Intelligence officials said that they approved her talking points, having decided ties to organized terrorism, and specifically al Qaeda, were still unclear at that point just five days removed from the attack.

The knives were out from the very beginning, and McCain certainly knows this as I'm sure he got the same intelligence reports that Rice used to make her comments. But it wasn't very long ago when John McCain defended another Rice, Condoleezza, in her nomination for the same position after "mushroom clouding" us into a war. But that Rice was a Republican, wasn't she...



Fuck you, John McCain. You can't retire fast enough.

Intense Interview

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was interviewed by Lawrence O'Donnell and it got a little heated at points. The weirdest thing about the whole interview was Rice arguing the points of the first Gulf War as justification for the second Gulf War. It's amazing.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Worst Mistake

I know this is well known among rational people, but I'd thought I'd post it anyway, just in case some non-thinkers happened upon my blog.

Richard A. Clarke, Washington Post: The Trauma of 9/11 Is No Excuse

...The first response [the White House] discussed [after 9/11] was invading Iraq. While the Pentagon was still burning, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld was in the White House suggesting an attack against Baghdad. Somehow the administration's leaders could not believe that al-Qaeda could have mounted such a devastating operation, so Iraqi involvement became the convenient explanation. Despite being told repeatedly that Iraq was not involved in 9/11, some, like Cheney, could not abandon the idea. Charles Duelfer of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group recently revealed in his book, "Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq," that high-level U.S. officials urged him to consider waterboarding specific Iraqi prisoners of war so that they could provide evidence of an Iraqi role in the terrorist attacks -- a request Duelfer refused. (A recent report indicates that the suggestion came from the vice president's office.) Nevertheless, the lack of evidence did not deter the administration from eventually invading Iraq -- a move many senior Bush officials had wanted to make before 9/11.

...The Bush administration's response actually undermined the principles and values America has always stood for in the world, values that should have survived this traumatic event. The White House thought that 9/11 changed everything. It may have changed many things, but it did not change the Constitution, which the vice president, the national security adviser and all of us who were in the White House that tragic day had pledged to protect and preserve.

Digby has more.

Despite all of Cheney's attempts at redemption and the ongoing conservative insistence that their policies "kept the country safe" the truth is that they behaved hysterically and irrationally after the attacks and reinforced every bad American stereotype in existence. Because of their blindered conservative worldview, they simply assumed that anything that had been done by someone other than the airbrushed version of Ronald Reagan had to be wrong and that anything other than schoolyard bully tactics were a form of weakness.

It's true that 9/11 did present an opportunity. America could have shown mature and intelligent global leadership. But it didn't. It behaved like a wounded adolescent giant, its leadership carrying on with "bullhorn moments" and talk of wanted posters and playing cards while an irresponsible media entertained the masses with war porn.

It was an embarrassing --- and dangerous --- display. If there was ever a time for the leadership of this country to play it cool it was then. And they failed the test in almost every way. Good for Richard Clark for calling them out on this.

The Final Insult? US Abstains in UN Cease-Fire Vote

I know that the "real" final insult of George W. Bush will be the pardon list we'll get on his way out the door, but I couldn't help but lump this into the same category because really, everything he's doing these last few weeks is all just one big slap in the face.

At the United Nations, fourteen nations approved the Security Council resolution urging a[n Israeli/Palestinian] cease-fire, with the United States abstaining. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States abstained, which left it unclear how a cease-fire would be enforced, because it wanted to see whether mediation efforts undertaken by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt would succeed. The United States did not veto the resolution because Washington supports its overall goals, she said.

They fucking abstained in voting on a cease-fire?! They wanted to wait on Egypt's mediation efforts? I don't EVER want to hear another conservative dickwad like Rush Limbaugh or crack whore like Ann Coulter EVER malign Obama again for voting "present" while in the Illinois State Senate.

This abstention, this non-vote, this "present" vote was a tacit admission by the Bush administration that whatever Israel does is fine by us. I hope that the incoming Obama team would be decent enough, human enough to vote in the affirmative should a situation like this come up again. But that's hard for me to imagine because to this point, the only voice in all of Congress that has been outwardly critical of Israel's disproportionate attack in Gaza has been Dennis Kucinich.

...Kucinich likened the Israeli attacks on Gaza to its war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006. In both cases, he said, civilian populations were attacked and “countless innocents” were killed or injured.

“All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law,” Kucinich said in a statement. “Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable.”

...Kucinich said the perpetrators of attacks against Israel should be brought to justice, but that Israel “cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible.”

...Kucinich said in his statement that he had sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requesting an independent inquiry. He said the attacks on civilians represented collective punishment, which he said was a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

It's really a shame that Dennis Kucinich isn't taken more seriously throughout the country. Instead of asking policy questions of the Congressman, the talking heads would rather find out if he's seen UFOs.

Also read:
Kucinich, January 8: Bush Administration Ignores Humanitarian Crisis - Israeli Military Prevents Emergency Ambulance Care for Four Days

T Minus 67 Days

"We need a common enemy to unite us."

- Happy 54th Birthday Condoleezza Rice

Hypocritical Presumptuous Pretend President

I know I'm late to the party on this subject (not much blogging time lately, and also not feeling too motivated) but I couldn't let this go by without comment.

John McCain is an ass. The McCain campaign was all atwitter in its judgment of Barack Obama's presumed lack of experience when arguing he didn't know what was going on in Iraq because he hadn't been there; as if actually having feet on the ground gives you a better understanding of the clusterfuck in Iraq. They actually goaded Obama into travelling to the Middle East, and when it backfired on them as throngs of people greeted him with open arms, they and the McCainstream Media accused him of being presumptuous and acting presidential before actually being president.

Fast forward just a couple of weeks later to the Russia-Georgia conflict of these past few days and witness the audacity of McThuselah as he not only sabre rattles with harsh language toward Russia (with sabres we don't have, by the way), but then sends his pretend cabinet members Lindsey Graham and Holy Joe Lieberman to Georgia. What the fuck?!

Hey asshole, we've already got a president. Sure he's completely incompetent, but it's his job to send the real Secretary of State to the region, not you, you twit. Now, while Barack Obama was on vacation in that far off exotic locale of Hawaii (perhaps McCain doesn't remember that it's been a state since he was 23 years old) and making a "more measured" statement, McCain tried to take advantage of the situation but overstepped his bounds in trying to act presidential.

Making a statement is one thing. Sending lackeys to the region is something completely different.

McCain-Rice 2008: They Can't Be Serious, Can They?

“There's this ritual in Washington: The Americans for Tax Reform, which is headed by Grover Norquist, he holds a weekly meeting of conservative leaders -- about 100, 150 people, sort of inside, chattering, class types,” [Republican strategist Dan] Senor said. “They all typically get briefings from political conservative leaders. Ten days ago, they had an interesting visit -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- the first time a secretary of state has visited the Wednesday meeting.”

Senor explained that Rice’s history in public office would make her a prime candidate, especially in light of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s emphasis on experience throughout his campaign.

“What the McCain campaign has to consider is whether or not they want to pick a total outsider, a fresh face, someone a lot younger than him, a governor who people aren't that familiar with," Senor said. "The challenge they're realizing is that they'll have to have to spend 30 to 45 days, which they won't have at that point, educating the American public about who this person is.

“The other category is someone who people instantly say, the second they see that announcement, 'I get it, that person could be president tomorrow,'" Senor added. "Condi Rice is an option.”

Seriously? Condoleezza Rice? What they "get" is trying to kill two birds with one stone - the two birds being the women's vote and the black vote. A two for one sale!

The following is the "experience" they are touting.

Cotton Pickin' Politicians

Lou Dobbs almost stepped in shit when speaking out against black politicians like Condi Rice and Barack Obama having the nerve to state the obvious: that race is still an issue in the United States. Yes, we are the most racially diverse country on earth, but that doesn't mean that racism does not exist.



Yassir, Massa Dobbs! We be good niggas from now on.

(H/T TPM & Cesca)

NY Times: Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning

Michael Gordon reports that the RAND Corporation submitted a study in the summer of 2005 critical of and identifying problems with every organization or leader involved in the reconstruction of Iraq. The report was buried by the Army.

Asked why the report has not been published, Timothy Muchmore, a civilian Army official, said... “After carefully reviewing the findings and recommendations of the thorough RAND assessment, the Army determined that the analysts had in some cases taken a broader perspective on the early planning and operational phases of Operation Iraqi Freedom than desired or chartered by the Army... Some of the RAND findings and recommendations were determined to be outside the purview of the Army and therefore of limited value in informing Army policies, programs and priorities.”

In other words, the report was too detail-oriented to be of any use to the government. We don't want details. It just needed to state that all was well in the rabbit hole. Anything other than that could undermine the propaganda.

Could it also be due to the fact that the study was critical of George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Gen. Tommy Franks?

One serious problem the study described was the Bush administration’s assumption that the reconstruction requirements would be minimal. There was also little incentive to challenge that assumption, the report said.
“Building public support for any pre-emptive or preventative war is inherently challenging, since by definition, action is being taken before the threat has fully manifested itself,” it said. “Any serious discussion of the costs and challenges of reconstruction might undermine efforts to build that support.”
Another problem described was a general lack of coordination. “There was never an attempt to develop a single national plan that integrated humanitarian assistance, reconstruction, governance, infrastructure development and postwar security,” the study said.

Lack of coordination? On only has to look at Hurricane Katrina and the FEMA fiasco to know that "lack of coordination" is the Bush administration's middle name. Besides, it's hard work to coordinate the running of a country when all coordination recources are being used for voter supression, firing US attorneys, rendition, torture, rigged elections and caging lists, not to mention the coordination of hiding the truth in any study done or report published (or not published) from the American public.

Bush: US Should've Bombed Auschwitz

AP reporter Aron Heller described a teary eyed George W. Bush visiting Israel's Holocaust Museum. Bush said the U.S. should have sent bombers to prevent the extermination of the Jews.

That's not the funny part. This is the funny part.

[Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner] Shalev quoted Bush as asking Rice, "Why didn't Roosevelt bomb it?" He said Rice and Bush discussed the matter further and then the president delivered his verdict.

"We should have bombed it," Shalev, speaking in Hebrew, quoted Bush as saying.
Briefing reporters later on Air Force One, Rice said Bush was talking about the rail lines to the camp.

Maybe someone should give li'l George a History 101 lesson and tell him that FDR was DEAD in 1945. Truman might have bombed it, but he was too busy exterminating the Japanese.

Rice Plans Talks with Syria

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syria's foreign minister in the first high-level talks between the countries in years, a U.S. official said Thursday, and the chief American military spokesman in Iraq said Syria had moved to reduce ''the flow of foreign fighters'' across its border.

When Nancy Pelosi does it, it's called "emboldening the enemy" and "negotiating with terrorists". I guess when the Bushies do it, it's called "diplomacy".

Condi Compares Saddam to Hitler

On "Fox News Sunday" Febuary 25th, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State of the United States, compared the Iraq situation and the possibility of Congress revising the Iraq resolution to World War II and Adolph Hitler.

Whaaaaaaa?!

If Congress were now to revise the Iraq authorization, she said, "… it would be like saying that after Adolf Hitler was overthrown, we needed to change, then, the resolution that allowed the United States to do that, so that we could deal with creating a stable environment in Europe after he was overthrown."

Wasn't this nitwit the Provost of Stanford University? How is it possible that she has a Ph.D. in Political Science and doesn't know her basic United States history? I'll stop myself here because Keith Olbermann scalds Condi in his latest Special Comment. He does it so well, you'd be remiss not to catch it. Go on, click... you know you want to.

OLBERMANN: This administration has long thought otherwise, but you can't cherry-pick life — whether life in 2007, or life in the history page marked 1945. You can't keep the facts that fit your prejudices and throw out the ones that destroy your theories. And if you're going to try to do that; if you still want to fool some people into thinking that Saddam was Hitler, and once we gave FDR that blank check in Germany he was no longer subject to the laws of Congress or gravity or physics, at least stop humiliating us.

Get your facts straight. Use the Google!

You've been on Fox News Sunday, Secretary Rice. The Fox network has got another show premiering Tuesday night. You could go on that one, too. It might be a better fit. It's called "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?"