First off, George Will is pissed. The title of his latest column might be mild ("Rhetoric of Uncertainty"), but his claims aren't. An excerpt:
| Last week, in the latest iteration of a familiar speech (the enemy is "brutal," "we're on the offensive," "freedom is on the march") that should be retired, the president said, "This is a moment of choosing for the Iraqi people." Meaning what? Who is to choose, and by what mechanism? Most Iraqis already "chose" -- meaning prefer -- peace. But in 1917 there were only a few thousand Bolsheviks among 150 million Russians -- and the Bolsheviks succeeded in hijacking the country for seven decades[...]
Almost three years after the invasion, it is still not certain whether, or in what sense, Iraq is a nation. And after two elections and a referendum on its constitution, Iraq barely has a government. A defining attribute of a government is that it has a monopoly on the legitimate exercise of violence. That attribute is incompatible with the existence of private militias of the sort that maraud in Iraq[...] Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, writing in the Wall Street Journal, reports that Shiite militias "have broken up coed picnics, executed barbers [for the sin of shaving beards] and liquor store owners, instituted their own courts, and posted religious guards in front of girls' schools to ensure Iranian-style dress." Iraq's other indispensable man, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, says that unless the government can protect religious sites, "the believers will." When violence surges, if U.S. forces take the lead in suppressing it they delay the day when Iraqi forces will be competent. If U.S. forces hold back, they are blamed by an Iraqi population that is being infantilized by displacing all responsibilities onto the American occupation[...] Today, with all three components of the "axis of evil" -- Iraq, Iran and North Korea -- more dangerous than they were when that phrase was coined in 2002, the country would welcome, and Iraq's political class needs to hear, as a glimpse into the abyss, presidential words as realistic as those Britain heard on June 4, 1940. |
Reread that last part. Will just admitted that this administration has made things worse, not better. That's huge.
In news about Dubai Ports World, it looks like the UAE is starting to issue vague threats about what will happen if the deal is blocked. It's classic Rove - THEY won't change their behaviors, but others might. Be afraid. Be very afraid!
But if this story from Reuters is to be believed, their threats are going to be ignored.
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said on Thursday he would introduce legislation requiring foreign companies to divest any holdings of U.S. infrastructure critical to national security.
Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, also vowed to "kill" with legislation a pending deal to allow a state-owned Arab company to manage terminals in major U.S. ports. He said infrastructure such as ports, electric grids and power plants should not be owned by foreign firms. Under his legislation, "Any foreign companies that own critical infrastructure would be required to divest so it's owned by Americans," Hunter told reporters. |
For the record, I think this is probably going too far. My problem with DPW is that it is owned by a foreign government, that said government has known ties to several terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda and Hamas, and that it participates in the Arab boycott of Israel. Of course, that last bit is already illegal under US law, so you would have thought that alone would have stopped things. But then again, this is the Bush administration we're talking about, and as we all know by now in a "time of war" they are of course above the law.
In the Plame case, another interesting day.. An excerpt from E&P:
| A filing Thursday at U.S. District Court in the Plame/ CIA leak case suggests that Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward may have tape recorded his fateful conversaton with the so-called "second source"--besides Lewis "Scooter" Libby-- that is now a key part of the case.
Woodward suddenly revealed late last year that he had talked with Libby as well as another unnamed government official about CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Earlier, columnist Robert Novak had also said he had an unnamed second source. One paragraph in Thursday’s filing, NBC reported, indicates that the unnamed official spoke both with Woodward and Novak, and "Libby has been given a redacted transcript of the conversation between Woodward and [redacted] and Novak has published an account briefly describing the conversation with his first confidential source [redacted]." Does "transcript of the conversation" mean that there is an audio recording of the conversation between Woodward, Novak and the unnamed source? Or merely a detailed set of notes? "Last Friday, Judge Reggie Walton decided to continue to protect the anonymity of one administration official, whom Libby's attorneys described as a confidential source about Plame for two reporters, one of them apparently Woodward," NBC said. Libby's lawyers said in court that the "official" is someone "outside the White House." Novak said last year that President Bush knew the identity of his confidential source, and also suggested that the official also was Woodward's source as well. |
Pure speculation? If Bush's numbers continue to slide, Libby's going to roll. The more we learn, the more specific the evidence looks against Libby.
And for the records, Bush's numbers continue to suck. Three new polls, all in the 30's. CBS @ 34% is till the outlier, but its not far outside the margin of error for these new polls. Want more? Here.
In other news, there's an interesting debate going on right now in DC over cable TV. Social conservatives have been pushing for years to disaggregate cable TV package so that people can buy stations a la carte. Their argument, of course, is that they will b able to block the channels they find offensive. No doubt they expect many to do that, a move that would threaten many smaller "liberal" channels. Or some such. Except there's one problem. It now occurs to them that maybe the televangelist channels will be the ones that suffer, prompting them to fight their own proposal. Weird. Me personally? There are only a small handful of channels I watch, and I'd be willing to pay for all of them so long as my bill didn't go up.
Want something on Tom DeLay? How about this. No doubt DeLay will claim he didn't know, but c'mon, he is so toast.... If you and your wife flew first class to England on someone else's tab, I suspect you'd know whose tab it was. In his case, there are ethics rules requiring him to know who paid. Its as if it never occurred to them to hide anything.
Speaking of getting caught... Apparently US military tribunals have decided to allow evidence obtained through torture. But I thought we didn't torture? Why the policy change? All in our name people. All in our name.
In brighter news, we've got word of yet another Santorum corruption scandal. Remember, this is the guy who was supposed to lead Republican efforts to clean up Congress. Ha!
And last but not least, it looks like yet another conservative has turned on Bush's war. John Derbyshire of NRO says:
| Well, I'm with Bill Buckley and George Will. This pig's ear is never going to be made into a silk purse, not by any methods or expenditures the American people are willing to countenance. The only questions worth asking about Iraq at this point are: How does GWB get out of this with the least damage to US interests, and to his party's future prospects? I wish I had some answers. |
One by one they are waking up. One by one.
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