Month: April 2006

With Blair Fatigue Sweeping Britain, Tony Ditches Bush on Iran

Jon Ponder

“We will support the diplomatic moves, at best… But we cannot commit our own resources to a military strike.”
— British official

Poodle no more: Like President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has seen his poll numbers drop as the Iraq War and its pretexts have unraveled. In fact, Blair’s approval rating is even lower than the president’s. Just over 30 percent approve of Blair’s job performance, while Bush’s popularity hovers around 37 percent. In one poll, 57 percent agreed that “Blair had run out of steam and is unlikely to achieve anything else as prime minister.” Nearly half said they wanted Blair to resign this year.

Now Blair, whose slavishness as a helpmate to President Bush during the Iraq war earned him the sobriquet “Bush’s poodle,” is deserting the president over his new scheme to rally popularity for himself and his party in the mid-terms by a-bombing some sense into the Iranian mullahs:

Tony Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday…

[In] the midst of international opposition to a pre-emptive strike on Tehran, and Britain’s military commitments around the world, the government maintains it cannot contribute to a military assault. “We will support the diplomatic moves, at best,” a Foreign Office source told Scotland on Sunday. “But we cannot commit our own resources to a military strike.”

Meanwhile, a new report on the Iran crisis has warned that neo-conservatives in the Bush administration are on “collision course” with Tehran.

Are Republicans Feeling Karmic Blowback from Meddling with Terri?

Jon Ponder

Let’s hope Terri Schavo’s conscious self was in a happy place somewhere and not trapped and tortured in her useless brain for the decade and a half she lay in a persistent vegetative state. That would be comforting — as would this, from James Wolcott:

I keep going back to the Terri Schiavo case. That’s when I think the rightwing carousel began to break down and the painted horses lost their rhythm, pawing the air to no avail. Talk radio and cable news tilted heavily for Schiavo’s parents and against Michael Schiavo, Jeb Bush jowlily postured and interposed himself with shameless zeal, Congressional Republicans stuck their beaks into this private turmoil, Bush broke precedent to interrupt his precious downtime in Crawford to sign a hocked-up bill,–and they all misread the public’s mood. The American public wanted them to butt out. That they could get it so wrong was a sign that they had lost touch and couldn’t mold public opinion on every issue as if it were the mashed-potatoes mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Sign. But so thick, rich, and impacted was their arrogance that they ignored the warning sign, just as they ignored the warning signs in Iraq until it turned into a danse macabre.

Cheney Played General in ‘War on Wilson’

Jon Ponder

Vice President Cheney prsonally directed the campaign to smear Joe Wilson, including authorizing the leaking of a classified document about Wilson’s trip to Niger to the media:

Hours after Cheney reportedly instructed Libby to disclose information from the CIA report, Libby divulged to reporters Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper that Plame was a CIA officer.

[Cheney] directed his then-chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, on July 12, 2003 to leak to the media portions of a then-highly classified CIA report that Cheney hoped would undermine the credibility of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, a critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, according to Libby’s grand jury testimony in the CIA leak case and sources who have read the classified report…

[The] disclosure that Cheney instructed Libby to leak portions of a classified CIA report on Joseph Wilson adds to a growing body of information showing that at the time Plame was outed as a covert CIA officer the vice president was deeply involved in the White House effort to undermine her husband.

Dear Leader was not involved, so don’t even go there:

Both Libby and Cheney have repeatedly insisted that the vice president never encouraged, directed, or authorized Libby to disclose Plame’s identity. In a court filing on April 12, Libby’s attorneys reiterated: “Consistent with his grand jury testimony, Mr. Libby does not contend that he was instructed to make any disclosures concerning Ms. Wilson [Plame] by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, or anyone else.”

Apparently, nobody told Scooter not to reveal Plame’s secret identity:

The previously unreported grand jury testimony is significant because only hours after Cheney reportedly instructed Libby to disclose information from the CIA report, Libby divulged to then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine correspondent Matthew Cooper that Plame was a CIA officer, and that she been involved in selecting her husband for the Niger mission.

So revealing the identity of a spy whose job was tracking the black market for WMDs is not treason when Republicans do it?

Exxon CEO’s Retirement Package Is $400 Million

Jon Ponder

Meanwhile, Gas Is Heading Toward $3 per Gallon

Exxon CEO Lee Raymond’s salary was $51 million in 2005, but that’s all behind him now. After he retires, if lives another two decades, he’ll have to survive on $20 million a year:

Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.

Video: Bush Raps Lennon’s ‘Imagine’

Buck Banks

Smart bomb: John Callahan is a guy with no small amount of video editing talent and a lot on his mind. He has put together a remix of John Lennon’s classic peace anthem, “Imagine,” pieced together from 40 video clips of George Bush’s speeches and public utterances, interspersed with disturbing images of war and destruction from Iraq.

This is not your cutesie animation of George and Dick singing and dancing to illustrate a petty political point — it’s juiced-up anti-war rhetoric with a punch.

Leak: Bush’s Speech Justifying Attack on Iran

Buck Banks

Gotcha: Okay, this isn’t really a leaked speech, it’s just another one of Leonard Pitts’ insightful columns wherein he proposes a speech not unlike the one a little over three years ago where George Bush announced and justified the invasion of Iraq. Sorry for the headline subterfuge, but subterfuge is in the air, heavy as the scent of dogwoods in the spring.

From the Miami Herald:

As a public service, I’ve written a speech for President Bush to use when we invade Iran.

“My fellow Americans:

“Thirty minutes ago, on my command, the United States, leading a coalition of peace-loving nations, began striking targets in Iran. This is the opening stage of a broad and concerted campaign to defend the civilized world from the threat posed by nuculer weapons in the hands of a regime known for supporting terror.

“In the spring of 2006, Iran announced that it had, for the first time, enriched uranium, a key process in the production of fuel for nuculer reactors and nuculer weapons. Iran’s president promised that his nation’s aims were peaceful. However, the United States has obtained incontrovertible proof that Iran is just days from producing nuculer arms.

“I am not unmindful of the skepticism with which this information is regarded by some. They feel that because coalition forces never found the weapons of mass destruction we expected to find in Iraq, we should ignore the grave and gathering threat posed by Iran. My fellow Americans, I reject these assaults on the credibility of our intelligence-gathering operations. The situations are not at all alike.

REALLY, REALLY
“Yes, when we invaded Iraq, we were really sure we’d find weapons of mass destruction. But as we invade Iran, we are really, really, really sure. That’s three reallys, my fellow Americans — two more than before.
[…]

Florida War Vet Refuses to Swear Support for Government

Trish

A newly elected 76-year-old Korean War veteran in Florida is refusing to take the oath of office because he doesn’t support the current regime.

Basil Dalack is suing Tequesta, near Miami, to rewrite the oath.

… the oath requires him to “support, protect and defend” the government…

Dalack said he believes the U.S. war in Iraq is unjust and “an abomination.” He said he could not sleep at night if he took a pledge implying blanket support for the U.S. government.

“Those dead kids in Iraq, American kids and Iraqi kids, would haunt me,” Dalack said.

Good man.

Student Dies In Second Unidentified Fever Outbreak in China

Buck Banks

From Agence France Press:

BEIJING: A high school in northern China has been shut down after an unidentified virus killed one student and left dozens of others hospitalised with high fevers, state press reported yesterday.

Medical officials have determined that the outbreak in Shaanxi province is not bird flu but are still trying to identify the virus, the Beijing Times reported. The virus was first detected after 19 of the students from Qishan county came down with high fever late last month.

One of the students from Yidian High School died after being sent to the provincial capital of Xian for treatment and, by Monday this week, a total of 30 students had been hospitalized with high fevers, the report said. Most of the fevers registered over 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit), it added.

“At the moment we have ruled out the possibility of atypical pneumonia and the bird flu, but the transmission of this disease is getting stronger and the exact cause and source of the disease has not been confirmed,” one unnamed medical official was quoted as saying.

Officials at the school said the outbreak came after students had participated in a sports meeting in cold weather.

The PROMED infectious disease discussion group noted that in February and March there was one other outbreak of unidentified fever in China and four in two regions of India.

Congress Set to Fight Over FEMA’s Fate

Buck Banks

Push for independence: With another hyperactive hurricane season set to begin in just over six weeks, Congress members are gearing up for a fight over whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency should remain under the control of the Department of Homeland Security or become a stand-alone agency answerable only to the president.

According to a report in Congress Daily:

Removing FEMA from DHS would only exacerbate the agency’s problems.
— House Homeland Security Committee

House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., said Wednesday he wanted FEMA removed from Homeland Security and under the president’s direct control. “The response [to a disaster] has to be able to bring all the assets of the federal government together quickly,” Davis told reporters at the 2006 Homeland and Global Security Summit in Washington, organized by Equity International. (Davis headed a special House panel that investigated the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.)

But leaders of the House Homeland Security Committee say such a move would cripple the agency and the government’s ability to respond to disasters.

“Removing FEMA from DHS would only exacerbate the agency’s problems,” committee Republicans and Democrats said Wednesday in a joint statement, which aides said was not prepared as a response to Davis. “It would reduce FEMA’s access to the vast resources available within the department, create duplicative response efforts for natural and manmade disasters and significantly delay our ability to prepare for future emergencies. It is imperative that we strengthen FEMA while keeping it within DHS.”

A turf war is shaping up with members of both parties coming down on both sides of the issue.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Economic Development Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., whose panel oversees emergency management issues, has drafted legislation that would remove FEMA from Homeland Security. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has introduced a bill that would make FEMA an independent agency. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, says the agency should stay within DHS.

Bush’s Nomination of Paulison Causing ‘Exodus’ at FEMA

Buck Banks

Perils of cronyism: According to government labor union leaders, President Bush’s nomination of Federal Emergency Management Agency acting director R. David Paulison to be permanent director is causing middle managers to flee the agency.

GovExec.com reports that labor leaders are terming it an “exodus”:

“We have mid-level managers flying out the door [at FEMA],” said Charles Showalter, president of the American Federation of Government Employees’ National Homeland Security Council. “Any time you put a political appointee over public safety and operational issues, it scares the hell out of people.”

‘Any time you put a political appointee over public safety and operational issues, it scares the hell out of people.’
— Charles Showalter

Leo Bosner, a 27-year FEMA veteran and union representative, said Paulison’s 30 years of fire and rescue experience in Florida do not necessarily qualify him to lead FEMA, and called for someone with broader disaster management expertise. Bosner also was critical of Paulison’s support of FEMA remaining within DHS.

Apparently, before Paulison’s nomination as announced several candidates for the directorship had quietly asked to be removed from consideration. The unions asked for a broader search for a permanent director, but Republican Congress members came out in support of Paulison. The Dems appear to be waiting for confirmation hearings (which have not been scheduled) before publicly criticizing — or supporting — Paulison.

Note: Hurricane season begins in 49 days.