Day: June 29, 2007

The Search for Iraq’s WMDs is Officially Over

Trish

The U.N. announced today, five years after our invasion of Iraq because we were told by our president that he knew for sure they had weapons of mass destruction, the search is over.

The resolution, approved by a vote of 14-0, terminated the mandate of the U.N. bodies responsible for overseeing the dismantling of Hussein’s programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles…

Since 2005, the United States has been trying to get the Security Council to wrap up the work of the inspectors, who were pulled out of Iraq just before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and were barred by the U.S. from returning.

So George, you can stop looking. Now can we bring our troops home?

Romney: My Dog Liked Riding on Car Roof 12 Hours from Boston to Ontario

Jon Ponder

Mitt Romney has reacted to the story that he illegally transported his large dog in a carrier on the roof of his car for 12 hour trips in the 1980s, including one from Boston to Ontario. He says the dog liked it:

“He scrambled up there every time we went on trips, got in all by himself and enjoyed it,” Romney said of the Irish Setter.

And, anyway, the entire controversy is PETA’s fault because they criticized him:

“PETA has not been my fan over the years. PETA was after me for having a rodeo at the Olympics,” he said in reference to his role as chief executive of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. “PETA was unhappy when I went quail hunting in Georgia, and they’re not happy that my dog likes fresh air.”

This dumbass is one sick puppy.

Mitt’s Dog: “Dad is Not the Sharpest Knife in the Drawer”

Trish

The Boston Globe’s Scott Lehigh penned a pointed, but under the circumstances, quite restrained analysis of the Mitt Romney dog on the roof story.

If the question of what to do with Seamus was presented as a Harvard Business School case study, the remedy Mitt arrived at would not be widely seized upon as the most intelligent choice

For the last few mornings, I’ve lingered over the breakfast table, reading all about Mitt Romney, from his Michigan boyhood to his boffo business career to his determined days as chief of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

And what do I come away thinking?

One: Poor Seamus Romney.

And: Does a vacuum periodically settle in between the ears of the Mighty Mighty Mittster, rather like one of those low-pressure areas that sometimes stalls for days on end over New England?

Good questions, especially about someone who portrays himself as a sensible — if not outright clever — guy. As it was, the dog probably had reason to believe that Mormon was out of his freaking mind.

And who, really, can blame Seamus, riding up there alone and forgotten, eyeing each approaching overpass and anxiously wondering if Mitt had calculated the clearances correctly, while the rest of the Romneys were safely ensconced in the vehicle below, no doubt whiling away the hours with joyous renditions of “This land is your land, this land is my land”?

…I suspect that if the question of what to do with Seamus was presented as a Harvard Business School case study, the remedy Mitt arrived at would not be widely seized upon as the most intelligent choice…

The story made me wonder a little about the rest of the Romneys as well…I’d like to think that at some point during the trip, Tagg or Matt would have displayed enough of that brash iconoclasm to pipe up and inquire: “Say, Dad, do you hear that howling? Have you considered that Seamus may not be enjoying himself up there on top of the car?”

Lehigh suggests that if space inside the car was at such a premium, there was still one more possibility.

If the rooftop ride really was such a smart solution, at the very least Mitt could have taken a turn up there himself. Certainly he’s proved resolute in the face of risk, at least in the business world, and I have it on good report that the hair product he uses is guaranteed to hold fast in gusts of up to 70 miles an hour.

Is Cheney Giving State Secrets to the Saudis?

Jon Ponder

Rogue government: Is the Vice President of the United States doling out the nation’s secrets to its allies, such as the Saudis or the Israelis? Or how about our enemies — the Chinese, North Korea, Iran?

Cheney has visited Saudi Arabia twice in the past seven months — at the end of November and again in May. Who can say whether his mission was to deliver state secrets to the Saudi king?

No one knows the answer to these questions because Cheney refuses to allow his own administration’s inspectors to certify his compliance with his own administration’s security directives. He has exempted himself from oversight.

Since noothing compels him to tell the truth, why in the world would anyone believe a word he says? Why should we give him the benefit of a doubt that he is not giving away national secrets?

In the 1990s, the rightwing accused Vice Pres. Al Gore of selling weapons plans to the Chinese in exchange for campaign donations. This led to a House investigation chaired by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana) that eventually cost American taxpayers $7.4 million, making it the costliest congressional inquiry ever — all for nothing, of course.

Without oversight on how Dick Cheney is handling our nation’s secrets, for all we know he is packing them up in crates and shipping them to the Saudis or the Chinese or the North Koreans.

Cheney has visited Saudi Arabia twice in the past seven months — at the end of November and again in May. Who can say whether his mission was to deliver state secrets to the Saudi king? Apparently, even Pres. Bush does not know what his vice president is up to.