Month: August 2007

In Debate, Romney Repeats Descredited Claim That Saddam Was Behind 9/11

Jon Ponder


Is it possible that Mitt Romney is even dumber than George Bush? At yesterday’s GOP debate in Iowa, he tossed out the old Saddam equals al Qaeda canard that even Bush has been forced to repudiate:

The bad news is, history has taught us that intelligence is not even on the list of attributes Republicans look for in their presidents.

“Just come home,” dissented Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the lone advocate of a quick troop withdrawal on a presidential campaign debate stage. He said there had never been a good reason to go to war in the first place.

“Has he forgotten about 9/11?” interjected former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Last year, during his address to the nation on the fifth anniversary of the 2001 attacks, Bush grudgingly admitted that the connection he and his administration’s top official made between Saddam and the attacks was a lie:

George Bush last night admitted that Saddam Hussein had no hand in the 9/11 terror attacks, but he asked Americans to support a war in Iraq that he said was the defining struggle of our age…

“I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks,” Mr Bush said

Romney’s assertion otherwise in the debate was of course, a lie. And yet the moderator, George Stephanapolous, the famous liberal, did not stop to ask him if he had new evidence of Saddam’s culpability in the 2001 attacks.

Romney is playing to the ever-shrinking GOP base — particularly to the last vestige of true-believers in the false Saddam-al Qaeda connection rolled out by Bush and his rightwing talk-radio propagandists in 2002 and 2003 during the run-up and aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

What is unsmart about this is the fact that the number of people who remain under the delusion that invading Iraq was retribution for the 2001 attacks is dwindling, even among Republicans. By the time votes are counted 64 weeks from now, the number who cling to the illusion that the attacks justified the war could be minuscule.

Ron Paul, the smartest GOP candidate, and thus the one no chance, also injected this rare moment of common sense into yesterday’s debate:

“If you make a mistake and you’re marching toward a cliff, the best thing you can do is march back,” Texas Congressman Ron Paul said.

The bad news is, history has taught us that intelligence is not even on the list of attributes Republicans look for in their presidents, so if history is to be our guide, they could well foist Romney on the nation, if the November 2008 election is close.

Homeland Security Won’t Let Inspectors Say Which Bridges are Dangerous

Trish

Downtown Jacksonville’s Main St. Bridge

There’s a bunch of long, high bridges in Jacksonville. One local restaurant even takes its name from this fact, calling itself Seven Bridges after the biggest and most iconic structures.

But people in all the counties that line the banks of the St. Johns River, a broad, northern-flowing body of water, take bridge travel as a part of daily life. So it’s a little unsettling to know that some of our hundreds of bridges don’t pass muster. It’s even worse not to know which ones.

It’s for our own good, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

…inspections have put a handful of state bridges in Northeast Florida in the same broad engineering category as that Minnesota bridge — “structurally deficient” — which means, under the state’s policy, it’s time for immediate action.

…[FDOT bridge inspection chief Keith] Campbell says the Florida Department of Transportation isn’t allowed to tell you how the bridges you drive across every day did on their most recent inspections. And he’s not allowed to say which ones flunked their tests.

Ironically, the state workers says their lips and records are sealed — for your safety.

“After the 9/11 events and with homeland security, all bridge records have become exempt as public documents,” Campbell said.

All bridge records? Including whether or not it’s safe to cross one?

The DOT cites a law, passed in 2002, which states “building plans, blueprints, schematic drawings, and diagrams” are off-limits to be released to the public.

But a local lawyer, Tad Delegate, said that the law isn’t specific enough.

“They’re certainly trying to protect the public,” he said. “I have no doubt about that, but I think they’re reading this too broadly and they’re not limiting themselves to the specific terms of the statute.”

He said there is no wording in the law that says inspection reports cannot be made public.

A local T.V. station has put in a formal request for the information, but so far the FDOT’s only reaction is to lawyer up.

Tancredo Advocates Bombing Muslim Holy Sites as a Deterrent

Trish

Will every single person in Colorado who ever voted for Rep. Tom Tancredo (R) please go to your rooms and stay there? Like, forever?

Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo’s campaign stood by his assertion that bombing holy Muslim sites would serve as a good “deterrent” to prevent Islamic fundamentalists from attacking the United States, his spokeswoman said Friday.

“This shows that we mean business,” said Bay Buchanan, a senior Tancredo adviser. “There’s no more effective deterrent than that. But he is open-minded and willing to embrace other options. This is just a means to deter them from attacking us.”

Tancredo and Pat Buchanan’s sis must have missed it last year when so-called “insurgents” bombed the Golden Dome mosque of Samarra. That wasn’t exactly a success, deterrent-wise, for the bombers, since violence in Iraq skyrocketed and has never abated to this day.

All this time, I thought Bush/Cheney was as bad as it could get for harebrained diplomacy.

Tom Casey, a deputy spokesman for the State Department, told CNN’s Elise Labott that the congressman’s comments were “reprehensible” and “absolutely crazy.”

Swiftboating Hillary: Clinton Calls Bush Out Over Cheney’s Lies About Her Pentagon Letter

Jon Ponder


Republicans made good on their promise to “Swiftboat” Hillary Clinton on Monday, deploying their most practiced liar, Vice Pres. Dick Cheney, to go on CNN and insert into the record a falsehood about the contents of a letter Clinton wrote to the Pentagon in May, falsely claiming that Clinton “demanded” to see Pentagon plans for leaving Iraq. The truth is, Clinton simply sought assurance that contingency planning was underway.

“[Sen. Clinton] was demanding the plans for withdrawal from Iraq.”
— Vice. Pres. Cheney’s big lie about Clinton on “Larry King Live” this week.

Clinton responded by challenging Pres. Bush “set the record straight” on the role of Congress in oversight.

Unfortunately, on the day after Cheney’s intentional lie made a little news, cable news began its full-time coverage of the freeway bridge collapse in Minneapolis — and after today, Congress is heading into a month-long recess. Still, all eyes should be on the Clinton campaign to see if they will respond more forcefully to GOP Swiftboating in the 2008 campaign than the John Kerry campaign did in 2004.

On Monday, in what appears to have been a carefully calculated move, Cheney chose a soft target — “Larry King Live” on CNN — as the platform for his Swiftboat attack on Clinton, knowing full well that King would allow him to get away with deceiving his audience. Cheney arrived for the interview with the lie pre-scripted and ready to go:

KING: A member of the Department of Defense sent Hillary Clinton a letter saying she should not criticize because it helps the enemy. Do you agree with that letter?

CHENEY: It didn’t say she should [not criticize]. She was demanding the plans for withdrawal from Iraq. And…

As noted, Sen. Clinton “was demanding” no such thing. Here’s the text of her letter to the Pentagon in May:

Given the express will of the Congress to implement a phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq and the importance of proper contingency planning to achieve that goal, I write to request that you provide the appropriate oversight committees in Congress – including the Senate Armed Services Committee – with briefings on what current contingency plans exist for the future withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Alternatively, if no such plans exist, please provide an explanation for the decision not to engage in such planning.

The seeds of many problems that continue to plague our troops and mission in Iraq were planted in the failure to adequately plan for the conflict and properly equip our men and women in uniform. Congress must be sure that we are prepared to withdraw our forces without any unnecessary danger.

True to form, Larry King ignored Cheney’s false statement about the Democratic frontrunner, and gave Cheney the opportunity to characterize the Pentagon’s outrageous letter in response to Clinton — which was written by Eric Edleman, a longtime Cheney henchman — as “a good letter” and, what the heck, to compound his lie about the senator:

[…]

Repost: Bush Tax Cuts at Work — Roads, Waterways, and Skies are a Mess

Trish

This is a repost from March, 2006. Thanks for the reminder, BlogCritics!

Chalk up another failure for the Bush tax cuts. The head of UPS today is warning that America’s neglected infrastructure is hobbling us in the global marketplace.

Describing the nation’s roads, ports, railroads and airports as the backbone of global trade, UPS’s chief executive officer today warned that America was taking a chance with its future by neglecting its infrastructure.

“What’s shocking, quite frankly, is the inability of our transportation infrastructure to keep up with the normal day-to-day stresses imposed upon it,” said UPS CEO Mike Eskew. “Our highways, waterways, railroads and aviation networks are simply not keeping up with ordinary demands.

“What’s shocking, quite frankly, is the inability of our transportation infrastructure to keep up with the normal day-to-day stresses imposed upon it,” said UPS CEO Mike Eskew

After Hurricane Katrina even emergency supplies languished in ports and parking lots. Eskew said you don’t have to wait for a storm or earthquake or terrorist attack to see the problems. You also don’t have to be a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, but they have issued a scathing analysis of our transport system.

“In 2005, here’s what our infrastructure report card looked like: our aviation system got a D+; navigable waterways a D-; roads a D, and rails a C-.”

“What does the overall report card on our national transportation infrastructure look like? Well, let’s put it this way: if your kids brought home report cards like this, someone would be grounded.”

Eskew was especially critical of railroads. As those of us who live near its Jacksonville headquarters are well aware, Bush Treasury Secretary John Snow was head of CSX before his crony status qualified him for a seat at the Bush cabinet table. CSX is a leader in the rail industry at avoiding liability and sticking it to the taxpayers every time its worn-out tracks cause an Amtrak derailment.

Eskew [added] one private business sector that particularly needs to step up is the rail sector. The nation’s railroads are “under-investing” in advanced technologies available today that could improve the capacity and safety of their networks, he asserted.

The problem is not insurmountable, he added, but it’s time “to sound the alarm.”

Americans Really Are Moving to Canada

Trish

You know how both times Bush stole an election, people said they would move to Canada? Apparently it wasn’t an idle threat.

The number of U.S. citizens who moved to Canada last year hit a 30-year high, with a 20 percent increase over the previous year and almost double the number who moved in 2000.

In 2006, 10,942 Americans went to Canada, compared with 9,262 in 2005 and 5,828 in 2000…

Not only that, fewer Canadians want to be in America.

Last year, 23,913 Canadians moved to the United States, a significant decrease from 29,930 in 2005.

No doubt many of those making good on the threat we have all uttered are from places already Canada-ish, like Seattle and Fargo and Portland(s). Those of us further south have a little harder time with the whole concept of frozen things. Still, our country is losing some of its best and brightest.

“Those who are coming have the highest level of education — these aren’t people who can’t get a job in the states,” [Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies] says. “They’re coming because many of them don’t like the politics, the Iraq War and the security situation in the U.S. By comparison, Canada is a tension-free place. People feel safer.”

Would you have ever thought you’d understand — and agree — with that statement?

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.

— John Adams (1735-1826), second President of the United States, in a letter written when he was serving as Vice President

Aug. 1 is the Anniversary of Emancipation from Slavery in the Caribbean

Buck Banks

Many Caribbean nations are marking the anniversary of emancipation with calls for apologies and reparations from countries that profited from the human trade.

Slavery finally was abolished in most Caribbean territories on Aug. 1, 1874. Although abolished some 26 years earlier in 1807, it was not until Aug. 1, 1833, that British member of Parliament and social reformer Thomas Buxton presented the Emancipation Bill before the British Parliament. The ensuing act went into effect one year later on Aug.1, 1834.