Pretending That Bush is Not a Tyrant All over the world down through history, political leaders who have engaged in torture and other grotesque crimes of state have justified their actions as necessary to protect their governments or their people or themselves. It was true when England’s King Edward I had William Wallace – “Braveheart” […]
June 29, 2008 War and Piece, Laura Rosen Seymour Hersh: Preparing the Battlefield: Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred […]
Preparing the Battlefield The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran. by Seymour M. Hersh Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought […]
The Hidden Power July 3, 2006 …Another memo sanctioned torture when the President deems it necessary; yet another claimed that there were virtually no valid legal prohibitions against the inhumane treatment of foreign prisoners held by the C.I.A. outside the U.S. Most of these decisions, according to many Administration officials who were involved in […]
I don’t know when it started, my fascination with certain words. One of the first I recall was ruth-less – meaning "lacking the qualities of the Biblical figure, Ruth." Then there was the realization that all our names for medical conditions referred to how people feel – dis-ease, sick-ness, ill-ness, and that we call people […]
Contempt of Congress By Dan Froomkin A House Judiciary subcommittee summoned David S. Addington out of the shadows yesterday in an attempt to get the vice president’s furtive chief enforcer to enlighten the public about how the United States came to embrace torture as a valid interrogation technique. But the accomplished puppet master showed he […]
ThinkProgress treats us to an amazing example of republican-ese: Louisiana Governor Jindal Unaware Katrina Caused ‘Major’ Oil Spills In His Own State While serving in Congress in August 2006, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) slammed the Bush administration for its response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Jindal said the state suffered “trauma” from the “widespread […]
Bush Rebuffs Hard-Liners to Ease North Korean Curbs Two days ago, during an off-the-record session with a group of foreign policy experts, Vice President Dick Cheney got a question he did not want to answer. “Mr. Vice President,” asked one of them, “I understand that on Wednesday or Thursday, we are going to de-list North […]
When Anonymity Fails, Be Nasty, Brutish and Short There he sat, hunched and scowling, at the witness table in front of the House Judiciary Committee: the bearded, burly form of the chief of staff and alter ego to the vice president — Cheney’s Cheney, if you will — and the man most responsible for building […]