11
POPSGonzales's Truthfulness Long Disputed What a sad spectacle it all is. Questions about Gonzales's willingness to shade the truth on Bush's behalf came to prominence in the 1996 episode in which Bush was excused from Texas jury duty in a drunken-driving case. Bush was then the state's governor, and Gonzales was his general counsel. If Bush had served, he probably would have had to disclose his own drunken-driving conviction in Maine two decades earlier.
14
POPSHow Did Soviet-Style Torture Become ‘Interrogation’? A Senate investigation is underway, but many of the details are surfacing already. His question is only underscored by a 1956 article, “Communist Interrogation,” in The Annals of Neurology and Psychiatry, recently turned up by the Intelligence Science Board, which advises the spy agencies.... he article shows that methods embraced after 2001 were once considered torture that would produce false information.
13
POPSSenate Report: Intelligence Predicted Iraq Problems in 2003 It's amazing what we're finding out now. The investigation reviewed assessments from a number of agencies but focused on two January 2003 papers from the National Intelligence Council: "Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq" and "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq." Those papers drew from expertise within a number spy agencies and were distributed to scores of White House, national security, diplomatic and congressional officials - most of whom were listed in 81 pages of the Senate report. The full report (PDF) .
3
POPSClosest GOP Insider Yet Comes Out Against Bush, Cheney GOP insider Vic Gold doesn't let his longtime friendship with the Bushes and the Cheneys stop him from cataloging the permanent damage the White House has done to the reputation of the GOP — and America. Under Bush and Cheney, he argues, the GOP has moved away from principles of small government, prudent foreign policy and leaving people alone to live their private lives — all views Gold associates with his hero, Goldwater. I'll add that to read about the distressing political and personal position Bush Jr. has placed his aging father in because of his actions is downright painful. (Via Andrew Sullivan).
5
POPSNegroponte to Resign from Intelligence Chief Role That didn't last long. The administration has had great difficulty filling the State Department position. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked several people who have turned down the post, according to senior State Department officials. But administration officials interviewed on Wednesday would not say whether Mr. Negroponte was moving because the White House saw him as uniquely qualified for the diplomatic post, or because President Bush was dissatisfied with his performance as intelligence chief, or whether it was a combination of the two.
3
POPSLeaked White House Memo Questions Maliki's Competency “We returned from Iraq convinced we need to determine if Prime Minister Maliki is both willing and able to rise above the sectarian agendas being promoted by others,” the memo says. “Do we and Prime Minister Maliki share the same vision for Iraq? If so, is he able to curb those who seek Shia hegemony or the reassertion of Sunni power? The answers to these questions are key in determining whether we have the right strategy in Iraq.”
4
POPSIs a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more? Must-read, in-depth article from Seymour Hersh on the lengthy lead-up to Rumsfeld's ouster (he was kept in the dark until the end!), what the new leadership of Secretary of Defense Gates might signal, the dwindling options Rumsfeld's war has left us in Iraq, and the renewed neoconservative clamor to invade Iran to make up for the loss in Iraq. (Double down on Tehran.) The Pentagon consultant said that he and many of his colleagues in the military believe that Iran is intent on developing nuclear-weapons capability. But he added that the Bush Administration’s options for dealing with that threat are diminished, because of a lack of good intelligence and also because "we’ve cried wolf" before.
13
POPSU.N. Ambassador Bolton to be Let Go Newsmax confirms : "This nomination is dead and we have known it for several days," a source close to the U.S. mission to the U.N. tells NewsMax. "We just don't know what the White House wants to do next," the source added.
5
POPSThe God That Never Failed (Book Review) Interesting review of Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction , David Kuo's wide-eyed, first-hand disillusionment with the Bush Administration's cynical exploitation of faith-based initiatives for political purposes.
11
POPSAmerican Conservative Magazine: GOP Must Go There may be little Americans can do to atone for this presidency, which will stain our country’s reputation for a long time. But the process of recovering our good name must begin somewhere, and the logical place is in the voting booth this Nov. 7. If we are fortunate, we can produce a result that is seen—in Washington, in Peoria, and in world capitals from Prague to Kuala Lumpur—as a repudiation of George W. Bush and the war of aggression he launched against Iraq.
4
POPSEvangelicals betrayed by Bush administration: Farah Farah is the founder and editorial voice of the very influential conservative Christian website, WorldNetDaily. This is the face of the Republican Party establishment. It's the reason Democrats are likely to sweep into power in a few short weeks. It's an illustration of the double talk we get from the Bush administration. It's confirmation that we who actually believe in that Bible have nowhere to turn politically in this country – at least in terms of voting options. Remember what I told you on the evening of Nov. 7. Don't blame me for the Republican debacle to come. Blame the people who brought it to you – the people in power.
7
POPSJudge orders Cheney visitor logs opened If Cheney's visitor logs show meetings with lobbyists, releasing them just weeks before Election Day could provide ammunition to Democrats. "The political price is very high," said L. Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College. "Even more than that, Cheney has a vested interest in keeping them out of public eye at a time when people will pay attention to them. After the election, they will pay much less attention." Has Cheney's card finally been pulled?
10
POPSIraq like Vietnam, says Bush Asked whether he agreed with Friedman's summary , Bush said, "He could be right. ... There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."
10
POPSNew Poll: Democrats Open Up Giant Gap Before Midterm Elections Government corruption, Iraq and terrorism were the three most important issues to poll respondents. They said Democrats would do a better job on all three. The party had a 21-point advantage on handling corruption and a 17-point advantage on Iraq. A longstanding GOP advantage on terrorism vanished; Democrats had a 5-point edge. Yet another set of record-breaking poll results in.
7
POPSTop Republican Senator Calls for Change in Iraq Strategy His comments underscored the growing misgivings of even senior Republicans about the situation in Iraq. They also appeared to be a warning to the Bush administration that it might have to consider different approaches after the November midterm elections.
7
POPSA Portrait of Bush as a Victim of His Own Certitude (Book Review) The New York Times with what promises to be only the first in many reviews of Bob Woodward's highly anticiapted new book, State of Denial . The writer said that when Bush invited key Republicans to the White House to discuss Iraq, the president told them, 'I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me,"' referring to his wife and Scottish terrier.
2
POPSWhite House Web Site Promotes Woodward's Book on Bush Administration... ...in 2004, that is. That book was Plan of Attack and the White House liked Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, Woodward, so much that they put a link to buy it on their '04 campaign website. Not just anywhere but at the very top of the "Suggested Reading List." George Bush supports Woodward and wants you to support him too! (The White House has since removed this info so I clipped the archived version for posterity, as well as a short Newsmax press release.)
6
POPSThe Sleepwalkers: September 11 Stunted America's Political Growth A nicely written piece attempting to explain America's internal political currents before, during, and after 9/11. (Free registration required for full text.) Bush was more of an isolationist, and he had criticized America's recent involvement in peacekeeping missions, scorning the very idea of "nation-building." And, in this, he was perhaps closer to the emerging America than Clinton was--an America at peace with modern culture and modern capitalism, self-satisfied, and without large global ambitions.
2
POPSUS Army: "No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices" Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, the Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said these words last Wednesday at the Pentagon while presenting the new Geneva-abiding Army field manual on interrogation practices. Ironically, almost at the exact same time in Washington, the US President was trying out a new angle to convince the American public of the need to torture enemies. Talk about raining on Bush's parade....
4
POPS Spurned by the West, Turkey looks eastward I know Invictus said Turkey would never fall to Muslim extremism, but surely Turkey's relations with the West have become a bit frayed lately? Of course, it wouldn't be the only crucial former ally our administration has managed to spurn. Feel safer? Formally, Turkey remains in the Western camp, but it is increasingly the odd man out. In contrast, Turkey's relations with Russia have developed exponentially. Relations with Iran are also improving. Tehran provides assistance to Ankara's efforts to fight the PKK and is a significant gas supplier.
5
POPSThe Central Truth (Thomas Friedman - NY Times) And then, the conundrum on everyone's mind: It truly, truly baffles me why a president who bet so much of his legacy on this project never gave it his best shot and tolerated so much incompetence. He summoned us to D-Day and gave us the moral equivalent of the invasion of Panama. ( Published Sept. 8, 2006.)
5
POPSWashington's "Green-Lighting" of the War in Lebanon - Seymour Hersh Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports in this week's issue of the New Yorker that Israeli officials visited the White House earlier this summer to get a "green light" for an attack on Lebanon. The Bush administration approved, Hersh says, in part to remove Hezbollah as a deterrent to a potential US bombing of Iran.
3
POPSCato: Staying in Iraq 'Monumentally Bad Idea' Too bad it wasn't sooner, but Cato has been telling fellow conservatives what they don't want to hear for a while now. If you haven't read Cato's last quarterly letter, you should. Tucker Carlson managed to sit down long enough to write this straight-talking essay: The Decline and Fall of the Republican Party (PDF)
9
POPS US 'could be going bankrupt' It's like the elephant in the room that no politician wants to mention. Expecting a fix now is probably asking too much of short-sighted politicians who have no incentives to do so.
3
POPSBill Kristol: Conservatives Believe The Bush Administration Is Incompetent Kristol ended the show with: "In all honesty, Democrats don't need a positive program. They should just keep quiet and let Republicans attack each other.” The increasingly bitter in-fighting within the GOP ranks continues unabated. Could Kristol possibly follow Fukuyama into anti-Bush territory? Looks like he's pointing his escape-pod in that direction...
Newest Clips
see Newest Clips
Pops
Comments
Tags
2
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update