Dana “Pig Missile” Perino to Help Oversee TV Marti
I realize that Mitch McConnell really pushed Obama to do this. (h/t SE)
Still, there seems an inherent–and glaring–problem with appointing Dana Perino to serve on the Broadcast Board of Governors. It’s this:
Created in 1994, the BBG oversees all of the US government’s non-military international broadcasting outlets, including Voice of America, Alhurra television, Radio Sawa, TV Marti, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe. [my emphasis]
As you’ll recall, Perino admitted on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” two years ago that she didn’t know what the fuck the Cuban Missile Crisis was:
“I was panicked a bit because I really don’t know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis,” said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. “It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure.”
So she consulted her best source. “I came home and I asked my husband,” she recalled. “I said, ‘Wasn’t that like the Bay of Pigs thing?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Dana.'”
So now Obama is about to make her one of the people overseeing our propaganda outlet blasting into Cuba.
Oh, Dana.
So mean! Dana’s an accomplished professional, and deserves this appointment.
-Rich Lowry
Awwwwww … isn’t this just so nice & cute — so post-presidential?
And what a boost for the perinosphere: the divine Miss Piggymissile given an actual-for-god real reason to search for a missing link between the connubi of her encyclicalic knowledge base & the incomprehensible historical morass that is Castrolated Cuba. Maybe she’ll even peroogle it!
I’m sending a gift her way.
I suppose if it keeps her busy and away from helping gooper types with their nefarious media campaigns it might be a net win, but man are the optics deep in WTF-land.
On a happier though wholly OT note, Google Scholar launched a new legal search feature today, and to my untrained eye it looks simply wonderful:
Intro blog here. I hope this will prove a useful arrow in quiver of Wheelies and our ilk everywhere.
Hmmmm, I get a legal news email that mentioned this this way:
“News flash: ‘judges explain the reasons for their decisions.'”
Still a worthy endeavor, just a little inside humor.
But I didn’t read the blog until you posted your link. And this concerns me:
Well, no; as many of us know, it started out as a purely common law country, but the common law has been long since superseded by statutes in most areas of law in most states. The courts interpret the statutes, and may use historical common law in that interpretation.
It worries me a little when the very first sentence is so flawed.
Still, they’re digitizing the actual opinions, so what’s in the blog doesn’t matter much.
Good thing it’s just the oversight board. If they put Pig Missile on the air with TV Marti, it would probably drive the Cubans directly into supporting the Castro brothers.
This is an example of the damage to society Obama does with his post-partisanship fetish. He has taken as a given virtually everything George Bush created and marked it as his fifty yard line. He is either as conservative as George Bush, or afraid to rearrange the magazines on the coffee table because he’s just visiting.
Politics is about partisanship. It’s also about the role of government and using government’s power and resources wisely. Obama refuses to address the ueber-partisanship and incompetence of his opponents. He seems to have no bearings, just a rough familiarity with dead reckoning as he steers between what he seems to regard as the harsh rocks of liberalism and the sandy bottomed shore of the over-zealous right. In reality, he inherited a government Bush had dumped into a barrel headed toward the Niagara Escarpment. I wish he didn’t regard vigorously swimming toward shore as rude.
I fear that you are right, but I just love the way you put it. I wish I’d written that last sentence. (Don’t go dissin’ our escarpment though, eh?)
You must have a few intelligent Republicans left. You must. Mary is going to go after me for this, but what about that nice Mr Comey? He seems to me civilized in the way that a broadcasting board needs, and he’s also cuter than Perino.
I’ll let Mary respond on how conservative is our Mr. Comey, and how outrageously illegal must have been the “intelligence” programs he and nearly thirty other top DoJ hands objected to so vehemently that they threatened resignation if they were not materially changed. (Far be it from me to ask what assurance they received that led them to believe changes, in fact, were made.)
As for the Niagara Escarpment, it’s breathtaking, and not just the portion the Niagara River eats away every day as it takes that little drop toward Lake Ontario.
(as predicted)
There was nothing more civilized than that disinformation masterpiece aka the Padilla press conf. I’m going to say that being gen counsel for weapons of war and destruction pays well enough without the other gig, but if he wanted to move into Infauxtainment instead of law, I wouldn’t disagree over the niche.
There are Republicans like (not that this would be a place for him necessarily) Bill Barr, though, who would be much more credible. Some libertarianism on the board wouldn’t be a bad thing. Heck, even Scott McClellan would be better.
But given how strongly associated WH Press Sec and Disinformation have become these days, it’s a joke for him to put in anyone formerly holding that slot. I guess given what passes for leadership from Obama these days, we should just be thankful that when he took time away from selling ambassadorships he went with Dana instead of Ari.
I think Karl was overbooked and couldn’t afford either the pay or the financial disclosure.
You took the words out of my mouth. The whole paragraph was sensational. I couldn’t decide which was my favorite phrase!
skdadl, could you please tell me what’s going on up yonder?
Canada ignored Afghan torture allegations: diplomat
OTTAWA — Canadian troops handed Afghan detainees to local authorities in the knowledge they would be tortured, and later tried to silence critics of the practice, a senior Ottawa diplomat told lawmakers.
Yes, I think I can. We have discovered a noble person. Richard Colvin was a senior diplomat of ours in Afghanistan 2006-07; he’s now doing intel at our embassy in DC. And he has a very smart lawyer.
For several years we have been hearing reports that when our troops (stationed in Kandahar province and with no detention facilities or powers of their own) hand detainees over to the Afghan police or military, torture follows. Of course, if that is true, we are obliged, as signatories to all kinds of things, to take steps.
Steve’s government, first elected in 2006, has spent their whole time in office denying that those reports are true and insisting that no one has ever given them credible evidence that we are handing anyone over for torture, knowingly or unknowingly.
An oversight commission has been attempting to investigate these reports, but Steve has hamstrung it every which way you could imagine. A couple dozen civil servants summoned to testify have received directions from on high to turn up but say nothing, and the government is stalling production both to them and to the commission of needed documents they produced in the first place.
So then two things happened. One of those people, Colvin, spoke out through his (very smart) lawyer, and the opposition members of a parliamentary committee (who, when they work together, are in the majority) forced a committee session yesterday at which Colvin could testify, which he did. This has been brewing since late summer, so it is big news here, and we’re told that standing room at the back of the committee room was three layers deep. We can hope that a lot of those people were civil servants come to learn how to grow a spine and put a brain on top of it.
Anyway, the man was brilliant. We don’t have a full transcript yet (translation requirements), but here is a good extract.
Backing his testimony up, we also have a 16-pp affidavit in which he details all the communications pathways his alerts could/would have taken through 2006-07 and who would have been on them. (That’s where the smart lawyer comes in. She was sitting with him yesterday.) It’s mind-numbing to read, but it effectively demolishes the denials of the PM, two cabinet ministers, and the former CDF that no one ever warned them of any problems with what was happening with our rendered detainees in Kandahar — not that that would explain why the gov has ordered everyone summoned to testify to maintain silence.
I actually don’t think this is the worst thing we have done — CSIS complicity in any number of “renditions” and “enhanced interrogations” would be the worst, plus our unconscionable sharing of the results of those sessions with, you should pardon the expression, you. And then there has been the dishonest use of testimony derived from, eg, Abu Zubaydah.
This has been a cover-up. Why Steve worked so hard to cover up crimes that weren’t being committed by us is hard to fathom, but he and his ministers and CDF have. And for once, this story seems to have caught people’s attention.
Colvin has people amazed, just because he testifies forthrightly and does not appear to be fearful.
Oh, Colvin is one genuine hero, skdadl. How proud you-all must be of him. Thanks ever so much for the explanation. It is so sad that whatever has infected some of our leadership down here has also gotten to ol’ Steve-O and others up yonder.
Again, many thanks.
What’s truly disheartening is, Canadians can see that Steve & The Cons are taking us off a Cliff, but they’re largely sitting on their Hands, waiting to clean up after the fact.
Meanwhile, our Opposition Leaders are in search of their lost identities … the “separatists” are the only ones sure of theirs.
Thanks Petro. Your folks up yonder need to look and see what’s happened to us down here with that “clean up after the fact”nonsense. Somehow we seem to be stuck in what happened, seeing it repeated, condoned by failure to condemn, carried forward in appointments, “bipartisanship,” weird judicial jujitsu, etc.
BTW, any luck with your Randian pursuits?
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” – Santayana
I had another meeting with a member of that group and decided not to pour water on sand …
I hear ya. The few times I tried to debate such adherents it was more like pouring water on a mix of Portland concrete.
I would add to skdadl’s excellent summation that, if we had principled, strong Opposition Leaders in Canada, they would move this issue forward and bring down Stevie & the NeoCons.
I wonder if PBO wants a part time job as P.M. of Canada … our food is excellent & diverse, we have great Beers for peace summits and we don’t have nearly as big a mess to clean up … yet !
Also, Victor Ashe.
It’s nice to know that Obama is forming a close bond with an advisor who will give him such advice and support. Between that and embracing Bush’s policies, it’s ez to see our little boy has grown up and doesn’t need his old friends anymore.
*sniff*
Reminds me of Sherrod Brown explaining that he had to vote for the MCA – after all, John McCain told him it was a good idea.
Froomkin has a piece up, though, indicating that maybe, under wraps, the new friends were Obama’s old friends all along.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/19/obamas-afghan-dilemma-the_n_363411.html
Dan discusses Obama and his Afghan stategeries and how it’s hard for him to see that endgame. In part bc his supposed old anti-war friends were not really who he looked to as his old friends.
Oh well, with pals like Rahm and Brennan and McConnell and Lieberman, I’m sure Obama and his pals will square it all away, losing only lives and billions rather than the loss of face that comes with Faux news deriding you and your Republican friends calling you a quitter and a coward.
Priorities.
See supra in re. land war, Asia, etc.
You know, I think this is the thing that irks me most with Democrats… Their utter terror of being called names. They simply will not, evidently can not, stand up and defend a position on principle.
Heaven forbid Obama end the wars he was elected to end or uphold the rule of law – Republicans might say mean things.
And then there is the corollary, that Obama can’t deliver real healthcare or economic reforms – because corporations might say mean things and withhold campaign donations.
And so in the end, the Democrats are bereft of any real leadership because they are either too scared or too corrupt (or both) to fulfill the promises they make to the public.
I’m starting to run out of words that adequately describe how infuriating this all is. Maybe we’ll have to start making up some new words that can capture the utter cowardice and moral bankruptcy on display.
It almost leads one to question whether they have any principles, doesn’t it? :-(((
Yep. Unfortunately, I think the answer to the question is a clear and resounding no.
Anyway, nobody in Cuba pays attention to Marti. They’ve got Radio Havana [6,000 kHz] with some of the best music on the planet…
Reply to 16:
Of course, when the Iraqis cannot pass an election law to hold an election on time, this is all Obama’s fault.
(Odierno said they are not changing plans to withdraw troops as of now)
I don’t remember Obama campaigning to end the war in Afghanistan. Obama campaigned on it as the “good war”. However the electorate, however little they were paying attention to the war there in 2008, would be right to be disappointed if there is no progress there by 2012.
Since 16 had to do with EOH quipping about Karl Rove not getting the slot Perino did, I’m going to take a stab at 113 being what you were responding to – but since no one had any comment up on Iraq, it may be that ##strawman## was the post at issue? And since it doesn’t mention campaign promises re: Afghanistan, as opposed to a lack of an endgame, I guess 11 isn’t it either.
Reply was to 15–“wars he was elected to end”.
So you would argue that we elected him to keep things going in Afghanistan until
hell freezes overthere is a new President? Really? The war in Afghanistan is celebrating its 8th birthday and you think the expectation is that Obama makes sure it turns 12 or 16? Really?Lets see…
American Revolution: 1775-1783, 8 years
Civil War: 1861-1865, 4 years
WWI: 1914-1918, 4 years, being generous using the European dates
WWII: 1939-1945, 7 years again being generous using European dates
Korean conflict: 1950-1953, 3 years, MASH notwithstanding ; )
So we have now been in Afghanistan longer than any other war after the Revolution, with one exception…
Vietnam. 1959-1975. 16 years.
I do not think a case can be made that anyone voted for Obama in the hopes that Afghanistan becomes Vietnam. He may have made a distinction between the two wars in his campaign, but you will not convince me that people voted for Obama to keep the war going in Afghanistan. Hence, I stand by my comment that he was elected to end the wars.
And I wrote, in comment 21, that “the electorate…would be right to be disappointed if there is no progress there by 2012.” But in 2008, voters see that the Afghanistan war has been given short shrift. Even if we have been there 7 years, the blood, treasure, and attention have been given to Iraq. Voters would support giving more attention to Afghanistan: another Gallup Poll from March of this year shows 65% supporting another 17,000 troops.
But at about the same time, Gallup could only get 48% to say that we should stay there as long as it takes. Voters could have remembered how quick it was to take Afghanistan the last time. They could expect a process of one to two years. Now voters see that the problems in Afghanistan are deeper than they thought and they are turning away from it. So I have to write that voters wanted whoever was president to give it the attention that would allow the job to be finished. McCain was so proud of his having supported the surge in Iraq that you could infer that he would want to do something similar in Afghanistan even if there were no troops or money to do it.
Wait a second, I think these people have to be confirmed by the Senate, so Perino can be turned down very easily.
Official site
Gallup poll on war in Afghanistan from July 2008. At this time people believe by a slim majority that things are going at least moderately badly there but only a third are willing to say it was a mistake to start with. And, for the first time, people believe that the war in Afghanistan is more important than the war in Iraq.
Drat. Too late to fix my disagreement of number.
On Topic: at EW’s link, Perino is listed as being employed at Burson-Marsteller, which is generous welfare enough.
This requires a senate confirmation, and while that might seem like a forgone conclusion, I won’t sit by and not at least express my EXTREME displeasure at this nomination and appointment.
And I don’t care about bi-partisan rules for the committee’s ideological makeup, that’s not the point.
I called my 2 U.S. Senators and asked them to VOTE NO on the upcoming vote for Dana Perino to be appointed to the Board of Broadcasting Governors.
I don’t care if it’s a sinecure, quid pro quo, etc.
I want her out, this offends ME more than most would know…but some that have not been asleep these last 15 years or so (the ascension of right wing politics and THE center right *gestalt) know exactly what I am talking about!
This is so wrong!
With respect to Pig Missile, PBO’s first choice has other plans – The Ghoul returns to Public Life – from nydailynews
They pilloried me at Daily Kos for just this topic.
I had a rather visceral reaction to comments from “Oil Guy”. Don’t know how you kept your cool. You did so admirably.
He was one angry guy. A classic example of someone with a heavy transference to Obama; he acted as if I was trampling on his soul because I criticized the Perino appointment. In the end, we were able to trade comments without too much acrimony, but only after he told me I was “cruisin’ for a bruisin'”.
Good grief! Whatever happened to camaraderie? That guy’s in it for his ego (a very needy one), and he will meet his bruisin’. You will continue to accumulate all the kudos you so richly, and selfishly, deserve.
Very red-faced: I meant “selflessly”. Oh, groan! Gotta don my sack cloth and ashes outfit again.
Oh, those keyboard warriors with their smart-mouth one-liners. We really are spoiled around here, eh? Such good conversation.
These propaganda stations are useless. The bulldada they put out is so obvious that the recipients see right through it. The more powerful information is the programming that would appeal to young people almost anywhere…or that is traditional and restricted in in the country itself.