Entries by emptywheel

More Inauspiciousness: Your Rent-a-Sheikh Gets Killed

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As many of you have pointed out, the guy I called Bush’s Rent-a-Thuggish-Sheikh last week died in a bomb blast today.

The leader of local Sunni tribes in Iraqwho have joined American and Iraqi forces in fighting extremist Sunnimilitants was killed by a bomb today, Iraqi police officials said,potentially undermining what has become a new thrust of United Statespolicy in the country.

[snip]

It could be a significant setback for American efforts to work

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McConnell and Lieberman

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Isikoff and Hosenball tell us what we already know–McConnell is a liar (only the crack headline artists at Newsweek call this “an error”). But here’s an odd detail in their story about McConnell’s petulant confession.

After questions about his testimony were raised, McConnell calledLieberman to clarify his statements to the Senate Committee on HomelandSecurity and Governmental Affairs, an official said.

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Oil Oops

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It is probably inauspicious for Bush that on the eve of his debut in the Magical September extravaganza, the elusive Iraqi oil compromise is falling apart.

A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq’srich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talksamong Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed.

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McConnell: I’m a Liar

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Oddly enough I just read this anecdote in Stephen Hayes’ hagiography of Cheney. In an interview with Hayes, Mike McConnell confesses to the childish tactics he used to force CENTCOM to commit, one way or another, whether they thought Saddam would invade Kuwait.

“I’m going to see the chairman [Powell],” [McConnell] told his colleagues.

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Aieieieie! The Dead Awake!!

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I’ve been almost as skeptical of Silvestre Reyes as Chair of the House Intell Committee as I am of Jay Rockefeller as Chair of the Senate Intell Committee. Reyes approved of Ashcroft’s testimony on the FISA program–though Russ Holt thought thought the same testimony was a big long filibuster. Even after hearing from Ashcroft, Reyes bought Alberto Gonzales’ dishonest explanation for why his lies to Congress about warrantless wiretapping were not

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Jim Webb Channels emptywheel

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You think the former Secretary of the Navy keeps close ties with Navy officers? Or is Jim Webb calling on Carl Levin to ask Admiral Fallon to testify to the Armed Service Committee because he, like me, thinks Fallon will have a different perspective to offer?

WEBB: [T]here’s something of a kabuki going on right now.You know, the Petraeus report was brought in.

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“The Math”

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FWIW, I think this morning’s NYT article naming Olson as Bush’s nominee to be AG was just a plant floated by conservatives pushing the Administration to make this nomination into a confrontation. David Johnston is very susceptible to this kind of planted leak. And Mike Allen, who has better ties to the White House than Johnston, names Olson as just one candidate among five (though the one favored by conservatives)–and he

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If the UC Regents Are So Susceptible to Political Pressure…

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Then perhaps they could be persuaded to fire unitary laughingstock John Yoo?

Normally, I find it inappropriate to engage the David Horowitzes of the world on their McCarthyist ground. But if the UC system is comfortable rescinding an offer they’ve made to Edwin Chemerinsky, then it seems fair to ask them to fire the lawyer who has elicited–by far–the most controversy in recent years (and that’s coming from someone who lives in

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Banana Republic

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The Sentencing Memorandum the government filed in the Chiquita case reveals something rather interesting. Chiquita was an equal opportunity terrorist supporter. You see, from 1989 to 1997, Chiquita paid protection money to FARC and ELN, left wing terrorist groups. Then, after FARC and FLN were declared terrorist groups in 1997, Chiquita switched sides, paying protection money to right wing terrorist group AUC instead.

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