Among its many, many, MANY faults, apparently Patriot Act II also guts the Clean Air Act. Bizarre. In related news, Attorney-General Ashcroft finds an unlikely ally in NY Senator Chuck Schumer.
Category: Politics (2002-2004)
A New Enemy.
Toning down on the Syria talk, the Bushies instead decide to invoke their post-Iraq mojo to launch a sneak attack on the economy, vis a vis the now phased-in Dubya Dividend Debacle. It’s not conservative to give out tax handouts to the rich during a time of exploding deficits, y’all. It’s radical.
Don’t Call it A Comeback.
Via Pigs and Fishes, Democrat Jose Serrano is sponsoring a bill to repeal the 22nd Amendment. Sounds good to me.
Meanwhile, in 2004.
Kerry’s got the loot, Lieberman’s spending too much, Edwards is bleeding support (I’m not sure if losing Shrum is a negative), and, even among nine candidates, Florida Senator Bob Graham has come up with a novel position on the Middle East: He’s against the war in Iraq, for a war in Syria. And we’ve got eighteen months to go, folks.
Blast from the Past.
With the war in Iraq wrapping up, former President Clinton derides the failures of Dubya’s amateurish diplomacy. “Our paradigm now seems to be: something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us.” He also takes time to call out the recently-lowered but still-lousy Dubya tax cut. Hopefully, this’ll serve notice to the other Dems (besides Kerry) to get off the fence and release the hounds.
Here We Go Again.
Second verse, same as the first. With the war in Iraq coming to a close, Dubya’s hawks start turning up the heat on Syria. “I think that we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria,” Bush said yesterday. Boy, that rationale never gets old, does it? Even with India now latching onto Dubya’s “preemption” to justify possibly bombing Pakistan back into the Stone Age, the Bushies don’t even make an attempt to forge a casus belli more in tune with international diplomatic precedent. Let’s just hope China also doesn’t decide to “preempt” terrorism in Taiwan anytime soon. (Second link via Follow Me Here.) Update: Bush and Blair try to kill the Syria war hype, for now.
Ends and Means.
Well, I must admit, the fall of Saddam’s regime occurred much more quickly than I had ever expected. (Ten bucks says the Iraqi cabal card decks are all over Ebay in six months.) But, as Michael Kinsley notes, our victory doesn’t answer the tough questions about why we got involved in the first place. And while the images of liberation coming out of Baghdad right now are undeniably stirring, my doubts about this conflict – and the amateurish diplomacy that preceded it – remain…and particularly if Gulf War II spills over into Syria or Iran.
By George, he’s right.
“During his presidential campaign Bush cried, ‘I’m a uniter, not a divider.’ As one critic put it, ‘He’s got that right. He’s united the entire world against him.'” George McGovern goes house on Dubya, and it’s definitely worth a gander. (Via Looka.) And, if Dubya approaches his religion with anything more than born-again zeal, perhaps he’ll take a moment’s reflection on this: “We will, of course, win the war with Iraq. But what of the question raised in the Bible that both George Bush and I read: ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul,’ or the soul of his nation?“
Mmmm, bacon.
Yum. Both the Dubya administration and the Senate bloat up the war bill with pork barrel spending. As John McCain put it, “I didn’t realize that Al Qaeda had reached all the way to the South Pole.” Speaking of wartime handouts, Dems Henry Waxman and John Dingell want further scrutiny into contracts given to Halliburton subsidiaries by the GAO. All I know is, if the Clinton administration were involved in this type of quid pro quo, Dan Burton would have had an investigation up and running weeks ago.
Kerrying a Torch.
Continuing with his newfound Chris-Rock-in-Head-of-State candor, John Kerry announces he will only appoint pro-choice Supreme Court justices if elected. (He also takes the time to differentiate between political “litmus tests” and the defense of constitutional rights.) Kerry’s really onto something lately with the whole anti-Gore, Straight-Talk-Express bit…let’s hope it continues.