Tag: George W. Bush

They Have the Bodies.

Wasting no time after signing the godawful terrorism bill into law, Dubya tells the US District Court that it has lost jurisdiction over habeas corpus petitions filed by Gitmo detainees. “What’s being blocked and what the government is opposing tooth and nail is the most simple thing of all: a hearing before a district court judge,’ said Jonathan Hafetz, who handles many detainee cases for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. ‘The government will do anything to prevent Guantanamo detainees from being able to present evidence in court.‘”

November Reign?

“Lame Duck” Dubya and his man behind the curtain, Karl Rove, may be “inexplicably upbeat,” but John McCain is apparently contemplating suicide. Meanwhile, Dems Carville and Greenberg suggest breaking out the party credit cards, while the bellwether state of Ohio sours on the GOP completely. Only 20 days left until Election 2006…

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax.

As threatened in the past, Dubya has apparently signed a new National Space Policy that heavily emphasizes the weaponization of space. “Theresa Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan Center for Defense Information in Washington, said that the new policy ‘kicks the door a little more open to a space-war fighting strategy’ and has a ‘very unilateral tone to it.’“

Talk to Ken.

“‘Everyone would appreciate it if you would contact Ken only and not others here at the WH,’ reads one message to Abramoff from Bush advisor Karl Rove’s assistant Susan Ralston, ‘because they just forward it to him anyway.'” Salon‘s Mark Benjamin takes a gander at Casino Jack’s man in the White House, Republican Party chair Ken Mehlman. “More than once, Abramoff asks for a favor, Mehlman fulfills the request, and then one of Abramoff’s wealthy Indian tribe clients sends a political donation to a GOP cause.“

Full Triage Mode.

“Before I liberate the speaker so he doesn’t have to stand up here for that long, Speaker, I want to say this to you…I am proud to be standing with the current speaker of the House who is going to be the future speaker of the House.” Hmm…I wouldn’t be so sure. As Dubya bequeaths a “heck of a job, Denny” upon an increasingly embattled Hastert, the GOP moneymen are nevertheless hedging their bets, and are pulling cash out of several races around the country to try to hold the (Maginot?) line in Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee. The financial “jousting will continue into the final days, but what is clear at this point is that Democrats are playing very little defense in the House and the Senate.“

655,000?

655,000 deaths in Iraq?! A new report by Johns Hopkins researchers puts the number of fatalities from Dubya’s Baghdad debacle at over twenty times what other sources such as Iraq Body Count have been reporting (making it roughly comparable to the fatality rate in Darfur.) Dear Lord, can that really be right? (Also noted at Ed Rants.) Update: The study’s author explains its methodology.

McCain’s Chicanery.

“Sen. John McCain has skidded his Straight Talk Express off the highway into a gopher’s ditch of slime.” As Dubya rejects bilateral talks with N. Korea, Slate‘s Fred Kaplan puts the lie to John McCain’s recent attempt to carry water for the Bushies on the Korean nuclear issue. “McCain’s version of history goes beyond ‘revisionism’ to outright falsification. It is the exact opposite of what really happened.“

Cut the Crap.

“The cut-and-run phrase is an effective political weapon…It is also a very dumb phrase…As one Republican congressman put it recently: ‘Reality has been suspended for a moment. Republicans cannot speak out publicly on this issue right now.‘” With even Republicans making dour assessments of Baghdad these days, Slate‘s John Dickerson makes the obvious points against Dubya for the “cut-and-run” garbage he indulged in last week.

Comma Chameleon?

331 billion dollars? 2965 dead troops? Approximately 45,000 dead Iraqis? Don’t worry, folks. According to Dubya (in what some think is a veiled message to the fundies), it’s all “just a comma” in the history books. Well, my, that’s reassuring. Shucks, when you put it that way, all of American history — or the history of our solar system, for that matter — doesn’t amount to much in the great scheme of things. Ok, you’ve sold me…bombs away!