Category Archives: General

End this war now

The New York Times editorial , “The Road Home”, in today’s editions:

It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.

It’s a long editorial with arguments about leaving, staying and how to get out of Iraq, not all of which I endorse.  However, it’s a milestone in America’s political path towards ending the war when the NYTimes says it’s time to go.  One thing I do think is important is to consider the consequences of getting out of the war and doing a better job of planning the withdrawal than we did at the beginning of the war of the consequences of victory.  There will be refugees.  There will be attempts to fill the vacuum we leave behind.  We have 150,000 troops and almost 200,000 civilians there along with untold billions of dollars of equipment and they can’t just get on an American Airlines 737 and fly away in a day.  The Bush advocates accuse us of a plan to “cut and run”, but their alternative is “stay and die for no good reason”. 

In the entire history of our country, nothing has been as disasterous as our decision to invade Iraq.  I do not believe George Bush, Condi Rice and the Pentagon have the ability to lead us out.  It’s not just that they don’t want to, it’s that they aren’t capable.  They do not know how.  Even if we gave them a roadmap and a subpoena and let them use both hands, they couldn’t find their own ass, much less a way out of Iraq.  That’s the real problem right now.  Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi cannot legislate our way out because they cannot constitutionally negotiate the delicate details with Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Iran, etc., much less the assistance that will be needed from Europe and Asia.  While I favor impeachment, I do not think that will be helpful in getting out of Iraq in an orderly fashion and may, in fact, be counter-productive on that score.  We need impeachment for internal reasons of protecting our Constitution from this Imperial Presidency of lawless invasions of our rights.  However, it won’t help on the foreign policy front.  Getting ourselves a withdrawal from the Bush presidency is as difficult a task as getting out of Iraq.

I hope we elect Barak Obama as our next president only because I believe that it is only by electing a man with the middle name “Hussein” that we will have the international credibility to extract us from this mess with some semblance of dignity and some restoration of our good will from the international community.  America is presently seen as stupid, racist, fat and infatuated with gun slinging violent cowboys.  His election will refute that in a way that will even be obvious to relatively ignorant and tribal people globally. 

God save us.

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Ouch!

When Nixon learned that not-yet presidential candidate Fred Thompson had been named as minority counsel for the Watergate hearings, his reaction was that the kid was “dumb as hell,” according to White House recording transcripts.

Nixon and his lawyer agreed that he was “friendly” enough, and, of course, now we know that Thompson was the White House’s spy in the proceedings, tipping them off on upcoming events and betraying his duty to the U.S. Senate.

My guess about why he’s so high in the polls of Republicans is because he really is dumb as hell and is therefore representative of his constituency.

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Venting

The Bush Administration is a redolent corpse decomposing in our country’s parlor and no one in Congress seems to have the stomach for the job of taking it out to the trash bin of history.

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Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

The White House press secretary, Tony Snow, suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune trying to justify the Libby commutation during a press conference in which reporters shouted “you’re insulting our intelligence!”  Dana Milbank of the Washington Post captures the moment.

All mimsy were the borogoves

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Scooter Libby

Obama’s statement and commentary by Andrew Sullivan capture my thinking pretty well.

Here’s a summary of the president’s thinking about excessive punishment while he was governor of Texas from Bob Cesca at HuffPost:

What’s excessive? President Bush, who suddenly hates excessive punishments, once refused to commute the death sentence of a 33-year-old mentally retarded black man with an IQ of around 60 and the functional skills of a 7-year-old boy.

10 years ago last May, President Bush and Alberto Gonzales received a request for clemency on the day Terry Washington was to be executed for killing a college student in 1987. President Bush skimmed Gonzales’ incomplete summary and denied clemency.

Terry Washington was dead before the sun went down.

Regarding the record 152 executions during his two terms as governor, Bush “wrote” in his autobiography, A Charge To Keep, “I don’t believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own.”

This is the statement of Libby’s prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald:

We fully recognize that the Constitution provides that commutation decisions are a  matter of presidential prerogative and we do not comment on the exercise of that prerogative.  

We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as “excessive.”   The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country.  In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws.  It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals.  That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.

Although the President’s decision eliminates Mr. Libby’s sentence of imprisonment, Mr. Libby remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process.

Here’s a slice of the Department of Justice Manual on commuting sentences:

Section 1-2.113 Standards for Considering Commutation Petitions

A commutation of sentence reduces the period of incarceration; it does not imply forgiveness of the underlying offense, but simply remits a portion of the punishment. It has no effect upon the underlying conviction and does not necessarily reflect upon the fairness of the sentence originally imposed. Requests for commutation generally are not accepted unless and until a person has begun serving that sentence. Nor are commutation requests generally accepted from persons who are presently challenging their convictions or sentences through appeal or other court proceeding. (Emphasis by blogblah!!!)

If I understand correctly, the president did NOT “vet” this through any attorneys nor in any other way go through normal channels.  It was a decision on his own, except one imagines that he was helped by the Vice President, who has a certain reputation for going around the normal channels.

A Bush appointee named a Bush appointed federal prosecutor as special prosecutor to try this case before a Bush appointed judge.  These are the same crimes they used to impeach Clinton and which resulted in the resignation of President Nixon.  The Bush appointed judge imposed a sentence — strictly between the judicial sentencing guidelines provided by Congress, a Republican effort to rein in “activist” judges and curb illegal drugs — he called based on “overwhelming” evidence of an attempt to cover up the exposure of a CIA agent.  Are we supposed to really believe that Scooter was prosecuted and sentenced to prison as part of a conspiracy of liberals who wish to do Bush harm?

And, by the way, by commuting instead of pardoning, Libby retains a 5th Amendment right to keep his mouth shuts about what he knows (he would not have been capable of incriminating himself if pardoned) all the while with his case up on appeal.

But, what the hell?  He’s down to 27% in the polls.  How much worse can it get?  He’s done it because he can and no one can stop him.  If we don’t like it, so what?

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