Entries Tagged as ''
Sara Taylor testifies, sort of
This should be familiar to everyone who has followed these hearings. Between what she didn’t remember and what she claimed was executive privilege nothing of substance was said.
Great rundown on contempt of Congress - here.
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From WaPo:
“I did not speak to the president about removing U.S. attorneys,” Taylor said. “I did not attend any meetings with the president where that matter was discussed.”
The remarks came during several hours of reluctant testimony from Taylor, who sought to respond to a subpoena from the Senate panel while also abiding by a request from Bush not to provide details about the firings. Bush and his aides assert that such internal deliberations are protected by an executive privilege, and thus do not have to be divulged to Congress. (more…)
Iraqi women forced into sex trade
This is a depressing story. Iraqi refugees are being forced into the sex trade to help pay for their families. Some of the women girls look no more than 12 or 13.
The view from over there.
I took out a subscription this last year to The Economist. I’ve had previous subscriptions to Time, or Newsweek, or U.S. News and World Report at various times, but always ultimately ended up letting them lapse because they didn’t really offer anything new. They had more in-depth coverage, occasionally, on the “big story of the day”, but no single magazine trumps the torrent of online coverage available these days. There weren’t any great columnists that stick out in my memory. And worst of all, there was the overwhelming America-centric nature of the coverage. I wanted to get out of that.
McCain’s Straight Talk Express - Derailed
McCain spoke from the floor of the Senate today. He was sort of supporting the war effort. He was sort of pulling away from Bush. He was pleading with the Senate to avoid the pitfalls of Vietnam.
McCain’s campaign has been a sad disaster from the start. He has supported a President with a losing strategy. He changed his position on the religious right. His change is so obvious that it makes everyone uncomfortable. Now, close campaign aids have resigned. The Straight Talk Express has crashed. I don’t see how it can effectively recover.
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From WaPo:
On Tuesday, McCain parted ways with his longtime aide and engineered a dramatic shake-up of his presidential campaign team as he sought to reverse a months-long downward spiral that has left him short of cash and struggling for support.
The stunning developments unfolded quickly yesterday morning after (John) Weaver and campaign manager Terry Nelson, a key member of President Bush’s 2004 reelection team, issued terse statements announcing their departures from the McCain camp. (more…)
More on Bush’s Surge 2.0
Maybe we should call this Operation Together Forward 4.0
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From MSNBC.com:
President Bush, facing new pressure to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, said Tuesday he won’t consider it until hearing a fresh assessment from his top commander there this fall.
“That’s what the American people expect. They expect for military people to come back and tell us how the military operations are going,” Bush said. “And that’s the way I’m going to play it as commander in chief.” (Ed. note - I just love it when the President tells me what I expect.) (more…)
Surgeon General now speaks
As a trauma surgeon, I can tell you that the trauma community was stoked about Richard Carmona being named Surgeon General. I remember posts to trauma discussion groups talking about Carmona helping the trauma and EMS community. Many trauma folks saw research money coming our way. NOT!! It didn’t happen. As a matter of fact. Really, nothing happened that I’m aware of. Well, yesterday, Dr. Carmona spoke out against the Bush administration’s anti-science agenda.
Remember Operation Together Forward
Operation Together Forward was the president’s answer to the ongoing violence in Iraq. Mid-term elections were coming and the Republicans by all polling were going to take a beating. The President did everything that he could to beat down those nah-sayers. He and his generals were going to calm Baghdad and save the Republicans. But, Together Forward with its Iraq troops in support of American troops didn’t work out so go. In late summer, Operation Together Forward 2 was launched. Americans would clear and the Iraqis would hold. It didn’t work.
So, the Republicans were beaten but no as badly as they should have been because the President played the fear card again and it worked on some Americans, again. The Iraq Study Group was formed. They reviewed and studied and reported what we already knew. Things in Iraq were terrible and getting worse. We needed a regional strategy to fix this problem. Not a military one. Well, the president blew the ISG a raspberry. He surged. The Surge sounds very much like Operation Together Forward.
This whole thing has been a McGuffin. The Bush team has run out of ideas and options. Years ago, in the NCAA Basketball tournament, when you were an inferior team but you somehow got the lead you would go to the 4 corners offense in order to run out the clock. We are seeing the Bush Administrations 4 corners offense. They are trying to keep the Senate Republicans at bay. If they are able to run out the clock they will leave this mess to a Democratic president who will then have to look weak by pulling out of Iraq. The subsequent chaos will be blamed on that president by Limbaugh, Hannity and the gang.
The Surge is a delaying technique. The 6 month roll out of the Surge was another delaying technique. “Let’s wait until we get a report from General Petraeus in September.” Once we get the report then we will have to make “adjustments.” I’m sure after the adjustments there will be another report and more adjustments. The administration will continue to ask for a little more patience and little more time. The plan is working - they will say. I’m convened that we are watching the 4 corners offense. This plan is designed to enough Republican Senators behind the president until January 2009 to block anti-war legislation.
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Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
