Politics

If Bush has his way, in a few years our ground troops could be carrying ‘small scale’, ‘low-yield’ nuclear rockets.

President Bush signed a huge new defense bill that includes millions of dollars for a small nuclear bomb designed to destroy deep, hardened underground bunkers.

Among the many items tucked away in the \$401 billion defense authorization act was a \$15 million three-year research project by the Energy and Defense departments to create the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.

The legislation repeals a decade-old ban on research into low-yield nuclear weapons.

The controversial new weapon would consist of a hard-nosed rocket able to penetrate 20 feet into the earth with a small-scale nuclear bomb, modified from an existing nuke, that would go off on a delay – so that it would explode at the deepest point.

Bush scares me more and more every day.

(via MetaFilter)

So what do you do if you’re trying to put together campaign commercials for a President who can’t seem to string together more two multi-syllabic words without stumbling? Simple! With just a little “digital cut and paste”, even Dubya can sound coherent!

When President Bush laid out the potential threat that unconventional weapons posed in Saddam Hussein’s hands last year in his State of the Union address last year, he became tongue-tied at an inopportune moment.

[…]

Yet in a new Republican commercial that borrows excerpts from that speech, Mr. Bush delivers that line as smoothly as any other in the address, without a pause between “one” and “vial,” and the v in “vial” sounds strong and sure.

Republican officials acknowledged yesterday that the change was a product of technology. The line, they said, was digitally enhanced in editing “to ensure the best clarity.”

(via Dori)

Back at the beginning of September, there was a bit of a fuss when Army Captain James Yee, who had been working with (ahem) “detainees” at Guantanamo Bay was suddenly held on suspicion of treason, espionage, and “aiding the enemy”. Well, charges against him have finally been filed. What has the military charged him with that caused all the ruckus?

Two counts of failing to obey a lawful general order, adultery, conduct unbecoming an officer, making a false official statement and failure to obey an order or regulation (the latter two charges stem from allegations that Yee viewed and stored pornography on a government computer).

Okay, so apparently the guy was a bit of a shmuck, not to mention a bit of an idiot if he was using government hardware for pornography, and was definitely breaking regulations (if all the allegations are true). But come on — treason and espionage are serious charges, and I would expect that the government wouldn’t be bandying them about unless they had some definite hard evidence of such behavior. Now, two and a half months later, these are the only official charges that they’ve been able to produce?

Chances are, the stories about Yee’s official charges won’t get nearly as much press, though. They’ll be buried four or five pages back in the newspapers, all most people will remember is how some Filthy Traitor was caught by Our Government, and they’ll never hear how inconsequential (at least in comparison to treason and espionage) the actual charges are. It’s a sadly typical situation these days, really.

Apparently Yee has been released pending trial, but some are wondering about the motives of the new charges:

Huda Sobuh, Captain Yee’s wife, told CAIR-Seattle: “I believe emphatically that my husband is innocent of all these charges. I stand by him. It is clear to me the U.S. government only wants to destroy his reputation and his family. They will not succeed.”

“These new allegations, including as they do serious violations of Islamic moral principles, have the odor of a smear campaign about them,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, CAIR-Seattle chairman. “A cynical person might question the government’s motivation for bringing these charges after having failed to back up earlier leaks pointing to espionage and support for terrorism.”

“To bring adultery into a case that began with public allegations of aiding the enemy is really outrageous, and the type of thing that can give military justice a bad name,” said Eugene Fidell, Yee’s civilian attorney.

Al-Muhajabah’s Islamic Blog provides some advice from the Quran, advice which I find to be applicable in many situations these days.

First, as a general rule, one should never blindly accept accusations from a source with questionable motives: O you, those who have faith! If a corrupt person brings you tidings, verify it, lest you attack some folk in ignorance and afterward repent of what you did. (Quran 49:6). Second, and specifically dealing with accusations of adultery, proper proof is required…: Why, when they heard this, did the faithful men and the faithful women not think better among themselves and say: This is a clear lie? Why do they not bring four witnesses? Whoever does not bring witnesses, such people are liars in Allah’s sight. (Quran 24:12-13)

This is so, so, so, so not on my Christmas Wish List:

Amuse your conservative friends and annoy your liberal neighbors with the brand new Ann Coulter Talking Action Figure. This incredibly lifelike action figure looks just like the beautiful Ann Coulter, and best of all . . . it sounds like Ann, too!

[…]

This highly collectible doll comes in a display box with information highlighting Ann’s unique contributions to America’s political discourse. If you can’t get enough Ann Coulter, you’ll want to order the Ann Coulter Talking Action Figure today!

At first I thought this was a joke or a prank or something, especially given the quotes that are apparently programmed into the doll (“Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like Liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now.”), but as far as I can tell, this is completely serious.

There is an entire series of “Talking Presidents” action figures available on this website that all have included quotes that seem to be meant to honor the person in question, including George W. Bush (“Freedom itself was attacked by faceless cowards, and freedom will be defended.”), George H. W. Bush (“I don’t see how you can be President if you didn’t believe in a being greater than yourself. I don’t see how you get the strength that you need at quiet moments, the tough moments.”), and Dennis Miller (“The only way we were going to get the French to go into Iraq was to tell them we thought there were truffles in there.”). There’s even one for Donald Rumsfeld (“The only choice one has is to proceed and use coercion.”), which I find at least as disturbing as the Ann Coulter action figure. The most obvious exception is the action figure for Bill Clinton (“I experimented with marijuana a time or two and didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale and never tried it again.”).

Truly bizarre. I guess you want to keep everyone happy over the Christmas season, right?

(via the usual suspects)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

[…]

Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law professor at American University who has written about F.B.I. history, said collecting intelligence at demonstrations is probably legal.

But he added: “As a matter of principle, it has a very serious chilling effect on peaceful demonstration. If you go around telling people, `We’re going to ferret out information on demonstrations,’ that deters people. People don’t want their names and pictures in F.B.I. files.”

The abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by the F.B.I. to harass and discredit Hoover’s political enemies under a program known as Cointelpro, led to tight restrictions on F.B.I. investigations of political activities.

Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year, when Attorney General John Ashcroft issued guidelines giving agents authority to attend political rallies, mosques and any event “open to the public.”

Kind of makes me wonder what might be in my file….

(via Jon)

Remember the Policy Awareness Market? It was a DARPA-backed plan to establish a “futures” market wagering on the likelihood of terrorist attacks, assassinations, and the like that almost slipped under the radar until being outed and subsequently shut down last July.

The Pentagon will abandon a plan to establish a futures market to help predict terrorist strikes, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.

[…]

The little-publicized Pentagon plan envisioned a potential futures trading market in which speculators would wager on the Internet on the likelihood of a future terrorist attack or assassination attempt on a particular leader. A website promoting the plan already is available.

When the plan was disclosed by two Democratic senators Monday, the Pentagon defended it as a way to gain intelligence about potential terrorists’ plans.

Earlier, Warner had said that his staff was looking into the program and would report on it later Tuesday. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York), said she was appalled to hear of plans to set up “a futures market in death.”

Other Democrats expressed similar alarm.

“The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it’s grotesque,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), one of two lawmakers who disclosed the plan Monday.

Well, guess what? It’s back! Apparently it’s now being run without government involvement, but the idea is still incredibly sick and wrong.

(via Daily Kos)

Incredible. Among the list of concessions that the US wanted from Britain in preparation for Bush’s upcoming visit were Tube closures, minigun battlefield weaponry to use against rioters, and diplomatic immunity for American agents in case protesters are shot.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush’s entourage this week.

In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush’s protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.

The issue of immunity is one of a series of extraordinary US demands turned down by Ministers and Downing Street during preparations for the Bush visit.

These included the closure of the Tube network, the use of US air force planes and helicopters and the shipping in of battlefield weaponry to use against rioters.

While these outrageous requests were turned down, the UK has agreed to create a ‘sterile zone’ extending for blocks around the President’s travel plan to keep people away.

What’s more disturbing? The fact that we have an administration with the unmitigated gall to make such requests in the first place? Or the fact that we have a President who is so mistrusted, disliked, and outright hated by so many people that they feel the need for that level of security?

(via Atrios)

According to The New Republic, it’s looking more and more like we practically have two feuding Democratic parties now: Clinton’s version and Dean’s version.

The division in the party over Dean is less about ideology than about power. Three years after Bill Clinton left office, he and Hillary still control what remains of a Democratic establishment. Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was installed by Clinton. Most of the powerful new fund-raising groups, known as 527s, and the new think tanks, such as the Center for American Progress, are run by the best and brightest of the Clinton administration. As National Journal noted in a detailed look at what it called “Hillary Inc.,” the senator’s network of fund-raising organizations “has begun to assume a quasi-party status.” And some of the best Clinton talent is heavily invested in non-Dean campaigns, especially Joe Lieberman’s (Mandy Grunwald and Mark Penn), John Edwards’s (Bruce Reed), and Wesley Clark’s (Bruce Lindsey, Eli Segal, and Mickey Kantor).

Dean, by contrast, has come to represent the party’s anti-establishment forces. While the other candidates, especially former self-styled front-runner John Kerry, started the campaign by wooing party leaders, Dean built a grassroots army first–in part by bashing D.C. Democrats and their disastrous 2002 election strategy–and is only now leveraging his fund-raising power to win over establishment types. No Democrats closely associated with the Clintons are working for the Dean campaign. In fact, it’s hard to find a Clintonite who speaks favorably of the former Vermont governor. This evident schism is not just about Dean’s opposition to the war–or even his prospects in the general election. It’s a turf war to decide who will control the future of the party.

It’s an interesting look at where the Democratic party is headed, and there’s some more good analysis at the Daily Kos. It’s my hope that the “old-school” Clinton faction will recognize the strength of what Dean and his campaign are building by getting people — “real” people, not just big-money people — interested, excited and involved. Otherwise, continued rivalry could end up costing us 2004, and four more years of Bush is the last thing this country needs.