Compare our blog’s lameness against other examples of historical lamitude. The list should include Carrot Top, New Coke and Battlefield Earth.
Archives for 2008
Obstruction
Regarding those destroyed CIA torture taps, the bipartisan chairs of the 9/11 Commission are not happy.
The commission’s mandate was sweeping and it explicitly included the intelligence agencies. But the recent revelations that the C.I.A. destroyed videotaped interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot. Those who knew about those videotapes — and did not tell us about them — obstructed our investigation.
There could have been absolutely no doubt in the mind of anyone at the C.I.A. — or the White House — of the commission’s interest in any and all information related to Qaeda detainees involved in the 9/11 plot. Yet no one in the administration ever told the commission of the existence of videotapes of detainee interrogations.
Via Glenn Greenwald, who has the essential context.
Sadly, Broderites like Richard Cohen cannot possibly react to this until they find or can credibly make up examples of Democrats torturing detainees, hiding the evidence and lying to investigating commissions about it.
***BIG Update***
Attorney General Mukasey has opened an investigation. Even better:
Mukasey named John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to oversee the case. Durham has a reputation as one of the nation’s most relentless prosecutors. He served as an outside prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the FBI’s use of mob informants in Boston and helped send several Connecticut public officials to prison.
In Defense Of Vapidity
Netscape No More
It’s an amazing story, the downfall of Netscape.
An historic name in software will effectively pass into history in February as AOL discontinues development and active support for the Netscape browser, according to an official blog.
AOL will keep delivering security patches for the current version of Netscape until Feb. 1, 2008, after which it will no longer provide active support for any version of the software, according to a Friday entry on The Netscape Blog by Tom Drapeau, lead developer for Netscape.com. The Netscape.com Web site will remain as a general-purpose portal.
Remember when it was your only real choice?
Update: Infoworld has more on this. (Ok, Bubblegum Tate?! :-) )
Where Have They All Been
The funniest thing about this WSJ piece about Huckabee deciding not to air negative ads about Romney while playing them for the media has got to be the reader responses:
Not sure how many people in Iowa read the WSJ, but it’s worth saying here that this takes slimy gutter politics to a new level. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s working with those ever-so educated Iowa voters who don’t even know he actually showed the ad to the press. It appears he gets to kill two birds with one stone… he looks nice and clean even though he’s guilty of a number of unethical actions and lapses in judgment AND he gets free air time for an ad he didn’t have the money to actually run himself because his campaign is broke!
Comment by scott – January 1, 2008 at 2:40 pmHuckabee makes Clinton look like an amateur whan it comes to deception.
I swear, what is in the water there in AK?
Comment by Bill Mitchell – January 1, 2008 at 3:26 pmHUCKABEE…Clearly exposes himself as a DISHONEST and DECEITFUL MAN with his news ’stunt’!
It is very obvious to the entire nation…Huckabee purposefully planned to: State lies about Romney. Then said he would not run the ad because he is an honorable
man… Then, he purposefully shows and purposefully dissemnates the ad…While knowing the press would publish the ad.Huckabee’s thinking and statements expose him as a purposeful deciever who flaunts common ethics and everyday religious beliefs. He is, obviously, not a Christian thinking man.
Comment by Don – January 1, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I have not bothered to check, but I am willing to bet the usual suspects in the right-wing blogosphere are saying similar things. At any rate, where have they been for the past few years? This is taking gutter politics to a new level? Huckabee’s transparent stunt yesterday was right out of the Rove playbook, and really was no big deal as far as gutter politics go. I mean, hell- it wasn’t like he planted a bunch of anti-gay amendments at the state level to bring out the vote.
Ron Paul Being Excluded From Debate
A press release from Paul’s Web site:
According to the New Hampshire State Republican Party and an Associated Press report, Republican presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul will be excluded from an upcoming forum of Republican candidates to be broadcast by Fox News on January 6, 2008.
“Given Ron Paul’s support in New Hampshire and his recent historic fundraising success, it is outrageous that Dr. Paul would be excluded,” said Ron Paul 2008 campaign chairman Kent Snyder. “Dr. Paul has consistently polled higher in New Hampshire than some of the other candidates who have been invited.”
Snyder continued, “Paul supporters should know that we are continuing to make inquiries with Fox News as to why they have apparently excluded Dr. Paul from this event.”
He raised more money than any Repupblican candidate last quarter, indicating he has a lot of support at the grass roots. That he should be excluded at this point, I believe is unfair. Captain Ed agrees:
However, since we’ve muddled through this long, it makes little sense to start excluding candidates just before the first meaningful vote gets taken. Raising $19 million in a quarter shows at least some level of significant support, even if limited to the the fringes of the GOP and Libertarian parties. Also, if Fox wants to rely on polling, Paul does at least as well as Thompson in Iowa and perhaps better at the moment in New Hampshire. Why not just wait for the results from Iowa to make that determination for both parties, as ABC plans to do?
Agreed. I’m with Ed in that I would like to see a more substantial debate, and having 9 people on the stage dilutes any meaningful discussion beyond sound bites. At least ABC has decided to wait until after the debate. Properly so. My guess is that FoxNews is more interested in seeing candidates favourable to them on the stage than being Fair & Balanced™. But what else is new?
Sara Jane Moore Released
After more than three decades in prison for a foiled attempt to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford, Sara Jane Moore was released on parole Monday.
Although Moore had been given a life sentence in the 1975 attempt on Ford’s life outside a hotel in downtown San Francisco, she had been eligible for parole for some time.
She shot at Ford because she thought he and his government had declared war on the left. Can’t wait to see how she reacts when she catches up on the news of the past 7 years!