A Saudi man has offered $10m to buy the shoes that Iraqi journalist Muntadar Al Zaidi hurled at US President George W. Bush, according to a report carried by Al Arabiya net. Sixty-year-old Hassan Mohammad Makhafa, from Aseer, south west of Saudi Arabia, said he is ready to sell all his properties to buy Al Zaidi’s shoes, which he described as a ‘medal of freedom’ to put them on offer at a public auction.
“Nobody was prepared for this,” Mr. Rubin said in an interview. He cited former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as another example of someone whose reputation has been unfairly damaged by the crisis.
Global reactions to Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri’s controversial condemnation of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama as a “House Slave” (or, alternatively, “House Negro") have begun to pour in—including via the top jihad web forums used by Al-Qaida to disseminate its propaganda. Though hardcore Al-Qaida supporters have predictably dismissed any criticism of Dr. al-Zawahiri and are fiercely backing his choice of words, there is a rather ironic (if not entirely unfamiliar) twist to this issue. After observing international press reporting on the incident, these same supporters are now bitterly attacking the media for its “unfair” pro-Obama bias and for deliberately “confusing” the meaning of al-Zawahiri’s message.
Something was being lost in interpretation. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a Saudi national accused of war crimes and murder for his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was speaking in Arabic. Ralph H. Kohlmann, a Marine colonel and military judge at Guantanamo Bay, was listening to a simultaneous interpretation in English.
At a recent pretrial hearing, Hawsawi, according to his military lawyer, wanted to discuss the potential responsibilities of his attorneys and the implications of representing himself before the military commission. Those in the courtroom, however, often heard head-scratching sentences such as, “In the beginning of the timing of the laws, I said there is no difficulties base.”
A linguist working with Hawsawi’s team later estimated that half of what the defendant said was rendered incorrectly by court interpreters and that Hawsawi didn’t understand at least 25 percent of what was said in English.
As five key defendants charged in the Sept. 11 attacks—including self-described mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed—move toward a trial by jury, defense lawyers and human rights advocates charge that the fairness of the most significant proceeding at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is routinely undermined by incompetent interpretation.
“Regular omissions, or mistranslations of key words or phrases often led to disjointed, incomprehensible or misleading translations into both English and Arabic,” Hawsawi’s attorneys wrote in a draft document supporting a motion they filed asking to halt the case until qualified interpreters are hired. The lawyers asked the court to order the government to produce an Arabic transcript of each hearing—a motion military prosecutors are resisting.
What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over. Shut down the rapid responses, end the frantic e-mails, bench the spinning surrogates, stop putting up new TV and Internet ads every minute. In fact, pull all the ads — they’re doing no good anyway. Use that money for televised town halls and half-hour addresses in prime time.
And let McCain go back to what he’s been good at in the past — running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate. Palin should follow suit. The two of them are attractive and competent politicians. They’re happy warriors and good campaigners. Set them free.
Provide total media accessibility on their campaign planes and buses. Kick most of the aides off and send them out to swing states to work for the state coordinators on getting voters to the polls. Keep just a minimal staff to help organize the press conferences McCain and Palin should have at every stop and the TV interviews they should do at every location. Do town halls, do the Sunday TV shows, do talk radio — and invite Obama and Biden to join them in some of these venues, on the ground that more joint appearances might restore civility and substance to the contest.
A military prosecutor involved in war crimes cases here has quit his position, citing ethical concerns about his office’s failure to turn over exculpatory material to attorneys for an Afghan detainee scheduled to go to trial in December.
Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, a reservist, who declined to be interviewed, filed a declaration with a military court here Wednesday, laying out his concerns about the case and procedures in the military prosecutor’s office, according to defense attorneys.
“My ethical qualms about continuing to serve as a prosecutor relate primarily to the procedures for affording defense counsel discovery,” wrote Vandeveld in his filing. “I am highly concerned, to the point that I believe I can no longer serve as a prosecutor at the Commissions, about the slipshod, uncertain ‘procedure’ for affording defense counsel discovery.”
Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn’t a journalist and never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey. Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine about America, as she herself maintains. But spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative.
Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said, “No, thanks,” to the famous “bridge to nowhere” (McCain’s favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said, “Yes, please,” until this project became a symbol and political albatross.
Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska’s government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.
Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state’s unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can’t afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.
As if it couldn’t support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.
Palin’s former pastor, Tim McGraw, says that like many Pentecostal churches, some members speak in tongues, although he says he’s never seen Palin do so. Church member Caroline Spangler told CNN, “When the spirit comes on you, you utter things that nobody else can understand ... only God can understand what is coming out of our mouths.”
So I was at the checkout counter in our great locally owned foodstore here in Charlottesville this morning, and I bumped into Deborah McDowell, a chaired prof in the University of Virginia’s rightly lauded English department. Debbie is an uber-talented African-American woman of commanding presence. After we said hi, I remarked how depressing it has been trying to deal with the emergence of Wasilla the Hun. She agreed, in spades. And as we stood there continuing to talk about the outrageous way Wasilla and other Repubs laid into Obama last week, the checkout clerk (female, white, over 40) joined in too.
[...]
That was also my first semi-public roll-out of the name Wasilla the Hun. I think it struck a chord.
Summary: Neither ABC nor CBS aired analysis from Democrats, Democratic strategists, or progressive media figures during their live coverage of the second day of the Republican National Convention. By contrast, both aired analysis from Republicans and conservatives, as well as from Democrats and progressives, during coverage of the second day of the Democratic National Convention.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H.L. Mencken
Since we already had a moron, as predicted by Mencken, I suppose it’s time to move on to the next stage in our political evolution.
There is wide uncertainty about whether she’s qualified to be president. In the poll, taken Friday, 39% say she is ready to serve as president if needed, 33% say she isn’t and 29% have no opinion.
PALIN: I signed major ethics reforms and I appointed both Democrats and independents to serve in my administration, and I championed reform, toned the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks,” on that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we’d build it ourselves.
Will it work? We’ll see the polls on the final convention bounce soon. We’ll know some of the answer then. But I have a feeling this speech will be like the Europe trip. It will take time for people to let it sink in, and decide what they think. And I’ll tell you, Mr. Obama left a lot of space for Mr. McCain to play the happy warrior next week. He left the Republicans a big opportunity to wield against him, in contrast, humor, and wit, and even something approximating joy.
It’s absolutely amazing to me how so many in the GOP are so out of touch with the mood of the country.
“Joy”?
At what?
I guess the GOP bigwigs look at each other and say “I’m OK, you’re OK, we’re richer than ever so why the hell is anyone whining, complaiing that anything needs to change? All our CEO friends are doing OK, all our big donors are doing OK, so let’s figure out how to cheer the rest of America up. Let’s give ‘em some of that Ronnie Reagan cheer.”
Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama - Capital Eye
According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.
WASHINGTON, DC - The nation’s terrorist watch list has hit one million names, according to a tally maintained by the American Civil Liberties Union based upon the government’s own reported numbers for the size of the list.
“Members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other ‘suspicious characters,’ with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this list, with little hope of escape,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “Congress needs to fix it, the Terrorist Screening Center needs to fix it, or the next president needs to fix it, but it has to be done soon.”
Hannity: But in all seriously here, we haven’t had a recession—there is an economic slow down. I share your concern. Everybody I talk to is furious at 4.50 a gallon for gasoline, especially when they know we have more resources than the middle east, but I want to know. I want to ask you this. I’ve met people that grew up in tyranny. I knew people that grew up in the former Soviet Union for fear of speaking out against their government. Never had an opportunity to pursue their dreams…In this country, maybe we do, is there some truth to the fact, maybe we do whine too much. Maybe we don’t to appreciate this gift we have of freedom. Maybe we don’t take advantage of, maybe too many of us look to the government to solve every problem we have, Health care etc…
Gingrich: Sean, I have the deepest affection for you..that is the least Ronald Reagan like quote I’ve heard from you in your entire career.
The same bloviators who excoriated Obama for his “bitter” comment are foaming like mad dogs to back up fat-cat Phil Gramm.
Now, tell me who the ‘elitists’ and out-of-touch with ‘real’ Americans are?
I don’t mean to single you out, but there isn’t a “group” email for the
Corner as I’m aware of, so I’m writing you.
Anyway, the Corner’s silence on yesterday’s Phil Gramm remarks is
deafening. Here it is 24 hours into a pretty-decent sized story (I
don’t know how you sign into AOL mail, but I saw it listed as one of
the top news stories when I signed in through the web), and not even
one comment on his “whiner” remarks? I expected at least a Larry
Kudlow defense or something.
Me: Fair enough. My own excuse is that this is one of these stories that I somehow missed until late in the day, not sure why that is. Anyway, this is just another example of why I’ve always wanted Phil Gramm to be president of the United States and why that can never, ever, happen.
Because it’s a peeve of mine, my ears always seem to be catching people talking about how much we need straight talkers in this country who won’t cave to their handlers, won’t spin, won’t poll-test their views. And yet, whenever somebody speaks honestly, down comes the thunder. I think this is a bipartisan phenomenon, by the way.
Anyway, I think Gramm’s comments were politically dumb but substantially correct.
May the classic joke re the difference between a recession and a depression catch up with him soon…
WASHINGTON — The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”
What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.
The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.
My respect for Clark is up - my respect for Obama down.
And as for McCain, I’m the son of a Naval aviator - I know what Clark’s talking about more than most.
He may have been a hot-shit jet-jockey, but that don’t make him presidential material. And getting shot down don’t take no special talent, either.
And every time someone throws the ‘elite’ crap against Obama just remember that this child of privilege was the son and grandson of admirals. How many ‘commoners’ could he count as close friends growing up? You don’t think he wasn’t cut some slack because Daddy and Grand-daddy were muckety-mucks?
The McCain campaign’s claim that there’s any attack here on McCain’s war record is simply a lie—a simple attempt to fool people. This is an essential point to this entire campaign—does McCain’s military record mean that even the Democrats have to concede the point that he’s more qualified to be commander-in-chief of the US armed forces, that his foreign and national security policy judgment is superior to Obama’s? It’s simply a fact that McCain has a record of really poor judgment on a whole list of key foreign policy and national security questions.
This is one of those moments in the campaign where the nonsense from the chief DC press sachems is so palpable and overwhelming that everyone who cares about this contest needs to jump into the breach and demand that they answer why no one can question whether McCain’s war record makes him more qualified to be president and whether he has good foreign policy and national security judgment.
We were just chatting here at the office about what’s behind the Obama campaign’s rapid rejection of Wes Clark’s statements. The read from those in touch with the Obama campaign seemed to be that they don’t want to get into a conversation that focuses attention on McCain’s war record and/or experience.
If that’s the case, it’s more troubling than it appears on the surface. I can think of a lot of other reasons why they might not want to get into this. Maybe they think it conflicts with the ‘new politics’ message they’re trying to push. Or perhaps they think the wind’s at their back or they don’t want the subject to be changed.
But if it really is a fear of getting things focused on McCain’s war record or experience it really is the kind of mistake Democrats habitually make. Take a look. McCain’s entire campaign is about his time as a POW and the claim that his war service makes him uniquely qualified to be the country’s commander-in-chief. They’re pushing the fact that he’s been on the national stage for four decades, whereas Obama’s only been there for four years. That is almost the entirety of his campaign. So it’s out there. It’s already a key focus of this campaign.
John McCain’s claim to experience, based in large part on his military service, is a key issue in this campaign. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
Clark made a damn good point and never impuned McCain’s record. I hate to say this, but maybe Clinton was right.
That doesn’t, however, mean I think Clinton would be a better president.
On the other hand, I think this means the country is really, really fucked.
As we noted last month, a number of states have been considering laws that, under the guise of “academic freedom,” single out evolution for special criticism. Most of them haven’t made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed. But the last of these bills under consideration, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday. The bill would allow local school boards to approve supplemental classroom materials specifically for the critique of scientific theories, allowing poorly-informed board members to stick their communities with Dover-sized legal fees.
GOP rallying cry: “Let’s put magic back in science!”
