Oh my

Donald Rumsfeld is not having a good week:

Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany’s top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called “20th hijacker” and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a “special interrogation plan,” personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: “It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld .”

Relief

I’m not feeling giddy as much as greatly relieved. O.K., maybe a little giddy.
–Paul Krugman

That about sums it up for me. It’s as if the biopsy results just came back and you don’t have cancer after all. You’re not giddy, exactly, but you can finally take a deep breath and maybe let some of the tension drain out of your shoulders. The future remains uncertain but you can begin to imagine it as something other than relentlessly bleak. As a general rule, I don’t have much faith in Democrats, having not fallen off any turnip trucks within recent memory, but I also think that we’re suddenly in an entirely new ball game. At the very least, I believe they will serve as a necessary bulwark against whatever residual craziness the Bushies may be harboring. They won’t be rubber stamping any plans to invade Iran this time around. And maybe they’ll even step up to the plate and hit one out of the park. They’re newly emboldened, and this is their moment. They no longer have to worry about appeasing the sort of people who believe that criticism of the president is an act of treason. Those people have been shunted aside. They’ve been put back in perspective. They were never anything more than marginal cranks, but for awhile there they managed to create their own reality, to create the illusion that they represented some sort of majority consensus in this country. Well, sorry, freaks. You can go back to typing your little manifestos and wanking over your war porn, and yelling at your mom to bring more cheetos down to the basement for you — but the country has seen you for the pathetic creatures you are, and moved on.

It’s time to have grownup conversations now. It goes without saying that the Democrats will disappoint us, one way or another. So what? The test results came back, and it’s not terminal. We got a little breathing room, and isn’t that all you can really ever hope for in life?

Can’t elect a new media

Nice work, Adam Nagourney and the New York Times:

On the Friday before Election Day, Mr. Cheney told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that the White House would push “full speed ahead” with its Iraq policy, no matter the outcome of the election. In the process, Mr. Cheney obscured a last minute flurry in which the president had attacked Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts for a remark about American troops in Iraq.

It’s safe to say I’m not the world’s biggest John Kerry fan. Still, I’ve always dreamed that someday the New York Times could write a story that mentions Kerry without regurgitating the most pernicious, disgusting right wing smears about him.

Maybe I need some new dreams.

(Thanks to Dean Baker for pointing this out.)

Maybe Robert Gates Isn’t So Bad After All

I was just forwarded an email that’s making the rounds at Texas A&M where Robert Gates is currently the President. First is Gates’ letter to staff and students regarding the SecDef announcement :

By the time you read this, the President of the United States will have announced that he will nominate me to be the next Secretary of Defense. I am deeply honored, but also deeply saddened.

As most of you know, almost two years ago I declined an opportunity to become the first Director of National Intelligence. I did so principally because of my love for Texas A&M and because much of the program we had initiated to take A&M to a new level of excellence had only just started.
. . .
I apologize for surprising you with this momentous decision and announcement, and for leaving as president before fulfilling my commitment to serve Texas A&M for at least five years. I hope you will understand the circumstances that made this necessary and that this appointment comes nearly as much a surprise to me as to you.

I will have more to say to you before I leave (if I am confirmed by the Senate). But I must tell you that while I chose Texas A&M over returning to government almost two years ago, much has happened both here and around the world since then. I love Texas A&M deeply, but I love our country more and, like the many Aggies in uniform, I am obligated to do my duty. And so I must go. I hope you have some idea of how painful that is for me and how much I will miss you and this unique American institution.

At this point, I expect to remain as President of Texas A&M until completion of the confirmation process and a Senate vote. I assure you, you will hear more from me before my departure.

More interesting, however, is the note that accompanied the forwarded letter. (Personal information redacted)

Dear Fellow Aggies (and some who aren’t Aggies but will find this interesting),

By now, you’ve probably heard that Donald Rumsfeld has resigned as Secretary of Defense. (Thank God!) Also, you may have heard that Bush has nominated Robert Gates to be Rumsfeld’s replacement. Gates is a former head of the CIA and, for the past two years, has been president of Texas A&M.

Below is an email forwarded to me by _________, ______ professor at A&M. Those of you who went to A&M might remember ________ as a highly intelligent, fiercely liberal prof who loved to stir things up and encourage his students to challenge the status quo and stand up for what is right.

About a year ago, I was in College Station and visited _____ for a few drinks. He told me then of his admiration of Gates, despite some initial apprehension due to Gates’ background, and for what Gates was doing for A&M. He also said that at a recent faculty party, Gates told him that he thought that Bush was the worst president we’d ever had.

If ______ speaks highly of Gates, he must have something going for him. I hope that Gates will use his new position to try to extract us from the quagmire of Iraq and won’t become just another Bush yes man.

Peace,

________

I’ve got an email out to the professor in question to confirm this, so until I do, take this with a grain of salt.

UPDATE : I knew this was too good to be true. I emailed the professor in question about this incident and he responded “In fact, this is NOT TRUE at all. I’ve never been at a party with President Gates, never had a private conversation with him”. The person who relayed this anectdote, when confronted with this information, responded “I think it is possible that I am mistaken. As I said, there were a few drinks involved.” In vino veritas? I guess not…

Leftover Observations

Here’s a bunch of thoughts that have been swirling through my mind over the last 24 hours or so but am too lazy to flesh out into posts of their own :


With Senator Lieberman (Egomaniac – CT) promising to caucus with the Dems, it’ll be interesting to see what sort of attitude he adopts towards his former party-mates. My guess is that as long as he gets a committee chairmanship, then he’ll be acceptable. Joe’s problem is that he’s a conventional wisdom parroting phony who thinks repeating talking points he’s picked up on the golf course makes him an independent, but now that the CW is heading towards the Dems, I wonder if he might accidentally be supportive of his own side. I hope so.


I don’t like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but there’s an important lesson to be learned from the way he sailed towards reelection yesterday. Last year, Arnie got his ass handed to him after the string of ballot initiatives that were his entire agenda were defeated across the board. His reaction to this defeat was one that a lot of Republicans would be well advised to follow. He picked himself up, apologized to the people of California, and said “message received”. From then on, he’s seemed like a different man. He’s reached out to Democratic lawmakers more, cut out the macho bullshit, and stopped quoting his movies every five minutes. I still trust Schwarzenegger about as far as I can throw him, but his success last night was entirely due to the perception in voters minds that he showed humility and was working hard to regain the confidence of the California people.


On the faux-humility front, John McCain’s reaction to the GOP defeat on CNN last night was brilliant in the way he kept using the word “we” to mean “everyone but me” :

So, of course, I’m sad. And I believe, however, that this is a wake up call to the Republican Party. We’ve got to change our practices. We — some of our people think we came to Washington to change government and government changed us.

And so we’re — but we’re going to bounce back, Larry. We’re going to get together and go over where we made our mistakes, fix them and move forward.

And for subtly throwing his party under the bus for their enormous defeat, how’d the CNN political analysts react? From just a few minutes later, here’s John King :

“But, wow!, was that a picture. I defy you to go back through the CNN library, any library you can find and find a video of John McCain looking like that….That was President John McCain making an appearance to American people.”

Even during the Democratic party’s finest hour, the media sycophants still line up to kiss St. McCain’s ring.


The President’s decision to fire Rumsfeld this morning was just bizarre. Does he think this will be enough to keep a Democratic Congress off his back? Was this just an attempt to play the media and knock some wind out of the Democrats’ sails? Why the hell would be have spent the last week defying public opinion and supporting Rummy if he was planning to toss him aside so suddenly? The political strategy beside this is inexplicable to me. Gotta love that Junior picked one of his daddy’s Iran/Contra buddies for a replacement. That should be a fun confirmation hearing. Democrats, point your subpoenas in this direction.


Interesting fact : South Dakota’s ballot measure failed at the same margin by which Oklahoma’s cockfighting ban passed a few years ago, 56-44. I wonder how much ideological overlap there is between the 44% of SD voters who think rape victims should be forced to have babies and the 44% of Okies who enjoy watching birds kill each other. The lack of the rape/incest provision is the real reason the SD ban failed, but it was left out deliberately to bait federal courts into striking it down and giving them a path to challenge Roe vs. Wade in the Supreme Court.


Speaking of ballot measure wedge issues, I was thinking the other day that Democrats could really use a wedge issue or two to get onto local ballots as a way of motivating base voters to get to the polls, but then it struck me : this trick probably won’t work for Democrats. Republican issues like opposing gay marriage or banning abortion are all about using weight of the government to divide Americans and meddle in their lives, but Democrats don’t seem to have many issues like that which resonate with their base on the same “lizard brain” level. A few years ago it might have been gun control, but with so many gun-friendly Dems, that’s a non-starter these days.

Looking at how it played out last night, there was a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot in eight states which passed in all but one state. There were also ballot measures to restrict affirmative action, ban abortion, declare English the official language, and parental notification. On the plus side, a minimum wage increase was on the ballot in six states and passed in every single one. That along with Missouri’s stem cell bill should tide us over until the Democrats can get these passed on the federal level.


The strangest thing on any ballot, however, has to be Arizona’s Proposition 200 :

Proposition 200 would establish a $1,000,000 prize to be awarded to a randomly selected person who voted in the primary or general election. Anyone who voted in the primary or general election would be automatically entered in the drawing for the prize money, and if a person voted in both the primary and the general election, that person’s name would be entered twice in the drawing.

That’s right, in an attempt to increase voter turnout, the people of Arizona had to vote on whether or not they should turn their elections into the goddamn lottery. Thankfully this mockery of the electoral process was defeated.