Wednesday, July 19, 2006

tony snow: We have lots troops. elsewhere

* ken:
"More significantly, I'm told that Michael Kostiw, senior adviser to Goss, is also being pushed out. Kostiw was the only Gossling that was thought to have performed well, and a number of senior agency officials urged Hayden to keep him on. However, the source told me, Kostiw ran afoul of Hayden’s boss, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. It appears that Kostiw's grim assessment of the situation in Iraq, where he traveled regularly over the past several years, displeased Negroponte, who “wasn't happy with his criticism,” said the source. “He said [Kostiw] wasn't being supportive enough of the policy.”"

* froomkin:
"Asked about the possibility of sending U.S. troops as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon, Snow first danced around the question then uttered what will likely become a memorable phrase:
"Q So what about troops?
"MR. SNOW: We have lots of them. They are elsewhere.""

* froomkin:
"And Time TV critic James Poniewozik , in his blog, calls attention to the first part of the now-infamous sentence, which of course went like this: "See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."

Writes Poniewozik: "Personally, I could care less that a grown man used a swear word when speaking to another grown man. I'm more disturbed that the President used 'irony' to describe what seemed to be an entirely unironic situation. Have we learned nothing from Alanis Morrisette?""
(i made the same point yesterday)

* billmon:
"When an establishment drone like David Brooks starts sounding like the speaker at a five-minute hate, but on Quaaludes, it shows that the neocon version of Minitrue is pulling out all the stops."

* demnow:
"Lebanon’s Information Minister Ghazi Aridi has accused Israel of using banned weapons in violation of international law. Reports in the Lebanese media have claimed that Israel has used phosphorus incendiary bombs and vacuum bombs that suck up air and facilitate building collapses. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians has been banned since 1980. The U.S. military used similar phosphorous weapons during the siege of Fallujuah in Iraq."

* demnow:
"In Britain, officials have decided not to press to prosecute any of the police officers involved in the shooting death of Jean Charles de Menezes. He was the innocent Brazilian man shot in the London subway last year after police mistook him to be a possible terrorist."

* feingold at dkos:
"Hamdan underscores how this Administration has played fast and loose with the Constitution and the law, and why the President should be censured for authorizing the illegal wiretapping program, for misleading the public both before and after it was revealed, and for failing to inform the appropriate members of Congress about it, as required by law. We have to demand that this Administration, and this President, protect our Constitution and our values as we protect our country. I am going to keep raising this issue - in fact, I plan on asking the Attorney General about it this morning when he comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee. So stay tuned and thanks to all of you for keeping the heat on this Administration to own up to its mistakes and abide by the rule of law."

8 comments:

Track said...

I know it's easy to take potshots but come on. Censor?

What about the F'ing war!!!!!!!! And Feingold is one of the few good guys in Congress.

The appropriate remedy would be criminal charges. Not hyperbole at all. It just sounds that way due to unrelenting media propaganda.

lukery said...

and he's the best we've got...

*sigh*

Don said...

“He said [Kostiw] wasn't being supportive enough of the policy.”"

Ah, c'mon, it's not his fault. Reality kept getting in the way!

MR. SNOW: We have lots of them [troops]. They are elsewhere."

Priceless. I'd feel better if certain elements in the Pentagon had clued in that you can't win a war from the air, but still priceless.

And while censure may have been appropriate before Hamdan and all the other revelations since the initial NSA story broke, one should be solidly over the line into impeachment and indictment territory now. Granting his censure motion is still on the go, so it's something, but someone should be pulling the stops out.

Don said...

Second thought on the Snow response: he's perfect to speak for this administration, 'cause he hasn't got a clue as to what 'humanitarian mission' means, either.

lukery said...

don - funny re kostiw.

re the other stuff - as i've said before, it's as though they've stepped over a line from 'governing while stealing' to 'kleptocracy without pretense' - this past week has been a classic in terms of pulling back the curtain. there must be a bunch of new folks who have woken up to the disaster that the egadministration is.

look for the Bush Bounce to be sub-30 again soon.

Anonymous said...

I'm just utterly aghast at current events in Lebanon and the ongoing, oncrushing Police State in the US.

So W decides who can and cannot investigate him? How many dots does it take to get the picture of a dictatorship here?

Feingold is defending Israel's right to defend itself, so those of us who look to his leadership should ask him about Palestine and Lebanon's right to defend themselves.

For sure, defense contractors do propel foreign policy as do shareholders wanting their dividends. Everyone wanting the high paying jobs. It's a win win situation, if it's someone else's blood being spilled.

Neo-Conservatives in Israel are just as bolstered by fear of war in their quest for power. While Rabin and Arrafat were shaking hands at Camp David, Sharon took some people to the Temple Mount and stirred up a bunch of controversy, skuttled the peace talks and marched on to rule the country. More Jews are killed under conservatives than liberals, but for some reason their tough talk is construed to mean, safety.

Sometimes I think the US conservatives' approach to the Middle East is a WASP plot to get the Jews and Muslims to kill each other off, while they bank their bucks.

I don't call myself a Christian with a "C", but I do follow Christ's advice, not to throw the first stone and to turn the other cheek, to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. Needless to say, I do not understand how NeoNutz can square their war mongering with christianity, with a "c".

I think we are all in dire peril, with Newt the Brewt, from the Office of Special Plans, declaring we're in the middle of WW 3, making W the war president, ad infinitum. They're special plans allright.

lukery said...

was Newt involved with OSP??

i didnt know that.

Anonymous said...

'Is' involved in OSP, as in present tense. If I'm not mistaken, John Deans says Newt is head of OSP. I'll re-check it.