Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Preachers and Patriots

When the curtain goes up on the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30, the supporting cast will include gospel- and country-music performers, elaborate videos, and celebrities doing what they can to help market President Bush’s ideas and vision for America, one of the convention’s organizers said yesterday.

But the convention will present not only politicians and celebrities on each of its four days. People from around the country have been invited to offer an invocation or benediction or to make some other short statement, said Frank Breeden, the convention’s director of entertainment, who called this aspect of the program “Preachers and Patriots.”

The Republicans are hoping that their convention, in New York, can help give their candidate the significant bounce in the polls that eluded the Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, after the convention in Boston. And so the party hired Mr. Breeden, a former president of the Gospel Music Association renowned in the Christian music industry, to help produce a show that carefully weaves the party’s political message with a mix of music, star power and patriotic symbolism.

Republicans have generally been tight-lipped about convention details, but in an interview, Mr. Breeden gave some clues about what to expect. He said he has worked since November to help recruit celebrities to perform, give press interviews, attend parties or be otherwise visible at Madison Square Garden.

The goal, Mr. Breeden said, is to help market the party’s political ideas.

“Entertainment plays more of a prominent role in marketing messages today than ever before,” Mr. Breeden said in a telephone interview. And he said that the convention organizers wanted to employ those tools in selling their political philosophy: “Just like Cadillac uses Led Zeppelin to market its ideas.”

Just like the GOP uses Jesus to market its ideas.

He said yesterday that he expected the convention to be heavy with gospel, country and Broadway music, and with patriotic music. He said there would be several renditions of the national anthem as well. And he said there would be a stage band made up entirely of some of the most sought-after studio musicians in New York City. Everyone is being paid union wages, he said.

Mr. Breeden said that during his months of work on the convention, he had run up against some obstacles that were surprising and others that he had expected.

After a career in the entertainment industry, Mr. Breeden said he knew well that many of the most outspoken performers do not support the Bush administration. “For whatever reason, on the Democratic side of things, the celebrities who have an affinity with that party tend to be more activist-oriented and tend to get headlines,” he said.

Maybe that’s because the “Republican side of things” is always trying to censor them. It’s a right wing specialty.

If people like tent revival type entertainment, it looks like they’re going to get plenty of it. Praise the Lord and pass the moonshine for Bush. The culture war must go on.

I Yam What I Yam

Everybody chuckled at the Bush’s third grade answer to “what does sovereignty mean in the 21st century” but he had another howler at that UNITY meeting:

ROLAND MARTIN: Mr. President, you remarked in your remarks you said that 8 million people in Afghanistan registered to vote, and as you said, exercised their God-given right to vote.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Right.

ROLAND MARTIN: That may be a right from God, but it’s not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. In 2000, an estimated 2 million people, half African American had their votes discounted from Florida and Cook County, Illinois, to other cities. Some on it– That cuts into other questions. Are you going to order Attorney General John Ashcroft to send federal election monitors to Florida and other southern states and in this age of new constitutional amendments, will you endorse a constitutional amendment guaranteeing every American the right to vote in federal elections?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes. First of all, look, I can understand why African Americans in particular — you know, are worried about being able to vote since the vote had been denied for so long in the south in particular. I understand that. This administration wants everybody to vote. Now, I — best thing we did was to pass the Helping America Vote Act with over — I think it’s $3 billion of help to states and local governments to make sure that the voting process is fair. I — you know, it’s not just the south. By the way, the voting process needs help all over the country to make sure that everybody’s vote counts and everybody’s vote matters. I understand that. That’s why I was happy to work with the congress to achieve this important piece of legislation. Just don’t focus on Florida. I have to talk to the governor down there to make sure it works.

But it’s the whole country that needs voter registration files need to be updated. The machines need to work. And that’s why there’s $3 billion in the budget to help, Roland. Obviously, everybody ought to have a vote. What was your other question?

ROLAND MARTIN: Should we put it — guarantee it in the constitution.

PRESIDENT BUSH: I’ll consider it. I’ll consider it. What’s your second question? R You said it should be guaranteed in Iraq, why not America?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, it’s not guaranteed in Iraq. People have to show up to vote in the first place. The thing about democracy is people need to step up and decide to participate in the first place. There’s no guarantees people are going to vote. They should be allowed to vote, but the problem we have in our society is too many people choose not to vote. We have a duty in the political process, and you have a duty as journalists to encourage people to register to vote, to do their duty. I’m not saying that — I’m saying that people are choosing. It’s not guaranteed they’re going to. That’s part of the problem that we have in America. Not enough people do vote. You have a duty on your radio stations on your TV stations, to encourage people to register to vote. I have a duty to call them out to vote. Of course, I’m going to try to call them out to vote for me.

The right to vote is not guaranteed unless everybody votes. Jesus H. Christ.

And, I don’t know about you, but I feel much better about Florida knowing that the president is going to talk to his brother to make sure it “works.”

Has there ever been a more stupid president? I don’t see how it’s possible. You can easily see how much more difficult he would have had it if he’d been forced to face a skeptical press more often. How lucky he was to have to only answer to the celebrity press corp instead of real journalists. Too bad about the country, though.

The Manchurian McCain

Via Julia, I see that the scumbags have levelled their repulsive guns at McCain again, presumably because he has been so effective a blunting the swiftboat ad’s charges. He had to know he’d come under fire from these crazies, but they aren’t even trying to hide it, now. This article literally accuses McCain of cowardice and treason:

Why would John McCain characterize the SWIFT Boat vets commercial about John Kerry as “dishonest and dishonorable”?

Why would he ask President Bush to denounce it?

Why would he say something similar was “pulled” on him when he seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2000?

Americans are supposed to respect Sen. John McCain because he is a war hero. But is he? And why is he so determined to defend John Kerry’s dishonorable activities during and after the Vietnam War?

Now let me begin by saying McCain suffered greatly during his five years of captivity in the “Hanoi Hilton.” But his horrific experiences do not entitle him to stretch the truth about his captivity at the hands of North Vietnamese Communists, nor to deceive Americans about his bravery and heroism.

When the Navy pilot was shot down over a lake near Hanoi, his captors did not know who he was – John McCain, son of the admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet. McCain was seriously injured in his ejection and in need of medical attention. In exchange for what passes as first-class care in Vietnam, McCain talked. He told the North Vietnamese about his father. He told them about the chain of command. He described himself as one of the “very best pilots” in the Navy.

Such behavior by a POW is strictly frowned upon in the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the military code of conduct.

“OK,” you say, “McCain should be given a pass for this because he was badly hurt. Wasn’t his behavior at the Hanoi Hilton honorable after he recovered from his wounds?”

No, not exactly. While serving as a POW, McCain was one of the captives who agreed to be used for propaganda purposes by the enemy. In fact, some argue that an interview he gave to a communist publication – detailing an accident aboard his ship, problems with low morale among U.S. servicemen, the chain of command in the U.S. Navy and other pertinent information – went far beyond mere propaganda and crossed the line into disclosing military intelligence secrets.

On June 5, 1969, the Washington Post carried a story titled, “Reds Say PW Songbird is Pilot Son of Admiral.” The article states that, “Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of United States Commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain, purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praises medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner.”

Worse yet, many years later, when both John McCain and John Kerry were serving in the U.S. Senate, they teamed up to betray the families of the POWs and MIAs in favor of sucking up to the murderous Communist Vietnamese regime.

More than any other two men in America, McCain and Kerry orchestrated the cover-up of what became of our Vietnam POWs and MIAs.

[…]

One wonders what McCain’s reward might be? What was in the cover-up for him? Why has he become an apologist for John Kerry’s despicable and dishonorable record in Vietnam and, worse, his actions afterward?

Maybe it’s just something about the character of John McCain. Maybe birds of a feather just flock together. Maybe this is why you should take anything McCain says about Kerry with a grain of salt.

I think somebody needs to ask the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush is they agree with this assessment. After all, this is another scathing indictment of the US Navy. Apparently McCain was a traitor and instead of being tried he was awarded medals and became a US Senator. There is something terribly wrong with the US Military to let this happen.

I’m beginning to understand why so many gawd fearing Republicans refused to join up. Who can blame them? They just didn’t want to be associated with the likes of the traitorous Kerry and McCain and all the officers and comrades who covered up for them all these years.

How many losers like McCain and Kerry are serving now, do you think?

Postmodern Heroics

Josh Marshall points out an egregiously incorrect column by Deborah Orin in which she not only claims that John O’Neill served with Kerry, but that Kerry was actually known by his comrades as an outright coward who had “very little nerve for facing serious combat.” This takes the charge to a new level. It’s not just that he got medals he didn’t deserve but that he actively avoided dangerous situations in order to save his own skin. I wonder how long it will before someone accuses him of fragging.

It has struck me lately what a terrible indictment of the military these charges are and how once again the Republicans have absolutely no limits in terms of how fully they are willing to trash the American institutions they allegedly love in order to win. What these people are saying is that the US Navy awarded some of its highest medals for bravery to a coward. The many officers who signed those glowing fitness reports and awarded those citations are either liars or they are incompetent. The word of his shipmates, even the man whose life he saved, are worth nothing. You can’t believe military documentary evidence. It was all bullshit, every last piece of it.

And because of this it can now be said that all medals awarded for bravery are suspect. A superior military record is no longer a recommendation. Who can ever believe the government on this issue, now? If they were willing to reward the undeserving Kerry, for reasons about which we can only speculate, then obviously the entire system for awarding valor in combat is corrupt.

There used to be some things that Americans could count on. Having a certain reverence for combat medals was one of them, regardless of political party. It was something you just didn’t fuck with, certainly not openly. We’ve always known that the good old boy network existed, that “connected” guys got better assignments and that in the Vietnam era, strings could get pulled to get into the guard or get stationed in Germany or something. But, even in the worst dark days of the conflict, I don’t remember anybody saying that medals were being handed out to cowards. And people said a lot of terrible things about the military in those days.

Once again, we are seeing that the baby boomer Vietnam generation (of which I am on the later side) continues to play out its little psychodrama. During the sixties, the young liberals had disdain for the military. Now, in flaccid middle age, it’s the conservatives who are taking it apart. Our excuse was that we were young and passionate and stemmed from an honest belief that the government was lying to us. And it was. We grew out of the idea that the military itself was a corrupt institution, but we have paid a political price for more than thirty years for taking that attitude. And that price was exacted by the very same people who are now essentially accusing the military of extreme dishonesty. Irony doesn’t begin to cover this.

The conservative attack on the military is, on the other hand, so small minded, so parochial. For puny, partisan reasons they are accusing the military of widespread corruption — merely to excuse the behavior of their less than stellar candidate. In order to save that worthless little child-man, they are basically telling the American people that the US Navy rewards cowards and covers it up. They do not care that they are setting the stage for people to think that heroic deeds in combat have no concrete meaning. GOP Post modern politics rescues the cipher and further degrades our democracy.

Too bad for the men and women who are risking their necks as we speak for Junior’s Big Adventure. Any act of bravery on which the military might bestow a medal is now subject to interpretation. Nothing is sacred to these people.

Update:

If anyone cares to see how totally corrupt the Navy must have been, Eriposte has the full scoop. Dozens of officers would have had to lie or have been completely incompetent for all these charges to be true. Not the least of whom are some of the Swift boat vets themselves who said very different things at the time.

Watch Your Backs, Spooks

Porter Goss, Junior’s choice for CIA director, is a loyal guy, but it isn’t you he’s loyal to.

Goss says CIA leak not worthy of committee action

Rep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn’t yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs.

Goss, who was a CIA agent himself from the early 1960s to 1971, said he takes such leaks seriously, but he distinguished between a willful violation of federal law and an inadvertent disclosure.

Goss also said no one from the intelligence agencies has raised the issue with him since syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified the agent in a column July 14.

“I would say there’s a much larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about national security,” said Goss, R-Sanibel. “But I would never take lightly a serious allegation backed up by evidence that there was a willful — and I emphasize willful, inadvertent is something else — willful disclosure, and I haven’t seen any evidence.”

Goss said he would act if he did have evidence of that sort.

“Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I’ll have an investigation,” Goss said.

Let’s just say that when push comes to shove, old Porter is a partisan Republican first and a guardian of the CIA second. Be warned.

I’m assuming that he will be confirmed with no problem. Miller and Lieberman and probably a few other Democrats will vote for him.

But, President Kerry is going to have to turn around and fire him. He has to because this guy will stab him in the back the first chance he gets:

Critics say Goss’s political antics reveal a partisan streak that compromises his ability to be a fair and diplomatic CIA chief. Most recently, he interrupted debate on the House intelligence authorization bill by displaying a sign with a 1977 quote from John Kerry that called for cuts to the intelligence budget.

Kerry cannot have someone like this working for him in such a sensitive job. I would assume that the Republicans are very well aware of this fact. This may be only the first of numerous landmines that are being laid in case of a Kerry victory.

Scottie’s Little Helpers

Via the Stakeholder, we get this exchange from the Gaggle:

Q Let me follow up with a second question. How damaging was the revelation of the deepest mole that we’ve ever had in al Qaeda? The publication of that man’s name by The New York Times — how damaging is that to our war on terror?

MR. McCLELLAN: I’m sorry — which specific instance are you referring to?

Q The New York Times published the name of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was described by intelligence officials as the only deep mole we’ve ever had within al Qaeda.

MR. McCLELLAN: I’m not sure where it was published, first. Obviously, it was published recently — the capture of this individual. It is important that we recognize that sometimes there are ongoing operations underway. And as we move forward on capturing or bringing to justice al Qaeda members, we need to keep that in mind. And sometimes we aren’t able to go into as much detail we would like to because of those ongoing operations. And I think everybody has a responsibility to keep that in mind.

Q Scott —

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Terry.

Q Do you think The New York Times shouldn’t have published the name?

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Terry.

Q Senator Kerry has been making light, or making fun of the President saying ‘we’ve turned the corner, and we’re not going back,’ given the fact that the job growth has been weak, and the energy prices are rising. Is that something that the President is not going to say anymore? Is he reconsidering that, given that the jobs are —

Can someone please explain to me why “Terry” just went on with his prepared question instead of following up what should be something of interest to the entire press corp? It sure sounded to me as if Flounder was trying to spin it to look as if the press was at fault for pressuring the admnistration to provide evidence that it’s terror warnings were on the level.

“Terry” (Moran?), instead of forcing Flounder to explain what he meant by that just barrelled on with his canned question.

This happens all the time at press conferences and happens just as often in one on one interviews. The journalists do not seem to be following the give and take. In the one on one’s you see Judy and Wolf and Little Russ just sitting there with glazed eyes obviously waiting for the interview subject to end his rambling so they can get to the next question.

I’ve sometimes wondered if the TV journalists are distracted by the producer in their earpieces, but that doesn’t explain why “Terry” and his ilk just let opportunities to follow up go by as in that gaggle today. Are these people so egotistical that they can’t allow themselves to be seen aiding and abetting a competitor?

The press corp are a bunch of braying sheep when the GOP blastfax comes in, but they can’t operate in tandem to put the pressure on Flounder a little bit — even when the subject concerns their very own selves. What a sad comment.

Neocon Resurrections

From the “they have always been wrong about everything” files, Lawrence Korb writes that “Team B” should be benched. No kidding.

His piece in the week-end’s LA Times very succinctly tells you everything you need to know about the failed track record of the neocons. Truly, they have always been wrong about everything and most often they are spectacularly wrong.

He brings up one specific little bit of history that I’ve written about before, as have others, but it bears repeating because of what is now happening in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 1981, after the publication of Clare Sterling’s book, “The Terror Network,” which argued that global terrorists were actually pawns of the Soviets, leading hard-liners asked the CIA to look into the relationship between Soviets and terrorist organizations. The agency concluded that although there was evidence that the Soviets had assisted groups such as the Palestine Liberation Organization with weapons and training, there was no evidence that the Soviets encouraged or approved these groups’ terrorist acts. However, hard-liners like Secretary of State Alexander Haig, CIA Chief William Casey and Policy Planning Director Wolfowitz rejected the draft as a naive, exculpatory brief and had the draft retooled to assert that the Soviets were heavily involved in supporting “revolutionary violence worldwide.”

This book was the beginning, middle and end of the neocons understanding of terrorism. It fit in perfectly with their black and white worldview of good and evil nation states. From that point on they could not see “terrorism” as anything but a weapon in the hands of totalitarian dictators.

This explains their absurd and stubborn belief that 9/11 simply had to have been perpetrated by Saddam and their ongoing certainty that “rogue” states remain a greater threat than islamic radicalism joining forces with a weakened failed state. As always, they simply refuse to give up their bedrock belief system in light of the evidence right before their eyes.

It’s true that they have been discredited recently, but I would not start writing the epitaph just yet. Their worldview is bipartisanly seductive, placing the US at the center of righteous democratic progress against the tyrant. And, for all its starry-eyed idealism it requires no interference in unpleasant and unheroic matters like Sudan. Likewise, Iraq and Afghanistan can be seen in their minds as successes — the terrible rogue state was vanquished and the totalitarian dictator was punished. Failed states aren’t a threat.

Except, of course, they are. And they are a very messy and dangerous problem. We really should not be in the business of creating even more of them, but it’s looking more and more as if that’s exactly what we’ve done. And in the age of islamic radicalism that was a stupid, stupid thing to do.

Neoconservatism is like a vampire cult. It is very difficult to kill. Being discredited means nothing to them. It’s happened time and time again and yet they keep coming back. They must have a stake drawn through the heart of their failed world view and I don’t know what it will take to make that happen. Indeed, they are re-forming as we speak into the Committee For The Present Danger Redux.

James Woolsey, a former CIA director, is chairman of the group, which he says in its third incarnation aims to combat what he calls “a totalitarian movement masquerading as a religion.”

[…]

The past struggle against communism differed in some ways from the current war against Islamist terrorism. But America’s freedom and security, which each has aimed to undermine, are exactly the same.

Don’t throw away your garlic just yet. They are still out there.

Coming Forward

Man, they’re coming out of the woodwork.

Last Wednesday we had the Scumbags For Truth, followed quickly by the Alabama Mail Room Veterans for Bush on Friday. Today we find the sickening truth behind that alleged hamster “rescue” from the Swift Boat Veterinarians For Truth.

Bush-Cheney 2004 is playing for keeps.

Rice Puddinghead

Josh Marshall pointed out Condi’s rather strained definition of “backround” in the Khan matter. But, she made another whopper that I, at least, haven’t heard anyone mention:

BLITZER:Let’s talk about some of the people who have been picked up, mostly in Pakistan, over the last few weeks. In mid-July, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. There is some suggestion that by releasing his identity here in the United States, you compromised a Pakistani intelligence sting operation, because he was effectively being used by the Pakistanis to try to find other al Qaeda operatives. Is that true?

RICE: Well, I don’t know what might have been going on in Pakistan. I will say this, that we did not, of course, publicly disclose his name. One of them…

Was she claiming that the mole operation that Kahn was working on, and with which the British were actively involved, was some sort of independent Pakistani op? Her statement suggests that even though we had received Khan’s laptop and all the surveillance information and were screaming “run for your lives” at the top of our lungs, the Pakistanis had secretly turned Khan and had an ongoing operation of which she was unaware.

Sure. That makes sense. On the other hand, considering her job performance thus far, it’s quite possible that she wouldn’t have known “what might have been going on in Pakistan.” Seems her plate is full just drilling Crusader Codpiece on the meaning of the word “sovereignty.” She doesn’t have a lot of time on her hands for details.

I Won’t Say It

Jobs with Little Mental Challenge May Up Alzheimer’s

People who spent most of their lives in jobs that involve little brain work appear more likely to eventually develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to new study findings released Monday.