Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Support The Troops

Salon.com is offering free subscriptions to active duty personnel. Tell your friends and relatives in the service. (It has some good sexy stuff, too, if that’s what it takes to get them interested. And I mean normal sexy stuff, not the freak show stuff that Limbaugh quite obviously spends way too much time perusing.)

And, there’s a petition circulating to get Limbaugh off of American Forces radio. Personally, I’d rather see them challenged to give Howard Stern the follow-up slot since he’s explicitly anti-Bush these days, but this is good, too.

Turning down the volume of the Mighty Wurlitzer is key to ending the reign of the Gingrichian Republicans. If there’s one thing we can do on the internet its show what glass jaws these right wing tough guy pundits really have.

Layers Of Lies On Lies

Bush administration has used 27 rationales for war in Iraq, study says

Only 27?

If it seems that there have been quite a few rationales for going to war in Iraq, that’s because there have been quite a few – 27, in fact, all floated between Sept. 12, 2001, and Oct. 11, 2002, according to a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. All but four of the rationales originated with the administration of President George W. Bush.

The study also finds that the Bush administration switched its focus from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein early on – only five months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

[…]

Largio mapped the road to war over three phases: Sept. 12, 2001, to December 2001; January 2002, from Bush’s State of the Union address, to April 2002; and Sept. 12, 2002, to Oct. 11, 2002, the period from Bush’s address to the United Nations to Congress’s approval of the resolution to use force in Iraq.

She drew from statements by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Policy Board member and long-time adviser Richard Perle; by U.S. senators Tom Daschle, Joe Lieberman, Trent Lott and John McCain; and from stories in the Congressional Record, the New York Times and The Associated Press. She logged 1,500 statements and stories.

The rationales Largio identified include everything from the five front-runners – war on terror, prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, lack of weapons inspections, removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Saddam Hussein is evil, to the also-rans – Sen. Joe Lieberman’s “because Saddam Hussein hates us,” Colin Powell’s “because it’s a violation of international law,” and Richard Perle’s “because we can make Iraq an example and gain favor within the Middle East.”

We knew this because unnamed Bush administration officials said in the fall of 2002 that they were throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. And, of course, there was the infamous George W. Corleone statement, “Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out.” Still it is very interesting to see all the various excuses and rationales in one place.

But, here’s the interesting part:

Largio also discovered that it was the media that initiated discussions about Iraq, introducing ideas before the administration and congressional leaders did about the intentions of that country and its leader. The media also “brought the idea that Iraq may be connected to the 9-11 incident to the forefront, asking questions of the officials on the topic and printing articles about the possibility.”

The media “seemed to offer a lot of opinion and speculation, as there had been no formal indication that Iraq would be a target in the war on terror,” Largio wrote. Oddly, though, the media didn’t switch its focus to Iraq and Saddam until July of 2002.

Yet, “Overall, the media was in tune with the major arguments of the administration and Congress, but not with every detail that emerged from the official sources.”

So much has happened so quickly that we lose sight of what total war whores the media were in the lead up and initial execution of the invasion. The reason the media “initiated discussions” about Iraq was quite obviously because they were being spoonfed by the administration. And, as they admitted again just today, even SCLM outlets like the NY Times just can ‘t shake the habit of running like a herd of buffallo over the cliff whenever the Republicans let out a war whoop.

Here’s the report’s web site.

The Best Speech Of His Presidency

I urge all of you to read President Gore’s speech if you didn’t get to see him give it.

Al Gore has a unique position in the eyes of the world, especially in places where Machiavellian vote counting schemes are the norm rather than the exception. He is the shadow president, the man who should be at the helm instead of the man whom they have almost universally come to despise.

His words have particular meaning because they express to many the beliefs of the majority of Americans. He alone has the authority to speak for all of us who were cheated and have been forced to sit by as this usurper, through incompetence, misplaced machismo and — most of all — unbelievable hubris, has managed to destroy more than half a century’s worth of international goodwill and over two centuries hard won belief by the American people in the rule of law.

The world is watching to see what we do in November. They are counting on us to save this country and them. Al Gore is the single best person to reassure the world that we are serious, we understand the problem and we are going to deal with it.

A few excerpts follow, but I urge you, again, to read the whole speech:

What happened at the prison, it is now clear, was not the result of random acts by “a few bad apples,” it was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy that has dismantled those wise constraints and has made war on America’s checks and balances.

The abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration’s march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th.

There was then, there is now and there would have been regardless of what Bush did, a threat of terrorism that we would have to deal with. But instead of making it better, he has made it infinitely worse. We are less safe because of his policies. He has created more anger and righteous indignation against us as Americans than any leader of our country in the 228 years of our existence as a nation — because of his attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation who disagrees with him.

[…]

President Bush said in his speech Monday night that the war in Iraq is “the central front in the war on terror.” It’s not the central front in the war on terror, but it has unfortunately become the central recruiting office for terrorists. [Dick Cheney said, “This war may last the rest of our lives.] The unpleasant truth is that President Bush’s utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States. Just yesterday, the International Institute of Strategic Studies reported that the Iraq conflict ” has arguable focused the energies and resources of Al Qaeda and its followers while diluting those of the global counterterrorism coalition.” The ISS said that in the wake of the war in Iraq Al Qaeda now has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks.

[…]

Make no mistake, the damage done at Abu Ghraib is not only to America’s reputation and America’s strategic interests, but also to America’s spirit. It is also crucial for our nation to recognize – and to recognize quickly – that the damage our nation has suffered in the world is far, far more serious than President Bush’s belated and tepid response would lead people to believe. Remember how shocked each of us, individually, was when we first saw those hideous images. The natural tendency was to first recoil from the images, and then to assume that they represented a strange and rare aberration that resulted from a few twisted minds or, as the Pentagon assured us, “a few bad apples.”

But as today’s shocking news reaffirms yet again, this was not rare. It was not an aberration. Today’s New York Times reports that an Army survey of prisoner deaths and mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanisatan “show a widespread pattern of abuse involving more military units than previously known.’

Nor did these abuses spring from a few twisted minds at the lowest ranks of our military enlisted personnel. No, it came from twisted values and atrocious policies at the highest levels of our government. This was done in our name, by our leaders.

These horrors were the predictable consequence of policy choices that flowed directly from this administration’s contempt for the rule of law. And the dominance they have been seeking is truly not simply unworthy of America – it is also an illusory goal in its own right.

[…]

A policy based on domination of the rest of the world not only creates enemies for the United States and creates recruits for Al Qaeda, it also undermines the international cooperation that is essential to defeating the efforts of terrorists who wish harm and intimidate Americans.

Unilateralism, as we have painfully seen in Iraq, is its own reward. Going it alone may satisfy a political instinct but it is dangerous to our military, even without their Commander in Chief taunting terrorists to “bring it on.”

[…]

They resent any constraint as an insult to their will to dominate and exercise power. Their appetite for power is astonishing. It has led them to introduce a new level of viciousness in partisan politics. It is that viciousness that led them to attack as unpatriotic, Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in combat during the Vietnam War.

The president episodically poses as a healer and “uniter”. If he president really has any desire to play that role, then I call upon him to condemn Rush Limbaugh – perhaps his strongest political supporter – who said that the torture in Abu Ghraib was a “brilliant maneuver” and that the photos were “good old American pornography,” and that the actions portrayed were simply those of “people having a good time and needing to blow off steam.”

[…]

But what we do now, in reaction to Abu Ghraib will determine a great deal about who we are at the beginning of the 21st century. It is important to note that just as the abuses of the prisoners flowed directly from the policies of the Bush White House, those policies flowed not only from the instincts of the president and his advisors, but found support in shifting attitudes on the part of some in our country in response to the outrage and fear generated by the attack of September 11th.

The president exploited and fanned those fears, but some otherwise sensible and levelheaded Americans fed them as well. I remember reading genteel-sounding essays asking publicly whether or not the prohibitions against torture were any longer relevant or desirable. The same grotesque misunderstanding of what is really involved was responsible for the tone in the memo from the president’s legal advisor, Alberto Gonzalez, who wrote on January 25, 2002, that 9/11 “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”

[…]

The abhorrent acts in the prison were a direct consequence of the culture of impunity encouraged, authorized and instituted by Bush and Rumsfeld in their statements that the Geneva Conventions did not apply. The apparent war crimes that took place were the logical, inevitable outcome of policies and statements from the administration.

[…]

President Bush offered a brief and half-hearted apology to the Arab world – but he should apologize to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions. He also owes an apology to the U.S. Army for cavalierly sending them into harm’s way while ignoring the best advice of their commanders. Perhaps most importantly of all, he should apologize to all those men and women throughout our world who have held the ideal of the United States of America as a shining goal, to inspire their hopeful efforts to bring about justice under a rule of law in their own lands. Of course, the problem with all these legitimate requests is that a sincere apology requires an admission of error, a willingness to accept responsibility and to hold people accountable. And President Bush is not only unwilling to acknowledge error. He has thus far been unwilling to hold anyone in his administration accountable for the worst strategic and military miscalculations and mistakes in the history of the United States of America.

[…]

In December of 2000, even though I strongly disagreed with the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to order a halt to the counting of legally cast ballots, I saw it as my duty to reaffirm my own strong belief that we are a nation of laws and not only accept the decision, but do what I could to prevent efforts to delegitimize George Bush as he took the oath of office as president.

I did not at that moment imagine that Bush would, in the presidency that ensued, demonstrate utter contempt for the rule of law and work at every turn to frustrate accountability…

So today, I want to speak on behalf of those Americans who feel that President Bush has betrayed our nation’s trust, those who are horrified at what has been done in our name, and all those who want the rest of the world to know that we Americans see the abuses that occurred in the prisons of Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and secret locations as yet undisclosed as completely out of keeping with the character and basic nature of the American people and at odds with the principles on which America stands.

I believe we have a duty to hold President Bush accountable – and I believe we will. As Lincoln said at our time of greatest trial, “We – even we here – hold the power, and bear the responsibility.”

I hope that this speech is covered heavily in the rest of the world. The situation is so dire that it is important that people realize that the duly elected president of the United States stands in stark contrast to the usurper who sits in the White House. These words could go a long way to calm some of the anger overseas by clearly and distinctly separating the hated president from the American people.

What A Novel Idea

The Bush administration is actually going to work with other nations to solve the global challenge of how to keep nuclear material away from terrorists and dictators. I know it’s not quite as efficacious as breast beating about good ‘n evul and invading foreign countries to show off our big swinging military prowess, but in a sane world it is the kind of thing one would have expected us to do immediately after 9/11 to great fanfare.

However, as it is a break from the preferred Republican methods of intimidation and “message sending,” I’m sure it will be repudiated by Monsieur Delay and Senator Lott as a feminized, sissy-boy program.

The United States, Russia and the U.N. are working to round up nuclear material across the globe to keep it out of the hands of rogue states and militants trying to acquire anything from crude ‘dirty bombs’ to atomic weapons.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham gave details of the initiative in a speech on Wednesday to members of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Washington has earmarked more than $450 million for the plan, he said.

Abraham said the initiative addressed ‘the threat posed by the entire spectrum of nuclear materials (and) reflects the realities of the 21st century that were so startlingly made clear on a September morning three years ago’.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said the plan was a crucial step in reducing the nuclear threat in light of the recent discovery of a global black market that supplied sensitive atomic technology to countries like Libya, North Korea and Iran.

‘We live in an increasingly polarised world,’ ElBaradei told reporters. ‘If you put these…things together — a polarised world, the proliferation of (nuclear) technology, the proliferation of terrorism — you know we will need to adjust, augment, strengthen our defence.’

The initiative includes a plan to repatriate all unused Russian-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel by the end of next year and all spent nuclear fuel by 2010.

It really is a bold move on Bush’s part because this kind of thing could actually, you know, solve a probem. And solving problems is not something the Bush administration lowers itself to do. Following their Leader’s example, the GOP believes that solutions are for the cleaning crew (the Democrats) to handle after Republicans have worn themselves out raping and pillaging the treasury and the military to such an extent that the American people have to throw them out of office — after which they will devote their rich, fat lives to criticizing the sexual mores of the dog loving feminazis and counting their ill gotten gains.

This is obviously yet another testament to how much the administration is in disarray. This kind of thing would never have happened if Preznit Cheney wasn’t distracted by all the torture, error, lying and mismanagement folderol.

Close Your Deaf Ear

Via The Poorman, I’m glad to find that not all Republicans are simpleminded fools like their president. Here’s one who’s talking some sense for a change:

When people are running for cover to avoid contact with powerful, deadly chemicals, there will be little time to say “I told you so” because once a person is exposed to Sarin gas and other deadly gasses, death is imminent and fast. Maybe then, when it is too late, they will wish they had closed a deaf ear to political rhetoric, and united with the ones who really had their best interest uppermost in their minds.. . all along.

There is no way to satisfy liberals. President Bush was unfairly criticized for failing to stop the 9/11 attacks (he knew nothing about), and yet he is criticized for trying to ward off another devastating attack. What do these people want? It’s obvious, the White House, the Senate and the House. Never mind the safety of the citizens. I would love to be a fly on the wall, at some of the private meetings of the Democrats. Boy, talk about an ear full!

No one paid attention to “Chicken Little” running around like a chicken with his head cut off, warning the sky was falling, either. Most people want to live in their own little world, and the world be void of problems. Since the threat of terrorist attacks are real, it’s time to get out of the mode of fairytales and enter the real world.

The real world hates America, and we were hated long before President Bush came into office. And we’ll be hated long after he leaves office. It does not matter to terrorists like Osama bin Laden, who is president in America. The destruction of America has been many years in the making and now it’s coming to pass, unless the plan is foiled by logical minds. Senator John Kerry cannot stop terrorists who are determined to destroy America, whether he is president or not.

The only thing I haven’t figured out is why the administration didn’t send this person to Iraq to run its ministry of science and hang out with Sophie Ledeen and her Neocon Party Posse. She seems to have the required qualifications.

(BTW: Did Chicken Little really run around like a chicken with his head cut off? That seems so wrong.)

For an in-depth analysis, read all about it at The Poor Man.

Moral Relativism

Reading the words in my post below by that glorious symbol of rectituide and traditional American values,Trent Lott, made me think back to a time when the good senator was extremely upset by some bad behavior:

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday President Clinton has lost credibility, stature and the ‘moral dimension’ of his presidency, but he withheld judgment on whether the president should resign or be impeached and removed from office.

Lott said his mention months ago of censure as a possible alternative to impeachment was not meant as a suggested course of action and he now appeared cool to the idea. ‘That was March. This is the first of September . . . and a lot has happened since then,’ Lott said, referring to Clinton’s acknowledgment he had an affair with former intern Monica S. Lewinsky after denying it for seven months.

Lott called the president’s relationship with Lewinsky ‘disgusting.’ He added: ‘I am very disappointed by what has been coming forward, that apparently these acts did occur in the White House and that he, in effect, lied about it.’

Lott, who has had little to say about Clinton since the president addressed the nation about the issue two weeks ago, volunteered his comments at the start of news conference shortly after the Senate returned from a month-long recess.

‘As a husband and father, I am offended by the president’s behavior,’ Lott said. But as a senator and congressional leader, he added, he must judgment until independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr submits his report to Congress about potentially impeachable offenses, presumably later this month.

Lott’s statement was in line with an earlier go-slow signal from House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), indicating a reluctance on the part of the top GOP leadership to appear overly partisan in pursuit of Clinton. It contrasted with a more aggressive approach by other Republican leaders such as House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (Tex.), who is pushing for Clinton to resign.

Despite reserving judgment on Clinton’s future, Lott left no doubt that he condemned the president’s behavior in the strongest possible terms. He said Clinton had set a “tragic example . . . for the young people of this country,” and added: “There is a moral dimension to the American presidency, and today that dimension, that power, has been lost in scandal and in deception.”

Lott stressed that the scandal would not undermine unity of the government in the face of terrorist or other threats but questioned whether Clinton could provide the leadership to cope with them.

“Can he provide leadership without the necessary respect and with the problems that he has?” Lott asked. “That’s what really matters: Will he, can he, provide leadership at a very critical time, internationally and domestically? And I guess only time will answer that question.”

Unlike some other Republicans, Lott did not quarrel with Clinton’s decision to go to Russia yesterday. “Obviously the timing is not ideal,” he said. But “I do think that if he had canceled at this particular time . . . it would have made perhaps a bad situation even worse.”

Lott also cautioned Clinton and the Democrats against confrontational tactics to divert attention from the scandal, saying the president has lost the credibility to blame Republicans if a government shutdown results from a standoff over spending bills for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Can you believe how seriously they took that nonsense? It’s almost quaint, isn’t it? This was only 6 years ago. It’s not ancient history.

Trent Lott and his friends were saying that the moral failing of the president, which consisted of 7 acts of consensual fellatio, was so great that it was questionable whether he could lead the country in the event of a crisis. It now appears that if Clinton had instead tortured or killed an innocent person he would have been in the clear.

What do you suppose Jesus would think of that, Trent?

Why’d They Bother?

So, the New York Times’ faceless editors fall on their swords and accept the blame for not properly questioning the disinformation that the neocon claque fed the country about the Saddam’s arsenal of evil. They name no names but are contrite about the mistakes that were made in reporting that helped the president lead this country into an immoral and useless war.

How touching.

Yet, when you read the page in which they link to the actual articles in question, you find that with the exception of two articles in 2001 about the Atta Prague meeting, all the rest of the bogus reporting featured the work of one reporter, Judith Miller, which we all knew already.

Has any person anywhere lost his or her job yet because of this unbelievable series of lies, errors and political misjudgement we call Iraq? What, exactly, is it going to take?

Judith Miller is a neocon hack, not a reliable reporter. She should never have been trusted in this area because she partnered in a book with a known tin foil hat lunatic, Laurie Mylroie, on the subject which should have tipped everyone off that she had no journalistic integrity. I don’t expect Republican stooges will pay the price for their crack pot schemes until the American people boot them out of office. But, the New York Times is supposed to be about credibility. Otherwise, they are just another boring piece of fishwrap.

The Stepford Soldiers

Some of my commenters have expressed surprise that Rush Limbaugh is broadcast to the troops via Armed Forces Radio Networks. In fact, this has been going on for many years and has been a long running bone of contention in the congress. Here’s an article from Stars and Stripes in 2000:

One plank to the Democrats’ platform addresses programming on Armed Forces Radio Network radio broadcasts. According to the platform, “AFN has broadcast an overwhelming number of ultraconservative radio programs, such as Rush Limbaugh, James Dobson, Paul Harvey and news items with commentary from the extreme right-wing USA Radio Network with no programs supporting the Democratic Party as balance.”

McQueen said his group has complained about the programming but was told by AFN that National Public Radio programs balance the broadcast.

Thomas Fina, executive director of Democrat Abroad in Alexandria, Va., said in a phone interview that this issue won’t be a big issue at the convention and will be overshadowed by other issues.

Jones agreed. “They won’t do anything about it,” he said. “This is a crybaby tactic about Rush Limbaugh’s popularity because [the Democrats] don’t have any commentator as popular as Rush.”

Another good argument for liberal radio, I’d say…

Here’s the daytime protion of the AFRN radio schedule for May 2004:

0550 Marketplace Morning

0605 Dy Joy Browne

0705 Newswheel

0735 Sports Byline

0805 ESPN: The Herd with Colin Cowherd

0905 Rush Limbaugh

1005 Dr Laura

1048 Paul Harvey News & Comment

1105 Jim Rome Show

1205 Mon-Fri Clark Howard

1305 Newswheel

1405 NPR All Things Considered

1505 NPR All Things Considered

1530 Marketplace

1605 Newswheel

1630 Sports Byline

1705 Newswheel

1730 Mon Face The Nation

Tue ABC World News This Week

Wed This Week on ABC

Thu Field & Stream

Fri Travel Radio

1805 Newswheel

1830 Marketplace

Fair and balanced? You bet. Right wing bombthrowers, Rush, Dr. Laura and Paul Harvey in the morning — and left-wing fire breathers, All Things Considered and Marketplace in the afternoon.

Our troops are getting the full complement of political and social views while they are away from home. Isn’t that nice?

So, as we wonder why some of our troops may believe that it is acceptable behavior to act like a bunch of barbarians with no conscience, this is one place we should probably look. Here’s an example of what the troops were hearing from back home one day this month:

LIMBAUGH: All right, so we’re at war with these people. And they’re in a prison where they’re being softened up for interrogation. And we hear that the most humiliating thing you can do is make one Arab male disrobe in front of another. Sounds to me like it’s pretty thoughtful. Sounds to me in the context of war this is pretty good intimidation — and especially if you put a woman in front of them and then spread those pictures around the Arab world. And we’re sitting here, “Oh my God, they’re gonna hate us! Oh no! What are they gonna think of us?” I think maybe the other perspective needs to be at least considered. Maybe they’re gonna think we are serious. Maybe they’re gonna think we mean it this time. Maybe they’re gonna think we’re not gonna kowtow to them. Maybe the people who ordered this are pretty smart. Maybe the people who executed this pulled off a brilliant maneuver. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got physically injured. But boy there was a lot of humiliation of people who are trying to kill us — in ways they hold dear. Sounds pretty effective to me if you look at us in the right context.

Then, of course, you have Hopalong Codpiece telling the whole world just last night:

… terrorists know that Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror. And we must understand that as well.

The return of tyranny to Iraq would be an unprecedented terrorist victory and a cause for killers to rejoice. It would also embolden the terrorists, leading to more bombings, more beheadings and more murders of the innocent around the world.

The rise of a free and self-governing Iraq will deny terrorists a base of operation, discredit their narrow ideology and give momentum to reformers across the region. This will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power, and a victory for the security of America and the civilized world.

The troops in Iraq believe they are saving innocent Americans by fighting terrorists in Iraq. The Preznit told them so. It’s hard to tell the terrorists apart from the non-terrorists over there. They don’t talk English or anything. So, to be on the safe side we’d better play plenty rough. If they aren’t terrorists they shouldn’t look and talk like one.

It’s pretty clear that the troops are getting the message from certain of their leaders and popular political pundits that they have permission to kick ass against “the enemy,” the Iraqis. Just the other day, one of our most powerful Republicans said he thinks that prison is too good em:

“Frankly, to save some American troops’ lives or a unit that could be in danger, I think you should get really rough with them,” Lott said. “Some of those people should probably not be in prisons in the first place.”

When asked about the photo showing a prisoner being threatened with a dog, Lott was unmoved. “Nothing wrong with holding a dog up there unless it ate him,” Lott said. “(They just) scared him with the dog.”

Lott was reminded that at least one prisoner had died at the hands of his captors after a beating. “This is not Sunday school,” he said. “This is interrogation. This is rough stuff.”

I wonder when it’s going to occur to people that what President Bush is now saying is that we invaded Iraq to liberate a bunch of terrorists?

(Thanks to Political Animal for the Lott link)

Update: From the great minds think alike files, Salon posted this story tonight on the same subject.

Melvin Russell, director of American Forces Radio and Television Services, insists that Limbaugh’s controversial show is broadcast for only one reason — it gains big ratings in the United States. “We look at the most popular shows broadcast here in the United States and try to mirror that. [Limbaugh] is the No. 1 talk show host in the States; there’s no question about that. Because of that we provide him on our service.”

[…]

And if ratings drive the station’s programming choices, then why not carry Howard Stern, who draws nearly 8 million listeners a week and who in recent months has emerged as President Bush’s most high-profile critic on radio, declaring a “jihad” against the “arrogant bastard” in the White House? Although Stern’s often-bawdy show differs from Limbaugh’s politically, it fits Russell’s criterion of being popular. “Stern today is a mirror reflection of what Americans are listening to,” says Athans. In fact, Stern’s ratings surged this year after he began leveling his broadsides against the Bush administration. “I strategize more about my radio show than Bush does about the war in Iraq,” Stern quipped last month.

“My answer [on Stern],” says Russell, “is we have determined that that show, because of the [sexual] content, was not appropriate for a network that has just one or two stations broadcasting to an audience that ranges from 1-year-olds up to 50-year-olds.”

“Rush Limbaugh is appropriate?” says Franken. “Saying the troops at Abu Ghraib were just blowing off steam — that’s more appropriate than what Howard Stern says? It sounds to me like they’re rationalizing their decision.” Adds Athans: “That sounds like censorship. In one breath, in regard to Limbaugh, they say they don’t censor what the military listens to, and in the next breath they say Howard Stern is not appropriate.”

“We don’t censor, we provide,” answers Russell. “Our troops deserve the same information that’s available to them in the U.S.”

Other critics of the network wonder if it’s proper for the Pentagon to broadcast Limbaugh when he’s calling John Kerry a skirt chaser, labeling female activists Nazis and telling servicemen and -women “what’s good for al-Qaida is good for the Democratic Party in this country today.”

I think that a huge number of those in the military overseas would love to hear Howard Stern. If I were Howard, I’d start an on-air campaign to get included and I’d appeal to his fans in the military here in the states. There are millions.

Thank you, Ezra.

I was beginning to think I was going insane.

The fact that bad men might attend a wedding and, therefore, would present a nice fat target for heat seeking missiles logically should be mitigated by the fact that killing the other attendees — innocent women and children who have nothin’ to do with nothin’ — make the mission, shall we say, counterproductive to our stated goal of bringing freedom and democracy to the heathens.

I won’t even bother to mention that as this war is an unprovoked war of aggression on our part, rightwing braying about “self-defense” is just a little bit, shall we say, inappropriate.

The R Word

This psychiatric report on the torture at Abu Ghraib is partly white wash and partly true, I think. But at least he brings up the big brown-skinned elephant in the room, which I think is long overdue:

Report details root of abuse:

At the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, “the worst human qualities and behaviors came to the fore” in an atmosphere of “danger, promiscuity and negativity” within a closed environment, wrote Nelson, a member of the Army’s investigating team. He noted training lapses, as others have, but also said that soldiers’ unfamiliarity with Islamic culture, their pervasive sense of danger and the indefinite nature of their tenure were factors that wore them down.

[…]

In highlighting psychological and cultural factors underlying the abuses, Nelson noted that soldiers sent to Iraq were immersed in Islamic culture for the first time and said “there is an association of Muslims with terrorism” that contributed to misperceptions, fear and “a devaluation of a people.” He reported that one military police platoon leader was openly hostile to Iraqis, and that a police dog handler was ‘disrespectful and racist’ — attributing to his dog a dislike of Iraqi “culture, smell, sound, skin tone (and) hair color.”

Gosh, I wonder where they could have gotten these ideas? It’s not like anybody was saying Iraq was the central front in the War on Terror or anything. And, it’s not as if anybody ever said the War on Terror as nothing less than the battle between Good vs Evil. Where would Goober and Gomer get the idea that the government would sanction them torturing the Iraqi terrorist evildoers in retaliation for 9/11?

The good news is that they pipe in Rush Limbaugh daily so they should be straightened out on all these misconceptions really soon.