Politics Blog

Right everyone is saying that there will be no “compromise” on the Supplemental:

Yet Democrats warned that they are not ready to compromise on their central dispute with Bush: that U.S. combat troop withdrawals should begin this year and conclude in 2008. The Senate bill set the goal of removing combat troops within a year, although some forces would be allowed to remain to conduct security, training and counterterrorism missions. The House bill would set a firm Aug. 31, 2008, date for complete withdrawal, with narrow exceptions.

At some point, there will be compromise and here is a very interesting idea that could have severe political ramifications to Republicans that are seeking re-election:

Conservative Democrats also discussed alternatives for providing troop funding, if the standoff proves to be prolonged. For instance, Reps. Dennis Cardoza (Calif.) and Mike Ross (Ark.) suggested that the war funding be parceled out in three-month increments to force Bush to keep coming back for more.

If the parcels are “clean” how could Bush justify a veto?

But, this may be exactly what the “interesting” polling indicates the public “wants.”

As someone who has defended GITMO for many years, I am absolutely fuming and sincerely ask, “Why bother?”

How many times did we hear Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity,bloggers and conservative writers proclaim something like, “The terrorists at GITMO will/should stay there until the war is over.”

How many times did the Administration and it’s surrogates remind us of the dangers of the detainees at GITMO?

In June 2006, President Bush had a description for the GITMO detainees:

“I’d like to close Guantanamo,” Bush told a news conference Wednesday in the White House Rose Garden.

“But I also recognize that we’re holding some people that are darned dangerous and that we’d better have a plan to deal with them in our courts.”

In January 2006, a State Department spokesman reminded many of us:

“It keeps people who are very dangerous away from civilised society. Make no mistake about it; if these people were released, they would be right back in the fight.”

That all brings us back to soon to be released David Hicks. In 2004, what was he going to be charged with?

Australian Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks has been charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy, the US Defence Department said today.

Hicks is accused of returning to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America to fight against Australian and coalition troops.

The US also alleged Hicks trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, learning guerilla warfare, weapons training, including landmines, kidnapping techniques and assassination methods.

On one occasion when al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden visited an Afghan camp, Hicks questioned bin Laden about the lack of English in training material and, after accepting bin Laden’s advice, Hicks “began to translate the training camp materials from Arabic to English", the US alleged.

Pretty serious stuff, huh? In a concession to Australia, the United States promised not “seek the death penalty.” Fine, what did we figure he would get when he was finally sentenced? Life? 30 Years?

What did David have to say in letters that he wrote his father?

In the documentary Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, Terry Hicks reads out excerpts of David Hicks’s letters,in which Hicks says that his training in Pakistan and Afghanistan is designed to ensure “the Western-Jewish domination is finished, so we live under Muslim law again". He denounces the plots of the Jews to divide Muslims and make them think poorly of Osama bin Laden and warns his father to ignore “the Jews’ propaganda war machine,”

So now you just might be thinking that “no death penalty” concession was too much of a give away.

Just two months ago Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the Camp Commander had the following to say about David Hicks:

DAVID Hicks is a dangerous terrorist who poses a threat to the US but is a co-operative detainee at Guantanamo Bay

Does David Hicks receive a trial before a Military Commission? No, because he pleads guilty and a “deal” is put in the works between the defense and the prosecution undercutting the roles of each Uniformed Commission Member.

After his pleading guilty, there was still a roll for the Commission members and that was to determine the sentence for his guilt. As anticipated, the Commission Members sentenced David Hicks to the maximum penalty allowed:

The jury went through the motions: The panel of senior military officers flew in from around the world, deliberated for two hours and sentenced Hicks — who had entered a guilty plea — to what they’d been told was the maximum term of seven years.

Guess what? These service personnel were wasting their time:

But the person overseeing the tribunals, veteran Defense Department lawyer Susan J. Crawford, had bypassed the prosecution and cut a pretrial deal directly with the defense to suspend all but nine months of any sentence rendered in exchange for the guilty plea.

Who do we get to thank for this civilian appointment of Susan J. Crawford? None other than the man who thinks GITMO should be closed:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has designated an experienced former U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces Judge, Susan J. Crawford, to the position of convening authority for military commissions. A veteran lawyer of 30 years, Crawford served as a member of the court of appeals bench from 1991-2006 and also served as general counsel of the Army, special counsel to the secretary of defense, and inspector general of the Department of Defense.

If this is the “future” for GITMO, the Administration needs to stop wasting the time of the Uniformed Service Members who have been turned into nothing more than “window dressing.” If this is “justice” at GITMO, the civilian system can hardly do worse.

UPDATE: And do not ever forget that there are two Border Agents who will sit in a Federal Prison for far longer than David Hicks because they shot a narcotics smuggler in the ass.

In mid March I wrote about the “Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)” that had the headline , “Baghdad security crackdown seriously curbskillings of US soldiers…” and reminded our many readers that they need to be very careful in judging either the success or the failure of the so called “surge.” I felt that a friendly reminder was in order as too many Republican Bloggers and Pundits were lauding the success of the “surge” and it could prove to be a severe embarrassment to conservatives in general:

Over the last few weeks, posters “Wally Lind” and “I Despise Michigan Politics” made comments that essentially said that the “surge” had not yet begun and now is not the time to condemn or condone it. I agree with that sentiment. The “planned surge” has not yet begun. It is wrong to blame todays deaths in Iraq on the failure of the surge just like it is wrong to credit any fatality fluctuations to the surge.

The “numbers” are sadly in and the whole month of March was more violent than ever. There were a minimum 1,808 Iraqi Security Force and Civilian deaths in March compared to 1,531 in February and 1,802 in January. Worse there were 81 American fatalities compared to 80 in February and 83 in January. Those numbers are still preliminary and will most likely be growing.

How could this happen? It is “whack a mole” in Iraq:

A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says insurgents seem to have shifted their focus outside the capital to avoid recently introduced security measures.

There is only one metric that the American People will use to judge progress in Iraq and I wrote about it on January 18, 2007. It is rather simple and demands no knowledge of “nuance:”

No matter what Tony Snow attempts to use as a metric for success in Iraq, the American People will be looking at how many “boots are on the ground” and what is the daily casualty count. The “news” that the “local reserve unit” is getting it’s fourth deployment in October 2008 will only fuel the anger.

Does anyone think that the American public will support the GOP in 2008 if there are 150,000 soldiers in Iraq and there are one to three daily casualties?

Four years after Iraq was liberated from Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi people were given a wonderful gift, no matter how one attempts to explain/defend “the surge” when it is fully implemented, the American People will rightfully judge its success or failure on the number of American sons, husbands and fathers that perish defending Iraqi sons, husbands and fathers.

Even after resigning from her position as chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Military Construction Appropriations, questions still need to be answered:

CNSNews.com) - Government watchdog groups want more answers as to why Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) stepped down from a military appropriations subcommittee at a time questions were being asked billions of dollars in federal defense contracts going to her husband’s companies.

Feinstein resigned her post as chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Military Construction Appropriations last week.

The decision came less than two months after Metro Newspapers, a group of alternative weekly papers in northern California, detailed the number of defense contracts awarded to Perini Corp. and URS Corp., both of which her husband, Richard C. Blum, has ownership, according to the newspapers.

Investigation came from the left:

“This was a critique from the left,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group, told Cybercast News Service. “These were left-leaning papers. The fact that she stepped down from the committee lends credibility to the charges.”

Fitton said this is something Judicial Watch wanted to further investigate, possibly by seeking public documents on the matter and by asking the Senate Ethics Committee to look into the matter for a possible conflict of interest on Feinstein’s part.

“On the face of it, it seems she at least had influence on how contracts were awarded,” Fitton said. “There should be an investigation.”

Feinstein’s press office was contacted several times Friday by Cybercast News Service, but her office did not provide a statement on the matter at the end of the day.

Steering money and contracts to hubby?:

The California weeklies detailed examples that included a subcommittee hearing in which Feinstein asked Pentagon officials about increasing anti-terrorism protection for Army bases.

The next year, in March 2003, Feinstein asked why the funds for anti-terror protection had not been spent. Just over a month later, URS announced a $600 million contract to provide services for U.S. Army bases that included anti-terrorism force
protection.

In another instance, Feinstein asked another military official when money would be spent on a maintenance facility for the C-17 Hickam Air Base in Hawaii. URS later announced a $42 million contract to build it.

Also, Feinstein’s subcommittee in mid-2005 approved funds to reinforce roofs at military stations in Iraq, and in October of that year, Perini got a $185 million federal contract for that purpose, the papers reported.

The real reason liberals groups went after one of their own:

“Conversely, you’d think she might stick around (the subcommittee) to try to fix the medical-care disaster she helped engineer for the vets who were suckered into fighting her and (President) Bush’s panoply of unjust wars,” Byrne added.

No, not Fred. Tommy:

(AP) Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson on Sunday joined the crowded field of Republicans running for the White House in 2008. “I am the reliable conservative,” he asserted.

Thompson, who was health and human services secretary during President Bush’s first term, also said he is the only GOP candidate who has helped assemble both a state and federal budget.

Since announcing last year he was forming a presidential exploratory committee to raise money and gauge support, Thompson has lagged behind better-known rivals.

Great obervation:

At a recent news conference in Wisconsin, Thompson called himself “the dark horse candidate. I was a dark horse candidate for governor. I was a dark horse candidate when I ran for the Assembly. I am the underdog, and I don’t mind that.”

I’m speechless over this. These cases are just unbelievable:

Two illegal aliens plan a multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit against a Texas deputy who was sentenced to prison over an April 2005 incident in which the lawman shot at an alien-smuggling vehicle that he said had just tried to run him down.
Edwards County Deputy Sheriff Guillermo F. Hernandez, along with his boss, Sheriff Donald G. Letsinger, have been targeted in a pending lawsuit by Maricela Rodriguez-Garcia and Candido Garcia-Perez, two Mexicans who were being smuggled into the U.S. when they were injured by fragments of the lawman’s bullets.
Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia, struck by bullet fragments in the cheek and mouth, and Mr. Garcia-Perez, injured when fragments hit him in the arm, will seek damages from the two lawmen when the lawsuit is filed in U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Texas.
Court records show Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia and Mr. Garcia-Perez told investigators that they paid $2,000 each to be taken across the Rio Grande from Acuna, Mexico. They said they later met the vehicle’s driver and a guide, who were to take them to Austin and Dallas.
Both Mexican nationals are thought to be in the U.S. and have filed notice that they intend to sue. A legally required mediation hearing, where disputing parties meet with a neutral third party to try to resolve a dispute without going to court, is scheduled for today in Austin.
James D. Doyle III, an Austin-based attorney who represents the two Mexicans, did not return calls to his office for comment. But law-enforcement officials and others familiar with the case said the lawsuit will accuse the deputy of using excessive force that caused serious injury to Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia, and that in firing at the vehicle, Hernandez abused his authority and grossly overreacted under the circumstances.

Did you read that ? The deputy was CONVICTED. They try to run him over, and he “grossly overreacted.” ???

Great. I just love my state. This is the first I have heard about this. Oh, you ask what was the problem with drilling the students how to respond to a terrorist attack ? The problem is the terrorists were RIGHT-WING CHRISTIANS:

The head of a national, Texas-based pro-family group says a recent hostage drill at a New Jersey high school, which portrayed conservative Christians as terrorists, is reflective of a dangerous philosophy that has become prevalent in many parts of America, where it is having negative effects on education.

A local paper reports that a drill at Burlington Township High School in New Jersey involved police portraying mock gunmen, described as “members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the ‘New Crusaders’ who don’t believe in the separation of church and state.” The fake gunmen were said to have been “seeking justice because the daughter of one [member] had been expelled for praying before class.”

Could you imagine the outcry if the mock terrorists were middle eastern ?

This headline “Thompson to run for president in 2008,” was sure a tease.

It’s official, the British have surrendered:

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Governmentbacked study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

At this point, I’m expecting Iran to execute the 15 sailors on live TV and then Tony Blair will probably just sign over London to Tehran.

When you hire illegals to fulfill a US Government contract to build a border fence, and fatten your own pocketbook, you get six months at home confinement.

Well, some fish get more scrutiny than others:

The false information and tax evasion charges relates to Kerik’s failed nomination for Homeland Security secretary, the person close to the investigation said. Kerik withdrew his nomination after acknowledging he had not paid all taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper and that the woman may have been in the country illegally.

Unlike the Chamber of Commerce Republicans building fences with illegals, Kerik gets a plea deal offer with real jail time:

Kerik’s lawyer confirmed Saturday that he had turned down a plea bargain offer that included prison time because he “did nothing wrong.”