Politics : Al Franken Finally Gets His Senate Seat
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't really care. I'm actually not happy with the idea of a supermajority of either party, though I'd rather it be the Democrats. No, what I think is great about this story is the insane reactions coming from the likes of Fox News: Glenn Beck:
"This is like having me in the Senate," Beck said. "You don't want me as a Senator! What is that? I mean, it shows how crazy our country has gone -- you don't want me as a Senator, you don't want Al Franken as a Senator."
How the aphid got its wings | Mystery Rays from Outer Space
We discovered that the production of the winged morph in asexual clones of the rosy apple aphid, Dysaphis plantaginea, is dependent on their infection with a DNA virus, Dysaphis plantaginea densovirus (DplDNV). Virus-free clones of the rosy apple aphid, or clones infected singly with an RNA virus, rosy apple aphid virus (RAAV), did not produce the winged morph in response to crowding and poor plant quality.
Consolidation in Organic Processing
Concentric diversification has occurred through the introduction of organic versions of mainstream brands, and the introduction of private label organics. These trends are expected to continue, and strongly support the conventionalization thesis as it applies to off-farm segments of the organic food industry.
Scientists see little dietary benefit in food companies' scramble to swap out processed sweeteners for natural ones
and
Those issues have come to outweigh high-fructose corn syrup's benefits -- it helps keep foods moist, extends the shelf life of products and is cheaper to produce than cane or beet sugar. Consequently, it has become a popular ingredient in processed products in nearly every aisle of the supermarket.
The fact is that high-fructose corn syrup and sugar both contribute to increased risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses, according to the American Medical Association and numerous scientists and nutritionists. Although some studies have suggested the body metabolizes high-fructose corn syrup more slowly than it does sugar, experts say the bottom line for consumers is they should avoid both except in small amounts.
Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at Harvard University's School of Public Health and author of "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy," called the recent spate of product reformulations away from high-fructose corn syrup a "marketing distraction."
The debate over HFCS has become so political that it's impossible to know. There's tons of research saying that HFCS is awful, and there's other research saying it's the same as sugar.
I know one thing, though - to me, sugar tastes WORLDS better.
Also important is that HFCS is mainly used in processed, highly caloric foods. Replacing the HFCS in those foods will not make much difference, I don't think. Drinking a few sodas per day is still going to make you fat. What we should be doing is reducing the amount of processed foods we eat - HFCS or not.
HFCS used to be a marker that "this is something bad for you," even if the HFCS wasn't the culprit. My fear is that if everyone starts just using sugar, people won't change their diets at all.
Slow Food : What's On My Food? Neurotoxins, Carcinogens, Hormone Disruptors
Ouch. I knew it was bad, but this makes it downright frightening. WhatsOnMyFood.org "is a searchable database designed to make the public problem of pesticide exposure visible and more understandable."
Where is the ID movement going in the next ten years? What new issues will it be exploring, and what new challenges will it be offering Darwinism?
Dembski: In the next five years, molecular Darwinism—the idea that Darwinian processes can produce complex molecular structures at the subcellular level—will be dead. When that happens, evolutionary biology will experience a crisis of confidence because evolutionary biology hinges on the evolution of the right molecules. I therefore foresee a Taliban-style collapse of Darwinism in the next ten years. Intelligent design will of course profit greatly from this. For ID to win the day, however, will require talented new researchers able to move this research program forward, showing how intelligent design provides better insights into biological systems than the dying Darwinian paradigm.
Also from the article, Paul Nelson:
Easily the biggest challenge facing the ID community is to develop a full-fledged theory of biological design. We don't have such a theory right now, and that's a real problem. Without a theory, it's very hard to know where to direct your research focus. Right now, we've got a bag of powerful intuitions, and a handful of notions such as "irreducible complexity" and "specified complexity"--but, as yet, no general theory of biological design.
The thing that's so hilarious about this? Well, the thing that's even more hilarious than the prediction itself? This is from the July/August 2004 issue of Touchstone. I guess that means that evolutionary theory as we know it is completely dead and that ID has "profited greatly" from that. Dembski was right about one thing, though... evolution DOES seem to be collapsing like the Taliban...
Environment : North Carolina Bans Plastic Bottles In Landfills Effective October 2009
So far, in the last few years, North Carolina has really taken a turn for the better. It has increased the pointlessly low alcohol limit on beer to 12%, many "dry counties" have started serving, we elected a Democratic Governor and Barack Obama, repealed cohabitation laws, and banned smoking in bars and restaurants.
Recyclable rigid plastic containers that are required to be labeled as provided in subsection (e) of this section, that have a neck smaller than the body of the container, and that accept a screw top, snap cap, or other closure.
However, to prevent economic problems,
A county or city may petition the Department for a waiver from theprohibition on disposal of a material described in subdivisions (9), (10), (11) and (12) of subsection (f) of this section in a landfill based on a showing that prohibiting the disposal of the material would constitute an economic hardship."
A sad day for North Carolina - heading down the happy trail of good intentions that leads to diminished quality of life and unnecessary expenses.
...
lightningbug, maybe you should learn something about recycling before speaking., That way you will not expose your ignorance. Look at Penn and Teller's TV show called BS. It is on youtube, dealing with recycling.
...
The "plastic police," that is what is next! Throw plastic in your garbage and the "plastic police" comes knocking on your door.
Of course, none of these people took the time to get a good look at the bill, which states clearly that this law bans knowingly putting these items in a landfill, NOT throwing them in your home garbage.
"It’s not going to be a Big Brother law, but the best way to be in compliance with the law is to recycle plastic bottles," says Scott Mouw, environmental supervisor for the North Carolina Department of the Environment and Natural Resources. "Everyone wants to do the right thing, and the right thing is to recycle."
North Carolina senators will take a final glance at a revised piece of environmental legislation today that aims to rid three Outer Banks counties of plastic bag pollution by banning them from use in large retailers.
If passed this week, the legislation will be sent to the governor to be signed into law.
The revised version of the bill would prevent shoppers in Hyde, Dare, and Currituck counties from obtaining plastic bags in large retailers such as Food Lion and Wal-Mart located within the three Outer Banks counties. Retailers on the mainland side of these counties however, would not be affected by the law.
The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.
PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.
"We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals."
Not that they're necessarily wrong that flies are living creatures who deserve respect, I guess... It's just... wow. I totally called it. As for the Republican response, well, that was less surprising when I got it right. I think that one was more obvious, partially because they kind of have a point. Malkin:
President Obama killed a fly! President Obama killed a fly! “The poise! The cupping!” Swoon. Drool. Faint:
But as Liz Cox Barrett at the Columbia Journalism Review points out, with all of the glee over a dead insect, media outlets, including the one that actually conducted the interview, haven't bothered to report on what the President had to say. So in case you were interested, besides displaying his "Jedi moves," Obama also discussed regulatory reform proposals, health care, Iran, and he slammed Fox News:
Pres. OBAMA: First of all, I've got one television station entirely devoted to attacking my administration. I mean, you know, that's a pretty...
HARWOOD: I assume you're talking about Fox.
Pres. OBAMA: Well, that's a pretty big megaphone. And you'd be hard-pressed, if you watched the entire day, to find a positive story about me on that front.
The planting of this garden was one of the first things I wanted to do as First Lady here at the White House. It was something I had talked about a long time ago. And with the help of you guys, you helped to make this dream a reality. And as you could see when we went down to the garden, can you imagine how thriving that garden is, just how much food grew from a few little seeds and some plantings? So this was a big dream of mine for a while, and it's been so much fun working with you all.
But I also thought that this would be a fun and interesting way to talk to kids about healthy eating and nutrition. The President and Congress are going to begin to address health care reform, and these issues of nutrition and wellness and preventative care is going to be the focus of a lot of conversation coming up in the weeks and months to come. And these are issues that I care deeply about, especially when they affect America's children.
Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure are all diet-related health issues that cost this country more than $120 billion each year. That's a lot of money. While the dollar figure is shocking in and of itself, the effect on our children's health is even more profound. Nearly a third of the children in this country are either overweight or obese, and a third will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lifetime. In Hispanic and African American communities, those numbers climb even higher so that nearly half of the children in those communities will suffer the same fate. Those numbers are unacceptable.
And, maybe the most important thing she said:
To make sure that we give all our kids a good start to their day and to their future, we need to improve the quality and nutrition of the food served in schools. We're approaching the first big opportunity to move this to the top of the agenda with the upcoming reauthorization of the child nutrition programs. In doing so, we can go a long way towards creating a healthier generation for our kids.
Refreshing. Let's hope the school lunch programs are a start to repairing our nutritional problems.
Sardines Get a Modern Makeover - washingtonpost.com They call themselves the Sardinistas. Along with Shelley, the conspirators are an environmentalist, a veteran commercial fisherman and a semi-retired entrepreneur and marine biologist. For several years, the "cell" has been meeting informally to gorge on sardines and wine. Now, the Sardinistas are forging a plan to produce canned sardines and prepared foods. Their message: These are not your grandfather's sardines.
Decision Day on California's Prop 8 Yes, the right wing is losing on gay rights issues. That is, very precisely, why they're more dangerous now than they have been in the past. Their impending irrelevance is not a reason to worry less; it's a reason to worry more. And getting Prop 8 overturned in the courts would ignite the situation, because it will hit absolutely every angry-making right-wing button there is:
From Scratch, Ginger Ales That Zing - NYTimes.com GINGER ALE is an age-old remedy for sick children and grown-ups alike. Now, homemade ginger ale is appearing on drink menus across the country under happier circumstances.
A ranking FBI official says authorities are pursuing a possible hate crime charge as well as a homicide charge against a white supremacist suspected of murdering a security officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum.
Joseph Persichini, assistant director of the Washington FBI field office, said authorities did not have an "open file" on the suspect, 88-year-old James von Brunn, a Holocaust denier. And Persichini stressed that the investigation into the slaying of 39-year-old guard Stephen Johns was still "in the preliminary stage."
Tons of little tomatoes have shown up to complement the bigger one, a few of my bean plants are flowering, and my dwarf corn has tassels... and one of them is growing an ear! Tons of little mini cucumbers all over the place, too, and all of my peppers are flowering. A few tiny, baby peppers have shown up.
Awesome.
Large versions of these photos available on Flickr:
How many acts of right-wing terrorism have to occur before DHS is allowed to start keeping track of it?
I really don't get the conservative reaction to the original DHS pronouncement. No one is trying to lump angry Red State commenters in with honest-to-God terrorists'except, weirdly enough, the Red State commenters themselves.
There are crazy people out there shooting up abortion clinics and Holocaust museums. These people identify with causes normally described as right-wing. Deal with it. Tea bag away to your heart's content. It's not til you start plotting to kill people that DHS should take an interest. If anyone starts spying on you prior to that, then I, the ACLU, and dirty hippies everywhere will support your grievances.
This is awful, and we're just lucky the gunman was old and the security guards were quick.
On December 7, 1981, a man named James W. Von Brunn pulled out a sawed-off shotgun at the Federal Reserve Board headquarters, claiming to have planted a bomb and threatening to take members of the Board hostage. That was 40 years to the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, though it's unclear whether that's a coincidence or not.
Years later, he'd describe the entire incident somewhat differently:
In 1981 Von Brunn attempted to place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, non-violent, citizens arrest. He was tried in a Washington, D.C. Superior Court; convicted by a Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys, and sentenced to prison for eleven years by a Jew judge. A Jew/Negro/White Court of Appeals denied his appeal.
...
This March, he appears to have written the following email to a list serve complaining about the recent arrest of a Finnish man:
From: "James W. von Brunn" Subject: FW: Henrik Holappa arrested Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:15:08 -0400
Millions of low IQ non-whites are encouraged to illegally invade the USA .
They are provided sanctuary, jobs, health-care schooling, by those intent upon
destroying Western Civilization. Whereas, the subject of this email, Henrik
Holappa, the Finn, who has committed no illegal acts, is arrested and
incarcerated illegally by American agents in Marxist employ.
The Henrik Holappa atrocity is a metaphor for the ILLUMINATI conquest of
America: The ILLUMINATI, has captured America illegally, and is incarcerating
her NOW into a Global Zionist state.
Well informed patriots are ignoring the URGENCY, the extreme DANGER
confronting them. There is sparse time remaining. You must ACT NOW. KILL THE
ENEMY OR DIE IN THE GULAG !
Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures. Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish "financial elites." These "accusatory" tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize
those already subscribing to extremist beliefs.
...
Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are
attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing
extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to
boost their violent capabilities.
Culture Critique : On The Murder of Dr. Tiller and Home-Grown Christian Jihadists
I am not a fan of abortion. I do believe in a woman's right to choose, and I do think abortion should be legal, though I think there should be more limits and regulation placed on abortion, more counseling done beforehand, etc. However, whether or not you believe Dr. Tiller was a murderer for performing abortions (many life-saving, by the way), to act as though his murder is justifiable is nothing short of insane. It is disgusting, and it does nothing but hurt the cause of the "pro-life" movement. Do they not see the irony?
Mr. Leach said he and Mr. Roeder had met once, and Mr. Roeder had described similar views to his own. Of Dr. Tiller’s death, Mr. Leach said, "To call this a crime is too simplistic," adding, "There is Christian scripture that would support this."
The man being questioned in connection with the investigation is Scott Roader, 51, of Merriam, Kan. [...] Neighbors said they've seen a similar car at the house in Merriam. They describe the ongoings at the house as strange. They said it's a revolving door of men coming and staying there and describe what appear to be religious gatherings.
As someone who has always called what the Jihadists do terrorism, could I get a response from Malkin as to whether she believes this Christianist murder is terrorism as well? Imagine an Islamist fanatic had assassinated a pro-Israel rabbi in a synagogue, and had harassed synagogues for years, including one arrest for bomb materials in his car. Imagine if one of his associates had tried to kill the rabbi before. Would there be any question that this was Islamist terror? So why is this not Christianist terror?
These questions are obvious to me, but obviously they are not obvious to people like Michelle Malkin and Bill O'Reilly, who are clearly enablers of these heinous killers.
Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue, will hold a press conference to discuss how the pro-life movement should deal with Dr. Tiller’s death...
Mr. Terry states: "We must not fear, we must not flinch, we must not retreat a single inch. George Tiller was a mass murderer, and we must continue to say so in his death just as we did in his life.
Terry said he was now concerned that the Obama administration "will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions.
If he means that this will help the passage of the hate-crimes bill and will work against the murder of human beings in cold blood in front of their churches, let's hope he's 100% correct.
Finally, do not be coaxed into thinking these people are just a few bad apples, or fringe elements. They are well-backed, well-financed, and seen as heroes by many. The responses on Twitter are a testament to that.
# Crap, I always forgot hashtags. I'm happy Tiller's dead. - Jennifer Waite, Selah, Washington
# UPDATE... Doctor George Tiller was aborted today in his 204th trimester - aren't paybacks a bitch - Punch
# oh HAPPY DAY! Tiller the baby killer is DEAD! - Samantha Pelch
# George Tiller the baby killer was shot dead this morning. God bless the gunmen who hopefully won't be caught. - readnwatchchris, Creedmor. NC
# was George Tiller the baby killers brain scrambled the way he scrambled full term fetuses.. one can only hope - Brad S
# Infamous baby killer George Tiller gunned down at (irony) church. Why do I not feel sorry for him? Have fun at Judgment Day. - James Fiddler
# tiller the baby killer shot dead...wow. is it insensitive of me to say what goes around comes around? - Brad M. Negulescu Cleveland.
# George Tiller the Baby Killer shot dead. May he rot in Hell. - Amy Strong
# Tiller Baby Killer was shot and killed this morning Justice has been served. - Shirl Ledeux
# Thinking about "Tiller the baby killer" He now knows the wages of sin is death. - Dianne McDowell
# May Tiller rot in Hell , infanticide is the murder of babies, he WAS a provider of death like Hitler, Bundy the list goes on.... - Dennis, A People Voip Company
# Burn in hell George Tiller - mikedanben Sparta, NJ (41.005501,-74.672)
# No need to pray for George Tiller. We know he went straight to hell!!!!! - Laurie D. Bailey Olive Branch, MS
# Good ridence to Tiller - babies will not be murdered because he is now gone. Wonder how he likes hell! - Jay Emess, Southern, NJ
# Karma is a beautiful thing. Cheers to the hero who sent George Tiller where he belongs... straight to hell. - Matthew Kamar
Thanks, CarlNation, for that summary. Frighteningly, that's all it is - a summary. Check out the Twitter search results for up-to-the-minute hate and bile. I fear for my country when this kind of thing can happen and so many outwardly and hatefully support it. When, inevitably, this insane (accused) murderer ends up on death row, I will protest it, because no murder is fair or right - not even the murder of sub-human cretins like these right wing crazies.
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Reuters is reporting that "Irish Priests Beat, Raped Children," yet the report does not justify this wild and irresponsible claim. Four types of abuse are noted: physical, sexual, neglect and emotional. Physical abuse includes "being kicked"; neglect includes "inadequate heating"; and emotional abuse includes "lack of attachment and affection." Not nice, to be sure, but hardly draconian, especially given the time line: fully 82 percent of the incidents took place before 1970. As the New York Times noted, "many of them [are] now more than 70 years old." And quite frankly, corporal punishment was not exactly unknown in many homes during these times, and this is doubly true when dealing with miscreants.
Regarding sexual abuse, "kissing," and "non-contact including voyeurism" (e.g., what it labels as "inappropriate sexual talk") make the grade as constituting sexual abuse. Moreover, one-third of the cases involved "inappropriate fondling and contact." None of this is defensible, but none of it qualifies as rape. Rape, on the other hand, constituted 12 percent of the cases. As for the charge that "Irish Priests" were responsible, some of the abuse was carried out by lay persons, much of it was done by Brothers, and about 12 percent of the abusers were priests (most of whom were not rapists).
PZ (my hero) makes the obvious points:
It does not excuse anything to say that many of the reports are from before the 1970s. It wouldn't make the slightest difference if this report were of events in the 970s — it would still be an indictment of the casual brutality and cavalier disregard of the church for basic human rights, an indictment reinforced by the casual lack of concern given by Bill Donohue now. He ought to be howling in fury at the way the church has betrayed Christian principles (if he believes they actually have them), rather than making excuses for them.
Then to claim that this was merely pedestrian "corporal punishment", and dismiss the victims as "miscreants" — Jebus. It's like all the recent rationalizations by right-wing amoral monsters that torture is only like fraternity hazing, and besides, the terrorists deserved it. Is this what the Catholic Church is about, the dehumanization of children and the justification of abuse? Culture of life my ass.
I'm unsurprised but still depressed and enraged by all of this. If you missed the report, it includes: a history of official cover-ups of pedophiles within the church since the 1930s, molestation and rape were "endemic" at the boys' workhouses, kids were falsely told that their parents or siblings were dead, and a continuing insistence on protecting the child molesters in their ranks. I'm glad that religion makes people so loving and kind-hearted, aren't you?
Bubbling | TPM More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Companion Planting Peppers and pigweed or ragweed, Cabbage and dill, Potatoes and sweet alyssum, Collards and catnip, Strawberries and love-in-a-mist, Roses and chives
Great article by Chris Mooney on the Antivaccination movement In discounting the dangers of both the MMR vaccine and thimerosal, the IOM had multiple large epidemiological studies to rely on. For MMR, the IOM examined 16 studies. All but two, which were dismissed because of serious methodological flaws, showed no evidence of a link.
Psychedelic Healing?: Scientific American Mind-altering psychedelics are back but this time they are being explored in labs for their therapeutic applications rather than being used illegally. Studies are looking at these hallucinogens to treat a number of otherwise intractable psychiatric disorders, including chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and drug or alcohol dependency.
Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution.
This 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' is described as the "eighth wonder of the world"
The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York.
...
With her human-like nails instead of claws, and opposable big toes, she is placed at the very root of human evolution when early primates first developed features that would eventually develop into our own.
Another important discovery is the shape of the talus bone in her foot, which humans still have in their feet an incredible 70 million lifetimes later.
Creationist naysayers in 3...2...1. Some of the comments are hilarious... and sad:
It's a monkey! it was a Monkey then, and It is a Monkey now. It will be a Monkey to tomorrow. Its Just a MONKEY!
ps: my eye are open and ITS A MONKEY!!!!!!!
I bet darwin came up with the evolution theory after looking himself in the mirror one day he thought I look so much like a monkey there has to be a connection somewhere if anything probably thought like a monkey for me I believe in the almighty creator its not something that someone has told me or shown me its my and a lot of other peoples belief which only you can justify in your own way
I agree with Ken H. and Alluette, and I pray many will not be deceived by this "finding". Only God knows all the answers, but for me and my house, we will serve only the Lord God Almighty.
James, you are in our prayers.
Sigh... oh well, humanity forges on... more at Revealing The Link. Unfortunately, that site doesn't seem to work well with Firefox, so try IE.
She's beautiful and interesting and important, but I do have to take exception to the surprisingly frantic news coverage I'm seeing. She's being called the "missing link in human evolution", which is annoying. The whole "missing link" category is a bit of journalistic trumpery: almost every fossil could be called a link, and it feeds the simplistic notion that there could be a single definitive bridge between ancient and modern species. There isn't: there is the slow shift of whole populations which can branch and diverge. It's also inappropriate to tag this discovery to human evolution. She's 47 million years old; she's also a missing link in chimp evolution, or rhesus monkey evolution. She's got wider significance than just her relationship to our narrow line.
People have been using remarkable hyperbole when discussing Darwinius. She's going to affect paleontology "like an asteroid falling down to earth"; she's the "Mona Lisa" of fossils; she answers all of Darwin's questions about transitional fossils; she's "something that the world has never seen before"; "a revolutionary scientific find that will change everything". Well, OK. I was impressed enough that I immediately made Ida my desktop wallpaper, so I'm not trying to diminish the importance of the find. But let's not forget that there are lots of transitional forms found all the time. She's unique as a representative of a new species, but she isn't at all unique as a representative of the complex history of life on earth.
Damn scientists, with their "facts" and "logic" and "knowledge..."
Politics : TPM: Torture Used to Get Evidence of Saddam - Al Queda Link
The thing I keep thinking (and trying not to think, really) is if this is the information that has finally leaked, what else do we still not know? How much further can this possibly go? And can I avoid pulling out my hair over it?
Writing on The Daily Beast, former NBC producer Robert Windrem reports that in April 2003, Dick Cheney's office suggested that interrogators waterboard an Iraqi detainee who was suspected of having knowledge of a link between Saddam and al Qaeda.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse was questioned on the issue today in two TV interviews. Speaking to CNN, Whitehouse allowed: "I have heard that to be true." To MSNBC, he noted that there was additional evidence of this in the Senate Armed Services committee report, and from Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell. "This thing is just getting deeper and deeper," said Whitehouse, noting that if it were true, it would significantly bolster the case for prosecutions.
...
What I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 -- well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion -- its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.
And the clencher:
In other words, Windrem's report today hardly comes out of the blue. In fact, the mounting evidence that the administration explicitly used torture to make a political case for the war in Iraq is only the latest reason why we need a full investigation of this whole dirty business.
Let's do it. I wish, though I know it will never happen, that President Obama would risk his career and re-election to really get to the bottom of this.
Take the one dated April 3, 2003, two weeks into the invasion, just as Shock and Awe hit its first potholes. Two days earlier, on April 1, a panicky Pentagon had begun spreading its hyped, fictional account of the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch to distract from troubling news of setbacks. On April 2, Gen. Joseph Hoar, the commander in chief of the United States Central Command from 1991-94, had declared on the Times Op-Ed page that Rumsfeld had sent too few troops to Iraq. And so the Worldwide Intelligence Update for April 3 bullied Bush with Joshua 1:9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Including, as it happened, into a quagmire.)
What's up with that? As Draper writes, Rumsfeld is not known for ostentatious displays of piety. He was cynically playing the religious angle to seduce and manipulate a president who frequently quoted the Bible. But the secretary's actions were not just oily; he was also taking a risk with national security. If these official daily collages of Crusade-like messaging and war imagery had been leaked, they would have reinforced the Muslim world's apocalyptic fear that America was waging a religious war. As one alarmed Pentagon hand told Draper, the fallout "would be as bad as Abu Ghraib."
It's appalling on so many levels: that Rumsfeld thought that polishing up his report with the jingoistic equivalent of a clear plastic binder would win him points; that it apparently worked; that religion was used to promote war in the White House; that it was used despite the fact that it could worsen our chances of success. And we still have Dick Cheney doing a cheerful media tour encouraging us to support torture, which really wasn't torture, but if it was, it was good for us.
We lived under the rule of monsters for eight years. We can't just pretend it didn't happen, we need to fight back in the courts to condemn these people and their actions.
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