HItchens, hustled

OK, I'm off Hitchens' bandwagon until further notice. I have suffered his ardent support of the Iraq initiative, his confident rebuttals of failure accusations, and his petulant attacks on those who dare "pillow up" and point out what a miserable failure it's been. But this is really too much. I find Hitchens to be a brilliant writer, and a shark for an illogical argument. He has a keen ability to parse arguments and carefully keep his consistent. But clearly, Hitch was duped by Chalabi's charm long ago, and clings to that view against all evidence. Of course I've known he was a Chalabi defender, but I didn't realize the extent to which he'd been mezmerized:

At our long meeting, Chalabi impressed me for three reasons. The first was that he thought the overthrow of one of the world's foulest-ever despotisms could be accomplished. I knew enough by then to know that any Iraqi taking this position in public was risking his life and the lives of his family. I did not know Iraq very well but had visited the country several times in peace and war and met numerous Iraqis, and the second thing that impressed me was that, whenever I mentioned any name, Chalabi was able to make an exhaustive comment on him or her. (The third thing that impressed me was his astonishingly extensive knowledge of literary and political arcana, but that's irrelevant to our purposes here.)

Almost crazy-confidence and an intense manipulation of the politics of personal acquaintances. Hmmmm...what superpower leader does that sound like?

In this column, Hitchens blows off Chalabi's embezzlement conviction, close ties to Iran, responsibility for passing false intel to Washington (bizarrely blaming the recipients more for being stupid), and yes--any possibility that Chalabi either received our intel, or passed it on:

As to the accusation that Chalabi has endangered American national security by slipping secrets to Tehran, I can only say that three days ago, I broke my usual rule and had a "deep background" meeting with a very "senior administration official." This person, given every opportunity to signal even slightly that I ought to treat the charges seriously, pointedly declined to do so. I thought I should put this on record.

Maybe he thought you said hang up if the story wasn't true, Carl.

This is absurd. The guy is a crook, a liar, very possibly a spy, and has virtually no backing in his own country. But because he can remember faces and has panache, what the hell--let him give it a shot.

Jon Stewart comes back to WIlliam and Mary

Daily Show host Jon Stewart (W&M '84) offered the commencement address at the Williamsburg school's graduation this year. If you like his material (and I usually do), this is really good stuff. It's even better if you have a working knowledge of my own alma mater ('89, '90). Highlights:

I know there were some parents that were concerned about my speech here tonight, and I want to assure you that you will not hear any language that is not common at, say, a dock workers union meeting, or Tourrett’s convention, or profanity seminar. Rest assured.

But here’s the good news. You fix this thing, you’re the next greatest generation, people. You do this—and I believe you can—you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw’s kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don’t, you’re not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don’t give the thumbs up you’ve outdid us.

I was in New York on 9-11 when the towers came down. I lived 14 blocks from the twin towers. And when they came down, I thought that the world had ended. And I remember walking around in a daze for weeks. And Mayor Giuliani had said to the city, “You’ve got to get back to normal. We’ve got to show that things can change and get back to what they were.”

And one day I was coming out of my building, and on my stoop, was a man who was crouched over, and he appeared to be in deep thought. And as I got closer to him I realized, he was playing with himself. And that’s when I thought, “You know what, we’re gonna be OK.”

Better get this in before Fonzie lands

If you have any questions about what is going on with the Washingtonienne story, this is the place to go. Among deflating items: lied about her age, lied about finishing school, possibly lied about a phantom boyfriend in high school, parents did not know she was fired (or about the blog, presumably...!), offered possible six figures for Playboy shoot, smart to avail herself of therapeutic help according to Wonkette, and now that I've provided the vast bulk of this fading story, Calico pronounces the shark jumped.

But I still like looking at the pictures.

Mismanaging disaster creation

What is going on in the administration? Something is deeply, terribly wrong when the President's people cannot uniformly get behind an attempt to whip up paranoia and fear anymore. Of all the things they have proven so inept at, this has been their ace in the hole--an ability to shift attention from problems and make everyone too nervously tweaked to do anything but beg for protection. And now Ashcroft steps way out in front of Mueller and Ridge, and no one can decide just how serious the threat is. Note that among the groups who were critical of the uncoordinated characterizations were first responders and state officials. Why? Because a) it costs a lot of money to go on high alert--money the feds do not pay the vast majority of, and b) these alerts are usually keyed to changes in the color level, which did not happen here. Nobody has any idea whether to step up surveillance, tighten procedures, authorize overtime, etc.

Someone you're not hearing a lot about lately is Karl Rove. He's supposed to be such a political genius, but he and his staff are so far behind the stories these days, it's scary.

Bad times for the DoJ in Oregon

John Ashcroft must seethe when he thinks about us medical-pot-smoking, search-and-arrest-limiting, subversive-book-reading Oregonians. We know this of course, because he keeps trying to interfere with each of them in one form or another as the links indicate. For the most part, he's not had a very good track record, repeatedly being spanked by various judges and appellate courts.

You'll notice one conspicuous absence in the above list: assisted suicide. Oregon is unique among states in allowing doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medicine that patients can self-administer in a controlled setting. This concept really seemed to bug Big John, to the extent that he attempted to apply the Controlled Substances Act to the procedure, asserting that because suicide is not an accepted medical practice, the prescribing of lethal drugs violated the Act.

The latest humiliation came today from the 9th Circuit, which upheld by 2-1 the orginial ruling that while the feds may determine what drugs are allowed, they are not fit to decide what constitutes a medically legitimate practice. And thus was Oregon's "Live How You Want, Even if That's to Not Live At All" credo preserved.

Also this week, revelations continued to surface regarding the unfounded arrest and incarceration of Brandon Mayfield, the lawyer whose purported fingerprint showed up on a bag of detonators in Madrid. Apparently not only did the FBI mistakenly find a match between the Spanish-provided sample print and Mayfield's fingers, but also:

• Relied on a digital copy of the print in order to do their analysis
  
• Refused to hear the Spanish government's skepticism over whether they had the right guy, as much as three weeks before the eventual arrest
  
• Went so far as to send agents to Spain, but didn't bother having them check the original version of the print
  
• Based their case on the alleged print match, plus a passel of circumstantial evidence (Mayfield is a Muslim, his wife is Egyptian, he visited his own mosque a number of times, he advertised in a "Muslim pages," and other, even more flimsy connections to terrorism) in order to abscond with Mayfield under the Material Witness laws
  
• Apparently performed multiple "sneak and peek" raids on the Mayfield home when they were not there

Needless to say, the FBI response of "whoops, sorry--we'll send someone out to apologize" does not appear to have placated Mayfield. Hell hath no fury like an attorney who's had his rights molested, and you can imagine some legal action will soon be pending.

The moral of this story? It might be wise for Ashcroft just to pretend there's an uninhabited expanse of land between Washington and California, until such time as he is relieved of his duties (we're hoping January)--after which he is welcome to come visit, catch a buzz, read Mein Kampf, prostelytize in Pioneer Square, catch an exotic dance performance...and kill himself. If he acts quickly, he can work with the FDA to allow importation of cheap drugs from Canada, so his final sendoff isn't quite so pricey.


Update: Notes on the Atrocities supplies a much more concise appraisal of Ashcroft's legitimacy in the assisted suicide case, merely by reprinting an excerpt of the majority opinion:

The attorney general's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority under federal law."

[The court] added "that the attorney general has no specialized expertise in the field of medicine" and that he "imposes a sweeping and unpersuasive interpretation" of the Controlled Substance Act, which "directly conflicts with that of his predecessor," Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

Drip, drip, drip

As one might well have imagined (and I'm too lazy to check the archive but I'm fairly confident that I did), the hint of coverup on the prison abuse story have set the media out like sniffing dogs for any good lead. As a helpful push-content bulletin to those among us who believe the story was essentially over as written, two weeks ago, here are some items released in the last day or so:

• A May summary of recent investigations by the Army Criminal Investigation Command reports on several medically declared homicides of detainees, portrayed in descriptions as being at the hands of US personnel. In a measure of the seriousness and manner in which the deaths occurred, the report notes "[3rd Infantry intelligence members] forced into asphyxiation numerous detainees in an attempt to obtain information during a 10-week period last spring." Perhaps more troubling, the lack of autopsies on many of the decedents seriously hampers findings of cause and likely culpability.
  
  
• Perhaps even worse than lack of autopsies is the contention that some detainees never made it onto the prison rolls to begin with, and their detentions, status and disposition may never be known. Phantom prisoners were interrogated by phantom intelligence agents.
  
  
• And maybe even worse than not making the official prisoner rolls, is never getting the chance to be incarcerated in the first place. The Independent publishes an account from a US Staff Sgt who manned a lot of checkpoints, and saw a lot of messed up shit. "He saw bodies being desecrated and robbed, and wounded civilians being dumped by the roadside without medical treatment." That's just a sample from a brutal litany of events he alleges he witnessed.
  
  
• Over at Reuters, testimony comes from MI General Pappas that he personally discussed the use of guard dogs with Gen Miller, the Gitmo Genius, and Miller passed on the OK of policy reportedly approved by the lame duck Gen Sanchez. The Pentagon's reaction? "That conversation never happened" (or words to the effect)
  
  
• And I guess this information has been out, but it hasn't been tinfoiled yet: Gen Taguba's report was very unkind to Gen Karpinski, reccommending relieving her of command and a formal reprimand. Yet Sanchez settled for a letter of admonishment, and only today was she actually suspended from her command (which she learned from sources rather than any official notification). She did Norville yesterday and Hardball on Wednesday, and she is working her angles, cheerfully refusing to dismiss confusion over why he would do such a thing. And why would he, anyway? Was it an attempt to keep a lid on things?...

More to come, obviously.

Polls, polls polls

New from CBS, CNN/USAT/Gallup, and ABC/WaPo. None of them bring any good news for Bush, but finally there is a notable movement towards Kerry in the overall horse races. Whether through effective positive campaigning by Kerry in the battlegrounds, or simply by indirect comparison to Bush, who sank deeper into unfavorability on each polls, there has been a small reversal. Kerry has moved to the good side of the margin of error, and in the case of CBS has now moved beyond it.

But if you want a real shock to your system, check out WSJ/Zogby's map of the battlegrounds. If you think web-based voting among likelies with regional tweaking represents a solid methodology (and who has been able to argue with Zogby's results lately), then Bush is in a nearly hopeless situation. Losing Ohio is probably enough to kill his chances, Florida is a killer--but Nevada and Missouri? And Zogby isn't even asking about places like Lousiana and Colorado, or even North Carolina (where recent polling has a ticket with Edwards on it in a dead heat). I'd like to follow this one for a while, so it's going in the blogroll with the other electoral predictors. What's up with President Elect '04? Still waiting for the May update, bubby!

Thucydides on Bush/Kerry '04

A hat tip to Jonathan Alter for bringing a little class to the joint. His latest piece for the most recent Newsweek is another in a long line of columns about how Kerry just needs to warm up and stop talking so much, in order to roll over Bush in November. But in between conversations with his daughter over the moral supremacy of the US as viewed abroad, Alter drops in bits of a striking passage from The Peloppenesian War that describes BC04's basic strategy in a scary, Nostradamus-like way. The key phrase Alter uses, "Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice," gives the gist of things, but in context Thucydides expands on that theme with a flair that would make Cicero blush. It's worth reprinting the section, so grab a goblet of hemlock, kick off your sandals, and travel back in time without ever leaving Election 2004:

Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence, became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries. In fine, to forestall an intending criminal, or to suggest the idea of a crime where it was wanting, was equally commended, until even blood became a weaker tie than party, from the superior readiness of those united by the latter to dare everything without reserve; for such associations had not in view the blessings derivable from established institutions but were formed by ambition for their overthrow; and the confidence of their members in each other rested less on any religious sanction than upon complicity in crime.

Chills, I tell ya.

Putting in their two CENTCOM

Haven't linked to Political Animal (nee Calpundit) in a while; here's a brief review of comments from three of the last four generals to head up the US Central Command. Zinni's strong commentary is all over the news the last couple days, but my favorite has to be the reference to DoD-o Doug Feith as "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth" by Tommy Franks. Is there ANYONE formerly in top levels of military command who thinks this has gone well? If people think Kerry's comparatively weak on defense, let him trot out Zinni and Frank's comments and let BC04 try to impugn their credibility. Although if Denny Hastert can lecture John McCain on sacrifice to country, I suppose anything's possible.

Sex in the halls of power--we can never resist

You'd think with all that's happening in the world and US over the last couple months, there simply wouldn't be any time to care about this kind of thing. But let's be honest--most of us are suckers for a mystery involving people in positions of great power, sums of money, and a girl who puts out. And if WaPo can cover it, then dammit so can I.

To bring you up to speed, where else to turn but the blogger who has become nearly synonymous with talk of sexy talk, and inside-the-Beltway shenanigans? Wonkette.
MUST CREDIT WONKETTE!!!! :) Over the last couple weeks, a blogger named Washingtonienne became a mighty popular source of salacious goings-on, trafficking as she was in the high-glamour world of Capitol Hill, DC nightspots, and casual sex with multiple partners. Money quote: "men who want to fuck you in the ass while you're sober, do not love you."

So of course the mystery began as to who this "Staff Ass" was, and by Thursday or Friday the outing had been made. Her name is Jessica Cutler, she's 24, and she worked in (R) Mike DeWine's office, at least until recently. As you can read from her interviews in both WaPo and Wonkette, she claims it's all true, doesn't care who knows, and certainly doesn't care about her job. And based on the pictures, you can imagine why. (The WaPo picture is pretty nice, but the candid shot with Wonkette from last night is even more flattering. And Cox is pretty babeoriffic herself.

By the way, if you want to read the goings-on that caused the "scandal," it's no longer up in its original form. But the material is helpfully archived here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to step out for a moment.