Cheerleader in chief

Rather than learn from its readily apparent missteps in Iraq, the Bush administration is taking its closed-eyes version of policy making to a new level. The administration has rejected findings from Congress' General Accountability Office on the failures of the Iraqi government and is downplaying a report from an independent commission recommending an overhaul of the Iraqi national police. Instead, the president wants the nation to wait until we hear from Gen. David Patraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker later in September. They are expected to say the surge is making progress and should be continued. If all the president wants are reports that support his current policies, regardless of how successful or unsuccessful they are, why are we wasting our time and resources with other panels and other investigations? It's like when government contractors prepare reports to satisfy the oversight requirements of federal or state law. They hire "experts" to give them the recommendations they want, not people who will give them unbiased opinions. This defeats the whole purpose of oversight, doesn't it? In Iraq, it is painfully obvious why American forces were so unprepared for what happened. Remember? There weren't enough troops, there wasn't enough armor for them or for their vehicles, the equipment was inadequate, there weren't enough people who could speak Arabic, the troops did not protect vital assets after Saddam fell -- the list went on and on and continues to go on and on. If the president intends to rule by himself and ignore other voices, such as Congress, he'd better at least get things right.

Going down

What, I've got to be dreaming. Yet another of those holier-than-thou Republicans arrested on a morals charge. Soliciting sex from an undercover cop in a bathroom? And what did Idaho Sen. Larry Craig say when the story broke? "I'm not gay." The "I don't do things like that" part of the obligatory denial came later, like the fact that he was soliciting sex in the bathroom was not a slightly more important thing. Of course, that also was seven months after he pleaded guilty. Oh, that. If he's not gay, just what kind of sex did he think he was going to get when he solicited that cop? And does anyone think this was the first time he did that? The cops were running a sting on the bathroom to catch people doing just what Craig did. How did Craig know that bathroom was the place to go for his proclivity? And other thing -- is this guy a lawyer?

190 billion reasons why

The Washington Post reports today that the White House will be asking for $50 billion more for the war in Iraq, on top of the $140 billion already in its pending supplemental funding bill, on top of the $460 billion already in the 2008 defense budget. The newspaper says administration insiders think Congress will not be able to block the money while the report on the troop surge in Iraq is being digested. Apparently, the report will advocate continuing the surge while progress is being made. Gee, it would be hard to think of what else a little of that money could be used for. But, of course, with these jokers in power, there's no money to do the right things in the deficit-wracked federal government. Funny how the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina just passed. Remember New Orleans?

Clarification needed

The agreement announced today in which South Korea agreed to withdraw its 3,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and discourage South Korean missionaries in exchange for the release of hostages held by the Taliban is weird. Sure, it would be great if the 19 surviving hostages, who have been held for 41 days, are actually going to be released. Two of the 23 Christian missionaries had already been killed and two released. But South Korea had already announced its intention to withdraw its troops by the end of year. Could it be that the Taliban staged this horrific kidnapping, killed several hostages and exacerbated the West's emnity for absolutely nothing? More likely, some money or other valuable considerations were promised and will be paid, proving once more that the American coalition is fragile and uncommitted, despite the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers. This will only prolong the war and the suffering of the Aghani people, whose country has been the industrialized nations' pinata for all these years. I hope the president can explain how this deal is a good thing in the big picture.

Resignation indignation

In a perfect world, today's resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be a giant step forward for the country's political system. The man was notorious for justifying inmate abuse, for misunderstanding habeas corpus, for the unabashed politically motivated firings of U.S. attorneys and for transparently trying to mislead Congress. But to pin all the misdeeds on Gonzales is naive. Hopefully, Congress will continue to investigate many of these mistakes, as Rep. Charles Schumer said this morning on CNN. Let's face it -- Gonzales, Bush's longtime buddy, was not acting on his own. Most likely, everything he said or did was pre-approved by the White House. So, as every senior White House official hits the road, is it time for President Bush to likewise fade into the sunset?

Amplified implications

A criminal case pending in New York State could have serious implications for the future of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. According to the New York Times, defense lawyers in the case are challenging the legality of the terrorism convictions of two Albany, N.Y., men accused, with evidence from electronic surveillance, of agreeing to launder money for a fictitious plot to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat in a sting put on by the F.B.I. What makes this case so potentially dangerous for the Bush administration is that while previous civil cases challenging the wiretapping program have been thrown out before trial on procedural grounds, this is a criminal prosecution with no such procedural pitfalls. The challenge, filed on behalf of Yassin M. Aref, a pizza shop owner and imam of an Albany mosque, and his associate looks like it will be heard by a state appeals court, which means it could be before the U.S. Supreme Court before long. Any decision by the U.S. Supreme Court will have tremendous impact on the Constitution and the future of the First Amendment, since fundamental rights such as freedom of association and freedom of speech are implicated. Even if the two men were up to no good and are not good people, the government cannot claim the power to deprive them of their rights pre-emptively. The American Civil Liberties Union has entered the case in support of the appeal.

Having a bad day

Yesterday was a terrible day for the Bush administration's Iraq policies. Not only did the new National Intelligence Estimate from the nation's spy agencies offer bad news but a prominent Republican senator broke with the president on starting to withdraw troops from Iraq. The NIE said that while security was slowly improving in Iraq, the Iraqi government had failed to take necessary steps to stabilize the political situation in the country and might never be able to. The pro-pullout sentiment expressed by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, a former Navy secretary, can't be good news for the White House. Warner said the U.S. should begin pulling out its forces from Iraq as a warning to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the U.S. commitment was not open-ended. The U.S. wants the Iraqi government to work on bringing the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds together in the political arena and to pass a revenue sharing plan to distribute Iraq's oil revenue fairly among the factions. Of course, that's an extremely tall order for people who have hated each other for so long. And, as we've discussed, we can't tell a fellow democracy what to do. Democracies have to follow their own political processes to arrive at a consensus. Can you imagine what we'd say if another country told us to fix the distribution of wealth problem in the United States before we could buy any more oil?