Is Kendrick Meek running to be … Joe Lieberman?
Kendrick Meek is definitely running to the right, perhaps protecting himself from a general election attempt to paint him as a pinko lefty. And Florida has a large Jewish population, particularly in crucial South Florida, that needs catering to. Maybe that’s why the Meek camp issued this pretty striking statement today that echoes other Democrats who have been (in generally milder terms) taking on the White House for rebuking Israel over settlements, but seems to take it up a notch, AIPAC-style:
“What started off as an internal, domestic disagreement within the Israeli government has turned into an unnecessary international dispute complicated by some undiplomatic language from U.S. administration officials. Opponents of peace, nations and terrorist organizations that wish to do harm to Israel will always seize an opportunity to create a wedge between our nation and Israel. They seek comfort watching these recent events unfold. To give our enemies the false impression that the United States and Israel disagree on fundamental issues within the region sets the peace process back. I urge restraint and a resumption of talks that result in a lasting peace that ensures Israel’s security,” said Meek.
Meek’s statement is strange for a number of reasons. First off, seems to take a harder line than almost any other Democrat who has spoken out on the issue, and most of them are Jewish. Besides Meek, no Democrat has called the dispute “unnecessary,” all have at least acknowledged that Israel deserved criticism for announcing new settlements on the day of the vice president’s visit, (something even Israelis have blasted their government over) and most of the critics have sniped at the administration mostly for its tone, and not the substance. Meanwhile, the two most notable people who are talking up terrorists and enemies seeking “comfort” from the stated position of the President of the United Sates, his Vice President, his Secretary of State, and the senior Democratic leadership in both the House and Senate, not to mention the United Nations, are Sarah Palin and Joe Lieberman. Read more
The Meek campaign’s ongoing, strange relationship with the news cycle’
When everybody else is talking about healthcare, they’re doing NASCAR … State media fixated on AMEXgate? They hold a conference call with reporters (today) to announce, again, that they’re getting really really close on their petition drive (the one bit of news they did make on the call was that after all of this, they might wind up paying the $10,000 filing fee anyway, in case some of the petitions are challenged by Republicans.) And less than a week after Israel punks the United States by announcing new settlements on the same day Joe Biden arrives to talk peace, prompting even Israel’s closest friends to wonder what they’re thinking, and even as the Obama administration continues to rebuke Bibi Netanyahu and company and even demand a cancellation of the East Jerusalem provocation, Team Meek forwards around an op-ed in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that is, to say the least, off key. Read more
Shameful: Obama justice department’s epic FAIL on torture lawyers
Still licensed to practice law: John Yoo (left) and Jay Bybee, authors of the "torture memos"
Apparently, concocting memoranda that provide the fig leaf of legality for war crimes is nothing more than “poor judgment.” It pains me to say this, but shame on the Obama Justice Department. The only reason I can possibly come up with, why a senior lawyer at Justice, Assistant Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, would overrule the findings of the Office of Professional Responsibility, which would have found the three lawyers in question, sitting judge Jay Bybee and “unitary executive” inventor John Yoo guilty of professional misconduct, is that maybe the Justice Department fears that such sanction could provide fuel for the torture investigations taking place in Spain?. Who knows, but if that is the case, it wreaks of rank cowardice. Read more
Dick Cheney doubles down: ‘a strong believer in waterboarding’
Dick Cheney wanted the Obama administration to waterboard the undiebomber. He wants to keep waterboarding people at Gitmo. For all we know, he wants to have his former White House colleagues waterboarded too, for defying his evil designs after the 2004 election (when he began to lose more intramural battles than he won, on closing Gitmo, getting out of Iraq, torture, etc.) So the question is, how many times does a guy have to openly admit to war crimes before somebody bothers to prosecute him? Read more
Susan Collins is full of crap
What did Susan Collins know about the undiebomber, and when did she know it?
Greg Sargent strikes again:
Senator Susan Collins, who’s emerged as a leading critic of the decision to Mirandize the bomb plot suspect, raised no concerns about his handling while being briefed on Christmas Day about his capture on a private call with a top Homeland Security official, a source familiar with the conversation tells me.
The call was confirmed to me by Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Bobby Whithorne, who declined to confirm details.
The claim about Collins’ silence comes after Obama counterterror chief John Brennan madebig news yesterday by claiming that four other top GOP Congressional officials were similiarly told that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was being held in “FBI custody,” prompting no objections from the Republican leaders.
Why does it matter what Collins knew and when she knew it? Well … Read more
This man has no eyebrows, and he just insulted the FBI
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky
If a Democrat had insulted the men and women who help protect this country while putting their lives on the line as members of law enforcement, military or national security agencies, wouldn’t they be dragged to the Senate floor and forced to tearfully apologize? Well, where are the Democrats who will call for Mitch McConnell to get to weeping? After all, he did say this about the FBI agents who have successfully interrogated undiebomber Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab:
“He was given a 50-minute interrogation, probably Larry King has interrogated people longer and better than that,” McConnell told Fox News today. “After which he was assigned a lawyer who told him to shut up. That is not the way to deal with someone in the war on terror.”
Wow, really? Does Larry waterboard? Tapped points out that this was no slip of the tongue. McConnell has said it twice, meaning he either thought it was really clever the first time, or he was regurgitating Frank Luntz-style talking points. Either way, McConnell, who has a George W. Bush-style Vietnam-era military service record, and who clearly has no respect for the work that the FBI does to protect his sorry life, owes those agents an apology. Let’s see if his Democratic colleagues in the Senate demand one … oh, wait, sorry … they’re Democrats …. Read more
The newest right wing attack dog … Susan Collins?
Huh? Apparently, the junior Senator from Maine craves a little of that Palin-Bachman Fox News love. So on MSNBC today, she tried (and failed) to explain her convoluted position on the undiebomber, which she launched over the weekend with a straight shot of partisan crazy talk aimed at President Obama. As CollinsWatch put it, the performance can best be characterized as “flustered, fazed and defensive.” (Another explanation: Collins is being possessed by the dark spirit of Liz Cheney.) Watch:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
BTW the Chris Matthews second try wasn’t much better. Glenn Greenwald: your witness.
UPDATE: Robert Gibbs got in on the action, too.
Another meme bites the dust: shoe bomber vs. undiebomber
The shoe bomber was read his Miranda rights, too, it turns out … and the undiebomber IS cooperating with the FBI, not because he was waterboarded, righties, but because the professionals reached out to his family. Fancy that …
For Haitians in the U.S., TPS at last
[picappgallerysingle id="7552337"]
An injured woman cries in pain as she is treated by a medic in the
street outside the Villa Creole hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on
Friday, January 15, 2010. (Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
[Corrected from original post] The Obama administration on Friday finally bowed to the demands of humanity, and granted temporary protected status (TPS) to Haitians in the U.S. The move means that undocumented Haitians can get work permits, earn money to send home to their families, and inquire about loved ones through official channels without fear of deportation, and those coming to the U.S. out of desperation will not be subject to deportation back to the hell the island has become. Janet Napolitano, our Homeland Security Secretary (I hate that term “homeland” by the way … something about it just says 1930s Germany to me…) made the announcement today on a conference call with reporters — an interesting choice, as opposed to a press conference or full-on media announcement, which could have a bit to do with the touchiness of immigration politics. More on that later. TPS lasts 18 months and then is subject to review, for people who cannot safely return to their home countries. It is typically renewed “indefinitely,” or until the home country becomes stable (we’re still granting TPS to Nicaraguans, for instance, long after the Contras have gone.) From the WaPo:
“This is a disaster of historic proportions,” Napolitano said in a conference call. “Providing a temporary refuge for Haitian nationals who are currently in the United States and whose personal safety would be endangered by returning to Haiti is part of this administration’s continuing effort to support Haiti’s recovery.” Read more
Politico does it again
Wen they’re not transcribing Dick Cheney’s dictats, the good folks at Politico spend a lot of time airing the complaints of currently elected Republicans, too. Unfortunately, they spend less time contextualizing those remarks. Take this story about Jeff Sessions re-releasing a letter he sent to A.G. Eric Holder demanding an end to a U.S. program that sends some former Gitmo detainees to Saudi Arabia for art therapy, among other novel approaches to turning former terrorists into model citizens. Jake Sherman writes:
The program has not been successful, Sessions contends, and his letter alleges that 11 of Saudi Arabia’s 85 most-wanted terrorists are “graduates of the Saudi program.”
Sessions also asserts links between the rehabilitation program and Yemeni terrorism. The graduates of the program, according to Sessions, include Said Ali al Shihri, now the deputy leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen and Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish, Al Qaeda’s current theological leader on the Arabian Peninsula.
“The list of failed participants in the Saudi program reads like a “who’s who” of Al Qaeda terrorists on the Arabian peninsula,” Sessions wrote in the Dec. 9 letter.
“As the terror plot against Northwest Flight 253 makes painfully clear, sending GITMO detainees to the Saudi ‘rehabilitation’ program puts the lives of American citizens in needless jeopardy,” Sessions spokesman Stephen Miller said in a news release.
Sherman’s piece goes on to point out that Sessions’ letter “shows that Republicans are trying to be more aggressive in questioning the Obama administration’s response to the terrorist plot,” and that Sessions has supported the Saudi transports in the past. Nowhere in the piece, however, does Sherman point out that the transfers relevant to the Undiebomber incident — particularly the transfer of four men thought to have gone from Gitmo detainees to senior members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula including Said Ali al Shihri and Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish – took place under the Bush, not the Obama administration. More specifically, those transfers took place at the behest of then-Vice President Dick Cheney. This was a Republican administration’s program. That, after all, is why Sessions supported it. The Politico story is written in such a way that it leaves the reader with the impression that Sessions holds the Obama administration responsible for releasing the bad guys.
I’ve stopped expecting better from Politico, but you’d think that amid all the criticism they’ve received over becoming Dick Cheney’s Washington Bureau, they’d at least make a token effort.
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