Grifter's Escape

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Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

I don't believe a word of it.

Donald Rumsfeld has finally said he's sorry. Sort of.

In an interview with biographer Bradley Graham, the former secretary of defense says he has regrets about the administration's controversial detainee policy.

The twist is that Rumsfeld doesn't regret the policy itself -- specifically the abandoning of the Geneva Conventions for detainees picked up in Afghanistan. Rather, he regrets how the policy was formulated.

Just like Rumsfeld was shocked over the photos from Abu Ghraib, it wasn't the torture, it was the outing of the torture. It's weirdly semantic. He and his cohorts still haven't understood exactly WHAT the world's revulsion is all about.

In comparison to this feeble reasoning, Robert McNamara's repentance appears saintlike.:

HUFFINGTON POST: In the course of producing the Fog of War what did you learn about Robert McNamara? And how did he see his place in history?

MORRIS: There are no simple answers to those questions. He is an extraordinarily complex figure and will probably remain as such... It is an amazing career and an amazingly complex career I might add. I don't share this view that McNamara is this clearly evil man. I think that he is extraordinarily complex and that may be a result as well of the extraordinarily complex history that he was part of. Nothing has a simple answer. Maybe nothing ever does. It's very easy to condemn him for these policies but harder to understand what his role was in these policies.

By the end of his life, McNamara clearly felt a sense of contrition. But did he feel as if he was responsible for what happened in Vietnam or did he think of himself as a victim of history, engulfed by the events that surrounded him?

I think that it is part of who we are, in general, that we would prefer to see ourselves as victims rather than as villains. Having said that, dealing with McNamara was dealing with a person who agonized about his past.

Update, emptywheel has more.

crossposted at Rants from the Rookery

Que, Sarah, Sarah!?

Updated below.

Columnists award Palin dubious honor
Sitting Duck Award goes to 'the most ridiculed newsmakers in America'

[...]
Past president Mike Leonard, a columnist for The Herald Times of Bloomington, Ind.: "As a Hoosier, I feel that she's done something that Dan Quayle could never do. Which was to make Dan Quayle look good. ... After the election, the video of Sarah and the poultry processing factory ... that pretty much says it all. The gift that keeps on giving."

Update: In an interview with ABC ... wait, what!? It's the media's fault but she keeps doing everything she can to extend her 15 minutes of infamy!? Anyhoo

As to whether another pursuit for national office, as when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House less than a year ago, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there was a difference between the White House and what she had experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

The WH has a 'Department of Law!?' Huh, who knew?[/snark]

I've seen comments on other sites that the reason Dems & some Repubs are 'attacking' Sarah (if by 'attacking her' they mean 'letting her talk') is that we're scared of her.

I have to admit I'm scared .... but for her not of her. I'm scared she won't make it to 2012 if someone doesn't put her on a respirator stat! She's too stupid to breathe.

And I disagree with her latest award, she's not a sitting duck, she's a turkey in a hopper.




Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

R.I.P. Allen Klein

He made Geffen look like Shirley Temple, back in the day. Saint Peter just got beat down for 51% of the mechanicals on the whole back catalog of heavenly hymns.

;>)

And Another One Bites the Dust

Queen Sarah is abdicating her throne. On one of the biggest Friday Night Dumps a politician can spew down the toilet of the MSM:

Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time... to BUILD UP.

And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country.

Gosh, does she need to spend more time with her family!? Is she spending her time on her campaign to be president and ignoring her vows ... to be governor? Has she been hiking that 'Appalachian Trail.' Read the whole thing and decide for yourselves.

In the mean time, stay tuned for the next (psychotic) episode of Moose & Squirrel: Dahling, What Big Antlers You Have ... or ... Republican Hopes Are Riding On My Back!



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

It's a Grand Old Flag

Submitted (almost) without comment:

Stars and Stripes is a Department of Defense-authorized daily newspaper distributed overseas for the U.S. military community. Editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command, it provides commercially available U.S. and world news and objective staff-produced stories relevant to the military community in a balanced, fair, and accurate manner. By keeping its audience informed, Stars and Stripes enhances military readiness and better enables U.S. military personnel and their families stationed overseas to exercise their responsibilities of citizenship.
- Revised DoD Directive 5122.11

Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship. We have published continuously in Europe since 1942, and since 1945 in the Pacific. Today, our readers number well over 350,000.

That was then, this is now. From the Stars and Stripes:

Army bars Stars and Stripes reporter from covering 1st Cav unit in Mosul

Asserting that Stars and Stripes “refused to highlight” good news in Iraq that the U.S. military wanted to emphasize, Army officials have barred a Stripes reporter from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that is attempting to secure the violent city of Mosul.
[...]
“Under the embed rules and the congressional mandate of editorial independence for this newspaper, it does not fall under the authority or competence of the command to decide if we do a story, what story we do, or what angle we take in writing the story,” Leonard wrote in his appeal.

Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they're real

Remember Shepard Fairey, of the iconic Obama campaign poster? Turns out he is friends with Jeff & Jo Ann, the parents of Pablo, the little dude who lost his fight with cancer last week. At the memorial celebration Tuesday night, Shepard's portrait of Pablo was unveiled. Aw, how lovely, you might say. Well, it gets better.

After Jeff introduced Fairey, they held up for all to see both the original photo which inspired the artwork and the new work itself. While hard to see over the standing-room-only crowd, I was able to get a glimpse of the new work. But Jeff, realizing that not everyone could see the new piece, simply handed it into the crowd to pass around so everyone could see. Keep in mind that Fairey prints sell for $400+, and original art commands an astronomical price, yet this act of trust and love seems typical for Pablo's parents.

Having worn their hearts and emotions on their sleeves for so long now, the idea that they trusted people, some of whom they had never met, with a new image of their precious boy, is mind-boggling, yet completely in character. Should such a tragedy ever happen to me and mine, these are the people I would choose as my guides.

Here is what Shepard & Amanda Fairey said about Pablo, along with the portrait:

Pablo is the son of our friends Jeff and Jo Ann. He died of cancer on Saturday, just a few days after his sixth birthday. As parents it is impossible for me and Amanda to imagine facing what Jeff, Jo Ann, and Pablo faced courageously. There is a moving diary of Pablo’s battle with cancer at getwellpablo.blogspot.com. Yes, we all know that cancer affects a huge number of people, but what you see at this blog is a very compelling demonstration that cancer can strike anyone, any age, and no amount of love can cure what science has no cure for yet. People like Pablo remind us why cancer research is so important. You can find out more and make a donation to the Pablove Foundation here: www.pablove.org/donate.html.

I lost my sister Kristin, my Mom, and our friend Lizzie to cancer (and side effects) in the last 7 years. I know, that and $.50 will buy today's LA Times, so prevalent is the disease. Yet Dr. Mascarenhas, Pablo's Oncologist, says we'll have a cure for cancer in the next several years. While this cure will not have helped Mom, Kristin, Lizzie or Pablo, it WILL help untold others who will not die from the awful disease that eats the body, and sometimes even the soul.

So may the universe bless Pablo's Papa & Mommy, Dr. Mascarenhas, Shepard & Amanda Fairey, and all others who's lives are altered by this awful disease.

It Don't Matter If It's Brown Or White

There is no way I'm looking for a scene

Candy coated cleverly crafted pop music at it's best:



Wikipedia:

God Help the Girl is a musical film due to be shot in 2010, written by Stuart Murdoch, frontman of Scottish indie pop band Belle & Sebastian. The film will feature new songs written by Murdoch, along with two Belle & Sebastian songs "Funny Little Frog", which reached #10 in the U.K. charts in 2006 and "Act of the Apostle", as well as a number from Stevie Jackson. Murdoch held open auditions in which members of the public could send in videos or audio clips of themselves singing for a chance to sing on the God Help the Girl soundtrack, which was recorded in 2008. The LP features lead vocals by newcomer Catherine Ireton, and guest vocals from Asya, lead singer of the Seattle teenage indie band Smoosh and Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy. Also featured are contest winners Brittany Stallings and Dina Bankole, as well as Celia Garcia and Alex Klobouk.

The God Help the Girl soundtrack was released on 23 June on Matador Records in North America, and on 22 June on Rough Trade Records in Europe. The first single 'Come Monday Night' was released on 11 May.

As homage to '60's pop music, it's pretty stellar.