Sub Lumen
putting under the light of inquiry and analysis political, social and cultural issues and stories that intrigue or outrage |
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CSI: Pakistan
2007-12-28 12:52:00
Things do happen fast in Pakistan. Barely 36 hours after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, and the government there has managed to do so much. Via Reuters, investigators have reconstructed a mangled human head in an effort to identify the body of the man they believe was the shooter/bomber, even though Rawalpindi probably has less than half the budget Las Vegas does."We have retrieved a head and it has been reconstructed. We also found fingers and we're carrying out DNA tests to make a comparison between the head and fingers," said Saud Aziz, police chief in Rawalpindi....With Bhutto's barely cold body already safely interred in the family mausoleum, they've also pinned down her cause of death. Three times. Each different. First it was:Bhutto was killed by gunshots to the head and neck, a security official said.There had been three shots fired, two of which struck her. But today we were told that at least three, but possibly as many as five shots had been fired by her assailant, bu ...
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Benazir Bhutto, RIP
2007-12-28 09:23:00
Born 21 June 1953, assassinated 17 December 2007.She was a politician with evidently a weakness for corruption. She was also a patriot and the greatest hope for the fledgling Pakistani democracy. As a publicly powerful woman in a Muslim country who was thoroughly pro U.S., she knew that her return to her homeland in October placed her squarely in the sights of militant fundamentalists of the Taliban or al Qaeda stripe. Her murder was a savage tragedy, if not a surprise.I will try soon to add my less-than-two-cents-worth of analysis of what some of the repercussions of this dark deed may be, but suffice it to say that her death may be more powerful than she could have been in life. ...
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Just In Case
2007-12-17 23:02:00
Yes, just in case there was any doubt as to which party with which slimeball Joe Lieberman was truly affiliated:McCain Wins Lieberman Endorsement ...
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Again, Chris Dodd
2007-12-17 22:55:00
Just when you start to forget about him, Senator Christopher Dodd steps up and does something to remind you that he has far more integrity than any of the Democratic "front-runners":Dodd Beats Back Bush Spying Bill ...
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Food Porn - 00004
2007-12-15 16:18:00
The holidays are here, so today it's a two-fer:Curry Spiced Deviled EggsChocolate Cashew Brittle ...
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Caturday 004
2007-12-15 12:40:00
What can I say? Sometimes it's a very target-rich environment. Sometimes I just have to splurge. ...
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Can You Swim, Kit?
2007-12-13 00:02:00
Yesterday on PBS’s Newshour, host Gwen Ifill asked questions of Sen. Kit Bond (Rep - MO), Vice-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who attended today's Hayden briefing. She was also speaking with Rep. Jane Harman of California, who served eight years on the House Intelligence Committee, including four as its ranking Democrat.The following is Senator Kit Bond's outrageous statements regarding the interrogation techniques of the CIA and "waterboarding" in particular.Sen. Kit Bond: [W]hat the CIA is doing is not torture. It conforms to the Detainee Treatment Act, the Geneva Convention, the Convention against Torture. None of these things that are being used, by any stretch of the imagination, could be described as torture.Now, I think it was a terribly bad idea that in the intelligence authorization bill there was a ban imposed on the CIA using any techniques other than those in the Army Field Manual.Gwen Ifill: [D]o you think that waterboarding... constitutes torture?Sen. ...
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Gonzo = Lawyer of the Year
2007-12-12 23:04:00
Jezus H. Frickin' Christ.The ABA Journal, published by the American Bar Association, has named former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as its Lawyer of the Year for 2007.ACK!!!Has the American Bar Association gone completely insane?? Maybe not.Naming a lawyer of the year for the 12 months that have just ended is easy. [....] The top legal story of 2007 was unquestionably the unraveling of support for the Bush administration’s expansive view of presidential power during wartime, and with it, the slow-motion destruction of Alberto Gonzales’ reign as U.S. attorney general. Add to that the controversy over whether the administration fired eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons, and no single lawyer made more news in 2007 than Gonzales.The organization named 16 runners-up for the award: * David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff and one of the most forceful advocates for expansive presidential powers during a time of war. * Erwin Chemerinsky, who was hir ...
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Kucinich Excluded from Iowa Debate
2007-12-12 10:44:00
I've heard no mention of this from any of the mainstream TV news outlets -- broadcast or cable. When the "debate" is broadcast, I imagine it will be a very brief prefatory note.The Des Moines Register's presidential debates -- Republicans today and Democrats Thursday -- are the last showcases for the candidates before the lead-off Iowa caucuses and most meaningful of the dozens already held this year, campaign strategists agree. A Democratic presidential debate scheduled for next week (Dec. 17) in Boston has been scrapped because of the earlier-than-usual Iowa caucuses.A familiar elfin face will be absent from the final Democratic shootout, though. Via The Hill:Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) is being excluded from this week’s Iowa presidential debate because he has not rented office space in the Hawkeye State, his campaign said Wednesday.The Des Moines Register informed the campaign that Kucinich is not invited because the newspaper determined "that a person working out of his home ...
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National Review Endorses Romney
2007-12-12 09:43:00
It's said that "de" Nile is not just a river in Egypt. In fact, "denial" is evidently also a stream of eyes-shut-tight rationalization in which the editors of National Review found themselves neck deep yesterday, when they endorsed Willard Mitt Romney for president because he's the most conservative candidate.Many conservatives are finding it difficult to pick a presidential candidate. [....] Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest.Now, the NR is free to endorse whomever they want. Their choice is surely not going to influence me, but I have to confess being more than a little surprised t ...
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Another Blow to Sub Lumen
2007-12-11 13:58:00
I've been dealing with some really hard knocks in recent days, and I only learned today of yet another one received last week [that's what I get for taking a three day weekend!].First it was Hugh Hewitt at Townhall.com saying that I am not to be trusted as an analyst because I didn't think "Mitt Romney's 'Faith in America' speech was simply magnificent."Then today I find out via Think Progress that on the same day, Mr. O'Reilly over at Fox announced that: 'If you read these far-left websites [e.g., Daily Kos], you're a devil worshiper. You are." He further affirmed: "Satan is running the DailyKos."At the end of this rant, a segment with his show's ombudsman, Heather Nauert, O'Reilly said, "That was a little satire there, Heather. Don’t get too upset about it." And then added, "I still think they are satanists."I honestly didn't know. Thanks, Mr. O'Reilly, for setting me straight.In the interest of being fair and balanced I do feel that I should call your attention to th ...
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A New Acronym
2007-12-11 11:55:00
Covering Intra-agency AssesAn important part of the mission of the new CIA! ...
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John Kiriakou and Abu Zubaydah
2007-12-11 10:54:00
ABC News is very proud of their exclusive interview yesterday with John Kiriakou, identified as a [now retired] "leader of the CIA team that captured the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah."Clearly this interview attracts attention because it hints at a look inside the interrogation documented by the now-destroyed CIA videotapes. But what does Kiriakou really tell us?He says he was not aware that the interrogation was being recorded and thus had no idea that the tapes ever existed, much less that they had been destroyed. He tells us that waterboarding was used but that he, personally, declined to use "enhanced interrogation techniques." He says that he has become convinced that waterboarding IS torture [which would be an admission that interrogators had been directed to commit federal felonies - SL]. But he also tells us that he thinks it was warranted and necessary and that it saved lives.Brian Ross: Did it compromise American principles? Or did it save American lives? Or bot ...
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The Ghost of Nixon
2007-12-10 23:04:00
...surely stalks the parapet of Elsinore White House these nights, summoned from slumber by chants about the destruction of tapes.Late in the day on Wednesday of last week, the New York Times notified the CIA of its intention to run a story on Friday, informing the public that the CIA had videotaped interrogations of 9/11 suspects (something the CIA had denied to even the 9/11 Commission having ever done) and that the agency had subsequently destroyed those tapes.Naturally, the CIA went into full damage control mode and "broke" the story themselves via a letter to the agency workforce written by the Director, Gen. Michael Hayden, in which he claimedthat the decision to destroy the tapes had been made "within the C.I.A. itself," and they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value.Right. And that that's not sufficient reason for you, Hayden also said that:the tapes posed a "serious security risk," and that if they were t ...
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