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Sunday, December 9, 2007
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Talking Points Memo: "I'm hesitant to jump to conclusions, but I think there are a few lawmakers, including some Democratic leaders, who might want to comment on torture-policy briefings they received way back in 2002."
"2008 pres"
6:12:56 PM 
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Captain's Quarters: "NATO and Afghan forces captured two Taliban leaders in Musa Qala, the only city held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their capture comes amid the long-awaited push to liberate Musa Qala and end its ten-month loss. The Taliban has been forced into the city center, and the coalition forces have patiently kept up the pressure."
"2008 pres"
6:11:41 PM
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Mt. Virtus: "I have written little here about the Presidential campaign. While I have no horse in the race, I do have some clear opinions and preferences. For the most part I've been sitting back and watching things unfold as the frontrunners vie for my support.
"However, the recent overpublicized 'Huckabee Surge' has stirred me from my silence. That's because the thought that the former Arkansas governor and would-be Preacher-in-Chief could actually secure the Republican nomination is quite disturbing."
Political Wire:
The first MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina are out and show "we're in for a wild ride these next six weeks."
In Iowa:
* Among Democrats, Clinton 27%, Obama 25% and Edwards 21%. In the all-important second-choice category, all three frontrunners are tied, with Obama 30%, Clinton 29% and Edwards 27%.
* Among Republicans, Huckabee 32%, Romney 20% and Thompson 11%.
In New Hampshire:
* Among Democrats, Clinton 30%, Obama 27% and Edwards 10%.
* Among Republicans, Romney 25%, Giuliani 17%, McCain 16% and Huckabee 11%.
In South Carolina:
* Among Democrats, Clinton 28%, Obama 25% and Edwards 18%.
* Among Republcans, Huckabee 20%, Giuliani 17%, Romney 15%, Thompson 14% and McCain 10%.
"2008 pres"
5:57:11 PM
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Andrew Sullivan:"The revelations of his previous statements about gay people and people with AIDS are immensely depressing but should hardly be surprising. The views Huckabee held were much more common in 1992 than now - although even then, Huckabee's callous sentiments were irrational, outside any scientific consensus, ignorant for 1992, and clearly based on animus. I don't doubt he will distance himself from those early statements about HIV, just as even Jesse Helms did in his later years. But I wonder if Huckabee will be able to distance himself from the statements about gay people as such. Watching every Republican debate this year, you can see how no one ever dares take a position that could be deemed in any way supportive of gay people, understanding of the challenges many gay people face in a sometimes hostile world, let alone supportive of those of us constructing stable relationships.
"So this is perhaps a real opportunity for Huckabee, to express what a Christian really should express about the dignity and value of gay people, and about the moral necessity not to demonize or stigmatize those living with HIV or any illness. This culture and society has grown a lot on the issues of homosexuality and HIV in this past decade and a half. This is a chance for Huckabee to show that he has as well."
"2008 pres"
8:51:48 AM
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Political Wire: "Oprah Winfrey drew roughly 18,500 people in support of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. "The event sported one of the largest Iowa crowds so far in the 2008 race for president. Attendance even outpaced mammoth Democratic fundraisers such as Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in September where 15,000 people attended." Said the talk show host: "I am not here to tell you what to think, I'm here to ask you to think.'"
Talking Points Memo: "It's probably fair to say that Mike Huckabee has had a strange week. On the one hand, he's been surging in the polls, picking up religious right endorsements, and is now considered the frontrunner in the Iowa caucuses. On the other hand, he's been caught lying about the Wayne Dumond scandal, he's proven that has no idea what the National Intelligence Estimate is, he's completed a dramatic flip-flop on immigration policy, and he's presented himself as literally God's own anointed presidential candidate. It's created an odd political dynamic -- a folksy Baptist preacher who can charm radical Christian fundamentalists and DC media establishment types like David Broder and David Brooks with equal ease. There's one detail, though, that the prior group appreciates and the latter group ignores: Mike Huckabee has some very odd beliefs. He rejects modern biology; he's argued publicly that Roe v. Wade may have created an immigration problem; and he's said that if a man and a woman live together outside of marriage, they're engaging in a "demeaning ... alternate lifestyle.'"
"2008 pres"
8:42:09 AM
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Captain's Quarters: "The CIA briefed four Congressional leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, on the controversial practice of waterboarding over five years ago. Not only did no one object to the practice during the September 2002 briefing, but one attendee asked the briefer whether the technique was tough enough."
Captain's Quarters: "The decision to destroy the tapes of interrogations that included waterboarding two al-Qaeda terrorists came from the director of the clandestine services of the CIA and in opposition to requests from both Congress and the White House. Jose Rodriguez, the Director of Operations, made the decision without consulting the CIA's attorneys or the DCI, Porter Goss. While a member of Congress and head of the House Intelligence Committee, Goss had demanded that the CIA retain all such recordings."
"2008 pres"
8:36:20 AM
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Juan Cole: "Guerrillas differ from conventional armies in that they typically avoid direct, conventional engagements on the battlefield. They melt away before a conventional army's advance, and then reemerge to engage in sniping, sneak attacks, and bombings from an unexpected quarter. The advantage of Fred Kagan's troop escalation or "surge" is that it allowed a tamping down of violence in Baghdad through a US campaign to disarm the Sunni Arabs there. There were two disadvantages of it. First, it allowed the Shiite militias to take advantage of the disarming of many Sunni Arabs, and to ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Sunnis from the capital during the past six months. As a result, Baghdad is virtually a Shiite city now, like Isfahan or Shiraz. Second, the Sunni guerrillas melted away in West Baghdad, either laying low or relocating to other provinces, so that the violence was displaced to the provinces. Very likely when the extra US troops are removed, the guerrillas will reemerge in the capital, though their loss of so many Sunni neighborhoods to the ethnic cleansing may put them at a disadvantage now."
"2008 pres"
8:34:00 AM
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From The Environmental News Network, "One hundred fifty scientists from more than 40 universities in nine countries are starting a coordinated program aimed at gaining new insights about the Earth's climate and the complex, interconnected system involving the oceans, the atmosphere and the land. The program will study the southeastern Pacific Ocean, the marine area off South America's west coast -- a region where the interplay among low clouds, strong low-level winds, coastal ocean currents, surfacing of deep water, the Andes Mountains, aerosols and other factors shape the regional climate and affect global weather in ways that are poorly understood."
"2008 pres"
7:42:37 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:49:51 PM.
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