Thursday, December 14, 2006

Melinda Henneberger: Congress and the Cowboy Way. In all my years of covering news the old-fashioned way - that is, without any particular inclination to stop in the middle of the game and shout, "Yea, team, go!'' -- I never considered myself a partisan of anything other than getting it as close to right as possible. Which is plenty hard enough, I always thought. Then, however, W. happened. Where others perceived rakish charm, I saw a guy with four memorized responses -- which he felt free to mix and match no matter what the question -- and an instinct for the particular way in which each reporter preferred to be insulted. We have all had these "Emperor's New Clothes'' moments, of course. And the worst part is that, just like that time you mentally gave your dear friend's marriage three years tops -- and were later proved to be two years too optimistic -- there is really not a thing you can do about it. Because unlike in the children's story, shouting the naked truth in the streets typically has no effect. This is what Al Gore must feel like all the time. Anyway, the good news is, it doesn't matter any more. I know this because I woke up this morning and saw the story, right there on the front page of The New York Times, "Democrats Plan to Take Control of Iraq Spending.'' If true, and that was an enormous if even before Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota was in critical condition, this is the best news I've heard in six years. If true, it would mean that Mr. Bush could spend all the time he wants studying the various Iraq studies. Until now, I've kind of resented that even though he's the president and I'm not, he has more time to work out than I do. But if true, the commander-in-chief could ride his bike all day and fall into bed at 9 o'clock, no problem. Because if members of Congress really do have the will to take control of Iraq spending, they can be The Deciders now. They can decide that no more heart-breakingly brave young people like Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis have to die in an exercise that looks increasingly like a doomed effort to prove the president wasn't altogether wrong. McGinnis, a 19-year-old from Knox, Pennsylvania, died 10 days ago when he threw himself on a grenade that was lobbed into his Humvee in Baghdad. He saved the lives of the four soldiers in the truck with him, and the AP reported that "McGinnis chose to throw himself on the explosive even though he had enough time to jump out of the truck.'' I challenge anyone to look at his picture in yesterday's USA Today without bawling. I challenge Congress to honor his sacrifice by deciding to save others like him. As the Texan writer James Moore explained in his wonderful post on the Iraq Study Group last week, the president never has and never will "cowboy up.'' (In our house, we call doing the hard but right thing "the cowboy way.'' As in, when you've maybe not told the total truth about the state of your homework, "That is not the cowboy way.'' Works for cowgirls, too, needless to say.) Whatever the president does or does not do, it's time for Congress to cowboy up. [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed] 8:50:01 AM    comment []

US Scientists Reject Interference. 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting political interference in the scientific process. The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy. According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons. It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives. [t r u t h o u t] 7:17:07 AM    comment []

White House Seeks New Ruling to Keep Cheney Visitors Secret. The Bush administration, responding to an October order by US District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina to release two years of White House visitor logs to the Washington Post, asked an appeals court Wednesday to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Cheney's residence and office. The newspaper, researching the access lobbyists and others had on the White House, sought Secret Service records for anyone visiting Cheney, his legal counsel, chief spokesman, and other top aides and advisers. [t r u t h o u t] 7:16:06 AM    comment []

Bush Administration Uses Subpoenas to Suppress Critics. The subpoena raises the possibility that the Bush administration has found a new tool to stop the dissemination of secrets, one that could avoid the all but absolute constitutional prohibition on prior restraints on publication. The disputed document, according to the ACLU, is three and a half pages long and unremarkable and "has nothing to do with national defense." The ACLU said the subpoena was an effort to chill speech about the Bush administration. "The government is involved in a very conscious effort to suppress its critics," said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU's executive director. [t r u t h o u t] 7:15:11 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2007 Patricia Thurston.