Sunday, November 18, 2007

Kos, Rove columns debut in Newsweek.. In his debut column in Newsweek today, former White House adviser Karl Rove instructs the GOP presidential candidates on how to beat Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), whom he describes as “hard and brittle.” He encourages them to distances themselves from the “low approval rates of the Republican president” (although he conveniently fails to mention President Bush by name): Every presidential election is about change and the future, not the past. So show them who you are in a way that gives the American people hope, optimism and insight. That’s the best antidote to the low approval rates of the Republican president. […] Kos, on the other hand, encourages the Democratic candidates to continue reminding voters that “that the Republican platform and Bush’s record are one and the same”: When Bush chose a head for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, did he select a competent administrator experienced in disaster management? No, he appointed Mike Brown, an attorney previously fired as the “judges and stewards commissioner” of the International Arabian Horse Association for gross mismanagement. He was an incompetent horse lawyer, yet Bush deemed him capable of running the nation’s top disaster relief agency. Reagan, who once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’,” might have approved the choice, but the abandoned residents of the Gulf Coast would undoubtedly beg to differ. [Think Progress] 11:51:01 AM    comment []

Elizabeth de la Vega: Real DOJ Trial Attorneys on Torture. Former assistant US attorney Elizabeth de la Vega writes for Truthout, "If there is one thing the Bush administration is good at, it's talking points: simple, stupid slogans. And when it comes to torture, the theme du jour is that we are all too simple and too stupid to understand just what is and is not prohibited.... They are, plainly and simply, wrong. It is long past time for them to listen to what the real prosecutors in the Department of Justice have to say." [t r u t h o u t] 9:39:45 AM    comment []