By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld
Wired: Danger Room (Free subscription) | yesterday
Remember the days when “transformation” and “net-centricity” was all the rage within the Pentagon? On Sept. 10, 2001, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war on the military’s Cold War-era business practices, describing the Pentagon as “one of the world’s last bastions of central planning.” Now, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin...
A Tiny Revolution (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Where has the CIA tortured people? ABC has just reported that one place was Lithuania : The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed...
Sustainability, Equity, Development (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
The President is right, whatever it was he said. Donald Rumsfeld, 2004 The President is wrong, whatever it was he said. Rush Limbaugh, 2009 Reagan showed us that deficits don't matter. Dick Cheney, 2003 The deficit is ruining our future. Michael Steele, 2009 Trying the terrorists behind the World Trade Center bombing in New York is completely appropriate. Rudy Giuliani, 1993 Trying the terrorists behind...
TalkLeft (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
Happy Birthday, Gitmo? Former President George W. Bush signed the order authorizing detention at Guantanamo on November 13, 2001: On Nov. 13, 2001, President George W. Bush signed what has become known as Military Order No. 1 [4] in what he termed a Global War on Terrorism. Without informing his national security adviser, his secretary of state, his chief of staff or his communications director, Bush...
Truthdig (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
Feliz cumpleaños, Gitmo: Eight years ago Friday, former President George W. Bush signed what we now refer to as Military Order No. 1, thus paving the way for the creation of the Guantanamo Bay prison and for the creative adaptations of international justice codes that supported it. —KA ProPublica: On Nov. 13, 2001, President George W. Bush signed what has become known as Military Order...
Wonkette (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Afghanistan…What to do in Afghanistan? Uh, let’s just go with the same strategy the Russians used, and then add a few sprinkles of Donald Rumsfeld for pizazz. [Matt Yglesias] Marco Rubio is such a delicious stud muffin. [TPM] Barack Obama really isn’t into that “saving” thing. It’s not his style. Barack Obama will not save your job. [...] Barack Obama - Michelle...
NewsBusters (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
On last night's "Rachel Maddow Show", the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh commended President Obama for taking the reins in Afghanistan. Hersh stated that Presidents must decide their own war strategies. But in the early stages of the war in Iraq, Hersh was a leading critic of similar actions by the Bush administration. Hersh's hypocrisy suggests he is more concerned with the political implications...
Hullabaloo (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
Cheney-Rumsfeld Replay by digby Edward Harrison at Naked Capitalism offers up a convincing look at the dynamics that led Obama to choose the path he's chosen in dealing with the financial sector. Here's the conclusion: When historians look back at the Bush 42 presidency, it will be defined by 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While George W. Bush was politically pre-disposed to the Neo-con...
HorsesAss.Org (Free subscription) | 10/31/2009
Earlier this week, the New York Times unloaded some big news about Afghanistan: KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency...
nufc1892 blog on Absolute Radio (Free subscription) | 10/24/2009
Months after leaving office with a dismal 22 per cent approval rating, George W. Bush is embarking on a new career as a motivational speaker. On Monday, the former US president - whose policies inspired millions of Americans to vote Democrat in the 2008 election- will headline at a popular Get Motivated programme, appearing at a seminar about, among other things, "How to master the art of effective...
Red State (Free subscription) | 10/22/2009
Thank you all very much. It’s a pleasure to be here, and especially to receive the Keeper of the Flame Award in the company of so many good friends. I’m told that among those you’ve recognized before me was my friend Don Rumsfeld. I don’t mind that a bit. It fits something of a pattern. In a career that includes being chief of staff, congressman, and secretary of defense, I...
Salon.com (Free subscription) | 10/22/2009
Former Vice President Dick Cheney got an award Wednesday night, the Center for Security Policy's "Keeper of the Flame Award." As you might expect of Cheney, he didn't use the occasion to bask -- instead, he went on the warpath, attacking his liberal critics generally and the Obama administration specifically. It was, to say the least, an interesting venue for that kind of speech. Admittedly,...
Black Political Thought (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
I tried really hard to ignore this latest news item about President George W. Bush, but I just couldn't resist. I would have guessed that he would command a higher admission charge at any appearances he makes, but $19? That's a slap. Well, he has found himself in a new circle. Gone are Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and Donald Rumsfeld. Hello Terry Bradshaw, Zig Ziglar and Rudy Giuliani....
Crooks and Liars (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
DOWNLOADS: (100) PLAYS: (80) Fox's Catherine Herridge has been reporting for a couple of weeks about the White House's change of policy regarding reporters' access to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, which while problematic from a journalist's perspective has all the earmarks of a classic bureaucratic conflict with reporters. Herridge ran an update yesterday on Fox's Live Desk with Marsha MacCallum, including...
National Review Online (Free subscription) | 10/15/2009
A mericans have been aware of significant civil-military tensions since the early years of the Clinton administration. Although such tensions are not unprecedented, they have produced concerns about the health of civil-military relations. Most of the most highly publicized disputes between the uniformed military and the Clinton administration reflected cultural tensions between the military as an...
Videos