Sometimes It's Just Flat Wrong

Senate shies away from vote on Bolton - 28 Sep 2006 at 2:40pm - WASHINGTON -- John R. Bolton's quest for a longer lease on his temporary job as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations remained elusive Thursday as the Senate shied away from a vote to confirm him.

Perhaps being a first-rate AH is no longer the primary statesmanlike quality it was once considered.

Violence returns to 'secure' Baghdad neighborhoods - 28 Sep 2006 at 2:30pm - BAGHDAD (AFP) - Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq threatened fiercer attacks as US military intelligence warned that militias are reoccupying previously cleared neighborhoods while local police turn a blind eye.

It can be so tuff to remember that middle part of "clear, hold, build".

Quarter million Iraqis flee sectarian violence - 28 Sep 2006 at 2:15pm - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A quarter of a million Iraqis have fled sectarian violence and registered as refugees in the past seven months, data released on Thursday showed, amid an upsurge in attacks that has accompanied the Ramadan holy month.

Heckuvajob, George. Though I'm sure he sees all that violence-fleeing as a sign of some sort of progress. They're probably not really refugees at all; just on vacation -- yeah, that's the ticket. How many of these people got to take vacations when Saddam was in power?

7-day stay granted in surveillance case - 28 Sep 2006 at 2:13pm - DETROIT -- The federal judge who struck down President Bush's warrantless surveillance program turned aside a government request for an indefinite stay Thursday but said the government could have a week to appeal.

Bob Woodward: Bush Misleads On Iraq - 28 Sep 2006 at 3:00pm - Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not been honest about the level of violence in Iraq. The veteran reporter also reveals to Wallace that Henry Kissinger advises the Bush White House.

Rumsfeld comments on intelligence report - 28 Sep 2006 at 2:13pm - PORTOROZ, Slovenia -- It is impossible to know with any precision whether the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created more terrorists than they've killed, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Precisely how much precision does he require?

In his first extensive remarks about a recent U.S. intelligence report saying the threat of terrorism has risen, Rumsfeld told reporters at a NATO meeting that, in general, the value of intelligence reports can be uneven, and "sometimes it's just flat wrong."

Funny how Rummy didn't mention all these intelligence caveats when he was discussing with what certainty he knew the locations of each of Saddams WMDs. I guess it just slipped his mind?

But he added that, "the implication that if you stop killing or capturing people who are trying to kill you, then therefore the world would be a better place, is obviously nonsensical."

See? More killing is always better and will make you safer. And if all that killing means there are more people who want to kill you, great: now you have a license to kill even more.

Senate Sides With Bush On Detainees - 28 Sep 2006 at 2:08pm - The Senate rejected a bid by a top Republican to allow terror detainees to challenge their imprisonment in court. The vote paves the way for final passage of President Bush's plan for interrogating and prosecuting terrorism suspects.