The Mercenary’s Cookbook

One of the more entertaining reactions by the Press to Scott McClellan’s very critical new book about his days in the Bush Administration, has been this claim that they had been tough all along. David Gregory defended his profession by claiming, “I think the questions were asked.” Those of us who turned elsewhere for our information remember things a bit differently.

Eric Alterman expressed the frustration many felt at the time when he wrote an entire column basically asking the questions he wished reporters would ask that turned out to be rather prescient.  And he wrote it in 2002. Here’s the list of just some of the questions Eric Alterman wanted asked in 2002:

Why did the Bush national security team ignore the Al Qaeda briefing it received from President Clinton’s National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, in the fall of 2000?

Why has no one, apparently, been fired, anywhere, despite a clear systemwide breakdown?

Who besides Rudy Giuliani thought it was a smart idea to build a terrorism crisis control center inside an obvious terrorist target?

What about those detention camps Ashcroft wanted for the purposes of indefinitely incarcerating US citizens deemed to be “enemy combatants,” while stripping them of all constitutional rights, including the right to trial? Is that still happening? That sounds kinda bad.

How did Bush decide on war with Iraq without consulting the uniformed military, the intelligence agencies, the UN, NATO, the Republican national security establishment–including both of his dad’s secretaries of state and his National Security Adviser–the Republican Party in Congress, the Democratic majority or just about anyone who did not already want to go to war with Iraq?

Got any real evidence about those nukes Saddam is building? Got any real evidence regarding his CBW and WMD delivery capabilities? Why is he not deterrable again?

What happens with Iran if Iraq collapses? 

But this one has to be the kicker: “Is anybody thinking about this stuff?”

Yes. They just didn’t have jobs in DC.

Update: Digby reminds us of Mr. Wolcott’s efforts.

Update II: And Greenwald reminds us of what happened to Donahue.

We’ve heard a lot about the housing bubble, and how it’s dragging down an already slowing economy. What you probably didn’t know - or rather, you did, but most anybody else doesn’t - is that foreclosures have hit military towns the hardest:

In the midst of the worst surge in mortgage defaults in seven decades, foreclosures in U.S. towns where soldiers live are increasing at a pace almost four times the national average, according to data compiled by research firm RealtyTrac Inc. in Irvine, California. As military families like the VerSteeghs signed up for the initial lower rates and easier terms of subprime mortgages, the number of people taking out Veterans Administration loans fell to the lowest in at least 12 years.

“We’ve never faced a situation like this, not in the Vietnam War, World War II, or the Korean War, where so many military are in danger of losing their homes,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a Washington-based advocacy group started in 2002 by Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. “No one asked them for their credit score when we asked them to fight for us.”

Foreclosures in towns around military bases, including Norfolk, Virginia, have increased 217 percent in the first quarter compared to last year because military families, who are often on the move, were an easy target of the predatory subprime lending. So families can find their loved ones being sent on extended tours, only to return to bankruptcy or homelessness.

Fortunately, the bipartisan Casey-Isakson Bill is being floated to give military families some breathing room: 

This legislation would specifically amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief law in the following ways:

 

1. For all servicemembers who incur a serious illness or injury during their military service, the foreclosure grace period provided in current law would be extended from 90 days to one year.
2. A servicemember who, within one year after completing their military service, files a claim with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall be protected from foreclosure throughout the application process and until 30 days after their claim is adjudicated.
3. “Serious injury or illness” is defined as rendering the servicemember medically unfit to perform the duties of their rank.

Another bill that would seem to be a no-brainer is the one floated by former Assistant to the Reagan’s Secretary of Defense and current Democratic Senator Jim Webb to extend educational benefits for our returning veterans who have already gone way beyond what anyone could have reasonably expected in the call of duty. Seeing an obvious opportunity in an election year, the Bill has already gotten the support of Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and Senator John Warner (R-VA). Who would oppose such a thing? Remarkably, the greatest remaining Iraq War hawks, George Bush and John McCain. (McCain managed not to be present for the final vote). The reasoning being that too much generosity might harm retention if soldiers have something to look forward to when they move on to civilian life.

Seen in the same light, I suppose foreclosure can be a net positive as well. It’s hard to leave when you’re guaranteed to have a tarp over your head.

What could the overly-spunky, more-than-occasionally annoying Rachael Ray, host of twenty-minute meals, have to do with national security? No, it’s not because she’s good with a knife. We’ll give you a hint: see if you can spot the “hate-couture” in this photo:

A few months after doughnuts became a presidential campaign issue, they stood at the center of a storm created by right-leaning bloggers. This was a story about “donuts and dumb celebrities” who were “mainstreaming terrorism” to make a buck, asserted Little Green Footballs and Michele Malkin. And Atlas Shrugs revised a bell-ringing catchphrase thusly: “TIME TO MAKE THE JIHAD!”

Suddenly, Dunkin’ Donuts was accused of promoting terrorism, thanks to the wardrobe choices of Rachael Ray, its celebrity spokesman, during an online advertisement. According to the bloggers, she had decided to embrace “hate couture” by wearing a keffiyeh, a scarf popular in the Arab world and preferred by Yasir Arafat and other Palestinian militants during their rise in the West Bank and Gaza.

Now, Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled the ads. Not since the Little Mermaid video cover was found to have palaces shaped like phalluses have our impressionable children been this safe.

We believe there is a far greater threat to our National Security. Watch, if you dare:

  Does that skirt look like anyone’s headscarf that we know?

You may have heard that Senate Republican Candidate for Ohio, Bob Schaffer, got burned when it was revealed that he went parasailing while on a fact-finding trip to uncover human rights abuses in the Mariana Islands, all on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s dime. Abramoff, who considered the Mariana islands a “perfect petri dish of capitalism”, chose someone he thought would keep the Darwinian experiment pristine. Thus, Schaffer got a nice vacation to look the other way from any exploitation of foreign workers.

Today, new journalism icon Josh Marshall reveals that Schaffer is on the witness list of a Federal investigation into the business dealings of a nonprofit which Schaffer was a member of the board.

If Abramoff wasn’t already in jail, we’d suspect these FBI agents were angling for a free ski trip.

In the upside-down world of the Bush Administration the FDA is supposed to prevent private entrepreneurs from voluntarily testing their cattle for Mad Cow, the EPA is supposed to stop states from voluntarily enacting emissions standards, and the Veteran’s Administration is supposed compare PTSD to football injuries:

VA secretary Peake suggested some of the concern about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury has been overblown.

Many of the brain injuries are serious but some of them are akin to what anyone who played football in their youth might have suffered, Peake [said].

That’s right. On the heels of a report saying veteran suicides could outnumber casualties, the VA secretary is saying we’re making too much of PTSD. After all, they volunteered for this, right?

The article goes on to say that the Vietnam Vet Peake was talking to found the answer “unsatisfying”, but I think the award for best response goes to VoteVets’, Brandon Friedman :

Frankly, Peake’s casually dismissive attitude sucks.  Being hunted by other humans every day for 15 months, watching your friend bleed to death, and having your brain flattened like a pancake from a thousand-pound detonation are not comparable to football injuries.  

And that’s all I have to say about that.

The West, long since written off as red state, is looking more blue all the time. It is central to Obama’s strategy for rewriting the political map, by putting traditionally red states in play to offset losses in Florida or Ohio, which have traumatized Democrats in recent elections. Central to such a strategy is Colorado, which is why the Dems are holding their Convention here. Though the state’s wilderness has always attracted a strange mixture of hunters, survivalists and hippie environmentalists, Colorado has a huge influx of people who offset some traditionally libertarian elements.

So, the cosmopolitan city centers, mixed with rural voters more receptive to the populist message, make the West possible Ground Zero of 2008.

Helping matters in Ohio and Colorado is the fact that the major players in the Republican Party in these states are suffering from multiple investigations, corruption and sex.

Today demonstrated just how much the state of the state has changed. Today, during a speech, McCain was shouted down by protestors chanting “Endless War!”
 

One doubts the Democratic Convention can hope to come close to the disarray of 1968, when you not only had a war, but assassinations seemed commonplace. But there are definitely some Democratic activists around to make this hostile territory for Republicans.

It turns out the historic search for the wreckage of the Titanic is more like something out of a Clive Cussler novel. It turns out, Dr. Bob Ballard’s discovery of the Titanic was actually cover for a top secret mission to inspect the nearby wreckage of nuclear submarines, the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. The Thresher sank after a high-pressure pipe blew, causing the sub to lose power. The Scorpion, however, was thought to have perhaps been sunk by the Soviets:

[T]he USS Scorpion disappeared in 1968 amid speculation that it was sunk by Soviet forces.

Dr Ballard mapped both submarine wrecks using his newly developed underwater robot craft. He concluded that the most likely cause of the Scorpion’s destruction was being hit by a rogue torpedo it had fired itself.

Dr. Ballard also studied the nuclear reactors to see if they posed any environmental risk - a real question since the U.S. was considering sinking reactors at sea as a way to cut the nuclear fleet to comply with Salt II in the 80s.

Progressivefuture has been interviewing an Iraqi veteran all week about the abuses she witnessed firsthand by contractors. Take a look.

Contractors Aren’t Free

 

Sewage in with the Bathwater

 

Witness Weighs in on KBR Water Scandal Reports

 

The Trauma of Silence

 

Contractor Accountability

.Section 325 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008 prohibits the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from directing or requiring the Secretary of Defense or Secretary of a Military Department to undertake a public-private competition under OMB Circular No. A-76.

The Free Market means, “Free for me to do what I want when I write the rules.”