The president made the admission during a news conference, during which he uttered perhaps the most tone-deaf and asinine remark of his presidency: “Nobody likes war. It creates a sense of uncertainty in the country.”
Black American women are 19% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women, according to a new study. This is just the most recent of many studies illustrating that within our healthcare system, even after controlling for socioeconomic factors, blacks still receive a poorer quality of healthcare than whites.
AP reports that Hussein and his inner circle were exasperated in their attempts during the 1990s to prove to the world that they’d given up banned weapons, according to transcripts of meetings found among documents seized after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “We don’t have anything hidden!” Saddam once interjected, documents show.
Sgt. Michael Smith (pictured above threatening an Abu Ghraib detainee with a dog) becomes the ninth soldier to be convicted for detainee abuse. He faces over eight years in prison.
To date, no high-ranking officials have been charged with crimes stemming from the abuses.
Two separate claims of American soldiers murdering Iraqi civilians have arisen. One report involves the alleged killing of 15 people, including a 3-year-old girl; the second involves the alleged murder of 11, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant.
The blog ThinkProgress has put together a stellar walk-through of the major events of the conflict. (Above: Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard an aircraft carrier.)
Three years of falsely upbeat predictions about the Iraq war are harming the president’s ability to restore confidence in his military operation and his presidency, according to GOP pollsters and strategists, reports the Washington Post.
The paper throws cold water on Bush’s much-touted claim that the Tall Afar region of Iraq is a case study in the U.S.’ ability to help restore stability to a war-torn area. (Check out the transcript of Bush’s speech--particularly the unscripted Q & A session at the end.)
The MSNBC anchor uses a clip from Bush’s own State of the Union address to contradict the president’s claim on Monday that he never made a direct connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein.
Olbermann then says: “Who does the president think he’s F’n kidding?”
Hats off to Olbermann for showing the backbone that is so often absent in media coverage of the president’s claims.
He converted to Christianity 16 years ago as an aid worker in Pakistan, an offense punishable by death under Sharia law. (Above: A judge holds the accused’s Bible.)
If you’re shaking your head over this resurgence of religious fundamentalism, check out this earlier story on the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan.
The Washington Post ran a week’s worth of postings by a young, UK-raised Iraqi dentist who describes the unnerving experience of living “between the hammer of terrorists and the anvil of American, British and Iraqi security forces.”
(Also, check out his blog, Healing Iraq, with his bio.)
The Associated Press erased a video of an unprovoked Israeli soldier shooting Palestinian children in 2004--according to a journalist conducting a study of the AP’s practices in the region.
The New York Times uncovers the story of a top-secret detention center in Baghdad where American jailers “used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball.”
A federal appeals court allows the state of Tennessee to offer anti-abortion license plates that read, “Choose Life.” The court says that although the decision to offer the plates may be ill-advised, it does not contravene the First Amendment.
Of all the odd places for an abortion-rights battle to show up, state license plates has to be atop the list.
The N.Y. Times examines internal police reports in which NYPD commanders discuss their use of “proactive arrests,” covert surveillance and psychological tactics at antiwar rallies in 2002.
The country that wages preemptive war now has a city police force making “proactive” arrests.
The U.S. military announced Thursday that it had launched the ”largest air assault since the U.S.-led invasion” in 2003. As it turns out, however, it was little more than a photo op. According to Time magazine, “there were no airstrikes… no leading insurgents were nabbed… there were no shots fired at all,” and U.S. forces met no resistance.
Can anyone say Potemkin assault? UPDATE: The L.A. Times is now reporting that the operation has yielded 48 arrests, including at least one major insurgent ringleader, along with seizures of weapons and training manuals.
The House just voted down an amendment that would have provided $1.25 billion for port inspections and disaster preparedness. Meanwhile, as Think Progress points out, the Bush budget contains an increase of $1.7 billion for a Star Wars-esque missile defense program--which doesn’t even work.
May the Force be with us.
OK, OK, it’s not time to get hysterical yet. This one doesn’t look likely to pass, but…
Four senators have introduced a bill that would allow the NSA to eavesdrop, sans warrant, for up to 45 days. GOP Sen. Arlen Specter objected, saying the law would allow government to “do whatever the hell it wants.”
Oh. Right. What a departurethat would be.
Congress just raised our debt ceiling--the amount we’re allow to borrow--by $781 billion. It was either that or default on our treasury notes. This is the fourth debt-ceiling increase since Bush took office--some $3 trillion in total. Dick Cheney may have said that deficits don’t matter, but try telling that to the next generation of Americans, who are going to have one helluva credit card bill to pay off.
Remember Kurdistan, that semiautonomous northern part of Iraq that the U.S. always points to as a model of stable, quasi-democratic governance? Well, corruption up there is so systemic that thousands of people vented their anger by burning down a government museum. The horrible irony: The museum commemorates the thousands of Kurds who died in Saddam Hussein’s 1988 gas attack. It had become an emblem of government greed.
Another front just opened up in the Iraqi civil war that the Pentagon claims doesn’t exist.
The Republican senator stunned both Democrats and the GOP alike by introducing an immigration bill that bypasses others now being debated. Bighearted guy that he is, Frist left out a guest-worker provision--which many conservatives view as amnesty for undocumented workers. (But which even Bush supported....)
Check out Truthdig’s Marc Cooper to strip away the myths surrounding this hotly debated issue.
Chevron in the White House
