Buck Naked Politics

Gen. Taguba Hasn't Seen the 44 Abu Ghraib Torture Photos Suppressed by Obama?

by Damozel | In other words, The Telegraph got it wrong and Taguba saw only the ones already released (Salon has published 279 photos from Abu Ghraib and those are disgusting and indecent.). See: Maj. Gen. Taguba: Abu Ghraib Photographs Censored by Obama Show Rape "and Every Indecency".

Does that mean that the 44 Obama is fighting the ACLU to keep suppressed are even worse?  I don't like to imagine how that can be, and specifically so because of the apparent lack of accountability.  If they are worse, is no one going to be made to answer?   

Alternatively, does all this just mean that Obama isn't aware of what's already in the public domain?  I don't get it. 

GOP Strategists Who Specialize in "Latino Outreach" Upset by Sotomayor Attacks

by Damozel | At HuffPost, Sam Stein writes:

Top-ranking Republican strategists who specialize in Hispanic outreach say they are outraged, disturbed and concerned by the type of reception Barack Obama's pick for the Supreme Court has received from conservative activists.

In the days since the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, several prominent conservative voices have leveled unusually blunt attacks at her resume. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and radio host Rush Limbaugh both insisted that the court of appeals judge was a racist for saying that her Hispanic background allowed her to come to better judicial decisions. Former Congressman Tom Tancredo, on Friday, called Sotomayor a member of the "Latino KKK."

Defense Contractor Involved in Bribery re: Bullet Proof Vest Contract

The Justice Department reports:

"According to the plea agreement filed in the U.S. District Court in the District of  Columbia on Dec. 18, 2007, and unsealed today, Diana Bakir Demilta, a U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Demilta, the President of Global-Link Distribution LLC, a defense contracting company with operations in the International Zone, Baghdad, Iraq, subverted the competitive bidding process used by the Department of Defense and the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq for a bullet-proof vest contract by submitting multiple sham bids from about September 2004 until about March 2005.

"In addition, Demilta admitted that she paid at least $60,000 to an unnamed public official to induce that person to influence the award of contracts and to induce expedited payments for contracts awarded to Demilta’s company...."

Another Drug Maker to Settle Justice Dept. Fraud Suit

by Deb Cupples |  Last week, I blogged about drug giant Wyeth, which agreed to settle a Justice Department fraud suit after the company allegedly (and knowingly) "failed to give the government the same discounts it provided to private purchasers of its drugs, as required by laws governing the Medicaid program. 

Wyeth's reported failure simultaneously saved the company hundreds of millions of dollars -- while costing us taxpayers the same amount. 

Today, I learned that drug maker Aventis has agreed to settle a Justice Department fraud suit for $95 million after the company allegedly engaged in conduct similar to Wyeth's conduct.  The Justice Department reports:

Dueling Media Messages about our Nation's Economy

  by Deb Cupples |  Yesterday, MSNBC had a piece online with this title: "Evidence mounts that recession may be ending: But the economy's bounce along the bottom may be a very bumpy ride."

Forget, for a moment, the inherent conflict between the idea of a recession's end and a "very bumpy ride."  Skim readers (which likely includes millions of Americans) likely got the impression from MSNBC's title that the end of our nation's economic woes really is in view -- like light at the proverbial tunnel's end.

Also yesterday, Reuters ran a piece that painted a different picture:

Newt Gingrich Calls Sotomayor a Racist and other Nonsense

by Damozel | Way back in 2001, before she knew she might be nominated to the Supremes, Sonia Sotomayor gave wingnuts all the reason they needed for clutching their pearls, fainting, and screeching for their smelling salts by saying without regard for whether it could someday be taken out of context:

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," Sotomayor said in that speech, describing how life experience can inform judicial opinions.  (CNN)

Anxious for any excuse to oppose Obama's nominee, conservatives have seized on this comment.  Newt, being a twit, tweeted:

Banking Industry Reform: Regulation by a Single Agency?

By Damozel | Apparently "senior administration officials" are considering replacing various federal agencies that failed to regulate the banks with a single agency.  This would be in addition to other reforms.

The new regulator would assume responsibility for the safety and soundness of banks, currently divided among the Fed and three other agencies: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The OCC and the OTS would probably disappear, while the Fed and the FDIC would retain other responsibilities. (WaPo)

Why might such a reform be necessary, you ask? 

Under the current system, banks can choose their regulator.

Yes, you read that correctly.. 

Under the current system, banks can choose their regulator.(WaPo) 

And wait!  There's more.  The agencies are funded by fees from the banks that choose them and for whose custom they compete by offering more lenient oversight:

Maj. Gen. Taguba: Abu Ghraib Photographs Censored by Obama Show Rape "and Every Indecency"

by Damozel | The conservative British paper, The Telegraph, reports:

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged....

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts...Three detainees, including the alleged victim, refer to the use of a phosphorescent tube in the sexual abuse and another to the use of wire, while the victim also refers to part of a policeman’s “stick” all of which were apparently photographed..

Olbermann Interviews Wingnut Radio Ranter Who Conceded Waterboarding is Torture After Getting Himself Waterboarded

We covered the self-inflicted waterboarding of Mancow here.  HuffPost has a good write-up of this interview with Olbermann. See what Sean Hannity -- who has yet to experience waterboarding up close and personal -- had to say to him afterward!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

TPMtv's "The Day in 100 Seconds" (May 27, 2009 Video) -- Justice (Sotomayor & Gonzalez)

After the jump....

The Torture Administration: Gonzo on the DoJ's Role in Torture -- "I Did My Best to Defend Our Country"

by Teh Nutroots |  Poor little berk, I really believe that's what he thinks he was doing.  Video after the jump:

North Korea Threatens Armed Strike Against South Korea; Says Will No Longer Abide by 1953 Armistice

Damozel | While Bush was thinking about oil and Iraq, Kim Jong II in North Korea was busy, busy, busy building up its "nuclear deterrent."  And now NK claims it's ready to rrrrrrrrumble if anyone even thinks of trying to interfere -- with "anyone" meaning "anyone, but especially South Korea."

Yesterday, I commented on the options for dealing with N. Korea as including authority under a UN Security Council Resolution to "halt and inspect shipping into and out of North Korea for contraband missile parts or nuclear materials." (New York Times)  The drawback to enforcing this authority was, according to the NYT's Sanger "escalation of hostilities with....the poorest and least predictable state in Northeast Asia." (NYT).  N. Korea is particularly incensed that S. Korea is getting involved in a US-led program to seize weapons of mass destruction..  So much, then, for the 1953 armistice?

TPMtv's "The Day in 100 Seconds" (May 26, 2009 Video): Obama Names Sonia Sotomayor as Choice for Supreme

After the jump.....

Gay Marriage Ban Upheld in California

by Damozel | If there's an upside to this affirmation of the right of the Right to make their fellow Americans miserable, it's that the same-sex couples who married beforehand get to stay married.  The New York Times reports:

Today’s opinion, written by Chief Justice Ronald M. George for a 6-to-1 majority, said that same-sex couples still have the right to civil unions, which gives them the ability to “choose one’s life partner and enter with that person into a committed, officially recognized, and protected family relationship that enjoys all of the constitutionally based incidents of marriage.” But the justices said that the voters had clearly expressed their will to limit the formality of marriage to opposite-sex couples.

Justice George wrote that Proposition 8 did not “entirely repeal or abrogate” the right to such a protected relationship, but argued that it “carves out a narrow and limited exception to these state constitutional rights, reserving the official designation of the term ‘marriage’ for the union of opposite-sex couples as a matter of state constitutional law.”

The 18,000 existing marriages can stand, he wrote, because Proposition 8 did not include language specifically saying it was retroactive.

I'll write more on this when I calm down.  For now, check out Memeorandum.

Bill Maher vs. Sean Hannity (Video)

Sean Hannity called Bill Maher "an angry, bitter guy"...Maher says, "That's called projecting." Who's right? Could it be...they both are?   Yeah, I still love Bill, but he really needs to calm down and shut up about his ongoing dispute with God and -- right though he be -- his disgust over high fructose corn syrup.  It gets a bit....ranty.  Also I'm still angry over Steve Irwin.  As for Hannity, I'm waiting for him to put his nose where his mouth is on the general topic of waterboarding, now that Mancow's led the way.

After the jump...! 

CNN: Americans Have More Favorable View of Colin Powell than of Cheney and Limbaugh

by Damozel | Mirabile dictu, a CNN poll shows that Americans generally much prefer Powell to Limbaugh and Cheney.  "The numbers, among all Americans: Powell is viewed favorably by 70%, compared to only 37% for Cheney and 30% for Limbaugh."  (TPMDC)

Interestingly, Republicans like all of them, but even Republicans prefer Powell to Limbaugh.

The poll suggests that 66 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Cheney, 64 percent give Powell a thumbs up, and 62 view Limbaugh in a favorable way.  (CNN)

Good:  they can have them all, including Powell.  Powell, still "skirmishing" with Limbaugh and Cheney, said:

North Korea Throws Down the Gauntlet with Nuclear Test as Powerful as Hiroshima, Outraging Entire World (News Round-Up)

by Damozel | The Guardian reports:

North Korea today risked further international isolation after it claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

The test comes less than two months after the North enraged the US and its allies by test firing a long-range ballistic missile...Officials in South Korea said they had detected a tremor consistent with those caused by an underground nuclear explosion. The country's Yonhap news agency reported that the North had test-fired three short-range missiles from a base on the east coast immediately after the nuclear test..

The underground atomic explosion, at 9.54am local time (0154 BST), created an earthquake measuring magnitude 4.5 in Kilju county in the country's north-east, reports said.

Meanwhile, certain members of the right are outraged that Obama did no more than point out that this is a matter of grave concern to the entire international community.  Sadly, Obama's foreign policy people have been pretty busy elsewhere, with other priorities. (cf. The New York Times)  The question is whether there is anything he can do about North Korea, besides work on Russia and China to exert pressure.  They ain't happy about the test either.

Of course, Bush's strategy for North Korea was, shall we say, inconsistent and ultimately -- as evidenced by this test -- a failure

TPMtv's "The Day in 100 Seconds" (Memorial Day, 2009 Video)

SOWF: Taking Care of Fallen Soldiers' Families

  by Deb Cupples |  Earlier today, I blogged about the Mile-Long Memorial, a most  impressive tribute to American soldiers that died in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

This post is about a Tampa-based foundation called the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF), which has -- for 29 years -- been helping the families of fallen soldiers in very practical ways.

SOWF has a targeted, straight-forward mission:

Mile-Long Memorial: a Most Impressive Tribute to our Fallen Soldiers

by Deb Cupples |   It's as amazing as it is heartbreaking.  It looks like swaths of Arlington Cemetery were transplanted to Gainesville, Florida.

That's Memorial Mile: a one-mile grassy stretch along the sidewalks of North West 8th Avenue, lined with over 4,900 tombstone cut-outs: each bears a soldier's name, hometown, age, and date of death; each represents an American soldier who died in Iraq or Afghanistan. 

When I blogged about Memorial Mile in 2007, there were "only" 3,844 tombstones.

The tombstones are arranged 1) by "theater" (i.e., Afghanistan or Iraq), and 2) by date of death.  Signs mark various events and dates.

It's troubling to see a visual representation of all the people who died after the sign indicating May 1, 2003, the date that ex-President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.

Memorial Mile was built by numerous volunteers and members of the group Veterans for Peace, whose Gainesville chapter is led by Vietnam combat-veteran Scott Camil. 

This year, a new sign was added to the memorial: one marking the date that President Barack Obama was sworn in.  Not everyone is happy about the new sign, Scott told the Gainesville Sun: