Buck Naked Politics

More Jobs

posted by Bill: Hey, maybe I'm being too tough about the need for a jobs program, incentives, and more. Maybe people out of work just aren't looking hard enough.

According to McClatchy, Mickey D's is hiring...at Guantamamo Bay. All you need is some restaurant management experience, a valid passport, a willingness to relocate to Cuba (er, or the 45 square miles you'll be living and working in on the island nation), and a love of grease.

Link here for more application info...

(A hat tip to Allen McDuffee for this catch.)

Bill cross-posts at Bill's Big Diamond.

Walter Cronkite

by Bill Kavanagh: The death of Walter Cronkite at 92 leaves Americans contemplating the changes in our media since his heyday as the preeminent television news anchor.  It is hard to imagine that we once looked to a network news broadcast as a digest of the nation’s daily experience, that one voice was ever regarded as, “the way it is.”  We have so many ways to get our news now, but none are so central to the American experience as the CBS Evening News was in Cronkite’s day.

Robert McNamara

by Bill Kavanagh:  Robert McNamara’s death this week at age 93 brings up a host of emotions that haunt most Americans of a certain age.  His role as the primary architect of American involvement in the Vietnam conflict during the 1960’s will be, despite all his other work, McNamara’s historical legacy.  Reflecting on that role also appears to have been the ethical shadow that preoccupied the latter half of McNamara’s life.

The decision to send half a million American boys to Vietnam in 1965 to fight a major Cold War conflict over a continuing civil war had consequences far beyond that country’s borders over the intervening decades.  The fierce resistance of the Vietnamese, a growing American domestic disillusionment with our involvement, and an increased press scrutiny of the escalation led to a decision by Lyndon Johnson not to stand for re-election in 1968, to the rise of an American political insurgency, to a questioning of an Imperial Presidency, and to the fall of many another American icon.   

Robert McNamara Dead at 93

by Deb Cupples | The New York Times reports:

"Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral consequences, died early Monday at his home in Washington, the Associated Press reported, citing his wife, Diana. He was 93, and according to the news agency, had been in failing health for some time."

Our condolences to his family and friends.  Mr. McNamara was Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, from January 1961 through February 1968.  You can see a bio here and commentary at Memeorandum.

Palau Will Take Chinese Muslims from Gitmo

by Maggie Temple-Smith | Palau, a "sparsley populated archipelago in the North Pacific," has agreed to accept the 17 Chinese now in prison at Guantanamo, The New York Times reports.  This is the first agreement reached since Obama took office -- so far, 100 countries have said, "No, thanks" when asked to accept Gitmo detainees.

[The agreement] gives Mr. Obama some relief on an issue that has become a political hot button among Congressional Republicans and even some Democrats, who have noisily protested against releasing what they call potentially dangerous extremists on American soil or transferring them to prisons in the United States.

The 17 Uighurs... have been in a state of limbo since fall, when a federal district court ordered that they be released in the United States and an appeals court overturned the ruling. The Bush administration said that it did not classify the men as enemy combatants.

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?

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

US Soldier Kills 5 Fellow Soldiers in Iraq, Injures 3 Others

by Teh Nutroots | Here's tragedy:

The killings appeared to be the worst case of lethal non-combat casualties for the American forces in Iraq since the invasion more than six years ago.

The shooting took place at around 2 p.m. local time at Camp Liberty, a sprawling base next to Baghdad airport, the military said in a statement. The names of the dead soldiers were being withheld pending family notification, the statement said….CNN, citing unnamed officials, said that at least three others were wounded in the attack, which it said had taken place at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war stress….

The death toll from the Monday shooting was the highest for American personnel in a single attack since April 10, when a suicide truck driver killed five American soldiers with a blast near a police headquarters in  Mosul, News agencies reported.  [New York Times]

Is Israel About to Bomb Iran's Nuclear Sites?

  by Damozel | The Times Online seems to think that Israel is, and indeed we've been hearing threats of impending action since last summer.  I find this all too easy to believe, but after what I've heard about its attacks on the Palestinians, I am prepared to believe anything.  M.J. Rosenberg at TPM doesn't believe it.  "Too utterly insane," he says.  Really?  I seem to recall quite a lot of talk about the possibility last summer (see related posts below) and the rhetoric hasn't changed. 

Here's what Sheera Frankel reports from Jerusalem. 

“Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words,” one senior defence official told The Times.

Capt. Phillips Rescued from Somali Pirates Following Obama's Orders for "Decisive Action"; Wingnuts Decry Obama Anyway

by Damozel |  Happily, the five-day stand-off is over.. (AFP) Obama ordered the Navy snipers to take "decisive action" if at any times Phillips was at risk.(AFP)  That's what they did and not a moment too soon, according to MSNBC.

The pirates were pointing AK-47s at Capt. Richard Phillips and he was in "imminent danger" of being killed when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order his men to shoot, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.

CNN reports:

- U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates holding an American cargo-ship captain hostage after seeing that one of the pirates "had an AK-47 leveled at the captain's back," a military official said Sunday....

North Korea's Missile Launch a (sort of) Failure

 by Deb Cupples | Over the weekend, North Korea launched a missile, apparently meant to put a  satellite into orbit, which ended up falling into the sea.  In advance, the North Korean government boasted to the media about the coming missile launch.

Via Memorandum, the New York Times tells us that President Obama is using the North Korean missile launch as an opportunity to focus on nuclear disarmament talks.

Some people think the North Korean's experiment was a failure.  Others think that scientists tend to learn from mistakes and mishaps.  We'll see.

North Korea Prepares to Launch Long-Range Missile Over Japan in April; Japanese Prepare to Shoot It Down

by Damozel | North Korea doesn't yet have the capability to load a nuclear warhead onto the missile.  But the US believes that a so-called "communications satellite" which it says it plans to launch over Northern Japan is really a long-range Taepodong-2 missile that could reach North America. (ToL)

Our response?   ABC News reports:

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," said [Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."..."I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended to mask the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile," he said.....

Gates called the launch of the missile "very troubling" and a sign that the series of meetings between the U.S., China, South Korea, Russia, Japan and North Korea known as six-party talks have not made any headway in getting North Korea to curb its nuclear program.

Human Rights Watch: Israel Unlawfully Used White Phosphorous as Weapon Against Civilians

Well, after all Israeli military rabbis did allegedly tell the troops that in a Holy War, it's immoral to show mercy to the enemy (More on that here).

Human Rights Watch reports:

US Missile Strikes in Pakistan "Take Heavy toll on Al-Qaeda" (Also Civilians); Meanwhile, a New Strategy Emerging in Afghanistan?

According to Greg Miller (in The L.A. Times) the six-month program of Predator strikes in Pakistan, started by Bush in August and continued apace by Obama,  is causing severe disruption of al-Qaeda's organization.

[M]ilitants have begun turning violently on one another out of confusion and distrust, U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism officials say.

The pace of the Predator attacks has accelerated dramatically since August, when the Bush administration made a previously undisclosed decision to abandon the practice of obtaining permission from the Pakistani government before launching missiles from the unmanned aircraft.

New Times in El Salvador

by Bill Kavanagh:  Yesterday was a transformative day for the people of the tiny Latin American country of El Salvador. Eighteen years after the civil war of the 1980s, the nation finally moved past its most brutal era by electing a new generation and context of leadership.  In a campaign characterized by very tough accusations, huge turnout, and high hopes on the Left, Salvadorans elected a former television journalist as their new President.  Mauricio Funes will become the first candidate of the FMLN coalition to head the government since they came out of the mountains and entered electoral politics in the 1990’s.

Obama Releases Bush's Secret Anti-Terror Memos

by Damozel | There. That's change I can believe in. The AP reports here.  As previously noted, one little clarification that's been forthcoming is that the CIA destroyed not two, but 92, videotapes of "enhanced interrogation" (which I'm guessing you and I couldn't tell from torture). 

But there's lots more!  Now available for your viewing pleasure, nine memos from Bush's Department of Just-Us.  Read the Bush Administration's rationalizations for things such as warrantless wiretaps by the military!

"Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech a few hours before the documents were released. "Not only is that school of thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good."  (HuffPost)

Ya think?

Kerry and Other Dems to "Unclench Fists" and Open Diplomatic Discussions with Syria

by Damozel | Speaking of engaging in discussion with those suspected of supporting hostile interests:  on a stop in Beirut, John Kerry said that the US would be reestablishing diplomatic ties with Syria, but expects it to "change its behavior" with respect to Iraq and Lebanon. Breitbart reports: 

The congressional delegations, led by Democrats, are carrying the message that America wants to engage countries it has been at odds with if they are willing, as Obama puts it, to unclench their fists.

Obama Extends Bush's "Covert" War Within Pakistan (Commentary Round-Up)

by Damozel | As I've pointed out before, people who know about these things call Pakistan the most dangerous place on the planet.  Currently, Obama is trying to take out the man who orchestrated the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and thus to take down a group of terrorists who are now trying to bring down the nuclear-weapon-having Pakistani government, to which we are friendly (or "friendly"). (NYT) 

The military and intelligence arms of that  particular "friendly" government, by the way, are well and truly controlled by military and intelligence officials who are friendly to the Taliban.

The Torture Administration Continued: Former Gitmo Guard Speaks Out

by Damozel | An Army private who served at Guantanamo Bay --- previously deterred by fear of retaliation -- is speaking out about his experiences there. (Harper's)   Scott Horton quotes the AP interview:

“The stuff I did and the stuff I saw was just wrong,” he told the Associated Press. Neely describes the arrival of detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, he details their sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, an isolation regime that was put in place for child-detainees, and his conversations with prisoners David Hicks and Rhuhel Ahmed.  (Harper's; emphasis added)

Two U.S. Missile Attacks in Pakistan?

by Deb Cupples |  Yesterday, the Washington Post reported:

"At least 20 people were killed in northwest Pakistan near the border of Afghanistan on Friday in two suspected U.S. missile strikes, marking the first such attack in Pakistan's tribal areas since President Obama's inauguration."

"A U.S. Predator drone fired three missiles at a compound about two miles from the town of Mirali in the tribal area of North Waziristan about 5:15 p.m., according to a Pakistani security official and local residents. The precision strike leveled a compound, which was owned by local tribal elder Khalil Malik, killing at least 10 suspected militants, including five foreign nationals, according to the Pakistani security official. The site of the attack is about 30 miles east of the Afghan border."

The lack of certainty in the first paragraph ("suspected U.S. missile strikes") directly conflicts with the certainty of the second  ("A U.S. Predator Drone fired three missiles...)."