February 2007 Archives

Is it wrong for me to wonder why our elite pundits cannot remember what the Constitution actually says?

I suppose there is really nothing he can say that will get his name taken out of the rolodexes of Washington, D.C. bookers--including charging Senators with treason and proclaiming they should be hung.

Really, now? As Glenn Greenwald asks:

Shouldn't it be considered more notable when such a well-connected figure as Gaffney -- with close relations to some of the administration's most powerful figures -- expressly accuses Senators of treason and calls their criticism a "hanging offense"? Why does advocacy of ideas this extreme provoke so little reaction, and why are advocates of such measures treated as serious and respectable political figures?

The Bush Administration once again proposes a budget that would screw over our Veterans. The only good news here is that even the irresponsible Bushies think their budget is a work of fiction -- designed for political purposes rather than as an actual policy document. The Associated Press' Andrew Taylor explains:

After a $4 billion increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head, even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly -- by more than 10 percent in many years. White House budget documents assume that the veterans' medical services budget -- up 83 percent since Bush took office and winning a big increase in Bush's proposed 2008 budget -- can absorb a 2 percent cut the following year and remain essentially frozen for three years in a row after that.

The proposed cuts are unrealistic in light of recent VA budget trends, sowing suspicion that the White House is simply making them up to make its long-term deficit figures look better, critics say.

"Either the administration is willingly proposing massive cuts in VA health care," said Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas, chairman of the panel overseeing the VA's budget, "or its promise of a balanced budget by 2012 is based on completely unrealistic assumptions."

Edwards said that a more realistic estimate of veterans costs is $16 billion higher than the Bush estimate for 2012.

In fact, even the White House doesn't seem serious about the numbers. It says the long-term budget numbers don't represent actual administration policies. Similar cuts assumed in earlier budgets have been reversed.

The veterans cuts, said White House budget office spokesman Sean Kevelighan, "don't reflect any policy decisions. We'll revisit them when we do the (future) budgets."

What Kevelighan, and the rest of Bush Administration, seems to fail to understand is that either way, they are grossly irresponsible. Budget documents should not be works of fiction. Even in fiction, moreover, our Veterans should not be facing such uncertainty.

Remember this the next time some sanctimonious Republican tries to say that only the GOP cares about the troops. That myth needs to die -- just like the one where the GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility.

(Hat tip: Atrios)

Military leaders meet with the creative team behind 24. Military leaders explain torture does not work, and 24's glorification of it was promoting "unethical and illegal behavior and had adversely affected the training and performance of real American soldiers."

Alas, 24's creative team does not understand -- or really care. Christy Hardin Smith examines the evidence, including a recent New Yorker article by Jane Mayer.

Executive branch expert Paul Light makes an observation about Vice President Cheney that should bother anyone who cares about our Constitutional system:

"What didn't he touch? It's almost like there was almost nothing too trivial for the vice president to handle," said New York University professor Paul Light, an expert in the bureaucracy of the executive branch.

"The details suggest Cheney was almost a deputy president with a shadow operation. He had his own source of advice. He had his own source of access. He was making his own decisions," Light said.