Nothing like watching Democrats pretend to be shocked! shocked! that prisoners weren't be treated as honored house guests.

Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as "waterboarding" were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.

Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:

-- The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.

-- We understood what the CIA was doing.

-- We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.

-- We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

-- On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.

I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues.

Read the whole thing. You'll enjoy the unicorn and fairy dust references.

I'm pretty sure Nancy is going to play the "I've had so much Botox shot in my face, I don't remember anything before 2003" card any day now.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:01 AM | Comments (140)
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With your money.

I'm sure the people of Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District would like to thank you.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:49 AM | Comments (71)
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Well, now we know where Meghan McCain gets all of super-awesome smarts from.

Just days after Janet Napolitano, the U.S. homeland security secretary, sparked a diplomatic kerfuffle by suggesting the terrorists took a Canadian route to the U.S. eight years ago, McCain defended her by saying that, in fact, the former Arizona governor was correct.

"Well, some of the 9-11 hijackers did come through Canada, as you know," McCain, last year's Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News on Friday.

It was one thing for Napolitano to make a dumb mistake. She took her lumps and then we move on to her next idiotic (and you know one is coming). But for McCain to follow her off the cliff after all the play it got? That's just not a very smart guy.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:33 AM | Comments (233)
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Jhenzhiss asked me to post this for him.

So. Hey.

What weird things can you do?

I can sort of move my ears, a little. And I can cross two of my toes like most everybody else can cross their fingers. Used to be able to do perfect cartwheels like cake, but haven't tried to in years.

But that's your stereotypical hunchback shit, really.

What weird stuff can you do?

Posted by: LauraW at 07:34 PM | Comments (463)
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And not just from you folks stinkin' up the place:

Astronomers searching for the building blocks of life in a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have concluded that it tastes vaguely of raspberries. [...]

Finding amino acids in interstellar space is a Holy Grail for astrobiologists, as this would raise the possibility of life emerging on other planets after being seeded with the molecules.

In the latest survey, astronomers sifted through thousands of signals from Sagittarius B2, a vast dust cloud at the centre of our galaxy. While they failed to find evidence for amino acids, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries.

"It does happen to give raspberries their flavour, but there are many other molecules that are needed to make space raspberries," Arnaud Belloche, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, told the Guardian.

Curiously, ethyl formate has another distinguishing characteristic: it also smells of rum.

Why is the rum always gone?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:43 PM | Comments (124)
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29 years ago today, we aborted Operation Eagle Claw.

I can't link a news article, because sadly, I can't find one.

Bad luck, a friggin sandstorm, a mission pulled together with diverse assets, and the equipment and technology limitations of the day.

We lost eight American servicemen that day.

But we wouldn't take that as "here and no farther". We assessed and retooled.

And rearmed. With things like an ugly plane, that can do so much more than we could 29 years ago.

Related (from the sidebar): Cuffy shows us the difference between management and leadership.

Not a fine line.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:19 PM | Comments (90)
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Apple pulls "Baby Shaker" app from Apple app store.

Apple has apologized for a "deeply offensive" iPhone application called Baby Shaker, which made a game of quieting crying babies by shaking them...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:16 PM | Comments (42)
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Originally posted as part of "Around the Moronosphere in 60 minutes" over at my blog but I haven't seen any of the major blogs pick this up so I am once again abusing Ace's hospitality and posting it here

Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials.

...

The Uighurs were sent to Guantanamo in 2002 after being captured in Pakistan. Before that, they had gravitated to Afghanistan, where they received firearms training at a camp apparently run by a Uighur separatist.

...

The Uighurs oppose the Chinese government but do not consider the U.S. government a direct enemy. Still, many of the Uighurs hold strict views of what is permitted under Islam.

Within the prison, Uighurs are not considered a grave threat and are allowed greater freedom, such as television privileges, than other detainees.

But the TV privileges underscored potential difficulties to come, according to one current and one former U.S. official. Not long after being granted access to TV, some of the Uighurs were watching a soccer game. When a woman with bare arms was shown on the screen, one of the group grabbed the television and threw it to the ground, according to the officals.

...

U.S. officials have supported Chinese Uighurs who have sought asylum to remain here but are opposed to elements of the Uighur movement. Earlier this week, the Treasury Department froze the assets of a Uighur leader, Abdul Haq. Haq's Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party advocates secession from China and creation of an independent state.

In a statement, the Treasury Department focused on a threat by Haq to attack the 2008 Olympic Games in China, and cited his party's support for Al Qaeda. There have been no allegations that the Guantanamo detainees have been affiliated with Haq.

source

So we have a group of Islamists who traveled to Afghanistan to receive training in (at least) firearms who react violently to some aspects of western culture that support a movement that (at least partially in the person of Haq's party) supports al-Qaeda and we are going to release them in the US.

What can possibly go wrong?

Posted by: Open Blog at 11:32 AM | Comments (125)
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Damn.

"This was a closely contested election that perhaps lasted a little longer than anyone may have expected or wanted," Tedisco said in a just-released press statement. "But it was important for our electoral process and for the hard-working people of upstate New York that it be resolved fairly and decisively."

"Earlier today, I called and congratulated Scott Murphy on a hard-fought contest and wished him well as the next Congressman of the 20th Congressional district. I also expressed my willingness to work with him to ensure that the families of Upstate New York are not left behind as our nation strives for economic recovery.

Murphy's lead has been growing as the absentee ballots have been counted. He's up by 400 and change at this point.

It was always going to be a tough race but it was winnable. Not ACORN's fault. Shitty candidate.

Will this be the end of Michael Steele? I doubt it. This was a Tedisco/NRCC production.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:28 AM | Comments (28)
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So of course it's a good time to laugh at the Jets... more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 11:20 AM | Comments (30)
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