'A Defense Department official has stirred up a maelstrom in the American legal community by calling on U.S. corporations to boycott law firms whose attorneys represent suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....

..."I think quite honestly when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists that hit their bottom line in 2001," he said, "those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms."' Official Calls for Boycott of Law Firms Representing Detainees

The Pentagon has already backed away from this man's statement.

The Pentagon on Saturday disavowed a senior official's remarks suggesting companies boycott law firms that represent detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Charles "Cully" Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said in a radio interview last week that companies might want to consider taking their business to firms that do not represent suspected terrorists.

Stimson's remarks were viewed by legal experts and advocacy groups as an attempt to intimidate law firms that provide legal help to all people, even unpopular defendants.

A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Brian Maka, said Stimson was not speaking for the Bush administration.

Stimson's comments "do not represent the views of the Department of Defense or the thinking of its leadership," Maka told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Stimson's "shameful and irresponsible" remarks deserve condemnation, said Neal Sonnett, a Miami lawyer and president of the American Judicature Society, a nonpartisan group of judges, lawyers and others.

Sonnett said in a statement that Stimson had made a "blatant attempt to intimidate lawyers and their firms who are rendering important public service in upholding the rule of law and our democratic ideals." - CNN


I wonder how Stimson would feel about someone urging the government to fire employees who are anti-American enough to make statements going against one of the basic principles of our legal system, or urging any potential employers not to hire stupid people who overstep their authority.

A number of wingnuts are taking up the cause; demanding names of the lawyers under the FOIA. These people, quite clearly and without question, neither understand what the Constitution is all about, nor believe in America.

'I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude.' Dubya

'Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes and we will continue to have enormous successes.' Dick Cheney on Iraq

I guess these guys are deep in the bunker.

This one's scarily dumb:

'Tuesday's deal between North Korea and five other nations, including the United States, to take the first concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament in exchange for aid and normalised relations marks a long-awaited diplomatic breakthrough for U.S. President George W. Bush and a clear victory for "realists" in his administration.

The deal, which was announced after several days of talks in Beijing, was immediately denounced as a defeat by one of the administration's former leading hawks, ret. U.N. Amb. John Bolton, who is considered close to Vice President Dick Cheney.

"It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world," Bolton charged in a CNN interview. "It contradicts fundamental premises of the president's policy he's been following for the past six years, and, second, it makes the administration look very weak at a time in Iraq ...when it needs to look strong."'
Korea Deal Marks Big Victory for Realists

If only Cheney and his acolytes could all be 'retired' like Bolton was. Think of the possibilities for constructive negotiation in the Middle east.

This isn't exactly a "statement" but:
How about a Nobel Peace prize for Rush Limbaugh???

I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well. - — VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY, responding to Tony Blair's decision to withdraw 1,600 British troops from Iraq

quote:

Originally posted by DorianGreyed:
I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well. - — VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY, responding to Tony Blair's decision to withdraw 1,600 British troops from Iraq

Never knew the Vice President was a Monty Python fan:

Optimist

"It has been described as her idea but ... I don't want to try to vouch for origination," Snow said, referring to Miers. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories." White House Backs Off on Miers Scenario

Weren't they watching the Libby trial? Didn't they notice that people have finally seen through the "Oh, gee, I forgot" defence? Maybe they should switch to the equally time-honoured "A big boy did it and ran away" ploy.

"I'm sorry, just frankly, it bubbled to the surface the way it has, for the US attorneys involved," answered Bush. "I really am. These are --I put them in there in the first place. They're decent people. They serve at our pleasure. And yet, now, they're being held up in the scrutiny of all this. And it's just--what I said in comments, I meant about them. I appreciated their service, and I'm sorry that the situation has gotten to where it's got. But that's Washington, DC, for you. You know, there a lot of politics in this town." The Decider is Delusional

As the article points out...

'Here's the troubling thing about Bush's response.

It appears that he might be unaware that his firing of the US Attorneys – who, as he notes "serve at the pleasure of the president" – took the situation "to where it's got."

Does Bush think that these US Attorneys are under attack by the Senate?

Does he not understand that the Senate is trying to figure out why Bush and his aides went after the fired prosecutors?

Does he not understand that the US Attorneys in question will be testifying about wrongdoing by presidential appointees?'

Here's a nice one for lovers of animals:

" The zoo must kill the bear. Feeding him by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws" Frank Albrecht, spokesman for a group of animal rights activists.

The bear in question is the famous polar bear Knut, who has just made his first public appearance at Berlin Zoo.He was abandoned by his mother. She herself was rescued from a circus. The Zoo decided to raise him by hand.

Isn't nice when someone thinks that the rights of an animal, itself the product of a mother kept in apparent cruelty, are best served by kiling it ? It's like an absurd extension of the 'logic' that says we must dock the tails of puppies in case the tail ever gets hurt in adulthood or the thinking that we should hunt foxes with hounds because it is better, kinder, for foxes to be chased until exhausted and then torn up alive by a pack of hounds rather than be shot dead.

'In a press conference after his Baghdad tour, McCain told a reporter that his visit to the market today was proof that you could indeed “walk freely” in some areas of Baghdad.' thinkprogress.org

Er... 'NBC’s Nightly News provided further details about McCain’s one-hour guided tour. He was accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.” Still photographs provided by the military to NBC News seemed to show McCain wearing a bulletproof vest during his visit.'

'A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions...'
McCain Wrong on Iraq Security, Merchants Say

Was it a statement dumb enough to damage McCain's campaign hopes?

It gets worse...

'The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital. The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress...

...More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in the past week despite a US-Iraqi security plan to quell violence in the capital. Most of the killings have been the result of truck bombs outside Baghdad.

Mr McCain said that the situation was showing signs of improvement and blamed waning support in the United States for the war on the media, which were portraying an overly negative image of the crisis.' www.timesonline.co.uk

Do they really think they can make the "it's just the media focusing on the negative" charge stick?

'McCain's Baghdad walk was a full-blown, bull-moose, train-wreck disaster of truly galactic proportions: a veritable Hindenberg of campaign photo-op debacles. It was so mind-bendingly ugly and deranged and disgusting that the once-iconic "Dukakis in the Tank" blunder now seems quaint by comparison...' The American Tragedy of John McCain

"It's up to the Iraqi people and the Iraq elected folks to show America and the world they're ready to do the hard work necessary to reconcile and move forward" Dubya

On some pretext or other, Mars attacks. With overwhelming firepower, it destroys not only the US's army, but the country's infrastructure - roads, bridges, power lines...

It floods the country with billions of dollars, handing sacks of cash to anyone who sticks their head round the door of the temporary authority's bunker.

It leaves arms dumps unattended, and disbands the army - sending soldiers home with their guns.

It pretty much invites outside terrorists to come to the country to fight - 'bring it on'.

Hundreds of thousands of people die.

Mars decapitates the government (admittedly an awful one, but there are better ways..), instead backing and then withdrawing support from various factions, charlatans and warlords, without an apparent plan. It dithers on allowing proper elections, wanting to control the result, and sectarian lines have been drawn by the time a potential new government is formed. (Mars does make sure that the US's natural resources will be under de facto Martian control.)

As the resulting chaos mounts, the Martian High Commander says in his best gee-shucks manner, "It's up to you folks in the US to show us you're ready to do the hard work necessary..."

How would you feel?

Oh, wait a minute - maybe some Iraqis are showing the world they want to to work towards reconciliation:

"Iraq's prime minister said Sunday that he has ordered a halt to the U.S. military construction of a barrier separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad after fierce criticism over the project at home.

The challenge to the U.S. initiative came as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began a regional tour to shore up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his Shiite-dominated government as sectarian violence persists despite a nearly 10-week-old security crackdown.

The U.S. military announced last week that it was building a three-mile-long and 12-foot-tall concrete wall in Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold in northern Baghdad whose residents have often been the victims of retaliatory mortar attacks by Shiite militants following bombings usually blamed on Sunni insurgents.

U.S. and Iraqi officials defended plans for the barrier as an effort to protect the neighborhood, but residents and Sunni leaders complained it was a form of discrimination that would isolate the community. A large protest was scheduled for Monday in the area.

In his first public comments on the issue, al-Maliki said Sunday that he had ordered the construction to stop." Construction on Baghdad barrier halted

Now, whose brilliant idea was the wall? Walls work so well, don't they?

'Laura Bush on "The Today Show" April 25, 2007:

Ann Curry: Do you know the American people are suffering ... watching [Iraq]?

Laura Bush: Oh, I know that very much, and, believe me, no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this. And certainly the commander-in-chief who has asked our military to go into harm's way.'

Admittedly it was an odd question - "watching" Iraq. I guess that says something about the lack of impact of the war on business as usual in the US. Nevertheless, the reply - "no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this" - are you kidding me?