The newest revelations about the circumstances surrounding Pat Tillman's death are horrifying enough to merit widespread media coverage. But rather than rehashing the details, I think it's instructive to watch two very different broadcasts, ironically, by two stations with the same parent company:

Here's Jim Miklaszweski on Friday's NBC Nightly News:

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Now to be fair, that's an fair and accurate reporting of facts. However, what Miklaszewski fails to do is to connect the dots or provide any context. Compare it to this report (using the same footage and in fact, citing Miklaszewski's report) on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann with Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org:

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Which reporting made you feel like you understood the situation better?

UPDATE: Apparently, both MSNBC & NBC operated from AP's report of Tillman berating a soldier in the last moments before his death, based on a second-hand account given by a chaplain who debriefed the unit after the incident. According to MSNBC yesterday, the soldier involved said it didn't quite happen that way. Maybe it's me, but don't you think that AP might have wanted to confirm the events with someone who was, say, there before running the story and painting Tillman as an angry and dismissive atheist fragged by his fellow troops?

The conventional wisdom is that the 110th Congress, which is getting close to its summer break, has been a let-down. Thanks to presidential vetoes and unprecedented Republican filibusters in the Senate, a Congress which had high expectations in January is ending July on a disappointing note.

Now is probably a good time to push back against this meme. There have been setbacks, and were it not for GOP games we would have seen even more successes, but Dems are proving to be quite capable of running an effective majority. In their weaker moments, even Republicans are willing to acknowledge this.

“[Congressional Democrats have] had a pretty strong quarter,” said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), who praised [the legislation expanding SCHIP] as “creative” and suggested the homeland security bill would pass overwhelmingly. “The first quarter was not so good, and that’s why they’re not looking so good in the polls, but this quarter is looking very good for them. They can send their members home crowing about their accomplishments, and they’ve done it in a bipartisan way, which is exactly what they promised to do,” LaHood said.

Indeed, the Democratic Caucus published a fairly impressive list of legislative accomplishments. I heard some GOP lawmaker suggest the other day that this be labeled the “Post-Office Congress” because all the chambers have been able to do is rename post offices. The tale of the tape shows otherwise.

Via Guardian Unlimited: (h/t GM)

An Iraqi who was a key source of intelligence for MI5 has given the first ever full insider's account of being seized by the CIA and bundled on to an illegal 'torture flight' under the programme known as extraordinary rendition. In a remarkable interview for The Observer, British resident Bisher al-Rawi has told how he was betrayed by the security service despite having helped keep track of Abu Qatada, the Muslim cleric accused of being Osama bin Laden's 'ambassador in Europe'. He was abducted and stripped naked by US agents, clad in nappies, a tracksuit and shackles, blindfolded and forced to wear ear mufflers, then strapped to a stretcher on board a plane bound for a CIA 'black site' jail near Kabul in Afghanistan.

He was taken on to the jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba before being released last March and returned to Britain after four years' detention without charge.

He was thrown into the CIA's 'Dark Prison,' deprived of all light 24 hours a day in temperatures so low that ice formed on his food and water. He was taken to Guantanamo in March 2003 and released after being cleared of any involvement in terrorism by a tribunal.

A report by Parliament's intelligence and security committee last week disclosed that, although the Americans warned MI5 it planned to render al-Rawi in advance, in breach of international law, the British did not intervene on the grounds he did not have a UK passport. The government claimed he was the responsibility of Iraq, which he fled as a teenager when his father was tortured by Saddam Hussein's regime. Read more...

Since the wingnut blogs are scrambling to try to discredit him, good for Scott for coming out from the shadows. Will he get apologies for all the ugliness they've thrown at him? I don't think so either...

NY Times: (reg. req'd.)

The decision of an Army private who has been writing anonymously for The New Republic to reveal his identity has not quieted critics at the rival Weekly Standard who continue to question the accuracy of the soldier's deeply critical accounts from Iraq.

The statement from Scott Thomas Beauchamp on tnr.com.The soldier, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, a member of Company A, 1/18 Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team of the First Infantry Division, posted a statement Thursday on The New Republic's Web site (tnr.com) saying, "It's been maddening, to say the least, to see the plausibility of events that I witnessed questioned by people who have never served in Iraq."

Private Beauchamp, who wrote "Baghdad Diarist" under the pseudonym Scott Thomas, said: "My Diarist, ‘Shock Troops,' and the two other pieces I wrote for The New Republic have stirred more controversy than I could ever have anticipated. They were written under a pseudonym because I wanted to write honestly about my experiences, without fear of reprisal. Unfortunately, my pseudonym has caused confusion."

Private Beauchamp recounted some grotesque incidents in his columns, including his own mocking of a woman disfigured by the war and accounts of a soldier who took joy in running over a dog in a Bradley fighting vehicle and another who found the top of a child's skull and wore it on his head as a joke.

C&L July Film of the Month: A CRUDE AWAKENING The Oil Crash

Documentary by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack

“Oil is our God. I don’t care if someone says they worship Jesus, Buddha, Allah, whoever – they actually worship petroleum.”

Mathew David Savinar, Lawyer and Founder of Lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

If An Inconvenient Truth could be considered The Wizard of Oz of environmental documentaries, then A Crude Awakening would have be considered the Rosemary’s Baby of that same genre.

Global warming. So what? Melting polar icecaps? Call me later. A Crude Awakening paints a picture so much grimmer than anything Americans have seen in their lifetimes. Or in the movies this summer, for that matter. It is dark. It is primordial. It is terrifying. It is - The end of oil, as we know it.

While technically speaking, oil is running out, for it to go bone dry will take a few lifetimes. But do not dare exhale a sigh of relief. That fact is not relevant to this splendid documentary. It seems there is a bigger problem. One that is arriving faster than Netflix. That problem is global peak oil. Say it over and over, folks. Say it until your tongue gets used to saying it. Write it down. Tell your children. Open the windows of your Ford Explorer and scream it out into the dark abyss. You will be seeing and hearing about it for the rest of your lives – possibly beginning today.

Continue reading »

Via The Telegraph:

Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush.

Although the call was rejected, aides to both men admit that Mr Maliki and Gen David Petraeus engage in frequent stand-up shouting matches, differing particularly over the US general's moves to arm Sunni tribesmen to fight al-Qa'eda.

One Iraqi source said Mr Maliki used a video conference with Mr Bush to call for the general's signature strategy to be scrapped. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues, he would arm Shia militias," said the official. "Bush told Maliki to calm down."

At another meeting with Gen Petraeus, Mr Maliki said: "I can't deal with you any more. I will ask for someone else to replace you." Read more...

Calm down? President Bush armed Maliki's enemies in a bloody civil war and now he wants him to calm down. Nobody could have predicted this outcome. Howie has more on this. Apparently, Saudi Arabia refuses to work with Maliki and accuse him of being an agent of Iran. The thlot pickens...

Brit Hume follows the GOP/Giuliani script by saying that most Democrats think the war on terror is some kind of a political scam. Notice how fiercely he breathes these words.

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Hume: Make no mistake about. This is what a lot of Democrats and those who support them think. They think the war on terror is some kind of a political scam which the administration is using to undermine civil liberties and expand the power of the executive branch of the government. They do not treat it particularly seriously.

Juan Williams called him a propagandist..

Williams: This is unbelievable to me. Wait a minute, when you say it's likely to be passed, why doesn't the administration therefore let's just fix exactly this issue? (crosstalk). Let's not put the addition...let me just say one other thing...

Hume: Excuse me, Juan, that is what McConnell is proposing.

Williams: No, McConnell and the administration have a great deal more to say, Brit, and they're interested in advancing the idea that you don't have to go before the FISA court in order to get the warrant. That you can do things and get retroactive approval. But here is the larger point about being scared: who is it, you know, Republicans or Democrats that didn't properly arm this force to go out and fight this war? Who didn't put enough boots on the ground in order to get the job done early? Who is it that confused the mission? And then you say, "oh no, it's somehow Democrats who are running scared." On the contrary, Democrats this week put in place money to protect the homeland and make it tougher for terrorists to crack our defenses here at home. I don't see how you can say it's anything but scare-mongering and puppeting propaganda to say, "oh no, it's the Democrats, those bad guys."

FOX has infested their "prime time" news broadcast during the day with a major GOP hack...It wasn't the Democratic Party that used phony terror alerts or attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11...Add to the list...

Fred Barnes wanks at the end...

Via Firedoglake:

The Republican party continues to put lockstep, craven ass-covering ahead of national interest when it comes to the Department of Justice. But this is simply, flat out, unacceptable:

Notwithstanding Mr. Gonzales’s assurances, other department officials said that, by several measurements, the work of the department has been severely disrupted by his troubles, especially in recent months. There are vacancies through the senior ranks….

Among the 93 United States attorneys, who serve as the chief federal prosecutors for their regions, there are 24 vacancies. The White House has announced nominations for only six of those offices, which means that several of the jobs may remain unfilled for the rest of the Bush administration. (emphasis mine)

This is not an approval from Congress problem – there simply have been no nominees put forward by the Bush Administration to fill the jobs. Out of the 24 open USAtty postitions, only six have potential nominees identified, none of whom have been sent up to the Hill as yet, only announced. This puts our nation at risk. Period. Read more...

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Ah, the quality of political discourse these days. Never mind that we're involved in an unwinnable quagmire costing the country thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Never mind that we have an administration that is actively obstructing justice and has politicized nearly every department of government. Never mind that we have millions of people in this country living below the poverty level in the "richest country on Earth". The thing that is REALLY important is that the female Democratic presidential contender has (*gasp*) BREASTS, and she wore a blouse one day that (*double gasp*) revealed ever-so-slightly that she is in possession of said breasts.

Of course, for John Harwood of the Wall Street Journal, Hillary's blouse was a calculated move...

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Sen. Russ Feingold appeared on Fox News Sunday and as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was asked by Chris Wallace whether this whole drawn out mess of 8 months and 8500 pages isn't just some political theater...

WALLACE: But you know, I think the question is, is this really going anywhere? Is this substantive oversight or is this political theater?

I mean, the point is on the U.S. attorneys which we're talking about, six-month, seven-month investigation, 8,500 pages of documents, 14 witnesses, and you say yourself as a member of Senate Judiciary you haven't found any hard evidence that the White House has broken the law.

FEINGOLD: Well, I happen to think they probably did break the law here, but I don't think the investigation is over, and...

WALLACE: But do you have any evidence of that?

FEINGOLD: ... until we -- well, that's why we're asking for people like Karl Rove and others to come down and testify so we can actually examine the evidence.

We haven't had access to the evidence. How are you supposed to examine it when you can't look at it?

THIS is political theater? What was the Whitewater investigation? You know, the one that FOXNews cheerleaded through that took six YEARS (not months, Chris), cost $64 million dollars, expanded from one discrete issue to an overarching "truth commission" that could still only nail President Clinton for lying about an extra-marital affair?

Ah, the bliss of rabid partisanship....it means your memory never need be longer than what suits your cause.