Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 13, 2009, at 12:29 pm
President Barack Obama has reveresed himself on how open his Administration will be on the torture approved by the previous George W. Bush Administration of Horrors, refusing to release Abu Ghraib torture photos. Daily Dish reports:
In what can only be seen as a stunning reversal, the president is now refusing to release photographs that would help prove that the abuse and torture techniques revealed at Abu Ghraib were endemic in the Bush military. I can’t help but wonder if this is related to his decision to appoint Stanley McChrystal as the commander of his Afghanistan war and occupation. There is solid evidence that McChrystal played an active part in enabling torture in Iraq, and his activities in charge of many secret special operations almost certainly involved condoning acts that might be illustrated by these photos. The MSM has, of course, failed to mention this in their fawning profiles of McChrystal.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Last Thursday marked the six-year anniversary of the war with Iraq. During this time, the U.S. has lost more than 4,000 troops and Iraq civilian losses are estimated around 90,000. According to the National Priorities Project the war has cost more than $650 billion so far, and much more will be spent. Also according to them, Tampa taxpayers have paid more than $600 million in federal taxes towards the total Iraq war spending approved to date.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 3, 2009, at 6:00 am
Yes, there was something richly ironic about taping our very “new media” political podcast in what used to be Creative Loafing’s morgue, or where we kept all our newspaper print back issues. I should say, keep, because they are all still in there, some bound in red leather collections.
Ahh, the good old days.
But I love this podcast biz. For my first, I invited WMNF’s Mitch Perry and Democratic consultant Ana Cruz to throw around three of the biggest issues of the week: the economic recovery and whether the Florida Legislature will try to reject some stimulus dollars; Barack Obama’s timetable for withdrawal in Iraq, which has not pleased some on the far left; and Mayor Pam Iorio’s rail-transit dreams running into a bit of a buzzsaw at the Hillsborough County Commission. Plus, we listen to the sound clip of the week. I’ll give you a hint: it is from a well-known prescription drug abuser.
Listen and enjoy, and we’ll have a new one for you every week. Download
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Dec. 15, 2008, at 8:09 am
A) This is how bad it has become in the waning days of George W. Bush’s disastrous eight years and B) real nice reaction time from the U.S. Secret Service.
McCain’s been taking flack from the left for saying that it’s “not too important” when we get the troops out of Iraq. The McCain folks say that’s taking it out of context. See for yourself:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 5, 2008, at 4:39 pm
I knew there was a reason to like former NYC police commandante Bernie Kerik, who served a short stint in the service of George W. Bush’s efforts to fuck up Iraq. Former U.S. military commander in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez writes in a new book that Bernie’s efforts ostensibly training the Iraqi police there was a complete waste of time:
Sanchez said Kerik focused more on “conducting raids and liberating prostitutes” than training the Iraqis.
For the record, the NY Daily News reports, Kerik denies arresting any prostitutes. The story is silent as to whether he admits liberating any.
Sanchez’s overall assessment of Bernie also could be applied to quite a few in Das Bushen Administrationen:
“I would be hard-pressed to identify a major national-level success that his organization accomplished in that time,” Sanchez told The News a day before his new memoir, “Wiser in Battle” hits bookstores nationwide.
“He is a very energetic guy. He is very confident – overconfident to an extent – and he is very superficial in his understanding of the requirements of his job,” Sanchez said. “His whole contribution was a waste of time and effort.”
Bernie is currently facing federal charges of perjury, tax fraud and taking payoffs, none of them related to prostitution.
