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George W. Bush
Briefing Book! Obama Gave Bush an Iraq Courtesy Call
- Obama made a courtesy call to George W. Bush before announcing his plan to withdraw from Iraq. — The Washington Post
- Southern California mayor will resign after forwarding offensive email about Obama.
Shrinking W: Is He a Puppet, Fool, or Sadist?
Since W the movie failed to figure out George W. Bush, a psychiatrist who's studied him is giving it a go. Justin Frank, MD, the author of Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, says President Bush is not Dick Cheney's puppet nor is he a well-intentioned fool in over his head but a sadist who will revel in watching the world clean up his mess from his Crawford couch.
Front Page: Pope Meets Victims, Brown in DC, Polygamy Hearing, Carter and Hamas
- Pope Meets Victims: Pope Benedict XVI came face to face yesterday with a scandal that haunts the American Catholic Church by holding an unannounced meeting with several victims of sexual abuse by priests. The cardinal who organized and attended the meeting, gave the pope a list of about 1,000 boys and girls who had been abused in the Boston Archdiocese in the past several decades. The Pope requested the meeting, praying and speaking personally with each person in attendance.
Top US Officials Approved Torture — Do You Care?
So by now many of you have heard about evidence that top Bush Administration officials participated in explicit conversations in the White House regarding torture techniques to be used on suspected terrorists. Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sat around — in a series of meetings of potential war-crime defendants — discussing specific methods of harsh interrogation, and issuing their approval.
The Associate Press reports that CIA officials demonstrated tactics to "make sure the small group of 'principals' fully understood what the al-Qaeda detainees would undergo.
Here Comes the White House Correspondents Dinner!
Oh, man this has to be the hottest ticket in town. The special dinner where the press gets to roast the president? Especially one whose approval rating hit 28 percent today and it's his last year in office!?
Bush and Putin Disagree on a Missile Shield. Do We Need One?
Presidents Bush and Putin met for the last time this weekend to reminisce, say goodbye, dress completely alike, and discuss the European missile defense shield that Bush would like to build in Poland and the Czech Republic, just a stone's throw from Russia.
Putin is firmly opposed to such a plan, especially if the shield is installed in Europe and so close to Russia. Despite Bush's enthusiasm for the plan, he himself announced, “We spent a lot of time in our relationship to get rid of the Cold War ...
Are the Pentagon and Bush Administration to Blame For Torture?
What's being called the Torture Memo (written in 2003 and made public yesterday) sheds a bold light on upper official decrees on the definition of torture at the beginning of the Iraq War. The memo contains language telling Pentagon senior leadership that inflicting pain would not be considered torture unless it caused “death, organ failure or permanent damage.”
It is the most fully developed legal justification that has yet come to light for inflicting physical and mental pressure on suspects, and it was declassified in response to a request by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. Campus Progress has a great breakdown of the quotes and arguments from the memo.
Front Page: Osama bin Laden Fine, Mugabe, Missile Defense
- Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, says Osama bin Laden is alive and doing very well in a recording just released. In the 104-minute recording posted on the Internet, al-Zawahri said, “Sheik Osama bin Laden is in good health. The ill-intentioned always try to circulate false reports about him being sick.” He then went on to call the UN an enemy of Islam and promised more attacks saying, "we promise our Muslim brothers that we will do our utmost to strike Jews in Israel and abroad with help and guidance from God.” As a finale to the piece, he defended al-Qaeda's mission saying, “We do not kill the innocent.
Front Page: More Troops for Afghanistan, Pelosi Calls for Boycott, UK Troop Reductions Stalled
- President Bush asked NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan in a speech delivered before a big NATO summit. Bush quoted Sarkozy saying, "As [French] President Sarkozy put it in London last week, we cannot afford to lose Afghanistan. Whatever the cost, however difficult, we cannot afford it, we must win.
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