The hits keep coming. WaPo: Intelligence Soldiers Are Implicated

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has told reporters that one detainee was kept hidden on his instructions, following a request by the CIA. Staff Sgt. Christopher Ward, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company deployed at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, testified this week at a military trial in North Carolina that he was ordered to hide prisoners during at least three ICRC visits last fall and winter.

So our Secretary of "Defense" has brazenly admitted that he directly ordered US Military Personnel to violate the Geneva Conventions. And we're fine with this? Warning! Warning! Slippery slope ahead! Nation must change course asap, refute barbarism!

Does this trouble anyone else?

It was only a matter of time. We've all had the script for a while:

The New York Times prints this on the front of their website (which I assume means front page in print), an articled called Anarchists Emerge as the Convention's Wild Card. It's the same old same old. Here's what protest-busting Miami Mayor Timoney has to say:

"These guys are pretty sophisticated and just wait for opportunities,'' said Chief Timoney, who as a ranking officer with the New York police confronted anarchist demonstrations during the 1992 Democratic convention. "They are going to look to provoke the cops. It's all a game.''

I'll tell you what I'm worried about: I'm worried about Agent Provocateurs. I'm worried that the patriot act makes it legal to infiltrate political groups and that some people may be embedded to start trouble. This was documented in '68, and though there are very few paralells between NYC and Chicago, one would be remiss to remember the chaos without remembering that it was largely instigated by excessively aggressive police action and agents of the police and COINTELPRO.

I know the NYPD is going to be relatively mellow, their little display of arsinal notwithstanding. Most of them don't really like Bush all that much, so they sympathize with protesters generally. They're by in large not looking to bust heads or book people.

The question is whether there will be any mob action. I can see the smart black blockers running their calculated decentralization tacits, demonstrating how a few hundred people with cell phones and a few bicicles can bring a major metorpolis to a halt. These tactics are effective, but they don't make great television, so I don't expect a lot of media coverage.

All in all I think the hype is good for everyone on the left; it will lead to a bigger "let down" when the streets of NYC fail to flow red with the blood of the unbelievers. It will also let the protesters prove their tactical superiority. And maybe just maybe the naicent ties between regular liberal and the radical left will continue to strengthen, as we realize we have goals in common.

From Wonkette's Party Schedule for the RNC

5 - 8 PM, Grover Norquist & Americans for Tax Reform Reception, New York Yacht Club, 37 W. 44th St., American for Tax Reform

Yes. Americans for tax reform. At the Yacht Club. Oh yes. Yes.

I'm going to be doing trainings every day of the RNC. Come on by the Tank and spend an hour with me. Special guests will include Zephyr Teachout and maybe the kids from downhillbattle.org.

Dude fired for not playing along with staged Bush event

So it's gotten to the point where people are firing people for expressing dissent to the president. Oh man.

Something important happened this weekend. The main attack arm of the Bush campaign collapsed under the weight of it's own lies.

Unless you're living in a swing state, you may never have heard of the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," but they were a major part of the Bush/Cheney '04 re-election strategy. This weekend, their effort to tar John Kerry's record in Vietnam -- critical to reign in Republicans who are secretly unhappy with Bush and tempted to trust someone with actual front-line experience -- blew up in their faces.

This is a group of people who made some shit up to push the idea that John Kerry's whole story -- his medals, the testimony of his crewmates, the official Navy record -- was all a buch of bullshit. They were funded by a friend of Bush's in TX who could drop $100,000, and they have begun airing ads telling "their side" of the story about Kerry's service in Vietnam, particularly this one point where he saved a guy named Jim's life.

Well, as political character assasinations go, this was an amateur job. While the "Siwft Boat Vetrans For Truth" story initially seemed to spark some interest, it has now been revealed as specifically contradicted at every level by multiple eyewitness accounts, the standing official record, and even their own past statements.

Today the final link in the chain was forged when it was revealed that a member of the Bush/Cheney '04 "Veterans Steering Committee" was also illegally working for the group. In spite of weeks of denials of coordination, the Bush/Cheney '04 Campaign was forced to fire personnel because it's now an unavoidable conclusion that they straight up broke the law.

Not only were they pushing slander, they were illegally coordinating with unregulated soft-money donations. The whole effort will go down in political history books as an bungling exercise in criminal subversion of the electoral process; an early 21st Century footnote to a column headed by Watergate.

But don't be surprised. This is really nothing new; they did the same (and worse) to John McCain in 2000. The attack dogs in the Republican Party truly are profressionals, and clearly have no shame.

So I think this is a major break; more or less the end of Bush's most ferocious negative attack against Kerry. I think it's going to backfire, but in spite of 1,200+ stories on this development, drudge is leading with Bush going to Athens, so I guess we'll have to see.

1,000 Words trying to get to the heart of a question that's been buzzing in my brain for the better part of two years now. Why is Bush being nominated in New York City?

I'll give you a hint: starts with a 9, end's with and 11, and it's coming back to haunt him.

Magnetbox: Lots of good home-cooked internet gumbo. The _____ is the new _____ is priceless alone.

I brought this up to the top because A-Stock did indeed offer the best explanation ever.

When confronted with this seemingly disturbing photo from the Portland Tribune of a Bush supporter muzzling a young protester:

One might be tempted to think this is an assault on the 1st Amendment -- which it isn't as Jeremy pointed out in the comments as the Bush supporter isn't the government. One might also be tempted to think of this as battery of some sort.

But then the context emerges. This young protester was talking about Shaft, and the Bush supporter was merely urging her to "shut yo mouth." As Alex said, it's clear as DAY.

Interesting.

Yahoo! News - Police Turn Up Volume for GOP Convention

At the Brooklyn training site on Thursday, police practiced disarming a truck bomb at a checkpoint. Scores of officers also made mock arrests of police academy cadets who posed as protesters.

Chanting "no justice, no peace," the cadets surrounded a bus full of "delegates" before officers in riot gear raced in, slapped on plastic "flex cuffs" and led them away to vans.

The unanswered question is, did the cadets enjoy their chance to play protester? I know from my experiences on Feb 15 2002 that many NYPD personnel are sympathetic with the cause, and I'm certain that many are angry with Bush. It will be interesting to see how it all goes down.