FOX NEWS SUNDAY
Rep. Paul Ryan defends Republicans' budget plans
Chris Wallace asked U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) how cutting stimulus spending would help the economy, when many economists - along with Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue - argue that some investment is needed to spur job creation. Ryan responded that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had told congressional Republicans that cutting spending would "send a signal to the markets, to the small businessmen and women of tomorrow," giving them confidence to start hiring. "I am not worried about Washington cutting too much spending too fast," he added. Asked about cutting entitlement spending, something the current Republican budget cuts don't touch, Ryan said the caucus needed time: "I can't tell you what our budget's gonna look like."
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) spoke on his own record on spending cuts, saying the libertarian CATO Institute was mistaken when it gave him a 'C' for fiscal policy. He explained that he raised taxes on cigarettes in his state "for health reasons, not for budget reasons," and that taxes had been so low they were out of line with the rest of South. On his poor showing in the CPAC straw poll, Barbour pointed out that the poll closed before he spoke, and said that many young conservatives had told him after his speech that they wished they could have voted for him.
ABC: THIS WEEK
Newt Gingrich: Obama should have reached out to Mubarak quietly
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R) criticized the Obama administration's response to the crisis in Egypt, saying the White House should have stood by Mubarak publicly while privately pushing him out. "You do it quietly, because every other potential ally in the world is watching you. And if they see you publicly abandon somebody who's been with you for 30 years, they wonder, why should I trust the United States?" At the same time, he says, "It's the courage of the Egyptian people that made that possible and we should be encouraging and reinforcing that courage." As for what the U.S. should do now, Gingrich said U.S. officers should reach out to friends in the Egyptian military and tell them, "You don't want to own the country, because then you own every problem and you can't solve them."
NBC: MEET THE PRESS
Boehner: Not my job to tell people what to think
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) followed a panel on Egypt, and he was hesitant to attack the president as some other Republicans have. "I think what happened surprised everyone, so there's going to have to be a real assessment of why," he said. "I think I was surprised, I think [the White House] was surprised ... It's a very complex situation." He added that the uprising "gives you an idea of the impact of digital media today."
Boehner also avoided criticizing 'birthers' in his own caucus and the general public. "It's not my job to tell the American people what to think, it's my job to listen to the American people," he told David Gregory. He said he'd made it clear what he believed the facts to be: "I believe that the president is a citizen, I believe the president is a Christian, I take him at his word." But "the American people have a right to think what they want to think." Asked about Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), who made a joke about his birth certificate at CPAC last week, Boehner said "the gentleman was trying to be funny, I imagine." On the other hand, Boehner declared his willingness to judge his members' behavior, in response to the resignation of Rep. Chris Lee (D-N.Y.): "The American people have the right, and should expect, the highest ethical standards from members of Congress," he said. He also said that once the American public understood the depth of the Social Security crisis, it would be easier to cut entitlement spending.
CNN: STATE OF THE UNION
Sen. Lindsey Graham: 'Electable' GOP 2012 presidential candidate 'has yet to emerge'
Graham (R-S.C.) joined the program as news broke of the Egyptian military leadership's announcement that it would dissolve the parliament, suspend the nation's constitution and retain power for six months or more before elections could be held. "This election ... is going to define Egypt for decades," Graham said. Conversation turned to the Conservative Political Action Conference, which concluded Saturday, with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) winning the gathering's informal presidential candidate straw poll. "I'm looking for the most conservative person who's electable," said Graham when asked if there was a potential 2012 presidential candidate he could get behind, "that person has yet to emerge."
Graham was followed by White House Office of Management and Budget director Jacob Lew, who addressed the president's budget request set to be released Monday.
"We're beyond the easy, low-hanging fruit," Lew said referring to tough choices that needed to be made. Lew referred to the Obama's plan to make cuts to the Federal Pell grants program -- cuts that, Lew said, would need to be made to preserve the integrity of the student loan program. Lew defended the cuts saying that while the burden would increase on students - they would have to start paying their student loans, plus interest, immediately after graduation -- it would not jeopardize the accessibility of higher education.
In response to whether the GOP's proposed $100 billion cuts were possible, Lew demurred, choosing to tout the president's proposed plan saying, "We look forward to working with the congressmen."
C-SPAN: NEWSMAKERS
Rep. Steve Israel: 'Republicans are actually helping us' get House majority back
DCCC chairman Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) joined reporters Reid Wilson of Hotline and Alex Isenstadt of Politico to discuss Democrats' preparations for the 2012 elections after their drubbing in 2010.
"The state of the Democratic party is sound," said Israel,"we have a path to get the house back and Republicans are actually helping us along the way." Israel went on to describe the party's fundraising efforts, and the instructions the party was delivering to lawmakers in terms of how to orchestrate their election efforts on the ground. "We lost 9 million independent voters between 2006 and 2010," said Israel, but "Republicans have a heck of a lot more to be nervous about on retirements than we do." He also announced that Democrats would be making announcements regarding re-redistricting results "by the end of the quarter," refusing to provide any early details.
Israel was also called on to address the fallout from Rep. Chris Lee's (R-N.Y.) sudden retirement following the disclosure that he had attempted to cheat on his wife via the online classifieds Web site Craig's List. Israel denied being in touch with White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, who is rumored to be exploring a potential bid. "I've not had any direct conversations with Bill," Israel said. He also took an opportunity to advertise his own abilities to lead Democrats to victory in 2012. "I may not have the same volume of obscenities that Rahm Emanuel did" or "the same attributes" that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had, Israel said, but he was confident he could produce the same quality of results.
CBS: FACE THE NATION
Sen. John McCain on the uprising in Egypt: 'We should have seen this coming'
Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian ambassador to the United States, provided an update on the situation in Egypt and was followed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). McCain was asked if the United States should have seen the Egyptian uprising coming. "I think so. We should have seen this coming when the Egyptian government failed to move forward with a process to democratization," McCain said. McCain went on to blame the Obama administration for not speaking up for the protesters in Iran, referring to the outrage that followed the death of Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan - who became a touchstone for anti-government protesters in 2009.
"I think it's going to be a confrontation," McCain said of the nature of the debate that will follow the president's release of his fiscal 2012 budget request and how it will be compared with Republican's cost-cutting proposals laid out in the continuing resolution to fund the government through the current fiscal year. On the subject of making cuts to entitlements ans defense spending, McCain was firm: "No longer can it remain the third rail of politics," he said, praising Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for "getting out ahead" of the budget debate and proposing cuts on his own.
"We've got to be very careful with our cuts to defense spending," said McCain, a decorated military veteran.
Washington Post
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Egypt's military to keep Mubarak government for now; protesters still in Tahrir
CAIRO - Egypt's military chiefs on Saturday sought to restore calm and stability to a country still exhilarated by the first fruits of its revolution. But the armed forces signaled there were limits to how much change they would tolerate, ignoring demonstrators' demands to dismantle the institutional legacies of former president Hosni Mubarak.
In its fourth public statement in three days, the Supreme Military Council repeated its promise to oversee a transition to a "democratic and free" Egypt run by civilians. For the time being, however, the generals said they would keep the old order in place, allowing Mubarak's government to stay on in a caretaker role.
They also said Egypt would honor its international treaties, including its peace accord with Israel.
The council statement said the military wanted to meet "the legitimate demands of the people" but was silent on whom, if anyone, it would consult as it maps out Egypt's future.
Several Egyptian intellectuals who had tried to mediate between Mubarak and the protesters during the 18-day uprising said they have been kept in the dark and are worried.
"Everything is in the hands of the military. They issue one statement after another, but they are very brief," said Nabil el-Arabi, a former diplomat and judge at the International Court of Justice. "There's nothing else. Nobody knows."
While the military chiefs were focused on preserving order, Egypt's revolutionaries had further goals in mind. Many demonstrators said they were grateful for the military's decision not to crack down against the protests but doubted the generals would be so permissive about sharing power.
"This is a revolution, not a half-revolution," said Ahmed Abed Ghafur, 36, a computer engineer from Mansoura, a city about 100 miles north of Cairo, who had camped out in Tahrir Square for four straight days. "We need a timetable for elections. We need an interim government. We need a committee for a new constitution. Once we get all that, then we can leave the square."
In their own statement, protest organizers listed several other demands Saturday, including the release of political prisoners, the repeal of Egypt's 30-year-old state-of-emergency decree and the dissolution of Mubarak's parliament.
But there was disagreement over how long they should maintain their vigil in Tahrir Square, along the east bank of the Nile in central Cairo. Some insisted they would stay, others said they had made their point and would go home, while still others favored a weekly resumption of the protests every Friday.
"We need to give people a break, but we also need to follow up," said Ahmed Nagib, 33, a higher-education administrator and spokesman for the loose coalition of protest leaders. "We also need to spend time to further develop the leadership of our revolution."
Revolutionary pride
Uncertainty over the future, however, was overshadowed for the moment by Egyptians' immense pride at what their revolution had wrought and the fact that they had done it by embracing peaceful tactics.
Tens of thousands returned to Tahrir Square on Saturday to drink in their newfound freedom. People sang patriotic songs and marveled at the scene. Parents snapped photographs of their children perched on tanks next to soldiers. Cartoonists plastered the storefront of a condemned KFC franchise with dozens of hand-sketched posters, virtually all of them mocking Mubarak, their once-feared former leader.
For many Egyptians, upholding the square's image as a sacred place became paramount. Paint crews daubed fresh black-and-white stripes on street curbs. Small armies of volunteers fanned out across Tahrir and transformed it into the cleanest site in the city.
The White House said in a statement that President Obama "welcomed the historic change that has been made by the Egyptian people, and reaffirmed his admiration for their efforts."
While most of the country celebrated, a few people made themselves scarce.
Mubarak was reportedly holed up in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, though there was no official confirmation. State television reported that the military had banned a handful of former government officials from traveling abroad; several are under investigation by prosecutors on corruption allegations.
Popular opinion was mixed on whether authorities should prosecute Mubarak, as well. The formal list of demands released by protest organizers Saturday took no position on his fate.
Some Egyptians said they had no desire to seek retribution against the former president. But many said that, at a minimum, he and his family should be investigated on the widely held suspicion that they pocketed immense wealth during his three decades in power.
"The money he stole has to be returned to the people," said Safwat Higazi, a Muslim cleric active in the demonstrations.
The prospect of that appeared unlikely, however, as long as Mubarak's former allies in the military and government remain in charge of the country.
Ibrahim al-Moallem, a well-known publishing executive from Cairo, said he was "very worried that there must be some remaining pockets from the old regime who will try to resist."
"They don't like what happened," he said. "It is now the new, modern, up-to-date young people against the old, out-of-touch, out-of-date and out-of-place people who can't understand what's going on. We have to be aware and cautious."
Mubarak loyalists
There was also evidence that some Mubarak loyalists were trying, with apparent sincerity, to come to grips with the new era.
Rida Rifai, a member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party from Cairo, marched in counter-demonstrations to show support for the president last week. He said his wife and children burst out crying when Mubarak's resignation was announced on television Friday.
On Saturday, however, Rifai made his way to Tahrir Square, where he said, "I can see a new dawn over Egypt." He said he hoped a new government could do a better job of improving the health, education and economic well-being for ordinary Egyptians.
In hindsight, he said, the National Democratic Party's biggest mistake was to rig legislative elections last year. He also bemoaned the heavy-handedness of Mubarak's secret police, who are blamed for the deaths of an estimated 300 people after the protests began Jan. 25.
"I am not afraid of this revolution," he said, acknowledging that he was at risk of losing his status in society, if not his job. "This is the will of the people, and of God."
Craig Whitlock, Leila Fadel and Samuel Sockol
Washington Post Foreign Service
In its fourth public statement in three days, the Supreme Military Council repeated its promise to oversee a transition to a "democratic and free" Egypt run by civilians. For the time being, however, the generals said they would keep the old order in place, allowing Mubarak's government to stay on in a caretaker role.
They also said Egypt would honor its international treaties, including its peace accord with Israel.
The council statement said the military wanted to meet "the legitimate demands of the people" but was silent on whom, if anyone, it would consult as it maps out Egypt's future.
Several Egyptian intellectuals who had tried to mediate between Mubarak and the protesters during the 18-day uprising said they have been kept in the dark and are worried.
"Everything is in the hands of the military. They issue one statement after another, but they are very brief," said Nabil el-Arabi, a former diplomat and judge at the International Court of Justice. "There's nothing else. Nobody knows."
While the military chiefs were focused on preserving order, Egypt's revolutionaries had further goals in mind. Many demonstrators said they were grateful for the military's decision not to crack down against the protests but doubted the generals would be so permissive about sharing power.
"This is a revolution, not a half-revolution," said Ahmed Abed Ghafur, 36, a computer engineer from Mansoura, a city about 100 miles north of Cairo, who had camped out in Tahrir Square for four straight days. "We need a timetable for elections. We need an interim government. We need a committee for a new constitution. Once we get all that, then we can leave the square."
In their own statement, protest organizers listed several other demands Saturday, including the release of political prisoners, the repeal of Egypt's 30-year-old state-of-emergency decree and the dissolution of Mubarak's parliament.
But there was disagreement over how long they should maintain their vigil in Tahrir Square, along the east bank of the Nile in central Cairo. Some insisted they would stay, others said they had made their point and would go home, while still others favored a weekly resumption of the protests every Friday.
"We need to give people a break, but we also need to follow up," said Ahmed Nagib, 33, a higher-education administrator and spokesman for the loose coalition of protest leaders. "We also need to spend time to further develop the leadership of our revolution."
Revolutionary pride
Uncertainty over the future, however, was overshadowed for the moment by Egyptians' immense pride at what their revolution had wrought and the fact that they had done it by embracing peaceful tactics.
Tens of thousands returned to Tahrir Square on Saturday to drink in their newfound freedom. People sang patriotic songs and marveled at the scene. Parents snapped photographs of their children perched on tanks next to soldiers. Cartoonists plastered the storefront of a condemned KFC franchise with dozens of hand-sketched posters, virtually all of them mocking Mubarak, their once-feared former leader.
For many Egyptians, upholding the square's image as a sacred place became paramount. Paint crews daubed fresh black-and-white stripes on street curbs. Small armies of volunteers fanned out across Tahrir and transformed it into the cleanest site in the city.
The White House said in a statement that President Obama "welcomed the historic change that has been made by the Egyptian people, and reaffirmed his admiration for their efforts."
While most of the country celebrated, a few people made themselves scarce.
Mubarak was reportedly holed up in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, though there was no official confirmation. State television reported that the military had banned a handful of former government officials from traveling abroad; several are under investigation by prosecutors on corruption allegations.
Popular opinion was mixed on whether authorities should prosecute Mubarak, as well. The formal list of demands released by protest organizers Saturday took no position on his fate.
Some Egyptians said they had no desire to seek retribution against the former president. But many said that, at a minimum, he and his family should be investigated on the widely held suspicion that they pocketed immense wealth during his three decades in power.
"The money he stole has to be returned to the people," said Safwat Higazi, a Muslim cleric active in the demonstrations.
The prospect of that appeared unlikely, however, as long as Mubarak's former allies in the military and government remain in charge of the country.
Ibrahim al-Moallem, a well-known publishing executive from Cairo, said he was "very worried that there must be some remaining pockets from the old regime who will try to resist."
"They don't like what happened," he said. "It is now the new, modern, up-to-date young people against the old, out-of-touch, out-of-date and out-of-place people who can't understand what's going on. We have to be aware and cautious."
Mubarak loyalists
There was also evidence that some Mubarak loyalists were trying, with apparent sincerity, to come to grips with the new era.
Rida Rifai, a member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party from Cairo, marched in counter-demonstrations to show support for the president last week. He said his wife and children burst out crying when Mubarak's resignation was announced on television Friday.
On Saturday, however, Rifai made his way to Tahrir Square, where he said, "I can see a new dawn over Egypt." He said he hoped a new government could do a better job of improving the health, education and economic well-being for ordinary Egyptians.
In hindsight, he said, the National Democratic Party's biggest mistake was to rig legislative elections last year. He also bemoaned the heavy-handedness of Mubarak's secret police, who are blamed for the deaths of an estimated 300 people after the protests began Jan. 25.
"I am not afraid of this revolution," he said, acknowledging that he was at risk of losing his status in society, if not his job. "This is the will of the people, and of God."
Craig Whitlock, Leila Fadel and Samuel Sockol
Washington Post Foreign Service
Paul wins CPAC straw poll — again (How meaningLES for PRESIDENT PAUL!)
For the second consecutive year, libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) breezed to victory Saturday in the CPAC straw poll — a sign of the intense following he enjoys and the waning relevance of the surveys.
The results this year were nearly identical to last year — Paul took 30 percent in 2011 and 31 percent in 2010 — and the response from the crowd was the same, as well.
Outgoing American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene was jeered by Paul enthusiasts as he sought to downplay the results.
“It is what it is. It’s a straw poll,” Keene said before introducing pollster Tony Fabrizio, who conducted the survey.
Fabrizio tried to put a positive spin on the survey that the organizers are plainly embarrassed about, noting before announcing the results that attendees agree upon the size of government being a top priority.
Yet, even before the pollster could disclose the news, someone in the audience yelled: “Ron Paul!” The congressman’s supporters let out a loud cheer while his detractors booed just as loudly.
The same pattern took place when Fabrizio actually announced that Paul had won except as the pollster begin to explain the results a man yelled: “Now you’re going to minimize it!”
The controversy in the weeks before this year’s CPAC was over whether a little-known gay conservative group would be allowed to have a booth. But the more pressing threat to the relevance of the venerable conservative confab, or at least its straw poll, is the continued dominance of Paul.
The 75-year-old congressman may run for president again, but his prospects for winning the GOP nomination are nil. Yet because he has an intense following among antiwar youths, and has supporters who are willing to organize his effort, the libertarian-leaning Paul dominates the balloting and renders the survey as largely irrelevant.
Mitt Romney was Paul’s nearest competition in the past two years, trailing the congressman by 9 percent last year and 7 percent this year.
Keene, who supported Romney in 2008 but has not committed for 2012, made the case to reporters after the results were announced that the former Massachusetts governor’s strong support as a second choice candidate “amazing” and said last year it was an “unreported story.”
Faring not as well are two Republicans who consistently poll near the top of many early presidential surveys: Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. Both took less than 5 percent.
Indeed, the gathering has been hampered by the refusal of Palin and Huckabee, two of the party’s biggest draws, to attend over the past two years.
“CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican over the last years,” Huckabee said last year by way of explaining why he skipped the event.
There is, however, little appetite among organizers to remove Paul from the ballot. Doing so would result in losing hundreds of fee-paying attendees and spark a backlash among an energized bloc of activists.
“I think CPAC would be diminished if we got into a censoring of what our message ought to be,” said Al Cardenas, who will oversee CPAC going forward as the new ACU chairman. “We’ll opt for the open door.”
But Cardenas acknowledged that he was troubled that Huckabee, Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who skipped this year’s gathering in solidarity with social conservatives upset about the presence of the gay group, weren’t present.
“We’ve got to fix it,” he said. “They’re part of the family. And when your relatives don’t come to Thanksgiving dinner, you’re disappointed.”
The strategy among conservatives seems clear: Downplay the straw poll without bad-mouthing CPAC.
“I don’t think the straw poll’s important,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). “I think what’s important is the views that the activist conservatives across this country leave this hall with. What’s in the back of their mind [about the candidates] when they leave this hall?”
Speaking to reporters after the straw poll results were announced, Fabrizio emphasized that the results were not scientific — and reminded the press that Arizona Sen. John McCain finished fifth at CPAC in 2007.
“A year later, where was John McCain?” he asked rhetorically.
What many Republican activists here are thinking about is who else may get in the GOP race.
Former Michigan state GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis, who lost a bid for RNC chair last month, said that the straw ballot still matters because the second, third and fourth-place finishes are revealing.
“It’s just like a poll. When you’re doing a poll, you look if you oversample one group or another and then you make a calculation,” he said. “It’s very hard to calculate in a situation like this because it’s not scientific at all.”
The straw poll’s more indicative figure than candidate preference was that 43 percent of participants said they wished the GOP had a better field.
One of the candidates they’d like to see run is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Even though he has said repeatedly that he’s not running, Christie got 6 percent of the vote, that’s more than Palin, Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, John Thune and Haley Barbour each garnered.
As telling was whenever speakers mentioned Christie’s name from the podium, he won applause.
The loudest cheers Barbour got during his speech where when he singled out his fellow GOP governor.
Speaking Saturday night, conservative provocateur Ann Coulter won loud cheers when she said: “If we don’t run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee, and we’ll lose.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who also has said he won’t run, gave one of the best-received speeches of the event, reminding attendees about their desire for more options.
“Some of the candidates from last time around are not as exciting as the governor of Texas, who seems to be a real conservative,” Rohrabacher said.
One of the Republicans who has not ruled out a bid, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, won raves from some attendees for his Friday night speech. But the straw poll balloting ended hours before he addressed the crowd, and Daniels received just 4 percent.
© 2011 Capitol News
The results this year were nearly identical to last year — Paul took 30 percent in 2011 and 31 percent in 2010 — and the response from the crowd was the same, as well.
Outgoing American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene was jeered by Paul enthusiasts as he sought to downplay the results.
“It is what it is. It’s a straw poll,” Keene said before introducing pollster Tony Fabrizio, who conducted the survey.
Fabrizio tried to put a positive spin on the survey that the organizers are plainly embarrassed about, noting before announcing the results that attendees agree upon the size of government being a top priority.
Yet, even before the pollster could disclose the news, someone in the audience yelled: “Ron Paul!” The congressman’s supporters let out a loud cheer while his detractors booed just as loudly.
The same pattern took place when Fabrizio actually announced that Paul had won except as the pollster begin to explain the results a man yelled: “Now you’re going to minimize it!”
The controversy in the weeks before this year’s CPAC was over whether a little-known gay conservative group would be allowed to have a booth. But the more pressing threat to the relevance of the venerable conservative confab, or at least its straw poll, is the continued dominance of Paul.
The 75-year-old congressman may run for president again, but his prospects for winning the GOP nomination are nil. Yet because he has an intense following among antiwar youths, and has supporters who are willing to organize his effort, the libertarian-leaning Paul dominates the balloting and renders the survey as largely irrelevant.
Mitt Romney was Paul’s nearest competition in the past two years, trailing the congressman by 9 percent last year and 7 percent this year.
Keene, who supported Romney in 2008 but has not committed for 2012, made the case to reporters after the results were announced that the former Massachusetts governor’s strong support as a second choice candidate “amazing” and said last year it was an “unreported story.”
Faring not as well are two Republicans who consistently poll near the top of many early presidential surveys: Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. Both took less than 5 percent.
Indeed, the gathering has been hampered by the refusal of Palin and Huckabee, two of the party’s biggest draws, to attend over the past two years.
“CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican over the last years,” Huckabee said last year by way of explaining why he skipped the event.
There is, however, little appetite among organizers to remove Paul from the ballot. Doing so would result in losing hundreds of fee-paying attendees and spark a backlash among an energized bloc of activists.
“I think CPAC would be diminished if we got into a censoring of what our message ought to be,” said Al Cardenas, who will oversee CPAC going forward as the new ACU chairman. “We’ll opt for the open door.”
But Cardenas acknowledged that he was troubled that Huckabee, Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who skipped this year’s gathering in solidarity with social conservatives upset about the presence of the gay group, weren’t present.
“We’ve got to fix it,” he said. “They’re part of the family. And when your relatives don’t come to Thanksgiving dinner, you’re disappointed.”
The strategy among conservatives seems clear: Downplay the straw poll without bad-mouthing CPAC.
“I don’t think the straw poll’s important,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). “I think what’s important is the views that the activist conservatives across this country leave this hall with. What’s in the back of their mind [about the candidates] when they leave this hall?”
Speaking to reporters after the straw poll results were announced, Fabrizio emphasized that the results were not scientific — and reminded the press that Arizona Sen. John McCain finished fifth at CPAC in 2007.
“A year later, where was John McCain?” he asked rhetorically.
What many Republican activists here are thinking about is who else may get in the GOP race.
Former Michigan state GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis, who lost a bid for RNC chair last month, said that the straw ballot still matters because the second, third and fourth-place finishes are revealing.
“It’s just like a poll. When you’re doing a poll, you look if you oversample one group or another and then you make a calculation,” he said. “It’s very hard to calculate in a situation like this because it’s not scientific at all.”
The straw poll’s more indicative figure than candidate preference was that 43 percent of participants said they wished the GOP had a better field.
One of the candidates they’d like to see run is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Even though he has said repeatedly that he’s not running, Christie got 6 percent of the vote, that’s more than Palin, Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, John Thune and Haley Barbour each garnered.
As telling was whenever speakers mentioned Christie’s name from the podium, he won applause.
The loudest cheers Barbour got during his speech where when he singled out his fellow GOP governor.
Speaking Saturday night, conservative provocateur Ann Coulter won loud cheers when she said: “If we don’t run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee, and we’ll lose.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who also has said he won’t run, gave one of the best-received speeches of the event, reminding attendees about their desire for more options.
“Some of the candidates from last time around are not as exciting as the governor of Texas, who seems to be a real conservative,” Rohrabacher said.
One of the Republicans who has not ruled out a bid, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, won raves from some attendees for his Friday night speech. But the straw poll balloting ended hours before he addressed the crowd, and Daniels received just 4 percent.
© 2011 Capitol News
Church Tries to Ignite Married Couple's Sex Lives
Church's Web Site, Billboards Offer Parishioners Help, but Stir Controversy
But Ignite Church's Lead Pastor Heath Mooneyham said the message of both is all about love, and God's purpose for it -- which includes sex.
The billboards -- one of which features a man in jeans and T-shirt, his tattooed arms holding the legs of a woman who has her arms around his neck, and her legs wrapped around his waist -- are to advertise a series the church is doing about sex, and how married couples should be having more of it, so they will avoid being tempted into sin.
A similar image was the first to display on the Ignite Church website, and at the church's related site, MySexLifeSucks.org.
"We're doing a series about sex, and God's intended purpose for it," Mooneyham. "We're hitting things like adultery and pornography."
Mooneyham indicated that in a poll on the church's website, 86 percent of the respondents said they were not having enough sex in their marriage.
"This is really one of the major issues that's ripping marriages apart. They are at a higher risk of adultery, looking at pornography -- that leads to divorce," Mooneyham said.
So he decided to try to do something about it, planning a series of Sunday "experiences" about sex at the church, and creating a series of videos on the subject for the Web site.
"Some people think we are porno-fying the church," Mooneyham said, but he argued that what the church is really trying to do is help people with their marriages -- helping the faithful stay faithful.
The billboards around town may feature people in sexual poses, but they are married people, he said.
That distinction might be lost on some Joplin residents, especially since they carry the name of the Web site MySexLifeSucks.org in bold black letters.
The message on that site might be even more controversial: "God Is Pro Sex. It Should Be Exciting."
"There is no way ever I would take my kids to a church with a big sign advertising sex," Veronica Warren told ABC affiliate KODE-TV in Joplin.
One of the billboards is near a Sonic fast food restaurant.
"People bring their kids to Sonic and their kids are going to look at that sign and say, 'Mommy what's that mean?' and, oh my God, and then that parent has to explain," Warren said.
"You got a lot of people's attention now, but you made a lot of people mad," she said.
Getting people mad is not the church's intention, Mooneyham said -- but he does want their attention.
"The town's divided down the middle on this," he said. "This is the Bible Belt. They're freaking. But the congregation has been really great about it. They understand the message behind it."
Despite some people's reservations about what the church is doing, Mooneyham said that the way the world is today, kids are already exposed to sex at an early age.
If that is going to happen, he said, he would rather have them exposed to it in church.
"God created it and he's not freaked out by it," he said. "So I don't see why we should be."
But Ignite Church's Lead Pastor Heath Mooneyham said the message of both is all about love, and God's purpose for it -- which includes sex.
The billboards -- one of which features a man in jeans and T-shirt, his tattooed arms holding the legs of a woman who has her arms around his neck, and her legs wrapped around his waist -- are to advertise a series the church is doing about sex, and how married couples should be having more of it, so they will avoid being tempted into sin.
A similar image was the first to display on the Ignite Church website, and at the church's related site, MySexLifeSucks.org.
"We're doing a series about sex, and God's intended purpose for it," Mooneyham. "We're hitting things like adultery and pornography."
Mooneyham indicated that in a poll on the church's website, 86 percent of the respondents said they were not having enough sex in their marriage.
"This is really one of the major issues that's ripping marriages apart. They are at a higher risk of adultery, looking at pornography -- that leads to divorce," Mooneyham said.
So he decided to try to do something about it, planning a series of Sunday "experiences" about sex at the church, and creating a series of videos on the subject for the Web site.
"Some people think we are porno-fying the church," Mooneyham said, but he argued that what the church is really trying to do is help people with their marriages -- helping the faithful stay faithful.
The billboards around town may feature people in sexual poses, but they are married people, he said.
That distinction might be lost on some Joplin residents, especially since they carry the name of the Web site MySexLifeSucks.org in bold black letters.
The message on that site might be even more controversial: "God Is Pro Sex. It Should Be Exciting."
"There is no way ever I would take my kids to a church with a big sign advertising sex," Veronica Warren told ABC affiliate KODE-TV in Joplin.
One of the billboards is near a Sonic fast food restaurant.
"People bring their kids to Sonic and their kids are going to look at that sign and say, 'Mommy what's that mean?' and, oh my God, and then that parent has to explain," Warren said.
"You got a lot of people's attention now, but you made a lot of people mad," she said.
Getting people mad is not the church's intention, Mooneyham said -- but he does want their attention.
"The town's divided down the middle on this," he said. "This is the Bible Belt. They're freaking. But the congregation has been really great about it. They understand the message behind it."
Despite some people's reservations about what the church is doing, Mooneyham said that the way the world is today, kids are already exposed to sex at an early age.
If that is going to happen, he said, he would rather have them exposed to it in church.
"God created it and he's not freaked out by it," he said. "So I don't see why we should be."
Infectious Revolution: Mideast Protests Grow
Clashes With Police Erupt in Algeria As 400 Demonstrators Arrested; Mideast on Unsteady Ground After Egypt
Algeria has been the scene of frequent anti-government demonstrations after years of emergency rule, high unemployment and general unrest, but Egypt's successful revolution sparked protests anew Saturday. A human rights advocate says 400 people were arrested there Saturday during demonstrations.
The departure of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has governments across the Mideast on uneasy footing, with some, like Bahrain, giving out money to stave off protesters. In Algeria and Yemen, anti-government demonstrations turned violent.
Some 10,000 people flooded into downtown Algiers, Algeria's capital, where they skirmished with riot police attempting to block off streets and disperse the crowd. An estimated 30,000 police have been deployed around the capital, BBC reports. Some arrests were reported.
Protesters chanted slogans including "No to the police state" and "Bouteflika out," a reference to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power in this sprawling North African nation since 1999.
Under Algeria's long-standing state of emergency - in place since 1992 - protests are banned in Algiers but the government's repeated warnings for people to stay out of the streets apparently fell on deaf ears.
The march comes at a sensitive time, merely a month after another "people's revolution" in neighboring Tunisia that forced long-time autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile on Jan. 14.
The success of those uprisings is fueling the hopes of those seeking change in Algeria, although many in this conflict-scarred nation fear any prospect of violence after living through a brutal insurgency by Islamist extremists in the 1990s that left an estimated 200,000 dead.
Saturday's march aimed to press for reforms to push Algeria toward democracy and did not include a specific call to oust Bouteflika. It was organized by the Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, an umbrella group for human rights activists, unionists, lawyers and others.
In a bid to placate militants, Algerian authorities announced last week that a state of emergency which has been in place since 1992, at the start of the Islamist insurgency, will be lifted in the "very near future." However, authorities warned that even then the ban on demonstrations in the capital would remain.
The army's decision to cancel Algeria's first multiparty legislative elections in January 1992 to thwart a likely victory by a Muslim fundamentalist party set off the insurgency. Scattered violence continues.
In Yemen, pro-government demonstrators armed with knives and batons broke up a protest on Saturday by around 2,000 Yemenis inspired by the overthrow of Egypt's president, Reuters reports.
Yemeni police with clubs also beat anti-government protesters.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, trying to ward off protests spreading across the Arab world, has promised to step down when his term ends in 2013, but the opposition has yet to respond to his call to join a unity government, Reuters reports. The opposition wants talks to take place under Western or Gulf Arab auspices.
In Bahrain, the nation's king said he will give the equivalent of $2,650 to each Bahraini family ahead of protests scheduled for next week, Al Jazeera reports.
Activists in the majority Shia population in Bahrain had called for protests demanding political, social and economic reforms, and the Sunni rulers were seeking to placate them, Al Jazeera reports.
The Bahraini government has made several concessions in recent weeks, such as higher social spending and offering to release some minors arrested during a security crackdown against some Shi'ite groups last August, Al Jazeera reports.
Algeria has been the scene of frequent anti-government demonstrations after years of emergency rule, high unemployment and general unrest, but Egypt's successful revolution sparked protests anew Saturday. A human rights advocate says 400 people were arrested there Saturday during demonstrations.
The departure of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has governments across the Mideast on uneasy footing, with some, like Bahrain, giving out money to stave off protesters. In Algeria and Yemen, anti-government demonstrations turned violent.
Some 10,000 people flooded into downtown Algiers, Algeria's capital, where they skirmished with riot police attempting to block off streets and disperse the crowd. An estimated 30,000 police have been deployed around the capital, BBC reports. Some arrests were reported.
Protesters chanted slogans including "No to the police state" and "Bouteflika out," a reference to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power in this sprawling North African nation since 1999.
Under Algeria's long-standing state of emergency - in place since 1992 - protests are banned in Algiers but the government's repeated warnings for people to stay out of the streets apparently fell on deaf ears.
The march comes at a sensitive time, merely a month after another "people's revolution" in neighboring Tunisia that forced long-time autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile on Jan. 14.
The success of those uprisings is fueling the hopes of those seeking change in Algeria, although many in this conflict-scarred nation fear any prospect of violence after living through a brutal insurgency by Islamist extremists in the 1990s that left an estimated 200,000 dead.
Saturday's march aimed to press for reforms to push Algeria toward democracy and did not include a specific call to oust Bouteflika. It was organized by the Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, an umbrella group for human rights activists, unionists, lawyers and others.
In a bid to placate militants, Algerian authorities announced last week that a state of emergency which has been in place since 1992, at the start of the Islamist insurgency, will be lifted in the "very near future." However, authorities warned that even then the ban on demonstrations in the capital would remain.
The army's decision to cancel Algeria's first multiparty legislative elections in January 1992 to thwart a likely victory by a Muslim fundamentalist party set off the insurgency. Scattered violence continues.
In Yemen, pro-government demonstrators armed with knives and batons broke up a protest on Saturday by around 2,000 Yemenis inspired by the overthrow of Egypt's president, Reuters reports.
Yemeni police with clubs also beat anti-government protesters.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, trying to ward off protests spreading across the Arab world, has promised to step down when his term ends in 2013, but the opposition has yet to respond to his call to join a unity government, Reuters reports. The opposition wants talks to take place under Western or Gulf Arab auspices.
In Bahrain, the nation's king said he will give the equivalent of $2,650 to each Bahraini family ahead of protests scheduled for next week, Al Jazeera reports.
Activists in the majority Shia population in Bahrain had called for protests demanding political, social and economic reforms, and the Sunni rulers were seeking to placate them, Al Jazeera reports.
The Bahraini government has made several concessions in recent weeks, such as higher social spending and offering to release some minors arrested during a security crackdown against some Shi'ite groups last August, Al Jazeera reports.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
When Democracy Weakens BOB HERBERT NYTimes
As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.
While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.
So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding and increasingly obscene tax breaks and other windfall benefits for the wealthiest, while the bought-and-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services and the social safety net, saying we can’t afford them. One state after another is reporting that it cannot pay its bills. Public employees across the country are walking the plank by the tens of thousands. Camden, N.J., a stricken city with a serious crime problem, laid off nearly half of its police force. Medicaid, the program that provides health benefits to the poor, is under savage assault from nearly all quarters.
The poor, who are suffering from an all-out depression, are never heard from. In terms of their clout, they might as well not exist. The Obama forces reportedly want to raise a billion dollars or more for the president’s re-election bid. Politicians in search of that kind of cash won’t be talking much about the wants and needs of the poor. They’ll be genuflecting before the very rich.
In an Op-Ed article in The Times at the end of January, Senator John Kerry said that the Egyptian people “have made clear they will settle for nothing less than greater democracy and more economic opportunities.” Americans are being asked to swallow exactly the opposite. In the mad rush to privatization over the past few decades, democracy itself was put up for sale, and the rich were the only ones who could afford it.
The corporate and financial elites threw astounding sums of money into campaign contributions and high-priced lobbyists and think tanks and media buys and anything else they could think of. They wined and dined powerful leaders of both parties. They flew them on private jets and wooed them with golf outings and lavish vacations and gave them high-paying jobs as lobbyists the moment they left the government. All that money was well spent. The investments paid off big time.
As Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson wrote in their book, “Winner-Take-All Politics”: “Step by step and debate by debate, America’s public officials have rewritten the rules of American politics and the American economy in ways that have benefited the few at the expense of the many.”
As if the corporate stranglehold on American democracy were not tight enough, the Supreme Court strengthened it immeasurably with its Citizens United decision, which greatly enhanced the already overwhelming power of corporate money in politics. Ordinary Americans have no real access to the corridors of power, but you can bet your last Lotto ticket that your elected officials are listening when the corporate money speaks.
When the game is rigged in your favor, you win. So despite the worst economic downturn since the Depression, the big corporations are sitting on mountains of cash, the stock markets are up and all is well among the plutocrats. The endlessly egregious Koch brothers, David and Charles, are worth an estimated $35 billion. Yet they seem to feel as though society has treated them unfairly.
As Jane Mayer pointed out in her celebrated New Yorker article, “The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry — especially environmental regulation.” (A good hard look at their air-pollution record would make you sick.)
It’s a perversion of democracy, indeed, when individuals like the Kochs have so much clout while the many millions of ordinary Americans have so little. What the Kochs want is coming to pass. Extend the tax cuts for the rich? No problem. Cut services to the poor, the sick, the young and the disabled? Check. Can we get you anything else, gentlemen?
The Egyptians want to establish a viable democracy, and that’s a long, hard road. Americans are in the mind-bogglingly self-destructive process of letting a real democracy slip away.
I had lunch with the historian Howard Zinn just a few weeks before he died in January 2010. He was chagrined about the state of affairs in the U.S. but not at all daunted. “If there is going to be change,” he said, “real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves.”
I thought of that as I watched the coverage of the ecstatic celebrations in the streets of Cairo.
While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.
So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding and increasingly obscene tax breaks and other windfall benefits for the wealthiest, while the bought-and-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services and the social safety net, saying we can’t afford them. One state after another is reporting that it cannot pay its bills. Public employees across the country are walking the plank by the tens of thousands. Camden, N.J., a stricken city with a serious crime problem, laid off nearly half of its police force. Medicaid, the program that provides health benefits to the poor, is under savage assault from nearly all quarters.
The poor, who are suffering from an all-out depression, are never heard from. In terms of their clout, they might as well not exist. The Obama forces reportedly want to raise a billion dollars or more for the president’s re-election bid. Politicians in search of that kind of cash won’t be talking much about the wants and needs of the poor. They’ll be genuflecting before the very rich.
In an Op-Ed article in The Times at the end of January, Senator John Kerry said that the Egyptian people “have made clear they will settle for nothing less than greater democracy and more economic opportunities.” Americans are being asked to swallow exactly the opposite. In the mad rush to privatization over the past few decades, democracy itself was put up for sale, and the rich were the only ones who could afford it.
The corporate and financial elites threw astounding sums of money into campaign contributions and high-priced lobbyists and think tanks and media buys and anything else they could think of. They wined and dined powerful leaders of both parties. They flew them on private jets and wooed them with golf outings and lavish vacations and gave them high-paying jobs as lobbyists the moment they left the government. All that money was well spent. The investments paid off big time.
As Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson wrote in their book, “Winner-Take-All Politics”: “Step by step and debate by debate, America’s public officials have rewritten the rules of American politics and the American economy in ways that have benefited the few at the expense of the many.”
As if the corporate stranglehold on American democracy were not tight enough, the Supreme Court strengthened it immeasurably with its Citizens United decision, which greatly enhanced the already overwhelming power of corporate money in politics. Ordinary Americans have no real access to the corridors of power, but you can bet your last Lotto ticket that your elected officials are listening when the corporate money speaks.
When the game is rigged in your favor, you win. So despite the worst economic downturn since the Depression, the big corporations are sitting on mountains of cash, the stock markets are up and all is well among the plutocrats. The endlessly egregious Koch brothers, David and Charles, are worth an estimated $35 billion. Yet they seem to feel as though society has treated them unfairly.
As Jane Mayer pointed out in her celebrated New Yorker article, “The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry — especially environmental regulation.” (A good hard look at their air-pollution record would make you sick.)
It’s a perversion of democracy, indeed, when individuals like the Kochs have so much clout while the many millions of ordinary Americans have so little. What the Kochs want is coming to pass. Extend the tax cuts for the rich? No problem. Cut services to the poor, the sick, the young and the disabled? Check. Can we get you anything else, gentlemen?
The Egyptians want to establish a viable democracy, and that’s a long, hard road. Americans are in the mind-bogglingly self-destructive process of letting a real democracy slip away.
I had lunch with the historian Howard Zinn just a few weeks before he died in January 2010. He was chagrined about the state of affairs in the U.S. but not at all daunted. “If there is going to be change,” he said, “real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves.”
I thought of that as I watched the coverage of the ecstatic celebrations in the streets of Cairo.
Simply the Worst MAUREEN DOWD NYTimes
Donald Rumsfeld is starting to make Robert McNamara look good.
At least McNamara felt sorry at the end for all those lives and limbs lost because of his colossal misjudgments and cretinous refusal to admit mistakes.
“We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose,” a penitent McNamara said.
By contrast, when Diane Sawyer asked Rumsfeld last week if he ever revisited decisions that cost lives, he blandly replied, “Well, you know, in a war, many things cost lives.”
Goodness, gracious, stuff happens.
As a Republican congressman in the Johnson era and a Nixon White House official, Rummy had a front-row seat to the ego-driven bungling on Vietnam. But unlike McNamara, who said that the U.S. repeated Vietnam’s moral, political, economic and cultural mistakes in Iraq, Rumsfeld is still blinded by ego.
As part of his “Je ne regret rien pas” book tour, the 78-year-old former defense secretary stopped by the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, where he got the group’s annual “Defender of the Constitution” award. Only another person with such an ironic spin on the phrase “Defender of the Constitution” could present the award, of course, so Dick Cheney popped by to give it to his old pal.
Cheney’s entrance music was Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” also favored by Ricky Gervais for motivational speeches in the British version of “The Office.” When supporters of Ron and Rand Paul heckled the crusty pair — yelling “draft dodger” at Cheney, “Where’s bin Laden?” at Rumsfeld, and “war criminal” at both — Cheney blithely ordered them to “Sit down and shut up.”
Noting that his friend was both the youngest and oldest defense secretary, Cheney said, “Maybe if we give him a third term he’ll get it right.”
Doubtful. Rummy was still full of vinegar as he taunted President Obama for the conservatives.
Looking at the administration’s many “reversals of their announced policies on national security issues — Guantánamo Bay, military commissions, indefinite detention, CIA drone strikes,” he said, it makes me wonder if Dick has had more influence on President Obama than the people that got him elected.”
He is still oblivious about how wrong it was to shunt aside Afghanistan and goose up reasons to go careering into Iraq, which he felt had easier-to-hit targets and easier-to-find villains. He doesn’t agree with the “If you break it, you own it” theory. He thinks you can break it and just leave and not get bogged down in trying to build democratic dream countries.
Rummy’s memoir, “Known and Unknown,” is an unnerving reminder of how the Iraq hawks took crazy conditionals and turned them into urgent imperatives to justify what the defense chief termed “anticipatory self-defense.”
At “Rumsfeld.com,” the author has put up an archive of records and memos. One, marked “SECRET” and declassified last month at his request, is dated Sept. 9, 2002. That was after his P.R. roll-out to the March 2003 Iraq invasion was under way.
The subject line reads “WMD.” Secretary Rumsfeld is sending a secret report that he received a few days earlier to Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, asking: “Please take a look at this material as to what we don’t know about WMD. It is big.”
The attachment is from Major Gen. Glen Shaffer, then the director for intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense, responding to Rummy’s request to know the “unknowns” about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
“We range from 0% to about 75% knowledge on various aspects of their program,” Shaffer wrote. Unfortunately, the 0% had to do with actual weapons.
“Our assessments rely heavily on analytic assumptions and judgment rather than hard evidence,” the report said. “The evidentiary base is particularly sparse for Iraqi nuclear programs.”
It added: “We don’t know with any precision how much we don’t know.” And continued: “We do not know if they have purchased, or attempted to purchase, a nuclear weapon. We do not know with confidence the location of any nuclear weapon-related facilities. Our knowledge of the Iraqi nuclear weapons program is based largely — perhaps 90% — on analysis of imprecise intelligence.”
On biological weapons: “We cannot confirm the identity of any Iraqi facilities that produce, test, fill, or store biological weapons,” the report said, adding: “We believe Iraq has 7 mobile BW agent production plants but cannot locate them ... our knowledge of how and where they are produced is probably up to 90% incomplete.”
On chemical weapons: “We cannot confirm the identity of any Iraqi sites that produce final chemical agent.” And on ballistic missile programs they had “little missile-specific data.”
Somehow that was twisted into “a slam-dunk.” You go to war with the army you have, but the facts you want.
At least McNamara felt sorry at the end for all those lives and limbs lost because of his colossal misjudgments and cretinous refusal to admit mistakes.
“We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose,” a penitent McNamara said.
By contrast, when Diane Sawyer asked Rumsfeld last week if he ever revisited decisions that cost lives, he blandly replied, “Well, you know, in a war, many things cost lives.”
Goodness, gracious, stuff happens.
As a Republican congressman in the Johnson era and a Nixon White House official, Rummy had a front-row seat to the ego-driven bungling on Vietnam. But unlike McNamara, who said that the U.S. repeated Vietnam’s moral, political, economic and cultural mistakes in Iraq, Rumsfeld is still blinded by ego.
As part of his “Je ne regret rien pas” book tour, the 78-year-old former defense secretary stopped by the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, where he got the group’s annual “Defender of the Constitution” award. Only another person with such an ironic spin on the phrase “Defender of the Constitution” could present the award, of course, so Dick Cheney popped by to give it to his old pal.
Cheney’s entrance music was Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” also favored by Ricky Gervais for motivational speeches in the British version of “The Office.” When supporters of Ron and Rand Paul heckled the crusty pair — yelling “draft dodger” at Cheney, “Where’s bin Laden?” at Rumsfeld, and “war criminal” at both — Cheney blithely ordered them to “Sit down and shut up.”
Noting that his friend was both the youngest and oldest defense secretary, Cheney said, “Maybe if we give him a third term he’ll get it right.”
Doubtful. Rummy was still full of vinegar as he taunted President Obama for the conservatives.
Looking at the administration’s many “reversals of their announced policies on national security issues — Guantánamo Bay, military commissions, indefinite detention, CIA drone strikes,” he said, it makes me wonder if Dick has had more influence on President Obama than the people that got him elected.”
He is still oblivious about how wrong it was to shunt aside Afghanistan and goose up reasons to go careering into Iraq, which he felt had easier-to-hit targets and easier-to-find villains. He doesn’t agree with the “If you break it, you own it” theory. He thinks you can break it and just leave and not get bogged down in trying to build democratic dream countries.
Rummy’s memoir, “Known and Unknown,” is an unnerving reminder of how the Iraq hawks took crazy conditionals and turned them into urgent imperatives to justify what the defense chief termed “anticipatory self-defense.”
At “Rumsfeld.com,” the author has put up an archive of records and memos. One, marked “SECRET” and declassified last month at his request, is dated Sept. 9, 2002. That was after his P.R. roll-out to the March 2003 Iraq invasion was under way.
The subject line reads “WMD.” Secretary Rumsfeld is sending a secret report that he received a few days earlier to Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, asking: “Please take a look at this material as to what we don’t know about WMD. It is big.”
The attachment is from Major Gen. Glen Shaffer, then the director for intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense, responding to Rummy’s request to know the “unknowns” about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
“We range from 0% to about 75% knowledge on various aspects of their program,” Shaffer wrote. Unfortunately, the 0% had to do with actual weapons.
“Our assessments rely heavily on analytic assumptions and judgment rather than hard evidence,” the report said. “The evidentiary base is particularly sparse for Iraqi nuclear programs.”
It added: “We don’t know with any precision how much we don’t know.” And continued: “We do not know if they have purchased, or attempted to purchase, a nuclear weapon. We do not know with confidence the location of any nuclear weapon-related facilities. Our knowledge of the Iraqi nuclear weapons program is based largely — perhaps 90% — on analysis of imprecise intelligence.”
On biological weapons: “We cannot confirm the identity of any Iraqi facilities that produce, test, fill, or store biological weapons,” the report said, adding: “We believe Iraq has 7 mobile BW agent production plants but cannot locate them ... our knowledge of how and where they are produced is probably up to 90% incomplete.”
On chemical weapons: “We cannot confirm the identity of any Iraqi sites that produce final chemical agent.” And on ballistic missile programs they had “little missile-specific data.”
Somehow that was twisted into “a slam-dunk.” You go to war with the army you have, but the facts you want.
Mubarak's Final Hours: Desperate Bids to Stay
CAIRO (AP) — Hosni Mubarak was supposed to announce his resignation on Thursday. The Egyptian military expected it. The new head of his ruling party pleaded to him face-to-face to do it. But despite more than two weeks of massive demonstrations by protesters unmoved by lesser concessions, the president still didn't get it.
Mubarak's top aides and family — including his son Gamal, widely viewed as his intended successor — told him he could still ride out the turmoil. So the televised resignation speech the rest of Egypt had expected became a stubborn — and ultimately humiliating — effort to cling to power. It only enraged protesters. On Friday, the military moved decisively.
On Saturday, insiders in Egypt gave The Associated Press an initial picture of what happened in the hours before Egypt's "unoustable" leader of nearly 30 years fell. Some of them spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Their account portrayed Mubarak as unable, or unwilling, to grasp that nothing less than his immediate departure would save the country from the chaos generated by the protests that began Jan. 25. A senior government official said Mubarak lacked the political machinery that could give him sound advice about what was happening in the country.
"He did not look beyond what Gamal was telling him, so he was isolated politically," said the official. "Every incremental move (by Mubarak) was too little too late."
The military, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly impatient with the failure of Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, his newly appointed vice president, to end the protests. The unrest spiraled out of control Thursday and Friday, with demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins and even gunbattles engulfing almost the entire nation.
Insiders spoke of fighting among Cabinet ministers over how great a threat the demonstrators posed, and of deliberate attempts by close aides, including Gamal Mubarak, to conceal from the president the full extent of what was happening on the streets.
The insiders who spoke to the AP include a senior Egyptian official, editors and journalists from state newspapers close to the regime who have spent years covering Mubarak's presidency, retired army generals in contact with top active duty officers, senior members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party and analysts familiar with the machinations of Mubarak's inner circle.
Their account of the events of the past three weeks shows that the military became concerned soon after the protests began. They said it was the military that persuaded Mubarak to appoint Suleiman as vice president — the first since Mubarak took office in 1981 — and place him in charge of negotiations with opposition groups on a way out of the standoff.
Suleiman failed on that score — on Tuesday he was reduced to threatening that a coup would replace the negotiations if no progress was made. Leaders of the protests vowed not to negotiate until Mubarak was gone, even after he said he would not seek another term in September and promised reforms to reduce poverty, end repressive emergency laws and make Egypt more democratic.
By Thursday, nearly everyone had expected Mubarak to resign, including the military.
Hossam Badrawi, a stalwart of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, met with Mubarak on Thursday and later told reporters that he expected the Egyptian leader to "meet people's demands" — read that stepping down — later the same day. After Mubarak did not, Badrawi, who had been named the party's secretary general a few days earlier, resigned in protest, according to two party insiders.
Meanwhile, the military's highest executive body — The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces — met without its chairman, commander-in-chief Mubarak, and issued a statement recognizing the "legitimate" rights of the protesters. They called the statement "Communique No. 1," language that in the Arab world suggests a a coup was taking place.
Insiders said Mubarak's address Thursday night was meant to be his resignation announcement. Instead, he made one last desperate attempt to stay in office after being encouraged to do so by close aides and especially by his family, long the subject of rumors of corruption, abuse of power and extensive wealth.
One insider said Gamal, his banker-turned-politician son, rewrote the speech several times before the recording. It was aired at 11 p.m., several hours after state TV said Mubarak was about to address the nation. It showed brief footage of him meeting with Suleiman and his Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
The address was clearly prepared in a rush. It had rough cuts, and Mubarak was caught at least once acting like he was between takes, fixing his tie and looking away from the camera.
Information Minister Anas al-Fiqqi was there at the studio alongside Gamal Mubarak, according to two of the insiders. State TV quoted him in the hours before the broadcast saying that Mubarak would not resign. On Saturday, al-Fiqqi announced his own resignation.
Mubarak said in the address that he was handing over most of his powers to Suleiman but again rejected calls for his resignation. He vowed to introduce genuine reforms, prosecute those behind the violence that left scores of protesters dead and offered his condolences to the victims' families. He said he was hurting over calls for his removal and, in his defense, recounted his record in public service. He was not going anywhere until his term ended in September, he said.
He had hoped that putting Suleiman in charge would end the protests and allow him to remain in office as a symbolic figure, a scenario that would have seen him make a dignified exit.
The address betrayed what many Egyptians suspected for years — Mubarak was out of touch with the people.
Mubarak, said a senior Egyptian official, "tried to manage the crisis within the existing structures and norms. That was clearly too late. The incremental offers of reform also were clearly insufficient."
The insiders differ on whether Mubarak's address that night was made with the consent of the military, whether it represented his last chance to take back control of the streets. Even if the military's patience wasn't exhausted by the speech, it ran out as the protests grew more intense.
On Friday, the military allowed protesters to gather outside Mubarak's presidential palace in a Cairo suburb — but by that time Mubarak and his immediate family had already flown to another palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 250 miles away. The soldiers also allowed protesters to besiege the TV and radio building in downtown Cairo. Two days earlier, the military stood by and watched as protesters laid siege to the prime minister's office and parliament. Shafiq, the prime minister, could not work in his office and had to work out of the Civil Aviation Ministry close to Cairo's airport.
By early afternoon, millions were out on the streets in Cairo, the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and a string of other major cities. The crowd outside his palace was rapidly growing. Only a few meters and four army tanks separated the protesters from the gate.
Suleiman, Mubarak's longtime confidant and a former intelligence chief, announced that Mubarak was stepping down. In a two-sentence statement to state television that took 49 seconds, Egypt's history changed forever.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mubarak's top aides and family — including his son Gamal, widely viewed as his intended successor — told him he could still ride out the turmoil. So the televised resignation speech the rest of Egypt had expected became a stubborn — and ultimately humiliating — effort to cling to power. It only enraged protesters. On Friday, the military moved decisively.
On Saturday, insiders in Egypt gave The Associated Press an initial picture of what happened in the hours before Egypt's "unoustable" leader of nearly 30 years fell. Some of them spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Their account portrayed Mubarak as unable, or unwilling, to grasp that nothing less than his immediate departure would save the country from the chaos generated by the protests that began Jan. 25. A senior government official said Mubarak lacked the political machinery that could give him sound advice about what was happening in the country.
"He did not look beyond what Gamal was telling him, so he was isolated politically," said the official. "Every incremental move (by Mubarak) was too little too late."
The military, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly impatient with the failure of Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, his newly appointed vice president, to end the protests. The unrest spiraled out of control Thursday and Friday, with demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins and even gunbattles engulfing almost the entire nation.
Insiders spoke of fighting among Cabinet ministers over how great a threat the demonstrators posed, and of deliberate attempts by close aides, including Gamal Mubarak, to conceal from the president the full extent of what was happening on the streets.
The insiders who spoke to the AP include a senior Egyptian official, editors and journalists from state newspapers close to the regime who have spent years covering Mubarak's presidency, retired army generals in contact with top active duty officers, senior members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party and analysts familiar with the machinations of Mubarak's inner circle.
Their account of the events of the past three weeks shows that the military became concerned soon after the protests began. They said it was the military that persuaded Mubarak to appoint Suleiman as vice president — the first since Mubarak took office in 1981 — and place him in charge of negotiations with opposition groups on a way out of the standoff.
Suleiman failed on that score — on Tuesday he was reduced to threatening that a coup would replace the negotiations if no progress was made. Leaders of the protests vowed not to negotiate until Mubarak was gone, even after he said he would not seek another term in September and promised reforms to reduce poverty, end repressive emergency laws and make Egypt more democratic.
By Thursday, nearly everyone had expected Mubarak to resign, including the military.
Hossam Badrawi, a stalwart of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, met with Mubarak on Thursday and later told reporters that he expected the Egyptian leader to "meet people's demands" — read that stepping down — later the same day. After Mubarak did not, Badrawi, who had been named the party's secretary general a few days earlier, resigned in protest, according to two party insiders.
Meanwhile, the military's highest executive body — The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces — met without its chairman, commander-in-chief Mubarak, and issued a statement recognizing the "legitimate" rights of the protesters. They called the statement "Communique No. 1," language that in the Arab world suggests a a coup was taking place.
Insiders said Mubarak's address Thursday night was meant to be his resignation announcement. Instead, he made one last desperate attempt to stay in office after being encouraged to do so by close aides and especially by his family, long the subject of rumors of corruption, abuse of power and extensive wealth.
One insider said Gamal, his banker-turned-politician son, rewrote the speech several times before the recording. It was aired at 11 p.m., several hours after state TV said Mubarak was about to address the nation. It showed brief footage of him meeting with Suleiman and his Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
The address was clearly prepared in a rush. It had rough cuts, and Mubarak was caught at least once acting like he was between takes, fixing his tie and looking away from the camera.
Information Minister Anas al-Fiqqi was there at the studio alongside Gamal Mubarak, according to two of the insiders. State TV quoted him in the hours before the broadcast saying that Mubarak would not resign. On Saturday, al-Fiqqi announced his own resignation.
Mubarak said in the address that he was handing over most of his powers to Suleiman but again rejected calls for his resignation. He vowed to introduce genuine reforms, prosecute those behind the violence that left scores of protesters dead and offered his condolences to the victims' families. He said he was hurting over calls for his removal and, in his defense, recounted his record in public service. He was not going anywhere until his term ended in September, he said.
He had hoped that putting Suleiman in charge would end the protests and allow him to remain in office as a symbolic figure, a scenario that would have seen him make a dignified exit.
The address betrayed what many Egyptians suspected for years — Mubarak was out of touch with the people.
Mubarak, said a senior Egyptian official, "tried to manage the crisis within the existing structures and norms. That was clearly too late. The incremental offers of reform also were clearly insufficient."
The insiders differ on whether Mubarak's address that night was made with the consent of the military, whether it represented his last chance to take back control of the streets. Even if the military's patience wasn't exhausted by the speech, it ran out as the protests grew more intense.
On Friday, the military allowed protesters to gather outside Mubarak's presidential palace in a Cairo suburb — but by that time Mubarak and his immediate family had already flown to another palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 250 miles away. The soldiers also allowed protesters to besiege the TV and radio building in downtown Cairo. Two days earlier, the military stood by and watched as protesters laid siege to the prime minister's office and parliament. Shafiq, the prime minister, could not work in his office and had to work out of the Civil Aviation Ministry close to Cairo's airport.
By early afternoon, millions were out on the streets in Cairo, the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and a string of other major cities. The crowd outside his palace was rapidly growing. Only a few meters and four army tanks separated the protesters from the gate.
Suleiman, Mubarak's longtime confidant and a former intelligence chief, announced that Mubarak was stepping down. In a two-sentence statement to state television that took 49 seconds, Egypt's history changed forever.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oregon Man Dies Outside of ER After Delay in Treatment (NICE THINKING FOLKS!)
Police Treating Man Told to Radio for Ambulance Despite Being Near ER
Portland, Ore., man died in the parking lot of a hospital Thursday after confusion between hospital personnel and police led to a delay in the man's receiving treatment, officials said.
He told his wife, "I have a lot of coughs so I'm going to go to the hospital and I'll be back later," Claudia Luis Garcia told ABC Affiliate KATU through her daughter, acting as a Spanish interpreter.
Marin-Fuentes crashed his car into a light pole in the hospital's parking lot under a sign that said "Emergency Vehicles Only." He was 125 feet from the entrance to the emergency room.
Four Portland police officers in the area tended to Marin-Fuentes after a bystander alerted them to the crash, officials said.
Two officers began administering CPR to the unconscious man while two other police officers went into the emergency room to alert hospital staff about the accident. Police said that they were told by ER staff that they needed to call 911 for an ambulance.
"You know, there's a good reason for it, I'm sure," Portland Police Lt. Kellie Sheffer told KATU. "Does it help in the heat of the moment when there's high emotion and high frustration? No, it's difficult."
Police officer Andrew Hearst radioed dispatch, saying, "Hospital says they won't come out, we need to contact AMR [American Medical Response] first."
The officers continued performing CPR until an ambulance arrived. Marin-Fuentes was put on a gurney and wheeled 125 feet into the ER more than 10 minutes after police first responded to the unconscious man, officials said.
At 1:22 a.m., 35 minutes after a Portland police officer first radioed dispatch, Marin-Fuentes was pronounced dead from a heart attack.
Officials from the Portland Adventist Medical Center said that the police misunderstood the hospital's policy.
"We do not have a policy against responding to emergencies in our parking lot," hospital spokeswoman Judy Leach said in a statement. "In fact, we always call 911 and send our own staff into these situations whether they are gunshot wounds, heart attacks or any other medical emergency."
Hospital officials said they were told that there was a automobile accident and their typical policy in responding to car accidents is to first call 911 to send an ambulance.
"We advised the officer immediately to call 911 because EMS have the mobile equipment to respond to a car accident," Leach said in the statement.
Leach said that along with calling 911, hospital staff immediately began mobilizing and sent a paramedic and two first responders to the scene right away.
"When the security staff arrived, the police were already doing CPR," she said. "Then the nursing supervisor ran out to the garage. She saw that the ambulance and fire department had arrived and were actively preparing the patient for transport to our emergency room."
Police refuted those claims Thursday.
"If a nursing supervisor came out there, that person never made themselves known," Sgt. Pete Simpson told the Oregonian newspaper.
Police and hospital officials met.
"We had a very productive meeting with the police department, which allowed us to go over what actually did take place and it was very productive," Leach said.
Leach called the incident "unfortunate."
"It's just so unfortunate that this patient chose to drive himself when they were having chest pains," she said. "We're wanting to make sure the public knows if you're experiencing chest pains or discomfort, it's always the right thing to call 911 first."
The hospital's position that police misunderstood is little comfort to Marin-Fuentes' family. His brother-in-law called him a "good father figure" to his daughter. Marin-Fuentes and his wife worked detailing cars.
"If he would have seen somebody in the street [asking] for food and stuff, he would have helped them, so why didn't anyone help him," his wife said.
Portland, Ore., man died in the parking lot of a hospital Thursday after confusion between hospital personnel and police led to a delay in the man's receiving treatment, officials said.
He told his wife, "I have a lot of coughs so I'm going to go to the hospital and I'll be back later," Claudia Luis Garcia told ABC Affiliate KATU through her daughter, acting as a Spanish interpreter.
Marin-Fuentes crashed his car into a light pole in the hospital's parking lot under a sign that said "Emergency Vehicles Only." He was 125 feet from the entrance to the emergency room.
Four Portland police officers in the area tended to Marin-Fuentes after a bystander alerted them to the crash, officials said.
Two officers began administering CPR to the unconscious man while two other police officers went into the emergency room to alert hospital staff about the accident. Police said that they were told by ER staff that they needed to call 911 for an ambulance.
"You know, there's a good reason for it, I'm sure," Portland Police Lt. Kellie Sheffer told KATU. "Does it help in the heat of the moment when there's high emotion and high frustration? No, it's difficult."
Police officer Andrew Hearst radioed dispatch, saying, "Hospital says they won't come out, we need to contact AMR [American Medical Response] first."
The officers continued performing CPR until an ambulance arrived. Marin-Fuentes was put on a gurney and wheeled 125 feet into the ER more than 10 minutes after police first responded to the unconscious man, officials said.
At 1:22 a.m., 35 minutes after a Portland police officer first radioed dispatch, Marin-Fuentes was pronounced dead from a heart attack.
Officials from the Portland Adventist Medical Center said that the police misunderstood the hospital's policy.
"We do not have a policy against responding to emergencies in our parking lot," hospital spokeswoman Judy Leach said in a statement. "In fact, we always call 911 and send our own staff into these situations whether they are gunshot wounds, heart attacks or any other medical emergency."
Hospital officials said they were told that there was a automobile accident and their typical policy in responding to car accidents is to first call 911 to send an ambulance.
"We advised the officer immediately to call 911 because EMS have the mobile equipment to respond to a car accident," Leach said in the statement.
Leach said that along with calling 911, hospital staff immediately began mobilizing and sent a paramedic and two first responders to the scene right away.
"When the security staff arrived, the police were already doing CPR," she said. "Then the nursing supervisor ran out to the garage. She saw that the ambulance and fire department had arrived and were actively preparing the patient for transport to our emergency room."
Police refuted those claims Thursday.
"If a nursing supervisor came out there, that person never made themselves known," Sgt. Pete Simpson told the Oregonian newspaper.
Police and hospital officials met.
"We had a very productive meeting with the police department, which allowed us to go over what actually did take place and it was very productive," Leach said.
Leach called the incident "unfortunate."
"It's just so unfortunate that this patient chose to drive himself when they were having chest pains," she said. "We're wanting to make sure the public knows if you're experiencing chest pains or discomfort, it's always the right thing to call 911 first."
The hospital's position that police misunderstood is little comfort to Marin-Fuentes' family. His brother-in-law called him a "good father figure" to his daughter. Marin-Fuentes and his wife worked detailing cars.
"If he would have seen somebody in the street [asking] for food and stuff, he would have helped them, so why didn't anyone help him," his wife said.
Fitness: A Walk to Remember? Study Says Yes
In healthy adults, the hippocampus — a part of the brain important to the formation of memories — begins to atrophy around 55 or 60. Now psychologists are suggesting that the hippocampus can be modestly expanded, and memory improved, by nothing more than regular walking.
In a study published on Jan. 31 in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers randomly assigned 120 healthy but sedentary men and women (average age mid-60s) to one of two exercise groups. One group walked around a track three times a week, building up to 40 minutes at a stretch; the other did a variety of less aerobic exercises, including yoga and resistance training with bands.
After a year, brain scans showed that among the walkers, the hippocampus had increased in volume by about 2 percent on average; in the others, it had declined by about 1.4 percent. Since such a decline is normal in older adults, “a 2 percent increase is fairly significant,” said the lead author, Kirk Erickson, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh. Both groups also improved on a test of spatial memory, but the walkers improved more.
While it is hard to generalize from this study to other populations, the researchers were delighted to learn that the hippocampus might expand with exercise. “And not that much exercise,” Dr. Erickson pointed out.
People don’t even have to join a gym, he noted. They just need shoes. PAULA SPAN
In a study published on Jan. 31 in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers randomly assigned 120 healthy but sedentary men and women (average age mid-60s) to one of two exercise groups. One group walked around a track three times a week, building up to 40 minutes at a stretch; the other did a variety of less aerobic exercises, including yoga and resistance training with bands.
After a year, brain scans showed that among the walkers, the hippocampus had increased in volume by about 2 percent on average; in the others, it had declined by about 1.4 percent. Since such a decline is normal in older adults, “a 2 percent increase is fairly significant,” said the lead author, Kirk Erickson, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh. Both groups also improved on a test of spatial memory, but the walkers improved more.
While it is hard to generalize from this study to other populations, the researchers were delighted to learn that the hippocampus might expand with exercise. “And not that much exercise,” Dr. Erickson pointed out.
People don’t even have to join a gym, he noted. They just need shoes. PAULA SPAN
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