Fear-monger THIS: Taliban’s 2nd-in-command nabbed in Pakistan

And buried in 6 point type in the middle of the MSNBC.com homepage (gotta flog the Olympics) is this:

Taliban’s 2nd-in-command nabbed in Pakistan
Bin Laden associate is most senior Afghan Taliban leader caught since ’01

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the No. 2 behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi

...
His capture represents a significant success for the administration of President Barack Obama, which has vowed to kill or seize Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It follows the ramping up of CIA missile strikes against militant targets along the border between the two countries that have reportedly killed many midlevel commanders.

"This is a major terrorist who has been at the core of Taliban operations for years. Having him off the battlefield means the near-term disruption of plotting against coalition forces in Afghanistan," a U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News.

...
The New York Times said it learned of the operation against Baradar last Thursday but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials who argued that publicizing it would end a valuable intelligence-gathering effort by making Baradar's associates aware of his capture.

Note the last paragraph. The announcement of his arrest was delayed because HE WAS BEING INTERROGATED.

Soft on terror, my ass.

Terror fear-mongering: truth vs. fiction

Excellent article from Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek:

Jostling before the midterms has begun, and so too has the GOP's ritualistic hazing of Democrats on national security. At every turn Republicans are hammering the Obama administration for "capitulating" in the fight against terrorism. But their macho rhetoric actually sends a message of weakness: we can't try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the same civilian courts that have convicted dozens of other international terrorists because Al Qaeda might attack New York. (When since 9/11 has New York not been a target of Al Qaeda?) Our criminal-justice system can't deal with a failed underwear bomber. The GOP assault may be smart politics, but in the long run it damages U.S. security by undermining our confidence and resiliency in the face of certain attacks to come.

...
Americans are historically a tough lot. But the policies and rhetoric of the Bush-Cheney years, which set the tone for the current GOP attacks, are infantilizing: be very afraid, we're told, and let the government take care of you. The tough-guy bluster has led to a permanent state of anxiety—and a slew of counterproductive policies, from harsh visa restrictions to waterboarding. Our politicians rail about apocalyptic threats while TSA officers pat down toddlers at the airport. The irony is that many potentially lethal terror attacks—from United Flight 93 to Richard Reid to the underwear bomber—have been foiled by regular citizens. The aim of terrorists is to make people feel powerless and afraid. Un-fortunately, not every plot will be foiled. But if that's the standard we and our leaders set for ourselves, we are doomed to perpetuate dumb policies that flow from irrational fears. Just what the terrorists want.

NYT Poll: Bush still blamed for economy

At least this NYT poll shows there's SOME measure of reality operating.

(CNN)

More than a year after President George W. Bush left office, more Americans continue to blame his administration over any other entity for the nation's economic woes, according to a new poll.

In a New York Times/CBS News survey out Friday, 31 percent of Americans said the Bush administration is at fault for the current state of the economy while only 7 percent pointed their finger at President Obama and his team.

An additional 23 percent said the fault lies with Wall Street institutions while 13 percent assign the blame to Congress. Nearly 10 percent said the blame lies with all of them.

They don't even know what they stand for

via Cesca

John Boehner several days ago:

"If the President intends to present any kind of legislative proposal at this discussion, will he make it available to members of Congress and the American people at least 72 hours beforehand?"

As Benen notes, in response, the White House agreed to release the healthcare plan online 72 hours before the summit. Which, of course, Boehner bitched about, suggesting that no proposal be presented. Just a blank sheet of paper.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are vigorously opposing policies they used to endorse.

From a deficit commission to PAYGO, cap-and-trade to a financial industry bailout, civilian trials for terrorist suspects to stimulus aid for their districts, it's become routine for Republicans to embrace and reject the same proposals, almost at the same time.

And, even though they voted against the stimulus and are currently campaigning against it, they're petitioning various governmental departments to hand over stimulus money to their districts:

More than a dozen Republican lawmakers supported stimulus-funding requests submitted to the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service, in letters obtained by The Wall Street Journal through the Freedom of Information Act.

What the hell is this? What do they stand for? Last night, Rachel Maddow described the Republicans as not caring about policy. That's putting it nicely. They're a party that only stands for the opposite of what the Democrats stand for. No wonder Republican voters are so insane right now.

The Funny: Nickelback "tribute"

It's a Trap: Stewart mocks Boehner over health care debate

(HuffPost)

With President Obama inviting Republicans to a televised summit on health care, many GOP leaders have been reluctant to attend, thinking it's an elaborate trap. This logic didn't sit well with Jon Stewart... or Admiral Ackbar.

Stewart jokingly agreed with the Republican sentiment, explaining that having a televised, bipartisan conversation on health care is so reasonable that it's actually an ingenious trap.

Minority Leader John Boehner expressed concern, worried about having to "walk into some setup... who knows what." To this Stewart responded: "It's a public dialogue about important legislation. Not Little Big Horn."

Stewart then called Boehner's bluff:

"The only way this health care meeting is a trap is if Boehner's got nothing. It's like a paper bag is only a trap if you can't punch your way out of it."

Lawrence O'Donnell tears into Bush speechwriter over torture

(HuffPost)

Fireworks erupted on the set of "Morning Joe" Friday, after MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell took umbrage with former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen's claim that President Obama is inviting a domestic terrorist attack.

Things started off rocky after Thiessen -- in the process of justifying the coercive counter-terrorism techniques used under the Bush administration and condemning Obama for "eliminating the CIA's interrogation program" -- insisted that his former boss was required to essentially start from scratch.

"You gotta think back to the period after 9/11," he said. "We didn't even know who hit us. We didn't know that Khalid Sheik Mohammad was the mastermind of 9/11 or the operational commander of al Qaeda. And then we started rounding up these terrorists..."

O'Donnell responded quickly, barking out his bewilderment with Thiessen's assertion that there was no pre-9/11 warning that an attack was coming.

"Isn't it true that the president you worked for invited the first attack by having no idea what was going on with al Qaeda? You just admitted that when you were hit on 9/11, you just said, 'We didn't know who hit us'. You were told who was going to hit you before 9/11. And your administration invited the first attack, for which you should live in shame."

Those charges were some of the milder in the heated exchange. Later in the segment, O'Donnell told Thiessen that he was hopelessly ill-equipped to talk about terrorism or torture.

"Marc, I'm wondering about your own personal experience with torture. I know you grew up in the richest zip code in America, in the Upper East Side. You went to the only boarding school in all of Connecticut that I know of that has its own golf course... And then you went to Vasser. And like all the torture-mongers in the Bush White House, the Cheney family included, you never served a day in the military. Never considered that. I'm wondering, with that background, what is it that gives you an expertise on torture? What makes you love it so much?"

Thiessen replied: "First of all, one, it is not torture. Second of all, [the New Yorker's] Jane Mayer said the other day I never had a security clearance... I had a security clearance. I was read into the CIA program. When President Bush did a speech in December 2006 to reveal this program, I was taken into a secure room in the National Security Council. I was given access to all of the intelligence this program produced. And I actually met with the actual interrogators who interviewed Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and got the information to stop attacks."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A heartbreaking work of staggering hypocrisy

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project.

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine (1961 recording)

(Steve Benen)

During last year's debate for the Vice Presidential candidates, Sarah Palin paraphrased a famous Reagan quote: "It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction.... We have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free."

And then, this week.....

“Don’t cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong.”

Newt Gingrich

* THUD *

(Benen continued...)

The problem with the (Palin) quote (of Reagan) was that Reagan was, at the time, condemning the very idea of Medicare. In context, Reagan actually said, "[I]f you don't [stop Medicare] and I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free." The line wasn't about "freedom," it was about a program to provide seniors with health care.

Apparently, conservatives still love the Reagan speech in which the line was delivered, but overlook pesky details, such as context.

Paul Krugman

Why is this amazing? It’s not just the fact that Republicans are now posing as staunch defenders of a program they have hated ever since the days when Ronald Reagan warned that Medicare would destroy America’s freedom. Nor is it even the fact that, as House speaker, Mr. Gingrich personally tried to ram through deep cuts in Medicare — and, in 1995, went so far as to shut down the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton into accepting those cuts.

After all, you could explain this about-face by supposing that Republicans have had a change of heart, that they have finally realized just how much good Medicare does. And if you believe that, I’ve got some mortgage-backed securities you might want to buy.

No, what’s truly mind-boggling is this: Even as Republicans denounce modest proposals to rein in Medicare’s rising costs, they are, themselves, seeking to dismantle the whole program. And the process of dismantling would begin with spending cuts of about $650 billion over the next decade. Math is hard, but I do believe that’s more than the roughly $400 billion (not $500 billion) in Medicare savings projected for the Democratic health bills.

Thank Al Gore for all this snow. Haw, haw, haw.... and the internet I'm typing this on.

Colbert takes on the biggest meme that the right has put out in years: the "it's snowing where I live so global warming can't be real".

Do they really know how idiotic they sound? It's like saying "People aren't starving in the world, I just ate a steak, so that's impossible". Or as Colbert points out, "because it's dark out, we can only conclude that the sun has been destroyed."

Like with one-year olds, "whatever has just happened is the only thing that's happening". With that in mind, Stephen Colbert checks in with the peek-a-boo-ologists:

Stephen Colbert: "Sarah Palin Is A Fucking Retard"

Jon Stewart, Robert Gibbs on Palin's crib notes

Calling the Republican bluff on health care

Cesca; Willis

This is all playing out nicely. With this idea of a televised summit, the president called the Republican bluff about listening to their (ridiculous) ideas about healthcare. It's not even 48 hours into the announcement of the idea and the Republicans are already struggling to wiggle out of the thing.

And the latest word via Countdown is that the Republicans won't meet with the president unless reconciliation is taken off the table. Ezra Klein told Keith Olbermann that the president should agree with that demand -- but only if the Republicans agree to an up-or-down vote. No filibuster.

But beyond the finer points of the Republican demands, it's obvious that they simply have no interest in having any summit (televised or not), and they have even less interest in passing healthcare reform.

Bluff successfully called. Flawless victory.