Federal judge orders release of Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
In what the AP calls “a landmark decision,” a federal judge has ordered the release of a small group of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay into the United States. The detainees, who the Bush administration no longer considers enemy combatants, had been held for almost seven years. NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reports that the Bush administration doesn’t want the detainees coming to the U.S. because “that sets a legal precedent.” Watch it:
Before the ruling, the Bush administration argued that the judge, Ricardo M. Urbina, did not “have the authority to release the men into the United States and that they should not be sent back to China where they likely would be tortured.”
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Morris: Obama’s tenuous link to Ayers is ‘the equivalent of having a close relationship with Osama bin Laden.’
Morris: Obama’s tenuous link to Ayers is ‘the equivalent of having a close relationship with Osama bin Laden.’
In an effort to stop “talking about the economic crisis,” the right wing is in a frenzy over Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) tenuous link to former Weatherman Bill Ayers. On Fox News’ Hannity and Colmes last night, Dick Morris argued that it was “the equivalent of having a close relationship with Osama bin Laden.” Watch it:
Morris’ over the top comparison illustrates the AP’s contention that the right wing’s attempt to portray Obama as “not like us” is “another potential appeal to racism” because “it suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.”
Pfotenhauer Claims McCain Has Made The Economy The ‘Fulcrum Of His Whole Campaign’
Pfotenhauer Claims McCain Has Made The Economy The ‘Fulcrum Of His Whole Campaign’
With close friends like Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) acknowledging that a focus on the economy has been bad for Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign, his adviser have announced a strategy for “turning a page on this financial crisis” in order to stop “talking” about the economy. But on the defensive about trying to avoid the most important issue of the day, senior McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer argued on Fox News today that McCain “has made the economy, and his economic policies, just really, the fulcrum of his whole campaign”:
PFOTENHAUER: Now, obviously, Senator McCain has made the economy, and his economic policies, just really, the fulcrum of his whole campaign. I mean, we spend about 80 percent of our time talking about it, unless Russia invades Georgia, and then there’s a little bit of a sidebar. But we spend most of our time focusing on those things because Senator McCain cares so much about it. And he’s been very clear, if I can be biased, he has a very comprehensive plan to get the economy back on track and we spend almost all of our time advocating it.
Watch it:
In reality, McCain has made every effort he can to talk about anything but the economy. In June, Fortune magazine asked McCain what he saw as “the gravest long-term threat to the U.S. economy.” Instead of mentioning an actual economic issue, McCain paused for 11 seconds before saying “radical Islamic extremism“:
He’s looking not at us but into the void. His eyes are narrowed. Nine seconds of silence, ten seconds, 11. Finally he says, “Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we’re in against radical Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences.”
McCain’s pivot in his interview with Fortune is similar to the pivot he made during a primary debate earlier this year. Asked about why he was “qualified” to “manage our economy,” McCain said that his military background gave him “the vision and the knowledge and the background to take on the transcendent issue of the 21st century, which is radical Islamic extremism.”
Considering that McCain has previously admitted that he knows “a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues,” it’s not surprising that he would often choose to talk about “radical Islamic extremism” instead of the economy. What is surprising is that McCain’s advisers believe they can credibly claim McCain has made the economy “the fulcrum” of his campaign.
Lynne Cheney: Right-wing blogs are ‘centrist.’
Lynne Cheney: Right-wing blogs are ‘centrist.’
In an interview with Newsweek’s Tammy Haddad this weekend, Lynne Cheney, the vice president’s wife, revealed that she’s a blog reader. Cheney said that during the 2000 and 2004 campaign, she got “a great sort of sustenance” from reading National Review Online, Real Clear Politics and other conservative blogs. Cheney then claimed that these sites aren’t actually conservative, but “centrist“:
CHENEY: Well, I’m a conservative and I will say that during the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, it was a great sort of sustenance for me to be able to, you know, read National Review Online. To be able to read Real Clear Politics. To be able to read some of the blogs that I’ve enjoyed over the years, that have what seems to me, centrist [views]. But I know in the whole realm of the media, it’s considered right. So, for me, it’s just been, it’s been very good to have that community there. That I didn’t find and still don’t in most of the mainstream media.
Watch it:
Cheney doesn’t name the right-wing blogs that she considers “centrist.” But the staff of National Review Online would likely be surprised to see themselves described as such, considering they describe themselves as a web site for “conservative news.” In fact, when National Review endorsed Mitt Romney last year, the editors wrote that they were looking for “the most conservative viable candidate.”
Ifill: Palin ‘blew me off’ during the debate.
Ifill: Palin ‘blew me off’ during the debate.
During the vice presidential debate on Thursday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she “may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear.” In fact, “On at least 10 occasions, Palin gave answers that were nonspecific, completely generic, pivoted away from the question at hand, or simply ignored it.” On NBC’s Meet The Press today, debate moderator Gwen Ifill said that Palin “more than ignored” her questions. “Blew me off I think is the technical term,” said Ifill. Watch it:
Palin Says She Will Seek Some Authority Over Legislative And Judicial Branches (Updated)
Palin Says She Will Seek Some Authority Over Legislative And Judicial Branches (Updated)
UPDATE: The Fox News transcript misquoted Gov. Palin. In the video of the interview, she actually said, “we won’t be bleeding our authority.” We apologize for the mistake.
During the vice presidential debate last night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that she agreed with Vice President Cheney’s belief that there is “a lot of flexibility” in the Office of the Vice President and that she was “thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president.” Watch it:
In an interview with Fox News’ Carl Cameron this morning, Palin attempted to explain what she meant about “the flexibility of the vice presidency.” “The vice president, of course, is not a member — or a part of the legislative branch, except to oversee the Senate,” said Palin. “That alone provides a tremendous amount of flexibility and authority if that vice president so chose to use it.”
She then claimed that she did not intend on “bleeding” her “authority over to the Legislative or Judicial branch” in order to push McCain’s agenda:
CAMERON: Would you change any of that, (INAUDIBLE) than the Bush/Cheney administration in terms of the power of the executive?
PALIN: Well, again, as I tried to explain last night, our executive branch will know what our job is. We have the three very distinct branches of government. You know, we
mightwon’t be bleeding our authority over to the Legislative or Judicial branch to do our job in the Executive branch as administers.
Palin’s fuzzy answers on the power of the Office of the Vice President do not inspire confidence, considering that she has a record of Cheney-like secrecy and has refused to say whether her office will legally be part of the Executive branch. As the LA Times’ Jim Newton notes, Article 2, Section 1 of “the Constitution makes it clear to most scholars that the vice president is part of the executive branch.”
Palin’s views of the office appear to be so in line with Cheney’s that during her interview with Katie Couric, the only bad thing that Palin could say Cheney had done in office was accidentally shooting his friend in the face.
Adviser: McCain has Latin American experience because of his fling 50 years ago with Brazilian beauty queen.
Adviser: McCain has Latin American experience because of his fling 50 years ago with Brazilian beauty queen.
At an Americas Conference panel discussion today, McCain adviser Richard Fontaine argued that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) affair 50 years ago with former Brazilian beauty queen Maria Gracinda Teixeira de Jesus illustrated “the long experience he has had in the region — in the most positive terms”:
”Talking a little about his personal experience, he was famously born in Panama and has traveled all over the hemisphere for many years.” Fontaine said. “In fact, I saw, I guess it was last week, that his old girlfriend in Brazil has been found from his early days when he was in the Navy and was interviewed. She’s a somewhat older woman now than she was then, but it sorta speaks to the long experience he has had in the region — in the most positive terms.”
Asked afterwards if he was suggesting that the fling “counted as Latin America foreign policy experience,” Fontaine responded, “‘The only thing I was trying to convey was that his experience goes back a long way.” (HT: Ben Smith)
Schwarzenegger requests $7 billion federal bailout for California.
Schwarzenegger requests $7 billion federal bailout for California.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “warned Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson on Thursday that the state might need an emergency loan of as much as $7 billion from the federal government within weeks.” Schwarzenegger’s plea comes as the state is “close to running out of cash to fund day-to-day government operations and is unable to access routine short-term loans”:
The warning comes as California is close to running out of cash to fund day-to-day government operations and is unable to access routine short-term loans that it typically relies on to remain solvent.
The state of California is the biggest of several governments nationwide that are being locked out of the bond market by the global credit crunch. If the state is unable to access the cash, administration officials say, payments to schools and other government entities could quickly be suspended and state employees could be laid off.
The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder calls Schwarzenegger’s request “easily the biggest story of the day.”
Hans Von Spakovsky Claims Obama Would Have A ‘Partisan And Politically-Biased’ Justice Department
Hans Von Spakovsky Claims Obama Would Have A ‘Partisan And Politically-Biased’ Justice Department
In May, controversial former Justice Department official Hans Von Spakovsky withdrew his name from consideration for the Federal Election Commission, following months of opposition from lawmakers and civil rights groups. Since then, Spakovsky has busied himself by writing opinion pieces for conservative news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and National Review.
In an article for the right-wing Human Events today, Spakovsky criticizes efforts by Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) presidential campaign to get attack ads by the “American Issues Project” off of TV, saying that the “actions should cause every American to ask, can Obama be trusted with the powers of the Justice Department.” Spakovsky claims that the Justice Department under Obama would be “partisan and politically-biased”:
There is no threat against television stations or a demand by Obama to criminally prosecute NARAL or other liberal organizations that are no different from AIP or the NRA except, of course, that they have spent millions of dollars for independent ads attacking John McCain and supporting Obama. This dichotomy provides a frightening example of just how partisan and politically-biased the Justice Department and other federal agencies would be under an Obama administration, criminally prosecuting political opponents while turning a blind eye to supporters like NARAL.
Spakovsky’s worries are ironic given that six of his former Justice Department colleagues wrote to the Senate Rules Committee in June 2007, claiming that he “injected partisan political factors into decision-making” when he ran the Voting Section of the DoJ’s Civil Rights Division. Critics say Spakovsky used every opportunity “to make it difficult for voters — poor, minority and Democratic — to go to the polls,” including pushing through Texas re-districting that violated the Voting Rights Act.
Additionally, Spakovsky neglects to mention that he has reason to hold a personal grudge against Obama. In Oct. 2007, Obama “derailed” a vote on Spakovsky’s nomination, which eventually led to Spakovsky’s withdrawal from his nomination. In an op-ed explaining his opposition, Obama wrote that Spakovsky had “amassed a record” of “putting partisan politics above upholding our civil rights.”
Lieberman: We Need To Pass The Bailout Because ‘It Will Be Good For John McCain’
Lieberman: We Need To Pass The Bailout Because ‘It Will Be Good For John McCain’
On Fox News today, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) discussed the downturn in Sen. John McCain’s presidential prospects, saying McCain “is behind now because of the economy.” Lieberman then said that he hopes the House passes bailout legislation tomorrow because “it will be good for our country.”
“But frankly, it will be good for John McCain too,” added Lieberman, explaining that “it will get people back to comparing the two candidates free of a sense of crisis that may make them want to turn against Republicans.” Watch it:
Lieberman is right that the focus on America’s financial problems has been bad for McCain, but it’s not because the “sense of crisis” has confused voters. It’s because of the way McCain has handled himself during the crisis of the past two weeks:
Sept. 15: On the same day that two of Wall Street’s major banking institutions collapsed, McCain declared that he “still” believes “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
Sept. 16: During a round of network interviews, McCain flip-flopped on his support for “excess regulation” in less than an hour.
Sept. 16: Attempting to talk about the financial crisis, McCain twice incorrectly referred to the “SPIC,” when intending to refer to the SIPC (the Securities Investor Protection Corporation).
Sept. 17: After saying the day before that he opposed it, McCain flip-flopped and said he supported the bailout of insurance giant AIG.
Sept. 18: McCain declared that if he were president, he would fire the chairman of the SEC, which the president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to do.
Sept. 19: Attempting to walk back his SEC gaffe, McCain said that that “the chairman of the FEC” — not the SEC — should resign.
Sept. 21: In a 60 Minutes interview, McCain defended his past support for deregulation, saying “I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.”
Sept. 21: Despite the looming $700 billion bailout legislation, McCain told CNBC that he “can still balance the budget” during his first term.
Sept. 25: After McCain abruptly suspended his campaign in order to inject himself into bailout negotiations, the bailout talks broke down during a “contentious” White House meeting called for by McCain.
At this point, anything would be better for John McCain than talking about the economy.