The press and the opposition are not the same, but sometimes they’re hard to distinguish.

–Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (paraphrased)

I had my doubts about her executive fitness, as the wife of the outgoing Argentine president, but she dispelled them with a good, solid speech. I especially liked the line quoted in the title of this post.

Chavez got a huge cheer. The Uruguayan president Vazquez, well… the deputies and senators were very polite.

The contrast with Hillary could not have been clearer. F. de Kirchner spoke with conviction, not about specific issues (well, except for the Uruguayan paper mills), but in broad, consistent themes.

Some highlights, all very much paraphrases:

• There is no liberty without equality
• As long as there is a single poor person in Argentina, we will not forget

• We will bring to trial members of the military who tortured and executed people. The families of the disappeared cannot continue to be tormented by having this endlessly discussed without action.

Cheating the desperate

Eric Eckholm, NYT (via t/o):

Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.

Two-thirds of those who appeal an initial rejection eventually win their cases.

But in the meantime, more and more people have lost their homes, declared bankruptcy or even died while awaiting an appeals hearing...

A first step of raising the number of judges to 1,200 will require at least $100 million extra for the agency beyond the $9.6 billion that President Bush has proposed for the 2008 fiscal year, Mr. Astrue said. Within a wide-ranging, $151 billion health, education and labor bill passed in November, the Democratic-controlled Congress voted for a $275 million increase for the agency. But Mr. Bush vetoed the bill, calling it profligate.




From Jeremiah 22:15-17 to Dubya:

"Does it make you a king
to have more and more cedar?
Did not your father have food and drink?
He did what was right and just,
so all went well with him.

He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?"
declares the LORD.

"But your eyes and your heart
are set only on dishonest gain,
on shedding innocent blood
and on oppression and extortion."




78 months to write his memoirs

…in jail.

Plus pocket change for a fine.

Oh: This post is about Conrad Black.

Burying The Lede On Pelosi And The CIA

By now everyone’s heard about the Porter Goss Smear special designed to make Nancy Pelosi and the other Dems back off on the CIA’s destroying the torture tapes by implying that she OKed waterboarding back in 2002.

Well, Pelosi came out to rebut it yesterday — but you’d have to be a good reader to know this, as it hasn’t exactly been headlined.

Buried waaaaaay dowwwwn in this NYT article is something that should have been put right at the top, and the rest of the article (which consists of Silvestre Reyes’ fan-boy worship of Porter Goss protégé José Rodriguez) junked:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among the lawmakers who attended the briefing, issued a statement on Sunday saying that she eventually did protest the techniques and that she concurred with objections raised by a Democratic colleague in a letter to the C.I.A. in early 2003.

Funny how Porter Goss’ stenographers left that out of the press packs he handed out to them ‘on background’ .

UPDATE: Here’s Pelosi’s rebuttal and statement (h/t madmsf):

“On one occasion, in the fall of 2002, I was briefed on interrogation techniques the Administration was considering using in the future. The Administration advised that legal counsel for the both the CIA and the Department of Justice had concluded that the techniques were legal.

“I had no further briefings on the techniques. Several months later, my successor as Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman, was briefed more extensively and advised the techniques had in fact been employed. It was my understanding at that time that Congresswoman Harman filed a letter in early 2003 to the CIA to protest the use of such techniques, a protest with which I concurred.”

Reported Without Comment

Because none is really needed (h/t  james richardson at Daily Kos):

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6 – A scout leader who once sued the City of Berkeley for challenging a national Boy Scout ban on members who are gay or atheist has been arrested on felony charges that for at least five years he sexually abused young males in the troops he led.

(snip)

Mr. Evans sued the city in his role as a leader of the Sea Scouts, an affiliate program of the Boy Scouts. The city, after providing free berthing for a Sea Scouts boat for 60 years, said in 1998 that a Boy Scout policy barring gay scouts and atheists violated Berkeley’s rules against discrimination. The city said the Scouts would have to leave the berth or pay $500 a month rent.

Mr. Evans sued for discrimination and for violating the Scouts’ First Amendment rights. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Berkeley.