on things being worse than you even imagined...

from the BBC:

US held youngsters at Abu Ghraib
A US military intelligence officer leads an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib
The US military says no children suffered abuse at Abu Ghraib
Children as young as 11 years old were held at Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison at the centre of the US prisoner abuse scandal, official documents reveal.

Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, formerly in charge of the jail, gave details of young people and women held there.

Her assertion was among documents obtained via legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

on putting your money where you mouth is....

DAILY GRILL--from today's American Progress Report

"People on both sides of the aisle have called upon the administration to submit a budget that helps meet our obligations of – our goal of reducing the deficit in half over a five-year period, and this budget does just that."

– President Bush, 2/7/05

VERSUS

"Over the 2006-2015 period, the president's proposals would increase the total deficit by an estimated $1.6 trillion."

– Congressional Budget Office, analysis of White House budget, 3/7/05

on more 'hard work' that didn't get done

salon.com's war room summarizes today's NYT article about Bushco's missteps and failures in "supporting our troops"

Failing the troops

Again and again on the presidential campaign trial, George W. Bush railed against John Kerry for voting against an $87 billion supplemental appropriation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After Kerry said the matter was "complicated" -- he wanted to finance the $87 billion by rolling back some of Bush's tax cuts -- Bush turned the issue into a centerpiece of his stump speech. To huge applause from his hand-picked audiences, Bush would say, "There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat."

Well, then, how will the president explain the report in this morning's New York Times detailing the administration's bumbling in providing body armor for those troops? While Donald Rumsfeld and others on Bush's team have long insisted that the administration is providing the troops with the best equipment possible just as quickly as possible, the Times' report proves otherwise. A month into the Iraq war -- when the administration was still in deep denial about the insurgency to come -- the Army shut down orders for body armor for many of the troops in Iraq, the Times says.

A month later, the Army reversed course, but the stop-and-start action was only the beginning of the problems in getting body armor to troops. Once the Army began ordering body armor again, the Times reports, it took 167 days "just to start getting the bulletproof vests to soldiers in Iraq." Other countries ordered similar vests from a U.S. supplier and got them to their soldiers in Iraq in just 12 days, the Times says. More than 200 U.S. soldiers were killed between the time the Pentagon shut down orders for body armor and the time that new vests finally started arriving in Iraq again; if any of those soldiers died because they lacked the body armor, the administration plainly bears at least some of the blame.

The Times' investigation reveals any number of other failings in the administration's effort to "support the troops." Among them: The Pentagon contracted with a former employee to manufacture the ceramic plates needed for the body armor even though his company had never successfully manufactured anything -- and ultimately failed to manufacture the ceramic plates, too; the Pentagon created so many delays in the process of contracting for body armor that one manufacturer was forced to lay off employees and shut down its plant for two months while soldiers were waiting for their vests; the Pentagon failed to push U.S. manufacturers to build armor-plating for Humvees at adequate rates; and, at least in the eyes of some troops, the military punished soldiers who spoke out about the problems the delays caused.

It turns out that supporting the troops isn't just complicated -- it's "hard work," too. For all of its yellow-ribbon, bumper-sticker politics, the administration appears not to have done it so well.

-- Tim Grieve

[07:17 EST, March 7, 2005]

"gannons everywhere"

for those of you following the shenanigannons...

salon.com's War Room has this to report:

Gannons everywhere

On Monday, a fake reporter infiltrated the press corps at a question-and-answer session in front of New York's City Hall. Disguised in a fake mustache and hair piece in an obvious spoof of discredited White House reporter "Jeff Gannon," the intruder identified himself as "Dino Ironbody." He got City Council Speaker Gifford Miller's attention and asked: "How do you feel about the president's awesome plan to privatize Social Security?"

Miller caught on right away. "I'm not such a big fan of the president's plan to private Social Security," he answered. "I think Social Security has worked pretty well for generations and we outta stick with something that works."

The reporter was Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry, shooting a segment that will air on Thursday night's show.

-- Julia Scott

[16:00 EST, March 3, 2005]

on "hard work"

it seems that "it's hard work!" is quickly becoming a refrain throughout the bush administration--everyone liked it so much when bush used it in his debate performances...

CIA Director Goss amazed at his workload by Ryan Pearson
March 2, 2005 | Simi Valley, Calif. -- In a rare public appearance Wednesday, CIA Director Porter Goss said he is overwhelmed by the many duties of his job, including devoting five hours out of every day to prepare for and deliver intelligence briefings to President Bush.

"The jobs I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal," Goss said. "I'm a little amazed at the workload."