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Friday, October 13, 2006

Renzi and Teen Boys 

Despite MyDD's linking of the House Republican pedophile scandal to the change in the projection in the AZ-CD1 race from "lean Rep" to "toss-up / lean Rep," there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Republican incumbent Rick Renzi has an unusual fondness for young boys.

That is a partisan rumor, spread by the same bloggo-fascists who maintain that the U.S. isn't smack dab in the middle of a civil war in Iraq. There's no truth to it. Absolutely none. Or, at least, nobody from the administration has acknowledged such an insurgency. Or that Rick Renzi is a pedophile.

So at this time, until more credible witnesses are willing to come forward on the record, we are not able to confirm either of those things.

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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

McCain is Truth-Challenged 

He must be drinking the Kool-aid.

Or as Josh Marshall notes,
John McCain seems to have some difficulties with physics and the historical record in his attempt to blame Bill Clinton for the latest crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
Seems like whenever the Bushistas fuck up royally, as they have clearly done with the North Korean regime, (and as they did on 9-11) their fall-back position is always the same:
It's Bill Clinton's fault
Josh provides a little historical context:
Some basic facts.

The 1994 crisis came about because the North Koreans were producing weapons-grade plutonium. Under the Agreed Framework, they agreed to shutter the plutonium production facility and put the already produced plutonium under international oversight.

In return, the US promised aide, help building lightwater reactors (which don't help with bombs) and diplomatic normalization.

That agreement kept the plutonium operation on ice until the end of 2002.

President Bush came to office wanting to pull out of the agreement and did so when evidence surfaced suggesting that the North Koreans were secretly trying to enrich uranium (a separate path to the bomb).

The bomb that went off yesterday was made with plutonium, the same stuff that was off-limits from 1994-2002. In all likelihood some of the same stuff that was on ice from 1994-2002.

To the best of my knowledge, no one thinks the North Koreans are close to having enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon that way. And it's not even completely clear they were ever trying to enrich uranium.

So Clinton strikes a deal to keep plutonium out of the North Koreans' hands. The deal keeps the plutonium out of reach for the last six years of Clinton's term and the first two of Bush's. Bush pulls out of the deal. Four years later a plutonium bomb explodes.

Clinton's fault, right?
Well, that's what Condi Rice told CNN.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. tried bilateral talks with North Korea in the 1990s and the policy failed.

Josh lays it out plainly enough that even the senior senator from Arizona should be able to figure it out:
"Failure" =1994-2002 -- Era of Clinton 'Agreed Framework': No plutonium production. All existing plutonium under international inspection. No bomb.

"Success" = 2002-2006 -- Bush Policy Era: Active plutonium production. No international inspections of plutonium stocks. Nuclear warhead detonated.

Face it. They ditched an imperfect but working policy. They replaced it with nothing. Now North Korea is a nuclear state.

Facts hurt. So do nukes.
McCain's Jive Turkey Express rolls on.

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