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Last Stand
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Inside the Pentagon, senior commanders have increasingly challenged the President’s plans, according to active-duty and retired officers and officials. The generals and admirals have told the Administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear program. They have also warned that an attack could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States.
A crucial issue in the military’s dissent, the officers said, is the fact that American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine activities or hidden facilities; the war planners are not sure what to hit. “The target array in Iran is huge, but it’s amorphous,? a high-ranking general told me. “The question we face is, When does innocent infrastructure evolve into something nefarious?? The high-ranking general added that the military’s experience in Iraq, where intelligence on weapons of mass destruction was deeply flawed, has affected its approach to Iran. “We built this big monster with Iraq, and there was nothing there. This is son of Iraq,? he said.
Cartoons
Right-wing pundits in Internet ratings freefall
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An odd thing seems to have happened to mighty right-wing talking head media juggernaut. They are still talking, but fewer people seem to be listening — at least on the Internet.
Alexa.com — http://alexa.com — which is owned and operated by Amazon.com, tracks online usage for all Web sites, large and small. At Alexa.com, you can check a site’s activity up to the minute, or follow its trail back for many years.
At U.S. Politics Today, we thought it might be interesting to see how the right-wing media machine was doing. Not well, it turns out.
During the past three months, for instance, http://rushlimbaugh.com traffic ranking has declined 18 percent. He still huffs and puffs away daily on radio, but advertisers might want to double check the size of his audience. If the bottom has dropped out on him online, it likely has had a similar trend line with his radio show.
Even Fox News, that gold standard of right-wing media, is down 13 percent. Here are the numbers: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=www.foxnews.com
Ann Coulter is coining money by attacking widows and orphans — a new game for her since she’s run out of Democrats, living and dead, to defame and verbally pillage. You would think with all of the attention the promotion of her new book has given her would raise visitor numbers at her Web site, http://anncoulter.com. Nope. Traffic there is down 10 percent.
The audience chart reversal seems to be common across the entire right-wing side of the Internet viewing board. Billoreilly.com — http://billoreilly.com — has dropped 40 percent in the past three months. Townhall.com — http://townhall.com — that once popular center for right-wing news and commentary, has fallen by 24 percent. The Washington Times Web site is down by 27 percent. And Matt Drudge, once the hottest right-wing name in Internet sites? Alexa.com says http://drudgereport.com is down 21 percent.
Could it be that Internet users are getting tired of political sites in general? Maybe so. But http://moveon.org is up 13 percent in the same period.
President Bush’s fall from grace has been well documented by poll-after-poll. The unpopularity of Congress may not be at historic lows, but those 20-something level of support numbers can’t be comforting to those who manage things on Capitol Hill.
It seems logical that with enthusiasm draining from the right- wing movement that put the president and the current Congress in place, the media chorus that has lavished praise on them all these many years would be affected by the change in fortune.
And so it seems, looking at the Alexa.com numbers — if they are to be believed. Those graph lines may not directly parallel the decline in GOP poll numbers, but they are all heading in the same direction — down.
Gitmo win likely cost Navy lawyer his career
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Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift — the Navy lawyer who beat the president of the United States in a pivotal Supreme Court battle over trying alleged terrorists — figures he’ll probably have to find a new job.
Of course, it’s always risky to compare your boss to King George III.
Swift made the analogy to the court, saying President Bush had overstepped his authority when he bypassed Congress and set up illegal military tribunals to try Guantanamo detainees such as Swift’s alleged al-Qaida client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
The justices agreed, ruling 5-3 Thursday in favor of dismantling the current tribunal system.
Despite his spectacular success, with the assistance of attorneys from the Seattle firm Perkins Coie, Swift thinks his military career is coming to an end. The 44-year-old Judge Advocate General officer, who was recently named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the country by The National Law Journal, was passed over for promotion last year as the high-profile case was making headlines around the world.
“I may be one of the most influential lawyers in America,” the Seattle University Law School graduate said, “but I won’t be in the military much longer. That irony did strike me.”
But, his superiors said, that no repercussions will be against him, praising him for his persistence and good work. So, maybe he won’t be kicked out.
They most likely will not kick him out, just give him a window seat. He’ll certainly do better in a private law firm outside the mil. Good luck to this true patriot who understands what the U.S. used to symbolize.