Akkam’s Razor

Atrios points to a little piece of opening commentary from the trial of Osama Bin Laden’s driver that contradicts the accepted folklore behind Flight 93.

“If they hadn’t shot down the fourth plane it would’ve hit the dome,” Stone, a Navy officer, said in his opening remarks.

The tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Col. Lawrence Morris, later explained that Stone was quoting Hamdan in evidence that will be presented at trial. Morris declined to say if the “dome” was a reference to the U.S. Capitol.

“Virtually no one knew the intended target, but the accused knew,” Stone said.

John Stauber has a post at PR Watch that is sourced from Matt Bai's book, The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, where former NY Governor Mario Cuomo speaks to a group of wealthy Democratic activists:

Shortly after the November 2006 election the Democracy Alliance, an exclusive group of about 100 Democratic Party millionaire activists, met in Miami, Florida. Members and their guests heard their keynote speaker and liberal legend Mario Cuomo analyze the Democratic Party in the wake of its stunning electoral victories that had given Democrats control of the US Congress. Cuomo criticized the Democratic Party for lacking vision, big ideas and a winning political argument. His recipe for future Democratic victories was simple: "You seize the biggest idea you can, the biggest idea you can understand. And this is what moves elections."

Cuomo then dared to voice an inconvenient truth: "Now it's 2006 and we're all rejoicing. Why? Because of Iraq. A GIFT. A gift to the Democrats. A lot of whom voted for the war anyway." The former New York governor challenged his partisan audience, "If Iraq is not an issue, then what issues do we have to talk about? … Where does that leave you? It leaves you in the same position you were in in 2004 – without an issue. Because you have no big idea."

Stauber goes on to illustrate why Iraq is a "gift":

The Argument is an important book but Bai muffed the title. He should have titled it “The Gift,” because as Cuomo points out it was primarily the political gift of voter anger and revulsion over a horrific, continuing war that caused them to oust Republicans.

He then goes on to lament how the current Democratic Congressional Leadership is failing to deliver on the voting public's wishes (he is, of course, correct, but that's a whole-another-post).

It's simply too easy to beat the administration over the head with their incompetence regarding Iraq, and that's even if totally ignoring the deceptions and ideology driven mechanisms that created, sold, and marketed this war.  Strangely, most pundits choose to look at the war in isolation, as though it were a unique creature born of unique circumstances.

Popularity: 45% [?]

Just as in each of the last 5-years, immediately prior to the Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks, some guy dressed like Osama Bin Laden comes out of the ground.  This guy releases more video than Tu-Pac and Biggie combined. 

If he sees his shadow, we are guaranteed another Friedman-Unit of War.  Pay no attention to the Black-Beard or the suspicious freezes in the video.  I also find the video interesting, as the President does, specifically as it so perfectly straddles the Conservative talking points of the day.

This should elate approximately 30% of you and disgust the balance.

A newly formed Pro-War astroturf - think false, ideological grassroots organization - group, Freedom Watch (YouTube) has some local connections, as described at Fables of the Reconstruction.  Most prominently, sports fans, is CEO of Comcast-Spectacor Ed Snider (wiki) Comcast-Spectacorp is a partnership with the Comcast Corporation, which manages the sports arenas, the ComcastSportsnet, the 76ers, the Philadelphia Flyers, and some other related ventures.

Via Politico:

A new group, Freedom’s Watch, is launching Wednesday with a $15 million, five-week campaign of TV, radio and Web ads featuring military veterans that is aimed at retaining support in Congress for President Bush’s “surge” policy on Iraq. 

The Orwellian-named Freedom Watch, helmed by Plamegate-accomplice Ari Fleischer has an interesting cast of characters.

Again, from FotR: 

The board consists of Blakeman; [Ari] Fleischer; Mel Sembler, a Florida Republican who was Bush’s ambassador to Italy; William P. Weidner, president and chief operating officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp.; and Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The donors include Sembler; Anthony Gioia, a Buffalo businessman who was Bush’s ambassador to Malta; Kevin Moley, who was Bush’s ambassador to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva; Howard Leach, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman who was Bush’s ambassador to France; Dr. John Templeton of Pennsylvania, chairman and president of the John Templeton Foundation; Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast Spectacor, the huge Philadelphia sports and entertainment firm; Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and ranked by Forbes magazine as the third-wealthiest American; and Richard Fox, who is chairman of the Jewish Policy Center and was Pennsylvania State Chairman of the Reagan/Bush campaign in 1980.

 [...]

Richard Fox is local. Comcast, as the article says, is right here in Center City Philly. So Philly is subsidizing pro-war propaganda. Wonderful. The Templeton Foundation is located in a Philadelphia suburb, and has a right-wing track record.

The TV-buys are interesting in that they attack both Democrats and any moderate Republicans who have been less than 100% loyal to the President, and seem to imply that the participation in our Democracy is tantamount to treason and "stabbing the troops in the back". 

The ads are an attempt to grab the security-moms and armchair generals by having Laura and Vicky relate the sacrifices of their sons, Travis and Jesse, as well as linking retreat from Iraq with retreat from Vietnam, and further attempting to confuse Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda with the insurgents in Iraq.  As September draws nearer, expect more political attacks designed to attack any criticism of the effectiveness of "the surge".

Popularity: 38% [?]

I'm trying to find defenders of Cheney somewhere online, but so far all I've gotten are the deranged at LGF in the comment thread and the occasional drive-by troll in the WaPo comment thread, comments such as these:

Popularity: 10% [?]

Before you get all weepy-eyed, and before the "press" heralds him as a divisive but religious force, let's review some of his "highlights" [Positive Atheism via MeFi]:

If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being.
— Rev Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)

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