Anthrax Assassin Acted Alone?

The Feds say scientist Bruce Ivins acted alone; fellow scientists say no way on the circumstantial evidence. Plus: Verdict Time at Camp Gitmo...PTSD is kinda like smoking two packs a day for the next twenty years...you could watch an entire episode of ER — with commercials — in the same amount of time it takes to wait for a real ER doctor to see you...pay a buck, ride the “waterboarding torture ride” at Coney Island...doctors use the homeless to defraud Medicare...and find out which NCAA athlete got busted throwing games for bookies. It’s Thursday, August 7 and this is Mic Check Radio. Glenn Beck is such a Joker.

Celebration Excuse

We’re celebrating penny candy and marriage and telephone cables.

1909

The US issued its first Lincoln penny

1935

60% of voters in Danzig agreed to Nazism

1954

Charles Mahoney became the first US black to serve as a full United Nations delegate

1964

The US Congress approved Gulf of Tonkin resolution

1974

Philippe Petit walks a tightrope strung between twin towers

1974

Faye Dunaway wed Peter Wolf

1990

Operation Desert Shield began

1991

Manhattan Cable’s final day of amnesty to return illegal cable boxes

1994

The first telephone cable was laid between Israel and Jordan

Blow out the candles.

1885: Billie Burke, actress who portrayed Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, in The Wizard of Oz
1938: Helen Caldicott, Australian physician and anti-nuclear advocate who founded Women for Nuclear Disarmament
1958: Bruce Dickinson, lead singer in Iron Maiden, also an airline pilot, historian, TV presenter and fencer
1975: Charlize Theron, Academy Award winning South African actress

Daybook

POTUS

Participates in a briefing on disaster relief efforts in Burma, Ambassador’s Residence, Bangkok, Thailand
Departs, with Mrs. Bush, from Bangkok, Thailand en route China
Participates, with Mrs. Bush, in the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China
Meets with International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, Fencing Hall, Beijing, China (Early morning August 8)
Greets, with Mrs. Bush, the 2008 U.S. Summer Olympic Team, Fencing Hall, Beijing, China (Early morning August 8)

OTHERS

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao:

3:00 PM

Delivers keynote remarks at the Young America’s Foundation National Conservative Student conference, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

STUMPIN

JOHN MCCAIN

11:30 AM

Town Hall in Lima, OH.

ON THE HILL

SENATE

Senate not in session; August recess.

HOUSE

Not in session.

WATCH MORE TV

TIVO

The View: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried (R 7/18/08)
Regis and Kelly: Penelope Cruz, guest co-host Seann William Scott
Ellen DeGeneres: Leona Lewis (R 4/11/08), Marcia Cross
Tavis Smiley: Jane Mayer, Judy Reyes
Chelsea Lately: Cheech & Chong, Brad Sherwood, Hyla, Chris Franjola
George Stroumboulopoulos: Vicente Fox, Wyclef Jean ®

STAY UP LATE

David Letterman: Kiefer Sutherland, Rumer Willis, Alejandro Escovedo
Jay Leno: Nick Nolte, Carrot Top, Solomon Burke
Late Late Show: Jack Black, Conor Oberst
Conan O’Brien: Seth Rogen, Al Green
Last Call: Andrew “Dice” Clay, Shooter Jennings (R 3/11/08)
Daily Show: David Gregory
Colbert Report: Devin Gordon, Thomas Frank
Jimmy Kimmel: James Franco, Tommy Lee, From First to Last

 

Eavesdrop

STEAL THIS AUDIO

Who: Foreign policy experts Michael O’Hanlon, Kenneth Pollack, Bruce Riedel and Jeremy Shapiro

What: Discussion on the state of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. efforts to partner with Pakistan in confronting al Qaeda

Where: Brookings

THE AUDIO

  • Pollack, on Iraq’s Ordered Problems: One of the ways that we have helped people to understand what’s going on is we’ve talked about things in terms of there being first order, second order, third order, fourth order problems in Iraq. Iraq is a very complicated society, Iraq was a deeply troubled society even before we invaded and even before all of the catastrophic mistakes of the Bush administration in its first three years after the invasion of Iraq. But those catastrophic mistakes creates problems that didn’t exist before hand that led to the ethno-sectarian civil war, that created the insurgency or allowed the insurgency to flourish...that created a failed state in Iraq. What the surge did was effectively deal with those first order problems: with the ethno-sectarian civil war, with the insurgency, with the failed state. Those issues are not gone, but they are well on their way toward being solved. The problem is that they aren’t solved yet and it is still going to take some time to deal with the remnants of those problems.
    Please log in to download this clip.
  • Pollack Iraqi Elections Positivity: These Iraqi elections could actually make the situation better than it is today— not worse. I’ve never found myself saying that about previous Iraqi elections, but these have that potential because the changes that have been going on in Iraq have broken Iraqi politics wide open in a way that I don’t think has been grasped on this side of the Atlantic. Iraqis are desperate for change, they are looking for new political parties, they are all kinds of new developments going on in Iraq, and Iraqis are looking to these elections to start moving them in the direction of a new politics. Elections really do have the chance to bring that about.
    Please log in to download this clip.
  • Shapiro on Afghanistan’s Four Major Problems: The first, I think, is Pakistan (which Bruce is going to talk about). Certainly the number one lesson of counter-insurgency is that you really can’t defeat it as long as it has sanctuary, and Pakistan represents sanctuary for the Afghan insurgency and is a big reason for the military stalemate. The second problem is weak Afghan government and corruption. The third problem is a growing drug trade and narco economy. And the fourth problem is lack of civilian capacity from the international community including poor coordination of international aid. I mention these problems because, when you think about it, combat troops don’t address any of the certainly directly. The ideas behind increased troops for Afghanistan don’t really seem to have a strategic rationale.
    Please log in to download this clip.
  • Shapiro, Give Afghanistan Breathing Space:I would say, most importantly, the west really can’t solve the most important problems in Afghanistan. They can at best provide breathing space for the Afghans to solve them. There actually has been a lot of progress on a lot of issues in Afghanistan in terms of electricity, in terms of education, healthcare, and even in the economy.
    Please log in to download this clip.
  • Shapiro, Strategic Patience Needed: What all of this means is that we need a bit of strategic patience, which is something which is in very short supply in capitals in North America and in Europe. But that’s more about us and less about the situation on the ground in Afghanistan.
    Please log in to download this clip.
  • Riedel on how Pakistan is a Locus of America’s Nightmares: Every nightmare that worries Americans about the 21st century comes together in Pakistan in a unique and combustible way. This is the sixth largest country in the world in terms of population. This is the second largest Muslin country in the world in terms of population. According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Pakistan today has somewhere between 50 and 200 nuclear weapons, weapons we know that work. Pakistan is also the number one nuclear proliferator in the history of the world. North Korea’s program, Iran’s program, Libya’s program, quite possibly a nascent Saudi program all find their origins in Pakistan. Pakistan is also a conduit for drugs. If 90% of the world’s heroin is grown in Afghanistan, almost all of it is shipped to the rest of the world through the port of Karachi. And in terms of terror, Pakistan is both a victim and a state sponsor of terrorisms and has been for the last quarter century. It is of course also the headquarters of Al Qaeda.
    Please log in to download this clip.
  • Riedel, Pakistan Stuck on Neutral: The problem we face, though, is that the sense of urgency that we have about this problem is not matched by a sense of urgency in Pakistan. Pakistan, instead, is completely absorbed in its own domestic political problems. The best way to think about this is to think of Pakistan stuck on neutral. It has left the military dictatorship of the last decade. It aspires, or at least most Pakistanis aspire, to get to something like democracy, but in fact we now have a combination of both, meaning we have really neither. Pakistan is caught mid-stream in its political evolution. The army continues to be a force onto itself with virtually no civil oversight. The Pakistani intelligence service, the Interservices Intelligence Directorate, better known by its acronym, the ISI, reports to the army, and the army makes decisions about what it’s going to do. The civilian leadership that was elected in February have virtually no control over either of these national security institutions.
    Please log in to download this clip.

Masthead

Questions? Comments? Send us e-mail.

Problems logging in? Reset/reactivate your password.

Mic Check is produced every weekday by Christy Harvey, Sara Langhinrichs and Nicole Murphy, and is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Read more about Mic Check.

RSS icon RSS headlines feed