Palin as Russia Expert Becomes GOP Talking Point

clipped from blogs.dw-world.de It looks like this is turning into some kind a talking point: On Sunday, in remarks to ABC, Cindy McCain said Sarah Palin had foreign policy experience because the state she governs, Alaska, is near Russia; then, to a fellow CQ reporter, former Bush administration official John Bolton offered the same defense of her, adding proximity to Canada as a qualification. It really is a bemusing strategy. Of all the arguments one could make for John McCain picking Palin, it offers the least. Via Political Animal: "Has Palin ever been to Russia? No. Has she ever demonstrated any expertise on U.S. policy towards Russia? No. Does she have any background in international relations at any level? No. But for Republicans, the fact that she's lived near Russia is somehow a qualification for national office. The mind reels."

It's a measure of how weak the pro-Palin argument is that this becomes a Republican talking point. Cindy McCain could be excused for saying it, but John "former Ambassador to the UN" Bolton? He knows it's total BS.

The Palin part of the team offers a very weak agreement with this argument, revealing that they're aware of just how lame it is; "Alaska’s geographic location certainly contributes to Governor Palin’s experience since she has dealt with trade and economic issues as a result, but it is only one part of her overall experience."

Yellowcake Not 'A Vindication' of Bush's WMD Claims

This has been making the rounds of right wing blogs, comment threads, and forums. Annenberg Fact Check kills it.

clipped from www.factcheck.org Beyond Investor's Business Daily's editorial, conservative bloggers and chain e-mails have claimed that the Associated Press report proves that President Bush was right in the run-up to the Iraq war when he said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. One e-mail a reader forwarded to us said this was "vindication for the Bush administration." It's not. The AP article, published on July 5, said that a large amount of yellowcake uranium was, in fact, sold by Iraq to Canada, as part of a secret mission facilitated by the U.S. But this uranium was known to have been in Iraq following the conclusion of the first Gulf War. It was not "found" in 2003, as the IBD editorial claims. As the AP article said, "There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, [a senior U.S. official] said."

It should be pointed out (as I've been forced to several times around the web) that yellowcake is not WMD. In fact, it's not even refined.

The piece goes on:

But this particular stock of uranium was not recently discovered — and it was no secret. It had been stored in sealed containers, since before the first Gulf War, according to the AP. Saddam Hussein was forced to allow United Nations inspectors into Iraq in 1991, as part of the cease-fire that ended the first Gulf War. The U.N. Security Council's agreement required Hussein to dismantle Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, in exchange for lifting the 1990 economic sanctions imposed on Iraq. The inspectors monitored Iraq's disarmament, and later guarded this uranium.

More recently, U.S. and Iraqi forces have been guarding it, since Iraqis looted the site after Hussein’s fall from power.