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Great momments in wingnuttery
2008-04-18 07:13:00
As if one failing occupation wasn't enough we have the wingnut post of the day from Dr. Rusty Shackleford:The Two Wars in Iraq & Mistaken Republican Support for ObamaFirst we have this: Bush screwed the pooch in Iraq. There is a good argument to be made that we should not have invaded in the first place.* There is no good argument that we should leave.Well he's half right and that's an improvement but it goes downhill from there. This conclusion is inevitable when one comes to the same realization as me. There was a war in Iraq and there is a war in Iraq. In fact, we've had two wars in Iraq: Iraq War I & Iraq War II.The war now is not the same as that war. The first war in Iraq was against Saddam Hussein, the second war is against Islamists of various stripes, but mainly al Qaeda.Give me a break, "the second war is against Islamists of various stripes, but mainly al Qaeda". Not even the Pentagon or the Bush administration make such claims anymore. You're not paying atte...
More About: Great , Wingnuts , Insanity

Required reading
2008-04-18 06:44:00
There is such joy in the Universe now that Fafblog has returned. Yes you really do have to be insane to be sane. Giblets, the guardian of wisdom, puts Obama's "bittergate", or is it "clingate", into perspective. Today's required reading.
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The Protect America Act
2008-04-18 06:17:00
Sorry I've been absent for a couple of days but I was called out of town unexpectedly. I missed the Mickey Mouse debate on the Disney Channel but Jazz covered that below. I missed the fact that the MSM still seems unwilling to report on the deteriorating situation in Iraq but then that's why they are called the cable tabloid networks. I didn't miss this however:'Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.' Pt. 2or this:GAO Slams Bush on Terrorism - says Al Qaeda attack likely and we have no plan Yes we do indeed need a Protect America Act but it should consist of getting the Bush/Cheney cabal out of the White House as quickly as possible and making sure the Republicans become an insignificant and powerless minority. According to the GAO, while Bush and the neocons having been fighting their own personal demons in Iraq while the real demons are gaining strength and getting ready to attack.al Qaeda is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch anoth...
More About: Bush administration , Protect America Act

The Biggest Loser - ABC
2008-04-17 13:28:00
Last night's Democratic "debate" in Philly was an embarrassment, and not for the candidates. (Except, perhaps, for their poor judgement in showing up at all.) It should not come as a surprise to Charlie Gibson that the crowd heckled him when he announced that ABC would be cutting away to their last commercial break of the evening. The fact that it took a full fifty minutes for the moderators to make it past the minutia of silly season comments and manufactured scandals was sad enough, but when we finally got around to any "issues" in the final half hour, the questions were still poorly formed gotcha attempts demonstrating some fundamental breakdowns in understanding on the part of the moderators.Of all these, the most degrading moment for Gibson came when he attempted to trap the candidates with a jaw dropping question on their proposed plans to withdraw from Iraq. He pounced in, demanding to know if they would still withdraw "even if the generals advised otherwise." It is a low ma...
More About: Loser , The Biggest Loser , Biggest Loser

Retreat, Defeat, Elite, and other words that rhyme
2008-04-16 18:04:00
I'm not sure how the President had a change of heart regarding global climate change, but apparently he has. A new series of initiatives he unveiled today will seek to reduce the production of greenhouse gases while limiting the impact on the economy. I haven't often had the opportunity to praise this president, but this sounds like a sensible approach. As far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on the exact extent to which climate change is directly caused by human activity and more research and study should be encouraged. However, I do know that less pollution in general is a good thing, so approaching this subject in a slow, responsible way while being mindful of not violating the law of unintended consequences is probably a good start.It does seem, however, that in this bitter, partisan environment there are those who view this as a big, flaming bag of poo on the doorstep of the GOP. From The Corner:I cannot emphasize too much how idiotic this is. At a time when the po...
More About: Words , Elite , Retreat

Hillary Clinton - The New Joe Lieberman?
2008-04-15 22:34:00
Now Hillary may not be openly supporting John McCain like Joe Lieberman but she is certainly doing McCain's campaigning for him. While the polls from PA are mixed there is reason to believe it may be hurting Clinton more than Obama. Robert Creamer attempts to give us an explanation.Why Hillary Clinton 's Slash-and-Burn Politics May Hurt Her More Than Obama First, a negative attack has to ring true to the people you are attempting to persuade. Initial polls seem to indicate that most of the people who are receptive to the "Obama-is-a-condescending-'elitist'-argum ent" already supported Hillary in the primary before the attacks began. Clinton's attacks may rally some of her troops, but the argument doesn't seem to be that persuasive to actual undecided voters.Of course one reason may have to do with the credibility of the messenger. It's tough to attack someone else for "elitism" if you've spent the last 16 years in Washington as First Lady and Senator, and your family brought i...
More About: Barack Obama

The real insult!
2008-04-15 06:24:00
As I said from the begining what Barack Obama said about rural voters may have been unwise but it was accurate. John Baer of the Philadelphia Daily News agrees. As a native-born, small-town Pennsylvanian, a son of native-born, small-town Pennsylvania parents - one from the coal region, one from Lancaster County - let me assure you that the so-called offensive, condescending things Barack Obama said about the people I come from are basically right on target.[.....]So, despite carping from Hillary Clinton and annoying yapping from her surrogates (really, it's like turning on the lights at night in a puppy farm), I take no offense.What's offensive to me is suggesting that small-town, working-class, gun-toting and/or religious Pennsylvanians are somehow injured by a politician's words.[......]They've been injured from decades of neglect by political cultures in Washington and Harrisburg driven by special interests.They're injured by a system of isolated, insulated political leaders...
More About: Stupidity , Real , Insult

Clueless, Dangerous Idiots-Hot Air Edition
2008-04-14 17:32:00
The other day I discussed how clueless the neocons and the Bush administration is when it comes to the realities of Iraq . Not to be outdone our friend Ed Morrissey writing at Hot Air proves he is either in denial or just as clueless.Iraqis aren?t stupid ? and they?re watching us As Michael reminds us, we can argue over 2002-3 all we want, but it doesn?t have anything to do with 2008. We are in Iraq, and al-Qaeda is arrayed against our troops. In fact, this is the best possible situation if we want to fight terrorists ? to have them on a battlefield in straight-up fights against our military. It?s exactly what terrorists don?t want. If they wanted to fight our military, they wouldn?t use bomb commuter trains and fly civilian airplanes into their targets.OK, Ed is even more delusional than the administration - not even they think al-Qaeda is a significant force is Iraq. He then goes on to say that al-Qaeda wants us to leave Iraq - nothing could be further from the truth. Both al-Qaeda...
More About: Idiots , Iran , Insanity , Edition

Good for him - shame on her
2008-04-14 06:35:00
Obama has discovered that the cynical Clinton campaign is just as capable of using Rovian slash and burn politics as the Republicans and he's fighting back. His only regret: "Now, I am the first to admit that some of the words I chose, I chose badly," he said, "So I?m not a perfect man and the words I chose, I chose badly. They were subject to misinterpretation, they were subject to be twisted and I regret that.But he stands by what he said: "And what really burns me up is when people suggest that me saying that folks are mad, they are angry, they are bitter after 25, 30 years of seeing jobs shipped out, pensions not fulfilled, healthcare lost, the notion that people are surprised and are suggesting that I'm out of touch because I spoke honestly about people's frustrations, that tells me there's some politics going on," he said.And he took a major swipe at Hillary's great adventures in hunting which were not unlike her adventures in Bosnia: Obama said he was disappointed with h...
More About: Barack Obama , Hillary Clinton , Cain , Good , Shame

Hillary "Prepubescent Gun Moll" Clinton
2008-04-13 15:55:00
Send lawyers, guns and money to Pennsylvania, Dad, get Hillary out of this.The furor over Obama's small town bitterness comments regarding Pennsylvania have apparently reminded Hillary Clinton that people in rural areas often like their guns. Never one to miss an opportunity, she immediately propped up her bona fides with the second amendment crowd during a campaign stop in Indiana.?You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl,? she said.?You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It?s part of culture. It?s part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it?s an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter.?Fabulous. It really sells with that target audience she's seeking in Pennsylbama right now, doesn't it? Unfortunately there was somebody in the audience who was rude en...

Clueless, Dangerous Idiots
2008-04-12 19:33:00
The Bush/Cheney administration and the neocons are truly clueless - dangerous - idiots.Iran Top Threat To Iraq , U.S. Says Last week's violence in Basra and Baghdad has convinced the Bush administration that actions by Iran, and not al-Qaeda, are the primary threat inside Iraq, and has sparked a broad reassessment of policy in the region, according to senior U.S. officials.Evidence of an increase in Iranian weapons, training and direction for the Shiite militias that battled U.S. and Iraqi security forces in those two cities has fixed new U.S. attention on what Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday called Tehran's "malign" influence, the officials said.The intensified focus on Iran coincides with diminished emphasis on al-Qaeda in Iraq as the leading justification for an ongoing U.S. military presence in Iraq.Yes, they are still looking for an excuse to attack Iran. And if they do? It would appear they are oblivious to the fact that the ISCI and Da'wa party are even closer t...
More About: Idiots , Insanity , Clueless

This isn't a social psychology class......
2008-04-12 07:03:00
.....it's political science.Barack Obama created a firestorm because he said this: You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.Of course he's right but it's not something you say on the campaign trail. This is what always worried me about Obama - he had never really been tested on the campaign trail. This is going to hurt him far more than Reverend Wright did. This will help Hillary now and McCain latter if Obama gets the nomination. The Rethuglicans have bee...
More About: Social , Hillary Clinton , Psychology , Class

A Free Trade Apostate Speaks
2008-04-11 15:18:00
You could consider this as part of The Confessions of an Unapologetic Isolationist. A free trade apostate, if you will. As such, it saddens me to see the editorial board of the Washington Post climbing in bed with the Unfair Trade for America crowd. In their column, "Drop Dead Columbia" the editors take Nancy Pelosi to task for not immediately throwing open our trade doors to yet another country and laying out the red carpet for whatever will rush in - or more to the point, out - through that portal.THE YEAR 2008 may enter history as the time when the Democratic Party lost its way on trade. Already, the party's presidential candidates have engaged in an unseemly contest to adopt the most protectionist posture, suggesting that, if elected, they might pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.Economically, it should be a no-brainer -- especially at a time of rising U.S. joblessness. At the moment, Colombian exports to the United States already enjoy preferences. The trade a...
More About: Apostate , Free Trade

Friday Squirrel Blogging
2008-04-11 07:23:00
I may not be too inspired to write but I still go to the park almost everyday and bond with the squirrels.
More About: Blogging , Friday , Squirrel

Losing In Iraq
2008-04-11 04:18:00
Over at Chuck for... I spent some time on the issue of "Winning" as an unconvinced sort, this over here is the other side. What is it that constitutes losing in Iraq ? The Republicans are pretty clear that if the Democrats prevail and we withdraw, we lose. Withdraw = defeat. I can get the metric of leaving when the Republicans don't want us to is a Republican defeat, but they evidently want us to take it as something more.Sainted Gen Petraeus was willing to put Al Qaeda in Iraq numbers at something in excess of 1,000. That is quite a few trouble makers with access to military hardware and munitions. It is not a credible fighting force, it cannot take and hold ground. It is really no more than a police matter. Whatever else it is, Al Qaeda in Iraq cannot take over the government. Nobody paying any attention could manage to "lose" to that bunch.There is talk of our exit leading to a failed state. This is actually said with a straight face - failed state - as though what is in existenc...

McCain/Rice to take New York?
2008-04-10 21:35:00
To borrow a classic line from Harry Carey, Holy Cow! Did you see the results of that Marist poll that said a John McCain - Condi Rice ticket would actually carry New York in November? No, this is not a satire post. They really printed this.A McCain/Rice ticket would edge out both a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket for New York?s 31, usually true blue, electoral votes: 49% of registered voters in New York State support a John McCain/Condoleezza Rice ticket compared with 46% who support Hillary Clinton as president and Barack Obama as vice president. The Democrats don?t fare any better in New York with Obama at the top of the ticket as president and Clinton as vice president. McCain/Rice receives 49%, and Obama/Clinton has 44%. Although an Obama led Democratic ticket does better against McCain/Rice among non-enrolled voters than a Clinton/Obama ticket, Clinton/Obama is stronger with women against the Republicans.Before you head for the fainting couch with a bad case of the va...
More About: New-York

"Tell me how this ends."
2008-04-10 17:39:00
Greg Mitchell: What will end up being the most famous quote of the Iraq war? Remember, President Bush did not actually say "Mission Accomplished." Perhaps Vice President Cheney's "final throes" will take the prize. But increasingly, as the significance of Gen. David Petraeus grows (seemingly by the minute), it seems possible that it might end up being his once-obscure 2003 remark to a well-known newspaper reporter: "Tell me how this ends." It's 2008 and General David Petraeus still couldn't answer that question when he testified before the Senate and House this week. Dana Milbank reminds us that it wasn't just the Democrats asking the question this time.From the GOP, the General Gets Unfriendly Fire "The people of the United States have paid an awful price," thundered Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It's time for the Iraqis to pay that price for their own protection.""I still have a hard time seeing the big picture and what co...
More About: Ends , General Petraeus

Stay the course (Until Jan, 2009)
2008-04-10 05:34:00
I've been absent the last couple of days - in part because I'm really busy but probably really because I didn't have anything to say. While I have been pounding away at my keyboard I did listen to General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's pep talk to congress. Shaun Mullen does a good job of summing up the entire testimony: We have no long-term strategy.We have no end-game plan.We just need more Friedman Units, pretty please.As well as:The president would like you to help him kick the can down the road to 2009.In spite of the fact that that's what I heard as well I was encouraged because I think that no matter who is elected in November the war will be winding down next year. There seemed to be more bipartisan understanding that it simply can't go on any longer. The occupation is damaging the military, damaging the economy and hurting us from a security point of view. The irony of the president of Iran being greeted with parades, kisses and yes, flowers while the Pt...
More About: Iraq , General Petraeus , Stay

Carter Hearts Him Some Hamas?
2008-04-09 15:22:00
I was frankly a bit surprised to see that Jimmy Carter may be opening talks with Hamas . Of course, it's getting the usual criticism from the Right wing, but our friend and personal Middle East authority, The One True Tami, seems to think that Carter may be on to something.I'm pretty sure that I'm an example of a Jewish person who wants good things for Israel . Am I turned around, here, or are people just being inflammatory out of reflex, and hurting themselves?I think that people need to be working for peace, not supremacy. Maybe that's my problem.Via Memeorandum and Fox News for the full back story.
More About: Hearts

It's a mad, mad polling world
2008-04-09 15:07:00
(Via Memeorandum) Gallup continues to conduct daily tracking polls of the endless election of 2008 and the results can vary from yawn inducing to jaw dropping incredulity. This latest edition is more in the former class, showing Barack Obama maintaining the status quo and holding a roughly eight to ten point lead nationally over Hillary Clinton. Some previous polls, though, where each of the Democrats are matched up head to head with Senator McCain have really had me scratching my head.We talked about this during our radio show on Monday (replay available at link, should you care to listen) and this was my basic premise: More than 2/3 of the country opposes the Iraq war. Over 70% think the economy is in a recession and feel the war is contributing to that. 81% feel the country is going in the wrong direction. With numbers like that and so little daylight between McCain and George W. Bush (i.e. a McCain presidency being effectively four years of "more of the same") it seems to these...
More About: World , Polling

Oprah Sinks Obama. Iceburgs Jealous.
2008-04-09 00:43:00
Apparently it's true. The foul stench of Barack Obama 's unpopularity has doomed Oprah Winfrey. I know it must be true because I read it on The Politico. Follow the top link to our friend The One True Tami (Blessed be Her name) and you too shall see the light.
More About: Sinks , Jealous

In which I am remiss
2008-04-08 23:27:00
I realize I haven't posted much in the last 24 hours. Sorry about that. But in Upstate New York spring has sprung and we've been in a frenzy of outdoor activity ranging from yardwork to the current task of firing up my recently reconditioned grill and cooking a porterhouse steak. The snow is gone, the yard calls, and I'll get back to the politics as soon as I can here.Cheers!

On the Radio Today
2008-04-07 12:46:00
Today on Mid Stream Radio (1 pm Eastern, 10 am Pacific) Ron and I will be joined by Pam Leavey of The Democratic Daily. Since there is so little political news to report on, we'll probably discuss bunt cake recipes and other baking tips. Oh yes... and why it took so long for Mark Penn to get fired. (As Pam said in the linked article... "Thank heavens")Be sure to join us. You can get in on the conversation by calling (646) 595-3963, or by hopping in to the always lively web chat! (Remember, to participate in web chats you will need to register for a free user account at the BTR homepage and grab a nickname.)See you on the radio!
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Cheney's Man in Iraq?
2008-04-06 18:20:00
Now I thought General Petraeus was a pretty sharp fellow but this is absurd:Iran joined militias in battle for Basra IRANIAN forces were involved in the recent battle for Basra, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq , is expected to tell Congress this week.Military and intelligence sources believe Iranians were operating at a tactical command level with the Shi?ite militias fighting Iraqi security forces; some were directing operations on the ground, they think.Petraeus intends to use the evidence of Iranian involvement to argue against any reductions in US forces.Dr Daniel Goure, a defence analyst at the Lexington Institute in Virginia, said: ?There is no question that Petraeus will be tough on Iran. It is one thing to withdraw troops when there is purely sectarian fighting but it is another thing if it leaves the Iranians to move in.? Anyone who seriously thinks the Iranians would take the side of the Iraqi nationalist Sadr forces against the pro-Iranian Badr Brigade and...

Tarheels set to tar and feather Hillary
2008-04-06 16:25:00
Even given the caveat that the only things certain about polls this year are that 1.) they're usually wrong and 2.) they'll change next week, it's hard to ignore the portents from the latest Rasmussen numbers out of North Carolina. In a state where Obama was already predicted to clean up better than a Dyson vacuum cleaner, the poll results show him with a staggering 23 point lead.In North Carolina, Barack Obama has opened up a twenty-three percentage point lead over Hillary Clinton. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that Obama attracts 56% of the vote while Clinton earns 33%. A month ago, Obama?s lead was just seven percentage points.Flat numbers from any single poll have been wildly off the mark this season, but long term trends still seem to provide some useful indicators. Hillary's lead in Pennsylvania hasn't evaporated, and she may well still take the state, but Obama seems to have closed the gap to a single digit margin. What does this mean for anxious ...
More About: Feather

Relics
2008-04-06 15:30:00
What qualifies as a "relic" in Iraq. Certainly their millenia long history has produced some remarkable artifacts. (At least the ones that didn't get looted from the museum in Baghdad shortly after the invasion.) Over at TMV, William Kern informs us that some Iraqis feel that patriotism is now a relic. This starting view comes from an editorial in an Iraqi paper by Fatih Abdulsalam. Here's one of the interesting bits.?The word patriotism is just a relic from a prior age or Saddam?s toppled regime. Being a collaborator with a foreign power is accepted as the surest way to achieve strategic advantage. Freedom means simply being able to stand in Baghdad?s Liberation Square under the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier cursing and accusing all other Arab capitals of treason against the Iraqi nation for refusing to show respect to our own lame politicians - who are nothing but influence peddlers, mercenaries, thieves and charlatans who rely on F16s to maintain their power and legitimacy o...

April Showers Bring... Rosy Reports?
2008-04-05 18:42:00
While we've all been fixated on the country's economic woes, including the 80,000 jobs we shed last month, some may have forgotten that there's still a war going on in Iraq. We're due for a reminder in the new future, as a report on conditions in that country has already been released to some key lawmakers in advance of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker appearing to testify before Congress. Though you and I don't get to see the early version, some in Congress are already proclaiming that it's putting a bit too much of a shine on the Mess-O-Potamia.Senior Democratic senators challenged a new intelligence report's assessment of President Bush's "surge" strategy Friday, saying the troop increase in Iraq has failed to achieve its strategic goals."In my judgment, it's too rosy, but there are parts of it that are not so rosy, and both pieces need to be declassified," Sen. Carl Levin said, pointing in particular to the portion of the report describing Iraq's poli...
More About: April , Showers

Home Grown Terrorist
2008-04-05 16:36:00
The US economy was the victim of a terrorist attack in 1999. We really didn't notice until several years later. The terrorist was not a brown skinned man from the middle east but a US senator, Phil Gramm of Texas. When Jazz and I talked to Shaun Mullen on Mid Stream Radio yesterday he promised us the details today and here it is:John McCain 's Terrorist In Pinstripes Go read the entire piece at The Moderate Voice or at Shaun's own blog, Kiko's House but here is a teaser. Phil Gramm, who is co-chair of McCain's campaign, is not just another lobbyist. He is the man most responsible for the repeal of Depression-era banking regulations that have led directly and inextricably to much of today's economic turmoil, and parlayed that classic example of legislative legerdemain into a lucrative lobbying career for the very people who scratched the smug Texan's back -- as well as McCain's -- on Capitol Hill.Gramm was the biggest of the big guns behind the 1999 repeal of the banking regul...
More About: Economy , Bill Clinton , Home

On the Radio: Are we racists? Sexists? How about just partisans?
2008-04-04 15:17:00
Today on Mid Stream Radio , at 1:00 pm Eastern, 10:00 am Pacific, Ron and I will be joined by Shaun Mullen of Kiko's House and Michael Stickings of The Reaction (both are also columnists at The Moderate Voice) for a review of the week's top stories in politics. One of the key items we'll be talking about is a recent CNN poll asking how many Americans are ready for a Black president? How about a female president? The answers may be surprising to anyone.The question is not are "YOU" ready for this or that. They asked if the COUNTRY was ready. While many people said yes to either choice, a surprising number of people said no. Are they racists? Sexists? Or could it be that Hillary supporters were saying the country is not ready for a black president and Obama supporters were saying we're not ready for a woman? We'll delve into those questions on the show today.

Climate Change News
2008-04-04 04:33:00
As anyone who reads these virtual pages knows I disagree with most of my progresive friends when it comes to climate change. Not because not because I deny it, I don't, but because I really don't think anything will be done about it because no one is willing to do it. A few of my thoughts: While the climate is indeed changing anyone who thinks they can predict what's going to happen is as delusional as those who thought Iraq would be a cake walk. There are thousands of variables most of which we don't even know about and the rest we don't understand.Any really effective short term solutions are just as devastating as the long term impact of doing nothing.Carbon Credits are a delusional scamHybrid automobiles are like kissing your sister.John Tierney points us to a commentary in Nature that claims there is no way to cut greenhouse emissions enough to make a real difference? It becomes a bit more clear that we may have set ourselves down the wrong path when we framed the challeng...
More About: News , Climate Change , Climate , Change